Zoomba

Reply to Why I Won't Vote for a Democrat in Democrat JoeUser Forums

Sorry for the delay in posting, I've been out most of the afternoon/evening... aconservative: The US Constitution is the more important document IMO. The Declaration is an ideal, a concept we wish to strive for (equality and freedom) while the Constitution is the document that builds the legal framework to follow-up on those ideals. The declaration is a wonderful document stating the value of man and how the world should be, but it doe

Reply to A detailed look at the federal budget in Politics JoeUser Forums

An excellent article, and surprisingly unbiased towards any which direction on the political spectrum. You brought to light many issues I guessed at but hadn't had confirmed for me yet. Our income versus expenses is a really skewed deal, and it's going to take adjustments on both sides of the equation to work it out. Sadly, I don't think we'll see a real shake-up of how we do social assistance spending (i.e. hand it down to the states, or to private

Reply to President's amendment proposal is bad politics in Republican JoeUser Forums

The reason I think all references should be changed to civil unions is because otherwise, you will see a separate set of rules and privledges arise for the two classifications. Marraige is a religious concept that somehow got codified in US law, but since we've recently gotten into the argument of what the word means, changing it to "civil union" is the only way to remove the religious aspect of the argument. In the eyes of the law, it should not ma

Reply to Why I Won't Vote for a Democrat in Democrat JoeUser Forums

Russellmz2 you said: wait a second. how do we know all these "heterosexual" couples walking around are actually heretosexual? what if a pair of lesbians and a pair of gay guys decide to marry. My reply: I don’t’ see any problem with that. They can. The law in California and the 37 other states, enacted by their legislatures, states that only a man and a woman can marry. You just shot down your econom

Reply to President's amendment proposal is bad politics in Republican JoeUser Forums

A vast majority of the populace opposed interracial marraiges, a vast majority opposed women's rights to vote, a very large portion of the country even opposed the abolishment of slavery. You can not always go with the voice of the people to determine policies such as these, doing so takes away freedoms from the minority groups. Also, the purpose of constitutional amendments is to protect freedoms, not limit them. That said, I think there needs to be a change in how marraige/civil uni

Reply to What Makes A Successful Online Community? in Websites JoeUser Forums

I understand a loose yet clearly defined and uniformly enforced terms of service is necessary for any community site. I'm mulling over in my head what the few rules will end up being and how I will enforce them. Perhaps I should give you a better idea of what exactly I'm working on, it may help narrow down comments/make it easier to give feedback: MMORPGs have rather steep learning curves, add to that the fact that most player groups in existing games are already pretty much e

What Makes A Successful Online Community? in Websites JoeUser Forums

I'm what you would consider a bit of a Internet veteran. I don't go as far back as the mainframe days, in fact I'm mostly from the age of the Macintosh and the first PCs... but I've been online for quite some time now (earliest net memories involve BITNET, Gopher, Archie & Veronica etc...). I've been using the WWW almost from the beginning of it (I used to have the first release of NCSA Mosaic) and I've been involved in online communities off and on

Reply to Copyright Violations in Misc JoeUser Forums

Everyone needs to realize that this is NOT a free speech issue. This is a privately owned and run site where you have no real rights. If Brad decided he didn't want anyone with red hair posting, it would be within his rights to deny redheads access. He is NOT limiting your free speech anyway. Free speech is meant for the free expression and exchange of ideas. You are not expressing or exchanging any of your own thoughts when you just repost an art

Reply to Copyright Violations in Misc JoeUser Forums

E. Macy: The issue at hand is that people are posting COMPLETE copies of articles and either not providing proper references (which are required, otherwise you are portraying the content as having been created and owned by you) or not providing any additional comment or insight. Doing so is not constructive or conducive to disgussion. You'd be much better off just linking to the article and providing 1 or 2 lines of personal insight. Personally, I think if you feel an article is important

Reply to Love, sex, marriage, and relationship observations in Personal Relationships JoeUser Forums

You still married for the wrong reasons, rather simplistic ones at that. I don't care how good looking or smart a kid is, if they do not grow up in a loving, caring household then they're at a disadvantage later in life. You looked at marraige as a means to an (rather selfish) end and picked a partner not based on emotion and respect but on genetics and probabilities. I would honestly rather have ugly people in the world who are capable of loving an

Reply to Why I Won't Vote for a Democrat in Democrat JoeUser Forums

Brad, You're right, IP and Digital Rights is not a good analogy to constitutional amendments, I apologize, it was just a quick example of how courts are an important part of the law making/evolving process. Constitutional issues should be resolved by the Supreme Court when possible IMO. Often times though, courts don't make new laws as they do refute the constitutionality of existing laws, or deem that the law does not properly apply to a

Reply to Why I Won't Vote for a Democrat in Democrat JoeUser Forums

The Constitution has to be a living document as times, attitudes and needs change. The original framers could not account for how society changes with the advance of technology, with the advance of science in general. The amendment banning slavery is an example of how it is a living document and must change to deal with shifting attitudes and needs. Many conservatives right now are working on an amendment to codify marraige as a union between a man and a woman. Both sides are trying to conti

Reply to Love, sex, marriage, and relationship observations in Personal Relationships JoeUser Forums

It sounds like you went into this for all the wrong reasons. You both seem to have gone in for the trophy spouse, looking for the status and benefits associated with being married (security, sex, kids etc...) rather than the emotional attachment. Marrying for money is just as bad as marrying for any of the other simplistic reasons you listed, since you didn't do it out of genuine caring for your husband (or he for you). I think you two have done you

PC Game Distribution Models in Misc Games JoeUser Forums

I've been gaming for over 15 years now, having started on the Atari and moved on to the NES, Sega Genesis, and the newer crop of consoles. I've also been gaming on PCs for just over 10. I'm accustomed to the release day ritual of making the trek to the local WalMart or EB to pick up a pre-ordered copy of whatever the newest hottest game is, coming home and loading it up and playing for the rest of the day. This started in a time where I practica

Reply to Why Men Are Happier Than Women(or at least why we should be) in Humor JoeUser Forums

All so very very true!

Reply to Whiners, Go Away! in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I've used a multitude of Blog sites in the past few years, even built a basic one for myself at one point, but thus far JoeUser is the best one I've come across. The site doesn't offer all the best technical features I'm used to in a blog, doesn't have the bells, whistles and such that you see on sites such as LiveJournal, but what it does offer beats any other site hands-down. There's a community here. While I may not agree with the views expressed

Strategies For The Job Hunt? in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

This is a sort of follow-up to my previous article asking for help in how to land a job as a fresh college graduate. The consensus was that I needed to either develop a very specific set of skills or try to get in with a smaller company as a generalist and work my way up. At this point in time I'm realizing that I can't really afford to spend the next several months not really making money while I try and train myself into a more focused job candidate, so I'm looking to take the second path of

Reply to Another local column on student beating in Misc JoeUser Forums

With all the attention this is getting over the lack of punishment for the bully and such, I wonder if my local school district takes on problems like this in some new and revolutionary way. Some years ago when I was in middle school, a bully decided I would be an excellent target and beat the living snot out of me... went at me with a rubber hose and everything resulting in over half my face being swollen and bruised (And arms as all I tried to do was block shots). The recommended policy of t

Reply to Teachers' Unions and the State of Schooling: America's New Joke? in Republican JoeUser Forums

On the language issue: I'm another one of those who's in favor of the "When in Rome, do as the Romans" approach. When traveling abroad, I do my best to try and accomodate to the culture I'm visiting. If I'm in France, I pull out my French-English dictionary and phrase book and do my best to communicate. Afterall, I am the guest, the outsider entering the culture. If someone comes to the US where English is the dominant language (though not comp

Reply to How To Ace An Interview Part I in Business JoeUser Forums

I handle interviews very well, once I'm able to get past the resume review step I'm typically able to get to at least the second or third interview stage (I was a few days away from being flown down to a company's HQ for a final interview and a tour of the offices when some internal events caused the job to fall through). I've never sat through one seminar or help session on how to interview, I just naturally am able to do the shmoozing thing. However, that's a bit rare from what I've seen of

Reply to Cybersist.com - Comment? in Websites JoeUser Forums

Do you offer a service that people can't get elsewhere? What makes your specific site stand out amongst the horde of free similar services (you even admit to using a very familiar interface)? These are really important questions to ask yourself when putting out a site like that. JoeUser stands out from other blog sites in its community, and how it brings attention to particularly interesting articles (the featured ones on the front page) and the easy to follow list of recent updates and forum

Reply to Kerry affair with Intern in Democrat JoeUser Forums

I think in the end, this won't really do anything either way for Kerry, since most people now accept the fact that what goes on in someone's personal life has little bearing on how effective they would be as President. Adultery in politics existed well before Clinton, he was just the first major one dumb enough to get caught. On the issue of draft-dodghing and skirting military service, I have no issue with people attacking Clinton for that, it's a v

Reply to Linux and things in Blogging JoeUser Forums

For Windows gaming in Linux, check out http://www.transgaming.com/ and their WineX application. THe site has all sorts of info on what games are supported and to what degree.

Reply to Give this little guy a name.... or the bunny gets it! in Home & Family JoeUser Forums

I vote for Dr. Zaius or Cornelius

Reply to How Do I Get a Good Job? in Misc JoeUser Forums

I'd like to thank everyone for the excellent suggestions and criticisms, this is exactly what I was looking for when I posted this particular article. I know things aren't hopeless, or even all that bad, I just feel a bit overwhelmed where I am right now. I'm looking at training and cert programs in my area to take to give me some more stand-out skills and will be looking around the area at smaller companies to get in with. I also plan on building a few good project examples in PHP to show of