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Originally posted by SkyDiveLife:
Bytemite,

You wrote: "Homeschooled kids don't get exercise? And, what, sitting at a desk you do? From kindergarten to workforce to grave, people are spending most of their time SITTING nowadays, with major effects on health, fitness, and stress levels."

I have this somewhat, unorthodox, idea.

Desks, where you have to stand. Hemmingway, it is reported, never wrote/typed while sitting.

He always stood to do so.

The desks themselves, could be adjusted for children of differing heights.

I know it seems a little strange, but it might help.

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Originally posted by Niki2:

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roads and maintanance, hospitals and medical treatment, welfare payments, mental health services, schools, subsidising tertiary education, courts, police, child protection services, rubbish removal

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Made me smile, Magons, given that the things you listed are virtually EXACTLY what Republicans want to cut from the budget lately. Everything from "courts" on is pretty much state or county, but the government is cutting so much from the national budget that states/counties/cities are having to cut THEM, too.

We gotta laugh, or we'd cry... We'll cry anyway, down the line, as these things get less and less funding.

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Originally posted by Wulfenstar:
In the end, people like Nix argue to be peasants.

Her and their ilk, WANT to be ruled by an "elite".

I just can't stomach it.

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Hmm, well I'll start by saying law enforcement. If I wanted someone to come to my house to catch a home invader, or to solve the murder or rape of a family member, I'd presumably have to pay a private company? The inevitable result of this seems to me to be that the rich would get a better standard of justice and protection than the poor...

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This is why I like small, and local. Plenty of ways that you can organize within a small local business without creating a monster that can shrug off local economics, incentives, or public outcry.

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Originally posted by SkyDiveLife:
Terran57, I would remind you of this,

Godwin's law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies)[1][2] is a humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1990[2] which has become an Internet adage. It states: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1 (100%)."[3][2] In other words, Godwin put forth the hyperbolic observation that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably criticizes some point made in the discussion by comparing it to beliefs held by Hitler and the Nazis.

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The bottom line of the first is we need progressives if we are ever to reach a level 1 civilization, but we need moderates to counter an abuse of power. Conservetives either like Falwell or bin Laden, can retard civilzations advance.... we as a civilization and possibly species will die and all our learning and blood spilled will be in vain. Science costs big $$$, so does education and taking care of our elders. The one thing we don't need or want is war which is counter-productive. Bush spent a trillion $ on Iraq. About the same (actually less) as the stimulus. That money could have done much more here at home that sprawled out over the desert. As a strong states rights advocate and a fomer part of the shovel brigade, I encorage you to seek a middle ground and squell the spammer Wulf, who only is trying to piss people off rather than debate. Also, isn't this site about Firefly? Comparisons to the Alliance and Browncoats I understand, but this Wulf guy is just another Rush trying to piss off anybody that disagrees with him... The next 100 years will be pivitol to the survival of the human species and all he is concerned with is the next election cycle. Moderation is the key..

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Originally posted by Hardware:
This came from the US government's own website. I copied and pasted into a Word document. If they have it listed twice on two separate pages, then errors definitely could occur.

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Originally posted by Terran57:
[B
For Hardware:

As to which of those programs we need? Probably most as all are important to somebody, maybe just not you. But who am I to say that my needs and wants makes yours invalid.

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Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat:
Unfortunately, of course, he'd also never get re-elected.

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Originally posted by SkyDiveLife:
Everyone,

I happened across this article, and it really pulled me up short. Its a ranking of the states by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, on the personal and economic freedoms held within.

Do think this study holds water?

http://mercatus.org/freedom-50-states-2011

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Skydive: the purpose of banning public smoking is not to keep YOU from smoking, if that is your choice. It is to keep you from forcing ME to smoke, whether I want to or not.

As the asthmatic offspring of former heavy smokers, I can tell you I truly appreciate the ban on public smoking. I can't stand the stench, it makes me wheeze, and it shortens my life. As they say: The right to swing your fist ... or, in this case, light up... ends at my nose.

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Bytemite wrote:

Similarly smokers would become frustrated with businesses that turn them away, and be drawn to the businesses that don't. Eventually it would be assumed that the only customers remaining a a smoking establishment would be the one who had already agreed to breathe smoke anyway, and in this sense, it becomes a consensual group activity even if there is no interaction between them.

As such, I believe the business owner or landlord may deserve to have their say here.

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Originally posted by Terran57:
To NewOldBrowncoat: You missed the entire point by your moronic "Gotcha". What you consider pork barrel, lets say as an example Bobby Jindals remarks on TV about "wasteful spending on monitoring Volcanos", may be "pork Barrel" to someone in Texas or in his case Louisiana, but its sure as hell not in Oregon, or even Wyoming, etc. Is it pork barrel to spend millions on the wetlands and barrier islands in Gulf of Mexico. Hey, I've never lived there no big deal spend the money elsewhere! Right! No you idiot, we are one country and we are all in this together, so what is important to you may not be worth a flip to me, but I want to see the standard of life rise for all Americans, so these things are needed. As to deciding what has to be cut, yes one needs balls, but also which gives us back bang for our buck (Econ 101). Military spending gives nothing back money wise, whereas Social security is spent within the system. Rich people not paying taxes and hiding money overseas, while they shut down plants here and send jobs to India and China are counter-productive. So pork barrle all you want congressmen, just make damn sure the $$$ stay in the USA.

Why is it that people like you just want to stick it to others rather than a real debate? We all have to share in the repair of the debacle left by the previous administration, but not on the backs of the elderly or sick. We do not need to become standard of living wise, a third world country to balance the budget and make Tea Partiers happy. It can be done within the current system if politicians pull their heads out of the *** and stop with the "Gotcha" mentality. You OldNewBrowncoat are in fact part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Lets fix the issues together and stop the schoolyard "Gotcha" mentality.

Terran57

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