As someone who is not Catholic and has not learned the Catholic catechism, you are in no position to judge who is or is not a Catholic. I get that you think that people should "follow the rules" or their religion, but religion is complicated. Different religions have different stances on what count as the essential…

If you exclude everyone that breaks a single tenet of Catholicism, I doubt there would be much of a church left (premarital sex? I'd say that would eliminate the majority of Catholics). Many people identify as Catholics and worship as Catholics, but disagree with some of the teachings of the church.

The above sources address many of these issues. In addition, here is some studies that indicate that stress due discrimination is involved in obesity and other health problems:

I'm considering this explanation because there is a large body of literature linking physiological stress to social factors, and stress to metabolic functions (the book Health, Risk, and Adversity, edited by Panter-Brick and Fuentes, is a good source for some of these studies). There could be genetic differences in…

You may have recessive alleles, but your phenotype (white skin, blond hair, blue eyes) is over-represented in both toys and media. As a result, you've always had the experience of choosing among dolls that look like you, and see characters on tv and movies that look like you.

The finding that black women have a harder time losing weight due to metabolic rates does not mean its genetic. Black women and white women have very different experiences in American society, and those environmental differences could account for these metabolic differences. It's well-established that there's a strong…

There's a number of ways to empirically measuring physiological stress. They could also look at hormone concentrations (like cortisol) and immune biomarkers. My first thought was also that this was likely due to the large amount of stressors black women are exposed to, compared to white women.

seek some help. it sounds like the reason you are having trouble quitting/don't want to is because you're self-medicating. you really need to address the underlying problem.

No, it was Paxil.

Yep! From a size 4 at age 27, to a size 14 at age 30. And part of it was due to my medication, but the largest I've been also coincided when my JOB was to hike all day....I've switched meds and lost some weight, but two years later, size-wise it seems like I haven't been getting any smaller (I went down a size last…

Good luck!

I hear ya. I lost my mom to cancer years ago, my doggy died of cancer this year, and my dad has just been diagnosed. And the past two years have been one bad thing over another...I seem to have bad luck in both the major things, and all sorts of minor things in life...I've kinda had it with everything right now.

I've having a really hard time. I was already struggling with depression and anxiety increasing, and this week has been full of really bad news. I found out my dad has cancer. And that's on top of some other health problems that I know, eventually, will be terminal. Part of the reason I was in a rush to get married in…

Sounds like Serendipity. That movie was so ridiculous...my number is in a book in a used bookstore, good luck finding that!

Err what I meant to say was Jasmine, not Mulan. The Aurora-Mulan relationship is fantastic. But I wonder if they are saving Jasmine for Once Upon a Time in Wonderland?

I think this is a surprising choice, given that they usually stick quite close to the looks, names, and other details of the Disney movies. If they had done more broad interpretations of fairy tales, it would make sense, but it seems a big departure from the movie. Especially considering it was one of the most recent…

Just e-mail the prof, get the doctor's note, and rest. I sympathize, I'm in a similar, but unavoidable situation...sick and have to grade papers and administer finals, and I'm not likely to be done until the day grades are due. I'm really dreading tomorrow...and the rest of the week.

Not or me... but I went through a breakup at 31 when we had been talking for over a year about getting married this year and starting to discuss rings, wedding plans, kids, etc. I feel like this whole happy life I saw ahead of me was taken away. Now I don't really want a relationship/know I'm not (and may never) ready…

Pink-eye and a cold. And now I'm super worried about how to not spread my evil germs to colleagues and students during finals week...

That movie is not very joyful....there are far more joyful Christmas movies.