homesick_american

But on their whole street there are only 2 other non-Repubs, out of 20 houses.

LOL I live in Democrat-occupied territory, central New Jersey. I don't think most people here even believe the Republican party exists. The GOP out here is just a scary myth, a scary story kids tell each other during slumber parties.

Hahaha, Democrats in north Texas are like a mythical animal. When I told people back home I was a Dem, they'd look at me like I'd just told them I was going to move to Tanzania and start taking opium rectally.

Automatic is still better than mannual i been driving for 15 years and never had a problem with an automatic well mine can do both i can switch it to either automatic or change over to a mannual. Dont know why i got that feature i never use it tried it a few times lol.

a manual will last you longer. as to which is better, i'd rate the manual due to better gas mileage, more durability, and so on.

A manual is better only if you know how to drive it properly. If you're always riding the clutch and stripping gears, I'm guessing it'll make more visits to the shop than an automatic. It takes experience to drive a stick WELL...any idiot can merely drive a stick.

i drove that camaro thru a snowstorm in germany. that's why i got a 4 wheel drive now. seriously, it's like trying to drive a pig on ice.

I got to drive the Civic on an A road coated in ice with about six inches of snow on top of it. That was an experience I don't care to repeat; a Honda Civic handles like a bus on bone-dry roads.

so's my camaro

I'm so pleased that you know how to drive a real car. I'll sleep better tonight.

doubtful. i've also got a 4 wheel drive truck

Strewth. I thought you lived in KC, what the hell do you need 4 wheel drive for?

have you ever tried to drive a camaro on snow or ice?

my job requires me to be at work come rain flood whatever.

No, but I drove a Civic through a blizzard. Don't be a wuss!

Yes, but don't you think a great bit of it burned off right away? Obviously some got into some places and continued to burn slowly and very hot. But I still am not convinced that all of it was responsible for the weakening steel. But I'm no engineer. I don't know how much is needed to do what it did.

I'm sure some of it did, but just as when planes crash on the ground, there would have been enough jet fuel around to burn for hours.

are you suggesting that I think it was a conspiracy?

I dunno, you seem to be doubting the orthodox view of events on that day which made me think you did. Do you?

He said fully fueled, I simply said it wasn't fully fueled.

"He" is a she.

You said Fully-fueled 767s have a lot more fuel than what burned up on impact

I wasn't disputing that. I was just simply saying that most of it burned on impact. At least, that's what it looked like to me. Did you not notice a huge fireball?

Yes, I noticed the fireball.

Not all of the jet fuel burned on impact. Obviously it continued to burn for some time, and hot enough to weaken the steel structures holding up the building.

There. Was. No. Conspiracy. (Except that of al-Qaeda, who are responsible for the whole thing.)

Anyone who names their daughter 'Alayiah' isn't right in the head.

Why not?

Because it's a stupid name. It's not even spelled correctly.

thanks again.

Can you point me in the right direction to get an understanding of the tax forms and W2 that my wife has to show. This is going to be impossible as all work she has ever done, except a sat job, has been in corporate UK.

I have tax info and copies of forms from 2 household members for I-864a but not for main sponsor.

cheers

E

She obviously won't have W2s from her UK employers, and the IRS doesn't ask for P60s/P45s. However, she will need her tax returns. Our form indicated they wanted tax returns from the last three years but at the actual interview all they wanted was 2005.

Your wife should have been filing 1040s and 2555/2555EZs every year she has been in the UK and working. If she hasn't, well...y'all have bigger problems than the I-864.

If she has not filed her tax returns she will need to do so immediately. She will also need to call the IRS to discuss any possible penalties that may result from failing to file. If she has always earned less than the foreign earned income exemption they probably won't care if she files late, but if she hasn't filed SHE MUST DO SO BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE since once you get back to the US if she isn't up to date on her taxes you guys will have huge problems. US citizens are required to file income tax returns with the IRS every year no matter where they live. The US is one of only a few countries with this requirement.

If she has filed her income taxes but doesn't have the physical returns then she can order transcripts from the IRS. They take about 20 days to arrive in the UK and from what I hear on this board, they are acceptable at interview.

I filed a 1040/2555-EZ late and was assured by the IRS themselves that it wasn't a problem, but without the tax returns you may be denied at the interview for incomplete documentation.

Good luck.

Anyone who names their daughter 'Alayiah' isn't right in the head.

..."It is impossible, says Jones, for the towers to have collapsed from the collision of two aeroplanes, as jet fuel doesn’t burn at temperatures hot enough to melt steel beams. The horizontal puffs of smoke - squibs - emitted during the collapse of the towers are indicative of controlled implosions on lower floors. The scholars have collected eyewitness accounts of flashes and loud explosions immediately before the fall.

The twin towers must, they say, have been brought down by explosives - hence the container of dust on Jones’s desk, sent to him unsolicited by a woman living in lower Manhattan. He is using X-ray fluorescents to test it for explosive materials.

What’s more, the nearby World Trade Centre 7 also collapsed later that afternoon. The building had not been hit by a plane, only damaged by fire. WTC 7 housed a clandestine CIA station, which the scholars believe was the command centre for the planning of 9/11." ...

You don't have to melt the steel for the buildings to collapse. All the fire had to do was burn hot enough to weaken it, and jet fuel can burn hot enough for that. Sorry to burst your bubble, but what you've been told is all 100% unadulterated bullsh!t.

most of the fuel was burned on impact, and pretty much outside of the building

No, there's no way that's true. Fully-fueled 767s have a lot more fuel than what burned up on impact. Sorry.

That's true.... too bad those 767's were not fully fueled. Aircraft only have enough fuel to get to their destination.

They have enough to get to their destination plus some. Both of the aircraft that hit the world trade center were fueled for cross-country flights so there is no way in hell all of the fuel burned up on impact.

Aviation fuel also doesn't possess the physical properties to just fully vaporize/explode like that on impact. There would have been viscous pools of it at the crash site in the building...all over the place. It would have splattered on the walls and would run down elevator shafts and stairwells. It doesn't gush like gasoline or water. It's just not made that way. It oozes.

most of the fuel was burned on impact, and pretty much outside of the building

and yet everything else inside made up from petroleum products (plastices, glues, etc) were inside and ignited by being dowsed with nearly full fuel tanks for a trans continental flight. Compared to gas for cars.. jet fuel burns at a slower rate. it is not "flash" and all gone.

That's true. Jet fuel is kind of gloopy and kerosene-y, if that makes any sense. It's pretty viscous stuff. It has a low flash point as well. Put all that together and you have a fuel that is unlikely to mostly vaporize on impact. It's just not possible.

..."It is impossible, says Jones, for the towers to have collapsed from the collision of two aeroplanes, as jet fuel doesn’t burn at temperatures hot enough to melt steel beams. The horizontal puffs of smoke - squibs - emitted during the collapse of the towers are indicative of controlled implosions on lower floors. The scholars have collected eyewitness accounts of flashes and loud explosions immediately before the fall.

The twin towers must, they say, have been brought down by explosives - hence the container of dust on Jones’s desk, sent to him unsolicited by a woman living in lower Manhattan. He is using X-ray fluorescents to test it for explosive materials.

What’s more, the nearby World Trade Centre 7 also collapsed later that afternoon. The building had not been hit by a plane, only damaged by fire. WTC 7 housed a clandestine CIA station, which the scholars believe was the command centre for the planning of 9/11." ...

You don't have to melt the steel for the buildings to collapse. All the fire had to do was burn hot enough to weaken it, and jet fuel can burn hot enough for that. Sorry to burst your bubble, but what you've been told is all 100% unadulterated bullsh!t.

most of the fuel was burned on impact, and pretty much outside of the building

No, there's no way that's true. Fully-fueled 767s have a lot more fuel than what burned up on impact. Sorry.

..."It is impossible, says Jones, for the towers to have collapsed from the collision of two aeroplanes, as jet fuel doesn’t burn at temperatures hot enough to melt steel beams. The horizontal puffs of smoke - squibs - emitted during the collapse of the towers are indicative of controlled implosions on lower floors. The scholars have collected eyewitness accounts of flashes and loud explosions immediately before the fall.

The twin towers must, they say, have been brought down by explosives - hence the container of dust on Jones’s desk, sent to him unsolicited by a woman living in lower Manhattan. He is using X-ray fluorescents to test it for explosive materials.

What’s more, the nearby World Trade Centre 7 also collapsed later that afternoon. The building had not been hit by a plane, only damaged by fire. WTC 7 housed a clandestine CIA station, which the scholars believe was the command centre for the planning of 9/11." ...

You don't have to melt the steel for the buildings to collapse. All the fire had to do was burn hot enough to weaken it, and jet fuel can burn hot enough for that. Sorry to burst your bubble, but what you've been told is all 100% unadulterated bullsh!t.

spanish?!

Do you require a translation?

Babelfish gave me one which was amusing....

Good bye a**holes and chinguen to their mothers.

(I think i can guess about the other word)

That's pretty darn close. The 'chinguen' part is the f dash dash dash word.

I'd endeavour to pay them off before you leave, but at the very least I would transfer the balances onto one account so it's easier to make the payments. Good luck.

Detroit, Michigan

a brief sampler of reasons why:

bigots in the workplace

bigots everywhere else too

bedbugs infesting the apartments

cockroaches too

high crime rate in every single category

massive layoffs in the local industry

pervasive urban rot

public school system in disarray

corruption in the university

many days when the temperature is below zero

add the wind-chill factor of -20 too

car eating chuck-holes in most roads

no safe public transport whatsoever

disgusting amount of pollution in the air and water

people have been fleeing detroit for a long time.

don't even consider moving in.

I hear there are signs/bumper stickers in Detroit that say 'Will the last person to leave Detroit please turn off the lights' or something like that. Is that true?

Los Angeles, California... Mainly because I am terrified of Earthquakes but I only have felt one since I have been here and it was a tiny one but the earthquake thing is always in the back of my head....... and the other reason is because housing is so darn exspensive around here

Hehe, LA's just NASTY if you have asthma. I had to go there on business in 2000 and was wheezing for a week after I got back. Yucky air.

spanish?!

Do you require a translation?

Married. And a Democrat. Boo-yah.

Makes me wonder sometimes whether the major food producers are somehow in cahoots with the private healthcare industry. At the very least they have a mutually beneficial relationship - after all obese people tend to have more health issues than someone of "correct" weight. Add to that the difficulty of avoiding processed foods which are much higher in calories than the natural equivalent.

Even canned beans and pasta sauce contains HFCS, its next to impossible to avoid, unless you want your shopping trip turning into an all-day epic of label reading.

I don't think it's that contrived. I believe that like HFCS, parially hydrogenated vegetable oil is cost effective - it has a longer shelf life, etc., and I believe the food industry thought it was a step in the right direction by replacing animal fat (lard) in many products. Margarine was the first use of trans fats (fat solid substitute to achieve same consistency of butter) - as a healthier alternative to butter. It has only caught on recently that although PHVO (trans fats) are not saturated and don't contain cholesterol, they cause the body's cholesterol levels to go up. Consumer advocacy groups have been pushing to get the food industry to at least label which products contain trans fats, but I've bought a few products where it said on the front, "No Trans Fats", only later to find that it contained partially hydrogenated vegetable oil listed in the ingredients. The food industry is disputing just what is a trans fat and how much they can put in their products while still saying, "No Trans Fats." That's probably why New York wants to flat out ban the ingredient to avoid such legal meandering.

I think Denmark has banned trans-fats too; I remember hearing that some European country had done it. I'm pretty sure it was Denmark. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out, particularly with regards to the health of the Danish population. If the rates of heart disease fall, that's reason enough to ban it.

knowingly coming to the US illegally is more than just a simple mistake... it is a choice.

that's all i've got to say

You're right...and I'm glad to know that so many individuals think they make only good choices in life. I, for one, could never be so wrong as to present myself as having made only good choices, particularly in my younger years. Maybe I should rephrase that: would that some members here be punished so dearly for their bad choices in life. To me, it says the same thing.

I don't think anyone has said that. I'm sure most if not all people here have done things that they regret now.

The thing is...it's not as if it's a secret that illegally immigrating to the US can have dire and severe consequences. Yet people make the choice to do it every day and risk suffering those consequences. These people are just voicing their opinions; they're not making it about you. Please don't take it personally.

While it's true that teenagers can make pretty bad choices, it wouldn't be right to operate in a consequence-free environment...particularly when it comes to obeying the law. It isn't fair to the rest of society to not have consequences for people who break the law.

I am truly sorry for what you're going through. I hope you believe me.

You know what, forget this ######. I'm done trying to play nice. To all of you who say they should leave and never come back, I hope sincerely in my heart and soul that each of you one day will feel the pain of dealing with consequences of bad choices YOU make in your life. And I hope those consequences are severe, so severe, that you feel it's unfair. That's all I have to say. Adios pendejos y chinguen a sus madres.

You know, there are other people here who can understand Spanish. I don't think anyone here deserved that.

My husband lputs the seat down when he's done. It's just the arrangement in our house. I never told him to do it; he came preconfigured that way.

knowingly coming to the US illegally is more than just a simple mistake... it is a choice.

that's all i've got to say

I agree.

Nothing personal to the people going through this; I do feel for you but unfortunately some actions do have harsh and severe consequences and this is one of them.

i still cannot get over when people name their daughters "CANDIDA" ... um dont they know what that is???

LOL...people name their kids CANDIDA?????

We used the same photographer that did our wedding.

If you're anywhere near York, it's K & L Photography and they charged us 50 pounds.

I used to work with a girl named Shannon Shannon.

Makes me wonder sometimes whether the major food producers are somehow in cahoots with the private healthcare industry. At the very least they have a mutually beneficial relationship - after all obese people tend to have more health issues than someone of "correct" weight. Add to that the difficulty of avoiding processed foods which are much higher in calories than the natural equivalent.

Even canned beans and pasta sauce contains HFCS, its next to impossible to avoid, unless you want your shopping trip turning into an all-day epic of label reading.

I know, it's awful isn't it. Really the only way to be sure to avoid trans fats or HFCS is to buy nothing but unprocessed food. Makes for a boring life though. It's unbelievable how much sugar and trans fat gets added to everything. Even in the Special K cereal I used to eat, one of the main ingredients is sugar. How do they expect people to stay healthy when EVERYTHING that isn't raw is adulterated with garbage????

It is difficult to avoid processed foods but it's not impossible. Processed foods mainly exist for convenience's sake. We've been slowly eliminating processed foods from our diet over the past 2 years and though it has been difficult, it has totally changed our lives. My husband's BMI was 27 when we started; it's now a much healthier 24. I won't share mine, but I will say mine has dropped a whopping 10 points since we started this. I'm still overweight but I'm out of the danger zone and I feel 1000% better for it. The weight's still coming off...pretty easily, too. It's a slow and gradual but steady loss.

This has been a complete and total lifestyle change. Almost everything about the way we eat and the way we shop has changed...not to mention the way we cook. Junk food is still tempting and we allow ourselves to indulge occasionally, but that's it. Since we're now used to a lot of the changes, it's not so difficult. Fixing dinner does take longer, but I think it's worth it.