You live somewhere unusual. I have had very few interactions with the law, but ironically the most professionally handled ones have been the ones in which the officer ended up citing me for speeding (three times in over twenty years of driving). The worst have been when I have sought their help: the young girl who rear-ended me but didn't have insurance didn't get a ticket, the cop who investigated a break-in on my wife's car wasn't interested in anything and tried to talk me out of filing a report, and I still have fond memories of one delightful campus police officer (and yes, a real cop, not security): it was the day before move-out, I had packed literally everything I owned apart from a dorm fridge in my car, and I had a fifteen-hour drive to get home. I entered the station and asked politely if I might park it in their (mostly empty) lot, on the grounds that the faculty who normally parked there were unlikely to need it days after classes ended, and that their lot was a fair bit more secure than the one I normally used. Sure, he said, just so long as it was out by 7 AM, just like normal. Hey, could I get a break? Maybe you could just ask the morning guys not to ticket me if I didn't get out until 7:30? Nope. Rules were rules, regardless of the logic behind them.
Exactly. This sort of thing costs next to nothing to run - maybe two full-time employees, max, once it's set up - and could potentially pay off big time.
Murder does not have a statute of limitations in the US. It's just harder to solve cold cases, especially when they're crime-related (as most murders in the US are - drug deals gone wrong, etc.).
I spent a summer in college working in Tyler, TX. Nice town, friendly people, surprisingly good restaurants for a small city (~100k). Also is the seat of Smith County. There's a statue of Justice in the entryway of the courthouse. I kid you not, she is not wearing a blindfold.
This is true but unfortunately irrelevant. You can do all the user education in the world and it means nothing if the IT staff are idiots.
I have a handful of fairly secure passwords. They're reasonably long, are incredibly easy for me to memorize, and don't rely on any details of my life (pets, wife, kids, birthday, etc.). But I have to deal with websites that demand a series of ridiculous standards: some require (thank you, AmEx) a number in the username, some require passwords to have number, capital letter, and symbol. I spent a lot of damned time figuring out a password that people can't guess, and I can't use it because I can't remember the rules for any random website - so I have to get a password reset email sent to me in plaintext. And on top of that, I can't use a password I've used before - so every time I log into a website I rarely use, I have to reset the password to something I will forget in a few days. I'd use something like Keepass but I need to be able to log in from non-home computers.
I don't know the accurate story, so perhaps I'm missing something here, but I did see the movie - and the Canadians (i.e., the ambassador and his wife) are depicted as caring, compassionate, and entirely willing to take significant personal risk in order to help out six random employees of their neighbor to the south when no other English-speaking nation would. That's offensive?
I have no problem with Christianity; I live in the South. It's impossible to live here and be normal if you have a problem with religious people, because they're everywhere. I'm just tired of the Baptist-bootlegger coalition screwing things up.
Leave. Sometimes GTFO is the right choice. Basic military strategy: where your opponent is strong and you are weak, avoid confrontation.
This isn't always easy or even possible, especially if it turns out that (say) your husband and all his friends are terrorists, but it's the clear choice for the civilian. I like my house, but if a doomsday cult moved in next door I'd find somewhere else to stay until they had their shootout with the FBI.
There's nothing wrong with pesticide-free veggies and fruits or free-range poultry (although such things are probably not a manageable way to raise enough food to feed the entire world, the eggs at least taste considerably better), but there's no necessary connection between eating like a hippie and being a prepper - plenty of people are one but not the other. And the most serious preppers I know don't count on the surface being able to provide them with food and water... they'll have months if not years of dried or canned supplies stored away.
I make no claim about whether or not this is actually possible - my radio knowledge is near zero - but they claimed to be less than a hundred feet away, with a "large" (it's been almost 20 years since I heard it, can't remember more detail) parabolic dish, and he was supposedly on CB, so the frequency would have been easily determined. It might be bullshit, but if the only objections are the ones you raised, it is at least plausible - though of course the best urban legends are always plausible.
Calling local ham radio enthusiasts would probably lead to some very entertaining results.
The most memorable story I've ever heard along those lines was that a couple of hams had access to a fairly large dish antenna and were setting up some sort of satellite communications (for work, not play). A guy nearby was running a horribly unshielded CB amplifier that was crapping all over their signal. They told him to knock it off. He refused. They pointed out that he was blowing way past FCC limits on transmission power. He ignored them. They pointed the dish straight at his shack and transmitted maximum power at it. Within a few minutes smoke was pouring out of it... bet you could fry a router pretty easily.
Some day people will learn that telling others they are simple-minded money grubbers, while cathartic, is probably not the best rhetorical technique if you want them to agree with you.
I think Obama is going to kill that track record... but to borrow a phrase, it's not so much that the Republicans are worthy of trust as that the media hates their guts and will hold their feet to the fire in a way they won't for Democrats.
The AMA is a lot less powerful (and a lot less popular) than people think; the supply of physicians is regulated at the residency level, not medical school. I really meant what I wrote - if he thinks I have a highly-paid sinecure, the logical thing to do would be to do what I do.
Incidentally, although you're right that I'm not a fan of unions (and I think most workers aren't - many unions aren't worth the additional overhead), there will be real physician unions within a few years due to PPACA, because it contains significant pushes on doctors to become hospital employees. And once we are all employees rather than independent contractors, it will no longer be illegal for us to engage in collective bargaining. Hospitals and doctors are already building alliances with each other and against the insurance companies.
I don't see any way to cut health spending without doing less care. The US has superb health care if you have access to it; expanding the number of covered people cannot possibly decrease costs in any meaningful way. Only cutting the services provided can do that. Physician incomes have been stagnant or declining in real terms for the last 25 years (as older doctors are learning when they try to sell their homes to young ones); overall spending on drugs has gone up, of course, but the devices are a huge driver too. I tell prospective medical students to ditch the field and go to dental school - no nights, no weekends, and if they don't pay you don't let them back in the door. It's not much less money, either.
I think that high-deductible plans and HSAs are really the ideal way to go, but I agree I'd take anything that cut the tie between employment and insurance - starting with making individual expenditures on health insurance tax-deductible just like the big group policies.
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You live somewhere unusual. I have had very few interactions with the law, but ironically the most professionally handled ones have been the ones in which the officer ended up citing me for speeding (three times in over twenty years of driving). The worst have been when I have sought their help: the young girl who rear-ended me but didn't have insurance didn't get a ticket, the cop who investigated a break-in on my wife's car wasn't interested in anything and tried to talk me out of filing a report, and I still have fond memories of one delightful campus police officer (and yes, a real cop, not security): it was the day before move-out, I had packed literally everything I owned apart from a dorm fridge in my car, and I had a fifteen-hour drive to get home. I entered the station and asked politely if I might park it in their (mostly empty) lot, on the grounds that the faculty who normally parked there were unlikely to need it days after classes ended, and that their lot was a fair bit more secure than the one I normally used. Sure, he said, just so long as it was out by 7 AM, just like normal. Hey, could I get a break? Maybe you could just ask the morning guys not to ticket me if I didn't get out until 7:30? Nope. Rules were rules, regardless of the logic behind them.
Exactly. This sort of thing costs next to nothing to run - maybe two full-time employees, max, once it's set up - and could potentially pay off big time.
Murder does not have a statute of limitations in the US. It's just harder to solve cold cases, especially when they're crime-related (as most murders in the US are - drug deals gone wrong, etc.).
I spent a summer in college working in Tyler, TX. Nice town, friendly people, surprisingly good restaurants for a small city (~100k). Also is the seat of Smith County. There's a statue of Justice in the entryway of the courthouse. I kid you not, she is not wearing a blindfold.
So does silicon. We've had the technology for SSDs for a long time, just not cheaply.
Nah, in my experience doctors are the only people who can manage to keep away from doctors. (I'm one too.)
You're not dead yet, so it's a bit early to be so confident.
we're not allowed to import foreign made guns for sale
which is, as you pointed out, false. I had Beretta and Taurus in mind. Didn't think about Bersa.
Nope. We import guns all the time.
It doesn't send my old password; it sends a replacement password - Wqu@%$ or something like that - but it sends that in plaintext.
This is true but unfortunately irrelevant. You can do all the user education in the world and it means nothing if the IT staff are idiots.
I have a handful of fairly secure passwords. They're reasonably long, are incredibly easy for me to memorize, and don't rely on any details of my life (pets, wife, kids, birthday, etc.). But I have to deal with websites that demand a series of ridiculous standards: some require (thank you, AmEx) a number in the username, some require passwords to have number, capital letter, and symbol. I spent a lot of damned time figuring out a password that people can't guess, and I can't use it because I can't remember the rules for any random website - so I have to get a password reset email sent to me in plaintext. And on top of that, I can't use a password I've used before - so every time I log into a website I rarely use, I have to reset the password to something I will forget in a few days. I'd use something like Keepass but I need to be able to log in from non-home computers.
I don't know the accurate story, so perhaps I'm missing something here, but I did see the movie - and the Canadians (i.e., the ambassador and his wife) are depicted as caring, compassionate, and entirely willing to take significant personal risk in order to help out six random employees of their neighbor to the south when no other English-speaking nation would. That's offensive?
I'm not comparing to retail, more to Newegg/Amazon (who do have good customer service). But good to know.
Those prices are... suspiciously good. Anyone have experience with these guys?
I have no problem with Christianity; I live in the South. It's impossible to live here and be normal if you have a problem with religious people, because they're everywhere. I'm just tired of the Baptist-bootlegger coalition screwing things up.
Leave. Sometimes GTFO is the right choice. Basic military strategy: where your opponent is strong and you are weak, avoid confrontation.
This isn't always easy or even possible, especially if it turns out that (say) your husband and all his friends are terrorists, but it's the clear choice for the civilian. I like my house, but if a doomsday cult moved in next door I'd find somewhere else to stay until they had their shootout with the FBI.
There's nothing wrong with pesticide-free veggies and fruits or free-range poultry (although such things are probably not a manageable way to raise enough food to feed the entire world, the eggs at least taste considerably better), but there's no necessary connection between eating like a hippie and being a prepper - plenty of people are one but not the other. And the most serious preppers I know don't count on the surface being able to provide them with food and water... they'll have months if not years of dried or canned supplies stored away.
Cool, thanks.
I make no claim about whether or not this is actually possible - my radio knowledge is near zero - but they claimed to be less than a hundred feet away, with a "large" (it's been almost 20 years since I heard it, can't remember more detail) parabolic dish, and he was supposedly on CB, so the frequency would have been easily determined. It might be bullshit, but if the only objections are the ones you raised, it is at least plausible - though of course the best urban legends are always plausible.
It is a great story, though. And the guy telling it claimed to be one of the people who did it. You'll note that I never said it was true...
The local cops won't care, but if you find a geek in the local FBI office you could really have fun with the guy.
Calling local ham radio enthusiasts would probably lead to some very entertaining results.
The most memorable story I've ever heard along those lines was that a couple of hams had access to a fairly large dish antenna and were setting up some sort of satellite communications (for work, not play). A guy nearby was running a horribly unshielded CB amplifier that was crapping all over their signal. They told him to knock it off. He refused. They pointed out that he was blowing way past FCC limits on transmission power. He ignored them. They pointed the dish straight at his shack and transmitted maximum power at it. Within a few minutes smoke was pouring out of it... bet you could fry a router pretty easily.
Some day people will learn that telling others they are simple-minded money grubbers, while cathartic, is probably not the best rhetorical technique if you want them to agree with you.
I think Obama is going to kill that track record... but to borrow a phrase, it's not so much that the Republicans are worthy of trust as that the media hates their guts and will hold their feet to the fire in a way they won't for Democrats.
The AMA is a lot less powerful (and a lot less popular) than people think; the supply of physicians is regulated at the residency level, not medical school. I really meant what I wrote - if he thinks I have a highly-paid sinecure, the logical thing to do would be to do what I do.
Incidentally, although you're right that I'm not a fan of unions (and I think most workers aren't - many unions aren't worth the additional overhead), there will be real physician unions within a few years due to PPACA, because it contains significant pushes on doctors to become hospital employees. And once we are all employees rather than independent contractors, it will no longer be illegal for us to engage in collective bargaining. Hospitals and doctors are already building alliances with each other and against the insurance companies.
I don't see any way to cut health spending without doing less care. The US has superb health care if you have access to it; expanding the number of covered people cannot possibly decrease costs in any meaningful way. Only cutting the services provided can do that. Physician incomes have been stagnant or declining in real terms for the last 25 years (as older doctors are learning when they try to sell their homes to young ones); overall spending on drugs has gone up, of course, but the devices are a huge driver too. I tell prospective medical students to ditch the field and go to dental school - no nights, no weekends, and if they don't pay you don't let them back in the door. It's not much less money, either.
I think that high-deductible plans and HSAs are really the ideal way to go, but I agree I'd take anything that cut the tie between employment and insurance - starting with making individual expenditures on health insurance tax-deductible just like the big group policies.