green

I can do chicken and I can do bread. I chew, chew, chew it of course. I don't think I have enough restriction though....

I am really enjoying this thread. I am learning a lot about the American political system. It appears that the man you elect votes with his party, not with his own conscience. Now, if you elect enough moderate, old-fashioned Republicans can they derail this extremist Christian right agenda?

Oh, I did that too and I was told I didn't qualify but I had no trouble getting banded at the Toronto Lap Band Centre. The thing is that I am overweight and was lookin' at getting fatter and fatter as I got older if I didn't get banded. The TLBC recognized this.

:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: LMAO!

Yes, you have got it right. It shouldn't matter when step relatives marry each other. It boils down to an issue of the gene pool. The prohibition, which appears in almost all cultures, against members of the nuclear family intermarrying has to do with genetic issues and inbreeding. It is simply much less healthy. Family weaknesses are carried on instead of being bred out. In some cultures, however, close members of royal or noble families did marry and breed with each other.

They may or may not do these things but no hypocrisy will be involved.

Seems to me like Betsyjane has got it, eh. (By the way, congrats on your upcoming band surgery.)

Well, that's rude of him!

Yep, it is a puzzle as to why some kids turn out okay and some don't. I was a rebellious kid and my parents were rebellious when they were young. In my father's case this saved his life. His family was Jewish - he himself never believed in any religion - and he ran away from his family and from Poland. After many adventures and hardships he washed up in England. My very rebellious brother ended up becoming a doctor but this was only after he had married and had three children. Earlier on he had dropped out of university a couple of times and was working as a hired hand for a chicken farmer. One of his kids has gone back to university as a single mum. She is 30 years old. The other two kids went through school and university the normal way. They have careers and are married. That is the story of my family for what it is worth. As you can see, there has been bumps in the road. Of course it doesn't help that we are all raging depressives. But I suspect that many folks behave badly and make mistakes along the path. This always causes grief to their parents at the time. Nevertheless, for many of us it seems to be part of growing up; we figure we want to experience things for ourselves. There will come a day, Cloe, when you and your daughter find yourselves laughing together about the drunken idiot in her car in the parking lot. She will say something along the lines of "ugh, I can't believe I was that dumb!"

How would you stage a protest?

In Canada the age of general sexual consent is 16, I believe, although the law will leave children of 14 and 15 alone if they are sexually active with people who are close to their own age: this leaves predatory adults out of the sexual equation for these individuals. The minimum age for drinking in this province is 19 and the minimum age to vote is 18. The minimum age to drive a car is 16 but for the first 2 years after one has received one's license one must only drive when there is a fully licensed driver in the car. This change is a relatively recent one. I don't know what the laws are regarding minimum age and tats and piercings. I have known a lot of mothers whose daughters started acting up when they became teenagers. Some of these kids went on to have children. Others of them straightened out and went on to graduate from university. The key seems to be to make sure that the girls are using birth control and will continue to use it. Two mums that I know both hauled their 14 year old girls off for abortions. One girl is now in university studying dentistry. She has won plenty of academic prizes, bursaries and medals. The other girl went off, got herself pregnant a second time, hid this from her mother until it was too late, and had the child when she was fifteen. The last I heard of her was that she dumped her boyfriend, is raising the kid with assistance from the government and is a good mother to the child. It is interesting to note that both kids were doing well academically and that both came from single parent homes. I myself was a rowdy teenager. I got myself expelled from boarding school for smoking drugs way back when that was a real scandal. The nuns who booted me out prayed for me. I continued to be rowdy but managed to get through university. Now I am old and affluent enough to take early retirement but I am still not particularly well-behaved. I would have been a lousy parent, that's for sure! When I hear stories of young women behaving badly, I never know what to think or say. It does seem to be a phase and it is hell for the parents. As to how to treat these kids and where they will end up, well, this probably the most difficult business that will get tossed in your direction as a parent. I do, however, think that kids need hands-on parenting.

What it says to me is that the United Nations is a toothless institution, sadly much as was The League of Nations.

The Province of Ontario covers drugs for people on welfare, disability pensions and all folks over 65. Because they buy drugs in bulk they can negotiate cheaper prices with the pharmaceutical companies and naturally generic drugs are automatically substituted whenever possible. My company drug plan also stipulates that generic drugs are to be substituted when available. Unfortunately, Canada does not have universal drug care. *sigh* I am under the impression that many other countries with universal health care do have both drugs and dental care as part of the package.

:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: Far out!!!!

I am writing in response in Nora's earlier post. Most of my father's family perished in the Holocaust too, but I certainly do not see anything wrong with comparing the tactics of this government to those employed during Hitler's early years in power. Indeed, some American pundits have remarked on certain similarities; fear mongering and the erosion of civil rights would be an example of how to manipulate a nation and thereby get them acquiescent and on board with governmental policies. There has been a number of people who have posted on this site who have expressed concerns that they may be viewed as treasonous for simply holding views that run counter to those of the current administration. Treason of course means that one has been involved in actions that have actively aided and abetted an enemy of the homeland. Simply speaking your mind in a free and democratic country is far from being a treasonous act and yet this current climate of paranoia has done this damage to the United States it seems. This is kind of a shocker, isn't it? Fear is a powerful manipulative tool for those who wield it, whether they be preachers or the government. (A further note re my father: he managed to make it England and once he was cleared by security, and this took some months, he served in the army and eventually in British intelligence. Had he landed up in Canada or the United States, it is possible that he might have spent those years in an internment camp instead.)

Like Lila, I got my band done at the Toronto Lap Band Centre (TLBC). $16000 covers the surgery and life-long aftercare, all fills. A line of credit or renegotiating your mortgage would probably the cheapest way to finance the operation.

The issue here is one of informed consent.

This is a facinating and chilling document. Thanks for posting this.

An excellent post, Honey Bun.

Working in an aircraft company was definitely kewl although it had its drawbacks. Someday when I am in the mood I will write about it in some detail. But as for now, here is today's grumble: I put on my old pair of favourite jeans. They are a size 18 petite. Petite means that their legs end where mine do, at the ankles. Although I was able to get them on without lying down and wrestling them on there are considerable amounts of fat above the waistband and below, scallops of fat. Crumpled, cellulite-y fat at that. Green still looks like a sausage. She has a long, long way to go.... And she is not feeling much in the way of a restriction. *sob*

Obviously neither an animal nor a child can give informed consent to marriage. To raise this question is to introduce an irrelevancy into the discussion. The question of polygamy is more complicated: there are two religions, Islam and Mormon, that endorse polygamy.

Oh, soviet Canuckistan is what one of your Christian fundamentalist preacher politicians - maybe Pat Robertson ?? - once called Canada. I found this so cute that I often refer to my country as Soviet Canuckistan when writing about it to American friends.:biggrin1:

I usually agree with you, Bitter, but on the issue of paying school taxes I don't. Like yourself, I have animals instead of children and yet I believe that single people should contribute to school taxes. Educated young people make for strong and stable neighbourhoods and indeed for a strong and stable country. They are also likely to be employed, productive adults, ones that will be paying into those programmes that support retirees instead of sucking up our tax monies through welfare, police, judicial and prison costs. I will add that raising children is a much more expensive proposition for the parents than maintaining a menagerie of pets. I kinda think that you and I got off lightly.:heh:

Right on!!!:clap2:

Up here in Soviet Canuckistan we have same sex marriage, universal health care, and recognize the legal rights of couples who choose to live together without getting married. The sky hasn't fallen in. God has not smote us. This is still an affluent country with a high standard of living where people are free to practise their religion or not, as the case may be.