Guard Dog

Don't know how it is in California, but I pay for my own power, water, house, and insurance. I pay a bill every month for all of those things. And it is not to the government since they are all private companies that provide them. Airports, roads, dams are all paid for by the State, and I have always been on the side of "State Rights". It is the very essence of Federalism. Taks has been pretty hard on you but he is right about one thing, you do need a better understanding of how government works. The government does just hand him money. Welfare, food stamps, HUD assistance, I could name a dozen more programs that Uncle Sam runs (with NO Constitutional mandate to do so) where people who do no work and pay no taxes get a check from the the government. Who do you think is funding all of that? Me. You. Everyone who earns income, invests money, buys a product made somewhere else. They are taking your money and giving it to someone else who did not earn it. Is that not theft? I have no problem with Federal, State, or local taxes per se. There are a number of Constituionally assigned duties on the Federal State and Local governments that rquire tax money to perform. But I do have a problem when that tax burden is ratcheted up tp 45-50% (collectively) to fund programs the Constitution does not allow to exist (at least at a federal level). I would be making the exact same argument in the State of Florida were to pass a law that it's state constitution did not allow.

Musopticon if I post something dumb, please feel free to call me out on it. I take criticisim well, especially if someone like you thinks its warranted. Anyway, you and Wals are probably right, there are different breeds of villian just like there are different breeds of scorpion. The thing that I hate most about the jihadist leaders is they preach jihad but they are never the ones to strap on the bombs. They send deluded teenagers. In a real army, the commander is right there in the fight. Did Henry V sneak away in the night before Agincourt? Did Wellington sneak away before Waterloo? Did Lee sneak away before Fredricksburg? Romulus Agustulus did not flee Rome before the Visigoths attacked. All of them were facing seemingly hopeless battles. But the "jihadists", their leaders disguise themselves as women and sneak off in the night. Incidently, Zarquawi did the exact same thing once to avoid being caught as Americam troops searched the truck he was riding in.

. Typical. After preaching the virtue of martyrdom to the people they have ensnared the leaders put on disguises and try to sneak away. I dont think you have the proper perspective on this. See, cross-dressing is pretty risky bussiness in muslim countries, and to do it in the very center of "put a towel on your head and a bomb in your pants" takes some serious guts. You are KILLING me. Too funny.

Little to none.

Is a man who commits atrocities in the name of religion really so different from one who does it in the name of political ideology?

It was pretty likely, sucks no less for it being confirmed. To my mind, that seems to be about the only appeal left to Dragon Age (I prefer multiplayer and/or moddable games for the most part). Don't give up on modding DA yet. Nothing has been set in stone beyond the fact it will have a toolset. They have said it will not be like NWN1 & 2 but that does not mean it won't be better. Actually I'm expecting something along the lines of Elder Scrolls. I guess we will find out next year.

Heh, I had just today listened to this idiot in my class talking about how much he admired that S.O.B. Did not seem to know the first thing about him. I told him he should do a little research about La Caba

. Typical. After preaching the virtue of martyrdom to the people they have ensnared the leaders put on disguises and try to sneak away. Sand is right. These people are not worth the dirt on the graves of the people they have murdered by setting bombs and running away. Or by strapping bombs on brainwashed children. Despicable. I have no stomach for men like Maulana Aziz, Zarqawi, Arafat, Bin Al asheed, Bin Laden, Zawahiri, Hussien, Che Guevera, Omar, and other filth like them. They are brutal towards the helpless, send others to die in their place and when it's their turn they die on their knees weeping and begging for their own lives.

Watch as I go OT in my own topic. But this is funny. I heard on the radio today that there is a canned food recall in progress in Florida and Georgia. Hormel Chili, Corned Beef Hash, Beef Stew and Mighty Dog canned dog food cans from a Georgia plant are all contaminated with botulisim. Beef Stew, Chili, Hash, and dog food.... all from the same plant???? No wonder it all looks the same when you open the can.

Let me give you a scenario here Calax. Suppose you are walking down the street and you see a homeless guy sleeping on a bench. If you walked up to him and gave him a hundred dollars, that would be a pretty nice thing to do. You would probably feel pretty good that you did that right? But suppose instead of you giving the him money I pointed a gun at you and forced you to give me the hundred dollars. That is theft right? I took something from you that I did not earn. Now if I go over to the homeless guy and give him the hundred dollars I stole from you does that change the fact I stole it? Or to be even more accurate, if I stole the hundred dollars from you I could only give the homeless guy fifty dollars because I had to recoup the cost of the gun I used to steal the hundred from you. . And then the homeless guy thanks me for giving him money and gives you a dirty look for giving him nothing even though it is was ultimately your money in his pocket. That is how taxes work.

Happy Birhday Taks! This will be the last one you count. Next year it will be the 1st anniversary of you 39th Birthday To quote Mickey Mantle "If I'd known I was going to live this long I'd have taken better care of myself".

That was an attempt at levity Kitty.

Article Link: Sun-Sentinel Holy crap, I gotta start reading the labels before I buy things and see where the heck it came from. The whole dog food thing scared the heck out of me as it was. If the Chinese want to take over the world they will not need their military to do it, if everyone keeps using their crappy products there won't be anyone left.

Too funny...

Just curious here. How many books are you guys reading at any one time? I guess I have a limited attention span because I usually read one at a time, but never more tha two.

This thread is OVER! Nobody is going to top that post! It's true. I have lied to you all. I am not a dog. But it's even worse than it appears. I am in fact a male human, but my avatar (which IS in fact a pic of a real dog) is a female. Yes, her name is Desiree. All my lies are undone. I cannot bear the SHAME! On a lighter note, I used Desi's pic as an avatar because she is the smartest out of all of my dogs. I'd even bet she is smarter that a fair number of posters here, myself included!

This may seem a little simplisitc but try ebay. At work we needed to revive a utility we had not used in over 13 years. It was DOS 5.0 based and would not run on any XP machine. I actually bought a copy of Windows 3.1 with DOS 5.1 off of ebay and we set up a computer to do that utility only. If I understand the EULA correctly there is no law against buying used software that was properly licensed to begin with.

My source for that info: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Its right in the center of the page Ok, so the USBLS is lying then. You can back that up with fact right? No, I did not think so. Illegal immigrants do not count because they are not citizens, are not entitled to unemployment benefits, and most importantly are not reporting themselves to any State agency for obvious reasons. Again you are demonstrating a lack of understanding of how the US works. The words "health care" and "education" do not appear in the US constitution. That is widely considered to be a State Government concern despite the efforts of the dems to nationalize it. If the federal government decides to take an active role in issues it raises the money to do so by taxing citizens, not businesses. It taxes the income from your job, the gains from your investments, the purchases you make (via tariff on imports), etc. I am not wealthy by any means but when democrats are in power capital gains taxes are often raised to a level that can only be called punitive. It makes small investors like me less inclined to invest in stocks when Uncle Sam is stealing 40% right off the top. When fewer people invest, stock prices fall. Then companies have less money to run their business which often leads them to retrench and then lay employees off to cut costs. Those people laid off file for unemployment and are not paying taxes. You see where this goes? I highly recommend this book: Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy by one of the greatest economic minds of the 21st century: Thomas Sowell. I read that book in it's first edition many years ago and it changed how I think about these things. One thing to remember Kaftan. The US is a fundamentally different animal than European countries. The government is the US is stratified by design with each level assigned particular reponsibilities. In most European contries there is little seperation between national and local government so macro economics apply to the european model. It is not the same here at all.

She has been a moderate-left voter in the Senate that is true. But there are those, and I count myself among them, who believe that is just a veneer. She entered the Senate to run for President. She never wanted to be a Senator for any reason other than to spring board a White House run. There are two books I've read about her that give a little insight into her mind. One was her very own It Takes a Village. It strikes me reading that that she has utterly no faith in the individual doing anything without the direction of what she calls "collective wisdom". I interpret that as "government interference" which should be an anathema to any red blooded American. I tried to read a little of her book Living History but she did not tip her hand in that one. It was really an attempt to put a happy face on events that involved here during the Clinton years. I did not read all of it, or even half, just could not get into it. The other was Power Plays: Win or Lose by **** Morris. He did not really go after Hillary by name but it plainly lays out the playbook the Clinton's, and Reagan before them used to achieve and wield power. I highly recommend this book by the way. I would not vote for either her or Obama. Not because she is a woman or that he is black. I would not vote for them because they are big government liberals who in the past have shown utter disregard for the thing I hold most sacred: limited, less intrusive government operating within Constitutional restraint.

Kaftan, I'm sorry but you have no idea what the heck you are talking about. As of June US Unemployment was at 4.5%. It never fell below 5% during the the entire eight years of the Clinton Administration. Not that THAT matters. The only way the President can directly impact unemployment is if he hires someone for his staff. The US Government practices very little "control" over the economy compared to European countries. It's two main tools for economic manipulation are taxes, and interest rates. And they have only oblique control over the latter since it is determined by the federal reserve whose chairman is a politcal apointee, but not a polititcian and does not answer to Congress or the President. True some jobs have gone overseas, but others have taken their place. Complaining about losing your sewing job to a factory in china is like the stagecoach driver complaining about losing his job because the car was invented. And like I tell people here all the time, if they don't like US jobs going to China, stop buying stuff made in China. It is easy to do and if everyone did it the market will adjust. Just do not complain if you pay more for what you buy.

Gore is a socialist. People like that do not get elected to national office in the United States. But we are wandering OT here. Sentencing will be in 2 weeks.

That says all i've ever needed to know about Bush getting into power. The funny thing about US politics Nick is that often enough someone (like Bush) gets elected not because they are good or deserving, but because the alternative is so much worse.

I wanna be a cowboy.... in fact this thing said I was. Doggone it, now I gotta go buy a horse. Hmmm where do you go to buy as horse? Sheesh, I guess I'm not much of a cowboy. I scored 6 Honor, 5 Justice, 9 Adventure, and 3 Individuality

Thats what I ran for, State Rep. Almost 6000 people voted for me. I did not even know all of them.

Ah if only such was readily available.