No motorcycles here. No aversion to 'em, or anything, just don't have one. But I thought you guys might like this little story: I went to our local Friday night 'run what you brung' drag races a couple weeks ago. Mostly there were just a bunch of tweaked Acura, Honda, and Mitsubishi street racers, along with some old and new Mustangs and Camaros, a couple of crotch rockets, a BMW or two, a C5 Corvette, and a Viper. There was also a guy with an old Volkswagen Fox, VW's made-in-Mexico bargain-basement Yugo fighter from the '80's. This guy ran it more times than anyone else, up against lots of the Japanese cars and even against a Mustang or two. Despite the fact that he had the slowest car there, the guy was pushing it to its limits to get every last bit of speed out of it. I kept waiting for it to explode. But then he runs it against one of the hot super-bikes (not sure what kind.) To make things more even, the rider would start by leaning against the wall with his bike parked, engine off. When the flag dropped the VW would wheeze off down the track as best as it could. The biker would casually walk over to his bike, get on, and start it up. By this time, the VW would be 3/4 of the way down the track. No matter, though. The bike would scream off down the track, lifting at each shift, and fly past the VW far before the finish line. They must have been having fun, because they repeated this about 4 or 5 times. People in the stands were busting up laughing. I figure the guy in the VW must have had a pretty healthy self-image to subject himself to losing so many times in one night.

Shoot, I don't even know anybody that's been polled. Well, I've been selected as a Neilson household, if that counts. Won't be any Fox News in my log book, that's for sure. Of course, not having cable, I don't even get Fox News.

How about a different question: Which is more boring to watch: Golf or C-Span?

So... How many locked topics have been MasterCam related? Y'know, c-hooks, feeds n' speeds, config settings and coolant questions can get pretty heated.

Black Label! My Dad used to drink that stuff back in the bad old days when he had a 'drinking problem'. He used to hide cases of it in his workshop and drink it warm. Yumm! My brother recently found a few old cans of it that had been hidden probably 20 years ago. I don't know what the 'born on' date was... I heard of a beer a couple years back that was brewed using only grain from fields where crop circles had appeared. Obviously, this stuff could only be brewed in very limited quantities. Anyone here ever heard of or seen the stuff? I would love to get ahold of a few bottles.

I can't get it to offer any 'save' options. Not sure why. I'm running XP, but I can't imagine that would make any difference. Oh, well, maybe I'll just send him the link instead.

My semi-local favorites are Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Alley Cat Amber Ale, and Red Seal Ale. A-ron, now here's an area where we can agree on something! Alley Cat is from one of our local breweries up here (Lost Coast Brewing Company, in Eureka) and Red Seal is from Fort Bragg, which is pretty close. I would definitely rather have one or two good, flavorful beers than a whole 12-pack (that's a half-sack to you Canadians, right?) of rice beer (Bud). Some others you might want to look out for are Great White Ale and Downtown Brown, also from Lost Coast, or Red Tail Ale from Mendocino Brewing Company. If you like a really hearty beer, try Steelhead Scotch Porter, from another of our locals (Mad River Brewing Company.) At 7.6% alcohol, it's a potent brew.

Anyone know how I can save one of those clips to e-mail to my brother?

Now we need to work on your skirting and side-stepping How'd you know that I'm into traditional Scottish dancing?

Define 'better.' Personally, I'm making less money, putting more money away, debt-free (other than the mortgage), have a better home life, and am generally happier all around. I guess I'd call that 'better,' but it's all been a matter of choice and doesn't have a damn thing to do with anything the G'mnt does. By the way, in another thread one of you conservative guys said that it takes 4 to 5 years for economic policy to really have its effect, so shouldn't all of you who are doing better be thanking Clinton? Or is that 4 to 5 year thing just something you trot out when it works for ya?

shows how much I pay attention to politics. Im generally to busy trying to enjoy myself Sounds like something Clinton might have said

Dan, Matt, Aaron and others, Saying that Bush's war in Iraq has helped to strengthen and unite those extremists who see the US as 'the Great Satan' does not mean that 9/11 was Bush's fault. Nor does it mean that our only option is to hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya.' What it does mean is that going to war in Iraq has both distracted us from pursuing Al Queda and given credence to those extremists who claim that we are an imperial power that wants to dominate the Arab world. To this extent, the war in Iraq plays right into the hands of Bin Laden, and has increased the hatred towards the US in Arab countries (and many others.) As long as we continue to do our damndest to incite others to violence against us, we will continue to be less safe at home. Polls show that the majority of Americans believe the war in Iraq has made us less safe. The State Department has reported "a sharp increase" in international terrorism over last year, with a 50% increase in the number of injuries due to terrorist acts. As much as I believe that going to war in Iraq was a bad idea, I don't know what our options are now that we're there. Apparently John Kerry doesn't know, either, because he has not been able to distinguish his position from the status quo. I'm still looking for a constructive answer to the question "What does winning look like, and how do we get there?" BTW, Bill Maher says "The war in Iraq is not another Vietnam, because in Vietnam Bush had an exit strategy."

Boy, Matt, those funny graphics really make an intelligent and reasoned political statement. Now that I know what Photoshop is capable of, I guess I'll have to change my vote! Personally, I think that Bush has been a 'Godsend' to Bin Laden. You want Jihad? Here's the guy that will 'bring it on.'

I'm still trying to figure out how it was invalid The statement has no validity because he has based it on a huge assumption, that those legislators who are opposing the Governor's current budget proposal are not representing those who elected them. Of course, Democratic lawmakers are elected by Democrats. So when they try to prevent the Governor from commodifying public education, or from gutting worker's rights, then they are representing their constituents, and not what they would call 'special interests.' The simple reality is that 'special interest' is a term that is always applied to the other side. Depending on your viewpoint, special interests are either the big corporations or the unions, industries or environmentalists, public employees or the private sector. Democrats are backed by special intersts, Republicans are backed by special interests, Arnold is backed by special interests. But, by itself, the term means absolutely nothing.

Bullines, PLEASE don't lock this thread until Linda Ronstadt and Toby Keith have had a chance to chime in. BTW, my favorite thing about Canada is that you can legally drive 100 up there!

"If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers … if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men,'" Of course, lost in all of the furor over the 'girlie men' comment is the fact that the first half of the statement has no validity to it whatsoever. It's garbage rhetoric, and the 'girlie men' comment serves only to distract the media and the populace from questioning the core of the comment itself. Sounds like it worked, too. And if you don't have the guts to agree with me, I call you girlie men.

And, by the way, I don't care what either Linda or Toby think. I get all of my political insights from Keith Richards.

I am going to a Toby concert this weekend will have to see if he says anything about Linda. Scott, keep us informed. Also let us know if Toby is one of those Humvee-driving geeks that Jack Mitchell was speaking of when he made that most-unforutnate typo Aaron was referring to. (Ps: Jack, I'm still waiting for the $50 you were gonna send me for saving your A$$ on that one!)

Now, now... Don't be so hard on Linda. If you read a story about Toby Keith getting booed off stage for saying Michael Moore is an idiot, would you say that he should have kept his opinions to himself?

Now, THAT'S a reason I can support!

Maybe we'll hold a 'surprise' election 2 days early, like we did with the handover of sovereignty in Iraq. That ought to throw off any terrorists, along with the vast majority of voters.

Most of my experience with MasterCam is in wood. I worked for 12 years as the production manager for an OEM guitar parts manufacturer, primarily making bodies and necks for electric guitars and basses, along with parts for violins, cellos, banjos, marimbas, and various odds and ends. In 1994, the shop acquired a CNC router and I started doing the programming without being given any training. Had to learn MasterCam on the fly. While I readily confess to having eaten up a few pieces of wood in the learning process, I managed to never crash the machine. 3 years ago I started my own biz doing programming, and outsourcing the production. I do most of my CAD work for guitar companies, but most of the CNC programming I do is for steel, aluminum, iron and graphite. I like having Mill and Router on the same forum, because most of my knowledge is in wood but most of my questions are in metals.

I usually draw in 3D, and then create a seperate 2D layer for blueprints, if needed. Then again, I rarely have jobs that could be done in 2D alone. I'm still having a little trouble integrating solids into what I do without being redundant. It's very useful, but I find that I often have to create geometry once for the surfaces, once for the solid, and once again for the blueprint. I'm sure I'll eventually settle into a system that works well, without doing everything 3 times.

I don't think Bush or the US people want to kill all Muslims just the group that think it's OK to promote their views across the globe by killing people. How is our military supposed to tell the difference, unless they happen to catch someone with an RPG in his hands? This is the problem with the type of war that we are currently immersed in. Either we allow the enemy to walk around incognito, or we kill thousands of innocents in the process. And the more innocents we kill, the more enemies we likely create. I have no disagreement with the statement that we must win this war, whether we are talking about the 'War on Terror' in general, or the war in Iraq specifically. And, for the sake of discussion, I am willing to set aside disagreements about whether Iraq had any real connection to the war on terror before the country collapsed into chaos. Clearly, the situation in Iraq now is a very real part of the broader war on terror. I agree with you, Matt, that finger pointing and assigning blame gets us no closer to a solution. We are where we are and, while we should learn from the mistakes that got us into the current situation (over the last 30 years), our most pressing need is to figure out how to go forward from here. So back to my question: What does 'winning' look like, and how do we get there? I do not have an answer to give, but I believe that we need to at least consider the possibility that there may not be a military solution. We face an enemy who is not defined by race, or nationality, or borders, or even religion, though all of these are clearly factors. We know that the terrorists are an extreme minority of the worldwide Muslim population, but they are indistinguishable from the rest other than by action or intent. It would be foolish (and apocalyptic) to identify the 'enemy' as the 'Muslim world', as that would pit us against 25% of the world's population, spread across the globe, and the vast, vast majority of which is peaceful. On the other hand, it would be similarly foolish to wait for them to identify themselves by action, as it would condemn us to suffer one terrorist attack after another. This leaves us with identifying the enemy by intent, which is extremely difficult and almost entirely dependent on intelligence. Of course, we've seen how intelligence can be flawed or intentionally misused, which makes this a difficult or dubious task. 'Intelligence' is what got us into Iraq. Can we rely upon it to get us out? So again I ask "What does 'winning' look like, and how do we get there?"

I suggest that if you truly believe that these individuals are reasonable people that you fly over to Iraq and try reasoning with them. Did I say this?