Sunday Roast, February 3, 2013 – Food for Thought

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Just some numbers:

Iraq Body Count 2013

341 civilians killed

United States Body Count from gun violence in 2013 (you can use the date range button on the site)

936 civilians killed

Numbers may increase with every click on the link.

We all agree, that Iraq is a postwar society, plagued by ethnic conflicts and a weak government. We all agree that the United States of America is not that. Or do we?

This is an open thread. Comment on this, or on anything else that comes to mind and have a wonderful Sunday everyone.

108 thoughts on “Sunday Roast, February 3, 2013 – Food for Thought”

  1. Quick poll: Will Super Bowl XLVII be a thrill or a thud? (Frugal, you are exempt from this poll! 😀 )
    A thrill is a close, evenly matched game. A thud is a one-sided snoozer that’s over as soon as it starts. Whachathink?

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  7. The “I lost my job to automation” dilemma continues. Humans aren’t profitable. Which is why Capitalism is evil.

    Paul Krugman: Rise Of Machines Partially To Blame For Income Inequality (VIDEO)

    The rise of machines is in part to blame for growing income inequality, according to Paul Krugman.

    The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist said in an interview with Business Insider that companies’ preference for investing in machines instead of workers is partially to blame for income inequality in the 21st century. That’s a shift from the last two decades of the 20th century when income inequality was mostly about the differences between high-skill and low-skill workers.

    “Technology has shifted in a way that really favors capital over labor,” Krugman said. “That makes it possible to replace people with machines.”

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    • I didn’t need a gun strapped to my body to feel grown-up. Then there is this comment…

      “It’s a Zen thing,” he says. “You can control time down to that 1/1,000th of a second.”

      Fly fishing is Zen because you don’t always catch a fish and when you do, you gently release the fish back into the wild. There is nothing Zen about a gun, an instrument designed for killing. You can’t shoot an animal and then gently release it back into the wild.

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    • From Dictionary.com

      id·i·ot
      [id-ee-uht]
      noun
      1. An utterly foolish or senseless person.
      2. All gun owners.*

      Synonyms
      1. fool, half-wit; imbecile; dolt, dunce, numskull.
      2. Any gun owner*

      *Added by moi.

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  10. Paul Krugman on This Week: “What strikes me is we’ve actually gotten a glimpse into the mindset, though, of the pro-gun people, and we’ve seen certainly in Wayne LaPierre and some of these others. It’s bizarre. They have this vision that we’re living in a Mad Max movie, and that nothing can be done about it. That America cannot manage unless everybody is prepared to shoot intruders. The idea that we have police forces that provide public safety is somehow totally impractical despite the fact that, you know, that is in fact the way we live.”

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  12. According to Don McLean, “The Day the Music Died” occurred on February 3, 1959, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. Enjoy a rare live performance by Buddy Holly and dig the crazy intro, daddio:

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    • First time I found a RWNJ dumber than Victoria Jackson. Probably not the last though. They make Mad Cow Disease look like a member of Mensa.

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      • I may have had both. I used to be a member of MENSA, and because I was stationed in West Germany in the mid-80s, I’ve heard I can’t donate blood because of the possibility that I contracted the virus that causes Mad Cow Disease.

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        • Wayne, you’re Mensa s’all. There is no reason to believe you have BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) or its human equivalent Creutzfeldt-Jacob. There was a lot of scaremongery. I have lived in Germany from 1961 to 1999 and my brain is functional still (at least they said so after the Thursday scan), though way not Mensa.

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            • That’s crazy. There is no reason whatsoever. I do believe you, it is absolutely possible this has been the rule for blood donors. It reminds me when Bavarians wanted to lock up gays in camps ( no not in the 1930s in the 1980s) for fear of AIDS. Chances are, that you have been fed US beef anyway, because its way better than German beef and I’m sure the contractors for food were mostly US companies.

            • Here (pdf) are the questions asked of potential blood donors.

              just a sampling:

              From 1980 through 1996,

              29. Did you spend time that adds up to three (3) months or more in the
              United Kingdom? (Review list of countries in the UK)

              30. Were you a member of the U.S. military, a civilian military employee,
              or a dependent of a member of the U.S. military?

              From 1980 to the present, did you

              31. Spend time that adds up to five (5) years or more in Europe? (Review
              list of countries in Europe.)

              32. Receive a blood transfusion in the United Kingdom or France?
              (Review list of countries in the UK.)
              From 1977 to the present, have you
              33. Received money, drugs, or other payment for sex?

              34. Male donors: had sexual contact with another male, even once?
              (Females: check “I am female.”)

              48. Have any of your relatives had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease?

      • Actually, that is not a bill. It is the wording for an amendment to the state Constitution. The words that are not underlined are from the PA State Constitution. The underlined words are the amendment. This is good because it shows action in Pennsylvania.

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  18. Ray Lewis will wear his customary black T-shirt under his uniform that says PSALMS 91 and 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, if successful on a big play, will kiss either his tattoo of the words GOD TO GLORY or the one that reads FAITH.

    I want both teams to lose.

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  21. you know i’m giving it a chance, I really am, but every 2 or 3 minutes everything stops and its time to watch some more adverts…. for a 60 minute timed game, this is going to take 4-5 hours including guff beforehand and some scantily-clad gyrating nubiles at half-time. The ball will actully be in motion for about 15minutes – how can anyone concentrate on the game? Or is that not the point?

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  29. Extended delay due to power outage at the Super Bowl. Over 30 minutes now. I wonder how many more DUIs this elongation of the game will cause?

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