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The owner of Alyssa Milano's management company is a good friend of mine. I just sent him a copy of the complete garbage that was posted here. I hope he completely fucks the idiots that run this site.

That's funny, because Alyssa Milano's manager is her mom. :-P

You know, this kind of thinking is why some people in the world distrust Western culture. We are so obsessed with insuring that any development benefits us that we can't comprehend that some initiatives would only make sense in desparate circumstances. This sub-$100 notebook would likely be underpowered and of limited utility to Western tastes, yet it would be miraculous to those who haven't seen a computer in the first place.

Bill Maher wrote it best in one of his post-Politically Incorrect books: "[We would] rather go from 10 to 11, then helping another country go from 0 to 1."

from here

Let the two men America really wants to see run for president, run for president. Now, last week, our old buddy, Dana Rohrabacher, introduced a Constitutional amendment suggesting immigrants like, oh, I don't know, Arnold Schwarzenegger be allowed to run for president. And I say, "Fine. But then we get Clinton !" Each tribe gets its greatest warrior.

Why aren't we doing that anyway? Where is the twisted logic to the 22 nd Amendment which says you can't be president if you've done it twice? Reese Witherspoon has done two "Legally Blonde" movies. Next time, does it have to be Li'l Kim?

And in a nation of immigrants, we tell immigrants they can't run? Sorry, Arnie, you can take that, "What a country! Immigrants' dream, anything's possible" crap and put it where it belongs: in a speech nominating a former town drunk from Texas.

I mean, not to be cruel to the candidates we have, but why are we preventing ourselves from selecting from the top of our political gene pool? Even under general anesthesia, Clinton was more exciting than Kerry. This guy couldn't light a crowd on fire with napalm. But a debate between Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger? You could put that on pay-per-view! Why, you could put that on the Spice Channel!

And that's the beauty of this match-up. They would have to stick to the issues, because the personal stuff would just be too devastating. The mudslinging would have to get way too nuanced. "I never lied under oath about the asses I grabbed!" We're talking about two dudes who've smoked pot and love cigars and hummers. It would be the "you don't want to go there" election.

So that's my proposal. The 22 nd Amendment for the Article Two. And then we can bring it on. The Terminator versus the "Sperminator." "Conan versus Onan." "Alien versus Predator."

You're crazy! It's got Bill Maher.

This is part of the trend toward automated mass transit. Suck all the joy/autonomy out of driving by constraining the ways you can legally drive, and after a while there will be no "freedom" in having your own car. You may as well get on the subway with a toy driving wheel and make vroom-vroom sounds.

Interesting argument, if a bit on the shiny side of the tinfoil hat.

I'll be happy when I can eventually get on the subway, sans toy driving wheel, and forget about the traffic, road rage, and riding with Bin Laden.

Meanwhile, we're driving toward our own destruction. Each time you (not you personally) drive to the 7-11 in your Hummer, you're using up the oil that a future generation could have used to cruise Route 66. Where's the "freedom" in that?

I just heard some sad news on BillMaher's web log - Baseball manager and bigot bitch Marge Schott was found dead in her Louisiana home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss her - even if you didn't enjoy her work, there's no denying her contributions to racist southern culture. Truly an American icon.

So, do your part to fight terrorism by helping the economy by BUYING THE BOOK. BUY IT! NOW! Or the terrorists have already won. :)

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Advertising does influence journalism. It's not bribery, just simply business. Journalists *get their stories dropped* or *get fired* when they are hurting advertisers. If you claim otherwise, you're bs'ing me or fooling yourself. Take a class in journalism history. Just one example: Bill Maher's show was cancelled from a major TV network because of comments he made after 9/11. That was from pressure from advertisers. Guess what? His blog's still up. If you don't like his blog, find another. But you won't be watching him on a major network any time soon, and that's the power of advertising money. Bottom line: The Internet is freer from the influence of advertisers.

The internet also allows people to publish non-anonymously. Reputation has everything to do with it. I won't read a page written by Joe Schmoe, but I will read a page written by Eric S. Raymond. I won't browse slashdot a -1, but I will browse at +3. Slashdotters only get mod points when they consistently use their screen names. Posters only get a karma bonuses when they consistently use their screen name. That's a reputation system.

Sure, I can post as 'anonymous coward', but nobody will read my stuff. That alone ensures that I only publish under 'lawpoop', when I think I'm saying something important. Most slashdotters are not here to waste their time. If they are reading, it's because they think it's worth their while. If they are posting, it's because they want someone to listen to them.

In sum, the internet is not anonymous. I can look up everything you've posted on Slashdot, and you can look up my stuff. It does allow anonymity, but it is not strictly anonymous. Systems like karma and mod points strongly discourage anonymous discussion.

I'd like to quote Bill Maher to get my point going:

"As of this writing, the most depressing thing about war in Iraq was how easy it was to sell. Shouldn't it be a little harder than this to sell people a war? ... [and]how amazed I was that, of all the lies told by presidents in my lifetime, the one so many people couldn't get over, and which the media treats as the standard for mendacity, was: 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman.'

"Huge, astounding lies that affected each and every one of us in very real ways: that we were winning the war in Vietnam; that we weren't trading arms for hostages, and if we were it was a soldier's duty to lie about it; that global warming and marijuana needed more study before we could consider policy changes about them; that there'd be no new taxes; that Clarence Thomas was the most qualified person a nation of 250 million could find to sit on the Supreme Court...

"All these lies, all these giant, steaming-turd whoppers, and the one that broke the bank was 'Blow jobs aren't sex.' Wow, that's a stupid country."

Yes it is.

From Ted Rall: "Decades of budget cuts in education are finally yielding results, a fact confirmed by CNN's poll of March 16, which shows that an astonishing 51 percent of the public believe that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

Monday night George W. Bush, our legally if not ethically elected leader stepped up in front of the world and told us that Iraq had "ties" to Al Qaeda (and thus WTC responsibility) and that he was a danger to the world, though nothing has ever been produced to prove this (But it's okay, there are some things the government doesn't need to explain fully, they need their secrets right?). Saddam was a danger to Kurds, Israelis, Iranians and Kuwiatis because our government helped gain him that power (the only thing about the Iraq-Contra affair that this country remembers is that a brave man in uniform with an honest face was grilled in front of a big mean Congressional panel).

Afghanistan? An exit strategy was thought up as soon as we went in, and Iraq was it. This is public record. (see current Mother Jones issue). Also see the archived streaming video debate[scroll down] on the Christopher Hitchens Web against Mark Danner.

Everyone involved in Bush's world going back decades has been involved in Oil. Everyone in his government holding any kind of power is involved in Oil. We now have bases spread from Kuwait to deep ex-Soviet Territory in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.

Bush and his Puppeteers lied to us.

It's like we see but we don't see.

Putting up a bumper sticker or flag is our way of getting involved. Cafeteria Managers are renaming French fries. Major newspapers editorialize that the French are pissing on the graves of D-day soldiers. Most Americans don't approve a pre-emptive war, but since Bush's Monday speech his ratings are rocketing. Look, He's doing something. We're like predators only interesting in moving things, in action, overshadowing the consequences.

This is a stupid country.

In response to the pithy "then why don't you just leave" argument, I say:

Because it is the best going, and there's the logistics involved in repatriating. Also, I live on many different levels, in a community, a town, a state, a geography and ecosystem, in cyberspace. The notion of belonging to a nation is but one of many, but hardly my overarching modifier. Is America the best on its way down? Does being the freest nation on earth require colonial domination over the rest of the planet? If another country without the addiction to war and oil can offer the freedom

This is OT, but with regards to your sig, have you seen Bill Maher's new book and adaptation of that poster? Apologies if that's how you came across the original, but if not, check it out. :)

-Puk

This is OT, but with regards to your sig, have you seen Bill Maher's new book and adaptation of that poster? Apologies if that's how you came across the original, but if not, check it out. :)

-Puk

It's true that the News is also becoming comercialized. I've often heard the argument that if people want the news, they will watch from a channel that presents it for its newsworthiness, or that they will simply hop on the net. The problem is that you need money to be able to report the news in all its glory (or all its gorry as it has become recently). The stations that don't pander to advertisers or to the big Corporations (who want things about them kept quiet) will go under. The same thing goes for websites. Sure all the information is somewhere on the net, but how do you find it. Right now you can use Google News but will it always be as effective/free as it still a company trying to profit?? All the good sites eventually get a big enough following that they require money (e.g. /.) and they might either go down or become corrupted in some way (/. hasn't yet in my opinion but what would happen if all its advertisers demanded change?).
One program that I am going to miss is Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect. PI was cancelled because it offended advertisers, not because its ratings were down. Now, even if the technologically savy can find the news on the internet, the masses will not, and it is the masses that decide what goes on in the country come election time. They will be influenced by these big corporations controlling the mass media and in turn will screw the rest of us. It's hard to make an informed opinion if you can't find an informative cable tv/network station anymore.

Ok, maybe this is also sensationalizing, and if it doesn't get this bad I will be happy, but I could really see it happening. It's not going to be done on purpose by anyone, it will just migrate in that direction because of the economical forces (in a sort of evolutionary way).

Actually, some high profile people have done just that. Ed Begley Jr. comes to mind.

Which female agent do you mean? I haven't been able to watch the show all summer (I get SciFi at school, but know at home), but the only regular "hot babe" I know of is the Keeper, who's been there since the pilot.

There's a female agent named Alex Monroe, played by Brandy Ledford. Apparently her official web site is at www.brandyledford.com, but it's done in Flash so I wasn't able to see anything there. I did find a couple of pics of her here, although they aren't that great. While searching, I also discovered that she apparently played Dawn Masterson on Baywatch from 1999-2000. So yeah, it seems like a Seven-of-Nine like move bringing her in, but to their credit, they don't have her running around in spandex. Also, the first few episodes of the new season this summer, I don't think they specifically mentioned that she was new (unless I missed it), so I thought maybe she had been around before, but just not in the few reruns I had seen before.

As for the doc (I guess she's called the Keeper? The British woman), I don't know if I'd say she's "hot", but she is kinda cute, and quite the geekette.