_BiB_

mmmmmmmm. Beeps!

I wouldn't know without a serious Google. Thanks to the new homeland defense gold rush, a lot of companies seem to be popping up, and others reorganizing, shedding and re-assimilating. I'm not on the business side of it anymore, and don't worry about procurement, so I haven't been keeping up. I do sense that there have been a lot of changes in the last year.

VA golfs with us. Figure it out.

They go with beer?

Not in it's old form. I think they went through some iterations and finally got bought out by General Dynamics.

True Story. We were being inspected once, back in the mid 70s. This was a period where the inspections were pretty chicken sh--. You could flunk for any number of minor violations, even though the tracks were battle worthy. We took two of our Sheridans (out of six) and made them as perfect as we could. We took one over the inspection line, and when it came off, painted over the identification numbers and repainted it with one of the tracks we knew wouldn't make it. We alternated the vehicles this way (the full inspection for each vehicle took a few hours). We passed, with flying colors by the way, 6 out of 6 tracks.

That's a pretty cheap shot. What would you know about it? We have the only military in the world that encourages widespread creativity and initiative. A 21 year old E-5 squad leader in the US infantry is often entrusted with more latitude and responsibility than many officers in other Armies. In answer to your question, yes-I'm pretty sure that there is more to the story. One, serviceable equipment is not likely to be abandoned. Two, there used to be an old tradition of "midnight requisition". Sneak into someone else's motor pool and steal parts. It's not considered fun and fair play anymore. Three, anything here is pure speculation without a read on the entire situation-and looks on the surface like another semi-subtle anti-establishment spin.

Prodding the bear.

You don't read these boards much anymore, do you?

I know, I was out eating Grouper Sammiches with one last night. That was more of a "Hi Buffalo guys" type of thing. I was just surprised at such a quick response. Is that some sort of a local joke now? Most local Bills fans I know or knew were never fair weather bandwagon fans. We ended up talking Buffalo politics and the old Calspan across from the airport that, so I never got around to asking.

I'm at a convention in Florida this week. CALSPAN-UB has an exhibit. I go to make some conversation, start off with-I'm surprised to see some Bills Fans in Tampa. The immediate response was "We're bandwagon fans". I really hope they were kidding.

This must be the horsetrailer thread.

Hey, since I know next to nothing about how this crap works, I thought I'd throw out a "this is my result". How's that sucking up? It's sort of like shot over, shot out splash over, splash out.

I've been on my laptop the last few days, so I don't know how much is Toshiba and how much is TBD, but it seems since the threads got archived things are working a lot better.

I firmly believe, personally, in an evolutionary process. I also see it entirely plausible that this "spark" was set of through other than random chance of chemistry and physics. Yes, it took millions of years for life to evolve-but in the geologic timeframes involved, it went from the most simple virus like objects to coherent multicelled plants and animals in a relatively short time. Heck. Why plants and animals anyway? Didn't they begin from the same chemical reactions? Why not all plants or all animals? this can go round and round. I still view this whole debate as another form of the red state-blue state mentality. If one is willing to accept any ideas on faith, one is considered stupid and inferior by the other side. In order to not be a stupid and inferior nation, we must then, eliminate any concept of faith. If it can not be proven through mans scientific process, how can it hold any measure of truth. Someday, someone will create actual life in a test tube. It will be heralded as proof of the scientific mindset. How will we ever know that we aren't just duplicating something someone else did 3 billion years ago?

I always rent with Hertz as well. If you are going to rent-that's your final option, make sure you go to one of the outlying rental places-not anything near the airport or downtown. Things could be as much as 30-50% cheaper, even with the dropoff fees. You're going to want at least a mid-size. Boston to Buffalo is a long trip in a subcompact, especially when the weather sucks. As with most everyone else, I'd fly. It's more than worth another hundred bucks, even with renting a sub for a couple days once you get there. If you can play with your dates, you can almost always find better rates. Don't forget to browse for specials and incentives with both the flights and the cars too.

Whether it should be taught or not, what is inherently wrong with the theory? I'll answer that. It calls for the power and the intervening hand of something more powerful than us. Many, for some reason find that frightening. This is pretty close to my personal beleifs. I had them long before I ever heard of ID. Has anyone stopped to think about how complex life is, let alone the rest of it? I don't believe in FLASH, Here you go Adam-and that the world was created 10,000 years ago-but I have not seen anything to prove that life is due to a lightning bolt hitting the right random combinations of amino acids at the same time. If one miniscule of DNA screws up, and one simple releaser enzyme doesn't engage at the proper moment-there is no life for that individual. Should one want to believe this is all random chance, I guess one can. I'm not implying this is the right answer, but I do think that by totally discounting an overarching power to all of it might be the worst form of egotistical prodding the bear. Looking at science as science, this place was apparantly a barren wasteland for quite a few billion years. Then suddenly, there was a virtual explosion of life. Maybe it wasn't a force we can call God, but I've yet to see a definitive explanation otherwise. The excuse is "it's a theory, how can it be definitive-we weren't there to see it". Modern "Us" wants a definitive proof of a higher power, beyond the shadow of any doubt, but is willing to accept as science, the theories of man. Maybe we should stick to what we know we have discovered, and can prove, as science-including the process, and not close the door on what we don't know we can prove until it is done. I can understand that people might want to live 2,3,400 years-as they have already discounted the idea of anything beyond this existence here. They feel that this is all there is. To hope or believe otherwise, they fear, makes them look uneducated, unintelligent and childishly foolish. So be it. I'll take my chances that perhaps it's not that way. I believe that there is a higher power, whom I choose to call God, that there IS another place and I'm more than willing to go there as soon as it is determined that it's my time. So, I guess, call me a naive, unscientific fool. But, hey, I'm regularly called a lot worse. Don't bother me none. I still look forward to it, and I have no fear of it. As far as I'm personally concerned, I'm living what I think is some type of larval stage. I won't truly live until I pass through it. As far as teaching it? No, probably not. What I think works best is for schools to teach scholastics. Where a particular religion is germane to the subject, as it so often is in history, place it into the curriculum. It would not bother me one iota to see some form of theology taught at the highschool level, the intent being to give the basics, for understanding reasons, the core beliefs and history of the worlds major religions-as they DO figure prominantly into the everyday lives of billions. How can and why should this be ignored? As an example, we wouldn't be having this problem with the middle east if everyone had a basic uderstanding of Islam and the role it plays in the everyday life of the Muslims. Muslim Children taught the ideas of Christianity would have a clearer understanding of why much of the West think the way they do. This wouldn't be meant to foster agreement, just to foster understanding. We have botched foreign policy for over 200 years. Why? Because we want to Americanize and Christianize everything everyone else does. Americans see things only through their eyes, not the eyes of the Hindu, or the Muslim, or in many cases even through the eyes of the Jew or other Christians. Because of this, everything will eventually break down and fail-or conversely, we are going to have dominate the world by force. Not very good choices.

Link didn't open.

By providing for a common defense. I'm not pulling things out of the air, these are actual issues that come up. I don't believe that every Tom, Dick and Harry gumshoe has carte blanche to do whatever they want. What is wrong with empowering a select group, regionally, within the appropriate agencies with legal authorization to OK these types of things on a case by case basis. I have an FBI file on me. So do about 2 million other people. It's really not a big deal.

I keep telling you guys I like Costa Rica. What would happen to you here if you put two in the guts of a moron?

Someone check Ebay for a used Klingon Cloaking Thingy.

My example is hypothetical, but typical. There are situations when actions are of a very time sensitive nature. If one were to try to accomodate that with a "blanket warrant", the actual effect would be the same. You're a lawyer, a lot of this has to do with having a process that is functional, legal AND won't get thrown out of court through technicality. There are also situations that are sensitive to the degree that actually explaining what the exact warrant is for becomes a problem. How many Federal Judges have compartmented Top Secret access and are read into the particular programs involved?

You beat me to it. Post a note on Boston's Craiglist, as well. They might even pay for the gas and such. Look from the Buffalo end too.

OK, should an intelligence organization be allowed to intercept email information from an American Muslim that through secondary sources has been observed video taping activities at a container port gate? He, after all is an American Citizen.

Look at Cleveland.