Watermonkey

Anwiii: I don't know if you noticed, but "Disturbed" is found within a poster's handle: "TheDisturbedOne". I was referring to that in my opening line. If he has something to say about it, let him. I don't think he needs you to come to his defense. If my using his name to cast light upon his conclusions necessarily casts doubt upon my views, then you're only using superficial baseless arguments to discredit what I've written. If you have something to argue, by all means, bring it. If you're only going to bring insults and ignorance to the conversation, you'll be talking to yourself.

The theories regarding what happened on Sept. 11 2001 began that day, some would say they began some time before the events actually took place. It certainly didn't take years or even months for them to form. It's like the Ft. Hood shooting. The following day I was listening to Lame Stream talk radio and someone brought up the fact that only an incredible marksman could have generated that kind of causality rate on a military base no less. It was immediately and falsely dismissed by the host of the program, but it's one of the main details that simply doesn't fit the facts and leads one to believe that there's something missing in the official news reports. Like, for starters, there was more than one shooter. Same thing occurred to me on the morning of Sept. 11. I watched as those buildings fell and immediately began to question the story because I knew buildings don't just fall in like that unless there are high paid experts behind the scenes making them fall neatly. In the history of the world with the exception of the buildings that came down on that day, there has never been a single case of a high-rise steel re-enforced building collapsing from fire. Buildings have burned for days and not collapsed, yet on a single day three buildings are destroyed and you believe they came down because there were fires in them? I call that belief pure naivety, plain and simple.

I won't tolerate any more personal attacks from you Anwiii. You've been warned.

I'll take this discussion one step further than the OP did. Let's list the reasons buildings don't behave as WTC buildings allegedly did on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. From http://www.ae911truth.org/ :

As seen in this revealing photo, the Twin Towers' destruction exhibited all of the characteristics of destruction by explosives: (and some non-standard characteristics)
1. Destruction proceeds through the path of greatest resistance at nearly free-fall acceleration
2. Improbable symmetry of debris distribution
3. Extremely rapid onset of destruction
4. Over 100 first responders reported explosions and flashes
5. Multi-ton steel sections ejected laterally 600 ft at 60 mph
6. Mid-air pulverization of 90,000 tons of concrete & metal decking
7. Massive volume of expanding pyroclastic-like clouds
8. 1200-foot-dia. debris field: no "pancaked" floors found
9. Isolated explosive ejections 20 40 stories below demolition front
10. Total building destruction: dismemberment of steel frame
11. Several tons of molten metal found under all 3 high-rises
12. Evidence of thermite incendiaries found by FEMA in steel samples
13. Evidence of explosives found in dust samples
14. No precedent for steel-framed high-rise collapse due to fire

And exhibited none of the characteristics of destruction by fire, i.e.

1. Slow onset with large visible deformations
2. Asymmetrical collapse which follows the path of least resistance (laws of conservation of momentum would cause a falling, intact, from the point of plane impact, to the side most damaged by the fires)
3. Evidence of fire temperatures capable of softening steel
4. High-rise buildings with much larger, hotter, and longer lasting fires have never collapsed

I don't know why it's so difficult to do a simple internet search. Type in "cia al-qaeda history" and see what you come up with. I randomly chose this article and will quote the introduction here and add bold to highlight important details to this discussion.

 

Introduction

 

One of the main objectives of war propaganda is to "fabricate an enemy". The "outside enemy" personified by Osama bin Laden is "threatening America".

 

Pre-emptive war directed against "Islamic terrorists" is required to defend the Homeland. Realities are turned upside down. America is under attack.

 

In the wake of 9/11, the creation of this "outside enemy" has served to obfuscate the real economic and strategic objectives behind the war in the Middle East and Central Asia. Waged on the grounds of self-defense, the pre-emptive war is upheld as a "just war" with a humanitarian mandate.

 

As anti-war sentiment grows and the political legitimacy the Bush Administration falters, doubts regarding the existence of this illusive "outside enemy" must be dispelled.

 

Counter-terrorism and war propaganda are intertwined. The propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into the news chain. The terror warnings must appear to be "genuine". The objective is to present the terror groups as "enemies of America."

 

Ironically, Al Qaeda --the "outside enemy of America" as well as the alleged architect of the 9/11 attacks-- is a creation of the CIA.

 

From the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in the early 1980s, the US intelligence apparatus has supported the formation of the "Islamic brigades". Propaganda purports to erase the history of Al Qaeda, drown the truth and "kill the evidence" on how this "outside enemy" was fabricated and transformed into "Enemy Number One".

 

The US intelligence apparatus has created it own terrorist organizations. And at the same time, it creates its own terrorist warnings concerning the terrorist organizations which it has itself created. Meanwhile, a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program "to go after" these terrorist organizations has been put in place.

 

Portrayed in stylized fashion by the Western media, Osama bin Laden, supported by his various henchmen, constitutes Americas post-Cold war bogeyman, who "threatens Western democracy". The alleged threat of "Islamic terrorists", permeates the entire US national security doctrine. Its purpose is to justify wars of aggression in the Middle East, while establishing within America, the contours of the Homeland Security State.

See the rest of the article if you're interested in learning something new. If not, please, put your blinders on tightly and close your eyes. Everything will be all right. http://www.globalresearch.ca/al-qaeda-and-the-war-on-terrorism/7718 (Sorry. It's been too long and I don't recall how to make that a nice clickable link. If a mod wants to modify it, I'd welcome that. Thanks.)

Wow. I can see why you're "Disturbed". It must be painful for you when a ray of truth is shown piercing your dark reality.

 

Every time your say "what", you appear to just dismiss what has been quoted instead of actually thinking and analyzing. Right above you say, "another joke." What does that mean? Are you not aware that "Al Quadia" (however you spell it) is a creation of the CIA? I thought that was common knowledge. Building 7 came down after the owner of the Port Authority, can't recall his name (Silverstien), said "Pull it.", common vernacular in the building demolition world. He admitted to this on national television. It came down at free-fall speed after the area was cleared of people in a perfectly executed demolition that must have taken months to plan. Buildings 1 and 2 did the same thing, at the same speed, and only one thing can explain that: Controlled demolition. You're a fool if you believe Kerosene can melt structural steel. (For the uninitiated, Jet fuel= Kerosene= JP-4= Diesel -for all practical purposes. My ATV can take any of those fuels and run just fine, all of them have similar burning characteristics, British Thermal Units, and temps.) Perhaps if it burned for a year or two, and even then the weakened steel wouldn't be so uniform as to bring the building straight down into its own footprint at free-fall speed. It's obvious for anyone with working vision and a TV that the fuel was nearly completely consumed in fire within a few seconds of impact. Common! No one can be that blind! I've had my wood burning appliance so hot the metal on the top glowed orange, and I'm betting that's as hot as Kerosene (diesel) would burn, and it's still structurally sound. Granted, it's garbage steel compared to structural steel, but by your logic and unsound science it'd be a melted pool of metal burning its way through my concrete foundation, much like what was found to be in the sub-floors of the twin towers for weeks after the event. Yes, something melted the steel in those buildings, but it wasn't JP-4. There was a scheduled drill at NORTHCOM that very morning to simulate the exact event that allegedly occurred, hijackers flying planes into the twin towers and pentagon and Richard (can't say "*BLEEP*" here for some reason LOL) Cheney was there to tell them to stand down when requests came in to dispatch fighter jets to intercept the remaining planes.

 

I could go on and on and on and on, but there's just no waking up the people who can't even acknowledge that false flag events have occurred in this country in the past. Two of the most famous are the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec 07, 1941 and the Gulf of Tonkin incident that got us in to S.E. Asia, a winnable war over opium (not unlike Afghanistan today) that was lost intentionally. There was also the scenario brought to the table during the JFK administration that the president rejected involving attacking our own military assents in the Bay of Pigs or somewhere in the Cuban waters then blaming it on Cuba to start a war with them. Operation Northwoods I think it was called. These three events are relatively common knowledge because the U.S. government has declassified them and admitted to the truth behind them. From a link I posted below:

In 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had envisaged a secret plan entitled "Operation Northwoods, to deliberately trigger civilian casualties to justify the invasion of Cuba:

 

"We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," "We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington" "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation." (See the declassified Top Secret 1962 document titled "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba", See Operation Northwoods at http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/NOR111A.html ).

You ask about the Taliban? Why in the world would you think they had something to do with 9-1-1? Because of Bin Laden? Believe the propaganda if you want, but they put down the opium crops there, but here come the Americans and now? Three times the opium crops are being grown and they're being protected by American soldiers. Think they signed up for that? And on and on... nothing to see here, move along...

 

If you're ready to see, start with infowars.com, then move on to listen to shows on the Republic Broadcast Network.

I think that's the point of the exercise, though people should probably refrain from using common references to illustrate how it works. For example, the tree falling thing really can't relate to the discussion at hand because it's viewed and heard (or not) on a macro scale, our scale. Because the tree falls in our universe, it must obey the rules therein including the consequence of releasing mechanical energy upon impact with a solid surface, and weather or not a pair of ears is nearby to record this event is not relevant to it happening. Quantum theory really doesn't have anything useful to say about this theoretical scenario because its universe is mostly sub-atomic. The two must be separated, though perhaps at some point someone will finally come up with the string theory to explain it all and tie it all together in a nice simple package.... Not holding my breath.

I'm not going to say either way about the D70 because I haven't researched it, but you might want to check out the D5000 (Nikon). It's available at costco.com for a very reasonable price right now. I have been researching this very topic and the conclusion I've drawn is Nikon is currently going to give you the best bang-for-the-buck between the two. I like Cannon a lot and have been using a point-and-shoot that acts a lot like an SLR at work. I don't recall the model number but the monitor swiveled around nicely and a pair of Sanyo Enloops (AA) lasted at through at least 500 pics and several days or even weeks between charges which impressed me greatly. But I've been looking at the D-SLR cameras thinking of buying my own and I like the Nikon slightly better than the Cannon, but you won't go wrong with either. Good luck and let us know which you choose.

God forbid I stick up for China here, I mean, what kind of red-blooded American would I be if I did such an un-patriotic thing as that? But, the thought has occurred to us (I talk to myself on occasion) that maybe this little bit of "news" is just pure propaganda to keep us telling ourselves we're so lucky to live in a country that's "free" and not that fascist Red China place over there that keeps stealing our jobs and selling us trinkets that break within a few weeks filling our land fills. Free thought and political expression has always been the enemy of fascist governments throughout time immemorial. From the first European and other settlers in America till now there has always been a tug-of-war between the citizens and their overlords with free speech and political discourse providing the rope. I wonder if some of my fellow Americans have seen the political cartoons that have been running in Australian newspapers for months and years. No? That's because they're banned here. If a newspaper editor were to publish one of them in the Times, he'd be out on the street the same day looking for a new job. Not an "official" ban perhaps, but a ban none-the-less. Don't be fooled into believing this is the "land of the free" before you visit other countries. Start with China, then go to Taiwan or Singapore. Follow that with a tour of S. America. Get some perspective. America is free like "Wilson - Phillips" represent "musical creativity" or Republicans represent real conservatism and choice. Sorry to burst your balloon. Grow up. (Not saying that to anyone in particular.)

 

After a short sweet internet search I conclude the shirt was banned in China only during B.O.'s visit because their government officials believed it may offend "his highness".

Mother Theresa didn't even get this Nobel "Peace" Prize. Knowing what I know now, that is that it was given to the president who brought the United States the Federal Reserve to enslave us to oblivion (President Woodrow Wilson) I now know why the likes of Algore and Jimmy "Peanut Boy" Carter have gotten this reward. It's also worth noting that according to the Lame Stream Media, the ballot was closed for candidates for this award only two weeks after The Usurper in Chief was inaugurated illegally. What the hell had he done in two weeks but find every red communist he could to become part of his cabinet? Nothing toward Peace except make lots of meaningless speeches. By now, he's dramatically increased fighting in Afghanistan, kept status quo in Iraq and continues to threaten Iran, one of the most peaceful countries in the middle east. They keep using that word, "peace", but obviously don't have a clue what it means.

Finally. A member of congress who's not a complete and total Pu$$y. I salute the honorable Congressman for calling this communist without a soul, without conscience out for what he is. Even a blind man can clearly see The Usurper is a complete and total LIAR. Congratulations, Mr. Wilson. You have a new supporter who last week never heard of you.

A quick search on Merriam-Websters reveals the definitions of socialism:

* Main Entry: soˇcialˇism

* Pronunciation: \ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm\

* Function: noun

* Date: 1837

 

1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

Can someone point out the difference between that and communism? Let me help. Here's the definition of communism:

* Main Entry: comˇmuˇnism

* Pronunciation: \ˈkäm-yə-ˌni-zəm, -yü-\

* Function: noun

* Etymology: French communisme, from commun common

* Date: 1840

 

1 a : a theory advocating elimination of private property b : a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed

2 capitalized a : a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics b : a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production c : a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably d : communist systems collectively

I'm not reading any real difference in the two as defined by merriam-websters, an authority on definitions I think we can all agree upon. Here's what's really happening in America and, by default, other countries have experienced a similar situation albeit on a different timeline:

 

In the years proceeding the 1912 election in America (the exact year may not be right), powerful interests including the Rothschild family, a focal point of the emerging European banking cartel, began buying up large media interests in America's largest cities including the New York Times. By gaining control of the content published in these outlets, these bankers were able to manipulate the American public into electing Woodrow Wilson, a politician who they'd privately vetted as someone who would act in their interests, and in the following year, Woody passed the federal reserve act and removed our currency from the gold standard, mostly. Much later, in the early 70's, Tricky Dicky would complete the job, removing the dollar from any real gold or silver cementing its status as a total fiat currency. The free market was removed and communism installed in 1913 and, incrementally, every facet (condition) of the Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and published first in February, 1848, as been put into place up to today:

 

10 Conditions For Transition To Communism

 

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.[7]

 

According to the Communist Manifesto, all these were prior conditions for a transition from capitalism to communism, but Marx and Engels later expressed a desire to modernize this passage.

- from Wikipedia

 

And they (the media which they own and/or control -including especially those popular entertainment shows on TV like Friends, Scrubs, House, 24, ER, and virtually any other show you can think of) has convinced you ("useless eater" -their words, not mine) that it's the free market that has failed us and that we all need more government and higher taxes (and the spiraling effect they have on each other) to counteract this alleged failure when the reality is the free market hasn't truly existed here for nearly a hundred years. I don't really feel like spending time going through each of those bullet points quoted above, but if you can't see the modern effect of each, I'll point out the first one which may pass over some heads:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

I can't think of anywhere, certainly not in N. America, one can go buy a piece of land, house, pay it off and still not owe money to the state every quarter, bi-annually, or annually in the form of property tax. If you stop paying that property tax, the state can come in, kick you out, and confiscate "your" property with no problem. What if you were convicted of some kind of drug violation? The DEA and Sheriff will share in the bounty and you'll be left without any property. There are a number of circumstances where you can lose your property. If you really owned your property, the state wouldn't have any power to come and take it from you. It's not really yours. Can you see what's happened? The communists never lost the cold war, they just took it underground. They won. America took longer to conquer because of our constitution, but it is lost now and nothing short of a violent revolution will win it back -and that's exactly the goal of these ghouls. They desire a world population one tenth of what it is today. They won't have to kill too many of us, we'll do most of the dirty work ourselves fighting each other. Grim, but true. Not theory. Fact. They've got this Obama character up there now who lies with no reflex of conscience whatsoever, who is not eligible to have run for any political office in the U.S. let alone President, to put into place the final finishing touches or, if you prefer, nails in the coffin, to their plans. And the masses cried when he spoke, worshiped him like the messiah, and wept when he lied right to their faces. The shame I feel, as an American, for this monster we've unleashed upon the world, can not be expressed.

I am getting extrememly annoyed with my Wild Blue satalite internet service. It was great when I first got it, I loved the speed, but lately it seems to get slower all the time.
But that is not what is truely ticking me off. For a lone time they were charging my credit card $55 per month. One day I happened to notice it was $62. I checked back several statements and saw that they had charged me that for a couple months. I called to ask them why and they said it was for some virus protection or some such thing. I told them I did not use their virius program, that I had my own, and they promised to refund the balance. On the next months statement, not only did they not refund the balance, they charged me the $62 AGAIN! I was pretty hot when I called them the second time. They once again promised to refund it, and sure enough, my next credit card statement came, ANOTHER $62 charge, and no refund. I finally had to go threw the credit card company to protest the charges and I did finally got my refund back.
Well, once again, last month I saw they had once again charged me the $62, I really got hot this time and told them in no uncertain terms I was not going to be put up with being overcharged. They once again promised to take it off, and low and behold, the next month there was the same charge again. And no refund.
I sure hope I can find a different internet service provider when my 2 year contract with those cheats is over with! Unfortunatly, I live in the boondocks, and don't have a lot of other options.
So, if you have Wild Blue automaticly put on your credit card, make sure you check your statements every month so you don't get ripped off too. I surely can't be the only one they are scamming.

Don't give up and next time you talk to customer "service", immediately ask to speak to a supervisor and ask for your issue to be escalated due to the number of times you've called and received no satisfaction. Inform them that you're going to contact your states attorney general to make a formal complaint as well as the BBB and Federal Communications Commission. Be prepared to back up your threats. Go online and acquire the phone numbers for each of the above entities and get some contact names -just in case you detect they're not believing your threats. When you talk to them, tell them you want to be compensated for the hassle by receiving a months free service. They'll tell you they can't do that, but ask anyway. Tell them you're going to call again the following business day to verify their records reflect the change in billing and the refund due to you. Don't forget to write down the name of the supervisor you talked to and get the contact info for the escalations department (if any) it goes to. Another good term to throw out is "chronic issue complaint". When your contract runs out, I'd recommend you go to HughesNet. They've got the same three packages, but provide better bandwidth at each tier. Plus, I hear, you can actually avoid the FAP late at night, so if you have some heavy downloading to do, you can do it or program your computer to do it automatically in the wee hours of the morning and it won't impact your monthly download allotment. Yes, I too am a Wildblue customer.

The first question would be 'why do you need a dedicated VoIp router'? in essence, voice over internet protocol are nothing more than data packets, which in turn should be transmitted at a given speed for a given quality. Any network is only as fast as its slowest link. Thus you should first understand the nature of your connection.

Speed isn't the issue. It's latency. My round trip ping (latency) is over a second now. It's been slowly increasing over the years for some reason. VOIP router is necessary unless you want to use the microphone and speakers that are built in to or plugged into your computer. I prefer to keep the VOIP part in the background and use the phone like a traditional land line. Call me old fashioned.

So called 'high speed internet over satellite' is made up from three main service providers two in europe and one in the USA. In turn, any one can be a re-seller for these companies and either rent space on the operators NOC (network operations centre aka ground station) or, buy their own and rent space onthe same satellite. How these operators configure the ground staion allocations is the main issue.

Not true. There are two main providers in the states and probably others I don't know of. The two are Wildblue and Hughesnet. If I were to buy today, I'd buy Hughesnet because they have a better value. Wildblue owns one of the two satellites it uses and leases the other one from a Canadian satellite company. Hughesnet owns its bird. Japan operates a space-based internet service that blows anything in N. America away speed wise. I don't know what their latency is like, but when you're talking about some 90,000 miles round trip (four trips) plus your ultimate destination, you're going to have a minimum latency built in no matter what. Add all the routers and other hardware including light to electric and back converters, etc., and all sites will take noticeably longer to access than if you eliminated that ground to space link.

People will argue that if you calculate the speed of light and then account for the distance traveled to the satellite and back again (they sit some 35,000 miles above the equator) then you have this inherent delay; well you have the same delay here on earth accounting for the number of routers, switches, servers et al you need to traverse to get the page you want not to mentiion thedistances involved on a cumulative basis.

As explained above, plus 22,300 miles above the equator at sea level, to be exact. This is a substantial increase in distance and adds, for me, anywhere from 700ms to 1200ms delay.

The dedicated voip router is just another delay in the system. If you were to use a softphone i.e one on your desktop and send straight to the modem, you take out one more set of processing along the way. Here in Botswana we run on DSL but we can NEVER get above 1k download during the and 35k at night even when we are paying for 512k, simply because they don't have a clue how to configure the thing.
Start by going to http://www.mycooltools.com/ and using the tools there, test your connection and, regardless of what results are displayed, try skype, i-call and any others you come across at differing times, but also play with the ports you use. Their are many to choose from and most are never used in normal life, for instance try 119 or 463 which are common usage for usenet etc. but you may find your provider blocks all but the usual 60 and 25. Also, with satellite, your antenna (dish) to odu the thing that fits on the end of the arm, are a crucial balance in the math of satellite connections. Check what size dish you have, if it is just 90cm or 1.2m then consider changing to 2.4 (people will say you can't go this big on Ku band which is what you will be on but again not true. This in itself will make your link far more efficient and increase the allimportant gain which voip is dependant upon..... Gain, Gain, and Gain again......

It's true that increasing the size of the dish to, say, 2m would add a lot of stability to the system, but it wouldn't affect the delay one bit and I'd still be limited to the bandwidth and usage package (FAP: Fair Access Policy) I'm paying for. I'd be interested in increasing the stability and decreasing the weather fading, but the cost of an antenna this size, not to mention the installation logistics, would be enormous compared to the small benefit and I still wouldn't be able to use VOIP.

I canceled our land line phone a year ago when I had to buy a GSM phone for work. I bought a two set cordless phone that can link to a cell phone via bluetooth. That works out pretty well.

That's actually a tough one and I'm not sure I'll get it right, but here goes: CDMA and GSM aren't mutually compatible. Your phone will either be able to operate on one or the other, not both. TDMA and GSM are compatible. I believe quad band would be 850Mhz, 900Mhz, 1850Mhz, and 1900Mhz and, if memory serves, the two lower frequencies are the unsecured analog TDMA bands that have been completely decommissioned here in N. America. General Moters' "On Star" used to operate on the 850 analog band because it travels far and wide in rural areas but a few years ago, when the FCC announced that that band would be pulled from carriers and given to military and paramilitary, they've had to upgrade their systems to the 1900 GPS band.

Well I couldn't agree more. Spam is the main cause of artery hardening and other foul ailments SPAMknown to infiltrate the internet, spreading like the plague, and entering the unwitting end-users unprepared bodies via their fingertips and spreading out from there. Spam has also been shown to raise the stress levels for certain sects of the populations thus causing their immune systems to crash making them SPAMeven more vulnerable to disease and lack of hygiene. SM is simply spreading the disease like some kind of crack-wh0re/ leper/ sycophantic pond scum eating thing. Just say "NO!" to SM!

 

SPAM!

I really want Audi's first supercar: the 2003 RS6. All wheel drive four door sedan with a bi-turbo 4.2L V-8 producing 450 HP from the factory. I'd want it optioned with the warm weather package, carbon fiber trim, upgraded exhaust, and other popular options I can't think of right now. Price new: $90k. Price now: $30k. I really don't see a downside, except for the insurance costs.

Me too. I hear the new Rabbit is real nice for the money, but if she's looking for a used car, then I'd ask her to consider a diesel Golf, 4motion if that's offered. Nice car.

60,000 miles is average for a five year old vehicle, so you're looking good on that count. I assume it's a half ton, so it can carry a bit more than the Toyota was rated for and it'll get the same crappy fuel economy. If you need to carry more, you can add a leaf spring or add air bags like I did to my wife's Toyota and upgrade the tires and you'll do fine. I'd say for nine grand, it's a fair trade. I personally wouldn't go for a base package that includes manual windows and locks either, but your Toyota probably wasn't real high on options either.

Wrap your brain around this: They're already here. They've been here off and on for thousands of years guiding civilizations and experimenting with us. Even breeding with us. They've infiltrated the highest levels of government using their superior intellect and caused our elected leaders to do their bidding through bribery, coercion, blackmail, and violence, even while fighting amongst themselves at times. Now their agenda has changed or ownership has changed hands. For whichever reason, our planet is now being terraformed by the hundreds of thousands of their minions. The weather modification has been going on for decades over North America (and most other areas of the planet) but for a few days when all non-military air traffic was grounded after 9-11, those days were blessedly bright with perfect blue sky and silence from the airports. Remember that? But within a week it all began again. Now they've managed to convince a segment of the populace that Carbon Dioxide is bad and that you should only generate so much of it or be taxed for breathing too much. You'll be labeled a clear and present danger to the environment and imprisoned if you dare to speak out against their taxes and regulations. Soon, when they've sucked us all dry, they'll simply outlaw carbon entirely, one class at a time, useless eaters go first; we can't afford to dole out good medication and hospice to those who don't contribute. Those who rebel, too. Can't have dissent amongst the carbon units! Once the population of carbon-based bipedal life forms is back down to a manageable level (sustainable) of 500,000,000 or so, they'll let up and it'll be a golden age. For those who licked the boots of their masters.

I thought I'd put this poll out there now, right before WHO takes over and mandates the population get inoculated from the H1N1 virus to gage the attitude here at the Trap. Just so I don't pollute the results with my own reasoned decision, I'll refrain from commenting or answering the poll for now. Not that I think my opinion is that highly respected here, but you never know. I'm wondering what the attitudes are like in countries other than the USA in particular. The sheeple will line up around the block to get the vaccine here, I'm afraid.

First, I'm a cell technician and work on the ground at cell sites for (contracted) a very large provider that offers GSM, EDGE, and G3. It's been quite a few years (over a decade?) since they've offered a 900Mhz phone to their customers and there are really no more than a handful who hold on to that antiquated technology. In fact, I don't think it works at all any more since they've decommissioned all their TDMA (analog) transceivers. I had a scanner (stolen two years ago) that was able to lock on to conversations that were in that band, but I'll tell you, you could only hear one side of the conversation and it was never anything worth hearing in the first place. These days the VAST majority of phones worldwide operate on the digitally encrypted 800 or 1900Mhz wavelengths and no civilian radios are able to intercept and decrypt these transmissions. If the military or FBI or their counterparts in your country outside of the U.S. are listening in on your conversations actively, you've probably got bigger things to worry about. The only 900Mhz phones left are the few remaining cordless phones attached to people's landlines in their homes. You can go around looking for those signals, but, again, they're usually going to be digital and encrypted, so without the right gear, good luck.Regarding bluetooth: Phones don't leave themselves open for just any passing schmuck to exploit. I'd be much more worried about the RF chip embedded in my credit card or my passport. That chip will transmit to a receiver within a few feet. There is a small carrying case you can buy to block this. Worrying about the wrong things is what the Main Stream Media wants you to do so you won't wake up and start worrying about the things that really matter.

Dear God! Someone says something about SPAM and here comes SM slinging it around the place like monkey spunk at the zoo... wait a minute... Congrates, Alex....? Now go delete all SM's spam, er, I mean, posts, er, spam... Whatever you call that stuff...

This is the truth: Swine flu is NOT as dangerous and the AIDS or the HIV virus

 

This is the reason behind it:

The swine flu is actually man made, made by some disease and virus mutation research team in Mexico, and they try to investigate how flus will turn out when they mutate so the world will have a pre-vaccination created and made and refined before the actual flu comes out itself. Now, one day, an anonymous scientist or researcher accidentally let some of this new virus that they had created from pigs (and therefore it is called the swine flu) out into the air.

My understanding is there is a Baxter lab not 50 km away from the original outbreak hotspot in Mexico. Coincidence? I think not. This same company apparently sent deadly vaccines to EU and got caught and, in another incident I heard about just today, Baxter (I believe) and the World Health Organization were shipping a sample from Mexico to Geneva Switzerland on a train and they'd packed it just right so that a slight heat up caused the whole package to actually explode, aerosolizing the contents, exposing all the train passengers to the virus. I'm sure that was all just a bad set of coincidence too. There is, in fact, so much evidence that Big Pharma is deaply involved in a well-coordinated attack against the human population on the planet using the coming flu "pandemic" to frighten a huge portion of the population into submitting to vaccinations. Should be in full swing in just a month or two.

Sounds pretty unlikely to me. Getting the EIN off a cell phone isn't as easy as it sounds, and it requires some pretty expensive gear. Getting a screen shot from a satellite would be nearly impossible if you're not a high-ranking member of some alphabet soup agency.

The fact the original poster (OP) is comparing the Mexican Flu to the AIDS virus says just how effective the Main Stream Media (MSM) has been in scaring the crap out of the public. People really need to turn off the boob-tube and live out their lives instead of believing whatever the talking heads tell them to believe. Really, AIDs? The only thing dangerous about this Mexican Flu bug (AKA Swine Flu) is going to be the inoculations they convince you to take. Vaccines kill and maim more people every year than most other things you can thing of.

I fear that's the point. It's not intended to be clear and free to the mundane masses. I'm afraid you're one of the profane and the knowledge hidden in the pages of the (original language) books of the bible were intentionally convoluted so that you would not know it without spending a lifetime of study and meditation. True knowledge isn't free. If he were, we wouldn't be the slaves we are.

Well, this is a somewhat vague question, but the answers have been quite entertaining. And in Sheepdog's case at least, somewhat predictable. The short answer is, it depends. Since the OP didn't state weather or not we're talking about domestics I'll just point out that, in the wild, the most superior dog (Grey Wolf) would be absolutely at the mercy of the tiger, mountain lion or any of his cousins from the four corners of the world, and wouldn't stand a chance against even the lowly lynx or bobcat in one on one combat. For this reason and since the OP said "Who will win?", I say the Cat comes out on top every time. It's not a matter of intelligence since there's not a mountain of difference, it's a matter of armament and the ability and agility to use all the weapons at your disposal. There isn't a dog in nature who can defend against the attack of any wild cat. The only defense is raw numbers, but that wouldn't be fair, now, would it? And cats are known to hunt in packs too, so on a level playing field, cats rule. Sorry, mutts.