I'm not saying that primary school children shouldn't be taught English. Obviously they need to be able to read and write - but children up to the age of 10-12 are wired to learn new languages. This is when it should be started, not in high school or college.
Knowing several human languages (as well as programming languages) is, IMHO, an essential skill set.
Kids ought to be taught languages -- especially pronunciation of hard to learn sounds such as the trill the r in spanish; the various "ooo" sounds in french; chinese tones. Kids are language sponges - we ought to stress languages: Chinese, French, Arabic at that age.
I'm not a big fan of war. I pray that there is never going to be an existential battle between super-powers. Should that be the case.. well we're all f**ked. Civilians will die in the 10s of millions.
Re using kinetic force against a cyber-terrorist ala 24. That is tough. The cyber-attack kills millions the kinetic attack kills a handful.
In general though we are going down a very bad path with drone assassinations in Pakistan, Yemen and other places. I am thoroughly disgusted by the road we're taking. That said - I can come up with "what-ifs" where I would not be so opposed to targeted killings of "cyber-terrorists" (for lack of a better word) - see the above example.
And here I thought poverty was caused by capitalist countries "investing" in poor countries and causing "underdevelopment." This has been taught in Marxist 101 classes since the 1950s. It's one of the intellectual mainstays by countries that prohibit foreign companies or limit foreign workers. (Read Lenin's Imperialism, the final stage of capitalism (or something like that).
The US is doing Cuba a favor by not interacting with it. After all, according to Underdevelopment theory, it is capitalism (ie international trade) that it hurting the periphery (poor countries) and benefacting the core ( US and other developed countries).
More guilty!?!
More guilty than the Japanese in China?
More guilty than Timurlane/Temujin?
Take a look at the civilian deaths in WWI. There were approximately 7,000,000 to 10,000,000 civilian deaths. The firebombing of Dresden took about 25,000 lives. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were about 100,000.
I'm not justifying war, or the actions of the leaders (that's for another conversation) only the point that "The US is more guilty of this than any other country..." The US is no more guilty than any other combatant.
Case in point the german firebombing of london took about 35000 lives.
And external war is not the only place where civilian's die. Take a look at Stalin's murder of Ukranians, his "decossackization", the millions of civilians put into military gear (untrained) and forced to charge German lines. How about the 20+ million who died in Mao's "Great Leap Forward".
And there are many,many more examples from the Assyrian Empire, to the destruction of Carthage, to... more, and more, and more.
There are small towns all over the world who are proud of their traditions, proud of their history and are not bent on global domination and destruction of all who disagree with them.
I'm not going to defend GWB or the Iraq War. And, if it matters, he did not compaign for small-limited government he campaigned on "compassionate conservatism" whatever that means.
Re immigration - yes - all governments everywhere at all times dictated immigration: that's part and parcel of the nation-state. Small government has to do with limiting government. ie, that government is not all-power and all-pervasive. Preventing people from breaking national laws and entering the country illegally is not breaking that covenant in letter or spirit.
The US population has increased from 130 million in 1930 to 310 million in 2010. If we continue to grow at the same rate the US population will be about 750 million in 80 years and will pass a billion in about 100. Are you saying that we - the citizens of the US - can do nothing about this?
How is giving preferential treatment to the highest corporate bidder == small, constitutionally limited government?
It's not. Which is why I am not an apologist for republicans or the Republican Party.
Re gay marriage: We're the ones changing 1000s of years of tradition - and it's not simply Christians that are homophobic. Part of the issue is semantic - and we ought to recognize that and not simply say "homophobes are evil" and walk away from the problem.
Re limiting women's choices: the only way you have a right to abortion is if you have a right to your own body. I don't see Democrats or leftists anywhere promoting a right to ones own body.
Re entitlement programs - I'm against that being part of the FEDERAL government.
Re the military - it's way too big and needs to be curtailed. But look at the Obama administration and tell me you're happy with it.
The point of the matter is that both the left and right, the Democrats and Republicans have been expanding government. However I don't see the Democrats equated with Nazis.
Social legislation is - to me - outside the scope of the federal government; if by social you mean social engineering and wealth redistribution. And I will fight against it with everything I have. Increasing government power to do such social "goods" grants the government power to do bad as well.
I agree with what you said. But how does that apply to goosestepping.
By the way the issues of abortion and homosexuality are not intrinsically a right or left issue. China (abortion OK) Romania (abortion not OK). Cuba/Che Guevara (homosexuality was the result of western decadence, hence counter-revolutionary, hence punishable by death).
Neither the left nor the right respects the concept that one has a right to ones own's body. Without that concept there is no right to an abortion. Witness that the intellectual monstrosity that one cannot determine whether or not to wear a seat belt (and get fined for it) while driving to the abortion clinic to remove a fetus. Clearly the topic of abortion is tricky: if you come to the conclusion that abortion is murder then you ought to try to prevent said murders.
Re the military - surely you're not saying that is a right v left thing are you? Which party was the isolationist party for generations? Under which party in the white house has the anti-terrorism war expanded to many new countries?
Re building walls around are border - are you saying that a state cannot dictate who crosses its borders? Are you saying that anyone can cross anytime, for any reason, walk over other people's property and nothing can or should be done about it?
Re the jails - I see both the democrats and republicans increasing gov't control. If the government regulates you and you don't follow the regulation - what happens? You get fined. If you don't pay the fine what happens? You go to jail. I don't see the democrats legalizing drugs, prostitution, gambling. I don't see the democrats fighting back against ever encroaching gov't micro-management (don't buy these large-sized sugary drinks, put on your seat-belts, wear your helmets.) Instead the left - ie the democrats are in the forefront of an ever larger, ever more intrusive government.
And you call those opposing this government intrusion goose-steppers? Talk about Orwellian double-speak.
A government exists by force. Force dictates the boundaries.
The concept of tribes have existed for a long time, and unfortunately will exist for at least another few generations.
But what is cyberspace? What is different about cyberspace than dead-tree pamphlets, newspapers and magazines?
OK. Our species can only live within certain limits. Transport humans to a time when there wasn't an atmosphere; or when the atmosphere wasn't suitable for human life and then we would die. (Obviously)
Transport us back 50 million years ago when the temperature and CO2 levels were higher and we would do just fine. Hence my using 80,000,000 years ago as a good point. If mammals can survive and thrive then the atmospheric conditions are fine for us humans.
The point isn't that Obama or newspeople are LYING its the absurd use of the phrase "hottest on record."
The sad part is that we are doing all sort of obscene things to our environment such as dumping dioxins and other toxic waste in unsecured containers and we're focusing our efforts on a natural event. Temperature fluctuation is part and parcel of the natural changes of our environment. And don't say that the slope of the curve is steeper than ever recorded. We don't have records accurate to a 1000yrs, let alone to a 100 in order to compare earlier variations in temperature.
What a BS statement. The record only goes back 120 years. What's 120 years out of the 2 million+ years since our genus appeared; the 20+ million years since the great apes (hominidae sp?) have been around; or the 80,000,000 years since mammals have been around?
Before someone tells me that we have records going back that far - we do. And the we know that the average temperature and average CO2 levels were FAR higher.
Saying the "hottest on record" is tantamount to lying.
The problem is that most politicians have a poor grasp of math and science. Most are trained as attorneys and many would not know what 5 squared is let alone know (nor be able to figure out nor describe) what 5! Not to mention figuring out derivatives. Look at politicians who think that the temperature of the sun goes into the millions of degrees; or that the island of Guam might tip over; or that Apollo 11 landed on Mars.
The issue is also return on investment. The US is pricing itself out of the market thinking it is the only market in town: raising capital gains is probably the stupidest thing we can do - but we're doing it.
And we don't have to work for less - we have to stop expecting the government to give us free shit (free cell phones to the homeless in California). If we were a rational society we would have raised the age of retirement from 65 - 67 in the 1970s and we would now be talking about when to raise it to 70.
My father went through Alzheimers. He knew that he should know something and could not recall it. It's a horrifying disease and the person knows it (at least for the first few stages.) At the end, maybe you're right. But you have years of misery before that point.
Sheetrock is not shoddy. In NYC the main reason for using metal framing and 5/8" sheetrock on corridor walls is for fire safety. NYC requires a 2 hour safety window. Yes. A thief can kick in through the walls and enter your apartment.
It's easy to get through cinderblock too. Put up a construction sign; put up plastic sheathing to "keep the dust contained," and 5 minutes later you're taking a drink, relaxing in the apartment.
Any technology that aides can also hinder. The "wingman" aspect was not invasive and is quite useful. But direct control over another, whether by date drug or synapse manipulation is, and should always remain, criminal.
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I'm not saying that primary school children shouldn't be taught English. Obviously they need to be able to read and write - but children up to the age of 10-12 are wired to learn new languages. This is when it should be started, not in high school or college.
Knowing several human languages (as well as programming languages) is, IMHO, an essential skill set.
If the test is an accurate reflection of what one needs to know then "teaching the test" is not a bad idea.
Kids ought to be taught languages -- especially pronunciation of hard to learn sounds such as the trill the r in spanish; the various "ooo" sounds in french; chinese tones. Kids are language sponges - we ought to stress languages: Chinese, French, Arabic at that age.
Fair enough.
.. well we're all f**ked. Civilians will die in the 10s of millions.
I'm not a big fan of war. I pray that there is never going to be an existential battle between super-powers. Should that be the case
Re using kinetic force against a cyber-terrorist ala 24. That is tough. The cyber-attack kills millions the kinetic attack kills a handful.
In general though we are going down a very bad path with drone assassinations in Pakistan, Yemen and other places. I am thoroughly disgusted by the road we're taking. That said - I can come up with "what-ifs" where I would not be so opposed to targeted killings of "cyber-terrorists" (for lack of a better word) - see the above example.
And here I thought poverty was caused by capitalist countries "investing" in poor countries and causing "underdevelopment." This has been taught in Marxist 101 classes since the 1950s. It's one of the intellectual mainstays by countries that prohibit foreign companies or limit foreign workers. (Read Lenin's Imperialism, the final stage of capitalism (or something like that).
The US is doing Cuba a favor by not interacting with it. After all, according to Underdevelopment theory, it is capitalism (ie international trade) that it hurting the periphery (poor countries) and benefacting the core ( US and other developed countries).
More guilty!?! More guilty than the Japanese in China? More guilty than Timurlane/Temujin? Take a look at the civilian deaths in WWI. There were approximately 7,000,000 to 10,000,000 civilian deaths. The firebombing of Dresden took about 25,000 lives. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were about 100,000. I'm not justifying war, or the actions of the leaders (that's for another conversation) only the point that "The US is more guilty of this than any other country ..." The US is no more guilty than any other combatant.
Case in point the german firebombing of london took about 35000 lives.
And external war is not the only place where civilian's die. Take a look at Stalin's murder of Ukranians, his "decossackization", the millions of civilians put into military gear (untrained) and forced to charge German lines. How about the 20+ million who died in Mao's "Great Leap Forward".
And there are many,many more examples from the Assyrian Empire, to the destruction of Carthage, to ... more, and more, and more.
North Dakota is booming. People are moving there in droves.
There are small towns all over the world who are proud of their traditions, proud of their history and are not bent on global domination and destruction of all who disagree with them.
So goosestepping == small-town parades and civic pride?
Nationalism == Nazi?
Re immigration - yes - all governments everywhere at all times dictated immigration: that's part and parcel of the nation-state. Small government has to do with limiting government. ie, that government is not all-power and all-pervasive. Preventing people from breaking national laws and entering the country illegally is not breaking that covenant in letter or spirit.
The US population has increased from 130 million in 1930 to 310 million in 2010. If we continue to grow at the same rate the US population will be about 750 million in 80 years and will pass a billion in about 100. Are you saying that we - the citizens of the US - can do nothing about this?
It's not. Which is why I am not an apologist for republicans or the Republican Party.
Re gay marriage: We're the ones changing 1000s of years of tradition - and it's not simply Christians that are homophobic. Part of the issue is semantic - and we ought to recognize that and not simply say "homophobes are evil" and walk away from the problem.
Re limiting women's choices: the only way you have a right to abortion is if you have a right to your own body. I don't see Democrats or leftists anywhere promoting a right to ones own body.
Re entitlement programs - I'm against that being part of the FEDERAL government.
Re the military - it's way too big and needs to be curtailed. But look at the Obama administration and tell me you're happy with it.
The point of the matter is that both the left and right, the Democrats and Republicans have been expanding government. However I don't see the Democrats equated with Nazis.
Social legislation is - to me - outside the scope of the federal government; if by social you mean social engineering and wealth redistribution. And I will fight against it with everything I have. Increasing government power to do such social "goods" grants the government power to do bad as well.
By the way the issues of abortion and homosexuality are not intrinsically a right or left issue. China (abortion OK) Romania (abortion not OK). Cuba/Che Guevara (homosexuality was the result of western decadence, hence counter-revolutionary, hence punishable by death).
Re the military - surely you're not saying that is a right v left thing are you? Which party was the isolationist party for generations? Under which party in the white house has the anti-terrorism war expanded to many new countries?
Re building walls around are border - are you saying that a state cannot dictate who crosses its borders? Are you saying that anyone can cross anytime, for any reason, walk over other people's property and nothing can or should be done about it?
Re the jails - I see both the democrats and republicans increasing gov't control. If the government regulates you and you don't follow the regulation - what happens? You get fined. If you don't pay the fine what happens? You go to jail. I don't see the democrats legalizing drugs, prostitution, gambling. I don't see the democrats fighting back against ever encroaching gov't micro-management (don't buy these large-sized sugary drinks, put on your seat-belts, wear your helmets.) Instead the left - ie the democrats are in the forefront of an ever larger, ever more intrusive government.
And you call those opposing this government intrusion goose-steppers? Talk about Orwellian double-speak.
how is wanting small, constitutionally limited government == goosestepping?
A government exists by force. Force dictates the boundaries. The concept of tribes have existed for a long time, and unfortunately will exist for at least another few generations. But what is cyberspace? What is different about cyberspace than dead-tree pamphlets, newspapers and magazines?
Transport us back 50 million years ago when the temperature and CO2 levels were higher and we would do just fine. Hence my using 80,000,000 years ago as a good point. If mammals can survive and thrive then the atmospheric conditions are fine for us humans.
The point isn't that Obama or newspeople are LYING its the absurd use of the phrase "hottest on record."
The sad part is that we are doing all sort of obscene things to our environment such as dumping dioxins and other toxic waste in unsecured containers and we're focusing our efforts on a natural event. Temperature fluctuation is part and parcel of the natural changes of our environment. And don't say that the slope of the curve is steeper than ever recorded. We don't have records accurate to a 1000yrs, let alone to a 100 in order to compare earlier variations in temperature.
What a BS statement. The record only goes back 120 years. What's 120 years out of the 2 million+ years since our genus appeared; the 20+ million years since the great apes (hominidae sp?) have been around; or the 80,000,000 years since mammals have been around? Before someone tells me that we have records going back that far - we do. And the we know that the average temperature and average CO2 levels were FAR higher. Saying the "hottest on record" is tantamount to lying.
whoops!!!! my bad! :-)
The politician I was thinking about said that about the earth's core.
The problem is that most politicians have a poor grasp of math and science. Most are trained as attorneys and many would not know what 5 squared is let alone know (nor be able to figure out nor describe) what 5! Not to mention figuring out derivatives. Look at politicians who think that the temperature of the sun goes into the millions of degrees; or that the island of Guam might tip over; or that Apollo 11 landed on Mars.
Ok. Maybe not *here.* But the cybernetic augmentation comes pretty dam close.
The issue is also return on investment. The US is pricing itself out of the market thinking it is the only market in town: raising capital gains is probably the stupidest thing we can do - but we're doing it. And we don't have to work for less - we have to stop expecting the government to give us free shit (free cell phones to the homeless in California). If we were a rational society we would have raised the age of retirement from 65 - 67 in the 1970s and we would now be talking about when to raise it to 70.
My father went through Alzheimers. He knew that he should know something and could not recall it. It's a horrifying disease and the person knows it (at least for the first few stages.) At the end, maybe you're right. But you have years of misery before that point.
Sheetrock is not shoddy. In NYC the main reason for using metal framing and 5/8" sheetrock on corridor walls is for fire safety. NYC requires a 2 hour safety window. Yes. A thief can kick in through the walls and enter your apartment. It's easy to get through cinderblock too. Put up a construction sign; put up plastic sheathing to "keep the dust contained," and 5 minutes later you're taking a drink, relaxing in the apartment.
Any technology that aides can also hinder. The "wingman" aspect was not invasive and is quite useful. But direct control over another, whether by date drug or synapse manipulation is, and should always remain, criminal.
Thanks for the video. Excellent clip.