You overlooked probably the most compelling way to avoid unnecessary spending at any time — simply by being one of the poors. It's painful, but effective.

And I'll take this opportunity to remember someone who died that day on the beach at Anzio. Of course I never knew the man, but some 54 years later I distinctly remember the pained look on his sister's soft face with her watery eyes and drooping eyelids framed by the habit of an Ursuline nun as she told us 8th…

Which clearly would have been a preferable way to go out, rather than what the Nazis did to him and his compatriots.

This and (to a much lesser, but still annoying degree) the intentionally misanthropic misuse of the adjectival form of the word "Democrat".

This reminds me of when I played college ball and the other co-captain's father was in the stands for the last game of our senior year. He had a heart attack and was on his way to the hospital within minutes. He died at age 51. Years later his son, now a husband and father died of a heart attack at age 51. RIP, Mike.

Well said, sir.

You may want to support this fellow:

That would only work if they weren't allowed to go to work for companies that do business with the government for another ten years. And what are the odds of that happening?

Respectfully, this is misguided thinking and part of the underlying problem, whatever your political preference may be. We have become a plutocracy and until people start to begin the conversation with this understanding, talking about parties, whether 2, 1.5, or some other fraction, we aren't going to get anywhere.…

In addition to having the most to lose, you have also identified the least-likely-to-even-vote segment of the population.

Except the person right in front of me who is driving below. . . the. . . speed. . . limit.

Wait. Your comment about the military's budget got me thinking. Maybe those 16,000 elephants are fully trained and ready-to-go at a moments notice. Stationed off-shore. Everything being taken care of by Eric Prince. Hah, that explains his new interest in Africa.

"But I'm being way too optimistic."

My thought exactly. Maybe they use it in, like, Afghanistan, with, oh, camels pulling it? No. Then it would be that digital shit. So in the jungle? With elephants pulling it?

That would be more likely. Warehouses are generally measured in cubic feet of space. I once had to find the cubic footage of Madison Square Garden for an appraisal. I remember that I kept falling asleep. Boooring! On a hand-held calculator no less.

It's 3am here (Asheville, NC) and I need to stop internetting.

Got it. But it wasn't that way before the (fairly) recent re-jiggering of the site where I wasn't grayed.

Thanks, guy. This is the most supercilious shit and it drives me nuts. Actually it brings out the anarchist in me. LOL But a hacker I'm not. Way too old for that.

orcim ~ OT, but do me a favor. No one is reading this thread at this point but the two of us. I just went to your "page" and "followed" you to see what would happen. It looks like it took *me* (partially) out of "the gray". Do the same for me, if you would, please. I want to see what that does. Thanks.

In the vernacular, its current twisted meaning has debased the genuine article beyond recognition. It is the era of intellectual thugishness. Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. is rolling over in his grave at the likes of opportunists like Cruz.