TampaYankee

You know, I have been in a sour mood with respect to politics since the takeover of the House by the GOP. With the excpetion of the GOP Primary I ignored most of it. To say American politics is the pathetic practice of lies, half-lies, deceit, accepting payoffs, etc. as a matter of course is to misplace it on too high a pedastal. It infects both sides, with the out-of-office party usually the most egregious, feeling they have to take extra measures to overcome incumbency or at least draw blood. However, watching this Mitt Romney campaign operation with really experienced spinners/liars failing to successfully practice their slight-of-tongue acts so badly, with and because of their candidate's tactics and intransigence and the GOP base demands, has been delightfully entertaining. I know if may not last long. It may not affect the outcome in the end but I love to see those that lie and deceive for a living experience an utter public failure. Its' all the sweeter when they know it is a failure in real time. That's entertainment, for me anyway.

Congrats, that is a grand achievement. I envy your success. Good luck with more future success.

I'll bet you a twenty room villa in Tuscany to the contrary. That would be a nice change in my later years and a sure winner too. . I hope she considers 2016.

Ditto. Even better than expected.

I like a man that knows what he thinks and isn't too shy to share it.

Yes. Don't see it disappearing in the foreseeable future. I did away with my cell phone. That would change if I did more traveling but don't see that happening either.

Amen! Watching these guys and gals who are master spinners and deflectors is just must-watch TV. Every time one of these spin-meisters steps out to do their Obi Wan: "nothing to see here, keep on moving" is hilarious. When the crowd doesn't move on and the next question follows, the histrionic responses break out trying to change the subject or say shame on Barack Obama. I get a mind's eye image of a fat tuna flopping all over the boat deck trying to throw the hook but to no avail. I thought Mary Matlin was going to have a cat on George Stephanopolis. Ed Gillespie's 'Retoractive Retirement' was too funny for words. That type of double talk is a loser from the git-go. These operatives are trying to salvage Romney's ship but the problem even they cannot overcome with their talent and experience is Romney's mouth vs Romeny's signature even though Romney will try to say "Obama made me do it". lol Maybe Romney can fool some of the people by never really saying anything specific and attempting to sing America, The Beautiful, but 'Retroactive Retirement' ain't gonna sell big in the Midwest and West. Who are they going to believe, Romney or their lyin' eyes? The tax returns are coming.

This ain't no twink, he's a jock. That's the alpha and omega of it. Oz, you feein' ok? Can you read the big E at the top of the chart?

I take her at her word. She has never shown any strong political feathers in her presence in both Bush admins unless it was tied to her professional policy positions. Also, there is the proverbial 'other shoe' that might get dropped were she to venture out on political seas. The one that AC just jettisoned in the last few weeks.

Symantec anti-virus update makes some PCs inoperable By Jim Finkle | Reuters BOSTON (Reuters) - A bug in an update of Symantec Corp's anti-virus software caused some Windows PCs to crash late this week, making machines inoperable until they were serviced in an embarrassing episode that angered some customers. The company disclosed the problem on its website, saying that an update to its widely used Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 and Norton anti-virus software for businesses caused some PCs running Microsoft Windows XP software to crash repeatedly, showing what is known as the "blue screen of death." The embarrassment comes at a challenging time for Symantec, whose shares have lost about a quarter of their value since it warned of a pending profit decline three months ago. "Enterprise security has continued to be an uphill battle for Symantec," said Daniel Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets. "There is increasing competition. The company historically has not been consistent around executing." The company knows so far of about 300 corporate customers that have been affected, and about 60 consumer customers. Customers reported it took Symantec hours to identify and fix the bug and that they needed to fix computers broken by the tainted update on their own. Symantec blamed the glitch on software compatibility issues that arose after an update was released late on Wednesday. PCs could be fixed if customers manually removed the software from each disabled computer, it said in an advisory. "Phoning Symantec support this morning was the start of the hell we went through," one customer said in a support forum on Symantec's website. "The support is a joke, the quality control is a joke, and the software is not much better." COMPENSATE ME Customers complained on a Symantec user forum that the removal process was time consuming, although one said the software maker had offered compensation for the inconvenience. That customer said on the support site that he emailed technical support to ask: "How is Symantec going to compensate customers for the hours of lost worker production and the time and effort taken by IT staffs to rectify this huge error by Symantec?" He said a company representative called him 20 minutes later to say they were working on a compensation package. "I encourage everyone to ask to be compensated for the time and effort it took all of us (to) fix Symantec's software," the customer said on the support site. (http://bit.ly/LiH764) Symantec spokeswoman Ellen Hayes did not respond when asked if any compensation that might be in the works. A technology manager with Dutch company PSO Beheer BV told Reuters the bug caused some 150 PCs to fail. His company had to close a laboratory with equipment running on Windows XP machines and also sent some workers home so they could access their network remotely. "It did have quite an impact on our business," said manager Ron van den Broek. "My first impression is Symantec is downplaying the effects of this issue." A Maryland-based insurance company temporarily shut down anti-virus software for all its 150 PCs to prevent them from getting damaged, leaving them without protection, the company's technology manager told Reuters. (Reporting By Jim Finkle; Additional reporting by Joseph Menn; editing by Dan Grebler and Andre Grenon) See original article at: http://news.yahoo.co...56--sector.html

Maybe. If so then I'll go back to cash. That is how it worked most of my life. I admit it will be less convenient for most so they will undoubtedly stick with the cards. For me now that I'm retired, I'm seldom somewhere when I need cash on the spur of the moment. And my bank has an ATM down the street and around a corner from my driveway. So an easy stop whenever I go anywhere.

No way!! That was put out to change the conversation from MItt's Bain tenure problems. No other reason. It didn't work, especially after she shot it down and wingers did too. A poor transparent attempt at topic change. Romney remains on a roll.

I do not follow news minutia. I don't even subscribe to a local paper. Haven't for years since they tried to force me to subscribe a year minimum. For years when I did subscribe they would just pile up in the house, mostly unread, and become a pain in the ass for the recycling bin. However, I do have strong interest in national and international news and pretty much find what I need online free (Huffpost, Yahoo etc.) or on cable and broadcast TV. I find that Huffpost points me to the NYT, WaPo, etc when I have an interest. I haven't hit any ceilings yet. I just don't get deeply involved in that many stories. I understand that real news junkies would need more than this but at my age I've seen most of it before. Oh, the names change but the larceny, mayhem and incompetence is still the same. So I save my attention for what is important to me: war, some politics, the economy, news in medicine, science and engineering. I manage to keep up, more or less, on the free outlets.

I do not want to continue the back and forth on this so this will be my last comment. Generally, I do not expect posters to be mind readers or assessors of other posters psyche or accurately assess the intent of ambigous or otherwise inspecific posts. However,I don't see how the original comment in question could be taken in a myriad of possible ways, given the personality and recent history, and the specific post content. It was hardly ambiguous. Secondly, the targeted poster's history leaves no doubt about, if provoked, the adverse nature of his response at the expense of a member. Many or all of you may not agree with my concern, maybe because it is my concern and not yours. However, if one of you becomes the butt of the provocative action then you may feel differently, I suspect. if and when it comes time to mete out discipline for inappropriate behavior then it will not be just my concern alone. There will be others involved as well. I don't cherish being a cop but do it to protect member privacy and board decorum so that we can all enjoy the atmosphere here. I do not expect to have swayed anyone from their previous position about this. Neither have I been swayed. However, I still hold all contributors in this thread, as well as most others who post here, in the highest regard as a posting community. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. Now, I'm going to have a Sazerac.

Not to worry, we'll ease you into it with the help of the Little Green Fairy hiding in a Sazerac cocktail, or two.

Count me in too. Just my fodder.

You were. There was. However, as Oz and I discussed it, the changes coming are much bigger and require significant software implementation. That does not happen overnight. Please be patient. I like lurkerspeaks. He is a first class contributor by his history. I don't recall much of glutes of HB days although I recall his presence. So far here, he has limited his profile pretty much to a single facet which I don't favor. If you believe that provoking a problematic poster to make abusive posts is constructive criticism then that is nice to know. If you don't like people putting words in your mouth then you know how I feel.

You are a prolific poster and one I like to read. The slap was not for your posting but for dangling bait in front of a serial offender. He will be the one suspended due to his actions. He needs no goading. It was an ill-advised comment considering the personality involved. We do not tolerate stalking and personal agendas, even for the entertainment of members.

You should not provoke glutes to 'liven up the place' in that manner, it could prove detrimental to his status. instead, you should liven up the place.

I concede the ratings point. I've just never been much for gawking at car crashes. As for Britney and must-watch TV, I'm sure I'll watch it just as much as I did before.

Did these two come back from the other side just for this gig? I thought these guys were firmly entombed in history.

Jessie is no dummy even if he relied on his brawn to make a rather good living at a high personal physical cost. Problem is he often plays that role in his dialog, even today, which shuts down his audience.

IMO, the problem with this show is and has always been that it has always been more about the judges than the talent. Not to give short shrift to the talent, there has been some good talent on the show. The best usually do not win if you judge by commercial successes. However, Cowell was very controversial as was Abdul, as was their replacements who have come and gone. Frankly it is a lot easier to judge than to perform. One needs talent for the latter. Some of these judges just like to piss on people in public to build their image. Others have emotional breakdowns of a sort on air. It is a circus. Never cared for it. If this latest rumor is true then it tends to confirm my view. It's all about stirring the judges for product comsumption. It strikes me that a serious talent show ought to be all about the talent. Sure there needs to be judges but they should not overshadow the talent. Else let's just have a judges show where all of the judges can judge each other and leave the poor talent out of the abuse. Put them on a talent show instead. The judges have always been about who can raise their leg the highest when they piss -- well some of them anyway -- and they have set the tone. There is no talent required to be a bully and blowhard.

It's one thing to spend ten dollars to keep me from having to hike my ass out of the chair to change a channel, especially with surfing and all. Or to use the remote that came with the dvd, for dvd use, etc. It's another to spend $100 to $200 so my finger only has to punch one button to run the universe -- even if forever. Count me a on this one. If I didn't punch the remotes then I'd get NO physical activity at all. Besides, it keeps me mentally active, trying to figure out which remote goes with what device. lol

Swimming in the nude would probably be counter productive with drag and all, unless the water was very cold.