BJean

kartman, all they have to do to get reasonable laws passed is to pick us randomly like juries and let us serve for a couple of months. We'll fix the darned system!

I don't know what to make of your rant about the young people who went on a tour to sing and testify and who were rebuffed and required to leave various premises. At first glance, I wonder just how well-behaved and peaceful they actually were. Neither of the places you mentioned are public places. They are privately owned businesses. If in either case, the kids were deemed to be disrupting shoppers or children in various stages of healing from illness, it is understandable that the persons in charge would want to protect their customers and patients. You will never convince me that the hospital administrator made them leave because they said the name Jesus. Now if they were screaming it at the top of their lungs, then he could have been opposed to the tone in which they used His name. If that is not the case, I'm afraid I don't understand the opposition to some kids gathering to quietly sing and pass out literature. This sounds to me however, like some propaganda that is circulated to enrage the flock and influence them to go about posting rants and talking about how awful people who aren't Christian are. Liberals are Christians too. Talk about buttonholing people! Liberals think the religious right wing are wanting to "spoil all their fun" and "limit their freedoms"? That is incredibly offensive, not only to liberals but also to mainstream Christians everywhere. Frankly this kind of bigoted and biased negative rant against anyone who is not right wing reeks of the same kind of propaganda and brainwashing that Hitler used AGAINST Jews.

Great post Kartman!! :biggrin: Spot on in every way!! :redface:

inri09, good point. The man is so obsessed with himself right now, I'm not sure he knows what State he's in, much less how to run one. In the press, he is being a heartless bastard to his family. One doesn't say those things in public knowing they're going to hurt the people who love you. Perhaps he is trying to run them off so he can emigrate to Argentina. I say don't let the proverbial door hit you in the butt, mister.

Yay Kartman. I've been saying that about the insurance industry and the problem crosses over to other things besides medical. The insurance companies have a great PR machine and they have lots of influence over Congress. I could talk for days about the problems of the country brought about by our reliance on insurance companies. They have us where they want us and trust me, they are the ones who will put out false and biased information to scare people about any kind of change in our health care system that they won't benefit from.

I'm going to pretend that I linked up your post Devana. The reason I want to take credit for providing the information is because everybody who opposes my beliefs always insists that I post a link to prove what I've said. Yours works well for me!

Aw but Cleo'sMom, without the Republicans around to make us look good, would we seem as brilliant and highly moral as we do by comparison?

Oh I do understand, Devana! I had a near death experience last summer and my vow once I knew I was going to live, was to treasure the meaningful things in life and forget about all the material things that always seemed important. We all enjoy the niceties and luxuries, of course, but when we die those are not the things that we will be thinking about. Our families and our dear friends are what we would want with us in the end. And the sound of the surf, birds singing and bees buzzing will comfort us. I made a vow then and there to spend more quality time with my family. Now when my DH or my DD or my GD or DS try to get my attention, I give it to them - fully. And even if I don't want to take the time to swim with my granddaughter, I drop everything if she asks me to join her. What a beautiful child she is! And Green's illness certainly underscored my thought processes about all this. She posted on LBT as long as she could use the keyboard because it meant so much to her to connect with the people here and on her own blog. I hope I do get to hear more from you. I've missed you.

As a "born again" Democrat Kartman, in danger of repeating myself, I actually saw and heard Rush Limbaugh say that Sanford was the Republican's hope to finally have their John Kennedy. The irony in that silly, silly comment is that Rush Limbaugh has for his whole career criticized John Kennedy - and all the Kennedys for that matter. So why would the Republicans want some of that? Republicans! You can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em.

...milk....nose....spurt...!!! ROFLMAO All points well taken, kartman! That kind of behavior is human sexual behavior - not exclusively male behavior or behavior committed by only one political party. It is human behavior that people in many countries do not flip out about. In many places it is behavior that although it is certainly given some boundaries, it is generally expected and accepted. It is for these reasons that many Democrats did not feel that it was in the best interests of the country for the Republican dominated Congress to hound Bill Clinton from the moment he ran for president until the moment they caught him with his pants down in the oval office. The Republicans do not play fair when it comes to this topic. But no one said that politics is fair, eh? So now they must reap what they sow.

Kartman I enjoyed your post. I think that the hypocrisy that so many of these public men show who preach personal morality from their high posts, is deplorable. They allow themselves to commit the bad moral behavior that they angrily condemn others for. That's why right now I believe we're hearing so much outrage toward them in the media.

Thousands of men in the highest and most powerful offices in this country have affairs. That obviously does not make them unqualified to do their jobs. They may not be men that you'd like to invite over for dinner or to be a role model for your children, but they can do their jobs well and sometimes in a very stellar way. In this country, we verbally place such a high importance on sexual morals, it has made even the shortest and most inconsequential affair take on great value and it creates a potential for blackmail. I am reminded of the old school communist threat: take advantage of a person who is powerful and who can be blackmailed so that it compromises their choices and their ability to do their job. Make them spy for you. In more recent history - post cold war - greed has become the most prominent problem with blackmailing or luring powerful people into committing acts that are contrary to our national interests or the best interests of their company. Best case scenario, every man and woman would stay true to his spouse. There would be no divorces that harm American families and mostly our children. But alas, that's just not ever going to be in the cards. The best we can hope for is that people don't become obsessed like some of the men whose activities have been brought out in the open lately. Elliot Spitzer's addicition to hookers, for instance, and Sanford's obsession with this Argentinean woman to such an extent that he left the country without making sure that his serious obligations were taken care of. Love and sexual urges are some of the most powerful of our natural instincts - and for some people power is a strong aphrodisiac. Combine the two and you can understand why people (not just men) go astray. However, contrary to what some of you believe, these can be forgivable transgressions. People are weak, people sin. If they are good people, and it can happen to good people, they can atone for their sins and be forgiven; forgiven by their families who love them, forgiven by God who loves them. We should be concerned with the basic morality of the person. I don't think we can legislate morality, I don't think it is any of our business who people choose to sleep with or how they conduct their marriages. But I do think that basic moral values are important because of the honest ability of a person to do his job without committing a crime. I have a problem with any behavior that compromises one's job, particularly if it is a elected job. And anytime, ANYTIME, anyone uses resources that do not belong to them for personal gain, such as enabling them to carry on an affair, then it is wrong and they have to reimburse the company, or the government, as the case may be and that should be followed up with putting them on some kind of probatation or depending on the circumstances, fired from the job. I am of the opinion that no one, and I mean no one, should steal so much as a stamp from their comapny to be used for personal business . We seem to be so obsessed with the sexual behavior of people in the public eye, we've forgotten about the morality of being an honest and loyal employee. Most people would think nothing of stealing a stamp or an envelope from their employer. But people are outraged if their think that one employee might be sleeping with another. I am outraged if I learn of any employee stealing anything on the job, be it an envelope or a hundred bucks out of petty cash. Oh I know, you'll say that there's a big difference between taking an envelope and taking a hundred bucks out of petty cash, but I say that people can justify anything and if you can justify taking a few small material things from your employer, it isn't too much of a stretch that given the right opportunity, you would take the petty cash or milions. What Spitzer and Sanford and many many others have shown us is that they can justfiy their felonious behavior. I think their over-blown egos and their need to have affairs with other women is a weakness and it might compromise their ability to do their job, but it only is against the law if they used public funds or the power of their office in the commission of their dirty deeds. Let's face it, it isn't agains public law to have sexual encounters outside your marriage, but Bernie Maddoff is going down the river for a very, very long time.

Too dumb to take advantage of the spotlight being diverted, I guess. Like I said, with him it's all about HIM.

LMAO - as milk almost shoots out my nose.

EbonyRose, I am curious. You feel that people with the band have less tendancy to rebound after the initial weight loss than people with gastric bypass? The reason I ask is because although I have seen lots of people with gastric bypass lose tons of weight very quickly, and they often regain some of the lost weight, they eventually stabilize at a reasonable weight - not too skinny but not morbidly obese either. With the band, I've noticed that some people lose an initial 30 to 50 lbs. and just can't get much more off. I have also seen lots of people that it has worked really well for, but it hasn't been my experience and I've noticed quite a few others in my doctor's practice and here on LBT, who aren't having the amazing success that some have.

Don't you think that's the mindset of most people about WLS? I mean before they get it, of course. Afterwards reality sets in and you learn that the difficulty of changing your eating habits is still there. She has made the same assumption that many people do. I can't say that I blame her. Frankly I empathize with her about not being able to keep her weight off. I'm no huge Oprah fan, but I'm always surprised at how vehemently negative some people feel about her. Maybe she just is one of those people who is able to capture the emotions of others really well and that partially accounts for her enormous success. She may have it wrong about WLS, but she sure has been able to get a whole lot of things right as far as her business is concerned.

Devana, it's good to hear from you! I know exactly what you mean about your feelings for green. She was really special. I gotta tell you that I miss reading your posts too. Hope you're doing fine.

That's right - this is the USA and we can say what we believe unlike Iran today! And LBT is a specific place where we are free to express our opinions. And that's a very good thing! You're cool. You should jump in and post more often.

I'm an older bandster and I remember when Elvis died. He had lots of problems, but no one could argue the fact that the man had talent. We were shocked and I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. He was to us, what Michael Jackson was to many of you younger bandsters. His music represented our childhood and all of the fun memories we had growing up and listening to his songs. When the "Thriller" video came out, we had small kids and we bought it as soon as it hit the stores. We played it during the half time of the Super Bowl that year, during our Super Bowl party. We had a big screen TV (one of the first versions) and everybody jumped up in our great room and tried to dance the dance. That John Landis directed video is a masterpiece and it goes down in history as changing the way music was produced and videos were made. It epitomizes the standard by which we enjoy music and dancing today.

Indiogirl, that was very kind of you and I really appreciate it. Sometimes I think I'm losing it when I get the kind of backlash that Beth posted. I know that my posts can sound harsh - and I do not mean for them to. But I do have strong opinions and I guess that can certainly rub folks the wrong way. I'm with you and Rodney King - we really need to try anyway, eh? (I've adopted Green's use of "eh" which is very Canadian - I think of her everytime I use it.)

I just went back and re-read Cleo's post and mine and I have a strong feeling that your problem isn't so much that you thought I was attacking you, it is that you have no good argument for a rebuttal to anything she said. Whatever. I really would like to get along with you, but I sure can't manage it all on my own.

Okeee, you're out. I did not goad anyone. I opened a thread. Anyone was welcome to participate or not. Fact of the matter is that when I was speaking to Cleo's Mom, I was referring to previous threads not this one. You remember, the ones where the bunch of you ganged up on little ole' me. We don't agree politically and nothing is going to change that. Thinking that we could learn to respect one another in spite of our differences just doesn't seem to be in the cards, does it. I hate that, but if I can't post my thoughts without you deciding I'm insulting you personally, it ain't never gonna happen. Ciao, baby.

Cleo's Mom, I have been biting my tongue to keep from saying what you posted. I'm glad that it was you. I get tired of being ennundated with negative hateful posts when I tell it like it really is. It's like some of the folks here are living on a different planet from me. I appreciate what you posted very much because it is the darned truth! And the swallows have come home to roost with the Republicans and it is about time!

And the ones who are "born again" will rise up and leave the rest of us behind to be smitten, er smoted, er smited. :thumbdown:

Man, don't you know that Sanford is thrilled that Farrah and MJ died right when his stuff was heating up! His story died on the vine.