I think that the USA murder rate from guns is so much higher than many other countries with similiar rates of gun ownership because of the culture in the USA combined with gun ownership.
Gun ownership is common in Canada, not as common as the USA, but still common. But there are big differences. Most Canadians only have long guns. Legally getting a pistol is rare. Most pistols are owned by criminials and they mainly shoot each other. It is a VERY rare Canadian gun owner who thinks his gun should be used to protect his home and person. A gun is for hunting and target practise. You call the police if there is a prowler about, you don't step onto the front porch with rifle in hand. It is this idea that guns are great first choice for self protection that causes most of the deaths.
Each year many Americans die from guns, usually about 400 a week. Generally 50% are suicides, 25% accidents, and 25% murders. You guys need better safety training.
No, in capitalism, the capitalist class skims off the labor of producers by charging them for access to the resources that capitalists "own" and producers need to get stuff done.
Capitalism means you are allowed to own property and other resources (capital) and invest it as you want. By "producers" you seem to be refering to wage earners. Yes, wage earners work for others who have invested their capital to build a factory or business that workers can work at a mutually agreed wage. The capitlist is risking their capital in an effort to make a profit on their capital. The workers take no risk, but simply get wages. This is not "skimming" - it is an honest profit. Are there cases were owners of capital exploit workers? Yes. That is why laissez faire capitalism doesn't exist in the West any more. There are numerous laws regulating working conditions and wages to prevent explotation.
No, socialism is a system based on the exchange of labor and the democratic control of capital. State socialism, as practiced by Marxists, is not the only variety. Anarchists are socialists.
You mean state control of capital. Not all anarchists are socialists. Some anarchists argue that only a state can force people to share their capital or invest it in enterprises they don't want to invest in.
No arrangement made in the face of an overwhelming imbalance of power is "voluntary". So long as a state-backed minority class of "owners" controls the vast majority of economic resources, referring to the wage slavery that all but the most skilled workers have to sell themselves into as "voluntary" is a sick joke.
All the jobs I ever took were voluntary. I have worked at crappy jobs because I needed work right now to pay the bills, but I was free to save my money, invest in myself, and get better jobs. Under some of the more radical socialist schemes the state not only decides were captial is invested, but also what you work at and how much you are paid. Unions are one answer to the power imbalance between big business and workers.
Refering to "wage slavery" is slap in the face to any person who was or is an actual slave.
Pure socialism has proved itself terrible at efficiently alocationg resources. Pure socialist economies have been abandoned by virtually all governments because capitlism and free enterprise are so much more efficient at creating wealth. At the same time, pure capitalism leads to the abuse of many workers, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. This is way even a determinedly capitlist country like the USA has many socialist programs: labour laws, universal primary education, courts, police, military, food-stamps, old age pensions, medicare / aide, etc...
Currently, mixed system seem to strike a good balance between individual freedom, and collective good.
"The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers" (Henry VI, Pt. II).
You do realize the BAD guys said that line in the
play. The idea being that without pesky lawyers to interfere on the behalf of regular people the bad guys could do what they wanted.
Teenagers ARE young men and women with the same sexual desires and variations as other adults. I'm talking older teens here, not 13 year olds.
Any law that is trying to prevent the exploitation of teens by adults has to allow for normal teenage behaviour like having sex with other teenagers. If you have an age of consent law, you have to have excemptions for young people close in age where neither person would be taking advantage of a much younger person. Otherwise you have ridiculous things like a 17 year olf being jailed for having sex with his 16 year girlfriend.
Starting a family that young is stupid. Most teenagers are not ready for the huge amount of work and responsability involved in raising children. Teach your teens birth-control. Talk to them frankly about sex. Encourage them to wait until they are older teens before becoming sexually active, but DO make sure they understand effective birth-control practises and methods to keep sex less risky for disease. No fear mongering.
Teens love to push boundries and explore mysteries. Well informed teens often wait until they are older before having sex as it not "forbiden", not a mystery, and requires some responsable foreplanning.
And getting married as a teen is just plain stupid. You don't even know who you are yet, much less who you want to spend your life with.
I have been hearing about indium and platinum shortages from chicken littles for a couple of years now. In fact, there is 3 times more indium than silver in the Earth's crust and I haven't heard anyone shouting about a silver shortage - especially since digital camera's became popular. When the price goes high enough, more money will go into mining, extracting, and refining both minerals. And only solar cells, out of the currently common "sustainable" technologies, require these rare minerals.
How is proposing to abide by existing space treaties banning space based weapons "disarm the USA altogether". Obama isn't some hippy Dove. He wants to pull out of Iraq, and beef up the USA military presence in Afghanistan. Diplomancy isn't surrendering. Obama has made it clear that he will fight when it makes sense, but make diplomacy a higher priority.
Obama is pragmatic enough to change course if other nations activities in space were an actual threat.
Some stone tools were naturally formed and used "as is" by ancient peoples. A trained archeologist can tell the difference due to a number of distinguishing marks that tools purposely made will have.
But in Canada, and other "loser pays" countries once you win the bad guy gets to pay your legal bills. While this doesn't stop all SLAPP suits it does cut them down a lot.
As pointed out earlier, bcc should always be used for general annoucements that do not require replies. AND large mailing lists should only allow a select group of people to use them.
You missed my point completely. I am not advocating slamming on the brakes as everyones normal braking procedure. I am pointing out that you should at all times leave enough space in front of you to safely stop if the car in front of you DOES have to do an emergency stop. Of course we want to try to avoid sistuations where emergency stops ar required by using defensive driving. And one of the most effective defensive driving practises is leaving more space in front of you.
All tailgaters are bad drivers. Most people do not leave enough space.
Any driver should be able to brake as hard as they want, at any time, safely. If you don't think this is always a safe maneouver then you are a tailgater. That's right - you should always give the car in front of you enough space to brake as hard as they want at random. Yes, I know, some idiot will cut in front and take your space, but that is how much space there should be between you and the car ahead of you.
Public roads are not race tracks. Oh, and please stop slewing your car to the left before making right hand turns unless you are driving a 5 ton truck or bigger. Even an Escalade does not need the extra turning space.
If you did not brake and hit the car in front you would still get rear-ended when hitting the car in front suddenly stops you. Under most circumstances the auto-braking feature would reduce the overall damage.
But the rear-ending issue was the first thing that popped into my head because the only time my car has been hit it was rear ended. I don't tailgate. So what I want is a REAR facing radar that warns me when the idiot behind me is getting too close. Not always much you can do about a tailgater but gradually slow down, but most tailgaters are too stupid to get the hint.
Breast feeding in public should not be illegal, just as eating a meal in public is not illegal. Both are non-sexual acts. Everyone kisses with their mouth, but we don't have to cover up our mouths in public. Eating a meal is just as natural and both don't bother me.
On the other hand I do feel having sex is something people should do in private.
Greenpeace lost its way a long time ago. Even one of its founders couldn't stomach its new direction.
There is no "Great Bear Rain-Forest". I live where it is supposed to be and they just made that up for publicity. There is a rain forest, and it has bears, but no one outside of Greenpeace calls it that.
They used to do good. Now they are just fear mongers.
That is a common practice here in Vancouver BC. The cops even phone in sometimes if they are doing a big safety campaign. Most local radio includes the current rush hours speed traps. And it's legal. Free speech and all.
Our highways have signs warning of up coming speed changes. It is unsafe to suddenly change speed on a highway. Isn't there a similar requirement on USA highways?
Were I live the cops call the local tv and radio stations so the stations can ANNOUNCE where speed traps are. The cops don't do this everyday or every time, but mainly when they are doing a big driver safety campaign.
All traffic fines go into general revenue for the Province so there is no incentive for speed traps meant to just collect fines. Most speed traps go up where there are a lot of accidents, or the locals complain about too many cars speeding. Most rush hour radio traffic reports include any speed traps reported by drivers, and I've never heard of there being more than 2 or 3. This is in a city of about 1.5 million.
In all my jobs, fast food, dry cleaning, retail sales, programming, etc... I was always paid from when I showed up until I left. If it took 15 minutes to open up, I got paid. If I wasn't paid I didn't show up. I never work for free, and neither should you. Ok, I did show up 5 minutes early to change into that ugly uniform, but I didn't do any work until the clock started.
The system gets refined, year after year. Lots of people work on it. Rules get written down, not just made up each month. Things that work become institutions. And the "system" isn't just one person, it's lots of people. One person might have a bad day, but everyone working together tends to get things done well. The current system took many hundreds of years to reach its current state, and it will continue to evolve as society changes.
You seem to have missed that copyright is not a natural right, or a common sense right, but a government enforced monopoly that was originally put in place to help artists make a living. Copyright used to expire after a reasonable amount of time, 20 years. The length of copyright is now effectively infinite as it is longer than a normal human lifespan. And the laws seem to be changing to protect large publishing houses, not artists. Copyright law has gone off the rails.
Copyright law was only a civil matter until recently. I strongly believe that except for large scale piracy it should still be a civil matter, not criminal. The penalties for copyright infringement are outrageous in the USA. Stealing a physical CD gives you a much smaller penalty than copying a single song. The penalty is so out of proportion to the actual damages that many people, lawyers included, think it is unconstitutional.
The law should be changed. Copyright lengths should be shortened. There should be low cost mandatory copyright rates for all broadcasts, internet broadcasts, and downloads.
Slashdot Mirror
I think that the USA murder rate from guns is so much higher than many other countries with similiar rates of gun ownership because of the culture in the USA combined with gun ownership.
Gun ownership is common in Canada, not as common as the USA, but still common. But there are big differences. Most Canadians only have long guns. Legally getting a pistol is rare. Most pistols are owned by criminials and they mainly shoot each other. It is a VERY rare Canadian gun owner who thinks his gun should be used to protect his home and person. A gun is for hunting and target practise. You call the police if there is a prowler about, you don't step onto the front porch with rifle in hand. It is this idea that guns are great first choice for self protection that causes most of the deaths.
Each year many Americans die from guns, usually about 400 a week. Generally 50% are suicides, 25% accidents, and 25% murders. You guys need better safety training.
No, in capitalism, the capitalist class skims off the labor of producers by charging them for access to the resources that capitalists "own" and producers need to get stuff done.
Capitalism means you are allowed to own property and other resources (capital) and invest it as you want. By "producers" you seem to be refering to wage earners. Yes, wage earners work for others who have invested their capital to build a factory or business that workers can work at a mutually agreed wage. The capitlist is risking their capital in an effort to make a profit on their capital. The workers take no risk, but simply get wages. This is not "skimming" - it is an honest profit. Are there cases were owners of capital exploit workers? Yes. That is why laissez faire capitalism doesn't exist in the West any more. There are numerous laws regulating working conditions and wages to prevent explotation.
No, socialism is a system based on the exchange of labor and the democratic control of capital. State socialism, as practiced by Marxists, is not the only variety. Anarchists are socialists.
You mean state control of capital. Not all anarchists are socialists. Some anarchists argue that only a state can force people to share their capital or invest it in enterprises they don't want to invest in.
No arrangement made in the face of an overwhelming imbalance of power is "voluntary". So long as a state-backed minority class of "owners" controls the vast majority of economic resources, referring to the wage slavery that all but the most skilled workers have to sell themselves into as "voluntary" is a sick joke.
All the jobs I ever took were voluntary. I have worked at crappy jobs because I needed work right now to pay the bills, but I was free to save my money, invest in myself, and get better jobs. Under some of the more radical socialist schemes the state not only decides were captial is invested, but also what you work at and how much you are paid. Unions are one answer to the power imbalance between big business and workers.
Refering to "wage slavery" is slap in the face to any person who was or is an actual slave.
Pure socialism has proved itself terrible at efficiently alocationg resources. Pure socialist economies have been abandoned by virtually all governments because capitlism and free enterprise are so much more efficient at creating wealth. At the same time, pure capitalism leads to the abuse of many workers, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. This is way even a determinedly capitlist country like the USA has many socialist programs: labour laws, universal primary education, courts, police, military, food-stamps, old age pensions, medicare / aide, etc...
Currently, mixed system seem to strike a good balance between individual freedom, and collective good.
"The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers" (Henry VI, Pt. II).
You do realize the BAD guys said that line in the play. The idea being that without pesky lawyers to interfere on the behalf of regular people the bad guys could do what they wanted.
Really? I thought local governments could not pass criminial laws, just regulations with fines.
In Canada there is strict control of what kind of laws and regulations, each level of goverment can pass.
Teenagers ARE young men and women with the same sexual desires and variations as other adults. I'm talking older teens here, not 13 year olds.
Any law that is trying to prevent the exploitation of teens by adults has to allow for normal teenage behaviour like having sex with other teenagers. If you have an age of consent law, you have to have excemptions for young people close in age where neither person would be taking advantage of a much younger person. Otherwise you have ridiculous things like a 17 year olf being jailed for having sex with his 16 year girlfriend.
Starting a family that young is stupid. Most teenagers are not ready for the huge amount of work and responsability involved in raising children. Teach your teens birth-control. Talk to them frankly about sex. Encourage them to wait until they are older teens before becoming sexually active, but DO make sure they understand effective birth-control practises and methods to keep sex less risky for disease. No fear mongering.
Teens love to push boundries and explore mysteries. Well informed teens often wait until they are older before having sex as it not "forbiden", not a mystery, and requires some responsable foreplanning.
And getting married as a teen is just plain stupid. You don't even know who you are yet, much less who you want to spend your life with.
I have been hearing about indium and platinum shortages from chicken littles for a couple of years now. In fact, there is 3 times more indium than silver in the Earth's crust and I haven't heard anyone shouting about a silver shortage - especially since digital camera's became popular. When the price goes high enough, more money will go into mining, extracting, and refining both minerals. And only solar cells, out of the currently common "sustainable" technologies, require these rare minerals.
The Indium Corp couldn't be biased.
It's an open market, so it must be true.
Back in 2006 this blogger noticed we use indium. Scroll down a bit.
The price is going up, but hey, copper prices sure fell.
I'm not worried. This just someone wanting some attention and web page hits.
How is proposing to abide by existing space treaties banning space based weapons "disarm the USA altogether". Obama isn't some hippy Dove. He wants to pull out of Iraq, and beef up the USA military presence in Afghanistan. Diplomancy isn't surrendering. Obama has made it clear that he will fight when it makes sense, but make diplomacy a higher priority.
Obama is pragmatic enough to change course if other nations activities in space were an actual threat.
Some stone tools were naturally formed and used "as is" by ancient peoples. A trained archeologist can tell the difference due to a number of distinguishing marks that tools purposely made will have.
These methods are pretty standard things to learn:
Archaeological Laboratory Methods By Mark Q. Sutton, Brooke S. Arkush
Pretty standard stuff, and a question that was asked and answered a long time ago.
But in Canada, and other "loser pays" countries once you win the bad guy gets to pay your legal bills. While this doesn't stop all SLAPP suits it does cut them down a lot.
bcc
As pointed out earlier, bcc should always be used for general annoucements that do not require replies. AND large mailing lists should only allow a select group of people to use them.
No, Mike Judge. They are referring to the movie "Idiocracy".
You should report it whoever take police complaints.
You missed my point completely. I am not advocating slamming on the brakes as everyones normal braking procedure. I am pointing out that you should at all times leave enough space in front of you to safely stop if the car in front of you DOES have to do an emergency stop. Of course we want to try to avoid sistuations where emergency stops ar required by using defensive driving. And one of the most effective defensive driving practises is leaving more space in front of you.
All tailgaters are bad drivers. Most people do not leave enough space.
Any driver should be able to brake as hard as they want, at any time, safely. If you don't think this is always a safe maneouver then you are a tailgater. That's right - you should always give the car in front of you enough space to brake as hard as they want at random. Yes, I know, some idiot will cut in front and take your space, but that is how much space there should be between you and the car ahead of you.
Public roads are not race tracks. Oh, and please stop slewing your car to the left before making right hand turns unless you are driving a 5 ton truck or bigger. Even an Escalade does not need the extra turning space.
If you did not brake and hit the car in front you would still get rear-ended when hitting the car in front suddenly stops you. Under most circumstances the auto-braking feature would reduce the overall damage.
But the rear-ending issue was the first thing that popped into my head because the only time my car has been hit it was rear ended. I don't tailgate. So what I want is a REAR facing radar that warns me when the idiot behind me is getting too close. Not always much you can do about a tailgater but gradually slow down, but most tailgaters are too stupid to get the hint.
Why would breast feeding be "disconcerting".
Breast feeding in public should not be illegal, just as eating a meal in public is not illegal. Both are non-sexual acts. Everyone kisses with their mouth, but we don't have to cover up our mouths in public. Eating a meal is just as natural and both don't bother me.
On the other hand I do feel having sex is something people should do in private.
Now that your work is done, how many of these thingies are going to be churned out? How many have to be manufactured to earn back your $650?
Greenpeace lost its way a long time ago. Even one of its founders couldn't stomach its new direction.
There is no "Great Bear Rain-Forest". I live where it is supposed to be and they just made that up for publicity. There is a rain forest, and it has bears, but no one outside of Greenpeace calls it that.
They used to do good. Now they are just fear mongers.
That is a common practice here in Vancouver BC. The cops even phone in sometimes if they are doing a big safety campaign. Most local radio includes the current rush hours speed traps. And it's legal. Free speech and all.
Our highways have signs warning of up coming speed changes. It is unsafe to suddenly change speed on a highway. Isn't there a similar requirement on USA highways?
Were I live the cops call the local tv and radio stations so the stations can ANNOUNCE where speed traps are. The cops don't do this everyday or every time, but mainly when they are doing a big driver safety campaign.
All traffic fines go into general revenue for the Province so there is no incentive for speed traps meant to just collect fines. Most speed traps go up where there are a lot of accidents, or the locals complain about too many cars speeding. Most rush hour radio traffic reports include any speed traps reported by drivers, and I've never heard of there being more than 2 or 3. This is in a city of about 1.5 million.
In all my jobs, fast food, dry cleaning, retail sales, programming, etc... I was always paid from when I showed up until I left. If it took 15 minutes to open up, I got paid. If I wasn't paid I didn't show up. I never work for free, and neither should you. Ok, I did show up 5 minutes early to change into that ugly uniform, but I didn't do any work until the clock started.
The system gets refined, year after year. Lots of people work on it. Rules get written down, not just made up each month. Things that work become institutions. And the "system" isn't just one person, it's lots of people. One person might have a bad day, but everyone working together tends to get things done well. The current system took many hundreds of years to reach its current state, and it will continue to evolve as society changes.
You seem to have missed that copyright is not a natural right, or a common sense right, but a government enforced monopoly that was originally put in place to help artists make a living. Copyright used to expire after a reasonable amount of time, 20 years. The length of copyright is now effectively infinite as it is longer than a normal human lifespan. And the laws seem to be changing to protect large publishing houses, not artists. Copyright law has gone off the rails.
Copyright law was only a civil matter until recently. I strongly believe that except for large scale piracy it should still be a civil matter, not criminal. The penalties for copyright infringement are outrageous in the USA. Stealing a physical CD gives you a much smaller penalty than copying a single song. The penalty is so out of proportion to the actual damages that many people, lawyers included, think it is unconstitutional.
The law should be changed. Copyright lengths should be shortened. There should be low cost mandatory copyright rates for all broadcasts, internet broadcasts, and downloads.