Yeah. That right there is enough reason against biometrics for me. I'd much rather have someone beat me up and steal my keys than beat me up and cut off my finger. Or pop out an eyeball.
Or if it's facial recognition software... they'd have to cut off your whole head.
It's our choice of course. However, you may regret those missed opportunities twenty years from now. "Saving yourself" for some conjectured Ms./Mr. Right is quite a gamble - you won't get that time back if the person doesn't materialize, or doesn't turn out to be the perfect mate you'd envisioned.
I second this. It might seem crass, but I regret that I didn't spend more of my youth getting laid and partying.
I'm older and fully 'settled down' now, so I'm not going to start acting like a wild teenager (because at this point, it would just be pathetic) but youth is for having fun. Don't waste the opportunity.
How funny that our tax dollars are being used to help a beligerant corporation make it's case, but why doesn't the common citizen get such help?
Maybe I'm missing something here...
You're not missing anything.
The government doesn't even pretend to be on the side of the 'little guy' anymore. They used to at least give lip service to the idea, but now they don't even try to hide their kleptocracy.
Not to offend, but perhaps they realize that college isn't the place that you [sic] learn about new things. Why would I pay several thousand a year to learn something that I can learn on the internet?
One of the things people learn in college is that not everyone learns things the same way. Some people learn by reading books, some people learn by listening to the teacher, some from the internet, etc. Just because you learn best by gathering information from websites doesn't mean everyone else learns equally well the same way.
Then again, I've never heard any athlete complain about how unfair the BMI is.
I have... One of my former trainers had trouble getting health insurance because his BMI was above the 'obese' limit, and there wasn't an ounce of fat on the guy.
d) Although the execution was botched, while Democrats and liberals bemoan dictatorships around the world, George Bush put 200,000 boots on the ground to try and bring about democracy in a severely troubled part of the world.
The idea of bringing democracy to the severely troubled part of the world mainly came around after the WMDs never materialized. The initial reasons given were Iraq's bio/chem/nuclear weapons, violations of the 1991 ceasefire, and ties to al-Qaeda. The war resolution did cite the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, but that was never heavily promoted at the start of the war. After the main reasons that were given failed, that was the one stuck.
Anyway, if valiant-but-half-assed-execution gets a pass, try applying that logic to the Bay of Pigs invasion or the Iran hostage rescue and the like. Do you think fondly of those as well?
I pay for roads that I use, it's called a toll. In any case, in this society if you pay taxes you lose.
I'm familiar with tolls; I just don't know how you travel anywhere only driving on toll-roads, since most roads are publicly funded through taxes. Unless you're living in some libertarian paradise that I don't know about, I'm guessing you probably still use plenty of public services, directly and indirectly, that you're not paying for.
Roads are only one example. If you're not paying taxes, then you're benefiting from the suckers who are paying taxes- actually paying more than they should be, to make up for your freeloading.
The UCS support for Global Warming is one of the reasons I have been so skeptical of it. I used to give a lot of creditability to UCS, then I noticed that they always oppose Republicans and usually support Democrats (I would say always, but I might have missed the occasional opposition to a Democrat idea).
Yeah, be careful. Facts have a well-known liberal bias.
Yep, that's just you. I would pay user fees for things I need instead.
So we've established that you don't pay taxes.
How much money do you send to the local/state/federal government every time you drive on one of their roads? I'd be interested in knowing what the going rate is. Do you just send them a check every time you drive anywhere?
This being the case, I don't see how he can legally suspend the elections next year to avoid a transfer of power. Even in a state of emergency, it isn't legal or even constitutional to suspend elections.
Since when has Bush and friends given a shit about "legal and constitutional" ?
(Disclaimer: I do think Bush will step down from the presidency when he's supposed to, but I don't think he's got much respect for the law and constitution when it doesn't suit him.)
Alcohol withdrawal differs significantly from withdrawal from other drugs in that it can be directly fatal. While it is possible for heroin addicts, for instance, to die from other health problems made worse by the strain of withdrawal, an otherwise healthy alcoholic can die from the direct effects of withdrawal if it is not properly managed. Heavy consumption of alcohol reduces the production of GABA, which is a neuroinhibitor. An abrupt stop of alcohol consumption can induce a condition where neither alcohol nor GABA exists in the system in adequate quantities, causing uncontrolled firing of the synapses. This manifests as hallucinations, shakes, convulsions, seizures, and possible heart failure, all of which are collectively referred to as delirium tremens. All of these withdrawal issues can be safely controlled with a medically supervised detox.
Not only is alcohol physically addictive, it's even worse than heroin and nicotine.
Actually, many historians agree that a Jesus of Nazereth did, indeed, exist. He's on roman tax rolls. You might remember that jesus was born in a manger because Mary and Joseph had to travel to Josephs hometown in order to be included in the first Roman census of the holy lands.
Except there's no historical record of the Roman census as described in the bible.
Luke 2: 1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.
Quirinius was not governor of Syria when Herod was king. There was a census after Herod was dead, but that was years after Jesus was supposedly born.
And besides, what kind of census requires people to travel? The point of a census is to count people where they are, not where their great, great, great, great, great (etc.) grandfather David was from.
Basically they're attempting to backfit the story to the prophecy- The Messiah is supposed to be descended from David, so this tale is created to link Jesus with David, although it's historically impossible that it happened this way.
Scientists describe such a system as self-organizing.
Kind of like tribalism? It worked pretty well as an organizational system for pretty much all(99.9%+) of human history (except for a few cultures that developed in the past few thousand years.)
Yeah, you must be one of those people who believe that Christianity is simply the "stuff that Jesus said". As a matter of fact I am. To be more precise, the stuff that Jesus taught.
The problem with this is our only link to what Jesus may have said comes from a book assembled a few hundred years after his death by a bunch of guys who had their own reasons (such as suppressing various inconvenient sects) for determining what Jesus may or may not have said, from a huge number of various conflicting accounts, many of which never made it into the bible (and haven't been seen since.)
And that's assuming Jesus existed at all in the first place.
Because Clinton is the Official Moral Standard of the Republican Party.
Once it is known that Clinton has done something, that makes it OK for a Republican to do something similar.
For example, it's now permissible for a Republican to rape underage puppies, because "Clinton did it first!" when he got a beej from a consenting adult human.
First, human are pack animals and form and identify with herds instinctively. Some such packs are known as "Democrats", "Republicans", "USA", "Catholic Church", "Salvation Army", "Al Qaeda", "Nintendo fanboys", etc. The need to belong is no lesser in humans than in, say, dogs; we will do almost anything to get accepted into a pack.
I agree with your point, but I think using the terms "packs" and "herds" for human groupings usually have some negative connotations- i.e. "herd mentality" and the like. Human organization in a "natural state" (I hate that term, but I think it somewhat conveys what I'm trying to say here) would be a tribe. We weren't born civilization-builders... that only came a few thousand years ago in a few locations. Before that, it was all tribes, for the other 99.9% of human history. So we do have biological instincts towards tribal organization.
The only reason that's a problem is because the pro bowler is playing at the same time as the your friend's friends. How about if your friend hires a pro bowler to teach him how to bowl better the week before you all play. That's not bad is it? (Although you'd probably get annoyed if he really did get a lot better and beat you all...)
Well no, that's not a bad thing, but we're getting away from the original problem here.
If you took lessons on how to be a better game player, that's something different from paying someone else to actually play the game for you.
And you survived just fine. Whereas if people are given "free" treatment, it costs taxpayers thousands of dollars to have a doctor look at them for a "problem" that isn't serious at all. You just demonstrated exactly why a state-funded system is a bad idea. I see that sort of abuse all the time here in Canada. People going to the emergency room for a headache, and other such stupidity. It deffinitely doesn't happen when you're the one paying for it.
I did survive, although I do have some lingering permanent effects which likely could have been minimized by prompt medical treatment. I was lucky in my case, I suppose. What my point really was though, is that in the current American system, the people who really get screwed are the ones who have crappy insurance, people who work for a living but don't make much, etc. The truly poor can get free treatment. The well-off are able to pay out of pocket, or have nice insurance plans. Those in the middle can end up bankrupt, easily.
Regarding the emergency room for a headache thing, we get that kind of stupidity here too, from people who are given free treatment. The alternative would be to potentially deny treatment for poor people who do need it. There's always going to be some people who manage to abuse the system, no matter what that system is.
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Any judge worth his salt is going to see what's going on here,
Maybe so, but I wouldn't want to count on getting one of those.
If he was demanded to do so, it's not poor human behavior, it's called "doing your job".
"Doing your job" doesn't absolve you from all ethical concerns.
How well does the "I was just following orders" defense work?
Yeah. That right there is enough reason against biometrics for me. I'd much rather have someone beat me up and steal my keys than beat me up and cut off my finger. Or pop out an eyeball.
Or if it's facial recognition software... they'd have to cut off your whole head.
Sex when I was 18 was awkward and boring, I can't imagine the kind of horrible flopping around I would have had if I had been 14 or 15.
Maybe if you started at 14 or 15, it wouldn't have been so awkward by the time you were 18.
Practice makes perfect.
I second this.
It might seem crass, but I regret that I didn't spend more of my youth getting laid and partying.
I'm older and fully 'settled down' now, so I'm not going to start acting like a wild teenager (because at this point, it would just be pathetic) but youth is for having fun. Don't waste the opportunity.
How funny that our tax dollars are being used to help a beligerant corporation make it's case, but why doesn't the common citizen get such help?
Maybe I'm missing something here...
You're not missing anything.
The government doesn't even pretend to be on the side of the 'little guy' anymore.
They used to at least give lip service to the idea, but now they don't even try to hide their kleptocracy.
Not to offend, but perhaps they realize that college isn't the place that you [sic] learn about new things. Why would I pay several thousand a year to learn something that I can learn on the internet?
One of the things people learn in college is that not everyone learns things the same way. Some people learn by reading books, some people learn by listening to the teacher, some from the internet, etc.
Just because you learn best by gathering information from websites doesn't mean everyone else learns equally well the same way.
College works really well for a lot of people.
Then again, I've never heard any athlete complain about how unfair the BMI is.
I have...
One of my former trainers had trouble getting health insurance because his BMI was above the 'obese' limit, and there wasn't an ounce of fat on the guy.
d) Although the execution was botched, while Democrats and liberals bemoan dictatorships around the world, George Bush put 200,000 boots on the ground to try and bring about democracy in a severely troubled part of the world.
The idea of bringing democracy to the severely troubled part of the world mainly came around after the WMDs never materialized. The initial reasons given were Iraq's bio/chem/nuclear weapons, violations of the 1991 ceasefire, and ties to al-Qaeda. The war resolution did cite the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, but that was never heavily promoted at the start of the war. After the main reasons that were given failed, that was the one stuck.
Anyway, if valiant-but-half-assed-execution gets a pass, try applying that logic to the Bay of Pigs invasion or the Iran hostage rescue and the like. Do you think fondly of those as well?
I pay for roads that I use, it's called a toll. In any case, in this society if you pay taxes you lose.
I'm familiar with tolls; I just don't know how you travel anywhere only driving on toll-roads, since most roads are publicly funded through taxes. Unless you're living in some libertarian paradise that I don't know about, I'm guessing you probably still use plenty of public services, directly and indirectly, that you're not paying for.
Roads are only one example. If you're not paying taxes, then you're benefiting from the suckers who are paying taxes- actually paying more than they should be, to make up for your freeloading.
The UCS support for Global Warming is one of the reasons I have been so skeptical of it. I used to give a lot of creditability to UCS, then I noticed that they always oppose Republicans and usually support Democrats (I would say always, but I might have missed the occasional opposition to a Democrat idea).
Yeah, be careful.
Facts have a well-known liberal bias.
Yep, that's just you. I would pay user fees for things I need instead.
So we've established that you don't pay taxes.
How much money do you send to the local/state/federal government every time you drive on one of their roads?
I'd be interested in knowing what the going rate is.
Do you just send them a check every time you drive anywhere?
Contrary to protestations of the left, many of us Republicans like what the President is doing just fine.
Could you name a few things he's done well?
I can't think of a single one.
This being the case, I don't see how he can legally suspend the elections next year to avoid a transfer of power. Even in a state of emergency, it isn't legal or even constitutional to suspend elections.
Since when has Bush and friends given a shit about "legal and constitutional" ?
(Disclaimer: I do think Bush will step down from the presidency when he's supposed to, but I don't think he's got much respect for the law and constitution when it doesn't suit him.)
Sorry to pick a nit, but I had to throw in here...
from wiki:
Not only is alcohol physically addictive, it's even worse than heroin and nicotine.
Do you have the Playboy Channel?
No need. I have the internet.
It's like an open sewer of filth pipelined into my house...
And that's the way I like it.
Except there's no historical record of the Roman census as described in the bible.
Quirinius was not governor of Syria when Herod was king. There was a census after Herod was dead, but that was years after Jesus was supposedly born.
And besides, what kind of census requires people to travel? The point of a census is to count people where they are, not where their great, great, great, great, great (etc.) grandfather David was from.
Basically they're attempting to backfit the story to the prophecy- The Messiah is supposed to be descended from David, so this tale is created to link Jesus with David, although it's historically impossible that it happened this way.
Scientists describe such a system as self-organizing.
Kind of like tribalism? It worked pretty well as an organizational system for pretty much all(99.9%+) of human history (except for a few cultures that developed in the past few thousand years.)
Yeah, you must be one of those people who believe that Christianity is simply the "stuff that Jesus said". As a matter of fact I am. To be more precise, the stuff that Jesus taught.
The problem with this is our only link to what Jesus may have said comes from a book assembled a few hundred years after his death by a bunch of guys who had their own reasons (such as suppressing various inconvenient sects) for determining what Jesus may or may not have said, from a huge number of various conflicting accounts, many of which never made it into the bible (and haven't been seen since.)
And that's assuming Jesus existed at all in the first place.
And why are we even talking about Bill Clinton?!
Because Clinton is the Official Moral Standard of the Republican Party.
Once it is known that Clinton has done something, that makes it OK for a Republican to do something similar.
For example, it's now permissible for a Republican to rape underage puppies, because "Clinton did it first!" when he got a beej from a consenting adult human.
Or when questioning the loving nature of a God that would let children die of guinea worms, we are told "His ways are beyond our understanding".
Guinea worms need to eat too.
Maybe the loving nature of God means he loves guinea worms as much as he loves humans.
It's possible that the real reason he uses cash is because he doesn't like being tracked.
Maybe he obtained his cash illegally, and not having a bank account or credit history makes the money trail harder to follow.
I agree with your point, but I think using the terms "packs" and "herds" for human groupings usually have some negative connotations- i.e. "herd mentality" and the like. Human organization in a "natural state" (I hate that term, but I think it somewhat conveys what I'm trying to say here) would be a tribe. We weren't born civilization-builders... that only came a few thousand years ago in a few locations. Before that, it was all tribes, for the other 99.9% of human history. So we do have biological instincts towards tribal organization.
The only reason that's a problem is because the pro bowler is playing at the same time as the your friend's friends. How about if your friend hires a pro bowler to teach him how to bowl better the week before you all play. That's not bad is it? (Although you'd probably get annoyed if he really did get a lot better and beat you all...)
Well no, that's not a bad thing, but we're getting away from the original problem here.
If you took lessons on how to be a better game player, that's something different from paying someone else to actually play the game for you.
And you survived just fine. Whereas if people are given "free" treatment, it costs taxpayers thousands of dollars to have a doctor look at them for a "problem" that isn't serious at all. You just demonstrated exactly why a state-funded system is a bad idea. I see that sort of abuse all the time here in Canada. People going to the emergency room for a headache, and other such stupidity. It deffinitely doesn't happen when you're the one paying for it.
I did survive, although I do have some lingering permanent effects which likely could have been minimized by prompt medical treatment. I was lucky in my case, I suppose. What my point really was though, is that in the current American system, the people who really get screwed are the ones who have crappy insurance, people who work for a living but don't make much, etc. The truly poor can get free treatment. The well-off are able to pay out of pocket, or have nice insurance plans. Those in the middle can end up bankrupt, easily.
Regarding the emergency room for a headache thing, we get that kind of stupidity here too, from people who are given free treatment. The alternative would be to potentially deny treatment for poor people who do need it.
There's always going to be some people who manage to abuse the system, no matter what that system is.