Look, it's very comfortable to feel all oppressed, and act like you've got no choices. Problem is, that is the way to guarantee you that you won't have any choices.
""you are a unique and valuable snowflake" rhetoric"
Seriously, I do not understand the parallel you're trying to draw. Isn't that just a different way of talking about rugged individualism, one of the founding principles of our nation?
We need MORE respect for individual liberties, not less.
This bill is a grab for power. You notice that it doesn't define what a social networking site is? That means, a social networking site will be any site that is currently "bad", for any definition of "bad".
"What has been asked of them is to make it harder for 13 year old girls to create accounts without their parents knowing"
Seriously...how do you do that? There is not a registry of 13 year olds and who their parents are. It doesn't exist. I suppose they could require a credit card, but there goes their entire userbase. Should you be required to get a license to access the internet?
It is not MySpace's responsibility to protect children. It is parents' responsibility to protect children.
"Or else, the impact of such law would be completely random and unpredictable. "
Hmm. And why would people in power pass a law that is completely random and unpredictable? Let's try to think about this really hard. I know we'll come up with something.
Uh huh. All above board, which is why you have gold- and platinum-selling records that somehow never make any profit. Right. Totally honest. No shady accounting at all. Record companies are paragons of integrity and virtue.
Note: I do not advocate copying music. I don't, however, equate copying music with eating babies. Sorry, it's just not that big of a deal. If it's destroying the record companies, maybe they need to do something about their business model.
"every single slashdotter who ever complains about cellphones and babies and loud rude jerks is still going to go to the movie theatre."
Well there's a scientific assertion if ever I've heard one.
I go to the movie theater IFF I get an experience worth paying for. When I stop getting that experience (which I have, at the big multiplexes) I stop going. And I really like movies.
Slashdot Mirror
"is he against internal, personal ideas about God and how we came to be?"
Yes.
"Or is he sick of seeing countless lives lost because "Our God is more right than your God"?"
And yes.
He's a reactionary. He wants to run my life, just as the fundies do. I say they deserve each other.
"absolutely no reference of which parts can be taken literally and which are supposed to be interpreted metaphorically."
Huh. I wonder if you could still derive value from it by taking the whole darn thing metaphorically.
(Hint: The answer is "Yes.")
Run Christianity in a thought-experiment sandbox. The principles are pretty sound.
"Yes, they are the minority of Christians"
I was with you until this point. I don't think that's true.
Because it's totally a binary choice.
Look, it's very comfortable to feel all oppressed, and act like you've got no choices. Problem is, that is the way to guarantee you that you won't have any choices.
Your life, your deal. Good luck.
If that's true, your job really blows.
"I need to get to a point where I turn my device off outside of working hours"
You think?
"But then, that would defeat the purpose of having a PDA, wouldn't it?"
Why? The purpose of using a tool is solving a problem, not using a tool. You need to be the master of the tool. You need to not be a tool.
Words to live by.
My Treo has this thing called a "power button". I can turn the radio off, and calls go to my voice mail. Do Blackberries not have this basic feature?
(Yes, that's a stupid question. This is a stupid problem to have.)
Huh. I guess I just don't understand the broad overgeneralizations some folks use as shorthand for, you know, thinking. : )
""you are a unique and valuable snowflake" rhetoric"
Seriously, I do not understand the parallel you're trying to draw. Isn't that just a different way of talking about rugged individualism, one of the founding principles of our nation?
We need MORE respect for individual liberties, not less.
This bill is a grab for power. You notice that it doesn't define what a social networking site is? That means, a social networking site will be any site that is currently "bad", for any definition of "bad".
That's a bad law.
Um, so maybe the home security vendors should look into IP connectivity.
"What has been asked of them is to make it harder for 13 year old girls to create accounts without their parents knowing"
Seriously...how do you do that? There is not a registry of 13 year olds and who their parents are. It doesn't exist. I suppose they could require a credit card, but there goes their entire userbase. Should you be required to get a license to access the internet?
It is not MySpace's responsibility to protect children. It is parents' responsibility to protect children.
"MySpace has traditionally shown a pretty flagrant disregard for keeping people safe from predators"
What could they possibly do? Seriously...you can't make people not lie.
If that's what the bill said, you might be right. Since it's not, you're not.
"Or else, the impact of such law would be completely random and unpredictable. "
Hmm. And why would people in power pass a law that is completely random and unpredictable? Let's try to think about this really hard. I know we'll come up with something.
Uh huh. All above board, which is why you have gold- and platinum-selling records that somehow never make any profit. Right. Totally honest. No shady accounting at all. Record companies are paragons of integrity and virtue.
Note: I do not advocate copying music. I don't, however, equate copying music with eating babies. Sorry, it's just not that big of a deal. If it's destroying the record companies, maybe they need to do something about their business model.
You mean that's happened to you before? How...unfortunate.
"Do you know why artists sign with record companies?"
Because the record companies lie to them.
"So they can MAKE money you fool! "
Which, most of the time, they don't do.
I think you'd make more money if you concentrated on creating quality goods, and less shrieking about thieveses stealing your preciousss.
You do understand that the Civil War had very little to do with slavery, right?
No, probably not. Still an idiot.
I say "No more guns for you until you can secure this sensitive data."
I tend to agree. (Guess that makes me a sheep. Whatever.)
If you determine that you'll do exactly the opposite of what the "herd" does, your actions are just as dictated by the herd as those of its members.
Stated differently, "Quality" (or "relevance to my life") is orthogonal to popularity. I don't care if something's popular...I care if it's GOOD.
So, basically, what you said. : )
If we got rid of copyright, the GPL would be redundant. And you also wouldn't need it.
"YOU should have the right to just rip me off, seel my work, or even give it away to whomever you desire?"
You're talking about the record companies, right? Because they screw artists on an industrial scale...
"you're special and unique
just like everyone else"
Maybe I'm just not jaded enough, but I've never understood the implied disconnect between these two statements.
"every single slashdotter who ever complains about cellphones and babies and loud rude jerks is still going to go to the movie theatre."
Well there's a scientific assertion if ever I've heard one.
I go to the movie theater IFF I get an experience worth paying for. When I stop getting that experience (which I have, at the big multiplexes) I stop going. And I really like movies.