Happy Upcoming Summer 2011!

Happy Upcoming Summer 2011!

Happy New Year 2010!

Happy New Year 2010!

Happy Fall 2010!

Happy Fall 2010!

Happy December!

Happy December!

Jokes

"There are many nasty jokes about attorneys:An attorney went swimming in shark-infested waters, but didn't get bitten? Why not? Answer: Professional courtesy.Another attorney died and went to heaven, Saint Peter met him at the gate, and informed him that the Presidential Suite would be ready for him in about ten minutes, and invited him to take a seat in the waiting area. While the attorney was waiting, he saw the Pope who had just died, come to the gate. Saint Peter told him: "Oh yeah, Pope, we'll put you in Dormitory H."The attorney got up and asked Saint Peter why the Pope was getting a bed in the dormitory, while he, a mere attorney, was getting a suite all by himself. Saint Peter answered: "Well, I've got 75 popes up here, but you're the only attorney who ever made it."Another attorney comes to the pearly gates, protesting there must be an error, because he's only 38 years old, and too young to die. Saint Peter asks him to wait, while he checks his record book. Upon returning, Saint Peter tells him: :"Well, I've checked our records, and according to hours billed, you're 86 years old."Attorneys have been getting very bad press lately, much of which comes from doctors who resent being held responsible for their careless and neglect. Some people have the personal opinions that anyone who becomes an lawyer in an unethical slimeball. In reality,there are good and bad lawyers, just as there are good and bad doctors, grocers, mechanics, etc."

"Like doctors, lawyers often specialize. Some are criminal lawyers, while others do corporate law. There are family practioners, and even divorce specialists....

One point to keep in mind, though, is that attorneys bill by the hour, and that, like a taxi driver, your attorney has a vested interest in keeping the meter running. Keep this in mind at every point, because you may find it's cheaper to make a concession in your case than to spend twice as much on attorney's fees fighting it in court. Beware of the lawyer who wants to fight every minor point out in court. "

Pre-Employment Integrity Testing Practice Test Lying

"Give yourself 1 point for each of these items that you have answered True:5. As a child, I was never punished for misbehaving. T/F19. I always tell the truth. T/F57. I have never used profanity. T/F64. I have not gotten angry at anyone. T/F69. I always feel happy. T/F75. I have never done anything for which I later felt ashamed of. T/F Give yourself 1 point of each of these items you answered F:12. I have laughed occasionally at a dirty or racist joke.28. I can recall at least one instance in my life when I 'got away' with something. T/F42. I sometimes hated my parents when I was growing up. T/F48. There have been times in my life when I thought about su----. T/F If the total is 6 points or greater, you have failed the test."

This is what Charles said.

Practice Pre-Employment Integrity Testing Attitudes

"Attitudes (Give yourself one point) for each of these items you answer Yes:3. I would be upset if a friendly coworker was fired for taking home a box of paper clips. 40. As a rule, I almost always try to give people a second chance. 46. If you were the boss, would you treat a long-term employee differently from a new hire if both were caught punching the time clock for friends? 73. If I were the boss, I'd be more apt to overlook a minor incident of shoplifting if the employee were a single mother. Give yourself 1 point for each of these items that you answered N:10. I think some crimes are so awful that they require a death penalty. 16,. An employee who takes home damaged merchandise without permission should be treated just as if the merchandise were not damaged. 52. Do you think that a person should be treated like a criminal if she steals something her family really needed? 62. I believe in the phrase, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'For 61. and 9 Give yourself one point if you answer anything except Fired or arrested. An employer discovers that a worker occasionally takes mj on the job. Other options. Warned. Suspended. Ignored. 9. An employer discovers that a worker has been removing aluminum cans from a recycling bin, so he can cash in on the way home. Same answer as 61. "

Charles said this. The more points a person has, the less they would be recommended for hire.

Watch

"
What to Watch Out For, When You Remain Silent and Ask to See a Lawyer
When you’re in custody, once you say I’m going to remain silent. I would like to see a lawyer, the police are not allowed to question you—but you actually have to remain silent. You can’t talk to the police about anything, not the weather or sports or movies. You can’t ask simple questions, like “When do I get my phone call?” 1 Don’t make small talk. Don’t make jokes. Silent really means silent.

The only exception to remaining silent is giving your name and address. You will have to provide that information if you want to be “released on promise to appear” (the promise to appear is a document, usually a ticket, telling you when to come to court—Sample Promises to Appear). Do not give any other information, such as your social security number, the names of family members, employment data, etc. This is important, because one of the most effective police interrogation techniques is to relax the subject by posing safe, normal questions—the kind that come up on countless forms and applications. The cop will seem bored and business-like, just “getting through all the paperwork.” An experienced officer will then move very gradually into questions about the people and incident under investigation, without any pause or change of tone. So don’t let them get you on a roll, obediently answering “safe questions.” Instead, mentally rehearse exactly what information you’re going to give: you’re going to say only your name and address, nothing else. If you don’t set that limit ahead of time, you’ll find yourself answering all sorts of questions, some of which are bound to hurt.

If you’ve been arrested and you break your silence to give your name and address, immediately follow-up by repeating the Magic Words: I’m going to remain silent. I would like to see a lawyer. This restores your constitutional protection, making it illegal for the police to question you further.
There are two common misconceptions when it comes to remaining silent:
Misconception 1: Many people assume that if they say I’m going to remain silent, I would like to see a lawyer or “I take the fifth,” then nothing they say afterward can be used against them. That’s a ghastly mistake. Saying the Magic Words merely keeps the police from questioning you after arrest, and only as long as you stay silent. If you break the silence by saying anything at all—whether it’s a statement or a question—your words can be used against you and you’ll have destroyed the effect of the Magic Words. You’ll have to say them again to be protected from questioning.
Misconception 2: Sometimes people get confused and think that informal conversation is okay, as long they don’t “make a statement” or “give a confession.” That’s dangerously wrong. Anything you say—anything at all—can be used against you, even questions, casual remarks, and jokes. It doesn’t matter whether your words are written down or spoken, or whether you’re in custody or free to go. And your statements can easily be twisted, taken out of context or misquoted. It’s impossible to predict all the things that could go wrong once you start talking. So the only safe course is to remain silent. Here are some examples, based on real cases, of people who talked their way into prison:

Example: Sue and Sally were arrested together in a drug case. At the police station, they were kept in separate holding cells, out of earshot of each other. The detective investigating the case questioned them individually about the crime. Neither of them answered these questions. However, Sue chatted with the detective, just making small talk—she told him where she went for dinner the night before, where she was planning to go for vacation, etc. Later on, the detective went to Sally and fooled her into thinking that Sue snitched on her. Sally wouldn’t have believed the detective, except that he mixed in the trivial information Sue had given him earlier, and those tidbits of truth made his story very convincing. Once Sally was persuaded that Sue had told on her, Sally angrily insisted it was all Sue’s doing. The detective then took Sally’s statements to Sue, who was outraged, and promptly ratted on Sally. So in the end, both suspects were suckered into snitching on each other.2
When law enforcement officers are questioning you, it’s completely legal for them to lie about the evidence and even create false documents in order to fool you into talking! Since you cannot be sure that the officers you’re dealing with are telling the truth, the only safe thing to do is to stay silent. As the saying goes, “a fish won’t get caught if it keeps its mouth shut.” 3. You should be allowed to make a phone call within a few hours of arrest, usually soon after you arrive at the police station or jail. Normally, you're put in a holding cell that has a telephone in it, though these phones are often rigged so that you can only make collect calls. The authorities are allowed to listen in on your calls from jail, so you must not talk about the incident for which you were arrested or any other illegal activities in which you might have been involved. It's best not even to talk about other people, because they might be investigated or questioned. The importnat thing to communicate is that your friends or relatives should get you a lawyer and/or a bail bondsman. If you haven't been given access to a telephone, say: "I would like to call a lawyer." This has the same legal effect as saying, "I would like to see a lawyer," so it doesn't wipe out the protection you get from saying the Magic Words.2. For another example of this technique, see Rat Jacket.3. Attorneys have been giving this particular piece of advice for hundreds of years. Back in 1614, an English lawyer named John Hoskyns (who was, at the time, locked up in the Tower of London for being disruptive) wrote to his young son: Sweet Benjamin, since thou art young, And hast not yet the use of tongue, Make it thy slave, while thou art free; Imprison it, lest it do thee.The Columbia World of Quotations, s.v., "John Hoskyns," http://bartleby.com/. "

This is what Katya said in 2004 and 2007.

While

"While acknowledging that business owners have a right to protect themselves from counterproductive and criminally inclined employees, integrity test critics question whether these paper-and-pencil confessionals are fair to the vast majority of honest job applicants. One persistent criticism focuses attention on he actual test items; they are flawed, it is argued, because they are based on unproven assumptions. A passing score cannot be achieved unless the applicant demonstrates a punitive and authoritarian attitude; leniency is unacceptable, even though there is no hard evidence linking a charitable disposition to dishonesty. Admissions items- equally unsupported- also give rise to some devilish catch-22s and logical conundrums: If Applicant A honestly reports his past misbehaviors, he is penalized with a lower test score. Applicant B, on the other hand, can withhold equally damaging information about his past and obtain a higher score- thus being rewarded for lying. As far as the integrity test is concerned, the applicant who tries to turn his life around and plot a course on the straight-and narrow is deemed less trustworthy than the applicant who continues to lie. This kind of twisted logic should be reason enough to cast doubts on the predictive capabilities of attitudes/admissions items, but there's more: these items consistently fail to take into account the strong role that situational variables play in determining behavior. The trait-heavy nature of most integrity tests is indefensible against what many see as fundamentally a security or 'environment management problem.'
Whether or not integrity test items are based on an ill-conceived theory of honestly is still hotly debated by opposing camps of psychologists and professional researchers. Other groups (like civil libertarians) are more concerned with privacy issues raised by the tests...There is a strong possibility that many of the applicants did not want to hurt their chances for employment by maligning the test, so they stuck with a socially desirable response. (Interestingly, this kind of 'self-protecting' instinct may have helped them more than they realized: additional studies have shown that those who object more to integrity tests are more likely to receive lower scores)."

This is what Charles said.

Non

"Non U.S. citizens who've been arrested for a crime have the rights to remain silent and to have a lawyer present during question. These rights are based on the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the US Constitution, and they protect everyone, citizens and non-citizens, adults and children. You have these rights even if you are 'undocumented' or no longer have a valid visa.
Immigration and other law enforcement officers often try to intimidate non-U.S. citizens by saying 'You're a foreigner, you don't have any rights,' or 'The Constitution only applies to citizens, not aliens. These are lies ( or gross ignorance). So if you are arrested, it's critical that you invoke your rights- especially the right to remain silent-regardless of what the officers are telling you."

This is what Kataya said.

Squatting

"In Philadelphia, there are 35,000 abandoned buildings. One good solution is squatting. Living a squat is safer (and warmer) than living on the streets. It is cheaper by far than paying rent. Occupied buildings are safer than empty ones...

.Move in. Secure the building (locks inside and out, good strong doors). Fix holes....

Check out the legal status. To do this, take the address of your possible building to the tax record room on the bottom floor of the Municipal Building (Broad St. & J>F.K. Blvd in Philadelphia). Talk to people in charge there who will help you look up the address(es) in your records book. if your building is city,s state or federally owned, it is probably caught up in red tape and is safe to move into. If it is privately-owned, more than $1,000 tax delinquent, it is also probably safe."

This is what a person said.

Serious

Once a relationship becomes serious, you both need to speak up and express your thoughts and feelings. If either of you is overly private or withdrawn, the relationship will be in jeopardy. If the man is too quiet, do not assume all is well. Draw him out. Even if you are shy or reserved, you need to tell him about yourself.

Some quiet people take great pride in being self-sufficient, even to the point of hiding their personal needs or wants. These folks display affection by performing their duties in their relationship, but not by talking about the relationship or its problems. Excessive people take pride in verbalizing their wants and needs...

Some people have a very strong sense of personal privacy and consider inquisitive people to be nosy. Yet people who are caring and concerned will inquire about a loved one's private life and expect some answers."

This is what Margaret said.

Bundy

"What did Ted Bundy have for his last meal? this is, by far, the most frequently asked question. Surprisingly, Ted Bundy had no speical last meal request. He was served the traditional last meal of steak, eggs, and potatoes...Ted did not dine with the same gusto...Perhaps he believed a little last minute weight loss would help him slip from the shackles of the Florida electric chair for a third dramatic escape from judicial confinement. (He already mastered two escapes from a Colorado jail)."

This is what Ty and Michelle said.

Guards

Prison guards soon find out if they want to earn some extra money, they can smuggle as a sideline. Often, it starts out in a minor way, with a convict asking a guard if he'd smuggle out a letter that he doesn't want read by prison officials. If a the guard accepts, and takes payment from the addressee, the hook is planted. The next request might be to bring in an envelope or small packet, without disclosing the contents to the guard.

If the packet contains illicit drugs, the guard is more beholden than ever. this gives the inmate and his outside confederate a hold over the guard, and leverage to oblige him to do more 'favors.'...

In some especially corrupt prisons, administration officials are part of the scheme. The prison administrators can try to stamp out smuggling if they wish, by enforcing strictly all of the regulations, or they can turn a blind eye. Some will go so far as to take part of the action by themselves, on the basis that, as smuggling is inevitable, they might as well profit from it. In one prison, the deputy warden was the leader of the smugglign ring, and the illicit drugs 'passed across his desk.'....

The guards who are 'clean' resent this, but are powerless to do anything. Smugglers operate secretly, and in any event any guard who exposes another runs the risk of reprisals from his fellow employees, much the same situation that affects a corrupt police department. This affects the morale of honest guards."

Correction To ISP

ISP should correctly read what Thom said, not Martin.

ISP

"Many of us are accustomed to viewing the Web as a wellspring of vast number of sources of information, free of restraining influence. Indeed, if properly used by knowledgeable people, it can be. Bur in practice, perhaps not as much as we would think. In August 2001, the authoritative Jupiter Media Matrix research company reported that just four corporations own the Web sites that more than 50 percent of Americans spend time viewing...Your ISP can program their sytems to give you quick access to Web sites of corporations who pay a fee to them, and subtly (or not so subtly) slow your access to the rest of the Internet. Although many Internet users think of the World Wide Web as a commons of ideas, it's a commons whose access is now almost entirely controlled by a small number of very large corporations.""The FCC has recently allowed four giant media corporations to buy up radio stations nationwide to the point where four companies now control 90 percent of total advertising revenues.""Today, despite more than 25,000 outlets in the United States, twenty-three corporations control most of the business in daily newspapers, magazines, television, books, and motion pictures."

This is what Martin said.

Ph.D

"The next time you get the opportunity to talk to someone who has run the Ph.D. gauntlet, or even better, someone who started but dropped out, ask him about his experience. Did he find it fair, challenging? Did he think he was treated well, with respect? There is no better way to understand what is involved than to listen to the pain and anguish of one who has experienced it.

"Perhaps the most startling finding of this work In Pursuit of the PhD is that fewer than half of all students who enter Ph.D. programs ever get the degree- more than half drop out along the way. They don't drop out casually, but more likely 'after pursuing degrees for anywhere from six to twelve years.

This terrible waste and abuse of some of America's finest talents has been going on silently, virtually unnoticed, for decades...The traumas associated with the pursuit of the Ph.D. may even have discouraged many scholars from returning to such a personally painful subject.."

"What we see are 33,000 middle-aged men and women groggily grasping the Ph.D. degree every year. What we don't see are the ten of thousands of brilliant minds who would not tolerate the abuse, the students who would not submit to the humiliation and exploitation. Tragically, this probably includes many of the best minds in America."

This is what Martin said.

Beware

"Some chop shop operators may steal their own vehicles. Other chop shops with exclusive clientele may have a professional steal a vehicle to order.The term 'totaled' according to insurance companies means that a vehicle is so badly damaged that the cost of building it is more than the fair market value of the vehicle. If a driver totals his car, it simply means that his carrier, instead of paying to have it repaired, will find it cheaper to have him buy a similar vehicle on the car market."

This is what Burt said.

The 'chop shop' is an illicit auto dismantler, a receiver of stolen vehicles who dissects them for resale as spare parts...A driver with a junker is less likely to want his vehicle repaired beyond a certain point than the driver of a late-model car.Several factors help increase the demand.Some drivers are reluctant to declare 'fender-benders' and make claims upon their insurance companies because of the increase in premiums that this will bring. When it's necessary to pay out of pocket for repairs, the driver will seek out the maximum savings possible.Competition between auto body shops is fierce, and one way to beat the competition on price is to use second-hand and reconditioned parts. These can be legal parts, or they can be black market parts, obtained at cut-rate from chop shops. Even without the stimulus of competition, some body shops owners are simply greedy."

>"In many cases, the investigator, police or civilian learns to spot fraudulent claims because the fraud artist develops a behavioral profile unlike that of legitimate claimants. Spotting these differences takes in several areas:>>The circumstances surrounding the claim are unusual. The claimant may have bought or increased his insurance coverage shortly before the date of the claim. There may be no police report, which is very unusual in a vehicle theft. If the claim is for material stolen from the vehicle, such as a stereo or tape deck, this is more understandable because many people believe (correctly) that the chances of solving a minor theft are very poor and not worth the trouble to report it."

This is what
Burt said.

"We are all human! No one on this planet is endowed with any supernatural powers that ought to elevate him importance above you or anyone else--no four star general,no President, no wealthy financier, no show-business superstar.

Over the past few years, during appearances on numerous national television and radio programs, I have met hundreds of those people we label 'superstars' in fall fields, especially in show business. While I have always believed that no one is any better than anyone else, coming into direct contact with superstars confirmed it in a pretty dramatic way. Every superstar has his or her share of hangups, twitches, pimples,insecurities, fears, anxieties, worries, problems, and everything else that all human beings face on a daily basis. Movie or TV screens, just like the wide screens of history and all our media, tend to make the 'superstars' look bigger than life, but in person, the wealthiest and most powerful are no different from you or me in how they look,how they think, what they say or how they react to life. While some delude themselves that they are better than the rest of us because they wear expensive clothes, drive fancy cars, live in mansions, can hire and fire hundreds of people at will, control a newspaper chain or make U.S. foreign policy, they cannot hide their very real humanity. In person, without the makeup the carefully placed lights, off the stages of history or of TV or movie sets, without the wide-angle lenses and their aids, they are people, plain and simple,just like the rest of us. Some are more authoritarian themselves, others less, on some days in some situations. Keep that in mind and you'll be on your way to ridding yourself of whatever insidious power-worshipping may have gotten holden of you."

This is what Wayne said.

The widely accepted statement, 'health begins in the colon,' might be more accurately modified to read: 'health begins with a hydrated colon.' Water is the key. When the body is forced to remove solid wastes without an adequate supply of water, constipation is the result. Because the major elimination systems of the body (skin, kidneys and bowels) are critcially dependent on water, they are primary indicators of drought. Like dry skin, constipation and dark urine indicate water shortage. Hard, infrequent, and difficult-to-eliminate bowel movements indicate that the body is rationing water.

Dr. Mu Shik John and ..in Korea conducted a clinical study to determine the effets of hexagonal water on constipation. The results showed that within four weeks, 75% of patients with chronic constipation had an increase in bowel ferquency. Their study documented a 40-60% improvement in transit time through the colon, while control subjects (those with regular bowel movements) who also drank hexagonal water showed no change. This study gives scientific credence to the often-reported improvement in constipation for those who drink hexagonal water."

This is what MJP said.