Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas

From Bashir’s linked item on GM up above:

“If we start making political decisions with the auto industry, we’re going to be in tremendous trouble,” said Michael Robinet, vice president of global vehicle forecasts at CSM Worldwide.

Well, Mikey, our shiny, new Gubmint Leadership is already making those “political decisions” - and you’d better believe we’re already in “tremendous trouble” - and it’s gettin’ worse all the time…

So, how’s that magic stimulus working out? Unemployment numbers worse than projected:

The actual numbers aren’t just worse than the rosy picture Obama painted for a world after his magical stimulus took effect. They’re worse even than the doomsday scenario he outlined if Congress didn’t pass his stimulus plan.

New Mood in Antitrust May Target Google

Heh heh, how’s all that support for Oba workin’ out fer y’all?

Pelosi got heads up from administration on CIA memo

Interesting.

As it is the weekend, I have a cooking topic to bring up: fried chicken. I have restricted my experiments to bone-in, skin-on thighs only. I cook in lard rendered from small-farm pigs (no hydrogenation of the lard). I tried two batches at two different lard temps: 360 F and 320 F. I held the thighs in the fat for about 25 minutes for both tests and continuously monitored the fat temps with a candy thermometer in the fat. Both times the crust was too dark; as expected the 360 batch was darker and more burnt tasting than the 320 batch. I do coat the pieces in an herbed flour mixture containing salt and paprika, and prior to this coating I marinade the pieces in buttermilk spiked with salt and paprika for at least 12 hours. My plan for the next time is to cook for about the same amount of time at ~280 F and see how it goes. I’m trying for a pseudo KFC original recipe effect in terms of skin color and consistency. I have noticed that in both previous tests the fat temp started to increase slowly toward the end of the fry time by about 3-4 degF. Concurrent with this increase was an onset of noises from the frying pot that I would describe as the sound of water splashed on a very hot surface. Kind of a instantaneous steaming sound that I attribute to bone marrow shooting out of the ends of the thighbones and contacting the cooking fat. I take this as an indication of the chicken being thoroughly cooked.

Any feedback from you guys about pan-fried chicken would be appreciated. I cook these chicken pieces in about 1.5″ of fat; it almost covers the pieces. For most of the time that the pieces are cooking the lid is generally over the pan (subject to the general requirement that the thermometer be allowed to protrude from the pan). For most of the time, the chicken pieces are positioned bone-down in the pan.

Couple of thoughts: Anything over 320 is too hot, period. You’re probably cooking too long, as well - 18-20 minutes should be just about right. Also, the lid doesn’t help. Use a screen to prevent splashing. You’re probably using a little too much oil, as well.

Alton Brown has a pretty good recipe - just substitute lard for the veggie oil, and your own spices.

Also, there are recipes out there for KFC style chix - just google it, and try the ones that look good until you find one you like.

Cornyn on the NRSC endorsement of Crist.

That would be me. I bought my Rav4 new in August of 2006, and I just got my reg bill the other day.

Went up from $201 to $283. Not entirely welcome, but still manageable. Of course, my car didn’t cost 50 grand out of the box, either.

Republican Cowards, Neo-Con Quislings & Conservative Fools

PC crashed I’ll be borrowing a laptop from time to time untill repair or replacement.

I’d have preferred to move to Texas rather than to Minnesota, between the number of high-tech job markets, the overall tax burden, and the generally good personal freedoms. Alas, my wife didn’t want to move to the heat, so I turned down a job offer in the Dallas area. That being said, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve seen of the upstate MN area. (But of course, any state would be an improvement on NY in terms of overall tax burden or personal freedoms.)

Two western NY towns overcome by strange moment of temporary sanity. (I’m sure there’s some way that NY state will get around this inconvenient expression of voter displeasure, so I’m not holding my breath on this one.)

“Anyone in the U.S. government serious about securing our border with Mexico yet? “

No, why?

War is peace.

Freedom is slavery.

And unemployment is “funemployment”.

It has been 5 years.

8-year-old San Jose boy hit by car making progress

For a moment there, I wondered how fast the car was going when it hit the kid…

Alex, that sounds scrumptious. Whenever I come into ownership of a convection oven I will try something like that. Today I tried fried chicken thighs again; I’ve come to accept only thighs as my meat of choice. They’re predictable. I let them fry in 3/4 inch of lard and cooked them for only 20 minutes instead of 24 minutes like before. Also I reduced the lard soak temp to ~290 F. The result is very nice indeed. By the way I put 1 Tbsp of bacon grease in the fat before frying.

Even my 2 year old went after the lard-fried-cx-thighs today. I think I have a winning combination here.

Clayton, there are currently six comments by “mrniceguy” marked as spam. Two were flagged for moderation, two made it through to the Matt Welch thread, and two were already in the spam bucket. I put the other four in the spam bucket.

BOLTON: Obama continues Bush’s 2nd term — badly

Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Haunted by the Memory of Her Song: Fifty Years of ‘Rio Bravo’

In his now-famous 1971 Playboy interview, John Wayne recalled his own loathing for the film:

Everyone says High Noon was a great picture because [Dmitri] Tiomkin wrote some great music for it and because Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly were in it. In the picture, four guys come in to gun down the sheriff. He goes to church and asks for help and the guys go, “Oh well, oh gee.” And the women stand up and say, “You rats, you rats.” So Cooper goes out alone. It’s the most un-American thing I ever saw in my whole life. The last thing in the picture is ole Coop putting the United States marshal’s badge under his foot and stepping on it.

Some critics like to nitpick and remind us that Cooper doesn’t actually step on his discarded tin star, but Wayne’s then-twenty-year-old memory is plenty close enough for government work. The conclusion of High Noon (former President Bill Clinton’s favorite movie, natch) has marshal Will Kane casting his badge into the dirt with a sneer, his features oozing contempt for the yellow-bellied townsfolk he defended. “That was like belittling a medal of honor,” Wayne seethed privately to his friends. And even as he graciously did his pal Gary Cooper the favor of stepping up at the 1953 Academy Awards and accepting the Best Actor Oscar for High Noon on Cooper’s behalf, the Duke began thinking about how such a role should have been played, and how he might someday use his superstar clout to craft the same basic story according to his own sensibilities. A story where the town didn’t cringe and run, but instead backed the marshal with their guns and their lives against the black-souled gangsters arrayed against them. A story which would ennoble America, flaws and all, instead of soiling her with a revisionist history at odds with how the brave pioneers of the west really acted.

Wow.

Huh. I’ve seen both, years apart. I added both to my netflix queue to watch in succession.

CIA head says Cheney almost wishing US be attacked

Behind a Massive Robocall Scam, Four Human Faces

This explains the calls that I had been getting a while back on my cell over the span of over a year, at the rate of about three of four times each month, that came from people I didn’t even know in places I had never been to (I looked up every unfamiliar number displayed).

Gentle readers,

I would like your help. I am confused by the expression, “All men are brothers.” The more I think about it, the less it means what it is used to mean. My older brother and I fought bitterly while growing up; we get along now, but have lived more than a hundred miles apart as adults. Yet brotherhood is touted as a good; something to hope for. Is this a slick lie?

Thank you for your help.

the Old Curmudgeon

Laptops, Linux, and smiles…

OK, my trusty but old Sony VAIO laptop (which just worked with Ubuntu) went tits up a few months ago and in the meantime, I’ve been using another Sony laptop that a friend gave up on.

Last week, I saw this and immediately ordered one. It had all I was looking for in a laptop including and especially the Pointstick that few laptops seem to have today.

So, it comes in today, I turn it on and boots into XP Pro and spends a good bit of time doing all the normal first boot stuff and after all is finished, I can’t connect to my wireless network. Hmmmm…

Oh well, what the hell. In goes the Ubuntu 9.04 install USB stick and you know what? Half an hour later, everything just worked. Networking, Bluetooth, the pointystick thingy, the nVidia 3D graphics, etc.

So, with a big smile on my chubby face, here’s the first post to DP from my shiny new Ubuntu/HP Mobile Workstation.

It’s Miller time gents…

Got a pointer to a how-to?

When I installed 9.04 onto a desktop machine, I was poking around System menu to see what was new and I found:

System -> Administration -> USB Startup Disk Creator

So, I made one then and there. I used a 4GB stick but there wasn’t anything on it.

If I understand you correctly, you want to make a bootable installation USB stick without destroying the data that’s already on there?

Hmmm… I see I need to disable mouse clicks for the touchpad.

Don’t have a clue is this will work but I think I will give it a try just to see.

Of course, if you happen to find yourself at a Frys, you could probably get a 1GB stick for less than $5.

9.04 ejaculating jackalope

Eh? When did they change the name? I thought it was called Ecumenical Ecdysiast.

I just downloaded a bunch of updates

The Debian updates I installed a week or so ago broke something. The computer doesn’t lock up, but I the package management database was borked and I had to manually fix a few things and specifically install older versions of some packages before some things (like my database engine - pretty important!) were working again. Ubuntu builds on Debian but I have no knowledge of how tightly they tie their releases and patch updates. Submitted for your consideration.

@kennycan

FTFA:

Last year, leaders of the Penobscots… cut formal ties with Maine after Gov. John Baldacci vetoed a bill that would have allowed more indian gambling…

“There’s a real insensitivity i this state to native issues,” says [Penobscot Chief Kirk] Francis, whose office is in the back of a gym on Indian Island… On his office wall, there’s a poster saying “Indian wars never ended.”

Gee, if the indian wars never ended, I can think of something that might resolve all this…

Slaughter of Foreigners in Yemen Bears Mark of Former Gitmo Detainee, Say Experts

While watching the A’s/Giants game on NBC 11 (KNTV), just now there was a break in the action and a quickie news preview for tonight’s 11PM news was run and I just heard the voice of one of the anchors, Lisa Kim, mention Michelle Obama’s appearance in SF as a “royal visit”.

These days, drach, an email address from gmail is an almost certain giveaway. Add in a URL pointing to a page with more Google ads than anything else, and, well…. It’s on the spam list now. I’ll let it gather dust for a while, on the off chance that others will show up, exposing a pattern.

Be very careful what you’re getting into… [Trapped! You’ll never see the light of day again! Muahahahahahaha! – Ed.]

The ESL flavor of the comment is another consideration, by the way: not dispositive, but indicative.

Not having learned anything from last year’s Fannie Mae bailout, Barney Frank is at it again.

Bernanke says he didn’t pressure Bank of America

Clueless in California

Here’s your Rethuglican turncoat (s)hit list (courtesy of AoSHQ - thanks, Ace)…

Like Ace says: Not a dime, not a vote…

Meanwhile…I sure hope Jim Inhofe (R. Sen., Ok.) is right - he says Cap And Trade is going to be D.O.A. in the Senate.

A visual aid of our current predicament.

Billy Mays’ Last Interview before his death

Billy Mays, popular pitchman for several household goods shares his experience on the flight from New York to Tampa, on US Airways, in which the front tires blew during landing, causing overhead items to rain in on the occupants. It is being speculated that him getting hit may have caused brain swelling which lead to his death.

I’m on Twitter now. I tweet. That’s right. That’s right. Go ahead, make fun. Your turn will come. Week one: http://bit.ly/fRPMh (If you want to, um, “follow” me [tweeters know what I’m talking about], my user name at Twitter is editingwrite. Get Started—Join! at twitter.com.) Twitter is not always as horrific as you might often correctly suppose. It was helpful in Iran, and most recently was absolutely pivotal in communicating up-to-the-minute information about a recently deceased child molester.

The final defendant charged in connection with a January raid on Tokyo Massage admitted Tuesday to helping run the brothel and having sex for money there.

June Wilhelmi, 60, dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she pleaded guilty in Natrona County District Court to prostitution and promoting prostitution.

Sixty?! I’m speechless.

The HuffJoke and the DailyAss have both endorsed Romney for 2012. What could possibly go wrong?

Well with Palin, not running for reelection, it looked like she might be plannning on a run for the White House, but by resigning as Governor, I think her future in national politics is officially dead.

…as the era of Feel-Good Diplomacy, No Matter What The Cost Nor How Pointless continues apace…

(Has it only been a bit over 6 months since the advent of The Obamanation Reign? Seems like so much longer, somehow…)

We no longer have a free market. We probably haven’t had one for a long time. (emphasis added)

Actually, this type if Gubmint-driven stupidity has been going on for a very long time - for most makes/models of vehicles made (primarily) anywhere outside the U.S., for at least 20 - 25 years, many makers have either restricted what they would sell in the U.S. market or simply not chosen to compete at all in the U.S., based upon Gubmint regs.

Simple reason: The regs in the U.S. make it unprofitable to sell here - the foreign makers can meet emissions/mileage/safety requirements elsewhere at less cost, so they either ship only their highest-profit, highest-priced models (where they can absorb the added costs) or models that they already know will pass the regs - or they ship nothing at all.

Result: Many higher-mileage-getting models never get offered here - since those are nearly always the ones that are either lower-profit for the makers and/or aren’t able to pass the regs while still making money for the manufacturers…

Some of the regulations make sense (regarding basic safety, to a point, etc.) - others are just stupid (regarding minimum mileage-per-gallon, certain kinds of maximum-allowable “emissions”, etc.)

They’re crossing the line with stuff like this. People simply won’t follow it; you’re going to start getting a network of underground transactions and “black” money similar to what often happens in Spain, etc, as people say “screw it” and bypass taxes and onerous regulatory schemes.

…inspector bribery will become a growth industry.

In many places - often in the South; frequently enough, though, in the highest-population-density areas regardless of North, South, East or West - it already is.

I had a builder’s license for many years in Michigan, and for awhile in North Carolina - and dealt with building/zoning people in both states.

It’ll just get a lot worse…

Actually, it’s more of a gang-bang, with Lady Liberty as the bang-ee.

In New York State, after Eliot “Droopy Drawers” Spitzer resigned, David “Turn a Blind Eye” Paterson became Gov. Paterson’s staff as Governor was larger than Spitzer’s Governor’s staff and Paterson’s Lt Governor’s staff combined. Not only that, he got rid of a lot of Spitzer’s people, as is his right, replacing them with what sure looked like race-based hiring with no attention to qualifications, and with higher pay than the people they replaced. I never heard any professional journalists discussing this when the topic of trimming the NYS budget came up.

Wishful thinking on your part there, Bill. By time he got around to making a decision the bird would already have landed.

They’re beginning to eat their own…

We go beyond that. We hold professional athletes away from recovery therapy known to be safe and that’s widely available. HGH is great stuff, and I bet someone the age of our venerable author wouldn’t have too much trouble getting a subscription to it to recover from a muscle atrophying stint in a cast.

Good thing you aren’t a strong safety.

In a rational society, we’d identify athletes as a great test population for radical medical enhancements. Many are already destroying their body of their own volition, strive to take every step to improve their body, and you probably wont find anyone stressing their body the way a pro running back does. They wash up at age 28.

Instead, we the MLB steroid scandal. Good for Bob Costas, who gets his precious ‘pure’ game. Bad for America who remembers that baseball is actually a pretty shitty game.

Screw ‘em. The more they make sports artificial, the less I follow it.

I stopped watching baseball the year that Sosa and McGwire steroided their way to the home run record. Never watched it since: not a single inning.

I’ve never watched much gridiron football, and I find the helmets and padding depersonalizing in any event — it’s like watching armies of robots clash.

Cricket, rugby, and football (soccer, to Americans): that’ll do it for me. All the rest can whistle. I’d rather watch an ordinary league game of Aussie Rules football than the Super Bowl.

Bring on the hyperjocks! I’ll watch. And Scott, you don’t know much about Bonds if you think there’s no comparison to the other greats. For much of his career, he didn’t take steroids.

As entertainment, the only major sport I can think of that is more boring than baseball is golf. I lost interest in baseball about the same time I acquired interest in sex. Anyway, for most young basefall fans, it isn’t the actual game that hooks them as much as all the ancilliary stuff - statistics, trading cards, etc.

At least with football, you don’t have half-hour swathes of time going by with nothing happening but a beer-bellied pitcher throwing a ball to an armored catcher.

Anyway, they’re all games. If you want to turn them into religions, and then swear off them for what you perceive as heresy, knock yourself out.

As I said - have the Puritan Leagues, and the Fun Leagues. I know which one I’d watch. Of course, I’m after entertainment, not dogma.

KdT, I wanna know where you get your cricket broadcasts. I can never find any on my DirecTV. I’d love to catch some.

(@kdt #6)

It is of only minor interest to me that an organization which is so protective of its “brand” (logos, team insignia, etc) is also so cavalier about its product.

But Kim, don’tcha know that it’s all about marketing. If you get the sales pitch right, the product doesn’t matter. (That’s what the Republican establishment told me when they nominated John McCain, so it must be true!)

Most of the excitement is in your head.

Well, I’m certainly not going to argue that there’s not a significant mental aspect to The Great Game. Which makes it so Great.

Well, hell, a German. Why would you do that? Just point him at the beer window and the nachos window. And the garlic fries window in your neck of the woods. Or take him to a rodeo.

I’m glad I had a good teacher for the cricky. I find both games fascinating, in an extremely laid-back way. But they’re definitely not the X-Games ;-)

And you make me mine — baseball’s not the X-Games. God knows they’ve tried, though, with all the rock music blasting all the time at a ballgame.

And you make me mine — baseball’s not the X-Games.

Right. Because it is intrinsically boring, while the X-games aren’t.

That’s, of course, because they’re doing so on other people’s money - chiefly, the bulk of the ordinary, middle-class, wage-earning citizenry - via Gubmint-established and -sponsored graft (aka: tax-and-spend…and spend, and spend some more…)…

The New Capitalists - your friendly neighborhood “professional politicians” - the grifters who never stop grifting…

Sure. Stand them on a block of ice and tie a rope around their necks. As the ice slowly melts, the rope will slowly tighten, strangling by inches the piece of shit mentioned above.

Oh sure, it doesn’t seem sufficient, but it’ll have to do.

Old method.
1. Take one large steer, kill it.
2. Skin it.
3. Wrap perp tightly in wet rawhide.
4. Place wrapped perp in open field at dawn.
5. Erect camp chair, grab a cold one from cooler and wait for the sun to do its work.
Wet rawhide shrinks as the sun dries it out slowly tightening until sundown. Sometime between dawn and sunset perp will cease to be a problem.

Nice one, genes - my recollection is, that was the originally-touted cure in the Old West for dealing with cattle rustlers…

Suggested variation for Islamofascist purchasers of children for suicide-bomber employment: Use a fairly good-sized hog in place of the steer - freshly-shucked pigskin should prove as shrinkable (in sunlight) as raw cowhide, plus the added benefit of that religion-based aversion to swine…

J.S. The cowboys got it from those people that roamed the land before the Europeans came. They used Buffalo hide but Bison are a protected species. Wouldn’t want to piss off some enviro wacko who’d end up ruining a perfectly good outing. Until we gave him an up close look at how it’s done.

Respawn, your monker is unfamiliar to me, but I gotta say I do like the way you think!

It’s hard to top this method, but it does assume that you know of something else that is [A] Almost as bad as the subhuman trash you need to obliterate, and [B] Highly prized by the subhuman trash in question.

Of course, if you can find something that fits, then this treatment can usually be added to any of the other methods. I usually recommend sealing it in a cell with a leaky pipe, so it dies of starvation instead of thirst.

Most of these ideas are not bad, personally in thinking about it my preferred method would take weeks if not months to perform the ability to drag him shrieking to the threshold of death and then drag him back only to do it again only seems fitting for this type.

Top this. Don’t read any further if you’re prone to squeamishness.

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Perp is held captive in a circa 1980s office building and forced to go from one conference room to another for the better part of 8 hours per day, facing a screen upon which is projected Powerpoint™ documents outlining new Process-Improvement methodologies and Root-Cause Analyses while self-important Process Jockeys blather on incessantly about how wonderful the new Best Practices that they just thought up are. Periodically perp is allowed to sit in a chair in front of a computer screen, but in the off chance he accomplishes anything useful he will be forced to explain his rationale for not closely following The Process and to add additional non-useful Process-oriented bullet items to the lists of things he’s to be held accountable for in his Quarterly Goals and Objectives MS Word™ document that he’s forced to write.

3. Pour in two feet of liquefied pig shit.

Having worked on a hog farm Ill have you know that pig shit is pretty much liquified to begin with.

Tell the truth, Dave…you’ve done work for the CIA, advising on extreme rendition techniques for use with urban “professionals”, right?

I like genes’ old west idea, but in that part of the world extra effectiveness would be guaranteed by use of pig skin instead of cattle.

This will not turn out well if true. Because we have failed to do what needs to be done, which is make them sorry we ever had to be involved in their country at all. The current administration will be even worse.

Who is Hussein Obama and why does he have command over US troops? Is he related to our president, President Barrack Obama?

Dave, our President isn’t “Barrack” Obama, either.

President Barack Obama: America has been ‘arrogant and dismissive’ towards Europe - Telegraph

“I think it is important for Europe to understand that even though I am president and George Bush is not president, al-Qaeda is still a threat and that we cannot pretend somehow that because Barack Hussein Obama got elected as president, suddenly everything’s going to be OK,” he said.

Dave, you got a problem using his name? He doesn’t.

I was a child watching the Ed Sullivan show with my grandmother, so I got to see the Jackson Five when they debuted on said show. That singing dancing little front guy was a wonder to behold, big smile and all. And I watched that little kid grow into a really talented young man, releasing Off the Wall and Thriller. And then I watched it all go so horribly wrong.

I don’t mourn his death. To me, he died a long time ago. But I do mourn- a little- what happened to that happy little kid. And I still think that the adult should have been worked over with a baseball bat for what he did to the weakest members of our society.

It is imperative that we reduce or eliminate Democrat majorities in the federal congress next year. Let’s concentrate on that.

The GOP needs to field some quality candidates next year. If they push more RINO, “moderate”, squishy types, conservative and libertarians will stay home in droves. Again. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m not optimistic. I would love to be proven wrong.

Thereby skirting the intent if not the letter of the law.

Umm…actually, if they are, in fact, following the letter of the law when they do those in-person records reviews - this is about the only part of the linked story I don’t have a problem with. And I speak as the possessor of a Federal Firearms License - in continuous good stnding - for roughly 30 years.

BATFE agents are permitted to examine dealers’ records - in person, and during normal business hours - in order to trace specific firearms (i.e., those guns alleged to be “criminal firearms”). That is the intended function of said records - the only legitimate, fully-legal reason for requiring licensed dealers to maintain such records (basically, forever). They may not legally conduct a “fishing expedition,” simply looking through the dealers’ records to see whatever they like, on no particular pretext, nor may they compile any sort of list of information from the records - they may take information only from the transaction records involving the specific items they are tracing.

Legally, they may also inspect a dealer’s records periodically - again, during normal business hours - to ensure that the dealer’s record comply with the laws, both Federal and State, that regulate the dealer’s licensure. Unless they allege something wrong with the records - and are prepared to make said allegations official, in court - they are not permitted to record anything from those records.

The attempt to trace specific allegedly “criminal” firearms by in-person examination of dealers’ records has been “routine” since the laws requiring Federal licensing were passed - the primary such law dates from 1968; it was passed in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassinations (after considerable politicking), and has been (mostly additively) amended a number of times since.

Sorry - but that’s the facts regarding F.F.L. dealers’ records; unless the agents try to bully the dealer into allow them to do more than the above, they’re complying with both the letter and the intent.

BTW - there have been attempts, in the past, to require all gun transactions/transfers to be subject to Federal regulation, whether between a dealer and an individual or simply between private individuals. There is even some language in the current Federal gun laws that can be (loosely) interpreted as regulating some gun sales between ordinary just-folks, depending upon where, when and under what circumstances the transaction takes place.

What would you guess is the likelihood, given a few more years of The Obamanation, that another attempt will be made to add some explicit legal regulation of private gun sales/purchases to existing laws? Say, something requiring you to keep a record of where you got that pistol from, or who you sold your old hunting rifle to?

Just, y’know, to be able to trace where that gun found in some Mexican drug-bust actually came from…

” Say, something requiring you to keep a record of where you got that pistol from, or who you sold your old hunting rifle to?”.

In the Socialist State of Canuckia you have to register your firearms and when you sell them you have to call the authorities and tell them that you are transferring them to someone else. But, interestingly enough, you do not have to tell them who you got a firearm from if you are registering a new one. You can produce a firearm out of the blue and they will happily register it, never asking where it came from. This is their way of dealing with the millions of unaccounted for firearms that just disappeared when the long gun registry was introduced some years ago. There’s not much doubt in my mind that millions of firearms in the US would simply disappear if registration reared it’s ugly head.

Traditional rule was, you’re responsible for your pets’ actions. If your dog bites someone, it’s as you bit him. If it goes to trial, take into account provoking actions by the bitee but most likely end up punishing the biter.

I see no valid reason for having gotten rid of that general principle.

“…and country.”

Nope. That would be Ray Price.

I just don’t get it - MJ was a song and dance man. Talented yes, and had 2 big albums, yes. The J5 had a few hits through the 70’s and were a very respectable star group. Thriller and Bad dominated the early to mid eighties. Overall though, he’s way overhyped.

Firstly, he hasn’t done anything very notable in over 20 years. Secondly, if you like his type of music, Prince is much better, is a multi-instrumentalist, writes most of his songs plus a bunch of hits for other people, and can sing and dance every bit as good as MJ. Thirdly, Quincy Jones had a massive impact on the success of the 2 mega-albums noted above.

The Beatles dominated for a string of albums and while I give all credit as due for George Martin’s production, his big impact came on the latter albums. In the early days, when the Beatles were placing something like 7 singles in the top ten at the same time, production was pretty simple and straightforward. It was the songwriting (again MJ was not a songwriter) singing and playing and the charisma of the Fab Four in the early days when they dominated the charts that was the key.

Finally, aren’t we simply ignoring the extraordinary talents and runs that some people had during their heydays, including Elvis, but others as well. How about Smokey Robinson, who wrote massive hits performed himself and for others. Dylan? Perhaps not “pop” but there was a time in the mid 60’s that the charts saw his name a lot (especially considering songs he wrote and others took to the top of the charts). The Police and U2 during their runs in the 80’s and 90’s. Springsteen in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

He’s the self proclaimed King of Pop because of the narrow way that his fans define pop, their amnesia about other great artists, and their eliminating groups from the running.

He’s overrated in my opinion.

And beyond weird, to boot.

Would a horse vote in favor of cap-and-trade?

Perhaps they would, if they were heavily into identity politics — I expect most horses consider the auto industry responsible for massive equine layoffs in the 20^th century.

However, I still think they’d vote “Nay.“

What are you talking about, JSB? I think it’s cool to be represented by a Senator from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.

aside from stealing/manufacturing votes for himself.

Nahh…somebody did that for him. He wouldn’t have a clue.

Doesn’t pass the laugh test for a number of reasons. Nobody is going to follow this if it passes, other than businesses, which are obviously targeted for closure with this.

The most glaring is the whole fingerprint thing… anyone who has ever had to deal with fingerprinting knows that it is not something that is going to happen down at your local gunshop.

And anyways, where the hell do they expect to get money to enforce something like this?

Tim, in California gun stores presently take thumbrints of gun purchasers. They’re not going to have any trouble taking them from ammo buyers, too.

Hell, notaries take prints when you sign their books - it’s not a capital-intensive operation. All you need is an ink pad an some paper; plus baby wipes for cleanup if you’re well-prepared.