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When will they stop the murders in Chicago (489 so far this year)?

That's mostly black-on-black violence that doesn't fit the preferred "blame whitey, especially if they're Republicans, and really blame 'em if they're men" narrative, so it's ignored.

When will they stop the murders in Chicago (489 so far this year)?

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I'm glad that the venerable WGN-TV and WGN AM 720 didn't fall to Sinclair. These stations are an invaluable source of independent, local news reporting.

Editorial at the Sun-Times says it well.

Violence against nazis, white supremacists and fascists is acceptable. It's always been acceptable and it always will be acceptable.

No, it hasn't.

Liberals used to stand up for free speech. I was proud to be among them back then.

Maybe if Democrats weren't relentlessly pushing for bigger government and SJW victimhood identity politics they could compete with Republicans.

As the court cases show, it's actually, Republican GERRYMANDERING that is responsible. In states like Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Texas, Wisconsin...all lost cases due to Gerrymandering. All facing new districts.

Oh so did Arizona.

But they chose a relentless drive for power and pushing the culture war over policies Americans actually want. Democrats deliberately pushed "blue dogs" out of the party so progressives could control it to-to-bottom.

Blue Dogs kept losing elections, so they were no longer in the party, not that they were much good in the party, but when you lose an election, you aren't much good in the legislature at all.

Democrats backed Bloomberg on civilian disarmament, backed Soros and Steyer on funding #BlackLivesmatter, insisted a man changing his name magically made him a woman, and then wonder why ordinary Americans no longer vote for them.

66 million votes in 2016. 66 million in 2012. 70 million in 2008. That's for President. Versus 63, 59, and 58 million.

Want to see the breakdown state by state? It's available.

And really, where are Republicans stopping Democrats in such paradisaical deep blue enclaves like Chicago and Detroit?

The Capital of Illinois is Springfield, the Capital of Michigan is Lansing.

Maybe it's because Michigan had Democrats win 2,302,417 votes in 2016, while Republican candidates received 2,283,727, enough to make the makeup of the legislature questionable. Maybe it's because Ilinois is so partisan in its gerrymandering that about half the districts had only one candidate at the general.

And you can see a documentary about the subject..

I doubt Uber can be the cause of the decline, but I also doubt that marijuana use is the cause also. New York State only started to allow medical marijuana early last year, and only if it's in extracts or edible.
http://extract.suntimes.com/in...

I wouldn't think the number of people who started using medical marijuana would have an effect on the number of drunk drivers.

This just in! Charter firm suspected of cheating federal grant program

http://chicago.suntimes.com/ne... for starters... tons more with a simple search

Nah, send them to the southside of chicago where almost 900 people have been shot, and soon to be a movie about "chiraq" because of the egregious amounts of black on black violence to the tune of 2800.

I'm hoping the people marching against cops will start marching in chicago after the recent shooting of a 4 year old - she caught a round in the head. Pretty sure she wasn't in a gang or deserving of the shot.

I live in the southside and hear the gunfire occasionally.

Here's the latest stats

http://crime.chicagotribune.co...

Here's the latest atrocity

http://chicago.suntimes.com/ne...

But yeah - the best efforts are focused on the occasional cop bit. Cause there's thousands of those (well not really - but it takes the sting out eh?)

It doesn't change your argument, but it was Indiana, not Illinois, that recently passed the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

IL does have a similarly-named law enacted in 1998, but it (or maybe more recent legislation that supersedes it) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Here's two links that clear up the confusion.
As a past resident of IL, I don't want my already-horrible state political machine further besmirched by such BS :D

this one, while not related specifically to homan square is still appropriate to the topic at hand: The UN just recently condemned the Chicago police department for torture.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/ne...

the quicker we realize and admit the dismal state we are currently in, the sooner we can take appropriate actions to fix it.

There's actually been a bill proposed in the IL State House/Senate to ban traffic cameras throughout the state. There's probably no chance of it passing, but there's enough political traction to be made by proposing shutting them down that we MAY see some pullback on putting them up all over around here.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/ne...

There is much discussion lately about Cayenne pepper being able to assist someone suffering from a cardiac arrest.

Cayenne Pepper

So why the heck can't they show his face in a story about facial recognition? Why the picture of a train? That has nothing to do with facial recognition! For all we know he has some incredibly unique face or maybe a tattoo across his forehead.

There's 2 links in the summary - not to mention plenty of other articles about this exact story - the second one includes a photo.

Why a train? Probably because it was about a robbery that occurred on a train, but why are you asking that here when you could ask the author?

Here's a great citation about Comcast throttling someone with malicious intent. STFU shill.

He gave up. http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/3201789-418/chicago-jesus-board-chico-mayoral.html

http://www.suntimes.com/news/s...

Article from the Chicago Sun Times.

Criminal but quite likely not dangerous.

Richard Roeper (an actual reviewer rather than a newspaper) thought it an enjoyable bit of fluff with no surprises.

They will buy them as fast as Microsoft can make them. No matter what Microsoft does, people will buy it. Look at Win8 for proof -- it's not selling well, but it's still selling.

Well, sure, but you have to keep in mind - about 25% of the US population suffers from some form of mental retardation.

Now, you're slandering the "learning difference" people.

Oh yea, forgot - not supposed to use the "retard" word, 'cuz daddy Obama said someone might get butthurt about it.

Mea Culpa, if I gave a shit.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/ [suntimes.com] is melting under the pressure

It seems to have literally crashed the blog site as well. Comments thread on Roger's last entry:

Artur Artborg | April 4, 2013 12:47 PM | Reply
Jody | April 4, 2013 12:49 PM | Reply
Grant McGuire | April 4, 2013 12:57 PM | Reply
Stephen | April 4, 2013 6:39 PM | Reply
Jonny | April 4, 2013 6:40 PM | Reply
The Dude in CA | April 4, 2013 6:40 PM | Reply
Floyd | April 4, 2013 6:40 PM | Reply
Jonathan | April 4, 2013 6:40 PM | Reply
Jeff | April 4, 2013 6:41 PM | Reply
Jim G. | April 4, 2013 6:41 PM | Reply
Donna | April 4, 2013 6:42 PM | Reply
Janet | April 4, 2013 6:42 PM | Reply

Was that this one ?

He also wrote I Do Not Fear Death in Sept. 2011. Wonderful piece.

That's a great point. Form is separate from content. The point of a movie is not just its content, but also in the stylistic presentation form it uses to deliver that content. I've seen movies that had a nice "story" behind it but with poor execution of the plot by the actors or timing and editing of the scenes. I've also seen movies produced and directed by music video directors and by Michael Baye that are beautifully styled and paced and so well lit and with gorgeous sweeping camera movements that actually go with the underlying scene and with good music that punctuates and emphasizes the action but the content of the plot and the storyline is crap.
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When both form and content deliver something beautiful, it's a wonderful movie. I like Ebert's side commentaries and I also like that he was part of some schlocky movie writing in the 1960s.
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Ebert wrote the scripts for Who Killed Bambi?, a 1978 movie about the Sex Pistols that ultimately was not made because the financiers did not like what was in the script. Ebert's screenplay for the movie is on his blog. Bizarre.
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He also wrote the for "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," a movie for which he wrote the screenplay in 1969.

Ebert should be given a helluva lot of credit for waving the flag for many years for Herzog, who really is one of the most daring and brilliant filmmakers in history. I suspect Werner will be grieving very much for him. If you want to read how just deeply Ebert admired Herzog, this is the open letter he wrote to Herzog upon hearing that Encounters At The End Of The World had been dedicated to him:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/PEOPLE/71117002

It seems that http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/ is melting under the pressure of people trying to read one last Roger Ebert review. I spent over a decade at university in Urbana-Champaign, and the Roger Ebert film festival was a yearly pleasure. I have especially fond memories of Ebert interviewing Werner Herzog on stage after a showing of Invincible.

He had a great love for the Steak and Shake hamburger chain, and wrote a lengthy essay about their food, available here:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/01/car_table_counter_or_takhomasa.html/

This was written after his first surgery, when he could no longer take food orally. He recommended having the burger with mustard, ketchup and onion only, to better savor the meat. Great essay by a wonderful writer. Great burgers too. I always order a modified Ebert, leaving off the ketchup :)

He addressed that very question in his last blog post. He was always one of us; a science fiction fan from the beginning, and an enthusiastic adopter of technology as it arrived. While he was on the wrong side of the question of video games as art, at least he cared enough to think about it and debate it.

From http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/04/a_leave_of_presense.html

"And gamers beware, I am even thinking about a movie version of a video game or mobile app. Once completed, you can engage me in debate on whether you think it is art."

I read in that good humour and an open mind, even at death's door.

I think you have to separate the question of whether X/Y/Z things are bad from the question of money laundering. AML is an extremely complex, expansive and vague set of laws that more or less attempt to fight crime by creating a systematic network of surveillance and control over the financial system. That's why you read about people having to automatically file paperwork for transactions that are "suspicious" (what this means is not well defined). That's why anonymous banking is illegal - the assumption is anyone could be a criminal so everyone has to monitored, all the time. And in fact, it appears that parts of the USG have created a system in which not only are such reports dumped, but all records of all financial transactions ever (this is the TFTP).

One may question whether systematic surveillance is the right way to fight crime ... whether the costs are worth the benefits. Most western societies instinctively reject widespread surveillance - we wouldn't accept government controlled security cameras in our homes despite the obvious application to crime fighting. However without anyone really noticing this is what's happened to finance.

The other scary thing about this system is that with the ability to track every transaction comes the ability to veto them too. Consider the case of the US citizen who got on the wrong side of Israel and was put on the sanctions list for 17 years. He was finally removed (and they agreed he was not a terrorist) after the Treasury was sued, 1 day before the law stated they had to respond. This kind of rampant abuse of power comes due to the ability to punish people without going via the courts, a power made possible by extensive AML controls.

Seems like Roger Ebert's piece on video games as art should be included in this discussion. (Yes, I'm too lazy to RTFA and see if it is already referenced).

The main problem with 3D in my opinion is that it tends to be dim compared to 2D movies. So scenes that are already murky are even murkier, sometimes making it difficult to tell what is going on. I remember the Alice in Wonderland 3D movie being particularly bad for that, but even in the Hobbit there were a few scenes, such as the troll encounter, where I was unable to get my bearings at times. Roger Ebert has famously complained about this, and other aspects of the 3D experience, more than once.

But notwithstanding the occasional dimness, and Ebert's negative opinion, I generally enjoy 3D movies. I don't understand, though, with regular LCD TV's coming down so much in price, why it is almost impossible to get an inexpensive 3D television, say a 32" model for $459 or so. My feeling is that it would be easier for 3D to gain a foothold in the household if it started off in the kid's room and then once a few 3D blu-rays are purchased, people would be more inclined to maximize their experience with a deluxe 55" 240Mhz "smart" model with all the bells and whistles.

Are you living in a hole?

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/03/ten_giant_us_companies_avoidin.html

My point was that the poster was saying that he deserved to be paid more from his pension than he had put into it because he was underpaid. But this isn't the case for everyone in government work... some of them are grossly overpaid.

So the logical leap I was hoping that you'd make is that we were sold on these pensions as a way to reward people for low wages (and we're continually reminded of this) but what we actually got were people who make a lot of money and then continue to collect a lot of money after they retire at an early age as the pension spiking link from the story submission shows.

It's like you didn't even pay attention at all.

>At what point anywhere in history has the GOP been pro-slavery?

This year. This election cycle.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/15611617-505/arkansas-rep-calls-slavery-blessing-in-disguise.html

This is what I'm talking about. He was only castigated by his fellow Republitards only *after* it hit the news.

Morons. All of you.

--
BMO

Well, that was fun. Further confirmation to store my post in an editor before trusting SlashDot to correctly process my submission.

  My post is directed for those at 40 and older. At this point you should have had offspring, which I think (both biologically and ethically) is significant.

1. John Gardner has written a number of books on how to evaluate fiction. In order to judge a piece of art, you have to have a framework in which to evaluate the piece.

2. As others have mentioned, Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance is a good read on determining values. I think it is better to read this book than relying on the Tao of Pooh, as someone else recommends. Also, it is worthwhile to remember that Pirsig's son killed himself.

3. Also, as others have mentioned, GEB is a must-read for programmers.

At 40, we're at the halfway point; we're thinking about mortality, and our legacy. If we're not parents, we've spent considerable time thinking about why we're not parents.

Though not a book, I've been extremely impressed by film> .

A couple of books I think are relevant for 40+ year old readers:

1. http://www.amazon.com/Soldier-Great-War-Mark-Helprin/dp/0156031132/
2. http://www.amazon.com/Sunlight-Dialogues-John-Gardner/dp/0811216705

I think both Atlas Shrugged & the Bible are worth reading, at the least to have the background to discuss them intelligently.

I was about to recomment the Harvard reading list, when I went out to confirm what it actually was. The irony is that the Google searching
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sica/reading.htm

does not in any way match what it used to be:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Whole-Five-Feet-ebook/dp/B00280MWSS/

One thought is to read the Pulitzer/Hugo/Nebula/etc. books. IMO, though, the recent winners do not have the same quality as those written, say, 30 years ago.

There are plenty of problems with Canadian healthcare. And you will find that not in a billion years will a single Canadian prefer our broken dysfunctional wasteful system over theirs.

What the USA excels in is critical care: when you have the heart attack. Why? Because IT MAKES MONEY. What is there no money in? Preventive care. Because it's cheap. You also live longer.

Wouldn't you prefer to prevent the heart attack for $100 than maybe live through the heart attack for $100,000? Well guess what: your stupid healthcare system doesn't agree with you. It is made so some asshole CEO can sit on a gold toilet, it's not made so you actually live a longer healthier life and spend far less on your healthcare.

Because some complete fucking retards in this country actually believe the profit principle has a place in a healthcare system. What is the system for? Your health? Or a shareholder? Why the fuck do so many ignorant fucking Americans not see the problem therein? You can't have both. No really: you cannot have a system to maximize profit, and a system that maximizes your health, at the same time. Those two goals are diametrically opposed to each other. But the cult of the unicorns and rainbows free market fundamentalism is so strong in this stupid fucking country common sense does not prevail.

Oh and "FREEDOM!" As in FREEDUMB: people who believe freedom means freedom from responsibility. "How dare you make me buy health insurance!" (And then they break their arm and avoid the bill because they can't afford it: freeloading, irresponsible ignorant assholes.)

You can make giant volumes of the problems in the Canadian healthcare system. In Great Britain. In France. In all of our economic peers on the world stage. And none of them, not a single citizen of those countries, with all of the problems in their health systems, would change it for the far, far worse system we have here. Go ahead, ask your friend. They look on our "healthcare" system with a mix of revulsion and disgust. Because our system is far far far more expensive, and we live shorter lives, because our system is made to profit off the attempt to MAYBE you save you from the heart attack, while the other systems are made to save the country, and you, money, by preventing you from getting the heart attack in the first place with screenings and cheap drugs (as opposed to expensive drugs with marketing campaigns and fashion model sales reps visiting doctors offices to get them push that instead).

A healthcare system doesn't mean a fucking thing if you can't afford it.

It blows my mind how Americans can be so utterly propagandized and so fucking retarded on how they are being shafted by paying so much and living shorter unhealthier lives. Oh but "EVIL SOCIALISM WHARGGARBBLBBLLE." Good for you retard, you hate the word "socialism." Now live a shorter life and pay a heck of a lot more for your healthcare, you dumb ignorant moron afraid of a silly word. That asshole CEO getting paid by policies that trade your lifeblood for his gold toilet thanks you.

Wake the fuck up America.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121003/REVIEWS/121009995

Wow. He spent some time playing golf. Big fucking deal.

Call me when he spends 3 years on vacation like bush.

http://politic365.com/2012/05/08/obamas-vacations-of-any-president-bush-racked-up-the-most/

Here is a picture of the Ranch. Notice the caption:

George W. Bush (center) is joined by Condoleezza Rice (left) and Paul Wolfowitz, (right) as they talk with reporters before the start of an intelligence briefing from the CIA at Bush's ranch

Obama has pictures of his "working vacations" too!

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/01/obamas_working_hawaii_vacation.html

President Obama and top national security advisor Denis McDonough working in Hawaii, where the Obama family was vacationing over the holiday break. The family returned to Washington on Monday.

Obama doesn't attend CIA briefings when he's in Washington!

That's a little misleading, according to this source:

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/09/24/898081/kessler-thiessen-intel-breifing-bogus-misleading/?mobile=nc

Clearly, different presidents have structured their daily briefing from the CIA to fit their unique personal styles. Many did not have an oral briefing, while three — two of whom are named Bush — preferred to deal directly with a CIA official. Obama appears to have opted for a melding of the two approaches, in which he receives oral briefings, but not as frequently as his predecessor.

Obama: "Mine will be the most transparent administration in history."

I'm pretty sure that is a misquote since googling it only turns up anti-obama sites. That's poor form if you want to show something actually hypocritical and not just more fauxbama stuff.

Best I can make out, it refers to his promise to increase access to government records by putting lots of stuff into an internet database. I remember when it went online as the Open Government Initiative. You will see the word "Transparency" is the first ont he sub-heading of that page.

If you want to get a more grounded list of broken promises, try the Obameter. But, I want to point out that broken campaign promises aren't quite the same thing as "flip-flopping" which, in the GP's context of daily show clips, refers to taking up contradictory positions in public statements -- campaign promises are goals that may not be achieved due to circumstances beyond the candidate's control, flip-flops are 100% willful decisions to simply say different things.

Almost every criminal act can also be legal, involuntary, informed consent of the "victim".

Should that be "voluntary"?

Actually, "given voluntary"; omit one little space, and the autocorrect turns your whole meaning inside-out...

But rape is pretty unique jn the prevalence of consensual sex. If a person has a black eye, and their attacker admits to doing it, but says they asked or consented to be hit, they don't have much credibility, because we know that rarely happens (outside sport fighting rings).

For what it's worth, based on visits to hospital emergency rooms, this is rather common: unsanctioned fights, impromptu brawls, and bets (generally involving intoxication). (Unless you specifically meant cases in which the attacker says it was consensual and the victim says it wasn't.) Worst case: someone makes a bet, either "I can take a punch" or "I'll pay you to let me punch you", things happen, punchee dies (possibly hours or days later), puncher is tried for murder. Those aren't common, but they happen (Example 1 Example 2).

Seems to me this should be a tragic accident or involuntary manslaughter at worst, but I am not a prosecutor. I think they get extra points for more-serious charges, so verbum sapiens.

Well, that's fucked up all round.

Even so, I'm sure consensual punching is orders of magnitude less common than consensual sex.

Almost every criminal act can also be legal, involuntary, informed consent of the "victim".

Should that be "voluntary"?

But rape is pretty unique jn the prevalence of consensual sex. If a person has a black eye, and their attacker admits to doing it, but says they asked or consented to be hit, they don't have much credibility, because we know that rarely happens (outside sport fighting rings).

For what it's worth, based on visits to hospital emergency rooms, this is rather common: unsanctioned fights, impromptu brawls, and bets (generally involving intoxication). (Unless you specifically meant cases in which the attacker says it was consensual and the victim says it wasn't.) Worst case: someone makes a bet, either "I can take a punch" or "I'll pay you to let me punch you", things happen, punchee dies (possibly hours or days later), puncher is tried for murder. Those aren't common, but they happen (Example 1 Example 2).

Seems to me this should be a tragic accident or involuntary manslaughter at worst, but I am not a prosecutor. I think they get extra points for more-serious charges, so verbum sapiens.

Everybody talks about the school having A/C, what about the buses? Even here in Texas our buses didn't have A/C. At the end of May and beginning of September it sucked. I cannot possibly imagine it in August when exceptional temperatures can peak at 115F.

For others to read here is an short article about the costs of retrofitting a school.

http://burrridge.suntimes.com/8279922-417/hinsdale-high-school-district-86-reviews-costs-for-air-conditioning-electrical-work.html

In the millions, And that has nothing to do with the energy costs of the hottest time of the year.

And at a guess, the DF is rarely the person who actually made the decision, but instead the one who implemented it. Solicitation is a crime in itself, as a guy whose name I happen to find interesting found out recently, but that legal principle seems to go out the window when corporate money is involved.

This is the problem we have in society where instead of advancing thought and morals, we advance an atheist agenda lacking in morals.

Atheists lack a defining text. And people think managing programmers is like herding cats. Unification of agenda under a grand banner is mostly a theist creation.

More simply put, without any moral guide lines we only have survival of the fittest to guide us.

Apparently, we hadn't properly solved the equations for Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma after three decades of study and you suspect on gut instinct that the grand mechanism of fitness is tapped out? Let me guess, you're soon about to argue that lack of a moral code correlates with lack of fitness?

Guess what happens to people with no moral guide lines? Well, you simply need to look at the declining mental and moral health of the USA to see how this turns out.

Bee Eye Enn Gee Oh.

Shortly after the 1983 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 incident I attended some Sunday services at a televised evangelical church in Toronto out of courtesy to the family I was boarding with. One of the speakers they invited was Hal Lindsey. I don't recall the other guests by name. In one service it was preached that America engage in eye-for-eye tactics and shoot down an equivalent aircraft from the Soviet sphere. Nice. Well, America evened the score on quick trigger fingers not long after with the Iran Air Flight 655 incident in 1988. If we had deliberately boarded the eye-for-an-eye bus, we'd now be asking the Irish for advice on how to cool the exchange.

The other sermon I recall rather vividly was the claim that the rapidly rising disease in western society was a sign of God's wrath. He was referring in particular to the number of distinct diagnostic categories, completely oblivious to the fact that refinements in diagnostic category are the hallmark of science making progress. Where we used to have one lump for infectious disease, we now distinguish thousands of pathogens, all the way down to minor strains.

FOX News excluded, mental health in America has probably never been better. I watched the extremely difficult movie Breaking the Waves over the weekend. There wasn't a shred of mental health in evidence in that nasty Calvinist congregation. Every one of them would rather crush pint glasses with their bare hands than seek help for depression. Hitchens was exceedingly vocal about how Mother Teresa defined misery as next to godliness. She did almost nothing to alleviate suffering.

MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God.

As society less frequently accepts that suffering is next to godliness, more people seek treatment for minor mental health conditions. The same data you cite reads to me as major progress.

Huge accusations, but no cites.

Illinois abolished its death penalty when the Innocence Project proved that half the men on death row were innocent of the murders they were convicted of, and massive police and District Attorney corruption (including torture and planted evidence) were the reason most of the innocents were convicted.

He didn't need to make a citation about the cop shooting at unarmed teenagers; I'm surprised that nothing similar has happened where you live. Just last year there was a similar incident in Chatham (just outside Springfield). Sorry I can't make a citation either, but the SJ-R only archives its stories for a few weeks.

Then there are the murders (OK, negligent homicides) at the Sangamon County Jail. I knew one of the victims personally, his name was Maurice "Moe" Burris. He died in agony when the jail doctor refused to send him to the hospital, even though he was puking blood. His family recently successfully sued the county for Moe's death. The quack doctor that killed my acquaintence is still working for the county instead of sitting in prison for negligent homicide as he should be. Luckily the IT isn't as retarded as the SJ-R when it comes to data retention (among other things), you can find more about the Innocence Project and the police misconduct that led to the end of the death penalty there as well. I'd link to the SJ-R's take on the quack practicing medicine but they'll probably pull the story before you could see it.

This was a big deal a couple years ago; detectives lied to a judge about a "trash rip" to get a search warrant, then planted cocaine during the "search". The suspect was freed by the judge, no criminal action was taken against the detectives (but if you lie to a judge you'll go to jail). The detectives were fired, then later rehired after suing the city!

Those are instances just here in Illinois and mostly local! Multiply that by fifty and you'll begin to see how bad the situation really is. These kinds stories are incredibly easy to find in reputable newspapers.

You MUST remember Ruby Ridge and Waco, don't you?

The situation is bad. It's no wonder that poor people ALL fear and loathe the police. I assume the fellow you responded to has probably been personally victimized by thuggish cops.

So? THEY made that profit, it didn't come from taxpayers

Because oil companies don't get government subsidies? Oh wait...they got tons of subsidies.

And they spread economic activity throughout the world while doing it and paid a crapload in taxes

False. "1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings."

Now, Exxon Mobil does claim it pays tons and tons of taxes....because it counted the gasoline taxes they collected from all of us drivers as taxes that they paid. By that argument, I paid no taxes at all last year, it was my employer that cut the check to the IRS. This argument is stupid, and should be ignored.

Compare to Apple

Why? We're talking about whether green energy or not-green energy has more cash.

while without Exxon you wouldn't get to work

So....Exxon Mobil is the only oil company that ever existed? And how, exactly, is this relevant to a conversation about whether green energy or non-green energy has more money?

That really is a superb movie.

I loved it. I really should watch it again.

(And as far as I know, very historically accurate as well!)

IIRC Woz said at the time that the details for events he personally witnessed were generally accurate though a number of Apple employees were folded into one or two characters. That, however, isn't surprising. (It's the same cost concerns that leads to Ebert's Law of Economy of Characters.)

I think the "fees" make following the rules something that they will actually do. Most of the rich little shits I know that go to charter schools just wave their money around and do what they please. Getting sent to the principal means nothing to them, getting their checkbook sent means a whole lot.

Also the "fees" are nothing: $5 for chewing gum? $5 for being tardy to class more than 3 minutes? Completely worth $5, and isn't this more like real life? You're not automatically thrown in jail for minor infractions when you become an adult, the system nickels and dimes you to death. Speeding? $200. Red light camera? $100. etc

This time thankfully only soda cans bought it.

This timeit was a support column.

This time a cop accidentally shot a Bologna, so I guess it's not a CCW, and maybe the Bologna was resisting arrest.

This time it was in a starbucks, some kind of lead extra latte.

This one was in a school.

This Guy apparently hit himself in the leg when he dropped the gun at a Grocery store.

Again, This one is not a concealed carry, but as the guy was DEA and actually demonstrating gun safety to a group of children at the time he accidentally shot himself I think it merits inclusion on the grounds that accidents can clearly happen to even the most highly trained.

We people are the ones that could be shot at any time without warning because someone felt that the risk to others of their carrying a weapon was worth it. In this litigious society I would have though the insurance costs of packing heat would be prohibitive. Around 2% of gun deaths are from accidental discharges.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/8565077-418/israel-could-nuke-iran-with-newly-tested-missile.html http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x304864

"It's a Wonderful Life" is a horrible movie.
    The only reason it's remembered is because it fell into the public domain.

  see you in Hell, modpoints!

Did you even read your own link? To whit:

What is remarkable about "It's a Wonderful Life" is how well it holds up over the years; it's one of those ageless movies, like "Casablanca" or "The Third Man," that improves with age.

"It's a Wonderful Life" is a horrible movie.
The only reason it's remembered is because it fell into the public domain.

see you in Hell, modpoints!