Tired_Old_Man

Black Americans may also be marginalized by not being able to get a job because they can not communicate. I used to live in a section of Brooklyn where I was the 1% minority. One time when I was visited by a white co-worker, we heard a few teenagers talking and my co-worker thought they were speaking a foreign language. Ebonics as it became to be known was to most whites that I knew, a joke. I think that we need to have a common language or else we are doomed to continual misunderstandings.

#1. I am sorry I ever mentioned Ebonics. I was just using it as another comparison with the McDonald's "I'm loving it" and what I think is the correct statement "I love it". #2. I believe I saw Lisa Delpit on a TV show debate when the (not quite accurate) headlines where about the Oakland School Board deciding to teach Ebonics. It was so funny to watch two Black women with PHD's in English debating Ebonics. I wish the white moderator would have had the gumption to ask Ms. Delpit, why when defending Ebonics as a language she spoke as perfect a version of American English as you would ever hear. If it was not Ms. Delpit in that debate, my comment is still as valid, because while one women condemned Ebonics (for the same reason as I) because it hinders communication and if spoken only at home, it will still hinder the practice makes perfect aspect needed to be proficient in Language, the other professor (who I believe was Ms. Delpit) defended it as a valid language.

"I am running in the Boston Marathon" to me would be what someone might say as an announcement of what they plan to do rather than a statement made while running. I guess if his cell-phone rang and he answered it during the race, and the caller asked, "What-cha doing?" Then: "I am running in the Boston Marathon" might be a good answer.

I try to emulate Christ in my dealings with other people, rather than follow the teachings of the Jerry Falwell's of the world. The golden rule is simple, but hard to follow, because so many people reject it. I have been accused of doing or saying nice things in order to fool people into liking me so that I could abuse them at a later time. If people learn from me, I am happy. When people attack me, I feel sorry for them because, it is our world and when we lose it, we will all be the worst for wear. By the way, when my wife and I were married, many of my friends told me that we would not last more than a year or two before we broke up. That was 39 years ago. And you know, they were right. The two people who said "I do" that day would not have lasted more than a year or two if we hadn't changed. We both grew and learned to compromise. Many people have told me that my wife has already been canonized as a Saint. Her seat in Heaven is right next to Mother Teresa's seat. Mother Teresa is waiting with baited breath to ask my wife the secret of her patience.

Muslim Fundamental extremists are people who don't read their holy book enough to know that their God doesn't want them fighting in his name. Christian Fundamental extremists are people who don't read their holy book enough to know that their God, who is the same God that the Muslims worship, doesn't want them fighting in his name either.

Has anyone heard on the news that the capital city of Iraq, Baghdad is in lock-down because they fear a coup? The Iraqi military is too weak to do their own fighting and protect their own country, but they are strong enough to take power away from the elected government. Also has anyone heard that the new bill passed this week by both houses of congress which allows for BuSh to decide what means of torture, I mean interrogation, is to be used when questioning terrorists also allows for questioning of left-wing groups suspected of plotting against the government? I heard that today, though it could not be substantiated. Either way, it is a disgrace to know that suspected terrorist will now be terrorists in the eyes of the men applying the aggressive interrogation techniques. Didn't the same thing happen in Salem?

Ask anyone but a "true believer" if "in the year 2000 would you have thought that in 2006 the US government would be kidnapping people and sending them to prisons in places like Syria, would be arresting people and holding them without filing charges, without allowing them to see a lawyer or to notify their family, would be tapping phones with no warrants and interception e-mail without court order, and that the big issue of the day would be 'how much torture is too much' and 'who decides'?” They would have said "You are crazy". The reply, "911 made things different," is phony. Just about every major country in the world has had attacks which make the attacks of 911 pale in comparison. The US government is full of power hungry criminals who are eager to help the cry-baby American public give away everything that has been fought for in the history of this nation in exchange for a little bit of security. The reasons that we see all these bumper stickers like (Red, White and Blue) "These colors don't run" is because we are cowards trying to convince ourselves how brave we are. Bill Maher who used to host "Politically Correct" on ABC lost his show when a few days after 911, one of his guests referred to the 911 plane hijackers as cowards. Bill told him that it takes a lot more courage to fly a plane into a building that to sit on a ship and push a button that launches a cruise missile from 200 miles away from the target. Bill was not gaging morality or right vs wrong. When we can't see the difference between courage and morality, we wind up in the state we are in now. About the only two differences between us and the terrorists now are #1 "they are them" and "we are us" and #2 "we are good" and "they are evil", but both difference will be said from either side because we have lowered ourselves to their level. Oh, there is a third difference, "we do it high tech". This is not BuSh's fault. It is our fault for being such cowards that we looked the other way as long as daddy would protect us. Instead of looking to daddy for protection, we should have been looked into our history books and we would have seen another daddy or father figure, the fuhrer of Germany of 1933. We are approaching the same place, but there is no one to stop us.

The use of running in all those sentences is not the run like in walking fast. If I asked you, "when you go to the exercise track, do you walk or run?" "I run" is not the same as "I am running". Most of the time when I hear the sentences that cause me to feel that there is a problem, they contain words like want or love, which are verbs of state rather than action. Instead of "I love it", "I love you" or "I want a car", they say "I am loving it", "I am loving you" or "I am wanting a car". They are not correct in my book, even though I do not know what rule they violate. I think the difference is that "I want a car" means "I (do) want a car (now)" which is a sentence that shows actual desire at a given time rather than "I am wanting a car" which show a state of being for an indefinite time.

Tamiko, I don't think you know what the word friend really means and I don't think you choice of people to share personal information is very astute. Moving will solve nothing because the problem is within you. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!! If you can't keep your own secrets, do not expect others to keep them secret.

Hearing your story did help me in many ways. It gives me hope in that I want to think that the world still has people with empathy and caring. It gives me reason to stop being down on myself. When I see the love that your husband is sharing with you by postponing his retirement, it gives my heart a feeling of joy. I and my wife are always criticized for our symbiotic relationship. We act often as one, though we are very different in so many ways, but by sharing our lives and our love, we have found a oneness that allows us to be more than the sum of two. I feel that you and your husband are living that same experience. Success very seldom brings much growth within us, but adversity makes us stronger and the weaker we were, the stronger we will become. Thank you for your much appreciated words. Thank you for sharing, for we have nothing more valuable than ourselves to give. And please take care of yourself and I hope you feel better.

I am a Pro-Choice Liberal, but if I had my wishes, there would never have to be another abortion. I don't think that abortion used as retroactive birth control is an efficient method of birth control. Families should be planned. And of course rape and incest are criminal, but abortion only destroys one aspect of the trauma and does not make the victim whole. To me, Pro-Choice is not pro-abortion, but it is realization that no man (or women for that matter) has a right to come between a pregnant women and her doctor, nor the right to tell a women what to do to protect herself and her body.

My point was that instead of "Today I run" why would anyone say "Today I am running"? "Yesterday I ran" becomes "Yesterday I was running". "Tomorrow I will run" becomes "Tomorrow I will be running". They are changing a verb of action into a verb of being, by exchanging the verb "to run" for the verb "to be" for example. "I am loving it" is a state of being while "I love it" is a state of sense.

I just got back from dinner with the group that I belong to and our guest; Dr Davidson Loehr, author of the book "America, Fascism and God". Dr. Loehr is a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church and holds PHD's in Theology, Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Science. The 15 members of my group had a rambling discussion on many of the same things that we have been discussing in this thread. Religion and Politics have regrettably become so inter-linked that freedom may be an inescapable victim as the world is drawn into a more primitive state. If anyone is in Stuart Florida tomorrow, please feel free to come to the Seminar entitled: "The State of the Union: A Spiritual Perspective" It will be hosted by The Unitarian Universalist Church of Stuart, 21 SE Central Parkway Stuart, Florida 34994 The Seminar will start at 9am and is expected to end by 3pm

Her accent comes back. She has been in the USA for 51 of her, never mind. :faint: She starts using words that British people use, but US people don't.

Another Holier than Thou, self-righteous Republican has bit the dust. I have been working for, have personally met and share my E-mail wisdom (:faint:) with Tim Mahoney, who is running for Florida’s District 16 Congressional seat. The incumbent, Mark Foley has one of the highest percentages of voting the way President BuSh would like in the US House of Representatives, but today the 6 term congressman who came into office in 1994 with the "Contract for America" class of Republicans, resigned after it was revealed that he wrote e-mails to a 16 year old male page.

No offense, but we often speak, write and think in the grammar that we continually hear. My wife is British and every time she spends a month in the UK visiting her relatives, she comes back speaking totally differently than when she left.

The improper usage of English causes as many communication problems in this country as the USA trying to be a country that speaks English and Spanish simultaneously. I have heard someone say something and the person that was with me could only agree on one thing; "the exact words that we had just heard". When two people who have spent over 100 years combined living in the USA can not agree over the meaning of a simple 10 word sentence spoken in English, how does anyone expect to hold our elected officials to their word? When no one knows what their word is, even though we know the words that they used, we are in for a rough ride. Yes, it does depend on what the definition of what the word "IS" is. Just like it matters what the definition of the words "sexual relations" is. We, in order to become more inclusive have allowed our dictionaries to become sanctuaries for slang and misused and incomplete words. I am not wasting my time, I am trying to figure something out. And I am not too proud to ask for assistance from knowledgeable people. Proper communication, to me, is of the up most importance.

If 8 months of counseling hasn't helped, then all I can say is, "I wish you the best." BTW, You didn't mention the gender of your younger child, but either way, they both will survive, although they do not believe that they can at this time. PLEASE, PLEASE assure the children over and over that they had nothing to do with your decision. They will think that they were the cause, no matter what they tell you. So repeat it often, "This has nothing to do with anything that you did."

Welcome to the forum. Slow but steady wins the race. A goal is something nice when it is achieved, but a goal must never be allowed to instill a feeling of failure. If you do not make your goal by Christmas, then allow reaching your goal to be your Valentine's Day reward. :clap2:

Faybie, you look so different. Did you get plastic surgery? :confused:

You are a Loser! Isn't it wanterful to lose all that weight? Keep down the good work.

Patience for Patients That should be the motto of the pre-fill Lap-Band recipient. Just keep exercising and eat balanced, but small meals and your weight-loss goal will soon be in sight.

I can't help you with my (personal or reading) knowledge of SPANX, but I would like to: CONGRATULATE YOU on your terrific weight-loss. YOU GO, GIRL!!!

I have flown about a dozen times since getting my band and before reading this thread, I had never heard of a reason for concern. I did fine.

I would like to see a link to this theory of Canada threatening to violate patent law. Whether that is true, and I doubt it (because, I am able to buy Rx drugs in the USA much cheaper than Canadian drugs through my medical plan and my plan did not threatening to violate patent law, it just negotiated price based on massive buying power), the USA's Medicare Rx plan law could still have allowed (legal) price negotiating. Other departments of the US government are allowed to negotiate Rx prices and they get the drugs cheaper and dispense the drugs at less cost to the US tax-payers. You mentioned above that Canada will only pay for "cost + profit", by which I would assume you to mean that Research & Development (R&D) costs are not allowed to be recouped by the manufacturers. Yes, R&D is a very expensive component of the price of any product, but for some products the amount is even larger. Because of the need to test drugs (and medical equipment), many studies must be conducted at huge expense to the drug companies. That system is costing the US tax-payer billions in Medicare Rx costs and the Medicare Rx recipients still have to pay high prices even with the plan (as compared to my drug plan), plus it is costing the average non-Medicare Rx consumer a lot of money, so why not change the system. Why not let each drug company develop the drug and then let the FDA test it? Yes, it would cost the Tax-payers a lot of money for that program, but I bet it would cost less than the cost of the Medicare Rx plan and it would save everyone a lot of money for prescriptions, whether a senior on the Medicare Rx plan, a Medicaid recipient or a no-plan average Rx consumer. And it would still allow the drug companies their profit since the largest part of the R&D costs would be eliminated.