Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2394

First World Problems: July 2016

In no particular order:

People often lightly suggest that “you should sue X”. Lawsuits are multi-year arduous, tedious affairs. My opinion is that the threshold for a lawsuit should be if you lived without civil society would you be willing to commit violence to achieve your objective? If no, then find another way.
A customer of ours recently got banned on Wikipedia for aggressively defending me on my Wiki page. Apparently he had been contributing for years. I feel somewhat responsible as I provided him with a screenshot that he used to prove the person trying to “right the wrongs of the world” by creating a narrative on my page had a bias. It’s a bummer that a guy who’s been contributing for years would just be summarily blocked.
I’ve gotten back into biking. I am out of shape. But it wouldn’t be a first world problem if I didn’t mention that I am glad I can order padded shorts from Amazon Prime.
If you haven’t read SJWs always lie I recommend it for those who want to survive in today’s social media. One of the parts is “SJWs always project” which is very true. I was reading, with interest, the wiki admins arguing over my Wikipedia page with one of them swearing it was me doing the edits. For the record, I didn’t create the wiki page on me. I didn’t ask for one. I didn’t want one. I wish there was no Wikipedia page on me. Since the day someone made it, it has been a non-stop struggle to keep disgruntled customers and SJWs from using it as a blunt instrument to defame me. I appreciate the fact that there are plenty of good people willing to take time to maintain the page. The fact that some SJWs assume anyone supporting me must be a sock puppet says a lot about them. Not to put too fine a point on it but if I was that motivated “I have people”. For me, what I am interested in is whether people are willing to voluntarily push back against SJWs..or not.
Speaking of Wikipedia and social media in general, SJWs will always have the advantage since they are typically unencumbered by a job.
And speaking of SJWs, my sons hate when I use that term. And not without some irony, I will point to the Wikipedia definition of a SJW. Their entry is steeped with the bias of Wikipedia editors. But basically it’s people who espouse, passionately, support for “the correct causes” on social media but do nothing material to follow up as their motivation is merely to display how virtuous they are to their peers.
Steam sale is over. We did about 20% better than last year. We would have done better but Valve implemented a “recent user review score” which I will refer to as the “Sale penalty score” since people buying a game on sale will tend to review it based on whether they would have paid full price for it (even though they obviously wouldn’t have or they would have already bought it).
I have very little opinion on the #blacklivesmatter thing other than to point out that in 2015, about 1000 people, total, were killed by police of which African Americans made up around a quarter of them. Meanwhile, in third world countries, death tolls are measured differently. This doesn’t diminish the impression that too often, militarized police forces are too willing to use lethal force but only to provide some perspective.
Three solar panels on my solar array are dead or the microinverter has died. It’s remarkably tedious to get something like that fixed.
Everyone seems to know that a single Tesla owner died in their car while the car was operating under Autopilot. I have little to add to that except that people die daily from messing with their cell phones (Oh look, a Pokémon, oh look a text, oh look an invite) while driving.

That’s all for this month. Smile

March 2016

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1753

I was quite 'bemused' by that Wiki entry I had...."fascist bastard WC Admin" .... felt I had my 15 minutes of fame....

Best thing about cycling is 'padded shorts'....

Worst thing about cycling is....'not enough padding'...

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Chasbo

Join Date 01/2005

+806

You want Tort reform? You didn't say that but it's the impression I get. That's usually the sign of someone who is part of the 1% or a Republican.

African Americans comprise 13% of the population. 25% is way too much and shows there is a problem with African Americans being singled out by law enforcement.

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gmc2

Join Date 11/2003

+296

Quoting Chasbo,

reply 2

African Americans comprise 13% of the population. 25% is way too much and shows there is a problem with African Americans being singled out by law enforcement.

If all things were equal then that might be a true statement, but it's not. I think that the are issues that cross racial lines however the black community has more issues that are and are not within their control. There are social economic, parenting, educational and environment issues that plaque the black community as well as other communities but to a lesser extent by the numbers.

If your local schools keep track of disciplinary and EOG testing, racial discrepancies show up in the results. It's easy to blame the schools because they publish these results but a child that is not ready to start school is at at a great disadvantage from the get go. I think it is a shame to see the struggles that at risk kids go through. I did six years of volunteering, while my son was in grammar school, tutoring kids that needed extra help in reading.

Yes, racism exists and I wish I knew the answer to correct this but I don't and don't see much relieve in the future.

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DrJBHL

Join Date 04/2002

+3839

I’ve gotten back into biking. I am out of shape. But it wouldn’t be a first world problem if I didn’t mention that I am glad I can order padded shorts from Amazon Prime.

The problem is the waste of seats designed to injure, or at the minimum not protect riders from injury. Stupid design. Hope the padding prevents the type of injury I'm referring to...I'd suggest also changing the seat to a padded one.

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ZubaZ

Join Date 11/2001

+917

That’s all for this month.

There is still 2/3 of the month left . . don't limit yourself!

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psychoak

Join Date 07/2007

+225

You want Tort reform? You didn't say that but it's the impression I get. That's usually the sign of someone who is part of the 1% or a Republican.

Tort reform doesn't help rich people, that's sheer ignorance. Tort reform hurts lawyers, which comprise a vast quantity of the US population, far above any other country, because of how utterly fucked our legal system is. Loser pay is a commonly desired tort reform, and would ensure that poor people, who had a solid case, could actually get justice, without needing a class action. As it is now, the only people who get anything out of the legal system are abusers and the lawyers that use them. It costs society a massive amount of money to pay for the overburdened infrastructure, and the only result is a very wealthy, overly large population of useless litigators.

African Americans comprise 13% of the population. 25% is way too much and shows there is a problem with African Americans being singled out by law enforcement.

You missed the 50% of the homicides part of your comparison. It's so bad that people sound like white supremacists just for quoting crime statistics...

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Chasbo

Join Date 01/2005

+806

Quoting psychoak,

reply 6

Tort reform doesn't help rich people, that's sheer ignorance.

Yeah. Here's some ignorance for ya. Ever hear of prop 12 in Texas? It radically restricted the ability of people to sue doctors and nursing homes. It was said that doctors were leaving the state because of malpractice suits and the associated costs of high insurance. This was hurting people who needed care and prop 12 was supposed to fix it. Doctors were going to go to Texas and help people. Especially in poor areas. Doctors did go to Texas but not in poor areas. Those places are no better off then they were before prop 12. They did move to the well to do areas however. Nice job. Now they can really rake it in without fear of being sued when they screw up. Tort reform in action!

FBI 2013 statistics: 3005 violent crimes against whites of which 2509 were committed by whites and 409 committed by blacks. Violent crimes against blacks: 2491 of which 191 were committed by whites and 2245 by blacks. Those are the stats. Much higher proportion pf violence compared to the population as a whole by blacks. This is true. I think part of the problem is poverty in black areas. The unemployment rate is double that in white areas.

I'm not ignorant and do not appreciate that comment at all.

You owe me an apology.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1753

Last time I checked 'black' was a colour...or more accurately the absence of colour.

It is neither a race nor an appropriate descriptor to be used on a section of our community without sounding alarm bells re discrimination/prejudice.

"African Americans" is the accepted descriptor....

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psychoak

Join Date 07/2007

+225

I myself am ignorant on plenty of issues. I'd never presume to debate quantum mechanics with a physicist, panel wiring with an electrician, or pipe configuration with a plumber. I'm not an expert on how shit moves through pipes, and if I said something silly, like pipes rattle because of temperature changes(I learned it was caused by a lack of air buffers a couple years back), I'd appreciate someone pointing out that I was wrong, not get pissy because they labeled my idiocy what it was. You have this misguided idea that tort reform is a 1% problem that shafts poor people, it's not. When Blitz USA went bankrupt because of frivolous lawsuits, it wasn't the wealthy owners that lost their shirts. It was the 100 plus line employees that were out of a job because stupid assholes that poured gasoline on lit fires were allowed to drain the company of millions to win each court case. It's one of the many factors wiping out factory jobs across the country and a major problem for the middle class and down.

I've done lots of trips to doctors in Dallas and Paris because the only nearby hospitals in Oklahoma are death traps. There are droves of those poor people seeing the doctors that didn't move there to take care of them. My uncle being one of them, my sister being another, and 90% of the county I live in fitting the bill because they're all a bunch of poor rednecks. Paris is not a wealthy place, there were doctors from all over the country that moved into the hospitals and clinics after they passed tort reform. Doctors aren't setting up practices in ghettos because they're not insane, it's not a mark of failure that people behave rationally and don't make untenable business decisions and guarantee themselves they'll only be able to lose money seeing medicaid patients. Outside of OBGYN's, which still have insane costs in the tens of thousands, most doctors are paying sane rates for their insurance these days.

Proposition 12 doesn't stop poor people from getting compensated. The limits apply to non-economic damages only. If your doctor fucks up and you end up with hundreds of thousands in bills and lose the ability to work for a year, that's all economic damages. If you end up paralyzed and disabled for life with massive costs, that's all economic damages. The only thing you can't do is stick it to them for an extra million or two for "pain and suffering" on top of the actual costs to you.

We're the only country on the planet that is this lawyer crazy, with around 70% of the worlds lawyers all to ourselves. Massively more than our supposedly more egalitarian and socially minded European brethren, who significantly outnumber us. Even when it's a perfectly reasonable case with a perfectly reasonable judgement, unless it was taken pro-bono, it's the lawyers that make out the best, not the victim. It sure as hell isn't the taxpayers, which bear the burden of the lion-share of the court costs and suffer the delays of our radically overburdened system that spends months adjudicating insanity.

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Chasbo

Join Date 01/2005

+806

B;itz went out of business because they refused to install flame arrestors despite warnings that their product was dangerous. They mislead courts and were guilty of providing inaccurate testimony. Dan Rather even did 2 special reports on the problem. Why haven't you mentioned those facts? In order to save money they went out of business because their product was proven to be unsafe. There's plenty of information on this out there. Why would anyone want to stop people from being compensated when there is a situation like that? When companies put profit before safety they not only hurt people who buy the product but doom themselves.

What I have found about prop 12 in Texas: "Collin County, the Dallas suburb that is the wealthiest in Texas in terms of per capita income, gained the most obstetricians. Its 34 new ones increased its obstetrician ranks by an impressive 45 percent since Proposition 12 passed." In the rest of Texas As of 2007 there were 152 counties in Texas with no obstetricians - the exact same number as before the passage of Proposition 12. Prior to Prop 12, there were 20 counties with no physician at all - now there are 21.

The problem with Prop 12 is that it was passed by telling people that it would make it possible for all Texans to get quality care but it has done the opposite. It was a lie. It has harmed the poorest Texans. Rick "ass clown" Perry really pushed it.

So did Proposition 12 work? It did for wealthy, insured individuals in heavily-populated counties; those people now have less of a wait to see a doctor than they did before. It didn't work for the poor, uninsured individuals in Texas' many rural counties.

Tort reform protects the wealthy by punishing the poor.

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Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

Getting rid of mandatory binding arbitration would do more to solve power disparities in consumer rights than any sort of tort reform. I will say that some folks have a really low threshhold for violence.

It's understanable why any business owner would want tort reform- but I tend to side with the little guy because of power disparity.

As for the police- there are real issues all around. I wish I knew how to solve it- but I know what several of my black friends have been through, and it is things I would be very unlikely to ever suffer, so I have real sympathy towards BLM. To me, they're not SJWs, they have a real cause to be fighting for.

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psychoak

Join Date 07/2007

+225

Now I'm going to actually call you an idiot, instead of saying your uninformed opinion was ignorant. In no rational world is it a gas can manufacturers fault if someone decides to prune their worthless genes from the pool by pouring gasoline on an open flame. I am not responsible for your actions, and neither is a gas can manufacturer. There are labels galore on highly flammable materials warning to keep them away from open flames, but gasoline cans shouldn't even need that. There's no mystery behind pouring gasoline in a lit grill, just as there isn't any surprise when you try to iron the shirt you're wearing. You're pouring an accelerant on because you know it's highly flammable in the first place, just like you know an iron is hot.

What you failed to find is that Texas is ranked somewhere around last in doctors to population, that those 152 counties are all rural with small populations, and thus don't have an actual full blown hospital, where everyone goes to have their baby delivered these days, and are one of the states where the doctor population has actually been growing, instead of shrinking.

You can't invalidate a law simply because it doesn't fit some magical bullshit impact you want. Nothing is going to make a town with a population of 500 get an obstetrics department. Fortunately, these people can drive to a nearby hospital faster than you can get across the Dallas Metroplex.

It's understanable why any business owner would want tort reform- but I tend to side with the little guy because of power disparity.

The little guy gets sued too. The little guy can't afford to sue. Without loser pay, you can have a rock solid case for ten grand, and your lawyer is going to cost more than you'd get. You can only get representation in a "small" case when your lawyer is assured his pay. This is why class actions are everywhere. It's the only way these people can get anything, and then the lawyers get a huge chunk of it anyway.

The rich guy can also afford to run you down with bullshit for months, or even years, making even cases in the hundreds of thousands worthless to pursue. With loser pay, your lawyer's concern becomes can he win it, instead of are you worth it.

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I think we need a generation or two with no warning labels and no lawsuits and let Darwin's Law weed out all the idiots...

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Quoting Jafo,

reply 8

Last time I checked 'black' was a colour...or more accurately the absence of colour.

It is neither a race nor an appropriate descriptor to be used on a section of our community without sounding alarm bells re discrimination/prejudice.

"African Americans" is the accepted descriptor....

ROFL, tell that to the community that self identifies as black

maybe start with

National Association of Black Journalists

then head over to

The Association of Black Psychologists

see if you can on Black Entertainment Television http://www.bet.com/

and head over to twitter and tell them to change from #BlackLivesMatter to #AfricanAmericanLivesMatter.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1753

Quoting myfist0,

reply 14

ROFL, tell that to the community that self identifies as black

maybe start with

National Association of Black Journalists

Ah...it took long enough but it had to happen.

African Americans call themselves 'niggers' too.

Try it on these forums and you're an ex member. Period.

'Black society'...'black community'...'black population' even 'black journalists' is not the same thing as "Blacks".

"Blacks" is identical to "Spastics" [used to exemplify] BOTH are unacceptable. [The latter is either 'people with spasticity' or better yet...'people with cerebral palsy'.

African Americans can call themselves 'arseholes' if they wish.....as can you - call yourself.

If a third party calls you an 'arsehole' that is when rules are breached.

And as for calling someone an 'idiot' ...unless you have access to their IQ status it is also unacceptable.

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Quoting Jafo,

reply 15

And as for calling someone an 'idiot' ...unless you have access to their IQ status it is also unacceptable.

Who are you trying to kid Jafo, it would be unacceptable to you unless the idiot called them self an idiot....

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1753

Quoting myfist0,

reply 16

Who are you trying to kid Jafo, it would be unacceptable to you unless the idiot called them self an idiot....

Possibly...but the terms such as 'imbecile, moron' etc actually were penned to define states/levels of mental impairment so are arguably legitimate...provided there is medical evidence - not personal opinion...

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They (African Americans) are not "black" just as I am not "white." I may get a bit pale over the winter months but I can assure you, I am more tan than white.

Whether they chose to announce their heritage by calling themselves "African Americans" is entirely up the discretion of the individual. Does it matter if they have not been any further East than St. Louis? No, not really. I'm sure almost all of us Americans came from some place other than America, I'm part German, part English, part American Indian, but I'll settle for just plain me.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1753

I'm a third generation Aussie. ..which means my parents and grandparents were born in oz... though I have the scars to prove ancestry with the Viking s...but in between it was English and Irish.

We should be proud of our heritage and allow others to be proud of theirs.

Nothing is gained from discrimination. ..whether race colour or creed.

Oh yes. ..I'm also inbred...2heads and all...as I'm a Tasmanian....

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I am going to guess that people from Wall Street Journal and Breitbart would be banned here too

or we have to get out the color tone card to see if the speech is acceptable first

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1753

Nah....we'd be too busy banning smart-arses...

Geting back to the OP....

Unfortunately, one of the issues with alternative technologies...like Electric cars...and Solar panels is the cost of repair/replacement can devalue the benefits....whether the expiring of battery packs or cells that fail.

In the good old [early] days of solar hot water services....no-one remembered that the boiler itself has a use-by life of 10 years....yet the silly things only became an economical plus after that 10 years....quite self-defeating, really...

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Chasbo

Join Date 01/2005

+806

Quoting psychoak,

reply 12

Now I'm going to actually call you an idiot, instead of saying your uninformed opinion was ignorant.

I'm through with you. I've found that when a person uses insults instead of sticking to the subject, that person thinks they are superior. I assure you that you are not better than me.

Everything that I wrote was fact checked. I stand by what I wrote. I won't let my anger get the better of me and write something now that's as idiotic as you wrote.

Instead of having a civil discussion you resort to name calling. You are pitiful.

This subject is closed.

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Quoting Chasbo,

reply 22

Instead of having a civil discussion you resort to name calling. You are pitiful.

This subject is closed.

Grow some skin. College safe spaces don't exist in real life.

I argue with the left all the time, and if I stopped every time they called me names I would never get past their first comment.

Just this week I was called a racist pig, misogynist, dumb ass white boy, mommas boy, virgin, idiot. Also threats, and calls for me to kill myself are quite common from the 'tolerant' left.