IowaBill

Classic!!!!!!!!! Besides, if there is no Janes manual handy for our resident "open minded" right wingers, they can always come to this website, and read each others posts aloud. I am sure that would get them equally excited. perhaps we should have something similar to a LAMP for certain threads that reads, "Warning, right wing circle jerk ahead"!

I think most Bills fans always have. It is never the 95% that get to you, it is the outspoken, loud, obnoxious 5%. I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Ferguson once and he certainly impressed me as a nice guy.

I am not sure if he has. as soon as his playing days in the NFL were over, I think he played a bit for the CFL when they had a team in Sacremento, and then went into coaching down in Arkansas. It wouldn't appear as if his professional obligations would allow for a casual visit. Probably equally importantly, Ferguson was treated horribly by the Buffalo News toward the end of his tenure in Bufalo. And in fine Buffalo Bills fan fashion, many people jumped on that bandwagon and made their displeasure known, bith while he was on the field and off the field. My brother in law lived in the same apartment complex Fergy, and the stories he told of what people did would make you lose faith in Bills fans. they are not worth repeating because they were no more than rumors to me at the tme, and it was a while ago. Still you could see how a trip to Buffalo mihgt not be real high on his list of things to do.

I'll go back to an earlier time in my life, when Hurricane Fran blew through North Carolina. Much of the press coverage at the time was on the area around raleigh and the research triangle. That made sense, the area was not accustomed to getting hurricanes, and it was a big deal. At the time I lived in rural eastern North Carolina, very rural, very poor. A number of communities were totally destroyed by Fran. At the time I had a job working with the rural poor. After their houses were destroyed, many of them were placed in FEMA house trailers. House trailers that had real floors (as opposed to dirt floors), indoor plumbing, real toilets, etc. In fact, to my eyes, these people were better off in these FEMA trailers. Their living conditions prior to them were abysmal. I thought they were better off. they didn't think so, because many of them said they wanted to go home. You can house someone after a disaster, but its hard to give them a home. I think perhaps, tha may be where Barbara Bush is coming from.

Absolutley, the efficient use of donated resources is something many don't understand. It wouod appear as of today that many of the basic needs are being met, and the emergency services are currently being provided. An assessment of what is needed and how those needs will be addressed can now begin to take place and the resources being offered can be put to use then. I am reminded when that blwohard O' Reilly castigated the Red Cross and United Way for not spending donated dollars quick enouhg, when in fact it appeared as the organization were exercising some due diligence. Arbitraril throwing money at a problem, that is the governments role

I don't know, I suppose that could be the case. This refinery was built here back the late 60' s and expanded significantly in the late 80's. I could see where a company could be given a break regarding emission standards in the USVI, not many people live here, the area is desparate for economic activity, and regarding emissions, the trade winds move constantly here, carrying away any immediate emissions. So who knows?

Not sure if youre sarcasm button is on, but................. the US Virgin Islands is a territory of the US and as such is subject to the same EPA and DOE regulations as the US mainland. I think the reason for the refinery's location is the easy access to Venezuala (closest US land to Venezuala) as well as easy access to US ports on the eastern seaboard.

None of you will probably want to hear this, I paid 2.19 a gallon this morning, premium is 2.24. This is on the island of St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. We are home to one of, if not the largest, refineries in the western hemisphere. It is a joint operation between Hess and the Venezualan national petroleum company. All the gas station operators here are independents, no Amoco, BP, Texaco, etc. They all get their gas stock directly from the refinery. It is my understanding that is a pretty unusual arrangement. There are only 55,000 people on the island, so I imagine it is doable because of how little gasoline the whole island uses. Still, people here B word about the price of gas constantly. I am not complaining about gas prices, I know how good I have it.

I think you confused me with someone else, I never made the statement "voodoo economics". Nor did I ever attempt to correct VABills math. Plenty of other people did, however, I am am inclined to agree with them. My bone of contention was him favorably comparing the Republican Party of A. Lincoln with the current version of the GOP. It was invalid in his original statement, and it remains invalid still. The only comment VABills made was that I was "wrong". Not much better than his anti Losman diatribes on TSW, but I didn't expect much more.

If I (or any rational economist) thought the growth in federal revenue was driven solely by GWB's tax cuts, I supose I would try to answer that. I don't think his tax cuts are the only driving force behind increased federal revenues. I don't think Bill Clintons economic policies were the only driving reasons behind increased federal revenues during his terms either. I think his (VABills) statement of the Civil war occuring two centuries was bad math (so do others, obviously) and I still think his likening of the Republican Party of A. Lincoln to the Republican Party of GWB is about as valid as his "calendar" math.

Except FFS posts are usualy written by him (or her, I suppose) and not cut and pasted like yours was. Oh yeah, his are worth reading, at least sometimes they are. Unlike yours, most of the times.

I like Pollocks stuff, too. I believe he played high school football at Lewiston Porter in the early mid 70's and was recruited to play some low level college ball. I am not sure if he did go on to play, but he clearly knows the game. Unlike the claim many on th board make for guys like Sullivan, Schoop, etc, Pollock was not a "wanna-be", "last guy picked in gym class" kind of guy.

I'll grant you point on "century" and write off our disagreement to semantics. My point regarding your comparing the Republican Party of the 1860's to that of today still stands. The two parties have little in common, and your comparison between the two is ill founded.

1861 wasn't two centuries ago unless you are using the same sort of math GWB does when calculating the results from his tax cuts. More to the point, to compare the Republican Party of the Civil War era with that of today is pretty much consistent with your math skills.

Become a dolphins fan

I live on a Caribbean island (St Croix in the Virgin Islands) and I am a middle age, middle class guy. Unfortunately for all "parrotheads" I think I can honestly say it is very little like a Buffet tune come to life. Still a nice place to live in many ways, though.

We watch the games at bar called Sharkies Bait Stand (yikes!) just outside of C'sted. Went to the Buccaneer once last year, only five TV's working at the time and they didn't want to put the Bills game on. Can you believe it? We went to Sharkies (were they sell something called "hot wings" with ranch dressing!!) and haven't looked back. Bunch of snobs at the Buccaneer anyway, where a round of golf costs in excess of $100.00, cart included of course. We've been here for about two years and I am not sure how much longer we can stay, as we are slowly getting "rock fever".

We live mid island (Estate St. George) my wife works at the University and I work at the hospital, so the location is convenient for both work and access to either end of the island, and to the North Shore beaches. Plus we live about 3/4 up a mountain, so the view is great. (if you avoid the oil refinery) While it would be tough to get a 750 of cruzan for 99cents, the distillery does makes a rum called "Buck Island Rum" and I bought a a liter bottle for 1.59 !!! Red Stripe is better than Corona, although both are better than Carib, a beer from Trinidad / Tobago.

I live on St. Croix in the US Virigin Islands. It is about 85 here today with a nice steady sea breeze. I am dreading the winter where it will probably get as low as 70 degrees. In fairness it did go up to about 90 on Sunday. It makes going to the beach (about 1/2 a mile away) essential. I'd tell you that life here is like a Corona commercial except it is cheaper to drink Red Stripe, and the place has a massive poverty problem. Oh well, so does Niagara Falls.

I am not an expert, nor do I play one on TV, BUT, I think the reasonoing behind discouraging the "bi weekly payment" is that the extra money you send to your mortag company could be invested somewhere else with a better rate of return. In addition, AD correctly states your mortgage company is not bound to post any extra $$$ to your account until you havemet your full monthly obligation, which generally doesn't happen until the second payment you make that month. the reaosn why it makes your principal shrink faster and hastens the end of your mortgage, is that you essentially 13 payments as opposed to twelve a year. That is because a month is 4.3 weeks long, not 4 weeks long. The fallacy, as others have pointed out in this thread, is tha many people don't have the discipline to invest that extra money, so they pay extra on their mortgage with it. To a person with much financial discipline, a mortgage balance is a good thing to have. It is pretty clear that by seieng all these interest only mortgages and other sort of financial gimmickrey ("low" lease payments for cars, etc, etc.) americans are anything but financially disciplined.

I am not sure where service in the armed forces gives anyone a free pass to say things like Rich does and have them go uncommented on, especially on a internet forum. In fact, contrary to some popular beliefs, the only place where that might apply was in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie). Nobody here is denying RIO's right to post here, and it is clear that most people read them. What people do, and should be able to do without being called out, is comment on those posts, because much of the time they are pretty outrageous. If people didn't have an open mind, they would ignore RIO's posts entirely. An open mind doesn't mean agreement, it means a willingess to hear what people have to say, a courtesy clearly afforded RIO and other veterans of the Armed Services.

Pete Townshend wasn't Uncle ernie in the movie "Tommy", Keith Moon played the part. (although Townshend did write the song "Fiddle ABout"

It was not my intention to seperate religion from what you and your fellow worshipers do, although I see where that could have been seen as my intention. My point is that all the good things you mention, can and do happen without organized religion. Further all the "good" that happens with faith based charities happens without the faith based charities also. In fact, having worked with faith based charities and with "secular" charities, I would say that neither approach is superior, more efficient, more caring, or what have you. I have worked with faith based charities that woudl tell me they are better because their motives are biblically driven, they are "called" to do this work, hence they are better, blah, blah, blah. It is just not so. In fact, you are more likely, at least in my experience, to find charlatans and inefficiency hiding behind the "cloak" of an organization being faith based, and feeling that they are beyond judgement, or accountability, because their motives are "pure". Not so. Didn't mean to ramble, I am just saying charitable acts and other good things do NOT require the recognition of an organized religion to occur, and when they are driven by an organized religion, they are no better, or worse, than those that are secular in nature.

I am not real sure that all of what you stated was due entirely to organized religion. Fraternal organizations, like the Elks, The Moose, etc all do such things, as do many civic clubs. Granted, many fraternal organizations and civic clubs don't do such good deeds either. Neither do a lot of parishes. Our instinct to band together and then use collective energies and skills to work toward common causes (both good an bad) is something that doesn't need a set of man made religions. Worship if want, believe if you will, but good deeds by groups have been done long before the establishment of Christianity, Islam, Judiasm, other monotheistic faiths.

I think your statement comparing the Scouts to fraternal organization is right on target. The gripe some people have with the Scouts (not me personally, I think the Scouts do far more good than anything else) is that they practice exclusionary tactics (not allowing atheists or homosexuals) and yet are allowed privileged access to government facilities (schools, military bases, etc). The heart of their argument is not that the Scouts don't like atheists, but that the Scouts are exclusionary, and tax dollars that support those government facilcities aren't collected in an exclusionary fashion. My own minimal gripe with the Scouts is when any organization discriminates against any group, it will cause that organization to be a less effective organization in the long run. Having dealt with the Scouts on a business basis for years, I just think discrimination is a bad business practice.