Cynicism is a philosphical school, ergo "mindless cynic" is an oxymoron, though since Orwell is the subject, perhaps "double think" would be a better term for it.
"militarily armed-to-the-teeth, imperialist, and protectionist friends have done well economically under neo-liberalism"
This is an outstanding example of the mindless repetition of slogans replacing thought that I'm protesting with the assinine political slogan in my sig line.
Do not confuse Libitarian ideas with Anarchist ideas. Anarchists do not beleave that a government should exist, while Libertarians consider an objective government to be essential in protecting rights.
No man has the right to another man's properity. If there is a dispute between me and the bank regarding funds then that dispute should be settled by objective laws that are only concerned with establishing ownership of the disputed funds, not my "need" or the banks "need".
"The UK has far more employment rights than the US has. also the right to medical treatment."
Forcing someone to hire you or keep you employed is not a "right". It's a violation of another persons right not to employ you if they don't want to. Forcing someone to pay for your medical care is not a "right", it's a violation of another persons right not to pay for your medical care.
The failure to understand that there is no such thing as a "right" to force another person to perform an action that is advantagous to yourself is the reason real rights are being erroded on both sides of the Atlantic.
LOL, Isn't Canada still a British Colony under UK Crypto laws? I Mean as long as we are dealing with out of date information why not use real out of date info.
The regulations that caused the problems you mentioned are no longer in effect, and haven't been for about two years.
Marketing and CDs are what killed the Concepts. MTV is just one of the forms of the marketing.
The Concepts were far harder to produce, It was always harder to make a quality product that was 40 minutes long (LP play time) than a couple of 3 to 4 minute tracks. The Longer play time of a CD made it even harder.
Concepts gobbled studio time. Songs were recirded over and over seeking just the right sound to get the sound that was needed for that smooth transition from one song to the next. Concept CDs would have required even more time.
The RIAA opted for a cheaper product (their costs, not yours) and to spend the money on marketing like MTV videos and payola. Quality gave the bands too much control over the product, marketing gives the RIAA control.
So now we have heavly marketed CDs that are little more than a single with a lot of filler tracks, and formula bands where you have a dozen sound a likes recording a "Rap" formula CD or a "Heavy Metal" formula CD, or a whatever the hell else formula the RIAA's market research tells them might be hot.
Meanwhile the fans are saying "fuck this shit", and the RIAA is blaming MP3s instead of realizing that their marketing scam is falling apart.
Well I am the old fart who remembers the music of the late 60s and early 70s when it was new.
The best albums of the era were Concept Albums, a unified product, each track set up the next song. Some of the Albums were a Musical story, with each song as a chapter of the story. You could buy singles that had a hit song from the album, but few people wanted the single, because the rest of the album enhanced that song making it part of the experance.
One area that CDs can't compete with those old LPs is the cover art. The covers were huge compared to the size of a jewel case and the graphic artists took advantage of size creating covers that were works of art capable of standing on their own, apart from the album.
This is something the idiots at the RIAA need to get through their thick skulls. It is possible to create Albums (or CDs) that are so good that people won't give a shit about a pale imitation like a single in 1972 or a couple of MP3 tracks in 2002.
Before about 1967 albums were just a collection of songs of assorted quality. Then the Bands introduced the concept album, and these albums damn near destroyed the market for Rock singles.
Now we have returned to the style that existed prior to 1967. Most CDs are just a collection of songs with no unifiying theme, and often the quality is so spotty that there is only a track or two worth listening to. Now that the concept albums of the late 60s early 70s are dead the market for the singles that they killed has revived, this time in the form of MP3s.
Ziggy is one of the better concept albums from that era. Try it and you'll see how the the RIAA could cut into their "Piracy" problem, by releasing an album that is so damn good that it's still worth buying 30 years after it was recorded.
1. Wahibism is an Islamic sect and is about 200 years old, the extreamist version of Wahibism practiced by the Talibandits and Al Qaeda is about 75 years old. Neither of these sects is part of the type of Sunni Islam that is part of the traditional culture of Afghanistan and the majority of the Islamic world.
2. The extreamists make a regular habit of denouncing Western culture as Evil, Materalistic, Greedy, Godless, and many other insulting terms. I await your denouncal of mideastern superiority, but won't be holding my breath.
3. Treating Women as Chattel, Mutulating criminals and persucuting religous minorities is abhorant, and I don't give a damn if it's part of their culture, I'll continue to denounce abhorant practices in the strongest terms. Excusing this because of "culture" would be like excusing a revival of slavery and burning witches as returning to western culture's traditional values.
"I find that unlikely - for example, al-Queda are reputed to have trafficked heroin to fund their operations, but the Taleban were busily destroying poppy fields as being un-Islamic."
Wrong. Al Qaeda is mainly financed by OBL and his supporters in Saudi Arabia. The Taliban were the ones dealing in Opium (not Herion) and the destruction of the poppy fields was in exchange for argicultural development money from the UN. They didn't destroy their stockpiles of Opium however, which dosen't say much for their belief that opium selling was unislamic.
"The players in this game are the US government and al-Queda - the Taleban are victims"
Al Qaeda, (the Base)is a group of organizations, one of which happened to be the Taliban. Al Qaeda was the de facto ruler of Afghanistn. Calling the Taliban a victim in this war is as absurd as claiming the SS were victims in a power dispute between the Nazi Party and the UK.
They are proud of being "paramilirary" and don't consider it derogatory. When I refer to the Talibandits as "Talibandits" is the part they would consider "derogatory"
Try being a member of a PARAMILITARY group that is engaged in warfare with the US. If the little traitor had limited his actions to political support of the Taliban regime, he wouldn't have been charged.
The Talibandit "offer" mirrored a similar "offer" to turn OBL over after proof was supplied that he was involved in an attack on a US Navy ship. The Talibandits turned the information over to OBL, allow him to discover that his satelite phone was being montered, and cutting off a means of gathering information on Al Qaeda actions.
As for the US sitting up the Talibandit regime, they were formed AFTER the USA ended involvement in Afghanistan. They overthrew the people we supported during the Soviet War.
They can copied for around 30k. There is a thriving market for Cobra replicas, but it just isn't the same to a collector, so the price isn't affected. Can't get away with a counterfit either, the Shelby club has detailed records for every one that was produced.
" People seem to love picking on China because it's got the label "Communist" in it's name."
Do I hear a Pot calling a Kettle black?
If the Chinese government acted EXACTLY the same way it does now, but relabeled itself the National Socalist Chinese Empire, and replaced "the prolatariat" in it's propaganda with "the Chinese race", the most ardent defenders of the Chicoms would become it's harshest critics, denouncing the same policies they defend today.
Uterly predictable, an clueless attack at Wal-mart. Wal-mart has the RIGHT to carry or not carry any legal products they wish for whatever reason they wish. They know their customers far better than any self appointed elitist, and if they feel a product will offend their customers then not carrying it only makes sense.
The types of media that Wal-mart chooses not to carry dosen't bother me, but some find it very offensive. Do we hear the same outcry because Wal-mart's policy also bans Racist material? No, the same type of people who decry Wal-mart for not carrying some soft porn tripe, would be up in arms if they opened their stores to selling anything and carried Neo-Nazi newspapers along side of the same materials they bitch that Wal-mart dosen't carry now.
I Have never disputed that the RIAA "Losses to piracy" figures are wildly inflated. When you are on a P2P network you think nothing of saying I'll get that one and that one and that one, etc, and downloading 25 songs in a setting. However at the record store few people will walk down the aisles tossing any CD that catches their eye into the shopping cart. Behaviour is considerably different on the P2P, because you don't have to pull your wallet out at the end of a downloading secession.
I Think Cable TV provides the best model for what is occuring. Some people modify equipment to recieve cable services without paying for them, for example getting HBO when they are only paying for basic cable service. There isn't any way to determine how many people who are "pirating" HBO would have paid for it if they couldn't get it for free. Some cable companies bring charges against these people and the charge is theft of services. Telling the judge "I wasn't stealing HBO because I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't have that modified CATV box, so HBO didn't lose anything" might be true, but it won't keep you from being found guilty of theft of services. All that is required to constitute theft of services is having the service without paying for it. This would apply to people who just grabbed a MP3 that they didn't want bad enough to actually pay for it. It's still theft of services regardless of the degree you actually wanted that service.
Netscape jumpped the gun when they released Netscape 6.0. At the time Mozilla/Netscape was usable but still had a lot of rough edges that didn't make it suitable for the general public.
Lately we have seen a few articles pointing out some of areas where the Linux desktop is lacking that might not seem like a big deal to a Geek, but will be viewed as a major short comming by by the general public.
Netscape got a lot of bad press because of 6.0. I Hope we aren't going to see a repeat of that with the Linux desktop on Wal-mart PCs.
Unless you can't reach that 2 Meg because you share a node some kids gobbling all of the shared bandwidth to rip off IP. Removing the hogs allows you to reach the full bandwidth up to the cap.
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Cynicism is a philosphical school, ergo "mindless cynic" is an oxymoron, though since Orwell is the subject, perhaps "double think" would be a better term for it.
This is an outstanding example of the mindless repetition of slogans replacing thought that I'm protesting with the assinine political slogan in my sig line.
No man has the right to another man's properity. If there is a dispute between me and the bank regarding funds then that dispute should be settled by objective laws that are only concerned with establishing ownership of the disputed funds, not my "need" or the banks "need".
also the right to medical treatment."
Forcing someone to hire you or keep you employed is not a "right". It's a violation of another persons right not to employ you if they don't want to. Forcing someone to pay for your medical care is not a "right", it's a violation of another persons right not to pay for your medical care.
The failure to understand that there is no such thing as a "right" to force another person to perform an action that is advantagous to yourself is the reason real rights are being erroded on both sides of the Atlantic.
"You childish twit. Canada is nothing of the sort....."
Irony goes right over your head dosen't it?
Isn't Canada still a British Colony under UK Crypto laws? I Mean as long as we are dealing with out of date information why not use real out of date info.
The regulations that caused the problems you mentioned are no longer in effect, and haven't been for about two years.
Damn! All this time I thought it was just FUD when people said Apple users were a bunch of long haired hippie commies. ;-)
The Concepts were far harder to produce, It was always harder to make a quality product that was 40 minutes long (LP play time) than a couple of 3 to 4 minute tracks. The Longer play time of a CD made it even harder.
Concepts gobbled studio time. Songs were recirded over and over seeking just the right sound to get the sound that was needed for that smooth transition from one song to the next. Concept CDs would have required even more time.
The RIAA opted for a cheaper product (their costs, not yours) and to spend the money on marketing like MTV videos and payola. Quality gave the bands too much control over the product, marketing gives the RIAA control.
So now we have heavly marketed CDs that are little more than a single with a lot of filler tracks, and formula bands where you have a dozen sound a likes recording a "Rap" formula CD or a "Heavy Metal" formula CD, or a whatever the hell else formula the RIAA's market research tells them might be hot.
Meanwhile the fans are saying "fuck this shit", and the RIAA is blaming MP3s instead of realizing that their marketing scam is falling apart.
The best albums of the era were Concept Albums, a unified product, each track set up the next song. Some of the Albums were a Musical story, with each song as a chapter of the story. You could buy singles that had a hit song from the album, but few people wanted the single, because the rest of the album enhanced that song making it part of the experance.
One area that CDs can't compete with those old LPs is the cover art. The covers were huge compared to the size of a jewel case and the graphic artists took advantage of size creating covers that were works of art capable of standing on their own, apart from the album.
This is something the idiots at the RIAA need to get through their thick skulls. It is possible to create Albums (or CDs) that are so good that people won't give a shit about a pale imitation like a single in 1972 or a couple of MP3 tracks in 2002.
Before about 1967 albums were just a collection of songs of assorted quality. Then the Bands introduced the concept album, and these albums damn near destroyed the market for Rock singles.
Now we have returned to the style that existed prior to 1967. Most CDs are just a collection of songs with no unifiying theme, and often the quality is so spotty that there is only a track or two worth listening to. Now that the concept albums of the late 60s early 70s are dead the market for the singles that they killed has revived, this time in the form of MP3s.
Ziggy is one of the better concept albums from that era. Try it and you'll see how the the RIAA could cut into their "Piracy" problem, by releasing an album that is so damn good that it's still worth buying 30 years after it was recorded.
2. The extreamists make a regular habit of denouncing Western culture as Evil, Materalistic, Greedy, Godless, and many other insulting terms. I await your denouncal of mideastern superiority, but won't be holding my breath.
3. Treating Women as Chattel, Mutulating criminals and persucuting religous minorities is abhorant, and I don't give a damn if it's part of their culture, I'll continue to denounce abhorant practices in the strongest terms. Excusing this because of "culture" would be like excusing a revival of slavery and burning witches as returning to western culture's traditional values.
Wrong. Al Qaeda is mainly financed by OBL and his supporters in Saudi Arabia. The Taliban were the ones dealing in Opium (not Herion) and the destruction of the poppy fields was in exchange for argicultural development money from the UN. They didn't destroy their stockpiles of Opium however, which dosen't say much for their belief that opium selling was unislamic.
"The players in this game are the US government and al-Queda - the Taleban are victims"
Al Qaeda, (the Base)is a group of organizations, one of which happened to be the Taliban. Al Qaeda was the de facto ruler of Afghanistn. Calling the Taliban a victim in this war is as absurd as claiming the SS were victims in a power dispute between the Nazi Party and the UK.
BTW they hate the fawning Liberals whom they refer to as "Atheists" more than the militant right wing Christians who say nasty things about them.
The Talibandit "offer" mirrored a similar "offer" to turn OBL over after proof was supplied that he was involved in an attack on a US Navy ship. The Talibandits turned the information over to OBL, allow him to discover that his satelite phone was being montered, and cutting off a means of gathering information on Al Qaeda actions.
As for the US sitting up the Talibandit regime, they were formed AFTER the USA ended involvement in Afghanistan. They overthrew the people we supported during the Soviet War.
Because it's an election year, and Joe Congressman needs the law to show the voters he's tough on terrorist hackers.
They can copied for around 30k. There is a thriving market for Cobra replicas, but it just isn't the same to a collector, so the price isn't affected. Can't get away with a counterfit either, the Shelby club has detailed records for every one that was produced.
Do I hear a Pot calling a Kettle black?
If the Chinese government acted EXACTLY the same way it does now, but relabeled itself the National Socalist Chinese Empire, and replaced "the prolatariat" in it's propaganda with "the Chinese race", the most ardent defenders of the Chicoms would become it's harshest critics, denouncing the same policies they defend today.
The types of media that Wal-mart chooses not to carry dosen't bother me, but some find it very offensive. Do we hear the same outcry because Wal-mart's policy also bans Racist material? No, the same type of people who decry Wal-mart for not carrying some soft porn tripe, would be up in arms if they opened their stores to selling anything and carried Neo-Nazi newspapers along side of the same materials they bitch that Wal-mart dosen't carry now.
Don't like Wal-mart? Then don't shop there.
I Think Cable TV provides the best model for what is occuring. Some people modify equipment to recieve cable services without paying for them, for example getting HBO when they are only paying for basic cable service. There isn't any way to determine how many people who are "pirating" HBO would have paid for it if they couldn't get it for free. Some cable companies bring charges against these people and the charge is theft of services. Telling the judge "I wasn't stealing HBO because I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't have that modified CATV box, so HBO didn't lose anything" might be true, but it won't keep you from being found guilty of theft of services. All that is required to constitute theft of services is having the service without paying for it. This would apply to people who just grabbed a MP3 that they didn't want bad enough to actually pay for it. It's still theft of services regardless of the degree you actually wanted that service.
Lately we have seen a few articles pointing out some of areas where the Linux desktop is lacking that might not seem like a big deal to a Geek, but will be viewed as a major short comming by by the general public.
Netscape got a lot of bad press because of 6.0. I Hope we aren't going to see a repeat of that with the Linux desktop on Wal-mart PCs.
Unless you can't reach that 2 Meg because you share a node some kids gobbling all of the shared bandwidth to rip off IP. Removing the hogs allows you to reach the full bandwidth up to the cap.
I Don't expect the ethically challenged to understand the concept of speaking out on moral prinipals.