The fact alone that you confuse target practice with training on the use of lethal force is an example of exactly why an off-duty officer is not the same as an "armed churchgoer".
Officers confront dangerous situations routinely. Every such situation is a rehearsal of when to unlock the holster, when to grip the gun, when to pull the gun but still keep it pointing at the ground, when to pull it up and issue a warning, when to shoot to a warning shot, when to shoot to maim/disable, and when to shoot to kill.
An off duty cop is essentially the same as a private citizen with a firarm.
This statement barely merits a reply. Let me rephrase it so you can see how galactically stupid it is: "An off duty surgeon is essentially the same as a private citizen with a scalpel and a few hours of CPR training".
If you cannot see the difference between a trained officer who undergoes repeated training on the job and someone who once took some training there is nothing we can gain from talking. I'm more likely to get an intelligent statement from a park bench.
Even if he wasn't directly behind it, he's the father of the OLPC idea, which has been nothing but a waste of resources in regions than can ill afford it.
Grammar mistakes can be the consequence of typing mistakes. Almost all my "grammatical errors" correspond to sentences which were properly formed in my head but ended up mangled accidentally during editing/typing.
It was WWII that got the country out of the great depression.
Let's concede this point for the sake of the argument. Isn't WWII the biggest increase in spending that the government can make? Let's have a look at the figures. From 1939 to 1942 as the threat of war loomed, government expenditures went up by a factor of four and by 1945 they were ten times what they were in 1939 and thirty times what they were in 1929. Notice that the country survived just fine this massive increase in expenditure.
In contrast Obama's last budget is only 20% larger than Bush's last budget. No wonder Paul Krugman claims, jokingly, that the only way out of this depression is to declare war on someone since there is no other way to create consensus around the massive increase of expenditures that is needed.
Hey how about those Australians, with their Mel Gibsons and Nicole Kidmans and Russell Crowes, and their nice beaches. What's up with them? why do they hate freedom so much? let's go get 'em!
After three years, you think he could have done SOMETHING to improve things,
He has, the Obama administration has created more jobs in the last two years than Bush did in his entire eight years in government. Seriously, look it up.
Who is refusing to acknowledge reality, were you saying?
But, it doesn't matter now, because now the idea has taken hold,
You might be right about this. However the best proof that is a republican meme is that you never heard businesses say anything like this before the Obama re-election campaign.
Contrast this to their constant griping about unions or environmental regulations. I might (or might not) disagree with them on that, but at least they have a consistent record on it, whereas the current "we are not investing because we are uncertain, hence vote for our guy (Romney)" is a new thing.
More importantly, it means corporations are trying to hold us hostage as to whom to vote for. You should refuse to engage on that on the very principle of preserving your free vote, rather than repeating the meme around. Really, think about it, if you value democracy and freedom.
All the regulations in the world didn't stop the crooks, and never will.
Actually, they did. Canada did not roll back regulations like USA and the European Union and guess what? Canadian banks are doing just fine. Seriously, look it up.
That is why idiots like you don't and will never understand.
Oops, who is the idiot now?
Nobody could have regulations on something that never existed prior (derivative loan securities).
How come not? Certainly Warren Buffet identified the risk and called for regulations. He called "weapons of mass destruction".
And what will be your excuse for another one or two unfunded wars and Obama? Seriously, I'm asking.
Those wars exist only in your head.
The whole idea the (D) good (R) bad is just a load of crap.
Again that is just a caricature of what is being said.
then Clinton is responsible for 9/11 and the economic crisis that Bush inherited.
Nope. Clinton bombed Al-Qaida several times. In contrast, Bush received a warning by his own security council in August. He ignored it.
To be clear, both democrats and republicans have their faults, but for the last twelve years republican policies have been much worse than anything the democrats have devised since Carter lost the White House.
I'm not trying to argue something inane like "GWB is gr8 and Clinton sux0rs!!11", as you seem to be suggesting.
No. You are drawing a caricature of my argument.
The fact that there are billions in capital and millions of jobs waiting on this election is real.
This is a made up fact. People are sitting on capital because they are afraid of the economic conditions worldwide. If the only problem were the US elections they would take their money and invest it elsewhere.
You can't wish it away,
Neither can you just make up imaginary reasons as to why this is so, reasons which defy the facts. Businesses have never talked about "holding back until the elections" and even today the only ones saying this are republican talking heads. The Fortune 500 companies have not stepped forward and said "yeah, we are waiting for the elections".
It's simply a republican meme, with no foundation in reality.
How come none of the other recoveries took this long then?
Except for the great depression or the current Japanese and Irish depression all of which you conveniently forget to mention.
Maybe it's not the economy. Maybe it's him and his policies.
Or maybe all the other recessions were created by tightening of monetary policy and quickly cured as interests rates went down when inflation subsided.
In contrast when recessions are caused by deleveraging they all have in common that they are really hard to solve, like the great depression, like Japan, like Ireland. The only way out we know is massive spending as in the great depression. The republican party is opposed to this always, regardless of how out of the ordinary the circumstances might be, requiring an exception to be made.
Trust me, I have no love for Romney and his frequent promises of skyrocketing immigration and an obscenely high H1-B cap. But in the long run we're better off with him, no matter what he does, due to the perceptual niche he occupies.
Sorry but the facts are against you. The economy grew faster during the "bad perception" years of Clinton than during the "good perception" years of GWB.
None of those need to be refuted. Even if they were true, they in no way would be responsible for the current state of the economy. Even if true they would be minor gaffes in a trillion dollar economy.
What really screwed up this country was two unfunded wars by GWB, financial deregulation starting with Reagan followed by Clinton and GWB, and the original GWB tax cuts at a time where we were waging two wars and more, not less revenues were needed.
If I burn the house and then let you take over after that, sure you will max out the credit cards buying replacement goods for all the things I destroyed.
Using your twisted logic, you made things much worse by buying replacement underwear, clothing and basic goods.
A mild recession is akin to you losing your job, you cut on expenditures and try to survive until you get a new one.
A depression like the one we are in is like your house burning down. You approach your relatives/friends/bank and ask for a hefty loan which you will pay over the next ten years as insurance monies come in, you get back on your feet, get an extra job, etc.
Businesses are not able to act confidently when they are worried that the rules are going to keep changing
Another meme courtesy of the republican party. Rules change all the time when you are in business. New competitors arise, trading treaties are signed, programs appear and disappear, new threats appear out of left field. Change is what businesses do best. To think they are sitting on untold monies because they don't know what will come is ridiculous.
No Obama's lawyers TOLD the Supreme Court it's just a tax,
That's absolutely false, which is rather easy to check. Still you get modded 5, Informative because your false statement has that truthiness quality to it.
Anyway, in my experience, not all of the segregation is imposed.
Oh I agree. Once segregation has become the cultural norm it comes from all sides, including the segregated.
In terms of your situation, you need to try to tease apart what the expats are saying. If it is all segregationist rumbles pay no heed and carry on. Or perhaps what they are saying is that you are trying too hard to integrate. Your true Japanese friends will accept you for who you are, and do not mind the differences. Do not change just for the sake of approval.
Correct, which is why I started by saying "[culturally] ethnic, maybe". For example, people who like kimchi and the latest South Korean soap opera are likely to hang together and talk about it, be it physically or in a blog in cyberspace. And no, you don't have to be born in Korea to count yourself among that group, as many Japanese fans of Bae Yong Joon and kimchi can attest.
On the other hand we have racially imposed divisions and classifications, such as the American coinage of Latina, which creates a new racial category (Hispanic, female) so we can pigeonhole yet another group. What is more ironic is that the supposedly enlightened intellectual liberal left were the main drivers behind this new racial label.
Yes, really. Cultural constructs are passed from generation to generation, the same way you speak English even though you were not even alive when the English settled in Virgina in 1607.
People want to spend time typically with other people that are like them which includes taste in art, skill set, and (tada) ethnic origin.
Ethnic, maybe, racial no, not really. You don't see tall people hanging together and short people hanging in a different group; or blue eyed people hanging together and green-eyed people in a different group.
The only reason people in the USA tend to hang out with others of the same racial ethnicity is leftovers of the horrible segregation that ruled the land a mere 40 years ago.
No, I say it as if OPEC doesn't have the type of price control it used to have, and not anywhere near the price control it wishes it had.
However you forget to mention that there is general agreement that over the last ten years, non-OPEC countries such as Mexico, Russia and Brazil had informally coordinated with OPEC in ways they never had before.
Yes, OPEC doesn't have push button control over prices, but is a very important agent and it has managed to set prices close to the levels they have wanted for the last while.
This is especially true with gas prices, inflation and unemployment.
Actually this is particularly false with gas prices, as most polls showed at the time. That is why no other candidate piled on Newt's "lower gas prices" bandwagon. They were not getting traction.
It is true when it comes to inflation and unemployment. Carter had a Volcker-caused recession and Reagan a Volcker-created jump start of the economy and in each case Carter and Reagan got the blame/credit as if they had personally destroyed/created every job.
I'm going from memory, but facts were a bit different. the RDTSC had gone through various incarnations in different versions of the x86 processor, and they were afraid that if they made it publicly available they would have to forever support it in the name of backwards compatibility.
This is not an unreasonable fear, given of the x86 IS has survived all thee many years.
Personally, I'd consider that child abuse. He'll grow up believing that... this... is... the... way... to... speak... as... an... actor.
He'll grow up believing that if you travel half the galaxy and meet a wonderful new civilization the best thing to do is to engage in hand to hand combat while the red shirts (go happen to be preferentially of a certain skin color) get killed in combat.
This is, unless, of course if said civilization members are all hot babes wearing negligees, in which case one's captain must proceed to mate with them, without fear of this leading to some sort of intergalactic AIDS epidemic.
Slashdot Mirror
The fact alone that you confuse target practice with training on the use of lethal force is an example of exactly why an off-duty officer is not the same as an "armed churchgoer".
Officers confront dangerous situations routinely. Every such situation is a rehearsal of when to unlock the holster, when to grip the gun, when to pull the gun but still keep it pointing at the ground, when to pull it up and issue a warning, when to shoot to a warning shot, when to shoot to maim/disable, and when to shoot to kill.
An off duty cop is essentially the same as a private citizen with a firarm.
This statement barely merits a reply. Let me rephrase it so you can see how galactically stupid it is: "An off duty surgeon is essentially the same as a private citizen with a scalpel and a few hours of CPR training".
If you cannot see the difference between a trained officer who undergoes repeated training on the job and someone who once took some training there is nothing we can gain from talking. I'm more likely to get an intelligent statement from a park bench.
Just like and armed churchgoer stopped this attack
It wasn't an "armed churchgoer" as you misleadingly state. It was an off-duty police officer, trained in the use of lethal force.
When you start with untrained use of lethal force you get George Zimmerman shooting at Trayvon Martin.
Even if he wasn't directly behind it, he's the father of the OLPC idea, which has been nothing but a waste of resources in regions than can ill afford it.
Grammar mistakes can be the consequence of typing mistakes. Almost all my "grammatical errors" correspond to sentences which were properly formed in my head but ended up mangled accidentally during editing/typing.
It was WWII that got the country out of the great depression.
Let's concede this point for the sake of the argument. Isn't WWII the biggest increase in spending that the government can make? Let's have a look at the figures. From 1939 to 1942 as the threat of war loomed, government expenditures went up by a factor of four and by 1945 they were ten times what they were in 1939 and thirty times what they were in 1929. Notice that the country survived just fine this massive increase in expenditure.
In contrast Obama's last budget is only 20% larger than Bush's last budget. No wonder Paul Krugman claims, jokingly, that the only way out of this depression is to declare war on someone since there is no other way to create consensus around the massive increase of expenditures that is needed.
Hey how about those Australians, with their Mel Gibsons and Nicole Kidmans and Russell Crowes, and their nice beaches. What's up with them? why do they hate freedom so much? let's go get 'em!
After three years, you think he could have done SOMETHING to improve things,
He has, the Obama administration has created more jobs in the last two years than Bush did in his entire eight years in government. Seriously, look it up.
Who is refusing to acknowledge reality, were you saying?
But, it doesn't matter now, because now the idea has taken hold,
You might be right about this. However the best proof that is a republican meme is that you never heard businesses say anything like this before the Obama re-election campaign.
Contrast this to their constant griping about unions or environmental regulations. I might (or might not) disagree with them on that, but at least they have a consistent record on it, whereas the current "we are not investing because we are uncertain, hence vote for our guy (Romney)" is a new thing.
More importantly, it means corporations are trying to hold us hostage as to whom to vote for. You should refuse to engage on that on the very principle of preserving your free vote, rather than repeating the meme around. Really, think about it, if you value democracy and freedom.
All the regulations in the world didn't stop the crooks, and never will.
Actually, they did. Canada did not roll back regulations like USA and the European Union and guess what? Canadian banks are doing just fine. Seriously, look it up.
That is why idiots like you don't and will never understand.
Oops, who is the idiot now?
Nobody could have regulations on something that never existed prior (derivative loan securities).
How come not? Certainly Warren Buffet identified the risk and called for regulations. He called "weapons of mass destruction".
And what will be your excuse for another one or two unfunded wars and Obama? Seriously, I'm asking.
Those wars exist only in your head.
The whole idea the (D) good (R) bad is just a load of crap.
Again that is just a caricature of what is being said.
then Clinton is responsible for 9/11 and the economic crisis that Bush inherited.
Nope. Clinton bombed Al-Qaida several times. In contrast, Bush received a warning by his own security council in August. He ignored it.
To be clear, both democrats and republicans have their faults, but for the last twelve years republican policies have been much worse than anything the democrats have devised since Carter lost the White House.
I'm not trying to argue something inane like "GWB is gr8 and Clinton sux0rs!!11", as you seem to be suggesting.
No. You are drawing a caricature of my argument.
The fact that there are billions in capital and millions of jobs waiting on this election is real.
This is a made up fact. People are sitting on capital because they are afraid of the economic conditions worldwide. If the only problem were the US elections they would take their money and invest it elsewhere.
You can't wish it away,
Neither can you just make up imaginary reasons as to why this is so, reasons which defy the facts. Businesses have never talked about "holding back until the elections" and even today the only ones saying this are republican talking heads. The Fortune 500 companies have not stepped forward and said "yeah, we are waiting for the elections".
It's simply a republican meme, with no foundation in reality.
How come none of the other recoveries took this long then?
Except for the great depression or the current Japanese and Irish depression all of which you conveniently forget to mention.
Maybe it's not the economy. Maybe it's him and his policies.
Or maybe all the other recessions were created by tightening of monetary policy and quickly cured as interests rates went down when inflation subsided.
In contrast when recessions are caused by deleveraging they all have in common that they are really hard to solve, like the great depression, like Japan, like Ireland. The only way out we know is massive spending as in the great depression. The republican party is opposed to this always, regardless of how out of the ordinary the circumstances might be, requiring an exception to be made.
Trust me, I have no love for Romney and his frequent promises of skyrocketing immigration and an obscenely high H1-B cap. But in the long run we're better off with him, no matter what he does, due to the perceptual niche he occupies.
Sorry but the facts are against you. The economy grew faster during the "bad perception" years of Clinton than during the "good perception" years of GWB.
None of those need to be refuted. Even if they were true, they in no way would be responsible for the current state of the economy. Even if true they would be minor gaffes in a trillion dollar economy.
What really screwed up this country was two unfunded wars by GWB, financial deregulation starting with Reagan followed by Clinton and GWB, and the original GWB tax cuts at a time where we were waging two wars and more, not less revenues were needed.
If I burn the house and then let you take over after that, sure you will max out the credit cards buying replacement goods for all the things I destroyed.
Using your twisted logic, you made things much worse by buying replacement underwear, clothing and basic goods.
A mild recession is akin to you losing your job, you cut on expenditures and try to survive until you get a new one.
A depression like the one we are in is like your house burning down. You approach your relatives/friends/bank and ask for a hefty loan which you will pay over the next ten years as insurance monies come in, you get back on your feet, get an extra job, etc.
Businesses are not able to act confidently when they are worried that the rules are going to keep changing
Another meme courtesy of the republican party. Rules change all the time when you are in business. New competitors arise, trading treaties are signed, programs appear and disappear, new threats appear out of left field. Change is what businesses do best. To think they are sitting on untold monies because they don't know what will come is ridiculous.
No Obama's lawyers TOLD the Supreme Court it's just a tax,
That's absolutely false, which is rather easy to check. Still you get modded 5, Informative because your false statement has that truthiness quality to it.
Anyway, in my experience, not all of the segregation is imposed.
Oh I agree. Once segregation has become the cultural norm it comes from all sides, including the segregated.
In terms of your situation, you need to try to tease apart what the expats are saying. If it is all segregationist rumbles pay no heed and carry on. Or perhaps what they are saying is that you are trying too hard to integrate. Your true Japanese friends will accept you for who you are, and do not mind the differences. Do not change just for the sake of approval.
Correct, which is why I started by saying "[culturally] ethnic, maybe". For example, people who like kimchi and the latest South Korean soap opera are likely to hang together and talk about it, be it physically or in a blog in cyberspace. And no, you don't have to be born in Korea to count yourself among that group, as many Japanese fans of Bae Yong Joon and kimchi can attest.
On the other hand we have racially imposed divisions and classifications, such as the American coinage of Latina, which creates a new racial category (Hispanic, female) so we can pigeonhole yet another group. What is more ironic is that the supposedly enlightened intellectual liberal left were the main drivers behind this new racial label.
Yes, really. Cultural constructs are passed from generation to generation, the same way you speak English even though you were not even alive when the English settled in Virgina in 1607.
People want to spend time typically with other people that are like them which includes taste in art, skill set, and (tada) ethnic origin.
Ethnic, maybe, racial no, not really. You don't see tall people hanging together and short people hanging in a different group; or blue eyed people hanging together and green-eyed people in a different group.
The only reason people in the USA tend to hang out with others of the same racial ethnicity is leftovers of the horrible segregation that ruled the land a mere 40 years ago.
No, I say it as if OPEC doesn't have the type of price control it used to have, and not anywhere near the price control it wishes it had.
However you forget to mention that there is general agreement that over the last ten years, non-OPEC countries such as Mexico, Russia and Brazil had informally coordinated with OPEC in ways they never had before.
Yes, OPEC doesn't have push button control over prices, but is a very important agent and it has managed to set prices close to the levels they have wanted for the last while.
This is especially true with gas prices, inflation and unemployment.
Actually this is particularly false with gas prices, as most polls showed at the time. That is why no other candidate piled on Newt's "lower gas prices" bandwagon. They were not getting traction.
It is true when it comes to inflation and unemployment. Carter had a Volcker-caused recession and Reagan a Volcker-created jump start of the economy and in each case Carter and Reagan got the blame/credit as if they had personally destroyed/created every job.
I'm going from memory, but facts were a bit different. the RDTSC had gone through various incarnations in different versions of the x86 processor, and they were afraid that if they made it publicly available they would have to forever support it in the name of backwards compatibility.
This is not an unreasonable fear, given of the x86 IS has survived all thee many years.
start the child on Star Trek
Personally, I'd consider that child abuse. He'll grow up believing that... this... is... the... way... to... speak... as... an... actor.
He'll grow up believing that if you travel half the galaxy and meet a wonderful new civilization the best thing to do is to engage in hand to hand combat while the red shirts (go happen to be preferentially of a certain skin color) get killed in combat.
This is, unless, of course if said civilization members are all hot babes wearing negligees, in which case one's captain must proceed to mate with them, without fear of this leading to some sort of intergalactic AIDS epidemic.