rangerx

Assault rifle or not an assault rifle. WTF is the difference to the parent of a child murdered by either? Like thoughts and prayers, the assault rifle question does nothing to resolve the issue.

I used to own guns, but now I don't. I mine jade high in the BC alpines during the summer months. It's always suggested by others (including the game wardens) that I carry one for protection from grizzly bears, but I've never seen one, no less ever been accosted by one. I don't stray far from the quad though and I'm sure I could outrun one or at least get out it's way for the time being. I just don't feel the need to needlessly destroy a magnificent creature in it's own territory for my greed (or protection, as Americans call it). If one kills me while I'm up there, oh well, I died doing what I enjoy, knowing full well mining is not without risks. I'm certain you'd agree that as Canadians the first thing we are taught about guns is they are for hunting and not to be pointed at people, ever. America teaches people to be afraid. To defend one's property with deadly force. To kill preemptively. Education is the key to responsible gun ownership, not politics.

I didn't say you. I commented on your comment about others. And I said it was a military style weapon. Besides that, what's your point? Surely you cannot be suggesting those kids were not assaulted. If a person is assaulted by a baseball bat, do we need to describe it as an assault bat to have legal standing to prosecute the crime?

What benefit is there in allowing a mentally ill person to own an AR-15 military style weapon?

The shooter by virtue of age cannot legally buy nor consume alcohol. Neither could they purchase a handgun. However, permitting a child of that age to purchase a military style weapon and unlimited amounts of ammunition (no less solely for the purpose of denying the lives and liberty of others) goes way beyond the youth offender system.

Yet again, life and liberty takes a back seat to the 2nd Amendment and the erosion of mental healthcare in the USA. For someone on the outside looking in, those are seriously fucked up priorities. Anyone who thinks ratting out your crazy neighbor won't be met with gun nuts declaring their rights are trampled ought to have their heads examine themselves.

I had one on my wrist. The doctor pulled the fluid, which is just joint/tendon fluid then hit it with cortisone to dissolve the sac. I could use the hand right away and it never came back.

And France apparently, which seems to be what brought on this spectacle of dickwavery.

It's true. Authoritarian demagoguery and little else.

I have it on good information (the president himself) that it's all just sour grapes over green fees at Trump International Golf Club in Virginia.

Phone and TV over cable are provided by Virtual Private Networks which are allocated to reliably deliver the service, where regular internet protocols are vulnerable to user traffic.

Not to mention the impending humanitarian crisis. Deporting the oppressed back to their oppressors. The American dream is a fucking joke.

Quashing DACA and deporting dreamers is just exactly that. It's typical how conservatives eschew something by doing it themselves. I can hardly wait until Mexico starts sending your expats back. It's astounding how many American sleazeballs are hiding in plain sight down there. I'm sure your private prison industry will enjoy that... at your expense.

In protest of the British parliamentary system, America forwent the non-confidence motion and coalition government. Here in Canada, two weaker parties can combine their seats to vote against the current Prime Minister. An affirmative vote cannot remove the PM, but causes them to call an election within a time frame. In America, a fixed term of four years gives rise to the likelihood of tyranny or extreme polarization. In an attempt to invoke some protection from that, the founding fathers and subsequent governments authored the 2nd Amendment, impeachment procedures and the 24th Amendment. I'm not sure if Americans have never used the 2nd to oust a president, insomuch as favoring it to kill each other or play political football. The standard of impeachment or mental stability is almost insurmountable, no less in the absence of willingness from career politicians or sycophants. Despite it's shortcomings, history shows us parliamentary systems withstood the test of democracy, even after colonization failed. The American plan has not. If anything, it may (shudder to think) end up repeating the fall of the Roman Empire or embroiled in civil war. We all know, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

They are pile driven, but not to bedrock or footings. The sheer volume of pilings are what supports the structure. They float in the muskeg itself, freeze solid in winter, but don't sink in summer. They're not river, insomuch as open swamp crossings hence don't fluctuate or flow as radically across the seasons. High water conditions are always a concern in the spring, but that's not unique to just bridges, but the entire line itself. Stream crossings have normal culverts, concrete, iron or wooden spans. They were driven by steam pile drivers at the turn of the 20th century and remain there today. Some are a couple of miles long and support the weight of entire freight trains. I've never heard of, nor seen rail bridges built in this manner elsewhere, no less to these lengths.

Exactly. "Pull up your boots, when you can" was her favorite saying when I failed to take responsibility or got poor marks in school. However, she always suffixed it with "but lend a hand when others can't". The last part is lost on today's conservative. Selfishness and individualism are the prerequisite traits to be "conservative enough" nowadays. Even the most juvenile lessons of "sticks and stones" or "if little Johnny jumped off a bridge" have gone out the window to the modern neocon.

Although not as spectacular as massive cable stayed or iron bridges, the floating bridges of the Algoma Central Railway are fascinating too, especially through a forbidding country-side of seemingly bottomless muskeg, mud and swamps.

Being born in Kenya and all and parroted ad nauseam by Trump. /sarcasm Why is it republicans freak out at things that affect them the least, like gay marriage or marijuana? Things like mass shootings, healthcare and Russian insurgency... not so much? My greatest mentor was my grandmother, who was a staunch conservative. She married an atheist union leader and renounced Catholicism, sang soprano in the choir of the United Church. She took in immigrants. She accepted gays in the family. She was pro-choice. She insisted I respect and listen to my educators in a public school. She advised me in science and technology in simple terms in casual conversation. She despised pollution, eschewed crass commercialism and actively advocated conservation and preservation of sensitive systems. She loved the arts and encouraged expression in physical and creative ways. She taught me to walk a mile in other shoes and words must never be used to cause pain. The conservatives of today have truly lost their way.

When Mitch McConnell decreed Obama must be a one term president and "no" must be the answer to every bill by default, America ceased to be democratic. Republicans should have thrown his authoritarian ass out, but instead doubled down. Now the shoe is on the other foot and we witness hypocrisy at it's height.

A downed wire contacting a vehicle is safe, so long as the occupants don't step out. There's a risk for "touch potential", in some circumstances. However, exiting with one foot on the ground and one on the handle (or the other foot on the body), completes the circuit through the body and is dangerous in almost any case. Water itself is a poor conductor. Technically, it's an insulator. Water is rarely pure though. Add a little salt or any conductive contaminate, it's dangerous.

Technically yes, but sometimes no. Ground is also a conductor (albeit a poor one). When a live high voltage conductor contacts the ground, there's a voltage drop radiating outward from the source, hence voltage is present. If a person was standing near the point of contact it's safe, yet walking away (in strides) can kill you. This is known as Step Potential.

The heart of the matter.

Electrons follow the least path of resistance to ground.

No less distressing to hard working, law abiding individuals by threatening to deport them to a country they have no knowledge of nor support for. The law is the law, but underage or dependent individuals are not automatically culpable for the actions of their parents. Oppressing the oppressed to feed into a political agenda gives the appearance America is no better than the countries they escaped.

The new Nipigon River bridge replaced an otherwise safe and functional bridge built one hundred years ago, but failed during the first cold snap. Other than a rail bridge adjacent to it, the closure essentially severed Canada into two regions, being the only highway through the area. The only alternate route south of the Great Lakes, in the USA.