ICanSleepWhenI'mDead

Well, if the Wonderlic correlates with "the ability to process written information," but "it doesn't correlate with on-the-field performance," how big a part of being a [good] NFL player can the ability to process written information really be? Why should we care whether a player is good at absorbing the playbook and weekly game plans, if that ability doesn't translate to actually getting results on the field? I'm not at all convinced that there is no correlation between Wonderlic scores and on-the-field performance (at least for some positions), but I've never really looked at the data in anything close to a comprehensive way.

Gotta admit, Bruce Jenner cleans up pretty nice . . .

My brother Darryl always thought "Insane Clown Posse" was a pretty inspired name - - but then again he can be a bit twisted at times.

A reindeer who would rather not be in Philadelphia.

Personally, I'm OK with gay conversion therapy. If they need a little more help understanding the metric system than most people, just give it to them. Wait . . . What?

Bob Kalsu - - even if we didn't need an OL.

FWIW: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2083800/facebook-faces-lawsuit-for-allegedly-scanning-private-messages.html

http://www.wired.com/2015/04/house-passes-cybersecurity-bill-despite-privacy-protests/?mbid=synd_slate

When you think silent lurkers come to the board to be entertained by your self-proclaimed mastery of others, the answer is pretty clear.

So nobody ever told you - - - "Don't s**t where you eat?"

Could be worse - - what if surviving a marriage was a lot like ebola?

Maybe I'm twisted, and it certainly wasn't my favorite game - - - but here's my favorite moment: Don Beebe in an all-out length of the field sprint to knock the ball out of showboating Leon Lett's hand just before he crossed the goal line in a Super Bowl where we were already very badly beaten. Give me 21 starters with half that much heart, and it won't matter who plays QB this year. http://www.nfl.com/videos/buffalo-bills/0ap2000000148850/Don-Beebe-catches-Leon-Lett

If you're less than 55 miles from the nearest radio telescope, this solution might work: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/16/400183904/we-might-welcome-robot-lawn-mowers-but-astronomers-arent-so-happy

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Applies to life in general, not just sports.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/source-puzzling-cosmic-signals-found-kitchen

So does poverty cause small brains in kids, or is poverty simply correlated with genetically inherited brain size? It appears the authors of the study didn't even consider the latter possibility. My guess is that parents of the authors of the study were poor. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/new-brain-science-shows-poor-kids-have-smaller-brains-than-affluent-kids/2015/04/15/3b679858-e2bc-11e4-b510-962fcfabc310_story.html

Don't hire a Canadian gardener. You can find other good lawn care advice here: http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/130111-toronto-taking-the-bills-is-like-my-ex-wife/?hl=canadian%20gardener

President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry credit historic "All carrot and no stick" strategy for Iranian nuclear talk success.

I wonder how they decided which of the 2 badgers got to be the maskot?

How do you feel about underwater UFOs? - - We have a thread for that. Welcome aboard before the bandwagon folks get here.

Your time is probably better spent getting on the phone and trying to work out some sort of payment plan with your creditors if you can, as others have suggested. You noted, however, that the $1600/month that the gov't diverts from your net retirement pay is a big reason why you are having current difficulty making ends meet. So even though the odds of getting that $1600/month reduced are low, you might want to read the rest of this post to see if that can be done. I had some time today and some interest in how military retirement pay is treated in divorce, so I checked out some things. Here's what I found (with supporting links because I'm just some anonymous internet poster with a Bills problem and brothers named Darryl): 1. "Federal Military Spouse Protection Act. After 10 years of marriage they are automatically entitled to 50% unless they sign it away." Absolutely not true. North Carolina makes both military and other types of pensions, whether or not vested yet, divisible in divorce. So your ex-wife had a legal interest in any pension rights you acquired during the marriage. But that is true of all married couples in North Carolina, and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that you were in the military. BTW, you likewise had a legal interest in any pension rights that your ex-wife acquired while you were married to her. If she had to change jobs frequently that may not have amounted to much, but it's something that should still have been considered when arriving at an "equitable distribution" of your joint assets. http://www.nclamp.gov/c_eq_distr.asp If you doubt the accuracy of the information in the above link because of what others have told you in the past, here's one that explains a little about where it came from: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_assistance_military_personnel/about_us.html 2. It's possible that you misunderstood what your own lawyer told you during your divorce. But if your own lawyer really did tell you that any law absolutely required you to give up 50% of your net military retirement pay in all circumstances solely because your ex-wife was married to you for 10 or more years of your military service - - you got very sh***y legal advice. If you want to see how your lawyer should have analyzed your situation, read this: http://apps.americanbar.org/family/military/silent/mpd_servicemember.pdf It took me about 5 minutes to find the link to the Coast Guard document in my earlier post. With another 5 minutes of effort, I found a website for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which provides payment services of the U.S. Department of Defense. As I understand it, that's probably the entity that actually takes the $1600/month out of your net monthly military pension check and sends it directly to your ex-wife. Here's a link to the portion of their website that has Frequently Asked Questions about the Uniformed Services Former Spouses' Protection Act ("USFSPA"): http://www.dfas.mil/garnishment/usfspa/faqs.html The answer to the first-listed question states: Now maybe your lawyer told you that in your particular circumstances, it was highly likely that a North Carolina judge would award 50% of your military pension to your ex-wife, so there wasn't much point in fighting to try to keep more of your pension. But that's a far cry from saying that the USFSPA always requires giving up 50%. As just one example of how you might have been entitled to keep more than 50% of your military pension, go back to this link: http://www.nclamp.gov/c_eq_distr.asp Read the second paragraph of the section entitled "Present Values, Future Division." If you were in the military for 10 years before you got married, and then for another 10 years between the date of your marriage and the date of your divorce, the starting point for the analysis of what would be an equitable distribution of your military pension is that your ex-wife would be entitled to 25% of it, not 50%. If you were in the military for any length of time before you got married, your ex-wife probably should have gotten less than 50% of your military pension. I don't know enough about your situation to know if that type of analysis applies to you. Now read the second paragraph under the section entitled "Procedural Considerations." The gov't can only pay a portion of your military pension directly to your ex-wife if the North Carolina judge signed an order making an equitable distribution of some portion of your military pension to her. Based on your comments in this thread and the relative rarity of fully contested divorce trials, it's highly likely that you and your wife signed a separation agreement that was incorporated into the terms of a consent judgment signed by the NC judge. If you want to understand more about how separation agreements work and are interpreted in North Carolina, read this link: http://www.ncfamilylaw.com/download/sao23.html In particular, note the answer to question #13, which states: 3. All the USFSPA does is provide a mechanism for your ex-wife to get paid her share of your military pension directly by the gov't (rather than by you) in any amount that the NC judge ordered. So if you can somehow get the NC judge to modify the earlier order awarding your ex-wife 50% of your military pension, you should be able to keep more than 50% of it. That will be hard to do, though, even in the best of circumstances. You should look through the separation agreement, and through the consent judgment that probably incorporates it, for a couple things. First, there is a slim chance that either document might have some language about how it can be modified in the future. If your ex-wife or her attorney were exceptionally greedy, they might have tried to leave open a possibility for future modification of the agreement or the consent judgment so that the ex-wife could come back later and ask for an increased award. Because the existing court order already gives her 50% that's probably unlikely, but you should look. If the door is open for her to seek a change, it should be open for you as well. Second, you should look to see if there is any language in the agreement or the consent judgment to the effect that your ex-wife would receive 50% of your military pension as a form of alimony or ongoing support rather than as a division of an existing property interest. That's also unlikely, but look anyway. The NC judge has the power to modify the earlier 50% award based on a "substantial change of circumstances" if the 50% was originally awarded as a form of alimony or ongoing support. 4. Also, you might want to consider a legal malpractice claim against your divorce lawyer, but only if BOTH (1) you have something in writing from the lawyer stating that your ex-wife was automatically entitled to 50% of your military pension under the USFSPA because she was married to you for at least 10 years of your military service, AND (2) you were already in the service for some length of time before you married her. There are also time limits for bringing a legal malpractice claim, which is why I asked you upthread about when the NC judge signed the divorce order. 5. Finally, I took a look at whether you could get the obligation for your ex-wife to be paid a portion of your military pension discharged in bankruptcy. If you think the explanations above are complicated, that issue is worse. It looks like the answer was usually no some years ago, but the link below appears to predate some significant changes in federal bankruptcy law, so it's not a final answer to the question: http://www.divorcesource.com/research/dl/bankruptcy/94jun118.shtml As I said at the top, you are more likely to be successful at getting your creditors to modify your payment obligations than at getting the payments to your ex-wife out of your military pension reduced. But if you want to try that, now you've got a road map. Hang in there.

Very promptly changed his user name when he changed his address.

"Do not reply"

There are stumpy-looking posts on median # I-26. I-26? Bingo! http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150109/PC16/150109468

Sorry, but I'm unclear. Are you saying that: (1) your ex-wife had a very savvy divorce lawyer who drafted the divorce paperwork, and you had a separate lawyer of your own who "said you couldn't fight it unless she signed a written waiver of her right to it?" or (2) you consider your own lawyer the "very savvy divorce lawyer?" I know that sounds like an odd question, but answering it may help guide my efforts to assist you if I can (and as my time allows).