We already have approval voting, its called the Republiocrats because neither side has a really distinguishable political platform. Where is the anti-war party? Where is the anti-taxation party? Etc. Obama is, like it or not, basically a moderate and not much different than Bush who was also a moderate.
Voter fraud is a red herring. Aside from psudopolls like the Iowa Caucuses this year, have there been any major elections that would have been changed because of one or two fraudulent votes? Furthermore, voter fraud by individuals is nearly non existent, if you want to target fraud, target absentee voting which is where the little bit of fraud creeps in but most laws except absentee and other forms of voting not in person from voter ID laws and such. Yes, preventing fraud is a legitimate concern but it simply isn't a problem.
Because not many people can get an N9? Nokia isn't selling it in the US. Honestly, MeGo and WebOS are better than Android, the problem is you can't get them except on a small handful of devices while I can get Android on every major network for a subsidized price plus it comes in every hardware form factor I'd need/want.
Android is the only smartphone with fine grained security. Applications only have as much access that is granted to them when you download the application.
Sure, in places with real functioning political parties like Europe this is the case, but not so in the US. There are just too many variables to make a case that Republicans believe X and Democrats believe Y. Case in point: wars. Out of the 5 major contenders in the 2012 race (Obama, Romney, Paul, Santorum, Gingrich) which is the only one that is anti-war? That would be Paul who is running as a Republican in the primaries. But traditionally you think as Democrats as anti-war, but yet Obama is a very pro-war president.
In our 2 party system it is impossible to lump people together in different categories based on which of the 2 parties you vote for, unlike Europe which has a more functional political party system.
Yep. I'm sorry but I'm not voting for Obama, Santorum, Gingrich and I'm certainly not voting for Romney. I don't want a president like the last 10 that we have had. When was the last time we actually had an anti-war candidate from the democrats? When was the last time we actually had a free market candidate from the republicans?
If the Republicans choose Gingrich, Santorum or Romney as their candidate, I'm not voting for them. If the democrats have Obama as their candidate I'm not voting for them. Instead I'll actually vote for a worthwhile candidate (either Ron Paul or whoever the Libertarian party runs)
No, because Republicans have sacrificed virtue for "electability" as have the Democrats. So rather than voting in the primary for people who really represent their beliefs, they vote for someone who is "electable" in the process getting someone who doesn't represent their beliefs at all.
Because you know, heaven forbid that we actually have a real check on the monetary supply or -gasp- a meaningful currency rather than just meaningless variables on a computer screen and worthless pieces of paper and junk metal tokens.
There is a reason why our constitution gives congress the power to coin money and regulate its value. First our founders experimented with fiat currency and it ended in disaster (Continental Currency) also from that experiment they knew that any monetary program needed to have oversight by the people (rather than various states just making worthless pieces of paper). The federal reserve has circumvented those safeguards. Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, we have had an inflation rate of over 1900%. We've also seen many abuses such as secret loans to the tune of 7.5 trillion dollars + to various banks, all of this without voter oversight.
Wealth is too big of a thing to place in the hands of bureaucrats. Direct accountability means abolishing the federal reserve.
Honestly, this is the weakest argument not to vote for Obama. Out of all of the things that he's done, you pick something most likely written by a mid-level bureaucrat instead of all of the things Obama has personally done to screw up integrity in our government such as not closing Guantanamo bay, starting another war, keeping the Federal Reserve rather than abolishing it, ordering the killing of a US citizen, etc.
Its like everything else Obama has done, simple good PR to try to get him reelected. Taking questions via YouTube, holding "town hall" meetings of course none of this really matters, none of it is actually going to change anything its all done to make Obama seem like a nice, up to date president that cares about various issues when in reality all those are is nice good feeling fluff for the Obama campaign.
No, what I am referring to is the minimize, maximize and close buttons that seem to be non-moveable in OS X despite being easily editable in nearly every WM for Linux and I believe there is a program or registry value you can use to move them in Windows.
...And the President constitutionally shouldn't be able to make laws that bypass congress, yet they have done it all the time via executive orders. The President shouldn't be able to order the targeted death of US citizens but yet the current president did it just fine. Etc.
Right, because buying a third party accessory that connects via wireless that needs its separate charger that makes the phone more bulky is really the most elegant solution! Plus an extra price tag!
No thank you, I'll stick with my nice Android phone with things like that built in standard.
The problem with Apple is there is no customization in either hardware or software.
Lets say I want a phone with a physical keyboard running iOS. I can't have it. On the other hand, I can have a wide variety of phone form factors on Android and even Windows Phone 7. Want a really thin phone with no keyboard? They've got it. Want a phone with a sliding keyboard? They've got it. Want a keyboard just on the face of the phone? They've got it. One size does not fit all.
Lets say I want a cheap computer for web browsing, e-mail and office use. If I get a PC, I can get a laptop for about $330, sure it isn't really high end, but it will do what I want. On the other hand, if I wanted to get the same thing running OS X it would cost me, what? $600 for an iPad which isn't close to a full fledged computer? Or $1,000 for a cheap Macbook?
Or lets say I want a minor customization, putting the window buttons on the left side like most people are used to. With Linux, switching the window buttons are easy, a quick Google search will tell you how to rearrange them. On the other hand, there seems to be no way to do it on a Mac. Lack of customization is what keeps me away from Chrome and also Mac OS.
Yes, Mac OS is nicely designed, but there is simply no customization. Even Windows offers more customization. After all, the operating system is there to stay out of the way, part of it being that I should be able to customize it how I want to, something that OS X doesn't give me.
No, and that is why I do not support direct democracy because pure democracy is no different than mob rule. Rather, democracy should be used in conjunction with a very minimal government to elect various leaders (congressmen, city council, police officers, etc.) all the while holding to unchangeable rights (life, liberty, property, etc.). Within this moderate framework, people should be able to voluntarily choose to live in various societies/communes with the lifestyle they choose. For example, someone who believes in communism should be able to live a life (voluntarily) in a commune sharing his labor equally among the other members of the commune. Through this framework of voluntary networks, if one wishes they can implement whatever programs they wish so long as they don't interfere with the rights of others who do not consent or absolute rights such as the right to disassociate with the group or the right to life.
As someone who loves liberty, I can choose not to associate with them and prevent them from forcing their restrictions on me. Similarly, the guy who believes in socialism is free to live in a voluntary community where socialism is the economic policy. Someone who is a Jew might wish to associate with a Jewish community and they may voluntarily ban all non-Kosher food, while I, as a non-Jew can continue to eat bacon until I clog my arteries.
A system like that prevents the majority from crushing the minority and it prevents the minority from crushing the majority.
Hey! The Sears Tele-Games wasn't that bad, I had one of the 4 digital switch ones. It played all the 2600 games just fine back in the day. Really wasn't a fan of the controllers but normal 2600 controllers would plug in fine (and later the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive controllers).
1) Tell me if the product is in stock or out of stock for the locations near me. I much prefer to use cash and I don't like waiting for things to be shipped online. However, there are few things I hate more than going into a store to try to find X that their site says they have that happens to be out of stock or that the nearest store with it in stock is 50 miles away. How hard is it to keep products in stock? Electronic companies are the worst, you can apparently pay to take out a major ad saying you have X product for X price but when I ask for it your employees don't know what I'm talking about and it is out of stock. Same thing with brick and mortar cell phone companies, not too long ago I went to get an iPhone with a family member only to find out they were out of the iPhone 4S and the 3GS! Now how bad can your inventory management system be that your flagship phone is out of stock?
2) Sell cheaper products. Does it/really/ cost you more to get X than it does for Amazon? Chances are as a major retailer you can get large discounts. Use it to your customers advantage. There should be no reason that even through paying for shipping that something should be 25% less online.
3) Service. Train your employees (particularly those in the electronics department) to better serve customers. Know your products and train them to be objective and not salesmen. Yes, I/know/ that you are trying to sell me a more expensive cell phone with LTE but what I really need to know is if there is LTE coverage in my area before I can make that judgement.
4) Better product reviews online. Perhaps statistics like product returns, etc. would help because product reviews are thrown into 2 categories, either, this is the best thing I ever bought and works flawlessly or this is a piece of crap. Of course neither is really helpful in knowing whether to buy the product, did the person with a problem get it resolved? Was it particular to that one particular device? Or is it a design problem? Etc.
And in other news anytime you take your credit card out to do anything and it is out of sight for a moment people could record your number, expiration date and your security code and then use it to buy things using your credit card. But of course we won't worry about that because technology is SCARY!!! Despite the fact that this doesn't work if you:
Have more than 1 credit/debit card with an RFID chip.
Aren't really close to the card.
Store your card in an aluminum wallet.
Sure, it is possible, but we focus so much on the possible technological side while totally neglecting the fact that people could quite easily just record your credit card info when you pay for things.
Depends on how much you use the internet on your phone and where you use it.
For a person like me who usually is in rural areas that have 3G but few wi-fi networks to speak of, it makes a lot of sense. For someone who lives in a major city where every other building has free wi-fi it might not make much sense.
I pay ~$50 a month with unlimited texting, minimal calling minutes (I rarely talk on the phone and if I do its to another cell phone generally on the same network), and "unlimited" grandfathered-in data.
And not really for car charger and wall charger, I generally have at least 1 micro-USB cable in my desk somewhere from one of my devices to charge on my computer and I just stick my car charger in my car, but to be honest battery life is decent enough even with streaming that aside from playing Pandora in my car with the car charger hooked up, I really don't ever charge my phone except at night.
But in the end it all comes down to your needs. I use 3G on my phone all the time and it is certainly worth the extra per month because free wi-fi is a rarity where I am. But, like I said if you live in an area with free wi-fi all around you it might make more sense to just go with a capable wi-fi only device.
There is a difference between profanity and censorship (as it applies to this story). Saying F**K rather than fuck isn't censorship because everyone knows what it means. Your brain fills in the rest. It doesn't kill the meaning if I say my F**king boss is going to F**king kill me if I mess up this report compared to my fucking boss is going to fucking kill me if I mess up this report.
Censorship is preventing the ideas from spreading. Using stars or euphemisms for profanity isn't censorship because the message is intact 99.9% of the time. However, what the Thai government wants to do is censor a message. Saying the Thai king is like a tub of lard and saying that Thai king is rather round would both be censored because it is the message that is censored, not simply avoiding the use of profanity.
Or how about push for more freedom in economic areas.
Want to stop bad labor conditions in China? Have China switch to a capitalist economy so workers have more options and can shop around.
Want to stop bad labor conditions in the US? Don't work at a job that you feel is unsafe. No one is putting a gun to the back of your head saying you MUST work in coal mining. Coal mining is known to be unsafe and if they feel unsafe then simply quit their job.
While China does have plenty of human rights abuses under its belt, I'm fairly certain that forcing Chinese citizens to work for only one employer is not one of them. So there are 2 options to why Chinese workers are working at Foxconn.
1) It pays better than other means of employment.
2) There are no other employment opportunities.
If number 1 is correct then why should we be judging Foxconn because workers have chosen it as the best company to work for.
If number 2 is correct then chances are the market isn't free enough and China needs to remove economic controls.
Exactly. There seems to be this weird idea that without Foxconn millions of Chinese workers would be frolicking around making $150,000 or so a year. Not so. Instead most of them would be working in even more hazardous conditions in agriculture for much less pay.
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We already have approval voting, its called the Republiocrats because neither side has a really distinguishable political platform. Where is the anti-war party? Where is the anti-taxation party? Etc. Obama is, like it or not, basically a moderate and not much different than Bush who was also a moderate.
Voter fraud is a red herring. Aside from psudopolls like the Iowa Caucuses this year, have there been any major elections that would have been changed because of one or two fraudulent votes? Furthermore, voter fraud by individuals is nearly non existent, if you want to target fraud, target absentee voting which is where the little bit of fraud creeps in but most laws except absentee and other forms of voting not in person from voter ID laws and such. Yes, preventing fraud is a legitimate concern but it simply isn't a problem.
We only need protections against force and fraud. This is clearly fraud and would be punished even under the most libertarian business policies.
Because not many people can get an N9? Nokia isn't selling it in the US. Honestly, MeGo and WebOS are better than Android, the problem is you can't get them except on a small handful of devices while I can get Android on every major network for a subsidized price plus it comes in every hardware form factor I'd need/want.
Android is the only smartphone with fine grained security. Applications only have as much access that is granted to them when you download the application.
Sure, in places with real functioning political parties like Europe this is the case, but not so in the US. There are just too many variables to make a case that Republicans believe X and Democrats believe Y. Case in point: wars. Out of the 5 major contenders in the 2012 race (Obama, Romney, Paul, Santorum, Gingrich) which is the only one that is anti-war? That would be Paul who is running as a Republican in the primaries. But traditionally you think as Democrats as anti-war, but yet Obama is a very pro-war president.
In our 2 party system it is impossible to lump people together in different categories based on which of the 2 parties you vote for, unlike Europe which has a more functional political party system.
Yep. I'm sorry but I'm not voting for Obama, Santorum, Gingrich and I'm certainly not voting for Romney. I don't want a president like the last 10 that we have had. When was the last time we actually had an anti-war candidate from the democrats? When was the last time we actually had a free market candidate from the republicans?
If the Republicans choose Gingrich, Santorum or Romney as their candidate, I'm not voting for them. If the democrats have Obama as their candidate I'm not voting for them. Instead I'll actually vote for a worthwhile candidate (either Ron Paul or whoever the Libertarian party runs)
No, because Republicans have sacrificed virtue for "electability" as have the Democrats. So rather than voting in the primary for people who really represent their beliefs, they vote for someone who is "electable" in the process getting someone who doesn't represent their beliefs at all.
Because you know, heaven forbid that we actually have a real check on the monetary supply or -gasp- a meaningful currency rather than just meaningless variables on a computer screen and worthless pieces of paper and junk metal tokens.
There is a reason why our constitution gives congress the power to coin money and regulate its value. First our founders experimented with fiat currency and it ended in disaster (Continental Currency) also from that experiment they knew that any monetary program needed to have oversight by the people (rather than various states just making worthless pieces of paper). The federal reserve has circumvented those safeguards. Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, we have had an inflation rate of over 1900%. We've also seen many abuses such as secret loans to the tune of 7.5 trillion dollars + to various banks, all of this without voter oversight.
Wealth is too big of a thing to place in the hands of bureaucrats. Direct accountability means abolishing the federal reserve.
Honestly, this is the weakest argument not to vote for Obama. Out of all of the things that he's done, you pick something most likely written by a mid-level bureaucrat instead of all of the things Obama has personally done to screw up integrity in our government such as not closing Guantanamo bay, starting another war, keeping the Federal Reserve rather than abolishing it, ordering the killing of a US citizen, etc.
Its like everything else Obama has done, simple good PR to try to get him reelected. Taking questions via YouTube, holding "town hall" meetings of course none of this really matters, none of it is actually going to change anything its all done to make Obama seem like a nice, up to date president that cares about various issues when in reality all those are is nice good feeling fluff for the Obama campaign.
No, what I am referring to is the minimize, maximize and close buttons that seem to be non-moveable in OS X despite being easily editable in nearly every WM for Linux and I believe there is a program or registry value you can use to move them in Windows.
...And the President constitutionally shouldn't be able to make laws that bypass congress, yet they have done it all the time via executive orders. The President shouldn't be able to order the targeted death of US citizens but yet the current president did it just fine. Etc.
Right, because buying a third party accessory that connects via wireless that needs its separate charger that makes the phone more bulky is really the most elegant solution! Plus an extra price tag!
No thank you, I'll stick with my nice Android phone with things like that built in standard.
The problem with Apple is there is no customization in either hardware or software.
Lets say I want a phone with a physical keyboard running iOS. I can't have it. On the other hand, I can have a wide variety of phone form factors on Android and even Windows Phone 7. Want a really thin phone with no keyboard? They've got it. Want a phone with a sliding keyboard? They've got it. Want a keyboard just on the face of the phone? They've got it. One size does not fit all.
Lets say I want a cheap computer for web browsing, e-mail and office use. If I get a PC, I can get a laptop for about $330, sure it isn't really high end, but it will do what I want. On the other hand, if I wanted to get the same thing running OS X it would cost me, what? $600 for an iPad which isn't close to a full fledged computer? Or $1,000 for a cheap Macbook?
Or lets say I want a minor customization, putting the window buttons on the left side like most people are used to. With Linux, switching the window buttons are easy, a quick Google search will tell you how to rearrange them. On the other hand, there seems to be no way to do it on a Mac. Lack of customization is what keeps me away from Chrome and also Mac OS.
Yes, Mac OS is nicely designed, but there is simply no customization. Even Windows offers more customization. After all, the operating system is there to stay out of the way, part of it being that I should be able to customize it how I want to, something that OS X doesn't give me.
No, and that is why I do not support direct democracy because pure democracy is no different than mob rule. Rather, democracy should be used in conjunction with a very minimal government to elect various leaders (congressmen, city council, police officers, etc.) all the while holding to unchangeable rights (life, liberty, property, etc.). Within this moderate framework, people should be able to voluntarily choose to live in various societies/communes with the lifestyle they choose. For example, someone who believes in communism should be able to live a life (voluntarily) in a commune sharing his labor equally among the other members of the commune. Through this framework of voluntary networks, if one wishes they can implement whatever programs they wish so long as they don't interfere with the rights of others who do not consent or absolute rights such as the right to disassociate with the group or the right to life.
As someone who loves liberty, I can choose not to associate with them and prevent them from forcing their restrictions on me. Similarly, the guy who believes in socialism is free to live in a voluntary community where socialism is the economic policy. Someone who is a Jew might wish to associate with a Jewish community and they may voluntarily ban all non-Kosher food, while I, as a non-Jew can continue to eat bacon until I clog my arteries.
A system like that prevents the majority from crushing the minority and it prevents the minority from crushing the majority.
The US is fast on track to be earth's most totalitarian society.
Yes I would open the borders for unrestricted immigration. And absolute freedom of travel too (no passports).
The less restrictions the better.
Hey! The Sears Tele-Games wasn't that bad, I had one of the 4 digital switch ones. It played all the 2600 games just fine back in the day. Really wasn't a fan of the controllers but normal 2600 controllers would plug in fine (and later the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive controllers).
How about a few pointers.
/really/ cost you more to get X than it does for Amazon? Chances are as a major retailer you can get large discounts. Use it to your customers advantage. There should be no reason that even through paying for shipping that something should be 25% less online.
/know/ that you are trying to sell me a more expensive cell phone with LTE but what I really need to know is if there is LTE coverage in my area before I can make that judgement.
1) Tell me if the product is in stock or out of stock for the locations near me. I much prefer to use cash and I don't like waiting for things to be shipped online. However, there are few things I hate more than going into a store to try to find X that their site says they have that happens to be out of stock or that the nearest store with it in stock is 50 miles away. How hard is it to keep products in stock? Electronic companies are the worst, you can apparently pay to take out a major ad saying you have X product for X price but when I ask for it your employees don't know what I'm talking about and it is out of stock. Same thing with brick and mortar cell phone companies, not too long ago I went to get an iPhone with a family member only to find out they were out of the iPhone 4S and the 3GS! Now how bad can your inventory management system be that your flagship phone is out of stock?
2) Sell cheaper products. Does it
3) Service. Train your employees (particularly those in the electronics department) to better serve customers. Know your products and train them to be objective and not salesmen. Yes, I
4) Better product reviews online. Perhaps statistics like product returns, etc. would help because product reviews are thrown into 2 categories, either, this is the best thing I ever bought and works flawlessly or this is a piece of crap. Of course neither is really helpful in knowing whether to buy the product, did the person with a problem get it resolved? Was it particular to that one particular device? Or is it a design problem? Etc.
And in other news anytime you take your credit card out to do anything and it is out of sight for a moment people could record your number, expiration date and your security code and then use it to buy things using your credit card. But of course we won't worry about that because technology is SCARY!!! Despite the fact that this doesn't work if you:
Have more than 1 credit/debit card with an RFID chip.
Aren't really close to the card.
Store your card in an aluminum wallet.
Sure, it is possible, but we focus so much on the possible technological side while totally neglecting the fact that people could quite easily just record your credit card info when you pay for things.
Depends on how much you use the internet on your phone and where you use it.
For a person like me who usually is in rural areas that have 3G but few wi-fi networks to speak of, it makes a lot of sense. For someone who lives in a major city where every other building has free wi-fi it might not make much sense.
I pay ~$50 a month with unlimited texting, minimal calling minutes (I rarely talk on the phone and if I do its to another cell phone generally on the same network), and "unlimited" grandfathered-in data.
And not really for car charger and wall charger, I generally have at least 1 micro-USB cable in my desk somewhere from one of my devices to charge on my computer and I just stick my car charger in my car, but to be honest battery life is decent enough even with streaming that aside from playing Pandora in my car with the car charger hooked up, I really don't ever charge my phone except at night.
But in the end it all comes down to your needs. I use 3G on my phone all the time and it is certainly worth the extra per month because free wi-fi is a rarity where I am. But, like I said if you live in an area with free wi-fi all around you it might make more sense to just go with a capable wi-fi only device.
There is a difference between profanity and censorship (as it applies to this story). Saying F**K rather than fuck isn't censorship because everyone knows what it means. Your brain fills in the rest. It doesn't kill the meaning if I say my F**king boss is going to F**king kill me if I mess up this report compared to my fucking boss is going to fucking kill me if I mess up this report.
Censorship is preventing the ideas from spreading. Using stars or euphemisms for profanity isn't censorship because the message is intact 99.9% of the time. However, what the Thai government wants to do is censor a message. Saying the Thai king is like a tub of lard and saying that Thai king is rather round would both be censored because it is the message that is censored, not simply avoiding the use of profanity.
Or how about push for more freedom in economic areas.
Want to stop bad labor conditions in China? Have China switch to a capitalist economy so workers have more options and can shop around.
Want to stop bad labor conditions in the US? Don't work at a job that you feel is unsafe. No one is putting a gun to the back of your head saying you MUST work in coal mining. Coal mining is known to be unsafe and if they feel unsafe then simply quit their job.
While China does have plenty of human rights abuses under its belt, I'm fairly certain that forcing Chinese citizens to work for only one employer is not one of them. So there are 2 options to why Chinese workers are working at Foxconn.
1) It pays better than other means of employment.
2) There are no other employment opportunities.
If number 1 is correct then why should we be judging Foxconn because workers have chosen it as the best company to work for.
If number 2 is correct then chances are the market isn't free enough and China needs to remove economic controls.
Exactly. There seems to be this weird idea that without Foxconn millions of Chinese workers would be frolicking around making $150,000 or so a year. Not so. Instead most of them would be working in even more hazardous conditions in agriculture for much less pay.