JKane

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally 'specially the last image. Other stuff on that site is great too, but this one seems apropos.

I really feel for those going through this with their parents, it was pretty hard going through it with my great grandmother (whom I was very close to). She was always very good natured, and may have had the staff believing everything was great, but for the last 5 or so years she had no idea who was visiting her, her relation to them, nor any memory of conversations or entire visits hours later. I was thinking the other day, given that we're more likely not to have families, ending up like that alone one day really concerns me. How are others dealing with that? I was thinking some kind of DNR in my 60s or 70s, but that only handles one small contingency. Retiring to a country without the puritanical forced-life, so that one would always have options seems a good idea, but how many places are like that?

The photo threads are pretty obvious, with their attachment icons. IF certain people didn't also post hot images randomly in unrelated threads... Doesn't bother me, but I can see how it could bother some, especially if they were browsing in a public space or over a slow connection (such as cellular modem). Maybe a good compromise would be forcing thumbnails for all images, which would become full size/res only when clicked?

Yep, done all that, a couple times. Put in a new hard drive, fresh install from scratch, no special settings. The login in general is working like crap for me, even when I do it manually. Sometimes it doesn't take, or if I forget and start browsing the forums there's no way to get it to show me the pictures (log me in) to a page already opened.

Never heard of them before, and I consider myself something of a car guy. Interior looks like they raided BMW's parts bin, but pretty sweet. http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1024961_faralli-mazzanti-launches-the-v12-powered-vulca-s

It seems to me the true core of the Republican belief system is that those with the most money get what they want. As such it's extremely easy to organize them, even at the local level. They all submit to whomever has the fattest wallet / is already in power, and then work tirelessly (even against their own interests) for his betterment, I guess hoping to one day be that person. Democrats, on the other hand, are inherently un-directable. They each have differing views/priorities and the only thing they may all agree on is that everybody's views are important. Luckily the tea parties may be bringing much of this chaos into the Republican circles. But without the good aspects such as intellectual debate/honesty and with a core of personal power at any cost it can't lead anywhere good. They're doing a great job of getting the meme out there that the *other side* are the fascists, which immunizes them against the truth for a while. And I think you left a crapload of zeors off the deficit there...

One of my favorite facts about Fiorina is the extraordinary amount of money people who know her personally have given to her opponent. Especially within HP. Can't wait to vote against her and Whitman in November. The scary thing is I've heard Whitman might have a chance. Because last time we voted for a Republican political neophyte of independent wealth it worked out *so well*... As for the original topic of the thread, there's always plenty of lip-service about how banks are (or by logic must be) willing to work with those in trouble, but the people I know who've tried report otherwise. The banks don't seem to be in much of a hurry to be divested of the foreclosures they're holding either, at least in my area.

A couple times I've felt that my modest contribution to a cause was then wasted almost entirely in trying to solicit me into further donations! I'm tempted to join ACLU fairly often, and really need to give something to EFF one of these days.

I wondered how long they'd last once I heard Firefox was integrating the feature. Too bad though, a multi-platform system for syncing bookmarks or even sessions would be nice to have available.

There have been a large number of new posts in the main forum every day, making it somewhat hard to keep up with, and then people commenting on the photo posts, and often quoting the pictures pops them back up and could waste bandwidth for certain users... but so far it's not been a real problem for me. I'm not a fan of conflating escorts/strippers/guys we could hire with random pics of hot studs though.

It's owned by Rupert Murdock... given that, it's impossible for it to sink to a depth that surprises me.

About a week or so ago my cookie must've expired and I am back to having the exact same problem. Can not 'remember me on this computer', have to login each time. Often it tells me I must set geographic location, but won't let me. Just tried both browsers again, in firefox I select North America and then it goes nowhere, never lets me specify city. In IE it goes back to the main page, also never asks for city and doesn't remember North America either when I check/try to change through 'my profile'. Here's the page Firefox can't show: http://www.maleescortreview.com/index.php?file=reset_location&MSG=p Could an Admin set my location in my profile? USA/Los Angeles. I'm curious if clearing that hurdle will let the site give me a cookie. It's still really annoying, and I don't understand why others aren't having these problems also. There's nothing special about the Win7 install I did nor the security settings in the web browsers.

If the man being interviewed against the lockers is an administrator he should be fired, right fucking now. Who the fuck blames the victim in this situation (other than THAT GUY)? From comments on the Advocate online story about this: From the story: [High School Principal Phil] Chapple said that no one had been punished for picking on Lucas, and that bullying had not even hit their radar. "Sometimes he created that atmosphere around him," Chapple said. "Kind of like a little tornado because he went around doing things that made dust fly, I guess." How is Chapple still the principal of this school? It seems to be the systematic abuse and bullying was not only ignored, it was approved of! I'm no Dan Savage, and I don't have the reach he does, but everyone that reads this story should write him at pchapple (at) greensburg (dot) k12 (dot) in (dot) us, and tell him exactly how you feel about blaming a student for being bullied!

http://www.coolgaymovies.com/watch/video/MTcwNzVt/CollegeDudes247-video

Ha! I learned that Viagra gel packets exist!

Looks cool and compact! Does it also run OCR on the text so it's searchable? I got an HP all-in-one a year or so ago at Costco, it's no speed demon but it can also scan from 2-sided to searchable PDF, think it was around $160 (sometimes goes on sale or they mail a coupon). Also a good printer, with 2-sided printing, CD/DVD printing, and a little tray for photo printing which it does an ok/good job at too. It is damn cool what's out there now!

Accountability and the teabaggers in the same sentence is an oxymoron. Look at O'Donnel's finances, or Palin's half-assed half-term of service to her state. Look at teabaggers not getting called on open racism or stating that violence is the answer if they don't get what they want in the election. Look at their Republican puppet-masters' 10 or so years of leadership of most or all branches of gov't that exactly coincided with getting us into this mess. Putting THEM *back* in control of the majority of the 3 branches of government is taking OUR country BACK HOW, exactly? Oh, wait, I get it, you obviously can't mean that; you must mean white Christian America taking itself *back* from uppity educated Negroes! Extra ironically, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

I LOVE how people bring up $800,000 NOT $800,000,000--or even 1 Million fucking dollars--for a program to encourage people to do something that may be a cheap way to prevent the spread of STDs as if it's a bad, horrible example of gov't gone wrong. Well, here's the pushback on the BULLSHIT that the puritanical and vaguely racist coverage deserves from every corner--but is only getting on an escort review board's politics forum. In sub-Saharan Africa, genital washing has been theoretically proposed as a way to reduce STD and HIV incidence. Lack of circumcision in men may be a risk factor for development of chancroid, a common cause of genital ulcer disease in Africa. Genital ulcer disease appears to be a risk factor for contracting HIV. Health advocates suggest that education about postcoital and precoital washing with instructions on how to clean the area beneath the foreskin of the penis might be one way to reduce the incidence of STDs in east, central and southern Africa, where male circumcision is less common and genital ulcer disease more common than in west Africa. --O'Farrell N. Soap and water prophylaxis for limiting genital ulcer disease and HIV-1 infection in men in sub-Saharan Africa. Genitourin Med 1993; 69:297-300. ----It's still under study, there are some conflicting views, but that's the point, a STUDY to see if something almost everybody has access too can lessen the chances of STDs. I think it is shameful that somebody who participates in our subculture would further the belief that anything which may prevent an STD (especially AIDS) spreading is bad, especially for a measly $800k to serve a hard-hit subgroup! But hey, let's instead deride the government for funding research in an area that directly benefits US, and leave all medical research up to private pharmaceutical companies so we can get 3 more erection pills and another pill for restless leg syndrome! Forget unprofitable public health initiatives!

Whatever you do don't blame your bank, blame Obama! There are credit unions and plenty of other banks that would treat you better, and I agree with TY that you are reading the situation wrong. And certainly blame Obama for current interest rates! Doesn't every economist in their right mind agree that a raise in interest rates would crater the economy? Having to agree in advance to a defined fee for overdraft is better for the poor than growing to live on them and being eaten alive by hundreds of dollars in fees every month! Especially when the bank does all kinds of shady things to heighten those fees, which thanks to the much needed regulation you refer to they're no longer allowed to do, such as clearing big payments before smaller payments so you get multiple overdrafts. How the fuck people can sit a crater caused by deregulation and insist that it's the answer, that it *will* work ONE OF THESE TIMES when so far it never has is dumbfounding. It is by definition not a right, but a DUTY of government to regulate or even run infrastructure critical to the nation: Environmental impacts of oil production, especially near critical wetlands. National security including the screening of airport passengers. Anti-trust actions against monopolies and companies that get too big to fail. It's funny how your invisible hand never actually works yet you have endless faith in it.

I agree 100%!

Last Saturday I wandered through a "tribute to 9/11 memorial classic car show" in my hick right-wing town, there was live music, and the guy on stage went into a teabagger-like rant (while trying to be coy about it) and then played a 60's protest song--with no hint of irony. And it struck me (about as hard as I'd have liked to strike him) that last Saturday marked exactly as long into Obama's presidency as we were into Bush's on 9/11. Think about that. How does Obama get all the blame for the shit he inherited, especially the economy, while to this day Bush gets no blame whatsoever for 9/11? It's now absolutely clear that the Bush administration specialized in putting unqualified cronies into bureaucratic offices all over the government with disastrous effect, often people who didn't believe the bureacrasy they were appointed to head had any right to exist at all. We can mostly agree this happened at the EPA, the FDA, and certainly at FEMA. Clearly regulators of the banking and oil industry too. But Richard Clark's book made it clear this is also what happened in the early days within the national security apparatus. Fucking Condolezza Rice was more interested in consolidating her power and dipshit at justice department more interested in covering Justice's breast than perusing the clear and present danger the outgoing administration tried many times to express to them. Yet Bush gets a pass for the greatest terrorist attack on American soil in the nation's history, turning a surplus into the worst deficit in history, and cratering the economy *twice* in 8 years! Nobody even really calls him on fucking over the Afghanistan war in order to put all the resources into the senseless war in Iraq. But every single thing that's wrong now, INCLUDING THE AFGAN WAR is somehow Obama's fault according to the Republicans and especially the teabaggers! What the fuck? Of course the Republicans who had 110% control at the time would say that, but how THE HELL are they allowed to get away with it?

I do worry about tea partiers and any increase in the number of Republicans in congress worsening federal gridlock to California levels, but on the other hand maybe teabaggers will break the Republican caucus and the remaining moderates will be more likely to vote with Dems, at least for cloture. I think that Republican leadership may now be more afraid of the teabaggers than the bed-wettingest liberal, it was amazing seeing Rove *on Hannity on Fox* pretty much saying the Delaware candidate was unelectable and she really hurts their chances of taking control. Those tea party victories the other day gave me hope for the Dems for the first time in many months. If they manage to get out the word on who these people are and what they really believe I think Dems can maintain control. Though Jon Stewart had a great panel of three, each with a different idea of "how the Democrats will fuck this up". But at the moment the Democrats are finally moving towards a promising track. Pointing out the hypocrisy on the deficit, the radical positions of the teabaggers, the things Dems have actually accomplished, and even making a move on DADT which may help improve the morale of the base. Hopefully they've also realized that while it does work on the base, talking about Bush and where all the years of Republican leadership got us doesn't work that well on the apparently terminally Alzheimer's afflicted general electorate. I feel Obama did exactly what you describe in his Rose Garden press conference. 'WE want tax cuts on first $250k for all, THEY are holding those hostage in order to also get tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% which we simply can not afford.' I don't understand why some Dems are afraid of that particular tack, the right has been doing bullshit class warfare against 98% of Americans for at least 20 years now *while somehow* maintaining a bullshit "populist" image! Call them on that shit, once and for all. And then Biden did a pretty good job of talking to the base on Maddow last night. Hopefully he keeps that up with no more than his usual level of gaffs. And things seem to be going pretty well in California too (well, if we're counting maintaining the status quo as pretty good). I know the polls may be mixed, but I saw a great Boxer ad last night and I don't think the pollsters can account for the people who are going to turn out to vote for Marijuana legalization.

My point was I don't see how it could be!

Be sure to look at all the threads by Tomcal in this forum, especially the ones full of pictures! Should belay all your concerns in that regard. I really want to go but hesitate for a couple reasons (not the least of which is being an indecisive bastard who works for indecisive bastards), this thread is helping me firm up the idea of what it will cost per week. So far it sounds like: $1100-$1500 round trip airfare $800 PER WEEK for Hotel ~$1200 PER WEEK for entertainment/"entertainment"/meals Makes me realize how overambitious my first plans for around a month there were! Yet, I don't want to spend over 10 hours each way in an airline seat (esp. coach!) for only a couple days there. I'm not too far from having 100k AA frequent flier miles again though, which would be a business class round trip for free (IF booked enough in advance). Anybody new to FF miles, there are a couple Citi credit cards you can get offering 75k (or more) miles, and you might be able to get two at the same time (look at the AA forum at Flyertalk.com) One other concern I have is that for all the expense, hot young twinky latin (and black) guys are not something I have much trouble finding in Los Angeles. Tomcal has posted some photos from Puerto Alegre that show some nice variety there though. But intra-country flights ads a little to the expense and complexity of the trip too, and my initial plan was to visit Buenos Aires as well!

Why would next session be any more productive than this session, especially any actually progressive legislation?