BJean

What's a thunder cat reject? Kerry's wife would have definitely brought some humor to the table and probably some interesting points of view. She isn't bound and gagged by the need to make more money or get more power. I honestly believed that Kerry wanted to make the world a safer and more compassionate place. His politics are so well-defined, it makes him an easy target for the neo-cons.

The pro argument for Satan for the job is that with Satan you know what you're getting.

Hi, ya'll. I have no loss this week. I did exercise twice - for one hour each time. I am sure sorry I didn't go ahead and have a fill a couple of weeks ago. I am scheduled for one next week. I am going to try like crazy to not gain until then. Is there pretty much a set amount that the doctor normally puts in a fill? I think if I had a little less than a normal .3 cc fill, it would have put me at a perfect adjustment. My doc gave me stuff to take if I feel like I'm going to actually vomit to keep that from happening. If some of you don't have it, why don't you ask your doctor for it just in case you get in a spot where you feel like you need to throw up? April's experience is a case in point. April we will all be keeping our fingers crossed that it's nothing more than soreness you are feeling. Hang in there darlin'. We're pulling for you. BJean Surgery date: September 11, 2006 220/181c/135 3 fills so far

TommyO: STOP... YOU'RE MAKING MY PORT BULGE FROM LAUGHTER! I'VE ALWAYS HEARD OF A FIST SANDWICH, BUT YOU ACTUALLY USED IT IN A SENTENCE. 105 lbs. Wow. I am humbled. Green: Thanks for the info. I will check it out and see if my Doktor Mengle is listed. I'll get back to you, okay? A.

TommyO: You crack me up. Further study shows that heavy users of LSD and 'shrooms cause people to lean to the left~ those who snort lemonade and prunes become right wingers. That was a good study I just conducted...all in my head. LOL

Betsyjane: My doc told me that I should stop eating so much and then I wouldn't gain weight and be obese. You know in med school they don't really give the students real tools to help overweight people. In fact there is prejudice against fat people there too, just like everywhere else.

Jillrn: They don't have a cure for Breast Cancer yet. Should they stop trying because some men resent that the money spent up to this point hasn't found a cure?

P.S. Articles do have bias, based on the author. Scientific studies can be skewed or biased based on how the study is constructed. As long as people are aware of that, articles and studies can be valuable tools. If someone has political leanings to the right and all they read are opinions and articles written by the right winger authors, they are doing themselves a disservice. The best way to try to not be biased is to read all the information from both sides, and then form your opinions. Even then our personal history plays a role and can, and usually does, cause us to be swayed one way or the other. In fact, there are recent studies that show that there are chemicals and reactions in our brains that make us more or less prone to believe in the concept of God as a supreme being and in the concept of life after death. If that is true, why can't there be chemicals and reactions in our brains that cause us to be conservative or liberal?

Jodie: I think you might take into consideration that the response to your posting of a right-wing propaganda web address here, is not very different from the pounding I took for posting the Presidential IQ test results, that were written by a left-wing propaganda group. I didn't think that the response to mine had anything to do with my age. Why do you think that the response you got (from me) had anything to do with your age? Initially you're the one who brought up the age thing. You're the one who keeps saying you're a student. It is irrelevant to the issues we're discussing here. I don't think that the people who disagree with me here do it because of my age. You may keep referring to your age because you think it is incumbent upon you to disclose that fact to be fair. That's all well and good and people here seem to respect you for it. But I don't think I need to disclose my age or why I believe the way I do. I am stating opinion here, not trying to educate the masses. I respect the ones who do cite sources to back up the claims they make. I just don't feel it is necessary because I don't think it is my job to teach people how to look up stuff on the internet or provide titles of books or articles to back up my opinions. To each his own. Maybe people do not respect me because I don't cite lots of resources here. The fact is that I do not wish to devote the time for all that. I come here to see what everyone else has to say and to have an opportunity to spout off myself from time to time. That's the fun of it. I get to choose. I do not get incensed or upset when people disagree with me. If I have pushed someone's buttons, then I feel I must have said something that communicated well enough for them to want to respond. If I were to get upset or angry because I didn't like the way someone responded to my posts, I would not come here and participate. I don't want you to not participate. I think you bring an interesting viewpoint to this discussion and I enjoy reading your posts. But that's your decision. Only you know how reading and posting at this thread makes you feel. The main thing I wanted to tell you is that if my reactions to your posts sound critical or condescending, believe me it has nothing whatsoever to do with your age. I do it because I disagree with your point of view or your opinion, pure and simple.

Thanks Green. That made me feel better. We are changing doctors. Doesn't take me too long to look at a horseshoe. (old Texas joke)

laurend, you did a great job in your posts. I appreciate what you said, very much. Poodles: I appreciate you too. Your posts are more passionate and entertaining. But valuable. Green: you always blow me away. Gang, did you all watch the 60 Minutes interview with Dubya tonight?

Jodie: I hope you place that piece of propaganda in the same file as the presidential IQ file posted here earlier.

T_O_M: How can we possibly resign ourselves to this? We HAVE to speak up as often and as much as we can. Otherwise, we are doomed as a nation of good, honorable and compassionate people, to become a nation of screwed up people just like him. The more often people justify his bad behavior, the more often they can justify their own.

Poodles: You have every right to be angry!

P.S. Chelsea Clinton's service in the military? When are the Bush twins signing up? It's their dad who is so anxious to send more of our people to Iraq. P.S.S. Good grief, now they've stooped to bringing up the children. Obviously they have run out of feeble arguments.

It was just the first piece that Republicans could bring attention to in the oval office. They were still paying us back for Nixon. And they have the nerve to declare that Clinton lied, and that's what made him a bad person. Like Nixon was a nice guy that had the unfortunate circumstance of accidentally(?) employing a few bad guys? Who do they think they're kidding? We get jabbed for bringing up Viet Nam (when the parallels are unmistakable) and they have the nerve to continue to bring up Clinton as if he were as bad as Nixon and Bush. HELLO? Do you think some (literal) weenie wagging in the White House is in any way in the same league with the evil crookedness, dishonesty and greed of Bush and Nixon? If you do, you have some seriously scary hangups that may be have something to do with why you are pro-war.

Mousecrazy, is that the best response you can think up to Betsyjane, Geezersue, T_O_M and Carlene - and me? The reason people come down so hard on you and Jack and others who are pro-war is because your credibility is lacking. You go completely off point, just like the Republicans we hear every day, and rant and rave using inflammatory buzz words that actually are not counterpoints to the point that our activities in Iraq are not and were not righteous and good. None of you has given any plausible reason for our having gone to war there, causing the loss of thousands of American troops, about 100 journalists, and countless Iraqi citizens. No counterpoint that you've made has addressed the fact that Iraq is not better off now and that we have, for the whole world to see, an aggressive, greedy, hateful administration running this country. No one has ever posted here how or why this war in Iraq brings freedom to the people there. Sure, they are rid of a tyrant who no longer slaughters them in large numbers, but now they're being killed by the different factions of terrorists and they've lost much of their infrastructure as well. After years of fighting and death and destruction, this is freedom? Yea, us.

Betsyjane: When I asked my family doc about having the band, he said he didn't believe in it, went on a real negative tirade about it and then asked me who I would choose to do the surgery if I did it. He had a student in the room with us at the time. When I told him who the doctor is that I had already consulted, he turned to the student and told the joke about the man who died and went to heaven and saw a guy who was telling everyone what to do. When he asked it that was God, someone told him no, he's a doctor who thinks he's God. They both got a good chuckle out of it. I was ready to bolt out the door. I think you've given wild_in97 excellent advice. P.S. for WILD_IN 97: For the "rest of the story", the fam doc has been my doctor for 8 years and watched me go from being very overweight to becoming dangerously obese. I went from one pill a day to about 7, under his care. And was required to go for an office visit every 5 months. Getting the band and getting healthier means he won't get nearly as much money out of me every year. I don't blame him for being negative about the band. It affects his pocketbook. And when I told my LB doctor that my fam doc didn't recommend the surgery he asked me who my fam doc was. I told him and he was very sweet and complimentary about my fam doc. He went on to explain that many doctors aren't on the band wagon yet but that it is a tool that he believes is one of the first things to be invented to help obese people that is low risk with a high rate of success. I didn't tell him what the fam doc had said about him. Which of them do you think I respect the most? Which do you think I believe has my best interests at heart?

Katt, I'm so very sorry about your ex-husband and your close friend. He was so young. I've lost people who were very dear to me. It is very hard. It will take time. There are a lot of things you will have to feel and endure in order to move on without crying so much. Even when you think you're finished crying, a person will appear who reminds you of him, a song, the dogs, lots of things, because you shared so many memories. You will feel sad again. But I can tell you for sure that one day, hopefully before too long, you will begin to just remember the good things. You will be able to laugh about something fun that reminds you of him. You will be able to look at his picture and talk about him without so much pain. He would want that, I am sure. He wouldn't want you to feel bad. He would want you to be happy. And you will be. It just takes time.

Betsyjane: Do you have any idea why so many people do not believe in diplomacy and using intelligence to get people to do what we want them to? It HAS worked in the past. Getting involved in Viet Nam should have been a lesson to us. That's why it keeps coming up. We would like to think that our leaders learned SOMETHING from it. This administration seems to think that if we want something or even if we just don't like the way someone is running their country, we're strong enough and righteous enough to just go make them do it. If thousands of Americans have to give their lives to do it, that's just what it takes. We'll just have to sacrifice good American lives to correct the bad behavior of other countries. Why can't we be leaders in what is right and good? Why do we have to be examples of terror ourselves and force people to do our bidding? If we don't learn from our past mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them in the future.

Our dependence on oil does make us vulnerable in that they can unite to keep the oil in the Middle East from us. Is it worth them going to war for? Perhaps. After this Iraq fiasco, they are more motivated than ever to try to cause us pain. As a capitalistic country, dependent on oil, they know we are vulnerable. They are motivated to band together against their oppressors, and they know our weaknesses. Green we were shaken to the core of our beings by 9/11. We seemed to believe that we could never be under attack on our soil because of our WMDs. We thought that having such a strong national defense would keep the bad guys from ever doing something so big and destructive here. Well it didn't and we're mad as hell. I believe that Bush and company thought that a demonstration of our ability to destroy our enemies was in order after 9/11. Many people were just glad we struck back at SOMEBODY. Unfortunately the thing has come back to bite us in the butt. Hindsight and all that. It is ugly, no matter how many people in America believe that we're fighting for freedom. We are in a bad, bad spot. Staying or coming home, it's become a no-win situation and to say that we have made even more enemies is an understatement. I know, I know, people say that our well-intentioned capitalistic country is right no matter what. We would never take advantage of other countries with our wealth and might. Only bad people do that. We are led by Christians, not muslims, that makes us immune to being evil. Blah, blah, blah. We give to every nation that needs something - all because we are such good, good people. And denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

Trublusue: The same thing happened to me!!!!! Went in for a fill and didn't get one because I had lost 5.5 lbs. in 4 weeks. Got a lecture instead. Well tonight I had 2 large pieces of pizza with big fluffy crust around the edges that gave me no problems. All the commericals on TV around the holidays for truffles when I had truffles in my house was awful! Made it through Halloween, Christmas and then New Years began my downward spiral. Or upward depending on how you look at it. Once you allow yourself carbs, you have to get ready for the appetite to come on strong. I have to get off of them again and get serious! Halfway isn't good enough. Good, but not what I bargained for. Let's get reinspired Suz and do this thang!

Carlene: You're kidding, right? Have you forgotten the title of this thread? Don't you remember how this whole thing started? And why?

Sometimes in this greed driven, power grabbing world there aren't any.

We MEAN to be the good guys, Mouse, but the reality is that we are not always the good guys.