Disclaimer

Even if it's winter soon, this still warms my heart each morning when I go to the kitchen to get breakfast... Now, if she only let me fire them up in the house...

I'll have to revisit this thread when some other socialist "spread the wealth" measure is trying to get passed. Just to make sure people are consistent in their views. If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander right?

Your face is illegal.

Republican majority in LA and a Republican governor that signed this. Yea, those Republicans are really towing that small business line by taking away economic freedom to use our own paper currency to conduct transactions. This bill was basically made to put flea marketers out of business.

Ahhh, and we're back to the "China owns us" myth. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704547804576260980673672952.html

You don't say?

I wish I had a giant gummy worm.

What if you're "gay for pay" like Jbot?

In America, you probably 'bought' your home knowing full well that it was above your means, so who cares if its full of shit... the bank owns it. Let someone else deal with the mess.

IIRC, on that scale, for me, between 5 and 7, with maybe one or two brief spikes to 8. Mostly 5 though. Just in the first day. After 24hrs... 1 or 2.

First day is most painful... after 24hrs, just make sure you get the drops in as prescribed on time and keep your eyes moisturized.

Don't know how long this'll be up. http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2011/10/16/2494174/dan-wheldon-crash-video-indycar-las-vegas-2011 If you don't want to see the incident, don't click play. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcAZ7I_lk7M&feature=player_embedded

Early 15-car crash at Las Vegas, race has been red-flagged for the past almost 2 hours. Dan Wheldon did not survive. RIP Racer.

Nice bike, any chance you're gonna ride anything but twins in the future?

Really? A football player is equivalent to the CEO? The football player IS the worker being exploited for profit and gain, so their salaries are based on the money they bring in. I'm not condoning or saying that professional athletes should make those exorbitant salaries, but without them there would be no professional sports. It's 'profit sharing' in that sense, and their share is WELL above the median income -- and we still have pro sports teams, so it's obviously a successful business even paying those salaries. All those things you listed, the typical CEO (at least the ones you claim we're demonizing) has little to NO direct involvement in any of those things, and still reaps all the rewards. Yet without the line workers and the lowly graphic designers in the marketing department, etc., the CEO would have nothing to be CEO over, and the "little guys" aren't making CEO money. Most of them don't get huge profit sharing checks or bonuses. Perspective.

Methinks that 1% has a lot more clout (read: monetary influence) than the other 99% though. I just watched Limitless Friday night, I kind of see things working like that, except less NZT.

Point: Counterpoint: My response to the "Not the 99%" pic that gets posted once every 10 seconds Enlarge this image

This. I'm shocked how many n00bz ask this question when the answer is so obvious.

I don't do individual stocks... mutual funds are the way to do it. No load, with an expense ratio < 1%. Like Cleave said, your best bet is probably an index fund, but I don't own any of those because my brokerage house needs a $10k minimum to get in if it's not a 401k, and I'm diversified enough on my own. In fact, I had an Edward Jones consultant look over my picks to see if he could do any better... he recommended some of his own funds (which had heavy front loads), but admitted that my analysis and ratios for the ones I picked indicated good long term performance and there wasn't much he could do for my portfolio. Also, like Cleave kinda sorta pointed out, I believe the fact remains that over any given 20-year (or maybe it was 25 or 30, I dunno) period since inception, the WORST stock market performance was still at 9%. So pick any 20 years and that's the WORST you would've came out with in the NYSE. I have the research to back it up, it's just hard to find at the moment. Basically, if you read this: http://www.fundadvice.com/articles/buy-hold/the-ultimate-buy-and-hold-strategy.html, that's near what I'm doing with my personal stash. My 401k is a wholly different story/strategy.

Not much to handle... I'm "buy and hold" -- my outlook is 10+years with everything I bought. I didn't buy any I expected to flip in the short term. I just happen to log into my account everyday.

I agree, I'm only +2.6% now though with the big loser right now being my overseas fund at a -15.3%. Unless you want to remove my reinvestments and go on my out-of-pocket cost basis which makes me about +5.3% About 1/3 of my portfolio are at losses right now, but most of them are hovering around -1 to -2%, while my the other 2/3rds are winners hovering at an average of 6-7%, with the best at 23%.

I'm in need of some advice on traveling... Specifically, I've got a bunch of custom wires I've made, diagnostic boxes, a multimeter, and a laptop. Is the TSA going to hassle me having all this cabling/wiring + electrical test equipment + a laptop with me on a carry-on? Or am I better off just checking the stuff?

Texas? You sure the check has cleared?

I do know that the word of God won't save you from a bullet http://www.ohioriders.net/showthread.php?t=83354 So if I have to believe in something, I'll believe in Smith & Wesson. Or Ruger.