...and then so, no one is forced to do anything. Why would RMS, or anyone else, bellyache, when you are not forced to use Linux, or some other software you don't agree with? Why whine about it, why not just go write an ideologically correct clone?
Well, people might call Richard "utopian" but his practical effect on the world has been so huge (look at all of that software and where it is) that it's really difficult to make the "utopian" label stand.
I wonder if this is true. I'm not convinced one way or another, but just a thought...
You cannot lump together all of the work of one man. I don't think anyone doubts the impact that RMS has had on the software world, but how much of it is from Direct Action (creating code, managing coders) and how much is it from Talking (license advocacy, polemics)? I can't help but see a parallel between the more libertarian/anarchist socialist groups and their Leninist ideological competitors. It could be said, quite easily, that the IWW, a group which traditionally Acts rather than Talks has done more to improve the working conditions of your average person than the various Leninist groups which prefer to just Talk?
But that's just it- you are, indeed, sometimes forced to use the GPL, when you use a library licensed under it (rather than the LGPL). You might not have modified that library, but if you linked against it, by the GPL, your own code must itself be released under the GPL.
Re:I'll bookmark this review
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Heh, it's funny you should say that. I find myself in a similar position- I never really was into PC games when I was a kid, just stuck with the NES and Genesis, and even then I was never much of a gamer. In my old age, I've taken a shine to gaming, and have sought out many of the old DOS classics, and I often wonder when I'll be getting to some of the cool new games for the various consoles. I've not finished the re-done Ur-quan Masters, let alone X-COM, Master of Orion, and a dozen or two other definitive 'best game ever's.
It has a reset button, like every other PDA I've ever owned. Presumably they've all had a reset button because a lot of Palm OS and pre-WM5 devices were crappy enough to lose all your data when you took out the battery. NICE!
Conservatism- small government vs Conservatism- clinging to yesterdays values.
The first always succeeds in the short term but people slowly grow government and lock in "noble"/upper class/rich privileges until it finally fails.
Well, that's just it- class interests and moral crusades trump the idealism of small government. Small government as a conservative goal is based in that looking-backward vision, to a time when the government was smaller. This rallying cry is held even when it doesn't make sense, though these days it isn't ever implemented. Unless "smaller government" means "bigger military." I guess if we just had a military dictatorship the civilian government could be pretty small. Someone should run that by Cheney.
We need a cap on spending, and a cap on the number of years any law can run.
Couldn't agree more. Wouldn't mind shrinking government a bit, but I think a fair bit could be done without loss of services, which is counter to the way both parties think.
I'm interested in practical applications mainly, and I can point to many successful applications of socialism, but it's hard to find good examples for communism. I'm always happy to be proved wrong, but I remain very sympathetic to socialism, and not so much to communism.
Well, then first there has to be some clarification. Not to play semantic musical chairs, but simply because most folks don't have the right information.
1. "Socialist" is what the USSR claimed and China, etc claim to be. Specifically they claim to follow "Marxism-Leninism." In my reading of Trotsky, I think they are pretty close, that it wasn't Stalin that "wrecked it" (what kind of shitty political/economic system is that?), but was set up for failure from the beginning. Today's China is essentially an capitalist political tyranny, though they do have some state owned enterprises. So, at this point you have to decide: their definition of socialism, or Marx's?
2. The same thing has been done to the word "democracy"
3. What do you mean by socialism? Norway and the like? Those countries are social democracies. They've done pretty good with that, higher standards of living than in the US at least. But a socialist is generally of the mind that those social democracies could do a lot better, with the economy being directly democratically (not privately, be it by a board or an individual) directed and owned by the people. Not by corporations, not by the State. Social democracies are generally just welfarist, nothing more. Socialism, in the broad sense, is *nothing* but the idea that the society should own the means of production, not individuals. This holds true for Marxism, anarchism, and all sorts of other isms, even though they clash on a million other things. The social democracies do not fulfill this basic requirement and as such are not "socialist." I personally think that a technology-driven social democracy is somewhere on the way to socialism, which is in line with Marxian thought (though not Leninist ideology). That said, there will still be a point, when the technology is available, that the people will need to rise up and take the reigns. It might be easy, it might be hard.
4. In my opinion, the only way real socialism will be enabled is through nanotech/molecular assembly and the kind of communications network the Internet will grow into. It's the only way to organize the kind of direct democratic control socialism requires. True (ala me) Marxian socialism was no obtainable in 1917, in 1949, nor in 2007. It might be in 20-100 years, though.
5. A State is defined by an organization that has a monopoly on the right to use force.
6. "Communism" is simply that stage of "socialism" when the state isn't needed anymore. That doesn't mean that a lot of the functions of a government, as in the US for instance, wouldn't be needed. Instead there would be democratic organizations and in some cases elected committees/bodies taking care of things. The only real difference between a bunch of bodies doing what the people want and a socialist "state" is that the State (like in a republic like the US) has a monopoly on force, presumably to surpress enemies of the state, people and new system.
7. Perhaps a State is inherently corrupt and self-interested. I don't know the answer to this. Anarchists differ from Marxists in that they assert this. They call for immediate communism- a voluntary society without enforcement at the beginning. The Marxists say "um, but what about when the capitalists try to counter-revolt?" I could take this a lot further, but I'll leave that to you to think about. I personally lie in between- I consider myself a pragmatist, and as such see the need for counter-revolutionary supression, but see that any organ tasked with thus is by the rules of human organization will soon become more interested in self-preservation than anything else and as such cannot itself allowed to survive and dominate. So, I'm a Marxist? Perhaps my concept of a socialist "state" is that it isn't a state, but some body given extraordinary power to organize people into new bodies, rather than move them to act itself. But by the definition of state, that isn't a state- so I'm an anarchist? Labels don't concern me.
You mean like alcohol, saturated fats, or tobacco?
Dunno man, don't knock the alcohol. It may be one of the most important things huamnity ever loved. Can't find it now, but I remember an article in Sci Am or the like about how alcohol could have been what kept us from poisoning ourselves throughout a lot of 'civilized' history. Alcohol use goes about as far back as humanity does, but we hadn't always dependend on it to survive as we might have during this (long) period.
I agree with what you said about the food, but there's a dialectic to this- you can't honestly advocate for dirtier, more processed food, can you? Just because it's cheaper for some company? I realize that organic pretentiousness isn't the solution, but rather there is a middle ground to be found.
There's a lot of talk about GMO crops "feeding the world," but all the corn, rice, etc in the world, GMO or not, doesn't feed the world. The problem of feeding the world is social and economic.
Considering how slow the cop rolled up, what's your explanation why he didn't just drive up after he saw the explosion from a block or so back from the booths, parked where cops often are at booth areas?
Conservatism is a failed ideology which has joined communism in the trash heap of history.
Well conservatism (even radical conservatism) has always been a failed ideology. Throughout history it has been nothing but a looking backward; to tribalism, feudalism, monarchy, and various individual systems and ways of thought and doing things. Progress always wins out, for better or for worse.
"Communism" should be corrected to "Leninism." Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, and their ilk have beat this dead horse for a century, but there are many other aspirant ideologies which either self-ident or could be called "communism" that either have been tried or have been tried in some way and done OK (Spanish Civil War, say).
Remember there is no "right" to drive a car. It is a privilege granted by the state you live in, you need a license to drive a car.
Remember there is no "right" to life (unless you're a fetus). It is a privilege granted to you by the economic system you live in.
And unfortunately, for most folks (especially lower-income folks) that economic system requires driving. I don't doubt this guy could've found some job he could've walked to or biked to and made a lot less money at it. I don't know how NJ is laid out, but I don't think you'd be riding your bike along the highway to get to a job that paid more than $8/hr.
You're lucky you can ride your bike to work, work that presumably pays decently. I work at home, and am also lucky. But I can see people making these sorts of stupid judgement calls when their livlihood is at stake, or percieved to be so.
And because he is not trying to ban beer, lotto tickets, and guns....and thank GOD! After all, JT is just "thinking of the children," as well as being a crusader against the moral decline of the Great White US! Not only is he a godly man, he's an intelligent one- he knows that things like alcohol and guns have absolutely nothing to do with violence!
How do you go about making a plastic case? I've made DIY laptop-type case things out of wood and cardboard, housing a PDA and a PDA keyboard in the laptop form factor and I'd love to find out about some better materials for the actual casing. How could I make a plastic case for one of my little beasties? I know that Ben Heckeldorn (sp) pulls it off, but he seems to have some serious skills in this area as well as access to very specific materials and machinery needed for such work. How can I do this without investing a ton of money?
While we're on the general topic, I don't suppose you know how I can hook up a laptop keyboard to something, do you? Thanks!
You serious about selling those old laptops? I'm interested in one... please email me at a&&reich&ow&at&gmail dot com, removing all instances of the ampersand. Thanks!
Re:I thought it was rather good.
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Yeah, no joke! Why do anything "fun" if someone else has done it before? I mean, I'm sure someone else has put videos of such "fun" activities like sex, hiking and even LARPing up for free on the web somewhere. Why waste your time reinventing the fun-wheel when you could just sit back, relax, and experience the "fun" for a lot less work and time?
It's sort of sad that we need a government decree to get people to talk about things in a fair, balanced manner, but unfortunately, people are only humans, and humans, as a group, simply cannot be trusted.
Yeah, humans, they just can't be trusted. After all, the media, like the economy and political sphere, is democratically controlled, and any problems with it are the fault of the masses of people. Things aren't like they are in the fevered mind of some conspiracy theorist, where the media is controlled by a relatively small group of very rich and very powerful people who have interests quite outside those that most of us have, and are sustained in their power and control by the laws and property relations of our great nation.
Nope, we just fuck it up. I want to force my neighbor to listen to my views, so they end up on TV each night. Oh well!
Got that? He wants the Governtment "to monitor and alter the content of radio and television programs.". Remember, this is the same govt that will at any given time be led by the political party you are against. Do you want republicans to have this power to alter radio and tv science content? Do you want democrats to have this power to alter radio and tv economic content?
Heavens no!
I want Republicans to have the power to control media content. Since god is on their side, it just makes sense!
Until recently, I worked for a University Library. We had two apps that required the MS Java VM. One wouldn't work with anything but the MS VM, one did but was extremely unstable. Both apps are maintained, sold and supported and cost enough where you think they could live past the year 1998.
One of these apps is a library cataloging/integration package called Aleph by a company calld Ex Libris. Libraries- stay away from this, it's shit, and so is their support. The latter was determined through what my boss said to me, meaning I had to implement the stuff they had no clue about, but should have. This was something the state of MN has paid a whopping 4.3 million dollars for. It blows the mind- I'm in the wrong business.
Oh, just FYI: you can get the MS Java VM from Docutek's website, which is one of the apps we had that required the MS VM. Mind you, the MS VM is required for each remote user as well, and since most college kids who want to use our virtual reference service have the Sun VM installed already, it has resulted is nothing but crashes. Go Docutek!
So yeah, maybe 1997 called for their rant, but here in 2006 it isn't any better. At least it was easy to find the MS VM in 1997.
Hi! This is in response to your sig, not your post about how all Muslims are bloodthirsty freedom-haters... For posterity, the first line of your.sig:
The 2nd protects the 1st.
This is something I've never understood. I mean, I understand it in in a theoretical sense- the armed citizenry protects itself from the tyranny of the state, keeps it in checks. Guarantees the 1st, and other, ammendments. But what never made sense to me is how this would play out in real life. How does a citizenry armed with various sorts of guns defeat a regular army with the weapons that they have? I imagine to some extent you could point to Iraq as the answer- the insurgency isn't doing all that poorly against the US Military. But I think they'd be a little more brutal against us, especially if the armed citizenry instigated the civil war. How do rifles best nuke-tipped guided missles in the war to protect the 1st?
Just curious- I'd appreciate a reply if you're up to it.
Karl Marx and his 'desciple Marxists' (Mao, Lenin, etc.) both did and suggested a lot of vile things in the name of the ideal, but you don't see us, as a society, blasting the snot out of Marxism and suggesting it's a vile belief system - no, we're progressive as a society, and we've largely accepted the ideals of Marx throughout the West. Same basic thing.
Huh? Are you, or have you ever been a Marxist? Even non-Leninist Marxism- which by extension covers Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Tito, and (original) ideology of every so-called 'communist state' that has existed at one time or another on this planet- is indeed written off as a "vile belief system." Most folks in the West, politicos and proles, think that Marxism = authoritarian Marxism-Leninism. I would personally argue that it does not, but I am not most of Western society. I ask if you are or have been a Marxist, because if you are or had been, you might know what happen when you tell people that- what they say and the expressions on their face.
Lenin, and his disciples Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, etc all rallied for basically what you saw in the USSR, China, etc. It's what they wrote down and said "this is what we need to do." It isn't what Marx wrote down, and they interpreted as their Bible. But, Western society in general equates what they did with what Marx said, without ever reading any of it. Furthermore, if you told them what Marx said, they would just say that a bloody end ala Stalin is precisely where Marx ends up, because of his "idealistic" ideas. That's wrong on so many levels, but it's not like you could rationally explain this to your average Westerner- they've been taught lifelong that Marxism is an impossible, idealistic dream that ends in Papa Stalin mudering whoever gives him a shifty look.
Where have we accepted the ideals of Karl Marx? If Karl Marx had called for the social democracy as seen in Europe- which is still very much so capitalist- then yeah, I'd agree with your statement. But Karl Marx stood for neither european social democracy nor authoritarian state capitalism.
You're spending time replying to some schmuck, staring at a computer screen, most likely inside just like the rest of us. Get off your high horse. If you don't have any ideas for the original poster about what games to play, move on and quit being a dick.
Ha- I could've written what you wrote verbatim! My wife, our friend and I all shed some tears while watching "Sleeping in Light," I've never been able to get either of them to watch the episode over again with the commentary. No dis against anyone who regularily cries at movies or because of television show, but I'm the kind of person who just doesn't do that. Ever. But I did it when watching "Sleeping in Light"...
As one of the geeks who had been therre 24 hours before release, I can say similarily, I laughed at the shmucks who rolled in around 10:30-11:00 PM for a midnight release, expecting that they'd have no problem getting a Wii. The lamest was this really rich-looking kid, 16-18 years old, who showed up at 11 PM with his mom and sister, and they were all dressed up. The kid was wearing a suit and a greatcoat. His mom tried to explain to a few folks in the line how important it was that he got a Wii, how much he was looking forward to it, that it would mean a lot for the person to let him take their place. I don't think any money was offered- she seemed to think that one of us low-born would happily give up our spot to the local feudal lord before us.
It's sort of like an old fashioned USSR/USA arms race. We weren't planning on staying overnight, but we had stopped by around 11 PM to see if there was a line and talk to the electronics guy to see what they thought. But, there were two people lined up already, in their cars and asleep. So, we said 'what the hell' and grabbed our stuff and showed up. By the time we got there at 12:30 AM, my wife and I were numbers 8 and 9 in line, out of 20 total Wiis. The smallest wait was 14 hours.
Make fun of us all you want, but I can say that I had a great time. I came out of those 24 hours with a lot more stories than I'd usually would on any given Saturday. We were at a Walmart, not somewhere I usually ever shop. It was pretty wild. Met some cool people as well as some weird people.
Mind you, this was in northern Minnesota- and it was colder than a witches tit, as the kids say. We had a great time. I don't think I'd ever do it again, having experienced it though!
It took a fair while to warm up, and it was arc heavy so it doesn't look good unless you stick with it for a while. Its worth the effort though./i.
I second that, and my wife thirds it. A friend of mine got me into B5, but my wife thought it looked like a bad sci-fi show with crappy acting and crappier sets. Some nights when we were watching B5, she sat there while we watched it, on her computer. Somewhere in Season 2, she stopped making fun of it. A few episodes later, she was sucked in and was the one asking me if we were going to watch B5 that night. It can take a while, but it is totally worth it. By season 3 you will most certainly thank me. Not to say that it takes that long before it's watchable, but that's when the pay-off starts to return.
Slashdot Mirror
...and then so, no one is forced to do anything. Why would RMS, or anyone else, bellyache, when you are not forced to use Linux, or some other software you don't agree with? Why whine about it, why not just go write an ideologically correct clone?
Well, people might call Richard "utopian" but his practical effect on the world has been so huge (look at all of that software and where it is) that it's really difficult to make the "utopian" label stand.
I wonder if this is true. I'm not convinced one way or another, but just a thought...
You cannot lump together all of the work of one man. I don't think anyone doubts the impact that RMS has had on the software world, but how much of it is from Direct Action (creating code, managing coders) and how much is it from Talking (license advocacy, polemics)? I can't help but see a parallel between the more libertarian/anarchist socialist groups and their Leninist ideological competitors. It could be said, quite easily, that the IWW, a group which traditionally Acts rather than Talks has done more to improve the working conditions of your average person than the various Leninist groups which prefer to just Talk?
But that's just it- you are, indeed, sometimes forced to use the GPL, when you use a library licensed under it (rather than the LGPL). You might not have modified that library, but if you linked against it, by the GPL, your own code must itself be released under the GPL.
Heh, it's funny you should say that. I find myself in a similar position- I never really was into PC games when I was a kid, just stuck with the NES and Genesis, and even then I was never much of a gamer. In my old age, I've taken a shine to gaming, and have sought out many of the old DOS classics, and I often wonder when I'll be getting to some of the cool new games for the various consoles. I've not finished the re-done Ur-quan Masters, let alone X-COM, Master of Orion, and a dozen or two other definitive 'best game ever's.
It has a reset button, like every other PDA I've ever owned. Presumably they've all had a reset button because a lot of Palm OS and pre-WM5 devices were crappy enough to lose all your data when you took out the battery. NICE!
Conservatism- small government vs Conservatism- clinging to yesterdays values.
The first always succeeds in the short term but people slowly grow government and lock in "noble"/upper class/rich privileges until it finally fails.
Well, that's just it- class interests and moral crusades trump the idealism of small government. Small government as a conservative goal is based in that looking-backward vision, to a time when the government was smaller. This rallying cry is held even when it doesn't make sense, though these days it isn't ever implemented. Unless "smaller government" means "bigger military." I guess if we just had a military dictatorship the civilian government could be pretty small. Someone should run that by Cheney.
We need a cap on spending, and a cap on the number of years any law can run.
Couldn't agree more. Wouldn't mind shrinking government a bit, but I think a fair bit could be done without loss of services, which is counter to the way both parties think.
I'm interested in practical applications mainly, and I can point to many successful applications of socialism, but it's hard to find good examples for communism. I'm always happy to be proved wrong, but I remain very sympathetic to socialism, and not so much to communism.
Well, then first there has to be some clarification. Not to play semantic musical chairs, but simply because most folks don't have the right information.
1. "Socialist" is what the USSR claimed and China, etc claim to be. Specifically they claim to follow "Marxism-Leninism." In my reading of Trotsky, I think they are pretty close, that it wasn't Stalin that "wrecked it" (what kind of shitty political/economic system is that?), but was set up for failure from the beginning. Today's China is essentially an capitalist political tyranny, though they do have some state owned enterprises. So, at this point you have to decide: their definition of socialism, or Marx's?
2. The same thing has been done to the word "democracy"
3. What do you mean by socialism? Norway and the like? Those countries are social democracies. They've done pretty good with that, higher standards of living than in the US at least. But a socialist is generally of the mind that those social democracies could do a lot better, with the economy being directly democratically (not privately, be it by a board or an individual) directed and owned by the people. Not by corporations, not by the State. Social democracies are generally just welfarist, nothing more. Socialism, in the broad sense, is *nothing* but the idea that the society should own the means of production, not individuals. This holds true for Marxism, anarchism, and all sorts of other isms, even though they clash on a million other things. The social democracies do not fulfill this basic requirement and as such are not "socialist." I personally think that a technology-driven social democracy is somewhere on the way to socialism, which is in line with Marxian thought (though not Leninist ideology). That said, there will still be a point, when the technology is available, that the people will need to rise up and take the reigns. It might be easy, it might be hard.
4. In my opinion, the only way real socialism will be enabled is through nanotech/molecular assembly and the kind of communications network the Internet will grow into. It's the only way to organize the kind of direct democratic control socialism requires. True (ala me) Marxian socialism was no obtainable in 1917, in 1949, nor in 2007. It might be in 20-100 years, though.
5. A State is defined by an organization that has a monopoly on the right to use force.
6. "Communism" is simply that stage of "socialism" when the state isn't needed anymore. That doesn't mean that a lot of the functions of a government, as in the US for instance, wouldn't be needed. Instead there would be democratic organizations and in some cases elected committees/bodies taking care of things. The only real difference between a bunch of bodies doing what the people want and a socialist "state" is that the State (like in a republic like the US) has a monopoly on force, presumably to surpress enemies of the state, people and new system.
7. Perhaps a State is inherently corrupt and self-interested. I don't know the answer to this. Anarchists differ from Marxists in that they assert this. They call for immediate communism- a voluntary society without enforcement at the beginning. The Marxists say "um, but what about when the capitalists try to counter-revolt?" I could take this a lot further, but I'll leave that to you to think about. I personally lie in between- I consider myself a pragmatist, and as such see the need for counter-revolutionary supression, but see that any organ tasked with thus is by the rules of human organization will soon become more interested in self-preservation than anything else and as such cannot itself allowed to survive and dominate. So, I'm a Marxist? Perhaps my concept of a socialist "state" is that it isn't a state, but some body given extraordinary power to organize people into new bodies, rather than move them to act itself. But by the definition of state, that isn't a state- so I'm an anarchist? Labels don't concern me.
ok I'm going back to bed!
You mean like alcohol, saturated fats, or tobacco?
Dunno man, don't knock the alcohol. It may be one of the most important things huamnity ever loved. Can't find it now, but I remember an article in Sci Am or the like about how alcohol could have been what kept us from poisoning ourselves throughout a lot of 'civilized' history. Alcohol use goes about as far back as humanity does, but we hadn't always dependend on it to survive as we might have during this (long) period.
I agree with what you said about the food, but there's a dialectic to this- you can't honestly advocate for dirtier, more processed food, can you? Just because it's cheaper for some company? I realize that organic pretentiousness isn't the solution, but rather there is a middle ground to be found.
There's a lot of talk about GMO crops "feeding the world," but all the corn, rice, etc in the world, GMO or not, doesn't feed the world. The problem of feeding the world is social and economic.
Considering how slow the cop rolled up, what's your explanation why he didn't just drive up after he saw the explosion from a block or so back from the booths, parked where cops often are at booth areas?
Note on your .sig:
Conservatism is a failed ideology which has joined communism in the trash heap of history.
Well conservatism (even radical conservatism) has always been a failed ideology. Throughout history it has been nothing but a looking backward; to tribalism, feudalism, monarchy, and various individual systems and ways of thought and doing things. Progress always wins out, for better or for worse.
"Communism" should be corrected to "Leninism." Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, and their ilk have beat this dead horse for a century, but there are many other aspirant ideologies which either self-ident or could be called "communism" that either have been tried or have been tried in some way and done OK (Spanish Civil War, say).
Remember there is no "right" to drive a car. It is a privilege granted by the state you live in, you need a license to drive a car.
Remember there is no "right" to life (unless you're a fetus). It is a privilege granted to you by the economic system you live in.
And unfortunately, for most folks (especially lower-income folks) that economic system requires driving. I don't doubt this guy could've found some job he could've walked to or biked to and made a lot less money at it. I don't know how NJ is laid out, but I don't think you'd be riding your bike along the highway to get to a job that paid more than $8/hr.
You're lucky you can ride your bike to work, work that presumably pays decently. I work at home, and am also lucky. But I can see people making these sorts of stupid judgement calls when their livlihood is at stake, or percieved to be so.
And because he is not trying to ban beer, lotto tickets, and guns. ...and thank GOD! After all, JT is just "thinking of the children," as well as being a crusader against the moral decline of the Great White US! Not only is he a godly man, he's an intelligent one- he knows that things like alcohol and guns have absolutely nothing to do with violence!
How do you go about making a plastic case? I've made DIY laptop-type case things out of wood and cardboard, housing a PDA and a PDA keyboard in the laptop form factor and I'd love to find out about some better materials for the actual casing. How could I make a plastic case for one of my little beasties? I know that Ben Heckeldorn (sp) pulls it off, but he seems to have some serious skills in this area as well as access to very specific materials and machinery needed for such work. How can I do this without investing a ton of money?
While we're on the general topic, I don't suppose you know how I can hook up a laptop keyboard to something, do you? Thanks!
You serious about selling those old laptops? I'm interested in one... please email me at a&&reich&ow&at&gmail dot com, removing all instances of the ampersand. Thanks!
Yeah, no joke! Why do anything "fun" if someone else has done it before? I mean, I'm sure someone else has put videos of such "fun" activities like sex, hiking and even LARPing up for free on the web somewhere. Why waste your time reinventing the fun-wheel when you could just sit back, relax, and experience the "fun" for a lot less work and time?
It's sort of sad that we need a government decree to get people to talk about things in a fair, balanced manner, but unfortunately, people are only humans, and humans, as a group, simply cannot be trusted.
Yeah, humans, they just can't be trusted. After all, the media, like the economy and political sphere, is democratically controlled, and any problems with it are the fault of the masses of people. Things aren't like they are in the fevered mind of some conspiracy theorist, where the media is controlled by a relatively small group of very rich and very powerful people who have interests quite outside those that most of us have, and are sustained in their power and control by the laws and property relations of our great nation.
Nope, we just fuck it up. I want to force my neighbor to listen to my views, so they end up on TV each night. Oh well!
Got that? He wants the Governtment "to monitor and alter the content of radio and television programs.". Remember, this is the same govt that will at any given time be led by the political party you are against. Do you want republicans to have this power to alter radio and tv science content? Do you want democrats to have this power to alter radio and tv economic content?
Heavens no!
I want Republicans to have the power to control media content. Since god is on their side, it just makes sense!
Until recently, I worked for a University Library. We had two apps that required the MS Java VM. One wouldn't work with anything but the MS VM, one did but was extremely unstable. Both apps are maintained, sold and supported and cost enough where you think they could live past the year 1998.
One of these apps is a library cataloging/integration package called Aleph by a company calld Ex Libris. Libraries- stay away from this, it's shit, and so is their support. The latter was determined through what my boss said to me, meaning I had to implement the stuff they had no clue about, but should have. This was something the state of MN has paid a whopping 4.3 million dollars for. It blows the mind- I'm in the wrong business.
Oh, just FYI: you can get the MS Java VM from Docutek's website, which is one of the apps we had that required the MS VM. Mind you, the MS VM is required for each remote user as well, and since most college kids who want to use our virtual reference service have the Sun VM installed already, it has resulted is nothing but crashes. Go Docutek!
So yeah, maybe 1997 called for their rant, but here in 2006 it isn't any better. At least it was easy to find the MS VM in 1997.
Hi! This is in response to your sig, not your post about how all Muslims are bloodthirsty freedom-haters... For posterity, the first line of your .sig:
The 2nd protects the 1st.
This is something I've never understood. I mean, I understand it in in a theoretical sense- the armed citizenry protects itself from the tyranny of the state, keeps it in checks. Guarantees the 1st, and other, ammendments. But what never made sense to me is how this would play out in real life. How does a citizenry armed with various sorts of guns defeat a regular army with the weapons that they have? I imagine to some extent you could point to Iraq as the answer- the insurgency isn't doing all that poorly against the US Military. But I think they'd be a little more brutal against us, especially if the armed citizenry instigated the civil war. How do rifles best nuke-tipped guided missles in the war to protect the 1st?
Just curious- I'd appreciate a reply if you're up to it.
Karl Marx and his 'desciple Marxists' (Mao, Lenin, etc.) both did and suggested a lot of vile things in the name of the ideal, but you don't see us, as a society, blasting the snot out of Marxism and suggesting it's a vile belief system - no, we're progressive as a society, and we've largely accepted the ideals of Marx throughout the West. Same basic thing.
Huh? Are you, or have you ever been a Marxist? Even non-Leninist Marxism- which by extension covers Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Tito, and (original) ideology of every so-called 'communist state' that has existed at one time or another on this planet- is indeed written off as a "vile belief system." Most folks in the West, politicos and proles, think that Marxism = authoritarian Marxism-Leninism. I would personally argue that it does not, but I am not most of Western society. I ask if you are or have been a Marxist, because if you are or had been, you might know what happen when you tell people that- what they say and the expressions on their face.
Lenin, and his disciples Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, etc all rallied for basically what you saw in the USSR, China, etc. It's what they wrote down and said "this is what we need to do." It isn't what Marx wrote down, and they interpreted as their Bible. But, Western society in general equates what they did with what Marx said, without ever reading any of it. Furthermore, if you told them what Marx said, they would just say that a bloody end ala Stalin is precisely where Marx ends up, because of his "idealistic" ideas. That's wrong on so many levels, but it's not like you could rationally explain this to your average Westerner- they've been taught lifelong that Marxism is an impossible, idealistic dream that ends in Papa Stalin mudering whoever gives him a shifty look.
Where have we accepted the ideals of Karl Marx? If Karl Marx had called for the social democracy as seen in Europe- which is still very much so capitalist- then yeah, I'd agree with your statement. But Karl Marx stood for neither european social democracy nor authoritarian state capitalism.
You're spending time replying to some schmuck, staring at a computer screen, most likely inside just like the rest of us. Get off your high horse. If you don't have any ideas for the original poster about what games to play, move on and quit being a dick.
Ha- I could've written what you wrote verbatim! My wife, our friend and I all shed some tears while watching "Sleeping in Light," I've never been able to get either of them to watch the episode over again with the commentary. No dis against anyone who regularily cries at movies or because of television show, but I'm the kind of person who just doesn't do that. Ever. But I did it when watching "Sleeping in Light"...
As one of the geeks who had been therre 24 hours before release, I can say similarily, I laughed at the shmucks who rolled in around 10:30-11:00 PM for a midnight release, expecting that they'd have no problem getting a Wii. The lamest was this really rich-looking kid, 16-18 years old, who showed up at 11 PM with his mom and sister, and they were all dressed up. The kid was wearing a suit and a greatcoat. His mom tried to explain to a few folks in the line how important it was that he got a Wii, how much he was looking forward to it, that it would mean a lot for the person to let him take their place. I don't think any money was offered- she seemed to think that one of us low-born would happily give up our spot to the local feudal lord before us.
It's sort of like an old fashioned USSR/USA arms race. We weren't planning on staying overnight, but we had stopped by around 11 PM to see if there was a line and talk to the electronics guy to see what they thought. But, there were two people lined up already, in their cars and asleep. So, we said 'what the hell' and grabbed our stuff and showed up. By the time we got there at 12:30 AM, my wife and I were numbers 8 and 9 in line, out of 20 total Wiis. The smallest wait was 14 hours.
Make fun of us all you want, but I can say that I had a great time. I came out of those 24 hours with a lot more stories than I'd usually would on any given Saturday. We were at a Walmart, not somewhere I usually ever shop. It was pretty wild. Met some cool people as well as some weird people.
Mind you, this was in northern Minnesota- and it was colder than a witches tit, as the kids say. We had a great time. I don't think I'd ever do it again, having experienced it though!
It took a fair while to warm up, and it was arc heavy so it doesn't look good unless you stick with it for a while. Its worth the effort though./i.
I second that, and my wife thirds it. A friend of mine got me into B5, but my wife thought it looked like a bad sci-fi show with crappy acting and crappier sets. Some nights when we were watching B5, she sat there while we watched it, on her computer. Somewhere in Season 2, she stopped making fun of it. A few episodes later, she was sucked in and was the one asking me if we were going to watch B5 that night. It can take a while, but it is totally worth it. By season 3 you will most certainly thank me. Not to say that it takes that long before it's watchable, but that's when the pay-off starts to return.
...but does god kill said kitten using the sacred alient art of MU-TAI?!