Maybe this will be a test case to seee if the new television drama "Revolution" foretells humanity's reaction to a loss of electrical power, or debunks the portrayal.
Elected officials which put forth a bill like this should be shown the coast, and have their citizenship revoked. Everyone of the elected officials took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. What attempts at law making like this do, is the reciprocal of the oath they took.
I owe Mr. Bradbury and his golden age of science fiction brethern a great deal. It was his writing and that of Wells, Verne, Assimov and others which pulled me up from a path of near illiteracy to being an avid reader.
If there is an after life, I hope Bradbury, Verne, Clark and all the others have already started writing for the inhabitants. They'll be better off for it.
I've been using Firefox since Firebird. I've promoted it to I don't know how many users.
Now however I can't recommend it to anyone. It's been one long downward spiral since 3.6.
It has gotten so bad my son loaded Chrome on his notebook out of pure frustration with Firefox.
Sad, really sad...
Please Mozilla, quit breaking extensions and FIX the performance issues. You have to have the data, I've sent enough crash reports to yourself and Microsloth to fill a 1GB drive!
I've been visiting/. for twelve or thirteen years. I was first introduced by a coworker and true geek. I've never reached beyond the level of a wannabegeek, but I've enjoyed/. immensely and learned much from it.
I truly appreciate what you and your partners started so many years ago. I truly hope that your departure is of your own choosing, and amicable.
I sincerely hope that you've been adequately compensated for what you've given the community over the years. I also sincerely hope you find peace, happiness, and compensation in your future.
For myself I want to thank you for having made me look far more intelligent and capable than I really am. Things I have learned of on/. have made me look good on more than one occasion.
Both from me, and many others I know, I simply want to say THANK YOU for/.
I've been visiting/. for twelve or thirteen years. I was first introduced by a coworker and true geek. I've never reached beyond the level of a wannabegeek, but I've enjoyed/. immensely and learned much from it.
I truly appreciate what you and your partners started so many years ago. I truly hope that your departure is of your own choosing, and amicable.
I sincerely hope that you've been adequately compensated for what you've given the community over the years. I also sincerely hope you find peace, happiness, and compensation in your future.
For myself I want to thank you for having made me look far more intelligent and capable than I really am. Things I have learned of on/. have made me look good on more than one occasion.
Both from me, and many others I know, I simply want to say THANK YOU for/.
A simple binary to hex conversion yields 2147483647
From Wikipedia...
The number 2,147,483,647 is the eighth Mersenne prime, equal to 2^31 1. It is one of only four known double Mersenne primes.
The primality of this number was proved by Leonhard Euler, who reported the proof in a letter to Daniel Bernoulli written in 1772. Euler used trial division, improving on Cataldi's method, so that at most 372 divisions were needed. The number 2,147,483,647 may have remained the largest known prime until 1867...
"I've managed people in the past, and it struck me that Management should really be a support role. My most valuable contribution as a manager was making sure my people understood what was expected and getting them the information and resources they needed to do their best work. This involved a lot of spreadsheets and scheduling, which had nothing to do with the job I was promoted from (mechanic). The second most valuable contribution was protecting my people from the whimsy and downright predation of higher management, who felt that their purpose in life was to crack whips and make sure everyone below them knew they were being watched."
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You must have been living my past life!
Congratulations on your view point and the protection of your staff. It's more rare than you probably realize. (Oh, and it won't do you any good in the future either...)
I'm 47 and can either starve, take a minimum wage job (if I can get one), or go back to complete the only BS degree within reach (2 years, I have an Associates) in a likely worthless discipline.
If I choose to go back I get to wipe out my savings, as my wife works and we have assets. $30K minimum for the remaining 68 credit hours, plus my lost wages (say another $30K/yr).
The degree, if I can navigate the "new and improved" education system, has little direct marketability. If I'm lucky the B.S. ******* University on my CV will at least get me an interview, and if I'm lucky more than a minimum wage job.
At any rate, the return will likely not be positive before my daughter enters college.
I was in the aviation / aerospace area which has simply been obliterated.
24 months ago I made $78K / Yr. 18 months ago I made $95K / yr. sliding to $58.5K / yr as my employer slid into bankruptcy and eventually liquidation.
Having worked a whopping total of 4 months this year, $8/hr begins to look reasonable, especially the closer I get to the unemployment benefit expiring. (I'm at the top end of my states UI benefit range, which equals roughly $9.75 / hour. Take taxes and basic catastrophic medical coverage out of it and you're left with $5.65 / hour. If my wife was not still employed, my children would be going hungry.)
Harsh reality, but at least here in Indiana I estimate the REAL unemployment rate at above 25% including those who are either relegated to part time only work, or massively underemployed.
As for me, I have been under-degreed / over-compensated for years. In all probability my future is handyman and home networking odd jobs.
This for a middle aged guy with children WAY to close to when they SHOULD be preparing for college. Oh, and the same thing is happening to higher education costs which have already transpired in the US medical industry...
The US is in a real mess, with no realistic escape avenues. The most probable outcomes are either hyper-inflation and societal meltdown, or energy disruption (either a cut off of our suppliers, or self inflicted through "environmental protection") and further contraction of what is left of the economy.
The only bright spot is that in certain regions the US is now becoming a reasonable manufacturing location as real wages offset by transportation costs have made our citizens competitive with "third world" workers.
I am REALLY becoming concerned what my children will face. Historically, societies which experience our most probable futures have nasty and violent reorganizations. Based upon the continued expansion of Corporatism and the further stratification of our society I fear a French Revolution type of outcome.
I absolutely agree! I assume by your comment then that you'll be doing your part to reduce the overpopulation and finding a way to excise yourself from humanity?
A thousand additional points for starting with Asimov's "The Edge of Tomorrow". The stories are short, and most have a clear moral or social context. They also provide entry to many of the Asimov basics such as the three laws of robotics, and the "thinking computer".
I suggest a moratorium on all of the "lets 'STOP' Global Warming" hoopla and gather some meaningful data. Let's find out where this evil CO2 is coming from and develop programs and incentives to reduce the actual sources.
If U.S. autos are a huge source, there is data to support moving to something else. If the U.S. Electrical power industry is one of the major sources, there is additional emphasis to stop pi**ing away money on Tokamaks and get serious about developing truly net positive fusion.
If the problem is China's factories or power generation, well the Chinese can clean up their mess.
As an incentive, let's suppose Chinese factories and power generation is a large component of man-made emissions. Consuming nations should make a decision if they can produce the goods they purchase from this high emission region at lower emissions. If so, imports from high per item emission producers should be reduced in favor of local production in lower emission areas.
One last comment, just because it bothered me so.
I recently saw the remake of the classic Sci-Fi B movie "The day the Earth stood still". I was disturbed by the omission of an epilogue which described the results of the closing scenes of the movie.
"... and with the loss of electrical and other power sources, industry shutdown, and all that depended upon mechanization died with it. Within weeks Billions of the Earth's inhabitants were starving. The cities became hunter killer grounds as those who could, took from those unable to protect themselves.
Within months humanity had retreated to a Medieval life style, as disease and starvation continued to reduce the numbers of humanity to a tiny fraction of those alive on the day of landing.
The forests were denuded as those left alive sought fuel to guard against the cold of the Northern Latitudes. Coal once again became a primary fuel source. Recovered from the ground as it had been 400 years before, by children working until their early deaths."
Yeah, just what I want for MY children! (Sarcasm intended)
To those who thought the ending of that movie was nirvana, I have a suggestion. Pool you money, buy a small country, move there and institute your "no carbon emission" fantasy. After your gone we'll come around to reclaim the land if we feel like we need it.
I for one DO NOT want to see my childrens future (economic, educational, or standard of living) eviscerated to fulfill someone else desire to "fight Global Warming".
Instead of generating completely unrealistic Carbon caps and Carbon reduction targets, which in reality will simply become the next economic weapon (and a HUGE moneymaker for those trading in "carbon credits"). Let's get serious about fixing the problem.
We need a new, continuous, throttleable energy source and a new high energy density, safe liquid fuel of low or 0 carbon emission. I'd feel much better about my standard of living being decimated if the reduction was being spent to develop these things, than to "conserve our way to Carbon nirvana".
In case you haven't noticed, you can't conserve your way to prosperity.
I voted, but as in the last few it wasn't for my candidate of choice, it was against the candidate I couldn't abide by winning.
My candidate would not become a whore to Corporations, would effectively ban lobbying by groups (of ANY kind).
Would respect the Constitution, even the parts they didn't like.
Would only sign single issue Bills.
Would endeavor to clean the garbage and deadwood out of the US Code of Federal Regulations and our nations Laws.
Would abandon our current taxation system and go to an end user consumption tax for ALL revenue other than import duties.
Would respect my privacy and not spy on me or my countrymen.
Would balance our budget and generate enough surplus to begin paying down our debt. (see above)
Would work with Congress to issue appropriate letters of Marque and Reprisal to eliminate those who threaten us, and bring our troops home as quickly as prudent.
Would begin an immediate effort to eliminate all Federally funded Energy programs which have not produced based upon their historical record, and transfer that funding to new programs with promise to reduce or end our energy dependence.
Central Indiana, Northwest corner of Indianapolis suburbs in Boone County Indiana.
My wife voted was at the polls at 0600 when they opened and waited approximately 50 minutes.
My work hours are more flexible, so I elected to wait until 1030 hours local, expecting this to be a light time. Arrived to find a 45 minute wait. While I was waiting the line grew to over an hour easily.
voted on a MicroVote Infinity machine.(http://www.votersunite.org/info/MicroVoteinthenews.pdf ) I hope my County has a better experience this year than they did in 2003.
No way to know if my vote will be counted, as in so far as I am aware the MicroVote Infinity is a DRE with no backup paper record.:-(
Sorry, but to this one I have to give my standard response.
An unprovoked, unannounced attack on American civilian infrastructure should have been met by one response.
A B2 loaded with a few of those large, noisy, funny mushroom cloud making projectiles. (you know, EVIL nuclear weapons)
An hour or so before they fell on the most likely locations of the Al Queda leadership a few simultaneous phone calls should have been made to the applicable Middle Eastern, and south Asian states as well as China and Russia.
To China and Russia the communication would have been, don't worry about the big flash and boom, we're not attacking you and we have no quarrel with you. To the others the communication should have been, look (give appropriate directions) for a large flash. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS to people who attack us!
Crude, yes, but necessary. We could have spent a tiny fraction of our current expenditures on "fall out relief" and humanitarian aid, and we'd still be ahead.
What seems lost on so many is these are tribal cultures who by and large only respect overwhelming power. Show weakness and your dead meat.
As occurs under some other political systems, I firmly believe the U.S. needs to have on every ballot "None of the above". In essence this would allow the citizens to issue a vote of "no confidence" in the candidates, and cause the system to "reboot" to provide more acceptable choices.
My own prediction is that given a "None of the above" option, a slim majority of all incumbents would find themselves out of work.
All to often, and I believe it is absolutely true in this case, the electorate is voting for the "lesser evil" among the AVAILABLE candidates. (In my opinion voting Libertarian doesn't accomplish the "None of the above" action, as it requires the voter to ignore the Libertarian candidates platform. It also raises the very real possibility that you end up with a candidate becoming elected, for whom no one REALLY voted FOR. This is not a solution.)
My personal, and usually pessimistic, view is that neither of the current candidates can prevent our country from sliding into either a depression (deflation), or hyper-inflation. Either are equally economically devastating. I also hold the view the U.S. is in many ways already a "third world country", and this condition will only worsen.
Ultimately, and I hope I'm wrong, I believe I and or my children will experience a second American Revolution. I hope it's relatively bloodless for my children's sake, but I see little hope of avoiding such an event in my children's lifetime.
Oh, my prescription regardless of party is to excise the Corporatism from the current political establishment. NO Corporate influence, no lobbyist, nothing even remotely like the current afflictions of our existing system. One citizen, one vote, no recognition of other than citizens by any elected official for the simple reason that entities other than citizens are not represented by the Constitution.
I'm not going to write an epistle, but I just can't resist responding to this post and the comments it has generated.
First, for those who won't like what I have to say, I'll give you a reason to move on. I don't buy the current hype surrounding "Global Warming" as defined by the IPCC and certain unemployed professional politicians. For those of a slightly more "conservative" or "independence" minded streak, feel free to read on.
The foregoing position does NOT prevent me from supporting some of the things which the "Global Warming" proponents suggest for entirely different reasons.
To illustrate one of my points, I'll refer to history. To a great extent the Allies victory can be traced to the supply of petroleum from the United States during WWII. (which hastened the depletion of our easily accessible reserves) That energy independence allowed the United States to fight a two front war with little concern for the position of others, other than those countries directly supporting our effort through basing.
Consider the foregoing relative to todays situation, where our economy and Foreign and Military policy is directly impacted by the ability to procure adequate petroleum stocks from nations who, other than wanting our money, are hostile towards our country. This is a fundamentally untenable situation, which effectively reduces our independence and sovereignty. In addition, the wealth transfer causes a substantial economic impact to the value of our currency and places the viability of the U.S. economy at risk. (Consider that if those nations holding LARGE quantities of Dollars, such as certain OPEC nations and China, decide to dump them, the U.S. Dollar will effectively become worthless. This devastation to the value of the Dollar can, on historical grounds, only result in one outcome. A spiraling round of inflation, ending in the kind of hyperinflation which has brought down many governments the world over.)
The seriousness of the current threat to our nation and our ability to execute our Foreign and Military policy with independence can be shown by the recent and increasing interest the U.S. military has shown regarding synthetic fuels. In short the Military is preparing itself for a future where they may be denied access to foreign petroleum and have to go to the fight only with what the U.S. has or can produce domestically. While I find it amazing it has taken the U.S. Military this long to reach this conclusion, I'm heartened they have finally "awakened".
I do not believe you can conserve your way out of the depletion of a finite resource. Sorry, it just doesn't work that way. There is also the high rate of change in energy use in emerging and high growth nations which will further expedite the depletion of a finite resource.
So while I do not propose wasteful petroleum or energy expenditure, I do not advocate draconian conservation measures which cause a substantial disruption to either the nation, individual states, or the individual citizens. Leave such measures for when they are truly needed. (in other words, short of all out war, it's status quo)
I do advocate continued efforts to improve product efficiencies through sound engineering in new or revised product, but that's it on the conservation front. You'll note I didn't say, "we need to pass a law". Lawyers and politicians make lousy technologists and engineers, and usually focus on the wrong metric. If you don't believe me look at the U.S. automotive CAFE standards...
So, where does that leave someone like me?
I do advocate the extraction of every last drop of petroleum and natural gas within our national boundaries, including our territorial waters. At this point, I would even support the use of Imminent Domain to obtain access, and to overcome the objections of the NIMBY crowd. (I don't like to advocate such a thing but extraction of those resources should, at this point, be considered a point of National Security)
I support any COST EFFECTIVE production of energy. You'll note the empha
Slashdot Mirror
Right now I could use some Mod points. Mod hairyfeet up and Insightful ladies and gentlemen.
You might not like what he's saying, but he's right, and computer technology is not the only industry going this way. Aviation is too.
Droid 4 owner here... I need a battery made with this technology NOW. Maybe then a charge would last a whole work day.
Maybe this will be a test case to seee if the new television drama "Revolution" foretells humanity's reaction to a loss of electrical power, or debunks the portrayal.
Here's hoping its the latter...
I remember, and thank you for the help!
Elected officials which put forth a bill like this should be shown the coast, and have their citizenship revoked. Everyone of the elected officials took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. What attempts at law making like this do, is the reciprocal of the oath they took.
I owe Mr. Bradbury and his golden age of science fiction brethern a great deal. It was his writing and that of Wells, Verne, Assimov and others which pulled me up from a path of near illiteracy to being an avid reader.
If there is an after life, I hope Bradbury, Verne, Clark and all the others have already started writing for the inhabitants. They'll be better off for it.
I sincerely hope the server owner and users consider tne equipment hopelessly compromised, and quickly and completely dispose of it.
Lord I wish I Mod points to mod you up!
Clearing throat... AMEN!
I've been using Firefox since Firebird. I've promoted it to I don't know how many users.
Now however I can't recommend it to anyone. It's been one long downward spiral since 3.6.
It has gotten so bad my son loaded Chrome on his notebook out of pure frustration with Firefox.
Sad, really sad...
Please Mozilla, quit breaking extensions and FIX the performance issues. You have to have the data, I've sent enough crash reports to yourself and Microsloth to fill a 1GB drive!
Mr. Malda,
I've been visiting /. for twelve or thirteen years. I was first introduced by a coworker and true geek. I've never reached beyond the level of a wannabegeek, but I've enjoyed /. immensely and learned much from it.
I truly appreciate what you and your partners started so many years ago. I truly hope that your departure is of your own choosing, and amicable.
I sincerely hope that you've been adequately compensated for what you've given the community over the years. I also sincerely hope you find peace, happiness, and compensation in your future.
For myself I want to thank you for having made me look far more intelligent and capable than I really am. Things I have learned of on /. have made me look good on more than one occasion.
Both from me, and many others I know, I simply want to say THANK YOU for /.
J.D.
Mr. Malda,
I've been visiting /. for twelve or thirteen years. I was first introduced by a coworker and true geek. I've never reached beyond the level of a wannabegeek, but I've enjoyed /. immensely and learned much from it.
I truly appreciate what you and your partners started so many years ago. I truly hope that your departure is of your own choosing, and amicable.
I sincerely hope that you've been adequately compensated for what you've given the community over the years. I also sincerely hope you find peace, happiness, and compensation in your future.
For myself I want to thank you for having made me look far more intelligent and capable than I really am. Things I have learned of on /. have made me look good on more than one occasion.
Both from me, and many others I know, I simply want to say THANK YOU for /.
J.D.
A simple binary to hex conversion yields 2147483647
From Wikipedia...
The number 2,147,483,647 is the eighth Mersenne prime, equal to 2^31 1. It is one of only four known double Mersenne primes.
The primality of this number was proved by Leonhard Euler, who reported the proof in a letter to Daniel Bernoulli written in 1772. Euler used trial division, improving on Cataldi's method, so that at most 372 divisions were needed. The number 2,147,483,647 may have remained the largest known prime until 1867...
I'm an American, and you cannot conceive of how much I agree with your position!
Best of luck!
(Expose and excise Corporatism. Businesses are NOT a component of "The People", at least as the US founding Fathers meant.)
Hah! You've only been getting $7K? You need contacts in the "Black" world, $5K hammers make this $50K software!
"I've managed people in the past, and it struck me that Management should really be a support role. My most valuable contribution as a manager was making sure my people understood what was expected and getting them the information and resources they needed to do their best work. This involved a lot of spreadsheets and scheduling, which had nothing to do with the job I was promoted from (mechanic). The second most valuable contribution was protecting my people from the whimsy and downright predation of higher management, who felt that their purpose in life was to crack whips and make sure everyone below them knew they were being watched."
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You must have been living my past life!
Congratulations on your view point and the protection of your staff. It's more rare than you probably realize. (Oh, and it won't do you any good in the future either...)
Wow! Where are you from?
I'm 47 and can either starve, take a minimum wage job (if I can get one), or go back to complete the only BS degree within reach (2 years, I have an Associates) in a likely worthless discipline.
If I choose to go back I get to wipe out my savings, as my wife works and we have assets. $30K minimum for the remaining 68 credit hours, plus my lost wages (say another $30K/yr).
The degree, if I can navigate the "new and improved" education system, has little direct marketability. If I'm lucky the B.S. ******* University on my CV will at least get me an interview, and if I'm lucky more than a minimum wage job.
At any rate, the return will likely not be positive before my daughter enters college.
Want to live here?
Yes it has, and worse.
I was in the aviation / aerospace area which has simply been obliterated.
24 months ago I made $78K / Yr. 18 months ago I made $95K / yr. sliding to $58.5K / yr as my employer slid into bankruptcy and eventually liquidation.
Having worked a whopping total of 4 months this year, $8/hr begins to look reasonable, especially the closer I get to the unemployment benefit expiring. (I'm at the top end of my states UI benefit range, which equals roughly $9.75 / hour. Take taxes and basic catastrophic medical coverage out of it and you're left with $5.65 / hour. If my wife was not still employed, my children would be going hungry.)
Harsh reality, but at least here in Indiana I estimate the REAL unemployment rate at above 25% including those who are either relegated to part time only work, or massively underemployed.
As for me, I have been under-degreed / over-compensated for years. In all probability my future is handyman and home networking odd jobs.
This for a middle aged guy with children WAY to close to when they SHOULD be preparing for college. Oh, and the same thing is happening to higher education costs which have already transpired in the US medical industry...
The US is in a real mess, with no realistic escape avenues. The most probable outcomes are either hyper-inflation and societal meltdown, or energy disruption (either a cut off of our suppliers, or self inflicted through "environmental protection") and further contraction of what is left of the economy.
The only bright spot is that in certain regions the US is now becoming a reasonable manufacturing location as real wages offset by transportation costs have made our citizens competitive with "third world" workers.
I am REALLY becoming concerned what my children will face. Historically, societies which experience our most probable futures have nasty and violent reorganizations. Based upon the continued expansion of Corporatism and the further stratification of our society I fear a French Revolution type of outcome.
I absolutely agree! I assume by your comment then that you'll be doing your part to reduce the overpopulation and finding a way to excise yourself from humanity?
A thousand additional points for starting with Asimov's "The Edge of Tomorrow". The stories are short, and most have a clear moral or social context. They also provide entry to many of the Asimov basics such as the three laws of robotics, and the "thinking computer".
NASA will soon launch a satellite to directly monitor for the locations of ground level point sources of CO2. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/oco-20081112.html
I suggest a moratorium on all of the "lets 'STOP' Global Warming" hoopla and gather some meaningful data. Let's find out where this evil CO2 is coming from and develop programs and incentives to reduce the actual sources.
If U.S. autos are a huge source, there is data to support moving to something else. If the U.S. Electrical power industry is one of the major sources, there is additional emphasis to stop pi**ing away money on Tokamaks and get serious about developing truly net positive fusion.
If the problem is China's factories or power generation, well the Chinese can clean up their mess.
As an incentive, let's suppose Chinese factories and power generation is a large component of man-made emissions. Consuming nations should make a decision if they can produce the goods they purchase from this high emission region at lower emissions. If so, imports from high per item emission producers should be reduced in favor of local production in lower emission areas.
One last comment, just because it bothered me so.
I recently saw the remake of the classic Sci-Fi B movie "The day the Earth stood still". I was disturbed by the omission of an epilogue which described the results of the closing scenes of the movie.
"... and with the loss of electrical and other power sources, industry shutdown, and all that depended upon mechanization died with it. Within weeks Billions of the Earth's inhabitants were starving. The cities became hunter killer grounds as those who could, took from those unable to protect themselves.
Within months humanity had retreated to a Medieval life style, as disease and starvation continued to reduce the numbers of humanity to a tiny fraction of those alive on the day of landing.
The forests were denuded as those left alive sought fuel to guard against the cold of the Northern Latitudes. Coal once again became a primary fuel source. Recovered from the ground as it had been 400 years before, by children working until their early deaths."
Yeah, just what I want for MY children! (Sarcasm intended)
To those who thought the ending of that movie was nirvana, I have a suggestion. Pool you money, buy a small country, move there and institute your "no carbon emission" fantasy. After your gone we'll come around to reclaim the land if we feel like we need it.
I for one DO NOT want to see my childrens future (economic, educational, or standard of living) eviscerated to fulfill someone else desire to "fight Global Warming".
Instead of generating completely unrealistic Carbon caps and Carbon reduction targets, which in reality will simply become the next economic weapon (and a HUGE moneymaker for those trading in "carbon credits"). Let's get serious about fixing the problem.
We need a new, continuous, throttleable energy source and a new high energy density, safe liquid fuel of low or 0 carbon emission. I'd feel much better about my standard of living being decimated if the reduction was being spent to develop these things, than to "conserve our way to Carbon nirvana".
In case you haven't noticed, you can't conserve your way to prosperity.
I voted, but as in the last few it wasn't for my candidate of choice, it was against the candidate I couldn't abide by winning.
My candidate would not become a whore to Corporations, would effectively ban lobbying by groups (of ANY kind).
Would respect the Constitution, even the parts they didn't like.
Would only sign single issue Bills.
Would endeavor to clean the garbage and deadwood out of the US Code of Federal Regulations and our nations Laws.
Would abandon our current taxation system and go to an end user consumption tax for ALL revenue other than import duties.
Would respect my privacy and not spy on me or my countrymen.
Would balance our budget and generate enough surplus to begin paying down our debt. (see above)
Would work with Congress to issue appropriate letters of Marque and Reprisal to eliminate those who threaten us, and bring our troops home as quickly as prudent.
Would begin an immediate effort to eliminate all Federally funded Energy programs which have not produced based upon their historical record, and transfer that funding to new programs with promise to reduce or end our energy dependence.
Unfortunately, my candidate does not exist
Central Indiana, Northwest corner of Indianapolis suburbs in Boone County Indiana.
My wife voted was at the polls at 0600 when they opened and waited approximately 50 minutes.
My work hours are more flexible, so I elected to wait until 1030 hours local, expecting this to be a light time. Arrived to find a 45 minute wait. While I was waiting the line grew to over an hour easily.
voted on a MicroVote Infinity machine.(http://www.votersunite.org/info/MicroVoteinthenews.pdf ) I hope my County has a better experience this year than they did in 2003.
No way to know if my vote will be counted, as in so far as I am aware the MicroVote Infinity is a DRE with no backup paper record. :-(
Sorry, but to this one I have to give my standard response.
An unprovoked, unannounced attack on American civilian infrastructure should have been met by one response.
A B2 loaded with a few of those large, noisy, funny mushroom cloud making projectiles. (you know, EVIL nuclear weapons)
An hour or so before they fell on the most likely locations of the Al Queda leadership a few simultaneous phone calls should have been made to the applicable Middle Eastern, and south Asian states as well as China and Russia.
To China and Russia the communication would have been, don't worry about the big flash and boom, we're not attacking you and we have no quarrel with you. To the others the communication should have been, look (give appropriate directions) for a large flash. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS to people who attack us!
Crude, yes, but necessary. We could have spent a tiny fraction of our current expenditures on "fall out relief" and humanitarian aid, and we'd still be ahead.
What seems lost on so many is these are tribal cultures who by and large only respect overwhelming power. Show weakness and your dead meat.
As occurs under some other political systems, I firmly believe the U.S. needs to have on every ballot "None of the above". In essence this would allow the citizens to issue a vote of "no confidence" in the candidates, and cause the system to "reboot" to provide more acceptable choices.
My own prediction is that given a "None of the above" option, a slim majority of all incumbents would find themselves out of work.
All to often, and I believe it is absolutely true in this case, the electorate is voting for the "lesser evil" among the AVAILABLE candidates. (In my opinion voting Libertarian doesn't accomplish the "None of the above" action, as it requires the voter to ignore the Libertarian candidates platform. It also raises the very real possibility that you end up with a candidate becoming elected, for whom no one REALLY voted FOR. This is not a solution.)
My children have hanging in their school halls George Washington's farewell address. I have pointed out the passage warning against parties more than once. http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=15&page=transcript
My personal, and usually pessimistic, view is that neither of the current candidates can prevent our country from sliding into either a depression (deflation), or hyper-inflation. Either are equally economically devastating. I also hold the view the U.S. is in many ways already a "third world country", and this condition will only worsen.
Ultimately, and I hope I'm wrong, I believe I and or my children will experience a second American Revolution. I hope it's relatively bloodless for my children's sake, but I see little hope of avoiding such an event in my children's lifetime.
Oh, my prescription regardless of party is to excise the Corporatism from the current political establishment. NO Corporate influence, no lobbyist, nothing even remotely like the current afflictions of our existing system. One citizen, one vote, no recognition of other than citizens by any elected official for the simple reason that entities other than citizens are not represented by the Constitution.
I'm not going to write an epistle, but I just can't resist responding to this post and the comments it has generated.
First, for those who won't like what I have to say, I'll give you a reason to move on. I don't buy the current hype surrounding "Global Warming" as defined by the IPCC and certain unemployed professional politicians. For those of a slightly more "conservative" or "independence" minded streak, feel free to read on.
The foregoing position does NOT prevent me from supporting some of the things which the "Global Warming" proponents suggest for entirely different reasons.
To illustrate one of my points, I'll refer to history. To a great extent the Allies victory can be traced to the supply of petroleum from the United States during WWII. (which hastened the depletion of our easily accessible reserves) That energy independence allowed the United States to fight a two front war with little concern for the position of others, other than those countries directly supporting our effort through basing.
Consider the foregoing relative to todays situation, where our economy and Foreign and Military policy is directly impacted by the ability to procure adequate petroleum stocks from nations who, other than wanting our money, are hostile towards our country. This is a fundamentally untenable situation, which effectively reduces our independence and sovereignty. In addition, the wealth transfer causes a substantial economic impact to the value of our currency and places the viability of the U.S. economy at risk. (Consider that if those nations holding LARGE quantities of Dollars, such as certain OPEC nations and China, decide to dump them, the U.S. Dollar will effectively become worthless. This devastation to the value of the Dollar can, on historical grounds, only result in one outcome. A spiraling round of inflation, ending in the kind of hyperinflation which has brought down many governments the world over.)
The seriousness of the current threat to our nation and our ability to execute our Foreign and Military policy with independence can be shown by the recent and increasing interest the U.S. military has shown regarding synthetic fuels. In short the Military is preparing itself for a future where they may be denied access to foreign petroleum and have to go to the fight only with what the U.S. has or can produce domestically. While I find it amazing it has taken the U.S. Military this long to reach this conclusion, I'm heartened they have finally "awakened".
I do not believe you can conserve your way out of the depletion of a finite resource. Sorry, it just doesn't work that way. There is also the high rate of change in energy use in emerging and high growth nations which will further expedite the depletion of a finite resource.
So while I do not propose wasteful petroleum or energy expenditure, I do not advocate draconian conservation measures which cause a substantial disruption to either the nation, individual states, or the individual citizens. Leave such measures for when they are truly needed. (in other words, short of all out war, it's status quo)
I do advocate continued efforts to improve product efficiencies through sound engineering in new or revised product, but that's it on the conservation front. You'll note I didn't say, "we need to pass a law". Lawyers and politicians make lousy technologists and engineers, and usually focus on the wrong metric. If you don't believe me look at the U.S. automotive CAFE standards...
So, where does that leave someone like me?
I do advocate the extraction of every last drop of petroleum and natural gas within our national boundaries, including our territorial waters. At this point, I would even support the use of Imminent Domain to obtain access, and to overcome the objections of the NIMBY crowd. (I don't like to advocate such a thing but extraction of those resources should, at this point, be considered a point of National Security)
I support any COST EFFECTIVE production of energy. You'll note the empha