Croc

...you guys haven't heard of agricultural subsidies? Seriously, it doesn't matter "what" is being subsidized...just look at the ratios of Federal funding vs. federal taxes paid by state. CA has the lowest rate of return, and many more rural, "nowhere" states get far more back than they put in. Idaho and Mississippi are both relatively low-population and aren't economic powerhouses--Mississippi is in fact the poorest state.

Funding. Blame Schwarzenegger. You could also blame the US Government, as California only gets back about $0.45 for every $1 it pays in federal taxes. Yes, we subsidize places like Idaho and Mississippi. Exactly, and yes that sounds $h!ty up there. Good luck with that. Huh? This doesn't make any sense. SF is one of the most environmentally-progressive areas in the nation, along with the Pacific NW as a whole. I'd say Oregon is more of a greenie mecca, but the Bay Area is pretty enviro.

Aready have the IHF1000, and I chose it because of its ability to be hardwired into the vehicle's speaker system.

Hahahahaha I knew someone who got deported. Thought he was a local but I guess he wasn't legal.

I think urban cougars are crazy sexy...not like hot moms or anything, but women around 40-45 who are divorced, loaded, and just don't give a f@#k. That's hot.

Reposted from the ACNA forums (increasingly dead over there...): Have at it. I want to get this done.

Or they think you're wound too tightly, and want you to just let everything go for an evening and have some fun. I proudly try to peer pressure all of my friends into drinking with me because frankly they need it. Can't be serious all the time.

People who annoy me: people who are insecure / thin-skinned / looking for trouble. If you're decent, I'll be decent toward you, but I have no time for two-faced people, and I cannot stomach incompetence, either.

Unclear. I have a few friends from UCLA...just not on face-off games. Plus, I'd prefer a Persian Bruin over an overprocessed, Orange County Trojan any day of the week.

Wait, you got MARRIED?! Congrats.

Bingo. C'mon Bob, sometimes I think you put yourself in situations so you have an excuse to rant. Stop "testing" people and start enjoying life.

Heh, I'm tweeting now. I got on it the weekend I went to San Francisco last spring to help one of my good friends get elected to a position in a statewide organization. In doing so, I had to pretend to be a Republican to infiltrate the organization and position myself as a delegate. She ended up winning by a ridiculous margin, but no one knew that in advance, and there were indications it may have come down to who played dirty. But yes, I decided to start tweeting because I was flying over the cuckoo's nest that weekend.

Ugh, same. Not even 18 months away, either.

1922. Wow.

Antidisestablishmentarianism. Took less than a second.

Really? The Mary Poppins word took me no more than an instant because it's just...played out.

Normally I would issue a challenge to test such a claim, but in this tragic situation I hardly think it's appropriate to prove how one may or may not be a better/more capable/more qualified driver. Four people died horrifically, and the driver was highly-trained. Unless you're in that kind of a panic situation, I just think there are too many variables present to pass judgment here. Here we have had disagreements on how to shift this particular car into neutral between seasoned drivers staring at the same picture of the shiftgate, debates over whether or not the ES350 has neutral lock, questions over the differing operations of individual manufacturers' push-start ignition systems, best-practices on stopping/maneuvering an out-of-control vehicle under duress (shut off, or coast in neutral?)...and it isn't even entirely clear what this highly-trained CHiP did (other than use the brakes, resulting in shooting flames from the brakes) and did not do in an attempt to stop the car. Like most tragic accidents, there was no singular cause here, but rather a combination of many: unintuitive push-button ignition kill operations, flawed floor mat/accelerator design, unfamiliarity with the vehicle, a freeway without a concrete K-rail center divider that ended in a T intersection because it has not been extended to completion yet, cooked brakes, etc.

Nope. From D, N isn't straight up, it's diagonal up, to the right. Look at the rest of the shift gate: P corresponds to where the shift lever is, in that gate. R is the next gate. N is the smallest, easiest to pass over gate, and D is the giant gate, with up and down from there being manual up- and down-shifts. But of course it's confusing, because the N is right on top of the D, and right next to the + spot. Poor labeling.

I posted in a previous thread that on this particular highway, there is no concrete K-rail divider, but a traditional steel bar and wooden post guardrail and median drainage ditch. At the speeds they were going, that would have flipped them for sure.

Balthazar, what are you saying? That you don't believe that pollution and ozone holes are bad? That they aren't really a problem? Or are you saying that until someone definitively calculates to the last decimal place what exponent or multiplier our pollution has on the environment that you don't want to do anything about it? Because I don't understand you at all if you don't believe pollution is bad and causes health problems, but I am really confused if your logic is "yes I know it's bad but I don't think anything should be done about it until we know with 100% certainty the exact amount of harm we are causing the planet." Because I don't understand why it even matters what exact level of harm we are doing, if it's harm we should minimize it. But if you're disputing or are just "not convinced" that pollution is real and a problem, then we have even bigger issues to deal with here.

Sorry, my apologies for my part of the hijack; I only look at the last couple replies before adding mine 90% of the time.

22-year old is a "young motorist"? Australia has some, uh, very restrictive licensing rules?

The filter is pretty lame. Honestly, having the symbols makes it look like no one has the balls to actually say something. Television Without Pity (TWoP) actually has as one of its rules that if you are going to swear, do it proudly or you might get banned because the symbols are annoying. Seriously, this is a message board, and no one under the age of 13 is legally allowed to post here. The language isn't new for anyone, and no matter how well-written, message board posts aren't of a "journalistic" quality that blogs and other formats are. Hell, if we were trying to be "professional" we wouldn't have usernames, but use our real names. I think this site is becoming confused.

No, you misread me. We cannot do anything about certain natural disasters because we cannot control any part of them. We most certainly can control air quality. Global warming is the non-issue. The real issue is environmental stewardship. Don't pollute, because pollution causes cancer and asthma. That's what it boils down to. Of course, pollution also damages ecosystems, and ecosystems play a large roll in climate. Whether or not we agree on the degree of human causation vs. natural systems, it's irrelevant; we should be working toward minimizing our impact BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

What happened to the balloon boy thread? I was going to post an update in it, about how his parents dragged him onto news shows today while he was sick, and he vomited on camera twice. But I can't find the thread, and search didn't turn up anything.