does it ever bother you that all you do is look for reasons ideas work, instead of trying to fidn a way to make them work?

That already happened to my parents, they were notch babies. My Dad paid in the MAXIMUM, from the day SS was instituted in 1935 until he retired in 1983 but was penalized a third of his benefits.
Not to Mrs Olsen. It's hard to see the "big picture" when you're hungry. :(

One of the earliest American advocates of a plan that could be recognized as modern social insurance was Theodore Roosevelt. In 1912, Roosevelt addressed the convention of the Progressive Party and made a strong statement on behalf of social insurance:

"We must protect the crushable elements at the base of our present industrial structure...it is abnormal for any industry to throw back upon the community the human wreckage due to its wear and tear, and the hazards of sickness, accident, invalidism, involuntary unemployment, and old age should be provided for through insurance." TR would succeed in having a plank adopted in the Progressive Party platform that stated: "We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in state and nation for: . . .The protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment, and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use."

You tell 'em Teddy. :)

So would you like the Brooklyn bridge, the Ben Franklin bridge, or the Golden Gate? Buy all three and I'll throw in the Woodrow Wilson (really, no one else wants it)

You seem to have bought them already. Don't try to unload 'em on me.

Here you go.

(edit) And Here (/edit)

Though, to be fair, the 80% number seems to be "best guess". The pessimistic estimate turns out to be 70%. So my "at worst" phrase wasn't quite accurate. I'm guessing that that's not what russotto was getting at, though.

Ironic...

I hope Dubya gets an incurable case of ass cancer and has to live out the remainder of his days with a colostomy bag. I would also like to see someone give him the same poison they gave that Russian guy so we can see him turn into one of those withered apple faces. Mostly I would love to see that self-satisfied smirk wiped off his face.

I think you kind of missed the spirit of this thread ... you're supposed to be blaming dubya for your own ass cancer ...

It's W 's fault that undone fucked up!
[Charleton Heston]Damn the man they call W! Damn him to hell![/Heston]

Oh, goodie! I was wondering when we'd be getting around to this! It's not that I hate dubya, it's just that this ass cancer is making it real hell to sit on my polo pony.

Goddamned Dubya, It has to be his fault that Hunter S. shot himself to death.

Not as far fetched as you might think...

George W Bush infected my computer with a virus to make me lose my mind and throw it like a rubber ball into a big pile of refined white sugar.

He had his goons break into my car yesterday and rigged the horn to blow when I got in it.

His goons also rigged the car's battery to go dead overnight from a short circuit after the horn was smashed off the steering wheel because it wouldnt stop going off.

He had them get under the hood and break my spark wires in the cold weather knowing that I wouldnt have a clue what the problem was and that I would eventually go crazy, start talking to and then beating the car furiously.

George W Bush drove by me as I walked home in -40 degree cold from beating the crap out of my car. He would circle the block that I was walking on and ask me if I needed a ride, then when I walked toward the Limo, it would speed off with him laughing.

George W Bush decided to screw around with my 50+ year old heating system so that it broke down and that it seemed warmer outside than sitting in my front room.

George W Bush had a meeting with the entire engineering staff at AC* about not using any standards for anything created or changed in UG so that "the frozen, twitchy contractor" would just give up trying to make anything usable and ride his bicycle home to Pa.

Geoge W Bush decided that the permissions should be set that anyone can file to any directory not directly owned by another user....and that the save command for your specific part trips a save for that entire assembly, regardless of whether you created or ever changed that part.

George W Bush decided that no file management system is required for a group of 50 users, and that everyone would talk to each other and would "just know" when every one of the 45,000 files is under revision or undergoing other directory juggling.

George W Bush limits my network connection which is normally a gig, down to 100mb at AC because I'm a contractor and he doesnt think it's really needed for me to have the best or even average grade equipment.

George W Bush talked with the security dumbasses at AC and instructed them to program the access card to let me OUT into the proto lab, but not back IN.

George W Bush instructed the maintenance staff to strip the paint off the floor on my normal route through the plant to my desk and to take the "this area is closed" tape from the doorway that leads to this floor area, so that I would dance briskly and nearly bust my ass walking on it when I came into work that day.

George W Bush lost the paperwork to have my phone and voice mail activated...and when his goons finally created the account, some other asshat came by trying to fix the computer and broke the phone jack out of the wall.

George W Bush decided that I didnt need internet access at work and that I am the ONLY ONE IN ENGINEERING that doesnt have it.

George W Bush sees to it that my computer is moved every two weeks and that the dumbass that moves it, doesnt even check it to see that it's working before he leaves me a note requesting that I kiss his ass for doing this and that I should be happy.

George W Bush has the VP circle my desk when I work after hours when he doesnt normally even come into that section of the building.

George W Bush forced AC to use that stupid assed vending scheme with the cards to eliminate any coin transactions and he put the machine that charges the card on the other side of the plant.

George W Bush has my boss come into the office and ask me "is it done yet?" about every 2 hours and gets pissed off when I tell him, "your data files are spanked and disorganized....see me sometime next week for an update"

George W Bush bought the computer that I had set aside at Radio Shack right out from under me, and the only other place with a reasonably priced computer was 60 miles away.

George W Bush decided that there is no need for stops signs in this neighborhood, even though the roads are always dangerously slippery and has nearly as much snowmobile traffic as automobile traffic.

George W Bush had the electrical outlets in this house replaced with units so worn out that they wont hold a plug in place and you have to duct tape them in or slide something in front of the plug to hold it in place or your computer or radio with blink on and off.

George W Bush assures me that I am "part of the team" and encourages me to sign up to take an 05 snowmobile for a weekend numerous times, then after I do and my weekend comes up tells me they dont sign them out to contractors.

Jesus Christ this guy George W Bush is a pain in my ass!!

* - Arctic Cat Snowmobiles, Thief River Falls, MN.

I didn't realize that anal cancer was that complex.