π The Evil Ideas thread
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Now let's assume that the legislator's decided that their personal finances needed to account for the $11 million budget change instead of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA). Eliminating their salaries would only amount to a $5,998,860 budget reduction. To make up the difference, each of the 140 state legislators would need to contribute an additional $35,722 to the coffers annually.
Try some actual research before you go spouting bullshit ideas.
Did I say that would amount to the whole budget change? No. I said that would be one better place to cut costs. If they haven't already, they could change the fonts used on all of their state forms and documents to use less ink, which would also save money. They could send less funds to a wide variety of areas, spread out the load more evenly. And they could've saved hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions of dollars over the past several years by not defending their trivial and unconstitutional gay marriage ban in court. They might've even gotten more revenue if they were open-minded about it.
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@blakeyrat said:
but one newspaper published similar tests to the Volkswagen tests and determined that the only diesel car that actually passed the emission test in all driving conditions was the BWM 3-series.
Another one linked to way back upthread showed 2 VW cars (Audi A5, VW Golf) and the BMW 3-series as the only cars under the current European limits in real-world conditions.
Not that it's really a surprise that laboratory emissions tests and real-world conditions are somewhat different.
The biggest problem for the automakers is that they have a solution: Urea.
The cheat allowed VW to only have to change the urea reservoir at every inspection (i.e. 2 years or ~20,000 km). If they (and the other Diesel engine producers) actually want to achieve a passing grade for all their cars, they'll have to crank up the urea usage, resulting in a rough average consumption of 1 liter urea solution per empty Diesel tank.
So, now they will have to train the drivers of Diesel cars to top up this solution on their own with every fill-up. And they'll have to redesign the new cars - because the urea tank nozzle for most of those cars (save two) is in the back of the trunk. Usually under a rug. And it's a small nozzle.
And if you open this nozzle you may just get a lovely whiff of concentrated ammonia - so you'll have to be extra careful if you don't want to become blind or retain your sense of smell.
Oh, and you can't make simply increase the size of the urea tank - because then some cars (due to the increased weight) might be classified as trucks. Plus increased consumption, of course.
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The biggest problem for the automakers is that they have a solution: Urea.
Which most of the cars using the impacted engine don't even use.
So, now they will have to train the drivers of Diesel cars to top up this solution on their own with every fill-up.
Not really. The cars that do use it flag up a warning on the dash when it's low. Like everything else for most car owners, it'll just get sorted when the warning appears.
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The tank for the solution will be so small that it will make more sense to fill that one up when they're filling up on Diesel anyway.
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Did I say that would amount to the whole budget change? No. I said that would be one better place to cut costs.
State legislators (in general) are not highly paid. I am not generally opposed to cutting their salaries, but I wouldn't look there first. Especially when I am making more than twice what they are.
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Assuming they're going to retrofit the DEF to cars which weren't designed to ever take it.
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I assume you mean this card (PDF). I found this site, which appears to be the official Alabama state site.
But it still requires most of the documentation and requires the voter to be already registered. It also has a highly finicky and confusing list of which identification can be used to get a free voter ID...and which prohibits you from having a free voter ID.
They do have electronic birth certificate (like why can't they provide that for everyone, for a driver's license) but it looks like that only works in Alabama, so if you're not from there, tough.
If that's so "satisfactory", then why do you need the all that other proof of ID for a driver's license?
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They're making more than quadruple what I am, and they probably already have plenty of funds to have been able to mount a successful bid for office. If they needed to squeeze 11 million dollars out of the budget, they could've afforded to take at least two out of their own incomes.
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They're making more than quadruple what I am
You have a shitty job. Oh wait, you're a student, and aren't employed full time. Shut up.
and they probably already have plenty of funds to have been able to mount a successful bid for office.
Not necessarily. For example, in Arizona there is the Clean Elections fund which you can donate to for a tax break, and those running for public office within the state can withdraw from to support their campaign. There are rules about how much and what exactly the money may be used for, but it allows people with shallow pockets to run. Several other states have similar programs.
Even without such programs, sometimes it is helpful to know the wealthy when you want to run a campaign, and you don't have to be wealthy to know wealthy people. I'm not considered a wealthy person, yet I know a few families people who have net worth in the 9 figure range.
What I'm getting at is that not everyone in public office is wealthy. Some of them actually need the salary they receive so that they can pay their bills. And $42k is a pretty modest salary.
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Everyone should be glad to go get a piece of plastic with their picture on it, that they never needed before, so they can vote.
No, instead we should just let anyone show up and vote under whatever name they want, right? Let's let Carlos Jiminez from Guadalajara vote 6 times if he wants, too!
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@boomzilla said:
Yes, but that has little to do with this. In any case I'm not the onetwo who didn't look into what was going on and took the word of some opinion writer as gospel as far as the interpretation of what's going on.
I still find it absurd that they couldn't find less important places to pinch pennies from, like, oh, I dunno, legislators' salaries.I have theories on this. You might have noticed that they cut a bunch of stuff. Not supporting DL operations in places that don't have a lot of business seems like it's probably a good place to cut. Also, these counties are fucking tiny.
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@boomzilla said:
Oh, fuck, not this shit again. Here, go read why that's likely some misleading bullshit:
I agree No one is technically disenfranchised.
Everyone should be glad to go get a piece of plastic with their picture on it, that they never needed before, so they can vote. Just $36, too., at an office only 3 hours away. Where you'll be told you can't get the the plastic card without providing $75 worth of documents you didn't have when they said, "Papiere, bitte," oops, I mean, "Papers, please."
A mere $36 for the license and $75 for the papers and two half days of work later, and you'll be able to vote. That's if you're lucky, "citizen"; if OTOH we don't like you, it could cost upwards from $1500.
The High Cost of 'Free' Photo Voter Identification Cards (PDF)
Oh, and just to be clear, "citizen," this isn't a poll tax, no sirree--those are illegal. It's only so we can make sure you aren't an effing immigrant, even though no immigrants have ever voted as far as we can find. Yes, yes, we finally admitted it's just to suppress the black vote, but that's not what we argue in court, not at all, no sirree.
(And here I thought you were opposed to oppressive government regulation?!)
I can tell you have no idea what you're talking about. Go read something. I looked into this thing, then typed up a bunch of stuff and even linked to it from this thread.
(And here I thought you were opposed to oppressive government regulation?!)
At least you got one thing right in this post!
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Yeah, those greedy Alabama state legislators are just raking in the money:
You cannot possibly expect him to argue from a position of facts!
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If anyone's interested you can go here to see which ones have been closed:
http://dps.alabama.gov/home/DriverLicensePages/wfDLOffices.aspx
This one seems pretty typical:
WASHINGTON COUNTY Washington Co Courthouse Chatom, AL 36518 Hours: 8AM-2:45PM Days: M Lunch: 12PM-1PM Main Office: redacted CDL: N/A Reinstatement: N/A This office no longer offers Driver License services.
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So it was only open 1 day(s) a week, or actually half a day. Yeah, I bet that's disenfranchised SO MANY PEOPLE.
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So what's all this about Disney and Lego selling games that have no content and everything is DLC?
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I added some images to give people a sense of scale.
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Would that qualify as a piss-poor solution?
(Actually, from what little I've heard of it, I understand that urea is a pretty good solution (pun intended), when done correctly. That 'done correctly' part seems to be the sticking point.)
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I spent ages researching that, so you fuckers better appreciate it.
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What's RS?
Also you're missing Elder Scrolls Online.
Also you researched that!? Sheesh.
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What's RS?
I didn't put in TESO because I gave up on adding more after doing the research for Skyrim. Also missing: every game that isn't Skyrim, GW2, RS, or WoW.
So it's nice to know that every single video game I've ever played has a smaller world map than a single county of Alabama.
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So it's nice to know that every single video game I've ever played has a smaller world map than a single county of Alabama.
Really? Never played Elite Dangerous? Or... basically any space sims ever?
Also Daggerfall.
ESO is apparently about 39 square miles.
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Really? Never played Elite Dangerous? Or... basically any space sims ever?
What do you think world means?
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What do you think world means?
It means "ass". You're talking about the size of yo momma's ass.
Either way, Daggerfall's still 62394 square miles. Sure, 99.9% of it is empty tedium but. THAT IS THE PRICE YOU PAY.
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What's RS?
I'm thinking probably Runescape?
EDIT: Yep, Runescape. What? No, I totally don't recognize the map, what would make you think that?
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@CoyneTheDup said:
Everyone should be glad to go get a piece of plastic with their picture on it, that they never needed before, so they can vote.
No, instead we should just let anyone show up and vote under whatever name they want, right? Let's let Carlos Jiminez from Guadalajara vote 6 times if he wants, too!
Okay, let's take one of the scariest studies, this one: it asserts that 700,000 illegal immigrants voted in the 2008 election. The number of voters that cast votes for president in that election was 131 million, so if true, this would amount to immigrant votes accounting for 0.5% of all votes.
That's it, 0.5%? This is what you're worried about? Especially since all those immigrants vote Republican? Why would you want to eliminate Republican votes?
If I told you that I wanted to use tax money to solve a problem that affects 0.5% of the people in this country, you'd say, "No effing way, because taxes."
But you have no problem at all taxing every poor person in the country, including 17.8 million black people, so they can vote, so y'all can solve a 0.5% problem with immigrants all voting Democratic, that might not even exist.
Aren't you embarrassed to be in favor of taxes and regulation? Probably not, if it means Republicans win. After all, since Republicans are utterly helpless to do anything to actually win the hearts of ns, which would solve the problem entirely, the only way they can see to win is, "Keep them ns from voting!"
And that requires an excuse, and a 0.5% mythical problem will do just fine to justify taxation and regulation.
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at's it, 0.5%? This is what you're worried about?
Right, because elections never are that close.
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Honestly, if they are that close, then there's a bigger problem than illegal immigrants voting.
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My state has over twice the area of Alabama, and, although we're thought of as largely desert wasteland, almost forty percent more people. Yet Alabama has 4Β½ times as many counties.
What is the deal with you people in the East that you have to break everything down into counties the size of shopping mall parking lots?
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What is the deal with you people in the East that you have to break everything down into counties the size of shopping mall parking lots?
They have smaller cars, so they don't need to make their shopping mall parking lots quite so large.
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If they have smaller cars, where do they fit all of their guns and munitions?
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TIL why you are not allowed to carry guns around in Europe
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Honestly, if they are that close, then there's a bigger problem than illegal immigrants voting.
Oh, so that excuses criminal behavior. Got it.
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@Fox said:
Honestly, if they are that close, then there's a bigger problem than illegal immigrants voting.
Oh, so that excuses criminal behavior. Got it.
No, that won't wash. If an immigrant votes illegally, arrest their ass and throw them out.
Name another crime where you'd impose a tax penalty on 30 people for the criminality of 1 without major outrage. No, this is different, because everyone is penalized up front for the very possibility that a criminal might commit a crime.
No, there's only one thing that explains this poll tax response, and it isn't the possibility that an immigrant might risk arrest and expulsion to cast a vote. Something that justifies any insult to the Constitution, any trespass of common civility; and that's the possibility that someone, anyone, might vote for a F*G DEMOCRAT.
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No, there's only one thing that explains this poll tax response, and it isn't the possibility that an immigrant might risk arrest and expulsion to cast a vote. Something that justifies any insult to the Constitution, any trespass of common civility; and that's the possibility that someone, anyone, might vote for a F*****G DEMOCRAT.
Yeah, because illegal immigrants are the only source of voter fraud. Did you know an investigation into votes cast in North Carolina in the 2012 election identified nearly 36k potentially fraudulent votes? Most of those were voters that appeared to have voted in other states as well, but some were dead when their ballots were cast. How many of those questionable ballots were officially investigated?
@Washington Times said:
only a tiny fraction of 1 percent of the cases cited in the North Carolina audit were referred for investigation and prosecution
EDITORIAL: Democrats deny voter fraud. Ask North Carolina
It's an article of the faith of the Democrats that voter fraud is nothing to worry about because it never happens. Kim Strach, the North Carolina director of elections, has living proof β- and s
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No, that won't wash. If an immigrant votes illegally, arrest their ass and throw them out.
I eagerly await your solution for finding out when an immigrant votes illegaly without doing any kind of ID check, like you have to do when you by cigarettes or alcohol and nobody complains about.
the possibility that someone, anyone, might vote for a F*****G DEMOCRAT.
Ridiculous assertion. Let me know the next time you try to by cough syrup or open a bank account how well it works when you say you shouldn't have to show ID. And yet here, you're making up sinister bullshit reasons why someone might try to preserve the integrity of figuring out who makes the laws that govern us.
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I came up with an Evil Business Model a while ago.
Make laptops, phones, or other gadgets. Sell them for cheap, or even free. But every laptop or phone has a button that, when pressed, sends $1,000 to your company. You are required by contract to keep a valid credit card with $1,000 on it connected to your account, you are not allowed to remove it or disable it, and there is no undo feature.
That's all. You can have a free laptop, all you have to do is not press the button. You could even label it "do not press" for the customer's convenience.
This idea could even be applied to rented apartments.
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No, there's only one thing that explains this poll tax response
Could you explain what you're talking about, please? I'm really not following you here.
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@CoyneTheDup said:
Aren't you embarrassed
...to have written this screed?
No one said you had to read it.
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E_NOT_ALLOWED
It doesn't violate your rules as written. A Molly Guard rides above a button.
This
is not exactly what I was thinking of--I was thinking of those raised u-bars that keep you from accidentally hitting a switch:
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https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2826/9330403849_fc50d3d528_b.jpg
But that covers the button, which was prohibited. What I showed doesn't cover it--it just makes it less likely you would accidentally hit it.
If the original requirement specified that the Pay Me button was the clit mouse, well, he wouldn't get many sales.
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But that covers the button, which was prohibited.
But it's big! It's red! It must not be pressed! Can you resist pressing that big, red, lovely, inviting, pressable button?
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Can you resist pressing that big, red, lovely, inviting, pressable button?
For a thousand dollars I can assure you I can resist.
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Can you ensure that children in the vicinity of your computer can also resist, even when you're not around?
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Can you ensure that children in the vicinity of your computer can also resist, even when you're not around?
Since the only child likely to do so is my 17yo son, I'm pretty sure I can.
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Space Madness, possibly the best 10 minutes of cartoon ever made ever.
EDIT: I wonder if the "Omega-13" button from Galaxy Quest is a subtle nod to the History Eraser Button.
