Hi: "I don't have that much sympathy". Perhaps because you don't care to sypathize that much?
People either take drugs for recreation, or, more commonly, for pain. Mental or physical pain. "Most users don't need them". Says you. I say most users do need them or they wouldn't be taking them. Do you drink more than socially? Get blasted now and then? Did you feel a need to? Have you ever taken painkillers? Have you lived with never being able to get a good night's sleep?
Just because some may be prescribed for those who can afford care does not change the facts that we are a pain-addled society with no shortage of 'dealers'. The poor, the homeless, (the vet?) will always find their fix on a street-corner or in the local bar.
Is taking drugs an 'absolute right'? Dunno, but try de-legalizing viagra and find out:)
If you argument/outlook hinges on legalality more than the reasons we take drugs, then it fails when one drug user is sanctioned and the other is sent up for life on a 3rd strike; or even subject to the coerciveness/corrosiveness of the LEA. Because both are driven by the same reasons and you are judging who has better means than the other.
If your view hangs on the (subjective) need for using drugs then I hope you stay in continued good health in our increasingly sick world, lest you find your own needs judged by others like yourself.
Hi: I'm only 60 comments into this long thread, but in short, yes; because it is not a justice system by any stretch of the imagination.
I've heard it stated that the courts dispense fairness at best - not justice. I have come to believe that a 'fair trial' is no longer possible.
Its one thing for me to rant about traffic violations, or the rare chance encounter with the Law and how it's built-in adversarialness rubs me the wrong way.
But I am also aware of the vast injustices that many less fortunate people suffer at the hands of the system. Maybe there will be a mention below, but google "The New Jim Crow" + "convict leasing"
When you're dirt poor, coericed (or beaten) into submission of guilt, only to be viewed as a 'profit center'; then something's gotta go. Starting with lawyers.
Hi: Good for you! As previous posters have noted: there should be a victim who points a finger before you can be arrested for anything. Traffic violations, infractions like speeding have no victim; they are excuses to detain and surveil in the name of 'public safety' to procure some higher level of safety (potentiall less injury). Its more often than not a shakedown in collusion with the insurance industry (points==more$)
If I get a speeding ticket i view the fine as a low-cost front-row ticket to the best theater in town; a cheap opportunity to drag out the process to a point where they just get sick of me. Delay, stall, resist, fight back. I get to turn the worm and cross examine the citing officer to my hearts content. Payback for being stopped and detained for no good reason with no real victim or actual damage done.
And, if found innocent, I'll call that officer as a witness in any subsequent similar offence. Too much of the system counts on people too willing to just pay up and not push back.
Visit the forums on medhelp (like the hepc forum), or visit earthclinic, or any 100(0)'s of sites that actually have specific and relevant merit (AOT pointy-headed opinion and gossip) and you'll find that the signal2noise is very low.
Since '97 or so, I've rarely used anything other than google; but this past year has made using them suck profoundly. First, as someone who copy/pastes URL's between browser( or elinks ) and xterm, having a SERP link get transformed into a 100+byte qstring to route through their site absolutely blows ponies. Even when I'm not logged in. Now, Bing does that as well.
Adding insult to injury, I used to get decent results using +/-, quotes, and 'Fravia's tips':)
Now they ignore it all with the notice "(without punctuation - Learn more).
SERP's blow mightly and has seriously mucked up my search-fu.
Used to be, google was Alices' Restaurant, now it feels more like a soup kitchen who monitors my intake. Worse, all the other search engines suck just as bad; either re-packaging or running on a lo-cal diet. (sorry for the food analogy, but I hunger for 'more input':) I've tried a dozen or so other seach sites, but in no short time, I'm back to google; holding my nose all the way.
And when the Prosecutor stands before the judge he represents "The People". Funny that. As most commoners never see equal treatment under the law. $ talks. Cops cook books and prisoners are revenue sources.
Our government today is the least popular in U.S. history. It does not speak for the people but for Corporations and their lobbys. Consent is manufactured while the greatest wealth in U.S. history has just been transfered from public to private hands.
"by definition an extension..." Hardly by any definition I recognize.
"There is a procedure for objecting in the US military" Which rarely, if ever, results in the chain of command doing the right thing AOT CYA.
Being relieved of command used to be commonplace and not held as a mark against one's service. These days, no one is ever relieved unless their incompetence is monumental and pubically exposed.
When loyality trumps ability ring-knockers usually end up sending some poor hump to an early grave, if not a wet-spot in some landfill.
We have a crisis of competence in both government and the military; where silence is currency, failure too often rewarded and doing the right thing mete with severe punishment.
Despite perhaps the best of intention, secrecy and letting the ends justify the means does nothing to mitigate the rot at the top.
The fact that Manning opted to not follow procedure and knowingly suffer the consequences raises his stature in my eyes as much as John Paul Vann, Hugh Thompson Jr, or anyone who breaks rank to expose the lie for what it is and do something about it. Specially when knowing that "following procedure" will result in just another in a long line of cover-ups.
An earlier post of yours mentioned fusion centers, which really should be getting a lot more scrutiny as its the end-run around the separation of corporate and state agencies. Any place where DHS comingles with State and Local Police to assist and influence the business community WRT national security should be a cause for alarm.
Besides the banality of fusion, corporate and government espionage and intelligence gathering has been an ongoing concern since forever. In the case of this post, just s/HBG/Kroll/ to get a more clear picture. Where another has mentioned the Pinkertons, Kroll Assoc. is probably the best example of the cross-over effect in recent decades.
Google "Kroll inc" for insightful; add +WTC for interesting
Thank-you for pointing out the greater simularity of 'anon' to that of a resistance group; regardless of what they may be labeled by the prevailing establishment.
It irks me to no end to see how that word is painted on anything that represents a minority (usually oppressed) who finally decide to take a stand; using whatever pitiful means are at their disposal.
I find it ironic that in the 'freedom-fighter' vs. 'terrorist' meme that the former is usually better armed, funded, and more inclined to atrocity than the later.
Despite the later fighting predators with bows-n-arrows (as it were) and suffering tens if not hundreds of times the greater causalties.
kind of like saying you dropped your nntp account and access to 30K+ groups because you found a few of them to be offensive. It reflects less on Usenet and more about you.
Bec you can extrapolate it to dropping out of the real world, and all culture and civ (purportedly) has to offer because there are places in it that you don't like.
How about, just don't go there, you have 359 other directions to follow.
Hi: Although I believe Santorum belongs in a hermetically sealed Santorium; what this event might end up doing is showing the lunatic, 'politics is war', hate-n-fear mongering, god-spewing, funda-mental, proselytizing, fascistas how to stock another arrow in their quiver-full for ppl like the Koch's to point-n-shoot.
Power over others because we are bound to space as much as time. Our sense of place is both our re-assurance and our un-doing.
I don't remember the specifics, prob google-able, but some months back I watched a Tv interview of a UCSB ph.d brain-scientist who has been going to Africa every summer for 30 years to study chimps. The interview was about the impact of stress on our lives and, I paraphrase but, his near-quote is: "I've been comming here for 30 years and the more I've learned, the less I like chimpanzees. Life here is good for them. Having to spend only a couple of hours/day in search of food leaves them the rest of the day to make each other absolutely miserable." Chimps are a rank based society that reflects what we already know: cowered, submissive smiles down below and self-inflated assholes up above. A world in which rank and heirarchy create the stressors that make life oppressive and often unbearable.
The blow-back of our increased dependence on rank, in military and society at large; is that facts run counter-productive to generating enthusaim and details become a hindrance to maintaining momentuum and energ. It results in groups who must put loyalty above objectivity and exiling the 'fool', the jester who has license to speak freely.
The result is an acute inability to hold people accountability and face being relieved of duty.
We have become what someone named Morris Berman has termed a 'hustle' society, filled w/averice, all-against-all; "why america failed" in a 'twisted dream' of democracy sliding into facism dressed as 'freedom'. Rank has evolved into a repressive plutocracy, a roman-empire model where 1-in-5 is un(der)employed, un(der)educated, un(der)healthy; and its getting worse.
We have come to exist in a spiritually bankrupt country, incapable of envisioning a different, better, system. My conviction is that 'gross national happiness' has to replace GNP. I know it sounds un-realistic, but it can work. It is a 1st step to creating an 'enlightened society'. See: slowmovement.com/gnh.php +bhutan +"happiness" +2011
If humanity as a group is incapable, the perhaps technology will provide the means of breaking rank. I have termed this "flocking". Highly mobile, unteathered lives that would seem very alien to us now; but very liberating in offering the greatest possibility of choices in what we do, where, with whom and for how long. Like other creatures who flock: birds, fish, bees, insects, etc... rank may persist, but we are not bound to any given chain of command.
"You assume people Give the...." And you must assume that everybody drives disposable shitboxes that one can crash and not give a shit. Most people give a shit where self-interest is concerned, fair enough? crashing into something, having to be towed, cited most likely, and the cost of repair, gives the parent posters' comment credence. Your response does not; it just reveals that you generally think the worst of people. Now, go out late some Saturday night at closing time (2-4AM). Look at all the 'intoxicated' people climbing into their wheels. Distractions at every turn, crashes just waiting to happen.
Now check out the Sunday paper for all the accidents the night before. Usually only one, or two; maybe a couple of fender-benders. So it must be a miracle that all those drunkards managed to make it home in one piece. But somehow they did. "Many drivers...." Sure, a lot of drivers, people in general, act irresponsibly; make bad decisions. Hold them accountable when they actually cause harm or damages. Like when they decide to steal that car.
But not all accidents are caused by "people who don't give a fuck". Sometimes its bad vision, bad mood, bad luck, distraction, etc... Loss of control does not necessarily equate to irresponsibility unless you remove intention completely; if they are responsible for a crash they should have known better and not gotten behind the wheel. Otherwise known as "accidents don't just happen but are caused"
I can speak for how things are in Switzerland, but I can speak for the cities I've hacked in here in the U.S. (incl N.Y.C.). First, please accept that there is a difference between chaotic and destructive; chaos does not necessarily equate to accidents. That said, I can say that traffic laws do not improve traffic saftey. Limits are generally ignored, as most ppl intimately know 'their roads' and drive 'reasonably' safe for the conditions. Also, most accidents are not necessarily due to speeding but to not paying attention and loss of control. Next, my experience has proven (to me) that, absent of 'traffic laws, lights or signs' traffic is like water; it maintains its own levels. That means that when the lights at an intersection are not working, traffic finds its own order and with rare exception, there are no accidents. Maybe some cursing and a finger or two, but no dents or benders, let alone head on collisions. Your (or a Germans' or an Egyptians') experience may be different; but I've logged K's of miles in US cities and most people either drive OK or dont last long on the road.
To make laws work effectively (AOT to a revenue source) is to enforce the penalties; make them stick, make them harsh, make them for actual effects; collisions, property damage, etc..
Get rid of speed-limits and speeding tickets, abandon the points system and no-fault insurance.
Cause an accident - you lose your license for 5 years! 2nd time? lose it for 10.
It doesnt matter wether your intoxicated, or too old, or too young, or an immigrant, or what-ever. You pay for the damages you actually cause and if you cannot drive w/out causing damage then you can ride a bicycle or a lawn-tractor or a horse-n-cart ; all of which are permissible on a public thoroughfare.
I know that @1st blush this will sound assinine and counter-intuitive, but policing should be about catching criminals and RESPONDING to the accidents caused by impaired drivers. Taking drunks off the road sounds great; but the majority of them won't cause an accident. And, why not people on drugs. Or the geriatric 70-80 year-olds who can barely keep up or respond effectively, or kids in general, who are just learning, i.e. drivers in the high-risk pool?
Police now call themselves "public-saftey officers". But in most places the public is quite safe w/out them cruising around or lying in wait for a reason to pursue and detain. Like Emergency Medical, cops should primarily be 1st-responders, not agents of interdiction.
Otherwise we get what we have now, an over-the-top, eyes-everywhere, Big-Brother, nanny-State looking for crimes under every stone if for no other reason than to shake-down and penalize as a hidden tax or cost of doing business.
I'll bet you this weeks paycheck that you, like self, are white and middle-aged. And my experience is very identical to yours. But, for those who cannot say the same, the outcome is potentially very (very) different; despite how much respect and civility gets shown. Surveilance, random stops, etc.. are screening for more than just drunks on the road. Just peek into your local fusion center activities.
And besides, I'd bet its a fact that 90+% or more of all people who drive while intoxicated (from booze or prescribed-or-not drugs) manage to reach their destination w/out crashing into something.
People should be held accountable for their role in outcomes, not probabilities. They caused a crash, not they might cause one. Otherwise its a matter of "public-saftey == pre-crime" Like not wearing a seatbelt, or helmet, or talking on a phone, while motoring. The costs just outweigh the benefits and make it far too easy to game; e.g. the points system for insurance companies.
Mod this ironic, as has been pointed out ad nauseaum, the awkwardly disengenousness of politicians leaping up in outrage and dis-belief in a rush to counter injustice; until their own party comes into power. Then, a massive silence ensues, or worse.
There is no Left or Right, only alliances where loyality will always trumps integrity.
Feel-good enthusiasm always holds sway over facts; say anything to get support/$ and wing it from there. Don't over-think it, just trust your gut instincts and your team (of ass-kissers).
Where extrovert, A-type, pompous blowhards always inspire more faith than quieter thoughtful contrarians and skeptics who in the end are usually proven right.
"Re: Dying.." Tends to make me think that the human condition is one hell-bent on self-destruction.
Shit. I cant believe I'm sensitive enuf today to respond to an AC. But for the record: you're an asshole and here's why:
1. "...government is actually listening to your phone calls and reading..." Well, just today's news is about 2 kids sent packing for innocuous tweets. Who would've thought those 2 were important enuf to monitor?
2. "...someone at TSA.. for no particular reason" Well, that (no reason) in and of itself is pretty bad; worse is where/how did they get a reason if they had one? Massive intrusion and spying perhaps?
3. "...government freely gives tax money away to Wall Street banks..." I wish I could get 0% loans that I could use to buy guaranteed TBills paying 3% to use as leveraged collateral for increasing my Hedge portfolio (or just to give away as a bonus)
4. "coorporations" are evil parasitic slave traders, rather than publicly owned companies who..." Have no interest beyond enriching their investors; who have no qualms shitting in someone else's back yard if it gets them 30% returns. Too many examples to make worth citing.
5. "...current unemployment rate us 20%, rather than the factually reported..." You know what is said about 'facts', right.
6. "our critical infrastructure is hopelessly delapidated....despite..." Check out the status of the LA levees, or major bridges; gonna take more than 'billions' dude. Worse, check out the Corp of Engineers, the wasted billions, the revolving door into 'contractor land'
and bilking public funds.
You quickly call GP crazy and delusional. Here's one for you: A section of a bridge in CT collapsed. Cars were driving off and plunging into the river below. One car was able to stop in time and the driver got out and ran back trying to warn ensuing traffic. The passengers in the 1st car zipping by gave him the finger. Guess where they ended up?
"Riders of the Storm" (selected theaters) is a surprise: a little ragged blast of a science-fiction film that packs more energy and ideas in its shots than many pictures twice its size. It won't be to everyone's taste; some will
find it either crude, misogynistic or tasteless. There are lots of script problems and stereotypes; some of this movie is quite bad.
But the best of it has an almost raving, full-throttle comic intensity, like a "Saturday Night Live" sketch suddenly taken over by genuine maniacs.
[snip]
It's one of those overheated, hyper-intense films--crazy, tasteless, but daring--that almost seems to be blowing apart at the seams: political satire-fantasy with an edge. In the movie, Dennis Hopper and a Strangelove-ian planeload of counter-culture Vietnam veterans run the ultimate outlaw TV station from a bomber in the sky. Their name is S & M TV, their logo is a goony cartoon eagle with a bomb in its talons, and their programming philosophy seems derived from MTV, Wolfman Jack, New York's Ugly George and Abbie Hoffman. They bombard the airwaves with rock 'n' roll videos and terrorize evangelical broadcasts and news programs with unannounced incursions of sex and violence
What you saw this autumn was just Act1; an assembly of those who will ultimately form a 'braintrust' in the months ahead.
You might have heard/seen today that someone(s) is calling for a Nation-wide strike this comming May 1st.
Ah, springtime! I predict that May to Nov holds in store a world-wide rebellion against the status-quo. You won't need MSM to know whats going on; or a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
Take heart, change is on the wind and politics have become irrelevant. As another posted somewhere above noted: its time to challenge the puppetmasters:)
Slashdot Mirror
Hi:
"I don't have that much sympathy".
Perhaps because you don't care to sypathize that much?
People either take drugs for recreation, or, more commonly, for pain. Mental or physical pain.
"Most users don't need them". Says you.
I say most users do need them or they wouldn't be taking them. Do you drink more than socially?
Get blasted now and then? Did you feel a need to?
Have you ever taken painkillers? Have you lived with never being able to get a good night's sleep?
Just because some may be prescribed for those who can afford care does not change the facts that we are a pain-addled society with no shortage of 'dealers'. The poor, the homeless, (the vet?) will always find their fix on a street-corner or in the local bar.
Is taking drugs an 'absolute right'? Dunno, but try de-legalizing viagra and find out:)
If you argument/outlook hinges on legalality more than the reasons we take drugs, then it fails when
one drug user is sanctioned and the other is sent up for life on a 3rd strike; or even subject to the coerciveness/corrosiveness of the LEA.
Because both are driven by the same reasons and you are judging who has better means than the other.
If your view hangs on the (subjective) need for using drugs then I hope you stay in continued good health in our increasingly sick world, lest you find your own needs judged by others like yourself.
Hi:
I'm only 60 comments into this long thread, but in short, yes; because it is not a justice system by any stretch of the imagination.
I've heard it stated that the courts dispense fairness at best - not justice. I have come to believe that a 'fair trial' is no longer possible.
Its one thing for me to rant about traffic violations, or the rare chance encounter with the Law and how it's built-in adversarialness rubs me the wrong way.
But I am also aware of the vast injustices that many less fortunate people suffer at the hands of the system. Maybe there will be a mention below, but google "The New Jim Crow" + "convict leasing"
When you're dirt poor, coericed (or beaten) into submission of guilt, only to be viewed as a 'profit center'; then something's gotta go.
Starting with lawyers.
Hi:
Good for you! As previous posters have noted: there should be a victim who points a finger before you can be arrested for anything.
Traffic violations, infractions like speeding have no victim; they are excuses to detain and surveil in the name of 'public safety' to procure some higher level of safety (potentiall less injury).
Its more often than not a shakedown in collusion with the insurance industry (points==more$)
If I get a speeding ticket i view the fine as a low-cost front-row ticket to the best theater in town; a cheap opportunity to drag out the process to a point where they just get sick of me.
Delay, stall, resist, fight back. I get to turn the worm and cross examine the citing officer to my hearts content. Payback for being stopped and detained for no good reason with no real victim or actual damage done.
And, if found innocent, I'll call that officer as a witness in any subsequent similar offence.
Too much of the system counts on people too willing to just pay up and not push back.
mentally dislexic this AM
High signal - Low noise - sorry
Visit the forums on medhelp (like the hepc forum), or visit earthclinic, or any 100(0)'s of sites that actually have specific and relevant merit (AOT pointy-headed opinion and gossip) and you'll find that the signal2noise is very low.
His site, meh.
Since '97 or so, I've rarely used anything other than google; but this past year has made using them suck profoundly. First, as someone who copy/pastes URL's between browser( or elinks ) and xterm, having a SERP link get transformed into a 100+byte qstring to route through their site absolutely blows ponies. Even when I'm not logged in. Now, Bing does that as well.
Adding insult to injury, I used to get decent results using +/-, quotes, and 'Fravia's tips':)
Now they ignore it all with the notice "(without punctuation - Learn more).
SERP's blow mightly and has seriously mucked up my search-fu.
Used to be, google was Alices' Restaurant, now it feels more like a soup kitchen who monitors my intake. Worse, all the other search engines suck just as bad; either re-packaging or running on a lo-cal diet.
(sorry for the food analogy, but I hunger for 'more input':)
I've tried a dozen or so other seach sites, but in no short time, I'm back to google; holding my nose all the way.
And when the Prosecutor stands before the judge he represents "The People". Funny that. As most commoners never see equal treatment under the law. $ talks. Cops cook books and prisoners are revenue sources.
Our government today is the least popular in U.S. history. It does not speak for the people but for Corporations and their lobbys.
Consent is manufactured while the greatest wealth in U.S. history has just been transfered from public to private hands.
"by definition an extension..."
Hardly by any definition I recognize.
"There is a procedure for objecting in the US military"
Which rarely, if ever, results in the chain of command doing the right thing AOT CYA.
Being relieved of command used to be commonplace and not held as a mark against one's service. These days, no one is ever relieved unless their incompetence is monumental and pubically exposed.
When loyality trumps ability ring-knockers usually end up sending some poor hump to an early grave, if not a wet-spot in some landfill.
We have a crisis of competence in both government and the military; where silence is currency, failure too often rewarded and doing the right thing mete with severe punishment.
Despite perhaps the best of intention, secrecy and letting the ends justify the means does nothing to mitigate the rot at the top.
The fact that Manning opted to not follow procedure and knowingly suffer the consequences raises his stature in my eyes as much as John Paul Vann, Hugh Thompson Jr, or anyone who breaks rank to expose the lie for what it is and do something about it. Specially when knowing that "following procedure" will result in just another in a long line of cover-ups.
Thank-you for reminding us of that which, ultimately, is unequivocal.
we/one should know by now that there are many ways to get paid for things that never find their way to the invoicing dept.
An earlier post of yours mentioned fusion centers, which really should be getting a lot more scrutiny as its the end-run around the separation of corporate and state agencies. Any place where DHS comingles with State and Local Police to assist and influence the business community WRT national security should be a cause for alarm.
Besides the banality of fusion, corporate and government espionage and intelligence gathering has been an ongoing concern since forever.
In the case of this post, just s/HBG/Kroll/ to get a more clear picture. Where another has mentioned the Pinkertons, Kroll Assoc. is probably the best example of the cross-over effect in recent decades.
Google "Kroll inc" for insightful; add +WTC for interesting
Thank-you for pointing out the greater simularity of 'anon' to that of a resistance group; regardless of what they may be labeled by the prevailing establishment.
It irks me to no end to see how that word is painted on anything that represents a minority (usually oppressed) who finally decide to take a stand; using whatever pitiful means are at their disposal.
I find it ironic that in the 'freedom-fighter' vs. 'terrorist' meme that the former is usually better armed, funded, and more inclined to atrocity than the later.
Despite the later fighting predators with bows-n-arrows (as it were) and suffering tens if not hundreds of times the greater causalties.
kind of like saying you dropped your nntp account and access to 30K+ groups because you found a few of them to be offensive. It reflects less on Usenet and more about you.
Bec you can extrapolate it to dropping out of the real world, and all culture and civ (purportedly) has to offer because there are places in it that you don't like.
How about, just don't go there, you have 359 other directions to follow.
Hi:
Although I believe Santorum belongs in a hermetically sealed Santorium; what this event might end up doing is showing the lunatic, 'politics is war', hate-n-fear mongering, god-spewing, funda-mental, proselytizing, fascistas how to stock another arrow in their quiver-full for ppl like the Koch's to point-n-shoot.
Hi:
Power over others because we are bound to space as much as time. Our sense of place is both our re-assurance and our un-doing.
I don't remember the specifics, prob google-able, but some months back I watched a Tv interview of a UCSB ph.d brain-scientist who has been going to Africa every summer for 30 years to study chimps.
The interview was about the impact of stress on our lives and, I paraphrase but, his near-quote is:
"I've been comming here for 30 years and the more I've learned, the less I like chimpanzees. Life here is good for them. Having to spend only a couple of hours/day in search of food leaves them the rest of the day to make each other absolutely miserable."
Chimps are a rank based society that reflects what we already know: cowered, submissive smiles down below and self-inflated assholes up above.
A world in which rank and heirarchy create the stressors that make life oppressive and often unbearable.
The blow-back of our increased dependence on rank, in military and society at large; is that facts run counter-productive to generating enthusaim and details become a hindrance to maintaining momentuum and energ. It results in groups who must put loyalty above objectivity and exiling the 'fool', the jester who has license to speak freely.
The result is an acute inability to hold people accountability and face being relieved of duty.
We have become what someone named Morris Berman has termed a 'hustle' society, filled w/averice, all-against-all; "why america failed" in a 'twisted dream' of democracy sliding into facism dressed as 'freedom'. Rank has evolved into a repressive plutocracy, a roman-empire model where 1-in-5 is un(der)employed, un(der)educated, un(der)healthy; and its getting worse.
We have come to exist in a spiritually bankrupt country, incapable of envisioning a different, better, system. My conviction is that 'gross national happiness' has to replace GNP.
I know it sounds un-realistic, but it can work.
It is a 1st step to creating an 'enlightened society'. See:
slowmovement.com/gnh.php
+bhutan +"happiness" +2011
If humanity as a group is incapable, the perhaps technology will provide the means of breaking rank.
I have termed this "flocking". Highly mobile, unteathered lives that would seem very alien to us now; but very liberating in offering the greatest possibility of choices in what we do, where, with whom and for how long.
Like other creatures who flock: birds, fish, bees, insects, etc... rank may persist, but we are not bound to any given chain of command.
"You assume people Give the...."
And you must assume that everybody drives disposable shitboxes that one can crash and not give a shit.
Most people give a shit where self-interest is concerned, fair enough? crashing into something, having to be towed, cited most likely, and the cost of repair, gives the parent posters' comment credence.
Your response does not; it just reveals that you generally think the worst of people.
Now, go out late some Saturday night at closing time (2-4AM). Look at all the 'intoxicated' people climbing into their wheels. Distractions at every turn, crashes just waiting to happen.
Now check out the Sunday paper for all the accidents the night before. Usually only one, or two; maybe a couple of fender-benders. So it must be a miracle that all those drunkards managed to make it home in one piece.
But somehow they did.
"Many drivers...." Sure, a lot of drivers, people in general, act irresponsibly; make bad decisions.
Hold them accountable when they actually cause harm or damages. Like when they decide to steal that car.
But not all accidents are caused by "people who don't give a fuck". Sometimes its bad vision, bad mood, bad luck, distraction, etc...
Loss of control does not necessarily equate to irresponsibility unless you remove intention completely; if they are responsible for a crash they should have known better and not gotten behind the wheel. Otherwise known as "accidents don't just happen but are caused"
Hi:
I can speak for how things are in Switzerland, but I can speak for the cities I've hacked in here in the U.S. (incl N.Y.C.).
First, please accept that there is a difference between chaotic and destructive; chaos does not necessarily equate to accidents.
That said, I can say that traffic laws do not improve traffic saftey. Limits are generally ignored, as most ppl intimately know 'their roads' and drive 'reasonably' safe for the conditions. Also, most accidents are not necessarily due to speeding but to not paying attention and loss of control.
Next, my experience has proven (to me) that, absent of 'traffic laws, lights or signs' traffic is like water; it maintains its own levels.
That means that when the lights at an intersection are not working, traffic finds its own order and with rare exception, there are no accidents.
Maybe some cursing and a finger or two, but no dents or benders, let alone head on collisions.
Your (or a Germans' or an Egyptians') experience may be different; but I've logged K's of miles in US cities and most people either drive OK or dont last long on the road.
To make laws work effectively (AOT to a revenue source) is to enforce the penalties; make them stick, make them harsh, make them for actual effects; collisions, property damage, etc..
Get rid of speed-limits and speeding tickets, abandon the points system and no-fault insurance.
Cause an accident - you lose your license for 5 years! 2nd time? lose it for 10.
It doesnt matter wether your intoxicated, or too old, or too young, or an immigrant, or what-ever.
You pay for the damages you actually cause and if you cannot drive w/out causing damage then you can ride a bicycle or a lawn-tractor or a horse-n-cart ; all of which are permissible on a public thoroughfare.
I know that @1st blush this will sound assinine and counter-intuitive, but policing should be about catching criminals and RESPONDING to the accidents caused by impaired drivers.
Taking drunks off the road sounds great; but the majority of them won't cause an accident. And, why not people on drugs. Or the geriatric 70-80 year-olds who can barely keep up or respond effectively, or kids in general, who are just learning, i.e. drivers in the high-risk pool?
Police now call themselves "public-saftey officers". But in most places the public is quite safe w/out them cruising around or lying in wait for a reason to pursue and detain.
Like Emergency Medical, cops should primarily be 1st-responders, not agents of interdiction.
Otherwise we get what we have now, an over-the-top, eyes-everywhere, Big-Brother, nanny-State looking for crimes under every stone if for no other reason than to shake-down and penalize as a hidden tax or cost of doing business.
I'll bet you this weeks paycheck that you, like self, are white and middle-aged. And my experience is very identical to yours. But, for those who cannot say the same, the outcome is potentially very (very) different; despite how much respect and civility gets shown.
Surveilance, random stops, etc.. are screening for more than just drunks on the road. Just peek into your local fusion center activities.
And besides, I'd bet its a fact that 90+% or more of all people who drive while intoxicated (from booze or prescribed-or-not drugs) manage to reach their destination w/out crashing into something.
People should be held accountable for their role in outcomes, not probabilities. They caused a crash, not they might cause one.
Otherwise its a matter of "public-saftey == pre-crime" Like not wearing a seatbelt, or helmet, or talking on a phone, while motoring.
The costs just outweigh the benefits and make it far too easy to game; e.g. the points system for insurance companies.
Mod this ironic, as has been pointed out ad nauseaum, the awkwardly disengenousness of politicians leaping up in outrage and dis-belief in a rush to counter injustice; until their own party comes into power. Then, a massive silence ensues, or worse.
There is no Left or Right, only alliances where loyality will always trumps integrity.
Feel-good enthusiasm always holds sway over facts;
say anything to get support/$ and wing it from there. Don't over-think it, just trust your gut instincts and your team (of ass-kissers).
Where extrovert, A-type, pompous blowhards always inspire more faith than quieter thoughtful contrarians and skeptics who in the end are usually proven right.
"Re: Dying.." Tends to make me think that the human condition is one hell-bent on self-destruction.
I applaud your ability to craft a perfectly satirical comment, which to the un-initiated or un-informed, appears as legitimate criticism.
Hi:
I suspect one need not be fluent when one is affluent:)
Shit. I cant believe I'm sensitive enuf today to respond to an AC. But for the record: you're an asshole and here's why:
1. "...government is actually listening to your phone calls and reading..."
Well, just today's news is about 2 kids sent packing for innocuous tweets. Who would've thought those 2 were important enuf to monitor?
2. "...someone at TSA.. for no particular reason"
Well, that (no reason) in and of itself is pretty bad; worse is where/how did they get a reason if they had one? Massive intrusion and spying perhaps?
3. "...government freely gives tax money away to Wall Street banks..."
I wish I could get 0% loans that I could use to buy guaranteed TBills paying 3% to use as leveraged collateral for increasing my Hedge portfolio (or just to give away as a bonus)
4. "coorporations" are evil parasitic slave traders, rather than publicly owned companies who..."
Have no interest beyond enriching their investors; who have no qualms shitting in someone else's back yard if it gets them 30% returns. Too many examples to make worth citing.
5. "...current unemployment rate us 20%, rather than the factually reported..."
You know what is said about 'facts', right.
6. "our critical infrastructure is hopelessly delapidated....despite..."
Check out the status of the LA levees, or major bridges; gonna take more than 'billions' dude.
Worse, check out the Corp of Engineers, the wasted billions, the revolving door into 'contractor land'
and bilking public funds.
You quickly call GP crazy and delusional. Here's one for you:
A section of a bridge in CT collapsed. Cars were driving off and plunging into the river below. One car was able to stop in time and the driver got out and ran back trying to warn ensuing traffic. The passengers in the 1st car zipping by gave him the finger. Guess where they ended up?
Hi
If not a Monty Python skit, then maybe closer to
this fantastically dark and over the top peek into the relm of the implausible:
The American Way(1986) (aka Riders on the Storm)
http://articles.latimes.com/1988/may/13
May 13, 1988|MICHAEL WILMINGTON
"Riders of the Storm" (selected theaters) is a surprise: a little ragged blast of a science-fiction film that packs more energy and ideas in its shots than many pictures twice its size. It won't be to everyone's taste; some will
find it either crude, misogynistic or tasteless. There are lots of script problems and stereotypes; some of this movie is quite bad.
But the best of it has an almost raving, full-throttle comic intensity, like a "Saturday Night Live" sketch suddenly taken over by genuine maniacs.
[snip]
It's one of those overheated, hyper-intense films--crazy, tasteless, but daring--that almost seems to be blowing apart at the seams: political satire-fantasy with an edge. In the movie, Dennis Hopper and a Strangelove-ian planeload of counter-culture Vietnam veterans run the ultimate outlaw TV station from a bomber in the sky. Their name is S & M TV, their logo is a goony cartoon eagle with a bomb in its talons, and their programming philosophy seems derived from MTV, Wolfman Jack, New York's Ugly George and Abbie Hoffman. They bombard the airwaves with rock 'n' roll videos and terrorize evangelical broadcasts and news programs with unannounced incursions of sex and violence
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL10C98154240E4B11
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qebqNtHe5Ng
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6HnWLo4rt8
What you saw this autumn was just Act1; an assembly of those who will ultimately form a 'braintrust' in the months ahead.
You might have heard/seen today that someone(s) is calling for a Nation-wide strike this comming May 1st.
Ah, springtime! I predict that May to Nov holds in store a world-wide rebellion against the status-quo. You won't need MSM to know whats going on; or a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
Take heart, change is on the wind and politics have become irrelevant.
As another posted somewhere above noted: its time to challenge the puppetmasters:)