Ummm... Reason they went for Patrick Stewart for one of the voice overs could also do with the fact that he voiced "Lord Yupa" in the newly released dubbed version of "Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind" . Man did quite a good job there as well.
I hope Steamboy turns out to be as good as Akira. The initial reviews are not that encouraging however due to the movie's lack of emotional depth. But the visuals are supposedly breathtaking and I will pay for that.
Probably know the field he is getting in to as well as an efficient crap_detector.
An ex-colleague of mine had the gall to ask his PM in a team meeting for an extra couple of days to write a SELECT query just because the query was returning not just a handful of records, but millions!
The PM, to the apparent delight of all, agreed with out a second thought.
Obi - I sense a cute little server at its last breath, while millions of caffeine filled geeks armed with mouseclicks, on its deathly downward spiral. And then silence prevailed.
Luke - What?
Obi - Server got slasdhotted you little wimp!
Luke - Oh Ok! Want some coffee?
Obi - Sure. These long flights give me such a headache.
An ATM limits you by preventing the amount you can withdraw from the account (upto 300).
A Wire transfer of 90,000 to a country which is known in Financial circles to be a haven to cybercriminals should have sent up some flags.
Heck, I spent over a grand on a credit card transaction, Discover used to call me up and "harass" me. Why? Because they stand to lose money if its a fraudulent transaction.
Why didnt BOA do the same? Coz it aint their money? Safeguards are only built in when its your ass on the line.
It is a sad sad day when we make the choice to let slip an opportunity to keep this magnificient instrument of exploration and its everwatching eye in the sky, and fund fanciful grandstanding GOP ideas such as Missile shields which are made irrelevant and useless in a heartbeat by cleverer enemies and rapidly evolving technology.
We let a President who look upon Mars as the next frontier just because it resonates well with a majority who look upon exploration as landing physically on a distant planet.
I say we let private ownership reign in the field of space exploration.
I consulted for an Atlanta firm which dealt in Sarbanes Oxley compliance software and my firm agreed to develop a rule based data adapter which sucks in raw data from external enterprise systems such as SAP and translate it. And my firm agreed to do so without having any one (else) with a bit of enterprise development experience hoping we would be able to outsource it to someone else in India (despite all my "muted" protesting).
Well, we picked a firm (which I believe was cheap enough to be picked), talked to a couple and they seemed knowledgeable and we were on. I wrote down the requirements myself and passed it on to them. There were two who where hands on and I provided any help they required plus the project management. It all went to shit in a couple of days. First, they wanted to bounce ideas off and around for a few days. Here, I am working from 8:00 AM in the morning through 2:00 at night, drilling requirements in to their thick heads, answering questions, go to bed late, only to wake up and realize that they had the same questions and were waiting all day for me to wake up!!
I got so pissed off after having to spend most of my waking day working on what they were supposed to, putting together answers to questions already answered, and chatting with them over IM, losing layers of patience bit by bit before calling them morons to their face. They were still billing us a full 8 hours for doing nothing, blaming it on unclear requirements.
After going to and fro for over a week, when nothing got built, I turned around and got my buddy who works for HP in Cupertino to pick it up. He coded it in his sparetime and pretty much finished it single handedly in the time that it was promised.
The biggest pains in outsourcing, from where I stand, is the disconnect between the teams, the clarity in requirements and the work ethics. I have seen the other end of the spectrum too, when I left for India for a short stint and worked with a team on a high risk project and had to deal with all sorts of management stupidity and workplace politics, putting my team through 14 hour work days, getting pissed drunk together on build nights and delivering on our promise with in the expected timeframe. The work ethics atleast on a developer level is not that different, if you get good young kids, they are smart and loyal. But if you step up to the level of management, you do find hundreds of incompetents who suck the living blood and exist solely to serve their own interests and to collect their paychecks.
I am not prejudiced. Infact, I am Indian and everyone mentioned above is, as well.
The issue was India had enough money to do initial relief efforts through funds from Prime Minister's relief fund. It was decided to first exhaust those funds before accepting aid of any manner from anyone.
You moron. India decided to channel the initial outpouring of aid to go to other less fortunate nations and its people. Hence, it went to people who would otherwise not have received it. Now the reconstruction efforts are about to begin and thats when it requires aid.
Now get off your fucking porch and get back on to your couch. Idiot.
Because of the sheer size of China's and India's populations--projected by the US Census Bureau to be 1.4 billion and almost 1.3 billion respectively by 2020--their standard of living need not approach Western levels for these countries to become important economic powers.
Which means these two could have a global impact even if substantial parts of the country were living in poverty. Both these nations cannot afford to wait around for all its troubles to be over before pushing to the front.
The report does a good comparison of both nation's strengths and weaknesses under the "Risks to Economic growth" part. Interesting read..
Got caught once between a traffic cop and a busted hood and hence had to take a Defensive Driving course. Ended up at a Marriott's Conference room with my laptop and 8 hours of "God help me".
Popped up the Available networks list, Marriott's own was thankfully not secured, however they did want me to validate by entering my room number. Hmm.. how about "301". Oh joy!
What the fuck!.. Oh wait, you were trolling werent you..
Just in case you werent and are a clueless fuck, then allow me to retort..
I dont think much of the nuclear weapons program but I agree its necessary evil. I am not for another arms race which India cannot afford, but anything to keep its neighbours in arms length aint bad.
As for the space program, you understand you are talking about a program which is homegrown and sustained wholly by solid state boosters which were built in India, using its own technology because US pressured Russia in to saying no when we needed it. So we built our own. So there..
Hitech voting equipment in India is a misnomer. What we have is quite low tech, heck, it doesnt even have a touch screen, but what it has is a low cost solution which more than meets the needs of our election. And you know what, it fucking works. And we have failsafes in place if something goes wrong. What about yours?
As far as the Tsunami is concerned, India was the first one to say no when aid was offered. India had around 500$ million in the Prime Minister's relief fund and told countries offering aid to instead give it to the nations who could cope with the disaster. Now thats what make me proud of who I am. We can take care of our own.
So please, I sincerely hope you were trolling on this fine Thursday afternoon. If you werent.. well ignorance is not curable.
What a frickin time to release such a list when my wife's standing behind me wondering what the hell is keeping me while being devoid of any interest towards what she is saying:
Paris Hilton, Britney, Carmen and Pamela.. Oh Crap!!
I turn around in time to see her look turn in to disgust with the "You and your pervert buddies scored yet again this year!!" before she stomped off in to the kitchen..
Rather, its being held in an account by the Reserve Bank of India and has accrued interest. The reason it hasnt been yet paid out completely is because of red tape, bureaucracy and the time it takes in the Indian judicial system. The money is not being spent by anyone, its held safely.
However its horribly less compared to what Dow or Carbide would have had to pay if this were to occur anywhere else. For that, I blame both UC and the Indian administration. Infact, UC's initial offer was far less. Knowing that how can one stand with this corporation???
This is a story of corruption, of not having any fail safe mechanisms or adequate safety measures, of negligence, of politicians willingly selling their souls and of those who they represent and of a system which failed to protect its own.
A thousand fingers could be pointed and in this horrible disaster, anywhere you point, you can find guilty who are still sheltered by the law, by the money they have willingly spent for their own defense and none for the people who suffered.
Union Carbide / Warren Anderson and Dow Chemical - Till now, they have chosen not to accept any form of responsibility and instead suggest sabotage. Union Carbide had spent a paltry sum before they agreed to pay 470 million of which hardly one third has been paid to its victims for the lack of any judicial oversight and sadly, corruption at the heart of the system. Even the 470 million that hopefully will be disbursed one day, hardly 2000 dollars will go to the families of those who died and 500$ to those who lost everything but their lives. Hardly a sum for the cost of a human life...
Union Carbide's response cleverly attempts to distance itself from the tragedy by calling the Bhopal plant owned by an indian firm. Clever, but it also serves to belittle the scope of this disaster and the lives that were snuffed out.
Would this be the same outcome if this had happened elsewhere, or in the developed world? And wouldnt a proper clean up in order or long completed if this were anywhere else.
Warren Anderson never saw the inside of a prison and still lives quite contently in Florida or NY and the US judicial system has done its part by denying the extradition requests by India. The Indian system on the other hand has comfortably chosen to neglect the cries for justice and has happily moved on..
Rediff.com has a sombre look at the tragedy, its victims, those who were forgotten, and those who still suffer.
One more reason not to trust corporations..
Also no additional compensation is planned and Dow has not apologized or owned up to this tragedy as the last part of the slashdot post. It is a hoax and was unknowingly perpetrated by a BBC interview. Read the AP article first (it drips accountability which is the last thing Dow or any corporation would do)and the proof its a hoax
I dont think Rural america is stupid. I think they are uneducated, have little to no interaction with how america is perceived world over, has no idea how america's foreign policy impacts the rest of the world. They do however care about their jobs, their community and whether good or bad, they do look upon their government to be christian oriented. I dont know why they should values with the same regard as going to war on an error. I dont think Bush holds values dear and near because he cares about walking on the right side. Republicans deliberately choose to be on the right side of values, because they understood thats where majority of non-voting evangelical christians stood. By putting the "ban gay marriage" issue on the ballot on so many key states, they managed to get these people (who would probably not care to vote) to get their asses to the voting booths to vote for the ban, and while they are there, vote for the President since he is for the ban. How simple can it get.
The Republicans and Jerry Falwell and Rev. Moon (among the multitudes of other religious leaders/cardinals) are blatantly taking advantage of Rural america and these poor people are indeed voting with the rich, to give the rich more tax cuts, so that the rich can send poor young men and women in to battle to protect their fortunes.
If you think GOP suddenly woke up in 64 and decided to play nice, you are part of the dream. GOP is a rabid dog now more than ever, apparent from the manner in which they have played this election, played the masses, instigated a religious rebellion, brought the hordes out in masses to vote. And now we have 4 years ahead where GOP will try to appease both is corporate and religious masters, and roll back many a liberty which we had taken for granted.
4 years later, I suspect it might be Hillary Clinton who will win the ticket and GOP would be happy to throw McCain in to the fray or Bill Frist. I hope its Frist, it will be easy for us to hate him and what he stands for then.
We can have umpteen Rock-the-Vote,Vote_and_I_will_bear_you_a_child, Vote_and_I_will_sleep_with_you, Vote_Or_Die measures for the next election or we can impose this rule.
On the day of Election:
(a) MTV and the other Teen Channels would not air anything other than patriotic music plus Beethoven. (b) Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo would introduce a trigger to their consoles which will power them down on the day of the election and stay that way for 24 hours (c) Instant Messenger software will stop working (d) Any celebrity who has graced atleast a corner of the 3rd page of any teen magazine will be made to report to a pre-assigned voting booth for better youth turn outs. (e) Bitchslap the celebrity till they agree to have orgies with young voters once they vote (f) For the rural areas, pass around ammo and matches to burn candidate effigies.
Why did Kerry lose? Why did Democratic pary lose more of its share in the senate?
The White house and the Republicans were smart and farsighted enough to realize that by galvanizing the religious, the evangelical community, it stands to gain the most. And they did. As much as Democrats gained by getting the youths out to vote (even then it wasnt a total success as less than 1 in 10 voter was between 18-24), Republicans reaped the rewards of getting Rural america to vote. Thus, being slanted towards the left that I am, I believe Poor people, uneducated, mostly white as well as blue collar americans decided to stay the course with their president. Reasons are quite a few. And has a lot to do with how the Republican's stayed the course, kept their message clear and did not waver, did not admit any mistakes (though they were made all over).
But most of all, Bush won four more years, because they were able to equate Democratic party and Kerry with a Sinful party, a party that is elitist, that looks down upon their religion and cares more about the environment than their jobs. All of which the white house and the Bush administration were eager enough to portray Kerry and his cohorts as least interested in the commmon man and his values. People who voted for Bush, atleast a significant portion, voted overwhelmingly for his virtues (though there are seemingly none) and the values they believed he will uphold.
Republicans also were smart enough to include the Ban for Same Sex marriage on the ballot, thereby once again drawing a parallel between morality and the Presidency. As Republican party seemed more and more the party that cared about religious values, about people's jobs, about tax cuts(though for wealthy), and about the nation's security, The Democratic party seems more and more elitist, belonging to the yuppies, caring more about tree huggers than about the loggers and their jobs, caring more about gays and their rights than about "preserving the sanctity of marriage" and ultimately wavering all over the place with their message and their views on foriegn policy. Kerry also couldnt put forth a consistent and coherent plan on Iraq. I almost wish he had said: "We will pull out of Iraq in six months, regardless of what the cost, to save more american lives, and we will let a Global coalition sort out the mistakes of the previous administration", that could have been a start. But he didnt and as time wore on, there wasnt much of a difference between Bush and Kerry on the war on terror and the war in Iraq and the differences they did have were on moral grounds, on values, on tax cuts, on environmental rights, that majority of Rural america dont give a hoot for.
It will be interesting and we will all be watching the road ahead with trepidation. There is a possibility that the current administration, takes the permission to rule fairly for the next four years, as a god given right and squander it, infact, its not a possibility, it is certain. This President had a chance to unite the country 3 years ago, but he didnt. I dont think he will start now. We will have 4 more years of the same, but more over, we will look back on this day and wonder why we voted to give him 4 more years.
Reason being I personally know one of the world's best heart surgeons who currently practices in India. He has done thousands of open heart surgeries, on people from virtually all rungs of life, politicians to business magnets to children from Iraq.
Infact I have been thinking to start my own little medical tourism practice on the side to encourage people to seek medical help in India. India has some of the world's most renowned doctors and some of the cheapest rates. The care you will experience will be top notch as well. Most people (uninformed as they might be) tend to think "unhygienic" when they hear "India". However the private hospitals are luxurious, has the best doctors your money can find and you will receive the best care your money can ever buy.
I am not trying to discount the experience or the ability of doctors here, but when your Insurance wont pick up the tab, and your surgery costs around 100k, and you can get it done by a top notch physician/surgeon sitting half way across the planet for 1/10th of the price, you would be crazy not to take notice.
If you want to receive additional information, email me.
Its commendable that Corporate America and its consumers worked hand in hand to push this bill back where it crawled out of. It was a fair fight and a dumb bill and it needed to be put to rest and now it has, albeit temporarily. I worry how the fight will go down when we are pitched against each other and the fight's fair on our end, but the cash pile is taller on their end? Also in today's world when corporate will can be swayed by a few choice words like "terrorism", "patriotism" lobbed at them by the Govt, do we think they will stand with us when we fight the beaureacracy? Everyone chooses their fight a lot more carefully these days, owing to their allegiances and their master's wishes..
with lot of talent and lot of time on their hands wouldnt use the Doom3 engine to (a)create new models (b)create new environments and (c) with the help of a good story writer, create a pre-rendered movie with an acceptable level of voiceover acting, great action and stuff that blows up sky high. Or does someone really need to spend around 200 mil to find what Aliens Versus Predator just found out?
I would even pay if someone could make it engrossing enough to waste a few hours on it, and salacious enough to keep the young viewers glued to their screens.
Slashdot Mirror
Ummm... Reason they went for Patrick Stewart for one of the voice overs could also do with the fact that he voiced "Lord Yupa" in the newly released dubbed version of "Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind" . Man did quite a good job there as well.
I hope Steamboy turns out to be as good as Akira. The initial reviews are not that encouraging however due to the movie's lack of emotional depth. But the visuals are supposedly breathtaking and I will pay for that.
Mod parent down.
I tried this right after reading the post above.
The bastard called the cops on me!!!
Maybe he heard "I'm looking for 12 yr old girls today", instead of "Its my 21st birthday today"..
Also, having a bit more hair and less of the bald spot would have helped..Crap!
Probably know the field he is getting in to as well as an efficient crap_detector.
An ex-colleague of mine had the gall to ask his PM in a team meeting for an extra couple of days to write a SELECT query just because the query was returning not just a handful of records, but millions!
The PM, to the apparent delight of all, agreed with out a second thought.
Luke - What is it Obiwan?
Obi - I sense a cute little server at its last breath, while millions of caffeine filled geeks armed with mouseclicks, on its deathly downward spiral. And then silence prevailed.
Luke - What?
Obi - Server got slasdhotted you little wimp!
Luke - Oh Ok! Want some coffee?
Obi - Sure. These long flights give me such a headache.
- moderated +/-5 Weird
An ATM limits you by preventing the amount you can withdraw from the account (upto 300).
A Wire transfer of 90,000 to a country which is known in Financial circles to be a haven to cybercriminals should have sent up some flags.
Heck, I spent over a grand on a credit card transaction, Discover used to call me up and "harass" me. Why? Because they stand to lose money if its a fraudulent transaction.
Why didnt BOA do the same? Coz it aint their money? Safeguards are only built in when its your ass on the line.
Damn!!!
For a moment, I thought this was a Furry monkey with an eye closed about to swallow a bunch of stars..
I gotta warn everybody!!!
Oh wait! Hi Tommy! Hi Will.. What did ya say..
**Zap**
mmm..where was I?
The wine developers get a non-compliance notice from Bill forcing them to comply??
Now, how can you claim full compliance unless you run my viruses too..goddamn it!!
It is a sad sad day when we make the choice to let slip an opportunity to keep this magnificient instrument of exploration and its everwatching eye in the sky, and fund fanciful grandstanding GOP ideas such as Missile shields which are made irrelevant and useless in a heartbeat by cleverer enemies and rapidly evolving technology.
We let a President who look upon Mars as the next frontier just because it resonates well with a majority who look upon exploration as landing physically on a distant planet.
I say we let private ownership reign in the field of space exploration.
along with me that he could very well be planning to run for Public Office?
In a value-charged society as it is right now, he could swing enough evangelical votes to get on the ballot..
What I want to see from the ideal FCC Chairman is the balls to slash ownership percentage of the Big Media and allow more independent voices be heard.
I consulted for an Atlanta firm which dealt in Sarbanes Oxley compliance software and my firm agreed to develop a rule based data adapter which sucks in raw data from external enterprise systems such as SAP and translate it. And my firm agreed to do so without having any one (else) with a bit of enterprise development experience hoping we would be able to outsource it to someone else in India (despite all my "muted" protesting).
Well, we picked a firm (which I believe was cheap enough to be picked), talked to a couple and they seemed knowledgeable and we were on. I wrote down the requirements myself and passed it on to them. There were two who where hands on and I provided any help they required plus the project management. It all went to shit in a couple of days. First, they wanted to bounce ideas off and around for a few days. Here, I am working from 8:00 AM in the morning through 2:00 at night, drilling requirements in to their thick heads, answering questions, go to bed late, only to wake up and realize that they had the same questions and were waiting all day for me to wake up!!
I got so pissed off after having to spend most of my waking day working on what they were supposed to, putting together answers to questions already answered, and chatting with them over IM, losing layers of patience bit by bit before calling them morons to their face. They were still billing us a full 8 hours for doing nothing, blaming it on unclear requirements.
After going to and fro for over a week, when nothing got built, I turned around and got my buddy who works for HP in Cupertino to pick it up. He coded it in his sparetime and pretty much finished it single handedly in the time that it was promised.
The biggest pains in outsourcing, from where I stand, is the disconnect between the teams, the clarity in requirements and the work ethics. I have seen the other end of the spectrum too, when I left for India for a short stint and worked with a team on a high risk project and had to deal with all sorts of management stupidity and workplace politics, putting my team through 14 hour work days, getting pissed drunk together on build nights and delivering on our promise with in the expected timeframe. The work ethics atleast on a developer level is not that different, if you get good young kids, they are smart and loyal. But if you step up to the level of management, you do find hundreds of incompetents who suck the living blood and exist solely to serve their own interests and to collect their paychecks.
I am not prejudiced. Infact, I am Indian and everyone mentioned above is, as well.
Awww..
You sad VB coding pathetic sonofabitch!!
mmm..why dont you grow up, start working on a real programming environment and then come play with the big boys eh?
Btw, the trailer park wants you back.. Looks like your mom wants you to fix her some moonshine!
The issue was India had enough money to do initial relief efforts through funds from Prime Minister's relief fund. It was decided to first exhaust those funds before accepting aid of any manner from anyone.
You moron. India decided to channel the initial outpouring of aid to go to other less fortunate nations and its people. Hence, it went to people who would otherwise not have received it. Now the reconstruction efforts are about to begin and thats when it requires aid.
Now get off your fucking porch and get back on to your couch. Idiot.
Actually the report points out the following:
Because of the sheer size of China's and India's populations--projected by the US Census Bureau to be 1.4 billion and almost 1.3 billion respectively by 2020--their standard of living need not approach Western levels for these countries to become important economic powers.
Which means these two could have a global impact even if substantial parts of the country were living in poverty. Both these nations cannot afford to wait around for all its troubles to be over before pushing to the front.
The report does a good comparison of both nation's strengths and weaknesses under the "Risks to Economic growth" part. Interesting read..
Got caught once between a traffic cop and a busted hood and hence had to take a Defensive Driving course. Ended up at a Marriott's Conference room with my laptop and 8 hours of "God help me".
Popped up the Available networks list, Marriott's own was thankfully not secured, however they did want me to validate by entering my room number. Hmm.. how about "301". Oh joy!
Browsed for the next 8 hours with out a hitch..
What the fuck!.. Oh wait, you were trolling werent you..
Just in case you werent and are a clueless fuck, then allow me to retort..
I dont think much of the nuclear weapons program but I agree its necessary evil. I am not for another arms race which India cannot afford, but anything to keep its neighbours in arms length aint bad.
As for the space program, you understand you are talking about a program which is homegrown and sustained wholly by solid state boosters which were built in India, using its own technology because US pressured Russia in to saying no when we needed it. So we built our own. So there..
Hitech voting equipment in India is a misnomer. What we have is quite low tech, heck, it doesnt even have a touch screen, but what it has is a low cost solution which more than meets the needs of our election. And you know what, it fucking works. And we have failsafes in place if something goes wrong. What about yours?
As far as the Tsunami is concerned, India was the first one to say no when aid was offered. India had around 500$ million in the Prime Minister's relief fund and told countries offering aid to instead give it to the nations who could cope with the disaster. Now thats what make me proud of who I am. We can take care of our own.
So please, I sincerely hope you were trolling on this fine Thursday afternoon. If you werent.. well ignorance is not curable.
What a frickin time to release such a list when my wife's standing behind me wondering what the hell is keeping me while being devoid of any interest towards what she is saying:
Paris Hilton, Britney, Carmen and Pamela.. Oh Crap!!
I turn around in time to see her look turn in to disgust with the "You and your pervert buddies scored yet again this year!!" before she stomped off in to the kitchen..
Aaargh..time to take care of the History folder..
Rather, its being held in an account by the Reserve Bank of India and has accrued interest. The reason it hasnt been yet paid out completely is because of red tape, bureaucracy and the time it takes in the Indian judicial system. The money is not being spent by anyone, its held safely.
However its horribly less compared to what Dow or Carbide would have had to pay if this were to occur anywhere else. For that, I blame both UC and the Indian administration. Infact, UC's initial offer was far less. Knowing that how can one stand with this corporation???
This is not a story when technology failed..
This is a story of corruption, of not having any fail safe mechanisms or adequate safety measures, of negligence, of politicians willingly selling their souls and of those who they represent and of a system which failed to protect its own.
A thousand fingers could be pointed and in this horrible disaster, anywhere you point, you can find guilty who are still sheltered by the law, by the money they have willingly spent for their own defense and none for the people who suffered.
Union Carbide / Warren Anderson and Dow Chemical - Till now, they have chosen not to accept any form of responsibility and instead suggest sabotage. Union Carbide had spent a paltry sum before they agreed to pay 470 million of which hardly one third has been paid to its victims for the lack of any judicial oversight and sadly, corruption at the heart of the system. Even the 470 million that hopefully will be disbursed one day, hardly 2000 dollars will go to the families of those who died and 500$ to those who lost everything but their lives. Hardly a sum for the cost of a human life...
Union Carbide's response cleverly attempts to distance itself from the tragedy by calling the Bhopal plant owned by an indian firm. Clever, but it also serves to belittle the scope of this disaster and the lives that were snuffed out.
Would this be the same outcome if this had happened elsewhere, or in the developed world? And wouldnt a proper clean up in order or long completed if this were anywhere else.
Warren Anderson never saw the inside of a prison and still lives quite contently in Florida or NY and the US judicial system has done its part by denying the extradition requests by India. The Indian system on the other hand has comfortably chosen to neglect the cries for justice and has happily moved on..
Rediff.com has a sombre look at the tragedy, its victims, those who were forgotten, and those who still suffer.
One more reason not to trust corporations..
Also no additional compensation is planned and Dow has not apologized or owned up to this tragedy as the last part of the slashdot post. It is a hoax and was unknowingly perpetrated by a BBC interview. Read the AP article first (it drips accountability which is the last thing Dow or any corporation would do)and the proof its a hoax
I dont think Rural america is stupid. I think they are uneducated, have little to no interaction with how america is perceived world over, has no idea how america's foreign policy impacts the rest of the world. They do however care about their jobs, their community and whether good or bad, they do look upon their government to be christian oriented. I dont know why they should values with the same regard as going to war on an error. I dont think Bush holds values dear and near because he cares about walking on the right side. Republicans deliberately choose to be on the right side of values, because they understood thats where majority of non-voting evangelical christians stood. By putting the "ban gay marriage" issue on the ballot on so many key states, they managed to get these people (who would probably not care to vote) to get their asses to the voting booths to vote for the ban, and while they are there, vote for the President since he is for the ban. How simple can it get.
The Republicans and Jerry Falwell and Rev. Moon (among the multitudes of other religious leaders/cardinals) are blatantly taking advantage of Rural america and these poor people are indeed voting with the rich, to give the rich more tax cuts, so that the rich can send poor young men and women in to battle to protect their fortunes.
If you think GOP suddenly woke up in 64 and decided to play nice, you are part of the dream. GOP is a rabid dog now more than ever, apparent from the manner in which they have played this election, played the masses, instigated a religious rebellion, brought the hordes out in masses to vote. And now we have 4 years ahead where GOP will try to appease both is corporate and religious masters, and roll back many a liberty which we had taken for granted.
4 years later, I suspect it might be Hillary Clinton who will win the ticket and GOP would be happy to throw McCain in to the fray or Bill Frist. I hope its Frist, it will be easy for us to hate him and what he stands for then.
We can have umpteen Rock-the-Vote,Vote_and_I_will_bear_you_a_child, Vote_and_I_will_sleep_with_you, Vote_Or_Die measures for the next election or we can impose this rule.
On the day of Election:
(a) MTV and the other Teen Channels would not air anything other than patriotic music plus Beethoven.
(b) Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo would introduce a trigger to their consoles which will power them down on the day of the election and stay that way for 24 hours
(c) Instant Messenger software will stop working
(d) Any celebrity who has graced atleast a corner of the 3rd page of any teen magazine will be made to report to a pre-assigned voting booth for better youth turn outs.
(e) Bitchslap the celebrity till they agree to have orgies with young voters once they vote
(f) For the rural areas, pass around ammo and matches to burn candidate effigies.
Why did Kerry lose? Why did Democratic pary lose more of its share in the senate?
The White house and the Republicans were smart and farsighted enough to realize that by galvanizing the religious, the evangelical community, it stands to gain the most. And they did. As much as Democrats gained by getting the youths out to vote (even then it wasnt a total success as less than 1 in 10 voter was between 18-24), Republicans reaped the rewards of getting Rural america to vote. Thus, being slanted towards the left that I am, I believe Poor people, uneducated, mostly white as well as blue collar americans decided to stay the course with their president. Reasons are quite a few. And has a lot to do with how the Republican's stayed the course, kept their message clear and did not waver, did not admit any mistakes (though they were made all over).
But most of all, Bush won four more years, because they were able to equate Democratic party and Kerry with a Sinful party, a party that is elitist, that looks down upon their religion and cares more about the environment than their jobs. All of which the white house and the Bush administration were eager enough to portray Kerry and his cohorts as least interested in the commmon man and his values. People who voted for Bush, atleast a significant portion, voted overwhelmingly for his virtues (though there are seemingly none) and the values they believed he will uphold.
Republicans also were smart enough to include the Ban for Same Sex marriage on the ballot, thereby once again drawing a parallel between morality and the Presidency. As Republican party seemed more and more the party that cared about religious values, about people's jobs, about tax cuts(though for wealthy), and about the nation's security, The Democratic party seems more and more elitist, belonging to the yuppies, caring more about tree huggers than about the loggers and their jobs, caring more about gays and their rights than about "preserving the sanctity of marriage" and ultimately wavering all over the place with their message and their views on foriegn policy. Kerry also couldnt put forth a consistent and coherent plan on Iraq. I almost wish he had said: "We will pull out of Iraq in six months, regardless of what the cost, to save more american lives, and we will let a Global coalition sort out the mistakes of the previous administration", that could have been a start. But he didnt and as time wore on, there wasnt much of a difference between Bush and Kerry on the war on terror and the war in Iraq and the differences they did have were on moral grounds, on values, on tax cuts, on environmental rights, that majority of Rural america dont give a hoot for.
It will be interesting and we will all be watching the road ahead with trepidation. There is a possibility that the current administration, takes the permission to rule fairly for the next four years, as a god given right and squander it, infact, its not a possibility, it is certain. This President had a chance to unite the country 3 years ago, but he didnt. I dont think he will start now. We will have 4 more years of the same, but more over, we will look back on this day and wonder why we voted to give him 4 more years.
is Dr K M Cherian. You can find a wealth of information on him, if you care to google.
Reason being I personally know one of the world's best heart surgeons who currently practices in India. He has done thousands of open heart surgeries, on people from virtually all rungs of life, politicians to business magnets to children from Iraq.
Infact I have been thinking to start my own little medical tourism practice on the side to encourage people to seek medical help in India. India has some of the world's most renowned doctors and some of the cheapest rates. The care you will experience will be top notch as well. Most people (uninformed as they might be) tend to think "unhygienic" when they hear "India". However the private hospitals are luxurious, has the best doctors your money can find and you will receive the best care your money can ever buy.
I am not trying to discount the experience or the ability of doctors here, but when your Insurance wont pick up the tab, and your surgery costs around 100k, and you can get it done by a top notch physician/surgeon sitting half way across the planet for 1/10th of the price, you would be crazy not to take notice.
If you want to receive additional information, email me.
Its commendable that Corporate America and its consumers worked hand in hand to push this bill back where it crawled out of. It was a fair fight and a dumb bill and it needed to be put to rest and now it has, albeit temporarily. I worry how the fight will go down when we are pitched against each other and the fight's fair on our end, but the cash pile is taller on their end? Also in today's world when corporate will can be swayed by a few choice words like "terrorism", "patriotism" lobbed at them by the Govt, do we think they will stand with us when we fight the beaureacracy? Everyone chooses their fight a lot more carefully these days, owing to their allegiances and their master's wishes..
with lot of talent and lot of time on their hands wouldnt use the Doom3 engine to (a)create new models (b)create new environments and (c) with the help of a good story writer, create a pre-rendered movie with an acceptable level of voiceover acting, great action and stuff that blows up sky high. Or does someone really need to spend around 200 mil to find what Aliens Versus Predator just found out?
I would even pay if someone could make it engrossing enough to waste a few hours on it, and salacious enough to keep the young viewers glued to their screens.