Every sensible person knows the US constitution is a backwards, old, deprecated, outdated, icky, nasty, oppressive document written by racist sexist cishetero upper class privileged white males. It has no place in a modern, progressive society and it is way past due a major update, despite what some bitter clingers may say. But the question is how should it look like? You all being ignorant Americans, of course you don’t know. So let me give you an example from Old Europa.
First of all, what is that tiny thing you call a constitution? A few articles and some amendments? Bah! The Romanian constitution has 156 articles grouped in several Titles each of several Chapters each of multiple Articles. And many more sub articles. You cannot write all the good stuff in a few pages, after all. The Romanian constitution of 1938 was less than half the size, but things evolved. Off course each individual article is bigger and better than what you may find in the US. Let us have some examples, starting with the obvious one. Free speech is off course important in every civilized constitution, but one cannot just have it willy-nilly.
Article 30 of the Romanian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. It does so off course over 8 sub articles. Sub articles 1 and 2 clearly state that freedom to express oneself through “language, writing, images, sounds, any and all communication methods cannot be violated” and “all censorship is against the law”. Off course there need to be checks and balances. Sub article 5 says that the law can require all media to fully disclose their financing. Sub article 6 says that freedom of expression cannot prejudice a person’s honor, dignity reputation or right to one’s own image. These items are not defined in any way, off course, because they may change over time so no point in having these inflexible definitions in the constitution. As the reasonable person would expect, sub article 7 makes it clear a citizen cannot defame the country, instigate to hatred based on class, sex, religion or race, incite to discrimination, violence, separatism. Obscenity is, naturally, also banned and anything that affects public mores. All these things, it goes without saying, cannot be inflexibly defined either, general legislation is tasked with that. So you see, sensible free speech is permitted, but not hate speech or any other sort of speech legislation declares against public mores, unlike your primitive bill of rights.
Certainly, some of the important stuff does not even have a clear equivalent in the US document. Article 47 clearly states the government needs to take measures to ensure a “reasonable standard of living” for all citizens (although some would wonder how well it has achieved this) by measures of both economic development and social assistance. Citizens have the constitutional right to pensions, holiday, payed maternity leave, and healthcare in government hospitals, unemployment and other measures of assistance as established by legislation. Again, for flexibility, many articles in the Romanian constitution simply leave the details of all this to legislation outside the constitution, as they well should.
Article 41 guarantees the right to free labor, to choose one’s profession, minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, 8 hour work day and the right to collectively bargain. Unfortunately, even the Romanian constitution is somewhat outdated, due to the phrasing “for equal work men and women are to receive equal pay”. What is this un-inclusive “men” and “women” stuff?
Article 2 clearly states sovereignty is with the people and no one person can exercise sovereignty, so none of that sovereign citizen nonsense y’all got. Article 4 mandates unity and solidarity among all citizens, while article 6 establishes minorities can keep their own cultural, ethnic or religious identity. The next few articles establish the official language, official capital, flag, anthem, national holiday and all the things a constitution needs to establish.
Article 23, over 13 sub articles, guarantees individual liberty. While the first sub article simply states the right to individual liberty, the rest set out the procedure by which this can be restricted, how one can be arrested, accused, tried, convicted and imprisoned.
Article 32 guarantees the right to free, public, mandatory education. It gives ethnic minorities the right to education in their own language. And for various religious cults it ensure religious education in the public education system. Article 33 guarantees access to culture and mandates the government to support the arts and maintaining national cultural heritage. Article 34 guarantees the right to good health and article 35 the right to a clean environment.
It goes without saying that all those icky nasty guns and other weapons are not in any way constitutionality protected. After all, since article 22 guarantees the right to bodily integrity and safety, you have no need of weapons to defend yourself. The constitution does that for you. If there is any situation of violence, you can just point out the article to the offending party.
Some articles are shorter. Article 54 mandates loyalty to the Country. Article 55 established the duty of every citizen to defend the country. Article 56 establishes obligation of all residents to pay taxes and to the government to make sure the taxes are “fair”. Article 57 requires citizens to exercise their right in good faith. There are a few dozen articles establishing how parliament is organized and regulation the legislative process. A few dozen more establish how the administrative part of the state is organized. But I will skip them, most members of parliament and government employees also do.
Off course the constitution is awful long and cannot be properly covered in one post. But I wanted to just give you a glimpse of it, so you can at least realize it can be better than that dusty old thing of yours. But for know, we can only hope Uncle Joe packs the court and solves the issues until a proper constitution can be formulated.
The Revered RBG smiles and nods from her place in heaven.
“Why’s it so warm here?”
“Having a Strong Woman sit at Your right hand is sexist, Yahweh. You’re not sexist, are you? You need to move over and let me have the Big Chair.”
South Africa has a right to housing in their constitution.
*Zombie Ginsburg perks up*
Way too Socialist for me, nice try though,
why do you hate childrunz?
Because they are exspensive, and they smell,
And sticky. Don’t forget sticky.
Lol.
It checks out.
All that freedom, and yet my people were forced to flee Romania.
September 12, 1944 – never forget.
german soldiers?
Lol.
Nope, just village dwelling people.
Dramatized here
….
I got nothing.
As always, everything before the
butsub article can be safely ignored.Thanks Pie
Back in the mid-90s I had a couple of Romanian lady colleagues who were lamenting the results of the recent election where the parties couldn’t agree on a coalition government. They likened it to a time in Romanian history where the various parts of Romania couldn’t agree on who would be king, so they brought in some German guy as a compromise. I magnanimously volunteered to play the role of the German king to resolve the current crisis, and quickly had an army of two ready to roll. Unfortunately the situation in Romania resolved itself, but let it be known, that this constitution will go right out the window under my firm but benevolent rule when I finally do become king of Romania.
I didnt vote for you
If a watery tart throws him a sword just who do you think you are to challenge that?
Pray that I take mercy on you.
Short response as I’m short on time: There are no such things as positive rights. Period. Ever. There never will be. They literally just don’t exist.
are you unfamiliar with fantasy literature? just because something does not exist does not mean you cannot write it down
You’re on fire, Pie.
You know who else got bogged down by not having eastern European articles?
That doesn’t even make sense.
Dude, It’s Hitler. Duh.
Reason magazine ?
156 articles? Sounds like the whole thing could be better organized as a series of listicles.
Buzzfeed’s ears perk up
#47 shocked me!
/sells ads between every 12 slides
/sells ads between every
12slides/proper clickbait.
Well sure… if you want to be greedy.
/hides malware injection in slide 3
/Sells malware removal tool on slide 6.
Sorry about the OT, but I spent a while writing my response regarding the video regarding EV adoption and grid expansion, from the previous thread:
It’s a good video, however, he glosses over or skips some very important points, including the costs of installing new generating capacity, new transmission lines (which in many places are near their limits already), new distribution lines, etc.
The biggest question, which he handwaves away by showing the increase in energy production from 1960 through 2000, is, where is that generation going to come from? From 1960 through 2000, the largest increase in generation was from installation of new fossil fueled baseload power plants, true behemoths that simply couldn’t be built before that time frame. For various technical reasons, until the 1960s, it was impossible to build single generators capable of more than about 450 MW. Up to that point, various cross compound and tandem generator schemes were used to increase unit capability. Up until then, steam boiler technology was limited as well, and so some plants had multiple boilers feeding single units, or single boilers feeding multiple units, or a combination thereof.
After that point, the standard of very large, 1:1 boiler / power train systems were able to be built, using supercritical steam that advances in metallurgy allowed, which increased the overall efficiency of the systems greatly. But these power plants required something that is unpalatable today: a fuel source to match, which was coal.
Tying our hands behind our backs by limiting coal fired plant construction is a problem. And let’s be honest; even though natural gas fired plants are more in vogue because of their lower CO2 emissions per unit energy production, the moves by the current administration to end fracking point to the future we all know is coming, which is that NG plants will become the next targets and their construction and use will be in question.
So, having removed our two biggest opportunities for generation expansion, how exactly do we get that additional capacity (which Jason calculates at over 1000 terawatt hours per year)? Nuclear? Not in the forseeable future, even in the time range he posits for EV adoption. Even if the Fed gov were to allow unfettered construction of new nukes, it still costs many billions of dollars to build one of those units, and the experiences of late haven’t looked good for nukes in the US.
SMRs are an option, but are nowhere near approval, as are many other options such as LFTR technology. And we know that without major energy storage installations, wind and solar will not cut it.
So, while it may be technically possible, we’ve removed many options for doing it quickly and cost effectively from the table, and that’s not even to consider the energy requirements to build an electric fleet or the additional charging infrastructure and inconveniences associated with charge times and ranges.
Shut up and drink the unicorn piss, denier!
No worries. I don’t think he has a definitive answer either and appreciate your insights. Like many engineers and McKinsey consultants I think he greatly underestimates implementation.
In a past life I was an analyst. So it’s just refreshing to see somebody at least start to quantify things and lay out a framework. At that point you can either disagree with the framework or challenge the assumptions as you’ve done here.
But it’s refreshing to see somebody actually on YouTube actually use data and analysis rather than assertion to make a point.
I totally agree that his video is a good look at drawing a box around the possibilities. But he needs to consider costs and timing as well. I think he did his own argument a huge disservice by making the comparison with generation/grid expansion between 1960 and 2000 but not considering *why* it was able to happen, and whether it could be duplicated.
The big generators that were built in the 1960-1980 time frame were able to push the installed cost per MW fairly low. But over time the permitting and construction costs have crept back up, and so none of that can be built as cost-efficiently as it once was. And building lots of smaller wind / solar farms is inherently less efficient in terms of construction as well as transmission/distribution.
Plus, the standards that the current grid was build to have changed; up until the 1990s, it was considered important to have a minimum of 11-15% excess capacity on the grid, only 10 years ago, 8% was the norm, so the grids were even closer to their design margins.
One other thought: during the major build up of generation/transmission/distribution capabilities in the US from 1960-1990, power companies were heavily regulated and guaranteed a return on investment, so it was easy for them to build for the future; now that is not the case anywhere near as much as it was.
Whether or not EV implementation is reasonable or possible doesn’t matter. As long as the cause is worthy of enough useful idiots and it creates opportunity for grift and swelling energy stock values in some politicians’ portfolios, it’s worth pursuing.
Plus it just feels good, doesn’t it.
The same way extracting money from you and me through implicit force and “helping” people with it does.
It’s the fashionable grownup equivalent of burning bugs with a magnifying glass or pouring salt on slugs.
I was in Sint Maarten in 2010 shortly after they became independent. The newspaper published their new constitution while I was there. It was shorter than the Romanian one, but similar in spirit. It would list a great freedom, then in the next sentence give all the ways it could be trodden upon. Mostly just “at will of parliament” or some such.
Which article specifies that all words have to end in u?
a joke needs to have some truth behind it you know… unless you claim surrealism
needs to have some truth behind it
That’s why we tell the vampire jokes.
Buna ziua! Multumesc!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YNZtHW_VnuE
Buna seara. E totusi ora douzaci
goddamnit i misspelled romanian
Sorry, it is your seara there, isn’t it.
I did mention once that a college roommate of mine was taken with your country.
Dare I ask what the penalty for “failure to unify” is? And how do I go about reporting the hottie at the bar in Bucharest that wouldn’t unify with me?
Dare I ask what the penalty for “failure to unify” is – that is off course non constitutional legislation. no idea though.
Off you go to the Happy Fun Camp
I’m beginning to suspect you’re being tongue-in-cheek.
me? never!
Our Constitution is also backed by hundreds of thousands of pages of law that also exist mainly to contradict the Constitution. You might have gathered over the years, for example, that most of the Amendments don’t actually mean anything any more.
with all that dust it is natural they are not taken seriously
Interesting conversation with a customer. Word is that a significant part of the rise in lumber is retribution from Canada for cancelling Keystone. Apparently there are hordes of sheet goods just across the border that are being held up by Canadian customs.
Also, Amazon currently accounts for 40% of the national capacity for steel trusses and sheet decking for their distribution warehouse buildouts.
I say get some border reivers together and organize a raiding party in Canada
RE: Amazon – seriously?
Yes. Their new warehouse format is typically 3,000,000 sqft on five floors, 600K per floor.
I don’t know how many of those warehouses are going up right now, but it is a lot.
We have a new one in Mount Juliet, TN going live this summer.
Interesting. I did hear from someone a few weeks ago that there is a lot of lumber in Canada just sitting around. We were wondering if it was a border issue, or maybe a transportation issue, or maybe a problem with distribution in the US. But the pipeline is an interesting possibility.
Trump’s tariffs didn’t help either. They’re pretty burnt about that. I don’t know if they’ve been lifted yet.
Nope. They’re doubling down.
https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/economic/2021/05/u-s-moves-to-double-tariffs-on-canadian-softwood-lumber-imports
Yeah, sure.
I just did a quick search, and it appears the US wants to let the 9% lumber tariff revert to 18%. Genius Joe strikes again. But hey, no mean tweets, right?
Correction, Trump added a tariff, but somehow Biden doubling it while price are high makes him better.
Amazing how that works, isn’t it?
I would be surprised if held up imports is a big part of the rise. My read:
1) expected slow down and capacity cuts
2) surge demand
3) production/staffing difficulties
4) futures pricing
5) producers holding back stock
The input prices (stumpage) hasn’t risen like the finished price has.
Upon further review, it appears to be a truck/driver problem, which would explain the buildup at the border.
Apparently Euro lumber imports are up as well.
UE has some tinfoil speculation:
https://youtu.be/D3yAfF9bfjA
There’s near-daily news her about NY lawvermin attempting to get some sort of deal to open the border for truckers and the Canuckis stonewalling them.
Means the Coast Guard and Border Patrol will both be active in Lake Erie again this year. We must prevent people from spreading the ‘vid to those other people in boats! And forbid those people who have summer homes across the border from visiting them!
Real stumpage prices haven’t increased in decades.
My wife and I were planning to build a house on our land and rent our current house as a retirement income. After getting plans finalized with the architect last month, every bid from local contractors were 2X our budget or more. We do have some nice plans though.
There are going to be some contractors going bankrupt this summer. A lot of them were slow in the fall and bought business with low bids. Problem is those contracts are coming out of the ground now and they vastly underestimated the material and labor costs (that is if they can even get the labor right now).
Hey, PA! Looks like you’re just jealous that us Ohioians are doing something first:
PA to lift Mask Mandate by June 28
Two years too late.
Pffft…I just picked up my booze at the state store. Maskless.
They still have signs up. Fuck em.
Yesterday, for the first time since The Beforetimes, a Publix employee was maskless. A heavenly beam of light shown down upon her and little doves fluttered gently about her head.
Neph,
I’ll put some hotel suggestions in the Forum for the up coming show. Also a few breweries and a amusement park with 3 world class wood roller coasters.
Good deal. Appreciate it.
I am a bit spoiled by amusement parks, with Cedar Point close by.
Thanks! I’ll need that too. I need to get my shit back together on trip planning for the FreedomFest road trip.
You at FreedomFest in the BHs this year? I’m on the verge of signing up and merging the trip with a continued property search. If you are speaking of the SD FF (and I get off my ass and get to planning), perhaps you’ll let me buy you a beer!
Yes.
A group of guys I know, some of which are H&R refugees, will be at FreedomFest this year. If you are there, send me a message on the forum and we can arrange a meet-up.
Posted. Cedar point is great. This place is smaller, free admission family owned but has some real old stuff that can’t be found anywhere. It buys all of the old steel bumper cars from all over the country. https://www.knoebels.com/rides/bumper-cars
It built the only existing wooden toboggan ride coaster https://www.knoebels.com/rides/flying-turns.
The constitutional amendments have nothing to do with that….
When I was in PA last weekend, I did not wear a mask anywhere. I saw lots of maskless folks. Too many face diapers wearing zombies though.
Mad negotiating skills: “We’re open to spending some more.”
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/republican-infrastructure-mcconnell/2021/05/27/id/1022979/
Jeez it’s like the Democrats really think we don’t love govt!
Reminds me of a previous spending negotiation, where the Repubs announced in advance that there was no way they would block the bill.
Guess how much the Dems gave them in the “negotiation”.
OFFS
Obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnX-D4kkPOQ
A non Packers related article about Green Bay. But is does harsh biden’s buzz on Wisconsin.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/05/27/how_the_democrats_stacked_the_deck_in_the_green_bay_november_election_145825.html
But it was the mostest securest electionist in history!!!!!
Easiest way to get rid of that troublesome mayor is to lay the blame for the Rodgers situation on him. The rest will take care of itself.
+1
fraudulentfortified electionOT: D&I topic of the month (for my department) is Gaslighting….
There are so many directions I could go with that one
Didn’t you just have to go through that training last month?
Pyroflatulence?
Relevent/Obligatory:
Blue Flamers
Should definitely be the opener for Trashy’s meeting.
I’d start with how badly it impacts climate change. All that CO2!
Not to mention the light pollution that will obscure this month’s flower blood moon.
It was pretty awesome looking last night. Is it over or is there supposed to be more of a show tonight?
The show was a couple of nights ago during the total eclipse.
I’ll take “What You Are Doing to Us” for a thousand, Alex.
In support of Alex.
https://www.newgeography.com/content/007048-the-rise-corporate-state-tyranny
I have my orange eyed black and white kitteh in the carrier and I’m driving back home!
He’s yowling his head off but he is already letting me pet him through the cage bars.
This might just work out…
Huzzah!
Yay.
Just expect him to hide under a piece of furniture for a week.
I’m kinda doubting it, but there will still be other cat scents on the cat furniture and such, so we will see if he is spooked.
I’m encouraged that he is letting me scratch his chin through the carrier and is leaning into it.
Aw.
meow
meow
meow
meow
meow
meow
??⬛?
Yesterday, before the rain came in, I acquired a random porch cat. It was just hanging out there, no collar, no tags (that I could see).
I’m not a cat person, and the girlfriend’s allergic, so it just stayed on the porch until it wandered off. My only hope is that it found a chipmunk.
“he is letting me scratch his chin through the carrier and is leaning into it.”
I’m having a hard time keeping up with these euphemisms. We need a database of some sort.
We’re already in multiple databases…
“but there will still be other c̶a̶t̶ scents on the c̶a̶t̶ furniture and such,…”
Thats what gets me busted every time Jugsy comes home from working out of town.
Have you tried Febreze?
Well, it’s impossible to get rid of all the glitter, right?!
My current budget wont allow me coke-strippers.
However, Ive often wondered if I filled my hummingbird feeder with a mixture of goldschlager and coke, would I have strippers flying around my porch ?
And then attack your toes at 2 in the morning.
Mine just stares at me and has a look of “not today I guess” when I open my eyes
“Do I start eating the eyes, or some of the extremities?” “Damn, not dead yet”
“I wonder what your cheeks taste like…”
Speaking of heartless kitties, I watched “The Voices” with Ryan Reynolds last night.
He plays a schizophrenic with homicidal tendencies, and the voice he attributes to his dog represents his better nature, while his cat goads him on to evil.
It’s supposed to be a dark comedy, and it has its moments, but it is actually quite tragic. Not something I’d recommend for everyone but I liked it, and it will stick with me for some time I predict.
Im not anti-cat. But you need to wake up to this each morning.
When we brought home our first black cat, he burst out of the carrier, raced around frantically, then cowered in the (unused) fireplace.
When we brought home the current black cat, he calmly strolled through the whole house, checking out every room, then picked out his first comfy place.
Mine hid under the stove for a week. I would not have thought that was even possible so I wasn’t prepared for it.
2 black cats
Witch confirmed.
#1111
Count me in the two black cats club.
::fist bump & spooky witchy hand gesture::
This little guy burst out of the carrier, crawled around with his belly low to the ground like he needed to get under the imaginary barbed wire fence, then disappeared.
He’s been though a lot lately though, so we will leave him be until he gets hungry.
He’s very cute. Not quite a tuxedo kitty. Black upper face and ears, wide black stripe down the back, and then a few big black spots on the sides. He looks like a Holstein.
Very orange eyes. Nifty.
“Holstein” it is! You can call him “Hole” for short.
Yeah, no way if ever regret THAT nick name.
Well, TT named Current Black Cat “Snot,” and I wasn’t prepared with a better alternative, so…
Going to name him Gateway?
“He’s my gateway cat to getting more snd becoming a crazy cat lady.”
I’d forgotten all about the Gateway computers and their silly cow packaging.
Excellent.
The neighborhood kitties are starting to piss me off a wee bit. They keep leaving stuff in my yard that Lily wants to eat. She got a mouse corpse last week that gave her the runs for four days. This morning they left another dead mouse AND a dead robin.
Hopefully when the fence goes up it will discourage them somewhat. Of Lily having free rein inside the fenced area will.
Yikes. I’d be worried about the mice / rats. They might be full of warfarin.
I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right.
Article 47 clearly states the government needs to take measures to ensure a “reasonable standard of living” for all citizens (although some would wonder how well it has achieved this) by measures of both economic development and social assistance.
Ceausescu’s ghost lives on.
That is a joke, but this is a serious question because I’m too lazy to go to wiki or elsewhere: Is this the Communist era Constitution?
Is this the Communist era Constitution? – off course not. 1989 changed everything. except the people in power.
Wow. It reads like I’d expect a Communist constitution to read.
1989[insert election here] changed everything. except the people in power.If voting really changed anything, they wouldn’t let us do it.
Teens need to turn in their chromebook listening and reeducation devices today or tomorrow. They have a window of 7am and 2pm each day.
Teen one is hoping on a plane early morning tomorrow so he has only today.
They both work at 2pm, and are both sleeping still. Good thing they have that $300 bucks to pay the fine for not turning them in.
Welcome to the world of responsibilities kids.
Oh..thanks Pi for the read! So much freedom allowed to you is scary.
Slumbrew’d it…hoping – hopping
And when they have to pay they will wonder why you are unsympathetic.
Yeah the past couple weeks have made me dead to that word. They want to be treated like they are 18, I have that power.
Remember how Snopes couldn’t stop fact-checking the Babylon Bee? Now Politifact is getting in on the act.
https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1397935499365343232
God bless those bastards over at the Bee.