Job Discussion Forums

[Golightly]

do {url=http://url]your text[/url}, but instead of the curly brackets, just use the standard square brackets. hover your pointer over the URL key when you're writing to see the example.

[dmb]

Thanks I'll test it out next time I have one of my useless links to share with you all.
(btw why did you use curly brackets )

[Golightly]

i tried it in square brackets and it turned out like this, thereby rather defeating the object of showing how it's done.

[dmb]

Thanks again, it looks like you have given me some interesting reading when I am back at work next week. Have agood weekend.

[justme]

I'll be the one to jump in with the anti-US (read anti-Bush) stuff...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007023.php

Bush cut federal emergency funding (FEMA) and changed FEMA from a cabinet position to be a part of Homeland security. Clinton had set aside funding for restoration and repair of the levees, and Bush cut that too.

So while the disaster itself was pretty bad, it was exacerbated by a slow federal response-- those people most certainly should have been evacuated well before the hurricane hit (and they had more than enough warning), but there was no funding to do so, so only people who could afford to get out managed to escape.

Then there's the problem of offers of aid from other countries:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.world.aid/

They're offering help from all over the world (even Sri Lanka has offered $25,000 and Afghanistan offered $100,000), but, at least as of Friday, the Americans can't figure out how to accept, either because of reasons of diplomacy, national security, or both. For example, Castro offered to send 1,100 doctors. Can America accept this without losing face? Can they openly demonstrate enough trust in Castro not to send a bunch of communist terrorists, or people who will (gasp!) deliberately overstay their visas? And how long will it take the Dept. of Homeland Security to process 1,100 Cuban passports? And Qatar offered $100 million dollars but accepting it presents a diplomatic problem.

Which is all damned stupid. Another thing that's stupid is the failure of private US companies to send help. For example, why couldn't Greyhound send a couple hundred busses to evacuate people instead of making them wait for the state and the government to do it? Why weren't there more companies giving food and water and housing in the beginning?

So yes, you all are right that the US is rich and should be helping itself. But at the same time, the US did little to prevent the human toll of the hurricane (and in fact may have worsened it with Bush diverting emergency and levee funds to the Dept. of Homeland Security and Iraq, not to mention the reduced National Guard after they've mostly been sent to Iraq), and the victims are largely poor, inner-city people who lack the infrastructure (or access to the infrastructure) to help themselves.

And that's my rant.

[dmb]

There is a thread on the China off topic forum. Alot of people agree with you.(miss out the first page)
btw welcome back Justme

[justme]

Thank you. It's nice to be back, though I am a little more homesick than usual...

[justme]

Wow, that was my first foray into China (Off-Topic)-land, and they get a whole lot nastier than we do here. Makes us all look rather kitten-ish. Bravo for us, I say...

One poster there gave a list of private companies that have pledged money and stuff, so I was a little off in saying that they weren't. On the other hand, given how much private resources there are in America, that list looks pretty pitiful...

[Baba Alex]

[dmb]

Wow, NME. Takes me back a few years.

[Baba Alex]

[dmb]

[Baba Alex]

[dmb]

No. 1 from the early 80s. Pop trash. They used to give lyrics to the top ten at the time. I used to cut them out and keep them in a file But then I was a young teenager and knew nothing. For example the first record I ever bought was a certain song by Joe Dolce. Luckily soon after I discovered Madness, undertones,etc

[Baba Alex]