I'm not trying to be obtuse but don't most hunting rifles still work on a bolt action model thus requiring an operator to chamber a round manually whereas the AR-15, and rifles like it,
'automatically' chambers the next round in a fraction of a second.
Depends on your definition of "hunting rifle". A lot of hunters use bolt-action rifles, yes. But a lot of (at least American) hunters also use semi-automatic rifles.
The labels on these things end up being one of the core problems. What is an assault rifle? What is a high-cap magazine? Certainly these terms are familiar to those of us with experience with firearms. But to hear politicians throw the terms around, you'd think they had no clue (and I suppose they often don't), even though they supposedly have "experts" on hand to help them make their decisions. What it (usually) boils down to is people with a decision already made going into the "decision-making process" and justifying their already-made decision with whatever materials and personnel they have on hand.
Which is the wrong way to run anything, let alone a government.
I can't say "most" but there are plenty of semi-automatic rifles used for hunting, at least in the US.
The legalities of what kind of rifle you're allowed to use to hunt what where and when and the particular ammo and how big of magazine can be used are somewhat arbitrary and vary from state to state and game animal to game animal. I think at least 48 at states allow some form of hunting with semiautomatic rifles.
In some parts of the country "Bubba'd" SKS guns are pretty popular for hunting deer I think. (Google image search "bubba gun sks" for a general idea of what's going on - converting a wood stock and 10-round stripper clip magazine to polymer with detachable box magazines, which is a pretty good illustration of how the same gun can look a lot different.)
Hunting rifles range all over the place. Deer rifles range from semi-automatic, to pump-action, lever-action, bolt-action, break-action single shot, and others I'm probably not familiar with. Semi-auto rifles are not a new development- there are a huge number of M1 carbines and M1 Garant rifles in private hands dating from WW2, and there were Browning and Remington semi-auto hunting rifle models earlier than that.
I think what he was saying was if he woke up the CEO of a tobacco company and everyone he knew, all of his connections, everyone who worked at his company and, most importantly, the shareholders were on board with his plan... He could then pivot the company into something beneficial.
I'm not trying to disagree with you, I have a 7 month old son, but what about the joy you felt seeing her being born? I know that isn't a mundane thing and that you likely won't have it but a few more times but there are experiences that children can't have, that are, at least, as transcendent as a child's first taste of chocolate.
But that's precisely the thing. In a stable population, births per year are inversely proportional to life expectancy. So whatever joy seeing a child born brings to people, there will necessarily be less of that per year aggregated over the whole society. A society where everyone lives longer is necessarily one with a smaller proportion of joyful idealistic children and a higher percentage of cynical jaded older people.
They should. If you choose to pass a motor vehicle that is driving in front of you, and it's legal, you would cross the center line to do it. In Maryland, bicycles are considered vehicles so they should be accorded all the rights and responsibilities that go along with that designation. If the law says to give them three feet, you give them three feet even if you have to wait for the clearance to do it. I agree that bikes should have their own dedicated lanes but in the interim we have to deal with the law as it is. I used to drive a truck; I'm kind of a stickler for the rules.
Edit:
As an aside, I'd rather have a bicyclist ride in the center of the lane as opposed to the side. I've had too many close calls where cyclists swerved out of the way of an opening door and closed the gap quickly.
Hear, hear. There have been times that I'm certain the cyclist I was waiting to pass was annoyed that I wasn't passing in city traffic but the law says three feet so I give them three feet. In the main it's because if I passed with less than three feet and something happened, including the cyclist losing control, I would, of course, be crucified by law enforcement and the cyclist, assuming they survived the incident.
It's also good to remember that deer, bear, and untold numbers of other species crap all over the trail also. That hasn't ever been an impediment to my backpacking.
If NYT knows the Third Department and whatever private contractors they have are trying to breach USG computer systems then I guess NSA knows that as well. Not even touching on defensive needs, why isn't NSA blanket surveilling Third Department, et al. and making that intelligence known to potentially affected agencies?
This may be true in the short term but it seems more likely the bank's customers will pay in the long term. ;-)