If you had actually checked up on Ann Romney, you would have found out that they had their first child living in a $75 / month apartment while Mitt was finishing up college. Hardly the "million dollar mansion" you suggest. And what has she been doing for the last decade? Fighting cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Without getting into the merits of the 2nd Amendment, let me just point out that no major politician (Republican, Democrat, or otherwise) has proposed to "severely curtail or outright ban" your right to bear arms.
"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out right ban, picking up every one of them... Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here." --U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," 2/5/95
Of course they're fighting for the north if they word it that way. Someone fighting for the south would say "enjoys reenacting the War of Northern Aggression"...;-)
Agreed again, but note that the bill passed the Senate 86-13 and it passed the House 283-136, both of which are over the 2/3rds threshold for overriding a Presidential veto. Therefore a veto would not have been likely to prevent the bill from becoming law; it would simply have given Republicans a fresh club to beat the President with ("vetoed critical funding for Our Troops", "soft on terrorism", yada yada).
The reason iOS devices don't need anti-malware solutions is because all of the programs that run on that platform are from a secure and curated Apple App Store.
You know, we can make all computer systems secure by forcing people to only get software that has been screened by the government. And we can eliminate all sources of terrorist communication by forcing all telephone calls, email, letters, etc, to go through government "approval" censors. And we can eliminate fraud in the banking system by only allowing transactions that are pre-approved by the government. And we can improve car safety by only allowing people to buy cars supplied by the government.
It's one thing to breed plants and mess with pollen and steer nature in a direction; it's another to start messing with genes and DNA and putting things in them that is impossible to happen in nature.
Viruses manage to inject DNA originally from one species into another all the time. It's thought that about 8% of human DNA has been injected into our systems from foreign by historical viral outbreaks, and then passed on to children. It's one of the ways our immune system passes on immunity.
I like you say "the old and the poor" are not the largest share, then proceed to "prove" it by showing a chart that leaves nearly all of "the old and the poor" spending off and conclude that something else is the majority of spending. Look at the total budget, including entitlements (which are left off your chart), and you'll see that defense is like 18% of the budget, and "the old and the poor" are about 38% of the budget. Add in servicing the public debt to the latter figure (because servicing the public debt is largely servicing the "Social Security Trust Fund") and you're talking about over half the federal budget.
Did you take into account the various credits and deductions? My daughter earned about $6k last year working part time. She had a total of about $100 taken out through the year for federal income tax (plus SS and FICA). She got a refund at the end of the year of nearly $700 - yes, she got refunded more than she paid in, due mostly to the EIC and other credits.
I thought it was fairly well known that approximately 47% of US families pay no - that's 0, zippo, nothing - in Federal income tax. Per the IRS.
The Republicans couldn't have timed it better. Pillage the economy, let it fail just before the Democrats take office, and two years later when the Dems have halted and begun reversal of the worst economic disaster of all time, the Republicans come in, blaming the Democrats.
Err, the Democrats took over *4* years ago, not 2. They had complete control of the legislature (and hence the budget process) in 2006, only adding the executive in 2008.
Walmart prices are not dependent on insurance - they charge $4 per 30 day supply whether or not you're insured. Most insurance coverage has a higher copay for prescriptions than $4 anyway, so insurance won't ever kick in.
Thyroid medicine at Walmart or Walgreens - $4 for a 30 day supply. This is also true of MANY common medications, including nearly all that are commonly prescribed for diabetes, hypo/hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, etc.
Minnesota Supreme Court Strikes Down Red Light Cameras The Minnesota Supreme Court delivers a unanimous decision striking down the legality of red light cameras.
Minnesota Supreme CourtThe Minnesota Supreme Court today delivered the highest-level court rebuke to photo enforcement to date with a unanimous decision against the Minneapolis red light camera program. The high court upheld last September's Court of Appeals decision that found the city's program had violated state law (read opinion).
The supreme court found that Minneapolis had disregarded a state law imposing uniformity of traffic laws across the state. The city's photo ticket program offered the accused fewer due process protections than available to motorists prosecuted for the same offense in the conventional way after having been pulled over by a policeman. The court argued that Minneapolis had, in effect, created a new type of crime: "owner liability for red-light violations where the owner neither required nor knowingly permitted the violation."
"We emphasized in Duffy that a driver must be able to travel throughout the state without the risk of violating an ordinance with which he is not familiar," the court wrote. "The same concerns apply to owners. But taking the state's argument to its logical conclusion, a city could extend liability to owners for any number of traffic offenses as to which the Act places liability only on drivers. Allowing each municipality to impose different liabilities would render the Act's uniformity requirement meaningless. Such a result demonstrates that [the Minneapolis ordinance] conflicts with state law."
The court also struck down the "rebutable presumption" doctrine that lies at the heart of every civil photo enforcement ordinance across the country.
"The problem with the presumption that the owner was the driver is that it eliminates the presumption of innocence and shifts the burden of proof from that required by the rules of criminal procedure," the court concluded. "Therefore the ordinance provides less procedural protection to a person charged with an ordinance violation than is provided to a person charged with a violation of the Act. Accordingly, the ordinance conflicts with the Act and is invalid."
Europe has similar problems - it's just that the laws vary by country.
Remember, most of our states are as large, if not larger, than European countries.
The laws are fairly consistent, however. Especially traffic laws - for instance, we all drive on the same side of the road - we don't need a special intersection at the end of the tunnel to move cars into the correct side of the road. Most of the differences are posted on signs as you cross the state borders.
The tickets do have multiple images. Usually at least two showing the vehicle was before the line after the light turned red, and another showing the vehicle in the intersection afterward. Sometimes there are three. Also, they will have a closeup of the license plate, and sometimes a closeup of the driver's face (depending on how the system was setup for that intersection).
Many more uses of firearms for self-defense never involve a discharge of the firearm. Merely brandishing the firearm is usually enough to defuse the situation. Does the study you mention include the use of firearms for self defense when the firearm was never discharged?
Name one other context where the authorities take fingerprints. Hm? Kinda hard, isn't it? Or maybe your standards are just way too low for your own good.
Not hard at all. Security clearances for many jobs. Any position of trust (teachers, security guards, etc) requires fingerprints. Any position within the US government requires fingerprints. Many states require them for firearms purchases.
I have found that asking them how antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria have come about so quickly usually shuts them up.
I must deal with more up to date creationists than you. They believe in natural selection, but evolution requires speciation events, which they don't believe in. Good thing that several of those have been documented (one was just published last week or so...).
Say you're witnessing a crime from your comfy couch and decide to take a picture and post it on the interwebs for... I dunno, "teh lulz" or because you want to become anonyfamous in some CNN iReport or who cares. Now, nothing in the picture itself identifies you or where it was shot.
But then the EXIF data comes in and gives the perp, or his buddies, the exact location from where the picture was taken. Next thing you know, your house/its occupants are a target.
If the perp isn't smart enough to figure from the picture alone where you were when you took it - he was there after all, and just needs to go back and look around, matching the scene to the background of the photo - then he's probably not smart enough to use the EXIF data, either. Or even know about it.
Slashdot Mirror
If you had actually checked up on Ann Romney, you would have found out that they had their first child living in a $75 / month apartment while Mitt was finishing up college. Hardly the "million dollar mansion" you suggest. And what has she been doing for the last decade? Fighting cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Guess you never heard of insurance deductibles.
I would send you our justices (who went the other way and made camera enforcement illegal) but we still need 'em.
There is no point where speeding only a little or for a purpose is legal.
In Minnesota, speeding by up to 10 mph over the limit is legal while passing.
Without getting into the merits of the 2nd Amendment, let me just point out that no major politician (Republican, Democrat, or otherwise) has proposed to "severely curtail or outright ban" your right to bear arms.
"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out right ban, picking up every one of them... Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in, I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here."
--U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," 2/5/95
But what if they're fighting for the North?
Of course they're fighting for the north if they word it that way. Someone fighting for the south would say "enjoys reenacting the War of Northern Aggression"... ;-)
Agreed again, but note that the bill passed the Senate 86-13 and it passed the House 283-136, both of which are over the 2/3rds threshold for overriding a Presidential veto. Therefore a veto would not have been likely to prevent the bill from becoming law; it would simply have given Republicans a fresh club to beat the President with ("vetoed critical funding for Our Troops", "soft on terrorism", yada yada).
Then let them override the veto.
The reason iOS devices don't need anti-malware solutions is because all of the programs that run on that platform are from a secure and curated Apple App Store.
You know, we can make all computer systems secure by forcing people to only get software that has been screened by the government. And we can eliminate all sources of terrorist communication by forcing all telephone calls, email, letters, etc, to go through government "approval" censors. And we can eliminate fraud in the banking system by only allowing transactions that are pre-approved by the government. And we can improve car safety by only allowing people to buy cars supplied by the government.
And I wouldn't want to live in that world.
But Mendel never cross bred a pea with a firefly.
It's one thing to breed plants and mess with pollen and steer nature in a direction; it's another to start messing with genes and DNA and putting things in them that is impossible to happen in nature.
Viruses manage to inject DNA originally from one species into another all the time. It's thought that about 8% of human DNA has been injected into our systems from foreign by historical viral outbreaks, and then passed on to children. It's one of the ways our immune system passes on immunity.
I like you say "the old and the poor" are not the largest share, then proceed to "prove" it by showing a chart that leaves nearly all of "the old and the poor" spending off and conclude that something else is the majority of spending. Look at the total budget, including entitlements (which are left off your chart), and you'll see that defense is like 18% of the budget, and "the old and the poor" are about 38% of the budget. Add in servicing the public debt to the latter figure (because servicing the public debt is largely servicing the "Social Security Trust Fund") and you're talking about over half the federal budget.
http://is.gd/xImQWK
Did you take into account the various credits and deductions? My daughter earned about $6k last year working part time. She had a total of about $100 taken out through the year for federal income tax (plus SS and FICA). She got a refund at the end of the year of nearly $700 - yes, she got refunded more than she paid in, due mostly to the EIC and other credits.
I thought it was fairly well known that approximately 47% of US families pay no - that's 0, zippo, nothing - in Federal income tax. Per the IRS.
The Republicans couldn't have timed it better. Pillage the economy, let it fail just before the Democrats take office, and two years later when the Dems have halted and begun reversal of the worst economic disaster of all time, the Republicans come in, blaming the Democrats.
Err, the Democrats took over *4* years ago, not 2. They had complete control of the legislature (and hence the budget process) in 2006, only adding the executive in 2008.
Walmart prices are not dependent on insurance - they charge $4 per 30 day supply whether or not you're insured. Most insurance coverage has a higher copay for prescriptions than $4 anyway, so insurance won't ever kick in.
For you maybe. People in my pay range ($70-95K) are looking at Federal tax increases of over $2,000. Might be chump change to you, but not to me.
Thyroid medicine at Walmart or Walgreens - $4 for a 30 day supply. This is also true of MANY common medications, including nearly all that are commonly prescribed for diabetes, hypo/hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, etc.
Minnesota Supreme Court Strikes Down Red Light Cameras
The Minnesota Supreme Court delivers a unanimous decision striking down the legality of red light cameras.
Minnesota Supreme CourtThe Minnesota Supreme Court today delivered the highest-level court rebuke to photo enforcement to date with a unanimous decision against the Minneapolis red light camera program. The high court upheld last September's Court of Appeals decision that found the city's program had violated state law (read opinion).
The supreme court found that Minneapolis had disregarded a state law imposing uniformity of traffic laws across the state. The city's photo ticket program offered the accused fewer due process protections than available to motorists prosecuted for the same offense in the conventional way after having been pulled over by a policeman. The court argued that Minneapolis had, in effect, created a new type of crime: "owner liability for red-light violations where the owner neither required nor knowingly permitted the violation."
"We emphasized in Duffy that a driver must be able to travel throughout the state without the risk of violating an ordinance with which he is not familiar," the court wrote. "The same concerns apply to owners. But taking the state's argument to its logical conclusion, a city could extend liability to owners for any number of traffic offenses as to which the Act places liability only on drivers. Allowing each municipality to impose different liabilities would render the Act's uniformity requirement meaningless. Such a result demonstrates that [the Minneapolis ordinance] conflicts with state law."
The court also struck down the "rebutable presumption" doctrine that lies at the heart of every civil photo enforcement ordinance across the country.
"The problem with the presumption that the owner was the driver is that it eliminates the presumption of innocence and shifts the burden of proof from that required by the rules of criminal procedure," the court concluded. "Therefore the ordinance provides less procedural protection to a person charged with an ordinance violation than is provided to a person charged with a violation of the Act. Accordingly, the ordinance conflicts with the Act and is invalid."
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/16/1688.asp
Europe has similar problems - it's just that the laws vary by country.
Remember, most of our states are as large, if not larger, than European countries.
The laws are fairly consistent, however. Especially traffic laws - for instance, we all drive on the same side of the road - we don't need a special intersection at the end of the tunnel to move cars into the correct side of the road. Most of the differences are posted on signs as you cross the state borders.
The tickets do have multiple images. Usually at least two showing the vehicle was before the line after the light turned red, and another showing the vehicle in the intersection afterward. Sometimes there are three. Also, they will have a closeup of the license plate, and sometimes a closeup of the driver's face (depending on how the system was setup for that intersection).
Here is a sample from Texas: http://www.ci.irving.tx.us/public-works/images/red-light-five.jpg
And then letting the Saudi Royal Family be rounded up and fly home during the no-fly period after 9/11 including some relatives of Bin-Laden.
Urban legend: Their plane did not fly until after the no-fly period was lifted.
Many more uses of firearms for self-defense never involve a discharge of the firearm. Merely brandishing the firearm is usually enough to defuse the situation. Does the study you mention include the use of firearms for self defense when the firearm was never discharged?
Name one other context where the authorities take fingerprints. Hm? Kinda hard, isn't it? Or maybe your standards are just way too low for your own good.
Not hard at all. Security clearances for many jobs. Any position of trust (teachers, security guards, etc) requires fingerprints. Any position within the US government requires fingerprints. Many states require them for firearms purchases.
Shall I go on?
I hope so. A 3TB dataset on Amazon S3 would run $450 / month for storage.
What a waste of societies' resources to turn 1.5 tons of food into 100 pounds of food.
Except that most of what cattle eat is inedible for humans. When was the last time you survived on corn stalks, husks, hay, and assorted grass?
Cattle turn stuff that humans cannot eat into something that humans can eat - beef.
I have found that asking them how antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria have come about so quickly usually shuts them up.
I must deal with more up to date creationists than you. They believe in natural selection, but evolution requires speciation events, which they don't believe in. Good thing that several of those have been documented (one was just published last week or so...).
Lies was a great book, BTW.
Say you're witnessing a crime from your comfy couch and decide to take a picture and post it on the interwebs for... I dunno, "teh lulz" or because you want to become anonyfamous in some CNN iReport or who cares.
Now, nothing in the picture itself identifies you or where it was shot.
But then the EXIF data comes in and gives the perp, or his buddies, the exact location from where the picture was taken. Next thing you know, your house/its occupants are a target.
If the perp isn't smart enough to figure from the picture alone where you were when you took it - he was there after all, and just needs to go back and look around, matching the scene to the background of the photo - then he's probably not smart enough to use the EXIF data, either. Or even know about it.