Guard Dog

No it is the worst....except for every other kind.

I'm wondering, though, just how unhealthy/toxic does something have to be to warrant banning its sale as food, in your opinion? Not trying to be aggressive here - I'm not sure banning trans-fats is a smart idea, either. Just curious as to where you'd draw the line. If it WILL kill/harm the consumer with just small doses in a short to moderate time then ban it. Fen-Fen comes to mind. If it MIGHT kill/harm in large doses over a long time, don't ban but educate on the dangers and benfefits of moderation. Tobacco, trans-fat, etc.

It seems the French have declared war on soda. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-20...Cola-Fanta.html

Romney/Cain huh? I can certainly live with that. I'm very impressed with Herman Cain, but his lack of political experience makes him a dubious choice for the most political job in the country. Romney is not an ideal candidate in my opinion, but he is the best of poor choices. Either way he's 1000s times better than Obama. I'd be happy with Romney/Cain in 2012 & 2016 and Cain/? in 2020. Bachman has become the Republican version of Joe Biden and can not get out of her own way. Gingrich, c'mon, seriously? Perry I've gone from sort of liking when I knew little about him to despising when I knew a lot about him. Ron Paul, not going to happen. Sorry, wish it were otherwise but, not gonna happen. The rest have no shot.

There is no privacy on the internet. Unfortunately it is the nature of the beast.

Has the world become so politically polarized that two people of opposing political views cannot treat each other with civility? I have never held anyones political opinions, no matter how boneheaded or irrational, against them personally. People think they way they do because of the lessons they learned in their life experience. If you lead a totally different life from someone else, odds are you will have a totally different outlook on things. Makes perfect sense right? Anyway, I started dating this lady I met, a high school social science/civics/history teacher. We've been out a few times, it seemed like it was going well. We sparred about politics a little because she is definitely left of center but to me it's all in good fun. At least I thought so. Turns out it made her so mad that I had a totally different opinion on (insert issue name here) that she broke it off all together. And not very nicely either. Jeez, I thought a good argument was supposed to lead to some spirited make up sex and a good laugh. What is it about the left wing types that they seems to be perpetually unhappy and they get mad that you're not pissed off too? Anyway, I'm going to pour a drink, put some pink floyd on the ipod, and sit on the porch until the coyotes howl. Then maybe howl back at them.

I eat pretty healthy I guess. I do not eat "fast food". I eat beef only occasionly and then steaks almost exclusively. In fact I've started growing my own food a least a little bit. But these are all choices I've made myself. It strikes me wrong for government entities to presume they have final say over what goes in my mouth. And to tell the truth this is an issue that does not really beg for a solution. Since this thread popped up I've been reading about it and a number of big companies and restraunts are already stopping the use of transfats. Arbys, Whattaburger, White Castle, KFC, Nabisco, Kal-Can, come to mind readily. The truth is, as eople find out what transfat is and what it does to you they will drive the change in the marketplace by buying non-transfat products which will ultimatly complet companies that use transfat to stop. As far as taxing it using "sin taxes" I guess I have no objection to that. Exorbirant taxes on cigarettes combined with public education has made a hell of a dent in smoking and that is not a bad thing. But banning it going too far.

If Hades were still here he'd tell you it's simple. The one that sucks more, that's reality. Good ol' Sand, he always did look on the brighter side didn't he?

Just got home, had a date tonight. It went pretty well.

I'm not a big fan of "Sin Taxes" because taxes are supposed to be a means of funding government, not altering economic/personal activity. As a means of creating revenue sin taxes are a poor choice because the more you tax something, the less you have of it. For example, increase the tax on beer and people by less beer. If you wanted to make money on beer you just screwed the pooch, if you wanted fewer people to drink beer, mission accomplished. So yes using taxes as a tool for behaviour modification is a little bit of an infringement of freedom but not a severe one because you have not prevented people from buying beer if they want it. Now Krezzie's solution banning something all together is a whole horse of another color. That is a blatant infringement of freedom and something that should be opposed. The government is not your mother, it can not tell you what you have to eat. Like Morgoth said, you put the information out there, make everyone aware your target "sin" (be it alchohol, trans-fat, tobacco, etc) is bad for you and here is why then let people make the choices they make. Besides, I don't know about the rest of the world but in the US sin taxes are very easy to avoid. If Tennessee imposed a 50% tax on booze or something like that I'll just drive accross the river to Arkansas and buy it there. Anyone who has ever cleaned out a grease trap at a fast food joint will never eat fast food again. Trust me on that one.

I've only actually faced Turk organ guns once. Surprised the crap out of me, and unluckily for my AI opponent my fight response kicked in. The entire army bore down on the luckless battery. Only got off one more salvo. I had 8 batteries of 4" mortars. I formed up the army beyond their artillery range and spent the the first 15 min of the engagement in counter battery fire, raining hard shot and carcass shot on their artillery until it broke and fled. Then sent in the infantry at an oblique angle to their front line and swept their flank with Hussars once the line was engaged. Old Boney would have been proud. Artillery is the queen of battle. Anywho, I could talk Total War games all day, by far my favorite games ever.

Today was a lazy day. I spent the morning playing Empire Total War leading the armies of the Tsar through Armenia and Turkey. Then I fell asleep on the couch while watching football. I woke up after dark and could not gin up the motivation for anything more complex than a bowl of Raisin Bran for dinner.

This would be nice. I wonder if al-Qaeda would have become irrelevant on it's own of if it has become so only because the US, UK and dozens of other governments have been so effective in hunting them down and killing them like the vermin they are?

Yeah, yeah. you are such a humanitarian. I'm surprised you haven't started arguing yet that we should lift the ban on drink driving. Such a nanny state principle. I've yet to hear a drink driver not assure the cops that he wasn't fully capable of judging whether or not he was able to drive, so why should the state take that decision away from him. What are a few deaths and destroyed families in the big picture when peoples freedoms are impaired? I'm sure you can see the fatal flaw in your logic!

No reading Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost by Paul Hendrickson. If you are a fan of Papa you would enjoy it. Also reading The Art of Fielding. Everyone is raving how good this book is, I don't see it. It's ok I guess but sort of...meh.

Dune....boring.....who-is-this-person! Give us his name! Actually Dune is one of my favorites of all time right up to like the fourth book, then it jumped the shark and became absurd.

It is now 0947 in the morning on a BEAUTIFUL cool autumn day. I just finished trimming the trees off my fence (my chainsaw and I declared a truce and decided to work together today). After a quick breakfast of iced tea and a strawberry & peanut butter sandwich I'm going to plant carrots and onions and hope we can hold off the frost long enough for them to come in. After that I'm taking my XM radio, the dogs, & a 12 pack of Rolling Rock down to Cold Creek and I'm going fishing. Whatever we catch goes in the pan tonight. @LadyCrimson & Hurlshot too, you are both very lucky, always appreciate that!

Stop reading the Old Mans War series after "The Last Colony", that fourth book definitely jumped the shark.

I'm in a pretty good mood tonight. On Sept 1 the Tampa Bay Rays were nine games behind the Red Sox for the AL Wildcard playoff berth. Since then the Rays have been winning and the Sox, not so much. Tonight the Rays beat the Yankees and the Sox lost to Baltimore to tie the race with two games to go. No team in the history of organized professional baseball in the US has ever overcome a nine game difference in the last month of the season. That is so cool!

A bit much to go from "no telling people how to dress" to "CHAOS!!!!" I was responding to Guard Dog's post and didnt feel like editing when your post got in before mine. Oh I would not suggest a total free for all but it certainly would not hurt to leave people who are not hurting anyone alone.

Wow. I know you have to take what good news you can get but what a terrible thing to have to go through. I'm praying for all three of you.

Just think what a wonderful world this we be if we all just left each other alone? If somone wants to follow the dictates of their religion and wear burqas, or whatever, who cares. Why is this even a point of contention? The biggest problem with the world today is that 50% of the people in it want to control the way the other 50% live their lives. You can't wear burqas, you can't pray in school, you can't own a gun, you can't eat this or drink that or smoke that other thing. You can't build the house you want on the land you bought an paid for, you can't plant this kind of tree because it's non-naitive, you can't buy beer or chicken sandwiches on Sunday. It's fu***ng insane. I mean seriously, banning burqas is right there with banning pit bulls, or gay marriage, or legal gun ownership, or any one of a thousand other sh**ty rules created for the sole purpose of making us all as miserable as the little petty tyrants who made the rules. If you don't like burqas, don't wear one. What the hell do you care if someone else who you don't even know chooses to?

And from me as well Enoch. We're all thinking of you & your wife.

Now reading Sharpe's Tiger and That Used to be Us by Thomas Friedman.