They think it's OK to have armed guards 24/7, while passing laws to take away everyone else's ability to defend themselves. Almost all of them send their kids to private schools. They exclude themselves from insider trading restrictions. They even get paid when the government shuts down.
Everything they do makes it obvious that their elite political class is better than everyone else and above the law.
They have a deal with Worker's Comp to get in their priority queue. And yes it sucks. Federal bureaucrats have also been caught queue-jumping. Just like in all socialist schemes, some people are inevitably more equal than others.
Forget your ideological fantasies and stick to the facts. Name a country with universal health care where you can't get what you want by paying for medical services yourself.
Canada. It is illegal in Canada to charge for medical services that are otherwise covered by the public health system.
And yes I personally know people who have chosen to travel to the US to get surgery and diagnostics rather than sit on multi-year waiting lists for them.
Our system is good for most people, but the no-pay rule means you can get screwed for anything that isn't immediately life threatening, and many things (including MRIs) are rationed by waiting list.
Lower fiscal deficits... that's a joke. I voted for the Conservatives but, as usual, they have failed spectacularly at containing the deficit. I guess you could give them credit for wanting to contain it, unlike the other parties, but actual execution... man I wish Paul Martin was still finance minister.
After his entire administration and much of the so-called free press claimed weapons of mass destruction and broadly suggested that Iraq was involved in 9/11.
The US federal budget in 2000 was $1.8 trillion. The US federal spend (I'd call it a budget, but you haven't had one of those in what, like 4 years?) in 2011 was $3.8 trillion.
Total government spending in 2013 is about 40% of GDP. That's higher than it has ever been outside of a couple of years during WWII.
Government at all levels in the US spends over 40% of GDP. It was around 30% in 1960. The only time it was ever higher than now was for a couple of years during WWII.
Taxes in some cases may be marginally lower because much of that spending is paid by increased debt, but the welfare state is absolutely bigger than it has ever been.
That's true, but mostly because 48% of the population have zero net wealth. They'd rather by ipads on credit than save money. I have more net wealth than millions of Americans combined, but that's not saying a lot.
Not that wealth accumulation isn't a problem, but let's keep things in perspective.
Indeed, the Martin shooting is an example of political corruption, not police corruption. The police were doing the right thing; they evaluated the evidence and didn't want to charge Zimmerman. In fact, no one did until the press went 24-hour retard with pictures of Martin as a 12 year old on every news cast and political pressure from the feds to prosecute.
I think most people are for things like hard-core drugs. It's trivial to buy any drugs here, with little or no chance of arrest and even less of prosecution, yet most people just are not interested in anything harder than dope, for the most part.
Gentoo has its upsides for a desktop. Unless you really screw up, you'll only have to install it once. Software will be built with your preferences. You'll always have fairly recent versions of everything.
On the downside, the initial install does suck. And you really need to know what you're doing. It's certainly not for everyone, but I actually went back to it after a few years on Ubuntu, and it's been good. Compile times are a lot better than they were 10 years ago and, really, after the initial install, who cares, it's just background work you do once every few weeks. I'll trade incremental updates over giant distribution upgrades any day. But that's just me, and it's great to have other choices too.
A lot of the time when you log in it gives you a bunch of recommended endorsements and you can just say sure, endorse them all. Or go through hundreds of them and pick and choose. Or just ignore the whole thing. I get endorsements from people who have no idea what I actually do, so I'm thinking a lot of people just pick option 1.
In some countries most parents are reasonably well educated, provide early education for their children, feed them healthy meals, and support their education.
In some other countries, strangely enough, in the areas where schools end up being the worst, parents aren't like that.
Slashdot Mirror
It's still a better record than MSNBC.
They think it's OK to have armed guards 24/7, while passing laws to take away everyone else's ability to defend themselves. Almost all of them send their kids to private schools. They exclude themselves from insider trading restrictions. They even get paid when the government shuts down.
Everything they do makes it obvious that their elite political class is better than everyone else and above the law.
I don't think you can win a Senate seat without being hugely corrupt. Certainly not the Presidency.
There might be a few honest people in Congress, though.
They have a deal with Worker's Comp to get in their priority queue. And yes it sucks. Federal bureaucrats have also been caught queue-jumping. Just like in all socialist schemes, some people are inevitably more equal than others.
Forget your ideological fantasies and stick to the facts. Name a country with universal health care where you can't get what you want by paying for medical services yourself.
Canada. It is illegal in Canada to charge for medical services that are otherwise covered by the public health system.
And yes I personally know people who have chosen to travel to the US to get surgery and diagnostics rather than sit on multi-year waiting lists for them.
Our system is good for most people, but the no-pay rule means you can get screwed for anything that isn't immediately life threatening, and many things (including MRIs) are rationed by waiting list.
Lower fiscal deficits ... that's a joke. I voted for the Conservatives but, as usual, they have failed spectacularly at containing the deficit. I guess you could give them credit for wanting to contain it, unlike the other parties, but actual execution ... man I wish Paul Martin was still finance minister.
False convictions, especially of poor defendents, is an enormous problem, and people should oppose the death penalty for that reason alone.
I'm as pro-vengeance as the next guy, but I'd like the punishment to go to the right person, especially if it's something you can't take back.
I'd vote for that.
After his entire administration and much of the so-called free press claimed weapons of mass destruction and broadly suggested that Iraq was involved in 9/11.
Ie. not exactly informed approval.
I have to do that too if I can't get exit row. They usually give up after a few tries.
A lot extra. Westjet charges $45.00 for exit row. Apparently they figured out that tall people will pay a fair bit not to be crippled after a flight.
Deficits tend to decrease when a Democtrat is president and to shoot up as soon as a Republican becomes President.
I think the current president has probably wrecked that trend.
The US federal budget in 2000 was $1.8 trillion. The US federal spend (I'd call it a budget, but you haven't had one of those in what, like 4 years?) in 2011 was $3.8 trillion.
Total government spending in 2013 is about 40% of GDP. That's higher than it has ever been outside of a couple of years during WWII.
It's a spending problem, period.
.. like 40 or so. It's really not a big number.
Government at all levels in the US spends over 40% of GDP. It was around 30% in 1960. The only time it was ever higher than now was for a couple of years during WWII.
Taxes in some cases may be marginally lower because much of that spending is paid by increased debt, but the welfare state is absolutely bigger than it has ever been.
That's true, but mostly because 48% of the population have zero net wealth. They'd rather by ipads on credit than save money. I have more net wealth than millions of Americans combined, but that's not saying a lot.
Not that wealth accumulation isn't a problem, but let's keep things in perspective.
Worse news - the second and third guy don't really like working. And the guy above you all keeps 50% to himself.
Thankfully you're there to "share" with them. Best keep working.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-22/guest-post-three-and-half-class-society
Indeed, the Martin shooting is an example of political corruption, not police corruption. The police were doing the right thing; they evaluated the evidence and didn't want to charge Zimmerman. In fact, no one did until the press went 24-hour retard with pictures of Martin as a 12 year old on every news cast and political pressure from the feds to prosecute.
USA - legitimacy ... yeah
finances - way beyond gone
Mission accomplished.
I think most people are for things like hard-core drugs. It's trivial to buy any drugs here, with little or no chance of arrest and even less of prosecution, yet most people just are not interested in anything harder than dope, for the most part.
That's 5-10 dollars you could spend on ... more heroin. Or, periodically, food.
Drug addicts, pretty much by definition, don't make good decisions.
Gentoo has its upsides for a desktop. Unless you really screw up, you'll only have to install it once. Software will be built with your preferences. You'll always have fairly recent versions of everything.
On the downside, the initial install does suck. And you really need to know what you're doing. It's certainly not for everyone, but I actually went back to it after a few years on Ubuntu, and it's been good. Compile times are a lot better than they were 10 years ago and, really, after the initial install, who cares, it's just background work you do once every few weeks. I'll trade incremental updates over giant distribution upgrades any day. But that's just me, and it's great to have other choices too.
A lot of the time when you log in it gives you a bunch of recommended endorsements and you can just say sure, endorse them all. Or go through hundreds of them and pick and choose. Or just ignore the whole thing. I get endorsements from people who have no idea what I actually do, so I'm thinking a lot of people just pick option 1.
Scrooge was always in charge. He just used to be better at making you think God intended it to be that way.
In some countries most parents are reasonably well educated, provide early education for their children, feed them healthy meals, and support their education.
In some other countries, strangely enough, in the areas where schools end up being the worst, parents aren't like that.
Hmm, I wonder where the problem is.