I worked for a popular Japanese Printer company in the 80s. At the time in Japan there was a fascination with model gun replicas and a coworker brought home a gorgeous model Mac 10, with silencer and big clip. He brought it to work and came into the repair depot wearing an overcoat, whipped it out and yell "It's Pay Day!!!" Firing off the entire clip, brass dropping everywhere and the unmistakable sound of each blank muffled by the silencer.
Scared the hell out of people, half the crew dove for cover. No harm, no foul, at least in 1983. Today, he'd be in jail. It was just screwing around, but it was also stupid as hell, and under different circumstances the Police could have shot him dead where he stood and been totally justified. Perceived threat my friend is by definition a threat, and the way people react to it can cost lives, cause life changing injuries, or have profound social and personal impacts. My coworker was called on the carpet for freaking people out, and rightfully so, and this place was known for practical jokes.
As for personal freedom and the Bill of Rights my friend, in case you haven't been paying attention, they are for all intents and purposes gone. You can be taken from your home or work, detained and interrogated indefinitely without due process and no access to court or legal council, any time a military service determines you're a threat to national security. The Supreme court is right now determining if you have the right to own and sell anything with a foreign logo on it, including your iPad/Pod, Car, House, Swatch, camera, foreign published CDs and DVDs. As for defending your freedom from the tyrannical government, I'm sorry but if you think for a second that anything you have in your arsenal is going to put you on even footing with an Apache Helicopter you need to have your meds changed. You want to do something about freedom, stop the romantic fantisizing and go after the national legislature and their egregious habit of whoring to the highest bidder.
Hell, stupid people will kill others by skydiving with their backpack instead of their parachute, and falling on them, that's no argument to give them Uzis and Mac 10s so they can take out entire crowds in some glorious act of personal idiocy.
Here, here... as well let's please look at the historical context. I mean it was militias that fought the British government. Today, a well armed militia hasn't even got the right to assemble let alone threaten the Federal Government. Last time a militia got that well armed, thing ended badly on all sides... and please believe me when I say the ATF are not among my favorite government bureaucracies. Voting with bullets is not s subtle form of insanity. However it is an excellent way to become a lead monument right where you're standing.
You simply can't speak in absolutes. I have a right to air I can breath, water I can drink and land upon which to build my home that isn't so poisoned by your industry that it kills me and my children (if you need specific examples of each of these byproducts on modern capitalism, I'll be only too happy to bury you in Superfund sites.) What is good for the collective at the most basic level of fundamental necessities, is essential for the existence of a functional society. I have good friends from developing nations all over the world. They're happy to talk about the difference between the U.S. and their countries. They pay no taxes. Of course they have no industry because their is NO INFRASTRUCTURE. They aren't the victims of draconian government control, of course bandits and rebels can come through at any time and slaughter half the village, and there's pretty much nobody to stop them. You think corruption in America is bad, you ain't seen nuthin... travel a little, then come home, you'll think that the American brand of corruption is a blessing.
There are always been a dynamic balance between the rights of the one and the welfare of the society as a whole. The freedom of my fist needs to end at the right of your nose to live unencumbered by my desire to punch. With 350,000,000, we can't just do as we please anymore without impacting the lives of our neighbors. So pick your freedoms wisely, because the freedoms you give yourself, you give to your neighbor, and he may just pave his freedom all over your self righteousness.
Its so strange watching what people latch onto. Like the story about the blind men trying to describe an elephant, one has it by the tail and thinks its an elephant is a stick, another by the leg and thinks its like a tree, and another by the trunk and thinks it like a snake. All right, and all completely wrong. First there are no pure "ISM" governments left on the planet save maybe North Korea, and they're just bugfsck. Capitalism is PRONE to serious problems, especially when corporations hijack the government. Even Adam Smith warned about the dangers of concentrating wealth and the absolute essential need for a healthy middle class. Capitalism with strong regulations in place to ensure they don't abuse labor, or too strongly influence cultural thinking through pervasive media, or destroy the environment they need in which to operate, is a wonderful thing. But like any reactor you watch it, guide it, steer it, and most certainly keep it in that dynamic tension between strict control and free progress.
There are strong arguments for limiting banks before you limit governments, because banks arguable have had a greater impact on human suffering than the all the governments of the world combined. Which isn't to say that governments are blameless, or shouldn't be strictly controlled. That's why we used to have checks and balances (until corporate America began dismantling them 30 years ago.) Twenty-first century America is living proof why Plutocracies and Fascist states are inherently doomed enterprises. Pyramids balanced on their points, they're unstable and dangerous. They do double harm, first as they bleed a culture dry, then as they begin to topple struggling ever harder against the very culture in which they exist causing collateral damage as they strive to keep wealth and power. There are fascinating conversations regarding the amazing wealth of the United States shortly after winning its independence and the disastrous effects of tying American currency to British Banks and the formation of our own Federal Bank.
As for your attack on Liberalism, I attribute none of the "ISMs" of which you speak to liberalism. Conservatism is the tendency to avoid in fact prevent change. Conservatism looks at the world framed in past based conversations and tries to preserve a consistent and workable status quo through tradition ideals and methods. This worked well when the period of significant social and technological change was greater than a single human life span. Its a full on disaster today. Liberalism is embracing change, looking for new solutions to new problems, looking to hit the moving target of social advance as it continues to accelerate. There will be failures, that's part of the scientific method. The whole point is that our world is changing at an every increasing rate, and that conservative thinking is inherently more broken, less tied to physical reality, and more prone to growing distortions of perception based on forcing reality into those inappropriate past frames of reference. Look at the last President and his cabinet trying to force a 2000 world into a 1980 frame of reference and the social disasters that ensued. This isn't to say that some expressions of Liberalism aren't flavored with excessive moralizing, emotional attachment or equally fixed past perspectives. It is to say that at its best, liberal thinking is profoundly better at dealing with and confronting accelerating change than conservatism.
Just as an aside, though conservatives like to claim fiscal austerity as one of their key planks, dealing with financial resources consistent with the simple tenets of basic accounting, seems to me to be just a simple act of sanity. Those that suggest we consistently spend more than we make, conservative or liberal are simply poor stewards of the future. Bill Clinton proved we could provide a fair tax structure, build the nation's infrastructure, promote a successful economy and still pay off the national debt. Anybody remember the "Surplus".
Awesome, have the local gun clubs, NRA, and any other body of responsible gun owners in the area, come up with a PERFECTLY REASONABLE list of rules and drill them into the heads of every person who owns a gun. DO NOT FIRE INTO CROWDS, it pisses people off. DO NOT FIRE INTO DRY GRASS, unless you can afford to buy new and better homes for all the people you render homeless. DO NOT CONSUME ALCOHOL WHILE SHOOTING, people are stupid enough with tying a lobe behind their backs.
We regulate cars and trucks, because 2-4 tons of steel hurtling through space at 70 mph can mess up a lot of people's day. You can't make everyone behave in a sensible fashion, but you can create a body of regulations designed to enforce minimum acceptable conduct and punish those that have neither the sense nor compunction to respect the rights and well being of others.
I'm not even talking about restricting the use of explosive or armor piercing rounds, or limiting the size of the gun you own (though come on, let's be honest, if you have a 50mm cannon you're either a hitman or you're compensating for a microscopic penis.) Just some basic rules to keep the; clinically insane, mentally retarded, chronically irresponsible and/or full automatic weapon obsessed from burning down the joint. Would that be so bad. Don't even make it a government thing. Agree upon all y'all selves that you're going to work with the local constables to make certain that the armed and stupid are managed in a fair and effective fashion. If Jed can't stop accidentally shooting neighbors, help him move to lawn darts. That way any lives he takes will at least have the benefit of cleaning out his own gene pool. If Bubba can't stop robbing liquor stores with a.38, have him exchange his piece for a nice carved bar of soap that's been shoe blacked. He'll never go down for murder and he'll be able to use it later in prison.
Better yet, let's just think back to "Full Metal Jacket" and remember "This is my weapon, and this is my gun..." You are not being castrated when people suggest we should have sane limitations on death dealing hardware. People have no sane reason for owning Uzis, Atomic bombs, or M1 tanks. You are not going to resist the government, its better armed than you, except for the two or three of you with stinger missiles in the basement. There are no zombies. The world is not ending in December. You could live on MREs for 5 years, buy after the first six month you'll probably shoot yourself anyway. Stop with the crazy crap and for heaven sake, put down the gun, wash you hands, and go mow your lawn.
You might want to try this in a new way? Have your students use the Khan Academy to look at topic lectures. Take the short tests after each section to see who's having problems and with what sections. This allow you to provide the interesting stuff, make you lectures about the relevance of what they're learning to the process of understanding the flow and function of populations and how statistics are a powerful tool to let us begin to extract patterns of form and function inside what would would otherwise look like turbulent and unpredictable systems. They even let us predict outcomes in nonlinear systems. Also, you can get tutors through the Khan Academy, so anybody who is having a little difficulty can actually work with someone who already understands the concepts. The point is you can do the cool stuff, watch your students perform, support the stragglers, and get the feedback you need to have everyone complete the course informed, knowing the material, and enjoying the process that got them there. A win/win.
The one down side is that they Statistics series isn't quite complete yet, but its getting there, and there's more than enough there to get your kids started.
Don't matter what race, you can discriminate against nationalities just as easily. We stripped the Japanese-American citizens of their properties, virtually all their rights including due process, and interned them in POW camps during WWII. Right after 9/11, the anti-Middle-Eastern hated and phobia lead to people killing Arab-Americans, but there were also fatal attacks against Mexicans, Native Americans, Indian Nationals, and pretty much anybody who might be mistaken for an Arab. There's a lot of fear, and racist phobia among Americans just boiling under the surface. A recent poll showed that in a number of places in the U.S. (particularly in the deep South and Mid-West) that there's a real and easily measurable backlash against having a black President (in fact, in the states for which this is true the 3-6% disadvantage Obama has due to ethnicity will automatically give his opponent the equivalent of a home state advantage.)
Americans are still dealing with race, creed, color, religion and preference, and though we keep making headway, there is still plenty of work to be done to remove prejudice and intolerance from our society. Today its Arabs. Tomorrow, Chinese?
Because we've made the Iranians the "Evil Brown People Du Jour" and therefore if you speak or even understand Farsi, own a Persian rug, or say "IRAN the half marathon in under and hour..." everyone and his third cousin is supposed to shun you as a potential terrorist... Booga, booga!!!!
Don't get me wrong, I appreciated the strict limitations of selling technology goods to foreign nationals on the "No Sale" list. This is no excuse for picking people out of a crowd and treating them like criminals, simply because they know a "forbidden" language. I just read a story by a well known journalist who just finished traveling throughout the middle east, and his take on Iran was fascinating. The people there hate their government and the young people are on the verge of major social unrest. They have radios, and satellite TV, and video games. The kids play friggin video games where they get to be American soldiers attacking their own army. Tell me that isn't a sign that Iran isn't going to transform sooner or later. The Ayatollah Khomeini set the age of marriage for girls at 8 years old... you heard me right, four plus friggin four, two less then ten! The logic was that only by marrying a girl off before puberty could you be certain to prevent her from having sex before marriage. Of course this also meant the girl would never get any kind of education, and that she would certainly know her place as a SLAVE to her husband before she reached the age of 10 and for the rest of her life. You think the educated and professional women of Iran who lead self determined lives during the Shah, took that declaration with a grin? They are tired of partying like its 1399. We don't have to worry about Iran, Iran will fix itself, the religious zealotry of the last 30 years has proven to be devastating to the people of Iran, and the only thing that would cause it to persist is if we stuck our big fat noses into their business and caused the general population to line up behind their mullahs. Right now everyone in Iran under 30 wants to be an American. In 10 years, Iran could be our biggest ally in the MiddleEast, seeing as Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey are in the midst of serious religious ugliness and antiAmerican sentiment in those countries is running high.
Give the girl her iPad for the love-o-Jebus, if she orders a top of the line Cray, okay, then by all means surveil her ass. Please believe me when I say, nobody is cobbling atomic bombs (or even IEDs) together out of iPads... and if they want that kind of technology, you think the Chinese and Russians wouldn't sell it to them in half a femtosecond? Its all political posturing and international diplomatic hoohah, and the rest of the world knows it.
If you're going to be a hard-ass about selling the girl an iPad, tell her why and explain to her to "Please have your Father come in with proof of your citizenship." Explain, "Its because we're trying to prevent another 9/11 and even though its a pain in the ass for everyone including the nice clerk who really wants to sell you an iPad, we all make small sacrifice during times of war for National Security." Polite, compassionate and with a solution that let's everyone know where they stand.
Instead we get a tempest in a teapot and journalists who'll blow it up into a civil rights fiasco. Jeez I hate slow news days.
The problem is, you can't complain about the whores because we built the whorehouse. You can shut it down. You can regulate the shady ladies, in the hope that they won't spread something awful. You can keep the Johns away (read lobbyists.) In the end, as long as you run your political system like a whorehouse, you can't be surprised that what shows up, are whores.
That's bribery. If you've got money to spend, use it to help candidates who will do the right thing without receiving kickbacks.
You apparently have no concept of how politics work. Businesses create an ever growing cycle of expense for Politicians to buy ever more sound bites to persuade the mouth breathing masses that they are in fact the son of Gawd, and should be their next king. The drooling masses elect their temporary king via Pavlovian stimulus through their social opinion receptacles and the new king spends the next 4 years fellating his/her corporate masters.
To break the cycle you would have to;
1. Separate corporation and state.
2. Provide a fixed election fund, to limit campaign spending and test candidates in their ability to manage finance.
3. Prevent candidates from using their own funds to eliminate unfair advantage from the wealthy.
4. Design a highly visible national priority board with topics of burning societal importance, national infrastructure, education, fair resource allocation and distribution, etc. and pay political representatives according to how well they address the real issues as opposed to the smoke screen issues designed to inflame and divide the nation.
5. Set some minimum standard for representatives in the area of sanity and/or intellectual function. The people steering the boat don't need to know how to grill a tri-tip, they should however have some vague clue on how to pass law and make the nation a nicer place to live.
Other than that, yeah find a candidate who'll do the right thing without receiving kickbacks.
If dark matter is actually some effect of the relationship between matter in another universe and this, how is it that the two are typically linked gravitationally, but not always. If you look at this photograph recently taken by the HST, one of the largest galaxy clusters we can see has its dark matter concentrated when the barionic matter is not. Puzzle me that? I'd have to have an explanation that would explain such anomalies.
Its not just inflation. At every turn (looking at the California State college system because its one of the largest, best, and most endangered) the Colleges of California are in operational freefall from the Top UCs to the community colleges. With the slow motion disaster that is our state government and state sources of school funding drying faster than a spit puddle in Death Valley at high noon, the cost of tuitions have literally SKYROCKETED, Administrators, insensitive to the disaster have voted themselves huge pay raises while cutting courses and eliminating teaching jobs like there's no future. With every turn the State's education system tries to run schools on less resource, and squeezes the students ever harder, applying tuition hikes on top of tuition hikes. A growing percentage of students are being priced out of their education in mid school attendance. A quality higher education in California will soon be well beyond the reach of any normal middle class family, and require a level of saving and scrimping starting at a child's birth that most families are neither equipt nor interested in making.
We need a system that maintains high standards and demands that students are serious about pursuing that degree, but once the student has demonstrated the desire and the capacity, we need to provide all the resources we can to ensure that student receives the education they desire. Every measure of economic health tells us that well educated professionals are a boon to the economy, leaders in their various communities, and return the investment in their success dozens of times over. With the accelerating technological challenges facing our society, we can't afford not to have a well educated, disciplined and intellectually proficient society of clear and cogent thinkers. The alternative is to hope we can HB-1 our way through the future, and I hate to be the one to tell you, but a growing number of those children are going back home with their knowledge, business experience and professional acumen. We've virtually bankrupted our economy, let's not do the same with our children's future.
Oh yeah, and the damage you did to your brain and body are a model upon which to build a future for our children (and trust me, you did damage, you may not know it now, but when the osteoporosis troll come a knocking, please don't be surprised, he's been to the house of quite a few of my friends who did exactly what you did in the young adult years when good nutrition ensures a long healthy life.
Which isn't to say there aren't a bunch of lazy, sex crazed coed, studying classes that will make little or no contribution to their future and who's nutrition even with money sucks beyond reconciling. Its just a certainty that if you can't afford good healthy food, that sooner or later you'll pay with your health.
Personally I like the idea of a society that supports young people in choosing between college and useful, vital trades that society needs and upon which a young man or woman can build a healthy future. The education cost would be dramatically less, preserve vital skills in our society, and normalize the price of plumbers and electricians and car mechanics, oh my. That would leave the justifiable college bound a much larger pie in which to cut, and more resources to support them in becoming future engineers, scientists, teachers and scum sucking lawyers and corporate capitalists (the scum sucking is obligatory, but seem harder every day to separate from these last two groups.)
It really is a no-brainer, Fail to support the students of today and the future will suck even more than it does now. There are few better investments.
Oh yeah, I can see mega-corporations just lining up for that future... trust me, if it come down to that, somebody will charge you the national debt for your data and your atomic feedstock. Just like they ream you now for oil. In fact the 3D printers will probably have some kind of draconian DRM ensuring you can only buy IP through the manufacturer so they get their slice every time you print. That or we put an end to corporate rule. Of course its a little late in the game for that move, and the corporations have already proven they're not above strangling us if we get nasty.
Damn these kids and their new-fangled Wheels... some poor bugger's gonna git run over I tell ya! In my day you jus slung you kill over your shoulder and drug it home like a man... then a saber tooth et ya both!!! That's the way its supposed to be done, these young whipper snappers... and there new fangled wheels.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: For the experiment to be a success, all of the body parts must be enlarged. Inga: In other vords: his veins, his feet, his hands, his organs vould all have to be increased in size. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Exactly. Inga: He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: That goes without saying. Inga: Voof. Igor: He's going to be very popular with the ladies.
The DEA is playing wack-a-mole with synthetic cannabinoids and wants to come up with a simple way to outlaw the entire CLASS of drugs that contain anything vaguely resembling a cannabinoid. The problem is that if they use this technique to stomp on this class, it will open up a whole can of worms involving other drugs which are also the subject of synthetic analogs. The problem is these drugs all ping receptors in the brain for naturally occurring chemistry that may or may not be chemically similar. This is just a pop-corn fart away from making a great big unintended mess, that I'm betting Big Pharma might just be able to leverage in its favor. Rather than trying to come up with a magic bullet to prevent people from using something they've been using consistently now for about the last 10,000 years (it was one of the first human cultivated crops), or wasting billions of dollars, man-hours, productive law enforcement resources on this silliness, relax, have a joint, rethink your priorities. There are plenty of bad things out there that you can fail to regulate. Methamphetamines come to mind. Go out have fun, bust bad guys. The whole pot thing was a loser from the start and now that cotton is king again, it shouldn't be afraid of hemp. Really, suck on that skunk, that's a good boy, now leave the buds alone and go play somewhere else... Ta!
Happens all the time, just need to look. Try this potential cure for cancer. The gentleman was trying to cure his own cancer and actually had a significant remission, but ultimately died. But the underlying technology has been the root of an entire spectrum of new therapeutic technologies using nanograin metals and external energy sources to induce chemical, biological, and physical events to impact diseases.
There is no shortage of good ideas, bright people, or visionary people. There is an overabundance or orthodoxies, bureaucracies, superstitions about education vs. aptitude, and a general laziness with people in positions of power or authority to distinguish between what looks good on paper vs. what works well in the world. A society that allowed more people to participate in discovery, and allowed them to distinguish themselves, vs. endless lines of acolytes who've already swallowed the KoolAid to get to the point of selection, might allow us to make new and truly unexpected discoveries.
You're absolutely correct. Look at the work being done by amateur astronomers, Moreover, you can get a telescope today for about the cost of a new hybrid car, that exceeds anything that could reasonably have been owned by an amateur even 20 years ago. The addition of goto systems and image processing capabilities and digital imaging. means that in the area of astronomy, amateurs are making real and significant contributions, not to mention, magnificent and inspiring images of astronomic wonders. Hubble opened the door, but a whole generation has stepped through.
The area I feel saddest about are Chemistry. When I was a kid, I could create anything I wanted. It took a little work and a good supplier, but I really could construct a small lab and make anything, even potentially scary compounds from Amonium TriIodide to heavy metal Pycrates (and perhaps a little fulminate of mercury on occasion... anyone whose done that remembers the smell of green apples.) Now its almost impossible to find good oxidizers, and con acids have all been tagged as reagents used for manufacturing drugs. Don't get me wrong, working with heavy metals and potentially flammable or explosive materials requires caution, common sense, and a safe place to carry out reactions, where an accident damages a metal box, and not people in a crowded neighborhood (also, nothing beats having a skilled technician showing you what works and what doesn't.) Today, the government would be down on you so fast, you'd be paralyzed by the whiplash alone. You can still make rockets, but Jebus help you, if you have any political leanings that might make the government question your intentions. Oxidizers and fuel are grounds for a lot folks to just assume you're some kind of terrorist. No matter how little evidence to support and how much to the contrary.
Sadly for those who love the magic of oxidation... it seems fireworks are the only remaining venue without excessive risk of government reprisal. I've had several friends in ended up at NASA, looking to master controlled conflagration vs. unmanaged detonation.
Check out Genspace" in New York City. Started by a student and now a significant small research lab for the enthusiast, it has quite a good selection of equipment and resources. Some was purchased second hand from ebay and other professional labs donating older equipment. Some of the materials have been donated from local and even not so local schools. Finally a lot of the materials have been purchased by the enthusiasts themselves. You'd be amazed at what these folks are doing. Both inspiring and a wee bit unnerving (there's so much we don't know, and mistakes could be costly), though I tend to think these guys are even more cautious than some professionals, and that if there ever is a really ugly accident, it will probably come from a pro lab, cutting corners in disposing of bio-waste.
Just in case anyone has a question about the last comment you can look here to see that business as usual where biohazards are concerned is a nasty game of Russian Roulette, and we'll all be the losers.
Trust me, you're not leaning left in any way, its an illusion cause by standing too close to someone who leans so far to the right he's beginning to tear the right edge of the film sprockets. Kind of like light near a black hole bends from the gravity... perhaps a good analogy on several levels. Creepy is the right word. The NeoCons have turned conservatism into a religion, and as a belief system are no longer bond to, or bothered by facts or even sanity. Look at the whole cut government spending religion. During the Reagan era, the whole "Trickle Down" fiasco began, and predictably the economy started sliding into the toilet, Ronny at least increased government investment into the economy and things perked up (of course doing that on top of huge tax cuts to the rich also started piling up huge deficits, but that wasn't going to blow up in his lifetime so why should he care, and he didn't.) Clinton inherited a broken economy that was still being abused by "Trickle Down", so he set up a variety of new spending (including Federal subsidies for the high tech industry), plus moderate net tax increase (combined with strategic tax cuts in industries he meant to empower) not only stabilized the economy but created a boom in employment, a flourishing economy and a huge surplus (which we could have used to start paying down the national debt.) I won't even talk about Dubyah, he was an embarrassment no matter what your political persuasion. Now we have a President desperately trying to create economic stimulus while caught in the teeth of a neoconservative beast perfectly willing to gut the entire nation to make us all conform to their personal beliefs which fly in the face of logic, factual evidence, or even some iota of sanity (that or their need to control completely is so great that they are willing to ruin our nation and its people, to win a President who will carry out their agenda.) Either position is equally despicable.
A great person once said "The measure of a statesman is his ability to hold true to his core beliefs while compromising where it serves the greater good to move the society forward." It is virtually impossible to build consensus by bullying, or stonewalling, or viciously attacking members who don't tow the party line with your state religion. As we've become more polarized as a nation, we've sent ever greater pit-bulls to Washington to win for our side (that's both sides by the way), and what we have now is an ongoing political donnybrook that's effectively killing off any real chance for constructive state building while the only laws that get passed are those bought and paid for by men paying with the tax dollars they were given as corporate welfare... and the only difference between the sides I can see is which industries they choose to sleep with... so there are precious few innocent players on either side of the aisle thank you very much.
Did any of you see the disgusting behavior of the the Senators who man the Senate Banking Committee as they addressed Jamie Dimon CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase? This is the highest banking regulatory body in our nation... why is it that the largest contributor (for virtually every one of them) was also J.P. Morgan Chase, through Jamie Dimon? They did everything but fan his fevered brow and peel grapes for him. This is supposed to be our best hope for making the Bankers straighten up and fly right, and they're too busy trying to fellate a CEO who just lost $7,000,000,000 on precisely the same gambling that blew the economy up 4 years ago. I would wager to guess that all the banks are doing precisely the same risky gambling that almost brought our nation to its knees, and our Federal Unregulators just let this insanity go on because they are too well paid to look the other way. Bringing us back to beliefs. I'm sorry, but some things just need to be regulated, because human beings besides being loving, compassionate and knowledge seeking are just as equally selfish, lazy, greedy, Machiavellian, rotten, power hungry bastards. You better account for both sides of the human coin or the future will have it's way with you and it will not be pretty outcome. A dose of reality in D.C. would be truly refreshing right about now.
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Indeed, hunt and make hamburger all at the same time! How efficient of you :-)
I worked for a popular Japanese Printer company in the 80s. At the time in Japan there was a fascination with model gun replicas and a coworker brought home a gorgeous model Mac 10, with silencer and big clip. He brought it to work and came into the repair depot wearing an overcoat, whipped it out and yell "It's Pay Day!!!" Firing off the entire clip, brass dropping everywhere and the unmistakable sound of each blank muffled by the silencer.
Scared the hell out of people, half the crew dove for cover. No harm, no foul, at least in 1983. Today, he'd be in jail. It was just screwing around, but it was also stupid as hell, and under different circumstances the Police could have shot him dead where he stood and been totally justified. Perceived threat my friend is by definition a threat, and the way people react to it can cost lives, cause life changing injuries, or have profound social and personal impacts. My coworker was called on the carpet for freaking people out, and rightfully so, and this place was known for practical jokes.
As for personal freedom and the Bill of Rights my friend, in case you haven't been paying attention, they are for all intents and purposes gone. You can be taken from your home or work, detained and interrogated indefinitely without due process and no access to court or legal council, any time a military service determines you're a threat to national security. The Supreme court is right now determining if you have the right to own and sell anything with a foreign logo on it, including your iPad/Pod, Car, House, Swatch, camera, foreign published CDs and DVDs. As for defending your freedom from the tyrannical government, I'm sorry but if you think for a second that anything you have in your arsenal is going to put you on even footing with an Apache Helicopter you need to have your meds changed. You want to do something about freedom, stop the romantic fantisizing and go after the national legislature and their egregious habit of whoring to the highest bidder.
Hell, stupid people will kill others by skydiving with their backpack instead of their parachute, and falling on them, that's no argument to give them Uzis and Mac 10s so they can take out entire crowds in some glorious act of personal idiocy.
Here, here... as well let's please look at the historical context. I mean it was militias that fought the British government. Today, a well armed militia hasn't even got the right to assemble let alone threaten the Federal Government. Last time a militia got that well armed, thing ended badly on all sides... and please believe me when I say the ATF are not among my favorite government bureaucracies. Voting with bullets is not s subtle form of insanity. However it is an excellent way to become a lead monument right where you're standing.
You simply can't speak in absolutes. I have a right to air I can breath, water I can drink and land upon which to build my home that isn't so poisoned by your industry that it kills me and my children (if you need specific examples of each of these byproducts on modern capitalism, I'll be only too happy to bury you in Superfund sites.) What is good for the collective at the most basic level of fundamental necessities, is essential for the existence of a functional society. I have good friends from developing nations all over the world. They're happy to talk about the difference between the U.S. and their countries. They pay no taxes. Of course they have no industry because their is NO INFRASTRUCTURE. They aren't the victims of draconian government control, of course bandits and rebels can come through at any time and slaughter half the village, and there's pretty much nobody to stop them. You think corruption in America is bad, you ain't seen nuthin... travel a little, then come home, you'll think that the American brand of corruption is a blessing.
There are always been a dynamic balance between the rights of the one and the welfare of the society as a whole. The freedom of my fist needs to end at the right of your nose to live unencumbered by my desire to punch. With 350,000,000, we can't just do as we please anymore without impacting the lives of our neighbors. So pick your freedoms wisely, because the freedoms you give yourself, you give to your neighbor, and he may just pave his freedom all over your self righteousness.
Its so strange watching what people latch onto. Like the story about the blind men trying to describe an elephant, one has it by the tail and thinks its an elephant is a stick, another by the leg and thinks its like a tree, and another by the trunk and thinks it like a snake. All right, and all completely wrong. First there are no pure "ISM" governments left on the planet save maybe North Korea, and they're just bugfsck. Capitalism is PRONE to serious problems, especially when corporations hijack the government. Even Adam Smith warned about the dangers of concentrating wealth and the absolute essential need for a healthy middle class. Capitalism with strong regulations in place to ensure they don't abuse labor, or too strongly influence cultural thinking through pervasive media, or destroy the environment they need in which to operate, is a wonderful thing. But like any reactor you watch it, guide it, steer it, and most certainly keep it in that dynamic tension between strict control and free progress.
There are strong arguments for limiting banks before you limit governments, because banks arguable have had a greater impact on human suffering than the all the governments of the world combined. Which isn't to say that governments are blameless, or shouldn't be strictly controlled. That's why we used to have checks and balances (until corporate America began dismantling them 30 years ago.) Twenty-first century America is living proof why Plutocracies and Fascist states are inherently doomed enterprises. Pyramids balanced on their points, they're unstable and dangerous. They do double harm, first as they bleed a culture dry, then as they begin to topple struggling ever harder against the very culture in which they exist causing collateral damage as they strive to keep wealth and power. There are fascinating conversations regarding the amazing wealth of the United States shortly after winning its independence and the disastrous effects of tying American currency to British Banks and the formation of our own Federal Bank.
As for your attack on Liberalism, I attribute none of the "ISMs" of which you speak to liberalism. Conservatism is the tendency to avoid in fact prevent change. Conservatism looks at the world framed in past based conversations and tries to preserve a consistent and workable status quo through tradition ideals and methods. This worked well when the period of significant social and technological change was greater than a single human life span. Its a full on disaster today. Liberalism is embracing change, looking for new solutions to new problems, looking to hit the moving target of social advance as it continues to accelerate. There will be failures, that's part of the scientific method. The whole point is that our world is changing at an every increasing rate, and that conservative thinking is inherently more broken, less tied to physical reality, and more prone to growing distortions of perception based on forcing reality into those inappropriate past frames of reference. Look at the last President and his cabinet trying to force a 2000 world into a 1980 frame of reference and the social disasters that ensued. This isn't to say that some expressions of Liberalism aren't flavored with excessive moralizing, emotional attachment or equally fixed past perspectives. It is to say that at its best, liberal thinking is profoundly better at dealing with and confronting accelerating change than conservatism.
Just as an aside, though conservatives like to claim fiscal austerity as one of their key planks, dealing with financial resources consistent with the simple tenets of basic accounting, seems to me to be just a simple act of sanity. Those that suggest we consistently spend more than we make, conservative or liberal are simply poor stewards of the future. Bill Clinton proved we could provide a fair tax structure, build the nation's infrastructure, promote a successful economy and still pay off the national debt. Anybody remember the "Surplus".
Awesome, have the local gun clubs, NRA, and any other body of responsible gun owners in the area, come up with a PERFECTLY REASONABLE list of rules and drill them into the heads of every person who owns a gun. DO NOT FIRE INTO CROWDS, it pisses people off. DO NOT FIRE INTO DRY GRASS, unless you can afford to buy new and better homes for all the people you render homeless. DO NOT CONSUME ALCOHOL WHILE SHOOTING, people are stupid enough with tying a lobe behind their backs.
We regulate cars and trucks, because 2-4 tons of steel hurtling through space at 70 mph can mess up a lot of people's day. You can't make everyone behave in a sensible fashion, but you can create a body of regulations designed to enforce minimum acceptable conduct and punish those that have neither the sense nor compunction to respect the rights and well being of others.
I'm not even talking about restricting the use of explosive or armor piercing rounds, or limiting the size of the gun you own (though come on, let's be honest, if you have a 50mm cannon you're either a hitman or you're compensating for a microscopic penis.) Just some basic rules to keep the; clinically insane, mentally retarded, chronically irresponsible and/or full automatic weapon obsessed from burning down the joint. Would that be so bad. Don't even make it a government thing. Agree upon all y'all selves that you're going to work with the local constables to make certain that the armed and stupid are managed in a fair and effective fashion. If Jed can't stop accidentally shooting neighbors, help him move to lawn darts. That way any lives he takes will at least have the benefit of cleaning out his own gene pool. If Bubba can't stop robbing liquor stores with a .38, have him exchange his piece for a nice carved bar of soap that's been shoe blacked. He'll never go down for murder and he'll be able to use it later in prison.
Better yet, let's just think back to "Full Metal Jacket" and remember "This is my weapon, and this is my gun..." You are not being castrated when people suggest we should have sane limitations on death dealing hardware. People have no sane reason for owning Uzis, Atomic bombs, or M1 tanks. You are not going to resist the government, its better armed than you, except for the two or three of you with stinger missiles in the basement. There are no zombies. The world is not ending in December. You could live on MREs for 5 years, buy after the first six month you'll probably shoot yourself anyway. Stop with the crazy crap and for heaven sake, put down the gun, wash you hands, and go mow your lawn.
You might want to try this in a new way? Have your students use the Khan Academy to look at topic lectures. Take the short tests after each section to see who's having problems and with what sections. This allow you to provide the interesting stuff, make you lectures about the relevance of what they're learning to the process of understanding the flow and function of populations and how statistics are a powerful tool to let us begin to extract patterns of form and function inside what would would otherwise look like turbulent and unpredictable systems. They even let us predict outcomes in nonlinear systems. Also, you can get tutors through the Khan Academy, so anybody who is having a little difficulty can actually work with someone who already understands the concepts. The point is you can do the cool stuff, watch your students perform, support the stragglers, and get the feedback you need to have everyone complete the course informed, knowing the material, and enjoying the process that got them there. A win/win.
The one down side is that they Statistics series isn't quite complete yet, but its getting there, and there's more than enough there to get your kids started.
I though an "Infusion" was an herbal decoction? Are you suggesting we steep Iranians in hot water and somehow use the broth afterwards?
Don't matter what race, you can discriminate against nationalities just as easily. We stripped the Japanese-American citizens of their properties, virtually all their rights including due process, and interned them in POW camps during WWII. Right after 9/11, the anti-Middle-Eastern hated and phobia lead to people killing Arab-Americans, but there were also fatal attacks against Mexicans, Native Americans, Indian Nationals, and pretty much anybody who might be mistaken for an Arab. There's a lot of fear, and racist phobia among Americans just boiling under the surface. A recent poll showed that in a number of places in the U.S. (particularly in the deep South and Mid-West) that there's a real and easily measurable backlash against having a black President (in fact, in the states for which this is true the 3-6% disadvantage Obama has due to ethnicity will automatically give his opponent the equivalent of a home state advantage.)
Americans are still dealing with race, creed, color, religion and preference, and though we keep making headway, there is still plenty of work to be done to remove prejudice and intolerance from our society. Today its Arabs. Tomorrow, Chinese?
Its the iPad IV, it comes with a thermonuclear trigger built in. You wanna talk about making a noise at a party!!! Woooo.
Because we've made the Iranians the "Evil Brown People Du Jour" and therefore if you speak or even understand Farsi, own a Persian rug, or say "IRAN the half marathon in under and hour..." everyone and his third cousin is supposed to shun you as a potential terrorist... Booga, booga!!!!
Don't get me wrong, I appreciated the strict limitations of selling technology goods to foreign nationals on the "No Sale" list. This is no excuse for picking people out of a crowd and treating them like criminals, simply because they know a "forbidden" language. I just read a story by a well known journalist who just finished traveling throughout the middle east, and his take on Iran was fascinating. The people there hate their government and the young people are on the verge of major social unrest. They have radios, and satellite TV, and video games. The kids play friggin video games where they get to be American soldiers attacking their own army. Tell me that isn't a sign that Iran isn't going to transform sooner or later. The Ayatollah Khomeini set the age of marriage for girls at 8 years old... you heard me right, four plus friggin four, two less then ten! The logic was that only by marrying a girl off before puberty could you be certain to prevent her from having sex before marriage. Of course this also meant the girl would never get any kind of education, and that she would certainly know her place as a SLAVE to her husband before she reached the age of 10 and for the rest of her life. You think the educated and professional women of Iran who lead self determined lives during the Shah, took that declaration with a grin? They are tired of partying like its 1399. We don't have to worry about Iran, Iran will fix itself, the religious zealotry of the last 30 years has proven to be devastating to the people of Iran, and the only thing that would cause it to persist is if we stuck our big fat noses into their business and caused the general population to line up behind their mullahs. Right now everyone in Iran under 30 wants to be an American. In 10 years, Iran could be our biggest ally in the MiddleEast, seeing as Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey are in the midst of serious religious ugliness and antiAmerican sentiment in those countries is running high.
Give the girl her iPad for the love-o-Jebus, if she orders a top of the line Cray, okay, then by all means surveil her ass. Please believe me when I say, nobody is cobbling atomic bombs (or even IEDs) together out of iPads... and if they want that kind of technology, you think the Chinese and Russians wouldn't sell it to them in half a femtosecond? Its all political posturing and international diplomatic hoohah, and the rest of the world knows it.
If you're going to be a hard-ass about selling the girl an iPad, tell her why and explain to her to "Please have your Father come in with proof of your citizenship." Explain, "Its because we're trying to prevent another 9/11 and even though its a pain in the ass for everyone including the nice clerk who really wants to sell you an iPad, we all make small sacrifice during times of war for National Security." Polite, compassionate and with a solution that let's everyone know where they stand.
Instead we get a tempest in a teapot and journalists who'll blow it up into a civil rights fiasco. Jeez I hate slow news days.
The problem is, you can't complain about the whores because we built the whorehouse. You can shut it down. You can regulate the shady ladies, in the hope that they won't spread something awful. You can keep the Johns away (read lobbyists.) In the end, as long as you run your political system like a whorehouse, you can't be surprised that what shows up, are whores.
That's bribery. If you've got money to spend, use it to help candidates who will do the right thing without receiving kickbacks.
You apparently have no concept of how politics work. Businesses create an ever growing cycle of expense for Politicians to buy ever more sound bites to persuade the mouth breathing masses that they are in fact the son of Gawd, and should be their next king. The drooling masses elect their temporary king via Pavlovian stimulus through their social opinion receptacles and the new king spends the next 4 years fellating his/her corporate masters.
To break the cycle you would have to;
1. Separate corporation and state.
2. Provide a fixed election fund, to limit campaign spending and test candidates in their ability to manage finance.
3. Prevent candidates from using their own funds to eliminate unfair advantage from the wealthy.
4. Design a highly visible national priority board with topics of burning societal importance, national infrastructure, education, fair resource allocation and distribution, etc. and pay political representatives according to how well they address the real issues as opposed to the smoke screen issues designed to inflame and divide the nation.
5. Set some minimum standard for representatives in the area of sanity and/or intellectual function. The people steering the boat don't need to know how to grill a tri-tip, they should however have some vague clue on how to pass law and make the nation a nicer place to live.
Other than that, yeah find a candidate who'll do the right thing without receiving kickbacks.
If dark matter is actually some effect of the relationship between matter in another universe and this, how is it that the two are typically linked gravitationally, but not always. If you look at this photograph recently taken by the HST, one of the largest galaxy clusters we can see has its dark matter concentrated when the barionic matter is not. Puzzle me that? I'd have to have an explanation that would explain such anomalies.
Its not just inflation. At every turn (looking at the California State college system because its one of the largest, best, and most endangered) the Colleges of California are in operational freefall from the Top UCs to the community colleges. With the slow motion disaster that is our state government and state sources of school funding drying faster than a spit puddle in Death Valley at high noon, the cost of tuitions have literally SKYROCKETED, Administrators, insensitive to the disaster have voted themselves huge pay raises while cutting courses and eliminating teaching jobs like there's no future. With every turn the State's education system tries to run schools on less resource, and squeezes the students ever harder, applying tuition hikes on top of tuition hikes. A growing percentage of students are being priced out of their education in mid school attendance. A quality higher education in California will soon be well beyond the reach of any normal middle class family, and require a level of saving and scrimping starting at a child's birth that most families are neither equipt nor interested in making.
We need a system that maintains high standards and demands that students are serious about pursuing that degree, but once the student has demonstrated the desire and the capacity, we need to provide all the resources we can to ensure that student receives the education they desire. Every measure of economic health tells us that well educated professionals are a boon to the economy, leaders in their various communities, and return the investment in their success dozens of times over. With the accelerating technological challenges facing our society, we can't afford not to have a well educated, disciplined and intellectually proficient society of clear and cogent thinkers. The alternative is to hope we can HB-1 our way through the future, and I hate to be the one to tell you, but a growing number of those children are going back home with their knowledge, business experience and professional acumen. We've virtually bankrupted our economy, let's not do the same with our children's future.
Oh yeah, and the damage you did to your brain and body are a model upon which to build a future for our children (and trust me, you did damage, you may not know it now, but when the osteoporosis troll come a knocking, please don't be surprised, he's been to the house of quite a few of my friends who did exactly what you did in the young adult years when good nutrition ensures a long healthy life.
Which isn't to say there aren't a bunch of lazy, sex crazed coed, studying classes that will make little or no contribution to their future and who's nutrition even with money sucks beyond reconciling. Its just a certainty that if you can't afford good healthy food, that sooner or later you'll pay with your health.
Personally I like the idea of a society that supports young people in choosing between college and useful, vital trades that society needs and upon which a young man or woman can build a healthy future. The education cost would be dramatically less, preserve vital skills in our society, and normalize the price of plumbers and electricians and car mechanics, oh my. That would leave the justifiable college bound a much larger pie in which to cut, and more resources to support them in becoming future engineers, scientists, teachers and scum sucking lawyers and corporate capitalists (the scum sucking is obligatory, but seem harder every day to separate from these last two groups.)
It really is a no-brainer, Fail to support the students of today and the future will suck even more than it does now. There are few better investments.
Oh yeah, I can see mega-corporations just lining up for that future... trust me, if it come down to that, somebody will charge you the national debt for your data and your atomic feedstock. Just like they ream you now for oil. In fact the 3D printers will probably have some kind of draconian DRM ensuring you can only buy IP through the manufacturer so they get their slice every time you print. That or we put an end to corporate rule. Of course its a little late in the game for that move, and the corporations have already proven they're not above strangling us if we get nasty.
Damn these kids and their new-fangled Wheels... some poor bugger's gonna git run over I tell ya! In my day you jus slung you kill over your shoulder and drug it home like a man... then a saber tooth et ya both!!! That's the way its supposed to be done, these young whipper snappers... and there new fangled wheels.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: For the experiment to be a success, all of the body parts must be enlarged.
Inga: In other vords: his veins, his feet, his hands, his organs vould all have to be increased in size.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Exactly.
Inga: He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: That goes without saying.
Inga: Voof.
Igor: He's going to be very popular with the ladies.
The DEA is playing wack-a-mole with synthetic cannabinoids and wants to come up with a simple way to outlaw the entire CLASS of drugs that contain anything vaguely resembling a cannabinoid. The problem is that if they use this technique to stomp on this class, it will open up a whole can of worms involving other drugs which are also the subject of synthetic analogs. The problem is these drugs all ping receptors in the brain for naturally occurring chemistry that may or may not be chemically similar. This is just a pop-corn fart away from making a great big unintended mess, that I'm betting Big Pharma might just be able to leverage in its favor. Rather than trying to come up with a magic bullet to prevent people from using something they've been using consistently now for about the last 10,000 years (it was one of the first human cultivated crops), or wasting billions of dollars, man-hours, productive law enforcement resources on this silliness, relax, have a joint, rethink your priorities. There are plenty of bad things out there that you can fail to regulate. Methamphetamines come to mind. Go out have fun, bust bad guys. The whole pot thing was a loser from the start and now that cotton is king again, it shouldn't be afraid of hemp. Really, suck on that skunk, that's a good boy, now leave the buds alone and go play somewhere else... Ta!
Happens all the time, just need to look. Try this potential cure for cancer. The gentleman was trying to cure his own cancer and actually had a significant remission, but ultimately died. But the underlying technology has been the root of an entire spectrum of new therapeutic technologies using nanograin metals and external energy sources to induce chemical, biological, and physical events to impact diseases.
There is no shortage of good ideas, bright people, or visionary people. There is an overabundance or orthodoxies, bureaucracies, superstitions about education vs. aptitude, and a general laziness with people in positions of power or authority to distinguish between what looks good on paper vs. what works well in the world. A society that allowed more people to participate in discovery, and allowed them to distinguish themselves, vs. endless lines of acolytes who've already swallowed the KoolAid to get to the point of selection, might allow us to make new and truly unexpected discoveries.
You're absolutely correct. Look at the work being done by amateur astronomers, Moreover, you can get a telescope today for about the cost of a new hybrid car, that exceeds anything that could reasonably have been owned by an amateur even 20 years ago. The addition of goto systems and image processing capabilities and digital imaging. means that in the area of astronomy, amateurs are making real and significant contributions, not to mention, magnificent and inspiring images of astronomic wonders. Hubble opened the door, but a whole generation has stepped through.
The area I feel saddest about are Chemistry. When I was a kid, I could create anything I wanted. It took a little work and a good supplier, but I really could construct a small lab and make anything, even potentially scary compounds from Amonium TriIodide to heavy metal Pycrates (and perhaps a little fulminate of mercury on occasion... anyone whose done that remembers the smell of green apples.) Now its almost impossible to find good oxidizers, and con acids have all been tagged as reagents used for manufacturing drugs. Don't get me wrong, working with heavy metals and potentially flammable or explosive materials requires caution, common sense, and a safe place to carry out reactions, where an accident damages a metal box, and not people in a crowded neighborhood (also, nothing beats having a skilled technician showing you what works and what doesn't.) Today, the government would be down on you so fast, you'd be paralyzed by the whiplash alone. You can still make rockets, but Jebus help you, if you have any political leanings that might make the government question your intentions. Oxidizers and fuel are grounds for a lot folks to just assume you're some kind of terrorist. No matter how little evidence to support and how much to the contrary.
Sadly for those who love the magic of oxidation... it seems fireworks are the only remaining venue without excessive risk of government reprisal. I've had several friends in ended up at NASA, looking to master controlled conflagration vs. unmanaged detonation.
Check out Genspace" in New York City. Started by a student and now a significant small research lab for the enthusiast, it has quite a good selection of equipment and resources. Some was purchased second hand from ebay and other professional labs donating older equipment. Some of the materials have been donated from local and even not so local schools. Finally a lot of the materials have been purchased by the enthusiasts themselves. You'd be amazed at what these folks are doing. Both inspiring and a wee bit unnerving (there's so much we don't know, and mistakes could be costly), though I tend to think these guys are even more cautious than some professionals, and that if there ever is a really ugly accident, it will probably come from a pro lab, cutting corners in disposing of bio-waste.
Just in case anyone has a question about the last comment you can look here to see that business as usual where biohazards are concerned is a nasty game of Russian Roulette, and we'll all be the losers.
Trust me, you're not leaning left in any way, its an illusion cause by standing too close to someone who leans so far to the right he's beginning to tear the right edge of the film sprockets. Kind of like light near a black hole bends from the gravity... perhaps a good analogy on several levels. Creepy is the right word. The NeoCons have turned conservatism into a religion, and as a belief system are no longer bond to, or bothered by facts or even sanity. Look at the whole cut government spending religion. During the Reagan era, the whole "Trickle Down" fiasco began, and predictably the economy started sliding into the toilet, Ronny at least increased government investment into the economy and things perked up (of course doing that on top of huge tax cuts to the rich also started piling up huge deficits, but that wasn't going to blow up in his lifetime so why should he care, and he didn't.) Clinton inherited a broken economy that was still being abused by "Trickle Down", so he set up a variety of new spending (including Federal subsidies for the high tech industry), plus moderate net tax increase (combined with strategic tax cuts in industries he meant to empower) not only stabilized the economy but created a boom in employment, a flourishing economy and a huge surplus (which we could have used to start paying down the national debt.) I won't even talk about Dubyah, he was an embarrassment no matter what your political persuasion. Now we have a President desperately trying to create economic stimulus while caught in the teeth of a neoconservative beast perfectly willing to gut the entire nation to make us all conform to their personal beliefs which fly in the face of logic, factual evidence, or even some iota of sanity (that or their need to control completely is so great that they are willing to ruin our nation and its people, to win a President who will carry out their agenda.) Either position is equally despicable.
A great person once said "The measure of a statesman is his ability to hold true to his core beliefs while compromising where it serves the greater good to move the society forward." It is virtually impossible to build consensus by bullying, or stonewalling, or viciously attacking members who don't tow the party line with your state religion. As we've become more polarized as a nation, we've sent ever greater pit-bulls to Washington to win for our side (that's both sides by the way), and what we have now is an ongoing political donnybrook that's effectively killing off any real chance for constructive state building while the only laws that get passed are those bought and paid for by men paying with the tax dollars they were given as corporate welfare... and the only difference between the sides I can see is which industries they choose to sleep with... so there are precious few innocent players on either side of the aisle thank you very much.
Did any of you see the disgusting behavior of the the Senators who man the Senate Banking Committee as they addressed Jamie Dimon CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase? This is the highest banking regulatory body in our nation... why is it that the largest contributor (for virtually every one of them) was also J.P. Morgan Chase, through Jamie Dimon? They did everything but fan his fevered brow and peel grapes for him. This is supposed to be our best hope for making the Bankers straighten up and fly right, and they're too busy trying to fellate a CEO who just lost $7,000,000,000 on precisely the same gambling that blew the economy up 4 years ago. I would wager to guess that all the banks are doing precisely the same risky gambling that almost brought our nation to its knees, and our Federal Unregulators just let this insanity go on because they are too well paid to look the other way. Bringing us back to beliefs. I'm sorry, but some things just need to be regulated, because human beings besides being loving, compassionate and knowledge seeking are just as equally selfish, lazy, greedy, Machiavellian, rotten, power hungry bastards. You better account for both sides of the human coin or the future will have it's way with you and it will not be pretty outcome. A dose of reality in D.C. would be truly refreshing right about now.