Maybe on the coasts they can take guns. Out where in the midwest they can't take our deer rifles, and a deer rifle is often bigger than what infantry uses (by law - small infantry guns are not powerful enough to humanly kill a deer, though they work fine on people).
Don't forget that the army is made up of people. A large uprising is likely to involve a good part of the military, so it isn't safe to assume that the government controls all the tanks.
This won't be a problem. All it means is they have to go to my clients when they want a wiretap. The hook will be in all my code to do the wiretap, but you can't do it at the phone company because all you get is a stream of unintelligible bytes.
Not everyone has the same reason. Perhaps most just don't want calls. A significant number (could be less than 1%, but it is their most profitable 1%) sign up because they cannot resist the sales pitches otherwise.
Finland is prosperous because the government doesn't actively try to starve the people, and there are no significant wars killing the able and destroying crops. Both of the above are large problems in Africa. There is plenty of food in the world, but it does no good when you cannot get it to those in need. Many relief efforts have faltered when tons (litterally) of food was left sitting in the sun until it was destroyed, not far from those in need. Active effort prevented those from getting it.
Remember the Irish potato famine of the 1800s? There was plenty of food grown in Ireland, but it was grown for the rich land owners elsewhere who didn't care that the farmers could get grow enough food on the little land they were allowed for themselves.
I'm not sure how to solve that problem.
There are areas of the world where the government isn't killing the people, and there are no wars. Those people are able to grow enough food for themselves, and have a small surplus. Getting them education, will help their lives. Getting them computers (after or with the education) helps them more, particularly if those computers have internet (even dial-up) so they can download the information they need.
Sure were should help the starving, but there is no easy way to do that. There are easy ways to help those are poor, but want to improve their life, and nothing is standing in the way. That is also a task worth doing.
In the real world, after you have the first job, that is true. However to get the first job they look at your GPA. Fortunately I had an intership, they wouldn't have hired me out of school with my GPA, but they already knew I was a good worker so that didn't matter. For all jobs after that, GPA never came up. It still mattered in school though.
These companies are taking money that could be used for honest companies, and sending it to companies that charge more, because they have the expense of the telemarketer calls to pay for. Sure the economy is moving because of this, but there are much better uses that the same money could have gone to - but now it isn't.
ALL US states will extradite anyone who does something illegal in a different state, even though it is legal in their local state. Every single one, no exceptions.
The telemarketing call is illegal in the destination state, therefore they committed a crime in a different state, even though physically they were not there.
Note that many telemarketers are setting up in other countries to get around this. However they have to pay long distance. (VOIP makes this much less, but it is still an issue) They also have to be very careful, Jamaica might not care, but anyone from your company who sets foot in the US is arrested.
Assuming you are in the US, there is a $500 fine for junk faxes. They will pay you $100 for each one they collect on. Looks like $400 for them (this includes collection expenses, including those that they cannot collect from), but in return you don't have to deal with collecting.
I'd tell everyone with a fax to sign up - you have nothing to loose really. Even if they take all the money and run, you still are making junk faxes unprofitable, so even in the worst case you win. You could easily make a few hundred bucks in the mean time too.
Like everything though, read the fine print. I don't have a fax machine, so I didn't get too in depth.
They actually expect to have better luck selling to people on the do-not-call list. People who put themselves on the list are often the people who just got their bank statement and discovered how much money they are spending on telemarketer scams. They put themselves on the list because they know from experience that vowing to never buy something from a telemarketer again does not mean they won't give in when the call comes latter on that day.
Make sure you buy all your cars from someone else in the future, and tell everyone. Ideally you get in line behind the salesmen who sold you the car (assuming he still works there which is unlikely in some dealers), and then tell someone else in line loudly enough that he overhears it.
Most important is to vote with your feet to never give them money. It makes a difference. Maybe just a tiny amount on their bottom line, but it still is there.
Maybe. A hand built house can be much better, because when you use a hammer to pound nails, the action pulls the wood together. A nail gun is much faster, but it doesn't pull the wood together. Over the years the house then settles and cracks.
However the above assumes everything else is identical. The hand frame house is likely to not use other modern construction, so it might not be as strong, despite the lack of cracks.
The cracks in the modern built are cosmetic. Ugly, and all, but purely skin deep. So the answer is we do not know.
The above does not apply to engineering school. It needs to be difficult if you wish to learn all the stuff fast. There are easier ways to explain it, but those easier ways ignore some very important points that you need to understand.
I can gloss over all the math when explaining the theory of gravity (Newton's). However the applications of the theory of gravity that an engineer will make require all the math. Even if you don't need the math in gravity specifically, engineers need it in the real world for similar problems, so they still have to it.
It has been my experience that very, very few engineers actually understand business.
Totally true. However don't forget that very very few MBAs actually undersand business. Come to think of it, few people do, and it isn't taught in school at all.
You forget (Or rather you hinted at, but didn't bring out) one important point: All the other students in your class are the same as you - they are smart people who got good grades in high school. You are no longer competing with the "can't spell his favorite word - duh - football player", you are competing with smart people. This is a hard transition. For me I went form the smart guy who didn't nothing and still got good grades to one of the dumber people in class. Unfortunately I didn't have the study skills to make up for it. (I graduated anyway, but I don't mention my GPA)
Now we are judged on our GPA. However an A student in easy classes is judged higher than a C- student in engineering, even though the C- student worked harder, learned more, and is all around smarter. This is a big disconnect in industry.
I have seen homebrew games for the Gameboy. The PSP is a new platform, and most do not have Roms (before this hack) that would allow homebrew games, so it isn't fair to say this won't be used for homebrew games.
Most people use the VCRs ability to make copies of tapes to pirate movies (despite macrovision), but there are home movies that can legally be copies, so this ability is legal. The illegal use is an incidental consequence of legal uses.
While I would consider the argument that after inflation $20 is worth much less today, I disagree that this is a factor.
For all the harm juries do, they are essentially random people from the population, while you get to reject those biased against you. Thus are harder to corrupt. A judge can take bribes, but that only goes so far.
Now most judges are honest enough to do a good job of deciding things (and you can appeal if he doesn't), but there are bad judges. A jury is a good check, it allows the judge to sit back and play the uninterested mediator, even when he does care (the social pressure of his job is to be uninterested so long as there isn't also the pressure of deciding the case)
The system isn't perfect, but so far all the alternatives end up worse.
No, the uncertainty principal does apply. You cannot know exactly where the ball is because you cannot know exactly where each particle in the ball is.
You can however know where the Average position of all the particles in the ball are, with enough precision to make macro predictions on the positions. Those micro uncertainties do effect how the ball moves, but only on a micro level, so long as you don't try to do your macro calculations to extreme precision you can say where the ball is, in a mannor that is close enough for your use. Don't try to get more precise than your instruments are though or your calculations will be way off.
Yes in physics I hated working with frictionless surfaces too.
Sending an email or calling may or may not doing anything useful. However sitting in silence does less.
When you contact your representative you are sending a message that you care and are watching. Odds are you base your next vote in part on his vote. There will always be those are who unhappy, but when a large number of voters speak, it becomes clear to anyone wanting re-election that they had better vote your way, because those who speak up between elections tend to ignore commercials, and also tell people on the street independently who to vote for. This word of mouth is worth more than all the commercials money can buy, and it is free.
The best way is a face to face meeting. These are hard to get though, so most people don't bother. If you do, perpare ahead of time. Watch congress on the floor (you can get this on cable in most areas, if not go to your state government and watch them) Practice with many others, and make sure they play devils advocate (but not all, get some who are just barely awake to nod as if they are listening). If you get 15 minutes make sure you are done in less than 10! Have answers for every possible question prepared and memorized ahead of time. Make sure all your facts are correct, even if it means you have to admit a static that is against your position (One lie will negate your whole message). Have a short handout of facts to present. Design whole thing so that your words can be repeated on the floor in debate - and make every effort to give him credit for your words if that happens (it won't word for word, but you should try to inspire things). Last, but most important: make sure you are impassioned about the whole issue.
For everything else, odds are the representative will not see your words anyway. What is important is staffer collect statistics of each position and send that on. If we litterally slashdotted congress, that message would get across.
Email is the best practical (face to face is not practical) way to contact your representative. It is easy, fast, and can be read at anytime. A sample of emails is sent directly to the representative (generally the better written ones, popular subjects will have the best examples of each sent on - but staffers pick which are sent, so they can choose bad examples if they are against an issue).
Phone calls are taken by staffers, they will pass your word on, but that is it. These are less meaningful because there is the appearance that people can call effort, while written things took some effort.
Physical, hand-written (not typed!) letters used to be best. After the anthrax scares of a few years ago though, letters are routed all over for decontamination before they are opened. There is much danger that the issue will be gone, one way or the other, before your letter is opened.
A Fax is the worst - a fax is a business only tool (by perception voters do not own fax machines). Business do not vote. A business that wants something needs to deal in money, but in accordance with finance laws and ethics. You need to send a message that you represent an actual vote, not money that can influence other voters.
There are two different types of messages: one written by an organization and sent by many (the EFF has a form letter), and ones you write yourself. The form letter will be passed on, with a note that they got n copies of this (so long as many send it, if only a small number send it, this is useless) The hand written note is more valuable though, because if passed on it will be read more thoroughly, and it is more likely t be passed on than a form letter than only a few copies were received.
Most important of all: VOTE based on issues. Don't vote for the nicest person, don't vote for the best looking person. Don't vote for the person who doesn't sweat. Don't vote for the person you want to sleep with. Don't for the person everyone else is voting for. Vote for the person who will pass the laws as you want them passed. Make sure you do you
This has to pass the house and the senate. The either can vote no and kill it. Note that it is close to the no-debate time, which means that most of the debate is over, so you need to move hast. All they can do once this is in no-debate is kill the whole thing, which they don't want to do.
They are killing not just this flag, but also things like Katrina relief. Though I don't know what is in this particular budget, you can bet the MPAA will make sure everyone knows about the popular things that were in it should the whole bill be killed.
A few thousand WiFi towers might suffice for a tiny country like Holland to get high speed internet to everyone. It is however not enough to give just those with ocean front property in the US high speed. (even if you don't count Alaska and Hawaii)
I don't see how installing broadband every home is saving taxpayers billions. I see it costing billions.
Presidents do not have near the power you think. Anything a president does will make something mad - even if it wasn't his fault. (People are mad at Bush for not sending troops to New Orleans, even though he was refused permission to send them!) As a Third party president you will have it harder - the two major parties stick together, and they will both work together to make sure you don't get things done. Whine on CNN, and you will appear as a whiner, not a leader, and not only will you not get anything done, but you will loose the next election.
Don't forget that while you are attacking someone in congress, they are attacking back. People who don't have good social and debate skills don't get elected, so you are dealing with masters of this. (You might be a master, but you are against other masters) Everything you try can backfire on you, and they will be trying to make that happen.
ALL of the pork that the government does is popular with someone. 37% of the budget is Social Security, Midicare, and other retirement. 21% for other social programs. Don't even think about cutting either one, because the retirees vote in enough numbers that no congressmen who wants to be re-elected will touch any plan to cut them. Military is 22%, and no congressmen will touch any cuts here if there is anything military in their state - lest their state be cut. Interest on the debt is 7%, don't touch that if you want the US to survive as a strong country. Physical, human, and community development is 10%, nobody will touch that because some of it goes to their community. 3% is law enforcement and general government, not much to touch here, much of it supports the other above, so this cannot be cut without touching the other programs. (source IRS
If you want me to believe that you will actually cut pork from the budget, then you need to propose specific areas to cut it. All politicians propose to cut pork, because it a good sound bite. When it comes down to it though, someone wants each part. Cut anything significant and you make enough people mad that you don't get elected - you may not care, but congress does.
In short: you are following the same no content formula that all politicians do to get elected. Because you are not doing it as part of a major party you will not be elected - in fact most people will not even know your name until they see it on the ballot form.
Maybe not, but I (and presumeably they) have known those who have.
You have to be very careful, but people have supported a family on minimum wage. It means you eat a lot of beans and rice (healthy if you are at all careful, but not much variety, or taste). It means your livingroom becomes a bedroom at night. (Fold up bed) It means that you buy your clothes are garrage sales. It means you walk everywhere. It means your entertainment is books from the library (until someone gives you a TV, because you could never buy it)
I wouldn't want to live that life, but it can be done. I've known people who have, and they had plenty of time to do things, so long as what they were doing was cheap.
Sometimes I'm temped to do it myself. I sit at a computer all day. At Taco Bell there would be cute (many underage so be careful) girls who have to talk to me. The fringe benefits are not to be overlooked.
There is a large difference between someone making $15,000/year (just over minimum wage, below the so-called poverty line), and someone making $250,000/year.
If the first person said they were looking for more money at the expense of working conditions (so long as things are safe) it would make perfect sense, because a little more can go directly to minimum quality of life things and pay for itself.
If the second person said they were looking for more, even at the expense of working conditions, they would be insane. They have more money that they need to live.
Everyone wants more money. Some people are in the position where more money would go to toys they want, while others need it to get the basics.
That is because you allow it to be that way
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What I do not like about living in the US is how everything "seems" to be centered around materialism; You are what you make. You are your reputation. You are the car you drive. You are the suit you wear. In short. You are not "you".
True, but that is because you allow things to be that way.
My co-workers are convinced that if the engine in my car blows up on the way to work, I find a way to drive it anyway. There are likely right. (Already one cycinder is not running)
I refuse to let my car rules my self image. There are material things I want that I don't need, and I might buy them someday.
Nationwide Broadband Internet Access as part of our national infrastructure, like the highways.
I will also stop government handouts to corporations that already make billions.
Those two goals conflict. Only corporations that already make billions have the ability to roll out nationwide broadband. Unless you want to spend twice as much to have government do it.
Don't forget that you need to work with congress. Most congressmen (from both parties) are interested in getting re-elected, and thus they are more concerned with bringing the pork home to the local billion dollar company(s) that provides jobs in their area. You can either send that pork on, or find that congress overrides your vetoes and the pork isn't cut.
Of course you need to get the vote. I'll be honest: you won't get my vote. I vote libertarian a lot because I'm all for getting rid of the pork, and they might do it while most just talk about it. Your nationwide broadband looks like more pork to me, so I refuse.
There is a satisfaction in being able to see what you did. As a programmer I can't do that. Nobody understands setting a few bits in a SCSI MODE_SENSE command to get some status information. I do it, I enjoy doing it. I never get the satisfaction of seeing it with my own eyes.
Those boring jobs allow you to turn around as you walk out the door every day and say "See, I did that". 1000 cars off the line today, and I touched all of them, or 1000 can stacked neatly on the shelf. You can see it. You can show anyone in the world (minus the blind) what you did, and they will understand. Even a 'primitive native' who has no clue what a car is for can still understand the you built it.
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Maybe on the coasts they can take guns. Out where in the midwest they can't take our deer rifles, and a deer rifle is often bigger than what infantry uses (by law - small infantry guns are not powerful enough to humanly kill a deer, though they work fine on people).
Don't forget that the army is made up of people. A large uprising is likely to involve a good part of the military, so it isn't safe to assume that the government controls all the tanks.
This won't be a problem. All it means is they have to go to my clients when they want a wiretap. The hook will be in all my code to do the wiretap, but you can't do it at the phone company because all you get is a stream of unintelligible bytes.
Not everyone has the same reason. Perhaps most just don't want calls. A significant number (could be less than 1%, but it is their most profitable 1%) sign up because they cannot resist the sales pitches otherwise.
Finland is prosperous because the government doesn't actively try to starve the people, and there are no significant wars killing the able and destroying crops. Both of the above are large problems in Africa. There is plenty of food in the world, but it does no good when you cannot get it to those in need. Many relief efforts have faltered when tons (litterally) of food was left sitting in the sun until it was destroyed, not far from those in need. Active effort prevented those from getting it.
Remember the Irish potato famine of the 1800s? There was plenty of food grown in Ireland, but it was grown for the rich land owners elsewhere who didn't care that the farmers could get grow enough food on the little land they were allowed for themselves.
I'm not sure how to solve that problem.
There are areas of the world where the government isn't killing the people, and there are no wars. Those people are able to grow enough food for themselves, and have a small surplus. Getting them education, will help their lives. Getting them computers (after or with the education) helps them more, particularly if those computers have internet (even dial-up) so they can download the information they need.
Sure were should help the starving, but there is no easy way to do that. There are easy ways to help those are poor, but want to improve their life, and nothing is standing in the way. That is also a task worth doing.
In the real world, after you have the first job, that is true. However to get the first job they look at your GPA. Fortunately I had an intership, they wouldn't have hired me out of school with my GPA, but they already knew I was a good worker so that didn't matter. For all jobs after that, GPA never came up. It still mattered in school though.
This is an example of the Broken window fallacy
These companies are taking money that could be used for honest companies, and sending it to companies that charge more, because they have the expense of the telemarketer calls to pay for. Sure the economy is moving because of this, but there are much better uses that the same money could have gone to - but now it isn't.
ALL US states will extradite anyone who does something illegal in a different state, even though it is legal in their local state. Every single one, no exceptions.
The telemarketing call is illegal in the destination state, therefore they committed a crime in a different state, even though physically they were not there.
Note that many telemarketers are setting up in other countries to get around this. However they have to pay long distance. (VOIP makes this much less, but it is still an issue) They also have to be very careful, Jamaica might not care, but anyone from your company who sets foot in the US is arrested.
Assuming you are in the US, there is a $500 fine for junk faxes. They will pay you $100 for each one they collect on. Looks like $400 for them (this includes collection expenses, including those that they cannot collect from), but in return you don't have to deal with collecting.
I'd tell everyone with a fax to sign up - you have nothing to loose really. Even if they take all the money and run, you still are making junk faxes unprofitable, so even in the worst case you win. You could easily make a few hundred bucks in the mean time too.
Like everything though, read the fine print. I don't have a fax machine, so I didn't get too in depth.
They actually expect to have better luck selling to people on the do-not-call list. People who put themselves on the list are often the people who just got their bank statement and discovered how much money they are spending on telemarketer scams. They put themselves on the list because they know from experience that vowing to never buy something from a telemarketer again does not mean they won't give in when the call comes latter on that day.
Make sure you buy all your cars from someone else in the future, and tell everyone. Ideally you get in line behind the salesmen who sold you the car (assuming he still works there which is unlikely in some dealers), and then tell someone else in line loudly enough that he overhears it.
Most important is to vote with your feet to never give them money. It makes a difference. Maybe just a tiny amount on their bottom line, but it still is there.
Maybe. A hand built house can be much better, because when you use a hammer to pound nails, the action pulls the wood together. A nail gun is much faster, but it doesn't pull the wood together. Over the years the house then settles and cracks.
However the above assumes everything else is identical. The hand frame house is likely to not use other modern construction, so it might not be as strong, despite the lack of cracks.
The cracks in the modern built are cosmetic. Ugly, and all, but purely skin deep. So the answer is we do not know.
The above does not apply to engineering school. It needs to be difficult if you wish to learn all the stuff fast. There are easier ways to explain it, but those easier ways ignore some very important points that you need to understand.
I can gloss over all the math when explaining the theory of gravity (Newton's). However the applications of the theory of gravity that an engineer will make require all the math. Even if you don't need the math in gravity specifically, engineers need it in the real world for similar problems, so they still have to it.
It has been my experience that very, very few engineers actually understand business.
Totally true. However don't forget that very very few MBAs actually undersand business. Come to think of it, few people do, and it isn't taught in school at all.
You forget (Or rather you hinted at, but didn't bring out) one important point: All the other students in your class are the same as you - they are smart people who got good grades in high school. You are no longer competing with the "can't spell his favorite word - duh - football player", you are competing with smart people. This is a hard transition. For me I went form the smart guy who didn't nothing and still got good grades to one of the dumber people in class. Unfortunately I didn't have the study skills to make up for it. (I graduated anyway, but I don't mention my GPA)
Now we are judged on our GPA. However an A student in easy classes is judged higher than a C- student in engineering, even though the C- student worked harder, learned more, and is all around smarter. This is a big disconnect in industry.
I have seen homebrew games for the Gameboy. The PSP is a new platform, and most do not have Roms (before this hack) that would allow homebrew games, so it isn't fair to say this won't be used for homebrew games.
Most people use the VCRs ability to make copies of tapes to pirate movies (despite macrovision), but there are home movies that can legally be copies, so this ability is legal. The illegal use is an incidental consequence of legal uses.
While I would consider the argument that after inflation $20 is worth much less today, I disagree that this is a factor.
For all the harm juries do, they are essentially random people from the population, while you get to reject those biased against you. Thus are harder to corrupt. A judge can take bribes, but that only goes so far.
Now most judges are honest enough to do a good job of deciding things (and you can appeal if he doesn't), but there are bad judges. A jury is a good check, it allows the judge to sit back and play the uninterested mediator, even when he does care (the social pressure of his job is to be uninterested so long as there isn't also the pressure of deciding the case)
The system isn't perfect, but so far all the alternatives end up worse.
No, the uncertainty principal does apply. You cannot know exactly where the ball is because you cannot know exactly where each particle in the ball is.
You can however know where the Average position of all the particles in the ball are, with enough precision to make macro predictions on the positions. Those micro uncertainties do effect how the ball moves, but only on a micro level, so long as you don't try to do your macro calculations to extreme precision you can say where the ball is, in a mannor that is close enough for your use. Don't try to get more precise than your instruments are though or your calculations will be way off.
Yes in physics I hated working with frictionless surfaces too.
Sending an email or calling may or may not doing anything useful. However sitting in silence does less.
When you contact your representative you are sending a message that you care and are watching. Odds are you base your next vote in part on his vote. There will always be those are who unhappy, but when a large number of voters speak, it becomes clear to anyone wanting re-election that they had better vote your way, because those who speak up between elections tend to ignore commercials, and also tell people on the street independently who to vote for. This word of mouth is worth more than all the commercials money can buy, and it is free.
The best way is a face to face meeting. These are hard to get though, so most people don't bother. If you do, perpare ahead of time. Watch congress on the floor (you can get this on cable in most areas, if not go to your state government and watch them) Practice with many others, and make sure they play devils advocate (but not all, get some who are just barely awake to nod as if they are listening). If you get 15 minutes make sure you are done in less than 10! Have answers for every possible question prepared and memorized ahead of time. Make sure all your facts are correct, even if it means you have to admit a static that is against your position (One lie will negate your whole message). Have a short handout of facts to present. Design whole thing so that your words can be repeated on the floor in debate - and make every effort to give him credit for your words if that happens (it won't word for word, but you should try to inspire things). Last, but most important: make sure you are impassioned about the whole issue.
For everything else, odds are the representative will not see your words anyway. What is important is staffer collect statistics of each position and send that on. If we litterally slashdotted congress, that message would get across.
Email is the best practical (face to face is not practical) way to contact your representative. It is easy, fast, and can be read at anytime. A sample of emails is sent directly to the representative (generally the better written ones, popular subjects will have the best examples of each sent on - but staffers pick which are sent, so they can choose bad examples if they are against an issue).
Phone calls are taken by staffers, they will pass your word on, but that is it. These are less meaningful because there is the appearance that people can call effort, while written things took some effort.
Physical, hand-written (not typed!) letters used to be best. After the anthrax scares of a few years ago though, letters are routed all over for decontamination before they are opened. There is much danger that the issue will be gone, one way or the other, before your letter is opened.
A Fax is the worst - a fax is a business only tool (by perception voters do not own fax machines). Business do not vote. A business that wants something needs to deal in money, but in accordance with finance laws and ethics. You need to send a message that you represent an actual vote, not money that can influence other voters.
There are two different types of messages: one written by an organization and sent by many (the EFF has a form letter), and ones you write yourself. The form letter will be passed on, with a note that they got n copies of this (so long as many send it, if only a small number send it, this is useless) The hand written note is more valuable though, because if passed on it will be read more thoroughly, and it is more likely t be passed on than a form letter than only a few copies were received.
Most important of all: VOTE based on issues. Don't vote for the nicest person, don't vote for the best looking person. Don't vote for the person who doesn't sweat. Don't vote for the person you want to sleep with. Don't for the person everyone else is voting for. Vote for the person who will pass the laws as you want them passed. Make sure you do you
This has to pass the house and the senate. The either can vote no and kill it. Note that it is close to the no-debate time, which means that most of the debate is over, so you need to move hast. All they can do once this is in no-debate is kill the whole thing, which they don't want to do.
They are killing not just this flag, but also things like Katrina relief. Though I don't know what is in this particular budget, you can bet the MPAA will make sure everyone knows about the popular things that were in it should the whole bill be killed.
A few thousand WiFi towers might suffice for a tiny country like Holland to get high speed internet to everyone. It is however not enough to give just those with ocean front property in the US high speed. (even if you don't count Alaska and Hawaii)
I don't see how installing broadband every home is saving taxpayers billions. I see it costing billions.
Presidents do not have near the power you think. Anything a president does will make something mad - even if it wasn't his fault. (People are mad at Bush for not sending troops to New Orleans, even though he was refused permission to send them!) As a Third party president you will have it harder - the two major parties stick together, and they will both work together to make sure you don't get things done. Whine on CNN, and you will appear as a whiner, not a leader, and not only will you not get anything done, but you will loose the next election.
Don't forget that while you are attacking someone in congress, they are attacking back. People who don't have good social and debate skills don't get elected, so you are dealing with masters of this. (You might be a master, but you are against other masters) Everything you try can backfire on you, and they will be trying to make that happen.
ALL of the pork that the government does is popular with someone. 37% of the budget is Social Security, Midicare, and other retirement. 21% for other social programs. Don't even think about cutting either one, because the retirees vote in enough numbers that no congressmen who wants to be re-elected will touch any plan to cut them. Military is 22%, and no congressmen will touch any cuts here if there is anything military in their state - lest their state be cut. Interest on the debt is 7%, don't touch that if you want the US to survive as a strong country. Physical, human, and community development is 10%, nobody will touch that because some of it goes to their community. 3% is law enforcement and general government, not much to touch here, much of it supports the other above, so this cannot be cut without touching the other programs. (source IRS
If you want me to believe that you will actually cut pork from the budget, then you need to propose specific areas to cut it. All politicians propose to cut pork, because it a good sound bite. When it comes down to it though, someone wants each part. Cut anything significant and you make enough people mad that you don't get elected - you may not care, but congress does.
In short: you are following the same no content formula that all politicians do to get elected. Because you are not doing it as part of a major party you will not be elected - in fact most people will not even know your name until they see it on the ballot form.
No they are not exactly predictable. It is impossible to know exactly where something is and where it is moving at the same time.
Now the AVERAGE is perfectly predictable if you factor in enough variables, but the exact position is not something we can know.
Maybe not, but I (and presumeably they) have known those who have.
You have to be very careful, but people have supported a family on minimum wage. It means you eat a lot of beans and rice (healthy if you are at all careful, but not much variety, or taste). It means your livingroom becomes a bedroom at night. (Fold up bed) It means that you buy your clothes are garrage sales. It means you walk everywhere. It means your entertainment is books from the library (until someone gives you a TV, because you could never buy it)
I wouldn't want to live that life, but it can be done. I've known people who have, and they had plenty of time to do things, so long as what they were doing was cheap.
Sometimes I'm temped to do it myself. I sit at a computer all day. At Taco Bell there would be cute (many underage so be careful) girls who have to talk to me. The fringe benefits are not to be overlooked.
There is a large difference between someone making $15,000/year (just over minimum wage, below the so-called poverty line), and someone making $250,000/year.
If the first person said they were looking for more money at the expense of working conditions (so long as things are safe) it would make perfect sense, because a little more can go directly to minimum quality of life things and pay for itself.
If the second person said they were looking for more, even at the expense of working conditions, they would be insane. They have more money that they need to live.
Everyone wants more money. Some people are in the position where more money would go to toys they want, while others need it to get the basics.
What I do not like about living in the US is how everything "seems" to be centered around materialism; You are what you make. You are your reputation. You are the car you drive. You are the suit you wear. In short. You are not "you".
True, but that is because you allow things to be that way.
My co-workers are convinced that if the engine in my car blows up on the way to work, I find a way to drive it anyway. There are likely right. (Already one cycinder is not running)
I refuse to let my car rules my self image. There are material things I want that I don't need, and I might buy them someday.
Nationwide Broadband Internet Access as part of our national infrastructure, like the highways.
I will also stop government handouts to corporations that already make billions.
Those two goals conflict. Only corporations that already make billions have the ability to roll out nationwide broadband. Unless you want to spend twice as much to have government do it.
Don't forget that you need to work with congress. Most congressmen (from both parties) are interested in getting re-elected, and thus they are more concerned with bringing the pork home to the local billion dollar company(s) that provides jobs in their area. You can either send that pork on, or find that congress overrides your vetoes and the pork isn't cut.
Of course you need to get the vote. I'll be honest: you won't get my vote. I vote libertarian a lot because I'm all for getting rid of the pork, and they might do it while most just talk about it. Your nationwide broadband looks like more pork to me, so I refuse.
There is a satisfaction in being able to see what you did. As a programmer I can't do that. Nobody understands setting a few bits in a SCSI MODE_SENSE command to get some status information. I do it, I enjoy doing it. I never get the satisfaction of seeing it with my own eyes.
Those boring jobs allow you to turn around as you walk out the door every day and say "See, I did that". 1000 cars off the line today, and I touched all of them, or 1000 can stacked neatly on the shelf. You can see it. You can show anyone in the world (minus the blind) what you did, and they will understand. Even a 'primitive native' who has no clue what a car is for can still understand the you built it.