Yes, it's great that health care is finally getting attention. It's just too bad that she sold out universal health care in favor of 'mandatory health care'. She got flack for being too socialist, so now she's going to 'clean up' her reputation by diving headfirst into crony capitalism.
If you're going to spoil a book, do it properly. The shocks didn't directly make him murderous. In fact, they did exactly what they were supposed to: stop his psychotic episodes. What caused him to become murderous was that he became addicted to the shocks, and thus learned autonomically to self-induce the psychotic state. Eventually, his brain became so 'good' at maintaining that state that the shocks weren't able to repress it.
I don't like Ron Paul, but I find it appalling that he can't get a single mention in the big news channels without being referred to as 'fringe candidate Ron Paul'. If Ron Paul is a 'fringe candidate', what does that make Fred Thompson - some lint under the carpet?
The funny thing is that the real lesson we can learn from the 'shoe bomber' is that terrorists are, by and large, not exactly criminal masterminds. He could have pulled the whole thing off without a hitch if he'd just gone into the lavatory and covered the smoke detectors with Saran Wrap.
It's because of the magic of accounting. Fire people now, and you get to take credit for the savings now. The related losses (i.e., reduced sales because of reduced customer retention because of lower-quality service) won't show up until the next quarterly report, at best.
Where did you come up with expensive jeans lasting longer? It's been years since I could find anything other than store brands of jeans which weren't 'deconstructed' and 'pre-faded' and 'acid-washed' and 'distressed'; in fact, the more you pay, the more damage has been done to the clothes before you even get your hands on them!
I'm getting sick and tired of idiots being saved from the consequences of their own idiocy. It's not fair for the rest of us (i.e., the non-idiots)!
I would have supported legislation making this kind of ridiculous shit illegal in the first place, and if that makes me some kind of evil paternalist, so be it. But what I don't approve of is letting the boom happen, and then trying to legislate away the bust. You can have an economy that grows slowly but steadily, or you can have one that goes through cycles of massive growth followed by massive contraction. You can't have one that just grows like crazy all the time. That 'boom' was fueled by idiots throwing their money into a furnace. Why should the lenders get to reap the profit from the 'good' part of the cycle, but then be given government protection against the bad part of it?
If any money goes to these scumbags, I want to see the People get some ownership or control of the whole fiasco, but sadly, I don't think that will happen. It will just be another excuse for porkbarrel politics and crony capitalism. The same thing happens with the airlines - every decade or two, one or more of the major carriers declares bankruptcy, and We The People get to foot the bill for setting them straight again, and yet we get nothing back for it.* If you decide that something is Too Important To Be Allowed To Fail, the solution isn't to just throw money at the people who already let it fail in the first place. That just encourages them to keep on raping and pillaging and not to find a path toward long-term success.
And again, as I mentioned upthread, I don't see the humanitarian crisis. Losing your house is not that big a deal. If you are depending on a buyout of a mortgage you couldn't afford to save you from being destitute, I got news for you: you already ARE destitute. Helping people overcome poverty is a use of public money that I wholeheartedly endorse, but it's a totally separate issue from an arbitrary loan bailout. Hint: if your situation really is so dire, we already have bankruptcy laws for you to take advantage of, as well as subsidized housing for low-income families.
*I'm not necessarily talking about money here. For instance, public universities don't make money, but the government does get control over them.
Fuck Countrywide, and fuck the losers who are upset that they can't continue to stay in that $600,000 house on a $900/mo payment.
No kidding. When I was a kid, I used to think that losing your house was the just about the worst possible thing that could happen to a person, and I probably would have been very supportive of a mortgage bailout. But now, I don't get what all the fuss is about. "Oh no, those PEOPLE are going to LOSE their HOUSES!" Who gives a shit? They couldn't afford those houses in the first place. That's what happens when you try to buy things you can't afford. "But it's their HOUSE!" Well, they can buy a cheaper house that they can afford, or, god forbid, RENT a house. Or even rent (the horror, the horror!) an apartment. I can't afford to buy a house either - but instead of throwing a hissyfit and demanding that the public foot the bill for an expensive house for me, I rent one that is within my means. What is so tragic about that?
To put it another way, if there were millions of people who had taken out ridiculous loans to buy McLarens and Lamborghinis, and then came crying to the public that their cars were being repossessed, and could they please have some of your tax money to pay off their car loans, the response would be a resounding, "Fuck off and die." Why is it different if they spent the money on a house? The proposals for a mortgage bailout have nothing to do with supporting the needy, but rather, they are about appeasing the greedy. In fact, I have a sort of Modest Proposal to prove it: every person who asks for a bailout should instead offered a free house of their own, as long as they must agree to live in it for at least five years. Sure, the houses are in the projects - but we know you aren't a bunch of materialistic, keeping-up-with-the-Jonses types anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem.
Gartner's raison d'être is to promote Microsoft and proprietary software in general, regardless of the real advantages and disadvantages. Bill Gates could start shipping big boxes full of venomous snakes, and Gartner would have an article explaining how black mambas and hooded cobras add significant shareholder value, especially when compared to Ubuntu, which only ships with Python and not an actual python.
When the RIAA started suing people... I stopped pirating.
I thought I was the only person who had done that. Sometimes it can be tough to listen to something and then not be able to buy it, but then I think about all the cool stuff that I never would have heard if was just pirating major label stuff all the time. Emusic.com has been quite helpful, being cheap, DRM-free, and devoid of the 'big 4'. I've also found some stuff on archive.org that was cool, though mostly in weird electonic genres like glitch. The thing that took me the most by surprise was how hostile my friends tended to be to the idea. I've tried hard not to be the guy going around talking about how he only listens to 'indie' music, but sometimes people get angry anyway. For instance, the following conversation has taken place in my car more than once:
Friend: This is pretty cool, it sounds kind of like the Katamari Damacy soundtrack, who is it? Me: 'Bishop Whitney' by Beak. Friend: Beak? Who's that? Me: Eh, some random guy I found at archive.org, free download. Friend: What the fuck, man, why don't you listen to normal music? Me: I thought you said it sounded good. Friend: Yeah, I guess, but, I dunno man, why do you have to do this crap? Me: What crap? Friend: This thing where you're all like, not listening to anything normal, and you have to go find all this weird indie stuff and act like it's all great. Me: I never said it was the best thing in the world, I just liked it. I'm not forcing anyone to listen to the same bands, or bragging about how much better I am because I 'discovered' something, or trying to make Kanye West albums illegal. This album sounded good, and it was free, and legal, so now it's on my stereo. What's wrong with that? Look, I have some old Green Day on here, would you rather listen to that? Friend: No, just, forget it man, forget it. *sighs*
It's been a real trip. Fuck the big four labels. I'm tired of 'fighting' them. I'm just going to ignore them, because I don't need them.
As much as I love to lead the charge who mistake a 'Mature' rating for mature content, I have to admit that you are absolutely right about FFTA. The storyline of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance really was a horrible disappointment compared to the intricate plot and deep characters of the original Final Fantasy Tactics.
For an example of a storyline that can be about kids without being only for kids, look at Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. I won't open the can of worms that is the gameplay, but the plot itself was interesting. Rather than being a typical 'small group of unlikely heroes must save the world from total obliteration at the hands of a madman' scenario, it was more of a humble 'coming of age' kind of story. The young adult protagonists go out into the world, seeking to provide for their community, carrying the hopes and fears of their fellow villagers with them. Along the way, they (in addition to slicing up monsters and blowing things up) learn about other communities, and what makes them similar and dissimilar, and develop new respect and understanding for the generations that came before them. The storyline did end up meandering after a while, but it showed a lot of promise. I hope that FFCC2 can take a similar story and give it a more satisfying conclusion, without just falling back on the same old 'oh noes! it's teh end of teh world!!1' cliches.
8. um, er, well, I haven't seen a movie since around the time of Titanic that I felt was worth the effort of getting out of the house to go see
Just to clarify, SL Baur isn't talking about the movie Titanic. He's actually talking about the ship. What, the guy is blessed with a long lifespan, sheesh...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, it's great that health care is finally getting attention. It's just too bad that she sold out universal health care in favor of 'mandatory health care'. She got flack for being too socialist, so now she's going to 'clean up' her reputation by diving headfirst into crony capitalism.
If you're going to spoil a book, do it properly. The shocks didn't directly make him murderous. In fact, they did exactly what they were supposed to: stop his psychotic episodes. What caused him to become murderous was that he became addicted to the shocks, and thus learned autonomically to self-induce the psychotic state. Eventually, his brain became so 'good' at maintaining that state that the shocks weren't able to repress it.
Except in this case, it's more like the "pasty man's" notion of perfection.
I don't like Ron Paul, but I find it appalling that he can't get a single mention in the big news channels without being referred to as 'fringe candidate Ron Paul'. If Ron Paul is a 'fringe candidate', what does that make Fred Thompson - some lint under the carpet?
Hey, I had those numbers too. Thanks for posting them, jerk - now they're going to change them!
You're probably right, but I was being generous, in a 'concede the battle in order to hurry up and win the war' sort of way.
The solution is to vote for Giuliani. Once he's President, you won't even be allowed to HAVE shoes in an airport.
You explained why the school would want to discipline the kids. You didn't explain how the school got the authority to do so.
A friend of mine popped a copy of Crystalis into an aging NES on October 1, 1997, just to celebrate 'The End Day'.
If he could hurry up and invent a plasmid to let me kick Wikipedia admins in the nuts over TCP/IP, I'd appreciate it.
The funny thing is that the real lesson we can learn from the 'shoe bomber' is that terrorists are, by and large, not exactly criminal masterminds. He could have pulled the whole thing off without a hitch if he'd just gone into the lavatory and covered the smoke detectors with Saran Wrap.
If you don't think you do, go to one of those sleep study centers and book yourself for the night.
Way to go, Captain Reading Comprehension. The GP did exactly that.
Metroid just tricks you into thinking there are no load times. Ever wonder why sometimes a door opens instantly, and sometimes it takes 15 seconds?
It's because of the magic of accounting. Fire people now, and you get to take credit for the savings now. The related losses (i.e., reduced sales because of reduced customer retention because of lower-quality service) won't show up until the next quarterly report, at best.
Where did you come up with expensive jeans lasting longer? It's been years since I could find anything other than store brands of jeans which weren't 'deconstructed' and 'pre-faded' and 'acid-washed' and 'distressed'; in fact, the more you pay, the more damage has been done to the clothes before you even get your hands on them!
I'm getting sick and tired of idiots being saved from the consequences of their own idiocy. It's not fair for the rest of us (i.e., the non-idiots)!
I would have supported legislation making this kind of ridiculous shit illegal in the first place, and if that makes me some kind of evil paternalist, so be it. But what I don't approve of is letting the boom happen, and then trying to legislate away the bust. You can have an economy that grows slowly but steadily, or you can have one that goes through cycles of massive growth followed by massive contraction. You can't have one that just grows like crazy all the time. That 'boom' was fueled by idiots throwing their money into a furnace. Why should the lenders get to reap the profit from the 'good' part of the cycle, but then be given government protection against the bad part of it?
If any money goes to these scumbags, I want to see the People get some ownership or control of the whole fiasco, but sadly, I don't think that will happen. It will just be another excuse for porkbarrel politics and crony capitalism. The same thing happens with the airlines - every decade or two, one or more of the major carriers declares bankruptcy, and We The People get to foot the bill for setting them straight again, and yet we get nothing back for it.* If you decide that something is Too Important To Be Allowed To Fail, the solution isn't to just throw money at the people who already let it fail in the first place. That just encourages them to keep on raping and pillaging and not to find a path toward long-term success.
And again, as I mentioned upthread, I don't see the humanitarian crisis. Losing your house is not that big a deal. If you are depending on a buyout of a mortgage you couldn't afford to save you from being destitute, I got news for you: you already ARE destitute. Helping people overcome poverty is a use of public money that I wholeheartedly endorse, but it's a totally separate issue from an arbitrary loan bailout. Hint: if your situation really is so dire, we already have bankruptcy laws for you to take advantage of, as well as subsidized housing for low-income families.
*I'm not necessarily talking about money here. For instance, public universities don't make money, but the government does get control over them.
Fuck Countrywide, and fuck the losers who are upset that they can't continue to stay in that $600,000 house on a $900/mo payment.
No kidding. When I was a kid, I used to think that losing your house was the just about the worst possible thing that could happen to a person, and I probably would have been very supportive of a mortgage bailout. But now, I don't get what all the fuss is about. "Oh no, those PEOPLE are going to LOSE their HOUSES!" Who gives a shit? They couldn't afford those houses in the first place. That's what happens when you try to buy things you can't afford. "But it's their HOUSE!" Well, they can buy a cheaper house that they can afford, or, god forbid, RENT a house. Or even rent (the horror, the horror!) an apartment. I can't afford to buy a house either - but instead of throwing a hissyfit and demanding that the public foot the bill for an expensive house for me, I rent one that is within my means. What is so tragic about that?
To put it another way, if there were millions of people who had taken out ridiculous loans to buy McLarens and Lamborghinis, and then came crying to the public that their cars were being repossessed, and could they please have some of your tax money to pay off their car loans, the response would be a resounding, "Fuck off and die." Why is it different if they spent the money on a house? The proposals for a mortgage bailout have nothing to do with supporting the needy, but rather, they are about appeasing the greedy. In fact, I have a sort of Modest Proposal to prove it: every person who asks for a bailout should instead offered a free house of their own, as long as they must agree to live in it for at least five years. Sure, the houses are in the projects - but we know you aren't a bunch of materialistic, keeping-up-with-the-Jonses types anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem.
You listen to Evanescence and you're accusing someone else of having an effete attitude? I guess it really does take all kinds...
Gartner's raison d'être is to promote Microsoft and proprietary software in general, regardless of the real advantages and disadvantages. Bill Gates could start shipping big boxes full of venomous snakes, and Gartner would have an article explaining how black mambas and hooded cobras add significant shareholder value, especially when compared to Ubuntu, which only ships with Python and not an actual python.
Ignore 'off by an inch' comments. These are people trying to sight down the 'barrel' of the wiimote as though it were a light gun.
"All we are is dust in the wind, dude. (grabs a handful of dust) DUST. (scatters the dust) WIND. (points at Socrates) DUDE."
When the RIAA started suing people... I stopped pirating.
I thought I was the only person who had done that. Sometimes it can be tough to listen to something and then not be able to buy it, but then I think about all the cool stuff that I never would have heard if was just pirating major label stuff all the time. Emusic.com has been quite helpful, being cheap, DRM-free, and devoid of the 'big 4'. I've also found some stuff on archive.org that was cool, though mostly in weird electonic genres like glitch. The thing that took me the most by surprise was how hostile my friends tended to be to the idea. I've tried hard not to be the guy going around talking about how he only listens to 'indie' music, but sometimes people get angry anyway. For instance, the following conversation has taken place in my car more than once:
Friend: This is pretty cool, it sounds kind of like the Katamari Damacy soundtrack, who is it?
Me: 'Bishop Whitney' by Beak.
Friend: Beak? Who's that?
Me: Eh, some random guy I found at archive.org, free download.
Friend: What the fuck, man, why don't you listen to normal music?
Me: I thought you said it sounded good.
Friend: Yeah, I guess, but, I dunno man, why do you have to do this crap?
Me: What crap?
Friend: This thing where you're all like, not listening to anything normal, and you have to go find all this weird indie stuff and act like it's all great.
Me: I never said it was the best thing in the world, I just liked it. I'm not forcing anyone to listen to the same bands, or bragging about how much better I am because I 'discovered' something, or trying to make Kanye West albums illegal. This album sounded good, and it was free, and legal, so now it's on my stereo. What's wrong with that? Look, I have some old Green Day on here, would you rather listen to that?
Friend: No, just, forget it man, forget it. *sighs*
It's been a real trip. Fuck the big four labels. I'm tired of 'fighting' them. I'm just going to ignore them, because I don't need them.
Luckily, Gretel remembered to bring two changes of all-black clothing and $300 of personal burial money, so the witch admitted her to Project Mayhem.
As much as I love to lead the charge who mistake a 'Mature' rating for mature content, I have to admit that you are absolutely right about FFTA. The storyline of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance really was a horrible disappointment compared to the intricate plot and deep characters of the original Final Fantasy Tactics.
For an example of a storyline that can be about kids without being only for kids, look at Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. I won't open the can of worms that is the gameplay, but the plot itself was interesting. Rather than being a typical 'small group of unlikely heroes must save the world from total obliteration at the hands of a madman' scenario, it was more of a humble 'coming of age' kind of story. The young adult protagonists go out into the world, seeking to provide for their community, carrying the hopes and fears of their fellow villagers with them. Along the way, they (in addition to slicing up monsters and blowing things up) learn about other communities, and what makes them similar and dissimilar, and develop new respect and understanding for the generations that came before them. The storyline did end up meandering after a while, but it showed a lot of promise. I hope that FFCC2 can take a similar story and give it a more satisfying conclusion, without just falling back on the same old 'oh noes! it's teh end of teh world!!1' cliches.
8. um, er, well, I haven't seen a movie since around the time of Titanic that I felt was worth the effort of getting out of the house to go see
Just to clarify, SL Baur isn't talking about the movie Titanic. He's actually talking about the ship. What, the guy is blessed with a long lifespan, sheesh...