TerraByte
Everyone has ideas about how we should control gun violence, from banning all gun ownership to putting armed guards in schools and public places. Here is a nine-part plan for managing gun ownership that would attempt to address issues like assault weapons, gun shows, illegal weapons, gun collecting, hunters and and hobbyists, and the rights of gun owners and victims of gun violence. No one will like every provision of the plan but it's worth debating. Otherwise we'll end up with whatever the government and the NRA gives us.
Poll 114 votes Show Results Which part of the Nine-Point Gun Control Plan do you HATE the most? Owner Registration Weapon Registration Trigger locks Firepower Rating Insurance Gun Collectors Firearm Sale Requirements Open Carry Law Enforcement Checks 114 votes Vote Now! Which part of the Nine-Point Gun Control Plan do you HATE the most? Owner Registration 8% 9 votes Weapon Registration 7% 8 votes Trigger locks 5% 6 votes Firepower Rating 14 votes Insurance 18 votes Gun Collectors 9% 10 votes Firearm Sale Requirements 2% 2 votes Open Carry 33 votes Law Enforcement Checks 14 votes
The Federal government is not a business but people are always saying they want the government to run more like a business. This election may be a referendum on just this issue.
Government is composed of people doing the work of the people. Business is composed of people doing the work of a finite group of people, that is, owners and shareholders. What would be the benefit of running the government like a business? Government does follow administrative procedures that attempt to fairly implement the laws created by the representatives of the people (i.e., legislatures). Trying to be fair to everybody often results in absurdly complex bureaucracies. Still, the government is both efficient and effective at its job. The government creates all kinds of new technologies for businesses to capitalize on like pharmaceuticals and all the NASA and military developments. It also does its own inherently-governmental work, like policy development, budgeting, intelligence, security, and criminal prosecution, more effectively than contractors could because contractors don’t understand government systems and constraints. When the government needs to build or manufacture something, they provide direction and cost accounting, but rely on the private sector to do what they know best.
So, why should the government run more like a business? What would be better for the American people? Consider this.
Poll 22 votes Show Results Should the government be run more like a business? Yes No I'll tell you in the comments 22 votes Vote Now! Should the government be run more like a business? Yes 5 votes No 15 votes I'll tell you in the comments 9% 2 votes
The Constitution is quite clear that to be President of the United States, an individual must fulfill only three conditions: be a natural born citizen, be at least thirty five years old, and reside within the United States for at least fourteen years. Thankfully, there are no Constitutional requirements based on race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, physical infirmities, or any of the other personal attributes that are made to seem so important today. But while the founding fathers recognized that an individual seeking to be President should have a minimum amount of life experience, they did not account for the health effects of aging and made no provisions for an upper age limit.
Poll 382 votes Show Results How old is too old to be a candidate for President? 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80-85 No age is too old 382 votes Vote Now! How old is too old to be a candidate for President? 60-64 6% 24 votes 65-69 63 votes 70-74 133 votes 75-79 55 votes 80-85 5% 18 votes No age is too old 89 votes
President Obama is about to announce a program to stimulate job creation in the U.S. The program will probably consist of extensions of tax cuts and unemployment benefits, aid to States, and new spending on U.S. infrastructure. Here’s another way the government might “prime the economic pump.”
In just the past year, the country has gone through a series of divisive political debates over the economy, tax cuts, unemployment, job creation, health care, bank regulation, the budget deficit, and the debt ceiling. The only thing the two major political parties can agree on is fighting wars, enforcing pernicious drug laws, kowtowing to corporate lobbyists, and abridging the rights of citizens under the Patriot Act. These are not things the majority of Americans want. Maybe it’s time to make some changes to our current system of government. Here are ten ideas that might change things for the better.
Most of us are concerned about climate change and want to do what we can to minimize our contributions to greenhouse gases. It’s complicated, though. There are scores of recommendations on how to minimize our carbon footprints, some quite consequential and others relatively insignificant.
Carbon isn’t like an addictive drug we can try to quit using. We are made of carbon. We consume food made of carbon, exhale carbon dioxide (CO2), expel methane (CH4), and excrete carbonaceous feces. Plants and animals are made of carbon, too, and experience the same or similar processes. Worst of all, most of our major fuel sources involve carbon. Carbon can be found in the atmosphere, in the ocean, in earth materials, and in the biosphere as chemical compounds and life forms. So, we can’t just abstain from using carbon. We have to manage how we use it.
Think of carbon as if it were your money. Just as you can manage your money by lacing it in different types of accounts, you can manage the carbon you use by directing it to an appropriate environmental medium.
Remember the episode of StarTrek where the crew finds a culture that follows some ancient tradition that the inhabitants don't understand anymore? Actually, it's a recurring theme in many genre of literature. Well guess what. We're following a 200+ year old document that never envisioned the changes in society and technology that have occurred. It's about time for us to reexamine what we want our country to be.
Poll 139 votes Show Results If there were to be a Constitutional Convention in 2020, what topics would you be most likely to work toward changing? Government (e.g., Balance of Powers, ethics, Executive Privilege, Line-item Veto, political appointments) Media (e.g., ownership, bias, source protection, disclosure of secret information) Business (e.g., Corporate Personhood, stakeholders, ethics, product safety) Science & technology (e.g., cloning, stem cells, environment, climate change) Citizenry (e.g., rights and responsibilities, representation, taxation) Individual Issues (e.g., abortion, assisted suicide, identity theft, privacy, gun ownership, pornography, prostitution, drugs) Discrimination (e.g., race/color/ethnicity, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, affirmative action) Societal Issues (e.g., abortion, death penalty, poverty, education, health care, animal rights, flag burning) Separation of Church and State (e.g., public displays, prayer in schools, creationism, tax-exempt status, marriage) Elections (e.g., primaries, funding, Two-party system, Electoral College, term limits for Congress/Courts) Defense & Security (e.g., percent of budget, secrecy, terrorism, inhumane weaponry, torture, draft, stop-loss, veteran support) International Relations (e.g., treaties, trade, aid, spying, diplomacy, immigration, World Court, United Nations) Other topics or issues not covered in the previous responses None, I don't feel that strongly about any of these issues. None, I don't think the Constitution needs to be changed. 139 votes Vote Now! If there were to be a Constitutional Convention in 2020, what topics would you be most likely to work toward changing? Government (e.g., Balance of Powers, ethics, Executive Privilege, Line-item Veto, political appointments) 9% 13 votes Media (e.g., ownership, bias, source protection, disclosure of secret information) 1% 2 votes Business (e.g., Corporate Personhood, stakeholders, ethics, product safety) 6% 8 votes Science & technology (e.g., cloning, stem cells, environment, climate change) 1% 1 vote Citizenry (e.g., rights and responsibilities, representation, taxation) 2% 3 votes Individual Issues (e.g., abortion, assisted suicide, identity theft, privacy, gun ownership, pornography, prostitution, drugs) 5% 7 votes Discrimination (e.g., race/color/ethnicity, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, affirmative action) 2% 3 votes Societal Issues (e.g., abortion, death penalty, poverty, education, health care, animal rights, flag burning) 4% 5 votes Separation of Church and State (e.g., public displays, prayer in schools, creationism, tax-exempt status, marriage) 3% 4 votes Elections (e.g., primaries, funding, Two-party system, Electoral College, term limits for Congress/Courts) 1% 2 votes Defense & Security (e.g., percent of budget, secrecy, terrorism, inhumane weaponry, torture, draft, stop-loss, veteran support) 1% 1 vote International Relations (e.g., treaties, trade, aid, spying, diplomacy, immigration, World Court, United Nations) 1% 1 vote Other topics or issues not covered in the previous responses 1% 1 vote None, I don't feel that strongly about any of these issues. 3% 4 votes None, I don't think the Constitution needs to be changed. 84 votes
Chiasmus, a figure of speech in which two clauses reverse structures to show crossing parallelism.
Liberals believe the best talk shows are liberal, the Courts are conservative, and the media isn’t doing their job. Conservatives believe the best talk shows are conservative, the Courts are liberal, and the media isn’t doing their job.
It's been another record-breaking year for the poppy growers in Afghanistan. I wouldn’t say that our war-against-drugs is ineffective and led by dim-witted myopic authoritarians. That’s already been established. It’s time for putting new strategies forward.
Does anybody own their own business or have hiring authority at work? What would you do if you hired someone to do a job and, instead of doing what you told them to do, they did what they wanted to do. You would probably fire them, or at least, lose confidence that they would follow your orders in the future.
You've probably seen this story:
The company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin and three current and former executives pleaded guilty today in federal court here to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused.
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