How Does the New Health Care Reform Bill Affect Your Business ???

I used to say that also. Now that I'm still physically fit enough to do it, and still lovin it .... it's no problem at all. I guess it all depends on on those two things .... whether you can do it and whether you really like what you do or not. This has always been my hobby as well as my livelyhood. Not too many people I know are that lucky.

I have a friend of mine who really amazes me. We went to grade school together and one of the main things we used to do as kids was make tree forts and tree swings. He eventually went into the army as a paratrooper and later went to work for the state doing tree work and retired from that after 30 years. He's still doing it! He cuts and prunes big trees and supplements his ample retirement from the state. He has run the NY and Boston marathons a number of times and lately with his grand children. Until a year ago was volunteering for fire jumping out west. I'm pretty sure he was the oldest recorded volunteer. We're the only two guys from our group of friends who're still able to continue doing what we love to do. We laugh at all the "old retired guys" who go shopping with their wives as a pastime and they laugh at us for still "having to" work. We just tell them ...Those that can ............ do.

I just figure if I wasn't doing this for money, I'd be doing it for free .......... so what the hell!

It was the same for me but when I moved to Florida I didn't have the time to start over and my online venture was doing well enough to allow me to concentrate on that. Since computers are my "other" hobby I'm OK with that. OTOH, while installing and programming are lots of fun, climbing around in attics was never my favorite activity.

Due to health problems, installing is no longer an option for me. I'm having a great time configuring my new websites though. In a few weeks we'll convert over to the new system.

Yep. I'm sick of politics, from both camps. I think we need to fire the whole lot of them and start over.

Only recruit people who

LOL

But I have to disagree with the idea that there is any real difference in the parties. The federal government grows regardless of which party is in power.

IMHO, both parties are the same side of a coin, of which the constitution is the other side.

That's why they rail so hard against people voting third party. They have everyone convinced that doing so is throwing away their vote, so millions of people, who are disenchanted with both parties, vote for the party that disgusts them the least instead of voting their conscience.

Granted, I wouldn't want 30 or 40 parties but a good federalist leaning party would likely go a long way in cleaning the federal government's intrusions on state's rights.

We did that last November. :^)

Agreed.

Growing up in NJ, I got used to seeing "George Washington Slept Here" signs on hundreds of histroical homes. Considering how much he slept around, while it becomes clear why they call him "The Father of Our Country."

I think the best thing that has happened to this country in decades is the new "Tea Party" (no joke; they really call it that). I'm even thinking odf sending them a donation just to make sure they run as many of their right-wing, nut-case candidates in every election to come.

You assume they are all right-wing

Not going to happen

Here's a better idea, how about paying attention instead of crying about being sick of politics?

You seem to think government dysfunction is a recent thing, it's been around since the country was founded and in some cases was far worse

I try to pay attention as best I can, without devoting too much time. I'm on several mailing lists for the political items I'm most interested in. I can't say I've ever picked up the phone and called my representatives, but I have shared quite a few of my opinions to my elected leaders via email.

Sometimes they respond with a "canned" email. Most of the time, nothing.

I sign a lot of petitions too. (Using my real name and address)

I've never been sick of politics. To me it's better than watching SNL.

As for jury duty, I think it gets a bad rap (pun intended). I've been called twice it wasn't "fun" but it was interesting -- something I don't regret doing. I was called twice and, given my errm, background experience, thought I'd automatically be excused. Not so. During the first voire dire I hid nothing.

At the time I wasn't really interested in spending six weeks away from work. However, it turned out to be an interesting case and the evidence was (unfortunately for the perps) overwhelming. We found them guilty on all counts. I suspect the defense was amazed that I didn't give them a hung jury at least. Oh, well.

The second time I was called, a number of years later, the evidence was so shabby I and most of the jurors later told the judge we were unlikely to have found the guy guilty of anything. Sadly, t defendant (who spoke little English) "copped a deal" and never knew he was going to go home that day if he had only waited.

One thing about the trial was pretty scary. There was an interpreter. All of the wirnesses were Puerto Rican and most spoke little or no English. I understood enough Spanish to realize the interpreter was altering the testimony of several prosecution witnesses to make them agree with each other. After one witness (the purported victim) claimed the defendant (her ex) was "chasing" her the other, her sister, said he happened to pass them in the *opposite* direction. The interpreter translated the sister's testimony to say he saw them coming, turned and gave chase. But the testimony said no such thing.

I sent a note to the judge stating what had happened. The judge "ripped the interpreter a new one", tossed him out and got a new interpreter. This all happened right in front of the jury. Given what amounted to judicial misconduct (not the judge's but the interpreter's) I was amazed they didn't throw the whole thing out.

Two other jurors who spoke a little Spanish later said they thought something really wrong was happening. The judge came into the jury room after lunch to tell us that we would shortly be dismissed because of a plea deal. I asked if he was interested in what we thought of the evidence, hoping he might give that consideration in sentencing. He said yes. Virtually all of the jurors agreed -- innocent. We were dismissed and I never found out what happened to the guy. When he gets out I hope he's smart enough to move a few thousand miles away from his ex.

Carrie Prefean for President? Heh, heh, heh... :^)

Oh, yes it would. The ex-CEO of Haliburton was the "King of Ineptitude." The best thing he ever did for the company was resign so he could take "another" job and give them billions in no-bid contracts.

Jim (of NYC) for President in 2012!!! Tom Fowler for VP. They'll be a shoo-in.

Would that be similar to Cheney who is busy trying to rewrite it?

Careful. Those are fighting words around here.

Robert

e:

Irrelevant, you can dream all you want but that isn't going to happen

Power struggle is the way it should be, its the advancement of an idea, HOW it happens is another story but personally I feel the harder it is to pass a law the better off we are.

Career politicians were once common sense people

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And they forgot about it........

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You .... in particular, would not want me even NEAR a political office.

My solution to all the world's problems? Polution, gas prices, many of the mini wars in the world, housing, medical assistance, hardly anything that you can think of would be cured by my solution. Something that you never EVER hear ANYONE talking about, but yet it IS the ultimate solution that will, if not now, someday have to be faced if the human race is to survive.

"De-population", would be my running campaign slogan.

No one seem to be able to relate what nature has tried to teach us from day one. You can't have a super dominate species with no predators. It will eventually eat its self out of food and consume all of it's resources. Then die out.

So, as you can see, in spite of the predicaments that we're in now, there's still hardly anyone who would face the facts and vote for me.

First order of business: Scheme a way to get China and India into a nuclear war. You get a 37% reduction right off the bat.

e:

Generally it's a good idea that you use your real name and address otherwise you'd be like Acorn

I was *kidding*, Jim.

I don't know if that solution will *have to* be, but I'm fairly certain it is what *will* be. Sooner or later, no matter what we do to try to prevent it, there's going to be a thermo-nuclear war. What will reamin after that is so far the stuff of sci-fi novels. I suspect what will remain will be a few people in remote, mountainous regions. Even there, all but a small percentage will perish.

I'd like to make whatever miniscule impact for good I can in the meantime but I have no illusions about man's ability to not use the most destructive power he can get his hands on -- even in full knowledge that doing so will cost his own life and those of everyone he cherishes. It's the nature of man to want what he can't have and to destroy what he can't get.

I figure all of this is more than a few years away so I won't be here to see it. If I had to render a guess, I'd give the race maybe 20-30 years.

The Knigston Trio put it so well in the Merry Minuet:

"They're rioting in Africa, They're starving in Spain. There's hurricanes in Florida, And Texas needs rain The whole world is festering Wth unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans, The Germans hate the Poles; Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch, And I don't like anybody very much!"

"But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud, For man's been endowed With a mushroom-shaped cloud. And we know for certain That some lovely day Someone will set the spark off, And we will all be blown away!"

Same conclusion except I figure it will happen cataclysmically.

People don't vote based on facts. They vote on emotion and affiliation. They vote on exasperation and rage. But facts? Naah.

You'd get a lot more than that. The fallout will take out another 20-30% worldwide at a minimum. Poisoned crops and fisheries will eliminate another

20-30%. Whichever regime is left will decide to use their nuclear weapons to grab control of the rest of the world. The side effects of the skirmish will take care of the rest.

Somewhere in the mountains of Tibet (or perhaps on Mount Ararat in Turkey) a family or two will have genes that somehow prove resistant to the effects. They will do some serious "begatting" and the whole thing will start over again.