In Iowa, the State Constitution says that congressional districts can't cross county lines (unless more than one district can be formed from that county, although not an issue in Iowa)
I believe something like this was discussed due to the controversy in Georgia. When the Democrats who controlled the legislature redrew the House districts, they drew them to give Democrats a blatantly unfair advantage. New districts were created that had a slight Democratic majority, while Republican incumbents ran against each other in extremely Republican districts. (Note: Georgia, like much of the South, tends to vote Democrat at a State level, Republican at a National level).
50 State Constitutional amendments like this wouldn't prevent gerrymandering, but it would make it a lot more difficult.
Thank McCain-Feingold, the law that Democrats insisted on getting passed.
The Democratic Party relied on large donations of soft money from labor unions, liberal special interest groups, and extremely wealthy benefactors (think George Soros, Barbara Striesand). They have very little apparatus for generating the much more regulated hard money.
The Republican Party, however DOES have a good apparatus for generating hard money. Republican policies are (and always have been) more beneficial to the small business owner than Democratic policies. Many successful small business owners are single digit millionares. They would gladly pay $2,000 to help keep Republicans in power with their lower tax rates and business friendly policies.
Seeing that there are many more small business owners and potential Republican donors than there are potential Democratic donors, the GOP will always out raise the Democrats in the post McCain-Feingold era. The beautiful irony of it all is that is was the Democrats who were insistant that it passed.
"Clinton was impeached for lying under oath before *a grand jury*, and for obstruction of justice (i.e., tampering with witnesses). For crying out loud, why was this modded as insightful? You can't even get the most basic facts straight!"
I'd like to see a -1 Factually Inaccurate mod on Slashdot.
The punchline of the sad joke of two income households is that unless both partners make a significant amount of money, between stress and convenience items and taxes (Uncle Sam's dirty little secret), you don't gain that much.
Add kids into the mix and things get even worse. Day care expenses. Plus the fact that both of you will miss out on most of your kids lives.
Organized sports at 3 is SICK. This is some dad (or mom perhaps) wanting to make their kid live out some long lost athletic dream. Give the kids a break and let them be kids.
I saw in Wal-Mart the other week frozen Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches with no crust - 12 for $6. How many sandwiches could have been made with 1 jar of peanut butter, 1 jar of jelly and 1 loaf of bread for a fraction of the cost? Some mother is obviously too busy to make them or they wouldn't be selling the frozen ones.
Money is meaningless if it doesn't raise your standard of living. And it is a curse if you make your life miserable to get it.
Re:No one took your time in the first place.
on
Take Back Your Time!
·
· Score: 1
Try an apartment, no children, and two cars.
Wife is unemployed. (Recent college grad)
And I live in an area with a very low cost of living.
Stuff costs money.
Re:Oil isn't going away anytime soon.
on
The End of the Oil Age
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Technology has existed for some time to curb our need for oil, but our government won't promote this.
Again, why is that the Government's job?
In fact, Government interference with pollution controls is one of the major reasons our cars are so inefficient. Diesel engines are considerably more efficient and reliable, but they have trouble meeting pollution regulations.
"If they really want free trade, how about not subsidizing american farmers at the expense of thrid world farmers, who are, in economic terms, vastly more efficient?
The "free trade" agreements seem to support incumbent businesses at the expense of innovation, which is the opposite of their intended use."
No kidding. I, on the other hand, AM a free trade nut. But I believe that if you are going to have free trade then all sides should play by the same rules. This "I want free trade, but industry X, Y, & Z still need protection/subsidies" is bull. Either trade freely, or don't.
My experience with Sun Products has led me to the following conclusions.
Solaris is enterprise level Unix. Blows HP-UX, IRIX, and AIX out of the water. But compared with other Unix alternatives, such as Mac OS X, Linux, and BSD, it's a pain in the ass. It's wonderfully stable and reasonably secure, but it's also incredibly dated and terribly slow. HP, IBM, and SGI have seen that developing for Linux is better and more cost effective than maintaining their old proprietary Unices. Sun doesn't get this.
Java isn't great either. Yes, Java has a use. It's well documented and has is good for cross platform products. However, Microsoft hates it and Sun doesn't want it to run better on any system than Solaris. Combine this with the fact that Java programs already suffer from code bloat and you have a language that has only become truly useful for application development now that 1GHz+ and 256MB+ RAM are commonplace.
In other words:
Solaris sucks. Java sucks. Sun sucks./Go ahead, mod me down. I have karma to burn.
I gave my roommate an old Performa 600 (w/Centris 650 mainboard upgrade 20Mhz/52MB RAM) when his machine died two years ago.
That thing was amazingly useful for a computer that was that old. It's only real weakness is that it is almost impossible to find 68k Mac software anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
In Iowa, the State Constitution says that congressional districts can't cross county lines (unless more than one district can be formed from that county, although not an issue in Iowa)
I believe something like this was discussed due to the controversy in Georgia. When the Democrats who controlled the legislature redrew the House districts, they drew them to give Democrats a blatantly unfair advantage. New districts were created that had a slight Democratic majority, while Republican incumbents ran against each other in extremely Republican districts. (Note: Georgia, like much of the South, tends to vote Democrat at a State level, Republican at a National level).
50 State Constitutional amendments like this wouldn't prevent gerrymandering, but it would make it a lot more difficult.
Thank McCain-Feingold, the law that Democrats insisted on getting passed.
The Democratic Party relied on large donations of soft money from labor unions, liberal special interest groups, and extremely wealthy benefactors (think George Soros, Barbara Striesand). They have very little apparatus for generating the much more regulated hard money.
The Republican Party, however DOES have a good apparatus for generating hard money. Republican policies are (and always have been) more beneficial to the small business owner than Democratic policies. Many successful small business owners are single digit millionares. They would gladly pay $2,000 to help keep Republicans in power with their lower tax rates and business friendly policies.
Seeing that there are many more small business owners and potential Republican donors than there are potential Democratic donors, the GOP will always out raise the Democrats in the post McCain-Feingold era. The beautiful irony of it all is that is was the Democrats who were insistant that it passed.
That's a convenient service.
I'll just wait until then to give away the money in my bank account in Nigeria.
Simple solution: End agricultural subsidies.
If you want to do good for rural America, invest the money that is spent on subsidies on rural infrastructure. In the long run, it will do more good.
Someone who thinks the John Birch Society is too liberal.
Damn.
For that matter what IS wrong with Nuclear Power?
Clean, efficient, energy that can reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil.
(And yes, I live within 10 miles of a nuclear reactor)
So will this be the Microwave power from SimCity 2000, or the Ion Cannon from Command and Conquer?
Aaah, The glory days of mid 1990's gaming.
Fritz Hollings retires in 2005!
"further increase America's dependence on Middle Eastern oil"
God forbid we drill for it in the frozen wasteland.
Caribu Rights, everyone!
"Clinton was impeached for lying under oath before *a grand jury*, and for obstruction of justice (i.e., tampering with witnesses). For crying out loud, why was this modded as insightful? You can't even get the most basic facts straight!"
I'd like to see a -1 Factually Inaccurate mod on Slashdot.
What next? M$NBC?
Because, as we all know, Salon as NO bias whatsoever.
And HUGE numbers of unemployment.
The punchline of the sad joke of two income households is that unless both partners make a significant amount of money, between stress and convenience items and taxes (Uncle Sam's dirty little secret), you don't gain that much.
Add kids into the mix and things get even worse. Day care expenses. Plus the fact that both of you will miss out on most of your kids lives.
Organized sports at 3 is SICK. This is some dad (or mom perhaps) wanting to make their kid live out some long lost athletic dream. Give the kids a break and let them be kids.
I saw in Wal-Mart the other week frozen Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches with no crust - 12 for $6. How many sandwiches could have been made with 1 jar of peanut butter, 1 jar of jelly and 1 loaf of bread for a fraction of the cost? Some mother is obviously too busy to make them or they wouldn't be selling the frozen ones.
Money is meaningless if it doesn't raise your standard of living. And it is a curse if you make your life miserable to get it.
Try an apartment, no children, and two cars.
Wife is unemployed. (Recent college grad)
And I live in an area with a very low cost of living.
Stuff costs money.
Technology has existed for some time to curb our need for oil, but our government won't promote this.
Again, why is that the Government's job?
In fact, Government interference with pollution controls is one of the major reasons our cars are so inefficient. Diesel engines are considerably more efficient and reliable, but they have trouble meeting pollution regulations.
Only took 1 post to bash Bush.
Wow!
After all, what man doesn't want a larger penis?
Who holds back the electric car?
/obligatory Simpsons reference
Who makes Steve Gutenberg a star?
We do! We do!
"If they really want free trade, how about not subsidizing american farmers at the expense of thrid world farmers, who are, in economic terms, vastly more efficient?
The "free trade" agreements seem to support incumbent businesses at the expense of innovation, which is the opposite of their intended use."
No kidding. I, on the other hand, AM a free trade nut. But I believe that if you are going to have free trade then all sides should play by the same rules. This "I want free trade, but industry X, Y, & Z still need protection/subsidies" is bull. Either trade freely, or don't.
My experience with Sun Products has led me to the following conclusions.
/Go ahead, mod me down. I have karma to burn.
Solaris is enterprise level Unix. Blows HP-UX, IRIX, and AIX out of the water. But compared with other Unix alternatives, such as Mac OS X, Linux, and BSD, it's a pain in the ass. It's wonderfully stable and reasonably secure, but it's also incredibly dated and terribly slow. HP, IBM, and SGI have seen that developing for Linux is better and more cost effective than maintaining their old proprietary Unices. Sun doesn't get this.
Java isn't great either. Yes, Java has a use. It's well documented and has is good for cross platform products. However, Microsoft hates it and Sun doesn't want it to run better on any system than Solaris. Combine this with the fact that Java programs already suffer from code bloat and you have a language that has only become truly useful for application development now that 1GHz+ and 256MB+ RAM are commonplace.
In other words:
Solaris sucks.
Java sucks.
Sun sucks.
Isn't he seeking the Democratic nomination for President?
Seriously, he couldn't be worse than the part-time Senator from N.C. with the same name.
Another case of Lies, damn lies, and benchmarks.
Computers/OS's/Programming Languages/editors are tools. Use the one that best suits your needs.
I gave my roommate an old Performa 600 (w/Centris 650 mainboard upgrade 20Mhz/52MB RAM) when his machine died two years ago.
That thing was amazingly useful for a computer that was that old. It's only real weakness is that it is almost impossible to find 68k Mac software anymore.
The guy running the store said 'the only one I have is installed here in the POS computer.'
I've heard of Packard Bell 486's being called POS's, but never in this context.