In my experience, you'll seldom find one in a vet clinic either. Similar to person-doctors, there are good ones, and there are reasonably priced ones, and on incredibly rare occasions you may find someone who falls into both categories. Most of the time though, they'll just want to sell you an expensive test and lab work, when the reality is I don't care what pathogen is giving my animal the shits, I know a broad-spectrum antibiotic will fix it and don't need lab work.
A good person-doctor will say the same - when I travel, my doctor gives me a small prescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics and says "if you get traveler's diarrhea, take a few of these 12 hours apart. If it doesn't get better find local medical care."
Funny, we must live in different realities, cause it worked great for me (I'm not a programmer, but have had offers to become one). I started doing rack & stack and remote server imaging as a contract gig, took on more and more scripting/automation tasks, and eventually got hired full-time and moved into sysadmin work, then moved horizontally into datacenter engineering. As a result, my salary has increased literally > 500% from where it was 7 1/2 years ago, and that's not including stock awards or bonus potential.
Funny, I don't think I ever saw a P800 that lasted beyond the first 6 months or so... the P400 was good, the P410 excellent, but the P800 in our org had a notoriously low MTBF. Never saw the same problems with the P812s though.
I take it you've never used HP in the enterprise? HP ProLiant servers are solid hardware, and even with this move (much as it pisses me off) HP's enterprise support is still some of the best I've dealt with. I'm upset about this change (and have, very vocally, let HP know my feelings on the matter), but truth be told they were one of the very few companies to be offering these kinds of updates for enterprise-level hardware without a support contract in the first place.
Well first of all, she's a native English speaker born in America, so there's a huge disadvantage right there, especially if she happens to be white. Then, she has a Bachelor of Science, rather than Masters in Test-Passing from the University of the Holy Cow, so that's another mark against her. Finally, maybe she's trying to get a higher level job than what she has the experience for? Tell her to start small, be willing to look at contract jobs, and possibly try to get in the door by taking an officially non-programming position, something like system administration. There she can prove herself with scripting and automation, and move horizontally within a company into a programming role.
Look for the not-so-obvious foot in the door, and something where there's not so much competition from H1-Bs willing to work 80-hr weeks for peanuts.
They key is to find a good farm supply store with knowledgeable staff who've been there for a while. I'm fortunate to live near one that used to board race horses (and may be doing so again, I'm not sure - they stopped for a while). The majority of their staff have worked closely with animals (including the above-mentioned ridiculously expensive equines) for years, and so the store a) doesn't tend to sell cheap crap and b) knows to give a good recommendation.
They also now have an on-site vet clinic (as of this past summer), so if they don't know they can find out easily. So no, I wouldn't trust your average pet store staff at , you need to find a good farm supply store with good staff.
Also, the staff won't necessarily know more than a vet, but they'll very frequently know enough. I don't know more than a vet, but I know that an eye infection that doesn't clear up in a few days needs antibiotics, I just don't readily know which ones. The staff at the store knew that part and had a good ophthalmic ointment intended for such infections. I'm not going to trust them for DIY spaying instructions (neutering perhaps), I'll leave that to the vet.
The best thing I can suggest is to go to your local farm supply store instead of the vet, for anything but the most serious symptoms. They typically have the medications readily available for a reasonable price, and will often have people knowledgeable enough to point you in the right direction.
Case in point: My cat had a nasty eye infection, and I decided I didn't want to spend the time, effort or money to pack up the cat and go to the vet. So I went to the local farm supply store and said "hey, my cat has goopy eyes that aren't clearing up, and in fact seem to be getting worse. Do you have anything for that?"
They sold me a small tube of ophthalmic antibiotic ointment intended for cats/dogs, gave me brief instructions on how much to use and how to apply it without putting the cat's eye out, and about $10 later I was on my way home. It cleared up the cat's eyes in a couple days, and I had plenty left over and have used it on a couple occasions since then. In total, I probably saved at least $500 in vet bills, since I've used it to treat 2 cats on 2-3 occasions each over the past several years.
The same type of store will often have good wormers, earmite meds, etc., so as long as the animal has classic symptoms that are easily diagnosed (and again, if in doubt just describe the symptoms to someone working at the store), they ought to be able to help you.
Most of the small animal problems that only a vet can fix, can instead be fixed for about $0.06 at home. Large animals like horses, cows, etc. are different, and may warrant a call to an actual vet. Just about the only thing that's probably worth a visit to a vet for a cat/dog is to have them "fixed" (which really ought to be called "broken" in my opinion - not because it shouldn't be done, simply because it's removing functionality).
Sure, as a start, the little box that pops up allowing you to auto-complete parts of formulas in Excel, and lists the valid arguments you can pass to it. That one little feature has undoubtedly saved me hours while working in Excel.
Additionally, the "Format as Table" option is incredibly useful, and wasn't in OOo last I checked.
Admittedly it's been 2-3 years since I gave up trying to do anything remotely fancy in Calc, though I still use it occasionally on my Linux boxes, so these features may have been added. Point is though, they've been in MS Office since at least 2007, and as of a couple years ago still weren't in OOo Calc.
If you've been using OOo for 12 years now, how do you really know how it lines up to Microsoft Office?
I had an experience where I switched to OOo somewhere around 2001, and for years I was quite happy with it. Then I got a job where I had Microsoft Office installed on my work computer, and started using many of the more advanced features (especially in Excel).
I went back to my home computer and tried to do the same things in the most recent version of OOo, and failed miserably. At which point I gave up and installed Microsoft Office.
For basic use, OOo is fine. For anyone needing advanced functionality and compatibility with 95% of the business world, Microsoft Office is an absolute must. The others are simply not there.
1) If it's that cold out, why wouldn't the condensation freeze in the tank? I've never seen a heated gas tank... 2) Most of the really cold places I've seen put 10% ethanol in the gas... this should help dissolve any condensation nicely into the fuel, letting it just run through the system without freezing up. 3) Really Cold also means Really Dry, which should mean little to no condensation. The condensation happens when warm, moist air hits really cold things or air. Unless someone's making out with their gas tank, there shouldn't be much opportunity for warm, moist air to enter. 4) Anyone who has a major problem with condensation should consider using additives (methanol/ethanol) to take care of the problem. These are plentiful and cheap - I believe last time I bought the Walmart version I paid $0.50/pint (clearance after winter last year).
Where the hell do you drive that your gas line freezes? Diesel can gel, but any sane driver of a diesel vehicle will also put an anti-gelling agent in their tank when the weather turns cold (and I'm sure in the colder of those places there's an anti-gelling compound already mixed in by the distributor to keep the pump from getting stopped up).
Gasoline, on the other hand, doesn't stop flowing nicely until it's way colder than what your average vehicle will handle... Chances are your water cooling system for the engine will freeze up long before then (even when properly filled with an antifreeze mixture).
Or maybe he turned on the heat? There are times when the "inefficiency" of an item becomes a benefit, such as the heat of an ICE when it's stinking cold out, or the heat from incandescent bulbs in the winter (in which case, for those of us with electric heat, they aren't really costing more that a CFL/LED, they're just helping out our heater).
I wouldn't mind if it were so, but here in Washington it's $52.50, an application, and a set of fingerprints - After that, the state shall issue within 30 days unless something shows up on the background check.
It's the main reason we don't have reciprocity with a lot of states - we don't meet their training requirements.
To your Number 1, I say "Horseshit." Two examples from opposite ends of the spectrum:
1) Ford : CEO Alan Mulally. Strong engineering background, but understands business. Led Ford through the recent recession without bankruptcy and without having to take a bailout, something none of the other major US automakers could manage.
2) Steve Ballmer : Mismanaged Microsoft so badly that their share price stagnated for 10 years and most of their best talent got fed up and left the company.
Point: CEO can make a huge difference where business performance is concerned. It doesn't always make a huge difference, but it absolutely can.
On a side note, it wasn't the CEO who made that comment, it was some VP.
1) Rail is drastically slower. Have you ever tried taking Amtrak instead of Greyhound? Same difference for your shipped goods. You want fresh Florida oranges in Seattle, or Washington apples in Virginia? You'd better send them by truck, because they'll be rotten by the time they get there on a train. Note that several modern manufacturing process depend on fairly high-speed freight as well: JIT doesn't work so well when it takes 2 weeks to get your input materials/parts from one side of the country to the other.
2) Trucks already pay "their fair share" in the form of fuel taxes, weight-based registration and licensing fees, etc. Consider that fuel taxes are per gallon, and trucks get significantly fewer miles to the gallon than even the worst passenger vehicles. Case in point, my '78 Chevy K10 gets about 12.5mpg on the freeway, not great by any means, and terrible compared to my '05 Civic which gets an average of about 33mpg. Then compare to a bus - The ones I've driven average between 8-10mpg running on diesel (depending on terrain), which has a higher energy density than gasoline. Now compare the bus to a fully loaded semi - Climb a mountain hauling a 105,5 load and I'd be surprised if the truck gets even 5mpg. What that means, is that the semi will pay about double in taxes what a passenger bus does, and the passenger bus will pay over triple what a commuter in a civic will. So, the truck pays ~6x the fuel taxes. But wait... there's more! Diesel is also taxed at a higher rate than gasoline. On a national average, it's about 10% higher tax - 54.8 c/gal as opposed to 49.5 c/gal. So... fact is, trucks are paying plenty, and without them the roads would likely not be in as good of shape as they are - the additional tax revenue generated by trucking far outweighs the marginally higher damage to the roads.
3) Many people feel the urge to use studded tires in the winter. Trucks don't. They either use chains because conditions are bad enough to use them, or they use their standard tires. Studded tires tear up the roads badly enough that many states have considered banning them entirely (and some may have done so - I know my state hasn't, but we have many hills so people in the snowy areas may actually need them to get around).
I'd much rather see people who drive like morons (tailgating, flashing high beams when the person ahead is already going 10mph over, cutting off semis, etc.) paying higher taxes or more fines - Think how much time and money is wasted when those fools get in wrecks and muck up traffic for everyone else. The culprits are seldom truckers.
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." (Emphasis added).
I agree the right to bear arms for food-gathering purposes wasn't the point of the 2nd Amendment, and I implicitly said that wasn't the stated purpose. You could make an argument that being able to gather food would be a necessary ability, and that any free man must have that ability, etc., but it's not stated that way in the US Constitution. What IS stated, is that the right to keep and bear arms is "necessary to the security of a free state," which is the same thing as "to maintain a free state."
AK-47s can be used both defensively and offensively, and indeed one could say that at the time it was designed its role was more defensive than offensive, whereas neither Little Boy nor Sarin are a defensive weapon - Only a lunatic would use one in their homeland, whereas an AK is useful for police forces, militaries driving out invaders, etc.
So, their purposes are not at all identical. Also, their scope is not even in the same ballpark - Sarin and Little Boy are indiscriminate killers (WMDs), while an AK can be used to take out individual combatants. Your simile is no more valid than saying the space shuttle and a 747 serve an identical purpose to my Honda Civic, that being the transport of persons and goods.
If you think 7.62x39 is "funky" you're not part of the "gun crowd." If you think 7.62x39 is a "crap round" you're also not part of the "gun crowd." It's a versatile round that's been around a long time, and packs enough power to take down a dear or something without having quite the weight or shoulder-killing punch of a.308 (7.62x51) or the older Russian 7.62x54R. I think you'll find quite a few people using an SKS chambered in 7.62x39 as a deer rifle, in places where it's legal to do so. As far as cheaply made, the base model AKs (such as WASR-10), yes. Some of the better ARs on the market are anything but "cheaply made shit," however. Also, the prices now are not significantly higher than when Bush was in office... prices spiked for a few months a year ago, but they're back to about where they've always been, maybe even a little lower.
The true reason for a civilian to own "those things" is because they love freedom, and a balance of power between a government and its citizenry is the only way to ensure the continuation of freedom (hence the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution).
Sir (or ma'am), if I had any mod points I would give them to you. I think an argument could be made for a "right to bear arms for food-gathering purposes" (a right to not be reliant on others for food, when you could go hunt it yourself), but the US Constitution specifies as justification of the right to bear arms the equipping of a militia, in order to maintain a free state.
Hah! Reading/writing this on an Elitebook 8530w right now, which I keep using precisely because of that 1920x1200 display. I keep a pair of old IBM CRTs on my desktop because they have a proper high resolution as well, and the only equivalent flat panels are still way more than I'm willing to spend.
1080p sucks for anything but watching video from a distance.
By your logic, perhaps the inventors of black powder and smokeless powder should be castigated as well? After all, without bullets the AK would simply be another bludgeoning tool. Or how about whoever created the humble machete, which has been used in countless massacres across Africa?
One good example is relatively sloppy tolerances - In most rifles, these are rather frowned upon, but it's also one of the reasons the AK can go through mud, snow, sand, etc. and keep firing. The loose tolerances keep it from running through hot, cold, lack of oil and cleaning, and other abuses long after most rifles (most certainly including the AR/M-16) have jammed up.
In a general-issue military weapon, reliability is far more important than accuracy, so this tradeoff works well for the AK. It's not something you'd want in a hunting or sniper rifle, but for the intended purpose it works great.
To protect the unions? It would be nice if life were really so simple, but face it - it's not! I've lived in the Seattle area most of my life, and even though our economy is more diversified than it used to be, it's still heavily dependent on Boeing. At one time, the entire economy of the area rose and fell with Boeing, now it's held a little more steady with companies like Amazon and Microsoft, however Boeing is still a major employer here. When layoffs happen or jobs move to other states, we still feel it in all parts of the local economy - unemployed people don't buy as much fast food, they don't buy as many electronic products, they don't pay for private music lessons for their kids, they don't buy musical instruments for their kids, they don't buy new cars, they put off normal maintenance on the cars they have, they don't visit the ski areas, and they don't pay for their kids to go to university. So, most sectors of the economy start to suffer, and tax revenue falls drastically. Sometimes a bit of an investment in the form of tax breaks serves to keep the economy strong and pays off hugely over the longer term as local jobs are protected.
Technically, I'm against tax breaks for businesses, but only because I'm against taxes for businesses, both large and small. Businesses large and small are job creators, without them none of us have an income, and yet our governments treat them as a revenue source, taking money that could be used to create more jobs. As a result, we have high unemployment rates and small businesses shutting down because the tax burden has become too heavy, and big business trying to make due with fewer employees than they should, raising employee stress levels far beyond what's healthy. As much as I don't like paying taxes, I think it would be far better to raise personal taxes and reduce or eliminate business taxes, to encourage job creation.
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In my experience, you'll seldom find one in a vet clinic either. Similar to person-doctors, there are good ones, and there are reasonably priced ones, and on incredibly rare occasions you may find someone who falls into both categories. Most of the time though, they'll just want to sell you an expensive test and lab work, when the reality is I don't care what pathogen is giving my animal the shits, I know a broad-spectrum antibiotic will fix it and don't need lab work.
A good person-doctor will say the same - when I travel, my doctor gives me a small prescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics and says "if you get traveler's diarrhea, take a few of these 12 hours apart. If it doesn't get better find local medical care."
Some things just don't need to be over-thought.
Funny, we must live in different realities, cause it worked great for me (I'm not a programmer, but have had offers to become one). I started doing rack & stack and remote server imaging as a contract gig, took on more and more scripting/automation tasks, and eventually got hired full-time and moved into sysadmin work, then moved horizontally into datacenter engineering. As a result, my salary has increased literally > 500% from where it was 7 1/2 years ago, and that's not including stock awards or bonus potential.
Could have been an inside job and someone disabled it?
Funny, I don't think I ever saw a P800 that lasted beyond the first 6 months or so... the P400 was good, the P410 excellent, but the P800 in our org had a notoriously low MTBF. Never saw the same problems with the P812s though.
I take it you've never used HP in the enterprise? HP ProLiant servers are solid hardware, and even with this move (much as it pisses me off) HP's enterprise support is still some of the best I've dealt with. I'm upset about this change (and have, very vocally, let HP know my feelings on the matter), but truth be told they were one of the very few companies to be offering these kinds of updates for enterprise-level hardware without a support contract in the first place.
Well first of all, she's a native English speaker born in America, so there's a huge disadvantage right there, especially if she happens to be white. Then, she has a Bachelor of Science, rather than Masters in Test-Passing from the University of the Holy Cow, so that's another mark against her. Finally, maybe she's trying to get a higher level job than what she has the experience for? Tell her to start small, be willing to look at contract jobs, and possibly try to get in the door by taking an officially non-programming position, something like system administration. There she can prove herself with scripting and automation, and move horizontally within a company into a programming role.
Look for the not-so-obvious foot in the door, and something where there's not so much competition from H1-Bs willing to work 80-hr weeks for peanuts.
They key is to find a good farm supply store with knowledgeable staff who've been there for a while. I'm fortunate to live near one that used to board race horses (and may be doing so again, I'm not sure - they stopped for a while). The majority of their staff have worked closely with animals (including the above-mentioned ridiculously expensive equines) for years, and so the store a) doesn't tend to sell cheap crap and b) knows to give a good recommendation.
They also now have an on-site vet clinic (as of this past summer), so if they don't know they can find out easily. So no, I wouldn't trust your average pet store staff at , you need to find a good farm supply store with good staff.
Also, the staff won't necessarily know more than a vet, but they'll very frequently know enough. I don't know more than a vet, but I know that an eye infection that doesn't clear up in a few days needs antibiotics, I just don't readily know which ones. The staff at the store knew that part and had a good ophthalmic ointment intended for such infections. I'm not going to trust them for DIY spaying instructions (neutering perhaps), I'll leave that to the vet.
The best thing I can suggest is to go to your local farm supply store instead of the vet, for anything but the most serious symptoms. They typically have the medications readily available for a reasonable price, and will often have people knowledgeable enough to point you in the right direction.
Case in point: My cat had a nasty eye infection, and I decided I didn't want to spend the time, effort or money to pack up the cat and go to the vet. So I went to the local farm supply store and said "hey, my cat has goopy eyes that aren't clearing up, and in fact seem to be getting worse. Do you have anything for that?"
They sold me a small tube of ophthalmic antibiotic ointment intended for cats/dogs, gave me brief instructions on how much to use and how to apply it without putting the cat's eye out, and about $10 later I was on my way home. It cleared up the cat's eyes in a couple days, and I had plenty left over and have used it on a couple occasions since then. In total, I probably saved at least $500 in vet bills, since I've used it to treat 2 cats on 2-3 occasions each over the past several years.
The same type of store will often have good wormers, earmite meds, etc., so as long as the animal has classic symptoms that are easily diagnosed (and again, if in doubt just describe the symptoms to someone working at the store), they ought to be able to help you.
Most of the small animal problems that only a vet can fix, can instead be fixed for about $0.06 at home. Large animals like horses, cows, etc. are different, and may warrant a call to an actual vet. Just about the only thing that's probably worth a visit to a vet for a cat/dog is to have them "fixed" (which really ought to be called "broken" in my opinion - not because it shouldn't be done, simply because it's removing functionality).
Sure, as a start, the little box that pops up allowing you to auto-complete parts of formulas in Excel, and lists the valid arguments you can pass to it. That one little feature has undoubtedly saved me hours while working in Excel.
Additionally, the "Format as Table" option is incredibly useful, and wasn't in OOo last I checked.
Admittedly it's been 2-3 years since I gave up trying to do anything remotely fancy in Calc, though I still use it occasionally on my Linux boxes, so these features may have been added. Point is though, they've been in MS Office since at least 2007, and as of a couple years ago still weren't in OOo Calc.
If you've been using OOo for 12 years now, how do you really know how it lines up to Microsoft Office?
I had an experience where I switched to OOo somewhere around 2001, and for years I was quite happy with it. Then I got a job where I had Microsoft Office installed on my work computer, and started using many of the more advanced features (especially in Excel).
I went back to my home computer and tried to do the same things in the most recent version of OOo, and failed miserably. At which point I gave up and installed Microsoft Office.
For basic use, OOo is fine. For anyone needing advanced functionality and compatibility with 95% of the business world, Microsoft Office is an absolute must. The others are simply not there.
Hmm... Condensation. A few problems with this...
1) If it's that cold out, why wouldn't the condensation freeze in the tank? I've never seen a heated gas tank...
2) Most of the really cold places I've seen put 10% ethanol in the gas... this should help dissolve any condensation nicely into the fuel, letting it just run through the system without freezing up.
3) Really Cold also means Really Dry, which should mean little to no condensation. The condensation happens when warm, moist air hits really cold things or air. Unless someone's making out with their gas tank, there shouldn't be much opportunity for warm, moist air to enter.
4) Anyone who has a major problem with condensation should consider using additives (methanol/ethanol) to take care of the problem. These are plentiful and cheap - I believe last time I bought the Walmart version I paid $0.50/pint (clearance after winter last year).
Yep - I know a few people there... Not cold enough to freeze gasoline, sorry.
Where the hell do you drive that your gas line freezes? Diesel can gel, but any sane driver of a diesel vehicle will also put an anti-gelling agent in their tank when the weather turns cold (and I'm sure in the colder of those places there's an anti-gelling compound already mixed in by the distributor to keep the pump from getting stopped up).
Gasoline, on the other hand, doesn't stop flowing nicely until it's way colder than what your average vehicle will handle... Chances are your water cooling system for the engine will freeze up long before then (even when properly filled with an antifreeze mixture).
Or maybe he turned on the heat? There are times when the "inefficiency" of an item becomes a benefit, such as the heat of an ICE when it's stinking cold out, or the heat from incandescent bulbs in the winter (in which case, for those of us with electric heat, they aren't really costing more that a CFL/LED, they're just helping out our heater).
Uh... false. Sorry.
I wouldn't mind if it were so, but here in Washington it's $52.50, an application, and a set of fingerprints - After that, the state shall issue within 30 days unless something shows up on the background check.
It's the main reason we don't have reciprocity with a lot of states - we don't meet their training requirements.
To your Number 1, I say "Horseshit." Two examples from opposite ends of the spectrum:
1) Ford : CEO Alan Mulally. Strong engineering background, but understands business. Led Ford through the recent recession without bankruptcy and without having to take a bailout, something none of the other major US automakers could manage.
2) Steve Ballmer : Mismanaged Microsoft so badly that their share price stagnated for 10 years and most of their best talent got fed up and left the company.
Point: CEO can make a huge difference where business performance is concerned. It doesn't always make a huge difference, but it absolutely can.
On a side note, it wasn't the CEO who made that comment, it was some VP.
You're missing a few things here:
1) Rail is drastically slower. Have you ever tried taking Amtrak instead of Greyhound? Same difference for your shipped goods. You want fresh Florida oranges in Seattle, or Washington apples in Virginia? You'd better send them by truck, because they'll be rotten by the time they get there on a train. Note that several modern manufacturing process depend on fairly high-speed freight as well: JIT doesn't work so well when it takes 2 weeks to get your input materials/parts from one side of the country to the other.
2) Trucks already pay "their fair share" in the form of fuel taxes, weight-based registration and licensing fees, etc. Consider that fuel taxes are per gallon, and trucks get significantly fewer miles to the gallon than even the worst passenger vehicles. Case in point, my '78 Chevy K10 gets about 12.5mpg on the freeway, not great by any means, and terrible compared to my '05 Civic which gets an average of about 33mpg. Then compare to a bus - The ones I've driven average between 8-10mpg running on diesel (depending on terrain), which has a higher energy density than gasoline. Now compare the bus to a fully loaded semi - Climb a mountain hauling a 105,5 load and I'd be surprised if the truck gets even 5mpg. What that means, is that the semi will pay about double in taxes what a passenger bus does, and the passenger bus will pay over triple what a commuter in a civic will. So, the truck pays ~6x the fuel taxes. But wait... there's more! Diesel is also taxed at a higher rate than gasoline. On a national average, it's about 10% higher tax - 54.8 c/gal as opposed to 49.5 c/gal. So... fact is, trucks are paying plenty, and without them the roads would likely not be in as good of shape as they are - the additional tax revenue generated by trucking far outweighs the marginally higher damage to the roads.
3) Many people feel the urge to use studded tires in the winter. Trucks don't. They either use chains because conditions are bad enough to use them, or they use their standard tires. Studded tires tear up the roads badly enough that many states have considered banning them entirely (and some may have done so - I know my state hasn't, but we have many hills so people in the snowy areas may actually need them to get around).
I'd much rather see people who drive like morons (tailgating, flashing high beams when the person ahead is already going 10mph over, cutting off semis, etc.) paying higher taxes or more fines - Think how much time and money is wasted when those fools get in wrecks and muck up traffic for everyone else. The culprits are seldom truckers.
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." (Emphasis added).
I agree the right to bear arms for food-gathering purposes wasn't the point of the 2nd Amendment, and I implicitly said that wasn't the stated purpose. You could make an argument that being able to gather food would be a necessary ability, and that any free man must have that ability, etc., but it's not stated that way in the US Constitution. What IS stated, is that the right to keep and bear arms is "necessary to the security of a free state," which is the same thing as "to maintain a free state."
AK-47s can be used both defensively and offensively, and indeed one could say that at the time it was designed its role was more defensive than offensive, whereas neither Little Boy nor Sarin are a defensive weapon - Only a lunatic would use one in their homeland, whereas an AK is useful for police forces, militaries driving out invaders, etc.
So, their purposes are not at all identical. Also, their scope is not even in the same ballpark - Sarin and Little Boy are indiscriminate killers (WMDs), while an AK can be used to take out individual combatants. Your simile is no more valid than saying the space shuttle and a 747 serve an identical purpose to my Honda Civic, that being the transport of persons and goods.
If you think 7.62x39 is "funky" you're not part of the "gun crowd." If you think 7.62x39 is a "crap round" you're also not part of the "gun crowd." It's a versatile round that's been around a long time, and packs enough power to take down a dear or something without having quite the weight or shoulder-killing punch of a .308 (7.62x51) or the older Russian 7.62x54R. I think you'll find quite a few people using an SKS chambered in 7.62x39 as a deer rifle, in places where it's legal to do so. As far as cheaply made, the base model AKs (such as WASR-10), yes. Some of the better ARs on the market are anything but "cheaply made shit," however. Also, the prices now are not significantly higher than when Bush was in office... prices spiked for a few months a year ago, but they're back to about where they've always been, maybe even a little lower.
The true reason for a civilian to own "those things" is because they love freedom, and a balance of power between a government and its citizenry is the only way to ensure the continuation of freedom (hence the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution).
Sir (or ma'am), if I had any mod points I would give them to you. I think an argument could be made for a "right to bear arms for food-gathering purposes" (a right to not be reliant on others for food, when you could go hunt it yourself), but the US Constitution specifies as justification of the right to bear arms the equipping of a militia, in order to maintain a free state.
Hah! Reading/writing this on an Elitebook 8530w right now, which I keep using precisely because of that 1920x1200 display. I keep a pair of old IBM CRTs on my desktop because they have a proper high resolution as well, and the only equivalent flat panels are still way more than I'm willing to spend.
1080p sucks for anything but watching video from a distance.
By your logic, perhaps the inventors of black powder and smokeless powder should be castigated as well? After all, without bullets the AK would simply be another bludgeoning tool. Or how about whoever created the humble machete, which has been used in countless massacres across Africa?
One good example is relatively sloppy tolerances - In most rifles, these are rather frowned upon, but it's also one of the reasons the AK can go through mud, snow, sand, etc. and keep firing. The loose tolerances keep it from running through hot, cold, lack of oil and cleaning, and other abuses long after most rifles (most certainly including the AR/M-16) have jammed up.
In a general-issue military weapon, reliability is far more important than accuracy, so this tradeoff works well for the AK. It's not something you'd want in a hunting or sniper rifle, but for the intended purpose it works great.
To protect the unions? It would be nice if life were really so simple, but face it - it's not! I've lived in the Seattle area most of my life, and even though our economy is more diversified than it used to be, it's still heavily dependent on Boeing. At one time, the entire economy of the area rose and fell with Boeing, now it's held a little more steady with companies like Amazon and Microsoft, however Boeing is still a major employer here. When layoffs happen or jobs move to other states, we still feel it in all parts of the local economy - unemployed people don't buy as much fast food, they don't buy as many electronic products, they don't pay for private music lessons for their kids, they don't buy musical instruments for their kids, they don't buy new cars, they put off normal maintenance on the cars they have, they don't visit the ski areas, and they don't pay for their kids to go to university. So, most sectors of the economy start to suffer, and tax revenue falls drastically. Sometimes a bit of an investment in the form of tax breaks serves to keep the economy strong and pays off hugely over the longer term as local jobs are protected.
Technically, I'm against tax breaks for businesses, but only because I'm against taxes for businesses, both large and small. Businesses large and small are job creators, without them none of us have an income, and yet our governments treat them as a revenue source, taking money that could be used to create more jobs. As a result, we have high unemployment rates and small businesses shutting down because the tax burden has become too heavy, and big business trying to make due with fewer employees than they should, raising employee stress levels far beyond what's healthy. As much as I don't like paying taxes, I think it would be far better to raise personal taxes and reduce or eliminate business taxes, to encourage job creation.
Oh yeah, and Tesla. Now I'm not off-topic. :)