Texsox

Oops, Balta posted as I was ^^^ Clinton and experience ^^^ Such is politics. Both sides are a little right and a little wrong. About the same when the Dems and GOP reversed about serving in the military.

Knowing you, find one where they use lots of pictures and speak slowly using small words

check your PMs

One of the issues I have with any of the proposals is it makes individual businesses the tax collectors, in an even bigger way. The differences in what we can spend, is based, to the greatest degree, on what we earn. Taxing earnings is the simplest and fairest process. Perhaps we could focus attention on making that system fairer. We could reduce the size of the IRS by reducing deductions. I would be interested in the pros and cons of going the other way. Stop all use and sales taxes and just tax income. I dislike all the hidden little taxes that are included in everything. For example, an extra tax on hotel rooms and rental cars to fund a town's promotion department.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 01:50 PM) FYI, I was, and still am, for that. However I also want to get rid of those who have broken the law. Even if we come up with a workable plan, how many people who disregard the law now will start following the new one? Get the worker program, then make it next to impossible for someone to get the work unless they follow the program. And bust the companies that DO hire them (knowingly) off program. Bust them hard. Put it all together and you have a package I could live with. Exactly. We're not that far apart. I doubt we can find and deport everyone who broke this law, and I also doubt it would be worth it. I would like to see anyone who came here, worked, took care of themselves, and did not break any other laws, an opportunity to stay. I think we have to look carefully at the employers, and again do what makes sense for everyone. Putting a few thousand legal Americans out of work because of a crappy HR manager who didn't do his/her job may not be in our best interest. I'd hate to be paying unemployment, etc. But there are cases where they blatantly looked the other way, or even actually encouraged illegals to apply, and I have little sympathy for those companies. But these workers have been here for generations and we need to keep the baby while throwing out the bathwater.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 01:30 PM) *bark bark* ... ... ... SMACK! ... ... ... *sizzle* Yeah, that imitation stuff is made with beef and chicken . . .

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 01:52 PM) I have put a few AC/DC CD's on my iTunes with no problem. Maybe your CD drive is just a little touchy and some scratches are messing it up? He's just laying the groundwork when the RIAA comes a calling for that illegal download . . .

Money talks, but perhaps you could find them elsewhere? You would be on a Highway to Hell for downloading though. Keep a stiuff upper lip and don't get in a ball breaker . . .

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 01:28 PM) Green Bamboo in Keller, Texas. Authentic Vietnamese food. That's not my favorite, but I lived to tell about it, I think. Nothing worse than *imitation* Vietnamese food . . .

What seems silly to me is the attitude of "we have to get rid of these workers, no matter what the cost, no matter how it will impact America". Last I looked, we had over 300,000,000 Americans. The unemployment rate is about 5%, which would be 15,000,000 unemployed. If there are 20,000,000 illegals, we'd be at 102% employment, if an unemployed computer programmer will go work at the car wash, or an unemployed school teacher will come work a shrimp boat for a couple months. It just makes more sense to me to keep these workers under a workable program that allows for temporary workers, without Social Security benefits, etc.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 12:23 PM) But how many is it now, Tex? You make is sound like this huge number of people. Are there really 500,000 people moving from town to town every month or so? I would think that could cause quite the problem for some towns with this huge influx of temporary residents every month. And as for your factory comment, why not? You have a huge 'factory' of illegals now being 'set up and taken down' every month or so, according to what you said. At least this way they don't have to feed and house the machine the other 10 months of the year (other than in a barn somewhere). Packing can be automated. if they have conveyor lines that can scan out wrong sized potato chips on a belt moving 20 miles an hour, they can devise one that can determine the right size/color/shape fruit to package. Picking may be another story, I don't know what's out there. Most estimates I've read fix the number around 2.5 million workers in agriculture alone. And you don;t see it because it may only be a few hundred in this town, a few hundred in that town. Farms are usually outside large metro areas, and they will stay in the area around the farm. Sleeping either in supplied housing, their vehicles, or whatever. All of the fruit packing sheds I've visited have automatic graders, but they still employ hundreds of people to move the fruit from the trucks that need to be unloaded, the fruit that grades poorly needs to be packed for the juice factories. Etc. Boxes need to be moved from the lines to the trucks. Orders need to be picked and packed into the outgoing trucks. So we could spend billions of dollars to eliminate temporary farm workers, raising our food costs, or we could continue to employ them, as we have for generations, and come up with a decent guest workers program that offers legal work, tracks the workers, etc. Doesn't that seem like a better solution?

A story about a confused Florida voter, where have I heard that before . . .

I'm just heating up some tomato soup. Campbells. From concentrate. Added milk. Will consume from a mug. I also snacked a bit leading up to this, some carrots and a banana. I love working from home.

QUOTE(Soxy @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 12:32 PM) Wtf? Totally work safe. QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 07:13 AM) um... creepy. Great marketing.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 8, 2008 -> 03:20 PM) The water is full of flourine and the schools are crap. Not too damn sure about the food and we addressed the police when we talked about Swat teams and such. I would not say our schools are crap, we allow every student to enter and stay in school. Other countries kick those kids out. Makes for a difficult comparison of test scores. Our crap schools attract students from all over the globe. Deadly outbreaks from contaminated water are very rare in this country. Even better is our sewer systems. America, Love it or Leave it

They all have added technology, but imagine a factory that sets up for full production then shuts down in two months. You still need waregousemen, you need people packing and picking. You need people to keep the machinery running. In the 1950s the bracero program brought in upwards of 500,000 workers. You can't just grab an apple or orange tree and shake off the fruit and scoop it up with a front end loader. What technology will mow the golf course throughout the north? Instead of shooting ourselves in the foot, why not develop a working guest worker program?

I just listen to my joints creak as I get out of bed, that's all I need to feel old I love those lists. I have a day class this semester, everyone in that class, including the instructor, could be my kid.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 05:58 PM) Word to the wise... NEVER Google "anus ottoman". Did he play third base for the Pirates?

From one of my professor's syllabus, How about if a I fail the class with a grade of "C" or better?

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 4, 2008 -> 01:05 PM) In the early 90's, I went from running the 50 person office of a furniture factory to 9 months of unemployment to working for $9 per hour at Rent-A-Center ( I HATED that job). DId that for just over a year until the opportunity I am in now came to be. When you are hungry and have a house to pay for, you do what you have to do. You could have sold the house and hit the road following the crops. Three or four weeks in each town.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 04:16 PM) http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/fur/540076210.html Sorta safe for work? I dunno. Somehow I don't think this would impress the ladies when you brought them home. Assuming you ever got any to bring home inthe first place. I wonder if he has a matching anus-shaped ottoman? Hmm, what did Alpha type into google to find this

QUOTE(SnB @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 04:27 PM) Last semester of college so I have 4 100 level classes, 1 200 level, and 1 400 level. Should be a breeze I wish I could have scheduled something like that. It looks like my last semester will consist of three 4000 level (Senior) and two 6000 level (Grad). The University allows Undergrads to take 6 hours of grad school classes. So I figure why not get a head start plus I'm still undecided between English and Psychology.

After spending a month with my son's Macbook I was impressed in some areas, and very disappointed in others. Overall, without the blind loyalty and fanaticism, I'm not certain there truly is an overall advantage with Apple. I'd venture to say, if I tossed prices in, I'm still happier with a PC. But I will say, the coolness and overall tactile "feel" was a real eye opener.

Big mistake, took a day class. I have shirts older than most all of the people in my Bio lecture, including the professor. Everyone was pre-this and pre-that. Pre-pharmacy Pre-med, I told them I was pre-nap, damn whomever thought of 7:45 am classes was an idiot without any social skills. Anyone who willingly signs up for one is worse. The lab on the other hand is run by a TA who I had no idea if it was a man or woman. She warned us she can be sarcastic. Yeah, like that's going to be a problem. I am really pumped for my linguistics class. The professor is currently guest lecturing in India and is conducting this class on-line from her apartment there. Skype, IM, message boards. She was concerned that, as an older student, I might not have any experience with message boards. I assured her I would struggle through some how, but if she could cut me a little slack, I would sincerely appreciate it. Then my killer night, Thursday. Three and a half hours of early English Lit from the age of FlaSoxxJim 400 AD to the last Cub world series 1746. Followed by three and a half hours of Beat Generation writers. From Paradise Lost to Road Trips with Kerouac and Cassady. What I ride that will be.

If you are preparing for a career in Social Work, wouldn't a class like this be important? It would seem to me that understanding different subcultures in America is important.