WE, the PEOPLE, define property rights here in the USA. Some of us think that the enTITLEments given to the wealthy and the corporations by the government (i.e., copyrights) are OUT OF LINE, INAPPROPRIATE, etc.
So if this is indeed a country run for the people and by the people, then we are right and you are wrong. That process of deciding what is the will of the people is an ongoing one.
How did they know your IP? How did they know what you were downloading? I have never used BT, but I thought you did not have to give up your IP to the server if you were only downloading.
You can see even in this article about Ashcroft raiding the homes of "thieves" that the media does not report fairly or truthfully. Anyone knows that copyright infringement is NOT THEFT. Yet the media reports it as such. That is because the media IS the CORPORATE media. And it should be obvious that any media reports on matters that affect corporate profits will indeed be slanted in the favor of corporate power.
Now, China is supposedly socialist (that is debateable as to whether it actually is), or at least there the government has the power to greatly control business transactions. Does that affect corporate power? You bet! So, do you think that maybe what you hear from the corporate media regarding China and other "socialist" countries is SLANTED and BIASED and UNTRUE?
The answer is that you or I CANNOT TRUST anything that corporate media says.
And I do not even watch teevee news myself unless it involves reportage of breaking news....
The point of any experiment is to confirm (or disconfirm) a hypothesis. In order to find out whether the hypothesis is true, you perform the experiment. The hypothesis for cryonics is the following: it is possible to perfuse a recently decreased person with cryopreservatives (antifreeze) and place them in liquid nitrogen, and revive them N years from now. No one knows whether that hypothesis is true or false. Therefore, an experiment will be conducted in order to confirm or disconfirm that cryonics hypothesis.
The people performing the cryonics experiment do not know whether cryonics will work. That is why they are performing the experiment. Penn and Teller do not know if cryonics will work. No one knows. Just saying that cryonics will not work is not sufficient to disconfirm this hypothesis. THat is why the cryonics experiment is being performed.
As a consequence of confirming the hypothesis, should the cryonics hypothesis be confirmed, the test subjects (the "experimental group", in the parlance of experimental science) will be revived in a future world where they may well be virtually immortal. That is why I have volunteered to be a test subject for the cryonics experiment. I would like to live more. A lot more.
The "control group," i.e., all the rest of the humans on the planet, will not be affected by the outcome of the cryonics experiment.
I believe in the power of science and rationality. THat is why I "converted" from the Right to the Left.
Is anyone paying fucking attention to what is happening here in America? The conspiracy between the schools, the professors, the bookstores and the publishers is just one example of how America is run for and by those at the top. What I want to know is why the country of parent poster here, which apparently is a country run by the people, for the people, is able to do for him what our America, the "Greatest Country in the World" cannot do for us....
Chomsky makes the NONmainstream arguments. That is a Good Thing. And BTW, I rejected Chomsky's arguments 15 years ago when I read of them secondhand. But when I read them first hand in the last year or so, I had already pretty much come to the same conclusions myself, independently, although I did not have the massive evidence that Chomsky and the rest of the Left have.
you wrote: "It was Winston Churchill, and he said that if you are under 30 and not liberal, you've no heart, and if you're over 30 and not conservative, you've no brain."
And of course Churchill was born to the manor, silver spoon, blue blood, born rich, etc. And that statement of his was perfectly logical for those of his cohort, his rich upper class brethren and kin. They often are liberal while young, at college, etc. But when older, they rediscover where their own best interests lie. Their hearts harden. They run for office/sit for Parliament, etc., and make sure the unwashed working class masses cannot get their paws on the upper class wealth. THey do have a brain, and so they become conservative.
But for the rest of us, the unwashed working class masses, that saying should, in a sense, be inverted, or at least, by the time we get old, we should be liberal. Or at least, we should be, unless we get rich (by definition a minority).
Judging character of the President != judging the character of someone who comments on whether Bush has the proper character to be President (which he obviously does not!)
If I say Leftism is good and Bush is Bad, it is certainly logical for you to say that Leftism is bad and Bush is good, and hopefully provide some evidence or reasoning behind your assertion.
But if I say leftism is good, and you accuse me of having a "mid-life crisis" (see post above) or accuse me of being in a cult (see post above), then you are logically unsound in your argument.
BTW, being President requires a certain character, and Bush does not have that character.
You make a very common mistake when you combine economic leftism with social leftism.
Social leftism is about political correctness, racial sensitivity, abortion, gun control, and the other assorted "acceptable" politics of establishment, mainstream American politics and media. These are the items that are on the table when it comes to the American political "debate."
The mainstream media is certainly leftist, when it comes to social leftism.
Economic leftism centers are progressive taxation, i.e,. taxing the wealthy and upper income earners at a much higher rate than everyone else, and using that money to fund universal healthcare, daycare, welfare, education, and other social programs. The mainstream media is decidedly NOT leftist when it comes to economics. And economic leftism is really what feeds the bulldog. Social leftism is a sop, and in fact, social leftism is quite useful as a tool of social division for the upper income earners, the wealthy and the corporations.
Economic leftism is anathema to the mainstream media.
I would direct open-minded, thinking types to compare "conservative" responses to "liberal" responses on this thread. I think you might see a pattern: that liberals are more fairminded, more thoughtful, and less knee-jerk reactionary. Conservative responses are more likely to attack on a personal level, really without giving any real thought to a situation.
Homo sapiens is a thinker, although we can be programmed. I was programmed for most of my life. We all are. But as thinkers, we can break our programming. If we learn to trust each other, and live to our better natures, we can build a better world. Go study up on Sweden and Denmark, or even Canada, or France.
Be a thinker, not a reactionary, programmed citizenbot....
Basically, my entire adult life, up into my 40s, I was conservative. I came from a quite conservative west texas ranching family. However, even though I have always been a very avid reader, I had not really been directly exposed to deliberately and overtly leftist writings until I got on the Internet in the mid 90s. And I really got into the Internet and computers once I was exposed to them (even picked up a second degree, a BS in Comp Sci).
So for the last 8 years or so, I gradually became more and more exposed to direct contact with leftist thought--but only through the Net. I basically rejected leftism, however, but really out of habit. By 2001 or so, I still had not really taken the time to really delve into the deep background and rationale of leftism.
However, my acceptance of radical life extensionism (cryonics, etc), and my acceptance of atheism made me ready to accept a radical change in worldview, I suspect.
Also, the events of 9-11 and its aftermath, and the Iraq war and the media propaganda drive associated with it made me much more aware of just what was going on, with respect to media manipulation. I had come across the ideas of Noam Chomsky in about 1989, but had rejected them--although I had been exposed to them only second hand, through an establishment filter.
These prior events set me up for a move to leftism. THat, and my research into a possible move to another country. I quit my W-2 job last year and went contract. And when contract work died down, I had time to do even more research.
By late last year, I was a confirmed leftist. And I will never look back.
THere is an old saying that a husband will not leave a wife unless he has someone else already waiting for him to make him a comfortable home. In other words, even if his current wife has some real problems, he will not take action unless he can walk right into a better situation.
THe Net offers a leftist community, one that was not possible in meatspace USA, outside of certain locations. With a community of leftists ready to accept strayers from the establishment pack, I think more and more will go Left. Join us!
I have no problem with using the law to protect property, as long as it is the property of the little guy that is being protected. As far as I am concerned, rich people and corporations do not need or deserve the same degree of protection from the law.
I assume that everyone knows that the MPAA and movie studios are planning on starting to sue movie uploaders/downloaders starting in about 1 month (they were on 60 minutes a few days ago with a lot of propaganda).
All we have to do to stop these lawsuits by the RIAA is organize to protest the lawsuits. Unlike the music business, much of the movie business is vulnerable to protests and grassroots activism. THis is because a lot of the money from movies is derived from box office receipts at the multiplex cinemas, which pack in thousands of people each day. Thus, their main revenue source is quite concentrated. A few well-placed protest signs will lose them money every day. Typically, these multiplexes are on a freeway offramp. Two or three good signs placed strategically with a good message will cost them money.
THey are well aware of how well they system works for the majority of their citizens ALL the time, as compared to how our system works for some of the citizens some of the time.
Also, they about 2-3 years longer than us. THey like living longer. And they are well aware of how our system works. It is a national shame that we Americans are so oblivious of how the governments of other western democracies work. And no surprise either, as the mass media pretty much controls what we know about other countries, and the mass media is controlled by the rich and fed money by big corporations, such as Big Pharma.
Now, I know a lot about the healthcare systems of other countries, as I am interested in making a video documentary comparing our social safety net, especially the healthcare system, to that of other Western countries.
But you seem to have an interest in the intersection of healthcare and politics, too. AQre you a doctor, mayhap? A healthcare insurance company executive?
in the early 90s when Hilary tried to do something about it, the Big Money behind pharma and privatized healthcare spent mega millions to spread propaganda to fight it.
Umm...repeated polls show that somewhere over 70% of Americans want universal healthcare, which is what Canada (and just about every other western nation) has.....
Several polls of canadians show that over 90% of them prefer their system to ours. THey live right next door; they speak the same language; they share the same culture; they are knowledgeable about our system and are knowledgeable about their system. If our system is so much better than theirs, then why do about 93% of Canadians prefer their system to the American system?
When broadband becomes really cheap, and as computers get cheaper, 80% of Americans and many more others will be able to watch a lot of video online. That is when you really get a chance to build minds. Besides, alot of people don't like to read too much.
Video entertainment is a great way to instill memes in young minds. What has happened in the free software movement will be repeated in the Free Video Movement. Thouands of people all over the world will be able to collaborate on homebrew movies, sitcoms, documentaries. And the political and philosophical ideas being propagated through such a Free Video Movement will be "bottom up" memes, empowering working people, and disempowering corporations, the top of the government, and the rich.
broadband+cheap computing might be vital for us
on
The Indian Info-Rickshaws
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Not only is cheap computing vital for the poor of the 3rd world, but for us here in America. If you want to build community here in America, where mass media has supplanted our face to face community, cheap wireless broadband might be vital. Otherwise, you get a hollow corporate teevee community, which pushed hollow corporate consumer values into children's heads. When Americans get online, they can rebuild that community. Cheap computers and broadband are needed in order to distribute video entertainment, which need not be produced by large corporations.
Yup. This regrettable state of the AMerican mind is brought on by the fact that most AMericans were raised by the fucking teevee! The teevee was the babysitter and the companion. THe fruit don't fall too far from the tree. Hillary was right: it does take a village to raise a child. Mass media was the village that raised many Americans. And the result is that they were raised to be good little consumers.
We do pay more for broadband because we let the rich people and the corporations run our countru for us. We were never taught to bargain, to haggle with the powers that be. You can see this by how we no longer are able to shut down our own country. Over in many European countries they periodically go on large strikes, almost country-wide strike. THat is how you haggle and negotiate with the powers that be. But we were never taught to do that, because so many of us were raised by the teevee, which is the agent of the powers that be....our community has been hollowed out.
Yep, Europeans (and to some degree Canadians and Australians) have a better quality of life right now than most Americans.
If you go to Europe or read about it, you will read about their relaxed lifestyle. How do they do it? Well, they can afford to relax--they have a strong social safety net. THey have universal healthcare, funded by taxes (although Britain is less strong in that regard than most other western european nations). THey have longterm unemployment (years worth) and welfare is available not just to single mothers, but also to ablebodied males). And if they need medical care, they just go get it, even if they are broke...it is paid for by taxation.
And for most people, taxes there are not that much higher than taxes here, unless you are rich. And if you are rich, you will be taxed more there than here....
Slashdot Mirror
WE, the PEOPLE, define property rights here in the USA. Some of us think that the enTITLEments given to the wealthy and the corporations by the government (i.e., copyrights) are OUT OF LINE, INAPPROPRIATE, etc.
So if this is indeed a country run for the people and by the people, then we are right and you are wrong. That process of deciding what is the will of the people is an ongoing one.
How did they know your IP? How did they know what you were downloading? I have never used BT, but I thought you did not have to give up your IP to the server if you were only downloading.
You can see even in this article about Ashcroft raiding the homes of "thieves" that the media does not report fairly or truthfully. Anyone knows that copyright infringement is NOT THEFT. Yet the media reports it as such. That is because the media IS the CORPORATE media. And it should be obvious that any media reports on matters that affect corporate profits will indeed be slanted in the favor of corporate power.
Now, China is supposedly socialist (that is debateable as to whether it actually is), or at least there the government has the power to greatly control business transactions. Does that affect corporate power? You bet! So, do you think that maybe what you hear from the corporate media regarding China and other "socialist" countries is SLANTED and BIASED and UNTRUE?
The answer is that you or I CANNOT TRUST anything that corporate media says.
And I do not even watch teevee news myself unless it involves reportage of breaking news....
The point of any experiment is to confirm (or disconfirm) a hypothesis. In order to find out whether the hypothesis is true, you perform the experiment. The hypothesis for cryonics is the following: it is possible to perfuse a recently decreased person with cryopreservatives (antifreeze) and place them in liquid nitrogen, and revive them N years from now. No one knows whether that hypothesis is true or false. Therefore, an experiment will be conducted in order to confirm or disconfirm that cryonics hypothesis.
The people performing the cryonics experiment do not know whether cryonics will work. That is why they are performing the experiment. Penn and Teller do not know if cryonics will work. No one knows. Just saying that cryonics will not work is not sufficient to disconfirm this hypothesis. THat is why the cryonics experiment is being performed.
As a consequence of confirming the hypothesis, should the cryonics hypothesis be confirmed, the test subjects (the "experimental group", in the parlance of experimental science) will be revived in a future world where they may well be virtually immortal. That is why I have volunteered to be a test subject for the cryonics experiment. I would like to live more. A lot more.
The "control group," i.e., all the rest of the humans on the planet, will not be affected by the outcome of the cryonics experiment.
I believe in the power of science and rationality. THat is why I "converted" from the Right to the Left.
TIA
Is anyone paying fucking attention to what is happening here in America? The conspiracy between the schools, the professors, the bookstores and the publishers is just one example of how America is run for and by those at the top. What I want to know is why the country of parent poster here, which apparently is a country run by the people, for the people, is able to do for him what our America, the "Greatest Country in the World" cannot do for us....
Free market, my ass....
Chomsky makes the NONmainstream arguments. That is a Good Thing. And BTW, I rejected Chomsky's arguments 15 years ago when I read of them secondhand. But when I read them first hand in the last year or so, I had already pretty much come to the same conclusions myself, independently, although I did not have the massive evidence that Chomsky and the rest of the Left have.
you wrote:
"It was Winston Churchill, and he said that if you are under 30 and not liberal, you've no heart, and if you're over 30 and not conservative, you've no brain."
And of course Churchill was born to the manor, silver spoon, blue blood, born rich, etc. And that statement of his was perfectly logical for those of his cohort, his rich upper class brethren and kin. They often are liberal while young, at college, etc. But when older, they rediscover where their own best interests lie. Their hearts harden. They run for office/sit for Parliament, etc., and make sure the unwashed working class masses cannot get their paws on the upper class wealth. THey do have a brain, and so they become conservative.
But for the rest of us, the unwashed working class masses, that saying should, in a sense, be inverted, or at least, by the time we get old, we should be liberal. Or at least, we should be, unless we get rich (by definition a minority).
Judging character of the President != judging the character of someone who comments on whether Bush has the proper character to be President (which he obviously does not!)
If I say Leftism is good and Bush is Bad, it is certainly logical for you to say that Leftism is bad and Bush is good, and hopefully provide some evidence or reasoning behind your assertion.
But if I say leftism is good, and you accuse me of having a "mid-life crisis" (see post above) or accuse me of being in a cult (see post above), then you are logically unsound in your argument.
BTW, being President requires a certain character, and Bush does not have that character.
You make a very common mistake when you combine economic leftism with social leftism.
Social leftism is about political correctness, racial sensitivity, abortion, gun control, and the other assorted "acceptable" politics of establishment, mainstream American politics and media. These are the items that are on the table when it comes to the American political "debate."
The mainstream media is certainly leftist, when it comes to social leftism.
Economic leftism centers are progressive taxation, i.e,. taxing the wealthy and upper income earners at a much higher rate than everyone else, and using that money to fund universal healthcare, daycare, welfare, education, and other social programs.
The mainstream media is decidedly NOT leftist when it comes to economics. And economic leftism is really what feeds the bulldog. Social leftism is a sop, and in fact, social leftism is quite useful as a tool of social division for the upper income earners, the wealthy and the corporations.
Economic leftism is anathema to the mainstream media.
I would direct open-minded, thinking types to compare "conservative" responses to "liberal" responses on this thread. I think you might see a pattern: that liberals are more fairminded, more thoughtful, and less knee-jerk reactionary. Conservative responses are more likely to attack on a personal level, really without giving any real thought to a situation.
Homo sapiens is a thinker, although we can be programmed. I was programmed for most of my life. We all are. But as thinkers, we can break our programming. If we learn to trust each other, and live to our better natures, we can build a better world. Go study up on Sweden and Denmark, or even Canada, or France.
Be a thinker, not a reactionary, programmed citizenbot....
Basically, my entire adult life, up into my 40s, I was conservative. I came from a quite conservative west texas ranching family. However, even though I have always been a very avid reader, I had not really been directly exposed to deliberately and overtly leftist writings until I got on the Internet in the mid 90s. And I really got into the Internet and computers once I was exposed to them (even picked up a second degree, a BS in Comp Sci).
So for the last 8 years or so, I gradually became more and more exposed to direct contact with leftist thought--but only through the Net. I basically rejected leftism, however, but really out of habit. By 2001 or so, I still had not really taken the time to really delve into the deep background and rationale of leftism.
However, my acceptance of radical life extensionism (cryonics, etc), and my acceptance of atheism made me ready to accept a radical change in worldview, I suspect.
Also, the events of 9-11 and its aftermath, and the Iraq war and the media propaganda drive associated with it made me much more aware of just what was going on, with respect to media manipulation. I had come across the ideas of Noam Chomsky in about 1989, but had rejected them--although I had been exposed to them only second hand, through an establishment filter.
These prior events set me up for a move to leftism. THat, and my research into a possible move to another country. I quit my W-2 job last year and went contract. And when contract work died down, I had time to do even more research.
By late last year, I was a confirmed leftist. And I will never look back.
THere is an old saying that a husband will not leave a wife unless he has someone else already waiting for him to make him a comfortable home. In other words, even if his current wife has some real problems, he will not take action unless he can walk right into a better situation.
THe Net offers a leftist community, one that was not possible in meatspace USA, outside of certain locations. With a community of leftists ready to accept strayers from the establishment pack, I think more and more will go Left. Join us!
I have no problem with using the law to protect property, as long as it is the property of the little guy that is being protected. As far as I am concerned, rich people and corporations do not need or deserve the same degree of protection from the law.
Just my ever humble opinion.....
I assume that everyone knows that the MPAA and movie studios are planning on starting to sue movie uploaders/downloaders starting in about 1 month (they were on 60 minutes a few days ago with a lot of propaganda).
All we have to do to stop these lawsuits by the RIAA is organize to protest the lawsuits. Unlike the music business, much of the movie business is vulnerable to protests and grassroots activism. THis is because a lot of the money from movies is derived from box office receipts at the multiplex cinemas, which pack in thousands of people each day. Thus, their main revenue source is quite concentrated. A few well-placed protest signs will lose them money every day. Typically, these multiplexes are on a freeway offramp. Two or three good signs placed strategically with a good message will cost them money.
See the freeway blogger at http://www.freewayblogger.com for more ideas on this technique....
Fucking universities are for sale. You think ipod didn't give someone a fat check for this publicity?
Aint capitalism great?
THey are well aware of how well they system works for the majority of their citizens ALL the time, as compared to how our system works for some of the citizens some of the time.
Also, they about 2-3 years longer than us. THey like living longer. And they are well aware of how our system works. It is a national shame that we Americans are so oblivious of how the governments of other western democracies work. And no surprise either, as the mass media pretty much controls what we know about other countries, and the mass media is controlled by the rich and fed money by big corporations, such as Big Pharma.
Now, I know a lot about the healthcare systems of other countries, as I am interested in making a video documentary comparing our social safety net, especially the healthcare system, to that of other Western countries.
But you seem to have an interest in the intersection of healthcare and politics, too. AQre you a doctor, mayhap? A healthcare insurance company executive?
in the early 90s when Hilary tried to do something about it, the Big Money behind pharma and privatized healthcare spent mega millions to spread propaganda to fight it.
Umm...repeated polls show that somewhere over 70% of Americans want universal healthcare, which is what Canada (and just about every other western nation) has.....
Several polls of canadians show that over 90% of them prefer their system to ours. THey live right next door; they speak the same language; they share the same culture; they are knowledgeable about our system and are knowledgeable about their system. If our system is so much better than theirs, then why do about 93% of Canadians prefer their system to the American system?
When broadband becomes really cheap, and as computers get cheaper, 80% of Americans and many more others will be able to watch a lot of video online. That is when you really get a chance to build minds. Besides, alot of people don't like to read too much.
Video entertainment is a great way to instill memes in young minds. What has happened in the free software movement will be repeated in the Free Video Movement. Thouands of people all over the world will be able to collaborate on homebrew movies, sitcoms, documentaries. And the political and philosophical ideas being propagated through such a Free Video Movement will be "bottom up" memes, empowering working people, and disempowering corporations, the top of the government, and the rich.
Not only is cheap computing vital for the poor of the 3rd world, but for us here in America.
If you want to build community here in America, where mass media has supplanted our face to face community, cheap wireless broadband might be vital. Otherwise, you get a hollow corporate teevee community, which pushed hollow corporate consumer values into children's heads. When Americans get online, they can rebuild that community. Cheap computers and broadband are needed in order to distribute video entertainment, which need not be produced by large corporations.
Yup. This regrettable state of the AMerican mind is brought on by the fact that most AMericans were raised by the fucking teevee! The teevee was the babysitter and the companion. THe fruit don't fall too far from the tree. Hillary was right: it does take a village to raise a child. Mass media was the village that raised many Americans. And the result is that they were raised to be good little consumers.
We do pay more for broadband because we let the rich people and the corporations run our countru for us. We were never taught to bargain, to haggle with the powers that be. You can see this by how we no longer are able to shut down our own country. Over in many European countries they periodically go on large strikes, almost country-wide strike. THat is how you haggle and negotiate with the powers that be. But we were never taught to do that, because so many of us were raised by the teevee, which is the agent of the powers that be....our community has been hollowed out.
The media is for sale. Period. Admit it.
And it is not illegal. But they do it.
Yep, Europeans (and to some degree Canadians and Australians) have a better quality of life right now than most Americans.
If you go to Europe or read about it, you will read about their relaxed lifestyle. How do they do it? Well, they can afford to relax--they have a strong social safety net. THey have universal healthcare, funded by taxes (although Britain is less strong in that regard than most other western european nations). THey have longterm unemployment (years worth) and welfare is available not just to single mothers, but also to ablebodied males).
And if they need medical care, they just go get it, even if they are broke...it is paid for by taxation.
And for most people, taxes there are not that much higher than taxes here, unless you are rich. And if you are rich, you will be taxed more there than here....