Cars that will allow the US driving public to drive around completely asleep! Over 75% of the driving public drives around asleep at the wheel now! And the car makers keep adding "safety" features and alarms that try to keep those asleep from running over someone else. Is this really progress? We teaching folks that don't even have to be personally responsible even when they are piloting a 3,000 pound weapon!
For my money , there are more than enough people driving that are totally obvious to their surroundings as things are! Now we are adding things to cars that let you sleep behind the wheel even more! The "Pullman" car was created for Trains, which had an Engineer driving it! Cars on Highways traveling at highway speeds should not be "Pullman" enabled. All these commercials about proximity systems and cameras that alert you to things in areas that you SHOULD be aware of, may be great backups to a driver doing what the driver of a 2 ton weapon should be doing. But these are being touted as "you no longer need to worry about it" enhancements. That is the wrong message. We should not be enabling even more obviousness while behind the wheel. So what happens if the sensors fail? You hit some other vehicle, do they go to the auto maker to get their repairs because the auto failed?
Just another instance of our belief that none of us need to consider self-responsibility. Everything is always someone, or something else's fault. Geesh! When does this total lack of self-sufficiency stop?!
I know the intention is safety, folks behind the wheel need to pay MORE attention to what they are doing, not less.
If our Power grid a necessity? Of course, unless you really want to go back to the 1800s. But if you asked most Americans to live in that era they would die.
Can the control of the grid be protected? Yes, but any control platform that you are not in the same room with, is vulnerable to someone gaining access to the controls.
Can we protect against EMP? Yes, if we know exactly WHEN to turn of all the power to all devices in the EMP footprint area.
Can we shield everything against EMP impact? Yes, but you don't want to pay for that TV, Radio, refrigerator, or microwave once it has been EMP hardened. And you probably don't even want to have to pick any one of these items up, unless you lift weights for a living.
Can we protect against physical attacks on the grid? No. Too much of the hardware is exposed and accessible by the really determined. "Close" works in horseshoes and hand-grenades, and transmission towers that are leaving a distribution station. You don't have to fight your way in to blow up the station. Just go away from the distribution station a few miles and take down the towers, that will do exactly the same thing other than destroying the machinery with in the station. And if you do enough of those attacks you will ultimately bring the entire grid down for an extended period of time. Millions upon millions will die of exposure, starvation, dehydration, etc. And Millions will be killed in the fighting over what little electric power generation is left.
This is a case that should have cost Millions to settle. And there are at least a couple of Police officers that should not be receiving their pay or their pensions after they trampled all over the Laws they took an oath to protect. Some Municipalities have laws against taking officer's photos or filming them while they are performing their duty. Ocean City Maryland has such an ordinance. I was taking pictures of a sunset there and some officers were making an arrest between me and the sunset that I hadn't noticed. But they noticed me. I had to delete the photos that had them in them, or I had two options provided. Go to the Police station and be booked for breaking the ordinance, or give them my camera. I was trying to go to a family dinner, so I deleted the offending photos.
When the Leader of the US government uses any and every tool in the toolbox to find out anything and everything he can about US citizens so they can be attacked, at will. There are no individuals in this country that could survive a CIA or NSA witch-hunt. Every person has things they would not to become public knowledge. So, these agencies collect the ammunition to use against anyone that speaks up.
What is confusing about that? If you are not concerned about what these agencies are doing at the behest of our Emperor, you should be. The administration has abridged any and all of our Laws that they don't care for, and failed to enforce others simply for their own purposes politically, to quash dissent.
Have you noticed your Doctor or their staff are now asking you questions about your life-style they never used to ask? They have to provide this information to the US government under ObamaCare. If having the intelligence agencies digging up dirt on you, doesn't work they just consult your medical files for things to use against you. Of course this is all "For the Common Good". It isn't about the common good. It is about control. And information is the key to control.
The Russians aren't doing anything our current Administration hasn't done over and over and over again in the last 5+ years in communicating with the US population.
Wait! When they reveal that the hard drives in the recovered Black boxes have all crashed and subsequently been destroyed, will their mimicry be complete.
Well, the biggest criminal in our country was creating a photo-op a few days ago in one, so I guess the title is appropriate. And if he drives like he Leads, he definitely needs a car he does not have to drive. And he will be the first to tell the population that everyone has to buy one for the good of all, or they will face a penalty, oops, no a tax. Wow! It is getting really hard to distinguish between those two isn't it?
Our Emperor has already asked for a modification to the programming so that when the driverless car knows that a collision is unavoidable it will choose to collide with the Conservative and miss the Liberal.
Didn't we just have an episode where we had to send rescue vessels to the Antarctic to rescue vessels that had gotten trapped in too much ice? Oh, was that on the other side of Antarctica? So, the ice on one side is getting thicker and the ice on the other side is getting thinner? Sounds like a wash to me.
We aren't the least bit worried about how our children and grandchildren will deal with the economy we are leaving to them.
When did we get to be so arrogant? Even if the findings are correct. What can we (The US Public) do about it? Nothing. We do represent enough of a percentage of the world's population to have more than a minor effect on anything to do with the Climate or atmosphere. Our 10% cannot trump the other 90%. Are we really thinking that we need to do something about this just to set an example? Great example. No outcome, or benefit.
OH! Let's go sink Billions into that fix! Or, let's just let everyone in the US pay a "Save the Planet tax" that will satisfy our Administration, briefly.
It takes a lot to be this arrogant! (And stupid at the same time)!
Until your precise hand print is necessary for the gun to operate, there is no way to stop an assailant from using your own gun on you even with the proposed bracelet and RFID technology. All they have to do is get close enough to your wrist for the RFID to communicate, and voila' you are shot. If you are going to bring a gun into your home defense strategy you better be ready to use it with no hesitation. And if you truly feel you are being physically threatened, trying to make a disabling shot is asking to die yourself. If you think they are going to kill you, you better kill them first.
Every statement, inference, and consideration regarding gun owner ship made by our Founding Fathers reflected their understanding that the only way to keep a Democratic Republic from becoming a dictatorship under the rule of the right individuals, is an armed populace. True, our current Administration wants to convert the United States into a Communist country solely under the control of the "Elitist" among that ruling body. Regardless of the rhetoric, if they are telling you they have any other agenda than dis-arming said Citizens Militia, they are lying to you, which is pretty much standard procedure for our current government.
We already have Government agencies declaring the 1st Amendment no longer exists in this country. It only exists in the zones they establish as "Freedom of Speech Zones". Was anyone watching what the BLM was doing in Nevada?
Nope, didn't think so.........
Unfortunately our current Leadership has not shown itself to be very good at the first two, revels in the third, and has shot themselves in the foot with the fourth several times so far.
Everyone wants to vilify the Energy giants for making money. And no one bothers to credit them for what they bring to the party. Let us take the hit on our Power Grid and everyone is going to find out just how much we rely on those Greedy Money-Mongers.
Getting rid of coal is fully understandable from an Environmental standpoint. And the same is true of all fossil fuels. However, removing those fuels from our use needs to be tempered with replacing those fuel sources FIRST. Not after we have created a criminal element if you use fossil fuel. Solar, Wind, Ocean turbines, etc. are all viable resources. They just are not ready for prime time, and they are very expensive as a social experiment. This administration has tried to raise all fuel prices to make alternative resources more acceptable. They have artificially increased our costs whenever possible to push the public into accepting alternative fuel sources. Get the alternative working economically, and then get people to convert.
The same is true of our Immigration debate. The current Administration, and the controlling party in the Senate wants Immigration reform in the form of Amnesty for one purpose only; to get the current illegals to vote for them. The 700 miles of new fences for Border Security as been approves and appropriated. And we can trust the idea that the Security fence will get "taken care of" just about as much as we could trust "If you like your Insurance you can keep it".
There is no confusion about what the Founder's intent was. They freely admitted that the governance they put together under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights was because they saw, and understood human frailty. Then, as now, we are faced with a tyrant that believes that one man should govern without interference from the populace. That is the basis behind the 2nd Amendment. If the person living in the White House believes he should control all aspects of life in the US, he is acting in the same manner as King George. No one Man should hold that power, and the Founder's recognized that fact very clearly, and prepared for that eventuality as well as others they envisioned.
If we would all just stop breathing the climate change problem would most likely go away.
There is no way we can erase the impact that humanity has on "Nature", and more than the presence oh any species will have on its natural surroundings.
To accept our impact and try to reduce that impact is laudable, But, to think that we can remove our thumbprint, and "save Nature" is beyond arrogant. It is blatantly stupid. But then all those that think they have to change everything they can see are beyond stupid.
There is nothing ignorant about believing that Mother Nature can take care of herself. If we were so dam smart, we wouldn't have the mid-section of the country returning to a dust-bowl. And we wouldn't have areas of the West with no water resources, and no way to get any.
At the end of the day, human beings are just another species of animal that inhabits this planet. And just like any other animal that is able to feed itself and procreate we DO over-populate our geographic areas.
We ARE like a virus. We take over the space we inhabit, and will continue to inhabit that space until it can no longer sustain our population numbers. Then we expand to encompass new territories for consumption.
We only rule our domains because we have better weapons than the other predators that may want to inhabit the same domain. And all the prey has ever done when faced with a predator is run and hide, and hope the predator doesn't find them. That is what most wildlife does around humans.
I particularly like the statement we are mostly all somewhat guilty of promoting assassination with intent to ingest.
The culprit is our educational system, and its failure to provide one simple aspect of the learning environment; "Common Sense". I grew up when schools just taught the 3 "Rs'. By the mid-to-late 70s I noticed a change in the work force coming into the market place. What I noticed was that Common Sense was not common anymore. People did not reason things out. They could spout all sorts of technical information, but that was all it was. They were regurgitating data they had learned, but that learning experience did not provide the leap between the data and reality.
That was the beginning of the tech process of replace, do not troubleshoot to repair. Once our technologists became swappers instead of troubleshooters, it was all downhill from there.
Today, it has gotten so bad that schools no longer teach life. What they teach now is a political agenda. When was the last time you saw a politician that even knew which end of a screwdriver you were supposed to hold?
Nope, common sense isn't common anymore. I personally think it has a lot to do with a total lack of self-responsibility, coupled with laziness. When I achieved my certifications; (CCNA, CCNP, CCVP, and CCSI) it took months of study to be prepared for a single exam, and most certs required more than a handful of exams to achieve any one of the above.
Today, there are exam professionals that will provide all the answers for any given exam. Yes, you can regurgitate the answers to specific questions, but do you actually KNOW the technology from a hands-on standpoint? No. So, anyone willing to pay money for the exams can get the certifications. Do they actually have the knowledge required to act as a subject matter expert in the technology? The answer is usually no.
There is one simple problem regarding human beings and the Planet we call Earth; there are way too many of us! And those that are here are so arrogant they feel they need to help the Planet. If you want the planet to remain 100% Natural, leave. Your very existence is obviously Unnatural in and of itself as far as the planet is concerned. We cannot exist and have no impact on the planet. That is a physical impossibility.
As far as the Weather is concerned; it is spelled wrong. It should be correctly spelled Whether. We have about as much real knowledge about the Whether on our planet as we have of the inhabitants five miles deep in our oceans.
What if every person in the continental US did not exhale for 24 hours? Would that be a worthwhile reduction in the carbon footprint our populace creates? And, if it is a worthwhile reduction, does that mean we just have to wipe out every animal, (Human or otherwise) in North America to save the planet?
We should be stopping all forms of aerobic exercise of any kind for all reasons. That would reduce our carbon footprint as a Nation. Anything that gets us breathing hard increases our carbon dioxide output.
You fix our Global population explosion, and you will find that our possible impact on "The Planet Earth" will be greatly reduced to the point of being a non-issue.
It is unbelievable how arrogant we can be. Mother Nature, and The Planet Earth are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. They have been doing so for far longer than our species has been here.
Since Mr Obama has demonstrated on multiple occasions what comes out of his mouth in public is not necessarily factual, why should any of us think any other part of this administration is doing anything else? If you know your Boss is lying to others inside and outside of your organization, when asked about it what would you do? Your ethics may say you need to tell the truth, but your Bank account might persuade you to do differently.
Our current administration keeps coming up with these rogue-individuals or groups. There are no rogues, they are following the lead of those above them in the food-chain.
As the saying goes "The truth will set you free"!
When used in context with our current leaders it becomes "The truth will get you prison time if it comes out".
Our Congress went after a major-league Baseball Pitcher for lying to Congress, because that is a Federal Crime. But, when it is done by the President or anyone in his administration they have no stomach to do anything about it. I have not seen a representative of this administration do anything but lie and obfuscate to Congress, and nothing is being done about it.
It sounds like Disney is taking pages out of the current administration's playbook. Offer something as "free", and forget to mention that there are taxes involved. Every time this Administration can find a backdoor method to raise taxes they do, without it ever being a "Law" with Congressional approval.
If it works so well and is accepted by the US Government, why denigrate a business for doing the same thing?
Without revenue there is no business.
Credit cards are just as much "currency" as bitcoins and paper money. If you think about it for 30 seconds, you will realize that credit cards are used in financial transactions more frequently than Dollars are in this country. Bitcoins are no different. The real difference is no one charges anyone for using Bitcoins, which will change.
Figure out what percentage of our GDP is paid for with Credit cards. Then take roughly 2% of that number, and that is what the Banks that issue credit cards are making as a minimum for allowing you to use their card. Even if you pay it off completely every month, the Bank still gets their revenue from the Merchants that accept their card as a form of payment. Stores that accept credit cards at checkout already have the fee built into their pricing structure. So, if you pay cash at these locations, you are contributing that 2% straight to the profit-line of the store unless they give you a discount for paying in cash.
Unions have never provided wages to anyone but the Executives and admin staff of the union itself. In the days of the "sweat shops" Unions provided "Collective Bargaining" as a lever to help stop unfair work and wage practices. But, since then they are just another Big Business creating a bureauracracy that has to be paid as well. You can interchange the term "Union" with "Lobbyist" today with no lose in meaning. And they serve themselves, not the rank-file. Just one more bureauracracy picking the pockets of the laborers and lining their own, today.
Do you really believe the US has been without a high-altitude, high-speed reconnaissance aircraft since the SR-71 was moth-balled?
You believe that the government that is listening to all your phone calls, and reading all your email has been without this kind of aerial surveillance capability?
You also probably believe that if you speak out openly in a negative regard about this administration, or our Glorious Leader himself, that the IRS will not target you for auditing as well.
The year 1984 may have come and gone. But it's realities are here and now
Don't blame Porsche for delivering what the consumer wants. Some people should have big soft luxury cars that are nice to ride in, but can't get out of their own way. They need these because they have no interest in doing anything else in a car but get from point A to point B and back. That is okay.
There are others that prefer to "drive" rather than "ride" in a car. They push the envelope, and need to understand what the car can and can't do, because sooner or later they are going ask the car to do it. (Only real way to push the envelope).
A riders car will have either a front or rear engine. If you push either too hard either the front end slides or the rear end slides. A Driver's/Racer's car is balanced so that all four wheels have equal traction. But, when a balanced weight car breaks traction, it does it with all four wheels. If all you ever drove was an unbalanced car you will not have a clue how to recover.
The car in question; (carrying Paul Walker) was driven in the wrong manner in the wrong location, pure and simple. Don't blame the car.
The President knew. He didn't want to know. But, he knew. At the beginning and end of each day, he is a Community Organizer, and that is all he is. He has no Executive experience of any kind. He has never been trained as an Executive, just as a Lawyer, that has focused on ways to get around the Constitution of the USA, period. He has trained himself on how to usurp the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He has no financial training or experience. He has nothing going for him to even suggest he has Presidential capabilities. He only knows one formula for accomplishing anything. That is to divide and concur. Get two factions locked in combat with each other so he can do what he wants while they fight.
When you start tallying up his accomplishments what do you come up with?
He has spent more money than any President, ever. Is that a good accomplishment?
He has single-handedly created more Government bureaucracies than any other 4 Presidents combined. Good or bad?
He has dismantled our military leadership, and invited our Enemy's military onto our soil. Good idea or bad?
He has lied to the country on so many occasions that the average citizen now has to assume he is lying to them whenever he speaks.
He has wielded his Presidential power to attack, cripple, or just block all that do not share his ideology about anything. All of our bureaucracies that were originally empowered to enforce our Laws, Taxes, etc. have been converted into his personal attack-dogs, for his personal use. Good or Bad?
He signed the "Unknown piece of Legislation" known as the Affordable Care Act into Law with absolutely no idea how to go about implementing it, or even understanding the huge amount of complexity of our National Healthcare system, or even how to go about fixing those areas he felt were lacking.
Obama doesn't even have enough common sense to understand how to eat an elephant. He believes it must be consumed in one bite. Maybe someone with as big a mouth as he has doesn't consider that an impossibility, but the impossibility is still there.
In his Signature Legislation, he has doomed many Americans to death due to lack of healthcare, when its expressed purpose was supposedly exactly the opposite!
How often do you have to replace a wood-burning stove? How often do you need to take it to a shop to tune it up, so you get the most heat out of your firewood? Other than cleaning the stove and the flue, exactly how much maintenance does a wood stove require?
I believe the answers are "Not in your life-time", "Never", and not much, if any.
But what is the next step for the EPA if they feel the need to ban wood-burning stoves that do not burn as completely as the EPA would like to see? We know they are banning the production and sale of stoves that do not meet the new criteria. The next step is to require homeowners to replace deficient stoves, in order to bring all wood-burning stoves up to the new standard. That is the natural progression for this kind of regulation.
I live in any area of West Virginia where I am 20 miles away from the nearest town of any significance. I also know of a large number of neighbors that heat their entire houses with wood stoves, because they cannot afford the cost of anything else. The own the property where they harvest the wood, and their heat is paid-for through sweat-equity. This type of regulation will force them into the role of scoff-laws at some time. And their lack of proximity to others will delay the wood-stove police from visiting them soon. But, that does not change their economic situation. They simply cannot afford Electric, Propane, or Oil heat. So, we are going to force them to be scoff-laws or freeze to death?
This type of regulation is bad. It is demonstrating power for power's sake. It will also have a very dramatic impact on those that are already living at or below the poverty level. There are very few that use this as their primary heating source that have the economic wherewithal to use other sources.
If you own a cabin that you use for a weekend getaway, or hunting or skiing, you obviously have the economic ability to meet this standard, when it is NOT your primary residence. But, if they are going to create regulations like this, they should stipulate in the regulation that if you have a wood-burning stove that you owned prior-to the regulation, and the dwelling is your primary residence, until you feel you need to replace the stove, this regulation does not and will not affect you.
Exactly who, that knows anything about computers, web security, networking, etc. would place their private, personal, information in this system?
The web portal is the tip of the iceberg. Based on what we seen so far why would anyone have any expectation that any information they place on this site, will remain private? Just go put it up on Facebook and save everyone the trouble!
Just go print out all the information required on the ACA web site, and post it on the bulletin board of your local Walmart, the odds of it remaining private are the same.
This disaster is just getting started! For those that cannot afford to privately "retain" a Doctor in the same manner as people and corporations retain attorneys, will all suffer in multiple ways. Their healthcare is headed for the dumpster. They may not be able to even keep their family doctor, even if he is the most knowledgeable person in the world regarding their physical and mental health! It remains to be seen if you can even keep your Pharmacist, or go to the closest Hospital when hospital care is called for.
Regular hard-working, tax-contributing, Americans are going to get continually hurt by this badly thought-out, ill-conceived and executed, piece of legislation. And the only reason for that is one person's ego. Any other reasonable person sitting in the Oval Office who didn't have an axe to grind with the majority of Americans would have halted this whole rollout until the whole program itself could be completed, secured, and tested exhaustively.
Slashdot Mirror
Cars that will allow the US driving public to drive around completely asleep! Over 75% of the driving public drives around asleep at the wheel now! And the car makers keep adding "safety" features and alarms that try to keep those asleep from running over someone else. Is this really progress? We teaching folks that don't even have to be personally responsible even when they are piloting a 3,000 pound weapon!
For my money , there are more than enough people driving that are totally obvious to their surroundings as things are! Now we are adding things to cars that let you sleep behind the wheel even more! The "Pullman" car was created for Trains, which had an Engineer driving it! Cars on Highways traveling at highway speeds should not be "Pullman" enabled. All these commercials about proximity systems and cameras that alert you to things in areas that you SHOULD be aware of, may be great backups to a driver doing what the driver of a 2 ton weapon should be doing. But these are being touted as "you no longer need to worry about it" enhancements. That is the wrong message. We should not be enabling even more obviousness while behind the wheel. So what happens if the sensors fail? You hit some other vehicle, do they go to the auto maker to get their repairs because the auto failed? Just another instance of our belief that none of us need to consider self-responsibility. Everything is always someone, or something else's fault. Geesh! When does this total lack of self-sufficiency stop?! I know the intention is safety, folks behind the wheel need to pay MORE attention to what they are doing, not less.
If our Power grid a necessity? Of course, unless you really want to go back to the 1800s. But if you asked most Americans to live in that era they would die. Can the control of the grid be protected? Yes, but any control platform that you are not in the same room with, is vulnerable to someone gaining access to the controls. Can we protect against EMP? Yes, if we know exactly WHEN to turn of all the power to all devices in the EMP footprint area. Can we shield everything against EMP impact? Yes, but you don't want to pay for that TV, Radio, refrigerator, or microwave once it has been EMP hardened. And you probably don't even want to have to pick any one of these items up, unless you lift weights for a living. Can we protect against physical attacks on the grid? No. Too much of the hardware is exposed and accessible by the really determined. "Close" works in horseshoes and hand-grenades, and transmission towers that are leaving a distribution station. You don't have to fight your way in to blow up the station. Just go away from the distribution station a few miles and take down the towers, that will do exactly the same thing other than destroying the machinery with in the station. And if you do enough of those attacks you will ultimately bring the entire grid down for an extended period of time. Millions upon millions will die of exposure, starvation, dehydration, etc. And Millions will be killed in the fighting over what little electric power generation is left.
This is a case that should have cost Millions to settle. And there are at least a couple of Police officers that should not be receiving their pay or their pensions after they trampled all over the Laws they took an oath to protect. Some Municipalities have laws against taking officer's photos or filming them while they are performing their duty. Ocean City Maryland has such an ordinance. I was taking pictures of a sunset there and some officers were making an arrest between me and the sunset that I hadn't noticed. But they noticed me. I had to delete the photos that had them in them, or I had two options provided. Go to the Police station and be booked for breaking the ordinance, or give them my camera. I was trying to go to a family dinner, so I deleted the offending photos.
When the Leader of the US government uses any and every tool in the toolbox to find out anything and everything he can about US citizens so they can be attacked, at will. There are no individuals in this country that could survive a CIA or NSA witch-hunt. Every person has things they would not to become public knowledge. So, these agencies collect the ammunition to use against anyone that speaks up. What is confusing about that? If you are not concerned about what these agencies are doing at the behest of our Emperor, you should be. The administration has abridged any and all of our Laws that they don't care for, and failed to enforce others simply for their own purposes politically, to quash dissent. Have you noticed your Doctor or their staff are now asking you questions about your life-style they never used to ask? They have to provide this information to the US government under ObamaCare. If having the intelligence agencies digging up dirt on you, doesn't work they just consult your medical files for things to use against you. Of course this is all "For the Common Good". It isn't about the common good. It is about control. And information is the key to control.
The Russians aren't doing anything our current Administration hasn't done over and over and over again in the last 5+ years in communicating with the US population. Wait! When they reveal that the hard drives in the recovered Black boxes have all crashed and subsequently been destroyed, will their mimicry be complete.
Well, the biggest criminal in our country was creating a photo-op a few days ago in one, so I guess the title is appropriate. And if he drives like he Leads, he definitely needs a car he does not have to drive. And he will be the first to tell the population that everyone has to buy one for the good of all, or they will face a penalty, oops, no a tax. Wow! It is getting really hard to distinguish between those two isn't it? Our Emperor has already asked for a modification to the programming so that when the driverless car knows that a collision is unavoidable it will choose to collide with the Conservative and miss the Liberal.
Didn't we just have an episode where we had to send rescue vessels to the Antarctic to rescue vessels that had gotten trapped in too much ice? Oh, was that on the other side of Antarctica? So, the ice on one side is getting thicker and the ice on the other side is getting thinner? Sounds like a wash to me. We aren't the least bit worried about how our children and grandchildren will deal with the economy we are leaving to them. When did we get to be so arrogant? Even if the findings are correct. What can we (The US Public) do about it? Nothing. We do represent enough of a percentage of the world's population to have more than a minor effect on anything to do with the Climate or atmosphere. Our 10% cannot trump the other 90%. Are we really thinking that we need to do something about this just to set an example? Great example. No outcome, or benefit. OH! Let's go sink Billions into that fix! Or, let's just let everyone in the US pay a "Save the Planet tax" that will satisfy our Administration, briefly. It takes a lot to be this arrogant! (And stupid at the same time)!
Until your precise hand print is necessary for the gun to operate, there is no way to stop an assailant from using your own gun on you even with the proposed bracelet and RFID technology. All they have to do is get close enough to your wrist for the RFID to communicate, and voila' you are shot. If you are going to bring a gun into your home defense strategy you better be ready to use it with no hesitation. And if you truly feel you are being physically threatened, trying to make a disabling shot is asking to die yourself. If you think they are going to kill you, you better kill them first. Every statement, inference, and consideration regarding gun owner ship made by our Founding Fathers reflected their understanding that the only way to keep a Democratic Republic from becoming a dictatorship under the rule of the right individuals, is an armed populace. True, our current Administration wants to convert the United States into a Communist country solely under the control of the "Elitist" among that ruling body. Regardless of the rhetoric, if they are telling you they have any other agenda than dis-arming said Citizens Militia, they are lying to you, which is pretty much standard procedure for our current government. We already have Government agencies declaring the 1st Amendment no longer exists in this country. It only exists in the zones they establish as "Freedom of Speech Zones". Was anyone watching what the BLM was doing in Nevada? Nope, didn't think so.........
When was the last time you heard about a pipeline spill that caused 47 deaths and destroyed 30 structures?
Unfortunately our current Leadership has not shown itself to be very good at the first two, revels in the third, and has shot themselves in the foot with the fourth several times so far. Everyone wants to vilify the Energy giants for making money. And no one bothers to credit them for what they bring to the party. Let us take the hit on our Power Grid and everyone is going to find out just how much we rely on those Greedy Money-Mongers. Getting rid of coal is fully understandable from an Environmental standpoint. And the same is true of all fossil fuels. However, removing those fuels from our use needs to be tempered with replacing those fuel sources FIRST. Not after we have created a criminal element if you use fossil fuel. Solar, Wind, Ocean turbines, etc. are all viable resources. They just are not ready for prime time, and they are very expensive as a social experiment. This administration has tried to raise all fuel prices to make alternative resources more acceptable. They have artificially increased our costs whenever possible to push the public into accepting alternative fuel sources. Get the alternative working economically, and then get people to convert. The same is true of our Immigration debate. The current Administration, and the controlling party in the Senate wants Immigration reform in the form of Amnesty for one purpose only; to get the current illegals to vote for them. The 700 miles of new fences for Border Security as been approves and appropriated. And we can trust the idea that the Security fence will get "taken care of" just about as much as we could trust "If you like your Insurance you can keep it".
There is no confusion about what the Founder's intent was. They freely admitted that the governance they put together under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights was because they saw, and understood human frailty. Then, as now, we are faced with a tyrant that believes that one man should govern without interference from the populace. That is the basis behind the 2nd Amendment. If the person living in the White House believes he should control all aspects of life in the US, he is acting in the same manner as King George. No one Man should hold that power, and the Founder's recognized that fact very clearly, and prepared for that eventuality as well as others they envisioned.
If we would all just stop breathing the climate change problem would most likely go away. There is no way we can erase the impact that humanity has on "Nature", and more than the presence oh any species will have on its natural surroundings. To accept our impact and try to reduce that impact is laudable, But, to think that we can remove our thumbprint, and "save Nature" is beyond arrogant. It is blatantly stupid. But then all those that think they have to change everything they can see are beyond stupid. There is nothing ignorant about believing that Mother Nature can take care of herself. If we were so dam smart, we wouldn't have the mid-section of the country returning to a dust-bowl. And we wouldn't have areas of the West with no water resources, and no way to get any.
At the end of the day, human beings are just another species of animal that inhabits this planet. And just like any other animal that is able to feed itself and procreate we DO over-populate our geographic areas. We ARE like a virus. We take over the space we inhabit, and will continue to inhabit that space until it can no longer sustain our population numbers. Then we expand to encompass new territories for consumption. We only rule our domains because we have better weapons than the other predators that may want to inhabit the same domain. And all the prey has ever done when faced with a predator is run and hide, and hope the predator doesn't find them. That is what most wildlife does around humans. I particularly like the statement we are mostly all somewhat guilty of promoting assassination with intent to ingest.
The culprit is our educational system, and its failure to provide one simple aspect of the learning environment; "Common Sense". I grew up when schools just taught the 3 "Rs'. By the mid-to-late 70s I noticed a change in the work force coming into the market place. What I noticed was that Common Sense was not common anymore. People did not reason things out. They could spout all sorts of technical information, but that was all it was. They were regurgitating data they had learned, but that learning experience did not provide the leap between the data and reality. That was the beginning of the tech process of replace, do not troubleshoot to repair. Once our technologists became swappers instead of troubleshooters, it was all downhill from there. Today, it has gotten so bad that schools no longer teach life. What they teach now is a political agenda. When was the last time you saw a politician that even knew which end of a screwdriver you were supposed to hold? Nope, common sense isn't common anymore. I personally think it has a lot to do with a total lack of self-responsibility, coupled with laziness. When I achieved my certifications; (CCNA, CCNP, CCVP, and CCSI) it took months of study to be prepared for a single exam, and most certs required more than a handful of exams to achieve any one of the above. Today, there are exam professionals that will provide all the answers for any given exam. Yes, you can regurgitate the answers to specific questions, but do you actually KNOW the technology from a hands-on standpoint? No. So, anyone willing to pay money for the exams can get the certifications. Do they actually have the knowledge required to act as a subject matter expert in the technology? The answer is usually no.
There is one simple problem regarding human beings and the Planet we call Earth; there are way too many of us! And those that are here are so arrogant they feel they need to help the Planet. If you want the planet to remain 100% Natural, leave. Your very existence is obviously Unnatural in and of itself as far as the planet is concerned. We cannot exist and have no impact on the planet. That is a physical impossibility. As far as the Weather is concerned; it is spelled wrong. It should be correctly spelled Whether. We have about as much real knowledge about the Whether on our planet as we have of the inhabitants five miles deep in our oceans. What if every person in the continental US did not exhale for 24 hours? Would that be a worthwhile reduction in the carbon footprint our populace creates? And, if it is a worthwhile reduction, does that mean we just have to wipe out every animal, (Human or otherwise) in North America to save the planet? We should be stopping all forms of aerobic exercise of any kind for all reasons. That would reduce our carbon footprint as a Nation. Anything that gets us breathing hard increases our carbon dioxide output. You fix our Global population explosion, and you will find that our possible impact on "The Planet Earth" will be greatly reduced to the point of being a non-issue. It is unbelievable how arrogant we can be. Mother Nature, and The Planet Earth are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. They have been doing so for far longer than our species has been here.
Since Mr Obama has demonstrated on multiple occasions what comes out of his mouth in public is not necessarily factual, why should any of us think any other part of this administration is doing anything else? If you know your Boss is lying to others inside and outside of your organization, when asked about it what would you do? Your ethics may say you need to tell the truth, but your Bank account might persuade you to do differently. Our current administration keeps coming up with these rogue-individuals or groups. There are no rogues, they are following the lead of those above them in the food-chain. As the saying goes "The truth will set you free"! When used in context with our current leaders it becomes "The truth will get you prison time if it comes out". Our Congress went after a major-league Baseball Pitcher for lying to Congress, because that is a Federal Crime. But, when it is done by the President or anyone in his administration they have no stomach to do anything about it. I have not seen a representative of this administration do anything but lie and obfuscate to Congress, and nothing is being done about it.
It sounds like Disney is taking pages out of the current administration's playbook. Offer something as "free", and forget to mention that there are taxes involved. Every time this Administration can find a backdoor method to raise taxes they do, without it ever being a "Law" with Congressional approval. If it works so well and is accepted by the US Government, why denigrate a business for doing the same thing? Without revenue there is no business.
Credit cards are just as much "currency" as bitcoins and paper money. If you think about it for 30 seconds, you will realize that credit cards are used in financial transactions more frequently than Dollars are in this country. Bitcoins are no different. The real difference is no one charges anyone for using Bitcoins, which will change. Figure out what percentage of our GDP is paid for with Credit cards. Then take roughly 2% of that number, and that is what the Banks that issue credit cards are making as a minimum for allowing you to use their card. Even if you pay it off completely every month, the Bank still gets their revenue from the Merchants that accept their card as a form of payment. Stores that accept credit cards at checkout already have the fee built into their pricing structure. So, if you pay cash at these locations, you are contributing that 2% straight to the profit-line of the store unless they give you a discount for paying in cash.
Unions have never provided wages to anyone but the Executives and admin staff of the union itself. In the days of the "sweat shops" Unions provided "Collective Bargaining" as a lever to help stop unfair work and wage practices. But, since then they are just another Big Business creating a bureauracracy that has to be paid as well. You can interchange the term "Union" with "Lobbyist" today with no lose in meaning. And they serve themselves, not the rank-file. Just one more bureauracracy picking the pockets of the laborers and lining their own, today.
Do you really believe the US has been without a high-altitude, high-speed reconnaissance aircraft since the SR-71 was moth-balled? You believe that the government that is listening to all your phone calls, and reading all your email has been without this kind of aerial surveillance capability? You also probably believe that if you speak out openly in a negative regard about this administration, or our Glorious Leader himself, that the IRS will not target you for auditing as well. The year 1984 may have come and gone. But it's realities are here and now
Don't blame Porsche for delivering what the consumer wants. Some people should have big soft luxury cars that are nice to ride in, but can't get out of their own way. They need these because they have no interest in doing anything else in a car but get from point A to point B and back. That is okay. There are others that prefer to "drive" rather than "ride" in a car. They push the envelope, and need to understand what the car can and can't do, because sooner or later they are going ask the car to do it. (Only real way to push the envelope). A riders car will have either a front or rear engine. If you push either too hard either the front end slides or the rear end slides. A Driver's/Racer's car is balanced so that all four wheels have equal traction. But, when a balanced weight car breaks traction, it does it with all four wheels. If all you ever drove was an unbalanced car you will not have a clue how to recover. The car in question; (carrying Paul Walker) was driven in the wrong manner in the wrong location, pure and simple. Don't blame the car.
The President knew. He didn't want to know. But, he knew. At the beginning and end of each day, he is a Community Organizer, and that is all he is. He has no Executive experience of any kind. He has never been trained as an Executive, just as a Lawyer, that has focused on ways to get around the Constitution of the USA, period. He has trained himself on how to usurp the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He has no financial training or experience. He has nothing going for him to even suggest he has Presidential capabilities. He only knows one formula for accomplishing anything. That is to divide and concur. Get two factions locked in combat with each other so he can do what he wants while they fight. When you start tallying up his accomplishments what do you come up with? He has spent more money than any President, ever. Is that a good accomplishment? He has single-handedly created more Government bureaucracies than any other 4 Presidents combined. Good or bad? He has dismantled our military leadership, and invited our Enemy's military onto our soil. Good idea or bad? He has lied to the country on so many occasions that the average citizen now has to assume he is lying to them whenever he speaks. He has wielded his Presidential power to attack, cripple, or just block all that do not share his ideology about anything. All of our bureaucracies that were originally empowered to enforce our Laws, Taxes, etc. have been converted into his personal attack-dogs, for his personal use. Good or Bad? He signed the "Unknown piece of Legislation" known as the Affordable Care Act into Law with absolutely no idea how to go about implementing it, or even understanding the huge amount of complexity of our National Healthcare system, or even how to go about fixing those areas he felt were lacking. Obama doesn't even have enough common sense to understand how to eat an elephant. He believes it must be consumed in one bite. Maybe someone with as big a mouth as he has doesn't consider that an impossibility, but the impossibility is still there. In his Signature Legislation, he has doomed many Americans to death due to lack of healthcare, when its expressed purpose was supposedly exactly the opposite!
How often do you have to replace a wood-burning stove? How often do you need to take it to a shop to tune it up, so you get the most heat out of your firewood? Other than cleaning the stove and the flue, exactly how much maintenance does a wood stove require? I believe the answers are "Not in your life-time", "Never", and not much, if any. But what is the next step for the EPA if they feel the need to ban wood-burning stoves that do not burn as completely as the EPA would like to see? We know they are banning the production and sale of stoves that do not meet the new criteria. The next step is to require homeowners to replace deficient stoves, in order to bring all wood-burning stoves up to the new standard. That is the natural progression for this kind of regulation. I live in any area of West Virginia where I am 20 miles away from the nearest town of any significance. I also know of a large number of neighbors that heat their entire houses with wood stoves, because they cannot afford the cost of anything else. The own the property where they harvest the wood, and their heat is paid-for through sweat-equity. This type of regulation will force them into the role of scoff-laws at some time. And their lack of proximity to others will delay the wood-stove police from visiting them soon. But, that does not change their economic situation. They simply cannot afford Electric, Propane, or Oil heat. So, we are going to force them to be scoff-laws or freeze to death? This type of regulation is bad. It is demonstrating power for power's sake. It will also have a very dramatic impact on those that are already living at or below the poverty level. There are very few that use this as their primary heating source that have the economic wherewithal to use other sources. If you own a cabin that you use for a weekend getaway, or hunting or skiing, you obviously have the economic ability to meet this standard, when it is NOT your primary residence. But, if they are going to create regulations like this, they should stipulate in the regulation that if you have a wood-burning stove that you owned prior-to the regulation, and the dwelling is your primary residence, until you feel you need to replace the stove, this regulation does not and will not affect you.
Exactly who, that knows anything about computers, web security, networking, etc. would place their private, personal, information in this system? The web portal is the tip of the iceberg. Based on what we seen so far why would anyone have any expectation that any information they place on this site, will remain private? Just go put it up on Facebook and save everyone the trouble! Just go print out all the information required on the ACA web site, and post it on the bulletin board of your local Walmart, the odds of it remaining private are the same. This disaster is just getting started! For those that cannot afford to privately "retain" a Doctor in the same manner as people and corporations retain attorneys, will all suffer in multiple ways. Their healthcare is headed for the dumpster. They may not be able to even keep their family doctor, even if he is the most knowledgeable person in the world regarding their physical and mental health! It remains to be seen if you can even keep your Pharmacist, or go to the closest Hospital when hospital care is called for. Regular hard-working, tax-contributing, Americans are going to get continually hurt by this badly thought-out, ill-conceived and executed, piece of legislation. And the only reason for that is one person's ego. Any other reasonable person sitting in the Oval Office who didn't have an axe to grind with the majority of Americans would have halted this whole rollout until the whole program itself could be completed, secured, and tested exhaustively.