I think Amazon's "Key Phrases" for this book tell us all we need to know about the author (in particular: "chicken parm", "Fox News", and "Comedy Central"):
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): Aunt Sue, New Jersey, New York, Formal Methods, Sam Adams, Cat's Den, Professor Wright, Silicon Valley, Fox News, Lake George, Uncle Robbie, Aunt Betty, Comedy Central, Josh Benaloh, Michael de Mare, Professor Searleman, Air Force, Aunt Mary Lynn, Fort Plain, Professor Cavallo, Rome Labs, World Series, Fedora Core, Professor Bloom, Residence Life
Before you start complaining about/.'s editors, note the from line in the article's heading:
"from the please-test-for-crazy-conspiracy dept."
Where do I line up to complain about/.'s readers?
Kudos to that. I'm writing this on a 9 year old G3 Powerbook that continues to run and run and run...
Who am I kidding, this thing can barely handle five tabs in Firefox, let alone anything else I'd like to do on a computer. I hope to buy a new laptop ASAP, and when I do it will be with the company that made this decade-old machine.
I could run FreeBSD or Linux on a cheap machine too, but that means I have to do work. And I know a few Linux fanboys out there are gonna tell me it's really easy, but any work on Linux is still more work than no work on a Mac. I spent my time trying out Ubuntu, and even what's supposedly one of the most user-friendly distros still took a fair bit of technical work so it would cooperate with my hardware.
With Mac, I know everything's going to work and I won't have to do a damn thing. And that's all I want. I buy a computer so I can do something productive or fun, not so I can work towards being able to do something productive or fun.
I agree with your first point that publicly financed/spend-capped elections are probably a step in the right direction. However, PACs and 527s can still heavily influence elections without directly contributing money to a campaign. And don't forget the effect of media pundits/analysts.
As for your last point on spending tax money to get people to the polls, I have to completely disagree. Yes, it's unfortunate that voter turnout is so low in the United States, but that's because many people who don't care to vote also don't care to educate themselves on the issues of the day. If someone isn't willing to take time to understand the issues, they probably shouldn't be voting. Low turnouts are a symptom of citizen apathy, and that's the problem we should be focusing on. Let's figure out why people don't care and address that instead of paying them to care.
"But try telling that to those employees who will on April 1st be recategorized as hourly workers;"
Your post:
"As usual, no one bothers to read the article that is linked to. You'll notice that its publication date is March 21st. So the original article isn't an April Fool's Day joke."
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I'm not sure "Craigslist Kills Erotic Services Ads" was the best choice of words, given the circumstances that brought about that change.
Or, if both Obama and McCain are removed from the ballot, Obama almost definitely wins the election because McCain loses 34 electoral votes.
I think Amazon's "Key Phrases" for this book tell us all we need to know about the author (in particular: "chicken parm", "Fox News", and "Comedy Central"):
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
artificial immunity, chicken parm, quiet housing, graduate housing, information assurance, extra credit project, thesis proposal, thesis defense
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs):
Aunt Sue, New Jersey, New York, Formal Methods, Sam Adams, Cat's Den, Professor Wright, Silicon Valley, Fox News, Lake George, Uncle Robbie, Aunt Betty, Comedy Central, Josh Benaloh, Michael de Mare, Professor Searleman, Air Force, Aunt Mary Lynn, Fort Plain, Professor Cavallo, Rome Labs, World Series, Fedora Core, Professor Bloom, Residence Life
Before you start complaining about /.'s editors, note the from line in the article's heading:
"from the please-test-for-crazy-conspiracy dept."
Where do I line up to complain about /.'s readers?
Mod parent up, burn.
Kudos to that. I'm writing this on a 9 year old G3 Powerbook that continues to run and run and run...
Who am I kidding, this thing can barely handle five tabs in Firefox, let alone anything else I'd like to do on a computer. I hope to buy a new laptop ASAP, and when I do it will be with the company that made this decade-old machine.
I could run FreeBSD or Linux on a cheap machine too, but that means I have to do work. And I know a few Linux fanboys out there are gonna tell me it's really easy, but any work on Linux is still more work than no work on a Mac. I spent my time trying out Ubuntu, and even what's supposedly one of the most user-friendly distros still took a fair bit of technical work so it would cooperate with my hardware.
With Mac, I know everything's going to work and I won't have to do a damn thing. And that's all I want. I buy a computer so I can do something productive or fun, not so I can work towards being able to do something productive or fun.
I agree with your first point that publicly financed/spend-capped elections are probably a step in the right direction. However, PACs and 527s can still heavily influence elections without directly contributing money to a campaign. And don't forget the effect of media pundits/analysts.
As for your last point on spending tax money to get people to the polls, I have to completely disagree. Yes, it's unfortunate that voter turnout is so low in the United States, but that's because many people who don't care to vote also don't care to educate themselves on the issues of the day. If someone isn't willing to take time to understand the issues, they probably shouldn't be voting. Low turnouts are a symptom of citizen apathy, and that's the problem we should be focusing on. Let's figure out why people don't care and address that instead of paying them to care.
From the article:
"But try telling that to those employees who will on April 1st be recategorized as hourly workers;"
Your post:
"As usual, no one bothers to read the article that is linked to. You'll notice that its publication date is March 21st. So the original article isn't an April Fool's Day joke."
Who didn't bother to read the article?