The U.S. is in decline because a lot of people think the problem is overspending on the military. It's not.
No less a person than Donald Rumsfield (Secretary of Defense under both Gerald Ford and George W. Bush) would seem to disagree with you:
"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion -- that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.
"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
Sadly, if you're working in Java then you will frequently be forced to write the same 8 damn lines over 70 times, and there will be literally no way to avoid it unless you resort to automatic code generation, which is a fancy name for using a separate program to do the copying-and-pasting for you.
Color me confused. I'm genuinely not understanding you here. If a team member told me he was writing the same 8 lines over 70 times in Java, it would probably a hint to me that he needed to brush up on his understanding of basic object oriented programming. If the code in question is a cohesive unit, there's no reason you can't put it in a class, and re-use that class for all eternity. What did I miss?
we could not figure out whether the author was an incredibly elaborate troll or just a run-of-the-mill idiot.
Reading this comment of his reminds me of something I read recently: Physicists stand on each other's shoulders. Engineers dig each other's graves.
I've never understood why so many software developers feel the need to disparage one another in an attempt to prove their intelligence/superiority. There are plenty of tough problems out there and we all can learn something from one another, no? I've definitely been guilty of this in my tech career but lately I'm wondering more and more, why does the person who has a different solution always have to be an "idiot?" Why isn't he/she just someone who has a different take on solving this particular problem?
Now, I'm not saying that engineers do this more than any other group but out of all of my friends (some of whom are doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.) it certainly seems like a more common event among software developers.
At the risk of getting lost in hyperbole (sorry), consider your viewpoint if he came from a district full of rapists and wanted to reduce the penalty for rape to a $50 fine:
"I mean, if the summary is right that this dude's district is chock full of rape suspects, isn't it basically his job to propose legislation that his constituents favor? Now, if the rest of the state's representatives actually go along with it, you have a different story."
On one hand, you're right. But many people smarter than myself would argue that it's not just his job to propose legislation that his constituents would favor but to also use his reason and operate with a sense of ethics that aren't seated in taking advantage of power for the powerful minority.
Here's a photo and an article of http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34893608/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/ entitled "Obama enlists Bush, Clinton to help on Haiti" that depicts George Walker Bush and Barack Obama in the same place at the same time. I think it's safe to say that this is a real photo.
It's like we're living in "1984" and news just gets erased from the collective mind.
This whole article is odd in light of the fact that I'm pretty sure the FBI knows that bin Laden is dead. I mean the man was once releasing more videos each week than Tupac until he started toting that kidney dialysis machine through the mountains. Then... nothing.
But I guess if you can keep the myth alive, then it becomes that much easier to keep support going for spending money on the current military action in Afghanistan.
let's send a bunch of unmotivated kids to do stupid work
Isn't it more like, let's motivate (albeit forcibly) a bunch of stupid kids to do important work?
We constantly bemoan the self-centeredness of our country, the fact that so many people only look out for themselves, the obsession with MYspace, FACEbook, ME ME ME that permeates our country... We castigate the greed on Wall Street but we do nothing about fostering a greater sense of community among our youth. Where do you think those self-focused teens end up, if not on Wall Street (in part---not knocking everyone on the St.)
So then, what exactly is "bad" about getting kids off of the couch and getting them to do valuable work for their communities? Work that benefits someone other than themselves? Work that teaches them that other people have problems much worse than their own?
That aside... I do think the change website smells of propaganda--- attaching the word "change" to political leanings is like attaching "family values" to political leanings. The worth of both is all a question of perspective.
Why is it news? Because that's our only hope of changing the behavior for the better.
I get where you're coming from but I have to admit, I'm really discouraged every time we hear one of these stories and the first thing you hear is a chorus of sarcastic, "what a shock!" responses.
This is news because this is something that should upset us enough to actually provoke us into ACTION. Writing our senator. Going to a senator's office. Threatening to withhold our significant or not-so-significant campaign contribution from their next election. Anything...
But every time we resign ourselves to reply to outrageous behavior with sarcasm or disinterest, we speed up the day when we'll have nothing to be upset about... because we'll have no say in the matter and our kids will have been lulled into not caring from a young age.
I hate that term, "race card."
When you're talking about someone's life, it's not a game... so there's no such thing as a "race CARD." If you're going to bash someone for talking about something you deem meaningless, at least do _some_ research so you don't look like you're talking out of your ass. Start here:
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/articles_publications/publications/racial_disparity_20050128/http://www.sentencingproject.org/IssueAreaHome.aspx?IssueID=3/
Also, what exactly is picking up 20 years of a heavily edited TV show targeted toward a non-affluent, poorly educated demographic supposed to say about jail sentencing disparities?
As for not dressing like a criminal if you don't want to get harassed... Let me guess... your idea of rape prevention would be "not dressing like a slut?" Jeez dude, cops harassing people for how they're dressed (punk, hiphop, or whatever) is WRONG. That's not why they're there.
Let's not even address the inherent bias in your argument as you discuss who "you" can't blame. Why is it that whenever I listen to a conversation about black involving non-blacks, it always shifts to why "they" can't blame others because "they" are poor, uneducated, in jail, etc.
Many of those "they" are playing by the rules, are educated, have gone to college, have careers, etc. Is it right that even when you play by the rules, you still run up against bias? And you're saying they should blame that on civil rights leaders?
Let me ask you this? When Microsoft or other American companies offshore jobs and lobby for increased numbers of H1Bs, do you say "we should blame the people who want to keep those jobs in the US"? One thing has nothing whatsoever to do with the other. If you have a beef with civil rights leaders, then fine. But don't use that to explain away the bias that this country still doesn't want to deal with honestly.
Slashdot Mirror
The U.S. is in decline because a lot of people think the problem is overspending on the military. It's not.
No less a person than Donald Rumsfield (Secretary of Defense under both Gerald Ford and George W. Bush) would seem to disagree with you:
"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion -- that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.
"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
Here's the source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
Sadly, if you're working in Java then you will frequently be forced to write the same 8 damn lines over 70 times, and there will be literally no way to avoid it unless you resort to automatic code generation, which is a fancy name for using a separate program to do the copying-and-pasting for you.
Color me confused. I'm genuinely not understanding you here. If a team member told me he was writing the same 8 lines over 70 times in Java, it would probably a hint to me that he needed to brush up on his understanding of basic object oriented programming. If the code in question is a cohesive unit, there's no reason you can't put it in a class, and re-use that class for all eternity. What did I miss?
we could not figure out whether the author was an incredibly elaborate troll or just a run-of-the-mill idiot.
Reading this comment of his reminds me of something I read recently:
Physicists stand on each other's shoulders. Engineers dig each other's graves.
I've never understood why so many software developers feel the need to disparage one another in an attempt to prove their intelligence/superiority. There are plenty of tough problems out there and we all can learn something from one another, no? I've definitely been guilty of this in my tech career but lately I'm wondering more and more, why does the person who has a different solution always have to be an "idiot?" Why isn't he/she just someone who has a different take on solving this particular problem?
Now, I'm not saying that engineers do this more than any other group but out of all of my friends (some of whom are doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.) it certainly seems like a more common event among software developers.
At the risk of getting lost in hyperbole (sorry), consider your viewpoint if he came from a district full of rapists and wanted to reduce the penalty for rape to a $50 fine:
"I mean, if the summary is right that this dude's district is chock full of rape suspects, isn't it basically his job to propose legislation that his constituents favor? Now, if the rest of the state's representatives actually go along with it, you have a different story."
On one hand, you're right. But many people smarter than myself would argue that it's not just his job to propose legislation that his constituents would favor but to also use his reason and operate with a sense of ethics that aren't seated in taking advantage of power for the powerful minority.
Your wish is my command:
Here's a photo and an article of http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34893608/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/ entitled "Obama enlists Bush, Clinton to help on Haiti" that depicts George Walker Bush and Barack Obama in the same place at the same time. I think it's safe to say that this is a real photo.
This whole article is odd in light of the fact that I'm pretty sure the FBI knows that bin Laden is dead. I mean the man was once releasing more videos each week than Tupac until he started toting that kidney dialysis machine through the mountains. Then... nothing.
After all, the FBI's counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, also http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2135473.stmadmitted to believing that bin laden was dead eight (8) years ago.
Wait... and didn't Afghanistan's current president, Hamid Karzai, http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/10/06/karzai.binladen/admit to believing the same thing 8 years ago?
Wait... and didn't Israeli Intelligence also http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2002/me_terrorism_10_16.htmladmit the same thing 8 years ago?
But I guess if you can keep the myth alive, then it becomes that much easier to keep support going for spending money on the current military action in Afghanistan.
Actually it's been working on Macs since October of 2008...fyi.
let's send a bunch of unmotivated kids to do stupid work
Isn't it more like, let's motivate (albeit forcibly) a bunch of stupid kids to do important work?
We constantly bemoan the self-centeredness of our country, the fact that so many people only look out for themselves, the obsession with MYspace, FACEbook, ME ME ME that permeates our country... We castigate the greed on Wall Street but we do nothing about fostering a greater sense of community among our youth. Where do you think those self-focused teens end up, if not on Wall Street (in part---not knocking everyone on the St.)
So then, what exactly is "bad" about getting kids off of the couch and getting them to do valuable work for their communities? Work that benefits someone other than themselves? Work that teaches them that other people have problems much worse than their own?
That aside... I do think the change website smells of propaganda--- attaching the word "change" to political leanings is like attaching "family values" to political leanings. The worth of both is all a question of perspective.
Surprised? No.
Why is it news? Because that's our only hope of changing the behavior for the better.
I get where you're coming from but I have to admit, I'm really discouraged every time we hear one of these stories and the first thing you hear is a chorus of sarcastic, "what a shock!" responses.
This is news because this is something that should upset us enough to actually provoke us into ACTION. Writing our senator. Going to a senator's office. Threatening to withhold our significant or not-so-significant campaign contribution from their next election. Anything...
But every time we resign ourselves to reply to outrageous behavior with sarcasm or disinterest, we speed up the day when we'll have nothing to be upset about... because we'll have no say in the matter and our kids will have been lulled into not caring from a young age.
I hate that term, "race card." When you're talking about someone's life, it's not a game... so there's no such thing as a "race CARD." If you're going to bash someone for talking about something you deem meaningless, at least do _some_ research so you don't look like you're talking out of your ass. Start here: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/articles_publications/publications/racial_disparity_20050128/ http://www.sentencingproject.org/IssueAreaHome.aspx?IssueID=3/ Also, what exactly is picking up 20 years of a heavily edited TV show targeted toward a non-affluent, poorly educated demographic supposed to say about jail sentencing disparities? As for not dressing like a criminal if you don't want to get harassed... Let me guess... your idea of rape prevention would be "not dressing like a slut?" Jeez dude, cops harassing people for how they're dressed (punk, hiphop, or whatever) is WRONG. That's not why they're there.
Civil rights leaders cause bias in the housing market?
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/31/news/mortgage_study/index.htm/[CNN.com]
Let's not even address the inherent bias in your argument as you discuss who "you" can't blame. Why is it that whenever I listen to a conversation about black involving non-blacks, it always shifts to why "they" can't blame others because "they" are poor, uneducated, in jail, etc.
Many of those "they" are playing by the rules, are educated, have gone to college, have careers, etc. Is it right that even when you play by the rules, you still run up against bias? And you're saying they should blame that on civil rights leaders?
Let me ask you this? When Microsoft or other American companies offshore jobs and lobby for increased numbers of H1Bs, do you say "we should blame the people who want to keep those jobs in the US"? One thing has nothing whatsoever to do with the other. If you have a beef with civil rights leaders, then fine. But don't use that to explain away the bias that this country still doesn't want to deal with honestly.
Sure...though people often seem to prefer to explain these things away--- even when the government can't.
Study: Wealth doesn't stop minority loan bias
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19699330/
Feds to probe discriminatory home loans
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959937/