TomAiello

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content

    12,507

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by TomAiello

  1. TomAiello
    How about this? You pay for what you want and so does everybody else. Exception: commons like roads, fire, police, etc. Why is it that you want others to pay? I never go to Fresno. I don't even live in the same state, so its roads are not common to me. I don't want federal funds, to which I contribute by paying federal taxes, some of which go to California, used to repair that pothole in front of your house. Me either. I'd prefer that we all pay for our own roads, on a local, or better yet, a fee for use basis. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  2. TomAiello
    abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7208201&page=1 And the failure of a CEO should not walk away from the wreck with $20M. Sure. If you are hired to do a job, and you fail, you deserve to be let go. If your employer is dumb enough to guarantee you a salary even if you fail, well, that's pretty dumb. In my mind, if the whole company is going bankrupt, the CEO has definitely done a poor job. The board (his boss) or the shareholders (their bosses) ought to fire him. I don't think that the federal government has any business becoming a shareholder, or a member of the board, though, any more than I want my tax dollars going to support "businessmen" who are losing money. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  3. TomAiello
    Nah. The government will give enough money to the loss-making enterprises that they own them, then decide that competing with them is against national interest, and nationalize Ford. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  4. TomAiello
    Depends. Do they still support the absolute subjugation of women? Would they allow girls to get an education? I find those stances very repugnant, but I fail to see how they present security issues for other UN members. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  5. TomAiello
    Why? I'd prefer that no one had to pay for anything they didn't want. Wanting other people to pay for things is silly. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  6. TomAiello
    The simple solution would be not to give my (taxpayers') money to private companies, and not to have the government meddle in their management. If private business makes bad decisions and goes bankrupt--then they should go bankrupt. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  7. TomAiello
    I disagree. Once we consent to it only being a matter of degree, we've already surrendered our personal sovereignty. I really do believe that the collection of taxes is a form of slavery enforced upon us by pain of incarceration. I really do believe it is deeply wrong ("evil" might actually come closer to capturing my feeling about it). You are basically saying that the only real debate is over what degree of your viewpoint prevails. I refuse to accept those terms. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  8. TomAiello
    There is a HUGE difference between "would go out of his way to help" and "should be forced to help on pain of incarceration." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  9. TomAiello
    I'm pro-choice on everything. Check out the World's Smallest Political Quiz. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  10. TomAiello
    They've changed their stance. Now they won't bust you unless you are violating both federal _and_ state law. It's huge news in California, because it means that state medical marijuana licenses are now actually a functional proof against federal marijuana laws. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  11. TomAiello
    By far the most entertaining part of that is this: "...Windshields, backlights and sunroofs are also slated to get reflective coatings starting in 2012." When I was a kid in California, it was illegal to put reflective coatings on car windows. I had several friends get tickets for it in high school. Used to be illegal--now it's mandatory? WTF?! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  12. TomAiello
    Dude, you sound like Barack Obama: "Now, we all need to come together and do 'what's best for America.' I'll tell you all what is best, and you start doing what I say." You should consider, just for a second, that there might be reasonable, thoughtful people who have actually considered the issue and have simply come to a different conclusion from yours. That does not make them idiots, or cowards, or anything else, aside from people who disagree with you. Calling those who disagree with you cowards (or whatever) doesn't endear your argument to anyone--it just makes you look clueless. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  13. TomAiello
    Well, come on John. It was obviously the 11th, 12th 13th and 14th rounds that killed the officers. If he'd been restricted to 10 rounds, surely no one would have been hurt. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  14. TomAiello
    He did promise them. And he did know the situation when he made that promise. Or are you saying that as a US Senator he wasn't aware of the situation on which he based his promise? Cue "it's all Bushes fault!" which seems to have become the rallying cry of the new administration whenever they encounter a problem. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  15. TomAiello
    Mechanical Electrical and Plumbing? Media embedded Processor? Message Exchange Pattern? Microelectronics Education Programme? Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo? Member of the European Parliament Just because it's fun to get the Brits riled up... The European Parliament is the governing body of the European Union, to which the UK ceded it's national sovereignty when it joined. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  16. TomAiello
    Wow. Thanks for posting that. I'm seriously researching a change of venue now. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  17. TomAiello
    I've got no experience with that one, but it looks fairly good. But, it's not superior to anything else out there. I'm fairly certain that the best blade, bar none, today is Howard Clark's L6 Katana. You can find some videos about it on-line, but having seen one perform in person, the videos don't do the blade justice. Of course, for the price (seven or eight grand, at a minimum, by the time all is said and done) and the wait (a couple years, usually) they'd better be the best. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  18. TomAiello
    Since National Parks are the only Federal lands I can't BASE jump on legally, I think that would suck in a major way. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  19. TomAiello
    Oh, sorry. That was a misunderstanding. I really meant tax increases for 95% of Americans. But we should be able to hold off for another few years by just racking up more debt... But it's all George Bush's fault, so it's ok. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  20. TomAiello
    You won't have to take a trip to Venezuela to see that. If the current administration gets there way, we can have that right here. All we need is for Tim Geithner to decide that Plum Creek is "large enough to effect the economy" and he'll go ahead and take control of the company for the "benefit of the nation." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  21. TomAiello
    Is that true in all jurisdictions? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  22. TomAiello
    If that was true, Budweiser would be smuggling alcohol today. By moving from a prohibition model to a permission model, the costs of avoiding the system are reduced immensely (from confiscation and incarceration to regulation and taxation). When the distributors do their inherent cost-benefit analysis, they move to legal distribution methods because the costs (and risks) for them are less. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  23. TomAiello
    What I'm saying is that I disagree with the underlying methodology that TI uses to generate their "corruption" statistic. I believe that in order for corruption to occur, there must be an "entrusting" element to the government power. In a "failed state" scenario, or in a non-consensual governance scenario, there is no "entrusting." Therefore, I do not believe it's fair to describe those situations as "corrupt." They're not good, sure, but I think that the word "corruption" as defined by TI does not apply to those situations. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  24. TomAiello
    The only news links I can find about the vigil are clear that the candlelight vigil is in honor of the four officers, not the shooter. Um, I read that as "there is a candle light vigil, and, separately, there is a memorial for the shooter." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com
  25. TomAiello
    Most of those substances are not, in fact, completely banned. They are just heavily regulated. Regulations generally require that you get a prescription from a state licensed health practitioner or something similar. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com