ParanoiA

True, and regulations as well - perhaps one in the same - the point being that abusing things rather than using things renders a negative impact of some kind. Correct. It's not anyone's place to enforce any guidance on others. That's oppression, and it's wrong - embraced by liberal and conservative ideologies no less. Because I like them. That's a good enough reason. But, for argument's sake, I'll add that I would rather them both be legal because I believe it is healthy to break from the grind and cut loose a little ever now and then. Drugs help with that. They're fun. And how else would we get pics of Brittany Spears without panties?? Right, but if you're going to legalize a drug just for its entertainment value and it's dangerous to use, then it's asinine not to legalize a safer drug just for its entertainment value. We're comparing for a good reason. You think we're doing a comparison to say weed is "safe" - but we're not, we're doing a comparison to say weed is "safe-er". If you're going to throw safety out the window and allow alcohol to permeate society and let people overdose and die, get addicted and lose everything, pass out and get taken advantage of...etc - then why not allow a somewhat safer drug to permeate society and let people overdose and live, get addicted and quit before losing everything, pass out and not get taken advantage of...?

Booze is much worse than Mary Jane. There is no comparison.

Yes you are seeing a contradiction here...in your reply that is. Food, sex, drugs, gambling, smoking, playing video games, starring at your monitor - just a short list off the top of my head of things that in excess can do a lot of damage. Of course, most of us already know this and learned a long time ago, that just about anything used in excess gives bad results. That's because you're missing the point. Alcohol is the only drug that's legal and that serves no further purpose than intoxication. Tobacco is the only drug that's legal, that serves no further purpose than shear pleasure. All other legal drugs have a higher purpose and aren't relevant to use as examples or comparisons. So, people are always going to use Alcohol and Tobacco for comparison - and rightly so. If drinking kills people - in the hundreds, if not thousands - every year in overdoses alone, then pimping my weed, that has never killed a single person, for legalization is quite fair. In fact, it's downright insane not to legalize it. Weed is far safer than alcohol. Most drugs are physically AND mentally addictive - weed is just mental. It's easier to quit, it's a milder intoxication, it doesn't incapacitate people and judgement is far less impaired - none of those can be said of alcohol. Yes, you do. At least in terms of civil liberties. My countrymen will put people in jail for spray painting breasts on their own property. My countrymen will assign an R rating to a movie that shows nudity, and no violence but then assign a PG rating to a move that shows gory violence but no nudity. WTF?? Honestly I'm not sure if you really have more freedoms or not, I'm more discouraged by the lack of tolerance and backward assed intellect embraced and legislated by americans. I don't see a single reason why we should be running around sporting "the land of the free..." - that land is gone...

Victimless relies on the concept that you can't be a victim of your own actions. That's called mental illness. Alcohol and pain medications and a hundred other legal substances cause impaired judgement. And what's wrong with impaired judgement anyway? They can get more people addicted to it? I don't think I've ever heard a more irresponsible statement in this forum. Talk about passing the buck.... Is anything in your life your fault or do you always blame others for your choices?

I absolutely agree. Victimless crime is a big issue with me. I don't agree with the concept at all. It's the majority's preferencial behavior modification - that's it. And that's wrong. I don't believe we should advertise the US as a free country unless it's really free. The title should be stripped and given to the UK. They have more freedoms than we do.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/20/uk.komodo.reut/index.html I'm sure all of you have heard of this sort of thing - parthenogenesis. But apparently they just recently discovered that Komodo dragons can do this, as well as other lizards. So, maybe Godzilla's asexual reproduction wasn't so far fetched after all??

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,237800,00.html Thank goodness. I'm glad they're finding ways around the anti-drug force.

Well, this is a tough one. I mean, whatever happened to having a backbone? Whatever happened to applying common sense? Chances are, a kid really did need special attention and they basically abused him instead. They needed to be sued for that. But that doesn't mean you implement a policy of banning corporal punishment because of it. Teachers are smart people and they're getting smarter and more tolerant every generation - I sincerely believe they have the skills necessary to know when to beat my child's ass and when he needs a different kind of approach. I understand trying to protect our institutions from frivolous lawsuits but when the counter policy directly undermines the fundamental purpose and goal of education in the first place, then it is wrong and gutless. Besides, I would be more than happy to sign a release form to allow them to use corporal means to enforce rules.

I'm sorry, but I really like these two: Sweet. The first one is subjective and purely an emotional appeal, but it's still a good point. The second one is just too awesome. I love it. The rest is pure BS. Protecting marriage? Protect it from what? Oh that's right, same sex people who hook up somehow are effecting "normal" people who hook up....hmmm.... It's just all the same ole right wing traditionalist propaganda. So, why are they mentioning the river for gambling? Where is this ad running?

Calluses are created by doing manly man work - not girly man stuff. That's why chicks dig 'em, cuz they feel like manly man hands. Calluses bad enough to break open and bleed are not calluses - those are wounds. Open wounds are gross and chicks don't dig 'em - unless of course they are freshly inflicted wounds from doing something manly, like wrestling a grizzly bear - then they dig 'em big time.

I'm very curious about this black paint/material you say is all over the box. You also say there are a couple of wires exposed. All of this is a great recipe for a fire. I agree with Spyman in that there really isn't enough info to really help accurately. However, based on what you've posted so far, I would definitely replace the box. They're not that expensive and easy to wire up - other than terminating the mains. I would have an electrician come out and check out your situation, with the intention of wiring up the new mains connections for you. Then you can redress all of the connections fresh and tight and you'll have breakers and piece of mind. Electricians are a little expensive, but they're worth it. I just replaced a breaker panel a few weeks ago, and the electrician had no problem making the mains connection for me.

Good points Glider. Same points can be made when you hear people bitch about "one day milk is good for you, the next day they say it isn't". They blame scientists and say "what do they know? they keep changing their minds about this and that..." That's because it isn't the scientists blowing whistles and shouting the sky is falling - it's the media and the public's mind numbed relationship doing the damage. Psychologists just draw conclusions based on what they've learned - just like the rest of us. They get printed here and there and people run with this stuff and implement it here and there and then blame them when it doesn't work out. So, I don't blame psychologists - I blame the administrators for implementing these ideas without testing them out fully. Whatever happened to pilot programs? Not sure if it would be considered city or suburban, probably city. My kids go to Blue Springs schools in Missouri, which are supposed to be (at least a few years ago) among the best schools in the nation. And we do like the kinds of text books and material it looks like they're trying to learn, but I just don't see much in the way of meat and potatoes. Just alot of paper shuffling. This is a big issue with me and this modern world we live in. Everything is program, a system..everything seems to require paper and signatures, documentation, etc. It's really getting on my nerves. I go to a parent-teacher conference and I'm signing documents that I've read and understood this and that. What the hell is going here? You'd think we're getting a signature loan from this place. We've replaced personalization with documentation. They don't spank your kids and make them behave or pay attention - they send them home with documents to sign. This is stupid. Just plain stupid. I do realize that. My point to Mokele is that he hasn't seen for himself how this psychology has been perverted throughout the institution, which would explain why he was questioning that these ideas were really being implemented - they most certainly are.

Ok, speaking as a parent of public schools and former recent student of higher education I can say that John B has a good handle on what's happened in our schools. Mokele is coming from a university perspective and will be equally disgusted when he gets kids of his own and realizes what public elementary school as fizzled down to. I visit my childrens' schools several times a year. I'm always amazed at the amount of "testing" being done. The last parent-teacher conference we had, my wife and I sat down with the PAC teacher and 4 other teachers. As each of them took their turns going over our child's progress, they took out test after test, circling this and pointing at that. There must have been an entire pile of tests by the time we got done. And they're so excited and taken by the pie charts, bar graphs and excel sorting as they run through the info - and this is just for 9 weeks of study. When do they learn? The goal of public schools has been duped and fumbled into a testing environment. My kids have almost no homework. The only reason why my oldest has homework is because he won't apply himself in class. He's not challenged. He's bored. And it's not just him. You need to visit a public school sometime. Notice how the teachers and staff don't seem to really take control of anything or anyone. They deal with your kids with legal papers. They don't deal with anything themselves. They just test and test and test and I guess learning stuff gets squeezed in there ever now and then. Anyone out of order in class gets removed and handled with paper and signatures and whatever is easiest for the faculty - with no responsibility taken or order enforced. Kids don't have to obey or learn or anything since there is no enforcement by a school full of adults. I could go on and on. It's sick. It's fake. It's plastic. It's ineffective. We've completely lost sight of the goal. Our kids need more school and less freetime. We should be able to condense all 12 years of schooling down to 8 years. At 14 you should be considering college, not high school. Would also coincide with nature's ideas of breeding age without getting in the way of a fundamental education too. When a teenager gets pregnant, she can worry about it effecting her college - not her general education.

Thank you. Mine doesn't really spend alot of time dwelling on it. Rather more of a closure kind of thing revealed towards the end. I like multiple storylines and twisted moral dilemas and drama but I like a realistic style mixed in with all of that. I would love to see what's been done with that idea though, so thanks for sharing that info.

Bascule, you're just splitting hairs on this ridiculous "category fallacy" because he's criticizing the precious left. Get real. Most of the ideas we attribute left and right to are categorically incorrect if we're going to run through the list of popular leftists and rightists and sort through their individual opinions. We assign left and right to ideas that have been demonstrated by that ideology as a whole - at least 51% plurality I would think, if we're going to be all exact about it. And since liberals are all about telling me how to live my life, how to raise my kids, what I can and can't eat and blah blah blah - it doesn't surprise me a bit to see them trying to tell me what I can or can't play in the way of video games. The only thing that surprises me is why they're going with a market solution instead of drafting more legislation. Most of the time this sort of thing seems to start with " We need a law that...." I've heard you say this before, yet all I've seen in your posts is the liberal - where's the -tarian??

One / Five / Six - Morality has nothing to do with whether or not it is a being, as I and you keep lecturing one another... Two - not according to wikipedia, which I realize is not the almighty omniscient reference source, but it's enlightening. I think "being" just might well be the new "good" for philosophical conundrums. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being Aristotle has an interesting take that sounds remarkably similar to mine... Three / Four - since I like to split hairs I'll point out that it certainly isn't aware of itself in the same way as a human with a brain. A cell is a highly complex functional unit of all living organisms so I'm not so sure there isn't something there. But, better yet, I'm not so sure a newborn baby is aware of itself. It's all just instinct, programming. No different than an ant. No different than pluripotent cells. Is that baby a being? The definition is ambiguous at best. There are several bodies of thought on the matter that you have chosen to exclude from your consciousness. The ludicrous whims are coming from those intellectuals who have already made up their minds - which always reminds me of religion. I will maintain this cycle until I've thought it all out, critically - and I stress critically. (Geez, women are so damn pushy...)

Well, allow me to be the misanthropic voice of cold reality... If he is as you have painted him in your post, then it's fairly obvious to me your conclusions are justified. He likes them young and hot and he will always have the means and access to young and hot for a long, long time. I don't know if he'll want to split up though. Rather he might be the type to just play around. A man can genuinely love a woman, enough to die for her, and still have the capacity and drive to conquer more young and hot on the side... So, is your sister prepared to share him like that? If not, this will probably be over after a short run, usually a child or two later. The good thing going for your sister is his financial security. That will tie him up in a lengthy obligation for a nice chunk of her life. If she's got no problem being number one out of a long list of sweeties, then she can count on being taken care of for life, I think. Good luck. Tell her to get pregnant by him as soon as possible...

I don't think anyone is questioning their tactics, rather their view. I appreciate their keeping it a consumer/market thing rather than trying to pass laws and strip our rights away. And I also disagree with their position on it.

And I hope you don't think I didn't get your point though...it's just that black people seem to have dropped that pc issue a long time ago...perhaps for practical reasons as well?

I cannot relate. I've been refuting god and religion since my teens and have never had a problem vocalizing it in any capacity really other than the dinner table and church...when I was dragged there. But then I'm fairly confident in my views and don't shy away from sqaring off with any would-be religious defenders. I'm in the bible belt, so maybe I'm just used to it.

I absolutely love Radiohead. All radiohead. Every album and just about every track and I'm jealous of anybody who has seen them live. I cannot freakin' wait until they get in the states again. I WILL see them, one way or another. Snail, I feel for you. Nothing comes close to old Metallica. And Justice For All was probably their greatest album - maybe tied perhaps with Master of Puppets. I saw both of those shows. The Master of Puppets show was a small venue, since they were still quite underground at that time - no radio play at all - and I stood probably 20 feet away from James Hetfield screaming and growling into the mic while people went apeshit all around me. I've never felt energy like that since. I also get what you're saying about the "not gelling" thing. OK Computer collected dust in my CD rack because I just wasn't into that sound or mood at the time I bought it. I rediscovered it a couple of years ago and couldn't believe I had let it sit there without fusing it into my life. Radiohead and Tool will make you a better person. Listen to them and revel in the fact that you are better than everyone else.

Because girls shouldn't be lifting weights - they should be in the kitchen... *ducks and hides*

Don't make me write another pussification post on this...you're men...act like it..calluses are bad ass...chicks dig 'em

But nobody called you a white devil...just white. That's your skin color.