The assholes in front of you, and the assholes behind you.
To be more precise, most people who are still in front of me are driving too fast, and are therefore "maniacs." The people behind me were driving way too slow, so they are "morons."
Most driving problems only occur when there is some maniac behind you that can't get by, or some moron in front of you that just won't speed up or get out of the way.
Sadam, during his 25 year reign, was responsible for some 1.2 million deaths. Also for the creation of over 4 million refugees, but we'll ignore that one for now. Break that down to a daily average and you have roughly 140 death per day for 25 years.
Obviously Saddam Hussein was a bad guy- no one is going to deny that.
However, breaking down 'deaths per day' the way you did is pretty meaningless. Its like saying there is a war that lasted one year where 3650 people died on the first day in the initial invasion, and no-one died for the rest of the year. So on average, 10 people died per day, but that's not really representative of what happened in reality. It's misleading.
I'm not saying it went down like this, and it almost certainly didn't, but for arguments sake he could have killed 1.2 million people in the first 20 years of his reign, then saw the error of his ways and then didn't kill anyone for the next 5 years. Invading at that point wouldn't have resulted in saving any lives.
Try ignoring the media and talking to your soldiers some time if you want a realistic picture of how things are going in Iraq.
I admit I've only talked to a few soldiers about it, but the 'realistic picture' they painted was that Iraq is a complete mess, marked by gross incompetence in managing the war, and cover-ups in hiding that incompetence.
Like I said though, that was only a few soldiers opinions, so it might not be representative of what's going on all over the place. However, hearing it from them made it sound a lot worse than even the media has been portraying it.
God is not a human being. Deception, angriness, purposefulness, there are all signs of a finite being.
I'm not sure what your point is, but if you're a religious kook just keep in mind that the bible is full of instances where god acts like a complete douchebag, including deception, anger, etc.
So that would indicate the bible (and god) were created by finite beings?
Think about it. The least restricted areas are always the most productive, whether by area we're talking about a neighborhood, a country, or an industrial sector. The polities that most thoroughly purge libertarian principles - the soviet union being a prominent example - collapse under their own inability to work.
Check the production figures on the Soviet Union in the 50s and 60s. They were outproducing the US. Sustainable? Apparently not. But for short-term ramping-up production, Soviet-style communism can't be beat.
Of course, industrial production isn't necessarily the proper measure of a society, but you can't claim that "the least restricted areas are always the most productive." That's just not true.
The real problem is convincing people that preventing global warming matters. So what if a bunch of coast floods? Humanity has lived through worse. I say bring it on!
Next time some nut starts to explain how "Jesus saved" or "God's love will guide you". Call them on it. Explain to them that what they believe is a fairy tale with zero evidence.
Usually I start by asking them to explain the coincidental similarities between their One True Religion and the following false gods:
I'm not going to cause myself hardship over a dramaqueen.
Then don't. The original poster indicated s/he thought the police were in the wrong here, but would have slinked out of the library instead of doing anything about it.
If actual violence occurs, that's where I draw the line. So getting tasered doesn't count as violence? I'm not sure what you point here is.
When was the last time you sacrificed your career and financial stability to ease someone's discomfort?
I've done it plenty, thanks. It's called standing up for what you believe in and trying to make a difference.
Our libraries aren't even open that late, and this punk dares to act indignant when he has to show his student id? They should've maced him too while they were at it.
The guy was indeed acting like an asshole, but that doesn't necessarily justify an escalation of force. It appears that the police did little to try to diffuse the situation, and instead immediately increased the level of force. Perhaps a judgment call. However, zapping him with a taser while he was handcuffed and subdued has no justification.
I've been in situations where the police were threatening to arrest me for something I didn't do, and demanded identification. I initially refused, and wow- they didn't torture me until I gave in.
using the common civil disobedience protest tactic of "de-arresting" someone. You get everyone in the immediate area to put their arms around his body and don't let go, and just drag him away.
That's a good idea, but it's hard enough to pull off with proper planning and a dedicated group of people in support. I doubt a bunch of strangers in a library could band together and pull it off spontaneously.
Medical insurance, unless you have some severe, traumatic injury, is a worthless investment. You're better off investing what you would pay in premiums to a company in a good mutual fund and use the money when/if you need it.
And in the case of the severe, traumatic injury, chances are the medical insurance will still only cover a fraction of that, and you'll end up declaring bankruptcy if you can't pay for it.
Aren't most bankruptcies in the US caused by medical expenses, and involving people who do have insurance, no less?
My favorite is still the intern who accidentally typed 'rm -rf / home/user' as root. The machine wasn't very important and the data was restorable from tape but it was still pretty funny to see the look on his face when he realized what he had done.
Similar story- once I was looking for a file so I tried to type "dir *.txt/s" or something similar from a DOS prompt, but my fingers typed "del *.txt/s" instead. Luckily I was able to stop it before it went through all of my directories, and undelete most of the files, but it taught me to be more careful in typing.
First of all killing an innocent child is clearly the far greater evil compared to killing a guilty man. The death penalty is just and not immoral under certain circumstances. The problem is that it is not merciful which is why the Church has prohibited it.
The church teaches that we're all sinners, and worthy of death- even unborn children. So really, there's no difference according to church doctrine between killing a guilty man or killing a child. The point remains that church doctrine is quite clearly against abortion and the death penalty, so it's equally hypocritical for a pro-death penalty catholic vs a pro-choice catholic.
If they subscribe to Catholic doctrine, yet vote for a pro-choice Democrat, then they are indeed hypocrites.
Or if they subscribe to Catholic doctrine, yet vote for a pro-death penalty, pro-war, anti-helping-the-poor, etc Republican, that would also make them a hypocrite.
Best to not vote at all then? Or is abortion the only issue that should matter to a Catholic?
Given a choice only between, say, two pro-life or two pro-choice candidates, it would not surprise me were a considerable number of people to simply abstain from voting in that race.
I see what you're saying, but in that case I would argue that it's better to accept the fact that a pro-life (or pro-choice) candidate is going to win either way, and vote for the one you find more agreeable on other issues, even if abortion is your #1 issue.
Working in a crap job really sucks, but know what's worse? Being broke all the time. You will not be happy being broke.
So if you'll still be doing pretty well for yourself with the fun job, do that. If you'll be barely squeaking by, no amount of 'fun' on the job will make up for it.
Oh that's been getting old since the Korean War. For fucks sake, it's a war. Was war officially declared? No. But let's say I walk up to you and punch you in the face. If you just fall down and don't hit back, well that's assault on my part. If you hit me back, that's a fight. Just because we didn't declare our intentions to fight, we still had a bloody fight.
How about this- your fight analogy would still result in you both getting arrested, since fighting is illegal... Unless your fight was legally sanctioned by a boxing commission, for example. The declaration of war is the boxing commission. Otherwise, your war is illegal.
As for Iraq, I'm stuck back on Article I Section 8 of the constitution - you know the part that limits military budgets to 2 years. I think that really prohibits the whole foreign invasion that lasts forever thing and makes any other question about Iraq sort of irrelevant.
pfft.. The constitution? Since when did anyone pay attention to that old rag?
Such is the great conceit of Americans, to think that the legal system of a foreign country timed a verdict so as to coincide with our mid-term elections. Not much less of a conceit to suggest that they should modify their schedule so as to minimize the appearance of impropriety to a bunch of foreign conspiracy theorists.
This isn't some random foreign country. It's Iraq, which is occupied, and to a large extent, run by the US government. Not saying the judgment was deliberately timed, but if the US government wanted it to be released on a certain date, it wouldn't be too tough for them to arrange it.
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It might be hard to convince a crowd of 20-30 people to stick their hands in a bunch of black boxes, though.
That's easy- just stick the Gom Jabbar into their neck if they refuse.
The assholes in front of you, and the assholes behind you.
To be more precise, most people who are still in front of me are driving too fast, and are therefore "maniacs." The people behind me were driving way too slow, so they are "morons."
Most driving problems only occur when there is some maniac behind you that can't get by, or some moron in front of you that just won't speed up or get out of the way.
In that case, my apologies and thanks for answering my post;-)
heh, I wasn't the original AC responder, so no need to apologize to me.
Given your choice of AC, I take it you don't know who Kevin Mitnick was...
I'm not an AC, I know who Kevin Mitnick is, and I still don't care what he thinks about this.
Sadam, during his 25 year reign, was responsible for some 1.2 million deaths. Also for the creation of over 4 million refugees, but we'll ignore that one for now. Break that down to a daily average and you have roughly 140 death per day for 25 years.
Obviously Saddam Hussein was a bad guy- no one is going to deny that.
However, breaking down 'deaths per day' the way you did is pretty meaningless.
Its like saying there is a war that lasted one year where 3650 people died on the first day in the initial invasion, and no-one died for the rest of the year. So on average, 10 people died per day, but that's not really representative of what happened in reality. It's misleading.
I'm not saying it went down like this, and it almost certainly didn't, but for arguments sake he could have killed 1.2 million people in the first 20 years of his reign, then saw the error of his ways and then didn't kill anyone for the next 5 years. Invading at that point wouldn't have resulted in saving any lives.
Try ignoring the media and talking to your soldiers some time if you want a realistic picture of how things are going in Iraq.
I admit I've only talked to a few soldiers about it, but the 'realistic picture' they painted was that Iraq is a complete mess, marked by gross incompetence in managing the war, and cover-ups in hiding that incompetence.
Like I said though, that was only a few soldiers opinions, so it might not be representative of what's going on all over the place. However, hearing it from them made it sound a lot worse than even the media has been portraying it.
God is not a human being. Deception, angriness, purposefulness, there are all signs of a finite being.
I'm not sure what your point is, but if you're a religious kook just keep in mind that the bible is full of instances where god acts like a complete douchebag, including deception, anger, etc.
So that would indicate the bible (and god) were created by finite beings?
Think about it. The least restricted areas are always the most productive, whether by area we're talking about a neighborhood, a country, or an industrial sector. The polities that most thoroughly purge libertarian principles - the soviet union being a prominent example - collapse under their own inability to work.
Check the production figures on the Soviet Union in the 50s and 60s.
They were outproducing the US. Sustainable? Apparently not. But for short-term
ramping-up production, Soviet-style communism can't be beat.
Of course, industrial production isn't necessarily the proper measure of a society, but you can't claim that "the least restricted areas are always the most productive."
That's just not true.
The real problem is convincing people that preventing global warming matters. So what if a bunch of coast floods? Humanity has lived through worse. I say bring it on!
I suppose you live inland?
Next time some nut starts to explain how "Jesus saved" or "God's love will guide you". Call them on it. Explain to them that what they believe is a fairy tale with zero evidence.
Usually I start by asking them to explain the coincidental similarities between their One True Religion and the following false gods:
Dionysus
Isis
Osiris>
Mithras
I'm not going to cause myself hardship over a dramaqueen.
Then don't. The original poster indicated s/he thought the police were in the wrong here, but would have slinked out of the library instead of doing anything about it.
If actual violence occurs, that's where I draw the line.
So getting tasered doesn't count as violence? I'm not sure what you point here is.
When was the last time you sacrificed your career and financial stability to ease someone's discomfort?
I've done it plenty, thanks. It's called standing up for what you believe in and trying to make a difference.
Our libraries aren't even open that late, and this punk dares to act indignant when he has to show his student id? They should've maced him too while they were at it.
The guy was indeed acting like an asshole, but that doesn't necessarily justify an escalation of force. It appears that the police did little to try to diffuse the situation, and instead immediately increased the level of force. Perhaps a judgment call. However, zapping him with a taser while he was handcuffed and subdued has no justification.
I've been in situations where the police were threatening to arrest me for something I didn't do, and demanded identification. I initially refused, and wow- they didn't torture me until I gave in.
Activism is fun and all, but as a student I can't afford to lose any of my hardware or $$$ (in bail money and legal fees).
Translation: I enjoy having rights, but won't lift a finger to defend them if it could potentially cause some hardship for me.
Seriously, if everyone thought like you, we'd all be serfs and slaves.
using the common civil disobedience protest tactic of "de-arresting" someone. You get everyone in the immediate area to put their arms around his body and don't let go, and just drag him away.
That's a good idea, but it's hard enough to pull off with proper planning and a dedicated group of people in support. I doubt a bunch of strangers in a library could band together and pull it off spontaneously.
Medical insurance, unless you have some severe, traumatic injury, is a worthless investment. You're better off investing what you would pay in premiums to a company in a good mutual fund and use the money when/if you need it.
And in the case of the severe, traumatic injury, chances are the medical insurance will still only cover a fraction of that, and you'll end up declaring bankruptcy if you can't pay for it.
Aren't most bankruptcies in the US caused by medical expenses, and involving people who do have insurance, no less?
My favorite is still the intern who accidentally typed 'rm -rf / home/user' as root. The machine wasn't very important and the data was restorable from tape but it was still pretty funny to see the look on his face when he realized what he had done.
/s" or something similar from a DOS prompt, but my fingers typed "del *.txt /s" instead. Luckily I was able to stop it before it went through all of my directories, and undelete most of the files, but it taught me to be more careful in typing.
Similar story- once I was looking for a file so I tried to type "dir *.txt
Various Native and indigenous people live in South America.
If you really want to get picky, "native" and "indigenous" people live in South America, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Those words just mean: having originated in and being produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment
First of all killing an innocent child is clearly the far greater evil compared to killing a guilty man. The death penalty is just and not immoral under certain circumstances. The problem is that it is not merciful which is why the Church has prohibited it.
The church teaches that we're all sinners, and worthy of death- even unborn children. So really, there's no difference according to church doctrine between killing a guilty man or killing a child.
The point remains that church doctrine is quite clearly against abortion and the death penalty, so it's equally hypocritical for a pro-death penalty catholic vs a pro-choice catholic.
If they subscribe to Catholic doctrine, yet vote for a pro-choice Democrat, then they are indeed hypocrites.
Or if they subscribe to Catholic doctrine, yet vote for a pro-death penalty, pro-war, anti-helping-the-poor, etc Republican, that would also make them a hypocrite.
Best to not vote at all then? Or is abortion the only issue that should matter to a Catholic?
All elections should be write-in only. If you can't name at least one candidate why should you be voting at all?
And wow- John Smith beats Mieczyslaw Krzyzewski by a landslide!
You don't have to watch the legislature debate channel (do you guys have those in the US?)
Yeah, CSPAN and CSPAN2.
The best part is watching people give passionate speeches to nearly empty rooms.
Given a choice only between, say, two pro-life or two pro-choice candidates, it would not surprise me were a considerable number of people to simply abstain from voting in that race.
I see what you're saying, but in that case I would argue that it's better to accept the fact that a pro-life (or pro-choice) candidate is going to win either way, and vote for the one you find more agreeable on other issues, even if abortion is your #1 issue.
Working in a crap job really sucks, but know what's worse?
Being broke all the time. You will not be happy being broke.
So if you'll still be doing pretty well for yourself with the fun job, do that.
If you'll be barely squeaking by, no amount of 'fun' on the job will make up
for it.
Oh that's been getting old since the Korean War. For fucks sake, it's a war. Was war officially declared? No. But let's say I walk up to you and punch you in the face. If you just fall down and don't hit back, well that's assault on my part. If you hit me back, that's a fight. Just because we didn't declare our intentions to fight, we still had a bloody fight.
How about this- your fight analogy would still result in you both getting arrested, since fighting is illegal...
Unless your fight was legally sanctioned by a boxing commission, for example.
The declaration of war is the boxing commission. Otherwise, your war is illegal.
As for Iraq, I'm stuck back on Article I Section 8 of the constitution - you know the part that limits military budgets to 2 years. I think that really prohibits the whole foreign invasion that lasts forever thing and makes any other question about Iraq sort of irrelevant.
pfft.. The constitution? Since when did anyone pay attention to that old rag?
Such is the great conceit of Americans, to think that the legal system of a foreign country timed a verdict so as to coincide with our mid-term elections. Not much less of a conceit to suggest that they should modify their schedule so as to minimize the appearance of impropriety to a bunch of foreign conspiracy theorists.
This isn't some random foreign country. It's Iraq, which is occupied, and to a large extent, run by the US government.
Not saying the judgment was deliberately timed, but if the US government wanted it to be released on a certain date, it wouldn't be too tough for them to arrange it.