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Labels: gun rights NAMPA — A local gun shop has collected more than three tons of food for the Lighthouse Rescue Mission in exchange for raffle tickets to win an AR-15 rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammunition. And get this: You could still be the winner of the package that retails for more than $2,000. Roberta Regnier, owner of Alpha Omega Services "Armageddon Armory" in Nampa, said business has been good, and she wanted to share the blessing. Tickets are available for two nonperishable food items until the winner is selected at an in-store drawing April 15 — tax day. "We were just trying to find a way to kind of help the community out, and try to help people remember (those in need) need food all the time, not just around the holiday," Regnier said. "It's not just the needy people. It's everyday people who are now finding themselves out of work and out of their homes." The founder of the Swiss assistedsuicide clinic Dignitas was criticised yesterday after revealing plans to help a healthy woman to die alongside her terminally ill husband. Ludwig Minelli described suicide as a “marvellous opportunity” that should not be restricted to the terminally ill or people with severe disabilities. Critics said that the plans highlighted the risks of proposals to legalise assisted suicides in Britain for people in the final stages of a terminal illness. The Dignitas clinic in Zurich claims to have assisted in the deaths of more than 100 Britons. The Zurich University Clinic found that more than a fifth of people who had died at Dignitas did not have a terminal condition. Mr Minelli said that anyone who has “mental capacity” should be allowed to have an assisted suicide, claiming that it would save money for the NHS. Mr Minelli admitted that some of the people who had been helped to die at the clinic had been psychiatric patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Swiss psychiatrists are refusing to co-operate with Dignitas so the clinic allows patients to provide their own medical papers from Britain. “We have some problems because all the Swiss organisations of psychiatrists have told the public that they will not make such reports,” he said. “If we would have a psychiatrist from the UK giving an extended report, then no problems.” Rep. Walt Minnick, Idaho's best liaison to the Democratic majority, surprised his colleagues and some Idaho institutions with the news he wouldn't bring federal dollars to his district through the widespread but controversial use of earmarks. Minnick said he knew some people would be upset. Labels: Idaho politics A conductor saw the rape from the window on his train, and a station agent in the booth witnessed a screaming woman being dragged down a staircase inside the desolate 21st Street station of the G line. But neither one left the safety of their assigned posts to help her. Instead, conductor Harmodio Cruz and agent John Koort called the command center to summon cops. Justice Kevin Kerrigan ruled the two workers had taken "prompt and decisive action in obtaining police help," according to the decision handed down in Queens Supreme Court. The help came far too late for the victim, who was raped on the platform. Her lawyer, Marc Albert, called Kerrigan's decision "offensive," saying it gives "blanket immunity" for transit workers to ignore straphangers in peril. "Simply pressing the button is enough," lamented Albert. "God forbid citizens are put in a position where municipal workers are not required to act and it leads to harm -- they are left out in the cold." The victim, an artist, was inside a Queens-bound G train at 2:15 a.m. on June 7, 2005, when the only other person in the car began to touch her feet. She jumped away from him, but the commotion caused her to miss her stop at Greenpoint Avenue. She got off at the next stop, 21st Street in Long Island City, but as she waited for a Brooklyn-bound train, the same sicko -- who had followed her off the train -- began licking her feet. She ran up a staircase toward the platform, but the psycho grabbed her in a bear hug and hauled her down the steps. Labels: gun rights The (formerly) ubiquitous summer roadside vegetable stand appears to be both Category 3 and 5 "food establishments" since they sells "fresh produce in ready-to-eat raw form" and "stores, holds, or transports food products prior to delivery for retail sale". The explicit exclusions in Section 3 (13)(B) do not exclude roadside vegetable stands. Section 3 (14) explicitly declares "any farm" (no matter what the size) to be a "FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY". Section 406 is a real doozy which places the burden of proof on the small farmer or roadside stand operator to demonstrate that none of their goods were participants in interstate commerce (the basis for this whole thing appears to be the Commerce Clause). (1) CIVIL PENALTY- (A) IN GENERAL- Any person that commits an act that violates the food safety law (including a regulation promulgated or order issued under the food safety law) may be assessed a civil penalty by the Administrator of not more than $1,000,000 for each such act. Labels: economics In a memo e-mailed to Pentagon staff members this week, the Defense Department's office of security review said that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror.' Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' " As Gen. Sherman once said, overseas contingency operations are hell. Recently the Justice Department announced in a court filing that it was dropping the term "enemy combatant." No particular substitute was provided, only the explanation that in the future only those who provided "substantial support" to terrorist groups would be detained, not those who "provide unwitting or insignificant support" to al-Qaida and the Taliban. How can any support of terrorism ever be "insignificant"? Was 9/11 al-Qaida's version of an "overseas contingency operation"? It was not terrorism, at least in the eyes of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. It was a "man-caused disaster" — you know, just like Pearl Harbor. In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Napolitano said this word game was "perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear." When a nuclear, biological or chemical device is detonated in or over an American city, will that be a matter of "nuance"? Labels: terrorism The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming "There's probably no God." "We now produce a certificate on parchment and we have sold 1,500 units at three pounds (4.35 dollars, 3.20 euros) a pop," said NSS president Terry Sanderson, 58. John Hunt, a 58-year-old from London and one of the first to try to be "de-baptised," held that he was too young to make any decision when he was christened at five months old. In a country with at least 20,000 Humvees and a war-weary population, who would think there would be a market for the civilian version? Mr. Hilli did. “I just knew there’d be a huge demand for this in Baghdad,” he said. Now Mr. Hilli and his brother Dhafir run a car dealership specializing in Hummers. It is called, in English, “Al Sultan for Trading Cars.” An American diplomat declared that it was the biggest Hummer dealership outside of the United States, a fact that seemed too good to check. Unfortunately, Mr. Hilli has checked. “It’s the biggest one in Baghdad, though, that’s for sure,” he said. Never mind that General Motors, Hummer’s struggling parent company, may scrap the brand or sell it to someone else. “Iraqis love them because they’re really a symbol of power,” said Mr. Hilli, a chubby 37-year-old who could not stop chuckling. Nonetheless, he spoke with authority, since he was his own first customer. Hummers in Baghdad are symbols of much more besides: increasing security, returning normality and a yearning for the trappings of sovereignty. Mr. Hilli allowed that there was something else, too, a little more indefinable, which in Arabic is “hasad thukuri,” and which in English will be translated later. The Hilli brothers first got their coals-to-Newcastle brainstorm a couple of years ago, during the height of the sectarian violence. “Even if we imported these back then, no one would have dared to drive around in them,” Ali al-Hilli said. Insurgents were taking aim at anything that looked foreign, let alone an analogue of an American military vehicle. Then the war started quieting down and, about a year ago, they found an online auction for repossessed nearly new cars in the United States. They put in the winning bid on a Humvee H3, which they air-freighted in through Dubai, followed by a second one. “Everyone thought we were crazy,” Mr. Hilli said. “Or they thought we were Iraqi government officials,” who can most easily afford such cars. At first the Hummers sat on the lot and attracted little interest. “We took such a risk, it’s such an expensive car, and all our money was in it,” said Dhafir al-Hilli, 38. So the brothers got in the cars and began driving around their Kadhimiya neighborhood, a largely Shiite area that had so often been a target of terrorists that it was walled off and relatively safe.
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A Couple of Sobering Reminders
Copycat murders are a real problem. The mass media need to think long and carefully before they give too much attention to horrible crimes--or they may push some people over the edge into more horrible crimes.
Do you know someone who is mouthing off a bit more than seems appropriate? Do they seem really, really angry? Have you tried to calm them down a bit? Do so. Don't let them become a tragedy, such as this from April 4, 2009 KDKA-TV:A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said.
1. Poplawski is certainly going to be disarmed.
Friends said 23 year-old Richard Poplawski feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.
Three officers were killed.
...
One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."
Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said he feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."
2. His actions, in addition to allegedly causing three police officers to be murdered, have done nothing but strengthen Obama's gun ban efforts.
I Just Rejected An Ad
Blogads.com provides a painless way for me to get advertising revenue. I have never rejected an ad -- until now. Let's just say that it promotes a scheme for not paying taxes that I fear will put some readers at least in a pile of financial problems, if not prison.
I'm no fan on the income tax--which penalizes hard work. I would prefer a national sales tax, or a higher tariff--each of which has some efficiency of collection advantages. I understand that there are some serious questions about whether all the states that ratified the income tax amendment actually ratified the same text! But the notion that you are going to find some magic way to stop paying income tax without getting in a pile of trouble is delusion.
Feed The Hungry! Go To The Head of the Rifle Line!
You don't have to work very hard to persuade me to give to food banks. And this is more than enough persuasion! From the April 2, 2009 Idaho Press-Tribune:
I guess I'll have to stop in with a few cans of food!
Where Slippery Slopes Take You
There was a time when attempted suicide was a criminal offense--I recall reading about German in the Renaissance period who was sentenced to death for it. (No, really. That's not a joke.)
Because there are really unpleasant terminal illnesses, where a few more weeks of life can mean excruciating misery, we as a society have generally decided that it is acceptable for a person to kill himself or herself.
While it isn't generally legal in America, we also recognize that there are times when a doctor may leave a large dose of pain pills on a nightstand in a hospice or even a hospital, and warn the patient, "You can take two pills every six hours for pain. But if you take more than 12 pills at once, it will kill you." The doctor has put the means at the hands of the patient--and the patient is free to make a tremendously difficult decision. I cringe, but I understand.
We have not generally accepted the idea of physician-assisted suicide. There's something about crossing that boundary that bothers people, even ones that can accept the other situations aforementioned. It's the difference between providing a method, and actively playing a part. One is entirely the suicide's action; the other involves another person.
This article from the April 3, 2009 Times of London is why the slippery slope of physician-assisted suicide has always bothered me so much:
Oh great--saving money! There's a good reason!
Look, I can somewhat understand why she might be reluctant to continue on without her husband. But I still cringe at the prospect--especially when I see what this creep is doing:
To think that a person who is mentally ill--who generally can't be held responsible for their actions in court--can be "assisted" to commit suicide makes my skin crawl. What next? Encouraging children to take poison so that they can go to a wonderful place where they never have to go to bed or obey their parents?
The comments over there are quite interesting. One from someone in the Netherlands makes the "overcrowded world" argument:In an overcrowded world, why should those who do not wish to live be forced to do so by others?
Yeah, that Lebensraum argument worked so well a few decades ago, didn't it? I was pleased to see an American observe:To think that we, in the US, are thought of as not being as culturally advanced as the Europeans. I'm saying, good. From what I've seen come out of Europe in the past 50 years, that's a good thing.
Yup. Much of the "not being as culturally advanced" stuff comes from elitists in America who are upset that we aren't focused on the death spiral of European intellectuals.
The 2% In Charge
My friend Stacy McCain (the other McCain) quotes something recently by Andrew Sullivan, who went from gay conservative to gay lunatic in 2004 over the gay marriage issue, as complaining that the persecution of homosexuals by refusing to recognize same-sex marriage is akin to anti-Semitism. McCain points out that there's another way to look at this that Sullivan and other members of the sexual elite refuse to admit:The accustomed habits of a society are not to be cast away willy-nilly merely because some radicals conspire to convince us that innocent people are victimized by our traditions. As to the 2% versue the 98% of which Sullivan speaks, should the tail wag the dog? Ought one of our most fundamental institutions be redefined on behalf of the minority of gays who seek legal recognition for their couplings?
There was a time when you only had to call someone a racist, and the debate was over. It was the unforgiveable sin--and it didn't even matter if it was true. The accusation was so disgusting that you could never recover in a debate. The same was true with respect to homosexuality, once upon a time. Hitler accused one of the Wehrmacht generals who was a leader of the resistance to Naziification of homosexuality, not because it was true, but because it was an accusation so horrible that no one would defend him from accusations of disloyalty, once accused of homosexuality.
Sully and his friends insult conservatives by supposing us to be cowards. If we disagree on what is, at heart, a question of policy, we are accused of vicious hatefulness. Indeed, we are said to be suffering from a psychological disorder, homophobia.
...
He does not argue in good faith. We have on our side ancient tradition and religious orthodoxy. He has on his side the prestige of the intellectual elite. Ergo, we are ignorant rabble, and he is so infinitely superior to us that he can insult us with impunity, and we dare not even take notice of the insult.
Now, calling someone a racist isn't an immediate intellectual death sentence, because it has been used so often, against people who weren't at all racists. And homophobia as an accusation is beginning to lose that same debate stopping power. But not soon enough.
Walt Minnick (D-ID) Keeps Surprising Me
First, he was one of a small number of Democrats who voted against Obama's porkulus bill, proposing a much smaller, much more realistic bill. Now he eschews earmarks. From the April 2, 2009 Idaho Statesman:
Now, it's true that Minnick's actions, alone, won't make any difference in the orgy of irrational spending going on up there, and earmarks are only a tiny part of the problem. But the earmarks are among the least justifiable part of our current budget process. I didn't vote for Minnick, and I am not likely to vote for him in 2010, but I can respect the courage that it takes to say "No" to the special interests that dominate American politics. It's unfortunate that the Republicans that represent Idaho in Congress don't show this same courage.
"We are in scrambling mode," said Marty Peterson, lobbyist for the University of Idaho, which like many public colleges has relied on the practice to pay for some projects and programs.
"In this tough economic time, we all need to cut back," he said. "I strongly support many of the projects submitted to my office, so I understand why this decision will not be popular with some and that it may meet criticism."
Minnick said he would not push for earmarks - specific spending authority placed in congressional bills - for at least one year. He said he would try to bring money to Idaho by helping businesses and agencies win competitive grants offered in the stimulus package.
More Bonus Whining
And much larger bonuses than AIG. I understand that the AIG bonuses were because of contracts that had to be honored. But the bigger question is: if these companies needed bailing out with government funds, how did they have the money for these bonuses? The Democrats rammed the first of these bailouts through Congress last year at the request of Secretary of Treasury Paulson--and clearly, they did so with the same careful understanding of what they were doing that they showed with the stimulus bill. But when your primary goal is to pay off the people who are funding your election campaigns, why be careful with the taxpayers money?
Every member of Congress who voted for the bailout last year needs to be removed from office. No excuses are sufficient. Republicans who were bought off with some pork to vote for the bailout bill the second time around need to go, too.
It Isn't Socialism
I keep hearing a lot of whining that Obama and the Demoncrats are taking us down the road to socialism. They aren't. Socialism is government ownership of the means of production. At most, the government has taken a small level of ownership in some financial institutions--and unlike real socialism, they generally had the option of saying "No thank you."
What the Obama Administration is doing is to taking control of private businesses, picking up bad debts, while allowing private businesses to keep the more profitable parts of the operation. Attempts such as I mentioned yesterday, which will likely have the effect (and perhaps the intent) of driving small businesses out of business for the benefit of Agribusiness, fit into another ideology: and it isn't socialism.
The closest description is fascism, where the government theoretically interferes with free markets and capitalism for the benefit of the society as a whole--but in practice, the beneficiaries are those wealthy persons with political connections.
Now, you might point out that this is a kinder, gentler form of fascism, and you are correct. But don't confuse Italian fascism with the German national socialist variation. As late as 1943, there were still opposition parties in the Italian Parliament. It was precisely because the opposition parties could not overwhelm the election rules adopted by the Fascist Party (which guaranteed first past the post 75% of the seats) that they could be tolerated. I'm sure that ACORN will end up accomplishing something similar, if they have half a chance. So far, there is no sign that the Democrats will make use of assassination to terrorize opponents. Of course, without serious gun control, they probably couldn't.
If only there were a functional Republican Party! One that actually cared about something besides being Democrat Lite.
No Duty To Protect
Gun rights activists have long pointed out that, either by statute or court decision, the police in every state are under no obligation to protect you. The results are often really offensive, such as when the D.C. police were clearly negligent in their response--and the results were horrendous, as in Warren v. D.C. (D.C.App. 1981). Still, the alternative--holding the police responsible for failure to act--has some serious problems. The third alternative, of course, is to allow victims to defend themselves.
This April 1, 2009 New York Post article is a similar case--but involves not police but subway workers:
A police officer is paid to go in harm's way. He is issued a gun, and in most jurisdictions, has certain protections that an ordinary armed citizen does not. Subway workers are not. If they had done so, putting themselves at risk to save this victim, it would have been heroic. I'm disappointed that they weren't prepared to take some chances, but holding them responsible under these circumstances would have been wrong.
Of course, the real solution would be to allow New Yorkers to defend themselves. And we know how liberals feel about that!
Vista
I haven't had any reason to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista at home. Even when I started work in central Oregon, there was one spare workstation available--and it was still running XP Professional, and there was no immediate need to upgrade, so why bother?
I finally had enough problems with trying to do a repair install that I went ahead and upgraded to Vista. I really don't see that most of the changes to the user interface relative to XP are really any gain. They're different, but I don't see that they are better.
I'm sure that there are other good features here, but everytime you change a user interface I believe that there should be a better reason than, "This is cool!"
Not A Usual Combination of Words In A Headline
I remember reading some years ago that professors at a journalism school in the East were asked to pick the most boring, uninteresting headline possible--and the majority agreed that it would have the word "Canada" in it. I thought that was really cruel, but the fact is that we tend to worry about that which represents a danger to us. The greatest danger that Canada is to the U.S. is the tendency of American leftists to misrepresent Canada as a socialist paradise. (It isn't socialist, really, nor is it paradise--although it is the country that I think I would most be willing to relocate to if driven into exile.)
So when I saw this headline in the March 31, 2009 Idaho Statesman, I first thought it had to be a typo:Canadian hit man pleads guilty to 27 murders
Even more amazing, buried in the guts in the story:At least one Quebec man has killed more people than Gallant: Yves Trudeau, a founding member of the Hells Angels in Quebec, was sentenced to life in prison in 1986 after pleading guilty to 43 counts of manslaughter, part of a deal struck in exchange for information about fellow gang members.
You have to admit--when you think, "Canada," high count hired killers really aren't the first association you make.
Some Forms of Idol Worship....
You would think that people would be embarrassed to publicly admit. This piece from the March 31, 2009 Washington Examiner is especially tragic:
Now, the article goes on to suggest that Bush's supporters were similarly embarrassing, and quotes some very gushing remarks about Bush in the short period after 9/11 when his leadership was actually pretty impressive. But none of these quotes even begins to approach the "laying on hands" craziness, or "follow him anywhere" nuttiness.
Of course, there are examples of people who had that kind of idol worship of political leaders in the past. "Uncle Joe" Stalin. Hitler. "The Great Helmsman" Mao Ze Dong. It is no surprise that the same leftists who admired all of these people (and Hitler, remember led a party that was until 1931, truly a National Socialist party) are much like the leftists who are drooling all over Obama.
I don't want to suggest that Obama is in the same category as those other objects of leftist worship. For one thing, those others were pretty competent at the day to day business of seizing power. Obama's competence level is so low that he makes Carter look like a competent politician; Bill Clinton look honest; and George W. Bush look like a master orator. (Bush didn't need his teleprompter to deliver three minute introductory remarks, and he could answer a question without dozens of "uh" "um" and similar verbal boo-boos.) To be fair, Obama is still more exciting than George H.W. Bush!
But the same worshipful reverence from the followers is there. About as close as I have ever seen on the Republican side was the way that some (like my father-in-law) gave Reagan the benefit of the doubt when I wasn't prepared to do so. And even that isn't at the level of craziness that the Obama dog whistle ("Inaudible to most, but irresistible to those who can hear it.") produces.
I call him the "Obamination of Desolation" as a wicked little pun on the phrase "abomination of desolation" that is used in Daniel and Revelations, not because I think Obama is the Antichrist (who will be, I'm sure, a vastly more competent administrator than Obama), but to make fun of the bizarre religious aura in which Obama's worshippers have cloaked him.
Back a couple of weeks ago, when I attended the Boise Tea Party, there was a guy walking his dog who stumbled into our little demonstration by accident. He had voted for Obama, and was beginning to realize that Obama was in way over his head. He told me that he had tried to talk some sense before the election into his Obama-worshipping friends--to emphasize that he was a politician, and couldn't walk on water. But he wasn't getting anywhere.
The End of Small Fruit Stands
HR 875, theoretically a "food safety" bill, appears through either incompetence or because its sponsors (all Democrats) are bought and paid for by Big Agribusiness, would likely be the end of all small scale fresh vegetable and fruit production and sale. As Ace of Spades HQ points out:HR 875 sets up a MASSIVE new government bureaucracy called the Food Safety Administration, and compels anything known as a "food establishment" to register with the federal government (paying registration fees of course) and to submit to inspections that are at different intervals depending on the type of "food establishment" you are.
Oh yes: one million dollar fines for violations:
Would you operate a small farm, selling produce directly to consumers with that prospect facing you? All the "buy local" crowd who voted for Obama and the Democrats are going to get what they deserve. Unfortunately, the rest of us will, too.
The War On Terror Is Over
The Obama Administration has changed the terms. From the March 26, 2009 Investor's Business Daily:
Whatever hopes that I had in January that Obama wasn't going to be a raving leftist are now gone.
Holding Biden To The Barney Frank Standard
I wasn't going to comment about the Ashley Biden cocaine video story. What Vice President Biden's adult children do isn't particularly relevant. Parents do their best to raise kids, and sometimes they pick up our values, sometimes they don't, and sometimes they go through a wild stage before growing up. But Gay Patriot points to this September 2, 2008 Boston Herald story about far left Democrat Barney Frank:Rep. Barney Frank is among the first Democrats to publicly say Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s family background, including the pregnancy of her unwed teenage daughter, should be fair game for campaign discussion.
Stupidity That Worked Out Okay
I would not encourage you to do this. It worked out okay, but what if the robbers called his bluff? CALUMET CITY | Calumet City Police are investigating an attempted armed robbery in the 100 block of Webb Street at 11:24 p.m. on Sunday.
Here's an interesting point. Imagine if certain politicians had their way, and by application of enough liberal police state, handguns were prohibited and actually became extremely rare. Would these robbers have believed that it was possible that the pizza delivery guy had a gun on him? Probably not.
Three men attempted to rob a pizza delivery man at gunpoint, Calumet City Police Commander Dan Zorzi said.
"(The victim) saw these guys approaching and got nervous," he said. "When they came up and pulled a gun, he pretended he had a gun, and they took off."
There's A Sucker Born Every Minute
I can understand why some people stop being Christians. (Often because they are surrounded by people who are talking the talk, and utterly failing the walk.) But to make such a loud proclamation seems a bit weird. But someone sounds like they are so desperate that they are making someone else well off. From March 29, 2009 AFP:
More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.
Being a Protestant, I don't think that infant baptism makes any sense. But because it makes no sense, it makes even less sense to make a point of being "de-baptised."
UPDATE: Yes, Anglicans are formally Protestant, but in many respects closer to the Catholic Church than Protestantism. But I did not know that Lutherans do infant baptism. I'm shocked!
You Can Tell How Much Iraqis Hate the U.S. Military
They're snapping up Hummers, because they look like what our guys drive! From the March 29, 2009 New York Times:
Cargo cult meets idol worship!Iraqis Snap Up Hummers, Seeing Them as Icons of Power
...
To Catch A Predator
MSNBC has run a series of investigative reports in various parts of the country where decoys lure adult men over to have sex with underage girls and boys. I was watching some of the outtakes this evening, and it is tremendously sad. It is horrendous that so many guys show up, expecting to have sex with children--and really sad watching their reactions when they realize that instead of a child, there's an adult man there, asking them embarrassing questions about this. The excuses that they come up with to justify why this was okay, and that they weren't really planning to have sex (even though they have condoms in their pockets), are painful to watch.
I would like to think that knowing that stuff like this is going on would discourage people from doing this. Watching Rabbi David Kaye try to turn the tables on the reporter was astonishing.
I know that creeps like this were around fifty years ago. I am also aware of the claim that the widespread sexual repression of the Dark Ages (the 1950s) made these problems more common. If so, what explains today, when we as a society are about as far from sexual repression as a society can be?
