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I mean...being paid that much money is like winning the lottery. The trouble I see with this is that many of the folks who won the lottery are not happy at all if this story or this one are to be believed.

I would have wanted Apple to pay me some regular good cash making me fluid till my last days on planet earth. How about that?

The GP informed us that most German homes are built with solar panels, and you know damn well that not even a tiny percentage of American homes are, nor will this be the case five years from now no matter what Obama or you do.

No, I don't know that damn well. Sorry. Also, the GP said solar water, not solar photovoltaic. Every home improvement store has large solar displays here in San Diego.

Or, to put it another way: If you were given a chance to bet on whether a random American house builder would have solar panels installed or not, it would be smart of you to generalize that Americans don't give half a damn about the environment, and bet accordingly.

I don't give half a damn about "saving the environment" with solar panels. I don't buy man-made global warming (or climate change or whatever it goes by nowadays). Even if I did I'm not convinced that buying and installing solar panels is a net carbon "win". I do think free electricity is a good long term investment in the value of my home. I do think that gasoline vehicles are loud, smelly, and will ultimately be less reliable than electrics. I do think it will be nice when there are fewer of them making smog and noise. But make no mistake, I'm doing this for no one but myself and wouldn't be doing it if the price math didn't ultimately pencil out well in my favor. And as the GP said, German homes have it because it is efficient, not because they are trying to save the environment.

I think the reason that some Americans are so opposed to renewable energy is that they have been beat over the head with nebulous claims of global warming catastrophe rather than shown the direct benefits I listed above. They have been told time and again how evil they are for simply living their lives. The smug that comes off some people is palpable and disgusting.

"Pay your service fees if you wish to receive your service. It's a win-win."

Are you nuts? What if all of government did this? Want police? Pay up front. Want to call 911? That's $5 a minute. Want to drive on the road? Charged by the mile via GPS. Want your kids to go to school? All schools charge, public schools don't exist. Want to walk on the sidewalk? Toll sidewalks every 100 yards.

The situation here isn't a pay-as-you-go situation is a pay-for-access situation. I don't pay each time I need police service, I pay a flat fee (i.e. taxes) for access to as much police service as I need. Same goes for all the other stuff. I've never called 911, but I still happily pay for the service to exist.

To be honest, if you expect your house to catch fire more than once every 1000 years, then the $75/year fee is a win for you if your house is worth at least $75,000. The long and short of it is that the homeowner in this situation is a COMPLETE MORON with no sense of where the services that make up society come from and the fact that these services must be paid for.

"Pay your service fees if you wish to receive your service. It's a win-win."

Are you nuts? What if all of government did this? Want police? Pay up front. Want to call 911? That's $5 a minute. Want to drive on the road? Charged by the mile via GPS. Want your kids to go to school? All schools charge, public schools don't exist. Want to walk on the sidewalk? Toll sidewalks every 100 yards.

No food stamps, no welfare, no Medicaid, no WIC for low-income pregnant women, no Section 8, no child or adult care programs, no free school lunches for children of low-income families, etc.

Of course this would have no impact on your taxes, your taxes would be just as high. Yes, the homeowner says he pays taxes so he's not getting a huge break here, sounds like he's just getting screwed with no fire department.

They should have done what hospitals do when a ambulance shows up: you get a bill in the mail, thousands of dollars for the ambulance ride.

... still just under 1/3 of the U.S. national debt as of October 2009....

WRONG. That was the deficit for FY09. That means that over the fiscal year we spent over a trillion more than we took in. Someone needs to stop this. The current national debt is over $13,618,426,600,000.00 and rising at a rate of $33,000+ per second. We need to take in at least $1,080,000,000,000 more in taxes or reduced spending per year just to keep it from growing. The IRS collected $2,396,290,997,000 in FY07. That means taxes have to go up by at least 47% from that or spending has to be drastically cut (probably both) just to keep the debt from increasing. To get rid of the national debt in 13 years, taxes would have to go up by about 87%. I don't know anybody sane that wants a 70% tax bracket to be the top end. We should cut all programs to a level that is affordable, stop waste, and run a $1tn surplus until the debt is eliminated.

but still just under 1/3 of the U.S. national debt as of October 2009.

Errr... I meant to say "2/3 of the U.S. national debt as of October 2009".

Sorry.

but still just under 1/3 of the U.S. national debt as of October 2009.

Errr... I meant to say "2/3 of the U.S. national debt as of October 2009".

Sorry.

I wonder how much the fine would have been if each spam message contained a song "owned" by one of the MAFIAA. You could generate a fine larger than the entire money supply of the whole world put together. This feels almost like a challenge now.

4,366,386 messages x $200,000 = $873,277,200,000 or $873.3 billion. Actually, it's only a couple hundred times more than what he owes now, which is more than the total amount of money the U.S. government gave the banks in the TARP program, but still just under 1/3 of the U.S. national debt as of October 2009. Are there any economists out there who can tell us if this amount of money is printed (Canada or U.S.)? Would it be theoretically possible for him to walk into the court, and pay in cash?

Ballmer however isn't making any forecasts about Windows 7 Phone. I guess someone at MS finally told him to keep his mouth quiet after he boldly predicted that the iPhone wasn't going to get any significant marketshare.

My criticism of your post was not a denial of mad cow, only your assertion that it was a predictable outcome.

First, it was NOT my post you replied to. Secondly I included the part of your post I was replying to, specifically "Your first sentence is correct. The second paragraph is only tangentially related to the truth. The third is a fairy tale." Now let's look at that:

The first sentence is "Basically, they use them as a broad-spectrum prophylactic against things that might otherwise affect them and make them less productive/healthy animals." You say it is correct. The second sentence says "Essentially to compensate for industrial farming practices which are more or less awful conditions (cows enclosed in a stall standing in their own shit for hours at a stretch) they inoculate them against everything." That is exactly why factory farmed animals are shot with antibiotics. Cattle, sheep, pigs, and other livestock raised in pastures or other open spaces generally are not shot up with antibiotic cocktails. And the third sentence, which you say is a fairy tale, says "They're also feeding them stuff that would make you cringe ... mad cow came from feeding sheep-parts (brains) to the cows (herbivores) for instance to put more protein in their diet." All of that is true, except maybe the "make you cringe" part, and many people would cringe about it.

I was also criticizing your assertion that it never would have happened without human intervention.

Again, I didn't state anything like that. I said nothing about how Mad Cow Disease or prions are transmitted, I dare you to point out where in my post you replied to that I did make such an assertion.

Falcon

Undocumented workers pay income tax and payroll taxes, too. They're the ones who should be having tea parties - they get taxed, but they don't get the vote.

Can someone explain to me how giving animals antibiotics promotes growth of the animals?

Basically, they use them as a broad-spectrum prophylactic against things that might otherwise affect them and make them less productive/healthy animals.

Essentially to compensate for industrial farming practices which are more or less awful conditions (cows enclosed in a stall standing in their own shit for hours at a stretch) they inoculate them against everything. They're also feeding them stuff that would make you cringe ... mad cow came from feeding sheep-parts (brains) to the cows (herbivores) for instance to put more protein in their diet. The prions in the sheep brain crossed into the cow in a way that would never have happened without people intervening -- when was the last time you saw a bunch of cows standing around the carcass of a sheep?

Small scale farming (the way it was done for thousands of years) didn't have these problems because the conditions were different. Yes, cows could still get sick, and probably did. But, people weren't putting them in unsanitary conditions and feeding them part of other animals.

The antibiotics help to mitigate (in a non-specific way) some of the effects.

What is with all the hyperbole when stating college loan debt. I graduated with $100k debt! $400k! $10 million dollars in debt!

In fact, the average graduate caries somewhere around $20,000 in student debt, and 93% of graduates have debt under $40,000.

After reading the source above, I see where the hyperbole comes from: horror stories about statistical outliers who racked up $100 in debt pursuing a degree in photography from a school they couldn't afford even with loans.

Look I agree that that much debt is a bad thing, but it speaks nothing of the situation of the VAST majority of those graduating. Most people are willing to take out much more than $20,000 in debt on a car which will last maybe 5-10 years, if that. Why is $20,000 in an education that will last the rest of your life a bad thing?

The problem is that under an excessively punitive tax regime, those with the most wealth (businesses and rich people) may very well do exactly that.

Who's talking about an excessively punitive tax regime? We're talking about the tax regime that is, or thereabouts. And still there's plenty of rich people. Rich people get far more out of society than they put in. That's how they got rich.

Arguably, taxes are at their lowest level since 1950.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2010-05-10-taxes_N.htm

Depends what numbers you are looking at not that it matters, the year is not over yet. It's more than 2x since the year 2000, the gov't grew by a factor of 2 in 10 years, while the trade balance has worsened by about the same factor.

No, I don't care to deceit anybody, my argument stands.

(sigh)

Low taxes do NOT mean low government revenue. The US government pulled in more money AFTER Bush's tax cuts than any time in history. (unfortunately, they spent even more, but that's a different story)

From USA Today, Feb 12, 2007:

The continued strong growth in revenues reflects the record profits corporations have been recording in recent years and low levels of unemployment, which means more Americans are working and paying taxes.

(It's amazing how short our memories are. All I hear about today is how bad the economy was under Bush, yet from 2003-2007, we were booming, but no one care remember anything more than 2 years back)

See: Laffer Curve.

An old friend of mine used to work for a high clearance group out in Colorado someplace. This is going back to 1995'sh... He has since gone silent (No contacts) , but I remember one conversation that we had had where he warned:

"If you want it to be a secret you better keep it in your head. Don't write it down, don't email it, don't call on the phone... Because if they want, they can know." (Paraphrased from so long ago...) But you get the point.

It was true then and even more so now. Who are "They"? Well, that's the problem... in 1995 I presumed it was the Federal Government that could disseminate the information to state/local. And under Homeland Security we do have "FUSION CENTERS" so you know that happens. But also it seems corporations of large magnitude can fall into it. If it is for "research, Statistics & Administration" then big whoop, but obviously it is a big temptation for people to abuse it once they are on the "inside."

Case in point would be Crystal Bowersox. She had her privacy violated multiple times in Ohio. Probably by people paid to dig up dirt for tabloids or something, but just like Google, Creepy.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/09/09/copy/ohio-apologized-to-idol-star-for-illegal-snooping.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/idolchatter/post/2010/09/crystal-bowersoxs-privacy-breached-by-ohio-officials/1

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/09/ohio-apologizes-to-crystal-bowersox-for-security-breach/

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_29YKZdSnooBzedGCwrNGaqfyDgD9I4IR7G1

http://au.eonline.com/uberblog/b199540_why_were_cops_snooping_on_idols_crystal.html

Have you seen what the few hundred thousand monkeys here in the US has been doing lately? They make more than the private sector, apparently bean counting is a lucrative globally lucrative business.

And I guarantee most of that extra income goes to...hookers and blackjack!

On the contrary, the government pays people too much. On average, public sector pay is higher than the private sector pay for equivalent jobs: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm

You're looking at homeless veterans vs the homeless population. There are, iinm, far more homeless women than homeless men. Here's a USA today story Veterans make up 1 in 4 homeless - USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11% of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.

I think the "theory" in question here is the sensationalism and alarmism attributed to this mess. I'd have FAR less problems believing the climatologists predictions if they would avoid the sensationalism that they've presented in the past few years. Let me list a few so you'll be aware what I'm talking about...

* Hurricanes will increase in frequency or strength, predicted specifically for 2009/2010.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2007-07-29-more-hurricanes_N.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/07/070730-hurricane-warming.html
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/HurricaneRita/story?id=1154125&page=1

Except they didn't. I can't find the link that compared the predicted versus actual numbers but there are far fewer hurricanes than previous years for 2009 and 2010 seems to be pretty low as well so far. *I* am predicting that the next prediction will be "global warming will cause a decreased frequency of hurricanes". And they never got stronger. That was, as usual, someone not understanding statistics.

* Himalayas will be devoid of ice by 2035. Yes, it was a "typo" but everyone wanted to believe it..

* Due to the Greenland glaciers, the ocean will rise 21 feet. Too bad it was recalculated closer to 7 inches.

* And now the Antarctic and Greenland melting is happening at about 1/2 the rate they thought.. ZOMG the world is gonna end. WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!! Or not.

I'm sure there are other examples but that's all I can think of right now without my caffeine..

If the climatologists would stop predicting anything other than facts and trends, they might get less egg on their faces and be considered to be at least somewhat respectable. As it stands they prefer to play the role of seer/doomsayer and as such I'm committed to shoot them down when they get out of hand.

Bang on. That's why smart companies like Google run interviews that test problem-solving skills rather than some particular api.

The set of smart companies certainly does not include Google.

2007-01-24
Rob Enderle _Dark Reading_/_TechWeb_/_CMP_
Executives and recruiters often behave stupidly
"a recent interview with Google's CEO [Eric Schmidt], in which he discussed the company's [alleged] staffing problems and what it's doing to [make them worse]. Like many companies that experience very rapid growth, Google is having [self-created] problems getting enough [capable] people to do the jobs they [want] done. And, like many companies, Google has been using academic accomplishments as a key metric for weeding out [many very capable people from the flood of] applicants. Google's executive staff has [idiotically] concluded that interviewing takes too long and that by sorting potential employes based on grades -- largely an artificial metric in business -- they are probably missing out on many great employees they might otherwise hire. Unfortunately, Google's 'solution' to this problem is to hire people [who are capable of doing] jobs '3 levels higher' than the jobs they are hired for. This approach clearly addresses the need to fill the pipe-line for potential executives in a rapidly growing company; it could also result in a security nightmare. As anyone in security knows, the most likely employee to steal from a company is one who feels under-paid and under-appreciated."

2007-10-19
Michelle Kessler _USA Today_ pg B1
What's up at Google?
"Google CEO Eric Schmidt said many hires were recent college graduates who received job offers earlier in the year [so, they're discriminating against older STEM workers]."

Do you really think that the government couldn't get the providers to shut down the lines that carry the internet already? Willingly? In an emergency? They didn't have a problem with illegal wiretaps after all.

Except not everyone cooperated. Just to name 2 examples, Google and Qwest told the Bush admin to get lost. Then those who did, like ATT, got eggs on their face. Obama gave then immunity for their cooperation. Google, Microsoft, Sun, and Yahoo! all spoke out in opposition to the granting of immunity.

Falcon

Understood. My apologies. Here are my sources:

The costs of certain elements vary greatly, so I went by this site, which adds the fees/costs using averages.

The quality of a nations public transportation system is, of course, a matter of opinion. But here are several sites that put German cities in the 'one of the best in the world' (or as the the best in Europe) category:

TravelPod.com: Hamberg listed as having ..."one of the best public transportation systems in the world..."
The book Germany: Unraveling an Enigma (Greg Ness - copyright 2000) list Germany as having "...one of the worlds's best public transportation systems..."
AskMen.com: rates the U-Bahn as #9 in the world
HelpGlobe.com: rates the U-Bahn as #11 in the world
USA Today: "Munich has Europe's best public transportation
VirtualTourist.com: "Munich has one of the best...public transport systems in Europe"
Plus countless Germany sites saying how superior it is (not exactly non-bias, so I didn't list them).

I'm all for leaning on technology, but this just seems like profiteering

Just in case you weren't paying attention, there has been a big move in the US to increase regulations on commuter carriers who have driven down pilot pay and driven up pilot hours in order to increase profits. A lack of pilot training and an over reliance of the autopilot was seen as a direct cause of the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-07-30-aviation-safety_N.htm

IMHO, this makes ryanair's request unreasonable

I don't know how old you are, but I currently have less freedom of speech and other rights than I did 30 years ago. And that's mostly on account of people born to William Lashua's generation and their misuse of the US military.

Ah, but you also forget that most of these people who have misused the military either "had other priorities" than serving their country and used their connections to get repeated deferments, claimed they had a boil on their asses that prevented them from serving, or got a cushy air force position and then went AWOL when even that was too hard.

Mr. Lashua's a hero and deserving of respect. Save your (justified, right, correct, and intelligent) scorn for the clowns screaming "Support Our Troops" while running the military into the ground.

"Harvard University is the poster campus for academic prestige - and for grade inflation, even though some of its top officials have warned about grade creep. About 15 percent of Harvard students got a B-plus or better in 1950, according to one study. In 2007, more than half of all Harvard grades were in the A range. Harvard declined to release more current data or officially comment for this article."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/10/05/doesnt_anybody_get_a_c_anymore/

"Plus, tough grading makes a student less likely to get into graduate school, which could make Harvard look bad in college rankings."

and also from that article this interesting bit:

"Fewer than 20% of all college students receive grades below a B-minus, according to a study released this week by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. That hardly seems justified at a time when a third of all college students arrive on campus so unprepared that they need to take at least one remedial course."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2002/02/08/edtwof2.htm

Or how about a student testimonial:

"The article reported a record 91% of Harvard University students were awarded honors during the spring graduation. Said one student, Trevor Cox, "I've coasted on far higher grades than I deserve. It's scandalous. You can get very good grades and earn honors, without ever producing quality work."

http://www.endgradeinflation.org/

Looks like there won't be, I don't think: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/09/wdsu-oil-rig-explosion-in-gulf-off-louisiana/

For scenarios and for many people those initial perceptions are often right[1] (and good enough).

But going by guesses does not make for a fair trial.

[1] See: http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/excerpts/2005-01-07-blink_x.htm

Quote: "On the basis of those calculations, Gottman has proven something remarkable. If he analyzes an hour of a husband and wife talking, he can predict with 95% accuracy whether that couple will still be married fifteen years later. If he watches a couple for fifteen minutes, his success rate is around 90%. Recently, a professor who works with Gottman named Sybil Carrère, who was playing around with some of the videotapes, trying to design a new study, discovered that if they looked at only three minutes of a couple talking, they could still predict with fairly impressive accuracy who was going to get divorced and who was going to make it. The truth of a marriage can be understood in a much shorter time than anyone ever imagined."

But I disagree with the conclusion over the "doctors being sued" part. The conclusion was to avoid certain doctors, but to me that study could just indicate people are more likely to sue doctors they don't like rather than that those type of doctors are more likely to commit sue-worthy mistakes. Unless of course the study also analyzed the success/failure rates of those doctors. It would actually be interesting if that was done and it turned out that the doctors who had a less friendly tone were actually significantly worse, but I don't get that from the article.

Utah has some of the longest life expectancy in the US.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-11-life-expectancy_x.htm

Hawaii, Minnesota, Utah, Connecticut are the top four.

Several years ago, the federal prison system started offering customer-service calling centers.

and also points to "new recycling centers, printing facilities and industrial laundry rooms." The Nation seems to think BP is paying prisoners to clean up oil damage, and theres always number-plate production. You should note that

in the 1930s, Congress began allowing the bureau of prisons to put prisoners to work making products — part of an effort to rehabilitate them. But there was a catch. Because its labor costs are so cheap — prisoners make less than a dollar an hour — Federal Prison Industries was not allowed to sell products to anyone but government agencies and non-profits.

If you're interested in the topic both Forbes and USAToday ran some pretty good stories on the rise of prison call centers a couple of months back.

Hardly a secret that industry basically writes policy and law at both the state and federal level. As expensive as Congressional campaigns are, and with free reign to donate to (aka "bribe") any politician they choose, is it any real surprise that they're calling all the shots? Hell, Dick Cheney even gave the oil companies their own secret task force to write U.S. energy policy.

This guy is off his rocker and mixes up "Sustainable Housing" with "Natural Building Materials" and overuse of PV panels.

Sustainable housing provides a way to live well without requiring lots of expensive resource use.

There are many styles of housing with many different construction methods to achieve the goal of Good Living with (Considerably) Less Reliance on Resources.

Resources are things like land, energy, water, construction materials, time, money. Good living means different things to different people - maybe a small modest house with no mortgage, maybe having time for family and friends, maybe living in an architectural masterpiece, maybe fitting in, or standing out.

For me good living always has a party now and then, when I have a big fire, leave the lights on, and rock out.

But most of the time, when I am not thinking, a sustainable house helps me live with need for extra heating or cooling energy, has less need for ongoing maintenance, and doesn't cost me that much.

The easiest way to use less resources is to have a beautiful small house that lasts a long time:
http://goldenbayhideaway.co.nz/abodes/little_greenie
http://tinyhouseblog.com/
http://smalllivingjournal.com/

Beauty can come from use of recycled or natural materials.
Straw: http://www.thelaststrawblog.org/2009/08/bit-bale-walls/
Earth: http://www.shac.org.nz/group/whareuku

And may have wavy lines, and be built slowly and experimentally
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

Or may be slick and modern:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/07/tiny-home-lives-large/1

Or might be built offsite
http://www.fabprefab.com/fabfiles/fablisthome.htm

And in most cases, sustainable living will mean remodeling existing buildings, and encouraging higher density living - next to friends and culture.
http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/08/03/clip-on-plant-room-adds-green-space-to-apartment-buildings/

Living more sustainably gives me freedom to innovate, and has nothing to do with forcing me to live in a log, as the author seems to think - at least until that idea strikes my fancy.

-Tim

I recently met the guy who heads the BAC's online Sustainable Design course. It seems good. http://www.the-bac.edu/x350.xml

It is worth selling your nickels and pennies - or at least melting down pre-1982 (and some 1982) pennies and all recent nickels. Unfortunately the government figured this out and made it illegal.

I got a 1964 silver quarter in change the other day - it's worth $3.32 today.

BTW, you can tell a 95% copper penny from a 97.5% zinc one by carefully listening to the sound it makes after being dropped onto a hard surface. The 95% copper one 'rings out', whereas the zinc one goes 'thud'.

The Associated Press reports that the lawsuit alleges that the cameras captured images of Harriton High School students and their families as they undressed and in other compromising situations.

Taken from this source

Similarly, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) recently obtained an Energy Star certification for a gasoline powered clock radio, among other things. It's a pencil whipping operation with no credible investigation of manufacturers claims. Worry not! The EPA has since announced reforms to this stellar program, so have no doubt that whatever price premium such august recognition demands is worth every certified penny.

Talk about canards. Using fancy sounding words cannot change history.

Say what you will about the merits of the Iraq expedition, it was at least in the consideration stage in the Clinton administration and would have happened with or without 9/11.

According to some people, Iraq presented no threat to the US. Doesn't sound like preparations for invasion to me. Maybe you're confusing that policy with the policy presented by Project for a New American Century. They begged Clinton to invade Iraq, but he ignored them. Probably because, as this guy Dick Cheney once said, the US could quickly find itself in a quagmire if it invaded.

9/11 was not presented as one of the major factors in the decision by anyone worthy of attention.

SHENANIGANS.

Not only did Cheney and Bush repeatedly make the connection, they had to specifically recant their opinion years later. They made the accusation so many times, and through so many propaganda arms, that by the time the war came around, 70% of Americans believed there was a link.

I'm sure in the bizarro fantasy land where the (R) means infallible, you'll just pretend that none of that happened. Which is alright, if you're not interested in reality.

Now, go home and get your shine box.

Has the cynic in you heard about the new prostate cancer vaccine? They've decided to charge $90k for it, because that's the average cost of treatment for prostate cancer, and people should be willing to pay just as much to avoid the treatment as they would to have it. I'm not kidding.

**Pardon me, it's not $90k, it's $93k. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-04-30-prostatevaccine30_ST_N.htm
Reading TFA, the vaccine is a very patient-specific thing, and didn't mention the equivalent-cost pricing. I heard that part on the radio.

Read "The Jungle".

"The Jungle" was a work of fiction. There is said to exist an authoritative 1906 report from the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Animal Husbandry that refuted Sinclair's allegations, though this report has probably been buried deep due to its political incorrectness. Today, private companies such as McDonalds have meat safety and inspection standards exceeding what is mandated by federal law, and their meat is safer than what is found in school lunches.

From government-run public schools. What's your solution to that? Eliminate public education? So only rich people's children can be educated?

Not all home-schooled children are from wealthy families.

The market for inexpensive education is crowded out by government schools, which serve to indoctrinate, not educate.

As far back as the Franklin Roosevelt administration, in 1933, when it looked for a minute like the US government might actually start putting people ahead of corporate interests, a group of men, owners of some of our largest industries, including the grandfather of George W. Bush plotted to over throw and replace him with a pro-corporate Fascist regime.

Except FRD and Benito Mussolini copied each other. Some question whether FDR's New Deal was Based on Fascism. Il Duce wrote FDR with appreciation and congradulated him for winning his 1932 election.

Falcon

I can answer this for you.

"NO."

Remember that study that was done a few years ago where highschool students across the country were asked questions like "do you think freedom of speech should be limited?" and "does the press have too much freedom of the press?". An overwhelming number of students (the future of the country, yadda yadda yadda) stated things siding with restricting freedom of the press and limiting free speech.

This country has no sense of the liberties they are supposed to value. It only knows platitudes and threats. That's why the market for yellow ribbon stickers on the back of SUVs is booming and criticizing anything that the government or military says or does is responded with some variation on "you want the terrorists to win?!" or "this is America! Love it or leave it!".

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6888837/
source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-01-30-students-press_x.htm

One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.

The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

Asked whether the press enjoys "too much freedom," not enough or about the right amount, 32% say "too much," and 37% say it has the right amount. Ten percent say it has too little.

This is not the same study, but has similarly sad results:

source: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19031

The First Amendment Center has conducted the annual survey since 1997. This year’s survey, being released to mark both annual Constitution Day (Sept. 17) activities and the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, also found:

        * Just 56% believe that the freedom to worship as one chooses extends to all religious groups, regardless of how extreme — down 16 points from 72% in 2000.
        * 58% of Americans would prevent protests during a funeral procession, even on public streets and sidewalks; and 74% would prevent public school students from wearing a T-shirt with a slogan that might offend others.
        * 34% (lowest since the survey first was done in 1997) think the press “has too much freedom,” but 60% of Americans disagree with the statement that the press tries to report the news without bias, and 62% believe the making up of stories is a widespread problem in the news media — down only slightly from 2006.
        * 25% said “the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees,” well below the 49% recorded in the 2002 survey that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, but up from 18% in 2006.

The SEC doesn't stop fraud because it doesn't want to stop it, not because it lacks the resources.

Exactly. For those who are not convinced, a bit of reading: Five New York Stock Exchange specialists were actually charged with fraud, but it's not the justice you think it should be. Richard Ney and economist who later turned actor, wrote a best selling book in 1970 ("The Wall St Jungle", interview NY Magazine 1970) with a few follow up books that all called out the NYSE Specialist families for fraud, explaining exactly how they defraud the public. At the time The Wall Street Journal boycotted anyone selling the NY times longest running best seller, and Ney was not permitted as a guest on The Tonight Show - very unusual at the time for someone with such a long run best seller/controversial book - his message had touched a raw nerve. In response, the establishment had Ney widely counter-attacked, labelled a conspiracy theorist nut at every opportunity - comments like "what would an actor know of the stock market" were common and can be heard even today.

To prove Ney's wild eyed grand conspiracy theory right - The DOJ finally got around to charging the NYSE specialists for the exact fraud that Ney described - 33 year's after he wrote about the crime! In 2003 the Specialist firms quickly got their get out of jail free cards for a tiny fraction of what they had actually defrauded over the years. Those get out of jail free cards just keep coming off the monopoly pile. The story does not end there however... news came out shortly after that the NYSE was at long last going to move to an all-electronic exchange - and that the Specialists firms charged with defrauding the public were the very same that had been blocking the move due to their 30% NYSE stake. Everyone in the know + those that read Ney's books knew all too well of the massive fraud going on in full public view for at least 33 years (more like 210+ years), but it was not until these Specialist criminals blocked other powerful interests that the illegal behaviour was actually pursued by the SEC/DOJ.

If ever there was an example of the lack of credibility for the SEC and DOJ, this is it. 33+ years of massive fraud in full public view, but they did not get around to prosecuting until it was ordered to - until it was necessary to coerce the Specialist family firms into letting the NYSE go electronic. Nothing to do with justice, or protecting the innocent being defrauded to the tune of billions of dollars over the decades. As an added insult, the DOJ let the criminals off the hook with a paltry fine. But then there is no surprise there, as Richard Ney said it best:

"Regrettably, the arrangements that exist to preserve the traditions and legalize the frauds of the security industry are inseparable from the general organization of a society controlled by the financial establishment, a society whose laws and principal customs have been contrived to serve the special interests of the financial community,"

Voting Red or Blue will not change this arrangement of US society and it's laws - merely reinforce it.

Some NYSE specialists were charged with fraud: Richard Ney and economist who later turned actor, wrote a best selling book in 1970 ("The Wall St Jungle", interview NY Magazine 1970) with a few follow up books that all called out the NYSE Specialist families for fraud, explaining exactly how they defraud the public. At the time The Wall Street Journal boycotted anyone selling the NY times longest running best seller, and Ney was not permitted as a guest on The Tonight Show - very unusual at the time for someone with such a long run best seller/controversial book - his message had touched a raw nerve. In response, the establishment had Ney widely counter-attacked, labelled a conspiracy theorist nut at every opportunity - comments like "what would an actor know of the stock market" were common and can be heard even today.

To prove Ney's wild eyed grand conspiracy theory right - The SEC and Department of Justice finally got around to charging the NYSE specialists for the exact fraud that Ney described - 33 year's after he wrote about the crime! In 2003 the Specialist firms quickly got their get out of jail free cards for a tiny fraction of what they had actually defrauded over the years. Those get out of jail free cards just keep coming off the monopoly pile. The story does not end there however... news came out shortly after that the NYSE was at long last going to move to an all-electronic exchange - and that the Specialists firms charged with defrauding the public were the very same that had been blocking the move due to their 30% NYSE stake. Everyone in the know + those that read Ney's books knew all too well of the massive fraud going on in full public view for at least 33 years (more like 210+ years), but it was not until these Specialist criminals blocked other powerful interests that the illegal behaviour was actually pursued by the DOJ.

If ever there was an example of the lack of credibility for the SEC, this is it. 33+ years of massive fraud in full public view, but the DOJ did not get around to prosecuting until it was ordered to - until it was necessary to coerce the Specialist family firms into letting the NYSE go electronic. Nothing to do with justice, or protecting the innocent being defrauded to the tune of billions of dollars over the decades. As an added insult, the DOJ let the criminals off the hook with a paltry fine. But then there is no surprise there, as Richard Ney said it best:

"Regrettably, the arrangements that exist to preserve the traditions and legalize the frauds of the security industry are inseparable from the general organization of a society controlled by the financial establishment, a society whose laws and principal customs have been contrived to serve the special interests of the financial community,"

Voting Red or Blue will not change this arrangement of US society and it's laws - merely reinforce it.

... or inspire a debate on the true meaning of "ironic" but having the head of a leading aerospace firm and the former head of NASA die on an airplane seems kind of, well, ironic.

It would seem that you are not aware that Sean O'Keefe survived the crash.

His many levels of experience in Aviation gave him the ability to take less damage from plane crashes. Alternatively, it may just be that I've played too many RPGs.

http://chattahbox.com/business/2010/08/09/hps-sexual-harassment-accuser-jodie-fisher-skin-flick-actress/
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2010-08-06-hp-ceo-hurd-resigns_N.htm

I've only been reading a little bit from news sources, but it sounds like they were friends outside of work, and he wanted to sleep with her. She didn't want to sleep with him, and there wasn't any repercussions. Whatever happened, they dealt with it, and it sounds like they don't bear each other ill will. The ethics violations he and the board refer to, are officially accounting irregularities he used to cover up his time with this woman.

It's hard to tell from the little bit we know about the case, but it sounds pretty normal. Are people in companies simply never supposed to be attracted to each other? If you spend 16 hours a day at work, which becomes the drive of your life and your social circle, are you to avoid any personal emotional contact at all? There are real cases of people abusing positions of power to force people to have sex with them or face termination. While we don't know all of the details, this sounds like a doofy unrequited interoffice romance. That really should not be enough to fire someone.

The exploit is patched, Apple is just sitting on the release for some reason.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/software/2010-08-09-apple09_ST_N.htm

Don't miss the obvious indicators of morale problems already widespread in-theater and among returning Gulf War II vets. The US military suicide rate is through the roof, and troops (overseas and after returning home) are getting an average of 2-3 opiod prescriptions from military doctors (3.8 million prescriptions in 2009), see http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-03-16-military-drugs_N.htm.

Those two facts pretty much say it all.

In Viet Nam, the troops turned to illegal drugs as morale decayed during the failed (and impossible) mission; by 1969-70 or so the US Army had more casualties from drug overdose, addiction, and drug-related illness than from combat. Historical parallels like this must not be ignored.

Get the troops out now, bring them home, shower them with love.

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

- testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 23, 1971 by LTJG John Kerry, USN, Bronze Star, Silver Star, three Purple Hearts (and before you start: all decorations reviewed and re-authorized by the Pentagon Inspector General in 2004; Swiftboat liar Commander George Elliott USN was the officer who originally submitted Kerry for the Silver Star in 1969; http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/service.asp; decoration citation texts (if you want to know what leadership and bravery truly are) http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bronze_Star_Citation_-_John_Kerry; http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Silver_Star_Citation_-_John_Kerry)

Actually, I'm under the impression that some of the bleeding obvious warning have little to do with "nature designing a bigger idiot" as with basically a law system where people can pretend to be idiots to sue for millions. And where juries of disgruntled anti-corporatist can actually decide to award an idiot that a company pays his medical bill, even when essentially ruling that the idiot is to blame for his own misfortune. Just because, you know, it would be somehow mean to tell a little old lady to pay for her own skin graft, when you can just take some money from a corporation to cover those costs.

E.g., "Wanda Hudson, 44, of Mobile, Ala. After Hudson lost her home to foreclosure, she moved her belongings to a storage unit. She says she was inside her unit one night "looking for some papers" when the storage yard manager found the door to her unit ajar -- and locked it. She denies that she was sleeping inside, but incredibly did not call for help or bang on the door to be let out! She was not found for 63 days and barely survived; the formerly "plump" 150-pound woman lived on food she just happened to have in the unit, and was a mere 83 pounds when she was found. She sued the storage yard for $10 million claiming negligence. Even though the jury was not allowed to learn that Hudson had previously diagnosed mental problems, it found Hudson was nearly 100 percent responsible for her own predicament -- but still awarded her $100,000."

Source: http://www.stellaawards.com/2003.html

Roll that around in your head. Even after ruling her responsible, they _still_ awarded her $100,000. God knows what for. Apparently just because it would be heartless _not_ to rob a company to pay for a trespasser's misfortune.

More worryingly, even warning signs really don't matter any more.

E.g., "Hornbeck volunteered for the Army and served a stint in Iraq. After getting home, he got drunk, wandered into a hotel's service area (passing "DANGER" warning signs), crawled into an air conditioning unit, and was severely cut when the machinery activated. Unable to care for himself due to his drunkenness, he bled to death. A tragedy, to be sure, but one solely caused by a supposedly responsible adult with military training. Despite his irresponsible behavior -- and his perhaps criminal trespassing -- Hornbeck's family sued the hotel for $10 million, as if it's reasonably foreseeable that some drunk fool would ignore warning signs and climb into its heavy duty machinery to sleep off his bender."

Source: http://www.stellaawards.com/2007.html

E.g., a woman sued Burger King after spilling the coffee onto her own lap, because, get this, although the cup did warn that the coffee is hot, the employee didn't also warn her verbally that it's dangerously hot. Because, you know, apparently otherwise it doesn't matter.

Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/806345/posts

Worse yet, in some parts you can even get to pay big bucks for something you didn't personally cause or had any way to cause or prevent.

E.g., when a hare-brained pyrotechnics stunt went wrong in a bar and resulted in a deadly blaze, it wasn't just the owners that had to pay. The list of those who were made to pay millions or had to reach a settlement (again in the millions), included the radio channel which aired an ad for the event, and the manufacturer of the beer they served there (and literally had no other involvement with the event, and likely only heard of it when they got sued), and the importer of that beer, and Home Depot who sold the material they used as insulation and which was ignited by their hare-brained pyrotechnics. (Although Home Depot never sold it as fire-proof or anything.)

Source, for example: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-13-540

There were zero commercial airline deaths in the US in both 2007 and 2008. (Maybe some since, I don't know). Granted, I don't seriously expect privately driven vehicles to ever approach that (just as civil aviation does not), and over a long enough time horizon, 0 approaches impossible.

They actually did, except they named themselves 'The drunks of Menkaure'. On a slightly unrelated note, this graffiti from Pompeii wouldn't look out of place in a modern city.