What I posed were essentially basic questions that I figured would get people to start really thinking about this. There are all sorts of valid answers.
The government is supposed to be beholden to the people, but as you reference, this is often not so.
The business community is supposed to be beholden to their owners and customers (whether consumers or other businesses), and this is quite often the case, although businesses often make financial and other decisions that negatively affect their customers.
Businesses are naturally self-serving and self-preserving, and politicians are too. But politicians are supposed to do what the people as a whole desire, whereas a business can ethically ignore these kinds of things (to their peril... maybe). Business decisions are politically disconnected in comparison to government ones, but this difference is harder to measure when business interests cozy up too closely to government decision makers.
Strangely enough, this SCOTUS ruling could be a potential boon for local democracy and activism in the United States.
If indeed the ramifications are not "random", as Justice O'Connor put it (and I think she's right), then what we'll see are pitched local battles taking place across the entire nation, with commercial developers vs., well, the people. This may finally be the tipping point that wakes everyone up and sparks a vast new wave of civic activism. After all, the "local authorities" are democratically elected, and if they go off the deep end with seizing private property for pure commercial interests, it won't be long before people get out their pitchforks, so to speak.
Makes me wonder if the schools with cooperate with "anti-recruiters" who are trying to starve the armed forces so the U.S. won't also go into Iran or Syria based on yet another pack of Bush lies. Normally I would be opposed to such activity, but as long as we're invading countries illegally (i.e., as long as Bush is in office), this would seem to be a prudent effort.
It's nobody's duty to prop up a company or industry or economy, and likewise, it's nobody's responsibility to watch advertisements. me
This guy must think we're actually going to miss the "mainstream media" (read: corporate-controlled media) news sources if they go away. Nope! The "corporate view on irrelevant matters" will just be replaced with alternative news, from which more and more people are getting their information anyway.
I do agree that the excessive consumerism is a contributor to the problem. I however do feel it is important to hold our national leadership to a higher standard than I do the citizenry. They are supposed to be accountable to the people, even if the people themselves are causing problems (I'm sure of which many of them would be fully uncognizant). Conspicuous consumption is part of the American culture, and this isn't new. What Bush and his cronies have done to blow up the deficit is new.
That's right. Oftentimes, people select "friends" who would never be real friends in life, but simply people who share interests. Social networking tools like StumbleUpon make it very easy to discover those with similar interests, then you can "stumble upon" links they found interesting.
How does one know if StumbleUpon has any value if one hasn't tried it out before?
I've been using StumbleUpon for about a year, and I think it's GREAT! I have found all sorts of very rich web development related sites on those days I decided to stumble onto "web development" sites. Or, on a day I was in a mood to find out more about another subject, I just selected the SU topic, and started stumbling.
SU's groups are also pretty cool, as well as the many other ways SU uses to interconnect people.
And the funny thing is... Bush's betrayal of the American people in getting us into a war without justification has greatly exacerbated the problem.
If the U.S. had only stayed on the track of fiscal responsibility it was on as late as the year 2000, things would be much much better off today. And we wouldn't have to worry about China somehow calling in its chips.
Stumbling is the new search. Try it out, it's free, and they provide toolbars for IE, Mozilla, Firefox and other browsers. I've not only ''stumbled'' onto great websites, but great people as well, as they also include a nice people matching system, and I've naturally met people just through the sharing of great links.
Exactly, I don't care about the "murder, weather and sports" that the local news insists on reporting, and I don't care about the "corporate perspective on irrelevant matters" from the national news. It has all become tripe, all worth ignoring.
I look forward to grassroots news that springs from active citizens involved in every community around the world. There is actually growing interest in this concept.
Books we pay for in history's dustbin?
on
Books in Beta Form
·
· Score: 1
Given the growing popularity of Wikibooks, the books that we not only can comment on, but also write and edit, it would seem that at least in terms of non-fiction writing, in just a few short years, we may not ever have to spend another nickel on such books again.
The right-wing supporters of these efforts know full well what they're doing. Just like how they support high public debt and deficits for the sake of destroying social programs, they want us to throw all the NASA funding at projects that will deflect and drain the funds from any efforts at finding terrestrial planets and extraterrestrial life. This is because they know what will happen once we discovered such life: their power base will go into utter disarray.
Well, we do know this for sure: The right, having total control of the federal government, still likes to whine and whine and whine about anyone who would dare criticize them about their policies, as if they are still not in power. Yes, the right is so maligned, but perhaps it's because they deserve this, especially after all the documented corruption, especially of Mr. DeLay?
can have a most excellent chance to get on the shitlists of *millions* people all over the world! Be hated just like Bill! Be properly scorned by open-source activists! Go down in shame! Huzzah!
of us "old" IT guys in our 30's and 40's (many of us unemployed or underemployed) who can be retrained inexpensively compared to putting new students through the four-year universities.
"I played around with it a bit, but it's just another browser, and IE [Microsoft's Internet Explorer] is better."
This, my friends, is only the latest reinforcement of the axiom "Bill Gates, a purported uber-nerd, continues to be out of touch with respect to the future of technology."
I seem to recall the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, which strongly suggests that minority rights cannot be trampled by majority will. Silly me. Democracy is great, but our nation's founders set up rules for what kinds of things can be decided democratically, and other things that must be protected from majoritarianism. If you value liberty, you must side with those darned homosexuals.
"Intelligent design" is not a valid theory, and it's not science. Its backers are unintelligent people who don't have a clue about design in general, how things naturally change to adapt (and in these adaptations, become more complex), and that science is always an approximation of understanding of natural causes for what we observe. Fundamentalist Christians however would have us stop thinking and accept the absurd idea that complex life forms can be perfected right off the bat, while essentially denying all the observations that make evolution a valid, if not yet thoroughly examined, scientific theory, if not fact.
That's easy! It's far easier to admit one is gay today than to admit one loves the criminal monopolist. In fact, it's also easier to be out as a gay person than admit one is an atheist, a liberal, or even suggest one has a much higher than normal IQ. Being gay is all the rage, dude. I hear the orientation-warming gifts are outta this world.
If you don't like government providing services the people need, labeling those you disagree with as statists will not help your cause. Besides, the issue of "taxation as stolen money" is an old crappy canard, and you know it.
Exactly. The people cannot wait for it to "look good on their books" before the companies do so. This is effectively a utility that everyone needs in today's world.
I'll side with the needs of the citizenry over the needs of business any day. Besides, this is like any other government service--if you don't like it, then pay to get different or better service.
Slashdot Mirror
What I posed were essentially basic questions that I figured would get people to start really thinking about this. There are all sorts of valid answers.
The government is supposed to be beholden to the people, but as you reference, this is often not so.
The business community is supposed to be beholden to their owners and customers (whether consumers or other businesses), and this is quite often the case, although businesses often make financial and other decisions that negatively affect their customers.
Businesses are naturally self-serving and self-preserving, and politicians are too. But politicians are supposed to do what the people as a whole desire, whereas a business can ethically ignore these kinds of things (to their peril... maybe). Business decisions are politically disconnected in comparison to government ones, but this difference is harder to measure when business interests cozy up too closely to government decision makers.
Sure the businesses are acting in self interest, but it's the government acting like thugs.
Who elected the government? Who elected the businesses?
Strangely enough, this SCOTUS ruling could be a potential boon for local democracy and activism in the United States.
If indeed the ramifications are not "random", as Justice O'Connor put it (and I think she's right), then what we'll see are pitched local battles taking place across the entire nation, with commercial developers vs., well, the people. This may finally be the tipping point that wakes everyone up and sparks a vast new wave of civic activism. After all, the "local authorities" are democratically elected, and if they go off the deep end with seizing private property for pure commercial interests, it won't be long before people get out their pitchforks, so to speak.
Makes me wonder if the schools with cooperate with "anti-recruiters" who are trying to starve the armed forces so the U.S. won't also go into Iran or Syria based on yet another pack of Bush lies. Normally I would be opposed to such activity, but as long as we're invading countries illegally (i.e., as long as Bush is in office), this would seem to be a prudent effort.
It's nobody's duty to prop up a company or industry or economy, and likewise, it's nobody's responsibility to watch advertisements. me
This guy must think we're actually going to miss the "mainstream media" (read: corporate-controlled media) news sources if they go away. Nope! The "corporate view on irrelevant matters" will just be replaced with alternative news, from which more and more people are getting their information anyway.
I do agree that the excessive consumerism is a contributor to the problem. I however do feel it is important to hold our national leadership to a higher standard than I do the citizenry. They are supposed to be accountable to the people, even if the people themselves are causing problems (I'm sure of which many of them would be fully uncognizant). Conspicuous consumption is part of the American culture, and this isn't new. What Bush and his cronies have done to blow up the deficit is new.
That's right. Oftentimes, people select "friends" who would never be real friends in life, but simply people who share interests. Social networking tools like StumbleUpon make it very easy to discover those with similar interests, then you can "stumble upon" links they found interesting.
How does one know if StumbleUpon has any value if one hasn't tried it out before?
I've been using StumbleUpon for about a year, and I think it's GREAT! I have found all sorts of very rich web development related sites on those days I decided to stumble onto "web development" sites. Or, on a day I was in a mood to find out more about another subject, I just selected the SU topic, and started stumbling.
SU's groups are also pretty cool, as well as the many other ways SU uses to interconnect people.
And the funny thing is... Bush's betrayal of the American people in getting us into a war without justification has greatly exacerbated the problem.
If the U.S. had only stayed on the track of fiscal responsibility it was on as late as the year 2000, things would be much much better off today. And we wouldn't have to worry about China somehow calling in its chips.
Stumbling is the new search. Try it out, it's free, and they provide toolbars for IE, Mozilla, Firefox and other browsers. I've not only ''stumbled'' onto great websites, but great people as well, as they also include a nice people matching system, and I've naturally met people just through the sharing of great links.
Exactly, I don't care about the "murder, weather and sports" that the local news insists on reporting, and I don't care about the "corporate perspective on irrelevant matters" from the national news. It has all become tripe, all worth ignoring.
I look forward to grassroots news that springs from active citizens involved in every community around the world. There is actually growing interest in this concept.
Given the growing popularity of Wikibooks, the books that we not only can comment on, but also write and edit, it would seem that at least in terms of non-fiction writing, in just a few short years, we may not ever have to spend another nickel on such books again.
The right-wing supporters of these efforts know full well what they're doing. Just like how they support high public debt and deficits for the sake of destroying social programs, they want us to throw all the NASA funding at projects that will deflect and drain the funds from any efforts at finding terrestrial planets and extraterrestrial life. This is because they know what will happen once we discovered such life: their power base will go into utter disarray.
Well, we do know this for sure: The right, having total control of the federal government, still likes to whine and whine and whine about anyone who would dare criticize them about their policies, as if they are still not in power. Yes, the right is so maligned, but perhaps it's because they deserve this, especially after all the documented corruption, especially of Mr. DeLay?
can have a most excellent chance to get on the shitlists of *millions* people all over the world! Be hated just like Bill! Be properly scorned by open-source activists! Go down in shame! Huzzah!
of us "old" IT guys in our 30's and 40's (many of us unemployed or underemployed) who can be retrained inexpensively compared to putting new students through the four-year universities.
Stop the age discrimination, corporate America!!!
It is painful to see that even people in the IT dept of such companies are not aware of FF or do not even want to try it.
Obligatory Office Space reference: "Thumbs up their asses... thumbs up their asses."
"I played around with it a bit, but it's just another browser, and IE [Microsoft's Internet Explorer] is better."
This, my friends, is only the latest reinforcement of the axiom "Bill Gates, a purported uber-nerd, continues to be out of touch with respect to the future of technology."
Label it flamebait all you want. ID's backers are indeed unintelligent people, bar none.
I seem to recall the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, which strongly suggests that minority rights cannot be trampled by majority will. Silly me. Democracy is great, but our nation's founders set up rules for what kinds of things can be decided democratically, and other things that must be protected from majoritarianism. If you value liberty, you must side with those darned homosexuals.
"Intelligent design" is not a valid theory, and it's not science. Its backers are unintelligent people who don't have a clue about design in general, how things naturally change to adapt (and in these adaptations, become more complex), and that science is always an approximation of understanding of natural causes for what we observe. Fundamentalist Christians however would have us stop thinking and accept the absurd idea that complex life forms can be perfected right off the bat, while essentially denying all the observations that make evolution a valid, if not yet thoroughly examined, scientific theory, if not fact.
That's easy! It's far easier to admit one is gay today than to admit one loves the criminal monopolist. In fact, it's also easier to be out as a gay person than admit one is an atheist, a liberal, or even suggest one has a much higher than normal IQ. Being gay is all the rage, dude. I hear the orientation-warming gifts are outta this world.
If you don't like government providing services the people need, labeling those you disagree with as statists will not help your cause. Besides, the issue of "taxation as stolen money" is an old crappy canard, and you know it.
Exactly. The people cannot wait for it to "look good on their books" before the companies do so. This is effectively a utility that everyone needs in today's world.
I'll side with the needs of the citizenry over the needs of business any day. Besides, this is like any other government service--if you don't like it, then pay to get different or better service.