jfields

Bill, Do you try to make me feel like an inarticulate oaf on purpose, or is it inadvertent? Basically, "Yeah, what he said!"

Born: Washington, DC Live: Rockville, Maryland Jump: Delmarva, Chambersburg, Cross Keys, wherever.

Mike, I'm not downplaying the seriousness of war. Quite the opposite. I dislike the defense given to Nazi activities (not by you), and the glorification of attempted genocide, torture, unwilling medical testing and countless other things they did. Equally barbaric things were done in Vietnam too. Nor am I saying that the US is innocent of all these things. Unfortunately, we've done our share too. In the comment you quoted, I wasn't saying that the Dresden firebombings were right, or that we should be proud to have done them. I was putting things in perspective, that it was less bad then the extermination of 6 million. In relative terms, I still think that is true. Generally, I think we pretty much agree on this issue.

Hey, at least we weren't trying to systematically wipe out an entire ethnic group. 200,000 is a lot less than 6 million. Yes, they were.

Best date? This one: http://www.jennandjustin.com/aboutus-firstdate.asp

Well, it sounds like you need to weigh your dislike of driving against the benefits. Be thankful you have the freedom to make the choice without worrying about family obligation. That makes it a lot easier.

That quote is a keeper! As a side note, how do you know what it feels like to have a thousand concubines blowing on your nuts? I still haven't gotten more than 900 at a time together before.

Mike, A couple of sincere questions. Not trying to bust on you... Is this a major issue? Is that inhibiting some aspect of your lifestyle that you'd like to explore? Or is it just the nuisance factor? This sounds like as much of a downfall with the new job as you have with the current one. Looking at pretty much everything on your list of pros for each job, it basically boils down to stability vs. flexibility. You worked at the potential new place before, but left because things changed. If you switched now, there is nothing saying things couldn't change again. Are you willing to take that gamble? The other thing to think about is that these two jobs are not the only possibilities. If you are patient, you could take the important pros of both jobs, and try to find something that had most of them, without the major drawbacks. Personally, I would stay put, but that is because of my life situation. Yours is probably different, and you didn't expound on that in your scenario. I have a wife and baby girl to support, so I am not willing to risk changing jobs right now. If you couldn't live on the base salary alone, don't take the job. The commissions are probable, but not guaranteed. Take that info consideration when evaluating salary risk. Whichever you choose, good luck!

You know, I try to keep all that stuff away from my crotch in the first place! What the hell are you guys doing?

Idiot. It is "new-kyuh-ler". Duh! Do you think he could read it if it wasn't spelled out phonetically?

Sorry. But you have my permission to look for a "buddy" closer, in my absence.

Well, I have theoretical knowledge of the former, but none of the latter. I guess it would take first-hand experience to have both. That just isn't my scene.

Where do you live? I have no idea about the hookers, but I haven't gotten a motel for $20.

Probably not, but I didn't / don't.

Anybody planning to go to the Cabin Fever Boogie at Carolina Sky Sports on Feb. 15-17? What aircraft do they usually have? Anyone been to this boogie in previous years?

I found very little good food in Britain. Most of it came from their glory days of colonialism. The Indian food was quite good, but hardly representative of traditional British fare. But I'll take British beer over most American stuff any day. Most American food is pretty crappy these days. No argument there.

Yup. Lots of lawyers suck, but not all of them. Lots of riggers are careful, but not all of them. Lots of politicians suck. Well, probably all of them. The point is that no profession has all perfect members. Or demanding people be accountable for their actions, and have a sense of personal responsibility. I know, what a crazy concept!

In Maryland, there are many scenarios where the loser pays attorney's fees and such. Yes, bogus lawsuits are filed all the time. And mostly tossed out or lost. What alternative system of dispute resolution to you recommend, if you are to limit the types or numbers of lawsuits?

Assuming these are Merrick's nuts she was dealing with, I would bet he'd have been okay with the saliva suggestion. What guy isn't? And Josh, the whole point of the medicinal saliva application is to have it directly applied and that it not be your own.

There are plenty of foods that are uniquely American, and not even regional. Twinkies. CheezWhiz. Lunchables. Spam. Pop Rocks. Mmm. Shelf-stable crap. I need to go to 7-11.

Dude. That is so unnecessary! The only thing that ever needs to be applied to testicles to keep them happy is saliva.

How do you tell which suits are meaningless before they get to court? Is it some bureaucrat in charge of deciding whether your suit is valid, or a judge that may not agree with you? If I have a grievance, I'd rather it be heard by a jury. If it is frivolous, then I'll end up paying the other side's fees, as well as court fees. The system is set up in many ways to ward off frivolity. The cases that get tossed out, with the loser paying the defendant just don't make the news. I'm not saying things are perfect. Far from it. But the path of arbitrarily refusing to hear court cases is a horrible precedent.

Anyone remember the chicken head found in a box of McNuggets? That was intentional, as it didn't even fit in the box. Not really hazardous to health, but definitely not what the people paid for, either. I tend to agree with Tom that over the long term, these things tend to regulate themselves. The occasional damages are getting bigger, but also as a result of increasingly callous behaviour by corporations. Fining them $100, or even $100,000 is chump change they don't even miss. Fines and court judgements can only be effective when they are big enough to hit the bottom line of the company, stir up tons of negative press, and create irrate shareholders. The point isn't that someone actually lost millions of dollars. It is usually a punitive award on top of actual damages that makes the number so big. It is done intentionally, to send a message and teach a lesson.

Chuck, He didn't do that many steriods and get that big to wipe his own ass. He bulked up so he would have bicep groupies to wipe his ass for him. Of course, he is still a loser.

Well, mine is pretty damned big. I have around 800-900 CDs. My computer has a small mp3 collection as well, so I can shuffle through music at work. Most of it has been ripped from my collection. Right now, I have to get my RedHat Samba server back online so I can actually get to my ripped mp3s though.