I pay taxes because I choose to live in this construct we call society. I could move into the amazon rain forest and fend for myself but I don't want to. You could not work, not have a home, live like a survivalist out in the middle of nowhere if you chose to. So yes I do rule myself, I pay taxes because I realize that without taxes we don't have a society and without that we would not have modern medicine, modern technology. You'd be constantly fighting to simply survive. or would you rather have all the benefits that organized society gives you but just not pay taxes, it doesn't work that way?

Lions are not that peaceful. A pride can only have 1 dominant male, that dominance is determined by fighting amongst themselves. We would call this rule despotism, (might makes right). And for the most part mother nature's law is if I can kill you I win and live, if I can't I'm at your mercy.


Mother Nature is cruel, violent, merciless. Kids need to be taught to act civil, they don't need to be taught to hit one another (that's instinctual), they are taught that that is wrong. People are taught to be respectful of one another, that being a racist is wrong they are not born that way. We fear that which is different from us, that is an instinct that nature puts into us, it's a survival instinct. Civil rights and human rights are man's ideas not natures, actually the ability for empathy is only shared by a small number of higher mammals.

I understand the point you're trying to make. But have you ever tried to live totally outside the construct of society, make your own clothes, grow and kill your own food. No access to medicine, or any inventions? And even then it wouldn't be a real comparison because you'd have knowledge that you'd never gain if you weren't a part of the social construct.

We are not isolated mentally, humans invented written language which made it possible to have inventions, to have recorded history. Animals live in much more isolation, isolated within their experiences. We can read about the experiences of ancient egyptians, or read about the civil war, we can write about our own experiences and thus share them with others.

Mother nature is pretty destructive herself. She sent a hurtling meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. In 1815 Mt. Tambora blew her top destroying all vegetation on Sumbawa island. it ejected 100 km cubed of crap into the air. 251 million years ago volcanoes erupted that created the Siberian Traps, the eruptions lasted about 1 million years it killed 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial ones in the largest mass extinction event on planet earth.

We do self rule, it's not like humans are ruled by caterpillars. Insulation and isolation? I can talk to someone from China simply by picking up the phone, I can visit someone there by taking a flight, how many countries can a pig visit on its own?

Most people I've met have not tried to subjugate me. Have you ever seen 2 animals fight for alpha status? If a lion enters another pride's territory they aren't asked to leave, they are attacked without mercy. A rhino's first instinct, since they have poor sight, is to charge at motion, they are highly aggressive. Black widows eat their mates, mother mice will cannibalize her young if her nest is disturbed.

Mother nature rules by survival of the fittest with no apologies and no compassion. If a person is born unable to walk, we give them a wheel chair and handicap accessible parking....mother nature would kill them off.

If everybody goes and gets macs, macs will soon have problems too. The reason they don't get nearly as many bugs is because people don't write viruses for the small minority of macs compared to PCs.

I don't hate macs but they're more expensive for what you get. Harder and more expensive and fewer choices when upgrading things.

I don't think I've ever had boxed mac and cheese. Actually now that I think about it, I didn't have mac and cheese until college cause it's not exactly the type of thing my mom would make.

I make it from scratch as well (except for the macaroni of course). I like to add crumbled bacon and use the grease from the bacon as well.

I think that's included in the amount that she said she could get from fafsa.

As I said somewhere else, the reason that fafsa sets the dependent age to 24 and uses the parents income to determine need is to avoid rampant abuse of the system. This money comes from Dept. of Education and is funded by tax dollars. The government believes that it's a parent's responsibility to get their kids educated not the tax payers so they are the primary funders. If they drop the age to 18 or made simple stipulations like not living in the same home, parents would simply pay for an apartment for their kids, the kid would claim independent status and get more tax dollars while the parents are off the hook for paying.

You don't need great credit for a loan if you have a co-signer. Have you asked if your parents were willing to cosign a loan for you? Have you even talked to a bank yet or are you just assuming your credit will disqualify you for an education loan? Those are probably the best options.

You haven't mentioned what you want to go to school for. That might help us give you advice on other avenues to pursue while waiting for that magical 24. Medical is a huge field. Do you want to be a surgeon or surgery tech or what? If you want to be a surgery tech, I believe you can get an associates degree for that. If you want to be a surgeon....better get hopping on your education cause it's 4 yrs college, 4 yrs med school, and depending on type of surgeon it's 5-7 or 8 years residency. And if you think college is expensive, wait till you see what med schools want (30+ grand a year).

I'm guessing you don't want to move back home, not that you can't. Moving isn't expensive unless you have a lot of furniture and that can be sold (I'm guessing you don't have any really nice expensive pieces that are irreplaceable). And jobs, you're probably not getting a whole lot of options in NJ anyways, even a min wage job, if you were doing it full time and staying at home would net like 200 a week. Of course it's tough to give up a relationship, but that's a choice.

Sorry but Americans aren't willing to just buy american. It's too expensive and people aren't big on paying more for stuff. When we make things here, we have minimum wage laws, we have laws regarding legal working age. We simply can't produce something as cheaply as some guy working for chump change in China. We also have a bunch of quality standards that companies have to meet.

People are going to do what they're going to do. If I had a child I wouldn't want them to smoke pot, I wouldn't lead them into it or buy it for them or smoke with them. But I'm not going to lie to them and tell them it'll make you a junkie. The vast majority of the millions and millions of people who smoke pot are not junkies giving HJs in back corner alleys for a fix.

Every person is different, if someone is allergic to peanuts and will die from anaphylactic shock that doesn't mean we should make it illegal and begin purging the land of peanuts (and peanuts have killed more people than pot has, bees have killed more people than pot..neither are illegal). People get addicted to working out, they get addicted to food, sex, tv, or any number of things. Just because a minority has to avoid something doesn't mean that it should be illegal or that it is immoral.

I just think the war on pot is wasteful, unproductive, and more harmful than the substance itself. If pot were legal and regulated not only would it generate billions in tax revenue, it would free up prison space so violent offenders wouldn't be let out, it would decrease the prison population which would make it safer for both inmates and guards . In addition it would be tax paying law abiding citizens growing and producing the stuff instead of gangbangers, drug cartel goons etc. You remove a major source of income from criminals and their crime empires. And put that income into the economy. Not to mention that hemp, which is actually different from smoked cannibus (the psychoactive stuff is cannibus sativa or cannibus indica, the rope is cannibus ruderalis and contains very little THC) is a very sustainable, easy to grow, and versatile material. Instead of chopping down a tree that takes decades to grow you chop little plants that take a few months to grow.

The reason why youths oftentimes have more access to pot than cigarettes is that a guy selling cigs doesn't want to lose their license so they aren't willing to sell to a kid, pot dealers are not in that position. Some dealers have a conscience and wouldn't deal to kids, but many especially the drive by and pick up a bag type dealers don't care.

Besides, a plant being illegal is just weird to me. I can picture cops running around handcuffing little plants saying "hey, it's illegal for you to exist". it's plant genocide.

It's the prohibition movement all over again, and we've seen what prohibition economics leads to. The criminal bootleggers and their crime bosses didn't all up and decide to stop making money one day, they were forced out by Budweiser and Captain Morgan.

Aren't you just perpetuating the hoopla by putting up a post about it?

BTW, I noticed you spelled Michael Jackson's name correctly but horribly misspelled Farrah Fawcett using a bathroom fixture for her last name. Kinda funny when you think about the point of your post in the first place.

Jackson was more relevant to the current times, even though he hasn't been all that relevant lately, more people are interested in his story because of all the controversy surrounding him that's why media is talking about him. How bout you just change channels, visit another website, or skip the news articles about him if you're that uninterested. I've only seen a few of his old videos on tv other than that I don't care that much....which is why I do other things.

Even if people don't like my profile I won't second guess it. I had an ex read my profile, she actually shared it with a female coworker. The coworker said maybe I wouldn't get many replies but my ex said that if someone didn't get my humor then she just wouldn't be my type. Better to find out sooner than later.

I used to have an old profile that said I like to sneak up on people taking long walks on the beach and shove them into the water.

My profile looks long but that's only cause of my 2 joke lists on it.

Cliches are my biggest pet peeve, that and simple lists (makes me feel like I'm reading a resume). I find random usage of majiscule and miniscule lettering to be worse than all miniscule. sTUfF LIkE tHIs. I think kidnappers use lettering like that in ransom notes, I call it linguistic vomit cause reading it makes me nauseous.


More cliches:
I like having fun....wooo, you haven't described yourself at all, you've just defined the word fun (things you enjoy). If you enjoy punching yourself in the groin repeatedly...well, then you'd consider that fun even though most of us wouldn't.

I'm the guy your parents warned you about. My parents would warn my sister about rapists and serial sex offenders...so that's you huh?

I want to find someone honest....if I were a liar how do you think I'd answer this questions, genius?

It's less about length than quality. A long profile filled with stupid cliches is just as bad if not worse than a short one. The point of a profile is to get to know a little about someone, to me this means taking some time and interjecting your personality into it.

I find it funny that so many write..."I have a great sense of humor" Everyone thinks they have a great sense of humor, I have yet to meet someone who thinks their sense of humor is lame. Generally this is accompanied by a profile completely devoid of any humor whatsoever.

Other things people write that I find weird.

I like movies...wow that's a big ambiguous. Maybe you like action movies, or maybe you like tranny snuff films, in lieu of any description, I simply assume the later.

I like to laugh...I on the other hand like to cry so I'm looking for someone with a belligerent abusive personality with a penchant for violence.

Hey, preferences are preferences and there's no need to apologize for them. And marrying a cop lets you drive really fast and get out of parking tickets. Host a singles night at the local dunkin donuts and go find your man.

My friend dated a female cop, only advice I have is you have to be a little more careful in the screening process. A bad breakup with a cop who's a bit nutty would suck.

Don't most people who work hard and are good at their job and have moral and ethical standards serve their communities as well? Garbage men, janitors, doctors, lawyers, teachers, cashiers etc?

I just find it strange to equate honor and financial solvency to a certain occupation. These are traits of a person regardless of job. Of course officers have handcuffs...maybe that floats your boat lol.

I'm not trying to bash cops, I've known both good and bad ones. I used to help teach karate and there were some cops taking classes who were great people and exceptional officers.

Some are some aren't. There are some cops who became cops because they want to help society, there are others who were the bully type in highschool and continue to be bullies.

Why is moving back home not an option? Did you have a falling out with your parents?

Here's the thing, Fafsa gets you loans that are from the dept of education. This is funded by tax dollars. The government, and not incorrectly IMO, decided that a family should be responsible for their child's education, not the tax payers.

Lowering the independent age would just allow a lot of recent college grads to claim themselves as independent (thus getting more money) even if their parents can afford it. Everyone would do it this way and there wouldn't be enough money or taxes would have to go up.

I don't know your situation. But 400-600 in NJ is barely scraping by, if that. If you lived at home at least that money could be saved for school, if you're on your own I don't see how you're going to save anything at all. And any emergency situation that comes up will most likely put you in a very bad situation. Yeah it's not fun living at home with the parents (at least I don't think it is) but you might have to sacrifice that.

Even if you have bad credit, talk to the bank anyways. Like I said, if your parents or another relative is willing to cosign, you'll still get the loan. Of course if you have bad credit, maybe your family isn't going to trust you enough to co-sign.

If your family is unwilling to help you at all then you're going to have to figure out something different for work. Pharmacy Technicians make good money and don't require college degrees. Some places will give on the job training but it's better to take the certification test but you can take classes online.

Oh I forgot another option. Try to get a job at the school you want to go to, often times they have tuition remission so you can at least start taking a few classes while working. Work study is another option but it won't cover the entire rest of the cost.

will be up to their neck in bird carcasses.

should never buy tuning forks or listen to opera.

Since when is it society's responsibility to look out for people's kids? I thought that was the point of parents? So the solution is to isolate your kids from any social activities like sleepovers, school trips? You might as well build a tower and just lock the child in there, but remember to give her a haircut every now and then so she can't let down her golden hair and let a child molester into the tower.

Millions of kids go on school trips and sleepovers, very very few are molested. Isolating kids just stunts their ability to socialize with others and deal with life in general.

Is this just because he was an alleged child molester? I'm assuming you have real proof or know for certain? I don't know whether or not he was or wasn't a molester. Maybe he was maybe not who knows.

BTW after the previous talk about God



Umm you just broke one of the commandments, not only did you break a commandment (lord's name in vain) but also you go against Jesus (let those without sin cast the first stone). And if you look at the Old Testament, God was telling people to kill, actually with alarming frequency in any number of ways.

But back on topic, nobody knows if MJ did molest children or not. It wasn't like the OJ case where there was just a mountain of forensic evidence. Maybe the parents were trying to get money from the guy, maybe Jackson bought his way out of prison. Pretty harsh to say someone should die if you don't know whether or not he's actually guilty.

Perhaps read further into the accusation by Evan Chandler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_child_sexual_abuse_accusations_against_Michael_Jackson
also note, Evan was the guy who approached Jackson with settling out of court (not the other way around). The recordings of Chandler offer some pretty damning evidence against him.

Though he had huge debts at the time of his death, during his life he has supported a huge number of charities with millions of dollars, appearances etc. in 2000 Guinness Book had him down for most charities supported by a pop star (39).

# AIDS Project L.A.
# American Cancer Society
# Angel Food
# Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles
# BMI Foundation, Inc.
# Brotherhood Crusade
# Brothman Burn Center
# Camp Ronald McDonald
# Childhelp U.S.A.
# Children's Institute International
# Cities and Schools Scholarship Fund
# Community Youth Sports & Arts Foundation
# Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)
# Dakar Foundation
# Dreamstreet Kids
# Dreams Come True Charity
# Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation
# Juvenile Diabetes Foundation
# Love Match
# Make-A-Wish Foundation
# Minority Aids Project
# Motown Museum
# NAACP
# National Rainbow Coalition
# Rotary Club of Australia
# Society of Singers
# Starlight Foundation
# The Carter Center's Atlanta Project
# The Sickle Cell Research Foundation
# Transafrica
# United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
# United Negro College Fund Ladder's of Hope
# Volunteers of America
# Watts Summer Festival
# Wish Granting
# YMCA - 28th Street/Crenshaw

What have you done?

http://en.allexperts.com/q/College-Financial-Aid-2030/2008/2/Advantages-claiming-independent-dependent.htm


Several options:
Private loan, you'll need your parents to co-sign it most likely. Also they'll look at your credit, but as long as your parents have good credit and they co-sign you should be able to get one.

Is that the cheapest school you can find? Otherwise you can start classes at the cheapest community college, even go part time maybe, then transfer to a different school at a later time. This way at least you'll have some credits already done.

Have you considered an associates degree in an area that you're interested in pursuing a degree in?

Why not see if you can move back in with the parents and go to school somewhere close by there? At least you won't have room and board and probably not much in bills (unless the parents are going to charge you rent). 400 a month in that scenario would probably be doable. Again you can get new loans and transfer out when you turn 24.

Your niece was not going to go to jail. The crime isn't driving a pot head around, the crime is possession, since the father was in possession (I'm assuming he didn't pull it out and try stashing it in the car) he would've been the only one doing something illegal. but yeah he's an @ss for being shady about needing a ride.

The worst that happens to people on pot (based on what people are saying here) seems to be getting in trouble with the law for smoking pot, and having that disqualify you for certain jobs. It's like that old commercial that shows a kid lighting up in a bathroom and a cop comes in and puts him in cuffs, saying this is what can happen to you when you smoke. Weird logic, if the worst affect of pot is being arrested, than the law seems to be more hurtful than the substance, in which case any reasonable logic loving society would simply change the law.

I don't drive right away after I smoke pot, sometimes I'll drive after a few hours but usually if I'm going to smoke, I'll do it at the end of the day and in the privacy of my home. Is it as bad as drinking and driving probably not, but it still dulls your reaction time and can make you zone out a bit. A car is a 1 ton blunt weapon capable of going 120mph. If I were stoned and accidentally hit someone, I'd always wonder whether or not I could've avoided it were I sober, you'd never know for sure and that'd eat me up inside.