An Open Letter to Mr. Obama

interesting anecdote from a chernobyl tour:
http://www.grcade.com/viewtopic.php?t=2217
[The meter was] reading 0.139 Roentgens, and by the time we picked it up out of the grass, it had gone up to .2, and was climbing. Its still nowhere near being lethal, but put it this way, you wouldnt want to stretch out on the grass for the afternoon. The grass is deadly around here, the asphalt was fine however! It doesnt absorb radiation like the soil did.
organic materials and soil may be much better at picking up ambient radiation than petroleum products and cement.
 
That could be because asphalt and cement are already burnt, asphalt from the heat-rendered petroleum and cement from quicklime (calcium oxide) forming pre-bound free radicals. Free radicals are desirable for pavements as they form adhesive bonds.

Interesting coincidence though. Checking my memory regarding Quicklime, I see that it is used to remove phosphates. The combination probably converts to calcium phosphate which is much less active than say sodium phosphate, though in such an exchange, that would make sodium hydroxide (lye) which is definitely not safe for consumption.
Lye is best known as a drain cleaner used to dissolve clogs of hair and keratin.
Lye will not help my ulcer!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicklime
 
Sleepy did you expect anything less from the Messiah?

So, it took this to open people's eyes about how much of a rat this jacka$$ is. A few of you really lit me up for my opposition to him(along with Pelosi and Clinton). Wake up, STOP drinking the Kool-Aid and see where he is REALLY coming from. The Cigarette tax is just the start. Before the smoke clears, the market will be crap, we'll be taxed out of our eyeballs and EVERYTHING will be controlled by the government. Looks like socialism to me instead of a democratic form of goverment as written by the Constitution and Bill Of Rights.

Close off the borders, ENFORCE THE LAWS, and STOP dipping into MY pocket to let the lazy and uninspired to exist. I'm sure everyone on this board works hard for a living and believes you should earn what you make instead of getting it handed to you.

Another thing, stop rewarding all those companies crying out for monetary relief. If they want to be bailed out, kick out the scum(basically at the top) who ran the companies in the ground in the first place. Does AIG ring a bell???
 
That could be because asphalt and cement are already burnt, asphalt from the heat-rendered petroleum and cement from quicklime (calcium oxide) forming pre-bound free radicals. Free radicals are desirable for pavements as they form adhesive bonds.

Interesting coincidence though. Checking my memory regarding Quicklime, I see that it is used to remove phosphates. The combination probably converts to calcium phosphate which is much less active than say sodium phosphate, though in such an exchange, that would make sodium hydroxide (lye) which is definitely not safe for consumption.
Lye is best known as a drain cleaner used to dissolve clogs of hair and keratin.
Lye will not help my ulcer!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicklime
arne, at this time i'm just going to nod my head and drool like an idiot if that's okay with you.

So, it took this to open people's eyes about how much of a rat this jacka$$ is. A few of you really lit me up for my opposition to him(along with Pelosi and Clinton). Wake up, STOP drinking the Kool-Aid and see where he is REALLY coming from. The Cigarette tax is just the start. Before the smoke clears, the market will be crap, we'll be taxed out of our eyeballs and EVERYTHING will be controlled by the government. Looks like socialism to me instead of a democratic form of goverment as written by the Constitution and Bill Of Rights.

Close off the borders, ENFORCE THE LAWS, and STOP dipping into MY pocket to let the lazy and uninspired to exist. I'm sure everyone on this board works hard for a living and believes you should earn what you make instead of getting it handed to you.

Another thing, stop rewarding all those companies crying out for monetary relief. If they want to be bailed out, kick out the scum(basically at the top) who ran the companies in the ground in the first place. Does AIG ring a bell???
a tremendously insightful post, sir.
so we've determined that both republicans and democrats are lying douchebags.

are we ready to vote for ron paul or ralph nader now?

bonus points: did you see the FOX news anchor on the night of obama's victory get outraged with nader when nader asked if obama was going to be an "uncle tom type" and support the same old corporate interests that the republicans pandered to?

i mean, if it was possible to receive a dual heart attack from fatal irony, i would surely have been dead by now. FOX news being offended by racism and FOX news supporting the dignity of democrats. that's lightning striking twice for those keeping count.
 
I'm always curious as to peoples opinion on the role of government.

Collective action by the group regarding the rules that the group adhere to, the goals the group aspire to and resourcing the, say achievement, of these is what we call government.

What then, is the legitimate role of government?

Was FDR wrong to instigate the New Deal in the early thirties to kickstart an economy ravaged by the crash of '29 where Wall Street had lost 89% of its value? Should he not have listened to his secretary of agriculture Henry. A. Wallace who was an enthusiast of keynesian economics (read socialist) and a Marxist to boot? If he hadn't, no new deal and perhaps a much longer recovery time....

RockWizard said:
Another thing, stop rewarding all those companies crying out for monetary relief. If they want to be bailed out, kick out the scum(basically at the top) who ran the companies in the ground in the first place. Does AIG ring a bell???

I heard a New York Times economic columnist say the other night that America can have revenge or recovery. 'These people don't deserve to be rewarded, but fairness is not on the menu'.

So what's it to be - revenge or recovery?
 
It depends on the country in question.
In the U.S. we are *supposed* to be about Inalienable Rights for each individual, with Democracy by majority vote restricted to matters of Administration. Fat chance.

As for the tax increase, I found out that the plan to finance Children's Health Insurance is labeled as "a reauthorization" because the original plan was financed with the $100 Million dollar Tobacco Master Settlement of 1996. This was the infamous lawsuit by the U.S. government against Big Tobacco for covering up their research findings and for additives added to the product. In the name of victims, the collective States took the money and instead of giving it back to the victims as would a sane lawsuit, the government instead launched the unrelated State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) while the cost of the $100 Billion settlement was passed along to the smokers and is still part of the price to this day. The smokers got nothing from the settlement and are now being suckered twice along with other unjust taxes. The costs and taxes both are applied to the wholesale price. The consumer has no right or say to object. The politicians will not listen to the smokers. We are cancer-bound junkies in their eyes, whether that is factual or not, but they will suck the taxes all the same.
To tell you the truth, come April 1st, I'm hoping for a Tea Party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_tea_party
 
OK, Individualism and pursuit of Happiness I understand, but please define 'Matters of Administration'.

I know about the Boston Tea Party - It was a beautifully symbolic gesture, but a gesture nonetheless. The real war of Independence was fought with guns and ultimately hinged on the French not siding with the British....
(Pity the poor Chinese who got the opium wars and had narcotics forced upon them so Britain could achieve balance of trade because they wanted _their_ tea so much)
 
Ah, "Matters of Administration" can refer to taxation but are otherwise limited to the procedures of the government as an office organization separate from the considerations of Personal Rights and Immunities, though Privileges can be granted or denied to individuals by the government, so long as they are applied equally under the same terms to All, at least according to the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment defines Individual Rights, Privileges and Immunities as "Equal Protection". And of course it doesn't mean that the government behaves by it, even though it is supposed to.
 
OK. You've got several very valid points here, but the 'tyrrany of the majority' will get you every time. Trouble is, since our societies have managed to avoid seeing drug addiction as a disease (rather than a choice), then us drug addicts are malcreants rather than victims, and no-one has sympathy for malcreants. We thus qualify for various measures of 'vice tax'.

But the big double standard, it seems to me, is that the rights of the individual have already been majorly stomped on, at least as far as drug use goes. Why are some magical drugs like tobacco and alcohol (both widely believed by the scientific community to be the most biologically dangerous amongst their brethren) are deemed legal and available to the individual while others are demonised and attract negative tax (the cost of prohibition)?

Shame the money from the settlement didn't go into directly into quit campaigns and subsidising nicotine withdrawal mechanisms, but not many votes there, unfortunately. Imagine the outcry if the executive sucked resources from children's health to pay for, say, swimming pools in prisons?

It behooves us to remember that democracy was not and never will be about electing good government. It is about being able to get rid bad government.

You'll attract a lot more empathy if you can show examples of a similar nature (government redirecting funds) which touch on neither drugs nor children (or prisons). Try corporate welfare.

Taxation is an interesting subject. If approached from a nationalistic or patriotic perspective attitudes towards it can be turned on their ear. During the asian currency crisis in the late 90's, Koreans (individual and corporate) were asked to _maximise_ their tax as a matter of national pride and, perhaps amazingly to us, did so!
 
When I feel depressed or am under pressure, I just want to smoke. Gradually, I become a heavy smoker and now even use a cigarette rolling machine to roll my cigarettes. Is there a way to cut down smoking?
 
Cigarette addiction is mental and chemical. Now that you have a Rollie machine you have the ability of unlimited cigs compared to buying a pack of 20 cigs. The mindset is the more cigs you have the more you can smoke without running out, compared to the limited amount in a pack. You can try writing down the time and the reason why you lit up a cig for each cig you smoke. At the end of a few days you can review your smoking habits. Limit smoking to one room in the house or go outside to smoke. Staying busy if you can is a good way to keep your mind off of smoking. Record how many cigs you smoke in a day, and try to cut back 1 cig a day for a week. The following week cut back 2 cigs a day etc. get your mindset that smoking is more of a nuisance rather than a pleasure. And when making cigs only make 1 days worth. Stockpiling of cigs has a mental signal that you can smoke all you want.
 
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