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Posts posted by bernorange
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3 hours ago, GSU&UT said:
You joined Shaggy when it started right? Are you still unaware of @Hank Scorpio ?
@hayden_horn and @Hank Scorpio are both hitby socks.
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Lulz. My oldest son is graduating this year. He doesn't want to attend the commencement ceremony, but we paid for his cap & gown, so he's damn well going to wear it! We are sending some invitations out to people who haven't seen us or him in so long they will be shocked that he's actually old enough to be graduating right now. At least it's an excuse to send them a picture of him and say hello. I don't expect anyone to actually attend the ceremony.
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Did a new season start yet?
Edit: Ah, I see I've missed the first two episodes of season 3 now. Oh well, guess I'll wait a year or so for season three to make it to Netflix.
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59 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:
... my personal ethos and value statements are informed by a fundamental idea that no men or group of men are in control of me ...
Perhaps not directly, but we all live within constructs that inform/limit/control our lives and there are people that control those constructs. For example, monetary policy is an extremely powerful tidal force. Monkeying around with interest rates affects market behaviors and everyone's decision making with respect to housing, real estate, investments, retirement plans, etc. It wasn't long ago that the Fed was floating trial balloons about implementing NIRP to force people to spend money. They weren't going to put a gun to your head and say, "spend yo money", but they might create circumstances where you find it's in your best "interest".
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Bernie Sanders has single-handedly brought the term “democratic socialism” into the contemporary American political lexicon and shaken millions of Millennials out of their apathy towards politics. Even if he does not win the Democratic nomination, his impact on American politics will be evident for years to come.
Sanders has convinced a great number of people that things have been going very badly for the great majority of people in the United States, for a very long time. His solution? America must embrace “democratic socialism,” a socioeconomic system that seemingly works very well in the Scandinavian countries, like Sweden, which are, by some measures, better off than the United States.
Democratic socialism purports to combine majority rule with state control of the means of production. However, the Scandinavian countries are not good examples of democratic socialism in action because they aren’t socialist.
...More: https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-of-scandinavian-socialism/
QuoteMany leftists hail Scandinavia as a socialist haven that demonstrates the inferiority of capitalism. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders recently declared that the United States ought to emulate Scandinavian countries because they provide education and healthcare “for free.”
There are many problems with this line of thinking. For one, it is fallacious to claim that a system that works for homogenous countries like Finland and Norway would also succeed in a massive, diverse country such as the United States. For another, it is incorrect to refer to Scandinavian countries as “socialist,” given that no Scandinavian countries nationalize their means of production.
Scandinavian countries—specifically, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland—are perceived as socialist because their citizens pay very high income taxes. However, these countries still suffer from many of the social and economic ills that socialism is supposed to prevent. Additionally, the United States taxes wealthy Americans at much higher rates than Scandinavian countries tax their similarly wealthy citizens, yet leftists such as Sanders are still displeased with how our tax system is organized. Finally, another European country defies the liberal “Scandinavian socialist success” narrative so completely that it demonstrates why capitalism is the best economic model in existence.
...More: http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/11/scandinavia-isnt-a-socialist-paradise/
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30 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:
I am a registered, card-carrying Democratic Socialist.
2 minutes ago, hpslugga said:That's basically what a libertarian is.
I have read b_t's posts. He's not a libertarian.
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3 minutes ago, Ldogg53 said:
... What more is there to investigate? ...
It takes time to put together a plausible extenuating circumstance that would paint the LEO's reaction in a palatable light for the public. I'm sure we'll all hear about how the LEO's were on high alert for gang members stealing Mentos for some part in a satanic virgin sacrifice ritual. LEO was just serving and protecting the public.
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3 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:
Can he even legally purchase a gun?
Maybe?
QuoteOliver North ... had been allowed to carry up to three concealed handguns until March, when his permit expired. Clarke County Circuit Judge James L. Berry, the same judge who granted North his permit in 1992, rejected the application for renewal Monday.
...
But the judge added that he was unable to ignore North's convictions "for crimes involving moral turpitude . . . even though his convictions were later overturned."https://www.deseretnews.com/article/368581/OLIVER-NORTH-CANT-CARRY-A-GUN-JUDGE-RULES.html
QuoteA Federal appeals court today suspended all three of Oliver L. North's Iran-contra felony convictions and overturned one of them in a ruling that threw into doubt the entire case against the former Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.
...https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/21/us/north-conviction-reversed-in-part-review-is-ordered.html
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5 minutes ago, 936horn said:
I am a (fiscal) conservative, but would point out that by and large the current GOP does not in any way represent my political beliefs contrary to the bit you have at the bottom of the post.
The definitions of words, and the perceptions of political parties, change over the years. I agree with you that the GOP is not (and has not been for some time) true to the conservative brand that they trumpet, but this poll is more about self identification, so you are free to select whichever option you think best fits your idiom. I've kept the same language for the poll options/legend for consistency so there is some basis for comparison to previous polls.
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On 5/3/2018 at 10:19 PM, jimmyjazz said:
I worked at Wendy's when I was in high school. There was a couple who would come in every Sunday with the newspaper and eat lunch at the all-you-can-eat salad bar. They'd refill their iced teas over the course of the afternoon and then pop down another round of salads for an early dinner.
I may be cheap, but that was pathetic.
I live out in the burbs. Once every two weeks or so, on the weekend, I trek into (H-)town to make a run through Whole Foods, Central Market and a few other places. There is a guy (an older than me gentleman) that is known on a first name basis with all the employees at both WF & CM. He is always at both supermarkets on the weekends (maybe daily?). I see him buying a single banana usually. He spends hours at both stores walking around and eating all the free samples and chatting with the vendors. I suspect that he lives close by. He's probably loaded and living in River Oaks. He's a real enigma.
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So, it looks like it's that time again. I've done this poll periodically (~every two years) for a number of years now. Sadly, the history is buried under a mountain of scat, so you will just have to take my word for it.
Previous (shaggy) results:
~28% Dem/lib vs. ~13% Pub/conservative in 2018
~17% Dem/lib vs. ~24% Pub/conservative in 2016
~29% Dem/lib/"moderate" vs. ~25% Pub/conservative in 2014
~26% Dem/lib vs. ~26% Pub/conservative in 2010
~25% Dem/lib vs. ~25% Pub/conservative in 2008
~~~
A legend for folks who haven't seen my previous polls:
Republican = Party partisan
Democrat = Party partisan
Libertarian (big L) = Party partisan
conservative = ideologue generally aligned with GOP
liberal = ideologue generally aligned with Dems
libertarian (small l - classical liberal) = ideologue that has liberty issues as paramount (could vote any party)
moderate/independent = undefined - if you self identify as this, please tell us what it means to you -
I guess it's time once again to run the political windsock poll. I will once again reiterate my position that the needle moves in accordance (opposition) with the POTUS. When a Pub wins, the Dems are more vocal in the forum. When a Dem wins, the opposite occurs. It's been that way forever.
OK, poll is up: http://www.surlyhorns.com/board/index.php?/topic/2104-surly-political-windsock-poll-2018/
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44 minutes ago, SmokeyBear1861 said:
Why a black cube Hugo?
You will be assimilated.
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Mazel said counter surveillance of law enforcement agents is the fastest-growing way that organized criminals are using drones.Some criminal organizations have begun to use drones as part of witness intimidation schemes: they continuously surveil police departments and precincts in order to see “who is going in and out of the facility and who might be co-operating with police,” he said.
Drones are also playing a greater role in robberies and the like. Beyond the well-documented incidence of house break-ins, criminal crews are using them to observe bigger target facilities, spot security gaps, and determine patterns of life: where the security guards go and when.
In Australia, criminal groups have begun have used drones as part of elaborate smuggling schemes, Mazel said. The gangs will monitor port authority workers. If the workers get close to a shipping container that houses illegal substances or contraband, the gang will call in a fire, theft, or some other false alarm to draw off security forces.
Andrew Scharnweber, associate chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, described how criminal networks were using drones to watch Border Patrol officers, identify their gaps in coverage, and exploit them.
“In the Border Patrol, we have struggled with scouts, human scouts that come across the border. They’re stationed on various mountaintops near the border and they would scout … to spot law enforcement and radio down to their counterparts to go around us. That activity has effectively been replaced by drones,” said Scharnweber, who added that cartels are able to move small amounts of high-value narcotics across the border via drones with “little or no fear of arrest.”
Nefarious use of drones is likely to get worse before it gets better, according to several government officials who spoke on the panel. There is no easy or quick technological solution. While the U.S. military has effectively deployed drone-jamming equipment to the front lines in Syria and Iraq, most of these solutions are either unsuitable or have not been tested for use in American cities where they may interfere with cell phone signals and possibly the avionics of other aircraft, said Ahn Duong, the program executive officer at DHS’s homeland security, science and technology directorate.
The most recent version of the FAA reauthorization bill contains two amendments that could help the situation, according to Angela Stubblefield, the FAA’s deputy associate administrator in the office of security and hazardous materials safety. One would make it illegal to “weaponize” consumer drones.
The other — and arguably more important — amendment would require drones that fly beyond their operators’ line of sight to broadcast an identity allowing law enforcement to track and connect them to a real person.
“Remote identification is a huge piece” of cutting down on drone crime, Stubblefield said. “Both from a safety perspective… enabling both air traffic control and other UAS [unmanned areal systems] to know where another is and enabling beyond line-of-sight operations. It also has an extensive security benefit to it, which is to enable threat discrimination. Remote ID connected to registration would allow you to have information about each UAS, who owns it, operates it, and thus have some idea what its intent is,” said Stubblefield.
...It's almost as if surveillance is a dangerous tool in the wrong hands. I do enjoy the irony of govco's solution being to legislate moar sunshine.
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Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?!
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On 5/6/2018 at 1:20 PM, mdmost said:
... Yet when they had a chance to stop it, they didn't. ...
This is a tough one. It cuts to the heart of the decision making matrix that everyone uses throughout their adult life that can affect their jobs/employment and/or social life. It's easy in hindsight to condemn people for not acting to prevent atrocities (or injustices, if you prefer, it's a matter of scale I suppose). What's the personal risk for doing something? What's the probable consequence for not acting?
Are your children going live like the stereotype of New Yorkers - so self absorbed, they will ignore a mugging or rape occurring on the sidewalk in broad daylight. Or will you encourage them to be more like VAPA.Mil and stand up for their convictions regardless of the personal consequences?
The calculus in this decision matrix separates leaders from followers. Lives of comfort from lives well lived. The sweet spot in that matrix is going to be different for everyone and depends upon a lot of factors including the strength of one's convictions and the confidence one has to navigate any troubled waters for defending them.
~~~
My oldest son, now a senior in high school was just in Austin for the State Water Polo tournament. They won their first two games and lost the second two. They placed 4th in Texas. Nice.
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One of the few positive things in the ill-named USA FREEDOM Act, enacted in 2015 after the Snowden revelations on NSA domestic spying, is that it required the Director of National Intelligence to regularly report on its domestic surveillance activities. On Friday, the latest report was released on just how much our own government is spying on us. The news is not good at all if you value freedom over tyranny.
According to the annual report, named the Statistical Transparency Report Regarding Use of National Security Authorities, the US government intercepted and stored information from more than a half-billion of our telephone calls and text messages in 2017. That is a 300 percent increase from 2016. All of these intercepts were “legal” under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is ironic because FISA was enacted to curtail the Nixon-era abuse of surveillance on American citizens....
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evil
[ee-vuh l]adjective
1.morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked:evil deeds; an evil life.2.harmful; injurious:evil laws.Arguably, every one of them has supported legislation or political actions that are morally wrong/bad and/or harmful/injurious on the whole. Given that context, it would seem that the label fits them all to one degree or another.
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Not related to tracking travel/autos, but related to privacy:
QuoteBy joining joint law enforcement task forces run by the federal government, local cops can often ignore stringent state and local laws governing surveillance and engage in warrantless spying.
...How Local Cops Can Ignore Local Laws
When state or local law enforcement officers join a federal joint task force, they are deputized as federal agents. As a result, they can operate under the exact same parameters as an FBI or DEA agent. That means they are no longer bound by state laws governing surveillance. In practice, this allows local cops to ignore state laws as they collect information on people in their communities.
For instance, last year, Illinois passed the most restrictive law on cell site simulators in the country. Commonly referred to as “stingrays," these devices essentially spoof cell phone towers, tricking any device within range into connecting to the stingray instead of the tower. This allows law enforcement to sweep up communications content, as well as locate and track the person in possession of a specific phone or other electronic device.
Under the Illinois law, police must get a warrant before using a stingray to track an individual's location in most situations, and they are barred from using the devices to access data on electronic devices or listen to conversations. But an Illinois police officer serving on a joint task force can ignore the warrant requirement and deploy a stingray despite the state law.
According to a report by the Century Foundation, Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) are particularly invasive due to their broad and sweeping mandate to "prevent terrorism."
The War on Terror Expands Law Enforcement's Reach
Prior to 9/11, there were about 30 JTTFs scattered around the US. Today, more than 180 such task forces operate all across the US. According to memoranda of understanding (MOUs) obtained by the ACLU, state and local law enforcement officers assigned to JTTFs follow federal rules for intelligence gathering.
According to the New Century report, these JTTFs also allow state and local cops to operate in virtual secrecy and with little or no local oversight.
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On 5/4/2018 at 2:42 PM, Liquor and Poker said:
That article does not address the use of EEG neurofeedback for treating PTSD. It also mischaracterizes the state of research on the use of EEG neuroefeedback for treating ADHD. There has been a lot of studies published on this particular topic in the last few years in particular, but even back in 2012 (predating the linked blog post):
QuotePracticeWise, the company that maintains the American Academy of Pediatrics “Evidence-based Child and Adolescent Psycho-social Interventions” (see current edition here) has just announced it will elevate biofeedback to “Level 1 — Best Support” as an intervention for Attention & Hyperactivity Behaviors in the next edition.
I've seen this dynamic play out a lot over the years. Psychologists/psychiatrists are threatened by EEG neurofeedback as it's a treatment modality for their patients that they are not trained to deliver. It's competition for their patients. Bear that in mind when you read a blog post from a psych doc. There is a bias and he's (author of L&P's linked blog) not representing an honest or complete assessment of the topic.
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9 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:
Can’t we just legalize prostitution and all these assholes will just go away?
We need to end the war on prostitution so the incels will stop putting the forbidden fruit on a pedestal and going insane. Sounds like a decent campaign slogan. Won't anyone think of the children?
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Condolences on your loss phd, but it sounds like she enjoyed a full life, and that's really the only treasure we can take with us.
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Abusing ecstasy can cause seizures: http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/ecstasy-causes-seizures-e-x-candy-rave-drugs-5334/
There is a better (IMO) way to treat PTSD: http://eeginfo.com/research/ptsd_main.jsp
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On 4/28/2018 at 7:13 AM, Homercles said:
.. boy absolutely loves to run from car to car, climbing in the drivers seat, playing with the buttons and steering wheel, etc. his favorite this year was a Ford panel van. They had R2D2 last year.
That reminds me of a CSB about my oldest son when he was around that age (~4). He was really into rockets. He had seen an IMAX movie about the space program and it had one scene of an Apollo rocket launching that shook the foundations and blew him away. Since then, he was fascinated with astronauts, NASA, space and rockets. He could see a picture of a rocket and tell you which one it was. He was like a rain man of rockets. It was kind of freaky.
Anyway, some friends of ours worked for the industry and there was an international exhibition for the space industry coming to the George R. Brown convention center in Houston and they got us some tickets for it (IIRC, they were free to them). We took the boy and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets from wonder as we walked around. And then my boy saw "the astronaut". There was someone walking around the exhibition floor in an astronaut suit (with helmet on). My boy nearly shit his pants. He wanted to go talk to the astronaut but he was feeling that shyness that little boys get and he froze. The astronaut started walking away - I don't think he/she even saw us looking at him/her. I interrupted my boy's stare, got his attention/focus, and told him to go chase the astronaut down. And off he went! He started running and yelling "Mr. Astronaut!, Mr. Astronaut!". It was so awesome. I can't really remember how far down the floor, or how many exhibits and crowds of people he had to navigate, but he eventually caught up to the astronaut (who clearly couldn't hear anything with that helmet on). When the astronaut turned around, he/she was clearly quite surprised (body language) to see this boy panting and out of breath from chasing him through the exhibit floor. And then, when my son had the astronaut's attention... crickets. He was completely deer in the headlights when the astronaut looked at him. It was, again, so awesome. I explained to the astronaut what was happening and we took some pictures. I doubt any child taking pictures with Mickey or any amusement park mascot was ever as excited as my boy was that day with "the astronaut".
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Is Surly more Liberal than Shaggy?
in Cloak Room
Posted
None are "perfect". The RLC is your best bet for finding some:
http://rlc.org/
J. Amash and T. Massie are both pretty principled.