mr_genius

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jan 11, 2010 -> 08:47 AM) I'm Blacker Then Barack Obama LMAO! This is hysterical. haha the Democrats are top notch.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 10, 2010 -> 08:00 PM) Meh Reid would've been censured if the GOP had 60 seats, but in any case Graham's comment was even more indefensible. Graham basically got censured for getting into a verbal spat with Ron Paul and it was from some local GOP guys. I didn't know you held Ron Paul in such high regard unless there is another recent Graham 'controversy'

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 10, 2010 -> 02:31 PM) Michael Steele thinks Reid should step down. Honest Injun, he said that today. Reid is probably going to lose re-election anyways. Might as well just have some patience. He'll be out soon enough.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 10, 2010 -> 01:34 AM) Was it Graham or DeMint that recently said something equally dumb (probably worse actually)? What do you guys mean "free pass" I didn't recall that getting blown up in the media like you guys say it would be, outside of the political blogs and whatnot where you'd expect it. you mean when Graham got censured? http://www.thestate.com/local/story/1096389.html not even close to the same as Reid commending Obama on "not speaking in a negro dialect"

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Smaller-elec...335045.html?x=0 Smaller, electric cars reign at Detroit auto show

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 10, 2010 -> 12:41 PM) So, in other words, it's another reason to set up a universal health care system; it puts permanent workers on an even playing field with temporary workers. see how i set up that up for you guys? pretty good huh

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aHA4PMI1G2ks Some people are just giving up on having a job. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/conte...agazine_related I think the trend of using temps permanently is here to stay and will increase in practice. Don't have to pay their health care, or for unemployment insurance, and the temps are easy to discard. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e436fa80-fc87-11...144feab49a.html Will there be a dreaded 'double dip' in the economy by summer? December was a bit of a let down on the jobs front.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 9, 2010 -> 03:16 PM) So, what kind of person thinks in those phrases? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) , apparently. Seems he is getting a pass on it so far. I wonder why...

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 6, 2010 -> 09:12 PM) Blow up the red line and see the chaos and terror in the city. That's my point. There's pretty much no security on it. you'd essentially shut down the entire el. Flooding everyone on buses that are already overcrowded. An entire major city would be nearly immobilized. the redline has gone out of operation before and it didn't even come close to shutting down the city. a terrorist attack on the redline would really mess things up for a good while, but the city would not be any where near immobilized. there's plenty of ways to get around without the redline. use a combination of other transportation. but it would make people scared to take public trans for a while. now if you attacked all the lines, and some buses. different story.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 6, 2010 -> 12:16 PM) They used a bidding process to get the most dollars from it. So there was competition. ah, so the highest bidder gets to hold a monopoly? lol there is a reason they are illegal. anyways, this is literally text book http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/monopoly 1. exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices. Compare duopoly, oligopoly. 2. an exclusive privilege to carry on a business, traffic, or service, granted by a government. 3. the exclusive possession or control of something. 4. something that is the subject of such control, as a commodity or service. 5. a company or group that has such control. 6. the market condition that exists when there is only one seller

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 6, 2010 -> 11:46 AM) Because, as you noted with the parking meters...the efforts to improve efficiency by privatizing these things have this odd habit of making prices go up and not down. also, how the f*** is that not a monopoly? You can buy ALL the meters? No meters from a potentially cheaper competitor?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 5, 2010 -> 01:57 PM) OK, so the CNNFN article is (as would be expected) a little more balanced and circumspect. Some excerpts of use: 51% to first-timers is a good indicator to me - that makes me feel like the tax credits may have some real use. tax credits are a pretty good mechanism to get a boost in targeted sales.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 3, 2010 -> 02:20 PM) If the goal is to get one step ahead of criminals, we need to be prepared and look for their next move.Take away one target and they will not just go away. you need to use a variety of techniques to be effective.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 3, 2010 -> 01:50 PM) I've seen some of them, and I think either you're wrong now or you'll probably be wrong at the next software update. I'll bet if you saw yours, you'd recognize your face. i don't think you understand how the technology works. anyways, whatever. if you are that sensitive about some random security personnel seeing an image like that of you, that's your sensibilities and I’m not going to tell you are wrong.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 3, 2010 -> 01:39 PM) Beneath the hyperbole is a great point. Closing off one avenue for terror simply means the terrorists will move on to another type of target. it goes to the argument of "if you can't stop every possible attack don't bother to try and stop any of them".

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 3, 2010 -> 01:33 PM) On the other hand...there are these cell phones these days that have pretty good cameras. have you seen the scan images? there is no way to tell who it is. it's like some weird corpse looking silhouette, can't make out facial features.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 3, 2010 -> 01:08 PM) I know. Something about airport screening machines pushes me over the edge. Well, maybe this will sooth your soul http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-...am-1856175.html maybe they are not ready for use yet. maybe they will never be effective.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 3, 2010 -> 01:01 PM) Yeah I just punched out my entire family and killed my dog because you enraged me with all of this. domestic violence is not the answer, sqwert.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 3, 2010 -> 12:54 PM) So are they going to set one of these up at every sporting event, shopping mall, train station, town square, movie theater, church, and tourist site? Terrorists can attack any of those places just as easily if not easier. Heck, we should have one of these machines everywhere. At your work, the post office, McDonald's, etc. lol the report was about airport security (which is obviously the main target). once again, sqwert goes off the deep end and rages.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 3, 2010 -> 11:14 AM) I saw a demo and it is revealing, but I imagine 99% of the passengers will go through without any interest from the people scanning. I can see the privacy thing when the $8 per hour employees run into the scanner room to see some hottie's silhouette. Yea, but seriously, you could restrict access to the screening room. You could even have it in a separate part of the airport and when there is a security breach they send an electronic message directly down to security at the screening point. If we can't keep some doofus from running into the screening room then we might as well just give up. I am basically in the same camp as the CNN crew, reasons for not using it are pretty bad. Reasons for using it are really good.

I was watching CNN and they had story about these new scanners you walk through and they can basically see everything you have in your pockets or would have taped to yourself (such as explosives). The reason are not used is that you can also see an outline of peoples 'nude' silhouette. Personally, I don't care if the some scanner shows me in all my glory in silhouette form if it will increase safety and move along security lines faster. There is no storage drive attached to the machine and once the next person is scanned your scan is gone. Nothing is saved. And the screen is viewed in a separate room, so if you are really sensitive it's not like other passengers can peek across some desk or something to see what's on the screen.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 2, 2010 -> 07:05 PM) Again, the size of the operations, the amount of information available (how much intelligence could possibly be gathered) and the amount of information known (how much intelligence was gathered) are not remotely comparable. Well, still, stopping 9-11 is asking a lot from what I can tell. I mean, some guy was basically telling everyone that would listen he was going to go Jihad and kill everyone he could at the army base and no one cared. They just transfer him to Fort Hood, as 'that will magically make him not want to kill'. Well plan failed, he followed through with his intentions. And everyone was shocked. Why the f*** would they be surpirsed?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2009 -> 09:40 AM) How dare the Dixie Chicks bash the President during a time of war! And to do so while not even inside this country, that's despicable. Oh wait, not the Dixie Chicks, the Nuge. Everyone knows he loves America, he's a-ok. Thankfully, I'm sure the same liberal media that crucified a band that said they were embarrassed GWB was from Texas will absolutely destroy him, right? I love the headline, first thing you see after clickign the link: TED NUGENT - NUGENT: 'OBAMA SHOULD BE JAILED'

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 28, 2009 -> 09:10 PM) Yeah there are those too but it's harder to make them up with specific details (I wouldn't re-tell exact reports unless they were in the open media or something). There was one guy who reported his ex-boyfriend because they had a bad breakup after the boyfriend left him for another dude, but he swore the stuff he was saying was true. lol. And plenty of pissed-off girlfriends trying to dime their boyfriends out. haha

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 28, 2009 -> 08:47 PM) I'll give an example of what one would look like. Say you have a guy coming to work and he sees an Arab dude walking back and forth at his train station that he hasn't seen before. The Arab guy stops to look down the tracks and periodically stops to look at the various signs on the platform. Eventually the train comes, he steps in the doorway, looks around at the passengers, and boards the train. So Mr. I'm Being a Good American calls the FBI and says "I saw a Middle Eastern Male conducting what looked like pre-operational surveillance." Um, no guy, he was pretty much going to work or otherwise going from Point A to Point B, checking the schedule to see when his train would arrive, and looking down the tracks to see if the train was coming. You're supposed to report UNUSUAL activity, being a brown stranger doesn't count. Also people will report things like a person taking pictures at tourist attractions where other people take pictures. Those make me laugh. not gonna lie, those stories were... a big let down. was hoping more for stuff like that lady who called 911 because her husband refused to eat dinner.