In the 1970's, the flower child generation spawned flower child researchers who used social "science" to arrive at flower child conclusions that they wanted. We are still feeling the effects of this bad research in many areas. This era was the plague that will not go away. Many of these are often discussed on these forums, I am looking at your gender wage discrepancy. There are many others.
If you stop and use the smell test a bit, tie to you own life. Threat of punishment is always in the calculus of a crime. If you steal that post it note, and the worst you get is a cold hard stare from an HR lady, you may do it. If it leads to your immediate termination, you leave that note the hell alone.
The death penalty will not deter a crime of passion. That is absolutely true. However, if you are thinking about murder, and you start imagining the needle is waiting for you.... Its a little different.
Anyways, people resist these old studies, and they often find different conclusions. Here is one on this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
And in other news:
Hillary says that she reviewed all her email and found no evidence that she sold and exposed state secrets.
AND
Trump says that reviewed his speeches and he found no evidence of anti-Latino Bias
AND
Various slashdot readers also reviewed their posts and found no evidence of knee-jerk political bias
If you Google Zuckerberg, liberal, you will find several articles evidencing that he is a liberal. Your conservative friends should give you crap for this...for years. Here is one:
See, in the hipster narrative, Apple is not Halliburton. It is a great company that is socially aware and does all the right things for all the right people at all the right times. In their telling, Apple, unlike the "evil Halliburton, is environmentally friendly....except that whole annoying thing about making their computers un-upgradable, which decreases the lifespan of their devices. Oh, and pay no head to the fact that these devices are created using some of the most noxious chemicals around.
Or, how about Apple is socially conscious! They are about giving things to the downtrodden....except they maintain a high profit margin and offer no low end products. And, worse, for all their talk about curing social ills, they don't seem to want to pay for it.
Now, most of the apologetic posts seem to point out that ALL companies do this, so it is ok. But, the thing that bothers me (and it should bother you) is that Apple claims it is not like those companies. They are ever so sanctimonious about pointing out their superiority in these matters. You can't be socially aware or lets face it, socialist, and then bitch about tax rates and try to find ways to subvert them. You either think the rich need to pay more, or not. It is very easy to talk about change, hard to live it. I am so fucking sick of the hypocrisy of Apple, and all people like them. Funny how these guys love to be generous, so long as it is with someone else's money.
In fact, I think Halliburton is by far a less evil company because they pretty much come out and say, we get energy from the ground, and we make money doing it. At least it is honest.
I know I will catch hell for this, but I will say it anyway. The problem is that Tim Cook is by far more interested than being a gay/liberal activist, than being a CEO of an innovative company. If you look at the various stories about him and apple over the last few years, you will see it is alway about the politics, not making "insanely great" doodads.
Many on Slashdot give him a pass, because you like the causes he supports. At the same time, you bemoan the fact that the new iMac mini was actually worse than the old one, computers are not updated nearly enough, computers are not powerful enough for Oculus Rift, or even many games, features such as ram expansion have been downgraded, the new GUI is a backwards step, programs like pages and iMovie are stagnant, programs like Aperture have been cancelled, the iwatch was just plain silly, and the iPhone changes are just plain underwhelming. All this can be now said about a company that a decade ago, saw a world filled with CD players, and figured out how to bring your entire music collection with you at once....all with a slick interface.
Apple used to be about being transformative. Now it is just about being transgendered. I miss insanely great.
A stoner might have said (and really likely has said this) "Like, we live in a computer simulation, dudes. See, since, like time is infinite, that means and infitinite amount of stuff happens, which means, like anything can happen, which means, like anything you can imagine happens! woooooahh, dude." The thing is, if he posted it on this forum, you guys would have tore him three new assholes, and make him the stuff of memes.
The only reason this is taken remotely seriously is that N. dG. Tyson said it. Since he is famous, otherwise intelligent people will forget all they now of logic, science, and the world and go into full gushing mode. See, the problem is that being famous for something instills this odd belief that it makes one wise in all things. This is seldom the case.
Funny how being reflexively liberal gains vast positive moderation---even when it is not backed up and unfounded. Ok kids, lets play. Let's dissect this awful, thoughtless post using 3 minutes of internet searching or less
Comment 1: Mexicans are rapists:
Actually, Mexicans in the US are 3 times as likely to be rapists compared to their white counter part. Easily found in this document from the Department of Justice. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub...
Comment 2: Muslims are going to blow me up....
Do I really need to go there? Fish in a barrel are envious about easy this one is. I mean, you brought this up. But, since you asked, in the last 3 days, 157 attacks in 22 countries killing 1747 people. Number of, I don't know, choosing a country at random, Germans bombing others in same period.....0. Just saying' http://www.thereligionofpeace....
I honestly won't touch the last once, since I really don't want to see the bestiality. sites, but but between you and me, I would not take that bet if I were you.
So, in a nut shell. This gets a 5 mod for being incorrect and supporting nothing. Nice job slashdot. Nice job.
I actually had vomit come up my throat when I read this. The amount of complete untruth and ignorance was bad...even for the current slashdot.
To say that Sotomayer is not but arch-liberal is beyond dishonest. Kagan actually published work that was pro-socialism http://dailycaller.com/wp-cont.... To call these two moderates is like calling the HULK mildly temperamental.
It's exactly this limited, short sighted, team-sport type thinking that is making the US and the world the mess it is in. People have ideology so far up their ass, that they can't judge or think straight. It doesn't matter if someone is unqualified or incorrect. For this sort of human filth, they will go to any length to make excuses and twisting reality to fight whatever petty agenda of the moment that they have. They just want their team to win. It is sickening.
Btw, Reagan appointed O'conner. He wanted a conservative. In practice, she was a moderate, conservative. To replace her with a conservative justice is not incongruent.
Your points would be fantastic, if any of them were true:
1. I live amongst more educated people: While many in California feel you are better than everyone else, the rankings say...not so much. Tenth worst, actually.
http://247wallst.com/special-r...
2. Most welfare mouths are in the midwest: Here is a list of the states with most welfare population compared to working population. 1. Ca 2. NM 3. HI 4. MI 5. Al 6. SC 7. IL 8. KT 9. Oh 10. NY. Now, two of those are midwest, and because IL and OH enjoy large, urban centers.
http://brandongaille.com/welfa...
3. Most are white: Slightly more welfare recipients are black compared to white (39.8 vs. 38.8) but, black people make up 13% and white are about 63 percent, to say most are white is such a torture of reality it borders on a sickness.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/...
4. The one you did get right is that most welfare people did not finish school. However, when you look at graduation rates, places that I am fairly sure you would say are "educated" i.e. coastal meccas, are not exactly nation beaters. Ca is middle at best and New York is near the bottom.
Br>
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
I know making such statements are cool in some circles, but facts and links make for stronger arguments, better policy, and more honest discussion. You simply can not fix problems without this. I for one, want to fix issues, not play blame games.
See, we have several posts about how Apple is a company, and like all companies, they want to avoid taxes. What makes this different is that Apple is so, so very....sanctimonious. They are in your face about social policies and other "liberal" issues. But, when it comes to paying or inconveniencing their business model, they seem to not be for all the stuff they advocate. With treasure on the line, they never, ever seem to do the right thing.
For example:
APPLE: Look at us, we are GREEN! Except, hey, lets not allow you to upgrade memory in an iMac so it it can be used for a few more years. Because there is NOTHING toxic in the process of the deposition processes to make micro-electronics, right?
To me, this hypocrisy makes them far worse than "unenlightened" companies that just flat out say, hey, we are in it for profit. With them, you can encourage change. But, when you hide behind the cloak of caring, it is far harder because few see the issues.
So, a liberal biased media source analyzed the effects of the recent dominance of liberal ideology on the world and found it to be hunky dory. In turn, a liberal biased forum site agrees. It is important to ignore the numerous stories posted on this site to the contrary.
In other new, a European media source decided that football/soccer was the best sport....
Imagine if, the smart slashdot readers applied their intelligence to things outside their technical careers.
Imagine if, instead of buying into reflexive ideology, that slashdot readers weighed all sides of an argument, to get to the truth.
Imagine if, the slashdot readers were not so intellectually cowardly, that they could read from multiple sources and perspectives.
Imagine if, the slashdot readers would have taken a three, to go to Foxnews, and see that there is not an article about millions people hordes protesting amazon and pillaging. In fact, there is no article at all.
Imagine if, slashdot readers could turn the same critical eye reserved only for foxiness, toward other sources such as the New York times and MSNBC.
Imagine if, slashdot readers did not treat politics as a team sport, where one side is always good and the other is always bad. Instead, tried to see the the actors of life as they really are, not your teammate.
Or, Imagine if, slashdot once again because a forum of ideas, not ideology.
There are many issues with WOW, but the greatest is the missing M. When i last logged into wow, I felt...lonely. No one talked to me. I really did not encounter anyone. There were people in Stormwind, but they could have all been NPCS for all I could tell. I no longer needed to group for quests. I did not need to ever talk to someone in an entire dungeon or raid. Wow no longer felt massive or multiplayer. This breaks my heart, and I will never forgive the people who did this.
"My understanding is that espionage means giving secret or classified information to the enemy. Since Snowden shared information with the American people, his indictment for espionage could reveal (or confirm) that the US Government views you and me as the enemy."
See, i am not even a stalwart Ron Paul guy, but I do respect him a political philosopher. The feel of the idea seemed off to me, so I did an entire 10 sec of Google searching to check. It is easy to hate and disparage others, because you were told to. It is harder not be a lap dog and think for yourself.
Its funny. A group of people saw this starting to happen in the U.S. too. They were terrified of the looming disaster of spending far more money than you take in, and merely wanted to limit spending to what we could actually afford. t
They even started a grass roots political movement to try to elect fiscally responsible people. Their reward? They have been demonized and character assassinated to the nth degree. They are accused of being NAZI's, racist, anti-this, and anti-that... They have even had the U.S. government personally attack their finances and businesses. All because they want a balanced budget and for people who make bad ecconomic decisions not to escape all the pain.
I am of course talking about the Tea Party, who history will show is right. Just like the collective wisdom of this forum and thread understands when it is talking about Greece, but seems to fail to grasp when talking about their own country.
It is easy to make fun of the Greeks, harder to judge your own actions.
As I read this article, I could instantly see how this looks just silly to people who populate the tech sector. It is easy to make snap judgements and laugh at the crazy, stupid, unwashed rubes living elsewhere. A wiser person would ask, "why do people in Texas feel the need to own, armor and heavy weapons? Is there something going on?
In a nut shell, people in Texas are scared. How would you feel if the Federal government were conducting war games in your state, for the express purpose of invading your ass if you get upidity? Ok, lets put it this way, remember all that awful rhetoric that rules the forums 10 years ago about how Bush was a NAZI and wanted to impose his views on you? How would you feel if he ACTUALLY then sent the U.S. army in to act out a scenario where California, Washington, and Oregon rebelled because they wanted more federal control over money, more liberal tax policies, and open borders? You see news reports about this, some blogs. You think it is crazy. Then, one day, you wake up to the awful sound of attack helicopters conducting a drill over your neighborhood. Yes, OMFG you would be crapping your pants and creating a shit-storm in the blogosphere....and you would be perfectly correct to do so.
The problem lies in the exaggeration of political views. In what should be a healthy debate over tax policy and building codes has turned into ball-sport where people think anyone who is not wearing your color of shirt deserves death. It is absurd. It is counter productive. It is destroying our civilization. Worse, it is very common here on good ol' slashdot. Ask yourself, have you said something like "I hate fox news?" or I hate Bush and republicans?" Hate is a very strong word. In fact, many enlightened liberals feel it is a crime. Why do you have such strong, murderous feelings over, someone who views the tax code differently than you. Isn't that a little extreme? You say you hate Fox news, and feel it is cool to say so? Why? Because you don't agree with all the viewpoints, and it challenges the narrative that you never do? Do you think the new sources you enjoy are really any less biased? Really?
I point this out because such thought is so common place on slashdot I find it heart breaking. When I first joined this forum, near 2000 it was a free and open forum where you were modded up by the strength of your argument and how well you defended it. Now, I have a troll moniker for simply not agreeing with destructive comments on the forums. If we are to survive as a society, we need to be intellectually honest. We need to face honest criticisms of our cherished beliefs with joy instead of hatred. In the crucible of conversation, we can arrive at better solutions. Living in an echo chamber or rage will lead to....
I am so tired of the knee jerk leftish bias that has infected the slashdot community moding up the most trivial of comments ---because it espouses some ill-defended agenda.
The status of the prisoners at Guantanamo bay IS a matter for serious debate. They are not being held for tax evasion, parking violations, or theft. So, please have the intellectual honesty to stop treating them in the same category as those in the local penitentiary. Being irregular troops (not using uniform or operating under the flag of a nation) , they are not strictly covered under the Geneva conventions. The honest truth is that they sit somewhere in-between.
Troops that are captured on the battle field do not receive a trial. They never have. It is part of war. Are these POWs? They problem then becomes, how do you release them if the war never ends? Historically, most wars do end, so the problem takes care of itself. This is an area of law and philosophy that needs to be worked out. This is done best not by twisting existing laws to comport to your own (often arbitrary) personal beliefs. It is done through a society large discussion about values and beliefs and logistics. None of that is going on in the above post.
Furthermore, the gaping whole in the "logic" of the original post needs to be pointed out. By most standards, the conditions in Guantanamo are far from horrible. I know the average brain-addles leftist has some perverse fantasy of a stark Gulag where prisoners are routinely shot for looking the wrong way. Reality is far from it. Most reports indicate that conditions are better than most federal prisons. There is ample opportunity for communal activity and even access to the internet. There is a soccer pitch where games are often held. Gulag my ass.Don't believe me, challenge yourself with a quick google search, and you find articles such as this.
In fact, the most serious human rights abused, from Amnesty International stem from the fact that prisoners are being held in the first place (silly), or more seriously, from the fact that there status is not well worked out, as discussed above. While I would certainly agree with most of slashdot that the current status is unacceptable and not a terribly good solution. I wish the Bush era drama-queens could come down to earth and help solve the problem in a sane, realistic manner, instead of just bashing authority figures for the sake of looking cool.
Again, I will take the bad Karma hit by championing truth over partizan politics.
For those outside the US, let me explain a few details that make this all misleading.
1. Although the recent elections heavily were in favor of the republicans, the change of power has not occurred yet. The democrats are still in charge of the senate. This means that they decide which bills are even allowed to be introduced. In fact, the democrats have been using this power quite effectively to block all sorts of republican sponsored legislation in the past several years. In order for the bill to be introduced, it had to have the blessing of the democrat majority leader. ,br>
2. The person who technically introduced the bill was a democrat.
3. It was true this vote, like so many votes recently went straight down party lines. Personally, I think this is an absolute tragedy and evil committed by both parties.
4. Many of the republicans who voted to stop the bill, believed that while change is needed, it was too sweeping. I fully appreciate any cynicism on this point, but in a healthy republic, this would be a valid, intelligent point. There really is a line between engulfing too much freedom (as is the case now) to leaving yourself too vulnerable in the harsh light of reality.
5. The democrats have had the power to push through any legislation they want, and could not be stopped for much of the last 8 years. If they really were champions of freedom, as is implied here, they could have done this earlier. Taking all this together, this is yet another gamesmanship type move to grasp power in the most cynical way. I have no patience for either party when they do this crap.
For those inside America, who claim to be smart (i.e. slashdot readers) this is all stuff you should know and should have pointed out, if you were intellectually honest at all. You are not, so I will take my negative mod, again.
When I read this, all I could think of was pre wwii Stalin Russia. When the dictator, Stalin, rose to power, he purged the military of its talented officers, because they were most likely to be able to mount an effective resistance to him. When WWII came, the Germans faced a very weak officer core, and were able to run over the Soviets fairly easily. It took an abnormally early winter to save them from that blunder.
In an eerily similar fashion, many top US generals have been encouraged to resign in the last several years. Now, with the rise of ISIS, a newly expansionist Russia, and the spectra of a waking dragon, the US officer core is saying weather is our biggest threat.
Wake up and do the math/.
Personally, I would disagree with the Russian Federation's decision about how to view and treat gay people. However, the reflexive leftism and consequent lack of logic found yet again in modern slashdot really disturbs me
The same group, who universally heralded the coming out of Tim Cook as a positive thing and helpful for society, is now stating that having prominent gay figures has no impact. I have to ask, how fucking intellectually dishonest are you?
The logic of the Russian Federations government is sound, much for the same reason slashdot championed cook. It DOES matter that their are heroes and figures in key roles. It lends legitimacy to gayness. It makes it seem more normal. And yes, to the dumb-asses who so snidely quipped about gay be contagious, in a sociological way, yes, it absolutely is. If you have a society that suppresses gayness, guess what, you get less. If you have a society that is more open, then you will see more. Why? Because it is thought of as more normal. Those with impulses and curiosity will be more likely to try.
I won't even get into the whole, "as a PC liberal, I believe that all cultures are equal and should be celebrated...except the when they disagree with me bullshit. Though, I should.
Now, on slashdot, one would hope to find a higher level of discussion, such as, do societies that accept gayness maintain stability in the long term. Are their positive or negative economic consequences. Does it effect marriage and birth rates? These are all worthy questions worthy of exploration, and even fact finding. That would be a productive conversation to be had.
This is the mental equivalent of saying, "cool story bro." Be better guys.
So, you are a libertarian that believes the fate of your money should be decided by others, and should be used by large government to fund incredibly expensive programs?
To quote Fezzik from the princess bride, "I don't think you know what that words means."
For those who are living in SF, good for you! It is a very beautiful city, and I enjoyed it when I lived there.
That said, I am not sure how this self congratulation piece actually passes for news on slashdot. It did not happen after some major breakthrough happened in the Bay area. There were no earth shattering events. In fact, the only thing of note is that it is Pi day, and I am fairly sure SF had little to do with that.
In fact, to say it is under a current Renaissance would be a horrible stretch. In fact, I am not sure an there has been anything of note that is new produced in the bay area in a decade. At best, you could claim that people who develop tech elsewhere, like to move to moderate climates when they get money. Remind which of those start-ups these 70 hour code monkeys that you are referring too actually amounted to anything?
As for enlightened? I know people in SF and who like to post on slashdot like to feel they are. But in reality, these "enlightened" philosophies are becoming increasingly exposed for the totalitarian darkness that they inevitably are. Wasn't there another article this weak about how Facebook (not created in SF, btw) wash shocked that the politicians of the "enlightened" actually were the Palpatinesque people behind the drones and NSA spying?
That great period in Italy brought us lasting art and philosophy. By comparison, 400 years from now, i see no equal achievements of such magnitude from the bay area.
Hmmm, I always looked at as half the country is listening to the facist line; fed to them through the filter of specious arguments of a stance as close to absolute fiction as can be delivered by a brainwashing mass media with an agenda.
See, I have delivered as much fact as you have in my statement. Except, I will be modded down since this is modern slashdot where untruths are propagated and rewarded as long as you are of the right religion, not based upon the quality of your arguments. Whether you agree with global warming or not, the above post HAS NO BUSINESS BEING ABOVE A ZERO. Be better slashdot. Be better.
The group think about digital rights on slashdot always makes me scratch my head. As near as I can tell, people on these forums are upset that authors of content wish to profit from their content, and not just give it away. Anyone who comes up with a way to secure content or use it, is considered to be something close to the anti-christ, or worse. IE, you feel you should have movies, music, and books for free.
Take the other slashdot groupthink darling, Serenity. On these forums it is considered to be one of the culminations of human story telling. To make this grand work of art, it took hundreds of people and cost $40,000,000 to make. Now, on slashdot we take it as an article of faith this was sci fi at its best. There are 3.5 million monthly readers on slashdot, and we know from these forums every poster has a girlfriend/significant other. At $10 a ticket this means that Serenity should have made $70,000,000 from zealous slash dotters alone. However, it only grossed $25.5 million.
WTF
This masterpiece of fiction, this creme de la creme actually lost money.
So, less than 1/3 of all slash dotters went to the theatre and paid money? Yet, from the posts here we KNOW more than 1/3 have seen it. Which is sadly funny considering that these forums are against content providers actually charging for their content. In effect, we can conclude that most slashdot readers are selfish bastards who want other people to donate their time to you for your benefit.
So, my question to the community is, how much of your professional time and life do you donate for free?
Slashdot Mirror
In the 1970's, the flower child generation spawned flower child researchers who used social "science" to arrive at flower child conclusions that they wanted. We are still feeling the effects of this bad research in many areas. This era was the plague that will not go away. Many of these are often discussed on these forums, I am looking at your gender wage discrepancy. There are many others.
If you stop and use the smell test a bit, tie to you own life. Threat of punishment is always in the calculus of a crime. If you steal that post it note, and the worst you get is a cold hard stare from an HR lady, you may do it. If it leads to your immediate termination, you leave that note the hell alone.
The death penalty will not deter a crime of passion. That is absolutely true. However, if you are thinking about murder, and you start imagining the needle is waiting for you.... Its a little different.
Anyways, people resist these old studies, and they often find different conclusions. Here is one on this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
And in other news:
Hillary says that she reviewed all her email and found no evidence that she sold and exposed state secrets.
AND
Trump says that reviewed his speeches and he found no evidence of anti-Latino Bias
AND
Various slashdot readers also reviewed their posts and found no evidence of knee-jerk political bias
If you Google Zuckerberg, liberal, you will find several articles evidencing that he is a liberal. Your conservative friends should give you crap for this...for years. Here is one:
http://www.politico.com/story/...
The sad thing is, this got modded up to a 3 in the first place.
See, in the hipster narrative, Apple is not Halliburton. It is a great company that is socially aware and does all the right things for all the right people at all the right times. In their telling, Apple, unlike the "evil Halliburton, is environmentally friendly....except that whole annoying thing about making their computers un-upgradable, which decreases the lifespan of their devices. Oh, and pay no head to the fact that these devices are created using some of the most noxious chemicals around.
Or, Apple is about diversity!.... except chemical engineering companies actually have a higher diversity rates than Silicon Valley, as famously discussed in these forums. http://www.usatoday.com/topic/... and http://www.calvert.com/NRC/lit...
Or, how about Apple is socially conscious! They are about giving things to the downtrodden....except they maintain a high profit margin and offer no low end products. And, worse, for all their talk about curing social ills, they don't seem to want to pay for it.
Now, most of the apologetic posts seem to point out that ALL companies do this, so it is ok. But, the thing that bothers me (and it should bother you) is that Apple claims it is not like those companies. They are ever so sanctimonious about pointing out their superiority in these matters. You can't be socially aware or lets face it, socialist, and then bitch about tax rates and try to find ways to subvert them. You either think the rich need to pay more, or not. It is very easy to talk about change, hard to live it. I am so fucking sick of the hypocrisy of Apple, and all people like them. Funny how these guys love to be generous, so long as it is with someone else's money.
In fact, I think Halliburton is by far a less evil company because they pretty much come out and say, we get energy from the ground, and we make money doing it. At least it is honest.
I know I will catch hell for this, but I will say it anyway. The problem is that Tim Cook is by far more interested than being a gay/liberal activist, than being a CEO of an innovative company. If you look at the various stories about him and apple over the last few years, you will see it is alway about the politics, not making "insanely great" doodads.
Many on Slashdot give him a pass, because you like the causes he supports. At the same time, you bemoan the fact that the new iMac mini was actually worse than the old one, computers are not updated nearly enough, computers are not powerful enough for Oculus Rift, or even many games, features such as ram expansion have been downgraded, the new GUI is a backwards step, programs like pages and iMovie are stagnant, programs like Aperture have been cancelled, the iwatch was just plain silly, and the iPhone changes are just plain underwhelming. All this can be now said about a company that a decade ago, saw a world filled with CD players, and figured out how to bring your entire music collection with you at once....all with a slick interface.
Apple used to be about being transformative. Now it is just about being transgendered. I miss insanely great.
A stoner might have said (and really likely has said this) "Like, we live in a computer simulation, dudes. See, since, like time is infinite, that means and infitinite amount of stuff happens, which means, like anything can happen, which means, like anything you can imagine happens! woooooahh, dude." The thing is, if he posted it on this forum, you guys would have tore him three new assholes, and make him the stuff of memes.
The only reason this is taken remotely seriously is that N. dG. Tyson said it. Since he is famous, otherwise intelligent people will forget all they now of logic, science, and the world and go into full gushing mode. See, the problem is that being famous for something instills this odd belief that it makes one wise in all things. This is seldom the case.
Funny how being reflexively liberal gains vast positive moderation---even when it is not backed up and unfounded. Ok kids, lets play. Let's dissect this awful, thoughtless post using 3 minutes of internet searching or less
Comment 1: Mexicans are rapists:
Actually, Mexicans in the US are 3 times as likely to be rapists compared to their white counter part. Easily found in this document from the Department of Justice. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub...
Comment 2: Muslims are going to blow me up....
Do I really need to go there? Fish in a barrel are envious about easy this one is. I mean, you brought this up. But, since you asked, in the last 3 days, 157 attacks in 22 countries killing 1747 people. Number of, I don't know, choosing a country at random, Germans bombing others in same period.....0. Just saying'
http://www.thereligionofpeace....
I honestly won't touch the last once, since I really don't want to see the bestiality. sites, but but between you and me, I would not take that bet if I were you.
So, in a nut shell. This gets a 5 mod for being incorrect and supporting nothing. Nice job slashdot. Nice job.
I actually had vomit come up my throat when I read this. The amount of complete untruth and ignorance was bad...even for the current slashdot.
To say that Sotomayer is not but arch-liberal is beyond dishonest. Kagan actually published work that was pro-socialism http://dailycaller.com/wp-cont.... To call these two moderates is like calling the HULK mildly temperamental.
It's exactly this limited, short sighted, team-sport type thinking that is making the US and the world the mess it is in. People have ideology so far up their ass, that they can't judge or think straight. It doesn't matter if someone is unqualified or incorrect. For this sort of human filth, they will go to any length to make excuses and twisting reality to fight whatever petty agenda of the moment that they have. They just want their team to win. It is sickening.
Btw, Reagan appointed O'conner. He wanted a conservative. In practice, she was a moderate, conservative. To replace her with a conservative justice is not incongruent.
Did it occur to you that if you could recite the lines before they happened, maybe the force awakened in you while you were watching the film?
Hey everyone, my money is on this padiwan taking the gold in olympic fencing!
Your points would be fantastic, if any of them were true: 1. I live amongst more educated people: While many in California feel you are better than everyone else, the rankings say...not so much. Tenth worst, actually.
http://247wallst.com/special-r...
2. Most welfare mouths are in the midwest: Here is a list of the states with most welfare population compared to working population. 1. Ca 2. NM 3. HI 4. MI 5. Al 6. SC 7. IL 8. KT 9. Oh 10. NY. Now, two of those are midwest, and because IL and OH enjoy large, urban centers.
http://brandongaille.com/welfa...
3. Most are white: Slightly more welfare recipients are black compared to white (39.8 vs. 38.8) but, black people make up 13% and white are about 63 percent, to say most are white is such a torture of reality it borders on a sickness.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/...
4. The one you did get right is that most welfare people did not finish school. However, when you look at graduation rates, places that I am fairly sure you would say are "educated" i.e. coastal meccas, are not exactly nation beaters. Ca is middle at best and New York is near the bottom. Br> https://www.washingtonpost.com...
I know making such statements are cool in some circles, but facts and links make for stronger arguments, better policy, and more honest discussion. You simply can not fix problems without this. I for one, want to fix issues, not play blame games.
See, we have several posts about how Apple is a company, and like all companies, they want to avoid taxes. What makes this different is that Apple is so, so very....sanctimonious. They are in your face about social policies and other "liberal" issues. But, when it comes to paying or inconveniencing their business model, they seem to not be for all the stuff they advocate. With treasure on the line, they never, ever seem to do the right thing.
For example:
APPLE: Look at us, we are GREEN! Except, hey, lets not allow you to upgrade memory in an iMac so it it can be used for a few more years. Because there is NOTHING toxic in the process of the deposition processes to make micro-electronics, right?
To me, this hypocrisy makes them far worse than "unenlightened" companies that just flat out say, hey, we are in it for profit. With them, you can encourage change. But, when you hide behind the cloak of caring, it is far harder because few see the issues.
So, a liberal biased media source analyzed the effects of the recent dominance of liberal ideology on the world and found it to be hunky dory. In turn, a liberal biased forum site agrees. It is important to ignore the numerous stories posted on this site to the contrary.
In other new, a European media source decided that football/soccer was the best sport....
Imagine if, the smart slashdot readers applied their intelligence to things outside their technical careers.
Imagine if, instead of buying into reflexive ideology, that slashdot readers weighed all sides of an argument, to get to the truth.
Imagine if, the slashdot readers were not so intellectually cowardly, that they could read from multiple sources and perspectives.
Imagine if, the slashdot readers would have taken a three, to go to Foxnews, and see that there is not an article about millions people hordes protesting amazon and pillaging. In fact, there is no article at all.
Imagine if, slashdot readers could turn the same critical eye reserved only for foxiness, toward other sources such as the New York times and MSNBC. Imagine if, slashdot readers did not treat politics as a team sport, where one side is always good and the other is always bad. Instead, tried to see the the actors of life as they really are, not your teammate.
Or, Imagine if, slashdot once again because a forum of ideas, not ideology.
Imagine that.
There are many issues with WOW, but the greatest is the missing M. When i last logged into wow, I felt...lonely. No one talked to me. I really did not encounter anyone. There were people in Stormwind, but they could have all been NPCS for all I could tell. I no longer needed to group for quests. I did not need to ever talk to someone in an entire dungeon or raid. Wow no longer felt massive or multiplayer. This breaks my heart, and I will never forgive the people who did this.
This would be funny except Ron Paul had said:
"My understanding is that espionage means giving secret or classified information to the enemy. Since Snowden shared information with the American people, his indictment for espionage could reveal (or confirm) that the US Government views you and me as the enemy."
See, i am not even a stalwart Ron Paul guy, but I do respect him a political philosopher. The feel of the idea seemed off to me, so I did an entire 10 sec of Google searching to check. It is easy to hate and disparage others, because you were told to. It is harder not be a lap dog and think for yourself.
Its funny. A group of people saw this starting to happen in the U.S. too. They were terrified of the looming disaster of spending far more money than you take in, and merely wanted to limit spending to what we could actually afford. t
They even started a grass roots political movement to try to elect fiscally responsible people. Their reward? They have been demonized and character assassinated to the nth degree. They are accused of being NAZI's, racist, anti-this, and anti-that... They have even had the U.S. government personally attack their finances and businesses. All because they want a balanced budget and for people who make bad ecconomic decisions not to escape all the pain.
I am of course talking about the Tea Party, who history will show is right. Just like the collective wisdom of this forum and thread understands when it is talking about Greece, but seems to fail to grasp when talking about their own country.
It is easy to make fun of the Greeks, harder to judge your own actions.
As I read this article, I could instantly see how this looks just silly to people who populate the tech sector. It is easy to make snap judgements and laugh at the crazy, stupid, unwashed rubes living elsewhere. A wiser person would ask, "why do people in Texas feel the need to own, armor and heavy weapons? Is there something going on?
In a nut shell, people in Texas are scared. How would you feel if the Federal government were conducting war games in your state, for the express purpose of invading your ass if you get upidity? Ok, lets put it this way, remember all that awful rhetoric that rules the forums 10 years ago about how Bush was a NAZI and wanted to impose his views on you? How would you feel if he ACTUALLY then sent the U.S. army in to act out a scenario where California, Washington, and Oregon rebelled because they wanted more federal control over money, more liberal tax policies, and open borders? You see news reports about this, some blogs. You think it is crazy. Then, one day, you wake up to the awful sound of attack helicopters conducting a drill over your neighborhood. Yes, OMFG you would be crapping your pants and creating a shit-storm in the blogosphere....and you would be perfectly correct to do so.
The difference is that for all the rhetoric and sensationalizing, Bush never did such a thing. I doubt he even dreamed of it. On the other hand, Obama is conducting operation Jade Helm this summer. He HAS used the IRS to attack police enemies and change the election. He HAS threatened to shut down Texas airspace if the state passed an anti groping bill limiting the TSA from feeling up children. Admit it, under such an environment, no matter how rational you deem yourself, you would be nervous too.
The problem lies in the exaggeration of political views. In what should be a healthy debate over tax policy and building codes has turned into ball-sport where people think anyone who is not wearing your color of shirt deserves death. It is absurd. It is counter productive. It is destroying our civilization. Worse, it is very common here on good ol' slashdot. Ask yourself, have you said something like "I hate fox news?" or I hate Bush and republicans?" Hate is a very strong word. In fact, many enlightened liberals feel it is a crime. Why do you have such strong, murderous feelings over, someone who views the tax code differently than you. Isn't that a little extreme? You say you hate Fox news, and feel it is cool to say so? Why? Because you don't agree with all the viewpoints, and it challenges the narrative that you never do? Do you think the new sources you enjoy are really any less biased? Really?
I point this out because such thought is so common place on slashdot I find it heart breaking. When I first joined this forum, near 2000 it was a free and open forum where you were modded up by the strength of your argument and how well you defended it. Now, I have a troll moniker for simply not agreeing with destructive comments on the forums. If we are to survive as a society, we need to be intellectually honest. We need to face honest criticisms of our cherished beliefs with joy instead of hatred. In the crucible of conversation, we can arrive at better solutions. Living in an echo chamber or rage will lead to....
I am so tired of the knee jerk leftish bias that has infected the slashdot community moding up the most trivial of comments ---because it espouses some ill-defended agenda.
The status of the prisoners at Guantanamo bay IS a matter for serious debate. They are not being held for tax evasion, parking violations, or theft. So, please have the intellectual honesty to stop treating them in the same category as those in the local penitentiary. Being irregular troops (not using uniform or operating under the flag of a nation) , they are not strictly covered under the Geneva conventions. The honest truth is that they sit somewhere in-between.
Troops that are captured on the battle field do not receive a trial. They never have. It is part of war. Are these POWs? They problem then becomes, how do you release them if the war never ends? Historically, most wars do end, so the problem takes care of itself. This is an area of law and philosophy that needs to be worked out. This is done best not by twisting existing laws to comport to your own (often arbitrary) personal beliefs. It is done through a society large discussion about values and beliefs and logistics. None of that is going on in the above post.
Furthermore, the gaping whole in the "logic" of the original post needs to be pointed out. By most standards, the conditions in Guantanamo are far from horrible. I know the average brain-addles leftist has some perverse fantasy of a stark Gulag where prisoners are routinely shot for looking the wrong way. Reality is far from it. Most reports indicate that conditions are better than most federal prisons. There is ample opportunity for communal activity and even access to the internet. There is a soccer pitch where games are often held. Gulag my ass.Don't believe me, challenge yourself with a quick google search, and you find articles such as this.
In fact, the most serious human rights abused, from Amnesty International stem from the fact that prisoners are being held in the first place (silly), or more seriously, from the fact that there status is not well worked out, as discussed above. While I would certainly agree with most of slashdot that the current status is unacceptable and not a terribly good solution. I wish the Bush era drama-queens could come down to earth and help solve the problem in a sane, realistic manner, instead of just bashing authority figures for the sake of looking cool.
Again, I will take the bad Karma hit by championing truth over partizan politics.
For those outside the US, let me explain a few details that make this all misleading.
1. Although the recent elections heavily were in favor of the republicans, the change of power has not occurred yet. The democrats are still in charge of the senate. This means that they decide which bills are even allowed to be introduced. In fact, the democrats have been using this power quite effectively to block all sorts of republican sponsored legislation in the past several years. In order for the bill to be introduced, it had to have the blessing of the democrat majority leader.
,br> 2. The person who technically introduced the bill was a democrat.
3. It was true this vote, like so many votes recently went straight down party lines. Personally, I think this is an absolute tragedy and evil committed by both parties.
4. Many of the republicans who voted to stop the bill, believed that while change is needed, it was too sweeping. I fully appreciate any cynicism on this point, but in a healthy republic, this would be a valid, intelligent point. There really is a line between engulfing too much freedom (as is the case now) to leaving yourself too vulnerable in the harsh light of reality.
5. The democrats have had the power to push through any legislation they want, and could not be stopped for much of the last 8 years. If they really were champions of freedom, as is implied here, they could have done this earlier. Taking all this together, this is yet another gamesmanship type move to grasp power in the most cynical way. I have no patience for either party when they do this crap.
For those inside America, who claim to be smart (i.e. slashdot readers) this is all stuff you should know and should have pointed out, if you were intellectually honest at all. You are not, so I will take my negative mod, again.
When I read this, all I could think of was pre wwii Stalin Russia. When the dictator, Stalin, rose to power, he purged the military of its talented officers, because they were most likely to be able to mount an effective resistance to him. When WWII came, the Germans faced a very weak officer core, and were able to run over the Soviets fairly easily. It took an abnormally early winter to save them from that blunder.
/.
In an eerily similar fashion, many top US generals have been encouraged to resign in the last several years. Now, with the rise of ISIS, a newly expansionist Russia, and the spectra of a waking dragon, the US officer core is saying weather is our biggest threat.
Wake up and do the math
Personally, I would disagree with the Russian Federation's decision about how to view and treat gay people. However, the reflexive leftism and consequent lack of logic found yet again in modern slashdot really disturbs me The same group, who universally heralded the coming out of Tim Cook as a positive thing and helpful for society, is now stating that having prominent gay figures has no impact. I have to ask, how fucking intellectually dishonest are you? The logic of the Russian Federations government is sound, much for the same reason slashdot championed cook. It DOES matter that their are heroes and figures in key roles. It lends legitimacy to gayness. It makes it seem more normal. And yes, to the dumb-asses who so snidely quipped about gay be contagious, in a sociological way, yes, it absolutely is. If you have a society that suppresses gayness, guess what, you get less. If you have a society that is more open, then you will see more. Why? Because it is thought of as more normal. Those with impulses and curiosity will be more likely to try. I won't even get into the whole, "as a PC liberal, I believe that all cultures are equal and should be celebrated...except the when they disagree with me bullshit. Though, I should. Now, on slashdot, one would hope to find a higher level of discussion, such as, do societies that accept gayness maintain stability in the long term. Are their positive or negative economic consequences. Does it effect marriage and birth rates? These are all worthy questions worthy of exploration, and even fact finding. That would be a productive conversation to be had. This is the mental equivalent of saying, "cool story bro." Be better guys.
So, you are a libertarian that believes the fate of your money should be decided by others, and should be used by large government to fund incredibly expensive programs?
To quote Fezzik from the princess bride, "I don't think you know what that words means."
For those who are living in SF, good for you! It is a very beautiful city, and I enjoyed it when I lived there.
That said, I am not sure how this self congratulation piece actually passes for news on slashdot. It did not happen after some major breakthrough happened in the Bay area. There were no earth shattering events. In fact, the only thing of note is that it is Pi day, and I am fairly sure SF had little to do with that.
In fact, to say it is under a current Renaissance would be a horrible stretch. In fact, I am not sure an there has been anything of note that is new produced in the bay area in a decade. At best, you could claim that people who develop tech elsewhere, like to move to moderate climates when they get money. Remind which of those start-ups these 70 hour code monkeys that you are referring too actually amounted to anything?
As for enlightened? I know people in SF and who like to post on slashdot like to feel they are. But in reality, these "enlightened" philosophies are becoming increasingly exposed for the totalitarian darkness that they inevitably are. Wasn't there another article this weak about how Facebook (not created in SF, btw) wash shocked that the politicians of the "enlightened" actually were the Palpatinesque people behind the drones and NSA spying?
That great period in Italy brought us lasting art and philosophy. By comparison, 400 years from now, i see no equal achievements of such magnitude from the bay area.
Hmmm, I always looked at as half the country is listening to the facist line; fed to them through the filter of specious arguments of a stance as close to absolute fiction as can be delivered by a brainwashing mass media with an agenda.
See, I have delivered as much fact as you have in my statement. Except, I will be modded down since this is modern slashdot where untruths are propagated and rewarded as long as you are of the right religion, not based upon the quality of your arguments. Whether you agree with global warming or not, the above post HAS NO BUSINESS BEING ABOVE A ZERO. Be better slashdot. Be better.
The group think about digital rights on slashdot always makes me scratch my head. As near as I can tell, people on these forums are upset that authors of content wish to profit from their content, and not just give it away. Anyone who comes up with a way to secure content or use it, is considered to be something close to the anti-christ, or worse. IE, you feel you should have movies, music, and books for free.
Take the other slashdot groupthink darling, Serenity. On these forums it is considered to be one of the culminations of human story telling. To make this grand work of art, it took hundreds of people and cost $40,000,000 to make. Now, on slashdot we take it as an article of faith this was sci fi at its best. There are 3.5 million monthly readers on slashdot, and we know from these forums every poster has a girlfriend/significant other. At $10 a ticket this means that Serenity should have made $70,000,000 from zealous slash dotters alone. However, it only grossed $25.5 million.
WTF
This masterpiece of fiction, this creme de la creme actually lost money.
So, less than 1/3 of all slash dotters went to the theatre and paid money? Yet, from the posts here we KNOW more than 1/3 have seen it. Which is sadly funny considering that these forums are against content providers actually charging for their content. In effect, we can conclude that most slashdot readers are selfish bastards who want other people to donate their time to you for your benefit.
So, my question to the community is, how much of your professional time and life do you donate for free?