In 2015, fares accounted for $783 million in operating funds, while state and local governments provided $785 million for operations and $430 million for capital improvements (meaning capital replacement; the Silver line was funded out of another budget). In addition, Metro needs to spend about $700 million more a year than it is spending today on maintenance and capital replacement. With 1.8 million households in the region, if all of these state and local funds were instead funded by a dedicated tax, the annual tax would have to average well over $1,000 per household–even more if a Heritage Foundation proposal that the Trump administration zero out federal support to Metro is taken seriously (see p. 130). Will local taxpayers accept that cost when only about 10 percent of commuters take the Metro to work?Emphasis added by me.
Estonia's internet voting system should not be used for the European elections in May because its security vulnerabilities could lead to faked votes or totals, say independent researchers.This is such an astonishingly bad idea that the only explanation is that the Establishment wants this to prevent Tea Party style voter revolts. While that sounds like it's tin foil hat territory, nobody who put any thought into this would fail to ask "So what about security" as the very first question.
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As one of the highest-profile countries in its adoption of the internet, Estonia intends to use the e-voting system for its European elections in May, and already uses it for national parliamentary and municipal elections. Up to a quarter of votes are cast online in elections.
The attacks could be carried out by nation states that wanted to compromise elections, or a well-funded candidate who hired criminal hackers with the capabilities to alter the vote, the researchers warned.
While I wouldn't ask for anyone to be thrown into durance vile in Murmansk, there is a whole wing of the Green movement that is all about "direct action". Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front immediately spring to mind, with repeated examples of economic terrorism employed for The Cause. The TV show "Whale Wars" showed what can only be described as acts of piracy on the high seas, that would have had His Majesty's fleet hanging the perpetrators from a yardarm a short century ago.Greenpeace crew members detained in Russian jails for two months over their open-sea protest against Arctic oil drilling are "close to shock" over their conditions, a rights activist said Tuesday.The 30 detained are being held in pre-trial detention centres in the cities of Murmansk and Apatity, which are nearly 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) north of Moscow and above the Arctic Circle.All but four of the activists are non-Russians from countries including Britain, the United States, Finland and Argentina.Russia has jailed the activists from Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise protest ship without charge pending an investigation into alleged piracy, after several scaled a state-owned oil rig on September 18.
"Many of them are in a state close to shock," she told AFP after visiting the prisoners. "They had never expected that they would face such consequences for their peaceful protest in a democratic state."Hmmm ... peaceful? Assaulting a drilling rig in the Arctic Circle? After all, what could possibly go wrong? Err, other than the whole thing might explode and sink with all hands into the frigid waters?
A word to the NorKs: don't be douchebags to your neighbors, and maybe you'll get more cooperation from them. And oh by the way, what the South Koreans are doing isn't escalation. This is escalation:
North Korea has warned South Korea of "unexpected consequences" if it lights up a Christmas tree-shaped tower near their tense border.The North's state-run Uriminjokkiri website said it would amount to a form of "psychological warfare".
Seoul's annual tradition of lighting up a Christmas tree tower was suspended in 2003 following a warming of ties.
However, the South lit a tower last year as relations deteriorated between the neighbours.
The Associated Press quotes a defence ministry official as saying the South has agreed to allow Christian groups to light a further two towers this year.
But I hear that the Administration has Top Men on it. Top Men.
Smithsonian.com has launched a new blog called Department of Innovation to track “all things innovative, not just in science and technology but how we live, how we learn, and how we entertain ourselves.”
The logo of this cool new enterprise is shown here. You don’t have to be a mechanical engineer to notice something a little wrong with the gear arrangement: In this configuration, none of them can move. One poster to the blog suggested that they might stand for the president, Congress and the Senate.
Heh. Don't mess with Texan Judges. RTWT, which includes a stunning PDF of the letter hizonner sent to the Environmental Quackery Commission.The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality sent a complaint to Limestone County Judge Daniel Burkeen about David Cousins, a resident of Thornton, who rented out a cabin to hunters without a proper latrine facility.
The commission wanted the good judge to investigate.
Oh, he will. But he is busy.
“We have had some delay in our investigation of the incidents alleged in the complaint which you kindly forwarded to us,” Judge Burkeen wrote to the commission. “The problem is, we have recently had a rash of reports of cows, horses, sheep and goats defecating at will in pastures throughout the county. On top of this, we suspect that wild hogs, deer and all sorts of other animals are defecating without even trying to find a proper facility. In addition, I have personal proof on my windshield of a mischievous bird defecating in flight. The culprit flew away, but I did get a description. It was red. The gift it left was white.”
The biggest problem with Intellectual Progressive thought is that they think they can figure everything out. The implication is that they think that everyone who has ever lived before were, well, fools.“No one likes to spank their child,” admits Trumbull, “And I wouldn’t advocate that anyone spank their child if they don’t want to. But the point is, it can be an effective tool for use with young children between the ages of 2 and 6 years when milder measures fail.”In other news of the unexpected, school children perform much better when schools insist on discipline, study, and hard work:
School administrators take pride in their record of frequently firing teachers they consider to be underperforming. Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded "self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort," to quote the school's website.Yeah, I'm late to this party. Still.
Students, almost all poor, wear uniforms and are subject to disciplinary procedures redolent of military school. One local school district official was horrified to learn that a girl was forced to clean the boys' restroom as punishment.
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It would be easy to dismiss American Indian as one of the nuttier offshoots of the fast-growing charter school movement, which allows schools to receive public funding but operate outside of day-to-day district oversight. But the schools command attention for one very simple reason: By standard measures, they are among the very best in California.
He then shines the light of logic on the whole thing. You'll pick up 5 IQ points just from reading it. But the whole thing got me thinking. What if we take the hippies at their word? If we assume - for the sake of argument - that healthcare realy is a human right, what do we find?Yesterday morning, on my weekly sojourn into town for Dadcation Day, I spotted a bumper sticker in the Borders parking lot that had me shaking my head:
HEALTH CARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.The right of self defense, and defense of your home and country:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.The right not to have unwanted government guests:
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.The right to be left alone:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.And on, and on, and on. Every single one of the amendments in the Bill of Right stops the government from doing something, except two: the 6th and 7th, which deal exclusively with the workings defined in Article III - the judiciary.
After stories spread that vampires were strolling the campus of Boston Latin School, the headmaster of the prestigious college-prep school put a stake in the rumors. Lynne Mooney Teta sent a notice out Thursday to faculty, students, and parents denying the presence of bloodsuckers. She declined, however, to offer details about the rumors.And by "no", we mean that the problem is relatively under control ...
