Right now most of the world is displeased with the US because of the isolationist policies of the current administration.
WTF Mate? Isolationist policies? How the hell does that reconcile with "spreading democracy?" We do not have "isolationist policies." We have unilateral, interventionist policies, not isolationist policies. The war in Iraq is an interventionist policy, and a multinationalist one at that. Granted we supply most (~90%) of the funding and troops, but there are other nations that supported the war, including but not limited to: England, Australia, Japan, Spain (till they pulled out), Holland, and Denmark.
Lets look at the rest of your post.
Africa - Displeasure about the US not doing enough to fight disease/hunger/internal wars.
Okay, not doing anything about Africa is isolationist. Intervening would be stepping into a quagmire, we should know, we've tried it before. If anybody (non-African) has a responsibilty to do anything about Africa, it is Europe. Maybe they should clean up their mess on their own.
Middle East - Righteous anger about the US alignment with Israel and US foreign policies in the middle east, which has continued to increase and spiral into religious hatred towards the US itself
The hatred exist because we have an interventionist policy towards the Middle East, probably because they have a lot of oil. We like oil. We also had troops (foreign invaders; infidels) stationed in Saudi Arabi for 10 or so years. Saudi Arabi is the home to two of the holiest cities in Islam, and the presence of foreign troops was a great offence to many Muslims. We also support brutal dictators, i.e. Saddam Hussein in the '80s, and corrupt royals, i.e. the house of Saud. How did Shrub know Hussein had chemical weapons? He checked Daddy's reciepts.
As for Israel, the Israelis are more like us than the Arabs. The Israelis are also very pro America. Makes sense that we would support them. The Arab opposition to Israel, is partly due to Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and partly due to Arab racism. After all we don't do anything about the African problem, perhaps because they have no oil.
Cuba/Russia/China/N.Korea/Vietnam - hostilitiy of Communism vs Capitalism.
The only country in that list that is likely to go to war with the US is North Korea, because they have a paranoid lunatic for a leader. We have an embargo with Cuba (why?) and that will probably change within the next ten years. Castro's getting pretty old and frail, he can't last too much longer. After Castro, I would expect massive political change in Cuba and a lessening, if not removal of, the embargo against Cuba. The influx of money and tourists would have a significant impact on the political oppinions of Cubans. It will probably end up socialistic.
Europe/Canada - displeasure with the current US administration, and differences in culture.
It's been said that North America was divided wrong. It should have been divided vertically into three nations, rather than horizontally. West coast Americans and West coast Canadians have more in common than West coast Americans and midwest Americans or Easterners . South America - displeasure with economic aid & drug war.
The drug war is an interventionist policy. We are sending them money and telling what to do with it, hardly isolationist. We also have the School of the Americas (it has new name now, but it has the same mission), which trained Latin Americans in guerilla warfare. Essentially, it is a terrorist training camp. Look into it. This has been the policy under Democrat and Republican administrations.
As far as generics are concerned, let me tell you something. I work for a biotech company that makes OEM controls and calibrators for medical diagnostic machines for the large companies that make and sell these machines. In addition, we make "generic" controls and calibrators for the same machines. Often, the OEM lot and the generic lot are the exact same part number and lot number on the manufacturing level. The only difference being the bottle it's stored in and the label slapped on that bottle.
My point, in agreement with the parent post, is that there is often no meaningful difference between generic and name brand products.
The driver's license does not grant permission to use the roadways, it grants permission to operate a motor vehicle on publicly owned roads. As the roads are publicly owned and held in common, the public gets to decide the rules of usage. This is done through our elected representatives.
I used to do that at Albertsons, getting the cashier or some other person to swipe their card, until one day the cashier just gave me a card, no paperwork or name attached. I also pay cash for just about everything. Of course, that has a lot to do with my roommate paying his rent in cash.
Unfortunately it's difficult to see how you can change an agenda dominated by right-wing Christian fundamentalists: you cannot argue with these people, they are quite happy to choose their president based on only one issue (abortion) because the Church tells them to do so. Hate to say it, but they are apparently as impossible to reason with as Islamic terrorists.
What did you expect? Both groups are fundamentalists from similar religions.
However, I assure you, once the Iraqi people are back on their feet, the U.S. will leave--just like we said we will. I mean, why would we stay a second longer than we have to? Please don't tell me you're one of the people that buys that "No Blood for Oil" crap.
Oh I don't, maybe that were still in Germany and Japan, and that we're in well over 100 countries.
The Suicide Girls concept is about sharing the self-actualization of women in Portland's post-punk subculture.
John Katz? Is that you?
In an odd sort of way, I miss John Katz. While his editorials were always verbose and made you wonder what he was smoking, they were always entertaining.
No state is only 1 EV even DC is 3. The numbers are based on the number of house members and the number of senators from that state (min 3). If you dont know how the system works how can you have an informed opinion about how archaic it is?
Actually, while DC has 3 EVs, it does not actually have any true senators or representaives. It has what they call shadow representatives, essentially elected lobbyists, who do not have voting rights within congress.
While I am not a resident of DC, (California actually) I fully support the right of DC citizens to be represented in the congress.
The citizens of DC are subject to same taxation as the rest of us, yet have no representation. There was a congresswoman from DC with limited voting rights, but those were stripped after two years. For more information see:
Because somewhere around (i.e. pulled from my ass) 97% of Americans have never heard of the Libertarian Party and 99.9% of Americans have never heard of Michael Badnarik.
Actually, the debates were run by the LWV until 1984. The CPD let Perot debate in 1992, although these days they don't let third parties in by contractual agreement; which is hardly nonpartisan. See http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Commi ssion_on_Presidential_Debates
Many of us homebrewers have been making coffee beers for a long time, and they can quite good. I've got a mocha beer in the works right now. Young's makes a double chocolate stout that is really delicious. I'm not aware of any comercially available coffee beers though.
The SEC should be privatised into a non-profit or for-profit group, and they can put their "stamp on approval" on willing, paying corporations. Investors could see that regulations would still be in place for that company and continue to invest with a degree of confidence. It would be unlikely that established companies would forgo such voluntary regulation as they would want to maintain their investor confidence. Fraud would still be fraud in such a system--lying to the new SEC in order to recieve their blessing would still be illegal--and the new SEC would vigorously prosecute such offenses in order to protect its good name and investors would still have legal recourse to recoup losses in such a system. If the new SEC failed in its mission, the free market would give way to a better SEC. But this would be unlikely because the new SEC would have control over its own resources to ensure its good name--the government SEC is funded by tax dollars and has no real motivation to ensure compliance.
Sounds like ISO. My last company paid to be audited so that it could get ISO 9001 certified.
It's hard to understand exactly why the North Koreans are announcing to world that they are completing development of a nuclear device. Generally countries that do this try to keep the knowledge of research as secret as possible, and will avoid confirming possession of such devices at all costs. If you admit that you have a nuclear device, then you are responsible for whatever happens to it.
Deterrence.
Possession of a nuclear weapon inhibits invasion by foreign nations. However, a weapon's deterrent effect is negated by keeping the weapon a secret, so it is in North Korea's best interests to let the world know that it has a weapon.
In today's climate, any small country that deliberately precipitates an unannounced nuclear event runs the serious risk of losing its sovereignty. In other words, it would be invaded by everyone else in the world and its government disbanded in the interest of preserving the present nuclear truce and balance.
Any nation wishing to forcefully disarm a nuclear nation runs the risk of losing millions of its own citizens.
Those concepts seem to be the exact opposite of what The US did with Iraq.
The Bush administration thought Iraq was an iminent threat, (or so they claim), was developing nuclear weapons, and was going to give them to al-Quaeda to use on the US. So we:
(1) Judged Iraq guilty of going to use WMDs on the US.
Slashdot Mirror
Episode 2 of course was just "kill the bad guys".
You mean the invasion of Iraq?
I was thinking more along the lines of isolating us from our allies...
We do seem to be accomplishing that.
Right now most of the world is displeased with the US because of the isolationist policies of the current administration.
WTF Mate? Isolationist policies? How the hell does that reconcile with "spreading democracy?" We do not have "isolationist policies." We have unilateral, interventionist policies, not isolationist policies. The war in Iraq is an interventionist policy, and a multinationalist one at that. Granted we supply most (~90%) of the funding and troops, but there are other nations that supported the war, including but not limited to: England, Australia, Japan, Spain (till they pulled out), Holland, and Denmark.
Lets look at the rest of your post.
Africa - Displeasure about the US not doing enough to fight disease/hunger/internal wars.
Okay, not doing anything about Africa is isolationist. Intervening would be stepping into a quagmire, we should know, we've tried it before. If anybody (non-African) has a responsibilty to do anything about Africa, it is Europe. Maybe they should clean up their mess on their own.
Middle East - Righteous anger about the US alignment with Israel and US foreign policies in the middle east, which has continued to increase and spiral into religious hatred towards the US itself
The hatred exist because we have an interventionist policy towards the Middle East, probably because they have a lot of oil. We like oil. We also had troops (foreign invaders; infidels) stationed in Saudi Arabi for 10 or so years. Saudi Arabi is the home to two of the holiest cities in Islam, and the presence of foreign troops was a great offence to many Muslims. We also support brutal dictators, i.e. Saddam Hussein in the '80s, and corrupt royals, i.e. the house of Saud. How did Shrub know Hussein had chemical weapons? He checked Daddy's reciepts.
As for Israel, the Israelis are more like us than the Arabs. The Israelis are also very pro America. Makes sense that we would support them. The Arab opposition to Israel, is partly due to Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and partly due to Arab racism. After all we don't do anything about the African problem, perhaps because they have no oil.
Cuba/Russia/China/N.Korea/Vietnam - hostilitiy of Communism vs Capitalism.
The only country in that list that is likely to go to war with the US is North Korea, because they have a paranoid lunatic for a leader. We have an embargo with Cuba (why?) and that will probably change within the next ten years. Castro's getting pretty old and frail, he can't last too much longer. After Castro, I would expect massive political change in Cuba and a lessening, if not removal of, the embargo against Cuba. The influx of money and tourists would have a significant impact on the political oppinions of Cubans. It will probably end up socialistic.
Europe/Canada - displeasure with the current US administration, and differences in culture.
It's been said that North America was divided wrong. It should have been divided vertically into three nations, rather than horizontally. West coast Americans and West coast Canadians have more in common than West coast Americans and midwest Americans or Easterners
.
South America - displeasure with economic aid & drug war.
The drug war is an interventionist policy. We are sending them money and telling what to do with it, hardly isolationist. We also have the School of the Americas (it has new name now, but it has the same mission), which trained Latin Americans in guerilla warfare. Essentially, it is a terrorist training camp. Look into it. This has been the policy under Democrat and Republican administrations.
BBQs are NOT luxury items! Why, without my BBQ, I would starve to death BBQs are a necessity. And I live in a McCondo.
Trebuchets! Such fun little devices.
but...
but...
think of the CHILDREN!
As far as generics are concerned, let me tell you something. I work for a biotech company that makes OEM controls and calibrators for medical diagnostic machines for the large companies that make and sell these machines. In addition, we make "generic" controls and calibrators for the same machines. Often, the OEM lot and the generic lot are the exact same part number and lot number on the manufacturing level. The only difference being the bottle it's stored in and the label slapped on that bottle.
My point, in agreement with the parent post, is that there is often no meaningful difference between generic and name brand products.
The driver's license does not grant permission to use the roadways, it grants permission to operate a motor vehicle on publicly owned roads. As the roads are publicly owned and held in common, the public gets to decide the rules of usage. This is done through our elected representatives.
I used to do that at Albertsons, getting the cashier or some other person to swipe their card, until one day the cashier just gave me a card, no paperwork or name attached. I also pay cash for just about everything. Of course, that has a lot to do with my roommate paying his rent in cash.
It's actually a little less than the Federal Tax on gas.
s .h tml
D F .4 cents/gallon less than the national average.
The federal excise tax on gas 18.4 cents/gallon, whereas the state tax in 18.0 cents/gallon.
http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/gasoline_taxe
According to this site:
http://api-ep.api.org/filelibrary/ACF15F.P
the state excise tax is
I would much rather increase the tax on gas another 5 or 10 cents than put some sort of tracking device in my car.
I personally want to see our gig rise to the level of doctor, lawyer, professor, etc. I want to do meaningful, creative work.
And they all have unions.
Unfortunately it's difficult to see how you can change an agenda dominated by right-wing Christian fundamentalists: you cannot argue with these people, they are quite happy to choose their president based on only one issue (abortion) because the Church tells them to do so. Hate to say it, but they are apparently as impossible to reason with as Islamic terrorists.
What did you expect? Both groups are fundamentalists from similar religions.
However, I assure you, once the Iraqi people are back on their feet, the U.S. will leave--just like we said we will. I mean, why would we stay a second longer than we have to? Please don't tell me you're one of the people that buys that "No Blood for Oil" crap.
e 58 76.htm
Oh I don't, maybe that were still in Germany and Japan, and that we're in well over 100 countries.
http://www.cato.org/dailys/7-24-98.html
a newer link:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/articl
Maybe because the US has a long history of interfering with foreign nations for economic interests.
http://www.neravt.com/left/invade.htm
Considering this, I highly doubt we will just pick up and leave.
Actually, the body count is estimated to be around 100,000 civillians. Which makes your last statement even more true.
9 99 96596
See this article from New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns
The Suicide Girls concept is about sharing the self-actualization of women in Portland's post-punk subculture.
John Katz? Is that you?
In an odd sort of way, I miss John Katz. While his editorials were always verbose and made you wonder what he was smoking, they were always entertaining.
sept 11th was executed with box cutters
box cutters people
no amount of technological edge can defeat a few determined a**holes and a simple idea
we can spend 10 trillion on all sorts of technological doodads to fight terror
i just wonder what the next simple box cutters-level work around exploit will be
The Shift Key!
No state is only 1 EV even DC is 3. The numbers are based on the number of house members and the number of senators from that state (min 3). If you dont know how the system works how can you have an informed opinion about how archaic it is?
Actually, while DC has 3 EVs, it does not actually have any true senators or representaives. It has what they call shadow representatives, essentially elected lobbyists, who do not have voting rights within congress.
While I am not a resident of DC, (California actually) I fully support the right of DC citizens to be represented in the congress.
The citizens of DC are subject to same taxation as the rest of us, yet have no representation. There was a congresswoman from DC with limited voting rights, but those were stripped after two years. For more information see:
http://senatordc.wdcnet.net/why.html
Because somewhere around (i.e. pulled from my ass) 97% of Americans have never heard of the Libertarian Party and 99.9% of Americans have never heard of Michael Badnarik.
Ahh, so they're theorectical!
Actually, the debates were run by the LWV until 1984. The CPD let Perot debate in 1992, although these days they don't let third parties in by contractual agreement; which is hardly nonpartisan. See http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Commi ssion_on_Presidential_Debates
Many of us homebrewers have been making coffee beers for a long time, and they can quite good. I've got a mocha beer in the works right now. Young's makes a double chocolate stout that is really delicious. I'm not aware of any comercially available coffee beers though.
dont forget the cockroaches!
The SEC should be privatised into a non-profit or for-profit group, and they can put their "stamp on approval" on willing, paying corporations. Investors could see that regulations would still be in place for that company and continue to invest with a degree of confidence. It would be unlikely that established companies would forgo such voluntary regulation as they would want to maintain their investor confidence. Fraud would still be fraud in such a system--lying to the new SEC in order to recieve their blessing would still be illegal--and the new SEC would vigorously prosecute such offenses in order to protect its good name and investors would still have legal recourse to recoup losses in such a system. If the new SEC failed in its mission, the free market would give way to a better SEC. But this would be unlikely because the new SEC would have control over its own resources to ensure its good name--the government SEC is funded by tax dollars and has no real motivation to ensure compliance.
Sounds like ISO. My last company paid to be audited so that it could get ISO 9001 certified.
I get the feeling that that quiz is a little biased toward the libertarian party. I think this one is better, though it is longer:
u selection.html
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
For the candidates, check out:
http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/
If your curious, this was my score from your little quiz.
Your Personal issues Score is 100%.
Your Economic issues Score is 40%.
I came out near Nader and the Dalai Lama on mine.
Their ichonochasms quiz is fun as well.
It's hard to understand exactly why the North Koreans are announcing to world that they are completing development of a nuclear device. Generally countries that do this try to keep the knowledge of research as secret as possible, and will avoid confirming possession of such devices at all costs. If you admit that you have a nuclear device, then you are responsible for whatever happens to it.
Deterrence.
Possession of a nuclear weapon inhibits invasion by foreign nations. However, a weapon's deterrent effect is negated by keeping the weapon a secret, so it is in North Korea's best interests to let the world know that it has a weapon.
In today's climate, any small country that deliberately precipitates an unannounced nuclear event runs the serious risk of losing its sovereignty. In other words, it would be invaded by everyone else in the world and its government disbanded in the interest of preserving the present nuclear truce and balance.
Any nation wishing to forcefully disarm a nuclear nation runs the risk of losing millions of its own citizens.
Those concepts seem to be the exact opposite of what The US did with Iraq.
:
The Bush administration thought Iraq was an iminent threat, (or so they claim), was developing nuclear weapons, and was going to give them to al-Quaeda to use on the US. So we
(1) Judged Iraq guilty of going to use WMDs on the US.
(2) Demanded that they prove they didn't.