a2jeff wrote:
Hi guys, very slow on the draw but yes I'm alive though sleep deprived!  We have a 4 month old daughter that has cast a charm spell on us at present...failed the save miserably but am enjoying every minute.

Hey Jeff!  Congrats!  Thought there must have been a very good excuse...

Do you have squirrel, rabbit, or other pesky yard rodent problems?  Here is your solution:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/42916587.html

And a nifty video to go along with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXsieVOTbm0

You just know a redneck invented this thing.  

Kingofpain89 wrote:More politically correct asinine BS.  This time from an Ivy League university.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/151 ... 09.article

What's next?  Cancel Thanksgiving?  Asshats.  

Saw this on O'Reilly last night. I have this unshakable feeling that I am reliving the last days of Rome. Somebody is warming up the fiddle...

Every freaking day brings more lunacy than the day before...

Mike,

Living it almost daily. My wife is an elementary school teacher and her building has k-5 plus with 3-4 rooms per level. My wife and two other teachers are the only Conservatives in the entire school. And we live in a very republican area (Oakland County, Michigan). The stuff she hears in the teacher lounge is often times scarey. Yet, very little if any trickles down at the student level due to the age range.

However, my oldest daughter is in middle school and it is liberal-city. They watch CNN and whenever a kid writes anything remotely critical of a democrat of President Obama, the social studies teacher has some sort of remark...I can't wait for conferences...

I don't care if a teacher is liberal. That is none of my business. But they do need to keep their politics to themselves and actually teach.

SoulCatcher78 wrote:Is there any other way of dealing with a non paying bidder other than Ebay's long and drawn out proces?  I want to make sure that I cover myself to avoid possible headaches from negative feedback.

Here's the situation, I ask that payment be made within 72 hours of the auction close (I feel that this is reasonable given that you're bidding on something that you intend to purchase) I'm now going on the second week (well 9th day to be fair) and have filed a case thingie with ebay to recover the insertion fees.  I contacted the buyer with an invoice for each item and a combined invoice (correction for lowered shipping), waited 72 hours and change and sent a second invoice (things do get deleted on accident so to cover the bases, I thought I'd be safe).  A final message was sent with the case filing (I just want to know if they intend on purchasing the items or if I can relist).  If I read the information correctly, I can't relist the item until the 19th (7 days from filing).

As far as feedback goes you are pretty much screwed. A buyer can leave you negative even if they don't pay for an item. I'm not sure about the relisting. You can always do a sell similar item at any time. I thought you could relist it at any time as well even for a completed auction.

bbarsh wrote:Mike,

Living it almost daily. My wife is an elementary school teacher and her building has k-5 plus with 3-4 rooms per level. My wife and two other teachers are the only Conservatives in the entire school. And we live in a very republican area (Oakland County, Michigan). The stuff she hears in the teacher lounge is often times scarey. Yet, very little if any trickles down at the student level due to the age range.

However, my oldest daughter is in middle school and it is liberal-city. They watch CNN and whenever a kid writes anything remotely critical of a democrat of President Obama, the social studies teacher has some sort of remark...I can't wait for conferences...

I don't care if a teacher is liberal. That is none of my business. But they do need to keep their politics to themselves and actually teach.

I'm sure most of my teachers were pretty left wing growing up. Heck, I remember my middle school teachers having a big celebration in the break room when Carter was elected in 1976.  My government teacher when I was a senior in high school was pretty close to a communist (she never denied it when we called her on it, and it led to some pretty lively class discussions). The difference seems to be that I never felt preached to or indoctrinated back then.  if the teachers did have liberal, conservative, anarchist or libertarian politics we never knew it.  It never filtered down into the way they taught, at least I don't think it did, because I don't remember it ever happening. Maybe I'm wrong though, but I just don't feel there is that seperation anymore in the classroom.  

As for demonizing any one group I agree sometimes stereotypes get out of hand. But cmon, east coast liberal colleges and their wacky excesses have been documented for years (as well as the right wing religious colleges that exclude bi-racial dating or Halloween).  I don't think anyone is going out on a limb by saying Yale and Harvard are not hotbeds of convervative right wing voters....

Mike B.

King,

Nice job. Saved me from an equally long post!

Kingofpain89 wrote:If you broke down every single holiday and dug down deep into the people and events the holiday was created to celebrate, you would find a lot of bad shit.  Try to tell armed forces veterans that we dont want to celebrate Veterans Day or Memorial Day because some anti-war activist decides that he doesnt like it because of his definition of what is being celebrated.  I can assure you that there will be one less anti-war activist in the world very soon.

Your argument against Veteran's Day or Memorial Day makes more sense that Brown's arguments against Columbus Day.  I guess that's next.

I agree with Badmike that many of these decisions come from people who likely haven't traveled within slums or hoods, haven't worried about paying their bills, and/or haven't faced a huge crisis in their life.  Eliminating inconsistencies and evil has little to do with symbolism and rhetoric and everything to do with going to the poor and involving yourself in their world.  I am all for helping to make the world a better place, but changing the name of a holiday is a waste of time and energy.

Then again, us railing against their idiocy isn't really helping a whole lot either.  But it's still fun!  

Kingofpain89 wrote:
I doubt very many people "celebrate" Columbus Day.  However it is a recognized holiday by the United States and other American countries.  The whole point of Columbus day is to recognize the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.  That's pretty much it.  So why do some people have to make something out of nothing?  Sure Columbus and his crew killed and raped natives.  So did pretty much every explorer that discovered some part of the world during that period in time.  Shit happens....get over it already.  Do these college students not have anything better to do?

If you broke down every single holiday and dug down deep into the people and events the holiday was created to celebrate, you would find a lot of bad shit.  Try to tell armed forces veterans that we dont want to celebrate Veterans Day or Memorial Day because some anti-war activist decides that he doesnt like it because of his definition of what is being celebrated.  I can assure you that there will be one less anti-war activist in the world very soon.

Maybe it is an east coast holiday because Columbus Day is pretty big in New York City, most of NJ, Philadelphia and Wilmington where there are Italian communities. The food is absolutely incredible which is the best way to celebrate any holiday. I don't care if Columbus and his crew fought againsts natives who had little more to threaten them with than sharpened pieces of guava, this is one truly delicious celebration.