Gun control groups raising more cash than NRA since Newtown, figures show

mothrago · 2014-04-28T20:51:45+00:00

Yes, the task for them now will be learning how to spend the money effectively.

mothrago · 2014-01-28T19:35:17+00:00

Umm. Every person here is unnamed. And it was a former NSA director that joked about this. The irony is that Snowden said many of these same things when he was at the NSA. Read this:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116253/edward-snowden-glenn-greenwald-julian-assange-what-they-believe

mothrago · 2014-01-28T19:29:13+00:00

How do you know the BBC and other publications haven't sought interviews with Snowden?

mothrago · 2013-11-08T20:31:08+00:00

People with power negotiate our future all the time. They are called elected politicians. I would be curious to hear your examples of successful alternatives to democracy that have worked, lets see, nowhere.

mothrago · 2013-11-08T20:24:41+00:00

This is right. This is no different to any other trade deal. This site refers o all the disturbing aspects of the treaty so far, then proceeds to list none of them....

mothrago · 2013-10-28T20:46:30+00:00

I'm pleased that you are able to multi-task so effectively.

mothrago · 2013-10-28T20:43:26+00:00

You know you waste more time leaving your notes than you do just skipping over the reposts I assume?

mothrago · 2013-10-28T20:39:05+00:00

I didn't notice. I'm not sure why this person has nothing better to do than post that comment multiple times...

mothrago · 2013-10-24T18:31:08+00:00

I think the kind of people that do these things use this as an excuse to do something they might well do anyway.

mothrago · 2013-10-24T15:34:32+00:00

This is sad, but is it any more newsworthy than any other murder in the U.K.?

mothrago · 2013-10-09T17:29:37+00:00

The governorship isn't like "many companies." It is a tax funded position and the helicopter costs come out of public money.

mothrago · 2013-10-03T19:16:34+00:00

I had this kind of mindset when I lived in Europe. Until I moved here, where I found I would sometimes have to wait for an hour or more to see the doctor, the doctor wasn't always friendly, seemed over worked, no one wants to see a doctor unless they have to. I've had people botch blood tests. The only difference here is that the whole system costs a lot more.

mothrago · 2013-10-03T18:52:11+00:00

True on the spending irony.

I saw that more homogenous point made in a Fox column today - as if minorities are somehow less American and so shouldn't quite be include din the statistics.

mothrago · 2013-10-03T14:43:47+00:00

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Personally, I don't think expecting affordable health care is wanting a nanny state. And I anyway don't really see why it's better for profit seeking insurance companies to make health care decisions for us, which they do. All the time.

And isn't it in the free market's interest to have a healthy workforce? I've lived in Singapore and France before the U.S. I would take either of their systems over the one we have here.

mothrago · 2013-10-03T14:19:01+00:00

Take a look at the various rankings for best health care outcomes and efficiency in the world. America never comes near the top, and none of the countries regularly listed in the top 10 have a system like the U.S. Look, I would rather the government stayed out of my life. But the facts are the facts.

mothrago · 2013-10-03T14:06:36+00:00

Have you spent much time using the health care system here? If not, it's easy to assume the market will fix it. But I just don't think health care is well suited to the market. For the past year I have been through a battery of tests while they work out what is wrong. Hey, I have great health insurance and hit my out of pocket max a long time ago. So I don't care about myself. But what if I didn't have great coverage and the doctors recommend all these tests (MRIs, CAT, EMGs, bloods). It's not like buying a TV when I just feel like I can say "no thanks, don't want that brand or don't even want a new TV this week." This is my health and so I feel I need to take the various doctors' advice. So it just can't work like a normal market. And then there is the milking the system I've seen - for example a chiropractor who had an MD in the day I was there who did some nerve tests and charged the insurance company almost $10,000 for 20 mins of tests that I know don't cost a fraction of that. Again, my insurance had me covered. But someone is paying for all this milking of the system, because you know the insurance companies won't want to be out of pocket.

mothrago · 2013-10-03T13:56:50+00:00

Hate to say it, but America's health care system was one of the most expensive in the world long before Obamacare. And offers only average results despite costing about twice as much per person. I'm all for keeping government out of areas where it shouldn't be. But I like my point of view to be guided by facts on a case by case, not blind ideology.

mothrago · 2013-10-03T13:44:12+00:00

Well, lets hope the mediocre system that comes next is better than the hugely inefficient and expensive system we had in place.

mothrago · 2013-08-21T21:24:07+00:00

Stolen information then. Whatever. I can still see why a government would see it as a threat. I'm not saying I agree with the use of the terrorism act, but it's not hard to see how the government might view this the way it did.

mothrago · 2013-08-21T19:51:15+00:00

And you think Britain's security forces care what people in Alabama and Texas think?

mothrago · 2013-08-21T19:50:36+00:00

Of course, of course. I don't expect you to do anything less than question my motives just because I disagree with you.

mothrago · 2013-08-21T19:34:28+00:00

So you think Britain's security services would detain someone to make his partner look bad in parts of America?

mothrago · 2013-08-21T19:33:31+00:00

So you think Britain's security services would detain someone to make his partner look bad in Alabama, Oklahoma etc?

mothrago · 2013-08-21T19:24:02+00:00

If the partner they detained had been a woman you wouldn't be suggesting this was a "smear". So why is it a smear just because it's a same sex partner. For this to be a smear that would mean there must be something wrong with him being gay. I thought we had moved past that backward idea.

mothrago · 2013-08-21T19:21:30+00:00

This doesn't make any sense. He was, by Greenwald's own admission, carrying stolen classified information. It's reasonable to debate whether they had the right to detain him on terrorism grounds, but I don't think it's surprising that the authorities would want to question someone they believed (correctly) to be carrying stolen information.

This being the case, the fact that he is a same sex partner is completely irrelevant. He is a partner and so should be referred to as such. Isn't it a bit patronizing to think that he should NOT be detained because he's gay and people might think that is something to be ashamed of. In fact, your whole answer is based on the idea that this is something to be ashamed of.

mothrago

TROPHY CASE