"Not that I support her claim, but none the less... think about the social security system. In my opinion, I believe it is there for the simple fact that the government is "rewarding" tax payers for so many years of paying taxes. Along with retirement funds, this lets the older generation live (sometimes) comfortably in their later years."
And thereby perpetuating a misconception. Social Security was conceived as a means of alleviating poverty among the elderly, which was widespread. It is a wealth transfer. Period. It is not a reward, nor an investment. It is taking money from my paycheck (and yours, assuming you are employed), and giving it to someone else.
As a social program, it has been very successful - poverty among the elderly has been drastically reduced. Fiscally, it is a disaster, as lifespans increase and the working population decreases. Politically, it is a paralytic, causing a lockup whenever politicians even think about changing the system.
If the performer in question feels that SS and the money she has squirreled away isn't enough for her to live in the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed, she needs to do what everybody else does - keep working. If she didn't put money away? More reason to keep working. No one owes her a comfortable retirement.
"Building sites and the industry as a whole is very competitive, very aggressive and quite physically confrontational, as a designer/estimator/contract administrator, it is quite a challenge to enforce your presence and control on the contractors, and ensure that project goals are met"
Nice try - even sounds plausible to those who already believe that construction is mainly composed of roughnecks.
Problem is, as a "designer/estimator/contract administrator", you wouldn't be in regular contact with the craft - you would mainly deal with the management of the contractors you deal with. And by and large they are NOT "very aggressive and quite physically confrontational". For one, they often come from outside the craft ranks - most of the project management in a contracting firm is college educated. Second, when they do come from the craft, aggressive hotheads generally don't make the cut. They lose the company money in terms of lost clients and lawsuits.
I worked in commercial and high-tech general contracting for 8 years, mechanical contracting for 3 before that, and now work for a building owner as a construction PM. I have never felt physically intimidated by the people I dealt with, craft or otherwise. I've felt intimidated via other means, and done the intimidating, but physical threats are pretty useless when throwing around millions of dollars in invoices a month.
If you perceive your environment as "physically confrontational", perhaps that is simply how you perceive things, and not necessarily reality.
It's like the jock complaining that the stoner dudes get all the chicks. After all, jocks are bigger, faster, and have larger penises, so the stoners are obviously inferior, so how come women hang out with the otehr guy.
"they are responsible for keeping peace (within EU members states) for over 50 years"
Huh? The EU started out as, and effectively remains, an economic organization. How did they "keep the peace".
If anything, I would credit the relative peacefulness of Europe in the last 50 years to cohesiveness against the external soviet threat, combined with the massive US subsidy of European defense budgets. With the mainly US funded NATO as their defense umbrella, Europe could divert funds that would otherwise have been spent on weapons to social programs. This has kept the level of internal and external strife to a minimum - why fight when everyone is fat and happy.
Don't worry - it won't last. Sooner or later, European countries will have to start footing their defense bill. This will start to impact their social services, already strained by demographics (aging population + low birthrate). This, combined with the civil unrest already brewing, and I predict we'll see open warfare between (soon-to-be) former EU nations within 20 years.
Like you said - Europe's been at peace for "a fucking long time", but 50 years isn't enouigh to change huma nature, and the nature of humans is to make war.
Of course Nextels equipment is legal - it's how they use it that is illegal.
A site license granted by the FCC for a tower site has very specific limits on its transmission power so that interference does not occur. The frequency coordination is done by 3rd party engineers. So, if they are running their tower withing their license limits, there should be no interference.
Well guess what - you can go in and turn the gain up on the tranmitter so that it exceeds the license. The FCC doesn't put seals on transmitters. So it is entirely possible for them to operate outside their license and interfere with others, all while having "legal" equipment.
Do you always talk out of your ass, or is this something new for you?
It would have been fine by me; I was in lancaster right then and the mood was ugly. And I was ready to pick up a bat and go with them. I'm a Catholic, and a conservative, but those mothers need a beating in the worst way.
I've been to Millersville - she'd more likely to have been chugging beer from an Amishman's hat that been within 50' of an African American. Hispanic, perhaps.
A quibble: the Westboro clowns are best known for showing up at *miliary* funerals and protesting that God hates the US because of toleration for homosexuality - regardless of whether the deceased was gay or not.
They were going to show up at the funeral of the Amish girls killed near Lancaster PA by the nutjob who gunned them down in their schoolhouse. The Governor "requested" they change their plans, and they did so, but I think it was the realization that, assuming they made it into the state unscathed, they were NOT going to make it out. Lancaster has a rough crowd, and they were PISSED, and I don't think the State police would have lifted a finger to stop them.
Let's see. The credit union I've been with for nearly 20 years - UECU - runs a really tight overhead budget. They don't even have pre-printed deposit slips - you just send in the check with a handwritten note saying "please deposit etc..." They look like a rinky-dink outfit, but guess what - they offer interest rates on straight share accounts that top every other CD, money market account, or other interest bearing instrument short of a mortgage. Oh yeah - and when I call, I get a real, live person, in the US (Reading, PA to be exact) who is invariably nice to me on the phone.
One of the ways they do it is by using online banking. Even there they watch the pennies - they won't pay Intuit's extortion for their OFX specification. And you want them to pay $500k so that they can continue giving me excellent service?
So that $500k is coming directly out of my interest payments, just so that they can be a "reputable" institution.
There is a diffeence between "receiving the blame" and "taking responsibility".
I am responsible for my own safety and that of my family. So I send my kids to karate classes, and try to teach them to be aware of their situation. If they are assaulted, I'm going to damned well "blame" the perpetrator. But if my kids were not following the rules they were taught, I'm also going to point that out to them as a lesson in not being stupid.
The woman in "The Accused" should not have been blamed, as her rapists were the ones who brutalized her. But that doesn't mean that getting drunk, alone, in that bar was a good idea. I imagine that if she were asked to choose between staying sober that night and having the rape trial go better, she'd choose the former. That's not blame - that's taking care of your own safety.
But to extend the analogy, the IT industry would be like homebuilders that DON't install locks on the doors and windows, with the excuse that "unlocking doors to enter them is too complex for the homeowners". Think Windows 9x - ALL the files are made available by the system, eve if one hits "cancel" at the login prompt.
Lets egt the IT industry to put locks on teh doors first. Then we can push them for the security system preinstalled.
"Hell, I eat scrapple. There's no way a bit o' sausage is going to bother you when you know what goes into THAT."
Right on, brutha. When I was about 12, my dad got a deal on half a hog - the catch was, we had to help butcher it. Spent all day in a farm basement (dirt floor, exposed beams, the works)with about 12 guys doing various jobs, kind of a jackleg assembly line. A bunch of the less experienced were assigned to separate the skin from the layer of fat for lard and pork rinds. I wasn't very good at it, but I soon discovered I was hell with a sharpening steel. So I sat around all day just sharpening knives and watching and learning. (Got my first swig of Richards Wild Irish Rose, too!) I swear making scrapple looked like the 3 witches scene from "Macbeth" - boiling cauldron, various parts bobbing around. It was AWESOME.
I think it runs in the family: my daughter, when she was about 5, was eating breakfast and asked "Daddy, where does bacon come from?"
Fearing the reaction, but having resolved to try not to lie to my children for no good reason, I replied simply: "Pigs."
She paused for a moment, looked at the strip o' bacon in her fingers, and stated "Pigs are tasty animals!"
"Why yes they are, dear. Cows are pretty tasty too."
Although I agree with the bulk of your statement, I'd be careful about saying things like "simple fact is pot never killed anyone - you pass out before you can overdose". Can you honestly tell me that no one has ever died from pot laced with something nasty? Or was so stoned they walked into traffic? Or crashed their car?
It's one thing to argue from the basis of individual rights, or at least social and medical equavalence with alcohol. But some of the arguments for legalization of pot start to sound like marijuana is the wonder substance, with no side effects and no chance of abuse. Riiiggghhht - let me introduce you to some of my stoner friends from high school, and see what they even remember from 2 years of 3x/day. And what's with the "hemp will save the world" thing? I always get the feeling that, when Woddy Harrelson starts spouting off on hemp, it's simply a catspaw to get into marijuana legalization. Great - but lets be honest about our real goals, shall we?
By "suburban crisis", I was referring to the plethora of "X is caused by Y" stories out there which tend to be built INTO "crises" by the scientifically illiterate news media and public. "Dying bee colonies" may be a crisis - "Cell Phones are Killing Bee Colonies" is not, and it diminishes the effort to find real causes to the problems we face.
It sounds like the latest research is on the right track - are you going to tell me that the cell-phone bullshit is going to *help* the cause?
Funny, I switched *to* KP due to the actions of my long-time insurer, BC/BS. Why? They went through a cost cutting splurge and consolidated claims processing centers. As a result, claims submitted under one version of the plan would be processed (and subsequently denied) under another plan. I went through 2 years of claims volleyball: - BCBS says provider screwed up and needs to resubmit - Provider provides evidence their paperwork is correct, and they are not going to resubmit - Patient resubmits, and is told by BCBS that only the Provider is allowed to submit - Repeat.
I had to give up a long-term relationship with a health care provider because of this. The quality of care was great, but I was effectively denied access to it because BCBS wouldn't honor their contract.
KP can be a pain in the ass, but I've never been told not to come back until I had my insurance sorted out.
Slashdot Mirror
"Poetry should be quoted correctly, or not quoted at all."
I vote the latter. If I hear another "poet" use the pronunciation "poym", I think I'll scream.
"Not that I support her claim, but none the less ... think about the social security system. In my opinion, I believe it is there for the simple fact that the government is "rewarding" tax payers for so many years of paying taxes. Along with retirement funds, this lets the older generation live (sometimes) comfortably in their later years."
And thereby perpetuating a misconception. Social Security was conceived as a means of alleviating poverty among the elderly, which was widespread. It is a wealth transfer. Period. It is not a reward, nor an investment. It is taking money from my paycheck (and yours, assuming you are employed), and giving it to someone else.
As a social program, it has been very successful - poverty among the elderly has been drastically reduced. Fiscally, it is a disaster, as lifespans increase and the working population decreases. Politically, it is a paralytic, causing a lockup whenever politicians even think about changing the system.
If the performer in question feels that SS and the money she has squirreled away isn't enough for her to live in the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed, she needs to do what everybody else does - keep working. If she didn't put money away? More reason to keep working. No one owes her a comfortable retirement.
"taking a school history curriculum, desgined by ivory tower theorists to properly indoctrinate kids"
Fixed that for ya.
"proportional representation, so this cycle can be broken."
From the US, which has had proportional representation in 1/2 of the legislative branch for over 200 years, all I can say is "BWAAAhahahahaha"
Did anyone else read that as
"a path of secret agreements, proprietary code, and G-strings attached sponsorship"?
Anyone?
(Man, I need to get laid more often)
"Building sites and the industry as a whole is very competitive, very aggressive and quite physically confrontational, as a designer/estimator/contract administrator, it is quite a challenge to enforce your presence and control on the contractors, and ensure that project goals are met"
Nice try - even sounds plausible to those who already believe that construction is mainly composed of roughnecks.
Problem is, as a "designer/estimator/contract administrator", you wouldn't be in regular contact with the craft - you would mainly deal with the management of the contractors you deal with. And by and large they are NOT "very aggressive and quite physically confrontational". For one, they often come from outside the craft ranks - most of the project management in a contracting firm is college educated. Second, when they do come from the craft, aggressive hotheads generally don't make the cut. They lose the company money in terms of lost clients and lawsuits.
I worked in commercial and high-tech general contracting for 8 years, mechanical contracting for 3 before that, and now work for a building owner as a construction PM. I have never felt physically intimidated by the people I dealt with, craft or otherwise. I've felt intimidated via other means, and done the intimidating, but physical threats are pretty useless when throwing around millions of dollars in invoices a month.
If you perceive your environment as "physically confrontational", perhaps that is simply how you perceive things, and not necessarily reality.
It's like the jock complaining that the stoner dudes get all the chicks. After all, jocks are bigger, faster, and have larger penises, so the stoners are obviously inferior, so how come women hang out with the otehr guy.
Hmmm - maybe 'cause they're fun to be around?
But the aren't willing to practice democracy with a lower case "d".
Best.Debate.Ratings.Ever!
Thanks - now I have "Bohemian Rhapsody" running through my head.
"they are responsible for keeping peace (within EU members states) for over 50 years"
Huh? The EU started out as, and effectively remains, an economic organization. How did they "keep the peace".
If anything, I would credit the relative peacefulness of Europe in the last 50 years to cohesiveness against the external soviet threat, combined with the massive US subsidy of European defense budgets. With the mainly US funded NATO as their defense umbrella, Europe could divert funds that would otherwise have been spent on weapons to social programs. This has kept the level of internal and external strife to a minimum - why fight when everyone is fat and happy.
Don't worry - it won't last. Sooner or later, European countries will have to start footing their defense bill. This will start to impact their social services, already strained by demographics (aging population + low birthrate). This, combined with the civil unrest already brewing, and I predict we'll see open warfare between (soon-to-be) former EU nations within 20 years.
Like you said - Europe's been at peace for "a fucking long time", but 50 years isn't enouigh to change huma nature, and the nature of humans is to make war.
Of course Nextels equipment is legal - it's how they use it that is illegal.
A site license granted by the FCC for a tower site has very specific limits on its transmission power so that interference does not occur. The frequency coordination is done by 3rd party engineers. So, if they are running their tower withing their license limits, there should be no interference.
Well guess what - you can go in and turn the gain up on the tranmitter so that it exceeds the license. The FCC doesn't put seals on transmitters. So it is entirely possible for them to operate outside their license and interfere with others, all while having "legal" equipment.
Do you always talk out of your ass, or is this something new for you?
It would have been fine by me; I was in lancaster right then and the mood was ugly. And I was ready to pick up a bat and go with them. I'm a Catholic, and a conservative, but those mothers need a beating in the worst way.
I've been to Millersville - she'd more likely to have been chugging beer from an Amishman's hat that been within 50' of an African American. Hispanic, perhaps.
A quibble: the Westboro clowns are best known for showing up at *miliary* funerals and protesting that God hates the US because of toleration for homosexuality - regardless of whether the deceased was gay or not.
They were going to show up at the funeral of the Amish girls killed near Lancaster PA by the nutjob who gunned them down in their schoolhouse. The Governor "requested" they change their plans, and they did so, but I think it was the realization that, assuming they made it into the state unscathed, they were NOT going to make it out. Lancaster has a rough crowd, and they were PISSED, and I don't think the State police would have lifted a finger to stop them.
Let's see. The credit union I've been with for nearly 20 years - UECU - runs a really tight overhead budget. They don't even have pre-printed deposit slips - you just send in the check with a handwritten note saying "please deposit etc..." They look like a rinky-dink outfit, but guess what - they offer interest rates on straight share accounts that top every other CD, money market account, or other interest bearing instrument short of a mortgage. Oh yeah - and when I call, I get a real, live person, in the US (Reading, PA to be exact) who is invariably nice to me on the phone.
One of the ways they do it is by using online banking. Even there they watch the pennies - they won't pay Intuit's extortion for their OFX specification. And you want them to pay $500k so that they can continue giving me excellent service?
So that $500k is coming directly out of my interest payments, just so that they can be a "reputable" institution.
Feh.
Asking about RICO is a red herring; ask instead about anti-trust - you know, price fixing, market collusion.
There is a diffeence between "receiving the blame" and "taking responsibility".
I am responsible for my own safety and that of my family. So I send my kids to karate classes, and try to teach them to be aware of their situation. If they are assaulted, I'm going to damned well "blame" the perpetrator. But if my kids were not following the rules they were taught, I'm also going to point that out to them as a lesson in not being stupid.
The woman in "The Accused" should not have been blamed, as her rapists were the ones who brutalized her. But that doesn't mean that getting drunk, alone, in that bar was a good idea. I imagine that if she were asked to choose between staying sober that night and having the rape trial go better, she'd choose the former. That's not blame - that's taking care of your own safety.
But to extend the analogy, the IT industry would be like homebuilders that DON't install locks on the doors and windows, with the excuse that "unlocking doors to enter them is too complex for the homeowners". Think Windows 9x - ALL the files are made available by the system, eve if one hits "cancel" at the login prompt.
Lets egt the IT industry to put locks on teh doors first. Then we can push them for the security system preinstalled.
"pioneers will need something to do for fun once the colonies begin."
I'm sure they will do the same thing settlers did in every colonozation waze in human history.
Fucking. Lots and lots of baby making.
Sign me up.
I fully support you in your convictions and wish you the best of success with your goal...
(because that will free up resources for MY kids)
"Hell, I eat scrapple. There's no way a bit o' sausage is going to bother you when you know what goes into THAT."
Right on, brutha. When I was about 12, my dad got a deal on half a hog - the catch was, we had to help butcher it. Spent all day in a farm basement (dirt floor, exposed beams, the works)with about 12 guys doing various jobs, kind of a jackleg assembly line. A bunch of the less experienced were assigned to separate the skin from the layer of fat for lard and pork rinds. I wasn't very good at it, but I soon discovered I was hell with a sharpening steel. So I sat around all day just sharpening knives and watching and learning. (Got my first swig of Richards Wild Irish Rose, too!) I swear making scrapple looked like the 3 witches scene from "Macbeth" - boiling cauldron, various parts bobbing around. It was AWESOME.
I think it runs in the family: my daughter, when she was about 5, was eating breakfast and asked "Daddy, where does bacon come from?"
Fearing the reaction, but having resolved to try not to lie to my children for no good reason, I replied simply: "Pigs."
She paused for a moment, looked at the strip o' bacon in her fingers, and stated "Pigs are tasty animals!"
"Why yes they are, dear. Cows are pretty tasty too."
Although I agree with the bulk of your statement, I'd be careful about saying things like "simple fact is pot never killed anyone - you pass out before you can overdose". Can you honestly tell me that no one has ever died from pot laced with something nasty? Or was so stoned they walked into traffic? Or crashed their car?
It's one thing to argue from the basis of individual rights, or at least social and medical equavalence with alcohol. But some of the arguments for legalization of pot start to sound like marijuana is the wonder substance, with no side effects and no chance of abuse. Riiiggghhht - let me introduce you to some of my stoner friends from high school, and see what they even remember from 2 years of 3x/day. And what's with the "hemp will save the world" thing? I always get the feeling that, when Woddy Harrelson starts spouting off on hemp, it's simply a catspaw to get into marijuana legalization. Great - but lets be honest about our real goals, shall we?
Whoooosh...way to miss the point.
By "suburban crisis", I was referring to the plethora of "X is caused by Y" stories out there which tend to be built INTO "crises" by the scientifically illiterate news media and public. "Dying bee colonies" may be a crisis - "Cell Phones are Killing Bee Colonies" is not, and it diminishes the effort to find real causes to the problems we face.
It sounds like the latest research is on the right track - are you going to tell me that the cell-phone bullshit is going to *help* the cause?
Funny, I switched *to* KP due to the actions of my long-time insurer, BC/BS. Why? They went through a cost cutting splurge and consolidated claims processing centers. As a result, claims submitted under one version of the plan would be processed (and subsequently denied) under another plan. I went through 2 years of claims volleyball:
- BCBS says provider screwed up and needs to resubmit
- Provider provides evidence their paperwork is correct, and they are not going to resubmit
- Patient resubmits, and is told by BCBS that only the Provider is allowed to submit
- Repeat.
I had to give up a long-term relationship with a health care provider because of this. The quality of care was great, but I was effectively denied access to it because BCBS wouldn't honor their contract.
KP can be a pain in the ass, but I've never been told not to come back until I had my insurance sorted out.