Guy One: "I've got this date with a girl, but I can't remember if she said she had TB or VD...."

Guy Two: "Simple...if she coughs.....Fuck Her!!"

:)

The Confederacy flag always was a horrible symbol of oppression. People just got a little reminder of just what it actually stands for. I guess some of them don't like the real face of the Confederacy [cnn.com] so much.

As someone that has grown up in the south and is more than a few years old...no, that is not the case.

This uproar and associated meanings with the Rebel Battle Flag is a recent occurrence. I grew up with it and it was never that way....it was a backdrop for a Lynyrd Skynryd concert, or the top of the General Lee. Harmless symbols of southern pride.

All this because one jackass that killed a bunch of innocent people had a picture of him holding a small version of it. Sad...but these days, it takes so very little to have the social media addicts jump on the bandwagon of the month....

It has always been a horrible symbol of racism, oppression and hate. What surprises me is there are still people pretending it not.

I don't know where you are from, but it has never been that in my life, nor the people I've known and grown up with all my life.

It has never been thought of or used in a racist or threatening manner growing up in the south in my experience.

It was just a common symbol of living in the south, southern pride...a backdrop at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert...the top of the General Lee.

None of those things are racist or hateful....

I think this uproar is just caused mostly by one sad picture of that jackass that killed those innocent church goers and had one picture I"ve seen of him holding a small Rebel Battle Flag....but now it is being fanned by the 24/7 news channels (coincidentally all based in the northeast) that have to have something new to churn up the viewers, and it is the "next" bandwagon for the social medial addicted millenials to jump on board with as the next cause for some form of 'justice".

What's next? Do we mow down all symbols of the civil war? Anything confederate history related? Anything slave related?

Do we mow down the French Quarter in New Orleans? I mean, a LOT of slaves were bought, sold and owned there. What about the Thomas Jefferson? He was quite the slave owner...should we burn down Monticello? Raze the Jefferson memorial in DC? Change the money?

Where does it stop?

This rebel flag being a symbol of oppression, racism or hate is a VERY RECENT thing....if you think otherwise, you are not a very old person and have not grown up with the experience of it and knowing it of the past 50+ years.

...the fact of the matter is that the Confederate Flag now represents racism to the vast majority of people.

Majority?

I hardly think so...just an overly vocal minority of folks jumping on a bandwagon.

Until a few days ago, when that jackass gunned down those innocent people in that church and later was pictured in one picture holding a small rebel flag, I would posit that the Rebel Battle Flag, the Stars and Bars meant very little to most people if at all.

But thanks to 24/7 news that just HAS to have something to churn the viewers (coincidentally enough all based in the northeast of the US), and them rallying all the social media addicted millennials that are just aching for the next cause of the day to jump on board with (only to be forgotten till the next fury to be raised over some sort of "justice")....the poor flag is being run roughshod over.

I've grown up all my life with the Rebel Battle Flag in my life and experience. It wasn't that big of a deal actually, but just something so everyday, that you saw it and didn't think twice about any hidden meaning. It was southern pride, or just a symbol of the south, a backdrop at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, or the top of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard (granted a silly show, but just shows how innocuous the flag symbol is). No one I'd ever known had any objections to it, nor had thought of it our used it in any manner that was threatening or hostile to blacks or other races or creeds. Hell, I'd never heard black friends object to it...just was an every day symbol of the south, nothing more nothing less.

But now...it is the topic of the day, and think what you may of it...the larger problem is that this thing is growing even further in what almost seems to be an attempt to rewrite or obliterate history.

This is spreading even in New Orleans, to threaten centuries old monuments....Lee Circle...and other long time landmarks named after confederate southern military heroes of their time, are being threatened to be torn down. None of these has ever been thought of by anyone as racist or threatening to anyone, yet in the rush to throw out the baby with the bathwater, historic landmarks are being threatened.

Ok...where do we stop?

Should we mow down the entire French Quarter? After all a LOT of slaves were bought and sold and used there.

How about all the monuments to Jefferson in D.C.? He was a notorious slave owner...should we burn down Monticello? Raze the Jefferson Memorial? Change the money?

Seriously....there is no need to try to obliterate historic monuments and figures. Everyone and every time has to be judged by the merits of that time. History if though of always in modern thoughts...well, stands to be erased.

History, helps us to understand ourselves and where we came from. Good, heroic folks had faults, but you don't destroy them because of those faults, keep them for the good things about them.

Being a southerner, proud of your heritage doesn't also make one a racist. You can be proud of one and enjoy the symbols and history as part of your culture while trying to forge new ways of thinking and tolerance.

They are not mutually exclusive concepts.

If people were to hold their breaths on this for 2 weeks.....it would all blow over and be forgotten. Hard to take a "majority of folks thinking this way" seriously, when it has just happened overnight practically, and will be forgotten about in a couple weeks....but the damage to history will last much longer.

Step back and take a breathe folks.

And happening so fast, I can't explain it.

We have this court now, pretty much ignoring the constitution on this law, it really should have been a given, but they seemed more interested in not causing chaos for a lot of people that would have been thrown off the federal dole on this.

We've seen the Rebel flag suddenly become a horrible symbol of oppression, and hate and vilified all of a sudden and yanked even from online stores and private individual sales on ebay.

It is now going so far that there seems to be a rush to destroy history, and take down all statues or anything of confederate soldiers...things no one had ever previously thought were any type of hate symbol, but merely marks of history. I'm shocked in New Orleans there is actual talk of taking down the statue and renaming Lee Circle, an icon of the city for many many many years. That and other statues and landmarks of the city. I mean, if you want to re-write history, lets mow down the French Quarter entirely, I mean lots of slaves were sold through there and used there...etc. Where does it stop?

I'm just shocked at the way folks here are laying down and how fast this is rolling over tradition and history, especially things that have NEVER before been thought to be racist or troubling for anyone....but now the baby is being thrown out with the bath. History...if nothing else, it should remain as a reminder.

The old saying goes...."those that forget history are bound to repeat it".

I'm just flabbergasted that some things are moving this fast, and this isn't all for the better.

The majority of Americans' waistlines is tied innately to the fact they're being worked longer and longer for less and less buying power. This means they don't have the TIME to prep / cook relatively short-shelf life healthy food that also would cost them too much MONEY, therefore cheap, fast, preprocessed food IS THEIR ONLY CHOICE. Treble the impact in urban settings.

We all have 24 hours a day to play with.

It all depends on how you spend your time.

I tend to spend most of the day Sunday, cooking...I prep and cook 2-3 entree dish type things, or maybe just grill a bunch of veggies and chicken, etc. I can then make quick meals from that plus leftovers are great for lunches, etc.

This is quite easy, cost effective...and you can get your whole family involved in this...bring the kids in the kitchen and teach them to cook and help out.

It is NOT the only choice to eat out and eat crap food. Why not spend a bit less time camped out in front of the TV or Xbox, and take the family shopping for groceries together, etc....cook together.

It's not that easy. At QFC and Safeway, EVERY bread they sell is overly sweetened. The only bread I've found without too much sugar is Trader Joe's rye.

Well...breads would indeed be one of the 'goop' type highly processed foods found in the center aisles I was talking about.

IMHO, it should be eliminated or at least made an extremely small portion of your diet. Try sticking to veggies, fruits and animal proteins. And yes, for some people I think a bit of dairy is ok. Just try to stick to foods that don't spike your blood insulin and for the most part, you should be ok.

If the label has ingredients you can't readily decipher, or pronounce, likely as not, it should not be something you want to consume.

Or, if the top ingredients include sugar or HFCS...you should likely pass that one by too.

You have to look for the right ones. The sriracha Jacks jerky is low in sugar and is one of my favorites.

Nothing.... beats home made though.

;)

Healthy food is tasty as hell once your palette has had a chance to get used to it again. All I can ever taste anymore with so much food in the States is either salt or sugar/HFCS. It's so fucking gross.

Well, if all you seek out and eat in the US is fast food, or the lower level chain restaurants, then sure, that's all you're gonna get.

If you shop for and buy processed foods (the goop in the center aisles of the grocery store), again, yes, this is all your gonna get.

But if you take a little time and look around, VERY good food choices can be had. And there is really NO excuse for only having bad foods at home. Ever heard of cooking? (and no, I don't mean popping something pre-made/frozen in the fucking microwave).

Yep..sounds like discrimination to me!! I think I'd try to get a young white boy into the program, see if they reject him and say why...and then bring suit.

Sounds reasonable, no? If not..why not? How is this different than any action you see today of people being discriminated against?

All you need are a couple pistons fitted into a block, so that you can run some fuel to the pistons, to turn a shaft, which spins your transmission, which then turns the wheels. I manage just fine with two wheels, and a set of handlebars, powered by an engine produce back in 1982. No automagic turn signal canceling, no power windows, no air conditioning, no heater - although I am somewhat of a sissy, in that I insist on a windshield.

Cars. I want very little more in a car than I have on my motorcycle. I don't WANT the damned car to do tricks. If I really want any tricks out of the car, I'll invest a few thousands under the hood, and in the transmission. Thank you very much - just a simple engine, tranny, and some wheels will be enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I've never owned a real RAID controller. I learned that the fake-RAID controllers common on motherboards are more fake than they are RAID. You can't recover them, unless you can find exactly the same controller. I've learned to trust Linux software RAID - it just works, I've never had a RAID failure. Disk drive fails, no big deal, swap it out and rebuild the RAID. The RAID itself has never failed me though.

Maybe, on the other hand, you're doing something right. I have a minimum of stuff that I even bother to back up. If you were to ask the wife, she has terabytes of shit that need backed up. Just stupid movies, that she can torrent again anytime she wants. Me? Very nearly nothing. Everything I consider worthy of worry will fit on a single hard drive. 250 gig should suffice. Hmmmmmmm - my local backup is on a 320 gig drive, and there's a lot of redundant crap in there that I need to delete. Sifting through it . . . . looks like MAYBE 100 gig is actually important to me. Backups for the sake of backups, again and again - most of it is just junk, really.

Being a LInux distro hopper, I nuke and reinstall pretty frequently anyway. Install to the SSD, browse my backup drive, move over the stuff I need or want, such as my Mozilla profile, and I'm up and running. Passwords and keys are stored in a couple of places, just in case. Phhht.

The better question is, why should all citizens subsidize a business whose model it is to use public facilities to turn a profit?

Perhaps you didn't really comprehend GP's post. Those parking spaces are being monetized by a private corporation. Said corporation throws some chump change at the city government. And, taxpayers are still paying for all that paved area, the corporation has not assumed any responsibilities in providing parking spaces.

Taxpayers are ENTITLED to park on the city streets, because they PAID FOR those streets.

What I read in a related study, is that there is a "sweet spot" for the correctly sized lanes. 10 to 10 1/2 feet in width makes for safer driving. Reducing below 10 feet in width and increasing over 10 1/2 feet both make driving less safe. Those skinny little streets with 8, or even 7 foot wide lanes are definitely UNSAFE.