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"How soon do we forget that 30 years ago scientists were predicting a second ice age."

Bullshit. Here's an example of what was being popularly discussed back in the 80's: By way of a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon (3rd one down): http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/political-economy-of-calvin-and-hobbes-3.html

Hey Mom, what's this I hear about the greenhouse effect? They say the pollutants we dump in the air are trapping the sun's heat and it's going to melt the polar ice caps! Sure, you'll be gone when it happens, but I won't! Nice planet you're leaving me!

If a newspaper cartoon could get this basically right 20+ years ago, what's your fucking excuse? (Note: Watterson cartoon was erroneous in not expecting global changes soon enough.)

You starve and die on the streets without it, and they have it.

"Laborers and holders of goods and services must sell today for labor and its products parish, decay, rot, get lost, take up space for storage, and invite destruction from a thousand different causes. But not gold silver, and paper money; they can be held virtually without cost. It is this privileged position of the moneyholder over everyone else (except landholders) in the marketplace that gives rise to interest (monetary). "

http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/newland-terry_on-silvio-gesell.html

http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/calvin-father-on-black-and-white-pictures.gif

Just wait until you can perceive the great tetrachromatic paintings made by the old Masters

Hah! That was a GGGGGREAT Calvin and Hobbes!!! http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/calvin-father-on-black-and-white-pictures.gif

And you right-wing schmucks/libertards would call the greatest propagandist for the US Revolution a COMMIE PINKO for his stances. http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/paine_agrarianjustice_01.html So, I guess after the Revolutionary War there were no taxes ever until FDR came along and just taxed the hell out of everyone and boohoo we lost our way, and we should go back on the gold standard, blah blah. STFU. There's more to life than Taxes, and Ballmer should realize that maybe he owes a debt to the same damn society that got him here. And lets not forget that the taxes are STILL freaking lower than they were even when MS got started, and somehow they seemed to do just fine then! Spare me the histrionics you whiny bitches.

Since the inception of the word democracy, it has been used even when some of the people didn't get a voice.

Yes. But the idea of democracy has always been that everybody gets to vote. Society's understanding of what "everyone" means changed over time, sure.

If idiots elect leaders, we will only have idiots in power. Haven't we had enough history of that?

Have we? The amount of idiots in power has dropped with ongoing democratization.

And what is so important about the voice of someone who doesn't even know what is going on?

Wisdom of the crowd. Everybody absorbs some information, which somehow will influence their vote. Who is to say they're wrong?

You can't do that.

Of course there's already some selection going on, most of which makes sense - hospitalized vegetables obviously can't vote, kids are too likely to be influenced into voting what $AUTHORITY_FIGURE tells them to vote. All those people that show no interest in politics are part of the society that is to be governed by those elected, and therefore logically must have some say in the matter. They usually don't vote anyway, or vote for whatever party they always voted for, both of which can turn out badly, sure. But them being part of society, it's society's fault when it turns out wrong. But that's not too bad, another election comes around soon enough, giving everyone a chance to do better.

Anyway, it's not like it's a new problem, over the centuries a lot of people have been writing on that problem, and pretty much everyone seems to agree that the idea of real democracy remains the best choice. Even Machiavelli, who articulates what I'm trying to say a lot more elaborately.

The company should be disbanded, all its assets forfeited and sold at auction. Anyone on the executive committee of the company, and anyone else who knew or should have known that this violation would have occurred, should be sentenced to at least ten years in prison, and their personal assets forfeited and auctioned off.
In other news, Microsoft HQ moves to India, all the top execs are offered amnesty in India. US economy collapses. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates has more wealth than the bottom 45 percent of American households combined. http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/wealth_dis tribution1999.html

My favorite was the joke about the physics exam in which a young Neils Bohr goes through all the different ways to measure the height of a building using a pen.

I thought is was a barometer:

Neils Bohr: On Being a Student

And relevant google search

Here is a link. (Note that there are some typos, such as "minus 250 celcius" where they meant "minus 25 degrees celcius".)

You might be interested to know that many philosophers over the years have arrived at a system of morals with the following basis:

"Here are two simple principles, both of which are self-evident: I.--That all men have equal rights to the use and enjoyment of the elements provided by Nature. II.--That each man has an exclusive right to the use and enjoyment of what is produced by his own labor"

That's a quote from a guy called Henry George. Many other interesting figures have weighed in on this land question.

These ideas could potentially lead to a version of capitalism which is pure yet fair and prevents massive inequality. Unfortunately, the person in the street tends to be very wary of the ideas, due to a combination of misinformation, fear of change, and failure of the imagination. And the very wealthy have no motivation for change.

"To prove a legal title to land one must trace it back to the man who stole it." -- Lloyd George