2 | SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:12:10pm |
Goddamn, the essay is due in 50 minutes, and I just sent the fifth round of edits off to the kid!
My mother reminded me that on New Year's Day, my senior year, we drove to my former English teacher's HOUSE so she could give me a letter of recommendation, so I guess this is paying it forward.
3 | Dark_Falcon Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:12:30pm |
Good photo, though I never feel entirely comfortable standing underneath seagulls. I'm always worried they'll crap on me.
A Flock of Seagulls:
4 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:13:14pm |
re: #3 Dark_Falcon
Upding for FoS. I Ran is one of my favorite songs to do in karaoke :D
5 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:17:21pm |
re: #3 Dark_Falcon
Good photo, though I never feel entirely comfortable standing underneath seagulls. I'm always worried they'll crap on me.
A Flock of Seagulls:
[Video]
Could you imagine showing up to an interview with the hairdo of the lead singer!
6 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:18:02pm |
re: #2 SanFranciscoZionist
Goddamn, the essay is due in 50 minutes, and I just sent the fifth round of edits off to the kid!
My mother reminded me that on New Year's Day, my senior year, we drove to my former English teacher's HOUSE so she could give me a letter of recommendation, so I guess this is paying it forward.
An essay for...?
8 | Dark_Falcon Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:18:59pm |
9 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:19:04pm |
re: #5 BryanS
Could you imagine showing up to an interview with the hairdo of the lead singer!
If it's an interview at a record store or an indie bookstore? yes. :D
10 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:19:45pm |
11 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:19:48pm |
re: #9 WindUpBird
If it's an interview at a record store or an indie bookstore? yes. :D
Yeah. That fits :)
12 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:20:32pm |
Oh shit, Windupbird made creepy art: Image: ?action=view¤t=redangel.jpg
(okay, this is a couple years old)
13 | Dark_Falcon Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:20:48pm |
re: #10 WindUpBird
Just depends on the job!
Good point. But a job requiring that sort of hair is not a job I'd be likely to what.
14 | Bagua Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:20:59pm |
re: #9 WindUpBird
If it's an interview at a record store or an indie bookstore? yes. :D
Or Guitar Center for that matter.
15 | Cato the Elder Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:21:05pm |
re: #5 BryanS
Could you imagine showing up to an interview with the hairdo of the lead singer!
That's just old, dude.
A young woman I know just got her tongue split.
All her older friends were, like, think of all the jobs you'll never get.
I was all, girl, split tongue is soooo last millennium. You wanna shock me? Get it fanned.
16 | Dark_Falcon Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:21:23pm |
re: #12 WindUpBird
Oh shit, Windupbird made creepy art: [Link: s933.photobucket.com...]
(okay, this is a couple years old)
Freaky.
17 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:22:42pm |
re: #13 Dark_Falcon
Good point. But a job requiring that sort of hair is not a job I'd be likely to what.
Not requiring, but it's a plus. When I was a teenager, I always wanted to work in a record store. My local one when I was growing up was evenly split between the 80's new-wave/stoner metal employees, and the two dudes who looked very clean cut and were very knowledgeable about classical music...and skatepunk.
18 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:22:43pm |
re: #15 Cato the Elder
That's just old, dude.
A young woman I know just got her tongue split.
All her older friends were, like, think of all the jobs you'll never get.
I was all, girl, split tongue is sooo last millennium. You wanna shock me? Get it fanned.
LOL!
19 | Bagua Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:23:32pm |
re: #12 WindUpBird
Oh shit, Windupbird made creepy art: [Link: s933.photobucket.com...]
(okay, this is a couple years old)
Quite good really, I don't find that creepy.
20 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:24:37pm |
re: #12 WindUpBird
Oh shit, Windupbird made creepy art: [Link: s933.photobucket.com...]
(okay, this is a couple years old)
Don't see creepy--'dark', maybe.
21 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:24:42pm |
re: #14 Bagua
Or Guitar Center for that matter.
Yes. Though I haven't stepped into a Guitar Center in years, I just buy all my gear off eBay now. It was fun to go into their soundproofed drum room at the GC in Seattle (Or was it Musician's Friend? Don't even remember) and go nuts on their double kick Tama Artstar.
22 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:25:20pm |
re: #19 Bagua
Quite good really, I don't find that creepy.
My mother finds it creepy, but she always wanted me to become a Disney animator!
23 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:26:45pm |
re: #15 Cato the Elder
I was all, girl, split tongue is sooo last millennium. You wanna shock me? Get it fanned.
I'm a traditionalist. Just get tattoos! And pretty ones, designed by artists who aren't JUST flash artists. None of this tribal jagged zigzag crap or skulls with eyeballs in them.
24 | Bagua Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:28:19pm |
re: #21 WindUpBird
Yes. Though I haven't stepped into a Guitar Center in years, I just buy all my gear off eBay now. It was fun to go into their soundproofed drum room at the GC in Seattle (Or was it Musician's Friend? Don't even remember) and go nuts on their double kick Tama Artstar.
I still need to go in their for the misleading advice, and I enjoy fondling the Acoustic guitars.
But online purchase is better for devices I'm more familiar with, though I just never cottoned on to Ebay. I think I have some 'learned helplessness' around Ebay.
25 | Bagua Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:29:58pm |
re: #22 WindUpBird
My mother finds it creepy, but she always wanted me to become a Disney animator!
Well my mother would agree, as would my friends mother.
26 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:31:21pm |
re: #24 Bagua
I still need to go in their for the misleading advice, and I enjoy fondling the Acoustic guitars.
But online purchase is better for devices I'm more familiar with, though I just never cottoned on to Ebay. I think I have some 'learned helplessness' around Ebay.
I've sold a few grand worth of stuff on eBay (including a pinball machine!) and bought a few grand worth of stuff off eBay. Probably 75% of my computer equipment is from ebay, and all my drum gear at the moment. I am sort of a impulsive purchaser skinflint. :D I buy everything refurbished or used, but that just means I buy more stuff. Currently researching how to buy a car off eBay, when the time is right.
27 | Cato the Elder Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:32:15pm |
re: #23 WindUpBird
I'm a traditionalist. Just get tattoos! And pretty ones, designed by artists who aren't JUST flash artists. None of this tribal jagged zigzag crap or skulls with eyeballs in them.
This guy looks a little sore, doesn't he?
(The site says he split his own tongue with dental floss.)
28 | Dark_Falcon Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:35:39pm |
re: #27 Cato the Elder
This guy looks a little sore, doesn't he?
(The site says he split his own tongue with dental floss.)
Words fail to express my feelings about that photo.
29 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:36:04pm |
re: #27 Cato the Elder
This guy looks a little sore, doesn't he?
(The site says he split his own tongue with dental floss.)
OW OW OW OW :( Aaaagh, those under-the-skin horn things just make me wince. I dig tattoos, I like nose rings, I like a little of the urban primitive stuff (but not on me, I'm a wuss) but a little of that goes a very long way. I like it stylish and pretty and less of the I AM TRYING TO HORRIFY YOU
Speaking which: oh look it's Stalking Cat! I see this guy at all the cons I go to. He scares the crap out of me.
31 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:39:10pm |
re: #27 Cato the Elder
This guy looks a little sore, doesn't he?
(The site says he split his own tongue with dental floss.)
Looks like he just did the one smack dab in the middle of his forehead before the pose.
re: #29 WindUpBird
OW OW OW OW :( Aaaagh, those under-the-skin horn things just make me wince. I dig tattoos, I like nose rings, I like a little of the urban primitive stuff (but not on me, I'm a wuss) but a little of that goes a very long way. I like it stylish and pretty and less of the I AM TRYING TO HORRIFY YOU
Speaking which: oh look it's Stalking Cat! I see this guy at all the cons I go to. He scares the crap out of me.
I was thinking of the cat guy as well--he's on those Discovery channel extreme body modification shows.
32 | Dark_Falcon Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:39:59pm |
re: #29 WindUpBird
OW OW OW OW :( Aaaagh, those under-the-skin horn things just make me wince. I dig tattoos, I like nose rings, I like a little of the urban primitive stuff (but not on me, I'm a wuss) but a little of that goes a very long way. I like it stylish and pretty and less of the I AM TRYING TO HORRIFY YOU
Speaking which: oh look it's Stalking Cat! I see this guy at all the cons I go to. He scares the crap out of me.
I can't imagine what would motivate someone to want to be a freak like that.
33 | SixDegrees Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:41:57pm |
re: #32 Dark_Falcon
I can't imagine what would motivate someone to want to be a freak like that.
Serious mommy and daddy issues.
34 | Bagua Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:42:33pm |
re: #32 Dark_Falcon
I can't imagine what would motivate someone to want to be a freak like that.
In general my impression is the more out of the ordinary one attempts in shocking appearance the more ordinary a person I expect to find underneath.
35 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:42:50pm |
36 | Dark_Falcon Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:42:57pm |
re: #34 Bagua
In general my impression is the more out of the ordinary one attempts in shocking appearance the more ordinary a person I expect to find underneath.
Good point.
37 | SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:43:31pm |
38 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:43:33pm |
re: #31 BryanS
I was thinking of the cat guy as well--he's on those Discovery channel extreme body modification shows.
He once bought a bunch of stuff at a con from friends of mine! Very soft spoken dude, but hard to talk to.
40 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:45:08pm |
re: #32 Dark_Falcon
I can't imagine what would motivate someone to want to be a freak like that.
Back to South Park....hehe :
Mr Broflovski :I may be a dolphin, but I'm also a lawyer.
Other Character:You're a Lawfin?
41 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:45:43pm |
42 | Bagua Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:45:49pm |
re: #38 WindUpBird
He once bought a bunch of stuff at a con from friends of mine! Very soft spoken dude, but hard to talk to.
It's weird to think that he is like that even when he is not at a fancy dress party.
43 | SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:46:01pm |
re: #27 Cato the Elder
This guy looks a little sore, doesn't he?
(The site says he split his own tongue with dental floss.)
He has a remarkable eye color.
44 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:46:23pm |
re: #38 WindUpBird
He once bought a bunch of stuff at a con from friends of mine! Very soft spoken dude, but hard to talk to.
Would be hard not to get distracted talking to the guy.
45 | SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:51:07pm |
re: #44 BryanS
Would be hard not to get distracted talking to the guy.
"Man, whatever you do, don't stare."
"Look, I'm not gonna stare, come on."
"None of us would. But you get there, and you feel yourself not staring. Then you think, "it's obvious I'm not staring." So you look, and you think, "I'm staring." So you say, "this is ridiculous," and you take a GOOD LOOK. And you think, "I'm looking at a man who, when he washes his face, loses the bar of soap.""
46 | BryanS Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:54:34pm |
night allre: #45 SanFranciscoZionist
"Man, whatever you do, don't stare."
"Look, I'm not gonna stare, come on."
"None of us would. But you get there, and you feel yourself not staring. Then you think, "it's obvious I'm not staring." So you look, and you think, "I'm staring." So you say, "this is ridiculous," and you take a GOOD LOOK. And you think, "I'm looking at a man who, when he washes his face, loses the bar of soap.""
Never saw the film--googled the "when he washes his face, loses the bar of soap" phrase to find the reference. Figured that was pretty specific :)
Well, I'm calling it an evening...2am is gettin pretty late for a 9to5er.
47 | SixDegrees Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:55:43pm |
So, I just saw a new OxiClean commercial, with some woman taking the place of Billy Mays. And I gotta say - I didn't believe a word she said, and had no desire to buy OxiClean. I felt like she was lying to me the whole time.
Not that I felt much different when Mays was pitching their product, but at least he was entertaining, and came across as sincerely convinced that whatever he was pitching was the greatest thing, ever.
Tough act to follow.
48 | Cato the Elder Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:59:27pm |
When it comes to screwin' around with body mods, nobody tops Matthew Barney.
Of course, his are mostly reversible.
'Cept for his girlfriend and her missing legs.
His videos will cost you 2.5k a pop.
49 | SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Feb 15, 2010 11:59:59pm |
re: #46 BryanS
night all
Never saw the film--googled the "when he washes his face, loses the bar of soap" phrase to find the reference. Figured that was pretty specific :)
Well, I'm calling it an evening...2am is gettin pretty late for a 9to5er.
It's a good movie, stands up much better than the average 80s romantic comedy.
52 | WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Tue, Feb 16, 2010 12:21:54am |
re: #42 Bagua
It's weird to think that he is like that even when he is not at a fancy dress party.
Now I'm imagining Stalking Cat wearing a tuxedo, at the symphony, looking at his gold pocketwatch, a 40-something blonde in a nice cocktail dress hanging off him. :D
53 | Aye Pod Tue, Feb 16, 2010 12:25:59am |
Nick Griffin: Ejection shows BNP not gone 'soft'
[Link: news.bbc.co.uk...]
BNP roughs up journalist it invited to cover it's meeting;
"Although I had been invited, one prominent BNP politician had taken exception to an article in Saturday's edition of The Times. After he lost his temper with me I was quickly shoved and lifted out of the building, hit in the back and had my face squashed."Mr Kennedy, who was not seriously hurt in the incident, ends the piece by saying: "I never thought I would actually get my nose bloodied trying to cover a press conference for a political party - but that is the true face of Nick Griffin and his BNP."
Leader expresses pride in his party's actions :
Mr Griffin said: "That's not the actions of a snivelling PC party, but of an organisation that has had enough of being lied about."
54 | Bagua Tue, Feb 16, 2010 12:34:39am |
55 | Slumbering Behemoth Stinks Tue, Feb 16, 2010 12:59:17am |
A Clash of Titans: Leonidas of Sparta vs. Viking of Techno... Who ya got?
56 | Slumbering Behemoth Stinks Tue, Feb 16, 2010 2:01:09am |
57 | bagua Tue, Feb 16, 2010 2:21:32am |
59 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 2:41:49am |
Man, I woke up and thought the clock said 6:15. Not so much.
60 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:29:39am |
My food handlers license expired a few months ago and I need to retest. I haven't studied for this test in 24 years, but every time I take it my score gets higher. Weird. A restaurant is not allowed to be open unless at least 1 person has this certification. Nice to have.
61 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:41:26am |
So my mom showed me her credit card bill.
Apparently the amount she cleaned out my savings for is no longer enough to make the minimum payment.
Hurr.
62 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:43:11am |
re: #61 laZardo
So my mom showed me her credit card bill.
Apparently the amount she cleaned out my savings for is no longer enough to make the minimum payment.
Hurr.
Ouch.
63 | SixDegrees Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:45:24am |
re: #61 laZardo
So my mom showed me her credit card bill.
Apparently the amount she cleaned out my savings for is no longer enough to make the minimum payment.
Hurr.
Ow. Sorry to hear that.
Some people need to not have credit cards.
64 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:45:49am |
re: #62 Cannadian Club Akbar
Oh yeah.
My dad's waiting on getting his visa to Oman processed, an expense-paid ticket should be issued sometime this or next week. Office work there for this big regional sports event (previous experience with our National Olympic Committee helped.) But apparently he's going to have a final medical exam over there first before they can clear him for the job.
My mother has effectively told me that if he doesn't get the job I can expect the family to sell the house.
65 | Slumbering Behemoth Stinks Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:46:36am |
re: #60 Cannadian Club Akbar
Here in the U.S., the only things that have changed since I took mine ~16 years ago are the safe temperature ranges for certain foods.
66 | SixDegrees Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:47:29am |
Man the paczkis this year are excellent. And the polish bakery I get them at was way more jammed even than usual, which I take as a good sign.
67 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:47:58am |
re: #64 laZardo
I hope the best for dad passing.
68 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:49:14am |
re: #65 Slumbering Behemoth
Here in the U.S., the only things that have changed since I took mine ~16 years ago are the safe temperature ranges for certain foods.
Yea, I saw that last time I took the test. Not a drastic change, so common sense was applied on my part.
69 | Slumbering Behemoth Stinks Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:49:30am |
70 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:49:49am |
re: #67 Cannadian Club Akbar
I'm not one for prayer but in recognition of the chain-effects of positive encouragement I'd like to have him added to the LGF prayer list.
71 | sattv4u2 Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:50:23am |
re: #61 laZardo
So my mom showed me her credit card bill.
Apparently the amount she cleaned out my savings for is no longer enough to make the minimum payment.
Hurr.
So so sorry
BUT,, unless you're a cosigner on the account, she has options where you're credit rating isn't at risk
72 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:50:57am |
re: #70 laZardo
I'm not one for prayer but in recognition of the chain-effects of positive encouragement I'd like to have him added to the LGF prayer list.
Between all of us we can get the word to Hoops.
73 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:52:55am |
re: #71 sattv4u2
I should be fortunate for that. Though I would at least like to have a very-small-limit credit card of my own so I can start getting my own credit rating up.
Problem is I need to start a time-deposit account that's at least a good portion of the money she owes me.
74 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 3:59:02am |
re: #73 laZardo
I should be fortunate for that. Though I would at least like to have a very-small-limit credit card of my own so I can start getting my own credit rating up.
Problem is I need to start a time-deposit account that's at least a good portion of the money she owes me.
I hate to sound ignorant but what is a time-deposit account?
75 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:01:44am |
re: #70 laZardo
I'm not one for prayer but in recognition of the chain-effects of positive encouragement I'd like to have him added to the LGF prayer list.
Just emailed Hoops for you, lazardo. Best of luck to you and your family.
76 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:02:05am |
re: #74 Cannadian Club Akbar
I hate to sound ignorant but what is a time-deposit account?
At the bank I normally use, the credit limit will be 80% of that account's balance.
77 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:02:53am |
78 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:04:09am |
re: #77 Cannadian Club Akbar
Well, that didn't take long. Thanks Ice.:)
Hoops gets something like 1000 emails a day for work; I popped 'prayer list' in the subject heading so hopefully he'll see it. Also he'll see it here, I bet. :)
79 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:04:28am |
re: #75 iceweasel
Thanks. Though I do have my own little plans should things not turn out the way they should.
80 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:06:49am |
re: #79 laZardo
Thanks. Though I do have my own little plans should things not turn out the way they should.
Wise. Prepare for the worst -- which almost never happens -- good strategy though.
Will be hoping for the best for you in any case.
81 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:07:29am |
re: #76 laZardo
I think that is about the same as a secured credit card from an American bank. I actually paid $100 for my first credit card and worked my way up to Amex Platinum.
82 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:10:10am |
re: #80 iceweasel
Wise. Prepare for the worst -- which almost never happens -- good strategy though.
Will be hoping for the best for you in any case.
How can I put it this way...I am effectively convinced that my family's financial troubles are my fault. I suffered a nervous breakdown in 2005 that got me locked in a mental facility for some time and caused them to bring me back here to finish college for fear of my safety.
Only thing is I'd taken that California 'civil service' keyboarding exam a month after I got out, and my relatives Stateside were notified a couple weeks after I left that they wanted to hire me. Not to mention I'd had to pay back all the scholarship money I'd managed to earn.
The short term emotional effects my plans are likely to cause will very likely be outweighed by the long-term economic benefits of having to raise one less dependent in the house.
83 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:19:09am |
re: #82 laZardo
Are you able to work there legally? Plus, are you able to work with your school load?
84 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:20:48am |
re: #83 Cannadian Club Akbar
I could if I were more fluent in Tagalog than I am now. My school load is relatively light because I have to take the on-the-job training (i.e. internship) program, unfortunately it's mandated by my school that all OJT programs have to be unpaid.
85 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:25:22am |
re: #84 laZardo
Living in Florida, we have alot of Hispanics. I don't speak Spanish, but I know enough "workplace Spanish" to communicate with those who know no english. Can you learn just enough to get you through a day of work?
86 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:28:16am |
re: #85 Cannadian Club Akbar
Unless I decide to go nocturnal for a call center, no. Since the 90s English has been quietly discouraged as a national language so the only jobs available, primarily in food service would require me to converse almost entirely in Tagalog if I don't want to 'stick out.'
87 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:31:18am |
re: #86 laZardo
Are there any military bases nearby where you might be able to work?
88 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:34:06am |
re: #87 Cannadian Club Akbar
The US hasn't "officially" been stationed here since the 90s. I'm still looking up positions at the Embassy though.
89 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:35:05am |
re: #88 laZardo
The US hasn't "officially" been stationed here since the 90s. I'm still looking up positions at the Embassy though.
Best plan. Good luck, my man.
90 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:36:46am |
re: #89 Cannadian Club Akbar
I'll have to give that another week for the new positions to come out though, most are either expired or require quite a bit of previous experience from what I'm reading.
But thanks anyway.
91 | sandbox Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:46:55am |
Morning all.
Maybe Evan Bayh has a gig lined up as university president (or chancellor or provost--I don't know the difference) while he waits around to run for US President. What a tough life. I wish I traveled in those circles.
93 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:49:25am |
In 1984 a man took a flashlight from a female Wildlife Officer. He hit her with it at least 20 times, knocking her out. He then took her service weapon and shot and killed her. Tonight, he meets his maker.
95 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:50:21am |
re: #92 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Cliff?
NORM!
How's life treating you, Norm?
Like I slept with its wife.
96 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:52:58am |
re: #93 Cannadian Club Akbar
In 1984 a man took a flashlight from a female Wildlife Officer. He hit her with it at least 20 times, knocking her out. He then took her service weapon and shot and killed her. Tonight, he meets his maker.
I wonder if he'll show up on the Dead Men Eating blog, which I confess I have a morbid obsession with.
Some UK artist has done a series based on last meals. Slideshow here.
97 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:54:37am |
re: #95 Cannadian Club Akbar
How's life treating you, Norm?
Like I slept with its wife.
What's shakin' Norm!
Four cheeks and two chins.
98 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:55:16am |
re: #96 iceweasel
I would have baked, dark meat chicken, mashed taters with gravy, corn, a couple tacos and a pizza with pepperoni and jalapenos. And BTW, I have the same morbid obsession.
99 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:56:26am |
re: #97 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
What's shakin' Norm!
Four cheeks and two chins.
How's it goin', Norm??
It's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing milk bone underwear.
101 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:57:09am |
re: #96 iceweasel
So, how long after the last meal are the men put to death...
I imagine the clean up is... uh... well... challenging?
102 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:59:12am |
re: #101 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
So, how long after the last meal are the men put to death...
I imagine the clean up is... uh... well... challenging?
But done by inmates. So....
103 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 4:59:47am |
re: #96 iceweasel
Ooh! Now I'm fascinated....
TEXAS LAST MEAL--YOSVANIS VALLETEXAS LAST MEAL
YOSVANIS VALLE
November 10, 2009Last Meal: Valle had a final meal request of four hamburgers (almosted burned), potato fries (almost burned), mexican rice (almost burned), fresh onion, jalapenos, tomato, cheese, and salad dressing.
If he got the chair, is that irony?
104 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:02:32am |
re: #101 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
So, how long after the last meal are the men put to death...
I imagine the clean up is... uh... well... challenging?
Good question. I don't know. This article says it varies by state:
Prisoners usually submit their final meal request a couple of days before their execution date. The request is passed along to the prison's chef—often a prisoner himself—who then prepares the meal. When the food is ready, it's covered and brought to the prisoner's cell a few hours before the execution. (In Virginia, the food has to be served at least four hours beforehand.)
More info at link.
105 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:03:06am |
Top Afgan Al Queda leader captured. Not sure if anyone posted that. One step below Mullah Omar. Now we need the one-eyed fuck.
106 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:04:01am |
re: #105 Cannadian Club Akbar
Posted last night. Still good to see.
107 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:04:45am |
re: #103 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Ooh! Now I'm fascinated...
The site is morbidly fascinating, that's for sure. IIRC the guy who runs it recently got engaged or married (NO, it isn't Jimmah, heh) and so doesn't have time to update it or write a lot. If you poke through the archives, in the past he gave a lot of detail about the person and why there were on death row, last words, and the victims.
108 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:04:55am |
I forgot to put chocolate cake on my last meal list. Is it to late?
109 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:06:02am |
Morning Lizards. Why on Earth are we talking about last meals? I for one certainly plan on continuing to live to enjoy my food.
110 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:08:07am |
re: #105 Cannadian Club Akbar
Top Afgan Al Queda leader captured. Not sure if anyone posted that. One step below Mullah Omar. Now we need the one-eyed fuck.
Eh. I imagine he'll wind up with a Predator drone shooting him in his other eye. It's too good for him, but it seems to be the favored method of removing top terrorist officials these days.
111 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:08:29am |
re: #109 thedopefishlives
Morning Lizards. Why on Earth are we talking about last meals? I for one certainly plan on continuing to live to enjoy my food.
I kinda started it, sorry. Execution night in Florida.
112 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:10:40am |
re: #111 Cannadian Club Akbar
Why'd it take so dang long? Do you know?
113 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:11:43am |
re: #3 Dark_Falcon
Good photo, though I never feel entirely comfortable standing underneath seagulls. I'm always worried they'll crap on me.
Better to throw rocks at them and leave no tern unstoned.
Morning everybody!
114 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:11:58am |
re: #112 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Why'd it take so dang long? Do you know?
The wheels of justice are slow, I guess. Unlike Texas. Like Ron White says, they have an express lane.
115 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:13:24am |
re: #111 Cannadian Club Akbar
I kinda started it, sorry. Execution night in Florida.
Two guys are on death row and the warden comes by to take any last requests.
The first guy says "You know I've always been a great fan of 80's music, so I want you to pipe "Come On Eileen" and "We Built This City" through the sound system."
The warden asks the second guy what he wants, and he replies "Kill me first!"
116 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:13:42am |
Oh and BTW, the 2 couples figure skaters that train near my house finished 10th and 13th.
118 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:14:34am |
re: #112 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Why'd it take so dang long? Do you know?
Multiple appeals, looks like.
Courts have rejected multiple appeals based on claims including ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase, and diminished mental capacity. Katz said Grossman was young, drunk and on drugs when he committed the murder and doesn't believe the facts of the case warrant the death penalty.
[Link: www.miamiherald.com...]
He was 19 when he committed the murder and has spent 24 years on death row now.
119 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:16:51am |
re: #118 iceweasel
I'm pretty sure they all go through the same appeals process. Just different arguments, I suppose. But I'd rather be sure.
120 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:17:36am |
re: #114 Cannadian Club Akbar
The wheels of justice are slow, I guess. Unlike Texas. Like Ron White says, they have an express lane.
Yeah, but TX appears to have executed at least one innocent person:
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]
121 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:18:03am |
re: #117 Cannadian Club Akbar
Nice.:)
spoken as someone who played those songs over and over and over and over again (I was a part time radio DJ in the 80s) I can say without prejudice that I want to hear neither of them ever again. Or "Rock Me Amadeus" for that matter.
80's music could be really fucking peurile...although I believe Queen released "
Under Pressure" during that time as well, so it wasn't all bad.
122 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:19:33am |
re: #120 iceweasel
See my #119. Also remember that the gubner of Illinois suspended executions years ago for the same reason, IIRC.
123 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:20:23am |
re: #119 Cannadian Club Akbar
I'm pretty sure they all go through the same appeals process. Just different arguments, I suppose. But I'd rather be sure.
Appeals on death-penalty cases are usually (but not always) on technicalities of the case that have no actual bearing on the evidence in play. Things like, as mentioned below, appealing the effectiveness of your lawyer in defending your case. These can be viable points, but for most laypeople, they read like silly minutiae designed to just drag out the convict's life as long as possible.
124 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:20:51am |
re: #121 PT Barnum
I'm still a '70's disco geek. There, I admitted I have a problem. Next step?
125 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:21:32am |
re: #119 Cannadian Club Akbar
I'm pretty sure they all go through the same appeals process. Just different arguments, I suppose. But I'd rather be sure.
It varies significantly by state. Death Row in CA, and you'll die in prison. FL, it takes a while. TX, as you said, has an express lane. I think they have a clock that runs out at 8 years (poss 12?), regardless of what legal issues are pending.
126 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:22:16am |
re: #123 thedopefishlives
Ice posted a Miami Hearld link. Lawyer said he was drunk and on drugs. I wonder if that was brought up during the penalty phase.
127 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:22:44am |
re: #124 Cannadian Club Akbar
I'm still a '70's disco geek. There, I admitted I have a problem. Next step?
I have a secret fetish for Philly soul.
However there is treatment for your ailment. I would proscribe "Never mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols", "Rocket to Russia", and as much Dead Kennedys and Black Flag as you can listen to in a 24 hour period.
128 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:23:40am |
re: #125 iceweasel
It varies significantly by state. Death Row in CA, and you'll die in prison. FL, it takes a while. TX, as you said, has an express lane. I think they have a clock that runs out at 8 years (poss 12?), regardless of what legal issues are pending.
Texas wanted to have street executions when they arrest you, but they decided that might give the state a bad image.
\
129 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:24:10am |
re: #127 PT Barnum
I have a secret fetish for Philly soul.
However there is treatment for your ailment. I would proscribe "Never mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols", "Rocket to Russia", and as much Dead Kennedys and Black Flag as you can listen to in a 24 hour period.
Can I get a hell yea!! I saw the Ramones at a large bar in Ft. Lauderdale back in '95. Very cool.
130 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:24:24am |
re: #128 PT Barnum
Texas wanted to have street executions when they arrest you, but they decided that might give the state a bad image.
Nowadays they just employ temporal reverse engineering to make sure you die of a freak accident before the crime you committed takes place.
/Just finished re-reading Douglas Adams, don't mind me
131 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:25:13am |
re: #129 Cannadian Club Akbar
Sorry. I hate hate hate hate hate The Ramones.
132 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:25:55am |
re: #130 thedopefishlives
Nowadays they just employ temporal reverse engineering to make sure you die of a freak accident before the crime you committed takes place.
/Just finished re-reading Douglas Adams, don't mind me
I thought they used drug addicts experiencing deliberately-engineered hallucinations to send out a SWAT Team to have you cryo-frozen before the murder takes place.
/Scientology aside, Minority Report was a good movie.
133 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:26:21am |
re: #131 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Sorry. I hate hate hate hate hate The Ramones.
It's an acquired taste, but as long as you embrace the idea that they're really not trying to "say" anything and are just making kick ass 3 minute songs...you can lay back and enjoy it.
134 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:27:40am |
I love this video...
135 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:28:25am |
Good morning Lizards!
Overcast, freezing, and light snow here in "sunny" Philadelphia.
I see the open thread seems to be running in a somewhat morbid pattern this morning. Just remember that if you go for street justice you eventually end up getting judged by Sylvester Stallone and Max von Sydow.
136 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:28:32am |
I was at a bar one night with friends. Pat Travers was suppose to be playing down the road, but the bar fucked eveything up. So he came to the bar I was at and played. That was cool.
137 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:28:56am |
re: #132 laZardo
I thought they used drug addicts experiencing deliberately-engineered hallucinations to send out a SWAT Team to have you cryo-frozen before the murder takes place.
/Scientology aside, Minority Report was a good movie.
There's a really excellent scifi novel from the 50's called the Demolished Man. I think they made that into a (bad) movie. Not so much time travel as people being locked up by psychic detectives before they could even commit the crime. (It's a much better book than I just made it sound.)
138 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:31:14am |
re: #137 iceweasel
The book is always better than the movie.
139 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:31:31am |
re: #137 iceweasel
There's a really excellent scifi novel from the 50's called the Demolished Man. I think they made that into a (bad) movie. Not so much time travel as people being locked up by psychic detectives before they could even commit the crime. (It's a much better book than I just made it sound.)
Raises some serious questions about causality, though.
I hope to live long enough to have my mind downloaded to a computer so i can terrorize my descendents forever. I believe my job as a parent is to help make a therapist's boat payment some day. :)
140 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:31:38am |
re: #129 Cannadian Club Akbar
Can I get a hell yea!! I saw the Ramones at a large bar in Ft. Lauderdale back in '95. Very cool.
I saw the Ramones at Toads Place in New Haven back in 1988. What a great night!
141 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:32:38am |
Off to do the LAWDS work.
See y'all later.
142 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:33:13am |
re: #137 iceweasel
Concur. That and _The Stars My Destination_ are SF masterpieces. And both written by Alfred Bester.
143 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:34:32am |
re: #142 oaktree
Concur. That and _The Stars My Destination_ are SF masterpieces. And both written by Alfred Bester.
Alfred Bester was magnificent.
I also liked Fredric Brown, but mostly for his short short stories.
144 | Aye Pod Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:34:55am |
re: #124 Cannadian Club Akbar
I'm still a '70's disco geek. There, I admitted I have a problem. Next step?
Not necessarily a problem. There's a lot of great 70's disco music...
145 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:37:33am |
re: #144 Jimmah
When I had season tickets for the Buccaneers they would play "We Are Family" whenever we scored a touchdown. Didn't hear the song alot, though.:(
146 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:38:54am |
Any Mac users around? I have a quick question.
Can you burn a set of restore disks from a Mac? I bought my wife a used one and it didn't come with the OS disks. I can order them from Apple, but I suspect they're pricey and I'm trying to save a buck.
147 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:40:23am |
re: #144 Jimmah
Not necessarily a problem. There's a lot of great 70's disco music...
Just don't play "I Love the Night Life" by Alicia Bridges...
One of the most insipid, vapid, boring songs ever made.
And the woman's voice could peel paint.
148 | Aye Pod Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:42:53am |
re: #147 PT Barnum
Just don't play "I Love the Night Life" by Alicia Bridges...
One of the most insipid, vapid, boring songs ever made.
And the woman's voice could peel paint.
Oh yes - that's one of those horrible tunes that loops in your head when you are trying to sleep.
149 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:42:54am |
re: #143 PT Barnum
For some odd reason the public library I started reading SF at in my misspent youth had a lot of Keith Laumer in it (besides Asimov and the other "A" list SF authors of the 50s or so.) So I ended up buying/reading Laumer up through the 80s when it became obvious the Brain Eater had gotten him.
I didn't start coming across Fredric Brown until I was reading short story anthologies. So what I read of his was probably mainly the better known stories.
Oddly enough I did not read most of Heinlein's output until I was in my 30s. How I missed some of the classics is beyond me.
150 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:42:57am |
Morning all.
It's overcast here with a temperature somewhere below zero.
Dogs have been fed and the coffee is going.
I'm either going to paint a wall today or work on a business plan. Haven't decided which yet.
151 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:43:49am |
Lazardo, if you're still here, I just got an email from Hoops-- added to the prayer list. :)
152 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:44:23am |
re: #150 Jadespring
Morning all.
It's overcast here with a temperature somewhere below zero.
Dogs have been fed and the coffee is going.
I'm either going to paint a wall today or work on a business plan. Haven't decided which yet.
Paint the buisness plan on the wall, copy to paper, then cover it up.
154 | filetandrelease Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:46:16am |
Obama gets kudos from me this morning. Building two nuclear reactors is a positive step for energy independence as well as a realistic move to actual do something that will help AGW. As opposed to transferring wealth, and cap and trade.
snip
On Tuesday, President Obama will announce plans to break ground on two new nuclear reactors at a Southern Company plant in Burke, Georgia -- the first new U.S. nuclear reactors since the incident at Three Mile Island in 1979.
155 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:46:29am |
re: #149 oaktree
For some odd reason the public library I started reading SF at in my misspent youth had a lot of Keith Laumer in it (besides Asimov and the other "A" list SF authors of the 50s or so.) So I ended up buying/reading Laumer up through the 80s when it became obvious the Brain Eater had gotten him.
I didn't start coming across Fredric Brown until I was reading short story anthologies. So what I read of his was probably mainly the better known stories.
Oddly enough I did not read most of Heinlein's output until I was in my 30s. How I missed some of the classics is beyond me.
I really liked Heinein's juveniles..still do. I kept reading him up through Stranger in a Strange Land at which point he just got too damned weird for me. I like good escapist sf. I don't want to have to think all that damned hard. I liked Laumer's Reteif series really well (Or am I confusing him with someone else)
I also like Spider Robinson (although the Callahan's franchise has seemed to jump the shark IMHO).
Lately, as I am reading aloud to my son at night, I'm finishing off the current set of series books, Percy Jackson, et al.
156 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:46:43am |
re: #152 Cannadian Club Akbar
I've seen one of those. When renovating the bathroom in the fraternity house I lived in during the mid-80s we pulled down some wall board and found a "document" written on the drywall by the fraternity brothers who had worked on the bathroom during the last renovation in the 70s. We added a codicil, signed it, dated it, and covered up the drywall with the new wall board.
157 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:47:43am |
re: #151 iceweasel
Lazardo, if you're still here, I just got an email from Hoops-- added to the prayer list. :)
Oh cool, thanks.
159 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:48:49am |
re: #156 oaktree
Let's hope the next batch of guys can keep it going.
160 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:49:21am |
Are there any Lizards from North Carolina or might know North Carolina?
161 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:50:23am |
re: #160 Jadespring
Are there any Lizards from North Carolina or might know North Carolina?
My uncle lives there and my parents are moving there. Question?
162 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:52:06am |
re: #155 PT Barnum
Retief series is Laumer. It's a decent chunk of his output. A lot of that is riffing/satire on his experiences working for the State Department. A fellow Retief fan I met in college actually works for the State Department now. I should ask him if reading Laumer helped prepare him for that. :)
_Retief and the Warlords_ was the kind of stuff that would have an effect on impressionable teenage minds. Color patterns and sounds as torture items for aliens...
I missed most of the Heinlein juveniles until later as well (other than _Have Spacesuit, Will Travel_). I think the second or third Heinlein novel I read was _Stranger In A Strange Land_, perhaps that's why I skipped reading him more a number of years...
I did read Asimov voraciously. Might have been because the first stuff I read was the _Nightfall, and other stories_ collection. I even recall when and where I was reading it. (That's sort of spooky.)
163 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:52:20am |
re: #156 oaktree
I've seen one of those. When renovating the bathroom in the fraternity house I lived in during the mid-80s we pulled down some wall board and found a "document" written on the drywall by the fraternity brothers who had worked on the bathroom during the last renovation in the 70s. We added a codicil, signed it, dated it, and covered up the drywall with the new wall board.
When I helped build a new church back in the old fish country, we would pencil in the mistakes that each worker made on the wall next to where the mistake was made. Somewhere behind the drywall of that church are a bunch of pencil-scrawled names that constitute our record of shame as amateur builders.
164 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:53:28am |
re: #160 Jadespring
Are there any Lizards from North Carolina or might know North Carolina?
I go to the Outer Banks fairly often.
165 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:53:44am |
re: #163 thedopefishlives
It's a church. I'm sure you are forgiven.
166 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:53:51am |
re: #159 Cannadian Club Akbar
I'm afraid not. That house was sold in 2000 and has since been razed to make room for a parking lot. One of the scrapbooks does have before/after pictures of the uncovered wall in any case.
167 | gymmom Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:54:15am |
re: #164 NJDhockeyfan
I go to the Outer Banks fairly often.
Do you eat at Tortuga's Lie? We LOVE that restaurant.
169 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:54:59am |
re: #161 Cannadian Club Akbar
My uncle lives there and my parents are moving there. Question?
It looks like I might be going on a road trip to there this summer. I don't know much about it and just wanted to get some insight on good places to go or things to see beyond tourist propaganda. :D
170 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:55:39am |
re: #128 PT Barnum
Texas wanted to have street executions when they arrest you, but they decided that might give the state a bad image.
In defense of Texas, a lot of people associated with the Innocence Project have routinely pointed out the Dallas DA as one of the best. He's done the right thing multiple times in making sure the people they have incarcerated are actually guilty.
2008 Story out of reason:
[Link: reason.com...]
171 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:55:56am |
re: #169 Jadespring
It looks like I might be going on a road trip to there this summer. I don't know much about it and just wanted to get some insight on good places to go or things to see beyond tourist propaganda. :D
You have 2 lizards here to help you.
172 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:55:59am |
Congressman says US should break Gaza blockadere: #167 gymmom
Do you eat at Tortuga's Lie? We LOVE that restaurant.
I may have eaten there over the years. We love trying different restaurants every time we go.
173 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:56:32am |
re: #169 Jadespring
It looks like I might be going on a road trip to there this summer. I don't know much about it and just wanted to get some insight on good places to go or things to see beyond tourist propaganda. :D
The BBQ is great.
174 | Spare O'Lake Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:57:08am |
re: #159 Cannadian Club Akbar
Let's hope the next batch of guys can keep it going.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, stayin' alive, stayin' alive...
175 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:57:12am |
re: #162 oaktree
I did read Asimov voraciously. Might have been because the first stuff I read was the _Nightfall, and other stories_ collection. I even recall when and where I was reading it. (That's sort of spooky.)
Me too! Asimov was good stuff. I liked Gordon Dickson and L Sprague De Camp as well.
I just picked up a collection of Robert E Howard short stories at the Dollar store yesterday.. Looking forward to reading that.
Nice thing is that a lot of the stuff I remember reading as a kid is now in the public domain. I'm working on a stage adaptation of 4 short horror stories and two original stories I'm writing to use as a Halloween show. Minimal props and set pieces, letting the audience's imagination do most of the work.
176 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:57:35am |
re: #154 filetandrelease
Obama gets kudos from me this morning. Building two nuclear reactors is a positive step for energy independence as well as a realistic move to actual do something that will help AGW. As opposed to transferring wealth, and cap and trade.
snip
Prediction: With the inevitable multiple lawsuits it will eventually break ground approx. 2022....maybe.//
177 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:58:34am |
re: #176 RogueOne
Prediction: With the inevitable multiple lawsuits it will eventually break ground approx. 2022...maybe.//
Optimist.
/
178 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 5:58:37am |
Oh, brother...
Congressman Calls on Obama to Halt Israel's Anti-Hamas Moves
Democratic Congressman Brian Baird has called on President Barack Obama to force Israel to allow open borders for the de facto Hamas rule in Gaza. Baird, visiting in Gaza, told students there, "We ought to bring roll-on, roll-off ships and roll them right to the beach and bring the relief supplies in, in our version of the Berlin airlift."
Rep. Baird, from the State of Washington, referred to Israel's partial ban on the flow of goods and merchandise to Gaza as a "blockade." He previously has called for cutting aid to Israel unless it opens up the border crossings, which it has closed because of repeated attempts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza region.
Baird, who recently announced he will not run for re-election, also has supported the Goldstone Report that alleged Israel committed war crimes in the war against Hamas terrorists last year. Arguing against a Congressional resolution that called for rejecting the Goldstone Report, Baird noted he had visited rocket-battered Sderot but that Israel violated human rights of Arabs in Gaza.
179 | Spare O'Lake Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:03:29am |
re: #178 NJDhockeyfan
Oh, brother...
Congressman Calls on Obama to Halt Israel's Anti-Hamas Moves
Last time I checked sovereign nations were olbliged to control their own borders...uhh...errr...ummm...never mind.
180 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:05:25am |
Good morning, all - how is everything in Lizard Land this morning?
(Hi, Jadespring - how is your resolve holding?)
181 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:05:51am |
Mornin' folks...flying over Detroit again, so wave! I will say I had a wonderful weekend on the east coast. Weather was nice, if cold. Hair was fantastic. Ate at some really great restaurants. Mother-in-law was truly surprised to see us at her party (also a surprise) and we had a great visit. Leafy, their cat, got even more attention than he normally does, so he too seemed to enjoy our presence.
But what's this I hear about Not Joe the Not Plumber going after the man who lifted him from obscure blue-collar failure working part-time as a handy-man to national 'face of middle America'? Hell, he even got a free trip to Israel out of his newfound fame as a 'reporter person' who got to 'see stuff' that the mainstream media ignores all the time, before eventually shitting his pants and running for the border the second it looked like there might actually be some actual warrin' hostilities in a war zone. Please tell me there's video of McCain and his mavericky sidekick and Fox commentator responding to this outrageous charge.
Hi, Ann Arbor!
182 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:06:27am |
re: #175 PT Barnum
Which will work for the stage. I think too many folk used to explicit via TV or video just seem to not understand how well their imagination can be used to supply the necessary feelings of dread or horror. The implication of something unknown (or undefined) is the real key for triggering fear.
184 | filetandrelease Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:07:03am |
re: #176 RogueOne
Prediction: With the inevitable multiple lawsuits it will eventually break ground approx. 2022...maybe.//
And those screaming "we are all going to die because the planet is going to roast!" the loudest, will be the one's piling on the law suites.
185 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:07:57am |
re: #182 oaktree
The most effective horror is that which is created in one's own imagination. Sounds like a great show, PT - would love to catch it.
186 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:08:33am |
re: #182 oaktree
Which will work for the stage. I think too many folk used to explicit via TV or video just seem to not understand how well their imagination can be used to supply the necessary feelings of dread or horror. The implication of something unknown (or undefined) is the real key for triggering fear.
I think it's always better to make the audience afraid of what they might see rather than to actually show it to them. I think sound is also underappreciated as a source of fright.
One of the stories I'm adapting is "The Tell Tale Heart" but with family dynamics and emphysema thrown in as a replacement for the heart beat. I want to put speakers in some hidden places so that the audience can hear the rasping breath but not be sure where it's coming from.
187 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:08:47am |
Hey, did Walter post his AGW stuff yesterday? How did that go?
189 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:10:04am |
190 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:10:26am |
re: #180 SasyMomaCat
Good morning, all - how is everything in Lizard Land this morning?
(Hi, Jadespring - how is your resolve holding?)
Pretty good. I'm over the hump. I only think about it half the time now.
191 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:11:19am |
re: #190 Jadespring
Great! Glad to hear it. You can do it - writing/painting should help, yes?
192 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:11:54am |
re: #189 PT Barnum
Other than being shareware, what is it that you like most about it?
193 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:12:05am |
re: #180 SasyMomaCat
Oh and I think I'm going to end up quite a bit more healthy. I've eaten more raw veggies in the last few days then I think I have in a few months. :D
194 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:12:50am |
re: #193 Jadespring
That should help you be . . . um . . . regular, at the very least, eh? Good purge for the system. ;-)
195 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:12:54am |
re: #192 SasyMomaCat
Other than being shareware, what is it that you like most about it?
few distractions. I don't need all the features of Word, but it has just enough to let me focus on the writing and not worrying about how to make it look pretty.
196 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:14:02am |
re: #183 laZardo
Heh...Sorry about that. Trying to make up for missing out on only the BIGGEST POLITICAL STORY IN JOHN MCCAIN'S CAREER...or so I think /
By the way, if you're in New York...go to the bar Modern (at the MoMA), and have the foie gras and liverwurst - both. Such a lovely combination of tastes.
197 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:14:05am |
re: #195 PT Barnum
I can see that being a plus. When I'm writing, I tend to ignore aesthetics until after I've finished writes, re-writes, and edits, so I hadn't thought of features being distracting.
198 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:14:10am |
re: #191 SasyMomaCat
Great! Glad to hear it. You can do it - writing/painting should help, yes?
Yep it should. Though writing on the computer is a trigger. That's one of the reasons I've avoided working on it this week.
199 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:15:23am |
re: #198 Jadespring
Time to get a legal pad and a good pen with a smooth flow. Not as fast and will make your hand cramp, but maybe less likely to trigger.
200 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:15:49am |
re: #175 PT Barnum
Hey...drove by your house in Bethel, CT this weekend. You know you have a town square as well, right?
201 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:18:01am |
How did Walters presentation go last night? I see there are almost 1300 posts and I'm too busy to scroll through, plus I'm lazy.
202 | Aye Pod Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:18:08am |
Yaay! I've been looking for this fucker for decades - didn't know the title or artist other than it has "the crown" somewhere in it. Thanks youtube!
203 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:20:05am |
re: #197 SasyMomaCat
I can see that being a plus. When I'm writing, I tend to ignore aesthetics until after I've finished writes, re-writes, and edits, so I hadn't thought of features being distracting.
This is the first time I've attempted anything this long. I usually write poetry because once I get the topic and the punchline, i can usually write it in one sitting.
Longer prose is more difficult for me, as I tend to write in spurts and then put it away when I get stuck and pick it up much later.
I need to get serious about it again, though, as I have ideas for how to approach all the stories. My own two are more humorous..one is about a couple who haunts their marriage counselor's office, and the other is about a poor college student with a haunted refrigerator.
204 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:20:14am |
re: #201 RogueOne
I was wondering, too - hoping for the dumbed-down, cliff-notes version.
205 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:21:19am |
re: #200 darthstar
Hey...drove by your house in Bethel, CT this weekend. You know you have a town square as well, right?
noone ever went broke underestimating the gullibility of the american public.
206 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:21:52am |
re: #196 darthstar
By the way, if you're in New York...go to the bar Modern (at the MoMA), and have the foie gras and liverwurst - both. Such a lovely combination of tastes.
Sorry, I don't care for that type of food. You want some real authentic classic NY food?
Try Katz Deli.
207 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:22:32am |
re: #203 PT Barnum
I agree, longer pieces are definitely more difficult. I've got two longer pieces that I've mapped out and started. One is stalled on Chapter 5 and the other on Chapter 3. I get side-tracked.
I LOVE the concept of the couple haunting the marriage counselor's office - that's just got all kinds of humor potential!
208 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:23:17am |
re: #199 SasyMomaCat
Time to get a legal pad and a good pen with a smooth flow. Not as fast and will make your hand cramp, but maybe less likely to trigger.
Good idea.
209 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:23:31am |
re: #207 SasyMomaCat
I agree, longer pieces are definitely more difficult. I've got two longer pieces that I've mapped out and started. One is stalled on Chapter 5 and the other on Chapter 3. I get side-tracked.
I LOVE the concept of the couple haunting the marriage counselor's office - that's just got all kinds of humor potential!
I have a couple of jokes worked out already...one is something my wife actually said.
"You never hear what I mean to say!"
210 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:23:43am |
re: #207 SasyMomaCat
Oh, and, I'll bet you'll get a good bit of mileage out of the haunted fridge, too!
211 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:24:09am |
re: #208 Jadespring
Good idea.
I think I missed something Jade..trying to quit smoking, or eating or something else...If I'm being nosy, just tell me to butt out.
212 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:24:24am |
re: #204 SasyMomaCat
re: #201 RogueOne
As predicted. Cliffnotes:
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]
213 | Spare O'Lake Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:24:31am |
re: #205 PT Barnum
noone ever went broke underestimating the gullibility of the american public.
Wouldn't that be "overestimating"?
214 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:24:51am |
re: #209 PT Barnum
I probably won't get an opportunity to see the play, unless there is some really wild fluke in my life/schedule/travels - mind if I read it when you're done? (or, let me know if you will be putting a video on line?)
215 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:25:20am |
re: #211 PT Barnum
I think I missed something Jade..trying to quit smoking, or eating or something else...If I'm being nosy, just tell me to butt out.
Quitting smoking.
216 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:25:22am |
re: #211 PT Barnum
quitting smoking - posted on it the other morning
217 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:25:34am |
re: #210 SasyMomaCat
Oh, and, I'll bet you'll get a good bit of mileage out of the haunted fridge, too!
The apartment is over an ethnic restaurant of unknown origin...the haunter of the refrigerator was killed by leftovers.
As he says "If Mrs. V tells you something is to go! Better believe her!"
218 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:26:07am |
re: #212 iceweasel
Thanks, ice - that sums it up sufficiently for me. :)
220 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:27:18am |
re: #215 Jadespring
Quitting smoking.
good luck with that..I've been smoke free for 8 years, other than a couple of puffs at particularly stressful times.
Oddly enough after smoking for almost 25 years, I can't stand the smell of it now.
221 | Spare O'Lake Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:28:17am |
re: #218 SasyMomaCat
Thanks, ice - that sums it up sufficiently for me. :)
I suggest you read Walter's work for yourself - he put a lot of effort into it and it's actually quite interesting.
222 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:28:21am |
re: #213 Spare O'Lake
Wouldn't that be "overestimating"?
I couldn't remember the exact quote and was too lazy to look it up on Google.
223 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:28:45am |
re: #220 PT Barnum
good luck with that..I've been smoke free for 8 years, other than a couple of puffs at particularly stressful times.
Oddly enough after smoking for almost 25 years, I can't stand the smell of it now.
Hating the smell is fine. I just hate the Quit Smoking Nazis. Ya know, the holier than thou type.
224 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:30:38am |
re: #214 SasyMomaCat
I probably won't get an opportunity to see the play, unless there is some really wild fluke in my life/schedule/travels - mind if I read it when you're done? (or, let me know if you will be putting a video on line?)
I would love to have someone else read it, once I finish. I have the Edgar Allen Poe piece done and am working on an adaptation of "Cool Air" by HP Lovecraft, "The Monkey's Paw" and "The Hand"
I'm modifying them as I need to to make them more contemporary or so they'll work better in the format I'm using.
225 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:30:50am |
re: #220 PT Barnum
good luck with that..I've been smoke free for 8 years, other than a couple of puffs at particularly stressful times.
Oddly enough after smoking for almost 25 years, I can't stand the smell of it now.
Thanks. I'm looking forward to when I can't stand the smell of it again.
It really is a dumb habit. I do so much else for my health, I eat well, exercise and generally take care of myself except for this. It's a total contradiction to the rest of my life. I guess that's very human though, full of contradictions.
226 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:30:54am |
re: #221 Spare O'Lake
I suggest you read Walter's work for yourself - he put a lot of effort into it and it's actually quite interesting.
Sure, that's true too. Extended Cliffnotes version. :)
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]
227 | Spare O'Lake Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:31:10am |
re: #216 SasyMomaCat
quitting smoking - posted on it the other morning
Good luck. I quit in 1983 and haven't had one cigarette since. Obviously for me, cold turkey is the only way.
228 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:31:32am |
re: #223 Cannadian Club Akbar
Hating the smell is fine. I just hate the Quit Smoking Nazis. Ya know, the holier than thou type.
I just tell people not to light that smelly crap up around me...too agressive?
229 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:31:57am |
re: #221 Spare O'Lake
Knowing what he's covering (programming, etc.) it would be (for me) like trying to read and understand a foreign language. Given that I am already posting in multi-tasking mode, I doubt I've got the mental resources to do anything with it today.
Are there some key things that you think I should know about his efforts? I'm certainly all ears (or, in this case, I guess, all eyes)
230 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:32:27am |
re: #228 PT Barnum
I just tell people not to light that smelly crap up around me...too agressive?
As long as you're not in the smoking area, you're fine. Or at someone elses house.
231 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:32:37am |
re: #206 NJDhockeyfan
Sorry, I don't care for that type of food. You want some real authentic classic NY food?
Try Katz Deli.
I had some good deli in Westport...my wife's stepfather is an 87 year old Brooklyn Jew...loves to have his family come over for deli brunch on the weekends. Went to a place called "Gold's Deli" in Westport. Good stuff.
I also got to eat some real NY Pizza this weekend...that too was nice.
But dinner last night was fantastic...from the appetizers above to the tagliatelle & braised rabbit to the braised pork belly we had as a main...everything was just mouth-watering delicious.
232 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:32:39am |
re: #227 Spare O'Lake
Good luck. I quit in 1983 and haven't had one cigarette since. Obviously for me, cold turkey is the only way.
I had to get down to 1 or 2 a week before I could finally go completely cold turkey. By then the turkey was barely breathing and the vultures were circling so it didn't take much to kill him.
234 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:32:53am |
My business partner has apparently just quit smoking. However, I do *not* recommend following the steps he ended up taking.
He fell ill about two weeks ago, running a fever and with abdominal pain. A few days later he was bad enough he ended up in a hospital. The diagnosis came out as diverticulitis with a perforation. (Layman's terms, a piece of his colon got out of wack, inflamed, and started leaking.) So he was operated on a week ago and ended up having about a foot of his colon removed.
He talked himself out of the hospital yesterday and is home. Can't really move and needs help to do almost anything. But he also has zero desire to take up smoking again after two plus weeks without a weed.
[The interim period was pretty nebulous. We're three states away from each other, and it took me a few days to track down the right hospital to try to call him at. Plus, given the pain-killers he was on, our conversations were not very productive given that he was pretty much incoherent and his long-term memory of our discussion was nil.]
I'm glad he has quit in any case. Will save him money, and he'll probably appreciate food better as well. We have also come to the mutual conclusion that we need to sit down and set things up so that the business will run/survive if something else crops up that puts him out of action.
235 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:33:43am |
re: #230 Cannadian Club Akbar
As long as you're not in the smoking area, you're fine. Or at someone elses house.
I don't go around people who smoke..I've developed an allergy to it, and now my sinuses swell shut when I'm around it.
236 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:36:07am |
re: #229 SasyMomaCat
Knowing what he's covering (programming, etc.) it would be (for me) like trying to read and understand a foreign language. Given that I am already posting in multi-tasking mode, I doubt I've got the mental resources to do anything with it today.
Are there some key things that you think I should know about his efforts? I'm certainly all ears (or, in this case, I guess, all eyes)
Long story short: Walter researched the code and found that the original programs in use during the beginning days of the research project had some nasty bugs that were documented to produce corrupt data sets. However, Walter failed to prove that this data was used in any reporting of significance, with the result that Charles was left unimpressed, although pleased that at least Walter went to the effort to do the research.
237 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:36:11am |
re: #234 oaktree
I'm glad he has quit in any case. Will save him money, and he'll probably appreciate food better as well. We have also come to the mutual conclusion that we need to sit down and set things up so that the business will run/survive if something else crops up that puts him out of action.
Man that sounds really rough. Nicotine apparently works on receptors in the colon which means that someone with a nicotine addiction can even become dependent on it to even go..
[Link: www.straightdope.com...]
238 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:36:27am |
re: #235 PT Barnum
I personally won't smoke inside a non smokers house even if they say it's OK. I'll go outside away from the house. And I never throw my butts on the ground. People do that shit in my yard and I point to it and tell them to pick it up.
239 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:36:46am |
re: #234 oaktree
Glad to hear that (at least it sounds like) he's going to be okay. That had to be a little scary for him and his family.
240 | Mr. Crankypants Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:37:45am |
re: #238 Cannadian Club Akbar
I personally won't smoke inside a non smokers house even if they say it's OK.
Thats good, as I keep a super soaker around for dousing fires like that. :)
241 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:37:47am |
re: #231 darthstar
I really want to go to NY on this road trip though I don't think it will happen. The hubby doesn't really want to. He was there and helped in search after 9/11 and still is pretty emotional about.
242 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:38:57am |
re: #236 thedopefishlives
Gotcha.
I have to say, I respect his ability to sort through, understand, and explain all of that programming code - just thinking about it makes my eyes glaze over! LOL
243 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:39:16am |
re: #240 PT Barnum
Thats good, as I keep a super soaker around for dousing fires like that. :)
That's a plan I agree with.:)
244 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:40:06am |
A couple weeks ago I saw some great video on the goings on in Liberia put together by a group called "Vice". It might have been here that I originally found the link but I can't recall. The NY Times has a nice piece about their work:
[Link: www.nytimes.com...]
If you haven't seen the Liberia piece, here's the link to part 1/8:
[Link: www.vbs.tv...]
245 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:41:09am |
246 | Spare O'Lake Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:41:55am |
re: #232 PT Barnum
I had to get down to 1 or 2 a week before I could finally go completely cold turkey. By then the turkey was barely breathing and the vultures were circling so it didn't take much to kill him.
Everyone is different and whatever worked for you was obviously great. I had tried to quit gradually at least 10 times before I finally went cold turkey. Even now after 26 years I am still afraid that if I have even one good drag I will start smoking again. For me it is like being an alcoholic or a drug addict.
250 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:43:08am |
re: #248 SasyMomaCat
Now, that's money well spent!~
I would make sure to get reimbursed by the ski lift operators.
251 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:43:14am |
Arlington woman arrested on Loop 820 known to terrorism investigators
Kimberly "Asma" Al-Homsi, who has repeatedly been the subject of interest by federal anti-terrorism authorities, is expected to face a federal explosives charge after the latest incident in Arlington on Saturday.She and a man were arrested after authorities found an incendiary device in their vehicle following a police pursuit Saturday evening.
Al-Homsi, 45, and Yasinul Alan Ansari, 18, both remain in the Arlington city jail. Bail has been set at $210,000 for Al-Homsi and $100,000 for Ansari.
ATF Dallas spokesman Thomas Crowley said Sunday that officials plan to file a complaint on the pair in federal court in Fort Worth on Tuesday. "It's an ongoing federal investigation," he said. "We can't put out any description [of the device] until after the complaint is filed."
Al-Homsi also faces one count of evading arrest, two counts of making a terroristic threat and one count of possessing a prohibited weapon. Ansari faces one count of possessing a prohibited weapon.
Arlington police, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI are investigating.
252 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:43:29am |
re: #241 Jadespring
I really want to go to NY on this road trip though I don't think it will happen. The hubby doesn't really want to. He was there and helped in search after 9/11 and still is pretty emotional about.
It could be good for him to go then. The city's recovered, though ground zero is still a bit of a scar in the ground (they could have rebuilt the same towers in the last nine years...that would have been the best 'fuck you, Osama' we could have had).
Seriously, though. going back might be just the thing.
253 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:47:28am |
re: #245 NJDhockeyfan
Interesting. He had to have snuck on the lift after the operators called up the last chair. Chairs are numbered. Bottom of the mountain calls the top and says, "Chair 145 is the last chair " or some other number...and it's an empty chair. When that chair reaches the top, the lift op at the top can shut the lift down. Then we sweep the mountain (and the lifts) to look for stragglers or people who might have snuck on after last chair.
Lesson learned, I suspect.
254 | SasyMomaCat Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:47:29am |
Gotta run, guys - have a great day! (might get to check back in later)
255 | Mad Al-Jaffee Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:48:09am |
Morning everyone. I'm back to work after 6 days off (5 from snow 1 from a holiday.) I almost feel like I shouldn't be here today.
256 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:48:58am |
re: #255 Mad Al-Jaffee
Morning everyone. I'm back to work after 6 days off (5 from snow 1 from a holiday.) I almost feel like I shouldn't be here today.
Take a personal day.
/
257 | Jadespring Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:49:21am |
re: #252 darthstar
It could be good for him to go then. The city's recovered, though ground zero is still a bit of a scar in the ground (they could have rebuilt the same towers in the last nine years...that would have been the best 'fuck you, Osama' we could have had).
Seriously, though. going back might be just the thing.
Yeah I have talked about that very thing with him. I hope he will change his mind but I'm not going to push it. For him it's not only just his experience there but it brings back memories of the search and rescue dog he was working with and had done for years. It was the last time they worked together on a search because it died soon after. Just painful all around.
258 | Mad Al-Jaffee Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:50:07am |
re: #256 Cannadian Club Akbar
Take a personal day.
/
Did that on Friday. I haven't found out yet if I'll get any paid time off (and my timesheet is due today) but I assume not. I'll mainly be using leave without pay. Sucks, but that's life.
259 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:50:11am |
re: #255 Mad Al-Jaffee
Oh and BTW, my friend moved up there 1 week before the snow hit. Florida boy in a blizzard. Wonder how he did. Heh.
260 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:51:28am |
re: #239 SasyMomaCat
I was mainly frightened by it due to the fact that he really doesn't have much family. Turns out that some local friends covered for him in terms of pets and such.
261 | Mad Al-Jaffee Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:52:02am |
re: #259 Cannadian Club Akbar
My housemate's from San Diego. She's been here for over a year and has seen snow before, but nothing like this.
262 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:52:53am |
Another guy who could be talking without being tortured. Oh, the horror! What will Cheney say now?
263 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:53:16am |
re: #251 NJDhockeyfan
Waving a grenade around in traffic is a quick way to get noticed.
264 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:54:04am |
re: #262 darthstar
Another guy who could be talking without being tortured. Oh, the horror! What will Cheney say now?
I am sure the Pakistani's are very gentle.
265 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:54:21am |
re: #263 RogueOne
Waving a grenade around in traffic is a quick way to get noticed.
Is that a grenade in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
266 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:54:42am |
re: #252 darthstar
I can certainly understand the trepidations of someone who help recover remains and clear Ground Zero after the attacks and having issues returning to the City and Lower Manhattan (I know some people who feel not right about going through and around the area even now, and I sometimes get a tinge of regret, remorse, and profound sadness when looking out my office window) , but you're right that they might find some amount of closure - or at least feel a little bit of optimism now that construction around the site has begun in earnest.
267 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:54:55am |
re: #263 RogueOne
Waving a grenade around in traffic is a quick way to get noticed.
That's what I do when the drive through at Taco Bell is to long.
/
268 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:55:12am |
re: #262 darthstar
Another guy who could be talking without being tortured. Oh, the horror! What will Cheney say now?
He's being held by the Paki's. $50 says he begs to be put in Gitmo.
269 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:55:50am |
re: #262 darthstar
Another guy who could be talking without being tortured. Oh, the horror! What will Cheney say now?
I hope they read him his Miranda rights!
/////
270 | Daniel Ballard Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:56:52am |
re: #262 darthstar
He was tortured. He was shown the Cheney interview.
271 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:57:25am |
Islamic and Leftist Allies Defend Iran’s Human Rights Record at U.N. Gathering
As the U.N. Human Rights Council scrutinized Iran’s domestic rights record on Monday, Western nations raised concerns about abuses including executions, torture and mass arrests, while Tehran’s Islamic and leftist allies lined up to defend and praise the regime.
The events once again highlighted the deep divisions in the Geneva-based U.N. body, which the Obama administration joined last year, citing hopes of improving it from within.
After Iran presented the HRC with a 31-page report on its human rights record, the council on Monday held a three-hour “interactive dialogue,” with almost 60 states making statements and Iranian delegates periodically responding. The exercise is known as the “universal periodic review” (UPR), which examines every U.N. member state once every four years.
272 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:58:32am |
re: #268 RogueOne
He's being held by the Paki's. $50 says he begs to be put in Gitmo.
Well, there are reports that he is talking...
273 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:59:10am |
re: #271 NJDhockeyfan
Islamic and Leftist Allies Defend Iran’s Human Rights Record at U.N. Gathering
Someone should have shown the video of Neda Sultan.
274 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:59:25am |
re: #262 darthstar
Another guy who could be talking without being tortured. Oh, the horror! What will Cheney say now?
The officials said that Pakistan was leading the interrogation of Mullah Baradar, but that Americans were also involved. The conditions of the questioning are unclear. In its first week in office, the Obama administration banned harsh interrogations like waterboarding by Americans, but the Pakistanis have long been known to subject prisoners to brutal questioning.
In other words - no one knows the conditions or type of questioning but the ISI is the lead interrogator and the CIA appears to have been merely present. That means that harsh interrogation tactics could have been used if the ISI was conducting the interrogations and not the CIA. They could be playing good cop/bad cop (or bad cop/worse cop).
Either way, the article also makes it clear that Pakistan could have picked this guy up long ago but chose not to because they didn't think the Taliban were a threat to them.
275 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 6:59:41am |
276 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:00:01am |
re: #272 darthstar
Well, there are reports that he is talking...
If he gives us Mullah Omar, I'll bring him cake.
277 | darthstar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:01:09am |
Okay...time to go for now...battery life isn't great, and I'm 36000 feet from the nearest outlet...Hello Des Moines!
Take care all.
278 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:01:49am |
re: #274 lawhawk
Either way, the article also makes it clear that Pakistan could have picked this guy up long ago but chose not to because they didn't think the Taliban were a threat to them.
I'm guessing they started singing a new tune pretty quickly after the Taliban started trying to take over their country.
279 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:02:50am |
re: #278 thedopefishlives
Which is probably also the reason why the hush-hush Predator drone strikes in Pakistani territory have gone largely uncontested. I seriously doubt they'd be letting us blow up stuff in their country if they were still of a mind to ignore the Taliban.
280 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:03:30am |
re: #278 thedopefishlives
I'm guessing they started singing a new tune pretty quickly after the Taliban started trying to take over their country.
The Taliban got within what, 30 miles of Islamabad at one point?
281 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:03:52am |
This really bothers me...
Troops: Strict War Rules Slow Afghan Offensive
Some American and Afghan troops say they're fighting the latest offensive in Afghanistan with a handicap -- strict rules that routinely force them to hold their fire.
Although details of the new guidelines are classified to keep insurgents from reading them, U.S. troops say the Taliban are keenly aware of the restrictions.
''I understand the reason behind it, but it's so hard to fight a war like this,'' said Lance Cpl. Travis Anderson, 20, of Altoona, Iowa. ''They're using our rules of engagement against us,'' he said, adding that his platoon had repeatedly seen men drop their guns into ditches and walk away to blend in with civilians.
If a man emerges from a Taliban hideout after shooting erupts, U.S. troops say they cannot fire at him if he is not seen carrying a weapon -- or if they did not personally watch him drop one.
What this means, some contend, is that a militant can fire at them, then set aside his weapon and walk freely out of a compound, possibly toward a weapons cache in another location. It was unclear how often this has happened. In another example, Marines pinned down by a barrage of insurgent bullets say they can't count on quick air support because it takes time to positively identify shooters.
''This is difficult,'' Lance Cpl. Michael Andrejczuk, 20, of Knoxville, Tenn., said Monday. ''We are trained like when we see something, we obliterate it. But here, we have to see them and when we do, they don't have guns.''
This is outrageous! How the fuck can out soldiers fight the enemy with their hands tied? This is bullshit!
282 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:05:33am |
We got a really big one.
The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.
No Miranda?
283 | badger1970 Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:05:39am |
re: #281 NJDhockeyfan
Just need a few lawyers to go on patrol for advice under fire. //
284 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:05:43am |
re: #272 darthstar
Well, there are reports that he is talking...
I bet he is. The guy is a dirtbag so I'm going to go under the assumption they're plying him with milk and cookies and not ask too many questions.//
285 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:06:36am |
re: #282 MandyManners
We got a really big one.
Shoulda' read above.
No Miranda?
286 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:06:47am |
re: #282 MandyManners
Run upthread just a wee bit.
287 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:07:20am |
re: #283 badger1970
Just need a few lawyers to go on patrol for advice under fire. //
Wasn't Hillary available?
288 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:08:11am |
re: #286 Cannadian Club Akbar
Run upthread just a wee bit.
Yeah, yeah. That'll teach me to not brush my teeth before I read.
289 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:09:10am |
re: #288 MandyManners
Yeah, yeah. That'll teach me to not brush my teeth before I read.
But your breath smells better!
290 | laZardo Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:12:01am |
Speaking of which, gonna brush my teeth and attempt to go to bed early again. Nighty!
291 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:13:26am |
re: #281 NJDhockeyfan
This really bothers me...
Troops: Strict War Rules Slow Afghan Offensive
This is outrageous! How the fuck can out soldiers fight the enemy with their hands tied? This is bullshit!
The intent is good, of course, to minimize civilian casualties. Unfortunately, in doing so, we're also minimizing ENEMY casualties. I'm more of the opinion that if the troops are getting shot at, they should be shooting back, no questions asked, but apparently that's why I'm not a career military adviser.
292 | Sheila Broflovski Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:14:48am |
re: #281 NJDhockeyfan
This really bothers me...
Troops: Strict War Rules Slow Afghan Offensive
This is outrageous! How the fuck can out soldiers fight the enemy with their hands tied? This is bullshit!
Let's send in troops of lawyers first.
293 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:15:18am |
Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them
A school superintendent in Rhode Island is trying to fix an abysmally bad school system.
Her plan calls for teachers at a local high school to work 25 minutes longer per day, each lunch with students once in a while, and help with tutoring. The teachers' union has refused to accept these apparently onerous demands.
The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000. This exemplifies a nationwide trend in which public sector workers make far more than their private-sector counterparts (with better benefits).
The school superintendent has responded to the union's stubbornness by firing every teacher and administrator at the school.
294 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:15:23am |
ShortShit's stomping his widdle foot.
He was speaking a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a Gulf tour sought backing from oil giant Saudi Arabia to help win Chinese support for additional sanctions.
Clinton said a new round of sanctions should target Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which she said were driving the Islamic Republic toward a military dictatorship.
"Of course, if somebody acts against Iran our response will definitely be firm enough ... (to) make them regretful," Ahmadinejad told a televised news conference, without elaborating.
"Sanctions will not harm Iran," he said.
SNIP
295 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:15:53am |
296 | Our Precious Bodily Fluids Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:16:12am |
State lawmakers attack climate change, evolution.
Bills such as these highlight what appears to be a disturbing trend, one that is also apparent in a Maine legislator's recent attempts to place health warnings on cell phones. The US public has had difficulty distinguishing between credible scientific information and the various forms of misinformation available on the Internet. It's no surprise that state lawmakers, drawn from and representing that same population, have similar difficulties.
Being elected should, however, place a larger burden of responsibility on legislators, one that would seem to require at least a minimal attempt to work with the best available information. In fact, many scientific organizations, such as the National Academies of Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have staff devoted to providing policymakers with answers to scientific questions. There's little excuse for legislators to be badly misinformed on these issues.
Ahh, optimists. How cute.
297 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:16:29am |
298 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:16:56am |
re: #293 NJDhockeyfan
Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them
I like it.
299 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:17:48am |
re: #281 NJDhockeyfan
This really bothers me...
Troops: Strict War Rules Slow Afghan Offensive
This is outrageous! How the fuck can out soldiers fight the enemy with their hands tied? This is bullshit!
If a man emerges from a Taliban hideout after shooting erupts, U.S. troops say they cannot fire at him if he is not seen carrying a weapon -- or if they did not personally watch him drop one.
Hasn't anyone ever heard of a drop-piece?
300 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:20:51am |
re: #293 NJDhockeyfan
Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them
Apparently 50% of the students at the school are failing all of their classes, and the graduation rate is also under 50%.
301 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:21:26am |
302 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:23:12am |
re: #293 NJDhockeyfan
Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them
For a second, I actually thought this was an Onion article. I'm amazed. It's about time someone has the balls to stand up to the powerful unions like this. The teachers' union is a pretty fearsome one, since everything they ask for is "for the children".
303 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:23:58am |
Dubai issued arrest warrants for eleven people allegedly tied to Mabhouh’s killing, but only two people were captured so far. The fact that one of the Palestinian detainees is a security official in the Palestinian Authority sparked the latest spate of Hamas-Fatah bickering.
Faik al-Mabhouh, the brother of the slain official, on Tuesday still maintained that Israel was behind the assassination. “I believe Israel is behind my brother’s assassination,” he said a day after Dubai published security camera footage showing the ten men and one woman allegedly involved.
All suspects named by Dubai are European nationals, but Faik al-Mabhouh insisted “from the start we said Israel has a hand in it, [but] it didn’t work alone.”
Gen. Dahi Tamim, Dubai’s police chief, displayed a series of passport photographs showing 10 men and a woman at a press conference on Monday.
Most of the individuals named by Dubai appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin, Gen Dahi Tamim, Dubai’s police chief said at a press conference where he presented photos of the suspects.
Six of the suspects carried British passports, three others had Irish passports, while the other two had French and German documents.
SNIP
304 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:24:03am |
305 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:24:24am |
re: #294 MandyManners
ShortShit's stomping his widdle foot.
SNIP
One is reminded of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail sketch with the Black Knight on the bridge: "What are you going to do, bleed all over me?!"
306 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:25:23am |
re: #302 thedopefishlives
It's for the children that they got an average salary of $70-80k, had abysmal passage rates, and 50% were flunking classes. ////
Yeah, something's definitely wrong there - the teachers union thinks they're entitled to raises and all manner of benefits while the kids continue sliding along without a proper education.
307 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:27:39am |
re: #306 lawhawk
But, but, they had good intentions.
/
308 | Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:28:16am |
re: #306 lawhawk
It's for the children that they got an average salary of $70-80k, had abysmal passage rates, and 50% were flunking classes. ///
Yeah, something's definitely wrong there - the teachers union thinks they're entitled to raises and all manner of benefits while the kids continue sliding along without a proper education.
Oh, come on, lawhawk, everybody knows teachers need to get paid $70k+ a year in order to put up with the spoiled-rotten brats parents are pumping out these days./
309 | badger1970 Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:28:24am |
re: #307 Cannadian Club Akbar
Isn't that the pavement on the road to hell? ///
311 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:30:11am |
re: #305 thedopefishlives
One is reminded of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail sketch with the Black Knight on the bridge: "What are you going to do, bleed all over me?!"
312 | Mad Al-Jaffee Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:31:03am |
A coworker from New Orleans brought in a king cake this morning. Time for an unhealthy breakfast!
313 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:32:01am |
Progress update at Ground Zero - the transit hub completion date is slipping into 2015 (only a 25% chance it makes the 2014 deadline, which itself is a delay of several years from the original timeline). Meanwhile, the Ground Zero performing arts center got the go ahead and construction will start next quarter.
314 | _RememberTonyC Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:32:06am |
News Note: Obama administration to encourage the building of nuclear power plants through loan guarantees:
[Link: www.google.com...]
I say "bravo" to the President and I hope this is the first of many such projects.
315 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:35:04am |
Computer geek coming over for some clean up. BBL.
316 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:36:34am |
A Prog is stomping his widdle foot.
Asked in an interview with the Financial Times to comment on "the health of American political system," Podesta responded: "Sucks."
Podesta made the remark with a chuckle, but the man who chaired President Obama's transition team expressed deep concern about the White House's ability to pass big ticket items in the current political climate.
SNIP
317 | Aye Pod Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:37:34am |
Heh - hilarious, and enterprising:
Caring for Pets Left Behind by the Rapture
For a fee, this service will place your dog or cat in the home of a caring atheist on Judgment Day
Bart Centre, 61, a retired retail executive in New Hampshire, says many people are troubled by this question, and he wants to help. He started a service called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets that promises to rescue and care for animals left behind by the saved.
Promoted on the Web as "the next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World," the service has attracted more than 100 clients, who pay $110 for a 10-year contract ($15 for each additional pet.) If the Rapture happens in that time, the pets left behind will have homes—with atheists. Centre has set up a national network of godless humans to carry out the mission. "If you love your pets, I can't understand how you could not consider this," he says.
Centre came up with the idea while working on his book, The Atheist Camel Chronicles, written under the pseudonym Dromedary Hump. In it, he says many unkind things about the devout and confesses that "I'm trying to figure out how to cash in on this hysteria to supplement my income."
[Link: www.businessweek.com...]
318 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:38:05am |
re: #314 _RememberTonyC
Loan guarantees are a start. It's not as good as getting the shovels in the ground and preventing the NIMBYots from thwarting construction, but it's a move in the right direction. Of course, the enviro-nuts and NIMBYots will do what they can to prevent the project from going forward, but Obama can take credit for making the money available so that it isn't his doing that nothing happens.
319 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:40:42am |
re: #310 Jimmah
Voting Tory: Acceptable in the eighties?
-
The moment I got back I realised things had changed. The demolition crew had been in, the wreckers and refitters, the strippers and blasters. The attitudes and assumptions I'd grown up with had been razed to the ground, and a bold new society had risen in their place, a free-enterprise, demand-driven, flaunt-it-and-fuck-you society, dedicated to excellence and achievement. Something new, unheard-of! Created by this one woman! She had spurned the hypocritical cant beloved of politicians and addressed herself directly to the people, showing them how well she knew them, telling them what they whispered in their hearts but dared not speak! "You don't want a caring society," she had told them, in effect. "You say you do, but you don't, not really. You couldn't care less about education and health and all the rest of it. And don't for christsake talk to me about culture. You don't give a toss about culture. All you want to do is sit at home and watch TV. No, it's no use protesting! I know you. You're selfish, ignorant, greedy, and complacent. So vote for me."
And they had, over and over again, so many times that no one except me seemed to remember that things had ever been different.
Michael Dibdin, Dirty Tricks
320 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:41:22am |
re: #316 MandyManners
A Prog is stomping his widdle foot.
SNIP
321 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:42:07am |
re: #316 MandyManners
A Prog is stomping his widdle foot.
SNIP
322 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:45:41am |
Any way to speed things up?
In a rare exclusive sit-down interview, Preval told Associated Press Television News on Monday that Haiti faces a long reconstruction process that will result in fewer people living in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
"It will take 1,000 trucks moving rubble for 1,000 days, so that's three years. And until we move out rubble, we cannot really build," Preval said.
SNIP
323 | _RememberTonyC Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:47:25am |
re: #318 lawhawk
Loan guarantees are a start. It's not as good as getting the shovels in the ground and preventing the NIMBYots from thwarting construction, but it's a move in the right direction. Of course, the enviro-nuts and NIMBYots will do what they can to prevent the project from going forward, but Obama can take credit for making the money available so that it isn't his doing that nothing happens.
I think by framing this as a national security issues, which is certainly is would be a good way to sell it to the masses. It really achieves two things for the POTUS:
1. It shows he is serious about weaning us off mideast oil (and)
2. It beefs up his credentials on the defense of the nation.
324 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:48:04am |
The trio of alleged Irishmen identified Monday in Dubai as Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron do not appear in Ireland's records of legitimate passport-holders, said the government.
"We are unable to identify any of those three individuals as being genuine Irish citizens. Ireland has issued no passports in those names," the department said in a statement.
SNIP
325 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:49:02am |
re: #323 _RememberTonyC
And it's low-cost politically. He doesn't have to actually do anything there other than provide loan guarantees, which may never even be called upon. It's an easy thing to do, but the hard work in seeing that the licenses go forward and get approved - not only with these two reactors but all the others in the pipeline.
326 | Aye Pod Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:52:13am |
327 | _RememberTonyC Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:56:09am |
re: #325 lawhawk
And it's low-cost politically. He doesn't have to actually do anything there other than provide loan guarantees, which may never even be called upon. It's an easy thing to do, but the hard work in seeing that the licenses go forward and get approved - not only with these two reactors but all the others in the pipeline.
it's low risk from a political standpoint because it is a good decision ... period. how great would it be if politicians of both parties started making decisions based on merit instead of politics.
328 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 7:59:30am |
re: #317 Jimmah
Good morning. Looks like quite the throw down last night, but it seems the blood has been mopped and it's back to business.
The Rapture has been looming large in fanciful discussions around our house this past week. A good friend came to visit and the last time we saw Mike he had been producing porn in LA and just graduated to Maxum TV. He is now a challenge producer on The Amazing Race. He came over for breakfast Saturday, so in preperation, along with the pancakes, coffee and pig products, the girls and I developed some movie elevator pitches based around zombie themes.
Mikes favorite seemed to be Zombie Ninjas - the kids all like irony these days, and what is more ironic then Zombie Ninjas?
However, my fav, his least fav, and the one I have not been able to shut up about as I felsh the plot out on at the dinner table is Zombie Dominionists. Elevator Pitch: Shawn of the Dead meets The Left Behind.
It's post-rapture Cincinnati and the left behind are Atheists and Dominionists. It seems the Dominionists got that whole Christian thing terribly backwards and they have been unwittingly in league with Satan THE WHOLE TIME! ANd the Atheists, by and large, had good intentions, but were just fucking wrong. God has given the Atheists one last chance: defeat the Armies of Satan (the Dominionsts and their demonic allies - biker gangs, commies, the usual suspects) and you can ascend to Heaven.
BTW the girls were big on Zombie Kittens.
329 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:01:39am |
In Utah, a plan to cut 12th grade
The proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars would chip away at Utah's $700-million shortfall. He's since offered a toned-down version: Just make senior year optional.
330 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:02:57am |
re: #329 NJDhockeyfan
Someone yesterday blamed it on religion instead of the millions in savings. It made my head hurt.
331 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:03:27am |
re: #328 Jeff In Ohio
Sluggy Freelance* had a string of cartoons with kittens that were the offspring of Satan. Even revisited it at some point.
*- On-line comic with a fairly long on-going run. Quality of plot has it's ups and downs, but the geek quotient is fairly good.
332 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:04:43am |
re: #329 NJDhockeyfan
Brilliant! All I did in 12th grade was smoke pot, drink beer and try to feel up my girlfriend.
333 | Aye Pod Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:08:01am |
re: #328 Jeff In Ohio
Good morning. Looks like quite the throw down last night, but it seems the blood has been mopped and it's back to business.
The Rapture has been looming large in fanciful discussions around our house this past week. A good friend came to visit and the last time we saw Mike he had been producing porn in LA and just graduated to Maxum TV. He is now a challenge producer on The Amazing Race. He came over for breakfast Saturday, so in preperation, along with the pancakes, coffee and pig products, the girls and I developed some movie elevator pitches based around zombie themes.
Mikes favorite seemed to be Zombie Ninjas - the kids all like irony these days, and what is more ironic then Zombie Ninjas?
However, my fav, his least fav, and the one I have not been able to shut up about as I felsh the plot out on at the dinner table is Zombie Dominionists. Elevator Pitch: Shawn of the Dead meets The Left Behind.
BTW the girls were big on Zombie Kittens.
I love both those ideas but the Zombie Dominionist smackdown is the one I'd go for as well. Would make a great video game too of course - I can think of a few celebrity 'boss zombies' I'd like see in it .
334 | Macha Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:09:55am |
Has anyone read that article on the Tea Party that is on the front page of the NYT this morning? I found it to have a glaring omission. Nowhere does it mention the link that the groups have to the extreme fundamentalist Christian organizations.
I think that the scariest thing about all this Tea Party hysteria, is that it is Joe average who is being taken in by them. When the level of paranoia reaches this stage, people no longer question anything. And the behavior becomes contagious.
335 | Daniel Ballard Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:10:37am |
re: #120 iceweasel
Yeah, but TX appears to have executed at least one innocent person:
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...][Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]
I think DNA is going to sort that out over time. The Innocence Project is blazing a proud path, and of course prosecutors are finding DNA far more reliable than witnesses. DNA will likely diminish the "innocent caught up" argument against the death penalty. BTW-Ice, I'm guessing my link is redundant to you but useful to some less informed folks.
336 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:12:40am |
re: #334 Macha
Does it have a twenty-eight day incubation period before they catch Tea Party rage as well?
337 | Gus Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:13:50am |
President Obama giving speech and calls for tripling funding for financing nuclear power plants.
Makes other comments promoting nuclear energy.
Very positive on nuclear energy.
[Link: abcnews.go.com...]
338 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:15:34am |
Daniel Rubin: Another case of TSA overkill
Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?
Unfortunately, it's no joke. This happened to Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, who was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan.
Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.
The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.
Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.
The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.
The alarm went off.
The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.
The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.
"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "
Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.
No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.
Leona Thomas said she was calm. Bob Thomas said he was starting to burn.
They complied, and Leona went first, followed by Ryan, followed by Bob, so the boy wouldn't be hurt if he fell. Ryan made it through.
By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong.
"I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "
339 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:16:16am |
Venezuela’s representative praised Iran’s achievements, which he said came despite the country being “subjected to unjust economic sanctions and an ongoing defaming media campaign.”
Cuba’s envoy similarly said Iranian progress had been achieved despite restrictions imposed from outside
UNHRC...thugs and killers, and we not only associate with these assholes...we fund them...what the hell
[Link: www.cnsnews.com...]
340 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:16:41am |
Hey Morning Lizards!
I persused the spin-offs --it's been a while since I've had the time to do so, much less post to them. You know, there's some good stuff there!
How are you-all this morning?
341 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:17:45am |
re: #333 Jimmah
I love both those ideas but the Zombie Dominionist smackdown is the one I'd go for as well. Would make a great video game too of course - I can think of a few celebrity 'boss zombies' I'd like see in it .
I forgot to mention God kills all The Domionists with Holy Righteousness and then Satan raises them from the dead, because Satan, despite all that Evil, has a really good sense of humor.
342 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:18:02am |
re: #335 Rightwingconspirator
I think DNA is going to sort that out over time. The Innocence Project is blazing a proud path, and of course prosecutors are finding DNA far more reliable than witnesses. DNA will likely diminish the "innocent caught up" argument against the death penalty. BTW-Ice, I'm guessing my link is redundant to you but useful to some less informed folks.
I'd like to think so, but what happens when a governor or his staff doesn't even bother to look at scientific evidence? (as in that 2nd link on Perry).
There's also been problems with evidence being falsified-- Joyce Gilchrist comes to mind.
Finally, it seems even DNA isn't reliable.
Warning: DNA tests may not be as reliable as they appear
Just a lot of worries.
343 | Gus Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:18:10am |
U.S. guarantees loan for new nuclear plant
Obama’s pledge may help spur building of first US plant in nearly 3 decades
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is highlighting a new investment in energy jobs with an announcement that the government will guarantee more than $8 billion in loans needed to build the first U.S. nuclear power plant in nearly three decades...
344 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:18:28am |
re: #340 ggt
Hey Morning Lizards!
I persused the spin-offs --it's been a while since I've had the time to do so, much less post to them. You know, there's some good stuff there!
How are you-all this morning?
Well thank you.
345 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:20:10am |
re: #343 Gus 802
U.S. guarantees loan for new nuclear plant
Obama’s pledge may help spur building of first US plant in nearly 3 decades
How many environmentalists will sick their lawyers on this to keep the nuke plants from being built?
347 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:22:04am |
re: #334 Macha
Has anyone read that article on the Tea Party that is on the front page of the NYT this morning? I found it to have a glaring omission. Nowhere does it mention the link that the groups have to the extreme fundamentalist Christian organizations.
I think that the scariest thing about all this Tea Party hysteria, is that it is Joe average who is being taken in by them. When the level of paranoia reaches this stage, people no longer question anything. And the behavior becomes contagious.
yes. I think Irenicum? linked it in the Wingnut Book Thread last night.
[Link: www.nytimes.com...]
I'm just glad the EmEssEm is covering them at all in any kind of critical way. About time.
348 | Gus Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:23:03am |
re: #345 NJDhockeyfan
How many environmentalists will sick their lawyers on this to keep the nuke plants from being built?
And how many would they send if they were going to build a fossil fuel plant? That will always happen since we allow the freedom to sue. There is no guarantee that they will win and with the administration in the corner of the nuclear power industry it makes the chances for it being blocked less possible.
349 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:23:08am |
re: #317 Jimmah
Heh - hilarious, and enterprising:
Caring for Pets Left Behind by the Rapture
For a fee, this service will place your dog or cat in the home of a caring atheist on Judgment Day
Bart Centre, 61, a retired retail executive in New Hampshire, says many people are troubled by this question, and he wants to help. He started a service called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets that promises to rescue and care for animals left behind by the saved.
Promoted on the Web as "the next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World," the service has attracted more than 100 clients, who pay $110 for a 10-year contract ($15 for each additional pet.) If the Rapture happens in that time, the pets left behind will have homes—with atheists. Centre has set up a national network of godless humans to carry out the mission. "If you love your pets, I can't understand how you could not consider this," he says.
Centre came up with the idea while working on his book, The Atheist Camel Chronicles, written under the pseudonym Dromedary Hump. In it, he says many unkind things about the devout and confesses that "I'm trying to figure out how to cash in on this hysteria to supplement my income."
[Link: www.businessweek.com...]
Gotta love capitalism!
350 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:25:43am |
re: #348 Gus 802
And how many would they send if they were going to build a fossil fuel plant? That will always happen since we allow the freedom to sue. There is no guarantee that they will win and with the administration in the corner of the nuclear power industry it makes the chances for it being blocked less possible.
I think there is alot of public support for domestic power plants of any kind right now. Even more so for nuclear. France is a good example. Hopefully we will be able to get this done.
351 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:25:57am |
Here is an example of entitlement utopia...
Single mother-of-six finds £2m mansion on the net... and then gets YOU to pay £7,000 a month rent
A single mother-of-six is getting more than £80,000 a year from the taxpayer to live in a £2million mansion in an exclusive London suburb.
Essma Marjam, 34, is given almost £7,000 a month in housing benefits to pay the rent on the five-bedroom villa just yards from Sir Paul McCartney's house and Lord's cricket ground.
She also receives an estimated £15,000 a year in other payouts, such as child benefit, to help look after her children, aged from five months to 14.
The four-storey house in Maida Vale has five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double living room, large fitted kitchen-diner with French doors on to the landscaped garden and a state-of-the art buzzer entry system.
Astonishingly, it is understood Miss Marjam found the house on the internet through a private letting agency, rather than waiting for Westminster council to give her a vacant property on their books.
She then applied to the council for the £1,600-a-week benefit - the maximum amount the council allows.
Miss Marjam said: 'I moved here at the beginning of the month as I'm entitled to a five-bedroom house.
'I was in a three-bedroom council house but I needed a bigger place once my new baby came along. So the council agreed to pay the £1,600 a week to a private landlord as they didn't have any houses big enough.
'I'm separated from my husband. He's a solicitor in Derby, but I don't know if he's working at the moment. He doesn't pay anything towards the kids. Things are quite difficult between us.
'The house is lovely and very big, but I don't have enough furniture to fill it.'
She does, however, have two large flat-screen televisions and several leather sofas, plus a large amount of children's toys scattered over the wooden floorboards.
During the week, vans from Argos and other home stores dropped off large purchases.
Miss Marjam does not work, as she spends all day looking after her children - Zekia, 14, Abdulhakim, 13, Jihad, 11, Hamza, ten, Ayman, two, and five-month-old Nasir.
352 | cliffster Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:27:00am |
morning, all. Things ever get to raging in AGW thread yesterday? I can't bear to look
353 | Soap_Man Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:28:24am |
Morning all. The Plain's have responded to Family Guy, which had a character with Down Syndrome on Sunday's episode. This is Bristol on Sarah's Facebook page:
“People with special needs face challenges that many of us will never confront, and yet they are some of the kindest and most loving people you’ll ever meet. Their lives are difficult enough as it is, so why would anyone want to make their lives more difficult by mocking them? As a culture, shouldn’t we be more compassionate to innocent people–especially those who are less fortunate?”
She is, of course, 100 percent correct. It is never okay to mock someone with special needs*. It is never okay to use derogatory language towards those with disabilities*. And using those stereotypes and slurs is NOT okay, even if the intent is humor or satire*.
* (except when Rush does it. Then we're cool with it.)
354 | Gus Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:28:34am |
re: #350 ggt
I think there is alot of public support for domestic power plants of any kind right now. Even more so for nuclear. France is a good example. Hopefully we will be able to get this done.
Increasing the loan guarantees will help. It's a start and also something many wouldn't have expected from President Obama.
355 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:29:24am |
Wife of trans-Atlantic airlines bomb plotter 'wanted him to become a martyr'
The wife of the leader of a plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners kept a diary in which she pledged support for his cause and hoped that he became a martyr, a court has heard.
356 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:29:47am |
re: #354 Gus 802
Increasing the loan guarantees will help. It's a start and also something many wouldn't have expected from President Obama.
My memory is fuzzy, I think it was the SOTU address in which he promised nuclear power plants. Maybe, just maybe, it will actually happen.
357 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:30:33am |
re: #355 NJDhockeyfan
Wife of trans-Atlantic airlines bomb plotter 'wanted him to become a martyr'
There is a fine line between martyr and lemming.
358 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:30:57am |
re: #350 ggt
I think there is alot of public support for domestic power plants of any kind right now. Even more so for nuclear. France is a good example. Hopefully we will be able to get this done.
France is a good example of how to advance nuclear power when the state nationalizes the distribution network and builds the plants.
359 | Soap_Man Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:31:34am |
re: #353 Soap_Man
Morning all. The
Plain'sPalins have responded to Family Guy, which had a character with Down Syndrome on Sunday's episode. This is Bristol on Sarah's Facebook page:
PIMF
360 | Gus Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:31:58am |
361 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:32:18am |
re: #358 Jeff In Ohio
France is a good example of how to advance nuclear power when the state nationalizes the distribution network and builds the plants.
I was thinking more of the safety issue. Too many people remember 3-mile Island and Cherynobl. Nuclear power can be harnessed safely and effectively for the benefit of all.
362 | The Left Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:33:15am |
So, looks like Scott Roeder also hated the gubbmint:
In 1996 video, Scott Roeder, later convicted of killing abortion doctor, rails against government
The man convicted last month of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller is now featured on a YouTube video discussing his involvement in an anti-government group in the 1990s.
Scott Roeder, of Kansas City, appears in a 10-minute segment posted by Dave Leach, an abortion opponent from Des Moines, Iowa. Leach said he interviewed Roeder in October 1996, when Leach was visiting Shelley Shannon in a Topeka prison. Shannon was convicted of attempted murder for shooting and wounding Tiller in 1993, and Roeder was living in Topeka. The interview aired on Leach’s cable TV program, “The Uncle Ed. Show.”
Leach provided the entire 47-minute interview to The Kansas City Star. In it, Roeder talks about his involvement in the “freemen” movement in the 1990s. “Freemen” was a term describing people who claimed sovereignty from government jurisdiction and operated under their own legal system, which they called common-law courts.
Roeder said in the interview that Social Security, driver’s licenses and marriage licenses were unconstitutional and described how some freemen had filed multimillion-dollar liens against judges and other government officials.
363 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:33:31am |
re: #353 Soap_Man
It was a funny episode. The downs girl was just the opposite of the typical caricature and I don't recall them actually making fun of the disease, just her personality. She was mean.
364 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:33:54am |
re: #361 ggt
Imagine the outcry from everywhere if the option was to make the plants nationally owned and have the USN run them...
366 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:34:39am |
re: #364 oaktree
Imagine the outcry from everywhere if the option was to make the plants nationally owned and have the USN run them...
I'm all for nuclear power, not government run nuclear power tho.
367 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:35:04am |
re: #354 Gus 802
Increasing the loan guarantees will help. It's a start and also something many wouldn't have expected from President Obama.
?? Nuclear energy was part of Obama's campaign platform and he appointed a nuclear physicists as head of the Dept. of Energy.
368 | Macha Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:35:27am |
re: #347 iceweasel
yes. I think Irenicum? linked it in the Wingnut Book Thread last night.
[Link: www.nytimes.com...]
I'm just glad the EmEssEm is covering them at all in any kind of critical way. About time.
Thanks Iceweasel. I'll backtrack and catch it.
Macha
369 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:35:50am |
Well, that's exciting. Forty-five minutes to reboot. Gave me time to shower and start yet another round of laundry. This domestic goddess stuff is a fucking thrill a minute.
370 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:35:51am |
re: #366 ggt
Why, given that it works in France, and requires so much government subsidy in the first place? It's barely free-market anyway.
If we really want nuclear built quickly and to a common plan, we really should follow the French's example.
371 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:36:06am |
re: #361 ggt
I was thinking more of the safety issue. Too many people remember 3-mile Island and Cherynobl. Nuclear power can be harnessed safely and effectively for the benefit of all.
especially CA...they need the power to desalinate water....dragging their asses is almost criminal in view of the desperate state of the ag business
372 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:36:06am |
re: #113 PT Barnum
Better to throw rocks at them and leave no tern unstoned.
Morning everybody!
Nice pun. My father would love it, and I'll make sure to tell it to him today. You'll get proper credit, of course.
373 | Soap_Man Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:36:19am |
re: #363 RogueOne
It was a funny episode. The downs girl was just the opposite of the typical caricature and I don't recall them actually making fun of the disease, just her personality. She was mean.
It's important to note that what Family Guy did can actually be described as satire, unlike Rush who was just going for shock points while making fun of liberals.
I know the Palin home has a Bible, but what they really need is a dictionary.
374 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:37:16am |
re: #351 NJDhockeyfan
Here is an example of entitlement utopia...
Single mother-of-six finds £2m mansion on the net... and then gets YOU to pay £7,000 a month rent
Where is she from?
375 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:38:00am |
re: #370 Obdicut
Why, given that it works in France, and requires so much government subsidy in the first place? It's barely free-market anyway.
If we really want nuclear built quickly and to a common plan, we really should follow the French's example.
As opposed to privatizing the profit and nationalizing the risk? :)
376 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:38:07am |
re: #351 NJDhockeyfan
Here is an example of entitlement utopia...
Single mother-of-six finds £2m mansion on the net... and then gets YOU to pay £7,000 a month rent
Why isn't her husband paying CS?
377 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:38:56am |
re: #351 NJDhockeyfan
Here is an example of entitlement utopia...
Single mother-of-six finds £2m mansion on the net... and then gets YOU to pay £7,000 a month rent
Miss Marjam does not work, as she spends all day looking after her children - Zekia, 14, Abdulhakim, 13, Jihad, 11, Hamza, ten, Ayman, two, and five-month-old Nasir.
Now, what religion do you think she follows? The article didn't mention it, but given her son's name it might be kind of important.
378 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:39:04am |
re: #370 Obdicut
Why, given that it works in France, and requires so much government subsidy in the first place? It's barely free-market anyway.
If we really want nuclear built quickly and to a common plan, we really should follow the French's example.
I'm opposed to government owning anything on principle. Actually, it scares the piss out of me. The word "nationalization" produces a knee-jerk reaction in me that probably isn't totally rational, but based on precedence.
379 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:39:46am |
biggest hockey rink in the world...
[Link: www.washingtonexaminer.com...]
380 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:40:24am |
re: #370 Obdicut
Including reprocessing and waste storage? Those are major stumbling blocks in the US - and the US DOE has been collecting fees from nuclear power facilities for years to fund a national waste repository, only to see the site years (decades?) away from opening because of Reid's actions.
Nuclear power plants were built in a private corp manner prior to the 1980s - when nearly all were built. The cessation of construction coincided with TMI and Chernobyl and the rise of NIMBY.
Breaking through the NIMBY is going to be critical, even if this turns out to be a federal gov't led building program.
381 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:41:04am |
re: #378 ggt
Including national parks, monuments, and other federal lands?
382 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:41:25am |
This was the first arrest of a foreigner by the Islamist group Hamas since it took over the Palestinian enclave of Gaza in 2007.
The Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement that the journalist, Paul Martin, who was arrested on Sunday, was suspected of “violating Palestinian law and security in the Gaza Strip.”
Mr. Martin was not reporting in Gaza at the time of his arrest but had come voluntarily to testify for a Palestinian man on trial in a Hamas military court, accused of collaborating with Israel. Mr. Martin, who has produced reports for the BBC, among others, was arrested in the courtroom and taken to jail.
Hamas said the Palestinian defendant, Mohammed Abu Muaileq, had made a confession that implicated Mr. Martin in having “violated Palestinian law and security in Gaza.”
SNIP
383 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:41:42am |
re: #378 ggt
I'm opposed to government owning anything on principle. Actually, it scares the piss out of me. The word "nationalization" produces a knee-jerk reaction in me that probably isn't totally rational, but based on precedence.
Okay. In this case, the precedence is the government-owned and run nuclear system in France.
Do you think the system in France doesn't work well?
Given that nuclear power has to be subsidized to the ends of the earth and regulated highly, and given that we're trying to get this done quickly, it seems a lot more logical to me to follow the French plan for it.
384 | Mostly sane, most of the time. Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:41:55am |
re: #376 MandyManners
Why isn't her husband paying CS?
I believe that in America, we have laws that would go after ex-hubby to pay back the taxpayers for this.
385 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:42:58am |
re: #379 albusteve
biggest hockey rink in the world...
[Link: www.washingtonexaminer.com...]
Not a good article. The authors AGW Denial snark is grating. He needs to wise up to reality.
386 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:43:00am |
re: #384 EmmmieG
I believe that in America, we have laws that would go after ex-hubby to pay back the taxpayers for this.
They're not even divorced yet!
387 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:43:14am |
Assassination attempt against Somali minister for defense kills 4.
A suicide bomber killed four people during an assassination attempt against a top Somali defense official in Mogadishu.The assassination attempt took place as State Minister for Defense Sheikh Yusuf Mohammad Siad, who is better known as Indha'adde or White Eyes, was traveling in a convoy moving between an African Union military base and the presidential palace.
The suicide bomber targeted Indha'adde's car but slammed into a bus carrying Somalis instead and killed four civilians, Shabelle reported.
AQ in Somalia is the likely culprit.
388 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:43:38am |
Obama’s claim of rescuing economy from brink stretches facts
BO and Biden are flat out liars....just as was predicted before their election...
[Link: dailycaller.com...]
389 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:44:05am |
re: #381 lawhawk
Including national parks, monuments, and other federal lands?
I see those falling under the "Museum" category like the Archives doesn't bother me. Business, utilities, hospitals . . . goverrnment running these enterprises gives me a stomach pains.
Again, an emotional response, but one based on precedence. I don't want a POTUS or Speaker of the House thinking they have control over the profits or turning into Hugo Chavez.
390 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:44:29am |
re: #382 MandyManners
SNIP
So the man comes as a defense witness, and gets arrested himself. Why are we funding people who carry out such show trials?
391 | Mostly sane, most of the time. Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:44:44am |
re: #386 MandyManners
They're not even divorced yet!
I will confess that I don't get the British laws that you can spend your life on welfare, if you choose.
They had some woman in the paper the other day that is my age, and has never held a job, no kids, but she gets a "job seeker's allowance." For over twenty years.
393 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:45:42am |
re: #385 Dark_Falcon
Not a good article. The authors AGW Denial snark is grating. He needs to wise up to reality.
I don't care about that part...it's a unique phenomenon
394 | Soap_Man Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:46:44am |
re: #388 albusteve
Obama’sAny politician's claim ofrescuing economy from brinkpretty much anything stretches facts
FTFY. :)
395 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:46:44am |
re: #387 lawhawk
Assassination attempt against Somali minister for defense kills 4.
AQ in Somalia is the likely culprit.
They've had a bad time in Mogadishu as of late. The Transitional government finally found some competent troops and they and the AU peacekeepers ran AQ and its local allies largely out of the city.
396 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:46:52am |
re: #383 Obdicut
Okay. In this case, the precedence is the government-owned and run nuclear system in France.
Do you think the system in France doesn't work well?
Given that nuclear power has to be subsidized to the ends of the earth and regulated highly, and given that we're trying to get this done quickly, it seems a lot more logical to me to follow the French plan for it.
Obdicut, I haven't studied the French system. I know they use nuclear power safely. It is proof that melt-downs don't have to be the norm.
I also think it is dangerous to assume that what works in another country will work here--as far as administration goes.
397 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:48:35am |
re: #392 Obdicut
Um, are you against public waterworks?
obdicut, I'd have to learn more about the French system to discuss this further with you. I don't have time to study it today.
398 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:48:58am |
399 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:49:27am |
re: #390 Dark_Falcon
So the man comes as a defense witness, and gets arrested himself. Why are we funding people who carry out such show trials?
Fucking stupid?
400 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:49:36am |
re: #397 ggt
Okay. But you said you were against the government owning/controlling utilities. So that I know where you stand when we talk again, are you also against the government owning/controlling waterworks?
401 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:49:49am |
re: #391 EmmmieG
I will confess that I don't get the British laws that you can spend your life on welfare, if you choose.
They had some woman in the paper the other day that is my age, and has never held a job, no kids, but she gets a "job seeker's allowance." For over twenty years.
Socialism at its finest.
402 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:50:04am |
re: #395 Dark_Falcon
They've had a bad time in Mogadishu as of late. The Transitional government finally found some competent troops and they and the AU peacekeepers ran AQ and its local allies largely out of the city.
they just convicted 11 pirates...for what it's worth
403 | garhighway Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:50:14am |
re: #392 Obdicut
Or roads?
Or schools?
The sad fact is that nuclear power is not cost-effective compared to other energy sources (which doesn't mean it isn't a good idea) and simply wouldn't exist were we to impose free-market purity on the electrical generation industry. So if you like the idea of nuclear (as I do) then you are inevitably buying a certain amount of government involvement. Once you get past that hurdle, differences become tactical.
404 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:50:30am |
405 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:50:32am |
re: #396 ggt
Meltdowns were quite possible in an RMBK reactor - the kind that blew in Chernobyl - which were inherently unsafe. US uses pressurized water reactors, and it was a screwup in procedures that led to the TMI problems - and turning off safety systems.
The newest generation of reactor designs are inherently safer, with passive safety systems built in to prevent the kinds of problems that happen with PWR reactors.
406 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:51:16am |
re: #400 Obdicut
Okay. But you said you were against the government owning/controlling utilities. So that I know where you stand when we talk again, are you also against the government owning/controlling waterworks?
On a national basis, yes.
407 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:51:22am |
re: #405 lawhawk
Meltdowns were quite possible in an RMBK reactor - the kind that blew in Chernobyl - which were inherently unsafe. US uses pressurized water reactors, and it was a screwup in procedures that led to the TMI problems - and turning off safety systems.
The newest generation of reactor designs are inherently safer, with passive safety systems built in to prevent the kinds of problems that happen with PWR reactors.
two words
Hyperion
408 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:52:37am |
re: #403 garhighway
Or roads?
Or schools?
The sad fact is that nuclear power is not cost-effective compared to other energy sources (which doesn't mean it isn't a good idea) and simply wouldn't exist were we to impose free-market purity on the electrical generation industry. So if you like the idea of nuclear (as I do) then you are inevitably buying a certain amount of government involvement. Once you get past that hurdle, differences become tactical.
Now, that is something I didn't know. But it makes sense, it can't be as profitable as fossil fuels.
409 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:52:51am |
Iran tells Clinton to fuck off...well duh!
[Link: www.nytimes.com...]
410 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:53:22am |
re: #402 albusteve
they just convicted 11 pirates...for what it's worth
If they keep the pirates on ice for a few years, I'll be satisfied. And I'm content to pay to do so. I'd rather pay $5,000,000 to maintain a prison for pirates than pay $2,000,000 in ransom. Billions for defense, not one cent for tribute.
411 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:53:33am |
412 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:54:20am |
413 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:54:37am |
re: #392 Obdicut
Um, are you against public waterworks?
A lot of water plants are privately owned, like Indianapolis for example.
414 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:55:16am |
re: #409 albusteve
Iran tells Clinton to fuck off...well duh!
[Link: www.nytimes.com...]
Iran answers truth with bullshit. That's about par for the course.
415 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:55:24am |
re: #409 albusteve
Iran tells Clinton to fuck off...well duh!
[Link: www.nytimes.com...]
Clinton could whip his ass in a flash.
416 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:56:17am |
Actually, my ignorance on the nuclear power situation is probably the standard for voters. The response is emotional --fear for safety issues. I know that it is cleaner, renewable, but very, very dangerous.
Being here this morning, I am already learning more.
417 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:56:32am |
re: #413 RogueOne
A lot of water plants are privately owned, like Indianapolis for example.
Glad that works for them. Chicago's water system has to be government run, since taxes are the only way to pay for the flood-control projects we've needed.
418 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:56:35am |
re: #413 RogueOne
A lot of water plants are privately owned, like Indianapolis for example.
I should have said privately operated.
419 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:56:39am |
the race is on for the Latino vote....they want immigration reform NOW, not yesterday...
[Link: www.mcclatchydc.com...]
420 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:57:40am |
re: #415 MandyManners
Clinton could whip his ass in a flash.
I don't know Mandy, I'm not sure Clinton has every thrown a punch in his life. Seems more likely he'd side-step and let a Secret Service agent to do it.
421 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:57:57am |
re: #417 Dark_Falcon
Glad that works for them. Chicago's water system has to be government run, since taxes are the only way to pay for the flood-control projects we've needed.
Plus, it's harder for the pol's to get the mob kickbacks if it went to a privately owned corp.//
422 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:58:20am |
re: #420 ggt
I don't know Mandy, I'm not sure Clinton has every thrown a punch in his life. Seems more likely he'd side-step and let a Secret Service agent to do it.
I thought she was talking about hillary. Hillary would whup his ass.
423 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:58:30am |
re: #421 RogueOne
Plus, it's harder for the pol's to get the mob kickbacks if it went to a privately owned corp.//
dead people can't work for privately owned companies.
424 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:58:30am |
re: #420 ggt
I don't know Mandy, I'm not sure Clinton has every thrown a punch in his life. Seems more likely he'd side-step and let a Secret Service agent to do it.
Not Bill. Hillary.
425 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:58:51am |
re: #410 Dark_Falcon
If they keep the pirates on ice for a few years, I'll be satisfied. And I'm content to pay to do so. I'd rather pay $5,000,000 to maintain a prison for pirates than pay $2,000,000 in ransom. Billions for defense, not one cent for tribute.
the material side is one thing...they still hold a bunch of hostages that have to be dealt with...I say pay them off for all of them, then use extreme violence to ensure they do not steal anymore people
426 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:58:56am |
re: #422 RogueOne
I thought she was talking about hillary. Hillary would whup his ass.
Bounce a few ashtrays off his head for openers.
427 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 8:59:09am |
re: #406 ggt
I'm not sure what that means, but okay. You are against federal-level ownership but not governmental ownership? It's the federal government you have a problem with, not government control in general?
re: #413 RogueOne
Yes. And a lot are publicly owned. I'm fine with both situations-- though all of them are heavily regulated by the EPA (or would be if the the EPA's funding hadn't been slashed to ribbons.)
But it's another situation where government tends to outlay the capital expenditure even when it is a private project.
If we want nuclear done fast and done right, we're not going to be able to depend on the free market. We'll either have to use massive subsidies, or have the government at least set it up. Hell, they can sell it to private industry later, as is our wont in the US, but if we actually want it quickly, it's going to have to be something driven by the government.
428 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:00:38am |
re: #427 Obdicut
But it won't be done quickly and government projects routinely run well over budget. I'm all for more nuclear plants but giving them a permit is just the start, it will be years before they break ground.
429 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:01:10am |
re: #416 ggt
Actually, my ignorance on the nuclear power situation is probably the standard for voters. The response is emotional --fear for safety issues. I know that it is cleaner, renewable, but very, very dangerous.
Being here this morning, I am already learning more.
this is why the govt should come to the people and state their case for programs and legislation...you are not getting a dimes worth in return for what you pay those guys...I hate the feds, what a ripoff
430 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:02:45am |
re: #428 RogueOne
Private projects also routinely run well over budget.
I'm all for more nuclear plants but giving them a permit is just the start, it will be years before they break ground.
I know. I mean 'quickly' in relative terms. We're not going to have an Amish Nuke Plant Raising.
That'd kick ass though, if the Amish just suddenly said, "By the way, we invented cold fusion, we don't want it, so take it."
432 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:03:41am |
'Carbon Fast' An Option For Observers Of Lent
Frankly, some people may be tired of giving up chocolate, vodka, fried chicken or poker for the 40 days of Lent.
But sacrificing a lightbulb, or higher temperature on the thermostat? Maybe finally spurning plastic bags for reusable organic cotton totes? As many of the Christian faith begin Lent on Wednesday, one option — the "carbon fast" — could be as basic as unplugging your cellphone charger when not in use.
Repentance, reflection and self-discipline are supposed to be observed during Lent, which symbolizes the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert and resisted Satan's temptations, as described in the Bible.
Among some worshipers, Lent also is known as the time "to beat yourself up" before Easter, rather than a season to "take stock with what you're doing with your life and make positive changes," said the Rev. Jane White-Hassler, a priest at Grace Episcopal Church in Newington.
A green Lent could mean "thinking about the environment and doing things to save it for yourself and those who come after us," said White-Hassler, whose church possesses the mind-set year-round. Since the summer, Grace Episcopal has been undergoing eco-friendly renovations and is considering solar panels.
433 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:03:48am |
re: #427 Obdicut
I'm not sure what that means, but okay. You are against federal-level ownership but not governmental ownership? It's the federal government you have a problem with, not government control in general?
re: #413 RogueOne
Yes. And a lot are publicly owned. I'm fine with both situations-- though all of them are heavily regulated by the EPA (or would be if the the EPA's funding hadn't been slashed to ribbons.)
But it's another situation where government tends to outlay the capital expenditure even when it is a private project.
If we want nuclear done fast and done right, we're not going to be able to depend on the free market. We'll either have to use massive subsidies, or have the government at least set it up. Hell, they can sell it to private industry later, as is our wont in the US, but if we actually want it quickly, it's going to have to be something driven by the government.
Why are you splitting hairs? Isn't it obvious I'm concerned with Government Tyranny. I wouldn't want the Federal Government controlling waterworks for the whole country. I can see how, on a local level, citizens might want to have government run the sewage plants etc, but that is a local choice. Perhaps it can be the same for nuclear power.
I don't want to make choices that will allow a Chavez, Stalin or Pot to come to power in this country. If local governments can do the job, it still is government, but powers are separate, not unified under the federal banner. Those powers can be easily taken away by a local referendum.
434 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:03:50am |
re: #428 RogueOne
But it won't be done quickly and government projects routinely run well over budget. I'm all for more nuclear plants but giving them a permit is just the start, it will be years before they break ground.
it's all a bunch of smoke...not likely to have a plant online inside of twenty years at best...we are headed for an energy shitstorm on of these days
435 | garhighway Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:04:12am |
re: #429 albusteve
What exactly does "come to the people and state their case for programs and legislation" mean? Please describe that process a little more fully.
California-style referenda? Town hall meetings writ large? Voting for representatives every two years?
What do you have in mind?
436 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:05:16am |
re: #435 garhighway
What exactly does "come to the people and state their case for programs and legislation" mean? Please describe that process a little more fully.
California-style referenda? Town hall meetings writ large? Voting for representatives every two years?
What do you have in mind?
use David Letterman
437 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:08:58am |
re: #433 ggt
Why are you splitting hairs? Isn't it obvious I'm concerned with Government Tyranny.
No. You seem to be concerned with federal tyranny, not government tyranny, honestly. And that's a perfectly valid position to hold; you can argue the size or complexity of the federal government cripples it, or whatever. But when you say that local government can control something and it's fine for that to be the case, but it would be bad for the federal government to do so, that seems definitely to me that you do not object to governmental control, but federal control.
Which, again, is a perfectly valid position.
I wouldn't want the Federal Government controlling waterworks for the whole country.
They do, though. 90% of us get water from places regulated by the EPA, or with regulation delegated and that regulation regulated (heh) by the EPA. The EPA 'controls' all of the public (meaning, available to, not owned by) water standards in the US.
I can see how, on a local level, citizens might want to have government run the sewage plants etc, but that is a local choice. Perhaps it can be the same for nuclear power.
So now localities have to fund the nuke plants? I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.
438 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:09:32am |
re: #433 ggt
Why are you splitting hairs? Isn't it obvious I'm concerned with Government Tyranny. I wouldn't want the Federal Government controlling waterworks for the whole country. I can see how, on a local level, citizens might want to have government run the sewage plants etc, but that is a local choice. Perhaps it can be the same for nuclear power.
I don't want to make choices that will allow a Chavez, Stalin or Pot to come to power in this country. If local governments can do the job, it still is government, but powers are separate, not unified under the federal banner. Those powers can be easily taken away by a local referendum.
Quite Concur. Federalism and decentralization allow certain task to be government run while keeping overall government power down to manageable levels.
439 | garhighway Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:10:08am |
re: #433 ggt
Nuclear has been Federalized since its infancy, for excellent reasons. Do you really want the Louisiana Department of Nuclear Energy supervising the construction and operation of something that could, if built or managed badly, kill millions of people? ("Hi, I'm Power Commissioner Thibideaux!" I got this job because I contributed a lot of money to the Governor! I require that all piping be purchased from the Governor's friends.") Or the Madison County, Illinois Department of Nuclear Power? In what universe would that not be crazy?
440 | Buck Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:10:56am |
re: #178 NJDhockeyfan
Oh, brother...
Congressman Calls on Obama to Halt Israel's Anti-Hamas Moves
You know, if we are going to hilight the kooks on the right... it is only fair and balanced that we throw a spotlight or two on the kooks on the left.
Thanks NJD
441 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:10:56am |
re: #437 Obdicut
So now localities have to fund the nuke plants? I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.
I have not had enough coffee this morning to continue with this--perhaps later in the day.
442 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:11:40am |
re: #439 garhighway
Nuclear has been Federalized since its infancy, for excellent reasons. Do you really want the Louisiana Department of Nuclear Energy supervising the construction and operation of something that could, if built or managed badly, kill millions of people? ("Hi, I'm Power Commissioner Thibideaux!" I got this job because I contributed a lot of money to the Governor! I require that all piping be purchased from the Governor's friends.") Or the Madison County, Illinois Department of Nuclear Power? In what universe would that not be crazy?
I learn more.
443 | Charles Johnson Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:12:01am |
Whee! Ten hate mails overnight. Wingnut rage is reaching a fever pitch out there.
444 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:14:40am |
re: #441 ggt
Okay. And I'm not accusing you of any duplicity or a bad argument or anything like that. I'm just pointing out that utilities, being for common usage, have been something that is often government-run, because they have to be so heavily regulated and subsidized anyway. There is no way to get away from the massive amount of government presence in them.
446 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:15:37am |
re: #443 Charles
Whee! Ten hate mails overnight. Wingnut rage is reaching a fever pitch out there.
Got any fun ones for a morning "We Got Mail!" thread?
447 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:15:48am |
re: #443 Charles
I've been meaning to ask: do you get many 'support' emails? I'd think that more people get fired up to write hate-mail than they do support-mail, and of course a lot of your supporters are just members here, but I'd be interested if you get kind mails from those who aren't members, as well as hate.
You should.
448 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:16:06am |
re: #444 Obdicut
Okay. And I'm not accusing you of any duplicity or a bad argument or anything like that. I'm just pointing out that utilities, being for common usage, have been something that is often government-run, because they have to be so heavily regulated and subsidized anyway. There is no way to get away from the massive amount of government presence in them.
Well, you took the long way round.
Obdicut, I am not a morning person.
449 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:16:08am |
450 | cliffster Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:16:10am |
re: #438 Dark_Falcon
Quite Concur. Federalism and decentralization allow certain task to be government run while keeping overall government power down to manageable levels.
Excellent post, DF. I don't understand why people don't understand this. They feel that if something is going to be done by the government, it has to be in Washington. How they can look at the mess we have now (which was created by this mindset), and think "this is good", is beyond me.
451 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:16:30am |
Film critic Roger Ebert has lost his ability to speak, but still communicates
NEW YORK — Film critic Roger Ebert lost his ability to speak nearly four years ago, when he underwent a tracheostomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe, after surgery for cancer in his jaw.
In an interview in the new issue of Esquire magazine, the 67-year-old film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times uses pen and paper and text-to-speech computer software to communicate. He's developed a kind of rudimentary sign language, and he sometimes draws letters with his finger on the palm of his hand.
Ebert had surgery to remove his cancerous thyroid in 2002. He had surgery on his salivary glands in 2003 and on his jaw in 2006. Complications in 2006 led to more surgery and months of recuperation. He lost his ability to speak.
When asked about another operation to restore his voice, Ebert shakes his head.
452 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:17:13am |
re: #451 NJDhockeyfan
Film critic Roger Ebert has lost his ability to speak, but still communicates
Technology is awesome, but I have to admit, I don't miss hearing him.
453 | Varek Raith Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:17:23am |
re: #449 Dark_Falcon
Good Morning, Varek! Stir up any Force Storms last night?
No, but I think I tossed my neighbors car into the next county...Whoops.
:)
454 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:17:23am |
re: #439 garhighway
Nuclear has been Federalized since its infancy, for excellent reasons. Do you really want the Louisiana Department of Nuclear Energy supervising the construction and operation of something that could, if built or managed badly, kill millions of people? ("Hi, I'm Power Commissioner Thibideaux!" I got this job because I contributed a lot of money to the Governor! I require that all piping be purchased from the Governor's friends.") Or the Madison County, Illinois Department of Nuclear Power? In what universe would that not be crazy?
Your statement is exactly what happens under the federal system, a system where the citizens right to a lawsuit if something goes wrong is severely diminished. If you want to be able to hold people accountable then you should hope they're privately employed by a company that (A) Doesn't want and can't afford lawsuits, and (B) Doesn't want any bad press of any type.
455 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:18:04am |
re: #438 Dark_Falcon
Quite Concur. Federalism and decentralization allow certain task to be government run while keeping overall government power down to manageable levels.
Yes!, what he said.
Much better put DF.
456 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:18:11am |
re: #448 ggt
I am the most disgustingly cheerful and energetic morning person you'll ever have the misfortune to meet. I rise at five-thirty AM every day with a smile.
I'm sorry.
457 | Buck Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:18:16am |
re: #262 darthstar
Another guy who could be talking without being tortured. Oh, the horror! What will Cheney say now?
Nothing in the article seems to say what you think it says. However, it does say that Pak military has been working with the Taliban (and I say that means al-qaeda). I think those officers need to have conversations with a few CIA officers (with a bucket of water in the room).
458 | Varek Raith Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:19:23am |
re: #456 Obdicut
I am the most disgustingly cheerful and energetic morning person you'll ever have the misfortune to meet. I rise at five-thirty AM every day with a smile.
I'm sorry.
Oh...you're one of those...
;)
459 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:19:58am |
re: #454 RogueOne
But the government gets sued all the time, and the government prevents many private companies from being sued as well. For example, you are not allowed to bring a claim against a health insurance company for harm caused by improperly withheld coverage.
I agree that the government shields itself in some ways from lawsuits, but it also shield private industries as well-- and does.
460 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:20:00am |
Why do middle-class Englishwomen love headscarves?
What is it with middle-class Englishwomen and the headscarf? Why do so many ladies from the most sexually-liberated and educated society in history just crave the feel of fabric against their hair?
I was struck by this thought when watching Jihad Jenny Tonge being interviewed by Lauren Booth on Iran’s Press TV – the Liberal Democrat peer, you will remember, was fired after calling for an inquiry into allegations that Israeli soldiers supporting the relief effort in Haiti had been involved with organ-trafficking.
Lauren Booth and myself have something in common – we both used to work for the same lad’s mag years ago, although at different times and in different roles. She was their sex agony-aunt, I was the office dogsbody and gimp. Since then she’s migrated to the New Statesman and Left-wing journalism before embracing the Palestinian cause, Press TV and the Islam channel, where she’s regularly seen in the uniform of the modern British Left, the Arab headscarf.
One of Booth’s colleagues at Press TV, Yvonne Ridley, has gone even further, converting to Islam after she was kidnapped by the Taliban. Now a member of the Respect party, this one-time leftist feminist has since said that “Western feminism pales into insignificance” compared to the solidarity of Muslim women.
461 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:20:01am |
Hatton has released what he describes as an 'A-level' statistical analysis, which tests six IPCC statements against raw data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) Administration. He's published all the raw data and invites criticism, but warns he is neither "a warmist nor a denialist", but a scientist.
is this significant?...or more nit picking?
[Link: www.theregister.co.uk...]
462 | Kragar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:20:21am |
re: #456 Obdicut
I am the most disgustingly cheerful and energetic morning person you'll ever have the misfortune to meet. I rise at five-thirty AM every day with a smile.
I'm sorry.
You son of a bitch. You sir are my sworn enemy. Anyone who comfortably awakens before 10 am and sleeps before midnight has something fundamentally wrong with them.
/
463 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:20:38am |
re: #454 RogueOne
Your statement is exactly what happens under the federal system, a system where the citizens right to a lawsuit if something goes wrong is severely diminished. If you want to be able to hold people accountable then you should hope they're privately employed by a company that (A) Doesn't want and can't afford lawsuits, and (B) Doesn't want any bad press of any type.
And what private utility can afford the private insurance needed to build and operate a nuclear power plant if the Feds were to walk away from loan guarantees and limiting liability?
464 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:20:43am |
re: #451 NJDhockeyfan
Film critic Roger Ebert has lost his ability to speak, but still communicates
Do his thumbs still work?
465 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:20:47am |
re: #456 Obdicut
I am the most disgustingly cheerful and energetic morning person you'll ever have the misfortune to meet. I rise at five-thirty AM every day with a smile.
I'm sorry.
YOU should be!
Add to that my brain is on a sci-fi fiction binge and, well, that doesn't bode well for logical arguments about non-fiction subjects.
I've been blissfully unaware of most of the worlds happenings for months now. I feel like a normal citizen.
466 | Varek Raith Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:20:56am |
re: #462 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)
You son of a bitch. You sir are my sworn enemy. Anyone who comfortably awakens before 10 am and sleeps before midnight has something fundamentally wrong with them.
/
QFT.
/:)
467 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:21:13am |
re: #454 RogueOne
To add to that point, my company does a lot of work with a national pizza chain, who shall remain nameless, that does 99% of their business with kids parties. You can't imagine the engineering overkill to make sure there's no way anything bad can happen. We're talking making restaurants hurricane/tornado/earthquake proof regardless of their locations. All it takes is one little kid to die because of a defect and they're out millions.
468 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:21:30am |
re: #456 Obdicut
I am the most disgustingly cheerful and energetic morning person you'll ever have the misfortune to meet. I rise at five-thirty AM every day with a smile.
I'm sorry.
I hate you.//
469 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:21:47am |
re: #462 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)
Oh, I tend to go to bed at midnight. I also only need about five hours a night.
Look at it this way: During the zombie apocalypse, I'll be great at standing dawn-watch.
470 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:22:04am |
re: #462 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)
You son of a bitch. You sir are my sworn enemy. Anyone who comfortably awakens before 10 am and sleeps before midnight has something fundamentally wrong with them.
/
HERE! HERE!
or is it:
Hear! Hear!
Where is Cato when you need him?
472 | cliffster Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:22:37am |
473 | subsailor68 Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:22:53am |
Morning all! Okay everyone, show of hands! How many folks are surprised by this?
Audit finds US census preparations wasted millions
Generally, I agree that there are some things the feds really do need to do, but it appears they usually have trouble doing them cost-effectively.
Sigh.
474 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:23:03am |
re: #450 cliffster
Excellent post, DF. I don't understand why people don't understand this. They feel that if something is going to be done by the government, it has to be in Washington. How they can look at the mess we have now (which was created by this mindset), and think "this is good", is beyond me.
True dat. And the opposite is true also: there are those (not saying you) who are reflexive in the notion that all government should be local. What's imortant is to define the things the Feds should control - I dunno, water and airline safety? Nuke saftey? What states should control - motor vehicle standards? and what's controlled at the local level - education, zoning, etc.
475 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:23:07am |
476 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:23:18am |
re: #459 Obdicut
But the government gets sued all the time, and the government prevents many private companies from being sued as well. For example, you are not allowed to bring a claim against a health insurance company for harm caused by improperly withheld coverage.
I agree that the government shields itself in some ways from lawsuits, but it also shield private industries as well-- and does.
The government has set up all kinds of immunity issues for themselves and their employees, immunity that private corp's aren't entitled to have.
477 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:23:38am |
re: #457 Buck
Nothing in the article seems to say what you think it says. However, it does say that Pak military has been working with the Taliban (and I say that means al-qaeda). I think those officers need to have conversations with a few CIA officers (with a bucket of water in the room).
Quite Concur. We don't have to waterboard them as a start, but in cases like this it should remain an option.
478 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:23:49am |
re: #467 RogueOne
To add to that point, my company does a lot of work with a national pizza chain, who shall remain nameless, that does 99% of their business with kids parties. You can't imagine the engineering overkill to make sure there's no way anything bad can happen. We're talking making restaurants hurricane/tornado/earthquake proof regardless of their locations. All it takes is one little kid to die because of a defect and they're out millions.
Ah, i worked at one of those birthday party places for a summer. Pizza's were like cardboard. I took some home one night. It might survive a nuclear war, but my beagle wouldn't eat it.
479 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:23:50am |
480 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:24:26am |
481 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:24:37am |
re: #472 cliffster
I give that post two thumbs up.
Now that I think about it, I seem to recall that Disney pulled the thumbs from his show a while back.
482 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:24:40am |
re: #476 RogueOne
Sure. But they have also set up immunity for private corporations as well. They have the power to shield people from lawsuits; they do not reserve that power for themselves, but grant it to private industries as well.
And the government gets sued all the time. State, local, federal.
483 | cliffster Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:24:56am |
I was glad to see an overnight thread dedicated to me, btw. Thanks Charles.
484 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:25:03am |
485 | Kragar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:25:18am |
re: #471 Obdicut
Have you read any Ian M. Banks yet?
I keep forgetting to check him out. I was at the bookstore last week and got hypnotized by the hard cover reprint of the Shannara trilogy in one single volume.
486 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:25:27am |
re: #463 Jeff In Ohio
And what private utility can afford the private insurance needed to build and operate a nuclear power plant if the Feds were to walk away from loan guarantees and limiting liability?
There are plenty of private companies that could come up with the cash. Indiana just leased its toll road a few years ago for 4 billion.
487 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:25:34am |
re: #480 ggt
Consider Phlebas, Look to Windward, Excession, Against a Dark Background, Matter.
That would be my recommending reading order, as well.
488 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:25:42am |
re: #469 Obdicut
Oh, I tend to go to bed at midnight. I also only need about five hours a night.
Look at it this way: During the zombie apocalypse, I'll be great at standing dawn-watch.
The Zombe Apocalypse....excellent title!
489 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:26:33am |
re: #473 subsailor68
Morning all! Okay everyone, show of hands! How many folks are surprised by this?
Audit finds US census preparations wasted millions
Generally, I agree that there are some things the feds really do need to do, but it appears they usually have trouble doing them cost-effectively.
Sigh.
You wanna see large numbers of wasted money? Wait till they pass the health care bill.
490 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:26:34am |
re: #485 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)
Ian M. Banks is stylistically brilliant, has the balls and skills to carry off massive, massive scope-- the conflicts involve galaxy-spanning civilizations-- and still keep everything very 'human'.
He's a master.
491 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:26:43am |
re: #473 subsailor68
Morning all! Okay everyone, show of hands! How many folks are surprised by this?
On a positive note, investigators backed the Census Bureau's decision to spend $133 million on its advertising campaign, saying it was appropriate to boost public awareness. The spending included a $2.5 million Super Bowl spot that some Republicans had criticized as wasteful.
IT IS WASTEFUL.
492 | Charles Johnson Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:26:53am |
re: #447 Obdicut
I've been meaning to ask: do you get many 'support' emails? I'd think that more people get fired up to write hate-mail than they do support-mail, and of course a lot of your supporters are just members here, but I'd be interested if you get kind mails from those who aren't members, as well as hate.
You should.
Yes, I do get supportive emails too -- usually right after posting hate mail. The supportive emails are much fewer than the hate mail, of course, but I always appreciate them.
493 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:27:33am |
re: #479 MandyManners
Oops! "Revert".
She probably will. It's just scaring to see women embracing their own oppression. It's just insane.
494 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:28:25am |
re: #492 Charles
Cool. Good to know that opening your inbox isn't simply Encounters With Stupid.
495 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:28:38am |
re: #487 Obdicut
Consider Phlebas, Look to Windward, Excession, Against a Dark Background, Matter.
That would be my recommending reading order, as well.
In my favorites. I re-listened to Caves of Steel for my last Audible credit. I'm going thru the free podbooks as fast as a I can. Some or rather good, suprisingly. Authors serialize their books on podcast. kinda cool.
I loved Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Gave me a new perspective on Social Capital and a few smiles. I think he is the author that makes all is books available for free --(DRM free or some such acronym.) He uses it as low-cost marketing and doesn't think it has hurt his income at all.
496 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:29:10am |
re: #493 Dark_Falcon
She probably will. It's just scaring to see women embracing their own oppression. It's just insane.
Willful ignorance, too.
497 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:29:46am |
good stuff on the mess Holder has made for himself, and how the BO admin is noodling along with the KSM trial etc...
John B. Bellinger III, the former legal adviser to the State Department during Bush’s second term, has written an op-ed for the New York Times that almost praises Obama's forced nimbleness in resorting to policies of the previous administration when his own policies have gone down in, well, tatters: Guantanamo, prolonged detentions, military tribunals, international law and international jurisdictions. Politically most telling is the nearly certain reversal of the projected Foley Square trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, although Holder is still blowing hot and cold on this. Having made such a fuss about Mohammed's rights to civil jurisdiction, it must be especially painful to have off the pulpit into the real world. Pragmatism is a welcome change from ideological dogmatism and preening.
[Link: www.tnr.com...]
498 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:30:21am |
re: #482 Obdicut
Sure. But they have also set up immunity for private corporations as well. They have the power to shield people from lawsuits; they do not reserve that power for themselves, but grant it to private industries as well.
And the government gets sued all the time. State, local, federal.
I don't think that is correct. When it comes to monetary damages the feds are almost immune to everything. In honesty, the only real reading I've done on the issue is in regards to prosecutors/police actions. That would make a good study if someone hasn't already done one.
499 | cliffster Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:30:45am |
re: #492 Charles
Yes, I do get supportive emails too -- usually right after posting hate mail. The supportive emails are much fewer than the hate mail, of course, but I always appreciate them.
Do you ever get emails telling you about a long-lost uncle in Nigeria that wants to give you $13,000,000,000? If so, we might be cousins.
500 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:32:23am |
I'm still reeling over The City and The City by China Miellville. It was shortlisted for some award --Nebula, I think.
Highly recommended.
Blindsight by Peter Watts was interesting. I don't know how I feel about it yet. Listened to the end, so it was good enough for that anyway. First Contact with a macabre twist.
501 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:32:30am |
re: #498 RogueOne
I don't think that is correct. When it comes to monetary damages the feds are almost immune to everything. In honesty, the only real reading I've done on the issue is in regards to prosecutors/police actions. That would make a good study if someone hasn't already done one.
Ah, that's it, I think. There is a lot, lot, lot more protection for law-enforcement guys against lawsuits, and I agree that much of it is being abused. Seizure laws being chief amongst these total absuses.
However, lawsuits against the government in non-law-enforcement roles have a lot easier time of it.
502 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:33:24am |
re: #491 MandyManners
I've got to disagree with you on that; an accurate census is critical to disbursement of federal funds and aid to localities to say nothing of reapportionment of districts. Getting everyone to participate is critical - and the Super Bowl is a good forum since 1/3 of all Americans tune in for the event. Now, whether this particular ad was effective in conveying the importance is a separate question. I don't think it was particularly effective.
503 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:33:48am |
re: #460 NJDhockeyfan
Isn't that Hamas-loving bastard George Galloway a member of the Respect party?
504 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:34:09am |
re: #501 Obdicut
Ah, that's it, I think. There is a lot, lot, lot more protection for law-enforcement guys against lawsuits, and I agree that much of it is being abused. Seizure laws being chief amongst these total absuses.
However, lawsuits against the government in non-law-enforcement roles have a lot easier time of it.
What about that guy from Ruby Ridge. Didn't he sue--on up the ladder?
505 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:34:39am |
re: #502 lawhawk
I've got to disagree with you on that; an accurate census is critical to disbursement of federal funds and aid to localities to say nothing of reapportionment of districts. Getting everyone to participate is critical - and the Super Bowl is a good forum since 1/3 of all Americans tune in for the event. Now, whether this particular ad was effective in conveying the importance is a separate question. I don't think it was particularly effective.
I was speaking of the $130,000,000.00 total. Surely to goodness it could be done more cheaply.
506 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:34:48am |
re: #496 MandyManners
Willful ignorance, too.
This seems to be a money quote from the article:
Alternatively there simply may be a yearning for certainty in some people, which Islam fills better than anything else. As Miss Mostyn-Owen herself wrote:
“I’ve never regularly attended church, yet I have been to this mosque, my mosque, more times than I can remember. It’s a place where I sometimes feel spiritually transported. As I busy myself on the carpet sorting colours and papers after what is always an exhausting class, I am soothed by the azan of evening prayers, the haunting and sometimes pained invocations to the Almighty. I feel my humility, and then realize this is my act of worship, my submission, my Islam. Forget the fact that only men take part in communal prayers, I am a token Christian discreetly trafficking through the men’s space with my bags of materials, pretending I’m not really there. I am there, I am accepted, and this is all that matters.”
People want to find God and be accepted.
507 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:34:52am |
re: #486 RogueOne
There are plenty of private companies that could come up with the cash. Indiana just leased its toll road a few years ago for 4 billion.
Excellent! I hate toll roads. Now give me an example of one nuclear power plant anywhere that was built exclusively with private money and has no cap on liability.
508 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:35:06am |
509 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:35:07am |
re: #503 MandyManners
Isn't that Hamas-loving bastard George Galloway a member of the Respect party?
Yes, he is.
510 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:36:46am |
re: #504 ggt
What about that guy from Ruby Ridge. Didn't he sue--on up the ladder?
His daughters got $3,000,000.00 and he got less.
511 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:36:47am |
More Continuity Than Change...how BO has bowed to Bush era policy
These realities show that the Bush administration demonstrated a greater commitment to international law in its second term than is generally acknowledged abroad, particularly in Europe, and that there are bedrock domestic political constraints in the U.S. that may prevent the Obama administration from living up to expectations.
[Link: www.nytimes.com...]
512 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:36:59am |
re: #487 Obdicut
Consider Phlebas, Look to Windward, Excession, Against a Dark Background, Matter.
That would be my recommending reading order, as well.
None of those are on audio--thru audible anyway. Will have to do more research.
513 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:37:21am |
re: #507 Jeff In Ohio
Excellent! I hate toll roads. Now give me an example of one nuclear power plant anywhere that was built exclusively with private money and has no cap on liability.
why do you hate toll roads?
514 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:37:27am |
One more interesting link on Nuclear Power and I'm off.
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
Has this interesting tidpit:
"To encourage development of nuclear power, under the Nuclear Power 2010 Program the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has offered interested parties the opportunity to introduce France's model for licensing and to subsidize 25% to 50% of the construction cost overruns due to delays for the first six new plants. Several applications have been made, two sites have been chosen to receive new plants, and other projects are pending (see Nuclear Power 2010 Program)."
515 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:37:38am |
re: #506 Dark_Falcon
People want to find God and be accepted.
No. She's looking for submission and humiliation. That's not the Christian God.
516 | Buck Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:37:41am |
re: #505 MandyManners
I was speaking of the $130,000,000.00 total. Surely to goodness it could be done more cheaply.
I bet Google would do it for free, if you gave them unlimited access to the data...
I have been in meetings with these guys, and the idea that they want to index everything is real.
517 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:37:59am |
re: #507 Jeff In Ohio
Excellent! I hate toll roads. Now give me an example of one nuclear power plant anywhere that was built exclusively with private money and has no cap on liability.
Since we haven't built one in a few decades that example is going to be hard to come up with. There are a lot of large energy corps (evil halliburton included) that could provide the money and expertise.
Here is a story about Toshiba and their plan to build a small one in Alaska:
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
518 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:38:07am |
519 | Sheila Broflovski Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:38:09am |
re: #391 EmmmieG
I will confess that I don't get the British laws that you can spend your life on welfare, if you choose.
They had some woman in the paper the other day that is my age, and has never held a job, no kids, but she gets a "job seeker's allowance." For over twenty years.
Just damn. I have been looking for a full time job for the past three years, my unemployment ran out long ago, and I get NOTHING from the government. All I live on is from what folks buy from me at the Zionist Mall and tax-free donations to my foundation, which have been few and far between.
I am living in the wrong country.
520 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:39:10am |
re: #516 Buck
I bet Google would do it for free, if you gave them unlimited access to the data...
I have been in meetings with these guys, and the idea that they want to index everything is real.
I'm talking about advertising. Not everyone is on the Internet. (Do those who aren't really count?)
521 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:39:11am |
How do you keep people from trespassing on your farm?
Why landmines, of course.
A Russian farmer has been convicted of planting landmines around his field to ward off trespassers.
Alexander Skopintsev, from the eastern region of Primorye near China's border, laid the three devices on his land after building them in his garage.
The 73-year-old had apparently been concerned about the frequent theft of potatoes from his farm.
He was arrested after an intruder set off one of the tripwire-style mines in August and was injured in the blast.
Skopintsev was convicted for the unlawful construction and storage of weapons and received a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence.
"Skopintsev testified that he had prepared the explosive devices to protect his garden against thieves," regional prosecutors said in a statement reported by RIA-Novosti news agency.
522 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:39:18am |
re: #512 ggt
Yeah, he can be hard to get over here, too-- he's a Brit.
523 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:40:18am |
524 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:40:22am |
re: #517 RogueOne
Since we haven't built one in a few decades that example is going to be hard to come up with. There are a lot of large energy corps (evil halliburton included) that could provide the money and expertise.
Here is a story about Toshiba and their plan to build a small one in Alaska:
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
is there a problem with Hyperions?...beyond political bickering?
[Link: www.hyperionpowergeneration.com...]
525 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:41:09am |
re: #524 albusteve
is there a problem with Hyperions?...beyond political bickering?
[Link: www.hyperionpowergeneration.com...]
Yes, the Shrike have a Temple there.
526 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:42:15am |
re: #525 ggt
Yes, the Shrike have a Temple there.
I have no clue...I don't follow the fantasy stuff here, other than the feds
528 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:43:15am |
Computer geek clean computer. Computer geek do good job.
529 | Mostly sane, most of the time. Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:43:31am |
530 | Cannadian Club Akbar Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:43:32am |
531 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:44:17am |
532 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:44:37am |
re: #526 albusteve
I have no clue...I don't follow the fantasy stuff here, other than the feds
Well, it's a place with a horrible tree of impalement. People don't die just linger in pain forever. You don't want to go there.
533 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:44:45am |
re: #524 albusteve
is there a problem with Hyperions?...beyond political bickering?
[Link: www.hyperionpowergeneration.com...]
I don't know and that's part of the reason I think this should be left up to the market. When the feds choose one form of energy over another they force the market in a specific direction. Look at all the money we've poured down the Ethanol well, completely wasted money. The market will figure out which systems are financially viable and profitable on their own as long as their isn't interference on the federal level.
534 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:45:38am |
re: #533 RogueOne
PIMF, I'll let the rest of you figure out which word was misspelled.
535 | Buck Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:45:46am |
re: #520 MandyManners
I'm talking about advertising. Not everyone is on the Internet. (Do those who aren't really count?)
They want to index everything, even people and things not in the internet.
What if the government wanted to take a picture of every street in every city, in every country? How much do you think that would cost. Googles doing it.
What if the government wanted to scan and index every book in existence?
I am kinda just kidding about the census... but I would rather they work on it over ACORN.
536 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:45:52am |
537 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:45:54am |
re: #527 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I LIKE POTATOES!
Is that you, Dickhead? Have you burned out wife No. Three's hand-mixer yet fixing those fucking mashed potatoes?
538 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:46:20am |
re: #533 RogueOne
The free market does not produce nuclear energy, though. That takes massive subsidies.
Free market gives us what we have now.
539 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:46:38am |
re: #517 RogueOne
Since we haven't built one in a few decades that example is going to be hard to come up with. There are a lot of large energy corps (evil halliburton included) that could provide the money and expertise.
Here is a story about Toshiba and their plan to build a small one in Alaska:
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
Thanks for the link. I'll check that out.
540 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:47:02am |
re: #537 MandyManners
I don't get it... but funny.
541 | Jeff In Ohio Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:47:06am |
542 | Dark_Falcon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:47:12am |
re: #521 NJDhockeyfan
How do you keep people from trespassing on your farm?
Why landmines, of course.
They've found nastier stuff than that buried in western Russia and in the Ukraine. Digging up WWII guns got raised to an art form there, with Soviet TT-33 Tokarevs being a favored assassination tool, since theey were mostly untracable. German Lugars are also prized, but mostly these are retained as collector's pieces, since then tend to be in much better shape due to their superior German manufacture.
543 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:47:24am |
re: #528 Cannadian Club Akbar
Computer geek clean computer. Computer geek do good job.
Come to my pad and burn by Restore disk!
544 | Mostly sane, most of the time. Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:47:43am |
545 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:48:34am |
re: #540 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I don't get it... but funny.
I burned out my brand new mixer fixing yet another side of fucking mashed potatoes. Dickhead zipped to WalMart to get me another one then bitched because they didn't come out right.
546 | NJDhockeyfan Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:48:59am |
Some lovely news from Canada...
Conference on Muslims in the media too hot for some of its speakers
Stouffville, Ont. -- Western media have a "spiteful policy" toward Iran of inventing "fraudulent" news to "increase false national expectation" and "encourage disturbance," according to the cultural attaché in the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Hamid Mohammadi said media deception has caused hatred and fear of Muslims by presenting the "false belief that religion is incapable of running a country" and that Iran is therefore illegitimate. He said the result has been political "position changing" by Western countries against Muslims. He quoted an "American thinker," whose name did not come clearly through his strong accent, to the effect that "future wars are in the hands of the media, and their words are more effective than bullets."
Somehow, his brief remarks were among the least controversial at a conference about the "Media War on Islam" on Sunday at a Toronto-area Islamic centre, in which the Christmas Day underwear bomber was described as the tool of an Israeli plot; Barack Obama was referred to as "Mr. Black Man"; al-Qaeda was called "the figment of the imagination of the West"; and a video was shown that mocked 9/11 by putting the Muppet Show logo over slow-motion footage of the second plane's impact, with screams of terror for audio.
...Inside the hall, among the audience of 300 or so, organizer Zafar Bangash welcomed his Iranian guest by quipping that, even with freedom of assembly, the protesters only managed to summon a "pathetic" two dozen to the rural roadside gates of the Islamic Society of York Region.
Mr. Bangash also held up for the audience a clear plastic bag full of what he said were burned pages of the Koran, rescued recently from the parking lot of a nearby plaza after protesters -- the same ones who were outside, he said -- set the holy book on fire.
He said he told police that if protesters were to trespass, "I guarantee nothing," to which the audience responded with chants of "Allahu Akbar."
Very creepy.
547 | Mostly sane, most of the time. Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:49:07am |
re: #545 MandyManners
I burned out my brand new mixer fixing yet another side of fucking mashed potatoes. Dickhead zipped to WalMart to get me another one then bitched because they didn't come out right.
My mashed potatoes just sit there.
(Sorry, set up too well; couldn't resist.)
548 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:49:36am |
549 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:49:47am |
re: #544 EmmmieG
There's a Wife No. Three?
(We females drive me nuts sometimes.)
He might be onto No. Four. Beats me. I've not talked to my P.I. who's on retainer to keep track of his movements.
551 | Gretchen G.Tiger Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:50:33am |
re: #547 EmmmieG
My mashed potatoes just sit there.
(Sorry, set up too well; couldn't resist.)
Mashed potatoes are a lot of work. You know you can by them already mashed and smothered in butter at the deli at the grocery store? I find they will make deviled eggs to order too!
553 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:51:00am |
re: #546 NJDhockeyfan
Some lovely news from Canada...
Conference on Muslims in the media too hot for some of its speakers
Very creepy.
Creeping Sharia!
554 | badger1970 Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:51:04am |
re: #452 ggt
Siskel was his balance. When he died Ebert went off the edge.
555 | RogueOne Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:51:17am |
re: #538 Obdicut
The free market does not produce nuclear energy, though. That takes massive subsidies.
Free market gives us what we have now.
But it shouldn't take massive subsidies. The problem these energy companies run into are not just local ordinances and federal guidelines. They also have to spend millions doing impact studies and fighting lawsuits designed to keep them from ever even starting construction. If the feds would just come out and say "Nuclear power is safe and we want one built here" we could be humming along with construction in no time.
556 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:51:23am |
re: #547 EmmmieG
My mashed potatoes just sit there.
(Sorry, set up too well; couldn't resist.)
No copulating taters?
557 | albusteve Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:51:37am |
re: #533 RogueOne
I don't know and that's part of the reason I think this should be left up to the market. When the feds choose one form of energy over another they force the market in a specific direction. Look at all the money we've poured down the Ethanol well, completely wasted money. The market will figure out which systems are financially viable and profitable on their own as long as their isn't interference on the federal level.
well said...the Ethanol Scam particularly pisses me off...there is a way out of this energy mess, if solutions are given a chance...this is America and nothing is impossible
558 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:51:49am |
559 | Mostly sane, most of the time. Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:52:40am |
re: #556 MandyManners
Well, I suppose they do reproduce, and I've had some that tried to get a head start in the cupboard because I wasn't paying attention.
560 | badger1970 Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:52:53am |
re: #478 ggt
A beagle that doesn't touch pizza? That must have been very, very bad 'za.
561 | lawhawk Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:53:49am |
re: #538 Obdicut
The free market has figured that the cheap energy is where it's at - coal, oil, and natural gas. Nuclear power is expensive. Part of that has to do with a few factors, but consider this.
A nuclear power plant is expensive to build initially, but cheaper to maintain annually since it doesn't get refueled every year (10-20 years is typical, though could be much longer depending on the setup).
It's cheap to build a conventional oil or coal plant, but expensive to fuel since it requires constant fuel shipments. That doesn't include needed emissions upgrades that can run in to the hundreds of millions for a large power plant.
Some of the costs are inherent in the design of the facilities; some are specific to siting nuclear power plants - reduce the costs by standardizing designs and streamling the siting process, and the costs drop.
564 | SanFranciscoZionist Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:57:04am |
re: #475 MandyManners
Why doesn't Tonge just go ahead and convert?
Middle-class Englishwomen have always worn headscarves. The traditional style is a square folded into a triangle and tied under the chin. Protects your perm while you're out getting the shop done.
/Tonge got fired, no? Over the crap about Israelis harvesting organs in Haiti?
565 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:57:39am |
re: #559 EmmmieG
Well, I suppose they do reproduce, and I've had some that tried to get a head start in the cupboard because I wasn't paying attention.
Ain't nothing like the smell of a rotten potato.
566 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:58:13am |
re: #564 SanFranciscoZionist
Middle-class Englishwomen have always worn headscarves. The traditional style is a square folded into a triangle and tied under the chin. Protects your perm while you're out getting the shop done.
/Tonge got fired, no? Over the crap about Israelis harvesting organs in Haiti?
Yes, she got booted. Good riddance.
567 | Fat Bastard Vegetarian Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:58:34am |
re: #565 MandyManners
Ain't nothing like the smell of a rotten potato.
Gag a maggot
Choke a roach
Knock a dead dog off a gut wagon.
568 | SanFranciscoZionist Tue, Feb 16, 2010 9:59:39am |
569 | Obdicut Tue, Feb 16, 2010 10:00:03am |
re: #555 RogueOne
I'm sorry, but that's not true. The government has to subsidise the insurance for the nuclear plants, for one easy example. Most of the cost of a nuke plant is capital expenditure to meet regulations-- and impact studies are definitely necessary.
Wiki actually has a pretty solid article on nuke plant building and why the current market disincentivizes them.
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
570 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 10:00:35am |
re: #567 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Gag a maggot
Choke a roach
Knock a dead dog off a gut wagon.
I've not heard that last before. Quite the image.
571 | MandyManners Tue, Feb 16, 2010 10:01:25am |
re: #568 SanFranciscoZionist
Yeah, but they're HIS taters. And he's a Tatar.
He's gonna' be a locked-up Tatar!
573 | ryannon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 10:35:58am |
re: #12 WindUpBird
Oh shit, Windupbird made creepy art: [Link: s933.photobucket.com...]
(okay, this is a couple years old)
That Red Angel is quite good. Nothing creepy about at all - other than the creeps who would judge it as being creepy.
574 | ryannon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 10:37:45am |
re: #15 Cato the Elder
That's just old, dude.
A young woman I know just got her tongue split.
All her older friends were, like, think of all the jobs you'll never get.
I was all, girl, split tongue is sooo last millennium. You wanna shock me? Get it fanned.
Better yet, Sweetie, just have it cut out.
575 | ryannon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 10:45:17am |
re: #23 WindUpBird
I'm a traditionalist. Just get tattoos! And pretty ones, designed by artists who aren't JUST flash artists. None of this tribal jagged zigzag crap or skulls with eyeballs in them.
As usual, the Stones were decades ahead of the curve....
576 | Feline Emperor of the Conservative Waste Tue, Feb 16, 2010 10:50:07am |
re: #507 Jeff In Ohio
Looks like toll roads are about as old as civilization...