"the bill proposed by the House of Representatives"
An accurate description would be "the bill proposed by House of Representatives top Republicans". The House does not "propose" legislation, it passes legislation - despite the popular Republican "unitary executive" treason that makes Congress optional. This bill is the product of Republicans pandering to their clueless "morality base" as their "Brand W" sinks past 30% approval, below Nixon territory. The pandering relies on reporters ignoring its partisan Republican production. And Slashdot is there.
Since we're talking about science, I expect the experiment will attempt to prove Einstein wrong. That's the "falsification" that defines science. If the falsification fails, Einstein's theory will continue to represent our best model of phenomena. But it won't be "proven true". We do not have ways to prove physics theories "true". If proven false (on repeated experiment by unvested peers), we will have to change or discard Einstein's theory, incorporating the new observations.
Maybe more Americans would reject the NSA domestic spying if Bush and his minions weren't relentlessly lying about the scope and depth of the program. Maybe if they were reminded that the Bush administration can't keep secrets, or if they were reminded that presidents can't wiretap political enemies, though they will certainly try, more people would reject it. Americans are always anxious to appear "patriotic", especially when told every day that we're at war for our existence, and we've been attacked by maniacs who would destroy us. Ask us on the phone if "you support the president", and we're at least 50% more likely to say "yes". Especially when we know the president is listening, and dimly remember that he can send anyone to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib for reeducation.
No, this thread's topic is Republicans, starting with the Republicans in the story we're discussing. You're trying to change the subject to "Democrats are just as bad", but that's not what the rest of us are talking about.
"Intellectual dishonesty" certainly is a buzzword. Simple "dishonesty" is a good enough word - your insistence on the redundant "intellectual" combination so popular in current political discussion shows you're more interested in politicizing this discussion than in the discussion's topic - at least until you change it to suit your agenda.
Your relentless spewing the irrelevant, unsupportable "fanaticism" attack as I merely keep focused on Republicans, the topic, shows just how facile is your manipulation. There's plenty of room for disagreement. But painting your obnoxious attempts at controlling this discussion as some kind of oppression by me is beyond self-serving. Combined with your attempts to co-opt "objective" for your intensely defensive bias, they're stalinist. No thanks.
The reality is simple. You want to talk about how Democrats are the same as Republicans, but I don't. Try talking to someone who cares. Stop bashing me for not sharing your agenda.
I can burn data CDs. The Nautilus app that launches when a CD is inserted, gnomebaker, serpentine and SoundJuicer all fail, usually just hanging after writing a little bit to the blank CD (ruining it). I don't dual-boot. But I have had some failures to burn data CDs at full speed (4x), apparently succeeding but then unreadable, which succeeded at 2x.
Why should the public pay to protect the shareholders? That's exactly backwards. The shareholders should pay for their own protection. Public tax dollars pass the costs onto their customers, their shareholders, and everyone else, regardless of the degree of benefit gained from the protection. Meanwhile, the capital gains tax is being repealed, not earmarked for sustainable development. The really appropriate funding puts SOX costs on the corporation, like any other accounting, and would increase the capital gains tax to account for the increased government oversight costs.
The benefits those executives are counting don't include the cost of, say, Enron. Count a few dozen $BILLION collapses against the costs, and S-O looks pretty cheap. Not as cheap as ethics would make business, but there's no known way to inject that into capitalists.
Your apathy has helped the damage already done to get done. Your boredom bores me. But your senator, Santorum, is too vile to be boring. Since you can't tell the difference, he exploits your myopia. And the rest of us have to live with him.
I am not a member of a union, nor have I ever been. But many of my protections as a labor vendor, many of which combine to help protect my ability to work elsewhere, were created and are maintained by union action. I am a serial entrepreneur and shareholder, so there isn't a union of people with my labor characteristics - not with enough power to merit my membership. But all the unions to which I don't belong still form a counterbalance to the power of labor buyers to control the labor market, as they did before unions influenced it.
One of the problems with a website like Slashdot is that its editors aren't reliable for perspective on presentation of stories with a history, both in the world and in the site's coverage. BPL has been covered on Slashdot several times, as the electric companies have evolved their business proposition and dealt with technical, economic and political problems. But the story presented here "introduces" BPL without any of that perspective. The new Slashdot story/style presentations do better, at least eliminating pure duplicates, but the nanothin editorial depth leaves out the context that is part of the story, both on Slashdot and in the world. Consider this BPL story, and others, with an itchy google finger.
There's nothing libertarian about a disorganized labor sector. Unions are organizations among workers, not a government. Libertarians stand for freedom from government control - and corporate control, too, which unions can provide. Libertarians stand against unions which control people, but those are much less common than governments, corporation and other management that controls people. Especially in the absence of a union, disorganized laborers' liberty is defenseless in the world of corporate and government control.
We're talking about Republicans. We're talking about the Republicans who are pandering to clueless nanny staters over rumors of Internet predators with offers to restrict access to all kinds of expression. We're talking about Republicans who send dinky refund checks promoted endlessly on mass media TV news while stealing $TRILLIONS for insane, endless, losing wars. We're talking about Republicans who lazily vacation on lobbyist bribes while the lobbyists write the laws for their corporate clients.
We're not talking about Democrats, who have their problems. Not among them are the destruction of America's government, treasury and global reputation. Democrats' problems are at least sustainable, unlike Republicans.
But everyone knows that. You know that. You're just offering the lamest apology for Republican crimes. "Slightly different from Democrats." "Not as bad as Saddam Hussein." "But Clinton."
My calm description of the mechanics of suckers who vote for cheap Republican refund checks at the expense of the country's fate was no rant. Nor was focusing on the Republicans, subject of the story we're discussing and the other unprecedented crimes against the country, "ignoring the Democrats". I'm ignoring Canadian government corruption, too - because it's outside the scope of this discussion. Though no doubt you'd prefer to drag it into the debate to dilute the guilt of the Republicans you're covering for.
Let's drop the pretentious "intellectual dishonesty" buzzwords and just say that I'm honestly, and accurately, discussing the topic at hand - Republican guilt - while you are trying dishonest tricks to protect Republicans by tarring others with the same brush.
Republicans control the government, which is out of control and causing daily catastrophes. Let's talk about how to get rid of them, rather than wallow in your preferred smokescreen irrelevancies.
Because that $300 refund you got doesn't come anywhere near covering the higher gas and energy prices the "refund" candidate's policies have enabled. Because the $3TRILLION annual budget that candidate refuses to finance with revenue like taxes is spent on corporate welfare that damages the country, while committing the US to $45TRILLION in debt (4x our annual product), largely in the hands of rising enemies like China. Because they bribed you with a few bucks that don't cover their fat costs to get the power to lie you into a war that threatens everyone's safety and lives, while costing an extra $TRILLION we don't have.
Because the math doesn't add up to anything but robbing you, while destroying your country and threatening the world. While the opposing candidate probably has the ability to manage the government better, sustainably.
Why would anyone who can think past the immediate stunt of a refund check vote for these obvious, undeniable criminals?
Even after a half-dozen or more Republican congressmembers are demonstrated to be guilty of bribery/corruption in the Delay/Cunningham/Abramoff network, Republican voters will just rely on the same denial well known facts that served them when voting for BushCo in 2000, 2002, 2004.
Why not, when we already know that these same lying murderers running the Bush administration and his Republican Congress are the once-fringe Iran/Contra/S&L criminals run out of VP Bush Sr's White House basement? Oliver North is their favorite "war storyteller" on Fake News, Watergate murderer Gordon Liddy is their "elder spokesman" on talk radio.
Americans have become fat and lazy, spoiled grand/children of the Depression generation who institutionalized the spoils of the "good war" in the 1940s. So we've squandered the spoils of the poorly-concluded Cold War, in the hands of the Baby Boomers. The same Boomers who volunteered for Vietnam at higher rates than their parents volunteered for WWII. The same Boomers who want war whenever possible, because it makes them think they're as strong and good as their ancestors fighting WWII, which is then equal to their ancestors who fought the Civil War (especially the losing Confederates), and those who slaughtered in the Indian Wars. Especially those who live on land stolen from tribes by those ancestors, who look to "war" as a self-justification for everything.
Despite inevitable media descriptions of "irony", it's not "ironic" that the great Republican corruption story of the decade is centered on tribal casinos. It's only natural that Republicans exploit criminal conspiracies in our government of American tribes to exploit gambling compulsions among American families while they exploit the war obsessions of those same American families to roll the dice in tribal Iraq and Afghanistan. Irony requires some kind of contrast, difference, inversion, while Republican corruption is entirely consistent. It's "ironic" only in that Republicans are consistent in their "inconsistency" - known as "hypocrisy", though "lying murder" is more precise. Looking at the big picture, in their own language, the only truly accurate word for these people is "evil".
Does anyone have any excuse left for voting for Republicans because they represent "small government", "no intrusion into personal affairs" or any of the "Conservative" lies they've spewed for decades to grab power and squander American freedom?
I prefer the bigger monitor at same resolution only to view it from further away.
A spherical enclosure would at least justify the projectors, offering big computation saviings by actually projecting onto the display surface rather than computing the projection.
Slashdot Mirror
And that's why posting sensible observations on Slashdot can be as valuable as coding securely.
"the bill proposed by the House of Representatives"
An accurate description would be "the bill proposed by House of Representatives top Republicans". The House does not "propose" legislation, it passes legislation - despite the popular Republican "unitary executive" treason that makes Congress optional. This bill is the product of Republicans pandering to their clueless "morality base" as their "Brand W" sinks past 30% approval, below Nixon territory. The pandering relies on reporters ignoring its partisan Republican production. And Slashdot is there.
Moderation -1
100% Troll
I guess the PR of the Year Award comes with a free subscription to AsTrollTurf Inc.
Capitalists know that PR is cheaper than security. Never trust them.
Since we're talking about science, I expect the experiment will attempt to prove Einstein wrong. That's the "falsification" that defines science. If the falsification fails, Einstein's theory will continue to represent our best model of phenomena. But it won't be "proven true". We do not have ways to prove physics theories "true". If proven false (on repeated experiment by unvested peers), we will have to change or discard Einstein's theory, incorporating the new observations.
This is basic scientific method.
Maybe more Americans would reject the NSA domestic spying if Bush and his minions weren't relentlessly lying about the scope and depth of the program. Maybe if they were reminded that the Bush administration can't keep secrets, or if they were reminded that presidents can't wiretap political enemies, though they will certainly try, more people would reject it. Americans are always anxious to appear "patriotic", especially when told every day that we're at war for our existence, and we've been attacked by maniacs who would destroy us. Ask us on the phone if "you support the president", and we're at least 50% more likely to say "yes". Especially when we know the president is listening, and dimly remember that he can send anyone to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib for reeducation.
No, this thread's topic is Republicans, starting with the Republicans in the story we're discussing. You're trying to change the subject to "Democrats are just as bad", but that's not what the rest of us are talking about.
"Intellectual dishonesty" certainly is a buzzword. Simple "dishonesty" is a good enough word - your insistence on the redundant "intellectual" combination so popular in current political discussion shows you're more interested in politicizing this discussion than in the discussion's topic - at least until you change it to suit your agenda.
Your relentless spewing the irrelevant, unsupportable "fanaticism" attack as I merely keep focused on Republicans, the topic, shows just how facile is your manipulation. There's plenty of room for disagreement. But painting your obnoxious attempts at controlling this discussion as some kind of oppression by me is beyond self-serving. Combined with your attempts to co-opt "objective" for your intensely defensive bias, they're stalinist. No thanks.
The reality is simple. You want to talk about how Democrats are the same as Republicans, but I don't. Try talking to someone who cares. Stop bashing me for not sharing your agenda.
I can burn data CDs. The Nautilus app that launches when a CD is inserted, gnomebaker, serpentine and SoundJuicer all fail, usually just hanging after writing a little bit to the blank CD (ruining it). I don't dual-boot. But I have had some failures to burn data CDs at full speed (4x), apparently succeeding but then unreadable, which succeeded at 2x.
Why should the public pay to protect the shareholders? That's exactly backwards. The shareholders should pay for their own protection. Public tax dollars pass the costs onto their customers, their shareholders, and everyone else, regardless of the degree of benefit gained from the protection. Meanwhile, the capital gains tax is being repealed, not earmarked for sustainable development. The really appropriate funding puts SOX costs on the corporation, like any other accounting, and would increase the capital gains tax to account for the increased government oversight costs.
"Are we really that fucking shallow?"
;)?
Why should I care
The benefits those executives are counting don't include the cost of, say, Enron. Count a few dozen $BILLION collapses against the costs, and S-O looks pretty cheap. Not as cheap as ethics would make business, but there's no known way to inject that into capitalists.
Your apathy has helped the damage already done to get done. Your boredom bores me. But your senator, Santorum, is too vile to be boring. Since you can't tell the difference, he exploits your myopia. And the rest of us have to live with him.
I win again. Now the Anonymous jerk Cowards who argue the excluded middle are running from Bush at top speed. Revenge is sweet.
I am not a member of a union, nor have I ever been. But many of my protections as a labor vendor, many of which combine to help protect my ability to work elsewhere, were created and are maintained by union action. I am a serial entrepreneur and shareholder, so there isn't a union of people with my labor characteristics - not with enough power to merit my membership. But all the unions to which I don't belong still form a counterbalance to the power of labor buyers to control the labor market, as they did before unions influenced it.
One of the problems with a website like Slashdot is that its editors aren't reliable for perspective on presentation of stories with a history, both in the world and in the site's coverage. BPL has been covered on Slashdot several times, as the electric companies have evolved their business proposition and dealt with technical, economic and political problems. But the story presented here "introduces" BPL without any of that perspective. The new Slashdot story/style presentations do better, at least eliminating pure duplicates, but the nanothin editorial depth leaves out the context that is part of the story, both on Slashdot and in the world. Consider this BPL story, and others, with an itchy google finger.
There are big differences between Democrats and Republicans which really matter.
960072 is a very high (recent) userID. How long have you been testing your labor/management theories?
There's nothing libertarian about a disorganized labor sector. Unions are organizations among workers, not a government. Libertarians stand for freedom from government control - and corporate control, too, which unions can provide. Libertarians stand against unions which control people, but those are much less common than governments, corporation and other management that controls people. Especially in the absence of a union, disorganized laborers' liberty is defenseless in the world of corporate and government control.
We're talking about Republicans. We're talking about the Republicans who are pandering to clueless nanny staters over rumors of Internet predators with offers to restrict access to all kinds of expression. We're talking about Republicans who send dinky refund checks promoted endlessly on mass media TV news while stealing $TRILLIONS for insane, endless, losing wars. We're talking about Republicans who lazily vacation on lobbyist bribes while the lobbyists write the laws for their corporate clients.
We're not talking about Democrats, who have their problems. Not among them are the destruction of America's government, treasury and global reputation. Democrats' problems are at least sustainable, unlike Republicans.
But everyone knows that. You know that. You're just offering the lamest apology for Republican crimes. "Slightly different from Democrats." "Not as bad as Saddam Hussein." "But Clinton."
My calm description of the mechanics of suckers who vote for cheap Republican refund checks at the expense of the country's fate was no rant. Nor was focusing on the Republicans, subject of the story we're discussing and the other unprecedented crimes against the country, "ignoring the Democrats". I'm ignoring Canadian government corruption, too - because it's outside the scope of this discussion. Though no doubt you'd prefer to drag it into the debate to dilute the guilt of the Republicans you're covering for.
Let's drop the pretentious "intellectual dishonesty" buzzwords and just say that I'm honestly, and accurately, discussing the topic at hand - Republican guilt - while you are trying dishonest tricks to protect Republicans by tarring others with the same brush.
Republicans control the government, which is out of control and causing daily catastrophes. Let's talk about how to get rid of them, rather than wallow in your preferred smokescreen irrelevancies.
Because that $300 refund you got doesn't come anywhere near covering the higher gas and energy prices the "refund" candidate's policies have enabled. Because the $3TRILLION annual budget that candidate refuses to finance with revenue like taxes is spent on corporate welfare that damages the country, while committing the US to $45TRILLION in debt (4x our annual product), largely in the hands of rising enemies like China. Because they bribed you with a few bucks that don't cover their fat costs to get the power to lie you into a war that threatens everyone's safety and lives, while costing an extra $TRILLION we don't have.
Because the math doesn't add up to anything but robbing you, while destroying your country and threatening the world. While the opposing candidate probably has the ability to manage the government better, sustainably.
Why would anyone who can think past the immediate stunt of a refund check vote for these obvious, undeniable criminals?
Even after a half-dozen or more Republican congressmembers are demonstrated to be guilty of bribery/corruption in the Delay/Cunningham/Abramoff network, Republican voters will just rely on the same denial well known facts that served them when voting for BushCo in 2000, 2002, 2004.
Why not, when we already know that these same lying murderers running the Bush administration and his Republican Congress are the once-fringe Iran/Contra/S&L criminals run out of VP Bush Sr's White House basement? Oliver North is their favorite "war storyteller" on Fake News, Watergate murderer Gordon Liddy is their "elder spokesman" on talk radio.
Americans have become fat and lazy, spoiled grand/children of the Depression generation who institutionalized the spoils of the "good war" in the 1940s. So we've squandered the spoils of the poorly-concluded Cold War, in the hands of the Baby Boomers. The same Boomers who volunteered for Vietnam at higher rates than their parents volunteered for WWII. The same Boomers who want war whenever possible, because it makes them think they're as strong and good as their ancestors fighting WWII, which is then equal to their ancestors who fought the Civil War (especially the losing Confederates), and those who slaughtered in the Indian Wars. Especially those who live on land stolen from tribes by those ancestors, who look to "war" as a self-justification for everything.
Despite inevitable media descriptions of "irony", it's not "ironic" that the great Republican corruption story of the decade is centered on tribal casinos. It's only natural that Republicans exploit criminal conspiracies in our government of American tribes to exploit gambling compulsions among American families while they exploit the war obsessions of those same American families to roll the dice in tribal Iraq and Afghanistan. Irony requires some kind of contrast, difference, inversion, while Republican corruption is entirely consistent. It's "ironic" only in that Republicans are consistent in their "inconsistency" - known as "hypocrisy", though "lying murder" is more precise. Looking at the big picture, in their own language, the only truly accurate word for these people is "evil".
"deities and their buddies"
If you were a deity, that would be "deities and our buddies". Though omnipotence means the power to make mistakes in every post.
Switching jerseys at an NYC Subway Series would instantly trigger the "human sacrifice" portion of the show.
There's a reason "New Jersey" doesn't have an MLB team.
Does anyone have any excuse left for voting for Republicans because they represent "small government", "no intrusion into personal affairs" or any of the "Conservative" lies they've spewed for decades to grab power and squander American freedom?
I prefer the bigger monitor at same resolution only to view it from further away.
A spherical enclosure would at least justify the projectors, offering big computation saviings by actually projecting onto the display surface rather than computing the projection.