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paulos's comments:

on The Slow Path to Adulthood

I didn't really totally head off on my own until around 24.  Other than going away for college a few times I mostly stayed at home.  This allowed me to graduate college with my BS (did it slowly) with no dept at all.  I had a part time job and all my money went to food and tution.

Eventually it came time to go out on my own.  However, my father who I was living with was out of work so in a sense I was a bit of the bread winner for the family but I kinda felt like I was enabling my father to be complacent.  I moved out and he got a job in alaska a couple months later.  I helped him pay off some credit card dept while I was living with him and move his stuff.

posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on Cleaning up the Gulf

Yes, everyone hates big oil.  However, this is a safety issue.  Any industry can have safety issues.  Someone making solar panels could get poisoned by chemicals, or they could be poisoning rivers with improper hazmat storage. 

In my opinion this is #1 BP's lack of commitment to safety.   #2 Where was OSHA in this? 

In my work anyone can call "stop the job" when they deem it unsafe.  It seems like BP doesn't have this culture.  The jury is still out as to how they are criminally neglagent. 

What I would have liked to hear in obama's plan is that they plan to audit all of BP's operations for safety concerns. 

To those that blame big oil, there really is no other way to power america.  The econimic insentive to create huge green energy companies is just not there.  Petro is just cheaper....  What I've been waiting for Obama to say is some kind of challenge to the generation industry to make clean energy that has a better  return on investment than petro counterparts.  If we can get the solar / wind / nuclear industry to be competitive then the market will do the change naturally.

posted 2 years, 11 months ago
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on Involuntary Commitment

So I've been a friend to Phil and his family sense high school.  I totally agree with Sally about what happened to Phil.  Yes, he was living in his car and barely making ends meet.  I too wanted Phil to get help but his siguation was so bad it became so bad. 


I would have liked that there were resources in the community.  I tried to help him find jobs and held his mail in case he got job offers, stored his stuff hoping that soon he would have found a job (he liked trucking and would check in at the place that trained him often) but there was no luck there.  Also, he would spend time at the library and got kicked out because of how he was.  People just want to force the metally ill away.  I think this is wrong. 

Likely my neighbors were the ones who called up the police several times over and over for him sleeping in his car on the street.  I know that his weapons are his word and he can be rather fightening with some of the things he says he plans to do but he's never laid a hand on me in the 10+ years I've known him.


I can understand the police position too, they don't know if he has a gun or a weapon if he is in his SUV and it is all blacked out.  I was very glad that he didn't get shot dead like Aaron Cambell.  Because his siguation was very similar to what happened in portland just a short time before.

posted 2 years, 12 months ago
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