tvashtarkatena

JESUS, that's like a planaria calling the guy behind the microscope stupid.

So much for the fear of soshalists dumping the bodies of their enemies in mass graves, eh, KuntKuntKunt? I think executing a 20 year old for nailing a 16 year old is a fine idea. Very civilized.

Sex offenders don't make very sympathetic victims of injustice, but, the obvious question that stems from this ruling is: Who's next?

The ACLU just announced that it will attempt to block the Arizona law in federal court. Go team.

On demand at Netflix. Do a search on the word "Feed" and theres a whole lot of bad shit going down.

The only clean part of her are her nipples where you've licked the dirt off.

A "trip lever"? Where the hell you gonna go with a shitter attached to your ass? Wouldn't be more accurate to say that our asses have a shitter attached?

I'm heavily invested in my basic values, but I'm a realist when it comes to politics. If that makes me a sucker, so be it.

Jesus, so do I. I realized just how much on that trip with Josh. It's easy to forget, sometimes. Plus, I haven't done a trip with my brofriend Don since the fall. Too long.

My point and shoot doesn't have an optical viewfinder, and I've found I never need one. Bigger LCD is more important, IMO. For the rain, cut a 2 liter coke bottle in half and stick the camera in it or something, or better yet, check the forecast first!

I can only hope you were shitfaced when you attempted to put the above drivel together. The 'a whole lot more killed' propaganda line (it was never intended to be an actual argument, more of a pep squad cheer) is as ridiculous as it is tired. "More Americans would have been dead had Gore not invaded Iraq". Yeah, makes perfect sense to me. Have another shot of Jack. That should keep you warm while your out there doggin all those sheep or whatever the fuck you were trying to say. You seem a bit too old for all the Shiny New Recruit "lets git sum" bluster, but I suppose some folks just can't let go of their "let's roll" swagger. Embarrassing, really. And regarding draconia (?) laws, yeah...it's a lot less trouble for everyone when you don't pass them in the first place. An ounce of prevention and all that. Plus, its just a wee bit naive to assume that the Su-Premes are gonna swoop in and plug the dyke when it all goes wrong. Makes for a great John Gresham screenplay, though. And, of course you're going to minimize the massive damage done to this country by the Bush Administration. "Oh, no worries, the pendulum will take care of it". Of course you would, because you voted for that shit, and white washing all that fuckedupedness makes ya feel better.

You'll always get the shot with a point and shoot, even when belaying or rapping or whatever, and that's the most important criteria in my view. Having said that, the larger SLRs do some cool stuff. Long exposure, bracketing (the camera takes 3 rapid shots, then equalized the exposure of sky, subject, and foreground) are my two favorites. Time lapse is another cool feature (some models require an accessory for this one, some don't). Point and shoots are relatively cheap. You could carry one all the time and tote the bigger camera only on photography oriented trips where you've alotted a bit more time to mess around.

I only took a few shots, so I didn't bother to write a TR. Snow conditions were laughably bad as well as super dangerous. I'm waiting a window to do Dark Peak...that should yield some nice shots.

This means that risky activities like offshore drilling are artificially cheaper than they should be, which means there will be more offshore drilling.

From a political standpoint, retroactively increasing award caps allows politicians to dodge the hard decisions they're paid to make. Rather than regulate industry properly, such a scheme allows them to reduce regulation, which only increases that chance that such a disaster will occur, then, if it does, conveniently shift blame/cost to the offender. The end result is that these disasters happen more often than they should, and the environment takes it in the shorts more often than it should.

I'm going to have to disagree. A retroactive increase in liability caps retroactively increases damage awards for lost lawsuits, and that constitutes a penalty, and that is a violation of a basic constitutional principle designed to insure that people can know what the law is and act accordingly. The fact that the law already exists is irrelevant. That the existing liability limits are too low to repair the damage may suck, but the fair way to correct this is to raise them for next time. Let's say you're a doc. You pay insurance based on certain malpractice liability caps. If those caps go up, you buy more insurance. You don't get the opportunity to do that if those caps can be raised retroactively. In that world, you don't really know how much insurance to get. That's fundamentally unfair to those who want to act responsibly. Our system should protect those who do. Another example: insurance payouts. What if insurance payouts could be lowered retroactively? You've paid your premiums based on the coverage you need, and when its time to make a claim, guess what? You get fucked. Not good. The bottom line is that the government, and that is to say ultimately us voters, fucked up by under regulating this industry through lower liability caps and other means. We wanted that oil on the cheap. We wanted BP's stock to net us a pretty profit, so we turned a blind eye to the possibility of such a disaster. Well, guess what? Now we get to pay for our fuck up by footing more of the cleanup bill. That seems fair to me.

IMO, any time you hear about retroactive anything in the legislature, it's a clear sign that somebody fucked up and the system is attempting to pile another fuck up on top to fix it.

I don't think a retroactive penalty against BP will pass even cursory constitutional muster, nor should it. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" means nothing if legal acts committed in the past can become illegal. In that world, it would be impossible to know what the law is.

An ACLU attorney might. I'm not such an animal.

The point of retroactive immunity is prevent lawsuits or charges from being brought against those who have tortured. You're referring to military commissions held under the law: two different things. FISA Amendment Act of 2008 granted telecoms retroactive immunity during their participation in Bush's illegal spying program. This law effectively quashed numerous class action law suits, many at the state level. The effect was huge. Retroactive immunity clauses are increasingly common, unfortunately. You won't see punitive ex post facto legislation, however. The constitutional debate in Congress prior to passing telecom immunity focused on taking without compensation rather than ex post facto. Proponents (apparently successfully) argued that what was taken (records, communications) wasn't property. The ACLU begged to differ, of course. Retroactive immunity laws make it difficult to sue or bring charges and therefore test the constitutionality of those laws. They also send the signal to those parties involved that, when in doubt, go ahead and break the law. You'll be let off the hook later. They are a bad idea.

My gift to the public domain.

Damn, I am angrier. I should tone that shit down, fo sho. Things are actually going quite well. Oh well, you got your inner life and your outer life and sometimes the two aren't talkin' as much as they should.

These cuntz were guests of a school that graciously allowed them to use its facilities. They thanked the school with vandalism. It doesn't matter what was on the wall: that was none of their fucking business. Low culture at its best. Go Baggers. Here's to hoping they run their own candidates.

Military Commissions act of 2006.

Ivan's at the teacher's podium. A poster of Stalin is the least of a parent's worries. You gotta love overprotective parents...like they can really limit their children's access to ideas? Good luck. Parents who freak out over that shit are a pain in the ass to everyone involved: most especially their kids, who usually wind up blowing them off in the end anyway.