Jon in Pasadena

Not where I work they ain't...

Well these guys seem legit, although their selection is both limited and IMHO highly questionable: tra-la-la Old McDonald?

Takamine Classical. About 25 years old now and sounds very nice. Not bad for a guitar I got for free. Random Jap Strat sunburst knockoff. Not too bad actually, but I busted it and haven't fixed it yet... Gibson Sonex. Worst.Guitar.Ever. I can get better sounds out of folding a piece of tracing paper over a comb and making my mouth go "brrrrrrrzzzzz". Thanks for reminding me I need to get rid of this POS. No amp at present. Love the old marshall plexi superleads. Maybe I'll get one when I get a bigger house...

Better be young and in shape for this one...

OMG! Soooooo many possibilities for this one....what to play first: Led Zep - "Whole Lotta Love" VH - "OU812" Blondie - "Eat to the Beat" Tubes - "Don't Touch me There" The mind boggles......

While there is some truth to these remarks, I would contend that they are not completely fair or accurate. Certainly racism has been from ancient times deeply ingrained in the Japanese people (who considered themselves to be members of a single huge tribe, which is basically accurate). Obviously this has had some tragic consequences, historically, both for themselves and many of their Asian neighbors, not to mention a whole lot of U.S. servicemen. As you say, there are still some "Japanese only" establishments. However-- these days they are becoming BY FAR much less common. Sentiment IS changing. Change is not instantaneous, especially in a society far more conservative and homogeneous than our own. Things take time. (In my lifetime there were "white-only" establishments right here in the wonderful U.S.A. There's still places where you can get killed for being the wrong color, etc. ) It is certainly untrue to say that 100% of Japanese care nothing for anyone but themselves. I have seen plenty of evidence of good things that they have accomplished elsewhere in the world. In (north) Vietnam, over by the Laos border, there's a little farming community that I stopped in. To my surprise, they had a top-notch bridge over the river. When I inspected the base of the bridge, I found a small plaque indicating that it was a Japanese foreign assistance project. In Uzbekistan, there are Japanese agricultural experts helping the local farmers to learn modern farming techniques to increase the productivity of their land. In the Rif mountains of Morocco, there is a hospital founded and staffed entirely by Japanese. The local Berbers and Arabs love them and raved to me about how compassionate and caring they were. These are just a few examples; it's easy to find many more. The younger generation of Japanese is much more interested in the outside world than were their parents or grandparents. I know many, many Japanese who have ventured out into the outside world to engage it constructively. The number of international marriages in Japan is increasing quite a bit. There's actually a bit of a craze right now for other cultures, especially for (formerly despised) Korea. Now if only the government would swallow its pride and finally deal with the WWII reparations issue once and for all. That's still a big thorn in their side.

D, The People's Republic of Berzerkly hasn't been part of California for a loooonnnggg time now.....

Corruption in the Big Easy? Say it ain't so...

For me "sweet" implies a combination of accurate, good stopping power, won't jam on you, easy to disassemble/clean, fits well in my hand, not too heavy (or too light), reasonable capacity mag. My wife can shoot the same gun as I can which is nice. Although it pisses me off when she outshoots me. I took firearm safety and shooting classes from a retired FBI agent who trained the local police force and we used the same firing range as the cops use. Even though I live in a horrible state (California) for law-abiding gun owners, there are still several indoor and outdoor ranges within easy driving distance from my house, ammo store 2 blocks away, etc. Most states are better & have more ranges.

So how do you like the .45 Glock? I have the baby .40 (G23) and it is sweet.

Whoops, that was me. Way to support the saggin greenback, AD!

"We Close Our Eyes" by Oingo Boingo

Interesting. According to the letter of Ohio's law, it would seem that as long as you plan, in good faith, to be in another county on that day, you could apply for, and should be approved for, absentee voter status. Here's California's info about obtaining permanent absentee voting status: It really is pretty different from state to state.

"In fact" you're wrong. The rules on absentee ballots are up to the individual states. Here in California any registered voter may request an absentee ballot for any reason (or actually for no reason, since there's not even a place to write in a reason). You just call up your county clerk's office and request an application be sent to you. Fill it out, send it back, and for the rest of your life, as long as you vote in all eligible elections and keep your mailing address current they'll send you out an absentee ballot about three weeks before the election. (Caveat: I only speak from personal experience on this about LA County, as I didn't know about voting absentee when I lived up in Nevada County). As to why people do it? There are many reasons, and I don't presume to judge others. I personally think it would be rather stupid for me to wait in line all day to accomplish exactly the same thing that can be done in 5 minutes by licking a stamp. I guess I'd rather be thought of as lazy than stupid. If I want to demonstrate "sacrifice" or something I can find more meaningful ways of doing it than missing work, clogging traffic, and waiting in a polling line.

I actually had no idea what a hot pocket was until I read this thread. Never had one and probably never will. They sound nasty.

Anyone of any gender preference who signs a blanket statement like that one deserves what he/she/it gets!

Oh I definitely agree with that. Maybe I should have written "for amusement purposes only"

Try taking this quiz; you might be surprised by the results. (Or perhaps not. I wasn't.) DISCLAIMER: this concerns religious beliefs so don't hurt yourselves.... Quiz

Thanks, Jester! He be a holy terror though....I lost 10 pounds already chasing that little bugger. Loved your story BTW. I actually have quite a few I can't tell yet due to statutes of limitations not expired yet and so forth... B)

Which means that the more you drive, the more you like Bush? (Bonus points to anyone able to unravel that silly-gism.

Sure, either one works...the only one I'd advise against is "Captain Jack!"

Oooh, that's gotta sting!

Aw, come on now, what are you implying; that these mightn't be the only ones out there ... ?

Not super funny but here's what I got: One girl I dated for a few months in college. She used to go out with an upperclassman acquaintance of mine, but the next year he took off for Grad school and one night me & "J" hooked up. Thought things were going pretty well for a few months, then I got the damnedest christmas card while I was back in WNY visiting the folks. It said "Christmas is like sex: in the end you !@#$ing pay for it!" Well it's been 20 yrs and I still have no idea WTF that meant. Bu I did make a hurried trip to the Doc just to make sure it didn't mean you know what! (It didn't!) Anyhow, J blew me off a few weeks after that and headed up north to reunite with her ex- (same grad school) who later cheated on her with an array of bimbos and generally treated her like crap. I was pissed for a while then consoled myself all summer with a baaaarely legal chica... Another girl, (also a "J" -- coincidence or spooky -- you decide!) I was dating for over a year when she went on vacation for a few weeks and left me the keys to her room. The housing dept. suddenly decided to revamp her building so I had like 24 hours to move all her crap somewhere safe, and otherwise prepare for the whole rehabilitation/repainting process. Which I did by pulling a really nasty all-nighter. And then repeated the whole process in reverse a week later when housing finished the remodel, plus clean, vacuum and organize all her crap. So J2 gets back from her vacation to a nice, spanking new, clean, freshly painted, organized room. And repays me a few weeks later by dumping me for some musclebound artistic physicist dude who was supposedly a friend of mine. Or at least a FOAF. Who she'd insisted she wasn't interested in. Whatever. I felt like a friggin' idiot for wasting my time and energy like that and being pretty irate I gave her a good talking to which basically boiled down to "you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas" and then I crawled into a bottle of Jack and played "Eve" like 1,000 times. Upshot of this one is that a year later she dumped muscle-boy and a few months after that he ate a bottle of cyanide. No foolin'. J2 eventually married yet another former friend of mine, divorced him, and basically disappeared into the ether. Me? Happily married 7 years with a great wife and an awesome kid. So something better will definitely turn up for you! And until then...there's always Mr. Daniels...

Good thing we have broadminded people like yourself to lump over 60,000,000 people all into the same category, huh? :I starred in Brokeback Mountain: