"Open border ideals are delightful when you live far away from the consequences."
As Ronald Reagan said, just vote with your feet. Move to Kansas. Besides just think of the benefits. Kansas has directed its schools to teach creationism rather than evolution, so not only can you be far removed from the problems associated with living too close to the US border, you can be saved from reality as well.
"I realize that this does not really prevent officers from abusing the law but around here we generally look down on police officers breaking the law."
Nonsense. Maricopa County routinely votes for Joe Apario.
Sadly, you are even worse at cost-benefit analysis.
The small 57 mile portion of the high tech fence that has been completed at a cost of nearly 2 billion dollars turns out to cost much more to maintain on an annual basis than anticipated, since the sensors quickly fail because of the high temperatures and the deterioration of being exposed to constant UV and abrasion due to wind blown dust and the very high cost of false alarms. The fence actually costs nearly as much to maintain each 5 years as it did to build. Completing such a fence for the entire 2000 mile plus border with Mexico makes about as much fiscal sense as invading Iraq, which we were told would "pay for itself". There is no "payback", unless of course you are a security contractor or a politician working for one.
They used to call the snowbirds. Now they call them potential profit makers for the private prison industry.
Besides, there's not so much snow anymore and its getting a lot warmer in the upper mid-west. Best to leave Arizona to those who will just love the heat.
Most foreign governments are unsurprisingly enough issuing travel advisories for Arizona.
The scary thing is that Governor Brewer has now just ordered state law enforcement officials to patrol swimming pools, recreational areas and in hotel showers, where people are unlikely to have ID on them at the time of their arrest. That way they can target democrats and only let them out of detention after November.
The safest thing for anyone to do is to avoid Arizona if it is at all possible to do so. Even if you are a US citizen, there is no guarantee that you will not be arrested and detained indefinitely to maximize the profits of the private prison system the governor and her friends are so heavily invested in.
" what's to stop them from simply taping over the camera lens?"
You can be sure that industry lobbyists will insist that those blocking the camera are probably busy pirating video and subject to a lawsuit and prosecution.
You probably won't have a choice. The advertisers and corporations and republicans will demand that all sets be equipped with them to be sure that you are not paling around with terrorists. Turn off the TV and the Hillsborough Baptist Church will picket your house and place you on a pervert list.
That's not the right question. The right question is how will anyone be able to avoid it?
With IPV6 now here, I can see the future now. Rupert Murdoch will appear on the screen of your alarm clock demanding that you must pay him 10% of your income or he's going to deflate the your tires on your car or shut off your refrigerator.
What? You didn't listen to the 7th straight hour of the Sean Hannity Inanity Program? We will be sending you a small jolt of electricity to your remote to cure you of your condition.
Meanwhile, the ditto head will welcome their 150 volts as a sign they are in good standing with the 1%. Dems will get 400 volts.
Habitat destruction was the primary cause of the near extinction of humans and other life forms within a few thousand kilometers of the Toba eruption occurred at what is now Lake Toba about 67,500 to 75,500 years ago. However, the extent of the effect on human populations is controversial as there is little indication of widespread loss of other animal species elsewhere on the planet at that time. With human crowding, a major pandemic would be a distinct possibility.
"That said, we must not let the Plutarchs push the vast majority of humanity off the edge."
I couldn't agree with you more. The real question is whether we will have the luxury of time being on our side. Presently, that does not look to be the case.
In any event, I suspect you meant plutocrats rather than Plutarchs, although I must admit he was from a wealthy Greek family who took Roman citizenship and that there is a certain irony since you are referring to a guy who would become known for being the biographer of Roman emperors, much like the talking heads the 1% employ today. However, I don't think we should hold poor Plutarch responsible for the collapse of the Roman Empire. That was brought about largely through the cumulative effect of bad decisions of the emperors he was writing about. Like republicans typically want to do to stay in power, they eventually created too many enemies.
You seem to think that human fighting will somehow set things right, as if human auto fatalities can be reduced by the driver who is about to hit a brick wall or an on coming truck reaching over at the last minute and slugging the person in the passenger seat.
Nothing in nature is necessarily "self-correcting", although we can all look forward to entropic doom. Clearly, the history of biodiversity on the planet is not one of "self-correction" rather one of extinction and replacement.
Adaptation won't be of much use if our environment begins to shifts into changes that exceed our physiological tolerances. We are only as strong as the weakest link in our food chain. To adjust to new physiological extremes we and the oraganisms that we tend to take for granted but depend upon for our survival will need to evolve and therein lies the problem. Evolutionary change can be rapid on a geological time scale, but it still occurs relatively slowly. We can adapt for a while, species can migrate poleward to a point, but we are changing the planet, in particular our atmosphere and oceans so fast that there won't be enough time for evolution to occur. It took a shift of about 300-340 ppm carbon dioxide to end the ice ages over several millions of years. Humans have raised it from 340 to 400 in about 100 years, so that currently there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at anytime in the last 800,000 years. We can expect to push it toward 425-450 by the end of the century at the current rate and above 500 in another 150 years. That would create a climactic regime that all but the most primitive species have ever experienced and would likely eliminate most populations of higher eucaryotes, although some might continue to survive for a few hundred more years in isolated pockets. Unfortunately, associated warming would probably be enough to force the methane in the last of the permafrosts and the methane in marine methane clathrates into the atsmosphere. Paleontologists studying the great Permian extinction know what happened then: vast blooms of Chlorobiaceae, which generated massive amounts of hydrogen sulfide, wiping out about 96 percent of all species.
Don't get too arrogant. Once one unplugs the internet, we are all only a few nucleotides away from our troglodytic ancestors and we have all the same propensities and human frailties as before. Yes, there have been a tiny few incredibly virtuous thinkers out there, but the vast majority of folks are truly not doing things all that much different from their ancestors, except generating a lot more carbon dioxide per capita in the process.
I think in about 10-20 years time, people will be calling and demanding that those advocating banning birth control and family planing to be executed, since they will have become more dangerous than serial killers.
Forget about it. Humans will never colonize other planets in more than a minor way. They are just too far away to be relevant. Even traveling at twice the speeds of conventional space craft, it would take 40,000 years for a human spaceship to reach the nearest star outside of our solar system.
"Preservation campaigns have successfully spared fishery stocks, forest, wetlands, etc."
This may be true in a few isolated instances, but overall fisheries are still collapsing everywhere and satellite imagery demonstrates that total forest cover and healthy wetlands are continuing to shrink every year.
Slashdot Mirror
"you'll become a god of your own planet"
Sounds as if, despite all that eye of the needle stuff, Larry Ellison may find redemption yet.
"Open border ideals are delightful when you live far away from the consequences."
As Ronald Reagan said, just vote with your feet. Move to Kansas. Besides just think of the benefits. Kansas has directed its schools to teach creationism rather than evolution, so not only can you be far removed from the problems associated with living too close to the US border, you can be saved from reality as well.
"I realize that this does not really prevent officers from abusing the law but around here we generally look down on police officers breaking the law."
Nonsense. Maricopa County routinely votes for Joe Apario.
Being burned alive is what living in Arizona is all about anyway. Only in Arizona do they chant "bring it on", when discussing global warming.
"He who holds monopoly on violence has moral authority."
Obviously, you have been reading Mein Kampf.
"and another headless corpse along the road will not make a difference."
Especially if it is yours.
Sadly, you are even worse at cost-benefit analysis.
The small 57 mile portion of the high tech fence that has been completed at a cost of nearly 2 billion dollars turns out to cost much more to maintain on an annual basis than anticipated, since the sensors quickly fail because of the high temperatures and the deterioration of being exposed to constant UV and abrasion due to wind blown dust and the very high cost of false alarms. The fence actually costs nearly as much to maintain each 5 years as it did to build. Completing such a fence for the entire 2000 mile plus border with Mexico makes about as much fiscal sense as invading Iraq, which we were told would "pay for itself". There is no "payback", unless of course you are a security contractor or a politician working for one.
They used to call the snowbirds. Now they call them potential profit makers for the private prison industry.
Besides, there's not so much snow anymore and its getting a lot warmer in the upper mid-west. Best to leave Arizona to those who will just love the heat.
Most foreign governments are unsurprisingly enough issuing travel advisories for Arizona.
The scary thing is that Governor Brewer has now just ordered state law enforcement officials to patrol swimming pools, recreational areas and in hotel showers, where people are unlikely to have ID on them at the time of their arrest. That way they can target democrats and only let them out of detention after November.
The safest thing for anyone to do is to avoid Arizona if it is at all possible to do so. Even if you are a US citizen, there is no guarantee that you will not be arrested and detained indefinitely to maximize the profits of the private prison system the governor and her friends are so heavily invested in.
You obviously haven't read the republican party platform written for them by the advertising industry.
" what's to stop them from simply taping over the camera lens?"
You can be sure that industry lobbyists will insist that those blocking the camera are probably busy pirating video and subject to a lawsuit and prosecution.
Don't worry there will be a law like in the UK that if you are caught blocking a camera you face jail time.
You probably won't have a choice. The advertisers and corporations and republicans will demand that all sets be equipped with them to be sure that you are not paling around with terrorists. Turn off the TV and the Hillsborough Baptist Church will picket your house and place you on a pervert list.
This is a social conservatives dream. Now they will be able to monitor what goes on in everyone's bedroom.
That's not the right question. The right question is how will anyone be able to avoid it?
With IPV6 now here, I can see the future now. Rupert Murdoch will appear on the screen of your alarm clock demanding that you must pay him 10% of your income or he's going to deflate the your tires on your car or shut off your refrigerator.
What? You didn't listen to the 7th straight hour of the Sean Hannity Inanity Program? We will be sending you a small jolt of electricity to your remote to cure you of your condition.
Meanwhile, the ditto head will welcome their 150 volts as a sign they are in good standing with the 1%. Dems will get 400 volts.
Habitat destruction was the primary cause of the near extinction of humans and other life forms within a few thousand kilometers of the Toba eruption occurred at what is now Lake Toba about 67,500 to 75,500 years ago. However, the extent of the effect on human populations is controversial as there is little indication of widespread loss of other animal species elsewhere on the planet at that time. With human crowding, a major pandemic would be a distinct possibility.
"That said, we must not let the Plutarchs push the vast majority of humanity off the edge."
I couldn't agree with you more. The real question is whether we will have the luxury of time being on our side. Presently, that does not look to be the case.
In any event, I suspect you meant plutocrats rather than Plutarchs, although I must admit he was from a wealthy Greek family who took Roman citizenship and that there is a certain irony since you are referring to a guy who would become known for being the biographer of Roman emperors, much like the talking heads the 1% employ today. However, I don't think we should hold poor Plutarch responsible for the collapse of the Roman Empire. That was brought about largely through the cumulative effect of bad decisions of the emperors he was writing about. Like republicans typically want to do to stay in power, they eventually created too many enemies.
You seem to think that human fighting will somehow set things right, as if human auto fatalities can be reduced by the driver who is about to hit a brick wall or an on coming truck reaching over at the last minute and slugging the person in the passenger seat.
Nothing in nature is necessarily "self-correcting", although we can all look forward to entropic doom. Clearly, the history of biodiversity on the planet is not one of "self-correction" rather one of extinction and replacement.
We do not have power over nature, except to a very limited extent.
I am at a loss to understand your last statement. Exactly, what good is it destroy our natural environment?
Adaptation won't be of much use if our environment begins to shifts into changes that exceed our physiological tolerances. We are only as strong as the weakest link in our food chain. To adjust to new physiological extremes we and the oraganisms that we tend to take for granted but depend upon for our survival will need to evolve and therein lies the problem. Evolutionary change can be rapid on a geological time scale, but it still occurs relatively slowly. We can adapt for a while, species can migrate poleward to a point, but we are changing the planet, in particular our atmosphere and oceans so fast that there won't be enough time for evolution to occur. It took a shift of about 300-340 ppm carbon dioxide to end the ice ages over several millions of years. Humans have raised it from 340 to 400 in about 100 years, so that currently there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at anytime in the last 800,000 years. We can expect to push it toward 425-450 by the end of the century at the current rate and above 500 in another 150 years. That would create a climactic regime that all but the most primitive species have ever experienced and would likely eliminate most populations of higher eucaryotes, although some might continue to survive for a few hundred more years in isolated pockets. Unfortunately, associated warming would probably be enough to force the methane in the last of the permafrosts and the methane in marine methane clathrates into the atsmosphere. Paleontologists studying the great Permian extinction know what happened then: vast blooms of Chlorobiaceae, which generated massive amounts of hydrogen sulfide, wiping out about 96 percent of all species.
Don't get too arrogant. Once one unplugs the internet, we are all only a few nucleotides away from our troglodytic ancestors and we have all the same propensities and human frailties as before. Yes, there have been a tiny few incredibly virtuous thinkers out there, but the vast majority of folks are truly not doing things all that much different from their ancestors, except generating a lot more carbon dioxide per capita in the process.
I think in about 10-20 years time, people will be calling and demanding that those advocating banning birth control and family planing to be executed, since they will have become more dangerous than serial killers.
Forget about it. Humans will never colonize other planets in more than a minor way. They are just too far away to be relevant. Even traveling at twice the speeds of conventional space craft, it would take 40,000 years for a human spaceship to reach the nearest star outside of our solar system.
Hansen's climate models are almost on the money after 30 years, although he was a bit optimistic as to how quickly it is getting hot.
"Preservation campaigns have successfully spared fishery stocks, forest, wetlands, etc."
This may be true in a few isolated instances, but overall fisheries are still collapsing everywhere and satellite imagery demonstrates that total forest cover and healthy wetlands are continuing to shrink every year.