There is not an economic failure in the state. There is a state government revenue shortfall, probably due to Brownback and the other Republicans in the state government trying to emulate Texas' tax code without some of the advantages that state has (lots of oil and multimillionaires), and over optimism about the growth the tax changes would cause.
I have family in rural Kansas, and their school budgets are being hit hard, forcing consolidations between different cities so they can consolidate administrative costs. The result is that some kids are being bussed 10-15 miles from their hometown to another town for school (not counting those that have to be on the bus for as much as half an hour before that because they are on a bus route and live 2-12 miles from town).
In my opinion, school funding should be driven at the local level instead of from the state and federal level. If you cut the taxes the appropriate amount at the state and federal level, then the money will be available for the local governments to raise taxes and pay and prioritize these issues locally (In the poor areas of KC, Topeka and Wichita, the state should pick up the slack). Then instead of people complaining that the state is dictating consolidation, the parents and tax payers in the city will have to face the facts about how much spending is appropriate in a town with 25 children, but at least they will have to come to grips with the facts, and they will have to make a decision made by them and their neighbors instead of the state government in Topeka.
My wife has gotten our daughter into a program called Brain Highways, that may help a child cure their autism, or other similar conditions. The program costs around $2000 (as of a few years ago), done at home, parents guiding their children through physical therapy.
Their science says that there are three sections of the brain. The lower brain controls all involuntary body functions. The upper brain controls thought and memory. The middle part of the brain controls things that we have control over, but handles them on a subconscious level. So, when I run, I don't think (step, step step), I just start running. Some functions controlled by this part of the brain have to do with focus, processing and understanding the surrounding environment, controlling body activity, etc.
What their science claims is that a person who has an underdeveloped middle brain has to compensate by forcing the upper brain do handle these activities, but it's not very good at it. And since the upper brain is distracted into focusing on the mid brains role, it can't do what it's supposed to. Fortunately, you can train the brain to finish it's middle brain development by doing some therapy that emulates some of the activities that babies do when they lay on the floor (perhaps the rise of autism has been caused by parents holding their children a little too much instead of giving them exploration time on the floor?). Specifically, they teach a series of motions where the child rolls over a couple of times in a particular way, lays on the floor and moves their arms and legs in proscribed patters, then pulling themselves across the floor on their bellies. They progress naturally from dragging themselves inch by inch using just their hands to adding toes, then eventually using their whole legs and flying across the floor.
Our oldest had the greatest deficiency, has been very resistant to doing the work, and she hasn't completely overcome her limitations, and my wife hasn't forced the issue due to her resistance. Our second was about half developed, and has completed the program. Our third was completely developed before she started.
Our oldest has also made some progress using sound/body therapy, called Interactive Metronome, to speed up her brain and synchronize it with her body. This therapy involves the subject listening to a sound on head phones, and timing motions to trigger a button (attached to wrists, or positioned on the floor) in time with the beat. The longer somebody practices, the more they will be able to get the right timing, the more in sync the body and the brain, and the faster the brain will work. Some parents we know have reported significant developments in focus and faster thinking. We haven't progressed as far with this because it's about $1200 per semester, so we've only made it about halfway up the progress tree, and now our therapist is moving 500 miles away to live near family. There is software to do this at home that can be purchased, and I'm probably going to tell my wife to buy it soon.
Once a child is fully integrated, with a fully functioning brain, there is some catch up time as they progress through normal development stages that they've lacked. But eventually, most children should be able to function completely normally.
From when Carter was proven to be such a poor president and lost the 1980 election, only Obama has managed to get over the 50% mark as a Democrat. Without Obama's advantages, Clinton probably will top out in the high 40s.
What most people don't realize is that Politics is generational, so as the Boomer generation ages out, Gen X and Y will assert their own generational understanding on American politics. Gen X, raised or coming of age during the troubled Carter administration and the success of the Reagan administration probably leans toward Republican. Gen Y coming of age during the Clinton and Bush administrations and affected by 9/11, the Boston bombing and the psychology of fighting wars is probably going to have a strong hawk or protectionist faction that stays leaning right while the left will claim the social liberals and minorities.
Going forward, we are beginning to see that working class folks are realizing that the Democrats aren't interested in their economic well being (preventing the high paying jobs required to build the Keystone pipeline from coming into existence, wanting to keep energy prices high which hurts individuals on limited budgets more than others higher income individuals, encouraging high levels of poor immigrants which increases competition and reduces wages for American born workers and taking government benefits from Americans to give to non-Americans).
Realize that competition with overseas manufacturing has hindered wages for decades (I saw an article last week claim this was the primary cause of stagnant wages, and I'm personally in favor of this because it allows those poor workers to start to participate in the world economy and have a chance to crawl out of poverty), and we may finally start to see a slowing of outsourcing as India and China as their workers are making higher wages that reduce the labor cost advantage in those countries.
When even more bad news comes out about Obamacare comes out next year leading into the election, and with a corrupt and unlikable candidate like Hillary Clinton, and we're likely to see the Republicans win the next election at least. If they maintain enough Senate and House control on top of that, they will try to implement changes to Obamacare, obviously try to make their voters happy by implementing various laws that will appease their base (cutting taxes, anti-abortion laws, etc.). If there is a positive movement in economic activity and wages, people will probably attribute this to the Republicans, think that they are competent, they may even begin to draw support from some immigrant groups who recognize that Republicans aren't primarily a racist party, and are trying to maintain what makes America great instead of trying to tear it down to appease liberal critics.
Well, as a Catholic, I will say that the teaching is that someone who is divorced one incurs sin when they start sleeping with somebody else. Since, in God's eyes, the first marriage still exists, they cannot marry somebody new, and any sex between them and somebody else is adultery, and they cannot get married in a Catholic Church since they are still married. Annulments side step the issues since that means there the previous marriage was defective and never really existed in God's eyes. Also, marriages that happen outside of Catholic Churches, and without the permission of the bishop and participation of a priest are not recognized as valid masses. Since Protestants don't believe in the same things, their divorces and remarriages are handled differently if somebody decides to convert.
The people who are asking for these laws are only asking that they not be required to participate in wedding ceremonies, because they believe them to be lies that they don't want to participate in. So, the equivalent for divorces and Catholic businesses would be to refuse to participate in any marriage ceremony of a Catholic not also officiated by a Catholic priest, either to avoid the divorce/remarriage situation or just because the Catholic doesn't understand what they are doing (in the eyes of the Church and God). In order for this to occur, the business owner would have to inquire (or otherwise know) what the religion of both participants is, and if they are free to marry. I doubt many situations come up where caterers, florists, or photographers are going out of their way to inquire about these.
Concerning the Catholics and gays, realize that one of the things that can invalidate a heterosexual marriages in deceit in answering a couple of questions to this particular question during the ceremony: "N. and N., have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage? Will you love and honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?" So if the person doesn't intend to follow through with a lifelong commitment, then the marriage would be defective because the person entered the union with no intent to carry out this promise/commitment.
"Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?" This promise indicates that the person agrees with the Church's teaching about the importance of having and raising children. The Church's teaching on contraception is tied into this, such that using contraception could mean that most weddings in American Catholic Churches are invalid since most Catholic couples use contraception (although more and more priests and bishops are requiring attending NFP classes before the wedding even though they can't require the couple to actually use it after they are married). The pope's recent comments about not acting like rabbits means that the individual couples should seriously consider whether they are capable of responsibly taking on children, not that they should have or not have children just because they have reached some certain number of offspring that they or somebody else dictates is enough or too many.
Since homosexuals can't answer the second question in the affirmative, they cannot legally (Church law, not civil) enter into marriage, regardless of the sinfulness of homosexual relations. Since this is a very old part of Catholic teaching, it cannot be said to be something that was instituted based on the rise of homosexuality in recent years since it far predates it.
I have a friend who is a priest who once expressed disapproval of his brother's cohabitation with his girlfriend (to their mother, his brother, and told me about it later), and wouldn't sleep under the same roof or go on vacation with them because he (the priest) didn't want his brother to think he agreed with his lifestyle choice.
How easy will it be to clean when the dimples fill with bug guts compared to a smooth surface? Get enough of the dimples filled with crap, and not only will the car look awful, but it'll probably have worse aerodynamics than the smooth car.
I think this was a more time sensitive mission, because Pluto is moving farther from the sun and scientists warned (rightly or wrongly) that it was about to freeze, and they had a window to use a gravity assist from Jupiter to get the probe there much sooner, and there was also an earlier mission snowballed.
On the other hand, Io and Europa aren't going to be any different in 5 years than they would have been a few years ago when the probe would have reached those destinations, so those missions were not as high priority than the potential impact of Pluto's orbit that they weren't sure of when they green-lighted this mission 13 years ago.
I posted on this in Sept 2012. Best to use a coop to keep the ownership of the pipes out of the hands of the government (prevent censorship and conflicts of interest). You could even bundle up the electrical lines to keep overhead low, reduce conflicts over who owns & controls polls, line positioning, etc, and even bundle the two bills together to make everybody's life a little easier.
Possible outcomes assuming no profit: Elon looks at the deal, and the possible outcomes are: #1SpaceX is wildly successful, and breaks even. SpaceX is wildly successful and loses money because of unforeseen costs. SpaceX fails, and Elon loses most of his wealth. SpaceX succeeds but doesn't run a surplus/profit, can't set anything aside, and years down the road, a launch fails and there is no reserve funds to get them through the hard times and failure happens eventually. Elon loses interest, never starts SpaceX, because he doesn't foresee the profit to launch his own rockets to jump start space colonies because governments don't want to do it themselves, and the US space industry continues to rot.
If they sell to the network, it will go to the highest bidder (through loans for decades into the future) , who will then HAVE to raise prices to buy the network.
A much better solution is to give them to the people as a customer owned network, much like rural electric co-ops.
The Catholic Church doesn't have an official position on the age of the universe. If so, you should be able to find it in the Catechism of the Church. John Paul II and Benedict XVI both made comments friendly to non-atheistic environmentalism. A quote is often attributed to St. Augustine that the bible "tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go." A bishop was the plaintif in a lawsuit against Arkansas that, in the 1960s, removed the Creationism curriculum from the public schools.
I've read that eating enough green plant matter (leaves) will remove waste from the blood. I've read in several places that people have used vegan diets to control cancer (although I think it's more about eating more leaves, and not about rejecting protein).
I've heard/read that people that live a more primative lifestyle without our grain based diets don't have cancer, presumably because they eat more leaves.
I've created a website about the books I plan on making available to my children. It's called Fanatics4Classics. The book covers are affiliate links to Amazon 1) because hopefully it will support the site and 2) I like to read Amazon reviews for books, and hopefully others will find them useful as well 3) Amazon has covers for most books, and using their bandwidth is free.
I have an index (linked) of the best 800 fiction, philosophy & books about government and a huge history selection from Gutenberg (and torrents to download all of those books in either epub or mobi (for Kindle)).
The Amazon links include all of the Gutenberg books except the history (for those who like printed books or want to view the reviews) as well as another thousand books from the 20th century that are still under copyright. All of them are organized by reading level and genre.
The site is not completed yet. I'm planning on linking to the best works of Science and other areas of study, a much more extensive list of more modern history (because the our ability to research history is much better now), and links to other sites my wife finds useful in homeschooling our kids.
I'm doing this because my wife and I like the Thomas Jefferson Education model which promotes reading classics as a key component of education, and while they have a good selection of books on their site, I felt it was incomplete. Anyway, browse around, find something interesting, and read a book.
I've created a websiteabout the books I plan on making available to my children. It's called Fanatics4Classics. The book covers are affiliate links to Amazon 1) because hopefully it will support the site and 2) I like to read Amazon reviews for books, and hopefully others will find them useful as well 3) Amazon has covers for most books, and using their bandwidth is free.
I have an index (linked) of the best 800 fiction books and a huge history selection from Gutenberg (and torrents to download all of those books in either epub or mobi (for Kindle)).
The Amazon links include all of the Gutenberg fiction (for those who like printed books or want to view the reviews) as well as another thousand books from the 20th century that are still under copyright. All of them are organized by reading level and genre.
The site is not completed yet. I'm planning on linking to the best works of Science and other areas of study, a much more extensive list of history,and links to other sites my wife finds useful in homeschooling our kids.
I'm doing this because my wife and I like the Thomas Jefferson Education model, and while they have a good selection of books on their site, I felt it was incomplete. Anyway, browse around, find something interesting, and read a book.
FYI, I'm a father of 4, and I make just over $50,000 a year. After filing, I've gotten a check of about $3000 each of the last 4 years after having nothing withheld for the entire year. I have a co-worker who is in a similar situation, and he actually lets our employer withhold money, so he gets an even bigger check.
Do you remember all of the Y2K stories for YEARS before the year 2000? Had people all worked into a frenzy that power plants and other equipment wouldn't work on 1/1/00. I've read that the White House is pretty hostile to any publication/reporter that prints a critical story. Pair that with the love certain media individuals have with Obama, and you get a whole lot of brushing stuff under the rug that 6 years ago was extremely hostile to a president that was pretty similar on policy and competence.
You might look at your local library. We do all library as we already pay for it in our taxes.
Understand, there's a bit of waiting involved. Usually from when a disk is released, the library doesn't have it available for another two weeks, and then you have to wait through the hold queue to before you get a copy. I've found at our library (Topeka KS), that if you make a recommendation to buy a disk before the item is in the catalog, they will put you on the list before it's officially started. So, if you want to watch something, you could ask for them to buy the next big movie before it's at the theater, and you will get a copy the first week the library has them available.
My preferred method: Get rid of districts, and give the power to the voters. Set a window for 6-3 months before the election, and everybody registers their party preference. So, for a Federal election May to July, voters select the party they want to represent them. Maybe you end up with half Republicans and Democrats, and other parties finally get some real representation, collecting the other half. You use the registrations to determine which parties will get how many candidates. (Say 120 for Republicans & 120 for Democrats, 50 Libertarians, 45 Greens, 5 Communists, 3 Anarchists, 25 NAACP, 25 Latino Party, 1 KKK, 25 Christian Conservatives, 10 AARP, 15 Peace Party, etc.) Then once each party knows how many spots, they have their own party elections to determine which candidates they want to represent their constituents.
You have added benefits where everybody has a better selection than current. If you decide you don't like your current party (corruption, anti-science or education or other divergences) try to build a following to pull the party in a new direction, start a new party, select from dozens of other options.
You get rid of having half of a district feeling like their representative works for somebody else.
You get rid of the alignment between the Senate and the House, where they are chosen by the same electorate, just with fewer seats. Actually, we should throw out the Senate and have the State Houses approve the bills passed by the Federal House, before sending it to the President. Given today's technology level at the time of the negotiation of the House of Representatives, we probably would have had this instead of Senators, who were supposed to represent a break on the Federal government over running the powers of the states. All responsibilities of the Senate to approve Treaties, Presidential appointments, and impeachment duties are turned over to the House.
Then, since the electoral college is supposed to be somewhat representative of the House and Senate, replace it with the newly elected House plus the governor and his lieutenant governor, and throw out the presidential election altogether. This will reduce the cult of personality that gave us both Bush and Obama. Since the parties will be more fractured, the elected representatives will hopefully compromise on a competent candidate that doesn't upset anybody too much.
Reading a book called 'The Fourth Turning'. It mentions that during the post WWII era, educated women stayed home and had higher birth rates than the less educated. The late 2020s to early 2040s may see a return to higher fertilities due to an improved social mood after our current malaise.
Peak oil stories would drive up the cost of oil because of the perceived shortage, and more buyers and speculators would buy futures that would increase the price, making more profit in the short term for the 'evil' oil companies, and probably get more money in the form of exploration funds. Of course, this will encourage investments in wind, solar, and maybe even nuclear.
On the other hand, downplaying Peak Oil concerns will keep prices somewhat lower. But if they are right, they are looking at huge decline in energy revenues due to declining commodity costs, which probably won't be great for the bottom line and stock prices.
Slashdot Mirror
There is not an economic failure in the state. There is a state government revenue shortfall, probably due to Brownback and the other Republicans in the state government trying to emulate Texas' tax code without some of the advantages that state has (lots of oil and multimillionaires), and over optimism about the growth the tax changes would cause.
I have family in rural Kansas, and their school budgets are being hit hard, forcing consolidations between different cities so they can consolidate administrative costs. The result is that some kids are being bussed 10-15 miles from their hometown to another town for school (not counting those that have to be on the bus for as much as half an hour before that because they are on a bus route and live 2-12 miles from town).
In my opinion, school funding should be driven at the local level instead of from the state and federal level. If you cut the taxes the appropriate amount at the state and federal level, then the money will be available for the local governments to raise taxes and pay and prioritize these issues locally (In the poor areas of KC, Topeka and Wichita, the state should pick up the slack). Then instead of people complaining that the state is dictating consolidation, the parents and tax payers in the city will have to face the facts about how much spending is appropriate in a town with 25 children, but at least they will have to come to grips with the facts, and they will have to make a decision made by them and their neighbors instead of the state government in Topeka.
And after I posted this, I came across this article from same day as this Slashdot item.
My wife has gotten our daughter into a program called Brain Highways, that may help a child cure their autism, or other similar conditions. The program costs around $2000 (as of a few years ago), done at home, parents guiding their children through physical therapy.
Their science says that there are three sections of the brain. The lower brain controls all involuntary body functions. The upper brain controls thought and memory. The middle part of the brain controls things that we have control over, but handles them on a subconscious level. So, when I run, I don't think (step, step step), I just start running. Some functions controlled by this part of the brain have to do with focus, processing and understanding the surrounding environment, controlling body activity, etc.
What their science claims is that a person who has an underdeveloped middle brain has to compensate by forcing the upper brain do handle these activities, but it's not very good at it. And since the upper brain is distracted into focusing on the mid brains role, it can't do what it's supposed to. Fortunately, you can train the brain to finish it's middle brain development by doing some therapy that emulates some of the activities that babies do when they lay on the floor (perhaps the rise of autism has been caused by parents holding their children a little too much instead of giving them exploration time on the floor?). Specifically, they teach a series of motions where the child rolls over a couple of times in a particular way, lays on the floor and moves their arms and legs in proscribed patters, then pulling themselves across the floor on their bellies. They progress naturally from dragging themselves inch by inch using just their hands to adding toes, then eventually using their whole legs and flying across the floor.
Our oldest had the greatest deficiency, has been very resistant to doing the work, and she hasn't completely overcome her limitations, and my wife hasn't forced the issue due to her resistance. Our second was about half developed, and has completed the program. Our third was completely developed before she started.
Our oldest has also made some progress using sound/body therapy, called Interactive Metronome, to speed up her brain and synchronize it with her body. This therapy involves the subject listening to a sound on head phones, and timing motions to trigger a button (attached to wrists, or positioned on the floor) in time with the beat. The longer somebody practices, the more they will be able to get the right timing, the more in sync the body and the brain, and the faster the brain will work. Some parents we know have reported significant developments in focus and faster thinking. We haven't progressed as far with this because it's about $1200 per semester, so we've only made it about halfway up the progress tree, and now our therapist is moving 500 miles away to live near family. There is software to do this at home that can be purchased, and I'm probably going to tell my wife to buy it soon.
Once a child is fully integrated, with a fully functioning brain, there is some catch up time as they progress through normal development stages that they've lacked. But eventually, most children should be able to function completely normally.
From when Carter was proven to be such a poor president and lost the 1980 election, only Obama has managed to get over the 50% mark as a Democrat. Without Obama's advantages, Clinton probably will top out in the high 40s.
What most people don't realize is that Politics is generational, so as the Boomer generation ages out, Gen X and Y will assert their own generational understanding on American politics. Gen X, raised or coming of age during the troubled Carter administration and the success of the Reagan administration probably leans toward Republican. Gen Y coming of age during the Clinton and Bush administrations and affected by 9/11, the Boston bombing and the psychology of fighting wars is probably going to have a strong hawk or protectionist faction that stays leaning right while the left will claim the social liberals and minorities.
Going forward, we are beginning to see that working class folks are realizing that the Democrats aren't interested in their economic well being (preventing the high paying jobs required to build the Keystone pipeline from coming into existence, wanting to keep energy prices high which hurts individuals on limited budgets more than others higher income individuals, encouraging high levels of poor immigrants which increases competition and reduces wages for American born workers and taking government benefits from Americans to give to non-Americans).
Realize that competition with overseas manufacturing has hindered wages for decades (I saw an article last week claim this was the primary cause of stagnant wages, and I'm personally in favor of this because it allows those poor workers to start to participate in the world economy and have a chance to crawl out of poverty), and we may finally start to see a slowing of outsourcing as India and China as their workers are making higher wages that reduce the labor cost advantage in those countries.
When even more bad news comes out about Obamacare comes out next year leading into the election, and with a corrupt and unlikable candidate like Hillary Clinton, and we're likely to see the Republicans win the next election at least. If they maintain enough Senate and House control on top of that, they will try to implement changes to Obamacare, obviously try to make their voters happy by implementing various laws that will appease their base (cutting taxes, anti-abortion laws, etc.). If there is a positive movement in economic activity and wages, people will probably attribute this to the Republicans, think that they are competent, they may even begin to draw support from some immigrant groups who recognize that Republicans aren't primarily a racist party, and are trying to maintain what makes America great instead of trying to tear it down to appease liberal critics.
Well, as a Catholic, I will say that the teaching is that someone who is divorced one incurs sin when they start sleeping with somebody else. Since, in God's eyes, the first marriage still exists, they cannot marry somebody new, and any sex between them and somebody else is adultery, and they cannot get married in a Catholic Church since they are still married. Annulments side step the issues since that means there the previous marriage was defective and never really existed in God's eyes. Also, marriages that happen outside of Catholic Churches, and without the permission of the bishop and participation of a priest are not recognized as valid masses. Since Protestants don't believe in the same things, their divorces and remarriages are handled differently if somebody decides to convert.
The people who are asking for these laws are only asking that they not be required to participate in wedding ceremonies, because they believe them to be lies that they don't want to participate in. So, the equivalent for divorces and Catholic businesses would be to refuse to participate in any marriage ceremony of a Catholic not also officiated by a Catholic priest, either to avoid the divorce/remarriage situation or just because the Catholic doesn't understand what they are doing (in the eyes of the Church and God). In order for this to occur, the business owner would have to inquire (or otherwise know) what the religion of both participants is, and if they are free to marry. I doubt many situations come up where caterers, florists, or photographers are going out of their way to inquire about these.
Concerning the Catholics and gays, realize that one of the things that can invalidate a heterosexual marriages in deceit in answering a couple of questions to this particular question during the ceremony: "N. and N., have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage? Will you love and honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?" So if the person doesn't intend to follow through with a lifelong commitment, then the marriage would be defective because the person entered the union with no intent to carry out this promise/commitment.
"Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?" This promise indicates that the person agrees with the Church's teaching about the importance of having and raising children. The Church's teaching on contraception is tied into this, such that using contraception could mean that most weddings in American Catholic Churches are invalid since most Catholic couples use contraception (although more and more priests and bishops are requiring attending NFP classes before the wedding even though they can't require the couple to actually use it after they are married). The pope's recent comments about not acting like rabbits means that the individual couples should seriously consider whether they are capable of responsibly taking on children, not that they should have or not have children just because they have reached some certain number of offspring that they or somebody else dictates is enough or too many.
Since homosexuals can't answer the second question in the affirmative, they cannot legally (Church law, not civil) enter into marriage, regardless of the sinfulness of homosexual relations. Since this is a very old part of Catholic teaching, it cannot be said to be something that was instituted based on the rise of homosexuality in recent years since it far predates it.
I have a friend who is a priest who once expressed disapproval of his brother's cohabitation with his girlfriend (to their mother, his brother, and told me about it later), and wouldn't sleep under the same roof or go on vacation with them because he (the priest) didn't want his brother to think he agreed with his lifestyle choice.
How easy will it be to clean when the dimples fill with bug guts compared to a smooth surface? Get enough of the dimples filled with crap, and not only will the car look awful, but it'll probably have worse aerodynamics than the smooth car.
Not snowballed, mothballed, egads.
I think this was a more time sensitive mission, because Pluto is moving farther from the sun and scientists warned (rightly or wrongly) that it was about to freeze, and they had a window to use a gravity assist from Jupiter to get the probe there much sooner, and there was also an earlier mission snowballed.
On the other hand, Io and Europa aren't going to be any different in 5 years than they would have been a few years ago when the probe would have reached those destinations, so those missions were not as high priority than the potential impact of Pluto's orbit that they weren't sure of when they green-lighted this mission 13 years ago.
I posted on this in Sept 2012. Best to use a coop to keep the ownership of the pipes out of the hands of the government (prevent censorship and conflicts of interest). You could even bundle up the electrical lines to keep overhead low, reduce conflicts over who owns & controls polls, line positioning, etc, and even bundle the two bills together to make everybody's life a little easier.
Look, if there was no profit, he wouldn't do it.
Think of it like this:
Possible outcomes assuming no profit: Elon looks at the deal, and the possible outcomes are: #1SpaceX is wildly successful, and breaks even. SpaceX is wildly successful and loses money because of unforeseen costs. SpaceX fails, and Elon loses most of his wealth. SpaceX succeeds but doesn't run a surplus/profit, can't set anything aside, and years down the road, a launch fails and there is no reserve funds to get them through the hard times and failure happens eventually. Elon loses interest, never starts SpaceX, because he doesn't foresee the profit to launch his own rockets to jump start space colonies because governments don't want to do it themselves, and the US space industry continues to rot.
If they sell to the network, it will go to the highest bidder (through loans for decades into the future) , who will then HAVE to raise prices to buy the network.
A much better solution is to give them to the people as a customer owned network, much like rural electric co-ops.
The Catholic Church doesn't have an official position on the age of the universe. If so, you should be able to find it in the Catechism of the Church. John Paul II and Benedict XVI both made comments friendly to non-atheistic environmentalism. A quote is often attributed to St. Augustine that the bible "tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go." A bishop was the plaintif in a lawsuit against Arkansas that, in the 1960s, removed the Creationism curriculum from the public schools.
The public schools probably don't want to turn students away. They get additional money for every student enrolled.
I've read that eating enough green plant matter (leaves) will remove waste from the blood. I've read in several places that people have used vegan diets to control cancer (although I think it's more about eating more leaves, and not about rejecting protein).
I've heard/read that people that live a more primative lifestyle without our grain based diets don't have cancer, presumably because they eat more leaves.
I've created a website about the books I plan on making available to my children. It's called Fanatics4Classics. The book covers are affiliate links to Amazon 1) because hopefully it will support the site and 2) I like to read Amazon reviews for books, and hopefully others will find them useful as well 3) Amazon has covers for most books, and using their bandwidth is free.
I have an index (linked) of the best 800 fiction, philosophy & books about government and a huge history selection from Gutenberg (and torrents to download all of those books in either epub or mobi (for Kindle)).
The Amazon links include all of the Gutenberg books except the history (for those who like printed books or want to view the reviews) as well as another thousand books from the 20th century that are still under copyright. All of them are organized by reading level and genre.
The site is not completed yet. I'm planning on linking to the best works of Science and other areas of study, a much more extensive list of more modern history (because the our ability to research history is much better now), and links to other sites my wife finds useful in homeschooling our kids.
I'm doing this because my wife and I like the Thomas Jefferson Education model which promotes reading classics as a key component of education, and while they have a good selection of books on their site, I felt it was incomplete. Anyway, browse around, find something interesting, and read a book.
I've created a websiteabout the books I plan on making available to my children. It's called Fanatics4Classics. The book covers are affiliate links to Amazon 1) because hopefully it will support the site and 2) I like to read Amazon reviews for books, and hopefully others will find them useful as well 3) Amazon has covers for most books, and using their bandwidth is free.
I have an index (linked) of the best 800 fiction books and a huge history selection from Gutenberg (and torrents to download all of those books in either epub or mobi (for Kindle)).
The Amazon links include all of the Gutenberg fiction (for those who like printed books or want to view the reviews) as well as another thousand books from the 20th century that are still under copyright. All of them are organized by reading level and genre.
The site is not completed yet. I'm planning on linking to the best works of Science and other areas of study, a much more extensive list of history,and links to other sites my wife finds useful in homeschooling our kids.
I'm doing this because my wife and I like the Thomas Jefferson Education model, and while they have a good selection of books on their site, I felt it was incomplete. Anyway, browse around, find something interesting, and read a book.
Not to mention Clinton was elected twice with less that 50% of the vote.
FYI, I'm a father of 4, and I make just over $50,000 a year. After filing, I've gotten a check of about $3000 each of the last 4 years after having nothing withheld for the entire year. I have a co-worker who is in a similar situation, and he actually lets our employer withhold money, so he gets an even bigger check.
Do you remember all of the Y2K stories for YEARS before the year 2000? Had people all worked into a frenzy that power plants and other equipment wouldn't work on 1/1/00. I've read that the White House is pretty hostile to any publication/reporter that prints a critical story. Pair that with the love certain media individuals have with Obama, and you get a whole lot of brushing stuff under the rug that 6 years ago was extremely hostile to a president that was pretty similar on policy and competence.
You might look at your local library. We do all library as we already pay for it in our taxes.
Understand, there's a bit of waiting involved. Usually from when a disk is released, the library doesn't have it available for another two weeks, and then you have to wait through the hold queue to before you get a copy. I've found at our library (Topeka KS), that if you make a recommendation to buy a disk before the item is in the catalog, they will put you on the list before it's officially started. So, if you want to watch something, you could ask for them to buy the next big movie before it's at the theater, and you will get a copy the first week the library has them available.
You in Topeka KS?
My preferred method: Get rid of districts, and give the power to the voters. Set a window for 6-3 months before the election, and everybody registers their party preference. So, for a Federal election May to July, voters select the party they want to represent them. Maybe you end up with half Republicans and Democrats, and other parties finally get some real representation, collecting the other half. You use the registrations to determine which parties will get how many candidates. (Say 120 for Republicans & 120 for Democrats, 50 Libertarians, 45 Greens, 5 Communists, 3 Anarchists, 25 NAACP, 25 Latino Party, 1 KKK, 25 Christian Conservatives, 10 AARP, 15 Peace Party, etc.) Then once each party knows how many spots, they have their own party elections to determine which candidates they want to represent their constituents.
You have added benefits where everybody has a better selection than current. If you decide you don't like your current party (corruption, anti-science or education or other divergences) try to build a following to pull the party in a new direction, start a new party, select from dozens of other options.
You get rid of having half of a district feeling like their representative works for somebody else.
You get rid of the alignment between the Senate and the House, where they are chosen by the same electorate, just with fewer seats. Actually, we should throw out the Senate and have the State Houses approve the bills passed by the Federal House, before sending it to the President. Given today's technology level at the time of the negotiation of the House of Representatives, we probably would have had this instead of Senators, who were supposed to represent a break on the Federal government over running the powers of the states. All responsibilities of the Senate to approve Treaties, Presidential appointments, and impeachment duties are turned over to the House.
Then, since the electoral college is supposed to be somewhat representative of the House and Senate, replace it with the newly elected House plus the governor and his lieutenant governor, and throw out the presidential election altogether. This will reduce the cult of personality that gave us both Bush and Obama. Since the parties will be more fractured, the elected representatives will hopefully compromise on a competent candidate that doesn't upset anybody too much.
Reading a book called 'The Fourth Turning'. It mentions that during the post WWII era, educated women stayed home and had higher birth rates than the less educated. The late 2020s to early 2040s may see a return to higher fertilities due to an improved social mood after our current malaise.
I have a Chase account, and I have ru4.com disabled in NetScript, and I can login just fine.
It seems to me that it's a two sided coin.
Peak oil stories would drive up the cost of oil because of the perceived shortage, and more buyers and speculators would buy futures that would increase the price, making more profit in the short term for the 'evil' oil companies, and probably get more money in the form of exploration funds. Of course, this will encourage investments in wind, solar, and maybe even nuclear.
On the other hand, downplaying Peak Oil concerns will keep prices somewhat lower. But if they are right, they are looking at huge decline in energy revenues due to declining commodity costs, which probably won't be great for the bottom line and stock prices.