In the Cato Institute's "Economic Freedom of the World", the US is ranked 10th out of 141, higher ranking being rightward. Same result on the Heritage Foundation's equivalent report
And we should trust well known organs of conservative/libertarian propaganda because.....?
He was actually doing pretty well until he said the economy looked like it was doing fine just before it collapsed. Of course Democratic partisans will say that he never had a chance, but as a middle-of-the-road decline-to-state voter it really looked like a close election up til then.
Are you kidding? McCain was a doddering mess of flip floppingincompetence that was disliked and distrusted by his own party. Running for the presidency after said party destroyed the economy, trashed the constitution, and became mired in endless corruption scandals.
2008 should have made the blowout of '64 look like a nailbiter in comparison....and it would have, but for three reasons:
1. Obama's race brought out the racist troglodytes - see the "birther" BS 2. The media loves a horse race and always gives the underdog a boost 3. Obama was too darned nice to clean McCain's clock
One penny per burger in a hundred million burgers is a million bucks.
Out of the remaining $99 million from the rest of the burger? And that's if you're ordering from the dollar menu. Turning off the lights in the restrooms when not in use would save more money, and not gross out your customers.
In general I don't understand how folks here are ready to buy a brand new device that immediately after purchase needs some kind of heavy modification. Why would I have to finish the product, it's the manufacturer's job.
And I understand that attitude just fine - as long as it applies to any piece of consumer electronics you might buy, and not just one particular company.
If you root you iDevice, you can void the warranty
FTFY. If your jailbreak causes hardware problems on your iDevice, on what planet should Apple be responsible for that, anymore than installing an aftermarket part in your engine (that blows up) should be warrantied by Ford?
Apple haterz need to find one person who has had warranty coverage denied because of a software jailbreak that caused no physical damage to the phone before this argument holds any water.
Why buy something I have to root, and void my warranty instead of something that does what I want it to?
Why does this argument apply to Apple and only Apple in the real of consumer electronics? You don't see the WATB brigade marching on Microsoft for not making the XBox an open platform, or HTC for having to root your Android phone to delete applications you don't want.
You sound like some who is trying to make excuse for locking themselves in a cage.
I'm someone who's tired of smug pedants who either make false or selective arguments. And since you skipped it the first time:
And Jobs would have been the first one to tell you to right ahead and buy whatever product it is that you want, same as if you wanted a computer with a built-in floppy drive in 1998. Whoop de freakin do - no one is holding a gun to your head here to buy something.
I have no idea why you bring the tasty, tasty Big Mac into this conversation.
Because the parent was just talking about the Golden Arches, that's why.
So, we go back to the Gold Standard. Rich families like the Waltons start taking large percentages of their annual profits and using them to buy gold. Each and every year.
This distorts the value of your backed currency as it drives up their price of gold - and the value of the Richie Rich's stockpiles. Add that on top of already grotesque income disparity - the U.S. is worse than Egypt - and the rich will literally get richer as the poor get poorer.
You are, of course, free to whatever you want to your iDevice after you've bought it. Root it, run over it with your car, sell it to that nice Nigerian prince that keeps emailing you, knock yourself out. Nobody is stopping you. And Jobs would have been the first one to tell you to right ahead and buy whatever product it is that you want, same as if you wanted a computer with a built-in floppy drive in 1998. Whoop de freakin do - no one is holding a gun to your head here to buy something.
So yes, I will call out the whining about "walled gardens" for the selective, self-important wankery it is. Think about that over a nice, juicy, sterilized Big Mac.
Some day, photovoltaic panels will be dirt cheap and will be perfect for these rural villages, but right now they're too expensive even for most Americans.
What if we subsidized solar power the way we subsidize nuclear or even fossil fuels? The U.S. spends more than a trillion a year on it's military, most of which is focused on the world's gas station, aka The Middle East. Take half what we spend on the DOD (would still outspend just about the rest of the world combined) and spend that on solar panels....
Have actual ownership of my device that I paid for? Sounds crazy I know.
Sounds more like a WATB who likes to spend his time whining about "walled gardens" instead of jailbreaking the device or just buying one that does what he wants.
Good old conservative hacktivist....dodge the point while engaging in deflection. Lazy deflection at that, as Media Matters makes it a point to cite everything they post, and Dkos depends on who's writing the diary - and how much attention they pay to the facts. You, know, facts, things you can prove as opposed to pulling random assertions out of your butt....
Was that faucet producing flammable tap water before fracking, as you insinuate, or only after?
Rooftop solar is certainly the worst among "clean energy" sources.
Worst, how - when some guy falls off a roof? That's not a flaw of solar power, that's an industrial accident, same as if a maintenance worker fell off a cooling tower at a nuke plant.
In practice, even factoring in Fukushima, nuclear power plants turn out to be the safest thing. (It helps if you don't build it in a tsunami zone and ignore a safety report for 5+ years, of course.)
Safest when human hubris and greed are no longer a factor. In the U.S., as in Japan, the regulatory bodies in charge of nuclear power are dominated by former executives from the nuclear power industry. Their first concern is profitability, not safety.
New designs being developed now are even safer and more efficient:
Vaporware, as much as is cold fusion and "Clean Coal". At least with cold fusion, it's not being used as a distraction to keep the status quo going (old nuke/coal plants operating).
Third is Regulatory Capture, aka "the revolving door", where government officials retire to work for the very industries they were in charge of regulating, and sometimes back to public service for another round.
And what's going to make for a more lucrative career: serving the public, or serving monied interests that can make you a millionaire your first year out of office?
The bad guy can outspend the victims 100:1 in court, but how can he change the facts? If the facts are that he put poison in the water, how does outspending by 100:1 save him?
Here's your sign: the Cigarette Company Defense. For decades, the smoking industry never lost a liability lawsuit. How do you know your Uncle Joe got cancer from smoking two packs a day when it could have been genetics, or asbestos?
So, how do you know that your contaminated ground water came from Shell, and not that Exxon operation in the next county? Or that BP well on the far side of the aquifer?
Just how many communities, much less individuals, could afford years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, paid studies and expert testimony to prove that yes, it was indeed Shell that poisoned your water?
Current system: regulators are supposed to catch violations before they occur, so people don't get poisoned and saving the company from it's own greed.
Current regulatory capture: regulators come from the same industries they are supposed to regulate, so they do industry favors so they'll get cushy jobs when they go back to the private sector. See: Robert Rubin, Clinton's Treasury Secretary that went straight to CitiGroup.
Libertarian system: oligarchs avoid any and all responsibility using middle management and mules. Company policies are such that sacrificial lambs, I mean employees, must cut corners if they want to keep their jobs. When the shit hits the fan, the company points to their other (unenforced) policies to cover their own asses, leaving the mules to take the fall.
Case in point: how Wal-Mart gets sued every few years when one of their stores is caught forcing employees to work off the clock. Wal-Mart promptly points to their written policy that hourly employees must be paid for all hours worked. Nevermind that other policy on how all work must be completed without paying any overtime. So a middle manager decides to cheat on payroll to keep his own job.....
So.. on-site all of these engineers were engaged in a massive conspiracy to lie to me about how fraccing works?
So...you're ignoring the issue of who's signing their paychecks? This is not a trivial distinction here. I'm sure the engineers that built mechanical meat separators told their bosses that they were all perfectly safe too - up until the industry got hit with Mad Cow and lost a couple billion dollars in profits.....
If only Lenin had the foresight to make a system where it's literally impossible to fail, like capitalism. If a business makes money, it's a sign that capitalism is a success. If a business is a disaster, capitalism is still succeeding as resources are directed elsewhere. Even if you end up crashing the global economy in the process.
Every manufacturing organization (APPLE, LENOVA, IBM, Microsoft, HP, etc) will not return to the USA as long as there are powerful unions to cause strikes and similar harm.
It's quite common in Europe to live in a house that was built before the US or Australia were even found by Europeans.
This. What's that saying - "in America, something 100 years old is old, and in Europe 100 miles is a long way". Something built in 1912 is a new building by European standards.
Apple deserves and gets the most blame because they are the ones with most margins to spare and the most cash in the bank (~100 billion).
Except Apple is getting all of the blame, not just "most". Microsoft also has a gigantic pile of cash, yet you don't see anyone holding their feet to the fire over the XBox 360 and all the suicides at that Foxconn plant.
Which is why this is just an excuse to break out the Apple Hatorade.
And you have a statistically greater chance of drowning in your bathtub from an accidental fall than dying in a terrorist attack. So, what's your real point?
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And we should trust well known organs of conservative/libertarian propaganda because.....?
Are you kidding? McCain was a doddering mess of flip flopping incompetence that was disliked and distrusted by his own party. Running for the presidency after said party destroyed the economy, trashed the constitution, and became mired in endless corruption scandals.
2008 should have made the blowout of '64 look like a nailbiter in comparison....and it would have, but for three reasons:
1. Obama's race brought out the racist troglodytes - see the "birther" BS
2. The media loves a horse race and always gives the underdog a boost
3. Obama was too darned nice to clean McCain's clock
Unless you'd tell us with a straight face that if Obama confused Shiites with Sunnis no less than six times while running as the foreign policy candidate, called Petraus chair of the joint chiefs of staff, and went on about Iraq's border with Afghanistan (it's called Iran), that he would have gotten a free pass from the media and the Republican Party....
Sorry, no food for you today.
Out of the remaining $99 million from the rest of the burger? And that's if you're ordering from the dollar menu. Turning off the lights in the restrooms when not in use would save more money, and not gross out your customers.
....to notice that I said "to" and not "with".
By writing your own drivers to do whatever it is you want to do. Any more questions?
And I understand that attitude just fine - as long as it applies to any piece of consumer electronics you might buy, and not just one particular company.
FTFY. If your jailbreak causes hardware problems on your iDevice, on what planet should Apple be responsible for that, anymore than installing an aftermarket part in your engine (that blows up) should be warrantied by Ford?
Apple haterz need to find one person who has had warranty coverage denied because of a software jailbreak that caused no physical damage to the phone before this argument holds any water.
Why does this argument apply to Apple and only Apple in the real of consumer electronics? You don't see the WATB brigade marching on Microsoft for not making the XBox an open platform, or HTC for having to root your Android phone to delete applications you don't want.
I'm someone who's tired of smug pedants who either make false or selective arguments. And since you skipped it the first time:
And Jobs would have been the first one to tell you to right ahead and buy whatever product it is that you want, same as if you wanted a computer with a built-in floppy drive in 1998. Whoop de freakin do - no one is holding a gun to your head here to buy something.
Because the parent was just talking about the Golden Arches, that's why.
So, we go back to the Gold Standard. Rich families like the Waltons start taking large percentages of their annual profits and using them to buy gold. Each and every year.
This distorts the value of your backed currency as it drives up their price of gold - and the value of the Richie Rich's stockpiles. Add that on top of already grotesque income disparity - the U.S. is worse than Egypt - and the rich will literally get richer as the poor get poorer.
You are, of course, free to whatever you want to your iDevice after you've bought it. Root it, run over it with your car, sell it to that nice Nigerian prince that keeps emailing you, knock yourself out. Nobody is stopping you. And Jobs would have been the first one to tell you to right ahead and buy whatever product it is that you want, same as if you wanted a computer with a built-in floppy drive in 1998. Whoop de freakin do - no one is holding a gun to your head here to buy something.
So yes, I will call out the whining about "walled gardens" for the selective, self-important wankery it is. Think about that over a nice, juicy, sterilized Big Mac.
It's still gross, and it still only saves McDonalds a whopping penny per burger.
What if we subsidized solar power the way we subsidize nuclear or even fossil fuels? The U.S. spends more than a trillion a year on it's military, most of which is focused on the world's gas station, aka The Middle East. Take half what we spend on the DOD (would still outspend just about the rest of the world combined) and spend that on solar panels....
Sounds more like a WATB who likes to spend his time whining about "walled gardens" instead of jailbreaking the device or just buying one that does what he wants.
Good old conservative hacktivist....dodge the point while engaging in deflection. Lazy deflection at that, as Media Matters makes it a point to cite everything they post, and Dkos depends on who's writing the diary - and how much attention they pay to the facts. You, know, facts, things you can prove as opposed to pulling random assertions out of your butt....
Was that faucet producing flammable tap water before fracking, as you insinuate, or only after?
Worst, how - when some guy falls off a roof? That's not a flaw of solar power, that's an industrial accident, same as if a maintenance worker fell off a cooling tower at a nuke plant.
Safest when human hubris and greed are no longer a factor. In the U.S., as in Japan, the regulatory bodies in charge of nuclear power are dominated by former executives from the nuclear power industry. Their first concern is profitability, not safety.
Vaporware, as much as is cold fusion and "Clean Coal". At least with cold fusion, it's not being used as a distraction to keep the status quo going (old nuke/coal plants operating).
Third is Regulatory Capture, aka "the revolving door", where government officials retire to work for the very industries they were in charge of regulating, and sometimes back to public service for another round.
And what's going to make for a more lucrative career: serving the public, or serving monied interests that can make you a millionaire your first year out of office?
Here's your sign: the Cigarette Company Defense. For decades, the smoking industry never lost a liability lawsuit. How do you know your Uncle Joe got cancer from smoking two packs a day when it could have been genetics, or asbestos?
So, how do you know that your contaminated ground water came from Shell, and not that Exxon operation in the next county? Or that BP well on the far side of the aquifer?
Just how many communities, much less individuals, could afford years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, paid studies and expert testimony to prove that yes, it was indeed Shell that poisoned your water?
Current system: regulators are supposed to catch violations before they occur, so people don't get poisoned and saving the company from it's own greed.
Current regulatory capture: regulators come from the same industries they are supposed to regulate, so they do industry favors so they'll get cushy jobs when they go back to the private sector. See: Robert Rubin, Clinton's Treasury Secretary that went straight to CitiGroup.
Libertarian system: oligarchs avoid any and all responsibility using middle management and mules. Company policies are such that sacrificial lambs, I mean employees, must cut corners if they want to keep their jobs. When the shit hits the fan, the company points to their other (unenforced) policies to cover their own asses, leaving the mules to take the fall.
Case in point: how Wal-Mart gets sued every few years when one of their stores is caught forcing employees to work off the clock. Wal-Mart promptly points to their written policy that hourly employees must be paid for all hours worked. Nevermind that other policy on how all work must be completed without paying any overtime. So a middle manager decides to cheat on payroll to keep his own job.....
Omitting that that sounds like the sort of work from conservative hacktivists doing the usual feigned nitpicking.
Which is only a "gotcha" if the same faucet would have had the same flaming water before fracking commenced.
So...you're ignoring the issue of who's signing their paychecks? This is not a trivial distinction here. I'm sure the engineers that built mechanical meat separators told their bosses that they were all perfectly safe too - up until the industry got hit with Mad Cow and lost a couple billion dollars in profits.....
If only Lenin had the foresight to make a system where it's literally impossible to fail, like capitalism. If a business makes money, it's a sign that capitalism is a success. If a business is a disaster, capitalism is still succeeding as resources are directed elsewhere. Even if you end up crashing the global economy in the process.
Nobody points to Enron or Worldcom and says, "see, all businesses are evil, lets get rid of businesses" like some morans do with unions.
Harm like in Germany where unionized auto workers earn twice as much as their American counterparts while producing twice as many cars? For profitable German car companies?
Blaming unions makes great sense if you're a top business executive - otherwise you're cutting off your nose to spite your face.
This. What's that saying - "in America, something 100 years old is old, and in Europe 100 miles is a long way". Something built in 1912 is a new building by European standards.
Except Apple is getting all of the blame, not just "most". Microsoft also has a gigantic pile of cash, yet you don't see anyone holding their feet to the fire over the XBox 360 and all the suicides at that Foxconn plant.
Which is why this is just an excuse to break out the Apple Hatorade.
And you have a statistically greater chance of drowning in your bathtub from an accidental fall than dying in a terrorist attack. So, what's your real point?