and such remind me of the recruiting scene in Blazing Saddles.

"We don't need no stinking badges."

I've known a fair number of people over the years who love to talk, as in they talk even when they're not saying anything, or take five minutes to say what could only take one minute. You get the idea.

And I've noticed that a lot of them will stop and then immediately go "But uh..." as if to say "I'm still talking, just need a moment to think of what to say."

Anyone one else notice this?

Some (probably most) of you are far -- far -- more knowledgeable about this than I am, so I thought I'd ask here.

An old friend of mine, who happens to be a Republican, emailed me a letter sent by the Valero oil company to the California Energy Commission responding to an allegation that oil companies are inflating the price of gas here in CA as part of a conspiracy. The letter went on about how CA's requirements for energy companies are the strictest in the nation, and that they force the companies to have higher prices.

Now, I know he sent me the letter to "show" that Democrats in CA are the ones pushing these requirements and therefore responsible for the high price of gas.

So my question to you knowledgeable folks is, do you know offhand (or can you point me to any valid material) that compares how Democratic governments in CA have fared against Republican ones when it comes to making codes and requirements more restrictive? IOW, have Democrats pushed for more restrictions than Republicans, or the other way around? I'm thinking back to the Reagan era or even before then.

What I would dearly love to tell him -- if it's correct -- is that most of these restrictions were created during Republican administrations. If they weren't, then fine: I don't need to respond to him.

Thanks.

Like many others, I learned chess as a kid, maybe eleven or twelve. Played for a while, usually lost, and eventually moved on to other things. Fifteen or so years ago I download a chess app and played a few times, usually losing again. I didn't have enough interest in reading chess books or joining a club, so none of that happened. Since then, I've played the app three or four times.

And one day something hit me like a brick: I realized that the reason I had been losing was that I was playing defense, just reacting, protecting my pieces from my opponent. So I decided that I was going to go after that king from the get-go and focus totally on that, and see what happened. Voila! I started winning. Whowouldathunk? The last game I played, I lost three pieces, captured twelve of the computer's, and didn't even move ten of mine. A screenshot is still on my phone. Granted, this was beginner level.

But that's when something else hit me: have the Democrats been playing defense - just reacting - all this time while the repukes are using every trick in the book, even to cheating? So far, the DOJ seems to be ready for tfg's antics, like they've been thinking ahead. I think we need more of that in the ranks.

Okay, maybe two bits is too high. Two cents?

to see what they were saying about Ukraine. Holy crap, talk about lies and propaganda!

My employer is asking us to sign an arbitration agreement with a deadline of Oct. 14. I looked it up online and several sites stated that employers in CA cannot require employees to sign these, and cannot retaliate if they don't. They did not say what would happen if we don't meet the deadline.

So my question is, is it correct that they can't, or is there more to it?