Domain: merriam-webster.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to merriam-webster.com.
Comments · 2,335
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Re:The word is "buncombe", not "bunkum".
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Re:W3Chttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misspelt The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above. Suggestions for misspelt: Just look in any grammar book and you'll see my statement backed up.
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Re:This is a US website
"Stanches", yay; "Staunches", nay.
See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stanches -
Re:This is how science worksWell, 'theory' isn't a reserved word. You can use it to describe just about anything if you like.
...which is why I linked to the Merriam-Webster entry on theory. You're referring to the entries 1 through 5 and 6c, but apparently {disagree with OR view differently} 6a and 6b.
Why?
I'm just suggesting that those that posit that ID isn't a "real" theory instead try using "not verifiable at present" instead; they might find a few more ears.
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Re:This is how science worksPropose a theory which can be tested, then go about trying to disprove the theory.
That's assuming that all theories can be tested. Or, to put it another way: If you can't test it, is it a theory? According to Merriam-Webster, yes. Inference points towards your disputing that. Is this the problem in a nutshell?
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Grammar and Vocabulary
I generally share your annoyance at the misuse of words.
You can be an open source fanatic, but you cannot be an open-source fundamentalist.However, you can be an open source fundamentalist, and it might be exactly what he meant. A fundamentalist is someone who stresses strict and literal adherence to a set of basic (fundamental) principles (see Merriam-Webster's second definition - the one that doesn't specifically refer to modern American Evangelical Christianity). So, an open-source fundamentalist would be a person who stresses strict adherence to the basic principles of "open source." I suppose what principles those are is somewhat debatable, but if they include the idea that all software should be open source (or at least a preference that it should be if not a mandate), then his use of "fundamentalist" could be appropriate, if what he means is that they advocate strict adherence to these principles.
A "fanatic," on the other hand, is a person "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion." An "open-source fanatic" would be someone who is very enthusiastic about open source, and is uncritically devoted to it, not necessarily someone who advocates strict adherence to its basic principles.
Stop. Think about the meaning of the words you are using. Select correct words. Continue.
Exactly.
However, since you're pointing out flaws in others' vocabulary, I hope it will not be rude of me to point out a flaw in your own: an open source fundamentalist without the hyphen between open and source would be a "source fundamentalist" who is open. With the hyphen, "open-source" modifies fundamentalist. Without it, "open" modifies "source fundamentalist."
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Grammar and Vocabulary
I generally share your annoyance at the misuse of words.
You can be an open source fanatic, but you cannot be an open-source fundamentalist.However, you can be an open source fundamentalist, and it might be exactly what he meant. A fundamentalist is someone who stresses strict and literal adherence to a set of basic (fundamental) principles (see Merriam-Webster's second definition - the one that doesn't specifically refer to modern American Evangelical Christianity). So, an open-source fundamentalist would be a person who stresses strict adherence to the basic principles of "open source." I suppose what principles those are is somewhat debatable, but if they include the idea that all software should be open source (or at least a preference that it should be if not a mandate), then his use of "fundamentalist" could be appropriate, if what he means is that they advocate strict adherence to these principles.
A "fanatic," on the other hand, is a person "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion." An "open-source fanatic" would be someone who is very enthusiastic about open source, and is uncritically devoted to it, not necessarily someone who advocates strict adherence to its basic principles.
Stop. Think about the meaning of the words you are using. Select correct words. Continue.
Exactly.
However, since you're pointing out flaws in others' vocabulary, I hope it will not be rude of me to point out a flaw in your own: an open source fundamentalist without the hyphen between open and source would be a "source fundamentalist" who is open. With the hyphen, "open-source" modifies fundamentalist. Without it, "open" modifies "source fundamentalist."
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Re:I remember this happening to me.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fail Main Entry: 2fail Function: noun
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Re:What are they doing that needs 2GB?I'm not dictating AT&T's development cycle and I'm not pretending to. I'm just comparing it to other programs that are in beta. Once again, you are avoiding my demand for you to back up your claim that I have no programming experience. Performance tweaks are often one of the last things to be implemented in any project. Judging from the article and the very clear 3rd definition in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, the browser needs far more than "performance tweaks".
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Re:It's more of that MBA / Marketing math
They claim a 60 billion dollar loss - but I would pose this question: how can you lose something that you never had?
You can lose something you never had, because the definition of lose has "5b: to fail to gain"
I agree with what you said, and I really dislike that definition of "lose", but it is there, and people quite often use it. -
Sorry chief, nice tryhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entrust
entrust
1: to confer a trust on; especially : to deliver something in trust to
Sorry fella, but your attempt at splitting hairs in order to avoid admitting the truth fails. You can't "entrust" someone with someone without trusting them, so when you said
"We don't trust them ... we've entrusted them because we have no other choice"
You were wrong.
Nice try though, even though it was obviously wrong. And you do have another choice, the fact that you fail to even recognize it exists if far more worrisome than your failure to understand the words you're using. -
Re:Whither Fedora?Especially when you've earned enough money from your illegal usage of your legal monopoly that you can use it to pay off a few politicians. If you're going to differentiate a monopoly as a legal monopoly, then you're implying there is also such a thing as an illegal monopoly, duh.
So how about this, I'm declaring it as new term. Any monopoly that abuses its power, shall hereby be called an illegal monopoly. Why? Because I need a brief term to describe such a monopoly, that one is a pretty good fit. At least, everyone knows what I'm referring to when I use it so, although it's not perfect, it'll be good enough.
Sort of like, ringtone was a new word in 1983. Only, I hope the term doesn't confuse you too much, because the one I use for my phone doesn't sound like ringing at all. And doesn't even resemble my wedding ring. Or, supersize, first used in 1994. (Not that I understand what is so super about paying an extra dollar for 50% more soda and 10 more french fries. But, what the hell, I'll roll with it - so, let's call it super. Or, gastric-bypass, a term first used in 1972, not that you're really bypassing the entire gastric system, you're just making it a little shorter.
So, here it is, 2008, and we have another new term: illegal monopoly. Technically incorrect? Yeah, but so what? - It works.
Just think, after we use it enough, it will get recognized in the dictionary. After all, we have a good head-start; everyone already seems to know what the term means. But the best part? Pissing off persnickety little fucks like you. That's a bonus!!
So, don't go thinking that you fixed my shit. -
Re:Whither Fedora?Especially when you've earned enough money from your illegal usage of your legal monopoly that you can use it to pay off a few politicians. If you're going to differentiate a monopoly as a legal monopoly, then you're implying there is also such a thing as an illegal monopoly, duh.
So how about this, I'm declaring it as new term. Any monopoly that abuses its power, shall hereby be called an illegal monopoly. Why? Because I need a brief term to describe such a monopoly, that one is a pretty good fit. At least, everyone knows what I'm referring to when I use it so, although it's not perfect, it'll be good enough.
Sort of like, ringtone was a new word in 1983. Only, I hope the term doesn't confuse you too much, because the one I use for my phone doesn't sound like ringing at all. And doesn't even resemble my wedding ring. Or, supersize, first used in 1994. (Not that I understand what is so super about paying an extra dollar for 50% more soda and 10 more french fries. But, what the hell, I'll roll with it - so, let's call it super. Or, gastric-bypass, a term first used in 1972, not that you're really bypassing the entire gastric system, you're just making it a little shorter.
So, here it is, 2008, and we have another new term: illegal monopoly. Technically incorrect? Yeah, but so what? - It works.
Just think, after we use it enough, it will get recognized in the dictionary. After all, we have a good head-start; everyone already seems to know what the term means. But the best part? Pissing off persnickety little fucks like you. That's a bonus!!
So, don't go thinking that you fixed my shit. -
Re:Whither Fedora?Especially when you've earned enough money from your illegal usage of your legal monopoly that you can use it to pay off a few politicians. If you're going to differentiate a monopoly as a legal monopoly, then you're implying there is also such a thing as an illegal monopoly, duh.
So how about this, I'm declaring it as new term. Any monopoly that abuses its power, shall hereby be called an illegal monopoly. Why? Because I need a brief term to describe such a monopoly, that one is a pretty good fit. At least, everyone knows what I'm referring to when I use it so, although it's not perfect, it'll be good enough.
Sort of like, ringtone was a new word in 1983. Only, I hope the term doesn't confuse you too much, because the one I use for my phone doesn't sound like ringing at all. And doesn't even resemble my wedding ring. Or, supersize, first used in 1994. (Not that I understand what is so super about paying an extra dollar for 50% more soda and 10 more french fries. But, what the hell, I'll roll with it - so, let's call it super. Or, gastric-bypass, a term first used in 1972, not that you're really bypassing the entire gastric system, you're just making it a little shorter.
So, here it is, 2008, and we have another new term: illegal monopoly. Technically incorrect? Yeah, but so what? - It works.
Just think, after we use it enough, it will get recognized in the dictionary. After all, we have a good head-start; everyone already seems to know what the term means. But the best part? Pissing off persnickety little fucks like you. That's a bonus!!
So, don't go thinking that you fixed my shit. -
Re:Liquid cooling for datacentres?Also... while it's a technicality, air *is* conductive. It just has a very high impedance. It *will* conduct electricity, and I'm pretty near certain you've seen it happen: it's called lightening. Actually, it's called lightning (no 'e').
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off topic
FYI run a muck is wrong. There is no muck. It's run amok.
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Re:Disclaimer: I'm not an MMORPG fan
1. True, 'bated' is a word in and of itself
2. I take it you never heard of this company? http://www.merriam-webster.com/
3. It's not the old spelling, it is the correct spelling.
4. Just because the writers for the Simpsons decides to make up a word doesn't make it so.
5. Stop being a festizio -
Re:Amazed
Spaell it right aesshole, aend stop aecting like ae pretentious faeggot!!
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Re:Totally!
Abuse of words like "unique" is commonplace in these days of grammar ignorance, but this article really does excel. The trouble is, I can't decide if it was deliberate irony on behalf of the author, or just plain ignorance.
Is that the same kind of ignorance that comes from not knowing what a word means, or were you trying to win some kind of award for creative use of the term irony?
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Re:Two?
It seems for English speakers, uniqueness is not binary.
I'm puzzled by the thought that it should be.
Let's see what my old friends George and Charles Merriam and Noah Webster have to say on the subject:
"Many commentators have objected to the comparison or modification (as by somewhat or very) of unique, often asserting that a thing is either unique or it is not. Objections are based chiefly on the assumption that unique has but a single absolute sense, an assumption contradicted by information readily available in a dictionary. [...] In modern use both comparison and modification are widespread and standard [...]"
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Re:Do no evil?
Quick, go, before the NSA hacks this one out!
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Re:Losing my faith in politics
Once released, an ex-con is once again able to move about and to vote.
Actually, Necrobruiser (611198) has a good link that shows that this is not always the true.
Your analogy is fallacious
It cannot be because "right" = "privilege". A little reflection or pondering on this topic will probably confirm this for yourself. (in fact, all the comments from this thread prove this as they're all arguing the same thing but changing the term).
Voting is a right, and it's also a privilege. The confusion is when the GP implied that they cannot be the same thing, when in fact, they are. It actually through me for a loop for awhile as well until I went and double checked the facts. (Magna Carta, France's Human Rights Declaration, and the definitions of right and privilege). So the point is, there is no point to try and argue the difference, because there actually isn't any except those self defined by oneself. And one cannot argue points if one is using a different, personnel, definition of a term than the other.
In the end, we're all just arguing semantics.
the moderators who modded you up are clueless.
The moderators are, in fact, cluefull given that they probably understood the same before I ever did.
Cheers,
Fozzy -
Re:how to get a chick 101
Why is it the socially accepted norm that the guy has to be the initiator and the girl gets to be the decider?
Despite the fact that Google has 7.9 million hits, and Webster confirms it, I am not so sure decider is a real word. If it is, The Dub, is the decider. Also, you may want to stop pursuing divas and chase someone who is geek, like yourself. I think that women, who have genuine interests in real stuff, and not themselves, would make great friends and breeding partners! -
Re:What is a barista smile?
A barista is the person who makes coffee at a coffee shop. Merriam-Webster defines it.
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Thwart, Thwarted, Thwarting, Thwarts, Thwartening,
Sorry... I just like the word!
Thwart, Thwart, Thwart, Thwart, Thwart, Thwart,
There is also Thwarter too! :)
Main Entry: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary
Pronunciation:
\thwort\
Function:
transitive verb
Etymology:
Middle English thwerten, from thwert, adverb
Date:
13th century -
Re:OT: STOP PLEASE STOP!
Actually, I meant just what I typed
;) -
Re:No, we hated Apple from time to timeBullshit. I have Mac OS X 10.4 running on an 11 year old Power Mac 7300 with a G4 processor upgrade from circa 2000. Sure, they don't allow you to install the OS onto *unsupported* systems out of the box, because if they did, they would be expected to support those systems. But they do not restrict you from getting the hardware to work with modern software if you are willing to do a bit of work. The only reason OS X 10.5 does not run on the system is because this requires some work and nobody is working on it since Ryan Rempel decided to take a break from XPostFacto. Perhaps you ought to take a look at the definition of the word restrict. You can't pretend there's no restriction on installing OS X on an older computer when it fails to install with an "unsupported" message unless you patch the OS first. Hey, that is, in fact, a restriction! You're basically saying that access isn't restricted if you're willing to break in. Wow. I wonder why I called you dishonest.
And yes, the hardware is "more proprietary" than a typical Intel system. Anyone can make a typical Intel system, only Apple can make Apples. They lock you to one provider of basic hardware like motherboards: no one else has the right to make them. The right to make the hardware is their property, making the hardware p-r-o-p-r-i-e-t-a-r-y. You're pretending up is down and out is in. It doesn't make it so, it just makes you dishonest. A typical example as for why people can't stand Apple fanboys. -
Re:Liberal?Hi.
Liberal had a meaning prior to politics - specifically - lacking moral restraint.
It's sort of funny that liberal is seen as a pejorative. Or at least a "high reaction" type of word. . . -
Re:Most Disappointing
Wrong, try Next.
Wrong - read what the GP poster typed - "Netx", not "next".
Here, I'll make it easy for you
...Netx technology, please.
...keep ignoring that "whoosh" sound overhead ... -
Re:Most Disappointing
Wrong, try Next.
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Re:The power of abstraction
A movie is not data! Geez how dense are some people?!
data: information in numerical form that can be digitally transmitted or processed -
Re:Where does it stop?
No, not censorship at all. Heavens no.
Are you simply calling on people to limit themselves, completely absent any laws or FCC enforcement? If so, my apologies, I misunderstood. I strongly support your right to call for people to limit their own language.
However, this article is about FCC enforcement. And you call not being exposed to these words a "right," which presumably should be protected by law. If you think the FCC should be restricting what private companies broadcast and enforcing those restrictions through fines, you are absolutely pro-censorship. censorship: the institution, system, or practice of censoring.. censor(ing): to suppress or delete as objectionable.
I'm asking for civility, which is the right to not be assaulted by obscene images, and the morass of profanity on a public medium.
You have no such right. Freedom of speech is a right, protected by the first amendment to our constitution. That freedom includes freedom for those who assault us with garbage. It sucks, but the trade off is that you know the government won't decide that your political or religious beliefs are obscene and silence you.
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Re:Where does it stop?
No, not censorship at all. Heavens no.
Are you simply calling on people to limit themselves, completely absent any laws or FCC enforcement? If so, my apologies, I misunderstood. I strongly support your right to call for people to limit their own language.
However, this article is about FCC enforcement. And you call not being exposed to these words a "right," which presumably should be protected by law. If you think the FCC should be restricting what private companies broadcast and enforcing those restrictions through fines, you are absolutely pro-censorship. censorship: the institution, system, or practice of censoring.. censor(ing): to suppress or delete as objectionable.
I'm asking for civility, which is the right to not be assaulted by obscene images, and the morass of profanity on a public medium.
You have no such right. Freedom of speech is a right, protected by the first amendment to our constitution. That freedom includes freedom for those who assault us with garbage. It sucks, but the trade off is that you know the government won't decide that your political or religious beliefs are obscene and silence you.
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Re:Why no go back to horses sometime?
That's meaning #1 but meaning #2 is the way that people use it nowadays.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/factoid -
Please consult a dictionary
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perk
It's not a "misspelling," it's a recognized and widely accepted shortened form and has been around (so the Merriam-Webster people say) since at least 1824.
And frankly, the word "perk" is what most people would see or hear; I see "perk" (meaning a boon) in all sorts of formal (legal, business) and journalistic writing, far more often than even "perquisite." Perhaps the most obvious being The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Welcome to English, where word origins are not necessarily reflected in spelling. -
Re:No, actuallyThe following is the entry for piracy from Merriam-Webster Online. Note the third definition.
1: an act of robbery on the high seas; also : an act resembling such robbery
2: robbery on the high seas
3 a: the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright b: the illicit accessing of broadcast signals -
Re:Interesting propositionHow ironic that a dictionary would fail to define irony properly.
:)
Seriously? Incongruity between the actual and the normal/expected result? You know what's NOT ironic? Someone with a really high user-id taking an AC at their word instead of verifying it before going of on a long pedantic post.
The AC picked only a partial definition from Merriam Websters' and it was the 3rd of 3 definitions.
What you wanted to talk about was covered by the second definition:
2 a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning Dictionaries often fail to accurately capture the complete meaning of a word, because words are inherently difficult to concisely define with other words BAD dictionaries may, but certainly not good ones like Merriam-Websters or the OED. -
Re:When I say "make some", you say "noise"sure, why now http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism
http://www.yourdictionary.com/racism
http://www.euroamerican.org/library/Racismdf.asp
for something to be racist a racial slur has to be said or implied or be actions motivated by those racist ideas. thus racially motivated. the slut is there , whether actually said or implied by words or actions.
just thinking a type of music is crap doesn't mean that it's a racial thing at all against the colour or race of those folks who are the majority of the performers of that genre, it just means you think a particular type of music is crap.
if they think that the use of racial slurs defines racism then they need a wakeup call
ok so what you are implying is that a racial slur may not be racist? ANYTHING racist implies a racial slur by the very nature of it's bigotry. if something is racist it implies that "x" race is better than "y" race and thus casts a slur on "y" race.... it's that simple.
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Re:IneffectiveThis is English. It's naturally weird.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/image3 a: to create a representation of; also : to form an image of b: to represent symbolically
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Re:BAD idea.Trying to prove your point with a Yahoo dictionary entry is a pretty good sign of desperation. I'm sorry if you don't respect Houghton Mifflin. Perhaps Merriam Webster http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theory would be more to your liking. Are you questioning the authenticity of the reference, or just stating your belief?
I do understand what is meant by scientific theory, but just because a belief is dressed up in big words and big ideas does not change the fact that it is a belief. Unless maybe you have indisputable proof you are withholding from the world? I'm not looking to start a flamewar (which often results from these conversations), but if you are looking to refute my statement, you'll need to do a better job then "He used yahoo, what a newb".
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Re:FSF and RMSFunny how people have forgotten about "invention". http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invention
I doubt they have forgotten it -- it's just not pertinent. You can "invent" something without it being novel, innovative, useful, or even real. Pick up a dictionary sometime. The majority of definitions of "innovation" involve introducing of a product into a market, so by definition profiteering is coincident with innovation. Oh, there's nothing innovative about profiteering -- I'm quite sure it's been done since the beginning of human kind. We're not talking about "majority of definitions" for anything here. We're talking about legal definitions of patents. Again, you really do need to pick up a dictionary:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation
I mean innovation here as a combination of "novel" and "introduction", in the form of a patent or product (which can be mutually exclusive). Bringing something to market is not part of the dictionary definition of "innovation", nor are they part of the legal definition for "patentable". I think you're talking about "marketing", which is all most patent filers are really good at anyway, so the confusion is understandable.
You really seem to be in the wrong discussion altogether. Go back to your MBA studies please. Nothing to see here. -
Re:FSF and RMSFunny how people have forgotten about "invention". http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invention
I doubt they have forgotten it -- it's just not pertinent. You can "invent" something without it being novel, innovative, useful, or even real. Pick up a dictionary sometime. The majority of definitions of "innovation" involve introducing of a product into a market, so by definition profiteering is coincident with innovation. Oh, there's nothing innovative about profiteering -- I'm quite sure it's been done since the beginning of human kind. We're not talking about "majority of definitions" for anything here. We're talking about legal definitions of patents. Again, you really do need to pick up a dictionary:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation
I mean innovation here as a combination of "novel" and "introduction", in the form of a patent or product (which can be mutually exclusive). Bringing something to market is not part of the dictionary definition of "innovation", nor are they part of the legal definition for "patentable". I think you're talking about "marketing", which is all most patent filers are really good at anyway, so the confusion is understandable.
You really seem to be in the wrong discussion altogether. Go back to your MBA studies please. Nothing to see here. -
Re:But...
If 'unfettered access' is a literal quote from their advertising, I think you could make a strong case that even throttling violates their commitment. After all, real fetters don't immobilize you, they just slow you down...
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I do not thin' it means what you thin' it means.
it's a common tenant in systems security that anyone with physical access and sufficient time can disable or otherwise bypass any security system.
Does it pay rent?I think the word you're looking for is "tenet".
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It's a Compulsion, not an Addiction
Addiction is defined by physical dependence on a substance, and withdrawal symptoms. You can get addicted to heroin. You can't get addicted to the Internet, BlackBerries, or WoW. These compulsive behaviors are only bad if they are annoying to the person who is examining the behavior. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction
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Re:Absolutely Not
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lynch oil profiteers!
While the oil companies are doing very well, most the oil money is going to oil-producing countries, such as Dubai/UAE. The oil companies have to pay market price for the oil they don't produce themselves.
It's one thing to carry out a coup d'état, and quite another to run your conquered country into the ground after you've taken power. Bush & Company will get their due someday... It's hard to see how we'll get there from here, but of this I'm certain. -
Re:First post
nether-the-less
Huh? The word you were looking for is "nevertheless": http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nevertheless
HTH. HAND. -
Re:It hasn't been vaporware for a long time
I think that's just your definition.
From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vaporware:
a computer-related product that has been widely advertised but has not and may never become available
From wikipedia:
Vaporware is a software or hardware product which is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge, either with or without a protracted development cycle. The term implies unwarranted optimism, or sometimes even deception; that is, it may imply that the announcer knows that product development is in too early a stage to support responsible statements about its completion date, feature set, or even feasibility. -
Re:Enforce the laws we have?Like how does the FCC get to:
The courts have held that indecent material is protected by the First Amendment and cannot be banned entirely. It may, however, be restricted in order to avoid its broadcast during times of the day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience.
from "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech,..."?
Maybe I don't know what "abridging" means to lawyers, but m-w.com defines it as " to shorten in duration or extent ".
How does restricting the time not count as abridging?