Aerik

That's awesome. Side note, he and I have something in common-- our white half takes over when we try to dance! Epic carlton.

Odin's horse was in Final Fantasy? My wife played all those, but I only played a couple of them.

Lmao. Hey, I never denied being a nerd. And anyway, I spent several years in a viking-metal band-- I dig the mythology. How many other black dudes do you know with a Thor's Hammer tattoo? And I'll fuck a liger up, no shit.

Lmao. *cough* Bikes with names are ghey too! *cough* (goes out to the garage and tells Sleipnir, "I didn't mean you, baby, never you...") Heh.

I'd rather have that guy molesting pillows in the privacy of his own home than molesting real people, or worse, actually breeding.

I'll generally wave at anyone on a bike (and actually stopped to ask a HD guy if he needed help by the road last week), but there's definitely a contingent of yuppies and mid-lifers that bought Harleys and now are totally badass bikers all the way to Starbucks and back. Those guys are pustules. Other than that, I don't hate anyone based on what they ride. Unless it's nicer than mine. Wait, I guess I hate everyone. Oh well, fuggit. Anyway, it's like my buddy's sticker (on the side of his Triumph Thunderbird) says: "15 grand and 15 miles don't make you a biker." Hurr hurr

I'm 26, and I have absolutely no patience for failure through laziness. In my experience, most college work is not that challenging if you actually pay attention. Then again, it's easy to be a big asshole with a good GPA.

Lmao, I haven't worn anything but combat boots or work boots since I was 15. I do own a pair of tennis shoes, but I bought them to work out in and... well... I live on cigarettes and coffee. Fuck working out. I don't run from shit, because I can't run fast. (yes, that's actually a Geto Boyz quote, I went there.)

See, what I guess I'm not articulating correctly (probably because I'm doing three other things and writing a term paper at the same time) is that I would feel justified in using my government as a tool to push our companies up to some kind of modern standards, then giving them our support through the trade policies once they prove they can handle their shit. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned- I think countries have a right to promote their own industries within their borders, and to strive for some kind of self-sufficiency. I'm not calling for all-out isolationism, but I do have a problem with the idea of having large parts of our economy driven by companies headquartered outside of our borders, and depending on them to exhibit loyalty they don't have and we can't enforce. Not that I'm some kind of nationalist lunatic; I have no problem with Honda as a company (despite my generally pro-union views), indeed, I like my Shadow just fine. I have no problem with foreign companies, countries, or people in general (any more than I have with ALL people). I guess I just want to have my own house in order, and I think it's worth the effort to use any means at our disposal to get our shit together. And letting an entire American industry die without a fight just doesn't sit well with me. As I type this, I'm looking around my desk and realizing that my smokes and the Mountain Dew can in front of me are the only US-made products I can see from here. Hell, the little .38 in the drawer was made in Brazil.

^^ Absolutely. I have a rule about standing too close to crazy people. I hear some shit like that and I immediately move out of biting distance.

Then the debate is really about whether we think it's worthwhile for us to try and keep building cars at all in this country- I would rather see us lose a little money (although I'd prefer we get our cash back out of a short-term investment) in order to bludgeon our companies into some kind of modernity rather than see the US totally stop making cars because our huge companies died of their own stagnant thinking. Think about it, though- what really happens if we just said," They failed, so fuck 'em."? Would a new American car company be able to get up to speed against entrenched companies like Honda or Toyota? Or would we just have to more or less accept that imports are the only cars available anymore? Interesting thought experiment, anyway. And anyway, why shouldn't give our own companies an advantage (and a benefit for keeping their jobs here-- that part would have to be included)?

If I understand the European model correctly, candidates have to meet a certain threshold of signatures before they qualify for public funds. After that point, there is no room for the donation-backscratchery we have here; the source of the money is easy to trace-- it's us. However, I'd settle for the oversight you've mentioned, although how they spend the money doesn't bother me nearly as much as where they got it.

Until there's a serious, unstoppable public outcry for term limits, publicly financed elections, and instant-runoff voting, the two-party poop we have now will not change in the least.

I think it has a lot to do with the size and layout of the bike- my wife rides with me all the time, and I never really have a problem. She just leans back on the backrest with her hands on her legs. She moves around a fair bit, but its rarely enough to affect the steering or anything. She did headbutt me once, when a car cut us off and I had to lock it up, but we both have pretty solid skulls.

I think people missed the part where I said it wouldn't be applicable until the companies had their shit together- I'm not interested in buying crappy Chevys either, but I would like to see American companies who are making a good product given an advantage on our home turf. Frankly, the more we manufacture our own stuff, the better off I think we are. I was certainly not advocating that we just drive out Honda and such right now and all drive Cobalts with the wheels falling off. I was speaking strategy, not tactics.

Yeah, that Orly Tait (or however it's spelled) is kind of entertaining if you don't have to hear her. She kind of looks like Big Bird's strung-out junkie ex-girlfriend. But that Zsa Zsa accent is fugging awful. I wanna see her birth certificate. Or does the martian government issue such things?

Like I said, they'd have to have their shit together first- I'm talking in long-term ideas, not policy that could be implemented tomorrow. Incidentally, I'd still take a late-60's Stang over anything anyone else was building at the time. Or now, for that matter.

Weather Report: "This just in, Tom, we've got a low-pressure front moving in fast- LISTEN TO ME, A SHITSTORM IS FUCKING IMMINENT!!!!!!!!"

And the other isn't going to go away, so you may as well try to get your money's worth out of your investment. As for the car companies, I'd just as soon see us bring back protectionist tariffs to slow the imports and tell everyone to fuck off while we make our own shit. But first we have to get our car companies into the current decade design-wise.

Sure, but we know how totally hands-off capitalism ends up-- 1929. Anyway, I am not anti-capitalism. It's just that, if the system's going to lean toward anyone (us or the companies), I'd prefer that it lean toward us. I don't want profit banned, or all businesses nationalized, or any such nonsense. I just want my government to strive to maintain a framework which aims to hold a balance between the best aspects of capitalism and the best aspects of socialism. Neither works very well alone. So sure, give me capitalist TV manufacturers, and socialized roads. Etc.

Oooh you found a politician who managed to stay out of prison, now all my arguments are invalid. Given that I don't have the patience to go hunting for whatever you think Barney Frank should be in prison for, I'll just say this: just because a system isn't perfect doesn't mean the principle doesn't apply. My point was that, when we catch (read: convict) government officials skimming, they should go to prison- if sometimes they don't, that's our fault. If you think he should be in prison, start advocating for it-- write letters, call radio shows, whatever. Public will is the fastest way to get politicians to act, but it takes effort and coordination.

For the record, I'm not a communist. And I'm not a socialist either, at least not in the way you're thinking. I do believe that, since we're going to have a government, and it's going to work for someone, that someone should be us. And I think that, if it's going to be working for us, it should provide certain services that benefit the citizens of this country, as efficiently and transparently as possible. Last time I checked, there were still plenty of private, for-profit companies in this country. Government going to great lengths to try and bail out a couple of companies that employ hundreds of thousands of Americans does not make this Soviet Russia overnight. I'm not saying I agree 100% with how it was handled, but lets be realistic here.