Comments by tegrat
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Posted on November 26 at 10:59 a.m.
My condolences to the family and friends. If I were king, Aaron would have never been in Iraq under those circumstances. I was given to believe that Anbar was in the midst of a "miraculous" reduction in violence. I suppose reduction does not mean zero.
Posted on November 21 at 10:28 a.m.
Gangs are bad because they are a direct reflection on the values of the society in which they exist. It's not the apples, it's the barrel. This has been shown over and over in controlled experiments and in real life (Abu Ghraib, for example). I wish I could excuse myself, but I can't. The only thing I personally have done is volunteered some time at Los Prietos Boys Camp. At least, having grown up in Latin America, I don't harbor an immediate resentment towards illegal immigrants like many of our fellow SB residents apparently do. My values are that we support each other, regardless of our provenance, and in doing so we reduce the opportunity for gang activity to flourish.
Posted on November 21 at 10:14 a.m.
The shenanigans go beyond gerrymandering the districts. For example, in return for Abel Maldonado's faithful vote on budget issues, the Democrats agree to let him run virtually unopposed. There is no real simple solution to drawing district boundaries. A friend of mine had a computer program that made nice contiguous blobs, but even those heuristics (like where is the center of each blob) are subjective to some degree. This issue is not going to be resolved by an "independent" redistricting board, but I am willing to bet that it is a step in the right direction. Next would be to get the spineless Democrats to run a serious candidate in every district, as they have done nationally.
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Posted on November 21 at 9:54 a.m.
Illegal immigrants pay taxes just like you and me (assuming you have your papers). Just ask your tax preparer how many returns they have done for people who have a tax ID number but no SS number. You might learn something. Not only that, studies have shown that illegal immigrants receive less in benefits than they pay into the public system. For example, they will never see any SS payouts. California's situation has very little to do with illegal immigration.
Posted on November 21 at 9:48 a.m.
Is the material truly re-cycled? Or "down"-cycled, a much more common outcome for materials we consumers think we are "re-cycling". Down-cycled materials have more impurities (something that would be critical in a structural material) and are thus destined to be less usable than their progenitors.
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Posted on November 20 at 1:29 p.m.
Loveforall, good post, I am encouraged that you have many homosexual friends but can still maintain your views. I would argue however that the preponderance of scientific evidence points towards homosexuality NOT being a lifestyle choice. All but a few psychiatrists and psychologists would agree with that statement. "Tens of thousands who have been cured"? I don't think so. How do you explain the very real tens of thousands who lived in heterosexual relationships for a large part of their lives but then "chose" homosexuality? You need to do a little research here, brother (or sister).
There is plenty of hate on both sides, and I agree with you that the No on 8 crowd (amongst which I count myself) are sending the exact wrong (and contradictory) message by focusing on the haters that do exist on the opposing side.
Posted on November 20 at 1:18 p.m.
I think Hank is referring to a commenter on a different story who, assuming the students were from Westmont, and further assuming they had most likely voted in favor of Prop 8, was essentially rebuking them.
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Posted on November 19 at 11 a.m.
Not to mention that we should nullify the marriages of all those who can't (or choose not to) have children, gay or otherwise, according to this absolutely ridiculous argument.
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Posted on November 26 at 11:10 a.m.
"why not civil union"? OK, and we'll call childless marriages "sterile unions" and april-september marriages "temporal unions" and second, third, fourth and fifth marriages "do-over marriages", how about that (there's got to be more)? Certainly all of those types of marriages are "off-putting" to "some folk". How moronic.
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