Sure, Libertarians want anarchy with property rights. Except with no publicly funded services to enforce said rights, it's a free for all where the amount of justice afforded to you is the amount you can afford to hire from Blackwater.
Huh, maybe not so different from anarchy in the end after all....
Simple economic theory dictates that one provider = higher costs. Many providers = competition = lower costs. But feel free to enjoy your liberal pipe dream.
Speaking of pipe dreams, explain why no one in France loses their house due to medical bankruptcies. Explain why other countries spend 1/3 as much as the U.S. does while receiving better care. Explain why Cuba has comparable health stats to the U.S. while spending less than $300 per patient per year. Explain why men in their twenties die in the U.S. from an infection that spread from a goddamn toothache, because they couldn't afford to have it treated.
Explain why a for-profit system that depends on increasing your premiums while denying your claims is magically "more efficient" than a system where you get what you pay for: health CARE.
Dropping out of high school, cutting class, taking too many drugs/alcohol, or spending your time protesting when you should be getting a real education or a job won't help you "deal with the wealth gap"...
In some alternate reality were NAFTA was never passed, offshoring doesn't exist, millions of jobs haven't been lost over the last three years, and the CEO of Wal-Mart doesn't make more in a month than the average Wal-Mart employee does in her entire lifetime?
There are no "Wall St" firms on Wall St anymore (nor anywhere close).
Nor anywhere close? JP Morgan Securities is right on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs has two offices within blocks of Wall Street. Ditto for CitiGroup and Bank of America.
So other than the largest banks and investment firms, yeah, Wall Street would be a ghost town.
When the protest started (two weeks ago), there were minimal number of protesters (1000) despite the protesters claims to have 20k people.
A goal, not a claim, as others have already pointed out to you.
There's "OVER 9000" cops downtown, and it makes getting around quite annoying since I have to navigate police barriers (not a big deal, but just annoying).
That's usually the case these days. Like when Toronto deployed 20,000 cops for a few hundred G20 protesters. And yet they weren't able to do anything about a squad car that was set on fire by said protesters. After being parked unmanned for hours, far away from any police presence. Almost like they were hoping that it would be vandalized, so they could justify it and future massive police presences. Huh, interesting.
Cops are polite and keep to their business (that is, stand there and look serious). I can't say same about the protesters.
Other than the cops pepper spraying peaceful protesters, of course. And remember that many of those unruly protesters may actually be undercover cops or informants egging the the real protesters on so they can be arrested and hit with terrorism charges.
Whatever it is they are protesting, they are an embarassment to their cause. I've chatted to a few, and had a few come over for drinks, and uh...Well, it's exactly what you'd expect, well-meaning but clueless younger people who are looking for attention and "feeling of doing something".
Word salad. Define "well meaning but clueless". Did they all want unicorns who's shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbert? Or do they want the banks broken up and corrupt bankers prosecuted, like those crazy liberals Ronald Reagan and H.W. Bush did in the 80's with the S&L crisis?
Nevertheless, most of them have latest iphone4 (just look at the videos - they are ones taping). It doesn't bother them that Apple is largest corporation in the world who isn't very nice to its users.
What did Apple do to crash the economy? How many billions did Apple take in government bailouts? How many homes has Apple illegally foreclosed on? What is Apple doing to worsen the unemployment rate, slow the economic recovery, or worsen the already high level of income inequality in the U.S.?
There's a huge number of DSLRs at the protest - combined with iphone4, means nobody there is really starving.
Non sequitur.
There is serious "victim mentality" among protesters - such as "media is suppressing coverage" (no, its just not important enough - the protest is much smaller than an average union rally).
Yes, the same media eager to cover 200 teabaggers congregating with lawn chairs and "keep your government hands of my Medicare" signs.
So, any more right wing tripe masquerading as dispassionate analysis, or are we done here?
Applies, how. Joe Lieberman is a widely loathed politician, but he wont be collecting an 8-digit severance package when he's tossed out of office next year....
What's interesting is how every time Apple screws something up or does something unpopular, some clever guy pops in to post the requisite "now if this were Microsoft, you'd all be up in arms" post. Nevermind the same comment has been posted eleventy billion times before on this blog for more than 10 years.
Case in point: the iCon 'book banning' story from 6 1/2 years ago, where publishing house Wiley had their books pulled after they wrote what Jobs obviously viewed as an unflattering biography:
If this were a MS story of Bill Gates doing the same, there would be the usual crazy outbreak of 'MS evil empire' type banter. However, because its Apple , the response is a mild - 'oh its ok, hes the Apple man hes allowed to'. Where is the balance? I think somewhere in between to be honest - Jobs and Gates are simply very ruthless business persons, and yet here at Slashdot there is a decided overflow towards Apple.
I agree that these guys have a right to some privacy. Most interesting to me is that the comments here on/. are generally supportive so far. What a different thread it would be if this had been Bill Gates and Microsoft instead of Steve Jobs and Apple.
Nevermind the many highly rated comments suggesting Jobs back off, recounted how Jobs screwed Woz over a petty amount of money, or called Jobs an unbelievable asshole.
He said that it wasn't on the same scale as Chernobyl because by all measurable data it isn't worse than Chernobyl.
Other than the measurable data that says that the Japanese reactor will leak more radioactive material than Chernobyl, of course. Which means it will be measurably worse, of course. Which means Fukushima will be worse than Chernobyl, of course.
I suppose you would think that's a great point, if you also think that nothing's wrong with smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day while eating a diet entirely composed of Big Macs is perfectly healthy because it wouldn't kill anyone within six months....
Nice word salad. But waving your arms around with increasing amounts of vigor wont change two facts:
Private schools invariably don't bother with special ed kids. They cost more money to support and drag down test scores.
Private schools are free to set high standards for admission, whereas public schools cannot.
So of course a private school should have a better graduation rate, if it can pick out better students and deny admittance to poorly performing ones. It's like some of those foreign-to-American school comparisons that don't bother to mention that they're comparing elite foreign schools to the average American school in Jerkwater, USA.
Arguments for private/charter schools are like arguments from Intelligent Design nutjobs: they may sound reasonable on first glance, but fall apart the second they are exposed to a real challenge.
Right, because government entities just blew up more money than exists in the world in the greatest fraud in the history of the human race.
Oh wait, that was corrupt banks and corrupt investment firms.
You think that either the government wisely spends the money that isn't spent on "defense"
I think the blatant double standards, binary thinking and willful ignorance employed by conservatives is quaint in 2011, like a teenager that still believes in Santa. Any organization of any significant size is going to have some waste. Does that mean you throw out the entire organization and all others like it? Do you honestly think that no one notices this line of reasoning is only used by conservatives on government, but business?
1:54 she starts tugging at wall panels 1:58 she's pulling on exposed pipes 2:19 she's standing on the bed pulling on wall panels again 2:35 she looks at the hatch marks for the billionth time and then figures it out
This isn't Harry Potter where the characters just happen to stumble on all the important secret stuff. She spent plenty of time looking around her cell, even while doing pushups, trying to find something - and the video shows it.
Many children already struggle to pay attention in class. What do you think lengthening the school day while shortening the lunch period is going to do to attention spans?
Making students waste even more time within it won't fix the problem or create brighter students.
You get what you pay for. You pay good benefits to attract good teachers who have 20 students or less, you'll have good schools. Make excuses for shoving 30 students on a teacher who's paid $25,000 a year, and you wonder why you have shitty schools.
Guess which one has the best test scores and graduation rates.
Sure, I'll guess: the school that can screen out poorly performing students and doesn't even bother with special ed kids. Funny how those two facts are always left out of the pro-privatization storyline.
Yes, but the way she just suddenly "realised" the gun was there was weird.
You mean "just suddenly" after spending days testing different parts of the wall? Pulling on the exposed pipes? Days looking at the same panel over and over and over again before she thinks to tug on it?
This was a short film, yet that was more than enough handholding for even Cardinals fans.
The Democrats nominated Al Gore in 2000. Everyone remembers how Florida results were within the margin of error for their stupid punch card ballots. But nobody seems to remember that Gore lost his own home state (Tennessee)
Bush didn't win his home state, either. He's from Connecticut, not Texas. Same thing went for Poppy Bush.
When you're Joe Shmoe suing a successful business, much less a corporation, it's always going to be the case as 1) the business has more money and 2) the business can write off attorneys fees as a business expense.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, Libertarians want anarchy with property rights. Except with no publicly funded services to enforce said rights, it's a free for all where the amount of justice afforded to you is the amount you can afford to hire from Blackwater.
Huh, maybe not so different from anarchy in the end after all....
Oh look, it's another Libertarian whining when someone points out what actual Libertarianism would actually look like.
No one is forcing you to buy alcohol....so WYFP.
Speaking of pipe dreams, explain why no one in France loses their house due to medical bankruptcies. Explain why other countries spend 1/3 as much as the U.S. does while receiving better care. Explain why Cuba has comparable health stats to the U.S. while spending less than $300 per patient per year. Explain why men in their twenties die in the U.S. from an infection that spread from a goddamn toothache, because they couldn't afford to have it treated.
Explain why a for-profit system that depends on increasing your premiums while denying your claims is magically "more efficient" than a system where you get what you pay for: health CARE.
How so.
In some alternate reality were NAFTA was never passed, offshoring doesn't exist, millions of jobs haven't been lost over the last three years, and the CEO of Wal-Mart doesn't make more in a month than the average Wal-Mart employee does in her entire lifetime?
Cool. How do we get there?
Great points, except for the disingenuous ones.
Nor anywhere close? JP Morgan Securities is right on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs has two offices within blocks of Wall Street. Ditto for CitiGroup and Bank of America.
So other than the largest banks and investment firms, yeah, Wall Street would be a ghost town.
A goal, not a claim, as others have already pointed out to you.
That's usually the case these days. Like when Toronto deployed 20,000 cops for a few hundred G20 protesters. And yet they weren't able to do anything about a squad car that was set on fire by said protesters. After being parked unmanned for hours, far away from any police presence. Almost like they were hoping that it would be vandalized, so they could justify it and future massive police presences. Huh, interesting.
Other than the cops pepper spraying peaceful protesters, of course. And remember that many of those unruly protesters may actually be undercover cops or informants egging the the real protesters on so they can be arrested and hit with terrorism charges.
Word salad. Define "well meaning but clueless". Did they all want unicorns who's shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbert? Or do they want the banks broken up and corrupt bankers prosecuted, like those crazy liberals Ronald Reagan and H.W. Bush did in the 80's with the S&L crisis?
What did Apple do to crash the economy? How many billions did Apple take in government bailouts? How many homes has Apple illegally foreclosed on? What is Apple doing to worsen the unemployment rate, slow the economic recovery, or worsen the already high level of income inequality in the U.S.?
Non sequitur.
Yes, the same media eager to cover 200 teabaggers congregating with lawn chairs and "keep your government hands of my Medicare" signs.
So, any more right wing tripe masquerading as dispassionate analysis, or are we done here?
Applies, how. Joe Lieberman is a widely loathed politician, but he wont be collecting an 8-digit severance package when he's tossed out of office next year....
What's interesting is how every time Apple screws something up or does something unpopular, some clever guy pops in to post the requisite "now if this were Microsoft, you'd all be up in arms" post. Nevermind the same comment has been posted eleventy billion times before on this blog for more than 10 years.
Case in point: the iCon 'book banning' story from 6 1/2 years ago, where publishing house Wiley had their books pulled after they wrote what Jobs obviously viewed as an unflattering biography:
Or:
Nevermind the many highly rated comments suggesting Jobs back off, recounted how Jobs screwed Woz over a petty amount of money, or called Jobs an unbelievable asshole.
So clever.
You're using that word, straw man....
Other than the measurable data that says that the Japanese reactor will leak more radioactive material than Chernobyl, of course. Which means it will be measurably worse, of course. Which means Fukushima will be worse than Chernobyl, of course.
You mean an offhand sentence in his last paragraph means that even he knows the thrust of his post was red herring misdirection?
Huh, interesting. You think anyone else noticed?
I suppose you would think that's a great point, if you also think that nothing's wrong with smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day while eating a diet entirely composed of Big Macs is perfectly healthy because it wouldn't kill anyone within six months....
Because then the Feds will hit you with terrorism charges and ask a court to sentence you to life + 350 years.
Nice word salad. But waving your arms around with increasing amounts of vigor wont change two facts:
Private schools invariably don't bother with special ed kids. They cost more money to support and drag down test scores.
Private schools are free to set high standards for admission, whereas public schools cannot.
So of course a private school should have a better graduation rate, if it can pick out better students and deny admittance to poorly performing ones. It's like some of those foreign-to-American school comparisons that don't bother to mention that they're comparing elite foreign schools to the average American school in Jerkwater, USA.
Arguments for private/charter schools are like arguments from Intelligent Design nutjobs: they may sound reasonable on first glance, but fall apart the second they are exposed to a real challenge.
Right, because government entities just blew up more money than exists in the world in the greatest fraud in the history of the human race.
Oh wait, that was corrupt banks and corrupt investment firms.
I think the blatant double standards, binary thinking and willful ignorance employed by conservatives is quaint in 2011, like a teenager that still believes in Santa. Any organization of any significant size is going to have some waste. Does that mean you throw out the entire organization and all others like it? Do you honestly think that no one notices this line of reasoning is only used by conservatives on government, but business?
1:54 she starts tugging at wall panels
1:58 she's pulling on exposed pipes
2:19 she's standing on the bed pulling on wall panels again
2:35 she looks at the hatch marks for the billionth time and then figures it out
This isn't Harry Potter where the characters just happen to stumble on all the important secret stuff. She spent plenty of time looking around her cell, even while doing pushups, trying to find something - and the video shows it.
As long as your limiting that to the $1.2 trillion we spend a year on the military-industrial-surveillance-contractor complex, sure. Otherwise, no.
Many children already struggle to pay attention in class. What do you think lengthening the school day while shortening the lunch period is going to do to attention spans?
You get what you pay for. You pay good benefits to attract good teachers who have 20 students or less, you'll have good schools. Make excuses for shoving 30 students on a teacher who's paid $25,000 a year, and you wonder why you have shitty schools.
Sure, I'll guess: the school that can screen out poorly performing students and doesn't even bother with special ed kids. Funny how those two facts are always left out of the pro-privatization storyline.
You mean "just suddenly" after spending days testing different parts of the wall? Pulling on the exposed pipes? Days looking at the same panel over and over and over again before she thinks to tug on it?
This was a short film, yet that was more than enough handholding for even Cardinals fans.
There are exceptions, however. The girl in Jurassic Park did nothing but scream in the book, whereas she was a lot less annoying in the movie.
Interesting. Were you dropped on the head as a child?
Bush didn't win his home state, either. He's from Connecticut, not Texas. Same thing went for Poppy Bush.
Morans.
Attracting good lawyers generally requires money, thus putting you back to the parent poster's square one....
When you're Joe Shmoe suing a successful business, much less a corporation, it's always going to be the case as 1) the business has more money and 2) the business can write off attorneys fees as a business expense.