but i still don't know! and i'm dyin' ovah heah.../jersey accent.

i have nothing to trade, but i do promise i'll never reveal it. *big winning smile*

@DD: What, and spoil the fact that apparently someone in the world *doesn't* know? O:)

@Tiny: Bwaha! I like that idea. Blackmail material. That might be a good idea. But how do I know you can be trusted with the Deplorable Name? Cause you said pics of Ellis woule be forthcoming back a while ago and then you never delivered - leaving countless Paragon fans to continue to imagine him as a disembodied pair of spectacles. Cruel. Shifty.

@JC: What what? He really did tell the whole country. Give me that spoon. I feel a thumping coming on.

this topic looks intimidating.
topics which look intimidating don't receive buma-posts.
therefore buma shall not posteth here.

I have a question for the community at large and I guess this is as good a place to put it as any. I'm facing kind of a moral dilemma right now. The job I'm about to take within the next couple weeks pays great and is part time (which is not easy to find for my line of work in this area), and is in a time slot that makes it possible to go to school full time and work. My future boss is really nice and so is his office manager, and I know I can do a good job. The problem? He sells houses that have been foreclosed upon by banks because of people who were unable to make their mortgage payments. This may not seem like a big deal to anybody, but I am really honestly conflicted about whether I should even take this job at all. It's capitalizing on someone else's misfortune, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure I feel comfortable taking money from a man who makes his living that way. Any opinions or suggestions? In the meantime I shall make funny faces to keep myself amused. ~O:-O

no, it's not taking advantage of people's misfortunes, imo. unless someone swindled them out of their house, it's either their own bad planning or just unlucky circumstances. if you want to think about it this way, foreclosed houses are sometimes the only way for low-income people to buy a house...you'd be helping that by working there.

does this mean you'll tell me your name now? *cheesy grin*

Thanks ettlewen and DD! It does not mean I'll reveal the Deplorable Name. You people already have boards with nails in them, I don't think you need any more high caliber weaponry.

[ June 03, 2003: Message edited by: Bandit ]

Tiny wrote:

It's hardly my fault if no one has offered a suitable bribe yet.

Well OK it is slightly my fault, since I get to choose what's suitable, and I am picky about that.

I'm sure we could come to some agreement in the "What is Bandit's Real Name" department. After all, what could possibly give you the impression that I would, for example, try to use that information ... perhaps as a trade for something else? Now really :)

I object sir! I seem to recall offering several fine hats and a picture of a bag with a money sign on it. If that's not suitable then what is? As for the Deplorable Name - I wouldn't trust you with it anyways, as you've been proven to be at least a 3 on the scale of evil. Plus I don't care at all what P looks like. ;p

Note to self: When did I become this evil?

When your mother laid with the horned one? I mean your cloven feet are kind of a dead giveaway.

Good thing I never wanted it anyway. ;D

Update on future boss dilemma - he also apparently gets uh a little nuts sometimes; as in yell-y. I don't deal well with that - my own temper is far too volitile. And he goes through assistants like *really* fast. *is becoming increasingly annoyed* One of the agents at the other office is looking for an assitant - she told me to call her if things don't work out with current future-boss. I think I'm just going to give future-boss a spin and be cautiously optimistic. And keep my hobo knife in reserve, just in case.

I don't know. I must be losing my powers while I languish on Office-Planet. ;_;

About how they were all innocent and got blown up? I remember now. Kind of. And now that I think about it, I think I'll prefer having a boss who gets in your face about stuff over bosses who were sneaky and passive-agressive about everything. And future-boss has always been very nice to *me*. Time to shelf the anxiety for now I think. Who's gonna give me a sponge bath?

NEW POLITICAL DISCUSSION:

the return of class warfare

The recently enacted tax bill is such a shocking and brazen gift for the wealthy that it is hard to describe in anything short of these cartoon-Marxist terms. After two Bush tax cuts, consider how we now burden people at the bottom and at the top of the economic ladder.

A minimum-wage worker today must pay the FICA payroll tax of 15 percent (if you include the employer's share, as economists agree you should) on the very first dollar she earns. If she has children, she may qualify for an earned income tax credit, but she may not. If she works hard and moves up the income scale, she'll soon be paying another 15 percent in income tax. You might call this "double taxation," but President Bush doesn't.

Our minimum-wage worker most likely falls into one of the unadvertised holes in the Bush something-for-everyone tax cut. There is nothing in it for her. This gap around the minimum wage was supposedly inadvertent, and Republicans on Capitol Hill were eager to correct it. But Republican congressional straw boss Tom DeLay said incredibly that he would only allow the alleged correction as part of yet another big tax cut with more goodies for the serious income brackets.

*shakes head*
i really wonder WHY the hell the average person in this country still thinks the republican party will do anything to help them economically.

Really though, that is where I think (I hope) that the current administration will make it's fatal misstep - the economy. People are selfish; they don't care what you do as long as it doesn't affect them. But everybody gets pissed when their pocketbook is involved.

The Grand Illusion gets my vote for best film ever. Really. I just thought it was so well done and powerful, but entirely subtle. And it has Erich Von Stroheim. What did you think of Spinal Tap?