green

An opinion as to whether beige is an attractive colour and should be extensively used in home decor is quite different from an opinion on racial behaviour patterns. The first, this issue surrounding the use of beige, is purely a question of personal taste. The second issue falls into an entirely different category, that of demographics, and there exists a multitude of studies and statistics on this issue. This is not an arena where you get to float an opinion which is unanchored to prior research into the hard data which currently exists; the stakes are far too high. This is an issue which deals with how we are encouraged to view our fellow brothers and sisters. Careless statements may have far reaching consequences. You have displayed yourself as being very sympathetic to the plight of the Jews in Europe. I would argue that the Jews were historically set up for mistreatment and repeated attempts for destruction by the majority because they were repeatedly the target of careless and unthinking statements which not only put them in a box but pathologized them. Jews were viewed as being apart and not fully human. They were demonized. - Sorry for the rupture but my computer decided that it had to do strange things! - It strikes me that your recent refusal to backtrack on your statement that crime does not have a tendency to stay within a racial framework, even after you were provided with information which indicated that this was true, indicates that you are either racist or careless enough about examining the facts that you are willing to toss unexamined inflamatory material concerning a group of individuals into the open market. When you toss off a statement which implies that blacks are a criminal underclass who prey on white people in America, and then defend this because this is your opinion and you have a right to your opinion, you are encouraging people to believe that a group of individuals should be viewed as being apart and as being not fully human. This is called demonization, eh. As I have often said on Rants and Raves, my father's side of the family perished in the Holocaust. There were few survivors. My father's response to this was to raise his kids to be passionately concerned about the responses of all majorities towards all minorities. I believe that we must be sensitive towards each other although this is terribly difficult to do. I believe this is why I enjoy our awful conversations, Cusano. I kinda think that they are productive.

Congratulations, grrl. I am a TLBC grrl, too. I don't know where those little charts come from but this is a question which periodically crops up on TLBC and you will receive an answer from one of the more knowledgeable members. How are you feeling?

Now, this is what I find disturbing about you, Cusano. If a fellow Christian disagrees with your stance on an issue, a secular one in this case, you don't merely disagree with him, you respond by implying that his "Christianity" is questionable. This is why, though belief may well have its proper place in the hearts of men, it does not belong in politics or in government; it seems to introduce a passion that sometimes tramples reasonable thought and the rights of other human beings. You and others of your ilk are self-righteous and are bullies; it is, unfortunately, the aggressive and the noisy Christians like yourself, and not the humble ones, who tend to achieve worldly power in America. This should be of real concern, in my opinion, to all Americans.

I bought a couple of belts at Zeller's the other day. These are to keep my new pants up. They are size XL. But I am having a problem with my latest NSV.:cry The trouble is that my brain has not caught up to my body and I still think of myself as being tubby. Are any of you having this mind/body disconnect? The other problem that I have at the present is that now that it is cold my old carbo-mania has returned and I want comfort - fattening - food.:hungry: Last night I ate pasta with lots of cheese and butter and broccoli.:omg:

Congratulations, Cloe!:clap2: An NSV from a jerk is still an NSV, you know. It might be an even bigger NSV because jerks don't give compliments easily. That's why they are jerks.:heh:

And yah, that is weird. The dude is identical but nothing else is.

Mandi, I am having much the same reaction as Cloe. I haven't been around here much and now I am reading up on all the stuff that has been happening to you. The weight loss is fantastic of course! Congratulations from Green. But what a horrible experience to go through! :cry Both you and Dan must have been freaking out. :omg: I am glad that you are feeling better now and I hope you won't have to remain defilled for too long.:girl_hug:

I just read your latest post and I must say that I regretfully agree. Black people are most certainly NOT preying on white people but bad things are happening to some of the young black men up here in Toronto. They are slaughtering each other with illegal guns which are smuggled up here from south of the border. They are killing each other at the rate of one to two kids per week. This is a painful thing for our community.

Naughty Cusano! We were talking about young urban black male on young urban black male gun violence in Toronto, Canada. You then twisted this to state that packs o gun-toting black folk were attacking white guys south of the border. Your fellow Americans then provided statistics which indicated that you were wrong and that such erroneous statements promoted racist attitudes. After much agreeable discussion we all learned that criminal activities tend to remain inside race and culture and socio-economic divides. Apparently you were not paying attention at the time. Too bad, eh. Now, I am going to admit that I have come to have a certain fondness for you, but I have often noticed that you do misread material which others have posted. This is not good for you. It weakens your arguing position as I believe I have pointed out before.

I would remind you that slavery practices are also mentioned in the New Testament but this is only a minor point. The truth is that although you and I are both decent, honest, and caring people with respect to how we conduct ourselves on a daily basis, our basic beliefs are poles apart. It is crucial, I believe, that the governmental system which is in place be able to serve us all. This is why I am more comfortable living under the Canadian system, a system which is more belief neutral. God and his pundits are not welcome to play a direct role in our politics, nor in our governance. Your beliefs are, as I have just said, wildly different from mine, and yet we are both decent people. In a free country I must have rights to my beliefs just as you must have rights to yours. In a theocratic country someone is gonna lose out. We have been receiving reports of this in action from a number of Islamic theocracies. Indeed, tales of life under the Taliban were particularly blood-chilling, were they not? Now, Cusano, what I fear most from you is that your passion is so intense that it is grown quite immoderate and that you are in the way of being a one man Talibanista yourself. You have found faith and you would like others to do so, too. This is understandable. But if they won't or don't or can't, what then? Are you going to deny these individuals their civil freedoms? Are you going to leave them alienated from a homeland which now suits you? I don't know how much history you have studied but both Christianity and Islam have been spread by the sword at certain periods during their early growth. Of course you know what I am talking about: the newly conquered tribes were told that they should convert or die. In just such a way I have this sense of a serious dichotomy between your religious beliefs and this business of man's civil rights. I sense that this is a big, a very big, issue in the United States today.

Theft, murder, rape, and selling drugs to your children are activities which harm other people and disrupt the fabric of society. This is why such activities are condemned by religions and by secular humanists alike. It is generally agreed upon by all of us who are informed by the western culture that sexual relations/marriage between a child and an adult is deeply damaging to the child and is, therefore, wrong. (There are cultures where young girls are still routinely married off to adult men.) A civil marriage between two loving adult members of the same sex in no way harms you or me, Cusano, and so I fail to see the connection which you are attempting to make between this and rape or murder or whatever. I believe that one of the functions of all religions has been to help mankind deal with this issue of how to arrive at and maintain social order. Certainly the Ten Commandments are all about that. As we know, during the period when the Bible was being written people had slaves. The Book contains much information on the care and treatment of your personal slave collection. Not only is this information no longer applicable today, we now believe that owning other people is horribly immoral. During biblical times people had no understanding that homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice but an issue of genetics. Yes, the latest scientific research indicates that homosexuals are born that way, and just as civilized people are no longer comfortable treating other folk who are born with different attributes as though they are lesser in value and thus merit fewer rights, so this recognition and respect must extend to homosexuals. No religious rights are trampled by allowing homosexuals to have the right to a civil marriage. And the argument that this opens the door to polygamy or folks wanting to marry their pets is specious. No one is born with the built in desire to mate with a dog or to have multiple wives.

Although I totally agree your post made me giggle. My husband spends a whack o dough on his undies. He buys Hugo Boss and I shop at Walmart for mine! :phanvan I really don't mind. His body is prettier than mine.:cry

Here is my latest NSV: those jeans that I bought only three weeks ago are now too big! I can slide the damn things off without undoing them. I would be really, really pleased (in fact outta my mind with pleasure) if a) I didn't still feel like a fatty and :Banane57: if I hadn't just got them. I haven't even got the VISA bill yet!:cry I shouldn't have bought two pairs, eh. I have to buy a belt. :help: I haven't worn a belt in over a decade. Maybe even two decades.... I still wear a 3X top.

Yup, this is why I keep out of the way on the Evolution-Creationist debates. I'm an artsy and know that I must shut up!:rolleyes

I never visited your site before. Very cool and both the kids are adorable. Congratulations on your weight loss, your fine family, and your fine set of ethics.

As for you, Cusano, I have said in a number of my previous posts that guns and gun crime up here in Toronto, Canada have been a black urban youth issue. Though gun laws are stringent up here these kids get 'em, they smuggle them over the border, and then they have gun fights and sometimes kill each other. It is a very macho culture and it is a comparatively new development on the local scene. And now I hear from other Americans - but not you! - that the pattern of violence and race south of the border is very similar to ours. It seems that there are not packs of blacks preying on us white folks south of the border, either. lol This is not really surprising to me. Toronto is a multi-cultural city and it is certainly true that each culture feels some degree of comfort in sticking close to home. People are more comfortable going to their own churches, shopping at their own shops, and living in neighbourhoods where there are other folks who come from the same background. You should be interested to know that criminals prefer to have the same degree of comfort. Criminals prefer to perpetuate crimes against their own communities. And so we have seen cases where Viet Namese gangs have robbed wealthy members of their own community, and we have learned that the Tamil Tiger - a terrorist organisation, by the way - affiliates are preying on immigrants who now live here; some of these folk have been shaken down for many thousands of dollars. I could give you many more examples from the local news in my city..... And on a personal note, Cusano, it sometimes strikes me that your field of knowledge is extremely narrow and this does tend to present you yourself and, following along with this logic, your area of knowledge in a poor light. This is not good for you, of course. Your colleague in Christ, Gadget Lady, does a better job of making her point and marketing her beliefs.

TOM, all of this is terrible news. I am so sorry that you and your wife are suffering through all of this grief. I hope your wife will recover quickly and be with her own mum ASAP. And of course we miss your voice on these boards, you know. All the best to you and your wife from Green.

I am sad to hear that you are feeling lousy. Hope you feel better sooner than soon!!!!

Cusano, it would seem to me that burglary, and the possibility of violence that may sometimes accompany it, might be considered to fall into two general categories. There are those thefts which are performed by professionals and these individuals target places where there is a significant amount of loot: bank vaults, rich folk's houses.... These guys do their homework and just want the loot. And then there are the thefts which are committed by the other guys and among these small time crooks would be drug addicts, and the stupid and the lazy. The only boys likely to commit a theft in the country are local townie boys. Toronto's local array of small time thugs tend to steal cars, prey on cab drivers and corner store operations, and rob the occasional bank during office hours. In general, death does not result from these encounters. They do not escalate for only one side has the artillery. They get their money and then they get away and then it becomes a police matter. Sometimes people do get mugged, beaten up, pickpocketted. Carrying a gun is not really going to change anything, is it?

Well, I live in the core of a very large multi-racial city and feel comfortable walking on our streets, riding on our subway (I don't drive), and shopping in our local stores. This is a society which is, because of our stringent firearm laws, a gunless one. On my shopping expeditions I do sometimes encounter black youths. They are not interested in me because I am an old white fart, and not part of their milieu. In this city, their issues are primarily with each other; it's gang on gang warfare.

Yep, that's what I figure, too. Killing with a knife takes more committment and more work. You do have a chance to change your mind unless you've hit a major artery.:omg:

I am nowhere near as easy going by temperament as my husband. I care a lot more about my wants and desires and I am much more organised in my approach to life and so l usually have things my way. What I have had to learn is to spot when he really does care about something and to satisfy his wants. Even though I am an old dog this is has been a trick which I have recently learned and it has given us both great pleasure. Neverthess, I suspect it is the one who has the more aggressive temperament in the couple who will tend to lead - and this may well be the woman.:omg:

Cusano, you were misreading my earlier post with respect to criminals and guns. I had said that your average middle class individual could go anywhere in this city and have pretty well zero chance of being shot. Gun crime up here is not being committed against everyday people. It is very much a young male black on black crime. Let me explain. Most of these kids are from the Caribbean, from Jamaica in fact, and belong to gangs. They deal in drugs, have turf wars, diss each other, and shoot each other. Toronto is the 6th largest city in North America, I have heard, and there will likely be between 70 and 80 gun deaths this year. Most of the fatalities will be young black men between the ages of 14 and 23. This is a very macho subculture and one that is entirely alienated from the rest of the city. This is both very sad and very puzzling to many of us. And yes, hunters do have licenced artillery. They use rifles, though. When it comes to a lot of our violent crime, Canadians are forced to rely on knifing each other, ya know, due to the lack of availability of guns.:heh:

Well, I am kinda glad that we have this here. You must understand that my father was a Jew who grew up in Poland - not a great place to be for a minority kid, eh.:confused: And certainly I have had my own experiences of racism and sexism, both here and while living in France. By guaranteeing that minorities will be treated on par with the majority does in no way threaten the majority with respect to their choice in matters of their morals and ethics. For example, this business of same sex marriage covers civil unions only. No religious institution in Canada is forced to marry same sex couples. We do not believe in depriving the majority of their choice in matters of their morals and ethics. We just believe that the majority has no right to force their choices on minority groups. We believe that all people merit equality and that this must sometimes be formally protected through the agency of our government. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was born out of our recognition of this need.

In Canada we have The Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This document carries somewhat the same weight for us as your Constitution does for you. This is a document which guarantees to minorities the same rights and freedoms as majorities enjoy. This is why we have made gay civil marriage legal.