Fleeting fame and more.
 

That is disgusting. If you have seen her on TV (i.e. without airbrushing) she is a 50+ year old hag. There are some very do-able 50 year olds--like Goldie Hawn--but she is a frumpy old hag.

Oh wait, I thought you meant Queen Noor. Queen Rania is probably okay, but if you nail her, your privates will smell like Hummus for days. Who needs that?

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

Of course you do. Plagiarism is in.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Except for the parts about the spanish fly in the Brooklyn Ale, the KY Jelly, the ben wa balls and Naked Girl's cat, you are more or less correct.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

So you were friends with these folks while they were stealing radios? I'm pretty non-judgmental, but I think you just located the I-wouldn't-be-friends-with-someone-who-did-that line for me. I hope none of those fuckers were ripping people's door handles off with crowbars.

QEftSG update
 

Personally, I think he'll get more grief for getting the spray-on tan with Kyan in matching disposable speedos...

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

:blush:

In a perhaps misguided effort to gain more love, I would like to add that if you ever discover that your vehicle has been stolen you should report it and then get into another vehicle with a friend and check all parking lots within a mile or two radius of where it was stolen. Most theft rings operate in a way that calls for dropping stolen vehicles in a "safe lot" within a few moments of the theft so that if you report it quickly they won't be spotted driving around. The vehicles are then watched for a period of time (depending on the "heat" and the likelihood of being legitimately towed) and eventually picked up (normally with a tow truck or flatbed so it looks like an abandoned vehicle is being removed which is a good cover if the cops show up -- many times the towing company not only tows legitimately but also is on the books of the theft ring).

QEftSG update
 

Just like the marines. They hate it when there is a photo op of gayness in Dress Alphas....

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

Can we make this rule apply to bike messengers that ride on sidewalks and in front of cars - across red lights.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

Iron fist in a velvet glove, baby. I'll wrap that thing in a swath of fabric before I start swinging--I still get my righteous mass destruction, and you won't hear a thing.

P(peaceable type)J

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

I was kind of figuring the luxury SUVs, or at least the Escalade and Navigator in particular, for joy riding vehicles. They're hard-ish to break into, but then you've got big pimpin' style for a couple of hours.

No shit. My sister-in-law's car was recovered after three days with the entire rear seat missing, the center console and front seat torn to shreds, a bashed-in rear quarter panel and a mysterious oder permeating the whole thing. It was found parked out in front of a police station. Unfortunately, the damaged only totalled about $5k, not enough to total the car, so the repairs were made and she still has it. It's never been the same since. I still think something died in it and they haven't found the carcass.

QEftSG update
 

No, man, the baby talk. I bet someone in a PAPO uniform is talking to him right now in imitation baby talk. Snookums.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

I was young and they weren't like my best friends or anything. Next time you lock your keys in teh car or lose them I will have to stand in the corner and pretend I don't know how to pick a lock or hotwire a car. I guess I will have to start making up a "white picket fence" history for myself before I get in trouble with everyone.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Not a problem. Chicks dig chickpeas.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

So does my insurance. And, as others have observed, once it's gone, i'm just as happy if it's never found. Better off taking an explicit financial hit immediately that finding all the things wrong over time.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

I was told that both crack and meth have a very strong odor that tends to permeate upholstery. That could have been the "funk".

QEftSG update
 

He might get a bit of a pass on that because his GF is Huh-otttt!!!

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

Most joyriders are young guys or drunks (or both) and they look for the easy mark. Other types who steal cars to drive around in generally realize that you should not steal above your own social standing because profiling (racial and otherwise) will bite your ass every time. This is not to say that stupid kids don't steal Escalades, just that they are normally caught real quick doing something, well, stupid.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

The problem is that a lot of times certain insurance company does not really pay out that much for the value of the loss - Blue Book if you're lucky. As a result, often poor schmuck drivers wind up having $X in pay out from the insurer, but they've got $X + $1000 still owed on the car. Or, they get paid $X and the bank accepts $X as to clear the title.

Either way, the driver is SOL in that em has no car equity and no car.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

A friend's VW Beetle was taken on a joyride, and it cost his insurance company a bundle to try and get the crack smell out of the car. I was surprised that it wasn't totalled by the insurance company.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

Does LoJack or anyone else pay more than Blue Book value? I suspect that's covered in the oh-so-fine print.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

Here in D.C., when you're speaking of kids - you are really speaking of kids. For those of you outside the Beltway, there has been a HUGE influx of cars being stolen by "kids" who are as young as 8 years old. It takes two to steal the car. One (combined with a stack of phone books to see over the steering wheel) drives the car. The other crouches at the floorboards and pushes the gas pedal or brake pedal (usually only the gas pedal as the brake pedal becomes irrelevant since the stopping force is the car itself being crushed into the side of another vehicle).

SERVER PROBLEMS!
 

I think that there is something very wrong with the way some posts are being saved and displayed by the lawtalkers.com servers. Maybe some virus problems, worms, whatever.

I know you guys will find this amusing, but, get this: in my browser, the sentence "There are some very doable 50 year olds--like Goldie Hawn..." appears!

So, surely, there must be major problems with the servers. Or CTD's secretary is fooling around. Or something. There must be some explanation.

Are You a Looner?
 

I suspect there are many, many worse ways to spend an evening. Be sure to report your findings, agent 0069.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

I love my car and would want it back so long as it could be found quickly. It may sound weird but I would feel oddly violated knowing that someone else was driving my car (and probably grinding the fucking gears -- asshole). But I am a car nut and I guess most people wouldn't feel that way. Every person I have known who has had a car stolen has been less concerned about the car and getting it back than they were about all of their stuff that was in the car and how they might not get it back. I don't get that. Why leave important crap in your car? I have some CDs in the center console, jumper cables and a dust brush in the trunk and the car book in the glove box -- why the hell do people leave credit cards, phones, jewelry, photos, checkbooks, computers and other important shit in their cars???? "OMG, my car was stolen and my diaphragm was in the glove box." WTF?

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

That's all true, but alarms which independently immobilize the starter (i.e. regardless of how the key cylinder is turned or the wires are crossed or whatever, the starter won't turn unless it gets the right signal from the alarm computer) tend to prevent cars being driven away.

Of course, you can still get flat-bedded or towed.

I have heard of some success from truly, painfully loud sirens mounted in locations where the head of a thief pulling a head unit, subwoofer or amplifier out of the car is going to be, but that seems like overkill. Plus, who wants to lose their hearing if you can't get to the remote in the warning/chirping period.

Maybe I have just been lucky, but I think you also need to be careful what part of town you park your car in. At home: in garage. At work: in patrolled garage. The only time I worry about my car being stolen is when I am out shopping or for pleasure, but I just try to be careful.

I think that Chicago is pretty safe from actual car theft, but who knows.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

People keep their diaphragms in the glove box? Or are they spares, in case they pass a hot-looking passerby on the sidewalk while they're stuck in traffic?

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

This would be WONDERFUL. Usually when I fuck girls stuck in traffic they make me pull out.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Penske was right. It IS good to be the king. Speaking of Mel Brooks, I learned from "I love the 70s" this week that Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein were both released in 1974. What a year that was. Can you imagine if someone made both those films in the same year today? The industry press would be cumming all over themselves. Forget about the fart jokes; Blazing Saddles has at least 15 jokes that are pee your pants funny every time I see them.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

You would think that the ultimate defense against car theft would be to drive a beater, but for some reason that doesn't seem to work. I've known of friends with really awful cars who had them stolen.

Having given up on that rationale, I'm going for the foreseeable future with the nice car with a manual transmission, on the theory that at least my ride won't be stolen by a truly lazy thief who can't handle a stick.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

Personally, I like the open air jeeps with the .50 caliber machine guns running right behind the Plymouth. Very classy addition to the caravan.

I think I saw the managing partner riding into the office like that right after associate reviews last year.

Fleeting fame and more.
 

But Penske has neither a moustache nor armpit hair. Oh well. nevermind

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

I think the thieves know just enough to really trash the clutch.

Or they may just break the window and then piss in your car once they realize they don't know what the third pedal is for.

NPI
 

My high school AP English teacher introduced us to this acronym in the early 1980s. I finally gave up using it when I was getting too many of the e-mail equivalent of a blank stare.

tm

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

I have heard, but have no cite or actualy backup for this, that something like two-thirds or more of the drivers in the US cannot drive a manual transmission. I also read somewhere that only about 5% of the vehicles sold in the US are manual (while the opposite is true in Europe). Although the stats make it look unlikely that you would have to drive a stick, wouldn't you want to know how just in case? Is it unfashionable to drive a stick or something? I learned to drive with a stick and refuse to purchase a vehicle with an automatic -- my rainy day car is a 5speed and my sunny day car is a 6speed. Someone once told me that women who drive sticks tend to be lesbians. Does that play out? I don't think that I am a lesbian but stranger things have happened.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

I've always preferred the greater control that comes with a standard transmission. And unless my car knows something I don't, I'm straight.

tm

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

In other words, you have no social life and never leave the house. From what I've seen, this stuff usually happens when you're at a movie, a show, a game, wherever there happens to be a large parking lot or a lot of cars to choose from.

But whoever said they also steal the beaters is sooo right. I had 2 friends with nice cars and beaters as backup. Since the nice cars were fully insured the beaters just had collision insurance. Both cars stolen. Both were retrieved (one was spotted by a friend - they called police, people got pulled over and arrested) That car was found 3 months after it was stolen and oh boy was it trashed. They believe someone was living in it by the amount of trash and smell. Other car was stripped of it's cheap ass stereo (worth about $20) and left a few blocks away, but not before the culprit had ruined the clutch.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

The OM's car is a six-speed, which I cannot drive. Though he claims he bought it to make his long commute over the tortuous roads more fun, I am sure that he likes the fact I cannot drive it.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

People buy automatics when they find out how much it sucks to clutch clutch clutch in fucking rush hour traffic. Try it for a few days and you'll be begging for an automatic. Especially if you have a sports car with and overly sprung clutch. That left thigh really gets a workout.

Gangbangers in Dodge Stratuses
 

I have never heard that one. I drive a stick. My dad insisted it was an important life skill (like knowing how to tie secure knots, build an igloo, and roll a cigarette - actually the last one was not my dad's idea, but still an important skill).