| i read "the
> american way of death" by jessica mitford many years ago, and it left
> me with a lasting impression of funeral directors and the funeral
> industry, one that was not dispelled when we had to bury my mom and
> dad. the whole idea is ludicrous to me, and a total
waste of money that could be put to better use among the living. they could
dump me in a landfill for all i care. |
|
| probably multiple layers of leather and perhaps a metal
> plate or studs on the palm.
hey charles, i think i see your sense of humor laying over there in the
corner, no, the other one, yeah, there, just to the right a little
bit. |
|
that's a similar argument to one that several people and groups have
expressed about the issuing of concealed carry licenses[1];
specifically, that there would be escalating levels of violence due to trivial matters (a commonly-claimed reason is people shooting each other
over traffic accidents). indeed, levels of crime in states where
citizens can carry effective means of self defense have dropped quite a bit. while there's several possible causes for such drops in crime,
according to interviews with incarcerated criminals a major fear is that
of encountering an armed citizen.
assuming an incident with a hijacker/terrorist at the front of the
plane, is's likely that those people at the rear of the plane are not
going to start shooting indiscriminately toward the front. |
| even the most
boneheaded of people realizes "hey, there's lots of other people in the
way.", though there might well be a few incredibly stupid people who
don't notice that.
regardless, even in states with a large amount of ccw permit's issued
the numbers rarely work out to be more than one in fifty people having a permit, and usually somewhat less than that carrying at any given time. hardly "several hundred
passengers having a shoot-out at the ok corral". one holds a hostage at gunpoint (i. "open the cockpit door or we shoot the flight attendant.
after five minutes, we shoot another and so on.") while the remainder
pacifiy the rest of the passenger compartment. |
| a pilot, even if armed,
has little choice but to comply.
obviously, since the airlines are privately-owned the individual company
has (and would/should continue to have) the right to allow or deny the
carriage of weapons by their passengers.
that said, the american airport security system (even with/because
of/despite of the tsa) is horribly ineffective and insecure. rather than
doing half-assed measures like more metal-detecting, mandatory shoe
removal, and feeling-up of passengers we (tinw) should start looking at the example of israel's el al airlines and their security procedures.
sure, the way they do security requires highly-trained people (as
opposed to the goobers working at security now) and costs a bit more,
but isn't paying a little bit more now for better security more cost
efficient than waiting for the next aircraft to get hijacked and crash
or, heaven forbid, used as some sort of gigantic missile? aircraft (and
the buildings they hit) are expensive. |
| cleanup of the wreckage is expensive. the loss of life is both expensive and incredibly tragic.
[1] although i hold ccw's in two states, i find the concept rather silly
and unnecessary.
responsible meaning that they do *not* consume _normal_ amounts of calories
from healthy foods. |
|
but i could, if i owned one of those silly "emergency use only" cell phones
they pitch on late night infomercials. reminds me of my adt home security system, except the "911 emergency
send help right now" button is actually a combination of 2 or 3 buttons
(which i can never remember the proper sequence of). i think the rationale
is they don't want someone accidentally leaning against the main wall
mounted unit and sending out a call for all arms. do you think he's inadvertently revealing his plans? could a
> | submarine successfully navigate up the mississippi to little rock, i
> | wonder. even when the river is high there is not that much depth in the
> channel above the north bridge @ baton rouge. the site
> that's worst for things that obscure what you're trying to look at is
> the tvguide.i mentioned one site that did something like that, but i just went
to tvguide and got nothing. it's three weeks after the election, and ohio
> still hasn't counted the votes and certified the election. absentee ballots cast in the two days
> prior to the election haven't been counted. |
| but, of course,
there more documents you have to have, the more departments and
civil-servants you have to have in order to service them. they used to make an exception for the salvation
army, but have decided that it must be an all-or-nothing policy. they cannot
allow one charity, while prohibiting others. |
> on the other hand, not only does wal-mart and sam's club allow salvation
> army access, wal-mart assigns its own employees to ring the bells and
> collect the donations.
do wal-mart and sam's club allow other charities to solicit on store
grounds? will their employees do the soliting for these charities?
somehow, i doubt it. (though i have seen the occasional girl scout
troop outside one of the sam's clubs in the area. wal-mart
> strictly limits soliciting at its stores to 14 days per year. also, one national chain
> of shopping malls bans soliciting anywhere on any of its properties.
the difference here is that target used to make an exception to their
"no soliciting" rule for the salvation army. |
| the others never allowed it in the first place, so
it's not "news". or, also possible, choosing to
> ignore an anti-social and downright repugnant directive from slugs
> headquartered in a blue state." i suggest that a
> salvation army bell-ringer (or a girl scout cookie-sale-table) is not
> "soliciting" in the sense that they're not asking for participation as much
> as they're simply providing an opportunity to do the right thing. i doubt though that overseas applicants
> >> will have to get the id card., there is an id card which is basically the same thing as
a driver's license except it doesn't give you the right to drive. (so
that those people, who for some reason or another can't get or don't
want/need a driver's license, can use it the same way many places use
a driver's license for id. |
| wal-mart
> strictly limits soliciting at its stores to 14 days per year. also, one national chain
> of shopping malls bans soliciting anywhere on of its properties.
what interests me here is the same people who espouse that
de-regulation corporations will always "do the right thing" seem to same ones who are " about the "downright repugnant directive
from slugs headquartered in state.
> you ain't been around long enough to that .
>
> when i was initially disabled my life was the inside of home without
much
> effective communication even with family due to damage as
> side effect of heart surgery. my limitations were somewhat negated
by
> being able to my time in to .
why bother even conversing with asshole?. .. |