green

I have just read the above two posts and found them to be very interesting. I don't much about you, Fluffy, but it seems to me that the life that you, your husband and your kids lead is a healthy, interesting, peaceful and responsible one. I know that when I was a young kid I used to dream of living in the country with lots of animals around me. You and your family are evidently very happy and very successful and this is how life should be for all of us. And lizrbit, it appears that your stand on individual reproductive rights approximates my own: it is up to the owner of the uterus to decide how she chooses to use it. It really is no one else's business. And now the modern demographics on reproduction in the affluent west further indicate that environmental footprint left by those couples choosing to have large families is more than cancelled out by the couples who are choosing to only have one child or are opting out of having kids altogether. It strikes me that there are two major groups of individuals who concern themselves in this business of other folks' reproductive activities. One of these groups is the right-to-lifers, a right-wing group whose membership is largely drawn from various Christian factions, and this gang would like to see women robbed of choice and thus over the control of their rights over their own bodies. The second group of individuals, unlike the first, may be said to come from across the political spectrum; these are those individuals who are distressed by the numbers of women who are unable to care for their children by reason of drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty, poor physical or mental health, violent/unstable family relationships but persist in having them irregardless. The right-to-life gang are anxious to see abortion made illegal. Many, but not all, of those individuals concerned with the issue of what they view as irresponsible fertility would like to see more of those women take advantage of abortion as an option.

Compliments are nice, especially when you mean them.

Personally, I am a fan of pure white pure cotton high thread-count sheets; nothing in my house is less than 400. You can get 'em for a reasonable price if you shop smart.

Many women do not believe that a division of fertilized cells is a baby, but only that it has the potential to become a foetus and from a foetus a real live baby but only provided that this initial division is left uninterfered with. The women who opt for abortions have simply no interest in committing the resources of their bodies, a considerable commitment let it be noted, in order to satisfy someone else's system of beliefs. We do not feel that editing out a division of cellular material is on the same level as infanticide and we do not feel that we should be punished - by virtue of being held hostage to our bodies - for being born women. Those individuals who are left feeling uncomfortable with the concept of abortion do have the option of not travelling down this road. As you must be aware, the question of exactly when life begins and when that burgeoning life might trump the needs and desires of the individual who was already here varies depending upon one's definition as to when that cellular activity must be saved. Laurend (in earlier posts) has already provided much interesting information - as viewed through the lens of the various scientific disciplines - on this point. As for myself, I find the arguments that abortion should remain legal on the grounds that women will be victimized by rape and incest to be absolutely specious. The plain and simple truth is that women both wish and need to have control over their own bodies if they are to have the same physical freedoms as men. Otherwise we may as well embrace the Christian veil or the niqab - it really doesn't matter which. The double standard will demand that women who are not prepared to have children abstain from all sexual activity while men are free to f88k their brains out. And a woman who makes a mistake in this harsh and judgemental society will quickly discover that - unlike a man - her body doesn't belong to herself.

Wow! I was banded at TLBC last Sept and didn't know that Dr. Joffe had left. When did he leave???? And now Nisrine! :faint: She was both charming to deal with and beautiful. This is all very weird. Dr. Yau is a fine surgeon. I think he was the one who installed my hardware and he is still a young man...years of surgery work left in him, eh.:clap2:

Yay for you!:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: This is fabulous news. Do you think of your new self as a thin grrl or a big grrl? My friend who was shopping with me noted that I went immediately to big sizes rack even before I told her that I still feel fat.

Gaffer, I just had a look at your website. Those butterflies are amazing and they are beautifully mounted. I note that you are an entomologist. I went through a period of regretting that I had not studied entomology in uni - I find bugs both interesting and beautiful - until I realized that I wouldn't be able to handle the field work. I am absolutely terrified of reptiles!!!

When I was banded last September I wore a size 18W pant. Today I bought a pair of capris in size 12P. I cain't believe it! :faint: I still feel like a tubbykins. Weird, eh? Now I guess that I am going to have to get up the confidence to give away my big clothes.:omg:

Carlene, I always value your posts. They are literate, well-researched, always interesting and often humourous. I have learned a lot about the United States (and about early Christian history, too) from you. Thanx a bunch, kiddo.

Well, Cho's disturbing behaviour had been noted by a number of people who had come in contact with him and had been brought to the attention of senior personnel at VT; he had been detained in a psychiatric facility but was ultimately released. I am inclined to think that this was a result of a conflict between his civil liberties and commonsense. I do find myself wanting to agree with you. For sure those who are mentally ill might - depending on the degree and nature of the illness - not be capable of safely functioning in an unprotected environment. It seems that Cho had been seen as crazy and had shown an obsession with violence for years. It really is a tragedy that he wasn't stopped before all of this happened.

Silly Marjon, they wouldn't be driving.... They would be doing something entirely different! He's only missing his big head, you know.:heh: And Green never did learn how to drive, anyway.:faint: She lets others do it for her.

Mouse, I very much agree with you with you and, by the way, I would like to congratulate you on your weight loss. You have only got another 20 lbs to go. This is my situation, too, but those remaining lbs are, I fear, going to be a challenge. And 396, it is nice to see that you and your wife will be walking the walk together. I know that you will both enjoy the lap band trip. From the coverage which I have been reading of the Virginia Tech situation, the young man in question had been seriously mentally ill for many, many years before he perform this heinous act of destruction. It seems that he was an odd child when he still very young and was living in Korea. And it is said that he was a weirdo throughout his high school years. He certainly raised red flags at VT long before his final day on earth. So what could have been done? The problem is that this issue of effectively dealing with this lunatic before he acted out really pivotted protecting on his individual civil rights as balanced against maintaining the health of the community with whom he came in contact. His civil rights won and though this was especially regrettable in this case I believe that this is the right way to protect us all as individuals from the community. I still do believe that we as individuals must put the well-being of our community above our own selfish interests but not at the sacrifice of our civil rights. I believe that one way of ensuring improved safety in schools and universities where so many of these crazed gun sprees take place would be to set up an effective warning system. A woman who wrote into one of the newspapers which I read suggested sirens which I thought was a good idea and an inexpensive one. She had lived in England throughout World War II and vividly remembered the sirens which warn the citizens that enemy bombers had been sighted. I remember my own mother - who lived in Bristol - talking about the sirens.

Johhnie for this girl, neat if I am planning to be legless.

Now, why do you want a gun?

I was banded by the TLBC gang and experienced moments of sheer blind terror before the operation. Recovering from the operation was really easy and I am ten years older than you, SusanSilver. Before being operated on I always mention that anaesthesia gives me nausea and the docs then will add something extra into the intravenous pipeline in order to take care of that. The first few days after the lap band operation I found myself pleasantly coasting on the narcotics which they gave me. The only problem I had was with gas cramps. Ugh! If you make a point of walking around your house these will go away. If you do what I foolishly did, and that is spend your time in bed reading and drifting in and out of a narcotic haze, the cramps will stick around for a long, long time. I suffered more pain from gas than I did from the incisions. As for the cottage cheese and yogurt, after you come off the post-op liquid regimen that stuff is going to taste absolutely fabulous - and I am not kidding.

Yah, there has been a serious smiley attack! It is kinda like Wal(s)mart has started to rule the cyber-world. Scary, eh.............. :) :) ,etc.

It sounds as though you are having a very painful day, perry, and that your sense of self esteem has been knocked into the toilet. First of all you found your thin clothes, then your husband was dismissive of your sexual advances, and you have complicated feelings towards a former friend whom you disrespected at one time but who also used to be less attractive than you at the time when you were friends. Most of us have had days like this and days like this sure do hurt big time! You have a right to feel down. But libra is right; once you are banded and on track with the band you will lose weight and those thin clothes will fit just fine until they become too big. Your feelings towards your high school friend are probably more complicated. My hunch is that you feel guilt because you hurt her, grief because you miss her friendship, and maybe a little jealousy because she seems to have weathered the years better than you feel that you have. Well, first of all, you should remember that we all post our best photos on-line, eh. And you should also remember that you are feeling depressed and full of self-loathing at the moment - of course everyone and their grandmother is gonna look better than ever to you when you yourself are feeling depressed. As for your husband, there are a number of reasons for his response which will have nothing to do with either his love for you or his feeling of sexual attraction to you. The most likely is that he had his mind on other, more pressing matters. Every woman gets turned down when she asks at the wrong time. Try to cheer up, Perry. Write to your friend and talk to her in the same way that you have talked to us today. If she doesn't want to renew the friendship, then it will become her loss but you will have taken control of your end of this business. By getting banded you will be taking control of your life; the band does work for most of us and we do lose weight in a healthy fashion. And we tend to keep it off.

Yup, now whenever I am about to be knocked out I tell the doctors that I will vomit and they feed me some sort of Gravol intravenously. Puking post lap-band would have been disasterous!! As for menstrual cramps - ugh! - it was a good thing that I went through menopause when I was 41.

I had always suffered from horrible menstrual cramps and while I, too, had a D&C (I think) I ended up with the worse menstrual cramps ever. None of the other women who had abortions the same day I did had any pain, by the way. I was a real mess, moaning from pain, calling for the nurse to give me pain meds and vomitting from the anaesthetic. I overheard one of the other women asking what was wrong with me....:phanvan

Put the i in gun and add a splash of lime.........:clap2: Make drinks, not war.

MsDad, your account is identical to those of all my other gay friends. Thank you for posting it.

As I have previously mentioned in this thread I had an abortion at the age of 32 when my birth control failed. I had been sexually active since I was 19 and knew from when I was small that I never wanted children but was unable to find a doctor who would agree to sterilize me. I was certainly someone who was careful about using birth control. I have always been pro choice and I became pro-abortion the moment I learned that I needed one. I have never, ever regretted this decision although my choice did make my mother sad. The procedure was performed in a hospital in France and was done quickly and efficiently and cheaply. The medical staff were women. It was, however, a physically painful procedure. While I was there I asked them if there was any chance that they would sterilize me. They were shocked at my request and explained to me that sterilization is illegal in France.

You are so cute. I love your work, the blog, cartoons and now the youtube. Keep it up.

Yah, me too.

Well, for some of us the situation doesn't hinge on dire. We are those women who have had a birth control screw-up. We are just not prepared to go through 9 months of pregnancy. We simply don't wish to engage in the psychological, physical or financial issues connected with carrying a child to term. An As Soon As Possible abortion is a good thing as far as we are concerned. This puts us on an equal standing with men; otherwise there is a double standard concerning male and female behaviour and we may as well all be wearing the niqab. If a modern society opts to deny women the right to choose then it should be open to making available to women, to all women, the other option, that of failure-proof birth control. And even then there will be women who still get pregnant by accident. Let them have the right to decide what they want to do. It really is none of your business.