blzrul

Yes I was - I think the excesses send a bad message. They're generally in poor taste with the performers reminder me of trained monkeys. It would be nice if just once a leader would tell the companies and individuals who donate all that money (in return for ...?) to instead donate to [some worthy cause here].

I agree 100% - loved the book and the only reason I saw the movie was to see how they did the storm. I am fascinated by the whole thing - spent some time in Gloucester years ago and as a kid loved the book "Captains Courageous", which surely couldn't have been too accurate but still it got me hooked. I love Storm Stories on the Weather Channel too. There's another book you might like, about the "A Boats" they called them, built in Anacortes, two of them (maybe all three) went down almost simultaneously in the Bering Sea in the 1990's. It was very interesting how they went about determining exactly how they capsized ... quite a discussion about the fishing industry and all. If you aren't familiar with it PM me and I'll poke around my bookcase to get the author and title (hopefully I haven't lent it out).

You could say the same about the Perfect Storm. I appreciated the book but the movie was a big disappointment except for the storm part. The ending reminded me of the opera I attended yesterday where we were all thinking "will you DIE already?!" as the lead kept coming back from the brink of death to sing yet another 10 minutes...ugh.

link Oh that's right, when their cause is one that wingnuts agree with, they're A-OK. Like when they all sang that sappy "God Bless the USA" thing during Bush I.

Uh I used the phrase "to my knowledge" to mean exactly that. I wasn't aware that Biden had announced his bid for presidency in 2008. I'm sure you'll provide the link, that's a speech I'd like to read. There are probably more people thinking about 2008 and I'm expecting that you'll announce them for us. I am glad that you are so shallow and insulated that you think my ignorance astounding. I continue to be impressed by the depths of your assholiness.

YOU have a friend?

Two points for chicot! You're not trying to get him to admit "they all look the same" are you?

You got that right. Come to think of it i wonder if the high bldgs would even offer an option. In Asia they showed bldgs that were fine but...in cities like NYC and Boston with all that subterranean stuff the water would probably rush into it and who knows what all would happen. Ugh.

That's what I saw - it may have been on BBC America. I get so many channels I don't remember.

DUPLICATE THREAD

I heard the announcement made by the government official yesterday. He clearly stated that the rebel group (GAM or GAR or something like that) had violated the ceasefire they declared - they kidnapped someone. He went on to state because of that they feared for foreigners. In fact he ordered that foreigners NOT go outside the capital without notifying the government and also taking armed guards with them. He stated that they greatly feared that foreigners would be kidnapped or otherwise injured and for that reason they were being careful and were hoping to get the foreign military out of the country as soon as they could. Given the history of the country and revolution it seems to make sense. Imagine the outcry if a bunch of rebels open fire on our troops or kidnap our relief workers. That's got to be almost as frightening to the government of Indonesia as it is to the citizens of the United states.

Not a chance - look at hurricanes, they typically have days of warning. Cities with mass transportation might stand the best chance (if people use it) - I shudder to think of the people stuck in traffic getting buried under a wall of water. I think they said this volcano is on a roughly 50 year cycle right? The question is not so much when it'll erupt again but when it'll erupt with enough force to split the island .... I believe they said there was a big eruption in 1947, but don't recall if there's been a large one any more recently.

I cannot imagine why anyone would get plastic surgery but I don't think it's the same thing. Women don't have the level of testosterone that drives them to complete in the same way. That doesn't mean we're not competitive of course, but I never heard of a woman who went under the knife in order to be bigger than someone else.

I watched that program too and it was one of the Canary Islands, not the coast of Africa. I believe the name is La Plata or something like that. Guns are dumb. I don't want to interfere with gun ownership any more than I would interfere with people who want to own pot-bellied pigs. I just don't share either their enthusiasm for firepower or fear of evildoers. But in my opinion too many gun owners are gun owners merely because it's one of those "mine is bigger than yours" pissing contests that men so adore.

And then there's this: US Gives Up Looking for WMDs. Things that make you go "argh".

Gee what a surprise. The difference this time MUST be that we stay and clean up after ourselves instead of valiantly "withdrawing" when it becomes apparent that we ain't gonna win. There's too much at stake - in terms of terrorism ad infinitem - if we run away and leave a mess like we did in Vietnam. And besides it's the right thing to do.

Not sure but I do know he served one of his wives with divorce papers while she was hospitalized for treatment of cancer ... I guess she was too busy trying not to die to realize that she wasn't doing her wifely duties by Newtie, and he got hisself a chippie. I think the chippie dumped him, unless I'm thinking of Rush. They all sort of run together in my mind, a like a miasma of muddy grey crud.

It might - I'm not sure where it is any more but I have it somewhere in my house.

Unlike the REPS who were totally honest about that little self-funding event in Iraq, the rebuilding of which bombed out shell of a country is supposed to be paid for with oil from the pipeline they keep blowing up?

So if John Kerry had made the same statement, your reaction would have been different? By the way, I didn't hear Gingrich's statement, although giving a good education to all children is certainly something I could support. I'm not sure that laptops would do it, but it might be a start. Back when Newtie was in power I wasn't into politics. I really didn't pay too much attention and only learned who he was later on. And even then I didn't care that much - I didn't like Clinton much either. But after hearing of him and then seeing his speeches or reading their transcripts my first, and lasting, impression of Gingrich was that he's a mean-spirited hypocrite. While there are occasionally issues upon which I agree with him, I've seen no reason to change my impression. Unlike what most folks here seem to want to believe, even idiots have good ideas sometimes. That doesn't make them genuises. And Newt Gingrich occasionally doing what I think of as the right thing does not mean I like him. So sorry to bust your bubble. By the way, whatever DID happen to the Contract with America?

Don't laugh. I actually have a pennant declaring the Bills winners of SB XXVI. I assume they had them made up just in case and at least one - mine - got into circulation. I can dream....

Amen to that - Abbas appears to want to make overtures to the Israelis, but it could all be PR. You just never know. I saw a number of interviews with citizens and they stated to a person that they were sick and tired of the deaths and they wanted peace. So, let's hope it can happen.

There's not enough money to actually pay enough teachers, or enough good teachers, to get kids to the point where they can pass a standardized test, but they're able to get money to hire someone to investigate cheating. And no doubt that someone will need a staff and pretty soon there's another agency in place, eating up funds and accomplishing nothing in terms of educating children. I certainly don't condone cheating but when FOUR HUNDRED SCHOOLS are cheating on these tests, it makes one wonder. And of course this system is the basis for our national program. This is from today's Dallas Morning News and is reproduced here for those of you who are not registered users: ============================== Education agency to review testing security Monday, January 10, 2005 Posted: 3:21 PM EST (2021 GMT) AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The state education agency is launching an effort to catch cheating on standardized tests, officials announced Monday. Officials will hire an outside expert to review security measures and build a tracking system to monitor test scoring irregularities that could signal cheating. "We have zero tolerance for cheating," Texas Education Agency commissioner Shirley Neeley said in a statement released before a news conference. The changes are in response to a Dallas Morning News investigation that found strong evidence that educators at nearly 400 schools statewide helped students cheat on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The newspaper study identified schools whose test scores swung wildly from poor to stellar. TEA's announcement breaks with a previous policy of trusting districts to police themselves. TEA officials had said they investigated cheating allegations only when a district requested it or when they received credible eyewitness evidence of cheating. Neeley reminded educators of the consequences of cheating on the TAKS test, which could lead to the revocation of a teaching license and up to 10 years in prison since falsifying testing documents is a third-degree felony. "Texas educators understand that cheating on the test can be a career-ending move," Neeley said in the statement. Texas education policies on student accountability became the model for the federal No Child Left Behind law enacted after then-Gov. George W. Bush's election as president in 2000.

A little mustard might help too.

I pick on them all but to my knowledge he's the first "mainstream" politician to declare an interest in running in 2008 - erego the topic of the thread.