green

A verrrrrry Big Congratulations from Green, eh.

Green has just remembered that she hasn't answered BJean's questions concerning her platform. Nope, grey is just fine. It is a cool, elegant, crisp range of tones. Beige, however, always looks tired and dingey and tacky. It is a default colour used by the unimaginative and thus must be removed from this continent. As for ecru, I would have to see some paint chips before I set a firm policy on this colour. Of course I have yet to determine who will be appointed my Secretary of Decor. I believe, though, that this individual will likely be gay and based in New York. I am also considering setting up an emergency task force, Queens without Borders, which will operate like Doctors without Borders only they will give emergency aid to those without any taste. Marjon9, my running mate, has already announced our fiscal policy, that of raising cash by asking for change. I figure that this should cover much of the costs of this iniative and we will not have to raise taxes.

Congratulations to you from Green!

It sounds to me like he wants a grrl and a spare. If he is telling you the truth about Kim (which I doubt) then he is weak and you don't need a weak man. But I think he likes the idea of having more than one woman around. He sounds like a weasel to me. You can do better. Of course you must keep the necklace.

Keep us in the loop, will ya. I would be inclined to try this peace corps thing out if I were you. It will be difficult at times but it will also be extraordinarily interesting. You sure will feel very alive, very alert, and very engaged in the here and now. It won't always be easy or fun but it will be interesting.

Your pics look fabulous, you both look wonderful, and no one can tell that your flowers or whatever were cheap. Congratulations!

BJean, I am always interested in your coments concerning la vie americaine and I am awful pleased to see that you are now actively participating on LBT again. I find your help in deconstructing the American Gestalt invaluable, and I also appreciate the occasional smack-downs which you give me whenever you feel that I sound like an overly smug outsider. My brother the American hopes to vote for a Democratic ticket which has Hillary for Pres and Obama as her running mate. He would like to see her in office for 8 years while Obama does his apprenticeship. It is, however, true that women are often suspicious, jealous, and resentful of each other. It would be most useful for all of us to understand how and why this arises for it is divisive and destructive. Certainly Hillary Clinton does bring experience to the table, and she is, I am certain of this, a candidate who is morally engaged. With respect to Barack Obama, I believe that while this man has many charms his chief charm is that he will be a fresh and thus a relatively uncorrupted voice for Americans. I suspect that many Americans are feeling exhausted, resentful, and bitter towards the political establishment on both sides of the fence. I also feel that the younger generation would like to have a leader to whom they can relate, one who will make America feel relevant to them. A quasi-black leader will go a long way to repairing those feelings of racial damage which seem to be endemic in your country. Blacks and other minorities will no longer have any excuse to opt out of legitimate society. And the foreign press does favour Obama. His election would certainly go a long way in improving America's street cred in the global arena. Indeed, Obama as a hawk would be able to get away with acts that one of yer old white guys as a dove could not. This is why I favour Obama even though he does not have the same degree of experience that Hillary does have.

Interesting. The Green family is kind of the other way around. We are like an inverted pyramid, population-wise. Each generation produces fewer and fewer of us. My parents had 3 kids and only one of us went on to have kids of his own. This sib now has 2 grandchildren and he is in his mid-fifties! I have a close friend whose parents had 4 kids and none of them have produced children of their own. These kids are now all in their 50s and so that genetic ship has definitely sailed. In the case of my husband, his parents had 3 kids and only his sister went on to have children of her own. His parents have 2 granddaughters, a lousy return considering that they had 3 kids. They sure were hoping that he and I would produce a kiddy when we first got together even though I am a dirty divorcee who is 9 years older than their son. The ma-in-law persisted in asking me about my periods for the longest time until I finally told her that it wasn't going to happen. Then the pa-in-law told my mate that he was hoping that we would adopt. I was very touched by this but this, too, wasn't going to happen. And the mate's brother married a woman who was unable to have children. This is why Canada depends upon immigrants. Many of us just can't be bothered with the work of having children.

I believe that there is a difference between beatings and spankings. Though I do not know whether I would personally be comfortable, notionally speaking, with spanking a child or any other creature, I also know that I have given my cats a smack when they have lovingly sunk their teeth into my flesh. Now, smacking a cat is not a good way to train it (it only engenders fear in the animal) but my actions were always purely a knee-jerk response. Fortunately the animals were sufficiently comfortable of my goodwill that they easily got over it. There was never any sign of a neurotic aftermath. In just such a way I can easily understand a terrified parent swatting a young child after the kid has broken a cardinal rule and has narrowly missed a major disaster. Under the new and Draconian legislation these parents can be and sometimes will be charged with child brutality. I believe that children, just like my cats - creatures which rank far, far lower in the arena of intelligence and sensibility - are also able to easily differentiate between the reactive smack of a terrified but loving parent and the blunt brutality which arises from family dysfunction. Beatings are wrong. Any display of brutality towards a child, be it physical or psychological, is wrong. A smack, well, that may well fall into another category. And as for my street cred, well, here it is: my father was beaten as a child. We were never, ever physically touched but we were psychologically beaten. This was, I feel, much worse. It leaves the child confused as to the nature and the extent of his or her injuries.

All of these stories deal with the pain and marginalization that society - and even our loved ones - impose upon us. The above quoted story displays how we end up by internalizing this and then we find that we are dishing out this same crap to ourselves. This is a very interesting and valuable thread. Whenever I visit this thread I am left with the impression that we are very brave people.

Thanx for your vote, BJean. I would love to run with Marjon9. If elected, the first thing I would do is ban the colour beige. Yep, no more beige.

One of our two national newspapers has a woman reporter down in the States covering the primaries. She is not a reporter whom I like, she tends to insert too much of herself into her reportage, but she has been commenting that Hilary is being cruelly savaged by many wits because she is a woman. One wit made jokes about the size of her thighs. She noted that none of the male candidates were made the butts of humour because of baldness or other aspects of their appearance. She also felt that Hilary was caught in a constant catch 22, again because she is a woman: if she displayed no emotion she was an unfeeling bitch and if she did then she was too emotional to take on the duties of the White House; and if she kept Bill by her side she was too dependent on him and if she didn't this was because she was going to divorce him. This journalist concluded that gender was a bigger drawback in politics than colour.

No offense taken, Trixie. I find it interesting that you like Ron Paul. There is another young member of this site who also likes Ron Paul. I am an Obama fan. I believe that he would bring something fresh to the White House. I could be wrong, of course. I often am.

The notion of cheating when it comes to the issue of losing weight strikes me as being utterly bizarre. Losing weight is very, very difficult and life for a fatty is also very, very difficult. No fat person wants to be fat or enjoys being fat and yet there are so many of us. This would indicate that there is a large group of people for whom diet and excercise alone do not work. Obesity is a medical issue, not a moral one. The band is merely a tool which assists us in losing weight. Most people who have had weight loss surgery have tried, over and over again, to lose weight by the more conventional methods and have repeatedly failed. Diabetics take insulin and this is not cheating. Depressives take antidepressants and this is not cheating. In just such a way the band is not cheating. To maintain that it is cheating is just mean-spirited and ignorant.

Thanx for your speedy feedback, BJean. I am, as I have said, a foreigner and my understanding of your electoral system is very, very shaky. My grasp of my own system is spotted with errors, I am sure. By the way, I never really did get why Americans didn't like Jimmy Carter. Nor did, I suspect, many other average Canucks. But then my husband and I discovered when we were visiting Russia that the local folks detested Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan's good Canadian buddy, Brian Mulrooney, was certainly loathed by many in this country. Indeed, his leadership left the Conservative party in ruins and it took the right wing over a decade and a half to recover from his direction. Canada was effectively a one-party state, a Liberal party fiefdom for over 15 years post the Mulrooney years. What outsiders see when they are looking in and what the residents see is often very, very different. Curious, isn't it? Still, Carter seemed honest, decent, folksy, and God-fearing. These are all values which are prized by Americans, are they not?

I think that Obama is the most interesting candidate on offer.

It could be a chance to have a fabulous adventure, to help people, and to learn much about another culture and, by extension, about your own self and your culture. It will end up being one of those seminal experiences, one of those reference points. It will also often be quite unpleasant. You will be living in a much more primitive environment than you are accustomed to. Your notions of physical privacy and proper sanitation will be continually challenged. Your fellow Americans may turn out to be annoying idiots but you will be stuck with them. (This means that you will be forced to learn how to be more assertive, grrl.) You will see and feel (the bugs will bite) a lot of wildlife. And you will see a lot of medically icky stuff - oozing sores, etc. I figure that you will be able to handle all of this. You enjoy wildlife and you are accustomed to seeing icky medical stuff; you have been dealing with sick animals and sick humans are no more repellent or frightening, I suspect. You will soon become used to the lack of privacy about personal activities (I certainly did) and you will be smart enough to bring with you a crate-load of meds designed to deal with diarrhea, nausea, sunburn, bug bites, infected cuts, abrasions, etc. (This is the stuff which Green always takes with her whenever she is travelling.) Your Peace Corps handlers will train you carefully, I am sure, and they will ensure that you have had all the requisite immunization shots before you leave home. In fact they will undoubtedly train you on the local social needs, the local cultural environment, the local fauna and flora, etc. I am certain that they will have all your practical needs covered, including preparing that crate-load of meds which I was talking about. What I believe that you will find fascinating, and at times exhilerating, at other times disturbing/depressing is the fact that you will find yourself in an alien environment. Everything will be new to you. Nothing will be all that easy at the outset and you will be able to take nothing for granted. You will be an immigrant. This could be one of the most interesting experiences of your life.

I am finding this discussion very interesting. You see, up here in Canada our system is very different. We do have a number of parties and it is the leader of the party who has the most representatives elected - Members of Parliament - who becomes our head of state. Sometimes the members of the various opposition parties when added together outnumber the members in his party. This means that our Prime Minister governs with a minority as these parties can at anytime decide to vote en masse against a proposal made by his party and by doing this will bring his party down and thus force a new election. Our current Conservative government is a minority government. What is also interesting is that voters who are disgusted by all the options available can register their displeasure by appearing at their polling stations, obtaining their ballots, and then announcing that they reject their ballots. Because the ballots have already been issued they must be counted and these formal refusals must be officially noted. Perhaps it is possible that if a significant number of Americans do opt to vote for candidates who are neither Republican nor Democrat, both of these parties and the country itself will be aware that there a significant number of Americans who have feelings of alienation from the current status quo. Of course I am commenting on all of this as a foreigner, one who does not really understand how your system works. Feel free to comment on my comments, eh.

I believe that we do need a system based on capitalism for in such a system there are incentives to achieve and prosper. I also believe in the value of big business. It is only through utilising big production and distribution methods that items such as washing machines, dryers, televisions, computers, etc, are developed, manufactured and are affordable. Never before in history have the masses lived so well as we now do here in the West. Certainly Communism was a failure; only the apparachiks lived in any degree of luxury. All other citizens did without. But money does have this tendency to corrupt and it is for this reason that Capitalism must be restrained in order that neither the workers nor the investors are taken advantage of. Strong unions, smart legislation, and both governmental and industry watchdogs are all necessary counterweights. It is important, I believe, to elect a government which will not pander to big business interests.

And definitely dump him! He is mean to you and has far too much growing up for you to have deal with. You can do much better for yourself than

And definitely dump him! He is mean to you and has far too much growing up for you to have deal with. You can do much better for yourself than this one.

I loved Fred Thompson on Law&Order which is one of my favourite shows. I miss him. :think As for Obama, it seems he has green values. Maybe Oprah should be his running mate. And Dr. Phil for Secretary of Foreign Affairs or whatever Condi's position is called; he would know how to get those heads of state talking to each other. :heh: Schwartzenegger for Attorney General, perhaps....:eek:

Boo Boo, you are going to love it when you do finally get the surgery! I wear a C-cup but I still wear jog bras in order to minimize them. Clothes look much more elegant and you end up looking much, much skinnier, too. The other great thing is that guys actually talk to your face. I have a friend who recently had the surgery because of back pain and because she had painful grooves in her shoulders from her bra straps. She is real pleased with the result.

I had my abortion in Sept 1983. Attitudes were a lot different then. I suspect that I might have been able to get my tubes tied had it been 2007 instead of 1983. Doctors then were mostly male and could not get their heads around the notion that some women simply do not want to become mothers. Indeed some of the men with whom I worked when I was building aircraft were shocked and baffled by my choice. You must understand that I had and still have no ethical issues with abortion; thus, trying to find a doc who would illegally sterilize me was not important to me. And I had been sexually active for a long time before there was this slip-up. Like I have said, I was meticulous about using birth control. There were no other pregnancies of course. Just this one. I continued to use a diaphragm and spermicide up until menopause which in my case arrived early. I was 41 or 42 when I was menopausal, and I was so happy about the cessation of my periods that I refused to take HRT until I was in my very late 40s. I was only on HRT for 2 short years. (Possibly this is too much information about Green's reproductive life, eh. :eek: ) And no, Gadget, I don't mind answering your questions. I sense that you don't meet many women like me and only wish to get a better understanding of what makes us tick. In fact your question has given me an idea: the next time I see my family doc, a woman, I am going to ask her whether she would arrange for a woman who was in my situation at the time to be sterilized. I am curious to see if attitudes have changed.

Yep, I was pretty sure that it was you but not 100% sure. It was very early in the AM for me to be up and I was operating on only one cup of coffee. (After we came home my husband and I went back to bed for a couple of more hours of sleep.) And, you are right, it is nice to place the face with the name. :rofl: