I'm with you in spirit on that, but there's a tiny little problem with actually doing it: China actually likes North Korea for some reason, and would get very, very upset with us for even so much as supporting a South Korean invasion of the North
Would they? Perhaps, yes...
Would they DO anything other than wave their arms around? I'm pretty sure I could make sure they don't...
Taiwan and the disputed seas off Japan are far more important to China than North Korea is... I imagine I could make a deal with them over that. They might still wave their arms around, but even Japan may be willing to give up some of the disputed islands or do a joint oil development deal with China (oil is really what it is about there) in return for North Korea going away.
It just takes a President who is a leader and not a reactor and follower, and we really haven't had one of those since Reagan. (Bush is no better than Obama in this case, so I'm not picking sides there)
(sorry, have to say it) legitimate and sovereign leadership of North Korea.
So was the Nazi government in Germany, but we didn't let that stop us.
History is written by the victor. It sounds cold and heartless, but it is the truth. The current leadership of North Korea is only sovereign and legitimate until someone else comes along and knocks them off.
After all, England used to be the sovereign and legitimate government of America, or at least the 13 colonies. Shall we give that back?;)
I'm sure Russia would pile on, too, since they're buddies with China.
Don't be silly, Putin needs a way out, I'd give him one...
In return for Ukraine joining NATO and Russia signing a treaty with Ukraine acknowledging its sovereignty, Russia could keep Crimea and we would recognize that. Crimea shouldn't have changed hands the way it did, but it happened and isn't likely to be undone, and it was Russia's just 50 years ago anyway.
---
Everyone has their price, and most people have something else more important to them than any given item, other than of course the most important thing.
The islands off Japan are not as important as removing North Korea, Russia behaving is more important than who controls Crimea, etc.
If you try to lead people along by the nose, saying things like Bush did "you're either with us or against us", they just fall over and fight back. Give them a better option and most people will take it.
But I wouldn't mind sending our forces in to remove the North Korean government and return the land to South Korea...
But unlike our crazy government, I'd want to be paid for it...
A simple 2-3% tax on corporate earnings from the new United Korea until the cost is repaid, including a healthy payment to the family of any US solder who dies.
Nothing too big, so that it isn't painful enough to cause problems, but something to show that they have to do their part in paying for our services.
One thing that could immediately become mainstream in the future: nightly, off-site backups. Transferring 1 TB of data over a 10Gbps line takes just under 15 minutes.
Off site backups is already mainstream, you don't do a full backup every day, that is silly...
Carbonite, Backblaze, Crashplan, etc. all offer unlimited backup that works just fine today.
Voice doesn't give me time to think of a reply, a phone call with a car salesman tends to be drawn out as they talk about random stuff that doesn't apply, such as "how are the wife and kids", when they don't really care.
As for e-mail, it isn't instant the way texts are, it has a different feel.
I'll take 1.9% financing plus the rebate any day of the week... I have stocks that pay 5-6% dividends, why would I use cash to buy such a thing as a truck?
Texting is no longer just for teenage girls, I hate to tell you...
I finally found a car dealership that gets it, I was shopping for a new truck this year and one dealership on their web site had a third option, finally...
How would you like us to contact you: 1. Call 2. E-mail 3. Text
I picked 3, and sure enough, they texted me and got back to me with answers to my questions without a long drawn out process. Short and sweet.
After a few back and fourth texts about model and details and trade, they asked me what time I'd like to see the truck. I gave them my time, they brought it to my house and left it with me for a few hours while they took my older truck to have it appraised. They then texted me and asked if I was happy with their number, and if so, the F&I guy would come to my house to finish the deal.
I never had to go to the dealership, ever. Not even for financing. All done at my kitchen table, no inconveniences for me.
More car dealerships would do well to learn that model, many people my age and younger would prefer to buy a car or truck that way.
Putting in place an environment in which people can feed themselves.
I'll grant you that some political systems or economic systems are not conducive to that, but no one wants to hear it because it doesn't fit into a 15 second soundbite.
The reality is that if you just feed people who already can't care for themselves, you just get more people who can't care for themselves.
Emergency situations do not apply, of course disaster relief is ok, people who are hit by major events such as the recent tsunami in Japan clearly need short term relief. The difference there is that they don't need it for the rest of their lives.
There are places in the world, Africa is the easy target, but there are others, that have been getting "humanitarian aid" for decades. At some point it moves from helping out people who are down on their luck to creating dependent people who cannot care for themselves because they are fed by someone else.
A good example is Zimbabwe... that country used to be a net exporter of food, until the people voted in a new leader who stole the farms from those who knew what they were doing (rich white men), and turned them over to people who had no idea what they were doing (poor black men) and now the county is starving.
The problem is, if we bail them out, then the people there will have learned nothing about their poor choices in leaders. It sounds cruel, but unless you plan to invade and force a change of government, let them be and let them starve. They'll figure it out sooner or later that they made a huge mistake and perhaps toss out their current leaders and find better solutions.
If people don't have to suffer the consequences of their poor decisions, then they'll keep making them.
All evil people have some claim to wanting to do good, that doesn't make it so.
The Emperor is a good example, his claim to wanting to bring order to a chaotic galaxy is just nonsense, it is about power and control, nothing more or less.
Often, neither side is completely wrong in a conflict.
While you are correct, there are indeed exceptions...
One of them would be the Borg...
Another good example is the Emperor...
The Reapers is one more...
And returning to reality, so was Hitler and Japan during WWII...
Sometimes there really is evil in the world, and sometimes there really are good people, and the good people must stop the evil people, no matter what it takes...
I'm 39 years old and I have largely stopped listening to voice mail as well.
I tell people that if they want to reach me, don't even bother calling, I largely ignore the phone as well, but I read and respond to texts and e-mails within minutes.
I would also write such reports if I had their agenda, which is to transfer wealth from wealthy nations to poor nations.
The world produces enough to feed everyone, yet nearly a billion people go hungry... just moving the food around won't solve it, but clearly you and many other people don't want to hear that.
While I understand the thought behind your comment, the other option is to impale ourselves trying to save everyone, and in the process we'll doom everyone.
It was a nice idea when there were 1 billion people, now there are 7. What do you plan to do when there are 14? 50?
No, my logic is perfect, your heart is speaking, not your brain... Your feelings don't override the facts, as much as you might not want to hear it.
Whatever percentage it is, it doesn't matter. Even if it is only 10%, if you feed them, you just end up with more of them.
Look at the billions and billions and billions that have been sunk into Africa... still for the most part, a crappy sinkhole of money and poverty that isn't getting better. It will get better when they pull themselves up and actually start improving their own lives.
A crazy amount of money is given to charity every year, and yet the problem doesn't go away. It really is as foolish as the war on drugs is.
There have been various such events over the past 12 years, most not reported by the media which has a message to sell.
One such event was on Southwest Airlines in 2006, a passenger started acting crazy and stood up and started yelling in a foreign language and scared the crap out of everyone.
Turns out he was just off his meds and off his rocker, but he was tackled by the passengers and arrested when the plane landed. They actually broke two rows of seats knocking him down, must have been 15 people on him.
Never saw anything on the news about it, but a friend of mine is a flight attendant at Southwest and the event is well known inside the company.
Such things just don't get reported because it doesn't match the message being sold.
Security Theater indeed...
---------------
So yes, a gun won't help you, you can't really hijack a plane anymore, the terrorists would be outnumbered and they can't shoot everyone.
I friend of mine that is a cop once told me that he could pull anyone over at any time. Why? Because there are 1000's of traffic laws and you are breaking one every time you drive. When I asked which one I was breaking as we were driving down the street he responded "You are not preceded by a man caring a red flag." Seems the law was and may still be on the books from the early 1900's.
I totally believe you... there are whole books written on crazy and silly laws...
The sad thing is that when you make a hundred thousand laws, all you do is make a nation of law breakers. Then you bread contempt for the law since so many of them are trite and silly, and this carries over to the ones that are not...
I don't respect police because of what you describe, the media and some people like to say, "oh, that poor Police officer was hurt in the line of duty"...
Yea, whatever, too many of his friends are scum and that carries over to the whole profession. Clean up your house coppers and you might get some respect.
Yes, and many people once thought slavery was perfectly fine as well.
Ok, ok, you're going to say, "now that isn't the same thing at all".
Are you so sure? Go back 500 years to how it worked in England, with serfs and lords, and who owned land and who had political power... and tell me that viewpoints change over time?
The right to self-defense is a basic fundamental right that everyone has, regardless if you know it or not. Just like the right to free speech and the freedom of religion, it is yours.
The fact that the Australian government chooses to infringe on people's rights doesn't make it correct.
Even at Starbucks, I can fix many things with my car (truck, whatever).
Just a few days ago, the handle broke off my kitchen sink... I can pay a plumber to come out and fix it, or I can go over to Home Depot and buy the $15 part it needs and fix it myself, which is what I did.
However, would you be in favor of "making sure that people know how to use their right to free speech?" Or how about requiring training and a permit to join a religion? Imagine the riots over that!
Guns are the same thing, we have the right to be armed, and no permit should be required. Those restrictions are wrong.
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I'm with you in spirit on that, but there's a tiny little problem with actually doing it: China actually likes North Korea for some reason, and would get very, very upset with us for even so much as supporting a South Korean invasion of the North
Would they? Perhaps, yes...
Would they DO anything other than wave their arms around? I'm pretty sure I could make sure they don't...
Taiwan and the disputed seas off Japan are far more important to China than North Korea is... I imagine I could make a deal with them over that. They might still wave their arms around, but even Japan may be willing to give up some of the disputed islands or do a joint oil development deal with China (oil is really what it is about there) in return for North Korea going away.
It just takes a President who is a leader and not a reactor and follower, and we really haven't had one of those since Reagan. (Bush is no better than Obama in this case, so I'm not picking sides there)
(sorry, have to say it) legitimate and sovereign leadership of North Korea.
So was the Nazi government in Germany, but we didn't let that stop us.
History is written by the victor. It sounds cold and heartless, but it is the truth. The current leadership of North Korea is only sovereign and legitimate until someone else comes along and knocks them off.
After all, England used to be the sovereign and legitimate government of America, or at least the 13 colonies. Shall we give that back? ;)
I'm sure Russia would pile on, too, since they're buddies with China.
Don't be silly, Putin needs a way out, I'd give him one...
In return for Ukraine joining NATO and Russia signing a treaty with Ukraine acknowledging its sovereignty, Russia could keep Crimea and we would recognize that. Crimea shouldn't have changed hands the way it did, but it happened and isn't likely to be undone, and it was Russia's just 50 years ago anyway.
---
Everyone has their price, and most people have something else more important to them than any given item, other than of course the most important thing.
The islands off Japan are not as important as removing North Korea, Russia behaving is more important than who controls Crimea, etc.
If you try to lead people along by the nose, saying things like Bush did "you're either with us or against us", they just fall over and fight back. Give them a better option and most people will take it.
No, I wouldn't...
But I wouldn't mind sending our forces in to remove the North Korean government and return the land to South Korea...
But unlike our crazy government, I'd want to be paid for it...
A simple 2-3% tax on corporate earnings from the new United Korea until the cost is repaid, including a healthy payment to the family of any US solder who dies.
Nothing too big, so that it isn't painful enough to cause problems, but something to show that they have to do their part in paying for our services.
One thing that could immediately become mainstream in the future: nightly, off-site backups. Transferring 1 TB of data over a 10Gbps line takes just under 15 minutes.
Off site backups is already mainstream, you don't do a full backup every day, that is silly...
Carbonite, Backblaze, Crashplan, etc. all offer unlimited backup that works just fine today.
Voice doesn't give me time to think of a reply, a phone call with a car salesman tends to be drawn out as they talk about random stuff that doesn't apply, such as "how are the wife and kids", when they don't really care.
As for e-mail, it isn't instant the way texts are, it has a different feel.
I'll take 1.9% financing plus the rebate any day of the week... I have stocks that pay 5-6% dividends, why would I use cash to buy such a thing as a truck?
Texting is no longer just for teenage girls, I hate to tell you...
I finally found a car dealership that gets it, I was shopping for a new truck this year and one dealership on their web site had a third option, finally...
How would you like us to contact you:
1. Call
2. E-mail
3. Text
I picked 3, and sure enough, they texted me and got back to me with answers to my questions without a long drawn out process. Short and sweet.
After a few back and fourth texts about model and details and trade, they asked me what time I'd like to see the truck. I gave them my time, they brought it to my house and left it with me for a few hours while they took my older truck to have it appraised. They then texted me and asked if I was happy with their number, and if so, the F&I guy would come to my house to finish the deal.
I never had to go to the dealership, ever. Not even for financing. All done at my kitchen table, no inconveniences for me.
More car dealerships would do well to learn that model, many people my age and younger would prefer to buy a car or truck that way.
Okay, um, what WILL solve it?
Putting in place an environment in which people can feed themselves.
I'll grant you that some political systems or economic systems are not conducive to that, but no one wants to hear it because it doesn't fit into a 15 second soundbite.
The reality is that if you just feed people who already can't care for themselves, you just get more people who can't care for themselves.
Emergency situations do not apply, of course disaster relief is ok, people who are hit by major events such as the recent tsunami in Japan clearly need short term relief. The difference there is that they don't need it for the rest of their lives.
There are places in the world, Africa is the easy target, but there are others, that have been getting "humanitarian aid" for decades. At some point it moves from helping out people who are down on their luck to creating dependent people who cannot care for themselves because they are fed by someone else.
A good example is Zimbabwe... that country used to be a net exporter of food, until the people voted in a new leader who stole the farms from those who knew what they were doing (rich white men), and turned them over to people who had no idea what they were doing (poor black men) and now the county is starving.
http://reason.com/blog/2014/01...
The problem is, if we bail them out, then the people there will have learned nothing about their poor choices in leaders. It sounds cruel, but unless you plan to invade and force a change of government, let them be and let them starve. They'll figure it out sooner or later that they made a huge mistake and perhaps toss out their current leaders and find better solutions.
If people don't have to suffer the consequences of their poor decisions, then they'll keep making them.
All evil people have some claim to wanting to do good, that doesn't make it so.
The Emperor is a good example, his claim to wanting to bring order to a chaotic galaxy is just nonsense, it is about power and control, nothing more or less.
Pretty words to cover up evil.
Often, neither side is completely wrong in a conflict.
While you are correct, there are indeed exceptions...
One of them would be the Borg...
Another good example is the Emperor...
The Reapers is one more...
And returning to reality, so was Hitler and Japan during WWII...
Sometimes there really is evil in the world, and sometimes there really are good people, and the good people must stop the evil people, no matter what it takes...
I'm 39 years old and I have largely stopped listening to voice mail as well.
I tell people that if they want to reach me, don't even bother calling, I largely ignore the phone as well, but I read and respond to texts and e-mails within minutes.
I would also write such reports if I had their agenda, which is to transfer wealth from wealthy nations to poor nations.
The world produces enough to feed everyone, yet nearly a billion people go hungry... just moving the food around won't solve it, but clearly you and many other people don't want to hear that.
That's ok...
Quite true...
Many people think that big trucks must be bricks in the air, but the reality is very different.
My 2015 Yukon XL has a drag coefficient of 0.379, nearly as good as that F40.
What is equally impressive is that it will do 0-60 in just 6.2 seconds, for a truck that is over 3 tons in weight.
Gas mileage still sucks however, no matter what GM does to make it sound "not as bad as before".
While I understand the thought behind your comment, the other option is to impale ourselves trying to save everyone, and in the process we'll doom everyone.
It was a nice idea when there were 1 billion people, now there are 7. What do you plan to do when there are 14? 50?
No, my logic is perfect, your heart is speaking, not your brain... Your feelings don't override the facts, as much as you might not want to hear it.
Whatever percentage it is, it doesn't matter. Even if it is only 10%, if you feed them, you just end up with more of them.
Look at the billions and billions and billions that have been sunk into Africa... still for the most part, a crappy sinkhole of money and poverty that isn't getting better. It will get better when they pull themselves up and actually start improving their own lives.
A crazy amount of money is given to charity every year, and yet the problem doesn't go away. It really is as foolish as the war on drugs is.
How much good? None... If he gave $70 million to charity, it would do no good. It really doesn't in the long run...
So you feed a bunch of starving children? Great, now they just grow up and have more kids, who also need to be fed. It is a self-reproducing problem.
Until people learn how to take care of themselves, giving them charity just makes the problem bigger, not smaller.
This is why we still have homeless people. Oh sure, some of them are homeless via no fault of their own, but most aren't.
You might be a troll, and that's fine...
But he is not an idiot, he spent about 3% of his wealth to buy a house. Most people spend FAR more than that to buy a FAR smaller house.
Who is the idiot?
Amen...
There have been various such events over the past 12 years, most not reported by the media which has a message to sell.
One such event was on Southwest Airlines in 2006, a passenger started acting crazy and stood up and started yelling in a foreign language and scared the crap out of everyone.
Turns out he was just off his meds and off his rocker, but he was tackled by the passengers and arrested when the plane landed. They actually broke two rows of seats knocking him down, must have been 15 people on him.
Never saw anything on the news about it, but a friend of mine is a flight attendant at Southwest and the event is well known inside the company.
Such things just don't get reported because it doesn't match the message being sold.
Security Theater indeed...
---------------
So yes, a gun won't help you, you can't really hijack a plane anymore, the terrorists would be outnumbered and they can't shoot everyone.
When you're a state actor, why not just cut the lines physically connecting a nation to the rest of the world?
Countries such as China or the United States have the ability to do that, if they so choose.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized her colleagues for giving the police far too much leeway.
Wow, I thought she was a terrible addition to the SCOTUS, I didn't like her at all...
until today...
I might have to reconsider my prior views on her, so long as she feels the same way about the 2nd amendment of course...
I friend of mine that is a cop once told me that he could pull anyone over at any time. Why? Because there are 1000's of traffic laws and you are breaking one every time you drive. When I asked which one I was breaking as we were driving down the street he responded "You are not preceded by a man caring a red flag." Seems the law was and may still be on the books from the early 1900's.
I totally believe you... there are whole books written on crazy and silly laws...
The sad thing is that when you make a hundred thousand laws, all you do is make a nation of law breakers. Then you bread contempt for the law since so many of them are trite and silly, and this carries over to the ones that are not...
I don't respect police because of what you describe, the media and some people like to say, "oh, that poor Police officer was hurt in the line of duty"...
Yea, whatever, too many of his friends are scum and that carries over to the whole profession. Clean up your house coppers and you might get some respect.
Can you find a case where this was brought to court?
I highly doubt most people would bother to sue, but you're welcome to try.
Yes, and many people once thought slavery was perfectly fine as well.
Ok, ok, you're going to say, "now that isn't the same thing at all".
Are you so sure? Go back 500 years to how it worked in England, with serfs and lords, and who owned land and who had political power... and tell me that viewpoints change over time?
The right to self-defense is a basic fundamental right that everyone has, regardless if you know it or not. Just like the right to free speech and the freedom of religion, it is yours.
The fact that the Australian government chooses to infringe on people's rights doesn't make it correct.
Even at Starbucks, I can fix many things with my car (truck, whatever).
Just a few days ago, the handle broke off my kitchen sink... I can pay a plumber to come out and fix it, or I can go over to Home Depot and buy the $15 part it needs and fix it myself, which is what I did.
However, would you be in favor of "making sure that people know how to use their right to free speech?" Or how about requiring training and a permit to join a religion? Imagine the riots over that!
Guns are the same thing, we have the right to be armed, and no permit should be required. Those restrictions are wrong.
True... you just have a government that is infringing on your personal rights and freedom...
I'd rather have our problems than that problem...
And if I'm out in the middle of nowhere, I better be able to fix the car myself, yes?
It is a nice idea, and yes we need the police, but there is also something to be said for not being a victim.