Berg

My experience is that it is not offset completely, but most of the larger companies try. And of course it depends on your negotiating skills too.

State income tax in CO is about 4.6% of taxable income. I don't know California's for this year, but it was always between 8 and 9% when I lived there. Gasoline is 30 - 40 cents cheaper per gallon - at least for regular unleaded, which I think is partly due to the lower Octane level (85 vs 87). Someone told me once that was because of the altitude, but I never verified it. Real estate taxes vary by County, but mine currently are just under 1% (I think about 0.8), whereas California is 1.5%. FYI, CO also does better in the sales tax area, which varies by County as well. Some unicorporated areas have none, but most are between 2 and 7 percent. Last I knew, CA was at 8.5%. Two nice things about the CO real estate market (if you are buying) is there is plenty of inventory and still a bunch of room for expansion. The second is that I believe in the Denver area there is a community for just about anyone. Downtown homes are older (~50 - 100 years) with the associated character, but along with that more expensive. Golden and Evergreen have log cabins in the woods. Several outlying communities have big multi-acre ranches. Then there are many suburbs, some brand new and others in the 10 - 20 year old range. There are big fancy houses in neighborhoods with great mountain views that are in the millions. Something for everyone. We bought our house in June of '03 and paid $135 per square foot, which is about 1/4 of what you are looking at in LA County, plus we got a 9000 sq foot lot. Not huge, but thats 2 lots in LA. The place we bought is one of the more expensive suburbs, but since we had reverse sticker shock from LA, we didn't even notice. Berg

Good luck. We moved to Denver from South Bay in LA for the ridiculous cost of living. CA state income tax is very high, utilities and gasoline are very high, property taxes are ridiculous, and the actual cost of homes is lucicrous. You can still find reasonable value if you want to live in the Desert, i.e. Lancaster/Palmdale or borderline towns like Riverside/Redlands. But reasonable is still approaching $400K for a 3-bedroom at about 1800 sq feet. Then of course there is the traffic. And in the inland empire, the weather sucks in the summer. It is hot and the smog is bad. The beach towns are great all year round but you can't sniff anything for less than $500k, and that's for a 2-bedroom beach cottage. In places like Diamond Bar, Chino, Pomona, etc., you'd be looking at least $400K for anything even semi-decent, and more like $500K if you want a nice house around 2000 sq ft. I really liked living there, but the cost was just not worth it. I think it's a little better south of OC before you get to SD, but I never did much research in that area. Like I said, good luck. Berg

Oh. Ok thanks. I guess that makes sense, unless they're trying to infiltrate from within...

1. Agreed, although I'd expand it to include those civilizations that are now long extinct. 2. Don't agree. We are in the "boonies" so to speak of the Milky Way Galaxy, so it is not inconceivable that we haven't been visited. 3. Not really sure what you mean by this one.

Since the Moon is the primary reason the Earth's tilt remains basically steady at ~23degrees, and that is what keeps our weather patterns stable from a geocentric point of view, when the Moon does move that far away from the Earth, people will have much bigger problems than where they can see the Moon.

Since you so egregiously mangled my position on both items for the second time, I'm unsure how you have any idea what we agree or disagree on. So, it seems to me you have no intention of actually comprehending my posts, proven again by this little stroll down partisan lane. But, if that's where you like to be you're entitled. Just quit pretending you're actually interested cordially "disagreeing", since you'd have to actually understand my point first. PS - Far from brilliant, I think my points were rather pedestrian, which makes your missing them so much more incredulous.

She's 27 mos and doing well. Full blown toddler, but what can you do. And I'm really not looking forward to the impending lack of sleep when girl #2 shows up in about 5 weeks. So far though, no poop-in-the-tub episodes... And Vegas ain't that close, not that I could go anywhere right now even if I wanted to.

You were right about Nate as a PR and I was wrong. Between McGee and Clements, our ST made huge strides and I think that contributed a whole bunch to the team's successes this year. But you're still a pinhead Berg

Yeah, and Ice (I mean the frozen-H2O, not the ummm TSW poster). We also have really bad meterologists. But today was beautiful clear blue skies with a high temp around 40. With about 6 in of snow on the ground, it reminded me why we moved here. Howz yer weather?

I really don't know why I bothered, since you didn't manage to understand a single point I made and I should have guessed you wouldn't. Maybe if you go back and re-read several gazillion times, you might get it. Or not.

How do you know Afganistan was legitimate? Because the Administration said so?

1. To "lie" requires intent. One is not a liar if one is incorrect in good faith. Many people were wrong in this situation, both domestically and abroad. To label them liars is self-serving, unless you actually can read minds. 2. Just because something does not exist now, doesn't mean it never existed. In this case, the UN documented the existence of massive quantities of WMD after Gulf War I. Iraq was supposed to coordinate the disposal of those through the UN Inspection Team precisely for tracking purposes. They did not do that. They claimed they were destroyed, but never offered proof. What SHOULD concern people most is that there are large quantities of WMD that used to be in Iraq and now have proven not to be. Hopefully, they really were destroyed, but without proof, it is quite possible they were not, and are now in some unknown threat's hands. That's how people should logically look at this. Unfortunately, politics on both sides generally does not allow it.

Have you not seen the massive shakeup at the Intelligence Agencies?

Thanks much. Not only another baby, but another girl. I'm going to need some gun lessons form AD, BiB, VABills and the like. And I was in California until about 18 months ago, so you're not losing it, you're just a little behind.

I spend one weekend a month (sometimes a little more) at CMAS. Does that count? Technically, I am 32 miles from the Springs, but it could be closer or farther depending on where the reference is. It takes me about an hour to get to Peterson AFB. BiB can call or email and maybe we can meet up. But, my Wife is 32 weeks pregnant, so I'm not exactly the maker of my own schedule these days... Berg

I finally benched Isaac Bruce last week for Lee Evans (I still lost but oh well). I also have Reggie Wayne, but I wouldn't bench Wayne for Evans. SD has an excellent run D put the pass D is not as good and the game is at Indy. You could argue that the Bills will possibly be throwing more due to McGahee out, but I still wouldn't bench Wayne. Too risky of a move for a fantasy SB IMHO. Berg

I voted for the lesser of two evils - AGAIN.

Heehee. Watching the mad scramble would be humorous, now wouldn't it

Stop loss has been around for a long time. It was not "created" by any of the current leadership.

We finished that a looooooooooonng time ago. Scramjet AND linear aerospike propulsion systems. Very impressive if I do say so myself. We delivered it to Dexter for the laser/flamethower assembly, integration, and test. Didn't he tell you???

I'm sure you will all be very interested to know that the group project I'm doing for a masters class I'm taking is a NASA Pre-Phase A proposal for an Asteroid Defense System. You can also sleep better knowing the planet-killer type Near Earth Objects (1Km diameter) only impact the Earth every 500,000 years or so. The 100-m diameter variety (more like city-killers) happen about every 10,000 years. However, never fear. For a paltry $50B, you guys can fund my system and we will never again have to worry. That is, as long as we can get the UN and IAEA to agree to the launch and orbit of 6 satellites carrying multiple nuclear warheads on board...

Here is an article about the uniform change. No new pictures, and not much discussion on the actual colors, but the hallway rumors are they will look a LOT like the Marines. Which is fine by me. Berg

I guess you didn't hear. Blue - out. New wear test with pixelated very much like the new JarHead BDUs. Good thing I filled out that survey...

hehe. Hey, I told you where I was staying, but had no way to reach you. I'll actually be back on Dec 13,14.