Hmm....the article is about someone going to prison and I talk about someone going to prison. Whoever modded my comments off-topic needs to get a freakin' clue. I would imagine it was because of my comments about NOW. I don't have any problem with NOW, but I think in the situation I mentioned above they were in the wrong and protesting a case they knew nothing about. All they knew was that Miller was about to pardon a rapist and that's all they cared about. Zealouts on ANY side of ANY issue are dangerous.
These comments are very true. I've never been a prisoner, but my grandfather spent the last 12 years of his life incarcerated for a crime I sincerelly believe he did not commit.
At the age of 68, he was accused of rape by a mentally distubed woman who had been in and out of mental institutions for almost 5 years (manic depression and many other problems). The woman said she raped him. My granfathers physician testified that my grandfather and been impotent since his mid-40's...this did not matter to the jury of 12 women (I kid you not) who convicted him. At any rate...there's much more to this trial that could become a NY times best-seller, but I don't have time to cover it here.
Anyway, due to Georgia's 'tough of sex crime' laws, he was not allowed out of maximum security prison. There are prisons here for the elderly, etc. but we have to be tough of sex offenders so they have to languish in prison with 300lb beasts that will mistreat them.
We would go and visit my grandfather until his death and he would often be bruised terribly down his forarms. Some of the younger inmates tried to help defend him but they couldn't always do so. After his death, one of the young inmates sent a suprisingly well-written letter describing that my grandfather was bruised because he would hold his hands arms in front of his face to defend himself.
When my family complained to the warden we were literally told, "it's a prison...it's not supposed to be a nice place".
In prison, most every inmate has some sort of job he or she must perform. My grandfather worked in the kitchen and consequently showered before the other inmates so he could prepare breakfast. One morning when the other inmates came into the shower they found him dead on the floor with a huge gash in the back of his head. The autopsy said he died of an annuerism but the coroner said she couldn't say it he was murdered or not because the severe head trauma could have caused the annuerism.
I don't know if he was ever raped, but I do have my suspicians.
And oh yeah...I won't even get into how Governer Zell Miller had my grandfather's case on his desk and was about to grant him a pardon when NOW (national organization of women) got word of it and picketed outside the state capital because they perceived Zell being soft on crimes against women. It made the local news and Zell backed down.
Personal responsibility is a gimmick invented by the rich to enable them to sleep at night because it permits them to blame the poor people for their own misfortune.
The sad fact is that some poor people ARE to blame for their own misfortune (notice I said some and not all!)
How many poor people do you know? I grew up in a very rural Georgia town and I can tell you that I've probably seen more poverty than the average person. I've pretty much determined that poverty is not so much about economic status as it is state of mind and habits.
Please don't get me wrong and think that I am blaming the poor...but many people are poor because of personal choices they have made in their lives -- choices to have children before they can really afford them. Choices to spend every dime on complete and total shit when they get a little extra money.
For example, my uncle just received a $50,000 settlement for workers compensation for an on-the-job accident he was involved in. He immediately took the money and bought a brand new Corvette -- knowing full well that his house note was several months passed due because he was out of work. Clearly his behavior and financial habits are not the work of the evil, hated, filthy rich, no? No, he makes very bad decisions which is why he is poor.
What about drugs? Why do you think poor areas of town have so many drug dealers? Yes, there are many bad neighborhoods where the well-to-do go to get their fix...but poverty never made anyone stick a needle in their arm. Again, bad decisions.
Just drive through the projects of Atlanta. You'll see BMW's, Mercedes, etc. all over the place...all the time. These people live in the projects and drive $35,000+ vehicles...and they're poor?
What about college? I would argue that ANYONE in the US can go to college (barring some mental defect) if he or she wishes to do so. There are so many opportunities out there. I literally was born in a house with no electricity or indoor plumbing and went to college with $100.00 in my pocket and never took another cent from my parents. I was the first in my family to EVER receive a college degree...so obviously it would really take some convincing to give me examples of how someone can't go to college if he or she wants to. That's what student loans and state universities are for!
I guess the problem I have is that essentially the parent poster is saying that we are not responsible for our own lives...that the government should be responsible for us. That is complete and total bullshit -- and I would rather be dead than the government have the last say over my well-being by reducing my quality of life to the lowest common denominator in the nation -- I've been there, done that.
Those left behind were the sick, the elderly, the disabled and the poor. Those without transport. Those who had nowhere to go.
Yeah, so where were the public transit buses to move people out of harm's way? Why not load school buses full of elderly and poor folks and roll them out of town? I guess you think that's the Fed's responsibility? If so, you haven't the slightest idea how the US government is organized.
I don't get how people are blaming all of this misery on the federal government. The first line of defense of the people of New Orleans is the city government, in particular the mayor. Why didn't he line up public transit buses and ship people out? He dropped the ball -- big time...and Bush is taking all the blame. I like Bush about as much as the rest of you all, but come 'on. There are 300 million freakin' people in this country...the Fed's can't be responsible for every single one. It was the role of local government to establish and execute evacuation plans. It's a freakin' city between a river, a lake and an ocean built on a sinking river delta. Surely you think that the city should of had a plan, don't you?
And please...don't even start w/ the feds cutting funding for the levee system there. If the city government and the state government would have thought it to be a priority, they should have been SCREAMING at the top of their lungs on every news program in America to get funding. Seems to me that EVERYONE involved here passeed to buck on to someone else...and yes...the poorest people in the Gulf Coast region (not just New Orleans!) suffered because of it.
I've often wondered why the feds (FEMA) don't create a disaster relief ship (operated by the coast guard). I would imagine a decommishioned amphibious assault ship would be great for this. Convert the ship into a command center/mobile hospital and have one on each coast ready to ship out at a moments notice. The ship would already be equipped to handle rotorcraft and can also launch and retrieve boats very easily.
Most natural distasters in the US (and most of the world, for that matter) occur on the coast, so setting a staging point from a ship makes a lot of sense.
I would imagine this ship should be ready to go at a moments notice and would require a minimum crew to operate. When we see a potentially deadly hurricane approaching the coast, have the ship trail behind the hurricane. If the hurricane doesn't cause much damage...well...it was a good training exercise for the crew.
Would this be expensive? Absolutely...but would it save lives? Yes. Better than a lot of other pork barrel projects I can think of.
In a pure free market, we wouldn't have FEMA, we'd have entreprenuers demanding families' life savings in exchange for life preservers and clean water.
I call complete and total bullshit.
How much is the American Red Cross charging for water down there?
There has always been a place for charity and over the course of the last few international tragedies (911, Tsunamis, etc) people (especially private American citizens who donated more money to Tsunami victims than most western nations!) have demonstrated that charity is something that works in times of crisis.
I'm not saying the government shouldn't help these people in need, but it's not like there would be no drinking water or shelter for these people without the government.
What politicians want him dead? I've heard no one support Pat Robertson's comments -- in fact Bush completely and utterly condemned Robertson's comments.
I find it amusing that people will believe (and repeat) anything as long as it casts the US in a bad light.
There are also certain problems with RFID readers that none of the vendors or implementors seem to be dealing with. There's no verifiable way to know that every tag passed under a reader was properly read. There are exceptions to this and solution providers use different methods to ensure all products are scanned, but RFID itself doesn't have such safeguards.
An example: Our new public library has an RFID-like system (not sure if it's RFID proper), but the checkout/check-in process is completely automated. You set your books on a reader...all the books' unique ID's are read and the stack of books is weighed to ensure that all the books were properly read. If for some reason the expected weight of identified books doesn't equal the actual weight from a scale, an actual human (gasp!) is notified that you need assistance. Many of the automated checkout systems in Home Depot/Lowes/Wally-World use the same weight concept to some degree to prevent theft (but obviously w/ a barcode system).
You're right, it is a curve...but the higher end of the curve is what we're concerned with here...so what I said about fuel efficiency still applies.
The only thing current technology can do (such as pulsejets) is move the point of the curve forward...but unless something completely revolutionary is developed...the curve will always exist.
I'm an aviation buff and pilot, so naturally I agree with you that supersonic travel for the masses is a desirable goal.
The one constant about flight that you can depend on is that airspeed is inversely proportional to the amount of fuel you burn -- the faster you go, the more fuel you're burning for less increases in speed. This is why airliners almost *NEVER* fly at their maximum cruise speed...they fly at the airspeed that will get them to their destination using the least amount of expensive Jet-A.
Efficiency increases in the development of jet engines has mostly stalled and now the airline manufacturers are focusing on materials to improve efficiency (i.e. the Boeing 7E7 long-range aircraft).
The free market will decide the type of planes people will travel on. This is why Concorde is no longer flying. As beautiful as she was, she was a government project funded by European tax payers developed only for the purpose of showing European ingenuity and technological innovation. I would have loved to have flown in Concorde, but the airplane never recouped the billions spent developing/maintaining her. The project was a net loss -- big time.
Perhaps there is some future in Scramjet/Ramjet engines, but in today's market with high fuel prices it's all about fuel consumption per passenger per mile.
But, the US is kinda tacky, and not in a good way. I guess it's not that out-of-line for a country that loves its reality TV shows.
I know this reply is a little late...but I can't resist. Why does EVERYTHING have to deteriorate into how bad US culture is? Don't you realize that VIRTUALLY EVERY REALITY SHOW ON TELEVISION STARTED IN THE UK? Get a clue.
(Although I do agree with you that reality TV is very tacky...which is why I...an American....don't watch that shit).
I agree that a funeral should be a celebration of one's life and not a tear-filled experience.
A friend of mine was murdered last summer by some punk thugs strung out on cocaine. They stabbed him to death looking for some more money to support their habit.
He was an excellent aerobatic pilot and we all flew with him often.
His funeral was quite a site. Everyone was wearing shorts and t-shirts. We went out to his hangar, some friends flew a 'missing man' formation over the field. They had loud speakers blasting music (a little Van Morrison, CCR, etc). At the end of the 'funeral', his best friend flew his airplane at about 200mph over the runway spreading his ashes along the way. At the end of the runway he pulled into a steep climb and did three aileron rolls -- the tower yelling at him the entire time.
I only hope that my passing is treated with such dignity and respect -- true respect -- not the staged boohooing that is put on at funerals. Personally, I have instructed my loved ones that I want my ashes spread over the top of a loop.
You obviously haven't driven on I-285 in Atlanta. For those unfamiliar with it, it's a big loop around the city, speed limit 55 all the way around. I would guess the average speed that people drive (when it's not congested!) is 75+. How is going 20 mph less than the flow of traffic safe?
Well, the thing that fell was not part of the shuttle, it was a cover over a window...not something that's 'attached' to the shuttle. The covers are only only there to prevent sunlight from coming into the crew cabin while the shuttle is sitting out in the hot Florida sun...it's not like it's part of the shuttle.
I'm fairly confident little things like this happen to the shuttles all the time. This particular incident is getting so much press because of the anxious nature of this particular mission.
I am color blind...no really...I am. I'm a pilot and my AME (aviation medical examiner) told me that I have the poorest color perception of anyone she's ever examined in her 35 years of practice.
At any rate...I demand that all movie theaters enhance the colors of the screen so that I can see them better.
All joking aside, my local theater has seats for the hearing impaired where people with hearing difficulties can come in with their own headsets, plug in to stereo minijacks and crank up the volume. Of course this wouldn't help for people with severe hearing loss.
Ok, great. Just just ignore important issues like digital rights until everyone has healthcare, poverty has been eliminated and Bush and friends have been kicked out of Washington. Yeah...that's the ticket.
'Universal' healthcare will cost trillions over the next few decades...I'm not saying we shouldn't do it...but it's a huge undertaking for sure. Telling the record companies where they can stick it costs virtually nothing to the American taxpayer...it only takes a politician with the cojones to do it.
Even if I like my home, why should I force my ideal form of government on a majority who obviously want what is happening? Surely it is better to leave in that case. No?
Well, your argument seems valid enough...but...
Remember that half of the voters in this country voted for Kerry in the last election. I'm sure *they* don't approve of all that's going on.
Besides, it's not that people like what is happening to them...it's that they're oblivious to what's going on...hence the need for people to organize and inform their fellow countrymen.
As sick and tired as I am of people drawing parallels between the Nazi party and Bush....it's important to remember that many German citizens were ill-informed about the goings-on around them or they just didn't want to believe what was happening. As a general rule, people who are fairly content in their lives from day to day do not like to be informed about other's troubles because....as lame as it may sound....it puts them in a bad mood. Think about it.
This is something that really gets my blood boiling. I guess it's the 'retreat' mentality that annoys me so much.
If you hate your country don't like the current political climate, by all means leave. If however you love your country and don't like the currently political climate...then fight for change, whether it be by joining PAC's or just word-of-mouth...do something.
Do you seriously want to abandon what is by any measure the world's most dominate military power to Bush and friends? I don't. I choose to stay and fight.
You people claiming that you should leave because things are not going your way makes you sound like a grade school kid taking his ball and going home when he starts losing.
I spent 6 months in 2002-2003 working in Montreal. I've been to BC, Toronto, Quebec City and other places in Canada. It's a great country and I believe it would be a great place to live (given the proper cold-weather attire, of course!). However, Canada is just like any other industrialized country...with it's own strengths and weaknesses.
Probably because popular entertainment (music, movies, etc) are one of our few remaining exports. I don't agree with it...but this is the case. If the government would have tended to maintaining our produciton capacities in other arenas this would be a mute point.
Screw hybrids- just think how much gas we could save if we made all the roads downhill!
True story -- I swear.
A college girlfriend asked me why we couldn't build all roads downhill and just have people coast down them. Needless to say, we didn't date much longer.
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Hmm....the article is about someone going to prison and I talk about someone going to prison. Whoever modded my comments off-topic needs to get a freakin' clue. I would imagine it was because of my comments about NOW. I don't have any problem with NOW, but I think in the situation I mentioned above they were in the wrong and protesting a case they knew nothing about. All they knew was that Miller was about to pardon a rapist and that's all they cared about. Zealouts on ANY side of ANY issue are dangerous.
These comments are very true. I've never been a prisoner, but my grandfather spent the last 12 years of his life incarcerated for a crime I sincerelly believe he did not commit.
At the age of 68, he was accused of rape by a mentally distubed woman who had been in and out of mental institutions for almost 5 years (manic depression and many other problems). The woman said she raped him. My granfathers physician testified that my grandfather and been impotent since his mid-40's...this did not matter to the jury of 12 women (I kid you not) who convicted him. At any rate...there's much more to this trial that could become a NY times best-seller, but I don't have time to cover it here.
Anyway, due to Georgia's 'tough of sex crime' laws, he was not allowed out of maximum security prison. There are prisons here for the elderly, etc. but we have to be tough of sex offenders so they have to languish in prison with 300lb beasts that will mistreat them.
We would go and visit my grandfather until his death and he would often be bruised terribly down his forarms. Some of the younger inmates tried to help defend him but they couldn't always do so. After his death, one of the young inmates sent a suprisingly well-written letter describing that my grandfather was bruised because he would hold his hands arms in front of his face to defend himself.
When my family complained to the warden we were literally told, "it's a prison...it's not supposed to be a nice place".
In prison, most every inmate has some sort of job he or she must perform. My grandfather worked in the kitchen and consequently showered before the other inmates so he could prepare breakfast. One morning when the other inmates came into the shower they found him dead on the floor with a huge gash in the back of his head. The autopsy said he died of an annuerism but the coroner said she couldn't say it he was murdered or not because the severe head trauma could have caused the annuerism.
I don't know if he was ever raped, but I do have my suspicians.
And oh yeah...I won't even get into how Governer Zell Miller had my grandfather's case on his desk and was about to grant him a pardon when NOW (national organization of women) got word of it and picketed outside the state capital because they perceived Zell being soft on crimes against women. It made the local news and Zell backed down.
Well, everyone knows the answer to that one. Think of it as parallel to American occupation of . . . . America.
Shouldn't that be called Europe's occupation of America?
Personal responsibility is a gimmick invented by the rich to enable them to sleep at night because it permits them to blame the poor people for their own misfortune.
The sad fact is that some poor people ARE to blame for their own misfortune (notice I said some and not all!)
How many poor people do you know? I grew up in a very rural Georgia town and I can tell you that I've probably seen more poverty than the average person. I've pretty much determined that poverty is not so much about economic status as it is state of mind and habits.
Please don't get me wrong and think that I am blaming the poor...but many people are poor because of personal choices they have made in their lives -- choices to have children before they can really afford them. Choices to spend every dime on complete and total shit when they get a little extra money.
For example, my uncle just received a $50,000 settlement for workers compensation for an on-the-job accident he was involved in. He immediately took the money and bought a brand new Corvette -- knowing full well that his house note was several months passed due because he was out of work. Clearly his behavior and financial habits are not the work of the evil, hated, filthy rich, no? No, he makes very bad decisions which is why he is poor.
What about drugs? Why do you think poor areas of town have so many drug dealers? Yes, there are many bad neighborhoods where the well-to-do go to get their fix...but poverty never made anyone stick a needle in their arm. Again, bad decisions.
Just drive through the projects of Atlanta. You'll see BMW's, Mercedes, etc. all over the place...all the time. These people live in the projects and drive $35,000+ vehicles...and they're poor?
What about college? I would argue that ANYONE in the US can go to college (barring some mental defect) if he or she wishes to do so. There are so many opportunities out there. I literally was born in a house with no electricity or indoor plumbing and went to college with $100.00 in my pocket and never took another cent from my parents. I was the first in my family to EVER receive a college degree...so obviously it would really take some convincing to give me examples of how someone can't go to college if he or she wants to. That's what student loans and state universities are for!
I guess the problem I have is that essentially the parent poster is saying that we are not responsible for our own lives...that the government should be responsible for us. That is complete and total bullshit -- and I would rather be dead than the government have the last say over my well-being by reducing my quality of life to the lowest common denominator in the nation -- I've been there, done that.
Those left behind were the sick, the elderly, the disabled and the poor. Those without transport. Those who had nowhere to go.
Yeah, so where were the public transit buses to move people out of harm's way? Why not load school buses full of elderly and poor folks and roll them out of town? I guess you think that's the Fed's responsibility? If so, you haven't the slightest idea how the US government is organized.
I don't get how people are blaming all of this misery on the federal government. The first line of defense of the people of New Orleans is the city government, in particular the mayor. Why didn't he line up public transit buses and ship people out? He dropped the ball -- big time...and Bush is taking all the blame. I like Bush about as much as the rest of you all, but come 'on. There are 300 million freakin' people in this country...the Fed's can't be responsible for every single one. It was the role of local government to establish and execute evacuation plans. It's a freakin' city between a river, a lake and an ocean built on a sinking river delta. Surely you think that the city should of had a plan, don't you?
And please...don't even start w/ the feds cutting funding for the levee system there. If the city government and the state government would have thought it to be a priority, they should have been SCREAMING at the top of their lungs on every news program in America to get funding. Seems to me that EVERYONE involved here passeed to buck on to someone else...and yes...the poorest people in the Gulf Coast region (not just New Orleans!) suffered because of it.
I've often wondered why the feds (FEMA) don't create a disaster relief ship (operated by the coast guard). I would imagine a decommishioned amphibious assault ship would be great for this. Convert the ship into a command center/mobile hospital and have one on each coast ready to ship out at a moments notice. The ship would already be equipped to handle rotorcraft and can also launch and retrieve boats very easily.
Most natural distasters in the US (and most of the world, for that matter) occur on the coast, so setting a staging point from a ship makes a lot of sense.
I would imagine this ship should be ready to go at a moments notice and would require a minimum crew to operate. When we see a potentially deadly hurricane approaching the coast, have the ship trail behind the hurricane. If the hurricane doesn't cause much damage...well...it was a good training exercise for the crew.
Would this be expensive? Absolutely...but would it save lives? Yes. Better than a lot of other pork barrel projects I can think of.
In a pure free market, we wouldn't have FEMA, we'd have entreprenuers demanding families' life savings in exchange for life preservers and clean water.
I call complete and total bullshit.
How much is the American Red Cross charging for water down there?
There has always been a place for charity and over the course of the last few international tragedies (911, Tsunamis, etc) people (especially private American citizens who donated more money to Tsunami victims than most western nations!) have demonstrated that charity is something that works in times of crisis.
I'm not saying the government shouldn't help these people in need, but it's not like there would be no drinking water or shelter for these people without the government.
Huh?
What politicians want him dead? I've heard no one support Pat Robertson's comments -- in fact Bush completely and utterly condemned Robertson's comments.
I find it amusing that people will believe (and repeat) anything as long as it casts the US in a bad light.
Wonder if Congress will look into this?
Congress is in charge of expenditures. They don't need to look into it -- they approved it! You can't blame this one entirely on Bush.
This is an excellent point.
There are also certain problems with RFID readers that none of the vendors or implementors seem to be dealing with. There's no verifiable way to know that every tag passed under a reader was properly read. There are exceptions to this and solution providers use different methods to ensure all products are scanned, but RFID itself doesn't have such safeguards.
An example: Our new public library has an RFID-like system (not sure if it's RFID proper), but the checkout/check-in process is completely automated. You set your books on a reader...all the books' unique ID's are read and the stack of books is weighed to ensure that all the books were properly read. If for some reason the expected weight of identified books doesn't equal the actual weight from a scale, an actual human (gasp!) is notified that you need assistance. Many of the automated checkout systems in Home Depot/Lowes/Wally-World use the same weight concept to some degree to prevent theft (but obviously w/ a barcode system).
You're right, it is a curve...but the higher end of the curve is what we're concerned with here...so what I said about fuel efficiency still applies.
The only thing current technology can do (such as pulsejets) is move the point of the curve forward...but unless something completely revolutionary is developed...the curve will always exist.
I'm an aviation buff and pilot, so naturally I agree with you that supersonic travel for the masses is a desirable goal.
The one constant about flight that you can depend on is that airspeed is inversely proportional to the amount of fuel you burn -- the faster you go, the more fuel you're burning for less increases in speed. This is why airliners almost *NEVER* fly at their maximum cruise speed...they fly at the airspeed that will get them to their destination using the least amount of expensive Jet-A.
Efficiency increases in the development of jet engines has mostly stalled and now the airline manufacturers are focusing on materials to improve efficiency (i.e. the Boeing 7E7 long-range aircraft).
The free market will decide the type of planes people will travel on. This is why Concorde is no longer flying. As beautiful as she was, she was a government project funded by European tax payers developed only for the purpose of showing European ingenuity and technological innovation. I would have loved to have flown in Concorde, but the airplane never recouped the billions spent developing/maintaining her. The project was a net loss -- big time.
Perhaps there is some future in Scramjet/Ramjet engines, but in today's market with high fuel prices it's all about fuel consumption per passenger per mile.
But, the US is kinda tacky, and not in a good way. I guess it's not that out-of-line for a country that loves its reality TV shows.
I know this reply is a little late...but I can't resist. Why does EVERYTHING have to deteriorate into how bad US culture is? Don't you realize that VIRTUALLY EVERY REALITY SHOW ON TELEVISION STARTED IN THE UK? Get a clue.
(Although I do agree with you that reality TV is very tacky...which is why I...an American....don't watch that shit).
I agree that a funeral should be a celebration of one's life and not a tear-filled experience.
A friend of mine was murdered last summer by some punk thugs strung out on cocaine. They stabbed him to death looking for some more money to support their habit.
He was an excellent aerobatic pilot and we all flew with him often.
His funeral was quite a site. Everyone was wearing shorts and t-shirts. We went out to his hangar, some friends flew a 'missing man' formation over the field. They had loud speakers blasting music (a little Van Morrison, CCR, etc). At the end of the 'funeral', his best friend flew his airplane at about 200mph over the runway spreading his ashes along the way. At the end of the runway he pulled into a steep climb and did three aileron rolls -- the tower yelling at him the entire time.
I only hope that my passing is treated with such dignity and respect -- true respect -- not the staged boohooing that is put on at funerals. Personally, I have instructed my loved ones that I want my ashes spread over the top of a loop.
You obviously haven't driven on I-285 in Atlanta. For those unfamiliar with it, it's a big loop around the city, speed limit 55 all the way around. I would guess the average speed that people drive (when it's not congested!) is 75+. How is going 20 mph less than the flow of traffic safe?
I guess the British are great engineers...which is why they fly their own helos instead of buying them from the Americans? What's your point, Troll?
Well, the thing that fell was not part of the shuttle, it was a cover over a window...not something that's 'attached' to the shuttle. The covers are only only there to prevent sunlight from coming into the crew cabin while the shuttle is sitting out in the hot Florida sun...it's not like it's part of the shuttle.
I'm fairly confident little things like this happen to the shuttles all the time. This particular incident is getting so much press because of the anxious nature of this particular mission.
I for one wish them all the best...
I am color blind...no really...I am. I'm a pilot and my AME (aviation medical examiner) told me that I have the poorest color perception of anyone she's ever examined in her 35 years of practice.
At any rate...I demand that all movie theaters enhance the colors of the screen so that I can see them better.
All joking aside, my local theater has seats for the hearing impaired where people with hearing difficulties can come in with their own headsets, plug in to stereo minijacks and crank up the volume. Of course this wouldn't help for people with severe hearing loss.
Ok, great. Just just ignore important issues like digital rights until everyone has healthcare, poverty has been eliminated and Bush and friends have been kicked out of Washington. Yeah...that's the ticket.
'Universal' healthcare will cost trillions over the next few decades...I'm not saying we shouldn't do it...but it's a huge undertaking for sure. Telling the record companies where they can stick it costs virtually nothing to the American taxpayer...it only takes a politician with the cojones to do it.
Even if I like my home, why should I force my ideal form of government on a majority who obviously want what is happening? Surely it is better to leave in that case. No?
Well, your argument seems valid enough...but...
Remember that half of the voters in this country voted for Kerry in the last election. I'm sure *they* don't approve of all that's going on.
Besides, it's not that people like what is happening to them...it's that they're oblivious to what's going on...hence the need for people to organize and inform their fellow countrymen.
As sick and tired as I am of people drawing parallels between the Nazi party and Bush....it's important to remember that many German citizens were ill-informed about the goings-on around them or they just didn't want to believe what was happening. As a general rule, people who are fairly content in their lives from day to day do not like to be informed about other's troubles because....as lame as it may sound....it puts them in a bad mood. Think about it.
This is something that really gets my blood boiling. I guess it's the 'retreat' mentality that annoys me so much.
:-)
If you hate your country don't like the current political climate, by all means leave. If however you love your country and don't like the currently political climate...then fight for change, whether it be by joining PAC's or just word-of-mouth...do something.
Do you seriously want to abandon what is by any measure the world's most dominate military power to Bush and friends? I don't. I choose to stay and fight.
You people claiming that you should leave because things are not going your way makes you sound like a grade school kid taking his ball and going home when he starts losing.
I spent 6 months in 2002-2003 working in Montreal. I've been to BC, Toronto, Quebec City and other places in Canada. It's a great country and I believe it would be a great place to live (given the proper cold-weather attire, of course!). However, Canada is just like any other industrialized country...with it's own strengths and weaknesses.
Let's just hope the Dems can put up a candidate in 08 that actually scored higher than Bush at Yale!
Probably because popular entertainment (music, movies, etc) are one of our few remaining exports. I don't agree with it...but this is the case. If the government would have tended to maintaining our produciton capacities in other arenas this would be a mute point.
Only on Slashdot do the conservative, boring parents go by names like "Profane MuthaFucka".
Yeah, he's banging the mother of his children so the alias is valid.
Screw hybrids- just think how much gas we could save if we made all the roads downhill!
True story -- I swear.
A college girlfriend asked me why we couldn't build all roads downhill and just have people coast down them. Needless to say, we didn't date much longer.