redkow97

Why are we competing to see who makes the least money? I think the bigger problem is to classify all public employees the same. Fire and police personnel have difficult jobs. When they do them well, they should be compensated well. When they are shitty, they should be fired. They aren't, and they aren't. 2 problems with the current system. Postal workers and snow plow drivers do not have terribly difficult jobs. Compensating them in the same manner as fire and police personnel doesn't seem right. But again, there doesn't seem to be much of an incentive for letter carriers to perform better, and postal employees get raises simply for not getting fired. That's not right. I didn't think so when I was a union employee either. There needs to be a mechanism for evaluating and dismissing employees in ANY job. The public sector makes the "dismissing" part an extremely difficult process. Productivity suffers as a result. Period.

heaven forbid government workers have to save for retirement, like the rest of us. and for the record, I currently have a part-time government job that I would like to parlay into full-time in the next year and a half.

Buell: the only bike you can buy that HD riders, and Jap-bike riders will both look down on equally

Actually, I have a lot of respect for the guy. He's a conservationist, and definitely not a hypocrite.

I saw him on the audition show. Said he slings burritos as his day job. Moe's, Chipotle, or someplace else?

I really kind of doubt it. Those guys make a living by shrugging that stuff off the way you or I would pause to burp during a meal. That's part of what makes them professionals.

I saw a sweet Mark VIII drag car with a shaker hood once. That was sick. Kind of ruined the "i'm badass, whether you know it or not" image, but it was still cool.

my sentiments exactly. This is the first time I've seen footage of the wreck, but I've been hearing about it on the radio, from classmates, etc., and I've been getting mildly irritated. Every time there is a motorsports fatality, people get all up in arms about the safety of the sport. What they're totally ignoring is that 14 other cars were involved in the same wreck, and there was only 1 fatality. I feel terrible for Dan Wheldon's family, but this isn't some huge failure on the sanctioning body, the track, the cars, or the racers... It was an accident. Thankfully, accidents of this severity are rare. We see the same thing in bike racing, and in other sports. I feel horrible saying it this way, and I don't mean this the way it's going to sounds, but I'm thankful for the perspective provided by that high school football player dying. Obviously his death is tragic, and I mean no disrespect to his family - but one would hope that this diffuses some of the finger-pointing at racing as "too dangerous." I tell people, "I want to go at 100 years old, or 100 miles per hour. Preferably both." I am sure Dan Wheldon had a lot of reasons he wanted to stick around, but he died racing. For his sake, I hope he was loving it right up until the end. Prayers for those he leaves behind.

you distorted what I said quite a bit when you "quoted" me. I believe voting every 4 years was meant to act as a "term limit" for congress. But it becomes a pointless exercise when you're replacing the bad congressman with another one who is just as bad. if someone is doing a good job, I don't think we should artificially limit their continued service. The parties own the candidates, and the corporations own the parties. It takes a rare person to have the balls and the means to turn away from funding, and stand up to pressure.

I am not sure how much "bite" #7 would have btw. I don't think you can make 1 contract that nullifies a bunch of others. The parties involved could terminate them 1 by 1, but you can't just make a single statement that dissolves everything. In the current economy, I think you could get some support to "downsize congress." that could be a voluntary pay cut on their part, or cut 1 representative from each state. I don't care. It's not like it really affects us as Ohioans if we go from 19 to 18 (or are we at 18 now?). How many of us even know who our "local" rep is? DOWNSIZE CONGRESS. or LAY OFF CONGRESS.

I think term limits are irrelevant if we have real options to vote for. the parties have too much control. With the exception of Ron Paul, I really don't think it matters very much which Republican gets teh nomination. They're all afraid of pissing off the party, because the party has lots of money, backed by businesses with even more money.

chase was great when my card number was stolen. Discover was NOT. I dont' know if it will make people feel better, or worse, but you're a lot less likely to get your cc number stolen online than you are at a restaurant. Online, your card number is at least encrypted after you enter it. A person should never actually see the number unless you enter it some place dumb, or have it 'saved' in a password field or something. Think about what you do at a restaurant - you hand your card to a young server making $5.25/hour plus crap tips. Then they walk away with it for 5 minutes before giving it back. They could VERY easily copy down all the relevant info (including that little security code on the back) and just hang onto it for a few months or even years. Then they use it online, and you're screwed.

^ I believe that to be correct, but let's not make this about one candidate or another. The point is that citizens should be demanding this, not waiting for a candidate to fix it. I particularly agree with the part about "citizen legislators," and not career politicians. www.GOOOH.com (get out of our house) Make the House of Representatives REPRESENTATIVE again.

cool bike - you don't see a lot of the RR models. Keep it nice. Might be collectable some day

if you all want to really impress upon Todd that you're serious about wanting other tracks, don't just say, "i'll register if you race at ________ track." send him pre-registered fees now. Post-date a check, and write "mid-ohio entry fees" on the memo line. That's a commitment, and everything I know about Todd makes me trust that he wouldn't cash the check if the event fell through - but it would be a REAL commitment, instead of just words.

^ so you getting rid of a less expensive 12 gauge?

Throttle cables arrived yesterday, and will go on this weekend if I'm lucky. I also found my Vortex triple-tree that I had for sale. That's another trick-part that is really easy to install, and costs a solid $90 used... I only removed it because it technically disqualifies my bike from WERA superstock classes. In retrospect, no one would ever have noticed or cared, unless I was winning the championship. As far as I know, MotoSeries has no such restriction, and this would be 100% legal.

I actually noticed, but she was on a roll ;-) I agree with her to the extent that there is little difference between a 25 rd magazine and a 50 round magazine, but loading 1 round at a time gets super tedious. The reason she claims the round limits are pointless is the same reason I don't really mind them. It takes me 5 seconds or less to change out the magazine on my rifle... I really need to sack up and get a carry weapon. When my bike sells, a shotgun and carry revolver are going to be purchased. Then CCW classes. Maybe a gun safe while I'm at it.

Do you honestly think that those of us who are defending their RIGHT to be assholes don't still believe they're assholes? Free speech isn't only for people with popular, "normal" views.

I'll tell you the same thing I told my buddy, after his fiance went out and spent $850 on an elliptical machine: "you know there's a place called Craigslist where fat people sell unused exercise equipment for cheap, right?" in his case, I was busting his balls, because I know that woman hasn't TOUCHED that goddamn elliptical, and she loves to spend his money. But seriously, I'd check CL. There's a strong chance you'll find something decent there.

if you pass the Ohio bar, your notary commission will never expire. That ups the renewal expense just a smidge, but you've got the rest of your life to recoup the costs ;-)

to most CL sellers, that probably means they bought F4i fairings. wish I was joking.

from a performance perspective, the 250R is a lot faster around a track. like almost 2 seconds a lap, if memory serves. in real-world riding conditions, the Honda has more torque right up until it totally runs out of steam and falls flat on its face. The Kawasaki keeps revving, and just walks away. The honda is certainly more sophisticated, but I would say the EX250 is still "better," especially when you consider cost into the equation.

The vast majority of Americans really don't seem to understand what "Free Speech" actually means. People can say virtually anything, as long as it does not create a "clear and present danger." We've also loosely defined "pornography" and "profanity" as speech that is only appropriate in certain settings, so that young people aren't indiscriminately exposed to it. Beyond those parameters, almost anything goes. Just because a statement hurts my feelings, or makes me mad, or is legitimately the most vile statement ever uttered, my only "right" is to be offended, not to silence the speaker. retaliation by any illegal means makes YOU the criminal. If your mother didn't tell you, then a judge will: 2 wrongs don't make a right. And there's a big difference between "wrong" and "illegal." protesting soldiers' funerals is wrong. 99% of Americans would agree with that. But that doesn't make it illegal. Slashing peoples tires is wrong. 99% of Americans will agree with that too. But it's illegal in 100% of the USA, as far as I'm aware.