green

Thanks, luluc. I am not in the mood to cash in my chips yet. I just went clothes shopping with my mate yesterday. Spent a bunch on spring stuff instead of shopping the sales. Oy! eh....

Thanks, Kat, for the advice. I had a bone scan just over two weeks ago and my left set of ribs glowed. They took lots of extra pics of the ribs during the photo op. As it happens I do have big pain in that area and the techs were asking me if I had been in an accident recently. Nope, I had not and the previous bone scan was entirely clean. The trouble is that my cancer is the type that spreads quickly - small cell. On the other hand, I have not received a phone call from my oncologist and I am figuring that no news is good news: the ostrich "head in the sand" approach, eh. lol I am due to see him in early Feb and will find out more then. In the meantime I am saving my dwindling supply of liquid codeine and liquid morphine for the times when it hurts too much to sleep. And I am chewing on Robaxacet. (Though the throat is healing and there is no sign of the primary tumor, I still cannot swallow pills or anything big. Tee Hee.)

Oragsms used to help out with my menstrual cramps but only for as long as the orgasm lasted.

Not me- I love the debate. It takes my mind off my aches and pains and whether my cancer has spread to my bones.

Re football games: Regardless of how much praying goes on, one side is going to lose and the other is going to win. This holds true in all contests. This is why prayer seems like a useless activity for such events, even for those who do believe. I prefer the Muslim attitude: they say, "Insh'allah" - whatever God wills.....

Most of the atheists that I know are merely concerned about maintaining a separation between church and state. I read somewhere that the addition of the slogan "In God we trust" on your money was a relatively recent one. This was done sometime during the 20th century - in the 1950s under President Eisenhower, I think. (I personally find it kind of amusing to have a reference to God on that which is Caesar's but that is just my sense of humour.) But you are right when you say that the majority of Americans are believers. I have read statistics which corroborate this. Your country was, however, founded on splendid revolutionary principles, including that of freedom of belief (and disbelief). If you do not adhere to the separation of state and religion then you run the risk of turning your country into one of those Islamo-states which we currently see performing attrocities against those who do not conform to the rules of their religion in the middle east. It is my opinion that your founding fathers were very wise individuals.

Your mum is behaving in a dishonourable way. She had her chance at raising a child when she was raising you. Now it is your turn and she is undercutting you. This is not right and it is only going to hurt your child. You are doing the right thing when you tell her to butt out.

Yep, start a new thread.

I believe that this is true. Certainly an examination of history will show that attitudes towards women have been unkind. In fact I have just bought a book on this subject - A Brief History of Misogny. The book is subtitled The World's Oldest Prejudice and it is written by Jack Holland. I haven't had time to read it yet but this is a subject that is close to my heart. I was the eldest kid of three and a tomboy; when I saw my younger brothers getting more respect than myself I was plenty p!ssed off. This was during the 1950s. I saw my father's life as being much freer and more interesting than my mother's life as a housewife and mother and he was the one who received all the respect. I determined that I wanted to live like a man and was furious and heartbroken when I went into an early puberty. I got breasts and my period (and really bad menstrual cramps) when I was 10! Ugh! Most folks are aware of the limitations placed on Muslim women by their men folks; though many of these restrictions are born of traditional practices and not required by the religious precepts, they are still an assault against the equality of women. Some imams teach that it is okay to discipline a fractious wife by smacking her. I have seen these lectures on the internet. Jewish men give thanks to God that they were not born women. Married orthodox Jewish women wear itchy wigs in order not to tempt other men into sexual thoughts by revealing their crowning glory. And women were burnt at the stick accused by the church of being witches. Divorce - the ability to leave an abusive or unsatisfactory marriage - is denied us by many religions. It will be interesting to read what this book has to say on the topic.

That is a cute (and clean) joke and one that has a message: miracles do occur if one has but eyes to see them. Thanks for posting this.

Awww, thanks Kat. Well, the tumor is gone and my hair is growing back. It is thicker, and both darker and greyer than before. And it is really curly on the back and sides!!! It looks like I have had a perm. Now, I am waiting to hear if the cancer has moved into my bones or not. I had a bone scan and there is a weird spot on my left set of ribs that was not there before. Ugh!!! And, yes, you are so right! It is a strange thing to think how much we would have lost had we stayed in those bad relationships. This is why I wanted to post an answer to gone4. I remember that when I first left my ex, I found myself feeling lonely and scared at times. I wondered whether I was doing the right thing. Better the devil you know, I thought. But I went on to have a fabulous life, so did you, and I am sure that gone4 will have a great life, too. And of course the lap band is a great weight loss tool. Cancer has been as well. lol I guess that is the hidden upside to the disease.

Your husband sounds like a low-life and a bully. I am proud of you. It is cool that you have made your escape from him. It is also cool that you have the band. I am certain that if you stick with your decisions - to leave him and to abide by the band rules of eating - that you will find that your life is much changed within a surprisingly short period of time. A long time ago I was briefly married to a man who was a cheater and a manipulative bully. I divorced him and ended up having an extremely interesting and rewarding life. He and I stayed in touch. In fact, his replacement woman and I became best friends. He cheated on her. And I can swear to you that had I stayed with him, my life would have been very limited compared to the life I actually have led. As for the band, after I went through an early menopause I started gaining weight and could not control this. Back in 2006 I got the band and easily lost weight. The band cut my greedy ways because I got full quickly. Good luck to you. It sounds like you are on the right path.

My father was Jewish and most of his family perished in the Holocaust. He was, however, atheist. My mother was very spiritual though she was very loose, very accepting in her beliefs, not at all judgemental. They did have us baptised Anglican - Episcopalian south of the border - because this was during the 1950s and people up here were still concerned about other folk's religious beliefs and activities. Anglican was one of those non-controversial, always in good taste sects, they figured. It was for this reason (the neighbours) that my mum went to church almost every Sunday and sometimes she would drag one of us kids off with her. We never wanted to go. We wanted to hang out at the breakfast table in our pajamas with our dad and aunt. We wanted her to stay home with us, too. Then when I was 10 they sent me away to boarding school. This was run by Anglican nuns and yep, there is such a thing! I briefly got religion and drove my mum mad worrying about my father's eternal soul. This phase lasted about 4-5 months. Then I lapsed into my customary indifference and from there into total disbelief. I was stuck going to that school until I was in my final grade of high school. Then I was expelled for smoking marijuana. I finished off high school at a co-ed school. This was a real culture shock.

Yes, it is my understanding too from my reading of the Bible that God would want us to rejoice in His creation. I am always surprised when some folks have such a joyless take on the wealth of experiences available in this life. It really is pretty amazing, isn't it?

Interesting post. It would be wonderful to learn more about this.

No dancing, no trousers, no make-up, sounds like these churches took the fun out of fundamentalism, eh?

It is very cool and very heartening that everything went off so well in Washington. It seemed from the media coverage that the crowds were dignified and appreciative of being there. That was truly great!

What is the Pentecostal church? Is that the one where people roll around and talk in tongues?

Thanks, folks.

I feel much the same way as you do. I brought up this event for the purposes of debate, in order to show that different folks have different beliefs and that these beliefs can colour their perceptions of the rightness or wrongness of events. Obviously, those crazed fanatics figured that they were going to be sleeping with 72 virgins in paradise right about now. And so do their brother and sister fanatics.

Yes, Green is my family name, too. We do differ in that I am an atheist and thus do not believe in the supernatural. I think all the answers are to be found here on earth. I was raised to be skeptical by my father and this is why I am prone to taking apart and analysing items of received wisdom. I enjoy debate. Though you have been on the receiving end of this, you have not been specifically singled out. What I can say is that you believe that God is Christian and is thus on your side. Those folks who adhere to Islam believe just as fervently that God...Allah is on their side. Who is to say that you are right and the Muslim is wrong? This was my only reason, by the way, for bringing up the events of 9/11. It is only a question of perspective in my view. I must admit that I do find it repellent when the sole survivor of a disaster thanks God for looking out for him. I can only think, oh yeah, buddy, but why you and not all the rest of them? It is far easier to believe in the randomness of luck than to believe in the cruelty of such a super power, I think.

I find this comment about Baptists and dancing very amusing for I also heard this when I was growing up which was a long, long time ago. Apparently the argument went that dancing - especially, I guess, slow dancing - could lead to f**king. And thus there was this joke: why don't Baptists approve of f**king while standing? Coz it could lead to dancing. lol I have never met any Baptists so I don't know whether this is true. Perhaps folks on this board could enlighten us.

DC must have been very, very busy over the past few days.

Up here in Canada, Canadians have been super excited about your new president. I saw coverage of local school kids watching the events on TV, holding school made banners. There have been reports of Canadians making the trek down to Washington in order to participate in your big day. And it is easy to buy Obama t-shirts up here. You can find them in any mall, it seems. His election means a great deal to all Canadians but especially so to Canadians of colour. In short, there sure has been a lot of partying up here north of the border. Congratulations on your brand new President!

Aha! I have never been a morning person. This is one of the reasons I switched careers from office work to blue collar. I wanted to work in the afternoons, the kinder, gentler shift. This is one of the many reasons why I chose not to have kiddies. Everyone says that they are early risers until they hit their teen years.... Have fun at the ROM. It is a great place to go and to take the kids.