green

Here is my latest NSV: those jeans that I bought only three weeks ago are now too big! I can slide the damn things off without undoing them. I would be really, really pleased (in fact outta my mind with pleasure) if a) I didn't still feel like a fatty and :Banane57: if I hadn't just got them. I haven't even got the VISA bill yet!:cry I shouldn't have bought two pairs, eh. I have to buy a belt. :help: I haven't worn a belt in over a decade. Maybe even two decades.... I still wear a 3X top.

Yup, this is why I keep out of the way on the Evolution-Creationist debates. I'm an artsy and know that I must shut up!:rolleyes

I never visited your site before. Very cool and both the kids are adorable. Congratulations on your weight loss, your fine family, and your fine set of ethics.

As for you, Cusano, I have said in a number of my previous posts that guns and gun crime up here in Toronto, Canada have been a black urban youth issue. Though gun laws are stringent up here these kids get 'em, they smuggle them over the border, and then they have gun fights and sometimes kill each other. It is a very macho culture and it is a comparatively new development on the local scene. And now I hear from other Americans - but not you! - that the pattern of violence and race south of the border is very similar to ours. It seems that there are not packs of blacks preying on us white folks south of the border, either. lol This is not really surprising to me. Toronto is a multi-cultural city and it is certainly true that each culture feels some degree of comfort in sticking close to home. People are more comfortable going to their own churches, shopping at their own shops, and living in neighbourhoods where there are other folks who come from the same background. You should be interested to know that criminals prefer to have the same degree of comfort. Criminals prefer to perpetuate crimes against their own communities. And so we have seen cases where Viet Namese gangs have robbed wealthy members of their own community, and we have learned that the Tamil Tiger - a terrorist organisation, by the way - affiliates are preying on immigrants who now live here; some of these folk have been shaken down for many thousands of dollars. I could give you many more examples from the local news in my city..... And on a personal note, Cusano, it sometimes strikes me that your field of knowledge is extremely narrow and this does tend to present you yourself and, following along with this logic, your area of knowledge in a poor light. This is not good for you, of course. Your colleague in Christ, Gadget Lady, does a better job of making her point and marketing her beliefs.

TOM, all of this is terrible news. I am so sorry that you and your wife are suffering through all of this grief. I hope your wife will recover quickly and be with her own mum ASAP. And of course we miss your voice on these boards, you know. All the best to you and your wife from Green.

I am sad to hear that you are feeling lousy. Hope you feel better sooner than soon!!!!

Cusano, it would seem to me that burglary, and the possibility of violence that may sometimes accompany it, might be considered to fall into two general categories. There are those thefts which are performed by professionals and these individuals target places where there is a significant amount of loot: bank vaults, rich folk's houses.... These guys do their homework and just want the loot. And then there are the thefts which are committed by the other guys and among these small time crooks would be drug addicts, and the stupid and the lazy. The only boys likely to commit a theft in the country are local townie boys. Toronto's local array of small time thugs tend to steal cars, prey on cab drivers and corner store operations, and rob the occasional bank during office hours. In general, death does not result from these encounters. They do not escalate for only one side has the artillery. They get their money and then they get away and then it becomes a police matter. Sometimes people do get mugged, beaten up, pickpocketted. Carrying a gun is not really going to change anything, is it?

Well, I live in the core of a very large multi-racial city and feel comfortable walking on our streets, riding on our subway (I don't drive), and shopping in our local stores. This is a society which is, because of our stringent firearm laws, a gunless one. On my shopping expeditions I do sometimes encounter black youths. They are not interested in me because I am an old white fart, and not part of their milieu. In this city, their issues are primarily with each other; it's gang on gang warfare.

Yep, that's what I figure, too. Killing with a knife takes more committment and more work. You do have a chance to change your mind unless you've hit a major artery.:omg:

I am nowhere near as easy going by temperament as my husband. I care a lot more about my wants and desires and I am much more organised in my approach to life and so l usually have things my way. What I have had to learn is to spot when he really does care about something and to satisfy his wants. Even though I am an old dog this is has been a trick which I have recently learned and it has given us both great pleasure. Neverthess, I suspect it is the one who has the more aggressive temperament in the couple who will tend to lead - and this may well be the woman.:omg:

Cusano, you were misreading my earlier post with respect to criminals and guns. I had said that your average middle class individual could go anywhere in this city and have pretty well zero chance of being shot. Gun crime up here is not being committed against everyday people. It is very much a young male black on black crime. Let me explain. Most of these kids are from the Caribbean, from Jamaica in fact, and belong to gangs. They deal in drugs, have turf wars, diss each other, and shoot each other. Toronto is the 6th largest city in North America, I have heard, and there will likely be between 70 and 80 gun deaths this year. Most of the fatalities will be young black men between the ages of 14 and 23. This is a very macho subculture and one that is entirely alienated from the rest of the city. This is both very sad and very puzzling to many of us. And yes, hunters do have licenced artillery. They use rifles, though. When it comes to a lot of our violent crime, Canadians are forced to rely on knifing each other, ya know, due to the lack of availability of guns.:heh:

Well, I am kinda glad that we have this here. You must understand that my father was a Jew who grew up in Poland - not a great place to be for a minority kid, eh.:confused: And certainly I have had my own experiences of racism and sexism, both here and while living in France. By guaranteeing that minorities will be treated on par with the majority does in no way threaten the majority with respect to their choice in matters of their morals and ethics. For example, this business of same sex marriage covers civil unions only. No religious institution in Canada is forced to marry same sex couples. We do not believe in depriving the majority of their choice in matters of their morals and ethics. We just believe that the majority has no right to force their choices on minority groups. We believe that all people merit equality and that this must sometimes be formally protected through the agency of our government. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was born out of our recognition of this need.

In Canada we have The Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This document carries somewhat the same weight for us as your Constitution does for you. This is a document which guarantees to minorities the same rights and freedoms as majorities enjoy. This is why we have made gay civil marriage legal.

Actually violent gun crimes are much lower per capita in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain and other countries who have similar restrictive gun laws. Law abiding citizens really do not have any need for guns. We are able to buy our meat at a supermarket. We don't need to hunt it down and kill it. Our criminals do have illegal weapons and lots of 'em but criminals are most likely to shoot each other during rival drug territory battles or shoot at cops. If you are middle class you can move freely about in my city and your chances of being shot are about zero. And there are many fewer Canadian children being accidentally killed by guns. I cannot see of any reason why you would have a gun other than the pleasure in owning one. Canadian healthcare is pretty damn good. I have been on the receiving end of thousands of dollars worth of care and I have no complaints. You have heard of system screw-ups, some of which are likely fabrications and some of which undoubtedly are true. You might be interested to hear that when a Canadian citizen must go stateside for a specific treatment which is either not available or not available in a timely manner our healthcare system makes a practice of reimbursing the individual for his or her costs. As for your feelings of comfort with the death penalty, frankly I am surprised. Not only do you risk putting innocent people to death but you also rob sinners of the chance to find Jesus and repent. What gives? In the long run none of this matters, Canada is another country and is animated by a different social and political philosophy. Both countries are democracies and share 'western' values.

One of the things that was pissing me off about gaining weight was developing big boobs. I don't feel as elegant in my clothes any more with these bluddy great udders as I used to when I was a tidy B-cup. The mate likes 'em but I don't. I was raised on European standards: the actress who starred in Breakfast at Tiffany's was gorgeous and Barbie, the doll, was a freak. As a result, I never did get jug-o-mania!

Jodie, I hate to sound like yo mama but how are is your intellectual life progressing these days?

Oh Bitter, lemme see.... According to your post you have given this individual $700 and then a further $1600 out of which she has paid you back $300. This means that she is on the hook to you for 2Gs and, moreover, she owes a mutual friend 3Gs. She undoubtedly has other outstanding debts out there to other people, to 'friends' whom you don't know. This is the way of the addict. Once one is caught up in an addiction one is unable to maintain real friendships, only the similacra. Other people are useful as ABMs and that is pretty much it. Unfortunately, the cash contributions of yourself and her other friends cannot help her at all but can hurt your own finances rather a lot. Don't get caught up in this! It will only cost you money. You have already lost your friend to her habit long ago.

Wow! What a beautiful story, Wheetsin, and thanks for sharing this with us. It strikes Green that you will be a fine mother. You know what it is to love someone deeply; your account of your relationship with your grandfather is proof of that. You also know how annoying other people's kiddies can be and so you will be acutely aware of this when preparing your own child for public consumption. And vis-a-vis babies and tiny children, my mother told me she never really liked them; she only liked her own.:confused: You also have on your side the fact that you are an intelligent, thoughtful, and well-educated woman, and one who has a stable relationship with a mate who is on the same page. Green says mazel tov and congratulations, grrl!

KillR Cherry Little Orange (the name of my cat) Sour Cherries Mean Green KillR Kat KillR Kitty

I was born without a maternal drive. I didn't play with dolls when I was a kid. And I have always needed a lot of private time.

Normal Crockwell musta said it....:faint: and the answer is NO! Everyone who is on Canadian soil as a landed immigrant, citizen, or on a work permit has rights to our health system as do, I believe, individuals who are currently in the process of applying for refugee status. There was a case recently in the news of a 67 year old woman, an illegal, who came up from the Caribbean who needed expensive - $150,000 - heart surgery. Most of our illegals seem to come from the Caribbean countries, by the way. There was a great debate as to whether the taxpayer should pay for this or whether she should simply be deported to her own country of origin. Many people felt that by giving her the operation a precedent would be set and we would be flooded by ailing illegals in need of expensive medical care. Her case was discovered when she went to a clinic which has been set up to serve our illegal population. Nobody has ever been penalized for the number of children they have in this country with respect to the healthcare system or in any other way. In fact, the reason our immigration rates are so high is because the Canadian birthrate is way down. We share this problem with the industrialised European countries. Americans are doing much better at having children.:clap2: From the occasional comments which I have read on the boards about our healthcare system I suspect that there is some misinformation which might sometimes be deliberately floated out there south of the border. Remember you have big business involved in your healthcare system and it is in their best interests that the American people remain satisfied with the current set-up. And, too, our healthcare system needs adjustments from time to time. Our population is ageing, you know.:phanvan And, by the way, thank you all for your generous comments about Canada.

Well, we abolished the death penalty many decades ago. We have very strict gun laws and few citizens except those who live in rural areas legally own guns. I have personally never held a gun; that is how rare they are up here. This means almost all of our gun deaths involve the criminal element and they are most likely to be killing each other! We have universal health care. This means that no family will ever be financially destroyed through a terrible illness. In large cities our school taxes are paid to the city who then allots them to the schools; all schools get an equal helping of the pie and this ensures that those kids who live in the poorer areas will get a better chance of getting somewhere else. I suspect that Jesus would have no problem with any of the above. There is an overlap between secular humanist values and those taught by religion, you see. Where a Christian government might run into trouble with the will of the Canadian people would be on such questions as a woman's right to choose, civil same sex marriages, and the civil and religious/a-religious rights of the plurality of people who live inside our borders. We wouldn't want to step on the toes of any of our citizens. I know that the Canadian people did not want to participate in the fatwah that Bush was pushing for against Iraq. The Prime Minister who was in power at the time, a Catholic, told Bush that Canada would not participate and became unpopular in Washington because of this. Canada is, by the way, active in Afghanistan. Canada has its own problems and its own shame. We have a situation with our Aboriginal peoples who live in the remote north which certainly rivals the squalor of the post-Katrina New Orleans. Your Christian president screwed that one up and we are screwing up, too. As for you not considering secular humanistic values very benign when examined from your view point, well, for many of us the opposite is true. We are made nervous when we consider the excesses said/ performed by some Christians in the name of their God. Canadians are, as I have said before, a low key people. We try to be rational and kindly as a people. And many of us are Christians, too

I said that the overall face of Canadian values is that of secular humanism and that we are most comfortable when our elected leaders reflect this benign, moral, yet non-partisan public face. What relationship the dude may choose to cobble together between himself and his God is expected to be dealt with during his private time. In actual fact the past few Prime Ministers have been Roman Catholic. The present one is rumoured to be pretty devout and is some form of Protestant, maybe Methodist or Baptist or something along that line. As for me accepting a devout Christian as my elected leader? Nope, I would not, not if he started introducing his beliefs into our politics. I am a Canadian and I was formed by our set of values and am most comfortable inside our framework. I feel we have a pretty good country, one that tries to be welcoming and inclusive and grant all people the same freedoms and rights. We are very low key up here.

I suspect that mainstream Canadian values and lifestyles are primarily secular, that of secular humanism, and that we want our elected leaders to reflect these values when making choices in policies which affect the rest of us. This is why such contentious policies as the right for women to choose and the right for same sex couples to have a civil marriage are likely to remain enshrined in law even though there are some groups who are terribly unhappy with these rights, and even though Stephen Harper's personal religious views would likely place him firmly in that list. In Canada there is very much a city/rural divide on this business of social policies with the cities tending very much more towards a liberal view. Until 15 or so years ago the socially conservative right did not have a voice in politics at all. Our options were the economic right or the economic middle of the road or the economic left. Our social policies reflected majority attitudes which started from slightly to the left of your Democrats. This rise of the moral conservatives has been a recent business and the movement is centered in the Province of Alberta. Many, many Canadians are uncomfortable with the introduction of social morality into their government. We figure that our morals are our own damn business.

Devana, up here in Canada cleekish is the correct pronounciation of clicquish, and cleek is more commonly used than click. This is due to our French heritage, I believe. Clique is a word which we have lifted - spelling and all - from the French. Its meaning is the same in French, by the way.