123 karma · joined June 1, 2015
"Genocide: The systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group."
But I don't think that the giving of land (no matter how terrible the land is) for a group to live on truly counts as "attempted extermination".
Nonetheless, the bible has been used to promote many ideas through the ages. Regardless of what Obama said years ago ("we are not a Christian nation, but a nation of citizens"), America was/is a Christian nation. The Bible and Christian faith were used in many areas to form the constitution, laws, and even our republic (based on the original notion of "judges" set before Israel in the old testament). Of course none of this is taught in schools anymore (at least I had never heard of it until researching in my adulthood), which is the problem I make a point of.
That has stuck with me and I've been thinking. But I think I got an idea.
Maybe we should educate our young about the past, where we came from (fled state sponsored religious persecution to a land that was free). We could also teach about the mistakes that were made, you know, like how we purchased conquered and displaced refugees from muslim warlords and then tried to treat these people as some kind of property. Maybe even go over the past processes and laws that were used to free these people and become an even better society. Maybe even go further, like make/erect some statues of some of the past heroes that actually purchased some of these conquered people but then saw the light and worked towards freedom for all using the Bible as proof that God made only one kind of "mankind" and no one set is superior to another. Maybe even erect some statues of some of these conquered people to show that we are not ashamed of seeing them as people and not property.
Basically just kind of educate people so they don't grow up questioning the most basic tenets of their own nation and history?
Oh wait...
The Cherokees made up a large portion of the "Trail of Tears". The saddest part is they were largely fully "assimilated" into the "American" culture at the time. Most were fully "Christianized", spoke English, they translated many church hymns into their native language, built towns, and lived in houses. All like the "white man". Then they were asked to give up their guns and property and start marching.
One time I was trying to move to a different team. My would-be-new-manager kept asking me what was the hold up. I'd go to my current manager and he'd blame it on the would-be-new-manager stating that he didn't actually want me on his team. I couldn't tell who to believe. I could have said "it's because I'm black" (except I'm white and can't use that excuse) but instead I just left the company. Only thing is, that took nearly 2 years of interviewing. I'd spend sometimes a whole week making my cover letter perfect for what I was applying for, but still I'd get no response or very little of one. I landed some good interviews in that time too and they went well, but still nothing. Ironically I remember thinking that if I was black, how I would have a strong urge to burn up twitter with comments about how I couldn't even land a job interview because of my skin color. But I was white, had a good resume and cover letter, and experience to back it up. Yet that was not the problem at all (applying for a job just sucks in general).
Anyways, by how this woman describes asking several different people for help with her coding, this doesn't always sit well in all environments. In many cases, just asking for help or tips by a new hire is seen as them being an idiot. And to top it off, I don't know of any "smart" people that would want to actually work at Capital One (not as a code monkey anyway).
That's somewhat of a generalization but the saying goes the other way too. Republicans only want to make more rich people and democrats only want to make more poor people. Only poor people vote democrat, hence they have to pander to that crowd. The irony being, no poor person is ever made rich under a democrat's rule. If there were no poor people or immigrants, there'd be no democratic party.
Anyway, I was most intimate with the P-3 orion fuel tanks (which is the entire wing) as we regularly pulled the wings on those planes, replaced various spars, ribs, etc and then reinstalled the wings. Then we'd have to fill the entire wings up with the 'anti explosion foam' which is in several hundred cube shapes, all with painted on numbers (yes they all go back in order), ranging from 6" to 18" in size. After that was done, plane was refueled and tested. Normally after a few weeks of checks, the fuel filters and intake strainers would be checked. They commonly had rags in them, but always had tons of metal shavings and wads of human hair (probably hair from your legs).
So yes, 'FOD' is always in the tanks after any construction or maintenance. There would be no tools in the tanks as normally your employee number or social security number was etched on everything you owned.
"Infringed" can certainly be read as any process that gets in the way of gun purchasing.
Someone called 911. For what ever reason a life flight helicopter was then called and picked him up and took him to a local county hospital. He woke up there a few hours later. After they had already ran all kinds of tests. They had a large list of all the problems from busted spleen, broken bones, head concussion, etc.
After a day of rest in the bed, the only thing wrong was a sore ankle and some deep scratches on his face. He checked himself out and we went and drove him home. They sent a bill of $16,000 the next month to him. He asked why it was so high since the only thing they did was give him a helicopter ride and a bed to sleep in (none of which he consented to but of course hard to consent when you are unconscious).
He sent them a check for $16 which was the minimum amount required. He fully expected to pay $16 per month for the rest of his life, but they never sent another bill and he never asked... That was 15 years ago.
While at a funeral for an older man at a church I attended, my wife and I met a younger lady that was our age and she was very talkative and wanted to go out and have lunch with us. She stated that her husband (who worked at a large tech hosting company) had a "computer job" (in reference to me) as well. We went out eat, I met her husband, all seemed normal. We were both newly married, and my wife and her both ended up pregnant just months apart. So it was feeling like this was going to be one of those "life long" friendships since we seemed to have so much in common... and then...
My wife and her both gave birth to healthy children though things quickly started to change in our friendships. I consider myself a christian fundamentalist and my wife and I started to think it was strange that our new friend seemed to be way more opinionated and strict with how she was going to raise her daughter. This was realized when we offered to help babysit since she was going to try to go back to her teacher's aid job.
It was the scheduling... she had everything scheduled for this 5 month old baby. We were to every 2 hours feed her x number of ounces of freshly pumped breast milk. Problem is, the kid sucked down the entire day's worth in just two feedings. On top of that, we were to write down how long the naps were (which also were "required" to happen every 2 hours or so) and when bowel movements happened and what they looked like. Then there was the smell. The kid was just plain filthy, the mom had already bragged about how they don't really do baths any more since its "bad" for the skin. The extra clothes she brought were nasty too. So baby got a bath and we washed the extra clothes. The mom returns 8 or so hour later. We informed her of how the kid sucked down the milk and acted like she was staving, but mom was disappointed in that we didn't follow the schedule. After all, if we followed the schedule, we would not have ran out of milk...
Something didn't seem right, but we were naive.
Then a few months later, while over at their house for dinner, they informed us that they had all gone vegan. So there was no meat or cheese to eat and they had taken their (now 8 month old) daughter off of milk as well. To eat, we were given some thin vegetable soup with some mashed cauliflower on the side. The daughter got a small handful of raw diced squash and some beans which she gulped down practically whole in a matter of minutes.
The irony is both parents were quite over weight (nearing 300lbs). The daughter was strictly forced vegan but they were not. Mom still got her Dr.Pepper while baby got water and squash. They at one time asked us to baby sit at 9pm so they could have a "parent's night out" which was explained as they were going to go get doughnuts followed by margaritas at a mexican restaurant. Not sure how you can even mix those two... Being christian fundamentalists, we declined since we weren't going to help someone get drunk and drive themselves home.
One of the last times we met, they had informed us CPS had been visiting them. Apparently their daughter was running a fever at night so they took her to the ER. The nurse of course noticed the under-height and underweight child and told the parents they should try upping the amount of milk she gets every day. The mom of course squawked back that they're "vegan". And I guess the rest is history.
I've never quite figured out where she got her weird ideas from. She had other friends and they all seemed to support each other's ideas. She was not anti-vax either (though I am). She went on to have a son (which she circumcised), and as far as I know, raised the same. Even though she is "vegan" she still pushes 300lbs. After her CPS story, we stopped hanging out and blocked her on facebook.
Don't take my word for it, the inserts themselves state most of the risks[0] from death all the way to shedding live bio-engineered virus onto the immunocompromised (so much for that argument). Plus part of the deal that the government had after removing vaccine manufactures for any liability for injury or deaths was to have a "database" of reported injuries for the public to analyze the safety for themselves[1]
So you see, we are not crazy, we are people that have children and we research what we believe is best for them. Following one's conscious is a one of the ideas allowed by our founding fathers. This image sums it up best: https://i.imgur.com/PdsJLLD.png
The EPA set standards at a federal level (good standards I might add). Cali was given the power to require higher standards in the 1970's as the article mentions. In the 1970's and 1980's, a car made for the states vs. one headed for California might be quite a bit different, including a different motor with a different compression ratio and various "accessories" to reduce tail pipe emissions.
Since the 1990's, there is not much difference between a car made for the states and one for California, usually if there is a difference it is in secondary air injection into the exhaust. Nowadays if a car is destined for California, the manufacture adds a small airpump which is activated only for a short period after engine start up to pump air into the exhaust. This adds oxygen to the exhaust and allows unburned hydrocarbons to burn just a bit more before exiting. This is only needed when engine temps are low however. So over all, not a big change.
There are also rules to prevent tampering with the engine ECU. If one wants more performance, they can get a third party to flash the stock ECU firmware with a "hotter" one for more performance which usually requires more gas and higher ignition timing for the price of more pollution. Though one might also want their ECU tuned for nothing more than to change transmission shift points and firmness (so not for more pollution). But ECU flashing is expensive ($400+) and a few hot rodders aren't going to melt the icecaps.
This is the way things were up until ~2010 or so before I left the market, perhaps things are different right now, but I doubt it (any remarks are welcomed)
I worked briefly as a mechanic for Boeing on C-17's. One incident (I did not witness but was told) was a C-17 somewhere in the middle east landed on a clear patch of dirt/sand, except right when they touched down they noticed a small concrete barrier in the middle of the field...
The nose gear went right into it. It was narrow enough to miss the rear tires. But the impact of the nose gear ripped it complete off the plane and left a gaping hole where once the fuselage touched, blasted a ton of sand straight into the interior of the plane. I think a specialty crew eventually made it out there and rigged a nose gear together good enough for a take off and landing where it then flew back to a Boeing facility near Lackland Air Force Base (I believe).