"...while 57% of Mainstream voters think a random selection from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress, 90% of the Political Class disagree...".
Well, it seems that Demarchy is getting nearer !!!:-DDD
The 'Alpha Male In The Sky' is just an Archetype from ancient times, probably from the neolithic, based on the common assumption that the Big Guy in the Sky would be and act just like the village's boss or some famous war chief. In those times, sons were the propriety of their fathers, just slaves, sometimes for life. Most ancient peoples gave the father the legal 'right' to torture or kill his own sons.
In most parts of the world, nowadays, the situation has improved a little. A father acting like, say, Yhvh, would be considered a mental case -a $#*!edly dangerous mental case. The only places where such acts could be deemed 'habitual' are those parts of the world suffering from religious turmoils . I think there must be some hidden clue in that fact, don't you agree?;)
Furthermore, religions perpetuate this archetype, by promoting the rise to power of this kind of individuals, powerhungry warmongers who can't stand criticism, and say they are following God's orders, but are just doing whatever they please most.
Do I fear going to hell? For me hell would be a planet controlled by different theocracies that dictate laws and impart judgement based on the teachings of some book written three thousand years ago. Demons and hell are just the concentrated remains of some bad trips that a bunch of shamans, priests or whatever had many eons ago. Rather than going to hell I'd like to visit Barzoom for a few centuries. I am totally convinced there is no $#*!ing way I'll ever end in one of those imaginary places.
And having a bunch of religious bigots dictating how you should speak, think and act doesn't seem such a great idea, Imho. The YMMV meme doesn't seem to fit in this paragraph. If you live under one of these regimes, you are being $#*!ed, even if you are not aware of it.
Being in the "capital punishment system" does not, and never will, mean that they will be executed. How can you be so stupid?
In this context, being "in the capital punishment system" means they are in far harsher conditions than in any prison, almost totally devoid of human contact, with even less freedoms than normal inmates and with the huge Damocles's sword of a pending death penalty. 'Cruel and unusual punishment' indeed.
And I almost forgot to say that solid evidence suggests that this 'Cruel and unusual punishment' is being applied quite often to persons innocent of the crimes they were condemned for. Something like a 20% of them if my memory doesn't fail me.
Microsoft has for years burned good will, buried it, danced on it's grave and then salted the earth where it used to grow and they are still the biggest software company around.
I totally agree with your statement, but IMHO the most important word here is STILL. One of these days, M$ will slip, and then they'll need all the good will they dilapidated. In the future, people will be making lists like this "Ashton Tate, WordPerfect, SCO... Microsoft...". They have been stretching the rubber band for 40 years, You don't need to be Nostradamus to see what's coming.
As for Apple, Google and the rest, yes, they'll probably end also being part of that list.
... the textbook interpretation of the civil rights movement went from being a color blind society to being an ethnically obsessed and divisive movement?
Color blind? Is that a synonymous of 'segregation'? I mean, you can't possibly be color blind and mandating black people to travel in the back of the bus or attending different schools, can you?
It's part of a declining trend, at least in newspapers.
Glad to hear that. But things may change for the worst in the future.
The idea of not being able to have an arrest reported in the paper lies perilously close to the government being able to arrest someone and not have anyone know about it.
Not telling the press isn't exactly not having anyone know about it. Letting the judges and the detainee's relatives and lawyer know about the arrest seems more correct and less prone to abuse, IMHO.
It's a necessary evil that goes along with a free press.
No, not really. You can have a law that under certain circumstances limits this freedom of press. As a matter of fact the USA has such laws, applied when there are minors involved. Extending this protection to the public in general doesn't seem too far fetched, as long as it's done in the proper way.
Besides, most arrests don't go reported in the newspaper.
There are whole sections in American newspapers, and whole blogs dedicated to showing publicly the mug shots -usually spiced with the police's version of the matter- and this seems to be part of a growing trend. It's like saying you are unlikely to end being tortured by the police. A democratic government MUST do it's best to not allow this to happen.
Slightly OT: lots of posters here in/. and other blogs seem to suffer what, for a lack of a better name, we can call the "It will never happen to me" syndrome.
Being busted for drugs or DUI: "It will never happen to me"
Being left homeless: "It will never happen to me"
Being screwed/sent to an early painful death by your insurance company: "It will never happen to me"
Being wrongly accused and detained, and having your live totally smitten by this: "It will never happen to me"
...
Repeat this mantra until you are soundly sleep. FNORD
Microsoft is able to narc on you better if you are a Premium customer, so the more you pay them the more they compromise your privacy!
Yours is an extremely informative and insightful post post and explains -as requested by many previous posts- why MS doesn't want this doc to go public.
Well it is nice to know that the efficient border control also allows for refuges to starve instead of flee to another country when the infrastructure for food distribution but you keep on believing in the worst of people if you wish.
If these good Samaritans really want to help with that issue, all they have to do is to bring food and help distribute it, which in terms of money/effort makes much more sense. Taking the children away is more expensive than helping them on the spot.
The bit about "you keep on believing in the worst of people" really answers itself. It's not what I believe, but the fact that disasters like this several kinds of child abusers always appear, like sharks when there is blood in the water, and often represent themselves as members of NGOs. That alone is a good reason for keeping border control.
Sorry for stating the obvious, but the "possession of a single picture" in this case has been used as proof of the said misuse . If they obtained the picture in an "accepted way" -i.e. scanning his HDD *- then why didn't the school state so clearly in their PR? That way they would minimize the bad press and the public outcry, and probably defuse the investigation, just with a few words. Their statements don't even touch the subject of how the picture was taken, or how the VP got it, and that alone says a lot.
Mind your blinkers, and I'll mind mine.;)
* IMPORTANT NOTE: I consider SICK and IMMORAL that school staff would rummage through the pictures contained in a student's laptop, hence the quotes in "accepted way".
... they somehow had the resources to maintain efficient border control to keep people from leaving the country. That kind of speaks to the priorities of many nations.
Perhaps one of their priorities is to prevent lone children from being kidnapped by child abusers, prostitution ringleaders and religious fanatics. If my country ever suffers anything remotely close to this disaster, I expect my government to keep an "efficient border control", for many good reasons.
Right, because real slavery never existed anywhere outside of China, especially not in the US. High safety standards and respect for human rights has always been paramount in the American Industrial Revolution right from the very beginning.
And of course we can say that without a doubt, a massive trade embargo will help the plight of the Chinese citizenry.
So, you are comparing the States from a century and a half ago with modern China? Somehow it doesn't seem fair. The same about safety standards. Following your reasoning, we couldn't be against cannibalism cos some of our ancestors were cannibals once.
And of course we can say that without a doubt, a massive trade embargo will help the plight of the Chinese citizenry.
I can say without a doubt that the present situation is not helping them at all, just giving their government big incentives for enslaving their people, and in the process destroying the economy and worker's rights in the western world
Can you resurrect a wrongly executed person? Is you judiciary system 100% error free? The day you can answer 'yes' to at least one of these two questions, you can support death penalty. Till then, death penalty is more akin to 'human sacrifice' than to 'justice'.
Oh, and spending 15 years of your life in a high security prison for 3 million dollars doesn't look like such a good idea.
...People go to the doctor every time they sneeze, because they don't see the costs covered by someone else...
Well, I read somewhere that doctors are aware of this issue, and have invented some thing called 'Triage' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage ) for -amongst other uses- filter out these cases. I live in a country with a NHS, and doctors here are quite apt at discovering these patients and sending them home with some placebo and a good advice or two, in less than ten minutes per patient.
Of course, errors happen sometimes, but It sure beats having people going to the doctor only when they fear for their lives.
...but i absolutely don't care about your health and i am sure you feel the same towards me....
Wrong, ohhh, so wrong.
I'd rather help you with your health, through taxes, than having you around with an undiagnosed and/or untreated case of Tuberculosis, AIDS, severe depression or Schizophrenia.
Also, your poor health could mean that your children would have less opportunities in life, and stand more chances of becoming criminals, creating huge costs for the rest of the society, including me. I don't think, either, that "Let the sins of the father fall over his children" is morally correct. Not in a million years.
Great! This leads to more competition and lower prices for the American consumers. What's the problem with that?
American consumers need MONEY even to purchase cheap clones at lower prices. The fact that western politicians and western companies are selling their souls -and ours- to the China government in exchange for some quick bucks is going to destroy our economies in the long term. And then, everybody will be working in the same conditions most Chinese workers have to endure today. No rights, no unions, no national health systems, no freedoms... . That's slavery for you. Welcome back to the middle ages, comrades.
The WIPO and western countries should be trying to fix this situation, instead of pushing secret treaties to protect Hollywood from file sharers. Won't happen, though:( .
WARNING: There is a nice & healthy virus in the above link. Don't open unless your box is well protected. No, the computer's metal casing doesn't count as protection.
Slashdot Mirror
Soft an cuddly? The icebears? My arse! One of those things sunk the Titanic!!!
No, a fine. Redistributing money from the dumb to the smart would be a boon to the economy.
It's being done already. Nigerian scammers, trojan creators, governments and telcos have been in that bussiness for ages.
"...while 57% of Mainstream voters think a random selection from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress, 90% of the Political Class disagree...".
Well, it seems that Demarchy is getting nearer !!! :-DDD
That sounds just like those guys who make custom motorcycles in the Discovery Channel :)
I know that guy's name. He is the the secret love son of Nyarlathotep and Cthullhu and his name is Fred. Oh .$#*!socks !!! ...>lostcarrier
Hmmmm... Th Bible?
In most parts of the world, nowadays, the situation has improved a little. A father acting like, say, Yhvh, would be considered a mental case -a $#*!edly dangerous mental case. The only places where such acts could be deemed 'habitual' are those parts of the world suffering from religious turmoils . I think there must be some hidden clue in that fact, don't you agree? ;)
Furthermore, religions perpetuate this archetype, by promoting the rise to power of this kind of individuals, powerhungry warmongers who can't stand criticism, and say they are following God's orders, but are just doing whatever they please most.
Do I fear going to hell? For me hell would be a planet controlled by different theocracies that dictate laws and impart judgement based on the teachings of some book written three thousand years ago. Demons and hell are just the concentrated remains of some bad trips that a bunch of shamans, priests or whatever had many eons ago. Rather than going to hell I'd like to visit Barzoom for a few centuries. I am totally convinced there is no $#*!ing way I'll ever end in one of those imaginary places.
And having a bunch of religious bigots dictating how you should speak, think and act doesn't seem such a great idea, Imho. The YMMV meme doesn't seem to fit in this paragraph. If you live under one of these regimes, you are being $#*!ed, even if you are not aware of it.
SOLUTIONS: The secret word is 'FUCK'.
Being in the "capital punishment system" does not, and never will, mean that they will be executed. How can you be so stupid?
In this context, being "in the capital punishment system" means they are in far harsher conditions than in any prison, almost totally devoid of human contact, with even less freedoms than normal inmates and with the huge Damocles's sword of a pending death penalty. 'Cruel and unusual punishment' indeed. And I almost forgot to say that solid evidence suggests that this 'Cruel and unusual punishment' is being applied quite often to persons innocent of the crimes they were condemned for. Something like a 20% of them if my memory doesn't fail me.
Microsoft has for years burned good will, buried it, danced on it's grave and then salted the earth where it used to grow and they are still the biggest software company around.
I totally agree with your statement, but IMHO the most important word here is STILL. One of these days, M$ will slip, and then they'll need all the good will they dilapidated. In the future, people will be making lists like this "Ashton Tate, WordPerfect, SCO... Microsoft...". They have been stretching the rubber band for 40 years, You don't need to be Nostradamus to see what's coming.
As for Apple, Google and the rest, yes, they'll probably end also being part of that list.
... the textbook interpretation of the civil rights movement went from being a color blind society to being an ethnically obsessed and divisive movement?
Color blind? Is that a synonymous of 'segregation'? I mean, you can't possibly be color blind and mandating black people to travel in the back of the bus or attending different schools, can you?
It's part of a declining trend, at least in newspapers.
Glad to hear that. But things may change for the worst in the future.
The idea of not being able to have an arrest reported in the paper lies perilously close to the government being able to arrest someone and not have anyone know about it.
Not telling the press isn't exactly not having anyone know about it. Letting the judges and the detainee's relatives and lawyer know about the arrest seems more correct and less prone to abuse, IMHO.
It's a necessary evil that goes along with a free press.
No, not really. You can have a law that under certain circumstances limits this freedom of press. As a matter of fact the USA has such laws, applied when there are minors involved. Extending this protection to the public in general doesn't seem too far fetched, as long as it's done in the proper way.
Besides, most arrests don't go reported in the newspaper.
There are whole sections in American newspapers, and whole blogs dedicated to showing publicly the mug shots -usually spiced with the police's version of the matter- and this seems to be part of a growing trend. It's like saying you are unlikely to end being tortured by the police. A democratic government MUST do it's best to not allow this to happen. Slightly OT: lots of posters here in /. and other blogs seem to suffer what, for a lack of a better name, we can call the "It will never happen to me" syndrome.
Being busted for drugs or DUI: "It will never happen to me"
Being left homeless: "It will never happen to me"
Being screwed/sent to an early painful death by your insurance company: "It will never happen to me"
Being wrongly accused and detained, and having your live totally smitten by this: "It will never happen to me"
Repeat this mantra until you are soundly sleep. FNORD
Microsoft is able to narc on you better if you are a Premium customer, so the more you pay them the more they compromise your privacy!
Yours is an extremely informative and insightful post post and explains -as requested by many previous posts- why MS doesn't want this doc to go public.
Well it is nice to know that the efficient border control also allows for refuges to starve instead of flee to another country when the infrastructure for food distribution but you keep on believing in the worst of people if you wish.
If these good Samaritans really want to help with that issue, all they have to do is to bring food and help distribute it, which in terms of money/effort makes much more sense. Taking the children away is more expensive than helping them on the spot.
The bit about "you keep on believing in the worst of people" really answers itself. It's not what I believe, but the fact that disasters like this several kinds of child abusers always appear, like sharks when there is blood in the water, and often represent themselves as members of NGOs. That alone is a good reason for keeping border control.
Mind your blinkers, and I'll mind mine. ;)
* IMPORTANT NOTE: I consider SICK and IMMORAL that school staff would rummage through the pictures contained in a student's laptop, hence the quotes in "accepted way".
... they somehow had the resources to maintain efficient border control to keep people from leaving the country. That kind of speaks to the priorities of many nations.
Perhaps one of their priorities is to prevent lone children from being kidnapped by child abusers, prostitution ringleaders and religious fanatics. If my country ever suffers anything remotely close to this disaster, I expect my government to keep an "efficient border control", for many good reasons.
And can you provide us with a reason for the District not mentioning any of those 'other routes' in their press statements?
Thought so. :)
Right, because real slavery never existed anywhere outside of China, especially not in the US. High safety standards and respect for human rights has always been paramount in the American Industrial Revolution right from the very beginning.
And of course we can say that without a doubt, a massive trade embargo will help the plight of the Chinese citizenry.
So, you are comparing the States from a century and a half ago with modern China? Somehow it doesn't seem fair. The same about safety standards. Following your reasoning, we couldn't be against cannibalism cos some of our ancestors were cannibals once.
And of course we can say that without a doubt, a massive trade embargo will help the plight of the Chinese citizenry.
I can say without a doubt that the present situation is not helping them at all, just giving their government big incentives for enslaving their people, and in the process destroying the economy and worker's rights in the western world
Oh, and spending 15 years of your life in a high security prison for 3 million dollars doesn't look like such a good idea.
...People go to the doctor every time they sneeze, because they don't see the costs covered by someone else...
Well, I read somewhere that doctors are aware of this issue, and have invented some thing called 'Triage' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage ) for -amongst other uses- filter out these cases. I live in a country with a NHS, and doctors here are quite apt at discovering these patients and sending them home with some placebo and a good advice or two, in less than ten minutes per patient.
Of course, errors happen sometimes, but It sure beats having people going to the doctor only when they fear for their lives.
...but i absolutely don't care about your health and i am sure you feel the same towards me. ...
Wrong, ohhh, so wrong.
I'd rather help you with your health, through taxes, than having you around with an undiagnosed and/or untreated case of Tuberculosis, AIDS, severe depression or Schizophrenia.
Also, your poor health could mean that your children would have less opportunities in life, and stand more chances of becoming criminals, creating huge costs for the rest of the society, including me. I don't think, either, that "Let the sins of the father fall over his children" is morally correct. Not in a million years.
Great! This leads to more competition and lower prices for the American consumers. What's the problem with that?
American consumers need MONEY even to purchase cheap clones at lower prices. The fact that western politicians and western companies are selling their souls -and ours- to the China government in exchange for some quick bucks is going to destroy our economies in the long term. And then, everybody will be working in the same conditions most Chinese workers have to endure today. No rights, no unions, no national health systems, no freedoms... . That's slavery for you. Welcome back to the middle ages, comrades. The WIPO and western countries should be trying to fix this situation, instead of pushing secret treaties to protect Hollywood from file sharers. Won't happen, though :( .
Clue: Subtle joke, deserves 'funny' moderation ;)
WARNING: There is a nice & healthy virus in the above link. Don't open unless your box is well protected. No, the computer's metal casing doesn't count as protection.
My sides are aching. Thanks!