taks

walsignham, you can lead off by pimping your bootay as a test of the system. taks

not even bootay pimping? when color control is fading, either the electron gun, or the electronics that control it are failing. kalimeeri is right that it's probably not worth fixing. the cost would probably as much, if not more, than the cost of buying new (particularly a new CRT). taks

basketball is a game unlikely to go more than one OT. too much scoring to be that even. hockey, OTOH, during playoffs, is ridiculous. full periods. i've seen 6 or 7 periods (3 or 4 OTs) before. it was agonizing. taks

pro football, during regular season, has one overtime (5 minutes i believe). the first score wins, i.e. sudden death. if neither team scores, it is a tie. baseball goes until they drop. hockey goes to sudden death OT then a shootout. soccer goes to a shootout as well, i believe (we did when i was playing in my younger days)... that's governed by FIFA now i assume. taks

none of which are on my radar at the moment. i really do restrict my gaming to fantasy crpgs. occasionally i delve into other things, but not often (i bought, and disliked, both kotors, as well as the fallouts and even planescape). i am thinking about looking at some of the horror games that are out, however, which have rather steep GPU requirements IIRC. any more i only have a few hours each week to game, so i have to pick my battles wisely. taks

Q2/Q3 is my plan... what DX10 games are slated anyway? dragon age i'd assume, but that's maybe not till '08. taks

actually, you can. 98 fouls is an out. never happened as far as i know, however. taks

just found out my wife's box is generating HDD errors (which results in a failed winders startup sometimes). given that it is a relatively new HDD, i'm guessing the via chipset is the cause, i.e. bad mobo. i've got one more spot on the other controller i'm going to try to see if that solves the problem. if not, then it means NEW BOX FOR TAKS (and wifey-pooh gets my current box which is very stable). i'm thinking e6400 combo with a P5W from ASUS... not sure about deluxe though, and i'm torn between that and the 680i chipset boards. i don't care about sli, however, so that's a vote for the P5W. if i keep the same vid card, HDD (250 GB seagate 7200.10) and case, i should be under $500 for mobo/CPU/mammaries. i'll worry about a new vid card when the 8800 line forces the 7900 line down in price (later this summer i'm guessing). i'm not a huuuge gamer, other than the crpgs we all discuss in here anyway, so graphiques are not really my concern. i will be doing some rather intense matlab programming soon, (modelling satellite telemetry, comm links and radar), which will require some hefty processing and memory requirements, however. taks

ouch. cannibals... taks

legacy has been rocking along with the rest of the team. 5-0-3 in the last eight, 5-0-1 in the last 6, 1.58 GAA for legacy since his concussion (knock on the head woke him up i guess) including a 33 save shutout last night. murray must be having an impact. yay. taks

certainly not regularly... yeah, watched the game, btw. the blues actually looked good, too. bacashihua made 17 saves and gave up one goal (thats a .944 save rate for the mathematically challenged), legacy actually stopped 9 while yielding none (1.000 save rate) before he left due to illness, and they shut down crosby, the league leading scorer... wow. i watched all of the 2nd and 3rd periods, btw. mark

this is sort of what i was getting at when i said "not everyone against prostitution is that way because of religion." in general, it is very hard to say that prostitution is more good than bad for society. the negatives (as noted by pops) far outweigh any benefits. many people simply feel that this is justification for criminalizing it. personally, i think it is a negative, though i cannot drop my "stay out of my life uncle sam" attitude. the latter freedom, IMO, far outweighs the negatives of prostitution. if it is legalized, ever, it should be heavily regulated ala las vegas cathouses. remove some of the negatives (i.e. pimps, exploitation, etc.) and it isn't as bad overall. taks

that's not entirely true. many men that frequent prostitutes do so for a variety of reasons... off the top of my head 1) don't want the hassle of hunting for a reasonable "score" in bars/usual places to pick up women 2) coupled with 1, would also rather get "quality" women (high-end pros, for rich folks) 3) don't want the wife to find out about infidelity (the dumbest thing a guy can do when cheating is to take a girlfriend... she'll tell eventually) 4) out of town and need a quick fix (military comes to mind heavily here)... i'm sure there are others. taks

part 2 got 2 1/2 stars on the tv rating for dish. i'm wondering what they were smoking. that movie was wretched. thanks for the support vol. taks

because all laws are based on some fundamental belief system, whether it is secular or religious in nature. remember, i agreed that there should not be interference from the government in our adult lives. not everyone that feels prostitution is bad does so because of religious beliefs, either (same goes for a lot of other beliefs, most notably abortion). no, i was stating directly (not implying) that your statement "thereby imposing their religious beliefs on the rest of society as a whole" is contrary to the notion that people should have their own moral base, regardless of where it is derived. i.e. motivation for a belief, or law, should not be an issue. the law itself should be the issue, and i agree such laws are unjust, though my belief stems from my own personal moral foundation. some choose religion as that moral foundation... certainly mine has been influenced by the same. i wasn't making any claim that there should be a law, merely noting that laws stem from moral foundations, and those foundations are, by definition, personal in nature. there is very little supporting evidence for a lack of belief in "early times." most that were found to be heretical, were simply choosing to believe in a different way. e.g. early lutherans were considered heretical to the then dominant roman catholics. they were still religious, just choosing a different way to worship. truly early societies, such as the mesopotamians and egyptians, were ridiculously religious even by today's standards. the point is not that people did or did not believe in some fashion anyway. the point is that you seem to be of the belief that any law based in whole or in part on religion is unjust (or whatever) simply because it is based on religious beliefs. religious beliefs permeate all of society, and always have. that some laws have a wrapper called "religion" on them does not make them bad laws necessarily. murder is a widely held no-no in all of society. it is also forbidden by the 10 commandments. religion was simply a way for early leaders to put this no-no into writing. the same goes for just about any basic law that nearly every community holds to. the only difference between you and i believing murder is bad, and the religious community believing murder is bad, is that we do not have it "written on a stone tablet by god" somewhere. taks

but then you're still imposing YOUR view on everyone else, right or wrong. as i noted above, what makes YOUR moral edict any better than a religious one? both "versions" of morality are derived from some personal belief system, one just happens to be based on religion (most actually stem from religion, ultimately, in one fashion or another simply because _everyone_ believed in some religion when modern laws were originally conceived... but that's another issue). i agree, however, that the government sticking its nose into adult behavior is reprehensible, regardless of what morals said intrusions are based on, secular, religious, or otherwise. taks

yes, those "demonizers" are also hypocritical, IMO, though the issue is not one of "separation of church and state." it is simply a matter of people allowing others to have their own moral belief system, and understanding that such systems are not required to be uniform across the board. both sides (hard-core secular and hard-core religious) tend to be hypocritical in this respect. both seem to think their way is the best way and by extension, everyone else should follow along (baaaa). i suppose any ideology results in such intolerance. oh well. taks

separation of church and state simply means the state does not regulate religion, nor show favoritism to any specific religion. there's nothing in that equation preventing people from making decisions based on religion, this includes laws. again, what makes YOUR moral position any better than one based on religion? religion is nothing more than a moral foundation for those that believe. if they choose to push for laws based on that foundation, they are simply voting their conscience. everyone makes decisions based on their own moral foundation. that you would attempt to suggest your moral foundation is any better than theirs is hypocrisy at its best. you become even worse than them because of your own self-righteousness. otherwise, everything else you said is pretty right on. taks

the social worker starts off right, then finishes with a false premise. i.e., the "solution" to the problem of prostitution, which results in women doing something they really don't want to do (not normally), is to outlaw it, and create even further problems for the women. whether it is illegal or not, it will exist within our society. a market exists, and someone will always step up to fill it. i have to agree with the philosopher and anthropologist sort of jointly. there's nothing wrong with regulating it, and it actually may provide some benefit in that women can actually _choose_ the profession, rather than being forced into it. that way, they can also _choose_ to end it when they feel they've had enough, rather than suffer at the hands of some abusive pimp. they'd also be offered some protection from bad johns during their tenure. it is legal just outside of las vegas, btw, and the girls in the cathouses there make a fortune. taks

can't read it from work... is that grounds for yet another frivolous lawsuit? taks

oh for eight now... of course, bacashihua faced 45 freaking shots (schwartz faced one... not sure why). you absolutely cannot expect to win if your defense is giving up 46 shots a game. unbelievable. taks

drugs are your friend! taks

i'm going to go in with an 8 or so... some things are really great and others not so great. either way, i've had a lot of fun with this game. my primary gripe, btw, is the party AI. it is rather frustrating in a battle to select a character and suddenly everyone is rushing to his side. why o why a 15th level druid would morph into a badger mid-fight is another puzzle. i'd rather not be forced into puppet mode, though i think the next run through (with a weapon master wanna be) will be done this way. i'd put the BGs at 9+. i have, between the two, probably 2000+ hours invested in them, btw. i never could get past the first few scenes in either fallout or planescape to rate them. toee was mostly a disappointment, another unfinished game for me, with a score of maybe 4 or 5, with the overall engine and slick graphics (for a crpg) being the primary reasons i rate it that high. arcanum was drivel as well, unfinished too. nwn OC was... yawn... unfinished #5. sotu was dreck, unfinished #6. hotu was pretty good and i've replayed it a few times earning a 7+. i've had fun with several nwn mods, too. though not really crpgs in the same sense as the above, the tales of the unknown series (aka bard's tales) was and is my all-time favorite. not really that the games were great, but because they a) were my introduction to computer games and b) an opportunity for my brothers and i to sit up nights playing till our eyes bled. i'll never forget those days. taks

looks like the blues replaced kitchen with andy murray, formally of the kings. hopefully he'll do a bit better... taks

what if i want my cats to swim with concrete booties? taks