So, I guess what he's saying is that we've finally overcome the fallout from Bush Juniors disastrous 8 years in the white house.

Ha Ha! I played this with my friends in Junior High for 2 semesters. All times on campus were fair play, and this was the reason we called all teachers the Gestapo throughout High School as well, so we would avoid getting caught. Most of our classmates not in-the-know thought we held some animosity toward "the Man".

Alas, no one was as clever enough to employ mercury switches in our games.

http://videosift.com/video/Junior-Neguin-Remember-those-names-Bboy-Battle

Dude. DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*ban1.0
Philippe Bigar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX2-1GWylqE

*related= http://videosift.com/video/Primary-PPA-Cover-from-Junior-Jam
* ban2.0
Philippe Bigar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX2-1GWylqE

I was always told that the guy should pay for the first date.

I've never been in an abusive relationship; which is odd, since I was raised by an alcoholic and very abusive (to my grandmother) grandfather. Statistically I should be a person that abuses women, but instead I have nothing but the deepest disgust and contempt for someone who abuses their partner.

I married a girl I went to high school with, I was a Junior and she had just graduated. She prefers that I pay and hold doors for her, but then we sort of grew up when that thing was still in fashion.

4.5 billion dollars.

http://www.forbes.com/donald-trump/#7553bc81790b

I wrote that he has a lot of parliamentary power. And he does. Parliament and congress are synonyms. I clearly wrote the president has to deal with congress.

I know of the Bush junior situation, but that's not what the conversation is about (i.e. it's not about a vote miscount).

Trump has many character flaws (as all people do), but it is unlikely those flaws will lead to a fanciful dictatorship as you have suggested they will.

I didn't write that. Syntaxed, whom you were originally replying to wrote "You could vote for a woman who has on more occasions than is accountable, broken Federal Law, covered up her husband's brutalization of women, and God knows what else, and only manages to escape prison because she is one of the sharpest tools the totalitarian American political establishment has..."

You're not following the conversation.

You're welcome to prove yourself correct in regards to court outcomes. I'm just not that interested in it. I'm trying to save you the bother. What am I enjoying by myself? You making a statement and not providing proof? Sure, super fun. You can enjoy that I defended both Clinton and Trump as innocent until proven guilty. How it should be.

I'm "still incredibly naïve"! Lol, once again, you were replying to Syntaxed and called him naive. You're not following the conversation.

I'm glad you asked how it is different. I pointed out that the word naive (especially in your usage) does not encompass a lack of knowledge (as in he did not know the facts of the case). You were using naive as a pejorative, as in he was simple, unsophisticated, guileless. I showed you a definition of the common usage of the word naive. You found a definition that included the word "information". I pointed out that this is not the common usage (and as above it was not your intention to suggest he didn't know the facts). You could probably use the word naive, which is still a synonym for simple, unsophisticated and guileless, in the context of being those things, because one lacked "information", but it would of course need to be contextually evident in the statement.

As a kindness I'm going to chalk you being confused down to tiredness. Go have a lie down.

That thing about "best friend"? I have been saying that EXACT THING for years.

And not just about who pays for a date. It is for all aspects of the relationship. If I wouldn't put up with certain crap from a friend, why would I from a fella?

Side note -- never have I been in an abusive relationship. I wonder why that is?

But I know I am wired differently.

Long before feminism was a big important concept to me, I went on my first date with a young man I didn't know well.

I was 13 years old, in 1967. We went to a matinee at the local movie theater. Fifty cents a ticket.

I remember standing behind him in line, as he awkwardly paid, and I awkwardly didn't know what to do or say.

And my main thought was -- I have a job. I can afford my own ticket. (I cleaned test tubes in the junior high science lab. I still have sense memories of moldy agar in a petri dish.)

I never got over that. I still feel that way. Go ahead and treat me to something special that you can afford. Next time, it'll be my turn to pick the activity and I'll pick something I can afford.

I was lousy at dating. But I was clear about the basic equality necessary in order to respectful to both of us.

insane, back when I was in highschool there was no cops/guards/etc

We even had a smoking section, and guns could be brought on campus.

For smoking section you just needed a letter from parents that they knew you smoked. and on recess the smokers all hung out there.

To bring gun to school, it was during any hunting season. You had to have note from parents that they know. The gun had to be visible, either gun rack in back window of truck or in passenger seat. Rifles and Shotguns only no pistols.

You had to have your Hunter's Safety Course card, Your Hunting License both on you to give copies at office.

You had to leave your vehicle keys with the front office and submit to random vehicle search of the hunter's vehicles only.

So while everyone could go to their cars at recess, or if you had extra empty elective, some of us juniors would drive up to Hardees before lunch and grab fast food then be back before 4th period started, but the hunters had to leave their keys with front office and they could not retrieve them until end of school.

So much more freedom.

Smoking was banned on campus for students only my 10th grade year, but Teachers had the smoking lounge in building. There was a teacher's lounge on each hall, the back hall F where weight lifting, welding, home ec, and vocational classes were was where the teacher's smoking lounge was. Most students friendly with teachers could sneak in there and smoke anyhow.

crazy times.

I had a 84 Camaro and kept a flare gun under seat my dad owned a boat and had couple extra flare guns. So I had that for some crazy reason thinking if someone attacked me, at point blank range I'd put on a huge firework show


Then there was the stereotypes that were proven right not wrong.

The jocks hung out together, the headbangers/smokers hung out together, the nerds, the band folks like me as my senior year I was drum major
and the blacks stayed together all in separate cliques at lunch and recess and before/after school.

stereotypes even went further.

the only highschool girls with babies (during time I was there I stress) were black girls, they had to build a daycare from the old mechanic shop behind the highschool for them. And even though this was the early 90s in the south, you'd hear over the Intercom every 6 months "All Black female students to gym at this time please" where they'd get lectured on abstinence, or condom use, and std's and such.

the only time rest of the student body went through that was in 10th grade they'd take the boys one day, and girls the next day.

We had a blast though as the guys, the protection/std talk was given by one of the football coaches, and during the talk with the guys and showing various "shock images" of std's on penis on the TV, when he got to the "sex ed" portion, he flipped in a Nina Hartley porn intro where a nude Nina Hartley showed the correct way to place a condom on. haha was hilarious looking back before "political correctness" went out of control.

I loved highschool and college.

Graduated high school in 94, got associates in 96, took year off then got bachelors in computer science in 99.

But 89-94 (our highschool here in the deep south is 8th through 12th) most are 9-12, but not here. It's still 8-12th here. So it's nothing seeing 12th graders dating 8th graders. Freaky yea, but not unusual.


If you got into a fight, if a coach was around he'd let the fight finish, unless it got a bit too over the top then they'd break it up. You didn't get suspended, you lost recess privileges usually 3 days plus the starter of the fight got 10 licks of the paddle in principle office, the other only got 1 to 3, or if person was just dominated and got ass kicked you just got detention.


Kids didn't act up at all most times. And the reason was Corporal Punishment. Not private paddling either.


Once I was having a bad day, me and "highschool" sweetheart were having a bit of a spat. We sat next to each other so we were bickering a bit during class. Teacher had yelled at me to shut up and do the work. I sighed "Leave me the fuck alone"

bad move.

She called me to front of class and I got 5 licks of paddle in front of everyone. They'd stick finger in your belt loop and yank it up tight to put that extra sting on it. Embarrassing as hell! Even female older teachers who didn't paddle hard, it was just too embarrassing to get paddled, so kids behaved.


And of course if you refused paddling which you could but you'd take a zero for the day's work. few of those in a semester and no matter how hard you worked you were flunking that semester.


But the system worked.

It wasn't until they went crazy insane on political correctness, stopping corporal punishment, and putting cops/rent a cops/guards in schools and after the No Child Left Behind was signed into law, they severely dumbed down kids forcing the smartest to learn at the slowest kids pace. Doc's prescribing SSRI's like candy to kids in MASSIVE quantities, that schools in today's culture are crazy.

What I fail to understand is how no one was charged with anything (again). In 2008 the Societe General "lost" 4.9 bilion Euros and the blamed it all on one guy, Jerome Kerviel, a junior trader who supposedly could gamble around with nearly five billion Euros without cheking in with his superiors.

In this case, the CEO of JPMorgan even blamed "a small group of employees" yet still, the US DOJ is not charging any indivduals.

It seems the banks have grown so far out of the reach of the world's justice departments in the last few years that they not even bother to present a fall guy for their crimes anymore.

I was in one of the areas that does ACT instead of SAT. I took the test when I was a freshman and got a 29 (out of 36, quite a high score), and never took it again -- I think due to a mixture of apathy and fear that my score would go down, although that wouldn't matter because you always submit your highest score.

I went to a local state university even though a 29 on the ACT is high enough to get some attention from prestigious universities. Personally, I was NOT impressed with the state of post-secondary education in the US. I'm "glad" that I went and got my degree, but only because it is expected and pretty much a requirement for getting most jobs.

I did learn some stuff, about 25% of which I feel was actually relevant to my field of study (Computer Science). If I was interested in paying the university for actual knowledge obtained as opposed to paying them for a piece of paper that opens doors to jobs, I could have packed all the relevant classes into 1-1.5 years and gotten the same amount of knowledge out at a small fraction of the cost (less than 1/4). University education felt extremely inefficient and arbitrary to me.

I don't think I'd have been any more impressed with an ivy league university education. Pay a LOT more, deal with the same inefficiencies, and end up with roughly the same amount of actual knowledge gained -- but an admittedly more (arbitrarily) valuable piece of paper to wave at job recruiters.


The situation is only getting worse for the Gen Y's and Millenials behind me. Higher expectations / requirements for college degrees in jobs that have no business requiring them, much higher tuition even at state universities, etc. I don't have any solution or advice other than suggesting that people take as many credits as possible from cheapo junior / community colleges and then transfer those to the cheapest in-state university they can.

So basically, I guess that I think that the SAT (or ACT) is actually less broken than the entire post-secondary education system at large in the US. A mere symptom of a much more severe underlying problem.

and if the drugs don't get you, the concussions will.

Junior Seau put the gun to his heart, rather than his head, because he wanted to make sure the autopsy revealed what he already knew.

Believe it or not, I think I was already wondering about those type of topics at that age (as I had always been a HUGE space and science fan, I knew by age "3" essentially that I wanted to be an Astronaut; which I'm sure my parents got a kick out of).

However, here is the problem with asking that/those type of questions (as I believe many people have more than likely been down this road). The community and the adults around you shape parts of your reality AND how you decide to continue to ask or answer that question(s). In my case, the problem was: religion. The answer to ALL my questions back then were: religion...

It wasn't until I was around 16 that I became highly suspicious and then began to bring up ALL of these questions I had "thought" WERE answered...but, they weren't at all. Finally by the age of 18 (into 19) I had shaken off the chains of religion that had held me down and to this day I have to wonder what would have become of me, what COULD have become of me, if I had an educated answer to my questions and not merely the answer that is given by those that don't know (a.k.a., I hate to say it, but it IS true: the stupid or ignorant people).

Religion DID, however, give me answers to some things I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. But, in the long run I must admit that--while a small amount of good came from it--it truly didn't out-weigh the tremendous amount of damage that had been done to me (as I bet others can attest to this being true for them as well). I was forced to go backwards through my entire life and then question myself on everything I believed and stood for, including "facts" and other such things that science uses as foundational elements--but, religion uses belief in the same manner as "facts" (as we were taught in some cases to say that we "knew" or "know" that something is true, rather than using "believe", "thought", or had "faith"...pretty shady right?!). This took a very long time, years on end, to finally "un-clutter" my mind.

Now I'm left wondering how well I would have done without all that nonsense pored into my mind DAILY (as I attended seminar...).

So I appreciate Neil's answer here in many ways. He is telling this kid to explore the world around him and to some degree, don't obey everything you are told (so long as it isn't dangerous). He is absolutely right. I merely wish I had people that told me the same things. As I didn't get "this idea" until FAR later in life (since my mind becomes "infatuated" with questions and ideas, getting the religious answer to my questions prompted me to literally think of everything possible within the religion to make things work "logically", and I was very much "zealot" like...because as I said, these questions consume me, so I cannot help but BE a "zealot")...

But, eventually I had a Physics class and that re-opened everything. I started to ask those questions again and NOW I found a new answer to what I had previously been told. The huge difference this time was: facts and proof; and also that it is all derived from logic. Physics was essentially undeniable. You could not refute it, because this was how we made things work around the world--via engineering--the math within it is used to control, make, and imagine anything you wish to engineer (or if you wish to do an experiment). I already had major issues with religion, but I was making logical "excuses" to make it work. But, with this huge influx of knowledge everything changed (how I wish we would have had Physics in Junior High; why do we not...don't we want engineers?).

I hate to add religion into this topic, but I thought it good to point out that this kid may be heavily influenced by Neil. This conversation that Neil directs towards him may end up being one of the most important events in his life. Just as mine was when I asked certain questions, I received religious based answers...practically deciding the path I would take...at least while I was a child/kid. But, had I been a slightly more stupid or just ignorant person, then I would still, right now, believe fully in religion.

So, when a child asks you ANY question like this do not joke around about it--while it is cute, you must remember that YOU are shaping their future and their destiny...

/lengthy

As pointed out this has nothing to do with the NHL. And it's also not the North American Hockey League which is a separate league in its own right. This is the Ligue Nord-americain de Hockey, a Quebec semi pro league manned to a large degree by retired enforcers from the NHL and guys who never made it that far. To play in the league you have to be born in Quebec or played junior hockey there. And yes the marketing of this league is probably aimed at the UFC/WWE/WCW crowd.

Since we are sharing stories of our use of illegal drug paraphernalia, here's one of mine. When I was in high school ( all these stories should start with a variation of this opening), my friends and I took a cardboard shipping tube about 4 inches in diameter and 4 or 5 feet long and made a bong out of it. It took three good pulls to get the smoke up to our lungs . All that lung work followed by a great big bong hit was VERY effective. We named it the BONGZOOKA. It was a big hit (pun intended). We kept that thing around our whole junior year. I too grew up and quit smoking the weed, ...but.. I miss the 70s and the bongzooka.