You are in charge

[DarthRetard]

Ah, yeah, about that AFP, I did read that thread, and I forgot to come and retract my statement on it. I do rather agree with Rahmota after reading the discussion on it.

[Darrien]

Of the United States.
Transportation
1:rebuild the railroad infrastructure in this country.
2: mandate that hydrogen fuel cell and other advanced technologies including biofuels begin to be implemented so that 50% of all petroleum powered cars will be off the road in 5 years. 100% in 10 years. Since there are price controls in place these new cars will be priced to be available to the common people.
3: any car that gets less than 20mpg combined is illegal to be liscenced or driven on public roads.
4: Develop public transportation easily and readily available to all individuals.

As good as that idea, not something that they would do. That would be excellent if they had hydro powered cars but thats a wish for now rather than waiting for later.

[Dreamstalker]

TPG, I'm in complete agreement with your plan for the school system I luckily graduated before things got really messy and agree that today's kids have few of the skills they actually need.

basic cooking, cleaning, and parenting skills.

I was probably one of the few kids in my grade school who enjoyed Home Ec. Sure the teacher was a bit of a loon, but she wasn't bad and was actually nice to the kids that tried hard.

Personally I believe that doing this would cut down quite a bit on the amount of violent crime we suffer from, and give many people the skills they need to get out of the poverty cycle.

I agree.

I would also make "career centers" in schools much more useful than they are now. Staff them with mentors across many disciplines (IT, retail, finance, etc), preferably those who have been (or are) employed in the fields. Make sure the centers have enough funding to provide training materials and discount vouchers for tests if needed (IT certs especially can get expensive in a hurry).

[rahmota]

Design/tpg: I supose I'll defer to your regional experiences.. around here firearms are just a normal part of life. I still think firearms safety and general knowledge should be taught in schools as knowing the truth about firearms can dispel a lot of the hollywood mistakes and glamorization.

Darrien:A lot of the technology for alternative powered cars have been aroud for sometime. The only reason why they havent been on the road already is money. It has been far more economical and cheaper for people and companies to run around with the status quo of the IC engine than to come up with somethign else. With the price of oil starting to skyrocket maybe that will change the balance of things. Hopefully.

[DesignFox]

I still think firearms safety and general knowledge should be taught in schools as knowing the truth about firearms can dispel a lot of the hollywood mistakes and glamorization.

This I can't disagree with. In my school, I have vague recollections of the videos we watched that taught us not to play with guns...I don't know what, if anything, they teach in schools, now.

With the pansy assing we have going on nowadays who knows... The safety videos they used to show us were graphic and memorable...I don't know if they get away with that, anymore.

[rahmota]

With the pansy assing we have going on nowadays who knows... The safety videos they used to show us were graphic and memorable...I don't know if they get away with that, anymore.

I have no idea. I dont think they really teach anythign involving that anymore leaving that up to the individual parents. I think thats due to the schools having to fall into the state and federal guidelines more.

Which is just fine with me as my teaching methods I dont think would work well in a classroom. How I taught my kids the difference between a real firearm and a toy firearm was using the eddie eagle program from the NRA and my own blend of direct experience that involved several watermelons. Suffice to say that my kids are smart and capable enough that I could leave a fully loaded 45 on the dining room table and they would not touch it but come and get me or their mother.

[blas87]

I'd like to live in a society where people actually had to face consequences of their actions. You can take that however you'd like it, in any legal situation. Preferably, someone driving drunk who runs over and kills a little boy either spends life in prison or gets the death penalty, not manslaughter and less than 10 years in prison.

[DesignFox]

I'm not sure the crime fits the punishment in that scenario blas.

Sure, the guy should go to prison. I think he should definitely lose his license. But the Death Penalty???

I think that guy is gonna be hating himself for the rest of his life knowing he killed an innocent little boy... and knowing that the accident was probably avoidable, since he was impaired at the time. But he certainly didn't kill the kid intentionally...

I agree with you, people DO need to take responsibility for their actions, though. None of this "it was TV/the Video Game/my up-bringing/my dog dying/ some other lame ass excuse, that made me do it.

Drunk Driving is pretty inexcusable, and the punishments should be harsher...but I don't think the Death Penalty is the answer...maybe life imprisonment...but even that...I don't know...There is limited jail space and there are far worse criminals I'd rather keep there.

[DesignFox]

I wanted to make this separate from the point I was trying to make above.

In regards to people taking responsibility, I would like to see frivolous lawsuits immediately thrown out of the courts. I don't want to hear any more shit in the media about every guy that drops coffee in his lap having to sue someone.

Accidents happen and I'd like to see people not have to sue each other for medical expenses, lost work, and whatever else they think they're "entitled" to.

Lawyers should be disbarred for ambulance chasing and advertising sue-happy services. (seriously, there is an ad around here about calling for legal counseling if you've been bitten by a dog! for deity's sake!)

I think our government should do away with tracking devices, wire tapping, and all that other "patriot act" bullshit. You shouldn't be tapping phone lines unless you have suspicions, REAL ONES, that someone is doing something illegal.

I also hate the TSA and all their bullshit. Security is one thing, paranoia is ridiculous. I should be able to take my goddamn shampoo and conditioner on a flight with me.... I also remember some golden days when you could bring FOOD on flights with you rather than chopping off your arm in the lobby to get some peanuts to bring with you.... sheesh...what's next? We get stuck in a hospital gown and given a full body cavity search before we get on board?

Wow. I'm feeling ranty...

[daleduke17]

Rahmota, I agree with a lot of your ideas, mind if I add a couple?

Politics
- Term limits on every office. Park board trustee to the President. Maximum number of terms is 3. Maximum number of years in a term is 4.
- Campaigning will start no more than January 1st of the year of the election for the office you are running for (ie 2008 Presidential election = start date of January 1, 2008).
- 55 states/territories/etc (Washington DC, far Western territories, near Western territories, Eastern territories, active duty military), 5 primary dates. Each date will be two weeks after the previous one. First primary will be the third Monday in January. No more of this BS of primaries all over the calendar from January to almost June.
- Primaries will be decided by popular vote. At the end of the 5th primary date, person with the most votes wins.
- Two senators, ten representatives from each state (every state will have equal say).

I'll try to think of more, but, here is a start to making sure politics is the least annoying as it could be.

[Dreamstalker]

It matters because how they got here says a lot about who and what they are. A person willing to go throug the proper channels is goign to be a lot more honorable and honest than someone willign to sneak across the back door.

Desperation does not always equate to laziness. Boston never wanted the Irish here originally, and a lot of them worked hard to start over, did well and some started very successful businesses after coming in "across the back door" so to speak.

[Ree]

I find it interesting that you decry the infringing of the government into your personal rights, yet you then go on to say that firearms training will be mandatory.

I do not want to know anything about guns, thank you very much, and nobody will ever force me to learn about them.
Cover it in your right to bear arms BS and "people kill people" rhetoric, but the fact is, a gun was made for one purpose only, and that was to kill, and there is no way in hell that anyone can force me to learn how to use something designed for that purpose.

As for the ruling regarding CPS, saying that there will be no "anonymous" reporting, and anyone who becomes a target of their investigations will have a right to know who the accuser was, well, you can stick that one where the sun doesn't shine, too.
They have to depend on anonymity to do their job properly.

Yeah, false accusations get made, and sometimes, innocent people get hurt, but where there's smoke, there's usually fire, and they have to investigate everything.
I have reported situations where I was very concerned about the child, and in one case, it was someone that I care about very much, but I was more worried about the safety of her baby. Although they claim nothing was said, she claims she was told they were there because of a complaint that came from my area. I haven't seen or spoken to her since March, now. (She called a couple of weeks ago and spoke to my daughter to ask if I had reported her, because they had just investigated.)

It's all well and good to make rulings based on situations that may have touched you personally, or which get mishandled in 5% of the cases, and decide to make it a law that it will now be handled in the entirely opposite manner, but sometimes, it has to be handled a certain way for it to work in the other 95% of the cases.

It's called erring on the side of caution.

Oh, yeah, and tell some little child who is being sexually molested or smacked around in areas where the marks don't show, that the rights of her parents are sacrosanct and there's no point in saying anything because CPS has their hands tied since she could be making a false accusation, and having a teacher or neighbour or the parents of a friend become suspicious due to the child's odd social behaviours is simply not enough proof that a problem exists.

As for the rest of the post, it all became a bit of a blur after a while, but those two things stuck out.
It was a bit to me like saying, "The rules are, there are no rules," which still means there is a rule!

[DarthRetard]

DaleDuke17, I agree with most of your post there, but I do have one problem, for clarification purposes.

With regards to every state having two senators, and 10 representatives each:

1. Why would it be fair for my state, Florida, to have as equal a say as a state like Rhode Island, who has a population of my town and the two closest to me? Smaller states right now can gang up and it's even, if they were to do that after this kind of policy implementation, the smaller states would dictate larger policy.

2. The representatives issue also creates a serious problem in terms of communication with the masses. We have a representative for every district, so it really helps when we want to communicate to our congressman, and not having to send 1 million letters every day to one man/woman. It'd be harder to judge voting demographics, policy standing, just about everything.

The two senators idea is good though, seeing as we already have that.

[Sylvia727]

In regards to people taking responsibility, I would like to see frivolous lawsuits immediately thrown out of the courts. I don't want to hear any more shit in the media about every guy that drops coffee in his lap having to sue someone.

Accidents happen and I'd like to see people not have to sue each other for medical expenses, lost work, and whatever else they think they're "entitled" to.

This is my pet peeve. His name is Gerald.

The original Mickey D's coffee suit was far from friviolous. The little old lady in the drive thru got third degree burns on her thighs and groin after being handing a cup of coffee 20 degrees Fahrenheit over the maximum safety limit with an unfastened lid. First she asked McDs for her medical expenses and they said no. Then she sued for medical expenses and moderate pain and suffering. The jury awarded her a very high amount (15 mil? Don't quote me), and the judge downgraded it to 2 mil(?) but it included medical expenses, which for third degree burns on delicate areas with fragile old-lady skin could be quite expensive indeed. Unfortunately, most people hear "sued for spilling coffee!" and dismiss the entire case.

If you want an example of frivilous, try the guy who sued McDs for forcing him to eat their fattening food, or the guy who tried to sue a company because their billboard distracted him from a red light and he caused an accident.

[Boozy]

The original Mickey D's coffee suit was far from friviolous.

You have inspired me to come out of the closet and admit that I too thought the "spilled coffee" lawsuit was valid. McDonald's coffee used to be WAY the hell too hot, and their employees were extremely lax about making sure the lid was on securely before handing it to you.

There have to be dumber lawsuits.

Besides, the only reason people want tort reform is because politicians, at the bequest of their corporate donors, are telling the public fairy tales about how supposedly out of control lawsuits have become.

My gut tells me that tort reform will hurt the public by capping a corporation's liability for wrong-doing. Where's the incentive to behave if their misbehaviour nets them more profit than it will cost them in lawsuits?