Jake M

I was watching a show where a woman was arrested for disorderly conduct and they asked her to take a breathalyzer test and she refused. Since she wasn't arrested for for a DUI, can she legally refuse to take a breathalyzer? Can a prosecutor use that as evidence against her? It seems like, since she wasn't driving, she should have a right not to do the breathalyzer under the 5th amendment, but I'm not an attorney, so I was curious what other people think (preferably somebody who is an attorney or knows law very well).

Ok, so here is a brief overview. I signed a lease that says that I put down a $250 refundable security deposit (the lease SAYS "Refundable Security Deposit ($250)"). When I moved out, I went through a checklist, and everything says OK on it, and I had no complaints from the manager about the room. When I tried to get my deposit back, the Landlord only wrote me a check for $118 because he charged me $120 for cleaning the room AND he also charged tax on that charge (even though the manager did the cleaning, so no tax was actually paid). I have repeatedly asked for a breakdown of the costs, and he simply says that it took the manager 4 hours to clean the room. In the lease, it does say that he can charge $30 an hour to clean and repair the room, but when I signed the checklist to move out, there was NO mention of any fees or charges, and I did not agree to pay ANYTHING out of my deposit to have the room cleaned. He has given me absolutely no proof that anybody worked on the room at all, even after repeatedly asking him, and now I want to take him to small claims court.

My question is partially about the filing. To file the claim will cost $35 and an additional $55 to serve the landlord (Jianxin Huang, or JX Huang LLC). On the papers used to file the claim, it says that I certify under penalty of perjury that the defendant owed me the sum of $(Blank), which became due and owing on (Blank) date. So do I file the claim for $340 ($250+$35 legal fees+$55 service fee), or do I just sue him for $250 and ask for the legal fees to be paid in court? The reason I ask is because he technically only owed me $250 on September 11, 2013 (the date I am putting down), and I don't want him to accuse me of filing for more than he actually owes me. At the same time, the law clearly says that in a small claim dispute of this kind, I am entitled to be reimbursed for legal fees should I win. 10 points for Best Answer, and thanks for the help

So I was voluntarily committed a few times when I was younger because I struggled with depression and bipolar disorder. I don't have any signs or symptoms anymore (in fact, I am very happy now), but I was wondering if this disqualifies me from ever owning a firearm. Again, this would be for self defense and recreational shooting ONLY. I realize that I can't have a concealed weapons permit in most states, and that is fine, but I feel that owning a firearm for protection may be important in the future. It is better to have one and not need it, than need one and not have it...

I am trying to take the CS106B Stanford class online, I'm having a problem doing any of the assignments because they use simpio.h and genlib.h. I have been trying to figure out how to get them to work so that I can follow the course more easily. I have looked on TONS of forums trying to figure out how to add these headers and I can't figure it out. I have the files downloaded, I just need to figure out where to put the files so that I can use them in my programs. Any help would be great

1) If you were back in the time and presence of Jesus, and he asked you to kill somebody, would you?

2) If you were like supreme ruler of the land, would you make things like prostitution, drugs and sodomy illegal? Why or why not?

3) Why is "The Holy Bible" the right book and not the Koran or the teachings of Buddah or the Tao? Have you ever read these books or thought about what they teach?

I just want you to know that I do believe in God, and I believe in the teachings of Jesus (and Buddah and the Tao). I also believe that Jesus rose from the dead and all that stuff. However, it scares me that people running this country use a book with no scientific proof or validity as a source of absolute morality (this is mostly a question for conservatives). A book that they apparently interpret as making it ok for them to use force to make people act a certain way even if they aren't hurting anybody but themselves, and not even hurting themselves, but hurting themselves IN YOUR OPINION. So i was just curious how you approach these questions.

I was watching "capitalism a love story" and was wondering if people still believe that they should have the right to a job? What if you aren't good at your job? Does the employer not have a "right" to fire you? I was watching this, and I literally laughed out loud, because this just seems ridiculous! Do people realize that a "right" to a job would either enslave you or enslave your boss? Logically, this is the only conclusion. If you aren't producing enough to cover the cost to keep you as an employee, your boss would have to fire you But if you had a "right" to a job, then he couldn't fire you, so he would be a slave to you (since he would be forced to run his business at a loss so that you could make more money for things you consume). However, if your boss is given the power to force you to work harder for what you already paid (so that he forces value out of you), then you are a slave to your boss. In any case, do people really think that this is moral? Who is supposed to find these jobs where you will produce more value to the world than you consume? Wouldn't individuals be the best judge of where they would work best at and produce the most value? If you are consuming more than you are producing, isn't the rational conclusion that you should either stop consuming so much or start producing more (or learning to produce more)?

I would really like to hear why people believe that they have a "right to a job". If you can give me a rational argument, you may convince me (I've changed sides on issues before).

I understand that administering treatment without a license is unlawful, but what is defined as treatment? If my mom, or a friend of mine tells me to take an advil for my headache, is that treatment? If I have an allergic reaction with the advil, could I sue her for practicing medicine without a license? Where exactly is the line drawn for this extremely vague law?

I was recently watching Sam Seder debate with a libertarian, and he claims that people have always had government, but he never explains how he defines "government". So I'm curious, what do you think are some properties that make a "government" a government? How do you define it? Are parents a form of government? Is the board of directors of a company a form of government? Is a teacher of a classroom a form of government? What are some examples of governments outside of the usual realm of what we think of as "government"? What are the basic properties that you use to decide if something is a government or is not one?

The definition of a government, btw, is "the governing body of a nation, state or community" according to google, and google knows all. So how do you interpret this definition?

So how exactly voluntary drug recalls work? Does the FDA usually tell companies that they should recall a product, and then do the companies recall them, or do companies just recall them on their own? How often does the FDA forcibly recall drugs or other products?

Please include sources for your information, thanks.

So I was just wondering how many "bad" drugs, or drugs with severe side effects, have been approved by the FDA? This also applies to food, but I think that will be harder to know. If you have a list of drugs and a resource that tells what the negative side effects were, that would be great.

I'm doing some private research on unions for a debate, and was wondering if, aside from teachers, there is any other union that requires members to join (or pay dues) by law? I know, for example, in Washington, teachers have a portion of their salary taken out for union dues whether they are in the union or not. Is there any other profession like this?

I recently started studying the actual history of monopolies. Now, I always understood that they were bad because they could raise prices above what they would be in the presence of competition, but looking back through time, I haven't found many monopolies in a free market that really caused any problems. Rockafeller, for example, is probably the most obvious example, but he used the economies of scale to actually lower the price of kerosene to make it affordable to everybody. So has any monopoly in history actually been able to corner the market and raise prices above what they would be with competition? In my research, OPEC seems to be the only real example of a monopoly fixing prices.

somebody told me the national guard replaced state militias a long time ago, but the key word in NATIONAL guard is the word NATIONAL, not state. Are there any actual state run militia by the people? (for the people, of the people lol)

I recently watched a video called physics of the impossible, and the lecturer said that by noethers theorem, all symmetry has a conservation law attached to it. He said that because time is translation symmetric, energy is conserved, but I don't understand this. What does time symmetry and energy have to do with eachother? I have a pretty good understanding of basic physics principles (gravity, relativity, quantum mechanics, etc.), so just explain it as well as you can and I will try to understand it.

So I currently work at a Hat Shop, and I have an idea to start an emailing list to send out newsletters, deals, and keep people updated on any new inventory that we have. I was wondering what a good program to use for this would be? I am looking for something cheap (hopefully less than $15 per month), and preferably one with an autoresponder. I also want one where it would be easy to make an attractive newsletter that will open in their email (instead of attaching a word document or PDF). I plan on just inviting people to join the email list and then having them fill out their name and email address and then hopefully I will be able to send new signups special deals (so that I can give people who just signed up a deal of say 10% off or whatever). One thing that worries me about sending out coupons is getting people who print out the same coupon several times and keep on using it, how could I prevent this? Any suggestions and ideas would really help, thanks

I recently got into politics and finance and I've found some very interesting/disturbing things that our government has been doing (although I like to give them a fair trial...even though according to the patriot act they don't have to give me one). Anyways, my question is, since the adoption of the patriot act, how many "terrorists" have actually been discovered? I know it may be kept a secret if a real terrorist was discovered, but seeing as how the people run the government, I feel like if this grand patriot act did actually stop a serious terrorist threat, we should know (and celebrate).

In my research, it seems that this is just a large leap towards a totalitarian state. If you told me that even 3 months ago I would have laughed in your face and called you crazy. Now I'm not as confident in my old beliefs. Looking back throughout history, this seems to be the kind of stuff that cropped up (along with major economic unrest and inflation as is happening) before people like Hitler, Mao and Stalin rose to power. While I don't believe in any of the conspiracy theories (although I do enjoy hearing about them), I do believe that giving the government, and especially the executive branch, too much power is just asking for somebody to step up and put us over the edge into what could easily be a totalitarian state. While the current politicians may have good intentions, what's to say that the next generation of politicians will have the same good intentions? Just a question of curiosity.

Pretty straight forward question. I recently began investing and studying investment strategies. Based on the current economic and political condition (as well as the current trend), I see the dollar rapidly losing value and think gold would be a great hedge against the collapse of the dollar. I was wondering where to buy gold safely and at a good price? What are some easy ways to tell if gold is real or fake? Could I just go down to my nearest pawn shop and get a gold ring or gold chain? I know these sound like stupid questions, I just don't want to get ripped off, and I want to intelligently invest my money.

I am also open to any other suggestions as far as investing in something that will hold value through a collapse of the dollar (if the dollar were to collapse...hypothetically)

Ok, so I'm a little bit confused on how to file taxes on long term capital gains particularly. So as I understand it, long term capital gains (as of 2013) are taxed at a lower rate than income tax if the investment is held for longer than a year. My question is, suppose I buy 100 shares in a company XYZ in January of 2013 for $10 each. Then in June of 2013 I purchase another 100 shares of XYZ for $5 each. Then, in February of 2014, I sell 100 shares of XYZ for $13 each. How much would I have to file taxes on? Would I count that as a short term gain or a long term gain? Are stocks filed in a "FIFO" or "LIFO" type format, or some other format that averages the value of your stocks? Just curious as I began investing some of my money in stocks this year and was curious how to file my taxes on any gains I see in the future.

Similarly, what if I bought 100 shares at $10 each in January 2013, then in February 2014 I bought 50 shares of the same company at $5 each and then sold them 3 days later at $8 each, would that be considered a capital gain or loss? Could I count that as a long term capital gain or would it have to be counted as a short term C.G.?

Ok, so I recently saw a TV story about insider trading and I had a few questions about it. First off, I understand the basic reason why insider trading is illegal. For example, I can see why a company CEO or President shouldn't be allowed to buy a ton of shares in a company that they are about to takeover because that is obviously unfair. My question is about things like pump and dump schemes and just taking a closer look into a company.

I recently read "One up on Wall Street" and Lynch says that if you see a company is doing well, and of course check on their finances and that's also doing well, you should purchase the company. How is that not considered "insider trading"? Technically, if a company opens up in California, and is only in Cali, but is doing really well, and I live in Washington, that is not information that is "public" to me. A similar example is in the movie "Wall Street" when Bud follows the CEO (or whatever) around to see what he is doing. In the movie, they call that insider information, but hiring a private investigator is legal. How is that different from flying across the country looking for good start up companies?

Lastly, the original program that I saw was on a kid who did a pump and dump scheme and he did kind of make a good point. He went online and gave all these raving reviews about a company, and people CHOSE to purchase the stock at a higher price without looking into it. I agree that it may not be morally right of him to do that, but at the same time, I don't feel like the people who got screwed over should really have a right to protest as they were just plain stupid for listening to a kid. So what if I told my dad or all my friends "I really think this XYZ co. is going to take off pretty soon" and so everybody buys it. Well after about a month, I look at the price and realize that now the stock is extremely overpriced, so I sell (which is something I would do even if I didn't tell all my friends that I thought XYZ was a great company), is that insider trading?

I just don't understand why certain "insider trading" is considered "insider" when in reality it seems like either people were stupid for buying without asking, or you are trading based on information that is hard to find, but not impossible for the public, and therefore, sometimes considered "insider trading". Also, I have no plans to do any of these things (except maybe talk to people about stocks I think are good or bad, and obviously with a couple thousand in stocks, I know the SEC isn't going to care too much about me), but if I ever did make enough money in stocks, and told people that I think a stock is going to do well or poorly, I wouldn't want to be accused of "insider trading".