NickolasJames8

On July 31st, the forums over at CRVboy will close due to a lack of interest.... (yawn). Okay, just kidding. Not about the forums closing, but about the yawn. To be honest, I'm not very surprised. The Simple Machines forum is very boring, and there was no encouragement from the site administration to post over there. I guess it's kinda sad because it didn't have to be that way, but like they say, water under the bridge....... I think the next thing to go will be the entire site. There are a few good authors who post there, but the guidelines for posting work there are incredibly restrictive. I tried to submit all of my work to the owner, and he acted like I was trying to crowd out the authors who didn't have as much completed work as I had. That was back in 2006, so God only knows what would happen if I tried to send in all of my work today. I also feel like the design on the front page is horrible. Whoever is responsible for the design of that page should go get themselves checked for color blindness. I guess if I had to use one word to sum up CRVboy, it would be stale. It's a site that at one time had something fresh and exciting to offer, but the staff has aged with the site, and it really shows. So what's the point of this post? Just to say that I'm very grateful to be here at GA, the greatest community on the internet. Our forums don't get old because the administrators encourage open thinking and lively discussion. Is everything here perfect? Maybe not, but it's as close to perfect as it can possibly be. I think that the lesson we can take from the closing of the CRVboy forums is that a community is only as active as its members are. We do great things here on GA, and no other site on the internet can match what we have. It won't be long before the next forum closure comes. I predict it'll be less than six months from now, and I have a really good idea what forum it's going to be. When you have a forum that doesn't attract new users, and doesn't welcome new members to participate, things eventually go downhill. People get distracted, or life pulls them away for good sometimes. When I first came to GA almost three years ago, the membership was completely different than it is today. In fact, there are only a few regulars from 2005 that are still regulars today, but this community is bigger and more prosperous than it's ever been. Other site administrators can take a lesson from GA, but most of them probably won't. If they were going to, they probably already would have, and there would be more places like GA on the internet.

I agree that they have a total right to try and get him booted, but I think it's foolish because they expend their energy in the wrong places. Instead of an organization that spends its time listening to radical right wing talk show hosts and watching the news, desperate for any soundbite they can get their hands on to start a protest, the left needs an organization that spends its time putting together logical arguments that can be presented to the public through various media outlets. If you notice, the right wing doesn't waste their time trying to get people thrown off the air. They spend their time talking to the public and making their case, no matter how flawed it is. That's why they have the top three listened to talk shows on the radio, and that's why people look at Media Matters and roll their eyes.

It rules!!!

Happy Birthday Greenmann!!!!!

Happy Birthday

Happy BirthdayJovian !!!!!!

Happy Birthday CoLeYy!!!!!!

wtf? http://youtube.com/watch?v=v3tUxajUVEQ

If you can stomach it, go on youtube and listen to one of his crazy rants. I almost think that maybe he has tourettes syndrome

If you want him off the air, try to get as many people as possible to stop listening to him. That's the most effective way to get rid of him. If his ratings drop, who would want to sponsor his show? As far as Hillary Clinton goes, she's at least as radical as Michael Savage, just to the other (but equally disturbing) extreme.

That's right, I said it. We need Michael Savage on the air. We also need Rush Limbaugh, Shawn Hannity and Neal Boortz. So right now there's this ridiculous push to get Michael Savage taken off the air. Why? Because he has an opinion that some people disagree with. He said that 99% of autistic kids were misdiagnosed and that they're brats who need their parents to tell them to cut the act. I don't know what makes someone autistic. I don't know if it's a chemical imbalance, or a disease treated with medication, or if it's just a certain type of personality trait. I won't call it a disorder because I can't say that I know enough about it to place that strong of a label on it, whatever it is. Apparently, though, Michael Savage is a doctor and can place a label on it. Is it the correct lable? I can't say. But what I can say is this....he has a right to speak his mind, and if he loses sponsors (like AFLAC) and listeners along the way, then so be it. But the push by Media Matters, a left wing hate group founded by the radical Hillary Clinton, to try and pressure stations to drop his show is ridiculous. Just let the free market do its job. The day Tim Russert died, Shawn Hannity choked up on the air. Rush Limbaugh gave a small but touching tribute to him the following Monday, and Neal Boortz did the same. Michael Savage, who came on the air about 3 and a half hours after Russert died, used the occasion to drag his name through the mud, then to stomp on it, spit on it and urinate on what was left. Tammy Bruce did the same thing on her radio show. According to Michael Savage, every member of congress, the president and all of his cabinet and staff are drug addicted homosexuals who should be arrested and put away without so much as a trial. So should anyone who listens to hip hop, who drives a hybrid, men who get manicures and women who have babies out of wedlock. If your name is Rush Limbaugh, you should be executed for sedition. If you're Shawn Hannity, you should be shipped off to the middle east and turned over to the Iranian president, who should be executed too, by the way. What are Limbaugh and Hannity's crimes, according to Savage? They're numbers one and two on the talk show ratings list, and he's barely hanging on to number three. Bill O'Reilly, according to Savage, is a sex crazed leprechaun who's into devil worship. And yet, through all of his craziness, we should let him stay on the air because it's good for us. We need him to get on the radio and remind America of who we don't want getting into power. Because believe it or not, there are a lot of politicians who think like he does. Just look at Robert Byrd and David Duke, both members of the Ku Klux Klan, one a democrat and the other a republican. Michael Savage, just like Byrd and Duke, puts the fun in dysfunctional, and eventually, he'll make that one final statement that pushes his listeners over the edge. When he does, his ratings will drop, more sponsors will leave him, and his show will be canceled. Not because there was pressure from some kook fringe group like Media Matters, but because the market place didn't have a spot for him anymore.

Happy Birthday James !!!!

Our cat ran away 4 years ago when we brought our pit bull home. He was just a puppy and didn't understand why she didn't want to play, and she finally got sick of his crap and moved across the street to the house where we originally got her from where her parents lived until they were both hit by a car.

My phobia is rodents....rats, mice and bats, to be specific. I'm not scared of dogs at all, and spiders don't make me squeamish anymore (they used to freak me out). One of our neighbors is afraid of cats for some reason.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!

You can always vote for a third party candidate or a write in......at least then you can say you voted your principles

Happy Birthday Anthony !!!!!

Damn I'm late....Happy Birthday Jamie!!!!

Ok, so I'm sick and tired of hearing people talk about whether or not Barack Obama is a Muslim or not, so let me break this down for you all. For the last 5 months, all we've heard about is the Reverend Wright controversy, followed by the Father Pfleger fiasco. Now, considering that he's had pastor/priest issues and not Imam issues, how in the world could any logical human being come to the conclusion that Barack Obama is anything but a Christian? Obviously he was attending Christian services for years and years, which was the main criticism he endured during the whole Reverend Wright situation. I guess I'm missing something

I voted no earlier this morning, and I was trying to think of a constructive way to describe the reason I feel that way, but it's no use, so here goes I think that labeling someone as culpable for another's actions is a cop out. Now, as stated above, there are some rare exceptions, like the severely mentally handicapped and mentally ill, but even then, depending on the circumstance, it's still a cop out. Here are a couple of scenarios to illustrate my point: Husband is beating his wife and screaming at her, "Do you like making me do this?" He's automatically trying to make his wife the culpable party in his own sick way. But even worse, his 14 year old son is watching. 5 years later, he gets married and does the same thing. He and his wife are in counseling, and it comes out that he witnessed his dad beating his mom when he was growing up, and all of the sudden (in a lot of cases, not all), his actions are forgiven because it's not his fault. His dad is to blame because (according to counselor and the son) because of the example he set. While the father may have set a poor example as a father and husband, in the end, the son could have chosen a different path for himself and his wife. He made a deliberate choice to beat his wife, even though he knew the pain it caused his mother when she was going through it. I'm driving along the interstate, about to cross over the Chesapeake Bay on a long, two lane stretch. There's a driving lane and a passing lane, and I want to pass because the car in the driving lane is going 55 miles an hour. I start to go around but suddenly realize that I can't pass because there's a homophobic redneck in an SUV hauling a horse trailer with a marriage = a man and a women bumper sticker in the passing lane sitting side by side with the car in the driving lane, and there's no one in front of him. He's also going 55 miles an hour, and he won't speed up or slow down and get over. When I finally have an opening to go around him, he speeds up deliberately to prevent me from passing him, then he flips me off. After a minute or two of this, my blood starts to boil and I want to make sure that this jerk never drives like that again. Eventually, I get around him, but I'm pissed off past the point of no return, so I swerve violently in front of him so that he's right on my bumper, then I slam my brakes on. He has to swerve to miss me and he crashes through the guard rail and into the choppy water. Eventually, the state troopers catch up to me and I explain to them that he was provoking me on the interstate by refusing to allow me to pass. Obviously, they look at me like I'm crazy before they draw their guns and holler at me to lay on my stomach. Is the homophobic redneck somehow culpable for what I did? I think it can be said that he was a jerk, but ultimately, I would have committed a crime on my own, no matter how directly related my road rage was to his actions. Full responsibility lyes (lays?) on my shoulders, and it's now my responsibility to own up. I know that those are only two possible examples, but that was the line of reasoning behind my vote.

John McCain, the Red state flip flopper Having long been a member of his party's more moderate wing on a number of issues, Mr McCain began adopting more right-wing positions during the primary campaign. Immigration Last year, Mr McCain was one of the key backers of President Bush's plan for "comprehensive immigration reform", which would have created "paths to citizenship" for illegal immigrants, while investing more money in border security. The plan was very unpopular with the Republican rank-and-file, and Senate Republicans succeeded in blocking the scheme. During the primaries, Mr McCain announced that his immigration focus would be on securing America's borders, rather than on giving illegal immigrants the chance to become US citizens. "I understand why you would call it a, quote, shift," McCain told reporters in November 2007. "I say it is a lesson learned about what the American people's priorities are. And their priority is to secure the borders." Christian right Another McCain, quote, shift was in his relationship with the religious right of his party. During his 2000 bid for the Republican nomination, relations between Mr McCain and Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell were notoriously fractious. The Arizona senator memorably described Mr Falwell and fellow members of the religious right as "agents of intolerance". But in 2006, ahead of his second presidential run, Mr McCain delivered the commencement address at Mr Falwell's Liberty University, after which he attended a small private party hosted by his former political adversary. Interrogation rules More recently, Mr McCain angered his former allies in the political centre by supporting a bill exempting the CIA from following the same rules on interrogation as the US Army. Guantanamo Mr McCain was one of the most prominent Republican voices opposed to the Bush administration's detention policy in Guantanamo Bay. But when the Supreme Court recently ruled that Guantanamo detainees should have access to US courts, Mr McCain described it as "one of the worst decisions in the history of the country". Oil drilling Since sewing up the Republican nomination in March, Mr McCain - one of only a few prominent Republicans to accept the argument that human activity is causing climate change - has dropped his previous objection to lifting the ban on oil exploration off the coast of the US. Barack Obama, the Blue state flip flopper Since clinching the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama has also been making headlines for his policy shifts. Campaign finance Last month he announced that he would be rejecting public financing for his campaign, and would instead rely on private donations. The McCain camp accused Mr Obama of "going back on his word", although Mr Obama insisted that he had never made a promise to stay in the public finance system. Surveillance programme Mr Obama also raised eyebrows when he announced that he would not be opposing a bill going through Congress giving immunity to telephone companies involved in the Bush administration's controversial warrantless wiretap programme. His decision angered many of his supporters on the left, who accused him of going back on his 2007 pledge "to support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies". Gun control When the Supreme Court decided to overturn Washington DC's handgun ban, Mr Obama declared that the ruling "provide[d] much-needed guidance", despite having previously argued (in a written answer that he says was drafted by an aide and which he had not approved) that the ban was constitutional. Iraq Withdrawing troops from Iraq has long been one of the central planks of Mr Obama's campaign, and was something that set him apart from other Democratic candidates running for the party's presidential nomination. Since his campaign began, however, conditions in Iraq have changed, violence has reduced, and some commentators have suggested that Mr Obama's position is out of date. Mr Obama himself has announced that he plans to visit Iraq, where he will make "a thorough assessment" which could lead him to "refine" his policy. Some critics have seized on this as an indication that Mr Obama is laying the groundwork for a change in position. Free trade Mr Obama recently hinted to Fortune magazine that his strong anti-free trade rhetoric during the primaries may not be reflected in his actual trade policy should he become president. His remarks are a neat summation of the pressures and temptations that lead politicians to shift their positions during the process of running for office. "Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified," he said. "Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself."

Well personally speaking, I can say that I only have two tickets and one at fault accident. My only other wreck was in a parking lot, so yeah, I'd have to say that gays have a much better driving record than straights

So yesterday was interesting. As most of you know, I work for a golf course not too far from my house working on golf carts. I repair the ones that are down and I maintain the rest of them. Part of my job is keeping the shop in order. I organize and hang belts, hoses, and tools. I also order replacement parts and keep track of inventory. Well, until March I was the only one doing the job, but since I've been getting more and more yard maintenance work, I've really cut back at the golf course, so they hired someone else. Now, when I say someone else, I don't mean someone who's competent. This idiot, and that's being kind, gets absolutely nothing done when he's at work. One of his jobs is to move the chemical drums from one raised platform to another as needed, something I'm not supposed to be doing because I'm not 18 Well, half the time, I wind up having to do it anyway because that lazy bum didn't do it on his shift. To make matters worse, when a new shipment of belts or hoses comes in, he either doesn't hang them at all, or even worse, he hangs them out of order even though there's a clear method for how it's supposed to be done. So then what happens? I have to go back and clean up his mess when I'm on. So yesterday we were scheduled to overlap each other for an hour, and when I got there, nothing was done. There was an empty chemical drum, there were carts sitting in the shop that needed to be routined (that's what we call a regular tune up/inspection) and there were f**king shop rags almost everywhere I looked. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the fact that he goes through about three times as many shop rags as I do, and never puts them in the Aramark bin when he's done with them. And where was he? In the office, sitting at the PC, which wasn't even on, pretending to be working on something important. Of course, the AC was cranked and he was relaxing in the cool air, and in the meanwhile, the shop was hot and in a disaster state. So I went into the office and told him nicely that the drum was empty, and asked him to change it while I took care of the carts. He tells me to move the drum, that he doesn't feel like it. I told him that I wasn't supposed to be moving the chemical drums around, and he told me that he wasn't supposed to be doing it either. Right at that moment, I felt a flash of heat run over my whole body and I felt like I wanted to kill him, but instead, I just turned and went to our boss. I told him what Herb (the jerk) said, so my boss walked with me back to the shop. Of course, Herb got up and did what he was supposed to do right away, but as soon as our boss was gone, he walked up and told me off. I was already pissed, and he was trying my nerves as it was. But at some point, he poked my chest with his finger, and it just set me off. I never put a hand on him, but I went off and told him exactly what he was: a fat, disgusting, lazy f**K who probably can't even pay for pussy, then I used my thumb and my forefinger to show him him how small I guessed his dick was before I stormed off. Of course, he ran back to my boss, and I was sent home. I don't live far at all from work, so it didn't take me long to get home. About ten minutes later, my boss calls and asks if I'd like a chance to get my job back. I said yes and he said to come talk to him, so I went back. The three of us wound up sitting down in his office for what I thought was going to be a civil discussion, but it turned into a forum for Herb to go off on me. He actually tried to stand over me while I was sitting and tell me what line I was going to tow. I got right back up in his face, and I swear I was about to spit on the son of a bitch but instead I just walked out and went back home. So at that point, I'm figuring that my job is gone for sure, so I decided that I just wanted to lay down. About 20 minutes later, my cell phone rings and it's my boss's boss, the guy who originally hired me, and he asks if I have time to meet him for lunch. So we meet and he lets me tell him what's been going on since March, and when I was finished, he promised me that I wouldn't have to put up with that kind of crap anymore and that I wasn't terminated, which was incredibly cool considering the fact that I've cut my schedule back so much. I actually wound up working an extra hour yesterday, and I was so amped up from what happened that when I got home, I sat down at my desk and pounded out a chapter and a half of If By Chance. I guess in a way I should feel sorry for Herb. I mean, he's a total slob. He has a belly that looks kinda like bread dough in his shirt, he slouches, and he's got a remarkably wide ass. I say that because it's not proportional to the rest of his body. Also, he rides his bike to work, but he doesn't lose any weight because he only rides the damn thing fast enough not to fall over. Literally, if he rode any slower, he'd fall. It's pathetic. Add to that the fact that he smokes, his teeth are gross and it doesn't look like he washed his knees or elbows, and I'm sure you can get the picture. So yeah......

Happy Birthday, Scoopny!!!

Not making light of the situation, but wouldn't a boycott be what they're after? Maybe we should all descend on the state, bring tents and pack our own food so that we're there, but we aren't making any kind of contribution to their tourism dollars