>>>Republican pundits would say as much about Democratic proposals for U.S. universal health care.
- We believe in the right to get health or sickcare. - We also believe in the right to choose smoking, drinking, or overeating. - We even believe you have the right to replace your damaged lung, liver, or fatty heart.
What we do NOT believe is that you can force your neighbors to pay the bill. Most Americans consider that theft of another man's labor. We are amazed that Europeans do not. If you wanted to make a "safety net" to help-out those who can't afford their own care, fine, but 99% of Americans have enough money to pay the bill themselves and should do so.
Also the "40 million American are uninsured" is only half the story. The other half of the story is that 30 million of those Americans are uninsured but covered by government programs like SCHIP and Medicare. The remaining ones are illegal intruders (non-citizens).
>>>poor schooling in the fields of Language Arts, Drama/Theatre, and Humanitarian studies.
I see the value of Language Arts (so we can communicate) and History (so we don't repeat the same mistakes), but not the rest of it. Why do I need to take a theater class? If I wanted to act, then I'd act. Or better yet, just watch other people act. I don't feel like wasting time on stuff I don't want to do, or need for my job.
Same goes for Gym/Sports. At my last reunion I saw several of my school's former football players and other athletes. They are all fat and out-of-shape. That was several million dollars that could have been spent on real courses. The athletes could have learned something useful, like reading.
"You're a radical! How DARE you tear apart the DOE? Everything would go to hell if you did that! We live in a society and we must have government running that society. Duh." - pro-big-government citizen
You know I think they (meaning the government) have this backwards. Engineering and science is FUN. You get to learn all kinds of neat facts, and do cool projects like building solar-powered cabins or toy cars while going through your high school & college courses.
It's the real world that sucks. I enjoyed my engineering/science right up to the point where I graduated, and they stuck me in a little tiny cubicle, by myself, staring at boring code and schematics. Day-after-day. Week-after-week. Year-after-year.
Ooops. I insulted the paradise that is the European Socialist Union, and now all the socialists are up in arms. Well first off, Sweden and Noray are RICH countries which is why, like Saudi Arabia, they can easily afford to spend tons on welfare programs. We in the United States don't have oil wealth. We can't afford it.
As for the other countries, here are the uncomfortable facts:
>>>And you don't get ANYTHING in return for it, right?
No not really. I get nice paved roads which are funded by gasoline taxes. I get a navy and army to defend me from outside invaders. A government-run school for my kids, which they don't attend (private schooled), so really I'm paying for a school that I don't get to use. Overall? Not worth the $35,000 I paid in taxes last year. $5000 would be more reasonable. .
>>>Oh, what, you want your trash picked up? You want sewers built to your property? Fire protection?
Those would be good ideas, but they are all private companies that are billed separately. Not tax funded. Not government provided.
Alright. Well I'd still like you to back that up with some facts. SHOW ME THE MONEY as a certain movie says. Show me where companies received money, but failed to build the telephone lines they were told to build.
BTW I don't buy your example of using Michael Moore. In his videos he's been caught splicing multiple speeches together (you can tell because the speaker's tie changes color), in effect rewriting the speeches to suit his own purposes. That kind of editing is reminiscent of what a certain German propagandist used to do ~70 years ago.
In other words, while I think Mr. Moore is a warm and friendly fellow, I can no longer believe the words coming out of his mouth.
And as for Newt, if he's swiping money from coffers to enrich others, then he's a pro-big-government Liberal not a conservative. Also known as a RINO (republican in name only). As Judge Napolitano frequently says, "We don't have two parties. We have ONE party - the Big Government party - with two branches." Personally I'd like to see the Republicans disappear completely and get replaced by the Libertarians, but I doubt that will ever happen.
>>>One advantage with top-down planning is that you could simply have a rule that companies have to share lines -
Yes that would be an advantage, but as I just told the other guy: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The job to revoke Comcast or Cox or Time-Warner's monopoly, and bring competition to your local town, lies with your local State government.
>>>>>You know a lot of the problems with our internet would be solved simply by revoking ALL monopolies that Comcast, Cox, Time-warner, et cetera hold over local neighborhoods >> >>Sure, but how is this relevant at the federal level?
Simple. At the federal level the US has no authority to regulate local neighborhoods. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." It's the job of your local State government.
>>>Unemployment INSURANCE is in NO WAY welfare. You pay every penny of that insurance out of your paycheck and it is administered through the state
Sooooo... it operates the same as the Welfare fund, which is also paid out of your paycheck and administered by the state. Same difference.
BTW I think auto insurance (and insurance in general) is run by scam artists who prey upon people's fears like some kind of Star Trek parasite. Which is why my car is not insured. It isn't necessary. If I wreck my car, then I'll just take all the money I've saved and buy a used car for around $3000.
>>>Bottom-up only works properly if the top-down regulations permit fair play.
Well naturally. That's why we have Antitrust laws such that, if Comcast tried to block Cox Cable or Apple TV or Linux ISP from entering a neighorhood, then Comcast will be drug into court and punished. That's what happened to the record companies when they tried to form an illegal CD Cartel - they got whipped by the U.S. DOJ and forced to refund money.
My idea only works if you allow competition and enforce it.
Your idea of a government-run ISP will only produce yet-another-bankrupt government organization like the USPS, or Amtrak, or SSI, or Medicare, or.....
>>>Private utilities are not beholden to their customers
No but being regulated monopolies, they are beholden to the government who operate as the boss. If you're friend was without power, then it's because his *government* fucked up and did not do its job.
I experienced a power outage in Maryland after the remnants of a hurricane blew through and wiped-out power throughout the whole region, and the Baltimore G&E company had my power back in just one day. That's because the government has a law - you either get the power turned-on within three days, or you'll be fined several million per day. That's what the government of Missouri needs to do with its private-but-publicly controlled electric company.
>>>What we need is a publicly owned infrastructure and privately run services.
Yeah because that's really worked well for the Americans so far: - post office - billions in debt - Amtrak - billions in debt - Retirement Trust Fund (SSI) - will run out of money circa 2016, and then it too will be billions in debt
Let's stay away from government owning anything. It's not needed. I don't know about your neighborhood but where I live there's a giant pipe running under the ground, and it has plenty of room to run 100 separate fiber optics, one for each company. One wire for Comcast, one for Cox, one for Time-warner, one for Apple TV, one for Linux ISP, and on and on and on.
Yes that's inefficient, but so too is having cars made by Ford, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Kia, et cetera. That slight inefficiency allows the citizens to have choice.
I'm not aware of ANY welfare state that is in good shape economically. The EU, Canada, Japan... all are pretty much in shit creek when it comes to extreme debt and devaluing currency. Some are worse than the US (Iceland, UK), others are better (Germany, Poland), but all are on the teetering on the brink.
Bread == Food stamps, free healthcare & Circuses == Free or subsidized television and internet
"Gotta keep those voters supporting me by giving them free stuff. So what if I have to steal money from the productive working middle class?" - typical politician. It's pretty sad that WE (yes you too) are expected to keep working while the government sucks ~$35,000* from our pockets every year to give it to somebody else who doesn't want to work. That's like buying a new Lexus ever year, and giving it some stranger.
You're 100% correct that when government regulates, they favor the well-dressed Pizza Hut spokesman with deep pockets, rather than the $5/hour Walmart employee who wants to better him or herself by opening a small shop.
This kind of government-private corruption dates back to the Roman Republic, which eventually devolved into Democracy, then Oligarchy, then Dictatorship.
And I don't mean providing a link to some blogger's opinion (which is the typical response), but some actual FACTS that trace the money flowing into telephone companies coffers, and money flowing out to rich person's pockets. From my reading of the 1996 Telecom Act, the money was earmarked for laying digital phonelines, not internet. i.e. Blame Congress for poor planning
>>>I've got relatives that still only get 9600 on dialup
Are you sure? I've encountered some crappy lines in my travels, and the noisest/slowest line still provided 21,000 bit/s. As for higher speeds, couldn't your relatives get cable internet or cellphone internet? I do think the government should mandate DSL for anyone who asks for it, but that's not a job to be performed by the FCC. That's a job for the State governments. i.e. -
Dear Bell:
If you want to continue holding your monopoly, you will provide DSL to everyone who demand it. Else we'll take-away your monopoly and give it someone else, like Google or Apple.
You misspoke. I'm a conservative. I'm against all forms of welfare for all people, except as a last-ditch safety net (i.e. you lose your job; you get unemployment funds).
You know a lot of the problems with our internet would be solved simply by revoking ALL monopolies that Comcast, Cox, Time-warner, et cetera hold over local neighborhoods. If you allow competition, then the People will be empowered to avoid the shitty companies and chose alternatives (like Apple TV or Linux ISP). We don't need a top-down approach. We need a bottom-up approach where we free the locals from the shackles that currently chain them to Comcast (Cox, TW, etc).
The summary reads, "For speed and convenience, the mobile phone-based 'Opera Mini' browser receives formatted web pages via Opera's own line of proxy servers." So too does the full-sized Opera 10 browser, but I don't think it goes far enough. The images are compressed but not enough to make any real difference in speed. They should be compressing the text, HTML, and CSS files too. Plus a lot of the images aren't compressed at all, which makes no logical sense to me.
All of ye are thinking of it wrong. Instead of thinking 'Opera sucks', think 'Well China was going to ban Opera from their country, which would leave the Chinese left with nothing but Internet Explorer Hell. At least now they can use an alternative. Opera China is still better than virus-friendly Explorer.'
>>>I've thought pretty well of Opera, until now. This is the sort of whoring that helps to give Microsoft THEIR bad name.
No it isn't. Microsoft gets its bad name because it uses deceptive practices or sheer brute force or bribery to give itself a monopoly.
In contrast the Opera Corporation is doing none of that. Opera is simply cooperating with government laws, because they don't want to cede the Chinese to a hell that is called Microsoft Internet Explorer. Opera China may not be as good as Uncensored Opera, but it's still better than IE.
Aside -
- I wonder if the removal of Chinese from the compression server will speed things up? It's a nifty feature to compress images and speed-up the web, but has a ridiculously high latency that almost nullifies any speed increase.
Slashdot Mirror
>>>Republican pundits would say as much about Democratic proposals for U.S. universal health care.
- We believe in the right to get health or sickcare.
- We also believe in the right to choose smoking, drinking, or overeating.
- We even believe you have the right to replace your damaged lung, liver, or fatty heart.
What we do NOT believe is that you can force your neighbors to pay the bill. Most Americans consider that theft of another man's labor. We are amazed that Europeans do not. If you wanted to make a "safety net" to help-out those who can't afford their own care, fine, but 99% of Americans have enough money to pay the bill themselves and should do so.
Also the "40 million American are uninsured" is only half the story. The other half of the story is that 30 million of those Americans are uninsured but covered by government programs like SCHIP and Medicare. The remaining ones are illegal intruders (non-citizens).
>>>poor schooling in the fields of Language Arts, Drama/Theatre, and Humanitarian studies.
I see the value of Language Arts (so we can communicate) and History (so we don't repeat the same mistakes), but not the rest of it. Why do I need to take a theater class? If I wanted to act, then I'd act. Or better yet, just watch other people act. I don't feel like wasting time on stuff I don't want to do, or need for my job.
Same goes for Gym/Sports. At my last reunion I saw several of my school's former football players and other athletes. They are all fat and out-of-shape. That was several million dollars that could have been spent on real courses. The athletes could have learned something useful, like reading.
"You're a radical! How DARE you tear apart the DOE? Everything would go to hell if you did that! We live in a society and we must have government running that society. Duh." - pro-big-government citizen
You know I think they (meaning the government) have this backwards. Engineering and science is FUN. You get to learn all kinds of neat facts, and do cool projects like building solar-powered cabins or toy cars while going through your high school & college courses.
It's the real world that sucks. I enjoyed my engineering/science right up to the point where I graduated, and they stuck me in a little tiny cubicle, by myself, staring at boring code and schematics. Day-after-day. Week-after-week. Year-after-year.
That's when it stopped being fun.
Ooops. I insulted the paradise that is the European Socialist Union, and now all the socialists are up in arms. Well first off, Sweden and Noray are RICH countries which is why, like Saudi Arabia, they can easily afford to spend tons on welfare programs. We in the United States don't have oil wealth. We can't afford it.
As for the other countries, here are the uncomfortable facts:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8rpY5fQK-UQ/Sa4HLlt1VDI/AAAAAAAAGEE/agwEIiIOxEg/s400/debt.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union#Economies_of_member_states
>>>And you don't get ANYTHING in return for it, right?
No not really. I get nice paved roads which are funded by gasoline taxes. I get a navy and army to defend me from outside invaders. A government-run school for my kids, which they don't attend (private schooled), so really I'm paying for a school that I don't get to use. Overall? Not worth the $35,000 I paid in taxes last year. $5000 would be more reasonable.
.
>>>Oh, what, you want your trash picked up? You want sewers built to your property? Fire protection?
Those would be good ideas, but they are all private companies that are billed separately. Not tax funded. Not government provided.
Alright. Well I'd still like you to back that up with some facts. SHOW ME THE MONEY as a certain movie says. Show me where companies received money, but failed to build the telephone lines they were told to build.
BTW I don't buy your example of using Michael Moore. In his videos he's been caught splicing multiple speeches together (you can tell because the speaker's tie changes color), in effect rewriting the speeches to suit his own purposes. That kind of editing is reminiscent of what a certain German propagandist used to do ~70 years ago.
In other words, while I think Mr. Moore is a warm and friendly fellow, I can no longer believe the words coming out of his mouth.
And as for Newt, if he's swiping money from coffers to enrich others, then he's a pro-big-government Liberal not a conservative. Also known as a RINO (republican in name only). As Judge Napolitano frequently says, "We don't have two parties. We have ONE party - the Big Government party - with two branches." Personally I'd like to see the Republicans disappear completely and get replaced by the Libertarians, but I doubt that will ever happen.
>>>One advantage with top-down planning is that you could simply have a rule that companies have to share lines -
Yes that would be an advantage, but as I just told the other guy: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The job to revoke Comcast or Cox or Time-Warner's monopoly, and bring competition to your local town, lies with your local State government.
>>>>>You know a lot of the problems with our internet would be solved simply by revoking ALL monopolies that Comcast, Cox, Time-warner, et cetera hold over local neighborhoods
>>
>>Sure, but how is this relevant at the federal level?
Simple. At the federal level the US has no authority to regulate local neighborhoods. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." It's the job of your local State government.
>>>Unemployment INSURANCE is in NO WAY welfare. You pay every penny of that insurance out of your paycheck and it is administered through the state
Sooooo... it operates the same as the Welfare fund, which is also paid out of your paycheck and administered by the state. Same difference.
BTW I think auto insurance (and insurance in general) is run by scam artists who prey upon people's fears like some kind of Star Trek parasite. Which is why my car is not insured. It isn't necessary. If I wreck my car, then I'll just take all the money I've saved and buy a used car for around $3000.
>>>Bottom-up only works properly if the top-down regulations permit fair play.
Well naturally. That's why we have Antitrust laws such that, if Comcast tried to block Cox Cable or Apple TV or Linux ISP from entering a neighorhood, then Comcast will be drug into court and punished. That's what happened to the record companies when they tried to form an illegal CD Cartel - they got whipped by the U.S. DOJ and forced to refund money.
My idea only works if you allow competition and enforce it.
Your idea of a government-run ISP will only produce yet-another-bankrupt government organization like the USPS, or Amtrak, or SSI, or Medicare, or.....
>>>Private utilities are not beholden to their customers
No but being regulated monopolies, they are beholden to the government who operate as the boss. If you're friend was without power, then it's because his *government* fucked up and did not do its job.
I experienced a power outage in Maryland after the remnants of a hurricane blew through and wiped-out power throughout the whole region, and the Baltimore G&E company had my power back in just one day. That's because the government has a law - you either get the power turned-on within three days, or you'll be fined several million per day. That's what the government of Missouri needs to do with its private-but-publicly controlled electric company.
>>>What we need is a publicly owned infrastructure and privately run services.
Yeah because that's really worked well for the Americans so far:
- post office - billions in debt
- Amtrak - billions in debt
- Retirement Trust Fund (SSI) - will run out of money circa 2016, and then it too will be billions in debt
Let's stay away from government owning anything. It's not needed. I don't know about your neighborhood but where I live there's a giant pipe running under the ground, and it has plenty of room to run 100 separate fiber optics, one for each company. One wire for Comcast, one for Cox, one for Time-warner, one for Apple TV, one for Linux ISP, and on and on and on.
Yes that's inefficient, but so too is having cars made by Ford, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Kia, et cetera. That slight inefficiency allows the citizens to have choice.
I'm not aware of ANY welfare state that is in good shape economically. The EU, Canada, Japan... all are pretty much in shit creek when it comes to extreme debt and devaluing currency. Some are worse than the US (Iceland, UK), others are better (Germany, Poland), but all are on the teetering on the brink.
Try:
Bread == Food stamps, free healthcare
& Circuses == Free or subsidized television and internet
"Gotta keep those voters supporting me by giving them free stuff. So what if I have to steal money from the productive working middle class?" - typical politician. It's pretty sad that WE (yes you too) are expected to keep working while the government sucks ~$35,000* from our pockets every year to give it to somebody else who doesn't want to work. That's like buying a new Lexus ever year, and giving it some stranger.
*
* Assuming you have a $100,000 a year job
You're 100% correct that when government regulates, they favor the well-dressed Pizza Hut spokesman with deep pockets, rather than the $5/hour Walmart employee who wants to better him or herself by opening a small shop.
This kind of government-private corruption dates back to the Roman Republic, which eventually devolved into Democracy, then Oligarchy, then Dictatorship.
Can we see some citation please?
And I don't mean providing a link to some blogger's opinion (which is the typical response), but some actual FACTS that trace the money flowing into telephone companies coffers, and money flowing out to rich person's pockets. From my reading of the 1996 Telecom Act, the money was earmarked for laying digital phonelines, not internet. i.e. Blame Congress for poor planning
>>>The [Bush] administration gave this welfare to the telcos
Don't you mean Clinton? Also I'd like to see a citation of all these funds the telcos supposedly received. i.e. FACTS not some blogger's opinion.
>>>I've got relatives that still only get 9600 on dialup
Are you sure? I've encountered some crappy lines in my travels, and the noisest/slowest line still provided 21,000 bit/s. As for higher speeds, couldn't your relatives get cable internet or cellphone internet? I do think the government should mandate DSL for anyone who asks for it, but that's not a job to be performed by the FCC. That's a job for the State governments. i.e. -
Dear Bell:
If you want to continue holding your monopoly, you will provide DSL to everyone who demand it. Else we'll take-away your monopoly and give it someone else, like Google or Apple.
Sincerely,
Virginia Legislature
You misspoke. I'm a conservative. I'm against all forms of welfare for all people, except as a last-ditch safety net (i.e. you lose your job; you get unemployment funds).
You know a lot of the problems with our internet would be solved simply by revoking ALL monopolies that Comcast, Cox, Time-warner, et cetera hold over local neighborhoods. If you allow competition, then the People will be empowered to avoid the shitty companies and chose alternatives (like Apple TV or Linux ISP). We don't need a top-down approach. We need a bottom-up approach where we free the locals from the shackles that currently chain them to Comcast (Cox, TW, etc).
P.S.
The summary reads, "For speed and convenience, the mobile phone-based 'Opera Mini' browser receives formatted web pages via Opera's own line of proxy servers." So too does the full-sized Opera 10 browser, but I don't think it goes far enough. The images are compressed but not enough to make any real difference in speed. They should be compressing the text, HTML, and CSS files too. Plus a lot of the images aren't compressed at all, which makes no logical sense to me.
>>>Secondly, you're still number 16.
Yeah. Out of what? 200 countries? That's not bad at all, and still higher than the European Union with its state-run systems
All of ye are thinking of it wrong. Instead of thinking 'Opera sucks', think 'Well China was going to ban Opera from their country, which would leave the Chinese left with nothing but Internet Explorer Hell. At least now they can use an alternative. Opera China is still better than virus-friendly Explorer.'
Well at least that's how I think.
>>>I've thought pretty well of Opera, until now. This is the sort of whoring that helps to give Microsoft THEIR bad name.
No it isn't. Microsoft gets its bad name because it uses deceptive practices or sheer brute force or bribery to give itself a monopoly.
In contrast the Opera Corporation is doing none of that. Opera is simply cooperating with government laws, because they don't want to cede the Chinese to a hell that is called Microsoft Internet Explorer. Opera China may not be as good as Uncensored Opera, but it's still better than IE.
Aside -
- I wonder if the removal of Chinese from the compression server will speed things up? It's a nifty feature to compress images and speed-up the web, but has a ridiculously high latency that almost nullifies any speed increase.