"He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players (ie everyone), to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time."
With apologies to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
It is so very wrong that such a broad-ranging law could be open to any sort of interpretation at all. Might as well make the first part explicitly state "This is a huge power grab. If we decide we don't like you, kiss your ass goodbye."
The funniest part about people referring to McCarthyism is that they do not seem to be aware that the people who actually did the things that are considered the abuses of "McCarthyism" were Democrats.
Do we really need the petty partisan politics here? He was a paranoid wingnut who very nearly did a lot of damage to the country. Does it really matter what side of the fence he started on if he was so far around the bend that he couldn't see sanity on a clear day?
How about altering the penalties for DUI and reckless/careless driving, and speeding based upon the weight or dangerousness of the vehicle you are driving? Something like 10 cents/pound or something. Why should someone drunk on a moped who is likely only going to hurt himself face the same penalty as someone driving a dump truck while drunk?
Because the 18-wheeler who's trying to avoid flattening the drunken moped driver could cause a 50-car pileup and kill multiple people. It's not always about what you hit. Sometimes, it's about what happens to those trying to avoid you.
Insurance companies are not charities, they do not exist to support the indigent and the sick. They can only function if people pay premiums in before getting money back out.
To be honest, insurance companies also work because they'll use any excuse to deny a claim, even the most obscure technicality. And with some types of insurance (such as car insurance in Canada), if you have the gall to submit a claim, your premiums might go up! They don't care that your previous premiums might have paid for your claim ten times over. They want maximum input with (ideally) no output.
Average American Income: $43,762 (US Census Bureau)
Average Chinese Income: $2,025 (WorldBank)
Is this adjusted for cost of living? Income values are meaningless unless you know the relative costs of equivalent standards of living between the two countries.
Isn't a part of gun training (for cops and soldiers, at least) the idea that you never, ever point your gun at someone unless you're prepared to shoot them down?
I'm sure many foreigners might jump on in disagreement if they look at how it was passed. There wasn't enough time to read and comprehend the bill before the vote. One senator was called out for saying you need 2 days and 2 lawyers just to read and understand the bill, and somehow that was not an expense he found acceptable before voting for it. Another said we won't know what's in the bill until after it passes which seemed ok for them but isn't for the people. We elect and pay politicians to create legislation, not rubber stamp someone else' crap and spend the next 2 months wondering what they made into law. The debate on the bill was very little if any- it almost seemed as if some in the government was afraid that if the public knew what was in the bill, they wouldn't like it(which turned out to be a reality).
I'm confused. Are we talking about the USAPATRIOT Act all of a sudden? Because that sounds exactly like what happened a bunch of times after 9/11. Where the hell was all this outrage when they were taking your rights away after 9/11?
Won't work. The opposition are a bunch of pussies.
There, fixed it for you.
It's been clear for a while that the Liberals won't vote against anything for fear of having another election. That pretty much gives Harper a de facto majority government.
Do those statistics include goods manufactured outside the US by US companies, using local labour? It seems disingenuous to tout the value of the US manufacturing sector if it only profits its owners and workers in foreign countries.
Sure, rehabilitation might prevent future crimes by the same offenders, but some of us think prison should be more about punishment instead of rehabilitation. If prison was an extremely hard punishment, to the point that people were actively scared of going, it would deter more people from committing crimes in the first place.
Or make them more likely to make sure there are no witnesses...
The 4th amendment does not apply. As with every other country, the US considers domestic law to only apply when you are inside the country. If you have not yet cleared customs, you are technically not in the country. Therefore, you do not benefit from the protections of domestic law. This may seem like quibbling, but it is how every country controls its borders.
Are you then protected by the domestic laws of the country you're leaving, or have you entered some sort of fairy tale (the bad ones with blood and nightmares) limbo place where you have no rights whatsoever? I wonder what other rights they can ignore under the pretext that you're "not in the country yet".
A lot of the world is also *against* you as I discovered after I walked in a Tea Party protest. I thought it was common sense - The current national debt is $120,000 per home, projected to be $200,000 by 2016, and yet the Congress is still spending money like mad. It needs to stop.
But no. Instead I was called an "astroturfer" which is wrong because I don't get paid. Then I was labeled a "racist" but that's also not true; and frankly insulting. Even if Hillary was president or McCain president, I'd still protest because I see us spending ourselves into a hole that we'll never escape. Common sense position? Apparently not; some Americans want the debt to climb to ~$200,000 per home.
"More of the world is with you than you think," is only half the story.
A lot of the world is against you, and they want MORE government control, not less
They want censorship. They want the Patriot Act. They want more spending.
Oh yes. *Now* the debt is a problem. Where the hell were the Tea Party people when the US was entering into a grossly expensive and unnecessary war while cutting taxes? That. there, is why the Tea Party people are being called astroturfers: because they seem to have sprung up from nowhere to protest budgetary policies as if the debt was the current administration's fault.
Here's an idea for you: Stop trying to make the world better for your corporations at gunpoint, and take care of your population. If you cut the army's budget and put that into health care, you'd be set. But noooooo! Guns and tanks, and more precisely the companies that make them, are a lot more important than actual people.
But I strongly suspect that the kids who have gone off the deep end have been more effective killers because they have trained extensively on killing simulators (ie., violent video games).
Or maybe it's because they're shooting at contained and essentially helpless crowds with automatic or semi-automatic weapons? That's pretty much fish-in-a-barrel territory. Even my mom could be an "effective killer" under those circumstances, and she's never played a video game more elaborate than Solitaire.
Quebecois, on the other hand, I've always found to have a holier-than-thou attitude, particularly where language is concerned and English is something akin to scum on the bottom of their shoe.
Wow, you've spoken to all of us? Must have taken years.
Sarcasm aside, there's a lot of people in Quebec that see learning English as opening up to the rest of Canada and the world. I've discovered a whole bunch of things by picking up English that I wouldn't have (or would have, but much later) by sticking with French alone.
It`s not like finding entertainment in the language of your choice is all that hard in Quebec. I've lived here for all but 5 years of my life, and I've never had any issues with finding a given book or catching a movie in the original English or French.
How does one "sneak" a patent anywhere? Aren't they, by definition, visible by anyone? While I agree that Rambus has been a rat bastard about this, it also sounds like some people just didn't do their research.
I prefer not to feed the trolls, but this is a meme that I see more and more on here.
Where are you going to exile your violent offenders to? What makes you think anyone else wants to deal with those people you have deemed too far gone to be redeemed?
Slashdot Mirror
Might fly.... Only if you throw them hard enough.
Pull!
Look at North Korea.
I can't. Google Maps won't show me anything but a blank map.
God does not play dice.
"He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players (ie everyone), to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time."
With apologies to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
It is so very wrong that such a broad-ranging law could be open to any sort of interpretation at all. Might as well make the first part explicitly state "This is a huge power grab. If we decide we don't like you, kiss your ass goodbye."
The funniest part about people referring to McCarthyism is that they do not seem to be aware that the people who actually did the things that are considered the abuses of "McCarthyism" were Democrats.
Do we really need the petty partisan politics here? He was a paranoid wingnut who very nearly did a lot of damage to the country. Does it really matter what side of the fence he started on if he was so far around the bend that he couldn't see sanity on a clear day?
What 'things?' There's no requirement for NASA to spend tax dollars to placating morons.
Well, they do have to keep Congress happy.
I don't know about that. Do you really want them to start modeling all of their officers after Detritus, Nobby and Fred Colon?
How about altering the penalties for DUI and reckless/careless driving, and speeding based upon the weight or dangerousness of the vehicle you are driving? Something like 10 cents/pound or something. Why should someone drunk on a moped who is likely only going to hurt himself face the same penalty as someone driving a dump truck while drunk?
Because the 18-wheeler who's trying to avoid flattening the drunken moped driver could cause a 50-car pileup and kill multiple people. It's not always about what you hit. Sometimes, it's about what happens to those trying to avoid you.
Insurance companies are not charities, they do not exist to support the indigent and the sick. They can only function if people pay premiums in before getting money back out.
To be honest, insurance companies also work because they'll use any excuse to deny a claim, even the most obscure technicality. And with some types of insurance (such as car insurance in Canada), if you have the gall to submit a claim, your premiums might go up! They don't care that your previous premiums might have paid for your claim ten times over. They want maximum input with (ideally) no output.
Average American Income: $43,762 (US Census Bureau) Average Chinese Income: $2,025 (WorldBank)
Is this adjusted for cost of living? Income values are meaningless unless you know the relative costs of equivalent standards of living between the two countries.
Isn't a part of gun training (for cops and soldiers, at least) the idea that you never, ever point your gun at someone unless you're prepared to shoot them down?
I'm sure many foreigners might jump on in disagreement if they look at how it was passed. There wasn't enough time to read and comprehend the bill before the vote. One senator was called out for saying you need 2 days and 2 lawyers just to read and understand the bill, and somehow that was not an expense he found acceptable before voting for it. Another said we won't know what's in the bill until after it passes which seemed ok for them but isn't for the people. We elect and pay politicians to create legislation, not rubber stamp someone else' crap and spend the next 2 months wondering what they made into law. The debate on the bill was very little if any- it almost seemed as if some in the government was afraid that if the public knew what was in the bill, they wouldn't like it(which turned out to be a reality).
I'm confused. Are we talking about the USAPATRIOT Act all of a sudden? Because that sounds exactly like what happened a bunch of times after 9/11. Where the hell was all this outrage when they were taking your rights away after 9/11?
Won't work. The opposition are a bunch of pussies.
There, fixed it for you. It's been clear for a while that the Liberals won't vote against anything for fear of having another election. That pretty much gives Harper a de facto majority government.
Do those statistics include goods manufactured outside the US by US companies, using local labour? It seems disingenuous to tout the value of the US manufacturing sector if it only profits its owners and workers in foreign countries.
The stated goals of prisons are to rehabilitate,
Sure, rehabilitation might prevent future crimes by the same offenders, but some of us think prison should be more about punishment instead of rehabilitation. If prison was an extremely hard punishment, to the point that people were actively scared of going, it would deter more people from committing crimes in the first place.
Or make them more likely to make sure there are no witnesses...
The 4th amendment does not apply. As with every other country, the US considers domestic law to only apply when you are inside the country. If you have not yet cleared customs, you are technically not in the country. Therefore, you do not benefit from the protections of domestic law. This may seem like quibbling, but it is how every country controls its borders.
Are you then protected by the domestic laws of the country you're leaving, or have you entered some sort of fairy tale (the bad ones with blood and nightmares) limbo place where you have no rights whatsoever? I wonder what other rights they can ignore under the pretext that you're "not in the country yet".
A lot of the world is also *against* you as I discovered after I walked in a Tea Party protest. I thought it was common sense - The current national debt is $120,000 per home, projected to be $200,000 by 2016, and yet the Congress is still spending money like mad. It needs to stop.
But no. Instead I was called an "astroturfer" which is wrong because I don't get paid. Then I was labeled a "racist" but that's also not true; and frankly insulting. Even if Hillary was president or McCain president, I'd still protest because I see us spending ourselves into a hole that we'll never escape. Common sense position? Apparently not; some Americans want the debt to climb to ~$200,000 per home.
"More of the world is with you than you think," is only half the story. A lot of the world is against you, and they want MORE government control, not less They want censorship. They want the Patriot Act. They want more spending.
Oh yes. *Now* the debt is a problem. Where the hell were the Tea Party people when the US was entering into a grossly expensive and unnecessary war while cutting taxes? That. there, is why the Tea Party people are being called astroturfers: because they seem to have sprung up from nowhere to protest budgetary policies as if the debt was the current administration's fault.
Here's an idea for you: Stop trying to make the world better for your corporations at gunpoint, and take care of your population. If you cut the army's budget and put that into health care, you'd be set. But noooooo! Guns and tanks, and more precisely the companies that make them, are a lot more important than actual people.
But I strongly suspect that the kids who have gone off the deep end have been more effective killers because they have trained extensively on killing simulators (ie., violent video games).
Or maybe it's because they're shooting at contained and essentially helpless crowds with automatic or semi-automatic weapons? That's pretty much fish-in-a-barrel territory. Even my mom could be an "effective killer" under those circumstances, and she's never played a video game more elaborate than Solitaire.
Quebecois, on the other hand, I've always found to have a holier-than-thou attitude, particularly where language is concerned and English is something akin to scum on the bottom of their shoe.
Wow, you've spoken to all of us? Must have taken years.
Sarcasm aside, there's a lot of people in Quebec that see learning English as opening up to the rest of Canada and the world. I've discovered a whole bunch of things by picking up English that I wouldn't have (or would have, but much later) by sticking with French alone.
It`s not like finding entertainment in the language of your choice is all that hard in Quebec. I've lived here for all but 5 years of my life, and I've never had any issues with finding a given book or catching a movie in the original English or French.
Hmmm... And I thought the Pak Protector stage hit a bit later in life...
That's interesting, because I've lived here all my life and what you're describing is a pretty small minority.
Have you considered that you might be an asshole magnet? Perhaps that's why you're posting anonymously?
How does one "sneak" a patent anywhere? Aren't they, by definition, visible by anyone? While I agree that Rambus has been a rat bastard about this, it also sounds like some people just didn't do their research.
I prefer not to feed the trolls, but this is a meme that I see more and more on here.
Where are you going to exile your violent offenders to? What makes you think anyone else wants to deal with those people you have deemed too far gone to be redeemed?
Damn, my moderation points ran out yesterday. Mod parent up!