TampaYankee

Oz was merciful in withdrawing this one from the arena, IMO. Clearly this thread was going nowhere good. It came off the rails right away with Casper's reaction to lurker's post. Several people got their say and Casper got to reply. As I said, it was unfortunate but this thread was going nowhere good and it was clear that Casper was not well seasoned for navigating his way in this type of venue. To let it go on would have been unseemly. The tone of lurker's comments was appropriate, if misunderstood, as were most others appropriate, and not intended to be offensive. Casper is young, pretty and... well, young. I suspect he is a great escort, a lot of fun and will mellow with age.

The Blacklist is the winner for me, Hostages the loser. I'll stick with Sleepy Hollow for now although I thought I would hate it before hand. S.H.I.E.L.D and Tomorrow People will bring me back for further sampling. Ironside is a . You can have my seat for all of the comedies. Nothing else seems worth the effort of comment. I'm moving more and more to Amazon Prime and a little bit of Netflix in addition to my Blu-Ray library.

What chanel?

The reason these things go down to the wire, and these days over it, is that Congress people do not like to go on record because it pisses someone off. Mostly they do not like to piss off people with money or microphones or printing presses, in that order. And now they do not want to piss of the smallish group of highly motivated Tea pary GOP base primary voters. That and the new phenomenon of 40 or so Tea Party congressmen who really want to see the government crash and burn as well as big institutions of all types. The shut down and debt ceiling are such high profile topics touching so many people, that the non-fanatical members realize that voting to please the tea party money, microphones and base will be smeared all over the TV screen and that vote will be noticed by and piss off many many independent and moderate voters. Thus, damned if they do, damned if they don't. They keep their heads down until they smell the smoke and hear the crackle of flames. When they do move, they hope it is as part of a large herd where most individuals do not stand out. I do believe that there are many GOP house members ready to vote for a clean CR but they want to be led to it and not bolt the leadership. They want to be portrayed as loyal party members carrying the water for leadership and not rebels undermining the leadership. If only the Speaker would lead them. I've come to believe that, based on his long history as a grounded sane Republican who respects basic Government and a capitalistic economy, Boehner has concluded that they only way to purge the power of this extreme minority from his caucus and save the GOP as a national party is a baptism by fire. Take this group running the party for a crash and burn, hoping it doesn't, in the end, take the country with them. Else, the present scene will be the future of the Party and American politics for the foreseeable future. That is the only way I can resolve the person he has been over the last twenty years with his actions today.

Welcome back Tomcal. You have been missed. Looks like you haven't missed a step in the PA scene. Thanks for sharing your experience and those photos. That is quite some butt. Your waiter has nice friends too.

I suspect the Treasury in conjunction with the NSA will find a way to wrinkle their panties. :0

Not in my lifetime, in the lab, nor in my children's or their's in everyday practice. The problem is very difficult and up to this point has required stars to create in a sustained manner.

I'm with EXPAT. Don't get too excited or depressed about what voters will do in 2014. It is a long time and remember many many people get their 'news' from Fox. If you watch their programming it is clear that they do not report on news from the same planet that I live on. They are a powerful and effective right wing progaganda organ. They will continue to spew their disinformation along with conservative talk radio. I do believe people who have been hurt by the shutdown will remember and take it out on the GOP in the swing districts. However, most people in the country haven't really noticed any direct impact on them up to now. That may change especially if we go into default. I also believe many independents will view the GOP actions as extreme and help with the swing districts. However, there are not too many of those. However, none of this will really matter if the Dem moderates and progressives stay home glued to the sitcoms as they do every off year election. Yeah, do not count your chickens before they are hatched. Regarding Obam Care, as with any new complex software system or newly built house there will be glitches or as we like to refer to them in the software industry 'unintended features' . Clearly the adminstration miscalculated the depth of initial interest in viewing the new programs. In hindsight it would have been smart to up the number of servers by a factor of ten and make any software accommodations necessary to manage that size server farm. Also, again in hindsight, I believe it would have been wise to make the roll out a two step process. Make the first three weeks strictly informational about the plans. Create all the necessary documention to explain the details of the plans short of actually filing out the application including available providers, levels of coverage, rates. Provide that as a PDF file that people can download from the various state sites and the main .gov site. Paper copy could be requested by e-mail, snail mail or phone. A doc download doesnt take long so user turnover is much faster. Phone banks would be manned to answer questions about the program (which they already have). After three weeks the online sites would provide the same information online (in addition to the PDF) AND an open enrollment window to begin registering people. It might be wise to set up a registration order to keep everyone from trying to register the same day, maybe based on first letter of last name of registrant or the first three digits of the social security number. That this could happen is understandable. All of the big box stores plan and plan for the opening on Black Friday and every year it is mayhem despite the plans. As with war, the plans go out the window after the first volley is fired. Software houses do their best to release viable versions of new software releases with lots of money and manpower for development and testing. However, with any complicated software system it is virtually impossible to create a bug-free new release. There is no realistic way to replicate the loads and various possible cominbations of factors that can be entered by a user base of millions. The real flaw in this rollout was underestimating the load the systems would come under. While that is unfortunate it also bodes well that there really is strong interest in the program.

I don't think that distinction has much traction to the guy lying under her wheels. I agree she was fighting much more than the police. However, mentally ill people can be very dangerous as many recent news accounts bear out. But much more than that, problems like this occur around the country by the hundreds if not thousands every year, few reaching anywhere near this level of notoriety. I've had personal experience with a troubled relative. The situation needs understanding and compassion but it can get out of hand and lead to very dangerous situations. More than once I've gone to bed at night wondering if I or other family members would be alive in the morning.

I don't like to sleep with anyone either. However, when I did overnights, and I did quite a few at one time, I never slept alone. I wasn't paying that money for a good night's sleep. Also, when I had an ongoing relationship, sleeping together was the price to pay for some of the benefits that relationship offered. Everything is a trade-off.

As is always the case, CharliePS's insight is accurate in every way.

Wasn't that the Bush/Cheny/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz plan for Iraq?

Concentrated cardiac sludge. Tasty but deadly.

I guess it depends on whether you are the cop she is trying to run down or one of his friends. I do find fault with the police but not for that, at this time anyway. I do fault them for not having the car completely surrounded with cop cars to cut off any possible egress. Clearly the back was left open as she turned the car around and drove away. There were more than enough cars present to do that. Also, once it appears she will not surrender and begins attempts to move the car the cops should have shot out her tires immediately. It may not have complete stopped her but it would have hobbled her attempts to escape.

Glenn Greenwald Faces Off With 'Newsnight' Interviewer In Hostile Clash (VIDEO) This interesting interview can be see here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/glenn-greenwald-newsnight-bbc-kirsty-wark_n_4043015.html

parisrio2000, The scene you hypothesize certainly does happen, but rarely in the scheme of things. If this is your goal then you have to run with an elite crowd. The names Cavlin Klein and David Geffen would populate that stratosphere although I'm sure there are those with lower public profiles. If you have an in to that crowd then more power to you. Else, you will have to encounter the very unlikely happenstance that you cross paths with an extremely wealthy guy who has a very strong attraction to you. How you inject yourself into either of those situations seems to require that you have the resources to swim with the big fish or that lightening strikes. Assuming you fall short on resources it seems the logical course is to frequent saloons that the elite patronize or become a waiter or valet at one of the elite restaurants where they dine and hope for that lightening strike. Of course most of our members and viewers do not fall in that stratosphere. I cannot say there are none since all are anonymous here. However, I do have some second hand knowledge that a high powered personality or two did access the old HooBoy site many years ago. I do not know who they were but my source was knowlegable.

Adam, your really need to run wiith a better crowd. Glad to hear you are ok.

Also MIA.

The same question has occurred to me. Probably being held hostage by a latino twink in Boston that he was on more than hat-tipping terms with. Let's hope so anyway.

I believe this is called whistle blowing even if you are not a Google insider.

Very little surprise here. Several states are doing their damnedest to scratch and claw their way back to the early eighteenth century.

Actually, several colonies were founded by peoples in search of religious freedom: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania to name three. The revolution was spawned over taxation without representation. Fortunately, we have lots or representation today even though some are trying to disenfranchise the representation of others. Hopefully, the won't prevail.

Let's hope this gets us one step closer to a cure.

Congrats from me too. Now for the bad news. The first one to break 8001 posts buys everyone in the house drinks!

I've slowed down in my dotage. Spend less time posting and more time pressing my nose to the window on the likes of this...