Wasn't the issue in Jones that the police affixed the GPS tracker to the vehicle without a warrant? When you willingly carry a tracking device, the expectation of privacy is entirely different.
Reading from the libertarian bible won't help. I'm familiar with all those arguments, and they are not grounded in reality. The free market exists only as a theoretical construct, which some markets approximate well, but most do not. In reality, non-linear effects quickly distort the free market, and none of them remain free for long.
Sometimes the economy really is a zero sum game. When a CEO fails miserably and grants himself bonuses, those bonuses come directly out of the pocket of labor. You know, those who actually work and create value. That's the way the real economy works, and there no way for you to blame that on progressives. It's simply rich people looking out for other rich people.
The idea that medicaid and the emerency room mandate is sufficient when tens of thousands of uninsured people die each year shows just how far from reality you are. Try getting someone at the emergency room to look at a suspicious mole. Serously dude, come back from la-la land.
Rich people making good choices also makes everybody else wealthier.
Sometimes their good decisions make everyone richer. Sometimes their good decisions make them richer at the expense of everyone else. Your faith that every decision that increases individual wealth is good for society is ungrounded in reality. You're the one in fantasy land.
It's not a question of "rising tides" it's a question of rewarding good choices.
Again, good for whom? Rewarding choices that are good for all of society is great. Rewarding choices that are good for only the rich is only good for the rich. That's the world we live in today.
And there is nothing wrong with inequality.
In limited doses, sure. The kind of extreme inequality we see in America today is the same kind that we saw before the Great Depression. It's simply not OK for executives to destroy companies and recieve million dollar bonuses while hard working poor people die because they can't afford health care. But that's the world in which we live.
Bad choices for whom? Rich people making good choices in their own self interest leads to them getting richer, deepening inequality. The rest of society, who by definition vastly outnumber the economic elites have no incentive to allow this.
And yes, I know "a rising tide raises all boats". That's occasionally true, and when it is, that's good for everyone. But it's not always true, and the more inequality we allow the less true it tends to be.
voters largely don't give a sh*t about what wealthy people tell them
No, voters don't give a shit about what wealthy people tell them. Voters exist in the real economy where their opportunities are largely determined by the choices rich people make about what to do with their wealth. That's a de facto government, which should be democratic and not totalitarian.
We also need to limit the damage wealth can do, by keeping it as small as possible. Economic power is equivalent to political power, and wealth attracts more wealth. Without strong checks on the growth of wealth, we will find economic inequality just as oppressive as a corrupt government.
If the party in power screws up, vote for the other party. And do that until the other party cleans up its act. That's how our democracy works
That's how our democracy fails to work. Vote for one party, so they can fuck the country up until people can't stand them anymore. Then vote for the other party, so they can fuck the country up even more. By the time you tire of one party, you've forgotten how bad the other party is. To make matters worse, they deliberately distract us with bike-shed debates over trivial issues while making the important decisions behind closed doors.
It's just a good cop/bad cop routine. They're both on the same side in reality.
it actually has been doing fairly well keeping both parties in line with mainstream preferences.
No, they've been doing fairly well in keeping mainstream preferences in line with what the parties want. They frame the debates, they propagandize, they collude with the media to exclude alternative voices.
The West Fertilizer Company Explosion. They illegally held hundreds of tons of explosive fertilizer without reporting it in order to avoid safety regulations. As a result, 15 people died. That's murder just as surely as if they had thrown a bomb into a marathon.
Like or hate the Tea Party movement they showed a good example of 1/6th of the American people getting fed up and changing the structure of a political party on multiple issues.
No, they showed a good example of an astroturfed movement that tricked people into giving the ultra-rich even more wealth and power than they had before.
Ultra rich people get attacked by the United States all the time. Ask Bill Gates about his relationship with the Clinton administration
Before the trial, Microsoft gave no donations to politicians. Today they give millions of dollars. Despite being found guilty, Microsoft suffered no practical consequences. What happened to Microsoft was punishment for them not paying their dues for the service the US government provides to rich corporations.
And if you mean that no party that threatens the structure of wealth distribution could attain power, such a thing happened under FDR.
Most of what I'm talking about has been going on for 30-40 years. Starting with Nixon and really ramping up with Reagan. FDR was almost 70 years ago, a whole other world.
One only need to look at the City of Boston to see the full force of the Militarized Police State. One man, wounded and half dead, and the whole town goes Apeshit poo flinging crazy. Martial Law.
Indeed. And compare the situation in West, Texas the very same week, where corporate greed lead directly to the deaths of 15 people and no one responsible has been arrested. That's how you can tell that the law has nothing to do with keeping people safe, and everything to do with keeping the rich rich.
I do not live in fear of going to jail for off hand criticisms of our elected leaders
That's because authority in the US is so powerfully entrenched that no amount of satire can hope to damage it. If someone makes fun of the party in power, what are people going to do? Vote for the other party?
I do not fear that those currently in power will not leave office peacefully if they lose elections.
Those truly in power in the US are not elected. Whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office, the true power is held by the ultra rich. No party that threatens the rich can ever attain power in the US.
I do not fear for a military coup.
Of course not. Why would the military overthrow a government that is completely controlled by the military industrial complex?
I do not think our courts as an institution are toothless or corrupt
Then why does every amendment except the third have exemptions you can drive a dump truck through? If you don't think courts as an institution are toothless or corrupt, you're simply not paying attention.
I do not live in fear of going to jail for off hand criticisms of our elected leaders
That's because authority in the US is so powerfully entrenched that no amount of satire can hope to damage it. If someone makes fun of the party in power, what are people going to do? Vote for the other party?
I do not fear that those currently in power will not leave office peacefully if they lose elections.
Those truly in power in the US are not elected. Whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office, the true power is held by the ultra rich. No party that threatens the rich can ever attain power in the US.
I do not fear for a military coup.
Of course not. Why would the military overthrow a government that is completely controlled by the military industrial complex?
I do not think our courts as an institution are toothless or corrupt
Then why does every amendment except the third have exemptions you can drive a dump truck through? If you don't think courts as an institution are toothless or corrupt, you're simply not paying attention.
Sequencing involves in vitro DNA synthesis. It sounds to me like they are doing nothing more than solution hybridization. e.g. denature your sample, apply it to membrane with a probe on it, and let the strands anneal to the probe. Then they get a fluorescent signal if the strands anneal properly.
My question is how they get the hybridization so specific that a single base pair difference will cause a measurable difference in hybridization. If it's as easy as they make it sound, they do this without highly controlled temperatures and buffers.
most American's are decent folk and indoctrinated to submit to authority
Did you mean to say "most Americans are not decent folk, and indoctrinated to submit to authority"? Decent folk pay attention and resist when authority is unjust. Unthinking submission to authority is not just indecent, it's the cause of every atrocity in history.
Depends on what you're doing. I do some bioinformatics with Bioconductor. Even on Debian Sid, the r-bioc- packages get out of date fast. If I install Bioconductor manually, all I have to do is update from within R. If I install Bioconductor with apt, I have to wait until someone else packages it. This very frequently makes the difference between getting the work done and not.
Slashdot Mirror
This raises another question. What happens when these people refuse to answer questions or allow a search of their home?
Collecting data sent in the clear across public networks
Phone calls are sent in the clear across public networks. It's illegal for the government to listen to them without a warrant.
The issue here isn't really that the NSA has these vast powers
Yes it is. These vast powers are strictly forbidden by the highest law of the land.
Wasn't the issue in Jones that the police affixed the GPS tracker to the vehicle without a warrant? When you willingly carry a tracking device, the expectation of privacy is entirely different.
This needs to be taken to SCOTUS, extra pronto.
Where they can rubber stamp whatever law enforcement wants, extra extra pronto.
Reading from the libertarian bible won't help. I'm familiar with all those arguments, and they are not grounded in reality. The free market exists only as a theoretical construct, which some markets approximate well, but most do not. In reality, non-linear effects quickly distort the free market, and none of them remain free for long.
Sometimes the economy really is a zero sum game. When a CEO fails miserably and grants himself bonuses, those bonuses come directly out of the pocket of labor. You know, those who actually work and create value. That's the way the real economy works, and there no way for you to blame that on progressives. It's simply rich people looking out for other rich people.
The idea that medicaid and the emerency room mandate is sufficient when tens of thousands of uninsured people die each year shows just how far from reality you are. Try getting someone at the emergency room to look at a suspicious mole. Serously dude, come back from la-la land.
Rich people making good choices also makes everybody else wealthier.
Sometimes their good decisions make everyone richer. Sometimes their good decisions make them richer at the expense of everyone else. Your faith that every decision that increases individual wealth is good for society is ungrounded in reality. You're the one in fantasy land.
It's not a question of "rising tides" it's a question of rewarding good choices.
Again, good for whom? Rewarding choices that are good for all of society is great. Rewarding choices that are good for only the rich is only good for the rich. That's the world we live in today.
And there is nothing wrong with inequality.
In limited doses, sure. The kind of extreme inequality we see in America today is the same kind that we saw before the Great Depression. It's simply not OK for executives to destroy companies and recieve million dollar bonuses while hard working poor people die because they can't afford health care. But that's the world in which we live.
But when you agree to join the military and have a security clearance you make promises to protect that information.
When you become President, you swear to defend the Constitution. Until we hold the President accountable, there is no victory here.
The US didn't become the country that it is because of a bunch of people that sit around and do nothing all day.
That's exactly why the US is the country that it is.
Bad choices for whom? Rich people making good choices in their own self interest leads to them getting richer, deepening inequality. The rest of society, who by definition vastly outnumber the economic elites have no incentive to allow this.
And yes, I know "a rising tide raises all boats". That's occasionally true, and when it is, that's good for everyone. But it's not always true, and the more inequality we allow the less true it tends to be.
Insects generally have a lower meat to shell ratio than sea arthropods.
voters largely don't give a sh*t about what wealthy people tell them
No, voters don't give a shit about what wealthy people tell them. Voters exist in the real economy where their opportunities are largely determined by the choices rich people make about what to do with their wealth. That's a de facto government, which should be democratic and not totalitarian.
We also need to limit the damage wealth can do, by keeping it as small as possible. Economic power is equivalent to political power, and wealth attracts more wealth. Without strong checks on the growth of wealth, we will find economic inequality just as oppressive as a corrupt government.
If the party in power screws up, vote for the other party. And do that until the other party cleans up its act. That's how our democracy works
That's how our democracy fails to work. Vote for one party, so they can fuck the country up until people can't stand them anymore. Then vote for the other party, so they can fuck the country up even more. By the time you tire of one party, you've forgotten how bad the other party is. To make matters worse, they deliberately distract us with bike-shed debates over trivial issues while making the important decisions behind closed doors.
It's just a good cop/bad cop routine. They're both on the same side in reality.
it actually has been doing fairly well keeping both parties in line with mainstream preferences.
No, they've been doing fairly well in keeping mainstream preferences in line with what the parties want. They frame the debates, they propagandize, they collude with the media to exclude alternative voices.
The West Fertilizer Company Explosion. They illegally held hundreds of tons of explosive fertilizer without reporting it in order to avoid safety regulations. As a result, 15 people died. That's murder just as surely as if they had thrown a bomb into a marathon.
Like or hate the Tea Party movement they showed a good example of 1/6th of the American people getting fed up and changing the structure of a political party on multiple issues.
No, they showed a good example of an astroturfed movement that tricked people into giving the ultra-rich even more wealth and power than they had before.
Ultra rich people get attacked by the United States all the time. Ask Bill Gates about his relationship with the Clinton administration
Before the trial, Microsoft gave no donations to politicians. Today they give millions of dollars. Despite being found guilty, Microsoft suffered no practical consequences. What happened to Microsoft was punishment for them not paying their dues for the service the US government provides to rich corporations.
And if you mean that no party that threatens the structure of wealth distribution could attain power, such a thing happened under FDR.
Most of what I'm talking about has been going on for 30-40 years. Starting with Nixon and really ramping up with Reagan. FDR was almost 70 years ago, a whole other world.
Oh, well if Hammurabi did it, it must be OK.
One only need to look at the City of Boston to see the full force of the Militarized Police State. One man, wounded and half dead, and the whole town goes Apeshit poo flinging crazy. Martial Law.
Indeed. And compare the situation in West, Texas the very same week, where corporate greed lead directly to the deaths of 15 people and no one responsible has been arrested. That's how you can tell that the law has nothing to do with keeping people safe, and everything to do with keeping the rich rich.
I do not live in fear of going to jail for off hand criticisms of our elected leaders
That's because authority in the US is so powerfully entrenched that no amount of satire can hope to damage it. If someone makes fun of the party in power, what are people going to do? Vote for the other party?
I do not fear that those currently in power will not leave office peacefully if they lose elections.
Those truly in power in the US are not elected. Whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office, the true power is held by the ultra rich. No party that threatens the rich can ever attain power in the US.
I do not fear for a military coup.
Of course not. Why would the military overthrow a government that is completely controlled by the military industrial complex?
I do not think our courts as an institution are toothless or corrupt
Then why does every amendment except the third have exemptions you can drive a dump truck through? If you don't think courts as an institution are toothless or corrupt, you're simply not paying attention.
I do not live in fear of going to jail for off hand criticisms of our elected leaders
That's because authority in the US is so powerfully entrenched that no amount of satire can hope to damage it. If someone makes fun of the party in power, what are people going to do? Vote for the other party?
I do not fear that those currently in power will not leave office peacefully if they lose elections.
Those truly in power in the US are not elected. Whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office, the true power is held by the ultra rich. No party that threatens the rich can ever attain power in the US.
I do not fear for a military coup.
Of course not. Why would the military overthrow a government that is completely controlled by the military industrial complex?
I do not think our courts as an institution are toothless or corrupt
Then why does every amendment except the third have exemptions you can drive a dump truck through? If you don't think courts as an institution are toothless or corrupt, you're simply not paying attention.
Sequencing involves in vitro DNA synthesis. It sounds to me like they are doing nothing more than solution hybridization. e.g. denature your sample, apply it to membrane with a probe on it, and let the strands anneal to the probe. Then they get a fluorescent signal if the strands anneal properly.
My question is how they get the hybridization so specific that a single base pair difference will cause a measurable difference in hybridization. If it's as easy as they make it sound, they do this without highly controlled temperatures and buffers.
most American's are decent folk and indoctrinated to submit to authority
Did you mean to say "most Americans are not decent folk, and indoctrinated to submit to authority"? Decent folk pay attention and resist when authority is unjust. Unthinking submission to authority is not just indecent, it's the cause of every atrocity in history.
Depends on what you're doing. I do some bioinformatics with Bioconductor. Even on Debian Sid, the r-bioc- packages get out of date fast. If I install Bioconductor manually, all I have to do is update from within R. If I install Bioconductor with apt, I have to wait until someone else packages it. This very frequently makes the difference between getting the work done and not.
So they're just like little adults.
We are getting to a tipping point in the privacy vs security discussion. Insecurity is winning.
Actually, I missed that one somehow. And I'm a big fan of turn based strategy. And it's officially supported on Linux. Thanks for the recommendation!