RobBob

Put me down as one who appreciates everything about women...I'll take all 4-weeks-a-month of 'em!

Hey, seriously, in retrospect I'd rather pay a little more and keep the wealth here. But the genie's out of the bottle. Just remember what our greed has gotten us, next time you go into Walmart, Sam's, Costco, etc. Unfortunately I've experienced the buying office for a couple of those fine institutions. That's a classic example of merchandise being "whored out for price." The places to go if you want to move millions of units...at the lowest price imaginable. And woe to you if they find a similar (tho not necessarily as high-quality) product from Asia next year. You'll be out in a minute.

China's exports to the US in excess of imports from us still represent $100 Bn. True enough that China is not as aggressively after US$, but they still maintain a steady flow of income from sales to the US in excess of purchases. I want a big fucking Christmas present from them in return for helping to increase their standard of living.

you'll feel right at home there, erik. we just looked at some process equipment not too far away from there. The owners said they had a problem with locals stealing ammonia from the system to cook their meth with.

JayB gives a good, well-thought-out rebuttal, and I agree with him about the dangers of protectionist barriers sometimes fostering uncompetitive industries (steel is a good example). Also good consumer economics. This all works well in the theoretical setting of endless market volume and endless productive capacity. Where it fails is when we must deal with the finiteness of one nation's resources as it imports such a high percentage of goods and services and exports such a high percentage of its wealth. Our trade imbalance (not to be confused with budget imbalance) has been negative and growing since the late 1970s. For a few years in the early '90s it stopped growing (still negative), but then has been on an acceleration track: Exceeding $200 Bn for the first time in 1999 and likely $400 Bn this year. This is net worth being exported to other nations, in the same way that you might buy goods and services from your neighbor, and pay him money out of your savings account. At some point, on this track, something big will happen---most likely, a big devaluation in the US$. In any event, regardless of the $, our collective US equity account is getting emptier and emptier. This is the effect, regardless of how you feel about the importance of a cheap plasma TV or your financial services job going to someone in Bombay. It's a mess I think, and I used to be a free marketeer like JayB until I realized that the other "free marketeers" (China, India, etc.) are gaining more from access to our markets and $ than we are gaining in purchasing their lower-cost goods and services. Don't know what the solution is though.

Well, he ran kind of his own USO pep rallies for Vietnam POWs, if I remember the story right. Then several years later he did hire one old POW friend, Bull Simons, to run the mission to extract those EDS guys from Iran. But Simons never worked for EDS...he had retired to farming hogs in Florida, I believe, and was excited to handle the Iran deal.

you don't like my piety act?

Perot was different. Kookiness and all, he has spent a lot of personal bucks backing up his rhetoric. I was living in TX when he almost singlehandedly got the high school "no pass-no play" rule passed in Texas---very unpopular with most football-loving Texans. He funded a lot of smart-start type programs for underpriviledged kids. Over the years he has quietly arranged for high-tech prostheses for war vets, etc. etc. Weird and geeky but he believes in investing in "plain folks."

say hi to Rosie for me

You bozoids keep loafing, and let me lap you around the track of life a few more times. When I consider death, and looking back at my life at that moment, these things appear to be what will be important to me: 1) How I've done as a father and husband. 2) What I have achieved in my career. 3) Adventures I've had. Adventures make the Top 3, but the others will rank higher in claiming a "life well lived."

It was probably only the old Campbells Mushroom soup routine, a la Pat Conroy.

He's no nut-job...Stockdale was an admiral, POW, religious scholar, etc. etc. That was Perot's fault entirely for putting him into the fray w/o grooming him at all. And it WAS painful to watch.

I just remembered something interesting from my old Virginia History class in high school. Doing a research paper crime and punishment in the original Jamestown settlement, a buddy of mine came across a reference to a woman who was punished for calling another woman in the colony a "common-c__ted whore." For this transgression she was publicly tossed into the stinky marsh-mud. No kidding.

We moved to a "free trade" mentality that transcends good sense, and also what the rest of the world is prepared to offer in return. For instance, Vietnam is desperate for US$, and is willing to subsidize industries who in turn bring US import $ into the country. This is the same mode China was in years ago. Trouble is, we can't afford to be everybody's sea-daddy anymore.

I was remembering Ross Perot's warning about the sound that we would hear, the sound of jobs moving overseas as a result of NAFTA, etc. A sharp, if quirky, entrepreneur, Perot was cast as a kook. But the he was right about this. As long as we keep exporting every conceivable job abroad, as we have been doing recently, and increasing our imported goods, we are in effect shipping our net worth overseas at an increasing rate. We are spending the nation's equity. I sure hope that a politician steps forward with the courage and communication skills to galvanize our country into doing something about this.

uh, you took the fun out of it on page 3 I think.

I'll take vids for 25 please.

you mean necro?

Over the past couple of years I've read more BS about how cc.com is too mean to newbies, too vulgar, too this too that. I offer my own case as an example to newbies: -lurked for 8 months or so, laughing my ass off and generally enjoying the reading. -started posting one day, and once I started I was hooked. -like everybody else, I've had my disagreements with people and perpetually disagree with a few of them. -BUT that's part of what makes it fun and interesting, and I have NEVER felt like I was flamed or intimidated. And I deserve some shit as much as anybody here. Hell, I live on the Right Coast, and until a couple of months ago, only a couple of people here knew it. I'm a gaper who only has the basics in gear and only has done a little peak-bagging and slogging on glaciers. But I love the mountains, and the little bit of time I've spent in the Cascades is some of the best mtn time I've spent. If I lived where you guys are, I'd probably be out every weekend possible. Instead, I enjoy the spray, enjoy the TRs, dream about doing more and Hell, sometime in the future I just might get a chance to scramble or slog with some of you. The point is, ANYBODY who has the interest can post. No lame excuses accepted. And IMO all the folks claiming that they have untold numbers of anonymous friends who won't post are Bullshitters who are simply saying this in order to shape the board into the way they think it should be. Well count me as one who says "let it roll." As long as people aren't seriously threatening each other, it's just fine the way it is.

Take me up to the North Pole city, where the elves have pointed hats and ti... shoes....

This again. Ugh. It's funny, names like dick, fuckstick, asshole, etc. etc. have never (and I mean never ever) fazed me. And I have been called a lot of names over the years. Methinks maylou's dour, temperance-lady attitude is more about attention-seeking than it is about a strong belief that the women of cc.com are oppressed.

This sounds like the island of Yelapa...it's been 20 years, but it sucked back then. From the beach you wade through Cholera Creek and march up the path to a grubby little waterfall. Better to sit on the beach and continue drinking, as you likely did on the boatride over. As I remember, it was a two or three hour boatride, and we spotted a blue whale (I think it was a blue) along the way. One of my buddies cut a fart belowdecks that made several people head for the rail to barf.

I am in the process of creating a complete financial identity as Dr. Trask Amazing.

okay, now how can I send email and surf w/o IP address so that I can expand my array of avatars on this site unbeknownst to the owners?