The sentiment of the parent is dead on, but how can you sink to partisan jabs? While Bush has definitely done things poorly, it demeans your arguement when you place the blame on "this administration". Argue that it is a dumb idea for anyone to have a gator rep on the council, but ad hominem attacks weaken what you say.
Do you actually think that under a different administration things would be different? Maybe if Badnarik had been elected, we might have seen a shake up in Washington.
I agree with your sentiments, but only if you did vote, and only if you voted your choice and not for the canidate that you thought would win.
That being said, letters can and do make a differnce sometimes. If a canidate is on the fence about an issue, hearing from enough constituents can make a difference.
Also, unless you send a letter expressing what you feel about an issue you have no business bitching about it.
Your side note was interesting, in that before "commercials" really took hold of television, product placement or pitching in talk shows and variety shows WAS how things were "supported". Instead of 30 second blurbs cutting in the middle of shows, products were pitched by the show itself, Johnny Carson actually pitching the product, or the actually show name. I can just picture it now - "The Viagra Variety Hour". But seriously, isn't there some evidence that most television now is"crap meant to zombie you into consuming habits under the guise of entertaining you."
What about the Wall Street Journal? Certainly they cover some things better than the NYT. They don't cover the "arts" as well, but news wise it is superior. Just missing a crossword puzzle.
As has already been noted, tobacco, alcohol, and gasoline are special cases. There are specific laws that disallow the importation of these items into a state without paying for taxes or a tax stamp. But for all other items I agree with you
The indians already do - reservations are not required, unless under specific treaty - to charge any excise or sales taxes. Gasoline should be at least 45 to 50 cents cheaper. Cigarettes should be anywheres from 2 to 5 dollars a pack cheaper. But the indians are not supposed to sell to non-indians, and the tax liability clearly falls on the purchaser, if they leave the reservation.
Sending parents to prison for their childrens' crimes is an ideal solution and like most ideals will NOT work in the real world.
Some children are raised right and turn out wrong. I think that this idea can also be usde to actually give the children more power - "Mom, if you don't let me smoke pot in the house, I'm just going to head down to the police station and do it"
Imprisoning the parents will also be a hindrance to those few parents who support punishing thier children.
My friend's 16 year old step son, has been a terror for the past 4 years, runs away, lived with his father for a while, etc. But every time he asked to come back "home" they let him and every time within a few months he would do something totally assisine. So the kid was caught smoking pot by the local PD - his parents asked the juvenile judge for any punishment/rehabilitation they could get. Most parents whine to the judge that its not their kids fault etc.
If you imprison the parents they will definitely go out of their way to not face the law
I think that the real danger of "talking while driving" is not that the idiot is swerving etc. It is that even in drivers who appear to be performing well, there is a decrease in their response time to driving hazards.
So even if you aren't swerving or speeding or driving too slow, you are still a danger if you are talking on a cell phone.
I agree that the hardware/software manufacturers are marketting to the know nothings and that they truly clueless who buy into the marketting hype have a right to "believe" the empty promises. The manufacturers have a duty to deliver on what they tell their customers. If Dell and Microsft say "just plug it in" it should just work.
But - the grandparent post was referring to people who claimed to have some knowledge of computers, i.e. "train in the navy on computers", etc.
These people are supposed to "know" computers, at least by their own reckoning. So they are guilty of hubris at the very least, thinking they know more than they do. Or guilty of laziness, if they knew what should have been done and didn't do it.
Now, I don't think there is anything inherently bad with hubris or laziness, as long as you use it to teach yourself what not to do. Personally I have been guilty enough times that I learned to do backups, etc. But never once did I say it wasn't entirely my fault when something went wrong because I didn't know how or didn't follow proper procedure
Video evidence is NOT enough to prove a transaction. We have had people dispute transactions that they made at our gasoline dispensers through the pay at the pump. Visa/Mastercard have ALWAYS denied us the credit. It is their policy - at least as they tell us - to deny any transaction to the merchant unless the merchant has a valid signature from the customer.
If more people knew this, I am sure that there would be far more credit card fraud. Anything that you haven't signed with your "normal" signature you really don't have to pay for.
The example of side work is admitedly bad, but there are honest reasons for accepting third party checks.
If I do work for someone and they owe me $1000.00. They can't pay me with cash, but they happen to have a check for $1500.00 that a customer just gave them. Now they can deposit it, write me a check and I can wait for the whole thing to clear, OR I can take the check, give them $500.00, and everything is fine.
The USA-PATRIOT act is incredibly insidious, and will be more often abused to charge people who are not terrorists per se, but just guilty of something that the government deems "wrong"
A little known section of the Patriot act that is just starting to be enforced makes it illeagal to cash third party checks, unless you are a federally licensed check casher.
What this means to the average person is that any side work that you may have done which you recieved a check in payment for, and not necessarily reported as income is now reported.
In the name of stopping terrorism the government is just trying to line its pockets even more.
A council of people, each knowledgeable in a specific field could make better decisions. While I agree with the sentiment behind the post. There is a glaring flaw - "masters of rhetoric and intrique make decisions" now. If all the chemists got together to elect the best chemist would the "best" chemist be elected or would the chemist who mastered rhetoric and intrique be the elected representative.
In theory a Presidential Cabinet is supposed to function as a "council of experts". The man making the decisions does not need to know everything about everything. he just needs to rely on trusted advice.
The best leaders are often the people who are best at gathering intelligent people and motiviating - NOT the ones who are most knowledgeable
As you mentioned, if a similar accident occured on US soil, press, etc would be screaming for blood. But culpability would be more clearly defined here. The local/state governments that gave the permits for the plant, the EPA/OSHA/State department of environmental management which had oversite over the plant and accident -- they all would share in the blame.
Isn't the Indian government at least partly to blame for allowing the accident and allowing the unsafe operation. I mean, I don't put my trust in a chemical company to keep me safe, but I know that my government is going to at least make an attempt.
Also, from what I have read - there has been 470 million dollars paid to the Indian government that has NOT been used for anything related to helping people.
Personal responsibility goes to anyone who knew about the conditions, such as plant manager, safetey engineer, local government, but blame should be spread evenly.
LL Bean wil take back anything that they have sold. Electronics/Clothing/Etc. An acquaintance of mine found a pair of bole sunglasses in the surf at a beach on Cape Cod. They were originally from LL Bean.
Just for the heck of it, he mailed them back to LL Bean and they mailed him back another pair of $200.00 sunglasses.
Just finished reading Phillip K Dick's "The Great C" and once again science emulates science fiction.
The Great C is the last remaining computer after nuclear destruction of the Earth. The few remaining tribes of humans must send a yearly sacrifice to The Great C. The human must ask three questions, if The Great C can't answer, then the human is spared. If the computer does answer the human walks up to a platform and drops into a digestive tank.
If a sacrifice isn't sent The Great C will rain down more nuclear destruction.
So in the future robots/computers may well eat Humans.
Very interesting point regarding your German friend., but I think it highlights something deeper. The US is a country, but we aren't an ethnicity. That is why we feel the need to stress cultural nationalism.
Seriously, we have no great history, no national language that we have developed thropughout the years, no sense of what being an "American" is. I mean it is pretty common here to ask someone "what they are" or to look at a name and say that someone is Italian or Irish or Jewish.
Because we still don't feel some connection with our place in the world, we stress the atificial things like "patriotism" and sloganeering
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The sentiment of the parent is dead on, but how can you sink to partisan jabs? While Bush has definitely done things poorly, it demeans your arguement when you place the blame on "this administration". Argue that it is a dumb idea for anyone to have a gator rep on the council, but ad hominem attacks weaken what you say.
Do you actually think that under a different administration things would be different? Maybe if Badnarik had been elected, we might have seen a shake up in Washington.
I agree with your sentiments, but only if you did vote, and only if you voted your choice and not for the canidate that you thought would win.
That being said, letters can and do make a differnce sometimes. If a canidate is on the fence about an issue, hearing from enough constituents can make a difference.
Also, unless you send a letter expressing what you feel about an issue you have no business bitching about it.
Your side note was interesting, in that before "commercials" really took hold of television, product placement or pitching in talk shows and variety shows WAS how things were "supported". Instead of 30 second blurbs cutting in the middle of shows, products were pitched by the show itself, Johnny Carson actually pitching the product, or the actually show name. I can just picture it now - "The Viagra Variety Hour". But seriously, isn't there some evidence that most television now is"crap meant to zombie you into consuming habits under the guise of entertaining you."
What about the Wall Street Journal? Certainly they cover some things better than the NYT. They don't cover the "arts" as well, but news wise it is superior. Just missing a crossword puzzle.
As has already been noted, tobacco, alcohol, and gasoline are special cases. There are specific laws that disallow the importation of these items into a state without paying for taxes or a tax stamp. But for all other items I agree with you
The indians already do - reservations are not required, unless under specific treaty - to charge any excise or sales taxes. Gasoline should be at least 45 to 50 cents cheaper. Cigarettes should be anywheres from 2 to 5 dollars a pack cheaper. But the indians are not supposed to sell to non-indians, and the tax liability clearly falls on the purchaser, if they leave the reservation.
Sending parents to prison for their childrens' crimes is an ideal solution and like most ideals will NOT work in the real world. Some children are raised right and turn out wrong. I think that this idea can also be usde to actually give the children more power - "Mom, if you don't let me smoke pot in the house, I'm just going to head down to the police station and do it" Imprisoning the parents will also be a hindrance to those few parents who support punishing thier children. My friend's 16 year old step son, has been a terror for the past 4 years, runs away, lived with his father for a while, etc. But every time he asked to come back "home" they let him and every time within a few months he would do something totally assisine. So the kid was caught smoking pot by the local PD - his parents asked the juvenile judge for any punishment/rehabilitation they could get. Most parents whine to the judge that its not their kids fault etc. If you imprison the parents they will definitely go out of their way to not face the law
Found the plug-in here http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=3 5627
You can download a zip
I think that the real danger of "talking while driving" is not that the idiot is swerving etc. It is that even in drivers who appear to be performing well, there is a decrease in their response time to driving hazards. So even if you aren't swerving or speeding or driving too slow, you are still a danger if you are talking on a cell phone.
I agree that the hardware/software manufacturers are marketting to the know nothings and that they truly clueless who buy into the marketting hype have a right to "believe" the empty promises. The manufacturers have a duty to deliver on what they tell their customers. If Dell and Microsft say "just plug it in" it should just work. But - the grandparent post was referring to people who claimed to have some knowledge of computers, i.e. "train in the navy on computers", etc. These people are supposed to "know" computers, at least by their own reckoning. So they are guilty of hubris at the very least, thinking they know more than they do. Or guilty of laziness, if they knew what should have been done and didn't do it. Now, I don't think there is anything inherently bad with hubris or laziness, as long as you use it to teach yourself what not to do. Personally I have been guilty enough times that I learned to do backups, etc. But never once did I say it wasn't entirely my fault when something went wrong because I didn't know how or didn't follow proper procedure
Video evidence is NOT enough to prove a transaction. We have had people dispute transactions that they made at our gasoline dispensers through the pay at the pump. Visa/Mastercard have ALWAYS denied us the credit. It is their policy - at least as they tell us - to deny any transaction to the merchant unless the merchant has a valid signature from the customer. If more people knew this, I am sure that there would be far more credit card fraud. Anything that you haven't signed with your "normal" signature you really don't have to pay for.
The example of side work is admitedly bad, but there are honest reasons for accepting third party checks. If I do work for someone and they owe me $1000.00. They can't pay me with cash, but they happen to have a check for $1500.00 that a customer just gave them. Now they can deposit it, write me a check and I can wait for the whole thing to clear, OR I can take the check, give them $500.00, and everything is fine.
The USA-PATRIOT act is incredibly insidious, and will be more often abused to charge people who are not terrorists per se, but just guilty of something that the government deems "wrong" A little known section of the Patriot act that is just starting to be enforced makes it illeagal to cash third party checks, unless you are a federally licensed check casher. What this means to the average person is that any side work that you may have done which you recieved a check in payment for, and not necessarily reported as income is now reported. In the name of stopping terrorism the government is just trying to line its pockets even more.
A council of people, each knowledgeable in a specific field could make better decisions. While I agree with the sentiment behind the post. There is a glaring flaw - "masters of rhetoric and intrique make decisions" now. If all the chemists got together to elect the best chemist would the "best" chemist be elected or would the chemist who mastered rhetoric and intrique be the elected representative. In theory a Presidential Cabinet is supposed to function as a "council of experts". The man making the decisions does not need to know everything about everything. he just needs to rely on trusted advice. The best leaders are often the people who are best at gathering intelligent people and motiviating - NOT the ones who are most knowledgeable
As you mentioned, if a similar accident occured on US soil, press, etc would be screaming for blood. But culpability would be more clearly defined here. The local/state governments that gave the permits for the plant, the EPA/OSHA/State department of environmental management which had oversite over the plant and accident -- they all would share in the blame. Isn't the Indian government at least partly to blame for allowing the accident and allowing the unsafe operation. I mean, I don't put my trust in a chemical company to keep me safe, but I know that my government is going to at least make an attempt. Also, from what I have read - there has been 470 million dollars paid to the Indian government that has NOT been used for anything related to helping people. Personal responsibility goes to anyone who knew about the conditions, such as plant manager, safetey engineer, local government, but blame should be spread evenly.
Umm... I just had to reply. An armed populace sure has made it damn difficult to take over Iraq.
LL Bean wil take back anything that they have sold. Electronics/Clothing/Etc. An acquaintance of mine found a pair of bole sunglasses in the surf at a beach on Cape Cod. They were originally from LL Bean. Just for the heck of it, he mailed them back to LL Bean and they mailed him back another pair of $200.00 sunglasses.
Just finished reading Phillip K Dick's "The Great C" and once again science emulates science fiction. The Great C is the last remaining computer after nuclear destruction of the Earth. The few remaining tribes of humans must send a yearly sacrifice to The Great C. The human must ask three questions, if The Great C can't answer, then the human is spared. If the computer does answer the human walks up to a platform and drops into a digestive tank. If a sacrifice isn't sent The Great C will rain down more nuclear destruction. So in the future robots/computers may well eat Humans.
Very interesting point regarding your German friend., but I think it highlights something deeper. The US is a country, but we aren't an ethnicity. That is why we feel the need to stress cultural nationalism. Seriously, we have no great history, no national language that we have developed thropughout the years, no sense of what being an "American" is. I mean it is pretty common here to ask someone "what they are" or to look at a name and say that someone is Italian or Irish or Jewish. Because we still don't feel some connection with our place in the world, we stress the atificial things like "patriotism" and sloganeering
Perhaps my own eyes aren't normal but 'usednatnrd' was tough to read. 'aulaclty' was easily (mis)read by me as 'audacity'