DanG

If it's so fucking well established it should be a big deal for you to post some goddam evidence. Oops, I forgot. I gave up. Fucking Clinton. - Dan G

I officially give up. You guys win. All the evidence needed to prove that the financial crises was because of Clinton, Barney Frank, and ACORN is contained in a single article (or references to the same story) about how some people expressed concerns over Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac in 1999. Happy? Edit: mnealtx, why didn't you post that earlier? You realize, or course, that it has nothing to do with lending standards? - Dan G

Why do you consider someone who deposits money in a bank not a customer? I think that is the root of the question. How the money gets there should not be an issue. Whether it is deposited by an employer, the government, or Santa Claus, money is money. These people are customers and should be charged the same fees as other customers. - Dan G

Why do people keep posting the same thing over and over again? Is this what passes for debate and discussion here? I grant you that minimum lending standards were changed. That is really not in contention. What was the effect of those changes on the overall economy? What was the impact of those changes versus other things that were happening at the same time? Why is this question so hard to understand? - Dan G

I'll take your word for it that you've been saying that all along. To my ears (eyes) it sounded a little different, but maybe that was my interpretation. Now all I'll ask is that you back that up. Nothing you or anyone else has posted has come close to proving that statement. And yes, I've read what people have posted, and watched the videos. In reaching your final conclusion above, you're making lots of assumptions that I and others have pointed out are not accurate. - Dan G

Holy shit, every citizen of the United States is a freeloading shitbag. How depressing. Oh thank God, there's one decent person left in the whole country. I feel much better now. - Dan G

Good point. Real Americans, you know the ones who support the Constitution, would never condone depriving someone of life, liberty, or property without due process. - Dan G

Don't you mean max(f(x))? min(f(x)) is what all the nasty Democrats are trying to achieve. - Dan G

And there are still many here who don't understand the difference between corrolation and causation. All the "evidence" that you and others have posted shows that Democrats, namely Barney Frank (who I agree is a total asshole) were warned that Fannie and Freddie were in trouble. We're supposed to take that evidence and leap to the conclusion that the entire financial and economic crisis was caused by Clinton lowering lending standards with Frank's and ACORN's collusion. Sorry, but to people without an agenda, the links are not as obvious as you imply. You've yet to show proof, beyond opinion pieces, that the crisis was caused by action or inaction on the part of Fannie/Freddie, Frank, or the Democrats. You also brush off the fact that Republicans were in charge of Congress during the time that Frank was supposedly forcing all this down the throats of the financial sector. nerdgirl has posted numerous links suggesting that there may have been other forces at work, too. That evidence is routinely ignored. I don't want to "deny" anything, but before I accept your hypothesis, I'd like to see some actual evidence. Please no more links to Fox and Newsmax. Thanks. - Dan G

My credentials suck. Thanks for the deference, though. I don't know if there are any guidelines out there for USPA, but I find it unlikely that anyone would want a student with 10 jumps carrying a hook knife. In reality hook knives are very, very rarely the answer. I would think most people would rather their students spend time drilling standard EP's. I'd hate to see a student whip out the hook knife to fix a main toggle stow issue and go in with a perfectly good reserve on their back. I personally carry a hook knife, but know that if it ever comes out of the pocket I've run out of all other options. As a disclaimer, I'm not an Instructor, just a Coach. At my DZ we do not outfit students with hook knives, but once they get their license, they're free to buy one and put it on the rental gear. And to the poster to whom I first replied, I personally would not encourage you to make a hook knide your first bit of skydiving gear. Most people buy a helmet, altimeter, gloves, or goggles first. If you do buy a hook knife, spend a bunch of time talking to your instructors about when it is or isn't appropriate to use it. And if they decide that you should wear one, you'll need to practice with it. Not actually cutting anything, but getting it out without dropping it, and figuring out where and how to make different cuts to solve different problems. Again, talk to your instructors and don't believe anything you read on the Internet. Especially from idiots like me. - Dan G

The septic guys told us that the best shit eating stuff is already in your gut. In other words, just poop away and the only enzymes you need come preinstalled, so to speak. Of course, there are a thousand products on the market to help "jump start" your septic system. Our plumbers told us they were all crap (pun intended). I'd just get whatever your septic people recommend. Roto-Rooter has their own product. One Roto-Rooter guy said to use it, another said not to. What's a poor shitter like me to do? And we had a bitch of a time finding our tank. Our old house was built in the forties with no indoor plumbing, and then added on to over time. Our tank and leech field ended up being in the front yard. One thing to look for is trees planted close to the lines (especially the line to the tank, or the line between the tank and distribution box). If someone's planted a tree near those lines, the roots can lead to a break and/or clog. Good luck. - Dan G

From someone who spent about $4,000 fixing a screwed up tank and field: go ahead and have it pumped. The real benefit to having it pumped is that it gets inspected at the same time. We had broken leech field pipes and didn't know it until the toilet backed up. Oh, this was the day before the home inspection on our house that we were selling. The rush repairs (and threats from the County that we would be forced to install a new alternate system at the cost of over $25k) made for a very stressful week. Go ahead and get it pumped. It's cheap and could save you a ton of money and headache in the future. By the way, as someone else posted, the tank was not full of our crap, it was already screwed up when we bought the house four years earlier and took that long to get critical. - Dan G

Talk to your instructors. If they want you to have a hook knife, they'll lend you one. It's unlikely they'll want you to have a hook knife. - Dan G

I'll assume you meant post 21, since post 23 wasn't by you. You posted a brief summary of a (settled) class action lawsuit which claimed: (emphasis added) Sorry, but that's not evidence that companies were forced to lower their lending standards. The lawsuit alleged racial preference in lending ("redlining") not that lending standards were too high. Also, even if I grant you that that lawsuit was an attempt to lower lending standards for certain people (and I'm only granting that for the sake of the present argument), your evidence says nothing about the long term impact of those lowered standards on the housing market, or the economy in general. - Dan G

I guess asking again for any evidence or links to back up your position would be a waste of bandwidth? I thought so. - Dan G

You've posted this same thing about a dozen times. I've yet to see any supporting evidence. Care to share? - Dan G

Those sources don't necessarily support your position that Republicans are more generous that Democrats. Even Arthur Brooks, the author of "Who Really Cares," says that religion is the primary determinant for charitable giving, not political affiliation. Another article about Brooks' book says, "Most of the difference in giving among conservatives and liberals gets back to religion. Religious liberals give nearly as much as religious conservatives, Mr. Brooks found. And secular conservatives are even less generous than secular liberals." http://philanthropy.com/free/articles/v19/i04/04001101.htm Also, if you normalize for religious giving vs. strictly humanitarian giving (ie, giving $100k to a megachurch is not the same as giving $100k to the Red Cross) the picture becomes even murkier. In short, the line between Republican and Democratic charitable giving is not at all well defined. I really don't think you can make the generalizations you've implied. - Dan G

Can you point me to what statistics you are relying on? I'm curious to see for myself. - Dan G

The big difference being that if you had convinced your friend that the only way to eternal peace and salvation (and avoiding an eternity of physical and spiritual agony) was to keep hanging out with you, he might have been persuaded to change his "belief system". The Church is not just some Saturday bowling club to its members. It is a part of their spiritual being. Threatening them with damnation because of their political activities is not the same as being told to go join a different bowling league. The problem becomes even more apparent when you read about priests or bishops declaring that even people who vote for pro-choice polititions should be excommunicated. The Church is clearly taking a political stance and exerting political pressure. - Dan G

Can we PLEASE get 75 more stimulus bill threads with cryptic titles? PLEASE!!!!! - Dan G

Dude, the geese are willing to do the jobs that American pigeons don't want to do. - Dan G

If you've already done the research, please post it. Why tell someone else to do the research and then imply that you already know the answer? I'm betting because you haven't actually done the research, but want us all to think that you have. Post your proof, if it exists. If it doesn't exist, stop implying it does. - Dan G

If you read this closely it confirms some of the things Marg has been saying. There is clearly a lack of science education when even the reporter writing the piece doesn't understand what evolution is. Evolution says nothing about the origin of life. Evolution and abiogenesis are separate theories, neither one depending on the other. Evolution explains the variation of species, that is all. How life originated is a whole different topic. Why any discussion of evolution quickly turns into a religion vs. atheism debate is beyond me. Evolution and religion are completely compatible. - Dan G

If you managed to get yourself 100,000 miles out and were stationary in reference to the Earth (no small feat) you would hit the Earth going really gosh darn fast. Let's say that there's a hole through the center of the Earth that you could fall through, and that the Earth had been evacuated of all its air. Also, you need to assume that the Earth and you are the only bodies around. What would happen? You would fall through the Earth and come to rest on the other side 100,000 miles out. An instant later you'd begin the journey in reverse. The problem with relating this to escape velocity is that in our example there are only two massive bodies in the universe. In the real solar system, there are numerous massive bodies, most notably the sun. Escape velocity is how fast you need to be going to leave the gravity well of a given body and come under the more significant influence of another body. For the Earth it is about 25,000mph. - Dan G

Um, yeah. I was giving examples from both sides that piss me off. I'm not sure how that could have been clearer. Like I said before: whatever. - Dan G