The Hollywood studios behind these bills are some of Obama's biggest contributors. His "expression of concern" is just a pathetic attempt to play both sides of the fence. He would as soon deliver a State of the Union speech in the nude than to veto one of these bills (or anything similar).
What makes you think he wouldn't want to do a State of the Union speech in the nude? As much face time as he's put in on the TV, I bet he'd love to.
Traffic courts are the end point of a revenue supply stream. Judges do not make, "Gee, was there a valid reason?" types of decisions. They make "Is it humanly possible to apply this law here and are all the 'T's crossed?" types of decisions.
Also there is a general "knowledge" that speed is the ultimate "safety sin" that is so far from correct. The government's own NHTSA report that was released after 10 years of the "55 mile-an-hour limit" had background data that when analyzed (by someone other then the government) showed that the safest speed to be traveling was 5 to 10 mph faster then the general flow of traffic. That same study "proved" that 55 saved lives: after ignoring any other possible source for a reduction in deaths per mile such as much safer cars, massive improvements in tire safety, seat belt laws, etc... So after going with the spin that nothing else could have effected the number of fatalities, the best number they could come up with worked out to it costing an additional 150 man/years (from the reduced speeds) on the roads for every life saved. (One independent analysis pointed out that you could get the same expected reduction in fatalities by increasing the actual tire pressure in all cars by about 2 psi.)
Lets be serious. Traffic enforcement is about revenue. Speed is easy to prove, it is fun/interesting for cops to enforce and the public has been led to believe that SPEED is the big scary thing,... and lets be honest, there is something in the back of the average person's head that doesn't want someone to pass them. If speed was the CAUSE of an accident then there would be a speed where when you reached it the accident would ensue.
I wish I still had mod points. This is exactly it. It's far harder to prove that someone was tailgating, or driving erratically or aggressively a mile back, or failing to use their turn signal. I cant' believe how many people are too lazy to flick their finger to let the other people in their proximity, also operating a moving 2 ton vehicle, know that they have an intention of changing direction. That kind of crap causes more accidents than speeding ever will, unless the speeding is truly excessive and reckless -which usually, it isn't.
I'm sorry but I have never seen such gratuitous overuse of commas in my life. It's like driving a car while hitting the brakes every few feet; start, stop, start, stop, start..
Nice example. Anyone who's read Beowulf or other Anglo Saxon works can see the influence they had on Tolkien's writing, and if you're a fan of that kind of thing, you'll appreciate him more. If not, I can understand that too.
That said, I have to admit I got tired of his constant use of "hither" and especially "thither". That was a little too archaic for even my tastes.
As perhaps an interesting side note, after I finished reading LotR, I started on the Sword of Truth series. In contrast, that was almost like reading a comic book, but it was refreshing. For a while.
It had always been on my "to do" list, and after having found a great deal on the books I couldn't refuse, I finally read the LotR trilogy (or whatever it is, technically) this past summer.
What I found a bit odd was how in the beginning, in Bag End, and throughout the chapter(s?) with Tom Bombadil, it seemed at times a little silly (I don't at all miss Bombadil in the movies honestly); but once they got to Bree and met Strider, things started to get more serious, into epic. By the time you're reading "Return of the King", it almost seems like a different kind of story from "Fellowship of the Ring".
I'll admit, at times I too found it tedious; I usually skimmed through the singing parts, which personally I found gratuitous, but I realize there are some who love that kind of thing. Overall though, I feel it was a fairly rich reading experience, and I'm glad I stuck with it.
I just bought the Hobbit recently, so now I'm on to that soon, at least before the movie is out. If I've seen the movie first, I can never quite "overwrite" those actors with my own character interpretation. It's kinda weird when you have a mix of characters in a story, some you've seen portrayed in the movies before you read the book, and some you've imagined yourself from reading the book, and still await to see on the screen.
Either way you look at it, water is the enemy. Let's get rid of the stuff! I propose a giant space straw.. we'll just stick a big pump on the moon and suck it up to the Lunar surface. Instant space beachfront property.
When I was younger, I could just never get into D&D, even though shortly after high school I had a friend who was really into it. Years later, after computer gaming and FPS'ers were big, the idea of rolling dice to determine the outcome of a battle still didn't sound appealing to me..maybe even less so.
Now, many, many years later, being a fantasy/sword 'n' sorcery fan, I'd be willing to give it a shot, but the wife would probably pack up and leave. She's got a grudge against D&D, as her ex used to play it all the time and ignore her or something. Ah well. Maybe I can get away with reading the manuals, just to keep the peace while satisfying my curiosity.
They don't increase. It's just that as everything else declines, they seem to be the only things that still work. Stop romanticizing aging. It's a decline of everything, there's nothing noble or great about it. I've been saying for years that peak human life is only about 10-20 years long,
I don't think anyone was romanticizing aging, just making some valid observable points about the value of experience. Of course, since you say "I've been saying for years.." I guess we're to take your word as an authority on the subject?
Even worse for some of us state workers. NJ had a hiring/raise freeze -at least for my dept- since about 2006; it's only now loosening up, but not a whole lot. The benefits are getting whittled away too. (Hours are good though)
if you could get a similar result much cheaper by using projectors near the ceiling, since detail is not important.
Does look neat though, I'd like it. I'm building a room (studio) in my basement, I was actually considering - among other designs- of painting the ceiling like a blue sky with clouds. That'd be static though of course.
You had me until the swipe at the UK. I'm American, but the UK is not a theocracy and it's monarchy is mostly pomp and show, for historic/cultural reasons. I'd trust the UK with nukes more than I would most other nations.
Well, it is not that clear and cut shenanigans. Hussein *had* chemical and biological WMDs. Hussein had plans for nukes. These - and the fact that he used it against it's own nation and enemy in Iran's war - were reasons for sanctions. Which in the end were very effective, because it pushed Hussein to liquidate his WMD program (yes, they also did lot of harm to common crowd, I know).
That last part makes me question how "effective" they were, in a sense. Hussein hoarded what money the country did have or get, built all those palaces while his people starved and died, and all the while the US got the blame for it, as if we withheld food and medical supplies.
Further, the sanctions necessitated our military to remain in bases in Saudi Arabia, which is what pissed off Bin Laden enough to get him to start seriously planning against the US. 9-11 didn't happen because we invaded Afghanistan or Iraq, of course, but because after expelling Hussein from Kuwait, we stuck around the region for another 10 years enforcing the sanctions, and the ceasefire which Hussein routinely violated. Kinda lose-lose.
Posting in a story from the same IP address you modded from will remove your mods. Whether the post is logged in or AC makes no difference.
Then what if you used your same account/name from a different machine with a different IP? That'll definitely wipe em out. I would think it's tied to your account, not IP.
An AC just informed me, it depends on whether you post first or mod first (as AC) but doesn't tell you. Tricky!
Even assuming this is true, how's that increase job growth exactly?
The one thing that government really needs to do, it will never do- streamline efficiency and stop the culture of waste. It's horribly inefficient. The budget system is broken. In my state gov't, for example,each little dept is given a set budget each year; some years they need to spend more, others, less, as would be expected; but if by the end of the fiscal year they haven't spent all of the monies they were allotted, the budget for next year will be reduced. No one wants this, so to prevent that from happening, they just blow the remainder of their budget on BS, rather than return it, roll it over into next year, or otherwise apply it usefully. It's wasteful. And that's just one example.
We could get the same benefits and services now for a lot less than they spend, but government looks at their income (collected taxes) as people look at Doritos - "they'll make more" (for us).
I've never used any backup solution on any platform that wasn't a complete piece of crap.
I'll second this, to a degree. Backups are generally nightmares, especially in a mixed environment like I have -NetWare, Linux, and Windows. IT people who don't have to work with them tend to think backups aren't much more than a simple data copy, what could be easier, right? But they require constant handholding, and troubleshooting; they're very IO intense and highly sensitive to any glitch in the OS or network: I've used ARCserve, Arkeia, and Backup Express (Syncsort) - still sticking with the latter though that's been a rough ride at times too.
As long as we're comiserating about incompetent techs and crappy internet providers, here's my little gem of a story.
I'm not thrilled about the notion of moving to Comcast's internet service, (Comcast sometimes gets under my skin) but I've totally had it with Verizon's DSL division. Nothing could be worse.
Months ago, I called the Verizon DSL division to see about getting a newer DSL modem, as mine was one of the first ones Verizon distributed, it was 10 to 11 years old. And sorta slow.
After a long hold time, I talked to a tech, apparently on the other side of the world, they said I should definitely upgrade it, and said they'd send me a new modem in 2 to 3 weeks, and if I sent my original back within 30 days there's no charge. Cool beans.
So two weeks later I get in the mail....a phone cord! Ta-da! Are they kidding? Seriously?
I called them back, and after waiting on hold for 40 minutes, said I was expecting a new modem, and I hoped they didn't expect me to send my original back yet, or charge me for a modem I didn't get. This tech -also from the other side of the planet- gives me the same story, 2 to 3 weeks, yadda yadda.. 3 weeks later, I get in the mail... a DSL filtering kit. What the fuck? They're idiots!
You would think I'm making this up but they're actually this incompetent, it'd be funny as hell if it didn't' piss me off.
My wife called them back this time, for a third shot at it, she also waited 40 minutes, but she finally talked to someone within 2000 miles of our house. He apologized, and offered to make it up to us by not only sending their top of the line DSL modem, but by also waiving the necessity of sending the original one back, to make up for the aggravation. I really don't care about their top of the line modem, I just wanted one a newer one without bells and whistles, but the wife had said okay, so....
Finally, this time I actually got the modem. Yay. Only, it's got built-in wireless and routing, and I already have a wireless Linksys router with a lot of customized configuration on it (mac table filter, etc); I just need a DSL *modem*. I'd been busy lately and I wasn't looking forward to the hassle of getting the new wireless router/modem to play nice with my network, so I put off installing it. (Maybe I could just have left the wireless bit turned off, I'm not sure).
More to the point, I also didn't send the old one back, as 1) we were told we wouldn't be asked to, as part of the "restitution", and 2) I was still using it.
So, two months later, we got charged $65 for the top of the line modem we weren't supposed to get charged for. FML. And, because they didn't like how we wouldn't pay for it at first, they cut off my cell phone service! (We have all 3 plans -landline, cell, internet- bundled) The wife paid them just to get my cell service back, despite my protests.
I could call them back yet again, but what difference would it make? They won't clear it up, they're utterly incompetent. And I don't believe in calling the BBB, they're just in bed with the corporations.
I say 3 strikes and you're out. Screw these assholes. And honestly, Comcast is faster anyway, I've seen neighbor's connections. I'm canceling my account next week and going cable, and when they ask why, I'll ask for a manager so he can get an earful. Hopefully I can sell the DSL kit and modem on eBay and get some of my money back.
And isn't it interesting how these innocent mistakes ALWAYS occur in their favor, and just about never in the customers'. If they were genuine mistakes, probability suggests they could go either way. But somehow, these innocent mistakes seem to always favor the company. At least, that's been my experience; I've never been told the company owes me, or that a bill was paid when it wasn't. But I've been double billed before.
Lately, I'm getting sick of Verizon. I still think they have the best cell service, despite this latest BS, but this coming year I'm dropping my lousy DSL account. Their service for that dept is horrible, and outsourced to people you can't understand, and who apparently cannot communicate with Billing properly either.
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I have to wonder, since the constitution explicitly reads "useful Arts"... what's an example of a useless art?
The Hollywood studios behind these bills are some of Obama's biggest contributors. His "expression of concern" is just a pathetic attempt to play both sides of the fence. He would as soon deliver a State of the Union speech in the nude than to veto one of these bills (or anything similar).
What makes you think he wouldn't want to do a State of the Union speech in the nude? As much face time as he's put in on the TV, I bet he'd love to.
Tell it to Bonnie and Clyde, who were ambushed and shot up like swiss cheese.. It's not new.
Traffic courts are the end point of a revenue supply stream. Judges do not make, "Gee, was there a valid reason?" types of decisions. They make "Is it humanly possible to apply this law here and are all the 'T's crossed?" types of decisions. Also there is a general "knowledge" that speed is the ultimate "safety sin" that is so far from correct. The government's own NHTSA report that was released after 10 years of the "55 mile-an-hour limit" had background data that when analyzed (by someone other then the government) showed that the safest speed to be traveling was 5 to 10 mph faster then the general flow of traffic. That same study "proved" that 55 saved lives: after ignoring any other possible source for a reduction in deaths per mile such as much safer cars, massive improvements in tire safety, seat belt laws, etc... So after going with the spin that nothing else could have effected the number of fatalities, the best number they could come up with worked out to it costing an additional 150 man/years (from the reduced speeds) on the roads for every life saved. (One independent analysis pointed out that you could get the same expected reduction in fatalities by increasing the actual tire pressure in all cars by about 2 psi.) Lets be serious. Traffic enforcement is about revenue. Speed is easy to prove, it is fun/interesting for cops to enforce and the public has been led to believe that SPEED is the big scary thing, ... and lets be honest, there is something in the back of the average person's head that doesn't want someone to pass them. If speed was the CAUSE of an accident then there would be a speed where when you reached it the accident would ensue.
I wish I still had mod points. This is exactly it. It's far harder to prove that someone was tailgating, or driving erratically or aggressively a mile back, or failing to use their turn signal. I cant' believe how many people are too lazy to flick their finger to let the other people in their proximity, also operating a moving 2 ton vehicle, know that they have an intention of changing direction. That kind of crap causes more accidents than speeding ever will, unless the speeding is truly excessive and reckless -which usually, it isn't.
Nope, I don't miss it at all. It would be better expressed as poetry then, rather than prose. Using a comma every dozen words is just bad writing.
I'm sorry but I have never seen such gratuitous overuse of commas in my life. It's like driving a car while hitting the brakes every few feet; start, stop, start, stop, start..
Nice example. Anyone who's read Beowulf or other Anglo Saxon works can see the influence they had on Tolkien's writing, and if you're a fan of that kind of thing, you'll appreciate him more. If not, I can understand that too.
That said, I have to admit I got tired of his constant use of "hither" and especially "thither". That was a little too archaic for even my tastes.
As perhaps an interesting side note, after I finished reading LotR, I started on the Sword of Truth series. In contrast, that was almost like reading a comic book, but it was refreshing. For a while.
It had always been on my "to do" list, and after having found a great deal on the books I couldn't refuse, I finally read the LotR trilogy (or whatever it is, technically) this past summer. What I found a bit odd was how in the beginning, in Bag End, and throughout the chapter(s?) with Tom Bombadil, it seemed at times a little silly (I don't at all miss Bombadil in the movies honestly); but once they got to Bree and met Strider, things started to get more serious, into epic. By the time you're reading "Return of the King", it almost seems like a different kind of story from "Fellowship of the Ring".
I'll admit, at times I too found it tedious; I usually skimmed through the singing parts, which personally I found gratuitous, but I realize there are some who love that kind of thing. Overall though, I feel it was a fairly rich reading experience, and I'm glad I stuck with it.
I just bought the Hobbit recently, so now I'm on to that soon, at least before the movie is out. If I've seen the movie first, I can never quite "overwrite" those actors with my own character interpretation. It's kinda weird when you have a mix of characters in a story, some you've seen portrayed in the movies before you read the book, and some you've imagined yourself from reading the book, and still await to see on the screen.
Either way you look at it, water is the enemy. Let's get rid of the stuff! I propose a giant space straw.. we'll just stick a big pump on the moon and suck it up to the Lunar surface. Instant space beachfront property.
When I was younger, I could just never get into D&D, even though shortly after high school I had a friend who was really into it. Years later, after computer gaming and FPS'ers were big, the idea of rolling dice to determine the outcome of a battle still didn't sound appealing to me..maybe even less so.
Now, many, many years later, being a fantasy/sword 'n' sorcery fan, I'd be willing to give it a shot, but the wife would probably pack up and leave. She's got a grudge against D&D, as her ex used to play it all the time and ignore her or something. Ah well. Maybe I can get away with reading the manuals, just to keep the peace while satisfying my curiosity.
They don't increase. It's just that as everything else declines, they seem to be the only things that still work. Stop romanticizing aging. It's a decline of everything, there's nothing noble or great about it. I've been saying for years that peak human life is only about 10-20 years long,
I don't think anyone was romanticizing aging, just making some valid observable points about the value of experience. Of course, since you say "I've been saying for years.." I guess we're to take your word as an authority on the subject?
Even worse for some of us state workers. NJ had a hiring/raise freeze -at least for my dept- since about 2006; it's only now loosening up, but not a whole lot. The benefits are getting whittled away too. (Hours are good though)
Fucking Amen, this is truth, at least, from my experience.
if you could get a similar result much cheaper by using projectors near the ceiling, since detail is not important.
Does look neat though, I'd like it. I'm building a room (studio) in my basement, I was actually considering - among other designs- of painting the ceiling like a blue sky with clouds. That'd be static though of course.
You had me until the swipe at the UK. I'm American, but the UK is not a theocracy and it's monarchy is mostly pomp and show, for historic/cultural reasons. I'd trust the UK with nukes more than I would most other nations.
Castro hasn't managed to do a great job of deflecting blame on the US amongst his people, either for example.
Seems to have worked on Danny Glover and Sean Penn though ..
Rather ironic that a country named "Greece" would be hurting for oil :-)
Ba dum dum
*groan*
Well, it is not that clear and cut shenanigans. Hussein *had* chemical and biological WMDs. Hussein had plans for nukes. These - and the fact that he used it against it's own nation and enemy in Iran's war - were reasons for sanctions. Which in the end were very effective, because it pushed Hussein to liquidate his WMD program (yes, they also did lot of harm to common crowd, I know).
That last part makes me question how "effective" they were, in a sense. Hussein hoarded what money the country did have or get, built all those palaces while his people starved and died, and all the while the US got the blame for it, as if we withheld food and medical supplies.
Further, the sanctions necessitated our military to remain in bases in Saudi Arabia, which is what pissed off Bin Laden enough to get him to start seriously planning against the US. 9-11 didn't happen because we invaded Afghanistan or Iraq, of course, but because after expelling Hussein from Kuwait, we stuck around the region for another 10 years enforcing the sanctions, and the ceasefire which Hussein routinely violated. Kinda lose-lose.
Posting in a story from the same IP address you modded from will remove your mods. Whether the post is logged in or AC makes no difference.
Then what if you used your same account/name from a different machine with a different IP? That'll definitely wipe em out. I would think it's tied to your account, not IP.
An AC just informed me, it depends on whether you post first or mod first (as AC) but doesn't tell you. Tricky!
777
Even assuming this is true, how's that increase job growth exactly?
The one thing that government really needs to do, it will never do- streamline efficiency and stop the culture of waste. It's horribly inefficient. The budget system is broken. In my state gov't, for example,each little dept is given a set budget each year; some years they need to spend more, others, less, as would be expected; but if by the end of the fiscal year they haven't spent all of the monies they were allotted, the budget for next year will be reduced. No one wants this, so to prevent that from happening, they just blow the remainder of their budget on BS, rather than return it, roll it over into next year, or otherwise apply it usefully. It's wasteful. And that's just one example.
We could get the same benefits and services now for a lot less than they spend, but government looks at their income (collected taxes) as people look at Doritos - "they'll make more" (for us).
You can reply as an anonymous coward in threads where you've moderated.
I've never used any backup solution on any platform that wasn't a complete piece of crap.
I'll second this, to a degree. Backups are generally nightmares, especially in a mixed environment like I have -NetWare, Linux, and Windows. IT people who don't have to work with them tend to think backups aren't much more than a simple data copy, what could be easier, right? But they require constant handholding, and troubleshooting; they're very IO intense and highly sensitive to any glitch in the OS or network: I've used ARCserve, Arkeia, and Backup Express (Syncsort) - still sticking with the latter though that's been a rough ride at times too.
I always wondered why Peter Parker never developed 4 more limbs, or at the very least, 6 more eyes. Mary Jane would've just loved that.
As long as we're comiserating about incompetent techs and crappy internet providers, here's my little gem of a story. ..a phone cord! Ta-da! Are they kidding? Seriously?
I'm not thrilled about the notion of moving to Comcast's internet service, (Comcast sometimes gets under my skin) but I've totally had it with Verizon's DSL division. Nothing could be worse. Months ago, I called the Verizon DSL division to see about getting a newer DSL modem, as mine was one of the first ones Verizon distributed, it was 10 to 11 years old. And sorta slow. After a long hold time, I talked to a tech, apparently on the other side of the world, they said I should definitely upgrade it, and said they'd send me a new modem in 2 to 3 weeks, and if I sent my original back within 30 days there's no charge. Cool beans.
So two weeks later I get in the mail..
I called them back, and after waiting on hold for 40 minutes, said I was expecting a new modem, and I hoped they didn't expect me to send my original back yet, or charge me for a modem I didn't get. This tech -also from the other side of the planet- gives me the same story, 2 to 3 weeks, yadda yadda.. 3 weeks later, I get in the mail... a DSL filtering kit. What the fuck? They're idiots!
You would think I'm making this up but they're actually this incompetent, it'd be funny as hell if it didn't' piss me off.
My wife called them back this time, for a third shot at it, she also waited 40 minutes, but she finally talked to someone within 2000 miles of our house. He apologized, and offered to make it up to us by not only sending their top of the line DSL modem, but by also waiving the necessity of sending the original one back, to make up for the aggravation. I really don't care about their top of the line modem, I just wanted one a newer one without bells and whistles, but the wife had said okay, so....
Finally, this time I actually got the modem. Yay. Only, it's got built-in wireless and routing, and I already have a wireless Linksys router with a lot of customized configuration on it (mac table filter, etc); I just need a DSL *modem*. I'd been busy lately and I wasn't looking forward to the hassle of getting the new wireless router/modem to play nice with my network, so I put off installing it. (Maybe I could just have left the wireless bit turned off, I'm not sure).
More to the point, I also didn't send the old one back, as 1) we were told we wouldn't be asked to, as part of the "restitution", and 2) I was still using it.
So, two months later, we got charged $65 for the top of the line modem we weren't supposed to get charged for. FML. And, because they didn't like how we wouldn't pay for it at first, they cut off my cell phone service! (We have all 3 plans -landline, cell, internet- bundled) The wife paid them just to get my cell service back, despite my protests.
I could call them back yet again, but what difference would it make? They won't clear it up, they're utterly incompetent. And I don't believe in calling the BBB, they're just in bed with the corporations.
I say 3 strikes and you're out. Screw these assholes. And honestly, Comcast is faster anyway, I've seen neighbor's connections. I'm canceling my account next week and going cable, and when they ask why, I'll ask for a manager so he can get an earful. Hopefully I can sell the DSL kit and modem on eBay and get some of my money back.
And isn't it interesting how these innocent mistakes ALWAYS occur in their favor, and just about never in the customers'. If they were genuine mistakes, probability suggests they could go either way. But somehow, these innocent mistakes seem to always favor the company. At least, that's been my experience; I've never been told the company owes me, or that a bill was paid when it wasn't. But I've been double billed before.
Lately, I'm getting sick of Verizon. I still think they have the best cell service, despite this latest BS, but this coming year I'm dropping my lousy DSL account. Their service for that dept is horrible, and outsourced to people you can't understand, and who apparently cannot communicate with Billing properly either.