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Comment Re:Automation and jobs (Score 1) 720

I think the ROTFLing was because of the belief that magically when the minimum wage goes up that the people who remain skills are suddenly worth more the day after a minimum wage hike as they were the day before. It isn't like the dollars suddenly became worth less overnight. Also working in the restaurant with automated systems doesn't necessarily mean the workers that remain are of higher caliber. Assuming that the only people to get shit canned by automation becoming cheaper than the new minimum wage are the cashiers that still leaves the fry cooks, burger flippers, order assembly people, and people who take your money and hand you your food at the drive through. The skill set possessed by these people will remain unchanged thus not requiring a bump in pay.

Comment Re:First World, First World Problems (Score 1) 291

You have OBVIOUSLY never been to a real third world country, or anywhere even close. What you call an unmaintained road is like a forty lane superhighway in some places.

Yet some places in my own state have roads that make crappy paths in the planes of Africa look like 4 lane super highways. Seriously on some of these official roads you need high clearance and real 4WD (posi or locking diffs on both axles) while on others you may be fording a river, bottoming out on rocks (even with a high clearance vehicle), or running over trees in the middle of the road. These aren't off road trail but official signed roads but are minimum or unmaintained roads. I am sure there are worse roads out there than these but at that point it is like having a conversation about who's shit smells the best while ignoring the fact that it is all shit.

Comment Re:Spoiled much? (Score 1) 291

I make use of rather large publicly available GIS data sets that can be pulled in on demand. Think of it kind of like Google maps on steroids, then toss in that my wife also like to watch streaming shows while I work and a 6Mbit connection would choke (I use to have a business class one and it did choke and become basically unusable). The largest of these data sets are usually the LIDAR, ground cover, and high res aerial photography which can all easily go into the 10s of Gigs in size for a state. Yes I am one of those people who regularly goes over 1TB in downloads a month, and all of it is legal usage. Just because you can't effectively make use of a high speed connection doesn't mean others can't.

Comment Re:Oh noes! Strategic Syrup Alert! (Score 1) 529

There's no poisonous snakes native to Nova Scotia dontchano, so what ya be needing a gun for?

I hear hunting is quite popular in Canada so may be moose, ducks, or the most awful thing from Canada ever that need to be gunned down in mass.

If this is terrorism and Canada decides to wrongly go after something I suggest the Canadian Geese as that would at least be useful.

Comment Re:Kinda funny how taxes set back the internet (Score 1) 324

Hey no one I have voted for currently holds office above the city and county level of government and those are the governments that seemingly are least likely to be regularly violating my rights. I keep trying to elect people who won't violate my rights at the federal level but people around me just like a governor who can't seem to find his ass with both hands, or a congressman who is a war hawk who got to carry the nuclear football while in the service.

Comment Re: Nah, this is just stage 1 (Score 1) 324

A bond is an IOU, but US Treasury Bonds are special in that they will not default on them, but they are not the same thing as pallets of $100 bills sitting in a warehouse. The part of these discussion I take issue with is the X thousands of dollars per citizen in unfunded liabilities. While based in fact it is the amount that would be needed to be taken right now to cover expenses for the next 75 years assuming no change in incoming revenue or decrease in projected benefits. It is just a big scary number used to show how out of control government spending is.

The more immediate problems is that for a long time when social security was taking in more than it sent out it purchased US Treasury Bonds which provided money to the general fund which was spent on things and that spending on various other programs hasn't gone down. Now that is starting to change and social security is no longer taking in more in tax than it is sending out (the trust fund is still increasing due to interest) so there is less available in the general fund. In the future money from the general fund will need to be diverted to pay back the US Treasury Bonds as social security cashes them in. At some point in the future the social security trust fund will have redeemed all of its US Treasury Bonds and if nothing has been done social security would be able to pay ~75% to ~80% of promised benefits with what it takes in. The interesting thing is the month that that transition happens is that it would cost the same amount out of the general fund to continue to fund benefits at 100% as it did the previous month since the redeemed US Treasury Bonds used to pay benefits were payed out of the general fund. And if you think I a full of shit there is always the first few pages of the social security trustees report that they put out each year that you can access that has the exact dates. If you really want to get into the details just read the full report but I think only people who are actuaries would enjoy such a thing.

Comment Re:As some one recently pointed out to me (Score 1) 384

More Americans have married Kim Kardashian than have died from Ebola.

Given that choice I think I would take Ebola. I would be less likely to have some horrible disease.

Seriously with Eboal I would only have one horrible disease, but being married to any of the Kardashians would ensure that I end up with at least half a dozen horrible ones if not more. Add in that I would have to look at that awful face and deal with that horrendous personality and I would be begging to have my insides turn into a jelly and leak out of every orifice.

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