Well, I haven't seen such a proud display of ignorance for quite some time. Modern cars are so much more reliable, powerful, fuel efficient and safe due to all that "electronic crap". Fuel, injection, engine timing, gear shifts. etc... are all control electronically on most new cars. You can make an automatic transmission a lot smarter if you have software determining shifts instead of fluid pressure.
The average driver isn't that good, and the computer driven car only has to be better than how people drive. In the USA about 30,000 people die each year in car accidents, and many more are injured. I'm betting driver error was the cause of 90% of these accidents.
Computer driven cars are going to save lives, reduce congestion, and save money.
Man, the USA is weird. All this talk about freedom, but you allow, nay demand, to live in a police state. The police in Canada would not arrest you for an un-returned video no matter how long you had it because it is an obvious civil matter to be resolved by small claims court. It isn't theft, it is breach of contract. In Canada if you rent something and keep it too long it isn't theft. Yes, you have broken the law, and the owner of the video can take you to court, but you can't go to jail unless you fail to return the video after losing your small claims case, and then you would be going to jail for contempt, not theft.
Are Americans ready to admit they don't have a free market,that they do not have a truly capitalist system, but have a government completely beholden to the rich and corporations?
I truly feel I'm watched the rise, am watching the decline, and soon, will be watching the fall of the USA.
Just because your government is incompetent doesn't mean all governments are incompetent. Heck, I've even heard of a government agency putting a man on the moon.
I agree that in many places in the USA it is too hard to fire teachers. But, not all unions are evil, and unions DO help prevent abuses by employers. Anyone who says an employee can just take another job is ignoring the reality that in 99% of cases the employer has MUCH more power than the employee.
That said, I agree that tenure should only be for university professors, not high school teachers.
And most of the civilized world thinks it is crazy that any judge faces elections on a regular basis. In Canada ALL judges are lifetime posts to shield them from outside pressures. Our equivalence of "attorney general" are completely non-political; it is never a stepping stone to political office. The USA has way more outside influences on its judicial system than any other western nation.
My kids are little angels too, of course, but some of their friends are just like that. and their parents! Storming in to the principals office and demanding A's!! Little Johnny won't get into the good schools if he doesn't have A's!! Oh I know, traditionally you have to work hard for A's, but our family is rich! Those rules don't apply to us!
The rant regarding poor parenting might have been a bit emotional, but he is right. Study, after study, has shown the number one indicator of student success is how involved the child's parents are in the education. Being involved does not mean letting your kid flout school rules, it means helping with homework, instilling discipline, supporting teachers when bad behavior crops up, and showing to your kids with word and deed that you think education is important.
Coming from a place where only university profs get tenure, how hard it is to fire a truly bad teacher seems crazy. Our teachers are unionized, but bad teachers get fired after all the proper procedures are followed. BUT the parent described in the rant pretty much guarantees an uneducated child.
Today's cars are much, much more reliable than the cars I grew up with. Modern cars don't need yearly tuneups. There are no points to adjust. No crappy, complicated, and finicky carburetors to rebuild, today's spark plugs last for 100,000 or more km, etc...
So that isn't an issue.
We have always had mandatory insurance up here so that isn't an issue.
But none of my three kids drive, only one even bothered to get a learners license while I was at the drivers license office 5 minutes after I turned 16. Lots of my kids friends don't drive. Part is public transit is better, and part is it is easier to arrange real life meetings when everyone has a cell phone.
I used to drive to three friends places and pick them up. My kids all converge on their meeting spot, always in contact with each other, no wondering where the hell Bill got to.
Banks were not forced to lend to people who could not pay. Banks paid big bonuses to people to sign up as many people as possible, whether they could pay or not, then repackaged those bad mortgages as financial instruments that the rating firms then rated as AAA when they were junk, sold to investors, and laughed as they made big bucks while the economy crashed.
I guess it depends where you live, but up here in Vancouver BC, healthy fresh food is quite a but cheaper than processed food, fast food, and junk food. You have to be able to cook, but cooking is so easy you teach your average 12 year old in a few months.
I do recall a visiting consultant being amazed at our selection of fresh fruits and veggies at the local grocery store, and it was a store with a pretty small selection. Seems in a lot of places in the USA just finding healthy fresh food can be hard.
I don't collect stamps. Is everything I do militant not collecting stamps?
Being an Atheist is like not collecting stamps. The non stamp collector doesn't want the stamp collectors passing laws that make non stamp collectors second class citizens, but most of the time the non stamp collector is not obsessing about not collecting stamps.
Capitalism is a good system to allocate scarce resources, and it has created wealth for a lot of people, but raw, unfettered capitalism is a disaster for the average person. For a just society to work with our current level of technology capitalism and free markets are an important part of a mix of policies that should include socialist elements to ensure everyone has at least a minimally satisfying life.
Believing there is only one true way to run a society, for example dog eat dog capitalism, or strict communism, generally leads to disaster. A mix of elements that has been shown to produce the best result for the most people should be used. And that best mix has been shown to be a mixed economy like those in northern Europe, France, and somewhat in Canada. The more laissez faire capitalism of the USA is a failure compared to these countries when you look at objective yard sticks like life expectancy, income disparity, social mobility, average salaries, access to medical care, education, etc...
As an atheist I often recommend that my religious friend read the bible. Most haven't read the "good book", and most find actually reading it a much better argument against being religious than anything I could tell them.
It is long past the time when any religion should expect the government to take any notice of its beliefs in a secular society. A secular society should ignore religion because if you don't, how do you draw the line? Should I be allowed to stone my neighbor to death if he doesn't observe the Sabbath? Allow my child to die from an easily cured malady because I believe in faith healing?
Religion has no place in making the laws of a secular nation.
As a Canadian, it seems that the only policy the Republicans have is "vote no to anything Obama or any Democrat proposes". We don't care that Obama won the presidential election, we will thwart the will of the people for our rich masters. We will do our best to raise taxes on the poor and middle class while giving the rich tax breaks. We will reduce food stamps to the poor. We will do our best to ensure the middle class have the worst access to health care of any western nation. We will continue to show we say we are Christians while doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus preached.
That last bit of hypocrisy is particularly galling.
This is another very good example why a single payer system is better. Is it any of your employers business if you are using contraceptives? I would say no - even if you are a nun. With a single payer system only you and your doctor know what medical treatments you are using.
Wage disparity, a lack of social mobility, low wages, greedy CEO's with obscene salaries are all real problems, but these protesters are clueless.
Busing is not driving up rent, being a good place to live is driving up rent. Someone busing isn't "rich".
Want to do some good? Vote to get a higher minimum wage. Vote to strengthening union laws and get rid of union busting laws. Improve the social safety net. Improve labour laws, especially being able to be fired without cause.
We don't have a big problem with illegal immigration in Canada because we fine the shit out the COMPANIES that hire illegals. We don't fine the illegals, we just deport them. If there are no jobs for illegals you don't get many illegals. Lots of entry level jobs for locals.
I live in one of the world's most expensive cities when it comes to rent and real estate: Vancouver BC. For same $1.25 million that will buy you nice mansion in the Hollywood Hills you can get a nice crack house in Vancouver.. It is a real problem, but we don't have idiots breaking bus windows. We have the government stepping in and providing what we call social housing. You only pay 1/3 of your income and get a nice apartment. That is right, in Vancouver spending 1/3 of your gross income on rent is considered a GOOD deal. Good government can do good. I don't know why so many Americans think government can do no good when it is the fact you had good government for many generations to thank for your general wealth and civil society.
What else do we do? Virtually every home has an illegal suite in the basement being rented out. It helps pay the mortgage, and helps with housing. It got to the point where most municipalities threw in the towel and made the suites legal. Many people give up, and move farther, and farther from downtown Vancouver, but even in socialist Canada we don't get mobs attacking honest hard working people taking the environmental friendly bus instead of an SUV.
Sure, there have been protests against gentrification. People walking on sidewalks with signs, yelling at passerby's in the downtown east side. One restaurant that opened in a very poor part of town had protesters out front for months because they thought it was wrong to open a restaurant they considered up scale. They ignored the fact the building had been vacant for 6 months, and the business hired locals in the kitchen. The protests seem to have increased business. I went to support them.
These bus window breaking protesters are just vandals. Housing Markets can be weird, you just have to deal with it. Sometime that means moving. I had to move when I bought my place.
Socially progressive policies can help, but vandalism doesn't help any ones cause.
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Well, I haven't seen such a proud display of ignorance for quite some time. Modern cars are so much more reliable, powerful, fuel efficient and safe due to all that "electronic crap". Fuel, injection, engine timing, gear shifts. etc... are all control electronically on most new cars. You can make an automatic transmission a lot smarter if you have software determining shifts instead of fluid pressure.
The average driver isn't that good, and the computer driven car only has to be better than how people drive. In the USA about 30,000 people die each year in car accidents, and many more are injured. I'm betting driver error was the cause of 90% of these accidents.
Computer driven cars are going to save lives, reduce congestion, and save money.
Man, the USA is weird. All this talk about freedom, but you allow, nay demand, to live in a police state. The police in Canada would not arrest you for an un-returned video no matter how long you had it because it is an obvious civil matter to be resolved by small claims court. It isn't theft, it is breach of contract. In Canada if you rent something and keep it too long it isn't theft. Yes, you have broken the law, and the owner of the video can take you to court, but you can't go to jail unless you fail to return the video after losing your small claims case, and then you would be going to jail for contempt, not theft.
Are Americans ready to admit they don't have a free market,that they do not have a truly capitalist system, but have a government completely beholden to the rich and corporations?
I truly feel I'm watched the rise, am watching the decline, and soon, will be watching the fall of the USA.
Just because your government is incompetent doesn't mean all governments are incompetent. Heck, I've even heard of a government agency putting a man on the moon.
I agree that in many places in the USA it is too hard to fire teachers. But, not all unions are evil, and unions DO help prevent abuses by employers. Anyone who says an employee can just take another job is ignoring the reality that in 99% of cases the employer has MUCH more power than the employee.
That said, I agree that tenure should only be for university professors, not high school teachers.
And most of the civilized world thinks it is crazy that any judge faces elections on a regular basis. In Canada ALL judges are lifetime posts to shield them from outside pressures. Our equivalence of "attorney general" are completely non-political; it is never a stepping stone to political office. The USA has way more outside influences on its judicial system than any other western nation.
re: anti bad parent and unruly student rant...
My kids are little angels too, of course, but some of their friends are just like that. and their parents! Storming in to the principals office and demanding A's!! Little Johnny won't get into the good schools if he doesn't have A's!! Oh I know, traditionally you have to work hard for A's, but our family is rich! Those rules don't apply to us!
The rant regarding poor parenting might have been a bit emotional, but he is right. Study, after study, has shown the number one indicator of student success is how involved the child's parents are in the education. Being involved does not mean letting your kid flout school rules, it means helping with homework, instilling discipline, supporting teachers when bad behavior crops up, and showing to your kids with word and deed that you think education is important.
Coming from a place where only university profs get tenure, how hard it is to fire a truly bad teacher seems crazy. Our teachers are unionized, but bad teachers get fired after all the proper procedures are followed. BUT the parent described in the rant pretty much guarantees an uneducated child.
Today's cars are much, much more reliable than the cars I grew up with. Modern cars don't need yearly tuneups. There are no points to adjust. No crappy, complicated, and finicky carburetors to rebuild, today's spark plugs last for 100,000 or more km, etc...
So that isn't an issue.
We have always had mandatory insurance up here so that isn't an issue.
But none of my three kids drive, only one even bothered to get a learners license while I was at the drivers license office 5 minutes after I turned 16. Lots of my kids friends don't drive. Part is public transit is better, and part is it is easier to arrange real life meetings when everyone has a cell phone.
I used to drive to three friends places and pick them up. My kids all converge on their meeting spot, always in contact with each other, no wondering where the hell Bill got to.
You shop everyday or two, not once a week. Duh.
Banks were not forced to lend to people who could not pay. Banks paid big bonuses to people to sign up as many people as possible, whether they could pay or not, then repackaged those bad mortgages as financial instruments that the rating firms then rated as AAA when they were junk, sold to investors, and laughed as they made big bucks while the economy crashed.
Greed and deregulation caused the crash.
I guess it depends where you live, but up here in Vancouver BC, healthy fresh food is quite a but cheaper than processed food, fast food, and junk food. You have to be able to cook, but cooking is so easy you teach your average 12 year old in a few months.
I do recall a visiting consultant being amazed at our selection of fresh fruits and veggies at the local grocery store, and it was a store with a pretty small selection. Seems in a lot of places in the USA just finding healthy fresh food can be hard.
Isn't it immoral to starve people when you don't need to?
Plus your math is wrong. Each year, you generate $15b in costs over 10 years so each year you get $13b in the hole.
I don't collect stamps. Is everything I do militant not collecting stamps?
Being an Atheist is like not collecting stamps. The non stamp collector doesn't want the stamp collectors passing laws that make non stamp collectors second class citizens, but most of the time the non stamp collector is not obsessing about not collecting stamps.
Capitalism is a good system to allocate scarce resources, and it has created wealth for a lot of people, but raw, unfettered capitalism is a disaster for the average person. For a just society to work with our current level of technology capitalism and free markets are an important part of a mix of policies that should include socialist elements to ensure everyone has at least a minimally satisfying life.
Believing there is only one true way to run a society, for example dog eat dog capitalism, or strict communism, generally leads to disaster. A mix of elements that has been shown to produce the best result for the most people should be used. And that best mix has been shown to be a mixed economy like those in northern Europe, France, and somewhat in Canada. The more laissez faire capitalism of the USA is a failure compared to these countries when you look at objective yard sticks like life expectancy, income disparity, social mobility, average salaries, access to medical care, education, etc...
Economic dogma is just as bad as religious dogma.
As an atheist I often recommend that my religious friend read the bible. Most haven't read the "good book", and most find actually reading it a much better argument against being religious than anything I could tell them.
god allows suffering because god doesn't exist.
It is long past the time when any religion should expect the government to take any notice of its beliefs in a secular society. A secular society should ignore religion because if you don't, how do you draw the line? Should I be allowed to stone my neighbor to death if he doesn't observe the Sabbath? Allow my child to die from an easily cured malady because I believe in faith healing?
Religion has no place in making the laws of a secular nation.
As a Canadian, it seems that the only policy the Republicans have is "vote no to anything Obama or any Democrat proposes". We don't care that Obama won the presidential election, we will thwart the will of the people for our rich masters. We will do our best to raise taxes on the poor and middle class while giving the rich tax breaks. We will reduce food stamps to the poor. We will do our best to ensure the middle class have the worst access to health care of any western nation. We will continue to show we say we are Christians while doing exactly the opposite of what Jesus preached.
That last bit of hypocrisy is particularly galling.
This is another very good example why a single payer system is better. Is it any of your employers business if you are using contraceptives? I would say no - even if you are a nun. With a single payer system only you and your doctor know what medical treatments you are using.
It's your voters you need to out source.
Wage disparity, a lack of social mobility, low wages, greedy CEO's with obscene salaries are all real problems, but these protesters are clueless.
Busing is not driving up rent, being a good place to live is driving up rent. Someone busing isn't "rich".
Want to do some good? Vote to get a higher minimum wage. Vote to strengthening union laws and get rid of union busting laws. Improve the social safety net. Improve labour laws, especially being able to be fired without cause.
We don't have a big problem with illegal immigration in Canada because we fine the shit out the COMPANIES that hire illegals. We don't fine the illegals, we just deport them. If there are no jobs for illegals you don't get many illegals. Lots of entry level jobs for locals.
It would take a LOT of buses to affect the price of housing in SF - it isn't a little town.
The busing is NOT driving up prices. Being a desirable place to live, and attracting a lot of people is driving up prices.
I live in one of the world's most expensive cities when it comes to rent and real estate: Vancouver BC. For same $1.25 million that will buy you nice mansion in the Hollywood Hills you can get a nice crack house in Vancouver.. It is a real problem, but we don't have idiots breaking bus windows. We have the government stepping in and providing what we call social housing. You only pay 1/3 of your income and get a nice apartment. That is right, in Vancouver spending 1/3 of your gross income on rent is considered a GOOD deal. Good government can do good. I don't know why so many Americans think government can do no good when it is the fact you had good government for many generations to thank for your general wealth and civil society.
What else do we do? Virtually every home has an illegal suite in the basement being rented out. It helps pay the mortgage, and helps with housing. It got to the point where most municipalities threw in the towel and made the suites legal. Many people give up, and move farther, and farther from downtown Vancouver, but even in socialist Canada we don't get mobs attacking honest hard working people taking the environmental friendly bus instead of an SUV.
Sure, there have been protests against gentrification. People walking on sidewalks with signs, yelling at passerby's in the downtown east side. One restaurant that opened in a very poor part of town had protesters out front for months because they thought it was wrong to open a restaurant they considered up scale. They ignored the fact the building had been vacant for 6 months, and the business hired locals in the kitchen. The protests seem to have increased business. I went to support them.
These bus window breaking protesters are just vandals. Housing Markets can be weird, you just have to deal with it. Sometime that means moving. I had to move when I bought my place.
Socially progressive policies can help, but vandalism doesn't help any ones cause.