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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
theodp writes to mention a C|Net article about Chinese President Hu Jintao's historic first visit to the U.S.. The catch is that his first dinner won't be at the White House. It will be at Bill Gates' manse. From the article: "The approximately 100-person guest list is a who's who of the U.S. Pacific Northwest power elite, including Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire, said event organizers. The guests will undergo strict security checks before entering Gates' lodge-style, 66,000-square-foot home overlooking Lake Washington with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout. Gates and Gregoire are expected to introduce and welcome Hu, who will then offer a toast in front of the gathering."
Rather than reference the classic movie starring Sydney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, I imagine this would be a more appropriate dialogue.
Rove: "Sir, Hu is going to be attending a dinner at one of your biggest campaign contributors houses, Mr. Bill Gates."
Bush: "Who?"
Rove: "Yessir, Hu."
Bush: "No, I'm asking you..... Who's coming to the US to have dinner with Geeky Gates?"
Rove: "That's right sir, Hu."
Bush: "...............Daggummit Turd Blossom! I'm asking you who is coming to the US to have dinner with Geeky Gates?"
Ad nauseum
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Given what they're probably going to discuss (opening markets, etc.), Gates and the NPE (Northwest Power Elite) are probably more relevant than the President, since they've got all the money.
"My God...it's full of trolls!"
with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout.
I bet the 1:3.4 ratio of sleeping to dumping at Gates' place has to be the highest in the nation.
China's system of statist capitalism is neatly breaking new ground in erasing the dividing line between what it means to rule a country and what it means to own a country. Someone like Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoch probably more correctly approximates the role of the Chinese President at this point than George W. Bush does.
Doesn't anyone have values anymore? I'm not against all consumption, or even against all conspicuous consumption, but when it gets to the point where there's no longer even any pretext I think it shows a lack of character.
to Sidney Poitier's character John Prentice in "Guess who's coming to dinner". It's also a poor analogy. Zonk, are you stoned?
Weren't the Chinese supposed to be Communists? I remember something about overthrowing the rich, capitalist oppressors for the sake of the working folk, but I can't place it in a country for the life of me.
Oh, well. That pig Napoleon says he thinks he should give the US a call, have some diplomatic talks.
The Chinese government issued a decree two weeks ago that all PCs will need to have a licensed operating system software installed before leaving the factory gates in an effort to crack down on piracy.
Spotting the pirated copies of Windows will be easy.
Instead of "Start," the button will say "Very Much Go."
The coolest voice ever.
Hu Jintao's was going to visit about a few months ago, but Hurricane Katrina delayed his visit until now.
He cancelled it on the last day, and the time before, they were also going to dine at Gate's mansion where they had already prepared the salmon, which were airlifted from Alaska on the same day.
Dunno what happend to them.
If you want to drop in, here's Bill's house on google maps [via Sightseeing with Google Maps]:
Bill Gates's House
I will admit, this scares the -hell- out of me. The US government runs MS products almost exclusively. Now China's President and Gates are clinging glasses. Keep Ballmer away... wouldn't want China to get any ideas about "fucking burying" us.
...seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms,...
The number of bedrooms seems a little low for 100 guests.
What happens when that security check reveals that one of the people walking through the door is a tyrant with billions subjects, harboring the biggest piracy, spammer and phishing rings it the world, with nuclear weapons?
And that another is the slightly less powerful guest of that tyrant, the president of China?
--
make install -not war
Hu: President Gates, I..
Gates: Please, I'm not the president, I have more power
Hu: I am still pleased to present you with the Chinese version of Windows
Gates: Hey, that's a pirated copy!
Hu: Yes, we made it just for you, need a key?
Gates: No, you go and post in on YOUR internet, be sure not to censor it. BTW, you do know that RED Hat isn't a communist version of Linux. It actually promotes human rights.
Hu: Oh yes, we know, and based on what I am allowed to read about your decline in human rights, it appears that the US isn't using it either.
Gates: Cheers
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Hu: Yes, the view of Lake Washington is magnificent.
Gates: Hee hee, that's not what I'm talking about...
"Money talks". Pure and simple.
So this makes very clear to me which unelected leaders control the economic fate of the world.
"The Tank Man".
This is interesting to say the least.
Is this going to be that same security that any twelve year old can defeat?
Or did they contract some outside firm to cover their problem?
If you can not trust M$ with your data, how can you trust them with the life of your leader?
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
Let me get this straight, Microsoft will be providing the security for the President of China among others??! Do they have any concept of what a track record is?
-BMojo
Only seven? Loser.
"Gentlemen," concluded Napoleon, "I will give you the same toast as before, but in a different form. Fill your glasses to the brim. Gentlemen, here is my toast: To the prosperity of The Manor Farm! "
There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the pigs? Clover's old dim eyes flitted from one face to another. Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three. But what was it that seemed to be melting and changing? Then, the applause having come to an end, the company took up their cards and continued the game that had been interrupted, and the animals crept silently away.
But they had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Forty years ago, Nixon invented the policy of engagement to balance the dangerous Soviet Union against an equal dangerous but hungry Communist China.
Ten years ago, with the Soviet menace defeated, Bill Clinton invented the complete sell out. Slave made goods have flowed into out country, jobs and money have flowed out. Parallel to this was born the myth of the "information economy" where the US would own ideas and the rest of the world would do our bidding because of it. Of course, for this ownership to be complete, it must apply to our own citizens. To enslave others, we must first prove our dedication to ruling by enslaving ourselves.
You can draw a straight line to today, with the DMCA, Patriot act and rampant domestic spying from a tremendously expanded federal government. As the rich and powerful gateher in Redmond, ask yourself where the rhetoric of freedom has gone and why your boss is dining with a Communist. What in the hell are we doing?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I live near there. I think I might take my friends boat up to Lake Washington and see if I can moon the president of China.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
... flock together. They're both controll freaks, they both hate freedom and individual liberty, they both lie about free markets (China's while getting freer is not truely free, nor is MS which relies strictly on license monopolies and not competition), they both think they're smart and have large number of resources, they're both more interested in power and prestige than making a mark. Bill wants a billion people in his market, China wants total information controll over their citizens. In all truth, I wouldn't be suprosed if they slept together.
And 24 bathrooms? Why? Possibly it could be useful for situations such as this, but it seems a bit odd.
clearly my invite must have been lost in the mail :(
I wonder how security is going to be handles here. It seems that if some terrorist like the one wanting to get the WTO, knew about all these power players in one area, could think it might be an attractive target for them. It might have as much umph in the finacial world as the 9/11 attacks.
A James Bond movie?
Just...strikes me as odd is all.
I don't get it.
If you'll look, after the mess in Tiananmen in 1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_prot ests_of_1989 the Chinese government basically said something to the effect of "ok, you know we'll kill you if you embarass us again like that" and that they were going to turn the country capitalist in the sense that foreign companies could do whatever they want and they decided to invest heavily in technology and modernization. Their bread and circuses decision has lead China to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world if not the fastest. There were sweeping reforms economically that took place while the political landscape remained as barren as before. True communists they are not in any sense.
*The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.*
Wow, 24 bathrooms ! It would almost take me a month to take a dump in each one ! Wow, take a dump in a different bathroom each day and not revisit the same one for almost a month. Cool beans !!!!!!
Did you know Hu Jintao got his degree in hydraulic engineering? Why can't we have an engineer presient?
bug.gd: error search engine. Humanity working together to solve all errors.
I'll bet those trout are ill tempered and have lasers on their heads. Hey, the work for Microsoft so they have to be in a bad mood. Everyday is a bad day, then they serve you for dinner when they "fucking kill" you as they've done before and will do again.
It's nice to see the head of Evil Industry's Starbuck's division getting some publicity and credit. Number two's idea there was quite profitable.
Gates, stroking a bald cat: "Do you like my quasi futuristic clothing, Chairman Hu? I designed them myself."
Chairman Hu: "Ah yes, they are much like Chairman Mao's favorites, but he liked drab blue."
Master Gates: "A toast then, to $400,000,000 and the drab."
-clink-clink-
Chairman Hu: "I have a thing for Red."
Flunky S. Baller: "Tell me you are not talking about Red Flag Linux!" Perspiration half moons show under his arms.
Chairman Hu: "I am."
Baller, raising chair "I'm going to fucking kill Linus. I've done it before and -"
Master Gates slaps Baller on the back of the head: "Down boy!" Turns and smiles. "He's a little fired up tonight."
Baller: "I love this company! I work in the swamp. Though I do not fall in the trenches of coding, I am yet a soldier! Developers, Developers, Developers!"
Master Gates laughs and pats Baller on the head. Yes, this is my favorite number two.
Everyone laughs.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"
oo oo oo! Now say wessel!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
just to see if i can reply first time wat
Nowadays the government calls it "socialism with Chinese characteristics," not because they think they're fooling anyone, but as a pretense to legitimacy. Socialism is being redefined as something roughly along the lines of Nordic-style welfare capitalism. It's not even clear that the burgeoning urban bourgeoisie would care if the Party apparatus were to repudiate socialism once and for all.
Certainly we should petition for greater freedoms in mainland China and in particular for the rights of imprisoned journalists, political opponents, and religious leaders. Still, considering how terribly China's citizens suffered under previous incarnations (Mao) of the present post-Tiananmen regime, I'm optimistic for the future. I believe the Party will continue on its path of liberalization as a younger, more cosmopolitan generation of Oxford- and Columbia-educated Chinese accedes to power. Who needs revolution, after all, when you can build democracy from within?
Bonsai Kitten: TNG
Actually, it shows that the author's writer subscribes to one or more 'word (of the/a) day' collections, and the word "manse" was in fact a recent word of the day.
Really.
I'm told that countries like Sweden still have pensions that pay out but that China has "reformed" theirs. $400,000,000 for Windoze ... big dumb US companies do the same thing. Hmmm.
I believe the Party will continue on its path of liberalization as a younger, more cosmopolitan generation of Oxford- and Columbia-educated Chinese accedes to power. Who needs revolution, after all, when you can build democracy from within?
I hope "liberalization" happens. Internet censorship and stories about political dissidents being murdered for sale of their organs make me think actual discourse is dangerous at best. Without a free press there is no telling what's actually happening, except that someone does not want the story told.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Maybe I missed the memo - is 'manse' a word now?
If it works like most Windoze "security" a little report is generated, a few files are wiped out, stability suffers and they all contract bird flu anyway.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Eegad... hire a maid before the stench gets too rank.
So many inaccuracies, it's hard to know where to start...
The word is MANSION
Actually, mansion is a totally different word, I suspect they really did mean "manse".
However, I'll admit to *almost* emailing the editor to correct it, the difference being, I decided to check my facts first...
Manse (noun): A large and imposing residence.
Mansion (noun): A large stately house, a manor house.
Given the description of the house and the person we generally believe Bill Gates to be, "large and imposing" works a little better than "stately" and the old-fashioned images generally associated with "a manor house" don't gel well with the lifestyle and tastes of a software billionaire.
The summary at this time uses the phrase "Bill Gates' manse." This is clearly a subversive attempt to evoke "goatse," a web site formerly located at goatse.cx which features explicit sexual acts involving goats.
Since we've cleared up the meaning of the word 'manse' and we can assume it was used deliberately, in so far as it is a valid choice, why is this an attempt to subvert the meaning of the article?
In fact, why would you believe that having the same two letters at the end of a word automatically links the two concepts in some way? How many other words ending in 'se' also make you think of goatse??
"sexual acts involving goats" ??? I think not...
Perhaps you should read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse.cx
Actually, save yourself some time and click this.
WARNING TO EVERYONE ELSE - DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!
Optimist: The thumb drive is half empty! Pessimist: The thumb drive is half full...
This should not just be a business move on China's part, but rather the start of changing China's culture of condoning piracy. Unless piracy is curbed, I see little motivation for Chinese software designers to create things they can't make money off of. Innovation will stagnate if piracy continues.
That's small time next to Bill's $40 billion, dollars skimmed in part from companies like Exxon. Exxon at least makes gasoline and other petrochemicals.
Also, when is the last time you heard Exxon flaunting it like this? The press release contained details about the freaking meal, smoked foul salad and all that. It's like reading some kind or sycophantic Roman historian's accounts of the big, noble beams in Nero's new palace. Have a nice meal, fine who cares? Blowing your own horn about it and your palatial 24 bathroom house in a press release is tasteless.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=manse
Reference.com defines "manse" as "A large stately residence." I think it's just a matter of which dictionary you're looking at, but the term doesn't seem to be out of line.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
"I suppress ideas", "oh, so do i"
I think you'd all have a much different opinion of this issue if you had first considered http://www.thestopman.com/
Yeah, the house arrest must be for their own protection. Is Steve Baller so careful with his? Will Bill keep his own safe from Ipod and Google?
Inside the Baller residence, Steve is fishing around under his son's bed. His son fidgets helplessly.
Steve finds a CD, pulls it out and thrust it in his son's face. "What's this, son?!"
Steve Jr: "It's ... it's my homework."
Steve: "No it's not. I can tell you are lying to me. What is it?"
Steve Jr: "It's porn. I'm sorry, and I won't do it again. Let's just throw it away and forget about it."
Steve, now spitting: "What kind of moron do you think I am? Do I have to boot it? You though you were using an anonymizer to download this filth, but it was my proxy. Now tell me what it is!"
Steve Jr, now crying and crushed: "It's Linux."
Steve falls on the floor, clutching his chest.
Steve Jr, hysterical: "Dad! no!
Steve, weakly: "I thought it was Firefox, I saw the signatures. Oh. my. God. How long has this been going on?"
Jr: "Not long. I swear, I only booted it once. A developer told me -"
Steve grasps his son by the shirt, regaining strength: "That's it. I'm going to give you all the tools you will ever need. Developers are what is going to save this family. I love this family! Developers, Developers, Developers!" Rising now with his fist in the air, "With God as my Witness, you will never be hungry again!"
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
...I give you the future. It used to be that heads of state met openly, whilst businessmen made deals behind the scenes. Today, we see a head of state openly meeting with arguably the most powerful businessman in the United States. In a few years, the business men will simple meet, having done away with the facade of "heads of state." We live in interesting times.
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
Like many rich men, Gates has a hobby.
He just likes to collect China.
I am anarch of all I survey.
"Manse" is also used in Philip K Dick's "The Penultimate Truth", which is ironically (or perhaps Zonk is even more with it than anyone imagined) about the collusion of the Communist States with the West to the economic benefit of the elite on both sides, at the expense of freedom of the general populace.
It is time for a good political rant. Big business is too powerful and interfering in international relations to a frightening extent.
Most innovation and growth comes from small and medium companies. Large companies exaggerate the power of economies of scale because being nimble is more important in a fast changing world. Big biz survives by bullying smaller companies, not by doing the job better or being more efficient. Anybody who has worked for a big company knows that they are inharently disfunctional.
American car companies didn't grow bloated and slow because of lack of foreign competition, but because of a lack of domestic competition, ei. smaller but more car companies. Japan's auto makers grew competitive because Japan had about 12 car companies before going overseas.
Big businesses should be split, or at least mergers above a certain size should curtailed. Most mergers result in a net loss of profits. The only reason they still happen is because of a select few who make big bucks off such deals and the ego power of being big.
Table-ized A.I.
the China(R) Corporation.
How fitting...
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Honestly, I'm really not sure how many times since Western style diplomacy became the Gold standard internationally that something like this has happened. For a foreign head of state to visit a country and not visit at least someone in the government first is highly, highly irregular. This isn't so much a tech story, I think, as a political one.
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
Anyone have a Google Map of Gate's house?
that was aMAZingly random :-)
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
I can't believe someone would register a hate site in his own name. What a dumb ass.
Ladies and gentlemen...uh..uh, never mind. Let's just kill somebody.
[seriously though, what do guys like these talk about over dinner? The president of a communist state? The founder of the world's biggest software house? the CEO of Starbucks? Oh wait, I see it now. ]
It seems strange that the person to talk with Chinese officials about why there should be more focus on making sure IP is paid for would be a multi-billionaire, who made his vast fortunes with his IP, in his massive mansion. It sure wouldn't encourage me to make sure he gets more money.
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
haaaaah?
You only have to look at the difference between america's threathment of Cuba (a couple of million consumers) vs China (over a billion consumers) t0 know what the US is about when it comes to world politics.
But what about China's motivation for this? China has been doing very well for itself following its own unique style of goverment.
While it ain't exactly communism it sure as hell isn't capatalism either. Neither has it given in on any subject to the west except a few trade disputes. It still claims taiwan as part of china, there is no religous freedom or freedom of the press (no broadcasting cnn china in China is NOT freedom of the press and only a tool would think so) and tibet is still occupied and its citizens repressed and prosecuted.
Only on trade disputes does it give in slightly agreeing to limit its exports from time to time in the full knowledge that the west has little choice but to allow the increase in time because our economic systems know totally depend on china's cheap goods. The recent trade dispute over clothes in the EU showed that. EU goverment wanted to limit the import from china to give its own manufacturers a chance when in reality this meant that stores could not get stock (or rather could not get stock wich they could sell at a profit).
So back to China's motivation. We have been getting stories about China going with Linux instead of windows. Was this all a bluff to get a better deal from Microsoft?
Possible but does China need to do that? It can just use the rampant piracy as a bargaining chip. Either you sell us windows really cheap or we just pirate it. What is Gates going to do? Boycott china? Good luck, I am sure the US would love a real tradewar with China. Especially considering how much of its hardware for a real war comes from that area (no not china, taiwan, one nuke away)
China has done very well ignoring the whole copyright and intellectual property and patent crap (just check the story behind leaking capacitators on cheap chinese motherboards) so why should it chance now?
Is China seeing more opportunity for itself by changing? The recent move to require a licensed OS on each PC could be a sign that the Chinese goverment has decided a different approach is need to achieve its goals. What ever they might be I very much doubt they have anything to do with Bill Gates concerns or wishes.
I think that China is coming to visit with its own agenda and unless the american leader, and George Bush, are very carefull they are going to be taken for a ride.
Why do I think so?
Well China has only got to look west (no not the US you idiot, russia is to china's west, the US is to the east) to see what choice it has.
The soviet union did what the US wanted and tried to become a western capatlist democracy and that worked out well didn't it?
So China got a clear choice, follow the western path of "democracy and capatalism" and follow the USSR into economic ruin and war OR continue on its own path wich so far has been making it a very large fortune and in ever tighter control off the western economies.
Any negiotator knows you need to check why the other party doesn't want to do what you want them to do. That is obvious. Yet a really smart negiotator knows that you should be even more wary of the other parties motivations of doing exactly what you want them to do.
If China clamps down on piracy and installs windows on every machine you can be very sure it is not because it makes Bill Gates happy.
I find it very hard to believe that China would willingly hand over its entire IT future to an american company. The only possible reason I can see is that MS software could be more easily used to spy on its citizens (open source linux makes this far harder)
Mmm, perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps Chinese and American intrest are the same after all.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Yeah, so is "the". These are common words, get over it.
Trying to defuse trade deficit tensions with China.
h nology/2002916176_chinatrade07.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstec
I thought the Chinese were interested in Linux ? I am guessing Uncle Sam forced Windows onto them.
Kind of a shame.
I wish I had a mod point. Funniest post I've read on /. in a long while.
The Indian prez (Dr. Abdul Kalam) is a rocket scientist while the prime minister (Dr Manmohan Singh) is a PhD in economics from Oxford.
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Better unplug your computer for a start. If less than five hundred corporations are responsible for the production, delivery, and requisite supplies for your little toy, I would be incredibly surprised.
Let's go back to the stone age!
.. stick your fingers in your ears, go "La la la la", and don't read up on the Bilderberg Group. The guy who runs the site is a little too "Alex Jones" for my tastes, but dig deep and you'll find some interesting tidbits. It makes sense though, if you think about it - having a conference where you can say exactly what you think, without worrying about how it will affect you politically.
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
Administering a nation of 300 million people is not a job for morons, although some morons have got it anyway. Historically, we've had some extremely bright people running the country.
From wikipedia:
In addition to his political career, Jefferson was also an agriculturalist, horticulturist, architect, etymologist, archaeologist, mathematician, cryptographer, surveyor, paleontologist, author, lawyer, inventor, violinist, and the founder of the University of Virginia.
Jefferson wasn't alone either.
There was a period of time when smart people pretty much took over the world, called the Enlightenment. You really don't know anything meaningful about American history unless you know what and why the Enlightenment was... which is sad, because few do. The very existence of our country and modern ideas about democracy are owed to the intellectual revolution of those days.
In recent years, we've had Bill Clinton, who was a rhode scholar. Anyone know who was the smartest president of the 20th century?
Here's a nice article on the relative intelligence and stupidity of various presidents.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010622.html
Of steel clamps snapping over Hu Jintao's arms and legs when he sits down at Bill's dinner table.
I am thinking of "View to a Kill".
Except in that film all the bad guys met on a blimp or something.
Only Nixon could go to China.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
and it will get translated as "you are more popular than the bugs!"
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
So much talk about communism, from the people who knows the least about it - americans...
It's sad. You're fed with anti-communistic propaganda from the first day you see the sun. And now you're talking about communism and china and shit. Just stfu. Please. You have no idea what you're talking about.
Twenty-four bathrooms for only seven bedrooms? I guess all six kitchens do nothing but Mexican and Indian food...
When the Communist Party needed to find an iron-fisted successor to the likes of Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng - someone with blood on his hands as a guarantee to his "faithfulness to the Party doctrines" - they found a loyal Party executor in Hu Jintao, the Butcher of Tibet.
It greatly saddens me that some western, supposedly freedom-loving and democratic, leaders invite such murderous dictators to a state visit. Meanwhile some self-appointed moral guardians like Tony Bliar refuse to even meet the Dalai Lama, the representative of occupied and exiled Tibetans and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, as not to offend the brutal dictators of China! Dubuya Bush has been a catastrophy to the world but at least he dares to expose his face to the Dalai Lama in person, even if he isn't willing to help the oppressed Tibetans with actual deeds.
That someone like Billy Gates would be the first in line to host and toast the Butcher of Tibet should come as no surprise to anyone. But the representatives of free and democratic states...?
I wonder if there was a national referendum in the US about welcoming the murderous Hu, with a fact-sheet of his crimes attached, would the people still welcome the Butcher to be wined and dined as the nation's guest of "honor"?
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
"Nordic-style welfare capitalism"? I thought that Scandinavian countries were usually politically described as social democracies? Any Scandinavians care to comment on how they prefer to describe their own systems (politely ;-) ) ? Apologies if I've got it wrong, I've just never heard the phrase "Nordic-style welfare capitalism" before. Maybe it's just two different spins on the same system, claims from the right and the left to 'owning' the same model?
Actually, the political spectrum in Taiwan is more extreme. In traditional Chinese society, which is preserved better in Taiwan, most people believe that "well educated man should rule the country". Apart from the notably exception of current president Chen Shui-Bian, all the major current and past party leaders (former president Lee Teng-hui, major oppression leaders Lien Chan, James Soong, Ma Ying Jeou) all have PhD (actually all from major universities in US).
In fact, I ran into a guy from Taiwan in my postgrad class. He was doing his PhD in electrical engineering at the time. I wondered why he made the decision because I knew he did not really enjoy engineering even for his masters. He told me that he had a strong interest in politics and had helped out the election campaign in the last Taiwan president election. His mentor suggested that the shortcut to enter politics was to get a PhD (any PhD preferrably in USA). This still gives crediblity to many people.
In the past (pre 20 century), educated man in China means proficient in literature, history and poetry. But, after the shock from interacting with the West, people started to worship "technology" (esp in mainland China). It is not a surprise to see engineer president, even if there is a real election in China today.
You obviously suffer constipation.
You know how China is 'communist'? Hu going for dinner with Bill reminds me very much of that bit at the end where the pigs are playing cards with the humans and drinking...
Americans already knew it, now the rest of the world starts to see it as well. Just as some countries have kings or queens, while the real power is with the politicians.
In the US, you have a president, while the real power is with Corporate USA.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I have one of those but it's become unusful due to my desuetude. :)
Ok, so when do we get to see this? If he wins it will prove once and for all that you can buy a position.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The degree to which people obsequiously acquiesce to be governed by the conceits of powerful egomaniacs never ceases to amaze me. "The Land of the Free" is a joke. Media cartels, ham handed fuckwit religious bigots, Wall Street, the energy industry, telecommunications companies - they all rape us daily. But that's life. Stop complaining, you ungrateful unpatriotic wage slave.
It really is as you describe. An entire nation's perspective has become warped. And the really scary thing is, most of the rest of the world is worse. I think our monkey genes must encode some kind of predilection for servitude or something. Bend over and take what's coming to you. And smile.
Here we see Bill's true colors. A man who is not about to let ethics cloud his greed and megalomania. The United States has laws that forbids the sale of tools of oppression. We should demand that Microsoft open its code base before before they are allowed to sell a single application; because if we don't, there is no telling to what degree Bill is cooperating with the Chinese government in order to further his own greedy ambitions.
And don't defend Bills ethics with some soddy wish wash about Bill's munificence to Africa. We all know that that was Melinda's idea, not Bill's. Bill was simply savvy enough to pick up on the PR ramifications, and was all too happy to oppress efforts by generic drug manufacturers to save lives by liberalizing intellectual property regulations.
But what will happen? We'll see no end of press hailing the agreement that China is about to sign with Microsoft as a victory for freedom and democracy. And the irony will be completely lost on almost everyone.
Bill Gates is a real life villian straight out of James Bond.
I don't know, Hu?
We had an engineer president once, a certified nuclear engineer. Ill let you guess who which one that was, and how ineffective he was in playing the national political game. Remember that the president has to deal with both sides of congress, and play that silly game to get anything done.
We also could have had an IT engineer once, but the public rejected him, once again due to his lack of 'political savvy'. Lets hope they 'revolt' when Bill runs... ( its coming, anyone can see it )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Kudos, you wrote the most useful, relevant, important post in this whole thread.
;) ...should read Myths of Free Trade and learn something real about our relationship with China and the rest of the world.
Related to that, everyone, and I mean everyone - liberal & conservative alike (including libertarians
of Vista
See, the beauty is that under free markets businesses that can't turn a profit, or corrupt the market, will collapse under their own weight eventually.
Legislation and governmental action is not needed unless that specific entity has been playing unfairly by being anti-competitive or predatorial.
I agree that smaller companies tend to be more innovative, but larger companies have their place as well. Large companies allow for mass production, thus lower costs and more savings to the end consumer. This means they are (usually) a more efficient producer in the marketplace.
American car companies grew bloated and slow for two reasons. The first was due to union stagnation. The second was because the US DOT heavily regulates the auto industry thus creating a higher barrier to entry and effectively limiting competition.
And about regulation, big business LIKES big government. Think about it. When the government has the power to regulate the market, it creates regulations, red tape, legislation, and other obstacles that smaller and medium sized businesses cannot afford to participate in. Think drug companies. It takes over $1 BILLION (USD) to release a new drug, most of which is due to FDA regs. Thus, the only people who can participate are larger companies with deeper pockets; smaller firms are excluded.
And you are wrong about how big business survives. Some survive on their own free-market merits. Others however, and this is unfortunately becoming more and more common, survive to due influence in legislation and a bloated far-reaching government.
If the US government were limited and allowed the free-market to naturally self-regulate, like the US Constitution originally set forth, we would all be in a better situation now.
Libertas in infinitum
Google Search for: Hu visit to US
result:
Your search - Hu visit to US - did not match any documents.
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Huh?
You might want to advise the wait staff that he takes no sugar tonight in his coffee, no sugar tonight in his tea.
Well look at the two choices. Gates is an intellectual,
Gates, Harvard undergraduate dropout. GDub, Yale BA, Harvard MBA. Who is the intellectual?
one of the biggest philanthropists in history, and is spending billions of dollars helping to improve education around the world (especially in the US with his new project) and helping to cure real killer diseases like Malaria.
Like Andrew Carnegie before him, Gates will disgorge some of his ill-gotten wealth to whitewash his image for posterity. However, Andrew Carnegie is reviled by history in his brutal suppression of the Homestead strike, no matter how many buildings bear his name. Gates will be similarly hated for his 25+ years of distorting and terrorising the software industry.
Bush is the crowning achievement of the anti-intellectualism movement in America, couldn't imagine doing something good for another human being,
If you call opposing the creation of a race of subhumans bread only for their stem cells to be anti-intellectual then I hope we have more of it. You are intellectually dishonest.
Fault Gates as you will for his business practices (although they're tame compared to Balmer and nearly every other CEO or ex CEO in business), but I know which of the two I'd rather spend time with.
By all accounts President Bush is a genial fellow and Gates is an arrogant, abrasive, narcissist. After reading your post you choice makes perfect sense to me.
an ill wind that blows no good
First we saw M$ helping China to catch and jail dissidents, by turning over their Hotmail communications.
Then we saw the Chinese government drop their big move to Linux and commit to Windows (and to legally licensed copies, no less!). Quid pro quo.
Now they're just getting together to finalize the deal. Just two criminal organizations doing business together. Nothing to see here.
Notable: In March, Hu introduced "Ba Rong, Ba Chi" ("Eight Honors and Disgraces"), described as a new concept of socialist morality by the official Xinhua news agency. The list urges Chinese to:
* Love the country; do it no harm.
* Serve the people; never betray them.
* Follow science; discard superstition.
* Be diligent; not indolent.
* Be united, help each other; make no gains at other's expense.
* Be honest and trustworthy; do not spend ethics for profits.
* Be disciplined and law-abiding; not chaotic and lawless.
* Live plainly, work hard; do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
The most important thing to get out of this state visit is concessions on Chinese imports of American goods. They have an alarming double standard of providing Wal-Mart with everything under the sun yet keeping our products out. No wonder we have a multi-trillion dollar trade deficit.
Six bedrooms... yet 24 bathrooms?
Sounds like someone has a severe bladder control problem.
And you childrapers enable them by voting for them and buying their products.
Fuck them and fuck you.
Why would dividing a mega-corp into a bunch of little corps make anything any better?
Or that a politician like Gates takes precident over our official representatives in D.C.
Or that the US didn't learn its lesson when the 'Big Three' where allowed to set policy in the 60's, 70's and 80's. Letting a politician like Gates meddle with US international trade and foreign policy, will likely have the same effect on US technology as the "Big Three" had on the once-great US automotive industry. Gates has already taken a thriving, diverse and economically productive market and killed it, largely through a mixture of illegal business practices. Do we want that same effect to spread to all computer-using industries in the US ?
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
I don't think you can say that Tiananmen had no effect on policy at all. The stuff that happened in Beijing before Tiananmen and during Tiananmen had a distinct chilling effect on the ability and want of the citizens to challenge the government.
*The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.*
I'm currently visiting my father who is a Presbyterian Minister. The name of his dwelling is a "Manse" which is similar to a Catholic Presbytery or a Church of England (aka Anglican or Episcopalian) Rectory or Vicarage.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Did anybody else notice that this is tagged as "Fascist", last I checked China was on the other side of the spectrum...
I'm surprised you're surprised. Have you ever used his company's products?
Ok, let's check this.
Linux vs Windows. Linux is better in a lot of ways, but, the edge still goes to Windows. Windows has always had better font handling, Direct X has way more features than OpenGL implementations, and drivers, to boot. Windows has native kernel queues, Linux doesn't. Windows has a native 16 bit unicode implementation, and Linux doesn't. Finally, Windows has a single desktop, with a single clipboard, and on Linux you have stupid politics such that my Gnome apps such as Evolution don't mind the KDE desktop settings and vice versa. Or, cut and paste randomly works on either. One huge advantage for Linux is that it is a better 64 bit platform, but, with Linux people telling everyone that they don't need 64 bits, the one advantage that they have, they piss away. But, then we have to talk about how Windows has a single COM object model that is pervasive, which Linux doesn't have (oh we got two of those, and get this, one of those is based on a ripoff "Mono", of C#. And where's Linux's own native protocol for file and print sharing? The one that Linux uses, Samba, is a ripoff of Windows Networking.
Office vs ???. MS Office is better than Open Office. It just is. In fact, Open Office hasn't even really caught up to Office 2000, and, its 2006.
IE vs ???. Firefox is better than IE, although I think the tabs are overrated. Haven't tried Opera in a while, but the ads annoy me.
Exchange vs ???
SQL Server vs MySQL. Hands down, SQL Server.
SQL Server vs *Gress. Hands down, SQL Server.
Visual Studio vs KDevelop. For C++, I think KDevelop is -almost- as good, but, I do like Visual Studio's debugger a lot better. And, there is NOT a Java, Python, or any other alternative language product that has an environment as good as that for Visual C# or a GUI as a good as Winforms 2.0. Back in the C++ realm yet, do they even have grid controls on Linux yet? Data binding?
Age of Empires vs ????. Better RTG than Rise of Nations?
XBox 360 vs Sony ???, oh wait, Playstation 3 isn't even out yet. Someday.. Sigh.
On the other hand, there are areas where MS continues to trail or lose:
iPod vs ??? what MS thing?
Natural Keyboard vs Logitech? Logitech is still better.
Oracle vs SQL Server? Oracle, hands down.
OS/X vs Windows XP... I gotta say OS/X.
This is my sig.
Tiananmen is what the western world shouts about. Look up tiananmen myth" and see why that is so. The real deal went on at the same time elsewhere in Beijing, but no one was actually killed at Tiananmen.
Umm, nice tinfoil hat you've got there, and tons of people were killed on the roads leading into Tiananmen, but there is actually video tape of wave after wave of people running into Tiananmen then being shot down and being carried back out. That's just from the day after when the parents were trying to come in and get the bodies of their children who had been shot the night before. The night video is pretty chaotic, but you can distinctly hear and see the people being shot because they had the lights to the square on for a while and then after shutting those off, they turn on the giant floodlights that cover the front of the Great Hall of the People. That of course provided a fairly eery situation when perhaps thousands of troops began marching into the square from the Great Hall, then the shooting began and all hell broke loose.
*The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.*
If Linux did have more features than Windows, you would be bragging about it, no? I would.
This is my sig.
Two or three is enough, according to basic game theory. In most markets, it there are far more serious competitors.
I call opposing the ability to get the stem-cells of babies at all blocking our way to get cures for diseases anti-intellectual
The discussion is not about the utility of stem cells for the possible treatment of disease. It is whether it is ethical to harvest them from a proto human who has no say in the matter. It is a human rights discussion, which is highly intellectual. Also, I would hesitate to call crude experimentation with stem cells highly intellectual. It is more like tinkering. Biologists have very poor theoretical understanding of life's machinery.
I call putting pseudoscience(Intelligent Design) on the same level of science(Evolution) to be anti-intellectual(and yes, I have quotes from Bush saying he wants ID put on the same level as Evolution in science courses.
Evolution is a stale collection of 19th century principles that stiffle the biological sciences as much as they do advance it. The ideas of evolution are reasonably self evident, but they have no predictive power. The lack of a mathematical foundation is a severe limitation. It is puzzling that it has really become the rallying cry of the left and a sacred cow. The same used to be true of Newtonian mechanics. Mathematicians and physicists revered the results to such an extent that it took 100's of years until Einstein could advance the field again. Evolution needs to be similarly formulated to put biology on similar footing with other physical sciences.
Mr. Bush is not a proponent of ID. Neither am I.
an ill wind that blows no good
Why do you conservatives think testing on animals(which have fully developed nervous systems and ergo can feel pain) is okay but doing absolutely anything with a human fetus(which has no nervous system, cannot feel pain, and is as human as a tumor) is a moral abomination?
This attitude is not unique to conservatives. Moral relativism doesn't sit well with a lot of people. I could just as easily ask you what your ghoulish fascination is with vivisecting infants.
Genetics is a perfectly fine mathematical foundation. The theory of evolution has undergone quite a few minor changes since Darwin's original work. The biggest one is genetics--that traits are not a continuum but discrete.
If you could point me to formulas governing these ideas I would be greatful. My complaint about Darwinian evolution is that their seems to be governing action principles that describe how and why generations of organisms respond to selective events. Genetics is an ok discipline, but it really doesn't explain the machinery of life
Most of Newton's equations only required minor changes(mostly multiplication or division of some quantities by a square root) to the formulae with Einstein's relativity.
The conceptual leap was large. The failure of the Galilian transformation of Newtons laws in moving coordinates was long known. The acceptance of the constancy of the speed was a pretty deep insight, especially for the time.
Evolution has been demonstrated many times already(why doesn't penicillin work as well anymore? Certainly the formula hasn't magically changed).
That is like saying, "when I throw a rock up in the air it always hits the ground." The observation is not very satisfying. I find that kind of intellectual laziness to be common in the debate of evolution. Perhaps the theory would be under less attack if it got a better defense.
Although GWB's response is nice and vague(and hard to combat), his intent was clear--get ID, which is pseudoscience
You are trying to demonize my buddy Dub for something he never said. What don't you pick on Jerry Falwell instead?
an ill wind that blows no good