COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, November 12, 2010

Why does anyone want to be president?


Pity Obama. Really, can it possibly be worth it? Look at the past week:

  • The Chinese are threatening economic retaliation because we are trying to mend our dismal trade situation caused by their unfair trade practices and dollar manipulation.
  • The deficits worsen and any suggestions made on how to fix it causes outcry from the left and the right.
  • The Korean trade deal flops.
  • The Iraqis are still trying to form a government.
  • Christians getting slaughtered in Iraq
  • Our troops keep getting slaughtered in Afghanistan.
  • AQ still trying to knock down our planes.
  • Foreclosures a mess that seems to be worsening.
  • Dollar down, gold and oil up.
  • Putin threatening hit squads on ex-KGB agents.
  • Murder on the Mexican border.
  • Democrats get trounced in House and state houses.
  • G20 tells him no deal on China.
  • US market down.
  • Irish debt problems worsen.
  • China downgrades US debt.
  • Kanye West Cancels 'Today' Show Concert After Matt Lauer Spat.
and i'm sure Mitchell is no box of chocolates.

98 comments:

  1. Yeah, but when "Mitchell" gets to be too big a pain in the ass he can put her on that big-assed private bird of his, and ship her off to Spain, or whatnot.

    It has "some" perks.

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  2. Least this stuff doesn't taste bad. Supposed to color my insides before the exam.
    ....


    Emerson said the President was the most unfree man in the country. Except for those in prison it's hard to disagree with him. Thoreau of course said something along the same lines.

    It does have the advantage Rufus talks about. I guess she loves to spend, and wear dresses only once. I think she needs someone, a stylist or whatever, to look after her wardrobe cause she often looks kinda ratty.

    and i'm sure Mitchell is no box of chocolates.

    No, she isn't, but I bet she can put some Lindt & Spugli Chocolates down.

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  3. Lindt Chocolates

    Great Holiday gift.

    Or when vacationing in Spain.

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  4. GM just announced that its 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco will deliver 138 HP, and 42 MPG Highway (28 City.)

    Probably 2012 it will be Flexfuel with the same mileage.

    Ford Focus will deliver 40 MPG. It's already Flexfuel.

    These are nice cars. They'll sell a ton of them. 35 MPG, Combined mileage, on $2.45 E85 (w/o subsidies,) puts you at $0.07/mi, no matter what oil does.

    There's a reason the oil companies have spent Billions of Dollars fighting ethanol. Paying for Bogus "indirect land use" studies, and "food for fuel" studies, and whatnot.

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  5. By Patrick O'Connor

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has the “overwhelming support” of fellow Democrats in her bid to become minority leader in the next Congress, and says she’s not to blame for the Democrats’ mid-term debacle.

    “We didn’t lose the election because of me,” Ms. Pelosi told National Public Radio in an interview that aired Friday morning. “Our members do not accept that.”

    Instead, the California Democrat attributes the loss of at least 60 seats to high unemployment and “$100 million of outside, unidentified funding.”

    “Any party that cannot turn (9.5% unemployment) into political gains should hang up the gloves,” she said.

    The NPR interview is one of the first Ms. Pelosi has granted since a small-but-growing number of Democrats began publicly lamenting her decision to seek the top job in the minority. That list even includes some loyal allies, such as Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.

    Among those rooting for Ms. Pelosi to stick around are Republicans, who are giddy at the prospect of reprising in 2012 the attacks they used in the past election cycle, tying Democratic incumbents around the country to the liberal from San Francisco.

    Ms. Pelosi’s reply: Bring it on. “The reason they had to take me down is because I’ve been effective in fighting special interests in Washington, D.C.,” Ms. Pelosi said, citing the health insurance and financial services industries. “I’m effective. They had to take me out. I’m also the most significant attractor to support for the Democrats.”

    “So, I’m not looking back on this,” Ms. Pelosi said. “They asked me to run, I’m running. We don’t let the Republicans choose our leaders, and again, our members understand, they made me a target because I’m effective, politically and policy-wise.”


    Another reason not to want to be President - you have the Pelosis and Reids of the world around your neck like a tire necklace, just waiting to burst into flame.

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  6. Kanye West is the rudest *&#@**#*@...

    Anyone that disrespects my man Matt Lauer doesn't deserve to be on the show anyway. I just wish it was the Today Show that told him to go fuck himself.

    You can watch the pompous ass here if you want. I hate rude people.


    But this morning was a big hello to Bon Jovi : )

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  7. I'm off to buy some wine. Then make an organic spinach salad.

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  8. Everyone's asking the wrong question. They keep asking, "where are we going to get 140 Billion Gallons of Gasoline (or equivalent)/yr," when they should be asking, "where are we going to get 30 Billion Gallons?"

    We'll have to refine a bit less than 4 million barrels oil/day to get 30 billion gallons of gasoline/yr.


    We will be able to produce 4 million barrels oil/day for quite some time into the future (we currently produce about 5.5 million bpd.

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  9. I'm off to buy some wine. Then make an organic spinach salad.

    Red wine and spinach, you might outlive Rufus.

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  10. I got two more cups of this interior coloring, then I go.

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  11. OBAMA MAY FACE LEFT-WING PRIMARY

    By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

    Published on DickMorris.com on November 12, 2010



    Democrats do not forgive defeat very easily. In the week after his "shellacking" in the mid-term elections, Democratic approval of Obama's performance as president dropped from 88% to 81% in the Zogby Poll, bringing his overall approval down to 43%. When a president starts to shed members of his own party, a vicious cycle has set in which can lead to a primary challenge.

    Not from Hillary. At least not yet. She is far too cautious and intertwined with the Administration to be the first to move against Obama. Just as Bobby Kennedy needed a Eugene McCarthy to test the waters for a primary challenge to Lyndon Johnson in 1968, so Hillary Clinton will look to others to try out Obama's vulnerability to a liberal challenge. As with Kennedy, if it works, she'll probably jump in. If it doesn't, she'll stay on as Secretary of State.

    There are three possible contenders who might enter Democratic Primaries against Obama: Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich, and Jerry Brown

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  12. .
    It appears you have been doing research.

    Everything is still on for this month then?

    .

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  13. .

    Ok. So what's the deal?

    Anybody have any thoughts on whether getting in on the GM IPO is a good idea or not?

    (Mel, I wouldn'd mind having reading on this from a disinterested source. :)

    .



    .

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  14. I just got out of the donut hole.

    They gave me some iodine IV, along with the barium sulfate.

    Prepare for a hot flash he says.

    Now I know what it is like when a menopausal woman has hot flashes.

    I tell my wife, he was a nice guy.

    She says, something's wrong with you these days, you can't find anyone you dislike.

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  15. San Francisco residents aren't doing themselves any favors. But then it wouldn't be San Francisco if people didn't do stuff just because people thought we were crazy.

    One city resident is proposing a ballot measure that would ban circumcision in the City, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

    If passed in November 2011, the measure would change San Francisco's police code “to make it a misdemeanor to circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicle or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18.”

    The punishment for those who choose to cut away anyway would be up to a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison.

    Anti-circumcision activist (?) Lloyd Schofield submitted the proposed measure to the Department of Elections.

    But to actually get the measure on the November ballot, he will have to collect 7,168 signatures by April 26, 2011. In San Francisco, he might just be able to do it.



    Banning clitorectomy might make more sense, what with the muslim population there. As also the occasional Masai.

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  16. Disinterested source? Now who would that be. You know us women when it come to cars as long as we can stick the key in and go we're good.

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  17. Well, San Francisco wants McDonald's to ban toys from their happy meals because instead of blaming the parents for their fat children they are blaming the toy as an incentive for children to eat an 800 calorie happy meal. Go figure.

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  18. I was reading an article that maintained banning Happy Meals is perfectly within a City's rights, though it sounds a little unconstitutional on the surface. Guy maintained the remedy was to kick the supervisors out. Thinking about it, I think he's right.

    And as someone said, McDonald's could do what they want, if they'd just put Mao, Lenin, Chavez etc blow ups in the Happy Meals.

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  19. Or as someone else said, condoms.

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  20. .
    You know us women when it come to cars...<

    I was more interested in your scope reading in your role as qualified metaphysician as opposed to the devil-may-care attitude of a swinging chick.

    :)

    .

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  21. It's hard for me to believe the University of Oregon is ranked #1 in the nation. Boise State at #4 I can believe, but Oregon almost always has terrible football teams. Boise is going to kill Idaho tomorrow. I'm not going to listen.

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  22. (Mel, I wouldn'd mind having reading on this from a disinterested source. :)

    What was this supposed to mean then?

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  23. .
    Well, I have to admit when you look at it like that your initial response makes sense. Apologies.

    What I meant by "disinterested"; however, was a reading from a metaphysician who unlike me had no skin in the game.

    .

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  24. .
    GE Buys Volts, Taxpayers Pay For It

    Contrary to its rhetoric, the Democratic party has presided over economic policies that have benefited Wall Street, not Main Street. A chief example is corporate-welfare king General Electric, which has strategically used the Obama administration’s attempted takeover of America’s energy economy to pad its bottom line.

    “The Obama administration gave corporate giant General Electric $24.9 million in grants from the $787-billion economic ‘stimulus’ law President Barack Obama signed in February 2009, according to records posted by the administration at Recovery.gov,” reports CNS News. “Despite getting $24.9 million from U.S. taxpayers, GE decreased its U.S.-based employees by 18,000 in 2009. According to Standard & Poor’s, GE took in $156 billion in revenue in 2009.”


    Dems Support Wall Street Over main Street

    .

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  25. Ayerveda is the natural balance of mind and body.

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  26. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  27. .
    At 52%, Palin's Unfavorable Score Hits a New High

    More than half of Americans, 52%, now view Sarah Palin unfavorably, the highest percentage holding a negative opinion of the former Alaska governor in Gallup polling since Sen. John McCain tapped her as the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. Her 40% favorable rating ties her lowest favorable score, recorded just over a year ago.

    Palin's Favorability Drop's

    Have no idea why Palin's popularity has dropped but I wouldn't be surprised if it was because her daughter is still on "Dancing With The Stars."

    .

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  28. Rachel's Home Cooking (wife was watching)

    She's damn good.

    Vandies are playing Boise State right now, they've changed the scheduling around this year to Friday nights sometimes.

    The Boise State coach said Vandal fans were nasty, rude, and inebriated - so the T-shirts have bloomed - "I'm A Vandal Fan - I'm Nasty, Rude, and Inebriated"



    The only reason Bristol is still on Dancing With Stars is because Sarah's supporters have been for her.

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  29. Your link doesn't work but I know ayurveda is Hindu.

    My wife thinks I ought to just go to a shaman, she can't stand doctors, which prejudice is going to kill her someday.

    Docs are my heroes.

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  30. ...you can't find anyone you dislike.

    What about Ms Butters?

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  31. The only reason Bristol is still on Dancing With Stars is because Sarah's supporters have been voting for her.

    Half the score is popular vote I think.

    She's not bad, not trailer park trash as Doug says, but not as good as some of the others.

    Boise State 75 yards for first touchdown.

    I'll be turning if off in about twenty minutes.

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  32. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  33. "Have no idea why Palin's popularity has dropped…"

    As I was reading that I was thinking the same thing you were.

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  34. I like Miss Butters. Don't get me wrong. I like Charlie Rangel. I like Quirk. Likable frauds don't faze me.

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  35. I don't think it has dropped. She's nose to nose with Romney.

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  36. We can't stop the Boise State rush. Our quarterback goes down like barley before the sickle.

    Broncos intercept.

    I'm thinking 60 to 7 maybe.

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  37. I, myself don't watch the show. I haven't seen one episode and really don't care to. I just don't get what all the hype is about.

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  38. Rachel looks Scandinavian to me. I like Scandinavian women.

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  39. Have no idea why Palin's popularity has dropped but I wouldn't be surprised if it was because her daughter is still on "Dancing With The Stars."

    Trailor trash behavior as per Doug (after he just finished relating the story of his haoli kid engaged in a drunken arm wrestling event with one of the natives.)

    Just as I was about to object - with all due vociferosity - I started to rethink. Possibly.

    Fox News anchor Brett Baier is doing interviews with 2012 potential GOP presidential candidates. Last night he aired the interview with John Thune, South Dakota Senator. I don't (yet) hold any opinion about Sen Thune as a conservative politician, but I couldn't help but notice that most of the piece (at least half :) seemed to focus on the Senator's guns and hunting and general folksy outdoorsiness.

    At any rate, (looking at my watch) won't be long now.

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  40. Even half Scandinavian women.

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  41. 14 to 0.

    About a minute and a half elapsed.

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  42. I think Ms Butters is a business woman, just looking for a way to make a nice living. Now, I was upset to learn that she misrepresents lentils as organic. Are you Wayne didn't misrepresent them to her?

    Regardless, does this mean that the Organic certification is worthless?

    Time for whit to retire to the country and take up subsistence organic farming. In my youth, one year, friends and I made up 2000 lbs of compost. You wouldn't believe the production you can get out of an organic garden that has been built up with compost. Bigger, tastier and lots more fruits and vegetables with fewer weeds. You get that garden built up right and you don't even need a cultivator.

    The secret to sustainable farming is the simple lifestyle. You don't need to go into the debt associated with $100K plus equipment. You also don't have to shell out thousands for fertilizer. You just need to make enough money to buy what you can't grow, sew or raise.

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  43. We haven't had a politician out here that didn't pose with guns in the last twenty five years.

    Even Senator Wide Stance.

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  44. No, but she doesn't buy them direct from Wayne but from the Genesee warehouse, where his lentils are parked. I'm sure I'm right about this. She got a million up front recently for some book she wrote about small farm life.

    She is indeed a business woman.

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  45. I think to be called organic with something like lentils the land has to be clean for three or fours years, if I recall aright.

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  46. Mike Mansfield

    Marc Racicot

    Max Baucus

    Jon Tester

    No guns

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  47. There's something satisfying and fulfilling about cutting hay with a horse drawn sickle mower.

    You cut it, then hitch the team to rake, rake the cut hay into rows, then pile into stacks. What's more scenic than old fashioned hay stacks in a manicure pasture?

    Working with well trained horses, too. What could be better? A gentle gee or haw. No raised voices, no rushing. Just steady satisfying work. Everything done in season.

    One of the most beautiful scenes you will ever see is a family farm with multiple generations working together as a team. The men working outdoors in the fields, the women taking care of the household. Everything self-contained. The day care, the elder care, all taken care of within the family.

    The Amish have it right.

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  48. 21 to 0

    4:01 to go in the first quarter. Maybe it will be 80 to 7.




    None of those boys are from Idaho, don't share our Idaho values.

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  49. The Amish have it right.

    My wife would agree.

    I demur on the basis of my liking for Willie Nelson on a John Deere tractor with music player.

    When my daughter was little I'd take her with me - my agronaut - I'd put some head phones on her and she'd fall asleep in the corner of the cab, so peaceful, rocking back and forth a little.

    Took some pressure off the wife that way.

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  50. 28 to 0

    65 yard run

    Still first quarter

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  51. Someone's getting shellacked.

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  52. It's painful to listen to, but I've had a lot of experience with it.

    Boise State has a powerful team this year.

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  53. My daughter asked me today while we were at the market buying groceries if I would mind if she used her degree to be an organic farmer. I told her she should make up her mind before she spends another three years in graduate school.

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  54. I saw Oregon demolish UCLA a few weeks ago. Very impressive.

    Very quick, very precise. They made UCLA look like they were moving in slow motion.

    This is a big year for Oregon, Stanford and Boise State.

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  55. Has she worked on a farm before, Mel?

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  56. 31 to 0

    We stopped 'em! Just a field goal.


    Boise State is interesting. No huddle, they've been going for it on each of three fourth downs, converted each time.

    They are playing 5 wide receivers.

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  57. She was being sarcastic Whit. When she was a senior in high school she wanted to move to India and become a cab driver.

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  58. Hey Bob! I see your boys on ESPN2. Second and goal for the Vandals.

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  59. Idaho faked 'em out on a fake punt on fourth, gained big yards.

    Idaho on the 8. 1st and goal.

    2nd and 8.

    3rd and 8.

    4th and 8.

    Idaho has no confidence to try and run against them.

    5 yard penalty on Idaho.

    4th and 13.

    Going for it again.

    Bad pass, Boise's ball.

    I knew it.

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  60. LOL. It's not looking good for the Vandals.

    That's an odd stadium too. It looks like one end was chopped off.

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  61. I should have known, Mel. She's a dancer isn't she? I can just see her getting dirt under her fingernails.

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  62. Kibbie Dome. Kibbie was an alum that invented a kind of truss joist (joint) for construction that is used in that building. He basically paid for it. Used his own materials of course.

    Sig Jorstad, local Swedish farmer, has a smaller building more or less like it, called the Siggie Dome.

    :)

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  63. She could dance through the cornfield, picking ears.

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  64. "Why does anyone want to be president?"

    Why, o why, does anyone want to be a Vandal?

    38 to 0 at the half.

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  65. Yeah, I see the architecture now. It's a huge Quonset hut. Very practical and relatively inexpensive.

    Your guys look like they're ready to put a drive together but they stall out. The difference is really in the QBs.

    They announcers were just singing the praises of Kellen Moore, a Heisman contender.
    --------------------------------

    BTW - Some of those photos of the countryside at Ms. Butter website were very tempting. If it were up to me, I would go in a minute.

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  66. It's not the dirt under the nails that would worry her but the hard labor that went along with farming. She can't even clean one dirty dish after herself.

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  67. 45 to 0

    This is the Potato Cup here in Idaho.

    Our famous bakers are not available to us local rubes.

    They are all exported out elsewhere.

    In the USA to fancy restaurants in......Philly.


    :)

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  68. Who's fault is that, Mom?

    Well bob, I'm done. Boise scored in two plays. It's 11:02 and my body still thinks it's 12:02.

    Gotta walk the doggie and hit the hay. Maybe I'll be dream of the idyllic Idaho organic farm life tonight.

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  69. Washington State University at Pullman still plays outside.

    Late in the year that can be a real bitch here.

    They need a Dome too.

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  70. Idaho scores!!!

    45 to 7.

    I'm giving it up too. Don't want to just talk to myself.

    The final score will depend on when Boise puts their subs in.

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  71. .

    “We didn’t lose the election because of me,” Ms. Pelosi told National Public Radio in an interview that aired Friday morning. “Our members do not accept that.”

    Well there you have it then.


    .

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  72. .
    Sarah Palin admitted she tried marijuana several years ago, but she did not like it. She said it distorted her perceptions, impaired her thinking, and she's hoping that the effects will eventually wear off.

    .

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  73. .
    Sarah Palin made Tina Fey famous.


    .

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  74. .
    Sarah Palin chose the image of a grizzly bear for Alaska's commemorative quarter because "nothing could be more Alaskan" a week before she introduced a bill that, if it had passed, would have allowed people to shoot grizzly bears from airplanes and helicopters.

    .

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  75. .
    Sarah Palin complained about not having privacy on the first segment of her new reality show.

    .

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  76. .
    Biocentrism vs Evolution

    ...Theoretical physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow recently stated:

    There is no way to remove the observer -- us -- from our perceptions of the world ... In classical physics, the past is assumed to exist as a definite series of events, but according to quantum physics, the past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities."

    If we, the observer, collapse these possibilities (that is, the past and future) then where does that leave evolutionary theory, as described in our schoolbooks? Until the present is determined, how can there be a past? The past begins with the observer, us, not the other way around as we've been taught...


    Maybe redemption is possible for Bush.

    This is the theory he should have pushed in his book. Biocentrism, a new theory of everything, provides the missing piece.

    We Create Our Own Past

    .

    .

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  77. .
    Debt Commission Report Targets Social Security, Medicare

    Details

    ...Index retirement age for Social security to increases in longevity. "This option is projected to increase the age by one month every two years after it reaches 67 under current law, meaning the normal retirement age would reach 68 in about 2050 and 69 in about 2075." There will be a "hardship exemption" for those unable to work beyond 62;...

    Like some of the suggestions, actually many of them. However, this one doesn't make sense to me. It takes about 65 years to fully implement, the reason being that it reflects longer lifespans expected over that time.

    Bad for a number of reasons including fairness. First, independant studies indicate that while the average lifespan would increase, the lifespan of the wealthy would be likely to expand by 6.5 years while the lifespan of the poor would only be extended by 1.4 years.

    Second, there are better and more immediate ways to take care of the funding problem. One is by changing the cost of living adjustment from one based on increases in wages to one based on the actual cost of inflation. Another would be to raise the cutoff income limit for paying FICA.

    .

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  78. 52 to 14 final. Glad the Vandies at least scored a couple TDs.

    No matter - never mind

    No mind - never matter

    Old biocentrism saying

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  79. .

    As above so below.

    Old Rosie saying.

    .

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  80. .

    Hillary Clinton spent seven hours with Benjamin Netanyahu at a New York hotel.

    Just saying.

    .

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  81. If the possibilities get collapsed tonight in the right way I may wake up tomorrow morning finding the Vandies won.

    But I doubt it.

    I'm going to collapse my possibilities this day now.

    Collapse in bed.

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  82. "Who's fault is that, Mom?"


    Oh, I take full responsibly. I also take full responsibility when I put that dirty dish on her bed.

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  83. heh that's a good idea.

    I can't say how many times I told mine to turn the lights out!.

    Now she's paying for her own lights, I notice the lights are turned out!

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  84. This is one of my all time favorite songs. My daughter bought me concert tickets for my birthday in Jan for their July concert. When the concert was canceled due to Bono's emergency surgery the rescheduling of the tour for 2011 was unknown. I told her to return the tickets.

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  85. I think that can be one of the reason of the reason of the president. So that can be very interested. And the picture is looking very amazing.

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  86. Immigration on a whole is very beneficial to Canada and its residents. History tells repeatedly that it is human kind that loses its previleges. Immigration is good for Canada and its people in any way you consider but the undeue advantage taken by a few people in the name of refugee act bestowed by Canadian government is being highly misused. We have to wait and see how far Canada can allow people in the name of refugees. Of course, humanitarian concerns are to be given the highest priority for human kind’s development and survival but misuse of a syustm is highly deplorable. Let us all pray that the gates of immigration be not closed for all those good people and eligible aspirants just because of the refugees who infiltrate this country and can be a bigger and unsolvable problem. As of now Canada is large in heart and resources.

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