Your video, Why Harry Dean Stanton Is The Greatest Character Actor, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Any tax that is paid to the "government" directly is a "direct tax". According to the US Constitution, a "direct tax" has to be apportioned to the states. The 16th Amendment supposedly changed that. It moved the income tax from a direct tax to an "indirect" tax, and both the Brushaber and the Stanton case, the SCOTUS said that the "income tax" was an indirect tax on "gains and profits from labor or other corporate activity." That's is the meaning of "income" in the income tax". It is supposed to apply only to "gain" from corporate activity. Your wages or receipts for your personal labor is not "taxable income" unless you work directly for the Federal Government, live in a Federal Zone, receive overseas income, or live overseas and receive income". These are activities that are under the direct jurisdiction of the Federal Government.

He kind of went from being a Keanu Reeves type guy and now is steering more towards Harry Dean Stanton or maybe even a little bit Christopher Walken. Bad early roles for his abilities maybe?

PS Ellen is rad.

Yo, play Ingress with me. It's an augmented reality game with two factions fighting over actual points of interest in reality: Post offices, fire departments, police stations, parks, college campuses, jamba fuckin juices.

Each location is a portal that you fight over and DESTROY for your factions. I am in the Orange County Resistance. If they want to stop us from playing, then they're going to have to stamp out all of our freedoms.

Fight the power peacefully and practice war in augmented reality!

@poolcleaner me: Garden Grove, Stanton, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Irvine, Costa Mesa. Civil Disobedience in the form of gaming.

(waves white flag) OK, I surrender. Jules Verne trumps Andrew Stanton, you win this round @EvilDeathBee
>> ^EvilDeathBee:

>> ^oritteropo:
Because cephalopods are friends, not food?
>> ^Sagemind:
My local store had something like this a few weeks ago.
Vegan squid. and it has absolutely no real meat in it what-so-ever!~ They were so proud of their product. All I could think of was "Then, why would I want to eat it?"


Tell that to Captain Nemo

@jbaber

"Truth for authority, not authority for truth."


The facts are that religious institutions, specifically the many denominations of Christianity in the United States, supported the status quo in regard to slavery, women's rights, birth control, evolution, and tried to censor free speech.

See the following, Slavery - 1 Timothy 6:1 as used by southern ministers promoting slavery, the Comstock Laws( and Anthony Comstock on wiki) and their abuse in regard to 1)atheism (which was labeled obscene) 2) birth control 3) free speech.

While I think the abolitionist movement specifically owes more to Enlightenment philosophy - not atheism or Christianity, I believe it is justified to point on the specific failings of religious institutions.

Were some Christians abolitionists? Of course. John Brown was as were many of the delegates to the 1840 convention (many were Quakers) which also denied women delegates the right to vote.

But other important leaders such as William Garrison and Henry Stanton were anti-clerical.

In closing, religious institutions, as a whole, were not and have not been the catalyst of change, but of upholding the status quo.

Gotta give credit where credit is due. Gene Wilder rocks.

Lasseter, Docter, Stanton, and Bird were all mentioned but I think Bud Luckey and the late Joe Ranft should be recognized, too for all the work they've done with all these films.

Otherwise, very well done.

Current rescheduling:

Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 4:00pm at Red Lion Tavern located at
2366 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039:

CONFIRMED
---------
blankfist: Los Angeles
DystopianFutureToday: OC
IssyKitty: Anaheim
Lucky760: OC
Charms: OC
DarkRowan: OC
youdiejoe: Los Angeles
Grimm: Stanton (OC)
waxxx: San Diego
GreatBird: San Diego
volumptuous: within stumbling distance

UNCONFIRMED
-----------
Jordass: The Valley
gourmetemu: on a hot date

NOT ATTENDING
-------------
rottenseed: San Diego
YouLickMyWhat: San Diego
MarineGunrock: Arizona
LittleRed: Arizona
Ant: Los Angeles
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC)

(Note that I moved the time to 4:00pm because it's going to be an hour drive or more for some of us and we don't want everyone to have to rush out too soon for the long drive back home.)

Sorry to hear that MG and LR. But glad everyone else can make it. Great that you can attend, darkrowan. Very happy rescheduling will work.

So here's the new roll call:

Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 5:00pm at Red Lion Tavern located at
2366 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039:

WILL ATTEND
-----------
blankfist: Los Angeles
youdiejoe: Los Angeles
GreatBird: San Diego
DarkRowan: OC
Lucky760: OC
Charms: OC
rottenseed: San Diego
YouLickMyWhat: San Diego
DystopianFutureToday: OC (tentative)

NO ANSWER TO RESCHEDULING YET
-----------------------------
waxxx: San Diego

ATTENDANCE UNSURE
-----------------
Grimm: Stanton (OC) (likely to attend)
IssyKitty: Anaheim (attendance still unclear)
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC) (unlikely but might attend; out of town)

NOT ATTENDING
-------------
MarineGunrock: Arizona
LittleRed: Arizona
Ant: Los Angeles

Stanton T. Friedman, UFOlogist, Physicist and Author will come to The Brogan Museum (350 S. Duval St., Tallahassee, FL) to lecture on the Roswell Incident!

Come for illustrated lectures:
“The Real Roswell Story”
November 7, at 7 p.m. and

“Star Travel? Yes!”
November 8 at 11 a.m.
Tickets are $10 each and are on sale at The Brogan Museum or by calling: 850-513-0700 x 0.

Friedman received his BS and MS degrees in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956. For 14 years he worked on the development of a wide variety of classified, advanced nuclear and space systems for such companies as GE, GM, Westinghouse, McDonnell Douglas, TRW Systems and Aerojet General Nucleonics.
Stanton Friedman became interested in Flying Saucers in 1958, gave his first lecture in 1967, and in the mid-1970s began the civilian investigation of the recovery of crashed flying saucers near Roswell, New Mexico.
Friedman has spoken at more than 600 colleges and over 100 professional groups in all 50 states, 9 Canadian provinces, and 16 other countries. He has appeared on hundreds of TV and radio programs including Larry King (4 times), Nightline, Peter Jennings, ET, Canada AM, Coast to Coast radio with Art Bell , George Noory, and George Knapp and in dozens of Documentaries on the History, Discovery,and Sci-Fi channels. He has published more than 90 UFO articles, Co-authored “Crash at Corona: The Definitive Study of the Roswell Incident” as well as “Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience” (with Kathleen Marden, Betty’s niece), “TOP SECRET/MAJIC” about Operation Majestic 12, and in June the new 2008 “Flying Saucers and Science”.

Sounds great!

So once again, here's the current roll call:

Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 5:00pm at Red Lion Tavern located at
2366 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039:

WILL ATTEND
-----------
blankfist: Los Angeles
youdiejoe: Los Angeles
MarineGunrock: Arizona
GreatBird: San Diego
waxxx: San Diego

ATTENDANCE UNSURE
-----------------
Grimm: Stanton (OC) (likely to attend)
IssyKitty/DFT: Anaheim (attendance still unclear)
DarkRowan: Costa Mesa (OC) (attendance still unclear)
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC) (unlikely but might attend; out of town)
Ant: Los Angeles (unlikely to attend; doesn't drive)

NOT ATTENDING
-------------
LittleRed: Arizona (term paper due)
Lucky760: OC (out of town on business)
Charms: OC (out of town on business)
rottenseed: San Diego (unable to attend that weekend)
YouLickMyWhat: San Diego (unable to attend that weekend)

update: See below.

Thanks for the suggestions, bf.

Red Lion Inn sounds great, but the billiard also sounds like fun. I guess I'd lean to the latter, but I'm fine with whatever the majority prefers.

So here's the current roll call for Saturday, November 22, 2008 at ~5:00pm (?) in Los Angeles:

WILL ATTEND
-----------
blankfist: Los Angeles - votes for Hollywood Billiards
rottenseed: San Diego - votes for ?
Lucky760+Charms: OC - votes for majority rule
youdiejoe: Los Angeles - votes for Red Lion Inn
MarineGunrock: Arizona - votes for Red Lion Inn
GreatBird: San Diego - votes for ?

ATTENDANCE UNSURE
-----------------
Grimm: Stanton (OC) (likely to attend)
IssyKitty/DFT: Anaheim (attendance still unclear)
DarkRowan: Costa Mesa (OC) (attendance still unclear)
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC) (unlikely but might attend; out of town)
Ant: Los Angeles (unlikely to attend; doesn't drive)

DESTINATION TALLY
-----------------
Red Lion Inn: 2
Hollywood Billiards: 1

Sounds good to me...I'll try to make it even though I've been more of a lurker lately...maybe I'll just lurk at the meetup.

I'm in Stanton btw.

blankfist: Los Angeles
rottenseed: San Diego
Lucky760+Charms: OC
youdiejoe: Los Angeles
MarineGunrock: Arizona

So, assuming that list of 6 is all who intends to participate, where/when do you blokes want to meet? I think LA County sounds like a good general location, but as east and south as we can get so it's as near Arizona and San Diego as possible (without putting ourselves in danger of a car jacking). Anyone know a good spot? How is a Saturday in November? Perhaps Nov 8?

So this is the outstanding list of other locals. Will any of you participate?
IssyKitty/DFT: Los Angeles
Jonny: Huntington Beach (OC) (moved away)
DarkRowan: Costa Mesa (OC)
GreatBird: San Diego
Ant: Los Angeles
Grimm: Stanton (OC)

Interesting "Stop Loss" info from wikipedia

The stop-loss policy, in the United States military, is the retention of troops to remain in service beyond their expected term of service.[1] It has been argued that soldiers contractually agree to partake in stop-loss, but this may or may not be the case, and the issue is still being debated, both in public and in federal court. Stop loss was created by Congress after the Vietnam War. Stop-loss has been justified on the legal basis of paragraph 9(c) which states: "In the event of war, my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six (6) months after the war ends, unless the enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States" but which has not been reviewed in full by a federal court system.

The use of this provision has been criticized by many as abuse of the spirit of the law, due to the fact it is often used in circmstances that Congress has not yet declared as war, such as in the current occupation in Iraq.

Stop-loss was first significantly used just before and during the first Gulf War. According to a military publication[1], "the Army last used stop loss during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990 when President George H. W. Bush delegated stop loss authority to the defense secretary." Since then, it has been used more extensively; since 2001 primarily after the national State of emergency declared by President George W. Bush

Stop-loss, as well as the practice of involuntary extension, have been controversial. In a campaign speech in 2004, former presidential candidate John Kerry described stop-loss policy as a "backdoor draft."[1]

The first legal challenge to this policy came in August 2004, with a lawsuit challenged by an anonymous National Guardsman in California.[2] A basis for the suit is that stop-loss does not apply to the current situation in Iraq, which is a military occupation and not a war zone. Another argument used in the case is that it broke the contract of the guardsman, as he had already fulfilled his IRR obligation.

The first legal challenge to the extension of term of service of military call-up or contract occurred during the American Civil War, when a soldier was courtmartialed by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton himself.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, as one of his first acts in his position, penned a memo compelling commanders to "minimize" the stop-lossing of soldiers.

The United States Department of Defense now has begun a program to replace the stop-loss, as it is "too controversial". The new program, known as Involuntary Extension, is a circumvention of stop-loss, and simply changes the ETS [end time service] date on a soldier's LES (Leave and Earnings Statement).

The Army claims that enlisted soldiers facing stop loss can now voluntarily separate from the United States Army by request, under provision 3-12, but this is deceptive because only after they complete an involuntary deployment of twelve to fifteen months and 90 days "stabilization time" can they apply.

Iraq Veterans Against the War, an activist organization of former and current service members, in solidarity with former Specialist and Iraq vet Evan Knappenberger, has announced a national "Stop the Stop-Loss" campaign at a recent press conference where they were holding a week-long vigil in a tower erected on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Other anti-Stop-Loss vigils have occured in Bellingham, Washington, and Colorado Springs, Colorado