Oh - so beause he's a muslim it's ok to trample his rights.... not racist white 'christian' Republicans
Jose Padilla was a racist muslim. Let's not forget that when he was arrested in O'Hare Airport, he had just spent plenty of time travelling the middle east begging to join AQ so he could blow up white people.
I think, in principal religious discrimination is wrong, but, there is such a long history of emnity between Islam and the rest of the world that the religion bears some special treatment even in the United States. Christians did not declare the war between Islam and Christianity did... Islam did when it kicked all the original christians out of the middle east, marched through Spain and invaded France. Then, they spent the next few centuries pillaging the Balkans all the way through Greece and into Austria. Do read about the siege of Vienna.
Besides, let me ask you this, who gets a fairer trial.... an Islamic person in the United States, or a Jew in Iran...You know what the penalty for converting to Judaism in Iran or Saudi Arabia is, don't you? It's DEATH.
These guys do not deserve to have a budget. If a terrorist tries to take over your plane, you get up and kick his ass. No need for all this fear mongering and travel inconvenience. It's just make work for security contractors that does absolutely nothing. The best guarantee of your safety are your fists, and not someone elses forms.
Now I have never seen such a magnificent toilet for sale down at Home Depot
I will say this, and it is, the American Standard Champion is probably one of the finest 1.6gpf toilets you can get, and honestly, its better than most of the older ones too. This guy comes out with a tidal wave of flushing force. It's pretty good, and I have to say, that their claims of being able to flush a ton of golf balls are to be utterly believed. IT's good stuff.
When there is scarcity, I don't impose efficiency. The government doesn't impose efficiency. It is the market that imposes efficiency. The government may impose rationing, and efficiency may be one of the responses to rationing, but there is no bureaucrat as relentless as the market when there is scarcity
Very true. However, the whole thing is, there is no scarcity in the production of carbon dioxide. Having neglected that, and realizing that the OT was Al Gore and global warming, it would seem that we've wasted an afternoon on scarcity when it doesn't apply to all about gw.
However, your tale of the super toilet had me laughing so hard, that it was worth it. I hope you enjoyed writing it, as much as I enjoyed reading it.
If a 1.6gpf toilet would do the job, an equally well designed 2 gallon toilet would mean you are throwing away 51 fl oz of drinking water every time you flush
It's not the same, and that's my whole point.
I used to enjoy the roar of the 2 gallon or more, flushing, as if a symphony in response to what my bowels generated. Now, I get the dimpy little flusher. Do they both get the poop to go away, yes. But, its not the same, its less, and you know it.
Similarly, driving a Pontiac GTO, which is a 400hp car, is not the most efficient way to get from point A to point B, but the V8 made a certain sound and the whole car had a certain feel. Those things are noticable.
Efficient or not, you are poorer when you lose less energy. Now, I agree, if it makes no difference to you, then by all means use the wimpy flusher after you drive the wimpy car or ride a bike. But everyone has something they would do with more energy, and that's my point. You might not delight at the roar of a big engine or a big flush, but, you might have some electron microscope that you fire up, or something. Without energy, you don't have those choices.
You keep arguing about quality of life, but every time you impose efficiency becuase of scarcity, you undermine it. You tell everyone that the more efficient thing is better, and its really not. It just does the same with less.
So -- you are prepared to prove the non-existence of any measure of wealth more meaningful than energy consumption? Good luck. I suppose lifespan, disease rates, infant mortality rates, educational level, leisure time,
Lifespan - increased number of joules consumed... disease rates, leads to lifespan - increased number of joules consumed... infant mortality rates... less joules consumed... educational level - greater wealth, more joules consumed... leasure time, choice of which joules to consume. life - produce body heat, move, joules consumed.. death - stagnant, no joules consumed.
Yep, its all about joules.
If I have two identical television sets, but one uses twice as much energy as the other, then my choosing the inefficient TV set adds more to national wealth? If I set the thermostat in my house to raise the temperature to 90 degrees after I leave in the morning, then back down to 70 when I return, I would have greater material well-being?
It's a non question, because you don't have two of the exact same TV that otherwise consume the same energy. Efficiency means, really, that you give something up. Look at 1.6gpf toilets... less water than a good blasting flusher, so you sometimes have to flush more often. If you made a 2gpf toilet with the same efficiency as a newer potty of today, it would be even better than 1.6gpf toilet, because you'd have to flush multiple times that much less, and it would give a more satisfying sound.
But, the bottom line is, the wealth of having that much energy means, you do have that choice. You may choose to have your house at 90 when you are in it, but the guy next door, in an energy rich society, could just as easily be choosing to have a bunch of christmas lights, or a garden of some kind, or heck, even a personal workshop and build a rocket or something. When you impose energy efficiency, ALL of those choices are gone.
And, ultimately, in order for massive human expansion into space to be practical, we need to have an insanely huge amount of energy per capita to do it. Think, a Saturn V for everyone in order for us to have a few million people living on the moon. Conservation can't do that. It's a dead end.
Here's the thing. Insurers believe in GW and also sell its message. Believe me, there's more than one insurer helping to fund those who promote GW. Why? It's because insurers want to sell insurance and right now, the vast majority of people don't want to buy it. If you have Al Gore running around predicting doom, it will scare people into buying hurricane insurance.... but, the hurricanes haven't happened. As I said before, GW is as much a racket for selling things as is anything else.
Now, customers are balking. Right after Katrina, a bunch of people went out and bought hurricane insurance, and now, a few years later, a lot of those people are letting their policies lapse, or are reducing their coverages.
All of the damage models that are used today are already factoring in a steady of increase in the number, strength and toughness of hurricanes, and are already factoring in lessons learned like an inadequate ability to account for economic surges after a natural disaster, or, the effect of windborn objects on nearby buildings. As a result, premiums have gone up, and now states like Florida are bitching about it.
So, global warming, terrorism, all the big fear items of the day, are just another day in the life of an insurer. As much as doomsayers say otherwise, if your house gets flattened by another Katrina hitting New York City, you can have it rebuilt, if you get the right insurance for it!
You don't need some big fancy GW law. All these risks to humanity are just another financial instrument that you can buy. The market has already calculated the costs of GW, and its being paid, to insurance companies, by those who are smart.
NASA sent a boatload of probes to the moon. There was both the Ranger and Surveyor missions. They not only photographed the lunar surface, but they also tested the soil composition to see if it was ok for people to walk on.
In fact, on of the lunar missions, Apollo 12, actually touched down next to the Surveyor mission designed to scout for it. I think they actually retrieved some pieces from the Surveyor probe, to see how it held up after being so long on the lunar surface.
The most important problem I have with what you are saying is that you are equating energy consumption with standard of living, as if somehow the two things were yoked together. They aren't
They most certainly are yoked together. Energy consumption is wealth, in fact, kw's or joules consumed per capita is probably the only really national measure of wealth that adequately captures the ease of one's lifestyle.
Yes, things could always be made more efficiently. But, at the end of the day, the dollar that goes into making something existing more efficient is not nearly as useful, in the long run, as the dollar spent on making something genuinely new. A life of constant energy reduction is a gradual road towards poverty. It is the death of the middle of the middle class. Even if, let's say, we merely cut our consumption of energy to deal with kyoto, and accepted a more draconian lifestyle, immigration alone means we would need less in each generation. Continued indefinately, we would wind up all huddled around a small candle, with nothing else, or, eventually we'd reach a point where humanity would starve or die in droves because there wasn't actually enough energy to go around.
We tend to overestimate the importance of stuff in our lives
See, there you go. At the end of the day, you make a moral judgement that wealth is somehow wrong. I say, I want everyone on the planet to have SUVs and McMansions, if they choose. Technologically, we can do that, if we go nuclear power now. Everything else is just a joke.
In the next Sino-US war, just see who has the industrial capacity to out produce weapons to foresee the winner.
The USA produces more manufactured goods than it ever has in its history. Automation has had more of an impact on the demise of manufacturing jobs as has free trade.
Gambling is an immoral tax, and for the WTO to try and enforce that on America's poor constitutes an attempted invasion by the people of Antigua. I think we should bomb every nation that hosts offshore gambling. There's really no other way, at this point, to protect Americans from sinners around the world.
So instead of microwaves, dry cleaners, and roombas to make living easier, India's middle and upper class use human servants.
Yeah, we had slavery too in the USA, then we realized that the people that used to shovel shit for us would turn out to invent most of America's great musical heritage, (jazz, blues, and a lot of rock)...and today even hip-hop, although I don't care for it too much. One has to wonder what India is giving up to have all these servants...
You can't have a society advance when its based on people enslaved to each other.
There is a system of reservation in higher education; which ensures that people belonging to lower castes get adequate opportunity.
I work with another Indian based development firm that had to close work for a couple of days due to riots by another caste, so I wouldn't sweep that problem under the rug any more than one could sweep race problems in the USA under the rug.
Personally, I have enough money to buy 3 cars without borrowing a penny, but I choose to use overcrowded public transport as a matter of principle. The same applies to my brother and sisters as well; none of us own cars. It has not diminished our enjoyment of life's joys, however
Or, are you afraid of the changes that wealth will bring?
So, it's a crock because the hurricanes never appeared (thank God) and that's all the proof you need right?
Al Gore predicted more hurricanes, and that prediction did not come true. I thought for someone to win the Nobel Prize, you know, like Albert Einstein, you made predictions that DID come true.
. I'll go with the majority opinion of climate scientists
Go right ahead. But, if the earth is as screwed as you say it is, then, build nuclear plants, as it is the only technology we have that can meet our energy needs and reduce green house gas production, and produces enough energy to build sequestration machines.
Once again, if all of these scientists are content to wait for solar and windmills to come around, then, I don't have to believe their dire messages. I mean, here's the play that I laugh at:
Scientists: "OH THE PLANET IS DOOMED, HUMANITY IS SCREWED, WE HAVE TO STOP CO2 PRODUCTION NOW" Me: "OK, Let's retire all the fossil fuel plants and fossil fuel ships, and build nuclear power plants, and deal with the waste problem down the road." Scientists: "No, let's not do that, let's wait and research better windmills and solar power..."
It's like, first there is the problem that requires urgent action, but then, the urgent response not only isn't acceptable, but, begs a demand for a longer term solution and longer term research. So, really, the whole message of GW is hurry up and wait for something, and I got better things to do than wait for some scientist to bitch me for screwing up the planet when I know damn well that if we used nuclear power everything, we could significantly cut our CO2 production within 5 years, and instead you want me to sign a treaty that will make me poorer, without actually doing anything. Kyoto, for example, hasn't been followed by even its signers, and despite a decline of population in Europe.
Ouch. I'd feel sorry for the GP, were it not for the fact that to all appearances he is so full of self-righteous aggression there no room left for embarrassment.
Don't feel sorry for me. Feel sorry for the guy in India... I'm waiting for him to reply to me if he has a big house or at least a couple of cool cars. If not, then he's poor. And my point is, he's arguing that the USA should live more like in India, and that's not poor, but, really, it is. Poor guy, doesn't even know how poor he is. On the other hand, I'd say that's not a bad place to be at, mentally.
Are you aware that you are replying to someone from India? WE don't HAVE NOTHING.
Yes, there is a middle class, but there is a huge impoverished class that constitutes the majority of Indians. Don't forget them! Maybe they are not in your caste, so let me remind you of what wealth is and isn't.
The per capita income in India is $800 a year. That's not even enough for a playstation 3 and a couple of games. By contrast, the official poverty line in the USA is around $10,000 a year for a single person, increasingly gradually with the size of the family. Most liberals would argue that this line is too low, and I'd be hard pressed to argue with them.
The average upper middle class family in the USA has of a few thousand square feet, two cars that are less than 7 years old, sometimes their own private swimming pool (35,000 gallons of fresh water), a few tv sets, digital cable, clothing that is usually not more than one or two years old, and usually eats some sort of dish consisting of either a variety of meats and imported vegetables often twice per day. For the most part, it is possible for an American to spend the vast majority of their time in an air conditioned building, either at home, or, at work. So, unless you are pulling down more than, I'd say, 30-40k as a minimum, have a big house, a couple of new cars, a few ipods (including a couple the kids broke), some video games, a few computers, in addition to all the stuff that I mentioned before, then you really don't have that much.
And, again, you ought to take a drive and visit the vast majority of your countrymen that do not even have barely enough food, let alone an air conditioned house.
doesn't matter if Mr. Bush lives in a thatched shed and uses biogas to light up his dwelling. He is responsible for the energy consumption of the entire USA, not just his hut.
spoken like a true nazi. Bush is only responsible for the government, of which there is too much. You are responsible for your own energy usage.
India and China are home to over 35% of the World's population; but it appears they do not have much of a scope to reduce consumption. The US consumes more than 15 times the energy per person consumed in India; and there is a huge scope for reduction. Inaction by the US govt. is dangerous for the entire planet, including India and China.
Guess what, those people in India and China are FUCKING POOR AND HAVE NOTHING. What you are advocating is that the people of the USA go back to living in the same kind of crappy lives that people live in the third world. How much more proof do you need to see that you are advocating the injection of a massive level into the USA in order to make the world more equal. Faced with such stark choices, and stark facism by the enviro-left wing, how can any sane person not think that g.w. is a massive left wing lie designed to bring about socialism.
I'm sorry, but this just proves to me that the Nobel Peace Prize is a big crock of politically correct shit. Fat boy gets a Nobel Peace Prize. What an embarrasment!
I have a hurricane insurerer as a client and all of these global warming induced hurricanes that were supposed to happen haven't happened at all. There just hasn't been. So I wonder, what other predictions of our doom aren't going to come true.
I'm not saying that there isn't some kind of climate change taking place, or that man isn't somehow partly to blame, but, hey, one would think that the supposedly prestigious nobel prize committee would come out of its liberal ideology for a second, do some math (for a change). They would see that the likes of Kyoto won't reduce carbon levels in the earth atmosphere, that its just a transfer tax designed to bring about some form of global socialism backed by the fear mongering lie of planetary catastrophe, and that, domestically, the big companies like GE, pushing for CO2 laws are doing so soley because they have CO2 laws to sell.
If Global Warming were the big threat to mankind that Al Gore hypes it to be, then we should be building hundreds of nuclear plants and millions of electric cars, starting yesterday. Clearly the longer term problem of nuclear waste is not so severe as the ice caps melting tomorrow. But if the far most environmental crazies can be content to wait for some sort of a breakthrough in solar power or windmill to replace the 80% of the US electrical capacity that comes from fossil fuels, then perhaps all of the hype about global warming is just that, hype.
If there is no time, then build nukes, and if there is time, then I'm getting a V8 engine, and Al Gore and his likes bitch about it, they can take that nobel prize and shove it up his ass while he flies around on his personal carbon belching jet.
Why aren't any of your wackos blowing things up in protest at having their rights violated by Bush?
The perception among the right wing, and really, one that is fostered by various means by the administration to its supporters, is that all of these rights violations are being targeted exclusively towards muslims, so therefor its ok. In our mind, everything that is happening now is playing out as part of a larger conflict between christianity and islam and one that has been going for over a thousand years and now its heating up again. Bush doesn't have to publicly say that this is the case, and even if he denied, because he's one of "our guys", we tend to think he has to say nice things about islam even while the feds are listening in on every mosque they can.
So, if the government is wiretapping phone calls of a US Citizen back to Saudi Arabia or Oman, then yes, that is ok. But if the government is tapping calls of us, that would be a different story. Similarly, all of the detentions have been of islamic people. If the gov't were illegally detaining christians, that would be a different story. But they aren't, as far as anyone knows, or most assuredly the right wing would be blowing stuff up.
Obviously, Bush gets a huge benefit of the doubt because of this, and ironically, I think Hillary is smart enough to push some of those same buttons to and get herself into the holy war club. But, she's actually in a hard place - because if she expands the government, due to her leftist leanings, she's not going to be trusted, and if she contracts it, she's a traitor, because she wants to let the islamic people win. So, for her, really, the best thing would be for her people to signal (and they know how to do it), that Hillary will continue to go after islam... and you know what, Hillary HAS BEEN.
This case is a clearcut proof that the patent system doesn't protect the little guy and the little guy hitting it big with a patent is a total myth.
By all rights, the law that the article refers to is designed to ensure that the little guy has another means of recorse to protect his or her patent. But instead, these companies are going to find a judge that kinda agrees with them, and they will be allowed to import these drives despite the patent violation.
Of course, the right thing to do would be to change patent law so that this sort of infringement is something everyone is allowed to do. But oh no, we still want to leave the patent laws on the books, to protect the big guy, from guess who, the small guy.
I hear the second amendment brought up in every single thread of this kind. Nuts! What are you going to do, start shooting at US government officials? When ae you going to start?
I imagine once Hillary is elected. If she really does implement some sort of national id as recommended by the homeland security commission, or expand federal surveillance powers, then, you'll see passive resistance by an unusual mix of far right and far left citizens both. And, you'll probably see some far right guy or two go too far and blow something up. But, if they blow up a symbol of federal power, rather than an innocent person, they might actually get lionized to some degree by both ends of the political spectrum. Americans are pecular about their freedom, and the one thing that politicians of neither party gets or doesn't have the balls to say, is that this country would rather have another 9/11 than it would a more powerful police.
Maybe you're joking, but there's actually a point you're making that could at least be easily mistaken for a reasonable one.
Well, I was joking, but, I think the whole layered standard thing only makes life better for some big corporation that would wind up writing a layered standard thing for Avatars, thus, making it impossible for small players to make avatars or have games that are actually different.
The other thing too, is, what's a sword in one world might not be applicable in another. In some worlds, you have magic swords that people just leave lying around, and there are more orcs than ants. But, maybe someone would want to make a world where a magical item of any sort is a rare and precious thing, that maybe one out of a hundred people could even have any sort of a magical sword.
At some point, the artistic integrity of the person creating the world must take precedent over the hoards that would inhabitit, otherwise, there's just no point in being there.
While IBM, the Second Life Guys, Sun, and who knows all else want portable avatars, I from my company, Mightyware (annual sales: $78), thinks that Avatars should be proprietary and incompatible.
"Universal avatars mean an LCD approach to avatars, or a hideously complicated API, and to what end?" says, Stork. "Why not allow all developers, in the name of freedom, to make up their own kinds of Avatars...these things represent your -life-, and so, while an LCD approach might be ok for things like Java, they certainly should not apply to a digital representation of your own psyche."
Let's all agree that the privacy invading portable avatar nonsense is just that, and get back to the business of writing our own propreitary avatars...
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Oh - so beause he's a muslim it's ok to trample his rights .... not racist white 'christian' Republicans
Jose Padilla was a racist muslim. Let's not forget that when he was arrested in O'Hare Airport, he had just spent plenty of time travelling the middle east begging to join AQ so he could blow up white people.
I think, in principal religious discrimination is wrong, but, there is such a long history of emnity between Islam and the rest of the world that the religion bears some special treatment even in the United States. Christians did not declare the war between Islam and Christianity did... Islam did when it kicked all the original christians out of the middle east, marched through Spain and invaded France. Then, they spent the next few centuries pillaging the Balkans all the way through Greece and into Austria. Do read about the siege of Vienna.
Besides, let me ask you this, who gets a fairer trial.... an Islamic person in the United States, or a Jew in Iran...You know what the penalty for converting to Judaism in Iran or Saudi Arabia is, don't you? It's DEATH.
These guys do not deserve to have a budget. If a terrorist tries to take over your plane, you get up and kick his ass. No need for all this fear mongering and travel inconvenience. It's just make work for security contractors that does absolutely nothing. The best guarantee of your safety are your fists, and not someone elses forms.
Now I have never seen such a magnificent toilet for sale down at Home Depot
I will say this, and it is, the American Standard Champion is probably one of the finest 1.6gpf toilets you can get, and honestly, its better than most of the older ones too. This guy comes out with a tidal wave of flushing force. It's pretty good, and I have to say, that their claims of being able to flush a ton of golf balls are to be utterly believed. IT's good stuff.
When there is scarcity, I don't impose efficiency. The government doesn't impose efficiency. It is the market that imposes efficiency. The government may impose rationing, and efficiency may be one of the responses to rationing, but there is no bureaucrat as relentless as the market when there is scarcity
Very true. However, the whole thing is, there is no scarcity in the production of carbon dioxide. Having neglected that, and realizing that the OT was Al Gore and global warming, it would seem that we've wasted an afternoon on scarcity when it doesn't apply to all about gw.
However, your tale of the super toilet had me laughing so hard, that it was worth it. I hope you enjoyed writing it, as much as I enjoyed reading it.
If a 1.6gpf toilet would do the job, an equally well designed 2 gallon toilet would mean you are throwing away 51 fl oz of drinking water every time you flush
It's not the same, and that's my whole point.
I used to enjoy the roar of the 2 gallon or more, flushing, as if a symphony in response to what my bowels generated. Now, I get the dimpy little flusher. Do they both get the poop to go away, yes. But, its not the same, its less, and you know it.
Similarly, driving a Pontiac GTO, which is a 400hp car, is not the most efficient way to get from point A to point B, but the V8 made a certain sound and the whole car had a certain feel. Those things are noticable.
Efficient or not, you are poorer when you lose less energy. Now, I agree, if it makes no difference to you, then by all means use the wimpy flusher after you drive the wimpy car or ride a bike. But everyone has something they would do with more energy, and that's my point. You might not delight at the roar of a big engine or a big flush, but, you might have some electron microscope that you fire up, or something. Without energy, you don't have those choices.
You keep arguing about quality of life, but every time you impose efficiency becuase of scarcity, you undermine it. You tell everyone that the more efficient thing is better, and its really not. It just does the same with less.
So -- you are prepared to prove the non-existence of any measure of wealth more meaningful than energy consumption? Good luck. I suppose lifespan, disease rates, infant mortality rates, educational level, leisure time,
Lifespan - increased number of joules consumed... disease rates, leads to lifespan - increased number of joules consumed... infant mortality rates... less joules consumed... educational level - greater wealth, more joules consumed... leasure time, choice of which joules to consume. life - produce body heat, move, joules consumed.. death - stagnant, no joules consumed.
Yep, its all about joules.
If I have two identical television sets, but one uses twice as much energy as the other, then my choosing the inefficient TV set adds more to national wealth? If I set the thermostat in my house to raise the temperature to 90 degrees after I leave in the morning, then back down to 70 when I return, I would have greater material well-being?
It's a non question, because you don't have two of the exact same TV that otherwise consume the same energy. Efficiency means, really, that you give something up. Look at 1.6gpf toilets... less water than a good blasting flusher, so you sometimes have to flush more often. If you made a 2gpf toilet with the same efficiency as a newer potty of today, it would be even better than 1.6gpf toilet, because you'd have to flush multiple times that much less, and it would give a more satisfying sound.
But, the bottom line is, the wealth of having that much energy means, you do have that choice. You may choose to have your house at 90 when you are in it, but the guy next door, in an energy rich society, could just as easily be choosing to have a bunch of christmas lights, or a garden of some kind, or heck, even a personal workshop and build a rocket or something. When you impose energy efficiency, ALL of those choices are gone.
And, ultimately, in order for massive human expansion into space to be practical, we need to have an insanely huge amount of energy per capita to do it. Think, a Saturn V for everyone in order for us to have a few million people living on the moon. Conservation can't do that. It's a dead end.
Tell your hurricane insurer to listen to this.
Here's the thing. Insurers believe in GW and also sell its message. Believe me, there's more than one insurer helping to fund those who promote GW. Why? It's because insurers want to sell insurance and right now, the vast majority of people don't want to buy it. If you have Al Gore running around predicting doom, it will scare people into buying hurricane insurance.... but, the hurricanes haven't happened. As I said before, GW is as much a racket for selling things as is anything else.
Now, customers are balking. Right after Katrina, a bunch of people went out and bought hurricane insurance, and now, a few years later, a lot of those people are letting their policies lapse, or are reducing their coverages.
All of the damage models that are used today are already factoring in a steady of increase in the number, strength and toughness of hurricanes, and are already factoring in lessons learned like an inadequate ability to account for economic surges after a natural disaster, or, the effect of windborn objects on nearby buildings. As a result, premiums have gone up, and now states like Florida are bitching about it.
So, global warming, terrorism, all the big fear items of the day, are just another day in the life of an insurer. As much as doomsayers say otherwise, if your house gets flattened by another Katrina hitting New York City, you can have it rebuilt, if you get the right insurance for it!
You don't need some big fancy GW law. All these risks to humanity are just another financial instrument that you can buy. The market has already calculated the costs of GW, and its being paid, to insurance companies, by those who are smart.
NASA sent a boatload of probes to the moon. There was both the Ranger and Surveyor missions. They not only photographed the lunar surface, but they also tested the soil composition to see if it was ok for people to walk on.
In fact, on of the lunar missions, Apollo 12, actually touched down next to the Surveyor mission designed to scout for it. I think they actually retrieved some pieces from the Surveyor probe, to see how it held up after being so long on the lunar surface.
The most important problem I have with what you are saying is that you are equating energy consumption with standard of living, as if somehow the two things were yoked together. They aren't
They most certainly are yoked together. Energy consumption is wealth, in fact, kw's or joules consumed per capita is probably the only really national measure of wealth that adequately captures the ease of one's lifestyle.
Yes, things could always be made more efficiently. But, at the end of the day, the dollar that goes into making something existing more efficient is not nearly as useful, in the long run, as the dollar spent on making something genuinely new. A life of constant energy reduction is a gradual road towards poverty. It is the death of the middle of the middle class. Even if, let's say, we merely cut our consumption of energy to deal with kyoto, and accepted a more draconian lifestyle, immigration alone means we would need less in each generation. Continued indefinately, we would wind up all huddled around a small candle, with nothing else, or, eventually we'd reach a point where humanity would starve or die in droves because there wasn't actually enough energy to go around.
We tend to overestimate the importance of stuff in our lives
See, there you go. At the end of the day, you make a moral judgement that wealth is somehow wrong. I say, I want everyone on the planet to have SUVs and McMansions, if they choose. Technologically, we can do that, if we go nuclear power now. Everything else is just a joke.
ugh... not > $25k, I meant $25k
A Dodge SRT 4 was around 21k. That's a cool car. 0-60 in 5.3 seconds.
In the next Sino-US war, just see who has the industrial capacity to out produce weapons to foresee the winner.
The USA produces more manufactured goods than it ever has in its history. Automation has had more of an impact on the demise of manufacturing jobs as has free trade.
Gambling is an immoral tax, and for the WTO to try and enforce that on America's poor constitutes an attempted invasion by the people of Antigua. I think we should bomb every nation that hosts offshore gambling. There's really no other way, at this point, to protect Americans from sinners around the world.
So instead of microwaves, dry cleaners, and roombas to make living easier, India's middle and upper class use human servants.
Yeah, we had slavery too in the USA, then we realized that the people that used to shovel shit for us would turn out to invent most of America's great musical heritage, (jazz, blues, and a lot of rock)...and today even hip-hop, although I don't care for it too much. One has to wonder what India is giving up to have all these servants...
You can't have a society advance when its based on people enslaved to each other.
There is a system of reservation in higher education; which ensures that people belonging to lower castes get adequate opportunity.
I work with another Indian based development firm that had to close work for a couple of days due to riots by another caste, so I wouldn't sweep that problem under the rug any more than one could sweep race problems in the USA under the rug.
Personally, I have enough money to buy 3 cars without borrowing a penny, but I choose to use overcrowded public transport as a matter of principle. The same applies to my brother and sisters as well; none of us own cars. It has not diminished our enjoyment of life's joys, however
Or, are you afraid of the changes that wealth will bring?
So, it's a crock because the hurricanes never appeared (thank God) and that's all the proof you need right?
Al Gore predicted more hurricanes, and that prediction did not come true. I thought for someone to win the Nobel Prize, you know, like Albert Einstein, you made predictions that DID come true.
. I'll go with the majority opinion of climate scientists
Go right ahead. But, if the earth is as screwed as you say it is, then, build nuclear plants, as it is the only technology we have that can meet our energy needs and reduce green house gas production, and produces enough energy to build sequestration machines.
Once again, if all of these scientists are content to wait for solar and windmills to come around, then, I don't have to believe their dire messages. I mean, here's the play that I laugh at:
Scientists: "OH THE PLANET IS DOOMED, HUMANITY IS SCREWED, WE HAVE TO STOP CO2 PRODUCTION NOW"
Me: "OK, Let's retire all the fossil fuel plants and fossil fuel ships, and build nuclear power plants, and deal with the waste problem down the road."
Scientists: "No, let's not do that, let's wait and research better windmills and solar power..."
It's like, first there is the problem that requires urgent action, but then, the urgent response not only isn't acceptable, but, begs a demand for a longer term solution and longer term research. So, really, the whole message of GW is hurry up and wait for something, and I got better things to do than wait for some scientist to bitch me for screwing up the planet when I know damn well that if we used nuclear power everything, we could significantly cut our CO2 production within 5 years, and instead you want me to sign a treaty that will make me poorer, without actually doing anything. Kyoto, for example, hasn't been followed by even its signers, and despite a decline of population in Europe.
Ouch. I'd feel sorry for the GP, were it not for the fact that to all appearances he is so full of self-righteous aggression there no room left for embarrassment.
Don't feel sorry for me. Feel sorry for the guy in India... I'm waiting for him to reply to me if he has a big house or at least a couple of cool cars. If not, then he's poor. And my point is, he's arguing that the USA should live more like in India, and that's not poor, but, really, it is. Poor guy, doesn't even know how poor he is. On the other hand, I'd say that's not a bad place to be at, mentally.
Are you aware that you are replying to someone from India? WE don't HAVE NOTHING.
Yes, there is a middle class, but there is a huge impoverished class that constitutes the majority of Indians. Don't forget them! Maybe they are not in your caste, so let me remind you of what wealth is and isn't.
The per capita income in India is $800 a year. That's not even enough for a playstation 3 and a couple of games. By contrast, the official poverty line in the USA is around $10,000 a year for a single person, increasingly gradually with the size of the family. Most liberals would argue that this line is too low, and I'd be hard pressed to argue with them.
The average upper middle class family in the USA has of a few thousand square feet, two cars that are less than 7 years old, sometimes their own private swimming pool (35,000 gallons of fresh water), a few tv sets, digital cable, clothing that is usually not more than one or two years old, and usually eats some sort of dish consisting of either a variety of meats and imported vegetables often twice per day. For the most part, it is possible for an American to spend the vast majority of their time in an air conditioned building, either at home, or, at work. So, unless you are pulling down more than, I'd say, 30-40k as a minimum, have a big house, a couple of new cars, a few ipods (including a couple the kids broke), some video games, a few computers, in addition to all the stuff that I mentioned before, then you really don't have that much.
And, again, you ought to take a drive and visit the vast majority of your countrymen that do not even have barely enough food, let alone an air conditioned house.
Okay, for one Jose Padilla
He's a muslim. Let me know when Bush locks up a christian like that.
doesn't matter if Mr. Bush lives in a thatched shed and uses biogas to light up his dwelling. He is responsible for the energy consumption of the entire USA, not just his hut.
spoken like a true nazi. Bush is only responsible for the government, of which there is too much. You are responsible for your own energy usage.
India and China are home to over 35% of the World's population; but it appears they do not have much of a scope to reduce consumption. The US consumes more than 15 times the energy per person consumed in India; and there is a huge scope for reduction. Inaction by the US govt. is dangerous for the entire planet, including India and China.
Guess what, those people in India and China are FUCKING POOR AND HAVE NOTHING. What you are advocating is that the people of the USA go back to living in the same kind of crappy lives that people live in the third world. How much more proof do you need to see that you are advocating the injection of a massive level into the USA in order to make the world more equal. Faced with such stark choices, and stark facism by the enviro-left wing, how can any sane person not think that g.w. is a massive left wing lie designed to bring about socialism.
I'm sorry, but this just proves to me that the Nobel Peace Prize is a big crock of politically correct shit. Fat boy gets a Nobel Peace Prize. What an embarrasment!
I have a hurricane insurerer as a client and all of these global warming induced hurricanes that were supposed to happen haven't happened at all. There just hasn't been. So I wonder, what other predictions of our doom aren't going to come true.
I'm not saying that there isn't some kind of climate change taking place, or that man isn't somehow partly to blame, but, hey, one would think that the supposedly prestigious nobel prize committee would come out of its liberal ideology for a second, do some math (for a change). They would see that the likes of Kyoto won't reduce carbon levels in the earth atmosphere, that its just a transfer tax designed to bring about some form of global socialism backed by the fear mongering lie of planetary catastrophe, and that, domestically, the big companies like GE, pushing for CO2 laws are doing so soley because they have CO2 laws to sell.
If Global Warming were the big threat to mankind that Al Gore hypes it to be, then we should be building hundreds of nuclear plants and millions of electric cars, starting yesterday. Clearly the longer term problem of nuclear waste is not so severe as the ice caps melting tomorrow. But if the far most environmental crazies can be content to wait for some sort of a breakthrough in solar power or windmill to replace the 80% of the US electrical capacity that comes from fossil fuels, then perhaps all of the hype about global warming is just that, hype.
If there is no time, then build nukes, and if there is time, then I'm getting a V8 engine, and Al Gore and his likes bitch about it, they can take that nobel prize and shove it up his ass while he flies around on his personal carbon belching jet.
Why aren't any of your wackos blowing things up in protest at having their rights violated by Bush?
The perception among the right wing, and really, one that is fostered by various means by the administration to its supporters, is that all of these rights violations are being targeted exclusively towards muslims, so therefor its ok. In our mind, everything that is happening now is playing out as part of a larger conflict between christianity and islam and one that has been going for over a thousand years and now its heating up again. Bush doesn't have to publicly say that this is the case, and even if he denied, because he's one of "our guys", we tend to think he has to say nice things about islam even while the feds are listening in on every mosque they can.
So, if the government is wiretapping phone calls of a US Citizen back to Saudi Arabia or Oman, then yes, that is ok. But if the government is tapping calls of us, that would be a different story. Similarly, all of the detentions have been of islamic people. If the gov't were illegally detaining christians, that would be a different story. But they aren't, as far as anyone knows, or most assuredly the right wing would be blowing stuff up.
Obviously, Bush gets a huge benefit of the doubt because of this, and ironically, I think Hillary is smart enough to push some of those same buttons to and get herself into the holy war club. But, she's actually in a hard place - because if she expands the government, due to her leftist leanings, she's not going to be trusted, and if she contracts it, she's a traitor, because she wants to let the islamic people win. So, for her, really, the best thing would be for her people to signal (and they know how to do it), that Hillary will continue to go after islam... and you know what, Hillary HAS BEEN.
This case is a clearcut proof that the patent system doesn't protect the little guy and the little guy hitting it big with a patent is a total myth.
By all rights, the law that the article refers to is designed to ensure that the little guy has another means of recorse to protect his or her patent. But instead, these companies are going to find a judge that kinda agrees with them, and they will be allowed to import these drives despite the patent violation.
Of course, the right thing to do would be to change patent law so that this sort of infringement is something everyone is allowed to do. But oh no, we still want to leave the patent laws on the books, to protect the big guy, from guess who, the small guy.
I hear the second amendment brought up in every single thread of this kind. Nuts! What are you going to do, start shooting at US government officials? When ae you going to start?
I imagine once Hillary is elected. If she really does implement some sort of national id as recommended by the homeland security commission, or expand federal surveillance powers, then, you'll see passive resistance by an unusual mix of far right and far left citizens both. And, you'll probably see some far right guy or two go too far and blow something up. But, if they blow up a symbol of federal power, rather than an innocent person, they might actually get lionized to some degree by both ends of the political spectrum. Americans are pecular about their freedom, and the one thing that politicians of neither party gets or doesn't have the balls to say, is that this country would rather have another 9/11 than it would a more powerful police.
Maybe you're joking, but there's actually a point you're making that could at least be easily mistaken for a reasonable one.
Well, I was joking, but, I think the whole layered standard thing only makes life better for some big corporation that would wind up writing a layered standard thing for Avatars, thus, making it impossible for small players to make avatars or have games that are actually different.
The other thing too, is, what's a sword in one world might not be applicable in another. In some worlds, you have magic swords that people just leave lying around, and there are more orcs than ants. But, maybe someone would want to make a world where a magical item of any sort is a rare and precious thing, that maybe one out of a hundred people could even have any sort of a magical sword.
At some point, the artistic integrity of the person creating the world must take precedent over the hoards that would inhabitit, otherwise, there's just no point in being there.
While IBM, the Second Life Guys, Sun, and who knows all else want portable avatars, I from my company, Mightyware (annual sales: $78), thinks that Avatars should be proprietary and incompatible.
"Universal avatars mean an LCD approach to avatars, or a hideously complicated API, and to what end?" says, Stork. "Why not allow all developers, in the name of freedom, to make up their own kinds of Avatars...these things represent your -life-, and so, while an LCD approach might be ok for things like Java, they certainly should not apply to a digital representation of your own psyche."
Let's all agree that the privacy invading portable avatar nonsense is just that, and get back to the business of writing our own propreitary avatars...
However, is this like jewish golem
I'm like thinking, Golem in the old Night Stalker, or, better still, the old D&D board game (I date myself now)...