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Comment Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! (Score 3) 600

Not sure where the uncertainty is. Says right there - January 1, 2015.

Not that having the elections matter about implementation. Obama isn't going to let a veto go through, and even if the Senate flips, there's going to be no way that there's enough votes to override a veto. Obamacare is here, get used to it.

I'm not so sure about that. The policymakers knew upfront the ruinous act would cost them elections, so they put off the effects two years. Now they still don't want to do the damage they knew the bill would cause, because they care about this election's results as well. So as long as the elections are contested, they might keep putting off full implementation of Obamacare, rather than pay the price at the polls. They like their seats more than they want full implementation of the Affordable (snicker) Care Act. This happens to align with the interests of the nation.

Comment Re:Really (Score 1) 229

Where do you live that people react this way? I've honestly never seen this sort of personal-level trash talk about nice stuff. (I live in New England) I've very occasionally heard people bitching about the luxury yachts of the ultra-rich, but I've never heard person to person criticism about having nice things.

Comment Re:We need to wipe out CONgress and restart (Score 1) 237

BUT, these god-for-saken neo-cons need to be stopped.

It's not neocons telling NASA that their primary mission is to reach out to Muslims- instead of, say, completing projects related to Air & Space.

But then again, your tribe (that is to say, Leftists) needs to have folks out here on the internet screaming about 'Neocons' to distract from a president who is expanding on Bush-era policies most hated by the left. Your tribe needs to try to divert attention away from the endless stream of scandals that show the administration to be both malicious (the IRS) and incompetent & mendacious (Benghazi).

Comment Re:Even simpler, #2 pencils and a scanning tool (Score 1) 211

This is all we use in Canada for every election at every level. It works fine. You have 100% paper trail, electronic tallying speed, no "hanging chaff" nonsense. It's a tried and true technology that has been around for decades and decades and decades. I don't know why the US goofs around with these other systems, other then PORK PORK PORK PORK PORK

New Hampshire and a number of other states use the bubble sheets, for the reasons you state. Try to focus your smug, superior attitude on the State of New York.

Comment Re:No? (Score 1) 185

The thing about scientific computing is that scientists like to write MPI and Fortran. They just love that shit. And they are traditionally really resistant to any new programming model. So when you tell them they need to start using XYZ instead of MPI so their programs can actually complete at exascale *before* hardware failure, they get unhappy and instead implement things like checkpoint/restore that takes 70% of the runtime. Source: I work in HPC.

Comment Re:Goodbye (Score 1) 668

What you're describing is fascism, not progressivism. Ever since Reagan, the USA has been going balls-out towards fascism. Lots of people would say that we're already there. Us progressives want to create a society that cares about its people instead of just the very rich and where it's possible for everyone to achieve a decent standard of living regardless of where they start at on the socioeconomic ladder.

You must mean the new sense of 'fascism', which is "things I don't like." Clearly you can't mean it in the traditional sense, because you'd know that 'brave dissidents' such as yourself would have been hauled off to concentration camps or simply executed in a truly fascist regime. You must also mean the new sense of 'progressive', which means not an advocate of progress, but someone trying to implement ideas that have brought much of Europe to it's knees. (Real fascists did that by spilling blood.) The 'progressives' there have run out of other people's money to hand out that decent standard of living you're so keen on.

Really, it must be fun to re-assign words like fascist and progress to suit your political agenda, and be largely unchallenged on your mauling of the language.

But hey, I could be wrong. That next knock on the door could be the Neo-SS come to haul you off to a concentration camp for daring to criticize those in power. Good luck in there.

Comment Re:Not trutly bias, not punitive. More like profil (Score 1) 719

Whoa, slow down there: profiling is not persecution. That's all I'm saying. And this seems almost certainly to be profiling. Nearly all conservatives I know approve of paying special attention to people with Muslim backgrounds when trying to root out terrorists. That doesn't seem to be considered as persecution, that's considered profiling too. This just happens to be a case where conservatives are probably being profiled. And I say, good for the goose then good for the gander.

So, I assume you've got a list of actual tax dodging right wing political advocacy groups to back up your profiling comparison to Muslim radicals with a very real body count. No? Because a quick search (starting with Former Head Tax Collector & Tax dodger Timothy Geitner) will yield plenty of tax delinquents in, or on good terms with, the current administration.

The people you're trying to 'profile' still believe in the rule of law, even if the current law sucks. The people you defend don't; they believe in exercising power for the benefit of their team. Your comparison cannot be substantiated. Your defense is rationalization for your tribe, nothing more.

I welcome your actual proof to the contrary; that is, examples of tax dodging by the sort of groups in question that would justify profiling.

Comment Re:Not trutly bias, not punitive. More like profil (Score 1, Insightful) 719

This doesn't seem to be politically motivated, it just seems like common sense. If one group of people tend to hate taxes and think they're unconstitutional and evil, wouldn't it make sense to profile them as more likely to try to dodge taxes? Is it really that crazy for the IRS to look at people who claim to hate taxes, as having a higher likelihood of being tax dodgers?

Yeah, those tax-evading tea partiers like Timothy Geitner and a good portion of the white house staff. It's about power, and exercising power to the detriment of your enemies and the benefit of your friends. The Rule of Law is not the point. It's Chicago style politics writ large. There will always be people, like you, who will rationalize and defend the behavior as a method of servicing their ideological tribesmen. In generating excuses and furthering the degrade of the rule of law, you are a retrograde, who pushes humanity towards baser tribal behavior, and away from enlightenment values. But f*ck it, they're on your team, so it's all good, right?

Comment Re:On the other hand... (Score 1) 256

...does being smart lead to a more stressful life? Realizing how much you still don't understand

Thus one learns the need to delegate tasks, respect folks in their field of expertise (though perhaps not further), and do your own research when you have a need for specific knowledge on something.It strikes me as a rather adult thing to learn and accept your limitations, and how to accomplish what needs doing despite your limited capacity and knowledge.

, grasping the bad state of some things in world,

Here one should learn history to gain some perspective. Currently, I'm reading a biography of Winston Churchill, and I find myself astounded at how duplicitous, weak, and downright willfully ignorant Chamberlain's government was in the run up to World War 2. I think little of our current political leaders; it's heartening to know the free world has lived through worse. This, of course, applies to any human field one might become despondent about.

feeling the general existential pain and philosophizing things, and so on.

You're here. If you're not gonna put that pistol in your mouth and pull the trigger, you might as well do something with your time here. Get moving.

In any standardized intelligence test, I always scored north of the 95% percentile. In my travels, I've learned that intelligence alone accounts for little- your attitudes, habits, moral standards, and fortitude count tremendously, and your intellect might be best applied to improving your character in those other fields.

You, I think, have reinforced that point. You're smart. So what? Take that as a challenge, not a sarcastic dismissal, and you'll do better.

Comment Re:Greed (Score 1) 292

And this is why people oppose nuclear power. It's harder to screw things up at such level with renewables. The simpsons greedy bastard running a nuke plant isn't a fiction. It's a damned archetype.

First, you're conflating weapons production (The Hanford mess) with electrical power generation. I imagine that's purposeful on your part, because you wouldn't have as much to talk about if you focused on electrical power production.

Now, I'd like to point out that this mess was created when the science involved was new, and there were a million unknown factors about the entire nuclear business- weapons and power production- that were completely unknown at the time. The science and processes became known through the work folks today degrade as 'nutty' and 'screw ups', though if we hadn't done that work, we wouldn't know anything. The discovery of new knowledge can be a messy business, but the acquisition of that knowledge allows us to be more sensible later on. You don't know what you don't know.

Further, the worst and greatest volume of the waste comes from plutonium production, not the refinement of uranium, which is what electricity-producing nuclear reactors use.

Comment Re:Collateralized vs Non-Collateralized Loans (Score 1) 461

Our public universities don't have a profit motive, but they're the worst offenders. They consume all the resources they can- state subsidies aren't used to lower tuition, but hire more administration, build fancy new facilities (that don't add to the instructional value.), or just have fun with the college kids at taxpayer's expense.

If they're getting state money, is there some particular reason why the state can't simply order them to lower tuition, or better yet remove it completely?

There isn't, hence the need to revamp the whole system. Texas is moving towards the $10,000 bachelors degree on this basis.

Comment Re:Collateralized vs Non-Collateralized Loans (Score 1) 461

This is why Education should be funded by The People. If we took the profit motive out of education we wouldn't have to worry about the "administration" making several times what the instructors do for not even teaching.

Our public universities don't have a profit motive, but they're the worst offenders. They consume all the resources they can- state subsidies aren't used to lower tuition, but hire more administration, build fancy new facilities (that don't add to the instructional value.), or just have fun with the college kids at taxpayer's expense. You essentially propose throwing more taxpayer money at the problem, but that hasn't helped the student so far, why would it now? The entire system- public universities especially- needs to be revamped.

Comment It's not working out the way you imagine (Score 1) 205

Somethin' like a government body. And that'd be socialism (cue dramatic music).

The more powerful the regulators become, the more it is in the interest of those regulated to control or influence the regulators.

The incumbent regulated then use the regulators they influence or control to exclude competitors, fatten their profit margins, or extract subsidies.

Obviously some regulation and the accompanying trade offs are necessary for a well-functioning society, but the abuse I just described happens every single day in the United States.

I find it appalling that you wish to expand the corrupt system.

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