I see what you mean. Show Anakin and Amidala together, affectionate with each other, but also show both denying Anakin as the father. Leave it up in the air. Then have Amidala whisper a secret to Obi-Wan right before she dies, something the audience sees but doesn't hear. For this to work, there would need to be a falling out between Anakin and Amidala. She'd need to take up with someone else. This would require another reason for Anakin to fall to the dark side. That's fine, since the weakest part of I-III is Anakin's fall. Poor old George just doesn't have a handle on what draws people to evil. Jealousy always works for me as a way out of this. Jealousy and envy are more easily understood by an audience anyway. Make the whole thing much more emotionally complex. Even a girl in middle school has more complexity in her emotional life than Anakin did. Throw in a continuing investigation by Master Windu into Anakin's actions on Tatooine, and Sidious becomes a way out for Anakin. He can destroy his enemies and gain supremacy through secret Sith teachings. This would make II and III just as dark as ESB, darker. And doesn't that make sense, given how evil the Sith were? The takeover of Sidious is the fictional equivalent of a Nazi victory in WW2.
The public debate over global warming is taking on the same rationality as the debate over teaching evolution. Opponents of the science use the same techniques. Take a statement out of context. Use a false example as an attempt to invalidate years of sound scientific work. Create a straw man and then set it on fire. Buy or rent the DVD of "An Inconvenient Truth," watch it all, watch the update at the end, then come back here and refute, with hard science, not assertion, every point in the DVD. Then I might take you seriously. Any complex system will always throw up interesting anomalies. We judge evolutionary theory from the vast amount of evidence for it, not whether a particular conjecture about the evolution of the eye is especially compelling.
Actions speak louder than words. Actions speak louder than faith. Right now I'm of the opinion that not too many fundamentalists are in heaven. It's crowded with firemen and more than a few atheists. Plus a lot of pagans, Buddhists, and lapsed Catholics. Schindler was a womanizing unbeliever and he's gotta be in heaven. It has something to do with self-sacrifice and service to others - and not telling little kids they're all bound for hell.
Our friend Mr. Evolution actually created those, and elephants the size of dogs. I kid you not. Weird things happen to creatures stranded on islands. Sometimes they get really large (the Dodo), sometimes they get really small (tiny elephants and hippos). Unfortunately for those pet lovers out there, our distant ancestors found these island species and ate them all. Kinda reminds me of Futurama and the last can of sardines.
I was a college history and geography instructor. The department standards for teaching these courses emphasized term papers or research papers of one sort or another, which was becoming a problem as early as 1998 (when I finished my degree and began to teach). Almost every student cheated on these papers by either copying them from a web site or swiping stuff directly from the encyclopedia programs on their PCs. Like I'm an idiot, I could tell. The cheaters (or plagiarists) were given a choice, get an F for the paper, or doing it over again. They always chose to do it over again. This got old very quickly. So I broke the rules. No more research papers, term papers, or any other prepared materials. Essay tests ruled my world. Sometimes I took a page from one of my old math teachers, and gave them the subject of the essay and permission to bring one page of notes with them to the test. After getting a little heat from the department for only giving essay tests or short answer tests, I added presentations to the requirement. A student had to make a presentation to the class and stand for questioning afterwards.
These were all introductory courses. How I'd manage an advanced course where research papers would be a necessary, I don't know. Perhaps I'd require each student to submit an initial bibliography, an outline, partial draft, and only then a final draft. That's a hell of a lot of work for me, though. But just asking for a paper without any structure to prevent cheating is like leaving a laptop on a restaurant table while going to the bathroom. And you're surprised it's gone when you get back?
The most revealing comment on Vegas and gambling was in, oddly enough, a Travel Channel special on cheaters in Vegas. They interviewed a casino security consultant, who said straight out: "If you're winning, you're cheating." If you are not cheating, you are going to lose. It's not possible to win. Gambling really, really, really is a sucker's game.
I always found the information put up on the blackboard (or the overhead projector, gads how I hate those things) to be of equal or greater value than the words coming out of the professor's mouth. Besides, about 30% of the time, the professor was either older or had such a thick accent that his speech was hard to follow.
Please don't confuse the historical meaning of the word "Progressive" with its contemporary political usage. The term has a fairly exact historical meaning and describes a specific political and social movement in American politics. Political reform, the conservation movement, the protection of consumers, and the restraint of corporate power were the central elements of the Progressive Movement. TR was a progressive. He proposed or supported legislation in each of these areas. There's no getting around it. Any serious American historian will tell you that both political parties during this era (from the end of the Civil War to World War I) had their progressive wings. The first post in this thread got it right.
You made two mistakes. First, you want to impose your own ideas onto the past, rather than understand the past. Second, you wish to overly simplify the past. Believe me, the Progressive Era (or the first century AD, or medieval Europe) was just as complicated, the politics just as confusing, as it is today. Humans are complicated creatures, no matter where or when you find them. The progressives were united by their common desire to see reform and fairness in American life. How this might be accomplished ran the entire spectrum, from more conservative individuals who only wanted to tinker around at the edges, to those who wanted to overthrow the entire system. Nothing in human history is simple enough to fit inside your black and white world view. Maybe you should add a little color to your thoughts.
We're talking real versus ideal, unless you know the names of the animal rights extremists. If you do, rat 'em out and the guy stays in southern California. If you don't, maybe you ought to think about other options for the man. This isn't even a complete solution, as women with obsessive ex-husbands can attest to. If they want him badly enough, they'll find him no matter where he is. However, since the activities of this group (or collection of groups) seem to be geographically limited, it's possible moving to another area of the country might end the threat. Let's see, Einstein stays in Germany, gets killed; moves to the USA, speaks his mind. Martin Luther, similar situation. Erasmus, similar situation. Dante, similar situation. None of this would have happened in an ideal world. But, guess what, we don't live in an ideal world. Sometimes there's only one choice: get the hell out of Dodge. If you don't, they'll kill you. Live free of fear in one place, live in fear in another. How would you choose?
Animal research takes place at almost every university in the USA. The animal rights extremists seem to be active in only three or four locations. If the guy wants to continue his research, there are dozens of universities in the Plains states, the Western states, and in the South that would love to have this guy. He could write his own ticket. There are privacy techniques that can limit the ability of his enemies to find his new home. Move. If it's the work that counts, the location doesn't really matter much.
This racism crap always gets in the way of a serious discussion on immigration. Large-scale immigration of low-skills workers into the USA depresses the wages of lower-income Americans, even affects their ability to find work. Illegal immigration is a terrible dilemma, for most illegals only want to better themselves, yet they do so to the detriment of American workers and the American economy. I'm selfish, I want us to look out for our own people first. American citizens and legal immigrants are my first concern. I have no problem with legal immigrants; I have no problem with integrating illegal immigrants into our economy over a five or ten year period. But there have to be controls on how many people can come in at any one time and how they got here. It's one thing to have open borders for everyone when the population is only a few million; it's another when our population is 300 million. Lastly, to quote a famous punk band: "All Nazi skinheads can f**k off!" Please make the appropriate gesture in their faces as they leave.
You like elitism because it's worked out so well in the past. Let's take a poll to see how the elites feel about it. How do the nomenklatura who ruled the Soviet Union feel about it? Whoops, they're gone. How about French aristocrats? Whoops, they lost their heads! How about the revolutionary elites who replaced them? They lost their heads, too! We should ask the British aristocrats, except they gave up real power during parliamentary reforms in the nineteenth century. How about the Five Good Emperors? They chose the most able successor, except the last one, supposedly the smartest one, Mr. Marcus Aurelius gave the empire to his twisted son. Every time an elitist society arises, it takes as its goal the continuation of its elite status, not the good of the people. Guess what? Bush wouldn't even be president if 18 to 24 year olds had voted at the same percentage as their elders. So not participating gave Bush the election. As to Kansas, who's to blame: the people who fall for the lie or the liars?
I wonder what the results would have been if the interviewers had revealed that al Qaeda long ago gave up using telecommunications. They use human messengers. They switched, according to news reports based on CIA sources, after their number four guy was caught in Pakistan after using a cell phone. So who, exactly, is the Bush Administration trying to catch with this program?
Like I said, disingenuous. Your entire supposition is erroneous. I doubt very much if the public at large made any distinction between the "...I approved this ad..." spots and those nuking Kerry. You also ignore the basic premise of the Bush campaign: "Elect Kerry and die." Evidence linking the swift boat veterans to the Bush campaign was revealed at the time of the election. It was revealed in April 2004 in the national press that the founder of the organization had deep ties to the Bush White House. Just to be non-partisan about it all, moveon.org's claims to be completely independent also rang a little false. It's a gimmick, get it? Did you not attend even one American History class? This technique is as old as American politics. Keep the candidate above the fray, all noble and nice, while his hit men rain fecal material down on the opponent. What's more interesting is what happened to the swift boat guys when they tried the same tactic on the AARP during the Social Security debate in 2005. They had their asses handed to them. AARP fought back with smart, aggressive TV spots. Negative ad campaigns win when they aren't addressed by the opposing camp, and dealt with immediately. That was Kerry's mistake (one of many). Back on topic now. If I were Dell, I'd jump all over these new Apple ads. They are filled with errors, the biggest being that Macs aren't a target of malware. However, I have seen the first of these ads tonight while watching The Discovery Channel (the show about Alaskan crab fishermen stifles any whining about my life before it comes out of my mouth). It's very mild, it could hardly be called an attack ad at all. About American election tactics, go read a book. About Macs and PCs, they're both great, buy what you want. The new ads from Apple? So far they're innocuous. This all I've got to say. I'm outta here.
Please look up the word disingenuous. Let us not forget the swiftboat veterans, the attack ads, the fear-mongering, and the general negative tone of the Bush campaign and its allies. If you can't, if you genuinely believe Kerry was the dirty one, I recommend Aricept, one pill a day at bedtime.
Back to the topic at hand, Apple's negative ads. This is new? Apple's been doing this for as long as I can remember. Here's a funny story. Years ago when the G3 came out, a buddy invited me over to show off his brand new G3. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Macintosh_G3_% 28Blue_%26_White%29) He had been going on for days on its reliability, its power, yada, yada, yada. I get there, we go in to look at his famous new machine, he boots it, it freezes. He boots up, it freezes. He boots up, it freezes. He boots up, it freezes! By the time he finally gets a stable boot, I'm rolling on the floor. Please use the hardware and operating system you are comfortable with. Tune things up until they run well. Other than that, happy computing.
American patent and copyright laws were created to foster innnovation by allowing the authors and inventors to prosper from their work. This isn't a matter for speculation, as the US Constitution demonstrates: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." It's been a while since I read Jefferson's works, but I do believe he echoed these ideas. Wikipedia's nice article on the subject even points out that the French class copyrights under "Rights of the Author." Though we'd all like to live in an X-Files universe, not everything was created in a conspiracy to screw over the human race. That good intentions lead to muddled results over time is the more likely scenario.
No kidding. I first learned about programming from a cardboard computer. It was a computer science learning set for high school students whose schools couldn't afford the early PCs or minicomputers (not the same thing - I am referring to ancient history, the late 1970s). You'd learn hardware and programming basics from the booklets, then "program" this cardboard thing. It looked like a tiny flat IBM 360, but it was slide rule. An answer would be displayed. I gotta tell you, it had very limited usefulness. However, I did understand the basics of computing when I finished the materials. My science teacher encouraged me to write to various computer companies asking for learning materials. We received a pile of books, from early PC stuff to manuals for programming the PDP-8, the PDP-11, the Vax, and using VMS. I was fondest of DEC because they sent the most stuff. It's easier and more fun to learn on an actual computer, but cardboard can suffice in an emergency.
Instead of talking about international communications, terrorism, and legalities, let's talk about a neighborhood. There are lots of people doing lots of things in the neighborhood: going to work, raising families, minding their own business. Something bad happens in the neighborhood. A crack house is established and gangsters have a shootout, killing several innocent people. The good people of the neighborhood, with the cops, close down the crack house. But there's a chance the gangsters might come back; the neighborhood and the cops set up a watch program to keep an eye on the vacant crack house and known gangsters. It works, but the fear of their return has not gone away. One old man, obsessed with keeping the neighborhood safe, keeps a telescope focused on the crack house. When he reports suspicious characters around the crack house, no one minds. He's keeping them safe. One day he realizes he might not be catching all the suspected gangsters at the crack house, he starts writing down the tag numbers on all cars who drive by the crack house. The crack house used to be the justification for reporting people to the police. Not anymore. He starts keeping track of the cars and people on the same block as the crack house. Then a two block area around the crack house. Then a four block area around the crack house. The old man eventually has information on every resident of the neighborhood. The local police are flooded with meaningless information. Not one person in the neighborhood can set foot outside without being reported by the old man. They live in fear of him. Instead of freeing the neighborhood from fear, a new fear is introduced to replace the old one: fear of the old man.
That's why we have a Bill of Rights, something the head of the NSA, judging from his comments at a news conference recently, has never read. Give it a read, why don't you?
THE FOURTH AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION, ADOPTED 1791
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
I passed your comments on to the Kansas Board of Education members. If you'd like to tell them what you think, here are their email addresses (minor precautions taken to avoid spammers):
These addresses were published in Kansas newspapers several months ago, when the controversy started. Please no hate mail. Just tell them how you think this will hurt the state of Kansas.
Slashdot Mirror
I see what you mean. Show Anakin and Amidala together, affectionate with each other, but also show both denying Anakin as the father. Leave it up in the air. Then have Amidala whisper a secret to Obi-Wan right before she dies, something the audience sees but doesn't hear. For this to work, there would need to be a falling out between Anakin and Amidala. She'd need to take up with someone else. This would require another reason for Anakin to fall to the dark side. That's fine, since the weakest part of I-III is Anakin's fall. Poor old George just doesn't have a handle on what draws people to evil. Jealousy always works for me as a way out of this. Jealousy and envy are more easily understood by an audience anyway. Make the whole thing much more emotionally complex. Even a girl in middle school has more complexity in her emotional life than Anakin did. Throw in a continuing investigation by Master Windu into Anakin's actions on Tatooine, and Sidious becomes a way out for Anakin. He can destroy his enemies and gain supremacy through secret Sith teachings. This would make II and III just as dark as ESB, darker. And doesn't that make sense, given how evil the Sith were? The takeover of Sidious is the fictional equivalent of a Nazi victory in WW2.
The public debate over global warming is taking on the same rationality as the debate over teaching evolution. Opponents of the science use the same techniques. Take a statement out of context. Use a false example as an attempt to invalidate years of sound scientific work. Create a straw man and then set it on fire. Buy or rent the DVD of "An Inconvenient Truth," watch it all, watch the update at the end, then come back here and refute, with hard science, not assertion, every point in the DVD. Then I might take you seriously. Any complex system will always throw up interesting anomalies. We judge evolutionary theory from the vast amount of evidence for it, not whether a particular conjecture about the evolution of the eye is especially compelling.
Bodhisattva rule! Sorry. That concept is just one of the reasons why Buddhism makes number two on my list of the ten best religions of all time.
Actions speak louder than words. Actions speak louder than faith. Right now I'm of the opinion that not too many fundamentalists are in heaven. It's crowded with firemen and more than a few atheists. Plus a lot of pagans, Buddhists, and lapsed Catholics. Schindler was a womanizing unbeliever and he's gotta be in heaven. It has something to do with self-sacrifice and service to others - and not telling little kids they're all bound for hell.
So we've got battle droids now. When can we expect delivery of the Jedi Knights?
Not so much humanity, but it does restore my faith in robots. Is it just me, or did anyone else recall R2D2's trip across the desert in STAR WARS?
Our friend Mr. Evolution actually created those, and elephants the size of dogs. I kid you not. Weird things happen to creatures stranded on islands. Sometimes they get really large (the Dodo), sometimes they get really small (tiny elephants and hippos). Unfortunately for those pet lovers out there, our distant ancestors found these island species and ate them all. Kinda reminds me of Futurama and the last can of sardines.
To heck with that. What I want to know is, where's my lightsaber? That and a rebreather mask and I'm set. Oh yeah, I need a son named Luke.
I was a college history and geography instructor. The department standards for teaching these courses emphasized term papers or research papers of one sort or another, which was becoming a problem as early as 1998 (when I finished my degree and began to teach). Almost every student cheated on these papers by either copying them from a web site or swiping stuff directly from the encyclopedia programs on their PCs. Like I'm an idiot, I could tell. The cheaters (or plagiarists) were given a choice, get an F for the paper, or doing it over again. They always chose to do it over again. This got old very quickly. So I broke the rules. No more research papers, term papers, or any other prepared materials. Essay tests ruled my world. Sometimes I took a page from one of my old math teachers, and gave them the subject of the essay and permission to bring one page of notes with them to the test. After getting a little heat from the department for only giving essay tests or short answer tests, I added presentations to the requirement. A student had to make a presentation to the class and stand for questioning afterwards.
These were all introductory courses. How I'd manage an advanced course where research papers would be a necessary, I don't know. Perhaps I'd require each student to submit an initial bibliography, an outline, partial draft, and only then a final draft. That's a hell of a lot of work for me, though. But just asking for a paper without any structure to prevent cheating is like leaving a laptop on a restaurant table while going to the bathroom. And you're surprised it's gone when you get back?
The most revealing comment on Vegas and gambling was in, oddly enough, a Travel Channel special on cheaters in Vegas. They interviewed a casino security consultant, who said straight out: "If you're winning, you're cheating." If you are not cheating, you are going to lose. It's not possible to win. Gambling really, really, really is a sucker's game.
I always found the information put up on the blackboard (or the overhead projector, gads how I hate those things) to be of equal or greater value than the words coming out of the professor's mouth. Besides, about 30% of the time, the professor was either older or had such a thick accent that his speech was hard to follow.
Please don't confuse the historical meaning of the word "Progressive" with its contemporary political usage. The term has a fairly exact historical meaning and describes a specific political and social movement in American politics. Political reform, the conservation movement, the protection of consumers, and the restraint of corporate power were the central elements of the Progressive Movement. TR was a progressive. He proposed or supported legislation in each of these areas. There's no getting around it. Any serious American historian will tell you that both political parties during this era (from the end of the Civil War to World War I) had their progressive wings. The first post in this thread got it right.
You made two mistakes. First, you want to impose your own ideas onto the past, rather than understand the past. Second, you wish to overly simplify the past. Believe me, the Progressive Era (or the first century AD, or medieval Europe) was just as complicated, the politics just as confusing, as it is today. Humans are complicated creatures, no matter where or when you find them. The progressives were united by their common desire to see reform and fairness in American life. How this might be accomplished ran the entire spectrum, from more conservative individuals who only wanted to tinker around at the edges, to those who wanted to overthrow the entire system. Nothing in human history is simple enough to fit inside your black and white world view. Maybe you should add a little color to your thoughts.
I know I'm being just the biggest Star Trek nerd ever, but isn't it "No kill I"?
My God, Jim, it's a nitpicker!
We're talking real versus ideal, unless you know the names of the animal rights extremists. If you do, rat 'em out and the guy stays in southern California. If you don't, maybe you ought to think about other options for the man. This isn't even a complete solution, as women with obsessive ex-husbands can attest to. If they want him badly enough, they'll find him no matter where he is. However, since the activities of this group (or collection of groups) seem to be geographically limited, it's possible moving to another area of the country might end the threat. Let's see, Einstein stays in Germany, gets killed; moves to the USA, speaks his mind. Martin Luther, similar situation. Erasmus, similar situation. Dante, similar situation. None of this would have happened in an ideal world. But, guess what, we don't live in an ideal world. Sometimes there's only one choice: get the hell out of Dodge. If you don't, they'll kill you. Live free of fear in one place, live in fear in another. How would you choose?
Animal research takes place at almost every university in the USA. The animal rights extremists seem to be active in only three or four locations. If the guy wants to continue his research, there are dozens of universities in the Plains states, the Western states, and in the South that would love to have this guy. He could write his own ticket. There are privacy techniques that can limit the ability of his enemies to find his new home. Move. If it's the work that counts, the location doesn't really matter much.
This racism crap always gets in the way of a serious discussion on immigration. Large-scale immigration of low-skills workers into the USA depresses the wages of lower-income Americans, even affects their ability to find work. Illegal immigration is a terrible dilemma, for most illegals only want to better themselves, yet they do so to the detriment of American workers and the American economy. I'm selfish, I want us to look out for our own people first. American citizens and legal immigrants are my first concern. I have no problem with legal immigrants; I have no problem with integrating illegal immigrants into our economy over a five or ten year period. But there have to be controls on how many people can come in at any one time and how they got here. It's one thing to have open borders for everyone when the population is only a few million; it's another when our population is 300 million. Lastly, to quote a famous punk band: "All Nazi skinheads can f**k off!" Please make the appropriate gesture in their faces as they leave.
You like elitism because it's worked out so well in the past. Let's take a poll to see how the elites feel about it. How do the nomenklatura who ruled the Soviet Union feel about it? Whoops, they're gone. How about French aristocrats? Whoops, they lost their heads! How about the revolutionary elites who replaced them? They lost their heads, too! We should ask the British aristocrats, except they gave up real power during parliamentary reforms in the nineteenth century. How about the Five Good Emperors? They chose the most able successor, except the last one, supposedly the smartest one, Mr. Marcus Aurelius gave the empire to his twisted son. Every time an elitist society arises, it takes as its goal the continuation of its elite status, not the good of the people. Guess what? Bush wouldn't even be president if 18 to 24 year olds had voted at the same percentage as their elders. So not participating gave Bush the election. As to Kansas, who's to blame: the people who fall for the lie or the liars?
I wonder what the results would have been if the interviewers had revealed that al Qaeda long ago gave up using telecommunications. They use human messengers. They switched, according to news reports based on CIA sources, after their number four guy was caught in Pakistan after using a cell phone. So who, exactly, is the Bush Administration trying to catch with this program?
I vote for anchors. There's the entertainment factor to consider.
Like I said, disingenuous. Your entire supposition is erroneous. I doubt very much if the public at large made any distinction between the "...I approved this ad..." spots and those nuking Kerry. You also ignore the basic premise of the Bush campaign: "Elect Kerry and die." Evidence linking the swift boat veterans to the Bush campaign was revealed at the time of the election. It was revealed in April 2004 in the national press that the founder of the organization had deep ties to the Bush White House. Just to be non-partisan about it all, moveon.org's claims to be completely independent also rang a little false. It's a gimmick, get it? Did you not attend even one American History class? This technique is as old as American politics. Keep the candidate above the fray, all noble and nice, while his hit men rain fecal material down on the opponent. What's more interesting is what happened to the swift boat guys when they tried the same tactic on the AARP during the Social Security debate in 2005. They had their asses handed to them. AARP fought back with smart, aggressive TV spots. Negative ad campaigns win when they aren't addressed by the opposing camp, and dealt with immediately. That was Kerry's mistake (one of many). Back on topic now. If I were Dell, I'd jump all over these new Apple ads. They are filled with errors, the biggest being that Macs aren't a target of malware. However, I have seen the first of these ads tonight while watching The Discovery Channel (the show about Alaskan crab fishermen stifles any whining about my life before it comes out of my mouth). It's very mild, it could hardly be called an attack ad at all. About American election tactics, go read a book. About Macs and PCs, they're both great, buy what you want. The new ads from Apple? So far they're innocuous. This all I've got to say. I'm outta here.
Please look up the word disingenuous. Let us not forget the swiftboat veterans, the attack ads, the fear-mongering, and the general negative tone of the Bush campaign and its allies. If you can't, if you genuinely believe Kerry was the dirty one, I recommend Aricept, one pill a day at bedtime.
% 28Blue_%26_White%29) He had been going on for days on its reliability, its power, yada, yada, yada. I get there, we go in to look at his famous new machine, he boots it, it freezes. He boots up, it freezes. He boots up, it freezes. He boots up, it freezes! By the time he finally gets a stable boot, I'm rolling on the floor. Please use the hardware and operating system you are comfortable with. Tune things up until they run well. Other than that, happy computing.
Back to the topic at hand, Apple's negative ads. This is new? Apple's been doing this for as long as I can remember. Here's a funny story. Years ago when the G3 came out, a buddy invited me over to show off his brand new G3. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Macintosh_G3_
American patent and copyright laws were created to foster innnovation by allowing the authors and inventors to prosper from their work. This isn't a matter for speculation, as the US Constitution demonstrates:
"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." It's been a while since I read Jefferson's works, but I do believe he echoed these ideas. Wikipedia's nice article on the subject even points out that the French class copyrights under "Rights of the Author." Though we'd all like to live in an X-Files universe, not everything was created in a conspiracy to screw over the human race. That good intentions lead to muddled results over time is the more likely scenario.
No kidding. I first learned about programming from a cardboard computer. It was a computer science learning set for high school students whose schools couldn't afford the early PCs or minicomputers (not the same thing - I am referring to ancient history, the late 1970s). You'd learn hardware and programming basics from the booklets, then "program" this cardboard thing. It looked like a tiny flat IBM 360, but it was slide rule. An answer would be displayed. I gotta tell you, it had very limited usefulness. However, I did understand the basics of computing when I finished the materials. My science teacher encouraged me to write to various computer companies asking for learning materials. We received a pile of books, from early PC stuff to manuals for programming the PDP-8, the PDP-11, the Vax, and using VMS. I was fondest of DEC because they sent the most stuff. It's easier and more fun to learn on an actual computer, but cardboard can suffice in an emergency.
Instead of talking about international communications, terrorism, and legalities, let's talk about a neighborhood. There are lots of people doing lots of things in the neighborhood: going to work, raising families, minding their own business. Something bad happens in the neighborhood. A crack house is established and gangsters have a shootout, killing several innocent people. The good people of the neighborhood, with the cops, close down the crack house. But there's a chance the gangsters might come back; the neighborhood and the cops set up a watch program to keep an eye on the vacant crack house and known gangsters. It works, but the fear of their return has not gone away. One old man, obsessed with keeping the neighborhood safe, keeps a telescope focused on the crack house. When he reports suspicious characters around the crack house, no one minds. He's keeping them safe. One day he realizes he might not be catching all the suspected gangsters at the crack house, he starts writing down the tag numbers on all cars who drive by the crack house. The crack house used to be the justification for reporting people to the police. Not anymore. He starts keeping track of the cars and people on the same block as the crack house. Then a two block area around the crack house. Then a four block area around the crack house. The old man eventually has information on every resident of the neighborhood. The local police are flooded with meaningless information. Not one person in the neighborhood can set foot outside without being reported by the old man. They live in fear of him. Instead of freeing the neighborhood from fear, a new fear is introduced to replace the old one: fear of the old man.
That's why we have a Bill of Rights, something the head of the NSA, judging from his comments at a news conference recently, has never read. Give it a read, why don't you?
THE FOURTH AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION, ADOPTED 1791
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
I passed your comments on to the Kansas Board of Education members. If you'd like to tell them what you think, here are their email addresses (minor precautions taken to avoid spammers):
jwaugh1052-at-aol.com
jwmsbacon-at-aol.com
msgamble-at-swbell.net
bill.wagnon-at-washburn.edu
conniemorris2010-at-yahoo.com
wyattsalina-at-aol.com
martinkathy-at-yahoo.com
krw-at-ourtownusa.net
carolrupe-at-hotmail.com
vanmeter-at-terraworld.net
sabrams-at-hit.net
These addresses were published in Kansas newspapers several months ago, when the controversy started. Please no hate mail. Just tell them how you think this will hurt the state of Kansas.