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Nope, they would just try you for contempt if you don't provide your key instead.

Go USA USA!

Your links don't substantiate your claims of misinformation.

Hurricanes will increase in number and intensity.

The article you link claims increases in intensity, but doesn't mention number. This page indicates that researchers are divided on the question of number, but strongly united on increasing intensity: http://www.skepticalscience.com/hurricanes-global-warming-basic.htm . Do you see evidence indicating hurricane intensity is not increasing?

Tornadoes will increase in number and intensity.

Your link on tornadoes is of research modeling increases in warmth (energy) in the atmosphere producing higher likelihood of severe thunderstorms in the eastern U.S., and that tornadoes can be associated with severe thunderstorms. Not much of a claim that tornadoes will increase, more of a possible implication, but if you had some more evidence of such a claim, then again would come the question of whether those increases are truly happening. What evidence do you see for/against that?

New York will be under water.

"[...]projects a four foot rise in sea levels during storms[...]

(emphasis added). The article predicts increased likelihood of reaching 100-year flood levels. It also claims 3 feet of sea level rise by 2100. This is backed up by other reporting, like: http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-sea-level-rise/ . The evidence I see doesn't dispute that sea levels are rising, and might be on-pace to reach those claims, if the rates of increase are themselves increasing. Do you see evidence otherwise? I wonder if much of your notion of these claims comes from interpretation, possibly misinterpretation, of what researchers are actually finding?

Britain will never see snow again.

You didn't provide a link, but I would guess it would be something like this: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html . Researchers painting what is perhaps an exaggerated picture of a possible future isn't unusual, but tends to decrease people's confidence in their research when, some years later, they are not all commuting in flying cars. This might be a more informative and realistic picture, and less imagination-based: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/08/potential-impacts-climate-change-uk .

Record low Hurricanes, Tornadoes, New York still hasn't flooded, and Britain just had record snowfall this last winter.

If you are talking about storm-related flooding in New York, rather than slow sea level rise, I seem to recall something like that happening... :) http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/superstorm-floods-new-york-city/ . Keep in mind, also, that weather is a very complex system of (sometimes very large) chaotic fluctuations that occur atop a base of climate. No snow, some snow, lots of snow; in the short term, these stem much more from weather than climate. Over decades, climate will show trends, though.

Of course, I am no expert in such matters, just reading what I read and trying to come to reasoned conclusions, so I could be completely wrong. I haven't yet seen compelling evidence of that, though... :)

Just off the first page of a Google search.

Hurricanes will increase in number and intensity.

Tornadoes will increase in number and intensity.

New York will be under water.

  Britain will never see snow again.

Record low Hurricanes, Tornadoes, New York still hasn't flooded, and Britain just had record snowfall this last winter.

Remember the milkman?

I do not, actually, but there may be better explanations for his disappearance — and that of other conveniences, than the evil elite's plot to remove the services we like without lowering the prices on what's left. The milkman, for example, was killed by a combination of increased mobility of the customers (who can all go to a supermarket, when they please), and government regulations concerning both keeping of the cows and processing the milk. You just can't do it any more — not on a small scale. Even when people try to do it as a co-op (such as to have milk to processed a certain way), the government fights them tooth-and-nail.

Yes, some rather expensive cars include rather expensive insurance.

The car being overall expensive, will increase its insurance cost, yes. But I was talking about another aspect — an otherwise inexpensive machine with "overly" powerful engine will cost more to insure. People are buying them anyway... Point is, different models do cost slightly different to insure — which cars, that are easier to fix costing less, for example.

Auto insurance compete a lot on branding and somewhat on extras, but a lot less on price/service than they would have you believe.

That depends on the state. Collectivist places like Massachusetts dictate, what insurance is to cost — leaving the companies to compete on the service-quality only. In other places you may be able to get a different quote from a different company. There is still competition and, as I said, as long as the buyers are the actual users themselves (rather than employers), we are Ok.

Guess who lobbied for the seat belt laws!

Whoever it was, they are not lobbying for the "spies" being mandatory.

Replying to myself - as it turns out, the plot thickens:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Right, the US has gone completely off the rails in recent years. "oh, this guy stole some credit card numbers... Let's kidnap him, fly him out of the country and try him in some random court outside the country! Yea! Go USA!"

Seriously? It'd be one thing if he blew something up... but credit card fraud?

CC fraud is a huge problem and a persistent one.

I'd bet this guy was doing fraudulent transactions in the volume of thousands per week, if not per day.

You may be thinking "stuff em, it's only the banks money" but you forget two things. It has a knockon effect to the rest of the economy as the fraudulently transferred money is taken out of circulation and secondly that through hidden fees like merchant service and interchange fees, eventually the banks get the money back from you.

We aren't talking about someone who buys a TV with one stolen credit card number here. Its so big, the damage is in the hundreds of millions to billions. This would be proper, organised fraud. The kind the all western government should be cracking down on..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

maybe the good thing out of that is the end of employer based health-care

I hate to break it to you, but the phrase above remains true if you replace "Russians" with any country powerful enough to get away with this kind of behavior.

Like the great nation of Texas. They just call it "Affluenza" there.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Replying to myself - as it turns out, the plot thickens:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Right, the US has gone completely off the rails in recent years. "oh, this guy stole some credit card numbers... Let's kidnap him, fly him out of the country and try him in some random court outside the country! Yea! Go USA!"

Seriously? It'd be one thing if he blew something up... but credit card fraud?

Replying to myself - as it turns out, the plot thickens:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

I thought the previous poster asked for references in an all right way. Here's one I quickly found that seems relevant to me (even though I think Huffingtonpost contains a lot of hyperbole, normally):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

The slashdot one below is good too!

Isn't Saudi Arabia an ally of the US?

Also, have a look at some of the things happening in your own country:
Passengers Cheer as Trans Woman is Stripped and Beaten on Atlanta Train (with video) (May 31, 2014)
Abortion Clinic Escort Opens Up About 'Disgusting, Degrading And Racist' Attacks On Patients (February 21, 2014)
Sikh (mistaken for a Muslim) attacked by racist mob, thanks Good Samaritans who got between him and his hate-filled attackers (after getting his jaw was surgically re-wired) (September 23, 2013) Transgender Woman Dies After Beating in Front of NYPD Precinct (August 26, 2013)
Police: Man damaged Bloomington Planned Parenthood building, cited religious beliefs (April 11 2013)

Please note that I don't support any repressive regimes or groups that enforce FGM or promote sexist behaviours, I am just pointing out that the US is not a shining example of tolerance and social liberties...it would be best if the US focused on sorting out her own problems before pointing fingers at others. Also, thanks for liberating Afghanistan, freeing the Afghans of the nasty Soviet puppet government and delivering them into the hands of the Al-Quaeda and the Taliban is highly appreciated by the entire world!

Government should be investing much more in alternative energy, because the private sector is too short-sighted to do it.

I'm with you part-way on this one.

Just as the perfect form of government is to have an angel come down from Heaven and become a benevolent dictator with all the powers of government in his hands, ideally the government should fund research in long-sighted ways.

For example, the Obama administration should be funding research into Thorium reactors, traveling-wave reactors, and super-high-capacity electricity storage (batteries that could power cities, to make solar and wind power dependable).

But government is terrible at this. You may sneer at venture capitalists, but they want to make money; so they do back some longer-term stuff. But since it's their own money on the line, they are careful.

The government has all this tax revenue and some guy says "I'm smarter than all the venture capitalists; I'll fund the alternative energy they wouldn't fund." Most of the time, it doesn't work out.

And that's the best case. There is also the simple corruption case: "this company is owned by people who sent me a bunch of money when I was a candidate; I will now use the government to send them money."

So we have a government with a terrible track record, and to some extent the investments the government makes suck the oxygen out of the room and keep other investments from growing. Thus the issue isn't simply "make long-term bets or don't", it is "government picking winners and losers" (and doing a terrible job).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-johnson/solyndra-corruption_b_1022089.html

But the idea that the government has no money left, or that the taxpayer pays for everything, is ludicrous. Government can and should fund itself like the private sector does, through borrowing (at zero cost, from the Fed).

Do you also believe in perpetual-motion machines?

When government "prints" more money (or moves bits around in a computer, these days, to create more money) the only place the value can come from is all the other money. This is called "inflation" and it's terrible.

I have a book from the 1990's called "cheap eats" about actual restaurants (not fast-food places) where two people could get a full dinner plus dessert for less than $20 including tax and I think tip. My wife and I usually spend over double that now when going out to the same sorts of restaurants. I deeply dread the day when I am trying to live on a retirement income... will the prices keep doubling?

I hear people disparaging "deflation" as some sort of problem. But "deflation" would be a Godsend for people trying to live on a fixed income. Don't those people matter?

In short, there are costs to everything, including printing "free" money. The best government can do is to minimize expenses. That's not happening.

Only if you can prove he really was about to do something.

Let's be realistic here - if he wasn't a government agent, he'd already be in jail.

Like these people.

TWC has 2.2 million cable TV, Internet, and phone customers in 1,150 New York communities, and hundreds of them have called...

I'm thinking that's not going to impress the FTC.

The good news is that Comcast is planning on losing 3.9 million customers to ease the approval process. NY could be a large chunk of that:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Sous vide is done in a precision-controlled water bath, you numpty. Not an oven.

Pretty sure he knows that, given the featured technique of his pricey multi-volume Modernist Cuisine (purportedly the most financially-successful cookbook ever - and at $500 it should be!) is Sous Vide'... Lots of pretty pictures of bags hanging in water tanks. (There's a more-affordable "at Home" version, which I own.)

Think they didn't show the pretty pictures to Nathan?

SRSLY, that set is probably one of the major drivers behind the popularization of Sous Vide'. (Along with Thomas Keller's book.) And it really is sweeping the world of cooking by storm. Restaurants don't necessarily like to publicize it. (Some are proud of it, others would rather you didn't know.) Popular restaurants that now use Sous Vide':

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

- Chipoltle (barbacoa, carnitas)
- Panera (steaks, turkey, salmon)

At the higher end, this list is nothing to sneeze at!

http://www.sousvidesupreme.com...

Myrhvold has set-out to change how we cook. Apparently, one appliance at a time.

Who purchases the services of economists? Who consumes their work product?

A lot of economists are paid by central banks one way or another:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

One useful tactic for managing the economy is manipulating public opinion. Especially the opinion of those members of the public who manage huge quantities of other people's money. The job of the economist then is not necessarily to discover the true state of the economy, but to convince others that is it in a certain state in order to influence their behavior.

At this point, it has very little to do with communism. Florida is a big primary state and a big electoral state. Florida has a lot of Cuban-americans who would prefer we invade the island. They have traditionally fiercely opposed lifting the sanctions. Evidently this isn't as true as it was. Still, outside of cuban americans, not many people care one way or the other.

Thus, politicians gain very little and risk quite a bit by opposing the sanctions.

And yes, it is fucking stupid on multiple levels: it was probably always counter-productive, political leaders should show some fucking backbone and end it, citizens shouldn't be so apathetic about keeping an entire nation impoverished, and why is florida even allowed to vote?

But, dumb as all that is, "we still hate communism" is not a big reason why we still have sanctions.

They were found by a Federal judge to be unconstitutional over a year ago. Whatever happened with that? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Really? You think we need to raise pay for cops? While it's true that the base salary is kind of crappy cops get all kinds of other income from other places. For example This New York Times article says this about the NYPD:

"annual pay for city police officers ranges from $43,062 for a cadet entering the academy to $90,829 for an officer with five and a half years on the job, including overtime and other earnings"

What other job do you know of that doesn't require a college education where you'll be making 90k after 5 years? That's disregarding the very generous pension and insurance benefits that police receive. Plus other benefits, like the guy who walked down that line ssssof non-violent protesters during an occupy rally at UC Berkeley getting $38,000 for "depression and anxiety" instead of being fired like he should have been. Police get paid plenty, the solution isn't more money for them the solution is independant oversight.

Where I'm from unions aren't at the company level, they're at the industry level.

So you're saying workers are less abused, better paid, with greater benefits and vacation time? And this is a bad thing for you?

People don't voluntarily joins the unions

Here, why don't you try an experiment: go down to the office of your local Chamber of Commerce, and tell them you want to enjoy all the benefits of being a CoC member, but without having to pay membership dues. Write down the responses, and come back to us.

Unions don't protect employees, employment law protects employees.

Why don't you go work at the Tyler Pipe factory for a while and say that again. Negligence that would land your ass in a federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison gets shrugged off if done by a monied corporation.

Unions are a check on greed, and the robber baron class as only gotten more as time goes on.

If I smack'em one, I would only be charged with assault and battery and NOT auscultating a police officer?

And if they wrongfully broke into my house for a raid and I shot them, I wouldn't be charged for killing a cop?

It seems to me that the entire purpose of any secret government agency is to benefit the secret government agency.

Michael Moore is a self-taught movie maker. His movie about U.S. government corruption in secret agencies, Fahrenheit 9/11, made $222,446,882. It's not like extreme U.S. government corruption is unknown.

There is a HUGE conflict of interest, and the U.S. government seems to have no influential methods of dealing with conflicts of interest. If there is security, people who work for the NSA are less likely to be promoted, and may lose their jobs. That is a powerful reason for NSA employees and management, and other secret U.S. government agencies, to create more insecurity. Since they work entirely in secret, no one can stop them.

U.S. government policies allow many secret agencies. I find it odd that news stories assume that, other than doing things that almost no citizens want, the secret agencies are otherwise well-managed. Numerous examples show that they aren't. For example, Edward Snowden, an employee of an NSA sub-contractor, was able to walk away with all the data.

To me, it is also odd that news stories assume that the NSA works to improve security of the U.S. and U.S. citizens. For example, the book House of Bush, House of Saud explains that the Bush and Cheney families worked for the Saudis, who paid them billions for their help. The U.S. taxpayer paid for the arms, military presence, and violence that supposedly was free security for the Saudi government, but actually was, as Saudi acquaintances I met in a gym said long before the 9/11 attack, Saudi government oppression of the Saudi people.

Why does the NSA record phone calls? Is it because learning about some of those calls makes money for someone in control? Investment information, perhaps?

The U.S. government's war in Iraq is now being called a "mistake". For example, Hans Blix: Iraq War was a terrible mistake and violation of U.N. charter. It wasn't a "mistake", other articles say, it was deliberate deception. For example, Stop Calling the Iraq War a 'Mistake'.

NSA = No Sales for America. The NSA is a powerful advertisement that anything complicated made by a U.S. manufacturer may have intentional defects or surveillance methods.

So you have to help the authorities if they can't decipher your handwriting?

Not if you claim you "can't read cursive" — not even (supposedly) your very own.

Well, we do know from lawsuits that the IRS requested and received donor information as well as shared that with apposing groups on at least one of the claims.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

We also know that the IRS actually did create word lists and purposely stalled applications based on them. We know that from the Treasury Department Inspector General's investigation.

http://politicalticker.blogs.c...

We also know that non tea party groups fell into that catagory and the IG report was basically only looking for Tea Party issues because that was what it was tasked to do.

The problem here is that people are concentrating on the tea party. Of course it hit them the hardest but it also hit others who had a constitutional right to get a message out. This message was obstructed by the IRS, whether it was a conservative or progressive one in what appears to be an illegal move. Of course the appears is more or less due to the person behind it taking the 5th and all her and 6 other key employee communications records (emails) disappearing. So do not focus on the Tea Party, focus on the government using the IRS to quite dissent which is a more accurate description of the conspiracy. It's just the tea party screaming bloody murder the loudest.

It seems Germany is leading the way in showing, by example, that every bit of American futzing about solar power and unions is, to put it down hard, a load of cultish crap designed to make rich people much richer.

Couldn't one say the same about solar in Germany? After all, Germany is paying 36.25 cents per kWh, the USA is paying 8-17.

and now they've shown you can run 50% of an industrial economy off the power of the sun

Actually they've shown that you can reach 50% during a sunny national holiday when most of the industrial equipment is turned off. Going by annual energy production they're more at 5%.

Hawaii would actually be a bit better, but they have their own problems relating to having so much solar installed it's a threat to grid stability.

And I say this as a guy who was seriously looking at putting panels on my roof. In Alaska.

It's city's fault for not designing streets for both residents and expected number of visitors

No, it's the visitor's fault for not taking public transit. San Francisco has some of the best public transit in the country. BART is ~$4 round trip, runs past 1 AM and parking at the stations is free on the weekend. And now the rent is higher than NYC, any spare space should be devoted to housing.

It's vastly more efficient use of space to park your car outside the city and make the city navigatable with transit (see Tokyo, Berlin, Prague, etc).

China is in complete violation of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which China itself signed and had agreed to and ">ratified in 1996.

That's nice and all, but unless somebody actually does something about it, all those laws don't matter a hill of beans.

Russia is being embargoed half-heartedly by half the world and I'd be shocked if they ever gave up Crimea. Nobody cares enough about some artificial islands to go to war over them, and next thing you know they'll be setting up oil rigs. Unless everybody agrees to sanction China in a way that costs more than all that oil is worth, China will get what it wants. The problem is that sanctions cut both ways, and politicians get far more money if they keep trade going than if they shut it down.

Bullshit.

China is in complete violation of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which China itself signed and had agreed to and ">ratified in 1996.

China has been building structures, hunting and mass poaching endangered species and destroying coral reefs within the maritime exclusive economic zones of The Philippines and Vietnam (200 nautical miles or 370km from the coastline of those countries) while at the same time, forming naval blockades and harassing fishermen from Vietnam and the Philippines in their own waters. Recently a Chinese fishing vessel was caught with the poaching and mass slaughter of over 500 endangered and protected sea turtles within Philippine waters. Pics of the slaughter.

This article is a must-read on the behavior of the 800lb gorilla China and its bullying tactics: China's Pre-Imperial Overstretch and follow-up article: China and the Mosquitoes.

Another must read is the NY Times article A Game of Shark And Minnow about the ragtag crew of Philippine marines stationed on a grounded derelict ship in the area as an outpost. That NY Times article has a very good diagram on the 200NM exclusive economic zones and China's ridiculous "nine-dash line" tongue-shaped delineation which claims the entirety of the area hundreds of miles away from their nearest legal territory, Hainan Island. The basis of China's 9-dash line claims? Fabricated bullshit. Pre-19th century maps show this. Even China's own historical maps contradict their absurd claims. Bullying, intimidation, violation, invasion and annexation of territories of smaller, weaker states. It's that simple. See also: Tibet.

Bullshit.

China is in complete violation of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which China itself signed and had agreed to and ">ratified in 1996.

China has been building structures, hunting and mass poaching endangered species and destroying coral reefs within the maritime exclusive economic zones of The Philippines and Vietnam (200 nautical miles or 370km from the coastline of those countries) while at the same time, forming naval blockades and harassing fishermen from Vietnam and the Philippines in their own waters. Recently a Chinese fishing vessel was caught with the poaching and mass slaughter of over 500 endangered and protected sea turtles within Philippine waters. Pics of the slaughter.

This article is a must-read on the behavior of the 800lb gorilla China and its bullying tactics: China's Pre-Imperial Overstretch and follow-up article: China and the Mosquitoes.

Another must read is the NY Times article A Game of Shark And Minnow about the ragtag crew of Philippine marines stationed on a grounded derelict ship in the area as an outpost. That NY Times article has a very good diagram on the 200NM exclusive economic zones and China's ridiculous "nine-dash line" tongue-shaped delineation which claims the entirety of the area hundreds of miles away from their nearest legal territory, Hainan Island. The basis of China's 9-dash line claims? Fabricated bullshit. Pre-19th century maps show this. Even China's own historical maps contradict their absurd claims. Bullying, intimidation, violation, invasion and annexation of territories of smaller, weaker states. It's that simple. See also: Tibet.

Bullshit.

China is in complete violation of international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which China itself signed and had agreed to and ">ratified in 1996.

China has been building structures, hunting and mass poaching endangered species and destroying coral reefs within the maritime exclusive economic zones of The Philippines and Vietnam (200 nautical miles or 370km from the coastline of those countries) while at the same time, forming naval blockades and harassing fishermen from Vietnam and the Philippines in their own waters. Recently a Chinese fishing vessel was caught with the poaching and mass slaughter of over 500 endangered and protected sea turtles within Philippine waters. Pics of the slaughter.

This article is a must-read on the behavior of the 800lb gorilla China and its bullying tactics: China's Pre-Imperial Overstretch and follow-up article: China and the Mosquitoes.

Another must read is the NY Times article A Game of Shark And Minnow about the ragtag crew of Philippine marines stationed on a grounded derelict ship in the area as an outpost. That NY Times article has a very good diagram on the 200NM exclusive economic zones and China's ridiculous "nine-dash line" tongue-shaped delineation which claims the entirety of the area hundreds of miles away from their nearest legal territory, Hainan Island. The basis of China's 9-dash line claims? Fabricated bullshit. Pre-19th century maps show this. Even China's own historical maps contradict their absurd claims. Bullying, intimidation, violation, invasion and annexation of territories of smaller, weaker states. It's that simple. See also: Tibet.

An audit found this after the murder of Corrections Chief a couple years ago by someone let out early. The error rate is mostly due the complexity of readjusting sentences for new infractions in prison and good behavior credit. The errors are both longer and shorter.

Not my first rodeo, Chief.

Not mine either, Junior. The wolves wouldn't spend so much time telling the sheep what's good for them if a good chunk of them weren't rubes willing to fight against their own interests....in this case bleating about how much lawyers make instead of the company that ripped people off.

Give the money to the lawyers, burn it in the street, line it with birdcages, give it to a Colombian drug lord - it's money out of the hands of the entity that screwed over their employees, customers, etc, in the absence of any other action. The other alternatives are government prosecutors willing to step in with a heavy hand - don't hold your breath when the top prosecutor in the country says crap like this - or doing nothing. Of course, the sheep clutching their pearls about the compensation of the legal team have also been trained to grab the fainting couch at the sight of "big government", leading to the second alternative: doing nothing. Which was the real goal all along.

Or, once again, you could always hire your own damn lawyer to file your own damn case on your own damn dime.

Despite the statements on Slashdot to the contrary. cops do server major jail time in these cases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

It may not happen enough but it does happen.

NSA = No Sales for America. The NSA is a powerful advertisement that anything complicated made by a U.S. manufacturer may have intentional defects or surveillance methods.

U.S. government policies allow many secret agencies. I find it odd that news stories assume that, other than doing things that almost no citizens want, the secret agencies are otherwise well-managed. For example, in the case of Edward Snowden, someone who worked for a sub-contractor was able to walk away with all the data.

To me, it is also odd that news stories assume that the NSA works to improve security of the U.S. and U.S. citizens. For example, the book House of Bush, House of Saud explains that the Bush and Cheney families worked for the Saudis, who paid them billions for their help. The U.S. taxpayer paid for the arms, military presence, and violence that supposedly was free security for the Saudi government, but actually was, as Saudi acquaintances I met in a gym said long before the 9/11 attack, Saudi government oppression of the Saudi people.

There is a HUGE conflict of interest, and the U.S. government seems to have no influential methods of dealing with conflicts of interest. If there is security, people who work for the NSA are less likely to be promoted, and may lose their jobs. That is a powerful reason for NSA employees and management to create more insecurity. Since they work entirely in secret, no one can stop them.

Michael Moore is a self-taught movie maker. His movie about U.S. government corruption in secret agencies, Fahrenheit 9/11, made $222,446,882. It's not like U.S. government corruption is a secret.

The U.S. government's war in Iraq is now being called a "mistake". For example, Hans Blix: Iraq War was a terrible mistake and violation of U.N. charter. It wasn't a "mistake", other articles say, it was deliberate deception. For example, Stop Calling the Iraq War a 'Mistake'.

Accusing AP of conservative bias, as you do, is just laughable and just betrays your utter ignorance and bias.

But if you want a left-wing rag, the Huff has the same story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

It's hard to detect sarcasm when speaking of this nature about Brittan. The government there already places surveillance cameras in private homes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

http://www.infowars.com/uk-gov...

Now I know someone will say but those are slanted and biased sites. Yes they are and they are somewhat polar opposite in their slants so it should mean the story is true. However, for the crazy still needing more, it appears the local governments don't want left out of the fun filled craze.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

Since there is no shortage of paid shills for the rich, whenever there is any waste, it is pointed out gleefully (and usually unfairly) by these mouthpieces. So, there have been innumerable stories (mostly unfair) of welfare queens and $1000 hammers since I was a kid in the 60s. These stories have lead people to the mostly incorrect assumption that government is wasteful.

The US government is NOT wasteful. Our tax rates are lower than most other industrialized countries. Government is trimmed to the bone. You probably don't know this, but there has been a huge reduction in government employees since the 2008 financial meltdown. Local government has been hit even harder, since reduction in federal subsidies have caused massive layoffs. There is CONSTANT cost pressure on government. This ratchets costs downwards. You may also not know that we enjoy the lowest income tax rates in the industrialized world. We do have a very fine military, but the reality is that that military is where the real government waste lives. Do we really need more military spending than the next 10 players combined?

Our government works pretty well, all things considered. We enjoy safety from invasion, robbery, and fire, reasonable roads, fairly good schools, and OK health care (assuming we are 'middle class' enough to live in a good neighborhood.) I think you are seeing a government that doesn't really exist outside conservative ideology.

She approved the NBC-Comcast merger, then immediately quit the FCC and started working for NBC! I wouldn't trust a single thing she says since she's a poster child for corruption in the FCC and a prime example of the revolving door problems. While Congress is elected and has to try and hide its corrupt doings by making confusing laws no one can understand except lawyers and the corporations that wrote them, the FCC is on a tear of doing whatever it pleases. Believe it or not, there's still some people who think governmental officials are acting for the good of people, but the more the FCC brazenly does actions that are for their corporate overlords and not for the good of the people, the more people are losing faith in the government.

Where is the same level of enthusiasm about training blue collar men for an "exciting career as a nurse, nurse practitioner, etc.?" Those are high paying, skilled, wildly disproportionately female-dominated positions. They could easily accommodate an influx of men.

Uh, there ARE significant initiatives to try to get men into nursing. The American Assembly for Men in Nursing is an organization specifically dedicated to the cause. They even have a YouTube channel dedicated to stories from male nurses trying to convince men to join up. They have a dedicated initative to increase the number of male nurses by 20% by 2020 (the "20 X 20 Choose Nursing" campaign). And then there are other miscellaneous advertising campaigns, like the "Are you man enough to be a nurse?" posters.

Why no interest? Because if we suddenly gave men the opportunity and incentive (ex aggressive recruiting, preferential college admission, etc. ) to pursue those fields, a lot of women might be pushed out and that'd be "sexist."

Uh, no. The main difficulty in recruiting male nurses has to do with stereotypes of the type of caregiving differences between doctors and nurses. (If you want even more info, here's a whole Powerpoint presentation from the AAMN about the various issues involved in recruiting men.)

LOTS of organizations are actively trying to get more men into the nursing profession. Because of social stereotypes, though, most men aren't interested in trying. This has nothing to do with "sexism" or trying to keep men out of the profession.

I merely offer an example that nearly any reader can understand. Where an erroneous statement that confirms a political position is readily accepted without question while a statement that contradicts a political position would be required to have extraordinary proof. We could substitute various falsehoods the Clinton administration offered regarding the Integral Fast Reactor project for the simple error regard the cost of nuclear power, compare the long list of nuclear scientists that claim the Clinton administration got it wrong, but that would be an extraordinarily complex discussion that few readers would understand.

I actually have some experience with DC politicians. It is absolutely frightening how dependent they are upon their staffers who research various subjects and issues for them. While it may seem to be a simple misunderstanding regarding solar power being less expensive than nuclear, a falsehood -- in fact its nearly twice as expensive, the simple truth of the matter is that since the falsehood confirms a personally held desire it is simply accepted when offered by a staffer, or in a callous political calculation it is simply repeated because it will be popular with a political base.

Again, the behavior is remarkable similar between the climate deniers and the nuclear deniers. A confirming meme is accepted and repeated. When a member of the community looks at the science and realizes facts are contradictory the member is ostracized. For example a congressman who eventually looks at the science and realizes various beliefs accepted at face value among climate skeptics are wrong and environmental movement leaders who look at the science and realize various beliefs accepted at face value among anti nuclear activists are wrong.

So yes, both groups, climate and nuclear deniers. have remarkably similar behaviors when it comes to accepting confirming information and rejecting contradicting information. They really only differ in terms of their respective political positions that information is filtered through.

Google nuclear deniers. There are some interesting reads. This is just the first thing I found a moment ago but its interesting. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Technically, yes, it is a middle ground. However, I believe the intended meaning was that both sides reached a reasonable agreement that they were both moderately happy about, not a minor ability to dictate terms of surrender.For reference, here is what not being an asshole looks like: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.

CEO Nwabudike Morgan "The Ethics of Greed"

Very old game: Mose 1,28: vchiwschuha urdu - unsustainable nowadays

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://www.ohvec.org/galleries...

This is why all this fat-shaming is just plain idiotic. Some fat people are literally unable to lose fat

If you have a diagnosed disease that causes your obesity, then you can claim disability because of that.

Likewise, if you are sick, you may be staying home and not working; but that doesn't mean that everybody who stays home and is not working is sick.

If you look like a Greek god, good for you; but you aren't one, so settle for admiring your abs in the mirror, rather than give other people grief over their lack of them.

Obesity isn't about aesthetics, it's about health, productivity, and health care costs. Since society now has to pay for your health care costs, society is going to tell you to shape up or be penalized.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

You may be forced to get into weight loss programs, just like people are forced to get into drug treatment programs, even if think your obesity isn't causing you any problems.

the idea that people need to justify their body shape would still be wrong

The old deal was: you choose your body shape, you suffer the consequences, and your employer chooses whether to hire you.

The emerging alternative deal is: if your body shape doesn't conform to parameters determined to be acceptable and healthy by government experts, you will have to undergo treatment, but you will be legally protected while you do so.

What you want, namely choosing a costly body shape and having society subsidize your choice is not going to happen in the long run because we can't pay for it.

they are more apt to paint a negative image to the Tea Party without trying to show their virtues.

That would require the Tea Party to reveal and promote its virtuous attributes, rather than stumping for candidates that advocate for killing gays as if we were Saudi Arabia or some other theocratic shit hole.

that briefly ended 60 years of autocratic rule

Haven't we learned from Syria and Iraq that autocratic rule is better than Muslim rule. During the brief Islamic rule of Egypt non-Muslims were killed, raped, burned out of homes and places of worship. Yes, they are a bit hard on this blogger - but lets not forget what the movement he supported stood for.

You're talking about a very specific sect of Muslims. The vast majority of Muslims do not support what these groups are doing but it's hard to argue with someone when their form of argument involves stoning you to death. Basically relating the two is like relating the KKK, Nazis or other turn of the century fascist regimes to Christianity. Yes, they may have claimed to have been a part of it, but they in no way represent the religion as a whole. There are plenty of Majority Muslim countries in the world that don't do anything like the atrocities we're seeing in these countries now.

Haven't we learned from Syria and Iraq that autocratic rule is better than Muslim rule. During the brief Islamic rule of Egypt non-Muslims were killed, raped, burned out of homes and places of worship. Yes, they are a bit hard on this blogger - but lets not forget what the movement he supported stood for.

Compared to what? Mass executions, mass detentions, no freedom of speech or the press or freedom of religion, and rape under Sisi? Egypt under Sisi makes Iran look good. Autocratic rule thrives on extremism and instability and they cultivate and promote it in order to give their repressive measures justification. Stalin could always point to the Nazi threat and then the American threat to justify mass murder and repression. And why do we want to support a totalitarian regime in Egypt instead of a democratically elected leadership that has some Islamic underpinnings... Turkey has a democratically elected government with Islamic leanings.

that briefly ended 60 years of autocratic rule

Haven't we learned from Syria and Iraq that autocratic rule is better than Muslim rule. During the brief Islamic rule of Egypt non-Muslims were killed, raped, burned out of homes and places of worship. Yes, they are a bit hard on this blogger - but lets not forget what the movement he supported stood for.

Quartavious Davis, the plaintiff arguing for tracking privacy, was convicted of a first offense for a string of robberies and sentenced to 162 years in prison based largely on testimony from acquaintences. Davis is facing nothing short of biblical retribution for ever having dared to transgress against the law in the peoples republic of florida based 'mandatory minimums' and the court is basically saying "yes, police cannot use your cellphone to track you but we still have enough evidence anyway so fuck off and die in prison kthx"

What regulations? There were no new regulations. There no regulations were placed on the derivatives market.

Yeah, right. It just became illegal for banks to have proprietary traders (derivatives and others) in-house — resulting in massive lay-offs of traders and their supporting personnel (IT, programmers, quants)...

But I did not mean that. The difficulties, to which I was originally referring, were caused by the Sarbanes Oxley Act, which made it painfully difficult to change even the slightest aspect of a production computer system in a financial institution.

Has he been properly briefed, that the main mission of NASA is muslim outreach?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

That's a direct quote, by the way:
"..."When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ..."