Tired_Old_Man

Today, I have posted to the LBT site from 5 different computers. One was a PC running Windows XP-Pro One was a PC running Windows 98SE One was a G4 iMac running OSX, 10.4 Tiger One was a G3 iMac running OSX, 10.3. Panther One was a PC running Linux Theses computers were at 3 different houses, so the routers were different models as was the DSL modems. No matter which computer I was using, often, when I selected "Post Reply" or "New Thread" or tried to write a PM, there were times that I could write in the "Title" box, but the curser would not appear in the message text box. I purposely waiting until today to write this because until today, it had happened to me only at my house with 3 different type computers, but today it happened at other houses with 2 more different type computers. Is anyone else having problems posting to this site? I have no problems posting to any other sites from my three home computers, nor did I have any problems from the other computers at the other homes posting to other sites.

Many people are aware that the Menu food company, maker of dog and cat food for hundreds of brands, has been producing pet food which has killed animals. Menu Foods claims that about 15 animals have died and many have gotten sick, but a vet did a survey and he estimated that the number may already be over 250 dead pets. As it stands now, a pet is only considered a piece of property. If someone steals or kills your pet, it is the same thing as stealing a radio or TV from you. If the pet cost $100, you can only sue for $100. Obviously if someone killed your child, you could sue for millions (though no amount would be enough to erase your pain). Do you think that family pets should be treated differently under the law than a piece of property?

Today I went to a credit union and took out $1500 in cash. I was given 15 $100 bills. While pointing to the picture on the bills, I playfully said to the teller, "some people think he was one of our greatest presidents". She looked up and said, "Don't you"? I said, "Of course not". "Why?" "He was never president!!" "He wasn't?" "No, Benjamin Franklin was never a president of the United States." Then I went to a bank to deposit my $1500 and said to the teller, "I was just at my credit union getting this money and I said to the teller, 'some people think he was one of our greatest presidents'. She asked me, 'Don't you'? and I said, 'Of course not'." "How come?" asked the bank teller. "Because he was never president!!" "OH!"

Now that I have your attention, that was "0's", not "O's". "0's" like in "Zeros". My wife, Tina was fine when she hit the big 2 0 a little skittish for the big 3 0 very quiet for the big 4 0 in denial about the big 5 0 and terribly depressed about the big 6 0 which she will hit on the last day of the month. Tina says that she doesn't want any birthday presents, no party, no celebration, no dinner out and that we should pretend that she is not having a birthday at all. None of the big 0's ever bothered me (except the big 3 0 and that was so mild as to be almost non-existent), so I really can not comprehend what she is going through or how to help her. The funny part about it is that I will be 62, 17 days later, but I look like 10 years older than her. When we go somewhere that gives senior citizen discounts (55 for the movies, some fast food beverages), they ask her for ID unless I order for both of us. She has about as much chance of getting a senior citizen discount when alone (without showing ID) as our 14 year old grandson has of buying cigarettes or liquor. None the less, she still is in a funk about turning 60. Does anyone, particularly you women out there, have any suggestions? Before you answer, neither diamonds or cars will suffice as an answer. This is about depression; hers, not driving me to the brink of financial depression.

The wife of the 2004 Vice Presidential Democratic candidate John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, announced the day after the election that she had breast cancer. She had been cancer free ever since she was treated for that cancer. John Edwards is one of the front runners among the Democrats who have announced that they are running in the primaries to be the 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate. Today, It was announced that Mrs. Edwards has suffered a return of the cancer, this time in a rib and in her lungs. It is incurable, but can be contained. They have elected to continue the campaign because the doctors said that the campaign will not impact on Mrs. Edwards' prognosis. Would you vote for a man to be President knowing that if elected, the first lady might die while in the White House of cancer? Would you want to avoid the spectacle and distraction of the illness in the White House or do you think that their courage in running makes them more appealing candidates (for President and First Lady)? Please vote for the general case. Do not consider John Edwards as the only person that could be in this position.

And may they all celebrate as many more birthdays as they wish!

Hi, everyone. Things worked out nice on my birthday. Tina and I went to eat and we spent quality time together. In the evening, my son, DIL and and grand-children came over to 'cut a cake'. Rocky sang "Happy Birthday" with the rest of the family (or should I say barked "Happy Birthday"?) We gave him some vanilla ice cream because he can't eat the chocolate/vanilla ice cream cake. Tina's mother is still the same. I do the best I can to keep Tina's mind off of her mother's health. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Since this is a thread for Christians, I would like to wish all the Christians here at LBT a Merry Christmas. Today, April 17th is the Birthday of Jesus Christ according to many Historians. Here are just three of dozens of sites that explains why Jesus was born on April 17 in the year 6 BC. http://www.utopia-net.org/English/0417jesus1.html http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2103143560086389096gLKCHE http://www.eclipse.net/~molnar/ So Jesus and I share at least one thing in Common, since today, April 17th is also my Birthday. MERRY CHRISTMAS

April has been cruel to Carlene, T.S. Eliot and me. BUT: Today, April 17th is the Birthday of Jesus Christ according to many Historians. http://www.utopia-net.org/English/0417jesus1.html http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2103143560086389096gLKCHE http://www.eclipse.net/~molnar/ So Jesus and I share at least one thing in Common.

Today is my 62nd Birthday. I am living the day in fear. Tina's mother has taken a turn for the worst and I am praying that she does not die today. My mother died on my 19th Birthday, putting a stain on my birthday for the rest of my life and the last thing I need is for Tina's mother to die on my Birthday. Tina has elected to stay here with me in Florida. She found out that her mother has been running an extremely high fever for about 4 days, but decided that sitting in the hospital room watching her mother sleep would be too much of a strain for her, so she elected to stay. How many times can she fly up to Brooklyn? Besides, I can console her and try to take her mind off the situation while we are together here in Florida. This is always a bed week for me: The anniversary of my mother's death is April 17th. The anniversary of my father's death is April 18th. The anniversary of my step father's death is April 12th. TOM PS: These anti-depressants are depressing me.

The Biblical Case for Being Pro-Choice and Funding Stem Cell Research Genesis 2.7 says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Fetuses and stem-cells, on the other hand are not breathing. And until they take their first breath, they would not be considered as being alive or having a soul as indicated by Genesis 2.7 or by the law in most states. When a baby is found dead and abandoned, the test for whether it is a homicide or a stillborn is to perform an autopsy and determine if the lungs have ever been inflated. No inflation equals no breathing equals no homicide. So, it would seem that Genesis 2.7, our legal code and I all agree on the point that Abortion and Stem Cell Research are not murder.

I need to apologize for not getting back to this thread for so long. My only excuse is that I have been having a hard time with the anti-depressant that the neurologist put me on. I have had no energy and have been unable to motivate myself except to do what I need to do to keep Tina and I happy together. I have not been on the computer except to enter my receipts into Quicken for the past two weeks or so. I have not even been coming to LBT to read threads. Tina's mother wound up back in the hospital, dehydrated and with another urinary tract infection. She was taken to the hospital the afternoon of the day Tina flew back home to me, but Tina's brother did not call to tell her until 2 days later. As I mentioned earlier, Tina loved the yard work, so next morning while she was still in a good mood, I treated her like she was my 20 year old “Sex Toy”, which almost killed my “one month shy of 62 year old body”, but it was worth it for both of us. Sex is not everything, but when combined with love and caring, it is a wonderful thing. The rest of the day was spent cuddling and then going out to dinner. I have a little confession to make; I didn't quite finish the yard work, because of unexpected rain and the day I wasted running around between doctor's offices, but that worked to my advantage because when Tina came out to help me and saw how much work was involved, she realized how much I must love her to crank this old body up every day to do so much by myself. She was able to help me by driving the truck forward as I shoveled rock out of the pickup truck bed. The funny part is that Tina can't drive. She has had permits 3 times in her life, but never got a license, so she almost killed me a few times by almost tossing me out of the pickup bed. She decided that she would celebrate her after all and I mobilized myself to give her a Happy Birth-Week. I took her out to dinner every night from the Tuesday she got home until the Tuesday after her birthday. And we went to the movies a few times and to a “Play Land USA” where we played miniature golf and other games. My son and daughter-in-law had to be out of town on Saturday (her birthday), so we decided to give her a surprise on the day after. On Friday, the day before her birthday, I went to Publix and bought a few items for the house including some chips for Saturday's baby-sitting for our grand-daughter Brooklyn and I also got a carrot cake with Happy Birthday Tina on it, a “3” candle and a “9” candle and a ½ gallon of ice-cream for Saturday's surprise party and a big Carvel ice cream cake and some chips for Sunday's surprise party. When I was checking out, I told the bagger that I had to put things in three different sets of bags. He asked why and I told him that some things were going home and it was ok for my wife to see them, some things were for a surprise party at my house ( and it was not ok for my wife to see them) and some things were for a surprise party at my son's house. He said, “That seems like an awful lot of work” and I replied, “That's why I'll be celebrating my 40th wedding anniversary in July”. Saturday's party was a comedy of errors. I could not find any matches to light the candles. Finally I had to break down and ask Tina where the matches were. She didn't have any either, but she gave me a cigarette lighter (“Flip my Bic”) that we had bought in Brooklyn before we moved here in 2003. Well, you have probably guessed it; it would not light, so I wound up presented a birthday cake with unlit candles as Brooklyn, Rocky and I sang (and barked) “Happy Birthday”. Tina was surprised and then Brooklyn asked “where's the big birthday cake?” to which Tina replied, “we only have a small cake because there is only you, me and grandpa”. “But grandpa brought a big cake over to my house yesterday”. I had to admit to Tina that I had a surprise for her the next day and after my son, daughter-in-law, Brooklyn and us went to a Japanese, Thai restaurant for dinner the next day, we had another party. Except as I explained above, things have been ok since then. Oh, I forgot to mention getting the flu or some virus which knocked out for a few days.

I know everyone thinks it can't happen to their loved ones, but there is a scourge going through the USA. It is called Crystal Meth. Montana recently started an add campaign that is visually shocking, but meth usage is down 50% and pre-employment drug screening shows a 70% decrease in meth positives. HBO will air a documentary tomorrow night call "Montana Meth". If you have children or grand-children, or know people with children, please watch it. I dare you to watch these YouTube videos from the Montana ad campaign.

What's your favorite "South Park" episode? If you do not know the name (I don't know the names of the episodes) describe it.

Tina loved the yard work. She just about melted when she saw it. :hug: More to follow. Thanks for all the good wishes.

That feature depends on Cookies being stored on your computer. I have posted to the LBT site from 9 different computers in 5 different houses, using 6 different operating systems (versions of Windows, Mac and Linux) and with all systems, the forum knows which threads I have read and not read. If they had the feature of "View First Unread", it would be different at each computer based upon what the last thread that I read from each computer. I tried that for a while with Windows 95 back in the 90's. I had to move my "history file" from computer to computer using a floppy, but Windows would tell me that the file was protected and could not be over-written, so I had to use a spacial program to get around Windows, by booting to DOS. I know it is a pain, especially with "Hot" threads like the "Antisemitism in France" thread was. You come back to LBT after a few hours and thread had grown by 5 pages. WOW!! It was hard to figure out where I had left off reading. And I am getting old and senile. Sometimes progress seems like a step backward.:noidea:

I was just checking the priority list for Tina's flight out of LGA (LaGuardia Airport) and she is in good shape as a standby passenger. If she didn't make it today, she would have to wait until next Monday for an open flight, but even if she was "bounced" from this flight to West Palm Beach (one hour drive from home), she still has 3 good chances to make it to Miami (two and ½ hour drive). I hope Tina likes my surprises and I will post to let everyone know how things work out, both on her birthday and today when she gets to the house. I will be reducing my posting at LBT for a while to try to be more of a comfort to Tina. I am not being a nice guy, 'cause while I comfort her, the mutual sharing of love will also be a great comfort to me. Thanks again for all the advice, comforting words, prayers, shared knowledge and good wishes, and thanks for just being there.

The fact that the question is even asked is proof just how far our country has to go toward removing "gender bias" (or sexism) from its list of traits. This forum is predominately female, so I see less bias toward gender than most other forums that I have been a regular on. Of the 3 forums that I have the most posts on, one was 99% male, one was split about 50/50 and this one is at least 80% female as far as regular posters are concerned (as was my Lap Band Emotional support group in Brooklyn). When I worked as an aircraft mechanic at JFK, it also was an over 90% male environment, and I am going to tell you women a little secret; most men, both in the work place and at the 99% forum, claim to believe that White Males are simultaneously the people that made the USA great, are needed to keep the USA great, deserve to be kept in power and are an endanger species (at least as far as power is concerned) because they are under constant attack from the "others" and from within. "Others" are usually defined as minorities (Blacks & Hispanics) and females. From within is usually defined as (those accursed) "Liberals", who are sometimes referred to as "commie, pinko, godless, traitors who are probably fags". Let's face it, they are probably right. Wasn't Jesus a "White American Male"? Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad (and if you are a Mormon, it's 3 out of 3).

If I posted a picture, you would not ask.:doh:

The USA calls the Military budget, the "Defense Budget" because calling it the “Department of War” has a bad sound to it. If the President (any president, not just BuSh) were to say, “I pledged to make war for this country” instead of “I Pledged to Defend this Country”, it doesn't have quite the same right. BTW, BuSh (like all other presidents) did neither, when he was sworn in he pledged: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." “Defend the Constitution”, not defend the nation, and definitely not to make War.

When you say “other”, I hope you do not mean “other than the USA”. The USA's Military budget, which it falsely labels as the defense budget is larger than all the other nations of the world combined. (I say “falsely, because over 95% is used for offensive weapons, not defensive weapons.) The USA has attacked more countries since WWll than all of the other countries of the world combined. So if you are saying, that the USA's "Peace though War" rationale is accurate, then of course no other country is engaging in bringing about peace, because only the USA has the might (and thinks it has the right) to impose its will. Or if you would like to be more accurate, you would note that the USA doesn't give a damn about Peace or Democracy, only that it keeps governments friendly to the USA in power, no matter how poorly those governments treat their own citizens or how badly they treat their neighboring countries.

So it is only a coincidence that this problem only happens about abortion, morning after and birth control pills. And it is just another coincidence that the state legislatures only pass laws to allow people "not to do their job" because it involves those same issues. By the way, I had no law protecting me that said that if I didn't want to fix a plane by the book and something went wrong because my moral indignation kept me from following the book, that I would be protected. No, that only happens when the worker's rights to chose override a women's right to chose.

Did anyone see "V for Vendetta"?

Are you saying that the USA should not be involved in diplomacy, lest it be seen as appeasement, on the one hand, while asserting that countries that do not appease the USA's agenda get what they deserve (from the USA's military machine) on the other hand? 'cause that's what it sounded like to me.

Maybe they left the laparoscopic tools inside of her? :doh: