Aileron

Look, whether Bush outsources or not, our manufacturing jobs are screwed. We are a capitalist society, and therefore even our entire government cannot stop this. Even if we did stop losing manufacturing jobs to foreigners, we would then lose them to machines, robots, and more labor efficient production methods. We need to build more schools, and train more white-collar workers. That is where our advantage lies, and that is where we should be pushing. India, China, and Taiwan can produce laborers at a much cheaper wage than we can, but they cannot match us in neither quality nor quan!@#$%^&*y of eductated workers.

The woods actually, and I tried shouting at them first. I don't think a garbage can would have done it. I didn't come to that decision quickly - it was dangerous even with such a low calibur and with blanks. However, I realised it was the only solution that would have reliably worked. If I had neighbors, the dogs would have been lingering around their property as well, and they likely would have tolerated the disturbance if it got rid of them. Look, I'm not saying that guns should be used quickly or given to everyone. They should be regulated so that they are handled responsably. All I'm saying is that national governments who take the right to own one away are overstepping their bounds. I don't like the idea of buerocracies deciding who is and who isn't qualified.

Um, women can't keep up with men while doing physical stuff anyways. Mentally and morally, men and women are equal, physically is another matter. Thus, the military likely doesn't care about a female soldier's physical capabilities. The recruit women for their brains; when they want brawn, they get a Swarzenegger type male, and hand him a rocket launcher or 22 mil gun.

Its not, nor has ever been, easier to get a gun than to buy a swimming pool. We are comparing gun regulation to gun banning. Yeah, swimming pools and ladders are regulated, but they aren't banned. Besides, guns do have other uses. Just yesterday I used a 22-cal pistol filled with blanks to scare off a group of stray dogs that were hanging around my house.

You think that 1.5% of kids under 15 being killed by firearms (1% by homicide!) is a good result? I'd say that the US, Finland and Israel results are appalling. The following 10 or so rates are also bad, but the US rate is shocking. The child death rate from firearms should be negligible. Alright, now that you want to push that chart - where did you get it? Secondly, the problem is that there is no controll variable...this could be a result of the drug war in the US. But overall, trust me when I can say that I can find a couple NRA charts that indicate the opposite. Besides, the US does not own that many guns, Israel gun ownership rates are higher than ours. My point is while you are at it, how about banning swimming pools to prevents deaths by drowning? How about banning ladders to prevent deaths by falling? Both of those things have comparable rates. Ridiculous. Guns should be banned in some places. Schools and aeroplanes for example. I agree that they should be highly regulated - that is pretty much my point. The second amendment makes it difficult for US states to implement sensible regulations because they impinge on so-called 'rights'. My bad. I meant "Anywhere" as in "every nation", not every place. Sorry about that. For the second part, no. It prevents the federal government from making such rules, but local governments have a lot of leeway in that area. The purpose and wording of the second amendment does not prevent local governments from enacting regulations.

Well, really Bush didn't have that much choice in creating the deficit. There was an economic recession that started in 1998 and a couple wars, one of which there is no arguement that he absolutely had to fight in. With those conditions, he had no choice but to spend money. Besides, when you adjust for inflation, that deficit is not all that much. Also remember that the plan is to fix the economy and the economy will fix the deficit. The deficit was caused by Bush getting handed a bad situation. BTW, quit with the negative at!@#$%^&*udes people. Neither one of these candidates are that bad, its just that you have no comprehension of just how bad the media is.

Well, it does give the doctors experience working with actual patients. I worked in a hospital - dealing with the injury is one thing, dealing with the patient is another.

Well, lets get back to the topic. The problem with freedom today is that several key industries have formed oligarchies that all have the same policy. Suppose for example that for either religious or personal reasons, you don't want to show up on a security camera. Suppose then that you needed to go to a bank, as every citizen likely has to at some point. The problem is that likely every bank in the country has a security camera set up. Technically, you have the freedom to avoid the security cameras. In reality, one cannot avoid them without turning their life upside-down. Cases like this are rare, minor, and often stupid, but you can see how private industry take some of the public's freedom away.

Yeah, its a democracy people. Your opponant is ~gasp~ going to have organizations that support him, even if ~gasp~ you happen to not like him!

Oh, I posted, but the comment didn't make it on the forum. It was pretty much what Sam said...that first chart shows that the US still only has a 1.5% rate...it would be more efficient to make driving laws or actually do something in the war on drugs. Suicide is countered by pyschology. If a suicider doesn't have a gun, he jumps off a bridge. Guns have little affect on that aspect. Accidents can also be handled by proper handling. Instead of banning guns, how about requiring owners to take a mandatory safety course? I personnally was not allowed to touch my gun until after a good gun safety speech from my father and a hunter's safety course. If those owning guns were educated as such, I doubt we would have to worry about many accidents. It would be a more appropriate step than the ban of guns. For crime, how many crimes are commited with 22-cals and muzzleloaders? A universal ban includes weapons such as that, whose ban will have no impact on the war on crime. Gun control isn't about saving lives or anything noble as that, its about one line of thought that has an opinion that private gun ownership does nothing for our society, and they feel that they have the right to dictate their opinion on the rest of us. Guns shouldn't be banned anywhere - they should be highly regulated. Smart regulations can have the same impact on personal safety, which Monte himself has proven is an insignificant aspect in the first place.

No, I've come to the conclusion that many politicians have admirable qualities, and that the ridiculously negative media does all they can to muckrake all politicians.

Well, the problem is that if the waiting room is filled with scraped knee patients C, D, E, F, G, H, and I, the doctor may rush through heart patient A. Or if those patients came before A even showed up, the doctor may be fatigued. Priotizing patients keeps our ERs functioning, but there would be fewer problems if they could turn away just the extremely uninjured patients.

You know, this topic isn't supposed to be about gun control.

I think a problem is that private enterprises take freedoms away, under the excuse that citizens are free not to do business with them. For example, I am going up to Penn State University Park next week. That area is A1 deer hunting territory. Thus, I want to bring my gun up with me so I can go hunting when deer season starts. My problem stems from when I want to get an apartment. Virtually every apartment up there forbids firearms. Thus technically I still have the right to bear arms, I just have to give up going to college Regardless of your opinions on gun control, you can't disagree with this - this issue is not for those who manage these apartments to decide. BTW, Monte, you are WAY overestimating how many time guns are used for violence, atleast for the difference between a flat out gun ban and requiring permits for concealed weapons. (How often do criminals use large rifles?)

Well, its also dangerous to pull staff away from critically injured persons for patients with dumb injuries. Sure, if the ER sends people away there will be a select few who will die from it. However, there are undoubtedly a select few who are dying from misappropriation of medical resources. There are some cases where I think its justified. The best cases I have seen is where the patient has been injured for a few days or even weeks and suddenly decided to come into the ER in the middle of the night. It didn't kill them before, and its REALLY unlikely that it will kill them. However, I meant that they should be turned away strictly in the cases of the scraped knees and sprained ankles. Other cases should be admitted just in case.

I tell you what, I firmly believe there is no such thing as a Kerry supporter. There are Bush-haters, but I have yet to find somebody who actually supports Kerry.

Aw, wth. I'll do it. PM me the specifics of what you want done.

what'd I do? Its not like my character is a love'n peace supporting pacifist.

Well, that's kinda the idea.

The way ERs work is that they are required by law to treat every patient that wants in. Now, somebody with a paper cut may wait hours and hours, but they still get admitted in the ER, and they pay the same way as someone with cardiac arrest. Some hospitals add a minor injuries unit to their ERs, but it is still an ER nonetheless. Monte, what you are describing is a national insurance, which is a very well discussed possibility. It has its share of faults, but it is a reasonable idea. Its a good idea for socialist countries like the UK and Canada, but I'm not so sure it would be as good an idea for the US. Besides, I DEFINITELY think we need to sort out Social Security and eliminating a few little used programs before even thinking about adding another program. The Tort Law reform (putting a cap on "pain and suffering" in lawsuits) would be a good start, basically because it eliminates the lawyers (who really don't have to be there to provide health care) from the issue. If we tried both ideas at once, we would probably get very good results.

After working two years in a hospital, I'm thinking of maybe a change that can be made to health care all over the world. I'm thinking that Emergency Rooms should be given the perrogative to turn away patients with minor injuries. See, ERs function under treat first, pay later. With somebody suffering a stroke or cardiac arrest, this is undoubtedly the proper approach. However, I'm thinking along the lines of those with an infection, minor laceration, twisted ankle or the like. Such patients can wait to receive their care, and it would probably be better for all of use if they were sent to some kind of outpatient facility. Your thoughts?

double post, sorry

[OOC-Well, you can't really walk down the street chewing on some girl's liver. Sorry. Besides, I can't type much more than this. ] The fake Natalie walked to the government center. While most of the center was underground caves, the years of constant decoration made it look like the center of Ithkul government that it was. Just in the lobby was one of the security doors that gave access to the non-civilian areas of the caves. As Natalie's memories stated, there was a password, retina scan, and eye scan. Just inside, some security guards questioned why she was coming in after her shift. "I forgot my personal organizer" The fake travelled undesturbed to the life support system. There was a few unarmed technical staff. Fortunately, Natalie's sidearm happened to be silent. The fake merely drew the sidearm and blasted the technicians. The fake shut the door, then regurgitated the tank of poison gas, a couple tools, and some instructions. [OOC-How to Corrupt a Government Life-Support System, it even includes nice color illustrations. ] It took a few minutes to complete. Then, the fake left by the way he/she came in. He/she walked down the street to the warbird Ailius he had stashed there earlier. First Ailius set the autopilot to leave orbit, and disguarded poor Natalie's skin. "Alright its planted, all units proceed." "Sir, while you were gone, somebody built something to counter the Gehenna." "Hmmm, this was a little sooner than expected, but they were never going to last forever anyway. I'm releasing the gas now." The gas valve was opened. However, the life support was offline, so it didn't spread. "Alright sir, beginning bombardment now." The SE ships began their attack run. There were small garrison fleets surrounding each of the target planets. However, the ships were small and manned by the inexperienced. They were destroyed quickly. The SE fleet started to bombard the planets. At this time the main Ithkul fleet was contacted. They were heading towards the central planets, when suddenly almost every civilian ship and colony on radar became Gehenna. The dormant Gehenna in Ithkul territory had been ordered to go active, making a barrier between the Ithkul fleet and the SE. The Ithkul attacked the Gehenna, but had no chance of reaching the SE in time. On the planets, civilians were scrambling to whatever transport they could find. The evacuation was haphazard, and most of the time all they could do was take off to fall victim to the SE Wyverns above. A little over 60% of the Ithkul civilians escaped. Most of the government officials had gone to their caves. There was communication equipment there, and they scrambled to see what was going on and how to stop it. However, by this time the bombardment was damaging the atmosphere, so the cave was shield, and the automatic life support system activated. Then, the gas that had been installed filled the installation, destroying virtually all the Ithkul government. By the time Ailius returned to his flagship, all of the target planets were inhabitable. The SE did not quite get the casualties they had hoped, but the death toll was still in the trillians. There was great celebration onboard the SE ships. Revenge had finally been theres. The fleet regrouped and got ready for their escape.

The Gehenna sent an encoded transmission to the SE regarding the new anti-Gehenna. The SE then attempted to send a transmission to Ailius. "Shutup, fool! I'm under radio silence!" The SE scientists proceeded without Ailius' instruction. They sent orders to the Gehenna. If the new bots were to attempt to reprogram any Gehenna bot, the Gehenna bot would self destruct, destroying the anti-Gehenna bot in the process. Thus, the anti-Gehenna must be equal in m!@#$%^&* to the Gehenna infestation to win. This would be enough to hold the anti-Gehenna back - for now. In the meantime, a handfull of Gehenna cloaking ships was sent to hide in deep space. That way, if the Gehenna was wiped out, they could spread themselves afterwards. Also, a handfull of refugee ships heading towards Terran space were infected with the dormant varient of the Gehenna. The SE still had to hurry, but they were waiting on Ailius' operation, and he was under radio silence. Fortunately, he was still trying to get this operation done quickly. [OOC-Sorry for the creappy post, but I decided that my character hasn't been evil enough] Ailius was waiting just accrossed the street from the Ithkul Government center, when he finally saw the person he was looking for. Miss Starscraper was leaving and heading home. Ailius stalked her. She didn't notice, because he changed his face several times, and wore a grey suit which was practically the uniform in the capital. She walked to a nearby apartment building. She climbed to a room on the third floor and unlocked the door. Just then, Ailius ran up behind her and covered her mouth with his hand. He pulled out an aerosol can and sprayed it into her face. She dropped unconcious. He dragged her into her apartment and closed the door. He stopped and listened for a moment to see if her neighbors heard him. A minute of silence indicated they were not even home. He then looked down at his victim. She was cuter than the picture showed - pity that he had to kill her. He took a syringe out of a container and injected it into her arm. She died in a fraction of a second. He then proceeded to drag her to her kitchen, away from the window. He was carrying a reasonably large suitcase, which he had left outside in the struggle. He quickly grabbed it and brought it inside. Inside the suitcase was a wide collection of surgical equipment, as well as a miniature poison gas tank hooked to a remote detonator. He turned to the surgical equipment. He took out a cutting device, and proceeded to cut his victi'ms skull open, exposing her brain. He then turned to another device, some kind of cable. One end was inserted directly into the back of Ailius' head. The other was attached to the woman's brain. It transferred several of her memories directly into Ailius' brain. This gave him knowledge of the center's security. Entrance required a hand scan, a retina scan, and a password. Ailius had the password, but his bionanobot abilities couldn't even fool the scanners into thinking he was human. Ailius then began something truly sick. Taking his cutting tool, he began to carefully undress, then skin her. After carefully removing her bones, muscles, and organs, he set the poison gas tank inside the empty s-*BAD WORD*-. Then, he poured into the skin like water in a glass and bionanobots made the seams invisible. "Natalie" put on her clothes and headed back to the government center.

Well, then mayhaps we should scrap the whole thing and add standard Subspace style stats. Just as an example L3 1 x Guns reload 100 ms L1 EMP prox bomb with 20 shrap reload 500 ms 1200 nrg Steath X radar and Anti-warp 3 repels and a portal Capital ships can have bigger versions of the same weapons. For example, allow them to carry L4-10 bombs. I dunno, this would probably be too constrictive. Well, a basic addition would be any item that exists in Subspace can be put on a ship, with exception to super and shields. Another follow-through would include miniature versions that are carried. I dunno if that picture idea is such a good one. It doesn't really require creativity as much as being able to find a cool pic online.