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njtosd
ParticipantI love myfitnesspal, but it’s hard to put in your own recipes and adjust the servings for foods prepared at home (haven’t tried in a month or two, maybe it’s improved). I like the fact that you can hook up mapmywalk to it – if I go for a walk before I eat anything, I have an hour or so of negative calories for the day, which is very satisfying.
ParticipantMerry Christmas, sjk! A read through of the other comments makes me feel somewhat shallow and consumeristic. But no matter. I love Christmas, and always will.
Participant[quote=spdrun]Well, I reason by numbers. If more people did and thought about real risks, it would be a better world with less hatred.[/quote]
I grew up outside of Detroit and left in the late 80s. The Detroit area, generally has a large middle eastern population and Dearborn, MI has the second most dense population outside the middle east. I never recall there being any anti Muslim sentiment – zero. Probably, in part, because most of the Muslims that I knew did not present themselves as a group, but more as individual immigrants or first generation people who wanted a better life in the US. In fact, my high school had both a very large Jewish population and also a very large middle eastern population (although not as large a Southfield Lathrop, which later made it onto the cover of Newsweek with the caption “The Gaza Strip”). There was no religious tension – or if it existed, it was very well hidden.
So – if it were a matter of simple hatred, why didn’t it exist back in those days? People were, if anything, more provincial prior to the internet.
People do, however, respond disproportionately to a real risk over which they have no control. I can put little stick on slip guards in my tub – but individuals have little control over who gets let in to the country. It doesn’t help matters that people like the Tashfeen Malik make it in notwithstanding some very questionable associations.
I think Ben Carson put it most succinctly last night – if terrorists are not trying to get into the US as refugees, that would be considered “terrorist malpractice.” And he’s right. If your job is to be a terrorist and you want to engage in violence in the US, you’re failing at your goal if you don’t try to come in as a refugee.
Do I believe that there is any enhance risk near an Islamic center? No. In fact, my guess is that you are safer there (at least from terrorists, maybe not from Americans) than elsewhere.
Participantdupe
Participant[quote=Blogstar]So I stumbled across a book that deals with a lot of comments made in the gender politics part of this thread. “The War Against Boys”, seems like maybe you have read it , Scaredy? The book supports a lot of things you have been saying.
I had no idea that a certain branch of feminists were taking sex politics to grade schools with department of education funding. I thought this was only happening in colleges. I don’t think my kids have been exposed to any particularly wacky teachers in grade schools. Not against some organic gender bending myself , but to try to force boys to be more feminine is an atrocity against them.Just in case , I am going to ask my boys if they have , or have had any teachers that seemed to be disgusted with maleness, or femaleness.[/quote]
I have heard a lot of parents who say that this or that elementary teacher didn’t like boys. And I already think the lower grades are skewed in favor of girls – lots of sitting still and doing fine motor tasks (cutting and gluing and drawing) and talking sbout stuff. My son was once praised because he was learning to sit down more. I told the teacher that my concerns about him did not have to do with whether he could sit down. Elementary school emphasizes lots of egalitarian, everyone’s a winner stuff. It was very boring for my son, who used to compete at everything (and is still somewhat happy that we have a bigger Christmas tree than his friends.)
Participant[quote=paramount][quote=FlyerInHi]
The thing about Trump talking about immigrants and Muslims is that he’s dropped the code words. His supporters love his political incorrectness.[/quote]
True because political correctness often masks reality and demonizes those who don’t buy into the PC/Multi-culturalism BS.[/quote]
Politically correct speech is usually not spontaneous, but instead is calculated. Humans understand that they are not getting very much information about the true motivations of the person speaking, and may feel a bit manipulated or taken for a sucker. Donald, on the other hand, provides real info about his opinions. He seems honest, in a way, because the things he says don’t make him look good. Reminds me of a hit man who I once heard testify, saying he’d be an idiot if he worked on credit. Trump is interesting in terms of what his appeal says about human nature, but I am hopeful he does not become president.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]I was at the Chinese home material company again today to offer some white Quartz. 2×9 slab for $220. Unbeatable price.
I was making small talk with the young lady manager. She went on “I don’t want to say it but American fashion is at least 5 years behind China. See this porcelain tile there, we’ve had it for at least 10 years. We import it here and Americans go Oh my god, it’s so beautiful, we’ve never seen it before”.
Sleek Eurostyle kitchens are only becoming mainstream in USA.
Chinese merchants work hard. It’s no wonder they are plenty to low level millionaires (and above) who can pay cash for real estate.[/quote]
Huh. We put porcelain tile in our family room (in San Diego) in 1998. No one acted like it was very new. People get a little mixed up. New vs. new to you.
Participant[quote=flu]
That said, I think Trump is a genius plant by the Democrat party to bring out every bit of hatred and intolerance imaginable out of the GOP. Well done, Hillary. I’d say you got White House seat pretty bagged in at this point.Come on, we know Trump isn’t an idiot. His followers are kinda idiotic. So there’s something he’s got up his sleeve.
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Disclaimer – I am not a fan of Donald Trump. I don’t really like any politicians, and tend to vote for the candidate that I hate the least.
That said, people want to see emotion. It’s one of the reasons that people liked Ronald Reagan. People want leaders who make them feel something – and Donald brings out a lot of emotion in people who feel like they’ve somehow been cheated. Obama has given us 8 yrs of dispassionate hyper intellectual rhetoric and average people don’t like it. Hillary has a problem in this way – she is a woman and people expect her to be, if anything, more emotional than a male candidate (all other things being equal). She lacks spontaneity and has a rehearsed feel that I think falls flat with a lot of people.
And Hitler understood the importance of making people feel emotion. People are 95% uncivilized with a 5% layer of civilization on top – it’s not hard to get people to act like cavemen.
Participant[quote=no_such_reality]So much stuff makes me wonder if it’s
1. Real and actual viewpoint
2. Over the top rhetoric on a basic idea
3 a plant like the Claremont prof 10 years ago spray painting her own car then blowing the hate crime alarm
4. TrollI do see a difference between 3 & 4 and sadly think 3 is becoming a more commonly used tactic.[/quote]
Yes – I agree:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/6/lesbian-couple-torched-own-home-in-hate-crime-hoax/
http://www.nj.com/union/index.ssf/2015/12/arrest_made_in_kean_twitter_threat.html
etc.
Participant[quote=dumbrenter][quote=njtosd][quote=dumbrenter][quote=bearishgurl]Just saw this thread. I don’t understand why OP even started this thread (except for possible trolling purposes). Why is he gravitating back to Del $ur when the monthly HOA/MR there is “eye-watering.” And the current new development there is selling homes which have “particle board cabinets with metal drawers … for $1.5M” (quoted from his own words in the OP from the “Best Family Areas” thread).[/quote]
Am I missing something here? there is no mention of HOA or “particle boards cabinets” anywhere by OP on this thread.
Unless you know OP personally and refer to some other conversation?[/quote]See “Best Family Areas for Low-$1Millions Budget”. As the judge in “My Cousin Vinny” said “..[T]hat would certainly explain the hostility.”[/quote]
Thanks for the reference njtosd. Just looked and I see 10 pages of activity there! I know it is hard for some folks to just keep the thread thoughts within that thread, but calling OP names on a separate unrelated thread, how mature is that?
Do we really have to track what was said yesterday? or where folks say they live? Which you have no way of verifying anyway?
And nobody here is running for office, are they? Why bring up such stuff? These two were unrelated topics.[/quote]Are you directing this at me? If you look at this thread, it’s yuhtey who’s trying to get under my skin. I guess I’ve been pointing things out he doesn’t like.
Participant[quote=doofrat]You definitely have to be self driven in a big way. If you’re the type to procrastinate, or to get up late, or put off big and little decisions like doofrat is, then you will do better working for “The Man”
If you’re the driven type, then your own business can be the gateway to freedom and unlimited riches. There’s the positive, now some negatives from someone who’s been there and couldn’t hack it:
If you don’t have any employees, any second you are not working, you are not making money. Go to the bathroom, you’re not making money, post on piggington.com, go on vacation, Etc, Etc, Etc., you’re not making money.
When you work for The Man, they provide sales support, marketing, accounting, payroll, Internet service, e-mail, etc. etc. etc. When you work for yourself, you have to supply all this.
The things like renting office space and paying for Internet service just take money, so that’s the easy part.
If you’re competent at your specialty, again, that’s the easy part.
No matter what your specialty is, you also need to be the expert at marketing, sales, customer support, shipping, accounting, tax, etc. etc. etc., that’s the hardest part in my opinion, and it really takes a lot of your time and energy that would be better spent focusing on what your business specializes in.Also expect a fair amount of bullshit you’ll have to deal with as far as regulations go. In the US in general there aren’t too many roadblocks to interfere with business relative to other countries, but there are some things that can be a pain in the ass. In my case, we were buying normally taxable items tax free using a wholesale license and then shipping them out of the country. As a result, the tax board was expecting a lot of sales tax that they weren’t getting. Dealing with the Franchise Tax Board over and over on this every year was a total pain in the butt and caused a lot of stress.
And speaking of taxes, expect to pay quite a bit more in tax. There are some taxes (Social Security and Medicare) that an employer pays that you don’t even see, and you’ll have to cover these now. To help save on taxes, just remember that the more you procrastinate and the later you get in, the less you earn, which means you’ll pay less in tax![/quote]
I know it’s my “thing” but if you patent something and license it to someone else, you get many years of passive income. All you know are a few good ideas and you’ve got a pretty nice income stream.
Participant[quote=FlyerInHi]Do you think the Martha Stewart name will be worth much in the future?
I also think Abercrombie is dying a slow death. It maybe be the close enough stores to survive longterm.
About clothing, my Korean friend from college’s husband started a manufacturing business in the garment district of LA. They have like 50 employees making clothes for designers. They live on the Hollywood Hills. I heard garment is heavily Korean and Hongkonger.
A good rag to riches story is Forever 21.[/quote]
Martha Stewart? It depends – that name could become like Betty Crocker, which is now a name that is unassociated with a person. It’s all in the marketing. Abercrombie is very protective of its marks – but it’s stock has gone way down in the last four years.
I just read about Forever 21 – wow. What a heartwarming story. I don’t like the store, but clearly they are doing well.
Participant[quote=Blogstar]. . . meaning it is societies responsibility to raise kids too. [/quote]
No. It’s parents’ responsibility to raise kids. In the event they can’t, society does it because (a) it’s the right thing to do because it’s not the children’s fault that their parents couldn’t take care of them; and (b) as a friend used to say “we don’t want them to chop us to bits in our beds.” In other words, society is better off if children aren’t raised by wolves (or whatever).
Participant[quote=Hobie][quote=njtosd]Failure to get the goodwill can invalidate the mark.[/quote]
Wow! I had no idea. Never again will I quibble about attorney fees 😉
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I thought about this thread when I saw this article about Pepperidge Farm suing Trader Joe’s over PF’s trademark on the Milano cookie. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-traderjoes-pepperidgefarm-lawsuit-idUSKBN0TN1X020151205
Pepperidge Farm alleges damage to its goodwill (which is, in legal theory, the value of the trademark) by Trader Joe’s sale of an allegedly infringing cookie. And to my point about trademarks being undervalued, Pepperidge Farm owns a trademark in the *design* of the cookie (probably also the Milano name, but that’s not at issue here). Here is the registration: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:hu4uh1.2.98
So, Pepperidge Farm is the only company that can sell cookies that look like the picture in the registration. This is true FOREVER unless PF ceases to sell cookies that look like this, or does a few other things that can invalidate the registration. Same is true for Corning (owns the exclusive right to sell pink insulation) and Christian Laboutin (owns the exclusive right to sell shoes with red soles), etc.So – aspiring business owners – think about your trademarks. They can make you and your descendants very wealthy (assuming the product/service that is provided is valued by customers . . .). And they are so much cheaper to get than patents.
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