Dictionary = evidence?
 

Yes -- that's the one I was looking for. Intent, malice, I mixed them all up.

It doesn't help that most jury instructions are incapable of defining any term in less than 75 words, generally in one run-on sentence rife with subordinate clauses.

See you on the other side.......
 

And instead of posting, you were doing .... what???

See you on the other side.......
 

Why, putting every ounce of my effort and my heart and my soul and my best work towards what needed to be done to make the world a better and safer and more profitable place for my employer, of course. What else?

Oh, and sleeping. Lots of sleeping.

Any big changes? Who hates who now? (No, wait, that's the FB question.)

See you on the other side.......
 

There sure are an awful lot of pissed of bees buzzing around.

See you on the other side.......
 

Most of them are in Iran. I recommend Raid.

See you on the other side.......
 

For 72 million bees? That's one shitload of Raid.

See you on the other side.......
 

Fear is the mindkiller.

Dictionary = evidence?
 

I enjoy that. Make the dim pricks work. If you haven't the shrewdness, creativity and savvy to stay off the damned panel, its best we keep you safely within the confines of the courthouse for as long as possible. You'd probably kill yourself with a hairdryer or choke to death on a hot dog otherwise...

See you on the other side.......
 

"Nuthin' cracks a turtle like Leon Uris..."

- Cletus

See you on the other side.......
 

Until my primary retired it was all same old same old and they all hated me, now they hate the imposter Penske socks.

See you on the other side.......
 

I forget- had Spanky started posting before you left?

See you on the other side.......
 

Penske material is dead!
long live i was Penske!

HEY LOOK AT ME!!
 

I am the Penske of my generation, without actually being Penske (he's retired) [sniff]. LOL!!!! Attention whore extraordinairre! LOL!

Look a funny photoshoppe 4 u>>>>>>

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...6/untitled.jpg

HEY LOOK AT ME!!
 

the last Penske wasn't the real Penske. he just picked up the mantle- like flag carriers in the civil war, or dali lamas. you're on the throne now my man!

BUT BUT. but you need to do a mirror image on your photoshops. P would never dog B.

See you on the other side.......
 

As they should, but you can still miss the damn things.

(To whoever asked, (sorry, Hank), yeah, spanky was well established before I "left.")

((I never left, it was just a long, long conference call.))


ETA the sorry part

See you on the other side.......
 

Welcome back, board-killer.

More maps
 

In the vein of gatti's previous maps on religions, here's a very cool site from the Modern Languages Association on distribution of speakers of different languages by county. Note you can pull up absolute numbers or percentages by county, and do either the entire US or individual states.

It can be a bit slow, but it's worth it.

http://www.mla.org/census_main

(I'm posting this on politics just because that's where the previous maps were. That, and at least one blogger affiliated with the National Review has claimed this site is a glaring example of anti-American bias at the MLA. Nay, an attempt by the MLA "to persuade Americans of their lack of peoplehood." Be that as it may, the maps are cool.)

ETA: % native English Speakers, by County
ETA2: Or not. The site won't let me link to its images.

Republican moderate revolution......
 

It's often difficult to decipher a George Will column, but in today's WaPo, Will disagrees with you, Spanky.

I think.

Romney
 

It is ridiculously early, and it's difficult to know whether it'll go anywhere, but Adam Reilly in Slate has an interesting historical rundown on Romney's dealing with Mormonism in past races, and a calculation about how he might tackle it this time 'round.

• Romney knows he needs to dispel these heebie-jeebies to win the presidency, so he's spent the past few months figuring out how to play the Mormon card.
  
  He's already rejected the JFK approach. ...[T]his strategy won't work for Romney today. As a Republican and self-styled social conservative, Romney's courting voters who want faith to shape government; he's got to be a kind of theological ambassador, playing up the good aspects of Mormonism and minimizing the bad.
  
  Sometimes Romney seems capable of pulling it off. In recent months, for example, he's done a nice job convincing pundits and the public that religious voters care more about core values than theological minutiae. During a February trip to South Carolina, a key primary state, Romney was asked how his faith would go over with Southern evangelicals. "Most people in South Carolina want a person of faith as their leader," he replied. "But they don't care what brand of faith that is … I believe Jesus Christ is my savior. I believe in God. I'm a person of faith and I believe that's the type of person Americans want." Romney's contention that the "brand of faith" doesn't matter is debatable—but if he keeps saying it, and enough people take up the mantra on his behalf, some skeptics might change their minds. Romney's hard sell is already working with the press: In a recent column on Romney's '08 prospects, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter asserted that "[M]ost just want a believer, regardless of faith"—a line that could have been penned by the governor himself.
  
  But Romney isn't always so nimble. For one thing, he really, really likes joking about polygamy—the ultimate Mormon oddity, and one in which Romney's family was directly involved. (According to the LDS Church's Family Search service, Miles Park Romney, Mitt's great-grandfather, had five wives; the church repudiated polygamy in 1890.) "I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman … and a woman … and a woman," Romney quipped at the 2005 St. Patrick's Day breakfast in Boston. He made the same joke on Don Imus' 2006 St. Patrick's Day show. Thanks to Romney's perfect delivery and the self-deprecating subtext—the tension between Romney's defense of "traditional" marriage and his own ancestors' history—it's a pretty funny line. But if you're trying to convince evangelicals that you share their values, why make your job more difficult? For that matter, why annoy your fellow faithful, who could be a big help in your presidential campaign but tend to bristle at plural-marriage humor? In addition, when Romney gets all huffy in response to Big Love-inspired questions about polygamy ("Actually, it's not a Mormon family. My church has long ago given up that practice," he lectured Chris Matthews), his own shtick makes it hard to take him seriously.
  
  What's more, there's a desperate quality to Romney's eagerness for approval from non-Mormon religious notables. In March, Romney traveled to Rome for Boston Archbishop Seán O'Malley's elevation to cardinal. It was a nice photo-op for the governor, who's sure to tout this trip—and his cooperation with O'Malley in fights against gay marriage and stem-cell research in Massachusetts—while courting the Catholic vote nationwide. But Romney overreacted, embarrassing himself with breathless commentary about what a big deal his Vatican junket was...
  
  The good news for Romney is that there's still time to work out the kinks in his spiel. But even if he ditches the cheesy jokes and learns to play it cool when he has an ecumenical moment, he'll never be able to offer Mormonism the defense it deserves. The LDS Church seems strange because it's new, which makes the human agency behind it especially palpable. In contrast, the passage of time has given the weirder aspects of other faiths a patina of sanctity. In a perfect world, Romney could point this out to any and all anti-Mormon voters, perhaps using some lighthearted religious banter to drive the point home: So, are you Catholics still praying to little bits of saints' bodies, or what? But now that Romney's a social conservative with national aspirations, such a move would be political suicide. Compared to Mitt, JFK had it easy.

No kidding. In places like SC, the Baptists even look at Presbyterians with a jaundiced eye. Most, I would imagine, wouldn't know what a Mormon was.

Romney should consider things like Big Love to be HBO's campaign contribution for helping push awareness of Mormonism into the cultural zeitgeist, but for many the learning curve remains steep.


Gattigap

Romney
 

I'm not sure lost Israeli tribes, secret golden tablets and translating the word of god out of a hat are "theological minutiae."

OTOH, I grew up in an area dominated by Baptists but with a significant Mormon population. They got along just fine. Better than with the Methodists and Lutherens.

Romney
 

Weird. The Houston Press has an article this week about Fundamentalist Mormons moving to Texas in droves. Apparently, they managed to piss off Arizona and Utah big time and have decided that in the middle of nowhere Texas, they can live in polygamous peace.

Last year, at the annual Elgoatarod festival in Eldorado, the locals had a bit of fun with the Moromons, but it seems that everyone's getting a little uneasy about the influx there.

Romney
 

if Hillary gets elected do you think she'll order ATF to go burn them out?

Romney
 

Did you read the article? There's a lot of local concern about the compound. All of the houses there are log cabin, except for the first floor: the walls are made of concrete. There's a giant furnace there that they say is supposed to be for the concrete, but locals worry about how it could be really handy for cremation, and Mormons don't cremate cuz they think they need their bodies later on down the line.

Their leader, Warren Jeffs, who is called a prophet, is on the FBI's most wanted list, and he sounds like a charismatic nutjob. The local talk is that he travels with armed followers. Someone who got out of the Church (she was forced to marry her cousin when she was 16) says that Jeffs has instructed his followers to prepare for a war with the government. Another guy who has since left the church says that Jeffs wants to be a martyr.

Seems like it could be a fairly volitile situation.

Romney
 

No:( Lucky guess:cool:

It's hard out there for a DC lobbyist
 

Washington's scandal of the day is apparently the WSJ's story today reporting that "Federal prosecutors are investigating whether two contractors implicated in the bribery of former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham supplied him with prostitutes and free use of a limousine and hotel suites, pursuing evidence that could broaden their long-running inquiry."

Huh huh. He said "broaden." Oh, you Wall Street punsters!

Sure, there's some general ickiness about the thought of buying girls for a 64 year old man, but notably, investigators are looking into whether this contractor arranged for, ah, "hospitality suites" for other members of Congress or staff members. Oh, we can only hope.

Gattigap

A History of US/Iranian Relations Since 9/11
 

IRAN: Wow! I’m not saying you deserved that…

U.S.: Shut up.

IRAN: But you kinda deserved that.

U.S.: Shut up!

IRAN: Infidel. Hey, what’re you - what’s that on my right?

U.S.: …

IRAN: Are you invading Afghanistan?

U.S.: Yup. Hey, you better not be developing nukes.

IRAN: Oh, we’re not.

U.S.: Okay. Because you’re evil.

IRAN: Me?

U.S.: You’re part of an axis of evil. You, Iraq, and North Korea.

IRAN: Really?

U.S.: Oh yeah.

IRAN: We don’t even like Iraq. For godsakes, we just got done with a giant war with them.

U.S.: Nevertheless.

IRAN: And North Korea? I don’t really know those guys.

U.S.: You better not be developing nukes.

IRAN: Well…

U.S.: BAM!

IRAN: What was that!? On the left side?

U.S.: Nothing.

IRAN: It wasn’t nothing. You… you invaded Iraq, didn’t you?

U.S.: Maybe.

IRAN: Not maybe. There you are, right over the fence.

U.S.: Well, we thought they were going to develop nuclear weapons.

IRAN: Were they?

U.S.: Lemme check.

IRAN: …

U.S.: No. No they weren’t. But we thought they were. Let that be a lesson to you.

IRAN: Oh, it will be. I’m frickin’ surrounded now!

U.S.: Yeah.

IRAN: I mean what’re ya gonna do next? Invade Turkmenistan?

U.S.: Possibly.

IRAN: Well, feel free. That guy is nuts.

U.S.: …

IRAN: Let me ask you something. Why didn’t you level North Korea?

U.S.: North Korea?

IRAN: Yeah, you know… the other Axis of Evil country that’s not us.

U.S.: Oh. Well, they have nukes. That basically makes them uninvadable.

IRAN: I see.

U.S.: So the lesson here is “Don’t develop nukes.”

IRAN: Uh……. yeah. Sure. That’s what I’m takin’ away from it.

U.S.: …

IRAN: Man, you really pissed off some of your allies on your way in, didn’t you?

U.S.: They were weak. Who cares? Freedom fries for all!

IRAN: Interesting.

U.S.: Why?

IRAN: Oh, no reason.

U.S.: …

IRAN: Having some troubles over there?

U.S.: Shut up.

IRAN: Insurgency, huh? Man, I hate those.

U.S.: Would you shut up?

IRAN: …

U.S.: …

IRAN: Man, it looks bad. Like you won’t be able to invade anyone else for… what? Like 3 or 4 years?

U.S.: At least. This is not going as planned.

IRAN: What was the plan?

U.S.: Shut up.

IRAN: … at least three years, huh?

U.S.: …

IRAN: …

U.S.: Hey, what’re you doing?

IRAN: Nothing.

U.S.: You’re… you’re developing nukes, aren’t you?

IRAN: No.

U.S.: You are.

IRAN: Okay, yes.

U.S.: A-ha!

IRAN: Just for peaceful purposes, though.

U.S.: Really. I don’t buy it.

IRAN: No, really. We just want to make nuclear power plants. Believe me, the last thing we want to do is take advantage of this pickle you’re in next door in Iraq and next door in Afghanistan and with your fractured alliances and overcommitted military… to develop nuclear weapons and thus ensure that you won’t invade us. Believe me, that’s the last thing on our minds.

U.S.: ….

IRAN: …

U.S.: Now you’re making fun of me.

IRAN: Yeah. We’re making nukes.

U.S.: God damn it!


http://www.felbers.net/fa/2006/04/17...ons-since-911/

Oh boy.
 

Yeah, cutting a bazillion checks for $100 each sounds like a great way to manage oil prices.

It's in the NYT. Senate proposal from the Republicans.

Why aren't the oil companies trying to undercut each other at the pump? It seems like it's a good time to do that, what with all the profits and stuff. Increase market share. Compete. Stuff like that.

Oh boy.
 

From the WaPo:

"Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!" charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. "They are too cozy with the oil industry."

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) -- even though her Senate office was only a block away...."

Oh boy.
 

It has a proven track record - remember the great $300 tax rebate check? That fixed everything right up for all Americans, tax-wise.

Oh boy.
 

Please refer to weed's current sig line.

Oh boy.
 

Exactly. Because cutting and mailing a bazillion pretty small checks is cost-effective.

Romney
 

Military intelligence.

Jumbo shrimp.

Microsoft Works.

Dodge Ram.

Polygamous peace.

Oh boy.
 

Why? Is that supposed to hurt my feelings or something?

Oh boy.
 

Boxer called me last week and said she was afraid of what you'd say if she showed up in a Prius. Some days it seems like she just can't win with you no matter what she does.

BTW, since I'm here among the experts, is it a sign of my limousine liberalism that I found it hard to empathize with the Texas college student on the news this morning who was complaining about how rising gas prices made it oh-so-much-more expensive for her to wait in the McDonalds' drive through line in her idling Chevy Tahoe?

"The gas cost more than my meal," she lamented. I can only imagine what her degree is costing.

Oh boy.
 

No. It's just informative.

Somewhat seriously, how is it that prices and profits are going up at the same time for ALL oil companies? It seems . . . coincidental. OTOH, people seem to want the gas enough to pay the price. Of course, any real change in consumer behavior is going to be delayed because lots of gas is used for commuting, and changing your job, your home, or your car is time-consuming and has high transaction costs. So demand may not be sending the right signals.

Sux for people who drive everywhere. I drive maybe 30 or 40 miles a week, absent a road trip.

Oh boy.
 

Translation: I am crying fat, hot, salty tears of burning shame right now. Boo. hoo. boohoohoo.

Oh boy.
 

I was getting in truck yesterday as a man was getting in his Prius next to me. We exhanged quick glances. Normally, I'd say "Hi," because I'm all about being friendly, but in this instance, we just looked at each other and got in our vehicles quietly. It was clear we both realized that the only badges defining us at that moment painted us in very opposed positions. I honestly couldn't care less what he drove, and he probably couldn't care what I did. But neither of us said anything for fear the other was a true believer.

I was also kind of drunk, so this may all be riduclous conjecture.

Oh boy.
 

He was thinking, "I must get home and get my children inside before this drunk asshole runs them down in his gas-guzzling S.U.V. I bet he just had a steak dinner with the steak appetizer, too."

Oh boy.
 

I see a lot of Porsches in the train station parking lot. Fucking strivers. If you can't afford the fucking gas, you insecure prick, doesn't that indicate maybe... just maybe... buying that dick-substitute isn't fiscally prudent?

Oh boy.
 

This is conceivably the dumbest proposal I've ever heard of.

But note that it's tied to drilling in the ANWR. Me, I could care less about the ANWR.... but the notion of bribing the public to support it is a little icky.