No, the question is still, "WTF is a civil suit being investigated and prosecuted by the FEDERAL FUCKING GOVERNMENT!?!?!"
I stopped driving 2 years ago, voluntarily. My SUV cost me around $800 a month in replacement costs. Another $200 in maintenance. I was burning through $12,000 a year in gas. I spent an average of 1000 hours a year in the car, for work, for groceries, for fun. 999 of those hours were spent focused on the road. I hate talking on the phone while driving.
Consider my annual total: about $25,000 + 1000 hours of my time. For the "privilege" to sit in Chicago traffic.
I'm a consultant. I now use UberX every day. I also use public transportation when I'm not in a rush or when someone isn't paying me to swing by.
I spent about $5000 a year on UberX. $100 a week. While I am being driven around, I can respond to emails, make phone calls. I bill for that time. When a customer wants me to visit them, I pass the UberX fee on to them plus 50%. No one scoffs at it. Some customers will realize the cost of me visiting them is more expensive than just consulting over the phone.
I figure I'm $20,000 ahead in vehicle costs, plus I've literally gained another 600-700 hours of phone and email consulting time a year. Call it $40,000 ahead.
I don't take cabs, because they don't like to come to where my HQ is (ghetto neighborhood). UberX comes 24/7, within minutes.
My little sister had an emergency surgery a few months ago. I immediately hired an UberX driver, who took me from the office, to the hospital. He waited. We then took my sister to her apartment to get her cats and clothes, then he took us to the pharmacy. After, he drove us to our dad's house to drop her off, in the suburbs of Chicago. Then he drove me back to work. 3 hours, $90. I can't get a cab to wait even 10 minutes while I drop off a package at UPS. Forget about them taking credit cards.
UberX charges my Paypal account and they're off. If they're busy, they charge a surcharge. I can pick it or take public transportation.
I know why the Chicago Taxi authorities want Uber gone. But a guy like me is their best customer. Next year I'll budget $10,000 a year for UberX, and it will make my life so much more enjoyable and profitable.
Driving yourself around is dead. It's inefficient. Ridesharing is "libertarian" because it is truly freeing.
Sounds like a good deal. I did opt for a lot more options, tv card, wireless, dual burners, fairly high end card in its day etc., which ate up part of the balance. I know I could have built for a little less, but sometimes it is a matter of putting the risk on someone else, and how much your time is worth at the time. But either way, it shows it pays to buy quality. I'm using that computer right now, on my TV in the bed room
I tend to buy boxes with fairly high end parts (not expensive, just high quality), and when I built them I did the same. High end enough that I really didn't have to upgrade until everything was no longer "state of the art", so no parts to recycle in.
My ooold computer has a Q9550 and 8 gigs of ram, just as I ordered it. It is still pretty usable as a daily backup video player, and not bad for midline gaming like Portal 2, Goat Simulator, etc. Upgraded the video 3 years ago, $150-175 for what was then a steal.
5 years old, and the CPU is still on the front page of Passmark, at >4000 pmarks. Not bad. Paid around 1800 without monitor. Upgraded to 7 Pro over Vista, but even the original install is intact. Hard to beat that kind of stability, and not convinced you can build it by hand anymore.
Major company? If you say so.
Meanwhile, visit their site and let them know what you think about them.
I told them they are a bunch of goober smooching douches, and left the link to this discussion.
You are correct, that the evidence is rather flimsy. Hence, my decision that we need conclusive evidence. All we have is an accumulation of circumstantial evidence so far, and that provided by "our side" is no better than that provided by "their side".
But, in all of this, I keep coming back to the fact that a president was deposed, and another president installed - that president largely relying on some "irregular" forces who keep order in the realm. And, everywhere you look, are western investors who have financial interest in the region.
I remain quite suspicious of Kiev - although I'm not yet willing to state anything like "Kiev did it in an attempt to gain world support for a genocidal campaign in the east of the country." Not willing to commit myself to such a statement yet, but I'm leaning that way.
I'll match American propaganda with some Russian propaganda. Please, actually READ IT? Huh? Willya please?
http://21stcenturywire.com/201...
I can't say WHO shot that airliner out of the sky, because there is no CONCLUSIVE evidence yet. But, there's a helluva lot of circumstantial evidence that points at Kiev.
Do you have any idea why Kiev had fighter jets shadowing that airliner? Neither do I, but that's a question that needs to be answered. And, why did Kiev order the airliner to alter it's filed flight plan, flying a couple hundred miles north of the normal flight path?
There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, and I'm pretty sure that some of those answers will be "Well, we've invested so much money into the Ukraine, we can't abandon the plan!"
The Energy Dept, should be only working on current and NEW forms of energy.
Of course funding should be cut for things that should not be part of their mandate.
This makes about as much sense as instructing NASA to make more efforts to placate muslims er oh wait.
"Ay yo, Jamal blast on dat foo"
*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*
"I's staight busted dis GAT in dat nigga ass. I ain't even seen da body drop"
Holy Eubonics Batman!!
If they can't play by the big boy rules then they don't belong in a big boy game.
The national picture of Detroit and surrounding area..is pretty much one big,decaying heroin/crack den with abandoned and dilapidated properties...with tumbleweeds aplenty in the streets.
Hell, the episode of Drugs, Inc on the Nat. Geo channel alone painted a pretty bleak picture of Detroit spreading heroin around to not only itself, but the surviving suburbs that are still around the area.
Nope. California's budget is very solidly in black, average salary is way higher than in Texas and industry is _growing_. It turns out, that being a nice place to live attracts business.
Got any links to stats that back that up?
Certainly not what I'm hearing on the national news stations....MSNBC, CNN, FOX..etc.
Sheesh.
In these difficult times of wars and crisis, Obama is one of the best presidents Americans could have hoped for.
Are you serious?
Obama is completely disengaged from the turmoil happening in the world. I don't think it is him being "stand offish", I don't think he actually knows WHAT to do and is paralyzed by that.
No one in the world has respect for the US admin...he doesn't know when to make a stand, nor will he stand on it. And the world knows this and is testing this right now.
IF I HAD A MINE SHAFT, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's got to be a better way. -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.