A "choice" implies a meaningful distinction other than just a name. They're both sides of a 2-dimensional, tyrannical coin right now.
If a non-Libertarian party were to convert or be infiltrated to create a party majority with libertarian beliefs, then there would be a meaningful distinction between parties, of tyrants vs liberators.
Yeah, I should have put "choice" in quotes. I don't believe the parties are very distinguishable. |
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It baffles me how a 'republican' state like Florida allows the passage of a law making private charity to the homeless illegal, but republicans are constantly up in arms about the government giving handouts to poor people and how the poor are just leeches on the productive members of society. If private charities want to help people, don't make it illegal.
This law is bullshit.
It baffles me how you immediately turn this into something political. The article says the people violated a city ordinance which "bans the public sharing of food." Is this a passive-aggressive way of stopping people from feeding the homeless? Maybe. But it has nothing to do with Republicans, especially considering the mayor of Ft. Lauderdale is a Democrat (not to mention one who opposes same-sex marriage... Uh Oh! http://www.browardbeat.com/fort-lauderdale-mayor-harmed-by-anti-lgbt-vote/). Can't share food in public, what do you think this sis, a free country? if you think this ordinance is about sharing food and not criminalizing homelessness, you're a bit naive not to see the politics of it.  |
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When bitcoins are loaned by their miners with interest to be paid in bitcoins, they will find their bottom—both ethically and monetarily.
What's wrong with loaning bitcoins? Loans have been around for as long as there was money. No reason to think the rise of bitcoin would end the demand for loans. |
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Obama Flashback: ‘If you don’t like my policies, go out there and win an election.’The following clip is from October 17, 2013. The government shutdown, during which Obama’s government had locked veterans out of their own memorials and shut down self-sufficient businesses in national parks, had just ended. President Obama reacted by challenging his opponents to win elections. And we responded: Challenge accepted! The 2014 midterms saw Republicans capture the Senate, take over the entire government of the state of Nevada, and sweep Democrats out of state legislatures across the country. The GOP victory is so sweeping that it may damage Democrats for years, even decades, to come — according to the leftists at Vox. On October 17, 2013, President Obama said: “You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That’s not being faithful to what this country’s about.” Obama’s threat to carry out a unilateral amnesty for millions of illegal aliens threatens the system that he claimed to defend just over a year ago. And he is well aware of that. http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/11/06/obama-flashback-if-you-dont-like-my-policies-go-out-there-and-win-an-election/ I guess they did that. Too bad Republicans are the only other choice. |
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When you buy a loaf of bread it's guaranteed to have either mouse droppings or urine in it.
Guaranteed? Gee, they should put that on the packaging. |
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Oh Vatican. Your comments are insensitive and devoid of the compassion you pretend your god is about. You're so blinded by your fanatical devotion to your dogma that you refuse to make exceptions for people who are suffering. Remember folks, be a good christian and suffer in silence. And don't forget to pay your tithe. VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican bioethics official on Tuesday condemned the death by assisted suicide of American Brittany Maynard, a terminally ill 29-year-old who ended her life over the weekend, as an undignified "absurdity".
"This woman (took her own life) thinking she would die with dignity, but this is the error," Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told the Italian news agency Ansa.
"Suicide is not a good thing. It is a bad thing because it is saying no to life and to everything it means with respect to our mission in the world and towards those around us," the head of the Vatican think tank on life issues said in a report on the Ansa website.
He described assisted suicide as "an absurdity".
Maynard, who was diagnosed in January with a brain tumor and had announced plans to take medication to die when her pain became unbearable, had become the face of the right-to-die movement ahead of her death this weekend.
The group Compassion & Choices, an Oregon-based nonprofit that assisted the young woman through her end of life, said on Sunday that she had passed away surrounded by friends and family.
The Roman Catholic Church opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide, teaching that life starts at the moment of conception and should end at the moment of natural death.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Angus MacSwan) The Church has always condemed suicide, it is a tough thing and not one person is right or wrong on this. Blowing this out of porportion and mocking a religion is not the way to oppose this. Just because the church has always condemned something doesn't mean it's correct, it just means it's consistent. The church used to condemn people who argued that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Had they stayed consistent, it wouldn't make them correct. The offense here is the church's claim over yourself and expecting someone to suffer by claiming they cannot end their own life with dignity. That's an offensive and arrogant claim. I admit I took a mocking tone, but I'm unconvinced it was not warranted. |
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You know why the country is so messed up? Because both republicans and democrats know you don't have a choice.
No wonder the two party system can't be broken. You're too busy celebrating your small "victories" rather than demanding better options.
I took two parts of your quote a little out of context, but I just wanted to put them side by side for emphasis. |
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http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/05/feeding-homeless-arrests/18529709/TL;DR A 90-year-old man who runs a non-profit dedicated to helping homeless people was arrested in Fort Lauderdale for violating a new ordinance that makes giving food to homeless people illegal. He faces 6 months in prison and a $500 fine. It baffles me how a 'republican' state like Florida allows the passage of a law making private charity to the homeless illegal, but republicans are constantly up in arms about the government giving handouts to poor people and how the poor are just leeches on the productive members of society. If private charities want to help people, don't make it illegal. This law is bullshit.
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I don't see how replacing democrats with republicans can be considered a good thing, they are two cheeks of the same backside that both sell their principles (or lack thereof) to the highest bidder.
I rather have a republican slower moving destructive steam locomotive train than a democrat high speed destructive bullet train controlled by an analphabet engineer... I'd rather not have the train derailing in the first place. People celebrating the 'republican victory' today are part of the problem. The lesser evil is still evil. Stop voting for evil. |
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Oh Vatican. Your comments are insensitive and devoid of the compassion you pretend your god is about. You're so blinded by your fanatical devotion to your dogma that you refuse to make exceptions for people who are suffering. Remember folks, be a good christian and suffer in silence. And don't forget to pay your tithe. VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Vatican bioethics official on Tuesday condemned the death by assisted suicide of American Brittany Maynard, a terminally ill 29-year-old who ended her life over the weekend, as an undignified "absurdity".
"This woman (took her own life) thinking she would die with dignity, but this is the error," Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told the Italian news agency Ansa.
"Suicide is not a good thing. It is a bad thing because it is saying no to life and to everything it means with respect to our mission in the world and towards those around us," the head of the Vatican think tank on life issues said in a report on the Ansa website.
He described assisted suicide as "an absurdity".
Maynard, who was diagnosed in January with a brain tumor and had announced plans to take medication to die when her pain became unbearable, had become the face of the right-to-die movement ahead of her death this weekend.
The group Compassion & Choices, an Oregon-based nonprofit that assisted the young woman through her end of life, said on Sunday that she had passed away surrounded by friends and family.
The Roman Catholic Church opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide, teaching that life starts at the moment of conception and should end at the moment of natural death.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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The Nobel Prize winner will fix it....
Obama's nobel prize was actually revoked. Wth, no it wasn't.  |
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Using your own argument, that would mean that 'god the father' could not exist since he would first need to make the universe and then his son (to be a father). Regardless, I can equally assert that spaghetti exists only because the FSM created it in his own image, the same way christians insist they are created in god's image. No more contradiction. Bottom line is, that when it comes to god, there's no (scientific) way to (prove or) disprove it's existance, regardless of which god(s) your are talking about, which is the whole premise behind Russell's teapot. (Just for sake of argument, you cannot view the entire solar system through the Hubble telescope at once, nevermind a teapot god that may wish to remain undiscovered.)
With all due respect, this discussion only digressed somewhat to semantics since you were implying these terms mean something they do not. I am not arbitrarily saying anything and have already linked sources to the validity my assertions. If you insist you can arbitrarily give words their meanings, then I suppose I have nothing left say.
I'm hardly arbitrarily giving words meaning when I quote the definition of 'god' from a dictionary reference and then apply that definition in context. But, then again, I'm not attempting to prove the existence of God, I'm simply arguing that the FSM is a bad analogy. It's a bad analogy specifically because analogies only work if the characteristics of the things being compared are similar. Am I missing the point of the analogy? I thought these things were always brought up in the same abstract vein; that is, you can't prove god exists any more than you can disprove there is a teapot/FSM/whatever-else. The analogy isn't about which mythical creature exists or what properties and powers it may or may not have, it's about the existence of mythical creatures period. From this view, I think the analogy is fine. It's not fine because god is not a 'creature.' Again, the problem with the analogy is that it tries to back a theist into a corner that doesn't exist by assuming that empiricism is the only means by which you can prove the existence of God when what we're really exploring is a totally abstract concept. It simply doesn't work. Imagine if I likened, for example, the abstract laws of mathematics to a "mythical creature" or the FSM or a space teapot. Would you let me get away with such an analogy? FSM or the 'Teapot' aren't creatures either. They're gods. Analogy seems find to me. |
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You're simpletons if you believe this garbage. Oh, the government created Ebola and put fluoride in my water and won't let me wear my tin hat. Then in a whinier voice: If you don't believe me, you're from Monsanto!Riiiiiiight. The only one selling anything here is Dank, and he's peddling his bullshit in hopes someone dumb enough will give him money to have his wastoid festival with fellow drug addicts in a field somewhere. Claim: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) owns a patent on Ebola.
MIXTURE:
TRUE: The CDC patented a strain of Ebola in 2010.
FALSE: The CDC created Ebola and obtained a patent for it to restrict or profit from the development of a vaccine.
Example: [Collected via email, October 2014]
Is there any truth to the rumor that The United States Government is one of 6 owners of a patent on the Ebola virus? Does this mean they have the right to demand blood samples from any victims? Can they force those on government health care to take experimental Ebola vaccines that they develop? Is the CDC purposely allowing Ebola to enter the country in order to cause a "run" on a newly developed vaccine?
Origins: The 2014 Ebola outbreak began in December 2013 and is the deadliest recorded since the discovery of ebolaviruses in 1976. The severity and scope of the 2014 Ebola outbreak has caused significant global concern over the threat posed by the disease, and a number of rumors have resulted.
One pervasive strain of rumors centers around "ownership" of what many understand to be the Ebola virus: more specifically, ownership of a patent granted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2010, Patent No. CA2741523A1. An abstract for that patent reads:
The invention provides the isolated human Ebola (hEbola) viruses denoted as Bundibugyo (EboBun) deposited with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"; Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America) on November 26, 2007 and accorded an accession number 200706291.
As the Ebola outbreak intensified, concern over the spread of the disease steadily increased; and the seemingly-suspect CDC patent on Ebola began to circulate on social media. Many users interpreted use of words like "invention" to indicate the U.S. government or its agents had literally invented Ebola in the lab as a tool to control the population or push forward an agenda involving expensive vaccines and cures. However, the 2014 Ebola outbreak is due to a strain of the virus known as Ebola Zaire and not the EboBun strain for which the CDC patent was obtained, so any pharmaceutical dollars to be made would not be affected by a patent protecting a strain of the virus not central to the current outbreak.
Speculation often centers upon the reasons any agency (government or privately held) would patent a virus such as Ebola if not to restrict the development of a cure or to capitalize on the profits from a potential cure. But at the time the Ebola patent was granted in 2010, the area of human gene patents was not as legally clear as it became following a Supreme Court decision a few years later. On 13 June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of Association For Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics in respect to whether isolated genetic material was patent eligible. Justice Clarence Thomas opined in the decision that "genes and the information they encode are not patent-eligible ... simply because they have been isolated from the surrounding genetic material," and he added:
In this case, by contrast, Myriad did not create anything. To be sure, it found an important and useful gene, but separating that gene from its surrounding genetic material is not an act of invention.
On 9 October 2014, professor of biological sciences at Purdue University and Ebola researcher David Sanders addressed rumors about the CDC's patent on Ebola. Sanders explained that overall the practice of patenting "life forms" is not uncommon for the CDC, noting that patents like the one the CDC holds on the EboBun strain of Ebola can circumvent for-profit patenting as well as facilitate broader research:
The CDC does hold some patents on life forms, but it generally does this for the common good, so a commercial company can't come along and patent it. The CDC lets researchers work with the strain without fees.
Until the Supreme Court's 2013 decision on isolated genetic material, the ambiguity involved made such patents a potential necessity. In light of it the CDC's intent in patenting Ebola appears to be far less nefarious.
Last updated: 10 October 2014
 <---Dank Well, the government had a big hand in (if not complete control over) the Twin Towers and Building 7 coming down. Buildings don't collapse into their own footprint like that without demolition. There were still people in the Twins when they came down. Government is at best, a cover, at worst, murderers.  Oh man, you're a truther? No wonder you believe Ebola is a hoax. |
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I think new people will only come when a clear bottom has been found, too many price speculations are going on. The long term chart doesn't look particulalry attractive for people to jump in
The price is entirely speculative, and how will we ever know when a 'clear bottom has been found'? Exactly, and how many "bottoms" have been found already? |
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What i hate is that Richard branson has no sympathy for the pilot who lost his life. He still says that he will work to achieve his dream. Puny idiot
I kind of got the same vibe when I read the first article, but what else could be expected? How many companies decide to just stop all progress at the first death? Coal & textile companies don't shut down when tens or hundreds die, and electronics companies don't even shut down when their employees are committing suicides every other week - they build nets around the building to catch them when they jump. -For much less bold dreams than Branson's, too. Anyway, according to the NTSB report, it looks like there's a fair possibility the co-pilot caused the explosion through misuse, not anything wrong by design. I agree with this sentiment, but I would like to see Branson show more empathy. I don't know what his main motivation is for building this program (money, prestige, corporate empire?) but opening space up to more people is an optimistic endeavor, for our society as a whole. It's dangerous and risky, but acknowledging that and showing sympathy for the inevitable losses diminishes nothing. You just don't want to see the guy driving this get up there and say: 'well, this is risky and the loss of life is the cost of doing great things.' That is a very alienating attitude. It's likely Branson's direct fault that proper rocket motor testing was skipped in order to keep the project on some schedule. There is nothing complicated about this. Dozens of fixed test stand tests, better 100+, before using that motor. That's fatality #4 for this group. If he skipped testing or steps in safety, that would likely open his company up to liability issues by the family of the pilot who died. With how risky space flight is, I'd be surprised if anyone skipped safety steps then. Not beyond the realm of possibility, but it would be shockingly arrogant. |
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What stands in the way of people taking back the country by force?
I would say it's mostly people not wanting to overthrow the government with force. (Second place: standing army.) |
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People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze,your heart stops for a mili-second.
This is a myth. It's not true. |
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The bottom line for me is don't be shitty to other people. You don't agree with what someone is saying or their point of view? That's fine, but that's not an excuse to call them a 'dumb c*nt.' I generally stay off twitter because no meaningful dialogue can be condensed to 140 character responses, but in the few tweets I've seen on the matter, the phrase 'dumb c*nt' showed up a distressing number of times.
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SpaceShipTwo has been lost, fate of the pilots unknown at this time. This comes just days after the Antares rocket that was supposed to resupply the ISS crashed in Virginia. It's been a really sad week for the private space flight industry. Virgin Galactic said its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane suffered a "serious anomaly" during a powered test flight on Friday that resulted in the loss of the aircraft.
The anomaly occurred after the plane was released from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane and fired up its rocket engine in flight for the first time in more than nine months. Sources said SpaceShipTwo exploded in midflight, and debris fell onto California's Mojave Desert.
"The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft landed safely," Virgin Galactic said in a statement. "Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time."
Two pilots, equipped with parachutes, fly in SpaceShipTwo's cockpit during SpaceShipTwo's test flights, which originate from the Mojave Air and Space Port, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. A source at the Kern County Sheriff's Department told NBC News that two parachutes were deployed after the anomaly.
Photographer Ken Brown, who was covering the test flight, told NBC News that he saw an explosion high in the air and later came upon SpaceShipTwo debris scattered across a small area of the desert. The Mojave airport's director, Stuart Witt, told NBC News that the craft crashed north of Mojave. He deferred further comment pending a news conference that is scheduled for 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET).
Keith Holloway, a Washington-based spokesman for the National Transportation and Safety Board, said "we are in the process of collecting information."
During the nine months since the previous rocket-powered test in January, Virgin Galactic switched SpaceShipTwo's fuel mixture from a rubber-based compound to a plastic-based mix — in hopes that the new formulation would boost the hybrid rocket engine's performance.
Before Friday's flight, the most recent aerial outing was on Oct. 7, when SpaceShipTwo took an unpowered, gliding flight back to the Mojave runway.
The latest test got off to a slow start. SpaceShipTwo spent more than three hours on the Mojave runway, slung beneath its WhiteKnightTwo mothership, while the ground team assessed whether the weather was right for flight. The go-ahead was finally given for takeoff at 9:19 a.m. PT (12:19 p.m. ET).
It took WhiteKnightTwo about 45 minutes to get to 50,000 feet, the altitude at which it released SpaceShipTwo for free flight.
The aim of such flights was to test SpaceShipTwo in preparation for suborbital trips to the edge of outer space. Virgin Galactic had said SpaceShipTwo's first trip to an outer-space altitude — usually defined as 100 kilometers, or 62 miles — could have taken place before the end of the year, depending on how the tests went. And the company's billionaire founder, Richard Branson, was hoping to ride on the first commercial flight next year.
More than 700 customers have paid as much as $250,000 for a ride on the rocket plane. Edit: Associated Press is reporting one pilot has died. Have not heard about the second. |
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Ok, so that's mainly an IRC rating type thing? Does the trust system in this forum work similar or different than WoT? |
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