Money decreases in value. Companies charge more to compensate and then don't pass it on to you. That's a cut. If they paid you in gold, it'd be a cut that anyone could understand.
It's a rigged number that doesn't include energy, housing or food. If your telling me that these things (the most common everyday purchases) have indeed tracked with inflation, then I'd guess that you haven't driven, owned a house or bought food in the past couple of years. Don't forget that even during the gloom and doom of the 70s, it was still possible to raise a family of four on a meager salary.
Really? I'm dead broke since I'm in college, but I don't expect to be that way for the rest of my life. I consider myself to be quite liberal in the "new" sense and don't plan to change my beliefs any time soon. I believe in the idea of a welfare state, and will gladly give up a good share of my money in furtherance of that belief if I ever have the luck of being successful.
You may still end up a liberal, but don't be surprised if you don't. Your attitude is fairly common among college folk, but keep in mind, the conservatives do come from somewhere. Most people don't go from conservative to liberal, but many conservatives were once liberal. When you have a lot more responsibilities, you may find the need for a corresponding level of freedom.
I was once a staunch liberal in that I thought government could work, if only... blah, blah, blah. Then I came to realize that "if only" will never happen and is not in my control. I realized that I can only have freedom, if I was willing to permit it for the other guy. The liberals are trying to steal my money for one thing and the neo-cons are trying to steal it for another. I'd rather that no one have the power of my money, if I can't have a say in it. Perhaps this too will occur to you after you see enough your candidates turn out to be such hypocrites. Don't throw good money after bad.
Living in both New York and Colorado, I'd have to say this has always been true in my experience. In fact the only conservatives I've ever met in New York are the poor, hunting rural type. And the only liberals I meet in Colorado are the most well-off people I know here.
First off, let me say that I'm a conservative who despises Bush. That being said, this goes to the heart of the whole red state - blue state thing. The poor countryside is sick of being taxed to support the rich cities. This has been true throughout all human history. I don't know how you've gotten modded flamebait for stating the obvious. The blue states are the rich ones and the red states are the poor ones. Is that really a point of contention?
I can't answer for the original poster, but yes. Clinton dismantled welfare in ways Regan could have only dreamed and Bush has spent more than anyone since FDR. These fuckers always run from one side and rule from another.
That's right: free trade promotes peace. If our economy suffers and we lose some jobs, so be it. We've been fat dumb and happy long enough. Peace is worth it.
Not going to war promotes peace too. If we were fully protectionist and didn't have a standing army, do you really think we'd have to worry about losing peace? We create the problems and then propose the solutions. You may have been happy long enough, but I want an economy I can base my future on. A free trade, global economy means that our standard of living must necessarily decline, so that we're equal with the other shitholes. I don't get people who think they should be punished for something. I don't even get what that something is. I don't invade other nations or tell people what they can or can't do, so why should I suffer for your sense of justice?
Christ, don't you want to help people in poor countries? You have two choices: keep giving them money or give them jobs. Wouldn't you rather be self-sufficient? Don't you think they feel the same way?
You are only self-sufficient if you don't need people to give you things. And quite frankly, no I don't want to help people in poor countries. I wish them the best, but with 6 billion+ people in the world and the economy facing systematic destruction at the hands of the Washington rabble, I'm really only interested in survival. People are always saying what a rich nation America is. But that's only true if you don't consider our unpayable debt. We're seeing the reckoning, even right now, with the dollar crashing. I hate the role our governments have played in keeping poorer nations down, but they weren't representing me (despite their claims), so why should I be left holding the bag? I already give more than half my money to governement as is, and I get NOTHING real in return. Everything I get (roads are about it) can be provided locally or through some other means. Most of what I do get makes everyone less safe.
Show me a systematic misuse of the "terrorist" label to prosecute non-violent protestors, and I'll show a free press correcting the system.
Perhaps not prosecution, but certainly persecution. Plenty of peace activists haven't been able to get their names off of no-fly lists, even with the press "correcting" the system. Plus the real issue with these laws are that people are being arrested, without being able to contact friends, families or lawyers. They're not even allowed to see the evidence against them. They aren't even allow to get their story out in the first place. If these are no prosecutions, then that just shows how flimsy and unneccessary these laws are, but people still suffer for them.
the unemployment rate is low
Based on bullshit numbers that is. You have to actively be collecting unemployment to be figured into this rate. Just like, inflation being only 2%, is only believable to people who don't do their own shopping, by gas or own a house.
Finally, if you think the country's headed to 1984, shouldn't you be holding onto that gun? Plan A is the voting booth. Protest is Plan B. At some point, we'll be needing the guns.
We're already here in Oceanania (peace is war, freedom is slavery), but what would guns accomplish, short of strengthening the government's PR position? Given the disparity between private and government weapondry, our guns are little more than rocks these days anyway. The voting booth is now completely unreliable (ex. candidates getting more votes than registered voters). And even if they were reliable, the system only allows democrats and republicans through. Protests are ignored or grossly underplayed by the mainstream media (Sheehan aside, there were millions protesting Iraq before the war even began, more than against Vietnam). All we have left is education. People need to understand that freedom is the right to say no. We don't have that anymore. Once enough people begin to understand that, then it doesn't matter what the government tells us anymore.
You know, I'll work over 40 hours a week on an occasional crunch-time basis. But if you do it all the time, then you're just a rube (or a work-a-holic). Move on somewhere else. Perhaps you should have just worked those 40 hour weeks anyway, thereby putting your manager "under pressure" to manage the project properly, with the resources he has on hand.
You were modded funny, but I think there's great truth to what you say. Everybody have this big void in their lives. You can fill it with boulders or pebbles. Most people latch onto one thing fanatically, drinking, religion, family, TV, heroin, etc. Often when people give one up, they latch onto another, just as fantically (born-agains are a great example, try finding one without a very troubled past). I find it better to have a 1000 different addictions so that I never have enough time for just one and I don't feel like it's the end of the world to give one up. Most people just choose a single "safe" addiction, but that does nothing to help with the sense of imbalance in their lives.
I want to listen to MP3s as I get ready in the morning, not stupid NPR. I know I can probably rig up an easy solution to this, but why isn't it in alarm clocks yet?
You're also right about the sounds. My alarm clock keeps the lousiest time, but I keep using it because the alarm sound is tolerable. I no longer have as much problem hitting the snooze, but I end up waking up a little earlier each day (until daylight savings comes around and I get off my ass to reset it).
The difference between Delay's corruption and that of African nations is that in Africa people DIE because of that corruption.
Um.....what about that war? You know the one in Iraq. The one in the country that didn't attack us. The one that the White House lied about to get us into and is now (finally) starting to see some indictments over. The one where far more innocent civilians have been murdered then were on 9/11.
You talk about governments upholding human rights, but the only bill that George Bush is willing to veto (the supposed conservative), is the one coming up to limit torture. I didn't know that our 'progressive' ideas involved the rape of little boys.
We are quite possibly the most corrupt nation in the world and more people have died over it than under most regimes. I know you were talking about Delay, but the Abramoff scandal goes far beyond cheating Indians. And it goes beyond the republicans as well. If you don't think people are dying from it then you must not be paying attention. Or you don't consider Iraqi's and US soldiers to be people. I'll take two-bit corruption over the levels that we're seeing anyday.
The primary reason Americans use so much ice is because we like our soft drinks COLD. Simple as that. Oh, and almost every place in America gives you free refills, so we'd rather have our drinks the way we like them (cold) and keep getting refills.
Screw that. Ice just turns drinks to water and when I want water, I'll drink water. I was raised here in America and I'll never understand the whole massive cup of ice thing. Even being use to it, I find it very strange, especially when the drink is already cold to begin with.
Haven't used nEdit in a very long time, but I fully agree with you on jEdit, it's plugin support is phenomenal. I use three levels of editors. IntelliJ for project files (Java, JSPs, etc), vim for quick small changes or just viewing, and jEdit for the rest. Like them all for different reasons. Don't much care about rivalry though.
Re:Intellisense #1 feature, pay Bram to add it
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Vim 6.4 Released
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Writing code that always works is hard........ If it's Java, you'll ignore a potential exception.
You're kidding, that's where the autocompletion most shines. In IntelliJ, uncaught exceptions are flagged in the code before I've even compiled. I can then hit alt-enter and I'm giving the choice to re-throw or catch the exception and all the code gets written out for me. Ever since using this IDE, I now easily write code that ALWAYS compiles and usually works and I crank out a ton of it. Hell, I even get greyed out warnings for potential run-time problems. Bugs do pop up now and then, but they're so insignificant and easy to fix that complaining about (most) bugs is like complaining about the BSOD in windows. I respond to the latter complaints with, "well, why the hell are you still using Windows 95 then?"
That doesn't mean the Soviet Union was a bastion of freedom. It just means that Americans have no idea what freedom actually is and that we live in Orwell-land. Hell, we've even hired the former head of the KGB, General Yevgeni Primakov, to consult for homeland security. Homeland security also has General Alexander Karpov, former KGB station chief, on its payroll. Just the fact that it's call "homeland" security should be a tippoff to anyone who's ever watched a dystopian sci-fi movie or read any history (fatherland, motherland and now the homeland). Our homes can now be confiscated at will. People are locked away, not being allowed to contact lawyers or even family members to tell them where they "disappeared" to. The only bill Bush is threatening to veto (in his entire presidency) is one that restrains the use of torture. We now invade countries that haven't done anything to us and cannot even be construed as a threat. Elections are routinely rigged (on both sides of the aisle). We have a greater percentage of our people in prison than in any other country. The media might as well be state run, given their obvious bias. The list goes on and on. I don't think it's even open for debate any more whether we represent freedom or tyranny. That doesn't mean that other countries represent freedom, it just means that we're big ole hypocrites.
The Soviet police may have not locked you up as a four year old, but they sure would have if you were a threat to the party. Europeans have given up their sovereignty to unelected EU officials. You're barely allow to surf the web in China. God help you if you're a Palestinian in Israel. Every country is run by evil people who want to take away your freedom. You don't need a government to give you freedom, it's a natural state. The only purpose of government is to take it away. Everyone thinks their shit don't stink. Like the British who always complain about the Iraq war to Americans when they're there in Iraq as well. You gonna tell me you actually trust Putin?
I would move from this country if there were somewhere to move to. But I don't find freedom anywhere I go (or even read about). I do feel safer around police in other countries than I do here. The always have these hate-filled scowls over here and there are so freaking many of them. But I don't see how I'd live any freer somewhere else. That's unfortunate. The first country to rediscover freedom will see a massive influx of the world's best and brightest who've had nowhere to go for so long now. Too bad we've run out of space.
Public education sucks and I wouldn't have used it if I were my parents. I absolutely will not use it if I decide to have kids. Roads can be handled by private industry and likely wouldn't result in them repaving perfectly good roads in favor of the roads that really need the work. Fed-Ex and UPS have both proven very reliable alternatives to USPS and I don't get bombarded with junk mail from them. But why wouldn't I use the public alternatives when I've already paid for them? Demand drives need. If the government wasn't stealing my money to provide that need, then someone else would at a lower cost. It's human nature that someone would, no law need support it.
How am I in any way like a democrat or republican? They have bloated government, I want it gone. I stand in opposition to everything they stand for. You're the one defending their tired old policies. In my perfect world, there'd be no democrats or republicans because there'd be no power for them to try and grab.
You imply that I'm someone of privelege. I see myself as someone who has never gotten anything from anybody and has had to work hard for everything. That's why I have this attitude. I have friends on welfare, one of whom was complaining the other day because his boss wouldn't give him a break when he came to work an hour late (again). He gave his boss the finger and walked out. He saw his boss as unreasonable (as he put it, a complete dick), yet I would have fired my friend too in that situation. Too many people feel entitled to everything. They are delusional. Some of my poorer friends think I inherited money or that I was born rich. Wrong! I worked hard and am still far from being rich, yet you can see that they can't comprehend that. I sometimes worked jobs I didn't like, I have moved where the work was (away from friends and family). I've been deep in debt and have crawled my way out. I've been out of work for long periods at a time. In it all, I've never gotten a dime from anyone. My parents fed me when I was a kid (thanks!). Kind of their duty after bringing me into this world. I learn things on my own, school never helped me at all in that regard. I get jobs on my own and not through connections.
There are people who never had a chance and need help. We're a very charitable nation. If you're a bum, you can get a meal somewhere, usually from a private organization. Private charities would have a hell of a lot more money if people weren't taxed so ridiculously and if they didn't feel like that they've already given enough through those taxes. Law enforcement can be handled in a variety of ways. We have a greater percentage of our people in prision than anywhere else. It's not that we're more evil, it's that everything is illegal. You can hardly go a day in this country without breaking the law in some way. And as we give more money to law enforcement, we put more laws on the books to justify their jobs. Why should I have to shell out $45k/year to send some harmless pothead to prision? The education system is downright counterproductive in our country. It'd be better not to "educate" children at all. Most healthcare costs are in record keeping, again more burdensome regulations.
My definition of the common good means the most good for the most people. You think of "common" in terms of the lowest common denominator. If that's the common good you're talking about, then screw the common good! We should instead work to raise us all up and not knock anyone down. Things work themselves out if given the chance. Henry Ford introduced an 8 hour work day and decent pay not because he wanted to be nice to everyone, but because he needed people capable of buying the cars he produced. Almost every significant invention of modern times (aside from perhaps integrated circuits) came about in the 19th century, when governement regulation was at a minimum. There was very little inflation, people were better educated and they were hopeful and proud. Compare that with what we have now. And then wait another 10 years and talk to me about the common good. We're in a freefall and we can never pay our debts. When the economy comes crashing down, there won't be anyone rich enough left to pay for your welfare. Government is nothing more than a system of interlocking ponzi schemes.
You don't have to be rich to own medical insurance. And you don't have to have medical insurance to get treated in an ER. Before we had medical insurance, people got treated. Doctors would often take what they could get and could function on a pro-bono basis cause they didn't have to worry about scraping up $100k a year for their insurance. It wasn't a business, it was a calling. Many doctors are getting out of general practice and heading into electives like plastic surgery just to avoid the regulatory hassles and government sanctioned lawsuits. Talk to a doctor, it may have been a calling for them at one time, but they quickly become jaded.
If you didn't have tax laws, then most BS charities would go away and you'd be left with mostly real ones. People would have twice as much money and wouldn't feel like they already "gave at the office" every April 15th. Charities would fill the void. Perhaps not for every freak who goes to the doctor when they catch a flu, but for real cases in need, the support would be there. Currently, charities are nothing more than tax shelters.
I'm not defending the rich, I'm defending freedom. Our government puts endless rules and regulations in place that cripple the middle class while giving the rich an avenue to avoid paying taxes or being held accountable for anything. They use the laws of government to enrich themselves. To enslave you. If there are a million tax laws on the book and I can afford a fancy tax lawyer, then I'm not going to be paying much money out come April. But because people like yourself want the rich to pay, you'll scream for more laws on the books to hold them accountable. The more laws, the more interpretations and loopholes for their high priced lawyers to exploit.
No one is entitled to anything. You don't deserve help. To give wealth to one is to take it from another. Life is tough and unfair. You can't make it fair. But you can adapt to it. The government prevents people from adapting by saying, "I'm on it," and they never are. They've had their chance. I want my money back. I want the freedom to fix things myself. If I fall flat on my face then that's my problem. It's what being an adult is all about.
Hey, I'm all for everybody being prosperous, just not at the expense of my prosperity. I don't consider people who get something for nothing prosperous. They're just lucky fuckups (I have several friends on welfare and yes, even them). Building those people up at the expense of the productive ends up denying prosperity to all. And just look around, as government gets bigger and bigger, the economy gets worse and worse, we become less secure, healthcare becomes less manageable, etc. Governments do not spend responsibly and there's not a single thing they spend money on that I support. The things you believe in require someone putting a gun to me head, the things I believe in don't. Which is the more impoverished attitude?
I know what a depression is and I believe we're on the verge of a major one. People are doing poorly in this country, despite claims by the media. That's because the few jobs we have left barely pay a living wage. Manufacturing has left this country because of all the rules and regulations (you know the ones for the common good) have made it impractical to do business here. I'm seeing company after company filing bankruptcy can't they can't afford all of their *common good* programs, pensions, etc. I get your point that we all float or sink together, I get it so much that I recognize that business is the largest component of that equation. The health of some dude down the street doesn't affect society so much. His economic well-being does.
You know, it really boils down to freedom. Not the curse word that George Bush uses, but the real deal. You have and opinion and I have an opinion. They're different. I imagine that there's at least one other person with an opinion different from both of ours. Who's right? Which opinion should we follow? If we're truly free, then we should be able to each follow our own opinions. Once you start denying that right to others, then you become the bad guy. You become the zealot who's trying to impose his religous beliefs on others. People who aren't free are like caged animals. They'll lash out, they're destructive. I believe society works best when people are uncaged. That's my religion, and I won't try to impose it on you. I just ask that you treat me the same way.
Exactly. It was never about the right to hunt or go skeet shooting. As Jefferson said, the tree of liberty must be renewed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. That being said, the founding fathers never imagined F-16s (the gun of the day) and that makes the second amendment kind of a moot point. No armed insurrection will ever be achieved in this country. Information and skepticism are the only viable weapons left to us.
Insurance was created as a concept to deal with the fact that in a purely capitalist society there is no sense of community or common good and no one will help you when you need it most. Does anyone actually consider it to be an efficient and effective means of addressing this need?
I've never asked society for help. More often than not, when society tries to "help" they only get in the way of people trying to help themselves (Katrina being the obvious case in point). A system of insurance let's people decide for themselves how valuable it is for them to have that protection. In the end, you're paying for it one way or another. Would you like it if you were forced, every time, to buy the super-extended waranty plans when purchasing something from Best Buy? How about if you were forced to pay for my warranty plan as well? Why should I be forced (at gunpoint no less) to concern myself with your "common" good? Especially if it was your lifestyle that led you to seek medical help in the first place.
I do agree with your point on paperwork, that's the costliest part of the US health care system. But it's more a by-product of big government than it is of the insurance agencies. We are anything but pure-capitalist. Not when 52% of my paycheck goes to the government in one form or another. That's more in the realm of socialism. But then, I tend to believe most liberals are just conservatives who don't understand capatilism. And republicans are just democrats who don't understand the meaning of the word small. I would love to live in that purely capitalist society you talk about but as it is, I have to cough up my money to pay for the latest whim that some jackass down the street had or else soldiers are sent to my house to shoot me in the head when I decide I don't want to pay or go to jail for that whim.
But the biggest problem, the BIGGEST problem is seeing the same commercial 3 times per show. For every show. On every network. Non-stop play. Same thing over and Over and OVER and OVER.
Oh this is so true. I watch a little too much TV and before PVR, I use get all worked up whenever I saw the same commercial over and over. I haven't been to a Taco Bell (not once) since their "drop the chalupa" campaign, it was on twice, every commercial break on every show, for a long time (there's no way they could have ever made their money back on that one). The Betty Crocker (or was it Pillsbury) "my heart to yours" campaign kept me away from them for several years. Repetition may work, but in my case, you'll only do a good job of associating my anger with your product.
I've always wondered why companys don't film a dozen commericials at a time, mixing them up. You see repetition of a brand name or a particular item does work, but the commerical itself is not the product or the company. They should repeat the conceptual, rather than the concrete. It use to bug me so much that I use to mute the TV whenever commercials came on (that use to freak out a couple of ex-girlfriends for some reason).
Now I have a PVR and I'll stop to listen to a commercial once in a while. If I accidentally catch a whole block, it doesn't bother me because most of them are mostly new to me. I do still see TV commercials, but PVR has given me the breathing space not to be annoyed by them. Companies are becoming more and more hostile to their customers, I'm glad I have the tools to be able to still function as a consumer.
10) The company opens a "research center" or "development center" in an impoverished country - Companies have found that they can increase headcount by hiring low-cost engineers in impoverished countries like India. They will typically declare the foreign site as a development center to handle development overflow from the main office, and that no current employee will be let go (so relax, because you're safe). This seems to be okay until you notice that headcount in the local office is decreasing because the employees that are leaving aren't being replaced. Brain drain at any company is a serious issue, and one that is directly caused by this type of off shoring.
This is scary, but not for the reasons people think. Offshoring, or any kind of outsourcing for that matter, always fails. The work comes back, but not until your customers are pissed over missed deadlines and broken software. When we outsource, I spend most of my time training the outsourcers, and then training their replacements, as turnover at those places tend to be high. If you can't communicate face-to-face, with the people developing your product, then you're gonna have problems. Always! This is true whether they're down the street or especially in a different timezone. When your company starts thinking that this is a good idea, then it's bad because it means your management is incompetant. It means they can't learn from their mistakes or they haven't had enough experience to have seen the results of outsourcing first hand. But even the incompetent learn after they've been punched in the face a few times.
Depends on the internship. Back in my college days, I interned with a major international company that was down the block from my school. Each engineer had an intern who did most of the engineer's work for them at a fraction of the pay. The type of work was exactly the same, but the interns had more of it. If that's not experience, then what is? Perhaps that situation was unique because RIT had a mandatory co-op (intern) program and the local businesses were use to relying on it, but it was defintely real, even to my now more experienced eyes.
As for the status meetings, several a week are reasonable if you're working multiple projects at the same time. I hate useless meetings and I don't feel micromanaged at all, but sometimes they are necessary to keep everyone on the same page in a rapidly shifting environment.
Nice, I especially like the one on the sales, marketing, engineer blame game. Fucking sales! If you promise things that engineering can't deliver on, without consulting them, then who's fault is it really? This condition is starting to show up where I work and sales won't even try and sell our stuff anymore (despite our very positive industry rep). I expect to be out of this job by the end of the year because of that "sign."
The one way I usually know that I'm in trouble is if some kind of shift happens at the company and I have no idea what the hell just happened. I once had some guy talk to our team for hours, trying to allay our fears over something, even bribing us with restaurant coupons. Afterwards, the team all talked amongst ourselves trying to figure out what happened. It turned out that our previous manager had just been fired and this guy was our new manager. Couldn't figure it out from what he said, he was too afraid to tell us. It wasn't very long thereafter that we were all layed off. He was a disaster.
Everytime since then, whenever I'm confused on the job, I know that something went wrong and that the storm is going to hit at any minute. I've seen this played out time and time again. Also beware any "strategic alliances" with other companies. This too is a sign that things are going south.
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Money decreases in value. Companies charge more to compensate and then don't pass it on to you. That's a cut. If they paid you in gold, it'd be a cut that anyone could understand.
It's a rigged number that doesn't include energy, housing or food. If your telling me that these things (the most common everyday purchases) have indeed tracked with inflation, then I'd guess that you haven't driven, owned a house or bought food in the past couple of years. Don't forget that even during the gloom and doom of the 70s, it was still possible to raise a family of four on a meager salary.
Really? I'm dead broke since I'm in college, but I don't expect to be that way for the rest of my life. I consider myself to be quite liberal in the "new" sense and don't plan to change my beliefs any time soon. I believe in the idea of a welfare state, and will gladly give up a good share of my money in furtherance of that belief if I ever have the luck of being successful.
... blah, blah, blah. Then I came to realize that "if only" will never happen and is not in my control. I realized that I can only have freedom, if I was willing to permit it for the other guy. The liberals are trying to steal my money for one thing and the neo-cons are trying to steal it for another. I'd rather that no one have the power of my money, if I can't have a say in it. Perhaps this too will occur to you after you see enough your candidates turn out to be such hypocrites. Don't throw good money after bad.
You may still end up a liberal, but don't be surprised if you don't. Your attitude is fairly common among college folk, but keep in mind, the conservatives do come from somewhere. Most people don't go from conservative to liberal, but many conservatives were once liberal. When you have a lot more responsibilities, you may find the need for a corresponding level of freedom.
I was once a staunch liberal in that I thought government could work, if only
Living in both New York and Colorado, I'd have to say this has always been true in my experience. In fact the only conservatives I've ever met in New York are the poor, hunting rural type. And the only liberals I meet in Colorado are the most well-off people I know here.
First off, let me say that I'm a conservative who despises Bush. That being said, this goes to the heart of the whole red state - blue state thing. The poor countryside is sick of being taxed to support the rich cities. This has been true throughout all human history. I don't know how you've gotten modded flamebait for stating the obvious. The blue states are the rich ones and the red states are the poor ones. Is that really a point of contention?
I can't answer for the original poster, but yes. Clinton dismantled welfare in ways Regan could have only dreamed and Bush has spent more than anyone since FDR. These fuckers always run from one side and rule from another.
That's right: free trade promotes peace. If our economy suffers and we lose some jobs, so be it. We've been fat dumb and happy long enough. Peace is worth it.
Not going to war promotes peace too. If we were fully protectionist and didn't have a standing army, do you really think we'd have to worry about losing peace? We create the problems and then propose the solutions. You may have been happy long enough, but I want an economy I can base my future on. A free trade, global economy means that our standard of living must necessarily decline, so that we're equal with the other shitholes. I don't get people who think they should be punished for something. I don't even get what that something is. I don't invade other nations or tell people what they can or can't do, so why should I suffer for your sense of justice?
Christ, don't you want to help people in poor countries? You have two choices: keep giving them money or give them jobs. Wouldn't you rather be self-sufficient? Don't you think they feel the same way?
You are only self-sufficient if you don't need people to give you things. And quite frankly, no I don't want to help people in poor countries. I wish them the best, but with 6 billion+ people in the world and the economy facing systematic destruction at the hands of the Washington rabble, I'm really only interested in survival. People are always saying what a rich nation America is. But that's only true if you don't consider our unpayable debt. We're seeing the reckoning, even right now, with the dollar crashing. I hate the role our governments have played in keeping poorer nations down, but they weren't representing me (despite their claims), so why should I be left holding the bag? I already give more than half my money to governement as is, and I get NOTHING real in return. Everything I get (roads are about it) can be provided locally or through some other means. Most of what I do get makes everyone less safe.
Show me a systematic misuse of the "terrorist" label to prosecute non-violent protestors, and I'll show a free press correcting the system.
Perhaps not prosecution, but certainly persecution. Plenty of peace activists haven't been able to get their names off of no-fly lists, even with the press "correcting" the system. Plus the real issue with these laws are that people are being arrested, without being able to contact friends, families or lawyers. They're not even allowed to see the evidence against them. They aren't even allow to get their story out in the first place. If these are no prosecutions, then that just shows how flimsy and unneccessary these laws are, but people still suffer for them.
the unemployment rate is low
Based on bullshit numbers that is. You have to actively be collecting unemployment to be figured into this rate. Just like, inflation being only 2%, is only believable to people who don't do their own shopping, by gas or own a house.
Finally, if you think the country's headed to 1984, shouldn't you be holding onto that gun? Plan A is the voting booth. Protest is Plan B. At some point, we'll be needing the guns.
We're already here in Oceanania (peace is war, freedom is slavery), but what would guns accomplish, short of strengthening the government's PR position? Given the disparity between private and government weapondry, our guns are little more than rocks these days anyway. The voting booth is now completely unreliable (ex. candidates getting more votes than registered voters). And even if they were reliable, the system only allows democrats and republicans through. Protests are ignored or grossly underplayed by the mainstream media (Sheehan aside, there were millions protesting Iraq before the war even began, more than against Vietnam). All we have left is education. People need to understand that freedom is the right to say no. We don't have that anymore. Once enough people begin to understand that, then it doesn't matter what the government tells us anymore.
You know, I'll work over 40 hours a week on an occasional crunch-time basis. But if you do it all the time, then you're just a rube (or a work-a-holic). Move on somewhere else. Perhaps you should have just worked those 40 hour weeks anyway, thereby putting your manager "under pressure" to manage the project properly, with the resources he has on hand.
You were modded funny, but I think there's great truth to what you say. Everybody have this big void in their lives. You can fill it with boulders or pebbles. Most people latch onto one thing fanatically, drinking, religion, family, TV, heroin, etc. Often when people give one up, they latch onto another, just as fantically (born-agains are a great example, try finding one without a very troubled past). I find it better to have a 1000 different addictions so that I never have enough time for just one and I don't feel like it's the end of the world to give one up. Most people just choose a single "safe" addiction, but that does nothing to help with the sense of imbalance in their lives.
I want to listen to MP3s as I get ready in the morning, not stupid NPR. I know I can probably rig up an easy solution to this, but why isn't it in alarm clocks yet?
You're also right about the sounds. My alarm clock keeps the lousiest time, but I keep using it because the alarm sound is tolerable. I no longer have as much problem hitting the snooze, but I end up waking up a little earlier each day (until daylight savings comes around and I get off my ass to reset it).
The difference between Delay's corruption and that of African nations is that in Africa people DIE because of that corruption.
Um.....what about that war? You know the one in Iraq. The one in the country that didn't attack us. The one that the White House lied about to get us into and is now (finally) starting to see some indictments over. The one where far more innocent civilians have been murdered then were on 9/11.
You talk about governments upholding human rights, but the only bill that George Bush is willing to veto (the supposed conservative), is the one coming up to limit torture. I didn't know that our 'progressive' ideas involved the rape of little boys.
We are quite possibly the most corrupt nation in the world and more people have died over it than under most regimes. I know you were talking about Delay, but the Abramoff scandal goes far beyond cheating Indians. And it goes beyond the republicans as well. If you don't think people are dying from it then you must not be paying attention. Or you don't consider Iraqi's and US soldiers to be people. I'll take two-bit corruption over the levels that we're seeing anyday.
The primary reason Americans use so much ice is because we like our soft drinks COLD. Simple as that. Oh, and almost every place in America gives you free refills, so we'd rather have our drinks the way we like them (cold) and keep getting refills.
Screw that. Ice just turns drinks to water and when I want water, I'll drink water. I was raised here in America and I'll never understand the whole massive cup of ice thing. Even being use to it, I find it very strange, especially when the drink is already cold to begin with.
Haven't used nEdit in a very long time, but I fully agree with you on jEdit, it's plugin support is phenomenal. I use three levels of editors. IntelliJ for project files (Java, JSPs, etc), vim for quick small changes or just viewing, and jEdit for the rest. Like them all for different reasons. Don't much care about rivalry though.
Writing code that always works is hard. ....... If it's Java, you'll ignore a potential exception.
You're kidding, that's where the autocompletion most shines. In IntelliJ, uncaught exceptions are flagged in the code before I've even compiled. I can then hit alt-enter and I'm giving the choice to re-throw or catch the exception and all the code gets written out for me. Ever since using this IDE, I now easily write code that ALWAYS compiles and usually works and I crank out a ton of it. Hell, I even get greyed out warnings for potential run-time problems. Bugs do pop up now and then, but they're so insignificant and easy to fix that complaining about (most) bugs is like complaining about the BSOD in windows. I respond to the latter complaints with, "well, why the hell are you still using Windows 95 then?"
That doesn't mean the Soviet Union was a bastion of freedom. It just means that Americans have no idea what freedom actually is and that we live in Orwell-land. Hell, we've even hired the former head of the KGB, General Yevgeni Primakov, to consult for homeland security. Homeland security also has General Alexander Karpov, former KGB station chief, on its payroll. Just the fact that it's call "homeland" security should be a tippoff to anyone who's ever watched a dystopian sci-fi movie or read any history (fatherland, motherland and now the homeland). Our homes can now be confiscated at will. People are locked away, not being allowed to contact lawyers or even family members to tell them where they "disappeared" to. The only bill Bush is threatening to veto (in his entire presidency) is one that restrains the use of torture. We now invade countries that haven't done anything to us and cannot even be construed as a threat. Elections are routinely rigged (on both sides of the aisle). We have a greater percentage of our people in prison than in any other country. The media might as well be state run, given their obvious bias. The list goes on and on. I don't think it's even open for debate any more whether we represent freedom or tyranny. That doesn't mean that other countries represent freedom, it just means that we're big ole hypocrites.
The Soviet police may have not locked you up as a four year old, but they sure would have if you were a threat to the party. Europeans have given up their sovereignty to unelected EU officials. You're barely allow to surf the web in China. God help you if you're a Palestinian in Israel. Every country is run by evil people who want to take away your freedom. You don't need a government to give you freedom, it's a natural state. The only purpose of government is to take it away. Everyone thinks their shit don't stink. Like the British who always complain about the Iraq war to Americans when they're there in Iraq as well. You gonna tell me you actually trust Putin?
I would move from this country if there were somewhere to move to. But I don't find freedom anywhere I go (or even read about). I do feel safer around police in other countries than I do here. The always have these hate-filled scowls over here and there are so freaking many of them. But I don't see how I'd live any freer somewhere else. That's unfortunate. The first country to rediscover freedom will see a massive influx of the world's best and brightest who've had nowhere to go for so long now. Too bad we've run out of space.
Public education sucks and I wouldn't have used it if I were my parents. I absolutely will not use it if I decide to have kids. Roads can be handled by private industry and likely wouldn't result in them repaving perfectly good roads in favor of the roads that really need the work. Fed-Ex and UPS have both proven very reliable alternatives to USPS and I don't get bombarded with junk mail from them. But why wouldn't I use the public alternatives when I've already paid for them? Demand drives need. If the government wasn't stealing my money to provide that need, then someone else would at a lower cost. It's human nature that someone would, no law need support it.
How am I in any way like a democrat or republican? They have bloated government, I want it gone. I stand in opposition to everything they stand for. You're the one defending their tired old policies. In my perfect world, there'd be no democrats or republicans because there'd be no power for them to try and grab.
You imply that I'm someone of privelege. I see myself as someone who has never gotten anything from anybody and has had to work hard for everything. That's why I have this attitude. I have friends on welfare, one of whom was complaining the other day because his boss wouldn't give him a break when he came to work an hour late (again). He gave his boss the finger and walked out. He saw his boss as unreasonable (as he put it, a complete dick), yet I would have fired my friend too in that situation. Too many people feel entitled to everything. They are delusional. Some of my poorer friends think I inherited money or that I was born rich. Wrong! I worked hard and am still far from being rich, yet you can see that they can't comprehend that. I sometimes worked jobs I didn't like, I have moved where the work was (away from friends and family). I've been deep in debt and have crawled my way out. I've been out of work for long periods at a time. In it all, I've never gotten a dime from anyone. My parents fed me when I was a kid (thanks!). Kind of their duty after bringing me into this world. I learn things on my own, school never helped me at all in that regard. I get jobs on my own and not through connections.
There are people who never had a chance and need help. We're a very charitable nation. If you're a bum, you can get a meal somewhere, usually from a private organization. Private charities would have a hell of a lot more money if people weren't taxed so ridiculously and if they didn't feel like that they've already given enough through those taxes. Law enforcement can be handled in a variety of ways. We have a greater percentage of our people in prision than anywhere else. It's not that we're more evil, it's that everything is illegal. You can hardly go a day in this country without breaking the law in some way. And as we give more money to law enforcement, we put more laws on the books to justify their jobs. Why should I have to shell out $45k/year to send some harmless pothead to prision? The education system is downright counterproductive in our country. It'd be better not to "educate" children at all. Most healthcare costs are in record keeping, again more burdensome regulations.
My definition of the common good means the most good for the most people. You think of "common" in terms of the lowest common denominator. If that's the common good you're talking about, then screw the common good! We should instead work to raise us all up and not knock anyone down. Things work themselves out if given the chance. Henry Ford introduced an 8 hour work day and decent pay not because he wanted to be nice to everyone, but because he needed people capable of buying the cars he produced. Almost every significant invention of modern times (aside from perhaps integrated circuits) came about in the 19th century, when governement regulation was at a minimum. There was very little inflation, people were better educated and they were hopeful and proud. Compare that with what we have now. And then wait another 10 years and talk to me about the common good. We're in a freefall and we can never pay our debts. When the economy comes crashing down, there won't be anyone rich enough left to pay for your welfare. Government is nothing more than a system of interlocking ponzi schemes.
Product-guy: We want it fast.
Wow, every product guy I've ever know answers "both" to this.
You don't have to be rich to own medical insurance. And you don't have to have medical insurance to get treated in an ER. Before we had medical insurance, people got treated. Doctors would often take what they could get and could function on a pro-bono basis cause they didn't have to worry about scraping up $100k a year for their insurance. It wasn't a business, it was a calling. Many doctors are getting out of general practice and heading into electives like plastic surgery just to avoid the regulatory hassles and government sanctioned lawsuits. Talk to a doctor, it may have been a calling for them at one time, but they quickly become jaded.
If you didn't have tax laws, then most BS charities would go away and you'd be left with mostly real ones. People would have twice as much money and wouldn't feel like they already "gave at the office" every April 15th. Charities would fill the void. Perhaps not for every freak who goes to the doctor when they catch a flu, but for real cases in need, the support would be there. Currently, charities are nothing more than tax shelters.
I'm not defending the rich, I'm defending freedom. Our government puts endless rules and regulations in place that cripple the middle class while giving the rich an avenue to avoid paying taxes or being held accountable for anything. They use the laws of government to enrich themselves. To enslave you. If there are a million tax laws on the book and I can afford a fancy tax lawyer, then I'm not going to be paying much money out come April. But because people like yourself want the rich to pay, you'll scream for more laws on the books to hold them accountable. The more laws, the more interpretations and loopholes for their high priced lawyers to exploit.
No one is entitled to anything. You don't deserve help. To give wealth to one is to take it from another. Life is tough and unfair. You can't make it fair. But you can adapt to it. The government prevents people from adapting by saying, "I'm on it," and they never are. They've had their chance. I want my money back. I want the freedom to fix things myself. If I fall flat on my face then that's my problem. It's what being an adult is all about.
Hey, I'm all for everybody being prosperous, just not at the expense of my prosperity. I don't consider people who get something for nothing prosperous. They're just lucky fuckups (I have several friends on welfare and yes, even them). Building those people up at the expense of the productive ends up denying prosperity to all. And just look around, as government gets bigger and bigger, the economy gets worse and worse, we become less secure, healthcare becomes less manageable, etc. Governments do not spend responsibly and there's not a single thing they spend money on that I support. The things you believe in require someone putting a gun to me head, the things I believe in don't. Which is the more impoverished attitude?
I know what a depression is and I believe we're on the verge of a major one. People are doing poorly in this country, despite claims by the media. That's because the few jobs we have left barely pay a living wage. Manufacturing has left this country because of all the rules and regulations (you know the ones for the common good) have made it impractical to do business here. I'm seeing company after company filing bankruptcy can't they can't afford all of their *common good* programs, pensions, etc. I get your point that we all float or sink together, I get it so much that I recognize that business is the largest component of that equation. The health of some dude down the street doesn't affect society so much. His economic well-being does.
You know, it really boils down to freedom. Not the curse word that George Bush uses, but the real deal. You have and opinion and I have an opinion. They're different. I imagine that there's at least one other person with an opinion different from both of ours. Who's right? Which opinion should we follow? If we're truly free, then we should be able to each follow our own opinions. Once you start denying that right to others, then you become the bad guy. You become the zealot who's trying to impose his religous beliefs on others. People who aren't free are like caged animals. They'll lash out, they're destructive. I believe society works best when people are uncaged. That's my religion, and I won't try to impose it on you. I just ask that you treat me the same way.
Exactly. It was never about the right to hunt or go skeet shooting. As Jefferson said, the tree of liberty must be renewed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. That being said, the founding fathers never imagined F-16s (the gun of the day) and that makes the second amendment kind of a moot point. No armed insurrection will ever be achieved in this country. Information and skepticism are the only viable weapons left to us.
Insurance was created as a concept to deal with the fact that in a purely capitalist society there is no sense of community or common good and no one will help you when you need it most. Does anyone actually consider it to be an efficient and effective means of addressing this need?
I've never asked society for help. More often than not, when society tries to "help" they only get in the way of people trying to help themselves (Katrina being the obvious case in point). A system of insurance let's people decide for themselves how valuable it is for them to have that protection. In the end, you're paying for it one way or another. Would you like it if you were forced, every time, to buy the super-extended waranty plans when purchasing something from Best Buy? How about if you were forced to pay for my warranty plan as well? Why should I be forced (at gunpoint no less) to concern myself with your "common" good? Especially if it was your lifestyle that led you to seek medical help in the first place.
I do agree with your point on paperwork, that's the costliest part of the US health care system. But it's more a by-product of big government than it is of the insurance agencies. We are anything but pure-capitalist. Not when 52% of my paycheck goes to the government in one form or another. That's more in the realm of socialism. But then, I tend to believe most liberals are just conservatives who don't understand capatilism. And republicans are just democrats who don't understand the meaning of the word small. I would love to live in that purely capitalist society you talk about but as it is, I have to cough up my money to pay for the latest whim that some jackass down the street had or else soldiers are sent to my house to shoot me in the head when I decide I don't want to pay or go to jail for that whim.
Screw that, the hyphen is too far away from my fingers. Save a letter and use this word instead: emerge. :)
But the biggest problem, the BIGGEST problem is seeing the same commercial 3 times per show. For every show. On every network. Non-stop play. Same thing over and Over and OVER and OVER.
Oh this is so true. I watch a little too much TV and before PVR, I use get all worked up whenever I saw the same commercial over and over. I haven't been to a Taco Bell (not once) since their "drop the chalupa" campaign, it was on twice, every commercial break on every show, for a long time (there's no way they could have ever made their money back on that one). The Betty Crocker (or was it Pillsbury) "my heart to yours" campaign kept me away from them for several years. Repetition may work, but in my case, you'll only do a good job of associating my anger with your product.
I've always wondered why companys don't film a dozen commericials at a time, mixing them up. You see repetition of a brand name or a particular item does work, but the commerical itself is not the product or the company. They should repeat the conceptual, rather than the concrete. It use to bug me so much that I use to mute the TV whenever commercials came on (that use to freak out a couple of ex-girlfriends for some reason).
Now I have a PVR and I'll stop to listen to a commercial once in a while. If I accidentally catch a whole block, it doesn't bother me because most of them are mostly new to me. I do still see TV commercials, but PVR has given me the breathing space not to be annoyed by them. Companies are becoming more and more hostile to their customers, I'm glad I have the tools to be able to still function as a consumer.
10) The company opens a "research center" or "development center" in an impoverished country
- Companies have found that they can increase headcount by hiring low-cost engineers in impoverished countries like India. They will typically declare the foreign site as a development center to handle development overflow from the main office, and that no current employee will be let go (so relax, because you're safe). This seems to be okay until you notice that headcount in the local office is decreasing because the employees that are leaving aren't being replaced. Brain drain at any company is a serious issue, and one that is directly caused by this type of off shoring.
This is scary, but not for the reasons people think. Offshoring, or any kind of outsourcing for that matter, always fails. The work comes back, but not until your customers are pissed over missed deadlines and broken software. When we outsource, I spend most of my time training the outsourcers, and then training their replacements, as turnover at those places tend to be high. If you can't communicate face-to-face, with the people developing your product, then you're gonna have problems. Always! This is true whether they're down the street or especially in a different timezone. When your company starts thinking that this is a good idea, then it's bad because it means your management is incompetant. It means they can't learn from their mistakes or they haven't had enough experience to have seen the results of outsourcing first hand. But even the incompetent learn after they've been punched in the face a few times.
Depends on the internship. Back in my college days, I interned with a major international company that was down the block from my school. Each engineer had an intern who did most of the engineer's work for them at a fraction of the pay. The type of work was exactly the same, but the interns had more of it. If that's not experience, then what is? Perhaps that situation was unique because RIT had a mandatory co-op (intern) program and the local businesses were use to relying on it, but it was defintely real, even to my now more experienced eyes.
As for the status meetings, several a week are reasonable if you're working multiple projects at the same time. I hate useless meetings and I don't feel micromanaged at all, but sometimes they are necessary to keep everyone on the same page in a rapidly shifting environment.
Nice, I especially like the one on the sales, marketing, engineer blame game. Fucking sales! If you promise things that engineering can't deliver on, without consulting them, then who's fault is it really? This condition is starting to show up where I work and sales won't even try and sell our stuff anymore (despite our very positive industry rep). I expect to be out of this job by the end of the year because of that "sign."
The one way I usually know that I'm in trouble is if some kind of shift happens at the company and I have no idea what the hell just happened. I once had some guy talk to our team for hours, trying to allay our fears over something, even bribing us with restaurant coupons. Afterwards, the team all talked amongst ourselves trying to figure out what happened. It turned out that our previous manager had just been fired and this guy was our new manager. Couldn't figure it out from what he said, he was too afraid to tell us. It wasn't very long thereafter that we were all layed off. He was a disaster.
Everytime since then, whenever I'm confused on the job, I know that something went wrong and that the storm is going to hit at any minute. I've seen this played out time and time again. Also beware any "strategic alliances" with other companies. This too is a sign that things are going south.