Why is it that whenever somebody criticizes how we speak, somebody else will cry 'censorship?' Just because people have the right to do something, doesn't mean that people ought to do something. In this country, we all have the (frequently exercised) right to call each other morons, idiots, jerks, and Communistic Nazis. But that doesn't mean we should. There are laws protecting our RIGHT to flame people because having a law keeping us from flaming people is a path to disaster, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't think before we flame. I think the original author was pointing out that our environment can be 'hostile' towards women, and we should think about whether we want that -- whether being a jerk is part and parcel of what we are, or unintended baggage.
Machiavelli said that a main strength of a republic is the virtue of its citizens, gained from having power and thus responsibility. The question isn't whether we want to take away peoples' power to say things, it's whether we, as individuals, want to start taking up some of our responsibility -- to exercise restraint and to encourage each other to do the same.
Wait... are you saying that it's UNDEMOCRATIC to let people who want to vote vote? Are you saying that we should purposefully throw up complex registration barriers akin to sophisticated literacy tests and poll taxes? That sort of system is precisely the one that could get monopolized by a particular social segment, and expanding voting opportunities on every front is the best way to combat it -- if everybody has to jump through several dozen hoops to vote, only the people with enough free time can vote. If anybody can easily vote, you will have more voters, and these voters will be people with not as much free time => people traditionally unrepresented in politics.
You know, I wonder if they'll ever manage brain transplants. Maybe transplants of people with dying bodies but healthy brains into brain-dead people with healthy bodies, for starters. That would probably make headlines instead of getting a yawn.
news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins usually has notices by the nice people who keep track of spam cancels. The last day they have statistics for is the 12th (when news of the UDP came out), and it's not too encouraging -- here's a cut-and-paste of a bit of it...
You know, I imagine the despammers aren't going to be satisfied with a press release... it'll be interesting to see if the spam level actually drops or if this was just a PR move.
I think it says on the UDP FAQ they linked to in the original article that this situation has already been amicably resolved (which is to say Ameritech got off its collective a** and fixed the problem)
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Why is it that whenever somebody criticizes how we speak, somebody else will cry 'censorship?' Just because people have the right to do something, doesn't mean that people ought to do something. In this country, we all have the (frequently exercised) right to call each other morons, idiots, jerks, and Communistic Nazis. But that doesn't mean we should. There are laws protecting our RIGHT to flame people because having a law keeping us from flaming people is a path to disaster, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't think before we flame. I think the original author was pointing out that our environment can be 'hostile' towards women, and we should think about whether we want that -- whether being a jerk is part and parcel of what we are, or unintended baggage.
Machiavelli said that a main strength of a republic is the virtue of its citizens, gained from having power and thus responsibility. The question isn't whether we want to take away peoples' power to say things, it's whether we, as individuals, want to start taking up some of our responsibility -- to exercise restraint and to encourage each other to do the same.
Wait ... are you saying that it's UNDEMOCRATIC to let people who want to vote vote? Are you saying that we should purposefully throw up complex registration barriers akin to sophisticated literacy tests and poll taxes? That sort of system is precisely the one that could get monopolized by a particular social segment, and expanding voting opportunities on every front is the best way to combat it -- if everybody has to jump through several dozen hoops to vote, only the people with enough free time can vote. If anybody can easily vote, you will have more voters, and these voters will be people with not as much free time => people traditionally unrepresented in politics.
You know, I wonder if they'll ever manage brain transplants. Maybe transplants of people with dying bodies but healthy brains into brain-dead people with healthy bodies, for starters. That would probably make headlines instead of getting a yawn.
news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins usually has notices by the nice people who keep track of spam cancels. The last day they have statistics for is the 12th (when news of the UDP came out), and it's not too encouraging -- here's a cut-and-paste of a bit of it ...
Top Spam Sources by Injection Site: (total 76855)
12098 news.rdc1.md.home.com.POSTED!*
5793 user*.dial.netline.net.uk!*
5105 news.corecomm.net!*
4916 news.rdc2.mi.home.com.POSTED!*
4784 news*.bellglobal.com.POSTED!*
3433 news.rdc1.nj.home.com.POSTED!*
2448 quark.idirect.com.POSTED!*
2315 news.virtualsight.com!*
1838 news*.onvoy.net!*
1806 tw*.nn.bcandid.com.POSTED!*
1763 n*.gtti.net!*
1263 dfw-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!*
1231 news!*
1152 news.newsnet.co.jp!*
1124 newsfeeds.com!*
1114 newsreader.vienna.highway.telekom.at!*
994 typhoon.mbnet.mb.ca.POSTED!*
966 wbnws*.ne.mediaone.net.POSTED!*
878 audrey*.news.aol.com!*
844 typ*.deja.bcandid.com.POSTED!*
831 eagle.america.net.POSTED!*
817 news.globalpeace.net!*
793 news.city-guide.com!*
638 news.rdc1.tn.home.com.POSTED!*
622 newsread*.prod.itd.earthlink.net.POSTED!*
607 news.transfer!*
561 firehose.mindspring.com!*
454 newscontent-*.sprint.ca.POSTED!*
442 client!*
411 news*.bellglobal.com!198.235.216.4.POSTED!*
358 newsfeed.concentric.net!*
351 nnrp*.news.uk.psi.net!*
329 news.infoave.net!*
310 news*.rdc1.bc.home.com.POSTED!*
300 news*.newsnet.co.jp!*
290 aquamarine.demon.co.uk!*
287 [News-Service]!*
284 nntp-hub.idt.net!*
270 atlas.lcc.net!*
268 nebula.superior.net!*
260 news.nikoma.de!*
258 dreaderd.zeelandnet!*
230 ffx2nh5!*
214 news*.usenetserver.com.POSTED!*
191 news*.alsv1.occa.home.com.POSTED!*
187 typhoon-la.pbi.net.POSTED!*
177 news.vic.com!*
177 nnrp*.deja.com!*
166 webtv.net!*
165 news.wanadoo.nl!*
You know, I imagine the despammers aren't going to be satisfied with a press release ... it'll be interesting to see if the spam level actually drops or if this was just a PR move.
I think it says on the UDP FAQ they linked to in the original article that this situation has already been amicably resolved (which is to say Ameritech got off its collective a** and fixed the problem)
Maybe in the EU, but not here, I think ... they don't have a monopoly anywhere (except maybe in instant messaging) ....