Guard Dog

Great point. If you go by the classic definition of the word I'm the biggest liberal on the board!

You do realize that scorn is a favorite tactic of the Alinskyites and that they employ it relentlessly to real effect? I respect the office, but I have none for the current occupant or any of his ilk. I have to agree with Hurlie though Tsuga, we're all adults here. I'm sure you noticed there are very few folks on this board with a libertarian/conservative viewpoint. It's difficult enough to get some of these guys to even acknowledge an opinion different from their own exists and is intellectually viable. Don't cut you own legs out by putting them off with that kind of name calling. Besides, you can go over to freerepublic.com and get that out of your system. Well, you can... I can't. I was banned over there.

I know one too. I just saw him in the mirror when I was shaving.

What unique perspective are you guys talking about? Orogun's family is from Cuba IIRC

Driving up to Dyersburg for work in a few. Nice little town actually. One of only two bridges accross the Mississippi in TN. I find that pretty cool.

It is a sad truism that Americans are willing to look the other way on the most horrifying malfesance when it is "their guy" doing it. The Republicans did nothing to stop Bush seizing power the US Government should never have had and the Democrats wailed. Now Obama had doubled down and they are fine with it. This newest and most horrifiying that has come out is the US Attorney General stating that is is perfectly fine for the President to order the summary excecution of US Citizens on US soil by drone strike without warrant or judicial review. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9913615/Barack-Obama-has-authority-to-use-drone-strikes-to-kill-Americans-on-US-soil.html. The President stated he would use them only to kill "terrorists" but his admin has refused to name Hamas, Al Queda, etc as terrorists. His DHS however released this little memo stating that rturn veterans, tea party memebers, anti-abortion people, and anyone who does not vote like they think we should are likely terrorists:http://www.infowars.com/homeland-security-report-lists-liberty-lovers-as-terrorists/ . I guess now I should be looking over my shoulder. Small wonder they are trying to ban "assault rifles". It has nothing to do with Sandy Hook. Do you think that man lost one minute of sleep over that? It's allbout eliminating possible resistance. Every day the news gets worse and worse on Washington's attempts to restrict freedom. How does this not come to a head at some point?

I was referring to big companies rather than just a single one, meaning that the market is their playground and now with globalization and chain stores is hard for small business to compete against the big guys. Also IIRC some of those laws were re-appealed during the Bush administration which was considered to be one of the factors in the economic collapse. Nevertheless I would also question how much can these laws be enforced since companies have zero transparency, so they could hide very well their monopoly and we'd be none the wiser. Of course that's all speculative but my initial point stands big companies have made a fissure in microeconomies which has in turn lead to the decline of the middle class which was sustained by small businesses. Glass-Stengal was effectivley repealed during the Clinton Admin and that fact had a LOT to do with the crash in 2008 and the collpase of the real estate market. But it had nothing to do with anti-trust. They (the anti-trust laws) are all still in effect and there is a list of SCOTUS decisions that uphold them. Just ask AT&T & Microsoft. My idea WOULD work and it would be fairer and most importantly freerer than the alternative. I DO NOT want the god damned government deciding if I get healthcare and when. It won't be long before they start looking into how you vote before they dcide if they want to treat you or not. You had better believe that is coming.

It's because they are somewhat insulated from inflationary swings becuase they are not tied to any currency. I actually would not reccomend buying into gold right now, it is way over priced and the longer we go without a real fiscal collpase the closer we get to a correction. It's been declining a little bit lately. I started buying when it was a little under $800. I actually liquidated a chunk of it last year to pay off my truck and pay my share of the start up costs of our company. I started buying silver two years ago and it has been steadily climbing. I was thinking about selling the whole thing and getting into real estate but that is still too unstable for me.

Well according to Ayn Rand, poor people are souless parasites whose sole purpose in life is to drag down the superior creators. So I can see where the view comes from. Of course Ayn Rand was a dumbass who lived in a fantasy world. Where in the world did you get the idea that a Russian ex-pat who wrote a couple of mildly interesting novels in the 60's has somehow become the equivalent of Jesus to the church of libertarian thought? You need to get that out of your head KP. It makes you sound silly and you are too smart for that. Come to that Jesus was more libertarian than she was. He tells us to give to the poor of our own volition, not ask the government to take money from other people and give it to the poor.

I've never used an SSD (in a computer at least). Is there really that big a bump in performance over a traditional drive?

More bad news for the Yanks, Teixeira will miss the first month of the season http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130306&content_id=42365242&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb I need to revise my prediction. They are in serious trouble.

There has been so much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Sequester that Obam proposed and insisted on (then blamed on Republicans) but the funny thing is, the media is deliberately creating the impression the federal government has no money, they are spending over $3.9 Trillion and the cuts are $85 Billion. Last year they spent $3.7 Trillion. So you see, the total amout of the cuts is LESS THAN THE INCREASE from this year to last. And since Obama is in charge of actually spending the money he can pick what gets cut. That's why the DOJ is releasing prisoners, the Border Patrol is laying people off etc. He WANTS to make this painful so people will be good and mad for the 2014 election and all along he'll be blaming the other side for everything he's done. Oh, and in case anyone wondered that will fall short of revenue by some $900 Billion. They could not raise taxes enough to close that gap without ruining the economy Think about that when you are high fiving over the stock market gains this week. That's why I'm buying gold, silver and other real commodities. Something BAD is coming if this isn't fixed.

Orogun you are coming from a flawed premise here. We have anti-trust laws here (Sherman Act, Clayton Anti-Trust Act, Robinson-Patman just to name a few and hundeds of state laws), that you are not taking into account that would prevent exactly what you theorize would happen. I'd even take it one step further than suggest legislative action that borrows a page from the Glass-Stengal act that would prevent insurance companies from owning hospitals and Medical facilities and vice versa. That would fix your concern too Wals.

Yeah i WOULD compare Castro to Stalin & Hitler. And I bet it would rub you the wrong way. You have a unique persepective on him and Cuba in general as far as this board goes,

Freedom is not something the left values highly these days. Generally speaking at least. I would not compare Chavez to Stalin or Hitler unless there are thousands of unmarked graves in Venezuela we don't know about. But the world is a better place without him than with him. Her's hoping the future is brighter than the past for Venezuela. But it won't be.

They are in the same ball park price wise. I'm not a big fan of Win 8 and really don't want to deal with it any sooner that I must but I was put off the Alienware's smaller HD, even though it is half again as fast. I'm leaning towardsthe Alienware even though it is a bit more.

I looking at buying one of these two laptops. If you could have either, which would you prefer? 1) Alienware M14x 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0) edit Operating System Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit edit Memory 8GB (2 X 4GB) Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz edit Hard Drive 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s edit Video Card 2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M with Optimus™ edit Display Panels 14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight edit Wireless Networking Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 With Bluetooth 4.0 edit Optical Driver Slot Load Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) 2)Lenovo Y400 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor( 2.40GHz 1600MHz 6MB) • Windows 8 64 • NVIDIA GeForce GT650M 2GB • 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz • 14.0" HD Glare with integrated camera 1366x768 • Industry Standard Multi-touch 2 button touchpad • 1TB 5400 RPM • Blu-ray/DVD-RW • 6 Cell Li-Polymer • Intel Centrino Wireless N-2230 • Bluetooth Version 4.0 • One year • Notebook • Integrated HD Camera • HDMI (Out)

I never said that government does not have a role to play, that taxes are not needed or that social programs are dispensable. I've never understood the abolutisim of the left. They really think that is you are are not 100% for them then you are 100% against them. However taxing past the point of punishment for the nebulous concept of social welfare, or giving people money for doing nothing is also wrong. It is one thing to help people who need it. It is another thing entirely to give them a living for doing nothing. Don't get me wrong. The elderly, the disabled, the infirm need to be supported and we have mechanisims in place to do that. But abuse from laziness and a twisted sense of entitlement is rampant and no one is willing to fix it because welfare has become the new "third rail". We are expected to just shrug and accept that is the way of it and watch or taxes climb higher and higher and accept less and less from our labor. After a point it is difficult not to see the beneficiaries of our hard work as parasites. Especially when you see news stories like the woman in MI who won the lottery and still continured to take welfare and food stamps. And saw nothing wrong with that. Remember this, every dollar, euro or yen someone recieves without working for, someone else worked for with out recieving. As for "caring government" let me know when you find one of those.

Now reading Pukka's Promise by Ted Kerasote great read so far on how to improve canine health and longevity. Also reading The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Wan Eng. It might be losing something in the translation but I'm finding it hard to get into. It was highly recommended by a friend though. No swords or lasers in either though... sorry guys.

That's lower than the top tax bracket in the US under the Eisenhower (a Republican) administration, which topped out at 90%. See, the thing that Hayekians/Randians don't understand is that redistribution of wealth actually strengthens the economy. http://www.alternet.org/story/153304/rich_people_don't_create_jobs:_6_myths_that_have_to_be_killed_for_our_economy_to_live?page=entire Note that the article links to copious amounts of legitimate sources. Our lives are the result of the choices we make. We have the incomes we earn. I am working hard everyday 24-7-365 to climb higher up that curve. I don't think the answer which is implied in the video is to take money away from people who earn it and give it to people who didn't. How is it fair to me to take more of the money I earned and worked very hard for and give it to someone who was asleep in bed or watching TV during those long nights when I worked around the clock? Why is it fair to take a larger percentage of my investment income when it was my savings I risked to earn it and then give it to someone who risked nothing of theirs? Anyone in the US can go from nothing to multimillionare if they work hard enough at it. The outcome is not guaranteed but the opportunity is there. It happens every day. I.m not rich by any means but I do earn a nice living and I own some land and a house. I worked very hard for all of those things. I should not be punished doing what it took for them. I disagree with you completely. Taxes are essential yes, but wealth redistibution only punishes people who made the right choices and sacrifices to reward the ones who made poor choices of just did nothing.

Of course they don't. They give a damn if your premiums are paid. You know exactly what they want and where you stand with them. You also know what to expect from them and if they violate your policy contract there are legal remedies. In a single payer government run system if they (the other people who don't give a damn about you) decide you don't get to have or need something you have no recourse. And what do THEY want? It isn't money, they've already got your money by this point. You know what would fix this whole insurance mess? Market forces. Right now your insurance company is not afraid of losing you because there is almost nowhere for you to go. There are laws in this country prohibiting the sale of health insurance across state lines. It is madness. Take those away and allow free and fair nation wide competition for health insurance customers and prices will drop and quality of policies will rise because if your insurance sucks, you can go buy from someone else. This is another example of how government has made a mess out of this. We have a great medical system now. It's called veterinary care. I could have an MRI done on my dog within the next hour if he needed it. But I could not have one done on myself if I needed it. There are over 50 vets within a 30 minute drive from me offering a range of services of different quality for a range of different prices. I can go see any one of them I choose and since they are all competing with each other the prices are controlled. Why is this? The god damned government has not involed itself in veterinary medicine and screwed it up. There are seven companies that I know of that sell pet health insurance. I can buy a range of different policies from any one of them no matter where they are in the country. Why the hell can't we do human health care the same way? We used to. The reason we don't and never will again is because it's not about health care. It's about control.

Japan and Cuba are looking tough in the WBC. I caught the Rays Twins game on mlb.com today. Nice to see David Price looking sharp.

I don't think New Orleans is the most dangerous town in the US by any means. That honor goes to Chicago. That place is out of control. Nevertheless you need to excersize common sense there like anywhere else. Some areas are high crime some are not. There are some cities it's best not to wander around and explore without a plan. That would be one of them. Miami is another one. The French Quarter, Garden District, Uptown, and Carrolton are all perfectly safe. Stay out of Iberville, the 7th Ward and the 9th Ward and DO NOT go near the levees at night. Lots of bad stuff in those neighborhoods.

I truely do not think the government gives a damn about my healthcare or quality of life. All they want is to have that over me. To have one more lever to force people to conform to their plan and have you so dependant on them you are compelled to vote for them. I cannot think of one single thing in the government with the possible exception of the military that is result oriented. Unless the result is eternal self-pereptuation. Right now our health care system is in utter ruins because of government interference. The worst part is the only way that is being suggested to fix it is to have the very people who ruined it take it over completely. And God help us all when they do.

That reminds me: what happened to your book? When we started our new company all my personal projects got put on the back burner. That one included. I hired an editor to proof and advise on changes last year and was looking into self publishing. That has never been easier now in the world or e-readers. I'm still editing and revising but have not even touched it in six months. Between the project in Mexico, South Dakota and our new Simon Mall project I'm too busy to do anything but work. Heck aside from chess I haven't even played a computer game in months.