Dan

So, what category to you place conservatives that believe gay marriage is immoral; therefore, they pass laws banning gay marriage? Or conservatives that believe abortion is immorale; therefore, they want to ban all abortions? Or conservatives that thing drinking is bad; therefore, liquor stores are closed on Sunday? Or... you get the point. So you don't think there are plenty of examples of far right conservatives that feel laws must be made in order to force their beliefs on everyone else? I think the cogent point that's been presented here is that there are nuts on both the liberal and conservative sides of the coin. And, I'll add, for anyone to argue that their side of the coin is more rational or more tolerant than the other is ignoring all the nuts standing behind them.

No the muslim part was a bad attempt at humor, stemming from the PPP board in which someone started a thread about NASA's role being redefined. May I ask what your PhD is in?

Thanks for all the comments. It should be interesting if it happens, which the probability is quite high. We may spend some time in Dubai - that's where our current contact lives. However, the work would be in KSA; so he's saying all our time will be there. Of course no actual travel plans are made yet. The first trip is mostly exploratory and securing the work. If all goes well, it could become much more routine, possibly even looking to hire a couple of people to go over for extended periods. Definitely a big step for our outfit. No I don't work for NASA, but I would like to take this time and recognize all the achievements the Muslim world has made to internet message boards. There are a lot of gifted Muslim posters and it's our priority that we encourage them to post more.

Saudi Arabia. I'll definitely go, if the opportunity comes to pass. It could be quite lucrative. And, that's what I've been told the host company will arrange everything and take care of all travel, hotels, everything. My concern is.. I'm a long haired, cowboy hat, jean wearin, piss on you kinda guy and I'm not in any way familar with specific custums, dress, etiquette, and the like for that region of the world. So, I don't want to piss anyone off and end up in some infidel boot camp.

Good points. And pretty much what I was thinking. Maybe I'm not an idiot afterall. A key point I was hoping to see addressed in more detail over the last year was new industry which would provide completely new jobs. Given many of the points above, it would seem to make sense that getting into something like the alternative energy market could solve some, if not many, of those issues. I liked the thought of puuting Americans to work devloping the technology and equipment that supply the next generation with power that's being used here. Perhaps people are working toward that, but it would be nice to see it more of an emphasis. If you think I'm not going to be checking out every hot chick driving by, well we're just scewed. Because I'm sorry if it comes down to hot chicks or the fate of the free world, I'm taking hot chicks every day of the week. I do see your points. And that's been one of my biggest concerns over the past year. Not so much each specific piece of legislation. But the volume of it all at once.

Question, and a serious one as I'm not an economist in any sense of the term: How much of the current stagnation, slow growth, whatever is due to the economy just finding a new point of stability that's lower than where we were? What I'm driving at is, it seems a couple of years ago our economy was booming along and everything was marked up, expanding daily, all was good. But, then we find out its all built on a house of cards so to speak. So, is it reasonable to expect an economic recovery back to 2008 levels and higher? If I may try my hand at an analogy: If you're driving a car designed to travel 55mph, but your steadily keeping the peddle down and climbing to 60, 60, 75; then the engine blows. You patch the engine, you keep going, but do you keep going at 75mph or is 55mph the new stable speed until you find some way to overahaul the engine? Make sense?

Actually, being a little more open-minded and level headed; I prefer to wait until I actually see NASA's list of priorities on some official document before I jump off the bridge and stoke the fires of a good rant. I can tell you this though... the guy was giving an interview on an all the time, pro muslim news station. Would you expect anything less than a lot of glowing praise for muslims? I know from first hand experience that press releases and interviews are almost always scripted and tailored for a specific audience, message, even specific time and place. And that script will very often change from day to day depending upon the circumstances and audience you're targeting. So, it's very likely, almost a certainty, that he was given a very precise script on what to say - regardless of any official policy. Now did he go too far with his language and statments. In our eyes, yes. In the muslim world, I'd guess no. Oh and by the way, I think the trap has long since snapped shut.

Just curious... has any of the board faithful had to travel to the middle east recently for business? I may have an opportunity in the near future and, needless to say, it's a little concerning given all the recent year's relations.

Certainly some, no doubt. But by no means all... But, ok, I'll go a little old school because it's easy for chicks to get all photoshopped up after their boob jobs and assorted plastic surgeries these days. Perhaps she's been mentioned before; if so, good for that poster. But it really doesn'y get much better than... Phoebe Cates The Classic Shot and she's aged quite well.

Yes. I'm finally getting the respect I deserve!

Hoo ray! I think I've just stepped up to being someone's favorite whipping boy. Happy, happy, joy, joy for me.

OK... this is really long past pointless and I have work to do. So, rather than refute each point you've attempted; I'll do just one and then let you rant back some nonsense. Sound good? You seem fixated on the fact that Obama is no leader. And you're asserting that I am disputing that. Can we at least agree on that? In the thread in which you reference (I assume because no link was provided): I clearly state in my 4th post in the thread that: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Obama has shown leadership on this mess. I'm just saying that at least some of the things people want to see done are being done." Furthermore, in my initial post, I clearly state: "And yes, Obama has made many missteps" So, I would think it's fairly obvious that I'm not giving anyone an "all thumbs up" for how things have been handled. The problem with your argument is you stated: "That's not my point. My point is: given Obama's clearly demonstrable tendencies to be ideological, instead of practical, to the point of obtuseness, why on God's green earth should we let him be in charge of any other major initiative?" So which is it? Do you want him to be the great leader and take charge of the oil disaster or do you want him defer leadership to someone else? You've indicated that you want both to occur.... you're upset that he's not leading, but you started your entire argument asking why should we even let him. And, in perfect bizzaro world fashion, I'm the one that's contradicting myself. Nice.

Did I win yet?

Has this become... "Women You can find a Picture Of" thread?

I've never once stated that Obama gets a passing grade. I've never stated that he's been a great leader through all this. I've simply stated that here's one example of something good being done. Your problem is that you're completely biased. You've drawn your line in the sand and refuse to budge. Obama is bad, he's not a leader, he's a socialist, and every other talking point your heart can think of. Nothing Obama can ever do will be right in your eyes. And that is what is what is most troubling - everything becomes politicized and reality becomes completely distorted. Rational thought and discussion have become an after thought. I can't even discuss this simple little issue without being labeled and idiot and a liar. But, that's ok. I'm sure you've already decided I'm an Obama supporter; therefore, I'm agin ya. And all I do or say is wrong by default. It must be nice to live in such a black and white world where all that is either good or bad can so easily be determined and forever known. Nanker is right, this issue is largely window dressing. It's most likely political cover designed to do one thing - get votes. Because Obama, like every other first term President wants one thing - a second term. But, that doesn't change the fact that if I were a fisherman on the Gulf coast, I'd have at least a little relief knowing that there's money set aside to compensate me. It doesn't mean I'd be happy; that'd sleep easy; it doesn't mean I'll even get my fair compensation; but it does mean that I can start thinking of ways to inflate my lost revenue and cash out and move to a part of the world that God doesn't hate.

A lie about as big as suggesting the government and BP have consistently ignored the broken pipe, containment and cleanup of the mess. How many meetings did BP attend at the Whitehouse to set up the $20B fund? Or are you suggesting that before and since the fund was set up, that that's all anyone has been able to focus on? And, why is it ok to spend some time on #2 before #1; but not #4? So what's wrong with doing #4 first, if that opportunity presented itself? I mean, if it's ok to do #2, why can't we do #4? Or is that too far down the list? Can we only focus on 2 things at once, but 4 things is just brain overload? My premise is that something good was done. A fund was setup to ensure that people would be compensated. It took relatively little time; yet gave people some assurance and perhaps a little glimmer of hope. But, you're unwilling to acknowledge that anything good was done. Why? Because, it was done in the wrong "order" or was it done by a President that you refuse to give any credit to?

We may have just stumbled upon some new posting guidelines. Another thing I do alot... you have a post you want to comment on. Give it an hour, maybe a day. If the issue is still unresolved, then reply. But there's not sense replying to every comment.

Exuberance at the thought that we'll just have one more year of Chan before he's fired and we can finally have Whaley take over and really start to rebuild the team with a proven defenisive-minded coach.

It's exactly this type of mentality that prevents us from winning any sort of victory today in Afghanistan or Iraq. The locals just lay back and wait. We'll eventually move out and they'll move back in. They shoot at our soldiers, then drop their guns; our soldiers can't shoot back. Because we're better than that. They shoot at our soldiers; then run into a mosque or village. Our soldiers can't shoot back, because we're better than that. Meanwhile, 9 years later we're still pissin around while they think no one can beat them. My question is when did we become so pussified? War is hell. People die. That's why you do everything you can to not go to war. But, when you do... you do everything and anything in your power to win it and win it fast. And yes, lots of people will die, many of them may be innocent civilians. But, that's just the way it is. If you don't want people to die; get rid of the military and never send troops into battle. Back to Japan, so you're suggesting we wait it out a few more months to try and convince them. Does it matter that Japan was diligently working on a nuclear weapon of their own. Who's to say that in a few months times they wouldn't have had something they could have dropped on us? Would the decision to wait still have been worth it? I ask, because we're pretty much playing the same game today.

Problem is... we've all bought into the new regime each and every time for a decade now. There's been plenty of optimism. Sold out stadiums, even. However, the team and each new regime has stomped that optimism into the ground. So, now we get yet another new group of guys and we're supposed to all automatically get optimistic again? I said it with his hire, the problem with Gailey is he gets almost no grace period. I guarantee you if a well known, repsected, proven HC had been hired AND made the exact same personnel moves; this place would be brimming with optimism. But, Gaily is not that guy. He has to earn that optimism, from me and alot of other fans. And he does that by winning football games. So, until I see an 8 in the win column, excuse me if I can't help but be less than impressed. So, are you suggesting that by Oct 10th, we'll be 1 and 4? And if we are, if we have a losing record with more of the lame excuses about execution, while our O-line is being man handled and Trent is checking down when he's not getting pancacked, while our defensive live is a seive, and Morman is once again our best player; should we be all rosy and optimistic... still? Can you really blame some people for their pessimism when this team has consistently fielded such a poor team? When they have a chance to make moves to turn the team around and they stick with the status quo - QB, Oline? Can you really blame some of us for not being all giddy about having KC's fired OC as our new HC? Maybe it all turns out great. But, maybe it doesn't. Maybe by Oct. 10 we'll know.

In my work, we often place orders for machinery/equipment from a few suppliers. They charge us sales tax based on which office it's being shipped too. I thought the majority of online stores already charged sales tax? I know I pay tax all the time on internet orders. But maybe not from all places, I guess. ... I just checked some saved receipts for a few big ticket items (computers, software, etc.) I paid tax on them all. So, why am I the only one getting screwed?

Question: Why not just create an Album here? They've got the nifty "My Album" feature. I used it last summer to post pics of my trip to the HOF and thought it was pretty easy and functional. I guess, I just don't see the advantage to having pictures actually appear in the post. If you allow a resolution large enough to have a decent picture, then you get large, oversized posts that make reading the thread near impossible. If you put resolution restrictions on the pics, to make them smaller, then you lose all good detail in pics and still would want to link to a higher rez pic. So, I guess I'll add my 2 cents and say keep the pics out. The My Album feature is functional enough, as well as the myriad of free pic posting sites. Plus too, this way we have to at least click the link to see Peter Pan guy. Imagine, he/she showing up in every other thread... all unfiltered!

You really don't pay attention do you? I never suggested that stopping the leak wasn't the priority. My point was, and still is, that it was nice to have BP held accountable for the spill and to set up the fund. Obama spent.. what.. one day doing that? That in no way prevented the President from stopping the spill. It in no way has detracted from anyone's efforts to stop the spill. But, you can't recognize it as something positive. Why? Because Obama did it. It's really that simple. So, you hang onto the notion that it was done out of order; therefore, it's bad. Had BP stopped the spill and a day later Obama got them to set up the fund, would it magically be ok? You've argued that all efforts should be spent on the emergency situation of stopping the spill. When its been quite obvious for quite some time that they weren't going to stop this mess until relief wells are drilled. But, I guess all things should be held off until that's done. Because, god forbid, we try to concentrate on more than one thing at a time. So, in short, yes, the priority of "to do" items is correct. It was then; it is now. But,that does not mean you cannot work on multiple priorities at the same time. I'll tell ya what. When this thing is all over and the inevitable senate hearings and whatnot come about, if it is determined that the spill was prolonged because Obama needlessly spent a day getting BP to set up this fund; then I'll publicly state that Obama sucks and OC is right. However, if it is determined that the spill was not prolonged because Obama needlessly spent a day getting BP to set up this fund; then will you publicly state that Obama did something good and Dan is right?

Holy crap.... great post. I agree, obviously.