Not worth the time. And oh, by the way. That evil American imperialist propaganda about the "commies" coming to get us and plotting in our midst? It was ALL TRUE. Don't believe me. The KGB archives say so. Look up "Mitrokhin."
I suggest you lay off the "truthout.org" and Chomsky, and pick up a book that doesn't have the villification of the United States as its aim.
Yes, they're so scarred that they're suffering from an outbreak of representative democracy and free markets. The pain must be surreal.
Really, Michael Moore is a Rush Limbaugh that can't be bothered to tell the truth. Even Democrats, except the True Believers, don't take him seriously.
In case you haven't looked up from the DNC FUD lately, the tax cuts affected the "rich" making more than $40,000 a year. That is, by any measure, the MIDDLE CLASS.
I hear a lot about how they do that. But I don't recall any times when that stopped us. We'll blow up the civilian structure and then point out that they were using it for a shield.
Nonsense. Target acquisition is gone over with a fine toothed comb by Air Force and Navy Judge Advocates, and they err on the side of caution. Most notoriously in Afghanistan, the DoD showed nosecam footage of that Talib AA battery parked next to a mosque, and how we didn't blow the shit out of it because so. Likewise JAGs nixed the CIA from putting a Hellfire up Mullah Omar's tailpipe because of Law of War questions about his legitimacy as a target. Took a nice picture of his Toyota's license plate for propaganda purposes though.
The US is meticulous in trying to do as little collatoral damage as possible. If you don't think so, you have no friends in the armed service, and certainly have never served yourself for sure.
US forces seem to target and attack way to many friendly forces
Compared to... what? Friendly fire accidents during the Iraq war were at training levels, and the US has one of the lowest rates in the world. Except the French, who never fire their weapons at all... I take that back. Never fire their weapons unless they're aimed at "former" colonials.:P
Yep, like the Serbs parking tanks between houses and mixing military convoys with refugees. Or the Taliban setting up AA guns next to mosques. Or Iraqis setting up military headquarters and fedeyeen bases in schools and hospitals. Our enemies learn from our "weaknesses."
However, as soon as the shooting started the "support the troops" meme kicked in, and approval skyrocketed. I suspect it's something to do with guilt, i.e. the naive notion that not supporting the war must equate to wishing our troops harm.
No. It has to do with the fundamental Jacksonian character of America.
Americans were obstinately isolationist until after WWII. We still are, given a percieved lack of threat - George Bush ran in 2000 on an isolationist platform: bring the boys home, let the world look after it's own ass, the Cold War is over. After being dragged into two World Wars and Soviet expansionism threatening to drag the world into a third, it became US policy to maintain a large standing army forward deployed in Eurasia to actively deter the Soviets and Chinese and to de-militarize European states (and specifically, Germany) by assuming the majority of Europe's defense burden.
America is the reluctant Superpower. We could have had tributary states like the Soviets after WWII, and ruled half the world. We didn't. We chose the Marshall Plan, and helped western Europe and Japan rebuild as liberal democracies. If the world was such a Pollyanna place some people think it to be, Americans would want their sons and daughters back home, permanently, and wish the world to come visit, but leave us alone behind our oceans.
Economics is not zero-sum. A large defense expenditure, like any other large government infrastructure project, acts like a tax increase on the sly - it pumps money into the economy which eventually comes back as increased tax revenues from a larger economy. More money for social programs. This is incredibly oversimplified, but it makes the point. The economy is not a fixed pie.
The same mentality applies to the hardware. The average person doesn't know diddley about what kind of modem is good, so they buy a $10 winmodem on bargain bin whitebox supersale. Then they complain that their ISP sucks because their modem keeps dropping the line or gets frazzled by flourescent lighting fixtures in the next room (yes, it happens).
Yep. They're overselling. You oversell your PRIs with the hope that not too many people will stay on not too long and and overuse your lines, getting busy signals. Bad business. The break-even cost for a 56k service is about $5 per customer, without marketing costs. It takes about $25 in marketing per customer (that's what "setup fees" are - recouping marketing costs). These "sub-$10" ISPs are sharks.
Actually, EV1 doesn't have a proprietary dialer. The "setup CD" we send out to new customers runs a script that configures regular ole Windows dialup networking, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer. It's basically for the non-technical folks out there.
EV1 doesn't provide technical support for Linux, but it's plain PPP with PAP authentication and POP3 mail. IMAP works too. Just don't forget to put "noauth" in those PPP configs!;)
EV1, for the record, smashed the price point for dialup service, in Texas at least. First full service $10/month-no prepay-permanent rate-no contract ISP. Everyone else was $15 or $20+ a month, yearly prepaid, with contract back in 98.
And EV1 is the parent company for Rackshack.net, largest value market dedicated server hosting provider in the country. Over 10,000 servers at our own datacenter in north Houston.
Thanks for using all your mod points on me before posting as AC. Or maybe the name just fits.
Guess you didn't read the articles I linked. It's easier to live in ignorance I suppose. UN population studies. Europe is set for the trash can, pup. Suck it up, maybe Europe will get over its racist xenophobia and let the brown people move into the EU zone in sufficient numbers to prop up your nanny state pensions.
In the meantime, the United States is slated for 500 million by 2050. That will be twice the population of Europe by then. Maybe you can get a job over here. You'll have to rub elbows with the brown folks though. Probably will have a Hispanic or black man as your boss, which I hope won't offend your European ubermensch cultural sensitivities TOO badly.
You got the troll too eh? Doesn't matter that I posted links to articles that quote UN population studies. State the facts and you get the Troll. That's Slashdot for you.
Hahaha, we have freedom still in 66.7% of EU!! How's that for freedom!
And how do you know you still have freedom in 66.7% of the EU? The little man behind the camera on the streetcorner told you so? Or the unelected Eurocrat in Brussels?:P~~~~~~~
Because Europe is a huge continent in huge decline that won't be very important at all in 50 years.
Demographics, my friend. Demographics. Europe is shrinking, and it won't count for much for much longer. Except a great retirement home or jobs program for North Africans.
The small business profit is taxed ONCE - on the proprietor's personal income tax forms. Sole proprietorships (and LLCs and S corps) and partnerships (including LLPs) tax business profit on the 1040s.
It is only incorporated business shareholders that get double taxed on profit. Chum.
Corporate profit is shareholder profit. Company pays tax on profit. Then shareholder pays dividend tax, on his profit which was already been taxed. That's like paying federal income tax, and then having to pay federal income tax AGAIN on the money you just paid tax on.
Slashdot Mirror
Because artists and social workers are economic dead ends, that's why.
Derek
Ahh, a True Believer. Probably a Chomsky fan.
Not worth the time. And oh, by the way. That evil American imperialist propaganda about the "commies" coming to get us and plotting in our midst? It was ALL TRUE. Don't believe me. The KGB archives say so. Look up "Mitrokhin."
I suggest you lay off the "truthout.org" and Chomsky, and pick up a book that doesn't have the villification of the United States as its aim.
Derek
Yes, they're so scarred that they're suffering from an outbreak of representative democracy and free markets. The pain must be surreal.
Really, Michael Moore is a Rush Limbaugh that can't be bothered to tell the truth. Even Democrats, except the True Believers, don't take him seriously.
Derek
In case you haven't looked up from the DNC FUD lately, the tax cuts affected the "rich" making more than $40,000 a year. That is, by any measure, the MIDDLE CLASS.
Derek
I hear a lot about how they do that. But I don't recall any times when that stopped us. We'll blow up the civilian structure and then point out that they were using it for a shield.
Nonsense. Target acquisition is gone over with a fine toothed comb by Air Force and Navy Judge Advocates, and they err on the side of caution. Most notoriously in Afghanistan, the DoD showed nosecam footage of that Talib AA battery parked next to a mosque, and how we didn't blow the shit out of it because so. Likewise JAGs nixed the CIA from putting a Hellfire up Mullah Omar's tailpipe because of Law of War questions about his legitimacy as a target. Took a nice picture of his Toyota's license plate for propaganda purposes though.
The US is meticulous in trying to do as little collatoral damage as possible. If you don't think so, you have no friends in the armed service, and certainly have never served yourself for sure.
Derek
US forces seem to target and attack way to many friendly forces
:P
Compared to... what? Friendly fire accidents during the Iraq war were at training levels, and the US has one of the lowest rates in the world. Except the French, who never fire their weapons at all... I take that back. Never fire their weapons unless they're aimed at "former" colonials.
Derek
Yep, like the Serbs parking tanks between houses and mixing military convoys with refugees. Or the Taliban setting up AA guns next to mosques. Or Iraqis setting up military headquarters and fedeyeen bases in schools and hospitals. Our enemies learn from our "weaknesses."
Derek
However, as soon as the shooting started the "support the troops" meme kicked in, and approval skyrocketed. I suspect it's something to do with guilt, i.e. the naive notion that not supporting the war must equate to wishing our troops harm.
No. It has to do with the fundamental Jacksonian character of America.
http://denbeste.nu/external/Mead01.html
Derek
This is Slashdot, you're wasting your breath.
Americans were obstinately isolationist until after WWII. We still are, given a percieved lack of threat - George Bush ran in 2000 on an isolationist platform: bring the boys home, let the world look after it's own ass, the Cold War is over. After being dragged into two World Wars and Soviet expansionism threatening to drag the world into a third, it became US policy to maintain a large standing army forward deployed in Eurasia to actively deter the Soviets and Chinese and to de-militarize European states (and specifically, Germany) by assuming the majority of Europe's defense burden.
America is the reluctant Superpower. We could have had tributary states like the Soviets after WWII, and ruled half the world. We didn't. We chose the Marshall Plan, and helped western Europe and Japan rebuild as liberal democracies. If the world was such a Pollyanna place some people think it to be, Americans would want their sons and daughters back home, permanently, and wish the world to come visit, but leave us alone behind our oceans.
Derek
Because it takes fewer words to say the same thing? Efficiency in language?
Derek
Economics is not zero-sum. A large defense expenditure, like any other large government infrastructure project, acts like a tax increase on the sly - it pumps money into the economy which eventually comes back as increased tax revenues from a larger economy. More money for social programs. This is incredibly oversimplified, but it makes the point. The economy is not a fixed pie.
Derek
I wish I had some mod points. Very good explanation...
Derek
Just because you're on the bottom of the pay scale doesn't mean everyone is. Duh!
Derek
Yes, but you only get paid for 8 hours/day, so as far as the company is concerned, that'll all you contribute.
:)
Guy never heard of salary, obviously. Duh!
Derek
The same mentality applies to the hardware. The average person doesn't know diddley about what kind of modem is good, so they buy a $10 winmodem on bargain bin whitebox supersale. Then they complain that their ISP sucks because their modem keeps dropping the line or gets frazzled by flourescent lighting fixtures in the next room (yes, it happens).
Derek
Yep. They're overselling. You oversell your PRIs with the hope that not too many people will stay on not too long and and overuse your lines, getting busy signals. Bad business. The break-even cost for a 56k service is about $5 per customer, without marketing costs. It takes about $25 in marketing per customer (that's what "setup fees" are - recouping marketing costs). These "sub-$10" ISPs are sharks.
Derek
Actually, EV1 doesn't have a proprietary dialer. The "setup CD" we send out to new customers runs a script that configures regular ole Windows dialup networking, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer. It's basically for the non-technical folks out there.
;)
;)
EV1 doesn't provide technical support for Linux, but it's plain PPP with PAP authentication and POP3 mail. IMAP works too. Just don't forget to put "noauth" in those PPP configs!
EV1, for the record, smashed the price point for dialup service, in Texas at least. First full service $10/month-no prepay-permanent rate-no contract ISP. Everyone else was $15 or $20+ a month, yearly prepaid, with contract back in 98.
And EV1 is the parent company for Rackshack.net, largest value market dedicated server hosting provider in the country. Over 10,000 servers at our own datacenter in north Houston.
www.ev1.net
www.rackshack.net
Se habla Espanol!
Derek@shamelessemployeeofEV1.net
Thanks for using all your mod points on me before posting as AC. Or maybe the name just fits.
Guess you didn't read the articles I linked. It's easier to live in ignorance I suppose. UN population studies. Europe is set for the trash can, pup. Suck it up, maybe Europe will get over its racist xenophobia and let the brown people move into the EU zone in sufficient numbers to prop up your nanny state pensions.
In the meantime, the United States is slated for 500 million by 2050. That will be twice the population of Europe by then. Maybe you can get a job over here. You'll have to rub elbows with the brown folks though. Probably will have a Hispanic or black man as your boss, which I hope won't offend your European ubermensch cultural sensitivities TOO badly.
Derek
You got the troll too eh? Doesn't matter that I posted links to articles that quote UN population studies. State the facts and you get the Troll. That's Slashdot for you.
Derek
Hahaha, we have freedom still in 66.7% of EU!! How's that for freedom!
And how do you know you still have freedom in 66.7% of the EU? The little man behind the camera on the streetcorner told you so? Or the unelected Eurocrat in Brussels?
Derek
Because Europe is a huge continent in huge decline that won't be very important at all in 50 years.
/ web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/nohuman s.html
Demographics, my friend. Demographics. Europe is shrinking, and it won't count for much for much longer. Except a great retirement home or jobs program for North Africans.
http://www.iht.com/articles/101129.html
http:/
Derek
Never heard the phrase "good enough for government work"?
Nuff said.
Derek
The small business profit is taxed ONCE - on the proprietor's personal income tax forms. Sole proprietorships (and LLCs and S corps) and partnerships (including LLPs) tax business profit on the 1040s.
It is only incorporated business shareholders that get double taxed on profit. Chum.
Derek
Uhhh... not very firm on economics, are you?
Corporate profit is shareholder profit. Company pays tax on profit. Then shareholder pays dividend tax, on his profit which was already been taxed. That's like paying federal income tax, and then having to pay federal income tax AGAIN on the money you just paid tax on.
Capiche?
Derek
Didn't GWB eliminate taxes on dividends? That'd be pure cash for the Gatester, right?
No. GWB eliminated DOUBLE taxation on dividends. The company already paid taxes on that money.
Derek