I am absolutely certain that the Americans being held hostage in China care a great deal who's fault it was. I was in the Air Force, and I know many people who serve on air crews. They would not want their country to apologize for this incident, especially since that would mean blaming the hostages for the accident! Personal pride aside, these men and women want to come home, but with their honor and their country's honor intact.
While I prefer the content of FOX News; MSNBC is better organized and has more material than most of the other major news sites. When you consider their content sharing with the Washington Post, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and Space.com (just to name a few), they are one of the top information sites on the web. I'm no MS fan, but when a site like this is down along with the others that have been listed, it's a big story.
While it may be true that there are better speakers than Bose, that doesn't mean that they are bad. I had a pair of mid-size Bose speakers (about 15 years ago) and they were greatly superior to the larger Pioneer speakers which came with the stereo system. Obviously there are better options out there, but there are much worse as well.
Do you think that, thanks in part to the internet, geeks feel pressured to fit certain stereotypes in that same way that other young "groups" do? How do you think that you differ from the typical geek? Do you like sports, are you socially active, etc.?
I lack the time or the inclination to rebut all of these assertations, but let me mention the one that Mr. Brin gives as his main reason to reject the Republicans: taxes.
It is obvious to all who seriously analyze the facts, that supply side economic theories work. Study after study shows Laffer's Curve to be an accurate description of the behavior of the economy with respect to tax cuts. It's not a matter of favoring the rich, but of expanding the pie for everyone. And the best answer is (surprise, surprise) treat everyone equally! Yes, all men are created equal should apply to taxes too! It's only fait that everyone pay a similar percent of their income in taxes to the government. (It's appropriate that we allow the less fortunate to escape this burden with deductions and such, but we should move away from the other extreme.) Making the tax code fairer (ie flatter) helps everyone by improving the economy and removing obstacles to income growth.
I'm a middle class type, married with one kid. I don't have 90 milliion dolllars; I don't even have one million. (At the rate I'm going, I never will.) But I want my daughter to have that chance. I think she has a better chance if Al Gore and his "targeted" policies are never implemented.
One more thing: a moderate can only be portrayed as extreme if the person doing the portraying is truly on one end of the spectrum. Bush is pretty close to the center on most issues, and appreicates his diferences with others where his position is not usiversally accecpted (like abortion). He is not a "right-winger" to be sure. Look at his record in Texas and you see a moderate, even in his court nominations (See this article from The New Republic, a somewhat left-wing magazine, for more info.) I can't say I agree with Bush on everything; he clearly doesn't understand the Internet. But, all things considered, Gov. Bush is better for the country. Mr. Brin's opinions are clearly more extreme than the typical Republican or Democrat.
Hello to you too! Can't say as I blame you. There a lot of people who abuse the difference between privacy and anonymity. That does make serious discussions difficult. Moderation does help though...
I can't believe that I just read the words "intelligent" and "France" in the same sentence without a negative. Seriously, this whole issue is subject to some serious interpretation. Could it be that France is just opposed to policing actions (as opposed to thoughts) of any kind? How much of this is just an extension of current extradition and similar treaties? The Internet is global and the rules they are a changing.
I admire Mr. Stallman for being willing to share his opinions, especially in light of the fact that his views are shared by so few. For someone who is so technically advanced, Mr. Stallman seems to want to go back in time to when his ideas about capitalism hadn't been disproved. The irony is that only in a capitalist economy can one even care about these issues. Prosperity gives people the money and time to worry about free software and improving the environment and the other problems mentioned. sigh. Another point of interest is how these posts are moderated. As of this posting (11 comments), most of the comments that were critical of Mr. Stallman had been moderated to a -1. Freedom doesn't tolerate disagreement well I guess. I won't get started on the rest, as I bet there are over 100 comments now.
The biggest problem I see is that students are encouraged to make judgements on the mental state of their classmates, a role that should properly be performed by adults - ideally parents, then trained counselors, teachers, clergy, and others in appropriate positions. I realize that Pinkerton will object that the students aren't making the judgements, but merely calling the behaviors to the attention of the appropriate adults. Deciding whether to make the call is a judgement, and creates a system rife for abuse. Most children lack the experience and maturity to objectively decide whether a classmate is a threat to themselves or others. I probably did. I was a geek, a jock, semi-popular, a thespian, a singer, and a whole lot more in high-school (doing everything was my way of getting through high school with a high IQ and my sanity intact), and despite my being a part of almost every major social division I still think it would have been a bad idea for me to analyze my classmate for threats. Many other posts have provided excellent examples of the potential for abuse against the misunderstood, but any student could be the victim of this type of monitoring. Imagine a critical member of the football team maliciously informed upon before the championship game, or the valedictorian before the graduation speech, or the student applying to a prestigious university or military academy. Could the efforts of these students be derailed by the improper use of WAVE in a zero tolerance, everything gets investigated environment? I've seen the effects of a witch hunt, and the damage that can be caused by untrue allegations in a charged environment. It's not pretty. The WAVE program needs some serious consideration and safeguards to prevent abuse. I won't even get into the issues of tolerance, free speech, unpopular issues like politics, religion, and much more. That's a Pandora's box of abuse possibilities I don't even want to consider.
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I am absolutely certain that the Americans being held hostage in China care a great deal who's fault it was. I was in the Air Force, and I know many people who serve on air crews. They would not want their country to apologize for this incident, especially since that would mean blaming the hostages for the accident! Personal pride aside, these men and women want to come home, but with their honor and their country's honor intact.
While I prefer the content of FOX News; MSNBC is better organized and has more material than most of the other major news sites. When you consider their content sharing with the Washington Post, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and Space.com (just to name a few), they are one of the top information sites on the web. I'm no MS fan, but when a site like this is down along with the others that have been listed, it's a big story.
While it may be true that there are better speakers than Bose, that doesn't mean that they are bad. I had a pair of mid-size Bose speakers (about 15 years ago) and they were greatly superior to the larger Pioneer speakers which came with the stereo system. Obviously there are better options out there, but there are much worse as well.
Do you think that, thanks in part to the internet, geeks feel pressured to fit certain stereotypes in that same way that other young "groups" do? How do you think that you differ from the typical geek? Do you like sports, are you socially active, etc.?
I lack the time or the inclination to rebut all of these assertations, but let me mention the one that Mr. Brin gives as his main reason to reject the Republicans: taxes.
It is obvious to all who seriously analyze the facts, that supply side economic theories work. Study after study shows Laffer's Curve to be an accurate description of the behavior of the economy with respect to tax cuts. It's not a matter of favoring the rich, but of expanding the pie for everyone. And the best answer is (surprise, surprise) treat everyone equally! Yes, all men are created equal should apply to taxes too! It's only fait that everyone pay a similar percent of their income in taxes to the government. (It's appropriate that we allow the less fortunate to escape this burden with deductions and such, but we should move away from the other extreme.) Making the tax code fairer (ie flatter) helps everyone by improving the economy and removing obstacles to income growth.
I'm a middle class type, married with one kid. I don't have 90 milliion dolllars; I don't even have one million. (At the rate I'm going, I never will.) But I want my daughter to have that chance. I think she has a better chance if Al Gore and his "targeted" policies are never implemented.
One more thing: a moderate can only be portrayed as extreme if the person doing the portraying is truly on one end of the spectrum. Bush is pretty close to the center on most issues, and appreicates his diferences with others where his position is not usiversally accecpted (like abortion). He is not a "right-winger" to be sure. Look at his record in Texas and you see a moderate, even in his court nominations (See this article from The New Republic, a somewhat left-wing magazine, for more info.) I can't say I agree with Bush on everything; he clearly doesn't understand the Internet. But, all things considered, Gov. Bush is better for the country. Mr. Brin's opinions are clearly more extreme than the typical Republican or Democrat.
Hello to you too!
Can't say as I blame you. There a lot of people who abuse the difference between privacy and anonymity. That does make serious discussions difficult. Moderation does help though...
I can't believe that I just read the words "intelligent" and "France" in the same sentence without a negative. Seriously, this whole issue is subject to some serious interpretation. Could it be that France is just opposed to policing actions (as opposed to thoughts) of any kind? How much of this is just an extension of current extradition and similar treaties? The Internet is global and the rules they are a changing.
I admire Mr. Stallman for being willing to share his opinions, especially in light of the fact that his views are shared by so few. For someone who is so technically advanced, Mr. Stallman seems to want to go back in time to when his ideas about capitalism hadn't been disproved. The irony is that only in a capitalist economy can one even care about these issues. Prosperity gives people the money and time to worry about free software and improving the environment and the other problems mentioned. sigh. Another point of interest is how these posts are moderated. As of this posting (11 comments), most of the comments that were critical of Mr. Stallman had been moderated to a -1. Freedom doesn't tolerate disagreement well I guess. I won't get started on the rest, as I bet there are over 100 comments now.
The biggest problem I see is that students are encouraged to make judgements on the mental state of their classmates, a role that should properly be performed by adults - ideally parents, then trained counselors, teachers, clergy, and others in appropriate positions. I realize that Pinkerton will object that the students aren't making the judgements, but merely calling the behaviors to the attention of the appropriate adults. Deciding whether to make the call is a judgement, and creates a system rife for abuse. Most children lack the experience and maturity to objectively decide whether a classmate is a threat to themselves or others. I probably did. I was a geek, a jock, semi-popular, a thespian, a singer, and a whole lot more in high-school (doing everything was my way of getting through high school with a high IQ and my sanity intact), and despite my being a part of almost every major social division I still think it would have been a bad idea for me to analyze my classmate for threats.
Many other posts have provided excellent examples of the potential for abuse against the misunderstood, but any student could be the victim of this type of monitoring. Imagine a critical member of the football team maliciously informed upon before the championship game, or the valedictorian before the graduation speech, or the student applying to a prestigious university or military academy. Could the efforts of these students be derailed by the improper use of WAVE in a zero tolerance, everything gets investigated environment? I've seen the effects of a witch hunt, and the damage that can be caused by untrue allegations in a charged environment. It's not pretty. The WAVE program needs some serious consideration and safeguards to prevent abuse. I won't even get into the issues of tolerance, free speech, unpopular issues like politics, religion, and much more. That's a Pandora's box of abuse possibilities I don't even want to consider.