Steve

There is fail (all of us have failed) but there is an EPIC fail. Like this guy: http://screen.yahoo.com/hulk-impersonator-it-s-not-easy-being-green-29511772.html?pb_list=23dce613-c500-43f0-9134-70e58b73187a A Hulk wannabe paints himself green only to find out later that the color could be permanent

I already have a job as a layabout, LOS visitor. Thanks though for the compliment. I can only tell you that I grew up seeing a lot of guys go to jail (a byproduct of my neighborhood). They deserved it mostly (although a few I know to be innocent and had bad public defenders or copped a plea because they'd surely lose a jury trial but that's a subject for another post). One friend of my brothers was to use the street term a 'cell block bitch'. Slightly built, couldn't fight, he was joyriding in a car a friend of his took from a neighbor who was on vacation and meant to return it but was reported stolen from someone who saw it missing late at night. The owner plead to exonerate them but the judge said it was reported stolen so that was that. Anyway, he was no criminal. Bad decision yes. No more than any suburban kid or two had done. He came back from prison no use to anyone. Eventually got addicted to hard drugs probably to try and forget his ordeal. He was one of several cases I've seen. Probation case if there ever was one but DA's in urban areas have to get convictions for re-election and tell their Assistant DA's to prosecute these days. Stories like those scared the living hell out of me when I was a kid. Kept me out of trouble and some could argue then it did some good but really? I was a fairly good kid anyway. Other than the occasional broken window from stick ball or fight with some kid picking on me. I honestly would consider suicide rather than spend sevearal years hard time in a state prison. I'm too 'pretty' and 'good looking' for serious jail time..lol. Its nearly impossible to do your time quietly. Some cases (ex law enforcement, child molesters, etc.) can get solitary confinement. Depending on the prison system. Because such people are a target to EVERYONE. Its open season and a case can be made by a lawyer that its a death sentence to let them into general population. The problem is you're in your 6x9 cell 23 hours a day, an hour for exercise outside in what is like a dog kennel run. I've heard that time can literally drive you batty. No contact with anyone can leave you nuts. Still I'd take that over general population. Drug law reform has to be at the top of the list. Addicts steal to feed their habit. Male addicts at least. Female on drugs can trade their bodies for drugs and so they don't have to steal. Men can't. Some can but there aren't enough customers for that. Especially in the inner city where they'll likely get beaten for prostituting their bodies than anything else so they steal. First from their own friends and family then after that from stores, homes, etc. They make up a large portion of the prison population. They need addiction treatment not jail time. Oh, and drugs are readily available in prison as well. That's an underground economy in itself. Casual users shouldn't go to jail. Legalize pot. Treat pot in your car as the same as an open can of beer. A fine. DUI status. Treat personal use possssion of harder drugs as a misdemeanor. If a person is a working member of society, we should be trying to keep them working. Why lock someone up, give them a permement criminal record which basically says you can never get a job again. I would allow records to be expunged if no criminal activity for non violent offenses after say 3-5 years. That tells me the person has turned their life around. A person with a criminal record in their early 20s can not get a job ever again with the sophisticated ways employers can find out these days. In the old days you had to leave the state, now its all linked by computer. During the '80s one of the worst byproducts of the Reagan years was the shutting down of tons of state hospitals. Its the root of a lot of our homeless problems now. People say they got a free ride. No normal person wants to spend their life in a state hospital. No matter if they get 3 squares a day and a cot. Get them diagnosed and treat them. We waste so much money on other shit that could be diverted to that. We have money its just spent incorrectly and wasted. Lotto money that is suppposed to go to education gets diverted to other things and thats why we see tuition prices go up and schools lacking funds in part. Okay, I'll get off my soap box. This could be a great country again if we just stopped all the bullshit. Start spending money on ourselves. Infrastructure. Cutting the rediculous that both parties can agree on. etc. Sorry, I love this country but both parties and the groups that control them aren't about making us great again. Only money and power.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rich-kids-ineligible-college-scholarships-103500285.html Should rich kids be ineligible for college scholarships? Hip-hop mogul Diddy is worth $500 million, and his son just landed a full-ride, merit-based scholarship to UCLA. Where's the justice? Among the graduating high school class of 2012 is one Justin Combs, who finished his senior year with an impressive 3.75 GPA and an equally impressive record on the football field. UCLA rewarded Justin's accomplishments with a full, $54,000 merit-based scholarship and a spot in the school's storied football program. The twist: Justin is the son of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, recently named the wealthiest man in hip-hop by Forbes. With California's state schools facing deep cuts, UCLA's decision to offer Justin a chunk of its scarce resources is being widely criticized. Should the Combs clan give back the money? Or should the size of Justin's dad's bank account even matter? Justin shouldn't keep this money: Here's the bottom line, says Dennis Romero in LA Weekly: "The son of a guy worth nearly half a billion dollars" doesn't need a free ride to college, especially to "a school where student tuition and fees have nearly tripled in the last 10 years." I mean, this is a kid who poses in front of "a $300,000-plus Maybach," likely the car his dad got him on his 16th birthday. Now that's "a free ride that could pay for half dozen full-ride scholarships to UCLA."

HH, I know the culture in America is what ever happens to a convicted criminal in prison is deserved. Trust me, I have NO sympathy for a child molester, serial killer or the like to be routinely raped and brutalized. I won't lose a bit of sleep. But the fairness part of me says, someone should be able to do their time without consequence. Its not the molester or serial killer that tugs at my new, liberal strain, its the non violent criminals. Should a guy who steals a car be subject to being brutalized in that manner? I dont like car theives as much as the next guy but there are guys in county jail for simple offenses, regular 9-5 guys, being brutalized. And its hell. I've heard some crazy, crazy stories. First hand accounts. The juvenile prisons are just as bad in many instances. You've seen the size of HS students nowadays. Huge. There are 16 and 17 year olds well over 6' and 200lbs who brutalize younger and/or smaller boys. LA is a sick place for jails. Even in LA city lock up awaiting the judge in a matter where you are eventually proven to be innocent because of a clerical error (almost happened to me), you can be brutalized. LA has a private firm handling paying of tickets. This firm kept saying I had an outstanding bill and I had receipts to show otherwise and when one person would say it was clear, several months later it would pop up again. If I was stopped I'd be taken down to the jail and if it was a Friday night or Saturday night, I'd have to wait till Monday morning to clear it up. Do you know what city lock up is like on a weekend. EVERYONE is thrown into the same cell. From guys on a suspended license to rapists, all awaiting processing till Monday morning. I know guys who have told me they've seen guys raped whlle in there. The only thing they try to do is separate ethnicities. Keeping blacks and latinos in the same cell is asking for a blood bath. Other than that you're on your own. God help you if you're white or non black or latino. You're a target for both groups. I'm no better. I have no gang affiliation, east coast accent so open game. A black LA gangbanger would beat my ass for want of nothing better to do. The solution isn't necessarily more jails but why are we jailing folks that we don't need to. Drug offenses. Not dealers but personal use stuff constitute a ton of the prisoners. I recommended on here a while back that you simply get house arrest with a ankle bracelet. Let the person keep their day job and contribute to society. It gets turned on at say 7pm for 12 hours and you leave at 7am to get to work. Saving tons of money for jails and the person is contributing to society with their jobs. Same for DUIs, etc. Let them do community service on the weekends. With all the cutbacks tons of things to do from cleaning parks, picking up trash on the freeways or whatever. I forgot the study but the sharp rise in prisoners over the last 30 years was attributed not to more crime being done but the industry that builds prisons, unions that guard them as well as private jails and tougher sentencing for things that were otherwise misdemeanors and got off on a warning or a fine.

HH! Heya buddy. Okay, cyber hug to all, Kamui, HH, LP, BK, kumbayah and all that good shyt. Don't think anyone is gonna let Germany forget their history anytime soon despite tons of western countries with dark points in their history. Its rather recent relatively speaking. A couple German uni girls were couch surfing at a female buddy's place a few months ago (wanted to bang one of them and got cock blocked...at least that's my defense for being turned down probably), another friend met them and after a beer or two talked about WW2 and their history. It just seems someething that many people think of immediately when they meet a German. I'd suspect Americans do the same. Germany has pretty much been exemplary since then. Let me ask you this, which country between America and Germany can you display the nazi flag? America. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens in Greece. As far as prisons you all know my thoughts. I'd do time in China, Russia or Thailand before I'd do time in California state prison for example. As I told a board member recently. Anything bad that happens in Chinese or Russian prisons happens in American prisons plus other things. From the second you get off the bus to be processed you walk a gauntlet of guys behind fences telling you how they will abuse you sexually and others telling you how they'll kill you...and they are not joking.

The Greek who killed himself some time ago seemed an extreme case. From the little I've seen I don't see the Greek people as a collective sticking with austerity measures. They seem to regard their benefits as a human right. Maybe I'm viewing it wrongly from a biased media. I don't know. As for Americans, we already know we'll have to tighten our belts and the one thing I think that has come of this is that Americans have lost faith in their government and its institutions. My parents said their parents felt the same after the depression. It must have been even worse then. my mother paid bills with a money or cash for years. Didn't trust checks. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the Greeks deal with this.

LP is a big pussycat. He was 'stirring the pot'. I don't think you all should take the post too seriously. He's a really nice guy. Really. lol. As for prisons though, my personal opinion is that American prisons should be an issue for all human rights organizations. American prisons, especially the state prisons and now a growing number of the federal prisons are no less than sadistic centers of abuse. Not just hyperbole but given the option of spending 5 years in a Thai or Cambodian prison and 3 years in a state prison in California, its not even a thought. I'd buy my own plane ticket before they change their mind. Some people think that if you do the crime anything that happens to you in prison is part of the punishment. Its difficult to empathize with a child molester, serial killer or rapist. However, if someone had too much pot, parking and driving infractions that went to warrant stage or wrote bad checks deserve being raped and beaten mercilessly? This is in addition to being in a small place with at least 3 or more other people in bunk beds and one toilet (open toilet mind you). If a european or a north american were subjected to that in Iran, China or Saudi Arabia for similar crimes there would be a national outrage from that country. You don't have the opportunity to do your time quietly. Lets just say you are able to defend yourself fairly well. Someone or some gang starts a fight with you and defend yourself and the person ends up injured or dead as a result. You get time added on. The prison acts as its own judge and jury when violence happens. I've seen people come back scarred. Very scarred for life for simple offenses such as being in a stolen car someone else has.

Stories like this breaks my heart. Its also eerily similar to what a HS classmate of mine went through. He was a great HS athlete and got a football scholorship to a D1 school. He was dating this girl and got caught sneaking out of her room and the dorm. She cried rape (she was from a wealthy white family and didn't want to risk the ire of her parents dating a black guy). During the initial investigation he was suspended from the team, ultimately lost his athletic scholorship. One of the girl's friend or roommate, can't recall said they were secretly dating. However by that time (and this was months later), he was already home and out of college. He was being looked at by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys I heard at the time. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/5-years-prison-former-prep-football-star-exonerated-210345660.html 27-year-old Brian Banks was officially acquitted of the violent charges against him after his accuser recanted her story after a bizarre turn of events that began when the woman reached out to Banks on Facebook. While the accuser, a woman named Wanetta Gibson, told Banks she wanted to "let bygones be bygones", she was hesitant to repeat the story she told the former Long Beach (Calif.) Polytechnic High football star to prosecutors because she was afraid that she would have to forfeit the $1.5 million civil settlement her mother won against the Long Beach school district in connection with the case. There's no word on whether Gibson's mother will have to forfeit that cash, but with the charges against Banks quickly withdrawn on Thursday, the one-time can't miss athlete has had his criminal record expunged and finally has renewed hopes of re-starting a football career which many believed would land him a lucrative NFL contract.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/gingrich-biden-hurting-obama/2012/05/24/id/440235?s=al&promo_code=F069-1 Newt Gingrich: Speculation Increases on Biden Leaving Ticket A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Biden is hurting President Obama’s re-election chances in several swing states. I've thought about this myself. I don't think he needs to drop Biden to win if things stay the same but if he is consideirng it, its best to do so before the Democratic convention obviously. Who to fill the VP role? The obvious would be Hillary I imagine. Other than her? Hmmm...not sure really. As for Romney, the VP slot is one of the last big decisions in his power that could help his cause. Jindal has been mentioned as well as a few other folks. Paul wouldn't take it but it would help. His son perhaps, Rand. But youth and inexperience could be sited although Obama and Quayle overcome those concerns. I think Jeb Bush would make a great VP (or even President) but his big brother f*cked up the family name. Too much Bush over the last 20 or 30 years for most Americans. Jeb would bring in Florida and I think he'd be a hit in Ohio. For the future I like Jindal but he's a bit too partisan for my taste. He has integrity though. Its no secret I love Cory Booker. think he'd make a wonderful president. Gary Johnson may be a bit too flaky for some (even though I'm planning to vote for him) but Jon Huntsman would do nicely.

Even so, despite being a 'lame duck', Presidents have done great things in their second term because of the driven need to be remembered for something significant. All Presidents want to be remembered amongst the best in history books. I suspect Obama is no different IF he wins. Will he accomplish something signficant or even try to? No one knows for certain but I would not be shocked if he tries.

I'm actually against the 2 term limit. I am a 'will of the people' kinda guy. If the people are stupid enough to keep electing a bad president then the people should have that right and bear the consequences. Interesting enough there was a movement by some Republicans to change it so Reagan could run for a 3rd term.

Its stories like these that keeps me centered and not straying too far left and somewhat empathetic with the HH/Flash view of liberals. Cops killed a mountain lion that wandered into Santa Monica and many residents are angry at the cops. The Santa Monica newspaper enflames stuff (see below) by calling it a baby mountain lion. It was an adult, 3 years old. I love animals. I don't like to see man encroaching on territory of wild animals. I'm sorry they killed the animal but what the f*ck? This is not only a wild animal but an animal more than capable of killing people. Its not some raccoon or opposom that wandered into a backyard. Had they tried the approach of what some people wanted and some kid gets killed you'd hear why didn't they just shoot the thing. They were damned either way. No win situation for the cops. http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Baby-Mountain-Lion-Shot-And-Killed-In-Downtown-Santa-Monica/34685 Baby Mountain Lion Shot And Killed In Downtown Santa Monica

Truman: Integrated the military in 1948 at great political costs. precursor to the civil rights movement. Johnson: Civill Rights Act, changed American society significantly and irrechangeably. Nixon: Did the most for the environment and animals since Teddy Roosevelt. Envirmental Protection Act, OSHA, etc. Also recognized China and his visit there was massive on a geopolitical scale Carter: Negotiate the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Significant on a regional and geopolitical level. GWB: Probably did more or AIDS than any government or person in history with his funding to fight AIDS/HIV in Africa. As for Reagan, I would not give him credit for the fall of the USSR. I've written of this before. First of all, the USSR were experiencing famines since WWII, they had bread lines in Moscow and every city in the '70s and the rural areas suffered much worse. The USSR faced immense military spending pressure from EVERY president since WWII. The nail in the coffin wasn't Reagan. It was the war in Afghanistan. Russia had been fighting proxy wars since WWII (Korea, Vietnam). Their invasion of Afghanistan in '79 was their first full scale war since WWII. They were in Afghanistan for 10 years befor they decided to call it quits. They had to house, feed and fund 200k troops at its height in a losing war. It wasn't even Reagan that funded America's money to the opposition. It was a Congressman. Obama has some chance to make history. Perhaps gay marriage, which would of course be a significant social changing event. The wars in the ME could be ended but I wouldn't deem that as significant in terms of accomplisment. I also doubt we'd be totally out. It remains to be seen.

http://leanforward.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/21/11799258-booker-to-maddow-im-very-upset-that-im-being-used-by-the-gop?lite Booker to Maddow: 'I'm very upset that I'm being used by the GOP' Even by the very low standards, this is pretty bad from the GOP main website.

I've notice a lot of negative press on Facebook building up to the IPO as well as after. Negative press about the company and Zuckerberg himself. A bit petty and over the top I thought. Now, I'm no fan of Facebook and the power they weild. The only thing I got on Zuckerberg for is that he got married. Dumb ass move! Anyway, he's been wearing hoodies for years and now its a problem. So the f*ck what? He built the business wearing hoodies to meetings. Young CEOs and leaders of certain types of companies have always been given a certain amount of license to be different. Tech companies are known for that. Jobs wasn't exactly the braces and french cuff type. Entertainment company leaders the same. Also, the stock was seen as possibly not a good investment. Wall Street has been urging him to go public for several years so they can get a piece of the pie. The stock dropped a little. So what? Stocks go up and down. The upside potential is huge. Anyone can see that. They act as if Facebook will go bankrupt tomorrow. Again, not sure what the negativity is about but the cynical, conspiracy theorists in me smells something fishy. Am I being the over-the-top CS that I usually am?

440 electoral votes would be deemed a mandate by any winner I'd imagine when you throw in that Congress also brought in more. Obama will probably have 100 electoral votes less as well as lose seats in Congress. I have my doubts he'd see that as a mandate. My guess (and hope) is that he does what many Presidents do and try and get into the history books for the right reasons. As I've written before on these forums that its been said Presidents spend the first 4 years trying to get re-elected and the last 4 trying to get into the history books. My guess is we'll see a better Obama. Just my guess. I also think the fact that many liberals aren't happy with him is further proof he is no where as liberal/socialist/etc. as conservatives claim. The left is not happy with him for not being left enough. He's too much of a centrist and sometimes right of center on a few things. His keeping so many Bush holdovers was the early evidence as well as his choices for top posts like Fed Chief. I also think Romney is a moderate Republican. The problem with him is he feels he has to court the far right and if he won would govern as such. Its not Romney I don't trust so much as the ones pulling the strings behind him.

I'll beat Flash and HH to this...lol...Harvard Prof, Cornell West, very well known in black inteligentsia circles, bashing Obama (as well as Romney to be fair but that's expected). As I've said, the black power elite in politics especially and other areas have never liked Obama and much preferred Hillary. Actually, I think its a good thing Obama doesn't feel obligated to them or any group. He got the nomination in spite of not because of the black power elite. The black masses like him but the power structure doesn't. Again, not a bad thing in my book. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/cornel-west-obama-obsesse_n_1529979.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, for me, has the most integrity of any major elected official out there. You may or may not like his actual ideology but you gotta respect him personally and his integrity. The press took his words out of context and says he slams Obama, he criticizes BOTH parties. He also mentions the Rev. Wright thingy. He is right. http://www.inquisitr.com/239839/newark-mayor-cory-booker-calls-obama-attack-on-bain-capital-nauseating/ Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a surrogate for President Obama’s re-election effort, sharply criticized President Obama’s recent attack ads criticizing Mitt Romney’s private Equity firm Bain Capital. During a roundtable discussion on “Meet The Press†Booker called the Obama ad released last week “nauseatingâ€. The ad targeted Bain’s involvement with a steel company that eventually went bankrupt. Booker said to the moderator, “I have to just say from a very personal level, I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses and this, to me, I’m very uncomfortable.†Booker did say that he believed that Obama’s policies benefited average Americans and small businesses. While Booker went on to call the attacks on Bain “nauseating†he said that the Republican Party is no better with their attacks on Jeremiah Wright. Booker said of the partisan attacks, “This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. It’s nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright. This stuff has got to stop, because what it does is it undermines, to me, what this country should be focused on. It’s a distraction from the real issues.It’s either gonna be a small campaign about this crap, or it’s gonna be a big campaign in my opinion about the issues the American public cares about,†Booker stood by his criticism of the Obama ad later on Twitter while still supporting Obama for the Presidency. He wrote, “I’ll always prioritize my nation over a political party. (And) right now crass divisive partisan politics is not serving the citizens of my city. So I’ll clarify my comments on (Meet the Press) Yes, Obama must be re-elected. But we as a nation owe it to him (and) ourselves (to) reject politics as usual.â€

guilty. My friends fraternity kept a copy of tests and certain professors rarely changed their tests.

I've embellished accomplishments on resume admittedly. I was the manager of a financial product development team but I didn't do shit. Just administrated it. the unit did accomplish many things but I had nothing to do with it even though I was technically their manager.

As far as the election, despite the Wisconsin polls, Obama is gonna win unless something serious happens. He's got well over 200 electoral votes locked up. Probably 230-240. So, he'll need 30 to 40 for the required 270. That won't be a problem as it stands now. Romney has way too much ground to fill and there are even a couple red states still up for grabs. As far as Obama's background. I don't know a person who hasn't embellished a resume or bio. Especially those trying to sell books. Is it right? No. Is it normal? Yes.

There's a ton of things that are legal that conflict with biblical beliefs: adultery, fornication, gambling, etc., but the religious right has made their line homosexuality and abortion. They consider gay just about short of murder. Interesting thing is if you're a heterosexual murderer, they are often against captial punishment but we've heard AIDS was a wrath of God on homosexuality, which is a veiled sentiment that homosexuals should die. They consider, abortion, murder, pure and simple. As a Christian, I actually have a view of an embryo as a human but I also know that scientifically, that can't be validated so I will not based when to have a baby aborted based on a religious time of when a baby is but a scentific one because I can't hold non believers to the same standard I have.

Because one of the two major parties are in part run by religious zealots and its against their religious beliefs. I recall some one (probably a liberal...haha), who had this article (gotta find this thing), where he posed a scenario about what if the clerics in a Middle Eastern country advocated this and that would you call them extremist or fundamentalist moslems? Turns out it was things done in the good 'ol USA. I completely understand and even sympathize for the distaste of gay marraiges. I am one of those. However, the fair thing isn't my distaste. Its what's fair. Also, those against it who dance around the fact that its not only a personal taste issue but a religious one. They see a shift a society and what it accepts and its scary. I agree. The same fears were present when slaves were freed, women given the right to vote and again during the civil rights era. We seemed to have survived it pretty well (except the women voting thingy).

Someone needs anger management http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/alabama-grandfather-faces-felony-charges-attacking-youth-softball-150350150.html Alabama grandfather faces felony charges for attacking youth softball ump

http://news.yahoo.com/report-global-biodiversity-down-30-percent-40-years-000930009.html The world's biodiversity is down 30 percent since the 1970s, according to a new report, with tropical species taking the biggest hit. And if humanity continues as it has been, the picture could get bleaker. Humanity is outstripping the Earth's resources by 50 percent — essentially using the resources of one and a half Earths every year, according to the 2012 Living Planet Report, produced by conservation agency the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Environmentalists are going to milk this. I do believe we should conserve, etc., its the extent of it I'm not so sure about.