FlaSoxxJim

Senate approves opening ANWR 51-49 vote. It will still need to survive a final Congressional vote for passage this year, but the House has voted in favor of it all along. Yippee. We're on the road to carving up caribou migratory routes and calving grounds, polar bear habitat and migratory bird habitat for at maximimum a 2.5% increase in our domestic oil production, with the first crude not coming down the pipeline for 10 years. This is the "centerpiece" of the Bush energy policy that is going to decrease our dependence on foreifgn oil? Let's see... we import 50% of our oil, and now in a decade we will only need to import 47.5%. Yep, that should do it. Why the hell aren't they pushing for better fuel economy (surely we can do better than a 2.5% increase 10 years out), as a stopgap measure while truly pursuing alteranative/renewable fuel technology??

QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Mar 16, 2005 -> 02:20 PM) Isn't this the same dunce who wanted to go to Iraq before Afghanistan? One of them, yes. But he is hardly a dunce. Evil, yes (plus he uses saliva to groom his hair), but a shrewd guy.

Uhm, it's a novel. I just love the faith that the Vatican has in the strenght of the fate of their flock. "The book sows doubts and dangerous confusion among the faithful..." and reading it is going to make their faith crumble. I agree with SS - spiritual faith is meant to be critically examined if it is to have any meaning.

I grew up 5 blocks away from Rainbow Cone, and it's still one of the first places I go to when I go back to visit. Yummm!

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 16, 2005 -> 01:09 PM) Nothing qualifies him. I could find more qualified bloggers. Come on, don't you want a PNAC architect in charge of the World bank??

Here's the deal. Wolfowitz would replace Wolfensohn... and then it would be easy for W to remember that it's "Wolf-something" still over there heading up the World Bank. The man has trouble with names you know.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Mar 15, 2005 -> 04:02 PM) I was thinking Water Tower Place as I was writing. I am planning a trip back and planning on meeting up with a friend from Miami and she wants to go there. I thought it was about the worse suggestion. Yeah, but at least you're in striking distance of the Clark Street Ale House. Mmmmm beer... I think that craptacular Al Capone's themed dinner show place (near Hard Rock and the Wells and Ontario 50s/60s McDonald's - is it still even there anymore?) was a pathetic eyesore. I never went, but I had a couple people ask to go there when we went in for a visit. I slapped them around for the stupid suggestion of course.

Thanks Tex - people need to sign onto as many of these as they can, make some calls (not you, Mr. Eye!! ) and keep this from getting slipped through.

I'll start with the obvious one... OK, sure Bud. now, how big is it for real?

Nothing that another 10 years of closed roads and tearing up downtown Boston can't fix. That thing has been a mess from the beginning. I hope i never have to drive in Boston again.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Mar 15, 2005 -> 11:42 AM) A flux capacitor? Or a Gort?

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Mar 15, 2005 -> 11:09 AM) It looks like it fell out of a great old 50's B-flick. Well, it's no INTEROCITER, but then again, what is these days?

I'm your vehicle, Baby - I'll take you anywhere you want to go.

QUOTE(WilliamTell @ Mar 14, 2005 -> 11:00 AM) I can't stand the French, I wish they'd grow up. Or at least shower... It wouldn't hurt if the women wpuld shave their pits once in a while either. How the hell Paris got to be dubbed the city of love is beyond me.

QUOTE(mreye @ Mar 14, 2005 -> 12:43 PM) Have you played Scrabble with her before? I swear she makes up words like that. She was a Micro Biology Major. She knows I don't know all those words. Hey, I'll be your biogeek word checker next time you play.

Wow! Congrats, Mike!!

Fidy is street, yo. Drinkin' fodies and listening to Fidy, etc.

We just closed on a house two weeks ago. Other than the fact that both the seller agent and our agent were both incompetent morons, I guess the experience was only about as painful as your typical root canal... performed with rusty instruments.... by a drunk dentist... You are correct in needing to document the source of a gift. We were in the same boat and my folks were going to lend us about $20K for a downpayment. We realized that the best way for us to avoid that was to go with an 80/20 loan in which the second loan was an equity line. Then we could do the transaction with nothing down other than standard closing costs, and then after the fact use the loan from my parents to pay off/down the equity line without having to jump through the documentation hoops. Also. most lenders limit the percentage of the purchase price that can be covered with a personal gift. Jason will have more info on this, but I think our lender would have limited it to 5%. In the end, when we were running the numbers, we realized that we'd be a lot better off on a monthly basis if we used that money to pay down our high interest debt. So that's what we are doing. If we put a $20K gift toward repaying the equity line, it would cut our monthly mortgage payment by about $50. But if we used it to pay off $20K in debt, we'll save like $300 a month in payments. So it was a no-brainer, and my folks still consider their loan a means for us to buy the house, which it very much is. Hope that helps.

I forgot about Waynes' World. I love seeing that big rooftop Capitol Cigar Store indian from 63rd and Pulaski in that film. For the life of me though, I've never been able to find a Stan Mikita's Doughnuts on that block...

I agree with the Blues Brothers crowd. Shots of Maxwell St., the Daily Plaza, El-tracks, The exterior of the Urinal, etc., are good Chicago icons. I think Hi-Fidelity did a great job capturing some chicago neighborhood flavor - at least superficially. I also think Backdraft did a superb job of portraying the Blue Collar/firefighter southside character. I'm surprised nobody had included that one. Untouchables and Eight Men Out both have some good recreated historical Chicago scenes that are good. About Last Night was the Demi Moore film someone mentioned earlier. Another in the litanny of John Hughes Chicago films. My Bodyguard is an old personal favorite that captures a lot of visual Chicago from 25 years ago, including lots of my high school stomping grounds. Ruth Gordon and a young Joan Cusack are in this. My favorite inside joke on Chicago films is from Dogma. The film begins with Jay and Silent Bob in Chicago (where they said they were heading when the left New Jersey at the end of Chasing Amy), pissed off because they can't find SHERMER ILLINOIS and learn it's not real. Chicago film geeks know Shermer is the fictional everytown suburb that John Hughes dreamed up for his suburban Chicago teen romps (Bueller, 16 Candles, Breakfast Club, etc.).

I think he was separated at birth from This guy we ran into earlier:

Sex: Duran Duran - Girls on Film Lies: Frank Zappa - When the Lie Gets So Bog (It Don't Make a Sound) Politics: Don Henley - Dirty Laundry

Very funny stuff! As for exploring the differences in the sex drives of males and females, I actually did note on another thread this week (the necrophilic gay goose thread) that it comes down to one simple fact of nature: SPERM IS CHEAP! Or, to borrow from the old Jay Leno Dorito's ads: Hump All You Want - We'll Make More!

QUOTE(TheBigHurt35 @ Mar 10, 2005 -> 09:55 AM) Despite what the knuckleheads who run this resort may think, quite a few Republicans actually do give a damn about the environment. Then they would not have voted for Bush.