selkirk

So it's all about giving good coffee huh, then how can you still be in need living in the land of latte? By the way I give excellent coffe, just ask my wife

Yeah, but we all know you like it

Ok, how about non-stock answers? Everyone knows that Stevie Ray Vaugn rocks, that people like BB King and Muddy waters will never be replaced, and the EC is incredible, though his recent stuff is a bit watered down. How about Kenny Wayne Sheperd. As wierd as some of his shit is Steve Vai plays a mean guitar too. As for the obscure, anyone heard of Brian Bromberg? Saw him live at the Univ. of Idaho Jazz fest years ago playing the base. Was playing 2 seperate strings with each hand, sounded like he was playing two seperate guitars at the same time, was incredible. How about drums? Neil Peart always had my loyalty. Never heard anyone come close!

Congrats Sobo!! That's wonderful news.

Is anyone actually pro-abortion? There's a huge difference between pro-abortion and pro-choice.

WTF? That's like comparing apples and penguins.

I love it when people who are all about personal rights, and anti-big government, think that the government should be telling women what to do with their bodies.

So you'd be seen in public cozying up to Mr. Recumbant?

Ahh, must love the Bush family lawyer.

Penne Al Pepperoni, easy, chicks dig it, and it goes well with white wine take 3 small-med bell peppers (1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow) slice thin, and throw in pan. Take 1 med onion, slice or dice and throw in pan Saute it all in Olive Oil until the onions start getting soft and translucent. Maybe add 1 garlic clove to the saute. Throw it in the blender with 1/2 cup of cream or half and half, and a smattering of dried spices (basil, oregano etc, but not too much) Blend until the chunks are small, but still present. Serve over penne, or spirals or something (For a date, throw in a nice bitter herb salad, and bottle of white wine. Tasty, colorful, and doesn't leave you with the heavy food hangover to facilitate later activities!) If you like garlic.... Dice 6 roma tomatoes 6 cloves of garlic, add 1/2 cup of shredded romano or other sharp cheese serve cold over pasta. mmmmmmm, garlicky!!!!

Can I go back to great-grandparents? Still have 2 above ground, and actually had 5 for most of my life. 1 great grandfather and grandmother lived out in the Owyhee's east of Boise. Mining and ranching mostly, though he used to ride in the rodeo's a bit as well. She taught school in a 1 room school house. My grandad actually rode to school on a horse, with the two little indian girls who lived next door. She eventually decided that her sons were going to get a high school education, so while he was running for sheriff she up and moved to Nampa without telling him He eventually followed. She was one seriously bright tough broad. I remember visiting her when I was in high school, and I never felt like I was 1/2 as informed about what was going on the world as she was. She lived into her early 90's. He actually lived to be 99, and was born in 1899. Best story though was that he punched a car salesman was he 92!!! He told the guy to quit pestering him and he didn't, so smacked him! He actually got his drivers license renewed by mail at 98, when he could only see out of one eye, kind of, and couldn't hear. But damnit he could drive! He actually really liked it when they moved into a retirement home because he has been cooking and taking care of the house on his own for at least 20+ years. Plus he had people to play pool with. Except he was constantly worried people would stop playing with him because he always won. Really neat wonderful people. My grandad ended up serving in Korea, but actually spent most of his life working out at Hanford. He and my grandma are snowbirds now and have more energy than I do. I think they only sleep 5 or 6 hours a night! I think i'd die if I tried that. My grandma's mother actually lived in Grangeville (central Idaho), and we used to go visit her all the time. She was the post-master there for 30 or 40 years, and new everyone. I will never understand how she managed to stockpile so many huckleberries though! Everytime we went to visit my sister and I would end up eating bowls of frozen huckleberries!!!! mmmmmmmmmm, tasty! One of my great grandfathers on my dad's side is actually a Sicilian immigrant, while my great grandma is a half-american indian. He actually worked for the mob running liquor and numbers during prohibition I've heard lots of stories about them bailing out the back of the house when the cops were coming in the front. Finally got out when they were going to send his brother to jail as a sacrificial goat. He said he'd talk, and that was the end of it. Of course it's supposed to be a big dark family secret that none of us great-grandkids know After that he worked for the Teamsters for years. His son (my grandad) served in Korea as well, though i've never really talked to him about it. After coming back to the US he worked in one of the steel mills outside Pittsburgh, eventually worked his way through night school and ended up supervising construction projects in the nuclear industry, and ended up out at Hanford which is where my parents met. His wife (my grandma) is also incredibly sharp. Before they go married (Late 50's) she was actually a rather prestigious vice president of accounting at some firm in the Pittsburgh area. Though after she got married she stayed home, raised the kids and managed to finances. I don't think her father ever forgave my grandad though. From the sounds of it her dad was a rather drunk, belligerant irishman. That set of Great -Grandparents is still alive. We went out to the annual family reunion and visited them last year. (A week long summer binge of golf, food, and video games at a ski-resort in Pennsylvania, where their is always a keg, and people typically start drinking after golf at about 12:00 or 1:00 in the afternoon Great people (all descendands of my great-grandparents, and their siblings) who know how to have fun!)

Vantage was gorgeous on Sat

I'm an ME but not in Portland. Up in Seattle. Should I ask what the idea is?

Some people just aren't worth the air they breath. It just sucks that they choose to inflict themselves on others Maybe we can instigate a process where assholes can be voted out of the country. As a consumer or massive amounts of TV he's probably be all for it.

So if the wealthiest 1% are paying at a lower rate, but holding a higher tax burden, it follows that their level of wealth in absolute terms has increased, while the amount of absolute wealth held by the other 99% has decreased. If they're making more they should damn well be paying more. Their certainly paying their "fair" share if your thinking in terms of relatively flat tax rates, they're paying more than their fair share. However that doesn't mean they should be paying less than they are now. The level of burden that taxes place on lower income people is still much higher than the level of burden it places on more wealthy individuals. I'd be all for a more progressive tax structure. (and granted I make peanuts now, but hopefully won't be in a few more months).

Yeah, governmental efficiency is a whole different ball of wax.

Yep, I know it all after all

You may very well be right. I'm actually of the opinion that just a blank welfare check is a horrendous thing. I'd much rather see some sort of required communal work system developed where those on welfare are either in training to develop the skills or working to societally needed services. If they aren't willing to do one of those, and don't have some compelling reason not to, they'd be pretty much on their own, possibly having any kids they have taken from them. Of course i'm also a big fan of offering free vasectomy's and birth control (even some of the more long terms ones like depo-provera) to anyone below a certain income threshold. I'd love to see program where those on welfare are put to work doing clerical work for understaffed government offices, or doing road clean up, or working in soup kitchens, cutting trails and doing maintenance for the Forest Service, or the National Parks, something. Something akin to what was done during the great depression. At the same time tapping into part of the group to provide child-care, for those out working, or training to make it feasible. However I think things liked fixed end dates aren't any good, but allowing the opportunity to advance within the program itself would be great. Then you could also have CPS ready to step in if they are displaying signs of endangering their children, which could be monitored by whomever is supervising the work crews.

says the middle class white guy to the rest of the middle class white guys

I don't claim to know it all... just more than you So is there some process you would rather follow than "educating" people to "tolerant", "informed", "self-motivated"? Oh, that's right we should just cut them off from welfare, feel sorry for the ones who go hungry, donate all of our excess income to soup kitchens, lock up anyone who would dare become break the law, and then pat those few on the back who manage to become productive citizens. Sink or Swim baby

"telling people" anything is pointless. But your right, it would be good to look at the people who successfully pull themselves up from next to nothing and figure out what attitudes made that possible.

What the hell did I just say? Of course it has to do with breakdown of family unit, cultural attitudes etc, but the way were approaching it now won't fix any one of those. As for the sense of entitlement, that's a huge issue, but not really a class one, more of a cultural one. And laziness it tied back into the whole family breakdown issue. So what do you propose we do? Just keep locking people up ad-infinitum? End wellfare programs all together? There's a great solution Lets see just how quickly we can double our prison population. I'd much rather try to fix the root problems in a more permanent fashion.

Locking up all the criminals is fine, so long as you never let them out. I think it's a bit off the mark that our justice system is so heavily "punishment" driven, instead of "reform" driven. In the long term a carrot is always better motivation than a stick. When you look at recidivism rates it drops incredibly when the inmates are trained in marketable skills, and can get stable jobs at a reasonable wage. The best way to prevent crime is not to punish those who commit crimes (Should prison really be punishment or something more akin to schooling and therapy?) but to figure out how to keep them from wanting to commit crimes in the first place. And that comes down to giving them legal means to have a reasonably comfortable life and to amass stuff that they don't want to loose (i.e. house, car, wife, children, respect). Crime is an issue, but from a large perspective it's a symptom of a more fundamental problem. If we can work on lessening the educational disparity, breaking cycles of crime, and figuring out ways to get people skilled and employed crime rates will drop. They may not dissapear, but they'll shrink. There are so many problems like this it's staggering, and a lot of them tie back to family cycles, crime, violence, domestic abuse, racism. Like it or not we usually turn into our parents, and that's a crappy thing for a lot of people. If we can fix the parents we can fix the kids.