And to give you an example you might understand, last week, Islamists killed 2,000 people in Nigeria.
They live in an impoverished country with little real government to speak of with lots of tribal warfare that may or may not have anything at all to do with religion.
The Westboro loons live in a country where there is actually strong law enforcement, and the legal system makes it easy to be a real pain in the ass.
An Ad Hominem is when you attack someone's character because you can't think of a way to attack their actions. Yet your cyber-stalking is quite disturbing even to those of us with no skin in the game. It's pretty damned spammy, and I get annoyed every time there's a serious discussion going on that you have to pollute with your endless attempts at getting back at anyone who might have questioned your character.
Not if you manage to set of a chain reaction. Anyone else remember the '40s? I wasn't around then, but one of the complaints about the atom bomb was that it could "set the atmoshpere on fire" causing a chain reaction that consumed all the oxygen and killed the entire planet's biosphere (not just the humans, but even the cockroaches, just off a single bomb.
A system that fragile and delicate does not survive for billions of years in the high-energy environment the Earth is in. That's why the people who knew ignored that chain reaction argument.
Many people in the West think that Putin is oppressing the democracy-loving Russians
I don't think that's what most Westerners think. They definitely think that of Kim Jung-Un and most likely Bashar al-Assad, Saddam Hussein was definitely a despot like that, as was Gaddafi. Putin, however... well, most Westerners don't like him, and he certainly enjoys corrupt elections, but everyone knows he's not in power because he oppressed the people. He's in power due to nostalgia for a "strong Russia" (which was mostly smoke and mirrors in the best of times) that could throw its weight around internationally.
ACORN: Defunct community action group and general boogeyman of the right. Obsolete. Blackberries: Given the tension in Fergusen and New York, dropping this word is probably wise. Minnow: racial slur (probably).
Imagine Eisenhower was in today's Republican party and put forth his policy list...
Taxpayer-funded road construction to link up the entire country - what, like Hitler did?!?!
Taxpayer-funded road construction to allow the military to move easily across sections of the country.
Taxpayer cash going to fund improved science teaching - SOCIALISM!??
The science funding happened to be critical to boosting America's technical superiority over the Russians and Chinese. NASA was created during the Sputnik Crisis, when Eisenhower and other Americans feared that lack of US involvement would cede space to the Russians.
Support for social security - MORE SOCIALISM?!?!
Well, got me there.:-)
Setting up NASA? - Since when is space rockets in the Constitution!???
See above. NASA was in response to a perceived military threat. Once the Russians were 'beaten,' all that impetus for space exploration evaporated. A program dedicated to knowledge and scientific discovery wasn't nearly as compelling as a bulwark against the Enemy.
" PRESIDENT OBAMA addresses the U.N. General Assembly: The future must not belong to those who target Coptic Christians in Egypt – it must be claimed by those in Tahrir Square who chanted “Muslims, Christians, we are one.” The future must not belong to those who bully women – it must be shaped by girls who go to school, and those who stand for a world where our daughters can live their dreams just like our sons. The future must not belong to those corrupt few who steal a country’s resources – it must be won by the students and entrepreneurs; workers and business owners who seek a broader prosperity for all people. Those are the men and women that America stands with; theirs is the vision we will support.
The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied. "
It'd be really nice if we could be intellectually honest and admit that one-sentence out-of-context quotes are meaningless.
Oh what the hell, one-sentence out-of-context quotes are our life-blood, they are what allow us to never be able to debate, never have us stare at the truth, and never be able to change our opinions.
The American people like the idea of having opposing forces to keep each other in check.
It's not a terrible idea in theory, supposedly leading to the outcome that only moderate proposals pass. Doesn't necessarily work out that way, but I see the attraction in it.
Tough shit. Don't vote? You can suck it, because you deserve to sit on the sidelines while the people who did vote get to have their decisions implemented. That's what voting is all about. If some people want to give up and spout of platitudes about how their vote doesn't matter... well they matter a hell of a lot less than if they did vote. It's a cheap cop-out and excuse for laziness.
The Senate is skewed to favor small population states (which tend to be Republican), and the population ratio between big and small states is much larger than it was when the system was created. I am not sure that can be called "working as intended".
Sure it was, the country was originally created to be a union of individual states, with the primacy being on the states. That is, the state was the important designator, almost like it was a separate country, with the federal government taking care of the tasks that individual states could not (like national defence, foreign relations, interstate commerce, etc). Those lines used to be a lot harder and gave the states more power in the Articles of Confederation, but that didn't end up so well, so the federal government was strengthened with the US Constitution. A strengthening that has only increased over the 200+ years of the country until the balance no longer resembles anything like what the country looked like at its formation.
So if the US Senate gives smaller states more power, I assure you it's one of the few things still "working as intended."
This is intentional and deliberate. The Senate was never supposed to be even an elected body in the first place as it was supposed to be essentially a counterpoint to the UN General Assembly. In other words, it was supposed to be a body made up of representatives of the various state governments and definitely not supposed to be remotely representative of ordinary citizens.
There's a bigger problem than that, we've gotten away from civics in general to the point that I'd wager most Americans could not guess who their state legislators were even if you put them on a multiple choice exam. We care (sadly) about federal offices, first and foremost. Then whomever is governor. And some might care about who the mayor is. Waaaaay at the bottom of the list are those guys you send to the state capital, whoever they are, where they can cause trouble for the governor you actually voted for (or against). State-wide offices are totally lost. There just isn't the interest.
At the moment, direct elections of Senators far more resembles the will of the people than Senators chosen by a bunch of state legislators that no one has heard of. The original model was that people would choose their state representatives because states > federal, but that has long since been obsoleted.
That's what you get when you elect a man with three Muslim names. His middle name is the best, though: "Hussein". I love saying that! "Hussein". It drives the lefties into a rage!
You know why it tweaks people? Because the only reason you use it is because you consider it an insult. You're so insular and so fucking isolated from the rest of the world that you can't imagine someone else also having that name, or it actually being a popular name in the rest of the world. So let go of the childish antics and grow the fuck up.
Slashdot Mirror
And to give you an example you might understand, last week, Islamists killed 2,000 people in Nigeria.
They live in an impoverished country with little real government to speak of with lots of tribal warfare that may or may not have anything at all to do with religion.
The Westboro loons live in a country where there is actually strong law enforcement, and the legal system makes it easy to be a real pain in the ass.
An Ad Hominem is when you attack someone's character because you can't think of a way to attack their actions. Yet your cyber-stalking is quite disturbing even to those of us with no skin in the game. It's pretty damned spammy, and I get annoyed every time there's a serious discussion going on that you have to pollute with your endless attempts at getting back at anyone who might have questioned your character.
Not if you manage to set of a chain reaction. Anyone else remember the '40s? I wasn't around then, but one of the complaints about the atom bomb was that it could "set the atmoshpere on fire" causing a chain reaction that consumed all the oxygen and killed the entire planet's biosphere (not just the humans, but even the cockroaches, just off a single bomb.
A system that fragile and delicate does not survive for billions of years in the high-energy environment the Earth is in. That's why the people who knew ignored that chain reaction argument.
I have a freedom to keep a veggie field and to buy raw milk from my neighbor. You haven't, due to Monsanto (Yes, I read your survivalist sites).
That is pretty much the very worst source to get any insight on how life is like in the United States.
after US-led coup in Kiev, in which EU also took a role
Lol, is that seriously what they tell you on Russia Today's propaganda to make you feel better about yourself?
Many people in the West think that Putin is oppressing the democracy-loving Russians
I don't think that's what most Westerners think. They definitely think that of Kim Jung-Un and most likely Bashar al-Assad, Saddam Hussein was definitely a despot like that, as was Gaddafi. Putin, however... well, most Westerners don't like him, and he certainly enjoys corrupt elections, but everyone knows he's not in power because he oppressed the people. He's in power due to nostalgia for a "strong Russia" (which was mostly smoke and mirrors in the best of times) that could throw its weight around internationally.
You're wasting your breath; you're dealing with a radical here who posts ridiculously-revisionist history so he can grind his political axe.
Hitler was a gay-loving progressive? Give me a break.
ACORN: Defunct community action group and general boogeyman of the right. Obsolete.
Blackberries: Given the tension in Fergusen and New York, dropping this word is probably wise.
Minnow: racial slur (probably).
For me, voting gives you complaining rights. That's its only guarantee.
You ever been to Russia? If you're not plastered you wouldn't DARE to drive there.
Liquid courage!
No wonder that crop-duster guy from Independence Day was sauced when he flew into the spaceship at the end.
This story really isn't complete without APK.
"Remember when Russia was supposed to have shot down an air liner?"
That is kinda funny, cause there were sat photos of the first that were released to the press
Wait, but I thought a Russian general said that the missile was shown as being Ukrainian. Did he mis-speak?
Yeah, "passing on good genes" has been out of fashion in society for.. well, almost as long as there has been society.
Why are you typing in a Sean Connery accent?
I thought he was just drunk. Drinking and Slashdot do not go hand in hand.
Imagine Eisenhower was in today's Republican party and put forth his policy list...
Taxpayer-funded road construction to link up the entire country - what, like Hitler did?!?!
Taxpayer-funded road construction to allow the military to move easily across sections of the country.
Taxpayer cash going to fund improved science teaching - SOCIALISM!??
The science funding happened to be critical to boosting America's technical superiority over the Russians and Chinese. NASA was created during the Sputnik Crisis, when Eisenhower and other Americans feared that lack of US involvement would cede space to the Russians.
Support for social security - MORE SOCIALISM?!?!
Well, got me there. :-)
Setting up NASA? - Since when is space rockets in the Constitution!???
See above. NASA was in response to a perceived military threat. Once the Russians were 'beaten,' all that impetus for space exploration evaporated. A program dedicated to knowledge and scientific discovery wasn't nearly as compelling as a bulwark against the Enemy.
Science-idolizing is an insult, now? Are you in the third grade? Most of the rest of us outgrew that long ago.
There is a massive difference between giving a loan and buying a bond
Only if you collect on your loans. One of the US's biggest sources of foreign aid funding to other countries is "debt cancellation."
" PRESIDENT OBAMA addresses the U.N. General Assembly: The future must not belong to those who target Coptic Christians in Egypt – it must be claimed by those in Tahrir Square who chanted “Muslims, Christians, we are one.” The future must not belong to those who bully women – it must be shaped by girls who go to school, and those who stand for a world where our daughters can live their dreams just like our sons. The future must not belong to those corrupt few who steal a country’s resources – it must be won by the students and entrepreneurs; workers and business owners who seek a broader prosperity for all people. Those are the men and women that America stands with; theirs is the vision we will support.
The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied. "
It'd be really nice if we could be intellectually honest and admit that one-sentence out-of-context quotes are meaningless.
Oh what the hell, one-sentence out-of-context quotes are our life-blood, they are what allow us to never be able to debate, never have us stare at the truth, and never be able to change our opinions.
The American people like the idea of having opposing forces to keep each other in check.
It's not a terrible idea in theory, supposedly leading to the outcome that only moderate proposals pass. Doesn't necessarily work out that way, but I see the attraction in it.
Tough shit. Don't vote? You can suck it, because you deserve to sit on the sidelines while the people who did vote get to have their decisions implemented. That's what voting is all about. If some people want to give up and spout of platitudes about how their vote doesn't matter... well they matter a hell of a lot less than if they did vote. It's a cheap cop-out and excuse for laziness.
The Senate is skewed to favor small population states (which tend to be Republican), and the population ratio between big and small states is much larger than it was when the system was created. I am not sure that can be called "working as intended".
Sure it was, the country was originally created to be a union of individual states, with the primacy being on the states. That is, the state was the important designator, almost like it was a separate country, with the federal government taking care of the tasks that individual states could not (like national defence, foreign relations, interstate commerce, etc). Those lines used to be a lot harder and gave the states more power in the Articles of Confederation, but that didn't end up so well, so the federal government was strengthened with the US Constitution. A strengthening that has only increased over the 200+ years of the country until the balance no longer resembles anything like what the country looked like at its formation.
So if the US Senate gives smaller states more power, I assure you it's one of the few things still "working as intended."
This is intentional and deliberate. The Senate was never supposed to be even an elected body in the first place as it was supposed to be essentially a counterpoint to the UN General Assembly. In other words, it was supposed to be a body made up of representatives of the various state governments and definitely not supposed to be remotely representative of ordinary citizens.
There's a bigger problem than that, we've gotten away from civics in general to the point that I'd wager most Americans could not guess who their state legislators were even if you put them on a multiple choice exam. We care (sadly) about federal offices, first and foremost. Then whomever is governor. And some might care about who the mayor is. Waaaaay at the bottom of the list are those guys you send to the state capital, whoever they are, where they can cause trouble for the governor you actually voted for (or against). State-wide offices are totally lost. There just isn't the interest.
At the moment, direct elections of Senators far more resembles the will of the people than Senators chosen by a bunch of state legislators that no one has heard of. The original model was that people would choose their state representatives because states > federal, but that has long since been obsoleted.
or suck up to billionaires who are trying to burnish their public image before they croak (ex: Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, etc).
That at least can have great payoffs. I'd trust "a billionaire trying to burnish his public image" over either government or corporate funding.
I couldn't vote for either John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 because they both pandered to the right wing extremists and made bad VP picks.
The primary system sucks.
Huntsman, 2012.
That's what you get when you elect a man with three Muslim names. His middle name is the best, though: "Hussein". I love saying that! "Hussein". It drives the lefties into a rage!
You know why it tweaks people? Because the only reason you use it is because you consider it an insult. You're so insular and so fucking isolated from the rest of the world that you can't imagine someone else also having that name, or it actually being a popular name in the rest of the world.
So let go of the childish antics and grow the fuck up.