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IN SUMMARY, 53% OF THE SUMMARY WAS CONTENT KNOT. STRAW MAN IS YOU!

More information brought to you by the MARKETSPEAK DEPARTMENT OF RETARDANCY DEPT:

"Advertisers try vaulting over the official games marketers"
http://www.nypost.com/business/18669.htm In 1996, Nike was the Cinderella of the Atlanta Olympics. Not invited to the ball, it made sure the shoe fit anyway.

The sneaker maker handed out swoosh-branded "Just Do It" signs, erected billboards and even built a makeshift sports complex -- leaving the patriotic impression that it was an official Olympic sponsor.

It wasn't. Archrival Reebok shelled out millions for bona fide sponsorship status. Nike glommed onto Olympic glory in a money-saving ploy known as ambush marketing.

"For pennies on the dollar, relative to the top sponsors, ambush marketing can be cost effective," said sports marketing expert David Carter. "Many consumers end up rather confused as to who the official Olympic sponsors are."

For what it's worth, from http://www.libertypost.org/cgi... Num=61113 [libertypost.org] :

Known as the "clean venue policy", the rules were drawn up by the Greeks and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to shield sponsors from so-called "ambush marketing" -- an attempt to advertise items during the games without paying sponsorship fees.

The restrictions on food and drink are intended to ensure that only items made by official sponsors such as McDonald's and two Greek dairy firms are consumed at Olympic venues.

An official familiar with the restrictions said: "We have to protect official sponsors who have paid millions to make the Olympics happen. There will be cases of individual spectators being allowed in wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of a rival sports brand but anyone who tries to practise ambush marketing will be removed."

And the actual list:
http://www.athens2004.com/en/s... [athens2004.com]

The following items and actions are restricted at Olympic Venues:

Mopeds, bicycles, skates, skateboards

Electronic equipment of Non-Rights holding Broadcasting Organisations

Flags of non-participating countries. Flags of participating countries larger than 2x1 meters, banners (larger than 1x1 meters approximately). No banner may be hung in metallic, wooden or plastic poles or frames

Horns, laser devices and other devices that cause disturbance

Flag poles, logos, open umbrellas in seating areas, items (T-shirts, hats, bags, etc.) with distinctive trademarks of companies that are competitive to those of the sponsors

Pirate "Athens 2004" products

Leaflets, pamphlets, non-approved publications, unauthorised signs and labels, printed material for publishing purposes with religious, political, provocative or obscene content

Balls, rackets, Frisbees, and similar items, a large number of coins, lighters

Musical instruments, glass bottles, flasks, iceboxes, ice-bags, thermos, water, beverages, alcoholic drinks and material, in general, of any shape or content, or any other items that ATHOC in cooperation with the Security Authorities in charge, consider to be dangerous or inappropriate

Food (except for proven medical reasons)

Animals (except service animals)

Large items, large bags, suitcases, folding seats, small stools etc. (except in certain events)

Strollers in seating areas

Smoking or gambling

Collection of money for unauthorised purposes

Use or distribution of clothing and/or any type of material with the intent of advertising, promotion, raising money or making profit through unauthorised means

Ambush marketing

Demonstrations of a political or religious nature

Unauthorised ticket sales

Unauthorised sale of food

Unauthorised entry of TV presenters and unauthorised transmission and/or videotaping thr

And then when you see news like this it starts to make you wonder just how close we really are.

I think their reasoning is more like:

Exposure is Truth

Disclosure is Duty

Hidden is Guilty

Self is Wrong

States have secrets worth protecting, people have secrets worth revealing.

Really though, Big Brother did not justify himself this way. He'd just throw you in jail until you were ready to say how much you loved the state and then murder you. Thank goodness the US does not have prisons where you can be thrown without charge and murdered for spite without a fair trial. Stuff like that would make the US a police state. Thinking otherwise is a thought crime that will put you on a domestic spying list. Can't let one or two bad apples sink the whole country!

Here are some recent examples of abuse of privacy:

Peeping tom CCTV workers jailed

Police Video Caught a Couple's Intimate Moment on a Manhattan Rooftop

Yes, yes they will. See the current bruhaha over Bank of America and their giving credit cards to illegal aliens as well as allowing unapproved documents to be used to open accounts.

Even, gasp!, Michelle Malkin is getting into scrum and accusing the Bush administration of ignoring and condoning the actions of Bank of America.

One need only do searches for things like "lawsuit Match.com" to see that (maybe) consumers will be getting the upper hand. Until businesses bribe, er, lobby, Congress to protect them that is.

... government is not after you.

That's a lame excuse for violations of your rights and it does not save you from real harm. When you give government the power to intimidate and harass, they might use it on people who are fighting for your rights.

Some interesting reading:

1. Atlantic on MLK wiretap
2. A better article on the same subject, drawing parallels to current policy.
3. An LA Times article on just how bad things got.
4. UK harassment of nonviolent protesters
5. The UK police state. The power to abuse has not stopped crime or terrorism.
6. Secret prisons, how bad it has gotten today.
7. They will take your laptop, just a small reminder of how it works.

The list of current issues goes on and on. When you allow government to abuse you, it will.

I could understand how this technology could be good and useful in the hands of a benevolent big brother... I think what the concern for most ppl is what happens when you go to war with Eurasia indefinitely and cannot effectively skip work to go see for yourself without getting red flagged for doing something out of the routine. I was reading an article describing the UK traffic cameras as being attached to a database(2 year storage). Some ppl don't seem overly concerned that all of these millions of cameras can be monitored effectively, but databases excel at this sort of thing. Operators need only monitor streams of 'interesting' video. Consider toll routes that you may subscribe to and recieve an rfid passport, if you miss a toll and do not leave the highway within a certain timeframe you and your respective cameras can be flagged 'motorist in limbo' and reviewed to determine if an accident or car trouble has delayed your signature from - theoretically. I don't know what they do with the database information, but as long as the system is in place and becomes accepted and embraced, then you can upgrade for maximum potential. That's when it will be a problem.

Iran/Contra was Bush Sr's baby, as was the S&L heist which he deregulated. They were directly connected: the CIA robbed the Indian Springs S&L to fund missiles for Iran with a fake ID. The $1.5TRILLION S&L heist paid for the fake Reagan "boom", along with the rest of the junk bonds the S&Ls didn't buy and the huge Reagan/Bush debt. Even quadrupling+ the size of the government (while getting reelected 3x to "shrink government") didn't save the aerospace industry from the 1990-4 recession they created; Clinton's management of the Dotcom Bubble did. Bush invited Iraq to invade Kuwait after Iraq threatened to because Kuwait was drilling sideways into Iraq's oilfields.

Clinton's infotech policies fed the economy at the expense of our rights like DMCA and his attempted Clipper Chip, and he put his wife in charge of the universal health insurance boondoggle to give her power while dooming the program. And Janet Reno would have been more at home in Bush Sr's cabinet. While he did execute a "model police action" in Yugoslavia (despite the blood), he also maintained a continuous airwar over Iraq that Bush Jr just had to ramp up for our worst strategic error in our history.

But Clinton had flaws that fed his investment banking bribers^Wcontributors, without actually being a fascist. Bush Sr and his accomplices from Nixon through Jr are fascists. The degree of their fascism has increased as they and their party have pulled American political consensus far to the right. Which is why Goldwater, except for his itchy nuke finger, looks like a centrist Democrat today. I'm concerned for Canada's momentum under the influence of America's gravity, and hope that our errors are so graphic that Canada can, as usual, learn from them without our costs.

Hezbollah's website (Nasrallah's) is hosted by the royal Saudi "stables" contractor, recently a unit of giant American defense contractor UDI. These actual business "conspiracies" have always been "shadowy" mostly through the willing ignorance of the uninformed. With Google and emailable URLs, the dots are much easier to connect, for ourselves and the public.

I used to live in Canada for several years. I had to "explain America" frequently, but it was much easier under Clinton, even when dismayed/disappointed Canadians couldn't believe he'd get impeached for covering up a blowjob. Canada's still the kinder, gentler nation, and (especially with Global Warming) looks better every day.

If I can make X dollars running plant A or X+Y running B and not A; guess what I'd do?

risk overbuilding and driving down prices as a result - not a smart business move.

And herein lies the problem. Neither regulation nor the free market will change this fundamental mathematical equation. Regulation or not, if nobody wants to break the gravy train and build more plants so that people can get the electricity they need, then I'm out of ideas. You got any?

They weren't permitted to own and operate plants

At least part of that's explained, though corporations have had centuries of experience flaunting regulations. Why didn't the board of directors of California Transmission, Inc. simply erect California Generation, Inc? It worked well enough for Custer Battles, who even made their new companies operate out of the same address when the military banned them from contracting with them.

Quit your crying and get thee to a search engine.

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?Art Num=135908

Hush. I believe we should encourage more PETA anti-circus protests. http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?Art Num=129404

"This is the behavior not of scientists but of true believers."

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?Art Num=113836

Man is that funny....

In your original post, you make the argument that formatting doesn't matter, so long as the information is conveyed.

Then, because another poster's submission clearly got mangled a bit by an errant return character, which is obvious from the slashdot added [libertypost.org], you cannot be bothered to take the time to figure out what he said/meant.

That is how we who speak and type correctly feel about your use of the English language... we generally can't be bothered to take the time to figure out what the fuck you're trying to say, so generally you're just wasting your time typing it.

Corrected Link:
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?Art Num=96881

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?Art Num=96881 90% are intellectually limited; you can only do what you are evolutionarily genetically engineered for.

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?Art Num=96881 I read a remark someone had made on a forum that the I.Q. of the USA (or the Earth) as of the data that was released in 1980 was that 99% had an I.Q. of 130, of that... 90% of the 99% had an I.Q. of 90, so in other words roughly 90 out of 100 people are "Gumpish" (Forest Gump portrayed a character of I.Q. of 70, "Stupid"). The data that was released in 2000 was that 99% had an I.Q. of 117, of that... 90% of the 99% had an I.Q. of 89, of course there is an error factor to consider and what type of test that were given, the quantity of subjects and so forth. I did some minor research on the subject "just out of curiosity" and it seems to be on track with what was said, even if the error was 50% it is still not good! The chilling thing about this is that we as a society do not take this information very well, as in the case of the forum respondents were very defensive as it is of course insulting to most to think of themselves as stupid and it is not very well publicized by the media for obvious reasons. Could you just imagine a major newspaper, magazine or TV news station providing the information that 90% of their viewers are stupid! There would be riots! We think of ourselves as civilized smarter animal, "Top of the food chain type being" and to think that our Supreme Being bubble could be burst so easily is comical. Thousands of years ago when we were dragging our knuckles on the ground we were as all the other animals to the "Survival of the fittest" and we would keep the weak, sick, old and the genetically inferior to the outside of the heard so the lions would have something to eat and promote the best chance for the strongest of the species and if you watch "National Geographic channel" to see it documented time and time again, its not hard to come to that conclusion. What we now do is give the weak and genetically inferior welfare and a place in society. Yes I know it's a mean statement but to understand that what I am stating you have to understand that I to am genetically inferior myself, I have diabetes and other ailments that would not put me on the top of the list, I am just trying to make an observation. Not trying as best I can not to make any moral judgments(but of course I am just human), and many people might take it personal. I only bring up this point because I see the stupidest things happen in government, religion and for that matter just walking down the street and it I need a definition for it. I do not promote that we eliminate the weak and genetically inferior to the outside of the heard. I just wanted to understand why 90% of us are just so stupid to understand and make decisions on what to me seems ...."Simple and Easy" (I am not part of the 1%) When I was about 10 years old my grandfather told me not to argue with stupid people, "They don't know there stupid and if they did know they were, they wouldn't be stupid in the first place"(but then again if I was stupid how would I know not to argue?) I don't think a lesser I.Q. has to do with culture, religious (or not) beliefs, ethnicity etc... I do believe it has to do with genetics (Duh!), but our ego, religious (or not) beliefs and culture has a major role in suppressing our evolving into a better species. I wonder what the fix for this conundrum is. Sometimes people do and say "Stupid things" for no other reason but because they are part of the 90% I could be wrong, just my observation for this hour.

Being elsewhere across the globe and inexplicably afraid of the helmet lady, I must decline the invitation with regrets.

On the other hand, here is a high-profile case of the government infringing on a group's right to free conscience.

Also many states are required by their own laws to balance their budgets.

South Carolina, where I live now, is one of those states. For a while, we had a governor who didn't care and the state had a huge financial crisis. So we elected a governor with a reputation for being a penny pincher and, two years later, it looks like the budget is getting back on solid ground.

I'm originally from California, so I have some sympathy for the state, especially since most of my family lives there. We'll be done with our governor in 2010, and if things are still bad out there maybe you can borrow him for a few years. Just make sure you keep him well-supplied with grits and cheap khakis. Oh, and he may need a couple of live pigs if the state legislature gets out of hand.

My favorite quote is "Look at the Canadian Dollar, it's worth almost 80 cents. 4 years ago it was worth 65 cents. Since Canada is our largest trading partner, and we're big importers of Canadian raw materials, this is killing us. You'd think Bush is a Canadian." (It's now worth about 82 cents, thanks to his election win, just look at the huge increase when it became clear he'd won.)

Just when you thought the story couldn't get any scummier...

Mopeds, bicycles, skates, skateboards

Electronic equipment of Non-Rights holding Broadcasting Organisations

Flags of non-participating countries. Flags of participating countries larger than 2x1 meters, banners (larger than 1x1 meters approximately). No banner may be hung in metallic, wooden or plastic poles or frames

Horns, laser devices and other devices that cause disturbance

Flag poles, logos, open umbrellas in seating areas, items (T-shirts, hats, bags, etc.) with distinctive trademarks of companies that are competitive to those of the sponsors

Pirate "Athens 2004" products

Leaflets, pamphlets, non-approved publications, unauthorised signs and labels, printed material for publishing purposes with religious, political, provocative or obscene content

Balls, rackets, Frisbees, and similar items, a large number of coins, lighters

Musical instruments, glass bottles, flasks, iceboxes, ice-bags, thermos, water, beverages, alcoholic drinks and material, in general, of any shape or content, or any other items that ATHOC in cooperation with the Security Authorities in charge, consider to be dangerous or inappropriate

Food (except for proven medical reasons)

Animals (except service animals)

Large items, large bags, suitcases, folding seats, small stools etc. (except in certain events)

Strollers in seating areas

Smoking or gambling

Collection of money for unauthorised purposes

Use or distribution of clothing and/or any type of material with the intent of advertising, promotion, raising money or making profit through unauthorised means

Ambush marketing

Demonstrations of a political or religious nature

Unauthorised ticket sales

Unauthorised sale of food

Unauthorised entry of TV presenters and unauthorised transmission and/or videotaping through transmi

All but one of the guys who dropped the nukes committed suicide.

And so did many victims of the Holocaust.

And yet, many of the Nazis who committed what were -- unlike Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- unarguably war crimes, did not commit suicide, and some continue to collect pensions from the German government to this day.

I'm not trying to say that no American ever committed war crimes; My Lai was also unarguably a war crime (and may Calley burn in Hell!), and some of the U.S. military's actions in Iraq -- as in throwing prisoners in a river to drown -- surely are atrocities.

I'm just pointing out that suicide isn't necessarily what the guilty do. Indeed, I'd be inclined to suggest that the really guilty, people like Josef Mengele ("Angel of Death" responsible for human experimentation at Auschwitz, died vacationing at a Brazilian beach), Rudolf Höß (first commandant of Auschwitz, executed), and Erich_Priebke (perpetrator of the Ardeatine caves massacre, still alive), tend to be so -- for lack of a better word -- evil that they feel they're not guilty and therefore feel no need for suicide or other punishment. (Indeed, Priebke so strongly felt that the killing 350 Italian civilians was not his responsibility but the responsibility of those who ordered him to do it, that he openly admitted his actions from fifty years later to a television news crew's cameras -- and it was only this admission that led to his trial).

For the record, I believe that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were no more illegal than any bombing of cities in the war -- and all major combatants bombed cities in World War II. Dead by conventional bomb, dead by V1 rocket, dead by fire-bombing, dead by atomic bomb -- they're all dead. I'm unaware of any difference in ways of being dead, with the possible exception that atomic bombs mean a quicker death.

Also, for the record, I believe any crime involved in dropping the atomic bombs pales beside the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Korea, China (in "the Rape of Nanking" (warning: link includes a disturbing picture of mass decapitation) the word "rape" is used pretty literally -- but includes ripping babies from their mothers' arms and bashing the babies' heads against walls, prior to raping the mother), the Philippines, and the Bataan Death March, not to mention the Japanese forced labor camps in which tens of thousands died.

To those who contend that we "could have" beaten Japan without recourse to atomic bombs, I ask them how many more America boys would have had to have died to achieve an unconditional Japanese surrender using only conventional weapons -- and if those arguing against using atomic bombs had any of their family members on the line.

I wasn't in the Pacific fighting Japan, but Paul Fussell (later professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania) was -- after fighting Hitler's legions in Europe -- and I'll defer to his opinion and that of the other boots on the ground: "Thank God for the Atomic Bomb"

But let me ask you: how many American boys would you have sacrificed in further conventional war against Japan, so that you, safe at home, could claim the moral high ground of an atomic-bomb-free but protracted conventional war ?

Have you stopped to think what will happen to the poor in this country if the white collar wages decrease dramatically?

There are people in the US that don't have air conditioning, can't afford indoor plumbing or electricity. There are alot of people who cannot afford food. Don't even get me started about being able to afford to go the doctor or the dentist. If your wage gets cut by 2/3rds, does it follow that someone eeking out a living on minumum wage will also see a decrease in their wage?

It frustrates me to no end that as Americans we are so quick to feel pity and sorrow for people in some distant land when there is real suffering here in the US.

Many of these call center jobs that have been outsourced were located in the US in low income areas, some of the call centers that have since closed made the decision to open in these low income areas to take advantage of the tax breaks offered by local officials who wanted to provide some sort of economic boost to their cities and towns. When the call centers realized they could get workers overseas for much, much less than minimum wage earner in the US, the call centers closed. What became of these people?

It is very important to think globally, but we honestly need to clean our own house first before we start trying to clean up the neighborhood.

www.displacedtechies.com