TheBachelor

Per USA Today, Joe Biden and his wife gave an average of $369 to charity a year over the past decade. His best year was last year, giving .3% of his income, while his $120 in 1999, about .1% of his income was his lowest. I understand now, he just wants to give OTHER PEOPLE'S money to the needy. Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-12-biden-financial_N.htm There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender says "Is this a joke?" There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I belive that for certain people (including BillVon and Quade), nothing Sarah Palin said last night would change their opinions of her / the Republicans. There are others on the other side that would vote Republican regardless of her. So, for those who watched her speech, or read enough of it, did her speech change the way you're leaning for November? There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I miss it -- half of the stuff they did couldn't be shown on TV today because of the rampant PC... The sketch that comes to mind has Chevy Chase doing a word association with Richard Pryor as part of a supposed job interview. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

If Obama wins, I'll be the first one in line. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

Walleye. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

What this article doesn't say is that most of the corporations that didn't pay taxes are small "Subchapter 'S'" corporations, or LLCs whose income passes through to the owner(s) of those companies. From http://www.oanow.com/oan/news/local_govtpolitics/article/most_companies_in_us_avoid_federal_income_taxes/31494/: An outside tax expert, Chris Edwards of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said increasing numbers of limited liability corporations and so-called “S” corporations pay taxes under individual tax codes. “Half of all business income in the United States now ends up going through the individual tax code,” Edwards said. I have a corporation that has paid virtually no taxes for years because of being Subchapter "S". On the other hand, in the past 10 years, I've personally paid about $1.25 million (give or take a few hundred grand) in PERSONAL income taxes. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I don't know about the country as a whole, but Exxon's profit margin in the first quarter was about 8.5%. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

Based on your statements, I'd then argue that if the "no reserve pulls" can be fixed by training, etc., then the "RSL-reserve entanglement" problem can be fixed by training too. Train the skydivers to disconnect the RSL before cutting away if they are unstable at the time. The RSL/Skyhook/neither argument is the same as the Cypres/Vigil/neither argument. Everyone has their opinion (and a few will argue their position until they're blue in the face). Each of us needs to evaluate these equipment issues, and choose what is best for his/her self. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I think this explains it best: Global Politics - The Two Cows Explanation A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor. A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. A REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. Maybe he should work harder.... A DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who tax your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money and buy a cow and give to your neighbor. You feel righteous. A COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government. CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows. BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain. AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead. A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one tenth the size of An ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves. AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship them. A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 15 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka. AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch. A MEXICAN CORPORATION: You think you have two cows. Who cares. You take a nap. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

Some more facts before getting so pissed off: 1) Nearly 50% of Exxon's taxable income went to the government for taxes in the recent quarter. 2) As the article says, Exxon's profit margin is about 8%, which is BELOW AVERAGE for S&P 500 companies. Look at some other profit margins: Intel: 55%+, MicroSoft: 29%+, Proctor & Gamble: 13.9%, McDonalds: 19.2%. Where is all of the bitching about them? 3) Exxon doesn't set the price of oil. The world markets do. 4) Making a profit is not illegal or immoral. It's part of capitalism -- what American business is built on. If you want socialism, move to another country. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I don't smoke pot, nor do any of my friends (as far as I know), and politically, I'm very conservative. That being said, I think mairjuana being illegal is ridiculous. I think alcohol and cigarettes are both more dangerous than pot. It has been proven that there are legitimate medical uses for pot. Still, I'd be surprised if this passes. I think there are enough legislators that believe that legalizing pot will send the wrong message about drug use. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I've been out for more than 4 months due to surgery (not skydiving-related). 2 more months to go. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I took an inside passage cruise on Celebrity Cruises last year. Best vacation I've ever been on. We fished for halibut and salmon. Did a whale watching trip, and took a helicopter that landed on a glacier. Everything was a blast. We researched our excursions, and in most cases, booked them directly, instead of paying the cruise line to book them for you. If you book them yourself, just make sure you can get a refund if for some reason you can't make it (the ship is late, can't get off the ship, etc.) None of that happened to us, though. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

High Plains Drifter! There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I had my 3-month follow-up on last Monday. The surgeon said everything looked good, and I didn't need to see him anymore. I asked him when I could skydive. He said to wait 3 more months. I wasn't surprised -- he's always said 6 months from the surgery. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I bought IBM's Via Voice for my dad. I tried it out at home, and it worked pretty well. You just had to learn how to talk to it. It could handle "normal" speaking pace, but you wanted to be sure to annunciate. After training it, I thinik it was more than 95% accurate. Anyway, when my father tried to train it and use it, he couldn't get it to work that well. I think it was his annunciation. He quickly got frustrated with it, and gave up. It didn't help that he know very little about computers. Yes, they are resource-intensive, but most computers bought in the last few years should have no problem. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

1) Open up ANWR and The Gulf of Mexico for drilling. 2) Fast-track new refineries. South Dakota voters just approved the first new refinery IN 32 YEARS. 3) Fast-track new nuclear power plants. 4) Lift tarriffs on foreign ethanol. Foreign ethanol is subject to a 54-cents-per-gallon tariff and a 2.5 percent duty. This discourages imports, such as potentially cheaper sugar cane-based ethanol from Brazil and other countries. Read, set, FLAME AWAY! There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

We bring these prices on ourselves. Look at the cars in Europe, where gas has been MUCH more expensive than ours for years. They have a lot of those tiny Smart cars, and very few trucks/SUVs. But here, we (O.K., most of us) don't want to change. We like our big cars/trucks/SUVs. How about getting on congress to expand the drilling of oil in the US. People bitch about oil prices, but they're NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) when someone wants to drill for oil. We've got ANWR, off the California coast, and many other places with substantial oil reserves. If we rely on the rest of the world for the bulk of our oil, we'll always be at their mercy. If you personally are taking steps to reduce your conumption, then good for you, but until the majority of the country changes their thinking, we're all screwed. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

Samantha Fox Lita Ford Pat Benetar ... There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I saw my surgeon yesterday. He said the healing is going well, and I don't have to wear the collar. He said it will be a minimum of 6 months after surgery before he'd clear me to jump again. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I had a discectomy and fusion of C3-4 and C5-6 on March 20 -- almost 4 weeks ago. I took pain meds for the first 2 weeks, and now I'm almost pain-free. I have to wear a hard neck collar until my follow-up with the surgeon on April 21st. They'll do an x-ray at that time, and hopefully the fusion will look good and I can get rid of the collar/go back to driving. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

In support of equal airtime: And to be a good Democrat.. HOW TO BE A GOOD DEMOCRAT Virtually anyone can be a Democrat - simply quit thinking and vote that way. But if you want to be a GOOD Democrat, there are some prerequisites you must have first: 1. You have to believe the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding. 2. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex. 3. You have to believe that guns, in the hands of law abiding Americans, are more of a threat than US nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese communists. 4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding. 5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical, documented changes in the earth's climate, and more affected by yuppies driving SUVs. 6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural. 7. You have to be against capital punishment but support abortion on demand. 8. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity. 9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists from Seattle do. 10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it. 11. You have to believe the military, not corrupt politicians, start wars. 12. You have to believe the NRA is bad, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good, because it supports certain parts of the Constitution. 13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high. 14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinhem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, General Robert E.Lee or Thomas Edison. 15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides aren't. 16. You have to believe Hillary Clinton is really a lady. 17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried, is because the right people haven't been in charge. 18. You have to believe Republicans telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and sex offender belongs in the White House. 19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites and bestiality should be constitutionally protected and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal. 20. You have to believe that illegal Democratic party funding by the Chinese is somehow in the best interest of the United States. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

I live in an area with a HOA. I really like it because they make sure everyone keeps their property looking good. If you've read the CC&R's, and nothing jumps out at you, I'd call it good. The only other thing you may want to inquire about is how much the fees have increased in the last few years. That may tell you what to expect in future increases. Wait, I forgot another... Here in California, they are required to do an annual reserve study. That's basically a list of "common" items (like a community pool, clubhouse, etc.). Along with each item, its useable life and replacement cost are listed. It basically amortizes all of that stuff out, and compares to how much money is in the reserve account. That way you don't move in, and in the first year have them come and say that they need to replace all of the roofs, and you'll need to pay a couple grand in a special assessment. There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...