Spying on other nations is Constitutional; spying on Americans, without an explicit warrant, is not.
In other words, it's perfectly legal for my nation's government to spy on you, but not on me. I understand your concern, but do not share it; rather, my concern is that the people in charge of our system of law don't seem to think the same laws apply to them, and that's a scary road to go down.
Regardless, I do agree that if you're not worth spying on, then it's a phenomenal waste of resources to do so.
Too fucking bad. As an American, I'm quite comfortable with our intelligence agencies keeping tabs on the rest of the world. I want them watching you.
Yea, well, as an American who gives a fuck about both fiscal responsibility and how Americans are perceived abroad, I respectfully disagree with your idiotic position.
There's no point spending money watching people who don't do anything worth watching.
As someone who's seen a cardboard cutout, I understand completely. Hell, it's pretty obvious what he means.
Of course, if Obama is a cardboard cutout because he takes orders rather than issues them, then it's a reasonable assumption that the same personality defect exists in most of our elected officials.
I can open a browser and play a flash game and use more battery than I would if I were writing code. Simply using the laptop also doesn't mean productivity, as browsing the internet isn't productive but uses battery life.
Conversely, a graphics designer creating and rendering complex 3D models all day would use far more battery life than someone using Excel to create a catalog of their Magic cards.
Idea - Add the game to Steam, then stream it from the tablet. Pretty sure you can do that with non-Steam games now, and in my experience it's pretty darn fast.
"Give me your money or spend all eternity suffering in a (literal!) lake of fire."
Except for the little detail that no theist, "megachurch" or otherwise, has said this, ever.
My ass.
FYI, every theist you've heard speak does not equate to "every theist in the world." I have old analog recordings of firebrand preachers that prove you wrong.
Maybe. I've had dogs that looked really guilty sometimes when they knew they were doing something wrong.......
But that's an emotional response, not a rationalization. The dog doesn't try to explain to itself that it has a good reason to do what it did wrong, like a human would.
I think it's best to just accept that we're animals, but a bit smarter than the rest of them. Our differences are quantitative, not qualitative
Sometimes, when I look out at humanity and see some of the shit we do/justify, I have to wonder about that whole "bit smarter" part...
I've actually bothered to do some research on the topic, read articles, had discussions with economists and healthcare professionals, talked to people, etc.
I'm guess you have not gone nearly that far.
PS I get what you're implying, and not only is it untrue, it's a weak and childish attempt to marginalize me via blatant mischaracterization of my dissent. If you have empirical evidence to support your position, present it. If all you have is your opinion, please keep it to yourself, or at the least make it clear that you are not speaking from a position of intimate knowledge.
Sure, they can't outright deny you coverage, but what stops them from making your coverage so expensive you can't afford the deductibles? The answer is, "not a damn thing."
Which is why it's so great that the ACA has rate controls to prevent this kind of thing from happening, and mandates that everybody get insurance, so the many low-risk insured create a pool which makes it possible to cover the high-risk population in an affordable way.
You don't really believe that, do you? There are already tons of reports rolling in of people being denied treatments, being told that the cost of a procedure wouldn't go towards their deductible, and finding out that their $150/mo insurance program has a $25,000 deductible attached to it.
A pastor in Iowa, who is covered under ObamaCare, decried “there’s no compassion in the Affordable Care Act,” after he was told just minutes before receiving life-saving chemo that his treatments would not be covered. The pastor’s family has since emptied their savings account and are now $50,000 in debt.
A February 4 Los Angeles Times article detailed the story of California resident Danielle Nelson who was promised by Anthem Blue cross that her oncologists would be covered in her new policy. Diagnosed with non-Hogkins lymphoma last year, a lump was found near her jaw in January. But when she went to her oncologist’s office, the Times reported she “promptly encountered a bright orange sign saying that Covered California plans are not accepted.” Nelson told the Times: “I’m a complete fan of the Affordable Care Act, but now I can’t sleep at night, I can’t imagine this is how President Obama wanted it to happen.”
The Affordable Care Act is turning out to be less than affordable for some consumers.
That’s because many of the plans carry huge deductibles, creating potential financial problems for middle-class consumers. Some “bronze”-level plans, the lowest level of coverage, carry deductibles as high as $12,700 per year for a family of four... The average individual deductible for a bronze plan is a whopping $5,081 per year, according to research provided to CBS MoneyWatch from HealthPocket, a technology company that ranks health care plans.
What’s worse, that represents an increase of 40 percent from the average deductible for an individually purchased plan before the federal health care overhaul, according to The Wall Street Journal.
... and these are just the tip of the iceberg. Things will get worse as the delayed provisions start to kick in.
That said, I don't think the concept of single-payer healthcare is a bad one; however I do not believe the current implementation is an effective system that's not designed to bilk average Americans out of money for the benefit of insurance execs and the Congresscritters who love them.
That Google will sell this information to insurance companies who will use it to deny insurance to even more people than they already do.
Which is one reason why it is so great that it is now illegal under the ACA to deny insurance due to pre-existing conditions.
Lol, naivete can be funny.
Sure, they can't outright deny you coverage, but what stops them from making your coverage so expensive you can't afford the deductibles? The answer is, "not a damn thing."
But other animals are self-aware, so self-awareness itself is not unique among humans.
Conversely, I've never seen or heard of a non-human animal pondering the morality of an action, or trying to justify what they've just done to other members of their species.
Nah, nah, nah, at the megachurches it's, "Give me your money or spend all eternity suffering in a (literal!) lake of fire."
Which, IMO, is a much more effective means of separating fools from their treasure. If I don't give this guy money, I may suffer in this life, but if I don't give the preacher-man money, I'll suffer forever.
I would think that to be a better use of wood scraps, as opposed to the good heartwood typically used for lumber production.
Of course, if we are using less actual timber and more manufactured wood products in home construction, I sure can't tell from visiting my local Lowe's or Home Depot - they still carry just as many pieces of 2x4 timber as they always have.
Slashdot Mirror
He's not, the government is.
I.e., the same paranoid meth-head that's spying on you is spying on him.
Spying on other nations is Constitutional; spying on Americans, without an explicit warrant, is not.
In other words, it's perfectly legal for my nation's government to spy on you, but not on me. I understand your concern, but do not share it; rather, my concern is that the people in charge of our system of law don't seem to think the same laws apply to them, and that's a scary road to go down.
Regardless, I do agree that if you're not worth spying on, then it's a phenomenal waste of resources to do so.
Too fucking bad. As an American, I'm quite comfortable with our intelligence agencies keeping tabs on the rest of the world. I want them watching you.
Yea, well, as an American who gives a fuck about both fiscal responsibility and how Americans are perceived abroad, I respectfully disagree with your idiotic position.
There's no point spending money watching people who don't do anything worth watching.
If I had written the bill, I would have named it "USA #1 Freedom Bald Eagle Star Spangled Flag Waving Democracy Rah Rah Rah For The Children Act"
There, FTFY.
Now it stands a reasonable chance of being passed, regardless of what's in it.
As someone who's seen a cardboard cutout, I understand completely. Hell, it's pretty obvious what he means.
Of course, if Obama is a cardboard cutout because he takes orders rather than issues them, then it's a reasonable assumption that the same personality defect exists in most of our elected officials.
Probably a lot of the appointed ones, too.
Fair point, haven't tried it on a touchscreen device.
I can open a browser and play a flash game and use more battery than I would if I were writing code. Simply using the laptop also doesn't mean productivity, as browsing the internet isn't productive but uses battery life.
Conversely, a graphics designer creating and rendering complex 3D models all day would use far more battery life than someone using Excel to create a catalog of their Magic cards.
Idea - Add the game to Steam, then stream it from the tablet. Pretty sure you can do that with non-Steam games now, and in my experience it's pretty darn fast.
Oh, it's probably about 50/50. After all, you can't have much of a past if you don't come up with new ideas now and again.
Otherwise the only games that would exist would be some variant of Pong and Conway's Game of Life.
The SHIELD Tablet... is able to showcase full OpenGL versions of games like Portal and Half-Life 2 running at 1080p
So, the future of gaming is... the past of gaming, but at higher resolution!
Seriously, you want to impress me, do it with a game that's not older than the current 2nd-term Presidency.
"Give me your money or spend all eternity suffering in a (literal!) lake of fire."
Except for the little detail that no theist, "megachurch" or otherwise, has said this, ever.
My ass.
FYI, every theist you've heard speak does not equate to "every theist in the world." I have old analog recordings of firebrand preachers that prove you wrong.
Maybe. I've had dogs that looked really guilty sometimes when they knew they were doing something wrong.......
But that's an emotional response, not a rationalization. The dog doesn't try to explain to itself that it has a good reason to do what it did wrong, like a human would.
I think it's best to just accept that we're animals, but a bit smarter than the rest of them. Our differences are quantitative, not qualitative
Sometimes, when I look out at humanity and see some of the shit we do/justify, I have to wonder about that whole "bit smarter" part...
I've actually bothered to do some research on the topic, read articles, had discussions with economists and healthcare professionals, talked to people, etc.
I'm guess you have not gone nearly that far.
PS I get what you're implying, and not only is it untrue, it's a weak and childish attempt to marginalize me via blatant mischaracterization of my dissent. If you have empirical evidence to support your position, present it. If all you have is your opinion, please keep it to yourself, or at the least make it clear that you are not speaking from a position of intimate knowledge.
Well, OBVIOUSLY one of us is not spending enough of their time perusing Memory Alpha, harrumph harrumph!
In all seriousness, I thought OP was creating a portmanteau of the two characters. Now I want to know if they're related.
There goes my productivity. Eh, fuck it, it's Friday.
Lol, naivete can be funny.
Sure, they can't outright deny you coverage, but what stops them from making your coverage so expensive you can't afford the deductibles? The answer is, "not a damn thing."
Which is why it's so great that the ACA has rate controls to prevent this kind of thing from happening, and mandates that everybody get insurance, so the many low-risk insured create a pool which makes it possible to cover the high-risk population in an affordable way.
You don't really believe that, do you? There are already tons of reports rolling in of people being denied treatments, being told that the cost of a procedure wouldn't go towards their deductible, and finding out that their $150/mo insurance program has a $25,000 deductible attached to it.
Some examples:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/g...
A pastor in Iowa, who is covered under ObamaCare, decried “there’s no compassion in the Affordable Care Act,” after he was told just minutes before receiving life-saving chemo that his treatments would not be covered. The pastor’s family has since emptied their savings account and are now $50,000 in debt.
A February 4 Los Angeles Times article detailed the story of California resident Danielle Nelson who was promised by Anthem Blue cross that her oncologists would be covered in her new policy. Diagnosed with non-Hogkins lymphoma last year, a lump was found near her jaw in January. But when she went to her oncologist’s office, the Times reported she “promptly encountered a bright orange sign saying that Covered California plans are not accepted.” Nelson told the Times: “I’m a complete fan of the Affordable Care Act, but now I can’t sleep at night, I can’t imagine this is how President Obama wanted it to happen.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ob...
The Affordable Care Act is turning out to be less than affordable for some consumers.
That’s because many of the plans carry huge deductibles, creating potential financial problems for middle-class consumers. Some “bronze”-level plans, the lowest level of coverage, carry deductibles as high as $12,700 per year for a family of four... The average individual deductible for a bronze plan is a whopping $5,081 per year, according to research provided to CBS MoneyWatch from HealthPocket, a technology company that ranks health care plans.
What’s worse, that represents an increase of 40 percent from the average deductible for an individually purchased plan before the federal health care overhaul, according to The Wall Street Journal.
... and these are just the tip of the iceberg. Things will get worse as the delayed provisions start to kick in.
That said, I don't think the concept of single-payer healthcare is a bad one; however I do not believe the current implementation is an effective system that's not designed to bilk average Americans out of money for the benefit of insurance execs and the Congresscritters who love them.
> "Give me your money or spend all eternity suffering in a (literal!) lake of fire."
But... isn't that also what the climate doomsayers are saying?
Not unless they're assuming humans live forever.
That Google will sell this information to insurance companies who will use it to deny insurance to even more people than they already do.
Which is one reason why it is so great that it is now illegal under the ACA to deny insurance due to pre-existing conditions.
Lol, naivete can be funny.
Sure, they can't outright deny you coverage, but what stops them from making your coverage so expensive you can't afford the deductibles? The answer is, "not a damn thing."
That Google will sell this information to insurance companies who will use it to deny affordable insurance to even more people than they already do.
FTFY.
Legally, they can't deny you coverage. What they can do is make your coverage so expensive you can't afford to actually use it.
Just make sure you melt down all the prototypes when you're done, we don't need another Lore incident...
They'll also ship with firmware source code and a screwdriver ;)
Lol, I saw that, clever hook! Just don't send one of those tiny, el-cheapo drivers that's more likely to strip a screw than unscrew it.
But other animals are self-aware, so self-awareness itself is not unique among humans.
Conversely, I've never seen or heard of a non-human animal pondering the morality of an action, or trying to justify what they've just done to other members of their species.
Nah, nah, nah, at the megachurches it's, "Give me your money or spend all eternity suffering in a (literal!) lake of fire."
Which, IMO, is a much more effective means of separating fools from their treasure. If I don't give this guy money, I may suffer in this life, but if I don't give the preacher-man money, I'll suffer forever.
I would think that to be a better use of wood scraps, as opposed to the good heartwood typically used for lumber production.
Of course, if we are using less actual timber and more manufactured wood products in home construction, I sure can't tell from visiting my local Lowe's or Home Depot - they still carry just as many pieces of 2x4 timber as they always have.
Myself, I've always been a firm believer that at least one meal every day should include an ingredient that had a mother.
For us to single ourselves out as 'special' or 'remarkable' is flawed.
All my life I've tried to figure out what it is that makes humans different from the rest of the animal kingdom.
I used to think it was our capacity to learn, but science disproved that.
Then I thought maybe it was our ability to teach, but science disproved that one as well.
But now I think I finally have it figured out, why Man is so much different than the rest of the animal kingdom -
What'dya think?