OJ Caught On Tape

Ok – So now I know that Dutch isnt really called Dutch but is, in fact, actually Dutch. That explains why he is such an advocate of visiting the cabana – those Dutchfolk really know their fauna and have many a cabana in operation all over the country – I think – memories are hazy…

RE politics and yzerman’s post: I know shyte all about US elections and voting etc but surely if Barack Obama was on the ballot, wouldnt it encourage a whole shyteload of african americans to come out and vote when they otherwise wouldnt give a rats ass if it were a white candidate??? Someone correct me if im wrong or just being ignorant – like i said, i know nothing about how your politics work over the pond.

OJ

From CNN:

Simpson and others are accused of entering a room in the Palace Station Hotel and Casino and pointing guns at two men — Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong — as they took sports memorabilia, along with Fromong’s cell phone and Beardsley’s cap and sunglasses.

What the fuck did they take the dude’s cap and sunnies for????

Mofobes – looks like you are playing with an edge in the big game of life.

I was sorry to hear about the accident – but I have to be honest – when I clicked on the link I was fully expecting another shooting – so in some ways and old diabetic driver falling asleep and playing human bowling with his car wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

Alec Baldwin was born to play that role in 30 Rock! He’s absolutely awesome!

And Brian, how dare you consider putting my Montreal Canadiens on your list of most hated teams? Yes, they’ve won the most Stanley Cups, but they’re nowhere near as hated as the wretched Toronto Maple Leafs or those goons the Philadelphia Flyers. And I’m not saying that because the Canadiens are my favoUrite team

Ohh, and after spending 10 years in Texas and 8 now in Boston, I still hate the Dallas Cowboys more than the Yankees.

Mofobes – Way to suck out :-p

The NBA has never been known for fixing anything? How can you make that statement….Mr. Donaghy, will you please get out of my office? I’m trying to listen to TAI!

Hey Brian,

When are the new T-shirts coming out? Are you still going to get the poker card protector with them?

On the HOA rant…

When I moved to Michigan, I told my wife that there was no way we were moving to a place that had a HOA. There’s something unAmerican about some committee telling me what flowers I can plant or what color I can paint my house. There’s no way I’m…okay Mrs. KGB, you love that house, I’ll deal with it.

Our HOA is completely screwed up, but it’s none of the board members’ fault. Whomever drew up our original bylaws was spending a lot of time out in the Cabana. Our dues are what I consider to be outrageous, and the services we get for that our minimal. Me, being pissed off about the whole thing, remembered how my mom would chastise my dad for not voting but bitching about the state of the country. So I ran for and was elected to the board of our HOA.

First off – there’s no kickbacks going to our HOA. Completely voluntary. Your reward for this job is grief from other homeowners.

Second, in examining our HOA budget closely, I was amazed how expensive some stuff is. Lawn Care for our 18+ acres of common area runs about $25K/year, and this is Michigan, which means summer lasts about 15 minutes. We have waterfalls and ponds at the entrance to our sub. Electricity to run the pumps, sprinklers for the common areas, and about 5 lights in one of our common areas is $35/day. Snow removal is not provided by the county (nor are basic services such as police protection unless you happen to be making a right-on-red at a corner that has always been right-on-red except for the temporary construction project forbidding it), and we’ve spent as much as $14K clearing and salting about one mile worth of roads. Insurance, printing, etc. all adds up. Only having 100 houses to split the costs really sucks.

The bylaws are drawn up so badly that they are almost impossible to enforce, and when one tries, it winds up being not worth it. The people with the nicest and biggest house in the sub never put in a lawn and quit paying the mortgage about 3 months in. They never paid their HOA dues. I found out in Michigan that you can basically live in a house for 2.5-3 years from you time you say “fuck it, I ain’t paying no bills no more” until the police will show up to physically remove you. So we put a lien on the house for what became 3 years of unpaid HOA dues, and when the foreclosure occurred the HOA got fucked. We got no money because we were in second position behind the bank, AND we got a $3K legal bill out of it, paid for by the HOA, which means eventually the homeowners!

We have several stupid rules that most people believe are stupid, but in order to amend the bylaws, you have to get a positive vote from 2/3 of the homeowners. We have trouble getting 1/4 of them needed for a quorum to actually show up for the annual meeting, much less getting 2/3 to even have a vote! So we’re stuck with the bylaws. and the unclarity associated with them.

In the end, I resigned from the board because it appeared that our stupid rules were being enforced unevenly between homeowners. Neighborhood politics. I don’t envy the job of the HOA, but State Farm told me that my Umbrella Policy wasn’t going to cover me for duties performed as an HOA member, and I wasn’t going broke because we told Mr. So-and-So that he had to take down his portable basketball goal when the HOA bylaws give about a 1-page diatribe on what kind of basketball goal you can have, and either I get sued by:

A) Mr. So-And-So for his investment (and pain and suffering) or
B) Ms. Thus-and Such who would have been happy with a portable basketball goal but went out a dropped a grrrrrrrr on an in-ground system because the bylaws she voluntarily signed when she voluntarily bought the house said that she had to.

Bottom line – I still think HOAs suck, but I do not believe that mine is evil or frivolous.

And yes BMo, in my town if the HOA didn’t ticket your mom for having the motorhome in her driveway for 8 hours (not that anyone in our HOA would actually write the ticket), the Township would ticket your mom for having it there greater than 24 hours.

Enough of my bitching…I’m ready for class now!

Dutch, How “Popular” the US was in many parts of the world under Clinton??? Do you think that Osama only got pissed off in January 2001 and started his jihad then? Does Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Yemen, and others under Clinton bring back any memories? Combine that with the cigar and the fat mouthy gold0digging chick and I think I’d have been distancing myself from him too.

TDutch and BMo both, we disagree on a lot of politics, although I normally let it slide because TDutch is usually well spoken and reasonable in his arguments. This one is ridiculous though.

I guess this was a show on politics as Tommy has made several rants about them. I agree that people should get over the not being ready for a female or black president. Or for that matter an asian, indian, any other race or gender(i.e. transsexual).

I think that KGB and myself seem to think along the same lines as far as politics go, maybe not but so far we have.

There are a few issues that I follow in politics, but I don’t go full steam with all the issues. The two that really get to me are illegal immigration and welfare. I’d be interested in hearing your stands on both of these issues and why.

On a lighter note, Most hated team in sports has to be the Yankees and you need to take “my” Dallas Cowboys off the list!

Wow, KGB.

I was going to post something very similar, but you’ve pretty much hit the high points.

I was just like you. No F@#&(@’in way I’m living in a neighborhood with a HOA. But the wife loved the house, so whatchagonnado?

Our HOA when we moved in was still under the control of the subdivision developer. Once it was transferred to the community, my neighbor became president. The *only* reason she wanted the presidency was to grant herself a variance for her kid’s gi-normous wooden play monstrosity in her side yard. (The by-laws state that play structures must not be visible from the street, but they basically had no backyard.)

Once her variance was granted, the HOA basically became a non-entity. For two years, I paid my dues on time, while about half the neighborhood didn’t. Who cared? The board wasn’t even keeping track of who had paid and who hadn’t. About a year and a half ago, all but one of the members had resigned, and the remaining member was moving.

We finally got together five of the homeowners out of a 53-house community and re-formed the board, mainly to keep from having to turn over management of the community to a management company. Our dues ($120/yr) would have more than tripled, and most of the homeowners thought the relatively low amount we already paid was outrageous. We don’t have a pool, we don’t have a tennis court, all we have is 9 acres of common space and some flowerbeds at the entrance.

When we re-formed, we finally figured out (mostly) who hadn’t been paying the dues and got caught up on payments. Like KGB, I was absolutely shocked at how much it cost for simple things, like cut the grass at the entrance and make sure that the flowers don’t die. $300 per month?!?!? I’ll do the shit for $300 per month! But that’s a conflict of interest.

We are also required by our by-laws to keep a $1000 reserve. We had a couple of major expenses this year, since we had five dead trees on common area that were threats to a couple of the homes. $1200 later, we’re really pinching the pennies. Now we have homeowners (who, like KGB said, we couldn’t get to a HOA meeting if we were giving out free hundred-dollar bills) bitching because we’re not providing them with pine straw for the common areas behind their houses.

We had an informational meeting of the association a couple of months ago, and not counting the seven houses represented by the board, we had exactly two people show up.

KGB is right. Most boards are just trying to keep their community standards up, and most are fighting a battle of homeowners who don’t give a shit about participating, but they’re the first ones to bitch and moan when you cite them for having a car up on blocks in the front yard, or parking a 2-ton panel truck on the street and blocking access to a cul-de-sac.

I will say that there are some HOA’s who are run by complete Nazis, but I think that they are few and far between. If I had my druthers, I’d still pick a place without a HOA. A couple of acres in the mountains with a lake view would be nice.

The sad fact is that I really don’t like my neighbors. I only serve on the board in the interest of my wallet. If I don’t serve, nobody else will, and my dues go up by 3x.

KGB, I feel your pain buddy. I wish I could resign, but I can’t.

Thanks for the info Fobes and TrainFan. I’m heading for the Planet Ho tonight. Fobes, let me know if you want to hit that tournament again. Brian has my number.

I just realized the irony in me defending Dutch’s political view when, just a couple months ago, I took offense to his view on whether Cal Ripken Jr. deserved to get into the HOF. Weird how things work sometimes…

You guys in Nevada get new plates each time? New Mexico uses permanent plates and the plates are assigned to the owner, not the car. So you can have plates that are 20+ years old and have used those plates on several different cars during that time, as long as the plates were only assigned to one car at a time. The only thing we get sent is the little tag in the corner that says when the registration is expired. They did start printing the plate number on that little sticker to keep people from stealing the registration sticker from another car and using it on their plate.

I guess our plates work the same way California’s work, but we don’t get any stickers. Just an ugly, plain plate with 6 characters. The only way to know if a registration is paid is to ask a cop to run the plates. But that, of course, is because Quebecers are more interested in spending money on beer than car registration…

I second that mungus
Fucking rip off Britain.

it’s a tie for me—

Yankees are baaaad
Cowboys are baaaad
Lakers are baaaaad

Ok – this is my third attempt at posting my picks – I have no idea what happened to the others – but I’ll live with the earliest one posted if they show up. I have the memory of a six-month old – so I have no idea if these will match what I put up before:

GREEN BAY
DENVER
WASHINGTON

Just an observation from a long time watcher – the discussions are getting more detailed and more interesting here – what with football, rugby, Home Owners Associations and politics – not to mention the creative videos, where to buy Manx Whiskey and the fact that with Ace heading out of the country my eyes might get a rest.

Despite that – I must confess of the thousands of words on this episodes message board – the one’s that best capture the reason I stop by came from the Award Winning Phone Caller (by the way Patch – I’m coming after you next time and have a treasure trove of material) Patch who wrote:

“HOWEVER…that said….I DO want that book of filth. There’s nothing I love more than A. Literature and B. Filth. Two great tastes that taste great together.”

Fuck politics. Long Live Degenerates!!!

Patchdog fuck, you got it, that has to be the next T shirt let’s start a vote.
I want one. Or two.

SIGN ME UP FOR ONE!

Hellfyre,

Welfare – more or less get rid of it. Some safety net should be there, but it should not be a way of life nor dis-incent people from working.

Immigration – this might shock you, but I’d open the borders. I know this view probably isn’t very popular, but this is a country of immigrants who came here searching for a better life and made this country what it is today (like it or not, it’s pretty damned good!). Think about the Dutch, Cubans, and Poles who gave up favorite sons Tommy van woostersnaak or whatever the hell his name is (he’s right – the town isn’t called Holland, Michigan for nothing), B-Mo, and KGB. I’m damned glad to be here and I’m not afraid to work hard to keep my place and make the country better.

If you live in this country, learn to speak English in your first 5 years here, pero hablar en Español es muy bueno tambien.

KGB – noble sentiments on the border – but I don’t think you could do it without some type of massive civil uprising (warranted or not)from current American Citizens – it would, from a status quo perspective, disrupt virtually every aspect of life – there’s the economic factors – jobs disappearing overnight, schools and hospitals totally overrun, the end of the few remaining strong labor unions – but that’s not the worst of it. Please stop and think for a moment about adding a few million chinese drivers to our roadways….the carnage would be unbearable.

Wow A&M looks like a big turd so far….