Posts by Irony Deficient

Re: All that is left is to pay attention

Keven E., Senator Sanders is an independent, although he caucuses with the Democrats (and despite his pursuit of becoming a Democratic presidential candidate).

Re: err, what?

Trigonoceps occipitalis, the original tron („Alttron“ auf Deutsch) didn’t have one, but the new and improved tron („Neutron“) fixed that.

Re: Welsh?

A Mhaidhc, d‛fhoghlaimeoidís fiú na bPoncán Gaeilge a labhairt.

Re: The Spanish Inquisition

Dr Paul Taylor, I didn’t claim that defending Copernican heliocentrism made Mutis a mathematician; would you please explain how you came to that conclusion? Eighteenth century Spain, like ancient Rome, was more interested in applied mathematics, such as those found in Tosca’s Compendio Mathematico; see here for one list of 18th century Spanish mathematicians. Since you don’t consider botany to have been a science before Wallace and Darwin (which happens to exclude any botanical work done by Spaniards while the Spanish Inquistion was active), how would you describe the botanical work of, say, Linnaeus?

Re: Fair Tax?

phil dude, Congress can eliminate the federal income tax without a repeal of the 16th amendment; a repeal would be needed to prevent a future Congress from being able to reïnstate one.

conveying meaning in English

bazza, lawyer-speak also exists in the US. My understanding* of one example here is that “includes” in our legalese means “includes only” in colloquial English, so a sentence like “For the purposes of this act, vehicles includes bicycles.” would mean that only bicycles would be considered vehicles in that legislation; all other types of vehicles would be excluded from its measures.

* — That of a layman with no legal education, so caveat lector.

Re: DAB, what is that?

MacroRodent, are there any powerful enough AM transmitters near Tallinn from which transmissions could be received at your home?

Re: a country that was founded on a dislike of taxes

No, I will not fix your computer, Article VIII. of the Articles of Confederation contained its taxing mechanism. What the Articles lacked was an enforcement mechanism to ensure that each state legislature provided its proportional share to the common treasury; but given that Article II. noted that “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence”, and Article III. described its union of member states as “a firm league of friendship” rather than as a single nation, one shouldn’t be surprised by its absence. To address your final remark, and to reïterate my initial point, the 1789 USA reboot was “Founded on taxes with representation”.

Re: bootnote blessings

While the Editor is enjoying that beer,

Savvy advertisers would surely place their messages here — admittedly at somewhat greater cost — rather than flick them alongside their pennies into the dark Facebook well of nothingness and despair.

savvy advertisers might notice the point of view overwhelmingly provided by this site’s readers here (and the actions taken by them as a consequence) before deciding to Regwardly redirect their pennyflicking.

You can’t make an intention illegal

Tom 13, I can’t speak to Canadian law, but in the States, 21 USC §846 makes a conspiracy to commit any federal controlled substance offense in 21 USC chapter 13, subchapter I, part D subject to exactly the same penalties as actually committing that offense. Unlike other conspiracy crimes, the US Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Shabani that a 21 USC §846 conspiracy does not require an overt act to be taken in furtherance of the offense; thus, the mere agreement of intent between two or more people to commit such an offense, without any action taken on that intent, would meet the definition of a 21 USC §846 conspiracy.

Re: I’m lovin’ it

Ralph B, why shouldn’t we celebrate complete ingredient disclosure? People who have whale testicle allergies can make a fully informed decision on whether to drink this beer or not.

Re: Silly Hats

DanceMan, that would be gratifying to the indigenous troops of 19th century Italian East Africa, whose military hats were brimless.

Re: Time delay

Lost all faith…, which “you” are you addressing — Gavin or The Jon? (No region of Australia follows GMT.)

Re: “delicious” drinking water?

GBE, if the goal were for drinking water to be completely bland and tasteless, then (certain) bottled water companies wouldn’t add minerals to the (municipally sourced) water that they purify via reverse osmosis.

Re: A different model …

Charles 9, where was it argued that someone is above the law? What does a NDA being used to cover up a criminal act have to do with the comparison of a NDA to a contract for mandatory arbitration? Again, you’re using the phrase “taken away” to describe something which in this comparison is being given away; please note that “taken away” ≠ “given away”.

Re: So if I have this straight

Anonymous Coward, by “USA has maintained an immense oil reserve”, did you mean the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? If so, note that it was established after the 1973–1974 OPEC embargo, not after the 1956 Suez crisis. Also, its current stock is well above zero.

Abenomics bra

Chris G, I presumed that it has something to do with Japanese quantitative easing.

Re: A question …

LucreLout, speaking entirely hypothetically, the answer is yes, though the response to a writ of habeas corpus (for those nations that have it or its equivalent) would reveal any secret law that the accused was charged with breaking. If habeas corpus were suspended, or the response to such a writ could be evaded or obscured, then the secret law could well remain secret. Historically, I doubt if all trials in the Court of Star Chamber were a matter of public record.

Re: Spelling

Glenturret Single Malt, benifited is not correct spelling anywhere. Benefited is probably the most widely accepted spelling, although benefitted can be acceptable in US English.

Re: Typo

Dr Taylor, another handy °F-to-°C phrasebook-style scale translation is -40 °F = -40 °C. Combined with knowledge of the proportion of nine degrees Fahrenheit to five kelvin, deflummoxation is certainly within reach.

Re: Apart from that, he doesn’t do impressions.

Darryl, do proper Englishmen pronounce “flaw” as “flar”?

Re: Joker in French is just “joker”

regadpellagru, my guess is that vestibuleurs de consommation is Registrais for “consumer watchdogs”.

… in whom we trust

Destroy All Monsters, In God We Trust was put on the larger denomination “real money” silver and gold coins in 1866, just after the slaughter of 1861 – 1865, well before the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Money of any form whatsoever will continue to be “real” as long as governments are granted the power to tax and those taxes can only be paid in those forms of money.

Re: Good stuff.

Anonymous Coward, you’re correct, I don’t travel enough. That’s why I’d limited my remarks to the situation in the States — because I have no idea what the market penetration of high fructose corn syrup is elsewhere.

Re: Bryndza

Frank, apparently butyric acid is a notable component of the flavor of bryndza. (Butyric acid might be better known as a notable flavor component in Hershey’s milk chocolate.)

Re: Muscle, not fat

keith_w, gold is weighed in pounds troy, so a pound of gold weighs less than a pound of muscle, fat, lead, or feathers.

Re: Panic!

Flatpackhamster, again, if you don’t find the taste of turkey to be worth the effort of its preparation, then don’t prepare it; sit back and enjoy your beverage while your goose cooks. I like the taste of properly prepared turkey as much as I like the taste of goose, so I’m willing to make the effort. (Where I live, the cost of goose per unit of mass is considerably higher than the equivalent amount of fresh turkey, so that influences my choice of bird; I usually select a goose only once my jars of goose fat are emptied.)