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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vargo" data-source="post: 697457" data-attributes="member: 4436">Mixed.First off, a few definitions:Dove: Somebody who wants peace.Hawk: Somebody who wants war.More on this later.I'm working at a smallish company (around 50 employees) as the Alpha Geek.  We're an independent review board, which means that we produce a LOT of paper, hand it over to some doctors, and they tell our clients if they are violating any FDA regulations.  There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the basics.  The money's pretty good, and it's definitely a long-term job - a good thing in this economy, especially after I spent 7 months unemployed in 2002.  A good thing.I'm also a full-time college student, working on my bachelor's in Computer Science.  Quite frankly, I don't know if it's worth it any more, what with massive unemployment occuring in the IT field - braindraining to India, China, et al.  Something like 60% of my friends in the computer industry are unemployed, with few prospects for finding jobs.  Most of them haven't had an interview in over a month, some much longer.  One of them wrote a very educational essay on the reasons for our job drain:<a href="http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=78676" target="_blank">http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=78676</a>Folks, it don't look good.  A bad thingMy wife and I would like to start a family some time.  We'd like to buy a house first.  We're both working, so you think this would be easy, yes?No.  She's got student loans pouring out of her ears, and there's some debt left over from my unemployment.  We're barely scrimping by, trying to pay off my debt from unemployment, trying to save a little for a down payment, before we get kicked in the gut by my student loans coming due when I graduate from college.If she wants to take time off with the kids, due to the student loan situation, I would have to double my income.  It's not a matter of simplifying our lifestyles - we're already a single car family, and we've scrimped and pinched every penny that we can, and we're barely making ends meet and a dent in our debt.  A bad thing.On the other hand, we've both got our health.  I've lost 60 pounds in the past year, (bringing me to 200) and she's lost 100 pounds(!), bringing her to 120, which is a healthy weight for her.  A combination of diet and excercise for us did the trick.  A VERY good thing. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  And we're getting along great...Now, on to the dove/hawk/chickenhawk thing.  I'm not really a dove, but I'm not really a hawk either.  I've been kicking around an idea of something different: an eagle, somebody who supports military force as a last resort only, and then only in sorrow and regret - not the (as I percieve it) self-righteous grandstanding of the current administration.And no, I'm not going to debate the above point.  Don't want to get the thread locked.  The problem is, taking ANY kind of "unpopular" stance these days is getting very hard - I get it from both the doves AND the hawks for taking a principled stand against the United States doing what it's doing right now.  Once again, no debate please - I'm just stating my feelings, not trying to rile up debate.So, it's become pretty hard to have a conversation about much of anything with anybody without feeling like I have to self-censor - and this really hurts me.  I love a good debate as much as anybody, but the level of political discourse in our country has dropped to such lows that it seems impossible to me to discuss politics with somebody without them eventually screaming their head off at you and calling you a terrorist/baby killer.This is definitely bad.On the gripping hand, I've managed to get into some games, however - and this is VERY good. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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