Thoughts at large

[rb336]

Yes we arm the world,heck the Obama administration made sure the Mexican cartels had plenty of weapons and nobody batted an eye.

Carrying on a program initiated by Bush/Cheney.

[Richard]

Actually two different programs,the bad part was they already knew the results of the first one But yet still went ahead in trying it again.

The report also clearly shows that Fast and Furious began under the Obama administration, dating its inception to October 2009. [[Obama took office in January 2009.) This directly contradicts Obama’s claim.

https://www.politifact.com/florida/s...gan-under-bus/

[Zacha341]

^^^ Perhaps he forgot that pesky detail!

[rb336]

Project Gunrunner was started in 2006. There were two different operations under the program - wide receiver and fast and furious. Both had the same goals and were run by the Phoenix ATF and US Attorney's Office.

Actually two different programs,the bad part was they already knew the results of the first one But yet still went ahead in trying it again.

The report also clearly shows that Fast and Furious began under the Obama administration, dating its inception to October 2009. [[Obama took office in January 2009.) This directly contradicts Obama’s claim.

https://www.politifact.com/florida/s...gan-under-bus/

[Zacha341]

Too bad he [[Obama) did not stop it...

Carrying on a program initiated by Bush/Cheney.

Yes we arm the world, heck the Obama administration made sure the Mexican cartels had plenty of weapons and nobody batted an eye.

[Jimaz]

This morning my artificially ignorant voicemail system played back a voicemail then asked "Do you want to delete this message?"

I responded "No."

Then the cheerful robot said "Okay. Deleting message!"

Arrrrrrgh!

[Zacha341]

Makes one want to go back to the tape cassette model. Well almost...

[rb336]

Does anyone else have difficulty taking people who have Tin Tin haircuts seriously?

[Richard]

This morning my artificially ignorant voicemail system played back a voicemail then asked "Do you want to delete this message?"

I responded "No."

Then the cheerful robot said "Okay. Deleting message!"

Arrrrrrgh!

Thats almost as bad as telling the phone to call Mike and it says calling Cindy.

We are just the test bed for technology.

I am starting to miss the 3 party phone line.

[Gistok]

When I hear of all the problems with voice response systems, I can't help but laugh thinking about this....

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ry=TBBT+kripke

[Bigb23]

Unlike the other children of a sociopathic President, I think Eric Trump has unfairly been thrown under the bus for being stupid, Ala SNL. Prove otherwise.

[Jimaz]

Use the control in the upper left corner to change viewing direction.

If You Could See Every Satellite, What Would The Sky Look Like? 360/VR

There are over ten thousand satellites in orbit, but only the largest ones in low earth orbit are visible in the hours just after sunset. What would the sky look like if you could see everything in space? I took satellite data and rendered a view of the night sky for an 'average' viewer in North America.

[oladub]

A starting point for fighting global warming:

Without arguing the extent and politics of global warming-

Young children should be taught that they can have all the healthy food they want but not to ask for more than they can eat. There should be consequences for leaving food on the plate that they took or asked for beginning with no dessert. Its a small thing, a starting place, that teaches moderation and self discipline. Explain to them when they are in 2nd. grade and their teachers are already scaring them about the hell fires of global warming that they can contribute to ecological sanity by not wasting food.

Hopefully, teaching small children to separate their satisfied needs from all of their wants will someday make them less likely to buy big houses, too many optional flights, and other stuff that all contributes to global warming.

I don't see how non Chamber of Commerce conservatives could argue with moderation. Teaching personal responsibility might have a potentially huge effect on global warming and pollution.

[jcole]

I'm not arguing moderation, but how does a small child KNOW how much they can eat?
Most of the time with young children, it's the parent who fills the plate, assuming THEY know how much he/she can eat. If the child is still hungry after they finish that plate and ask for more and are given too much, how is that their fault? Also, by telling a child they have to "clean their plate" before they get dessert you are teaching them to overeat to get a reward.

[Canadian Visitor]

A starting point for fighting global warming:

Without arguing the extent and politics of global warming-

Young children should be taught that they can have all the healthy food they want but not to ask for more than they can eat. There should be consequences for leaving food on the plate that they took or asked for beginning with no dessert. Its a small thing, a starting place, that teaches moderation and self discipline. Explain to them when they are in 2nd. grade and their teachers are already scaring them about the hell fires of global warming that they can contribute to ecological sanity by not wasting food.

Hopefully, teaching small children to separate their satisfied needs from all of their wants will someday make them less likely to buy big houses, too many optional flights, and other stuff that all contributes to global warming.

I take no issue w/this; but would ask, are you then in favour of market-signals that reduce excess consumption by pricing it?

Let's leave a carbon tax out, for the moment.....

Road Tolls? Car insurance by the mile? How about prohibiting excessive bulk discounts that encourage gluttany? As an example, a 1.5oz bag of chips at almost the same price as an 8oz one; people then buy the larger one, and often eat the whole thing. What if you capped the bulk discount for food at 30% the larger the size got? Or imposed a tax that got progressively higher on larger portions? Same for soft drinks.

What about prohibiting fast food combos all together? I've noted here in Toronto that if you went into a local fast food place and decided that I shouldn't have those fries, so I'll order only the drink and the burger; you pay the exact same price as with the fries!

What about making sure water is fully priced [[not subsidized by taxes?); what about shifting state subsidies for power plants or home heating fuel to conservation, for homeowners or landlords, the state will pick up 20% of the tab if you put in double-glazed windows or increase the R-Value of insulation?

Should high fuel consumption vehicles face a surcharge tax at purchase?

What about the same idea based on axle weight?

Just curious about how serious you are about conserving resources; discouraging waste and facilitating responsible choices?

I don't see how non Chamber of Commerce conservatives could argue with moderation. Teaching personal responsibility might have a potentially huge effect on global warming and pollution.

I'll wager they'd be highly opposed to your idea. Presuming your idea was effective, it would reduce grocery basket size and fast food order size. That would would be bad store comps year over year and lower profits.

[oladub]

CV, My post had to do with teaching children moderation as a way of addressing global warming. You are to some extent promoting government penalties to do the same.

We already have sin taxes bringing in revenue from alcohol, tobacco and gambling. Taxing soda pop as being unhealthy wouldn’t be much different.

Nor am I opposed to some of your suggested transfer of taxes. One estimate is that the U.S. spends $81B/year protecting foreign oil supplies. That is a hidden oil subsidy of $11.25/barrel. I don’t know what Europe, Japan and other countries pay to protect their sources of oil but since the U.S. is largely oil independent, transferring the annual $81B from our income tax and other taxes to the gas pump as a use tax would encourage EV’s and alternative domestic energy. Better yet, we should let other countries pay their share so we wouldn't have so much of a subsidy or tax expense. Airline passengers could pick up the cost of building airports. Subsidies distort the market. Changes would create havoc but they could be made over a period of years.

After Al Gore lost, he became involved with setting up market for carbon tax credits. While he was telling Americans the world was going to end, he was scheming to profit from their fears. I would rather end government subsidies to cut taxes or the federal debt than make market decisions.Otherwise we get more Solydras.

We do need to raise taxes if neither the President nor Congress will cut spending even before considering all the new trillion$ of programs being proposed by Democrats. The Simpson-Bowles Commission recommended doing both to reduce deficits and the federal debt. I would prefer import taxes to the extent we need to raise taxes but our need for increasing taxes is so great that luxury taxes would be better than more middle class income taxes.

I agree that any successful effort to teach moderation would displease not only private but some government lobbies.

[Bigb23]

To my best knowlage, Art cars are the best. This is my nomination for the best art bike. I have been following this guy for ten years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnr6uGIV8no

[Jimaz]

Simultaneously depressing and hilarious: your neighbor's deflated inflatable snowman, grinning.

We should just call them deflatable snowmen.

[jcole]

But then they get inflated at night, like a lot of men...

[Jimaz]

Just for a moment let's rethink letting artificial intelligence drive our cars:

AI Generated Inspirational Quotes

• InspiroBot.me

Okay, it's just a joke. But it's still funny.

[Richard]

But then they get inflated at night, like a lot of men...

So the preferred method is to deflate them during the day for easy storage?

[Bigb23]

I bought an HD video camera on Amazon to replace a 20 year old one I already had. Due to a bad app, the Wi-Fi would not work. [[It can be done around), but I loved the camera for the price [[$70). I posted a review on Amazon about it.
I get an E-mail from the company offering a $50 Amazon credit to remove it.

This is the response.

Thank you for the credit. In these days of being burned by BIG corporations [[Comcast/AT&T), I got an unsolicited refund from a much smaller business.
Your website will be the first I look at for my future purchases.
A customer.

Sent from


for Windows 10

From:
Sent:

Monday, December 16, 2019 9:29 PM

To:
Subject:

Re: Gift Card Refund $ 50

Thank you for your trust and support
We keep improving the product and it takes time, thank you again
This is the gift card redemption code:

A $30 [[Final cost) HD video camera with infrared night vision and an extra $50 to spend on household supplies.

This has been a nice interaction, no thanks to

COMCAST.


[[Whom I have to spend an hour on the phone to dispute a bad charge)

[Zacha341]

^^^ Loving to hear about transactions such as this! Great outcome.

Smart business know the importance of reviews on sales. I'm a heavy reviewer before most purchases.

Yes, Comcast/ Xfinity really sucks/ continually/ unceasingly. I cut the cord decades ago. I stream my TV.

[Jimaz]

I'd bet some Detroiter could make one of these easily:

pulse jet ice boat

[Jimaz]

Today's eyeroller is from an article by Kyle Bagenstose, USA TODAY Network:

Road salt typically consists of sodium and chloride. While sodium is less water soluable and lodges in soil, the majority of chloride washes away with the rain.

Expertier Kyle needs to take Chemistry 101.

He appears to be referring to NaCl, salt, a molecule. Components of molecules don't exhibit independent chemical behaviors once they've bonded into a molecule.

Sodium in water spontaneously explodes.