majesticproductions

please note: This is simply a hypothetical question. I do not suggest that he has no legal right.

Doesn't matter the party here. It's a simple question. What would you do if it were discovered that the conspiracy theories about Obama not being a natural born US citizen (the requirement to be president) were proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to be true? Politically, we already know what would happen. He would be removed from office, and Biden would take his place while Congress and the Senate argued over whether or not he should face Jail. What's worse, if it were true it would render the treaties he made with China and Russia, invalid, and likely would spell for a very bad future.

That's not the point though. The question stands. What would you do, whether supporter or opposition to his presidency, if it were proven that he had no legal right to be President?

Now, this isn't meant to be political, just fun. I hope it brings a smile in some ways, but for the points I'll make this note. If you want the "best answer" keep it civil.

The question is simple. Can you name three politicians that just make you cringe every time they speak? Not because of what they say, but HOW they say it.

For example it could be their accent, like Barney Frank, or the way they can't pronounce anything right like George W. Bush did, or that annoying accent that Carter had. (What the heck is a "Paynut" anyway?*) So, who are your three? (and yeah, I just listed mine)

*Note: Carter is from Georgia (Plains to be exact) and had a habit of pronouncing Peanuts as "Pay-Nuts". It's just something that even to this day grates on my nerves.

For years now, I've had a problem sleeping. Most nights I only get about six hours sleep (on a good night) with my usual average being maybe three or four.

I've been to doctors, only to be prescribed medication that nearly killed me (no exaggeration there) and then when they found out I was allergic to it, I found out that there was nothing else I could take.

So as I sit up this early April First...I find myself asking a stupid question.

What's the easiest way, without medication, to cure my insomnia and help me sleep? I need the deep sleep, the restful sleep. Something I've not had in...well years.

I've wondered about this one for years. Now I'm male, and love women in all forms, well most forms. There are some that even I wouldn't go near. However, I have something of a curious problem.

For about oh...well near on thirteen years now, since I was in college, I've played on these online text based games called MUSHes. In every last case of them, I have played a female character.

I've never actually played a guy, and the more I think about it I don't think I could play one. Which is odd I'd have to say, since as I said...I'm male. I've never had an attraction, even in the slightest sense, for a guy, and yet when i'm in game, I can't even force myself to be male.

So, what does this make me beyond weird?

(Note: A friend suggested the word "Cyber Transgendered" claiming it meant someone who was male but played at being female. I didn't like that terming for it, but...well, was he right?

Note: I fully expect to get a boat load of flames for this, and mind not that I will. This is based off my own faith, and I have often wondered what, if I were to get out of this sheltered place I live in and speak more of it, what reactions I might get from those of other faiths.

I follow a faith called "Shinto Christianity" (don't bother googling it, you won't find anything. The sites have long since gone down.) which is an adaptation and merging of the teachings of Shinto, and Christianity. Like modern Christians, I believe that there the world was created by a God, and was created perfectly. I believe that what we do in this life reflects on us in the next when our judgement comes (Ie sin) and that we are held accountable for our actions. I believe in a soul, and that the Christ (it was at one time a title) died so that man may enter the world of Heaven. I believe much as modern Christians do, but I also have beliefs they do not.

I believe in Karma. I believe that our actions in this world reflect on us here as well. That if you do something bad to another person, eventually, it will come back to you. As well, if you do something selfless and good, then eventually it too will come back to you.

I believe in many Gods who are all one God. I believe that it is not for man to decide what the God, (or the Kami) can or can not do, and that each God is but an aspect of the one single God. All faces of the same one God.

I follow the teachings of Bushido, and at all times try to behave honorably. Even when it pains me to do so, I do not argue. Furthermore, I respect ALL religions, and non religions. Whether a theist or non theist, I treat all equally, for again, I believe we all come from the same source, and it is not for me to decide what fate another person should live.

I believe in Fate. I believe that we all are destined to die at a specific time, in a specific way, and there is nothing that we can do to change it. What life we live, though of our own choice, is still predetermined from the moment we are born, it's just up to us to decide how to get to that ultimate end.

That's what I believe, now presented with this, perhaps if someone spoke with you and stated it, how would you react or feel?

Not a joke, and not a real discussion. Just something I've always wondered. Please include details and sources :D

Obama's election into office mirrors the election of Ronald Reagan to his first term in 1981. In both cases, the president elected into office came on the heels of a poorly run presidency which saw gasoline prices skyrocket, and an economic downturn that nearly culminated in a full blown depression. Also, both presidents were something of an unknown factor, with one having only been a senator prior to election, and the other having served as a governor, with both having no prior governmental experience.

Do you agree with this analogy, equating Obama's election with Reagan's first term in 81?

More than 300 B-29 "Superfortress" bombers dropped nearly a half-million M-69 incendiary cylinders over Tokyo the night and early morning of March 9-10, 1945, destroying some 16 square miles of the city. The attack, coming a month after a similar raid on Dresden, Germany, brought the mass live incineration of civilians to a new level in a conflict already characterized by unprecedented bloodshed. The official death toll was some 83,000, but historians generally agree that victims unaccounted for bring the figure to between 100,000 and 250,000 — overwhelmingly civilians. It is widely considered to be the most devastating air raid in history. The American decision to go after civilians emerged from the failure of precision bombings against traditional military targets, and accompanied significant advances in technology and bombing tactics. The B-29, for instance, gave the United States greater range and firepower, while innovations such as low-altitude nighttime attacks multiplied the potential for terror and destruction. That terror was apocalyptic. The bombs, which released 100-foot streams of fire upon detonating, sent flames rampaging through densely packed wooden homes. Superheated air created a wind that sucked victims into the flames and fed the twisting infernos. Asphalt boiled in the 1,800-degree heat. With much of the fighting-age male population at the war front, women, children and the elderly struggled in vain to battle the flames or flee.

In the end, the attack did nothing to stem the tide of war, nor did it stop the Japanese from fighting. It wasn't until the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima that this changed.

Keeping this in mind, if you could go back in time and prevent this attack from taking place, saving those thousands of people; would you?

Whatever decision you make, please offer your arguments supporting it.

I want to toss out some curious figures here, and get reactions on them.

1.) The president's current approval rating, when averaged over Gallup, CNN, CBS, and a number of other media outlets put his rating at 60.8 approve, 31.2 disaprove. (These are percentages.)

2.) Congress's approval rating, when averaged over Gallup, NPR, Fox News, and NBC/Wall St Journal, stands at 36.8 Approve, 53.5 Disapprove.

3.) Direction of the country, also averaged over the polls mentioned, rates out at 35.8 Approve, 56.8 Disapprove.

In short, most of the country approves of the president, but doesn't approve of the work congress is doing, nor the direction the country is going.

As asked, does this shock you and what are your reactions?

Reading another question about "hello" made me think of this. I wonder if you have ever said this, and if so did you know what it meant?

The word we know today as "Goodbye" can be traced back to a sentence common in the middle ages. That sentence was "God be with ye" (or you if you prefer). Over the centuries it was truncted to what we know today as goodbye.

Having been here a while, I have to wonder. When you vote a person's answer as a thumbs down, why do you do so? Is it because you don't agree with what they say, how they vote, or what they stand for; or perhaps is it you don't feel that it answers the question best?

During a conversation with a friend of mine who did vote for Obama, she brought up something that I hadn't really thought of in some time. What ever happened to the federal investigation of Acorn for violation of laws governing their "tax exempt" status for a non partisan organization?

As this video shows, the "non partisan" organization's own chief organizer was calling for voters to vote for Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfUEPeO2_pc

Now, under 501(c) Organizations described in section 501(c)(3) are prohibited from conducting political campaign activities to intervene in elections to public office. The Internal Revenue Service website elaborates upon this prohibition as follows:

"Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

So, back to the question. If their actions were illegal, why are they not still under investigation?

Two Part Question

I'm really curious about this. Do you believe that the "Autostack" trains are actually "death trains" and if so can you provide hard evidence (not opinion) that supports your belief?

Now, for those that do not know, "autostack" train cars are this type of car: http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/up800344.j... (thanks to northeast railfan for the link). These cars are designed to carry automobiles on either two or three levels like so http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/rttx100838... (1966 open type). However a number of videos have cropped up that claim these railroad cars are in truth, "death trains" designed to carry a number of "inmates" (as the videos say) to FEMA Concentration Camps.

Taking into consideration the two offered pictures as reference, if you do believe in this, can you provide sound reasonable evidence as to why these cars are to be suspect?

I had something happen recently that rather left me puzzled. I couldn't sort out if it was something I said, did, or just my presence that prompted this, so I thought I'd ask others that believe the same (or at least similar) as this woman who approached me and see what they thought.

While in a book store with a friend of mine, we were sitting in some chairs having a rather peaceful and fun discussion about religion. My friend is a Baptist, I myself am Shinto Christian. We've always gotten along pretty well, and I must admit I rather look forward to the times we can get together and discuss religion.

While we were sitting there, keeping to ourselves and trying to remain as quiet as possible so not to disturb the other patrons of the book store, I noticed this woman a short distance away. Now I don't know why I looked up at her, I guess she was staring or something, but it caught my eye. As I glanced up I noticed this very sour look she had, but thought nothing of it. As I turned back to my friend to answer a question he had, this woman approached us.

Without even a polite introduction or even a question on what we were discussing, she began on this rather odd tirade rant about how religion was stupid, and anyone that believed in it was stupid. Furthermore, we must be the dumbest people she'd ever heard of to believe in such myths, and that SHE was smart enough to figure that out on her own. This went on for some time, before finally my friend informed her quite politely that while she was welcome to her opinion, she wasn't part of our conversation and would she please leave. A rather nice way of saying "Oh F*** off."

Here's the thing though, not arguing what you believe or not, I have to wonder. Do you agree with her choice of action? Of approaching two strangers who weren't speaking to her and not only interrupting their conversation, but verbally attacking them and insulting them for discussing their own feelings and beliefs?

Been thinking about this one recently, and wondered if I ought share it with the MLK jr. Center. It's a personal account which always had the family laughing, but I guess it's not something to laugh about. It's serious, but it offers another, possibly untold story about Dr King.

You may know the story of Dr. King being arrested in Georgia for marching without a permit (or so the authorities said). He and his supporters were then tossed in jail until most of them (save Dr. King himself) were released. Dr. King was later transferred onto another jail cell before ending up in one of the state prisons before being released on bond.

Here's the part of the story most people don't know.

Dr. King wasn't the only person in that cell. My Uncle, deceased two years ago, was in there with him. You see, my uncle was a Marine at the time, and was on leave when he got arrested for being drunk in public. It just happened that the cell they put him into, was the same cell that Dr King was placed into. I remember the family laughing some about it, because here you had this scrawny little marine, scared witless by all the peaceful protestors around him. In fact, as the story goes, my uncle went so far as to beg Dr. King to protect him, because he thought for sure the people outside the jail were going to riot, and if they came inside and found him there; since he was white they'd hang him. I remember my Uncle telling us how kind Dr. King was, and how he promised that it wouldn't ever happen, but added (after numerous repeated requests on the part of my uncle) that if it did happen, they'd have to go through him (Dr. King) first to get to my Uncle, so he needn't worry.

They took Dr. King away I think the next day, with the MP's coming to pick my uncle up shortly there after.

I know there isn't much to this story, and now that my uncle's gone I don't have anyone to back it up, but I wonder, should I pass this on to the King Center?

I don't quite remember where I read this, it may have been in my local news paper and could be taken out of context, but I found it curious and wondered if others (primarily liberals) agreed or disagreed with the statement.

"As things stand today, it doesn't really matter what President Elect Obama does, things are going to be very bad before they get any better, and they won't do so overnight. For the incoming president, he faces a term that you can expect to be laced with doubt, pain, and suffering; and he will be blamed for it, even though it's not his fault. Such is the way of the American government. Once things get screwed up, we pick one poor sod to blame, whether they had anything to do with the problem, or not. It's the greater measure of a President not to ask what they did or didn't do about a situation, but what they did when the people blamed them for it."

Taken from nycsubway.org: "A few minutes before the accident the motorman missed a switch, according to passengers, went some distance on a wrong track and then backed up and switched again to the Brighton Beach line for Coney Island. "

Here's my question.

Reading the account of this accident, it notes that the motorman had missed the switch, and was forced to back the train up before taking the correct one. What I don't understand, and maybe someone could explain this to me, is how was the switch operated?

I know that on some street systems (trolleys) the motorman could actually "steer" his car to some degree, electrically controlling the switches from within the cab. Was such the case with the subway trains?

If not, what method was used?

It's something I've always kinda wondered. Being a Yank, I don't know too much about British railways (meaning EWS, Virgin, etc) coupling practices. I know that for some time, screw and hook couplings (also called screw) and chain couplings were used; but I wondered if they're still in use or not?

If they are phased out, when did this occur and what took their place.

If not, what is the effectiveness of them?

I've had this dream a couple times now, and it never deviates from the same basic series of events.

The dream seems to happen in this kind of series of flashes and sticks with me most the day. It also ends curiously, though I have to admit it makes me laugh. (Good kind of laugh.) I guess looking at myself being somewhat silly for maybe reading too much into it.

In the dream it begins with me traveling abroad. I don't know where I am since I can't read the signs, but it's someplace in Europe, that much I know. In the next flash, I'm hiking somewhere and have a fall, breaking my leg. I'm in the distant woods and all by myself and feel pretty hopeless.

Here's where things turn odd.

In the next series of flashes I see myself lying on this pallet in the back of a traditional type (or at least as any story might write them) horse drawn gypsy wagon. My leg is mended and I'm being tended by this gorgeous girl (I guess around 18-20) but I can't speak. It's not like my mouth is gagged, but for some reason I can't make a sound come out of my mouth.

In the last flash, I'm sleeping with this girl. Now it's not sexual, but more like she's trying to protect me or keep me warm. It's as though it's very cold there and she keeps speaking to me, saying something that I don't understand but it sounds caring. Kinda like a mother to a child. As before, I can't speak during this, being unable to produce some sound from my mouth.

A couple times of this I've awoke, only to find myself curled up in a ball with one of my pillows held tightly to me, almost as I was holding the girl in the dream.

Not sure how long ago it was, but I ran across this really interesting website that I think was published by someone at Georgia Tech. The site had a list of photographs taken around Atlanta sometime in the fifties, and then returned to the same location about fifty years later and retook the photographs. It was very interesting, looking at the changes that had been made in those years, and how so many of the buildings and locations hadn't changed. Now however, I can't find the site.

Any one know where I'm looking for?