soul .gc

Alright -

This forum needs more action.

Obama seems to be a viable candidate for the Dems. I will still vote McCain but I am ok with Obama except for a few areas. Let's see where this goes:

Union Strikers - Obama wants to pass a law to protect striking workers. If you strike on your employer your job cannot be given to someone else - What in the world? If you strike and leave your job, why should it be protected? If the company hires someone else then you took a gamble and lost - life is tough, move on.

Unions - Obama wants to pass a law that employers cannot stop a union from being formed. I was torn until I thought about the private companies out there. If I own a company and my workers want to form a union - and I hate unions - then I should be allowed to hire new people if they form one. If my employees do not like their pay/job/hours then they can go find another job.

Minorities - Obama wants to pass laws strengthening the diversity laws out there. What about the majority? Currently my company has such a strict diversity requirement that lesser-qualified candidates are given higher status based SOLELY on their ethnicity. This is just plain wrong!

Healthcare - Obama wants healthcare provided by the government. However, he just seems to want this for children under 18. Not much I can say here, I actually agree with him, except I would move it to people that are full-time in college or 1-year out of a full-time educational status, but not their spouses. Give people a chance to get educated through HS and college and then they have to provide for themselves. Yes - this goes against the "republican" mindset but I like this plan.

Clueless -

Made me chuckle reading your post - I have exactly the same opinion, except I am "for" McCain.

I am sick of the "illegals" arguments. We were founded on immigrants. The main thing I want is to be able to collect taxes so they pay their own way. There is obviously a need for the illegals or else they would not be employeed when they cross the border.

I was having a "discussion" on this subject with a buddy of mine. His opinion was that they needed to be tossed out until they could go get a green card and be legal. Well if it was as simple as getting a green card then they would have done that. But no - our government is so constipated on "red tape" it takes months and years for people to get these papers, especially when they come from 3rd world areas or more impoverished parts of the world.

Let's face it, most of America has an entitlement attitude. They feel like certain jobs are beneath them, or that they can make more staying at home collecting a government check then working hard labor. My cousins own a large sod company just outside of DC. Almost every laborer is an illegal. They come in and provide a "green card" and the paperwork gets submitted. A few months go by and a letter shows up from the government that the card is not correct. They let the "illegal" know and the next day they have a brand new "fake" green card and the process starts all over. They have hired "Americans" before who needed a job and they rarely last more than a day - the common answer is that the work is too hard and they can earn almost as much collecting unemployment or welfare and not work at all.

Take a look at who has the "American" work ethic nowadays. It is not Americans for the most part. It is the immigrants (legal and illegal). They come here and work 6-7 days a week and live with multiple families in the same house and save every dime for their kids and families. Most "Americans" feel they are entitled to a job, an if it is too challenging of a job then they are entitled to government support.

If you cannot tell, this is a sore spot with me. Our country is on a serious decline and I do not see us recovering in the near future, if at all. However, I think McCain is the one to help us more than any other contender out there right now.

NOFX - I believe we saw better times under Reagan than under Clinton. Reagan brought us out of serious problems, he gave us a sense of pride and had a charisma that most people admired. I think Clinton ruined part of that and rode the bubble for most of his term - but I know you disagree and it is pointless for us to argue that haha - I respect your opinion on the matter. However, I think Ron Paul, while a true conservative by definition, is way too whacko for most of the country to accept.

What we need is a viable independent candidate. We need to remove the "vote democrat" and "vote republican" tabs on all ballots and make it so people have to at least look at who they are voting for in the elections. I am sick of the 2-party system and feel it has led to a serious decline of our government. Look at the latest polls - they show 70% of America is unsatisfied with our government and, earlier this year a poll was done that showed 86% of Americans did not trust our politicians. That is just disgusting. Politicians should be disgusted.

One of the biggest gripes out there are "earmarks" - That is one reason McCain is getting my vote - he has a lifetime record of 0 earmarks, I am not sure any other candidate can make that statement. Hell - Hillary has over $2.2 billion in Earmarks in her history as a Senator and Obama has several million in earmarks.

Gah - enough ranting for now haha.

I do not think Hillary would have had a chance against McCain. As her true colors show she is becoming more and more disliked in my opinion.

I do think Obama is going to be a close match against McCain, they are both going to pull from the middle ground more than anywhere else and it should be an exciting race. I just hope it stays relatively clean without all the super-bashing we see in most politics.

Ok - I am stumped...

How can someone support Hillary? I am being serious, I am stumped on this question.

She promises with Obama not to campaign in Michigan and Florida and to discount those electorates since the DNC removed them from the game.

Then she campaigns in Florida and wants to overturn the decision to withhold those delegates because she is losing!

Her campaign is picking at Obama over petty crap left and right.

Today it is he stole a speech from a good friend of his. Two days ago it was that he "might" change his stance on using public funding. Before that is was that the people did not matter, the super-delegates would decide for her.

How can anyone trust anything she says or think she will do anything not in her own self-interest?

I would be ok with Obama getting the win (not completely ok, but ok - except for his union, healthcare and minority stances) but I cannot fathom why anyone would believe a word out of Hillary's mouth.

Bah - no need to worry about the 1lb - I am just glad to have folks here to help push to lose the weight.

I started working out with 3 other guys up here:

Weights Monday/Weds/Friday

Bike - Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday.

Last year I did the Body-For-Life program and their eatting plan and shed 67ish pounds in 4 months...then I gained back 20 of it over the summer-golf-beer season.

I am running late on my pic - since I fly out to NYC in a couple hours I will try to get one early this week.

Hmm - must have labeled it wrong - it is the 3700+.

I also have a 160GB hard drive arriving next week that I am putting in it - SATA 3.0

If you ever go again - go to http://www.myrtlebeachgolfdirectors.com/ - I have not found a place to beat their prices anywhere.

This is our first year playing King's North Clueless - looking forward to it - we play it an hour after we land Wednesday. This is our 3rd year going - $450 for 7 rounds and a condo for the whole time....really cannot beat the price.

I will paypal after my golf vacation this next week (5 days in Myrtle and out of this cold Michigan weather).

Current weight, as of 7am this morning - 231. I will send the classic "fatman wearing a banana hammock" picture this weekend.

This kinda sucks though - I leave on vacation the week this starts....luckily we are on a liquid diet most of the week while golfing!

Fatty -

I am doing the $10 entrance fee AND $20 to the pot.

Too late to join?

I will jump in if it is not too late - plus I will toss an extra $20 in the pot.

Height - 5'11"

Weight - 230

Desired Weight - 180

Last year I did the Body For Life program by myself and went from 279 to 214, then golf season started and the workouts stopped, while the beer drinking started. I put back on 16 pounds and need to get rid of it - my 20-year reunion is coming up this August!!

What we have here - is a wonderful system that is 100% stable and reliable.

Blue Gaming case - I cannot remember who made it and it does not say (only the best leave their name off). I believe it is an Aspire case

- Removable sides

- Main side is one large clear window with fan

- Front USB/Mic/Headphone Jacks

- This is a very good case that has cooled my system very well

Aspire 500w gaming power supply

- This is a newer power supply with clear case and neon lights inside with fluorescent green wrapping on all the cables

AMD 3700 + Barton CPU

- Great CPU - NEVER OVERCLOCKED!!

Zalman CPU Cooler - CNPS7700

- This is the huge Zalman copper cooler that keeps the CPU ice cold

2GB RAM

- I have another 2 I will ship with it but they are not matched to the first 2GB

GeForce 6800GT 256MB

- Great card, ran every game I owned with no problem

SoundBlaster Audigy ZS

- Great sound card, never a problem

DVD Drives

- DVD-RW Drive

- DVD-R Drive

Floppy Drive

Windows XP

- Home Edition - original box and packaging

Microsoft Plus for XP

- Everyone needs a copy of this!!

NO HARD DRIVE RIGHT NOW!!

- I can get one, load up Windows and ship it but the price goes up slightly

- I put both drives in my new PC

This has been a great PC and I am only selling it because I finally spent a crapload of money on my new one.

I can put in a 15" LCD Monitor as well if someone wants one, price TBD

I would love to get $1000 but that is never going to happen - so toss me an offer, I am really looking in the $450+ area + shipping (I will meet in the mid-michigan area if you want local pickup).

If it is sold and paid for before Sunday I will cut someone a better deal (need money for my golf trip to Myrtle Beach next week haha).

I will also throw in some various cables, fans, other stuff that you will find useful hopefully and take off my hands.

I think he will pull in a more conservative person but I hope he does not.

We continue to polarize everything in government and make it more and more ineffective. I do not know one person that has a positive opinion of our government. That alone should make the politicians open their eyes.

The other day I read an article from CNN or somewhere that showed Annual Defense Budgets for major countries. China came in 2nd with a $45billion dollar defense budget every year.

Now look at China - they have a larger land mass than us, more localized "enemies" than us and 4-5 times as many people as the USA.

Then they showed the USA budget - $154billion/year. This does not include Iraq/Afghanistan money and who knows what other monies are not included. This is amazingly ridiculous - especially for how low-paid our soldiers are for putting their lives on the line for us.

And do not even get me started on the IRS and other worthless government agencies...

We need serious government reduction and to pull back money we spend in the world and dedicate it within our own borders before worrying about the donations to countries that do not like us.

One last note - as to Iraq - I do agree with McCain - we cannot pull out right away.We got in there, whether people agree with it or not, we are there and need to handle it the right way.

Pulling out quickly would be the wrong move. Watch Charlie Wilson's war - it has a very important message in it.

As to policiing the world - I am in full agreement, for a change, with NOFX - stop it now! Let's internalize for a decade and secure ourselves instead of securing everyone else while we fall apart.

Wow - How quickly the topics move off the original subject haha.

Yes - I am still a very large McCain supporter. I campaigned for him in Michigan when Romney bought the election here and have continued to support him every step of the way.

Below is a response I wrote on Townhall.com to a horrible Limbaugh article:

I fail to see why we have to continue to polarize the fields. You must be either left or right and the folks that are in the center are "uninformed", "biased by the Democrats", "liberals in disguise", etc...

 

In case you have not noticed, our country is in the crapper. We rank near the bottom for education compared to other countries, Canada's dollar has finally passed ours in value, another recession on the way (hang on, the $1200 check should fix that for me...), and many other issues.

 

Politics has become a spiteful arena where someone wanting to work with the "other side" is now seen as a party traitor or a wolf in sheep clothing. To be a uniter is not to just unite one party, but to unite our government, or at least make it somewhat more effective.

 

Maybe if we continue to polarize the sides we can truly see our government come to a standstill and everything become a session-consuming battle to get approvals and nothing is ever resolved.

 

It is about time we put people in Government that will work with both sides to reach an understanding and drive through measures to turn our country around and put us back on a path away from self-destruction.

I fully believe that there are two people running that can work across party lines to achieve objectives: McCain and Obama. Unfortunately I do not like many of the things Obama wants to achieve, but he is a MUCH better person than Hillary and I would not be upset if he won.

McCain should have the spot wrapped up for the nomination. I believe Obama will get the Democrat nomination.

Ideally I am hoping McCain picks Lieberman for his running mate. If he does that I think he will win.

I do not think our country will elect a black person or a woman at this point in time. Not trying to be racist/sexist, I just think we have many people that do not want either one in the top slot.

As to all the tangent comments in here - no real comment except - I think socialized medicine is a way to guarantee we end up like our unions, education system or government employee system. People get the job and do not care how they do anymore, they will never be fired unless they break the law in some drastic way.

Well just a few weeks to go - let's get some predictions out:

New Hampshire:

I think this will see Romney and Hillary as the winners - although NH does not matter a whole lot in my mind.

Iowa:

Here I have to change it up. Huckabee will somehow take it for the Righties and Obama will take the Lefties.

Michigan:

Here is a tough one - I think Romney will nose it out barely over McCain for the Right and Hillary will actually take it for the Left.

However - all that being said I do not think it will matter come November. I think our country is still too backwards to put a Muslim Black Man in as President, or put a woman into the office. This is not a racist or sexist remark from personal beliefs, I just think we have a lot of folks in the USA that would not be willing to do either of those options and we will see another record turnout at the polls if they are on the ticket.

Lastly - I say we get rid of the Dems and Repubs and start fresh. We should also make a law that you have to resign from your current government position if you are going to campaign for two years and not focus on your paying job....I wish my job would pay me to go interview for another job.

Wow - Ron Paul and Kucinich - I did not expect them to get any haha. I know RP has a following on the web, guess we have some supporters here as well.

Alright - the sob store.

We were in LA on vacation and due to the flight times we had to take the redeye back home. My oldest (9), dropped her DS and Ipod in the back of the seat before she went to sleep. When she woke up 3 hours later, grumpier than ZD at a Democratic Convention, she never looked in the seatback pocket. Myself and her mother both were tired and grumpy and did not look either. Spirit has not had it turned in yet - we both feel bad because we should have been checking for her since it was 4:30am - so we are going to get another before Christmas and surprise her.

Anyone have one for sale? Any color - I am also looking for the Nintendogs game.

Thanks,

Soul

Yup - back up and my local store had 1 so I bought it!! YAY!!

I almost bought the other one they had left just for resale but my wife would have killed me.

Well said Playaa -

The Wii did exactly what they planned - they captured the casuals and families. Having kids in elementary school I do not know one child that is not yammering at their parents for a Wii and a DS. Will Nintendo capture the hard core gamers? Nope - but that is not the intent. It is a gamer for people who do not play video games as their commercials stated. I know many families with a Wii and many, many more who are anxious to get one. This is the market to keep them going. The hard-core gaming market is covered and , in my opinion, not as large an area for sales as what the Wii has opened up.

Heck - look at the Wii being used in retirement homes, physical rehab facilities and other places of business. My wife's company took one to a sales conference and had every vendor at their booth playing the Wii at one point or another. You would never get that with the 360 or PS3. Plus the games are more tailored to the family and kids and MUCH more friendly. Compare Mario Galaxies with Assassins Creed and see which one you would let your kids play...

Most folks on here lean to the hard-core side of gaming so I can understand why the Wii would not appeal to many....low blood/gore/action. But the number posted above from nexgen show how easily the Wii is killing the competition.

GAH!!!! Sold out already. I saw they had them and waited a couple hours to buy and they are already gone.

Lower release amounts keeps the demand high - if they had released enough for everyone when it came out it would not be such a hot item and still wanted by so many folks. I think this is the best move Nintendo has done to move to the forefront of the console marketplace - they have pretty much destroyed the 360 and PS3 in terms of desirability, hotness and just plain fun. I still get a chuckle out of the folks who paid $3,000+ on Ebay the first couple weeks for the PS3 when it came out.

Alright folks - here is one of my newer favorite authors.

He writes the Dresden Books which is now a mediocre Sci-Fi series - but the books are GREAT. Start with the first book - Storm Front - it is a great book and then follow the series. I was sucked into these VERY fast.

Then, when you are ready for a little fantasy, switch to his Codex Alera series. This is possibly one of the best fantasy series I have ever read - absolutely engaging and entertaining from start to finish.

Hey guys - good to see this section is still alive haha.

I have read Robin Hobb - I liked the Liveship traders but could not get into the assassin series. She does a great job of character development but I thought she went too far in-depth for my tastes. They are very well written books though.

I will have to check out the Shield Ring Bewildered - sounds interesting.

ZD - I have read some Lackey, she always writes a good book that I consider an "in-between" book....something to fill the time between books haha.

Someone go read Kim Harrison so I can talk about those books - they are great!!

Alright - I said it - Female Authors haha. Yes, I have been on a kick lately of reading good female authors with strong female leads. These mostly center around occult/fantasy/horror books.

Kim Harrison - The Deathly Hallow series - I love this series and cannot wait for another book to come out this Spring.

Kelley Armstrong - These are great - make sure to start at the beginning with Stolen - they are sets of two but the characters pop in and out of future books and make it very entertaining.

I have several more but will see if the topic goes anywhere.