Azalin

well, I had to wait for cigarettes to kick my @ss before I began a serious effort to quit, and even then I got off of cigs by switching to a vaporizer. nicotine is astoundingly difficult to quit....at least it is for me. the effect you describe was duplicated in me by a steady, yet modest, consumption of tequila. I always said that it kept my system clean and sterilized.

the Hobbit is a breeze, and quite light-hearted when compared with his subsequent middle-earth based works. I haven't been to see any of the Hobbit movies because they have to invent an awful lot of material to make three movies out of it. The Silmarillion was a beast, but if you can make it past the first 100 or so pages, it gets pretty epic. Melkor makes Sauron look like Gatorman. The LOTR movies followed the books fairly closely, but I'm one of those really annoying people that gets really pissed off when they make significant changes from the original story for the sake of making a movie. they really wrote-in a hell of a lot for the Arwen character that she never actually did in the books, starting with her riding Froso to Rivendell to save him from being wounded by a Nazgul, and then turning the Nazgul by conjuring riders from the river. in the books, it was Elrond and Glorfindel that did that. everyone in the theater cheered, while I sat there glowering, saying wtf is this bullcrap?

okay, point taken. I don't suppose there's a chance that their claim is based on weight-loss brought on by virulent illness due to cigarette smoking, is there?

fair enough. that's news to me. I remember when the surgeon general first issued warnings on the potential health hazards of cigarettes back in the 60's, but that's the first time I ever saw anything that actually suggested real health benefits from smoking cigarettes. thanks for the info!

I don't ever remember cigarettes being considered to be 'good for you', nor do I ever recall seeing any advertisements that made that claim, either during my lifetime or from any point in american history. I'd really like to see anything to the contrary. I do remember light cigarettes being sold as being 'healthier', but I have never seen anything that actually made a claim that cigarettes did anything other than calm your nerves or help you to relax.

still shooting blanks, eh?

I'm not sure that will be good enough because he probably wears an economic recovery awareness bracelet, so his reply will automatically be from a higher moral viewpoint than anything you could offer.

indeed. everyone knows those Italian journalists are notorious zionists.

that's all you've got? go home and put on your pink shirt, little man.

what you lack in thought and substance isn't made up for by indulging in such unimaginitive name-calling. just because you've learned that 'ass-hat' is actually two words (but you did forget to include the hyphen), doesn't change the fact that symbolism such as ribbons, rubber bracelets, or pink clothing do absolutely nothing except let the wearer believe that they hold a superior moral position when they really haven't done a damn thing to actually address some very serious, often life-threatening issues that effect millions of people in this country and around the globe. instead of volunteering their time in an effort to actually make a difference, people like you leech off of the misfortune of others for no reason other than to inflate your sense of self-importance and self-righteousness. of course, you're entitled to your own opinions, but I would think that at some point you'd notice the similarity between what comes out of your mouth with what comes out your backside.

the wearing of ribbons, bracelets, pink hand towels, etc shows that the wearer cares more than you do, and that they're doing something constructive about it, like wearing ribbons, bracelets, and pink hand towels.

wow, Gator suddenly sounds a lot like my brother.......

thanks!

I assume that those (would they be considered malapropisms?) all occurred on this board during my 12-ish-or-so-year-absence? I would love to see the original posts and contexts in which they were used.

what is it like to breeze through life unencumbered by facts, knowledge, or reality?

and surprisingly, it's some of the 'healthiest' (read 'not as deadly as most others') fast food you can get. I don't care for McDonalds very much, but if you get someone who understands enough english to take your order, you usually get what you ask for, it's it's nearly always fresh-ish.

all you ever do is take peoples' rebukes of you and use them on other people, verbatim. seeing you accuse anyone of parroting talking points is like seeing Liberace accuse someone of being flamboyantly gay. you may be changing your playbook, but you're still not gaining any yardage.

a youthful 56.

how many investigations has Issa held? about as many as times as IRS officials have withheld evidence, that's how many.

why on earth would anyone care that a part of the executive branch of the federal government, which has the power to accuse individuals of fraud and force them to prove their innocence or face massive fines, confiscation of property and/or incarceration, is attempting to hide evidence that they exercised that power based purely on political affiliation? of course, people like you say that the effort to prove that the IRS was on a partisan witch hunt accuse the rest of us of being on a partisan witch hunt.

the comments were even better than the article. I enjoyed this bit: 'The better question is, should the government have any right to tell developers that they MUST build cheap housing?' ' No one is saying that they must. What the ordinance means is that developers CAN build larger properties if they include affordable housing as part of the project'

am I supposed to reply with a video of Palestinians celebrating in the streets over successful missile strikes in Israel? both sides over there have plenty to be angry about. you bestow upon yourself a position of moral superiority and make a sweeping, repugnant statement attributing the basest of human ugliness to an entire nation, for the sake of trying to make yourself look smart. justify it if you wish. I'm not buying it.

that's a contemptable thing to say. I would expect that sort of hyperbole from gator, but not from you.

but Tahmooressi isn't a deserter, so we're not really interested in getting him back.