I bought a few lottery tickets maybe twenty years back for my friends' Dad whenever he'd let me use his wonderful old beat-up Ford PU truck. It was red and had wooden racks and sounded gloriously ancient as it rattled down the road. It had a problem with the linkage hanging up now and again and on the coldest night of the year it hung up when I stopped at an intersection a block from their house. Francine and I bundled up against the wind and trudged back to her house to tell her Dad. Oh, my! He was not happy and I was shakin' in my boots as we followed him back up the hill to the truck. He bellowed, "Git down here, girl and learn sumthin' about a linkage! I 'ain't savin' yo' butts next time!" I crawled under the truck next to him and watched as his scarred black hands handled the flashlight and fiddled with some skinny lengths of connected aluminum rods. "Girl; you see where that piece is knotted up at the link? GRAB those two pieces and yank them out straight again! Lawd; it's cold!" I pulled; nothing happened. "Act like you got some sense, girl! I said, 'PULL' and I don't want to hear nuthin' about you cain't!!!!!" Well, it WAS freezing---this was not a fun adventure, so I yanked the heck out of those rods and they straightened out and innocently looked like they'd always been that way. All he said was, "Girl, don't forget what you just learned and don't y'all come whinin' again if sumthin' breaks!" Francine helped me haul some stuff and then we grabbed some goodies and hot coffee before taking the truck back. The next day I bought him five lottery tickets. He looked like he'd just won when he saw them! I made sure to always get him a few each time I borrowed his truck after that, He passed away suddenly a few years later. A nephew from DC took the truck and had it totally restored. I'm glad it was so loved and was still in the family. I never felt the need to buy a lottery ticket for me. It was much more fun getting them for someone else who truly believed his lucky day was coming!

Hi all. I'm a newbie to this forum but not to this topic. Bottom line in regards to the original posting: if you sign the forms and then violate those terms then you are legally responsible. Putting aside what I think about the chem congloms (I detect a stench strongly akin to that of Ma Bell), signing your name to a legal agreement is still binding. Say you decide to quietly save back some RoundUp Ready seed, or decide that non-GMO refuges are just a waste of time/money and put a field completely into a GMO crop...you are knowingly going against your contract and busted is busted. If the speed limit is 35 and you get clocked at 70 don't feign surprise when you get the ticket. We have been saving back seed from our best-performing variety of soybeans for the last seven-10 years (non-GMO of course). This year when we contacted the operation that we use for our cleaning and storage they informed us that they had totally discontinued this service due to ongoing litigation with several customes. You guessed it...people were caught saving back GMOs. And the same people who don't understand the concept behind a refuge system with GMOs are quite often the ones who have more and more weeds still nice and green after yet another year of ALS-herbicides and can't figure it out. They accept the technology as foolproof without ever fully understanding it. I am sure there are a few here who will immediately want a background check. Here's what you get: We are small farmers-- the dying breed, if you will. We farm less than 400 acres of the big three (a rotation of soybeans, corn, and milo), all conservation tillage. The only reason my husband and I stay with this is because his dad died this past September and we absolutely refuse to sell the family farm to the 5000 Acre-Big Names. If I had my way (and wishes were horses so that beggars could ride) I would put it ALL BACK into native hardwoods and prairie and tell the rest of these greed-driven big operators to keep their damn hands off...uh, sorry--need my Prozac fix, forgive the tangent. Did try Bt corn against my wishes...I don't feel secure around anything GMO but the decisions are not all mine to make. Objectively speaking, I did notice that the non-Bt had a higher mold occurrence in the ears due to caterpillar frass breaking down (Makes me think of the contaminated Diamond dog food in the news lately), but other than that, we didn't see much difference in yield or stalk quality between the GMO vs non. Of course, no two growing seasons are alike in terms of weather, pest stresses, etc.... Never used RoundUp Read...beans, corn, any of it. In fact three years ago we got a 30-cent PREMIUM for non GMO beans. Only money we EVER saw from RoundUp Ready was two years ago when a neighbor who does bow and scrape to The Roundups had an adjoining field custom sprayed... seems that operator skipped school the day they taught basic GPS and so we received a complimentary spraying and a bunch of dead beans. It isn't possible with bigger acreages, but some of us still do it the old-fashioned way: long-sleeves, a bottle of water and a cane hook. I admit I am losing ground to the water hemp and the cockleburrs in some places, but after the initial spring planting/spraying (yes, we DO use some chemicals) the majority of post emergent weed populations such as shattercane, ragweed and velvetleaf are up to me. I have yet to read of a knife-resistant strain of anything. Politicians, maybe?

Being resident of a different country, I have no advice to offer with regard to the issue raised. But your question wouldn't affect me, were I a resident of the U.S. Twenty years a clergyperson, ten of them helping refugees get back on their feet after a nasty war ... ... and 25 years a personal financial advisor ... ... I don't visit casinos. Don't buy lottery tickets. They're great for the owners of the system ... not so hot for the participants. Question: What's a government-sponsored gaming system? Answer: A voluntary tax on the stupid. Have yourself a great, prosperous summer. ole joyful P.S. As the casino winnings are in the nature of being a personally-operated business ... ... do they allow you to deduct the cost of all of your losses? Do they allow you to deduct (at least a portion of) the cost of travel from your home to A C to pursue that business? Hotel room while there?

Here are the rest of the loads that I measured. Light Blue load: 1 flannel shirt, 9 athletic shirts, 1 dress shirt, 5 pairs underwear, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts Wash 2 rinses Wash .793 gallons, spun out 2.1 gals total 2.9 gallons Rinse 1 2.1 gallons, spun out 2.3 gallons total 4.4 gallons Rinse 2 2.1 gallons, spun out 2.6 gallons total 4.7 gallons TOTAL 12 gallons Red load: 6 athletic shirts, 1 flannel shirt, 2 pairs underwear, 2 bath towels, 1 hand towel, 2 washcloths, 1 table cloth, 2 place mats Wash, 2 rinses Wash 2.6 gallons, spun out 0.793 gallons total 3.3 gallons Rinse 1 3.1 gallons, spun out 1.3 gallons total 4.4 gallons Rinse 2 3.1 gallons, spun out 2.6 gallons total 5.7 gallons TOTAL 13.4 gallons Light Grey load: 6 pairs underwear, 4 shirts, 12 pairs grey socks Wash, 3 rinses, water+ Wash 1.8 gallons, spun out 1.5 gallons total 3.3 gallons. Rinse 1 2.9 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.7 gallons Rinse 2 3.1 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.9 gallons Rinse 3 2.9 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.7 gallons TOTAL 17.6 gallons White Load: 2 dress shirts, 3 athletic shirts, 7 undershirts, 9 pairs of socks, 9 pairs tighty whities. Prewash, wash, 3 rinses, water + Prewash 1.3 gallons, spun out 1.05 gallons total 2.3 gallons Wash 2.1 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 3.9 gallons Rinse 1 2.6 gallons, spun out 2.3 gallons total 4.9 gallons Rinse 2 2.6 gallons, spun out 2.6. gallons spun total 5.2 gallons Rinse 3 2.6 gallons, spun out 3.4 gallons total of 6 gallons TOTAL 22.3 gallons