"Turning away ambulances" is not how it really happens. Let me describe it for you:

The hospital determines it is nearing its capacity to handle emergent cases. The hospital contacts the regional EMS dispatch to let them know. In my area, this is the county Fire Control. When an ambulance calls in that they have arrived on scene, the dispatcher will say, in this case, "Methodist Hospital is the only closed facility." The crew will let the patient know that they can't take them to that hospital. Also, when the crew calls dispatch for a clearance to transport the patient, if the hospital they are going to is closed, dispatch will tell them so (in NY, a patient can demand to be transported to even a closed hospital, but we do our best to convince them to go somewhere else). A hospital ED cannot turn away patients at the door, even if they come by ambulance.

So what if its a truly life threatening situation that can't be stabilized in the field? Say, full cardiac arrest, or uncontrollable arterial bleed? The ambulance will go to the closest facility, even if that is the closed facility, and will not be turned away. The ambulance will contact the receiving hospital directly and give a report on route, giving the hospital time to clear an appropriate room and mobilize the necessary staff to receive the patient.

Hospitals can close for a lot of reasons. Sometimes, a few staff members call in sick and they can't find coverage, so the capacity of the system is reduced. Sometimes a lot of patients come in all at once. Sometimes the hospital's support systems like EMR fail, but it could even be their admissions and billing system that decides to fail and causes the hospital to divert patients. It happens, but the system is designed to handle it.

Something being objectionable to you is not a basis to pass a law outlawing that thing. Show the real, tangible, objective harm that these drawings cause people that are forced to view them (since there was no possible harm caused by creating them as with real child porn), and you will have a case for a law. Otherwise, the legislature does not exist to protect you from things you don't personally like.

I suddenly have an urge to put batteries in a cat...

Completely unsupported anti-government rant = instant karma, I guess. Why is this modded up?

I understand why you analogize pollution with noise, but it is not what TFS is trying to convey. The analogy to pollution is a warning about the unintended consequences of information persistence, not the purity of the information.

What is wrong with the idea that the large tail and its patterns came first as a survival adaptation? The female preferences in fact likely evolved after that, accelerating the process that makes the peacock's tail so outlandish.

Both the patterns on the peacock's tail (eyes) and the size are common adaptations found in a number of unrelated prey species.

The peacock has what look like eyes on its tail. These have a tendency to confuse predators. This is a common defensive adaptation on a number of species.

Similarly, the way the tail fans out to makes the peacock appear much larger than it really is. This also confuses predators. This is, also, a common defensive adaptation.

The peacock's tail is an evolutionary advantage. The "sexual selection" probably evolved in females as a response to the survival advantages of having a large, elaborately patterned tail, NOT the other way around.

Its not an either/or question. An airbag without a seat belt is an ejection mechanism.

Analogy fail. People do not profit from their crimes by appearing on COPS. People DO profit from the crime of producing and distributing child porn. Giving the creeps who make that shit a market is criminal.

Boy, you'd never make it in EMS...

The jokes are not for the departed, they are for those of us who still remain and have to live on with the memories. If it is disrespectful to take care of one's self, then so be it. They are dead, they won't care. Trust me.

People absolutely do not realize the value of public education, even if it is "sub par" compared to other parts of the world. Literacy is used as an indicator for quality of life for a reason.

Nothing does more to raise the quality of life than public education. Just try, once, to imagine what life would be like if all those millions of people who can't afford to get educated never learn basic literacy and arithmetic? That wouldn't just effect the poor; that would drag down the quality of life for EVERYONE.

Truth be told, Bailout or no, we will be paying for the Big 3's failures for the next generation, at least. Its not so much the current workers and their contracts. They can always retrain and find new jobs (theoretically) or get rehired by whichever entities take over the old companies.

The huge problem we face with this is those who have retired and those who plan to retire in the near future. If their pensions are wiped out in bankruptcy court, and their health benefits taken away, the drain on federal and state programs to continue to support them will be immense.

Our culture used to feel that taking care of our elders is morally imperative. That ideal may not survive the realities of the next 25-40 years.