Andy9o8

Hmm. And why do you suppose that is? I understand. That said, given the fact that America projects its military and geopolitical power across the globe in ways many non-Americans (even the "good guys" ) disapprove of, it's probably human nature for those people to do that.

That's very odd. Unless it's a whacked-out judge, there has to more to the story that we don't know about.

Most laypeople have difficulty wrapping their heads around the fact that the lawful function of pre-trial bail is to secure appearance at trial, not to impose punishment prior to trial and conviction. and rightly so. Insanely high bail is one of those things that just makes me go "really?" when the person isn't a flight risk. Really?

Whoa! Remind me to never reach for my wallet in your presence.

Agreed. Sometimes leadership is just speaking out and setting a tone.

Most laypeople have difficulty wrapping their heads around the fact that the lawful function of pre-trial bail is to secure appearance at trial, not to impose punishment prior to trial and conviction.

Really? You didn't really bother to read & digest my post, did you?

Really? Unborn children meet the classic definition of the word, yes. Really?

Really?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burning_Bed

Ahh, that's Fat Mike from NOFX, "The Idiots Are Taking Over". One of my favorites. I carry health insurance and try to stay healthy. Yet I'm continually stuck with subsidizing uninsured people who make bad life choices or just have the misfortune to fall ill. Should we kick them into the gutter? I don't use medicaid or unpaid ER visits. Why should I pay a dime for them? You don't have children so you don't use parks? Really? Put away those jogging shoes, frisbees, mountain bikes, and basketballs. I see a lot of childless people in parks. Open spaces and recreation benefit all of us. You'll be old some day, if you're lucky. Who's gonna bring you your meds in the old folks home? My kids, or maybe their kids. I bet you'll wish they went to school and can read a pill bottle. The tax write off for children is a worth maybe $700/year to most households. Is that really too much to help out families? The zero deduction, available to childless couples and couples with children is worth about $3500/ year. How about we get rid of that? No tax structure is "fair". It all depends on your point of view. Our society has determined that strong families and a helping hand to parents is beneficial to our community. Like I said, I never got preferential treatment at work for being a father, nor did I expect it. Being on this forum over the years, I've found that the most strident commentators on all sorts of parenting-related issues more often than not are people who are not parents themselves. This thread more or less fits that general pattern. But whatever. I suppose perspective is all a matter of whose ox is getting gored. The flip side to all this bitching is that people, usually mothers, often find themselves penalized in the workplace and in their careers because they're raising children. Gone are the days when even the most modestly middle class families in the US could raise a family on the dad's income alone while Mom stayed at home full-time. For the past generation, it's taken 2 incomes to meet all but the more affluent families' needs. Yet the workplace has flexed only very slightly to meet that reality, and the resulting effective glass ceiling for working... mostly mothers, is huge. From some of the commentary in here, you'd think that simply doing a normal thing like having/raising a couple of kids should be equated with voluntarily risky behavior like skydiving, or like out of control "breeding" like welfare baby-mommas. It's not lost on me that little (if any) of that kind of commentary seems to come from people who've actually danced the dance of struggling to raise a normal, decent family and earn a living wage or have a career at the same time. It cuts both ways.

I acknowledge your point. I'd still like to hear her side of the story re: whether she was in an abusive relationship. Given her age, I presume her dad is either deceased or elderly & frail, and thus can't kick this tool's ass. Pity.

This guy is clearly a piece of work. This is getting funny/sad. I'll see your thing & raise you 3 things: https://www.facebook.com/109thPrecinctSgtWalterFrei http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/08/nyregion/metro-briefing-new-york-two-city-employees-arrested.html http://nypost.com/2003/01/09/nypd-daily-blotter-83/

Strictly from the article linked in the OP: I guess I was working off the reporter's choice of phrase "irreparably scuttled". But yeah, I see now that he wasn't fired after the 2003 harassment arrest, he was only suspended.

"Logbooks". So 20th Century.

Life ain't fair, turtle. Fathers of daughters understand where I'm coming from. That aside, we ain't heard her side of the story yet.

Aside from (granted) the security umbrella the US provides to the entirety of North America, the US provides next to nothing to Canada in terms of foreign aid. BTW, in contrast with the 1% of of budget the US spends on foreign aid, Canada spends about 2.5% of its budget on foreign aid. http://globalnews.ca/news/1266433/canada-cuts-aid-as-other-nations-push-assistance-to-all-time-high/ So what? So after many years of compassionately sharing a goodly chunk of its largesse with nations in need, this year Canada has looked at its books and decided to tighten its belt a bit to make sure its own citizens' needs are responsibly met. That's not stinginess, and it's not slurping at another country's trough, either. It's fiscal responsibility, and it's only fairly viewed in historical context.

Aside from (granted) the security umbrella the US provides to the entirety of North America, the US provides next to nothing to Canada in terms of foreign aid. BTW, in contrast with the 1% of of budget the US spends on foreign aid, Canada spends about 2.5% of its budget on foreign aid.

Most Americans don't know the difference between Christian denominations, either. That's what we have the Irish for.

In the thread about police brutality in Alabama, the victim was a man from India, wearing a turban. The in-bred genius who called it into the police described him as "a skinny black guy wearing a toboggan."

Well, that's a warm & fuzzy sounding sound-byte, but consider this: The US spends about 1% of its budget on foreign aid. It spends about 20% of its budget on its military. A large part of that is not keeping American kids safe at home in their beds, but simply allowing the military-industrial complex to suck on an endless tit so the US can project power across the globe, providing a huge chunk of the security blanket for other countries. Those other countries, in turn, are thus enabled to retain enough of their own assets to provide the universal health care that every industrialized nation on Earth - with the exception of the US - provides to its citizens (for just one example). "Cutting off the welfare" and "keeping America strong" sounds really attractive around the water cooler, but in the meantime the Average Joe in America is being played for a sucker.

I'll take "Blame The Victim" for $500, please, Alex. So this is a tough guy who was fired suspended as an NYPD cop for harrassing a woman by telephone. Mind you, we're talking the NYPD, so for them to cashier suspend him, he had to have been beyond bad. (So, naturally, the US Navy then hires him as a counter-terrorism analyst. Makes sense to me). He then cheats on his GF. And when she (yes, unlawfully...probably) slugs him for being a pig, instead of sucking it up and just leaving... he calls the cops on her. Waaaaahh!! She hit me! Waaaaahh! What a fucking hero. If she goes to trial (though as a first offender she just might avoid prosecution with a pretrial diversion program), I look forward to her testimony about their relationship. From his history, I'll lay odds she'll testify that he was an abusive personality. We'll see. Not very lawyerly of me, and No, I don't approve of domestic violence by either gender, but whatever. As a dad of daughters myself, I look at her as some other dad's daughter who got herself hooked up with a douchebag. (ETA: changed fired and cashiered to suspended.)

http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-02-05 http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-02-06

And of course... he never said that, so your comment is, well, valueless. His message is that the predictable integrity of "investigations" of what is essentially oneself is generally suspect, and often fundamentally fatally flawed, because of rather obvious inherent conflicts of interest. Perhaps you'd like to address that.

Hm. I suppose a more succinct "holiday erections" might have been ambiguous.