With the lack of sleep last night my mind joined this headline with the previous one "Baboons Learn To Identify Words" as logically they seemed to go together. Sadly I don't think that relationship is too far from the truth upon further thought.
Well given how often people here like to take digs at libertarians it didn't seem too unreasonable an assumption. I at least try to think through political issues as best I can but it seems that across the entire spectrum people generally don't, be they libertarians, communists, greens, democrats, republicans, or constitutionalists. Add in the people who are most visible in the minor parties tend to be the more nutty ones (I'm looking at you Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, who claim to be libertarian) and it only further marginalizes and discredits their cause.
True I was just wondering out loud and curious what others thought. I think a few cases or suits where someone who didn't get there child vaccinated was successfully prosecuted it would put an end to a lot of the nonsense that is going on.
In response to your points:
1. ) It would be really hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt which person gave your kid a communicable disease
True but the bar for proof in a civil case is lower than it is in a criminal case. Yes it would be difficult but not impossible.
2. ) Sending some moron to jail doesn't make up for a dead child, and
The same could be said about any case where someone was negligent and it resulted in the death of someone.
3. ) You're expecting someone who is already acknowledged to be irrational (not immunizing their child regardless of the fact that their reasons for doing so were revealed to be based on a hoax) to act rationally
To this I say they should not be parent's, as evidence by their negligent care of their own child harming another person's child. People who are completely irrational as to be a danger to themselves or others shouldn't be out amongst the general public. This is why we lock up criminals and have people civilly committed.
I totally agree with facebook creating more privacy issues than non-anonymous cash, but there have already been instances of thieves using facebook to plan crimes. The difference with most of those other things is that they are not instantaneously tracked, it always takes time to see updates to those accounts. Besides people are already always trying to hack into paypal, credit card processors, and bank transfers and there have been breaches. Do you honestly expect government to do any better?
You are confusing correlation with causation there. Granted there are a lot of stupid people who claim they are libertarians but they don't think it through all the way. Most of these people thing that magically things would be better, but it would be a tough transition and it wouldn't be the no government environment that they think they would get.
Your comment spawned an idea for me. I wouldn't have a problem with people not getting vaccinated if they could be held liable for the results of their negligence. So if someone decides that their child won't get vaccinated and my child can't (for age or medical reason) but then contracts some horrible disease from the child who's parent decided not to have them vaccinated then the parent who chose to not have their child vaccinated would have to pay the bills. If my child dies then charge the parent who decided to not have the child vaccinated with negligent homicide. This would allow anyone to be a stupid as they want (we don't have many laws against people doing stupid things but that is increasing) but as soon as it affects someone else then there is recourse. Given that one can sue anyone for anything (whether it holds up in court is different) I am surprised someone hasn't tried this already to test the legal waters.
Personally I don't want government tracking all of my purchases. Anonymity is much better for personal security. Lets say the system tracks everything and each person is tied to a specific device. This would be the "honest" system you mention and government would be able to see that the buyer needs to pay sales tax, I assume that this what you mean by being in honest people's interest. Now lets assume that the central government's servers get hacked so no evil doers can watch transactions in real time, would you expect any thing less from government. They now know where each person's last transaction was and can tie that to them. Toss in a bit of location awareness (the transactions probably contain an address any way) and now you have a great way of finding out who is and isn't home. Toss in some people making purchases at specific shops (high end jewelry stores, gun shops, etc) and you now have an idea good places to break into, plus the added bonus of knowing when the people who live there aren't around since you can see when their last transaction was. To me this sounds like a really bad idea (maybe I just need to go brake out some tinfoil instead) but feel free to think that it is good.
To be fair Bush Sr. he had been rather busy being VP and president for the previous 12 or so years and was rather isolated from tasks that the common man had to do. The fact is all presidents are like that once in office.
While that would be the case the full faith and commerce clause also allows congress to carve out exceptions for states. This is why there is the federal defense of marriage act that allowed states to no have to honor gay marriage from a different state. I know there was a case recently on it where some parts were struck down but I am not sure which and don't feel like tracking it down at the moment.
For me this was no big surprise. I have accidentally brought all sorts of easy to detect with x-ray or metal detectors items through security. My pocket knives have gone through the metal detector on a few occasions, the larger one being a brass handled lock blade with a 4" blade. In my carry on I have sent through my straight edge razors a few times forgetting to not pack them, as well as sending through the x-ray machine shotgun and rifle ammunition that was forgotten about in coat pockets after hunting. Things like this should have been easy to detect, but those are never found but every time I send my old metal chassis SLR through then it is time for the manual inspection. It has long been obvious that they have little to no training and that their screening doesn't work.
My daily driver is a 97 540i. I thought that the 540i was just in the 13 (as in 13.9x) I guess I don't know for sure as I never bothered to take it out to the strip but even then 13s on the drag strip aren't difficult (12s are and it only gets harder). Yes the EPA quoted mileage is 14/21 but I have never gotten that bad of mileage, the car even qualified for cash for clunkers getting a combined 18 mpg. I have averaged 22.1 mpg over the last 5 years and 133,xxx miles most of which is my rush hour commute to and from work as well as the gas eating short trips to pick up the kid and go to the local stores. Out on the highway at consistent speed it gets much better than that. Two summers ago when I went out to Denver and back I put just over 3,000 miles on the car and it got 27.8 mpg for the whole trip. Also last November I went way up in northern Minnesota for deer hunting and stayed at a resort (targeted towards hunters and fishers so I didn't need all of my gear) and that trip was about 700 miles round trip and got 28.3mpg round trip. The reason for the better mileage going up north can be explained by the slower average speeds and I didn't do any in town driving like I did when I went out to Colorado. I keep detailed records of mileage and maintenance and have noticed various trends, like the slightly worse mileage in the winter, due to the longer warmup cycle, as well as a very slight drop off in mileage shortly before I do an oil change probably due to the oil starting to thicken. Also the engine doesn't have the very slight stumble that a number of owners have reported and I don't seem to go through expansion tanks every 50,000 to 70,000 like every one else seems to do either.
I have never seen proprietary bolts and have worked on a number of VWs however they do like to use torx bolts. Its not like they are using Whitworth bolts or something most people haven't ever heard of or seen and can't find wrenches or sockets for. Beside why would you go to a mechanic that specializes in imports when a regular mechanic is fully capable of reading the same service manual, understanding it, and performing the work for much less.
Sounds like you are only familiar with the really bad diesels that Oldsmobile made in the 80s. Those engines really did suck, but every non American manufacture knew how to build diesels at that time and they still do. Those engines are great, I just wish that BMW, MB, and Volvo would ship more diesels here to the US as they know how to make good ones.
There is a demand for the "hot hatch" cars of which the VW Golf and Rabbit qualify. With my previous BMW (a 96 318ti) I saw this. I got a few hundred less in insurance than I paid for it even though I had owned it for 4 years and put almost an additional 100,000 miles on it. It got totaled with 179,XXX on it and was an 11 year old car at the time. It was in great shape until it got rear ended and spun around into a fire hydrant.
As far as motorcycles go I would love to take one to work except it gets damn cold here in Minnesota in the winter and don't want to wear full leathers and helmet when it is in the 90s outside with a dew point in the 80s in the summer. I do agree that most motorcycle rider pay more attention to the road but some of them are even stupider than than the words drivers I have seen.
Most people with trucks or SUVs never use them for any truck like activities but just pound pavement with their own fat asses in them. One of my buddies is like that, he has a Ford F350 4x4 off road Eddie Bauer edition with the big cab (not sure if it is the quad or crew but it is the biggest one), the long box, and the V10 diesel. He got it lifted with some off road tires as well as getting it chipped and a bigger turbo. He only drives it on pavement and won't take it on to dirt roads let alone some of the hunting trails in the area we hunt for fear of damaging the paint, getting dents or scratches, or wrecking the suspension. Once I asked if I could borrow it as I needed to pickup about 3/4 of a ton of concrete in sacks and he said no because it might wreck the suspension. We all make fun of him and call it his small penis truck as he won't do anything truck like with it.
I wouldn't have a problem with not owning a 4 wheel drive vehicle if I could rent one and do what I do with my Jeep with the rental. I have a Jeep Cherokee that I only put about 3,000 miles a year on it but that is actually doing things the would require 4 wheel drive and/or high clearance. I have pulled stumps, hauled material, taken it down roads where there were small trees growing in the middle, forded rivers, taken it down lots of logging roads as well as taking it hunting, camping and fishing (the really remote places are the best). The few times in the winter when the roads are really bad I will also drive it into work but it spends the vast majority of time sitting next to my garage. I also don't get why most people think they need 4 or all wheel drive even those who live here in the Twin Cities metro area as they are really good about plowing the roads and 4 wheel drive doesn't do jack on ice. My Jeep has 4 wheel drive but it also has posi differentials which is much better when you need more traction (locking diffs are better still) in stuff like thick deep mud or snow than the standard open differentials most vehicles have (racers call this setup old peg leg).
Trailers are wonderful but they don't meet all the needs of a truck or SUV as they don't provide high clearance which is mostly what I need the Jeep for as I use to get stuck a lot and break suspension parts in my sedan when I would high and center it out in the woods hunting, camping, or fishing. If I really need to haul lots of stuff I go and borrow my father's enclosed race car trailer, as it even has a nice long ramp. Granted most people really don't need an SUV or truck and would be better off with a minivan or station wagon, but those aren't as cool.
That is what my household plans on doing when the next car gets replaced. It will probably be my wife's car as it isn't aging well and will probably be replaced before my car. She got her car in 2000 but typically drives at most 5 miles a day. An electric car for her would be great so that is what we are going to be getting when her car needs replacing. In a typical day I end up putting about 100 miles on my car so all though electrics aren't there yet but by the time I need to replace my current car they should be able to make that number with a comfortable margin. For things like hunting and camping I have my Jeep Cherokee but that only gets driven about 3000 miles a year but is actually used for truck things (hauling, going down minimum maintenance roads, pulling stumps, driving on unplowed roads, hunting, and camping) so that one I really don't care what it gets for gas mileage, and the insurance is cheap on a limited use vehicle.
You can get better than a 10% boost in power and efficiency, but it isn't easy as you state. A proper 3 angle valve job with porting and polishing of the intake and exhaust manifolds, higher compression heads or pistons, headers, lighter internal engine components (pistons, crank, valve train, etc), electric water pump, dry sump, all can lead to impressive gains. There is still more that could be done to increase vehicle mpg such as the low friction coating (various DLC and nitride coatings). Most if not all passenger cars made today are unibody designs instead of the older body on frame which does add a lot of weight savings. Additionally manufactures are still using mostly steel in vehicles when they could use aluminum or light weight composites for the majority of the vehicle instead.
None of that is all the impressive. 13's in the quarter isn't hard, my current car does that (just barely but it does), carries 5 people comfortably (if I don't have those giant child seats in it), and gets upper 20s for MPG on the highway (typically I get 27-28 mpg on road trips), the car also weighs close to 4,000 pounds empty and has modern safety equipment like front and side impact air bags, traction control, ABS, as well as modern emissions equipment. It is a very detuned engine (factory stock 4.4 liter V8) from it's potential as the overlap in the cams is non existent and doesn't even need an EGR valve and doesn't have variable valves (I am glad as the early VANOS sucked for reliability).
The spray tar does actually add some sound deadening but not much. Manufactures do add some real sound deadening material but it is also cheap and not the best but is better than spray tar. This is typically some compressed felt like material or open cell foam (cheap) that does do a fair amount sound deadening. The problem with those is that they hold water and thus increase rusting. Also the carpet, and head liner help deaden the sound. All of these add weight but probably only on the order of 30-50 pounds on average per vehicle.
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With the lack of sleep last night my mind joined this headline with the previous one "Baboons Learn To Identify Words" as logically they seemed to go together. Sadly I don't think that relationship is too far from the truth upon further thought.
Sounds good to me. We already have other notifications when other dangerous people move into neighborhoods.
Well given how often people here like to take digs at libertarians it didn't seem too unreasonable an assumption. I at least try to think through political issues as best I can but it seems that across the entire spectrum people generally don't, be they libertarians, communists, greens, democrats, republicans, or constitutionalists. Add in the people who are most visible in the minor parties tend to be the more nutty ones (I'm looking at you Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, who claim to be libertarian) and it only further marginalizes and discredits their cause.
In response to your points:
1. ) It would be really hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt which person gave your kid a communicable disease
True but the bar for proof in a civil case is lower than it is in a criminal case. Yes it would be difficult but not impossible.
2. ) Sending some moron to jail doesn't make up for a dead child, and
The same could be said about any case where someone was negligent and it resulted in the death of someone.
3. ) You're expecting someone who is already acknowledged to be irrational (not immunizing their child regardless of the fact that their reasons for doing so were revealed to be based on a hoax) to act rationally
To this I say they should not be parent's, as evidence by their negligent care of their own child harming another person's child. People who are completely irrational as to be a danger to themselves or others shouldn't be out amongst the general public. This is why we lock up criminals and have people civilly committed.
I totally agree with facebook creating more privacy issues than non-anonymous cash, but there have already been instances of thieves using facebook to plan crimes. The difference with most of those other things is that they are not instantaneously tracked, it always takes time to see updates to those accounts. Besides people are already always trying to hack into paypal, credit card processors, and bank transfers and there have been breaches. Do you honestly expect government to do any better?
You are confusing correlation with causation there. Granted there are a lot of stupid people who claim they are libertarians but they don't think it through all the way. Most of these people thing that magically things would be better, but it would be a tough transition and it wouldn't be the no government environment that they think they would get.
Your comment spawned an idea for me. I wouldn't have a problem with people not getting vaccinated if they could be held liable for the results of their negligence. So if someone decides that their child won't get vaccinated and my child can't (for age or medical reason) but then contracts some horrible disease from the child who's parent decided not to have them vaccinated then the parent who chose to not have their child vaccinated would have to pay the bills. If my child dies then charge the parent who decided to not have the child vaccinated with negligent homicide. This would allow anyone to be a stupid as they want (we don't have many laws against people doing stupid things but that is increasing) but as soon as it affects someone else then there is recourse. Given that one can sue anyone for anything (whether it holds up in court is different) I am surprised someone hasn't tried this already to test the legal waters.
Personally I don't want government tracking all of my purchases. Anonymity is much better for personal security. Lets say the system tracks everything and each person is tied to a specific device. This would be the "honest" system you mention and government would be able to see that the buyer needs to pay sales tax, I assume that this what you mean by being in honest people's interest. Now lets assume that the central government's servers get hacked so no evil doers can watch transactions in real time, would you expect any thing less from government. They now know where each person's last transaction was and can tie that to them. Toss in a bit of location awareness (the transactions probably contain an address any way) and now you have a great way of finding out who is and isn't home. Toss in some people making purchases at specific shops (high end jewelry stores, gun shops, etc) and you now have an idea good places to break into, plus the added bonus of knowing when the people who live there aren't around since you can see when their last transaction was. To me this sounds like a really bad idea (maybe I just need to go brake out some tinfoil instead) but feel free to think that it is good.
I was thinking more of BitLoonie.
To be fair Bush Sr. he had been rather busy being VP and president for the previous 12 or so years and was rather isolated from tasks that the common man had to do. The fact is all presidents are like that once in office.
While that would be the case the full faith and commerce clause also allows congress to carve out exceptions for states. This is why there is the federal defense of marriage act that allowed states to no have to honor gay marriage from a different state. I know there was a case recently on it where some parts were struck down but I am not sure which and don't feel like tracking it down at the moment.
For me this was no big surprise. I have accidentally brought all sorts of easy to detect with x-ray or metal detectors items through security. My pocket knives have gone through the metal detector on a few occasions, the larger one being a brass handled lock blade with a 4" blade. In my carry on I have sent through my straight edge razors a few times forgetting to not pack them, as well as sending through the x-ray machine shotgun and rifle ammunition that was forgotten about in coat pockets after hunting. Things like this should have been easy to detect, but those are never found but every time I send my old metal chassis SLR through then it is time for the manual inspection. It has long been obvious that they have little to no training and that their screening doesn't work.
My daily driver is a 97 540i. I thought that the 540i was just in the 13 (as in 13.9x) I guess I don't know for sure as I never bothered to take it out to the strip but even then 13s on the drag strip aren't difficult (12s are and it only gets harder). Yes the EPA quoted mileage is 14/21 but I have never gotten that bad of mileage, the car even qualified for cash for clunkers getting a combined 18 mpg. I have averaged 22.1 mpg over the last 5 years and 133,xxx miles most of which is my rush hour commute to and from work as well as the gas eating short trips to pick up the kid and go to the local stores. Out on the highway at consistent speed it gets much better than that. Two summers ago when I went out to Denver and back I put just over 3,000 miles on the car and it got 27.8 mpg for the whole trip. Also last November I went way up in northern Minnesota for deer hunting and stayed at a resort (targeted towards hunters and fishers so I didn't need all of my gear) and that trip was about 700 miles round trip and got 28.3mpg round trip. The reason for the better mileage going up north can be explained by the slower average speeds and I didn't do any in town driving like I did when I went out to Colorado. I keep detailed records of mileage and maintenance and have noticed various trends, like the slightly worse mileage in the winter, due to the longer warmup cycle, as well as a very slight drop off in mileage shortly before I do an oil change probably due to the oil starting to thicken. Also the engine doesn't have the very slight stumble that a number of owners have reported and I don't seem to go through expansion tanks every 50,000 to 70,000 like every one else seems to do either.
I have never seen proprietary bolts and have worked on a number of VWs however they do like to use torx bolts. Its not like they are using Whitworth bolts or something most people haven't ever heard of or seen and can't find wrenches or sockets for. Beside why would you go to a mechanic that specializes in imports when a regular mechanic is fully capable of reading the same service manual, understanding it, and performing the work for much less.
Also we got better at getting more gasoline from thicker oil so the surplus of diesel and fuel oil went away thus making the refiners more profit.
Sounds like you are only familiar with the really bad diesels that Oldsmobile made in the 80s. Those engines really did suck, but every non American manufacture knew how to build diesels at that time and they still do. Those engines are great, I just wish that BMW, MB, and Volvo would ship more diesels here to the US as they know how to make good ones.
There is a demand for the "hot hatch" cars of which the VW Golf and Rabbit qualify. With my previous BMW (a 96 318ti) I saw this. I got a few hundred less in insurance than I paid for it even though I had owned it for 4 years and put almost an additional 100,000 miles on it. It got totaled with 179,XXX on it and was an 11 year old car at the time. It was in great shape until it got rear ended and spun around into a fire hydrant.
As far as motorcycles go I would love to take one to work except it gets damn cold here in Minnesota in the winter and don't want to wear full leathers and helmet when it is in the 90s outside with a dew point in the 80s in the summer. I do agree that most motorcycle rider pay more attention to the road but some of them are even stupider than than the words drivers I have seen.
Most people with trucks or SUVs never use them for any truck like activities but just pound pavement with their own fat asses in them. One of my buddies is like that, he has a Ford F350 4x4 off road Eddie Bauer edition with the big cab (not sure if it is the quad or crew but it is the biggest one), the long box, and the V10 diesel. He got it lifted with some off road tires as well as getting it chipped and a bigger turbo. He only drives it on pavement and won't take it on to dirt roads let alone some of the hunting trails in the area we hunt for fear of damaging the paint, getting dents or scratches, or wrecking the suspension. Once I asked if I could borrow it as I needed to pickup about 3/4 of a ton of concrete in sacks and he said no because it might wreck the suspension. We all make fun of him and call it his small penis truck as he won't do anything truck like with it.
I wouldn't have a problem with not owning a 4 wheel drive vehicle if I could rent one and do what I do with my Jeep with the rental. I have a Jeep Cherokee that I only put about 3,000 miles a year on it but that is actually doing things the would require 4 wheel drive and/or high clearance. I have pulled stumps, hauled material, taken it down roads where there were small trees growing in the middle, forded rivers, taken it down lots of logging roads as well as taking it hunting, camping and fishing (the really remote places are the best). The few times in the winter when the roads are really bad I will also drive it into work but it spends the vast majority of time sitting next to my garage. I also don't get why most people think they need 4 or all wheel drive even those who live here in the Twin Cities metro area as they are really good about plowing the roads and 4 wheel drive doesn't do jack on ice. My Jeep has 4 wheel drive but it also has posi differentials which is much better when you need more traction (locking diffs are better still) in stuff like thick deep mud or snow than the standard open differentials most vehicles have (racers call this setup old peg leg).
Trailers are wonderful but they don't meet all the needs of a truck or SUV as they don't provide high clearance which is mostly what I need the Jeep for as I use to get stuck a lot and break suspension parts in my sedan when I would high and center it out in the woods hunting, camping, or fishing. If I really need to haul lots of stuff I go and borrow my father's enclosed race car trailer, as it even has a nice long ramp. Granted most people really don't need an SUV or truck and would be better off with a minivan or station wagon, but those aren't as cool.
That is what my household plans on doing when the next car gets replaced. It will probably be my wife's car as it isn't aging well and will probably be replaced before my car. She got her car in 2000 but typically drives at most 5 miles a day. An electric car for her would be great so that is what we are going to be getting when her car needs replacing. In a typical day I end up putting about 100 miles on my car so all though electrics aren't there yet but by the time I need to replace my current car they should be able to make that number with a comfortable margin. For things like hunting and camping I have my Jeep Cherokee but that only gets driven about 3000 miles a year but is actually used for truck things (hauling, going down minimum maintenance roads, pulling stumps, driving on unplowed roads, hunting, and camping) so that one I really don't care what it gets for gas mileage, and the insurance is cheap on a limited use vehicle.
You can get better than a 10% boost in power and efficiency, but it isn't easy as you state. A proper 3 angle valve job with porting and polishing of the intake and exhaust manifolds, higher compression heads or pistons, headers, lighter internal engine components (pistons, crank, valve train, etc), electric water pump, dry sump, all can lead to impressive gains. There is still more that could be done to increase vehicle mpg such as the low friction coating (various DLC and nitride coatings). Most if not all passenger cars made today are unibody designs instead of the older body on frame which does add a lot of weight savings. Additionally manufactures are still using mostly steel in vehicles when they could use aluminum or light weight composites for the majority of the vehicle instead.
None of that is all the impressive. 13's in the quarter isn't hard, my current car does that (just barely but it does), carries 5 people comfortably (if I don't have those giant child seats in it), and gets upper 20s for MPG on the highway (typically I get 27-28 mpg on road trips), the car also weighs close to 4,000 pounds empty and has modern safety equipment like front and side impact air bags, traction control, ABS, as well as modern emissions equipment. It is a very detuned engine (factory stock 4.4 liter V8) from it's potential as the overlap in the cams is non existent and doesn't even need an EGR valve and doesn't have variable valves (I am glad as the early VANOS sucked for reliability).
The spray tar does actually add some sound deadening but not much. Manufactures do add some real sound deadening material but it is also cheap and not the best but is better than spray tar. This is typically some compressed felt like material or open cell foam (cheap) that does do a fair amount sound deadening. The problem with those is that they hold water and thus increase rusting. Also the carpet, and head liner help deaden the sound. All of these add weight but probably only on the order of 30-50 pounds on average per vehicle.
You could make it less backwater and add things to the map.