Your Two Cents on Fornigate - Linda Tripp and Kenneth Starr

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My two cents are: A.I. = Absurd Ignorance. It's a terrible waste of money. The product of coked minds further clouded by PC thinking.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 23:19:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well. A.I. is not for kids even if it is PG and done by Spielberg. Liberals cut him slack. Shitty movie. Heck, Pearl Harbor was better. More proof of liberal mind control on themes.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 22:59:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: You wouldn't lie to us now, would you Ghost? This 'tweeners angle sounds a little too easy, a little too perfect, if you catch my drift. Why are you sharing this "little known secret" with mortals? I smell a rat. I'm catching a whiff of the pineapple, who was a master at setting up the old object lesson. This 'tweener deal sounds fishy. I'm not biting. Chomp!
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 21:21:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: One of the sentences in 14:42:49 sounds like Pezspeake.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 17:46:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Actually, wrong again, as usual, socialist. I am going to the one AFTER the matinees. 5 pm. Usually the 'tweener with the best open spaces. Full prices without the crowds. A little known secret. I'll tell you if I see any alien life forms, i.e. socialsits. Toodles.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 16:43:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Bargain matinee for ghosts, huh? A.I.? Must mean artificial intelligence. Now why does that remind me of the late, lamented Pete?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 16:38:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anyway, am going to see A.I. today. I know you don't care, but the rock does.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 15:23:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Look, Charlie, you have more than a lot to learn, you need a brain transplant.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 15:08:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well I didn't know that. We have two Pezes. Just goes to show every day is an opportunity for a new learning experience.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 14:57:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, YOUR Pez is an asshole. Our (meaning non-traitorous Americans) think our President is just fine and dandy. Not a socialist. Need say no more.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 14:42:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: The nerve of Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka calling our Pez an asshole.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 14:05:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Thanks, from one ghost to another.
Herbert Hoover
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 13:00:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yeah, the socialists in Britain caused the depression by going off the gold standard. Get a clue.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 11:46:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Great Depression was the worst economic slump ever in U.S. history, and one which spread to virtually all of the industrialized world. The depression began in late 1929 and lasted for about a decade. Many factors played a role in bringing about the depression; however,the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's, and the extensive stock market speculation that took place during the latter part that same decade. The maldistribution of wealth in the 1920's existed on many levels. Money was distributed disparately between the rich and the middle-class, between industry and agriculture within the United States, and between the U.S. and Europe. This imbalance of wealth created an unstable economy. The excessive speculation in the late 1920's kept the stock market artificially high, but eventually lead to large market crashes. These market crashes, combined with the maldistribution of wealth, caused the American economy to capsize.
sound familiar?
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 11:25:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, yes, revisionist generalized socialist history. Completely ignores the reality of the particular eras and causes and effects. Another study done at Harvard debunked this myth. Oh well, what do you expect from a group of lying socialsits who think their leader is a Pez. Dispensed.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 10:27:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: UCLA PROFESSORS FIND HIGHER AVERAGE EXCESS RETURNS OF STOCK MARKET UNDER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS Researchers conduct analysis of the connection between presidential elections and the stock market and find some surprising and significant results. LOS ANGELES - The old adage that Republican presidents are good for business may be little more than a myth, according to research recently completed by finance professors Pedro Santa-Clara and Rossen Valkanov, of The Anderson School at UCLA. A close examination by the two researchers of the stock market's average performance during Republican and Democratic presidencies reveals that returns are much higher when a Democrat is in office. The two researchers arrive at their findings by analyzing the returns an investor would receive from placing his or her money in the equity market rather than T-bills over the period from 1927 to 1998. Under Democratic presidents, the average excess return of investments in the stock market over the three-month Treasury bill is about 11 percent. Under Republicans, it is less than two percent; a nine percent difference. Examination of the risk-free interest rate produces another noteworthy result: under Republicans, the real T-bill rate is, on average, higher than the rate under Democrats by more than three percent. The difference is even more striking when Santa-Clara and Valkanov examine stock portfolios formed according to the companies' market capitalization. Small cap stocks realize an average excess return of 18 percent during Democratic presidencies; while under Republican ones, the return was -3 percent. The difference in returns for large caps was approximately seven percent. With hindsight, one can argue that those results are attributable to differences in the business cycle during Republican and Democratic presidencies, and a correlation between the business cycle and expected stock market returns. In fact, it is commonly accepted that the president's policies have an effect on the economy that, in turn, impacts the stock market. To take into account potential differences in economic conditions, the two researchers control for a vast number of macroeconomic variables, such as an indicator of recessions, the slope of the yield curve and credit spreads of bonds, that help remove the effect of business cycle fluctuations. Their surprising results hold: returns under Democrats are still, on average, higher. Secondly, the researchers examine various subsamples to be sure that their results are not driven by any particular presidency or major event. The market data in the study covers the time period of 1927-1998. In order to remove the effects of any one particular presidency or event, Santa-Clara and Valkanov divide the sample into two smaller sub-samples: 1946-1998 (excluding the Great Depression and WWII) and 1960-1998 (modern times). The results remain unaffected. Can the higher returns under Democrat presidents be explained as compensation for the potentially higher risk incurred by stock market investors? After all, Democrats and Republicans usually put into place different economic policies. If Democratic policies are seen as more risky, or at least make investors more uncertain, Santa-Clara and Valkanov conjecture, then perhaps that higher risk would explain the higher returns they discover. However, to the contrary, the two find that market volatility, a measure of risk, is actually higher under Republican presidents. Finally, Santa-Clara and Valkanov explore the possibility that the difference in excess returns may be localized in the period immediately before, during, and after election dates. In fact, the academic literature in political science as well as anecdotal evidence suggests that when the economy is strong, the incumbent party almost always retains ownership of the White House. "If that is the case," said Valkanov, "the incumbent would certainly have incentive to do everything possible to kick the economy into high gear right before the election. We were hoping to observe an increase in excess returns right before, during, and after the elections, due to the manipulation of economic policies." A similar difference in excess returns could also occur pre- or post-election as investors may view the weeks surrounding an election as more risky and demand higher returns from their investments. "We do not find any evidence of statistically significant abnormal returns before elections or during any other particular part of the presidency. In fact, the average excess return appears to build up slowly and gradually throughout the term," said Santa-Clara. "These results leave us with a puzzle to solve, and we will continue to look for an explanation of our findings." "We also look at which party controls Congress to determine if this is a factor in our findings," said Santa-Clara. "Surprisingly, we find no effect on the equity premium, whether Democrats or Republicans have control of the House or the Senate." Data The researchers examine stock market data from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) of the University of Chicago, and interest rate data from Ibbotson Associates. Biographies Santa-Clara, who joined the Anderson faculty in 1996, focuses his research on theoretical models of asset pricing and the development of econometric methods to estimate those models, particularly in the areas of bond pricing and valuation of derivatives. He earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in finance from INSEAD; and an M.S. and B.S. in economics from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. Valkanov joined The Anderson School in 1999. His research interests include econometrics, monetary economics and macroeconomics, as well as financial economics. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Princeton University, and his B.A. in economics from UC Irvine.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 09:51:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: Almost as witty as the Pez.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 08:43:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: This golem may be dull, but he's wittier than Pete ever was.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 30, 2001 at 08:27:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Socialists are all ghosts. E*vil ghosts....
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 22:33:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Dalrymple said he's sorry he ever got into that mess.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 18:18:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Do ghosts get to vote?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 17:40:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'd say you are about ready to scrawl in Presidente Ant�nio Guterres. Honest, responsible, intellignet people (ie non-democRATs) will vote Powell or any of a few hundred rational conservatives. Anyone but the sickness that passes as a Democrat these days. As you prove.
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 17:06:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: In your case?
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 16:58:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: You mean Cheney isn't president*? Who is?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 16:47:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Colin Powell perhaps?
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 16:45:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Otherwise, if you had asked an intelligent question and sought an answer for how a Vice President is selected if the existing one dies, the answer is in the 25th Amendment (1966). The President nominates a VP, and that person takes office after confirmation by simple majorities in the House and Senate.
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 16:45:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: What a moron, when and if Cheney dies, assuming Bush does not predecease him or follow in Bill Cliton's steps and be impeached but also thrown out of office, then Bush is still President.
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 16:39:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: When Cheney dies, who becomes President*? Does the Supreme Court get to choose?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 16:27:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Dalrymple� must be dead too. Or else he's working on his debut album of seafaring songs.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 16:25:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: How's Dalrymple doing? That's the big question.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 14:19:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ha! Yeah, and I'm sure the socialsits in Cuba are all doing just "fine." What an idiot!
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 14:01:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: BTW Mona, Elian seems to be doing just fine.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 13:52:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: More about the LIARS known as DemocRATs: "Mona Charen // Liars everywhere // LYING seems to be all around us. Patricia Smith, the Boston Globe columnist whose evocative prose nearly won a Pulitzer Prize a couple of years ago, confessed to inventing many of the people and situations she was supposedly chronicling. About a year later, Mike Barnicle, of the same paper, was fired for inventing touching situations. Stephen Glass, writer for Rolling Stone and Harper's among others, was fired when his editor discovered that he had invented facts, statistics and quotations (research is so much quicker that way). Bill Clinton, well, enough said. Just within the past week, two new liars have come upon the stage -- Joseph Ellis, the Pulitzer Prize winning historian, and David Brock, the self-dramatizing former "right wing hit man," [who has since had a change of colors] to take their bows. It seems that Ellis, a history professor at Mount Holyoke College, invented a star turn as a high-school football player among other petty lies. But his big deception concerned his service in Vietnam. On various occasions, Ellis told students and colleagues that he had been a platoon leader in Vietnam, had served in Gen. William Westmoreland's headquarters and had been with a unit near the village of My Lai at the time of the massacre. As the Globe reported and Ellis now admits, all of that was a lie. It's interesting that Ellis chose to invent not just service in Vietnam, but disillusionment with the war as well, claiming that he returned home and joined the anti-war movement. James Bowman, in the Times Literary Supplement, observes that ****this trajectory -- service, disillusionment, protest -- is now the preferred narrative of the American left.**** In this way, veterans can have it both ways -- honor and victimhood. But by inventing disillusionment, based presumably on the terrible things he saw other American soldiers do, Ellis has committed a grave sin. As Bowman writes, "In joining with the many impostors that the war has bred, Ellis was objectively helping to falsify his country's, as well as his personal, history." But Americans are in a very forgiving mood these days. Any hardship, even the embarrassment born of having to admit one's lies, is met with sympathy. When Ellis gave a lecture last week at the National Archives, the audience laughed merrily at all of his jokes and offered sustained applause. "I think we all make mistakes," offered a fellow historian in attendance. David Brock is skilled at making a spectacle of his various accusations and recantations, though it's not clear that any particular wizardry is required -- there is always a willing audience among the liberal media for conservative turncoats. Brock may be taking bows now, but he will be dismayed at how fast he's dropped once his usefulness in skewering his former friends is exhausted. Brock, whose book on Anita Hill and revelations about Bill Clinton's sexual escapades as governor of Arkansas made him famous, has now decided that he regrets both. The liberal press is reacting as if this proves that Hill's accusations against Clarence Thomas were true. But that is not the case, any more than Brock's regrets over the "Troopergate" piece invalidate the case against Clinton. The Los Angeles Times and other papers also had the Arkansas story, and there were solid reasons to doubt Hill's testimony that had nothing to do with her personal life. Still, the lying, if that is what Brock did (and he must have lied either then or now), is very, very disturbing. Truth telling is the first building block of character -- a quality that seems to be getting rarer and rarer in all-forgiving America. " This is the course that lying liberals have chartered. See how they cower and run? Shoo!
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 12:26:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: At least will be able to dance wrinkle free.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 12:24:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, anon, you should know given your dance with the Devil. I'd say eye of Newt is part of your concoction. Have no fear, the forces of good are ready to slam the socialsits into oblivion.
Pete�
- Friday, June 29, 2001 at 10:50:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: God knew what He was doing. That withered and worn strumpet needs the discarded foreskin of the newborn. Collagen producing cells in order that the strumpet not look withered and worn.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 23:27:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: O desperate coward, wilt thou seeme bold, and To thy foes and his (who made thee to stand Sentinell in his worlds garrison) thus yeeld, And for forbidden warres, leave th'appointed field? Know thy foes: The foule Devill (whom thou Strivest to please,) for hate, not love, would allow Thee faine, his whole Realme to be quit; and as The worlds all parts wither away and passe, So the worlds selfe, thy other lov'd foe, is In her decrepit wayne, and thou loving this, Dost love a withered and worne strumpet; last, Flesh (it selfes death) and joyes which flesh can taste, Thou lovest; and thy faire goodly soule, which doth Give this flesh power to taste joy, thou dost loath. [Grierson]
Pete� <[email protected]>
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 23:06:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: So, are we gonna get our first test on a Supreme Court nominee? Time to change the conservative shift. Now we get to see the liars in the senate who call themselves DemocRATs and Independents do their treason. Should be some fun. Buckle up for a summer of more BS from the liars.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 20:17:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Survivor? No, he is long gone. Dead. Kaput. Only other demonRATs let the scum off the abg and that COST THEM big time. He survived nothing. His antics GAVE control back to the party of Lincoln. We'll see how deep that damage was with other liar demonrats in the next election.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 19:53:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, Glint, but notice that he blamed Arafat for making him one. Never Bill's doing directly. Always someone else. The true hallmark of a socialist who watches only shadows cast on the cave walls, never the real thing. He was a complete disaster. Good thing he is long gone. Putrid F*ck. His legacy will be he was the most inept, lying, incompetent, perveted, virtue-less, self-centered disaster to hold office. The ONLY thing that saved this country was he followed Bush who won the Cold War (abd lost in a three way fight and also facing a lying socialist media) and we had a Republican controlled Congress through most of it. He was a traitor and so are his aiding and abetting defenders.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 19:49:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete, I can't believe that story where Clinton said, "I�m a colossal failure." He's too much of a liar to ever tell the truth. More likely he said "Thankya Yassah, and tell the queen I miss 'er."
Glint
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 19:36:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: But does CounterMeasures KNOW he's posting in the wrong forum?

- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 19:07:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: ...survivor
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 18:17:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: "I�m a colossal failure" and a liar, and a socialist, and a traitor, and an adulterer, and a pervert, and a harrasser, and a scumbag, and a.....
Bill's Cliton
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 17:59:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: On Tuesday night, Clinton told guests at a party at the Manhattan apartment of former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke and his wife, writer Kati Marton, that Arafat called to bid him farewell three days before he left office. �You are a great man,� Arafat said. �The hell I am,� Clinton said he responded. �I�m a colossal failure, and you made me one.� Earth to Billy: You are a failure all by yourself. You never negotiate with terrorists, you fool. Your ego and "legacy" were too important. Too bad they weren't bigger than your puny bent pud. You were and are a disaster. A failure and evil socialsit from day 1. You and your ilk are TRAITORS!!!!
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 17:54:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Something tells me CounterMeasures is posting in the wrong forum.

- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 17:43:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Aachen, Germany (dpa) - A man who visited the red-light district in Aachen in search of a good time found his wife instead - working as a prostitute, according to police in Germany. The 37-year-old man had no idea his wife was in the habit of selling sexual favours, and his 30-year-old wife had no idea he was in the habit of buying them. Police were called in to quell the resulting quarrel.
oopz
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 17:41:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete, are you a homosexual? I did not mean to offend you. That fact is that homosexuality is a defect of nature, just as pedophilia is. No one is saying homosexuals should not have the same constitutional rights as every other citizen, just that normal children should not be raised by abnormal parents. Cheney's daughter, Newt's sister or whoever it just is too dangerous. Pedophiles like Paula Poundstone seek their victims in places where they can get access to children. The adoption and foster care systems are just a couple of them. FOR THE CHILDREN'S safety it would be better if only normal married parents were allowed to adopt or give foster care. No system can be perfectly safe, but by not subjecting children to abnormal lifestyles we can greatly reduce the chance of a monster like Paula Poundstone from violating the innocence of a defensless little girl. Do you really believe Clinton was innocent? He is the only President ever to be held in CONTEMPT OF COURT, hundred of witnesses fled the country to avoid prosecution. Whitewater alone produce numerous convictions. The DNC gave back illegal contributions from the Chinese military, Clinton personally signed waivers authorizing the transfer of nuclear technology, and if Wehn Ho Lee didn't steal all our Nuclear Secrets, WHO DID? If you had commonsense you would be able to figure it out yourself. But, then again if you had commonsense you wouldn't have been stupid enough to include Clinton in your defense of the democratic congressman. A terrible tactical error! As for this OTHER INNOCENT DEMOCRATIC Adulturer/dirty old man/ pervert, I have no intention of arresting the man. I am free to judge the man based on his strange behavior? DO YOU THINK SHE'S ALIVE? DO YOU THINK HE IS INNOCENT? Get off the fence, Tammy, STAND BY YOUR MAN! Republicans have merit because the don't go around calling people they disagree with 'pricks'. Once again, I am sorry for offending you. I hope you and your 'life partner' will forgive me. I win.
CounterMeasures
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 17:35:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes Emily, 'tis true: "�T IS so much joy! �T is so much joy! If I should fail, what poverty! And yet, as poor as I Have ventured all upon a throw; Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so This side the victory!
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 16:11:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: So much substance, so little time. Socialsits are mind dead. Plats.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 13:30:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Splat
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 13:24:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rather be boring than a liar, traitorous, virtue-less socialist thief. I stand FOR America. You seek to dismantle it with insanity and criminal anti-democratic methods designed to meet a failed end: socialism. As a bore, I know I am not you. For that I am very happy, indeed. The Rock is ours.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 13:10:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Posted by one who epitomizes the meaning of the word bore.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 13:03:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good, the socialsits are in full bore retreat now. Pun intended.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 11:52:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: ANOTHER thing that would be bad about being a liberal is that you'd have to read the gaseous opinions of Justice David Hackett Souter. Even when Souter writes majority opinions -- you know, the "law of the land" -- I race through them at lightning speed. I've found that if you zero in on a couple of topic sentences near the beginning you can usually get the gist of it. (This week's holding: Congress shall make laws abridging the freedom of speech.) By contrast, the dissenting opinions therefrom a Souter opinion I read lovingly, reverently, and in the case of Scalia, repeatedly. Every member of the Federalist Society is with me here. I used to think every lawyer was with me: Who would read Souter's pompous, impenetrable ramblings? And why? It takes him 20 pages to make a point Scalia can knock down in a single dependent clause. (There are Web pages devoted to Scalia dissents.) In a riveting development -- it only seems like this column is going no place; I'm breaking real news here -- I happened to notice that liberals do just the opposite. A New York Times article on the Supreme Court's recent campaign finance decision quoted more lines from Souter's opinion than I got from actually reading it. (Well, "reading" it.) But intriguingly, the article summarized the dissent using only a few sentences from the opening paragraphs. So in addition to not having to line-dry clothes like Barbra Streisand, conservatives don't have to read Souter opinions. In Souter's "Congress shall make lots of laws" opinion, the court essentially held that a political party's campaign expenditures are legally indistinguishable from large checks cut by individuals. The Republican Party could be trying to buy influence with Republican candidates! As Justice Souter explained (near the beginning): The law provides "a functional, not formal, definition of contribution ..." blah, blah, blah -- you get the idea. Consequently, the court upheld limits on money spent by political parties to elect a particular candidate -- if they talk to the candidate first. If the party hated a candidate's guts and refused to speak to him or his campaign, it could spend unlimited amounts of money promoting his candidacy. (This may provide some insight into why Rep. Chris Shays loves the campaign finance laws.) Justice Clarence Thomas argued in his dissent that it was absurd to treat political parties like individual contributors because: That's what parties do -- get candidates elected. A "party's success or failure depends in large part on whether its candidates get elected. Because of this unity of interest, it is natural for a party and its candidate to work together and consult with one another during the course of the election." Another excellent Souter sentence (it was in the Times) was this: "Spending for political ends and contributing to political candidates both fall within the First Amendment's protection of speech and political association." Apparently the only catch is that "protection" means "total fascistic control." Total fascistic control of political speech is important because political speech is like dishonestly shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. Liberals think all speech is like shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. They will tell us on a case-by-case basis what speech is not like shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. Screw magazine and Nazis marching in Skokie, Ill., for example. That is not like shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. (And would it really be so bad to shout "fire" in a crowded theater? Seriously. Couldn't you just look around and see there isn't a fire?) Thus -- according to The New York Times -- Souter raised the horrifying prospect of parties being able to spend lots of money electing candidates: "If a candidate could arrange for a party committee to foot his bills ... the number of donors necessary to raise $1 million could be reduced from 500 ... to 46." (You're welcome for the ellipses.) That is the evil campaign finance laws seek to prevent. Instead of whoring for money from tens of thousands of people, politicians could be bought by a select few. In fact, as has been conclusively proved by economist John Lott, politicians may be stupid, but they're not bought. Money follows votes; it does not buy votes. But suppose you haven't read Lott's devastating study, and you haven't read the Constitution, and you don't think a market in politicians would be GREAT. It would be easier for a politician to vote his conscience if he needed only a few rich backers. If they got uppity, he could trade them for 46 new guys. The way the system works now, politicians are forced into constant fund-raising from thousands of nickel-and-dime contributors. Politics becomes homogenized, gerrymandering essential, and smarmy glad-handing a crucial political attribute. Even under liberals' own preposterous and counterfactual assumptions, someone is already falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater. Not many people have noticed, though, because it's Souter.
go anne go
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 11:17:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Another socialist bites the dust: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Thursday overturned a lower-court order that would have split Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) in two, leaving intact only part of the government's sweeping antitrust case against the software giant. The seven-judge appeals panel without dissent threw out a finding by District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that Microsoft had tried to monopolize the market for Internet browsers. Citing Jackson's ``appearance of partiality,'' the appeals panel sent the charges that Microsoft had illegally tied its Internet browser to the Windows operating system back to the lower court and directing that a different judge hear the case. ``Although we find no evidence of actual bias, we hold that the actions of the trial judge seriously tainted the proceedings before the District Court and called into question the integrity of the judicial process,'' the court said in its ruling. ``We are therefore constrained to vacate the Final Judgement on remedies, remand the case for reconsideration of the remedial order, and require that the case be assigned to a different trial judge on remand.''
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 10:17:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Mars was rather splendid last night. Finally saw it through all the haze. The moon looked rather wild with the 4mm, b ut with the extension, I swear I could see the moon rovers. Kinda like here: the universe is now our universe.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 28, 2001 at 10:12:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: "They"? Who? You spludz? Bring it on, Babee! I see no one here but me now. All socialsits run out on their slimy rails. Such sweet victory.
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 22:45:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Only thing you own is what they splat all over you.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 19:42:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: The beginning? No, this is the end. Of you lying socialists. We own you birds now. Tweet*
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 15:58:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Don't you worry, Brother Meat, this site will be jumping when you return. Thanks for the good job on Pete*. United we stand! I'll be here even if it's only me, just like at the beginning.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 13:41:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, YOU can't figure it out because you are a socialist. Clueless.
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 12:13:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Since it was so stupid, so wrong, I figured it had to be one or the other, satire or poetry. Trouble with the golem's satire and poetry is that you can only figure out which it is fifty percent of the time.
House of Meat
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 11:52:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: Much as I'd like to stay and straighten the poor golem* out, got to go to a conference up north on a matter dear to the heart. Hope the old site is still here on the 5th. Hope Harlan and the others manage to keep it alive.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 11:50:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, poetry.
No, poetry.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 11:39:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: It speaks for itself. Your failure to grasp its meaning confirms you are a delusional liberal. Oh well. Par.
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 11:34:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is that "no poetry" or "no, poetry?" This Pete* is an airhead. Fore!
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 10:50:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, poetry. Get your literary pursuits straight.
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 10:16:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: So, Pete� is dead, huh? This golem must be Pete*.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 09:50:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sounds like the coals aren't hot enough to sear the meat..
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 09:48:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: It was satire, anonymous.
golem
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 09:16:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: If ydog were here, he could tell whether the rock is metaphorical or analogous. He knew all that stuff. These leftover people can help the golem only by explaining how the laws of punctuation apply in certain instances, and how they don't apply in others. For example, if the law says that you have to capitalize the first word of a sentence, and the second and third words are not capitalized, that is not necessarily a violation of the law. Similarly, if there are no appositives, you don't have to follow laws regarding appositives. They will be here with this info whenever it is needed.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 09:15:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure is nice to be alone here with my metaphorical or analogous rock.
Petegolem�
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 06:56:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's true, Ed. The queer wins by pure force of intellect. All you socialist thiefs and traitors will have to move on, like the last batch.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 06:53:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Does that mean the queer wins? Shee-it. I'm outta here, Jackson.
Eddie Gann
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 06:51:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Maybe it won't stop here. Maybe it will move all the way to the Pineapple Islands.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 06:15:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: This page's times now show PDT. We won!
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 05:42:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Loks like Pete's Ghost scored big last night.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 27, 2001 at 05:41:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'd say you are cooking with your own gas. Sure beats you stealing it from those who work for a living.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 22:37:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glad I'm not a liberal, right about now. Glad I'm no nigger-loving Jew-fucker.
H-man
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:58:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ooooogh, I'll say. The little blighter really got the jolly-dawdle in deep that time! Ouch!
Nigel Bunleigh
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:56:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Score one for the golem! Wahoo! Now we're cooking with gas!
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:55:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yeah floods are always just a little mud with socialists. Ignore.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:53:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's just a little mud man. With any luck it will bugger-all.
Nigel Bunleigh
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:51:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Bullshit! The golem's earlier post is now history, and suitable only to be reinvented, either by golems or the enemies of golems. Thiefs. Liars. Toot!
Petegolem�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:47:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Shhhhhh! The golem is trying to understand its previous post. Don't break its train of speculation.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:45:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Interesting how House of Meat can lie without uttering the lie. How he can lie just by quoting the golem saying something he later says he didn't say the opposite of. Tell me, do golems have memory problems?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:43:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: My twat is wide open and burning! I came three times already just reading this and dildoing the dark tunnel. You golems really know how to bait a girl daily.
Teresa
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:40:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, the lie is always in the liberal assumptions and reinvention of history. No one said "the terms were exclusive," as HoM lies. The dE*vil is always in the details with the liars. Substance-less thiefs.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:38:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: A monk in the Church of Communication.
Gus
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:37:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: I could never take asceticim unless the terms were exclusive. I think the golem is trying to make this same important point about himself as well. At least that's the way I have it doped out from his latest contribution.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:36:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Asceticism always made me want to become a monk.
Gus
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:32:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Asceticism always rolled off my back like a duck. Shee-it.
Eddie Gann
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:31:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: I've come to realize that my downfall on this site was that I never took asceticism well. Talk about twerpedoing yourself!
H-man
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:30:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: It just proves that you are socialists incapable of thought. Morons. Three-fingered Charlies. Welsh jobbers. Time to tee off! FORE!
Petegolem�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:24:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: Say what you want about the golem, it takes asceticism very well from such and such. Any golem that takes asceticism very well from such and such is a superior golem by any measure. Even some real people don't take asceticism very well from such and such, and yet the golem manages to do it with equanimity. This is a class golem, in my book.
Rube Waddell
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:20:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sometimes I think the golem is TOO quick and witty, so quick that its thoughts pile up against one another, creating the hopeless jumble of its posts. At other times, it appears that perhaps the golem confuses its trees for its forests and its forests for its trees, and ends up just admiring what sounds to it like ripe philosophy in the disjointed phrases that spout forth, without any attempt at coherence. Does that make any sense, Meat, or is listening to the golem making me incoherent as well?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:14:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is it trying to say something, the golem? Something perhaps quick and witty? Why does he say the terms were exclusive and then say "so the terms are not necessarily exclusive?" What asceticism? Does it know what the word means? What is this "certainly not indicative" and why does it rise from the terms being not necessarily exclusive? Is a golem capable of thought? This one may demonstrably capable of thought, and we could do the demonstration if only it were possible to understand what it wants to say.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 20:09:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: A Jewess farm girl can call me whatever she wants, but I presume she would identify ehrself, if so, since I take asceticism very well from such and such. Anyway, she was not a Jewess (is that a word - and if so, I hope not offensive) when she was a farm girl. So the terms are not necessarily exclusive, and certainly not indicative of anything dealing with the end result of a socialsit's point of view. Ho- hummery aside.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 15:58:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Maybe the golem is a Jewess farm girl. Seems to want to discuss the meaning of golem.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 15:40:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: Coming from a bird who doesn't even know what a golem is, I'd say that is still abotu par for the course.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 15:33:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Golem wit is just as sharp as ever.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 15:18:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Scots at elast know what it means to be par for the course. This inane socialist drivel is just that. FORE!!!
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 13:41:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: The scots use even funnier words, na'e bra'e gang ley beguinen o'r plinte o' haggis bogget, and nobody baits them.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 13:38:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Why do the Jews use such funny words? I mean, if they don't want to be baited?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 13:25:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: Who elected you imaginary Jewess farm girl?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 13:19:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: So now YOU'RE Jew-baiting?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 12:40:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: That's right, fine distinctions, shit-for-brains. Okay, Cheney's a liar. BUT, HE'S OUR LIAR!! Do you see the fine distinction? Next.
Petegolem�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 12:23:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fine distinctions?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 10:35:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: What analogy? The guy lied in a debate. Par for the course. Standard operating procedure. How could a Republican ever get elected if he told the truth?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 10:34:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Completely false analogy and taken out of context. No wonder you morons are liberals. You have no ability to discern fine distinctions to support truths. Either you lie outright or pretend to know what youa re talking about when you do not which is the same as misrepresentation. Get a brain. When you do, you will see socialism shed off you like a dead snake skin. (even without the peyote)
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 10:12:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: Don't be so harsh on Cheney, happy. Maybe he really thinks he is some sort of unfettered capitalist, making it on his own out in the hard world. Maybe he doesn't understand that he is just another bureaucrat willing to pimp himself for the shekel.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 10:11:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Golem, the word you are looking for is "quotation", if we want to be a bit pedantic. To educated persons, "quote" is a verb. During the debate, Cheney tried to convey the false impression that he had become rich without any help from the government, and failed to mention that most of his business was in government contracts. The direct lie was something like "I did it without any help from the government," but I don't have the transcript and won't be looking it up for you.
happy research
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 10:06:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Of course, I would expect that the socialist does not know the meaning of the word "quote." Trust me, no one takes anything a socialist says on face value alone any more. In any event, in true dodge and distort style, if Cheney said that during the debate, then yes then he was not employed by the government. The point below was the present tense. Socialsits can never keep a straight line on anything. That is why they are socialsits. To mask their utter stupidity. Morons.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 09:25:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Debate with Lieberman. Read the transcript. The golem scores again.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 09:15:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Show me the quote, you socialist liar.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 09:08:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Dick Cheney? He said so.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 04:33:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Who isn't?
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 22:36:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: shhhhhhh..... Glint's on the government dime.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 22:06:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yeah, Glint, some of us are still working all year and will only be making our own pocket money about August. Socialism, ain't it a crime yet?
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 21:13:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: June 25, 2001 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional investigators are intensifying pressure on the White House to identify who met privately with Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force. The General Accounting Office has sent Cheney's lawyer a 10-page letter asserting a legal right to the lists and advising Cheney that it may make a formal demand for the information, rather than the polite requests it has made in recent weeks. Comptroller General David M. Walker "is prepared to issue a demand letter ... if we do not receive timely access to the information," the GAO said in a 10-page letter dated Friday from office General Counsel Anthony H. Gamboa to David S. Addington, attorney for the vice president. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress, and it has legal authority to federal agency records under the law. A demand letter could begin a legal battle: It would give Cheney's office 20 days to respond, either by turning over the names, or providing a reason why it is not compelled to do so, said Lynn Gibson, a lawyer for the GAO. If Cheney declined to turn over the records, the GAO would notify Congress and Attorney General John Ashcroft, among others. The GAO would also be authorized to file a civil action in court seeking the record, Gibson said. She knew of no previous case in which the GAO was forced to go to court to obtain agency records. The White House team that developed the national energy plan, released last month, met with more than 130 interest groups, from environmentalists and unions, often at odds with Republicans, to major Bush supporters who got private sessions with Cheney. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and John Dingell, D-Mich., in April asked the GAO to provide information on who served on the task force, what information was presented to the panel, who presented it and what the task force spent. The White House has asserted that the GAO does not have the authority to ask for names of participants. However, it agreed that the GAO is entitled to financial records of the task force, and two administration officials said the vice president's office provided 77 pages of financial documents to the GAO last week. The GAO contends it is entitled to a wider range of records. Federal law "extends GAO's audit authority to all matters related to the use of public money, not just matters related to costs of activities," it argued in its letter to Cheney. "Over the years, GAO has conducted many reviews that involve a wide range of White House programs and activities." Juleanna Glover Weiss, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on the GAO's assertions, other than to say, "I'm sure the GAO and the vice president's office will be talking about that." Waxman and Dingell called on Cheney to provide the information they seek. "The vice president should stop stonewalling and start cooperating with GAO's investigation," Waxman said Monday. "Congress is entitled to know the identity of the special interests that met with the Cheney energy task force."
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 20:51:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Recently, Judicial Watch has had to bring legal actions concerning illegal fundraising by Republican House Majority Whip Tom DeLay and the National Republican Congressional Committee (�NRCC�) (see �Klayman Trains Sights on DeLay,� Roll Call, by Damon Chappie, April 9, 2001; and �Hastert Upset at NRCC Over Klayman Dispute,� Roll Call, by John Bresnahan, April 30, 2001, enclosed). Last week it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (�NRSC�) is also involved in illegal fundraising, selling not only meetings with high Bush Administration officials, but also using a foreign embassy as �bait� to lure political contributions. As set forth in the complaint against Mr. DeLay and the NRCC (copy enclosed), the sale of official government office for political campaign contributions is illegal and, at a minimum, it violates U.S.C. �� 431-455 and U.S.C. � 600. Judicial Watch demands that the NRSC immediately cease and desist from these illegal activities. If we do not get confirmation that you have ceased and desisted by noon on Monday, May 7, 2001, we will be forced to take appropriate legal action against you. Judicial Watch trusts, however, that you will recognize, such as occurred recently with House Speaker Denny Hastert, that these activities are illegal, and that you will take appropriate steps to stop them now before legal action proves necessary. Please govern yourselves accordingly. Sincerely, JUDICIAL WATCH, INC. Larry Klayman Chairman and General Counsel
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 20:45:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good idea to keep those rednecks from loading up trash. Leave it where it is.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 19:35:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: The 64% pass-through? You're going to go broke before you start getting your money.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 18:21:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sorry anon, socialsits and morons excepted. You fail under either category.// Yeah, Glint, I was gonna ask you how it went. Glad to see you paying taxes again! Ha!
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 16:31:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Love thy neighbor, eh?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 16:24:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hi Pete. Today the unemployment gravy train pulled into the final station. I've rejoined the ranks of the monetarily compensated. <> The widow woman said she had to run Mr. Peebody's friends off her property while we were gone. There's a 20 foot wide strip of grass between the cypress hedge that technically belongs to her, but which I keep mowed for her. Seems some of Peebody's friends had a truck back there loading up trash, of which there is plenty as is one of many reasons why the hedge was necessary. She said she went over and asked them what they thought they were doing and they replied, "nothing." She told them to go find somehere else to do it. Her son across the highway raises ducks and exotic birds, so Gourdon started raising ducks. The idiot is such a copy cat. The birdman has a U.S. flag up, so Gourdon put up a flag. Birdman put up a large bird house so Gourdon put up a large bird house. Birdman started hanging gourds on poles for purple martins so Gourdon started raising and hanging gourds, Monkey see monkey do. I expect soon he'll have an observatory of his own before you know it. Mr. keepin' up with the Jones'.
Glint
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 16:16:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: E*vil Socialists.
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 16:00:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: The left will Destroy America to gain power. The leftist democratic party seeks power at ANY cost. example: Florida Supreme Court, all Democrats, good. US Supreme Court, mix of Dems, and Reps, bad, and partisan. For communists, liberals, and democrats the ends justify the means. I know that was redundant.
CounterMeasures
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 13:10:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Since you are no rival for the poet, you do not exist. Smoke and mirrors. Shoo!
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 13:00:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: I hate to hurt you like this, Ray, but you are a socialist after all: "George Bernard Shaw: A drama critic is a man who leaves no turn unstoned. P G Wodehouse: Has anybody ever seen a dramatic critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good John Mason Brown: The critic is a man who prefers the indolence of opinion to the trials of action Harold Bloom: I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist. Harold Bloom: I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist." The only good critic is a dead critic. POW!!
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 12:49:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: t." The only good critic is a dead critic. POW!!
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 12:49:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, we all know what they say about critics....
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 12:39:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: You're just like Pete when he was alive, ghost. Can't handle the tough reviews. Thumbs down, wanker.
Ray Cathode
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 12:21:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yeah right, Reub. Most people I know ride the Greyhound bus. Not sure what "Grayhound" chair you must be imagining sitting in (perhaps a la Castaneda), but obviously you are another lost adrift socialist. Stop inhaling.
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 12:02:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: I am Reuben. I sit in the chair down at the bus station, one where there are three chairs, you know, stuck together? Sometimes I go over to the counter and ask the girls for a bag of peanuts, or sometimes I have peanuts from a larger bag at my hotel room. I wear a straw hat with the pocket in it for a package of cigarettes, and yes I borrow cigarettes from some of the others, and from the shoe-shine man when he comes. Always I pay back these smokes when someone asks, if I have some. I like Kools, but anything is OK to borrow. Usually I pay back with Kools, my brand. The straw hat with the pocket for a pack of smokes has embroidered letters in front, "Acapulco," it says, and a fish. Why I am posting here, I think it is unfair to be saying that I am not smarter than this Pete, just because of what I do, or that to argue with me is easier than this Pete. I have studied Pete, and he does not seem smart as he must be to hold a chair at the Grayhound station year in and year out. With him, he would lose the chair the first day, and every day. Like playing musical chairs, his whole life. This Pete, he does not have what it takes for the chair, and nobody would give a man like this the loan of a smoke, for it is obvious he is liar and does not give it back when he has his own pack.
Reuben Gonzales
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 11:55:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ray, you coward, you have not been here for years (and surely what appears now is a fig of some demented imagination). Only the worthy need remain. If they have the guts to deal with the enemy head on. Mostly socialist cowards on your side now. Run away coward, you are not essential. Or stay and try some new set up tactics. We are on to your whole regime now.
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 10:59:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: We all knew it would come to this, Meat. Somebody had to deliver the death blow even if it was only to a ghost. The irony is that the late lamented Pete� and his ilk were defeated early on, right at the start, by Gann, Weasel, Eisentower, Willen, Johnny Reb, Garth Goyle, lotsadots and Nigel Bunnleigh. Sure, these characters were weak, without half the skill of you, ydog, gnat, E, Whatever, Ho-hum, Carlos, Solrac, John, Whineburger and Galumph, but they were adequate to the task. It was fun piling on for a couple of years, for the entertainment value, but the battle had already been won. Carry on.
Ray Cathode
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 10:56:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: What tactic is Pete on to now?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 10:41:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Equality for each is now back in vogue as opposed to socialist favoritism and preferences: " WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court let stand Monday a ruling that led Texas to end affirmative action at its public colleges and universities. The case involved a successful challenge to a University of Texas law school policy that gave special consideration to black and Mexican-American student applicants. This may not be the last word on affirmative action in higher education. A ruling that struck down the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative action policy is before an appellate court and appears to be working its way to the Supreme Court. The court's order nonetheless dashed hopes that the justices were ready to resolve conflicts among appellate courts over affirmative action. Those differences have surfaced since the court's 1978 fractured Bakke decision, when the majority said universities may take race into account in admissions. "
Pete�
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 10:24:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Evil socialist, the direct object is appositive to the verb, grammatically speaking, so there should be a comma and quotation marks.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 06:20:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Or, to put it another way, I know you are but what am I?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 25, 2001 at 05:13:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, Hom, you do nothing to Pete. What you do is confirm you are a socialist who hates individual freedom. For that, I will be here long after you have returned to your sick sewer from where you came. You are the enemy. You are the liar and traitor. If Rube's definition of an asshole is anything but what you birds are, then I wear it proudly knowing it means the exact opposite of what any rational person who understands what the meaning of "is" is. DemocRATs like you turds will always be liars and the E*nemy. I will be here until you losers are long gone. POW!!!
Pete�
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 22:31:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Cheap satisfaction, Meat. It's fun only because Pete was always an asshole. If he had not been an asshole, you would get no satisfaction from your attempts to describe him to himself. The world is full of all sorts of assholes, many of them talented assholes or intelligent assholes or valuable assholes in one way or another. Why waste time tormenting an asshole who brings nothing with him but proof of his inferiority? Because it's easy? I suggest that if you must torment assholes, find one who can at least shoot back. You are basically arguing with a third-rate right-wing talk-radio caller, possibly a Cleveland bus-driver, run through the mind of the pineapple and rendered into the language of dyslexia. You should bite off a bigger chunk of life, and start arguing with cab-drivers, or with the guys who hang around at the Grayhound station bumming smokes.
Rube Waddell
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 20:06:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Got to admit, this Strunking golem is one of a kind. No matter what level of ignorance and stupidity he descends to, he'll come back and spout more, given a new topic and a few hours to let his shame subside. Yes, yes, I know this is a silly thing to be thinking about on a Sunday evening, but somebody has to do it or the golem may stop coming back to absorb more insults. In a way, the value of fornigate was always that it provided human punching-bags, easy practice in disputation, with Pete always the king fungo bat, good pop-fly practice. The others have moved on to discuss politics or life with thinking human beings, but I am still here pounding the soft yielding stuffing out of the Pete golem. Guess it shows that I've got no ambition. But hey, to each his own, and I apologize to no man. Some people smash sand-castles after everyone has left the beach; some people steal candy from babies; some people kick paraplegics off to the edge of the sidewalk, or tear the wings off flies. Me, I watch the remainder of Pete and comment on its stupidity. To each his own, and judge not unless you have tried it, unless you have sampled its undeniably sweet fruits, as the golem runs and hides or sputters and postures, as the golem reduces itself to the occasional post saying, "I know you are but what am I." Hard to explain why, but it is strangely satisfying.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 19:53:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey John�! The Red Sox are doing very well, in your honor!
Pete�
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 17:27:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: First Peru, now the Phillipines. Is SF next? Hmmmm...
Pete�
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 17:27:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, for socialists, it is always about I,I, I; or me, me, me. Traitorous losers. Comedians. Frail intellects. Duds.
Pete�
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 17:02:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: "I," that the best you can do? Apparently. Ha! Such comedy! Ha!
Pete�
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 17:01:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: I that the best you can do Cuntman? Is that it, Loafdude? Come on, Strunkeroo, give it another shot. Fight like a man, ya wuss.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:45:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Shoo!
Pete�
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:18:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Okay, you set up pig, I'm next. Give it your best shot, Twat Boy!
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 15:16:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: As usual, another dodge on convention. Another dodge on examples of liberal rule ignorance or outright attempts to erase them from history's memory banks to sui their sick purposes. Sorry, you lose. Next.
Pete�
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 14:57:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Would there ever be any doubt?
Pete�
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 14:32:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, here's one trog who isn't hiding out, Pete (in case you are still alive!!!)
Harlan St. Wolf
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 14:29:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Don't bother. Trogs hiding out. Cowardice.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 11:15:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: "The first tactic is to smear President Bush and Vice President Cheney by accusing them of being anti environment. " Yes.
But They ARE Anti-Environment
Exxon Valdez, Alaska, - Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 07:24:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: But carry on, golem. These are the highs you contribute, your athletic leaps of stupidity. They are worthy of the memory of Pete at his best.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 21:10:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Now, if you take a closer look at your little book, golem, you will notice that White has added a section on style. Look closer and you will notice that White's examples of bad writing are remarkably similar to your posts here. Your transgressions run all the way from "Toodles" through bad French sprinkled in irrelevantly to dramatic self-absorbtion. You really suck as a writer, and you couldn't punctuate your way out of a wet paper bag.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 21:05:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ho, Golem. There are some flaws in your application of Strunk's rule, and notice that neither Strunk nor his awed student White have the termerity to call them laws. Probably the greatest flaw is that it applies nowhere in Jim's post. There is no direct object in Jim's opener, not unreasonably, since it is not a sentence and there is no verb. Since there is no verb and no direct object, there is no direct object in apposition to the verb. Since there is no direct object grammatically in apposition to the verb, there is no need for a comma preceding any quotation marks. I shudder to think of the poor bastards who went into alimony court or traffic court backed by your paralegal skills. The sands of Waikiki must be littered with the homeless bums and ex-cons that lie scattered in your wake.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 20:59:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, that would certainly put me out of my misery.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 16:20:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER HAS ISSUED A TSUNAMI WATCH AND WARNING FOR OTHER PARTS OF THE PACIFIC, AND THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY THAT A WATCH OR WARNING MAY BE ISSUED FOR HAWAII IN THE NEAR FUTURE. AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THE FOLLOWING PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS: ORIGIN TIME - 10:33 AM HST, 23 JUN 2001 COORDINATES - 16.0 SOUTH, 73.3 WEST LOCATION - NEAR COAST OF PERU MAGNITUDE - 8.2 (RICHTER) MAGNITUDE - 8.2 (MOMENT) MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY: ARICA, CHILE 0.8 METERS ZERO-TO-PEAK EVALUATION: THIS ADVISORY IS BASED MAINLY ON EARTHQUAKE DATA. IT IS NOT KNOWN AT THIS TIME WHETHER A PACIFIC-WIDE DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED. AN INVESTIGATION IS UNDERWAY TO DETERMINE THE TSUNAMI THREAT. IF A TSUNAMI HAS BEEN GENERATED, THE ESTIMATED EARLIEST TIME OF ARRIVAL IN HAWAII OF THE FIRST TSUNAMI WAVE IS: 11:52 PM HST, 23 JUN 2001
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 15:49:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: apposition?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 15:47:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: 8.2? Yowza!
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 15:45:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Quadripalegic sodomy? Look, Bill Cliton and his yappin defenders was bad enough.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 15:38:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Peru earthquake = tidal wave? Anyone?
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 15:31:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Of course, I would not expect you cowardly socialists to know about The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. (1869�1946). It is his section II, ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE, where the rules (or law) is stated: " Quotations grammatically in apposition or the direct objects of verbs are preceded by a comma and enclosed in quotation marks."
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 15:13:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: The laws of punctuation?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 14:12:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: Can and should society tolerate quadraplegic sodomy?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 14:11:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Do we really want women who practice sexual acts forbidden under the sodomy law to teach our children?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 14:10:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Look Jim, mistakes are one thing, but wholesale ignorance of the laws of punctuation is no way for you to go through life. When you figure out the basics, then we'll "chat."
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 11:47:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: More Sodomy Laws on the Way Out Bay Area Reporter, May 31, 2001 By Liz Highleyman In May, sodomy laws in three states received a blow, clearing the way for freedom of sexual expression between consenting adults. In Arizona, Governor Jane Hull signed a bill on May 8 repealing that state�s 1901 sodomy law, which had banned oral and anal sex; the new bill also allows cohabitation of unmarried partners and allows opposite-sex partners to claim domestic partner status for certain purposes. Hull�s actions came as a surprise to many repeal proponents after the governor received a barrage of phone calls, e-mails, and letters from conservative constituents demanding that she not sign the bill. Hull�s office received some 6,000 calls and letters opposing sodomy law repeal, compared to 3,600 supportive calls and letters. "At the end of the day, I returned to one of my most basic beliefs about government � it does not belong in our private lives," declared Hull. "Keeping archaic laws on the books does not promote high moral standards; instead, it teaches the lesson that laws are made to be broken." The bill, promoted by openly gay Representative Steve May, had previously been blocked several times by legislators, but passed this year after being presented as tax-related legislation. Not surprisingly, reactions to Hull�s signing were mixed. Said Susan Wright of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, "As one of the millions of Americans who is scared and disturbed by the growing crusade of a small minority who are attempting impose their sexual values on the rest of us, I am thrilled to see that Governor Hull for one has the courage to stand up to this minority and for the basic right of privacy." According to Republican state Senator David Peterson, "This sends us down the track that says there�s no difference between marriage and cohabitation. The track can lead to San Francisco, where health benefits pay for sex changes." Peterson has threatened to bring the new law before the voters in a referendum. In related news, On May 14 the Louisiana House approved legislation that would do away with that state�s "crimes against nature" law banning oral and anal sex between consenting adults. The new bill would add a sentence that reads, "sexual acts committed by and between consenting adults in private shall not be deemed as a crime against nature." Earlier this year a judge in New Orleans barred enforcement of the sodomy law because it violates the constitutional right to privacy. The state appealed this ruling to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which upheld the law once before. In addition, the Louisiana Electorate of Gay and Lesbians brought a suit against the law because it discriminates against gay men and lesbians. Although the law bans sodomy between partners of any gender, LEGAL attorney John Rawls claimed that gays and lesbians are more affected because the law "denies [same-sex partners] the right to have sex under any circumstances." Finally, on May 18, a Minnesota state court judge struck down a state sodomy law prohibiting oral and anal sex between partners of any gender. Judge Delila Pierce ruled against the law, saying it was "unconstitutional, as applied to private, consensual, non-commercial acts of sodomy by consenting adults, because it violates the right of privacy guaranteed by the Minnesota Constitution." The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the law on behalf of a group of citizens who believe they are unfairly targeted by the law, including a married quadriplegic man who can only engage in sexual activities banned under the sodomy law, a married elementary school teacher concerned because teachers can lose their credentials if they violate state law, a lesbian attorney and a gay law student who argued that they face eviction because their leases prohibit illegal activity, and a divorced gay man concerned about losing custody of his children. According to ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project director Matt Coles, "This is a tremendous victory because of what sodomy laws do, but also because of what they say. Sodomy laws, because they are understood to primarily apply to lesbians and gay men, marginalize gay people and their pursuit of equal citizenship." ACLU representatives are concerned that Governor Jesse Ventura�s administration may attempt to argue that the legal decision applies only to the current plaintiffs, and are urging that the ruling be certified as a class action case that applies to all Minnesotans.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 11:43:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: The boy scouts, anonymous, are taking a while to savor and digest the treat of a confirmed sighting of Teresa. They will be back, and once again the turds will pile high on your hod.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 08:16:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ahhhh, Saturday morning, and Fornigate all to meself. Tra la la....no boy scouts in sight! Just me and my hod.... fun, really.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 07:36:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes "all", Peter. Either you do not know the legal definintion of sodomy, or you are a really strange duck.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 07:26:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, it was a rare treat indeed. I did confirm it to be authentic, by the way. Good luck with the work. No Mars tonight. Rain. Oh well. Night!
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 02:26:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good morning, Pete. Health insurance is taken care of. Work starts Monday but there's still some negotiations that need to be revisited. Sorry I missed Teresa earlier today. Breath of fresh air. A good (albeit dated) reference book on how the Mars "face" came about is "Unusual Mars Surface Features." The author Vince DiPietro is a contractor at NASA-Goddard and happens to live here in Caroll County. I happen to have an autographed copy. Do a web search on Vincent DiPietro if you're interested.
Glint
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 02:25:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Spoken like the true Hitler youth that you coward socialsits truly are. Funny really. You powerless twit.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 01:59:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Interesting thing about hose poll result posted earlier, assuming they were true and not twisted in the way that the golem imagines news to be twisted, is that the poor W is hanging to a thin minority of approval. And this is after giving most tax-paying Americans a cool three hundred bones out of the national debt payback. Me and Fstus been thinking that the W is all right, and we crawled out from under the fronds and gave three bucks to a man with a camera. I say, either provide us photographs of Pete buck naked and taking it up the ass from a wild-eyed Peruvian, or let him close his beak, sit down, and shut up.
policy is easy when you know what you want
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 01:43:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Look Hom, I did not post it and in any event even if I did it contains 100% more truth than anything out of you traitorous lying socialsits.// Glint, call an insurance agent for a quote and when they tell you what it is, add it to your bill to your new employer. Good luck. Insurance is a good idea anyway. Hope you at least have health insurance. Yowza!!
Pete�
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 01:43:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Go ahead, feel free not to stop by. This is not the primary audience, but since the site is not quite ready for prime time I was hoping to maybe get some free proofreading advice. <> The dog's owners don't hunt ducks. So, the poor lab is just little more than a machine for vacuuming up dog meal and excreting spongy ebony droppings. As for the Dachshund, he's long haired. Time for another beer, and something salty to go with.
Glint
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 01:36:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Dear, dear Glint. Who do you think is going to click on your observatory site? The possibilities, as you know if you have kept your eyes open, are me, the other "liberal" poster, and your friend "Pete", who is about as labile as a ham sandwich. Not to dissapoint you, but me and the other guy aren't going to hit on your observatory page. The Pete character will certainly hit on it, but as far as you are concerned that should be like mounting an orbital trajectory calculation page for a bedridden teenager been struck with the bone cancer, and getting a hit from either the teenager or the theenager's doctor. Pete or the Pete golem is never going to measure up to your expectations, and all you are doing with this clown is sending him down a short path to various eyepiece acquisitions which will neither inform him nor edify his efforts as his astronomy career unfolds. Some men are born with that eye for detail and williingness to persist in the absence of encouraging deatil that is the "hallmark" or the astonomer. Others, the late Pete for example, are born to be third-rate guys trying desparately to concern themselves with the affairs of their more accomplished brethren. My advice is that you give this poor bastard a haircut, if he shows, but otherwise just try to string him along with your best attempt to explain to him what is up and what is down and what is in between.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 01:29:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint, you poor sap, glad to see that you are still trying, and glad to see that the owner of a dachshund still feels that he is free to try to undrestand dogs. My own experience with dogs is that, unless you are an astronomer or a little old lady with blue hair, the best dog to get is one that has a purpose. The purpose of a lab is to collect dead ducks in his jaws, without punching holes int them with his or her teeth, which he or she does very well, is he or she is a real lab. I myself would get a lab and a shotgun to go with it, except that I don't like dogs that look like buzz-head basketball players. In other words, the lab's fur is too short, sort of like a weenie-dog's. Real dog lore goes a little bit beyond that, but you should stick with astronomy.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 01:03:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: The poor golem, who can't figure out his own policy, posts idiot right-wing screed on who knows what topic. This last one seems to blame Clinton for the fact that Bush and Cheney are oil suck-ups, and goes on to blame Al Gore, who is out of everyone else's picture, for owning some stocks. The interesting thing is not that the Pete golem posts this stuff as an explanation of his beliefs, but that it is a true explanation of his beliefs. How does it occur that someone who wants to be so wired into the realites of human commerce turns out to be so ignorant ? I attribute most of it to the fact that the poor Pete golem just can't read, and the rest to to the probability that he has been watching a lot of television. That the poor Pete golem can't express any real ideas is given. That he feels the need to relay some certified troglodte's ideas is understandable, even though it diminishes by its inherent stupidity what the Pete golem is after, which is to appear to be intelligent and knowledgeable. I guess what we are left with is the option to either nurture the golem or ignore the golem. La choix est � toi.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 00:55:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: On a lighter note, how about this? I spent the last day of my glorious temporary retirement putting together a web site for the observatory. Check it out if you don't have much to do at http://members.fortunecity.com/marstown/
Glint
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 00:53:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Labs have got to be the stupidest dogs in the world. Last Summer we dog sat one that was the last straw. This dog was so stupid and always looke at me with a moronic Oafus like expression and had such a weak link between eye and bladder that if I looked at it wrong it would release its watere wherever it stood. The wife said if her friend ever asked her to watch the brainless canine again she would turn her down. We even found an alternative place to leave the weasel last week while gone. Guess what? The Mrs. backbone cracked and we have the waste of dog meat here again. Stupid animal. Only place it seems to want to piss is on the Leylands. And not just once, but a little squirt on each tree. Now the weasel knows how to piss. It runs out makes a puddle and runs back in --- especially tonight since it's thunder storming. But the doggy loaf brained Lab wants to dribble out its bladder like it's gold and his bladder's a jew's purse. Sorry, it must be the Belgian white ale talking. Excuse me.
Glint
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 00:48:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete, it's Saturday here. Are you still around? This stepping out of the outer bubble thing is getting expensive. Talked to the client today and guess what? They require their consultants to carry four different liability and malpractice insurance policies. They require 1) $Million of comprehensive general liability, 2) $Million of professional liability, 3) $100K in worker's comp, and 4) another $Million umbrella on top of it all. Talk about being paranoid! The problem I see is that being so well heeled insurance wise is almost a sure invitation to get sued.
Glint
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 00:40:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Liberal Strategy to Destroy the Bush Administration -- The present strategy to destroy the Bush Administration, or at least to cripple its ability to govern, is two-fold. The first tactic is to smear President Bush and Vice President Cheney by accusing them of being anti environment. By weaving a dark sinister conspiracy theory, the left hopes to link Bush to big oil, which, in turn, conspires to pollute the country while profiting. Bush, they contend, is getting some sort of pay-off from his big oil friends. After softening up the electorate with decades of lies about greedy Republicans, the left hopes this scurrilous slander will fly. Never mind that Bush inherited the energy crisis from Clinton. Cheney�s predecessor, Al Gore, owned substantial stock in Occidental Petroleum, a company that practices strip mining in Tennessee. Unlike Cheney, who sold his shares in Halliburton before taking office, Gore never divested from Occidental. Bill Clinton was also known to make a deal or two, both as President and as Governor of Arkansas, with corporate friends who wanted environmental concessions. For example, as Governor, Clinton allowed Tyson Foods, a Clinton contributor, in spite of regulations, to dump chicken detritus into Arkansas rivers. Of course, it wouldn�t be politically correct to question Gore�s or Clinton�s environmental record, they are, after all, on the right side politically. Those who, for eight years kissed Clinton�s posterior, are now implying that President Bush can be bought by special interests! What gall! Clinton was known to sell anything he could get his hands on, including, according to the Cox Report, technology secrets to the Communist Chinese. Clinton left office in a hailstorm of Presidential pardons. This appalling hypocrisy is dutifully parroted by the liberal press and intoned, mantra like, by liberals as they attend their posh cocktail parties. The second tactic, more sinister and with grave implications for the future of the Republic, is a campaign to de legitimize President Bush�s election. This serious accusation involves a racist conspiracy which, allegedly, kept African-Americans from voting in Florida. The latest salvo in this dangerous game comes from a report issued by Mary Frances Berry, the Communist chairman of the U.S.Civil Rights Commission. To shed light on the ideology of Berry, following are quotes from a book co-authored by Berry entitled �Lost Memory� and taken from an article by author Ronald Radosh entitled �The Persistence of the Communist Worldview:� Berry states �blacks shared so many of the economic goals of the Communists that many of them might be described as fellow travelers.� Berry complains that �blacks remained cool to the Communists� who were, according to the Civil Rights Commissioner �Subjected to a massive barrage of propaganda from the American news media, few of them knew about (Soviet) Russia�s constitutional safeguards for minorities, the extent of the equality of opportunity, or the equal provision of social services to it�s citizens.� What should be amazing is that Berry extracts her substantial salary from the hides of the American capitalist taxpayer she so deeply loathes. This campaign to question Bush�s election is built upon a lie and the left knows this. They perpetrate this lie anyway because they know their media friends will echo it. The only tampering that occurred with the Florida vote was the enrollment of illegal aliens and convicted felons who were thought to favor Gore. This campaign not only slanders Bush, but it also fans the flames of polarizing racial tensions. Questioning the American Presidency in this manner places a strain on our constitutional system. Besides the agenda of winning at all cost, and anything is ok if it contributes to this victory, the left is consumed by a hatred for the American constitution. As advocates for �democracy� a weakening of the presidency, for the left, would be a fringe benefit on the road to power and the fulfillment of authoritarian fantasies. Chuck Morse Is the author of �Why I�m a Right-Wing Extremist� due to be released in September www.chuckmorse.com
Bob Long
- Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 00:11:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ahhhh, Friday night, and Fornigate all to meself. Tra la la....no socialists in sight! Such peaceful serenity.
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 20:59:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Have seen no such polyps, but even if there were any, it sure beats what you have shoved up your rectum. Ahem.
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 20:07:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: True. Just a golem and his rectum full of polyps.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 19:56:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm it. Just me. No one else. Just me and my heavy rock. Push. Hmmmmmmm......
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 19:15:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: No matter how hard you try, you could never make the Democrat's alternative, Gore, look better than Bush as an intellectual. The bonehead flunked out of Divinity School for Christmas's sake and had a lousier academic record. Get a clue. For once.
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 19:03:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Having just completed my MBA a couple years ago, I have to comment on Dubya's ability to coast through Harvard. Business schools that focus on "group work" have entered a pact with the Devil: many times the laziest and least talented among our work groups would simply fail to contribute, realizing that the group performance determined our individual grades.This means that an individual may make no contribution at all toward the final work product or group presentation and still receive full credit and a grade equal to that of the hardest working member of the group. More than once student work groups carried deadheads who should have been flunked out or expelled for bad faith. Free riders know that since you succeed or fail as a group, individual nonperformance passes unnoticed by the course instructor, who remains ignorant of behavior within the group. Only candid evaluations of each student by group colleagues will ferret out the bastards who know all to well how to "work the system" rather then do the work itself. Even when students are forthcoming with reports of slovenly and dishonest colleagues, faculty avoid confronting the bad apples and give them good grades anyway. When my group complained to the instructor about the no-show/no-work colleague, he waffled by claiming he had reported grades to the registrar--before our group evaluations were due. So, if anybody wonders why or how Bush could sleaze his way through Harvard's B-school, I'm betting that he schmoozed his colleagues and dodged the bullets whenever they were fired. I'm also betting that most of his colleagues figured it was easier just to ignore the lazy sod and get the work done without him. After all, they might figure it was good experience for the day they had to carry the boss's son in a real workplace. And Bush, of course, knew he would be the boss's son someday. It was his destiny. And now he's our President, restoring dignity and integrity to the White House! --Jon, Springfield, Ohio, 6/22/01
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 17:15:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: ydog not here, mail address not good
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 17:10:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: A diplomat gets by without savoir-faire WASHINGTON � Like every would-be diplomat, Howard Leach, a 70-year-old California billionaire, readied himself for his Senate confirmation hearing by enduring a "murder board" in which he was peppered with pesky questions by his State Department prep team. But the nattily dressed, white-haired agribusiness tycoon did not need to worry. During Thursday morning's hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, no one brought up the embarrassing gap in Leach's credentials to serve as the next ambassador to France. Apparently, it would have been impolite to mention that Leach is only now learning to speak French. Yes, George W. Bush has chosen as his envoy to Paris a generous Republican donor who believes that English is the true language of love and diplomacy. Plum diplomatic postings are awarded in every administration to wealthy business leaders whose ties to the president are mostly financial. But, generally, these political appointees meet minimal standards. And when it comes to the vexing matter of dealing with the French, fluency in the language should not be too much to expect. But Leach is unperturbed about his lack of preparation for his posting to Paris. In a brief interview after the hearing, Leach took pains to point out that he has been taking language lessons and that his wife, Gretchen, is fluent in French. "The ambassadors to most countries do not speak the language of those countries," he said. "I don't believe anyone should have diplomatic discussions and negotiations in a foreign language that they aren't familiar with, since it is easy to make mistakes or to be misunderstood." But France is a far cry from Kyrgyzstan. The ambassador to France shouldn't need the help of staff to read the morning newspapers or require a translator to explain the nuances of American foreign policy in a television interview. In trying to justify his ambitions, Leach uttered a sentence guaranteed to make Parisians cringe: "I believe that as a tribute to French culture and their traditions that I should learn the French language." The custodians of French culture will be so flattered. Leach, who has served for 11 years on the board of regents of the University of California, may in time prove to be an adequate ambassador. It shouldn't be held against Leach that he donated $226,000 to Republican candidates and committees in the 2000 campaign cycle, plus a thoughtful $100,000 gift to the Bush-Cheney inaugural committee. Nor is there anything wrong with wanting the title of "ambassador" as the capstone to a long career. But it can be argued that Leach's patriotic yen to serve might have been satisfied by dispatching him to a less linguistically sensitive embassy, such as that in New Zealand. Now that the Democrats have taken over the Senate, they might have been expected to pose a few tough questions before rubber-stamping Bush's ambassadorial appointees. But such scrutiny wasn't part of the agenda of Thursday's hearing, which reviewed the qualifications of Leach and the nominees for the embassies in London, Moscow and Valletta, the capital of Malta. Instead, Joseph Biden, the new chairman of Foreign Relations Committee, kept apologizing that pro-forma confirmations would be delayed by an unrelated dispute over organizing the Senate. There was no need to quibble over the qualifications of respected career diplomat Alexander "Sandy" Vershbow, who will be the next ambassador to Russia. William Farish, a wealthy patrician Kentucky race-horse breeder whose ties with the Bush family date to the early 1960s and who boasts a friendship with Queen Elizabeth, has the standard establishment pedigree to serve as our representative at the Court of St. James's. Even Anthony Gioia, the Upstate New York macaroni czar who served as president of the National Pasta Association, probably fits the bill as ambassador to Malta, a Mediterranean island nation that he courageously admitted he has never visited. Vershbow aside, the other ambassadorial appointees won presidential gratitude for their political generosity. According to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, Farish contributed $27,000 to GOP candidates and committees in the last campaign and threw in another $100,000 for the Bush inaugural. Gioia is a veteran Republican fundraiser who hosted a reception for Bush at his Buffalo home that raised $500,000. But Gioia can be bipartisan in his favors. Introducing the soon-to-be ambassador to Malta to the committee, New York Democratic Rep. John LaFalce teasingly complained, "I'm losing my finance chairman." During the two-hour hearing, not a single substantive question was directed at Leach. Biden did pointedly urge the nominee to consult with the outgoing ambassador to France, Felix Rohatyn, who learned French as a Nazi-era refugee in that nation, about overstaffing in the Paris embassy. In response, Leach volunteered his commitment to "right-sizing" embassy personnel. As the session drew to a close, Biden played his guess-who's-coming-to-dinner card. With a broad smile the committee chairman announced, "The bad news, Mr. Farish and Mr. Leach, is that I have to be in Paris and London quite often, and you may see me again." It turns out that Leach is not the only one in the ambassadorial set who will be calling France home. Because of Britain's rigorous animal-importation laws, Farish's pet dog, a white Maltese named Cotton, is enduring a six-month quarantine in France before being allowed to cross the English Channel. Talking about the Cotton's ordeal after the hearing, Sarah Farish, the wife of the ambassador-designate, joked, "She's learning French." These days, it seems like everybody is, even our next ambassador to France.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 16:45:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: The following is Bill Clinton's December 1969 letter to his ROTC Director, Colonel Eugene Holmes. This text was taken verbatim from "SLICK WILLIE", by Floyd G. Brown. Not a word has been changed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am sorry to be so long in writing. I know I promised to let you hear from me at least once a month, and from now on you will, but I have had to have some time to think about this first letter. Almost daily since my return to England I have thought about writing, about what I want to and ought to say. First, I want to thank you, not just for saving me from the draft, but for being so kind and decent to me last summer, when I was as low as I have ever been. One thing which made the bond we struck in good faith somewhat palatable to me was my high regard for you personally. In retrospect, it seems that the admiration might not have been mutual had you known a little more about me, about my political beliefs and activities. At least you might have thought me more fit for the draft than for ROTC. Let me try to explain. As you know, I worked for two years in a very minor position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I did it for the experience and the salary but also for the opportunity, however small, of working every day against a war I opposed and despised with a depth of feeling I had reserved solely for racism in America before Vietnam. I did not take the matter lightly but studied it carefully, and there was a time when not many people had more information about Vietnam at hand than I did. I have written and spoken and marched against the war. One of the national organizers of the Vietnam Moratorium is a close friend of mine, After I left Arkansas last summer, I went to Washington to work in the national headquarters of the Moratorium, then to England to organize the Americans for the demonstrations Oct. 15 and Nov. 16. Interlocked with the war is the draft issue, which I did not begin to consider separately until early 1968. For a law seminar Georgetown I wrote a paper on the legal arguments for and against allowing, within the Selective Service System, the classification of selective conscientious objection, for those opposed to participation in a particular war, not simply to "participation in war in any form." From my work I came to believe that the draft system itself is illegitimate. No government really rooted in limited, parliamentary democracy should have the power to make its citizens fight and kill and die in a war they may oppose, a war which even possibly may be wrong, a war which, in any case, does not involve immediately the peace and freedom of the nation. The draft was justified in World War II because the life of the people collectively was at stake. Individuals had to fight, if the nation was to survive, for the lives of their countrymen and their way of life. Vietnam is no such case. Nor was Korea an example where, in my opinion, certain military action was justified but the draft was not, for the reasons stated above. Because of my opposition to the draft and the war, I am in great sympathy with those who are not willing to fight, kill, and maybe die for their country (i.e. the particular policy of a particular government) right or wrong. Two of my friends at Oxford are conscientious objectors. I wrote a letter of recommendation for one of them to his Mississippi draft board, a letter which I am more proud of than anything else I wrote at Oxford last year. One of my roommates is a draft resister who is possibly under indictment and may never be able to go home again. He is one of the bravest, best men I know. That he is considered a criminal is an obscenity. The decision not to be a resister and the related subsequent decisions were the most difficult of my life. I decided to accept the draft in spite of my beliefs for one reason: to maintain my political viability within the system. For years I have worked to prepare myself for a political life characterized by both practical political ability and concern for rapid social progress. It is a life I still feel compelled to try to lead. I do not think our system of government is by definition corrupt, however dangerous and inadequate it has been in recent years. (The society may be corrupt, but that is not the same thing, and if that is true we are all finished anyway.) When the draft came, despite political convictions, I was having a hard time facing the prospect of fighting a war I had been fighting against, and that is why I contacted you. ROTC was the one way left in which I could possibly, but not positively, avoid both Vietnam and resistance. Going on with my education, even coming back to England, played no part in my decision to join ROTC. I am back here, and would have been at Arkansas Law School because there is nothing else I can do. In fact, I would like to have been able to take a year out perhaps to teach in a small college or work on some community action project and in the process to decide whether to attend law school or graduate school and how to begin putting what I have learned to use. But the particulars of my personal life are not nearly as important to me as the principles involved. After I signed the ROTC letter of intent I began to wonder whether the compromise I had made with myself was not more objectionable than the draft would have been, because I had no interest in the ROTC program in itself and all I seemed to have done was to protect myself from physical harm. Also, I began to think I had deceived you, not by lies because there were none but by failing to tell you all the things I'm writing now. I doubt that I had the mental coherence to articulate them then. At that time, after we had made our agreement and you had sent my 1-D deferment to my draft board, the anguish and loss of my self-regard and self confidence really set in. I hardly slept for weeks and kept going by eating compulsively and reading until exhaustion brought sleep. Finally, on Sept. 12 I stayed up all night writing a letter to the chairman of my draft board, saying basically what is in the preceding paragraph, thanking him for trying to help in a case where he really couldn't, and stating that I couldn't do the ROTC after all and would he please draft me as soon as possible. I never mailed the letter, but I did carry it on me every day until I got on the plane to return to England. I didn't mail the letter because I didn't see, in the end, how my going in the army and maybe going to Vietnam would achieve anything except a feeling that I had punished myself and gotten what I deserved. So I came back to England to try to make something of this second year of my Rhodes scholarship. And that is where I am now, writing to you because you have been good to me and have a right to know what I think and feel. I am writing too in the hope that my telling this one story will help you to understand more clearly how so many fine people have come to find themselves still loving their country but loathing the military, to which you and other good men have devoted years, lifetimes, of the best service you could give. To many of us, it is no longer clear what is service and what is disservice, or if it is clear, the conclusion is likely to be illegal. Forgive the length of this letter. There was much to say. There is still a lot to be said, but it can wait. Please say hello to Col. Jones for me. Merry Christmas. Sincerely, Bill Clinton
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 15:47:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, I sure miss ya*!
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 15:39:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Still pushing that haiku, eh Pete?
Teresa
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 15:38:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: I just want to be able to see Nibiru...
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 15:04:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anyway, there are actually at least two faces in the Cydonia area of Mars. The Anunnaki put them there.
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 13:40:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: If Cydonia is an autumn wind, then night by night, more moonlight floods my garden...
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 13:38:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: If Cydonia is something that comes out of your pi�ata when it is whacked by a hot young girlfriend, that is the crynic.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 11:23:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: If Cydonia is a paint color, that's probably gnat. If Cydonia is a carburetor part, that's probably ydog. If Cydonia is a Nepalese biscuit, that's probably the Evil One. If Cydonia is a new designer drug, that's probably Ho-hum. If Cydonia is a vibrating butt-plug, that's undoubtedly Teresa. If Cydonia is a new brand of cop-killer ammo, that's Jeremiah for sure. If Cydonia is a MacDonald's dessert treat, that will be M.K. If Cydonia is the secret name of the Wise One, that might be B'Hommad. If Cydonia is the name of a sleazy motel where a Goldwater Girl got triple-humped in 1963, that could be Patience Willoughby. If Cydonia is a third-rate Gothic Folkrock band, that could be H-man. The possibilities are endless.
House of Meat
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 11:21:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Cydonia face not the green cheese face.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 11:02:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: The moon is the one with the face, libeRAT moron. Sheesh!
golem�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 10:04:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Actually, I was hoping to look up and see the famous face on Mars.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 02:17:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: You're welcome for the posts. I just felt sorry for you guys. The party needed a little more oomph, if you know what I mean. Lord have pity on you, as I am the last.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 02:07:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Addiction to the MacDonald's dessert tray will leave you with a rectum full of polyps and a bad case of the blues. This would be fine if you were a harmonica player, but in a front-end code writer it may leave something to be desired.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 02:06:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Stay away from MacDonald's. The fat will kill you, especially if you get addicted to the desserts.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 02:03:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's not about loveable, anonymous. It's about the might Bush charisma busting through the smear tactics of the evil traitors. Never before has the respect and awe of the nation surged so forcefully toward one man. George Bush will go down in history as a president almost as great as Reagan or Coolige. Or at least he'll go down as the first lipless president, which is almost as good.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 02:01:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hmmmmm. He said two or three navigation stars. I think I'll point it at that twinkly blueish one over there, and then maybe at the big one straight up there, and third at that one in the constellation that looks like a football helmet over there by the garage......... Damn! Mars still won't stay in the field! This astronomy business is tougher than I thought. Maybe it will align right if I use those three telephone poles instead of stars.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 01:58:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Even though that cranky guy from Vermont flipped, Senator Benedict Jeffords, quite a few Americans still approve of Bush. Is this guy loveable or what?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 01:53:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: All I can see through this thing is a far-away planet with a wavering layer of air in between. I thought there would be dancing Munchkin girls.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 01:51:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: In other words, golem, take a few minutes out of your busy life, if that's what a golem has, and read the directions.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 01:47:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: It is understood that Bush has to keep Arafat at arm's length so that the Arab won't be able to see the apparent smirk of his lipless face when he apologizes. If an Arab thinks you're smirking when you beg his forgiveness, you're back on square one and you could end up without any oil in the pipe. The good news is that apologies can often be accomplished via the written word.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 01:46:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, only a matter of hours now...
Pete�
- Friday, June 22, 2001 at 01:17:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: mail call ydog!
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 23:46:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete, if you're having trouble keeping Mars in your high powered field of view, the problem may be the alignment of your telescope. With the embedded computer control of your Meade, the usual sequence I believe is to level your telescope, and then point at 2 or 3 selected navigation stars. <> Bush's approval ratings are still holding, despite the turncoat Bennedict Jeffords. Speaking of Bennedict, I see that McDonalds has a new Eggs Bennedict Mcmuffin. I haven't eaten at a McD's for several years, but this might be worth checking out. Great news that Bush isn't coddling terrorists unlike the yuk yuk buffoon boy BJ Clinton. <> Had a call from the Republican Committee seeking donations. I told them that I didn't have a job, but still made a pledge.
Glint
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 23:39:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Has anyone else noticed how boring the Pete residue is when there's nobody around to tell jokes about his stupidity?
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 22:47:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Even more proof that Bush is better. Only 43% like the economy (caused by Bill Cliton's failed oil policy) but 55% like Bush. Gee, seems Bush wins again. I especially like the fact that 36% of Blacks surveyed like Bush's job even though only 9% of Blacks voted for the guy. These are the real gains that demonrats want you to dodge and ignore. Sorry, those stats are SCREAMING at us. Your days of lying and distorting the truth are OVER!!!!
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 20:19:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey [liberal moron liar socialist] Bill, this is how you "negotiate" with terrorists: "WASHINGTON -- Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, will meet with President Bush at the White House next week, the second time the two have held face-to-face discussions since Sharon's election. In contrast, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, has not been invited to Washington by the Bush administration, and officials made clear Tuesday that they had no plans to do so in the near future. So far, the administration has kept Arafat at arm's length, a stark difference from President Clinton who brought the Palestinian leader to the White House more than any other foreign leader." Clinton's "negotiation" efforts CAUSED this war. Moron liberals always do with their "feel-goodness." Looks like the adults are back in Washington. Thankfully.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 20:15:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: President Bush's approval rating has dropped 7 percentage points since March, to 53 percent, despite his first overseas trip as president and his successful push for a big tax cut.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 20:15:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in this country today? --Satisfied, 43 percent --Dissatisfied, 52 percent (This is down from 55 percent satisfied and 41 percent dissatisfied in January.)
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 20:13:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: http://biz.yahoo.com/apf/010621/economy_poll.html
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 20:11:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010621/pl/bush_dc_3.html
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 20:10:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Bush gaining ground in Gallup poll: "A new Gallup poll shows Bush with an overall job approval rating of 55%, consistent with his last several ratings. Only thirty-three percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush is doing. The data from the poll show that a higher percentage of both blacks and Hispanics currently approve of the job Bush is doing in office than voted for him on Election Day. Bush gets a 36% approval rating among blacks, which is significantly lower than he gets among whites (58%), but is much higher than the 9% of blacks who voted for him for president. Similarly, 59% of Hispanics now approve of Bush after only 35% of Hispanics chose him in the presidential election contest." The liar socialsits are in full bore retreat! CHARGE!!!!! Do not leave ONE of those traitors left standing! POW!!!
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 19:25:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, I have been tracking Mars as it gets brighter all month. I got the 4mm and it is very hard to manage to keep it in line. anyway, it is bigger. Just a pale yellow/white. To the naked eye it has a sort of rusty tinge. I will try again tonight about 10. Heavens-above sure is nice. I also figured I could get the future sky chart for when I am in Meru. Cool, huh?
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 17:18:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete, I believe the reason Mars appears to be quite pale is that it is at its closest. In fact today it reaches its maximum apparent angular diameter for this apparition at 20.8 arcseconds. Even to the naked eye now bright Mars is not red. It's not even orange like it was several weeks ago but is almost a deep yellow to the naked eye. <> The only time I've seen Mars red is with a red (W25) filter. Without a filter the color that the cones in my eye detect are a pale or "salmon" pink. The dark markings appear brownish, or even bluish. Right now at local midnight here we are looking roughly at Martian longitude 180 which is pretty barren except for a ribbon or Marae near the south pole. Pete, the most prominent feature is called Syrtis Major, and is a rather large sort of triangular dark marking. Using a pencil and the back of an unemployment check envelope I calculate that the next time Syrtis Major will be dead center will be tomorrow (June 22) at approx. 12:30 UTC. If the time in Hawaii is still 5 hours behind EDT, then that would be 3:20 a.m. Hawaiian time. Check it out, it's only 10 hours away. Of course the best time to observe is when the planet culminates, that is, crosses the meridian. Since we are within a week from opposition that is occurring at local midnight. For us in Maryland on Daylight Time local midnight is around 1 a.m. Pete, a friend e-mailed me this URL for a Mars preview program. I don't use Windoze so I haven't tried it, but am passing it along fyi: http://members.nbci.com/marsprev/mpenglish.htm
Glint
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 17:12:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: Great news. Have no fear, I will still be here battling the liar socialists until they pull the plug. The work is never done against the traitors of America: DeomcRATs! Yahoo!
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 16:58:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hi Pete. Need to scroll. In the meantime it looks like the Summer vacation/temporary retirement is coming to a crashing halt. Am stepping a bit further out of from the bubble. Still a consulting position but found it without the benefit of an agent, so I'll be back filing quarterly with the IRS. Will be doing some front end web development; have been doing back end for the past four years, so this will be something new. A chance to get back working with Java. However, the start date they want is Monday, so the bottomless beach may have to wait until next Summer.
Glint
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 16:46:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: Never surrender.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 14:42:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: In truth, HoM, you could have just stunted your growth at: "Not sure I understand."
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 13:22:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yuck, another name for mind garbage.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 03:38:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Not sure I understand the Jefferson/Hemmings thread that exposes itself here every now and then. My guess is that a certain soi-disant conservative thinks that Jefferson is to liberal as Hamilton is to conservative, a theory cobbled up out of his dim memories of eighth grade history and the talk shows. Forgets that Hamilton damn near fought a duel over his porking of an associate's wife, but that's not what is relevant. The mud golem fails to understand that Jefferson and Hamilton and all the other good guys were revolutionaries, liberal or radical or whatever bolshevik slot you want to put them in. The 1770's analog of the modern conservative was the tory, the guy who was doing OK, the man who resisted change, the man generally of poor spirit and imagination and moral courage, although many of them fought bravely when their property was threatened. And if you lived under a monarchy all your life there could have been some intellectual logic in believing it right, the way an incurious man brought up in the church might believe the fairy tales in the Bible. It's difficult to judge who has been worse served by his education, MK, who is stone ignorant, or the golem, whose corporal form retained shreds of learning all twisted and confused by whatever ill humours gripped his soul.
House of Meat
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 03:16:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Mine.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 03:12:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't think so. The path is not easy, the yuck can be tempting.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 03:04:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Short sighted. Par.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 02:32:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Look to your left look to your right, what do you see but the army of yuck.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 01:01:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: The straighter the path the narrower it becomes.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 00:26:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, of course not.
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 21:44:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Do you fellas want me to put you out of your misery?
Webmaster
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 21:33:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: The telescope wouldn't vibrate so much, ghost of Pete, if you beat off before or after, in the astronomer's style, and not during.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 21:19:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Presidents with a primal urge? No, sorry, I'm afraid it can not possibly be in the pedigree, whatever the imaginary "witnesses" say.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 21:18:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Bill Clinton wasn't a pervert, liar and felon after all! Rather, he was part of an honorable history of venerable men molesting the help. As report co-author Ellis put it: "It is as if Clinton had called one of the most respected character witnesses in all of U.S. history to testify that the primal urge has a most distinguished presidential pedigree." Ellis claimed the new testing proved "beyond any reasonable doubt that Jefferson had a long-term sexual relationship with his mulatto slave."
Me, myself and I
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 17:52:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: So, please describe what you saw of Mars? I can barely hold it still. A big whitish ball. Where's the red?
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 17:40:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Exterminate them. Big smack of karma, maybe they'll recycle back in on a higher plane than when they left. Total eclipse in So. Africa tomorrow?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 17:03:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Got home just past midnight. Ran up the hill, opened the shutter and stared at Mars for two or three hours. God, how I missed it! <> Happy belated Large Trash Pickup Day, HOMer. I bought you a card but don't know where to send it. How about a picture for the board? <> Another Fed convict popped off in the land of the Mega Church yesterday. Good going. Only down side is that E and Ydog aren't here to gripe about the inhumanity of it capital punishment and veal while sharing a pot of fondued fetuses.
Glint
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 16:42:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Forget about missiles. Here it's the invasion of the grasshoppers.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 14:53:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Life's not fair. Positive side is that it's equally unfair.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 14:48:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Silvia Saint.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 14:44:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's no wonder MK cracked. He was getting pounded, night and day, but he remained bizarrely cheeful, cutting and pasting like a kid making christmas-tree ornaments. The tension had to be building up-- it was pure physics, not to mention whatever hell he's going through off the 'net. Why do the harmless ones have to go (assuming he was lying about packing that H&K 9mm all the time), and mean, foul-mouthed lice like the golem hang on and on and on?
Hadley Roff
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 14:43:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Acute folic acid poisoning vs spinal bifida. It's a draw.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 13:59:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: Silvia, maybe you've seen the one with the blonde and the trouser freak on the pink Cadillac?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 13:36:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: There has been a 543% increase in the number of kids born with acute folic acid poisoning, thanks to the nanny-government. Like WWI and WWII, it's a wash.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 13:34:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'll look for "[Flounders]your full pstory set" Also, anything with Silvia Whatsit in it is tip-top.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 13:29:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: She's 86_ Get the whole story and send it. You missed the best ones.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 13:27:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: There has been a 19% drop in the number of kids born with certain spinal and brain defects because the nanny government has required the addition of folic acid to flour and other grains. Wonder if MK has read that.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 12:57:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Then there were nine. Get fixed, MK.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 12:14:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'll check her out. The ballerina.
Roger Boas
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 12:13:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Re the soccer fields, we still have some Dumb Bombs left over from the Reagan build-up.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 12:08:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: We would never bomb a soccer field. We have Smart Bombs.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 11:39:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Some pretty good stuff over on analfem.nospam. The one with the ballerina, particularly.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:41:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Tamp down the clods.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:40:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: What's the point?
Gus
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:39:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: It was the crynic, adopting the persona of a gruff conservative, who said nothing, but only grunted as he slaked his lust over his hot young girlfriend.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:39:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: It was Pete, an independent, who said, "Saturn is the one with the rings, idiot."
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:37:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: It was Larry Klayman who said, "selling out the democratic Nationalist Chinese is nothing like getting your knob polished on government property, but it will have to do."
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:36:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: It was a Chinaman who said, "two times will suffice, if you throw in a thank-you."
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:34:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: It was George W. Bush, a conservative, who said, "OK, I'm sorry, how many times do I have to say it, I'm sorry."
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:34:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: The liberals won all our best wars. They won the Revolutionary War, with the help of the Frogs, and they won the War of 1812 and the Civil War and World War II. The conservatives won only paltry wars like the greaser wars, including the War to Catch Manuel Noriega and the War to Drive Evil Socialism Out of Grenada. It was John Paul Jones, a liberal, who said, "I have not yet begun to fight." It was Commodore Peary, a liberal, who said, "the United States of America kisses no Chinaman's ass." It was Colin Powell, a conservative, who said, "let's stop here at the border or we'll run the risk of destabilizing Iraq and drive up gasoline prices."
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:30:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: The conservatives started the Viet-Nam war, at least indirectly, but it was the liberals who lost it. The liberals and the Jew, Kissinger. The conservatives lost the Korean War and the Civil War, but they won the Mexican-American war and the Spanish-American war. The conservatives are good at beating greasers.
Gus
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:22:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Gus who?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:20:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Smart Bomb was a conservative bomb. The A-bomb was the liberal bomb, but the liberals never let us use it. That's why everyone is kicking our ass.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:20:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sharpshooting my ass. It was the Smart Bomb that won the war. After the Smart Bomb took out the hospitals, a band of Albanian boy scouts could have taken the sand-niggers.
Gus
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:19:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: The conservatives started and won Operation Desert Storm. The conservatives and good old American sharpshooting.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:16:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: The liberals may have won World War II, but they started World War I. It's a wash.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:15:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: You seem excessively up and down, MK. You should talk to your clergyman about this, and to your doctor as well. Just ask what they think.
House of Meat
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:14:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't know. If he can't make it in the tail end of the Clinton economy, how the hell is he going to survive in a Bush economy? The poor bastard is dead meat.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 10:04:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: He'll pop up like a rubber ducky in a barrel full of Hi-C. Just you wait.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 08:25:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK will bounce back. He always has.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 08:24:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's a sad day at fornigate when an earnest fellow like MK bites the dust, taken down by his own mendacity. I'm not happy with the current line-up, not happy at all. But, this site will survive. it will never die, not on my watch.
Harlan St. Wolf (senior member)
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 02:49:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: That shield is protect us from illegal aliens from outer space.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 02:21:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Big-time.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 01:50:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Apparently some of us still believe the great Republican sex lie -- that blowing equals screwing. So, are all us Pubbies reproduced via test tube or something? Yep, the liberals have triumphed, masterfully. gotta admit it. We Pubbies are whipped.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 01:50:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: BUSH NUCLEAR ARMS RACE: DAY ONE "MOSCOW, June 18 � President Vladimir V. Putin said today that if the United States proceeded on its own to construct a missile defense shield over its territory and that of its allies, Russia would eventually upgrade its strategic nuclear arsenal with multiple warheads � reversing an achievement of arms control in recent decades � to ensure that it would be able to overwhelm such a shield." Headlines, 6/19/01
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 01:45:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Don't sell yourself short, Weas. It was an important victory. Not so much because of who you beat, but because of how badly you beat them. Can anyone spell p-a-n-c-a-k-e-d p-i-n-e-a-p-p-l-e?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 00:05:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Looks like the liberals won. They usually do, after all. Won the second World War, for example. Won the Cold War, although that was more a question of the other guy taking a dive. Not much glory in nailing the hide of a third-rate golem to the barn door, but what the hell, it's worth a note here, where it happened. Guess my job here is done. Sayonara.
Purple Weasel
- Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 00:01:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Lotto news-- what a great concept! There is a future for the old site.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 23:56:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: California lotto up to $82 million. That would come in handy to pay the electric bill.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 23:53:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: anonymouses
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 23:45:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: And what is with this Whatever chick? She thinks she can skip in here and shake the image of her pendulous orbs on the rocky beach at Cannes right in our faces and then sashay off to get her sex on at the club? Talk about hard times on the old board, the golem and Glint can hardly tap a key for all the wanking. By the time they are spent, she will probably pop in again with a description of taking a dump in overalls over one of them Algerian toilets that is just a hole in the floor with a couple of foot-pads and a chain flush. That will set Glint and the golem off on another chicken-choking spree. Mrs. Breightly will be asked to wear overalls around her ankles and rub burnt cork all over her hide, and the copper rain-gutters will get a rubbing they'll not soon forget. Oh well, I suppose it's better than the silly-putty schnozz and the cigar, she will sigh to herself, in her Big Ben anklets, breathing cork dust. Pull out of it, MK, you were on the edge of a breakthrough only nobody recognized it-- we were all concentrating on Glint's impending revelation. You may be the chosen one.... maybe we were all looking in the wrong direction.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 23:30:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, if that's really you, and it might be, you certainly turned out to be a bummer. You cast a pall on the whole site. Or is that a paul? Or a poll? What is it from skanky Texas guys and polyps? ("LBJ all the way, polyp and all" was in fact a famous catch-phrase of the '60's.) For the spare tire, I recommend situps. Forget about those ab machines on the late-night tube (if they haven't repo'd the tube yet.) For the depression, Effexor, available at your local druggist. Maybe you should take a job as a cowboy. There should be plenty of cowboying opportunities out your way. Takes care of the abs and you can sing depressing songs to the "dogies." That 12-volt all-plastic Italian washing machine with no hope of a spin cycle cost me $300, and it's still yours for free. Made me feel as dumb as somebody from Waco after I first ran a load through it. Out on the range, Chuckwagon Charlie should appreciate it for washing the napkins. Since you left the site as a full participant, everything has gone down hill, and we have anonymous arguing with the golem about dictionary definitions. This could get ugly. Where is Glint? He can run but he can't hide. He thinks he can shake it off the way he used to shake off bad acid, but fornigate always sodomizes them in the end, so to speak. The old-timer I miss most on this site, other than Archive Checker, is Flounders. What became of old floundy?
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 23:20:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: I see so you do admit that a blowjob is sexual intercourse i.e. copulation. Glad you all agreed that Cliton lied under oath. Boy you guys are easy. Sheesh! Impeached! Next.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 23:17:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: anal or oral copulation
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 23:00:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: Originally, sodomy was defined as any sexual practice besides male/female intercourse. Pete was a sodomist. His ghost is...just a ghost.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 23:00:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: copulation: to engage in sexual intercourse?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 22:58:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: 2: noncoital and especially anal or copulation with a member of the opposite sex?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 22:55:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Etymology: Middle English, from Old French sodomie, from Late Latin Sodoma Sodom; from the homosexual proclivities of the men of the city in Gen 19:1-11 Date: 13th century 1 : copulation with a member of the same sex or with an animal

- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 22:42:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: "All"? I don't think so Jim. Nice try.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 22:35:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, in response to your last post to me -- The common term is "victimless" crime, and you're dead-wrong in your belief. Demorats have always stood against personal freedom and responsibility, although the Republicans are not much different. There are reasons for the fact that the Trial Lawyers Association is one of the largest contributors to the DNC, MK. And just for your own personal information, consentual "sodomy" is no longer illegal in any state that I'm aware of. If you knew the legal difinition of sodomy, you would appreciate that fact - otherwise, we'd all be in jail.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 22:07:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: The rock goes on...
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 21:23:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good luck, MK. At least appear for the sake of venting. Arrivaderci.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 21:15:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: 19:01: Words posted by one who demonstrates the meaning of the word E*vil.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 21:01:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: The truth always seems to follow the lie. I'm so disappointed. Thought the kid had learned his lesson after the initial "marriage" fiasco, but no. I mean, we're talking about a non-existent packing plant job for Sherrel and easy street for the kid himself after he wisely left the job where he had to wear meat hanging from his neck. What gives here? Shee-it, Eddie Gann (a real man) boasted about selling black market salmon out of the car he lived in. And Gann wasn't even a libertarian. Come on, MK, at least face the music for this latest outrage. Explain yourself, dude. Take it like a Gann.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 20:34:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: The truth: I haven�t had a good job or even a lucrative assignment since I quit my previous job. My wife hasn�t had a job of any kind in over a year. I have a little bit of money saved so that Sherrel and I can �survive� without jobs for about 1 year. Luckily, my wife and I don�t have children or anything of a great expense. My doctor found a very small polyp in my lower digestive track a few months ago. The abnormal growth was removed. I�m getting a bit of fat develop around my mid-section. I�m starting to develop into a depressed �couch potato�. I have never asked for handouts. Nor have I ever received loans that I have failed to repay. I have no intention of ever doing so. I�ll check on this site once in a while, but I won�t have time to keep track of the conversations. I hope that everyone, even the �House of Meat� stays well. Bye for now.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 20:13:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Words posted by one who demonstrates the meaning of the word abusive.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 19:01:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ho-hum. Yawn.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 18:55:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, cowardly anon, your ilk does abuse any semblance of "substance" and therefore are abusive. But it all folds nicely into your real identity: E*vil. Sums it up in one very valid, substantive application of a socialist.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 17:58:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Substance abuse.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 17:44:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Ghost trusts his comedic instincts. Almost like the late lamented Pete.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 17:44:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, you E*vil.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 17:08:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh yeah, forgot about the substance, Ghost. My bad.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 16:20:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: They may be short, but they contain more honest substance than all you socialist liars put together.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 14:40:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Where's MK? Building hoses? Gamboling?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 14:21:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete's Ghost is certainly a pale imitation of the late lamented Pete. Sure, there's the repitition of boiler plate Pete-isms, but they are so half-hearted, so short. Okay, they're as boring as ever, but the Ghost can't even muster up the self-hatred and misogyny required for top shelf cunt-calling. Pete's Ghost couldn't write an open letter to Santa Claus.
betcha the Ghost succumbs to this reverse psychology (wink, wink)
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 14:21:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glad to know the cowardly anon agrees. Making progress.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 13:22:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: I believe that Pete was always one of the Spam birds when he was alive, and that his ghost is in denial. It is certainly within the realm of the possible that the late Pete's "Open Letter" series will be referenced in future scholarly works as the defining archetype of spam. The "pendulum" essay is already acknowledge as an easily identifiable precursor of spam as it has come to be known. Not to mention the lighter posts pointing out that socialists are evil and DemonRATS are traitors and the enemy of America.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 01:18:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Nah, Libertarianism� is not about Freedom and Responsibility, it's about Bitching and Whining. There is no such thing as self-sufficiency, MK. The word you seek is self-reliance, and there is no way that you have survived by relying on yourself. I'm glad I'm not one of you birds, the same way the golem is glad he's not one of the Spam birds.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:59:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: On the other hand, maybe Brody did see the notice, and did sign for the certified letter the government sent him two years ago. Because Brody is lying. Now, on the other hand, MK, I used to work as a cadastral surveyor, usually under contract to the feds, surveying Forest Service boundaries. It turns out that when a lot of the mountain land was surveyed, back in the late 1800's, the government was into privatization and farmed it out to the lowest bidder. The lowest bidder was usually a libertarian crook who sat in a tent drinking whiskey and drawing up imaginary maps. The property lines on a lot of the quad sheets are often what we call "whiskey lines" after those surveys. A lot of private citizens no smarter than yourself bought parcels based on their conception of the whiskey lines and built cabins and homes on federal land, and part of what the surveyor does is note those encroachments so the government bulldozers can come and shove them back where they belong. There has been so much of it, though, that the feds in their majesty have generally leased the buildings and other improvements to the "owners" for as long as they live, or some other reasonable time. It's all much more interesting than what your dull libertarian cut and paste screeds have to say, and if you are interested you should take some time and try to learn about it.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:51:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: I am fully self-sufficient. Not as free as I'd like to be...but fully self-sufficient. You seem like a rugged individualist. I may have had an incorrect image of you. Anyway, good night. Think Individual Freedom and Responsibility.That is what Libertarianism is all about.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:45:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: No the simple answer is we are not socialists. Sure beats being the Spam like you birds.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:38:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey MK, have you ever washed clothes in a 12-volt washing machine? When you decide to break away and become self-sufficient, I've got a used one that I'll let you have for free, if you come and pick it up.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:37:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Assigning a status to public land might not literally change it from private to public. Perhaps not...but it sure limits your use of the land...and when you can't use land you own as you see fit, then you don't really own it. Private owners would probably do a better job of keeping "yahoos like me out". --- You receive a card saying the government is condemning your property. You assemble documents, do research, and prepare to challenge the condemnation. The judge says you are too late, though you got the note of yesterday. To challenge condemnation of your property, you had to file an appeal two years ago and you skipped right by the 'legal notices' section of the newspaper 2 years ago. You had 30 days from the publication of the determination & findings in which to appeal them. Those 30 days were your only chance to dispute the condemnation proceeding in court. Never mind that you weren't notified of the determination and findings themselves, let alone that you had a time-limited right to appeal them. Never mind that the government was, at that point, years away from petitioning to acquire your property. This scenario is an illustration of the real-life procedure by which government agencies acquire private property against the will of property owners in New York. 4 years ago Bill Brody purchased & renovated 4 buildings in Port Chester. Brody's property is being condemned by the Village of Port Chester, which plans to transfer the property to a private developer for use as a convenience store. When Brody received the Village's petition to take his property, he consulted a lawyer & filed court papers. However, because New York's eminent domain procedure law, Brody was too late. His right to challenge the legality of the condemnation of his property had actually expired approximately 10 months before the Village filed its petition. Brody never saw the notice of determination & findings that appeared in the newspaper & he didn�t know he had a right to appeal.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:37:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh, MK, assigning a status to public land doesn't change it from private to public. Clinton created no public land. It is true that the feds manage a lot of ground. In the mountain county where I have my survivalist retreat, for example, over 90 percent of the land, hundreds and hundreds of square miles, is either Forest Service or BLM. It's pretty nice, because it keeps yahoos like you out, which enhances the value of my in-holding. The yahoos are mostly crowded into trailer parks in the small areas of flat bottomland that people back in the 1800's felt were worth buying when the feds had it up for sale. I don't have to look up the easements, MK, the title company practically shoves them down your throat when you buy a piece of ground, to make sure you know what you're buying. Federal regulations, you understand. Only two days ago some jasper from the county where my town home is knocked on my door and asked to check the manhole that's in the public utility easement in my back yard. I thought of duking him down where he stood, but figured I'd listen to Romans 13: 1-6 and be a good citizen, and let him do it. Up in the mountains, the only easements on my ground are a county road easement 15 feet inside the north p-line, and an easement for our private road on the south line. We have a private water district that consists of a leachfield in a spring on Hal Pricer's place, feeding a redwood water tank and then running on down the hill. I'm at just about the same level as the water tank, and have no measurable pressure. The state Department of Health has been trying to force us to treat the water, which is spring water coming out of a federally-designated Wilderness Area, which is the absolute standard for drinking water. It's an anti-libertarian outrage. Did you know that in a Wilderness Area no mechanized equipment is allowed, not even a mountain bike? They can't even go in with helicopters and land, supposedly, although that rule is winked at sometimes during fires, because there's a helitack base nearby. Rules rules rules rules rules. Not only can't you OWN the land, MK, except that as a citizen you "own" it, but you can't even ride a fucking bike on it! Hey! MK! I just realized that my place up there is powered by solar electricity and is entirely unregulated! I even got an outhouse, although there's a flush toilet too, and a septic tank and leachfield. Keep tools in the crapper, and an extra door key. Gosh, you scratch yourself and you find a goddamn libertarian. You poor witless wimp.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:29:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Out here in the more evolved coastal burgs, MK, we pay for our garbage service the same way you folks in Waco pay for your cable television. No taxes involved. Large Trash Pick-up Day is like Christmas, in that it comes but once a year and you pay out the ass for it. We Libertarians got together and decided it would be good to set aside one day where you didn't have to jam all the trash into the can, sort of like Mardi Gras just before Lent, break all the rules. We figured, what the hell, we'll pay dear for it, but at least the old aluminum framing won't pile up in the neighbor's yard and become an eyesore. MK, you certainly are a little hazy on your libertarian free-market principles. I didn't recycle the stuff because it wasn't worth the two or three hundred dollars to me, all a question of supply and demand and price. The two scruffy libertarians with the '68 Camero and the willingness to make a living rifling through the gentry's trash piles one day a year did find the two or three hundred bucks worth their effort. The marketplace squared this all away fairly neatly, as you could see if didn't have a brain full of moth shit.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:09:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: That was lame, House of Meat. Government still owns a lot of public land. Clinton added to government land declaring many tracts as national treasures. Even the �private land� that many homeowners have isn�t truly theirs. There are government easements. Look it up.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 00:02:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: I can't figure out whether MK is the mayonnaise and the golem is the white bread, or whether MK is the white bread and the golem is the mayo. One thing for sure, Glint is the tuna-fish.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 23:59:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Never heard of Abercrobie. I do Jawaiian.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 23:58:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: House expressed my point, via the trash story, nearly as well as I could. House: Would you have been as wasteful if you had to pay directly for sanitation service to haul your garbage away�instead of having everyone pay to have it done�via taxes? It is the same as with public parks and other public services. If you are fully and solely responsible for something, you are more likely to take better care of it. Think of all the extra trouble you nearly caused your public servants�and the taxes you and your neighbors have to pay to have sanitation crews dispose of good stuff�because you were too lazy to recycle.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 23:57:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: You're a little weak on history, aren't you, MK? Did you know that all the private land in the USA was sold by the government to people who then set the rules for the land they owned? Or was it just a wild guess? Hey, that aluminum framing IS going to be recycled, and at a real metal collection warehouse, not some gramps and granny garage sale, but a libertarian couple that makes Alley and Oona Oop look like a Waco coffee-shop waitress-frycook combo. I'll tell you, though, it's a pretty hard burg that makes the old folks come all the way down to the courthouse just to have a garage sale. Out here, all you have to do is staple a sign to the nearest telephone pole. We must be more libertarian than I thought. No wonder you're upset about over-regulation, because it sounds as if Waco is over-regulated. Could be why the Davidian goof chose it as the place to pick a fight with the United States of America. By some odd chance you happen to live in the most over-regulated town in the world. A permit for a garage sale. It's hard to believe. Are you sure they aren't a little confused, and mistakenly applying for liver transplants?
House of Meat
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 23:48:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hmmmmm, better write that in the log book. Saturn bigger, yet less distinct with the 4mm. There seems to be a pattern here..... Can't remember where I've heard about something like that..... think, brain, think. It was either something Glint wrote, or the Phun Phacts in the lower left corner of the funny pages..... nobody said this astronomy thing wouldn't be mind-boggling. Yet every experience is an adventure. It's like watching Mr. Wizard every clear windless night, instead of when you're sick home from school.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 23:38:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, House of Meat, It would be real nice if government sold land to individuals who can then set the rules for the land that they own. --- Mox Footlight: It would depend on the Libertarian(s) that owned the beach. --- House of Meat: Pretty lazy of you to leave that stuff that could be recycled. My parents are going to have a garage sale...unfortunately, they have to go to the court house, fill out some paper-work, and pay a fee in order to have government permission to have the sale.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 23:35:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Tourist golem. Be sure to stop at Abercrobie for your safari jacket.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 23:34:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fine. Saturn was bigger but less distinct with the 4mm. Hard to keep at square 1. Waiting for Jupiter and saturn to cycle in. But I'm going to be en Afrique before it hits. By the way how's the thieving coming along cowardly anon?
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 23:12:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's Large Trash Pickup Day tomorrow, and I put out this aluminum-frame patio enclosure, doors and screens and framing. That aluminum is the weight of several thousand cans, but I didn't want to fuck with it. Looked out the window just now, twenty minutes later, and a self-sufficient Libertarian couple was finishing up stripping all the aluminum off the particle-board and chunking it into the back of a '68 Camero. They were so slick at it, it looked like they might be from Waco. They also grabbed the aluminum rain-gutters I took off and busted up. Probably over two hundred dollars in that haul. It's as the bible says, don't harvest your gleanings, but leave them for the Libertarians. Even better than giving a bum a buck for Muscatel, because they had to figure out how to strip the stuff, and work like a couple of yeggs trying to blow a safe, because it's illegal to disturb a Large Trash Pickup pile. I didn't just give them a fish, I taught them how to fish, as it were. Makes me wish I had a church to go to and brag to the deacon.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:57:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: How's the stargazing going, golem?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:46:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes one of many ways.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:42:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: "beady little sweat balls curling?" "any vestige of its true identity?" Really, golem, if you didn't try so ahrd it would flow a lot more smoothly.
Mox
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:42:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Exposed? Did I leave port 110 open again? Only the "Hacker" golem can tell.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:39:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hitting a mosquito with a sledgehammer.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:16:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: I can just see the beady little sweat balls curling on our cowardly anonymous. Trying so ahrd to hide any vestige of its true identity. Sorry you are exposed.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:12:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: Of course. Topless, bottomless, who cares. The simplicity of it is overwhelming.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:08:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ignore the goof. You'll just encourage him to burn up the wires with official Libertarian� cut-and-past on random topics. Let's turn our thoughts to whether a libertarian world would permit Glint's entry to a bottomless beach. I hold that that may be going too far.
Mox Footlight
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:03:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's nice to know that reckless driving might fall in the category of things that a libertarian might prohibit, if he can twist his ideals enough.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 22:00:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Turnips don't have homes, cars, etc.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:59:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Squeeze?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:58:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Coppertone, did you take pictures on your trip? Like along the surf in Cannes? When we get back the kids are going to stay here for a couple weeks. Might get jobs in the corn fields. Meanwhile the Mrs. and I are going to check out our favorite bottomless Atlantic beach down in the Carolinas.
Glint
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:58:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Make him give back the money. Give the victims his home, car, etc.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:53:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Give back what they took. Negotiate with the victim. Dock his salary if he has a job. Put him to work at hard labor, etc. Don't give him free room and food at the local club fed.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:52:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Re: criminals making restitution. If it's monetary restitution, how does one get blood out of a turnip?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:41:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Next question...
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:36:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: If someone owns and operates the only road in a particular area, the rates will probably be higher in the absence of competition. However, profits will start to dwindle if prices become exorbitant, because alternatives (e.g., flying, going the long way around, etc.) always exist. Since a road is a big capital investment, profits will probably be largest if the rates are kept low enough to get a steady stream of traffic.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:35:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: As you've noticed, gasoline taxes are not the most equitable way to fund highways. In a libertarian society, roads would most likely be funded by user fees, condo dues, or tolls instead. More and more communities are turning to such alternatives to insure that their roads are well built and maintained.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:34:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: The road police would likely be employees of the company that owned and operated that particular roadway. Just as police protect fellow officers today, some favoritism might be shown to fellow employees. However, road police that protected their buddies instead of their customers would likely get fired, limiting the damage they could do. Management could not afford to keep reckless road police and lose customer confidence, business, and profit. Today's system allows unscrupulous police to get away with such cover-ups, because management is driven by politics, not profit. Road police under a libertarian system would certainly be less corrupt than they are today -- but no system can guarantee perfection!
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:33:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: The owners of the road on which you travel would likely have thier own security "police" people..just as many large businesses today often employ private security firms.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:30:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: America suffers from an epidemic of violence and crime, victimizing one family out of four every year. There is a murder every half hour, a rape every five minutes, and a theft every four seconds. Despite decades of tough talk, the anti-crime policies of the Republicans and Democrats have clearly failed. The Libertarian Party believes a fresh approach is needed. That's why we're offering this five-point plan for making America's streets safe: Protect Victim's Rights. Protecting the rights and interests of victims should be the basis of our criminal justice system. Victims should have the right to be present, consulted and heard throughout the prosecution of their case. In addition, Libertarians would do more than just punish criminals. We would also make them pay restitution to their victims for the damage they've caused, including property loss, medical costs, pain, and suffering. If you are the victim of a crime, the criminal should fully compensate you for your loss. End prohibition. Drug prohibition does more to make Americans unsafe than any other factor. Just as alcohol prohibition gave us Al Capone and the mafia, drug prohibition has given us the Crips, the Bloods and drive-by shootings. Consider the historical evidence: America's murder rate rose nearly 70% during alcohol prohibition, but returned to its previous levels after prohibition ended. Now, since the War on Drugs began, America's murder rates have doubled. The cause/effect relationship is clear. Prohibition is putting innocent lives at risk. What's more, drug prohibition also inflates the cost of drugs, leading users to steal to support their high priced habits. It is estimated that drug addicts commit 25% of all auto thefts, 40% of robberies and assaults, and 50% of burglaries and larcenies. Prohibition puts your property at risk. Finally, nearly one half of all police resources are devoted to stopping drug trafficking, instead of preventing violent crime. The bottom line? By ending drug prohibition, Libertarians would double the resources available for crime prevention and significantly reduce the number of violent criminals at work in your neighborhood. Get Tough on Real Crime. The Libertarian Party is the party of personal responsibility. We believe that anyone who harms another person should be held responsible for that action. By contrast, the Democrats and Republicans have created a system where criminals can get away with almost anything. For instance: sentences seldom mean what they say. Fewer than one out of every four violent felons serves more than four years. Libertarians would dramatically reduce the number of these early releases by eliminating their root cause - prison over-crowding. Since nearly six out of every ten federal prison inmates are there for non-violent drug-related offenses, it's clear that drug prohibition is the primary source of this over-crowding. It has been estimated that every drug offender imprisoned results in the release of one violent criminal, who then commits an average of 40 robberies, 7 assaults, 110 burglaries and 25 auto thefts. Early release of violent criminals puts you and your family at risk. It must stop. Protect the Right to Self-Defense. We believe that the private ownership of firearms is part of the solution to America's crime epidemic, not part of the problem. Evidence: law-abiding citizens in Florida have been able to carry concealed weapons since 1987. During that time, the murder rate in Florida has declined 21% while the national murder rate has increased 12%. In addition, evidence shows that self-defense with guns is the safest response to violent crime. It results in fewer injuries to the defender (17.4% injury rate) than any other response, including not resisting at all (24.7% injury rate). Libertarians would repeal waiting periods, concealed carry laws, and other restrictions that make it difficult for victims to defend themselves, and end the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. Address the Root Causes of Crime. Any society that lets kids grow up dependent on government welfare, attending government schools that fail to teach, and entering an economy where government policy has crushed opportunity, will be a society that breeds criminals. No permanent solution to crime will be found until we address these root causes of crime. The Libertarian Party would increase employment opportunities by slashing taxes and government red tape. We would also end the welfare system with its culture of dependence and hopelessness. Most important of all, we would promote low-cost private alternatives to the failed government school system. The Libertarian Party's anti-crime plan would do what the Democrats and Republicans have not done: Respect the victim's rights and make criminals pay full restitution. Hold all criminals responsible for their actions. Double the police resources available for crime prevention without any additional government spending. Reduce the number of criminals at large on our streets. Defend the most effective crime deterrent available, the private ownership of guns. Create jobs, end welfare dependence, and improve education.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:27:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: So do I, but that doesn't mean I want to be the policeperson for my road. Now about that gamboling......
Bo Peep
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:27:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: I�m on a private health insurance program, I buy my own drugs, & I pay Medicare, Medicaid, etc. In general, the Republicans tend to favor the outlawing �consensual crimes� more so than do the Democrats. (i.e. prostitution, pornography, gamboling, sodomy, �controlled substances�).
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:18:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: That might be a sight to behold. Road owner MK going head to head with someone under the influence of a mind-altering drug.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 21:06:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, why don't you tell us about some of those "personal freedoms" supported by Demorats? I, for one, would be interested in hearing about them - or even just one. In the meantime, don't forget to take that medication that I am forced to pay for, at the point of a gun.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 20:48:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: oh...yeah...that too...I forgot. Anyway...It is old history.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 20:26:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, not wierd. It is as normal as rooting for the Giants.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 20:13:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Another MK lie. He claims to have lied about being married because "I had wished I was married." However, when he confessed his lie, after slipping up and calling Sleeping Sherrel his fiance, he said it was because he thought being married would somehow give him more credibility here. I know, it's an insane notion, but that's what he said. I would like to know what that psych evaluation says. Give it up, lad. And, no lies.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 19:54:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: I miss Pete. Weird, huh?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 19:46:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yo momma mouse.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 19:37:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Who are you calling anonyomous?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 19:15:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: I see anonyomous coward has identified the underpinnings of a true socialist democrat. Thank you for your feeble contribution. Every little bit helps the cause.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 19:06:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: More like a nimrod without Clue One.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 19:03:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, you properly identify another Democrat agenda. Even more reason to vote for what you sound like you really are: a nonconformist republican.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 18:57:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: A free market is the only way to control corporations! As long as government has the power to regulate business, business will control government by funding the candidate that legislates in their favor. A free market thwarts lobbying by taking the power that corporations seek away from government! For example, in a libertarian society, government could not give subsidies, legislate profits, or introduce legislation designed to favor big business as it does today. When regulations are proposed, big business cries "Don't throw me in the briar patch!" More regulation means that their smaller competitors are forced out of business. Free markets, by encouraging competition, expand the economy and create more jobs. Employees would have more choice and flexibility to move if they weren't treated well. Without the regulation that big business wants, employees could much more easily become their own bosses. Employers who didn't treat employees well might find themselves creating competitors.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 18:56:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: There is no faulty logic in Libertarians� views of anti-trust rules (being against them) and centralized government (being against it). After Bill Gates was punished for being too powerful, Microsoft stock fell. I think the government owes me a couple thousand dollars for its butt-insky behavior.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 18:53:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Most special interest groups and government agencies convince governments that they had better not vote to have their agencies privatized. They would then have to face competition and be held directly accountable to their customers. Practically any public service can be handled (better) by the private sector. ��we know that many services are offered in both the public and private sectors -- such as schools, libraries and hospitals.� True, but citizens are required to pay for such services (through taxes) in the public sector�even if they prefer to have their needs met in the private sector. If, for whatever reason, you send your hypothetical child to a private elementary school, you still must pay (directly or indirectly) to finance public schools. --- If Organization A subverts the will of the people, acting in self-interested ways that are more harmful than helpful to the community, it will lose the faith and trust of its clients/customers�the �Good Housekeeping� seal of approval� particularly those concerned with the good of the community. They will lose the profitability. I�d prefer to do business with private industry because they are directly accountable to customers. In the public sector, special interest groups wanting government protection, overshadow the Libertarians� opinions. The NEA (National Education Association) spends lost of money to practically bribe (buy) politicians to keep supporting their existence. The wealthy politician in turn does his best to convince people that they are best served by government care. --- The people who bought silicon breast implants took risks. If implant surgeons/salespeople lied to the customer about product safety, fraud was done. The customer is entitled to compensation. News about such risk spread quickly and people engaged in such businesses lost profit. The private sector plays an important role in collecting this research, bringing these complex issues to light, and regulating these products for safety via the free market. For example: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn�t deserve credit for its role in exposing the Firestone tire fiasco. Its investigation began long after investigations by State Farm Insurance brought the problem to light. --- I agree that only government can prepare a national defense, one including nuclear missiles, tanks, and battleships. We need a strong centralized national defense. That is were hard-core Libertarian �anarchists� and I have differing opinions. �Government built the national infrastructure of roads, telephone lines, power cables and more, while millions of businesses branched off from that infrastructure to create the free market.� This is true, but the private sector could have done it all from the beginning just as well. � Libertarian highways?!? Yes indeed: Roads would probably be operated by companies which would finance them through tolls (highways), subscription fees (local roads), or measures similar to condominium dues (neighborhood streets). Even today, some communities finance almost half of their roadways through these alternatives, saving themselves up to 50% when compared to government-run alternatives. Road owners would set the standards for drivers' conduct (e.g. speed limits, alcohol load, etc.). Road owners would probably ban reckless drivers, regardless of whether they were under the influence of mind-altering substances, so that customer safety could be maintained. Libertarians believe that defensive force can be used against those who initiate or THREATEN to initiate force against others. Prohibiting reckless driving could certainly fall into that category. To maximize profit, road companies would want to keep tolls low and traffic high. If a road company raised tolls too much, people would find alternative transportation (e.g., trains, planes, other routes). The loss of revenue would encourage them to lower tolls once again. Of course, residential streets would most likely be owned by those who lived on them, as happens with some streets in St. Louis and in condo communities today. Sidewalks and bicycle paths could be put in by a road company, by developers of subdivisions, or by homeowners themselves. Studies show that costs for roads, sidewalks, and paths are reduced one-half to two-thirds when built by the private, instead of the public, sector. Indeed, many communities are already choosing to privatize road construction in order to realize these savings! --- Monopolies are rare in the free market, Rockefeller's Standard Oil gained 85% of the market for a couple of years, but found that the only way he could keep competitors from gaining ground was keeping his prices low. AT&T, on the other hand, asked the government to give them a monopoly to put their many competitors out of business. For all his greed, Rockefeller could only dominate the marketplace by giving the customer a good deal. Until the government reversed its policy on long distance service in 1984, AT&T was able to charge monopoly prices. Government intervention is usually necessary to make monopolies possible. --- In a Libertarian society, consenting individual members of privately owned communities�each agreeing to live by certain rules�would decide weather or not to allow private companies to �dig up the neighborhood for competing sewer pipes�. It would be up to the private sewer company to convince these people of the good of his product/service. As it stands, you probably don�t really own the first few feet inside the edge of your land. It is called a comprehensive easement for whatever use the government in its "power of eminent domain" deems appropriate. Private charity organizations and private insurance firms can handle disaster relief. �When these natural monopolies have been turned over to private enterprise, the result has been complete failure.� Bull Shit! �The tragedy of the commons occurs only when property is public. For example, public grazing land in the West is in poor condition because each person profits most when their cattle graze heavily. No one bothers to replenish the land, because they can't profit by it. In contrast, private grazing land is much better cared for. Private owners know that they will reuse the land, and so have incentive to care for it. The value of the land is maintained or even augmented when used sustainably. Thus, private owners are rewarded for caring for their land with higher property values. This example can be applied to practically anything. The solution to the �commons� problem is to do away with the �commons�!
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 18:46:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: ho-hum and yd
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 17:33:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure sure, Dr. Milt. Brain damage still suits you. Ping.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 17:17:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: What do you think about the idea of Theodore's name popping up in red letters?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 17:13:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: On the other hand, he's been rather moderate lately. I see you saw how he kissed up. Probably lobbying for a co-mod position.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 17:11:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh well. Still, it's nice of you. I just wonder how long it will be before Joseph starts playing Sam Spade.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 17:06:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Unfortunately, or fortunately, tomorrow's my last day until I head for the beach for a few days.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 17:02:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Be my guest. And thanks.
GITM
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 17:00:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: I noticed. In fact, I'd like to take some credit for it.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:58:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Certainly is mayhem over at the WB. Conservatives arguing with conservatives, liberals going at it with liberals, Libertarians confusing the hell out of everybody, riots in the streets, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
GITM
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:52:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: The success of privatization depends on several factors. Unfortunately, most governments have found that they cannot successfully privatize their services. Even to the most casual observer, however, it should be obvious there is something economically similar between government and the market, even if one can't immediately say why. For example, we know that many services are offered in both the public and private sectors -- such as schools, libraries and hospitals. We know that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher tried to privatize government services -- and the fact that this could be done at all speaks to a fundamental similarity between the sectors. And even entire economies have been run by governments -- although how well depends on what type of socialism is practiced. The social democracies of Northern Europe have some of the highest standards of living in the world. The socialist dictatorships of the Soviet Union went down in flames. The fundamental similarities between the public and private sectors can be illustrated by the following example. Let's suppose that Organization A is a group of professionals which provides a service to the greater economy. People outside Organization A pay money in exchange for its goods and services. In theory, the group is forced to keep quality high and prices low, because it must satisfy the majority of the people. The fewer people it satisfies, the more likely Organization A will be driven from existence and replaced by its competitors in Organization B. This competition keeps it honest, and allows the self-interest of its professionals to be used for the greater good of society. In practice, however, Organization A can find ways of subverting the will of the people, acting in self-interested ways that are more harmful than helpful to the community. However, this represents a perversion of the original ideal, and can be corrected by enforcing better laws. Which entity are we talking about here? Business? Or government? The fact is that Organization A could be either! They may use different methods, but the basic principles are the same. For example, both must obey the will of the people, because the people vote with their ballots in one case and with their dollars in the other. Competition is also similar. In the private sector, companies compete on the free market; in the public sector, candidates and parties compete in elections. Businesses which fail to attract dollar votes are driven into bankruptcy and replaced by their business rivals. Politicians who fail to attract ballot votes are driven out of office and replaced by their political rivals. The invisible hand works the same way in both sectors as well. A businessman can pursue his self-interest successfully only if he markets a product that pleases the greatest number of customers. Likewise, a politician can pursue his self-interest successfully only by governing in a way that pleases the greatest number of voters. But the invisible hand often gets corrupted in either case. The businessman may decide that it's cheaper to dump toxic waste than to treat it. The politician may decide to the let the businessman dump it, because the businessman has lobbyists who bribe him with campaign donations. The solution in both cases is to enforce better laws. These, then, are the similarities; are there any differences? Yes. Under the current (and imperfect) system, markets have a number of advantages over governments. First, elections take place only once every two or four years, so "market" mechanisms are considerably weaker in government. (This could be resolved by holding elections or referendums more frequently). Also, markets allow people to vote on very specific things -- like Ben & Jerry's ice cream over Haagen Daz, for example. In an election, however, people vote on generalities -- like a politician's overall record, which may include disagreeable as well as agreeable policies. (This, too, could be resolved by allowing the public to vote on more specific issues.) Furthermore, democracy only works when the people are educated. Voters would be overwhelmed trying to educate themselves on the best prices for bicycle parts, the best safety features for microwave ovens or the optimum number of yogurt flavors. It is easy to see that a lot of ignorant votes would be cast in a system where voters attempted to run every aspect of the economy. In a free market, customers can become experts only on the things they want to buy, and can then vote with their dollars. Although this is an excellent rationale for the free market, going too far in this direction also produces problems. A lot of ignorant votes get cast even in the marketplace. For example, published research revealed that silicon breast implants had a problem with leaking, long before millions of women even bought them. However, the manufacturers and doctors had no incentive to hurt their own sales by adequately informing the public. Nor did most customers have the scientific understanding and expertise to police the industry themselves. Just where, for example, could one have found the obscure medical journals and studies that sounded the alarm? Government therefore plays an important role in collecting this research, bringing these complex issues to light, and regulating these products for safety. So, as far as everyday sales and purchases go, the market offers the consumer more advantages than the government does. However, this situation reverses itself as the commodities become more national in scope. Defense is a perfect example. The market is excellent for supplying individuals with the means for personal defense, like fences, locks, guard dogs, mace, intruder alert systems, etc. But only government can prepare a national defense, one including nuclear missiles, tanks, battleships, etc. Another example: the economy itself. Government built the national infrastructure of roads, telephone lines, power cables and more, while millions of businesses branched off from that infrastructure to create the free market. There is another fundamental difference between the public and private sector, and that is how they deal with the problem of monopolies. Due to inherent limitations of technology or circumstance, some industries form what economists call natural monopolies. For example, only one local company can usually provide service for telephone, or cable, or water, or electricity. It would be enormously wasteful, not to mention foolish, to wire the nation with competing telephone lines, or dig up the neighborhood for competing sewer pipes. At the national level, natural monopolies include defense, disaster relief and highway construction. In these situations, government has proven much better at meeting the needs of the people because the people can control these programs with their votes, and candidates compete to win them. But when these natural monopolies have been turned over to private enterprise, the result has been complete failure. The lack of competition leads private companies to raise prices through the roof, and consumers have nowhere else to turn. If the utility were publicly owned, consumers could easily replace the reigning political party with its rival. The abuse of natural monopolies is what happened to Great Britain after Margaret Thatcher sought to privatize public utilities. The experience was a disaster. The British government first privatized telecommunications, then gas, then electricity and then water with little thought about how these monopolies would act on the free market. By 1987, public outcry over the skyrocketing rates and dropping quality of British Telecom forced the Thatcher government to reluctantly impose regulations. The same thing happened to Gas. But what was truly disastrous was the way Britain privatized electricity; it allowed a ludicrous arrangement where power providers could compete with each other. Even though there were adequate power sources in Britain, the industry rushed to build more power generators to compete with each other, to the point that there was 70 percent overproduction by 1995. What's worse, this competition nearly killed Britain's coal industry. Coal generators are expensive to build but cheap to run; gas generators are the opposite. Gas is also much quicker to install. As the power companies rushed to build new power generators, they chose gas over coal. By 1992, the British government closed half its coal mines and laid off 70 percent of its miners. Unlike most other nations, who use government to run their natural monopolies, the U.S. has a hybrid system. It allows private ownership of natural monopolies, but with federal price controls and regulation. Deregulation of natural monopolies therefore creates instant problems. When Congress deregulated the cable industry, they essentially created 11,000 local monopolies that wasted no time hiking cable rates and lowering quality of service. The subject of monopolies also reveals an inconsistency in conservative thinking. Consider Microsoft, the computer giant who dominates over 80 percent of the market for operating systems software. They criticize liberals for wanting to enforce the nation's anti-trust laws against Microsoft, arguing that this would punish success, interfere with the free market, etc. But when the government runs a natural monopoly, conservatives evoke the problems of centralized government and dictatorships, lack of competition on the free market, etc. Liberals find this discrepancy in broad daylight to be amazing. In conclusion, privatization only works when competition can be assured on the market. If no competition is possible, then privatization only works with government regulation to prevent monopolistic abuses. Even so, the public sector of the economy could be dramatically improved by holding more frequent elections on more specific issues.
Dr. Milton T. Eisentower, PhD.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:27:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: How does a guy find time to gambol when he's so busy giving of his time to the unfortunates?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:23:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hear, hear, Hadley!
Roger Boas (SBBC, 1958)
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:22:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Nothing is certain, nothing is concrete. Did Jesus teach fishing, or did he merely pile up magical fish upon the dock? If the bum buys mescal with his dollar, doesn't he subsequently "fish" for the worm? If MK pounds nails on a Habitat for Humanity project, what does the new housedweller have to fish for but all the bent nails?
House of Meat
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:19:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: "Legalized theft", yes, what a great phrase, MK. Let's try it out in the words of the apostle, Romans 13:6-7. "For because of this you also pay legalized theft, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render, therefore to all their due: legalized theft to whom legalized theft is due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."
Hadley Roff, Dr. Rel. Sonny Bono Bible College
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:15:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: The trick is teaching the fish to fish. Mostly they just open their ugly mouths and take in the little fishies. Not very sporting.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:14:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: I only ask because I have heard that in many parts of the South, gamboling by adult males is frowned upon. Perhaps Louisiana is different.
Dr. Milton T. Eisentower, PhD.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:03:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: My favorite spot in the world for gamboling has always been Vienna. I have never tried it in Shreveport. Is it fun, MK? Is it approved of by the "citizenry?"
Dr. Milton T. Eisentower, PhD
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 16:01:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Perhaps MK would like to share some tips about his travels around parts of Texas. Or, about gamboling in Shreverport.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:58:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Travel note, Whatever. Those African guys selling the junk are not hitting on you personally because you are a little black, but just following the norms of the West African free market. Any man selling, even daily items, will come on that way to an outlander. He'll say, "since your my friend, I'll give you good price," and then ask for approximately 100 times what the item is worth. (A market woman won't start this way, but her price will still be in about the same range.) The way to deal with this is, before he can say anything tell him, "since you're my friend, I'll give you x for that piece of trash," where x=value/100. You go from there. It's fun, and if you want the item you can get it for about what it's worth locally, although you pay a little premium because you're a rich white person who is not all the way white. The peddler enjoys it, too, which is part of why he's a peddler. The coming up to you and invading your space is a city/tourist custom. At the Hotel du Parc in Abidjan there is a uniformed hotel cop who patrols the terrace with a whip, trying to keep the peddlers away from the frogs. If he sees that you want to deal with the peddler, though, he won't break in. In Africa itself you can get some good stuff this way, while sitting on your ass sipping a brew. The stuff in France is all shit, however, and obviously not worth buying. PS, if he's a real village African, which he almost always is, your breasts are nothing special to him, other than objects which it is reasonable to appraise, like your neck or ankles. He is not leering, just checking you out.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:54:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:50:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Since when is there nothing wrong with you, MK?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:41:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: Relax. There is nothing wrong with me. Just giving these sorry net-addicts a hard time...or am I...Muuahhh ha ha ha ha.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:38:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is this serious? MK, have you snapped?
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:35:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: So, did you have a complete psychological evaluation or not?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:27:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm brighter than most people here...you are just too intelligently numb to see.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:25:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: I didn't post it to brag or to get whatever you mean by "bragging points at a Southern Baptist belly-rub", but just as a factual reply to the comment made by someone who seemed so proud to give a bum a buck.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:24:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: H. Roff: I doubt that. The one you teach to catch fish...leading him to independence...would be mch more appreciative of the time and trouble than the one who simply received a fish.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:19:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK is somewhat like a lava lamp. Fun to look at but not too bright.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 15:03:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Isn't it amazing that M.K. has the time to post all this nonsense during working hours? Wonder which of his many employers he is cheating.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 14:48:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: M.K., no matter how many hoses you build for how many homeless people, the bum in front of the liquor store appreciates the dollar bill more than any of those homeless appreciate their hoses. That's the problem with bragging about your charity, M.K., the meaning of the gift is in the heart, and not in the bragging points at a Southern Baptist belly-rub. God senses the satisfaction of the bum as he sips from that jug of Ripple, not the satisfaction YOU get from bragging about your big heart to the deacon.
H. Roff
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 14:46:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: I did some thinking. I liked the Republican platform until I thought about their support of victimless crime legislation. I liked the personal freedom that the Democrats supported but frowned on ther support for regulating others' money. Then I stumbled upon Libertarianism...an excellent philosophy. Yeah...many years ago...I lied about being married...I had wished I was married. I had a kitten for a while but returned it. Wooop-teeee-do.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 14:35:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Awwwooo, I'mm a baaaadddd boyeeee!!!!
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 14:30:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Have you ever had a psychological evaluation, MK? You came to this sullen place a few years ago and immediately lied about your marital status and your love of felines. Then, there was the frenzy of Clinton-worship you hysterically nattered about on the Kiss-Ronald-Reagan's-Ass page. Then you came back here, reborn as libertarian drone. Your life seems to be one of chaos and loss. Do you suffer from a personality disorder that has been identified, or do you think the continual disappointment is "normal?"
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 14:27:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: A libertarian government would be non-interventionist in the fullest sense of the word. It would not impose duties, tariffs, or embargoes on trading between its citizenry and that of other nations. Such a policy would promote peace and stimulate trade, rather than being isolationist. Had the U.S. traded with Japan instead of instituting an oil embargo against it, the attack on Pearl Harbor might never have happened. A libertarian government would not intervene in the affairs of other nations in a diplomatic or military fashion. Likewise, a libertarian government would not interfere if some of its citizens, as individuals or groups, voluntarily supported an overseas war. In essence, a policy of non-interventions is a policy of non-aggression, not only toward other nations, but toward a governments' own citizenry. Government intervention in foreign affairs invariably starts with the imposition of taxes and regulations on its own citizenry. War, like charity, begins at home.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 14:23:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: When tariffs are eliminated, consumers pay less for foreign goods. They therefore have more money to spend on other things. Their spending creates more new jobs than those that are lost. Inefficient domestic companies are put out of business by foreign goods, but competitive domestic sectors grow as consumers spend their extra cash. The net effect is job creation, because a dollar spent on efficiently-produced goods buys more, increasing demand. The country, as a whole, becomes more competitive on the world market and better able to export to other countries.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 14:21:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: If NAFTA promotes free trade, why does it take 500+ pages to say these two words? Some experts believe that NAFTA's morass of regulations will, in fact, limit trade further; others believe that, on balance, trade will be enhanced. If the experts are confused, I conclude that NAFTA may or may not be a step in the right direction, but not a great leap. "Words are often used in politics to create an acceptable image for an act that the public would find unacceptable. For example, how many people would support taxation if we called it 'legalized theft' or 'protection money' instead? "Recently-proposed 'Know Your Customer' banking regulations sounded warm and fuzzy, but actually demanded that banks actively spy on their customers and report to the government. When evaluating any legislation, look to the substance, not to the name, for 'the real thing.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 14:20:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, your dream of unregulated business is a reality in the global economy. Your missionary work is done, young man. Now shut the fuck up.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 13:58:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: There's a goal?

- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 13:25:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: The goal of marriage should not necessarily be "happiness" but a lasting affection, commitment and partnership that enables a couple to go the distance. Many marriages end because spouses decide they haven't found the love and companionship they thought they wanted, not because they are in destructive unions. "This is the disillusionment and failure of ordinary marriages to live up to this ideal," said Fowers. Paradoxically, young adults lack confidence in marriage while entertaining a dream of landing the uber-mate. A reality check is needed, said Dafoe Whitehead, in the form of real-life marriage survival skills. As Krasnow puts it in her book: "Here's the straight truth: A.) Marriage can be hell. B.) The grass is not greener on the other side. C.) Nobody is perfect--including you. D.) So you may as well love the one you are with."
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 13:05:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wow. Rudeness aside, Whatever learned to barter and haggle. Have you ever been to a Mexican market? You can often get merchants to lower their initial offer by 75%.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 12:54:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: In the prosperous libertarian society, private charity could easily help these unfortunates. After all, 2/3 of every private charity dollar goes to the needy, while only 1/3 of our tax dollar earmarked for welfare does. Middle-class social workers and other administrators receive most of the taxes intended for the poor.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 12:46:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hi Whatever, welcome back. By the way, did you see anything on the townsfolk actually straightening out the Leaning tower of Pisa? The world is in fact a wild place. Thank goodness for reasonable rules and regulations to keep those impulses in check. The only thing holding back those beasts are the rules and the repurcussions. Anyway, MK, we know most of this stuff. If you ever truly understood the processes behind all of what you despise, you will more likely than not find a socialist known as a DemonRAt behind them. They do not advocate reasonable legislation, only agenda-driven vote getting lies. Once in a blue moon, they get lucky. By mistake, but it is usually blown way out of proportion and the rule really already existed but just wasn't being enforced or interpreted properly. Oh well.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 12:46:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: A libertarian society rewards responsibility; a welfare state punishes it through taxation. Thus, a libertarian society teaches responsibility so that people learn to make good decisions for themselves, instead of poor ones. In addition, instead of being forced to contribute to wasteful government programs like Social Security, people in a libertarian society could contribute to private retirement plans. Unlike Social Security, these grow with time, instead of steadily eroding. Those who didn't save for retirement would be able to continue working since a libertarian society would have no mandatory retirement age. For many people, continued employment is an attractive option, especially since retirement is associated with a greater mortality rate. Drug addiction would be down as well in a libertarian society, just as it is in the Netherlands, where addicts are not prosecuted. In summary, a libertarian culture would encourage responsibility and greatly lower the number of people in need. The greater wealth of a libertarian society means that more resources would be available to aid the few remaining unfortunates. A libertarian society provides the best 'safety net' of all -- and is the last place where you would expect to find starvation.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 12:44:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Greed is rampant among us; that's precisely why libertarians advocate a free market! In a free market, we all deal with each other voluntarily. In a regulated market, the bureaucrats dictate -- at gunpoint, if necessary -- who we can deal with. For example, your local phone service is probably provided by a monopoly, i.e., you have no choice. The cost is high and going up every year. The monopoly started when AT&T convinced government to stop competitors -- at gunpoint, if necessary. On the other hand, your long-distance service is provided by one of several competitors. The cost is much lower than it was ten years ago and is still going down. I remember the days when AT&T had a monopoly on long-distance service as well -- prices were much higher than they were a few months after the Justice Department finally allowed competition again. Free markets keep the quality up and the prices down.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 12:42:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Of course people are selfish! Libertarianism channels this selfishness to the service of others and gives the disadvantaged their best chance at becoming wealthy themselves. In a free market, for example, you buy from the person who gives you the best quality for the lowest price. Since the poor are hungriest for your business, traditionally they will offer you the best deal. In serving you, they serve themselves. Established businesses hate this kind of competition, so they go to the government and ask for regulations which are expensive to implement and drive out their less affluent competitors. "I knew a landlord who had a tenant who got caught in this trap. The tenant provided child care in her apartment, which was fine with landlord. However, the city regulators shut her down because the apartment didn't meet their burdensome regulations, which did nothing to improve service. As a direct result, she ended up on welfare. Our regulated economy creates poverty, then graciously offers welfare to those it has disenfranchised. In a free market, we'd have fewer poor, since most true poverty is created by government. Studies show that a free nation is wealthier than its regulated counterpart and that income is more evenly distributed. Wealthy nations get that way by letting their poor work. For the few who truly can't care for themselves, much more charity would be available on a per capita basis, even if fewer people contributed. Of course, politicians don't advertise that they are really servants of the rich, who are the ones in a position to contribute to their campaign chests. Anyone who studies the data can see through this cover-up, though.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 12:40:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: People who are cold-hearted enough to refuse help to a bleeding stranger certainly aren't going to change their behavior because of a law! If anything, such people will make an even faster getaway, so that no one will be able to make positive identification of them. It's very difficult, if not impossible, to FORCE people to help each other. You cannot create a caring society at gunpoint, even when the gun is wielded by government. You can only succeed in teaching violence. Maybe that's why we have bleeding victims that require help! The great care-givers of history (e.g., Christ, Mother Theresa, etc.) taught by example. They would not have forced others to be 'good Samaritans' even if they had the opportunity. Perhaps we can learn from their example.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 12:37:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: It is called the free-market�the free enterprise system�competition. Cost/benefit, Supply/demand. Companies that sell inferior products at the same price as those selling better products will lose market share. Yes. They will be undercut, until they find ways to provide people with a better and/or cheaper product. It is called freedom baby�yeah. --- Wow. You gave a dollar to a bum. I helped build several hoses for the homeless and delivered food to the hungry. I did more than hand out gifts. I led a neighbor (a single mother who felt trapped by the welfare system) to become self-sufficient.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 12:30:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: In a Libertarian society, there will be starving peddlers selling cheap junk on every corner.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 11:43:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: So, then we go to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and don't you know that it's opening up next week for tourists? Suck. Oh, the biggest nuisance, and I hate for it to sound like this, was these African peddlers, both in France and Italy. In France, we were in Cannes on the beach, and we're trying to get out little topless tan on, because we don't come by topless beaches too often, and I swear, the African peddlers must have come by at least 20 times, trying to sell us watches and sunglasses and whatnot. I didn't give a fuck, I started being rude to them, because the first peddler who walked by was staring at everyone's breasts so hard I wanted to slap the shit out of him. Anyway, then we got to Pisa. Mind you, we'd been hiking all day the two days before, had to get on the train for 3 1/2 hours from Levanto (a town near Cinque Terre,) and then had to walk across town to the Leaning Tower, then walked all around the area, the Cathedral, the Baptistry, the Museums, shopping and whatnot. I'm sitting on the grass, smoking a cigarette, and these African peddlers come at me. Of course, they have to pull the race card, like sista, sista, come and buy from your brother. I'm like, I'm not your fuckign sister and leave me alone, for Christ sake, can't you see I'm tired? Then, they want to play like they weren't trying to get me to buy something, asking me where I'm from. I'm like, what part of leave me alone don't you get? So, my one girlfriend with the bleeding heart starts talking to them, because they look worn and tired. They start pouring on the sob story, they don't get hired, this is the only way to make a living, blah blah. So, she asks, how much (for some knockoff Chanel sunglasses?) He's like, $50 (American.) She's like, even if I had $50, I wouldn't pay it for that. They guy says, ok, $25. Oh, oh, so I'm you SISTA and all that, but you're going to try to gip me out of $50? Screw you. Those fuckers would even come up to you while you're in the process of eating in a restaurant!!
Whatever
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:22:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hi Glint, how are you?! Missed you guys. Anyway, the only limey we met was this Indian guy who was the only person who smoked us up the whole trip. Oh, plus, in a lot of the restaurants and shops in the towns, the "bathroom" was acutally a hole in the floor, kind of like a glorified indoor outhouse. And me wearing overalls. Pheh!!
Whatever
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:14:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Cinque Terre is these five little towns halfway up the Mediterranean coast in Italy. It was surprising, how many tourists in general, but especially how many Americans, there were. Anyway, the whole point is to hike through all four towns, enjoy the scenery and nature, and eat a nice lunch when you hit a town. There's 4 trails, obviously. The first two are 90 minutes, the 3rd is 45, and the last is 20. So, we took a train into the first town, Manarola I believe, and hiked to the next, can't remember the name right now, I think it started with a V. Anyway, mind you, this place is surrounded by mountains. Not hills, mountains, and the 1st 45 minutes of the hike is straight uphill. I thought I was going to DIE!! I'm a flat ground kind of girl. But, I made it, and we got to the next town. The propreitor of the restaurant at which we had lunch was this cute old man who made his own wine. White wine, tasted like chardonnay, but so velvety smooth. So, we climbed up to this castle, and had a little siesta. The castle is at the top of the town, overlooking the sea and mountains. From there, you could see the next trail, which was pretty much 3/4 up this huge mountain. We passed on that trail, thankfully, because my legs would have given out.
Whatever
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:12:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Coppertone!!! Is it REALLY you?! Sound like an exciting trip you've had. Tell us about it; did you guys keep the crapper door locked this time to keep out the Limeys? I'm on a trip too. Just got back from Beatrice, Seward and Grand Island. Relaxing in Lincoln now.
Glint
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:07:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: What are you talking about, 05:39? Embarkation of whom? What's this about the appearance of a new cluster of pasty moons over Europe while GW was visiting?
Glint
Lincoln, NE - Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:03:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hi guys, it's been a while, has it not? I just came back from this trip and stuff. We went to Paris, Le Cote d'Azur (Nice, Cannes, Monaco,) Cinque Terre and Pisa (in Italy,) drove up to Mont Blanc in Switzerland, and went to Geneva, and then Annecy (in France again.) Supposedly, the Swiss and French consider Annecy "the Venice of France," because Lake Annecy is the cleanest lake in Europe (you can see to the bottom,) and there are all these riverways where the water flows to be cleaned. Very lovely. My favorite was Cannes. I returned late last week. Anyway, I wanted to give y'all a shout out, to let you know I'm not dead and I miss you guys. I suppose everyone's none too happy about how Da Boyz lost control of the Senate. You hear about Dershowitz writing this book, accusing the Supreme Court of usurping the election for their own personal and political gain? Go to today.msnbc.com to read the excerpt.
Whatever
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:03:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hous, House, House. Take a nap, dude.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 09:11:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm not so sure, House of Meat, about the way Glint handled Jeremiah. As I remember it, when the vacation drew near and the invitations multiplied, the way he handled it was to ignore it in his posting and then disappear off the board about two weeks before the embarkation date. With the late lamented Pete, he showed more politesse. He knew that there would be no chance of a physical confrontation, say with Pete showing up at his door one night, wild-eyed and dripping pi�a colada snot and asking to borrow an eyepiece.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 05:39:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ha ha ha. It was a joke, if any Negroes happen to be lurking here. The bullets are actually in the guns, including the chambers, locked and loaded, ready to spout hot lead. If any of you bastards are thinking about breaking in here and grabbing my binoculars, the way you would if this were a television show. Any body who fucks with the rain gutters on THIS house is going to wake up with lead buttons on his vest, as the man said. Don't even think about it, you skank-dancing trash-rapping jive-shucking fig pluckers. I gots mine, right here in this holster, and another one strapped to the back of the bed-post.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 05:29:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: Greetings to the heartland, where even the 6-year-old tornado survivors are matter-of-fact. Wouldn't it be funny if they produced "Survivor III" in tornado country rather than in Kenya? How would they explain to the local folk that the show is about horrendous trials like eating bugs and facing everything nature can dish out? The 6-year-olds would say, "a television show about last Thursday?" That's not indigestion you feel in your gut, Glint, from the slightly rancid marshmallow Jell-O in the salad. That's the worm of Liberalism eating the final crusts of the Spanish Inquisition from the portals of your soul. Ye soon shall be free, ye soon the river shall cross. We stand waiting on the other side.
Glimpse Faintly
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 05:08:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yet MK has an influence, his octopus logic snakes out and grips a man's soul. Today I touched up final assembly on the truck after re-intalling the head and front cover, and I rubbed boiled linseed oil on the shovel handle, and I sprayed a wedge with John Deere yellow so it wouldn't get lost in the woods-- all examples of MKvian self-sufficiency. I was a single point of light, because I gave a dollar to a thirsty bum in front of the liquor store, not even nannying him by telling to spend it on his fetus, or making him kneel down and pray first. I bought an oak table with four chairs that was sitting on a driveway, and I jewed the woman down from $30 to $25 by threatening not to take the chairs, so I participated in an unregulated marketplace with Gatesian alacrity. I hosed off my government-provided wetsuit, thereby following two MKvian principles: first, the water here is unmetered and therefore unregulated, so I used a lot of it even though the SWP farmers down south are laboring under a 35% water allocation. Second, I'm not even going to put it on my time-card, since I'm happy enough to even HAVE a government wetsuit and a job that lets me go for I swim on a hot day; this will reduce the crushing load on the taxpayer and leave me a little more time to screw some yokel out of his property rights on behalf of the larger community. Finally, I accomplished all this in the cocoon of safety that only firepower can ensure. Although I didn't pack any weapons, even went to the liquor store without a pistol strapped to my ass, the guns were where I could get them if the Peruvians had invaded. And the bullets are somewhere around here, I'm quite sure.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 04:57:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: Now, whether there is a right or a wrong to it, MK, do you think that your Wisconsin student would find it so profitable to undercut the local taxi system if everybody else was already undercutting the local taxi system? And again there is that impossible requirement to install a meter. Why a meter, MK? Oh, that's right, you're not a taxi rider, but come by your knowledge through reading and reasoning. Quick, MK, what's the difference between the taxis in Waco and the Taxis in over-regulated New York City?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 04:37:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, these tales are astounding! You don't mean the taxi companies have political influence!? Who would have suspected such a thing? Maybe it would be easier for the ambitious and cash-strapped to set up a still and make a little 'shine? Or buy some insider info from one of those guys with a booth in front of the race-track and bet a long shot, then parlay the winnings into a fortune by taking expensive cab rides and getting insider information from the cabbies and trading in Yellow Cab stocks? MK, did it ever occur to you that somebody who has had the advantage of learning how to spell, and who at great expense has matriculated in all the world's schools of taxi-riding might not be the class-envious crybaby you theorize? What class would there be to envy? The class of Waco packaging-plant moonlighters? Gates didn't make it by insider trading, young dork, he made it by selling operating system suitable for the IBM PC, getting on the elevator at the bottom, and then by selling a shitty imitation GUI once he had the market by the balls, and by a singularly vicious business style. Insider trading is where you know something is going to happen, for example that the CEO is moving to Turks and Caicos with the company safe in his yacht, or that Tyson is going to take a dive in the third, or that a jockey has a furuncle on his rectum, and play the other investors like a Waco sunday-school class. Sure, the Sunday-school kids are free to buy their own prize-fighter, but it's still illegal. It is not illegal to stand in front of a race-track selling a mimeographed handicap sheet, and it's not illegal for Glint's client to gather information and handicap stocks. It's not insider trading, either, just another way to advance the science of gambling.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 04:23:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Picture yourself as an ambitious but cash-strapped student at the University of Wisconsin. You have a job to help make ends meet, but you also have an entrepreneurial bent. The bartender is worried about customers who have had a little too much to drink. He wishes he could provide a cheap, safe, & reliable transportation service for these patrons. You make a deal. You will provide a taxi service for the less responsible drinkers. You estimate, using your car & a cell phone, you can charge $5 per local & $10 per trip outside the neighborhood. Trips outside the city would cost more, but you want to handle that on a case-by-case basis. This business would be impossible to start in the city of Madison . Local regulations would stifle your business: (1.) A 24-hour service requirement means your business has to run all day, 7 days a week. Part-time operators need not apply. (2.) The graduated flat fee could violate the city�s code that all fares must be set by a trip meter or zone. (3.) The city�s public-hearing requirement subjects your business to a political approval process through the �Transit & Parking Commission�. Existing operators can object to the new cab company, & even argue against issuing a license based on its potential impact on their bottom line. As a new operator, you need to prove that your fledgling enterprise will exist for �public convenience & necessity.� (4.) The business is required by law to serve the entire city�not just the market niche you have identified.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 03:45:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good evening, Pete from the CDT zone. MK was right on the money when he said, "The end result of insider trading is that the common investor will call upon the services of the insider." My former client's business depended on collecting and selling this very information to the common and some uncommon investors, media sources, stock brokers, &c. <> Family reunion went well. Had breakfast this morning with my cousin's daughter, a 9 year old tornado survivor whose house was ripped apart 3 years ago in OKC. She was very matter of fact about it and had some interesting insights from a 6-year-old victim's perspective.
Glint
Lincoln, NE - Monday, June 18, 2001 at 00:58:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Next time I'm in a fistfight with MK, remind me to bring the brass knuckles and a tranquilizer gun, out of respect for his sense of fairness. I love the Bill Gates analogy. This kid is a real pip.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 00:57:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK I'll give you one thing. You are about as resourceful as the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Problem is the outside world is not. This coming from a true blue alive and well anti-socialist.
Pete�
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 00:36:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Makes one appreciate Karl Rove and his Intel stock.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 00:22:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Makes one appreciate Karl Rove and his Intel stock.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 18, 2001 at 00:21:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: With that logic Meat House, when Bill Gates becomes successful, people lose money. I better not be wealthy...since there is just so much wealth to go around. You are just a class-envious crybaby. The end result of insider trading is that the common investor will call upon the services of the insider...just as gossip columnists call upon friends of the rich and famous...or a gamblers call upon successful bookie who knows the horse races. --- "Have you ever ridden in a New York taxi, MK?" No. Did you have to touch the red coil in an oven to realize that it is hot? "How about a Belem taxi, or a Rio taxi, or a Port-au-Prince taxi, or a Yammousoukro [sp] taxi, or a Cairo taxi, or an Istanbul taxi, or a Madrid taxi, or maybe a Korhogo taxi? How about a London taxi, MK, have you ever ridden in one of those?" No. "Have you ever ridden in ANY taxi, MK?" Yes. "Do they have taxis in Waco?" Yes...and due to a lack of competition (thanks to regulation) they are very expensive. How comes it that you know so much about the taxi passenger as king? How comes it that you know about the taxi passenger as victim?" I learned it through reading and reasoning. "Do you listen to Letterman jokes about taxi-drivers, is that how you know?" No. I think his jokes are fairly lame. "Did you know that the taxi in which the customer is king is the London taxi, and the driver can't get behind the wheel until he has memorized every street in London, talk about rules, which is like having to learn all the assembly language in every operating system would be before you could man the help desk, to bring it down to your level? Did you know that the common denominator of taxi riding outside of London is that you are the intended victim of fraud?" I am not familiar with the London taxi service. I didn't say that the US taxi service in the most regulated...only that it is too regulated.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 23:40:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Depends on what you call all that bad, I guess. Those days were bad in that they were pathetic, full of false bravado. Which, if one was lurking (one was,) was singularly amusing. Pete, in his best Pete manner, tried the old reverse psychology gambit, claiming victory, accusing his betters of cowardice and shame. A five year-old might have taken the bait. Doesn't much matter anymore, what with Pete dead and all.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 22:12:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't know, anonymous, I was here for some of it and it looked fairly gratifying from the outside. It was sort of like a background or backdrop of the quest for the best Sharper Image teloscopy product, with Glint slowly weaning Pete away from Sharper Image toward actual astronomy-related sources, and against this background there were sporadic yelps of victory-- much shaking of spears and recounting of the shortcomings of fallen enemies or enemies who had theoretically slunk off to die slowly from the pain of the election and subsequent appointment of George Bush to a caretaker presidency. When you come to think of it, Glint is a really sweet guy, who saves his bitter barbs for those most equipped to laugh them off. Look at the way he handled Jeremiah, when the hillbilly invited him to drop by the gunshed on his vacation, or the way he deals with Pete's pitiful astronomical bumblings. I think Glint would make a pretty good grade-school teacher, if he wasn't so intent on collecting hard goods. In addition to being gentle with the kids, he is in many ways a kid himself, and can dip down and play the kid games with enthusiasm, and focus himself on childish issues, desires, and fears, feeling them from the inside. Sure the masturbation days weren't all that intellectually stimulating, but as an anthropological event they were not all that bad.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 21:09:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: I am a slow typist, but adept at cutting and pasting my own earlier writings.
Dr. Milton T. Eisentower, PhD.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 20:57:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: The end result of insider trading is that only insiders will then trade. Soon it will develop into a scenario of who's more inside than the other insiders, at which point the outsider insiders will pack it in with nothing in their pockets. Eventually someone will be King of the Insider Mountain, all alone with nobody to trade with or against. Kind of like the late Pete back when he "won" this site through twat spreading and cunt-calling and was free to mutually masturbate with the brains of the operation, Glint. Those were surely the lamest glory days on record.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 20:53:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Check, Rube. They sure broke the mold after they made that guy. Either that or he's one of God's little practical jokes. You never know in this universe.
Hadley Roff
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 20:52:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: You've got to admit, the kid has a sort of weird, zoned-out confidence. How can a person who has never gotten anything in life but one punch in the nose after another be so eerily confident that he knows which end is up? It's fucking bizarre-- the guy will cut and paste reams about any topic you can think of, dreamily believing that he understands it inside and out, all as a function of four or five simple-minded official libertarian principles that he doesn't quite grasp. Kind of makes you just stand in awe of the kid. They don't make many like M.K.
Rube Waddell
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 20:50:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Have you ever ridden in a New York taxi, MK? How about a Belem taxi, or a Rio taxi, or a Port-au-Prince taxi, or a Yammousoukro taxi, or a Cairo taxi, or an Istanbul taxi, or a Madrid taxi, or maybe a Korhogo taxi? How about a London taxi, MK, have you ever ridden in one of those? Have you ever ridden in ANY taxi, MK? Do they have taxis in Waco? How comes it that you know so much about the taxi passenger as king? How comes it that you know about the taxi passenger as victim? Do you listen to Letterman jokes about taxi-drivers, is that how you know? Did you know that the taxi in which the customer is king is the London taxi, and the driver can't get behind the wheel until he has memorized every street in London, talk about rules, which is like having to learn all the assembly language in every operating system would be before you could man the help desk, to bring it down to your level? Did you know that the common denominator of taxi riding outside of London is that you are the intended victim of fraud? Yo, MK, if you ever find yourself in a taxi, start screaming the minute you hop in-- it's your only hope. They are going to skin you like a codfish and nail you to an alder plank and roast you in front of the coals. Repeat after me, MK: "turn on the meter." That's right, just scream "turn on the meter," over and over again all the way into town, and the driver will respect you, and give you good value. Good transportation value. Nothing to be sneered at, M.K. Remember: "turn on the meter, goddamit." You can't lose.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 20:44:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, I see there below you profess to not be able to identify anyone who could be harmed by "insider trading." I'm wracking my brain to figure it out myself, applying a modest bulk of gray matter that dwarfs that little pus-pimple inside your head..... unnh, ooooogh, aaaagh! I'm thinking, MK, I'm thinking hard..... aaaagh, ooooogh, unnhgh, uunhgh, it's coming, it's coming!....... Bingo! I figured it out! It seems so simple, in the end! Why, the person whose profits might go "down" when insider trading goes "up" is, you guessed it, the outsider trader! Don't give it no nevermind, though, M.K., the only thing the outside trader stands to lose if the inside trader makes a lot of money is the money. Who needs money? Not an outside trader. (I'll give you a clue to how you can trace this all out for yourself: when someone (say and insider trader) makes money on the stock market, somebody else loses money (the outsider trader). That's why insider trading is fraud, M.K., because it defrauds the outsider trader. Are you starting to figure this out? Take it slow and easy. Go back to the basics and think them through carefully. It will come to you, never fear. Take a milk-and-cookie break every now and then, and it will all go a little easier.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 20:24:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Some whites were well aware that as long as the marketplace ecosystem was free from aggression, blacks, immigrants, and other minorities would have the opportunity to better themselves. Therefore, they clamored - successfully - for us to condone the aggression of licensing laws to destroy the small minority businesses. Licensing laws instructed the government enforcement agents to stop, at gunpoint, if necessary, individuals from providing a service to a willing customer unless they have permission from a licensing board. By requiring high licensing fees, written examinations for manual occupations, and excessive schooling or apprenticeships, licensing boards were able to exclude blacks and other disadvantaged minorities. Blacks were almost entirely forced from the trades, even the specialties in which they had been well represented. U.S. citizenship was frequently required to exclude new immigrants as well. While minimum wage laws prevented the disadvantaged from getting that first job, licensing laws prevented them from starting their own businesses. Prevented from being an employer or an employee, disadvantaged individuals frequently found themselves unable to legally create wealth for themselves and their loved ones. In New York City, for example, would-be taxi drivers must purchase a "medallion," or license, before they can legally carry customers. The number of medallions is limited and has not been increased since 1937. A new driver must purchase a medallion from someone who is retiring. In 1986, these medallions were selling for more than $100,000. Many people who have a car and would be capable of creating wealth for themselves and their loved ones are forbidden, by law, to do so, because they can't afford the medallion. Those who are prosperous enough to purchase one must charge their customers more to make up for the extra expense. Thus, the first requirement for a successful cab driver in New York City is not pleasing the customer. Having money or the ability to borrow it is more important. Customers are no longer king.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 16:31:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Many Southern landowners didn't want to have anything to do with the newly freed blacks. However, wealth creation on their plantations was much more profitable with hired hands than without them. Blacks offered to work for less than whites would, making plantation owners choose between their prejudice and their pocketbook. Many chose to hire blacks to maximize their creation of wealth. At first, the landowners tried to collude to pay the blacks as little as possible. Even though such action was perfectly legal, the marketplace ecosystem foiled such plans with its self-regulating magic. A few landowners soon found that if they paid the best workers a little bit more than everyone else did, they had their pick of the skilled blacks. Experienced workers created more wealth for the plantation than unskilled ones, so profits increased. Landowners who paid low wages were alarmed to see their best workers leaving to work for these more enlightened employers. They either offered higher wages or found themselves without help. Even whites with deep prejudices found themselves persuaded by their pocketbook to treat their black hired hands better than they wanted to. Exploitation of newly emancipated slaves was limited by the employers' own greed. They were still able to discriminate (and many still did) but they paid dearly for it. By allowing them to reap as they sowed, the marketplace ecosystem taught them the hazards of exploitation and discrimination. Blacks dissatisfied with working for landowners had other options as well. They migrated to Northern factories, opened their own shops, or simply offered their skills to the community as plumbers, electricians, etc. The marketplace ecosystem protected blacks from exploitation by the variety of niches (jobs) through which they could create wealth. As blacks began to gain respect and affluence, however, these avenues for creating wealth were closed to them by our well-meaning aggression.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 16:29:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Long ago, immigrants were at a disadvantage in the marketplace ecosystem. Their customs were different. They were unskilled & could produce little wealth. Employers had little incentive to hire them. The immigrants decided to change that. They created a niche in the marketplace by offering prospective employers a greater share of the jointly created wealth. By helping their employer, they also helped themselves. Instead of paying for expensive schooling to learn new skills, they got on-the-job training by accepting lower wages than the experienced, American-born workers. Once they learned the language, trade, and customs, they could create much more wealth than before. Their employers either gave the immigrants a greater share of the jointly created wealth, or they took their experience and moved on. Sometimes they opened their own shop; sometimes they went to an employer with greater appreciation for their newfound expertise. Some eventually became quite wealthy. In offering to serve their first employers well, they ultimately served themselves. Unenlightened employers who don't reward their workers for increased productivity lose them to employers who do. Employers who choose employees on the basis of color or sex or anything other than ability to create wealth find that their shop creates less wealth than it could. Less wealth means less profit for the employer and employee to share. Lower profits provide the employers with negative feedback. Discrimination on any basis other than productivity is costly. Employers reap as they sow.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 16:25:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: No society has ever been fully libertarian. However, some countries have been remarkably free in some aspects, but not others. Hong Kong, for example, prospered as a free trade zone. Scottish banks in the 1800s had free banking which protected its depositors while neighboring English banks went under. Switzerland has a part-time national government and few, if any, entangling alliances. Their currency is still backed by gold, so their inflation rate is low. New Zealand has undergone extensive deregulation in the past decade, turning its economy completely around.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 16:17:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: G'day.
Pete�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 16:14:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh yes they are. Something tells me that the ideas are the ends (much like the socialsits here) but you carve up any avenue of distortion possible to get to that end. Like socialism free reign by individuals is shortsighted failed policies. In truth socialism is closer to a more rational approach to civilization than your proposal for what amounts to chaos and anarchy. In the spectrum democracy based on the free choice of competing political ideas on reasonable governance is as close to a free state that man can have and expect to live in a civilization. What you propose is not civilization but anarchy. This can be worse than socialism but it is what socialsits fear worse. Sorry but some more education on political philosophy appears in order (excuse the pun).
Pete�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 16:12:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: The alternatives to Democracy aren't tyranny and/or minority rule. It is individual freedom...self-rule. People should be free to do as they please as long as they don't interfere with the freedoms of others. Libertarianism is based on mutual consent and respect for the person. It is also based on responsibility. If someone were to wrong another (through force or fraud) then the guilty one must fully compensate the person that he wronged...not some distant, unaffected, 3rd party.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 16:08:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Explain to me how true freedom can exist without Democracy. The alternatives are tyranny and/or minority rule. Much more oppressive on one's "free will." Anyway teamwork requires rules which impinges free will. One must operate under reasonable rules. There is no such thing as human nature which will accept total unfettered free will. Sounds nice. Will not ever work. Never has on any scale. Rules exist in every culture for a reason.
Pete�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 15:59:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Republican/Democratic way: We could proceed would be to vote for a tax to purchase and maintain the park. If a large enough gang of our neighbors voted for it, George's hard-earned dollars would be used for a park he didn't want and wouldn't use. If he refused to pay what our gang dictated, law enforcement agents, acting on behalf of the winning voters, would extract the tax, at gunpoint, if necessary.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 15:55:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Here is an example of teamwork in a Libertarian model and in a Republican/Democratic model: Libertarian: If we decided we wanted a new park, we could call other individuals who want the same thing & could raise enough money to own and operate the park through donations, by selling stock in a corporation set up for that purpose, or through other voluntary means. If those who did not participate in the fundraising effort decide later to use the park, we might require them to pay an entry fee. Obviously, we would be relating voluntarily and non-aggressively with our neighbors. If George didn't want to be involved as either a contributor or a park visitor, we would honor his choice.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 15:54:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: The key word is "everyone". People often confuse freedom with democracy. Imagine a place in which people voted on whom its citizens are to marry. That place would certainly have democratic process...at least where marriage is concerned. Yet, is that an example of freedom?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 15:51:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Call me obdurate if you will, but isn't this a prelude to MK and ilk resigning from the human race? Considering no one asked their permission to join.
Plinth
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 15:45:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: I see, so it works like a check on one's free will. This joining the group business? How does that differ from the social compact that all citizens imply under our own Constitution?
Pete�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 15:37:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Uh...yeah...like, "Duh". If you want to be a member of a team, you read its rule book, discuss (with the team leader if one exists) what your position would be on the team, and decide whether or not to join.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 15:32:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh. So this teamwork requires rules?
Pete�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 15:24:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Libertarians believe also in teamwork...as long as each and every individual agrees to me a member of the team.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 14:25:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: It isn't too difficult to reply to your examples. Slander, libel, and perjury, fall under the category of fraud. --- What, then, is "wrong" with insider trading? What is wrong with "the use of confidential information to make a profit on the stock market" (my dictionary definition of insider trading)? Is it the idea of confidentiality that is frowned upon, or perhaps the idea of profits? Both, I would hazard. The very mention of the words "insider trading" or "insider dealers" conjures up images of super-rich speculators and tycoons huddled in cliques, trading dark secrets and reaping immense fortunes. Of course there must be some truth in this. Unfortunately, however, hostility towards insider dealing merges in practice with hatred of capitalism itself in the belief that "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Of course this is not how free enterprise works. Nor, I think, is it how insider trading works. If a stockbroker learns of an imminent take-over bid and uses this confidential information to make a profit on the stock market, clearly he has become richer for it. But even if the insider dealer acts purely for personal gain, it is hard to see who, if anyone, has become the poorer. On the contrary, if he is a good stockbroker, it is quite easy to see others who have benefited, such as the stockbroker's clients. Consider if I were to become a brilliantly successful insider trading stockbroker tomorrow - wouldn't you want to put your money with me? How long would it be before I started to attract the custom of my "law abiding" but less successful contemporaries and win a bigger and bigger share of the market? And wouldn't all my clients, rich and poor, knowledgeable or otherwise, receive the benefit of my access to inside information?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 14:21:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wow. You are a good and fast typist. Where to start. Here is one reply to your "fire" example: Shouting "fire" in a theatre is only a problem if there *is no fire*. If there *is* a fire, it's a duty! Falsely shouting fire is therefore best understood as an act of fraud, and it is on that basis, and that basis alone that it should be prosecuted. I do indeed have a right to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. What would you do if you were the only one who realized the theater was on fire? If you yell "Fire!" inappropriately in a crowded theater, you might be charged with disturbing the peace and incitement to riot. How often does such a deadly riot occur? I can't remember one in my lifetime.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 14:16:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: Whoever is writing that stuff is slick. I wish someone would post some Ann Coulter to show him up.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 14:07:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: That's a fairly clear description of some of the ramifications of schoolyard libertarianism. I wonder if Dr. Eisentower is not favoring us with his elucubratory powers?
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 13:38:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now we're cooking with gas!
Harlan St. Wolf
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:21:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: According to this school of thought, democracy often violates the rights of the minority. For example, under democracy, the majority can vote to tax 90 percent of what the rich make, and the rich must surrender what they have rightfully earned. (There is a question of whether the rich have really earned all their income "rightfully" or through exploitation, but let this controversial point pass.) To correct this perceived injustice, they call for a constitution that better protects the freedom, rights and property of individuals. According to most constitutionalists, individuals have a right to keep everything they earn, a right to spend their money however they want, and a right to make contracts and associations of their own free will. No one can force them to do anything for anyone else; everything they do is by their own choice. The only exception to their freedom is that they cannot violate the rights of others. Libertarians have a popular saying: "The right to swing your fist stops at my nose." These are perfectly laudable goals, but constitutionalists are usually vague on how they can be reached, and often ignore direct questions about what such a system would look like. What few blueprints have been offered quickly reveal their unworkability. The problems constitutionalists face are these: It's one thing to say that individual rights should be protected; it's quite another to identify and judge the literally millions of instances where there is a question of rights violations. Society is filled with countless human transactions, each one different, each one changing in the face of new technology, science or social mores. And each one offers a new way for a right to be violated. This is why the Supreme Court has such a heavy workload, and why they grapple with problems of almost unsolvable complexity. This is also why Congress is so busy passing laws; they are protecting individual rights under changing and extensive circumstances. The constitution is only meant to state general principles of governing; it is up to Congress and the courts to apply those principles in the seemingly infinite number of specific cases where individual rights can or are violated. Which begs the question: who legislates the laws and judges the cases? A majority? A minority? Or an individual? Individual rights are difficult to define and protect because they are not absolute. A classic example is the right to free speech vs. the right not to be harmed by free speech. Contrary to what the First Amendment says, many forms of speech are outlawed in this country, and rightfully so. Examples include slander, libel, perjury, insider-trading, malicious deceptions, impersonating an officer, revealing classified information, shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater, making bomb jokes in an airport, etc. Clearly many qualifications exist to the right to free speech, but who should make the judgment calls in determining these countless qualifications? A majority? A minority? Or an individual? Constitutionalists severely underestimate the complexity of defining and defending individual rights. Few people agree on what a "right" is, let alone how it can be violated in any specific case, let alone how it should be defended. The diversity of opinion on the subject points up the value of democracy in resolving these issues. Constitutionalists may try to get around this by calling for scholars to work out a blueprint of a rights-based government using the strictest rules of logic and the best empirical evidence. But our nation's scholars are already trying to do that, and still there is a broad diversity of opinion spanning the entire political spectrum. In fact, even within the Libertarian Party there is conflict among its scholars over the definition and defense of rights, and one would presume that they -- of all people -- would have a consensus by now. The fact that not even Libertarians agree among themselves clearly proves the byzantine complexity of defining and defending rights. The upshot is that until humans acquire perfect knowledge and perfect logic -- thereby reaching unanimous agreement -- there is no hope of knowing how a constitution should be written to achieve a utopia of perfect individual rights. Lacking this omniscience, the people do best by determining their laws and constitutions by majority rule. Some constitutionalists go too far in the other direction: they try to escape any analysis of rights at all. To these constitutionalists, rights are natural, self-evident and God-given; they are received truths, handed down from the Founders of the Republic like Moses from the Mount. Typically, the Founders are treated as secular saints, with a wisdom more than human, and to question their revelations is to question sacred dogma. It is not difficult to imagine how such true believers would handle the question of rights when and if they could ever come to power. Just as their interpretation of rights depends on a dogmatic, authoritarian source, so would their law-giver and law-defender be a dogmatic, authoritarian source. It could not be otherwise. (Try imagining so!) The bottom line is that constitutionalism is too utopian, and simplistically utopian at that. As citizens, we cannot be asked to try a system that its adherents cannot even describe.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:18:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Jefferson's arguments on majority rule are brilliant and virtually unanswerable; it is difficult to imagine alternatives to the system he described. The following quotes highlight his philosophy on democracy: "And where else will [Hume,] this degenerate son of science, this traitor to his fellow men, find the origin of just powers, if not in the majority of the society? Will it be in the minority? Or in an individual of that minority?" -- Thomas Jefferson to J. Cartwright, 1824. "Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends; the law of the strongest takes its place, and life and property are his who can take them." -- Thomas Jefferson to Annapolis Citizens, 1809. "Is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face and stature." -- Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Va., 1782. "Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children since the introduction of Christianity have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity." -- Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Va., 1782. "Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth; and I am sure...we both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our Constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to ourselves." -- Thomas Jefferson to Mr. Wendover, 1815. "Every man cannot have his way in all things. If his opinion prevails at some times, he should acquiesce on seeing that of others preponderate at other times. Without this mutual disposition we are disjointed individuals, but not a society." -- Thomas Jefferson to J. Dickinson, 1801. "We are sensible of the duty and expediency of submitting our opinions to the will of the majority, and can wait with patience till they get right if they happen to be at any time wrong." -- Thomas Jefferson to J. Breckenridge, 1800. "If the measures which have been pursued are approved by the majority, it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and conform." -- Thomas Jefferson to W. Duane, 1811. "Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression." -- Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801. Jefferson's philosophy was that majority rule is not perfect, but it is the only form of government that reduces tyranny to the smallest degree possible. And, indeed, it is difficult to imagine alternatives which would be improvements. Not only does majority rule ensure that the least number of people are going to be dissatisfied, but the constitution further protects the rights of the minority, telling the majority what it cannot do to tyrannize the minority. Even so, our constitution is not drawn up by dictators, or small bands of dictators. It is ultimately approved by the majority of the people, through their elected representatives. All forms of our government ultimately boil down to majority rule. Even so, some utopians claim it is possible to create a political system of perfect individual rights, where even the will of the minority is respected and enacted. These utopians usually call for individual rights to be protected by a much stronger constitution, and are therefore called constitutionalists.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:17:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Teamwork is superior to isolated effort or hermitism. This is true in two ways. First, a single player can never hope to defeat an entire basketball team, all other things being equal. Second, a mass of uncoordinated, untrained individuals can never hope to defeat an organized, coordinated and specialized team. A basketball team that refuses to pass the ball to each other, call out shots to each other or receive instructions from their coach will never beat a team that does, all other things being equal. These two points are true of society as well. As Peter Drucker brilliantly points out in Post-Capitalist Society, true hermits are an exceedingly rare occurrence in the world; we all heavily depend on each other for survival. Even such recluse authors and rugged individualists as Ralph Waldo Emerson (who wrote "nothing can bring you peace but yourself" in his essay Self-Reliance) nevertheless depended on the publishing house and national sales to make him world famous and support his lifestyle. The advantages of specialization and coordination is why modern armies have branched into specialized combat roles, and why they equip their troops with radio communication. It is why modern economies train their workers in job specialties, and why they depend so heavily on telecommunications. The resulting efficiency is much greater than masses of unorganized individuals. Imagine a world where you had to grow your own food, sew your own clothes, build your own house, design your own car, engineer your own computer, write your own software, repair your own microwave. You would be significantly poorer than you are today, and in fact a death risk at the first serious injury or disease. Specialization has resulted in a richer lifestyle for us all, but it is important to note that generalization has its good points too. Generalization allows a person to see how different jobs affect each other, how they should interact, and how innovations in one field can be applied to another. It allows one specialist to cover for a different specialist when the latter calls in sick for work. Therefore, specialization will never completely eliminate the need to generalize to some degree. Ideally, there should be a healthy tension between the two. In almost all teams, the greatest generalists are the coaches and managers, who receive information from various parts of the team and use it to formulate strategy.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:15:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Imagine, for a moment, a society where there is no law and no government. Pure anarchy has resulted in a land where each individual looks out only for himself, and it's kill or be killed. Nothing stops murder rape, and theft; only the strongest survive. Blessedly, such a society is impossible to sustain. Once the weakest members of society realize that they are on the losing end of the battle, they will make alliances, because groups are stronger than individuals. These groups will somehow select leaders who organize the group according to a strategy, which everyone cooperates to carry out. Competition in the group to rise to positions of leadership exists, of course, but at greatly reduced levels. That's because if Social Darwinism existed within the group to the extent that it existed outside the group, then its members would see an equivalent amount of bloodshed, and no advantage in joining the group in the first place. The difficulty of sustaining a purely anarchic society can be seen another way. Suppose that a peaceful anarchic society could somehow be established, where each family defended its own house with its own guns - and no more. That is, every family was freed from the obligation of national or regional defense. In that case, a small army of 100 professional mercenaries could go marauding, pillaging and plundering across the entire nation, living the good life, confident that they could overwhelm any single family, and that no organized resistance or law enforcement would stop them. In fact, most families' survival instincts would cause them not to defend their homes to the death before such a clearly superior force, but to flee as refugees to other regions, as they usually do in war. The way to meet this threat? Organize. This principle could be clearly seen in Somalia after the collapse of its government, which introduced an era of complete lawlessness and famine. The anarchy did not last long; war lords soon arose, and the Somalis organized themselves under their tribal leadership. What this means is that any call for a society of pure, 100 percent individualism is unrealistic, and its implementation absolutely impossible.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:14:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Perhaps one of the most important observations about organization was made by E.H. Carr, the famed British historian. Carr compared the workability of anarchy to road systems at the beginning of the 20th century. Because there were so few cars driving these roads, there was little need for traffic rules. On the rare occasion that you met another driver at an intersection, you could afford to tip your hat with a smile and give the other driver the right of way. But as the number of cars increased on the roads, this sort of anarchy became less and less functional. Eventually the need grew for more traffic rules, traffic signs, traffic lights, traffic cops, driver's training, driver's licensing, road planning, safety commissions -- all carried out, of course, by government. All this may be unfortunate, and may cause many older drivers to hearken back to a simpler, gentler time. But without these traffic signs and laws, the roads would be in chaos, and traffic fatalities would soar. The same observation applies to any group, society or economy. In the 18th century, national defense was so simple that men could keep their rifles at home and join the militia at a moment's notice. Today, no one in their right mind advocates such a system of national defense. Military organizations have become larger, more advanced, interdependent and complex, giving us the nuclear missiles, tank divisions and battleships that make a nation truly formidable. And it takes an organization like the government to oversee this advanced effort. Likewise, the economy was much simpler in the 18th century. Today it has grown larger, faster, more complex and interdependent. And, like the road system that becomes more heavily used, the economy needs more government regulation and planning to keep things smoothly functioning. This does not mean that the government tells businessmen exactly what to do, just as it does not tell drivers exactly where to drive. It just means that government organizes the infrastructure and the limits upon which this free activity takes place. An example of this is the New York Stock Exchange. At the time of the American Revolution, Wall Street was such a minor part of the economy that the Founders paid almost no attention to it. But by 1934 it had become a major part of the economy. And rampant insider-trading, dishonest sales and stock manipulation had rendered the entire stock market largely untrustworthy. Roosevelt therefore created the Securities and Exchange Commission, which ensures the full and honest disclosure of all pertinent information on stock sales, and counters other crimes like insider trading.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:14:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Modern welfare programs are an excellent example of reciprocal altruism. Designed to help those who are temporarily or permanently down on their luck, they do not call for a one-on-one exchange between the giver and the recipient. Nor do they require recipients to repay exactly those individuals who helped them out. It is a general, indeterminate practice that keeps society and the economy running as smoothly as possible, preventing unnecessary disruptions caused by the premature deaths of its individual members. Examples of reciprocal altruism in the private sector include charity and insurance. Unfortunately, altruism tends to be horizontal, not vertical. That is, you are far more likely to help a member of your own class than someone in a higher or lower class, and you will feel more resentment towards them if you do. In fact, the greater the gap between classes, the greater the resentment. During the 80s, as the rich grew richer, the average hourly worker's wage fell from $7.78 to $7.41 in real dollars. (1) As this inequality grew, the rich slashed their contributions to charity by 65 percent between 1980 and 1988. (2) They also lobbied Congress for reductions in welfare, which reduced individual family AFDC payments from $350 to 261 per month in real dollars between 1980 and 1993. (3) To compensate for all this disappearing income, both earned and altruistic, the poor increased their charitable donations 62 percent, which actually resulted in a total rise in charity collections. (2) However, it wasn't enough to compensate for everything lost. Meanwhile, the hostility of the rich towards helping the poor sharply increased; Reagan demonized welfare recipients as "welfare queens" driving "welfare Cadillacs." Yet the rich increased their altruism among themselves. This partially took the form of charitable donations to wealthy organizations like art galleries, symphonies, dance troupes, etc. Other forms included lobbying, political favors, business favors, free meals, cronyism, insider trading, market collaboration, price gouging, etc., all of which reached record levels in the 80s. It may seem obvious, but reducing class inequality would reduce class warfare and class resentment -- in both directions. There is another implication to this fact as well. If the rich are doing less to help out the poor, then the poor have less ability to help themselves. Clearly, they do not have the resources that the rich have to tide each other over during the rough times. Which means that if the poor try to restore the missing altruism of the rich by recreating it themselves, they see even less of their paychecks than under ordinary circumstances, which deepens their overall poverty. In other words, the costs of deeper poverty are still there, they are just shared by more members of the lower class.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:13:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Bible does not so much explain where altruism came from as it relates stories that establish it as a social norm. It also lists commandments that require the people to practice it. Genesis 2:18 tells of God deciding that it is not good for man to be alone; therefore he creates woman and describes her as his "helper." In Genesis 1:28, God tells Adam and Eve: "Be fruitful and multiply." (The ancient Jews would consider child-bearing the sacred obligation of every married couple.) Genesis 4:8-10 describes God cursing Cain for killing his brother. There is implicit disapproval of Cain's question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" In Exodus 22:25, God says: "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest." (In other words, the loans were to be repaid, but the other, intangible costs of the loan were to be absorbed by the lender.) In Leviticus 23:22, God says: "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your land or gather the gleanings [fallen fruit] of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and needy." In Leviticus 25:25, God says: "If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold." In Leviticus 25:35,37, God says: "If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you� You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit." In Deuteronomy 15:1, God orders Israel, "At the end of every seven years, you must cancel debts." (This is an especially remarkable example of altruism, one that essentially redistributed wealth from the rich to the poor.) In Deuteronomy 15:7-8, God says: "If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs." In Deuteronomy 15:11, God says: "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." In Deuteronomy 22:1,2, God says: "If you see your brother's ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to him. If the brother does not live near you or if you do not know who he is, take it home with you and keep it until he comes looking for it. Then give it back to him." In Deuteronomy 23:24,25, God says: "If you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket." However, the Old Testament had nothing on the New Testament when it came to altruism. It would be difficult to find any religion, legal code or philosophy anywhere in the world that took it to the extreme of early Christian Church: In Matthew 5:42, Jesus said, "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." In Matthew 6:2,3, Jesus said, "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do� when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." In Matthew 19:21, Jesus said, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." In Matthew 22:39, Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." In Matthew 7:12, Jesus said, "So in everything, do to others as you would have them do to you." In Luke 14:13,14, Jesus said, "But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." In Acts 2:44-45, the economy of the Early Christian Church was entirely communistic: "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need." Acts 4:32,34,35 elaborates on their communism: "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had� There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need." In 1 Timothy 6:17,18, Paul says, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share." In 2 Corinthians 8:13,14, Paul says, "Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality." In 2 Corinthians 9:6,7, Paul says, "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." Many conservatives love to quote 2 Thessalonians 3:10, which says, "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." However, it is entirely reasonable to assume that this excluded those that wanted to work but were prevented somehow, whether by illness, deformity, age (including the too young as well as the too old), or broader economic circumstance, like a depression. In fact, many of the above texts promote just such charity to the sick, the blind, the temporarily poor, etc. Why does Biblical law and evolutionary theory agree on this point? Evolutionists may claim that the writers of the Bible, being the product of natural selection themselves, simply articulated concepts of human nature that are found the world over. Some Christians who believe that God used evolution to create the world may claim that biologists have simply discovered the very genetic altruism that God created. Creationists, on the other hand, might explain the similarity of evolutionary theory as yet another scientific rationalization or re-interpretation of how humans were actually created.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:12:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: According to the theory of natural selection, it isn't individuals who are 100 percent selfish; it's their genes. The primary function of natural selection is the transmission of genetic information to the next generation. In other words, genetic information lives on indefinitely; their human carriers, only briefly. Parents who sacrifice to make sure their children are well-protected, nourished, and provided-for are going to see higher survival rates for those children. That increases the likelihood that the children themselves will survive long enough to breed. As a result, parental altruism is rewarded by greater reproductive success, and will become an enhanced trait over generations. Those that lack this trait will eventually drop from the gene pool. Interestingly, biologists have discovered that siblings also have such altruistic instincts towards their nephews and nieces. That's because your brother or sister shares at least half your genes, and their reproductive success is also your genetic success. Therefore, humans sacrifice not only for their nuclear family, but their extended family as well. This effect can also be seen quite clearly in other species. Worker bees, ants and wasps are sterile, but help the queen to reproduce, often at the expense of their lives. Since the queen is the mother of the hive, this is a perhaps our most extreme example of familial altruism. Family sacrifice is a very strong form of genetic altruism. Non-familial sacrifice is a weaker but still substantial form. For a time, many scientists were mystified as to how such a trait could get passed on. After all, individuals who freely give away their resources to other people are going to suffer lower survival rates. Logically, it would seem that these people would eventually disappear from the population. But there is in fact an excellent survival reason behind non-familial altruism. Call it reciprocal altruism. This is quite different from direct exchange, in which, for example, one person trades furs for another person's food. Reciprocal altruism means helping someone out who needs it, with the understanding that the favor may be returned at some distant, unspecified date in the future, whenever the altruist happens to need it. The return favor may not even come from the original recipient, but someone else entirely. It's just a general practice that promotes group survival. This trait was probably crucial in early hunting/gathering societies. Not even the best hunter could count on bringing home the largest prey day after day. Changing conditions and sheer luck in the fields would have resulted in considerable variation in the amount of food brought home. Thus, an excellent hunter/gatherer might bring home more food on average, but there was no guarantee of doing so every day. Reciprocal altruism would have smoothed over the uncertainty of finding food. A hunter that had a particularly good day might share it with his friends, knowing that the favor would be returned whenever he had a bad day. Others would take care of a sick friend, knowing that the favor would be returned anytime they grew sick. The survival of such a group would be enhanced, and its individual members would enjoy greater reproductive success. Critics might argue that such group behavior is impossible, or that it could never get started. But there is actually a good explanation: such altruism would maximize a group's numbers. There is strength in numbers, which is why group behavior exists in the first place. One way to maximize numbers is to have more children. But the land has only a certain carrying capacity, and populations that grow too large for their resources have typically practiced infanticide. The best survival strategy is to keep the population as large as possible within the land's carrying capacity. Now, in a tribe that does not practice altruism, a member that falls sick or wounded would die for lack of assistance. This would reduce the tribe's numbers, and make survival more difficult for everyone. Raising a child to replace the lost member is not a viable strategy, because it takes at least 5 to 10 years to raise a hunter/gatherer of even minimal skill. Therefore, it costs much less for the tribe to just help the sick person, and see his quick return to action. Helping one's fellow hunter survive through low times would directly and immediately increase each member's chances for survival, since it would keep the group's numbers, and the strength derived from those numbers, as high as possible. Humans are not the only specie that practices non-familial altruim; biologists know of many others as well. It is common for non-related animals in the same group to share food, help provide for another's young, defend others against predators, and give alarm calls when a predator appears. All these acts enhance the survival of the group, but it often reduces that of the altruist.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:11:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: You miss one important point. The individualist (i.e. Libertarian) doesn�t believe to doing anything to his neighbor (even theft and pollution) without his neighbor�s permission. It is referred to as mutual consent between and among each and every individual.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:11:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Many conservatives and libertarians believe that individuals are 100 percent self-interested. If they do anything for the common good, or participate in any type of group behavior, it is only because they ultimately have their own interest at heart. The only reason why individuals serve customers at work is because a paycheck eventually rewards their altruism. Even volunteer work and gifts to charity are for selfish reasons, they believe; such work often wins the praise, admiration and gratitude of others. Sometimes helping others involves nothing more than a sense of superiority, a feeling that "I can help you because I have more of this trait or resource than you." But are humans really pure individualists? The question is important, because many (though not all) conservatives and libertarians base their economic theories on such an assumption. In fact, there is powerful evidence that humans are not pure individualists. Romantic and sexual attraction, as well as paternal and maternal instincts, are genetically inherited traits that all work together to form that all-important social unit known as the family. And families are deeply altruistic; both mothers and fathers sacrifice unselfishly to ensure the welfare of their children. This sacrifice manifests itself in the following forms: The debilitating, sometimes fatal, diseases or complications of sex and pregnancy. The extra workload of supporting a child. Consuming a smaller personal share of available resources. The sacrifice of life and limb to protect the family. The surrender of independence and freedom in taking on parental responsibilities. If altruism can exist so powerfully in humans when it comes to family, is it possible in other areas as well, such as social relations? There are many examples of such altruism: Giving one's life for one's nation, church, community, ethnic group, etc. Charitable donations. Volunteer work. The natural desire to help someone who is struggling. Doing a friend a favor. Loaning money or items. (Although the loan is repaid, there is an additional cost in the inconvenience of the loan, and the lack of personal use of the item while it is loaned out. Interest was invented to compensate for this cost, but a vast number of informal loans do not charge interest.) Individualists might argue that the above examples produce emotional rewards within the individual, so individuals have selfish reasons to perform them. Though true, this does not detract from the fact that the act itself is for altruistic ends, not selfish ones. It still involves a material cost to the individual that is not repaid in any direct, immediate or apparent fashion. A person earning $30,000 a year can live a richer lifestyle by choosing to remain single instead of marrying, yet marries anyway. And in the case of sacrificing one's life to defend one's family, nation or ethnic group, there is obviously no hope of reward at all. So what explains unselfish behavior?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:10:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: In general, the right favors competition; the left, cooperation. The advantage of competition is that it drives humans to their maximum potential and maximum performance. The disadvantage of competition is that it can be destructive. The advantage of cooperation is that we are all stronger together than we are separately. The disadvantage of cooperation is that it diminishes incentive, since trying harder than the next person will not achieve anything. There is a complex interplay between competition and cooperation in human society (and, indeed, in all animal life). It is possible to engineer society to emphasize competition (by emphasizing the individual) or to emphasize cooperation (by emphasizing society). Finding the right mix requires an accurate understanding of the roots of competition and cooperation, as well as a knowledge of game theory (which is the science of competition and cooperation).
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:08:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: The debate between equality vs. merit is one of the oldest in our society. When merit is rewarded, competition becomes supreme, the fittest survive, and people get what they deserve. When rewards are given out equally, people become more pleasant and civilized to each other, but incentive falls, since trying harder doesn't get you anywhere. For classification purposes, there are three types of societies: egalitarian, moderated meritocracy, and unrestricted meritocracy. Socialism is the best example of an egalitarian society. When Marx wrote "From each according to his ability, and to each according to his needs," he was acknowledging that people are certainly born with different abilities, but they should be rewarded equally. Libertarianism is the closest example of an unrestricted meritocracy, where there are the fewest constraints on the fittest reaching the top. Unfortunately, we have no historical examples of such a government. Conservatism and liberalism are examples of moderated meritocracies. In a moderated meritocracy, the most successful continue to be rewarded the most, but a percentage of their power or income is redistributed back to the middle and lower class. Liberals, who lean more towards equality, believe the degree of redistribution should be rather high; conservatives, who lean more towards merit, believe that it should be rather low. In our economy, a progressive tax code achieves this effect, and liberals and conservatives argue over how steep its progressivity should be.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:07:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Democracy has been with us for thousands of years, but most of these experiments have ended badly. It was the rise of individual rights in the 18th century, as protected by the Constitution, that has distinguished the United States and made it such a successful democracy. (At least so far!) The Founding Fathers also knew that democracy only works if the voters are educated. But in the 18th century, the overwhelming majority of Americans were illiterate. So they created a representative democracy, or a republic, in which laws were voted upon not by the people, but their elected representatives. For this reason, the United States is technically not a pure democracy, but a constitutional republic -- a fact which conservatives are always quick to point out. Many of the Founders advocated a government where representative democracy, the constitution and the courts form a system of checks and balances. The entire rational behind such a triangular system is to prevent too much power from accumulating in any one segment of society. We all know the old adage: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Liberals acknowledge the value of all three corners of this system. If anything, they would argue that democracy could be strengthened, because mass education has largely wiped out illiteracy in America. Therefore, more direct forms of democracy are possible, like state or even national referendums. More radical liberals advocate replacing our representative democracy with a direct one -- but there is a real question of whether or not the people are that educated. Conservatives, on the other hand, argue that the constitution should be strengthened, and democracy proportionately weakened. Why? Because they perceive that the Constitution gives them the individual freedom to act however they want, as long as they don't violate other people's individual freedom. Democracy, on the other hand, often tells individuals what to do. If a law you voted against is passed, your personal will is denied. In other words, democracy forces individuals in the minority to act in the interest of the majority, which is why conservatives tend to oppose it. Libertarians take this opposition to an extreme.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:06:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: In a perfectly organized society, a central organization plans every aspect of life. Cooperation and coordination are its primary traits. Most people entertain the mistaken belief that the centralized government needed to run such a society can only be a dictatorship, but this is hardly true. A highly centralized government can also be democratic, as proven by the social democracies of Northern Europe. (If this is difficult to picture, then imagine a country where people vote on literally everything, from the price of tea to the safety features of automobiles. The government then puts these ballot results into action.) Nor does the central organization have to be a government; theoretically, it could also be a giant business monopoly (like "The Company" in the movie Aliens.) Anarchy is the ultimate in individual freedom (meaning individuals can do anything they want); a democratically organized society is the ultimate in group freedom (meaning that the majority can do anything it wants). However, most people desire neither of these extremes, and prefer their government to be somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. A common philosophy of moderation is this: government should support and promote those forms of individual freedom and self-interest which advance the common interest, and prevent those forms of individual freedom and self-interest which harm it. Although this philosophy is widespread, few people agree on how it should be implemented. Conservatives, for instance, believe that government should allow the invisible hand to work on the free market -- an example of self-interest that advances the common interest. And they believe that government should prevent and punish crime -- an example of self-interest that harms the common interest. Liberals, on the other hand, believe that government can actively promote, not just allow, the free market. For example, the government can build roads, wire the countryside for electricity and phone service, launch communication satellites and provide economic statistics, all of which allow the free market to flourish. (Conservatives tend to believe these should privatized, but whether this is even possible is one of the controversies we shall explore later on.) And liberals believe that the government should be more active in preventing harmful self-interest. For example, they believe government should regulate corporate polluters. Conservatives oppose this, but it is inconsistent with the very philosophy that generates their position on crime.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:04:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: An individualist (in this case) is someone who is 100 percent self-interested. An altruist is someone who is 100 percent interested in the well-being of others. Of course, there is a spectrum between these two positions. There are many ways to believe in pure individualism and still allow that individuals can cooperate in the sort of interdependent, specialized society that makes us all richer. Libertarians and extreme conservatives believe in the "invisible hand," a term coined by 18th century economist Adam Smith. In his desire to get rich, a baker bakes bread for hundreds of people, and in this he is led by an "invisible hand" to feed society, even though such altruistic notions were not part of his original intention. When individuals are allowed to seek their own rewards, the argument goes, the common interest naturally takes care of itself. No central authority needs to consciously promote the common interest. But liberals can be pure individualists too. They point out that the "invisible hand" is an important concept, but it hardly works in all cases. The criminal seeks his own self-interest, yet causes harm to society. A polluter finds it cheaper to dump pollution than to treat it, and this self-interest is equally harmful to society. Because it is in the self-interest of individuals to live in crime-free and pollution-free societies, they have a need to defend the common interest. In short, there are selfish reasons to promote the common good through government. A good many other people, however, believe that humans are not 100 percent individualists; rather, they naturally possess a degree of genuine altruism as well. Perhaps the clearest example is romantic and sexual behavior, which is genetic (hormonal). The resulting social union of man and woman is responsible for the creation of new individuals in the first place. And nature has given us maternal and paternal instincts which cause us to sacrifice unselfishly for the survival of our children. This school of thought claims there are also non-family examples of natural altruism as well.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:02:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: lib�er�tar�i�an (lbr-t�r-n) n. repetitive bore.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 11:56:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: He used an out-dated definition of Liberalism (now referred to as classic liberalism). It was a 19th century political viewpoint or ideology associated with strong support for a broad interpretation of civil liberties for freedom of expression and religious toleration, for widespread popular participation in the political process, and for the repeal of protectionist legal restrictions inhibiting the operation of a capitalist free market economy. In the US today, the term has come to support a much stronger role for government in regulating and manipulating the private economy and providing public support for the economically and socially disadvantaged. In Europe, the term liberalism is still used more in its 19th century sense, and European liberals are rather more respectful of the values of the free market than their American namesakes, whose views sometimes more closely resemble those of Europeans styling themselves as social democrats.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 11:56:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: lib�er�tar�i�an (lbr-t�r-n) n. humorless drone.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 11:56:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: lib�er�tar�i�an (lbr-t�r-n) n. crybaby.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 11:55:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: lib�er�tar�i�an (lbr-t�r-n) n. A retarded punk packing a gun.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 11:46:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: No thanks. I prefer vodka.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 11:37:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: lib�er�tar�i�an (lbr-t�r-n) n. One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state. One who believes in free will.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 11:33:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: To the anon who posted a cut and paste from the dictionary on "liberal": If you were generous with your own money, that would be one thing. Stop shoving a pistol in the backs of others and stealing their money to satisfy your own presumed generosity and I might agree with you. No, Libby has you guys pegged pretty good.
Huge
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 11:10:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: "1. The so-called conservative hates dark-skinned people. 2. The so-called conservative is against free elections. 3. The so-called conservative despises non-Christians. 4. The so-called conservative openly glorifies McVeigh and Kaczinski." I'll cut-and-paste this a little at a time so everyone will read it.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 10:49:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: There's a No. 18?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 10:48:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Trouble with a doctrinaire lexicon is you're left off on the ozone side, saying Democrat for Democratic because you can feel something powerful in it that is really nothing but a schoolyard sneer, and saying liberal for your fear of everything that seems to threaten your collection of inanimate objects. You take it where it leads, and your disinformation arm is working with little more than a collection of Krazy Kat nick-names, but without any of Krazy Kat's sophistication.
Douse of Teat
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 10:46:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: In fact, the whole screed is quite empirical, thoughtful and well-reasoned. Certainly worth cutting-and-pasting if not actually reading more than a couple of words.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 10:44:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, no. I think number 18 in the cut-and-paste screed pretty much sums it up: "18. The liberal applauds the imprisoning of homeschooling parents who dare to raise their children outside the control of collectivist public schools." That's "the liberal," all right.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 10:41:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: (The Pete doll is running out of steam. Needs more fairy dust.)
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 10:38:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Here is a more balanced paste on the same topic. It's fairly short, so you may actually read it................. 1lib�er�al Pronunciation: 'li-b(&-)r&l Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin liberalis suitable for a freeman, generous, from liber free; perhaps akin to Old English lEodan to grow, Greek eleutheros free Date: 14th century 1 a : of, relating to, or based on the liberal arts b archaic : of or befitting a man of free birth 2 a : marked by generosity : OPENHANDED b : given or provided in a generous and openhanded way c : AMPLE, FULL 3 obsolete : lacking moral restraint : LICENTIOUS 4 : not literal or strict : LOOSE 5 : BROAD-MINDED; especially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms 6 a : of, favoring, or based upon the principles of liberalism b capitalized : of or constituting a political party advocating or associated with the principles of political liberalism; especially : of or constituting a political party in the United Kingdom associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives - lib�er�al�ly /-b(&-)r&-lE/ adverb - lib�er�al�ness noun synonyms LIBERAL, GENEROUS, BOUNTIFUL, MUNIFICENT mean giving or given freely and unstintingly. LIBERAL suggests openhandedness in the giver and largeness in the thing or amount given . GENEROUS stresses warmhearted readiness to give more than size or importance of the gift . BOUNTIFUL suggests lavish, unremitting giving or providing . MUNIFICENT suggests a scale of giving appropriate to lords or princes .
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 10:36:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: MODERN SO-CALLED LIBERALS 1. At the most basic level, the liberal is an adolescent forever in search of a world without moral consequence. 2. Freedom from moral consequence can only be secured by a collectivist, totalitarian state. 3. Liberals use moralistic tones and catch-phrases like "social justice", but their only moral is the accumulation of power 4. Liberals ideologies tend inevitably towards world-wide totalitarianism. 5. All non-sexual individual freedoms are despised by the liberal because they demand moral responsibility. 6. The fundamental power struggle of the liberal is individual v. collective. The individual must be relieved of all power in favor of the collective. 7. Individualism demands moral responsibility. Collectivism hopes to eliminate the need for moral responsibility. 8. The U.S. Constitution - specifically the individualistic Bill of Rights - is the enemy of the liberal. 9. The liberal despises the United States because it is the premier gaurantor and promoter of individualism in the world. 10. All institutions and concerns - schools, environment, courts, etc. - serve no relevant purpose other than the promotion of collectivism. 11. Abortion is necessary to guarantee genital freedom and eliminate moral consequence. 12. The basis of psychology is the elimination of moral responsibility. 13. The liberal must create an atmosphere of crisis and fear to justify collectivist oppression. 14. Any religious person who believes or promotes moral consequence is the enemy of the liberal and must be oppressed. 15. Despite decades of spectacular failure, the liberal clings to the collectivist dream because it is far more than a theory of government. It is a religion. 17. The liberal seeks to dominate any institution which can weaken or destroy individual parental rights - public schools, child abuse agencies, pediatric associations, etc.. 18. The liberal applauds the imprisoning of homeschooling parents who dare to raise their children outside the control of collectivist public schools. 19. Private ownership of guns is the single greatest symbol of individual power, and therefore despised. 20. All individual freedoms demand the responsible behavior of the individual, and therefore demand a moral code. Liberals despise freedom because they despise morality. 21. The liberal loves Bill Clinton because of who he is, not in spite of who he is. 22. The liberal despises national sovereignty which protects individual freedoms. 23. The liberal promotes international governments (UN, EU, etc.) which seek to destroy individualism protected by sovereign states. 24. The liberal fears any hint of individualism in any part of the world, and is obsessed with the centralized control of all human activity and thought. 25. "Multi-culturalism" is the code world for a single, oppressive, collectivist culture. 26. Liberals speak often of tolerance, but only tolerate liberals. 27. The liberal seeks to criminalize any speech which promotes morality or individualism as "hate speech". 28. Environmentalists lie as a matter of course. 29. The liberal's only method of debate is to insult and discredit anyone who dares to disagree. 30. When possible, liberals oppress anyone who questions their beliefs. 31. Liberals despise all innocence - especially the innocence of a child. 32. Liberals seek the sexualization of children and the normalization of pedophilia, all in the pursuit of genital freedom. 33. In the liberal mind, your freedom is their oppression. 34. Private property and individual wealth is integral to individualism, and the enemy of the liberal. 35. The liberal hates you. 36. The liberal seeks to replace a moral world view with an emotional world view. 37. The liberal typically chooses a career which produces nothing of value - lawyer, bureaucrat, "activist", etc. - and uses government to extract the wealth of others. 38. Liberal programs enrich liberals and do little to help the poor. 39. The liberal despises masculinity as a symbol of individual power. 40. Feminists groups are about lesbianism and socialism, not equal rights for women. 41. Liberals are perfectly willing to destroy you financially, remove your children, and imprison you for what you believe. 42. Liberals fear technology and change - because neither can be centrally controlled. 43. Liberals are not obsessed with sex, but with promiscuity. Promiscuity is the dominate theme of the liberal media culture. 44. Liberals despise the suburbs as a manifestation of individual prosperity, private property ownership, and the family. 45. Liberals despise marriage and family because they are institutions which frown on promiscuity. 46. Liberals are never satisfied with the power they have gained over the lives of individuals - they must control every thought and detail of human activity. 47. Liberals seek to control public schools, and force all children into them, in order to foster promiscuity and collectivist ideology in children. 48. Other diseases kill millions more, but liberals are obsessed with Aids because it is a moral consequence of promiscuity. 49. Liberals are more committed than conservatives because their politics is also their religion. 50. Liberal activities are all about ego - to demonstrate "I care more than you do" without really helping anyone. 51. Whenever a liberal expresses concern "for the children", they are using and targeting children to expand promiscuity, collectivism, and their own pocketbooks and egos. 52. Because collectivist politics is their only morality, liberals have no problem with deceit, oppression, or violence in their pursuit of collectivism. 53. Liberals are elitists who exempt themselves from the oppressive rules they impose on the general population. 54. Liberals howl if a transvestite or convicted felon is even slightly offended, but openly bash Christians. 55. Liberals dream of a return to a centralized, 1940's urban environment. We all ride the bus from a small, dirty, big city apartment to an 8-5 union job. 56. Liberals believe that wealth is static - anyone who makes money must be stealing it from someone else. 57. Liberals claim to be against violence, but makes excuses for liberals like Castro who torture political dissidents. 58. Liberals have enormous compassion for criminal predators, but little for the victims. 59. In the liberal world, all problems stem from individualism, and all solutions are collective. 60. Liberals believe that passing religious values to children is a form of child abuse.
The Lib
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 10:20:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: You mean, like, a boom-a-lay boom-a-lay boom-a-lay boom sort of thing? That old gourd-shakin' deal?
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 04:24:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Meat. Canibalizing himself. Each personality inane as the other. Into the heart of Darkness. Out of Africa and into what is left of his
Pete�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 03:55:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: That's nice, MK. Good boy. Have a cookie.
your pal, House of Meat
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 03:30:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: As a Libertarian, I believe that most public programs, and taxes used to pay for them, should be cut...and the money returned to the tax-payer. Government's only role, and the money (our taxes) used in order for it to carry out this role, is to help individuals defend themselves from force and fraud.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 01:41:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: What guy? What mountain?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 01:20:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: What can you expect from a guy who grew up on the shady side of a mountain named after a *wink* loaf?
Curt
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 01:01:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Old buffs never dye, they just fade away. Whatever the hell that means.
Douglas MacArthur
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:57:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey, it's me! Really. I ddint' dye. See. Please.
Pete�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:54:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: There is a difference between bravery and foolhardiness�and you, sir, are a fool.
M.K.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:52:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: A capital ship has gone down, perhaps the flagship of this dwindling flotilla. Hoist the pennant to half-mast, matey. I shall return to my cabin and seek what solace there is in my portfolio and hot young girlfriend.
the crynic
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:51:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: The next wave has arrived. My work here is through. Pass the Viagra.
Ho-hum
SF, - Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:51:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Gus who?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:47:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm cryin'.
Gus
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:46:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: See. There IS a God. Rejoice!
Mary
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:45:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: That boy just wasn't right.
Solrac
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:44:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Where are the comfort women? hand me a towel.
.........................
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:43:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: The King of France is dead. Denny's is sending a beautiful napkin assortment to the morgue. Fuck you, Ssspete.
yellow dog dingo
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:43:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Make that eleven, mofo.
Shine Head
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:41:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: As Shine Head said, whut mah' name? Whut mah muvvafukkin' name? Yo' DEAD, punk-unk-unk! Yo' DEAD punk-unk-unk, Yo' muvvafukkin DEAD-ED punkity-punk-unk-unk. We DOWN we DOWN botchyoo DEAD, punk! Got to bounce, going to get my snake on at the club, soon as I can find my fuck-me shoes.
Whatever
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:38:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Then there were ten.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:33:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Does that mean only ten of us are now posting?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:33:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good riddance and welcome newcomers! Yeah, he's gone. A flash in the pan.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:32:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yeah, well that's just your opinion, man.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:31:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: The twerpedo cunt-caller died? Awwww. Sob, sob.
Dexter�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:30:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: IF products have warnings that the public ignores, the public shouldn't be allowed to have the government take money from others (via subsidies or fines) to care for those that get sick as a result of ignoring such warnings. Once again, you jump to conclusions and imply things that I didn't say. I didn't say weather or not I had respect for advice that the surgeon general gives. People take risks. Many things are unhealthy that people choose to get anyway. Nicotine is an addictive drug. Coffee and chocolate and alcohol are habit forming. Practically anything...taken to extremes...is unhealthy. As far as education goes, it should be privatize and not compulsory. That would end the argument about what should or shouldn't be taught. Ultimately, a child's education is the responsibility of the parent or guardian...not any national teachers' union.
M.K. < >
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:28:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Jew-fucker.
Soilent Green
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:26:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Shit! Just when I thought I was safe!
John�
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:25:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: They can laugh all they want, but Pete� was the closest I ever got to a true surf legend.
H-man <surf's up in heaven. Catch one for me, Kahuna�>
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:24:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Really chewed the scenery up, but a bit player in the end.
Ray Cathode
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:23:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: I know that's you, ypup? Greetings from the Heartland///
Jeremiah
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:22:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: A twelve step program could have helped him. But no.
Virgil
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:21:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Impostor! Playgiarizer!
.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:20:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Think I'l go douche with vinegar.
Teresa
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:19:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: He wasn't much of a thinker, but he sure had a way with words.
Gargoyle
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:18:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: A true laughing stalk. Never in sink.
Gargoyle
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:18:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete� the Pineapple.......He could make a man feel good inside, just by running off and hiding for two or three days.
Joe Hill
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:18:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: I wish he would have paid attention. He refused to learn.
Dr. Milton T. Eisentower, PhD.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:16:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Now that he is dead, I suppose it can be revealed that Pete� once confided in me that he had a vestigial third nipple. I suppose he thought I could help him trace his ancestry, as the curator of the Vestigial Nipple Museum. But in this as in many things he was disappointed.
Dub Willen
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:16:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: The dead pay no pass-through taxes. That lucky bastard!
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:15:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: The goofy homosexual dude from Hawaii? Bummer, man. Shee-it.
Eddie Gann
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:13:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, Fess, Pete� has died, and his body-bag has been sewn up tight as a twat. He has been planked overboard, and sunk out of sight, and there is no foul mouth that will do fine. The man is as dead as a rat in a grandfather clock, and will chatter no more for the admiring multitudes. He has gone down the dark tunnel to the place where the rusted hulls of spent twerpedoes lie upon the shiftless sands. Pete is dead! Long live the golem!
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:08:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: I feel cleansed now. As if a coat of thick oil has been washed from my tender skin.
Grace Naturlio
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:05:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: I had so much more to teach him.
Glint
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:02:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: As a moderate socialist, I defend taxation only up to the cost of the taxes. Defense beyond that I leave to the true pinkos.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 00:01:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: I remember Pete�. He was a good Republican, until that little contretemps with the ladies. Shook my hand once at a fund-raiser on some archipelago. Perhaps the Orkneys. The world has lost a staunch opponent of evil in its most socialistic forms, but the company of ghosts� will be enriched.
Richard M. Nixon
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 23:57:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete� died? Why wasn't I told?
Fess Parker
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 23:53:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Jesse's retiring, bonehead. No more Senator Fathead after '02, although Bono will surely keep the flame alive. 'Jes like cone in de breeze, as the Senator himself might say in his colorful patois.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 23:52:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: RALEIGH, N.C. �� At age 79, Sen. Jesse Helms has experienced what's usually a preteen right of passage � he attended his first rock concert. The North Carolina Republican was invited to a U2 concert in Washington by his friend Bono, lead singer for the group. "It was filled to the gills, and people were moving back and forth like corn in the breeze," Helms said. "They had that crowd going wild. When Bono shook his hips, that crowd shook their hips." Bono and Helms � known for his unbending conservative positions on issues such as abortion, gay rights and federal funding for the arts � struck up a friendship last fall when the singer lobbied the senator on international debt relief.
lookslike rockin jesse ain't dying any time soon, you lousy socialist slime
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 21:58:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: As usual, socialist insane inanity on display.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 21:38:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Who cares what Pete would say. What I say is, good riddance to that socialist agitator. I'm glad he died.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 21:25:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wonder what Pete would have to say about all this. Probably something inane.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 21:24:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Thankfully, Waco will be a better place for your absence. Leave it to the socialsits to defend taxation at any cost. Socialism means war.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 21:07:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure, MK, the rugged individualism of people from the past now and then contributed to America's greatness. But don't forget the role of collective action and mob rule. It was not just the individual who stood fast at Bunker's Hill or Little Round Top or Pork Chop Hill or on the stage at Radio City Music Hall. Think about it, young man, and keep your powder dry.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 20:53:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Whatever anybody says, it makes me feel good inside to know that people like the Kramer lad are walking the streets of Waco, practically always carrying their favorite pistol, and demanding to know why their neighbors won't lend then a hundred dollars so they won't have to cash their paycheck before the new budget cycle. Doubly so when I reflect on the fact that I will probably never have to go to Waco for any earthly reason.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 20:49:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Words are my weapon. Communication is my religion. You birds are set-up pigs. Next. Have a good day.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 19:56:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's an under lady sissy, Smith. All software, no hardware.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 19:02:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey, let's get back on topic. What kind of hardware do you carry, stranger? Are you another one of these under-gunned sissies with a LadySmith?
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 18:56:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Your beleif in my death mirrors your delusions about a socialist utopia. The way your mind has been brainwashed is teh greatest E*vil facing the world.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 18:21:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: If only I could believe Pete was alive. His death is my worst nightmare come true. Sure it's fun to kick MK around, but Pete always reacted with island fever fury. MK is about as clueless as Pete, but the kid must have had a lobotomy.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 18:11:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Look stewge, a ghost does not need a gun. Ergo, Pete is and always has been alive. Your greatest nightmare, I'm sure. Since you hate the truth so much as a socialist liar.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 17:27:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: How much gun does a ghost need?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 16:25:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Geepers, all I have is a Saturday Night Special 5-shooter. Gotta keep the postal workers at bay when they hit tilt.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 15:05:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Golem � Following in Meat House�s reasoning skills�I see. I didn�t say America was bad. It is still the greatest nation on earth�particularly because of the rugged individualism of people from years past. There are many laws I don�t like. That is why I encourage our government to change them.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 14:38:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: If you ran people off the road or shot at them from time to time for not getting out of your way, surely someone would have eventually taken down a description of you and/or your vehicle and notified the police. �Did you ever hear about the Revolution, MK, the right of a free man to cast off the yoke the binds him?� Yes. Did you ever hear of �Taxation without representation�? The Revolutionary War was a war between Britain and the Colonies. It was caused because the British were charging taxes that were not reasonable and they would not let the colonists vote (represent themselves in front of the British government) on the issue.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 14:33:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: You may think our laws are unpopular, M.K., but they're plenty poruplar with me. This is a "nation of laws", and if we don't like the ones we have, who is going to? The Lebanese, maybey? The Polacks? The millions of illegal imgigrants who are flooding into California as we speak? The uninspected life is waht is wrong with all libs, -eral and -itarian. Sad, really. Toots.
golem�
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 14:28:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Honest about what, nanny-boy? Honest about fur and feathers on the 'roo guard? Maybe even a little skin off a drunk Mexican? I give anyone on the road in front a chance to exercise responsibility and get the fuck out of the way. If they're not blind they can see me coming, and if they're not deaf they can hear me, and the rest is up to them. If they're deaf and blind together, then they shouldn't be crossing the road, shouldn't even be on the shoulder. That's where I get MY range time, putting them out of their irresponsible misery. Did you ever hear about the Revolution, MK, the right of a free man to cast off the yoke the binds him? You form your opposition parties and run for office-- my vote is going to come out of a gun barrel on full auto.
RW
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 14:18:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: There is a difference between bravery and foolhardiness�and you, sir, are a fool.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 14:16:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: I doubt that you are being honest. At any rate, if you are telling the truth, you are an embarrassment to the republic of the United States of America. I don�t like the patronizing nanny-state style laws any more than do you. Though our laws are unpopular, they are laws. Fortunately we have a system of rules and procedures for changing the laws that we don�t like. We are free to voice our discontent, write to our congress, complain even in public (whine), and encourage others to vote from policies and politicians that promote freedom. People can even form opposition parties and run for office.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 14:05:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fucking little wimp. I've taken out more critters with my 'roo guard than you've ever drawn on.
RW
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:48:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: You bet I'm a scofflaw, MK. I scoff at any law that defies the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of this Republic. I scoff at the Townshend Acts, the Tea Tax, the Intolerable Acts this 4th of July. I scoff at the Missouri Compromise and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Rules and Regulations governing the Federal Parks System. I scoff at the Endangered Species Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act and I would scoff at Hitlery's Socialized Medicine Act if brave, gun-weilding, unpermitted, free citizens hadn't stood up and nipped it off at the bud. I scoff hard, and I scoff with firepower hanging in good American leather under my armpit and a loaded FAL 7.52 in the umbrella-rack. When the jack-booted thugs come to take me to the indoctrination center, I'm taking a few of them with me, MK, because unlike a toe-the-line chickenshit "libertarian" like you I have the balls to scoff. Think about it, if you have the gut for it.
Rube Waddell
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:45:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Once again...your reasoning skills are simply astounding.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:28:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: It is people like you...scofflaws...that give ammuntioin to the anti-gun groups by not following the laws that we do have.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:27:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sometimes I'm late with the paperwork but would rather go through with it than pay the fines and penalties.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:25:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: I believe you, MK, about the paper-work. You'd probably crawl on your belly through broken glass to be sure your carry permit was up to date because you know they'd take your popgun away if it isn't. Please, Mr. Deputy, let me turn in my "paper-work" nine months early, I'm a good boy and practice regularly at the county range the way it says in the book, and I do everything the rangemaster says, yassuh I do. Jesus, it's people like you who have allowed the anti-gun crazies to get a foothold in this country. About the only thing anyone will ever take from your cold dead fingers is a bottle of Maalox.
Rube Waddell
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:20:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: No. There shouldn't be any such things as manditory, government-approved, stickers or permits for anything. Sometimes I take chances my delaying my car-inspection...I have let my car insurance lapse. Still...for financial sake (to avoid having to pay a fine if I get caught not following the government's rules) I generally do get the proper paper-work.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:12:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Why doesn't he just get a pea-shooter and call things even?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:09:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: I think that MK's noggin is not in such good shape, after all that range time with his awesome popgun. A few million rounds of that awesome artillery going off 18 inches from your face would addle anybody's gray stuff.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:09:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: So cars shouldn't have safety stickers but a carry piece should have a permit? I call bullshit on that. If the 2nd Amendment says anything about hidden, it's news to me. Did you know that cars kill more people than guns, MK? You're about as logical as a fucking barrel-bung. Start using your noggin.
Rube Waddell
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:06:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: M.K. to tell you the truth, I don't know whether I'm "allowed" to carry a hidden gun. A Desert Eagle with a scope on it doesn't hide so good, but it's under my coat so I suppose that technically it's hidden. I've never been a big one for technicalities, and so far nobody has fucked with me about it.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 13:02:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Nope. I carry it fully-loaded with me practically everywhere I go and practice regularly.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:57:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: House of Meat: Freedom...To each his own...Live and let love. The gun suits me just fine. I prefer a small lite piece. I don't think cars should have to have safety stickers. So you're a criminal...or are you allowed to carry a hidden gun?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:55:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: He probably keeps his earplugs with the pistol and his ammo in the attic.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:55:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: He probably keeps it locked up with a combination bicycle-lock through the trigger-guard and a couple of clips in a night-stand three rooms away. The guy is dead meat.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:53:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube Waddell: Do you mean that the government is efficient with what it does?!? Ha ha ha. Tell that to the sick people waiting in line for drug approval. Tell that to the guy that just wants to braid hair for a fee...but has to jump through government hoops to do so. It is called freedom...you ninny. Businesses that don't want some stamp of approval shouldn�t have to pay for one.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:50:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: I carry a Desert Eagle with a full clip of Talons and one in the chamber. I've also usually got a Browning .380 in an ankle-holster, but it's just a backup. I'll get a carry permit when they insert one between my cold, dead fingers.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:49:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: This is too perfect. No safety sticker on the car, but a carry permit for the popgun. I suppose he thinks the big bad Texas Ranger nannies are going to take it away from him.
Hadley Roff
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:45:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Just as I figured. What a wimpy piece. When the cholos jump you all you're going to do with that popgun is make them mad. You could at least get a .40 Smith, wimp.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:40:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm on board, Rube. I once started up a business taking bald tires from the dump and cutting new grooves in them with a router, made the tires grip the road as good as when they rolled off the factory conveyor-belt. The goddamn government came and shut me down, saying I needed a business license and couldn't leave the sales racks on the front lawn. They even told me I had to buy a muffler for the compressor! I'd move to Turks and Caicos today, if they had enough cars there to make it work.
Ogden Leach
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:38:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: I own a Heckler & Koch P9S (9 mm) and have a carry permit.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:35:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: I can't believe the little twirp is advocating a private-sector nanny-system. Where the hell are his core beliefs? Oh, sure, private scolds could "evaluate" and "accredit" products a lot more efficiently than the government, but where does that leave us? Can you spell e-f-f-i-c-i-e-n-t n-a-n-n-y? Why should we have to listen to this bull-crap from every old lady with access to a bottle of blue rinse? Do you know how Consumer's Reports rates electric frying pans? They rate them on how far they splatter grease, not on how well they fry the drumsticks! The best electric frying pan is the one that doesn't get hot enough to splatter grease! Is this the legacy you want to leave to your adopted fetus? Get a clue.
Rube Waddell
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:33:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'll bet his nanny told him that guns are dangerous, so he's afraid to get one.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:25:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube Waddell: I agree. The government has no business using our money to warn us of stuff. There are plenty of private groups, consumer protection and advocacy magazines, and private evaluation and accreditation services, for those concerned about product quality and safety. As I said...the private sector can practically out-perform the government in any area.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:25:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: I once knew a guy who O.D.'d on orange juice.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:24:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'll bet the little chipmunk-cheaked wimp doesn't even own a gun over .22 calibre.
RW
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:15:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Don't smoke cigarettes, you'll get cancer. Don't drink coffee, it will stunt your growth. Don't drink dirty water, you'll get typhus. Don't play BB-gun war, you'll put an eye out. Don't ride on somebody else's handlebars, you'll break an ankle. Don't stick the scissors in the electric plug, you'll get a shock. Have any of these things really happened to you, MK? And yet the nanny-family and the nanny-state and the whole nanny-society keeps nagging at us without stopping to take a breath. When the hell are they going to get off our backs? You could contribute your own small part toward ending this shameful pattern by refusing to repeat the folklore that tells us that if you do A, then B will happen. Cry "Bullshit" on it, MK. For once in your life get the fog out of your brain, wake up and smell the airplane glue. The nanny-state is only so strong as the degree to which people believe its cries of danger, danger everywhere. If you are not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, so get off your ass and light up a Lucky. Damn fine smoke.
Rube Waddell
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:13:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Petulence, my boy, is no answer to the logic of foreign policy. We live in an interconnected world, and might as well get used to it. The first thing we have to do is drop the government propaganda line about the "dangers" of smoking cigarettes. If tobacco-smoking caused cancer, the give-and-take of the free market would have discovered it centuries ago, and the crop would have been replaced in Virginia's fields, which are perfectly capable of producing alternate products. Why are you so hypnotized by the announcements of the chief medical bureaucrat, the "surgeon general?" Did you believe it when a "surgeon general" claimed we should teach the techniques of homosexual sex in grade school? Did you believe it what a government "health" bureaucrat tried to force the teaching of masturbation in our high-schools? Sometimes I think that you are a more-than-willing pawn of the government, and no Libertarian at all.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 12:05:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: I shouldn't have to contribute to the creation of cancer sticks if I don't want to do so.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 11:32:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: WWJD, MK? I'm not sure that Jesus would agree with you that the Holy Tome is the appropriate vessel for transporting contraband. I think you had best check this out with the "experts" at Baylor, before you harp on it any more.
Hadley Roff, Dr. Rel., SBBC '61
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 11:32:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure I know I'm contributing to the cigarette industry. On the other hand, the American cigarette industry is contributing to me by providing a quality-controlled product that I can count on to yield exactly the same level of satisfaction smoke after smoke after smoke. Why are you so down on this segment of the free market? Have you ever been in a third-world country and smoked the local coffin nails? Fegh! The Virgina cigarette, believe me, is the premium product world-wide, usually sold at two to ten times the price of locally-produced butts. No, MK, I don't mind a little "subsidy" to something that is a source of pride for us all across this globe, from MacMurdo Sound to Finland. If you were a patriot, you would support these programs as well.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 11:28:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Even if they were carrying some cocaine between the Bible pages, as long as they were doing it with full knowledge and concent, it "ain't nobody's business".
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 11:23:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Right, Meat. That's why the druglords use church ladies and nuns for mules to begin with. Their twats are pussed over and sewn shut, so the drug police can't perform a full body-cavity check. I say skip the pat-down and shoot them out of the sky before they even GET to customs.
Hadley Roff
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 11:21:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Another example of jumping to conclusions. Sorry. I'm not down on bingo...just on people who whine to the government to take care of them when they don't bother to read and follow instructions. For example: Cigarette cartons have warning labels and the government assumed responsibility to care for the ill who can't afford to care for themselves...but somehow the government got cigarette makers to fork over huge sums of money in fines and penalties. Why? Did The industry force people to smoke? Did you know that you are contributing to the cigarette industry...even if you never buy a cigarette? Look up "subsidy".
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 11:19:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: And speaking of getting real, MK, get real about Straw. Can you spell r-e-c-i-d-i-v-i-s-t? This is the brand of ballplayer the drug laws were designed to protect. It would be worth shooting down every flying nun in Columbia if only we could have Straw playing at full capacity, rather than drugged up like a Maori tribesman trying to take out a Christchurch rugby team. Unfortunately, the government has seen fit to equip the Columbian police with obsolete pursuit aircraft with worn-out chainguns, and many of them get through. Do you really think those so-called "missionaries" we toting nothing but Bibles? Read between the lines, MK. Get a clue.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 11:18:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Point is, MK, people ARE allowed marijuana, in advanced states like Oregon and California. De facto everywhere but Texas. A cat is perhaps the least ignorant of animals. Knows which side of the fence the catnip is on. Does the cat government outlaw catnip? I don't think so. Does the cat government outlaw knob in the Oval Office between consenting adults? I don't think so. Are there any rules at all promulgated by the cat government? Get real. The only problem is, cat is gamey and usually tough, while dog is among the best meats available, if you cook it right. The only un-American meat I've ever eaten that was better than dog was fruit-bat. The hams are exquisite, though small. I never considered having a cow as a pet, but was given one unasked as a boy of about seven. I named her Herman, and for years the whole family enjoyed her milk and cream, and the cheese and ice-cream that we made from the un-drunk portion. Dad used to say that she could squirt a bucket from all four. I remember crying for days after she was struck by an unlicensed Punjabi jitney-driver high on ganja, and had to be put to sleep. Maybe a cow isn't the most intelligent animal, but a pig is smarter than just about anything but a monkey, and we eat pig. I was once sifting through a bowl of sauce in a town far from Waco, by the way, and encountered the paw of a monkey, which looked a lot like the hand of a small, rough-skinned child. The fingers were sweet, something like pork (which stands to reason), but way too stringy for my taste. I hope this takes care of all the points you wish covered.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 11:11:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: Gee, MK, you really know how to hurt a guy. So why is everybody so down on bingo? You go to Shreveport and play video blackjack, some of us go up the corner and buy a few bingo cards. Is that so wrong?
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 10:58:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Stelaing my material. Your delivery sucks.
Henny Youngman
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 10:52:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Just though it's not on my dime.
Stanton Bixley
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 10:50:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: If I asked him for a color t.v., he'd ask me what color. ---When he'd see a "NC-17 (Under 17 Not Admitted)" sign, he'd go home and get 16 friends.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 10:48:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: I hope he doesn't confuse it with a bingo card.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 10:24:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: With Meat House's great logic and reasoning skills, I wonder if he was able to figure out Florida's butterfly ballot? I think that it would have been quite a challenge for him�even with the government-required instructions posted at the voting places.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 10:23:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: �Are you having trouble getting marijuana?� That is a classic example of erroneous conclusion. Were you a student of �House of Meat�? Just because I want people to have the freedom to have marijuana doesn�t mean I want marijuana for myself. People are allowed alcohol. People are allowed cigarettes. People should be allowed marijuana. --- A cat is an ignorant animal. A dog is more intelligent. Did you know that dogs are served as a meal in some countries? Have you ever considered having a cow as a pet? --- If you ever contemplate the good of our foolish drug war, think about the missionary family destroyed in a plane over Peru by people thinking they were drug runners�or Darell Strawberry�struggling with colon cancer who was nearly sent to jail for 18 months because he bought an illegal drug and propositioned a prostitute.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 10:14:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Stanton Bixley: In the United States, pharmaceutical firms are required to spend much more time and money demonstrating that their drugs are safe and effective. Afterwards, the FDA takes an average of two to six years to decide whether the manufacturer will be allowed to market them. Americans get new, life-saving drugs years later than citizens of other countries that are not so restrictive. Some drugs that take a long time to test, such as those that may retard aging, are not available to Americans at all. Americans should decide for themselves which drugs to purchase. Before the FDA came into being, American drug manufacturers usually gave their customers the best drugs that the state-of-the-art would allow. After all, killing the customer is bad business. Deaths due to inadequate testing were much less frequent than the deaths produced by today�s ``drug lag.�� It is my belief that more have died unnecessarily early deaths through having to wait for the FDA to give them permission to take life-lengthening drugs.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 10:13:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: At least he doesn't kiss the Europeans' asses. He's over there right now telling them that the death penalty is an expression of American democracy, but that gun control is trumped by the Constitution. The man can play hardball when he has to.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 05:16:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: First the Butchers of Beijing, then the Dissident Puerto Ricans, then the Senate Dumbocraps.... whose ass is Bush going to kiss next, the President of Spain? Do the greasers even have a president? With old man Bush it was "read my lips," but with young Bush it's "feel my lips" all over your communist ass. The supreme court thought it was installing a president, not a fucking kissing booth.
Cods
- Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 05:13:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: UDICIAL WATCH TO PROBE BUSH CHINESE HOSTAGE �APOLOGY� Does Deal Include Secret U.S. Promise Not To Sell Key Arms to Democratic Taiwan? Freedom of Information Act Requests Will Seek Documentation (Washington, D.C.) Judicial Watch, the non-partisan public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, said today that it will launch an investigation of the deal between the United States and Communist China for release of the 24 servicemen that had been held hostage for the last ten days. Judicial Watch shares the joy of all Americans that the hostages will finally come home, but will probe the Bush Administration�s handling of the crisis. To that end, Judicial Watch today is filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the appropriate government agencies, such as the State Department and the Pentagon, on the China hostage crisis. �We are happy our young people are coming home,� stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman, �but Judicial Watch also wants to see if the price for their release are backroom deals not to sell defensive weapons such as AEGIS cruisers to our steadfast ally Taiwan.� �The omens in this regard are not good, as today the United States has inappropriately and wrongly apologized for our plane making an emergency landing on Chinese territory �without permission� and will now �discuss� with Communist China the activities of U.S. reconnaissance flights in international waters. The Bush Administration has caved publicly to the Chinese communists and we aim to find out if any secret promises were made to the �Butchers of Beijing� behind closed doors,� stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:46:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Somebody has to do it. Just glad it isn't me. Got to bounce.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:39:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: I hate to say it, but miss Pete tossing softballs. NOT!!! Later.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:36:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: I may wander back tonight. Just to see if it's "under." For now, ciao.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:35:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: A bientot.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:35:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Check. Adieu.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:34:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: But I better check out before I let the kitten out of the pound. Out.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:34:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Did you? Check.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:34:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Let me handle the webmaster next time. You're needed just where you are. And, you're doing a damn fine job. Out.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:34:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: GB helped a bunch.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:34:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Check.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:33:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ran into a little trouble from the webmaster, but we smoothed it over.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:33:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: Check.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:32:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Okay. Let's leave. Our work for the moment -- is done.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:32:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: See you again. Some security considerations as opposed to that other thing. You know, the Code. Blue. Plus the numbers. Is that enough chaff? Chad? Anyhow.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:31:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Not really in this conversation? That's a good one!
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:31:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: But when I think a little deeper, I realize I never was to begin with.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:30:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Nice of you to stop by. Again.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:29:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Somehow I feel as though I'm not really in this conversation.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:29:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: That and "The Problem." Glad I wasn't there.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:29:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Over and out. Code blue. Node six. Borg.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:28:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: I was sort of pissed off myself, but I worked it out right here.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:28:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's a knack. Thought you knew that.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:28:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is he still pissed off because of the you know?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:27:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Are YOU here, too? Celebrating the Fall? How did you know the Golem would renounce the Retail Mark-Up? Ace timing.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:27:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Roger. See you on the flip side.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:26:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: Too bad about Pete. Would have surely enjoyed tearing him his thirteenth new asshole. It was predictable, though. No surprise there, eh?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:26:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fell in the water. Green. Over and out.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:25:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Send my love.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:24:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: As you can see, the water is murky. Damn the twerpedoes!
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:24:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: 64c is awesome. Thanks so much.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:23:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Slipped on the ice. Greetings.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:23:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes. Always stay true to Code.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:22:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh, so now YOU'VE joined us. Nice to see you here. How's 64c?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:22:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Code Blue. Check.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:22:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Check.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:21:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Eddie Gann and Patience Willoughby?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:21:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: I dunno. Who's peeking through port 110?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:21:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anyway, as always -- Code Blue.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:21:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Shit, if only Pete were alive to see this!
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:20:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: Thanks for the help. It's been hard doing the work of 7.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:19:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's something we do here on this board. When one of these side conversations starts, we take our best guess at who it is. My take is that this is gnat and Solrac. What's yours?
House of Meat
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:19:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: ?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:16:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Gnat and Carlos.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:16:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: I did.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:06:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Uh-oh. Now the Golem in the Machine has attacked the very quintessence of the capitalist system--retail mark-up!! Man the cannons! Set off the firecrackers! The socialsits declare victory. Yay.
rah
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:06:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Aha. And how are you? Long time, no hear. Write to me.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:05:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: I think it's good MK is working on fetal rights. Maybe he'll get to cat rights later.
In Waco Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:03:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: No wonder I can't buy anything and nobody can make a profit. Thanks Ghost�. Now, be gone. Let MK carry the ball.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 23:00:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: I just see MK as an underachieving pussy. He needs the government. Needs it to blame for his wasted existence. As long as he bitches about the government having a boot on his neck, he is not accountable. He can just hole up in his shitty apartment with paper thin walls while Sherrel tries to sleep forever.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:57:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's the hidden taxes passed through in the increased price of goods that you pay for in order for the company to sell it that is the aprt the liar socialists never tell you about. Aside from the 30% taxed right off the bat, on average, from your earnings, you then buy goods that are marked up at elast 50% to pay the various component pass through taxes in the price of goods. It is the socialists' shell game to tax you to the ground. 65% is a weak estimate. The return is putrid.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:53:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: No,MK talks the talk but he could never walk the talk. He's too comfy in that pullover. He's got adult games to play, gamboling to do. Waco is his womb. The only lack of freedome this joker has ever experienced is by his own constrained view of the world. The United States government doesn't need rules for the likes of MK. He's got himself contained.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:52:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is this a quiz, MK? I think that more people have been killed by quack remedies or by trusting worthless nostrums than throught the scientific evaluation of drugs in this country. Are you having trouble getting marijuana? What planet are you living on? Do you ever get the suspicion that "medical use of marijuana" is sort of a smoke-screen for wanting to get stoned, MK? First thing I do when I feel as if I'm going to vomit is reach for a spleef. Yep, as many types of businesses as there are should be licensed. That way if somebody sets up a hog-castration shop next door I'll have a way to get it shut down. This one is an easy one: NO, you do not need the government's position to mow the neighbor's lawn. Finally, in a lot of places you will need some sort of permit to run a passenger service. I've lived in places where you don't need one, and in town there is always a taxi available, and cheap. Longer trips are more of a problem, in fact they are usually quite an adventure, but we don't need to go into it. I prefer places like that, plenty of cheap taxis, wild and wooly, but most Americans have gotten a little too comfortable for it. I think it would shock you to see a place like that, say Tomboctou or Dakar, you wouldn't like it, and would scamper back to Waco quick. But who knows, maybe you really do have what it takes to live in a libertarian society. You'll never find out, though.
Spike Orvington
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:45:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Look, MK, dying people can take anything they want, from coffee enemas to injections of sheep piss. I just don't want to pay for these fuckers indulging themselves. As you know, the terminally ill are generally underemployed and a load on society. So, sure, let them squirt essence of apricot into their ears. Just not on my dime, okay.
Stanton Bixley
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:44:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wow. More corrections are in order. (1.) Regulations don�t kick my ass any more than they kick the asses of others. I just consider them a nuisance. I know how to adapt to them while at the same time I also encourage their removal. I haven�t had any horrible results of my life-choice strategies. Our Disney World vacation plans have been postponed until November. I did some comparison-shopping. My insurance isn�t high. I have yet to get any penalties for neglect or delay in my following of �government rules�. A girl was at fault for backing into me. She and/or her insurance company paid ALL of my expenses. Considering everything, I�m having a good and fortunate life.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:43:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: HAVANA �� One of two American cousins credited with rescuing Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez off Florida's coast said he hopes to meet Elian and perhaps Fidel Castro during a two-week visit to Cuba. "In those months of uncertainty, there were only two heroes: Elian and Fidel," Sam Ciancio was quoted as saying in an interview published Wednesday in the Communist Youth Union newspaper, Juventud Rebelde. Ciancio supported Castro's efforts to have the boy returned to Cuba. The newspaper said Ciancio and his 18-year-old son traveled here this week to take part in an international swordfish competition dedicated to Ernest Hemingway. Elian, who is now 7, was a hero "for everything that happened to him," Ciancio said. "Fidel, because he conducted the vast battle in an admirable way," he added. Ciancio and his cousin, Donato Dalrymple, were fishing on Thanksgiving Day 1999 aboard Ciancio's 25-foot boat when they spotted the boy floating in an inner tube. The boy was one of only three people who survived when their boat capsized on its way from Cuba to the United States, killing Elian's mother and 10 others. Elian was placed temporarily with his relatives in Miami, who then launched a battle to keep the child with them in the United States. Elian's father in Cuba, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, was backed by Castro in his effort to have the child repatriated. The boy returned to Cuba with his father last June 28 after the Miami relatives lost their legal battle for custody. Since rescuing the boy, Ciancio and Dalrymple have had a serious falling out. During the custody battle, Dalrymple befriended Elian's Miami relatives. It was Dalrymple who was holding Elian when armed federal agents stormed the house to take the boy to his father. Ciancio, meanwhile, befriended Elian's family in Cuba, even visiting them once last year after Elian's return. While he said he hopes to meet with his "old friends," he also hopes for the opportunity to shake Castro's hand "and congratulate him for the rightness in which he has always acted," the newspaper said.
fucking traitor
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:31:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: What's wrong with more rules?!? I thought we already went over that. Do you think we should force desperate people, living with fatal illnesses, willing to take chances with experimental drugs, wait longer for the FDA to give them permission to purchase the drugs? Should we continue to tell the ill that, though marijuana may ease their pain and help them keep from vomiting, they may not own it? Should we have the government require more types of businesses to have licenses? If I agree to mow a neighbor�s lawn, must I get the government�s permission? If I transport people in my car for a fee, I have to get special permission from the government.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:29:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: What's baffling to me is how a numb-nuts like this MK gets smug. What the hell? The guy's whole life is about getting his ass kicked from one end of Waco to another by regulations he can't figure out how to adapt to, along with regular horrible results of his life-choice strategies that result in cancellation of Disney World vacation plans, or in his having to pay ten times what he would have if he'd just bought the insurance or left the cat in the pound or looked behind when he backed out or taken the car in for the safety check, and yet somewhere he's picked up the ability to be smug. If we could all learn to be as fat, dumb, and happy in the face of our total inability to cope with the world, maybe this would be a libertarian paradise after all.
House of Meat
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:22:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: What's the libertarian line on this George W. Bush caving on the bomb range off Puerto Rico, thinking it will get him more Mexican votes in California? Does this Rove character, who ordered the defense secretary to make the move, really think that Mexicans give a shit about the ear-drums of Puerto Ricans? Shit, even Klintoon didn't cave on this one. Of course, Klintoon was sensitive to the stir that a campaign manager giving military orders would cause among patriotic Republicans, so he didn't let James Carville make military calls based on fantasies about latino voting patterns. Hell, he didn't even let Hitlery's campaign manager call it.
Bruno Smith
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:16:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: What's wrong with more rules? I think we need 'em.
Rube Waddell
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 22:11:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Brain-dead?!? Now that�s funny�. It is as if you are chocolate ice-cream calling vanilla ice-cream dark. The most seemingly brain-dead people I know are the supporters of Democrats. They are perfectly content to have them vote in favor of more rules and more laws and more taxes. They prefer not to think for themselves but put blind faith in their government to take care of them.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:46:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fetuses are distinct individuals. The issue of viability is a serious matter...as is premature birth. The mother would risk negligent homicide if she were to hand her fetus to someone...and the fetus were to die in the process. A while ago, the House approved a measure that would establish criminal penalties for anyone injuring or killing a fetus. The legislation would grant a fetus or embryo rights that are separate from those of a pregnant woman. The measure would amend the federal criminal code to create a separate offense if an individual causes death or injury to "a member of the species Homo sapiens at all stages of development."
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:38:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: It is better than having the government get out of debt by printing more money...and having your money devalued as a result.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:29:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, a brain-dead slacker like MK, has a fully formed mouth and chipmunk cheeks. However, there is no brain activity which means he is legally dead. In our rather libertarian society, lack of brain activity signals death whether the regardless of whether the blob is a fetus or from Waco.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:28:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure, you should be able to print whatever you like, as long as it isn't copywrited or counterfeit. (Libertarian philosophy doesn't support fraud and deception.) I should be allowed draw an image of Elvis Presley, copy it hundreds of thousands of times, mark it with "$5", and sell the copies for $5 each. I doubt that anyone would think of them as being that valuable. Think of the barter system.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:27:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: The nanny-state has laws against the sale of fetuses. In a libertarian society, people would be free to sell their extra fetusus in the free market.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:13:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: The nanny-state has rules against people making their own money. If you print up your own dollar bills, you can be put in jail alongside the candy-store owner who sold Hershey Bars to the fat man on the corner. In a Libertarian society, people would be free to print their own money, and there would be plenty to go around. People could just print up an extra 65% and let the government have it, without having to bitch about it.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:12:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't think that fetuses are for sell yet.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:07:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Everybody here is missing the golem's point that it's such a huge bite. The government is taking two thirds of our money and squirrling it away somewhere, or maybe sending it to Russia. It's a wonder there's any money left at all, after a few times through the pass-through.
Rube Waddell
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:07:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: After 5 weeks, a mouth-like opening appears near the "head". By the 8th week, (when most abortions take place) the fetus's mouth's basic form has nearly finished developing. At 12 weeks, the fetus has a distinct mouth. It will even open its mouth in response to pressure applied at the base of the thumb. Here is an image of a fetus at 18 weeks http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/images/us6-2.jpg
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 21:05:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Bulk fetuses? Is that legal? Think it over, MK.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:52:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Avoid the tax-necessitated mark-up by buying in bulk (direct from the manufacturer or wholesaler).
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:50:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: No state taxings. Whew. That five per cent savings sure is a Godsend! Couldn't feed my adopted fetuses without it. 'Course, I can't feed 'em anyhow. No mouths, to speak of. Heck. Wisht I'd-a waited till they was borned.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:45:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete...I understand what you say. The government has fees for this and fees for that. You even pay a fee to the education system to help it get it computer networked, if you have local telephone service. Look at your phone bill. We have estate tax, marriage penalty tax, capital gains tax, sales tax, etc. Any time there is thought of giving the tax-payer a break on any of this, the Democrats are ready and quick to yell, "NO!!!".
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:44:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: At least Texas doesn't have a state income tax.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:39:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: All the jerk is saying is that money received or payed is generally subject to taxes. Therefore, if I pay you $100 in wages, you pay income tax. If you then pay someone else $90 in wages, someone else is taxed. It goes on and on. Guys like Pete are astounded by the concept. Guys like MK join the anti-pass through legions and pretty soon you have George W. Bush giving all the pass-through back to his closest friends.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:11:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: There's a lot he isn't telling you, MK. He may be a rube, but you're a fish in his cynical game.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:06:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well by law...everyone has to pay taxes. Thanks for the explanation.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:06:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't know, Ghost�. The way you explain it makes me wonder who's playing the shell game, the government or wack fringe tax whiners, like you. Why don't you just stick to asking Glint about the facts of life, K?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 20:05:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sim ple really....Have you ever calculated how much of the cost of each and every item you purchase contains a pass through tax? Everything costs you at least 60% in taxation directly or as a pass through. $100 in your salary is required to barter for $35 worth of real goods with most government involvement stripped out. Your $100 is taxed at an average 30% (State and Federal as a minimum) so the spendable part is only $70. Then the goods you buy consist of pass through taxes through numerous levels in the distribution phase which are required to pay to the government, but you the consumer actually pays it. At the corporate rate and retax rate, it is at least 50% of the $70, or $35. As a result, from that disposable earning, the government is getting almost $65 for each $100 you earn and can spend. Think about it. This is exactly how YOU support the policies of these socialists.
Repeated Pete��
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 19:41:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: What IS 65% pass-through???
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 19:24:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm not sure they even HAVE the 65% pass-through in Nebraska, M.K.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 18:37:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Somebody please explain to me...in a simplified way, what you mean by the 65% pass-through tax?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 17:54:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fascinating. How do you post the superscript trademark symbol, Pete?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 17:49:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: This is only a test.
TM
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 17:48:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sorry, already had my coffee this am.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 16:39:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Isn't this where the lated lamented Pete used to chime in about Nebraskans being the salt of the earth?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 16:07:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Know what they say in Lincoln? They say, If you don't like our weather, wait a minute.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 16:06:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Were you afraid, Glint? How much is "a lot?"
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 16:05:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: All of those posts were mine. You can tell by the �.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 16:03:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oops. My bad. Who am telling about Nebraska girls. Hell, Glint, you're married to one.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 16:02:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: The very same. Pussed over twat. But, you know Nebraska girls. Their foul mouths do just fine. FOOT!!!
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 16:00:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Not THE Jennifer Johnson?
Glint
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:58:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: By the way, Glint, there is a girl I knew once named Jennifer Johnson from Grand Island. If you run into her say hi. Aloha, Pete.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:53:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: There was a great category 5 tornado in Oklahoma a few years ago? How many cows died?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:52:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wow, by the way, the last two were obviously cowardly imposter Petes. I'm still waiting to spot Mars, but the weather is just lousy. Thanks heavens for heavens-above. Except for the princesses.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:52:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Maybe he won't want to talk to you about it. Where were you when he needed you?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:46:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: At Saturday's Grand Island reunion will be a cousin who lost a house in the great category 5 Oklahoma tornado a few years back. He and his step daughter survived by crawling into the master bedroom bathtub -- only room in the house left standing. I haven't seen him since it happened and am hoping for a lengthy description of the traumatic event!
Glint
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:44:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Unfortunately, we weren't close enough to see it. We were in Lincoln, about 30 miles east. The Prairie Princesses were in David City, about the same distance west. If the storm had been tonight instead of Wednesday night, we'd all be here and could have got some good video. There were about a dozen reported tornadoes that night, but the one here in Seward was the most powerful one to drop out of the supercell line. <≫ Saturday we'll be in Grand Island. The town was practically wiped out in the 1970's when ten tornadoes do-si-doed through town swinging their partners.
Glint
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:39:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is it twat-spreading season in Nebraska?
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:38:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wow! Glint, why is the ocean blue? Glint,birds fly over the rainbow. Why, oh why, can't I? Glint, why do stars twinkle in the sky every time you walk by? What's life?
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:32:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wow, so your kids were in fact able to stare the ghostly gray death in its face? Do you guys own a small dog, bychance? What's a prairie princess? A twister? Eh?
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:12:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: THIS week the Supreme Court upheld the right of religious groups to participate in the beautiful mosaic of after-school activities. No new territory was broken: The case was almost identical to another case in which the Supreme Court reversed the exact same court years ago. Justice Clarence Thomas remarked on the oddity of having to reverse the same court twice, noting that while the appellate courts aren't required to cite all the Supreme Court's precedents, they might want to cite the last time they were reversed on the same facts. At least the 6-3 decision gives us an accurate count of the atheists on the court, probably as accurate as my dream of giving them all polygraph tests someday. ("Do you believe in a Higher Being ... no, seriously.") Concerned someone might be reading Leviticus during school hours, Justice David Souter dissented in a hair-splitting exegesis about the precise time classes let out (2:56 p.m.), vs. the time the organizers would enter school property (2:30 p.m.). The New York Times' obligatory hysterical denunciation of the decision revealingly complained: "(C)hildren that young are unlikely to discern that the religious message of authority figures who come to the school each day to teach does not carry the school's endorsement." It is simply taken for granted that it's desirable for children to revere "authority figures" at government schools. Normally those authority figures are teaching the youngsters to put condoms on zucchini or training them in the catechism of recycling. Sending a mixed message about government "authority figures" might interfere with the state's ability to turn small children into Good Germans inculcated in the liberal religion. It's well past time for liberalism to be declared a religion and banned from public schools. Allowing Christians to be one of many after-school groups induces hysteria not just because liberals hate religion. It's because the public school is their temple. Children must be taught to love Big Brother, welcoming him to take over our schools, our bank accounts, our property, even our toilet bowls. We're told the First Amendment requires a separation of church and state, which, just as an incidental matter, is completely false. In keeping with the general theme, the First Amendment provides that Congress cannot establish a religion -- but nor can it stop the states from establishing religions. That's why it says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Still, it is a fact that when the First Amendment was ratified, several states had established religions. Fortunately for the burgeoning minority religions in those states, the established religions were things like "Episcopalianism" and "Congregationalism" rather than "Liberalism." It's hard to imagine now, but before the official government religion was liberalism -- devoted to class warfare, ethnic hatred and intolerance -- Americans were kind to one another. They managed to get along even without ACLU lawsuits. Thus, when there were enough practitioners of other faiths in a state to be bothered by the established religion, the majority just disestablished themselves. Religious people keep cheerfully going back and trying to formulate some prayer that won't make liberals angry. But the problem won't go away. No prayer that assumes a belief in a Higher Being will ever be acceptable. G-d has no part in the religion of sex education, environmentalism, feminism, Marxism and loving Big Brother. In a totally unsurprising development, liberals finally suspended their opposition to the death penalty in the case of Timothy McVeigh. He was the sworn enemy of the established religion of Big Brother. Too bad he never stumbled into one of those after-school Christian meetings.
go anne go
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:09:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hi, Glint here. The twisters spared us but a large category 4 or 5 tore through within 1.5 miles of my sister's home. Visited the path and found a twisted wad of trees, combines, and amonia storage tanks. Took some video and panoramas of the damage. If only the twister could have held off a couple of days I could have got some good video. The prairie princesses weren't home at the time, but even so there was no damage here. Horses are all safe. Here's a link showing the tornado on the ground: http://www.journalstar.com/nebraska?story_id=3537&past=
Glint
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 15:08:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: An inventor from Colorado has created the world's first fart-proof underwear. Buck Weimer says his airtight knickers have a replaceable charcoal filter to remove bad gas before it escapes. The undies, called Under-Ease, are on sale over the internet. Buck, from Pueblo, said he thought up his invention after his wife 'let go a bomb' in bed one night. Buck, 62, and Arlene, 57, suffer from Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel syndrome. In both men and women's styles, the underwear, made from a soft, airtight, nylon-type fabric, is designed for people with chronic flatulence. Elastic is sewn around the waist and both legs. The removable filter - which looks similar to the shoulder pads placed in women's clothing - is made of charcoal sandwiched between two layers of Australian sheep's wool. Buck says the charcoal filter isn't too bulky but could capture the bad-smelling gas and allow the non-smelling gas - hydrogen and oxygen - to pass through. It was developed from gas masks worn by coal miners, reports the Denver Post. They come as boxer shorts for men and panties for women and sell for $24.95 (�18). Replacement filters cost about �7. They are sold with the motto: "Wear them for the ones you love."
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 14:25:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Dan Savage Pleads Guilty to Voting Fraud Charge Friday, 10 November 2000 DES MOINES, IOWA - Dan Savage, the gay man who infiltrated the presidential campaign of Republican Gary Bauer during the Iowa Caucus, pled guilty to a count of voter fraud on Tuesday. Savage�s guilty plea means that he will avoid a trial on a felony fraud count and the possibility of jail time that could come with it. Instead of facing up to six years in prison, he pled guilty to fraudulently voting in a caucus, a misdemeanor, and received a sentence of one year of probation, 50 hours of community service, and a $750 fine. Savage wrote an article in the online magazine Salon.com detailing how he infiltrated the Bauer campaign to protest the candidate�s anti-gay platform and to expose the vulnerability of the caucus process. �The process is so open to abuse,� he said. In the article, he spoke of licking doorknobs at Bauer�s campaign headquarters in an attempt to give the candidate the flu. Later, in an interview with the Associated Press, Savage denied that he had actually done this, saying that he was using the virus-spreading theme as a metaphor for Bauer�s attitudes on gays. Savage did however plead guilty to casting a ballot using a Des Moines hotel address. Iowa Party Republican spokesperson denied that the caucus has security problems. �It's a shame that guy did that,� she said. �If there was a flaw, maybe more of those would slip through.�
$750!!! This is an outrage. Advertising should cost more!!
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 14:07:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: There goes Ghost� trusting his comedic instincts again. Sad really.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 14:03:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yeah, like the Big Byrd at the helm in the Senate. Byrds of a feather. Socialist traitors.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:56:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Birds are at the helm? Hope they don't fall asleep at the switch.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:46:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, chaos rules with liar socialist thief traitors like you birds at the helm.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:37:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Just another DemonRAT liar perjurer: "AUSTIN � A former office manager for George W. Bush's media adviser in the last election pleaded guilty Thursday to mail fraud and perjury, accepting responsibility for stealing and mailing debate preparation materials to the Al Gore presidential campaign, then lying about it to a grand jury. Juanita Yvette Lozano, 31, of Austin faces up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines when she is sentenced Aug. 17. Federal sentencing guidelines make it likely that she will receive a prison sentence of between six months and a year, and fines and fees of up to $2,200, under a plea agreement with prosecutors. Ms. Lozano � a longtime Democrat � did not reveal her motivation. Under the deal with prosecutors, she must cooperate and testify against anybody else charged in the affair. A source close to the investigation said that government officials would not rule out additional charges until they debrief Ms. Lozano. The case began with the Sept. 11 mailing of a Bush videotape, strategy book and other papers swiped from Maverick Media, the Austin consulting firm where Ms. Lozano worked. The material was sent to former U.S. Rep. Tom Downey, D-N.Y., who was advising Mr. Gore before the first presidential debate with Mr. Bush. Among Ms. Lozano's admissions were that she used her home computer to look up Mr. Downey's address on the Internet before sending him a package promising further help and signed "Good luck, Amy." She admitted using her employer's credit card to pay for the postage. FBI agents found a record of that address search on her hard drive, and her subsequent denial of that to the grand jury was the basis of the perjury charge."
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:36:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Soon Lozano will be serving hard time alongside Dan Savage, the faggot who licked Gary Bauer's nob. Speaking of which, can anyone tell me how many years Savage got for his crimes? Just curious.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:33:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Lozano rules!
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:32:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Typical socialist media. Buried deep deep in the paper is that Democrap operativer Lozano pled guilty to sending the bush debate tapes to Gore. Yup, just another pod person liar for the pod people. The same one you turds defended (falsely once again) to the end. You liars are ALL alike. POW!!!
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:29:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: As senior poster on this page, I believe it is my responsibility to develop some FAQs, especially in light of the fact that so many new posters have joined the discussion. I will post the FAQs as they occur to me. First of all, let me say this site is technically a Bangkok travel site. However, this particular page is a conservative bulletin board affectionately called "Fornigate." Most of the posters are constitutional conservative Republicans. But there is a smattering of socialist devils (need I mention the worst ones name?) who will attempt to throw us off-task. They must be exposed and resisted at all cost. Sad really. E Pluribus Unum. Caveat Emptor. Carpe Diem. De Nada.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:25:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh, don't worry about this site. It throbs with life.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 13:01:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: A the 4th of July approaches, I like to mull on the history of all the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and subsequently saw large dips in the value of their portfolios. I only mention this as a means of keeping the site alive.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 10:40:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: The remains of Pete have adopted another liberal tactic, and are posting anonymously? Sad, really.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 10:37:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint's gone underground? I hope he took a telescope with him. There are a lot of stars out there in Nebraska.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 10:35:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint's hiding out in the boondocks until after the 4th. He fears conversion. Pete's ghost or the Pete golem has shamed itself to silence... May post anonymously, but you can never be sure, with his elusive style. Foop. MK is studying up on Econ 101, trying to understand the 65% pass-through. Trying to figure out who's left over to make the widgets. He's relating it all to supply and demand, and will return with the explanation.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 10:30:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: What's with the silence of the lambs?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 10:27:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Klintoon may have been asleep at the switch, but I wasn't. Tore all the labels off the cans, too, so I wouldn't be troubled by the socialist calorie counts. Every meal is going to be a surprise.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 10:04:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: The great thing about the rolling blackouts is that I can use all the stuff I bought to prepare for Y2K. Use it up before the salted turnips and the MRE's go bad. Get rid of all that kerosene and propane. Get some hours in on the generator before the warranty runs out.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 10:02:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: You mean that WASN'T Econ 101, Rube?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 09:09:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: If people didn't want bureaucraps, they would not apply for jobs as bureaucraps, but would take three jobs in three different packaging plants. Unfortunately, in a libertarian society people are free to become bureaucraps according to free market principles, and they are free to write rules that they are free to ignore along with everybody else, eating the fat, stepping on the top step of the ladder, breathing the gasoline fumes, leaving their guns unlocked and shooting the old lady with them. Rules and regulations are free-market products, just like the Mercedes-Benz although without the slave labor, and like the benz they are 5% steak and 95% sizzle. Nobody follows rules except socialists. Everybody else jaywalks, and sticks their hand into the lawnmower while it is running to pull out the clogged grass, and uses the weed-eater without wearing safety goggles. This is what keeps America strong, because the rules are never used up or worn out, the way "durable goods" are used up and worn out unless you keep them in the garage where they do nothing to grow the economy. The rules and regulations are like prostitution and dope, because the cops don't arrest the johns or the guy with a nickel bag any more, just the women or the corner dealer, and they don't arrest the guy with a three-inch grapefruit, just try to catch that three-inch fruit at the border or drop Agent Orange on Columbian citrus groves known to produce undersize grapefruit. The protstitute and the dope dealer and the undersize-grapefruit smuggler don't pay any pass-through at all, so they are the only citizens who keep the economy strong. Without the rules and regulations, everybody would be trying to build an economy on the false foundation of AOL disks, and the country would tank. Take Economics 101 and maybe you'll be able to figure it out.
Rube Waddell
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 08:25:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm no Democrap, M.K., just a conservative independent looking for a way out. You are exactly right about those traitors wanting more taxes to hire more bureaucraps. Then they tax the bureaucraps 65% on the pass-through, giving them more money to hire more bureaucraps who they tax again and hire more bureaucraps. It just gets bigger and bigger, a dang socialist perpetual-motion machine. Pretty soon you've got nothing but bureaucraps and pass-through. Where will it all stop? What will the country come to when all the people who should be trading AOL shares are all bureaucraps? Where will the productivity be? Who will be mailing out 400-free-hour AOL disks and growing the economy? There won't be any economy, just a bunch of bureaucraps and regulations. I'd like to see them eat rules and regulations for dessert instead of something off the MacDonald's dessert tray. Yum.
Rube Waddell
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 08:04:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure, Hurl*
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 03:03:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: He's a damn socialist, Whelp. Ignore him, he's trying to bring this page down. Well, it ain't gonna happen, not on my watch! Hear that, Petey?
Harlan St. Wolf
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 00:23:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: That could be so, but what has really driven away the name plates on you socialist stooges is yourselves. Dishonest cowards. Par for the course.
Pete�
- Friday, June 15, 2001 at 00:21:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Whelp, go easy. A golem is just a miniature man made of mud and twigs. Sad, really.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 23:55:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't see why everyone on this site is so riled up about the 65% pass-through. My solution is simple: I merely pass it through, sometimes rounding up to 70% just for cigarette money. That's the beautiful thing about taxes-- they come right back to you. The trucker gets to drive his truck on the tax-built road, the Waco whiner gets to whine on the tax-built internet, the paralegal gets to type his boss's briefs for the tax-built courts, and the corn-husking contract engineer gets to squat down and bury his snout in a tax-built trough of purest money. If it weren't for taxes, you fellers would be out hustling your next dime, rather than sitting around typing your moronic beliefs into your computers. It's no wonder you're getting afraid to show your faces around here, with the truth of the situation so easily understood upon five or six seconds' contemplation of the golem's idiotic spiel.
Whelp Greenlee
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 23:49:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Don't fret, this is all original* socialist material.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 23:37:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Now, fellas. A little decorum on the old site, for our foreign guest*. Didn't stick around long, did she? Twat probably pussed over and sewn shut, but in that case her foul mouth would have done fine. But she didn't stick around long enough to find out. Probably baiting the long rods in Malta daily.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 23:34:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Spread your twat.
Petey Mouth�
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 22:45:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glad to have hit your nerve, potty mouth*.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 20:04:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pretty fast with the snappy rejoinder, eh Ghost�? Yeah, that's rich! Maybe its (sic) the meat you're keeping, indeed. Does anyone have any clue about what this fucker is trying to say? I mean, the fucker just goes with the japes that come off his pointy head without a second thought. Trusts his comic instincts for some bizarre reason.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 19:43:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Maybe its the meat you're keeping.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 18:08:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sounds like the coals aren't hot enough to sear the meat..
Jacqueline <[email protected]>
Zabbar, ZBR Malta - Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 15:54:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Beats a doormat, manidog, like you socialsits.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 13:34:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: I thought you were a nimrod (i.e. nimrod.)
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 13:02:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube: I thought you were a Democrat (i.e. Socialist). According to them, any tax cut would be "too expensive". They want MORE money from the citizens..to hire more burocraps and create more agencies...more regulations...giving them more power...more regulators to take care of us.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 11:40:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: The easy way to get around the 65% pass-through tax is simply to inflate prices and salaries by 65%. The other side of the coin is that, if we can only do away with this 65% pass-through tax, prices and salaries would probably go down by 65%. In short, IT has you by the balls.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 11:28:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Aha, the cowardly golem. Embarassed by its economic illiteracy, no doubt.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 10:18:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: The worst part is, that $105 is actually only worth about $35 to someone stupid enough to take it from you as payment for goods and services. Sad really.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 10:12:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: That $300 check is going to be worth only $105 once the 65% pass-through tax bite chews it up. When are we going to get some REAL tax relief?
Rube Waddell
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 10:05:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: You may laugh, House of Meat and anonymous coward, but some of us could use a 65% increase in my disposable earning. Think of it-- a car that is 65% bigger and faster, a portfolio with 65% more AOL shares, a home-theatre that is 65% louder, a telescope that gathers 65% more light, 65% more food, and the food on Wedgewood platters. I'm 65% happier just thinking about it.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 10:01:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: When you think about it, 65% of the wealth of the nation is locked up in the pass-through taxes. I understand the Government has huge money bins under the Rocky Mountains where they keep it. If we could only crack the code to those bins, somehow eliminate those pass-through taxes, We The People could get our hands on that wealth. The $300 check from W is just a down-payment. It's simple economics.
House of Meat
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 09:46:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Think how rich we all would be without those fucking pass through taxes. We'd all be fucking millionaire and own telephones, televisions, cars. We'd buy microbrewed beer and maybe buy houses.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 03:37:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Gump! What a man! We won't see his like again. For every Gump there are ten or more Johnny Appleseeds.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 03:35:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Have you ever calculated how much of the cost of each and every item you purchase contains a pass through tax? Everything costs you at least 60% in taxation directly or as a pass through. $100 in your salary is required to barter for $35 worth of real goods with most government involvement stripped out. Your $100 is taxed at an average 30% (State and Federal as a minimum) so the spendable part is only $70. Then the goods you buy consist of pass through taxes through numerous levels in the distribution phase which are required to pay to the government, but you the consumer actually pays it. At the corporate rate and retax rate, it is at least 50% of the $70, or $35. As a result, from that disposable earning, the government is getting almost $65 for each $100 you earn and can spend. Think about it. This is exactly how YOU support the policies of these socialists.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 02:00:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Again, sure beats liar Cliton and his liar socialist cronies. Bad actors are even worse, by the way.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 01:20:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Haven't you ever heard of the new civil rights code and federal preferences for the disabled, anonymous? There must be half a million dyslexic paralegals by now.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:46:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete was sort of a Forest Gump figure himself, when he was alive. How many dyslexic paralegals do YOU know.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:43:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: My government let me own a sword fern. I'm going to plant it any day now, if the environmental regs don't stop me. And if I don't starve to death like a Waco boy trying to fight my way past all the warning signs and calorie listings on the MacDonald's dessert menu.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:37:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: So, Glint, now that you're safe at home, what do you think of the recent efforts of your colleague MK and your dead colleague's eartlhy remains? Are you starting to get a little queasy? Three weeks takes us past Independence Day, doesn't it?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:33:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Only a snob prefers the Castillian. Tex-Mex is just fine in Brownsville.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:28:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm guessing this would be the Senator from Alturas or the Senator from El Centro. Or maybe the Senator from Mojave.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:27:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: The "S" word and the "F" word? How could he use them in a family newpaper? Is he the editor? Who is this bad dog, anyway? Give me his name, so I can start fretting about him after I am done fretting with utility regulation, zoning laws, health care for too many people, the horrendous influx of Mexicans, and calorie counts on restaurant menus. It's all too horrible to think about at once.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:24:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: What policy will the present administration have in regards to Mexico? If it happens in GW's lifetime at least he can speak Spanish. Maybe.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:11:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, thanks to the failed policies of the liar Cliton and his socialist cronies.
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 22:03:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Just a quick upitty periscope here. Greetings from the land of corn, in Lincoln Nebraska. Sure do miss the observatory. Had to go to bed early last night. The flight came in at midnight. Tornado watch tonight but it hasn't changed to a warning yet so apparently no tornadoes have been sighted. I'd like for my kids to see the ghastly greenish black clouds of a major storm cell. They should [hopefully] get the chance during the next three weeks.
Glint
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 21:07:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Actually, somewhere in the future we will become the United States of Northern Mexico. Legal entry, illegal entry, mass propagation will bring about that end result.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 20:22:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Just a small note from a California Senator: "I hesitate to use the words in a family newspaper. But when I think about the actions our governor and Legislature have taken in recent years, the "S" word and "F" word seem to be appropriate: Our state government is overrun with socialists and fascists. Socialism is a concept that is fairly well understood and widely regarded as economic suicide. For that reason, it is rare that legislators will push openly socialist or Marxist policies. That's not to say it doesn't happen, however. We've already gone a long ways toward establishing a socialist health-care system here in California. Dramatically expanded under Democrat Gov. Gray Davis, the Healthy Families program was initially designed to provide government subsidized health care to the children of the working poor. The definition of "poor" is now up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level - $44,000 per year for a family of four, with discussions of moving the income cap even higher. They are also discussing proposals to allow the parents to qualify as well. A more recent socialist proposal, taken straight from the policies of Fidel Castro, is the threat to seize privately held electrical power-generating plants and put them under state ownership. This goes hand in hand with the governor's proposal for the state to take over Edison's electrical transmission lines. Davis' proposal would make the government the owner of the state's power grid, socializing the system outright. In a fascist system, the government allows the private sector to maintain ownership, but the control of the private property is very much in the hands of the government - for the good of the state. Our state's environmental and planning policies are a perfect example of this. People are allowed to own private property, but its use is dictated heavily by the government - state and local. Not only do you have to ask the government for permission to build on your own property, but you may be told what part of your property you can build on, how large (or how small) it can be, how large your yard must be, whether you will have a fireplace or not, what kind of plants you can own and even what color you paint it. This is only after you may have been asked to "give" the government a portion of your land to keep for rats and flies in exchange for your right to develop your property as they see fit. Though electrical rates have long been regulated by the government, the recent rate increases by the PUC have prompted calls for an even more political system of price controls. Efforts to impose price controls at the federal level or require a super-majority in the Legislature in order to raise electrical rates may be well-meaning, but are in direct opposition to the idea of private property and the laws of supply and demand. Housing is a necessity, but current government policies (as described earlier) make it more expensive, not less. Food is the ultimate necessity, but should the price of ground beef, milk and avocados be set by a 2/3 vote of the Legislature? Before you think I'm creating straw men, and that the government would never regulate the prices of these other commodities, ask a gas station owner. In the Robber Baron days of the '80s and '90s, it used to cost as much as a quarter to get air or water for your car at a gas station. The state government recognized this injustice and sprang into action. The Legislature passed, and the governor signed, a law to force station owners to purchase and maintain air and water machines that they are no longer allowed to charge for. It can't happen here? It already has." WAKE UP AMERICA!!!
pETE�
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 20:01:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: That's pixie to you. Spoof!
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 17:58:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fairy dust.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 17:49:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glad to see the anon here admits to not being human. Alien socialist. It fits.
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 16:49:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Leave it to humans to try and screw up the grand design. They do it frequently.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 15:02:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint, don't you think these guys have too much time on their hands? "Scientists have found an unusual way to prevent our planet overheating: move it to a cooler spot. All you have to do is hurtle a few comets at Earth, and its orbit will be altered. Our world will then be sent spinning into a safer, colder part of the solar system. This startling idea is the brainchild (huh?) of a group of Nasa engineers and American astronomers who say their plan could add another six billion years to the useful lifetime of our planet - effectively doubling its working life. 'The technology is not at all far-fetched,' said Dr Greg Laughlin, of the Nasa Ames Research Center in California. 'It involves the same techniques that people now suggest could be used to deflect asteroids or comets heading towards Earth. We don't need raw power to move Earth, we just require delicacy of planning and manoeuvring.' The plan put forward by Dr Laughlin, and his colleagues Don Korycansky and Fred Adams, involves carefully directing a comet or asteroid so that it sweeps close past our planet and transfers some of its gravitational energy to Earth. 'Earth's orbital speed would increase as a result and we would move to a higher orbit away from the Sun,' Laughlin said. Engineers would then direct their comet so that it passed close to Jupiter or Saturn, where the reverse process would occur. It would pick up energy from one of these giant planets. Later its orbit would bring it back to Earth, and the process would be repeated. In the short term, the team was actually concerned with a more drastic danger. The sun is destined to heat up in about a billion years and so 'seriously compromise' our biosphere - by frying us. Hence the group's decision to try to save Earth. 'All you have to do is strap a chemical rocket to an asteroid or comet and fire it at just the right time,' added Laughlin. 'It is basic rocket science.' The plan has one or two worrying aspects, however. For a start, space engineers would have to be very careful about how they directed their asteroid or comet towards Earth. The slightest miscalculation in orbit could fire it straight at Earth - with devastating consequences. It is a point acknowledged by the group. 'The collision of a 100-kilometre diameter object with the Earth at cosmic velocity would sterilise the biosphere most effectively, at least to the level of bacteria,' they state in a paper in Astrophysics and Space Science. 'The danger cannot be overemphasised.' There is also the vexed question of the Moon. As the current issue of Scientific American points out, if Earth was pushed out of its current position it is 'most likely the Moon would be stripped away from Earth,' it states, radically upsetting our planet's climate. These criticisms are accepted by the scientists. 'Our investigation has shown just how delicately Earth is poised within the solar system,' Laughlin admitted." good grief, and we all used to think Frankenstein was extreme. Sheesh!!
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 13:09:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure beats Lying Socialist.
Pete�
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 12:49:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, and I know that food labels are required by law. I'm also aware that there are businesses that cater to the health conscious. Such businesses would inform customers of their food content with or without being forced...by government...to do so. Such places have a reputation for being honest. Private sector consumer advocate periodicals rate them highly. Even without government inspection of the food industry they wold survive wel...for their survival would be based on the wants of the public in a free-market place.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 12:32:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Speaking of labels, our president has been labeled the Toxic Texan?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 12:31:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Do you read labels?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 12:25:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: I knew there was an attemp to regulate fat...though not a proposed law to regulate the amount of fat in a burger...it is close enough. Read on: The American Obesity Association called for new �fat taxes� to fund anti-obesity education programs to be run by the AOA and federal agencies, just at anti-smoking activists use new tobacco taxes to perpetuate their own agendas and jobs. Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman urged government involvement to �figure out what motivates people so they can change their diet.� He announced a National Summit to explore new government solutions, including a USDA nutrition intervention pilot program in Mississippi to �audit� what people are choosing to eat and help them make better choices. Groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) rubber stamp the �fat tax� concept and they also seek to ban �junk-food� advertising. And, get this, they also demand mandated calorie labels on restaurant menus and carry out food packaging, and they want the federal government to require federal testing for any diet book that makes the best seller list. What really is at stake here is the accountability of the individual. This is a prime example of yet another group of activists challenging our right to make choices and then being responsible for those choices. Restaurant menus are the creations of the chefs and/or owners of the establishments. But they must pay attention to the tastes and expectations of the customers. Berman concluded his article by saying that this is truly a customer driven industry. If you don�t want red meat, you can order a salad. In no industry is �consumer choice� a more decisive factor. The restaurant industry fights very hard to preserve every possible choice requested by customers. After all, choice is all they have to sell.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 12:11:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: The methodical voice of attempted reason. Devoid of humor, so serious.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 11:55:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: I bet you are in favor of outlawing cell phones. Let's ban car phones/radios...wait...How would police then communicate with dispatchers? Facts: you're more likely to get killed by lightning than by a distracted cell phone-using driver. When and where you responsibly use your cell phone is your own business -- so state legislatures have done the right thing to kill many busybody laws. Back in the early days of automobiles, state legislatures debated whether to ban car radios on the grounds that they were dangerous, and raised fears that windshield wipers would hypnotize drivers and cause crashes. Legislators rejected that exaggerated fear-mongering -- just as they have done now with today's cellular hysteria. Cell phone use in cars is just the latest fear of choice, touted by politicians who want another excuse to run our lives. Here are more facts. I know that they are frightening things for liberal pro-nanny-state socialists. There are now 100 million cell phone users around the USA, and yet (according to NHTSA's 1997 crash data...look it up if you don't believe me) cellular phones were a possible factor in only 57 deaths that year. By comparison, an average of 89 people are killed by lightning every year, according to the Statistical Assessment Service. When the windshield wiper was invented in 1903, several automakers refused to install them -- on the grounds they might hypnotize drivers. Some states once drafted legislation to ban radios from cars. Perhaps those anti- radio legislators have been reincarnated as today's anti-cell phone politicians. Driving recklessly is already illegal -- as it should be. If you cause an accident because you're distracted by your cell phone or because you're fiddling with your CD player or yelling at the kids in the back seat, you've already broken the law. Another law making an already illegal activity more illegal won't accomplish anything except to give politicians an inflated sense of accomplishment. There are three decade's worth of evidence that people can drive safely while using communications devices. Hundreds of thousands of police officers have used car radios for decades without any indication that they caused traffic accidents and millions of people used CB radios in the 1970s while traffic fatalities steadily fell. Politicians should explain why police radios and CB radios are safe -- while cell phones are supposedly causing carnage. Let's not make DWT -- Driving While Talking -- a criminal offense. Let's trust people to use their cell phones in automobiles responsibly. And let's not trust politicians to pass more laws to save us from their latest Crisis-of-the-Day.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 11:50:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: The statistics and laws that I find to support my political philosophy aren't bogus. They are facts...unlike your erroneous leaps in logic. Gump's competition could have gone into another business...storm insurance salesmen...well..that probably requires licenses. People in Jesus's time weren't being lazy. They were nmending their nets or attentively listening to the teacher...some of them even asked him intelligent questions. Some were trying their best to catch fish...only to come up with empty nets. Did Jesus say "Quit working and go look for hand-outs...or call on Rome to force its citizens to give you food? No. I don't need government to babysit me. If I make a foolish mistake then it will be my fault...my loss. The whiners are those expecting others to give them a life instead of earning one...It is those demanding hand-outs...calling on government to force people to give them money. I agree with your Rube Waddell on your June 13, 2001 07:54:46 post...too many victimless crimes laws keep cops from going after real criminals.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 11:26:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Right on par with Hitlery.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 11:10:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: "Klintoon." Yup, that's a real knee-slapper. Whisper it like a prayer to my babes at night before I snuggle them up to their guns. "Klintoon. Klintoon. Klintoon."
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 09:44:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: They can't all be gems. Consider how many trial runs there were before somebody finally hit on "Klintoon." Perfection is sometimes a long time coming.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 09:29:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is "manidog" attempted sarcasm? I don't think so. I see it as attempted wit. Which punishment fits that crime?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 09:15:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Can the Nannystate arrest Fornigate posters for attempted sarcasm?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 09:14:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Can't help you, Anon. I'm still surprised that "Moanica" survived.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 08:20:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Does anyone get what "manidog" is supposed to imply? I'm drawing a blank.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 08:18:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Waddell, it is apparent to me that the boy is right about at least one thing, that you twist his arguments around and probably don't even listen to him seriously. I wouldn't go so far as to say arguing with you would be like arguing with a 12-year-old -- maybe 15 or 16. Try to realize that there are no implications to what MK writes, just his final opinion, formed in the cauldron of the web search. These opinions stop with themselves-- do not try to twist them to fit the real world. And you could at least admit that we are dangerously near a real world where soap-on-a-rope is required in every private bathing facility, and millions of cops will spend Memorial Day searching for bars worn down to far that the rope is no longer looped, while rapists roam the villages of America unopposed.
House of Meat
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 08:17:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Lest you jump in with more bogus factoids, MK, the Memorial Day p.r. enforcement rush is not about adults wearing seat-belts as your dishonest sources claim, but about child restraints. The highway cops are willing to do it instead of chasing down illegal U-turns because a) their job forces them to see too many babies splattered against windshields and b) overtime and free coffee. Now, you're going to have a hard time dealing with this next concept, but America's highway cops are oriented toward enforcement of highway laws, and when they do that they are not pulled from investigating murders and rapes. The murderer or the rapist is free to do his evil deeds not because there are traffic cops, but because the people's will to protect themselves against rape and murder has been sapped by the nanny-state always wasting its time trying to proctect them through inefficient government processes, such as laws, police departments, and courts. I wish you would think this stuff through before you fill up the page with your ignorant yawping, sapping the people's will to yawp for themselves.
Rube Waddell
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 07:54:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Time to send Jenna and Barb's Dad to Sonny Bono Bible College. If he can pass the entrance exam.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 07:51:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Bush Visits Non-English-Speaking European Fascist States First--Still Gets Wog Names Wrong, Despite Way Too-Close-Up-and Personal Nannying by Colin Powell. When Will They Ever Let Him Go Without a Puppeteer? No Way. Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch, Senator Chafee Threatens To Go Bye Bye Bye.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 07:47:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, you're really on a roll here. You've discovered a secure future for yourself, dreaming up laws that you would object to. From now on in, you can fret about imaginary hamburger laws, soap-on-a-rope laws, whatever you can dream up. The only problem I can see with this strategy is that it will be difficult to find web pages full of bogus statistics about your imaginary laws to cut and paste from, because you will be the only person familiar with them. On the other hand, you learned about an imaginary Memorial Day campaign to harrass drivers for not wearing seat belts, so maybe there ARE sites objecting eloquently to your imaginary hamburger laws and soap laws. And sure Forrest Gump did well, standing out as a shining example of individual initiative. But Gump could run all day without tiring, and he had a killer ping-pong serve, and not many Americans are so blessed. His shrimp business was a success only because he was lucky enough to survive a hurricaine and own the only boat on the coast. This in fact depressed the shrimp industry over all, because it sapped the initiative of all the other fishermen, who once they had got new boats spent all their time waiting for another storm to destroy all the other boats so they could be as successfull as Gump. It was exactly like Jesus' loaves and fishes, that reduced the early Christians to a bunch of lazy fools lying around waiting for their free bread and fish, their free wine to wash it down. Where WERE you in the 'sixties? There was no consumer demand for seat-belts except for a few weirdos who had owned Porsches in the 'fifties, which came with belts and bucket seats. Ford lost a big slice of its market pushing safety features in the early 'sixties, when the other automakers were stressing muscle and chrome. Seat belts appeared on cars when they became mandatory, but almost nobody used them. The only reason we are stuck with air-bags is because idiots like you won't strap on the goddamn seat-belts, so you need a nanny to make you do it or an air-bag so you don't have to bother. Sure, it would be nice if people would be self-reliant and responsible, and not splatter up the highways and windshields with the bodies of their children, but there is just too much bad DNA around. Ever since Jesus convinced everyone to love their neighbors, we've been nannying the MK's of the world, and the human race has gone down hill. There's nothing left to do but keep nannying you, but believe me, it would be a lot more pleasant if we didn't have to listen to you whining about it all the time.
Rube Waddell
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 07:35:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: We can make laws limiting the fat in hamburgers. hmmm. I'll think of other laws we can create to keep people from making foolish mistakes.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 02:02:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Let's require all homes to have soap-on-a-rope. Too many people slip on soap bars and injure themselves.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 02:01:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Many children's lives have probably been saved by their wearling seatbelts. So? Was it the law that saved them or was it the concerned parents? Seatbelts are a relatively new phenomenon. In the sixties, cars did not have to have seat belts (although most did because of CONSUMER DEMAND). Trying to force better health habits on people ultimately costs more than the medical treatment would, because force is very, very expensive and inefficient. If you were stopped at a roadblock or ticketed for not wearing a seatbelt this past Memorial Day weekend, you weren�t alone: Millions of Americans were inconvenienced by the largest highway harassment campaign. 10,446 law enforcement agencies wasted their time and energy to browbeat motorists for not wearing a seatbelt -- in a nation where 90,000 women are raped annually; 15,000 people are murdered; 400,000 people are robbed; and 900,000 people are assaulted. Seatbelt laws are not a victimless crime. The real victims of these kinds of nuisance laws are the millions of people who wasted time this Memorial Day weekend in roadblock-caused traffic jams; the hundreds of thousands of families who were inconvenienced or frightened because they were pulled over by police; and the tens of thousands of minority drivers who saw this as another example of police harassment. Even worse is the tragic waste of police resources. Think of the time and money that went into this campaign: 10,446 law enforcement agencies, hundreds of thousands of individual police officers, and millions of dollars from police budgets, all to give tickets to that most fearsome of outlaws -- the adult who doesn�t wear a seatbelt. Now consider that according to FBI figures, there are 1.4 million violent crimes committed in America (murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) every year, along with 10.2 million property crimes. Imagine how many of those crimes could have been solved or prevented if the police focused on protecting Americans against real criminals -- instead of targeting innocent people whose only crime is not wearing a seatbelt. This vast outpouring of police activity also conceals an important fact that most Americans already wear seatbelts. Who�s committing the real crime? A foolish driver who puts his or his child's safety at risk by not buckling up? Or the politicians and police who harass millions of Americans over a victimless crime -- while murderers and rapists are left free to victimize innocent people?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 01:59:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: How many children have been saved by being secured in restraint seats? I don't remember mentioning air bags in my earlier post. I was speaking of child restraints to keep them from being tossed about in the car or thrown out the window.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 01:17:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: Air bags have killed 87 people, including 49 children, over the past decade. The government thinks you lack the intelligence to make this life-or-death decision for yourself. More than 2,600 adults have been saved by air bags since 1991-- and that's why they should be offered by car manufacturers. Most Americans would probably buy them without a government mandate. However, parents should keep in mind that new research shows that air bags actually kill more children than they save. In the November 5th Journal of the American Medical Association, air bags actually increase the mortality risks to children. Researchers concluded that 1 child is killed for every 10 adults saved. When it comes to air bags, the real question is, Who decides: individual Americans, who have every incentive to protect themselves and their families or mandate-mad bureaucrats, who stubbornly cling to a policy that has killed 87 innocent Americans already?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 01:04:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: How many people with terminal, life-shortening diseases died while waiting for for the FDA to approve drugs that they were ready and willing to try without waiting the government's seal of approval (if given the chance)?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 00:35:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anonymous: Care to guess how many children were injured by air bags that government required auto-makers to install?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 00:30:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube Waddell: You probably haven't listened to me at all. I am tired of trying to discuss issues rationally and logically with you. It is as if I'm trying to communicate with a 12 year old. You imply that I've said things that I haven't said. You sugest that I hold views that I don't hold. You jump to conclusions worse than anyone with whom I've communicated. Your reasoning skills are deplorable. I do not support the war on drugs. I said Regan was a hero to me due to his posicy regarding the USSR. I said noting about his drug policy. I do not worship Regan. One can be a Christian in his own life and have a freedom-loving Libertarian philosophy as it involves his country. One doesn't have to be a Christian to be an American.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 00:27:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: Forrest Gump prevailed due to work & luck. For each Gump, there are many entrepreneurs whose dreams die because government-created barriers foreclose productive livelihoods. Licensing laws, permits, and other regulations are hurdles that halt the most determined. It complicates things for those whom a chance to earn a living can mean the difference between being self-sufficient or a welfare dependent. Jobs for people with little money or education are often among the 10% of all occupations that require licenses, permits, or government-conditioned entry. Cosmetology, taxi services, trash hauling, and construction labor are a few means of employment curtailed in this fashion. Government regulations are prohibitively onerous, yet serve no real purpose. Considerations in determining who gets a license often involve matters unrelated to professional competence. If a people are going to decide whether other individuals may pursue an occupation, all sorts of irrelevant considerations probably will enter. Over 500 licensing laws protect existing companies from competition, maintain union exclusivity, and occasionally trace their origins to racist or anti-immigrant prejudices of over 100 years ago. Taalib-din Uqdah believed that the artistry of African hairbraiding offered them the prospect of livelihood in the DC. Using $500 from the sale of their car, Uqdah opened a shop and soon had a clientele and 10 employees. An inspector from the local cosmetology demanded to see a cosmetology license. Uqdah didn't have one, but assuming his clean, safe business wouldn't have trouble getting one, he prepared his application. In order to get a license, each employee had to attend 1,500 hours of school, a 9 month commitment costing $5,000. He then had to show mastery of chemical and heat treatment for hair, even though braiders use no chemicals nor heat. Each prospective hair worker would have to take 125 hours of shampooing technique. Graduation also required demonstrating proficiency in fingerwaves and pincurls, hairstyles popular among white women when the cosmetology laws were enacted in 1938. DC finally deregulated its cosmetology trade to exempt African hairbraiding from the pointless requirements. Uqdah runs run a business that serves as a model for many aspiring hairbraiders in the District. Few will be successful in overcoming silly regulations. Manyof laws confront entry level entrepreneurs in the US. The right to earn an honest living receives less protection than the "right" to a welfare check.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 13, 2001 at 00:14:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure beats manidog.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:58:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ever since the Pete golem appeared and began its satirical charicature, Glint has had a hard time spouting Republican doctrine with any conviction. More and more he's withdrawn to his thinking and wanking sessions in the dome. The golem has been a great help, and we will need it to effect the ultimate conversion by Idependence Day.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:50:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Right now you're probably asking yourself, where is the Pete golem. The sad fact is that, like Tinkerbell, a golem can only last a day or two, and then it needs a new sprinkling of fairy dust.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:43:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: The government-fomented anti-drug hysteria of the Reagan years was necessary to focus the nation's attention away from the fact that Nancy Reagan gave the best blow jobs in Hollywood, and later continued to give them in the Lincoln bedroom, although only to favored guests like Frank Sinatra and Regis Philben.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:38:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Libertarians I've heard speak were absolutely against mandatory seat belts, even for very young children. There are just too many people on this planet so let's do away with that law. Get rid of these little future people producers via car crash ejections.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:37:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, through much of history, the Bible has been a great refuge for scoundrels and fools of every stripe. You are merely the latest in a long line. As for the Nazi storm trooper, the Pope and the Southern Baptist Convention both agreed that the Christian thing to do was turn the other cheek.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:33:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: The only thing that even remotely approached the Hell that MK envisions was the "zero tolerance" anti-drug hysteria fostered by MK's hero, Ronald Reagan. A commercial fisherman actually could lose his boat to the government, with no trial, if cops found a few marijuana seeds in one of the crewman's bunks. Fortunately, when the troglodytes turned their attention to keeping the oval office sex-free, things loosened up a little bit on the drug front. Just a little bit. We do still have the Texas Repulicans' zero tolerance policy for teenage drunks in Austin. MK has a bizarre facility for being an ersatz libertarian, a Reagan-worshipper, and a Bible-thumper all at the same time. The boy is either a walking oxymoron, or dumb as a post.
Rube Waddell
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:27:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: Peanuts can be very aggressive upon some individuals even unto death. Thanks to IT this can be avoided.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:27:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: "If you don't like it, leave?!?" Well...Gore lost...believe it or not...and I'm confident that many of you don't like it. Let me help you pack.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:22:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hadley: Was there ever a time when I advocated being disobedient to our government? Thankfully, we live in a freedom-loving Republic...as compared with many other nations. We have the authority to vote for people (indirectly) (and advocate legislation) to support political philosophies. I'm curious: If you were a member of the German SS, how would you apply the Biblical passage that you just mentioned if your government leader ordered you to gun down a group of weak, starving defenseless Jews?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:19:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Where do you suppose he got the one abou the candy shop being blamed because the guy got fat? So you suppose he believes this stuff? What a wasted life.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:19:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: ...but thou shalt spell thou correctly.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:17:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK lives in a weird space of his own, where "government" goes after bars, gun-stores, and news-stands. Or maybe he's not just weird, and that's really the way it is in Waco. Either way, MK is an odd duck. If it's so bad in Waco, why doesn't he move out? Gather together some like-minded citizens and start a libertarian city in the jugles of Columbia. I won't miss him.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:17:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wish God had told Noah "Thow shalt not pack cockroaches."
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:16:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm in complete agreement with IT requiring list of ingredients in a product. There are some individuals who have such severe allergies this can be a matter of life or death.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:11:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: M.K., what is it about the Word of the Lord that you don't understand? Titus 3:1? "Remind them to be subject ot rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work." Is it the thousands and thousands of rules and nit-picking regulations in the Old Testament? Bow down before the wisdom of the Lord your God. Try to see the plank in your own eye, M.K., before you criticize the speck in your brother's eye.
Hadley Roff
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 23:05:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, Goldberg the rube.

- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 22:17:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes...and it consists of power hungry people that think that they know what's best for you.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 22:02:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Now I understand. The entity is an it.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 21:54:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: It [government] has become an ever-growing monster of self-interest...gaining power by convincing citizens that it is needed. It is constantly creating more laws and regulation, and calling on people to give it more money so that it can pay people to regulate the behavior of people in accordance with the new rules it created. --- Government's role should simply be to defend the citizen from agression. (fraud & voilence). That is all. As long as citizens are engaged in mutually agreed upon activities, the government has no business getting involved.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 21:30:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: So what is this thing called government. According to some it sounds as if it's this big gobble, gobble, chomp, chomp entity hard at work trying to devour all of us. Not a human in sight, this government entity is a power unto itself. Well help us and save us said Mrs. Davis as she fell down the stairs with her sack of potatoes.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 20:55:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Instead of just going after the drunk drivers, government attacks the bars. In addition to going after gun-using criminals, the government goes after innocent gun stores. In addition to going after rapist, government is going after the sellers of "dirty" magazines (just because a scant few individuals can't seem to control themselves when they see images of nude women). Must all businesses put warning labels on each and every product to protect them from any conceivable product mis-use their customers might commit. Must the stores also do in-depth psychological evaluations on their customers before selling them anything. Be careful, all you fat people, do't cry out "Discrimination" when the candy shop doesn't sell you a chocolate bar. The store may be protecting itself from a future lawsuit in the event you become ill with a fat (oh...Is it still legal to call fat people "fat"?) related sickness and believe the candy shop to be at fault.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 20:16:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: And yet he goes to Shreveport to gambol.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 19:59:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Richard Boeken was awarded $3 billion in his case against Philip Morris. By age 15 he was smoking 2 packs a day. In 1999, at 54, he learned that he had lung cancer. Why didn't his parents (or guardian(s)) or the education establishment teach him to read, pay attention, and think? Please...people...read, learn, and think about what you do...and accept the consequences of your actions.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 19:47:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: How does he come down on the big social issue of whether Jenna knows how to give a pop-bead job yet?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 19:12:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Goldberg... Goldberg.... isn't he the guy who discovered that you can bend up the edge of one of those giant movie-theatre popcorn tubs and wear it like a hat?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 19:10:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg, who has raised eyebrows in the past for discussing anti-conservative bias among network reporters, on C-SPAN: "My friends at the networks who certainly are liberal agree that there's a liberal bias. And that's something that I wish more of them would speak out more about, but for practical reasons they can't." More Goldberg: "While I'm not going to sit here and tell you how I feel about the major issues of the day, I'll tell you this: A lot of people who probably don't like my position, and maybe�don't like me, would be very surprised at some of my positions on the big social issues of the day."
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 18:09:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: krod

- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 17:42:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: dork
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 15:42:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wanna protect the environment?..call on the government to sell all public land. The private citizen will probably care more for his own property than will the government. See...if someone polutes public land, it is unlikely that he will get caught...cost for his act of littering will be distributed among millions of tax payers. On the other hand, if you own the property...and are free to do with it as you lik...you will probably take better care of it. If you polute it or neglect t, the cost/loss is yours alone. See how that works?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 14:06:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: Here is a novel idea. Let people know that they can buy more fuel efficient products. Wait advertisers are already doing that...we also have magazines for the cost conscious consumer. Look, those concerned that they may be spending too much...on electricity or on anything...will find ways to cut back.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 13:58:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's not the EPA dumbing down the power, it's the boneheaded cornhusking consumer buying inferior electronics from the foreigners. Next thing you know there'll be between 3 and 5.5 million of them in California, wondering why you can't get a decently ear-shattering amplifier.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 13:29:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: "For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending to this very thing."
God
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 13:25:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Finally inventoried the power output of the home entertainment system. The front pair of speakers (Energy Pro Series 2-way -- 6.5" and 1" tweeter) are rated 120 Watts. The center speaker (Energy EC series -- twin 5.5" speakers) is 175 Watts. The powered (Energy 12") subwoofer can crank out 600 Watts all by itself. The ceiling mounted surround sound speakers (MTX Pointe Series) are 8.5" with 1" tweeters. I have lost the specs for them, but assume they are 100 watts minimum. Then there are the Sansui 3-ways with 12" woofers that I added yesterday as a second L/R pair for playing CDs and vinyl -- 100 watts each. Thus, the maximum sound output from this 8 speaker set is 1,415 Watts! <> Now, here's the rub. The Denon home entertainment receiver is not driving them at their rated power -- after all, it's only a famly room. Each L/R pair, center , and surround get 65 Watts/channel. Of course this doesn't affect the subwoofer which is has its own amp. Thus, the maximum powered output from this system is 455 watts for the amp plus 600 Watts from the subwoofer, for a total of 1055 Watts. I've never had it fully cranked because it eventually turns into white noise like at an Airplane concert. <> Now here's the raw rub. According to the specs the power output goes up to 90 Watts per channel for models sold in Asia and Taiwan. What's with the dummed down power output in the U.S.A. Is there some nanny group somewhere such as the EPA which is concerned with protecting the hearing of Americans or the DOE shunting our electricity off to California by thwarting our right to crank it up? If the Asians are getting 90 Watts/channel Americans should get at least 200 Watts/Channel. GIVE US BACK OUR WATTS!!
Glint
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 13:20:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Thankfully, one doesn't have to be a Christian in order to be an American. I wasn't the one who originally brought up the issue of Christianity. By the way, one of the resons people came to America from Europe was to flee eligious persecution and a "state church".
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 13:16:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Let's get back on topic!
Harlan St. Wolf
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 13:07:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: Cool pics Glint.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 13:01:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Thanks, Pete. Actually, that scruffy area between the "Dome of the Rock" and the house is the county mandated "reforestation area" where the widow who sold us the land had to plant 1200 trees. I can pick out a few of the bigger ones in the picture. Hopefully I can get some good observing in before the trees get too tall and the farms to the south and east get turned into houses. <> Hi, MK. I got tired of listening to classical music in the dome last night and turned to one of the shortwave bands and picked up Radio Habana to listen to some spastic Cuban tunes. Seems that Radio Habana is now a major mouthpiece for Greenpeace.
Glint
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 12:51:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hadley Roff - Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 06:42:30 (EDT)It may have been through God's design that the USSR fall, but just as Moses led Isrealites, it was through the decisions of men. There is no Revelations 4:5-18. I can't find specific mention of the fall of the USSR foretold in the Bible. Could you be reading more into it than is there? Please point it out to me. Did your school teach you how to slide words into people's mouths? I didn't say that weather or not the bible mentions a bird or a nest. --- Regan, by dumpin money into defence and challenging the USSR to keep up led to its fall. --- A fool and his money are soon parted. I am not whining about paying taxes. I am noy saying that we should cheat on our taxes. I am merely saying that we should pay less taxes. I am glad we have a tax cut. The tithe is 10% if you give 10% of your gross salary to the church and give another 10% to the government, that is a total of 20%...not over 30%...but that is what some people are required to pay...over 30% to the government. Did you ever hear of Caritas and "Habitat for Humanity". I do support good works and aid my brothers. I don't need a middle man...that takes a large cut from the top of my "donation" to tell me how to contribute. That's okay Hadley, I have freedom not to listen to the long-winded.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 12:38:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wow, Glint, sort of like American Gothic Fortress with an alien bubble outhouse. Beautiful area, for sure. Are you going to do any tress near the house? Looks like fun.
Pete�
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 12:33:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good work, Hadley!
Roger Boas (SBBC, class of '58)
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 12:33:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Just a reminder: http://members.fortunecity.com/fornigate/glint/#observatory
Glint
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 12:02:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sorry about getting long-winded there, M.K., but a Sonny Bono Bible College degree confers a duty to enlighten. I guess it's true as they say that we all go forth as ministers of the Gospel, and sometimes all that intensive learning and contemplation on the Lord is hard to shake, once we have gone out among the worldlings. I won't do it again unless you misinterpret more verses. You are not to be blamed, but please be careful and study on the Word before shoveling it out onto this board. "Learn ye before teaching," as we say at SBBC.
Hadley Roff
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 08:05:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: God Sees The Freepers There was a striking moment during the interregnum last November/December that has stayed with me ever since. 'Inside Politics' was running 24 hours a day on CNN, you will recall. I was watching one evening, several days into the theft, and there was Judy Woodruff interviewing conservative columnist Bob Novak. The question of the hour was whether Al Gore should just quit and go home. On this night, Novak was pointing to a public poll that had been running on CNN.com. You know these polls. Log on to a news site and you can vote your opinion on whatever happens to be the headline of the day. The poll Novak referred to asked the question: "Should Al Gore concede?" The results showed that some 89% of the American population who found their way onto CNN.com voted "Yes" to this question. The count of those who voted numbered in the tens of thousands. Novak flapped this poll all around the studio as indisputable proof that a large majority of the American people saw Gore as a thief and a usurper and a sore loser who should just go away. Soon enough, Gore did. I never forgot that night, and never lost the sneaking suspicion that something shady had occurred. Somehow, someone had flooded that poll with "Yes" votes to skew the results. I had no proof, and the theme song to 'X-Files' was sounding in my head, but I was mortally sure that something was rotten in Denmark. Now, after all these months, I have figured out what happened that night. That CNN.com poll was 'Freeped'. What does it mean when something gets 'Freeped'? Aim your browser to http://www.FreeRepublic.com, join the conversations in the forums, and you will find out. FreeRepublic.com is a website which describes its cause thusly: "We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America." This seems innocent enough. I am a particular fan of governmental largesse, but respect coherent arguments against it. I believe my work against the illegitimacy of Bush proves my dedication to rooting out political fraud and corruption. And while I am no conservative, I have met many conservatives whom I admire for their intellect, ability to articulate a message, and integrity in the truest definition of that word: "Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code." My grandfather was a conservative of great integrity from the old school, and I never once found cause to look down on him, even when we disagreed on a principle. My grandfather was the ideal conservative, in my opinion. A part of me is glad he died before I could tell him about the Freepers. A Freeper is a member of FreeRepublic.com. Freepers speak to each other on the forums of this website, discussing all varieties of topic. Purportedly, they support the ideals espoused above. In actuality, there is a yawning moral chasm between word and deed. Take the CNN.com poll I discussed above, for example. A common Freeper tactic is to post on the FreeRepublic forums a notice that a poll exists somewhere which asks a question dear to the conservative heart: "Should the Congress pass more gun control legislation?" or "Is Bill Clinton the illegitimate spawn of Satan and Baal?" The URL to this poll is provided, and the Freeper legions swarm to vote.say, "no" on the first and "yes" on the second. There are a lot of Freepers, and many of them will vote multiple times. This, obviously skews the result. This is how a poll is 'Freeped.' Novak and CNN used the 'Freeped' CNN.com poll to convince the public that 89% of them wanted Al Gore to quit before the votes were counted. This helped to push the rising tidewater that allowed the Supreme Court to get away with stealing the election. Is this not political corruption? Does such a disruption skew information that is provided to the public via the media? Does this not pervert the truth? Of course, there are liberals out there who organize the same kind of coordinated mugging of public internet polls. It can be argued that such things are no more than political gamesmanship. Dig a little deeper into the Freeper phenomenon, however, and you will find a darkness where true morality dares not show its face. As we all know, Jenna Bush was recently busted for attempting to purchase booze at a restaurant named Chuy's in Austin, Texas. The manager of the establishment, named Mia Lawrence, called 911 when she saw what was happening. The Freepers took this personally, believing the Jenna fiasco to be part of some liberal conspiracy to humiliate Bush and the daughters. They called for a 'Freeping' of Chuy's restaurant. Salon.com recently wrote a story about the Freeper reaction to the Chuy's situation. ("The jihad against Chuy's" by Anthony York) I quote it in part below: 'The attacks against Mia Lawrence, the bar manager, are being orchestrated on the Internet. Her address, date of birth, drivers license and registration information, physical description, and even birth information about her infant child have been posted on Freerepublic.com, along with calls for punitive actions. Freerepublic.com Web site's sysop pulled some of the information as it was called to his attention -- to his credit -- but the info has circulated and been posted to other Internet forums to spread the "Get Lawrence" frenzy.' I felt a chill in my spine when I first read these words. The manager, Mia Lawrence, was in all likelihood seeking to save her restaurant from breaking Texas' punitive underage drinking laws, signed by Governor Bush, which would have cost Chuy's its liquor license. She earned for her trouble a legion of stalkers who speak openly of loving guns. Her personal information, along with maps providing driving directions to her home, were posted on FreeRepublic. I am confident in my prediction that she has not slept since dialing 911. I did some research regarding this topic on FreeRepublic. Entering the word "Chuy" into the search engine provided, I found the following Freeper commentary: "The manager, (aka 'Mia the Liberal DemonRat'), tried to cause as much trouble for the Bush twins and their dad as possible and now might get it returned back on her own head in spades!!! This is sweet!" - Truth_Eagle "Hell! Surround Chuy's with tanks and set the place on fire while fully occupied." - olustee "Let's turn that TEXMEX joint into a BARBECUE!" - makoman I read comments, since removed by the moderators of FreeRepublic, which suggested that someone should go into Chuy's and smear acid on the tables. To be fair, a fellow Freeper posted the following dissent: "Every thread that had Mia's addy posted on it got pulled. Every one. It's NOT OK. Printing a map to the house, and having the addy on the map, is arguably worse." - CyberLiberty CyberLiberty is proof positive that not all Freepers are violent psychopaths. Still, there were far more posts in the vein of olustee's than of CyberEagle's. By all means, seek out the site and investigate for yourself. I am forced to wonder how posting the name, address and physical description of a restaurant manager from Austin, as well as the description of her infant child, furthers the conservative cause in America. I am reminded of the words of art critic and author, Harold Rosenberg: "The values to which the conservative appeals are inevitably caricatured by the individuals designated to put them into practice." Clearly, the purported targeting of the daughter of the President is mortally offensive to the average Freeper. I decided to do a search using the words "Chelsea Clinton." I found the following: (question asked) "I really do wonder what perversions Chelsea participates in." (response) "THAT is something I would rather NOT wonder about. Animals, plants, the elderly...echh. The girl is a walking STD." - AntiChris "If people didnt know that hillary was an ugly assed dyke - they must have been blind - she just put up with old dumb ass so she could run the white house - just look at the bizarre bunch she put in office - the female version of frankenstein - which is janet reno - and this could go on and on - halfbright looks just like broomhilda - weirdest looking bunch ever to defile any government - and all courtesy of mr hillary - and then she supported all the fags in hollywood and along with her fat assed dyke buddy rosie - they all look like something from a sideshow at a circus - everyone of them has the coyote rating." - candyman34 In these two short entries, the daughter of a President is accused of carnal knowledge of animals and plants. She is accused of being a spreader of STDs. Senator Hillary Clinton is called a "dyke." The very notion of balance or fair play is conspicuously absent here. The hatred is palpable. Which brings me to yet another favorite Freeper topic. A singular characteristic of the average Freeper is an abiding love and respect for Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Many Freepers use Christ as the shield with which they defend their views. Sometimes, they use him as their sword. If I remember my Sunday School classes, Jesus said in the Book of John, chapter 15 verse 12, " This is my commandment, that ye love one another." I entered the word "homosexual" into the FreeRepublic search engine, and found the following. Keep the Bible quote I provided in mind as you read: "The spread of infectious diseases... oral and anal cancer... death from HIV infections...Just some of the ways GOD gets even with the queers and faggots." - upchuck "In another time, and in another place, they burned people like this." - East Bay Patriot "I will tell you that the Lord God has at least 7000 righteous in the USA that have not bowed their knee to baal = and these flames of fire are going to rise up soon and speak the Living Word of a Holy God to these frog-demon-freaks and ban them from our land. I will NOT let this country be over-run by Communist/Socialist/Globalist/Abortionist/Feminist Sodomites." - jdhmichigan "DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT shake hands with any homosexuals." - Mr. K. I have been a Christian all my life. My understanding of the teachings of Jesus directs me to love my enemies, and accept everyone - Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist - as a child of God. Jesus was the son of God, but was also a revolutionary seeking freedom from Roman persecution. Therefore, as a Christian and a freedom-loving American, I respect and love those who do not bend a knee to any religion. Jesus died so all of us could live, and the American Revolution was fought so that all people in this nation could live as they wish. These two events are connected intimately. I do not pretend, as a card-carrying heterosexual, to understand how one man can look with lust upon another man. But after being friends with, and after sharing apartment space with, a number of homosexual men and women, I know in my heart that such things exist for a reason and are not wrong. God loves everyone equally, as He sees the smallest sparrow fall. I love everyone, too. Perhaps, like gay men and women, I was born that way. I have never espoused the burning at the stake of any human being, be they gay or conservative. I know of no 'liberal' who has espoused such action. How such a statement falls within the yardsticks of Christianity or true conservatism is a mystery which I may never solve. I do know this, however: were Jesus to log on to FreeRepublic and read the perversion His message has undergone in 2,000 years, He would beg to be crucified again, so as to be spared exposure to such hatred. I suppose it is easy for the average Freeper to post such virulent messages on a public forum. After all, they dare not use their real names. Names like Truth_Eagle, upchuck and AntiChris are shields behind which cowards hide. It is easy to speak when no one can see your face. A veteran of many email flame wars, I know well how brave a person can be when shielded by the anonymity of a computer keyboard. Those who sexually stalk teenage girls in internet chat rooms use similar tactics. It is very effective. My screen name, on each and every board I post to, is WilliamPitt. I am easy to find. I do not hide, and I never will. The glaring fact of the cowardice of the average Freeper should not in any way diminish the effectiveness of their actions. They pervert public polls. They call and email congressional representatives en masse, thus creating the illusion of massive public pressure that twists the actions of elected officials who seek only respond to the legitimate concerns of constituents. They bombard media outlets with prurient stories to discredit respectable Democratic officeholders. They are the bedrock base of the entity we know as the GOP. They are very, very powerful. Keep these things in mind when you find yourself shocked by the results of a poll on MSNBC, or when a Senator refuses to support reasonable gun control laws, or when the press decides to spend two years covering a consensual sex act between adults. Robert Kennedy described Richard Nixon as being a symbol of "the dark side of the American Dream." Were he alive today, he would described FreeRepublic in the same terms. The Freepers are out there. --William Rivers Pitt, 6/11/01
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 08:04:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: You see, M.K., . The Bible is the great security of all social order.�The Bible, of course, read, studied, believed, and made "the man of our counsel." It must be so; for it guards on the one hand, when fairly interpreted, the rights of the individual; it allows of no tyrannical exercise of power, forbidding all oppression, and elevating every human being to his true position of dignity and worth as intelligent and immortal; bringing all down to the same level as guilty before God, and utterly alienated from Him; raising again all the penitent and the believing alike to the highest place of privilege and of hope. Consequently it abases pride, restrains gross and vulgar ambition, teaches mutual esteem, and enjoins mutual interest and good offices. But on the other hand, the Bible enforces with its sanctions a due arrangement, connection and subordination in human society. Ever maintaining the prerogatives of an enlightened conscience, it offers no toleration to the vicious, the malevolent, the disorderly, the seditious. It not only restrains them by clear discoveries of the wrath of God, which inevitably attends and visits lawlessness and crime, but, in addition, arms lawful authority with the right to inflict punishment proportioned to the nature and circumstances of offences against social order and moral law. It establishes all just authority; parental, ecclesiastical and civil. These properties of the Word of God, properly considered, enable us to see why it is that tyrants fear it; that despotic governments oppose its free circulation. It sets up a standard of judgment as the guide of human action infinitely above the enactments of mere human power. It divests man of a superstitious and debasing reverence for arbitrary rule. It exalts, as to the greatest and most desirable issues, the poorest and humblest to a level with the highest. It brings all alike before the same just and impartial tribunal. And, hence, a community imbued with scriptural knowledge can never become the prey of arbitrary power. Such a people will scorn and cast off the yoke of ignoble bondage. But for the same reason, the Bible ever imparts an unshaken stability to free and equitable social and political arrangements, for it teaches men their several duties, discloses to them the beneficent ends of governmental institutions, and endues them with the dispositions and sobriety requisite to, and that go to make, a stable order of society. The free seek and promote, as the best safeguard of liberty, the knowledge of that very Bible which the aristocratic and selfish would put under restraint. So, in fact the Bible is the quintessentially Liberal document of our era. It defines Liberalism and imposes the practice of Liberalism upon all men, including those who happen to reside in Waco. Think about it the next time you are looking through it, trying to find excuses for avoiding taxes, for avoiding supporting good works in aid of your brothers. All history confirms these views, and hence the instructive lesson: study, spread, reverence the inspired volume, for in it we have this life, as well as life eternal.
Hadley Roff
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 07:48:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Now, at Sonny Bono Bible College it is taught thus: 1. The requisite contributions are to be made for the maintenance of government. 2. The word rendered "taxes" (forouj, or "tribute" in the King James, which I shall use here ) signifies, literally�as does our word by which it is rendered�the contributions levied upon a conquered state or province. It also means any direct tax laid indiscriminately upon all citizens�such as land tax, capitation tax, or a tax upon personal estate; and, even more generally, any kind of levy by which national revenues are gathered, with the exception of customs. This is its meaning here, and the payment of such taxes is enforced by a three-fold argument�and, (1.) From the nature, and ends, and benefits of civil rule. "For this cause pay ye tribute." Some expositors regard this clause as referring to the preceding verse, and, consequently, as urging a conscientious response to the pecuniary demands of government. To this interpretation there can be no doctrinal objection. This is, in fact, the very gist of the precept contained in the entire verse. It is better, however, to consider this clause as looking back to the whole of the foregoing teachings of the apostle on the subject of civil power and its exercise, with special reference to the great argument which lies at the foundation of the general duty of subjection�the fact that civil government is no mere human arrangement, but a divine institution. (2.) The apostle argues from the fact that magistrates are God�s "ministers." That they are so, has been previously stated, and the import of the term we have attempted to explain, viz., that it designates civil rulers as the servants of God, not in the general way in which all things, even inanimate, serve Him, inasmuch as they are controlled by His power, and guided by His hand, so that they are instruments of accomplishing his unalterable purposes; but in a limited and specific sense, as they are employed in administering his law, in administering authority which He has ordained, in executing functions which he has prescribed. In other words, magistrates are God�s "ministers," in a sense analogous to that in which ecclesiastical functionaries are "ministers" of Christ. This view is clearly expressed by the term here rendered "ministers." It is not the same with that used in the fourth verse. There it is "diakonoj," here it is "leitourgoi"�a title given by the Athenians to those employed by the state in particular offices by national appointment, and often used by the inspired writers in the sense of holding a public office or ministry. In Heb. 10:11, it denotes the exercise of the priestly office. The occupant of civil power�by whatever form of lawful procedure invested with power�is still the "minister" of God. To withhold such contributions as the exigencies of the government require, is, consequently, a dishonour done to God, by whom the magistrate has been appointed and his duties assigned. (3.) The payment of taxes is a duty inasmuch as they are justly due�due upon the principle of work done, and benefit conferred. "Attending continually upon this very thing." Not the collection of taxes merely. It is impossible that this can be the apostle�s meaning. Civil rulers are not mere tax gatherers. And those who are specially employed in this department are principally of that class to whom, least of all, the passage refers. The magistracy�a good magistracy, and the apostle speaks o no other�"attend" to higher duties, to the advancement of the public weal, the promotion of peace, of social and moral order, of religion, of the glory of God. On this ground, then, it becomes a duty to contribute conscientiously to the national funds. There is a service rendered�a work done�benefit received; and on the common principles of equity which regulate all matters of a pecuniary kind in common intercourse and business. Bear in mind the fact that taxes are to be conscientiously paid�that to defraud the public revenues, directly or indirectly, is to sin against God�not only on the ground and for the reason that it is sin to withhold from any what is their due, but also for the specific reason that the magistrate is God�s "minister," and that thence it is a kind of sacrilege to refuse to contribute to the public treasury. Of course, the Jews at Baylor might have problems with this.
Hadley Roff
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 07:43:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: M.K., Mr. La-de-da Balor U., why don't you read Romans 13:1-7. Is that passage excised from your apocryphal redneck Bible? I like especially verse 6: "For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending to this very thing." And of course verse 1 "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God."
Hadley Roff
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 07:37:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Jesus advocated that people give out of a kind heart...out of a willingness...not out of obligation, eh? So you think that that was an excuse to bitch about taxes? A government can't follow the teachings of Jesus and give out of a kind heart or willingness? Why not? Because some of what it gives would be better spent on tickets to Disney World for the Kramer family? M.K., whose picture is on the dollar bill? Render unto Washington that which is Washington's, and quit whining about it.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 07:26:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: That was me, not the cowardly anonymous.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 06:59:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: I see, I see.... it's the "process" that Reagan sped up. The process of what? History? Economics? Gravity? As I understand the brilliant theory of Reagan-spent-them-to-death, what happened was that one day the Soviets looked up desparately and said, "Borscht! These bastards are making six new submarines and 32 airplanes and three hundred thousand bazookas, and they've got 132 new Wal-Marts and six thousand Burger Kings and practically everybody has a VCR and a bicycle he doesn't even use and weights and a guitar. We don't stand a fucking chance, we better throw in the towel." They said, "shit, this is worse than when the Germans kicked our ass back to Stalingrad and we had to burn up half our country and freeze our nuts off and eat rats and bark for four years and die by the millions and millions and millions. We should have it so good today. This Reagan character is just not going to stop, and it's time to quit." Hitler was a fool. He didn't understand that the way you beat the Russians is sit on the other side of the world and open your wallet.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 06:57:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: That's rich... an Old Baylor telling a graduate of Sonny Bono how to use the Good Book. Read it yourself, prideful one, I am with Jesus daily, having opened my heart to Him, unpolluted by your pharisee interpretations and Southern Baptist heresies. The fall of godless communism was no work of man, but the will of the Lord. Gravity did not "evolve" from some ape-like form, but was created by God. The Soviet Union fell as foretold-- read Revelations 4:5-18. There is no mention of a bird in the sacred text, no mention of any nest.
Hadley Roff
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 06:42:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: "Little by little the bird makes his nest." Duh. I didn't say it fell over night. Regan's policies merely sped up the process. --- Read 2nd Thssalonians 3:6-15, Hebrews 6:10-12. For a good parable about working with what you have and earning more as a result, read Luke 2:11-27.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 01:09:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Jesus advocated that people give out of a kind heart...out of a willingness...not out of obligation.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 00:44:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sad, but I do not believe force feeding is going to work.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 00:43:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: *** 4 * G L O R I O U S * N E W * P I C S * A T * G L I N T ' S * H O U S E *** Check out (1) the God's eye view of the Glint compound at <http://members.fortunecity.com/fornigate/glint/>. It may not be the Branch Davidian compound in Waco but at least the house isn't the only building here any more. Click or scroll down to the observatory section. While there take a gander at the dome pic which I am so sure that Ydog would enjoy that I'm going to force feed a copy into his mailbox. There is alsosome sample astrophotos from this week of some sunspot groups (3) and (4). ENJOY!
Glint
- Tuesday, June 12, 2001 at 00:18:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anon, I matriculated at Sonny Bono Bible College, and I think I know a little bit about Jesus, and about socialists too. Jesus said that if you accepted him into your heart you could lie around for eternity, playing a harp and having your feet washed by beautiful Buddhist slave-girls. Christianity was never about lying around for fish to pile up on the dock. If you look close at a socialist, you can see where the horns have been amputated, sometimes you can even see the stumps. I've looked at many a picture of Jesus, and have never seen a single disfigurement, in the scalp area, except for where the thorns poked him.
Hadley Roff
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:40:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm not thinking about the politics of it, Hadley, just the handouts, the sapping of the will, the decline in productivity. If anyone wasn't producing around Jesus, he would take what somebody else had produced, a loaf or a fish, and turn it into a thousand loaves or fishes. What do you think this did to productivity? That's right, it discouraged the producers from being more productive. Was a fisherman going to go out and fight the sea and haul nets all day if he could lie around on his ass eating free bread, knowing that a pile of fish would magically appear on the dock? It's easy to see that YOU never went to Baylor.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:32:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Why do you think Jesus was a socialist, anonymous? It sounds like blasphemy. Didn't you hear the late lamented Pete's explanation of rendering unto Ceasar?
Hadley Roff
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:28:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Socialism works just fine, M.K. Jesus proved that. Everybody has to be meek, though.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:26:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh, now it's " Reagan accelerated the inevitable fall" huh? Keep that thinking cap on, M.K., and you might get all the way to "Reagan probably didn't greatly slow the inevitable fall." Little by little the bird makes his nest.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:22:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: Don't listen to him, M.K. The federal government is nothing but a bunch of tight-fisted, nickle-nursing Hebes. Anyone who thinks he's going to pull down an obscene profit or a fat salary working on federal contracts is in fantasy-land. We beat the Ivans by building top-quality armaments at rock-bottom prices. And name me a single federal contract that ever went over cost or past due.
Glimpse
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:18:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yep. There was quite a bit of over-kill and mis-management by the Pentagon...but it did get the job done. As I said before Regan accelerated the inevitable fall of the USSR.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:10:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: They beat us fair and square. We make the $1000 toilet seat too, but is nobody buying him. Nobody have no money. All workers not productive, no money to pay so high for toilet seat. If this evil genius Reagan not thinking up this, we still in business today. Instead we running junkyard in Jersey.
Ivan Ivanovitch
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:07:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Patience..... think about it, young fella. Socialism doesn't work. Just keeps people from being productive. So, considering that, and gravity, and the banana peel, does it seem more likely that the Soviet Union just fell down, or that it got spent down with thousand dollar toilet seats? You don't have to answer. We'd like an evening of quiet contemplation from you. If you run out of things to think about, think about why someone would have any interest in saying he beat the soviet union by giving government handouts to his friends, paying them a thousand dollars for a $9.99 toilet seat.... (yes, Virginia, there IS such a thing as a government handout.)
House of Meat
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 23:04:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: So, everything eventually falls. Is it just random chance and coincidence that the USA is still here under the a constitution of freedom whose framework is well over 200 years old and the greatly more repressive USSR died (fell) in under 96 years?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 22:17:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: In order to remember CVC double the consonant before adding a suffix.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 22:04:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ya sound like one of those believers in Socialism...one of those die-hards that refuse to face reality. Socialism doesn't work. It discourages the producers from being more productive...since more of the money they earn is taken away. It also encourages those who don't want to work to remain dependent on government hand-outs. Most of all...it is an evil to freedom--- Well a monster has finally been put to death after living comfortably on tax-payer money at club fed. My wife and I will be getting $600 of out taxes back in September...but interest won't be added. Oh well...it is better than nothing. We are getting the plane back from China. It looks as though China didn't get anything from its foolish stunt but a sympathy letter, a dead Chinese soldier, and a wrecked fighter jet. George W. Bush is doin' just fine.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 22:03:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Why does somebody fall, M.K.? Remember Occam and his Razor. Look for the obvious answer. Gravity, a banana peel, histolyzing amoebae eating his guts so he wasn't as big and as strong as he looked. You have to go pretty far afield to guess that he fell down from trying to spend as much as somebody else. When you hear facile interpretations of human events, M.K., it is well to stop and think for thirty or forty seconds. Does it sound improbable, said out loud, or applied to a situation you understand? For example, Pete said when he was alive that slavery started in America because people in South Carolina decided to grow rice and the only place they could find people who knew how to grow rice was in West Africa. Does that make any sense? Sail thousands of hard miles and enslave people because you guess they know how to grow rice in a country and climate totally alien to them? There may be a kernal of truth in both ideas, but slavery didn't start in America because West Africans are great rice culturalists, and the Soviet Union didn't come apart because Ronald Reagan bought five-hundred-dollar hammers and thousand-dollar toilet seats. So you are well-advised to think about gravity. Gravity brings everything down, in the end, even before Glint's entropy takes what's left.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 22:01:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: We'll go back to school if you'll agree to take a remedial spelling class.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 21:55:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: and you are very evasive...aren't you...teach?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 21:52:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: You're pretty clueless, aren't you, M.K.?
House of Meat
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 21:38:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: You know what I mean...or do you have such a limited vocabulary. "To fall" not only means to drop or come down freely under the influence of gravity. It also means an overthrow or a collapse. It is also defined as a marked, often sudden, decline in status, rank, or importance. The fall of the USSR applies to this definition. Did your students have to be this specific with you in order for you to understand them. Go back to school...as a student. It may help.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 20:40:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Have you ever heard of gravity, M.K.?
House of Meat
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 20:29:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Then how and why did the 2nd greatest nation (and the most powerful Communist nation) in the world fall if not due in large part to America's policy?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 19:30:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Why is it cruel to say that Reagan shaved his armpits? So what if he shaved them? Most men don't do it, but most men aren't professional actors. It didn't seem to slow him down much, in the long run, although some researchers believes it causes gradual deterioration of the mind. I always loved the theory that the USSR went down because the USA won a spending battle. It's just about the perfect myth for the large population of Americans whose main activity is to buy things. It's right in line with radically overpriced German cars and the Sharper Image catalogue and the 400-watt surround-sound version of the Doors. By God we beat their ass! NOBODY beats an American at buying useless hardware!
Lector Skink
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 19:21:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: I agree, Pete. Regan, by dumping huge sums of money into defence and challenging the USSR to keep up, he accelerated the inevitable colaps of the Soviet Union. In at least that regard, I consider him a hero. Now that he successfully reached beyond the age of 90, and his ody and mind is suffering the affects of alzheimers, it was pretty cheap, petty, and cruel for someone to have posted that remark at 17:11:29. If yo find any misspelled words...cool it.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 18:51:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, true blue cruel socialsit barb. Par for the liars' course. Fore!
Pete�
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 18:30:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube: Check out http://www.dictionary.com/translate/ I think I was pretty clever...to impress you. Thanks.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 18:30:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ronald Reagan might want that razor, if he still shaves his pits. He probably doesn't remember why he did it, and probably would have a hard time holding the razor. But Nancy can always help, or the Secret Service agent.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 17:11:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: I was going to get her a hand crank AM FM with a solar cell charger but the new office is windowless. Since there's a wall though she might enjoy the Sharper Image's wall mounted AM/FM underarm razor with beard trimmer. Might come in handy with bikini season approaching.
Glint
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:59:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: Okay, that's better.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:51:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good music you say? They sound great right now belting out Elvin Bishop. I haven't added it up but I think the output is on the order of 400-600 Watts total power output.
Glint
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:50:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Get a job.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:49:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Taking the youngest daughter down to the Sharper Image store to shop; help me use up the gift card I got from my agent. (She has a birthday coming up.) For me I'm going to get an Olympus 35mm camers. I wanted to get the Mrs. an A.M. radio for her office in the cafeteria of the new high school, but the only radio for under $100 is the Sonic Self-Combing Catbox with AM/FM radio. Think I'll buy a hand crank Xenon flashlight for the observatory instead.
Glint
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:48:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure, the Doors. But how are they for good music?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:43:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: I just got some new pics of the observatory back from the photo store. I'll post one or two at the Glint's house site and let you know when they're there. One of them I did especially for Ydog. I think he would like it so I might e-mail it directly to him. <> I found a couple 3-way speakers in the closet I forgot I had. The woofers are 12 inch and as I recall they were 100 Watts. Added them as speakers 7 and 8 (duplicating the left and right pair) of the home entertainment system and WOW! Mucho Decibles. Wish you could hear The Doors on them!
Glint
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:36:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, dumb and dumber. Part Deux. Or duh.
Pete�
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:35:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: You mean they spread their pussed over twats for him and he didn't like it?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:22:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Funny story.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:21:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Four South African schoolgirls accused of raping a 15-year-old deaf boy twice have appeared before magistrates. The girls from Soweto, who are also 15, were not asked to plead to the charges when they appeared at Protea Magistrate's Court. Magistrates have released them into the care of their parents. The boy was walking home from school when he was allegedly approached by the girls on May 10. He says they dragged him to a deserted area where they removed his clothes and forced themselves on him. The boy says he did not tell anyone about the incident but after the girls raped him a second time on May 17 he decided to inform authorities.
sounds like he was deaf AND dumb
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:11:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ask Ho-hum. He "worked" for the guy. If you see hummer, send my regards. Ha!
Pete�
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:10:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: An obvious ploy to get Pete's Ghost banned from the site. Pretty transparent, St. Wolf.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 16:00:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm between jobs and would like to work for the webmaster of this page. Does anyone know how to get in touch with him? Is anyone here on the staff already? Are the benefits good?
Harlan St. Wolf
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 15:52:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Looking thorugh the wax I pull out "Fragile" by Yes - the album most appropriate for today as nature's entropy cool McVey's dead body. Again, no pond but there is water: "...In and around the lake mountains come out of the sky and they stand there ... Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too..."
Glint
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 15:51:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Forty percent of gross is a pretty big tax bite for this country. Do you suppose the golem's arithmetic is right? Maybe it doesn't know he gets a break on the first $300K.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 15:43:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: Berkeley Big Book of Wild Animal Lore, don't you know.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 15:38:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Who cares what the polls show? It all comes down to what the Supreme Court wants.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 15:32:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Delusional, the bonehead never saw that the source of the poll polled 2/3 Democrats. It is all propoganda by the liars. Traitors. Keep laughing. You are a jackal-arse.
Pete�
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 15:28:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: "Senator Jeffords said one reason that he left the Republican Party is that the party has become too conservative under President Bush. Do you agree or disagree?" Agree 50%, Disagree 42%.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 14:31:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: "In the last four months do you think Bush has tried mainly to push his own agenda in Congress, or tried mainly to compromise with the Democrats in Congress?" Push his own agenda 63%. Compromise with Democrats 32%. "In the future, do you think Bush SHOULD try mainly to push his own agenda in Congress, or try mainly to compromise with the Democrats in Congress?" Push his own agenda 29%. Compromise with Democrats 68%.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 14:29:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Bad thing 20%. Not much difference 38%.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 14:26:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: "As you may know, control of the U.S. Senate is about to switch from the Republicans to the Democrats. On balance, do you think the Democrats' taking control of the Senate is a good thing or a bad thing for the country, or doesn't it make much difference?" Good thing 41%.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 14:25:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: "On another subject, which political party do you think is more open to the ideas of people who are political moderates: the Democrats or the Republicans?" Democrats 57%; Republicans 32%.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 14:24:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: ABC News/Washington Post Poll. May 31-June 3, 2001. "Do you think the country should go in the direction Bush wants to lead it, go in the direction the Democrats in Congress want to lead it?" Bush direction 40%; Democrats' direction 42%.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 14:23:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: There he goes with his socialistic polls again, trying to demoralize conservatives by showing Bush in the low to mid 50s against a bunch of democraps. It won't work, Pete! We're on to your phony polls! Leave!
Harlan St. Wolf
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 14:02:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: Read it and weep socialists: "2004 presidential general election poll: President George W. Bush (R) 53% Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) 32% President George W. Bush 56% sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) 23% President George W. Bush 50% ex-Vice President Al Gore (D) 38% President George W. Bush 50% ex-Vice President Al Gore (D) 28% Sen. John McCain 20%"
Pete�
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 13:33:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Not to mention how they punish me for their own incompetence and laziness. Why should I pay 40 cents and more of every dollar I earn to support socialist agendas? These lazy sacks are hitting the innocents everywhere they turn. Traitorous and evil hallmarks of a demonRAT.
Pete�
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 13:23:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Absolutely right about the liberals punishing the innocent. Just look how they went after Linda Tripp (MD wiretapping farse), Judge Starr, and even Monica once she decided to air her dirty laundry. <> Greetings from Glint's pond, sans pond. As Henry David Thoreau once said, "We are wont to imagine rare and delectable places...behind the constellation of Casiopeia's Chair, far from the noise and disturbance." As for me, my pond is the entire celestial vault. The observatory is my boat, setting sail each night from the terrestrial shore. Using my telescope I troll through the deep waters, searching for galaxies, clusters, and other schools of assorted stars.
Glint
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 13:08:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: I get a real kick out of the socialist NPR. My tax dollars go in part to support screeds supporting abortion, agaisnt the death penalty, spun lies about taxation and big government. I laugh every time these feel gooders try to sound impressive or feign concern about their fellow man. Nope, an unholy alliance of liars. Traitors.
Pete�
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 12:59:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: Only Pete could spin words in the manner of Captain Crusty. Methinks Crusty is Pete's Ghost in drag. Methinks.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 12:49:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: "..couldn't we round up 163 more troglodytes and painlessly kill them?" My how you socialists enjoy punishing the innocent. Just like your ilkship Adolf. Some greedy jew rests his fat white pinky on the scale while weighing out the diamonds and 7 million die paying for it. You peeople are the true Borg collective.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 12:48:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, your particle certainly is small. But remember, it's not the size of the boat, but the motion of the ocean.
Captain Crusty
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 12:43:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: The smallest particle is essential to the grand design.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 12:14:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: No incident? What fun is that? If you hang them or electrocute them they usually squirt fluids out of several orifices.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 11:12:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: McVeigh is dead, but somehow it's not satisfying. To get real closure on this, couldn't we round up 163 more troglodytes and painlessly kill them? Or maybe just enough for closure on the toddlers. How about the correct number of troglodyte pre-schoolers? We can be sure we have the right ones if they have computer chips in their glutes marked "DOJ."
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 11:08:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: McVeigh is D*E*A*D. Painless and without incident -- so much for the anti-death penalty argument about cruelty. I hope he'll be joining his friends Andrew Cunanan and Ted Bundy over at the CelebrityMorgue.com. Has anybody else noticed the resemblance between Ted Bundy and GWB, at least in the clean-cut image of the former? (No, not the shaved head splayed out dead photos but the one of him defending a fool as his own attorney.) Oh well, beauty (and resemblance) is only skin deep.
Glint
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 10:47:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Its mind is not completely reconstituted. Would Pete in the flesh have been able to envisage a liberal hamlet, or homeowners forced by an influx of Mexicans to rent out their garages? No, that one stuck pretty much to the cave and the shifting pendulum, maybe a little coordinate geometry now and then, the gridlines that say where the shady side will fall. Sometimes he would offer his thoughts on the essential liberality of liberals, but without the flair of this golem thing.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 10:42:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Crow-flavored Twinkies?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 10:36:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: I wonder what Pete's last meal was. He always seemed to favor crow.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 10:09:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete's Ghost baits us daily. He trolls for an argument about anything. He wants to bludgeon us with his McVeigh-is-a-socialist club. He is a master baiter.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 10:07:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: The kind of word I been teaching, the person cannot use these on writings. Well sure, she tell me, Osceola my amour, my furry bear of the nights time, in the love nothing is vulgar. She want to know the words for all of it, and sometime I am redden my visage, even though I know that she is right. In this she is as the true French woman from France, or as a woman of the quarter who can teach me these words in the first, with her body, so I can in turn teach them. This plain woman from the dusty interior, she is as if grown in a country that make the cheese so it ripen to the taste of the crotch of a loving woman. She herself has ripen under my fingertips and tongue and the furry bear of nights, like the cheese of France a French man may placed on the refrigerator and left for one week or maybe two or three days more, so that it soften, to make the true odors of loving.
Osceola Atchifalaya
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 09:42:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: At least Pete's ghost knows Tim's last evening meal was mint chocolate chip ice cream. i hear they are going to spread his ashes over a liberal hamlet. Just because. I hope the socialists sneeze on it.
Pete�
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 03:43:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: It's easier to translate into French now that there's the Internet. You pretty much just go to a site, type in what you want to say, in Waconese, and -voila!- out it comes in frog. Or say, Pig Latin. This is all wasted on Pete's Ghost.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 01:58:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey, MK, pretty good effort with the Waco street French! I am impressed, giving credit for your spelling and grammar problems, which probably apply across linguistic boundaries. How did you do that? It almost looks as if you looked up every word in the dictionary, but I suspect you had the aid of a Waco High language teacher who spent a year in Montpelier trying to learn how to speak like a Frog. I didn't get the "ralantie" part at first, but saw later that she means you were slowed by the government. It doesn't scan for me because I've never heard ralentir used as a transitive verb, but who knows? Only a real Frog could parse all the permutations of the lingo. How did you know I was angry, slow, and lazy? Thought I'd hidden those things pretty well. You do a lot better with French than I did when I was swinging on the garden gate. Has Sherryl been telling you what she's been learning in Shreveport?
Rube Waddell
- Monday, June 11, 2001 at 00:43:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: We will see enough of the rightist personality on the morrow, when anti-Fed, anti-nannystate, death-to-socialsits Timmy McVeigh orders up his last burger. Sesame seed bun. Meat. Special sauce. Yum?
John "Rive Gauche" Ashcroft
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 22:56:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Great, anon is forewarning us of his new personality permutations that will emerge after the fireworks. I think we have seen enough of the liberal "personality"...
Pete�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 21:52:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: They want to own turds because they are the Loaf People.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 20:54:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: Why would you want to own turds?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 20:30:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure, I may quit after the 4th. But, in my place 3 more will join. And if those 3 should quit, 9 more will join. This page is ours and it always has been. We watch you with bemused smiles. Soon.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 20:10:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Just like a traitorous socialsit to quit after the Fourth of July. We own you turds*
Pete�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 19:36:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: So. what's the deal, MK? Is Sherrel barren? Or do you shoot blanks?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 19:14:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: There are just too many people on this planet so if you make certain the fetus can't have babies before you give it back that's a plus in your favor.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 19:12:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Trying to buy your way out of kitty-killer hell.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 19:10:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, but I donated but I saw to it that it couldn't have babies and i donated a lot of money to the animal shelter.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 19:00:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh sure, tell him to go try to adopt an unwanted fetus. You don't remember what happened to the kitten?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 18:40:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube Waddell: Vous �tes une personne f�ch�e, lente, paresseuse. Vous voulez que le gouvernement prenne l'argent loin des ouvriers et le donne � d'autres. J'ai lutt� mais j'ai fait une vie pour me sans d�pendre du gouvernement. Gr�ce � la technologie moderne, ralentie par gouvernement, j'�cris en fran�ais sans avoir pris une classe. Bye.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 17:36:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: I think the other conservative quit, or went to church if he or she is a God-fearing man or woman. The few and the brave are all that's left. Sometimes I myself am weary, and contemplate dropping my end of the plank as well. Maybe after the 4th.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 16:10:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, hold the guacamole, no jalape�os, no cilantro, half ground beef half ground chicken, three strips lettuce, one garbanzo bean, finely-grated orange cheese, and a Dr. Pepper.
golem�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 16:07:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: His stand is probably that he's glad he's not in California, asshole to elbow with those 3 to 5.5 million illegal taco-chompers.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 16:03:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't think the golem can be blamed for that line about homeowners being forced to rent out their bedrooms and garages. He just lifted it from somewhere as the kernal for a lesson about socialist traitors. Are you watching this, Glint? What's your stand on the beaner problem?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 16:01:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Gosh? Oh, golly!
Pete�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 15:26:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Gosh, it's fascinating to hear about the golem's favorite fast foods. What a character!
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 15:09:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: I didn't want to rent my garage, judge, or my bedroom, but the socialists opened the floodgates and I was forced to.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 15:05:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: Encouragement from the golem.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 15:04:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sorry, just a test to see if you truly are in my family tree from Lord Beeston. Apparently not, as you failed to recognize the old homestead's language: "Thiefs: from Middle English theefs, from Old English thEofs;..." Carry on...
Pete�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:49:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: This si what socialsits do to get voters. Open the floodgates and let anyone in. Traitors. California cities are among the most crowded in the nation, as high housing prices and a chronic apartment shortage have forced families to double up and homeowners to rent bedrooms and garages. Crowding detailed in the latest census can be seen... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From 1990 to 2000 the census shows that California�s population has grown from 29.76 to 33.87 million or a net increase of about 14%. California is estimated to house half of the 6 to 11 million illegal aliens who reside in the U.S.; thus, the actual population increase could be as high as 32%. Is it any wonder there are energy and housing shortages in California
Pete�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:47:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: Thieves.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:44:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh, onion on a sesame bun. Sorry. Noone said us un-socialists were perfect, just not lying thiefs.
Pete�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:44:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: No all beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, on a sesame seed bun. Another nutter butter peanut butter sandwich cookie, please. Those are my two choices.
Pete�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:43:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, even Pete when he was alive couldn't score perfectly every time.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:42:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: I make it four in the first post, two in the second, and only one in the third.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:41:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ah, the golem. At least one wrong call in every post.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:40:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Notice it's all about food. The lime, the frog-leg, the saurkraut. In the same way, somebody from Norway may be called a "herring-choker", an Italian might be called a "spaghetti-bender", a Mexican is a "greaser" or "beaner", a Japanese is a "ricer" to some, a Chinese is a "noodle", and somebody from Waco, Texas, is a "Cheese No Onions No Pickle Extra Secret Sauce."
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:38:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Chilean wine. Ok. Peruvian?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:35:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ho-hum and gnat.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:35:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: How appropriate, the Meat Man trying to coo au francaise to moi while reciting selective definitions of a word that in practice would make Black look white. No, E*vil is like that. The Manidog are forever fighting the misinamegwe. Only the mediwin can outlast the sickness from Lodi.
Pete�
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:34:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Quick, name the two California species of frogs recently listed as Endangered, and one currently under consideration for listing.
Pop Quiz
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:33:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: You're turning out to be quite the bookworm, MK.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:30:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: the Englishman is the Limey; the Frenchman the Frog; the German the Kraut. --- English people and French people have long been enemies, culturally, militarily and commercially. So insults between the two nations are common. The French have described the English as a nation of shopkeepers and the English have described the French as a nation of frog-eaters. So, boil it down over the years and "frog-eaters" becomes frogs or froggies. this term dated from the middle ages, when the French flag had a blue background with gold fleur-de-lys on it. The ignorant English, not knowing that the fleur-de-lys was supposed to be a flower, thought that it represented a gold frog. Hence "frog" became a derogatory term for the French.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:30:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: frog (fr�g, frg) noun (1.) Any of numerous tailless, aquatic, semiaquatic, or terrestrial amphibians of the order Anura and especially of the family Ranidae, characteristically having a smooth moist skin, webbed feet, and long hind legs adapted for leaping. (2.) A wedge-shaped, horny prominence in the sole of a horse's hoof. (3.) A loop fastened to a belt to hold a tool or weapon. An ornamental looped braid or cord with a button or knot for fastening the front of a garment. (4.) A device on intersecting railroad tracks that permits wheels to cross the junction. (5.) A spiked or perforated device used to support stems in a flower arrangement. (6.) The nut of a violin bow. (7.) Informal. Hoarseness or phlegm in the throat. (8.) Offensive Slang. Used as a disparaging term for a French person.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 14:15:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, I like to think of myself as an average Joe, and my concept is of a sarcastic, irritable, nasty, pedantic, chauvinistic, fumble-fingered, supercilious jackass who smokes all the time and eats garden pests and drives like a maniac and thinks there cannot be any good Peruvian wine.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:55:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yep.
bientot
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:52:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Do average Americans have concepts of Frogs?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:49:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Compassionate Conservative: We are seriously considering adoption.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:48:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: If you see ydog, tell him I took my truck motor apart and cleaned off the goo. Finished putting it back together yesterday and it runs like a slot-car. Going to go out and drain the spoodged oil right now.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:45:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: I soon found that the average American concept of the Frog is erroneous. They take all the meanest cops and the cruellest most sarcastic cabbies and clerks and post them at the airport to welcome American tourists. It is like sending a weasel to feed the ducks. Once in-country, one finds that the French are a happy, courteous people. One needs simply to start out tough in any person-to-person encounter, hand out an instant ration of shit, and they respect you and calm down. The Frenchman secretly wants to be sneered at by Americans, the same way a woman secretly likes being raped. To him, every encounter with an American tourist is an exciting ride through the Old West, as welcome as a good accordion solo. As with most things, getting along in Paris, the city of light, is easy once you know the ropes.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:40:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: A happy, grunting French cabbie letting Boy George know that his philosophy is infected and lamentable seems a cheerier outcome than being slammed as a buffoon by the suave Eurocrats. Why, they might give him the cut direct. Not that he would notice.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:37:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: I walked out in front of the airport and hopped a cab. The only words I knew in French were "voolay-voo coushay avec moi ce soir" and "tu as raison aussi." The first one didn't seem appropriate. The second one meant something like "you are also right." I had read it in a book, I think it was "V" by Thomas Pynchon, which was big that year, where it was presented as a theme, something profound and mysterious. So I told the cabbie, "tu as raison aussi." He turned around and screwed up his face with a look of infinite disgust. His beak-like nose squirmed around on his face like a salted slug as he haranged me in broken franglais. His general line of patter was that I was of little importance, and that my philosophy was infected and lamentable, lacking in discipline and content. This went on for a good three and a half minutes. At the hotel, I gave him a silver coin about the size of a Reno dollar token, and he grunted happily. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to George Bush on his foreign trip.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:28:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good for you, MK. Glad to hear you're a Libertarian Splinter Groupie. Maybe you and Sherryl can find an unwanted fetus to adopt.
Compassionate Conservative
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:26:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: No Philly steak sandwiches in Frogland, neither.
Plinth
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:23:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: My ass was grass stateside. They were closing in on me in San Pedro. I had to do something, so I decided to make a break for Philly. I got on the wrong aeroplane and the next thing I knew I was looking out the window and all the cars were dinky little things like Tonka trucks and the people were walking around with berets on their heads and fat Gauloise cigarettes drooping out of their sneering lips. "I didn't know the Eiffel Tower was in Philly, " I muttered to myself.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:17:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: So the Libertarian Party is officially nothing more than a bunch of fetus-scrapers?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:14:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: The official position of the Libertarian Party platform supports abortion (i.e. the woman's right to choose). There are large splinter groups (i.e. Christian Libertarians and Pro-Life Libertarians) who define a fetus as a distinct human being (myself included) and that it should, therefore, not be forcibly denied the right to its life.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:09:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: As the Frogs say, when seeking causal links "cherchez la femme." Or, "it's about the pussy, stupid." Why else would anybody do anything? Do you think the Pete golem would still be abusing himself here if he didn't think Whatever would come back and he could maybe lure her to Hawaii?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 13:05:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: You got the late lamented Pete beat, M.K. Only about a third of what he shared here was his original insight. By your own testimony, you are way up at the fifty percent mark. OK, intelligent reply, intelligent reply, I know I've got one here somewhere...... Courage! (that's French for "courage!") Faint heart ne'er won fair maiden. No balls no glory! Do you want to live forever? The only way out is through! Chicks up front! (That last one is a good one. It's what they used to say back in the hippie days during street altercations with the pigs. The idea was that if the chicks were up front the picks wouldn't lob so many tear-gas grenades. Either out of respect for the female sex or because it was bra-burning times and you could often observe erectile function in the female nipple.) So, if I understand you correctly, you are claiming that you now have doubts about the Libertarian philosophy, such as you understand it, and agree only "for the most part?" I'm trying to think of something intelligent to say about that, but I'm drawing a blank.... Maybe we should debate the parts you don't agree with. What parts are they, and why don't you agree with them? Are they hogwash, or just inconsequential variations in moral orientation that a buff chipmunk-cheaked dude can still respect? Hey, M.K., Stokes' Law says if it gets to hot outside you will blow up like a balloon and pop. Is that intelligent enough for you? E=mc2, dorkwad. Honi soit qui mal y pense. In 1066 at the Battle of Hastings the Normans gave the Saxons a pasting. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, etc. Davy Crockett kilt a bar on this tree. Osmosis is differential diffusion through a semi-permeable membrane. After seeing the Amory Show, Nevin Oviatt opined that Marcel Duchamps's painting "Nude Descending a Staircase" should be called "Explosion in a Shingle Factory." In 1723, workmen excavating a cellar on the rue Dauphine in Paris discovered the bones of a prehistoric whale. Robert E. Lee's horse's name was Traveller. History does not record the name of U.S. Grant's horse, but some authorities suspect it was Fred. The S in US Grant stands for Simpson, but the S in Harry S. Truman's name doesn't stand for anything. A pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of lead. The leaning tower of Pisa was built at right angles to the known surface of the surrounding earth, or to a line tangent to that surface. Huey Newton was a thug. One cause of World War I massive arms buildup by the Triple Alliance and the Entente Cordiale, but it was triggered by Woodrow Wilson. Andrew Jackson was skinny as a rail and once survived a duel by shifting his overcoat to the left so that the bullet struck his armpit rather than his heart. Now you do some, no links this time.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 12:57:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Bush given idiot's guide to Europe President receives special tuition to shed his ignorant image when he crosses the Atlantic Special report: George Bush's America Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor Observer Sunday June 10, 2001 Call it a crammer course. This weekend at his sumptuous ranch in Crawford, Texas, the leader of the world's only remaining superpower, George W. Bush, is sitting down with his National Security Adviser, the ferociously intelligent Condoleezza Rice, for a series of briefings on US foreign policy. The aim of the personal tutorials is simple: to ensure that Bush avoids committing any gaffes on his first visit to Europe this week, where he must try to impress allies with his grasp of international affairs, while persuading them to sign up to his unpopular plan for a global missile defence screen. The challenge facing Bush has not been lost on his senior officials. It is not just that Bush must persuade Europe of the virtues of his foreign policy, they say. First, they acknowledge, he must persuade Europe's leaders that he is not a buffoon. It may not be easy. Bush's grasp of geography is shaky. Quizzed on foreign affairs by journalists during the presidential race he notoriously fluffed it. 'The common European perception is of a shallow, arrogant, gun-loving, abortion-hating, Christian fundamentalist Texan buffoon,' a senior official told the New York Times yesterday. 'They read all the press about a hard-line unilateralist. They really believe this stuff about cowboys. We need to get it all on a higher plane.' Although he will take few specific proposals with him, Bush has made clear that his visit to five countries, including a meeting with Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, in Slovenia - a country that Bush once famously confused with Slovakia - is about winning over the hearts and minds of Europe's sceptical leaders who regard him as a lightweight on the international stage. It is a point he reiterated in an interview aboard the presidential jet Air Force One last week. Bush said he would seek to reassure the European allies that the US was not abandoning them by shrinking into an isolationist shell. He also said he would try to allay their doubts about missile defence and impress upon them the correctness of his view. 'There are some in Europe who worry about America becoming isolationists,' Bush said. 'And I'll ease their concerns. We're an internationalist government.' It is likely to be an uphill struggle." Say "Kostunica" Georgie.
Bush Being Tutored to Reduce His Boob Status Among Europeans
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 12:49:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: One happens to find oneself in France. Studying Frog pomes. No volition?
Seeking causal links
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 12:43:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: First of all, idiot, I never professed to being a guru...only that I agree, for the most part, with the Libertarian philosophy. Yes, I have seen one of these guys just post a link. What do you mean by a "hillbilly site"? "Who the fuck is going to respect a chipmunk-cheaked buff little guy with a runner's build if all he does is post links?" Probably no one...not even those who take the time to read and have the courage or ability to debate the issues I post. By the way, half of the posts are my original insights. "So spout out your own interpretation." I do...very often. Now...how about an intelligent reply?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 12:02:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yesterday's breakfast post seemed th suggest that Glint is thinking things over while ostensibly viewing the Red Planet. I look forward with liberal anticipation to today's breafast post....... Will there be a note from Pete explaining how he didn't spend much time viewing Mars because the wind was blowing? And there was nip on HBO? No matter. Glint is the subject, here. The only fornigate troglodyte who is really a communist at heart. t
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 03:09:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: So here's MK, but instead of trying to present himself as some sort of libertarian, he's posting links to what must be his favorite cut and paste sites. Poor clueless little dickweed. Look, MK, if you want to be the grand guru of the New Libertarian Philosophy, you've got the HIDE the links, not ADVERTISE them. Nobody is goint to follow a link off this site, this is a discussion site and the only web bullshit we need is web bullshit that you take the time to copy and paste into the record. Have you ever seen one of these guys just post a link? No, you pretend that what you took to be brilliant discourse on the hillbilly site is your own. Who the fuck is going to respect a chipmunk-cheaked buff little guy with a runner's build if all he does is post links? No, we're all boared to death by links, do to the inherent boaring factors they exhibit. So spout out your own interpretation. You've got a lot of supporters among the many jamokes who frequent this board, among the two liberals and the two coservatives, so go balls-out and paste away!
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 03:01:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, it is true, I did study French poetry. Why the fuck else would I find myself at the Universit� de Paris? To study fucking forestry? I have to admit that I never gave a shit one way or the other for French poetry, any more than I ever wanted to find my ass in France. It just happened, whether I had any interest in it or not. The upshot is that I got a hearty fucking dose of French culture, and learned how to order many drinks and restaruant items in the French language. There was no other fucking option, unless it was to starve... The interesting thing is that after letting it pass behind me, I found that America is full of people who want to be Frogs. You can go into the lowliest bar in Toledo, or to the high table at Fess Parker dinner in Hawaii, and suire as shitting you will run into some goober who tries to sling around a bunch of dimly-remembered phrases from high-school French class. The late lamented Pete was a guy like that-- he used to sprinkle Frog catch-phrases into his posts-- c'est la vie or some equally stupid shit. I guess he felt it gave him a patina of culture, made him look schooled and intellligent. I admit that in many of my anonymous posts to fornigate I've included my own dim memories of French, just to inspire Pete to make a bigger fool or himself. Anyway, I did end up studying French poetry, and here's the only one I rembember, perhaps imperfectly. I think it's by a poet with the last name of Pr�vert: "Il a mis le caf� dans la tasse./ il a mis le lait dans la tasse de caf�./Il a mis le sucre dans le caf� au lait./ Et j'ai pleur�." That may not be it, exactly, but it's something like it. It's pretty simple, so even Pete could probably understand it, if he wasn't dead. "S'il ne serait pas mort."
Rube Waddell
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 02:47:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: For an excellent explanation of Libertarianism http://www.spinnaker.com/VILA/LPC/what-is.html
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 02:45:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberalism/
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 02:41:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint, unlike Rube Waddell, who appears to have studied French poetry or something, when I went to Berkeley I studied in the School of Forestry. They had a professor of watershed management there who taught about windreaks, how the farmers west of the river needed windbreaks, and we had to do a "lab" exercise blowing bubbles in the wind with Bubble-Blow over the driveway and then back from the tree-line. So it is perfectly natural that a yup from the "under-20-inches- of- rain" zone should buy a bunch of Leyland cypress and ride his hobby tractor among them. I still advocate a line of redwoods, closer to the house, but hey, your garden is your castle. Me, I got about an eighth of an acre to work with down here, and just put in a sword fern, a commensual with the redwood, and got my ass blasted by the Pete golem for evil gardening or something. Think redwood, though, or maybe Giant Sequoir, if your leylands die. No lesson here-- this is just the liberality of chat.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 02:25:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Back to Africa-- the Pete-golem brought it up after all. He's buying stabilized binoculars to understand it better. Under the Southern Cross and what to you is a dim summer ecliptic, the missionaries really did turn that kid out for horn-dogging a village girl. A kid about sixteen, with the juice flowing. He had been sanctified in the mission at an early age, and knew less street-jargon than I did after a couple years in that country. And He walked the streets crying, until one of my colleagues took him in. A liberal move, colleague, or maybe a conservative move, who knows, somebody had to do it or the kid would of died (there are worse things to die for than pubescent village pussy. Pete died for Shrek, and his own insanity, after all.) Not to disrespect the missionaries in that town-- they medicated many an amoeba out of my gut and taught me how to run my loaf of bread over the flame to kill the microbes from the baker's hand, they did a good job of everything but what they were there for: convincing the local folk, who were accustomed to worship with a chicken and a pot of blood, that Jesus is Lord. It was a while ago, but I have surfed out on them religious sites looking for the one human missionary I knew, and though not finding him I am still gratified to learn that the Senufo are resistant to conversion and the Dioula are impossible.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 01:59:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: If we have to talk about liberalism, let's try to make what it is clear. Here again is the dictionary: " Main Entry: 1lib�er�al Pronunciation: 'li-b(&-)r&l Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin liberalis suitable for a freeman, generous, from liber free; perhaps akin to Old English lEodan to grow, Greek eleutheros free Date: 14th century 1 a : of, relating to, or based on the liberal arts b archaic : of or befitting a man of free birth 2 a : marked by generosity : OPENHANDED b : given or provided in a generous and openhanded way c : AMPLE, FULL 3 obsolete : lacking moral restraint : LICENTIOUS 4 : not literal or strict : LOOSE 5 : BROAD-MINDED; especially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms 6 a : of, favoring, or based upon the principles of liberalism b capitalized : of or constituting a political party advocating or associated with the principles of political liberalism; especially : of or constituting a political party in the United Kingdom associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives - lib�er�al�ly /-b(&-)r&-lE/ adverb - lib�er�al�ness noun synonyms LIBERAL, GENEROUS, BOUNTIFUL, MUNIFICENT mean giving or given freely and unstintingly. LIBERAL suggests openhandedness in the giver and largeness in the thing or amount given . GENEROUS stresses warmhearted readiness to give more than size or importance of the gift . BOUNTIFUL suggests lavish, unremitting giving or providing . MUNIFICENT suggests a scale of giving appropriate to lords or princes . "................................................................... There it is, with all the warts. Does it sound like something we might like to be?
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 01:40:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint, that wasn't the continuing lesson. I forgot the continuing lesson, but will try to remember it. Now, like Rube Waddel, I spent some time teaching tribal peoples in non-tribal classrooms. Thinking back on it, I remind myself of a less stupid version of MK, dealing peripherally with a "nanny-state" that was magic. If you search your missionary sites you will find that there are certain tribes, including all Muslims and many pig-headed animists who are not regarded as prime targets for ministration. I believe that this is because no common Christianized heart can develop among these people, because Christianity looks too much like what everybody knows already, and they take it and insert it as a minor variable in their life equations. As an example, I once tried to convince a cadre of men who drove bush-taxis, which were Peugeot 403's and 404's, and mammy-wagons, which were a sort of open-sided Mercedes bus, that they should not speed up on a particularly bad corner to avoid the evil genies that lived there. The world-view was that the evil genies caused accidents, so you had to drive your load of men and women and children and goats and chickens through there fast, so that you wouldn't get hexed. My opinion was that driving around the slick corners fast was what caused the accidents, but nobody bought it. Once again, I don't know what the point is, but I think it has something to do with recognizing what is and what isn't, and recognizing what you bring to the consideration of what is and what isn't. Maybe this is about science and empirical resoning, who the fuck knows?
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 01:29:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint, it is pure economic, but economics is never pure. In a representative democracy, or republic, people are elected by the people to represent their interests. Suppose, for example, the general interest is to have a split-phase motor that starts up and turns a dome, or something in the haft of an electric toothbrush, or electrons speeding through the resistance in coil to heat tacos in a toaster oven. Then you have the people who provide this power, whatever it is really worth. Seemingly outside these realities, everyone gets together and elects a government to help the whole thing run smoothly. But suppose that, for some obscure reason or other, a government slips in that is not particularly concerned with the general interest, but with specific interests of its own.... Suppose this all happens at a time when some of the voters are thinking about frailties of the flesh, good God there must be frailties of the flesh in everyone. A man might be an absolute horn-dog and put moves on the baby-sitter, or he may walk down the hall primed for a flash of the thong. Beyond this, there are the economic realities, as MK might call them-- who is going to have more money and who is going to have less money.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 01:14:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: To get closer to the subject at hand, who is the villain, let's look at this California energy pricing. What happened in California is the deregulation permitted and perhaps encouraged the utilities so sell off their less-profitable power-production facilities, and they jumped at it like a hungry trout after a brown bi-visible. My friend who was fairly high up in the PG&E heirarchy claims that the old guard was against selling out, and that he knew what was up when Enron started snapping up the plants. Everybody has perfect hindsight, so maybe he knew or maybe he didn't. Either way, with supply under control, no competetive market, Enron and the few others were able to squeeze the ripe sugar-plum of California energy-hog demand until it squirted the good juice upon which we all like to suckle, or at least it squirted dollars which we like as well. Nobody was looking after the consumer, which doesn't break my heart because I can under-consume just about any American, but when you think about it maybe somebody should have been looking after the consumer, which is another name for the voter or for the asshole-in-the-street, who is the sole reason for having a country to begin with. The reason electricity prices have dropped a thousand percent in California this past week is that the energy brokers have had to appear on the news shows and sell themselves. They have been trying to look tough and comfortable, just like big-time Dick Cheney, but they realize that with a Democratic Senate they are going to have to go through it again. with maybe some tougher questions. That's the late lamented Pete balance of power effect we're seeing. These guys have essentially put the knife to the California electricity consumer, which includes some fairly heavy hitters in addition to the asshole-in-the-street, so the Texas cartel is wondering what comes next. Glint, I'll outline another way to look at all this in another post, above. Don't want to make them too long.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 00:54:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Lodi to some people is lyrics off a record, which is fine. John Fogarty takes an idea, say the song he heard as a kid, "Been Around This Old Town Too Long", or "500 Miles", connects it with Lodi, a California town where his band plays a desparate gig, almost seventy miles from his home base in El Cerrito, and he writes and sings a great John Fogarty song. The late lamented Pete hears the song as a kid, because even though they didn't know about Elvis in his tough town they did know about Creedence Clearwater Revival, he hears it maybe cutting through the AM radio static with that great John Fogarty voice, and forever afterward the poor sap is victim to a fantasy about Lodi. Now to Meatler, Lodi is just a place you pass on the freeway, the first and last place he ever ate in a Carrow's restaurant, that was back in about '81 when he was heading down to the Moke to pull chain on a litte cadastral gig, but they have a Wendy's on the other side of the street and a MacDonald's where you can eat fat and sink your tongue into a melting plastic pie, searching for the cherry. I don't know what the lesson is here, but I suspect it has something to do with the Pete golem, working off the memories of the actual Pete, confusing John Fogarty's great voice and weird Louisiana bayou/El Cerrito suburbia blues accent with something profound and meaningful in his own world-view. John Fogarty is of course profound and meaningful, but it is because he sang well over minimalistic riffs, and never tried to bullshit anybody or claim he was anything more than an El Cerrito kid singing with the accent of Mississippi John Hurt. This essential fact about John Fogarty and his music is a million miles away from whatever the Pete golem thinks it is trying to prove. I hope you are listening, Glint, because this is an important unit in the liberalization syllabus, and there may be a pop quiz or two.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 00:35:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, dear boy, on June 8 around 22:30 somebody threw in a couple of posts out of a help-desk log. Since last I heard about your "career" you claimed to be manning a help desk, I thought you might have hooked your job log up to this board by mistake. It was a long shot, but I figured I might be saving your career. If not, so much the better. I know this was a complex, complicated and fundamentally mysterious post, so don't worry if you didn't "get it."
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 00:16:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: I did a little research, trying to focus in on the "Jew-baiting word", and suspecting that it might be "golem" because that was the only new word around. I found this: " Main Entry: go�lem Pronunciation: 'gO-l&m, 'goi-, 'gA- Function: noun Etymology: Yiddish goylem, from Hebrew gOlem shapeless mass Date: 1897 1 : an artificial human being in Hebrew folklore endowed with life 2 : something or someone resembling a golem: as a : AUTOMATON b : BLOCKHEAD " Evidently the Pete golem looked it up, too, and found that it had comes from the Yiddish, which led to its "Jew-baiting" charge. This is another clue into the mind of the golem: by your dictionary definitions shall ye be judged. The mind of an artificial human being in Hebrew "folklore" endowed with life. The Pete golem. Our common ancestor, Lord Beeston, would be aghast, if he learned that a twig of the family tree had died and been resurected as a golem.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 10, 2001 at 00:07:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: You wish. I own this rock. No more E*vil. Tra la la.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 20:27:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete�(*) is cracking.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 20:04:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sounds like the coals aren't hot enough to sear the meat..
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 20:02:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: BOULDER � University of Colorado scientists will build one of the instruments for a $256 million space probe that will study the planet Mercury. The Messenger spacecraft will photograph all of Mercury for the first time and study its surface and atmosphere. It will be the second probe to visit the planet. "There are so many interesting questions about Mercury, how it formed and how it evolved over time, yet it's been ignored for almost three decades," said Daniel N. Baker, director of the university Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. NASA approved construction of the probe on Thursday. Baker's lab will build a $9.5 million device to identify minerals on the planet's surface and elements in its atmosphere. Images from the 1974-75 flight of Mariner 10 revealed a barren, sun-scorched world pocked with craters. When facing the sun, Mercury's surface is hot enough to melt lead and tin, yet recent observations have revealed what appears to be ice in the planet's polar craters. Messenger will launch in March 2004 and will orbit Mercury for a year, starting in April 2009. June 9, 2001

- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 19:53:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, he clearly had an inferior education to yours at Baylor. That is evident by his shallow self-absorption. Talk about a golem. Manidog.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 18:58:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well...If he'd pe specific. Last few personal posts concerned my education log.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 17:20:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Always baffled.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 17:15:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: What do you mean by job log?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 17:05:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yup, Bush's efforts are already working. Unfortunatley, the infrastructure chaos created by stupid democRATs in California are not completely solveable, especially anytime soon. But nice to see your liberal spin and ignore is in full tilt open throttle. Liar.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 15:23:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: The wholesale price of electricity drops just as the clamor for price caps grows louder and louder. Probably just a coincidence.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 14:29:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: In fact, I do think this old Fogarty jsut about sums up our loser liar "lecturner:" "Just about a year ago, I set out on the road, Seekin' my fame and fortune, lookin' for a pot of gold. Things got bad, and things got worse, I guess you will know the tune. Oh ! Lord, Stuck in Lodi again. Rode in on the Greyhound, I'll be walkin' out if I go. I was just passin' through, must be seven months or more. Ran out of time and money, looks like they took my friends. Oh ! Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again. The man from the magazine said I was on my way. Somewhere I lost connections, ran out of songs to play. I came into town, a one night stand, looks like my plans fell through Oh ! Lord, Stuck in Lodi again. Mmmm... If I only had a dollar, for ev'ry song I've sung. And ev'ry time I've had to play while people sat there drunk. You know, I'd catch the next train back to where I live. Oh ! Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again. Oh ! Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again."
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 13:35:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Of course, all liar socialsits are back in old Lodi again. Why would you expect to ever be correct. By definition you are both wrong and evil. Even corrupt thoughts on gardening. Sheesh! When will it ever end with you traitors?!?
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 13:17:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: Gosh, the California wholesale electricity prices just dropped about a thousand percent on the average. Of course if you want to take the high, about $3,500/megawatt by Duke and compare it to the recent low $26, the percent drop is somewhat larger. Sort of makes you think that maybe the late lamented Pete was right about a change in the balance of power, and that bully pulpit Senate committee hearing. The energy hogs can push up to the trough again, courtesy of the Indepent from Vermont, and I can plug in the electric tooth-brush. Marty Molar and Isadora Incisor thank you, Senator Jeffords.
Rube Waddell
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 12:46:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Food for thought, eh Glint?
J*W*H
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 12:04:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: It sounds like Laura has a level head, and probably the best solution for the national disgrace that margaritagate has become. Only problem is it's tough to get a modern 19-year-old to live at home, especially one that is a little wild. It's just what Jenna needs, so long as her mom can temper the influence of the Enabler-in-Chief. I doubt that the problem is that the girls have the EIC wrapped around their little fingers, but simply that W doesn't have a clue about what might be best. Dick Cheney probabably won't involve himself in the problem until his operatives have scoped it out completely, but they're starting from ground zero and by the time Dick is fully protected Jenna could have advanced into Korsakoff's Psychosis. Of course the purest administrative solution would be to nullify Elizabeth Dole's order when she was Secretery of Transportation during the First Bush Administration denying federal highway funds to any state that did not raise its minimum drinking age to 21. Texas would revert to 18 and Jenna would instantly be transformed into a legal juice-head. Lots of wheels within wheels here. It's like a Republican Chinese Box Puzzle.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 12:02:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: SALON: Last week, the police nabbed Jenna Bush on her second alcohol-related incident in a month. Does President Bush have an obligation to address this matter publicly, considering that he ran on a platform stressing a return to moral values and the betterment of child welfare? AL FRANKEN: Well, he didn't help himself during his Yale commencement address when he said he didn't remember a lot from his time there. He did a joke essentially saying, "I was drunk a lot." I think that was probably not the right joke to tell when your daughter is having these problems. I could see the joke about being a "C" student, but he should probably say something publicly like he doesn't approve of underage drinking or something. [Laughs] I think that's sort of the least he can do. SALON: Considering the nature of their recent behavior, are the Bush girls fair game for the media now? AL FRANKEN: Well, I think that he is. I will point out that Chelsea Clinton, in the eight years her father was president, didn't get arrested once. The problem with Jenna is that it's been twice in four months. A third time -- it's three strikes and you're out in Texas -- and they'll have to execute her. Bad....
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 10:19:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: "LAURA & GEORGE AT WAR OVER DAUGHTERS' BOOZING" The drinking problems of President Bush's teenage daughters Jenna and Barbara have triggered an all-out First Family feud! "An angry and tearful Laura Bush wants to come down hard on the 19-year-old twins after they were nabbed by Austin, Tex., cops on May 29 and charged with underage drinking violations. But George W. Bush doesn't want to discipline his girls, sources told The ENQUIRER. "Laura Bush is fit to be tied about George's attitude," said a Bush family source. "But the girls have their father wrapped around their fingers. The President doesn't think the girls need reigning in. He and Laura are at loggerheads." Sources told The ENQUIRER the First Lady wants her girls to get counseling for their drinking problems. And she wants Jenna -- a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin who had another alcohol citation a few weeks earlier -- to drop out of school, move into the White House and enroll in a college nearby." --NATIONAL ENQUIRER, 6/9/01
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 10:13:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey Plinth. Keep it up.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 10:09:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: SO JENNA BUSH was reminded last Tuesday at about 10:15 p.m., when the 19-year-old was caught using a borrowed ID card to buy a Margarita. She pleaded�or, according to some accounts, demanded�to be let off the hook, but the restaurant bartender reportedly replied, �You think I�m going to put my liquor license on the line for you?� The manager called 911 instead. The police arrived and two days later Jenna and her twin sister, Barbara, were cited by the authorities for underage-drinking violations. May 31 � Police say President Bush�s daughters, Jenna and Barbara, tried to use someone�s ID at restaurant to purchase alcoholic beverages. NBC News correspondent Jim Cummins reports. When George W. Bush was pondering a run for the presidency in 1998, his 16-year-old daughters implored him not to, fearing the impact on their college experience. Foreboding, however, did not necessarily instill prudence. This was Jenna�s second brush with the law in less than two months. Caught drinking beer by an undercover cop at the Cheers Shot Bar at 1:30 a.m. on April 27, she had just been ordered to attend six hours of alcohol-awareness class and perform eight hours of community service (clerical work at an art museum). With a repeat offense, the customary, if fragile, restraint on press coverage of presidential children collapsed. The White House tried to shame the media into ignoring or downplaying the story. But images of the twins at last year�s GOP national convention and at their father�s Inaugural played over and over again on cable-TV news, and the tabloids had their sport. JENNA AND TONIC, jeered the New York Post.
Busted Again In Margaritaville
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 10:09:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey.
Plinth
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 09:56:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: I made a forceful and I dare say eloquent point regarding certain contractual relationships at a public meeting yesterday and was corrected by a hydrological modeler in the back row and the operator of a major federal facility, a result of the fact that I was dead wrong. The good thing about it was that I didn't mind it at all, and went on later in the meeting to forcefully blurt out several statements which may well have been correct. Either way, they sounded correct. Driving home past Lodi I could think only of painting my window mullions, and perhaps buying a sword fern to plant under the maple.
House of Meat <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 09:45:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: Say hey, Plinth. Your support is welcome.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 09:36:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: "spirit of Ong"? Say whut?
Roseola Okeefenokee
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 08:13:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: Golem. That's the ticket.
Edgar Plinth
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 08:00:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: since September 1999, police have usually charged people using fake identification to buy alcohol with a more serious offense � a Class B violation of the Texas Transportation Code. Class B offenses typically result in arrest. Records on file in Austin Municipal Court show that ONLY ONE person this year has been given a Class C citation for attempting to use a fake identification to buy alcohol, said Rebecca Stark, the court clerk. That's Jenna Bush, she said. President Bush, when he was Texas' governor, signed the 1999 law in the Transportation Code that increased the charge for using false identification from a Class C to a Class B misdemeanor. In 1999, 50 people were charged with the Class C offense in Austin. Last year, the number dropped to three. Meanwhile, court records show at least 67 people have been charged with the Class B misdemeanor for trying to buy alcohol with a fake identification since the law took effect on Sept. 1, 1999." --Austin American-Statesman, 6/8/01
NO RULE OF LAW FOR BUSH
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 07:45:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: Probably no more clues tonight, Meatoon. All those big words probably wore out his fingers.
Rube Waddell
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 04:43:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Invoking a stupid Jew-baiting word? What word? What invocation? Come to think of it, what finite limits of religion-based superstition and explanation? What egaliatarianism? What animism? What spiritual naivete? What Indian roots? What beat? What purveyor? What tactics? Is there something you are trying to say? Are you jest lettin the jug do the talkin? Shoutin to be shoutin? Fartin to be fartin? Should we be trying to follow the clues? Are there clues? Are there going to be more clues? Choke it out, golem.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 04:40:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: All well and good. You will be as liberal as Barbara Streisand by the 4th of July. We will celebrate your coming out of the strait jacket. Your "independence", as it were.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 04:34:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: "If that is really Glint, I am encouraged" HoMer. I wasn't advocating tossing out the Starr report or using it to cover the floor or your birdhouse or take the place of the Sears catalog in your favorite 3 holer. .But if you do toss it out for any reason, just hang onto the footnote section. How else would you remember how many orgasms Moanica was wringing out while BJ Clinton was having non-sexual relations. "I await tomorrow's breakfast post with high expectations." Well, it came a little bit early today, so hope you don't mind. Mars was gorgeous. It's rotation brought into view such tourist attractions asMare Cimmerium, Hellas, Mare Tyrrhenum &Iapygia, Syrtis Major, Utopia, Mare Serpentis, Sinus Sabaeus, and Sinus Meridani. Spent nearly the entire day and night outside. Mowed grass in the afternoon, cooked and ate outside, then after dark: Rolled out the 0.5 meter until moonrise and then moved to the 32 cm in the observatory once Mars had risen high enough to be worth looking at around 1 a.m. Needless to say, I haven't been keeping up with the on-line news sources.
Glint
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 04:23:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: You are the ego-centric narcissitic criminals here. Out Spot!
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:23:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anyway, I do have massive accountability towards my condition and humanity. Invoking a stupid Jew-baiting word ignores the spirit of Ong. That which transcends the finite limits of religion-based superstition adn explanation. Egaliatarianism is as equal in animism as spiritual naivete. Manidog appropriately describes socialsits. And I do think I am entitled to summon my Indian roots to beat the hysterically jaundiced view of such a sociopathics socialist as the purveyor of tactics on here.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:22:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yeah, OK. Nothing up until the breakfast post anyway. Maybe Leno will do the Bush twins again. Later.
Conservative # 17
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:21:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anonymous, let's do something else. Do you really think the golem is intelligent enough to follow this? Look around and count the dachshunds, Jim. Let's bounce.
Conservative #2
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:20:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Pete-golem is too modest. Attacking NPR and their non-stop liberal slurs is a difficult, thankless job, yet one that the Pete-golem does with grace, wit, and a refreshing directness. Comes right out and names it: all nonsense liberal propaganda. Sometimes the playlist is classical music, an inherent flaw. Toot toot toot to suggest the fart stench soaking out over the board. Can a golem really fart? We shall see.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:18:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hold the presses, other conservative poster. The Pete-golem's new story is that I am not ydog! Apparently he just said he thought I was the ydog because somebody compared him to an abnormally intelligent dachshund. It was his way of "turning the tables." Now he probably doesn't think that you're Ho-hum. He probably thinks you're Carlos... that one seems popular.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:12:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Isn't hard to do, it is all nonsense liberal propoganda. I listen to it like a liberal lemming listens to Rush. Fortunately, thier inherent flaw is they have to play classical music. The conformity must drive them nuts. Good. Toot Toot Toot!
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:10:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Pete-golem attacks NPR! Working its way up the mandala.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:07:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Meatier
Less-filling
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 01:00:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: I think anon here lsiten to NPR all day. It is the only explanation for her puppet repeats on the lies of voting propoganda spouted all day long on that traitor site. Classical music aside. Anyway, in my book, Meat, you are nothing but a windigo, makes a golem look like a saint, which I am compared to you liars.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:59:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: OK, I see it, the sky is falling! We'd better do something about it! I propose we secretly tape all telephone conversations between fat young interns and ugly old file-clerkettes, in case one of them reveals she has sucked off a public official. Then we subpoena her dress and test it for spoodge. Only then will America be free!
Meatler
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:58:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Another wrong assumption by Meat the rube. In clear context, it portrays that even a Denny's waitress could get what he could not. The woof is a veiled reference to your demonizing tactic reference to the dauchsund. Get a clue, oh I forgot you have lots of clues. You are a liberal hunk a meat. A blob on humanity.
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:56:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: You have to earn your cute Freep-style nickname, House of Meat. You have to spout some conservative nonsense, like the idea that Negroes should be allowed to vote in Florida, or that being evasive about your sex life when questioned about it by a duly-appointed official of the federal government is not a high crime. What would this country be like if EVERYBODY was disrespectful to federal government bureaucrats? Until you can prove that you believe the government belongs in the bedroom then you will not be Meatler or Meatoon. You don't get a nickname until you can see the sky falling.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:55:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: I pride myself that the Pete� golem uses my proper name, and has not adopted a particular Freep-style nickname, like Meatler or Meatoon. This shows a certain respect, even reverence. It may be, of course, that my revelation of Beeston roots in an earlier post make him feel politesse is in order. Even a golem may have pride in the ancestors of his animating hank of hair.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:32:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: We're conservative posters now, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. At least I am. I have the appointment from Justice Scalia in my wallet.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:26:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey, other liberal poster: look at this! The Pete� golem thinks I'm ydog. I'll bet he thinks you're Ho-hum.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:24:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Be careful not to demonize him between now and then. In fact, don't use any liberal tactics whatsoever. I repeat, DO NOT TWERPEDO THIS! It may be Glint's last chance.
Rube Waddell
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:23:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: Admit it Meat, I am your guru. You still can't figure out the OVIT. Apparently, you never will. The Denny's chick got it. That's for sure. (woof)
Pete�
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:22:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: If that is really Glint, I am encouraged. I await tomorrow's breakfast post with high expectations.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:17:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Just a minute here while we get back on topic. What topic? The topic in the title bar of this web browser, villains or heroes, yada yada blah blah. Specifically the names Linda Tripp and Kenneth Starr. The two people who never asked for this scandle but yet found it dumped in their respective laps by Monica Lewinsky and Janet Reno, respectively. Then his honor wrapped up all the pieces eloquently in the Starr Report while discretely shunting off the juicy parts into the footnotes. Throw the rest of it away!
Glint
- Saturday, June 09, 2001 at 00:06:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is it coincidental that Pete� died in the first four months of the Supreme Court decision appointing Bush? Had he outlived his usefulness and become a potential liability? Does Hanratty have a new puppet-master?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 23:51:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: Has anyone else noticed that Bob Barr looks a little like a chinaman? Does that have anything to do with his inability to apologize? Rather than apologize for spreading lies about Clinton staffers trashing the White House, he calls for another GAO or GSA investigation. Now he's backpedalling, after somebody pounded into his head that this particular Bush lie has been milked for all it will give, and that the only thing an investigation can do is risk moving the truth up toward the front of the news. The Republicans are more and more behaving like the mainland Chinese, weaving prevarication tighter and tighter into their politics... and then there are the apologies, as if a trusted student had offended his teacher. Is it possible that Bush was the real Manchurian candidate? Is Bob Barr the trusty puppeteer, placed here long ago? What is Barr's biography? Was he by any chance a foundling, like the dear departed Pete�?
Hadley Roff
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 23:49:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: Site has becoming boring with the appearance of this Pete� ghost, or whatever it is. When Pete� died, it was like French doors had opened in all four walls and the stench of a particularly forceful and long-lasting fart had dissipated into the clear spring air. Discourse became civilized, even light-hearted, free of the genuine nasty. Glint seemed to be recovering, obsessing less and less about the blue dress, and turning his mind toward more productive avenues. And now this little wet blanket of ghostly gloom tries to spread its frail weave over every topic. We are forced to hear about the Indian ancestry, the bogus cultural literacy, the poor failed Reaganomics theories buried eight years under an economic history that could not have been better designed to show their utter lack of utility. We get the loonball shotgun accusations that everybody else is a member of some bizarre politics that couldn't exist five minutes under any name, in a real world. The cheap-shot dull cut-and-pastes promoting this or that illogical explanation of occurrences that never occurred, by anyalysts who never analyzed. And in the end, we get the dyslexia. Always the fucking dyslexia, so boring. Maybe it really is the ghost of Pete�, and not just an abnormally intelligent dachshund.
House of Meat
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 23:36:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Trickle down, as a demonizing tactic word for the socialsits, actually is how an economy works. Unless you beleive in communism and its predecessor, socialism.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:51:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Look Ghost, were you present when your picture was taken? Your reflection is leaking. Me, I am going to pay my debts. Debts caused by excessive socialistic taxation.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:49:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: What are you going to do with yours, Ghost of Pete�? Buy some new sheets?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:45:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm going to pledge mine to repayment of the national debt. Ultimately that will trickle down on the "poor."
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:44:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm going to get one of the Versace knock-off ribbed sweaters.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:43:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm getting a full-size spare tire for the Jeep with mine, and new shock absorbers.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:42:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm thinking of buying a dog with mine. Or maybe a year's supply of dog food. What the hell are the "poor" going to do with three hundred bucks? Enroll in Weight Watchers?
House of Meat
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:41:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, you are posting your job log by mistake. Stop wasting bandwidth, dude.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:40:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: By the way, there is nothing stopping you socialsits from donating your refund check to help the "poor." I'll bet not one of you scumbags does so. Hypocrites.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:36:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: The supervisor made no guarantees, but he instructed Dan to check his credit card bill at the end of the month. The supervisor explained that if Dan saw that the charge was still there at the end of the month,then he would know that he hadn't gotten a refund. End of Call Two.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:30:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: The tech support person responded by forwarding Dan to the person in charge of giving refunds. The person officially in charge of giving refunds took Dan's credit card info again, after which Dan asked about the referral service. It was too late, however - the refund folks could not reconnect Dan with the tech support guy he'd been talking with, nor could he put Dan in touch with the referral service hotline. End of Call One.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:29:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yeah, the death penalty would ahve been too harsh, I suppose.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:28:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Barbara got probation. Kid gloves. Cover-up. Probation! I haven't felt this bad since the legal system failed to charge Klintoon with any high crimes or misdemeanors. Ever since then, the only thing I've had to crow about is his harsh treatment by Bob Barr and the Full Mooners, who went tattling to the big boys in the Senate because he got to taste morning dew in the White House. You'd think the prosecutors or judges could have found something to hang on him, bad as he was.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 22:00:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Man, Harlan is going to like this. Cut and paste heaven. What is that long paste about? It says something about Bill Gates at the start, is it all about Gates? Maybe St. Wolf could provide a synopsis for those of us daunted by the potential boredom of fighting through it.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 21:55:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ergo, Pete's alive. So Poetry is alive. You are a dope*
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 21:49:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: First Pete dies. Then poetry dies.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 21:30:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: And now for soem poetry (whoever started the rumor about me dying is a damn liar!): ... autumn wind ... and night by night ... more moonlight floods my garden ...
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 21:18:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube and Wolf, we know which howls at the Moon.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 21:17:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint, you will appreciate this, I'm sure: "Microsoft Technical Support vs. The Psychic Friends Network by Michael Patrick Ellard and Daniel Albert Wright In the course of a recent Microsoft Access programming project, we had three difficult technical problems where we decided to call a support hotline for advice. This article compares the two support numbers we tried - Microsoft Technical Support and the Psychic Friends Network. As a result of this research, we have come to the following conclusions: Microsoft Technical Support and the Psychic Friends Network are about equal in their ability to provide technical assistance for Microsoft products over the phone; The Psychic Friends Network has a distinct edge over Microsoft in the areas of courtesy, response time, and cost of support; but Microsoft has a generally better refund policy if they fail to solve your problem. In the paragraphs that follow, we will detail the support calls we made and the responses we received from each pport provider. We will follow this with a discussion of the features provided by each support provider so that readers can do their own rankings of the two services. Our research began when we called Microsoft regarding a bug that we had detected when executing queries which pulled data from a Sybase Server into Microsoft Access. If we used the same Access database to query two databases on the same server, we found that all of the queries aimed at the second database that we queried were sent to the first database that we had queried. This problem existed no matter which database we queried first. Dan called Microsoft's Technical Solutions Line, gave them $55, and was connected with an official Microsoft Access technical support person. As Dan began to explain the problem, the support person interrupted him, and told him that since it was clear that it was not just a problem with Access but with the two programs together, Microsoft would not try to help us. They did,however, have a consultant referral service with which he would be glad to connect us. Dan then asked if we could have our $55 refunded, since Microsoft was not going to try to answer to our question. The tech support person responded by forwarding Dan to the person in charge of giving refunds. The person officially in charge of giving refunds took Dan's credit card info again, after which Dan asked about the referral service. It was too late, however - the refund folks could not reconnect Dan with the tech support guy he'd been talking with, nor could he put Dan in touch with the referral service hotline. End of Call One. Our second call came when Dan was creating some line graphs in Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access actually uses a program called Microsoft Graph to create its graphs, and this program has a "feature" that makes the automatic axis scale always start the scale at zero. If all of your data are between 9,800 and 10,000 and you get a scale of 0 to 10,000, your data will appear as a flat line at the top of your graph-not a very interesting chart. Since Dan was writing visual basic code to create the graphs, he wanted to be able to use visual basic code to change the graph scaling, but he could not find anything in the help files that would tell him how to do this. After working with Microsoft Graph for a while, Dan concluded that it probably didn't have the capability that he needed, but he decided to call Microsoft just to make sure. Dan described his problem to the technical support person, whom we'll call Microsoft Bob. Microsoft Bob said he'd never gotten a call about Microsoft Graph before. He then left Dan on hold while he went to ask another support person how to use Microsoft Graph. Microsoft Bob came back with the suggestion that Dan use the online help. Dan, however, had already used the online help, and didn't feel that this was an appropriate answer for a $55 support call. Microsoft Bob didn't give up, though. He consulted the help files and learned to change the graph scale by hand and then began looking for a way to do this via code. After Microsoft Bob had spent about an hour on the phone with Dan learning how to use Microsoft Graph, Dan asked for a refund since he had no more time to spend on the problem. Microsoft Bob refused the refund, however. He said he wouldn't give up, and told Dan that he would call back the next week. Microsoft Bob did call back the following week to admit failure. He could not help us. However, he couldn't give us a refund either. Microsoft Bob's supervisor confirmed Microsoft Bob's position. While Microsoft Technical Support hadn't solved our problem, they felt that a refund was inappropriate since Microsoft Technical Support had spent a lot of time not solving our problem. Dan persisted, however, explaining that if Microsoft Bob actually knew the program, he would have been able to give Dan a response much sooner. The supervisor made no guarantees, but he instructed Dan to check his credit card bill at the end of the month. The supervisor explained that if Dan saw that the charge was still there at the end of the month,then he would know that he hadn't gotten a refund. End of Call Two. Our third call to Microsoft involved using the standard file save dialog from within Microsoft Access to get a file name and directory string from a user in order to save an exported file. The documentation didn't make it clear how to do this using Visual Basic code within Microsoft Access, and Dan decided to call Microsoft to ask if and how a programmer could do this. The technical support person he reached told him he was asking about a pretty heavy programming task. He cheerily informed Dan that he'd called the wrong number and advised Dan to call help for Visual Basic, not Access ($195 instead of $ 55). This technical support person was extraordinarily helpful in getting Dan his refund. End of Call Three. Stymied by our responses from Microsoft, we decided to try another service provider, the Psychic Friends Network. There are several noticeable differences between Microsoft and the Psychic Friends Network. Microsoft charges a flat rate per "solution," which is a single problem and can be handled in multiple phone calls. As described above, Microsoft may or may not issue a refund of their fee if they fail to provide a solution for your problem. The Psychic Friends Network charges a per minute fee. They do not offer a refund if they cannot solve your problem. However, unlike Microsoft, they will not charge you extra if they provide more than one solution per call. We decided to test the Psychic Friends Network by asking them the same questions that we had asked Microsoft Technical Support. We called them and were quickly connected with Ray, who was very courteous and helpful. Like Microsoft Bob, Ray quickly informed us that he wasn't fully up to date on the programs that we were working with, but he was willing to help us anyway. We started off with our first problem: making a connection from Microsoft Access to two different Sybase Servers. Ray worked hard on this problem for us. He sensed that there was a problem with something connecting, that something wasn't being fulfilled either in a sexual, spiritual or emotional way. Ray also identified that there was some sort of physical failure going on that was causing the problem." Do you mean that there's some sort of bug?" we asked. Ray denied that he knew about any sort of bug in the software. "Are you sure there's not a bug?" we asked. Ray insisted that he did not know of any bug in the software, although he left open the possibility that there could be some bug in the software that he did not know about. All in all, Ray did not do much to distinguish himself from Microsoft Technical Support. He wasn't able to solve our problem for us, and he wasn't able to confirm or deny that a bug in Microsoft Access was causing the problem. We then asked Ray our question about using Visual Basic to set the axes of a chart. Ray thought hard about this one. Once again he had the sense that something just wasn't connecting, that there was some sort of physical failure that was causing our problem. "Could it be that it's your computer that's the problem?" he asked. "Is this something that happens just on your computer, or have you had the same problem when you've tried to do the same thing on other computers?" We assured Ray that we had the same problem on other computers, then asked again, "This physical failure that you're talking about, do you mean that there's some sort of bug?" Once again he assured us that there wasn't a bug, but that he didn't know how to solve our problem. "I sense there's some sort of sickness here, and you're just going to have to sweat it out. If you'd like, you can call back tomorrow. We have a couple of guys here, Steve and Paul, and they 're much better with computer stuff than I am." To conclude our research, we asked Ray about our problem with the standard file dialog box." It's the same thing as the last one," he told us. "There's some sort of sickness here, and you're just going to have to sweat it out. There is a solution,though,and you're just going to have to work at it until you get it." Conclusions In terms of technical expertise, we found that a Microsoft technician using Knowledge Base was about as helpful as a Psychic Friends reader using Tarot Cards. All in all, however, the Psychic Friends Net work proved to be a much friendlier organization than Microsoft Technical Support. While neither group was actually able to answer any of our technical questions, the Psychic Friends Network was much faster than Microsoft and much more courteous. Which organization is more affordable is open to question. If Microsoft does refund all three "solutions" fees, then they will be the far more affordable solution provider, having charged us no money for having given us no assistance. However, if Microsoft does not refund the fees for our call regarding Microsoft Graph, then they will have charged us more than 120% of what the Psychic Friends charged, but without providing the same fast and courteous service that Psychic Friends provided. Microsoft Tech Support 1-(800) 939-5700 The Psychic Friends Network 1-(900) 407-6611"
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 21:14:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: I can't believe the socialists here who are claiming that Jenna and her whore sister should be cut this break or that break, or gosh-darnit the cops are Democrats. No man is above the law. No woman is above the law. No foul-mouthed open-twatted drunken teenager is above the law. Rules are rules. You either obey the rules or you get the f*ck out of Dodge. I admit that Flynt distributing those videos of ydog going at Jenna ydoggie-style behind Chuey's was impolite, but, hey, have you ever heard of free speech? When Al Sharpton gets out of prison he's going to jerk these pointy-headed liberal assholes up by the short hairs and get this out in the open where it belongs. Why aren't the Bush twins testifying before a federal grand jury right now? Do I smell cover-up?
Hadley Roff
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 21:12:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: What part of my curriculum vita does the the tortured soul of the late lamented Pete� not believe? OK, OK, the College of San Mateo stint was just two weeks of a summer school class on Jacksonian Democracy, and then I dropped out, but the rest is mostly true, honest injun. Who would feed dishonest items to MK? From now on, I'm going to tone it down, in order to get to Glint, who may yet find the path of righteousness, connect up with the liberal diamond within. It will be a lot easier now that we don't have to discredit Pete�, because this new "Pete�" is only a golem whose closest nexus with the actual man is at most a hank of hair. The doppel-Pete� will find it a little harder to get Glint to march along behind him as he pounds the Official Lord Beeston Indian French Canadian White Slave Tambour. (My own people were Hollyockers from the Svabish lands, with a tincture of the Irish potato tribe, a pinch of an obscure tribe of Nevada grub-and-bug Digger Indians wiped out by Kit Carson on a Sunday afternoon stroll in 1842, and six lords a-leaping, but modestry forbids.) What the Pete�-golem doesn't understand is that any man on a tractor-seat becomes an instant liberal when he realizes that the payoff year of a Republican tax scam is going to send the sugar-beet price supports into the tank. If we can syncronize opening his bleeding heart to the plight of the less fortunate at the right time, then he is in the bag. He already has pride in his ability to prepare a three-paper doobie or a heroin needle, and bragging rights to years of sexual licentiousness that would be the envy of any Democratic congressman, so his fall is inevitable.
Rube Waddell
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 21:05:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: This proves beyond a doubt that Pete is a socialist. Polls! Feh! We hate polls! We don't trust polls! I thought he was dead.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 20:46:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fee simple ownership of the Rock. No more adverse possession. How sweet it is.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 20:19:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: Simple ple*asures.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 19:26:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: No, actually, that is from the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll which they buried and never reported since they are true blue biased liberals: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/vault/stories/data060401.htm
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 17:12:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: I love it so when P*** namedrops. Tee hee. It says so much about motivation.
Gustave
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 16:59:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: You'll find them at Free Republic.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:50:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: bo*od

- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:48:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sixty-four per cent of Americans believe President Bush will nominate federal judges who are either "about right" in their judicial philosophy or "too liberal." Only 30% believe he will choose judges who are "too conservative." Perhaps just as importantly, almost half of the 30% who think Bush will nominate judges who are "too conservative" say that, even if he does, it won�t bother them "that much" or "at all." This is the prevailing public opinion even though Bush said during last year�s campaign that the Supreme Court justice he most admires is Antonin Scalia�who, along with Clarence Thomas, is one of the two most conservative justices in the recent history of the court. You won�t find the above poll numbers, however, in the Washington Post or on ABC News.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:46:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Excerpt from a note to the parents of Rube Waddell - "While little Rube displays an enormous potential for meaningless trivia like the French language, chat room bravado, and self promotion; he just doesn't play well with others. If left unchecked, this proclivity toward self praise could dramatically hinder possible relationships and haunt him well into adult life."
Sister Margaret Madonna - 6th grade teacher
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:39:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: What really cracks me up is this socialist thinks he's Flaubert and writes about revving Chevys about to run through motel rooms to smack up some drug-crazed bimbo. A true hallmark of a deranged salon-reading sociopath. Like all socialsits. Anyway, I know Boob Rube and this rube is no boob. blackdog is an euphemism for burger juice dribbling down the chin of a beedy-eyed Denny chick checker, not some SF blade runner. And, no you "may" not. Gone. (woof)
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:32:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: Before I buy that Brazilian Air Force, may I consult with the world renowned Boob Rube? He's well read, well traveled, well spoken, well rounded...just ask him.
blackdog
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:21:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Although, I must agree that I almost gagged laughing at this tripe: "I was a professeur at the Lycee Municipal de Bouak�, and at the College d'Enseignement G�n�ral and the Lycee Houphou�t-Boigny in Korhogo, RCI. I taught a lesson once at a gynasio in Itapipoca, state of C�ara, Brasil, just one, in 1970, and was showered with notes saying, in Portuguese, please fuck me..." Some seriously delusional and fevered liberal mind on display there. Toodles.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:20:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Look, even a paralegal would ahve more brains than the dork who thinks he is a genius for getting an A in some obscure economics class. A legend in your own mind*. POOF!
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:17:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Police believe a German millionaire killed himself because he was terrified of getting wrinkles. Investigations have revealed the 57-year-old was obsessed by his looks and getting old and insisted on only sleeping with virgins to stay young. Officer believe the man, named only as Holger W, shot himself in the head with his smallest calibre pistol so the wound would leave as small a mark as possible. A Hamburg police spokesman said it showed that even as the man prepared for death, his mind was on leaving behind a beautiful corpse. His19-year-old girlfriend, named only as Vivien, said they had planned to marry this August, but he was terrified of getting "wrinkly" and had taken young lovers to try to keep his youth.
forget the wrinkles, screw the virgins
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:16:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Says the paralegal.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:11:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: blackdog, if you believe even 2/3 of that nonsense, I have a Brazilian Air force to sell you.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 15:07:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: In the April issue of Hustler Magazine, publisher Larry Flynt offered 10 million dollars to one of President Bush's twin daughters, Jenna, to pose nude in his magazine. Read more... If you didn't see the April issue of Hustler, it's worth picking up for the articles, as usual, but also for a full-page Photoshopped image of what Jenna Bush might look like reclining on an American flag, naked and fingering herself. "We haven't heard from her," said Hustler's managing editor Allan MacDonell, when I called to ask if Hustler was in touch with Jenna. What about Jim Baker? "No, he hasn't called either. Actually we're worried we're going to hear from her father. I'm terrified of that guy, to tell you the truth. Larry isn't, but I am." Why isn't the offer also being made to Jenna's twin sister, Barbara? "Jenna's the cute one," explained MacDonell, "and we're interested in the cute ones around here." Harsh! What about poor Barbara's self-esteem? "The Bushes have way too much self-esteem. It seems to out-pace their abilities, so if this decreases the self-esteem of one of the Bush clan, that's a good thing."
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 14:03:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: 3 citations for Jenna, 1 for Barbara (with 2 known narrow escapes, the fake ID and speeding at 120 mph).
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 13:58:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: Make that www.thefirsttwins.com
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 13:23:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: www.firsttwins.net
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 13:21:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, I'm 1/16 Indian and my guys signed BS treaties, were shuffled off to Carlisle Indian school and put on a reservation, but now they got their casinos. so, maybe what goes around...
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 13:11:15 (EDT)

My two cents are: Thanks Pete. No. The nerve is the very idea THAT our government would even think it might have some right to regulate Indian casinos...considering the way the Indians have been treated in the past.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 13:05:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Records on file in Austin Municipal Court show that only one person this year has been given a Class C citation for attempting to use a fake identification to buy alcohol, said Rebecca Stark, the court clerk. That's Jenna Bush, she said. "We look back on our records, and we can find no other incidents similar in nature where a bar called us under these circumstances," Knee said. "In that respect, we paid more attention to this situation than we have in other similar situations. Keene wrote in his report that he asked Lawrence what she wanted police to do. "She said, 'I want them to get into big trouble,' " Keene wrote. Keene wrote that he told Lawrence "we would handle the situation the same way we would for any person under those circumstances, which was to confiscate the fake ID and turn them loose." When a reporter for the American-Statesman showed up, everyone scattered, a customer identified in the police reports only as Owen told the newspaper that night. During their investigation, police ask Lawrence whether she had called the newspaper. "She told me a regular customer named Owen . . . had called the Statesman," Detective Mark Gil wrote in his report." Both Lawrence and Owen are Democrats.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 13:04:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yah, some fun. Bit of all right, don't you know.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 12:53:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Baylor is a really fine school. I'm sure Glint, a brother big 12er would agree. Anyway, Glint, it has been lightning and thundering here all week. Also, I decided that I would get a 4mm or else Amazon screwed up. Anyway, what I got was an eyepiece for a 60AT or 70AT. So, I'm not sure if it will work on the 125EX. This is the only slight snafu with amazon to date. I really like shopping on Amazon. Which brings me to my next coup. I decided to go back to Africa again this year. But this time I'm going prepared. I got the Berkeley guide to African mammal behavior. A stellar study. But to really top it off, I ordered a pair of Canon 10X30IS binoculars. They ahve a 10 magnification (which is supposedly the highest that is good with a hand held bino) but the gem is it has built in image stabilizing. Sort of like those hand held cameras. I'm jazzed cause I will be 6 days on the Mara and you need good things to see across into Tanzania and the Serengeti. Some fun.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 12:36:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Watch out for the prairie dog holes. Can suck one of them front wheels in like a cruller.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 11:58:50 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yes, MK, discussion IS quite nervy.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 11:55:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube Waddell: I was talking about private contracts in relation to private property and polution among settelers. You changed the subject to discuss Indian rights. Yes our forefathers soon had an "unclean" past with the way they treated the native Americans. There was discussion very recently about if the US government has the right to regulate Indian casinos. What nerve.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 11:41:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Thanks for the insights. I will be contemplating them over the next several hours from the high seat of the John Deere. Now where did I leave those ear plugs at?
Glint
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 10:53:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Glint is not going to have to do it alone, but I don't think the ydog is going to be available. The route through jams and crullers and slot-cars, at any rate, is too circuitous (or "oblique" as the dog might say) to get the job done in the short time remaining. No, we have to get serious. Way serious. You haven't responded to hints and gentle cajoling, so now we have to dive into the heart of the muff, and grab the sugar-plum by the horn. Ydog was too slow (although he could be fast when it counted, as pulling his future wife off the back of that Harley proved), and this has to be a forceful and dramatic intervention. The watches are being synchronized at 17 or 18 work-stations as we speak. It would be nice if we could drop this oblique rodent thread, so that I don't have to dig out the old textbooks and review my gopherology.
House of Meat
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 10:45:57 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't know what history book you've been reading, MK, but my history books said that the Old West was far from peaceful, and it was full of scofflaws who would sneak out at night and empty the chamber-pot into the creek counter to the provisos in the Contract. People downstream would say, "it's them goddamn injuns again," and soon there would be an expedition to wipe out another peaceful tribe. We know now, of course, that the Indians worshipped Mother Nature, and "buried" their offal on sacred scaffolds in the mountains, with due ceremony. Baylor University has had five seminarians researching the Old West archives, trying to find evidence proving the Baylor theory that a turd in the water constituted an abrogation of contractual property rights, and so far they have found nothing. I hate to dis your alma mater, MK, but this is an example of just what's wrong with history as revelation-- it doesn't leave footprints in the sands of objective reality. In other words, there is no fossil record where there was nothing to fossilize. Think about it, next time you are inserting your tongue into the depths of a hot plastic pie.
Rube Waddell
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 10:38:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: This site is as dead as a million liberal fetuses. Fetisi? Fetum? Hard to have an obsession when, like MK, you aren't sure of the plural. Anyway, it's dead, but the clods need tamping. Have no fear, the liberal obsession will tamp away.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 10:22:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete, thanks for the insight w.r.t. burrowing underground rodents in HI and CO. How did the new eyepiece work out for you? Been cloudy at night here for about a week; Mars may finally break through tonight. <> "I love watching the Subway guy put on those plastic baggie gloves and rip open a loaf..." - MK. Are rip roaring loaves back on topic now? Whoopie!!
Glint
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 09:03:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: "This is Glint's site all the way, ...and, it is to be hoped, Glint's Revelation" -Anon. Glint can't do it alone. Not without the Ydog. How else will he learn about the best oatmeal stouts, charcoal, and which jams are best for slathering on the cruellers? How can it happen not knowing which Aurora race car won the Austin 200, the Buick or the Ford Galaxy? Has the Ford convertible driver's plastic head popped off when it jumped the slot and rolled in the second turn? Who's keeping the brushes oiled on the greasy side - the dark side - of the H.O. cars?
Glint
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 08:16:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: It is highly appropriate that the liberals on here are so obsessed with death of this site and other things. After all, they kill millions of fetuses each year. It is up to us to keep hope alive.
Pete�
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 02:43:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh I guess I'll explain a little something to the historiclly ignorant. American provides a good example of pollution control without government. While the western states were territories, they had no formal governments. Settlers wanted to insure that their farms and water rights were secure. They joined a community where everyone agreed, in writing, to respect each other's property. The contract specified how and by whom disputes would be settled. These VOLUNTARY groups substituted for coercive government. Polluting a neighbor's water was a violation of property rights. Disputing parties put their case before arbitration as specified by their contract. A "convicted" polluter made restitution or faced the collective wrath of the community. Most disputes were settled peaceably, contrary to the image Hollywood portrays. As territories became states, governments claimied water rights once privately owned. Bureaucrats often had more to gain by turning a blind eye to polluters who contributed to the appropriate campaign chest.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 02:39:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube Waddell: So you had a checkered past. Wooptie due. ---The reason I tell you this is to hope you accept my credentials when I mention that I think you couldn't cut shit as a teacher. Nope I don't accept your credentials in tht regard. I have plenty of discipline and know plenty of subject matter. How do you know that I am ignorant of arithmetic, spelling, history, grammar, geography, and anything else I might be called upon to teach? You must have flunked logic classes...by jumping to conclusions like a true liberal. --- Oh palease. Don't let me catch you making a gramatical mistake on this silly BBS. Lighten up. You nit-pickey nut. Even president Bush has trouble with big words. By your standards, I suppose that should disqualify him from being president. --- Oh great one...please enlighten me...in the grand scheme of things, what is the wonderful purpose of the web site? --- The message at 01:58:23 (EDT) was not made by me. Therefore it isn't deserving of my reply. --- Oh...by the way...if I have misspelled any words...so sorry.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 02:27:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Man, this site has me salivating. It's like reading the Guide Michelin to the best eateries of Waco, Texas. Faily makes the spit drip from the jowels. Mmmmmmmm, MacDonald's full course dinner-- cheeseburger, fries, large drink, and cherry pie. Yum. And then Subway. I love watching the Subway guy put on those plastic baggie gloves and rip open a loaf of that home-cooked Subway sourdough, spoon on the pickle and the peppers and the mayo..... next stop Arby's, even if we do have to pile into the Aerostar and drive all the way to Shreveport. The only problem is the fear that the federal government may soon try to put a lid on it all by regulating the amount of fat in the MacDonalds's patty. That fine frozen USDA Choice patty is chock-full of fat, that's what makes it taste so fine when it drools down my chipmunk cheaks, and the nanny-state is going to swoop down any day and pull that burger right out of my jaws! Why does the nanny-state have to ruin everything? It was good back in the pioneer days when people got together and signed contracts forbidding people living upstream from throwing their turds into the Ohio River, so they would float down past people living on the Mississippi below Natchez. Back when people could eat all the fat they wanted, soak it up in MacDonald's like human sponges, and chase it with something from the MacDonald's dessert tray. I'm onto something here, and I sure hope that Pete will rise to the challenge and debate me, something that nobody else has had the balls to do here.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 01:58:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Interesting to note that MK got "dessert" at MacDonald's. Must have been one of them nuked cherry pies, like the Hostess Cherry Pie you can find in the rack next to the smokes down at the Lebanese market. It's pretty swell to sit back, full of Big Mac drippings (eat your heart out, Carl's Jr.) and fried potatoes and Hi-C orange drink, and have yourself a nuked cherry pie, comes in its own platic wrap. Just let that sweet cherry juice and artificially colored fructose syrup burn your tongue a little bit and glide down the furrows in your cheaks, and tongue that cherry right out of the middle of the pie, like it was an adult game instead of a gustatorial delight. Man, that's some fine eating. Hope the EPA doesn't try to regulate it.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 01:35:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anonymous, are you saying that the purpose of fornigate is to help Glint re-discover his liberalism? Make him understand what "liberal" means, tear him away from his bumper-sticker mentality and the horrendous load that his father and his uncles laid on him, and transform him into a thinking human being? I don't know about this. Sure, fornigate probably had a purpose for existing, but I always thought that purpose was to reveal Pete to be the asshole that he is by letting him post freely. Now that Pete is dead, and only his feeble ghost posts, on gopheristic topics, you say that the site was always about Glint's transformation? This is a little hard to swallow, If glint is ripe for entry into the human race, why has he not entered already? Do you blame it entirely on the influence of Pete? And what if the ghost of Pete comes back, wedging itself through the door via these initial gopher posts? Won't Glint just go back to following the leader?
House of Meat
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 01:28:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: That is to say, the Good Lord would not have let it survive as long as He did, WITHOUT Glint's eventual conversion in mind. This is Glint's site all the way, Glint's Last Chance, Glint's Temptation, and, it is to be hoped, Glint's Revelation. The rest is chaff, which one could make sound mysterious and important by signing himself Wheat.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 01:20:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: What this site is about, since Pete has died and comes back only as a ghost trying to figure out why gopher traps might be outlawed in certain areas, is about something else, which will become apparent if Glint keeps posting every morning after his shower of his Ovaltine. This site is about Glint, to be sure. The Good Lord could not have let it survive Glint's conversion in mind. But Glint is going to have to prove himself, by continuing to post his random thoughts in the morning, his plans for the day, his disgust with various news items, his reminiscences on the preceding night's teloscopy, his various brands of sexual braggadocio. Glint is the key, the poor addicted sap.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 01:13:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: And another think, MK: even Pete probably knows (but can't act on it because of his dyslexia) that if you want to make a past participle out of "pig" you have to double the end consonants. In other words, MK, it evidences ignorance of the lessons your were supposed to learn in fifth grade to say that you "piged out" at MacDonald's. That kind of shit undercuts your attempts to present yourself as someone who knows his ass from a hole in the ground. It makes your readers stop to think about what the hell "piged" sounds like, and to think it sounds like the first half of "pigeon" rather than the first half of "pigged out." You define yourself as a buffoon by your ignorance, even before you try to post your version of the preface to the freshman micro-economics texttbook you used at Baylor, and which impressed you so. There is a holy purpose to this site, MK, and it does not include you or anything you choose to natter on about. This site has been winnowed down to you, me, a third guy, and Glint, and it has been winnowed for a holy reason. And it has also been winnowed to Pete who comes on now and then to explain the ecology of gophers, but you get the drift. You are comic relief. The purpose of this site, the holy purpose, does not involve you, nor does it involve Pete except as a gopher expert.
Rube Waddell
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 01:03:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: MK, my scholastic career is a bit checkered. I have attended, at one time or another, the College of San Mateo, University of California at Riverside, University of California at Berkeley, l'universit� de Paris, New York University, UC Berkeley (again), Hayward State University, and the University of California at Berkeley (yet a third time.) There must by something about that Berkeley pussy that draws you back. In 1969 I was awarded an "F" in botany at Berkeley. In 1977 I was awarded an A+ in Independent Study Concentrating on Natural Resource Economics at the same school. I received an "F" in Political Science 1A at UC Riverside in 1964, but earned the First Place price in Freshman Chemistry to go with the A and points at CSUH eleven years later. In between I held various jobs, some of them akin to that of a packager at a packaging plant, some more robust. I was a professeur at the Lycee Municipal de Bouak�, and at the College d'Enseignement G�n�ral and the Lycee Houphou�t-Boigny in Korhogo, RCI. I taught a lesson once at a gynasio in Itapipoca, state of C�ara, Brasil, just one, in 1970, and was showered with notes saying, in Portuguese, please fuck me and take me to America upon leaving. My classes in the French school system consisted generally of about fifty boys and men from about age 14 to 27, and a few girls who were usually gone, impregnated, by the end of the year. I once failed 34 boys and men out of 52, making farmers of them instead of rich dudes, and caught shit from the sappy "censeur", who is the equivalent of our "Dean of Boys." Later, however, I shook hands with that "censeur" at a movie under the Southern Cross, and he fell backwards onto the ground, because he was drunk as a Baptist minister at a convention in Philly. The reason I tell you this is to hope you accept my credentials when I mention that I think you couldn't cut shit as a teacher, because it's all about discipline and concentration on the subject matter. I have a feeling that you couldn't discipline a kindergartner, because you are little more than a kindergartner yourself, and I have a feeling that you can't concentrate on any particular subject matter because you are hung up on yourself and besides that you are ignorant of arithmetic, spelling, history, grammar, geography, and anything else you might be called upon to teach. Anent l'universit� de Paris, MK, which goes back way back, and was in fact the first Univeristy and the Platonic ideal of same, a university is a place where pedantic people get together, nothing more, although by rights it should be capable of awarding PhD's, not in Southern Baptism but in intellectually-challenging areas. MacDonald's sucks, MK, because it is just a way to get sugar into children and call it a hamburger. In foreign climes, places you will never find yourself, they have to revise the formula, because people are not habituated to sugar in their hamburger buns or in the meat that is fried up for the hamburger. It's not about fat, because some of these people slop a lot of fat into the sauces, when they are not eating at MacDonalds's, it is about sugar. Fear sugar, MK, not fat, it is sugar that the nanny-state will regulate.
Rube Waddell
- Friday, June 08, 2001 at 00:51:08 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wait. Subway promotes itself as having food with less fat content. It readily has nutritional info available. I think that McDonalds has nutritional info too...though you may have to work at frying the info from the employees. I just went to the Subway web site. Very nice. I think I will be a regular customer there. We don't need government in this instance. If McDonalds wont serve healthier food, it will miss the health-conscious fast-food customer.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 19:31:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh man. I just piged out at McDonalds (a Big Mac, large fries, a coke, and desert). The fattening stuff was so delicious and addicting...nearly like cigarettes. Isn't food having excess fat supposed to be unhealthy for you? Let's get together and call on government to force fast food places to put warning labels on their cheeseburgers. Then, assuming some people eat fat anyway, let's encourage the government to sue McDonalds for Medicare having to treat people with fat-related illnesses. While we are at it, let's have a law that no coffee may be served if it is over 90 degrees.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 19:15:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: http://www.taxrebatepledge.org/pledge/index.cfm
this is proof that liberal suckers are born every day
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 18:47:09 (EDT)

My two cents are: I can only assume there are no (non-human) moles in Hawaii and that Colorado has this law about hunting ground rodents. Too non-PC to kill a furry burrowing critter. Likely an emanation from the feel good ground dog contingent. There's a big hullabaloo about those things in Colorado. No shootie the doggie. I guess texas has a bounty on doggies. Someone must have collected one already. Slimy yellow pelted one.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 18:10:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hi Glint, no I don't. Coincidental, I suppose.
Pete�
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 18:07:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube: Where did you go to school. The University of Great American Socialism with Clinton as the dean...where it instructs people not to think but to bow to the great caretaker, the US government?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 17:13:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: University: An institution for higher learning with teaching and research facilities constituting a graduate school and professional schools that award master's degrees and doctorates and an undergraduate division that awards bachelor's degrees.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 17:10:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sounds to me that, having evolved from a Bible flogging center to an ape-like semblance of a real college, Baylor University should be more forgiving toward the fact of evolution. You say the joint is 75% free, sort of like Red China, and dancing is now permitted? Way to go, Baylor! Apparently there are no govenment regulations on the use of the work "University" the way there are on the use of "Organic" or "Fortified Soy Product Guaranteed to Not Contain More than 15% Rat Droppings."
Rube Waddell
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 16:26:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: So, in effect, more people have flunked out of Baylor than have flunked into it?
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 16:19:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: Your criticism of Baylor is outdated. Yes. Years ago Baylor was practically a "Sunday school". It didn't recognize dances and any textbook that remotely implied that we are merely highly evolved apes was kept from the University. The Southern Baptist Convention had total authority. The charter was changed by popular vote a few years ago. Now we are 75% independent, there have been school-sponsored dances, and the University has allowed itself a more open atmosphere for discusion and debate. Where did you go to school?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 15:46:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: SOUNDS LIKE A BAD DEBT RISK.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 15:30:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete, got your ears on? I was just thumbing through the Sharper Image catalog and had a question. Do you have any idea of why the Sonic Molechaser is not available in Hawaii or Colorado? It wouldn't be because the moles have left those states, is it? Like the Molechaser, don't you also have a Colorado connection? :-)
Glint
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 15:09:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Back from Sharper Image; time for a scroll. Yawn. Think I'll go trim the holly hedges.
Glint
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 14:23:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: An article in this mornings newspaper realtes the chance meting of a local person at St. Andrews Golf course in Scotland. Clinton was jeered by the crowd."Spectators would just yell things out" "They asked him where Monica was". Clinton swung at one ball and it hit the roof of a car.A Spectator yelled " You won't get a Pardon for that shot"
Chebbie MacGlaughlin
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 14:12:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: When was God born?
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 14:10:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Of course if Jenna and Barbara polished Klintoon's knob in the oval office, then they would be newsworthy. The liberal press would never report it, though-- not until Drudge forced them to.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 13:47:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: The one on Time that proclaimed, "God Is Dead." That made me sad. And the one with Demi Moore nude and pregnant. Quite saddening.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 13:38:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't think I've ever been "profoundly saddened" by a magazine cover. Unless you want to count the New Yorker covers, which are all pretty sad.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 13:27:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: At least thirty guys finger-f*cked Chelsea at Stanford. Do you ever read about it in the mainstream liberal press?
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 13:25:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: How else do you expect a Bush girl to get on the cover? The liberal media would never write them up if it made them look good, only bad. What radio programs do you listen to, anyway?
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 13:23:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: And poor Chelsea didn't even do anything newsworthy like get busted in some yahoo bar with a fake ID and her twat spread open. At least the Bush skanks earned their cover story.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 13:10:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: In 1999, the Clintons said* they were 'profoundly saddened' by PEOPLE's decision to do a cover story on their daughter. In a prophetic flash, then- Gov. George W. Bush joined President Clinton and his wife in voicing disappointment over the story on Chelsea Clinton, citing concerns about his own teen-age girls as he considers running for president. "If the president and Mrs. Clinton are disappointed that their daughter's on the cover of the magazine, I'm disappointed for them," Bush said. "I'm beginning to understand better how teen-agers feel. It's a sensitive age. I respect their desire for privacy. I'm sorry it happened. "My most important job is father," Bush said. "So I'm concerned, as I say, about the meat-grinder of national politics."
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 12:40:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: I thought he was a stoopin socialist hater? Where'd we get this nonsense about fairness all of a sudden?
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 12:38:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: The twin Bush porkers are on the cover of People Magazine. Why is it that everything Pete loved and stood for all come together after his death? It ain't fair.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 12:29:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: She say that this is adult games. Quoi? Like maybe the crickets? The Jai-alai? Coming in from the behind comme �a, she is no game, she is the real one. Maybe is of game she carry the board, tied to suitcase. Nice leather one, with leather straps to tie on. The board, not the suitcase. A board with a hole. If this is game, I am not the sportif. I do not play these game. What I say, if they fuck then fuck, if they suck then suck. Maybe they ask it in the forbidden crevasse de nuit, that too can I do. If they want game, go in playground, or go in the huntings pirogue for the alligator and play him, or play the fishing with the pole. I am a man, and I want for a man, not the games of a child.
Osceola Atchifalaya
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 09:35:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Inside the bubble. Hang on until the pension vests.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 09:18:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Think now that I've taken a shower I'll slip down to Rockville. I received a Sharper Image credit card in the mail courtesy of my former agent with a several hundred dollar credit and there's a store at White Flint that should have catalogs available. While in Rockville I'll slip over to another of the Canadian subsidiaries of the company that last used my services for an interview. Thiswould be as a direct employee however, not a consulting position. A real job as it were.
Glint
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 08:58:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: OK, OK, I stand corrected. Pete figured out the pendulum, and Kiliminjaro, and Plato, and Art and Poetry, and Gary Condit, and who was going to win in the Michigan Primary, and he knew Fess Parker, and he rose to the challenge of debating MK in an intelligent discussion. Credit where credit is do.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 05:32:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Microserf.
Pshaw!
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 05:32:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Baylor, huh? No wonder you ever learned anything. If you want an evangelical Bible education, the place to go is Bob Jones, even Dubya knows that. MK, a church is a church and a school is a school. Studying the Word was an adequate replacement for learning back in the middle ages, but there's been a Renaissance, if you hadn't heard. Baylor is the place to go if you want to learn that there aren't any short-necked giraffes in the fossil record, or at least not in the fossil record at the seminary. If Bill Gates had gone to Baylor instead of to school, we never would have crushed a hundred software companies that needed crushing, and we'd all be typing this shit on Commodore 64's. Take a bridge to the fourteenth century. The only good thing about Baylor is the coeds do a lot of ass-fucking, and save their maidenheads for marriage.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 05:28:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: Something tells me the Buff reference was to another school, not your impressive physique.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 05:15:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: Corrections: I graduated from Baylor University...not an Ivy League school but not a diploma mill either. If you mean by "Buff" being highly muscular. You are correct. I have a runner's build and am probably healthier than most people my age. My wife is more of a night owl and does do work for temporary agencies in the afternoon and evening. --- Pete rose to the challenge of debating me in an intelligent discussion. Something very few people here have the courage to do. --- Roseola: Keep dreamin'. --- I haven't been watching the news lately. If California energy has fallen in price, it was probably do to the general public's conservation, but that is only a guess. Do you have any specific information for me?
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 02:55:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Where's the empathy? Okay, the guy had problems. So what; who doesn't? He was working them out right before our eyes. It was breathtaking, especially now, in his absence. MK is a piss poor substitute. He never was a grad of an elite universtiy, never was a Buff, not really. MK is married to a chick who sleeps all day, got laid off from the packing plant DESPITE having earned her GED. Pete is married twice to a bi-polar lesbian. Think about it.
Anonymous.
- Thursday, June 07, 2001 at 01:04:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Are you saying he switched parties and became an independent*?
-?-
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 23:48:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: He's alive, maybe. He was taking a lot of hits here. Repeating the same schtick for what, three, four years now? Fewer and fewer people posting and it was becoming too painfully obvious even to him that he was out-classed. There wasn't anyone you could ever pretend was of less virtue or value. Man woke up one morning and realized he'd sunk to arguing with M.K. about libertarianism. There was no Whatever to dream after. No fantastic hope than when she visited Hawaii she would tell him, and he could fly out from San Pedro and pretend it was home. It all closed in on him, in the end. In the end, the pendulum just shifted on him.
House of Meat
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 23:43:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: Well, at least Pete must be watching from heaven.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 22:25:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Calimari, right. I'm going to shuffle off and eat a plate of earthworms at the local driving range, maybe hit a few. Life is OK when you've got a full bottle of Effexor�.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 22:07:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: No need to cast aspersions on the memory of Pete�. Let the dead lie peaceful with their worms. No man who did not grow up a four-eyed haole, beaten daily by his classmates, can judge him or what he in the end became. Sure, at bottom he was a stupid fuck, but he figured out the pendulum, and Kiliminjaro, and Plato, and Art and Poetry, and Gary Condit, and who was going to win in the Michigan Primary, and he knew Fess Parker. There are men who have shuffled out of this vale of tears with lesser records.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 22:04:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: I'm off to grab a plate of calamari at the local gin mill, maybe catch some of the ballgame. Later.
Life is good...until it sucks
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 22:03:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete is in pussed over twat heaven.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 22:02:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh, that was the dog. The fucker was on Percodan. The slow strokes give it away.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 22:00:49 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good riddance to him and his disease. This page is coming back! Thank you everyone. Especially the pasters.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:58:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: Dang, I wish ydog had had the patience to stick around and see all his enemies fled or reduced to quivering hulks of one-post teloscopy notes and outrage at the media's treatment of the First Twins. Patience was never a virtue for that guy, though, he was always looking forward to the next adventure or the next poke thrown into the old lady and her teen-age entourage. Sometimes I wonder if that hairy "cowboy" caught in the hard-to-obtain Larry Flynt video pumping Jenna behind Chuey's wasn't the dog himself. The deed certainly was undertaken in the manner of a dog, with attention to the requisites of a dog's anatomy, but it is hard to tell in the dim glow of the exit sign.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:57:35 (EDT)

My two cents are: He held you in his arms till you could feel his disease. RIP!!!
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:57:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete's "views" were never what was important (or "important," or important*.) It was Pete's sickness that was important*. The disease was always more interesting than the victim.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:56:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ye shalt knoweth Pete by the pselling.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:54:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: This is scary. The Republicans are much better as spoilers than as leaders. They somehow managed to get all their needs addressed in one fell swoop, gave the over-charge back to the guys who earned it, and now they're going to be roadblocking all the socialist needs. Once again the fiscal conservatives are taking it up the ass, just like Sherril that wild three nights in Shreveport, while M.K. was off gamboling with Bo-Peep.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:50:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Either way, she scream like the goat.
Osceola
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:44:59 (EDT)

My two cents are: Roseola Oceola. I maybe don't spell her so good some time.
Roseola or Oceola, maybe Atchicafola
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:44:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: Second time, she say we do it through board, big like a door with a hole in him. I say no, and I go in bareback.
Roseola
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:42:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: I know for fact this M.K. is real. I fuck his wife in ass in Shreveport. She like it so good I have to do it twice.
Roseola Ochikifola
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:41:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: Now that Pete is dead, who's going to get his telescope? I'd like to add it to my collection, if it's free.
Glint
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:39:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete may be dead, but his dead sould views here daily. Inside information. Packet sniffer.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:38:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Is this MK character a put-on? If so, whoever made him up ought to tone it down. Your "art" is showing.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:35:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: A lot of people did turn off their electrical equipment, it appears. Supply and demand. M.K. was right after all. It's amazing that a guy in Waco could come up with that concept, and stun the world with it just as its quintessence is revealed in California. Now all we do is hang every Enron executive from a municpal electric utility pole, and everybody will be satisfied.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:35:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Where are the cunts now that Pete has died?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:34:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: The Cheney death watch has begun. He is not needed any longer. I say the fat fuck is dead by Labor Day. That leaves Xmas, New Years, Easter and Memorial Day, 2002 up for grabs. Only a sucker or a hallucinating trog would dare go beyond then.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:33:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: WASHINGTON �� The Senate met under new, Democratic management on Wednesday, completing an unprecedented shift in power that dislodged Republicans and ushered in a new era of divided government. Majority Leader Tom Daschle swiftly suggested changes in the GOP-crafted budget. "Both sides have to come to the middle. We can't just lob bombs," the South Dakota senator said, although he also made clear he was prepared to oppose President Bush on occasion in his role as leader of a "very very slim majority." Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, the GOP leader, ceded power to Daschle with a pledge of "continued friendship" � and a list of accomplishments forged in six years of Republican rule. "I think you will not see him more combative but much more aggressive," Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said of Lott. "He'll be able to more closely define and articulate Republican views without having to pay respect to the other side." The new power relationships will take weeks or months to develop, but some changes occurred swiftly. West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, 83 and the longest-serving Democrat, replaced South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond, 98, as president pro tem, a constitutional office that makes him third in line for the presidency. Senators debated education legislation, picking up where they had left off on Tuesday � almost. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., supplanted James Jeffords of Vermont as the Republican manager of the bill. Jeffords, whose switch from Republican to independent aligned with Democrats triggered the seismic shift in power, sat on the Democratic side of the aisle for the first time. "I was at awe knowing that I was entering a new phase in my life," said Jeffords, whose desk had been moved overnight. Daschle praised the Vermont lawmaker for his "courageous decision." It was a topic that Lott did not mention. The change in command brought to an end the first period in 50 years in which Republicans held control of the White House and both houses of Congress. It also marked the first time in history that one party ceded power to another without an intervening election. The Senate had been split 50-50, meaning that Republicans held control by virtue of Vice President Dick Cheney's ability to break ties. Lott and Daschle forged a unique power-sharing agreement last winter that gave Republicans committee chairmanships but handed Democrats equal representation on each committee. Jeffords' switch ended that, and the two sides bargained behind the scenes over a new organizational plan. Republican talk of a filibuster has faded in recent days. And while Daschle said Democrats would rely on precedent in dealing with judicial and other administration nominees, he was at pains to pledge fairness when dealing with Republicans and Bush's appointments � a key demand made by the GOP. "You've heard us lament and in some ways criticize the majority when we were in the minority for the lack of fairness. I think it would be hypocrisy at its worst if we were to take the same tactics. So we're not going to do that," he said. Daschle, 53 and his party's Senate leader for six years, began his day before dawn, coming to the Capitol for a series of television interviews in which he talked of bipartisanship as well as a desire to put a Democratic stamp on the nation's legislative agenda. Daschle said that sooner or later, "we're going to have to revisit" the tax cut that passed Congress late last month. He and other Democrats say it is too costly, and he told reporters, "At some point reality is going to come crashing down on all of us and we're going to have to deal with it." Asked whether Democrats would be hampered because Bush's tax cut left too little money for other programs, he said, "We'll probably have to find offsets for many of the things that we want to do." Democrats have expressed opposition to any tax increases, and an aide said Daschle's mention of offsets referred to spending cuts in some administration priorities that would free money for favored Democratic programs. Democrats have said previously the budget written by the administration and Republicans shortchanges education, Medicare and Social Security overhaul, environmental protection and other areas. "Obviously on occasion we will see it as our role to stop something that we don't think is appropriate policy," Daschle said on ABC's "Good Morning America." Later he said he presides over a "very, very slim majority � just as President Bush I hope would recognize that he has a very, very slim majority." As a result, he said, "we've got to work together and find common ground. That's the only way we're going to govern in this split relationship, in this very difficult challenge that we face in governing with a divided government today."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:30:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: WASHINGTON �� In a historic midsession change of command, the Senate convened Wednesday under Democratic control as new Majority Leader Tom Daschle called for bipartisanship. But he cautioned that he would also use his party's new muscle to stop President Bush on areas where they disagree. "What you hear is the noise of democracy," Daschle, D-S.D., told reporters minutes before the chamber began its session, referring to partisan sniping that has been seen in days leading up to the transition. "I think the noise of democracy is a beautiful sound." Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie opened the day's session with a prayer asking for a blessing for Daschle and the No. 2 Democratic leader, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., "as they assume the demanding responsibility of majority leadership." Reid, sitting in the Senate president's chair, then recognized Daschle as majority leader for the first time. Until the close of the Senate's business on Tuesday, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., had been majority leader for nearly five years. By voice vote, the Senate then elected Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the senior Senate Democrat, as president pro tempore, replacing Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. That is a constitutional and mostly ceremonial post that is also third in line of succession to the presidency. Byrd was sworn into office to the applause of his colleagues. Thurmond, 98 and in fragile health, was elected to be president pro tempore-emeritus, a titular post created to honor the oldest and longest-serving senator ever. The senator, who landed on Normandy with allied forces on D-Day, missed the session; he was with President Bush dedicating a D-Day memorial in Bedford, Va. In his first speech as majority leader, Daschle acknowledged the precarious majority he will have in a chamber that the minority can often stymie with procedural delays. With Vermont Sen. James Jeffords' departure from the GOP official with Tuesday's closing gavel, Democrats took a 50-49 majority, plus Jeffords' support for reorganizing the chamber, and had chairmen at the helm of each committee. "At a time when Americans are evenly divided in their choice of leaders, they are united in the demand for action," Daschle said in the half-filled chamber. Lott � now the minority leader � delivered a congratulatory speech to Daschle. He said he was extending "my hand of continued friendship and a commitment to work with him for the interests of the American people." But Lott, who has vowed to pursue the agenda of the GOP and President Bush, also said his party deserved credit for accomplishments under his tenure, citing elimination of annual budget deficits, tax cuts, a welfare overhaul and other measures. "I do think we have made a difference to the country over the past six years," Lott said. For all but the last six months, the GOP's hold on the Senate and its continued majority in the House were under President Clinton, a Democrat with whom they frequently clashed. Democrats ultimately will have a one-seat majority on each committee, but the Senate will have to approve a resolution to make that official. That resolution is the subject of GOP talks with Daschle that were expected to resume Wednesday, with Republicans insisting that Democrats also promise timely votes on Bush's nominations. Physical evidence of the Democratic takeover emerged before Wednesday's session. Workers shifted Jeffords' desk a few feet over to the Democratic side of the center aisle, and the "Assistant Majority Leader" sign over the office door of Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma was replaced with one reading, "Assistant Republican Leader." For the first time, Jeffords joined Senate Democrats Tuesday at their weekly lunch and received a standing ovation. "I was a little bit numbed," Jeffords said afterward, adding he has "never had second thoughts" about ending his lifelong affiliation with the GOP. At the White House, Bush met with senators of both parties to discuss the bipartisan education bill wending its way through the Senate. He preferred to cast his party's loss of Senate control in positive terms. "There's going to be an opportunity for us to work on a variety of issues" with Democrats, he said. Even so, some Democrats were bristling at the feisty talk by Lott, who has referred to Jeffords' defection and subsequent turnover of the Senate to Democrats as a "coup of one." "When I heard that statement I smiled broadly, because on that basis one could ask the same questions about the resident of the house behind me," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., last year's Democratic vice presidential nominee. He was pointing at the White House as he left the education meeting with Bush, winner of last year's bitterly contested presidential election.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:27:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: The good news is , the cost of electricity has plummetted in California. although this may only be temporary. See what's happening is the price of natural gas has dropped. Could you please explain the tie-in, MK? We await the next lesson.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:24:58 (EDT)

My two cents are: Stop wining. Don't like high electric bills, turn off your electrical equipment.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 21:20:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Then again, Frankenstein was raised by a form of electrical energy.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 20:52:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: Wait until the 13 California plants now under construction come on line. The power generators will be wailing for a cap on production capacity to keep their profits up. Sure glad Pete is dead and doesn't have to witness that.
Rube Waddell
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 19:51:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Could be that the "Pacific Research Institute" is a little out of date. Following MK's mystical supply and demand, electricity use dropped 11% below norm for last month in California, even though it was hotter than hell. For this, and a variety of other factors undoubtedly, the price of electricity is swooping low for the present. Maybe Enron was wise to gouge while they had the chance, or maybe they're killing the egg goose. Maybe there is flexibility in the domestic energy market and the Texans will have to find some greener victims.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 19:49:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: SAN FRANCISCO, June 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Mismanagement by Gov. Gray Davis has contributed to the energy crisis and helped to create the power shortages now facing California, according to a report released today by the California-based Pacific Research Institute (PRI). Lights Out: California's Electricity Debacle: Causes and Cures, by Lance T. Izumi, examines the causes of the disaster, Governor Davis's responses, the political ramifications of the crisis, and practical solutions. The report also evaluates the causes of increased wholesale energy prices, and warns against wholesale price caps. "With rolling blackouts guaranteed as summer heat increases electricity demand over available supply, Californians are right to wonder how the state got into this mess and what will be the fallout of this government-created debacle," said Izumi, a PRI senior fellow in California studies. Lights Out explains that while California deregulated wholesale electricity rates in 1996, the state capped the retail prices that utilities could charge consumers, prevented utilities from entering long-term purchase contracts, and forced utilities to purchase power on the daily spot market. When wholesale prices soared, utilities still had to sell electricity to consumers at the government-dictated price well below the wholesale cost. This plunged utilities into debt, delayed conservation efforts by insulating consumers from the true market rate for electricity, and contributed to skyrocketing wholesale electricity prices. In February, Governor Davis acknowledged that "if I wanted to raise rates I could have solved this problem in 20 minutes." Instead, Davis has opted for an ill-conceived strategy of government intervention. Izumi charts how economists, lawmakers, journalists, and industry officials have all noted defects in Davis's leadership. Over the last year, Davis emphasized polls rather than prudent policy, failed to meet with industry leaders, failed to allow utilities to sign long-term contracts and raise retail rates, and did not recognize the severity of utility losses. According to Izumi, Davis's latest proposals to cap wholesale energy prices will drive many power generators out of the market, further constricting supply. They also ignore legitimate causes of skyrocketing wholesale prices in California, including: Failure to build any new major power plants over the last 10 years due in part to increased costs to evaluate compliance with stricter environmental regulations. An estimated 55 percent of California's plants are 30 or more years old, and must go off line for maintenance often, sharply reducing supply. In recent years, 25 new power plants were proposed, which would have increased California's in-state power generation by more than one-third, more electricity than California imports. The state's refusal to allow the utilities to enter into stable, lower-price, long-term purchase contracts. The state's refusal to eliminate retail price caps over a reasonable amount of time. If there is market manipulation, the state's retail price caps allow such manipulation. Because the retail caps insulate consumers from the increased wholesale rate, consumers have little incentive to decrease consumption, virtually ensuring power generators the same demand regardless of what they charge.
the real truth
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 18:59:13 (EDT)

My two cents are: The demon
from the RAT
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 18:50:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Where's the tit?

- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 18:49:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: the tit
from the tat
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 18:49:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: The musk
from the muskrat
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 18:48:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: The pith
from the reed
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 18:47:32 (EDT)

My two cents are: The peanut
from the shell
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 18:47:06 (EDT)

My two cents are: The sheep
from the goats
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 18:45:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good to know they still are incapable of separating the wheat from the chaff.

- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 16:52:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: Putrifying
Pineapple
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 16:41:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Dead
Hoale
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 16:40:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: Blow
Fly
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 16:39:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rigor
Mortis
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 16:39:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pithy.
crux-like
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 16:36:05 (EDT)

My two cents are: Chaff
Wheat
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 13:56:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: The MK seal of approval! Gosh, I wish there was a lapel pin to go with it, or a certificate suitable for framing!
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 13:53:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rube: Excellent. I couldn't have explained it better myself. Your explanation didn't contradict mine. It merely expanded it. It all boils down to cost/benefit and supply/demand. --- Anonymous: Your Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:37:21 (EDT) post was also insightful. Very good.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 13:49:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete died? Did I miss something?
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 13:42:19 (EDT)

My two cents are: Laughing stalks? Speaking of which, all this site needs now is the return of Hman, especially now that Pete has died.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 13:39:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: 1) Pull wild bamboo out of ground. 2) remove stalks and keep root "corm." 3) put in pot with potting soil. 4) water. 5) New stalks will grow in 2-3 weeks. Stalks emerge at maximum diameter, and will be small the first season. Second season's stalks will be intermediate or full size.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 13:31:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Jeez, even the crynic! Guess old Rebel is putting out the pheromones. Welcome, crynic, you're just in time to complete the Midget Trio! Join us as we gasp at the idea that the behavior of the Bush scamps would be a hilarious indication of rot in Dubya's mud-sill. Synchronize watches, at 4:15 EDT we're all going to let out a coordinated ha-rummmph of indignation over Klintoon's failure to salute the Special Prosecutor that they'll be able to hear at Pete's funeral in Long Beach.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 13:24:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Moral equivalence is always a tough call for a true conservative, knowing as he does that we all live in houses made at least partly of glass. Using a fake ID to buy a margarita when the law says you can't have one is a crime in the commission of a crime-- it is corrupt, although of indeterminate morality. Evasive testimony irrelevant to a frivolous civil suit that is nothing more than a ham-handed attempt to smear an elected official and which is determined by the courts to be without merit is neither a crime, nor corrupt, nor immoral. As Glint is stimulated to remember, a stained dress is sexually exciting almost to the insupportable, but we can always dream of the furry Bush below when members of the opposite sex are involved, so at least there we have equivalence.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 13:17:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey Glint. Glad to hear all is well with you. Can you believe it? The slimy B-Team liberals here are actually spending time condemning a pair of American teenagers for underage drinking. Gee, who woulda thunk it? Reminds me a bit of the old days when we could get drafted at 18 but couldn't buy a drink. That one never did make any sense to me. I say justice should prevail. Ticket the party girls for breaking the law, and lock up Slickie for obstruction of justice. Sounds like an equitable deal./// Glint, know anything about transplanting wild bamboo into an indoor environment? Last weekend I dug up some 15' - 18' bamboo growing along the Severn and transplanted into my family room. Three of the stalks are doing great, but the fourth's leaves are furling. They've gotten plenty of water and a dose of "root tone". Any thoughts?
the crynic
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 12:50:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: 'All Hell Breaking Loose' In Nepal - A Resident's Version Of Events From Cynthia Edwards [email protected] 6-6-1 Monday, June 4 Dear Friends - Today is a dark day in the history of the world and about to become darker. Friday night the entire royal family of Nepal and their body guards were brutally murdered in cold blood at the regular Friday night family gathering (this included the 9 month old princess). What has been reported as a family squabble with the crown prince killing everyone and then shooting himself, and even a gun going off by itself (somehow killing 30+ people, some of whom were not in the same room?!) are outright lies. Immediately, the Royals were burned, much sooner than would be normal practice. The crown prince, the supposed killer, was made king while lying brain dead. Ironically, the king's brother, Gyanendra was out of town. At the same time his nephew, Paresh, a known murderer of at least 5 people(!) was in the place . So was the king's other brother Direndra, who has been living in London since 1990 and has been estranged from the royal family. Both brothers are criminals who have been involved with stealing and selling the antiquities of Nepal, drugs selling, and who knows what else. Both brothers vehemently were against democracy in Nepal and there was a huge fight between them all when King Birendra gave up the powers of the Monarchy in 1990 and declared a democracy for Nepal. It has long been known that Gyanendra has had a CIA link as well as ties to the government of India. What those connections are in this whole affair remains to be seen. There are no secrets in Nepal! Since Saturday most people have known the prince was dead even though the official news was saying otherwise. People knew they were being lied to but they were in shock so the streets were fairly quiet for 2 days. But as early as saturday afternoon, crowds were gathering outside the palace and at the funeral chanting, "Kill the criminals, Kill Gyandera. " In the meantime, more and more inside news was leaking out and it was fast becoming clear that this was a carefully orchestrated plot by at least the 2 brothers and nephew to seize control of Nepal. This morning, the prince was officially declared dead. One hour later, as I am writing this, Gyanendra has just been crowned king with full regalia, the Prime Minister and political leaders standing mutely by. Clearly this was all planned WELL in advance to be able to pull this off so quickly! And clearly the Prime Minister is either afraid to say anything or else is in collusion. And Paresh has already been sent to London for safety. I can hear the shouts of crowds in the street heading toward the palace. People are furious that Gyanendra, murderer of his own family and their king, has now been made king. And this anger has been building for a long time as a totally corrupt government has been running this country into the ground since the advent of "democracy" in 1990. The army is in the street along with hundreds of thousands of people, roads are closed, and no one knows what will happen. We fear a blood bath as Gyanendra now controls the army. The lastest report from a friend on the street is that tear gas is being fired into the crowds. Democracy was struggling in Nepal, at best, but now it is sure to die a swift death. Perhaps it doesn't matter to you what happens in this far away tiny country, so unrelated to your own lives. But at least you can know the truth and tell others so these people will not have died in vain. If you have a computer, go to Nepalnews.com.np and click on NepaliTimes - it is our most radical paper we have though we don't yet know if they will be brave enough to print the truth. I have no idea will become of me and other foreigners here. Only time will tell. It's pretty frightening right now and hopefully they will not target us in their frustration but go after the real criminals now holding the power. Please pass this on to others so the world knows what is really happening here, or at least as far as we can figure out. But please don't believe the foreign press! Pray for us all, Eleanor.
Om
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 12:43:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Rebel Without a Cause.
No Batteried Vibrator
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 12:36:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Help me, Jeremiah, I'm lonely.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 12:26:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: The morning socialist line.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 12:25:47 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good morning, Jeremiah. Glad to hear things are going well in the Ozarks. I was going to go weed whack the grass around the 40=50 trees that make up the western flank of the Peebody cypress hedge, but then the thunderstorms began. May try again later. <> Funny how these apologists can compare the Bush twins emergency narc call to Linda Tripp and keep a straight face. On the one case you have the POTUS, elected to uphold the laws himself attempting to "fix" a sex suit in Federal Court. That is supposed to be equivalent to two unelected teenagers trying to buy a marguerita in a Tex-Mex dive. Go on, twist the facts from each case into some sort of double helix. Speaking of DNA, did Lewinsky ever get her spotted dress back? I know she's requested the FBI to fork it over. Guess she misses the taste of southern DNA and wants to have a lick. Just add water!
Glint
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 11:37:56 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey, baby.
Muff Dyver
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 11:04:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Anyone wanna trade binaries??? Just kidding ;-\. Still a little too soon, don't you think, darlinks?! Let's get to know one another a little better first!!! And NO promises!.
Rebel
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 11:01:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: I can tell already that I'm going to *love* this site!!!!! My usual chat site, "Forty-Plus and Horny", is just so .... chatty, it's hard to get a word in edgewise!!! I like the way you gals and guys talk about serious stuff like the way the "democraps" ;-) are disobeying the laws around St. Louis!!! Deep! And the idea of that big dead-toothed stud standing on the back porch in his bikini briefs just "turns me on"!!! {:-o I'm gonna take it slow, been burned too many times, not going to post my e-mail until "something good" comes along! But I just know we're all gonna get to be GREAT friends, and have a "bitchin'" time here!!! Fornigate smokes!!!
Rebel
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 10:53:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey, Big Fella, you sound like a nice goosey guy ; ) ..... Rebel crosses the room and sits down by the ugly rotten-toothed dude..... Whattsa matter, sweet thing, you look like you got a Bible up your ass, relax, get comfortable. So, ping me, sweetheart.
Rebel
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 03:07:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Morning Glint, my computer has not been doing well lately. Something wrong with my inbox that I need to work the bugs out. Can still receive messages but have to use a different browser. Well, looks like the tourists are flocking to all the hot Missouri attractions. Gas dropped 3 cents to a $1.66 which helps with the truck. Have you heard anything out of Whatever? I scrolled back some but didn't see her anywhere. Which I had more time to spend on here but the ballgames are rolling and may be selling the house. Trying to buy 165 acres so we can have a little peace and quiet. Be able to go out the back door in my skivies and be at "one" with nature. Better get some sleep. Try to check back in tomorrow. /////// GW just has to hold the liberals at bay for a while. Just till next year when Carnahan the Heifer has to run on her own merits. Be just a little different election than the past one. That and maybe the judges in the St. Louis area can obey the laws, that and the democraps when it came to the voters in some counties around St. Louis. It's truly amazing how the election laws can apply differently to individuals. When they are republicans they are to be followed to a tee and if the republicans win the laws had to have been broken or some prejudice against minorities. Typical democrap sore losing attitude.
Jeremiah
United States of America - Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 01:52:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Seems to be all part of the strategy.
Anonymous.
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 01:46:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: I hope very soon a Girl with the profile "Rebel" will be joining us, she a real down to earth gal and I hope everyone will treat her in a nice way, and I send this message to Jim Kirkpatrick. Jim: if she comes into this Board try in your spare time to help her get familar with these boards, she spent most of her time in Chat rooms and she has no idea what a difference there is between the chat rooms and the Bulletin boards. So give her a break OK?
Albert
- Wednesday, June 06, 2001 at 00:33:54 (EDT)

My two cents are: Jest fell by to view the wreck of poor twerpedoed fornigate, the flotsam washed up on shore, and I see that my job here is done. A few liberals sarcastically posting right-wing screeds.... that bleat signed "Gloria" even appeared here last Friday, part of a cut and pasted Ann Coulter column. Poor Glint thinks he can keep his shattered team in play by posting once or twice in the morning after his Ovaltine, like Ydog during the Thousand Days, but it's tough to summon pro-twin outrage when you dressed up like a cigar for Linda Tripp. What could I have been thinking, the poor wanker asks himself in the new century. And do you really mean Yassir Arafat is not a good guy? Well shet my mouf. I may return again, to tamp down the clods. Otherwise, see you pathetic assholes on the other side.
Purple Weasel
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 23:56:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: We don't care that Jeffords has gone, and we don't care that we can no longer bulldoze in the Senate. We just don't care.
we dont care about the others going away either
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 22:14:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: For anyone passingly familiar with Jeffords' record, his defection was about as earth-shattering as Truman Capote coming out of the closet. Jeffords voted against President Clinton's impeachment. He opposed Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork. He was a big fan of Hillary's socialist health-care plan, which was such an unprecedented federal takeover of private industry that even the Democrats finally blanched. Not Jeffords. Needless to say, he is also pro-abortion. Jeffords opposed Bush's tax cut -- along with "moderate Democrats," as The New York Times described them. (The "liberal Democrats" must have been the ones calling for deeper cuts.) Indeed, Jeffords opposes all tax cuts. He even opposed Reagan's tax cut. Jeffords explained his recent exit thus: "Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party." Note "increasingly." He had endured Reagan, but just couldn't take it anymore under Bush.
Gloria
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 20:44:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Krak'D!

- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 20:37:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: This just in! Message for all the liberals! It has been revealed that by supporting Socialist tax cuts which take money away from the people who earn it and give it to the people who don't, you are violating the basic freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States! By supporting abortion, you are throwing your support behind murdering the innocent! Furthermore, by opposing the Second Amendment, you are violating the very foundations of our democracy! Just remember that you can change. There is hope for you yet. All you need to do is think about all the Americans who work hard and earn their money, and are now losing it because you need to give it to the poor who don't earn it. Just remember all the responsible gun owners out there who want to disarm, possibly threatening their own safet. Just remember all of the innocent children who you don't mind killing day-in and day-out. It is time to remove Bill Clinton from the pedestal that the liberals have created for him! Just remember that we had a budget surplus because we were forced to pay record amounts of money in taxes. Just remember that for eight years we were subject to wasteful spending on things like education and health care reform, which led us nowhere in the long run and only further raised taxes. Just remember that he didn't wait until his last days in office to institute all the environmental reforms that you liberals were crying about for so long. And finally, just remember that Bill Clinton completely downsized our military by taking away their money and resources, simply because his only priority was to concentrate his efforts on wasteful spending in other areas. And finally, I ask you one thing: You don't even have to change if you don't want to, but at least reexamine your political beliefs and try to realize that you support big-government causes with no positive results. The best government is less government! I know this post rambled, but I had to get that out of my system. Thank you.
Ron
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 20:33:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: Yasser Arafat ordered the assassination of two U.S. diplomats in 1973 may require the Bush administration to issue a warrant for his arrest. Late in May, 53-year-old Sarah Blaustein, a Long Island, N.Y., native who moved to Israel last year with her husband, was killed by Palestinian terrorists while driving to attend a funeral in Jerusalem. She was the 18th American victim of Palestinian terrorists in Israel since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stood on the White House lawn with former president Bill Clinton and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in September 1993 and signed the Oslo peace accords.
never negotiate with terrorists
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 19:52:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: One of the founding members of Peace Now, Edna Shabtai, has publicized a letter she wrote to former MK Geulah Cohen. Shabtai states in the letter that she now recognizes that the Palestinian entity wishes nothing more than to eradicate the Jewish presence in Israel. Shabtai later explained, "Now, after the past nine months, everyone whose eyes are just a little bit open can see where Arafat is headed: towards the conquest of all of Eretz Yisrael, and the return of all Palestine to the Palestinians. For us, this is a death decree... I keep thinking about Abba Kovner's call to Lithuanian Jewry on Jan. 1, 1942, which began, "Jewish youth, don't trust those who are leading you astray... Don't go like sheep to the slaughter." We must recognize what we are headed for if we allow our hands to be tied and our eyes to be bound..." Excerpts from Shabtai's letter to her former political opponent, MK of the now-defunct nationalist Techiyah (Revival) party: "The government must immediately issue the following announcement: 'The State of Israel recognizes the state of war waged against it by and under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority for the past nine months. This is a war of terrorism, the PA's answer to the generously outstretched hand of peace proffered by its elected Prime Minister, Ehud Barak... Instead of peace, the Palestinian answer is the dispatching of brainwashed young killers, outfitted with vests of death, to purposely kill children and youth in our cities in mass murders that outrage the heart of all humans. Israel sees itself, starting from June 2, the morning after the mass slaughter of the children, in a state of genuine war, and will do everything it can to protect itself and its citizens, according to international law...'"
clearly, MK knows more than Clinton
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 19:48:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fortunatley, the twins have not lied under oath, in contrast to our former Commander in Chief.
Distinctions 101
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 19:43:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: The use of 911 to report teenagers lying to waitresses to obtain forbidden substances became the norm when Governor Bush first started touting his "zero tolerance" policy toward teen drinking. The last thing the Governor wanted was cops who chuckle tolerantly and say that the way to deal with it is to not serve the teen-aged liar. The way to nip it in the bud was to not tolerate it at all, zero tolerance and stiff sentences, not just a slap on the wrist.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 18:44:26 (EDT)

My two cents are: If they lied under oath, the twins should be impeached. It's as simple as that.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 18:36:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: If you try to use somebody else's driver's license to buy booze in California, the pigs confiscate that license and they confiscate yours as well, if you have one. The driver's license is of course based on the equivalent of an oath that you are who you say you are, and showing it is an oath sworn to the person you are showing it to. That is why getting the license requires a sealed birth certificate. On the other hand, lying under oath to get a margarita isn't as bad as lying under oath to get into the World Trade Center with a suitcase full of TNT, so the twins may be excused this time. You see, there are various gradations or levels of lying under oath, some requiring severe punishment, and some requiring no punishment at all.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 17:44:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: If the chance to catch two trust-funded Republican skanks subverting family values isn't an emergency, I don't know what is. Isn't showing a false I.D. the equivalent of lying under oath?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 17:35:38 (EDT)

My two cents are: 911 is for true emergencies, like the dog loose on freeway that Glint and 146 other motorists called in on their cell phones. When you want a cop to arrest a perp, always call the business office and ask for Sharlene. If she is in the powder room, maybe Betty will waddle over to her desk and pick up.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 17:33:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: In the galss' balss? Wha?

- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 17:00:36 (EDT)

My two cents are: He is coming.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:52:25 (EDT)

My two cents are: balss?

- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:43:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Goddamit, Rube, ya made me spew my Lone Star all over the monitor.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:43:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: Guess OPEC is just one of those free-market mehcanisms MK is always blathering on about. What that boy knows about anything wouldn't fill Jenna's shot galss.
Mark Miwords
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:37:39 (EDT)

My two cents are: A better example of supply and demand is the M.K. Libertarian Explanation Post. Since there is no demand for them, the supply seems limitless, and the cost is zero. The market has set their price at exactly the perfect sum.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:37:21 (EDT)

My two cents are: Oh, "Dumber and Stupider". Sorry.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:34:10 (EDT)

My two cents are: I don't quite understand the relevance of the 911 pathway. Did the cops say, "this is a 911 call, so it's an emergency case of two rich snots trying to flout all notions of decency, and we better rush?" No, the cops said, "step on it, LeRoy, the call-in said the perps had pig noses. I got a feeling we got a chance to bust the two rich Bush snots trying to flout all notions of decency, and we better rush."
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:28:37 (EDT)

My two cents are: God guts and guns made our country great, not this economics stuff.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:24:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: As the first few entrpreneurs move to cheap land in the countryside to breed valuable sheep, the aggregate junk mail needs (damand) of these shepherds is low, and the Postal Service should not deliver mail to them (supply) because they may have to raise the cost of stamps a penny (price). As more and more city folks become sheep-herders, however, their need (demand) for sourdough starter, turnips, and shotgun shells rises, so shopkeepers follow them and open stores (supply), and demand postal delivery (demand) so they can supply their customers with advertising circulars (supply). Since water, sewer, electricity and other utilities are cheaper (price) if the transmission facilities are shorter (shortness), the shopkeepers huddle together in hamlets, which become towns and then cities, making sheephearding impossible (impossibility). But soon prices for local service rise to stem demand and thereby increase availability, which is exactly what is happening with oil and gasoline (supply and demand). Then a few entrepreneurs realize that moving out of the city and raising sheep (supply) is more profitable (price) because of the lack of sheep in the cities (supply) and the desire for wool and mutton (demand.) The city soon empties out (urban flight) as would-be sheepherders flock to the countryside (flocking), where they are stunned to find that there is no postal delivery (astonishment). And the whole cycle starts over again, which is why we call economics the Scyclic Science. Some citizens, of course, do not join in this lemming rush from city to countryside to city to countryside, preferring to stand dumbly aside, with their thumbs in their noses, inventing preposterous third-grade hypothetical chains of events, which are of no worth whatsoever (M.K.)
Rube Waddell
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:21:33 (EDT)

My two cents are: It is called the free-market. I might not have explained it well, but it isn't a dumb and stupid concept. It is one of the major ideas that made our country great.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:10:45 (EDT)

My two cents are: Shoot the messenger?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 16:02:42 (EDT)

My two cents are: Restaurant staffers usually don't contact police when they suspect a minor has violated underage drinking laws. Nor do they usually call 911 and the press. But Jenna and Barbara Bush received the star treatment at Chuy's Mexican restaurant in Austin, Texas. An emergency call May 29 led to misdemeanor citations against President Bush's twin daughters on accusations they violated drinking laws signed in 1997 by their father when he was governor. "Usually we wouldn't have handled this in the way it was handled," Mike Young, co-owner of the Chuy's Mexican restaurants in Austin, told the Austin American-Statesman in Tuesday's online edition. Immediately after calling 911, The Houston Chronicle reported that the manager on duty at the time called the press to report the incident. Despite such an unusual move that seemed designed to publicize the incident, Young � described by the Chronicle as a "minor Democratic player in Travis County (Texas) politics" � said he understood why the incident happened the way it did, and the manager of the Chuy's restaurant involved will stay with the company. "With that said, these are very unusual circumstances," Young said. "A packed restaurant with high-profile celebrities there puts a lot of pressure on your management team." Capt. David Ball of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission confirmed that the manager's actions were unusual. "That's the decision they have to make," he said. "For your normal misrepresentation of age, it would be very unusual." Rick Coy, assistant chief of the Austin police department, agreed. "We would hope someone would be cautious in calling that," Coy said. "Certainly it can be addressed by the police, it's not always necessary. Many times they can solve the problem by refusing to sell the alcohol to the individual."
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 15:54:01 (EDT)

My two cents are: "Stupid and Dumber"
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 15:10:04 (EDT)

My two cents are: "Supply and demand" typically self-adjust as long as it isn't artificially tampered with my government. I'll try to explain free-market to you as simply as I can: People move to the city for better, local, service ---> Prices for local service rise to stem demand and thereby increase availability. (That is exactly what is happening with oil and gasoline. The few refineries we have are running practically at full capacity. We are buying/using it as fast as it is being made available.) (Go to a public auction where everyone strongly desires the same items.) --> Away from the big city, sheep herders and breeders become rare ---> wool and sheep products (supply) diminishes (Prices for other products away from the city drop in value (i.e. land) as they are not wanted (since people are moving to the city) ---> value and demand for sheep workers (profitability) increases ---> Some people decide to take advantage of cheap land and valuable sheep, return to the country and breed sheep.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 15:07:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: The difference is that the Austin snitch was "anti-Bush", where Tripp was just an honest fishwife concerned with morality in the oval office.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 14:38:29 (EDT)

My two cents are: SOunds like the Austin snitch was doing her country a favor, like Linda Tripp.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 14:15:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: What makes you think he would be newsworthy? They don't report about third rate soup kitchen ladlers. Didn't he say he got all his best Meed shopping done at Amazon?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 13:20:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: He said he was going to make a big announcement, probably about the brand of eyepiece. But then he disappeared. We've been combing the Hawaii web-sites for accident reports and obits, but nothing has turned up.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 13:16:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: Good advice w.r.t. HBO. Perhaps I'll wait until next month's freebee HBO on the local cable net to get a look at "Six Feet Under." Guess I'll take a walk up and open up the observatory. There were several good sunspot groups splattered about yesterday. Did Pete ever say what brand of 5mm eyepiece he ordered from Amazon.com last week?
Glint
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 13:07:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: The owners of the Austin taco shack that achieved national noteriety last week for its MIP news has apologized for a restraunt manager that abused the 911 emergency system to narc on the Bush daughters. Friends of the manager have been quoted as describing her as "anti Bush." Kind of figures. The liberals will use and abuse any means, including 1he 911 emergency system in attacking even the offspring of the objects of their seething uncontrollable hateful impulses.
Glint
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 12:57:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Maybe you better not sign up for HBO until you get a job. Wait for the tax cut to stimulate the economy and provide more government contracts and a bigger bubble.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 12:44:55 (EDT)

My two cents are: Ms. Cummings, if you would scroll down a ways, you would realize that the bully here is M.K., who is always slapping the less-informed participants around with facts, and bludgeoning them with the Libertarian inevitability of the way things would be if only there were no government. Do you receive free AIDS testing from the county Board of Health? Well just wait, M.K. will soon clue you in to how that testing should be taken over by roving bands of private market-ladies carrying their blood-extraction needles in baskets on their heads. If any of the private roving ladies turns out to be spreading more AIDS than she is detecting, people will stop going to her for tests. Only the efficiency of the market-place will save us from wasteful spending. I'll bet if you look in your client roster you'll find that most of the people who use your services are wasteful government employees, and Enron sends you over to Dick Cheney's back door only occasionally.
Rube Waddell
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 12:10:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: I got sum email dat said dis site wuz a lookin for nother black female participant for to post since da other 2 called Oppressed and Whatever have flown the coop. I want to apply for the opening with mine down theyr.
Kunty Kinte
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 12:03:28 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hi. Don't ask me why but the Alta Vista search engine came up with a link to this site while I was searching for "gang bang cock". In spite of my first impressions it seems like a good fit, what with the way the bullies here are trying to pile drive this MK dude. It seems sort of interesting so hope you don't mind if I hang around for a while. Anybody here from San Francisco?
Twatla Cummings
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 11:12:00 (EDT)

My two cents are: You're right that MK is a courageous little dude. I can't help thinking he has it backasswards, though, in thinking that children belong to the government. In my opinion, the public schools, which MK sees as the government, belong to the children. That is why even a private-school kid can go over to the local PS and shoot hoops on Saturday, and why her parents can run for and serve on the school board and vote down that bond issue to fix the leaky roof on the gym.
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 10:19:41 (EDT)

My two cents are: Kudos to MK for standing up to that gush of backed up diarrhea squirting out of the weasel's pie hole. Speaking of Purple Weasel, earlier it said, "When Glint unmounts his related web pages, we will know that the body has stopped twitching in its buried casket. That reminds me, I want to sign up for HBO. The previews for the new program "Six Feet Under" looks very interesting.
Glint
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 10:01:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: M.K., your plan to close down the Post Office and have everybody move to the city is perfect except for one thing: who is going to herd the sheep?
House of Meat
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 09:51:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Pete has been alive all this time?
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 09:48:34 (EDT)

My two cents are: The rumor is Pete has cancer and has only 6 months to live.

- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 02:11:07 (EDT)

My two cents are: True...but they are not mindless automatons dependent upon government for their existance. .. except ...perhaps for Meat House.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 02:10:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: Kids and parents ARE the nation.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 01:41:27 (EDT)

My two cents are: Childish and petty name-calling aside, I will review your message. "People who don't have and children at all still have to pay for public schools." Unfortunate but true. "It's what we call America." It would still be America if people without children didn't have to pay for public schools. (It is a statistical fact that children from private schools score higher on tests than do students from public schools.) "Where did you go to school, idiot?" That question is irrelevant. I attended both private and public schools. "The schools aren't for the children's parents, they are for the future of the country." Children belong to the parents (or legal guardians) foremost before they belong to the nation. The PRIMARY purpose of schools is to educate people...not to have them used as pons to satisfy some political agenda and indoctrination. Ultimately, a child's education should be the responsibility of the parent. "It is not, repeat not, like going into a store and buying a wrench, you feeble-minded dildo." WRONG. It is very much like buying a wrench...a wrench that one isn't able to return. As with any vital purchase, the buyer should be allowed to evaluate products from different vendors, and select the one he feels is most sited for him...and not forced to buy one that he doesn't like. ".....Give it back to the people who earned it, there has been a mistake, too many dollars in the till...." Yes. That is how the tax system should be handled. The government wastes too much money on inefficient, if not ineffective programs. If we are over-taxed on such stuff, shouldn't we get some of the money back? "And what the hell do you know about the mail? Have you ever written a letter?" I know plenty about the US Postal service. Recently they raised the cost of a 1st class stamp and are considering no delivering mail on Saturday. I have written many letters. "...you can't count on UPS to deliver it while the profits are up and then decide to go into the cantaloupe business because somebody with an MBA and no brain got hired to manage the company..." With today's modern communication technology, it would be close to impossible for someone "out in the boondocks" not to have access to alternative postal services. Yet, private services may charge more for "long-distance delivery" as does the telephone service. This is where cost/benefit comes into play. If he wants the convenience of short commutes, fine local hospitals, and services of a big city, he should move to the big city. If he doesn't like high population, smog, and noise, he should move away from the city. It is called freedom.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 01:24:40 (EDT)

My two cents are: Inside information.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 01:17:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: On 13 different people posted today. The site is dead.
Anonymous.
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 01:17:14 (EDT)

My two cents are: Guess I'll quit, too. But as long as there is a blue field with the invitation "Here are my two cents," and as long as ridiculous fools like M.K., cowardly Pete, or the gourd-scourge post on it, I will be there. And they will taste napalm, the poor clueless dorks.
PEW
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 01:15:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: You're absolutely right, MK. Someone has to do something. Tomorrow I'll attack my racketeering postal carrier.
Bo Peep
- Tuesday, June 05, 2001 at 00:50:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: M.K., you asshole, wake up. People who don't have and children at all still have to pay for public schools. It's what we call America. Where did you go to school, idiot? 99 to 1 it is a land-grant college, did it have ROTC? You stupid little prick, the schools aren't for the children's parents, they are for the future of the country. It is not, repeat not, like going into a store and buying a wrench, you feeble-minded dildo. You are so fucking stupid, M.K., so fucking ignorant, that you probably think federal taxes are something that you can overpay like a bill in a restaurant, so that when the waiter discovers the mistake he hands you back your twenty. Give it back to the people who earned it, there has been a mistake, too many dollars in the till. What a fucking numb-nuts. And what the hell do you know about the mail? Have you ever written a letter? Silly wing-nut, you want it to be like the airlines, who can now stop service to a thousand small towns, it don't work that way for mail, silly asshole, you have to have it, everywhere, you can't count on UPS to deliver it while the profits are up and then decide to go into the cantaloupe business because somebody with an MBA and no brain got hired to manage the company, and drop the less-profitable routes. What a stupid nincompoop to feel cheated by two things that built the silly little cacoon you live in. Don't you understand that you are a meaningless ignorant little fuckup in a meaningless little town in the middle of fucking nowhere? Jesus, M.K., wake up and smell the flowers, get a job driving the bus, play some adult games, just don't try to think your way through this. You don't have the equipment. You are the stupidest little pop-off on what is left of this board, and if you keep posting the webmaster will never understand that the site is dead and close it down. Get with the program.
Purple Weasel
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 23:33:16 (EDT)

My two cents are: In the California energy mess, there is no conspiracy in constraint of trade, or something. I agree that there are all kinds of laws that cover fraud, cheating, and price-fixing. --- Instead of going after big business, it should go after 2 big cheats: Public Education and the US Postal Service. Even if people wnat to send their children to private school, they must still pay (directly or indirectly) public school tax. It is still illegal for private postal services to charge less than twice that of the USPS for equal service. When it comes to money rackets, the US government has the private sector beat.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 20:58:20 (EDT)

My two cents are: I stand proudly on the grave of fornigate. When Glint unmounts his related web pages, we will know that the body has stopped twitching in its buried casket.
Purple Weasel
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 19:29:12 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fritty and Kirkpatrick seem to me to be a couple of ringers that House of Meat has set up to throw melons to himself. Of course on this page, with all the cowardly anonymi and false-name users, it's hard to tell who is whom.
Whelp Greenlee
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 18:36:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Maybe Pete and Glint should ask Fritty and Jim Kirkpatrick about life outside the bubble. They seem to reside there, so to speak.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 18:31:31 (EDT)

My two cents are: I miss the days when Pete and Glint used to talk about how they had "won" and were kings of this site. Sinned the sin of gloating, which goeth before a fall. If those two fools think it's been too tough here on fornigate, wait 'til they get outside the bubble and find out what the mean streets can do to a troglodytically correct loon-ball.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 17:59:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: June 04, 2001 15:59:51 --- Source : Don't cry for Bush, Argentina. By: Dubose, Louis; Coiro, Carmen; Mother Jones, Mar/Apr2000, Vol. 25 Issue 2, p54, 4p, 1c
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 17:29:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: http://www.konformist.com/botm/volume04/botm0301.htm
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 17:10:02 (EDT)

My two cents are: http://eatthestate.org/05-11/PowerCrisisNaming.htm
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 17:08:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Name: Kenneth Lay Occupation: Chair & CEO, Enron Corp. Industry: Energy & Natural Resources Home: Houston, Texas 1999 Salary & Perks: $42.4 Million Political Contributions: Bush Gubernatorial Races: $122,500 Republican Hard Money: $145,850 Republican Soft Money: $250,000 Democratic Hard Money: $39,000 Democratic Soft Money: $0 Federal PAC Hard Money: $17,200 Total Contributions: $574,550 Soft Money from Employer: $1,953,350 to Republicans: $1,501,000 to Democrats: $452,350 The $550,025 that the Enron Corp. gave Bush over the years makes it his No. 1 career patron, according to the Center for Public Integrity. �Virtually every � aspect of Enron�s operations is overseen by the federal government,� a �96 Dallas Morning News story noted. Not surprisingly, this global natural gas giant and its top executive are big political contributors who keep revolving doors whirling. Lay hired President Bush�s cabinet members James Baker and Robert Mosbacher as they left office. After President Bush�s �93 Gulf War victory tour of Kuwait, Baker and other members of his entourage stayed on to hustle Enron contracts. The Clinton administration also threatened to cut Mozambique�s aid in �95 if the world�s poorest country awarded a pipeline contract to a different company. Enron got Bush to contact Texas� congressional delegation in �97 to promote a corporate welfare program in which U.S. taxpayers finance political risk insurance for the foreign operations of corporations such as Enron. Enron plants around Houston�which surpassed LA for the title to the nation�s worst air�are �grandfathered� air polluters that exploit a loophole in state law to avoid installing modern pollution-control technologies. Earlier this year the Houston Astros inaugurated their new Enron Field, which was financed with $180 million in public tax dollars and $100 million from Enron. In return, Enron landed tax breaks and a $200 million contract to power the stadium. Topping Enron�s political wish list in Texas was deregulation of the state�s electrical markets. Bush signed this dream into law in �99.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 16:38:30 (EDT)

My two cents are: Man, if more of this stuff comes out about the sleaziness of the Bush people, the faux-conservatives on this site are going to have to change their handles and start posting arguments larded with irrelevant factoids intended to give the appearance of logical analytic argument. If this happens, who will be left to point out that liberals are evil?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 16:31:23 (EDT)

My two cents are: You mean Enron trades in natural gas? Gosh, they must have really took a hit when the natural gas prices went so high!
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 16:26:22 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sorry about the state lines comment, Fritty, my mistake. I thought you said that California's problem was that in 1988 California generated 100% of its own power needs but in 1998 it generated 64% of its needs.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 16:21:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: No Layoffs Here Follow the Money Following the money is the key to understanding the Bush administration. Once you figure out who gave how much, look for the quid pro quo. Take, for example, Enron, the big Texas natural gas and trading company, and its current chairman Ken Lay. He's friends with, and a backer of, the president's father. As Business Week sets it out, Lay stepped in after Bush Sr. got beaten by Clinton in 1992, arranging a stopover at Enron for ex--secretary of state James Baker and former commerce secretary Robert Mosbacher, who became consultants. Enron ponied up $500,000 for Dubya's Texas gubernatorial campaigns, making it his largest single contributor. During last year's presidential campaign, the firm contributed corporate jets to the Republicans and gave $250,000 for their convention in Philadelphia, Business Week reports, while Lay himself plunked down $100,000 for the inaugural committee and was Bush's adviser on energy during the campaign. Enron's total listed contributions to the Republicans during last year's presidential race ran to $1.8 million, according to Public Citizen. Lay currently is a prominent adviser to Spencer Abraham, the free-trade maniac who is secretary of energy. From Enron's point of view, this puts Lay in the catbird seat. Abraham is the member of the Bush team who deals with the energy crisis in California, where Enron is a major supplier. Recently, Abraham infuriated Western governors--some of them Republicans--by refusing to consider government price controls to halt runaway energy prices.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 16:14:43 (EDT)

My two cents are: They're gonna want a source.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 16:12:44 (EDT)

My two cents are: DON'T CRY FOR BUSH, ARGENTINA George W. may not recall the names of world leaders, but when it comes to foreign affairs, he knows the value of his own family's name. Texans watched with interest last winter as Governor George W. Bush was home-schooled on international affairs by former Secretary of State George Shultz and other veterans of his father's foreign-policy team. Even Carl Bildt, the former prime minister of Sweden, was brought in for a tutorial at the governor's mansion, in the hope that his recent U.N. experience in the Balkans could help Bush understand that Kosovars are not "Kosavarians" and that Greeks are not "Grecians." But no one had to prepare a prompt card to remind him who stepped down as president of Argentina in December. Shortly before Bush announced his own campaign for president, he had received a visit from Carlos Saul Menem, the right-wing leader of Argentina for the past decade. The two men retired to an Austin country club, where they were joined by Bush's father. Governor Bush had the flu, so he contented himself with riding along as the former president and Menem played a round of golf. The capitol press corps trailed along, dutifully recording the governor's cordial relationship with a visiting head of state. Unknown to the assembled reporters, however, was the story of how Bush and his family became immersed in Argentine politics. The little-known tale begins with George W. making a phone call to secure a $300-million deal for a U.S. pipeline company--a deal that provoked a political firestorm in Argentina, drawing scrutiny from legislators and a special prosecutor. The episode marked one of George W.'s first ventures into foreign affairs, demonstrating the fundamental rule by which the Texas governor and his family conduct business: Always know that the Bush name is a marketable commodity. Bush first made his presence felt in Argentina in 1988, shortly after his father was elected president. At the time, the junior Bush's political career was just beginning--and the political career of Raul Alfonsin, who was approaching the end of his term as president of Argentina, was ending. Alfonsin had returned his country to civilian rule, prosecuted those responsible for human rights abuses during Argentina's rule by a military junta, and struggled to manage an economy that seemed to defy management. Determined to complete one major private-sector industrial program, he pushed for the development of a "gasoducto" that would connect Argentine gas fields with domestic and foreign markets. And he appointed his minister of public works, Rodolfo Terragno, to oversee the pipeline project. Unlike Bush, Terragno achieved political prominence the old-fashioned way: through a life dedicated to public service. A noted journalist and public official, he was forced into exile for 10 years after the military seized power in Argentina in 1976. Only after Alfonsin restored civilian rule did Terragno return to his homeland, where he went on to serve as minister of public works, a member of congress, and most recently as cabinet chief to the newly elected president, Fernando de la Rua. In 1988, Terragno was considering two proposals for the $300-million pipeline, one from an Italian firm called Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi and the other from Perez Companc, an Argentine company working in partnership with Dow Chemical. After a year of consideration, the minister was close to making a decision when Enron, the largest pipeline company in the United States, suddenly entered the bidding. At the time, the Houston-based Enron had no experience in Argentina. It had formed a business relationship with Westfield, a small Argentine firm, but Westfield wasn't much of a player either. El Boletin Oficial--the Argentine equivalent of the Federal Register--reported that Westfield's only asset in 1988 was $20, its corporate filing fee. Westfield was a prestanombre, literally a "borrowed name" used to provide a domestic front for a foreign firm. Terragno was concerned that a newly formed corporation with no resources was attempting to land a contract that companies with proven track records had been working on for a year. "I had a lot of reservations about Enron because the company wasn't well established in Argentina," Terragno told Mother Jones, providing details of the episode for the first time. The minister recalls that Enron sent him "a one-page outline" proposing a price Terragno now describes as "laughable." Enron wanted to pay "something like 20 percent of the international market price," he says. "It all seemed so inadequate. Enron asked the country of Argentina to practically give them the gas." Terragno was unenthusiastic about the pipeline bid, but Enron initiated a full-scale campaign to pressure him. Pro-business newspapers attacked the minister for blocking the proposal, and Terragno recalls that Ted Gildred, the U.S. ambassador to Argentina, "called me and visited me constantly" to push the deal. Terragno wasn't concerned about the ambassador's lobbying-that was politics as usual. "It was good that he was representing the interest of his country's businesses," he says. But Terragno found that some of the politics surrounding Enron's campaign were anything but usual. A few weeks after the U.S. presidential election in 1988, Terragno received a phone call from a failed Texas oilman named George W. Bush, who happened to be the son of the president-elect. "He told me he had recently returned from a campaign tour with his father," the Argentine minister recalls. The purpose of the call was clear: to push Terragno to accept the bid from Enron. "He was taking a moment to call me because he knew that I was dealing with this," says Terragno, adding that Bush told him that he "viewed with some concern the slow pace of the Enron project." According to Terragno, the president-elect's son noted that a deal with Enron "would be very favorable for Argentina and its relations with the United States." When a brief report on the attempt to influence the Argentine deal appeared in The Nation and the Texas Observer years later, the Bush team reacted angrily. His staff produced a copy of his day planner to show that Bush never placed the phone call, and a top-level adviser personally called reporters to dismiss the story as a fantasy by "some guy in Argentina." Bush's staff continues to deny his involvement, and no other media outlet ever reported on the episode, despite the high-ranking source. More than a decade later, Terragno still recalls details of the phone call clearly--as well as his outrage. "It looked bad and it surprised me," he says. "There was this political endorsement, apparently from the White House. I don't know if George Bush the father was aware of it, or if it was only a business contact by his son, who hoped that his family name would have some influence." George W. wasn't the only Bush plying the family name in Argentina. His brother Neil had tried to funnel $900,000 in loans from Silverado Savings and Loan, where he served as a director, into a failed attempt to drill for oil in Argentina. The S&L eventually collapsed, costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion to bail out, and federal regulators banned Neil from certain banking activities. But Terragno was unimpressed by the family connections. He told George W. the pipeline concession would be awarded according to Argentine law. It hardly mattered--Argentine law was about to change. Time had run out for Raul Alfonsin. His party lost the election, and he left office four months early to make way for his successor, Carlos Menem. Enron, for its part, couldn't have appointed an Argentine president more favorable to its interests. A right-wing follower of Juan Peron, Menem was eager to open his country to American enterprise--and his own lavish spending. He took to traveling with a huge entourage aboard Tango-01, his $66-million presidential jet. The Bushes took an immediate liking to him. The day after the 1989 election, Neil Bush arrived in Buenos Aires for a tennis match with the president-elect. The following year, President Bush made the first of eight trips to see Menem, becoming the first U.S. chief executive since Eisenhower to visit Argentina. Several days after the president's trip in 1990, Bush's ambassador to Argentina, Terence Todman, wrote a stern letter to Menem's minister of the economy to follow up on issues that Bush had "intended to address, but failed to do so for lack of time." Todman went on to imply that eight U.S. companies would walk away from their investment plans unless Argentina stopped favoring domestic corporations. The first company on the list was Enron, which the ambassador described as being "poised to invest $250 million"--as soon as the Argentine government met its demands for tax breaks. Todman closed his letter by warning that the Enron decision was "extremely urgent," as the gas company would make a final decision on its investment in less than a month. Todman prevailed: Menem agreed to the company's terms, signing a presidential decree that included Enron in a national program freeing it from tariffs and value-added taxes. Reports of the Enron deal outraged Argentines, who had supported Alfonsin's struggle to create a democracy out of what remained after 10 years of military dictatorship. Lawmakers demanded a congressional inquiry, and a special prosecutor launched an investigation. Menem dealt with the scandal in a forthright manner: Since his own justice department was looking into the tax giveaway, he simply fired the investigator. Enron ultimately abandoned the project when gas prices fell, but an Enron subsidiary later bought into the pipeline and now owns almost a third of the gasoducto. Among the subsidiary's board members is Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor to former President George Bush. George W. has certainly benefited from his association with Enron. Kenneth Lay, the company's chief executive, has personally contributed $100,000 to Bush's two gubernatorial campaigns. When Bush announced in 1999 that he was running for president, executives and political action committees connected to Enron contributed $89,650 to his campaign in the first three months. Lay signed on as a "Bush Pioneer," pledging to raise $100,000. The involvement of George W. and Neil in Argentina has become something of an m.o. for the Bush brothers in foreign affairs. The sons of the former president have certainly not been shy about using their family name to enrich themselves and their friends. Jeb sold $74 million worth of water pumps to the Nigerian government in 1988. Marvin tried to sell electronic fences to the defense ministry of Kuwait two years after the Gulf War, while Neil sought contracts to provide oil-field antipollution equipment. And George W. lent his name to tiny Harken Energy to help secure a huge offshore drilling contract in Bahrain (see "Slick W.," page 48). Undoubtedly, the family name will continue to open doors internationally if George W. is elected. Last November, an airplane with Houston registry numbers landed in Buenos Aires; on board was former President Bush, who had arrived to spend the night with his friend, President Menem, 10 days before the end of Menem's final term. The two men attended a dinner at the home of Argentine banker Jose Rohm, where they were joined by the vice president of Chase Manhattan Bank, the director of Credit Suisse First Boston, the president-elect of Argentina, and the former president of Uruguay. What was the purpose of President Bush's visit? "Fishing," says Michael Dannenhauer, a Bush spokesman. But when the Buenos Aires daily, Pagina 12, asked several of the dinner guests why the president was in town, they smiled and quietly replied, "Business." Bush's "real interest," they added, was to learn how the new government would deal with CEI, an Argentine media company whose former chief had fled the country under investigation for fraud. One of CEI's principal investors, the paper noted, is Tom Hicks, "one of the funders of the presidential campaign of Bush's son, George, the governor of Texas."
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 15:59:51 (EDT)

My two cents are: Who's Pete?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 15:55:17 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sometimes you need more than one iron in the fire, and Enron has taken that old axiom to heart. Energy is Enron's bread and butter. It is the largest seller of natural gas in the country and the leading wholesaler of power in the U.S. and in Europe. In fact, energy-related services churned out more than 99% of Enron's $16.9 billion in sales in its most recent quarter. But the company is also playing two technology cards. It launched EnronOnline, a Web site where its customers can buy or sell a smorgasbord of commodities such as oil, gas and backup electricity. Almost 60% of the company's energy sales took place on its Web site in its latest quarter. Combined with higher gas prices, the site helped energy sales to jump 78% and profit margins to quadruple.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 15:51:53 (EDT)

My two cents are: Nah, Fritty leaves the socialist Pete in the dust.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 15:49:11 (EDT)

My two cents are: BUSINESS Source: New York Times, 2/23/93, Vol. 142 Issue 49251, pD1 Abstract: Present an index of business articles in this issue. Among others: (D5); Enron hired former Secretary of State James A Baker III and former Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher to help develop overseas natural gas projects
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 15:43:46 (EDT)

My two cents are: Fritty sounds a lot like Pete. Where is Pete?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 15:38:18 (EDT)

My two cents are: Once more with feeling, Meat. [Sure, Fritty, it was the grubberment that said the utilities could sell out, and that is why Enron was able to grab the power plants.] I don't have a problem with it...you do-you live in California. [What's the problem in that for you? What coup?] You brought up the Marxists, bubba, not me. [Sure wholesale prices should go up, Frit, just not so much.] Oh? Define how much is right. You've delivered nothing here that even supports your contention they HAVE gone up. [All of these California power companies had a chance to buy cheap long-term power and muffed it, to be sure, but that doesn't mean that Bush shouldn't save his ass by capping prices now.] Whose ass are you speaking of? Davis? GW has already said he wasn't going to do that so his ass is his own, I suppose. [I stand in awe of your belief that states should be energy-independent and electricity should not move across state lines.] I didn't say that as you well know. [Your are beyond troglodyte, Fritty, like a man who just popped out of a time capsule from the neolithic age.] And if you are an example of modern man I will stay neolithic. [If you're going to throw these bogus statistics around, you ought to at least make some up that support your argument.] Here's your link. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/st_profiles/california/ca.html#t5 Check them out and see if they are bogus. Remember that ignorance is curable....although in your case I doubt you are ambitious enough to erase the condition.
Fritty
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 15:05:03 (EDT)

My two cents are: Sure, Fritty, it was the grubberment that said the utilities could sell out, and that is why Enron was able to grab the power plants. What's the problem in that for you? What coup? Sure wholesale prices should go up, Frit, just not so much. All of these California power companies had a chance to buy cheap long-term power and muffed it, to be sure, but that doesn't mean that Bush shouldn't save his *ss by capping prices now. I stand in awe of your belief that states should be energy-independent and eclectricity should not move across state lines. Your are beyond troglodyte, Fritty, like a man who just popped out of a time capsule from the neolithic age. If you're going to throw these bogus statistics around, you ought to at least make some up that support your argument.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 14:38:24 (EDT)

My two cents are: Hey wacky, phone home.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 14:27:52 (EDT)

My two cents are: Meat: Oh please.[How long were you on the phone with Enron's vice-president for external affairs, Fritty?] About as long as it took you to back up your statements.[You're right about the natural gas, wrong about the electricity pricing. Enron and pals took a leaf from Marx's book and grabbed the means of production,] Really? I thought the grubbermint of California mandated the sale of generating facilities. I had no idea that Enron led a coup, or, for that matter that Enron bought all of them. [but instead of pursuing the common good as Marx counseled, they are squeezing the proletariat like a Polk Gulch gerbil.] Evidence, please. Since the California and Texas primarily use natural gas to generate electricity it would seem that wholesale prices should go up. [Price caps will work just fine when the prices are out of whack with the supply. I have not harped that Enron is the problem, because Enron is only taking care of its own.The cynical operatives around W are the problem, them and the electric tooth-brush.] In 1988 California generated 100% of its own power needs. In 1998 it generated 64% of its needs. THAT is California's problem.
Fritty
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 14:24:48 (EDT)

My two cents are: Meat: Oh please.>>How long were you on the phone with Enron's vice-president for external affairs, Fritty?> You're right about the natural gas, wrong about the electricity pricing. Enron and pals took a leaf from Marx's book and grabbed the means of production,>but instead of pursuing the common good as Marx counseled, they are squeezing the proletariat like a Polk Gulch gerbil.>Price caps will work just fine when the prices are out of whack with the supply. I have not harped that Enron is the problem, because Enron is only taking care of its own.The cynical operatives around W are the problem, them and the electric tooth-brush.<
Fritty
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 14:22:30 (EDT)
My two cents are: I happen to like sitcoms, Kirkpatrick. What are you, a commie?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 14:21:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: The E-vi*l one is baiting us again. OUUCCHH!
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 14:00:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: Twerpedoes, eh?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 13:52:41 (EDT)
My two cents are: Everybody is a fascist in a foxhole, Harlan, even a bleeding-heart liberal like Pete. It doesn't matter if the guy in the next hole is a liar or the Pope, so long as he can hear the snap of a twig or see the unnatural movement of a leaf, and so long as he can shoot low and often. I had a man once, worst little liar you could meet if you ran into him in the rear, but he never lied about where a shell was going to hit or whether he smelled a Kraut sapper team behind them tree-stumps over there. Back behind the lines, he said he was a lawyer, although he couldn't write or spell, he had no grasp of logic or the simplest laws, and was stupid as a cocker spaniel. Up front he was worth his weight in bangalore torpedoes. Honesty is no test of a soldier, and I think Pete might have made a good one, if he hadn't had to complete his education when he had the chance.
Whelp Greenlee
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 13:47:22 (EDT)
My two cents are: So, how would you like to be in a fox hole with Pete, Whelp? What do you think of a socialist who vows he's on this page for the duration, then bolts the minute I recruit some REAL conservative blood? Typical if you ask me. Typical lying liberal. Good riddance. Now, let's start pasting!!!
Harlan St. Wolf
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 13:20:57 (EDT)
My two cents are: Anonymous, a good soldier always bitches. Back in Anzio, if my men weren't grumbling, I'd know something was wrong, like any first sergeant. American bitching about global warming or energy is like the whine in the rigging that tells you all the stays are tight and the sails drawing full. The sainted Ydog never grumbled about global warming, by the way, that was always Pete's bleat, along with the rising surface of the North Sea. It's all in the pickle jar.
Whelp Greenlee
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 12:35:52 (EDT)
My two cents are: No, he just moved to another kennel.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 11:42:01 (EDT)
My two cents are: Liberals like Ydog always had to have something to bitch and moan about. If it wasn't the earth starting to fry because of some greenhouse effect, it was bitching about high energy costs because it was so damn cold this winter. What a bunch of loons. Whatever happened to that dog turd anyhow? Did his martital doscord, that drove him into introducing his Lesbian wife to some Asian mooshoo pork chick , turn to sour soup when the women starting locking the bedroom door?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 11:38:55 (EDT)
My two cents are: How long were you on the phone with Enron's vice-president for external affairs, Fritty? You're right about the natural gas, wrong about the electricity pricing. Enron and pals took a leaf from Marx's book and grabbed the means of production, but instead of pursuing the common good as Marx counseled, they are squeezing the proletariat like a Polk Gulch gerbil. Price caps will work just fine when the prices are out of whack with the supply. I have not harped that Enron is the problem, because Enron is only taking care of its own. The cynical operatives around W are the problem, them and the electric tooth-brush.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 11:07:24 (EDT)
My two cents are: Meat, You don't have to worry about this rube. For the time being, I'm staying put - I enjoy having electricity 24-7, you see. However, if I ever move to Mexico, I might spend a week or so in Kalifornia to help aclimate to the language and unreliable utilities.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 11:02:04 (EDT)
My two cents are: H.O.M. --What you don't know about the electricity and gas industries would fill a book. I don't mean that as an insult, really, because few people do. I'm not surprised your bills have gone up as they have, but I suspect most of that is caused by increased natural gas costs. California is hardly unique in suffering higher natural gas costs, the whole country has suffered. My factory payed 6 times the previous years cost in january 2001 and we are a high volume user. And I ain't in California. You are continually harping that Enron is the problem. They are not. The fuel source for electricity at most of the Enron generating facilities is gas. Spot market gas prices increased in December 2000 to 10 times the price in December 1999. Now since the "deregulation" California has had to import almost 40% of its power needs from wherever it can. With hydroelectric shortages in the northwest that means most of it is from gas fired units. Hence, the high prices. Enron has indeed been making record profits, but most of that has been through volume increases, not profit margin increases. This simply means that enron has supplied california with what they want-power. Price controls aren't going to work for one simple reason-no utility will sell power for below cost, and that is what you are asking for. Now what MIGHT work is to cap profit margins for utilities, but this is an area that only public monopolies dare to tread and probably cannot be applied to private utilities.
Fritty
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 10:56:23 (EDT)
My two cents are: I once gamboled with Bo-peep and the next day I couldn't lie on my stomach on the beach, sunburned the sh*t out of my shins. We must have gamoled seven or eight times that night.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 10:51:54 (EDT)
My two cents are: Probably not too difficult going to Shreveport to gambol and returning with all your money. Unless you spent it on Bo-Peep.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 10:29:05 (EDT)
My two cents are: Star Points for June, 2001; by Curtis Roelle Prominent Mars Arrives On Summer's Coattails The bright orange colored "star" in the southeast after twilight has ended this month is the planet Mars. This month is the best opportunity we have had to view the planet in the past 13 years, since 1988. Mars is the next planet out from the sun beyond the earth. Since our planet is closer to the sun we travel faster along our orbital path and so are now catching up to Mars. On June 21, the first day of Summer, the two planets will be at their closest, or 42 million miles (67 million kilometers) apart. After that the distance will slowly increase as the earth races past slower Mars. What this means for telescopic viewers is this: Mars will be at its maximum apparent size for the current encounter with an apparent diameter of 20.8 arcseconds. Mars will have the same apparent size as a dime 1,200 feet away. So even at its closest Mars is still a small disc. Luckily next time around in 2003 Mars gets even closer when its apparent diameter swells to 25.1 arcseconds. Because of its small apparent size high magnification is critical for seeing detail on the Martian surface. How much "power" is needed? With 100x the most prominent features will be visible on the small disc. To see them well though you will need 200x and up. Magnification alone will not suffice. A small telescope with a small opening (aperture) will yield a very fuzzy unpleasing image at high power. The larger the aperture the more light is gathered and the brighter the magnified image. A telescope with good quality optics in the 4- to 6-inch aperture range with a focal length of 48 inches or more is a good start. From there bigger is better. With telescopes there is no such thing as too much aperture, although there are other factors to consider such as portability, set-up time, and price. Mars' most visible attributes are the dark "albedo features" -- brown patches on Mars' salmon pink disc. The most prominent of these is called Syrtis Major. There are also lighter patches such as the one known as Hellas. Other features may be more transient. Hazes and clouds may appear in the thin Martian atmosphere and yellow dust storms occur from time to time. One tool often used by planetary observers are colored filters. Some colored glass filters are threaded and can be screwed directly into the eyepiece barrel. Glass filters can be purchased from companies such as Orion Telescopes (telescopes.com). Other forms of filters include hand held cut strips of colored gelatin sheets available at photo stores. Which colored filters are best for viewing Mars? For many years astronomy magazines would ask professional astronomers this very question. The answer always seemed to be the Wratten 25 red. So once upon a time I bought one and found it was too dark to see any details through it. Then one year I used the red (W25) on a telescope with 20 inches of aperture and it was awesome. Obviously they had been asking the wrong persons about filters. The filters used by professional astronomers were for large telescopes. Amateur telescopes are smaller and their filter needs and results also differ. For amateur observations, the orange (W21) has gained in popularity in recent years. Even among amateurs the choice of filter often depends on telescope size. One filter that I especially enjoy using is the green (W58). Speaking of Mars, in May I completed construction of a domed observatory in my back yard. %$@#?+*! Observatory took its name from the village of &%#!@$+?, located less than one mile away. The observatory structure was originally owned by Carroll County amateur astronomer %@# *!?, loaned me his auger which I attached to my tractor, using it to dig the post holes and carve out the pit for the pier. &)^ #%&*(!?\ of &%#!@$+? just happened to stop by one day as I was loading the telescope tube into a van for transport to the construction site and lent a helping hand. Checked it out last night and both observatory and telescope are working well. In the future there may be updates from under the dome in this column. In the meantime, keep your eyes on Mars. If you'd like to learn more about Mars, come to the $&^@ %! +\$^&/ !@$&%? ($%+!) for the planetarium program scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on $#%day, June ##. Please call the nature center at 410-nnn-nnnn to make reservations. Carroll County $*)&! & &/*%#\@)
Sunday Carroll County Times (REDACTED)
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 10:27:47 (EDT)
My two cents are: Sure Death Valley can be hot, but it's a dry heat. Have you ever been in Poughkeepsie in late June? If there was anything wrong with California's climate, every rube from Indianapolis to Texarkana wouldn't he packing up the jalopy and heading here. Every Chinaman with a sack of gold wouldn't be stowing away in a shipping container and heading for the Oakland Mole. They all come to California because they know it's better there, better and bigger and brighter and more diverse. Death Valley is the lowest point in the US, and fabled Mt. Whitney is the highest place in the genuine 48. California invented the right turn against a red light and the "ped xing" sign and pioneered vagina-tightening surgery. Jenna Bush could be twice as wild in California and the liberal press would never even notice, because California is the Libertarian State, it says so on the license plates. "Oh, another fat girl lying open-tw*tted on the sidewalk with a Bud and a Kool... hey, she's OK I'm OK... watch out on the left, there's another one, don't step on her!" If M.K. came to California instead of hiding out in Shreveport gamboling, in four days he'd be wearing flowers in his hair and a tit-ring and a snake's head tattooed on the end of his dick. And the food! Ask any fat haole about the restaurants in San Francisco. You can eat better in the airport there than you can anywhere from Grand Rapids to Biloxi-- you'll never find a marshmallow or Jell-O in a California salad, Jim. Go ahead and live out your desparate little life in Missouri, we won't miss one more rube.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 09:48:33 (EDT)
My two cents are: Mark McGwire is attorney general?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 09:04:56 (EDT)
My two cents are: Gosh, House of Meat, your "relief is a two-way street" post reminded me that I lied, unintentionally. The last time I was in Kalifornia was 1994. I was part of a group of cops from the Kansas City area who traveled there to pick up some surplus military vehicles from a Marine base near the Nevada border. No one understands the concept of "hot" until they have experienced Death Valley, and I'm not kidding you. I don't know about you, HOM, but I can (and do, in fact) live quite well without any of the things you mentioned, with the possible exception of artichokes. Hollywood could close up shop tomorrow, and I wouldn't even notice, much less care. Sit-com scripts? Get a life. BTW, I live in what used to be the most normal state in the Country - Missouri. We lost that claim to fame, however, when we elected a dead guy to the United States Senate. We did provide the Country with a pretty good Attorney General though, as I'm sure you agree.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 07:52:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: Back off to where from where? They never bothered me or Whelp, they gave you a little 'teen angst, but you probably got a lot more from the checkout clerk or the girlfriend or the geometry teacher.... Why is it that the government seems like such a big deal to you? Most people just cruise along, maybe worrying about the crab-grass in the lawn or whether there's enough toilet paper, or how they're going to program the VCR, so why is it that a fat-cheeked middle-aged kid in Waco is so pulled out of shape by something that hardly affects him at all in any way he's conscious of, except to fill potholes in the street and keep his ass from bumping? I can see Pete worrying, the guy is a full-moon whacko and probably a serial killer, and I can see Glint worrying, because he sneers at anyone with a slot at the lower end of the government trough from him and was raised by your basic ignorant midwestern Republican farmer/shoe salesman, but why you? It don't make sense.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 02:32:52 (EDT)
My two cents are: It wasn't hell...just a bother...I firmly believe that people would generally be better off...even the poor, poorly educated, and unskilled, if government would back off quite a bit.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 02:06:32 (EDT)
My two cents are: Sounds like you went through Hell, M.K., but you can always make a living gamboling.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 02:00:38 (EDT)
My two cents are: Yes. It did hold me back by not allowing my boss and me to negotiate a little bit more of a salary of me (not to the extent of forcing me to accept nothing less than "time and a half"). Instead, it cost me time and trouble to apply at another location and do some moonlighting. By the way, how are the labor board members...those pesky little busy-bodie...paid? I imagine that I am paying them a few dimes each year to protect me from unscrupulous evil businessmen. No thank you....I'll take care of myself.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 01:36:53 (EDT)
My two cents are: I have gove to Shreveport to gambol a few times. I returned home with the same amount of money with which I took with me.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 01:30:36 (EDT)
My two cents are: So, in other words the mythical nanny-state didn't hold you back?
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 01:28:13 (EDT)
My two cents are: A few years ago, while waiting for a career to fall into my lap, I got off my ass and looked for work. I got a temp job through an agency...It was a simple jobs...earning me little more than minimum wage. I was liked by practically everyone. The factory had 3 shifts each day. I asked for double shifts. I was the most productive temp there, but but my boss didn't want to pay me "time and a half" while he could call on others that haven't worked nearly 10 hours by mid-week. Government told me and my boss how to conduct business. Well. I applied at another agency that sent me to work at 2nd shifts at the same assembly line. I worked 8 hours, switched name tags, and worked another 8 hours...nearly every day. I was working nearly 80 hours each week, but only earning $6 or $7 for each hour. Hey...It got the job done...no thanks to the nannys in Washington.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 01:21:41 (EDT)
My two cents are: Pretty damn full moon tonight. I just went outside and looked at it for a few minutes through the 8x20's. That ought to hold me for another five years or so.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 01:13:42 (EDT)
My two cents are: M.K., although you may not realize it, Bill Gates doesn't monitor this site, and there is no need to try to kiss his ass here. Come right out and admit it: MicroSoft sucks. If you want to be Gates's butt boy, you'll have to go to Redmond and stand in line like everyone else.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 01:09:27 (EDT)
My two cents are: Yeah, yeah, M.K., but tell me something the government told YOU to do. Surely you are not a minimum wage guy, yet you don't have a maid, do you? It's a one in a million shot that you'll ever get sick, so you don't need to worry that the government won't let your bartender take out your appendix. You have good references and will never need a lawyer, so it doesn't matter that the government won't let your barber represent you in court. We all know that you engage in illegal "adult games", so the government doesn't seem to have slowed you down there. You are a sophisticated guy who would never go to Vegas and put money in a slot machine where your odds are one in 98, so you don't have to worry about the government stopping you from gamboling. As for the infamous Federal Grapefruit Act of 1872, it is a good law and its endurance on the books proves it. I once went to Canada and was served a grapefruit about 4 1/4" across the middle, and let me tell you, it was about the worst grapefruit I ever had, and it gave me the drizzling shits for four days after so that I couldn't even enjoy the curling finals. Like most pragmatic Americans, I would trade the right to eat a four-inch grapefruit for healthy bowel patterns any day. If you disagree, that's your right, but how about not forcing your beliefs on everyone else? M.K., you sound like a nice, chipmunk-cheeked kid-- how about acting like one, settle down and tune in Fox TV and keep your mouth shut for a while as you let osmosis put a dent in your ignorance. Come back when you have a little more on the ball, and it's not so easy to gouge you.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 01:05:13 (EDT)
My two cents are: Oh...you 2-bit cry baby, get of your high horse, Meathouse. Did you call on washington to punish those evil "powerful" businessmen. I bet you cheared when the courts came to the rescue of those small-time software companies that were having a difficult time competing with Bill Gates. He was too successful and knew how to strike business deals so our government had to give him a spanking.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:44:55 (EDT)
My two cents are: Government tells you what to do all the time (the minimm you can work for at an hourly salary, the minimum you are allowed to pay someone for hourly services, the poeple allowed to medically treat you, who may represent you in court, what chemicals you may not consume, in what ways you may have sex (It even defines the sexual relationships in which you are permitted to engage.) and invest/gambol your money (whether or not you are even allowed to bet on a football game (depending on the state you are in). Did you know that it is against federal law to sell grapefruit smaller than a certain size? There are many many more unnecessary rules and regulations. These are just a few.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:37:33 (EDT)
My two cents are: Pete was a flash in the pan on this page. I spotted it from the start, knew he wouldn't have the guts to stick around when the troubles started with Bush. Glint may be back. He tends to go away and nurse his wounds, expecially during the depressive end of the cycle. You know it has to be tough for two slow-witted or ignorant guys to try to duke it out with maybe 17 or 18 slick-talking conservatives, so I got to give both of them credit for performing up to the best of their abilities and/or endurance.
House of Meat
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:33:18 (EDT)
My two cents are: Dugout Doug never set foot on Iwo. That was a Navy operation and entirely counter to his strategy, which was to return to the Phillipines to the tumultuous near-worship of the Flip populace, who saw him as a sort of early-era Imelda Marcos. King and Nimitz, on the other hand, believed it would be more efficient to hop from island to island up toward Japan, rather than take the Phillipine detour, and sink all the Japanese ships with their submarines, and shoot down all the Japanese airplanes, and burn all the Japanese soldiers out of their holes or leave them starving on bypassed islands, one of set of which could have been the Phillipines. But the man had said, "I shall return," and by God if it took killing every soldier in his command he was going to return. I should have strangled him that time I found him eating the ham-hocks and slaw and sucking down champagne that night the Jap mortar shell blew me into his bunker. We were living on rat-tails and bark by then, and drinking our own piss.
Pollocks
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:28:08 (EDT)
My two cents are: Maybe he won't return if he's moving from God's Little Acre to God's Big Acres. Be too busy taking care of all that acreage.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:26:58 (EDT)
My two cents are: Well, i gotta boogie. Bye Harlan. Keep the faith.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:24:17 (EDT)
My two cents are: I say, good riddance. Pete especially was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Glint I never understood.
Harlan St. Wolf
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:23:38 (EDT)
My two cents are: Do you get the feeling that Pete and Glint are playing a game of turn around is fair play? You know, the socialists re-take the page and they make scarce, go into the star-gazing mode. Just a thought.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:22:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: Worst kept secret in the world, Bar's "lost" weeks at Yale. The janitor is just the tip of the twat if you catch my drift.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:19:57 (EDT)
My two cents are: Living out back of beyond the way he does, the only thing Jeremiah knows about Chelsea is that she doesn't possess the classical beauty that he demands. On matters of beauty, Jeremiah's judgement is to be respected, but he doesn't know jack about her sexual proclivities or her drugs of choice.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:17:56 (EDT)
My two cents are: Well, Jeremiah is a little picky when it comes to young snuss and Chelsea doesn't make the cut. My guess is this Jenna porker is the kind of babe that salts his margarita.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:17:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: I heard from a Stanford grad that Chelsea is rumored to have been at a party where there was dope, and the Stanford U.P.D. busted it. He said that kids at fancy schools get all the breaks, which made me think of Bar getting busted by the Yale pigs while playing Lucky Pierre with the Dean of Men and the Skull and Bones janitor. Of course this was never revealed by the liberal press or even the conservative press because Yale sat on it, same way they did for Chelsea.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:16:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: Maybe Jeremiah will return and share his news about Chelsea.
Anonymous.
- Monday, June 04, 2001 at 00:07:21 (EDT)
My two cents are: How come we never heard from the liberal press about Chelsea's rap sheet?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 23:24:41 (EDT)
My two cents are: No, but I was an extra for the Iwo Jima shoot. Got it down in one take.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 23:09:29 (EDT)
My two cents are: Were you by any chance on the beach when MacArthur did the second photo shoot of his famous return because he got too wet during the first one?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 22:59:42 (EDT)
My two cents are: All this talk of California and teen-aged Texas blow-job queens. I'm worried that the world is forgetting about the World War II vet, the men who died on the beaches of a hundred obscure islands and continents so that people like Jim Kirkpatrick and boys like Matthew Kramer could go on dates with beautiful airline stewardesses who turn out to have brought along a purse full of Viagra and ribbed condoms. Where is our monument on the Mall? Where is our beautiful airline stewardess and her purse? Where is our sidewalk blow job out front of Chuey's? We are the forgotten men, the men who saved our way of life and made it possible for OSHA to require instructions to not climb past the third rung of a ladder or to clean clogged grass out of a lawnmower blade when it is spinning, so why isn't anybody kissing our ass? Why isn't M.K. kissing our ass? Doesn't he care? Doesn't anyone fugging care? It's all FUBAR. It's all SNAFU. I wish I was back in the SEATO with my M-1 on my lap, scragging Nip infiltrators. Kilroy was here, Mac.
Pollocks
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 22:30:50 (EDT)
My two cents are: Yosemite?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 22:15:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: Relief is a two-way street, KirKpatriK. If California goes down, Texas will follow, and if Texas goes down, college football won't be far behind. If college football goes, then there is no first-round draft pick, and if there is no draft pick, down goes the NFL. We live in an interconnected world, KirKpatricK: no man is an island. What would your life be like without Hollywood, KirKpatricK? What would it be like without kiwi-fruit and fresh lettuce and artichoke hearts? Did you know that 95% of America's horseradish is grown in California? 100% of her redwood? 73% of her dot.com commerce? 97.3% of her sit-com scripts? 83.6% of her canned albacore? Quick, KirKpatricK, where is the Playboy Mansion? The Winchester Mystery House? Death Valley? Van Nuys? The La Brea Tar Pits? The Bank of America World Headquarters? The Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratory? Half-Dome? John Tesh? Sort of hits a little close to home, doesn't it, KirKpatricK? Where ever you live, you rely on the products and services provided by a strong, healthy California economy, and if that economy tanks because Enron has a grapnel up George Bush's duodenum then make no mistake, we will all go down together. Never send to know for whom the bell tolls, KirKpatricK. It tolls for thee.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 22:07:27 (EDT)
My two cents are: Wonder what normal state Jim Cirkpatrick resides in.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 22:04:36 (EDT)
My two cents are: Sure, Jim, we know every shit-kicking inbreed east of Reno and west of Scranton feels the way you do. In fact, I've been waiting all my life for you yahoos to actually boycott Kalifornia, you know put your money where your harelip is. But you just keep coming here, spending your money and gawking. What's up with that, Jimbo?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 21:41:42 (EDT)
My two cents are: I've visited Kalifornia several times, House of Meat. And, the last time was in 1985, when I traveled there to watch the Chiefs play the then Los Angeles Raiders - the only NFL team known to cheat more than the Denver Broncos. That trip did it for me, Daddy-O. And let me tell you something else, while I'm at it. You people have brought about your own misery, and now you dare come crawling to normal states, begging for "relief"?? The State of Kalifornia can drop off into the Pacific for all I care - and I'm not the only one who feels that way, believe me.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 19:51:37 (EDT)
My two cents are: What nanny state? The government hasn't told me what to do, once they stopped the draft, why has it been telling you what to do, M.K.? What does it tell you to do, when, where? Are you talking about jay-walking or what? We can't help you past this difficulty unless you explain what you are talking about, rather than misinterpreting a few criminal procedures and rules of the road as adding up to a nanny-state. What exactly are you after, other than the freedom to not pay for the stuff you use?
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 19:06:31 (EDT)
My two cents are: Covering all your bases, there, eh Jim? Are you sure there weren't some misplaced commas, too? Spot market energy prices to California distributors have gone up over 800%. The average asshole in the street ends up paying for it, and how ever much of this rubs off on the little president-dude won't do him any good. One thing you should learn about California is that back in the old days it attracted enterprising, tough people. Now it's full of the weakest sisters from somewhere else, people like Ronald Reagan who rolled into town for the free blow-jobs and the oranges. Now it might as well be Texas or Iowa or Nebraska or some-such ignorant backwater, or frontwater in this case. If only we had citizens like M.K., people who know when to install solar panels and windmills and unplug the tooth-brush, we'd be O.K. But I'm all for rolling blackouts, hope they roll across the country like a tidal wave. Get this clown Bush out of office so he can start taking care of his daughters.
H. of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 19:00:31 (EDT)
My two cents are: That's how this whole nanny-state got started. Someone calls on government to control one industry since the consumer doesn't want to do it for himself. The businessman who loses call upon government likewise to do something for him since government is governing his business...how about a subsidy for him. It just gets bigger and bigger. --- Reminds me of the cigarette mess. Government subsidized farmers with our tax money. We smoke, we get sick and go to government subsidized health care. Governmnet fines the cigarette industry for "making us get sick". Lets cut out the medicare end of it and just have government give everyone $2 for each cigarette he smoked.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 18:56:26 (EDT)
My two cents are: To the anon who called me a fool and told me that's it's the wholesale price being gouged: I know that, you nitwit. Tell it to House of Meat - he's the one claiming the 800 percent increase. I must be in the Twilight Zone.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 18:50:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: Doesn't work that way, M.K. Somebody has to break a law before you can put him behind bars. Conspiracy in constraint of trade, or something. There are all kinds of laws that cover fraud, cheating, price-fixing. All you need is an honest DA.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 18:49:10 (EDT)
My two cents are: House of Meat: Of course what you are attempting to say doesn't make any sense. >>My December electricity and gas bill was $53.41. This year it was $432.93 While that may not be an exact 800% increase, it is substantial.<< What are you babbling about? December? This year?? We haven't quite reached December of this year, last time I checked. For your information, $432.93 is 810.6% of $53.41. I thought we were talking about electricity and rolling blackouts, as opposed to natural gas. Silly me.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 18:47:44 (EDT)
My two cents are: I think you earn too much money. Let's have government put you behind bars too.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 18:44:54 (EDT)
My two cents are: Hmmm, utility-generated power DROPPED when the utilities started selling off their power-plants to Enron? Well fuck me dead, who would of thought? But M.K. has a great idea there, buy batteries instead of relying on the regulated power industry. Buy big B-I-G batteries, and be sure they're fresh. Yet I still don't understand what the hell he's talking about. Why buy solar panels at $345 a pop for 3-amp Kyoceras, or why buy a windmill to shake your house down, or bust your ass working a manual toothbrush back and forth, when you can get cheap juice right out of a plug? All we have to do is put a few price-gougers behind bars, using existing laws, and we can all be carefree energy hogs again, just like the folks in Waco. I'm beginning to suspect the kid thinks too much, or visits the Backwoods Libertaian web-site too much, because he's starting to blather worse than usual.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 18:25:17 (EDT)
My two cents are: I sure hope I eventually get what I am forced to pay for.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 18:04:30 (EDT)
My two cents are: Doubtful, MK. But, on the off chance that you're right you're still a callow youth. The government will catch up.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 17:39:33 (EDT)
My two cents are: Freeways included. More than paid for those things.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 17:38:19 (EDT)
My two cents are: I have given to the government many many times times more in money than I have ever taken from it in products, money and services.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 17:11:57 (EDT)
My two cents are: The government has all kinds of wonderful information in lots of different areas. For those of you patient enough to analyze these numbers the reason for the california energy problem becomes quite clear. From 1988-1998 total utility generated power DROPPED, and overall generated power increased only 0.5%. During the same period the number of customers served increased something like 1.5 million. What I find particularly interesting is that "renewable" power generation dropped significantly during the ten year period. I guess those windfarms fell out of favor because of visual pollution. A cynical person might come to the conclusion that California lives the NIMBY life. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/st_profiles/california/ca.html#t5
Fritty
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 17:09:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: No. I don't need a nanny web to put ideas into my head. Thankfully such sites exist and government hasn't outlawed them. They merely help me explain to you what I already know. --- Anonymous: Instead of whining to the government, buy solar panels, or a windmill, or manually opperated devices (if you aren't too lazy to use them), buy large batteries (I'm sure your girlfirend mas some near her bed) .
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 17:08:10 (EDT)
My two cents are: There may be a scarcity of beachfront property, M.K., but there is no scarcity of mortgage loan opportunities for people who can afford to build on what there is. That is because the government has seen fit to prop up the housing construction industry and possibly the people who live in houses by ensuring that loans will be available, through a wide variety of of programs, from Fannie Mae to Schedule A. The theory is that housing is important, and we can't have wild swings in relevant pricing based on a boom and bust market economy. A libertarian society, which is to say any society at base, would soon develop ways to dampen market processes in whatever the society deems to be of fundamental importance. In the Soviet Union it was military hardware, while in the United States it tends to be public utilities, ground transportation, food production, bread and circuses for the middle classes, and the accumulation of private wealth by a few individuals and families. Vice-President Cheney, for example, became enormously wealthy as a private suction device affixed to the stream of federal tax revenues. You, on the other hand, live hand to mouth because you have no feel for basic practical economics, your have no native intelligence or cunning, and you have not developed self-reliance because you live in a world where all immediate desires can be met by flipping a taxpayer-subsidized wall switch.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 17:06:21 (EDT)
My two cents are: That ought to send MK scurrying back to libertarian resource site. Is there a paradox in a self-proclaimed libertarian needing the nanny-web to put ideas in his head he thinks are his? Or, is it just my cynical nature to even entertain such thoughts?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 16:57:40 (EDT)
My two cents are: Kirkpatrick: My December electricity and gas bill was $53.41. This year it was $432.93 While that may not be an exact 800% increase, it is substantial. There were variations in the weather, which may explain some of it. M.K.: a "necessity" like electricity, which must be delivered and shared on a unifrom grid, is most efficient as a monopoly, so we permit monopolization of this market and regulate the monopoly. What happened in California was that deregulization permitted the utilities to sell their power plants and get into what appeared to be a more lucrative distribution and brokerage business. They did this because they had come to be run by MBA's trained for the new economy by a lot of rolling around in front of bars drunk, and poking teen-age margarita whores, but who didn't know anything about what an electricity company is for. They sold their generation facilities to Enron, basically, and counted on their Fullerton State College or Texas A&M education to have given them the business wiles to out-manouvre Enron on price. Deregulation, as it usually is, was a mistake. Of course Enron is going to gouge, in the absence of any control, and of course Enron is going to buy whatever President offers himself up for sale, and it is going to lie, cheat, and steal. It would be nice to have a lot of little power companies competing against one another in a market economy and undercutting one another on price, like fishermen selling squid on the dock, but that isn't what's happening here, Clueless One. The mistake Bush will make will be to upset the profit opportunities of everyone in California but the energy brokers by refusing to regulate. This doesn't matter in the short run, because California won't vote for Bush-- too many Mexicans-- but it will matter in the long run because California is a big chunk of the world economy and it will drag Texas-sized chunks of flotsam down behind it. There is a shortage of developed beachfront lots, M.K., and there may be a shortage of hotel rooms in Waco, but there is no shortage of electricity, just a shortage of free market competition. It's elementary economics, little guy.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 16:41:43 (EDT)
My two cents are: Individual consumer can shop around for the hotel he stays in, MK. Can the individual consumer shop around for his power supply? Not where I live.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 16:03:22 (EDT)
My two cents are: Didn't your mother tell you there is no such thing as fair in this world we've designed?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 15:46:24 (EDT)
My two cents are: Let's have a little compassion for the drunken hosebags.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 15:46:04 (EDT)
My two cents are: Re: Jenna and Barbara -- If the press doesn't back off these young girls I think they will come to regret it. Americans are compassionate and have a sense of overstepping boundaries and unfairness toward those who don't deserve it.
Geronimo
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 15:18:23 (EDT)
My two cents are: Spelling California with a K supposed to impart some kind of meaningful message Cirkpatrick?
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 15:07:38 (EDT)
My two cents are: Many people see prices as simply obstacles to their getting the things they want. Those who would like to live in a beachfront home, for example, may abandon such plans when they discover how expensive beach-front property is. But high prices are not the reason we cannot all live on the beach front. On the contrary, the inherent reality is that there are not nearly enough beach-front homes to go around and prices are just a way of conveying that underlying reality. With government controls that protected against "gouging," the first people to reach the hotels would have no incentive to conserve and, say, share space or cram into a smaller room than they might be accustomed to. If the prices soared to fit existing high demand, people would find ways to share the limited space and accommodate more people. That's why prices - even high prices - assure the fairest and most efficient allocation of resources. This is basic economics.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 15:06:22 (EDT)
My two cents are: Nothing shows the role of price fluctuations in a free market like the absence of such price fluctuations. What happens when prices are not allowed to fluctuate freely according to supply and demand, but instead are set by law, as under various kinds of price-control legislation? The answer is what California is facing with electricity: shortages. If prices can't rise - i.e., when the law limits what price utilities can charge consumers - demand will outstrip supply. It has nothing to do with greed, price-gouging or other emotion-laden charges. Most liberal don't grasp this point. They believe in the economics of the medieval Catholic church. A price is something arbitrary, set by edict by those who sell a product. It should only be high enough to allow a "just" profit - "just" being determined by the politicians and clerics who "understand" such matters. But a price is nothing of the sort. An economy is a means for allocating scarce resources that could be used in alternative ways. The price is the way to ensure that those resources are used in the most efficient manner. For instance, gold is better used to make jewelry than to make automobile fenders. Only a price mechanism makes that clear, and keeps a precious resource from being squandered. Furthermore, there is no objective or fixed supply or demand for any particular product or service. People adjust their needs and wants - and the supply adjusts in tandem - based on the given price. There is some oil that can be produced for $10 a barrel and other oil that cannot pay for all its costs at $20 a barrel, but which can at $30 a barrel. The quantity supplied varies directly with the price, just as the quantity demanded varies inversely with the price. One need only look at the Soviet Union, or other societies that replaced pricing with politically determined resource allocation, to see the odd results - an overabundance of useless goods and scarcity of things that were really needed.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 15:00:37 (EDT)
My two cents are: You're a fool, Kirkpatrick. No, the bills have not gone up 800% because the PUC approves all rate increases. It's the wholesale price that's being gouged. Next.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 14:00:49 (EDT)
My two cents are: House of Meat: Maybe that's why the Demorats who are responsible for the mess, including Davis, are trying so hard to lay the blame elsewhere. BTW, the Klintoon administration opposed price controls in Kalifornia. Comments? 800 percent, huh? So you're alleging that the average residential customer who was paying an average of, let's say, $150 per month before is now paying $1200 per month? If so, you can save that nonsense for people like Ted and Peter - they would believe it. I do not. Let's just axe Hadley Roff. Sir, have your electricity bills gone up 800 percent?
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 13:54:49 (EDT)
My two cents are: Nah. Ydog done gone. Ilk gone too. Long gone. Like Jeffords.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 13:37:45 (EDT)
My two cents are: Kirkpatrick, price controls would not be applied to increase supply or reduce demand. Price controls would be applied to control prices. The Republican Senator Smith of Oregon is wailing for price controls as we speak. Why? Because they will increase the supply of Republican voters and reduce demands for his head on a pike. Even a fool like W is smart enough to realize that price controls, when prices are inflated 800% by price-gouging kilowatt brokers, cannot reduce supply. The New Economy is based on the comfort and idle titillation of the citizenry, and this takes electricity. You roll a blackout down on the man in the easy chair during the final episode of Survivor III, and you've got an electoral nightmare on your hands that will make W's recent loss in Florida look like something a cow-town Justice of the Peace could fix before the Supreme Court ever even had to hear about it.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 11:49:50 (EDT)
My two cents are: This will never become a haven for liberals! Not on my watch. Hear that, Pete?
Harlan St. Wolf
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 11:03:21 (EDT)
My two cents are: Oh, they're here. The visit daily. They watch. They wait. Soon.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 09:52:13 (EDT)
My two cents are: House of Meat, it's govenment price controls contained in Kalifornia's faulty regulations that has caused much of the problem in the first place. Dubya recently made a statement that any 3rd grader should be able to understand - "Price controls will do nothing to increase supply or reduce demand." Wouldn't federal price caps actually increase demand? Seems so to me. The rabid environmentalists have always wanted energy to be so expensive that usage would decrease. Now they've gotten their wish, and are crying for "relief" from the federal govenment. You people are a hoot. BTW, a recent poll in Kalifornia revealed that the majority of residents are in favor of building new nuclear power plants to fix their supply problem. Maybe those people aren't as air-headed as the rest of us believe.
Jim Kirkpatrick
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 09:45:20 (EDT)
My two cents are: You rule, House of Meat. And how.
Teresa <[email protected]>
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 04:01:12 (EDT)
My two cents are: On the other hand, it feels pretty good to beat the little conservative necktie-wearing shits down into the muds of their own despair. I guess what I mean to say is that I'm not really complaining. The only sad thing is that ydog and Ho-hum and E and Whatever and the others are not here to witness the final dissolution of the troglodytes. I suppose they knew all along that it was inevitable, though, and just got bored waiting.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 03:51:41 (EDT)
My two cents are: Hey, what the fark is going on here? I take a half day off and return to find that the faux-conservative astronomy club has given up like Republican lemmings refusing to jump off the cliff. What the hell? Where is Pete, sitting on the home rock waiting for an announcement that Jenna has chosen him to be Homecoming King? Glint got in a few feeble shots, defending teen street boozing, before he took a little fire and ran like a razored lab rat. And finally the only guy willing to crawl out and bleat on behalf of the conservative sheeple was M.K., yapping about free markets and deregulation and environmental requirements as if he knew them from the rosy red rings around his asshole. What the hell is wrong with this site? Is it me? Am I failing to see the intrinsic value of three silently-lurking self-proclaimed conservative idiots? Poor Pete can do nothing more than come on every now and then with the heart-felt charge that liberals are evil, and even that has devolved into a hope that someone on Fox TV will announce that John Ashcroft said something that wasn't a lie against his own soul or that Hanratty thinks Montana will go Republican in the off year. M.K. has crashed into an unexpected iceberg of acronyms they didn't teach him about in high school, and Glint as noted is hyping himself up to hope that when his daughters get drunk and let the nearest AIDS victim fuck them in the ass for a line of coke it will be O.K. because it's inside the bubble. Let's pick up the pace around here, troglodytes. Let's work up a little anger about something besides Bill Clinton getting a lick upside the bent area back in '96. This is a whole new paradigm, a whole new world, and we have to develop new hysterias to deal with it. I'm counting on you three blind mice. Don't fail me.
House of Meat
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 03:46:52 (EDT)
My two cents are: Albert, I am the one who saluted your flag, and endorsed your thoughts. What is the problem, Albert? Are you getting cold feet? Are you going to be another faint heart like Nichols, who helped MacVeigh carry the ammonium nitrate but didn't have the balls to light the fuse? We've got to pay those dirty lime-juicers back for what they did as Oriskany, what they did at Bunker Hill and all over South Carolina, and the dirty stinking bureaucracy that forced us to pay a tax on tea that we never voted for, never had the least fucking chance! Now is the time that tries men's souls, Albert. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot gets a little weak in the knees when CBS promises to show a brief shot of Demi Moore's tits on the morning show, eh? It is time to pick up the gun, Albert, and bite off a length of slo-burn and blow some bridges. Do you realize that if someone could only take out Hoover Dam we could close down every socialist slot and video poker machine in Vegas, and leave a million Commies wondering who turned out the lights? Pull yourself together, Albert, and move to the Front. The time for action is upon us! Let's slit some liberal throat!
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 03:23:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: Unbeknown to you, the Raven, the Japanese did attack in the Phillipines, bombing Clark Field shortly after Pearl was hit, when morning arrived at the Phillipines. Douglas MacArthur, the darling of the Republican senators then and ever after, who was the chief of the Phillipino military at the time, on loan from the US Army, had shit his pants on hearing of the Pearl Harbor attack. His air forces chief loaded bombs into the B-17's at Clark and made preparations to bomb the Japanese in Formosa at dawn, but Mac said no. Apparently he had the traitorous notion that the Flips could work a separate peace with Japan, and that he wouldn't have to fight. Although his air force officers begged him to let them strike, he said no, and the Japanese came at dawn and destroyed MacArthur's air force on the ground. I know, because I was there. We retreated to Bataan, and then to Corrigedor, and MacArthur earned the name Dugout Doug, hiding in his bunker on Corrigedor as we fought the last stand, and then skipping off in a submarine and leaving command to an old man who walked with us on the Bataan Death March and shriveled to a skeleton in prison with us over the next four years. It was all Roosevelt's doing, true, the Commie bastard, but I reserve a special bitter nugget of hatred in my heart for the Republicans who refused to fight once Roosevelt got us into it. If they had had any balls, we could have driven the Nips back to Tokyo in 1942.
Pollocks
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 03:10:22 (EDT)
My two cents are: Although MK will surely be able to make it as clear as a mud puddle in a rainstorm.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 02:03:02 (EDT)
My two cents are: Find it rather amusing that Fox News people ridicule the power gouging complaints of California on one hand but on the other question possible price gouging by gasoline companies. Another ox.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 01:59:16 (EDT)
My two cents are: Another generator, Duke Energy Co. of North Carolina, confirmed Friday that it sold electricity in California for as much as $3,880 per megawatt hour.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 00:42:53 (EDT)
My two cents are: Reliant, a Houston-based power generator, outraged state government officials last month when it charged California $1,900 per megawatt hour of electricity.
Anonymous.
- Sunday, June 03, 2001 at 00:42:10 (EDT)
My two cents are: Sacramento, California, May 3 (Bloomberg) -- A bill that would allow California to build and operate power plants was approved by the state Senate, part of an effort to provide utilities with more electricity at times of peak demand. The measure, passed by the Senate 24-14, would create a financing authority to build or buy plants and provide aid for alternative-energy projects. The authority would be financed by the sale of up to $5 billion in bonds, repaid from power sales. A shortage of power plants and flaws in California's deregulation laws have led to blackouts and soaring electricity prices that have left the state's two largest utilities with more than $14 billion in power-buying losses. Some state officials have accused generators of shutting down power plants during times of high demand to aggravate shortages and boost prices. ''There's no incentive for developers to build the extra capacity that we need to reduce prices,'' said Senator Debra Bowen, chairwoman of the utilities committee, before the vote. ''That's why this bill is needed.'' The bill, which was approved by the Assembly late last month, now goes to Governor Gray Davis for his signature. He is expected to sign it into law. Opposition Opponents say that a state power authority creates an unnecessary bureaucracy that won't be able to run plants better than businesses and may discourage private investment. ''There's no reason to believe and every reason to doubt that the state will do a better job of operating power plants than the private sector,'' Enron Corp. spokeswoman Karen Denne said. ''Every other country in the world is getting out of the business of operating utilities, and California is getting in it.'' California hopes that by building and buying plants that sell electricity at cost, it will gain some control over wholesale- power prices. Federal energy regulators have rejected California's calls for firm limits on electricity prices, forcing the state to ''level the playing field,'' said Senator Steve Peace, one of the few Republicans to vote for the measure. ''Competition without a referee doesn't work,'' Peace said before the vote. ''We have no choice but to pass this bill.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 23:58:30 (EDT)
My two cents are: More competition + easy access = More available + cheaper cost
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 23:03:50 (EDT)
My two cents are: Why, then are there rolling blackouts in California? If you want lower cost and greater supply of electricity in California (1.) reduce the envronmental regulations. (2.) Allow for the profitable building of refineries. (3.) Cut back on costly red-tape and regulation (whose cost is simply passed down to the consumer. (4.) Cut taxes. (5.)Allow for true de-regulation. (6.) Allow more drilling. --- In other words: "Government should get out of the way.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 23:01:16 (EDT)
My two cents are: To the person who responded to my Timothy McVeigh post with "I salute that flag..." --- When I was a little boy my father gave me a piglet to raise, but I was very mean to that piglet, well one day my father caught me treating that piglet very mean, and he shook his finger at me and told me, "some day that pig will die, and come back to earth to haunt you. Tell me, where the hell have you been all these years??
Albert
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 22:56:30 (EDT)
My two cents are: The Real Question about FDR is: knowing that he knew that Japan was going to attack, not in the Philippines, but indeed at Pearl Harbor, was he an American hero or an American Judas? Would the world be a better place today had the Axis powers succeeded? The answer to that question is unequivocally no. I think one can definitely make the argument that had he thought that America must enter the war, that he should have told the American people that he no longer could keep his promise and that he was indeed going to send America's sons to war instead of proking Japan to attack America first. The question then would become would have America's sons had fought as intensely had he followed that course?
The Raven
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 22:47:52 (EDT)
My two cents are: Duke offered to forgive millions in past electricity bills owned by California's utilities if the state wil drop its investigation. Why? Of course there's no price gouging.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 22:02:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: MK doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:54:06 (EDT)
My two cents are: M.K. will be back with the goods on Enron. They are a private company so they must produce something.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:45:45 (EDT)
My two cents are: What does Enron produce?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:42:39 (EDT)
My two cents are: Once again M.K. fearlessy tromps into the swamps of his ignorance. Doesn't know that there were 11 power plants under construction in California when the Texas boys started the price squeeze. Doesn't know that the California environmental review process specifies 60 days to produce a draft Environmental Impact Report, 45 days to produce a final, and has a statute of limitations on bringing a lawsuit against the result of 30 days. The only way the process can be a problem for a project proponent is if he lies so clumsily in the report that the judge can't laugh a lawsuit out of court. There is no supply crisis in California or anywhere else in this country. There is a price gouge in California, but that is not a supply crisis.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:37:01 (EDT)
My two cents are: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/Allen/ch6.html
<those who don't remember history ....repeat it>
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:35:00 (EDT)
My two cents are: I can hear the optical fibres buzzing as M.K. surfs furiously around the web looking for a Libertarian bleat on Enron.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:26:10 (EDT)
My two cents are: Deregulation in other states, such as Massachusetts and Texas, is more successful because these states made it possible and profitable to build new power plants. This is in stark contrast to California, where a crisis was inevitable because the prices remained below what it cost new plants to produce electricity. Compounding the problem were several things, starting with California's open-ended environmental review process. While other states have a checklist approach-once you've gone through the list, you can proceed with building a plant-the process in this state seems to go on almost forever. In addition, major population centers, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, have air quality standards that limit the amount of electricity that can be produced in those regions. And, again at the local level, community opposition to new construction has thwarted plans to build new plants. More than 40 new power facilities are now proposed for California. An aggressive push to permit and construct half of these would solve the current supply crisis, allowing power prices to fall dramatically. Deregulation in other states, such as Massachusetts and Texas, is more successful because these states made it possible and profitable to build new power plants. This is in stark contrast to California, where a crisis was inevitable because the prices remained below what it cost new plants to produce electricity. Compounding the problem were several things, starting with California's open-ended environmental review process. While other states have a checklist approach-once you've gone through the list, you can proceed with building a plant-the process in this state seems to go on almost forever. In addition, major population centers, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, have air quality standards that limit the amount of electricity that can be produced in those regions. And, again at the local level, community opposition to new construction has thwarted plans to build new plants. More than 40 new power facilities are now proposed for California. An aggressive push to permit and construct half of these would solve the current supply crisis, allowing power prices to fall dramatically.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:25:47 (EDT)
My two cents are: Gee, it almost seems as if George Bush II is just a rich kid who was promoted into the presidency to enrich some people who gave him a baseball team and some oil companies that went under. Could something like that possibly happen in the Land of the Sheeple?
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:24:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: The feds sold a lot of water supply canals to the private water agencies around where gnat lives two or three years ago. Part of the water system is federal and state wildlife refuges built to compensate for the loss of wildlife when the system was built, and they get project water through the canal system. All of a sudden, with the canals in private hands, the cost of transporting refuge water has shot up through the roof, millions of dollars instead of thousands. Maybe something like that is what Enron has in mind?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:21:23 (EDT)
My two cents are: And, speaking of honyockers, hee-eee-ee-ee-ee-r's M.K.!!!
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:16:08 (EDT)
My two cents are: appears that the Willamette Water Supply Agency is pushing for "privatization", whereby a private company acquires or shares ownership of a public water provider. Thus the long term goal of those building the plant may be to sell all or part of it to a private outside interest. At the Oct. 27, 1998 Technical Advisory Committee Meeting (of the Regional Water Consortium), it was mentioned that Carl Talton, Portland General, had met with the Portland Water Bureau and asked about the possibility of Enron involvement in a regional water transmission system. A Nov. 10, 1998 article in the Wall Street Journal discussed how Enron spent 2.2 billion to acquire Wessex Water PLC of Britain, and is vying for water privatizations in Rio, Berlin, and Panama. Enron�s Chairman predicts that water soon will be as important to Enron as its core natural gas and electricity business. At the Dec. 9, 1998 Intergovernmental Water Board meeting, Tigard Public Utilities Director Ed Wegner presented the Board with a couple of the articles from the Wall Street Journal and an article titled Management from the Buyers Perspective on Electricity. He requested that the Board review this information and become aware of the growing issue of privatization. He said that there are a couple of companies currently in the United States buying water plants and offering incentives, United Water who bought out Atlanta, Georgia and Enron. He said Enron is currently in the Portland area and have begun attending Water Consortium staff and Board meetings. The following is from an article in the Feb. 9, 1999 Oregonian (Southwest Neighbors edition) about Wilsonville mayor Charlotte Lehan and her comments during a Regional Water Consortium Meeting: What no one mentioned was the looming presence of Enron Corp., the giant, Texas-based owner of Portland General Electric that wants to become a major player in Northwest water issues. No one, that is, until Wilsonville Mayor Charlotte Lehan brought the discussion to a screeching halt by tossing the company�s plans onto the table: It is considering the Portland area as a test site for the company�s first foray into water treatment and transmission systems. It wasn�t the first time that Lehan, an activist mayor with longstanding environmental credentials, has quieted a roomful of elected officials by broaching a topic no one else wanted to mention. "I seem to bring up things everyone else has agreed not to talk about," Lehan says . "I guess the others just view me as someone who�s not sophisticated enough to know I wasn�t supposed to bring it up."
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:15:15 (EDT)
My two cents are: Bush and Cheney are not going to have a powerhouse or two built every week. The trick is to restrict production, not increase it, as anyone who has monitored OPEC must know. That is just a play to the gullibility of the honyockers, like saying the Bush plan has 43 proposals to conserve energy and 31 proposals to increase supply, so that rubes will say, "Gosh, that's more proposals to conserve than to supply, this must be a real energy conservation plan the way that guy with no lips says." It's just George's little way of continuing to lie about anything substantive, as necessitated by his position as a monarchist in a representative democracy.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:15:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: Private businesses I would hope.
M.K. <[email protected]>
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:13:16 (EDT)
My two cents are: Bush/Cheney energy plan would have a powerhouse or two built every week. Any guesses who will own them?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:07:58 (EDT)
My two cents are: The neat thing about the Balance of Power is that the Senate progressives can now hold hearings, gigantic spin-fests where they can call administration officials and presidents of power-brokerages to come in and explain themselves. If we have a situation where the government is, for example, aiding and abetting and profiting from the rape of 20 million people's electricity bill, the picture can be framed appropriately for public viewing. It's not as interesting or as important as spoodged dresses or blow-jobs, but in a way it hits closer to home to the guy who opens his bill and sees it's $215 and not $45 the way he expected. This is a tricky business for the Republicans, because they are pledged to rape the public and can survive only by raping the public, but they need the public to go along with the gag and it will be more difficult without control of the Senate. It will be difficult for a minority President to so obviously screw a much larger majority than voted against him, so we should be in for some interesting politics, even if somebody manages to pus over the twins' tw*ts and sew them shut.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 21:07:28 (EDT)
My two cents are: Don't seem right, somehow.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 20:55:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: Actually, Enron does own a few power plants. Matter of fact, they scarfed up most of PG&E's California plants when the company's midget directorate put them on the block after deregulation. What's up with that?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 20:54:02 (EDT)
My two cents are: http://www.rense.com/general10/tex.htm
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 20:29:55 (EDT)
My two cents are: I was watching a Giants game last week and noticed Enron advertizes on the center field scoreboard. What's up with that? The way I read it, Enron is responsible for the ballpark's huge PG&E bill, but pays the Giants to sing Enron's praises. Has the world gone mad? What's next, Christopher Reeve doing play by play for and equestrian event?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 20:17:46 (EDT)
My two cents are: Enron doesn't prospect for oil, doesn't covet drilling sites on the Arctic slopes, and doesn't make gasoline or heating oil. Although it bought and sold more than half a billion megawatt-hours of electric power last year, it owns just a few power plants. What Enron does do is trade energy -- gas, oil, electricity -- plus steel, pulp paper, farm commodities and, more recently, space on Internet fiber-optic networks. Most of Enron's power sales involve delivered electricity, but the company is also a huge dealer in "paper" electricity -- contracts traded on commodity markets. More than 1,500 traders sit at computer terminals on five floors in Enron's Houston headquarters and other offices around the world, quoting buy and sell prices and taking orders, like the specialists at the New York Stock Exchange who create a market for their stocks. "We are just market makers. We're buying and selling, and usually making a little bit on every transaction,"
Enron-- the ultimate middleman
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 20:02:31 (EDT)
My two cents are: In just a few short years, Enron Corp. has literally become the nation's largest power broker. One of the early apostles of utility deregulation, the Houston-based company has capitalized on the industry's restructuring and is now the biggest marketer of electric power and natural gas in North America. As a broker of political power, its stock is also on the rise, with George W. Bush in the White House. Long-standing ties of friendship, politics and ideology link the president and Kenneth Lay, chairman of Enron and one of Bush's most important political supporters. "I do have a good personal relationship with the new president," Lay said in a recent interview. "That's not to say it in any grand way. I've just known him a long time, just like I've known his parents for a long time." It's a fortunate connection for Enron at a time when California's energy problems have sparked expanding debate over the wisdom of allowing the marketplace to make decisions about electricity that were once made by utilities and regulators. California's energy crisis has slowed or halted electricity deregulation in many of the two dozen states considering it, and Lay and other proponents are trying to keep the backlash from expanding. Enron is also fighting demands from California and other western states for federal price controls on wholesale power sales. And Enron is pressing the new administration to create a more wide-open national electric grid, to make it easier for Enron and other energy marketers to move electricity around. Enron's operations, more than those of any of its major competitors, are designed to take advantage of an expanding, unregulated trade in energy. Enron doesn't prospect for oil, doesn't covet drilling sites on the Arctic slopes, and doesn't make gasoline or heating oil. Although it bought and sold more than half a billion megawatt-hours of electric power last year, it owns just a few power plants. What Enron does do is trade energy -- gas, oil, electricity -- plus steel, pulp paper, farm commodities and, more recently, space on Internet fiber-optic networks. Most of Enron's power sales involve delivered electricity, but the company is also a huge dealer in "paper" electricity -- contracts traded on commodity markets. More than 1,500 traders sit at computer terminals on five floors in Enron's Houston headquarters and other offices around the world, quoting buy and sell prices and taking orders, like the specialists at the New York Stock Exchange who create a market for their stocks. "We are just market makers. We're buying and selling, and usually making a little bit on every transaction," Lay said. At the same time, Enron tries to create financial insurance for itself and its clients through other investments -- in stocks, interest-bearing securities or currencies -- that could cut losses if other market prices go the wrong way. EnronOnline, its 15-month-old business-to-business e-commerce Web site, has grown phenomenally, handling more than 3,850 transactions with a trading value of more than $2.6 billion each business day. As changes in energy prices became wilder and wilder in the past year, so has the speculative trading of energy products, and regulators say a large chunk of that trading has moved to Enron's online market. "They get incredible amounts of market data. They're trading every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," said Andre Meade, an analyst at Commerzbank Securities. What happens to prices when the weather turns hot, or drought cuts hydropower supplies, or a nuclear plant goes down unexpectedly? Enron has a lot of know-how on such questions that help sharpen its trading strategies, Meade said. Volatility is Enron's friend, analysts say. And to some industry critics -- and industry officials -- it is too soon to say whether the huge increase in electricity trading that has accompanied deregulation will result in a better long-term deal for consumers, or just higher prices. "I don't think we know yet," said David W. Penn, deputy executive director of the American Public Power Association, which represents municipal utilities. "Ultimately, we have to ask whether what Enron offers to energy policies is simply a way to make money," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen's Texas Office, a consumer group. "We think this churning and trading ends up increasing the cost. Their answer is it decreases the cost. Only time will tell who is right," Smith said. Without doubt, 2000 was a banner year for Enron. Revenue jumped to $100.8 billion, from $40 billion the year before, after a 60 percent increase in the amount of energy it sold. A fourfold increase in natural gas prices and the escalation of wholesale electricity prices to unheard-of peaks in California and the Northwest helped Enron boost earnings to $1.3 billion last year, 32 percent more than in 1999. Enron's success has made it a target of California public officials, who accuse Enron and other electricity generators and marketers of taking advantage of the state's power shortages to drive up prices. Louise Renne, San Francisco's city attorney, named Enron as one of the defendants in a civil suit alleging violations of the city's unfair-business-practices law. Although Renne's staff has not yet seen any documents from the energy companies, she said, "We do have reason to believe there was gaming in the market." Enron said it broke no laws in California. "Our financial success is not built on California's back," Enron Chief of Staff Steven J. Kean said at a Senate hearing a month ago. Its profit has grown because of greatly increased sales, and because the volatile changes in electricity and gas prices have created much more demand for Enron's energy contracts, which are designed to protect customers from dramatic price shifts, he said. Lay and his company won't say how much profit came out of California. "Most of it came from elsewhere," Lay said. The political reaction to California's problems has thrown several obstacles in Enron's path, including the demands for federal price controls on wholesale power sales. Those demands are strongest in California and the Pacific Northwest, but if electricity shortages and rising prices spread to New York and New England this summer, so will the clamor for price controls. A second problem for Enron is the move by California officials to make it harder, if not impossible, to move electricity across state lines. That trend could gain support too, if California's problems move elsewhere. California Gov. Gray Davis's electricity rescue plan has taken the state deeper into direct operation of power supply, first as a buyer of electricity and next as the operator of the statewide high-voltage transmission lines. "Right now they want to kind of build a wall around their state," telling the utility companies that California's power may not be exported, Lay said. But California depends on power transmitted from outside its borders. How can it insist on a one-way trade? Lay said. Lay acknowledged that the idea could spread. "Different states are trying to put barriers on any power in their states leaving their state," he said. "You can't have interstate commerce that way." Enron is pressing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to open up electricity transmission so that marketers can buy power where it is plentiful and sell it where it is scarce. Competition -- the core principle of electricity deregulation -- requires that kind of freewheeling movement of electricity. But today, utilities in some of the nation's most populous areas guard their transmission lines, blocking the access that Enron and other marketers seek, Lay said. The FERC has the authority to create that access, and Enron wants the commission to act. Lay has worked closely with Bush in the past. In Texas, Bush as governor allied with Lay and Enron in enacting legislation that will deregulate the state's electricity market next year. Lay led Enron executives and employees in contributing more than $500,000 to Bush's campaigns for governor and president, according to the Center for Public Integrity in Washington. About $350,000 of that came from Lay personally. Lay said his access to and influence on Bush is "grossly exaggerated" and that in any case, Enron and the administration have similar agendas. "I rarely call him," Lay said. "I've not called him since he's been president, as a matter of fact. "He's got good, strong advisers around him that he sees every day that know an awful lot about energy, as he does himself. . . . All of them believe in markets, believe in competition, believe in deregulation," Lay said. Enron, of course, plans to make sure the administration knows what the company wants from the FERC, and who its members should be, Lay said. Two seats on the five-member commission are vacant. "They've asked for some suggestions (on filling the FERC's vacancies) and we've given them suggestions, but they've also asked that of a lot of other people." Will Bush turn to his advisers when the time comes for a decision and ask, "Have you checked this with Ken Lay?" "I don't know. I doubt it," Lay said.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 19:59:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: Of course I agree, except for the part about liberals planning the "lights out" protest. It is really the Orion Telescope Company, leading a bunch of amateur astronomers around by the nose. They think that their cheap Orion newts are going to zero in on all the Messier objects with the lights out. Relative to supply and demand, supply actually does exceed demand in California, except for the minor glitch that the traditional distribution companies are going belly-up because of the price gouging resulting from the monopolization and deregulation of the power plants and cannot broker the supply. The answer is federal price controls until California re-regulates, but even though price control is the only way that public energy distribution has ever worked anywhere, Bush in his ignorance will probably do the supply-sider's knee-jerk and not do it. The interesting result could be that the California economy tanks, pulling the rest of the free world as well as Texas down with it. The best thing about the California energy "crisis" is that it caused Bush to have the first summit conference between a President and the governor of a state, thereby elevating Gray Davis to the international level of Bush pals Alexander Putin and Yassir Arafat. Unfortunately for Bush's dreams of a stable economy, he didn't apologize to Davis, and the whole shitaree may soon come apart, starting with the laundromat industry.
House of Meat
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 19:59:06 (EDT)
My two cents are: http://www.progressive.org/pc0900.htm
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 19:56:00 (EDT)
My two cents are: http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Dowbenko020201/dowbenko020201.html
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 19:54:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: I wonder if House of Meat agrees with me.
Huge
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 19:33:49 (EDT)
My two cents are: I hear that the liberals are planning a 'lights out' protest to send a message about Bush's energy policy and conservation. It'll make a zero impact, but will make you liberals feel really good and positive about yourselves and your good intentions, which is really ALL that liberalism is about, anyway. Kalifornia is tits up in a ditch, energy-wise, because supply failed to meet demand, due to meddling and manipulation in the energy market. The problem will be solved when supply equals demand. Economic principles are really quite simple. Even dopey liberals should be able to grasp them, if they can wriggle free of their emotional states and remain rational long enough to make the mental effort.
Huge
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 19:32:05 (EDT)
My two cents are: I went out today and purchased "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." It's amazing what these yids have been up to.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 19:31:32 (EDT)
My two cents are: The "Bush" twins have been subverted by eight years of Clintonist Hollywood lies, MTV, and socialist Saturday morning cartoons. The two chippies have become stain on their father's honor, and a roadblock to the conservative movement, and they must be exorcized. Dr. Laura is right: all good Republicans must now join together and demand that they be disinherited and cast from America's First Family, like any disobedient child. Their actions have eroded confidence among our allies, and depressed NASDAQ, exactly as did Clinton's philandering and lying in the White House. They are old enough to be responsible for their actions, and old enough to face the music. The GOP must not succumb to Partygirl-gate and made a mockery in church basements across the land. What do we tell the children? Jenna drinks, Mommy, why can't I? Why do people say Bar is hot, Daddy, and gives good head? How can you give a head? Jenna got an abortion, Mommy. Bar drove through Mexico at eighty miles an hour, Daddy, stopping only to take a nap with the cutest boy in each village cantina along the way. Jenna sits in the gutter and doesn't wear her socks, Mommy. It will never end unless we take the bull by the horns and admit that they are no longer worthy of the noble name Bush. Take back their trust funds and their CD collections and send them to Outward Bound in Australia. Let them sink or swim, but if they sink, don't let them take the last virtue of America with them.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 16:52:13 (EDT)
My two cents are: I agree, Raven, it's as plain as the nose on a pig's face. Who needs a book? Kimmel and Short were lulled by Roosevelt's insane Trotskyite plot to rule the world through his henchmen Stalin and Churchill. He was so set on destroying the last bastion against world communist domination, Adolf Hitler, that he involved the peace-loving Japanese, thereby destroying not only Kimmel and Short, but America-loving Tojo and Yamamoto as well, and he so weakened Chiang Kai-Shek that mainland China was subsequently lost to the Commies. Listening to the soothing lies of Roosevelt, Kimmel left his battleships tied up nose to asshole in port, manned by a few Phillipino mess-boys and Polack deckhands still in their gook shirts, sleeping off the traditional Saturday night drunk at Wahoo Mindy's. Short was lulled into packing his fighters like woodies at Doheney when the surf's up, so they could be easily guarded and gassed, and the well-trained capitalistic Japanese Zero pilots made short work of them, following the maps given to them by Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins. With Kimmel and Short "disgraced", the road was open for the Communist George C. Marshall, who later lent his name to the post-war giveaway of three-quarters of America's assets to socialistic states across Europe, to install his puppets at the pinnacles of military power. The names of our generals and admirals in that war read like a rogue's gallery of Communistic traitors, a shame to West Point and socialistic Annapolis, which later spawned the vile Jimmy Carter, his fat lips packed with a lifetime's worth of microfilmed instructions from the Kremlin. Throw away your useless history books, Raven, and buy military manuals-- demolitions, M-60 field maintenance, platoon-level envelopments-- the time to stop studying and start shooting is here, with Hillary Clinton controlling the Senate and Impeachment Traitor Lindsey Graham slated to join her with the next election. Together we must make a stand.
Pollocks
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 16:24:25 (EDT)
My two cents are: I went out today and purchased "Day of Deceit." In the preface it says: "There has been a controversy over American foreknowledge of the events of December 7, 1941. We have long known that Japanese diplomatic cables - which pointed toward hostilities - were intercepted and decoded. What I have discovered, however, is that we knew much more. Not only did we undertake provocative steps, we intercepted and decode military cables. We knew the attack was coming. By provoking the attack, Rooselvelt accepted the terrible truth that America's military forces - including the Pacific Fleet and the civilian population in the Pacific - would sit squarely in harm's way, exposed to enormous risks. The commanders in Hawaii, Admiral Husband Kimmel and Lieutenant General Walter Short, were deprived of of intelligence that might have made them more alert to the risks entailed in Roosevelt's policy, but they obeyed his direct order: "The United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act."
The Raven
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 15:34:59 (EDT)
My two cents are: Dear Jenna, What lips? Love,
Bar
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 14:27:50 (EDT)
My two cents are: Dear Bar, what has happened to Daddy? He used to be so-o-o funny! Always bumbling and bumping into things! Remember the time his cigarette fell out of his lips and his spandex baseball manager's jacket caught on fire and Mom threw the slop-bucket on him to put it out? He used to be better than Bozo and Homer Simpson put together, but now he seems to have gotten all gloomy or something, sitting there reading the World Atlas and quizzing us on our geography homework and talking on the phone to Jeb and that lady with all the makeup. About the only time he's fun any more is when we go to wedding receptions and he tells jokes about how Arthur or whoever is finally going to poke the bride and it makes you giggle to think about them married and poking and tickling each other, it must be fun! And he says such funny things about Grandpa then, and Grandma and sometimes he wrestles with Grandpa and pretends to punch him, but I think Grandpa is getting too old for that and doesn't like it and Grandma gets upset so maybe the mano a mano game is not so funny any more, but it used to be! I sure hope Daddy gets that job he wants and finally gets to be the boss like he wants and push the button and everything, and make the Negroes give back the money and stop the wetbacks from coming and starting Democrat wars or whatever. Maybe then he'll be as funny as Bozo again. I hope you're having a good time a cheerleader camp! Fat Camp is the pits, and most of the boys don't even know how to do it I have to show them where it is, practically, and I can't wait 'til it ends. Your loving sister,
Jenna
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 14:05:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: Everybody ought to have a laugh for the day. A laugh for the day, and a pet peeve-- these are the necessities. If your pet peeve occasionally hands you a laugh, so much the better.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 13:51:10 (EDT)
My two cents are: Cop to it afterward? My laugh for the day. If I hang around maybe this will indeed be a happy day.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 12:57:32 (EDT)
My two cents are: That's unfair, liberal bastard. She didn't mean to bump off the teen driver, not to mention that teen-agers are notoriously accident-prone. Also, it takes a hell of a man to wake up hung over after his 40th birthday party and vow to never drink much again, except at wedding receptions. The best thing a father can do, and practically the only role a father has for a child five or under, is to make the child laugh. What could produce more peals of laughter than daddy stumbling into the coat-rack or falling down the basement stairs?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 12:22:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: Look it up yourself. Don't worry, you may still want to cop to it afterward. It's not too bad, just a little fuddy-duddy. We need prematurely aged e-yuppies, shuffling around with caution and not trying to make everything better like them goddamn libs.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 12:17:33 (EDT)
My two cents are: It could be that Dubya and his murderess wife are simply shitty parents. Look, these so-called twins are 19 and their no-account father was 40 when he decided to come out of his alcoholic haze. At that time the girls were 5 year-olds who had spent the critical early childhood years with a shit-faced father and a bovine manslaughterer mother with the blood of teenage driver on her hands. Can there be any doubt that such familial dysfunction is the cause of the current horrors? Puh-leassse!
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 12:16:43 (EDT)
My two cents are: Now define conservative.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 12:14:36 (EDT)
My two cents are: Main Entry: 1lib�er�al Pronunciation: 'li-b(&-)r&l Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin liberalis suitable for a freeman, generous, from liber free; perhaps akin to Old English lEodan to grow, Greek eleutheros free Date: 14th century BROAD-MINDED; especially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms; of, favoring, or based upon the principles of liberalism b capitalized : of or constituting a political party advocating or associated with the principles of political liberalism; especially : of or constituting a political party in the United Kingdom associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives - lib�er�al�ly /-b(&-)r&-lE/ adverb - lib�er�al�ness noun synonyms LIBERAL, GENEROUS, BOUNTIFUL, MUNIFICENT mean giving or given freely and unstintingly. LIBERAL suggests openhandedness in the giver and largeness in the thing or amount given . GENEROUS stresses warmhearted readiness to give more than size or importance of the gift . BOUNTIFUL suggests lavish, unremitting giving or providing . MUNIFICENT suggests a scale of giving appropriate to lords or princes .
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 12:07:06 (EDT)
My two cents are: Ola, Chuey! Una mas, por favor! Papa! Quieres boxar mano a mano? Dos mas poppers! Andale!
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:59:45 (EDT)
My two cents are: Well, anonymous, it's one thing to hide out in the orchards with a twelve-pack, it's another thing to sit like a princess at the greasy neighborhood wetback shack sucking down strawberry margaritas and tequila poppers. The only good that is ever going to come of this is that she might learn Tex-Mex, like her old man.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:56:51 (EDT)
My two cents are: All depends on whose ox is being gored.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:56:01 (EDT)
My two cents are: Exactly, Glint. Why can't she get it through her thick skull? Stop trying to buy up. Doesn't she know any guys over 21?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:54:15 (EDT)
My two cents are: It is quite true that Roosevelt engineered the attack on Pearl Harbor because the Germans refused to shoot first, except for torpedoes at North Atlantic convoys. Roosevelt knew that Germany stood alone against the Soviet Union and international communism, and that the only way to realize his dream of a one-world United Nations communist government was to take her out. Conspiring with the Fabian socialist British in East India and with the Dutch Communist overlords of Indonesia he backed the peace-loving capitalist Japanese into a corner and forced them to attack. Only one man stood up against this outrage in the instantaneous war hysteria that followed, General Douglas MacArthur, who tried to arrange a separate peace for the Phillipines and refused to let his air forces bomb Formosa and destroy the Japanese air armada on the ground. The traitors admirals in the US Navy, King, Nimitz, Spruance, Halsey and the others went on to sink the entire Japanese Navy and merchant marine with bombs and torpedoes and shells, using the dive-bomber and the soicialist submarine and the battleship without pity. At the same time, the traitors Marshall and Eisenhower and Bradley nipped at the ankles of the Germans in Europe, holding back true patriotic soldiers like Patton, and paved Stalin's path to Poland and Germany and Czechoslovakia, to his entire Evil Empire in the east. The National Education Association was given the reins of American government, and we have been slaves ever since.
Pollocks
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:52:10 (EDT)
My two cents are: Jenna Bush needs to realize that with the rise of her family in the national spotlight she is living in a fishbowl sized bubble. Hopefully she will learn from this event that there are Liberal sore losers out there who will clamor and seeth with glee when given the opportunity to narc on her at the greasy neighborhood wetback shack.
Glint
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:28:43 (EDT)
My two cents are: As revealed in Robert Stinnett's book, Day of Deceit, a whole series of military messages sent by Japanese commanders betrayed the day and the hour of the attack � and Stinnett shows that FDR had to have known this. Flynn couldn't have had access to the thousands of pages of documents � recently released under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act � that prove FDR's foreknowledge, and that of top figures in his administration. But Flynn saw the pattern of deception, fifty years ago, even if he couldn't have known the full extent of it. He is the father of Pearl Harbor revisionism, the first writer to collect the evidence and indict an American President for a heinous war crime � one committed against his own soldiers and sailors. Also read John T. Flynn's October 1945 article to better understand where Flounders garnered his version of, how Roosevelt failed to listen to the military and why Rooselvelt moved the fleet from the Philippines. And remember that Flynn's accusations were without any access to the documents Stinnett's now has. Yet in concluding that the Pearl Harbor affair was the result of a "miscalculation," Flynn was giving the President far too much credit. As Stinnett makes all too clear: instead of being a miscalculation, the Pearl Harbor disaster was a very carefully calculated catastrophe, one orchestrated as much from Washington as from Tokyo.Here's the link to Flynn's 1945 article: http://www.antiwar.com/rep/flynn1.html One last thing to think about is the fact that the British are the ones that broke the code and handed "Washington" (no way of knowing who in Washington received) the communications, but I would suspect that it would have been seen only by a select few. Roosevelt was grasping for a way into the war that would not break his promise made to the American people � solemnly given and repeated � not to send their sons into foreign war unless attacked. Flynn said: He did not mind violating that pledge. He merely feared the political effect of the violation. [Joseph] Alsop and [Robert] Kintner, White House columnist pets, had written a short time before that "He (Roosevelt) does not feel he can openly violate them (his pledges). But he can get around them the smart way." They explained this meant getting the Germans to shoot first. Then he could shoot back. But it was now clear to him that the Germans, were not going to shoot first. Now, however, the Japanese were about to do so. If they could be provoked to attack, his problem would, be solved. He would then be in the war safely � not only against Japan but 'all the way,' as he triumphantly announced in his speech to Congress after the attack.
The Raven
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:07:58 (EDT)
My two cents are: I was in the third of the first at the Kasserine Pass. Hardly anybody was circumcised in those days except the jew-boys, and half my platoon got infected dicks from the sand. It was our dicks that defeated us more than Rommel. You should have seen the retreat, talk about staggering. Mine swelled up like an inner-tube and I had to get clipped then and there. Half the ward was G.I.'s with bandages on their crotch. There won't be a statue of that at the WWII memorial, you can bet.
Whelp Greenlee
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:07:05 (EDT)
My two cents are: Harry Belafonte?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:00:48 (EDT)
My two cents are: Name the song and artist who sang: "Cement mixer, clutzi-clutzi, cement mixer, clutzi-clutzi..." How about "three iddoo fishies in a iddy biddy poo', two baby fishies and a mamma fishy too, and they thwam and they thwam and they thwam and they thwam, and they thwam and they thwam all over the dam."
Whelp Greenlee
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 11:00:21 (EDT)
My two cents are: Reason I asked about Anzio, Albert, is that my outfit had a mortar-man named Albert W-something, a Polack name. Wasn't you, I guess. You missed a good party but it sounds like you made up for it. Were you in North Africa? Oran or the Kasserine? Blackjack gum was OK, but did you have Chum-Gum in your neck of the woods? Three sticks in a pack like it was Wrigley's, grape-flavored, cost a penny. Those were the days.
Whelp Greenlee
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 10:56:23 (EDT)
My two cents are: That quiz is a trap. The Boxer is not an old-time song, nor is Paul Simon an old-time guy. Still belting out the hits. Exploiting south African singers, according to the passionate non-partisan Larry Klayman. One thing you can say about Klayman is there's nothing dogmatic or even slightly insane about him. I for one will never forget the lock-step impeachment vote-- not one loonball broke ranks. Ah, but those were the good old days, before $20,000 could buy an appointment with the President, before Big Time Dick Cheney was selling tickets to Vice-Presidential pajama parties. When the only thing we had to worry about was Kathleen Willey's cat. Name the song and artist who sang the following: "Cruising down the highway going 79, had a great date with that chick o' mine, hey, was that a red stop sign??
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 10:34:27 (EDT)
My two cents are: The first twins are just having the normal times of college girls inside the bubble of college life. Who hasn't wrapped him or herself around a pitcher of margaritas, a Kool in one hand and an ugly guy's dick or an ugly girl's twat wide open in the other, and partied? There's something about a pitcher of margs that makes a handful of Texas lower-back lard feel like the hard left tit of the prom queen, that makes a vacuuming pig-like snout look like the demure discreetly-burrowing schnozz of a corn-fed Iowa pom-pon girl. College is a time for dreaming, and a time for exploring inside the bubble. The most important job of a man's life is fatherhood, that chance to be one of a million points of light, and the daddy's work of a nineteen-year-old girl with adequate tits and not much else is to leave her some space, order the body-guards to stay outside, to look the other way while she learns to profit from those tits. Leave no child behind, everybody get his or her turn to dance naked on the table of ebullient youth, to pick up the megaphone of life and howl at the full moon of party! The girls will settle down, just as Lynda Bird Johnson did, as Julie and Tricia did, just as Chelsae will. They'll marry a Marine captain or a famous politician's grandson who looks like Howdy Doody, and they'll volunteer in the Junior League or the Toys for Tots Xmas Campaign, learn to play backgammon and Pictionary, get a little on the side from the tennis pro now and then, everything is going to be all right. Rest easy, Mr. and Mrs. America, your daughters will all come home, except possibly the Negroes, who will get knocked up and become welfare queens, but, hey, it's a big tent.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 10:26:14 (EDT)
My two cents are: You see, it surprises certain dogmatic people that Larry Klaman is non partisan. Of course the real partisan politics is in the Democrat sides of the House and Senate. Who can ever forget that lock step impeachment vote? <> Pete, that 5mm eyepiece you bought from Amazon, who made it? Meade, the maker of your telescope, sells a 4.7mm. Almost bought one a couple months ago but purchased a used 4.8mm TeleVue Nagler from a friend instead. It give me about 400x with the 12.5" and more than 500x with the 20".
Glint
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 10:25:00 (EDT)
My two cents are: I've heard Larry Klaman speak in person before and he's very passionate. Guess it goes to show you Liberals who were claiming that he was a "Reichie" were wrong. Keep posting more evidence of your mistakes, if you please. <> Old timers. Name the song and artist who sang the following, "Asking only workman's wages I came looking for a job. But I get no offers - just a come on from the whores on 7th avenue."
Glint
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 10:19:47 (EDT)
My two cents are: WASHINGTON, DC--More than four months after his Jan. 20 inauguration, the realization that George W. Bush is actually president of the United States finally hit the American people this week. Above: George W. Bush looks around his new office. The fact of the Bush presidency, which sunk in with most Americans sometime between 11 a.m. Sunday and 4 p.m. Tuesday, has stunned citizens of all races, ages, income levels, and party affiliations. "Whoa," said Bill Wylecszki, 38, a Odessa, TX, grocery-store owner. "George W. Bush, former owner of the Texas Rangers and failed oilman, is president. This is too weird." "I guess with the media circus and all the other craziness surrounding the election-recount fiasco, I just kind of looked at it like it was some sort of funny TV show," said Amanda Milner, 37, a Red Wing, MN, bank teller. "I never really thought about it as something that was actually happening. And once Bush finally got sworn in, I don't know, I suppose I must've just subconsciously assumed that there would be another recount or another election in a few months or something." Americans hit with the sudden realization have reported feelings of nervousness, confusion, and disorientation. The effects are said to be fairly uniform across the nation, with a particularly high concentration in Florida. "A few nights ago, I was watching The Tonight Show, and [Jay] Leno was making some typical joke about Bush--you know, the kind we've all heard a thousand times before--and I was thinking, 'Boy, wouldn't it be bizarre if he actually got elected?'" said Ocala, FL, homemaker and mother of four Janis Niering. "Then it hit me: 'Wait a minute--I think he was.'" Even months after Inauguration Day, the presidential situation never really dawned on most Americans. This, political experts say, was largely due to the fact that former president Bill Clinton continued to dominate the news through much of February, March, and April, while the media paid little attention to Bush. "The stolen White House furniture, the missing Ws from the White House computers, the Clinton office in Harlem, the whole Marc Rich pardon thing... it just seemed like Clinton was still president," said Mary Ellen Buis of Salina, KS. "I know that doesn't make sense, but that's what it was like." "Evidently, I should have taken it all a lot more seriously," Buis continued. "I mean, he's apparently going to be our leader for the next four years, minimum. But who knew?" Even Republican Party leaders have expressed surprise over Bush's occupancy of the White House. "Early in the presidential race, we all expected Bush to get stomped by Al Gore," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said. "But once the race got tight, we were so excited that we might actually win, it was sort of unreal. But I'm not sure we ever really gave much thought to the idea that it might actually happen. It was more like some strange dream or something." Pausing to rub his eyes and shake his head, Hatch added, "Wow." For the first 24 hours after the mass realization, Bush remained silent on his status as president. This, political analysts say, was because the full scope of the truth had only begun to dawn on him, as well. After conferring with top advisors in a six-hour closed-door session, Bush finally addressed the nation Tuesday evening. "My fellow Americans," Bush said. "God, it sounds so weird to actually be saying that. Anyway, I know we've all had a bit of a shock lately. To be honest with you, I'm a bit blown away by it all myself. But it appears that, for whatever reason, I am now the leader of the free world. And that's something we're all, myself included, going to have to get used to." Added Bush: "Any comments or advice anyone might have would be welcome at this time."
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 09:34:23 (EDT)
My two cents are: McCain and Daschle are enjoying their cookout. Yum.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 09:19:25 (EDT)
My two cents are: Jeffords leaving upset them so much, the remaining fascists have begun eating their own. Yum yum, Larry K. Yum, yum, Tom De Lay.
busta rhyme
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 09:17:44 (EDT)
My two cents are: JUDICIAL WATCH DEMANDS THAT TOM DELAY CEASE AND DESIST FROM SELLING MEETINGS WITH BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS FOR $20,000 If Delay Does Not Cease and Desist, Judicial Watch Is Prepared to Take Legal Action (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, has learned from an Associated Press report (Click Here) that House Republican majority whip Tom Delay may be selling meetings with Bush Administration officials for $20,000 contributions by donors. If this is the case, Mr. Delay�s actions would be little different than President Clinton�s and Hillary Clinton�s selling seats on Commerce Department trade missions, and would constitute illegal bribery. While Judicial Watch hopes that Mr. Delay is not undertaking these illegal activities, today it is sending him a letter seeking confirmation of the Associated Press report that meetings with Bush Administration officials are being sold for $20,000 contributions. In the letter, Judicial Watch also demands that he immediately cease and desist from this activity. If, at this point, Mr. Delay should refuse, Judicial Watch is prepared to take strong and swift legal action. �Our system of government cannot be bought and sold to the highest bidders. If indeed Mr. Delay is selling meetings with Bush Administration officials for $20,000, the conservative Judicial Watch will not hesitate to do whatever it takes to stop this perversion of our democracy. In this country, all people are equal, and there is no First Amendment right to bribe politicians,� stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 09:16:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: Re: Complaint Against Representative Tom DeLay of the 22nd Congressional District of the State of Texas and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Dear Sir/Madam: I. INTRODUCTION. Judicial Watch, Inc., (hereinafter �Judicial Watch�) is a non-profit, public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption. Judicial Watch, in the public interest, hereby submits this complaint to the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice against Representative Tom DeLay of the 22nd Congressional District of the State of Texas and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), 320 First Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003. Specifically, Representative Tom DeLay and the NRCC appear to be in violation of: 1. 2 U.S.C. � 431 et seq. (Definitions). 2. 2 U.S.C. � 434(b) (Reporting requirements). 3. 18 U.S.C. � 201 (Bribery of Public Officials and Witnesses). 4. 18 U.S.C. � 600 (Promise of employment or other benefit for political activity). 5. 11 C.F.R. � 104.3 (Contents of reports). II. FACTS. A. Press Report Concerning Apparent Illegal Political Fundraising. The facts of this complaint are set forth in an April 3, 2001 Associated Press report by Pete Yost, entitled �DeLay Makes Promises to GOP Donors,� wherein it was revealed: �The House Republican whip, Tom DeLay, is promising meetings with top Bush officials to small business owners whose donations would underwrite a GOP ad campaign promoting the president�s tax plan.� ��I am asking you to serve as an honorary member of our new Business Advisory Council,� DeLay , a staunch opponent of campaign finance reform, says in recorded telephone calls being made to businessmen around the country.�� As an honorary member you will be invited to meetings with top Bush administration officials where your opinions on issues like tax reform will be heard,� his call promises.� (Emphasis added). * * * �People familiar with the fund drive say it is part of an effort to raise up to the maximum $20,000 in donations to the party from each donor. Some of the money will be used for ads in local papers that will list the names of donors who gave in support of the tax plan� (Emphasis added). * * * ��In scripted remarks that follow DeLay�s taped message, workers at the National Republican Congressional Committee engage businessmen in conversation requesting �a one time contribution of $300 to $500 because �we are launching a media campaign. . .to get some tax relief.�� Exhibit 1. According to the NRCC website[1] (Exhibit 2), Representative DeLay is the Chairman of the Republican Majority Business Council (RMBC). The Associated Press report discusses Representative DeLay�s involvement in the creation of a �new Business Advisory Council� as early as December 2000. B. Judicial Watch�s April 4, 2001 Letter to Rep. DeLay. On April 4, 2001, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman wrote to Representative DeLay, citing the Associated Press report. The letter stated: �It has been reported in the Associated Press that you are, on behalf of the National Republican Congressional Committee, selling meetings with Bush Administration officials for $20,000 donations. If this report is correct (copy attached), your activity is illegal under the following U.S. Code statutory provisions, and we respectfully request that you immediately cease and desist. 18 U.S.C. � 201 (Bribery of Public Officials and Witnesses); and/or 18 U.S.C. � 600 (Promise of Employment or Other Benefit for Political Activity) �Please confirm within 24 hours if the Associated Press report is true. If it is true and you do not acknowledge having ceased and desisted, Judicial Watch will pursue swift legal action against you and the National Republican Congressional Committee.� Exhibit 3. C. Rep. DeLay�s Response Through Counsel. Representative DeLay responded to Judicial Watch�s request through his legal counsel. On April 5, 2001, Judicial Watch received a letter from Ed Bethune, Esq. of Bracewell & Patterson, L.L.P.. Mr. Bethune�s letter was a non-response and conspicuously failed to deny that Representative DeLay was engaged in the activity reported in the Associated Press (Exhibit 1). He wrote: �Your personal and confidential letter to the Honorable Tom DeLay dated April 4, 2001, and your press release dated the same day, have been referred to this firm. Congressman DeLay makes every effort to comply with the law and he has done so in this instance. Any concerns you may have about the National Republican Congressional Committee�s fundraising efforts should be directed to that organization.� Exhibit 4. Mr. Bethune, by failing to address the substance of our request to Representative DeLay, confirmed the Associated Press story, constituting an admission that illegal political fundraising practices are, indeed, taking place. D. Judicial Watch�s Response to Rep. DeLay�s Counsel. Judicial Watch responded to Rep. DeLay�s counsel in a letter dated April 5, 2001 (with a copy to Rep. DeLay), as follows: �We are in receipt of your letter dated April 5, 2001, on behalf of Congressman Tom DeLay. Your failure to address the substance of our request to Mr. DeLay is a confirmation of an Associated Press story by Pete Yost of April 3, 2001 entitled, �DeLay Makes Promise to GOP Donors,� and constitutes an admission.� Exhibit 5. E. The NRCC Letter of April 6, 2001. On April 6, 2001, Judicial Watch received, via facsimile, a letter from NRCC General Counsel Donald F. McGahn II (Exhibit 6). Mr. McGahn, on behalf of the NRCC, effectively confirmed the illegal fundraising activity reported in the Associated Press story. In an effort to �spin� the story for media �damage control� (as the NRCC�s letter was prompted by a press inquiry from Roll Call magazine), the NRCC attempts to explain and rationalize the DeLay/NRCC illegal activity by attacking the press coverage, stating, �That story misrepresents our efforts, and takes one statement contained on a taped message by Mr. DeLay out of context.� The NRCC�s letter makes the requisite boilerplate claim, �there is nothing illegal or unethical about our activity.� Incredibly, the NRCC continues its attempt at political and legal damage control for two additional paragraphs, wherein it presents the DeLay/NRCC�s scheme of selling meetings with Bush Administration officials as a progressive, reform-minded measure of the type currently contemplated by campaign finance advocates in the Congress. Specifically, the NRCC�s letter disingenuously states: �Here, no contributor to this Committee is receiving any sort of official, government reward, position or privilege for their contribution, nor is there any official action taking place.� However, the NRCC does not deny Representative DeLay�s quote from the Associated Press story: �As an honorary member you will be invited to meetings with top Bush administration officials where your opinions on issues like tax reform will be heard.� (Emphasis added) Perhaps the NRCC�s contributors will not receive a government position, but they are being promised meetings with Bush Administration government officials to discuss policy in exchange for cash. Obviously realizing their legal liability, the NRCC admitted they were �reviewing� the taped message of Representative DeLay offering meetings with Bush Administration officials for campaign contributions. And further, the NRCC�s letter admits, �Administration officials have received invitations to join us, and share their views on that debate, and to hear from grassroots activists.� F. Members of Congress Comment. Fortunately, there are many Republican members of Congress who are offended by Representative DeLay�s and the NRCC�s illegal activities in selling meetings with Bush Administration officials for political campaign contributions. This is not the first time that Representative DeLay has been criticized for his fundraising practices. (Exhibit 7)[2] For example, during interviews on The Judicial Watch Report, a television show sponsored by complainant and aired nationally, two influential Republican Members of the House of Representatives had this to say about this apparent practice of selling meetings with Bush Administration officials: �In the final waning days of the Roman Republic � in ancient times � public office was auctioned and that led directly to the destruction of the Roman Republic. The United States Government is the greatest force for good that mankind has ever designed. But our offices cannot be lead out for auction.� � Representative Mark Kirk (R-10th) of Illinois, commenting hypothetically on the Associated Press report concerning Rep. DeLay during the April 5, 2001 broadcast of The Judicial Watch Report on the Renaissance Network. * * * �It�s clearly not appropriate. That�s the kind of hypocrisy that undermines the people�s belief in the system. I would hope that the story is in error.� � Representative Adam Putnam (R-12th) of Florida, commenting on the Associated Press report concerning Rep. DeLay during the April 3, 2001 broadcast of The Judicial Watch Report on the Renaissance Network. * * * Senator George Allen (R) of Virginia was interviewed on The Judicial Watch Report nationally syndicated radio show on April 7, 2001 concerning his views on selling meetings with Bush Administration officials: Larry Klayman: �. . .you don�t condone [DeLay and the NRCC] selling meetings with Bush Administration officials?� Senator George Allen: �. . .no!, no!, no!. . .� These candid statements � from Republican colleagues of Representative DeLay � aptly characterize the deeply corrosive effect of the illegal, calculated fundraising campaign of the NRCC, which involves the quid pro quo of financial contributions in exchange for meetings with Bush Administration officials. These Republican Members of Congress have a sense of �right� and �wrong.� They also possess moral courage to frankly and honestly critique their party�s �House Whip,� to whom the sobriquet, �The Hammer,� has reportedly been assigned. The FEC, by this sworn complaint, must now investigate these serious allegations. It is simply unacceptable for elected government officials to illegally sell meetings, influence and power to whomever has the available cash. This was not countenanced during the last eight years of the universally corrupt Democrat Clinton Administration, and it cannot be countenanced during a new Republican Bush Administration. If this is what the Republican Party means when it repeats its mantra of �move on� concerning the on-going and unpunished crimes of the Clinton era, then Judicial Watch, on behalf of the American people, wants no part of it!
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 09:12:02 (EDT)
My two cents are: It's not about teen drinking. It's about the first daughters being so dumb they're unable to stay out of trouble while Daddy's the Resident. Same trouble as Daddy got into, too.
genetic inevitability
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 09:05:43 (EDT)
My two cents are: All you people hot and bothered about party girl Jenna: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/jennabushfanclub
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 01:43:06 (EDT)
My two cents are: Do I have to wait until tomorrow for that really big announcement?
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 01:43:03 (EDT)
My two cents are: Unlike what B. Clinton & J. Jackson would led you to believe, some people are happy to remain faithful to their spouce.
Anonymous.
- Saturday, June 02, 2001 at 01:37:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: My reading of the firsttwins guestbook indicates that college students are split about 50:50 on the affair. About half of them think Jenna is a pig, and too stupid to find booze discreetly. The other half think Jenna is a hot twat they'd like to party with. None of them appear to accept the fact that this is a cry for help. About 90 percent think that Bar is a hot twat they would like to party with and wonder why she is hanging around with that pig. About 100 percent are eating the story up, hungrily searching for more, although there are a few statements that the press should find something better to talk about and that Al Gore is a creep. The Europeans are saying come over here and have a few brews, it's legal, but don't bring your guns.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 23:59:38 (EDT)
My two cents are: Be grateful if you're not a member of a Royal Family. Or a First Family.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 23:33:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: Pete will soon announce that he and the other four children will leave the house and surrender to the authorities.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 22:52:47 (EDT)
My two cents are: About that message to Robert Long and 'a cry for help'.....A cry for help? Because they tried to get a drink?! Guess most college kids are out there crying for help, too. In today's Boston Globe college kids all over the place are rallying around Jenna, and think the press should find better things to cover.
Geronimo
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 22:38:16 (EDT)
My two cents are: What is so great about being the king of this manure pile? I wish all the conservatives hadn't slunk off in defeat. This thing with the first twins has discouraged them beyond the limit. It's kind of lonely. It wouldn't be so bad if Flounders had stuck around, or if Harlan St. Wolf were here, telling stories about the old days. Instead, all we ever get is a few half-hearted jabs at Klintoon somehow masturbating with the aid of a sink, and mysterious incoherent pronouncements from Pete about God knows what. Even M.K. doesn't come around and promote volunteer fire departments and private jails for contract-breakers. Did Sherril run off to the bright lights of Austin to become a Coke whore with Jenna? Is Pete lecturing the girls about his DUI's, do as I say girls, not as I do, and let's be open about it? Let's not let this guilt burn in your daddy's gut for another ten years? Is Pete on the red-eye to Austin, hoping that he will get a chance to practice his reknown "Specialty" on the First Piglet? Only time will tell.
House of Meat
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 22:35:16 (EDT)
My two cents are: Two if they're Democrats, only one if they're Republicans.
Arkie LaFrance
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 22:11:36 (EDT)
My two cents are: At least Bar has the sense to stuff a couple of Norforms up into the dark tunnel when she takes on the gang. Don't tell me them ivy league schools don't teach you nothing useful.
Arkie LaFrance
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 22:10:49 (EDT)
My two cents are: A Little Life Snuffed Out. Sniff. I'm so sorry. I know how politically bad this must have been for you, Daddy. Although I'm young and foolish, I'll never do get knocked up again. Or drunk. Won't sniff coke either. Won't let my dress fall off my boobs either. Don't look, Daddy. Hey. Watch it.
Jenna Anheuser Busch
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 22:05:09 (EDT)
My two cents are: No, I wasn't at Anzio. I was hit landing in Sicly, and was back in action when we landed at Normandy's Omaha beach, and got hit again in the battle of St. Lo in Franch I never rejoined my outfit, but asked to be asigned to non combat duties, but the Army with all their intillegence trasfer me to the *4th Infantry Division which was a lucky break because I was never again wounded while with this Division, I was with them throughout the battles in France, Germany and topped it off with the battle of the bulge, then back to Germany to finish them off.. other then that I had it pretty good
Albert
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 21:35:34 (EDT)
My two cents are: Is Jenna the one with the goiter?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 19:45:02 (EDT)
My two cents are: Glint says that the change from 18 to 21 was what screwed her up. In whatever rube state he went to college in, back when he was inside the bubble instead of living in the tough environment outside as he does now, the age was 18 and it made the bubble more tolerable. With the age change, life inside the bubble has turned into little more than a harrowing cat and mouse game with the beverage control board. Is it any wonder a gal drinks.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 18:57:20 (EDT)
My two cents are: So, you really believe it was her appendix they took out, huh? That appendix might have been a little "embryonic", if you get my meaning.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 18:53:23 (EDT)
My two cents are: Jenna, you get caught doing that ONE more time, and I promise you I STILL won't visit you in the hospital the next time they take out your appendix!
Her Daddy's Bush
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 18:40:33 (EDT)
My two cents are: My Daddy's the one who signed the law that raised the drinking age in Texas from 18 to 21. What an asshole.
Jenna Anheuser Busch
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 18:38:15 (EDT)
My two cents are: True, teenagers don't often think about the consequences of their actions, but that is not to say that it has an underlying motivation unbeknown to the teenager herself. Pete doesn't think about the consequences of his posts here, yet they are a plea for help just as clear as Jenna's public self-ridicule in a plea for the attention of a Daddy who loved his booze and then his handlers more than his daughter.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 18:05:14 (EDT)
My two cents are: Does he mean to say that PF Flyers and metal ice-cube trays with handles are gone? I know that the wax bottles with flavored water are still around, as are juke boxes at tables.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 18:00:46 (EDT)
My two cents are: Re: "A cry for help, a cry for daddy." -- Maybe. But I think it's just teenagers being teenagers. They seldom think about the consequences of their actions.
Robert Long
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 17:52:12 (EDT)
My two cents are: Count how many you remember...Now, be honest! 1. Blackjack chewing gum 2. Wax-coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water 3. Candy cigarettes 4 Soda pop machines that dispensed bottles 5. Coffee shops with table side jukeboxes 6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers 7. Party lines 8. Newsreels before the movie 9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butcher wax 11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (Olive-6933) 12. Peashooters 13. Howdy Doody 14. 45 RPM records 15. S&H Green Stamps 16. Hi-fi's 17. Metal ice trays with levers 18. Mimeograph paper 19. Blue flashbulbs 20. Beani and Cecil 21. Roller skate keys 22. Cork opoguns 23. Drive-ins 24. Studebakers 25. Wash tub wringers If you remember 0-5 = You're still young If you remember 6-10 = You are getting older If you remember 11-15 = Don't tell your age If you remember 16-25 = You're older than dirt
Albert
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 17:43:57 (EDT)
My two cents are: Were you at Anzio by any chance, Albert?
Whelp Greenlee
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 17:20:57 (EDT)
My two cents are: There is nothing wrong with a car dealer, as long as you're not in the market to buy a car. Not that I question their honesty because it's quite a problem to question what someone doesn't have. At one time car dealers were at the top of the "I dislike list" but they have been pussed off that list by Lawyers.
Albert
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 17:14:09 (EDT)
My two cents are: Youare absolutely correct Long, and I am very sorry for not nameing a spade a spade. But I discovered many years ago that it better to be careful with liberals until you get the full reaction from other then Liberal members, It is easy to call him everything other then a traitor because the weak minded liberals are lost in responding to a personal attack then it is to call FDR what he really was. but I depended on other conservitives in this board to react in the same manner has you have, and all in all they may not be as blunt as you are, they did indeed reacted in the very same manner. It is the remaining WW2 Vets such as I who were forced into silence because of a liberal press that sees no evil in liberal leaders regardless of their actions If I learned anything in my life is that a liberal will lie, cheat, steal, and slander God himself if it gains them the goal they they are seeking.
Albert
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 17:08:59 (EDT)
My two cents are: Cheap shot, anonymous. The twins aren't lolling around drunk in the White House, they're lolling around drunk in Texas. The president*, like a good Republican, hasn't once been stimulated sexually in the White House except that one slow dance with the Florida Secretary of State lady, the one with the mascara. George Bush has blown more dignity up his nose than Klintoon has in his whole body. Dick Cheney isn't selling those overnighters in the Lincoln Bedroom, you know. This is a fairly dignified bunch, if you squint your eyes and hope.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 16:35:59 (EDT)
My two cents are: Finally after 8 years, a family who will bring dignity back to the White House.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 16:21:23 (EDT)
My two cents are: Sounds like the coals aren't hot enough to sear the meat..
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 16:15:47 (EDT)
My two cents are: Gee, the troglodytes seem to be lying low ever since Bush stole the Florida vote, thanked China for feeding the hostages, became the prime target of Judicial Watch, and turned out to be the Enabler-in-Chief. Don't worry, though, I have secret information that there are 21 persons regularly posting to this site, and Glint and Pete view here daily, just like ydog and the others.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 16:13:50 (EDT)
My two cents are: Something about a fat drunk, I guess.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:52:34 (EDT)
My two cents are: The fat one always takes the heat, while the slim shaven one gets away with murder. What about her drunken Toad's Wild Ride through Mexico last spring break? What about that business in Deke house, the two guys with the turbans? What about the cocaine residue in the racket-bag? Why does the meaty one always have to take the blame?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:41:18 (EDT)
My two cents are: Pardon Dick Cheney!
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:36:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: Judge Starr finally discovered a law that Clinton might have broken?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:34:34 (EDT)
My two cents are: Teresa eloped with House of Meat? With her high-school Dean of Women? Palestinian cab driver? What?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:32:54 (EDT)
My two cents are: Tony Orlando and Dawn are getting back together? What?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:31:12 (EDT)
My two cents are: Maybe Woodrow Wilson is about to start WW III.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:30:21 (EDT)
My two cents are: What's coming soon, Pete�? What? You got another big one cumming?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:25:41 (EDT)
My two cents are: I salute that flag, Albert. The bureaucratic British lobsterbacks once again infesting our country must be hurled out once again. This is not to condone any act of Timothy McVeigh's, just to understand it. Let's assume that McVeigh didn't know that there was a day-care center in the building and had killed only government workers interpreting legal requirements with only a high-school education. Does the liberal press ever mention the thousands killed by the British? Let us not be so ready to condemn McVeigh without considering every aspect of his actions.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:24:31 (EDT)
My two cents are: I think you missed the mark somewhere, Peter, with that comment about Bob Long. Bob is about as far from being a socialist as anyone I know! You might read some of his other posts.
Oliver Hardy
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:23:37 (EDT)
My two cents are: This post is not intended to justify the acts of Timothy McViegh. Because there is no justifaction for his actions I would like to raise the flag to the top of the flag pole ans see you will salute it.First, why did he bomb this building? 1) in response to the bureaucracy that controls our Government? 2) in anger over Ruby Ridge? 3) the the Government attack on Waco? Which one? or was it all three? I would venture that it was number (1) because without the evil of bureaucracy the events of Ruby ridge, and Waco would never have happened. We continously speak and complain about the size of Government, which we place directly upon our elected officials, who in fact are not responsible for what occured at Ruby Ridge, or Waco. These acts were condoned and committed by unelected offials of Government who has been abusing the power of their office, or I should say the power that they allocated upon themselves.To get off track for a moment, her in Tennessee thier arecases where a non criminal act be commiited and the party can and will be tried by a none judical indivigual who at their own pleasure, withoutany proof of you guilt can deside a ruling which could put you in prison for 6 years, without the benefit of a Judge, Jury, or a representation of your case by a lawyer. This is what I mean by bureaucracy. and perhaps it was Mcviegh intent to enlighten the public the extent Government has has moved in denying the people their rights. Now I'm not attempting to Justify McViegh's actions what he did was despicable there is no doubt about that. But the issues of his reasons should be also examined. To his knowledge, this building was completely occupied by Government employees whose sole purpose was interpertating and inforcing Government rules and laws He has admitted that he had no knowledge that there was a day room in the building. So for the sake of arguement let us say that the building was only occupied by employees, not just employees but Government employees, and his reasons for his action was based on one intent, and that was to give the Government a message that the American people opposed the acts of non elected officials enforceing laws that belonged in the court of law and not into the hands of civilians who lacked the knowledge or skills in the law to interpet the "intent of the law". It is common knowledge that the American people have become angry and fed up with Govenments increasing the many agencies that are responsible in the enforcement of laws, but even these our officials have gone beyond what was required in running the Government. Much of the blame belongs to the people themselves who have become so indiffrent to the politicians that control our Government that they use excuses of big Governmen. as an excuse for not voting or like with the case of senators such as Ted Kennedy, re-electing the worse of two evils. This is what McViegh was becoming angry over and he reacted in the same manner in which our fore fathers did when they revolted against that same bureaucracy that England used on our own people. Freedom has never been won by political debates, but rather the blood of our young who has risked theirlives over and over again to keep America free. McViegh killed many people, but so did the British. his action against the employees of that buiding was wrong but before we condem him completely let us examine evey aspect of his actions.
Albert
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 15:04:33 (EDT)
My two cents are: Soon...
Pete�
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 14:43:32 (EDT)
My two cents are: By ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA and BENNETT ROTH Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle AUSTIN -- Police cited the 19-year-old twin daughters of President Bush on Thursday on misdemeanor alcohol-related charges. It was Jenna Bush's second alcohol-related brush with the law in two months, and Barbara Bush's first. The Houston Chronicle also has learned the ticket could mark Jenna's third alcohol-related incident. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission confirmed Thursday that Jenna Bush is listed in its database for an alcohol-related on Dec. 31, 1997. The database contains the names of people who have violated the Alcoholic Beverage Commission code, but commission officials would not say whether Jenna Bush's name appears for a citation, a warning or an administrative action. Nor would the commission release any other details about the incident because Jenna was a minor at the time. But the 1997 incident occurred just months after the Texas Legislature passed and her father, who was then Texas governor, signed into law a package of bills that toughened the consequences for underaged drinkers. The legal drinking age in Texas is 21. On Thursday, the girls were cited for attempting to buy alcohol at a popular Mexican restaurant in Austin. Jenna Bush was ticketed for misrepresentation of age by a minor for allegedly using someone else's identification to order an alcoholic beverage. Barbara Bush was cited for possession of alcohol by a minor because she ordered and was served an alcoholic beverage, Austin police said. Austin Assistant Police Chief Jimmy Chapman said the Bush daughters accepted the citations at the office of their attorney Thursday morning. "We treated it just like it was a 19-year-old with the last name of Smith. We did what we do with everybody else," Chapman said. A third woman, Jesse Day-Wickham, also was cited for possession of alcohol by a minor. Both offenses are Class C misdemeanors that carry a $500 fine and a 30-day suspension of a driver's license. The Bush daughters were at Chuy's restaurant with three friends when they ordered the drinks, police said. The other two companions were male, but police did not identify them or say whether they were of the legal drinking age. Chapman said the restaurant manager called 911 after bar patrons recognized Jenna Bush. "People at the bar identified and told people at the bar, `You know we think this is Jenna Bush,' which got more spotlight than it normally would," Chapman said. He said Jenna Bush ordered a drink and, when asked for identification, handed the waitress someone else's valid identification. Barbara Bush was served a margarita, but police did not know how she obtained the drink. Chapman said the only ID officers saw was the one used by Jenna Bush. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer refused to comment on the incident and warned the media about asking questions about the first family's personal problems. "I would urge all of you to very carefully think through how much you want to pursue this," Fleischer said. The spokesman said that "any reaction of the parents is parental; it is not governmental. It is family. It's private and the American people respect that." He insisted the media did not need to know about how the president and his wife were dealing with the matter. "The president views this as a family matter, a private matter, and he will treat it as such," Fleischer said. "I don't think it's appropriate for people to be told what was part of a private conversation that the president had with his 19-year-old daughter." The White House reaction was in keeping with a long-standing policy of refusing to divulge personal conversations of President Bush, even those he has had on policy matters with his father, the former president. Though the offenses are minor and carry no jail time, authorities could issue a warrant to arrest Jenna Bush for violating a court order she received May 16 on an unrelated underage drinking charge. She was cited for being a minor in possession of alcohol on April 27 by undercover Austin police officers who were part of a special unit that looks for underage drinkers in Sixth Street clubs. Jenna Bush was ordered to serve eight hours of community service, take six hours of alcohol counseling and pay $51.25 in court costs. The sentence could have been worse. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code calls for a 30-day suspension of a driver's license on a first offense, whether the defendant is convicted or there is a deferred disposition as there was in Jenna Bush's case. Sgt. Randy Motz of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said the code does not allow the judge discretion on ordering the suspension. "It's a `shall' provision in the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code," he said. Austin Community Court Judge Elisabeth Earle, who issued the deferred order for Bush, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Now, with the second offense before her, Earle can order Bush to pay the $500 and suspend her driver's license for up to 90 days. If arrested a third time, the offense is upgraded to a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a $2,000 fine and up to six months in jail. If a ticket was issued in 1997, it would not count as a third offense under Texas law because Jenna Bush would have been a 16-year-old minor at the time.
the fat one again
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:59:53 (EDT)
My two cents are: That's impeachment in 2003. Impeachment in '93 would have been to hose out the Klintoon stable, and Bush is the high man on the manure pile now.
Larry Klayman
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:44:12 (EDT)
My two cents are: I am disappointed in this Bush operation. The vice-president is selling overnights in the guest bedroom. The RNC is advertising access to cabinet members at a few thousand dollars a hit. The president* himself is groveling before foreign dictators, and the women are breeding like minks in every bubble between Jersey and the Gulf Coast. It is time to hose out the stables, man, if it ever was. Impeachment in '93, as soon as there are enough Democrats in the House for the necessary three hundred elegant House Managers.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:41:10 (EDT)
My two cents are: They're devouring the children? What children? These bimbos are old enough to join the Texas National Guard and risk their lives for their country just like Dad, if they can pass the background check. They are all grown up. Maybe Glint is faked out by the upturned snouts, make them look younger than they are. Monica wasn't much older when the sainted Linda Tripp secretly taped her talking about her sexual experiences and gave the tapes to the government.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:37:02 (EDT)
My two cents are: They drink out of shame over the way dad became president*.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:36:26 (EDT)
My two cents are: Damn, it is H-man. 21 people posting now.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:24:26 (EDT)
My two cents are: Ho-hum would know.
take a ho to know a ho.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:16:18 (EDT)
My two cents are: Glint says they all do that inside the bubble.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:02:54 (EDT)
My two cents are: This anonymous troglodyte must be H-man. The two doofuses have given up hoping for Ho-hum.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 13:01:18 (EDT)
My two cents are: Don't you get it, anonymous? This is a cry for help, a cry for Daddy, and the whole point is to get caught. Why do you think the man hid his weakness from the daughts to begin with? Because he knew it would hurt them, as well as making him look less than presidential. Well, the liberal press spilled the beans and it did hurt them, and they are seeking comfort. It's like a toddler crying in the night for no other reason than that she wants somebody to come and hug her. Why else would a silver-spoon girl drink second-rate beer and smoke Kools and roll around on the floor with drunken chums while the tapes are rolling?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:59:57 (EDT)
My two cents are: Wecome back Ho-hum.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:58:25 (EDT)
My two cents are: Don't you mean a rabid bulldog?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:57:21 (EDT)
My two cents are: This whole thing is awful. It's as bad as Larry Klayman hanging onto Tom DeLay's rump like a tetanused bulldog. What is a petard and why are we all hoisted by one?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:52:46 (EDT)
My two cents are: Have you seen the video of the Bush twins and Chelsea doing a three way while former president and self admitted perjurer jacks off onto a senator's fat ass? Only thing missing is a drunken Kennedy forcing himself on one of the participants.
available from Ronco
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:51:52 (EDT)
My two cents are: Yes, that has been one of the more pleasant "hallmarks" of the loon-ball Klintooneers. They always refrained from saying anything nasty about the homely, buck-toothed Chelsea.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:50:55 (EDT)
My two cents are: I like that condemnation of Leno and Letterman for something they apparently haven't done yet. This almost looks like Pete's analytical capacity at work. Guilt by anticipation.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:48:03 (EDT)
My two cents are: No one is seething with vengeance, it's just that it takes a village to put enough societal pressure on a hot-blooded drunken young woman to inspire her to save her maidenhead for her future husband. The discussion-boards of the information super-highway, including this one, are that village. In an age when clotheslines are outlawed in the classier suburbs, there is no way to hang the bloody sheet out for evaluation, so we do it the only way we can.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:44:58 (EDT)
My two cents are: Whether these girls drink or not drink is not a #1 priority to me. I do question their inability to build a concept on how to do it and not get caught.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:43:13 (EDT)
My two cents are: Are you listening, Letterman? Douglas Brinkley, "presidential scholar", is telepathing you signals for the next Liberal push. Start sprinkling in humor about the Bush twins. Forget about the kow tow to Hillary and how you refrained from joking about the homely buck fanged Chelsea.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:42:28 (EDT)
My two cents are: Texas sentenced Timothy Leary to life in prison for having stems and seeds in his pocket. But that was long ago, and unfortunately he somehow got sprung. If Jenna had scored green from that guy and he turned out to be a narc, she'd be one-third the way to as good as an axe-murderer. As it is, all the legal system has managed to hang on the chick is one teen boozing and an attempt to buy, and the second one hasn't resulted in a conviction yet. Fortunately, we have Glint's opinion that these youngsters aren't messed up, so we can talk about this without worrying that they will come to any long-term harm. This is what they do inside the bubbles.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:39:29 (EDT)
My two cents are: The Liberals coddle virtueless death row repobates who don't deserve the air they breath while seething with vengeance over an under age girl who drank in public. Par for the course. What else would we expect from them?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:38:15 (EDT)
My two cents are: " With the latest underage drinking reports, the daughters' lives are lurching further into the headlines. "When you're a president's daughter, and you're getting written up with citations, that is news - how could it not be?" said Douglas Brinkley, another presidential scholar. "What one has to watch is, does she become the fodder for comedians connecting Jenna Bush's penchant for partying in Austin to her father's history with alcohol in the past?" Already, late-night TV is making that association. This month, a comedian on "Saturday Night Live" cracked: "Her father insists Jenna is going through a rebellious phase, and that, just like him, she'll grow out of it in 27 years." The stories about drinking take on resonance because of George W. Bush's own history. He turned his rejection of alcohol, at age 40, into a campaign touchstone about his spiritual awakening. Just before the election, it surfaced that as a 30-year-old, Bush had pleaded guilty to driving under the influence. He said he never publicly revealed his arrest, which he blamed on his "irresponsible youth," to avoid setting a poor example for his daughters...."How the media handles presidents' children is always a sensitive, tricky bit," said Charles O. Jones, a presidential historian. "Chelsea seemed to avoid any serious questions. But for the most part, she stayed out of trouble, so there really wasn't much to cover. "But if Jenna gets into trouble, she isn't going to be treated like an ordinary kid."" --Ellen Gamerman, 5/31/01 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "FRAT HOUSE TAPE: BUSH DAUGHTER 'FEELING NO PAIN'"...Drudge Says "Collegemates of Jenna Bush are claiming to have made a homevideo of the president's daughter in a drunken state -- and students are now threatening to publicly release the tape! "It was a wild night, and she was feeling no pain," said a campus source. Jenna Bush, 19, was unknowingly captured on tape last month during a rowdy party attended by students of the University of Texas, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. "If the tape finds its way into the wrong hands, the White House is going to turn every shade of red," predicted one student who demanded anonymity. "Jenna should get the message, and get it fast, there are a few troublemakers on campus who are rooting for her to fall on her face. She is making it too easy for them." Meanwhile, Secret Service agents guarding the first family have been ordered not to directly interfere with President Bush's daughters, according to insiders, unless their direct safety is at risk. "Their father promised they could lead as much of a normal life as possible," a family source told the DRUDGE REPORT. Agents had been waiting outside of an Austin Tex-Mex restaurant Tuesday night when Jenna allegedly tried to buy margaritas using a fake ID. "The agents were driving," said the family source. "There was no drinking and driving concerns." The run in with the law comes less than two weeks after Ms. Bush pleaded no contest to charges of underage drinking. Now Bush may come within one strike of being sent to jail for six months under the three-strikes-and you're-out law that her father implemented as Texas governor." --Drudge Report, 5/31/01
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:33:30 (EDT)
My two cents are: Uh-oh, the morality officer is taking off the gloves! Philandering! It has a quaint charm, the sound of that particular form of socialist evil. The oaf philandered and then denied it when called on the carpet. It took another 24 million dollars to crack him, but by god the facts are on the table, in all their gritty detail. I say leave the twins alone until evidence of philandering is uncovered. Is there a special prosecutor for each twin, or do they share one? Must be tough on the guy, bouncing between the bubbles. Guess the girls can't actually philander, not being married yet, as far as we know, but they can aid and abet philandering. Is two-timing as bad as philandering? If the meaty one two-times the ugly guy back in Austin, the one she had the Secret Service pick up at the drunk tank, is that as immoral as philandering? This new paradigm requires a dang thinking-cap to sort out.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:32:17 (EDT)
My two cents are: What, you mean Texas exeutes axe murderers but not teens who lips have touched a Marguerita? Where's the justice in that?
Glint
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:32:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: Bushed! What justice does Jenna Bush face under her dad's tough-minded Texas laws? - - - - - - - - - - - - May 31, 2001 Twin watch Jenna Bush is in trouble again. According to local police, she and her twin sister, Barbara, tried to order drinks from Chuy's, an Austin, Texas, restaurant on Tuesday night. Jenna allegedly used someone else's official identification to get the booze. If charges are filed and convictions won, Barbara will be a first-time offender. But Jenna, having allegedly crossed the line on Texas' alcohol laws for the second time in as many months, will be in for a tougher road. Does that mean the president will be visiting her in one of the prisons he so lovingly maintained during his time as governor? Probably not. If the current police investigation leads to charges being filed against Bush, then she could be in for a serious slap on the wrist, according to David Ball, a captain in the enforcement division of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. A second alcohol-related offense by a minor carries a possible punishment of a 60-day suspension of his or her driver's license, 20 to 40 hours of community service and a fine of up to $500. And if the incident results in a conviction, Bush should just forget about expunging her record after she turns 21; that option is available only to one-time offenders.
do the crime, do the time.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:24:26 (EDT)
My two cents are: No three strikes for teen drunks? What was the guy doing in the statehouse all that time, snaking on the creme de menth?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:23:27 (EDT)
My two cents are: The first family's alcohol troubles President Bush downplayed his own drinking problem and hid a DUI. Now his daughters are making news for underage drinking. Is there a connection? - - - - - - - - - - - - By Joan Walsh May 31, 2001 | I don't envy Jenna and Barbara Bush, going off to college under the watchful eye of the Secret Service and the international media. But the sudden flurry of headlines about the first twins' alcohol-related mishaps raises new questions about the way their father handled his own "young and irresponsible" past. I always thought it was a bad decision for Bush, as a politician, to refuse to acknowledge his wild youth -- which, by his own account, lasted until he was 40. But now it seems it was a bad choice for Bush as a father. After his 1976 drunken-driving arrest was revealed last year, Bush said he didn't admit it when he decided to run for president because he didn't want his daughters to know about it. That was a mistake, and the twins' recent run of bad behavior seems designed to let him know that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Print story E-mail story -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's no evidence either twin has a drinking problem, but the string of news items involving their partying and scrapes with the law in the last few months can't be ignored. First came the tale of Secret Service agents ferrying home Jenna's boyfriend after he was arrested for public drunkenness. Then there were randy National Enquirer photos of Jenna, a University of Texas freshman, and a beer-drinking pal, and a story about her alleged marijuana use. Yale freshman Barbara, supposedly the studious twin, had a false I.D. confiscated at a New Haven, Conn., bar. In April, the Enquirer featured a lurid tale of Barbara's drunken spring-break binge in Mexico, and by the end of the month all major newspapers were carrying a story about Jenna being cited by police at an Austin bar for underage drinking, while Secret Service agents waited outside. Now, barely a week after a court appearance to deal with that alcohol citation, Jenna has been caught again using a false I.D. to buy alcohol at an Austin restaurant, with sister Barbara at her side. Of course, many of us would have provided lively tabloid fodder in college if we'd been subjected to the scrutiny Barbara and Jenna Bush must endure. And their college drinking doesn't mean they'll turn into alcoholics as adults. Most teenage party girls become responsible citizens, eventually. Still, their recklessness in the first months of their father's presidency suggests their parents screwed up by downplaying and even denying President Bush's own drinking problem. Bush's he-man decision to quit drinking cold turkey is the stuff of legend. The morning after a boozy 40th birthday party in 1986, he woke up at Colorado's tony Broadmoor Resort and decided, on his own, to get sober. Alcohol had begun to "compete for my affections," Bush said later. Certainly he didn't need Alcoholics Anonymous, he told the Washington Post: "I don't think I was clinically an alcoholic; I didn't have the genuine addiction. I don't know why I drank. I liked to drink, I guess." But his close friends tell a slightly different story: "Once he got started, he couldn't, didn't shut it off," Bush's buddy Don Evans, now commerce secretary, told the Washington Post last year. "He didn't have the discipline." That sounds a lot like an addiction, though only Bush himself knows for sure. He refused to discuss details of his drinking or rumored drug use throughout his political campaigns, relying on the stock excuse, "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible." His parents have also repeatedly denied he had a drinking problem, even after several family crises involving his drinking came to light: an ugly Christmas confrontation with his father in 1972, after Bush drove drunk with his brother Marvin, crashed into a neighbor's garbage cans and offered to fight "mano a mano" with his father; and the 1976 DUI incident near the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, with his then-teenage sister Dorothy in the car. We know Bush's problem drinking, including the DUI, was a family secret. The night a reporter broke the DUI story, Laura Bush called both daughters, in Austin and New Haven, to break the news to them. "I made the decision that as a dad I didn't want my girls doing the kinds of things I did, and I told them not to drink and drive," Bush told reporters. But he didn't tell them about his own arrest. The secrecy, of course, was a mistake. Anyone who works with alcoholics and their families knows honesty is crucial: The drinking parent needs to come clean about his or her problems, and kids need to understand the family dynamics that were established around the drinking. And as teenagers, they need to know that alcoholism is a disease -- whether because of psychology or physiology or some combination of the two -- that is remarkably hereditary, and think about their own drinking in that context. "We know for a fact that [Jenna's] father had a long history of alcohol use and abuse," Lynn Ponton, a psychiatrist who studies teenage risk-taking, told Salon. "And this is an opportunity for the Bushes ... to talk honestly with their children about risk-taking and really provide guidance and increase communication. And I would wonder what type of communication is actually taking place." I wonder, too. I'd bet there hasn't been enough communication in the WASP-y Texas Bush family, and it looks as if the first twins are acting out as a result. Even with a Secret Service detail, there are ways for young women to party, if they're discreet. Clearly, the first twins aren't. Their blatant risk-taking and public partying (the Secret Service waits outside the bars where they drink illegally?) seem designed to force a family reckoning that their father's drinking never triggered. I'm reluctant to play family therapist for a family I've never met, but I'd say that Bush may have gotten past voters with evasiveness about his drinking problem, but he hasn't satisfied his daughters. And if he sticks to the sanitized, up-from-Broadmoor version of the story, he may someday find he won the White House at the cost of an honest relationship with his daughters.
Hic!
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:20:27 (EDT)
My two cents are: The media doesn't have a lying philandering Oval Office oaf to go after any longer so they're devouring the children instead. Guess Clinton can take credit for protecting Chelsea in addition to saving the constitution by his reluctant submissions to gnoshing and self manuipulation over the sink. He did it with a stiff lower lip, tucked up under his front teeth at the time.
Glint
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:14:01 (EDT)
My two cents are: Heed Ari's words, republican first family deserve privacy, respect. Democrat first family, go for the jugular.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:07:13 (EDT)
My two cents are: I didn't know they had "3 strikes" for misdemeanor offenses. Learn something every day here about what people will believe.
Glint
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 12:02:48 (EDT)
My two cents are: More swill from Dirty Bush's reckless rulebreaking Republican airhead twins. As the twin twig is bent---
bring back role model first daughter chelsea quick
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 11:48:14 (EDT)
My two cents are: Why do the faux-conservatives always run off like Vaselined gerbils?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 11:38:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: That would explain the disappearance of the nubile Gore daughter from the national scandal sheets. She's probably crocheting doillies, visiting the poor, and cursing her luck.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 11:35:05 (EDT)
My two cents are: The lack of caution can be attributed to dad not actually being elected president. The offspring of also-rans are free to spread the twat and swill the hooch. There is no reason for these girls -especially the porker- to behave in the refined manner of Chelsea Clinton and the Nixon girls.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 11:13:26 (EDT)
My two cents are: It all goes back to how do we explain it to the children. If Klintoon hadn't goatishly solicited those White House blow jobs, Jenna and Bar wouldn't even know what one is and therefore wouldn't be under pressure to give one to the next boy with a big belt buckle and a cowboy hat. Fortunately, Klntoon proved the blow-job to be, what is it, evil and socialistic, so the girls were at least given a basis for judging the practice on moral terms. The tragedy is that most rowdy college coke whores settle down by graduation or a few years thereafter, and forget all about swallowing DNA, and their wildlest moral transgressions become no more than a drunken bout of anal sex every three years or so, with their legal spouses. The Bush twins, in the national spotlight, run the risk of enjoying their notoriety, and becoming regular Nancy Reagans or Pamela Andersons. It's a tough row.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 11:02:24 (EDT)
My two cents are: So the genetic theory of alcoholism is not applicable here? Or all that psychology stuff? Parental hypocrisy plays no role in a kid's drinking? Probably not, usually, although the less conflicted attitudes about alcohol in certain parts of the world do seem to pretty much eliminate or at least co-exist with an absence of teen-age drunkenness, and the only people I know who actually call themselves alcoholics are children of a tee-totalling Bible pounder who once fired a female schoolteacher for being seen in a bar. I think that is cultural, though, and only people who have been taught and believe that there is such a thing as an alcoholic call themselves alcoholics. On the other hand, a national president's daughter is under certain constraints, and most have learned to live within them without causing scenes. There is something a little reckless, not to say recidivist, about going back for seconds, in a three-strikes state that is Daddy's home water. It is interesting, and certainly worth a nation's mulling over, as are any blow-jobs the girls might have bestowed or might bestow in the future. One think we can thank Klintoon for is putting these subjects in the national syllabus.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 10:53:27 (EDT)
My two cents are: Awwww, tough titty!
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 10:48:54 (EDT)
My two cents are: Maybe in Nebraska and New York. In civilized states it was 21.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 10:41:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: I think they're teenage college girls living away from their parents in their respective collegiate bubble societies. That and the 21-year-old age limit on alcohol makes it harder on them than it did on us back in our wonder years when the drinking age was just 18.
Glint
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 10:27:18 (EDT)
My two cents are: Drained your glasses-- that reminds me of Jenna and Bar. Do you think they are "acting out", that this is a plea for the open communication the family needs but has been denied by the father's shame or political aspirations? What do you do when a teenage daughters turns out to be possible skanks, even the one who shaves hers and didn't want to stay in Cowville? Do you fess us to the DUI's and maybe the one time the booze and desire and the orbit of Uranus all came together and ass-fucking with Mom that night after the RNC Hallowe'en party? When mine reached nineteen, old enough to not be taken away by the courts, just by some foul mouth or twat wide open, I casually pointed out the serpentine outcrop into which I had driven one night, drunk as a Southern Baptist minister in a Nagasaki whorehouse, and he allowed as how it was weird to have a low-life jailbird for a father. Maybe the girls feel that way, and are punishing the old man. Or maybe there's not much else you can do when the juice is flowing below and you've got a Secret Service agent stuck to you like a limpet.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 10:18:00 (EDT)
My two cents are: I remember a Halloween party at a co-worker's house in Herdon, VA. At that time I was single and living in an apartment in Montgomery County, MD. Not in the fashionable section where Ydog's silver spoon kept falling out of his mouth, but in the white collar working class suburbs. Mr. Preppy was drinking and his buzz had caused him to exhibit a certain chattiness. He was sitting in an easy chair looking around the family room of his underling and noticed a bookcase next to his chair with three shelves filled with Harlequinesqe romance novels. He started poking fun at the redunancy of such books where only their outside covers vary. They all end the same way, with a big wet kiss and a promise of marriage and happily ever after (he never dis explain how he came to learn this fact). To prove his point he pulled several books off the shelf and read their last paragraphs aloud. Sure enough, they all were essentially the same. In summary he waved his arm along each shelf and said, "Just think of the manhours that have been wasted reading this stuff, down the rat hole. Time that could have used doing something useful or making some kind of positive contribution somewhere." By this time the underling's wife, whose Halloween costune was a Playboy Bunny, couldn't take any more humiliation and she fled the room in tears, followed by her hubby. Mr. Preppy sat there with his usual Q.E.D. Penn State grin. One by one everybody moved upstairs, and eventually I followed. A little while later she staggered out from her bedroom where she had apparently chugged some more juice and started slurring a song and doing a strip tease. Her husband rose to stop her. I poured another drink and sat down with the only other bachelor at the party. The other party goers and their spouses rose and started with the "Thanks for the lovely time" and "It's getting late we have to go" departure speak. I said "good night" too -- not to the host but to the departing guests as the guy's wife was beating him on the shoulders telling him to leave her alone because her audience was waiting. The guests were stalling at the door shooting eyebrow daggers at us on the couch. The guy grabbed his wife by the elbows from behind and dragged her into the bedroom. We didn't hear anything else, so we drained our glasses and left.
Glint
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 09:59:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: I'm beginning to understand how a political paranoid endures on government work. What you don't understand won't hurt you. Football joshing is what it's all about, at least during football season, but it's probably better to choose a pro team, say the Vikings. Wear the purple ball-cap or necktie on Mondays after the Vikes win, and prepare for some hallway badinage. You will go far. Hanging on to a college football team is like having the boss over and making him join hands and pray before you eat-- you'll never get past the upper middle.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 09:44:07 (EDT)
My two cents are: When I was a green horn with wet ink on the B.S. my supervisory manger explained his own polygraph this way, somewhat, "They want to find out if you're taking more drugs than you're willing to admit or having sex with more people than you care to explain." He was a Penn Stater, wore a blazer. His troops called him "Mr. Preppy" behind his back. That was back in the day when Penn State and the U. of Nebraska were meeting frequentlyin bowl games. I remember the look on his face when he realized I graduated from UNL. He smiled and tread lightly, because he knew the ACLU would come down hard if he criticized the Cornhuskers in the work environment.
Glint
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 09:36:49 (EDT)
My two cents are: Suppose it depends on what the acts they're hiding are, rather than whether somebody thinks they are illegal, immoral, or fattening. My draft board, or at least a young man with a desk at the end of a yellow line in the floor, was willing to entrust the national defense to someone who had committed a number of illegal acts and been caught at them, but did not ask about morality and left fattening to the doctor, along with the condition of the asshole and the nuts. Suppose that the moral requirements for national defense looks different on somebody who is expected to participate in it rather than think up ways to do it. On the other hand, according to some of the people interviewed by FBI agents for a more serious background check, the questions were oriented more toward the question of anal penetration, receipt of, which the Army had left up to the proctologist. Either way, it is clear that a violation of administration policy by, say, being fellated on government property, is a disqualification and must be revealed. So, were you ever fellated on government property?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 09:13:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: "...Glint, on the other hand, is quite content to describe his own amorous adventures on the web, and would be happy to do as much for the grand jury, if the federal government swooped down and nabbed him and put him on the stand." -Anon@(Wednesday, May 30, 2001 at 22:28:29 ). Secrecy is such a strange thing, especially when it comes to protecting secrets, especially when it comes to DoD clearances. On the one hand there is the obligation to protect secrets regarding the national defense. Yet, on the other hand there is the snooping around and within a person's backside, often requiring the person to divulge information that she might be better off keeping under wraps. Would you trust the nation's defense to somebody who (a) participates in activities that are (1) illegal, (2) immoral, (3) fattening, (4) all of the above? I'll tell you my opinion, but you've got to promise not to tell anyone about it or post it on the net. They are not interested in learning if you've rolled a doob or not, but whether you have an interest in hiding such information. If you are harboring secrets of ill repute then you might someday be a target for espionage blackmail. Thus, it's important to remove such risks by disclosure. Of course, once in the public domain always in the public doman. So there is a possibility of some future omission of some event that might be viewed as an attempt to evade or deny. <> If you don't have a pond, a wide screen T.V. helps.
Glint
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 08:56:32 (EDT)
My two cents are: Well, the girl is saying that the only reason Northeastern liberals like Jeffords call themselves "Republicans" is class snobbery. You see, they disdain Democrats, whom they view as the dirty working class, and think being a Republican should entail nothing more than thrashing the servants. The chick has a nose for burrowing right in and exposing the wolf under the clothing of the sheep. She's right, though, that the Republicans have been trying to kick this guy out of the party for twenty years now, and all the whining is just crocodile tears. It's not about the balance of power at all, it's about the late-night comics. That's where the real balance of power is. Finally, there's a dumb independent to balance against the never-elected President.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 08:54:26 (EDT)
My two cents are: What's Ann talking about these days?
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 08:43:11 (EDT)
My two cents are: With gas prices climbing I've been able to dramatically cut back the miles packed on the Chrysler. By consolodating many trips I'm down to about one trip to town per week. Yesterday for example I showered and changed my shirt and then went out and made a payment on the tractor, deposited the unemployment check, returned unused observatory construction materials to 84 Lumber and Lowes (yes, they eo have an observatory parts asile with dome shutters, eyepieces, etc.), dropped off mailing labels for the astronomy newsletter, and filled a can of diesel for the Deere. I'm starting to understand the peace of Waldon, without the pond. <> Nice to see that Anne Coulter is still on the prowl and exposing the wolf under the sheep's clothing.
Glint
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 08:18:00 (EDT)
My two cents are: LISTENING to the breathless news coverage, you would think Sen. Jim Jeffords' defection from the Republican Party was the greatest patriotic act since the Army Rangers scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. The Los Angeles Times wrote of this momentous event: "Sen. Jim Jeffords now walks in the footsteps of Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln." ABC's Peter Jennings said: "It's political earthquake time in Washington." For anyone passingly familiar with Jeffords' record, his defection was about as earth-shattering as Truman Capote coming out of the closet. Jeffords voted against President Clinton's impeachment. He voted against Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork. He was a big fan of Hillary's socialist health-care plan, which was such an unprecedented federal takeover of private industry that even the Democrats finally blanched. Not Jeffords. Needless to say, he is also pro-abortion. Jeffords opposed Bush's tax cut -- along with "moderate Democrats," as The New York Times described them. (The "liberal Democrats" must have been the ones calling for deeper cuts.) Indeed, Jeffords opposes all tax cuts. He even opposed Reagan's tax cut. Jeffords explained his recent exit thus: "Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party." Note "increasingly." He had endured Reagan, but just couldn't take it anymore under Bush. The "big tent" may accommodate a lot of kooks, but if the Republican Party doesn't stand for tax cuts, there's no tent: The Republican Party is just a random assemblage of people -- tax-cutters, tax-gougers, whatever. The only reason Northeastern liberals like Jeffords call themselves "Republicans" is class snobbery. They disdain Democrats, whom they view as the dirty working class, and think being a Republican should entail nothing more than thrashing the servants. At least Jeffords was predictable. He was, in fact, as comically predictable as the media's reaction to him. For his utterly typecast positions as a Northeastern tax-and-spend liberal, the entire press corps hailed Jeffords as a "maverick" who "has always played against type," as The New York Times chirped. In addition to "maverick," references to Jeffords must include the adjective "flinty." The establishment press's admiring use of the word "flinty" in reference to sell-out Northeastern Republicans is as inevitable as the tabloids' use of "luscious" to describe Hollywood starlets. Despite gleeful claims to the contrary, losing Jeffords is all upside for Republicans. Admittedly, it will be slightly easier for Democrats to bollix things up now that they hold leadership positions. But bollixing things up is never difficult in the Senate. (The Senate prides itself on being the collegial, dignified body -- and the House hopes none of the luscious Hollywood starlets find out there's a difference between the two bodies.) Instead of watching paint dry, waiting for Senate action will now be like watching paint dry on a humid day. Only votes matter in the Senate, and the flinty maverick's votes will continue to be 100 percent liberal. Moreover, the Senate Republicans' average IQ just skyrocketed. And Republicans can't be blamed for what the Senate does anymore. So why, you might ask, didn't the Republican Party give Jeffords a push long ago? The answer is they did, repeatedly, for two decades now, subtly and sometimes not so subtly. One of the Republicans' less nuanced methods was to deny Jeffords a committee chairmanship back in the '80s. This is highly unusual: Seniority rules are simply not breached. (These are the collegial guys.) But in Jeffords' case, they were willing to make an exception. Since then, Jeffords has largely been ignored by the party when not being threatened with losing his chairmanship of the "Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee" -- a committee notable for containing not a single matter within Congress' constitutional authority. Another interesting fact about Jeffords sorely neglected by the media -- already alluded to here -- is that Jeffords is a little D-U-M-M. While Bush's Yale education is treated like some sort of scam, the media can't cite Jeffords' Yale degree often enough. Except Jeffords was admitted to Yale before the terrorizing reign of the SATs, back when admission to the Ivy Leagues turned on social class rather than standardized tests. The year Jeffords was admitted, 1952, so were two out of every three applicants. If Jeffords is a legacy like Bush -- a point the press has avoided mentioning -- his chances of admission in 1952 were 90 percent. The vigilant reader will notice only latent references to the D-U-M-M issue in the establishment press. It is often noted, for example, that Jeffords "dislikes cameras and speeches." But his aversion is reported as if it were part of Jeffords' sturdy Yankee rectitude (flinty, you might say) rather than a genetic necessity. If Jeffords were not accorded the respect due all politicians who adopt ADA-approved positions, late-night comics might have finally discovered a dumb Democrat.
go anne go
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 04:02:25 (EDT)
My two cents are: Steady....Steady....
Pete�
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 03:50:35 (EDT)
My two cents are: Looks like the people who realize Bush is either a communist slimeball or a fascist slimeball rule this site. The Bush apologist have all crept away, hanging their heads in shame at the lame acts of the Yahoo-in-Chief. Talk about enablers, the whole fucking family is juice-heads. Thank God Honest Dick Cheney is vice president.
Anonymous.
- Friday, June 01, 2001 at 02:43:56 (EDT)

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