In how many of those countries is there popular support for backing the US?
You know, that is actually the right question. Because the answer to that question is going to be a list that is one heck of a lot shorter than the answer to "In how many of those countries is there popular support for telling the US to fuck off and die?"
Really? If I have a dispute with a company, these would be the steps I'd take
1. Talk with them in person, see if we can sort things out as reasonable adults. 2. Threaten to contact consumer protection agencies. 3. Actually contact consumer protection agencies. 4. Threaten to involve lawyers and go to court 5. Actually involve lawyers and go to court
So far I've never had to proceed past step 2. Then again, I consider myself to be a well-spoken intelligent individual and that helps when discussing problems. Acting like an hysterical moron tends to put off people in customer service(I should know, having been a CSR for more than 5 years). So alternatively, as a step 0a: get a well-spoken intelligent friend to come along and do the talking for you.
As soon as you enter Congress, you are no longer allowed to belong to any party. You become one single whole group, with no allegiances to anything but your own personal beliefs, your voters back home, and the Law.
If that works, extend it to the Member State Parliaments too.
Won't make a shred of difference. So long as it is allowed, nay, obligatory to spend 10's of millions of dollars to get the seat, congresspeople will always be beholden to their corporate sponsors.
Someone's gotta cough up the dough, and they'll want to see some serious pork in return.
No, what's wrong is the half-assed way that the US has implemented an attempt at socialised healthcare by requiring everyone to buy insurance from privately-owned companies. Congratulations, you've got the worst of both worlds.
Hmm, odd. My country has a similar system where we have to have healthcare insurance but can pick and choose where we get it from. Yet somehow I get decent quality healthcare at an affordable price.
Quite frankly I think there's other factors in play...like for every doctor in the US there's three lawyers hovering over his should just waiting for him to slip up so they can start a million dollar lawsuit.
That's easy to explain. Much like how the grass is always greener on the other side, criticism is louder when it's against your side.
How appropriate considering the topic at hand of Tribalism.
Actually, that's not entirely true. Commodore is consistently anti-government, whatever shape, form or label it may have. He's a libertarian, and I think he's absolutely delusional, but he's more than consistent enough in his views to deserve not being called a hypocrit:-)
Let's stop this happy fucking horseshit world we have suddenly found ourselves in where it's someone else's fault that the government got overcharged. Either hire competent people to oversee the bidding on expenditures such as these and allow those people the freedom to make tough choices to save money or suffer the consequences. Stop meddling in private business because you are inept when it comes to dealing in the real world.
Government wants to pretend its like the private world in so many ways, especially at reelection time, but then it goes off and does something like this. And they wonder why they get taken advantage of. Ugh.
Except they didn't. They signed a contract stipulating the vendor was obliged to perform services X, Y and Z as part of the deal, and Oracle(willfully or not) did not do so, and the government is calling them out on it. Noone forced Oracle to do business with the government or to accept the the terms offered as part of the deal. They made their bed...and now they get to lie in it. The only difference is that in usual disagreements over a contract you're not dealing with a party that own stealth bombers.
As we speak Bill Gates is spending quite a chunk of his own ill-gotten gains "just for the warm fuzzy feeling".
You don't think that if we had solid proof of an inbound chunk of rock going to hit us that at least some of the folks like him would get together and do something about it?
Humbug. Worst case scenario there's still plenty of coal left for a steam-powered society. And if we can't get the coal for some reason we'll burn trees.
Well, it helps that there's nutcases like yours truly who so desperately want to support DRM-free games as well as indie devs that we buy 2 bundles at a significant sum each without even really checking what's in there (although I already had World of Goo).
In hindsight though, considering the hours of fun I got out of it it was still a heck of a good deal.
It's funny how the ones who fight hardest against the spread of their works are, in effect, ensuring that their efforts will be forgotten and they will not leave a mark on gaming history. They are cementing themselves into a tomb of their own making, burying themselves alive.
The corporations liberally sprinkling DRM all over their games aren't making art, they're selling an entertainment product with a limited lifetime.
So who knows, maybe 2000 years from now game historians will look back at our age and wonder at all the wonderful digital art(indie games) we entertained ourselves with.;-)
Germany is one of the nicest places in the world to drive.
And as a bonus, you get to see folks with Ferrari's, Lambo's etc. give their cars a chance to actually use their top gear, which can be quite an experience.
Hearing the roar of a happy DB9 in the distance makes me a happy camper;-)
American consumer: "I want my phonecall" American banks: "Ah, but Mr. Consumer, what good is a phonecall...when my cock is in your throat?"
Whipping US banks into a shame even remotely resembling what we've got on the other side of the pond would require legislation, and that would be socialism, right? Far better to wait for the free market to sort it out. After all, there's no way bankers would get together in smoke-filled backrooms and collectively decide how to screw average Joe just that little bit more.
Then again, over here it is perfectly possible to live *without* a creditcard. Much easier to avoid spending other people's money that way.
From my experience Logitech does exactly that. In fact, when I did tech support for them we had a consistent underpromise-overdeliver policy going on.
At least over here they don't advertise, relying on a good dealer system and word of mouth instead, and when I call support because I was a little too enthusiastic playing games and crushed the little feet of the keyboard, they don't wheedle, complain or ask about warranties, they just send me some new ones free of charge.
Some companies do a lot for the modding community and get handsome rewards in return, just look at valve for instance.
It's quite easy to see which companies are in it strictly for the money and which ones truly care about what they put out there. The latter category tends to give modders and enthusiasts a pat on the back and quite often a job offer if the work is truly good(Valve, CCP), the former contacts the law department to fire off the cease and desists.
Funny how the former category is more focused on the console and the latter still sticks to the pc...
Those filthy homeless getting it all their own way should learn their place! Why can't they just lie under a bridge somewhere and die quietly where the rest of us won't be bothered by the smell? How dare they move about on the streets paid for by the hard-working middle class?
Religion is like believing in Santa Claus. The only difference is that at around age 6 we pull the beard off of santa but we keep spilling the religious poison into the ears of impressionable children who will one day grow up to do the same to their own.
Because for some people games of chance are about fun and not the potential of winning?
Knowing the odds I don't play the lottery myself, but when we do something collectively at work or among friends I don't mind chipping in a few bucks and join in the excitement.
It's like playing roulette. You know the odds are against you, doesn't make it less fun.
Well honestly, why should you expect to live way out in the countryside and expect to have mail delivered to your doorstep, any time, for hardly any money? That doesn't seem realistic or efficient long term.
Indeed, which is why we've been doing it that way for a couple of centuries...oh, wait.
There's 2 options, either we consider mail to be a vital part of the infrastructure of the nation and treat it as such, or we keep following the path Reagan and Thatcher have laid out for us and eventually abandon it altogether except where it pertains to junk mail, which we'll collectively block through a sticker on the front door.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me take a wild guess, you're sufficiently afraid of the medical establishment to have avoided contact with them for an extended amount of time?
Because that is one serious case of paranoia you got going on there...
In how many of those countries is there popular support for backing the US?
You know, that is actually the right question. Because the answer to that question is going to be a list that is one heck of a lot shorter than the answer to "In how many of those countries is there popular support for telling the US to fuck off and die?"
For the record, those jeans does not make your ass look fat.
Your ass makes your ass look fat.
Really? If I have a dispute with a company, these would be the steps I'd take
1. Talk with them in person, see if we can sort things out as reasonable adults.
2. Threaten to contact consumer protection agencies.
3. Actually contact consumer protection agencies.
4. Threaten to involve lawyers and go to court
5. Actually involve lawyers and go to court
So far I've never had to proceed past step 2. Then again, I consider myself to be a well-spoken intelligent individual and that helps when discussing problems. Acting like an hysterical moron tends to put off people in customer service(I should know, having been a CSR for more than 5 years). So alternatively, as a step 0a: get a well-spoken intelligent friend to come along and do the talking for you.
As soon as you enter Congress, you are no longer allowed to belong to any party. You become one single whole group, with no allegiances to anything but your own personal beliefs, your voters back home, and the Law.
If that works, extend it to the Member State Parliaments too.
Won't make a shred of difference. So long as it is allowed, nay, obligatory to spend 10's of millions of dollars to get the seat, congresspeople will always be beholden to their corporate sponsors.
Someone's gotta cough up the dough, and they'll want to see some serious pork in return.
No, what's wrong is the half-assed way that the US has implemented an attempt at socialised healthcare by requiring everyone to buy insurance from privately-owned companies. Congratulations, you've got the worst of both worlds.
Hmm, odd. My country has a similar system where we have to have healthcare insurance but can pick and choose where we get it from. Yet somehow I get decent quality healthcare at an affordable price.
Quite frankly I think there's other factors in play...like for every doctor in the US there's three lawyers hovering over his should just waiting for him to slip up so they can start a million dollar lawsuit.
That's easy to explain. Much like how the grass is always greener on the other side, criticism is louder when it's against your side.
How appropriate considering the topic at hand of Tribalism.
Actually, that's not entirely true. Commodore is consistently anti-government, whatever shape, form or label it may have. He's a libertarian, and I think he's absolutely delusional, but he's more than consistent enough in his views to deserve not being called a hypocrit :-)
Let's stop this happy fucking horseshit world we have suddenly found ourselves in where it's someone else's fault that the government got overcharged. Either hire competent people to oversee the bidding on expenditures such as these and allow those people the freedom to make tough choices to save money or suffer the consequences. Stop meddling in private business because you are inept when it comes to dealing in the real world.
Government wants to pretend its like the private world in so many ways, especially at reelection time, but then it goes off and does something like this. And they wonder why they get taken advantage of. Ugh.
Except they didn't. They signed a contract stipulating the vendor was obliged to perform services X, Y and Z as part of the deal, and Oracle(willfully or not) did not do so, and the government is calling them out on it. Noone forced Oracle to do business with the government or to accept the the terms offered as part of the deal. They made their bed...and now they get to lie in it. The only difference is that in usual disagreements over a contract you're not dealing with a party that own stealth bombers.
"Gee, we made 1.245whatever last quarter. If I hadn't fixed blah, we would havw only made 1.44498whatever. Wow."
Whatever it is you did that caused the company to make 1.245 instead of 1.444 last quarter, I wouldn't brag about it to be quite honest ;-)
As we speak Bill Gates is spending quite a chunk of his own ill-gotten gains "just for the warm fuzzy feeling".
You don't think that if we had solid proof of an inbound chunk of rock going to hit us that at least some of the folks like him would get together and do something about it?
Humbug. Worst case scenario there's still plenty of coal left for a steam-powered society. And if we can't get the coal for some reason we'll burn trees.
Post-apocalyptic steampunk anyone?
Well, it helps that there's nutcases like yours truly who so desperately want to support DRM-free games as well as indie devs that we buy 2 bundles at a significant sum each without even really checking what's in there (although I already had World of Goo).
In hindsight though, considering the hours of fun I got out of it it was still a heck of a good deal.
You mean right after he crashes the family car into the back of a rig and all 4 of them are dead?
Gruesome scenario, yes, but stuff like that happens.
It's funny how the ones who fight hardest against the spread of their works are, in effect, ensuring that their efforts will be forgotten and they will not leave a mark on gaming history. They are cementing themselves into a tomb of their own making, burying themselves alive.
The corporations liberally sprinkling DRM all over their games aren't making art, they're selling an entertainment product with a limited lifetime.
So who knows, maybe 2000 years from now game historians will look back at our age and wonder at all the wonderful digital art(indie games) we entertained ourselves with. ;-)
Germany is one of the nicest places in the world to drive.
And as a bonus, you get to see folks with Ferrari's, Lambo's etc. give their cars a chance to actually use their top gear, which can be quite an experience.
Hearing the roar of a happy DB9 in the distance makes me a happy camper ;-)
It's 2.8 gigs as it is, imagine how big it would get if 100 million pics were added to it ;-)
"We didn't sell you that pacemaker, we leased it to you. You read the EULA before it was inserted, right?"
Hmmm, and here I thought Repo Men was a work of fiction ;-)
American consumer: "I want my phonecall"
American banks: "Ah, but Mr. Consumer, what good is a phonecall...when my cock is in your throat?"
Whipping US banks into a shame even remotely resembling what we've got on the other side of the pond would require legislation, and that would be socialism, right? Far better to wait for the free market to sort it out. After all, there's no way bankers would get together in smoke-filled backrooms and collectively decide how to screw average Joe just that little bit more.
Then again, over here it is perfectly possible to live *without* a creditcard. Much easier to avoid spending other people's money that way.
From my experience Logitech does exactly that. In fact, when I did tech support for them we had a consistent underpromise-overdeliver policy going on.
At least over here they don't advertise, relying on a good dealer system and word of mouth instead, and when I call support because I was a little too enthusiastic playing games and crushed the little feet of the keyboard, they don't wheedle, complain or ask about warranties, they just send me some new ones free of charge.
Some companies do a lot for the modding community and get handsome rewards in return, just look at valve for instance.
It's quite easy to see which companies are in it strictly for the money and which ones truly care about what they put out there. The latter category tends to give modders and enthusiasts a pat on the back and quite often a job offer if the work is truly good(Valve, CCP), the former contacts the law department to fire off the cease and desists.
Funny how the former category is more focused on the console and the latter still sticks to the pc...
Hear, hear!
Those filthy homeless getting it all their own way should learn their place! Why can't they just lie under a bridge somewhere and die quietly where the rest of us won't be bothered by the smell? How dare they move about on the streets paid for by the hard-working middle class?
Religion is like believing in Santa Claus. The only difference is that at around age 6 we pull the beard off of santa but we keep spilling the religious poison into the ears of impressionable children who will one day grow up to do the same to their own.
Because for some people games of chance are about fun and not the potential of winning?
Knowing the odds I don't play the lottery myself, but when we do something collectively at work or among friends I don't mind chipping in a few bucks and join in the excitement.
It's like playing roulette. You know the odds are against you, doesn't make it less fun.
Well honestly, why should you expect to live way out in the countryside and expect to have mail delivered to your doorstep, any time, for hardly any money? That doesn't seem realistic or efficient long term.
Indeed, which is why we've been doing it that way for a couple of centuries...oh, wait.
There's 2 options, either we consider mail to be a vital part of the infrastructure of the nation and treat it as such, or we keep following the path Reagan and Thatcher have laid out for us and eventually abandon it altogether except where it pertains to junk mail, which we'll collectively block through a sticker on the front door.
Are you going to have 8-year-old asking, "Daddy, what does sex mean?"
Pfft, as though it's uncommon for an 8 year old to ask that kind of question...or to hear the word sex used for that matter.
I'm not sure I'd vote for a party that put me through that kind of hassle.
Tough cookies. Your punishment for having sex is to educate the next generation about it ;-)