Mister P-Mosh

Was anyone else on here into that series? I thought the end was pretty good, although there were a few ridiculous moments and things that could have been wrapped up a little better. It did take a strangely religious turn at the end, but I think that parallels the way the original series ended with those beings of light. I won't say more in case someone is watching the series and didn't get a chance to finish it yet. What did you think of it?

I have what is probably a controversial view of both the r-word and the n-word (and yes, Obama said "special olympics" and not the r-word as you call it.) Basically, the n-word is based on the Latin (and Spanish and Portugese) word for the color black. It's simply a mispronunciation that English-speaking people made for the word. The reason it has bad connotations is because the negative connotations were assigned to it by disparaging people with dark skin. Had the kidnapped Africans been treated like kings rather than slaves, the n-word could have been as inoffensive as "brunette". With words like "retard","special", "mentally handicapped" etc. they have bad connotations because these people are actually inferior to the average person in some way, whether it's intellectual or whatever. The difference here is that we keep changing definitions for their condition because their condition has a negative connotation. We don't want to make them feel bad because they are human beings and have the same feelings as the rest of us. People unfamiliar with special needs people use the term of the day to insult others because of the sense that they are inferior. So the problem is that to white people, it is entirely possible for us to recognize that black people are equal to us even if they don't look exactly the same. However, disabled people of all types do have something wrong with them. They are obviously not to blame for their predicament, but it simply isn't comprehensible for most of the rest of us to recognize them as our equals. So the term we use for them becomes an insult. When I was a kid, everyone went around using "special" as an insult when we were taught that saying "retard" was rude. It's human nature, unfortunately.

I would be curious how it would taste with lamb instead of pork. Also, try using ancho chili powder instead of the red pepper flakes. One other thing to try would be using serrano peppers instead of jalapeño peppers. It's a personal preference, but they are hotter.

My company doubled our fourth quarter profits last year, and we still almost didn't give bonuses out in case we needed the money for this year (the decision was made to give bonuses anyway, although they weren't as big as previous years.) So if companies that increase their revenue are scrutinizing bonuses, it is amazing how AIG decided to give bonuses anyway. I don't see how this could please their shareholders, much less the U.S. citizens who all have a stake in it. The rich have a "me first" mentality where they feel that they deserve everything they can get their hands on, no matter how unethical it may be. That's why we are in this crisis, and why the big corporationss don't seem to be taking the demands of the American people and our government seriously.

I have to deal with SOX as well, as my team maintains a system that is one of the key controls from the I.T. side and we have to generate reports to auditors and sit with them and explain how we run things. It still seems like more hassle than help though, and it doesn't really do anything to prevent fraud because the company gets to define how they adhere to SOX, and as long as the company does what it says it will do, everything is fine with the auditors.

This had nothing to do with SOX though. From the risky mortgages they insured to the contracts with bonuses, no actual fraud was committed by AIG. SOX is about controls to prevent individuals from manipulating the company's finances. It really doesn't solve anything to do with what Enron did, and has nothing to do with what AIG did.

Unlike our past president, he seems to be striving for increased transparency in government, which I think is why he has been more open to talking to the American people via televised speeches, town halls, and now talk shows.

Excellent questions, and I've thought about asking people in my office the questions just to see how the results hold up with educated people who should know these things. 365 days is still correct, since most of us don't need to calculate it to the level of precision that you do. We can round the number quite easily to get the 365 days.

From Science Daily comes a report that shows how shockingly ignorant so many of us are. They took a poll of random adults, asking very basic questions about science, and the numbers didn't turn out too well. Here are the questions and results: I can sort of understand some of the results of #2 since some religious groups believe that humans and dinosaurs coexisted, but these are really some basic questions. I don't really see how people who got these wrong, especially the first one, are capable of breathing on their own, much less functioning as adults in society. What do you all think?

I think that secretly, TWI relishes any attention they can get at this point. Sure, we're not nice to them, but at least someone is paying some sort of attention to them. They are like lonely, bored little children.

I'm familiar with that, and my understanding is that thousands of women have disappeared from Juarez for years now. In my experience the border has always been an unsafe area, but the rest of Mexico hasn't been too bad and still isn't. I don't see why the media here is portraying it as a national crisis there that is affecting everyone, when in reality it's more of a localized crisis like Hurricane Katrina was for us. It reeks of an ulterior motive, but I don't understand what the media has to gain.

Better to get gas than to die from eating their food, like this one:

I got your post on the Sheriff Joe thread mixed up with that one. I've been catching up on reading things that interest me and the two sort of combined in my mind.

Based on what you've posted in that and other threads I have an idea of what your opinion is. :)

I do live in Texas, but some of it has been on the national level. Part of my annoyance stems from the fact that I have a coworker who constantly bombards me with anti-Mexico emails and speeches. His parents came from Mexico, and like many Mexican-Americans, he basically hates the nation of Mexico and is happy to find fault with every minute detail. Since I like going there, and my wife is from there, I get annoyed by it. It may just be a combination of where I live and who I have to deal with at work.

I don't mean this to turn into a discussion about immigration or U.S. politics. I am curious about your opinions though. Basically, here is my thoughts. I've been hearing all the bad news lately about Mexico, how the media keeps proclaiming that thousands have been killed there, how it's dangerous for Americans, and how the government there has lost control. It sounds really horrible, and perhaps a few steps from being like Iraq. I just got back from Mexico today. I was in the state of Sinaloa, which is the home of one of the cartels and the traditional seat of power of the drug cartels in Mexico. There was no violence, there was no talk of anything related to drugs, there were no reports of murders, and everything seemed normal as it has every other time I've gone there for the past few years. In fact, the Mexicans I talked to pretty much unanimously believed that it's nothing more than an attack on Mexico by the U.S. media in an attempt to get Americans to stay in the U.S. and spend our dollars at home because of the bad economy. So here is where I ask for your opinions. It seems that Mexico is not plunging into a "drug war", the government there is still in control, and things are not any different for the vast majority of Mexicans. There have been a few random cases of violence away from the border, but they are limited to people involved with drugs in some way. Why then, is the U.S. reporting this in such a sensationalistic way? What benefit does the U.S. gain by stirring up fear against Mexico? Is it really a cheap attempt to get people to stay home instead of going on vacation? If so, why aren't we hearing about the dangers of being killed in the Bahamas or the dangers of being murdered in Europe? Why pick on Mexico?

I think it's great, personally. It's a good tool for keeping in contact with people that I haven't talked to in a while or don't come into contact with regularly. Specifically, old friends from schools or other jobs that I wouldn't keep in touch with normally. I'm living in Texas, my best friend from high school is living in Ohio now, so we haven't kept in touch. However, now with facebook we can see what is going on with each other even if we aren't emailing constantly. It's a good tool if everyone uses it. Also, I second the concerns people have brought up about security settings, rejecting applications, and keeping it clean for future employers. As far as worrying about paedophiles and such, MySpace is more for kids and Facebook is for adults. There are other sites that are more cutting edge such as Twitter that I don't like, but Facebook is the most mainstream one for the moment. As far as keeping in touch with ex-TWI people, I have quite a few on my Facebook friends list, but they aren't on GSC.

Rocky, I think your words will fall on deaf ears....well, blind eyes. To many people around here, if you're not a U.S. citizen, you have no human rights and can be tortured, murdered, raped, or whatever with no consequence. You have to provide more examples like the one I did of a U.S. citizen being rounded up and accused of being here illegally, or more of the many cases where U.S. citizens have been arrested on demonstrably false charges, or other cases of innocent people (remember that only U.S. citizens count as people to some here) treated horribly.

I don't know, but it's one of my semi-favorite sayings.

So you think all hispanic people are "illegal immigrants" now? If you read my post, you would see that I discussed him arresting U.S. citizens on fake immigration violations for simply being hispanic. Here is an example: Perhaps you don't care about non-white U.S. citizens, but I think it's wrong to arrest people without reason. At this point, all hispanics, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, have to carry their paperwork with them at all times. Pretty much everyone considers it fascism to live where you have to carry identification at all times so random police can stop you and demand to see proof of your citizenship, especially when it is among ethnic lines. "Sheriff Joe" is a dictionary definition fascist, plain and simple.

Funny, I didn't see his wife there. So what you are saying is that you want American kids to drop out of high school? I agree, and am amazed at how our nation, as opposed to nations like China and India, seem to hate education and intelligent people so much. I expect countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia to demonize educators and ridicule intelligent people and instead admire brutish, stupid people. We need to make our country a place again where kids grow up wanting to be doctors and scientists rather than professional athletes.

I don't know Bolshevik, something stinks in Sh!tsville, and you're the mayor.

What is one valid reason for dropping out?

Rocky is completely right. My sister in law lives in Maricopa county, and under the watch of "Sherriff Joe" the city has been successfully sued and cost the city great deals of money, crime is skyrocketing which he is doing nothing about, and he pulled people off of things like homicide to work immigration law (which often consists of arresting hispanic U.S. citizens for doing things like driving while hispanic, then expecting their families to bring birth certificates in to prove they aren't undocumented immigrants.) Phoenix is now the kidnapping capital of the U.S. because of his incompetence and failure to do anything about crime. Sherriff Joe is a fascist who would be at home in WWII era Italy, except that he wouldn't even be capable of keeping the trains running. He is nothing but hype and has caused more problems than he has fixed. Painting prisons pink and forcing prisoners to live in tents in the desert sounds tough, but it is all just theatrics.

Despite a few exceptions, most people that drop out of high school don't make it anywhere, or have to go through extra trouble to get their GED. I think dropping out of high school is a failure both in the individual who chose to drop out, and their family/neighborhood/whatever support structure they have in place. Our nation needs to get to a point where dropping out of high school is more embarrassing and the person is more stigmatized than if they were an overweight, black, gay, atheist, vegan man with bucked teeth named Suzy Bin Laden. If I had a child that dropped out of high school, I would consider myself to be a total failure as a parent. There is simply no valid reason to drop out. It's free, it's not that difficult, and if you need to work at the same time you can.