The climate has been warmer in the past, but humans and the civilization we have built like the climate we have NOW, not a million years ago. Being natural doesn't make something good for you. Rattle Snake poison is perfectly natural, but I don't want any.
A much warmer world is going to be very difficult for the great mass of humanity that is poor. The average slashdotter will barely notice the higher food costs, the higher taxes to build dikes, or help relocate people from flooded areas. But, because this warming is caused by us, we have the power to reverse it if we choose. The cost of reversing this is much less than say the war in Iraq, and would do much more good.
Creating whole new industries for new "green" power should help the economy, not harm it.
The Feds give the States money for eduction with strings attached. If the Feds were not waging three wars etc... they would have more money to transfer to the States. Of course, it might be nice if the Feds collected enough taxes to pay for what they already spent.
So what is your better idea? I'd love to hear how you would fix the may problems facing the USA. I know you think you are smarter and better than Adams, so please, share your wisdom with us.
It is so much easier to find flaws than propose solutions.
Ban it!!! It makes you feel good, but it does infringe peoples rights. I agree that changes are needed, but you have to think these things through a bit and make sure the cure is not worse than the disease.
Some limits are required. But the best solution is a better informed and educated population. Too bad being "elite" is soon as a bad thing in so much of current USA culture. Personally, I WANT to vote for the elite, meaning those best qualified for the job.
You have a choice. Form a union and bargain from a position of strength.
I think USA employees live in fear compared to employees in most rich western countries. Did you know that labour laws in many countries prevent you from being fired without cause after a short probation? Did you know many countries provide universal medical care so losing a job doesn't mean a potential life threatening situation? Did you know that many rich western countries have unemployment benefits that will tide you over until you get your next job?
How do the right wing christian fundamentalists in the Tea Party square letting people without medical insurance die (they cheered this idea at a recent political meeting) with christian values?
The value of stocks became somewhat disconnected from any "real" value long ago. I'm opposed to differentiating tax levels by how you made the money. All income should be taxed the same.
A transaction tax is meant to stem some systematic abuses that are caused by making large volumes of fast transactions more expensive than the money earned by the transaction. The idea is to prevent abuse and gaming, not raise a lot of money.
The Baroness is likely wrong about computers and the internet causing autism. I expect they will find that kids with autism simply are drawn to computer games.
But I don't agree that the Baroness should be forced to publish her ideas in a scientific journal before being allowed to present the ideas to the popular media. That would be a gross infringement of her freedom of speech. The right to freedom of speech is much more important than the right of ill informed parents to not be pushed onto jumping on another silly band wagon.
Many scientists have published articles pointing out that she is most certainly wrong. People should know to take these alarming articles with a grain of salt.
Even in ancient Rome there were problems with currency and inflation. Many countries and civilizations using a "gold standard" had problems with their currency being debased, trade imbalances, artificially high value of silver vs gold coins, and melting down of coins. Governments minting coins tried to set their value, but even when dealing with gold coins values would fluctuate.
And gold's value is still just made up by people all deciding collectively that they think gold is valuable. Its intrinsic value is much lower than its trade value. It's shiny, doesn't corrode and is a bit rare, but that hardly makes its intrinsic value as high as its market value.
Giving up the gold standard just meant doing away with a fig leaf.
Are the majority of government supplied services in the USA really so bad that it is a common opinion among non-radical anti-government people that the government can do nothing right?
I live in BC, Canada, and most government services are supplied very effectively, and generally without much waste. There are issues with bonuses that are not deserved (a whole large service related to group homes for disabled people just had all their bonuses removed due to perceived abuse), cushy pensions, the occasional corruption, but by and large government services here work.
Is that not the case in the USA, or is there just a small vocal minority that would claim the government was doing a bad job even if they were doing a great job?
We can afford it. All the USA needs to do is slow down killing other people and use about 10%o f the military budget for Mars and it is a done deal.
Problems on Earth are mainly not due to technology or money, but poor government. People are not starving because there isn't enough food. They starve because they live in places with incompetent, corrupt, or evil governments. Going to Mars is cheap and easy compared to solving poverty.
We are much better at managing the planet. There has never been such widespread wealth and peace for such an extended time. Room for improvement, but we are on the right track. Well, maybe not the Tea Party.
Killing people for fun is frowned upon by virtually all cultures. This isn't some transient fad. Simply being a psychopath doesn't get you incarcerated. It is the behaviour it leads to when the lack of empathy, lack of moral, and narcissism lead to acts that please the psychopath while harming those around him.
In what way does western culture promote psychopathic behaviour?
I'm hoping that things in the DSM are included or not included because having the condition is harmful to your self or others.
Being clinically depressed does adversely affect your life. Being manic depressive does affect your life. Being a psychopath is often very harmful to the people around the psychopath. I think some kids diagnosed with ADS are just a little more active than some "well behaved" kids and sometimes we are too quick to label them and medicate them.
Now that religious myth has less sway on many peoples moral values, being homosexual is no longer seen as harmful. I'm assuming you are being sarcastic when you state simply being homosexual is riskier than being heterosexual.
Yes, but this is the Catholic church that has a LONG record, all over the world, of knowing about the most horrible child abuse and covering it up. This is reason enough to follow up all by itself. Given that child porn was found, and the Bishop in question knew about the law, I think he had a duty to report it to the police. Ideally the police follow up privately and only lay the appropriate charges after a proper investigation.
It isn't the lawyers, it is silly juries awarding the outrageous amounts, plus your law does not cap punitive awards. In Canada the punitive part of the award cannot exceed $300,000. The rest of the award is to "make you whole" that is, undo the damage done by the party who lost. So the most you can get is what you lost, future losses, and $300,000 in cases of extreme suffering.
So you are saying that if you decide to kill innocents it is ok as long as the reason was someone else was killing innocents? Which means this terrorist should not have been offended by the USA's many wars as they were caused by the killing of innocents, and thus since he had no good reason to want to kill innocents he was in fact fair game.
The above paragraph is sophistry, but no worse than the parents. No matter how offended you are by some action it does not justify the wanton murder of innocents which is what this assassinated guy was promoting and organizing.
If your government is so incompetent why do you keep voting the same people in? I suspect that some people in the USA would not give credit to any government function no matter how efficient and cost effective it was as they have a strong belief that government is the problem no matter what the facts say. And the fact is that good government exists all around the world and is huge part of our current era of peace and prosperity.
What era of peace and prosperity you ask? If you look at the facts, and not headlines, you will see that the percentage of people dying by violence has never been lower in all of history.
In Canada we vote for competent people and government generally functions well. The basics get done correctly, and cost effectively. We do have idiots that want to, and do, spend huge amounts of money on unnecessary stadium roofs and other boondogles, but generally the day to day operation of government works well. Even the boondogles are of good quality.
So stop voting for people who think iron age myths trump science and you might get some good government.
Personally, I don't see how you can embrace science and not reject religion without indulging in cognitive dissonance. There is zero evidence for god's existence and lots of evidence for him not existing. I guess it is hard to give up childhood myths even for scientists.
Sorry, but the new testament does NOT supersede the old, Jesus said something to the effect that he came to fulfil the old testament, not over turn it.
So you can't say the old testament doesn't count. Any ways, the new testament is also filled with examples of morally suspect behaviour on the part of god.
No one actually uses all the moral teachings of the bible except a few fundamentalists. Most people, including religious people, cherry pick from the bible using the same standards as atheists: modern secular thought on morals developed since the Enlightenment.
Why use an obviously self contradicting set of myths from iron age people for your morals when much better reasons and sources for morals exist? It makes no sense to do good for bad reasons, when good reasons exist.
Slashdot Mirror
The climate has been warmer in the past, but humans and the civilization we have built like the climate we have NOW, not a million years ago. Being natural doesn't make something good for you. Rattle Snake poison is perfectly natural, but I don't want any.
A much warmer world is going to be very difficult for the great mass of humanity that is poor. The average slashdotter will barely notice the higher food costs, the higher taxes to build dikes, or help relocate people from flooded areas. But, because this warming is caused by us, we have the power to reverse it if we choose. The cost of reversing this is much less than say the war in Iraq, and would do much more good.
Creating whole new industries for new "green" power should help the economy, not harm it.
Why will a carbon tax "fuck the economy" while other taxes of the same magnitude do not?
The Feds give the States money for eduction with strings attached. If the Feds were not waging three wars etc... they would have more money to transfer to the States. Of course, it might be nice if the Feds collected enough taxes to pay for what they already spent.
He may have a drug dealing cousin, but the police should need a warrant for this type of intrusive tracking.
Papers please.
So what is your better idea? I'd love to hear how you would fix the may problems facing the USA. I know you think you are smarter and better than Adams, so please, share your wisdom with us.
It is so much easier to find flaws than propose solutions.
Ban it!!! It makes you feel good, but it does infringe peoples rights. I agree that changes are needed, but you have to think these things through a bit and make sure the cure is not worse than the disease.
Some limits are required. But the best solution is a better informed and educated population. Too bad being "elite" is soon as a bad thing in so much of current USA culture. Personally, I WANT to vote for the elite, meaning those best qualified for the job.
Canada has less corruption. This is mainly because offering bribes is impolite.
The USA comes in 22nd. Not bad, but room for improvement.
You have a choice. Form a union and bargain from a position of strength.
I think USA employees live in fear compared to employees in most rich western countries. Did you know that labour laws in many countries prevent you from being fired without cause after a short probation? Did you know many countries provide universal medical care so losing a job doesn't mean a potential life threatening situation? Did you know that many rich western countries have unemployment benefits that will tide you over until you get your next job?
How do the right wing christian fundamentalists in the Tea Party square letting people without medical insurance die (they cheered this idea at a recent political meeting) with christian values?
The value of stocks became somewhat disconnected from any "real" value long ago. I'm opposed to differentiating tax levels by how you made the money. All income should be taxed the same.
A transaction tax is meant to stem some systematic abuses that are caused by making large volumes of fast transactions more expensive than the money earned by the transaction. The idea is to prevent abuse and gaming, not raise a lot of money.
The Baroness is likely wrong about computers and the internet causing autism. I expect they will find that kids with autism simply are drawn to computer games.
But I don't agree that the Baroness should be forced to publish her ideas in a scientific journal before being allowed to present the ideas to the popular media. That would be a gross infringement of her freedom of speech. The right to freedom of speech is much more important than the right of ill informed parents to not be pushed onto jumping on another silly band wagon.
Many scientists have published articles pointing out that she is most certainly wrong. People should know to take these alarming articles with a grain of salt.
Even in ancient Rome there were problems with currency and inflation. Many countries and civilizations using a "gold standard" had problems with their currency being debased, trade imbalances, artificially high value of silver vs gold coins, and melting down of coins. Governments minting coins tried to set their value, but even when dealing with gold coins values would fluctuate.
And gold's value is still just made up by people all deciding collectively that they think gold is valuable. Its intrinsic value is much lower than its trade value. It's shiny, doesn't corrode and is a bit rare, but that hardly makes its intrinsic value as high as its market value.
Giving up the gold standard just meant doing away with a fig leaf.
Are the majority of government supplied services in the USA really so bad that it is a common opinion among non-radical anti-government people that the government can do nothing right?
I live in BC, Canada, and most government services are supplied very effectively, and generally without much waste. There are issues with bonuses that are not deserved (a whole large service related to group homes for disabled people just had all their bonuses removed due to perceived abuse), cushy pensions, the occasional corruption, but by and large government services here work.
Is that not the case in the USA, or is there just a small vocal minority that would claim the government was doing a bad job even if they were doing a great job?
We can afford it. All the USA needs to do is slow down killing other people and use about 10%o f the military budget for Mars and it is a done deal.
Problems on Earth are mainly not due to technology or money, but poor government. People are not starving because there isn't enough food. They starve because they live in places with incompetent, corrupt, or evil governments. Going to Mars is cheap and easy compared to solving poverty.
We are much better at managing the planet. There has never been such widespread wealth and peace for such an extended time. Room for improvement, but we are on the right track. Well, maybe not the Tea Party.
Killing people for fun is frowned upon by virtually all cultures. This isn't some transient fad. Simply being a psychopath doesn't get you incarcerated. It is the behaviour it leads to when the lack of empathy, lack of moral, and narcissism lead to acts that please the psychopath while harming those around him.
In what way does western culture promote psychopathic behaviour?
I'm hoping that things in the DSM are included or not included because having the condition is harmful to your self or others.
Being clinically depressed does adversely affect your life. Being manic depressive does affect your life. Being a psychopath is often very harmful to the people around the psychopath. I think some kids diagnosed with ADS are just a little more active than some "well behaved" kids and sometimes we are too quick to label them and medicate them.
Now that religious myth has less sway on many peoples moral values, being homosexual is no longer seen as harmful. I'm assuming you are being sarcastic when you state simply being homosexual is riskier than being heterosexual.
Yes, but this is the Catholic church that has a LONG record, all over the world, of knowing about the most horrible child abuse and covering it up. This is reason enough to follow up all by itself. Given that child porn was found, and the Bishop in question knew about the law, I think he had a duty to report it to the police. Ideally the police follow up privately and only lay the appropriate charges after a proper investigation.
It isn't the lawyers, it is silly juries awarding the outrageous amounts, plus your law does not cap punitive awards. In Canada the punitive part of the award cannot exceed $300,000. The rest of the award is to "make you whole" that is, undo the damage done by the party who lost. So the most you can get is what you lost, future losses, and $300,000 in cases of extreme suffering.
So you are saying that if you decide to kill innocents it is ok as long as the reason was someone else was killing innocents? Which means this terrorist should not have been offended by the USA's many wars as they were caused by the killing of innocents, and thus since he had no good reason to want to kill innocents he was in fact fair game.
The above paragraph is sophistry, but no worse than the parents. No matter how offended you are by some action it does not justify the wanton murder of innocents which is what this assassinated guy was promoting and organizing.
If your government is so incompetent why do you keep voting the same people in? I suspect that some people in the USA would not give credit to any government function no matter how efficient and cost effective it was as they have a strong belief that government is the problem no matter what the facts say. And the fact is that good government exists all around the world and is huge part of our current era of peace and prosperity.
What era of peace and prosperity you ask? If you look at the facts, and not headlines, you will see that the percentage of people dying by violence has never been lower in all of history.
In Canada we vote for competent people and government generally functions well. The basics get done correctly, and cost effectively. We do have idiots that want to, and do, spend huge amounts of money on unnecessary stadium roofs and other boondogles, but generally the day to day operation of government works well. Even the boondogles are of good quality.
So stop voting for people who think iron age myths trump science and you might get some good government.
I'd call virtually any evil, man made or natural, inflicted on children evidence of god's non-existence.
Personally, I don't see how you can embrace science and not reject religion without indulging in cognitive dissonance. There is zero evidence for god's existence and lots of evidence for him not existing. I guess it is hard to give up childhood myths even for scientists.
Sorry, but the new testament does NOT supersede the old, Jesus said something to the effect that he came to fulfil the old testament, not over turn it.
So you can't say the old testament doesn't count. Any ways, the new testament is also filled with examples of morally suspect behaviour on the part of god.
No one actually uses all the moral teachings of the bible except a few fundamentalists. Most people, including religious people, cherry pick from the bible using the same standards as atheists: modern secular thought on morals developed since the Enlightenment.
Why use an obviously self contradicting set of myths from iron age people for your morals when much better reasons and sources for morals exist? It makes no sense to do good for bad reasons, when good reasons exist.
See this for an example of why you don't use all the bibles teachings.
In most jurisdictions you cannot borrow for a set number of years, commonly seven, after declaring bankruptcy.