Guard Dog

It looks like this is a thing again: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--warriors-serious-threat-to-sign-kevin-durant-182559375.html

This is what I'm talking about. Don't try to sound libertarian when you're not. It just makes you look like a jacakss. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/07/cruz-still-pitching-for-libertarian-votes-has-a-lot-to-say-about-eminent-domain-and-sound-money/ For those of you who have been reading my posts you know what I think of Eminent Domain. In fact I firmly believe the five liberal justices who sided with the city of New London should have been dragged from the SCOTUS building at the end of a rope and hung in front to the Jefferson Memorial. But in Cruz's case you can't be against ID to build a shopping mall and then for it to build a oil pipeline. And what the hell is this backhanded comment about tying the dollar to gold? Does he not know that genie escaped the bottle in the f-----g 60s? That isn't going to be possible. I think a primary qualification to be President should be to actually KNOW something about economics. Which of course disqualifies everyone currently running. I also think they should have a consistent set of values and opinions that they STICK to. But that would disqualify everyone but Bernie. I'd go on Amazon and send Ted Cruz all of Thomas Sowell's books if I thought he'd actually read them. It's a shame because he should. Especially if he ends up becoming president.

Well if the Democrats abandon the whole "The Government is your God & Master" thing and actually starts respecting individual liberty again I'll vote for them. They are a long, long way from that right now. And heading farther away everyday. The Republicans are not much better but when the choices are between bad and very bad, bad wins every time.

Plus as you already pointed out, Bill is charismatic and likeable. Hillary is none of those things. Far from it.

And I think a lot of Hillary's intangability for the population really comes down to how her campaign portrays her. I've said it before, and will say it again, her experiance makes everything she says (unless she's caught almost totally off guard) come off as prepared. So people don't like her because her speeches are prepared ? You also support her Calax...sorry I forgot No, people dislike her because she's to prepared. She's to perfectly political for them. They don't know that she'll do anything she says because she seems like she'd prefer to say what's correct (for her audience) vs what she thinks is actually right. That's where Sanders and Trump are scoring points, they don't care about traditional politics as they were, so they don't care that their ideas might not test well with men 18-45 (or whatever) but they still stick by them. Hillary has been in politics so long that she comes off as incredibly focus tested and always with the most political answer for her audience. Well put!

I've been watching Puppy Bowl on APL. I can't explain why but I feel compelled to watch this thing every year. There must be some subliminal messages on it. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go order a Bissell floor cleaner and a new Subaru while eating my twrizzlers candy.

I will give Trump credit for one thing. He is the only candidate that is doing this by just being himself. In Iowa Ted Cruz bookended ever speech with bible quotes. He hasn't done that once in NH. Rubio, Bush, Christie have all changed everything from their positions to presentation based on whom they were talking to at the time. When you see Trump, you get Trump. Both the good and the bad. With the others you never know which one is going to show up. I can see the appeal in that.

If you repeat something enough people will come to believe it. Like the fact she's a criminal. That one remains to be seen. It's looking like she is.

Bruce, I'm not saying the invasion of Afghanistan wasn't justified, I'm just saying Gore wouldn't have done it. And he wouldn't. IIRC he spoke out against any military reprisals to 9-11.

Oh that's a load of bull. It is impossible to classify the politics of an entire state you have never visited by the reputation you think it has because of what you've read on the internet.

The catch all line of every conspiracy ever: "Don't you see? They are ALL in on it!". Nine words that form the ultimate rhetorical garbage disposal for logic, facts, and evidence!

Well they do favor the ideas of scaling back the whole big brother thing the NSA & Justice Dept. has going now. They'll find common ground with Bernie there. Most folks who paid attention in high school economics class can see the sense in restoring the banking firewalls of Glass-Stengal so they agree with him there. They probably are with him on trade protectionism. But when it comes to taxing businesses out of existence and punishing people for investing and taxing the middle class into the lower class he loses everyone there.

In what way was GWB's foreign policy seriously different than the democrat's? Gore would not have gone into Afghanistan after 9-11. He definitely would not have gone into Iraq ever.

https://youtu.be/qnBEYNsSlEE

I'm afraid Fareed Zakaria is not a man whose opinions I place any value in. But in this case I'd agree. The last two Republican presidents have preached limited government and delivered anything but. I always wondered at how GWB drove the democrats into shrieking insanity but with the exception of foreign policy and tax policy he was more of a democrat than Bill Clinton was. His father was no better. If Dukakis had been elected in his place the nation of Kuwait would not exist today but little else would be different. Although Clinton would not have been elected. The last President who respected the limits of their office was Ford. Although Reagan probably did not know the details of the Iran to Nicaragua weapons trade. Reagan was the kind of leader who told his staff what he wanted to happen and let them worry about the details of making it happen.

It comes down to the size of the city more than the state. Although all those states you listed are pretty diverse geographically. But the smaller the city/metroplex you choose the easier it will be to get away from it obviously. Oregon is a great choice for outdoor activities. I know you don't like cold but if you are on the coast and the west side of the Cascades it does not get too cold.

Wow that is pretty cool. I used to live in West Palm Beach in South Florida. It's certainly got you covered for weather but you can forget going to the countryside. There isn't one. It's non stop city from Ft. Pierce to Key West. But if you like beaches and watersports that is the place to be. It's expensive to live there though. I won't hazard a guess how much they are offering you but if you select a city in south Florida (if that is even an option) do your research.

The US has weathered bad Presidents before. We have had sixteen years of bad leadership. It's when you string 3-4 of them together you get into real trouble. The reason the country survives is there are limits to what a president can do. Unfortunately Barack Obama has, without the power of any law, changed those limits. He has usurped power into the executive it does not have and through the complicity of the Democrats in congress and the cowardice of the Republicans in office he has been allowed to get away with it. Hopefully the SCOTUS will take him to task this summer. The problem with having a powerful executive is it upsets the checks and balances built into our government. Congress is supposed to be a limit on the President, the President chooses the judiciary, the judiciary is a check on Congress. It's worked great for 232 years but Obama has been trying very hard to upset the apple cart. Too many people take a "ends justify the means" argument. It's "my" guy doing it and I like the outcome so who cares how it gets done. That is extremely short sighted. Very soon that power that Obama has appropriated (the power to modify singed law at will after it has been passed, the power to selectively enforce to choose not to enforce the law, and the idea that the justice department is not subject to Congressional oversight being the worst of them) will be in the hands of someone else. It will almost certainly be a Republican despite Bruce's handwringing Hillary Clinton is a severely damaged candidate in the general election. All the things the anti-libertarian and big government left loved that Obama did they may have cause to rue it the next administration is Ted Cruz or Donald Trump.

Should I believe in god because some books tells me to? It's better to question everything then question nothing. Well belief in God is a little different. That is something that requires a leap of faith. In the end God simply cannot be proven and there is compelling evidence that supports both sides of the argument. But as far as the Apollo Landings it's not a leap of faith to say it did happen, and IMO the argument that it didn't relies on dismissing a lot of hard evidence that it did out of hand and streching logic past the breaking point that such a massive conspiracy even COULD be pulled off. I realize you are not making that argument and this is a rhetorical exercise but to say the moon landing didn't happen in the face of so much evidence that it did is nearly as absurd as claiming atoms don't exist.

I don't believe in atoms. No one has ever seen an atom. How do we know this thing even exists? What proof is there atoms exist? Don't even tell me about nuclear weapons. No one has ever seen one of those go off. How do we know the two bombs used on Japan weren't just trash cans full of dynamite? Who is it that's telling us atoms exist? The Government! Yes I know colleges, teachers and scientists too but don't you see? They are all in on it! Nuclear power! Do you even know what that is? It's a bunch of kids strapped to exercise bikes that turn a generator. You see all those pictures on milk cartons and amber alerts? Did you think those poor kids were dead? No the government kidnapped them and is using them for power generation to cover up the fact that there are no such things as atoms! You know what happened at Chernobyl? The kids escaped! In order to keep the whole thing quiet they took out the plant with a missile and "claimed" there was an accident. The same thing happened at Fukushima. There is no evidence of any "tidal wave" it was all staged. I read all about this on the internet! Watch this video, it will change how you think of everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52R-znOwjkk

Again ok, but why would the pictures be of such a low quality when we have older pictures from Mars that are better. The hi res pics of mars were taken by landers. The LRO is orbiting at around 70k' IIRC. The Descent stage is only 2 meters across and the rover is less. That is a remarkably good picture for an orbiter. The Mars Global Surveyor pics didn't resolve anything that small. Of course it helps that the moon does not have an atmosphere.

Hopefully this will put your mind at ease. It's the Apollo 17 landing site taken by the LRO in 2009. At least we know Gene Cernan & Harrison Schmidt were not lying:

I have just lost all interest in the outcome of this election. Don't get me wrong, I'm still voting. There are congressional and state races that are important (my boss being one of them ) but who ends up in the White House is just not something I can make myself care about anymore. I guess the reason is I dislike all of them. I haven't a shred of respect for a single candidate running now. And I'm already going to vote R > D so what the hell. If the SCOTUS wasn't an issue I'd vote Libertarian this year. Someone has to.

One of the few good things in summer, I miss grilling and fresh hot chili. Summer, winter, makes no matter. Propane and charcoal still get hot.