FlaSoxxJim

QUOTE(TheBigHurt35 @ Apr 19, 2005 -> 12:42 PM) I really thought that they might've elected an African Pope, given the extent of povery and disease that's been ravaging that continent. That may have also helped to stem the growth of radical Islam in northern and northeastern Africa. The biggest hurdle to eithe an African or a Latin American Pope was that it would have likely ushered in some much needed serious debate on the Catholic stance against birth control in general and condoms in particular. Instead, tens of thousands of people continue to die from AIDS in Africa every year for lack of education or access to condoms. I can appreciate religious orthodoxy as much as anyone and yes there are core tenets at the heart of the Catholic faith, but this is a glaring example of how the Church remains hopefully and fattally out of step with the realities of modern life. It's better to transmit HIV, get AIDS and die than to use a condom in the eyes of the Catholic God?

QUOTE(mreye @ Apr 19, 2005 -> 12:27 PM) You asked in a crappy way. Ask seriously next time and don't crack "Cheers" jokes and maybe I/we won't "freak out." C'mon, that Cheers bit was actually pretty funny, Eye. John Ratzenberger = Cliff Clavan Joe Ratzinger = Pope Benedict XVI

QUOTE(RibbieRubarb @ Apr 19, 2005 -> 12:07 PM) I think this is a very controversial choice. Yes it is. He's the one who also told Catholics they could not receive communion alongside Lutherans at a coming together ceremony in 2003. Somewhere, cwsox is going apes***. In his motherland, 36% of respondants in a poll said they opposed his selection as pope, while only 29% said they would want him to be pope. Contrast that with JPII who was so universally loved in Poland. But I agree, picking a 78 year old suggests that this is supposed to be a transitinal pope who will not have a tenure as long as JPII. Doing some quick back-of-the-napkin math, the average papacy over histtory has been just over 7.5 years, no doubt because most pontiffs are pretty old when they are selected.

4.4 billion years old... Now I forget, was that before or after Noah and the Flood? Very old, very tiny, very cool.

FlaSoxxJim, Your Ron Mexico name, the ultimate disguise, is Ricardo Bermuda, and you are one bad Muthah'.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 18, 2005 -> 05:45 PM) I'd tell ya what it looks like but I don't want to sound crude. I see LIPS, special lips, anyone else see it. The Virgin Hairy?!?

Florida is a seriously eff'd up place. Lots of places are, but we have way more than our share of whack jobs.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 15, 2005 -> 03:58 PM) One of the things I am hoping to do is Scout out some other sites and invite them to post here and vice versa. I am looking for "our" kind of sites. Looking for the sites with the short busses parked out in front, eh?

I have deep-seated beer envy of you out in the Pacific NW. You should send me beer and I'll feel better. Here's to a good series.

QUOTE(rangercal @ Apr 15, 2005 -> 01:42 PM) where are all these so-called mariner fans? Starbucks??

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Apr 15, 2005 -> 12:52 PM) Who's throwing the baby out with the bath water....I just think we should hide the baby so NAMBLA keeps their focking hands off!!!!!! Touche' When these cases come up, it's very easy for the average person to see that an unsavory group is exploiting their constitutional protection in a way that most find disgusting. It is then equally easy to look scornfully on a group like the ACLU because of the 'battles they choose.' But if the issue comes down to defending constitutional protection, then I don't think the ACLU has much choice in how they would side in a case - even when they find a group as repulsive as the rest of us.

Like the KKK/Missouri scenario, I suspect NAMBLA would have a constitutional right to adopting the highway, although the individual who adopted the sign might not be able to do it in NAMBLA's name. I don't know. But it is a mistake to throw out the baby with the bathwater and demonize the First Amendment and/or the UCLU if they took up the case. Protecting our constitutional freedoms is a good, right, and necessary thing, even if it means that it opens up loopholes for despicable entities like NAMBLA, the KKK, and the Christian Coalition to hide behind. Edit: I made sure to green that last jab so you knew I was joking (mostly), PA.

My computer just burst into flames. Seriously, neither Firefox or Safari pass on mac OSX. Both give me pretty screwewd up versions of the reference smiley.

Cool contest. I'll probaby have to pretend I still live at my folks place in Chicago or my submission would be tossed out on principle. How about "Winning is Fung"

Holy crap. What is wrong with these people?

That is rotten news. Here's hoping you and all your co-workers transition to something new and better very soon.

Our little boy is all grow'd up... Knock 'em dead, Kap. We'll all slack off extra hard around here in your absence.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 01:01 PM) Can anybody provide a link to Super Religious Guy ranks? I'm a little lost on what is higher on the Catholic Totem Pole. I know that Pope is the highest (unless you count Saint and God, then I think we know the Power order there), but what is the rank down? How does one go from being a Priest to a...whatever? I am also amazed. I had no idea Popes went back as long ago as they do! I guess it makes sense, but ya know, to actually read the little bit of history on those Popes from WAY back in the year 126 or so...that is crazy. Is there a Pope site that tells you the history of Popes and lists them all? Maybe www.pope.com or something? Thanks! OH!!! And where the heck do Monks fit in, and what is their purpose...besides making GREAT beer? First, you and I both know that monks don't need any other purpose than making great beer. Seriously, monastic orders from all denominations have more strictures on them than other holy orders, including cloistersed life, living off of your own hard work in God's name, etc. Not all monastaries require a vow of silence, but several of the Trappist brewing monastaries including Chimay do. Brother Theodore and his hand-selected brewery monks are the only ones that don't take the vow, because they must interact with the outside world to sell their beer. As for a pope site, here's my favorite - although it only focuses on the bad popes of history. Damn, if there haven't been a bunch of them, too. Informative reading. http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/papacy.html

Steff and Jas, MANY THANKS for your insights. I get a headache staring down all of this stuff and I appreciate your input.

QUOTE(EvilJester99 @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 07:35 AM) My mortgage has been sold so many times I have a hard time trying to remember who my friggin lender is anymore...and they ALWAYS screw up the escrow account.... That's my biggest fear, since there should be a couple $K more in the account than the actual tax rate at the end of the year and I don't want to have to jump through a hundred hoops to get that money back.

I don't know about LendingTree, but we just used quicken for our home purchase and regeret it very much. They closed very quickly and the rates were competitive, but literally 1 month after closing they sold the loan out from under us to some lender we have never heard of and never would have used in a million years. Jason might be able to chime in and answer whether this is par for the course for the big lenders. It sucks because we know we have been assessed at too hogh a property tax rate and will need to be fither refunded from the escrow account or have the extra money applied to our principal at teh end of the year. The loan ofricer at Quicken was up to speed on all of this but this new outfit has no idea what I'm trying to tell them. I am really mad.

QUOTE(TheBigHurt35 @ Apr 12, 2005 -> 10:21 AM) I will NEVER move to California. Someone told me there's a girl out there with love in her eyes. And flowers. In her hair.

My biggest problem is that neither my guy friends or I usually have the money to do any of the fun things we would want to do. Yes, that's right, our problem is we are talking about..... an unfunded man date.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Apr 11, 2005 -> 06:28 AM) As a matter of fact, I do. I think I recently made mention of that in a thread somewhere. In the Victory Auto Wrecker thread, most likely...

QUOTE(Soxnbears01 @ Apr 10, 2005 -> 11:31 PM) done that numerous times as well as using the Ipod Update and restoring it a few hundred times. AFter researching ipodlounge forums for what it seems like forever, this eems to be a common problem that no one has a simple answer for. Looks like its a hard drive problem. I still can't get through apple's support site to request a repair. f***.whore.b****. Is it just a problem with the new gen clickwheel models or do the older ones have that same issue? Anything that has gone wrong on mine has been fixed with the system reset feature.