Tiffany23

Can someone pls pass out the crosses and get the fires stoked for this group...because what we got going here is a good ole Witch Hunt. You guys are more loony than Porky pig. He was elected fairly by the majority of Americans for what he promised: Change. We were sick and tired of war...so that appealed to a majority of American..and to be frank, he inspired minorities. I campaigned for Sen McCain...but I had to admit, OBama is a very elegant speaker (with or without a telepromt). It's time you guys stopped looking for conspiracies, get your butt off the sofa, and go support a candidate that reflects your views. Otherwise, you are frankly wallowing in a mire of self absorption and moral insensitivity.

I like Newt....he will get my vote. And for those haters among you who says he doesn't uphold the institution of marriage, just remember this: He may have cheated on 2 out of 3 of his wives, but he ALWAYS married the mistress...so that proves that he DOES has family values...eh...well..

You can have as many friends that money can buy, but I’ll still hate you for free.

Crazy? I was crazy once, I had my own padded room. Then the worms came….Worms? I hate worms, they drive me crazy! Crazy? I was crazy once

tyron, DD...I'm just a simple bumpkin...I can't even keep track of where I left my car keys...so you guys are talking about such complexities that it make me go I think I will just wander back to my little fishbowl and enjoy the sunset.

After a public lecture in 2005, I was buttonholed by a documentary filmmaker with Michael Moore-ish ambitions of exposing the conspiracy behind 9/11. “You mean the conspiracy by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to attack the United States?” I asked rhetorically, knowing what was to come. “That’s what they want you to believe,” he said. “Who is they?” I queried. “The government,” he whispered, as if “they” might be listening at that very moment. “But didn’t Osama and some members of al Qaeda not only say they did it,” I reminded him, “they gloated about what a glorious triumph it was?” “Oh, you’re talking about that video of Osama,” he rejoined knowingly. “That was faked by the CIA and leaked to the American press to mislead us. There has been a disinformation campaign going on ever since 9/11.” Conspiracies do happen, of course. Abraham Lincoln was the victim of an assassination conspiracy, as was Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, gunned down by the Serbian secret society called Black Hand. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a Japanese conspiracy (although some conspiracists think Franklin Roosevelt was in on it). Watergate was a conspiracy (that Richard Nixon was in on). How can we tell the difference between information and disinformation? As Kurt Cobain, the rocker star of Nirvana, once growled in his grunge lyrics shortly before his death from a self-inflicted (or was it?) gunshot to the head, “Just because you’re paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you.” But as former Nixon aide G. Gordon Liddy once told me (and he should know!), the problem with government conspiracies is that bureaucrats are incompetent and people can’t keep their mouths shut. Complex conspiracies are difficult to pull off, and so many people want their quarter hour of fame that even the Men in Black couldn’t squelch the squealers from spilling the beans. So there’s a good chance that the more elaborate a conspiracy theory is, and the more people that would need to be involved, the less likely it is true. Why do people believe in highly improbable conspiracies? In previous columns I have provided partial answers, citing patternicity (the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise) and agenticity (the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents). Conspiracy theories connect the dots of random events into meaningful patterns and then infuse those patterns with intentional agency. Add to those propensities the confirmation bias (which seeks and finds confirmatory evidence for what we already believe) and the hindsight bias (which tailors after-the-fact explanations to what we already know happened), and we have the foundation for conspiratorial cognition. Examples of these processes can be found in journalist Arthur Goldwag’s marvelous new book, Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies (Vintage, 2009), which covers everything from the Freemasons, the Illuminati and the Bilderberg Group to black helicopters and the New World Order. “When something momentous happens, everything leading up to and away from the event seems momentous, too. Even the most trivial detail seems to glow with significance,” Goldwag explains, noting the JFK assassination as a prime example. “Knowing what we know now ... film footage of Dealey Plaza from November 22, 1963, seems pregnant with enigmas and ironies—from the oddly expectant expressions on the faces of the onlookers on the grassy knoll in the instants before the shots were fired (What were they thinking?) to the play of shadows in the background (Could that flash up there on the overpass have been a gun barrel gleaming in the sun?). Each odd excrescence, every random lump in the visual texture seems suspicious.” Add to these factors how compellingly a good narrative story can tie it all together—think of Oliver Stone’s JFK or Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, both equally fictional. What should we believe? Transcendentalists tend to believe that everything is interconnected and that all events happen for a reason. Empiricists tend to think that randomness and coincidence interact with the causal net of our world and that belief should depend on evidence for each individual claim. The problem for skepticism is that transcendentalism is intuitive; empiricism is not. Or as folk rock group Buffalo Springfield once intoned: Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep ... http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-people-believe-in-conspiracies Or to sum it all up...it's when you can't hear the bats, that is when the bats are coming! Tiff

Guilty as charge...so were do we go for the hands on testing Tiff?

I'll be your huckleberry...always wanted to be Doc Holiday!

sxsess...can't argue with anything you wrote. Which made me remember a discussion I once had with a History Professor, we talked about how throughout history, the country that had the biggest military usually financed that army/navy thru conquering and colonizing others. The Rome and British Empires being prime examples. But that won’t happen today, because we are all politically correct..or are we? When American gets to the point where our standard of living is below 2nd world countries, then what? Is it so radical to think that we as a culture will starts taking over the oil fields or other natural resources from both friends and foes alike? Look at our neighbors the Canadians; they sit on some of the richest natural resources in the world. I’m not advocating anything here, I’m just saying that when things get bad, people start acting in behavior that in the “good times” would seem madding.

So what do we do to prepare? Stock up on Gold and Ammunition? Build a bunker? Anti...I have no problem with people like you that want to prepare for the end of civilization. But for me...if it gets that bad, I think I'd rather go out like a candle...what type of world would it be to live in or raise a family in? Call me a sheep, but I'd rather trust that people will see the madness before it gets to that point....if not, you are more than welcome to take my resources, because I refuse to go back to kill or be killed. Just not me.

You say the word "boat" to one of these guys and you'll be doing galley duty for a month!

Yup...exactly right...they have no idea about our capability to track....these guys know when an oyster opens it's shell, 200 miles away.

I saw this one about a year ago and sent it to one of my guy friends...but my phone had automatically plugged in the phone number of the last person who my father had called when he had borrowed my phone...so it went to a one star Admiral!!!! I was so embarrassed and wasn't sure what to do....should I tell Dad, should I send an apology...should I hide under a rock and never come out...about 5 mins later I get a reply text from him saying he thought it was great. WHEW!!! Big sigh of relief!

Ah...the voice of reason, yes CB...you are correct. The Iranian people aren't the problem. So naturally we would respond on bona fide military targets only. Nicely said...you get my vote for Defense Secretary. Kewl, keen and calculating.

Hmmm...and one of our nuclear bombs can "easily target" downtown Tehran....but then again, 50 miles in any direction is good enough. The Argentinas took out some British ships with a single missile in the Fakland War. So it isn't out of the question, but anyone that pulls the trigger at one of our carriers had better have their house in order, because chances are pretty good they will be sitting down for a fireside chat with Allah soon afterwards. Enough said.

Wow... a negative 3! Guess something are a bit close to the bone and aren't worth joking about...

I have a thought for the day: It’s so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don’t say it. Tiff

Well...as my mother always tells my father...you have to sleep sometime! Ever hear what happend to a certain guy named "Bobbit"...just saying! http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bobbit

Only you Caz...only you would think of that! ha ha

1. Take the amount of annual salary you would have to have each year to make a difference in your life. Example: $100,000 2. Divided the answer from question 1 by .04. (I’m using 4%, as that is the rule of thumb on what one can generate annually from a very conservative/predictable portfolio that virtually guarantees that the portfolio will never dry up and keep up with inflation) Example = $100,000 divided by .04 = $2,500,000 3. Take the answer from step 2 and divide that number by the number of dinar that you have. Example: $2,500,000 divided by 14,000,000 (dinar one has) = .1786 cents, rounded up to 18 cents 4. That is what you need in this example I recently have been reading a book call “The Number”. It is a very creative way of looking at retirement. In it, the writer gets the reader to think about what “number” they truly need to make a difference in their lives..and then he backs into that number to produce a means of getting there. Likewise, I thought it would be fun to try and figure out what the RV rate would be needed for each of us in order to make a difference in our lives. Now…you need NOT post either of these amounts-your annual income or amounts of dinar you own. This is personal information and basically nobody’s business. And Yes, I realize that taxes, charities, in-laws needs have a play in the final number, but I wanted to keep it simple so we would have participation. So, if you feel comfortable, post what that RV amount is. For me, it ends up being only 84 cents!

I've seen something like this for years...and it got me thinking. What if we are looking at this wrong...that is, we are using the "Big Mac" as a Macro Economic Indicator of Currency Values. But maybe instead we should be looking at it as a Micro economic indicator of the local population like/dislike for fast food. That is, in Brazil, they eat a lot of spice grilled meat.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_food ). Tehrefore, I won't think a Big Mac is really their first choice. So if there is little demand for a Mac attack, then that would cause the price to fluctuate. If they wanted to get rid of it (overstocked), or to try to increase demand, they may try to lower the price, make it more elastic. Or, if they want to cover the cost of what it really takes to make one...being that there isn't many that actually want it...they may price it for it's true cost to produce, which would be expensive. Ever notice u rarely ever see commericals for Corvettes? That's because the makers of Corvettes know that only certain types of people buy them (the rich...but not the super rich). And these people already know it's out there..so advertising has a limited effect on demand. Anyway...that's my Thanks for the post Anti!