After having lived in Saudi Arabia for a year (admittedly 14 years ago... snip... uninformed bullshit... snip... blah blah blah..., etc
14 years. Right. The 'crazy' guy you refer to, does not 'run' Iran. The President there is more of a figurehead. Double-check your CIA factbook. Oh, and I'm glad the Saudi's aren't anti-West or down on USA otherwise it would have been them hijacking the planes into NYC... oh wait.
I've known Iranians for 40 years. I met a shitload of sons and daughters of Iranian military people (officers, not grunts). Their dads had fled Iran when the CIA's 'choice' to run the country (a real nutcase known as the Shah of Iran) was finally ousted. And guess what, they were fucking done, over, dogfood, as far as the regular citizens of Iran were concerned, too.
Last but not least, given your total lack of a grip on the situation, guess which country was the first to offer tangible military and intelligence aid following the bombing of the World Trade Center? That's right, stupid, Iran.
And if you don't think a Life of Islam is morally superior to the westernized version of 'Life' that the West has degenerated into, then I have a simple question: Exactly what version of a Muslim are you? Not a religious or spiritual one, right? So, what... a 'cultural' Muslim. What's that? Muslim 'when it suits you'?
I'm not a Muslim, but several of my best friends are. And two of them were heads of the most highly-regarded departments of Islamic Studies, in the world, (highly-regarded by Muslims, not university ranking bullshit) those being Toronto and McGill (McGill is ranked highest, and Harvard dukes it out with TO for #2). That makes me no expert, of course, but these people, and the Muslims I've known for forty years, are singing a far different tune than you. Why is that I wonder? Perhaps because they live Islamic lives. Try it, then do some contemporary study, then get back to us.
So, there's the door, and don't forget to kiss my fucking ass on your way back to Riyadh.
I am more concerned by the fact that turning this into a criminal matter has provided government and corporations the impetus to do away with our privacy and rights altogether simply to provide protection for a few companies profit margins.
Don't Forget
These companies are also either in, or connected to businesses (Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Honeywell, Wackenhut, etc) that are in the prison business for profit. So, it is in the corporate ruling class interest to criminalize as many people as possible, for long terms, etc.
There's a reason why America, per capita, is the most heavily imprisoned population in the history of the World.
This hangup about defending our bullshit economy which truly only services the "haves" in the first place is being taken to extremes and I'm getting tired of it.
God Damn! Exactly. Nobody comes out and says this. I'm sure individuals have, but it seems ridiculously rare.
None of us are born taking shortcuts or aspiring to be thieves, per se. But after decades of seeing the corporations bowed down to, and fed poorly-paid, no-med coverage slaves, have laws crafted to facilitate their operations, caps on liability suits, etc, and then seeing them whine like the weakest bitches when their exorbitant profits take a blip somehow... I've fucking had it too.
And I know people are going to say, "You can't afford, don't read/play/use, etc. I understand that. But there's a flipside to it also: Paying these people just validates their inhuman, criminally out-of-whack model. I won't do it. And I also encourage others to take what you need, leave the rest, and give back to the world at large.
I'm curious to know what part of your body you intend to use to push the pedals...
Thighs, mostly, and momentum, dumbass. I, too, have mobility issues (compartment syndrome, post necrotic right leg, no extensors on right leg, etc).
With the resultant dropped foot, and missing muscles, standing is torture, much sooner than the OP's note, and walking several miles used to result in a squishy sound from a right sneaker full of blood, but guess what, Mr. Clueless re:Physics? At the same time I was riding a Trek 7200 back and forth 12 miles each way to my job in a hospital.
What do you know, eh? Live and learn, or, continue to live and take up space. Your choice. Ever heard of coasting a bit? How much of that do you perform while walking. Go ahead, look it up if it stumps you. Clueless toad.
Dumbness aside, someone was allegedly listening in while you're on hold.. how bored can one be?
heheh. You know, there's a flip side to that.
I was doing some phone sales, and often would hear a husband or wife, in the background, talking, and I would say, "Is that your partner? Can you get him/her on another extension so we can all hear each other and ask questions?"
Invariably, the one who was 'in the background' would go for it (for obvious reasons/issues of 'control') and after running through my scenarios and answering some queries I'd say, "Oh no, I have a very quick call coming in, let me take this, I'll be quick..." They'd agree, I'd flip a switch and mute my mic, and sit there and listen to the two of them 'argue/discuss' the pitch, always assuming I was 'gone'.
I'd listen, determine who my ally was in the situation, hear the crux of the objection, come back, apologetically, from my 'other call' and close the deal. You could have set your watch to the scenario, it was that regular.
I trained people, live, with my 'couples' on speaker phones, as I pretended to be on another line. The trainees were startled, at first. Heheh, that was Montréal, the Phone Capitol of the World, at that time.
The point is, you need to isolate the speaker or it will act like a microphone.
Would switching the wire contacts on the speaker serve to reverse polarity (on these type speakers) and act as cancellation of any sound present in both 'mics' or speaker-acting-as? So that the direct voice in the actual 'microphone' would pass and the speaker (acting as a mic) would pass nothing? Or is there more to it than that? I'm asking, not a trick question. Just curious.
I'm glad I know your posting history well enough to ignore it.
Gosh, I love it when a guy stands up and brags about his own ignorance.
Read the text of the law, and the details of how it maneuvers through anticipated judicial appeals, with the 'right', granted in the law, to keep breaking the law as the 'case' slowly winds its way through the system.
Oops, I forgot, you're an ignorant fuck, and proud! of it, so I suppose acquainting yourself with the details is counterproductive, or 'for sissies', eh?
Oh well, then have fun being a self-admitted moron, loser. Oh, and enjoy your ER palliative triage morphine in lieu of 'socialist' health care, too. And relax, as the cancer eats its way through your useless, wasted, ignorant rotting flesh, the morphine will make it all better... um, for all of us, in your case.
At least this vote will make it painfully clear which politicians should stay and which should be removed post-haste.
Not necessarily. Some of the movers and shakers in the Democratic leadership, who have been literally hounding the lesser 'lights' in an already-acquiescent democratic majority to vote 'aye', will turn around and vote 'No', with the understanding that enough red dog dems, and of course, all the republicans, will create the majority 'ayes have it'.
Glenn Greenwald, over at salon.com, has been on this for a while, and apparently there are grass roots orgs that have sprouted, almost overnight, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations (from the 'little', still hopeful, people), to go after those responsible, and defeat them in the coming elections.
And that phony, Obama, recently came out and endorsed a red dog Democrat (Bonnor, a white guy, for fuck's sake) in North Carolina, who is facing a strong, heavily grassroots-supported challenge by a black female Democrat who is running against him, specifically over this issue and his history of voting for all the most nefarious Republican bills to dismantle what remains of the Constitution. So Obama endorses a fascist collaborator, in no uncertain terms, and by remaining silent on this issue (lately), will no doubt do the 'weasel' move and vote No. What a phony asshole, and what a load of gullible schmucks swallowing his, admittedly brilliant talk-the-talk, and turning a blind eye to his lack of 'walk-the-walk.' Another very sad day, in a string of sad ones, for the US and its people.
Of course we might need another billion in political campaigning against the bozos in charge.
Interesting. But, these 'bozos' you speak of? Do you mean the lackeys who represent the Power Structure in America? If so, I'm afraid history, and the fact that America is not populated by people who will take action based on 'ideas', means there's both good news, and bad news.
The bad news? 3 or 4 million people will actually have to be killed (I know that sounds a tad harsh, but really, you need to get the relatives and legions of young 'up-and-comers', brown-nosers and speechwriters, etc, it adds up, believe it);
but the good news is, you can save most of that billion dollars and get the job done with volunteers and less than 100 grands worth of 9 millimeters and ammo, one nine miller, base of one robber baron (facilitator, lackey, etc) skull. Next.
Spend the other 900 thou on lighting up some dark fiber, and we'll get back to actually being what this country pretends to 'represent', for real. But in the scheme of US history, we have a murderous, self-absorbed group of heavily-armed counter-revolutionaries in control of almost everything. And it is delusional to think that voting, for anyone, or letters, or street protests (etc) is going to change anything. These people live by destruction and the gun, and they'll only be replaced in the same manner. It's ugly, I know. But accept the need to deal, seriously, with these murderous, greedy, godless thieves, or get ready to accept an escalation of the status quo. Those are the only viable, historically-demonstrated (over and over) 'choices.'
Live free or die... recall that? I don't know about anyone else, but I only see one viable choice in there.
They (the active duty military members) are very PROUD of what they are doing and see how it is helping the local populace.
I suggest you go do some volunteer work with Vets, like I have, for years, and then come back with 'stats' that don't prove what an uninformed, idiotic, asshole you are. Just a suggestion, fuckwad. And in the meantime, let's look at the big picture. What 'slice' of American demographics, as a whole, do you suppose the losers whose best means of survival (work/eat) was to join the fucking army? Hint: It's not the intelligentsia, the educated, the American history-savvy squad, okay? I support the boys in the service, 100%, but at least they know, firsthand, what's really going on, and believe me, they are bitched out like never before, right now.
Bush, and asshats like you (by uninformed, retarded 'proxy'), have murdered and maimed tens of thousands of our guys and civilians, to enrich Republican, neo-con 'special interests', may they all die agonizingly slow and painful deaths on their way to their Born-Again Hell. Amen.
Not to disagree with the overall sentiment, but it's amazing how any war we get into solely to defend Europe's interests is seen as "right" and any for our own "wrong"...
Gee, do you think maybe it has something to do with the europeans not having figured out how much fun it is to wage over-matched warfare against the poorest fucking countries on the God-damned planet? What do you think?
And in the absence of that grand fun, there's all those war by proxy, right-wing death squads, and shit they can look forward to. Gosh, why do we all hate the US so bad? I mean, so what if they killed more* peasants and laborers and civilians than Hitler ever imagined (*since the end of WWII). Once the Europeans join in, then we'll all be the good guys, eh? (For extra credit, and as a warm up): Where did 18-21 million North American natives (you know, Indians) go? Jesus Murphy, that's like three times the loss of European Jewry, right there. We're on a roll, mofo'
How in the world would people be able stomach what would need to be done if there were a real war on?
Oh, don't worry pardner, we figured all that out in Vietnam.
You see, the mistake back then was we switched to white boys from Iowa and Nebraska, and when they started coming back in pine boxes, the shit hit the fan and we bailed out of Vietnam. But as long as it was just drafted Negroes and Mexicans getting shot up, and loudmouth students and crazy black political types ranting about it, all was well.
So, in the event of a war calling for European, or Russian-style, sacrifices (see Russian Red Army and peasants versus Panzer Divisions), we'll skip the white kids and just draft all the nigs and spics, and Bob's yer Uncle (Sam). It may be a long, long way to Tipperary, but relax, we have a shitload of pine boxes that know the way back to Detroit.
Perhaps, but I flunked a chemo-related blood test (viral load up instead of down), early today, and you, my friend, got the first involuntary laugh out of me, moments ago, and I thank you for that. No kidding.
But it does mean that despite the admittedly awful example of domestic security legislation set by the USA, there are still some areas where we are doing ok, for now.
i pray for the day bloggers will start attending city council meetings...
Strange, an astute observation (wish?), hard to say which, but no mod points.
I'll call it Insightful, based on the proposition that all politics is, essentially, local, and the place to get involved ('expend ones energy') is 'close to home', where the changes will impact where one lives one's life.
We can bitch and moan all we want about Washington, D.C., but our home towns are where the action really is. I have no idea how the AC intended this comment, it could be a bit cynical, given the general impression I have about bloggers (with exceptions), nevertheless, the sentiment has very rational roots, and if it was an exhortation I say, "Hear, hear! I'm with the AC on this one."
City Council members tend to blow shit hemorrhages when people start turning up on a regular basis. It has something to do with lacking the balls to do publicly what they're used to doing in private. As well, the US media has abdicated its fundamental role in the balance of power in our society, and someone has to fill that vacuum, and why not us and people (whether they 'agree' with us or not) like us?
Bloomberg. It is the gold standard for information.
Agreed. In another lifetime (it seems, now), the mid-Eighties, I had the full Bloomberg terminals, at my home in Costa Mesa, CA. It was costing a fortune, and I was only running money for four guys. But we all made out like bandits. My order desk was rifling buy/sells to one floor above the Floor.
I got great execution. Most of the 'online' forums are nothing but pump 'n' dump scammers and guys that are a little 'smarter' than they actually are. But the way to really have fun isn't Day Trading, not for me, anyway. My favorite 'accidental' 'brainiac' move was to sit on a fountain near the NYSE at lunch, and spot the right guy, with his laptop out, inhaling a corned beef (etc), look all dead serious, and ask, "Who do you like this afternoon?" I did that for a couple weeks in Manhattan, and made a small boatload of cash.
I know enough about odds, to have pretty-much decided, after enough events, that I had probably been benefiting from front-runners. I met guys who could pull down a hundred grand on their lunch hours, near triple witching days and 'odd' times like that.
I was not 'smarter' than the 'other guy', but I knew this, and didn't take myself too seriously. So I played issues that I knew, and had nice big blips around some fortuitous (and totally ethical) moves into stocks that were set to outperform (exceed expectations) right before quarterly results were due from the companies, themselves. There's nothing sweeter than entering the Market right before the close, and having a sell order in place for a specific time, close to the Open in the morning. Damn, give me deal that I can grasp, immediately, and limit the market risk (exposure), and I'm happy (8 times out of 10).
My 'story', when I pitched someone else, always made good, rational sense. But when your only 'gun' is rationality, you are doomed, at least periodically, in almost any market, if you stick around long enough. Sometimes it's safer to go with the herd, and bail out early. Let the daredevils find the 'bottoms', cede them the first 5-10% upward move, then get in, and then cede the 'tops' to the greedy goofballs. Taking even 70% of movement to the upside, and stifling greedy impulses, might be the surest bet. But how would I know? Past performance, does not... blah blah blah.
Really, we need a new mod label for these moronic, 'imaginary' free market asshats. Down here in the US we have basically bankrupted ourselves forever in the name of de-regulation. It's pathetic, and then here comes neo-con-Dudley DoWrong, totally oblivious to reams of contrarian, factual (as in 'real', Dudley) data, practically pouring in with the actual results of de-reg: The Savings & Loan crisis, Enron, Mortgage and sub-prime lending, Derivative 'swaps' that nobody could actually value, or assign a risk factor to, and on and on. These libertarian, greedy, morons never give up, the facts be damned, eh?
The thing is that service providers and their customer are much better able to agree on reasonable terms than the gov't is to dictate terms of agreements for everyone.
You know, when I saw this my first reaction made me stop and think, "easy, ~flipper, there's a huge chance this guy really is mentally retarded, for real"
But... on the other hand, so what? Are you fucking retarded or what? If you are, well, sorry about that, and that explains everything. However, let me ask another question, "What planet can Internet access subscribers find ISPs that will 'negotiate', or, as you, the retard from space, put it: "agree on reasonable terms". Not Canada, right? Since I live in the States now, let me qualify by mentioning that I spent over 30 years in Canada, (Vancouver, Edmonton, middle of nowhere, Yellowknife, and Montréal) and if there is any place in Canada where you can subscribe to multiple cable systems that are willing to 'negotiate' terms of use, well, buddy, I am all ears.
Absolutely nothing at all. I used to save things as RTF files or in proprietary versions of such (and still have loads of doc files, being an Office user also). But everything that matters to me gets saved as plain text. (in either TextPad or BBEdit, platform depending).
I understand that the issues with file formats, and the corporate uses of Excel and whatnot, are a separate issue, entirely, but, for regular people like me, plain text is perfect. Content is king. (with all due respect to designers, as I do realize that the purpose can make design extremely important). But the data is what I need, over time.
If giving a false name over the internet is illegal then almost everyone posting here is breaking the law.
Giving a false name, by itself, is not illegal in the US, unless the use of the false name is for a fraudulent purpose. I have had the IRS except three or more W-2 forms from me that were all named differently, but with my normal Social Security number on all them. The IRS didn't care one bit, because there was no fraudy. Anyway, it's my understanding that giving an alias is fine online and off, it's all about 'intent.'
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's safe to say you've probably had enough coca leaves for this election cycle.
14 years. Right. The 'crazy' guy you refer to, does not 'run' Iran. The President there is more of a figurehead. Double-check your CIA factbook. Oh, and I'm glad the Saudi's aren't anti-West or down on USA otherwise it would have been them hijacking the planes into NYC... oh wait.
I've known Iranians for 40 years. I met a shitload of sons and daughters of Iranian military people (officers, not grunts). Their dads had fled Iran when the CIA's 'choice' to run the country (a real nutcase known as the Shah of Iran) was finally ousted. And guess what, they were fucking done, over, dogfood, as far as the regular citizens of Iran were concerned, too.
Last but not least, given your total lack of a grip on the situation, guess which country was the first to offer tangible military and intelligence aid following the bombing of the World Trade Center? That's right, stupid, Iran.
And if you don't think a Life of Islam is morally superior to the westernized version of 'Life' that the West has degenerated into, then I have a simple question: Exactly what version of a Muslim are you? Not a religious or spiritual one, right? So, what... a 'cultural' Muslim. What's that? Muslim 'when it suits you'?
I'm not a Muslim, but several of my best friends are. And two of them were heads of the most highly-regarded departments of Islamic Studies, in the world, (highly-regarded by Muslims, not university ranking bullshit) those being Toronto and McGill (McGill is ranked highest, and Harvard dukes it out with TO for #2). That makes me no expert, of course, but these people, and the Muslims I've known for forty years, are singing a far different tune than you. Why is that I wonder? Perhaps because they live Islamic lives. Try it, then do some contemporary study, then get back to us.
So, there's the door, and don't forget to kiss my fucking ass on your way back to Riyadh.
Don't Forget
These companies are also either in, or connected to businesses (Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Honeywell, Wackenhut, etc) that are in the prison business for profit. So, it is in the corporate ruling class interest to criminalize as many people as possible, for long terms, etc.
There's a reason why America, per capita, is the most heavily imprisoned population in the history of the World.
God Damn! Exactly. Nobody comes out and says this. I'm sure individuals have, but it seems ridiculously rare.
None of us are born taking shortcuts or aspiring to be thieves, per se. But after decades of seeing the corporations bowed down to, and fed poorly-paid, no-med coverage slaves, have laws crafted to facilitate their operations, caps on liability suits, etc, and then seeing them whine like the weakest bitches when their exorbitant profits take a blip somehow... I've fucking had it too.
And I know people are going to say, "You can't afford, don't read/play/use, etc. I understand that. But there's a flipside to it also: Paying these people just validates their inhuman, criminally out-of-whack model. I won't do it. And I also encourage others to take what you need, leave the rest, and give back to the world at large.
Sure. Just keep telling yourself that. Oh, and add "dishonest asshole" to the list, and wear it with pride, asswipe.
Thighs, mostly, and momentum, dumbass. I, too, have mobility issues (compartment syndrome, post necrotic right leg, no extensors on right leg, etc).
With the resultant dropped foot, and missing muscles, standing is torture, much sooner than the OP's note, and walking several miles used to result in a squishy sound from a right sneaker full of blood, but guess what, Mr. Clueless re:Physics? At the same time I was riding a Trek 7200 back and forth 12 miles each way to my job in a hospital.
What do you know, eh? Live and learn, or, continue to live and take up space. Your choice. Ever heard of coasting a bit? How much of that do you perform while walking. Go ahead, look it up if it stumps you. Clueless toad.
Bikes rock.
heheh. You know, there's a flip side to that.
I was doing some phone sales, and often would hear a husband or wife, in the background, talking, and I would say, "Is that your partner? Can you get him/her on another extension so we can all hear each other and ask questions?"
Invariably, the one who was 'in the background' would go for it (for obvious reasons/issues of 'control') and after running through my scenarios and answering some queries I'd say, "Oh no, I have a very quick call coming in, let me take this, I'll be quick..." They'd agree, I'd flip a switch and mute my mic, and sit there and listen to the two of them 'argue/discuss' the pitch, always assuming I was 'gone'.
I'd listen, determine who my ally was in the situation, hear the crux of the objection, come back, apologetically, from my 'other call' and close the deal. You could have set your watch to the scenario, it was that regular.
I trained people, live, with my 'couples' on speaker phones, as I pretended to be on another line. The trainees were startled, at first. Heheh, that was Montréal, the Phone Capitol of the World, at that time.
Would switching the wire contacts on the speaker serve to reverse polarity (on these type speakers) and act as cancellation of any sound present in both 'mics' or speaker-acting-as? So that the direct voice in the actual 'microphone' would pass and the speaker (acting as a mic) would pass nothing? Or is there more to it than that? I'm asking, not a trick question. Just curious.
Gosh, I love it when a guy stands up and brags about his own ignorance.
Read the text of the law, and the details of how it maneuvers through anticipated judicial appeals, with the 'right', granted in the law, to keep breaking the law as the 'case' slowly winds its way through the system.
Oops, I forgot, you're an ignorant fuck, and proud! of it, so I suppose acquainting yourself with the details is counterproductive, or 'for sissies', eh?
Oh well, then have fun being a self-admitted moron, loser. Oh, and enjoy your ER palliative triage morphine in lieu of 'socialist' health care, too. And relax, as the cancer eats its way through your useless, wasted, ignorant rotting flesh, the morphine will make it all better... um, for all of us, in your case.
Not necessarily. Some of the movers and shakers in the Democratic leadership, who have been literally hounding the lesser 'lights' in an already-acquiescent democratic majority to vote 'aye', will turn around and vote 'No', with the understanding that enough red dog dems, and of course, all the republicans, will create the majority 'ayes have it'.
Glenn Greenwald, over at salon.com, has been on this for a while, and apparently there are grass roots orgs that have sprouted, almost overnight, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations (from the 'little', still hopeful, people), to go after those responsible, and defeat them in the coming elections.
And that phony, Obama, recently came out and endorsed a red dog Democrat (Bonnor, a white guy, for fuck's sake) in North Carolina, who is facing a strong, heavily grassroots-supported challenge by a black female Democrat who is running against him, specifically over this issue and his history of voting for all the most nefarious Republican bills to dismantle what remains of the Constitution. So Obama endorses a fascist collaborator, in no uncertain terms, and by remaining silent on this issue (lately), will no doubt do the 'weasel' move and vote No. What a phony asshole, and what a load of gullible schmucks swallowing his, admittedly brilliant talk-the-talk, and turning a blind eye to his lack of 'walk-the-walk.' Another very sad day, in a string of sad ones, for the US and its people.
Interesting. But, these 'bozos' you speak of? Do you mean the lackeys who represent the Power Structure in America? If so, I'm afraid history, and the fact that America is not populated by people who will take action based on 'ideas', means there's both good news, and bad news.
The bad news? 3 or 4 million people will actually have to be killed (I know that sounds a tad harsh, but really, you need to get the relatives and legions of young 'up-and-comers', brown-nosers and speechwriters, etc, it adds up, believe it);
but the good news is, you can save most of that billion dollars and get the job done with volunteers and less than 100 grands worth of 9 millimeters and ammo, one nine miller, base of one robber baron (facilitator, lackey, etc) skull. Next.
Spend the other 900 thou on lighting up some dark fiber, and we'll get back to actually being what this country pretends to 'represent', for real. But in the scheme of US history, we have a murderous, self-absorbed group of heavily-armed counter-revolutionaries in control of almost everything. And it is delusional to think that voting, for anyone, or letters, or street protests (etc) is going to change anything. These people live by destruction and the gun, and they'll only be replaced in the same manner. It's ugly, I know. But accept the need to deal, seriously, with these murderous, greedy, godless thieves, or get ready to accept an escalation of the status quo. Those are the only viable, historically-demonstrated (over and over) 'choices.'
Live free or die... recall that? I don't know about anyone else, but I only see one viable choice in there.
I suggest you go do some volunteer work with Vets, like I have, for years, and then come back with 'stats' that don't prove what an uninformed, idiotic, asshole you are. Just a suggestion, fuckwad. And in the meantime, let's look at the big picture. What 'slice' of American demographics, as a whole, do you suppose the losers whose best means of survival (work/eat) was to join the fucking army? Hint: It's not the intelligentsia, the educated, the American history-savvy squad, okay? I support the boys in the service, 100%, but at least they know, firsthand, what's really going on, and believe me, they are bitched out like never before, right now.
Bush, and asshats like you (by uninformed, retarded 'proxy'), have murdered and maimed tens of thousands of our guys and civilians, to enrich Republican, neo-con 'special interests', may they all die agonizingly slow and painful deaths on their way to their Born-Again Hell. Amen.
Gee, do you think maybe it has something to do with the europeans not having figured out how much fun it is to wage over-matched warfare against the poorest fucking countries on the God-damned planet? What do you think?
And in the absence of that grand fun, there's all those war by proxy, right-wing death squads, and shit they can look forward to. Gosh, why do we all hate the US so bad? I mean, so what if they killed more* peasants and laborers and civilians than Hitler ever imagined (*since the end of WWII). Once the Europeans join in, then we'll all be the good guys, eh? (For extra credit, and as a warm up): Where did 18-21 million North American natives (you know, Indians) go? Jesus Murphy, that's like three times the loss of European Jewry, right there. We're on a roll, mofo'
Oh, don't worry pardner, we figured all that out in Vietnam.
You see, the mistake back then was we switched to white boys from Iowa and Nebraska, and when they started coming back in pine boxes, the shit hit the fan and we bailed out of Vietnam. But as long as it was just drafted Negroes and Mexicans getting shot up, and loudmouth students and crazy black political types ranting about it, all was well.
So, in the event of a war calling for European, or Russian-style, sacrifices (see Russian Red Army and peasants versus Panzer Divisions), we'll skip the white kids and just draft all the nigs and spics, and Bob's yer Uncle (Sam). It may be a long, long way to Tipperary, but relax, we have a shitload of pine boxes that know the way back to Detroit.
Perhaps, but I flunked a chemo-related blood test (viral load up instead of down), early today, and you, my friend, got the first involuntary laugh out of me, moments ago, and I thank you for that. No kidding.
There, fixed that for ya.
Strange, an astute observation (wish?), hard to say which, but no mod points.
I'll call it Insightful, based on the proposition that all politics is, essentially, local, and the place to get involved ('expend ones energy') is 'close to home', where the changes will impact where one lives one's life.
We can bitch and moan all we want about Washington, D.C., but our home towns are where the action really is. I have no idea how the AC intended this comment, it could be a bit cynical, given the general impression I have about bloggers (with exceptions), nevertheless, the sentiment has very rational roots, and if it was an exhortation I say, "Hear, hear! I'm with the AC on this one."
City Council members tend to blow shit hemorrhages when people start turning up on a regular basis. It has something to do with lacking the balls to do publicly what they're used to doing in private. As well, the US media has abdicated its fundamental role in the balance of power in our society, and someone has to fill that vacuum, and why not us and people (whether they 'agree' with us or not) like us?
Agreed. In another lifetime (it seems, now), the mid-Eighties, I had the full Bloomberg terminals, at my home in Costa Mesa, CA. It was costing a fortune, and I was only running money for four guys. But we all made out like bandits. My order desk was rifling buy/sells to one floor above the Floor.
I got great execution. Most of the 'online' forums are nothing but pump 'n' dump scammers and guys that are a little 'smarter' than they actually are. But the way to really have fun isn't Day Trading, not for me, anyway. My favorite 'accidental' 'brainiac' move was to sit on a fountain near the NYSE at lunch, and spot the right guy, with his laptop out, inhaling a corned beef (etc), look all dead serious, and ask, "Who do you like this afternoon?" I did that for a couple weeks in Manhattan, and made a small boatload of cash.
I know enough about odds, to have pretty-much decided, after enough events, that I had probably been benefiting from front-runners. I met guys who could pull down a hundred grand on their lunch hours, near triple witching days and 'odd' times like that.
I was not 'smarter' than the 'other guy', but I knew this, and didn't take myself too seriously. So I played issues that I knew, and had nice big blips around some fortuitous (and totally ethical) moves into stocks that were set to outperform (exceed expectations) right before quarterly results were due from the companies, themselves. There's nothing sweeter than entering the Market right before the close, and having a sell order in place for a specific time, close to the Open in the morning. Damn, give me deal that I can grasp, immediately, and limit the market risk (exposure), and I'm happy (8 times out of 10).
My 'story', when I pitched someone else, always made good, rational sense. But when your only 'gun' is rationality, you are doomed, at least periodically, in almost any market, if you stick around long enough. Sometimes it's safer to go with the herd, and bail out early. Let the daredevils find the 'bottoms', cede them the first 5-10% upward move, then get in, and then cede the 'tops' to the greedy goofballs. Taking even 70% of movement to the upside, and stifling greedy impulses, might be the surest bet. But how would I know? Past performance, does not... blah blah blah.
There's nothing worse than finding out your 'golden' years are going to involve a diet of cat food... 15 minutes after the fact.
Triage
Been around forever. The first person seen, after the girl at the desk... that's your triage nurse (shaping the traffic, as it were).
+5 Informative, on both counts.
Really, we need a new mod label for these moronic, 'imaginary' free market asshats. Down here in the US we have basically bankrupted ourselves forever in the name of de-regulation. It's pathetic, and then here comes neo-con-Dudley DoWrong, totally oblivious to reams of contrarian, factual (as in 'real', Dudley) data, practically pouring in with the actual results of de-reg: The Savings & Loan crisis, Enron, Mortgage and sub-prime lending, Derivative 'swaps' that nobody could actually value, or assign a risk factor to, and on and on. These libertarian, greedy, morons never give up, the facts be damned, eh?
Thick as a fuckin' brick, indeed.
You know, when I saw this my first reaction made me stop and think, "easy, ~flipper, there's a huge chance this guy really is mentally retarded, for real"
But... on the other hand, so what? Are you fucking retarded or what? If you are, well, sorry about that, and that explains everything. However, let me ask another question, "What planet can Internet access subscribers find ISPs that will 'negotiate', or, as you, the retard from space, put it: "agree on reasonable terms". Not Canada, right? Since I live in the States now, let me qualify by mentioning that I spent over 30 years in Canada, (Vancouver, Edmonton, middle of nowhere, Yellowknife, and Montréal) and if there is any place in Canada where you can subscribe to multiple cable systems that are willing to 'negotiate' terms of use, well, buddy, I am all ears.
Absolutely nothing at all. I used to save things as RTF files or in proprietary versions of such (and still have loads of doc files, being an Office user also). But everything that matters to me gets saved as plain text. (in either TextPad or BBEdit, platform depending).
I understand that the issues with file formats, and the corporate uses of Excel and whatnot, are a separate issue, entirely, but, for regular people like me, plain text is perfect. Content is king. (with all due respect to designers, as I do realize that the purpose can make design extremely important). But the data is what I need, over time.
Giving a false name, by itself, is not illegal in the US, unless the use of the false name is for a fraudulent purpose. I have had the IRS except three or more W-2 forms from me that were all named differently, but with my normal Social Security number on all them. The IRS didn't care one bit, because there was no fraudy. Anyway, it's my understanding that giving an alias is fine online and off, it's all about 'intent.'
same here. login on auto on this server, but no-go at all on the beta site
plus, they have that awful topic/indent thing happening again over there.