Guard Dog

Has anyone tried the Heart of the Swarm StarCraft expansion yet? Any thoughts? I just ordered both it, Wings of Liberty, and the original game with all the expansions. I've never tried them but I love the Total War games as well as SoaSE, Master of Orion I & II, and Space Empires 5. I've heard these are right up the same alley. Heck this will be the first new game I've bought since New Vegas came out!

To put it all on the table Calax, when Holder was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Comittee he was a lot more glib about using drones against Americans engaged in "terrorist activity" (his exact words) on US soil. Couple that with the DHS memo of 2009 http://www.infowars.com/homeland-security-report-lists-liberty-lovers-as-terrorists/ and you've got a very disturbing combination of facts. Now want complete and total candor from you on this one. Suppose all the facts are reversed here, suppose it was George W Bush in office with a friendly Senate and his AG makes that comment and his DHS lists college campus activists, liberals and 99% protestors as likely terrorists. Would you have a problem with that?

Yeah that's nice Calax I saw that too. Of course we can all just forget that a week earlier he asserted the exact opposite of that and only issued that memo after a public outcry, their own lapdog media turning against them (some of them at least), and a very public filibuster by a very couragous man who overyone then insulted because he took a moral stand.

Now that would suprise me. Not because of any misplaced faith in Reagans Presidency but becuase that kind of thing would be so much harder to keep quiet in 1980 than in 1968. Now it would be impossible.

See, we DO agree on something! Now, as to how much regulation there should be....

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the irony in this!

Source? Can you provide the actual legislation which enacts this? And I'm quite certain anyone can come up with a list of extravagant, expensive indulgences taken by any president. Since ad hominems and strawmen are the rule here, if (I won't accept the word of an angry... I'm guessing conservative, sans evidence,) Obama did cut financial aid for veterans, he'd still be a world better than what GOP God-King Ronald Reagan did to veterans. And the mentally ill. Besides, it's thanks to Bush's P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act that the president has the ostensible power to drone as he pleases. US Constitution Articles I, II, & IV, The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, CBIC Act of 1974. The President submits a budget. Congress approves (or not) and raises the revenue, the President spends the money as approved. As the Commander in Chief of the armed forces he has complete control over what they get, what their operational tempo (rate of deployment) will be and if they get their funding cut it's only because he asked for it/allowed it to happen. If you cut their budget but do not reduce their operational tempo he is forcing them to make cuts themselves. And the softest things like benefits and tuition assitance are the first to go. Believe me, he knows this and is fine with it so long as he can blame the pain on his political opposition. And no argument here on Bush or the Patriot Act. In fact Obama has taken it one step further, two weeks ago his own justice department stated it would be perfectly legal for him to kill American citizens on American soil by drone strike if he deemed them to be terrorists.

Packing up today, hitting the road for a little while. I have a job in Tulsa and two in OKC and one in Stillwater. Then when I get back next week I'm meeting with our new customer/client (not sure which word is correct) the Dyer County TN School Board. Busy, busy ,busy

If this is true, not judging one way or another, I'm not surprised.

But GD didn't you predict the crash of the USA economy during Obama's second term? I am sure it was you who suggested people should get out of equities and move there money into more consistent investments like Gold? ( You see I listen to what you say ) You probably are aware that the USA stock markets have seen unprecedented highs the last few weeks and this is despite the fact the employment rate hasn't really improved. But companies are recording profits so there is money been made, real money. Obama hasn't been the Grim Reaper of economic doom some predicted, it looks like things are really getting better in the USA Oh stocks are going to go up and down always. If you are playing for short term you can do well if you get lucky. Last week was a perfect mix of of increase dividend payments by sixty or so F500 companies coupled with a rash of stock buybacks from a suprisingly large number of companies driving up stock prices over all. Don't even try to read into what they are doing that, there is too many possibilities. You notice though there was a cool down this week as investors start selling off to capitaize their gains. But if you are looking long term the biggest question mark is the strength of the dollar. Buying real assets or real commodities (like gold) are less about making big returns, although that can happen I'm VERY happy to say, than it is protecting what you have from currency devaluation. My biggest concern with the current admin is not just spending and borrowing (although that is a problem that will come to a head in the future) but their "quantative easing", which is basicly using imaginary money to buy up treasuries and bonds, and pump more cash into the market ultimately. The problem is you then have twice the dollars chasing the same number of assets which causes the value of the dollar to drop. Do it too much too often and.... you get the idea. If the dollar devaluates it does not matter how well a stock is doing if the buying power of the company benefiting from the capital is crippled. And of course if that happens the buying power of investors is hurt as well since it costs more to just get buy in life so they start selling off for the cash and the dominos start falling from there. Or they don't. If they do the folks invested in real assets are happy because investors start buying in and driving up the price. If they don't then your real assets don't go up and you probably don't make any money. But you won't lose it all because they have value in and of themselves. You've heard the old saying, gold has never been worth nothing. But I posted elesewhere I would not buy into gold right now. It's seriously over priced. It's really worth about $800 per and this around $1500. If the ecomony tanks it will go up, if it doesn't it is going to correct sooner or later. I've already sold off more than half of what I had. I would not look at stock activity as any kind of barometer for overall economic health. There are too many reasons why things happen they way they do. I'd look at the buying power of the currency because when you get right down to it, this is a market economy. When people consume and spend money it does well, when they don't it dosen't. Right now I'm not encouraged, that's why I invest the way I do. But I might be wrong, I consider myself well educated and well read but I'm not an economist by any means. Wow, we really got OT, my fault. This is just one of my favorite subjects.

Capitalisim is the worst economic system there is...except for all the others.

Answer to the second question is..... nah. I may have had to whip out the old credit card once in awhile but I'm never long in paying them off. I hate paying interest! I like getting it but hate paying it.

I ordered a bluetooth Bose SoundLink bluetooth for my laptop too. I figured, what the hell, go big or go home. I want to catch the Rays & Marlins games when I'm on the road. The only thing the saucks is I'll still be paying for this thing after it's long gone!

Yeah it's a shame KOTOR2 could not rise above it's flaws (namely a rushed production) because the story concept. characters and writing were outstanding. Torment is, of course, the greatest game plot ever. I actually enjoyed NV more than F3. Fallout 3 had really excellent atmosphere but there were really only two ways to play it. NV you could play it over 5-6 times and not play the same game twice.I found it easier to make a "concept charachter" in NV than F3. Just my $.02

Congrats. Still waiting on mine to come. Web browsing on a kindle all the time kinda sucks.

I forget who said this but it is pretty right on "Communisim cannot work because we are people, not ants. Objectivisim cannot work because we are people, not bears."

This

Great game USA & Puerto Rico last night. Team USA had looked disinterested in pool play, they are punching it now.

They are used all the time. The AT&T/T-Mobile merger was blocked by them just two years ago. A cable merger, I think Cox & Time/Warner (I think) was also blocked recently. Breaking up big companies/monopolies is unusual, preventing them is commonplace and seldom makes a big news splash.

Illegals do not get tuition assistance. In California they can get in-state rates. That is it as far as I know. And this IS all on Obama. He (or his admin more accurately) decides what programs get cut/defunded. Obama proposed and insisted on (then blamed on Republicans) these cuts. But think of this they are spending over $3.9 Trillion this year 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. The US Government will spend more money on 2013 even with the cuts than in 2012 and they could afford tuition assistance in 2012. He is screwing the military simply to score poitical points against the other side. That is all this is. Of course he can still go play golf with Tiger Woods and Michelle Obama will still have her lavish multi-million dollar birthday party featuring Beyonce and Adele and a dress that will cost more tha I earn in two years all provided at tax payer expense And we, especially the military, can eat cake if we don't like it. This is very disgusting to me because I have my degree because of my military benefits. Between the classes I took while in and the GI Bill. But nothing this small, petty, despicable little man does suprises me any more. Did I just hear a drone propellor pass over?

Since we are on the subject: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/03/12/manny-ramirez/1981215/

I will never understand what you see in that guy Volo.

Yeah but I'm not putting anything more into it. I need a laptop because I spend so much time on the road for work these days. I opted to go with the Alienware. I've never heard a single negative thing about them. It was the most expensive one I looked at but only by a little. I don't play many games these days but I wanted one that would run Skyrim on at least high setting with a decent FPS and from eveything I've gathered that one will. I did take the upgrade for the SSD though. Plus it was the only one I could find that still had Windows 7. That was a point in it's favor in my book.

Cheer up Calax, birthdays are no time to get depressed! Actually that's exactly what they are, but no reason you can't buck that trend. You need to go out, get sloppy drunk and hook up with some strange girl you've never seen before and will never see again.

Gotta love Canadians! For such a peaceful country you guys LOVE to fight. http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25699601&topic_id=31426364