Hugh Conway
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Posts posted by Hugh Conway
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They've 20% off all wine through Sunday. The 2006 Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley Syrah is a great deal at $4.80/bottle.
Note: This wine was $53/bottle, $420/case from the Vineyard. Not sure how much further it will age, but a darn good Syrah.
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Nice pics. Osh has (had?) some of the most beautiful women in the world wandering around. The Osh-Bishkek road is now paved all the way... which makes it even scarier because they can drive faster, steering the car with their knees while they're peeling peanuts and drinking beer
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Oh.... Jay_B's already beating off over the movie version of Atlas Shrugged.
amazing how many papers you can read and not leave junior high
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The legislators actually have to confront and balance this budget and must still deal with it by the end of the day, and can't just drunkenly wave their arms all askew incoherently on an internet bulletin board to get the job done....unfortunately.
I can assure you that the state of Washington has hired some folks who's sole job it is to track down every scrap of extra corp. tax revenue they can grab, every damn nickel, and they are working over every company pockets they can both in state and out with a high powered Hoover vacuum. It's not all cuts cuts cuts, but that has to happen too, as Jim said. If you think that they have missed some corp or target, then you have an obligation to send them that info.
Some interesting thoughts and ideas for the national issue: http://topforeignstocks.com/2009/11/15/should-the-us-drastically-cut-its-bloated-defense-budget/
From personal experience I can assure you there's at least one corporation sucking the WA state teat dry at the same time it's sucking on the federal teat. Ever heard of SUTA dumping?
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"Justices Scalia and Thomas dissented, saying that workers have to complain to a government agency or court."
That's idiotic.
I'm actually curious to read the logical gymnastics they used to reach this outcome
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he's more ass to keyboard than ass to mouth
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some fantastic aged wine deals there
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You can tell how far you are from Siem Reap in Cambodia by the % of gas bottles that are Johnny Walker in the road side stands, the closer you are the more there are (they pack better)
as an aside, interesting transformation in India from historic, more eco-friendly fastfood packaging - clay cups and banana leaves - to modern plastic disposable ones. The plastic ones don't degrade so quick on the side of the railline
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Not that I have ever been there but I guess you can even by it on the Everest Trek.Hee Haw
And Mars bars!
Coke is available everywhere on the planet pretty much - plastic coke bottles are now the defacto gasoline/cooking oil/whatever else storage container in the 3rd world it seems
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Tollbooth operators and bus drivers, what a joke.
I've never talked about either tollbooth operators or bus drivers, but hey, keep on trucking, ass candle!
Now let's here some more about the people you "care about" - the blue collar worker, the average Joe. LOL.
as typical califuckingfornia raised lickbagger you can talk a lot of shit salty breath. now fuck off.
pizda ty zhopoglaznaya
KK is choking on dick, again
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You are a clown who now wants underpaid public employees to take a cut but who didn't want the upper 1% to pay taxes.
Public pensions are the item under question, not salaries. And the argument has been that they are unsustainable. Funny how this is not an issue in the private sector. I wonder how that could be... hmmm.
Because the company declares bankruptcy and dumps the pension on the PBGC fucking over everyone? Ask an airline employee sometime.
Sweet jesus you fuckers are retarded.
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pretending that cutting compensation for workers is going to solve the fiscal crisis while state revenue are imploding is not only poor public policy, it's a lie.
Private companies do it all the time.
And w/r/t retirement... so do individual employees at private companies. Sometimes you have to cut 401k from 10% to say 6% when times are not so good. Sometimes you even have to cut below the amount where you get matching funds. That's life, j_b.
Some kind of variable bonus compensation that's indexed to economic growth over and above a particular floor would do wonders for aligning the incentives of the public and private sector workers, and would serve as an automatic belt tightening mechanism during recessions.
Seems like a reasonable idea that actually tries to address, for instance, reality.
from an academic circle jerk perspective, sure
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Your acknowledging that healthcare is not working (up to half of cost going to profits) while continuing to advocate cutting worker benefits is just not good enough.
Well then give me a practical solution that say, the mayor of San Jose or Gov Gregoire can implement in the next month to balance the books. Honestly - something, anything but abstractions.
The pension thing is something else - that will change, one way or another over time. We just don't - have - the - money.
When times are good underfund the pensions so you can screw the pensioners when times are bad! That's America! So awesome!
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I think the answers have been - build the economy, sustain middle class jobs, offer universal health care, etc. While all great ideas, if you were discussing the issue with the mayor of San Jose, or many other jurisdictions, he would patiently lean across the desk and say "Yes, but what am I to do now, in my City?".
Still waiting for that answer.
There are no reasonable answers to fallacious questions. Cutting your hand off will stop your finger from bleeding, but you won't have stopped the bleeding. As matter of fact, you'll have made matters worse: permanently decreasing public employee compensation will further degrade public services and reinforce the race to the bottom.
If pensions, work-rules, seniority based pay, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc then California world beater in every category of public sector performance. It isn't.
Virginia outscores California, Illinois, NJ, NY, Wisconsin, etc in every category.
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp_report_card.aspx
There *are* states with collective bargaining rules that score well, The data certainly don't support the claim that collective bargaining is necessary for the efficient delivery of high quality public services, effective public administration, etc.
And yet, without collective bargaining, Virginia's schools still suck. Surely this would suggest there isn't a link at best? Hell, having lived in that state I'm surprised anyone would trot it out as a model for anything - except never ending suburban sprawl, regional incompetence and general shittiness. But Jay's packing up the Buick and moving out to Virginny!
Oh dear, those dirty little facts getting in the way of Jay's ideology
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yob tvoyu mat!
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hey, I've got some great reform schemes that I know will never be implemented, so I can cling to my quaint ideology
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So let's see, staffing down by almost 20% revenue grows, but costs go up by over triple? Inflation ain't the issue.
That sounds about right for doing business in the Bay Area over the past decade. Unlike Cisco local government can't outsource firefighting duties to China, but I'm sure Jay_B will chime in with some incredible insight on that issue
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Ok, I'll ask the obvious question. What is a municipality to do, seriously?
They could sell off the airport they funnelled a couple billion into to an organisation that will run it properly.
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you guys are mean bastards
this is an internet thing, right? It's perfectly fine to shit on any number of "vague" groups but shit on a specific and you are an asshole
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Peter likes smiling whores.
Maybe he'll pick that fat fuck Chris Christie
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I'm trying to be diplomatic. Either way, the strategy is working- The Koch Bros, Bill O'Rotten, Saint Ronnie, the Drug Addled Windbag, et al convince a whole lotta JayB's out there that those low life welfare queens and bloated public employees are what's standing between them and THE GOOD LIFE. Pawns; yes, sociopaths; not always.
No, Jay figured out a way to get in with a good money making protected racket that gets in on serious government $ that he's ideologically willing to give up, but realizes practically he'll never have to in the meaningful future.
He's become the yuppies he mocks
More like I ran into a woman that I was actually attracted to that didn't run away screaming when I started talking about climbing, economics, and the political economy of foreign aid in Africa.
^ you've got the smug disdain thing down cold
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What is this drivel? Public sector employees are certainly not an "overlord class" as is reflected in their compensation being smaller than private sector workers with comparable education. Enough "catapulting of the propaganda" Billcoe!
I think Bill was joking.
how can you tell?
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I'm trying to be diplomatic. Either way, the strategy is working- The Koch Bros, Bill O'Rotten, Saint Ronnie, the Drug Addled Windbag, et al convince a whole lotta JayB's out there that those low life welfare queens and bloated public employees are what's standing between them and THE GOOD LIFE. Pawns; yes, sociopaths; not always.
No, Jay figured out a way to get in with a good money making protected racket that gets in on serious government $ that he's ideologically willing to give up, but realizes practically he'll never have to in the meaningful future.
He's become the yuppies he mocks
Top Ten Climbing Movies To Own?
in Climber's Board
Posted
Historically the Fanck mountain films (Die Heilige Berge, Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü, Der Wisse Rausch - available for download here http://www.archive.org/details/1931-Der-Weisse-Rausch ) were influential in romanticizing the mountains. Honestly the climbing porn movies are boring (same for ski porn) not sure how much interest those'll have from anyone.