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Old 2012-07-04, 23:42   Link #22361
0utf0xZer0
Pretentious moe scholar
 
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zakoo View Post
To put on the same scale the side effects of both tabacco/alcohol with those drugs seems ... quite not right to put it pleasantly.

If you want to live in the fear of being attacked by somebody who didn't have his daily injection or simply took to much, I understand but well ... I think most human don't really want.
Of course the same can apply to alcoohol, but as said before, the scale totally isn't the same, and tabacco, well .... It's one's own life, if people want so badly to reduce their life simply to feel some pleasure, they may do so, but the moment my own safety enters in the equation, it's a no-no from me.
From what I understand, overdosing was rare prior to the injection drug era. Which started with prohibition, because it sent drug prices through the roof and injection is much more efficient than other consumption methods.
Missing a dose? Far more likely if the drug is expensive (ie. illegal). And there's a decent chance when they do get their fix, that big wad of cash wasn't acquired legally either. Note that several countries have run experiments with just giving heroin addicts their fix... general consensus tends to be that those in such programs are healthier and more productive.
The profit margins are also a good incentive for pushers to recruit more users.

(Also, as a minor critique of the tabacco argument: I know a decent number of smokers who have kids. At that point, it's not just about them anymore.)
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Old 2012-07-04, 23:57   Link #22362
SaintessHeart
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Iran says can destroy U.S. bases "minutes after attack"

Quote:
(Reuters) - Iran has threatened to destroy U.S. military bases across the Middle East and target Israel within minutes of being attacked, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, as Revolutionary Guards extended test-firing of ballistic missiles into a third day.

Israel has hinted it may attack Iran if diplomacy fails to secure a halt to its disputed nuclear energy program. The United States also has mooted military action as a last-resort option but has frequently nudged the Israelis to give time for intensified economic sanctions to work against Iran.

"These bases are all in range of our missiles, and the occupied lands (Israel) are also good targets for us," Amir Ali Haji Zadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division, was quoted by Fars news agency as saying.

Haji Zadeh said 35 U.S. bases were within reach of Iran's ballistic missiles, the most advanced of which commanders have said could hit targets 2,000 km (1,300 miles) away.

"We have thought of measures to set up bases and deploy missiles to destroy all these bases in the early minutes after an attack," he added.

It was not clear where Haji Zadeh got his figures on U.S. bases in the region. U.S. military facilities in the Middle East are located in Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Turkey, and it has around 10 bases further afield in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.

SCEPTICISM

Defence analysts are often sceptical about what they describe as exaggerated military assertions by Iran and say the country's military capability would be no match for sophisticated U.S. defence systems.

Iranian media reported that this week's three-day "Great Prophet 7" tests involved dozens of missiles and domestically-built drones that successfully destroyed simulated air bases.

Iran has upped its fiery anti-West rhetoric in response to the launch on Sunday of a total European Union embargo on buying Iranian crude oil - the latest calibrated increase in sanctions aimed at pushing Tehran into curbing nuclear activity.

Revolutionary Guards commanders have also threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than a third of the world's seaborne oil trade passes out of the Gulf, in response to the increasingly harsh sanctions.

Major powers have said they would tolerate no obstruction of commercial traffic through the Strait, and the United States maintains a formidable naval presence in the Gulf region.

Iran accused the West of disrupting global energy supplies and creating regional instability and says its forces can dominate the vital waterway to provide security.

"The policy of the Islamic Republic is based on maintaining security in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz for all ships and oil tankers," Iranian English-language state Press TV quoted the chairman of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, as saying.

The United States and its allies accuse Iran of using its nuclear program to covertly develop all the components required to produce nuclear weapons, accusations the Iranian officials have repeatedly denied.

The world's No. 5 oil exporter maintains that it is enriching uranium for nuclear fuel only to generate more energy for a rapidly growing population.
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Old 2012-07-05, 00:33   Link #22363
killer3000ad
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Pakistan: Mob beats and burns man for desecrating Quran
Quote:
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani police official says thousands of people beat a man to death, and burned his corpse after he was accused of desecrating the holy Quran.

A senior police officer Mohammed Azhar Gujar said that in the incident on Tuesday in the Ahmedpur East area of Punjab’s Bahawalpur district, attackers stormed a police station where the man was being interrogated.

He said the victim seemed to be mentally unstable. He was arrested after residents said he threw pages of the Quran into the street.

While the man was being questioned, some people started making announcements over mosque loudspeakers, urging residents to go to the police station and punish him.

Within hours, thousands gathered outside and demanded the man be handed over to them. Gujar said police tried to protect him, but the mob turned violent.

They burned several police vehicles and wounded seven officers before grabbing the man and dragging him into the street, where he was beaten to death and his body set on fire.
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Old 2012-07-05, 00:37   Link #22364
Lightning_Wing
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^Aren't people lovely?
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Old 2012-07-05, 00:41   Link #22365
Ithekro
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So shouldn't the mob be charged with murder, and assaulting the police?
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Old 2012-07-05, 00:44   Link #22366
Lightning_Wing
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They should, but do the officials have the means and initiative to charge that many people? Especially this far after the fact.
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Old 2012-07-05, 08:41   Link #22367
SeijiSensei
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Japan panel: Fukushima nuclear disaster 'man-made'

Quote:
The crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant was "a profoundly man-made disaster", a Japanese parliamentary panel has said in a report.

The disaster "could and should have been foreseen and prevented" and its effects "mitigated by a more effective human response", it said.

The report catalogued serious deficiencies in both the government and plant operator Tepco's response.

It also blamed cultural conventions and a reluctance to question authority.
Listening to the BBC's radio coverage of this story revealed a remarkable fact that I don't believe is in the online story. The paragraph that addresses the "cultural" issues, particularly the desire for consensus decision-making and acceptance of authority, only appears in the English-language version of the report released for international distribution. That paragraph is nowhere to be found in the Japanese version. How anyone thought this fact wouldn't be noticed is beyond me. Whether anyone in Japan will learn about this difference in the versions is an interesting question.

You can hear this discussion on the BBC's Newshour podcast. It's not up yet on the web site since Newshour is airing on the World Service right now. It should appear later on today at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/newshour.

Update: It's there now under the "Play recent episodes" header on the right-hand side of the page.

Last edited by SeijiSensei; 2012-07-05 at 09:53.
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Old 2012-07-05, 09:27   Link #22368
mangamuscle
formerly ogon bat
 
 
Join Date: May 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
You are quoting Captain Obvious here then. The saying goes "You can't have too much of a good thing"; the same goes for drugs and anything else.
The abuse of ANY substance is bad, plain and simple, popular wisdom is some kind of bible for you?

Quote:
Actually that is my question to you. Your initial "Quick resume of the pros" had a fundamental, and possibly rhetorical flaw in its reasoning, which I pointed out in the first place;
Where? You fail to clearly present your arguments!

Quote:
and your argument of ... is way out of point and jumped the gun. I agree that "domestic substance consumption" is to be made illegal, not just "substance consumption".
Wait, so you REALLY think alcohol and tobaco should be illegal? How about chocolate? or procesed sugar and flour? Sorry if I understand correctly what you propose is downright ridiculous.

Quote:
It IS difficult. Human physiology states that alcohol is metabolised at 25-30 grams per one-and-half hours, and at around 200 milligrams of alcohol per 100 ml of your blood can be considered dangerous. Secondly, an immediate introduction of much alcohol into your bloodstream can cause toxic shock.

And that means the distilliation process has to be controlled carefully through a hydrometer to prevent "KO water" from being made, as well as several purity control factors - and to add to that, taste had to be factored in.

As for the plants; I think you need to read about guerilla farming and how different parts of America has different climates - it is much easier to plant and dry leaves to smoke and export elsewhere than to make alcohol. So isn't making alcohol more difficult than planting hashish?
NO. You can make TONS of distilled alcohol in a weeked, you need only a few trained technicians since I repeat, the ingredients can be buyed at your local marketplace, to produce marijuana, cocaine, hachies and the like you need vast amount of land to plant them and require weeks for the stuff to grow and you can't move your operation overnight (while you can place an still inside a moving vehicle) to avoid the police (which nowadays uses satelite imaging to look for the plantations).

Quote:
The Prohibition is a major disaster in legal administration, and the major swings between BOTH regulation and deregulation at the extremes is the cause of problems. Similarly to China's sudden economic liberalisation and the lack of control over production standards and labour management, the huge swings in policy execution is the cause of society's problems, not the policy execution itself.
NOBODY in here is talking about complete deregulation (that is only in YOUR head) of substance consumption, I have already stated recreational drugs should be regulated like alcohol and tobaco and I go even further, it should be ILLEGAL to promote any recreational drug consumption amongst teens.

Quote:
If you think government control is all about being facist and neo-nazi, I think you have got to be one of those delusional idiot anarchists out there who has no idea what in going on in what the US media labels "oppressed countries with limited freedoms". How wrong can that view be? [/sarcasm]
Again you fail to make a comprehensive argument and probably have limited skills at reading and comprehension of the english language since nowhere I have said that I am against goverment regulation.

Quote:
Seriously, there is a limit to control and freedom - they can co-exist. I am not one for control of internet, freedom of thought and opinion, but not to the extent where the media can write total bullshit without giving thought into EXACT figures. I am totally for the control of drugs and tobacco, but not to the extent where CFT cocktails and cyber-prosthetics are strangled away from those who want another chance at life near death.
STOP right there, you can have that coctail right now just using alcohol, don't go spreading LIES that illegal drugs are only some kind of toxic waste, they are NO DIFERENT from legal recreational drugs.

Quote:
The few aspects which I stand in-between is gun-control and self-defence, so does that make me a pro-facist simply because I wanted some control over society-breakers?
I am also an advocate at gun control, can you please STOP trying to read my mind, you fail miserably (in your defense, people who have known me for decades cannot read my mind).

Quote:
If you think living under leaders funded by drug lords armed by arms-makers across the border is better than living under corporatist politicians with no hint of how modern technology functions, that is your opinion; I respect that. However, if you do not wish to understand that there is a humungous "middle ground" between order and freedom in state functionalities, take your puritanical arguments elsewhere.
[sarcasm]Bartender, give me whatever he is drinking but make it double[/sarcasm]

Last edited by mangamuscle; 2012-07-05 at 12:40.
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Old 2012-07-05, 12:27   Link #22369
killer3000ad
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Lifeguard fired for saving drowning man

....because it was outside the lifeguard's company's protection zone.
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Old 2012-07-05, 12:35   Link #22370
mangamuscle
formerly ogon bat
 
 
Join Date: May 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by killer3000ad View Post
Lifeguard fired for saving drowning man

....because it was outside the lifeguard's company's protection zone.
I would say this is not about common sense, but about greed, which in amurrica is legal _-_
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Old 2012-07-05, 12:40   Link #22371
Xellos-_^
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Quote:
Originally Posted by killer3000ad View Post
Lifeguard fired for saving drowning man

....because it was outside the lifeguard's company's protection zone.
Welcome to Corporatacy
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Old 2012-07-05, 13:15   Link #22372
SaintessHeart
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xellos-_^ View Post
Welcome to Corporatacy
They should hire a watchman to shoot the lifeguard if he goes outside the zone, or the drowning person to prevent the lifeguard from saving him. [/sacrasm]
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Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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Old 2012-07-05, 13:23   Link #22373
Sugetsu
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Quote:
Originally Posted by killer3000ad View Post
Lifeguard fired for saving drowning man

....because it was outside the lifeguard's company's protection zone.
This comment on the comment's section of the website made me laugh:

Quote:
Aren't you looking forward to when they privatize everything including police, fire and ambulance. Sorry Mr. Jones but our company only handles this block so you will need to call company xyz to come get you for your heart attack. Mr. Jones? Mr. Jones?
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Old 2012-07-05, 13:32   Link #22374
Sumeragi
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart View Post
They should hire a watchman to shoot the lifeguard if he goes outside the zone, or the drowning person to prevent the lifeguard from saving him. [/sacrasm]
It'll cost more to keep a watchman than to just fire the lifeguard. Remember, the bottom line is the most important!
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Old 2012-07-05, 13:37   Link #22375
Xellos-_^
Not Enough Sleep
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sugetsu View Post
This comment on the comment's section of the website made me laugh:
news is a bit old and was posted before but...

Quote:
Vicky Bell told WPSD-TV that she called emergency dispatchers when her mobile home caught fire. Firefighters responded but did not put out the blaze because she does not subscribe to the local fire service. Bell doesn't qualify for home owner's insurance, which is a requirement according to the city ordinance, according to CBS Radio News.
Bell says she could "look out my mom's trailer and see the trucks sitting at a distance."
Rural residents who want fire protection can get service from the nearby town of South Fulton, but they must pay a $75 a year fee. South Fulton Mayor David Crocker said that if the city's firefighters responded to people who didn't pay there would be no incentive for anyone to subscribe. He said firefighters will help when people are in danger, regardless of whether they have paid.



http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-...ers-didnt-pay/
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Old 2012-07-05, 14:33   Link #22376
mangamuscle
formerly ogon bat
 
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xellos-_^ View Post
news is a bit old and was posted before but...
The next obvious step is for firefighters to start fires at locations that do not pay them to convince those self-entitled bums to cough up some dough.
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Old 2012-07-05, 15:04   Link #22377
Anh_Minh
I disagree with you all.
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
IIRC, that was sort of justified.

- No risk to life.
- It wasn't the first time he called them to put out a fire, but refused to pay the yearly fee.
- Firefighting costs money.

Oh, sure, when his house's on fire, he'll pay the 75 dollars. But that's not how insurance works.

(That's why I think firefighting should be mandatory and paid for by taxes. It's just a mess if you let people think they can do without.)
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Old 2012-07-05, 17:35   Link #22378
Vexx
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
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Another "life long Republican" gives the "new conservative" idiocracy a smack in the head:

Quote:
Judge Richard Posner, a conservative on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, has long been one of the nation's most respected and admired legal thinkers on the right. But in an interview with NPR, he expressed exasperation at the modern Republican Party, and confessed that he has become "less conservative" as a result.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolit...ve?ft=1&f=1001
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Old 2012-07-05, 18:14   Link #22379
SeijiSensei
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As far as I can tell, Posner's conservatism derives much more from the Chicago Law and Economics school of thought (Friedman, Stigler, Becker, etc.) than anything else. He built his academic reputation on works like this. He also wrote this excellent and readable presentation of the whole "law and economics" perspective.

I think of Posner as one of the seminal thinkers in the field of public policy in the 20th century. He then got the unusual opportunity to put his mind to work on the bench. His libertarianism certainly puts him at odds with the religiously-motivated authoritarians that make up the other, and these days seemingly more influential, wing of the Republican party.
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Old 2012-07-06, 00:37   Link #22380
SaintessHeart
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sumeragi View Post
It'll cost more to keep a watchman than to just fire the lifeguard. Remember, the bottom line is the most important!
Fine, tie a GPS collar with a zone-detection bomb to the lifeguard then.
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When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.
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