taks

was it heavily overclocked? either way, 4 years on an overclocked system is a good sign. i keep threatening to overclock my systems, but i just never get around to doing it. taks

personally, i didn't say he had to. actually, i said there's no problem with it. that doesn't lessen the hypocrisy. his defense, btw, is based on things that only the wealthy can afford. he just added a layer to the hypocrisy with that. taks

that he's not serving in an elected position no less diminishes his role as a politician. he's pushing political agendas, and attempting to influence political policy. plus, i don't think either one of us can truly say he's not bucking for some sort of political appointment should a democract get elected for the next term. think a little before posting, sand. taks

you could enroll in a school, but i think you have to maintain half or full-time status. taks

true, on that i agree. however, he is military and his opinion is skewed by perhaps an otherwise harsh sense of discipline. what he's calling a "slap on the wrist" in other (unmentioned) cases, may seem just, or even harsh to civilians. that's all i was getting at, that opinions are just that, particularly absent the rigor required to make such broad statements. DAs probably all (well, most) think we're too soft on crime, defense attorney's probably think we're all too harsh. depends upon your point of view. taks

really now, that was almost silly. do you really think a liberal think tank would expose such hypocrisy on a liberal politician? taks

The report came from a conservative think tank (Tennessee Center for Policy Research) that the Dept of Revenue recently deemed

probably would be. john (my son) loves the player's handbook (for the pictures at the moment). in the context of BG, however, it won't do a whole lot because you can't physically see all the behind the scenes calculating. taks

believe it or don't, i'm playing BG2 AGAIN! this time, however, i'm on a 21" LCD and running in window mode since 1600x1200 doesn't work right with my install. my son refers to it as "playing noise." i suppose when he was first learning to talk, any and all music was called simply "noise" (probably since he was about 12 months old, and had a limited vocabulary at the time). he always sat in my lap while i played and loved the music. i suppose it was good at one time, but i have it memorized note for note now after 30 or so runs through the damned game. either way, he likes to try to play, and at least watch me play to this day (not quite 4 years old now). i'll have to install it on his computer now that i got it running. either way, we're a thief, er, rogue in this play through. i still enjoy the game as a relaxation method. it's modded, and i cheat when i don't feel like messing with a fight (particularly if a swarm of kobolds show up, or yet another "your party has been waylayed" spawn occurs). taks

yeah, best cheese movies ever. the bridge scene in the first, btw, was filmed on a bridge in missouri. st. charles rock road bridge as i recall. i grew up not far from there (outside of st. louis). i'm not sure if it's still there, however, as it was already boarded up back then. taks

yeah, that would work, too. ala "escape from NY" or "escape from LA" with snake pliskin! taks

it's not a mud-slinging campaign... like it or not, whether he should be expected to practice what he preaches or not, morally, ethically or otherwise, it is the definition of hypocrisy that is the subject of this thread. al lives up to the definition, be it his fault or the fault of his circumstances. personally, i think he should be able to splurge as he has earned that right. that i detest everything else he stands for is immaterial to the fact that he has the right to stand for such things, hypocritical or not. i think gromnir would point out that it's not irony, but incongruity, btw. taks

rape + murder should be life without parole and hard labor, IMO. if they could figure out a way to put in 100% certainty, i'd vote death penalty, but i just don't think such a concept is feasible in general. taks

yeah, you got the right poster, just the wrong post. however, i didn't ask you _why_ you thought that, i simply stated you have no way of knowing. even one serving major "fessing up" in such a manner is still hearsay. you could probably ask DAs the same thing in any local prosecutor's office and get a similar response. it all depends upon the narrow view one has, even if from the inside, simply because it is next to impossible to gauge such a subjective concept, particularly when you haven't seen all of the case files. taks

you should take up with the numerologists... taks

a phenomenon known as pareidolia. taks

uh, it wasn't really preemptive, though our retaliation for iraq's treaty violations was certainly not tit for tat. taks

first of all, that's "faces up to 40 years," not "sentenced to 40 years." if you added up all the _possible_ jail time for multiple murders, it can run into hundreds of years pretty quickly. also, the soldier entered a plea agreement, which always results in a reduced sentence. had the gal in this case pled to a lesser charge, she would not have faced such a harsh sentence possibility. i do think it seems a bit ridiculous, though all we have to go on is the viewpoint of the commentary, which is biased towards the defendent. taks

i hate to say it walsingham, but there's no way you can know that. the only tribunals we ever hear about are those that make it to the media pages for some reason or another. to judge the entire system by that alone is disingenuous. taks

the US bureaucracy has in the neighborhood of 6 million people now, 1 out of 50 of us. they think and act like their own country in many respects. i can only imagine how many will eventually comprise the EU government. taks

that's why most democratic systems, the US' included, are actually republics. that's also why the US is split into separate, smaller states, in order to leave day-to-day operations up to fairly small governments, all modeled after the larger, national government. unfortunately, in the US, the national government has taken on many powers not specifically assigned to it, leaving the states with less and less authority as time passes. the cost is becoming prohibitive, and as suggested, the leaders are pretty far removed from the people they represent. taks

i'd never explain anything as a gift from god simply because i'm an atheist. also, you are probably mischaracterizing my position (albeit a slightly ambiguous position) on the electoral college. better than most systems currently in play, though certainly not the best, nor even good, is my actual opinion. what i'd prefer is probably not possible to implement after all the voting fiascos we've had in the recent past. no offense taken, btw. i saw the humor in your post. taks

btw, the NAS, national academy of sciences, supports the position that the proxy records are not accurate indicators of past temperatures, particularly those using bristlecone pines. these proxies are the primary method for assigning blame to man. taks

no, i did not say that. i said "al's experts." in particular, michael mann, jim hansen, kevin trenberth, phil jones, gavin schmidt, etc. no i use insults for so-called scientists that _intentionally_ distort science in the name of their agenda. these are smart people, many of which are on the record stating they think it is OK to exaggerate claims to further their cause (whatever it may be), al included. smart people using bad science implies that either a) they really aren't that smart (which i do not believe) or b) they're pushing an agenda, self-serving or otherwise or c) they're blinded by their own view of the world, unable to search for alternatives. blatant misuse of scientific methods, statistical methods, and other even more egregious misapplications of science to promote hype and propaganda over the truth. taks

interestingly, the most stable piece of equipment in any of my boxes, to date, has been my sound card. i recently switched from an old SB-Live! Value, to an audigy. i had the previous sound card for, well, since they first came out. in order of stability (worst to best), here's been my list: 1) motherboard - particularly, the IDE controllers seem to crap out. my wife's mobo is also having PCI issues, manifesting on the AGP slot. her mobo is also having clock-locking issues, and it's under 4 years old. i just ordered a new mobo for my son's vaio, too, as it refused to recognize anything on the IDE channels. 2) hard drives - the early 7200s were awful, and prior to that i could never get a drive to last more than a few years. i'm hoping the newer SATAs perform better. i've bought as many HDDs as mobos over the years. HDDs are typically cheaper, so i rate them a bit better (bang for the buck i guess). 3) video cards - 3 years tops on every card i've ever owned. 4) power supplies - i've had a few die for no reason. 5) CPUs - usually when one of my CPUs dies, it is my fault (powering up w/out a heat-sink results in a very high-pitched squeal, and insta-death, btw). 6) miscellaneous 7) speakers - my original creative speakers died after 6 or 7 years. moved on to logitech. sound card - i've owned two now, in the last 11 years that i can remember. taks