TheGh0st

Back on my soap box re:taxes just one more time. My mother always said “The devil is in the details”. Well I believe ”The dollar is in the details” as well. I seem to remember a big interest a while back in what percentage of money donated to any given charity actually gets used towards its stated goals versus how much is spent in advertising and administration. People wanted to know if they were donating $1 to feed the hungry that more than just a few pennies or dimes were actually going towards the cost of that food. I feel the same way about our taxes. I feel once you subtract out the amount of taxes people/companies are able to avoid paying in addition to all the money spent in “policing” the system the US government is most likely left with only “pennies” of each tax dollar due to use towards areas such as: education, military, health care, roads, etc, etc. I have absolutely NO idea what the right answer is and have no idea which party Republican, Democrat, Independent, etx. may have done the best on this issue but I do believe there must be a simpler taxation system we could use. I have to believe the simpler the system the fewer ways companies/people could find to not pay their portion as well as the fewer tax dollars that would need to be spent on administering and policing the system. Further, if we had a system where closer to 90% of our tax dollars due were actually available for use “by the people, for the people” then MAYBE us “people” wouldn’t need to pay in as much in to begin with, or at least more of what we paid could actually be put to use. (I started to write "good use" but then I remembered I was still talking about the US govenment and I highly doubt you could find any two people in the US that would completely agree on what constitued "good use") *BTW I would be extremely interested if anyone out there had a clue what the actual percentage of est. tax dollars available for use (after administration/oversight costs) actually were compared to est. tax dollars due.

In idealistic generalities. I prefer a more global outlook than one of individual nationalism. However, in all realities one must focus on their own little corner of the world, no matter how selfish that may sound. On such note I think I like your comment. It might be interesting for the Government to consider a sliding scale of tax breaks for Corporations based on the percentage of US employees they have. I said percentage as opposed to quantity so that these breaks may also help some of the smaller companies and not just big business. Of course, how do they regulate or monitor such an idea? How would they have the jurisdiction or ability to verify the true percentage of US employees?

Me too, Now, iff he can only accomplish a fraction of what he has campaigned for in regards to a nation healing it racial wounds and its citizens taking self resposibility for thier lives, as well as helping their neighbors. It will be a wondrous thing and well worth my candidates loss. I agree I was EXTREMELY annoyed at the crowd having felt the need to boo. It was not appropriate!! Though I feel it was inevitable that either sides "victory" crowd would have fallen prey to the same actions after losing such a long and contested race. Some would even suggest that after the Democrats losing the last two elections to Bush they may have fallen to even worse behaviour if they had lost a close election again last night.

I can't believe you missed Obama's speech!!!:biggrin: But, I must thankyou for your kind assessment of McCain's speech. I too thought it was well spoken. I also thought Obama's speech was very gracious. With no hint of gloating or negativity towards those who hadn't voted for him. As I told my son who is still sad his "team" didn't win. As of this morning there are no longer teams, the race is over and we are now all on the same team. "Team America". Corny, I know. Now that it is over I feel I can do much more good by backing him wholeheartedly on the issues in which we agree and waiting patiently for the pendulum of power to eventually swing back on those areas for which we disagree. And praying fervently everyday that the lunatic whack jobs that are inevitably out there (like those from the Oklahoma City bombings) never succeed with any of their insane and down right despicable plots against Obama.

Whether you were a McCain supporter or a Obama supporter and no matter the color of yourself or your ancestors this historic moment should be considered a victory for all! As McCain stated so gracefully: I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited. Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that. It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again. I voted for McCain last night strictly on party issues. But last night when Obama won with such an overwhelming majority of the electoral votes I have to say I was overcome with emotion. NO! not grief or resentment that my candidate didn't win, but with PRIDE that Americans have come so far. I haven't felt this way since watching the Berlin wall come down. When the wall fell I wept. I wept for all the families that had been separated by it. I wept for all the lives that had been lost trying to escape it. But most importantly I wept tears of joy that is was finally gone. Now it is time for me to weep for this AMERICAN Victory. It is wondorous beyond description but as before with the wall I can't help but cry for all the families (both black, white and every other color) that have been divided and lost for over a century by slavery and its reprecussions we continue to experience to this day. I look forward to this being the day that began the true healing of our nation.

Glad to hear all was well with your cortisol levels. Now start pumping that iron!

Then, I'm a chicken as well. My neighborhood has predominently Obama signs and the only person I know that was willing to "risk" putting up a McCain sign ended up with a rock through their window. Personally I feel I'm not even allowed to mention my decision not to put up a McCain sign in my yard after what happened to my neighbor for fear of also being labeled a racist. When the reality is I just understand that this election has stirred up more emotions than those of the past and as you described can. And is resulting is such poor behavior from both sides.

I know this is RNR's. My problem is it is just hard to take coming from two well spoken posters like the both of you. I'll be reading along one of your posts thinking I either agree with what is being written or am now having a better understanding of where the other side is coming from as the case may be. I'll be thinking how I want to post some comment thanking the poster for helping me better understand the opposition or for so eloquently writing how I feel myself on an issue. But then BAM! the ugliness pops in and I'm left shaking my head either forgetting what insight I just gained or frustrated that a post that seemed to speak my views so well has just lost any possibility of being received by the other side. Funny thing. I can the ugliness better when it comes from the opposition. It's when it comes from my own "camp" that it bugs me the most as I feel it reflects just as poorly on me as them. I think that is why I tend to listen more to media that leans towards my opposition. Which oddly enough puts me in the position that no one can really claim that I'm just being blindly swayed by my party's rhetoric, because I so rarely hear any of it. Excepting ofcourse hear on LBT.

BJean, Beth I know I'm not a mod but come on you two. Take a breath. As you both obviously find the extremist name calling and hate speach coming from both sides distastefull, don't allow yourselves to fall prey to it. Especially by directing it at each other instead of the specific party platform issue or if you must the candidates. BOTH of you are better than this, and I have no interest in trying to pinpoint who started it. I have immense respect for the two of you and have found interesting insights into various issues by reading your respective posts but when they include phrases like these it makes it near impossible for me to not be distracted from your intended messages by the unnecessary negativity. PS - This post probably applies to nearly everyone of us including myself that have posted here at some point. You two just hit me at a time when I can't sleep and am feeling more free to vent. I'll get off my little soapbox now and let the sparring continue. Just remember to keep the gloves on. :rolleyes2:

Sadly, the chances of such a kumbaya moment around the proverbial water cooler no matter who wins is about as good as a snowball's chance in hell. Especially considering the reputation to provoke controversy that some in the media on both sides of the fence have.

Here's an odd statistic. According to AOL's VERY INFORMAL straw poll of its members who have taken the time to choose to vote in the straw poll. McCain is leading 64% to 35%. This is by NO MEANS a poll I would consider an accurate representation of the nations view. lt just struck me as odd that it was so different than the others. It would make sense if it were a straw poll of voluntary voters on a republican biased site but I would have never pegged AOL members as leaning predominantly one way or the other. Obviously I was wrong.

I second that sentiment. It does bring up another thought I've been having recently. When you watch the national media you hear over and over again that Obama & McCain are in a near dead heat and yet they talk as if it will be some sort of surprising upset if McCain actually wins. Some of the not so mainstream go so far as to suggest McCain can only win by cheating. And some from the other side claim some left wing media conspiracy against McCain... ...OK I've written and re-written this post 4 times now when I need to be finishing up month end here at work. (Shame on me) And my post keeps getting way out of hand. So let me try one more time cutting as quickly to the point as I know how.... I prefer not to buy into either extreme view. The problem is that not only are the two political sides pulling further and further apart in thier views they are also moving further and further apart in geography. With the majority of the rural areas trending towards Republican and the Urban towards Democrat. This physical pulling apart makes it all too easy to feel a sense of disbelief that others could believe differently since thier is so little interaction between the two groups. The result is that all the media outlets are based in Urban settings making them more likely to be unintentionally influenced by this phenomena of disbelief that their is still a large (nearly 50%) of the population that is supporting McCain and therefore if he wins they will naturally find it easier to accept any reports of election irregularities as somehow the cause of his winning. Most likely it will be a very close result but even now I see it possible that either could win even with a landslide. Obama could win bigger than the polls suggest by bringing out huge numbers of Urban voters not seen before and possibly not included in current polling numbers. And McCain could win bigger than the polls due to an under-representation within the polls of people living in non-urban areas. IF McCain does win, I ask the Obama supporters to please try to remember that the polls have been showing a very close race and that his winning is possible without fraud or cheating. Oh, and the same can be said towards the McCain supporters, if Obama wins. No matter who wins I hope more time is spent in the media and by the Water coolers around America trying to find a way to move forward WITH our new President, rather than looking back for ways to change the outcome by crying foul.

I really do hope he can meet the nations hopes if he wins. This may be the one elusive common ground that both the left and right can join together on. The call to stepping up to the plate and taking personal responsibility for ones lot in life and the pursuit of some reconciliation and healing between the races. BTW-Watcher I understand and agree that the offenses that have occured to the black race are NOT just past offenses from the the time of slavery and the generations of segregation after that. I realize that there are still injustices to this day. But even while we fight to stop the current problems we should still be striving to find some sense of healing. I think the apparent waiting for all injustices to cease before healing the rift is only prolonging the time it is taking to squash the problems that are still going on. I feel like in many ways we have lost ground from since the time of MLK when black and white activists were working TOGETHER to try to abolish segregation and voter discrimination. This is just where we will have to disagree. I just don't buy into all the hype and propaganda of either side during this election. Instead I'm trying to focus on what I remember from before either candidate announced their intentions to run. I don't buy that McCain will be a Bush replica. I keep remembering all those years when the Republican mainstream (which I am NOT) wished nothing more than McCain would dissapear or even just quit "pretending" he was a republican and join the democratic party since he seemed all too cozy with the likes of Ted Kennedy and Lieberman for those hardline Republicans. (Remember I'm trying my best to imitate the republican right wing views of the last several years - not necessarily my own in this paragraph) But, shoot, when was the last time a candidate of either party seriously considered offering the Vice-presidency to someone who had previously run for VP on the opposite ticket? I still think that would have been a VERY interesting turn of events (Better than Palin for sure) And even though, yes, ONE, I repeat, ONE year McCain's record does show a 90% voting with Bush record. The other year's his record was much lower, including a couple years where it was I believe less than or very near 50% (lower than some of his democrat counterparts) I just can't help but feel if McCain wins both parties may be surprised at just how much CHANGE McCain will really represent. I suspect both of the extreme sides may be none to happy with his ideas for change, while I'm hopefull the more mainstream non-extremist population will be more pleasantly surprised.

A bit off topic here but I thought I would share something I started to put in a PM to someone on this thread. I'm a bit of a politcal mix myself. I consider myself a "liberal" republican that will be voting for McCain solely because I see him as a lesser of two political evils. But as I told Watcher in a PM I have a secret desire for Obama to blow McCain out of the water and win by a landslide then, that he is somehow able to become the JFK and Nelson mandela of our time. JFK in that I'd love to see him push the "ask not what your country can do... for yourself, your baby mama, child, your neighbor, etc, and the Nelson Mandela in that I hope his mixed heritage and eloquent speaking abilities can somehow be used to help heal this nations ratial wounds as Mandela tried to do with his Truth and Reconcilliation Trials. If I really thought he had a chance at succeeding in either of those areas I'd vote for him despite my differences in views on his other democratic party policy agendas. After all if my democratic friends/relatives could survive 8 years of a Republican White House (with thier favorite republican to hate, Bush) I'm sure I can manage 4-8 of a Democrat controlled White House. But, sadly I'm afraid he is not our country's Messiah and will be no better than any other power hungry and ultimately corrupted politician, so I just can't bring myself to break my party allegiance and vote for him, based soley on my racially motivated dreams.

RATS Can't see the picture. All I get is the little Red-X

I agree, I love it when you all get along. I respect the views of all of you: Watcher, BJean, Green, Gadget, Beth, etc... It is disheartening when the tone moves from attacking the topic to attacking the person. And as far as I'm concerned using demeaning or derogatory terms to refer to a whole group of people, democrat, republican or otherwise is just a poorly vieled way of attacking the individual, intentionally or not. I know we all have strong feeling on different issues and most of us have been guilty of this at one time or the other, but when we negatively label one group or another we make it harder for the message we are trying to convey to be heard, even by those that were not our intended "victims". Thankyou so much for sharing. I wrote a novel/bio to Watcher as well when I sent my PM's in the hopes it would help him understand where I was coming from and to minimize the chance of him mis interpreting the intent of my PM. It can be so hard to read a post the way the writer intended it when you can't hear the tone of their voice or see the expressions on their face and hand gestures.

Without trying to sound too paranoid. I've even wondered if it wouldn't be a good idea to keep a small overnight bag packed in the car at all times in case we decide it's best to get ourselves and our 5 year old son out of town fast. And I keep thinking I ought to figure out just where I put the ammo and clip to the semi-auto rifle my dad gave me a few years back. I seperated the clips, ammo and gun from each other after my son was born for safety reasons but have since forgotton where the ammo went. OK now its official. I've gone round the bend. But still it proves my point. If a simple housewife/bookkeeper is considering arming herself what are the rest of the masses going to do? There doesn't seem to be any good way out of this. If he gets assasinated we are in deep deep *crud* and if he loses it won't be pretty eigther as so many will cry foul in the belief there is no way he could have lost with out it being rigged and we could still end up with Rodney King style riots.

But back to the topic PLEASE I only just stumbled onto this thread but am actually the one that sent the original PM's that prompted him to start this thread. After reading through all the back posts the conversation has definitely been lively and interesting. Well worth the read but it has gone far off topic. The concerns Watcher and I were discussing were about what would happen to this nation if Obama was to be assasinated. The idea of an assasination isn't new, most if not all presidents have had serious threats or attempts on their lives. But I am very worried that there are too many nut jobs out there like the ones in Denver and Tennesee are just going to keep coming at him until one succeeds. Then what will happen to our nation? We have become so divided and partisan outside of Washington that I've seen people come to the brink of fist fights at work talking about politics. Heck my DH and his brother got so heated that they had to have their mother pull them apart. Mind you they are both over 40, one with a Masters degree and the other with a PHD. I live in an inner-city neighborhood in Kansas City and worry greatly over what may happen if he were to be assasinated. Back in 92 the news of the police charged with assaulting Rodney King in LA being aquitted triggered Riots in LA, and elsewhere. According to Wikipedia "By the time the police, the US Army, the Marines and the National Guard restored order, the casualties included 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damages to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses." and that was just just the damage in LA. If this is how we as Americans are capable of reacting to a verdict in a trial over police brutality then how much worse can we expect the nation to react to the assasination of our president?

I know this isn't my conversation but I couldn't resist chiming in here. I am NOT saying that I advocate not paying our taxes here in the US. However, I was living in the UK back in the late 80's early 90's when they repealed property taxes and replaced them with a poll tax. I was there while at university but was a US citizen (so I may be slightly wrong on some of the specific details due to my age and difference in nationality) but even as a US citizen I was still required to pay just for living there and being over 18 years old. The majority of the country HATED this new taxing system once it was implemented and what did they/we do to protest it? We didn't pay it! There were even some politicians refusing to pay it. From what I understand the funds from this Poll Tax were to be used for infrastructure, things like street lights and road maintenance, schools etc. And what happened when so many refused to pay? Did the government come to a screeching halt. Did the Street lights go dark or the roads fall into disrepair? No, instead the govenment ultimately caved to the will of the people and the poll tax was abandoned. So who knows, they always say "money talks" so maybe if the one thing we all seem to agree on is that the government is overspending our tax dollars. (Even if we can't agree on which programs are the culprits) Maybe, just Maybe the idea of us all banding together and refusing to pay our taxes until the system is overhauled is not quite as hair-brained as an idea as it sounds, even to me. It would sure be a way to hit them where it hurts, I think that if any one large group banded together to do this as a united group it sure would get the govenments attention better than street protests or rallys. Whether it was liberals protesting the war spending or conservatives protesting the immigration & welfare system. (I just tried to pick two for example) Mind you in the case of the poll tax the worst they supposedly could do was have an auction of your possesions though some items such as your home was excluded from the list of items the government could sell. I don't believe jail was an option like it is here in the US for tax evasion. Though I've always been just a bit nervous everytime I re-enter the UK that they will find my name on some list and refuse me entry for having not paid my poll tax bill back when I was at University.

The band is not a valve that opens and closes it is more like a device that makes your stomach into a funnel. Continuing the analogy you can think of how the band works as similar to the following: "Water" - Runs straight through a funnel - Similar to foods that are too soft or liquid passing through a band quickly making you hungry again too soon. "Thick Oatmeal" - Runs slowly through a funnel - Similar to solid foods chewed well. This is the optimal effect as it will help make you feel full the longest. "Marbles" - Won't budge through the funnel if the marbles are larger than the hole in the funnel - Similar to solid foods not chewed well enough. This is what can cause PB'ing, Sliming, and much discomfort. And with any of the above you will also feel discomfort if you eat more than can fit in your pouch as to cause the food to back up into your esophagus. The amount you can eat before your pouch will fill up does vary based on which of the above 3 types of food you are eating. The thinner/runnier the food the more you can eat before it fills up as it is falling though at the bottom at the same time. Again this happens with a funnel as well. Even Water can overflow the top of a funnel if you pour it in faster than it is falling out the bottom. Definitions: Sliming - A Fluid that your body makes to try to help the food go down but ends up backing up instead if there is no room left in your upper pouch. Annoying as you body will make extra fluid to wash things through if you eat too much thinking it is helpig when it is actually just adding to the problem. PB'ing - Productive Burp - Varies from person to person both in frequency and in symptoms but for me it is a very rare event. Last one was months ago and my own fault for not having chewed well enough. It feels very uncomfortable for me like something stuck in my throat, almost like I'm choking but I can still breath. Then unlike throwing up where you have a gut wrenching event the food comes up in a move more similar to a cough or a burp. Very uncomfortable until it happens but nothing like a queasy stomach flu like vomit.

I saw a similar e-mail before the Democratic Convention and thought it looked "interesting" until I Snoped it out. But snopes aside it just doesn't make sense that there could be any merit behind this rumor or Hilary would have been all over it long before now.

I also have heard that Starbuck's insurance covers it and have thought if I'd known that ahead of surgery I would have gladly taken a part time job there to get the insurance. I've also heard of people who have successfully fought their insurance companies and managed to get it covered. Having an employer that will also go to bat for you with the insurance company can help. But in the end I personally went self pay. I paid for it with my rewards credit card then transferred it to a 3.9% life credit card offer I received. Then I calculated how much I'd have to pay to get it down to zero over 5 years and it was around $250/mo. When I subtracted out the money I thought I could save in food and possibly prescription co-pays and other medical bills that could be lowered as I lost weight I was able to convince my husband that the true monthly cost was actually going to be much lower. Good Luck!

I had to do a similar collection at least twice while pregnant for some pre-eclampsia test. You think your DH's comment about the "orange juice" was bad. I was working full time and had to store mine in the breakroom fridge. It was a small office and we would often have a pitcher of lemonade in the fridge. I did not enjoy having to forewarn everone that this was NOT lemonade. I ended up "hiding" it behind a sheet of cardboard.

You are right that the band is suppose to work by keeping food in the upper pouch for a period of time slowly passing through to the rest of your stomach. But if you eat too fast causing the food to back up into your esophagus you will feel some obvious discomfort. Also if you take too large a bite and don't chew it well enough instead of slowly falling through to your "lower" stomach it can completely plug the hole and get stuck, which is also very uncomfortable. Both of these causes increase in discomfort as your body will naturally produce extra Fluid to try to help "wash" the food down but if you are stuck the last thing you need is more fluid in your upper pouch. Hence the "sliming".

It is so hard not to judge yourself by looking at others. But, as you know everyone loses at their own pace and faces thier own unique challenges. Looking at your signature line you have done a fantastic job. Who cares if it took you a couple years or a couple months to get their? I'm sure it was very painful not to have lost it faster but now that you are here, it is time to let go of the pain and move forward. I'm sure you will even be an inspiration to the many others here on LBT that lament the snails pace thier journey is taking. I myself was banded in 2005 and lost the first 75 pounds fairly rapidly then have fought tooth and nail for every remaining pound moving forward and back like I did in my old Yo-Yo dieting days. It has been so frustrating feeling like I use to have some magical ability to lose the weight and have now lost it. Maybe you can even help me find some peace with the struggles I'm now facing.