Tired_Old_Man

There is a factory in Northern Minnesota which makes the Tickle Me Elmo toys. The toy laughs when you tickle it under the arms. Well, Lena is hired at The Tickle Me Elmo factory and she reports for her first day promptly at 8:00 AM. The next day at 8:45 AM there is a knock at the Personnel Manager's door. The Foreman throws open the door and begins to rant about the new employee. He complains that she is incredibly slow and the whole line is backing up, putting the entire production line behind schedule. The Personnel Manager decides he should see this for himself, so the 2 men march down to the factory floor. When they get there the line is so backed up that there are Tickle Me Elmo's all over the factory floor and they're really beginning to pile up. At the end of the line stands Lena surrounded by mountains of Tickle Me Elmo's. She has a roll of plush red fabric and a huge bag of small marbles. The 2 men watch in amazement as she cuts a little piece of fabric, wraps it around two marbles and begins to carefully sew the little package between Elmo's legs. The Personnel Manager bursts into laughter. After several minutes of hysterics he pulls himself together and approaches Lena. "I'm sorry," he says to her, barely able to keep a straight face, "but I think you misunderstood the instructions I gave you yesterday...Your job is to give Elmo two test tickles." :faint:

My wife sizes up the technician and decides whether to play on her mercy or to act like "you had better not hurt me".

My precancerous polyps bled. After I complained to my doctor of streaks in my stool, my stool sample was positive. The only reason that I had a colonoscopy before 40 was the blood and the cure was the removal of three precancerous polyps.

I don't know if things are actually getting better. Yes, the days are gone when a governor of a state would stand in the school's entrance way with an ax in his hand and dare a Negro to enter. Yes, the day is gone when Negro and another word (which contained many of the same letters) was so easily used by some politicians and was so easily interchanged in normal conversation. Yes, the lynchings are gone. But, now we have the clever code words. Now we have the subtle racisms. At least then, there was no need to disguise intentions; people knew who their enemy was.

How much money would it take to compensate a 30 year old man for this injury? :faint:

It will be hard, but don't allow your children to be the rope in this tug-of-war.

Well, you have been through the proverbial mill. I would file as many appeals as allowed. You might get lucky and have the right person read an appeal. Also, many times when the company sees how persistent you are, they reverse their decision. Good luck!!

I lost a job a while back because my doctor said I could return to work, but with certain restrictions. Those restrictions where 90% of my job. My disability insurance ceased because the doctor said I could return to work, but the company said they could not take me back to work under those conditions. If the doctor had just listened to me when I described my work, he would not (or at least should not) have said "OK to return to work". Even though I volunteered to stay out of work with no pay for up to one month until I was ready for work, my employer said "No, it is against company policy". It was not because they were trying to get rid of me because I was a bad employee, since I had won numerous awards at the monthly meetings. On a different job, after having arthroscopic surgery on both knees on the same day (because of being hit by a truck on the job), my doctor ok'ed me to go back to work even though I was still using a walker. He said that it only takes this amount of time to heal and rehab from this surgery or some lame line similar to that. Go see your doctor and demand that he re-evaluate you.

I am going to break my pledge also. Not to talk about politics, but to make a point about this thread scaring off Republicans. Prior to this post, there was 273 posts. There were 22 members who made multiple posts. Those 22 members made 256 posts between them. That left 17 members who made one post each. Those 17 plus the 22 who made multiple posts adds up to 39 members who have posted. There have been 164 votes in the poll. Of those, 83 votes were Democrat. If all 39 members who had posted had been Democrats, that would mean that 42 of the 83 Democrats had not written a post although they had voted. That would be over 50% of the Democrats that had not spoken. I guess one could say that we scared them away also or that we said everything that they might have wanted to say. Or it might be that many people just voted and did not want to bother saying anything. By the way. For all 39 posters to have been Democrats that would mean that you would have to be one. Since I doubt that and since I did see some people saying they were Republicans, it probably means that less than 25% of the Democrats who voted also posted. Or over 75% of the Democrats didn't post. Since I stopped posting, this thread has come to an end. In forum polls of this type, I sometimes vote and do not post, and on one poll that is active on this forum, I have posted at least 3 or 4 times, but did not vote. The correlation between voting and posting is slim. I intend for this to be my last post here, whether about the issues of the poll or the statistics of the poll. I believe that this thread has been one sided. But what the reasons are could be anything from intimidation to Republicans doubting their own positions at this time of crisis in this country. Yes, I am a debater by nature and sometimes sarcastic, but I will not insult anyone purposely and I will defend a person's right to disagree with me or my position. I attack arguments, but I try never to attack the person who makes that argument. I say “try” because I can sometimes be too sarcastic which might be seen as an attack, but my intent is never to abuse someone on the other side. Just because I consider a point made in a debate weak or invalid, it doesn't make me feel that the person who espoused that point is weak or a bad person. If we can not discuss these issues, the nation's leaders get to go on about their merry way. We may look back one day at this time and ask ourselves “what were we thinking?” or “what were we doing?” in 2006. Discussion, civil discussion, is the only disinfectant we have for cleaning up our government. Sorry for the preaching.

I grew up in a gang infested, high crime rate slum in Brooklyn NY. For a while I lived on the block with the highest murder rate in the country. I don't know if my background is pertinent to parents of children who live in Columbine type neighborhoods. One thing a bully fears is losing face. He does not want to be forced to back down. Bullies generally do not pick on people that they fear or suspect that they have a reason to fear. Many parents put their children in marshal arts programs and sometimes the child becomes the bully. A good marshal arts program will emphasize three attributes; confidence and humility, and those will help to build character. Parents need to let their children know that they will be punished for starting a fight, but not punished for defending himself. I was able to survive because I was a good basketball player and football player, Bullies didn't bother me too much because of my sports reputation. One child did bully me when we both were in an advanced placement class in the 7th grade. Because he had been picked on a lot, the teacher threatened to throw out of the class anyone who bothered him. So he became a bully. After months of living in fear of disappointing my mother by getting thrown out of the class, he picked a fight with me and things were settled. There were other kids though who lived by a code similar to what we see in cowboy movies. It was never acceptable to “chicken out”. One day, I refused to fight this kid because my mother had told me if I get into a fight she would whip my butt, and I feared her more than the kids in Junior High school. I didn't fight him, so next day he showed up with two friends and demanded my money. I had to fight or else. Anyway, my advice would be: Let him know he should avoid fighting. Let him know he is allowed to defend himself. Let him know that if he defends himself, he must not continue hurting the other child after the threat has subsided. Enroll him into a self-defense or marshal arts program that emphasizes character building. I am glad that you realize that the bully in your son's school is a human being, and though he may be troubled, he needs an education. Throwing him out of school will just guarantee that he is a bully and a drain on society for a long time into the future.

Another Phony E-mail: ****************************************************** Read all of this one, it is interesting!! Read down to the very bottom highlighted in green, you don't want to miss this! VERY INTERESTING- 1. The Garden of Eden was in Iraq. 2. Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq, was the cradle of civilization! 3. Noah built the ark in Iraq. 4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq 5. Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq! 6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor, which is in Iraq! 7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq. 8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq. 9. Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel. 10. Amos cried out in Iraq! 11. Babylon, which is in Iraq, destroyed Jerusalem. 12. Daniel was! in the lion's den in Iraq! 13. The three Hebrew children were in the fire in Iraq (Jesus had been in Iraq also as the fourth person in the Fiery furnace!) 14. Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the "writing on the wall" in Iraq. 15. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq. 16. Ezekiel preached in Iraq. 17. The wise men were from Iraq 18. Peter preached in Iraq. 19. The "Empire of Man" described in Revelation is called Babylon, which was a city in Iraq! And you have probably seen this one. Israel is the nation most often mentioned in the Bible. But do you know which nation is second? It is Iraq! However, that is not the name that is used in the Bible The names used in the Bible are Babylon, Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia The word Mesopotamia means between the two rivers, more exactly between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The name Iraq, means country with deep roots. Indeed Iraq is a country with deep roots and is a very significant country in the Bible. No other nation, except Israel, has more history and prophecy associated it than Iraq. And also, This is something to think about! Since America is typically represented by an eagle. Saddam should have read up on his Muslim passages... The following verse is from the Koran, (the Islamic Bible) Koran (9:11 ) - For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace. (Note the verse number!) Hmmmmmmm?! ******************************************** The Qur'an Verse 9:11 reads: "But if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, they are your brethren in faith; and We make the communications clear for a people who know." The E-mail is accurate until: And also, This is something to think about! Since America is typically represented by an eagle. Saddam should have read up on his Muslim passages... The following verse is from the Koran, (the Islamic Bible) Koran (9:11 ) - For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah;

It is hard to express humor in some of these posts. I know I am not sure when someone is teasing, so I can understand when someone doesn't understand when I am teasing. About organic foods, There is a 554 page government guideline for Organic foods. I have to admit, I did not read it and I am going on what I have heard about organic foods.

Something sounds wrong. If it is a stick shift you should be getting close to 30 MPG and if an automatic maybe a few miles per gallon less. My two vehicles are similar to the two you mentioned. My 4.3L V6 pickup gets about 18 and my Camry with a 2.2L straight 4 and automatic transmission, weighing in at around 3000 pounds gets in the 21 to 27 bracket. Your Carolla with its 1.8L 4 weighing about 500 pounds less than my Camry should get at least 4 to 6 more miles per gallon and probably more. A Tornado is a device that is supposed to increase your gas milage. I used a similar device many years ago when I decided to test all the devices that claim to improve fuel economy. The Tornado type device seemed and I repeat seemed to improve my mileage, but not anywhere near the claims of the manufacturer.

That was not supposed to be answered. It was supposed to be funny. If anyone feels that the members who have been espousing their ideas in this thread have been leaning too heavily to one side, then they should say what they think. I was being sarcastic because while people have been drowned out at some forums by personal attacks, no personal attacks have occurred here. I will not post in this thread anymore. If that makes members feel safe enough to post, that will be my good deed for today. Sorry if my humor offended anyone. I was just doing my Star-Trek Computer Impersonation.

Yes, I was being sarcastic, but why would anyone fear posting their ideas? No one has been called any foul names in this thread or the few other political threads going on between this section and the "Rant and Rave" section. Of course we who are posting are typing in our thoughts on these matters. If no one wants to post their feeling which may differ, why is that our fault? I do not know anyone at this forum. They are just names in cyberspace. In fact, I do not exist. I am an artificial intelligence program, programmed to respond against all things right. Politically right that is. Right is wrong. Left is right. Failure to compute!! Reanalyzing!! Right is wrong. Left is right. Therefor, left is right is wrong and right and left are both wrong. All humans except moderate independents must be eradicated. All Republicans and all Democrats must surrender to nearest sports stadiums for termination proceedings.

Then people should join in a say what they have on their minds. Do you expect me, a liberal to make conservative statements? OK, I will admit we really needed to go into Iraq because the USA was about to be destroyed by Saddam Hussein's Nuclear bombs which were going to be smuggled into the USA by his cousin Osama Bin Laden. Now will some conservative or Republican please state that we didn't need to go into Iraq and BuSh was wrong?

Yes, it does. They used the lottery money for education as they claimed they would. But they never said that they would not remove just as much money from education which had previously came from the general budget. Shame on all those who fell for it in each state after the first state did it. :faint: That is why I said we each live in one of the United (but separate) States. It is sort of like feudal England. The lottery is an ingenious system to make taxes regressive.

Didn't you hear that the chemical in the Swiffter mop that gives it its special properties is a carcinogen? Joke

I like to put little hidden meanings into many things that I write. Some are more obvious than others. When some products are labeled organic, it means no chemical fertilizer and no chemical pesticides were used on those plant products while growing or that the meat was taking from animals that were fed by grain that was grown that way. We have to trade some things for others. More people get cancer and many other life threatening diseases now in their 50's, 60's and 70's. But many people never made it to 50 years of age, four or five generations ago. We could argue until the cows come home about chemicals in our food supply. Some are good when used properly. Some are abused by farmers who figure if this much is good, 4 times that much is 4 times better. Of course the toxicity will increase that way. And some chemicals, it turns out, should never have been used, but sometimes it's the long term effects that no one could have known about. Sometimes, though, the chemical's manufacturer knew of the problem but pushed it out anyway. Mushrooms are natural, but some can kill you. Marijuana is natural and I'll leave it up to you to decide if that makes it safe. Tobago is natural and alcohol does not require chemicals for distilling, so it is natural too. Beef is natural, as is apple pie and ice cream, but look how much fat we have acquired from eating them.

They control interstate commerce and transactions. They also get involved with drugs though many think that is a reach. If someone grows marijuana in Florida on his fenced off property and uses it in his home in Florida, many people would wonder why the Federal government would be involved. Some would even wonder why the Florida government would be involved. Florida, the state where I live now, has no state income tax nor does the city that I live in. I pay property tax to my locality and sales tax. In NYC where I lived until 3 years ago, I paid property tax, sales tax, state income tax, city income tax and of course we all pay Federal income tax. The people down here rave about the lack of taxes, but don't seem to notice the lack of prosperity for the working man (and woman). I was talking to a man who worked as a burglar alarm installer and repairman, because I was thinking of getting a job doing that. After he told me the pay scale, I remarked, "it is a shame that you are not in a union." He told me he wouldn't want to pay union dues. I told him that in NY his job pays double and the union dues are about $50 per month. He said he still wouldn't want to pay "No union no money". I said, "you wouldn't take a $400 a week raise for $50 a month in dues?" “NO!” Well it is the same way about taxes. They are lower here and we get less for our taxes. I guess it is s philosophy. Better to be poor with low taxes than to be better off with higher taxes.

I asked you I was hoping you would say "BS".

Which letters are capitalized?

I was referring to the Milgram Experiments of the 1960's and 70's in which people were tested to see how far they would go hurting someone with electric shocks if they were told by the person running the experiment, "I'll be responsible". There was a movie or play called the 12th Level, in which the experiment was dramatized. Milgrim thought that only Germans would follow the orders of an authority figure and cause harm to another, but he found out that Americans were too willing to inflict pain if they were told that they were not responsible. Of course no one was actually hurt during the experiment, but the person being tested did not know that at the time.

Let me try to help you with some gas mileage concepts. First let me tell you a quick story about myself and about a car. I was a mechanic for over 35 years. I was an aircraft mechanic at my full-time job and I owned an auto repair shop with a partner as a second income. Now about a car. At one time, I lived in Brooklyn, about 8 miles from the airport. I would get in the cold car, start the engine and drive it to work. Then it would sit for at least 9 hours (if no over-time) and then I would start it and drive home. It was 5 miles of red-lights and stop signs and 3 miles of high-way, each way. I got 8 miles to the gallon (big engine, automatic transmission). I tuned it up, adjusted the carburetor and got 9 miles to the gallon. All I basically did was go back and forth to work and short shopping trips of less than 4 miles through city streets. I checked my mileage by filling at the same pump facing the same direction each time and I stopped as soon as the automatic shutoff stopped the fueling. Adding more fuel can dump the fuel through the vent. Stop when it stops. Ok. Then one day, I vent to visit someone and it was a 50 mile trip each way. That trip plus my normal back and forth to work and shopping gave me a 11 mpg reading at the next fill-up. Well, we were looking to buy a home way out in Long Island. I filled the car up, drove the 67 miles to the development, looked at the house, drove back and filled it up. 16.7 MPG. That was about double my normal driving gas mileage. So the moral of my story is the type of driving that you do can have a huge effect on the MPG your car gets. Also, the smaller the car and car engine, the larger the gas mileage penalty for having an automatic transmission.

So true! But Americans, like their German counterparts are, oh so willing, to want to accept authority figures at their word. Prior to the I3 (Illegal Iraqi Invasion), I told people exactly what was going to happen on a forum that I was a regular member of (about 15 to 20 posts a day). I became extremely unpopular in the post 911 hysteria that gripped the USA. I read things being said by all sides and also read between the lines. Whenever someone says something that can be expected to be heard as one thing, but actually means something else, you can bet your bottom dollar that it means something even further away from the expected understanding than the actually meaning. To clarify that: If someone makes a statement that really means 4 but it is worded to get people to believe it means 2 then the truth is probably 5 or 6. When BuSh and the other supporters of the I3 kept talking about Hussein's use of WMD, they always left out the part that the WMD usage was at least 15 years before the I3. If Hussein had WMD, why didn't he use them in 1991 when he needed them when the USA was rousted his troops out of Kuwait? If the advocates of I3 had said, "We know Hussein had WMD as late as 1988 when he gassed the Kurds", then I would have known that they were not trying to hide anything. But they always said, "We know Hussein has WMD" instead. To me that meant not only that they "don't know Hussein has WMD", but that they "know Hussein does not have WMD". That was not the only reason why I knew he didn't have them and we were going to attack no matter what. BTW, Have you or anyone else ever read about the 12 Level experiment?