BJean

Sometimes I come away from rants and raves just totally perplexed at the things that right wingers post. They make no sense to me and when those posters claim to be Christian righteous folks, it is incredibly depressing and discouraging. Then something political comes up at home or with friends and I'm primed and ready to hop on anyone who parrots that same right wing extremist political rethorical bull$$$ that is broadcast daily on the Limbaugh show and on all the shows on Fox and in the newspapers Rupert Murdoch owns. Sometimes I've found myself saying things that sound very harsh and judgemental. After the audible gasps I've realized that I have to be more sensitive to others feelings when we're face to face, than when I'm on an anonymous thread of people duking it out here at R&R. But one of the good things about this free for all we call Rants and Raves, is that we can tell life stories, like Bob about his 7-11 guy or about his wonderful mother and like Cleo's telling about some of her trials going through hers and her husband's illnesses but then about the happiness she feels when she sees her husband's dimples recreated on her grandson's cheeks. These personal stories are the reasons I come here. I like the discussion of politics, but I learn from personal stories about life experiences and how those experiences have come to mold their political ideology and their spiritual beliefs.

patty: "You have a "leader" at this very moment who is alowing war that you feel is unnecessary. I hear no griping about him." The sitting president is not lying to me. He hasn't misrepresented anything. He has been open and forthright about what he thinks is best for this country. I haven't always agreed with his plans but I respect him for telling us what he believes is the right thing to do for America. My only complaint about this president is that he has been trying too hard to work with the opposition party. They refuse to work with him and he's wasting precious time. And if it were up to me, I would bring all the troops home from Afghanistan immediately - whether it seemed prudent or not. I would cancel all the contracts that we've made with Blackwater and other contractors who are working for us and being paid by our government in Iraq. I would allow our military to do the work that needs to be done there and then I'd bring them home as soon as possible. I would get rid of the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy and I would incentivize corporations to do business in the United States utilizing American employees and American resources. And I would continue to work toward coming up with a great plan for universal health care in the United States. The list is much longer, but you get the idea.

patty: "Where, in this president's plan, does he change all that from happening? No where! " Good Lord. I didn't say that it does. What I said was that the president and congress have been trying to fix the nearly hopeless system that we have. You are using that sentence to defend the current system that we have? I dunno about you, girl. As for the double billing, I may have used that term incorrectly. What they have done (not the hospital, btw) is bill for the same service more than once in the same month. I don't believe that is fraud. Now if they got paid for the goods or services and then pretended they didn't and billed me for it separately, then that is fraud and there are laws that prohibit them doing that. We have an extremely lousy health care system in this country. I've explained this before. It is a system that has evolved and was fueled by the greed of insurance companies. They figured out that if they insure everyone, they can make money in spite of the people who get sick. Then they got even greedier and figured out that they could get away with denying claims for legitimate health issues of the people they insure. Another issue that caused them grief was that they were getting hit hard for malpractice suits that they were losing and they also figured out a way to make money in spite of malpractice suits. And of course they figured out how to employ hot shot attorneys who are experts at winning malpractice lawsuits for their defendants. The answer is not in doing away with malpractice lawsuits. Although capping the awards might be worthy of discussion. But we the people have little recourse for a situation where a doctor is grossly negligent and cuts off the wrong foot or takes out a healthy organ or prescribes contraindicated medicine that causes our demise. We need to be able to #1) shut down negiligent doctors and 2) be compensated for having to sustain injuries at those doctor's hands. And as for the rising cost of insurance premiums with less and less coverage, it is breaking the backs of hard working Americans and small businesses. This is why the president and congress has worked hard and long to make some changes and the Republicans are doing their best to misinform the public about it.

And before you claim that we were all for it in the beginning again patty, I was never, ever, not even for one second in favor of our bombing Iraq. I was not fooled and there were many, many, many other Americans who were never fooled by the disinformation that was used to influence congress and Americans. We wept the night we watched what our president commanded our military to do to that country. We wept when he coined the phrase "shock and awe." We continue to weep for our fallen military men and women who have given their lives on that foreign soil just as we weep for those who gave their lives in Vietnam. We know that there are times that evil men make war necessary and we will gladly take up arms to defend our country. But when the evil has taken hold of our leaders, we must protest and we must not follow them into the abyss.

That's exactly right, Cleo's. Furthermore, it is wrong to use scripture to justify what was done during the Bush administration. If we were so concerned about saving the Iraqi people from the evil dictator there, why did we kill so many innocents? And what of the American lives that were sacrificed? There is nothing just about that war and nothing good has come of it. In fact, our enemies have been strengthened by it. You can't stem the acts of terrorism commmitted by one group of people by bombing a completely different group of people. It makes no sense. And it certainly does not make sense to take scripture out of context and apply it to that war to proclaim that God would sanctify the atrocious actions committed by our country.

Do as I did and trade your menstural cycle in on a Honda. Sorry. That's sick post menopausal humor. I have no answers on this one but I do hope you figure it out and feel better soon!

I paid all of my deductibles up front before my revision surgery. I paid the doctor, the hospital and for all pre-surgical tests. I was told that I had pre-paid EVERYTHING. That was in April. The bills are still trickling in. $13 here, $250 there and practicaly every number inbetween. They claim part of the anesthesia wasn't covered by my prepay, some test or other, some assistant or other, etc. Plus they often bill me twice for the same thing in one month - in other words, double billing. In the first instance it happened, I paid it without realizing it and the jerks billed me again the next month after I had already paid it twice. Who knows what all these random charges are. A lot of them don't even show what the bill is for. Just a charge relating to that surgery. If I don't pay them I'll be reported to the credit companies and wreck my credit. If I try to talk to someone I spend half a day first on hold and then holding while someone is supposedly checking after which they come on the line and promise to call me back. It is the biggest mess! And people like patty want to keep this system? They fault our president and congress for wanting to make it better? Are they crazy or just plain stupid? Or perhaps wealthy beyond belief so that it just doesn't matter to them?

Hey you've been hiding out under that rock again. What we did in Iraq had nothing whatever to do with defending ourselves. And nobody who is aware of what we did believes that defending ourselves was Bush and Cheney's motive. We dropped bombs on innocent people. There were some bad guys there that were gumming up the works for America - meaning they controlled things that we wanted and we needed them out of the way - so we killed people and we left a nation in chaos because some of us thought we deserved to get what we wanted. We killed innocent people for greed. There is no way that God would endorse our actions in Iraq. And you shouldn't either.

If that's you, you look fabulous!

patty: People have overtaken land everywhere on this earth. It's our history. You can't blame "Christians" for this. The blame is on "people". You (and people like you who claim to be Christians), are the ones who say going to war is fine with God. Granted, Christians are not the only ones who think that war is necessary. But the irony and hypocrisy of "Christians" wanting war is disillusioning at best. Where in the Bible does it say that invading a land and killing it's native inhabitants for the purpose of taking their natural resources, is okay? That's what we did in Iraq and you've defended that action. And the guys who set the whole thing up claim to be good Christians and even Bush claimed he was there doing that job because God ordained it. I'm with Llyra, stop being so wishy washy and hypocritical. Own what you say you believe in and own your interpretation of the Bible. When I remarked that Jesus stood for peace and love, you told the story about him losing his temper in the presence of the money changers. So since you believe that war and displays of anger and outrage are condoned in the Bible, stick to your story.

MEN wrote the Bible and men included all the references to God and scripture on our monuments, anthems, money and buildings. Belief in God and the Bible may have inspired the use of those words, but God did not literally do any of that. To put it all on God as if he demanded it or as if we would somehow be sinners if we didn't do those things, is ludicrous. As for the ACLU, you've been drinking the kool-aide too long. I know it is very popular to bash the ACLU, but without them you would not enjoy many of the constitutional rights that you have today. There have been many folks who have tried to change the interpretation of the Constitution but the ACLU has defended it to the letter. And you should be proud that there is an organization devoted to it. As you said, all men are sinners and that includes some who would sell you down the river to further their own personal agenda by taking away your constitutional rights.

You need to go see "Eat, Pray, Love" because there are two lines in it that pertain to your extremist spiritual beliefs. One has to do with God living within us. The other about the person who is too consumed with God and herself.

Christie you're doing GREAT too! Congrats. whatever you and your husband are doing, it is working well for you. I do think that it is very important to keep the right kinds of food handy to eat at that 2 to 2.5 hour mark when we get that "hungry" or "empty/achy" feeling. If you wait too long to make a choice, that's when I could get into trouble by eating something that is handy that I shouldn't be eating.

We actually have one of those Margaritaville machines that shaves ice. I just haven't taken the time to figure out a low-cal flavoring to make it happen. It does make good margaritas (none since I've been sleeved tho) but there's no reason you can't make other non-alcoholic slushie drinks too. I am actually thinking about making a slushie mojito drink for company tonight. I went to the Dallas farmer's market and bought big beautiful limes and a mint plant. I've never heard of frozen mojitos, but why not? It might be my first alcoholic beverage since sleeving - except for a taste of wine a couple of times. The wine just doesn't sit well with me. Kinda burns my stomach, know what I mean? And thanks for the encouragement. Yesterday was tough for me. I don't know what happened. I just kept snacking after dinner on cocoa dusted almonds and regular almonds. Sort of like I used to not be able to quit when I was out of control. But today has been fine and I have had nothing but healthy, small quantities of food all day.

Btw daisy, I hope that one day I'll see my ticker saying I'm 5 lbs below my target weight like yours does! Or 1 lb from goal like Jane's! You gals rock!

Amen to that! A good friend told me not to live in the past or I will miss the present and not be ready for the future. She's right! Onward and upward! At least we did finally get ourselves moving in the right direction. Hurrah for us!

I do take Calcium + Vitamin D and that definitely makes a difference! Swiftflow you're doing amazingly well!! We share our surgery date. You're way ahead of me but I have less to lose and well, you're a guy.

Well those kids are very fortunate to have such a great mom!

I feel so lucky reading all this. I get the empty feeling, but not true hunger like I did pre surgery and with the band (when I was, like nurse ally, hungry ALL the time.) But I never take PPIs. Acid blockers, right? This subject has come up before and I've felt like maybe I'm somehow missing the boat. I have taken maybe 2 tsp of Mylanta since surgery and that's it. I don't understand the difference between you all and me. I think I do get that acidic burn occasionally, but nothing that I can't live with. Are those occasions harmful? Should I not ignore them?

I'm trying not to be depressed. You have a small child which means you're much younger than I. You're getting the help you need to become normal when you're in the prime of your life. I've spent the better part of my life being obese. I'm trying to live in the future instead of being depressed about all those wasted years. What can be very inspirational to some is sorta depressing to others. shake it off you nutball! Ok. I'm over the pity party. I'm fine now. Move along, nothing to see here... :biggrin0:

P.S. Let's all hope that clown that impregnated Bristol Palin gets his own reality show so he can pay child support. Otherwise, by patty's standards (making children pay for their own mistakes) Bristol is on her own. Did she graduate from high school? Heck if so then she should be able to get a job and pay for child support and medical care, right? A job at McDonald's pays how much now? Well if that doesn't work, she can always write a tell all book. Man, this free form thinking is underrated. No wonder patty has such a good time posting here.

patty: "... the father of the child will have to help her. Fathers pay support for that reason." What father? You want girls to be forced to have babies when they may not even know who the father is. So since want that, you better be prepared to pay for the needs of that child because the girl won't be able to work since she has a child to raise. She can't afford child care because she doesn't have a job. She can't afford medical care because she doesn't have a job. She may be an orphan herself so you can't expect her parents to pay for her mistakes - oh wait, you don't believe in that anyway... she's got to learn the hard way from her mistakes, right? So patty, you personally better be ready to pay for all these babies you're so anxious to force girls into having. Not all of them are Sarah Palin's daughter.

I was just fixin' ta point out the ridiculousness of the comparison but you did such a good job of it, Cleo's!

Thanks for posting this. your adoring fan.

Dude, I don't use it against "us." Go through all my posts and show me when I did. :thumbup::thumbup::rolleyes: Besides, I wouldn't dream of insisting that you drop one of your favorite words from your posts. But I definitely find it interesting that you like to claim that it wasn't you who first began using it so frequently. You're a laugh riot. :rolleyes: