Rex Kickass

Senator Jon Kyl and Senator Jim Bunning (Both GOP, from AZ and KY respectively) stopped unanimous consent to extend unemployment benefits (which expire at the end of the week) last night. Apparently, according to CQ, Kyl is holding unemployment extensions hostage for a guaranteed fix on the estate tax.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 25, 2010 -> 12:19 PM) I want a story on how adorable Southpaw is. Cutie. He's no Ribbie and Rubarb that's for sure.

Handling your demons is a great thing. Making a big deal about it and putting out press releases to announce your sobriety - not a big fan.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 25, 2010 -> 09:32 AM) Harry Shearer's weekly radio show, posted usually early afternoon on Mondays at harryshearer.com. Really? Le Show is almost unlistenable to me. It just sounds like a 60 year old reading wire copy bitterly for an hour. And that isn't nearly as funny as you'd think.

I'm sorta feeling two completely different albums. The new Sade is actually living up to the hype. And I'm really feeling the new Retribution Gospel Choir album too.

They say the worst of the snow might be hitting the Trenton area especially. So Philly might get 6 inches, we're looking at 14+, on top of the 4 or 5 inches still left on the ground from the storm two to three weeks ago. All I wanted to do was ride my bicycle this weekend

The thought that Chicago is higher priced than Vegas is kind of a myth. A company I worked for used to do shows. Although pricing in Chicago was higher than I thought to be acceptable, we were also charged $500 a day to access Wi-Fi on the convention floor for a show in Las Vegas.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 05:59 PM) Ok folks, I have a little situation here and would appreciate some feedback (love reading this thread btw). So about 3 weekends ago my friend Kristen invited me out to join her and some of her friends at a bar to watch sports (can't remember if it was a Hawks game or UFC). I asked her if I would know anyone there since I didn't want to go out with a group of folks I barely knew. She mentioned her friend Sara and said that she is a sweetheart and I have met her before. I felt like this was a set up but I decided to go anyways. So, throughout the night Sara and I end up talking, having a good time, etc. She got fairly drunk but gave me pretty strong hints (I can be blind to signals sometimes) that she wanted me to ask her out. So at the end of the evening as I am walking her and her friends to the cab I ask for her number and she happily gives it. Later on the weekend I gave her a call to get together some time the next week. She says she would like that and we make plans. We have dinner the following Thursday, she seems to enjoy herself and I do as well. As I am dropping her off I ask her if she would like to get together again. She says she does and we decide to talk later on to make plans. The next week I call her and get no answer. Leave a voicemail and wait for a call back. I eventually hear back about a day and a half later. She invites me to join her friends and her out that coming Friday. I agree to join them. That Friday I join them and it is a group of people I don't know and her. I do my best to have fun, talk to her friends, have a good time. She spends a majority of the time talking to one of her girlfriends. Confused by this, I text her friend Kristen who introduced us. I ask her what this girls feelings are on me and whats up with her. She shows interest sometimes, other times she doesn't return a call or text. Kristen tells me the girl has pretty much dated seriously with people since 8th grade (she is 25 now) and just got out of a bad long term relationship. She thinks she is trying to figure out what she wants, enjoying herself etc. I end up seeing this girl again the next night with a group of mutual friends. She seems to show some interest, wanting to talk to me, asking me to join her to come outside to get her jacket, talk to her while she smokes, etc. I end up calling her last night to just see how the rest of her weekend was. Again, no answer, no reply to my voicemail, no text. Just nothing. My question is, is this girl uninterested? Playing games? Hard to get? Lost interest? What do you folks think I should do with this one? I'm attracted to her and have fun when I do hear from her and spend time with her. It just seems like she is keeping me at arms length. Sounds like your friend is right. She's looking to have fun. Which means she isn't looking to be tied down, but she still seems to like spending time with you so that's a big plus - right? But this isn't going to be serious with her until she wants it to be serious. If you're still interested when that time comes, you'll know. Otherwise, just have fun. Sounds like a cool girl to chill with occasionally.

You're with someone for years and it ends. Not with screaming and shouting necessarily but it ends, just the same. Question: can you be friends with your ex?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 23, 2010 -> 11:05 AM) So, I had thought that the current Turkish government was fairly secular. But the way this article states it, the current ruling government is more rooted in Islam, while the powerful military is more secular. Anyway, the interesting news here is that the gov't is claiming they stopped a coup attempt. The government is secular, by establishment. However, there has been a lot of islamic talk in the government over the last few years IIRC.

Scott Brown casts one vote with the Democrats - to help pass a bill intended to create jobs in a recession... and the entire Republican world melts down. Drudge colored his picture orange and announced in 100 point type that he'd "Joined the Dem Majority." Here are some comments from his Facebook page announcing his vote. And that's just in the last 20 minutes. Anger is a funny thing. You play to it, you might get some support, but the minute you don't do what those angry people want (even if its against their own interests) - they piss right back into your cornflakes.

Mike Huckabee on CPAC: It pretty much is just a bunch of libertarians now. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02...l.php?ref=fpblg

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 22, 2010 -> 09:32 AM) The impression I'm getting from Press reports this morning is that this is the big new thing in the Obama compromise reform package proposal coming out today. Without knowing all the details, my first instinct is that this may be great politics and not the best policy. I don't know. We regulate utilities' rate increases. It may not be a horrible idea, but it is something I wish could be done on a state by state level.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Feb 20, 2010 -> 08:55 AM) No hijinks. Just New Jersey Democratic politics. Take out the Democratic and you've got it right. New Jersey politics is plain out dirty, party be damned.

Moving to FM is not a bad idea for a team like the Sox. This gives them the ability to build more of a regional radio network that other teams enjoy, like the Yankees, for example. There are plenty of regional AM and FM stations that are looking for programming to fill blocks of summer time that they may not otherwise be able to sell, and not having to compete with the flagship signal is definitely a big help.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_.../as_afghanistan Earlier this week, a lot of the talking heads with bad mustaches who tell us what to think about politics were telling us that our hands are being tied and are ineffective in this Afghanistan assault. I'm glad to say that it appears that we've captured more Taliban leaders in the last month than we have in the last six years. It's good to see positive signs of success in this mission.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 12:44 PM) Off the time of my head it was something like this Compensation $400/week each for 12 months $41,600 Food Stamps $225 /mo each $5,400 Federally fund day care not sure Federally fund health care not sure The point was that in certain cases it is more profitable to stay unemployed and the duration is as helpful as it seemed. Unemployment compensation is based on a formula of what you earned previously. And once you get your first extension, depending on the state, it can be cut - pretty drastically. In New York, you would have to have earned around 50K a year previously to qualify for $400 a week in UI benefits. So in this scenario, in New York State, you have a previously six figured family income now living "comfortably" on roughly half that.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Feb 19, 2010 -> 02:43 PM) http://www.rollcall.com/news/43349-1.html?...a:&st=email Another R gain, eventually, but maybe only temporarily. Stay classy.

NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg, age 86, has Stomach Cancer. It's treatable, they say.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 16, 2010 -> 12:31 PM) Yeah, I really didn't see why it was a huge deal for Bayh to leave like that at first, even if you were a Dem. But his choice of timing is pretty s***ty, to the party that supported him for a long time. Not real professional. Could have been orchestrated to let the party bosses choose a candidate. Which is what looks like will happen. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/...#more?ref=fpblg

Bruges is nice, but if you're doing a side trip out of Paris, I'd suggest Versailles for obvious reasons, and also Epernay, the cradle of Champagne. Tours at Moet and Chandon, head across the "mountain" to Reims and see the cathedral where they use to coronate French kings.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 15, 2010 -> 05:23 PM) Yeah, unless they import someone, there is no one that can compete on Bayh's level as a Democrat. There's a few actually, the Indiana Dem bench is surprisingly deep. Wouldn't be surprised to see Donnelly named to that nod.

I'm a big guy too and I don't see what the big deal is. I've been seated next to bigger people who have sorta oozed into a portion of my seat. If I pay for my seat, I shouldnt have to give up 10-20% of it to someone else who can't fit in their own.

Evan Bayh just proves that he's the piece of s*** so many people thought he was, by blaming gridlock as his reason for retiring. Instead of fighting to get things passed, he's just rolling over to obstructionism because of obstructionism.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 9, 2010 -> 08:40 AM) Its hard to write, and therefore hard to find, the characters that are truly right on the razor's edge. Most of the ones that might come to mind are actually pretty clearly good or evil as the story wears on. The challenge is finding one that stays on that edge throughout, which you rarely see. Of those suggested so far, I like Snape, Roark, and any of the cops in LA Confidential. Others from film: Avner in Munich (based on reality), John Cusack's character in Gross Point Blank Others from literature: Tom Bombadil from LOTR (character didn't make it into the film), Llewelyn Moss in NCFOM (more ambiguous in the book than the film) And just to throw in a twist... characters from reality, who were often made into good or evil in the extreme, but were really neither. This was a particularly strong theme in the winning of the West in American history - Geronimo, for example, or Kit Carson. I don't really know why Roark would be considered morally ambiguous. He was guided by a certain set of principles. Right or wrong did matter very much to Howard Roark, just not the traditional right or wrong, I don't think that makes him morally ambiguous.