Well, unless you told the reporter this was off the record.
I was thinking about some of these high-profile divorce cases. It would be like the one spouse trashing the other and then the other spouse sues the paper for defamation instead of the soon-to-be ex.
I'm not sure if there's any difference in that they're quoting a minor. But if there's a defamation case to be made it would be against her daughter, not the press.
Personally, I'm betting that a lot of it is true and the mother is afraid of legal reprisals. This could really blow up in her face if the papers in question start talking to some of the partygoers.
The UK and Europeans aren't as litigious as we are in the US, but when they file a lawsuit, they file on claims that wouldn't last 5 minutes in a US court. I remember a year or so ago when a newspaper was sued because their restaurant critic had given a local restaurant a bad review!
Yes, I think the real *crime* here is that Comcast is charging customers the same, but is not treating them the same.
Which leads to the next question: Is there a class action suit pending? Because this reminds me of the NetFlix lawsuit. It was found that Netflix (which charged a flat monthly rate for movie rentals) was purposely slowing the deliver of movies to customers who had a fast turnaround. Chavez, who filed the lawsuit claimed you really couldn't rent unlimited movies as NetFlix advertisment claims and that they purposely throttled customers back to 12 movies a month so light users got preference. NetFlix's TOS even stated this, but they lost the lawsuit anyway and the Chavez who filed got $2,000, his lawyers got $2.5 million. Customers got a 1 month free upgrade. (woo hoo)
Let me throw this wrench in the works. What if I buy a used (game/book/music) at Half Price Books? What if I borrowed it from a library and returned it? This still deprives the producer of revenue beyond the first user. I am paying for ownership in the first case, but that's only going to the store has the game, not the intellectual owner. And that, in essnce, has been their argument--it doesn't matter if Joe Blow bought the game, the minute he started sharing it with others, that's suddenly illegal.
What it really comes to is not about sharing. That argument cannot be legitimately made unless they go after used book/music/game stores and libraries. It's about the item can now be shared with thousands all at once.
If they really want to term it otherwise, it might be closer termed as counterfieting as you are making an unoffical copy of the software, movie, etc., much a one would make counterfit money.
For the record I buy very few games these day--not because of piracy--but because they mostly suck. I don't buy music at all--they don't make much for my generation any more. The music they put out are for the same people who are more likely to download than purchase. However even with piracy, if you make a great game you're still going to make money. I'm looking forward to SPORE coming out. Yes, the pirate will serve that one up too, but it will still make money if it's as good as it looks. Another Wil game, The Sims--look how many that's sold or the And that's the main point: What a lot of publishers want to blame on priacy is really more due to putting out a poor product.
Why can't people recognize that "God" is a metaphorical reference to the universe which science is dedicated to studying?
Uh...because neither the scientist nor the believer could agree to that compromise?
To the believer (and not just Christian) God is no more a "metaphorical reference" than you are. To the secular scientist, God is just a myth, no different than the tales of Zeus and Hera dreamt up by a backward, superstitious people to explain natural phenomena like lightning. Their mission is to "save" us from our primitive selves and they look upon those who try to interject God in any part of their theory with contempt. Ironically, they are not far from simply forming their own "religion" in that their belief is atheistic, they believe in it reverently and don't want any competing ideas that are adverse to their basic dogma. And by religion, I'm not referring to worship of a deity (unless you include self) but a cause, principle or system of beliefs. In essence, science makes man "god" in that mankind is the superior being AFAWK.
When a scientist brings forth an equation that describes the manner in which mutation and natural selection come together to create higher order life out of lower order life, which was created out of chemical soup, they are "contemplating the nature of God".
Neither the scientist nor the believer thinks the study of evolution = contemplating the nature of God. That would once again be man's creation of a higher power for the purpose of explaining natural phenomena rather than an actual Being.
We are basically at polar opposites: Those who are religious believe that God created man; Science believes that man created God.
And if you look at Cogresses approval numbers, which are in the single digits, it's obvious that's it's not just republicans or conservatives that are unhappy.
Agreed. The last place we have to worry is airlines...and they know that. You know, it's gotten where EVERY day I see a story and think, is it April fools again already? One of those stories where you're just sure someone is pulling a fast one on the press. This one is today's...
Yesterday it was this one: "Toddlers who say 'yuck' when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says." Personally, I think that the UK and US are in a contest to see who can come up with the most stupid ideas!
Now, OTOH, if they wanted to put the shock collars on some of the kids riding the planes....;-)
You see, in order to get people to join a dating site, you have to fradulantly claim to have people who already joined the dating site to attract them; it's a catch-22 that we cannot avoid.
There, fixed that.
And I'll bet those profiles sound really good and new members wonder why they can't ever get hooked up with the fake profiles.
If you wear corrective lenses, make sure you get your eyes checked regularly for any changes. Also, I found it worth the price to get a pair of glasses suited for the distance I sit from the computer.
You should also be taking breaks at least once an hour. And keep in mind that people blink less than normal when on the computer so make sure you are blinking. I find that a good quality, moisturizing eye drop can help.
Also check the brightness and contrast settings on your monitor. You may need to dim things down if you work in an area that already has bright lighting.
Holy crap, even a lot of dems don't view Obama as moderate. I'll grant you though, that the news services overseas, such as the BBC and other UK papers are portraying McCain as a strict conservative and Obama as the second coming.
McCain is posturing himself as a conservative. He's not. His voting record is more of a RINO (Republican in name only). IOW he voted with the dems more often than republicans to the point that some republicans thought he should just go ahead and change parties. During elections here, candidates tend to move toward the middle in their expressed views to gain the most supporters. So don't take what they're saying now as what they're actually going to do in office. Obama's got one advantage in that he is new and doesn't have a well-established voting record. However, he's going to find it hard to point out the hypocrisy in McCain on his voting records because most of it (excluding the war) he would probably support.
Obama is for a form of socialized health care--I'm sure that McCain will support some form of it also, although Obama will no doubt hand it over to government whereas McCain will probably go for some single-payer plan where everyone has to buy insurance. About the only thing McCain is conservative on is the war, which he at least understands what would happen if we just up and pull out the troops. We will have another Vietnam and Iran will try to overrun Iraq.
But both support the continued influx of illegal aliens (basically through non-actions to crack down on them), are against drilling in Anwar, etc. McCain has voted first for Bush's tax cuts, then against them two years later (although probably both candidates will be careful about the "T" word considering the shape of the economy. McCain will appeal to independents and conservative democrats who think Obama is too liberal.
Ron Paul is only a blip on the political radar. He is a non-contender. Libertarians tend toward the least government possible, isolationism and the removal of drug laws. I tend to regard them as conservative, but crazy.:) They go so far it's practically anarchy.
It just shows how far computers have to go to make predictions like these. And some of it may have come from the feelings of the programmers rather than science. Actually, it sounds like it was coming up with date for McCain or a friendship match. Seriously. Both are older, war veterans that lean moderate to liberal. They have a lot in common. But you don't want a clone of the candidate for a VP, you want someone who will compliment him/her and who will succeed in the areas or appeal to groups where you're weakest.
McCain doesn't need a clone. Putting it through the penguin_dance algorithm of common sense;-) he'd do better with someone who is: younger, conservative and possibly Hispanic.
McCain is moderate enough to pick up quite a few independents and democrats who think Obama is too liberal. But he has to keep the Republican conservative base--he will lose if they stay at home. And it would do well for him to appeal to other minorities, such as Hispanics, because Obama pretty much has the African-American block sewn up. That and the fact that he has had a good relationship with Hispanics in his state of Arizona, it would look less like a "token" gesture.
Thanks for the link! It wasn't because you had Tab Mix plus installed because FF3 disables it and I had uninstalled all the non-compatiable extensions. There is also a dicussion on the forums about this so it is a bug.
Oh damn--you beat me to it. (Although I wasn't going to throw in the 386!)
A copy of Microsoft Bob (don't laugh--it's probably a collector's item now!), a Mac and a freshly burned copy of Ubuntu for when he gets fed up with using Vista.
I work as a tech writer/web page coder consultant and mostly work at large companies (20K employees or more). I've yet to go to a company that has upgraded to IE7. I think the reason is two fold. First off they're using an older content managment system for their internet, so they'd have to upgrade that as well as make sure the current web pages still work (trust me they probably won't--mostly because they're coded to work well in IE6.) In fact, the company I work for presently is still using Windows 2000. And IE7 doesn't work with 2000. Most of these companies were going to skip over XP, thinking the next version out would be more stable and secure! Boy is that not going to happen! So for the near future I don't see them upgrading to anything. Yes, IE7 plays better with proper CSS, but it's another headache for coders because they have to code for IE6 as well.
I do have one big gripe with FF3--there's a bug where the tabs are not saved when you close the browser--even with the option set to such, it will open my home page, not the tabs I previously had open. So now I only have one browser upgraded until they get that fixed.
I live in Minneapolis. A few years ago we implemented a "conceal and carry" law which allows citizens to carry handguns on their person at all times. Since then the crime rate has risen steadily.
I'm not saying one caused the other, but I don't think there's much evidence for your statement.
I wonder if after passing that law, Minneapolis then started banning guns everywhere. Obviously there are some places, such as where alcohol is sold. But often opponents of the change of gun laws try to make it so that while you can get a permit, you can't take it anywhere.
I've already seen a story where some politician is remarking about a "wild west" attitude. When they passed the concealed carry law in Texas there were plenty of critics predicting shootouts in the streets. However the violent crime rate went down. Rates have risen slightly, but not to the levels they were before the law was in place. One study also found that concealed carry gun owners are more law abiding than the average person.
In Texas, the concealed carry law was first brought up after a massacre at a cafeteria in 1991 in Killeen Texas. The killer systematically killed 23 people and wounded another 20 before committing suicide. Most could do little more than cower helplessly under the table. One woman had a gun, but had left it in car and so was unable to stop him from killing both her parents.
We do not need to fear the lawful people having guns...it's the unlawful who count on their victims being unable to defend themselves you need to fear. However, having a gun is not for everyone. If you don't believe you can draw your gun and shoot to kill, or you're not willing to safely learn how to use one, please DON'T buy a gun.
Although in the real world what is much more likely to happen is that the gun in your house will be used to kill an innocent person, be that a friend, relative, loved one, self, or someone mistaken for a criminal.
And that's an oft-quoted statement--and it's not true.
Please educate yourself*. *Note that while, yes, this is obviously posted by a pro-gun web site, the statistics are footnoted very well so it's not simply their opinion.
From the article: Three months had passed since Citibank notified the FBI that a hacker managed to steal customer-account numbers and PIN codes, in an attack on a server that processes transactions from Citi-branded ATMs at 7-Eleven convenience stores. In late February and early March, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service arrested two Ukrainian immigrants and two alleged co-conspirators for allegedly using the stolen PINs to steal $2 million in cash from unsuspecting Citibank customers.
Okay that answers the question on how they got the PINs. They didn't need the physical cards, they just hacked and got the bank account numbers with PINs. I'm going to guess that they let this go on to catch the bad guys, but THREE MONTHS? And obviously they weren't telling customers there had been a breach and that they should change their pin number.
Maybe that's one solution...at least for those of us who know better. A way to be able to go in and change your pin number on a regular basis. But it doesn't matter if you have 4-digit pin or a 16-digit PIN if the bank is going to keep the Acct. number together with the PIN.
Also, while an armed populace that's sufficiently pissed off to rebel may indeed be the final option in the case of governmental tyranny, it's not a solution anyone should hope for. Civil wars are ugly, ugly things, and we should try every possible legal solution before resorting to blood in the streets.
Let's back down from the larger and, at this point in time, less likely picture of black helicopters and civil wars. Let's look at what this means for most people:
If you live in DC (and other, similarly restrictive cities soon) you can own a handgun for self-protection and you don't have to have a trigger lock, disassembled or in another manner to make it totally useless. And if someone breaks into your house, you can blow his shit away and not have to worry about being 1) unable to defend your family or 2) arrested alongside the burglar for defending your family.
Most US citizens would stop griping about how bad we are regarding fighting our pollution if they could see a third world country. I went to Venuezuela for a week (mid-90s). Cars belched smog that we haven't seen since the 70s, people threw the trash out their windows and the beach was contaminated by human feces. No, we're not perfect, but if anyone needs to be forced to clean up their act it should be countries like this. But they (the UN or other governing bodies) won't go after the real polluters, they just want to come after us and our deep pockets.
Unfortunately, our country is effected by the pollution cause by others. In the spring/fall the southwest, particulary Texas, gets hit by pollution coming from Mexico and Central America because of agricultural fires at planting time.
I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I'm going to have to wait another 5 to 10 years for the next housing market crash before I'll be able to move into a house. When my Dad was my age, the loan on his (our) house was up - and he was a factory worker. Today, I make almost four times what he did, and can't even afford a three bedroom house. So much for the American Dream.
And we buy a lot bigger first houses than our parents did. If you look at a lot of these 1940's 50's houses they 2 or 3 tiny bedrooms and 1 bath. Maybe a 1 car garage. And they raised their families in these houses. Now everyone expects a huge, open kitchen with all the appliances and at least 2-2 1/2 baths with a large master bathroom and large, walk-in closets. So you can't just put it on inflation factors. Buyers are also demanding more and that increases the price also.
If you're only travelling 15 minutes I'd say it's not worth using a powered vechile unless you're infirm, very old, disabled, need to carry lots of tools/equipment etc. etc. (or the journey involves meeting hazardous animals such as elaphants/crocodiles/bears:)
Or the weather: Where I'm at, it's routinely in the mid-90s F (35 C) right now with 60-70% humidity. IOW not fit for man on bike or hazardous animal. (And here the hazardous animals would be the SUVs!;-)
Oh, it will help the local economy of Pittsburgh plenty, but the loss to the rest of the economy will more than offset that.
No, the problem is the construction industry has gotten use to using substandardly paid labor (and often a lesser quality product). This is just starting to level the playing field. It's a matter of do you want higher priced steel from China because of shipping costs or paying higher prices (but not as high) for labor here? Someone else mentioned about all the poor unemployed Chinese. Well I care a hell of a lot more about unemployed Americans.
A boost to one area of the economy != decline for everyone else. This effect is not in a vacuum. It affects all manufacturing. What did we do before we exported all those jobs? We had a robust economy! Because this is not going to be about just steel, it's going to be about clothing and furniture and all kinds of other products. And because people will be working, salaries can rise instead of fall which will give more people more purchase power.
What's going down? Well the stocks will probably decline for awhile because the companies are not raking in the huge profits they once were, but even that will settle. The "bungee" CEOs that seem to rotate from company to company won't be able to command the huge salaries and bonuses. Which would be another plus in my thinking.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, unless you told the reporter this was off the record.
I was thinking about some of these high-profile divorce cases. It would be like the one spouse trashing the other and then the other spouse sues the paper for defamation instead of the soon-to-be ex.
I'm not sure if there's any difference in that they're quoting a minor. But if there's a defamation case to be made it would be against her daughter, not the press.
Personally, I'm betting that a lot of it is true and the mother is afraid of legal reprisals. This could really blow up in her face if the papers in question start talking to some of the partygoers.
The UK and Europeans aren't as litigious as we are in the US, but when they file a lawsuit, they file on claims that wouldn't last 5 minutes in a US court. I remember a year or so ago when a newspaper was sued because their restaurant critic had given a local restaurant a bad review!
Yes, I think the real *crime* here is that Comcast is charging customers the same, but is not treating them the same.
Which leads to the next question: Is there a class action suit pending? Because this reminds me of the NetFlix lawsuit. It was found that Netflix (which charged a flat monthly rate for movie rentals) was purposely slowing the deliver of movies to customers who had a fast turnaround. Chavez, who filed the lawsuit claimed you really couldn't rent unlimited movies as NetFlix advertisment claims and that they purposely throttled customers back to 12 movies a month so light users got preference. NetFlix's TOS even stated this, but they lost the lawsuit anyway and the Chavez who filed got $2,000, his lawyers got $2.5 million. Customers got a 1 month free upgrade. (woo hoo)
Let me throw this wrench in the works. What if I buy a used (game/book/music) at Half Price Books? What if I borrowed it from a library and returned it? This still deprives the producer of revenue beyond the first user. I am paying for ownership in the first case, but that's only going to the store has the game, not the intellectual owner. And that, in essnce, has been their argument--it doesn't matter if Joe Blow bought the game, the minute he started sharing it with others, that's suddenly illegal.
What it really comes to is not about sharing. That argument cannot be legitimately made unless they go after used book/music/game stores and libraries. It's about the item can now be shared with thousands all at once.
If they really want to term it otherwise, it might be closer termed as counterfieting as you are making an unoffical copy of the software, movie, etc., much a one would make counterfit money.
For the record I buy very few games these day--not because of piracy--but because they mostly suck. I don't buy music at all--they don't make much for my generation any more. The music they put out are for the same people who are more likely to download than purchase. However even with piracy, if you make a great game you're still going to make money. I'm looking forward to SPORE coming out. Yes, the pirate will serve that one up too, but it will still make money if it's as good as it looks. Another Wil game, The Sims--look how many that's sold or the And that's the main point: What a lot of publishers want to blame on priacy is really more due to putting out a poor product.
Why can't people recognize that "God" is a metaphorical reference to the universe which science is dedicated to studying?
Uh...because neither the scientist nor the believer could agree to that compromise?
To the believer (and not just Christian) God is no more a "metaphorical reference" than you are. To the secular scientist, God is just a myth, no different than the tales of Zeus and Hera dreamt up by a backward, superstitious people to explain natural phenomena like lightning. Their mission is to "save" us from our primitive selves and they look upon those who try to interject God in any part of their theory with contempt. Ironically, they are not far from simply forming their own "religion" in that their belief is atheistic, they believe in it reverently and don't want any competing ideas that are adverse to their basic dogma. And by religion, I'm not referring to worship of a deity (unless you include self) but a cause, principle or system of beliefs. In essence, science makes man "god" in that mankind is the superior being AFAWK.
When a scientist brings forth an equation that describes the manner in which mutation and natural selection come together to create higher order life out of lower order life, which was created out of chemical soup, they are "contemplating the nature of God".
Neither the scientist nor the believer thinks the study of evolution = contemplating the nature of God. That would once again be man's creation of a higher power for the purpose of explaining natural phenomena rather than an actual Being.
We are basically at polar opposites: Those who are religious believe that God created man; Science believes that man created God.
And if you look at Cogresses approval numbers, which are in the single digits, it's obvious that's it's not just republicans or conservatives that are unhappy.
How do we know there aren't secret terrorist plans in files named mileycyrus.mp3?
It would have to contain terrorist plans--it's certain no one wants it for the singing!
Agreed. The last place we have to worry is airlines...and they know that. You know, it's gotten where EVERY day I see a story and think, is it April fools again already? One of those stories where you're just sure someone is pulling a fast one on the press. This one is today's...
Yesterday it was this one: "Toddlers who say 'yuck' when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says." Personally, I think that the UK and US are in a contest to see who can come up with the most stupid ideas!
Now, OTOH, if they wanted to put the shock collars on some of the kids riding the planes.... ;-)
You see, in order to get people to join a dating site, you have to fradulantly claim to have people who already joined the dating site to attract them; it's a catch-22 that we cannot avoid.
There, fixed that.
And I'll bet those profiles sound really good and new members wonder why they can't ever get hooked up with the fake profiles.
Smells like scam to me.
If you wear corrective lenses, make sure you get your eyes checked regularly for any changes. Also, I found it worth the price to get a pair of glasses suited for the distance I sit from the computer.
You should also be taking breaks at least once an hour. And keep in mind that people blink less than normal when on the computer so make sure you are blinking. I find that a good quality, moisturizing eye drop can help.
Also check the brightness and contrast settings on your monitor. You may need to dim things down if you work in an area that already has bright lighting.
The Mayo clinic also has a good list of tips.
Welcome Comrade! :-)
Holy crap, even a lot of dems don't view Obama as moderate. I'll grant you though, that the news services overseas, such as the BBC and other UK papers are portraying McCain as a strict conservative and Obama as the second coming.
McCain is posturing himself as a conservative. He's not. His voting record is more of a RINO (Republican in name only). IOW he voted with the dems more often than republicans to the point that some republicans thought he should just go ahead and change parties. During elections here, candidates tend to move toward the middle in their expressed views to gain the most supporters. So don't take what they're saying now as what they're actually going to do in office. Obama's got one advantage in that he is new and doesn't have a well-established voting record. However, he's going to find it hard to point out the hypocrisy in McCain on his voting records because most of it (excluding the war) he would probably support.
Obama is for a form of socialized health care--I'm sure that McCain will support some form of it also, although Obama will no doubt hand it over to government whereas McCain will probably go for some single-payer plan where everyone has to buy insurance. About the only thing McCain is conservative on is the war, which he at least understands what would happen if we just up and pull out the troops. We will have another Vietnam and Iran will try to overrun Iraq.
But both support the continued influx of illegal aliens (basically through non-actions to crack down on them), are against drilling in Anwar, etc. McCain has voted first for Bush's tax cuts, then against them two years later (although probably both candidates will be careful about the "T" word considering the shape of the economy. McCain will appeal to independents and conservative democrats who think Obama is too liberal.
Ron Paul is only a blip on the political radar. He is a non-contender. Libertarians tend toward the least government possible, isolationism and the removal of drug laws. I tend to regard them as conservative, but crazy. :) They go so far it's practically anarchy.
It just shows how far computers have to go to make predictions like these. And some of it may have come from the feelings of the programmers rather than science. Actually, it sounds like it was coming up with date for McCain or a friendship match. Seriously. Both are older, war veterans that lean moderate to liberal. They have a lot in common. But you don't want a clone of the candidate for a VP, you want someone who will compliment him/her and who will succeed in the areas or appeal to groups where you're weakest.
McCain doesn't need a clone. Putting it through the penguin_dance algorithm of common sense ;-) he'd do better with someone who is: younger, conservative and possibly Hispanic.
McCain is moderate enough to pick up quite a few independents and democrats who think Obama is too liberal. But he has to keep the Republican conservative base--he will lose if they stay at home. And it would do well for him to appeal to other minorities, such as Hispanics, because Obama pretty much has the African-American block sewn up. That and the fact that he has had a good relationship with Hispanics in his state of Arizona, it would look less like a "token" gesture.
Thanks for the link! It wasn't because you had Tab Mix plus installed because FF3 disables it and I had uninstalled all the non-compatiable extensions. There is also a dicussion on the forums about this so it is a bug.
I agree--I like TMP better.
Oh damn--you beat me to it. (Although I wasn't going to throw in the 386!)
A copy of Microsoft Bob (don't laugh--it's probably a collector's item now!), a Mac and a freshly burned copy of Ubuntu for when he gets fed up with using Vista.
Ding, ding. Mod Parent up. S/He's right.
I work as a tech writer/web page coder consultant and mostly work at large companies (20K employees or more). I've yet to go to a company that has upgraded to IE7. I think the reason is two fold. First off they're using an older content managment system for their internet, so they'd have to upgrade that as well as make sure the current web pages still work (trust me they probably won't--mostly because they're coded to work well in IE6.) In fact, the company I work for presently is still using Windows 2000. And IE7 doesn't work with 2000. Most of these companies were going to skip over XP, thinking the next version out would be more stable and secure! Boy is that not going to happen! So for the near future I don't see them upgrading to anything. Yes, IE7 plays better with proper CSS, but it's another headache for coders because they have to code for IE6 as well.
I do have one big gripe with FF3--there's a bug where the tabs are not saved when you close the browser--even with the option set to such, it will open my home page, not the tabs I previously had open. So now I only have one browser upgraded until they get that fixed.
Usually what you get out of crowds is some form of mob rule, not wisdom.
I live in Minneapolis. A few years ago we implemented a "conceal and carry" law which allows citizens to carry handguns on their person at all times. Since then the crime rate has risen steadily.
I'm not saying one caused the other, but I don't think there's much evidence for your statement.
I just posted this, but here it is again--documented evidence.
I wonder if after passing that law, Minneapolis then started banning guns everywhere. Obviously there are some places, such as where alcohol is sold. But often opponents of the change of gun laws try to make it so that while you can get a permit, you can't take it anywhere.
I've already seen a story where some politician is remarking about a "wild west" attitude. When they passed the concealed carry law in Texas there were plenty of critics predicting shootouts in the streets. However the violent crime rate went down. Rates have risen slightly, but not to the levels they were before the law was in place. One study also found that concealed carry gun owners are more law abiding than the average person.
In Texas, the concealed carry law was first brought up after a massacre at a cafeteria in 1991 in Killeen Texas. The killer systematically killed 23 people and wounded another 20 before committing suicide. Most could do little more than cower helplessly under the table. One woman had a gun, but had left it in car and so was unable to stop him from killing both her parents.
We do not need to fear the lawful people having guns...it's the unlawful who count on their victims being unable to defend themselves you need to fear. However, having a gun is not for everyone. If you don't believe you can draw your gun and shoot to kill, or you're not willing to safely learn how to use one, please DON'T buy a gun.
Although in the real world what is much more likely to happen is that the gun in your house will be used to kill an innocent person, be that a friend, relative, loved one, self, or someone mistaken for a criminal.
And that's an oft-quoted statement--and it's not true.
Please educate yourself*.
*Note that while, yes, this is obviously posted by a pro-gun web site, the statistics are footnoted very well so it's not simply their opinion.
From the article:
Three months had passed since Citibank notified the FBI that a hacker managed to steal customer-account numbers and PIN codes, in an attack on a server that processes transactions from Citi-branded ATMs at 7-Eleven convenience stores. In late February and early March, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service arrested two Ukrainian immigrants and two alleged co-conspirators for allegedly using the stolen PINs to steal $2 million in cash from unsuspecting Citibank customers.
Okay that answers the question on how they got the PINs. They didn't need the physical cards, they just hacked and got the bank account numbers with PINs. I'm going to guess that they let this go on to catch the bad guys, but THREE MONTHS? And obviously they weren't telling customers there had been a breach and that they should change their pin number.
Maybe that's one solution...at least for those of us who know better. A way to be able to go in and change your pin number on a regular basis. But it doesn't matter if you have 4-digit pin or a 16-digit PIN if the bank is going to keep the Acct. number together with the PIN.
I believe lawyers felt a shift in the Force.
Let's back down from the larger and, at this point in time, less likely picture of black helicopters and civil wars. Let's look at what this means for most people:
If you live in DC (and other, similarly restrictive cities soon) you can own a handgun for self-protection and you don't have to have a trigger lock, disassembled or in another manner to make it totally useless. And if someone breaks into your house, you can blow his shit away and not have to worry about being 1) unable to defend your family or 2) arrested alongside the burglar for defending your family.
And that's a good thing.
Let's watch the DC crime rates go down.
Most US citizens would stop griping about how bad we are regarding fighting our pollution if they could see a third world country. I went to Venuezuela for a week (mid-90s). Cars belched smog that we haven't seen since the 70s, people threw the trash out their windows and the beach was contaminated by human feces. No, we're not perfect, but if anyone needs to be forced to clean up their act it should be countries like this. But they (the UN or other governing bodies) won't go after the real polluters, they just want to come after us and our deep pockets.
Unfortunately, our country is effected by the pollution cause by others. In the spring/fall the southwest, particulary Texas, gets hit by pollution coming from Mexico and Central America because of agricultural fires at planting time.
My wife is huge into low-energy tools, and she got us a kill-a-watt to play with.
Hey pervert, keep your smutty bedroom toys to yourself! :P
So not only will we be watching more TV, but we'll develop an uncontrollable twitch....
I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I'm going to have to wait another 5 to 10 years for the next housing market crash before I'll be able to move into a house. When my Dad was my age, the loan on his (our) house was up - and he was a factory worker. Today, I make almost four times what he did, and can't even afford a three bedroom house. So much for the American Dream.
And we buy a lot bigger first houses than our parents did. If you look at a lot of these 1940's 50's houses they 2 or 3 tiny bedrooms and 1 bath. Maybe a 1 car garage. And they raised their families in these houses. Now everyone expects a huge, open kitchen with all the appliances and at least 2-2 1/2 baths with a large master bathroom and large, walk-in closets. So you can't just put it on inflation factors. Buyers are also demanding more and that increases the price also.
If you're only travelling 15 minutes I'd say it's not worth using a powered vechile unless you're infirm, very old, disabled, need to carry lots of tools/equipment etc. etc. (or the journey involves meeting hazardous animals such as elaphants/crocodiles/bears :)
Or the weather: Where I'm at, it's routinely in the mid-90s F (35 C) right now with 60-70% humidity. IOW not fit for man on bike or hazardous animal. (And here the hazardous animals would be the SUVs! ;-)
Oh, it will help the local economy of Pittsburgh plenty, but the loss to the rest of the economy will more than offset that.
No, the problem is the construction industry has gotten use to using substandardly paid labor (and often a lesser quality product). This is just starting to level the playing field. It's a matter of do you want higher priced steel from China because of shipping costs or paying higher prices (but not as high) for labor here? Someone else mentioned about all the poor unemployed Chinese. Well I care a hell of a lot more about unemployed Americans.
A boost to one area of the economy != decline for everyone else. This effect is not in a vacuum. It affects all manufacturing. What did we do before we exported all those jobs? We had a robust economy! Because this is not going to be about just steel, it's going to be about clothing and furniture and all kinds of other products. And because people will be working, salaries can rise instead of fall which will give more people more purchase power.
What's going down? Well the stocks will probably decline for awhile because the companies are not raking in the huge profits they once were, but even that will settle. The "bungee" CEOs that seem to rotate from company to company won't be able to command the huge salaries and bonuses. Which would be another plus in my thinking.