Pirates will just spot the things and stay away, going after easier targets
And so the PT boat shadows the more attractive target, be it a merchant ship, ten million dollar yacht, or whatever... Hell, maybe they have an inflatable facade to hide behind. Whatever. If you wait for the pursuant boat to go aggro, no innocent parties harmed.
If I had some sort of a problem and with a little creativity, I could get someone who was even mildly competent to pay me for the honor of helping to fix it, that would be a pretty attractive alternative to paying for someone do to it myself. Hell, I'd even make 'em feel right at home, with a cool adult beverage and selection of delicious finger sandwiches.
You've got the wrong idea entirely, frankly. Mercenaries are expensive. Tourism, however, is profitable. So, you make it like a safari. You know, for the chance to go send some pirates to Davy Jones' locker. The 'fishing license' just absolves prospective pirate hunters from prosecution.
So, you restore and or build a few PT style boats, strap a few twin-fifties, miniguns and grenade launchers on pintle mounts, and let any sociopath with ten thousand bucks to spare have some fun. You'd have a waiting list a mile long.
I mean, this bears repeating however obnoxious, but some of the Founding Fathers were slave owners. They were not necessarily the most in tune with human rights.
Already done. Amendment 13 to the US Constitution, etc. See how that works? There's no need to re-write the whole thing. Actually, the basic Constitution is pretty stupidly simple, and mostly deals with procedures to run the new government, how to run deal with federal elections, and make amendments to the Constitution itself.
Perhaps we want to clarify gun rights.
The language is already clear enough, except for twits who willfully choose not to understand the contemporary meaning of verbiages, and the liberal philosophies behind the words, no less why it's important they should be maintained.
Perhaps we should put in a very clear right to privacy (such as the right to contraception, to interracial marriage, and to abortion, perhaps) instead of having a non-elected Supreme Court cobble that together.
I'd argue the equal protection clause of amendment 14 does this well enough.
For all of the Constitution's weaknesses, it's an elegant piece of work. It's simple enough that a layman can have a hope of understanding it (if not commit to memory, in entirety), and robust enough that it doesn't have gaping loopholes obstinate lawyers can easily manipulate.
If it were rewrote today, I can't fathom how complicated, how monstrous it would become. It would unquestionably be a disaster, and there's little doubt in my mind that it wouldn't work out well for us poor, dumb bastards as well as it might for the rich, dumb bastards.
Yes, that is the emotional argument everyone uses. Sure, riding is a more risky activity than walking down the sidewalk while chewing gum. Like any dangerous activity, if you have this in mind, and approach it with maturity, you can, and probably will come out alive just fine.
If you look at it objectively you see it's not all that bad. They say there are about 6.5 million motorcycles registered for road use in the US, and maybe 5,000 people die while riding. 25% of these poor folk die because they can't negotiate a turn, fall off, slide, and hit something hard. Most of the rest die while hitting a vehicle that's making a left hand turn, violating the rider's right of way. The remainder are probably squished in a rear-ender.
Rider experience, training, situational awareness, and good judgement can certianly go a LONG way in reducing all of these problems. i.e. There are old bikers, and there are stupid bikers... But there are no old, stupid bikers. Wearing the right gear also helps significantly, if all of the above fails.
And the data shows that people who don't wear gear, and do stupid shit on powerful bikes (especially 16-25 year old, inexperienced males fueled by testosterone), you're more likely to have your hobby bite your ass. Go figure.
My dad and I were passed on the right, by a guy playing the flute, and driving with his knees. True story. If I wasn't there to see it, I wouldn't have believed it myself.
Yeah, now just imagine riding a motorcycle. These days, you basically must be prepared to lane split in the blink of an eye, so you don't get squished between the negligent driver behind you, and the bumper in front of you.
Until it is born, a baby is called a fetus, but once full term is reached, a human fetus is fully developed and has the same capacity to think, reason and feel as any adult. What the fetus lacks is experience and knowledge.
I pretty much disagree with most of that. If you said that an ideal human fetus (not all are made equal) has the same potential (as in scalar potential) to think, reason and feel as any adult human... I'd agree very positively.
A developing human, however, is lacking critical neurological structures, among other physiological considerations which are present in adults, that simply would not allow a baby to think or reason like an adult--or even experience various sensory inputs as an adult might. Sight, sounds, tastes, tactile inputs have been demonstrated to work quite differently to the brain of a very young child than to you or I.
For that matter, it's also been demonstrated that a baby deprived of sensory input or social interaction in the first several months of life tends to do pretty poorly relative to the norm, as it develops into an adult. The brain continues to re-wire itself to deal with language about up to puberty, etc. Even if there were a magical way to impart an adult's knowledge and experience into a newborn's brain, it probably wouldn't be able to cope.
If you count a vital zone of 3 inches (i.e. allowing a 1.5" rise and fall outside of point of aim) , it's actually pretty close to 80-90 yards, depending on bullet weight and design...If you allow for 6 inches, i.e. a good center of mass shot, point bank range is closer to 125 yards.
Handgun cartridges are flatter shooters inside 100 yards than most people will give credit. How many officers are capable of taking shots at a human sized target at those ranges, on their best day, however? Very few. In fact, some of the worst shots I've seen (and generally least proficient in firearm use) were cops.
Hell, these days you don't even have to be a serious threat to anyone anywhere, you're liable to simply be shot dead if you're somewhat more threatening than a cuddly-wuddly pink bunny.
Supposing you are as meek as a newborn kitten--if one of the under trained, under qualified "I only got the job because of affirmative action" types picks the day you're held at gunpoint to have a negligent discharge, you're almost certianly going to die in a hail of bullets, whether or not you deserve it, or whether or not you're in proximity to something that goes "bang".
1) It's relatively rare, and even in the nuclear age, you can't easily make more of it. (making it stable as a currency)
Aside from the industrial uses you listed, this is what makes it valuable. Now, if you want to talk about stupidly valuated products--let's talk diamonds. The value of diamonds usually eclipses that of more rare, and in my opinion, more beautiful stones such as opal, ruby, sapphire and emerald due to an industry created around artificial rarity.
If I understand correctly, this is more analogous to banning lathes, milling machines and drill presses, since a machinist could use these things to build firearms, and any other tools needed in pursuit of that end.
Hey now, don't be so quick to dismiss the too heavy-caliber to be practical zombie-slaying options. You could install some of those red velvet-rope waiting lines, and also put up a big sign reading "FREE BRAIIIINS" on a kiosk... Surely the zombies would patiently queue up (I mean, it's not like they have anywhere else to go), and when you've got a few dozen deep...kablammo!
Because a UH-60 with a max takeoff weight of over 20,000lbs, and a sectional area of a school bus is at all comparable to a single-seater with a max takeoff weight of 600lbs.
In other news, scientists say a 600cc sportbike is faster than an unladen Freightliner tractor powered by a 600 horse Detroit Diesel. Who could have guessed.
And that has anything to do with the fact that trace amounts of uranium does come out of coal stacks, which was the point of the whole conversation, exactly how?
Fair enough. Depleted uranium, having been processed to extract most of the good stuff, has less U-235 than a given quantity of natural radiation. I suppose it would be preferable that coal plants emit depleted uranium, since it's about 60% less radioactive than a given quantity of raw uranium. Alas. You caught me.
Anyway, put some math to this, so we can put it to bed. Wikipedia says some 6.7x10^9 tons of coal are produced world wide, every year. USGS says the usual concentration of uranium in coal is 1-4ppm, but can be as high as 20ppm, although this is rare.
Let's say that worldwide coal contains on average, only 1ppm--arguably very generously conservative. That means 6700 tons of uranium which was previously embedded in the coal matrix has now gone somewhere else. Let's assume most of it went into the fly ash and or scrubbing media, which is destined to become the foundation for a new golf course, or just put into a huge pile, so it can wash away during a flood. What percentage, who can guess? The USGS also says in that article that fly-ash concentrates these numbers ten to thirty times. Lovely.
Since our friend U-235 exists in natural uranium at a rate of 0.7%, that also means about 47 tons of it are now out in the wild. Now, multiply these figures by a realistic ppm concentration--care to guess how much of that goes right up the exhaust pipe? Who knows, probably nobody, and if they did know the truth, they sure as hell wouldn't be proud to tell you. 20-30 years ago this wasn't even a consideration.
They say chernobyl vaporized, at the very highest estimation, 200 tons of fuel, but most scientists and engineers agree that "only" 50 tons of fuel were vaporized. Now consider these numbers quoted above are yearly numbers and and that coal consumption is going up, up up!
And friend, this is only for the uranium, not the cesium, not the thorium, and likewise not any of the other heavy metals which have bio-accumulated into coal--and even if 99% of it was successfully captured and disposed of in a sane way, that's still a chernobyl's worth of uranium being diffusely distributed into the atmosphere, every single year. Feel free to source your own information and do your own math.
Still, you have the balls to think nuclear plants, which emit basically zero radioactive materials during their normal course of operation--which they overwhelmingly do--and also that the engineers and scientists behind creating and maintaining them, and I quote you "have been supporting a deadly industry which will inevitable harm people"? You're royally fucked up!
More people would die from having to turn off the a/c every year without the benefit of nuclear power, than the sum total of nuclear accident related deaths. Period.
Learn some physics and you will understand better.
Aw, aren't you cute. I have a feeling this situation would be much like a blind man trying to describe to me the color chartreuse, becoming indignant and then going on to suggest I take a course in color science. HAND.
I know this is going to be about as effective and useful as talking at wall, but you suffer from a bit of confirmation bias, delusion, or you're simply an effective troll. I haven't decided. Anyway, if coal emissions were relegated to CO2 and a few ppb of depleted uranium, that would probably be acceptable. But no. There's also the likes of other fun heavy, toxic elements such as thorium, mercury, arsenic, lead and selenium.
Sure, on a powerplant with effective scrubbing tech, the lions' share of these elements are scrubbed out of the exhaust or encapsulated in fly ash, which has its own disposal problems--but the point is, nothing can capture 100% of these emissions. When you count the billions of tons of coal burned around the world each year, even countries with highly efficient coal exhaust filtration emit a surprising amount of the aforementioned toxic elements. Straight into the air, all of the time, every day.
Then, you have developing countries like India and China, who don't give a shit. And people wonder why our foods such as fish are suffering bio-accumulation of mercury, and why highly bio-available selenates, mercury and lead are accumulating in Chinese rice paddies. Even if we counted on having a serious meltdown and release of radiation somewhere in the world, once every 25 years, I'm not sure that nuclear could ever catch up with the widespread environmental damage we've done to ourselves with coal.
The stick is that the USG is going to come down hard on your ass if you don't cooperate, in so much, we agree. The carrot, in the case of volunteers, might be the one and only reason they'd consider enlisting. In the case of conscripts, it is purely a consolation prize.
That's great, and you might even be with a majority of veterans who feel positively about their after-service treatment. However, when you look at the mounting tens of thousands for each generation of America's finest, who end up maladjusted, disabled due to combat, homeless, and often with substance abuse problems, it makes you think the VA really isn't trying all that much. Some mandatory post-service therapy and civilian-life readjustment would go a long way in making the situation better.
Also, every effort is made to deny each generation's faux pas, until each idea gains enough public consciousness there is no point in denying it any longer. A friend of mine who was one of your peers (former Army Special Forces) can attest how long it took to have his conditions recognized by the government--decades, that is. Agent Orange and other defoliants for your generation, Gulf War Syndrome for the last generation, and PTSD & blast related brain injury for the current generation--and most evil of all--the VA is known for using the Personality Disorder blanket diagnosis to deny a soldiers' disability and heath benefits, particularly for those with drug problems. My diagnosis? They're not there to further your interests, they're there to protect the government's interests, and provisions like the GI Bill, while expensive, amount to carrot and stick discipline.
The way I see it, if it weren't for the carrot to chase, they'd have tens of thousands of angry, disturbed people rejoining the civilian world every few years, all of whom are trained to kill, and some of whom are accomplished in that role. Call me a cynic, but this untenable situation is the only reason your benefits exist.
It's the same thing with the soldiers they eagerly send to war, isn't it? It's standard operating procedure for disposable workers, and a recurring theme ever since the Continental Army was demobilized in 1783.
It's all pats on the back, and out of one side of their mouths it's all "Thanks for putting your life on the line", and "you're defending freedom", etc. while simultaneously they're winding to give a giant boot up your collective asses.
if guns are not used for crimes, then what ARE they used for ? Don't get me wrong, in Canada we do a lot of recreational hunting, but a gun is a tool designed to shoot living things and make them unliving. The only difference between a hunter and a murderer is their choice of target.
That's one man's philosophy... An incomplete philosophy, in this man's eyes. In the United States, we have A LOT of recreational shooting, most of which isn't even hunting related...and therefore guns engaged in this activity aren't set out to purposefully kill any living thing which casts a shadow. Paper targets, clay pigeons and soda cans, on the other hand? Their days are numbered! I imagine ammunition used to this end outweighs that used for hunting, and also in crimes, by orders of magnitude. Unless you're one of the irrational sort who count such benign activity as a crime, in which case this is all wasted energy.
No...a firearm designer can only ask a few things of his creation; chiefly, that it operates as reliably as possible, so that when the user asks it to work, it does, and that it operates within other design parameters, such as consistency (a necessary component of accuracy). In the end, these goals are not so different any other widgets' designer.
Cartridge goes in, speedy thing goes out. Packet goes in, packet goes out. Gasoline goes in, mileage goes out. Any of the tools described can be used for any number of good, lawful conclusions, and also any number of nefarious purposes. Did you notice the adjective? Used. Utilized. Employed for a purpose. These things are all useless, inert lumps of metal and plastic without a user...to use it.
If it comes out that Cisco had reasonable knowledge that their products would be used to hunt people down, it would be analogous to a gun dealer selling a pistol to a guy who said his wife was cheating, and that he intended to shoot her--morally reprehensible, and liable. On the other hand, if Cisco had both the knowledge and actual involvement in making their products better suited to hunt down and persecute such people, it would be analogous to aiming the gun and letting the Chinese government pull the trigger--and then claiming innocence of any ill-deed.
I would say that American companies should be beholden to American ideals, but it would be rather redundant, considering American ideals now include "profit at all cost, full speed ahead!", and "damn the consequences!"
This is also the reason military MREs (meal ready to eat) have just about zero fiber content, but have a ton of calories, in sugars, protein and fat. They'll stop you up something fierce if you live on them for an extended period of time. Good news is the sugar-alcohols in the included gum can act as a laxative, if you consume enough of those in one go, so many soldiers save them for such a purpose. Fun stuff.
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Pirates will just spot the things and stay away, going after easier targets
And so the PT boat shadows the more attractive target, be it a merchant ship, ten million dollar yacht, or whatever... Hell, maybe they have an inflatable facade to hide behind. Whatever. If you wait for the pursuant boat to go aggro, no innocent parties harmed.
If I had some sort of a problem and with a little creativity, I could get someone who was even mildly competent to pay me for the honor of helping to fix it, that would be a pretty attractive alternative to paying for someone do to it myself. Hell, I'd even make 'em feel right at home, with a cool adult beverage and selection of delicious finger sandwiches.
Hmm..the government it pretty good at attracting and making thrill-killers, is that the reason we keep them below the poverty line?
You've got the wrong idea entirely, frankly. Mercenaries are expensive. Tourism, however, is profitable. So, you make it like a safari. You know, for the chance to go send some pirates to Davy Jones' locker. The 'fishing license' just absolves prospective pirate hunters from prosecution.
So, you restore and or build a few PT style boats, strap a few twin-fifties, miniguns and grenade launchers on pintle mounts, and let any sociopath with ten thousand bucks to spare have some fun. You'd have a waiting list a mile long.
I mean, this bears repeating however obnoxious, but some of the Founding Fathers were slave owners. They were not necessarily the most in tune with human rights.
Already done. Amendment 13 to the US Constitution, etc. See how that works? There's no need to re-write the whole thing. Actually, the basic Constitution is pretty stupidly simple, and mostly deals with procedures to run the new government, how to run deal with federal elections, and make amendments to the Constitution itself.
Perhaps we want to clarify gun rights.
The language is already clear enough, except for twits who willfully choose not to understand the contemporary meaning of verbiages, and the liberal philosophies behind the words, no less why it's important they should be maintained.
Perhaps we should put in a very clear right to privacy (such as the right to contraception, to interracial marriage, and to abortion, perhaps) instead of having a non-elected Supreme Court cobble that together.
I'd argue the equal protection clause of amendment 14 does this well enough.
For all of the Constitution's weaknesses, it's an elegant piece of work. It's simple enough that a layman can have a hope of understanding it (if not commit to memory, in entirety), and robust enough that it doesn't have gaping loopholes obstinate lawyers can easily manipulate.
If it were rewrote today, I can't fathom how complicated, how monstrous it would become. It would unquestionably be a disaster, and there's little doubt in my mind that it wouldn't work out well for us poor, dumb bastards as well as it might for the rich, dumb bastards.
Yes, that is the emotional argument everyone uses. Sure, riding is a more risky activity than walking down the sidewalk while chewing gum. Like any dangerous activity, if you have this in mind, and approach it with maturity, you can, and probably will come out alive just fine.
If you look at it objectively you see it's not all that bad. They say there are about 6.5 million motorcycles registered for road use in the US, and maybe 5,000 people die while riding. 25% of these poor folk die because they can't negotiate a turn, fall off, slide, and hit something hard. Most of the rest die while hitting a vehicle that's making a left hand turn, violating the rider's right of way. The remainder are probably squished in a rear-ender.
Rider experience, training, situational awareness, and good judgement can certianly go a LONG way in reducing all of these problems. i.e. There are old bikers, and there are stupid bikers... But there are no old, stupid bikers. Wearing the right gear also helps significantly, if all of the above fails.
And the data shows that people who don't wear gear, and do stupid shit on powerful bikes (especially 16-25 year old, inexperienced males fueled by testosterone), you're more likely to have your hobby bite your ass. Go figure.
My dad and I were passed on the right, by a guy playing the flute, and driving with his knees. True story. If I wasn't there to see it, I wouldn't have believed it myself.
Yeah, now just imagine riding a motorcycle. These days, you basically must be prepared to lane split in the blink of an eye, so you don't get squished between the negligent driver behind you, and the bumper in front of you.
Until it is born, a baby is called a fetus, but once full term is reached, a human fetus is fully developed and has the same capacity to think, reason and feel as any adult. What the fetus lacks is experience and knowledge.
I pretty much disagree with most of that. If you said that an ideal human fetus (not all are made equal) has the same potential (as in scalar potential) to think, reason and feel as any adult human... I'd agree very positively.
A developing human, however, is lacking critical neurological structures, among other physiological considerations which are present in adults, that simply would not allow a baby to think or reason like an adult--or even experience various sensory inputs as an adult might. Sight, sounds, tastes, tactile inputs have been demonstrated to work quite differently to the brain of a very young child than to you or I.
For that matter, it's also been demonstrated that a baby deprived of sensory input or social interaction in the first several months of life tends to do pretty poorly relative to the norm, as it develops into an adult. The brain continues to re-wire itself to deal with language about up to puberty, etc. Even if there were a magical way to impart an adult's knowledge and experience into a newborn's brain, it probably wouldn't be able to cope.
For a 9mm that's probably about 25 yards.
If you count a vital zone of 3 inches (i.e. allowing a 1.5" rise and fall outside of point of aim) , it's actually pretty close to 80-90 yards, depending on bullet weight and design...If you allow for 6 inches, i.e. a good center of mass shot, point bank range is closer to 125 yards.
Handgun cartridges are flatter shooters inside 100 yards than most people will give credit. How many officers are capable of taking shots at a human sized target at those ranges, on their best day, however? Very few. In fact, some of the worst shots I've seen (and generally least proficient in firearm use) were cops.
Hell, these days you don't even have to be a serious threat to anyone anywhere, you're liable to simply be shot dead if you're somewhat more threatening than a cuddly-wuddly pink bunny.
Supposing you are as meek as a newborn kitten--if one of the under trained, under qualified "I only got the job because of affirmative action" types picks the day you're held at gunpoint to have a negligent discharge, you're almost certianly going to die in a hail of bullets, whether or not you deserve it, or whether or not you're in proximity to something that goes "bang".
More like:
1) It's relatively rare, and even in the nuclear age, you can't easily make more of it. (making it stable as a currency)
Aside from the industrial uses you listed, this is what makes it valuable. Now, if you want to talk about stupidly valuated products--let's talk diamonds. The value of diamonds usually eclipses that of more rare, and in my opinion, more beautiful stones such as opal, ruby, sapphire and emerald due to an industry created around artificial rarity.
If I understand correctly, this is more analogous to banning lathes, milling machines and drill presses, since a machinist could use these things to build firearms, and any other tools needed in pursuit of that end.
Hey now, don't be so quick to dismiss the too heavy-caliber to be practical zombie-slaying options. You could install some of those red velvet-rope waiting lines, and also put up a big sign reading "FREE BRAIIIINS" on a kiosk... Surely the zombies would patiently queue up (I mean, it's not like they have anywhere else to go), and when you've got a few dozen deep...kablammo!
Because a UH-60 with a max takeoff weight of over 20,000lbs, and a sectional area of a school bus is at all comparable to a single-seater with a max takeoff weight of 600lbs.
In other news, scientists say a 600cc sportbike is faster than an unladen Freightliner tractor powered by a 600 horse Detroit Diesel. Who could have guessed.
More often than not, it's not he quality of the goods that sells an item. It's all about the marketing. What else can be said?
And that has anything to do with the fact that trace amounts of uranium does come out of coal stacks, which was the point of the whole conversation, exactly how?
Fair enough. Depleted uranium, having been processed to extract most of the good stuff, has less U-235 than a given quantity of natural radiation. I suppose it would be preferable that coal plants emit depleted uranium, since it's about 60% less radioactive than a given quantity of raw uranium. Alas. You caught me.
Anyway, put some math to this, so we can put it to bed. Wikipedia says some 6.7x10^9 tons of coal are produced world wide, every year. USGS says the usual concentration of uranium in coal is 1-4ppm, but can be as high as 20ppm, although this is rare.
Let's say that worldwide coal contains on average, only 1ppm--arguably very generously conservative. That means 6700 tons of uranium which was previously embedded in the coal matrix has now gone somewhere else. Let's assume most of it went into the fly ash and or scrubbing media, which is destined to become the foundation for a new golf course, or just put into a huge pile, so it can wash away during a flood. What percentage, who can guess? The USGS also says in that article that fly-ash concentrates these numbers ten to thirty times. Lovely.
Since our friend U-235 exists in natural uranium at a rate of 0.7%, that also means about 47 tons of it are now out in the wild. Now, multiply these figures by a realistic ppm concentration--care to guess how much of that goes right up the exhaust pipe? Who knows, probably nobody, and if they did know the truth, they sure as hell wouldn't be proud to tell you. 20-30 years ago this wasn't even a consideration.
They say chernobyl vaporized, at the very highest estimation, 200 tons of fuel, but most scientists and engineers agree that "only" 50 tons of fuel were vaporized. Now consider these numbers quoted above are yearly numbers and and that coal consumption is going up, up up!
And friend, this is only for the uranium, not the cesium, not the thorium, and likewise not any of the other heavy metals which have bio-accumulated into coal--and even if 99% of it was successfully captured and disposed of in a sane way, that's still a chernobyl's worth of uranium being diffusely distributed into the atmosphere, every single year. Feel free to source your own information and do your own math.
Still, you have the balls to think nuclear plants, which emit basically zero radioactive materials during their normal course of operation--which they overwhelmingly do--and also that the engineers and scientists behind creating and maintaining them, and I quote you "have been supporting a deadly industry which will inevitable harm people"? You're royally fucked up!
More people would die from having to turn off the a/c every year without the benefit of nuclear power, than the sum total of nuclear accident related deaths. Period.
Learn some physics and you will understand better.
Aw, aren't you cute. I have a feeling this situation would be much like a blind man trying to describe to me the color chartreuse, becoming indignant and then going on to suggest I take a course in color science. HAND.
I know this is going to be about as effective and useful as talking at wall, but you suffer from a bit of confirmation bias, delusion, or you're simply an effective troll. I haven't decided. Anyway, if coal emissions were relegated to CO2 and a few ppb of depleted uranium, that would probably be acceptable. But no. There's also the likes of other fun heavy, toxic elements such as thorium, mercury, arsenic, lead and selenium.
Sure, on a powerplant with effective scrubbing tech, the lions' share of these elements are scrubbed out of the exhaust or encapsulated in fly ash, which has its own disposal problems--but the point is, nothing can capture 100% of these emissions. When you count the billions of tons of coal burned around the world each year, even countries with highly efficient coal exhaust filtration emit a surprising amount of the aforementioned toxic elements. Straight into the air, all of the time, every day.
Then, you have developing countries like India and China, who don't give a shit. And people wonder why our foods such as fish are suffering bio-accumulation of mercury, and why highly bio-available selenates, mercury and lead are accumulating in Chinese rice paddies. Even if we counted on having a serious meltdown and release of radiation somewhere in the world, once every 25 years, I'm not sure that nuclear could ever catch up with the widespread environmental damage we've done to ourselves with coal.
The stick is that the USG is going to come down hard on your ass if you don't cooperate, in so much, we agree. The carrot, in the case of volunteers, might be the one and only reason they'd consider enlisting. In the case of conscripts, it is purely a consolation prize.
That's great, and you might even be with a majority of veterans who feel positively about their after-service treatment. However, when you look at the mounting tens of thousands for each generation of America's finest, who end up maladjusted, disabled due to combat, homeless, and often with substance abuse problems, it makes you think the VA really isn't trying all that much. Some mandatory post-service therapy and civilian-life readjustment would go a long way in making the situation better.
Also, every effort is made to deny each generation's faux pas, until each idea gains enough public consciousness there is no point in denying it any longer. A friend of mine who was one of your peers (former Army Special Forces) can attest how long it took to have his conditions recognized by the government--decades, that is. Agent Orange and other defoliants for your generation, Gulf War Syndrome for the last generation, and PTSD & blast related brain injury for the current generation--and most evil of all--the VA is known for using the Personality Disorder blanket diagnosis to deny a soldiers' disability and heath benefits, particularly for those with drug problems. My diagnosis? They're not there to further your interests, they're there to protect the government's interests, and provisions like the GI Bill, while expensive, amount to carrot and stick discipline.
The way I see it, if it weren't for the carrot to chase, they'd have tens of thousands of angry, disturbed people rejoining the civilian world every few years, all of whom are trained to kill, and some of whom are accomplished in that role. Call me a cynic, but this untenable situation is the only reason your benefits exist.
It's the same thing with the soldiers they eagerly send to war, isn't it? It's standard operating procedure for disposable workers, and a recurring theme ever since the Continental Army was demobilized in 1783.
It's all pats on the back, and out of one side of their mouths it's all "Thanks for putting your life on the line", and "you're defending freedom", etc. while simultaneously they're winding to give a giant boot up your collective asses.
if guns are not used for crimes, then what ARE they used for ? Don't get me wrong, in Canada we do a lot of recreational hunting, but a gun is a tool designed to shoot living things and make them unliving. The only difference between a hunter and a murderer is their choice of target.
That's one man's philosophy... An incomplete philosophy, in this man's eyes. In the United States, we have A LOT of recreational shooting, most of which isn't even hunting related...and therefore guns engaged in this activity aren't set out to purposefully kill any living thing which casts a shadow. Paper targets, clay pigeons and soda cans, on the other hand? Their days are numbered! I imagine ammunition used to this end outweighs that used for hunting, and also in crimes, by orders of magnitude. Unless you're one of the irrational sort who count such benign activity as a crime, in which case this is all wasted energy.
No...a firearm designer can only ask a few things of his creation; chiefly, that it operates as reliably as possible, so that when the user asks it to work, it does, and that it operates within other design parameters, such as consistency (a necessary component of accuracy). In the end, these goals are not so different any other widgets' designer.
Cartridge goes in, speedy thing goes out. Packet goes in, packet goes out. Gasoline goes in, mileage goes out. Any of the tools described can be used for any number of good, lawful conclusions, and also any number of nefarious purposes. Did you notice the adjective? Used. Utilized. Employed for a purpose. These things are all useless, inert lumps of metal and plastic without a user...to use it.
If it comes out that Cisco had reasonable knowledge that their products would be used to hunt people down, it would be analogous to a gun dealer selling a pistol to a guy who said his wife was cheating, and that he intended to shoot her--morally reprehensible, and liable. On the other hand, if Cisco had both the knowledge and actual involvement in making their products better suited to hunt down and persecute such people, it would be analogous to aiming the gun and letting the Chinese government pull the trigger--and then claiming innocence of any ill-deed.
I would say that American companies should be beholden to American ideals, but it would be rather redundant, considering American ideals now include "profit at all cost, full speed ahead!", and "damn the consequences!"
Until the kids start sabotaging the power lines, that is.
This is also the reason military MREs (meal ready to eat) have just about zero fiber content, but have a ton of calories, in sugars, protein and fat. They'll stop you up something fierce if you live on them for an extended period of time. Good news is the sugar-alcohols in the included gum can act as a laxative, if you consume enough of those in one go, so many soldiers save them for such a purpose. Fun stuff.