eddhead

cigar?

Great points. The other point I will make is that we have or advocate free trade agreements with regimes that are equally or more brutal than what cuba is purported to be. I mean, mainland china? while gains have been made, where in the world is there more religous persecution than there? you could probably name a dozen other countries that equally stomp on human rites (if you do not believe me read some amnesty international publications) but we trade with them. we think long and hard about imposing sanctions on anybody becasue ideologically, our position is that global trade is good... it socialized democracy as well as captialism and raises world-wide living standards. it provides the venue for introducing western democratic values. sanctions by comparison hurt the very people who are victimizied by totalitarianistic regimes. so why the hard-on for cuba? it is not the brutal dicatator factor, it is our history, the blackeyes we suffered and its geographic proxemity to the US. and it is ridiculus. we hurt ourselves as well as disadvantaged cuban citizens whose living standards would be raised by increased tourism and trade with the us. ok off my soapbox again.

gen dial? is this IWC modded?

two blondes are walking on opposite sides of a river. The first blonde looks across the river, spots the second and yells over " hey, how do you get to the other side of the river?" the second blonde answers " you're ALREADY ON the other side of the river!!"

The contest entailed flying a kite accross Niagra Falls and a young boy won. The kite string was fasted to something on the other side I think a tree. Once the line was secured, it was used to pull over increasingly heavier strings, ropes and finally cables.

I keep saying I will get off my soapbox, but somehow I cannot help myself. Your first paragraph is well put, and I agree there is not much we can do. My only comment is that if one or more of us IS in a position to contact the dealer, we should.. and we should not allow him access to the board until he explains what happened. I believe it is in our collective good to make sure NONE of us (including the dealers) are ripped off, and I still think we should be equally passionate about this irrespective of who gets burned. As far as the second paragraph is concerned, my rant is not about the general, it is about Theo's instance specifically. I am still struck over the lack of outrage for his plight... as I cannot help but think that somebody here has a connection to Angus we could leverage... but maybe i am wrong about the existence of that connection. Anyway, thanks for the thoughtfull response.

I was about to say the samething. I am not nearly as involved and certainly not aw accomplished but i am beginning to feel sucked in.. it is such a cool hobby. anyway good stuff

similar story.. woman goes into a doctor's office, and says "doctor i have this problem.. whenever i feel stressed i fart... they're silent no body hears a thing... ooops there it goes.. but it bothers me. like right now i feel kinda nervous.. there it goes again!! . the other day at work i had to give a presentation to a bunch of senior managers.. oops. there it goes again!! it's and i could not stop.. it is a good thing nobody can hear them... they're not loud or anything but still... what can you do for me?" doctor says "the first thing i am going to do is get your hearing checked!!!"

You're scaring me.

I am sorry, no pics but Omega SMP GMT from TWG today.. goes great with Blue Pinstripe suit. and white shirt.. PAM 029 from EL will be the likely choice for tommorow.. love wearing this with a tee shirt (or just about anything else)

Hi Theo, I do not think anyone here advocates blackmail or over the top measures, But let me ask you this.. if you do not get your $500, or watch back, would you be ok with having Angus reappear as if nothing happened? Don't get me wrong, I certainly hope he is o.k. but don't you think ur entittled to an explanation?

That watch is really starting to grow on me ...

congratulations, you must be very happy!!

umm... i was being sarcastic... the point being that it is easy for people with 190 or so posts to try to shut noobies out... oh, nevermind..it probably was not the best way to make a point if i need to explain it....

Good idea. Why don't we do no pp to anyone with less than 250 posts...

new post counts??? just as i am starting to get close to the 100 mark...

I agree, but today has been especially difficult for me. I think the the server manager read your oregano post and decided... hmm... maybe I'll give it a shot

agreed. also use this technique for handbags. nextel and escort offsite.

Ok, I will make one more comment and than get off my soapbox. What we have to gain by helping him get his money back in this instance, and sticking up for each other generally, is a reduced liklihood that this will happen again. This also why we should continue to help wronged dealers, to discourage bad behavior (although in either case I am opposed to some of the extreme measures proposed) I am not sure what actions we can do help out PAM.. maybe the board admin can provide him with some contact info it it is known, or attempt to contact Angus on his behalf. They might have greater leverage with him. Certainly, Angus should not be permitted back unless and until he can provide a reasonable explanation for what happened. Whatever we can do that is reasonable and does not cut into your time to educate noobs or post pictorals

Thanks for the reply, but I am still a bit curious. When a board member misbehaves, several people offered to use board resources to try to track him down. Is that option not available for misbehaving dealers? The reason this is so striking to me, is that most of us are not dealers and we are more likly to be in PAM's shoes than Josh or Eddie's. As such, it would appear to be in our best interests to ensure that we as buyers act in a way that is consistent with our collective good. In other words, the dynamic here sometimes seems a bit unbalanced and the priorities a bit off to me. The reaction to the members who hosed Josh, Eddie and others was so visceral... i mean carpet bombing with calls, tipping off authorities, proposals to change buying procedures for new members... it was as if somebody punched out a Rock Star. By comparison, the reaction to PAM's circumstance was pretty nonchalant. it just surprises me considering that at some point in time, we are all more likely to be in PAM's shoes than we will be in Josh or Eddie's. Again, i want to stress that what happened to Josh and Eddie is shameful. As a community, we should all feel outraged for the circumstances of dealers who are mistreated by unscrupulous buyers. But I feel equally strong about what happened to PAM. Anyway, this is just an observation, and I hope no one takes it personally because I have found the people on this board to be very nice and extremely generous in sharing their knowledge with the rest of us and I have greatly benefitted from the good advise of the regular contributers. Afterall, no one has to take the time to educate us noobs. Still, objectively, it sometimes appears that we are extremely sensitive to the plight of our dealers to the point of losing site over the fact that we live on opposite sides of the equation... they sell we buy. I realize they are honorable people, and to many friends as well as collectors. They are certainly an important part of this community (more so than me) and deserve our respect and courtesey, as well as our assitance in resolving business related issues. But so do the buyers.

I know you get this but all kidding aside what i am really struck by here is the lack of outrage. It just seems to me that when a dealer is wronged we are ready to kill the person who wronged him, but i do not sense the same level of venom directed towards the person who harms the purchaser. I am not sure I get it. I want to be clear.. my view is that niether dealers or buyers should be wronged, I feel that both deserve our support equally. I just do not see that here, and I really do not understand why. If i am wrong, I would like someone to tell he how.

BTW, your oregeno analogy made me smile and took me back to days of yore. alas.. the good ole' days!

Thanks for the response. I understand the nature of the business.. and it is true, sometimes you need to cut your losses and lick your wounds. I would expect that to be the case if you are a dealer or a buyer. Nevertheless, when Josh got hosed by Bonnar, we saw a lot of people here, including moderators offering to intervene with everything up to and including "carpet bombing" phone calls and tips to the italian authorities. And I agree, as a community we should all be trying to help Josh, or anyone else on this site (including PAM) who gets hosed. Personally, I am not necessarily in favor of those tactics, but if you are going to agree to deploy them to help Josh, shouldn't you also step up to help PAM? I realized Angus may be in some trouble, but there has to be someway he can reach out to PAM .. a note.. anything... especially since it seems as though he has managed to get to a couple of his other clients in the interim. I realize I am relatively new here but it seems like a common courtesey to me.