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User: bretts

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  1. These laws tend to bust casual users, not the long-term abusers who seem to cause the most grotesque accidents.

    Instead, rely on the judgment of police officers -- we may have to raise standards in some areas -- as to who is driving safely or not.

    If they cause an accident, or get a ticket, allow the officers to demand a breath or blood test. This can be used as evidence at the trial.

    Those who cause wrecks while intoxicated will find themselves uninsurable because the insurance companies will not risk the liability.

  2. Fuck off, Government. on French Inquiry Launched After Live Suicide Broadcast On Periscope (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    People kill themselves. They do so in public sometimes. This includes online, which is part of the public. Go back to stealing taxes and writing stupid reports; this is a problem without a solution, or a solution in search of a problem.

  3. No different than the rest of media and academia on Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 2

    Conservatism is suppressed because it is a threat to the dominant paradigm. If it cannot be suppressed, terms are re-defined so that they exclude meanings which could be conservative. Most people go along with this, because actual conservative reasoning -- not the watered down liberal hybrid presented by characters such as disguised Zodiac Killer Ted Cruz -- does not flatter the human ego. It requires instead recognition of the smallness of the self, and this offends most people.

  4. There is no universal human size on Neuroscience Explains Why Dieters Rarely Lose Weight (nytimes.com) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Some people can be slightly overweight but everything can be fine health wise and try to force them to a normal weight is more likely to make things worse.

    The doctors have adjusted the definition of "obese" (apparently) to include pot-bellies and thunder thighs. They are doing this in the War on Obesity, which like other Wars on Social Problems, is based in forcing people to do what is not natural for them. They think this will work because all humans are the same, identical and grey, without any context or surrounding needs. But as you point out, people vary. For some, a little extra weight is a good thing, especially in middle age.

    Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find some eclairs...

  5. Control on Neuroscience Explains Why Dieters Rarely Lose Weight (nytimes.com) · · Score: 2

    You cannot force yourself to lose weight.

    You can will yourself to lose weight.

    The two are distinct. The first is a method of control, which means that without changing your will, you put in place external methods of regulating yourself. The second is how most people lose weight, which is by regulating their desire by balancing it against their desire to be thinner. It's not a diet, it's a reduction.

    All the people I know who lost weight and kept it off did so by focusing on their appetites and not rules for limiting consumption. They found ways to want less food, thus eat less, and if exercise played a role it was secondary.

    Of course, none of them were obese by any realistic definition. Fifteen to fifty extra pounds is not out of the range of normal.

  6. Technically correct on Cellphones Do Not Cause Brain Cancer, Says 29-Year Study (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Technically, that's true: the product selects its audience because the audience selects the product. But, the community also endorses such things, which pushes ordinary users into a culture of emojis, promiscuous anal and bestial sex, and artisanal fast food. Stop the madness!

  7. What is the product? on Microsoft To End Nagging Windows 10 Upgrade Notifications In July (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    When people pay actual money for an OS, they do expect long term support.

    I agree with them, at least as far as patching dangerous errors in the software. In addition, the MSFT model has always been to sell the OS with a new machine, so for as long as that machine lasts...

  8. But using Apple causes AIDS (-1, Troll) on Cellphones Do Not Cause Brain Cancer, Says 29-Year Study (gizmodo.com) · · Score: -1, Troll

    It's true. If you use an effete computer, by a trendy but vapid company, you are more likely to engage in risky sex and get AIDS.

  9. Another way to look at this on Microsoft To End Nagging Windows 10 Upgrade Notifications In July (theverge.com) · · Score: 0

    Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 are competitors to Windows 10 which costs them more to maintain and with fewer monetization/expansion options, why would they do anything but encourage you to move to the new great future they believe they have created?

    Would you rather have them try to update four operating systems, or just one?

  10. Sounds like an argument against universalism on Scientists Reveal How We Can Forget On Purpose · · Score: 1

    They saw that people who'd been ordered to forget thought less about the context.

    The less specific something is, the less our minds can place it, and so it becomes generic and forgotten. A good way to erase culture, learning, and independent thought.

  11. Democracy always fails on 'Boaty McBoatface' Polar Ship Named After Attenborough Despite Less Votes (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. – Friedrich Nietzsche

  12. Insurance is a terrible idea on FDA To Regulate E-Cigarettes Like Tobacco (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    The house always wins, and insurance companies always profit. Better to leave medicine mostly unregulated and reduce costs. If someone comes in at age 79, having smoked his whole life, with lung cancer and emphysema, it might be time to allow successively increasing doses of morphine so the patient can pass on peacefully without costing himself or others $1.5 million in a final miserable year of care before death.

  13. A better option on FDA To Regulate E-Cigarettes Like Tobacco (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    there's a statistical cost his neighbors will incur at some point in the future that involved supporting his healthcare.

    Or, we could just not support his healthcare. I trust granular choices more than universal ones.

  14. Oh good, more taxes on FDA To Regulate E-Cigarettes Like Tobacco (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    What will they spend the money on? Oh: the same things they have failed at in the past. Government is a parasite, like a leech, mosquito or flea.

  15. False standards are red herrings on John Kasich To Drop Out, Leaving Trump as GOP Nominee (vox.com) · · Score: 1

    Good day, sir.

  16. Felons should vote on John Kasich To Drop Out, Leaving Trump as GOP Nominee (vox.com) · · Score: 1

    It is not to your credit that you are willing to believe that your political opposites are so venal as to vote for an ideological proponent no matter what their criminal background.

    Remember, these are the same people who want felons to vote. You might also heed the popularity of this man. If anyone cared about moral rectitude, certain candidates -- from both sides -- would have been off the menu already. Audiences change. The people of the 1950s for whom these mild sins would be a deal-killer are no longer with us. The current audience is much more polarized and ideological.

  17. The benefits win out on John Kasich To Drop Out, Leaving Trump as GOP Nominee (vox.com) · · Score: 1

    Do you think the American people would elect someone to the Presidency who had admitted to a felony?

    If that person offers them the benefits they want and has the right ideology, enough of them will.

  18. One Outside Case on John Kasich To Drop Out, Leaving Trump as GOP Nominee (vox.com) · · Score: 1

    Obama may be loyal, but I don't think he wants his legacy to be overshadowed with a pardon like Gerald Ford's was.

    However, he might pardon her if he expected the same favor in return. Food for thought.

  19. It's A Filter on Google Encrypts All Blogspot Domains With HTTPS · · Score: 0

    The downside is that a SSL or TSS certificate is often not free and a lot of smaller sites can't afford it.

    Good observation. Google wants to filter out independent voices so that paid interests predominate. That benefits Google's business model more than search results pointing people to free sites.

  20. Trump supporters have been marginalized their entire lives and they are past caring; they know there are only a few years left before the statists criminalize them for effectively everything they have, do, say or believe.

    Insightful. The USA appears to be following past empires -- Russia, Greece and Rome in particular -- down the path of controlling itself to death.

  21. Might combine those steps on Tim Cook Defends Apple, Teases Exciting New Products In The Pipeline (bgr.com) · · Score: 1

    Apple in the early days was always a combination of two forces: Jobs' vision for consumer products, and Wozniak's ability to implement it in the simplest way possible. With the dawn of the Macintosh era in 1984, Wozniak faded because the task of computer design became more one of working with known computer components, and less of old-school electrical engineering. At that point, the consumer side had won out over the company.

  22. Does anyone care about credibility? on John Kasich To Drop Out, Leaving Trump as GOP Nominee (vox.com) · · Score: 1

    it's whether she can get elected with her credibility broken by an indictment

    Honest question. I'm not sure if it's even an issue in my team versus your team politics, nor that the type of people voting for certain types of candidates has ever cared.

  23. She is leading only by minority and female votes on John Kasich To Drop Out, Leaving Trump as GOP Nominee (vox.com) · · Score: 1

    Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump at 54 points to 41 points.

    The poll shows several major demographic struggles for Trump. The real estate mogul is tied with Clinton among men but trailing her among women by 26 percentage points.

    He leads whites by 9 points, but trails nonwhites by a whopping 67 points. He also trails among independents by 11 points.

  24. We are tired of "controlled opposition" on Ted Cruz Drops Out Of The Republican Presidential Race (washingtonpost.com) · · Score: 1

    Make some positive changes, as this country is sliding into third world status/"late Empire" conditions, or GTFO. Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich were the GOP Establishment's attempt to elect another controlled opposition candidate.

  25. I'd rather get my news online where I can choose to skip past the inane crap.

    Online news is produced by the same people and just as vapid. Maybe you need a neutral third-party source? Too bad, they all got driven out of business because people wanted news that reflected their worldviews.