Andy9o8

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Posts posted by Andy9o8

  2. Quote

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    Newt will be toast when he decides he's made enough money off his campaign to last for a while.



    How does one make money with funds that are restricted from personal use on pain of death. If Gingrich is staying in the campaign for fundraising purposes only, which he may very well be, it's just to pay off the massive debts he's built up trying to run a presidential campaign (which he has done about as well as he did running the House as speaker, and probably about as well as he would do running the country as president.)



    The more famous politicians make a lot of "extra" money similarly to how sports and entertainment stars do by turning themselves into a valuable personal brand, and then leveraging that brand as a marketable commodity. In Gingrich's case, take a look:

    http://www.rollcall.com/news/newt_gingrich_rose_through_congress_to_wealth-210733-1.html

    So while politicians' campaigns may accumulate a great deal of debt, the politicians themselves, individually, increase the marketable value of their personal brand via the publicity their campaigns get them.

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    The American version of Lisbeth was a pale comparison to the original IMO.



    Eh, I was afraid of that, since Noomi Rapace was so excellent in the part. Still, my wife and I are going to see this, next chance. We've read each book and seen each Swedish film, so we are fans.

  6. Valid commentary. There are several states in the US that have the same kind of restrictive, state-run monopoly on liquor sales, which abut other states that allow open capitalism in, and easy access (aside from age) to, alcohol sales. Virtually identical remarks apply to those examples, too.

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    First he failed to get himself on the Virginia ballot (gross incompetence).



    A dumbass mistake, which will cost him plenty, since I'd have thought he'd do very well in VA. But, as much as it might hurt him in the numbers-and-momentum game, if he does well enough in plenty of other primaries, he could recover from this blunder.

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    Now it turns out he lied about his first divorce:

    www.cnn.com/2011/12/26/politics/gingrich-divorce-file/



    I frankly doubt that any significant bloc of swing/undecided voters, in either the primaries or the general election, really cares. Newt's divorce story has been relegated to "old news", even if someone finds new news about it. If someone is borderline Newt/No-Newt, they'll make that decision based on other factors.

    Toasted Newt

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    Then you run into the problem of DZ with no new instructors. If you were to add the additional info today, only instructors who recieve their rating from this point forward will have the 'qualifications'.



    Then maybe I didn't make myself clear. I only meant to suggest it as a going-forward requirement for new instructors. Existing instructors would be grandfathered-in; and all instructors' ratings would continue to be on par with all others'.

    I'd also continue to allow anyone to give canopy instruction (although if there are currently certified freefall coaches who don't yet have full instructor ratings, why not certified canopy coaches?). That might address your concern. But if instructors already teaching pre-A license novices had even more enhanced canopy-instruction skills, the natural result might be that novices will become better canopy pilots sooner than is presently the case.

  18. Gingrich and Perry have apparently failed to qualify for the VA Primary - one of the Super Tuesday primaries; and VA's a very important state. If that ruling sticks (esp. re: Newt), it could benefit RP.

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    What gives? Should the government b able to socially engineer to get its way with people, or should a government allow a free for all?



    Look at his post #18
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    so you're all for the individual against the power of the state - until you're not. strange contradiction...

    - I knew he'd never give you a straight, responsive answer. He's all about pushing people's troll buttons to get them to twitch on command. Not really much more.

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    I still can't figure out why any blue collar worker in the US would vote Republican. Republicans do nothing but try to screw them over.



    Ding ding ding! My wife is constantly saying exactly that to, and about, her blue-collar, factory-worker father.

    (The answer, though, is because they also tend to be very socially conservative, plus the fact that FoxNews at al. has done an admirably effective job selling their product to that target cohort.)

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    "56th member of Congress calls for Holder’s resignation"
    http://news.yahoo.com/56th-member-congress-calls-holder-resignation-143549290.html

    The number keeps growing... They must all be racists!



    Can you help me out here? My quick Google search hasn't yet found a concise name-by-name list of all these people, in which each person's party is identified. I'm curious to know how many of them are Democrats.

    Any at all?



    I rather see the list of those who DON'T think he should resign. I'm pretty sure that list would be more interesting. It would also give us something to confront our own Senators and Congresspeople on before the next election.



    I'm not aware of a list of those who've affirmatively said they don't want him to resign; they're simply absent from the list of those who do.

    My point being, obviously, that this is just standard posturing from the opposition party in a republic; nothing less, but nothing more. Making more of it than it really is, is just silly.