Hmmm... this would rapidly create an underclass of socially-blacklisted, uninsurable, embittered expendables who are considered net liabilities to their culture. This accumulating army would be under- or un-employed, and given today's trends, the median age would probably be between 45 and 50. And they'd be primarily male, white, with a few blacks thrown in, and the rare Hispanic and/or Asian.
Given that I'm probably never going to be able to successfully construct Operation "Fuck the World" from Boatmurdered, I'd say that--as an aspiring supervillain hellbent on turning our planet into the worst craphole possible--this would be a great idea! The opportunity for mischief, chaos, and raging middle-aged nihilists rampaging across strip malls is amazing! Can I get in on this as an initial investor once you file the patent?
Good points. I would counter-argue that elephants would become feasible if the price of fuel for tractors, plus maintenance ever rose to the point where it's more cost effective to use elephants, including feed and veterinary costs. We're clearly not at that point yet, but I wouldn't mind seeing some experimentation.
What if we took certain species and domesticated them for the North American continent? Like elephants for agricultural work in the South and Southeast? Yeah, they'd cost a lot to maintain in terms of feed, but if we did away with corn subsidies and instead subsidized ag to produce more livestock feed for exotic species, I could see how it'd be a win-win. There'd be problems, and there'd have to be creative solutions, and it wouldn't be perfect, but saving an elephant plus giving them important work to do (and thus meriting societal protection above and beyond what they've already got in our world) might be an unexpected good thing.
The Russians have built "continent buster" cobalt bombs. It's their Doomsday weapon, per Fred Kaplan, built to guarantee that the Rodina will never fall to an invader, like it almost did to Nazi Germany. Just the mere presence of those makes me think that we need to be able to have intelligence gathering capabilities to insure we know where those are, and if someone else is attempting to build them. I don't know where the balance is between freedom and security, nor do I know how many billions of lives would have to be lost before we find that line, but it's a conversation we should have.
Yeah, I work in tape. I've heard your argument over and over again espoused by fellow RAID enthusiasts and people who hate tape. You fail to account for the inevitable rogue wave of human stupidity that will strike the network and take out the RAID servers--and it does happen, no matter how well designed the RAID array set-up is. I make loads of money off of CTOs and sysadmins who learn this to their sorrow. Not to mention that keeping two completely separate RAID arrays that mirror each other tends to be unsustainable longer than two-to-three years due to rack space, or to constantly having to swap out every single drive in the RAID array with larger and larger drives just to maintain capacity without increasing footprint. Tape is boring, old tech that is almost bulletproof when it comes to ensuring that your network is up. RAID arrays are for near-line storage directly off primary, but Tape is what insures that your company survives human stupidity
Problem is, libertarianism suffers from a No True Scotsman fallacy, promulgated by corporatists who use libertarian creeds to advance the supremacy of corporations (and therefore wealthy rent seekers who want to firmly establish a caste-based society), and in doing so undermine the entire philosophy. Just like most any other philosophy, really. Every system is perfect, until free will is introduced.
Nope! Never have... but I have been in a room full of evangelicals all trying to argue the bible with each other. The similarities in arguing style and technique are very similar.
I work in Tape, and I can tell you that I've run into sysadmins and CTOs who have overlooked #3 (particularly with their belief in cheap disk arrays) to their sorrow. Tape is boring old tech, but it's damn near bulletproof in saving the bacon every damn time something goes wrong and a restore needs to occur. Ethernet with NAS boxes my ass, you need a tape library in there somewhere to completely insure that your company doesn't go down permanently after the inevitable rogue wave of human stupidity hits your network.
I like working in an environment where women are empowered and contributing. I have a great CFO who's a woman, and she's an inspiration to everyone here. I get to work with intelligent, fun, and attractive women who feel safe in expressing themselves--it's fantastic. Women in the workplace is a good thing, and I'm willing to surrender male privilege if this is the result.
Your points are well taken. By way of comparison, I make $70K, am single with no dependents, and I reside in the greater Seattle area. I can be counted as middle class for Seattle, but for everywhere else I'd be upper middle class (possibly upper class dependent on the area). When I look at my monthly costs & budget, then compare where I currently live versus a place with a lower cost of living, I realize that I've got to stay in the Seattle region. The cost of living is higher, but the pay is commensurately higher, which allows me to continue paying on my student loans. I feel that reinforces your point about the household with two earners in their 40's. Once I get my student loans paid off, then I can afford to move to a less expensive locale where my salary will decline, but the other costs should decline even more. I'll still be considered middle-to-upper-middle class due to spending & saving habits, plus education, even with the decline in salary.
If you don't mind me asking, what part of the country do you live in, that your income bracket of 10% is considered middle class? I'm curious, because I believe that income standards and costs of living tend to be far more sticky than we as a society care to admit.
What you are referring to is the post-World War II era of twenty years that applied really just to the United States, Britain, and a few other select nations. The rest of humanity's history is very similar to the present: both parents working and trying to find low-cost alternatives for child-care, education rapidly approaching unattainable levels of cost for all but the very elite, and a resurrection of the landowner/landlord aristocracy. We're moving to a form of Feudalist Capitalism, only instead of lords and mandarins, we have Corporations and oligarchic republics. Even during the Industrial revolution, we STILL had aristocracies, merchants, and peasants. It was just that technology was redefining who was who. Right now the entire planet is reverting back to the *standard* way of life, the way it used to be before World War I. We just happen to have higher living standards and better technology to assist us.
Which in my mind is even scarier. If you look at her statement comparing standing in line for measles as opposed to autism, it could be interpreted as "I'd rather my children catch the measles because at least it isn't permanent, whereas autism is". Autism is an economic death sentence to most families in America, whereas measles is survivable with a decent chance of no lasting effects. What Jenny and her cohorts (IMHO) seem to believe is that autism can be induced or transmitted, and that it is far worse than any illness a child could be vaccinated against. To me, that's an insult to all the functional autistics and Aspies out there.
Your statement is based on the assumption that God is omniscient and omnipotent. Parent is stating that the Old Testament does not explicitly state that God is omnipotent and omniscient, rather--explicitly, that God is not either.
He was the only Apostle who met Christ once, and while Romans is the pinnacle of his epistles, he is also a human being and therefore fallible. What you're citing there is what Paul wrote, not what Jesus wrote, not what any of the original Apostles wrote, but what a homophobic Christian Apostle wrote. Not just that, it's portraying people as being robots--or worse, already-repressed homosexuals who finally decided that enough was enough and they'd be themselves. You don't get to cite this with Biblical Authority, I'm calling BS on the Biblical Inerrancy here.
A really, REALLY big war. That gets rid of all the stupid people, a lot of not-so-stupid people, a bunch of smart people, and a whole lotta infrastructure that probably needed to go anyway. Then, big economic boom for the entire world afterward. Simple!
The US is done. It's lost. Its Founding Fathers would be appalled at what it's become.
Yeah, they'd be saying, "Great God in Heaven, we actually let them damn blacks, chinks, kikes, and women vote now?! Who the hell thought to allow this? The Pope-lovers and abolitionists must have won after all! Why doesn't someone put down the minorities and put women back into their rightful, subordinate places? And while we're at it, restrict voting back to white male property owners again!" God forbid we actually try to live up to our ideas over the last 200 years--oh, I'm sorry, we didn't have the luxury of a monarch to order us to integrate, nor did we have the luxury of being a largely white Protestant ethnic nation with only a small amount of Inuit and French-Canadian Catholics to deal with. No, we just had to be a large sprawling empire of just about fuck-all everyone and everything with almost-literal mountains of internal and external bigotry to overcome against anything that wasn't specifically approved by a white Anglo-Saxon bearded God that sprang from the loins of a miraculously tall white Jewish woman 2000 years ago.
Seconding this, the analogy doesn't work. My Mustang is amazing, just as reliable as a Honda Civic R, Hyundai Genesis, and cheaper by about $3-6K depending on the market. And it gets comparable fuel mileage. Plus, FAR more horsepower (I love my 305 hp V6--can't wait to put some headers and a cold-air intake on it and see what happens).
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Hmmm... this would rapidly create an underclass of socially-blacklisted, uninsurable, embittered expendables who are considered net liabilities to their culture. This accumulating army would be under- or un-employed, and given today's trends, the median age would probably be between 45 and 50. And they'd be primarily male, white, with a few blacks thrown in, and the rare Hispanic and/or Asian.
Given that I'm probably never going to be able to successfully construct Operation "Fuck the World" from Boatmurdered, I'd say that--as an aspiring supervillain hellbent on turning our planet into the worst craphole possible--this would be a great idea! The opportunity for mischief, chaos, and raging middle-aged nihilists rampaging across strip malls is amazing! Can I get in on this as an initial investor once you file the patent?
Good points. I would counter-argue that elephants would become feasible if the price of fuel for tractors, plus maintenance ever rose to the point where it's more cost effective to use elephants, including feed and veterinary costs. We're clearly not at that point yet, but I wouldn't mind seeing some experimentation.
They HAVE told us. Fred Kaplan did a huge write-up of it in his book on nuclear war, plus a piece on Slate about a year back.
What if we took certain species and domesticated them for the North American continent? Like elephants for agricultural work in the South and Southeast? Yeah, they'd cost a lot to maintain in terms of feed, but if we did away with corn subsidies and instead subsidized ag to produce more livestock feed for exotic species, I could see how it'd be a win-win. There'd be problems, and there'd have to be creative solutions, and it wouldn't be perfect, but saving an elephant plus giving them important work to do (and thus meriting societal protection above and beyond what they've already got in our world) might be an unexpected good thing.
Second this--I think this is a good question and merits consideration.
The Russians have built "continent buster" cobalt bombs. It's their Doomsday weapon, per Fred Kaplan, built to guarantee that the Rodina will never fall to an invader, like it almost did to Nazi Germany. Just the mere presence of those makes me think that we need to be able to have intelligence gathering capabilities to insure we know where those are, and if someone else is attempting to build them. I don't know where the balance is between freedom and security, nor do I know how many billions of lives would have to be lost before we find that line, but it's a conversation we should have.
Yeah, I work in tape. I've heard your argument over and over again espoused by fellow RAID enthusiasts and people who hate tape. You fail to account for the inevitable rogue wave of human stupidity that will strike the network and take out the RAID servers--and it does happen, no matter how well designed the RAID array set-up is. I make loads of money off of CTOs and sysadmins who learn this to their sorrow. Not to mention that keeping two completely separate RAID arrays that mirror each other tends to be unsustainable longer than two-to-three years due to rack space, or to constantly having to swap out every single drive in the RAID array with larger and larger drives just to maintain capacity without increasing footprint. Tape is boring, old tech that is almost bulletproof when it comes to ensuring that your network is up. RAID arrays are for near-line storage directly off primary, but Tape is what insures that your company survives human stupidity
Problem is, libertarianism suffers from a No True Scotsman fallacy, promulgated by corporatists who use libertarian creeds to advance the supremacy of corporations (and therefore wealthy rent seekers who want to firmly establish a caste-based society), and in doing so undermine the entire philosophy. Just like most any other philosophy, really. Every system is perfect, until free will is introduced.
Nope! Never have... but I have been in a room full of evangelicals all trying to argue the bible with each other. The similarities in arguing style and technique are very similar.
You know, this argument bears eerie similarities to the arguments about the meaning of various Bible passages.
I work in Tape, and I can tell you that I've run into sysadmins and CTOs who have overlooked #3 (particularly with their belief in cheap disk arrays) to their sorrow. Tape is boring old tech, but it's damn near bulletproof in saving the bacon every damn time something goes wrong and a restore needs to occur. Ethernet with NAS boxes my ass, you need a tape library in there somewhere to completely insure that your company doesn't go down permanently after the inevitable rogue wave of human stupidity hits your network.
I like working in an environment where women are empowered and contributing. I have a great CFO who's a woman, and she's an inspiration to everyone here. I get to work with intelligent, fun, and attractive women who feel safe in expressing themselves--it's fantastic. Women in the workplace is a good thing, and I'm willing to surrender male privilege if this is the result.
Your points are well taken. By way of comparison, I make $70K, am single with no dependents, and I reside in the greater Seattle area. I can be counted as middle class for Seattle, but for everywhere else I'd be upper middle class (possibly upper class dependent on the area). When I look at my monthly costs & budget, then compare where I currently live versus a place with a lower cost of living, I realize that I've got to stay in the Seattle region. The cost of living is higher, but the pay is commensurately higher, which allows me to continue paying on my student loans. I feel that reinforces your point about the household with two earners in their 40's. Once I get my student loans paid off, then I can afford to move to a less expensive locale where my salary will decline, but the other costs should decline even more. I'll still be considered middle-to-upper-middle class due to spending & saving habits, plus education, even with the decline in salary.
Then support single payer. Or, support the move to divest health insurance from employment completely.
If you don't mind me asking, what part of the country do you live in, that your income bracket of 10% is considered middle class? I'm curious, because I believe that income standards and costs of living tend to be far more sticky than we as a society care to admit.
What you are referring to is the post-World War II era of twenty years that applied really just to the United States, Britain, and a few other select nations. The rest of humanity's history is very similar to the present: both parents working and trying to find low-cost alternatives for child-care, education rapidly approaching unattainable levels of cost for all but the very elite, and a resurrection of the landowner/landlord aristocracy. We're moving to a form of Feudalist Capitalism, only instead of lords and mandarins, we have Corporations and oligarchic republics. Even during the Industrial revolution, we STILL had aristocracies, merchants, and peasants. It was just that technology was redefining who was who. Right now the entire planet is reverting back to the *standard* way of life, the way it used to be before World War I. We just happen to have higher living standards and better technology to assist us.
Which in my mind is even scarier. If you look at her statement comparing standing in line for measles as opposed to autism, it could be interpreted as "I'd rather my children catch the measles because at least it isn't permanent, whereas autism is". Autism is an economic death sentence to most families in America, whereas measles is survivable with a decent chance of no lasting effects. What Jenny and her cohorts (IMHO) seem to believe is that autism can be induced or transmitted, and that it is far worse than any illness a child could be vaccinated against. To me, that's an insult to all the functional autistics and Aspies out there.
*THUMP-SPLAT*
There are consequences for disobeying me.
Sycodon's too smart to let that happen to him. Only stupid losers allow that to happen.
Your statement is based on the assumption that God is omniscient and omnipotent. Parent is stating that the Old Testament does not explicitly state that God is omnipotent and omniscient, rather--explicitly, that God is not either.
Mod up please--this is the argument against Grand OP
He was the only Apostle who met Christ once, and while Romans is the pinnacle of his epistles, he is also a human being and therefore fallible. What you're citing there is what Paul wrote, not what Jesus wrote, not what any of the original Apostles wrote, but what a homophobic Christian Apostle wrote. Not just that, it's portraying people as being robots--or worse, already-repressed homosexuals who finally decided that enough was enough and they'd be themselves. You don't get to cite this with Biblical Authority, I'm calling BS on the Biblical Inerrancy here.
A really, REALLY big war. That gets rid of all the stupid people, a lot of not-so-stupid people, a bunch of smart people, and a whole lotta infrastructure that probably needed to go anyway. Then, big economic boom for the entire world afterward. Simple!
The US is done. It's lost. Its Founding Fathers would be appalled at what it's become.
Yeah, they'd be saying, "Great God in Heaven, we actually let them damn blacks, chinks, kikes, and women vote now?! Who the hell thought to allow this? The Pope-lovers and abolitionists must have won after all! Why doesn't someone put down the minorities and put women back into their rightful, subordinate places? And while we're at it, restrict voting back to white male property owners again!" God forbid we actually try to live up to our ideas over the last 200 years--oh, I'm sorry, we didn't have the luxury of a monarch to order us to integrate, nor did we have the luxury of being a largely white Protestant ethnic nation with only a small amount of Inuit and French-Canadian Catholics to deal with. No, we just had to be a large sprawling empire of just about fuck-all everyone and everything with almost-literal mountains of internal and external bigotry to overcome against anything that wasn't specifically approved by a white Anglo-Saxon bearded God that sprang from the loins of a miraculously tall white Jewish woman 2000 years ago.
Seconding this, the analogy doesn't work. My Mustang is amazing, just as reliable as a Honda Civic R, Hyundai Genesis, and cheaper by about $3-6K depending on the market. And it gets comparable fuel mileage. Plus, FAR more horsepower (I love my 305 hp V6--can't wait to put some headers and a cold-air intake on it and see what happens).