Only 12% of our oil imports (not use since we export most of it back out as gasoline and other refined products) comes from the persian gulf. We get more from Canada (15%) and Latin America (20%).
I realise railing against US Imperialism is hip and all, but check your facts before ranting about the big bad US and it's sinister motives.
12 percent may not be much to you, but I remember back in the days when we lost 7 percent of our supply because of the Arab oil embargo.
An embargo of twice that amount would be a disaster economically speaking.
woooow.....
You're OLD! :)
The hell it shouldn't. of course many of them should be kicking at the end of a ropePrisons should be a method of isolating the irredemable from society and redeeming the redeemable. Punishment should never factor into it.Sadly some think it is still too barbaric, they are not giving enough to criminals and anything resembling actual punishment would be inhuman.This is one of my pet peeves too, when I see the homeless and the elderly living in worse conditions than criminals. I'm not saying turn off the heating and power to the prisons and stop feeding them, but I am saying they certainly shouldn't be as high on the budget priority as the people that haven't actually committed a crime.
What do you mean "like s++!" You mean three meals a day, plenty of exercise, access to computers and the internet, a librabry, cable tv and free health care! CA spends something like $70,000.00 a year on each inmate. I think there is probably some trimming that could be done.Unfortunately, we could cut the entire prison budget and the entire law enforecement budget and it would not affect our long term budget problems one bit.
It's this sort of bloodthirsty attitude that really turns me off to capital punishment and I'm not even against it.
Not really sure where to put this, but this seems to be the politroll thread de jour:
I have no idea who this Britishiznoid comedian is, but, boy, does this argument sound familiar...
Outlaw compound interest, convert all debt holdings to a flat rate of profit (at a sane level) for the holder of the debt. Watch as the economy explodes with activity, and your citizens become freed from debt-slavery.I don't even know what that means.
Or why it would work.
It would mean that when someone purchases a house, or a vehicle, instead of the actual repayment resulting in an amount that ends up being 75-80% (or more) profit for the lender, there would be a flat interest repayment agreed upon at the beginning of the loan.
When a bank lends $150,000 to someone and then expects the debtor to pay back $225,000-$285,000 over 15 or 30 years, or face the consequences, it's called a mortgage.
When Vinnie down in Queens loans someone $2000 and expects to be paid back $3000 in 90 days, it's called usury.
Outlaw compound interest across the board, and see what happens. There are cultures that already do this, and they tend to have more stable economies, and happier citizens living longer lifespans.
Yes. Iran, for example? Saudi arabia? Syria?
Yes. Iran, for example? Saudi arabia? Syria?Outlaw compound interest, convert all debt holdings to a flat rate of profit (at a sane level) for the holder of the debt. Watch as the economy explodes with activity, and your citizens become freed from debt-slavery.I don't even know what that means.
Or why it would work.
It would mean that when someone purchases a house, or a vehicle, instead of the actual repayment resulting in an amount that ends up being 75-80% (or more) profit for the lender, there would be a flat interest repayment agreed upon at the beginning of the loan.
When a bank lends $150,000 to someone and then expects the debtor to pay back $225,000-$285,000 over 15 or 30 years, or face the consequences, it's called a mortgage.
When Vinnie down in Queens loans someone $2000 and expects to be paid back $3000 in 90 days, it's called usury.
Outlaw compound interest across the board, and see what happens. There are cultures that already do this, and they tend to have more stable economies, and happier citizens living longer lifespans.
I'm not a fan of fat tony wanting his money legally, but I'm not a fan of living in those countries either. There should be another choice.
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It's this sort of bloodthirsty attitude that really turns me off to capital punishment and I'm not even against it.The hell it shouldn't. of course many of them should be kicking at the end of a ropePrisons should be a method of isolating the irredemable from society and redeeming the redeemable. Punishment should never factor into it.Sadly some think it is still too barbaric, they are not giving enough to criminals and anything resembling actual punishment would be inhuman.This is one of my pet peeves too, when I see the homeless and the elderly living in worse conditions than criminals. I'm not saying turn off the heating and power to the prisons and stop feeding them, but I am saying they certainly shouldn't be as high on the budget priority as the people that haven't actually committed a crime.
What do you mean "like s++!" You mean three meals a day, plenty of exercise, access to computers and the internet, a librabry, cable tv and free health care! CA spends something like $70,000.00 a year on each inmate. I think there is probably some trimming that could be done.Unfortunately, we could cut the entire prison budget and the entire law enforecement budget and it would not affect our long term budget problems one bit.
Not bloodthisty at all i want the threats to the innocent removed once and for all. and cheaply
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Not bloodthisty at all i want the threats to the innocent removed once and for all. and cheaplyIt's this sort of bloodthirsty attitude that really turns me off to capital punishment and I'm not even against it.The hell it shouldn't. of course many of them should be kicking at the end of a ropePrisons should be a method of isolating the irredemable from society and redeeming the redeemable. Punishment should never factor into it.Sadly some think it is still too barbaric, they are not giving enough to criminals and anything resembling actual punishment would be inhuman.This is one of my pet peeves too, when I see the homeless and the elderly living in worse conditions than criminals. I'm not saying turn off the heating and power to the prisons and stop feeding them, but I am saying they certainly shouldn't be as high on the budget priority as the people that haven't actually committed a crime.
What do you mean "like s++!" You mean three meals a day, plenty of exercise, access to computers and the internet, a librabry, cable tv and free health care! CA spends something like $70,000.00 a year on each inmate. I think there is probably some trimming that could be done.Unfortunately, we could cut the entire prison budget and the entire law enforecement budget and it would not affect our long term budget problems one bit.
What could possibly be considered bloodthirsty about hanging people?
"He seized power in a bloodless coup. All smothering."
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Not bloodthisty at all i want the threats to the innocent removed once and for all. and cheaplyIt's this sort of bloodthirsty attitude that really turns me off to capital punishment and I'm not even against it.The hell it shouldn't. of course many of them should be kicking at the end of a ropePrisons should be a method of isolating the irredemable from society and redeeming the redeemable. Punishment should never factor into it.Sadly some think it is still too barbaric, they are not giving enough to criminals and anything resembling actual punishment would be inhuman.This is one of my pet peeves too, when I see the homeless and the elderly living in worse conditions than criminals. I'm not saying turn off the heating and power to the prisons and stop feeding them, but I am saying they certainly shouldn't be as high on the budget priority as the people that haven't actually committed a crime.
What do you mean "like s++!" You mean three meals a day, plenty of exercise, access to computers and the internet, a librabry, cable tv and free health care! CA spends something like $70,000.00 a year on each inmate. I think there is probably some trimming that could be done.Unfortunately, we could cut the entire prison budget and the entire law enforecement budget and it would not affect our long term budget problems one bit.
And you're not particularly concerned with any innocents killed along the way. We've already executed innocent people. And exonerated more after years on death row. Speeding up the process and making it cheaper, easier and more common will sweep up even more false convictions.
But that's not a big deal right? If some threats that get removed aren't really guilty?
That is presumptuous of you, actually the way trials are handled bugs the hell out of me and we need much better standards to determine guilt. A proper trail followed by a swift cheap death for the guilty is simply justice. But there must be much more proof given than in so many trials as it is
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Not bloodthisty at all i want the threats to the innocent removed once and for all. and cheaplyIt's this sort of bloodthirsty attitude that really turns me off to capital punishment and I'm not even against it.The hell it shouldn't. of course many of them should be kicking at the end of a ropePrisons should be a method of isolating the irredemable from society and redeeming the redeemable. Punishment should never factor into it.Sadly some think it is still too barbaric, they are not giving enough to criminals and anything resembling actual punishment would be inhuman.This is one of my pet peeves too, when I see the homeless and the elderly living in worse conditions than criminals. I'm not saying turn off the heating and power to the prisons and stop feeding them, but I am saying they certainly shouldn't be as high on the budget priority as the people that haven't actually committed a crime.
What do you mean "like s++!" You mean three meals a day, plenty of exercise, access to computers and the internet, a librabry, cable tv and free health care! CA spends something like $70,000.00 a year on each inmate. I think there is probably some trimming that could be done.Unfortunately, we could cut the entire prison budget and the entire law enforecement budget and it would not affect our long term budget problems one bit.
What could possibly be considered bloodthirsty about hanging people?
"He seized power in a bloodless coup. All smothering."
better to hang the guilty than to let them harm others. The bleeding hearts might as well throw children into a woodchipper themselves (and claim they did not know the machine would do that) the way they are so determined to free murderer and rapists to do it again. Better the blood of the guilty than the innocent. at least to me, you might prefer the other.
That is presumptuous of you, actually the way trials are handled bugs the hell...Not bloodthisty at all i want the threats to the innocent removed once and for all. and cheaplyIt's this sort of bloodthirsty attitude that really turns me off to capital punishment and I'm not even against it.The hell it shouldn't. of course many of them should be kicking at the end of a ropePrisons should be a method of isolating the irredemable from society and redeeming the redeemable. Punishment should never factor into it.Sadly some think it is still too barbaric, they are not giving enough to criminals and anything resembling actual punishment would be inhuman.This is one of my pet peeves too, when I see the homeless and the elderly living in worse conditions than criminals. I'm not saying turn off the heating and power to the prisons and stop feeding them, but I am saying they certainly shouldn't be as high on the budget priority as the people that haven't actually committed a crime.
What do you mean "like s++!" You mean three meals a day, plenty of exercise, access to computers and the internet, a librabry, cable tv and free health care! CA spends something like $70,000.00 a year on each inmate. I think there is probably some trimming that could be done.Unfortunately, we could cut the entire prison budget and the entire law enforecement budget and it would not affect our long term budget problems one bit.
And you're not particularly concerned with any innocents killed along the way. We've already executed innocent people. And exonerated more after years on death row. Speeding up the process and making it cheaper, easier and more common will sweep up even more false convictions.
But that's not a big deal right? If some threats that get removed aren't really guilty?
Then wouldn't more guilty people go free? Is that justice?
better to hang the guilty than to let them harm others. The bleeding hearts might as well throw children into a woodchipper themselves (and claim they did not know the machine would do that) the way they are so determined to free murderer and rapists to do it again. Better the blood of the guilty than...Not bloodthisty at all i want the threats to the innocent removed once and for all. and cheaplyIt's this sort of bloodthirsty attitude that really turns me off to capital punishment and I'm not even against it.The hell it shouldn't. of course many of them should be kicking at the end of a ropePrisons should be a method of isolating the irredemable from society and redeeming the redeemable. Punishment should never factor into it.Sadly some think it is still too barbaric, they are not giving enough to criminals and anything resembling actual punishment would be inhuman.This is one of my pet peeves too, when I see the homeless and the elderly living in worse conditions than criminals. I'm not saying turn off the heating and power to the prisons and stop feeding them, but I am saying they certainly shouldn't be as high on the budget priority as the people that haven't actually committed a crime.
What do you mean "like s++!" You mean three meals a day, plenty of exercise, access to computers and the internet, a librabry, cable tv and free health care! CA spends something like $70,000.00 a year on each inmate. I think there is probably some trimming that could be done.Unfortunately, we could cut the entire prison budget and the entire law enforecement budget and it would not affect our long term budget problems one bit.
What could possibly be considered bloodthirsty about hanging people?
"He seized power in a bloodless coup. All smothering."
Can I be in favor of less blood overall?
No. Apparently you can't.
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Less blood overall? Ain't nobody got time for that. Besides, I'm too busy throwing children into wood chippers.
I know better than to jump into a law and order discussion with Citizen R., but, in one of those moments of synergistic weridiosity, my current reading material has been going over McCleskey vs. Kemp and Lewis Powell's game-giving-away opinion that "taken to its logical conclusion, McCleskey throws into serious question the principles that underlie our entire criminal justice system."
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That's what I've heard: after a life of pretty intensive labor (and, let's be honest, substance abuse and bad eating habits), they go home and atrophy and die pretty quickly.
I told one old-timer about it who's only a couple of years away and he responded, "Don't worry, I've got a girlfriend 20 years younger than me, I'll stay plenty active."
UPS employees do it in the streets!
Same happens to most people doing physical labor all their lives....my father was a carpenter for all his life. Died at 62 years old. If he hadn't taken early retirement (and the penalties accrued from that) from the union he would have had a couple years to go before he could retire. Retired office workers usually last longer in general.
Retired office workers usually last longer in general.
F@!$in' yuppie jerks get everything good.
No, only kidding. The point's moot for me, anyway. My lifestyle, I'll me lucky to make it to my mid-sixties.
[Lights cigarette, cracks open a beer and starts eating some mozzarella sticks]
Less blood overall? Ain't nobody got time for that. Besides, I'm too busy throwing children into wood chippers.
its not like they're going to throw themselves in there!
On the topic of Capital Punishment, there's been a few studies on the topic that we had to look over in our Criminology class. One of the primary discussions came up was, back in the Victorian era, the punishment for almost every crime was execution. This didn't really have any effect on the crime rate. Rather it seemed to exacerbate the issue, since if surrender was death, escalation of crimes was inevitable. You're making killers choose between their death and someone elses, the results become all too obvious.
More esoterically though, studies have indicated that following an state mandated execution, violent crime rates surge for a week.
Further more, the death penalty doesn't deter crimes. And many of these violent criminals end up in there for life. Not all of them unfortunately, but it's not as many as the media would lead you to believe.
The ultimate problem with capital punishment is it prevents nothing, and worse it can take the lives of the innocent, and can cause even more death. The desire to end "evil" is more often a desire for vengeance. Unfortunately that's not really a punishment, it's a display to make you feel satisfied that a bad guy got his comeuppance. It doesn't fix anything. He's causing about as much harm now as he was when he got into the prison. He still did the things, assumedly. So what's left other than schadenfreude?
Economically speaking, you spend more incarcerating the low key offenders than anything else. And given that up here in Canada our Prime Minister decided to go having anyone wearing a mask near a political rally of any kind arrested, we're getting plenty of those.
Keep fighting wars and you won't have an economy. Let the politicians keep up the securitheatre and you also won't have an economy. Simple as that. No other changes you could make will come near solving your problems.
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Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
I love this place.
Here in the OTD, we aim for consistency and quality.
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Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
I love this place.
I had to look that up. Quit teaching me stuff!