7/10    Taliban Halloween: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view.php?id=36157
        \_ Crashed my browser.
           \_ Use Firefox!
              \_ I do. It crashed Firefox three times, the third time giving
                 some crazy error that destroyed all my browser-related
                 data.
           \_ Use Internet Explorer!

7/10    Nope. Sorry jblack. No post for you until you answer our questions.
        \_ Please email me at jblack@eecs.berkeley.edu jblack@csua.berkeley.edu
           I am a Republican and I hate immigrants, nigers, and chinks. You're
           free to disagree with me but I think you libUral fuckers should
           just go fuck yourselves. You guys lost, get over it.
           God Bless. -jblack
        \_ Go fuck yourself, censor. -!jblack
        \_ Yes, and don't you believe the Dear MOTD Readers should be allowed
           to decide that for themselves?  -John
        \_ Pathetic, small-minded herd animal. -- ilyas
        \_ I like how you figure the way to show jblack how to be
           intelligent and well-reasoned is to be an even bigger flaming
           jerk.  You = teh awesome!
           \_ come on, where's your sense of being a Republican? Let's use
              his logic on himself-- jblack's opinion differs from that of
              mainstream motd and spreads dissent, therefore, he is a motd
              terrorist who has no right to speak. Since he's a motd
              terrorist, let's torture and humiliate jblack for a while like
              what we're doing in Guantanamo Bay. Maybe we can even extract
              useful information. Bring it on. God Bless.
              \_ And if someone does something *really* devastating to the
                 motd, we can always invade OCF.
                 \_ good one! :)
        \_ I don't understand how you think that selective censorship
           makes your point. Let jblack post his Freeper posts, they do
           more to discredit him than anything you could possibly say. -ausman

7/11    The eat veggie-save earth thread has got to be the most stupid
        thread I've ever read on motd. The best thing to do is not consuming
        more veggies. The best thing to do is to consume men, which would the
        most ecological and logical thing to do to reduce pollutants. First
        of all, eating existing men would save you the cost to transport
        grains for cows or use our precious water suppry for crops.
        Secondly, you reduce population that would otherwise use up more
        resources and pollute the earth. Consuming men would be killing two
        birds with one stone. I propose we start by first eating idiots who
        post stupid threads on motd, and then eating SUV drivers, then the
        fanatic Republicans, and finally all the communists and Democrats.
        \_ Yes, and don't you think the Dear MOTD Readers should be allowed
           to decide that for themselves?  -John

7/10    A fast car is nice, but a fast road is even better. How's the
        traffic in Europe (Switzerland and Germany), compared to average
        Bay Area traffic? For example, what is the highway speed limit in
        small towns, suburbs, urban, etc.
        \_ Way more fixed speed cameras and speed checks, way longer traffic
           jams, generally not as horrible rush hour on a daily basis, speed
           limits off highways usually a bit higher, fines worse.  -John
           limits off highways usually a bit higher, fines worse, people drive
           in a more consistently and orderly fashion (no passing on right,
           fewer idiots in SUVs yakking on cell phones.)  -John
           \_ I ENVY YOU. No, I hate America. No, I hate you.
           \_ Why does Fräulein John hate America?
           \_ What do you think the US should do to make its transportation
              system better? I hate our system but I don't want to move to
              Europe.
              \_ You do realize there are entire university departments devoted
                 to this question, right?  I honestly dunno.  Maybe higher gas
                 prices & better public transit is a start; drive fewer
                 automatics so there are less brake lights, so fewer traffic
                 jams, make driving tests harder, make living in city centers
                 more attractive, I really dunno.  If you've ever been in a
                 25km German traffic jam on $4 gasoline, you might think there
                 are good sides to everything... -John
                 \_ I would love to raise the max tax to 50% and raise
                    gasoline price to $3 a gallon to fund super metropolis
                    with superior mass transit system but our fucking
                    Country music listening Red Necks that prefer suburbian
                    lifestyle (so that they can fuck their cousins and
                    nephews and nieces) will not let that happen.
                    \_ This is a parody, right?  Is this jblack?
                    \_ They can't fuck their cousins and nephews and nieces in
                       super metropolis?

7/11    Which Berkeley prof said religion was good to keep poor people
        nice and happy (like the nice Black grandmother who goes to Church)
        and poor people who are not religious grow up to be like animals
        (like some punks and whores in Oakland).  This was only about
        the United States, so it doesnt apply to suicide bombers, also
        it was about manners and politeness, not about politics.
        \_ Do you mean Margaret Singer? http://tinyurl.com/clxml - danh
        \_ This idea is probably a lot older than Marx. -- ilyas
        \_ Religions are for the weak minded.
           \_ I find your lack of faith disturbing.
        \_ Do you mean Margaret Singer?

7/11    Dear Osama Bin Laden and crazy Islamic fundamentalists, I know you
        guys are pissed off and want the US to pull out of Iraq and
        Afghanistan. How about a complete cease fire for a year or two so
        that George Bush can declare victory and pull out troops completely?
        Afterwards, you can resume your attacks and blow everyone up
        as usual, and declare your victory. This proposal is a win-win
        situation. What say you? Jesus Saves, and Allah Akbar!
        \_ Bush has declared victory about five times now.
           \_ How many times did senior Bush delare victory? You know, I miss
           \_ How many times did senor Bush delare victory? You know, I miss
              the old Bush. He was so much more methodical and wiser.
              \_ He also had better grammar than you.
                 \_ You mean spelling?
                 \_ What, gramatically, was wrong with the previous post?
                    I'm amused at self proclaimed motd grammarians these days.
                    Like the guy who claimed the BTAF apostrophe comic had an
                    error...  Sigh.
                    \_ Well, it depends on the meaning. It's a little
                       awkward to have e.g. "so much more fat and taller"
                       versus "so much more fat and tall". The former would
                       better be expressed "was taller and so much more fat"
                       because it removes ambiguity over the "so much more".
                       \_ You're an idiot.
                          \_ Why don't you learn English or go back to your
                             fucking motherland Scotland, scotsman.
                             \_ How do you know he's a Scot, laddie? He
                                might be black or hispanic adopted from
                                his Scotish parents. Yo bro, whaddup?
                             \_ I'll explain in detail why you're an idiot.
                                You're a prescriptivist who's long on
                                commentary and short on facts.  "more wiser"
                                wouldn't make sense, so "more" is obviously
                                grouped with "methodical".  "So much wiser
                                and more methodical" would be unwieldy, but
                                would be the only way to duplicate the original
                                stmt.  Your example fails to duplicate the
                                original statement.  And if you want to pay
                                my way to move to Scotland, I'd love to.  But
                                it wouldn't make you any less wrong.
                                \_ The reason you're both idiots is that you're
                                   taking part in this lame assed thread.
                                \_ FYI there are multiple anonymous people you
                                   are arguing with here. I didn't claim
                                   it was strictly wrong, just a little
                                   awkward. Someone else made the original
                                   grammar comment. Still, there are two
                                   possible ways to interpret it:
                                   "so much more methodical"   "so much wiser"
                                   "so much more methodical"  "wiser"
                                   You know-it-all dumbfuck.
                                   \_ Someone claimed it was grammatically
                                      incorrect.  I asked what was incorrect.
                                      You offered a point that was not
                                      incorrect.  Ipso facto...
                                      \_ Well you're an idiot.  I'm the
                                         original critic (not pp) and the
                                         original phrase is ambiguous at best,
                                         retarded at worst.  Did he mean:
                                         "wiser and so much more methodical"?
                                         or
                                         "so much more wiser and methodical"
                                         \_ Keep digging.
                                \_ You'd love to move to Scotland? Why do you
                                   hate America you unpatriotic fuck tard?
                                   Get the fuck out of my country.
                                   \_ Ever been to Scotland?  Edinburgh's an
                                      awesome city with friendly people and
                                      beautiful women.  Given the chance, I'd
                                      love to live there.
                                      \_ I missed a chance to go to Edinburg.
                                         Perhaps unwisely. -- ilyas
                                      \_ If it's not Scottish, it's crap!
                    \_ I don't see anything gramatically wrong, but "delare"
                       should be "declare".  But a typo is no big deal unless
                       the poster is picking on someone else's English, which
                       was not the case here.  -- !PP

7/10    Rove's attorney linked to money launderers in hilarious fashion:
        http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_07_10.php#006045
        \_ Beautiful. I'm sure it's hard to find good, honest representation,
           but, Shirley, you'd think they could try a little harder.
        \_ Check the top post on tpm.  someone in the gaggle rediscovered
           their balls.
           \_ Scott McClellan makes Ari Fleischer seem honest and forthright,
              although I have to feel some sympathy for the "white house
              press secretary."  It must really suck to have to speak publicly
              for these jokers.
              for these jokers. -lewis
              \- why do you feel "sympathy" for them again?
                 \_ Sort of the same "sympathy" I would feel for, say, a
                    Kamikaze pilot.  Gee, sucks for him.
                    \_ But do you feel sympathy with the imperial stooge back
                       in Tokyo who lies to justify sending the kamikaze
                       pilot to his death?  That is Scott McClellan, not the
                       pilot.
                       \_ Our very own Beltway Bob.  Little weasel.
                       \- right, i feel more sympathy for the troops and some
                          of the mid/high level military.
        \_ TalkingPointsMemo has become *the* must read blog out there. Joshua
           has broken more political scandals than the Washington Post over
           have broken more political scandals than the Washington Post over
           the last six months.

7/11    only tangentially related to the below: Does anyone know what
        the term is for "the name given to people/things from a place"?
        For ex, peopl from Los Angeles are Los Angelinos, people from
        New York are New Yorkers, people from Glasgow are Glaswegian,
        etc. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to how these names
        are derived and I've been curious to find a list of tons for all
        kinds of strange place names but no idea how to google. thanks
          \_ "demonyms"!! fantastic! thanks. this has bothered me for years.
        \_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adjectival_forms_of_place_names - danh
        \_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adjectival_forms_of_place_names
           - danh
          \_ "demonyms"!! fantastic! thanks. this has bothered me for years.
             \- What about people from Niger?

7/11    What's the "short form" for the name Patricia (like "Don" for
        "Donald")?  Also, what's the formal term for "short forms" of people's
        names?  It'll help me googling.  Thanks.
        \_ wikipedia says "diminutives" - danh
        \_ wikipedia says "diminutives"
           \_ That's the term!  Thanks!
        \_ It's Pat!
        \_ Patty?
        \_ nicknames?
        \_ Trish?
        \_ Patty, Pat, Trish, Tricia, Trisha, etc...
           I've even heard Peg.
        \_ You might like to read Bill Bryson's books:
           American Made, and Mother Tongue.  Fun stuff.  gabriel

7/11    Agriculture nerds, guns germs steel is on PBS tonight - danh

7/11    Transcript of today's White House regular news briefing
        http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/11/briefing-711
        (this gets pretty insane, IMO)
        \_ CSPAN video
           http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/scotty_rove_71105.wmv
           \_ I have no respect for any commentator who calls McClellan
              "scotty".  It's amazing what a dipshit MM is.
        \_ Nice to see the press grow a pair.
        (this gets pretty insane, IMO)
        \_ C-SPAN video (Real Audio/Video)
           http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050711-3.v.smil
           (better quality, more complete, less troll-worthy, use RealPlayer
           to view)
           (better quality, more complete, less troll-worthy)
        \_ Nice to see the press grow a pair.
           \_ Are you a complete moron?  They've been haranguing McClellan and
              Bush for quite a while.  Their consistent whiney dumbass
              questions have gotten pretty old.
              \_ The Karl Rove info has been boiling for the last two weeks.
                 This is the first time anyone brought it up at a press
                 conf.
              \_ Yeah, McClellan is clearly a weasel.  He doesn't need any
                 diminutives applied to him.
                 \_ Hey now.  No reason to be insulting weasels OR dipshits
                    like that here.
                 \_ Whereas if MM doesn't have a diminuative applied to him hey
                    may balloon up to the size of a house.
                    \_ huh huh...  yeah.  michael moore is fat.   huh huh...
              \_ Yeah, treason and high crimes, such whiney topics from that
                 whiny liberal media.  Why can't they focus on important stuff
                 like if Bush got a blowjob and lied about it.
              \_ The press has given Bush a pass since 9/11. About time they
                 started doing their job. Do you remember how much grief
                 Clinton used to get?

7/11    So now that we know Rove is the leaker, any bets on whether Bush will
        actually follow through on his own statements that anyone involved in
        the leak should be fired?
        \_ He said that anyone who did anything illegal would "be dealt with".
           \_ "Listen, I know of nobody -- I don't know of anybody
              in my administration who leaked classified information.
              If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like
              to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."
              \_ Its pretty funny to see how http://foxnews.com and http://cnn.com are
                 covering all of this.  Its huge news, and all of the headlines
                 are about Bush's platitudes on the London bombings.
             \_ here are some amusing, admittedly slanted commentary
                on Fox's anchors comments about the bombing:
                http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/05/205.html -danh
              \_ my bad, I wasn't sure if it was "be dealt with" or something
                 else.  But I'm pretty sure the verbiage has changed from
                 "leak classified information" to committing an "illegal" act.
                 You know, like how "WMDs" changed to "WMD related programs"?
                 You know, like how "WMDs" changed to "WMD related program
                 activities"?
                 \_ Make that "knowingly leak classified information."  Rove
                    is using the "I didn't inhale" defense.
           \_ Oh.  So Rove gets s spanking?  The least they could do is make
              it a public spanking.
                \_ Can we get the Bush twins to substitute in for Rove for
                   the public spanking? I don't want to see Rove's pasty
                   white flabby butt, thank you.

7/11    "The Truth About Hillary" has made the New York Times best-seller
        list for the second week in a row - a development that has the Times
        book review spitting mad.
        http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1440701/posts
        \_ Micheal Moore's books were also best sellers, and were also retarded.
           I think spending money on stupid books with some political axe to
           grind that we agree with has become a major way Americans express
           our political beliefs.  It's stupid, but true.  Now if only I
           could find the right axe, I'd never have to work again.
           \_ 1. write axe-grind book
              2. buy up enough of your own book to make it a bestseller
              3. since it's a bestseller, people will buy it to see what the
                 deal is
              4. profit!
        \_ have you read the book?  even most conservatives think
           ed klein is a piece of shit.
           \_ Conservatives also said the same thing about Kitty Kelley's
              laughable "The Family" book.  Yet the NYTimes gave that one a
              favorable review. link:csua.org/u/cof
        \_ no but seriously, the book sucks, i read most of it but
           i couldn't take it anymore.  here is what your dark overlord
           John Podhoretz has to say about it:
           http://www.rightnation.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t80745.html
           here is my dark overlord Al Franken interviewing Ed Klein
           http://mediamatters.org/items/200506240007
           Just bringing up this book makes you look silly. - danh
                \_ you don't look like such an ass in person, what happened?
                   http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/~jblack/eau.jpg
        \_ maybe you need a cruise to unwind.
           http://www.weeklystandard.com/banman/ads/Cruise2006a.300x250.jpg
              \_ I think 2 and 3 can be simplified to: 2. enrage those who
                 disagree with you enough that they start to emit bile and
                 spittle in their favorite media.  3. Just to stick it to
                 those who disagree with you, those who agree will buy the
                 book.  And of course no one will argue with 4.  It's sure made
                 Michael Moore rich.
              \_ Skip step one, and you've described the $cientology strategy
                 to a tee.

7/11    Hey, jblack have you ever seen a psychologist? I think you
        might have OCD.
        http://www.ocfoundation.org/ocf1010a.htm
        \_ Hi lye.  Are you a stalker?  -not jblack
           \_ Hi "not jblack."  I didn't post the above, but thanks for asking!
              Smooches! --lye
              \_ Oh sorry.  I was using the infallible Kais MOTD diff

7/11    http://www.freerepublic.com/images/freepathon/petersvi20-vi.gif
        http://www.freerepublic.com/images/freepathon/DemsJumpO-vi.jpg
        Funny comic                                                     [jblack]
        \_ immature not so funny conservative comics to be deleted

7/11    Dear Freeper Guy: When you piss all over the motd with ip address
        based links, we still know its you.
        \_ It's "it's", concat of "it is", you stupid LIBERAL.
           \_ Hi jblack.  You have issues.  Really.  Seek help.

7/11    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1440743/posts
        While Democrats say they are raising money at a faster pace than in
        2003, they face a formidable challenge from the Republican National
        Committee, which was out-raising Democrats at a 2-1 pace through May
        of this year.

7/11    Truth about Hillary:
        http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1440782/posts           [jblack]

7/11    War is peace. War abroad keeps terrorist away from our homeland:
        http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1440757/posts         [jblack]
        \_ Better yet, just kill all pesky America-hating towelheads. -John

7/11    The Mother of All Connections - Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein
        http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/804yqqnr.asp
        http://csua.org/u/cod                                           [jblack]
        \_ "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved
           with the September 11th"
        \_ A bunch of unverified crap from a bunch of Iraqi nationals
           with an ax to grind. Hasn't the Weekly Standard discredited
           itself enough peddling the WMD lies two years ago?
        \_ Yeah, I saw that on http://freerepublic.com too.
           Even they made comments about how incredibly long/dense it was.
        \_ so we invaded Iraq because some dude got an ak-47?  Where
           do you live?  I want to kill you
           \_ Bring it on. I live in Berkeley (920 Keeler Avenue)
              and my number is 510-527-2588
              \_ Haha, pwnt!
           \_ Stunning.  How much study does it take to be this stupid?

7/11    When I buy decaf, is it 100% caffeine free or are there residual
        caffeine? If they can extract caffeine so easily, what do they do
        with them-- make No Doz pills? Caffeine patch? Coca cola?
        \_ Much less caffeine but not caffeine-free. See: http://howstuffworks.com
        \_ There was a relatively recent Nat'l Geographic piece on caffeine.
           Yeah they use the extracted caffeine for all that stuff.

7/11    The end of hacker publication:
        http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4657265.stm
        \_ It doesn't say why the magazine is closing.  Any guess?

7/11    God Bless those who are around me here keeping me safe:
        http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1440780/posts          [jblack]

7/5     Real lesson of Vietnam                                          [jblack]
        http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20050701-085018-1545r_page2.htm
        \_ uh oh, looks like our Red Neck Republican jblack figured out
           how to post anonymously. FEAR!!!
        \_ Attack the article, not the person if you have any honor.
           \_ "if you have any honor" (unlikely on the motd)

7/11    Truth about Laura Bush:
        http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/1450782/posts                [jblack]

7/11    My impression of Porsche owners is that they're mostly white hair
        middle-age men who need a nice car to complement their sucky life
        that the movie American Beauty portrays. Imagine you're in your
        50s, your wife left you and/or your sex life sucks, your children
        are all grown up and left you (and they might even be drug addicts
        or gays/lesbians), and your career has been the same for the past
        decade or so. The only thing you have is money, so you buy something
        that you think would make you feel young. This is my impression
        of your average Porsche owners. After doing some research, my hunch
        is right-- men who drive a Porsche are most likely to cheat on
        their wives:
        http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004230007,00.htm
        "Porsche-It's a little too small to get laid in, but
         you get laid the minute you get out of it."
        \_ Your impression of Porsche owners is quite complimentary
           compared to my impression of SUV owners.
        \_ "Porsche - It's a little too small to get laid in, but
            you get laid the minute you get out of it."
        \_ I know 3 Porsche owners and they are all women 40-60 years old.
           \_ Ah the joys of community property.
              \_ Haha! Good one! However, they all bought them for
                 themselves. Two are single. One is a widow, one has
                 never been married, and one is happily married. All were
                 successful outside of their relationships (restauranteur,
                 psychologist, attorney). These are 911s, btw, not Cayennes.
        \_ Mid-life crisis.  (Or is it "mid-age crisis"?)
           \_ mid-life convertible.
           \_ How accurate is the portrayal of the average mid 50s American
              male in the famous movie American Beauty? Does life REALLY
              suck that much when you get to that age? If so, that is
              pretty depressing...
              To those who still have/had dads around... when they hit their
              50s how did they cope with their mid-life crisis?
              \_ When my dad hit 45 he divorced his (second) wife and
                 married a woman my age. I was 23 at the time.
                 \_ That doesn't sound so bad if she was hot.
                 \_ Lucky him!!

7/11    I have a confession to make. I followed Warren Buffett's footsteps
        and put a LOT of money in foreign money using http://everbank.com. I've
        lost about 10% of my assetts in the past 3 months because US dollar
        is going back up. Putting money in everbank was the worst decision
        I've ever made, ever. Now that I've told you why I'm an idiot, it's
        your turn.
        \_ You're an idiot for many reasons.  hmm.  this is kind of fun.
        \_ You're an idiot, but not because you invested in foreign money.
            -tom
           \_ Nono, I'm not asking you to reiterate what I said. What I mean
              is that it's your turn to tell us about your bad decision, if
              you've made any. I made my decision based on the fact that Mr.
              Buffett, my hero, invested BILLIONS into foreign money, citing
              Euro trend, US's huge deficit, rising oil price, war,
              Buffett, my hero, invested 20 billion into foreign money,
              citing Euro trend, US's huge deficit, rising oil price, war,
              instability, and huge spending and outsourcing in other
              countries.
              countries. -op
              http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2005/0110/036.html
              \_ You are stupid because you don't understand *why* you
                 invested in foreign money, not because foreign money
                 went down 10% in three months.  If your investment
                 horizon is 3 months, you shouldn't be following Warren
                 Buffett.    -tom
              \_ yea, but buffet was in foreign money since 2 years ago,
                 so he still made money, and is going to make more
                 money.
              \_ You should invest in foreign stocks or bonds, not cash.
        \_ Once something is hyped up a lot, it's probably a matter of time
           before the smart money cashes out and the suckers get left holding
           the bag.
        \_ Isn't there a website for this sort of thing???
           \_ http://grouphug.us
        \_ I sold all my stock in my overhyped dotcom in 2000 and re-invested
           in.... you guessed it, other over-hyped dotcoms. Oh well, I lost
           like half of it, but did much better than if I had stuck
           with my company, like almost all my coworkers.
        \_ I cheated on my psycho girlfriend with a hottie 19 year while
           she was out of the country... who am I kidding, that was the
           smartest move I ever made! I lost a pyscho girlfriend and had
           an affair with a 19 y.o. hottie...
        \_ I wired $8k to a phoney escrow site to buy a diamond so I could
           propose to my fiance.
        \_ 1) When my company stock shot up from $1 to $7 in one day because
           of a press release saying "Amazon.com is investing in it", I wanted
           to sell all my shares knowing that it would drop very soon after
           people realizing that the investment was just a one-time buyout, but
           my gf argued that I should hold because it would keep going up.  I
           made a compromise by selling only half of the shares.  The next day
           it kept on dropping, and she let me sell the other half at $1.43
           lower.  So I lost $8400 in one day.  Days later the price returned
           to its original level.  2) Years later when my company stock went up
           to $48 for no real or apparent reason, I wanted to sell all my
           shares knowing that the company has no future, but she (now my wife)
           argued again, and I compromised again by selling only half.  Now the
           stock is worth pennies.  I lost $30k.  Mind you that I'm not into
           stocks and I've only make two stock predictions in my life.  In both
           times I was right.
           stocks and I don't BS about stock prices every day.  I've only made
           two stock predictions in my life, not on some random company in the
           market but on a company that I've worked at for years.  However she
           didn't listen.
           \_ Well, on the face of it it's stupid to listen to this gf who
              should know less than you since you work at the company. On the
              other hand, if you hadn't compromised and were wrong, you'd have
              had to endure lots of hell from said gf... this way you have
              it over her and maybe that's worth it :)
              \_ Why would you want to "have it over her"?  I see the smiley,
                 but really.  Find someone you care about who cares about you
                 instead of competing with your SO.
                 \_ Dude, it doesn't matter who your SO is.  You could be so
                    besotted you'd donate an organ just for her asking; she
                    could be a living saint.  Doesn't matter.  The reality is
                    you will fight; you will act like a jerk; she will be a
                    total bitch.  Might not be all the time.  Might not be
                    very often at all.  But it will happen.  And when it does,
                    you will be glad you have that you-lost-me-$30k metaphoric
                    bazooka you can pull on her.
                    \_ You didn't look hard enough for your SO then.
                       \_ Not all of us are interested in a Stepford wife.
                          Indeed, I find it incredible that there is *any*
                          long-term relationship that does not experience
                          some amount of conflict and disagreement.
                          \_ You're putting your words in my mouth.  There is
                             conflict and disagreement but the answer is not
                             to find some childish "hold" over your SO.  My
                             wife doesn't pull that garbage on me and I don't
                             do it to her.  You're still talking in terms of
                             "winning" and "scoring points".  You just don't
                             get it.  I feel bad for anyone stuck with you.
                             \_ How enlightened of you. How do you and your
                                wife resolve disagreements? What if she
                                wants to buy a stantion wagon and you want
                                an SUV?
                                \_ Since we're both reasonably intelligent
                                   people who care more about each other than
                                   random 'stuff' like that, we discuss what
                                   would be best for our needs and do that.
                                   Is this some big shock?  Why the sarcasm?
                                   Have you really never met anyone in a
                                   good relationship?  You probably have and
                                   just mocked them for not abusing each other
                                   for some bizarre concept of one-upping
                                   their mate.
                          \_ I like intelligent Stepford Wives 2.0 who is
                             better than you at chess, driving, poetry,
                             music, literature, AND is good in bed. Modern
                             liberal women are bitches who don't cook and
                             take care of the kids and run off to some other
                             random guy to fuck when she's bored with you.
                             \_ Conservative war-brides! -- ilyas

7/11    PSB, I have found your ipod!
        http://www.panopticist.com/archives/132.html
        \- what exactly are you saying?

7/11    Sick of dropped calls while you're driving? Want to boost your
        cell phone signal by 50db? Now you can!
        http://www.sigmaauto.com/autodax/mobileamp.php

7/11    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4673421.stm
        Abortion is illegal in Portugal. I bet Bush is very proud of Portugal
        \_ Does this mean that if you plan to take an Eurotrip to get laid,
           you should skip Portugal altogether? What country is the best for
           an Eurotrip?
           \_ Berlin, definitely Berlin
              http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050711/od_nm/germany_prostitute_dc
           \_ Amsterdam is good for hookers, but go to Prague for lots of
              hotties to score the old-fashioned way.
           \_ I did an OIF thing in Budapest, and half the attendees were
              hooking up with locals.  According to one of my buddies, you
              can't lose with a fistful of dollars in one hand and a US
              passport in the other.
              \_ What's an OIF?
                 \_ Optical Internetworking Forum.  http://www.oiforum.com