The Cruise (Description)

The cruise was awesome. I got to see a little piece of tourist swarmed Mexico. It was also swarming with Mexicans trying to sell me crap for really cheap. I went parasailing there for 30$ and I have some pictures from that (Uploading sometime this weekend).

You'd be surprised (or maybe not) how few 18-25s are on a valentine's "week" cruise. It was still a lot of fun just hanging out with my family. I drank quite a bit and went to a few of their shows and events (which were pretty awesome)

I met this old dude named Richard who told me about how he used to build rockets and make rocket fuel in his mother's electric frying pan in his basement when he was 12 (Spilled it once, a lot of smoke he said). Also talked to him about how college is now and was back in his day and a lot of other stuff. I was drinking for this whole time out on the pool deck in my bathing suit. I wasn't paying enough attention and ended up staying out in the sun for too long and got scorched a little.

I had a lot of fun and I'd recommend doing it, if someone else is paying of course.

wow, that is awesome. Hope your all relaxed and ready to work on MMM some more

Hey Pyth, glad you had fun in that cruise.

P.S.: Yes, I created an account just to say that.

Haha, sounds like a nice cruise regardless of the lack of women. How'd you meet this Richard character anywho? (No gay intended, just curious...)

Btw, you need to re-size your signature MUCH smaller Bal.

He's been banned (His original account is unbanned on Saturday).

My mom was preaching to him about how democrats suck and republicans rule while I was in the pool, then I went over and joined in on the conversation.

Ewww, republicans...

Pyth's a republican AFAIK...so.

And I thought I was the only republican left in the world...

Pyth and I had a conversation once on politics since he's a republican and I'm nothing it was interesting to get his point of views on why. In any case I still think he is crazy for even wanting to choose a side in this day and age

I don't believe following parties just for the sake of parties is ever a good idea. A republican point of view suits my beliefs on economics much better than a democratic point of view does. Although for criminal matters I'd tend towards facism with exponential penalty for crime severity, and for social matters I don't think the government should do much at all, in either direction (directions being republican and democrat)

That's about my view, as well.

I'm more supportive for Republicans because I generally believe in what they believe in.

That doesn't mean I'll support them on every descision, however, and I still have some things that differ. They simply hold my best interests, for now.

Politicians lie though.

Jay.J wrote:

Politicians lie though.

Yeah, I know that from watching President Obama.

Eh...? Do you need a seeing eye dog or something, because I detect a hint of blind faith there, buddy.

Seriously, Obama may have lied and probably has, but you know who lied more?

I'll give you 0 guesses and answer myself.

Bush. What a Dick, Cheney that is... that guy... *primal rage scream*

Anyhow, you were saying about lying?

Everyone does it, not just politicians. Politicians are just more in the public eye than others are.

Also, their job description requires pandering, so yeah they have to lie.

AquaAscension wrote:

Eh...? Do you need a seeing eye dog or something, because I detect a hint of blind faith there, buddy.

Seriously, Obama may have lied and probably has, but you know who lied more?

I'll give you 0 guesses and answer myself.

Bush. What a Dick, Cheney that is... that guy... *primal rage scream*

Anyhow, you were saying about lying?

Everyone does it, not just politicians. Politicians are just more in the public eye than others are.

Also, their job description requires pandering, so yeah they have to lie.

Yeah, I know. I wish we'd just get one president that wasn't a liar and/or idiot. Bush was kind of an idiot, but I actually am one of the few where I think his heart was in the right place.

What's Obama doing? Sitting on the Tonight Show discussing bowling with Jay Leno. Spending 1 trillion dollars extra than he needed in the spending bill. One million? Okay, fine, not bad. One billion? I guess I can forgive you for that, right? We all make mistakes...but ONE TRILLION DOLLARS? Seriously? How can you over-spend that much? How is it even remotely possible?

I'm simply not happy with how Obama is doing his job. He's making the U.S. economy worse, not better. Of course I'm going to pick on him,

At least Bush tried to stop the economy from blowing up. Funny thing is, that all Democrats do is put the blame on him.

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=306632135350949&kw=Uncommon,Knowledge

So you're saying the stimulus package is a bad idea? Maybe so. What would you do in place as a republican? Tax breaks? Ha, cause that's worked before....Why you guys even in the mess you are?

In times of prosperity it's probably better to do a fiscally conservative budget. Balance the budget blah blah blah. But in times of dire need, in times of recession...you need to spend. Overspending does it faster (Admittedly causing problems for future generations, but they would arguably have worse problems if the problem wasn't fixed to start with.) The only real criticism of the stimulus package I see is that the money isn't as efficient as some would like it to be in the actual job creation as some of the money doesn't come into effect for that for a year or two.

Seriously....Just look at the past. Tax breaks do NOT work. This may not either, but it at least has some track record (World war II) which WAS overspending. If WW II didn't happen and they had just made a bunch of factory jobs and created a bunch of missiles and tanks and guns and ammunition and blah blah, and just tossed it out - the economy would still have benefited. Almost everyone agrees that it was the WW that got you out of the depression. If you agree to that you can infer that it was the overspending. In the same manner you have to over spend, and at least get some good things out of it this time around to not only help the economy but to get some good programs/resources etc in place.

And seriously, ripping on him for going on Jay Leno? How much vacation days did Bush have? Going on a TV show doesn't mean you're not doing your job, and hell I would say it's part of your job. Seriously - you don't just work 24/7 as President....there's only so much you can do, and then you kind of just have to wait until what you did takes place, so you can then respond to the result.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Liberal > Conservative, or vice-versa. I'm saying that at different times, different things are better. Right now, set aside your conservative views - and realize that you guys have a broken party. Even though you have conservative views, realize that there is no one who will help fulfill those views. Bush is a bad example of conservatives since he actually expanded the government, since he actually went and interfered with other countries. He's pretty hypocritical. That and he's in a secret cult (Skull & Bones). I haven't seen a good conservative leader in my life time which is why I hold judgment. I'm pretty middle when it comes to politics, however find it sad for Republicans since they just don't have a good leader. McCain used to be good...but seems to have flip-flopped during the campaign from what he used to stand for. He went from a Maverick to a conformer IMO. Bush did bad for the Republican image...

Anyway - the point of that all is that even though Obama might not be doing the best job (Or because his very being liberal) realize that no one right now would breathe life into your views, and to realize that your conservative views aren't necessarily right to begin with. There's a reason that it's generally 50/50 between Liberal/Conservative with many people finding themselves in the middle. Because none of them are absolute in their being right...

Sorry for the wall-o-text.

I still say its a little 2 early to judge Obama, what has he had 3 months? you really think you can take an entire country out of a recession that fast? I mean the great depression took what 8-12 years to get out of? and you want Obama to do it in a few months? kinda ridiculous.

Naw, apocalypse starts 2012, December 21st. Republicans are going to blame the democrats for it and be all "At least when Bush was in power we never got attacked, look what happened with the Dems in power" then 2013 January whatever, 21st? You're going to have a Republican in power again

So funny jay I had a friend over my house just last weekend spouting about the Mayan day of doom.

I explained to him though that in my opinion the Mayans being a non advanced civilization may think of the future but there is a limit to how far they can concept ahead of there own time frame and that that specific day just so happens to be the last day on there calendar. Seriously there has to be a last day and it just so happened our civilization and our lives pass through that day in a few years.

Btw December 21st is my birthday

, it's more stuff than that though. Like polar shifts, the fact that the state of the world is pretty shit to start with, I think the planets also happen to align that day, which is pretty neat. I don't let it affect me though. If the worlds going to go into an apocalypse then, than I don't really care about surviving THAT much, and if it doesn't come I didn't waste my time preparing for it. Just remember that I said it first. Republicans are going to blame the Democrats for the Apocalypse.

Jay.J wrote:

So you're saying the stimulus package is a bad idea? Maybe so. What would you do in place as a republican? Tax breaks? Ha, cause that's worked before....Why you guys even in the mess you are?

Tax breaks are better than tax hikes for to make businesses want to stay in this country and hire workers.

The reason we're in this mess right now is the stimulus, before all the spending we were taking the economic hit relatively better than other countries throughout the world. The reason the mess started is because Democrats came up with legislation that mandated that banks take bad risks (So the disenfranchised could own houses instead of living in more affordable locales).

So basically the same thing that happened for the Great Depression happened again, but instead of stocks it was houses that were being bought with fake money. When the markets realized that all the idiots took loans they couldn't pay back to buy things they shouldn't have bought, the market crashed.

I believe spending extended the Great Depression.

Quote :

The reason the mess started is because Democrats came up with legislation that mandated that banks take bad risks (So the disenfranchised could own houses instead of living in more affordable locales).

But that's just greed of several people. The people for taking loans they couldn't pay, and the companies themselves for giving not only the bad loans, but even worse loans that weren't mandated since the average risk was higher. They made money regardless. As the media puts it, they sold crap saying it was gold. The took advantage of that to make money. Greedisgood 99999. I think not...

Quote :

Tax breaks are better than tax hikes for to make businesses want to stay in this country and hire workers.

Seriously? I think it went from what, 36% to like 38% or something? In what 2% does a company say "Let's pack our bags and move to India" or does it make them lose huge amounts of profits. That 2% also allows the budget to be what it is, without killing the majority of people. The average person. Sure, it's a detriment for companies....but not big enough to make a real impact.

I seem to be defending Liberals a lot more than I normally do . Anyway, my parents own a business, and in Canada the minimum wage went up from like $8 to like $9.25 or something. They can't afford to pay for as many workers anymore...but that doesn't make an impact on the actual business or our way of living to be a noticeable impact. In the same way, 2% to their taxes isn't going to kill them. It hurts, but not enough....It's better for the overall economy - at least until they DO hit the point where businesses actually pack up and say fuck this.

Jay.J wrote:

and the companies themselves for giving not only the bad loans, but even worse loans that weren't mandated since the average risk was higher

I'm fairly sure you're either ignoring me or incapable of subjecting the government to scrutiny. Bad loans are bad for business because it's money they cannot expect to return to them at any time, but the government said "Make bad loans or we fine you" so they made bad loans.

That's actually a 6% overall tax increase, 2% of their total earnings, if those numbers are accurate. Over a long time-line, 6% plays pretty rough. Hell it'll probably continue to increase too.