And this is where the OSCE is wrong, due to the way that the US Constitution is written.
No treaty signed by the federal government can trump the Constitution. And it is in the Constitution where the states' control over election law is enshrined. Therefore, the treaty is simply invalid.
Regardless of whether OSCE polling observers is a good idea or not, it is, under Texas state law, via the Constitution of the United States, ILLEGAL.
It's worse than even that. The only "new" hardware in my house other than smartphones is my wife's netbook, which I bought for her back in 2010. My own laptop is a Lenovo T60 with a dual-core CENTRINO processor in it. Both the netbook and my T60 run Win7 32bit with all the pretties turned on without trouble. I have an old desktop running win7 32bit as well, it's an old old AMD x3200 system with 2gb of RAM.
Why haven't I bothered to upgrade? Well, most everything I need to get done I can get done on this older but still fully functional hardware. I don't game on my PC, mostly because as a busy 40+ yr old father of three I simply don't have time for that in my life anymore. When I game, I play casual games on my Android phone. Not only am I not alone in this, I'm actually fairly typical of people in my age group.
The people who would normally be gaming on Windows PCs and the target market for new OSes and new PCs would be the 20-30 demographic. This is the EXACT demographic that is hurting the most in the current recession. Many of the younger members of this group can't get jobs, or are underemployed. As such, they aren't in the market for new PCs and are sticking with what they have. if they have any money, they will spend it on a new phone first, a PC is much farther down their list.
So it's bad all around for Microsoft. I see Win8 getting about as much traction as Vista did. Enough for them to be able to SAY it was a success, while quietly excising Metro from desktop and server versions of Win9.
This is true enough. Since the 1960's much of the US Government has been infected with Leftists who don't believe in Property rights. thus they have spent 50 years slowly whittling away at it through laws passed at midnight on a weekday, various "rules" passed by unelected leftists bureaucrats, and by activist leftist judges. All with the intent of placing into law that you DON'T actually own any land or anything on or in it. this has been happening both at federal and state levels, with the more leftist controlled states being worse.
By way of example, see New York State. You own a farm? Discover oil, or coal, or some other mineral resource on it? Go ahead and TRY to sell that resource. You will find that your "Mineral Rights" don't actually exist. Oh, you still legally HAVE them, but you can't actually USE them due to all the other regulations in place.
The same goes with Archaeological finds, treasure finds, et al. If you find anything of potential archaeological, historical or intrinsic value on your property, TELL NO ONE.
- If it is archaeological, DESTROY IT or re-hide it as fast as you can. Or your entire property is forfeit to Eminent Domain as an Archaeological site.
- If it is historical, Keep it to yourself, unless you want your property declared a historical site and thus ineligible for further improvement. (IE: You won't be allowed to fix up your now historical house without a mile long ream of paperwork. Even if the roof is leaking.)
- If it is intrinsic, such as gold or silver coins, jewels etc, then TELL NO ONE, buy a small jeweler's forge and melt down the coins into small bars, remove the jewels from any settings and melt down the settings, then quietly place all of it into a safe deposit box (preferably in the caymans if you can afford it). Otherwise the US Government will simply TAKE IT from you and you will then have to pay a tax on the value of the stuff you now no longer have, thus bankrupting you for having the temerity to find something valuable.
One of the first things that despots and leftists do is remove personal property rights. If not directly, then by a thousand regulations. If you want to keep your stuff, then you keep quiet.
I don't know how you think a reduction in the extent and power of the government is going to lead to less corruption/quote
Really? So you've never heard the truism "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"?
The founders understood this. that is why the US government is supposed to have powers that are both Limited, and strictly enumerated. And anything left off is either assigned to the states, or remains with the individual.
Sadly, since about the turn of the previous century, the US government, via egregious and intentional misreadings the Commerce and General Welfare clauses of the Constitution, has been rapidly gathering power unto itself while straddling Americans with ponzi schemes like Social Security.
We have reached the tipping point on the size of our government. We must now either reduce it's size and scope back to what was originally intended, or travel down the path to insolvency and collapse.
I don't think Laxori666 was intimating that "The Market" was broken, but rather that our regulatory systems (that would include the Patent system) have shackled it to the extent that it can be more profitable to engage in legal assaults against your competitors than to actually PRODUCE something new for sale.
Now, Apple is clearly doing both, but the fact that the legal avenue is even viable for them to bother pursuing should be of great concern to anyone wishing to see greater vibrancy and energy from the marketplace.
And SOMEONE does not know their Western history! (Not surprising given the utter lack of proper history teaching in the West for the last 30 years. Thanks for that, Baby Boomers!)
By 1776 the Magna Carta had been in force in England for over 100 years. England was then, as now, a monarchic Democracy, and certainly a Western state (Actually, they were THE Western State at that point in history.) This is, of course, what led to the American revolution. The colonists felt that they were being made serfs again by lack of representation in Parliament. After years of protests and complaints and a series of political, social and police assaults by the crown on the colonies (designed to suppress dissent) the colonies banded together and revolted. The large scale presence of arms in the colonies attributed in part to the success of the revolution.
Nazi Germany was a Western Democracy prior to Nazi takeover. Hitler's election to Chancellor was by popular vote. It wasn't until after his election to Chancellor and subsequent seizing of power through political subterfuge (like having the army swear allegiance to HIM rather than to Germany or the German Constitution) that the people began to get a sense that there was a problem.
Unfortunately for them, one of the first laws that Hitler passed even BEFORE seizing full Dictatorial power was to outlaw private gun ownership. He knew that an armed populace was a dangerous and uncontrollable populace, even when doped up on the Nazi propaganda that was inescapable in Germany at the time.
So yes, Having an armed and engaged populace is antithetical to anyone that would seek to rule them by force. This includes Australia.
I have to admit, I HATED the Ribbon when it first came out, especially in Word and Excel, as I had memorized all the menus. Once I had to use it in Powerpoint though, I started to appreciate it. Still wasn't terribly happy with it in Word and Excel, but I learned to use it.
In Office 2010 the ribbon is MUCH better. Closer to the old menu system in appearance and arrangement, and more logically laid out. Also, there is the switch that lets you enable to old-school menu if you want it back, so if you still hate the Ribbon, you don't have to use it. VERY nice!
Windows 8 though, What a mess. if they would just let people CHOOSE what they want, classic or Metro interface, there wouldn't be a problem. But to FORCE people to not only use Metro on non-touchscreen systems and then to have this crazy duality where it swaps back and forth... it's just nuts.
The only problem with that is that you have to deal with TigerDirect's cut-rate shipping service. I have bought exactly three things from TigerDirect in the last 15 years. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. of the items I bought arrived damaged and looking like it had been used as a pinata at a party for Ultimate Fighters.
Good luck getting TG to send replacement items or offer refunds. They assume you are lying when you tell them the item arrived destroyed, and not only force you to send it back at your own expense, but then charge you a 20% restocking fee! They are crap. NEVER buy anything from them, they cannot be trusted.
Incidentally, I have also, once, received something damaged from Newegg. After I reported the damage, Newegg emailed me a prepaid return label to print out and shipped me another unit that very day. No questions asked, no hassle given. They were a joy to deal with. Newegg gets all my online electronics business to this day.
It would be interesting to hear substantive ideas on why no parties beyond R and D ever gain traction at the national level in the USA.
The best explanation I have heard yet for this is the "scope" phenomena. Simply put, the alternate parties platform scopes are almost always very narrow, (IE: Single issue platforms or focused around a particular segment of interest such as the economy, to the exclusion of other interests such as foreign policy or social issues.) whereas the major party platforms are very broad.
Also, if the alternate party platform is enough "in line" with the major party, they may "absorb" that issue into their own platform, thus rendering the alternate party irrelevant.
Ultimately, politics in America is very much a game of "Not letting the good become the enemy of the perfect." Thus we get candidates like Mitt Romney, who is viewed by the base as somewhat "soft" on the real hard conservative values, but was easily the most likable and "electable" of the available choices and is ideologically "right" enough to be deemed acceptable. So while Romney is not the "perfect" conservative candidate, he is considered "Good Enough" and thus gets the party nod.
It goes the same way with party politics. People have very diverse interests and very few are willing to vote on a single issue only. So the parties with the broadest appeal within a range attract the most votes. Bell curve, baby. Bell curve.
More than their engines. If you remember the Final Episode ("Unending") the Asgard in the Milky Way committed suicide to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the Priors of the Ori. Just before that they outfitted an Earth ship (The Odyssey) with a massive computer system that contained all their knowledge.
So Earth got the sum total of all Asgard knowledge in a single computer system.
On a more submission-related note, I just want to have my own warp-capable ship. It doesn't even have to be a very big one. Just enough to be able to travel with me and my family to other stars and planets. Given the choice between a life of work here on Earth or a life wandering among the stars and exploring other worlds, I'd choose space. of course, I'd still come home from time to time, but there's just so much to see out there, and if we can actually travel to other planets within a reasonable time frame, then count me in!
how many GIs are demanding that other Americans be sent off to risk life and limb to satisfy their lust for blood sacrifices in the name of religion while they stay safe at home?
I would say probably none. But then, I would count the number of Americans in general that believe that as ALSO none.
I WOULD count the number of Americans that falsely believe that some their fellow Americans are crazed religious nutbags that want to slaughter people who theologically disagree with them as AT LEAST one, and probably more as I know that there is a strain of anti-religious (Really, Anti-Christian) fervor that has infected some people in America that has no grounding in reality and is instead held up by anti-religiously bigoted propaganda by people with political and financial hay to make.
There is a reason why you DO NOT see Christians rioting over the many many many assaults on their religion in the press and the world at large.
Beyond it being against their religious beliefs to do so, it is exactly this argument. They know they believe in an Omnipotent God. They have no need to defend Him. The most you are likely to get from Christians is a somewhat strongly worded letter or a product boycott.
That tells me all I need to know about the "equivalence" between Islam and Christianity.
So, you propose we cover every building, parking lot and road with solar panel arrays? What about the safety lighting that will have to be on 24/7 to provide adequate light under all that construction? What about the massive costs to build what would eventually become a single nationwide structure?
You seem to be missing the point that solar panel arrays large enough to provide adequate power would be prohibitively large and would necessitate the destruction of vast swathes of habitat. Hardly a "green" solution.
Coal is NOT a dirty power source. You seem to be under the impression that coal power is a bunch of guys shoveling coal into a furnace with black sooty smoke pouring out the the top.
In reality, coal firing is fairly clean. Not as clean as other methods, to be sure, but acceptably clean. We have a coal-fired plant here in my area. It sits right along the Niagara River and I see it every day as I drive to work. I've also been inside it. It is a marvel of technology. Using powdered blown coal dust, hot gas recirculation and stack scrubbers it burns very thoroughly and puts out very little pollution. It is hardly the most advanced plant out there, either. Your idea that "nothing can be done about it" is not only highly misinformed, it is simply wrong.
As far as Nuclear goes, The costs of construction are DIRECTLY related to legal and regulatory costs. A modern nuclear power plant is not that expensive to build. Just look at France to see how well they have done in building modern plants and keeping costs down. Hell, Koran companies have developed small sealed nuclear power generation stations that will run for 50 years and cost only a couple million dollars a unit. Now, those are only for small towns, but you could power a city with a few hundred of these scattered around and it wouldn't even cost all that much.
Modern Nuclear power is CHEAP. it's regulation and legal issues that cost so much.
Defanging the EPA will NOT lead to more "Love Canals". Love Canal was a result of ignorance and greed on the part of both Hooker Chemical AND the local Niagara County government. The EPA would not have prevented it. If the presence of the EPA prevented environmental disasters, then every environmental accident since the EPA's creation wouldn't have happened.
Defanging the EPA WOULD, however, lead to less regulatory adventurism and less government waste though. They have gone FAR beyond their original mission of being an environmental watchdog and have become one of the prime examples of government power abuse. The EPA needs to be returned to its original size and scope, and be actively policed to prevent activists from regaining the near absolute control they currently wield in the EPA.
I am actually quite well informed. I think I've proven that with some of the information I've provided.
There is a difference between a "brownfield" (environmentally contaminated area) and a large grassy field with long grass dried brown from the summer sun.
If you want a list of Erie county brownfields, you can look HERE for a list from the EPA. You will notice that most are isolated small areas such as former Gas Stations and old industrial sites. You can output the locations to.KML and check them on Google Earth. I haven't yet confirmed it myself, but I don't think any of them correspond to wind farm locations.
And of course you see them turning. They wouldn't have built them there if it wasn't at least a LITTLE viable. But that doesn't mean that it's a good spot, or that wind power is a reliable energy source. I've been by them plenty of times when they are idle. Perhaps you simply didn't notice.
I wasn't aware there was Vodka made around here. Is it really that bad? Great wine and beer though. My favorite is Southern Tier brewery. They make an awesome IPA.
So, your solution to the major problems of using inadequate power generation systems is to force people (using the power of government, which inevitably involves guns and killing) to do with less and to spend more money?
Asking coal fired (or natgas or Hydrocarbon) plants ot NOT have emissions is akin to asking solar farms to produce power without killing all the plant life under them or wind farms not to hurt thousands of birds with spinning blades.
There is a basic environmental price to pay for ANY power generation. You can't ignore it for one type of power generation just because you prefer it.
Also, the vast majority of the costs of Nuclear power generation are legal (fighting eco-NIMBY lawsuits) and regulatory (dealing with the mountains of paperwork before you can even break ground.
You want cheap nuclear power? Pass real Tort reform to prevent Eco-NIMBY lawsuits, defang the EPA (who often are the ones bringing or financially supporting the lawsuits) and lower regulations.
The real reason we haven't had any new Nuke plants in the US in YEARS is simply the onerous costs of dealing with lawsuits and regulation. It's simply not profitable. And that's sad because we could be using really up to date reactors with awesome technology. instead we are dealing with aging reactors and a power infrastructure that is slowly being overwhelmed.
living along one of the Great lakes, in the Buffalo NY area, and having a large windfarm in the Southern tier, I can tell you that your assumption is false.
Yes, we often have "wind" coming of of the great lakes. the problem is that it is often little more than a light breeze. I have personally been out near the wind farm on what I considered a breezy day and saw the windmills sitting idle. (it was not a scheduled maintenance day either.) They need sustained winds higher than 15 mph to turn, and the average in most great lakes areas is a bit below that.
Also, most of the shores of the Great Lakes are verdant and healthy. NY and PA have strong vineyard growing centers along the southern Lake Erie shores, and many people make their homes there. The brownfields are only in small and isolated areas,and most have been cleaned up by now. Please don't perpetuate false stereotypes about the area I live in.
Look at the SIZE of that solar farm. Its well over 4 times the surface area of the Apple building itself! Yet this is what it takes to power ONE BUILDING. JUST ONE. Can you imagine the sheer size of the solar plant required to power a mid-sized city? What about a BIG city like NY or LA? What about the entire country? It boggles the mind!
of course, let's not forget that those panels are opaque, so nothing can grow underneath them. The environment loss to solar farms large enough to meet our needs would be STAGGERING. Not to mention the reflectivity of the panels. I can't imagine what it would be like having a giant reflector on the Earth bouncing light back into space and heating the atmosphere on the way back out.
As I stated before. Solar is nice for small applications, but doesn't scale well. It's an eco-vanity project. Not terribly surprising that Cupertino, center of vanity in the tech universe, would have one.
I'm fine with not propping up ANY energy supplier. I'd also like to reduce (not eliminate, just reduce) the onerous amount of regulation surrounding power generation. That's half the problem right there.
And please don't bring out the "if we reduce regulation even an iota, rivers will be toxic and full of three eyed fish" strawman. The US has ABSURD regulations in all areas on power generation.
It's not as though we are at the "just enough to stop polluters" level. We passed that DECADES ago and are now well into the "regulation is so onerous and on so many trivial and unnecessary things that our power infrastructure is becoming overwhelmed" area. If we would lighten them up a bit we would see more and cheaper power, and then we might be able to seriously talk about the viability of things like massive amounts of electric cars nationwide, which our current infrastructure cannot support.
Even then, solar isn't really that useful as a power source. nice for limited applications such as charging batteries, but not really useful for large scale use. It simply doesn't scale well, and likely never will.
Ultimately, these "renewable" resources are really nothing more than flashy showpieces for environmental groups. They don't seem to be able to compete in the open market, even with billions of government dollars poured into them to prop them up.
We need to stop wasting our time with these silly eco-vanity projects and pull all government funding. If they can survive in the open market with no more support than traditional power suppliers, and then great! If not, then scrap them and use the materials to help build more Nuke plants.
We simply don't have the money to waste on vanity projects anymore.
No it is not. If you can't tell the difference in quality and taste between a prime rib eye steak from a well treated animal and the shit they squash together into a Big Mac, there is something wrong with you.
No, it really is. People have different preferences in what they like, and indeed there are differences in the ways in which people can perceive taste, just as there are differences in color perception. Now, just like color perception, taste usually varies within a range, but there are differences.
Additionally, culture and background plays into preference as well. Case in point: Vegemite. A vegetable based preservative spread that is popular in Australia. You may have heard of it before. I have personally tasted it and would liken it's flavor to that of charred vulcanized rubber. Yet millions of Australians absolutely LOVE the stuff.
There are plenty of other examples, but I won't waste your time with them. Suffice to say that taste, both in perception and in preference is indeed a highly subjective thing.
So do it using a holding company, wire transfers from multiple small accounts and computer algorithms. You could run the damn thing from a one room office.
As long as the money is your own and everyone gets paid properly it is perfectly legal to buy something while pretending to be someone else.
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And this is where the OSCE is wrong, due to the way that the US Constitution is written.
No treaty signed by the federal government can trump the Constitution. And it is in the Constitution where the states' control over election law is enshrined. Therefore, the treaty is simply invalid.
Regardless of whether OSCE polling observers is a good idea or not, it is, under Texas state law, via the Constitution of the United States, ILLEGAL.
It's worse than even that. The only "new" hardware in my house other than smartphones is my wife's netbook, which I bought for her back in 2010. My own laptop is a Lenovo T60 with a dual-core CENTRINO processor in it. Both the netbook and my T60 run Win7 32bit with all the pretties turned on without trouble. I have an old desktop running win7 32bit as well, it's an old old AMD x3200 system with 2gb of RAM.
Why haven't I bothered to upgrade? Well, most everything I need to get done I can get done on this older but still fully functional hardware. I don't game on my PC, mostly because as a busy 40+ yr old father of three I simply don't have time for that in my life anymore. When I game, I play casual games on my Android phone. Not only am I not alone in this, I'm actually fairly typical of people in my age group.
The people who would normally be gaming on Windows PCs and the target market for new OSes and new PCs would be the 20-30 demographic. This is the EXACT demographic that is hurting the most in the current recession. Many of the younger members of this group can't get jobs, or are underemployed. As such, they aren't in the market for new PCs and are sticking with what they have. if they have any money, they will spend it on a new phone first, a PC is much farther down their list.
So it's bad all around for Microsoft. I see Win8 getting about as much traction as Vista did. Enough for them to be able to SAY it was a success, while quietly excising Metro from desktop and server versions of Win9.
This is true enough. Since the 1960's much of the US Government has been infected with Leftists who don't believe in Property rights. thus they have spent 50 years slowly whittling away at it through laws passed at midnight on a weekday, various "rules" passed by unelected leftists bureaucrats, and by activist leftist judges. All with the intent of placing into law that you DON'T actually own any land or anything on or in it. this has been happening both at federal and state levels, with the more leftist controlled states being worse.
By way of example, see New York State. You own a farm? Discover oil, or coal, or some other mineral resource on it? Go ahead and TRY to sell that resource. You will find that your "Mineral Rights" don't actually exist. Oh, you still legally HAVE them, but you can't actually USE them due to all the other regulations in place.
The same goes with Archaeological finds, treasure finds, et al. If you find anything of potential archaeological, historical or intrinsic value on your property, TELL NO ONE.
- If it is archaeological, DESTROY IT or re-hide it as fast as you can. Or your entire property is forfeit to Eminent Domain as an Archaeological site.
- If it is historical, Keep it to yourself, unless you want your property declared a historical site and thus ineligible for further improvement. (IE: You won't be allowed to fix up your now historical house without a mile long ream of paperwork. Even if the roof is leaking.)
- If it is intrinsic, such as gold or silver coins, jewels etc, then TELL NO ONE, buy a small jeweler's forge and melt down the coins into small bars, remove the jewels from any settings and melt down the settings, then quietly place all of it into a safe deposit box (preferably in the caymans if you can afford it). Otherwise the US Government will simply TAKE IT from you and you will then have to pay a tax on the value of the stuff you now no longer have, thus bankrupting you for having the temerity to find something valuable.
One of the first things that despots and leftists do is remove personal property rights. If not directly, then by a thousand regulations. If you want to keep your stuff, then you keep quiet.
I don't know how you think a reduction in the extent and power of the government is going to lead to less corruption/quote
Really? So you've never heard the truism "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"?
The founders understood this. that is why the US government is supposed to have powers that are both Limited, and strictly enumerated. And anything left off is either assigned to the states, or remains with the individual.
Sadly, since about the turn of the previous century, the US government, via egregious and intentional misreadings the Commerce and General Welfare clauses of the Constitution, has been rapidly gathering power unto itself while straddling Americans with ponzi schemes like Social Security.
We have reached the tipping point on the size of our government. We must now either reduce it's size and scope back to what was originally intended, or travel down the path to insolvency and collapse.
I don't think Laxori666 was intimating that "The Market" was broken, but rather that our regulatory systems (that would include the Patent system) have shackled it to the extent that it can be more profitable to engage in legal assaults against your competitors than to actually PRODUCE something new for sale.
Now, Apple is clearly doing both, but the fact that the legal avenue is even viable for them to bother pursuing should be of great concern to anyone wishing to see greater vibrancy and energy from the marketplace.
Ok, but none of these are western democracies
And SOMEONE does not know their Western history! (Not surprising given the utter lack of proper history teaching in the West for the last 30 years. Thanks for that, Baby Boomers!)
By 1776 the Magna Carta had been in force in England for over 100 years. England was then, as now, a monarchic Democracy, and certainly a Western state (Actually, they were THE Western State at that point in history.) This is, of course, what led to the American revolution. The colonists felt that they were being made serfs again by lack of representation in Parliament. After years of protests and complaints and a series of political, social and police assaults by the crown on the colonies (designed to suppress dissent) the colonies banded together and revolted. The large scale presence of arms in the colonies attributed in part to the success of the revolution.
Nazi Germany was a Western Democracy prior to Nazi takeover. Hitler's election to Chancellor was by popular vote. It wasn't until after his election to Chancellor and subsequent seizing of power through political subterfuge (like having the army swear allegiance to HIM rather than to Germany or the German Constitution) that the people began to get a sense that there was a problem.
Unfortunately for them, one of the first laws that Hitler passed even BEFORE seizing full Dictatorial power was to outlaw private gun ownership. He knew that an armed populace was a dangerous and uncontrollable populace, even when doped up on the Nazi propaganda that was inescapable in Germany at the time.
So yes, Having an armed and engaged populace is antithetical to anyone that would seek to rule them by force. This includes Australia.
I have to admit, I HATED the Ribbon when it first came out, especially in Word and Excel, as I had memorized all the menus. Once I had to use it in Powerpoint though, I started to appreciate it. Still wasn't terribly happy with it in Word and Excel, but I learned to use it.
In Office 2010 the ribbon is MUCH better. Closer to the old menu system in appearance and arrangement, and more logically laid out. Also, there is the switch that lets you enable to old-school menu if you want it back, so if you still hate the Ribbon, you don't have to use it. VERY nice!
Windows 8 though, What a mess. if they would just let people CHOOSE what they want, classic or Metro interface, there wouldn't be a problem. But to FORCE people to not only use Metro on non-touchscreen systems and then to have this crazy duality where it swaps back and forth... it's just nuts.
The only problem with that is that you have to deal with TigerDirect's cut-rate shipping service. I have bought exactly three things from TigerDirect in the last 15 years. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. of the items I bought arrived damaged and looking like it had been used as a pinata at a party for Ultimate Fighters.
Good luck getting TG to send replacement items or offer refunds. They assume you are lying when you tell them the item arrived destroyed, and not only force you to send it back at your own expense, but then charge you a 20% restocking fee! They are crap. NEVER buy anything from them, they cannot be trusted.
Incidentally, I have also, once, received something damaged from Newegg. After I reported the damage, Newegg emailed me a prepaid return label to print out and shipped me another unit that very day. No questions asked, no hassle given. They were a joy to deal with. Newegg gets all my online electronics business to this day.
It would be interesting to hear substantive ideas on why no parties beyond R and D ever gain traction at the national level in the USA.
The best explanation I have heard yet for this is the "scope" phenomena. Simply put, the alternate parties platform scopes are almost always very narrow, (IE: Single issue platforms or focused around a particular segment of interest such as the economy, to the exclusion of other interests such as foreign policy or social issues.) whereas the major party platforms are very broad.
Also, if the alternate party platform is enough "in line" with the major party, they may "absorb" that issue into their own platform, thus rendering the alternate party irrelevant.
Ultimately, politics in America is very much a game of "Not letting the good become the enemy of the perfect." Thus we get candidates like Mitt Romney, who is viewed by the base as somewhat "soft" on the real hard conservative values, but was easily the most likable and "electable" of the available choices and is ideologically "right" enough to be deemed acceptable. So while Romney is not the "perfect" conservative candidate, he is considered "Good Enough" and thus gets the party nod.
It goes the same way with party politics. People have very diverse interests and very few are willing to vote on a single issue only. So the parties with the broadest appeal within a range attract the most votes. Bell curve, baby. Bell curve.
More than their engines. If you remember the Final Episode ("Unending") the Asgard in the Milky Way committed suicide to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the Priors of the Ori. Just before that they outfitted an Earth ship (The Odyssey) with a massive computer system that contained all their knowledge.
So Earth got the sum total of all Asgard knowledge in a single computer system.
On a more submission-related note, I just want to have my own warp-capable ship. It doesn't even have to be a very big one. Just enough to be able to travel with me and my family to other stars and planets. Given the choice between a life of work here on Earth or a life wandering among the stars and exploring other worlds, I'd choose space. of course, I'd still come home from time to time, but there's just so much to see out there, and if we can actually travel to other planets within a reasonable time frame, then count me in!
how many GIs are demanding that other Americans be sent off to risk life and limb to satisfy their lust for blood sacrifices in the name of religion while they stay safe at home?
I would say probably none. But then, I would count the number of Americans in general that believe that as ALSO none.
I WOULD count the number of Americans that falsely believe that some their fellow Americans are crazed religious nutbags that want to slaughter people who theologically disagree with them as AT LEAST one, and probably more as I know that there is a strain of anti-religious (Really, Anti-Christian) fervor that has infected some people in America that has no grounding in reality and is instead held up by anti-religiously bigoted propaganda by people with political and financial hay to make.
Congratulations on buying into the lie, BTW.
There is a reason why you DO NOT see Christians rioting over the many many many assaults on their religion in the press and the world at large.
Beyond it being against their religious beliefs to do so, it is exactly this argument. They know they believe in an Omnipotent God. They have no need to defend Him. The most you are likely to get from Christians is a somewhat strongly worded letter or a product boycott.
That tells me all I need to know about the "equivalence" between Islam and Christianity.
So, you propose we cover every building, parking lot and road with solar panel arrays? What about the safety lighting that will have to be on 24/7 to provide adequate light under all that construction? What about the massive costs to build what would eventually become a single nationwide structure?
You seem to be missing the point that solar panel arrays large enough to provide adequate power would be prohibitively large and would necessitate the destruction of vast swathes of habitat. Hardly a "green" solution.
Coal is NOT a dirty power source. You seem to be under the impression that coal power is a bunch of guys shoveling coal into a furnace with black sooty smoke pouring out the the top.
In reality, coal firing is fairly clean. Not as clean as other methods, to be sure, but acceptably clean. We have a coal-fired plant here in my area. It sits right along the Niagara River and I see it every day as I drive to work. I've also been inside it. It is a marvel of technology. Using powdered blown coal dust, hot gas recirculation and stack scrubbers it burns very thoroughly and puts out very little pollution. It is hardly the most advanced plant out there, either. Your idea that "nothing can be done about it" is not only highly misinformed, it is simply wrong.
As far as Nuclear goes, The costs of construction are DIRECTLY related to legal and regulatory costs. A modern nuclear power plant is not that expensive to build. Just look at France to see how well they have done in building modern plants and keeping costs down. Hell, Koran companies have developed small sealed nuclear power generation stations that will run for 50 years and cost only a couple million dollars a unit. Now, those are only for small towns, but you could power a city with a few hundred of these scattered around and it wouldn't even cost all that much.
Modern Nuclear power is CHEAP. it's regulation and legal issues that cost so much.
Defanging the EPA will NOT lead to more "Love Canals". Love Canal was a result of ignorance and greed on the part of both Hooker Chemical AND the local Niagara County government. The EPA would not have prevented it. If the presence of the EPA prevented environmental disasters, then every environmental accident since the EPA's creation wouldn't have happened.
Defanging the EPA WOULD, however, lead to less regulatory adventurism and less government waste though. They have gone FAR beyond their original mission of being an environmental watchdog and have become one of the prime examples of government power abuse. The EPA needs to be returned to its original size and scope, and be actively policed to prevent activists from regaining the near absolute control they currently wield in the EPA.
I am actually quite well informed. I think I've proven that with some of the information I've provided.
There is a difference between a "brownfield" (environmentally contaminated area) and a large grassy field with long grass dried brown from the summer sun.
If you want a list of Erie county brownfields, you can look HERE for a list from the EPA. You will notice that most are isolated small areas such as former Gas Stations and old industrial sites. You can output the locations to .KML and check them on Google Earth. I haven't yet confirmed it myself, but I don't think any of them correspond to wind farm locations.
And of course you see them turning. They wouldn't have built them there if it wasn't at least a LITTLE viable. But that doesn't mean that it's a good spot, or that wind power is a reliable energy source. I've been by them plenty of times when they are idle. Perhaps you simply didn't notice.
I wasn't aware there was Vodka made around here. Is it really that bad? Great wine and beer though. My favorite is Southern Tier brewery. They make an awesome IPA.
So, your solution to the major problems of using inadequate power generation systems is to force people (using the power of government, which inevitably involves guns and killing) to do with less and to spend more money?
Glad you aren't running things.
Your argument is absurd on the face of it.
Asking coal fired (or natgas or Hydrocarbon) plants ot NOT have emissions is akin to asking solar farms to produce power without killing all the plant life under them or wind farms not to hurt thousands of birds with spinning blades.
There is a basic environmental price to pay for ANY power generation. You can't ignore it for one type of power generation just because you prefer it.
Also, the vast majority of the costs of Nuclear power generation are legal (fighting eco-NIMBY lawsuits) and regulatory (dealing with the mountains of paperwork before you can even break ground.
You want cheap nuclear power? Pass real Tort reform to prevent Eco-NIMBY lawsuits, defang the EPA (who often are the ones bringing or financially supporting the lawsuits) and lower regulations.
The real reason we haven't had any new Nuke plants in the US in YEARS is simply the onerous costs of dealing with lawsuits and regulation. It's simply not profitable. And that's sad because we could be using really up to date reactors with awesome technology. instead we are dealing with aging reactors and a power infrastructure that is slowly being overwhelmed.
living along one of the Great lakes, in the Buffalo NY area, and having a large windfarm in the Southern tier, I can tell you that your assumption is false.
Yes, we often have "wind" coming of of the great lakes. the problem is that it is often little more than a light breeze. I have personally been out near the wind farm on what I considered a breezy day and saw the windmills sitting idle. (it was not a scheduled maintenance day either.) They need sustained winds higher than 15 mph to turn, and the average in most great lakes areas is a bit below that.
Also, most of the shores of the Great Lakes are verdant and healthy. NY and PA have strong vineyard growing centers along the southern Lake Erie shores, and many people make their homes there. The brownfields are only in small and isolated areas,and most have been cleaned up by now. Please don't perpetuate false stereotypes about the area I live in.
Thank you for so clearly illustrating my point.
Look at the SIZE of that solar farm. Its well over 4 times the surface area of the Apple building itself! Yet this is what it takes to power ONE BUILDING. JUST ONE. Can you imagine the sheer size of the solar plant required to power a mid-sized city? What about a BIG city like NY or LA? What about the entire country? It boggles the mind!
of course, let's not forget that those panels are opaque, so nothing can grow underneath them. The environment loss to solar farms large enough to meet our needs would be STAGGERING. Not to mention the reflectivity of the panels. I can't imagine what it would be like having a giant reflector on the Earth bouncing light back into space and heating the atmosphere on the way back out.
As I stated before. Solar is nice for small applications, but doesn't scale well. It's an eco-vanity project. Not terribly surprising that Cupertino, center of vanity in the tech universe, would have one.
I'm fine with not propping up ANY energy supplier. I'd also like to reduce (not eliminate, just reduce) the onerous amount of regulation surrounding power generation. That's half the problem right there.
And please don't bring out the "if we reduce regulation even an iota, rivers will be toxic and full of three eyed fish" strawman. The US has ABSURD regulations in all areas on power generation.
It's not as though we are at the "just enough to stop polluters" level. We passed that DECADES ago and are now well into the "regulation is so onerous and on so many trivial and unnecessary things that our power infrastructure is becoming overwhelmed" area. If we would lighten them up a bit we would see more and cheaper power, and then we might be able to seriously talk about the viability of things like massive amounts of electric cars nationwide, which our current infrastructure cannot support.
Even then, solar isn't really that useful as a power source. nice for limited applications such as charging batteries, but not really useful for large scale use. It simply doesn't scale well, and likely never will.
Ultimately, these "renewable" resources are really nothing more than flashy showpieces for environmental groups. They don't seem to be able to compete in the open market, even with billions of government dollars poured into them to prop them up.
We need to stop wasting our time with these silly eco-vanity projects and pull all government funding. If they can survive in the open market with no more support than traditional power suppliers, and then great! If not, then scrap them and use the materials to help build more Nuke plants.
We simply don't have the money to waste on vanity projects anymore.
No it is not. If you can't tell the difference in quality and taste between a prime rib eye steak from a well treated animal and the shit they squash together into a Big Mac, there is something wrong with you.
No, it really is. People have different preferences in what they like, and indeed there are differences in the ways in which people can perceive taste, just as there are differences in color perception. Now, just like color perception, taste usually varies within a range, but there are differences.
Additionally, culture and background plays into preference as well. Case in point: Vegemite. A vegetable based preservative spread that is popular in Australia. You may have heard of it before. I have personally tasted it and would liken it's flavor to that of charred vulcanized rubber. Yet millions of Australians absolutely LOVE the stuff.
There are plenty of other examples, but I won't waste your time with them. Suffice to say that taste, both in perception and in preference is indeed a highly subjective thing.
Must create a lot of work for the tweezer and baggie crews when it comes to cleaning up after.
Shop vac.
'Nuff said.
So do it using a holding company, wire transfers from multiple small accounts and computer algorithms. You could run the damn thing from a one room office.
As long as the money is your own and everyone gets paid properly it is perfectly legal to buy something while pretending to be someone else.
Pretty sure he was referring to the Gnome changes, not Mac. And Lameness filter or not, I have to agree with him. I feel the same way about Win8.