My county (Maui) is looking at banning polystyrene food containers. We banned plastic shopping bags a few years ago and it's made a huge difference, I used to see plastic bags blowing around, caught in bushes by the side of the road, and in the ocean all the time, but no more.

The thing with the food containers is...most of them will be replaced with PLA. PLA is compostable, where it's in a commercial compost pile over X degrees and with other conditions that help break it down. But what about floating around in the ocean? Obviously it's going to take longer than paper to break down, but has anyone shown how long (or if) it takes to break down in the ocean? A simple google search doesn't reveal anything useful...

He was gone then because he was making a movie.

Exactly, they busted somebody who deserved to be prosecuted. The problem here that when we read a headline (before reading the details) about law enforcement busting somebody, our default reaction is no longer, "good, they busted the bad guy," but rather, "there goes law enforcement abusing their power again, they probably didn't have a warrant and the guy is probably innocent."

That says something about the state of nation.

And when the "enemy" comes up with those defenses, the DoD will give defense contractors billions of dollars to figure out how to overcome them. It's win-win-win for everybody (except the American taxpayers). Also, for things that aren't suitable to shoot at with lasers, well, that's what he wants the rail guns for, because the guns in that Schwarzenegger film (was it Eraser?) were really frickin' cool and he hopes they come with the X-Ray vision scopes too.

But as a user, I want to know that my product is genuine. That's why I only buy Microsoft products, because just in case I forgot where I purchased my computer, I get reminded over and over that it's genuine!

Remember when Radio Shack was place to go for electronics hobby stuff and electronics components? Now (or guess yesterday) the few electronic components they have are 10x the price of Jameco, Digikey, Mouser etc, and they hardly ever have what you need anyway. They were doomed as soon as they jumped the shark into being primarily a cell phone store, and jacked up the prices on everything else. It was only a matter of time and it's amazing they sold enough cell phone plans to last as long as they did.

Regardless of whether you think police are overreacting, at this point it seems like it would be wise for the school to tell their students either to collect their boxes or contact the police in the jurisdiction where they placed them to let them know where they are and what they look like (at which point the cops would probably tell them to get rid of them). Seems like having to collect them and place them somewhere else would be better than getting your project blown up.

So then by your logic it should be legal for a parent to beat their child. It teaches them discipline and build character, after all. So, unless you think that's okay, then you are drawing the line somewhere and your slippery slope argument is null and void.

Suicide is not illegal, but convincing your kid to commit suicide is, and so is assaulting other people. How would you feel about it if a parent convinced their kid to commit suicide? What if it was for a "religious" reason but wasn't for Christian-like reasons, but instead was for a Jonestown style cult drinking the cyanide laced cool aid? Now what if that kid brought the cyanide laced cool-aid to school and shared it with other kids?

And is it really okay to allow somebody not to go to the doctor if it's in the interest of public health, so they don't spread diseases on to others? No? How about in an extreme example where a kid has ebola? Should parents be allowed to refuse medical treatment, and continue to expose the kid to other kids?

The point here is that your analogies are totally broken, so they prove no point whatsoever. The point is not to look at the analogy but to look at facts: Parent refuse vaccines, their kids can get sick and infect others who had no choice in the matter.

Do you? It's any box or canister thing that the student had lying around, so it's not going to look like a camera.

This wasn't the university, it was a university student. It's not like art departments have an internal review board.

In which case the CYA bureaucrats would say no. Seriously, why would somebody have predicted such an overreaction? They probably figured the worst that would happen is the camera would be removed and thrown in the trash if anybody noticed. Perhaps in the future with this sort of thing somebody could clearly label it with a sharpie, "This is a student art project. For questions about it please call 123-456-7890"

I don't think anybody is proposing requiring all vaccines. There are some vaccines which kids clearly shouldn't be required to have, like say, typhoid (though if parents were smart they'd give it to them if traveling to certain places). The thing is, which vaccines should be required has already been determined by most states. The problem is that parents can simply fill out an exception form in lieu of getting their kids vaccinated, and that's what needs to be done away with. The only reason on the exception form should be if they can't get the vaccine for medical reasons (e.g. allergic to it), which must be accompanied by a physician's signature (a real physician, not a naturopath or chiropractor).

As far as chickenpox vaccine, I do think that ought to be required. My kid shouldn't have to get sick and miss a bunch of school just because you don't want to pay $40 for the vaccine, because even if I vaccinate my kid, that particular vaccine is only 85% effective. If everyone is vaccinated, the chances of my kid catching it are very small (it's not just marginally effective if everyone gets it!), but if others don't get my kid pretty much has a 15% of getting it. Plus, I bet most parents spend more than $40 when their kid gets it! Doctor visit copay, medicine for the fever and itching, chicken noodle soup...etc (not to mention missed work for many parents!). So yeah, that vaccine should be required.

What do you mean by "public facility"? Do you mean government facility? What about grocery stores or sidewalks where an infected, unvaccinated kid could expose somebody else? Anything outside your house is a "public facility" in terms of exposing the public to infection. So then what? Force the kid to stay in the house their whole life? That's psychologically abusive.

No, it's not almost abuse. It is abuse.

The exact same arguments could be used against hitting your children. Some parents would say it's good for them - they need to learn not to act up and it builds character, if they are allowed to go without proper punishment they'll grow up to be spoiled brats. However, the government makes the decision that it's unhealthy to beat up your children, and makes it illegal, if you do it your kids will be taken away by CPS and you may go to jail.

No, but the government does tell you that you do have to feed your kids. If you don't CPS will take them away and you may be charged with neglect.

So you see...the slippery slope argument is complete logical fallacy. The government already has lines. With EVERYTHING. Like, once you allow interracial and homosexual marriage, what's next? People having sex in the street in front of children? Don't allow people to drive drunk? What's next?

If the government actually did massacre a bunch of peaceful protesters, the media would spin it as if the violent protesters opened fire on the on the peaceful government agents who were there to protect them, and the machine gun turret operator is a hero who was protecting his brethren and saved the city from certain annihilation by terrorists. Even if there's clear, unambiguous video getting past around every website, you know that won't beat proper media propaganda.

It's probably not a simple "increase safety" vs. "don't increase safety." The specifics matter. Were the safety measures actually going to be helpful? Or would it just create more bureaucracy to wade through and just make it harder to build more power plants?