"It's pretty ironic that the trigger for the war in Watchmen is the SOVIET invasion of Afghanistan"
Actually, to those well versed in military history, strategics, and tactics it is pretty cool that they included this in their book. Insightful and revealing a depth of knowledge about more than just comics.
Case in point: Homer Lee is regarded as one of the most prophetic and discerning military strategists of modern times. This guy predicted the Japaneese attack on Pearl Harbor years in advance, he was that good.
One of his other observations was that if the Soviets were able to invade and conquer Afghanistan it would propel them to world domination due to their strategic dominance and the political/military repercussions. Most people who study military doctrine agree with Lee's observation of the facts.
"firstly you will have two sets of dots overlaid on each other"
Won't work if the dots print in a rectangle based matrix of some kind (which I am sure tha they do). A tiny shift of phase will just lead to a connect the dots type investigation. Then it will not only show that it was you who made the document but that it was also you standing at the copier at Kinkos trying to obscure the tracing.
In other words you are leaving a trail of breadcrumbs from your ass to federal prison.
I have thought about this since I was a young child. Really. I am 31 now BTW.
My idea was to put detectors in the front and back fenders of a car and use the "drive by braile" bumps as locating devices for the car. In other words, put scanable microchips or magnets or other such devices in the road bumps and put detectors in the car that will be able to use them for navigation.
With scanable microchips that can dump data into the cars computer it also provides an easy way to pay for the road bumps to be installed. Just make sure that you have a TV screen in the car for the passengers (no one will be driving so they need it now!) and sell advertising that is implanted in some of the road bumps. It would be a great way to direct traffic to local restaurants, tourist sites, etc. and would be a way to remove billboards from the sides of the highways once and for all. Of course they are inside your car now, but hey the scenery would look much better.
I think that this would be much easier than boring holes in the concrete, which I have heard suggested. If you combine this "local" system with GPS systems I think that you would have a viable option.
Actually "an eye for an eye" only makes blind the people who poke other people's eyes out.
"Imagine the torments you would have to undergo if every single wrong you have ever done in your life had to be repaid in kind."
Funny you should say that, because many people interpret karma as a system that will revisit your indescretions on you THREEFOLD rather than just once. I have even heard people discribe it as tenfold.
Anyways, the passage you are referring to in John 8:7 had a deeper subtext. The problem was that the law that said that adulterers should be stoned to death. The only problem was that a woman cannot commmit adultery ALONE. Where was the man? Where was his justice? The intent of the people was clear at this point. They were not interested in justice, they were using a law improperly to kill someone that they did not like.
"Justice as retribution is only ever advocated by hypocrites, because all of us have committed offenses against others."
We have all comitted offenses, sure, but some offenses are prohibited by law and some are inexcusable. To say that retribution is only ever advocated by hypocrites is to say that everyone who wants retribution for a lobved one who has been murdered has also comitted offences of the same magnitude. That is unless you consider lying to someone equal with murder.
The Really Big Question is if we are able to determine how he does what he does, and can reproduce it chemically in other people through medication, would you take the pill?
Case in point: I worked at a BMW dealership for a few years as a sales person.
One day a man drives up in a 70's model ford pickup. This thing was dingy, rusted, and it was impossible to tell the original color of the paint as every body panel had at least 2 differnt colors of primer or paint on it.
The man that got out looked as rough as the car. He was wearing a flanel shirt, bluejeans, and workboots all uniformly covered in dust and grime. His face was not recently shaven and he looked tired.
Oddly enough not one of the other salespeople in the dealership approached him. I literally walked by 5 or 6 unoccupied sales people to get to him. I introduced myself and he returned the courtesy. After a couple of seconds speaking with him it was obvious that he was very intelligent and exceptionally well mannered. After about 20 minutes we were laughing and having a great time talking about all manner of things. It was funny to see the expressions on the faces of my coworkers. They obviously thought I was wasting my time. I had no idea what was going to happen with the "sale," but I knew that I was going to treat every person who came into my dealership the way I would want to be treated.
The kicker is this. He scheduled time to come back for a testdrive. When he returned I almost didn't recognize him. It might have been the $70,000 Lexus, or maybe the fact that he was dressed in a casual, relaxed, borderline elegant yet obviously wealthy way, or maybe it was just because he had shaven that morning. Regardless, the other salespeople were falling over themselves to greet him first. He politely asked for me and he proceeded to buy a car from me on the spot.
You see, he owned a large shipping company in one of the largest ports in the world. The first time he came into my dealership he had come straight from work, and since he was one of those owners who worked alongside of his employees instead of gazing down on them, he was in his work truck and his work clothes. The man could have purchased the entire dealership if he was so inclined, but because he was not dressed "properly" no one would give him the time of day. I guess I was fortunate enough to have learned early on that you never judge a book by its cover.
Speaking of nasty customer realtion practices, Blockbuster has to be one of the worst I have ever seen.
I went there recently to rent a movie, only to be told by the clerk that I had not rented a movie in the last 3 months and because of this I would have to fill out another application for a card.
In reply I said that I would just purchase some DVDs, as I did not want to fill out any additional forms.
After selecting my DVDs for purchase I returned to the counter and the SAME CLERK informed me that to purchase a DVD I would need to fill out an application (regardless of my form of payment.) I promptly dropped the stack of DVDs on the counter and walked out.
Since then I have done business exclusively with Hollywood. I can buy whatever I want there without and ID check or a membership card. In addition, when my wife wanted to rent a video (which I almost never do, I purchase them) I asked the clerk if I had a membership there. She politely informed me that I certainly did and that it was kind of funny that I had not rented anything since 1998, but that if I wanted to I could rent a movie right then and there.
In short, Blockbuster sucks and I will never do business there again as long as I live.
"The three laws are essentially a parody of the Ten Commandments intended to illustrate the folly of trying to sustitute iron-clad rules for rational thought by reasonable, ethical people."
The real irony and humor if this statement is that if you knew anything about the Bible, the ten commandments, or systematic theology (which Asimov actually did) you would not have made this incongrous statement.
The 10 commandments were supposed to be a figurative ethical mirror into which humanity would see, and then hopefully acknowledge, their imperfection. They are a reflection of the purity that mankind cannot achieve, and yet should strive for regardless of the chances of success. In essence they were designed for people who had deep and intense rational thought and for those who would take responsibility for their own personal spiritual development.
I agree with your comments completely, however something intriguing and a bit frightening occurred to me while reading this article.
Imagine a society with wonderfully advanced and ubiquitously implemented technology that makes life easy, entertaining, and enjoyable. Now imagine that there are severe restrictions on personal liberty and privacy and that the society is kept viable by extreme taxation.
Would that society be haing too much fun to decry the unfair treatment?
I don't know exactly the thoughts behind this "or on the grounds that the US feels it has the right to unilaterally develop technology to disable other country's communications (again, I'd start with the MONITORING of communications which is ONGOING rather than the chance that the US MIGHT block communications in the future)"...but it seems you may be feeling like the USA should not be doing these things. Rest assured that if another country was in our position they would be doing the same things and probably more. There are no countries in the world who are excercising moral restraint in the development of military implements. To do so is to put the survival of your enemy over yourself and is tantamount to suicide. To request it of your nation is moronic.
Personally, if my country feels that it needs to fry someone's sattellite in orbit with a suped-up HERF gun, so be it. If they need to monitor every single international radio, fiber, internet, and tin-cup-and-wire communication originating outside the USA, more power to them. If they want to unilaterally develop technology that can cause someone to lose the ability to move their pinky finger from a jillion miles away with the flick of a switch I am ok with that too.
In short, anything that is deemed even marginally necessary or helpful in the defense of our country, or that contributes to the overwhelming military superiority of our country, will allow me to have peace of mind when I pay 38% in taxes this year.
To the grandparent... As for the dubiousness (or lack thereof) of pre-emptive warfare, I direct the reader to Homer Lee and his works on military history. An interesting guy who, among other things, predicted the Japaneese attack on Pearl Harbor years in advance. He also predicted the tactical and strategic military importance of Afghanistan in the early 1900's, especially with respect to Russia and their plans for world domination. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest military minds in history, combining a comprehensive knowledge of military tactics with almost prescient ability to judge future events and their outcome with regard to military events.
His comments, written in the early 1900's, about the evolution of warfare in the next century and beyond place emphasis on the necessity of pre-emptive warfare to maintain national viability.
A fantastic endeavor for the truly devoted Christian is to embark upon a study of the Bible from the original languages, using the oldest and most accurate manuscripts as source material. Add in a thorough knowledge of the circumstances of the time in which the particular book you are studying was written, a categorical understanding of the Bible and its themes, and a good understanding of idiomatic phrasing in the language you are studying from and you will begin to really understand what the Bible actually says.
Some of the things that are evident from the original languages: Satan was on Earth before man was created. The Earth was put on ice by God for a time after the fall of Satan and before the events of Genesis 1. In fact, there is reference to a thawing and cleanup of the Earth before the events of Genesis 1.
Foregoing those things, if you want an explanation of additional "time" in early part of Genesis, realize that Adam and Eve lived in the Garden for an unspecified time. They did not age during this period; the ages given in Genesis for them at death start from their ejection from the Garden. This time period in the presence of God could have been a single "day" in earthly terms or could have spanned millions of years.
"I'm a physician...programmers...lawyers...Then also come the management professionals..."
Then come the salesmen (like myself) who measure intelligence on how well we indiscriminately outsmart and take the money of all those types...and more. It actually helps us when we find people who are puffed up with the ideas of their own intelligence. It makes it alot easier to do what we do.
We are like the undertakers of the economy. Go and do what you want, but you have to come see us sometime. MUHAHAHAHHA!!!
"Fairness doctrine" guarantees no such thing. It actually takes away the ability of a network/radio station to determine a format for themselves. Talk about infringing free speech.
Imagine having Pacifica radio having to allow Rumsfeld or Cheney speaking time. People's heads would explode I tell you.
I find this similar to the axiomatic question: Why is it that whenever you lose something it is ALWAYS in the last place you look.
The answer is an exercise for the reader.
Re:Do you -know- how many candidates there are?
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Real Presidential Debates
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· Score: 2, Insightful
You want more debates?
I guess you never took a debate class. Debate is a skill, a methodology of speaking applied to the facts that is not designed to elucidate facts, but to persuade the audience, sometimes flying in the face of the facts. A skilled debator will win a debate regardless of wheteher he believes in his point or even has ample facts to support his case. Truth and debate are strange bedfellows.
Political platforms are supposed to convey the facts about what a political candidate stands for and wants to do if they win office. As is evident from the media and the comments from the two parties no one really wants to talk about the facts or the real situations we are facing. No one mwntions that Iraq is actually a strategic emplacement that, if it is ever stabilized, solidifies the USA's global presence and extends our political influence into the rest of the world(the reason we are pulling out of Germany is because it has lost its strategic signifigance). No one wants to talk about the Chinese and the fact that their consumption is causing the rise in oil prices. No one wants to talk about the transformation of the american economy to a globally infiltrated economy and what that will really mean for the next few generations. And everyone, I mean everyone, want to aviod the real subject of retirement and social security.
It is no wonder that politicians like debates. It gives them the chance to appear to tell the truth about what they want, all the while they are just laying persuasive bricks to bolster their candidacy and leaving themselves verbal backdoors to escape from like Houdini after they get elected.
Even worse, we, the American people understand so little about what they are actually talking about (foreign policy, military policy, history, and conventions, ECONOMIC policy, the Constitution, matters of personal liberty) that we swallow what they say hook line and sinker, and don't have the background to call "BULLSHIT" when they say something totally off base with conventional wisdom.
Personally, I am not of the mindset to see conspiracies at every turn, however I have had the feeling these past few elections that those in power do not like to see high voter turnout. I believe that if there was a conspiracy it would be one of negativity. It is proven that negative campaigns cause people to become disenchanted with political figures and the political system, leading to lower voter tunrout. Therefore they campaign on their opponents weaknesses and point aout things have absolutely nothing to do with their ability to govern a nation (see the innumerable references to Viet Nam for fucks sake).
I think that it is just possible that politicians understand that if less people vote and more people are disinterested with and disgruntled with the political system there will be fewer people to question and complain about what they do in the real powerhouses of the government...the Senate, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
If they keep the eyes of the country on the politcal bouncing ball, the president, and off of the people who manipulate and control the legal landscape of the whole country, no one will stop them when they enact the PATRIOT act, or the DMCA, or whatever other policy that undermines the fabric of our liberties. At least, that is what I would do if I were them and had absolutely no moral intentions.
Maybe I have just had too much to drink tonight, but then again, maybe that is the Feds knocking at my door at 1:00 am and not my neighbor with another bottle of beer.
Let me jump to what I consider the crux of your problem.
"When you showed me that (premise1) I can never count on having income, and (premise2) there will be no Social Security system by my retirement
I knew this intrinsically when I was a child, unfortunately you were not so lucky. No one is responsible for me except for me. Especially not the government or the society around me. No one will provide for me except for me. Especially not the government or the society I live in.
If you decided to overindulge in the environment where everone overindulges, and you made poor decisions related to your financial health and continued employment, regarldess of the fact that you thought everyone else was making those same decisions, you have only yourself to blame. Seriously. So what if you made a mistake that cost you your home and your savings. Learn from it by saying that the decisions that you made led you there. That way you can learn from it instead of getting all rageful and crying about how unfair the world is. It has always been that way(unfair). The place we live in is like a giant meatgrinder designed to destroy people's lives at the slightest misstep. Realize it and fucking grow up. Then you might be able to enjoy yourself instead of hatemongering.
As for your predictions of the USA's demise I am sure that you are correct. However I attribute it to other sources than you do. IMHO, some of the things you rail against are only a result of the root causes. It still dosen't keep me from enjoying my life here regardless of the circumstances I live under.
Oh, and so you know, I am almost completely debt free in spite of the financial problems I had last year. Mostly due to being frugal and not wanting to excercise rampant consumerism. It seems that we have some ideals in common, it is just that I did not have to indulge to the same level that you did to get them. When the axe came down and slashed my income I didn't have the debts to pay that would have sunk me and my family.
As for all your rage about being underemployed, not able to get a job regardless of your education, and getting laid off, I can't seem to wonder if your outspoken anger, vituperation, irrational and uncouth attribution of false motives and characteristics to people unknown to you, your entitlement philosophy (else why the anger), and your liberal use of the word nigger caused the problems you are upset about, and not class warfare as you call it.
As for the rest of your rant and blather you can keep it. It is obvious that you have created something to fight against in your mind and lumped me into the mold of that beast. I used to play chess quite a bit and we would talk about the psychological problems that made some people lose when they should have won. We would frequently call it "playing the player instead of the board" and it referred to people who attributed false motives or plans to their opponent because of their fear of their opponent (if the opponent was better than them) or underestimation (if the opponent was not as good). The result was always disastrous and frequently hilarious in an ironic way. In the same vein I think that you may have created a false enemy in the world around you: a creature of your own devising, based on subjective observation and inability to take responsibility for failures in your life. Good luck fighting the windmills, Don.
Fortunately for you, your conclusions about what makes you safe (savings, mobility) are pretty damned good solutions for any problem. However, your views on American people, with regard to women especially, are unfounded, but necessary to your theory that justifies your rage.
Oh, and those auto industry workers you are so mad at are unionized workers. Unions are the reason for the rampant wages and cost of automobiles as well as many other things. Yey, they are, oddly enough, the people and structure you attribut your freedom to later in your post. Unions organized those workers, and now you are angry at what they have done for themselves? I have the strange feeling that if you were one of them you would not be so angry.
"If this teen hacker was given a little direction and purpose with his life then he could steer everything completely around."
This is assuming that everyone will react the same in a similar situation. Unfortunately this is not true. If it were there would be no repeat offenders as we would have figured out how to keep people from doing that by now.
Direction and purpose are internal motivators and are not imparted by external circumstances. The individual will make their own decisions for their own reasons. To say that it was all based on his immaturity is simplistic and enabling and absolves him of guilt by reason of youngness(!?!?).
This leads us to the question: if the kid has intelligence, talent, and ability enough to be considered as an employment candidate despite his crimes, poor judgement, and his lack of conventional training, couldn't he have figured out something to do besides molesting the entire electronic world?
The answer is a simple yes. Instead, he decided to cause problems for people and violate the law. There are plenty of people with the same skill and intelligence that this kid has, only they just don't engage in monstrous blunders of personal judgement. Unfortunately they do not have the same publicity that this guy has either, so no one ever asks the question: Should I hire this intelligent, capable, morally upright individual to work for my company? Of course you should. In fact, I bet that there are enough of these types of people out there that no one should ever have to consider hiring someone convicted of writing and releasing malignant programs like this.
What the kid does need is an opportunity to show that he can do the right thing in the future, but only after he gets some some strict discipline for pulling what was obviously a colossaly stupid and malignant stunt. He also needs quite a bit of supervision when he is offered a "second chance" to make sure that he dosen't continue of his path of destructive behavior. If someone is considering hiring him they should budget quite a bit of time and effort to keep track of what he does on an hourly basis and be ready to cut him loose if he does anything questionable.
The serial killer comment will be completely correct if this kid decides that he likes writing malicious code and continues to do it in the future, and he is correct in that the kid is responsible for doing something wrong and has no excuse for doing what he did. Who knows, maybe this guy has released other worms and such into the ether. In that case the serial killer analogy holds up a little better.
My condolences on your net 2% loss in income over the last year. I am sure all of the chronically unemployed people will morn your loss. Oh, and those with permanent disabilities will surely bemoan the vicissitudes of modern corporate employment with you, of this I am sure. Plus those overseas outsorced employees who do the work of a $50,000/yr American for a little less than than the cost of you shoe budget and live in sod huts will contrive to share your pain as well.
If you couldn't see through your shroud of bitterness there was just a hint of sarcasm there. After reading your post the feeling I came away with is that you are someone who feels that they are entitled to things and that the world owes them something. I could be wrong, but a minor setback should be encouragement for you and a learning experience, not grounds for excessive animosity. Heaven forbid that you have a real setback in life, you might do something rash.
In the spirit of being helpful I will loan you some advice. I say loan because I do not own this, it was taught to me by someon else.
Bitterness is a poison that will destroy your life. It makes you angry about those things you should be thankful and happy about. It can destroy your chances for things that could really help you to feel happy or contented and that can help you in the future. Furthermore, when you do receive some of those things that should make you happy, bitterness will not let you enjoy them. You might even squander or discard some of the best things in your life due to bitterness. Then you get to add regret to the pile of emotional baggage when you realize it later. Don't think that those around you can't see that you are bitter. It is impossible to hide. It makes people uneasy and sometimes even unwilling to associate with you, and what it can do to romantic relationships is shocking and hideous. I hope you never have to find that out first hand.
The easiest way out of being bitter is to look at your circumstances with an eye for opportunity. In other workds, be positive and be thankful. You will be amazed how much that can help your mentality, and eventually your circumstances, if you apply it and put aside your negative emotions. They really only hurt you.
I actually took a $20,000 pay cut last year due to market problems in my industry. If I had not kept my mind focused on my responsibilitie and remained positive and aware of opportunities I would have missed out on the job I have currently. To date this year, in my new job, I have earned almost two times what I made in my previouls highest paid year. I am positive that if I had been angry or bitter about the colossal pay cut I had taken I would not have been mentally able to take advantage of the opportunities that were in front of me. They might not have even become available to me at all if I had been harboring feelings like that.
As for the rant about consumerism, I agree with your distain of some aspects of American comsumption. However, each individual is responsible for, and the product of, their own decisions. You cannot blame external circumstances for situations which were brought on by your own choices, and being completely contrary is still letting capitalism control your behavior, just in a negative way. Better to just acknowledge the flaws of the system you currently live under and take advantage of the upside.
As for your closing statement: I hope for the world's sake that the USA continues for quite a while. Do you have any idea how much food we export and what percentage of the world gets a significant portion of their daily calories from US sources?
The only thing worse than an Apple/Linux vs. MS zealot discussion (a good thing IMHO) is an audiophile thread. They make beligerent Microsoft hating uber-geeks look like mongoloids when they start going at it. I swear, if audiophiles were allowed to talk in person, someone would lose an arm over whether ultra high sample rate digital is better than analog, or whether vacuum tubes should be used in amplifiers or whatever...damn, I have already read too much.
Please...Spare me oh great/. editors.
Sometimes I think that they throw certain stories up on the site on purpose, just to get a rise out of some people and and to get everyone else to come and watch the train wreck.
Time was I would have been shocked and screamed "NOOOO!!!" at the thought of washing electronics.
Then my dillignetly domestic wife washed my cell phone that I had absent mindedly left in my front pocket of my jeans.
I took the battery out and placed both outside for a couple of days in the Houston heat. It was not too humid (for once). I tried to hook it up to the charger after a couple of days and got a single blip of activity on the screen, then nothing. I set it back outside for a day and checked it the next.
I plugged it in to the charger and the damned thing worked. Not only that, but all my saved numbers were there (both in the sim card and in the phone memory.) Astonishing to me that all the surfactants and the dirt from the other clothes did not gum up the elecctronics.
I have noticed that the battery does not hold a charge as long as it did. This might be my imagination, or an expression of my anticipation of adverse effects from the washing. In addition I wonder about the longevity of my phone. I keep thinking that it could croak on me at any moment.
Nice point, however there is still a good/evil dichotomy that can be easily delineated in these times.
People who mercilessly and intentionally target civilians for the express purpose of causing fear in the population are evil. People who support groups that do this are also evil. Countries that harbor and support groups that engage in this kind of behavior are evil. I personally think that if you cannot find clear cut cases of both good and evil in the world there is something desperately wrong with your moral spectrometer. Might wanna get that thing checked.
Actually the statement "Either you're with us, or you are with the terrorists" has been proven true, only it is the terrorists who are proving it. When they threatened the French railway system (BEFORE the actual attacks in Spain), when they attacked Russia, and when they kidnapped the French journalists and threatened to kill them if France didn't change their laws about headscarves, (etc. ad nauseum) they showed that you are either an Islamic fundamentalist with murderously intolerant beliefs, or you are not. Even the Greeks were scared to death of these terrorists (see the articles on the most massive implementation of a survelience system in history in Athens for the Olympics.)
We talk eruditely about how there are shades of gray and that it is infantile to say things like "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists" while the terrorists see things in this obvious condemnable black and white way. To them, either you are one of them or you are hamburger just waiting to be blown up so that they can get their way, get publicity, prove that "Allah is great" by detonating a bomb in a crowd, or even worse, fracture and polarize your society into militants who believe in retaliation and the peacenicks who think that if you are nice they will leave you alone. Once they get some sympathy from the weak members of society they actually start to gain political power in your country.
Personally I am of the opinion that they are rabid dogs...not only do rabid dogs bite, but they spread disease, and they all need to be killed.
Back to the subject at hand though...I think that the current conflicts in the world lend themselves nicely to a literary context. Heroism, in its many forms, is a crowd pleaser. If you don;t believe me reas Joseph Campbell's "The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces." People seek it in their religion as well as their literature, and what better setting for heroic acts than when you are under attack from people who posess neither dignity or integrity.
Slashdot Mirror
"It's pretty ironic that the trigger for the war in Watchmen is the SOVIET invasion of Afghanistan"
Actually, to those well versed in military history, strategics, and tactics it is pretty cool that they included this in their book. Insightful and revealing a depth of knowledge about more than just comics.
Case in point: Homer Lee is regarded as one of the most prophetic and discerning military strategists of modern times. This guy predicted the Japaneese attack on Pearl Harbor years in advance, he was that good.
One of his other observations was that if the Soviets were able to invade and conquer Afghanistan it would propel them to world domination due to their strategic dominance and the political/military repercussions. Most people who study military doctrine agree with Lee's observation of the facts.
Christian TV is to Christianity as the WWF is to Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling.
"firstly you will have two sets of dots overlaid on each other"
Won't work if the dots print in a rectangle based matrix of some kind (which I am sure tha they do). A tiny shift of phase will just lead to a connect the dots type investigation. Then it will not only show that it was you who made the document but that it was also you standing at the copier at Kinkos trying to obscure the tracing.
In other words you are leaving a trail of breadcrumbs from your ass to federal prison.
I have thought about this since I was a young child. Really. I am 31 now BTW.
My idea was to put detectors in the front and back fenders of a car and use the "drive by braile" bumps as locating devices for the car. In other words, put scanable microchips or magnets or other such devices in the road bumps and put detectors in the car that will be able to use them for navigation.
With scanable microchips that can dump data into the cars computer it also provides an easy way to pay for the road bumps to be installed. Just make sure that you have a TV screen in the car for the passengers (no one will be driving so they need it now!) and sell advertising that is implanted in some of the road bumps. It would be a great way to direct traffic to local restaurants, tourist sites, etc. and would be a way to remove billboards from the sides of the highways once and for all. Of course they are inside your car now, but hey the scenery would look much better.
I think that this would be much easier than boring holes in the concrete, which I have heard suggested. If you combine this "local" system with GPS systems I think that you would have a viable option.
Actually "an eye for an eye" only makes blind the people who poke other people's eyes out.
"Imagine the torments you would have to undergo if every single wrong you have ever done in your life had to be repaid in kind."
Funny you should say that, because many people interpret karma as a system that will revisit your indescretions on you THREEFOLD rather than just once. I have even heard people discribe it as tenfold.
Anyways, the passage you are referring to in John 8:7 had a deeper subtext. The problem was that the law that said that adulterers should be stoned to death. The only problem was that a woman cannot commmit adultery ALONE. Where was the man? Where was his justice? The intent of the people was clear at this point. They were not interested in justice, they were using a law improperly to kill someone that they did not like.
"Justice as retribution is only ever advocated by hypocrites, because all of us have committed offenses against others."
We have all comitted offenses, sure, but some offenses are prohibited by law and some are inexcusable. To say that retribution is only ever advocated by hypocrites is to say that everyone who wants retribution for a lobved one who has been murdered has also comitted offences of the same magnitude. That is unless you consider lying to someone equal with murder.
The Really Big Question is if we are able to determine how he does what he does, and can reproduce it chemically in other people through medication, would you take the pill?
What if you weren't given a choice...
Case in point: I worked at a BMW dealership for a few years as a sales person.
One day a man drives up in a 70's model ford pickup. This thing was dingy, rusted, and it was impossible to tell the original color of the paint as every body panel had at least 2 differnt colors of primer or paint on it.
The man that got out looked as rough as the car. He was wearing a flanel shirt, bluejeans, and workboots all uniformly covered in dust and grime. His face was not recently shaven and he looked tired.
Oddly enough not one of the other salespeople in the dealership approached him. I literally walked by 5 or 6 unoccupied sales people to get to him. I introduced myself and he returned the courtesy. After a couple of seconds speaking with him it was obvious that he was very intelligent and exceptionally well mannered. After about 20 minutes we were laughing and having a great time talking about all manner of things. It was funny to see the expressions on the faces of my coworkers. They obviously thought I was wasting my time. I had no idea what was going to happen with the "sale," but I knew that I was going to treat every person who came into my dealership the way I would want to be treated.
The kicker is this. He scheduled time to come back for a testdrive. When he returned I almost didn't recognize him. It might have been the $70,000 Lexus, or maybe the fact that he was dressed in a casual, relaxed, borderline elegant yet obviously wealthy way, or maybe it was just because he had shaven that morning. Regardless, the other salespeople were falling over themselves to greet him first. He politely asked for me and he proceeded to buy a car from me on the spot.
You see, he owned a large shipping company in one of the largest ports in the world. The first time he came into my dealership he had come straight from work, and since he was one of those owners who worked alongside of his employees instead of gazing down on them, he was in his work truck and his work clothes. The man could have purchased the entire dealership if he was so inclined, but because he was not dressed "properly" no one would give him the time of day. I guess I was fortunate enough to have learned early on that you never judge a book by its cover.
Speaking of nasty customer realtion practices, Blockbuster has to be one of the worst I have ever seen.
I went there recently to rent a movie, only to be told by the clerk that I had not rented a movie in the last 3 months and because of this I would have to fill out another application for a card.
In reply I said that I would just purchase some DVDs, as I did not want to fill out any additional forms.
After selecting my DVDs for purchase I returned to the counter and the SAME CLERK informed me that to purchase a DVD I would need to fill out an application (regardless of my form of payment.) I promptly dropped the stack of DVDs on the counter and walked out.
Since then I have done business exclusively with Hollywood. I can buy whatever I want there without and ID check or a membership card. In addition, when my wife wanted to rent a video (which I almost never do, I purchase them) I asked the clerk if I had a membership there. She politely informed me that I certainly did and that it was kind of funny that I had not rented anything since 1998, but that if I wanted to I could rent a movie right then and there.
In short, Blockbuster sucks and I will never do business there again as long as I live.
Note to self...
Open mouth...insert keyboard.
"The three laws are essentially a parody of the Ten Commandments intended to illustrate the folly of trying to sustitute iron-clad rules for rational thought by reasonable, ethical people."
The real irony and humor if this statement is that if you knew anything about the Bible, the ten commandments, or systematic theology (which Asimov actually did) you would not have made this incongrous statement.
The 10 commandments were supposed to be a figurative ethical mirror into which humanity would see, and then hopefully acknowledge, their imperfection. They are a reflection of the purity that mankind cannot achieve, and yet should strive for regardless of the chances of success. In essence they were designed for people who had deep and intense rational thought and for those who would take responsibility for their own personal spiritual development.
The really funny part is that YOU missed this.
I agree with your comments completely, however something intriguing and a bit frightening occurred to me while reading this article.
Imagine a society with wonderfully advanced and ubiquitously implemented technology that makes life easy, entertaining, and enjoyable. Now imagine that there are severe restrictions on personal liberty and privacy and that the society is kept viable by extreme taxation.
Would that society be haing too much fun to decry the unfair treatment?
I don't know exactly the thoughts behind this "or on the grounds that the US feels it has the right to unilaterally develop technology to disable other country's communications (again, I'd start with the MONITORING of communications which is ONGOING rather than the chance that the US MIGHT block communications in the future)"...but it seems you may be feeling like the USA should not be doing these things. Rest assured that if another country was in our position they would be doing the same things and probably more. There are no countries in the world who are excercising moral restraint in the development of military implements. To do so is to put the survival of your enemy over yourself and is tantamount to suicide. To request it of your nation is moronic.
Personally, if my country feels that it needs to fry someone's sattellite in orbit with a suped-up HERF gun, so be it. If they need to monitor every single international radio, fiber, internet, and tin-cup-and-wire communication originating outside the USA, more power to them. If they want to unilaterally develop technology that can cause someone to lose the ability to move their pinky finger from a jillion miles away with the flick of a switch I am ok with that too.
In short, anything that is deemed even marginally necessary or helpful in the defense of our country, or that contributes to the overwhelming military superiority of our country, will allow me to have peace of mind when I pay 38% in taxes this year.
To the grandparent...
As for the dubiousness (or lack thereof) of pre-emptive warfare, I direct the reader to Homer Lee and his works on military history. An interesting guy who, among other things, predicted the Japaneese attack on Pearl Harbor years in advance. He also predicted the tactical and strategic military importance of Afghanistan in the early 1900's, especially with respect to Russia and their plans for world domination. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest military minds in history, combining a comprehensive knowledge of military tactics with almost prescient ability to judge future events and their outcome with regard to military events.
His comments, written in the early 1900's, about the evolution of warfare in the next century and beyond place emphasis on the necessity of pre-emptive warfare to maintain national viability.
A fantastic endeavor for the truly devoted Christian is to embark upon a study of the Bible from the original languages, using the oldest and most accurate manuscripts as source material. Add in a thorough knowledge of the circumstances of the time in which the particular book you are studying was written, a categorical understanding of the Bible and its themes, and a good understanding of idiomatic phrasing in the language you are studying from and you will begin to really understand what the Bible actually says.
Some of the things that are evident from the original languages: Satan was on Earth before man was created. The Earth was put on ice by God for a time after the fall of Satan and before the events of Genesis 1. In fact, there is reference to a thawing and cleanup of the Earth before the events of Genesis 1.
Foregoing those things, if you want an explanation of additional "time" in early part of Genesis, realize that Adam and Eve lived in the Garden for an unspecified time. They did not age during this period; the ages given in Genesis for them at death start from their ejection from the Garden. This time period in the presence of God could have been a single "day" in earthly terms or could have spanned millions of years.
"I'm a physician...programmers...lawyers...Then also come the management professionals..."
Then come the salesmen (like myself) who measure intelligence on how well we indiscriminately outsmart and take the money of all those types...and more. It actually helps us when we find people who are puffed up with the ideas of their own intelligence. It makes it alot easier to do what we do.
We are like the undertakers of the economy. Go and do what you want, but you have to come see us sometime. MUHAHAHAHHA!!!
"Fairness doctrine" guarantees no such thing. It actually takes away the ability of a network/radio station to determine a format for themselves. Talk about infringing free speech.
Imagine having Pacifica radio having to allow Rumsfeld or Cheney speaking time. People's heads would explode I tell you.
I find this similar to the axiomatic question: Why is it that whenever you lose something it is ALWAYS in the last place you look.
The answer is an exercise for the reader.
You want more debates?
I guess you never took a debate class. Debate is a skill, a methodology of speaking applied to the facts that is not designed to elucidate facts, but to persuade the audience, sometimes flying in the face of the facts. A skilled debator will win a debate regardless of wheteher he believes in his point or even has ample facts to support his case. Truth and debate are strange bedfellows.
Political platforms are supposed to convey the facts about what a political candidate stands for and wants to do if they win office. As is evident from the media and the comments from the two parties no one really wants to talk about the facts or the real situations we are facing. No one mwntions that Iraq is actually a strategic emplacement that, if it is ever stabilized, solidifies the USA's global presence and extends our political influence into the rest of the world(the reason we are pulling out of Germany is because it has lost its strategic signifigance). No one wants to talk about the Chinese and the fact that their consumption is causing the rise in oil prices. No one wants to talk about the transformation of the american economy to a globally infiltrated economy and what that will really mean for the next few generations. And everyone, I mean everyone, want to aviod the real subject of retirement and social security.
It is no wonder that politicians like debates. It gives them the chance to appear to tell the truth about what they want, all the while they are just laying persuasive bricks to bolster their candidacy and leaving themselves verbal backdoors to escape from like Houdini after they get elected.
Even worse, we, the American people understand so little about what they are actually talking about (foreign policy, military policy, history, and conventions, ECONOMIC policy, the Constitution, matters of personal liberty) that we swallow what they say hook line and sinker, and don't have the background to call "BULLSHIT" when they say something totally off base with conventional wisdom.
Personally, I am not of the mindset to see conspiracies at every turn, however I have had the feeling these past few elections that those in power do not like to see high voter turnout. I believe that if there was a conspiracy it would be one of negativity. It is proven that negative campaigns cause people to become disenchanted with political figures and the political system, leading to lower voter tunrout. Therefore they campaign on their opponents weaknesses and point aout things have absolutely nothing to do with their ability to govern a nation (see the innumerable references to Viet Nam for fucks sake).
I think that it is just possible that politicians understand that if less people vote and more people are disinterested with and disgruntled with the political system there will be fewer people to question and complain about what they do in the real powerhouses of the government...the Senate, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
If they keep the eyes of the country on the politcal bouncing ball, the president, and off of the people who manipulate and control the legal landscape of the whole country, no one will stop them when they enact the PATRIOT act, or the DMCA, or whatever other policy that undermines the fabric of our liberties. At least, that is what I would do if I were them and had absolutely no moral intentions.
Maybe I have just had too much to drink tonight, but then again, maybe that is the Feds knocking at my door at 1:00 am and not my neighbor with another bottle of beer.
"Often, I prefer watching the trailer to sitting through the actual movie, so I used to try to show up early to the theater to catch all the trailers
For some strange reason when I show up in time to see all of the previews by the end of them I have forgotten what movie I have come to see.
Wow. You need some serious help buddy.
Let me jump to what I consider the crux of your problem.
"When you showed me that (premise1) I can never count on having income, and (premise2) there will be no Social Security system by my retirement
I knew this intrinsically when I was a child, unfortunately you were not so lucky. No one is responsible for me except for me. Especially not the government or the society around me. No one will provide for me except for me. Especially not the government or the society I live in.
If you decided to overindulge in the environment where everone overindulges, and you made poor decisions related to your financial health and continued employment, regarldess of the fact that you thought everyone else was making those same decisions, you have only yourself to blame. Seriously. So what if you made a mistake that cost you your home and your savings. Learn from it by saying that the decisions that you made led you there. That way you can learn from it instead of getting all rageful and crying about how unfair the world is. It has always been that way(unfair). The place we live in is like a giant meatgrinder designed to destroy people's lives at the slightest misstep. Realize it and fucking grow up. Then you might be able to enjoy yourself instead of hatemongering.
As for your predictions of the USA's demise I am sure that you are correct. However I attribute it to other sources than you do. IMHO, some of the things you rail against are only a result of the root causes. It still dosen't keep me from enjoying my life here regardless of the circumstances I live under.
Oh, and so you know, I am almost completely debt free in spite of the financial problems I had last year. Mostly due to being frugal and not wanting to excercise rampant consumerism. It seems that we have some ideals in common, it is just that I did not have to indulge to the same level that you did to get them. When the axe came down and slashed my income I didn't have the debts to pay that would have sunk me and my family.
As for all your rage about being underemployed, not able to get a job regardless of your education, and getting laid off, I can't seem to wonder if your outspoken anger, vituperation, irrational and uncouth attribution of false motives and characteristics to people unknown to you, your entitlement philosophy (else why the anger), and your liberal use of the word nigger caused the problems you are upset about, and not class warfare as you call it.
As for the rest of your rant and blather you can keep it. It is obvious that you have created something to fight against in your mind and lumped me into the mold of that beast. I used to play chess quite a bit and we would talk about the psychological problems that made some people lose when they should have won. We would frequently call it "playing the player instead of the board" and it referred to people who attributed false motives or plans to their opponent because of their fear of their opponent (if the opponent was better than them) or underestimation (if the opponent was not as good). The result was always disastrous and frequently hilarious in an ironic way. In the same vein I think that you may have created a false enemy in the world around you: a creature of your own devising, based on subjective observation and inability to take responsibility for failures in your life. Good luck fighting the windmills, Don.
Fortunately for you, your conclusions about what makes you safe (savings, mobility) are pretty damned good solutions for any problem. However, your views on American people, with regard to women especially, are unfounded, but necessary to your theory that justifies your rage.
Oh, and those auto industry workers you are so mad at are unionized workers. Unions are the reason for the rampant wages and cost of automobiles as well as many other things. Yey, they are, oddly enough, the people and structure you attribut your freedom to later in your post. Unions organized those workers, and now you are angry at what they have done for themselves? I have the strange feeling that if you were one of them you would not be so angry.
"If this teen hacker was given a little direction and purpose with his life then he could steer everything completely around."
This is assuming that everyone will react the same in a similar situation. Unfortunately this is not true. If it were there would be no repeat offenders as we would have figured out how to keep people from doing that by now.
Direction and purpose are internal motivators and are not imparted by external circumstances. The individual will make their own decisions for their own reasons. To say that it was all based on his immaturity is simplistic and enabling and absolves him of guilt by reason of youngness(!?!?).
This leads us to the question: if the kid has intelligence, talent, and ability enough to be considered as an employment candidate despite his crimes, poor judgement, and his lack of conventional training, couldn't he have figured out something to do besides molesting the entire electronic world?
The answer is a simple yes. Instead, he decided to cause problems for people and violate the law. There are plenty of people with the same skill and intelligence that this kid has, only they just don't engage in monstrous blunders of personal judgement. Unfortunately they do not have the same publicity that this guy has either, so no one ever asks the question: Should I hire this intelligent, capable, morally upright individual to work for my company? Of course you should. In fact, I bet that there are enough of these types of people out there that no one should ever have to consider hiring someone convicted of writing and releasing malignant programs like this.
What the kid does need is an opportunity to show that he can do the right thing in the future, but only after he gets some some strict discipline for pulling what was obviously a colossaly stupid and malignant stunt. He also needs quite a bit of supervision when he is offered a "second chance" to make sure that he dosen't continue of his path of destructive behavior. If someone is considering hiring him they should budget quite a bit of time and effort to keep track of what he does on an hourly basis and be ready to cut him loose if he does anything questionable.
The serial killer comment will be completely correct if this kid decides that he likes writing malicious code and continues to do it in the future, and he is correct in that the kid is responsible for doing something wrong and has no excuse for doing what he did. Who knows, maybe this guy has released other worms and such into the ether. In that case the serial killer analogy holds up a little better.
... and the proverbial tinfoil hat wearing nutbag gets some justification. Nice.
My condolences on your net 2% loss in income over the last year. I am sure all of the chronically unemployed people will morn your loss. Oh, and those with permanent disabilities will surely bemoan the vicissitudes of modern corporate employment with you, of this I am sure. Plus those overseas outsorced employees who do the work of a $50,000/yr American for a little less than than the cost of you shoe budget and live in sod huts will contrive to share your pain as well.
If you couldn't see through your shroud of bitterness there was just a hint of sarcasm there. After reading your post the feeling I came away with is that you are someone who feels that they are entitled to things and that the world owes them something. I could be wrong, but a minor setback should be encouragement for you and a learning experience, not grounds for excessive animosity. Heaven forbid that you have a real setback in life, you might do something rash.
In the spirit of being helpful I will loan you some advice. I say loan because I do not own this, it was taught to me by someon else.
Bitterness is a poison that will destroy your life. It makes you angry about those things you should be thankful and happy about. It can destroy your chances for things that could really help you to feel happy or contented and that can help you in the future. Furthermore, when you do receive some of those things that should make you happy, bitterness will not let you enjoy them. You might even squander or discard some of the best things in your life due to bitterness. Then you get to add regret to the pile of emotional baggage when you realize it later. Don't think that those around you can't see that you are bitter. It is impossible to hide. It makes people uneasy and sometimes even unwilling to associate with you, and what it can do to romantic relationships is shocking and hideous. I hope you never have to find that out first hand.
The easiest way out of being bitter is to look at your circumstances with an eye for opportunity. In other workds, be positive and be thankful. You will be amazed how much that can help your mentality, and eventually your circumstances, if you apply it and put aside your negative emotions. They really only hurt you.
I actually took a $20,000 pay cut last year due to market problems in my industry. If I had not kept my mind focused on my responsibilitie and remained positive and aware of opportunities I would have missed out on the job I have currently. To date this year, in my new job, I have earned almost two times what I made in my previouls highest paid year. I am positive that if I had been angry or bitter about the colossal pay cut I had taken I would not have been mentally able to take advantage of the opportunities that were in front of me. They might not have even become available to me at all if I had been harboring feelings like that.
As for the rant about consumerism, I agree with your distain of some aspects of American comsumption. However, each individual is responsible for, and the product of, their own decisions. You cannot blame external circumstances for situations which were brought on by your own choices, and being completely contrary is still letting capitalism control your behavior, just in a negative way. Better to just acknowledge the flaws of the system you currently live under and take advantage of the upside.
As for your closing statement: I hope for the world's sake that the USA continues for quite a while. Do you have any idea how much food we export and what percentage of the world gets a significant portion of their daily calories from US sources?
Cue the audiophile wars.
/. editors.
The only thing worse than an Apple/Linux vs. MS zealot discussion (a good thing IMHO) is an audiophile thread. They make beligerent Microsoft hating uber-geeks look like mongoloids when they start going at it. I swear, if audiophiles were allowed to talk in person, someone would lose an arm over whether ultra high sample rate digital is better than analog, or whether vacuum tubes should be used in amplifiers or whatever...damn, I have already read too much.
Please...Spare me oh great
Sometimes I think that they throw certain stories up on the site on purpose, just to get a rise out of some people and and to get everyone else to come and watch the train wreck.
Time was I would have been shocked and screamed "NOOOO!!!" at the thought of washing electronics.
Then my dillignetly domestic wife washed my cell phone that I had absent mindedly left in my front pocket of my jeans.
I took the battery out and placed both outside for a couple of days in the Houston heat. It was not too humid (for once). I tried to hook it up to the charger after a couple of days and got a single blip of activity on the screen, then nothing. I set it back outside for a day and checked it the next.
I plugged it in to the charger and the damned thing worked. Not only that, but all my saved numbers were there (both in the sim card and in the phone memory.) Astonishing to me that all the surfactants and the dirt from the other clothes did not gum up the elecctronics.
I have noticed that the battery does not hold a charge as long as it did. This might be my imagination, or an expression of my anticipation of adverse effects from the washing. In addition I wonder about the longevity of my phone. I keep thinking that it could croak on me at any moment.
Nice point, however there is still a good/evil dichotomy that can be easily delineated in these times.
People who mercilessly and intentionally target civilians for the express purpose of causing fear in the population are evil. People who support groups that do this are also evil. Countries that harbor and support groups that engage in this kind of behavior are evil. I personally think that if you cannot find clear cut cases of both good and evil in the world there is something desperately wrong with your moral spectrometer. Might wanna get that thing checked.
Actually the statement "Either you're with us, or you are with the terrorists" has been proven true, only it is the terrorists who are proving it. When they threatened the French railway system (BEFORE the actual attacks in Spain), when they attacked Russia, and when they kidnapped the French journalists and threatened to kill them if France didn't change their laws about headscarves, (etc. ad nauseum) they showed that you are either an Islamic fundamentalist with murderously intolerant beliefs, or you are not. Even the Greeks were scared to death of these terrorists (see the articles on the most massive implementation of a survelience system in history in Athens for the Olympics.)
We talk eruditely about how there are shades of gray and that it is infantile to say things like "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists" while the terrorists see things in this obvious condemnable black and white way. To them, either you are one of them or you are hamburger just waiting to be blown up so that they can get their way, get publicity, prove that "Allah is great" by detonating a bomb in a crowd, or even worse, fracture and polarize your society into militants who believe in retaliation and the peacenicks who think that if you are nice they will leave you alone. Once they get some sympathy from the weak members of society they actually start to gain political power in your country.
Personally I am of the opinion that they are rabid dogs...not only do rabid dogs bite, but they spread disease, and they all need to be killed.
Back to the subject at hand though...I think that the current conflicts in the world lend themselves nicely to a literary context. Heroism, in its many forms, is a crowd pleaser. If you don;t believe me reas Joseph Campbell's "The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces." People seek it in their religion as well as their literature, and what better setting for heroic acts than when you are under attack from people who posess neither dignity or integrity.