StrangeSox

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 11:46 AM) and by your definition, who exactly is grass roots? anything that gains influence will have corporations jump in and try to corrupt the process to gain an advantage. The wiki lists some: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots From the early stages in 2009, the Tea Party had big corporate backers. It was starting out as a grass-roots reaction to Obama and the Democrats' wins in 2008, but it very quickly became something else.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 11:24 AM) Oh please. You could propose a plan for health care right here in this forum, and I could label it StrangeCare - is that an insult? I just don't see it. No, it wouldn't be. I'll just ask this: who came up with "ObamaCare"? Who uses that phrase repeatedly? Is it Obama and his political allies, or is it his political enemies?

Put in the context of the political discussion in this country, it most certainly is meant as an insult.

ObamaCare has been turned into an epithet for evil Democratic policies.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 10:23 AM) I get to be Balta and make a completely unreasonable connection: "So, you're saying all people with money and power are evil?" No, you get to ignore the very specific post I made addressing that issue.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 10:14 AM) I don't agree with that. Big powerful money were not organizing the early rallies and what not - that just isn't the case. Now, these big Glenn Beck scream-and-shout hate-the-world chorus events, sure, those are backed by big bucks. Dick Armey and Freedomworks (and by extension the Kock brothers), among others, have been involved from pretty much the start.

See, burning a religion's holy book to mock and degrade that religion is just like building a community center with a mosque in it. Identical.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 10:10 AM) Well to be fair, I think it STARTED grass roots, then was co-opted later. There were big corporate funders pretty much from the start of the "Tea Party" idea. "People pissed off at Obama and Democrats" came before that, but the movement, as it were, didn't really come together until their was significant backing. That doesn't mean it's wrong or bad, just that it really isn't the populist, grass-roots movement it's described as.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 10:08 AM) That's a fair criticism, but I think there's a difference between expanding intelligence powers and increased military funding right after being attacked, and spending trillions bailing out companies/people and subjecting the country to Obamacare and the like. Both are expansion of government powers and expenditures at the expense of private rights and taxation (or deficits). You're making the case that it's really about conservatism and not libertarianism.

If it's funded by powerful, wealthy people, it's not grass-roots by definition. That's all.

Don't worry, Tex can make it extra extra large font size.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 08:48 AM) That's rich. Did Jon Stewart teach you that? I honestly don't know how any "democrat" could view the tea party as the "worst thing" in politics. It's precisely the type of grass roots movement that IS American politics. You might not agree with the message, but the idea that people can get together, voice their opposition to their government, and create change is fundamentally American. The problem is that, at the top level, it isn't grass roots. It's funded by powerful and wealthy people.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 06:01 PM) Surprise: it's better then NO cost reductions that are what the current "reform" is. Just sayin'. Not if it comes at the expense of legitimate recompense for victims of malpractice. We're talking fractions of a percent of cost savings. Tort reform was a big part of the GOP plan. The other part was the "race to the bottom" sell across state lines idea. Those two items formed the backbone of the GOP plan.

He has a valid point that the Dems are weak and ineffective. They also only got to 60 seats because of Democrat senators who are center-right and wouldn't support liberal policies. They just beat out more-right Republican candidates.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 06:09 PM) Tax cuts ALWAYS raise revenues into the government, Please stop lying.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 04:48 PM) Asinine. pretty sure that was snark.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 04:15 PM) Oh, but it is....trust me... People like JoeCoolMan can laugh all they want, but the people who are really foolish are the ones that are spending $200 on a device that does nothing but read books, when you could spend the extra money and get a device that does about 10,000 other things too. And before anyone cries about the price difference, honestly, if you are buying an "eBook reader," I'm not going to feel bad for you if you're crying poor. Reading for hours on an LCD screen is uncomfortable for my eyes. I wanted a reading device. I didn't want something that does a bunch of other stuff my phone already does and also does reading but not as well or for as long. edit: the nook also has web browsing and can play audio.

I just got a nook yesterday. So far I like it. I chose the nook over the Kindle in part because of the ability to use the epub format. This opens the nook up to thousands of free ebooks from places like Project Gutenberg. I believe the Kindle is limited to Amazon's proprietary format, .txt and pdf's.

When you start your compression stroke on your engine, the cylinder is sealed off. As you compress the air/fuel mixture, the temperature rises. If the temperature rises enough, the fuel will self-ignite without a spark. This is known as "knock". If it ignites at exactly the wrong time, when the piston is at "Top Dead Center" (the highest point with the least volume available in the cylinder), the heat from ignition gets concentrated over a very small area on the piston surface. Over time, this can damage your engine. Look at Step 2, the compression stroke. If you have lower-octane fuel in a high-compression motor, the fuel can self-ignite before the spark goes off. Performance cars use high-compression motors because thermal efficiency and power output are a function of the compression ratio (volume of cylinder with piston at bottom vs. volume of cylinder with piston at top). For the average car, though, many consumers would be turned off by a car requiring or recommending premium fuel, so lower-compression motors are used. Modern cars contain knock sensors that can tell if the fuel is self-igniting. They prevent damage by firing the spark plug later in the cycle if knock is detected. This results in a less-efficient combustion and expansion process and lowers overall cylinder temperatures and pressures so that the engine doesn't knock. This only applies to gasoline (Otto Cycle) engines. Diesel engines are a different animal and actually rely on self-ignition to operate; there's no spark plugs.

Milk steak, boiled over hard.

Feisal Abdul Rauf Details His Harrowing Vision for Terror-Victory Mosque

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 09:39 AM) And Jenks never said it was...nor did he say to call him Dr or anything else. He simply said he has a doctorate, which he does, and to minimalize that in anyway is as direct of an insult as calling someone an asshole. The post that had nothing at all to do with the topic shold have been removed and a warning given. Yeah, I would support splitting out that derail. My own personal bias of what I think of when I hear "doctorate" doesn't change what Jenks has earned and accomplished.

They toyed around with the idea of payroll tax exemptions, but felt those cut into too much SS and Medicare funding. It'd be a political hand grenade at this point, but why not cut payroll taxes and raise the SS/Medicare caps to offset?

Freezing government spending at 2008 levels and not raising taxes doesn't exactly protect from huge deficits. The GOP has no real ideas. They have no "Contract with America" this time. They only have fear and polemics.

"That is, we have factories sitting idle for lack of workers – low capacity utilization. At the same time we have workers sitting idle for lack of factories – high unemployment." That's always struck me as odd. We have people who want to work and people who would consume the goods or services produced if they could also work, but they all just sit at home.