Thanks for that info. I can think of one documented case of someone "pretending to be somebody else" to get a ballot though. It was one of James O'Keefe's shenanigans, and someone at the polls knew that "Michael Bolton" was recently deceased. If there was widespread voter impersonation going on, some of them would be caught.
I vote by mail. It seems to me that anyone pushing to require ID at the polls but is ok with voting by mail has dropped the pretense that it's about the integrity of the vote.
You brought up 3 examples and shot them down yourself. Maybe your point is that the Sikh temple shooter may not be the white supremacist he's being reported as? Or that white supremacy isn't right wing? Or...?
If you want to compare the fairly clear cases of right wing vs. left wing domestic terrorism, off the top of my head we've got Oklahoma City, Centennial Olympic Park, Knoxville Unitarian and the murder of George Till versus some cases of eco-terrorism property damage.
Or...they start selling them when the total stock is such that they expect to sell out. They could have probably waited a couple weeks or a month and had enough for anyone that wanted one, but then it wouldn't have sold out.
Ok. As in many things, the answer is "it depends". Was hoping for something more concrete, but I don't have a good answer either. Though I don't have a study to back this up, I do think most U.S. citizens identify primarily with their country rather than their state.
I think you are describing the end of society as we know it, but maybe there's some limited way you're thinking of that could work. To start with, if some people decide to disjoin themselves, how do they give us notice and where do we deport them to? Or are you talking about secession of some piece of land with all the people living there, which creates a lot of other problems?
Ok, but I wasn't really interested in California's constitution or suggesting they shouldn't follow it. I was asking for your opinion on how big a population should govern itself.
Google is incredibly cost-conscious. Every little bit of server hardware, network, power and cooling cost they can wring out of their datacenters, they do. Spending money on food keeps people on campus (and working more) and keeps employees happy (and competition for the best employees is fierce). No, I don't work there, but I've worked with them a few times.
States' rights seems rather arbitrary. If some group you're a part of oppresses you, you're going to hate it no matter the size of the group.
Wyoming has around 568K people. There are over 30 individual cities in the U.S. with more people than that. Is 37M people too many? Should California be run by county rights?
I took it as anti-government types decrying state involvement in a mining issue that could have been decided more locally.
It's an illustration that anti-government sentiment doesn't stop at the federal level. Those calling for states' rights can call for county rights if they disagree with their state government. And then there's city rights, neighborhood rights and finally their individual right to not cooperate. Not all those people hide behind "states' rights", of course. Some are consistent and honest about their view of individual rights.
Well, I think voicing concerns as a constituent (or potential constituent) is good regardless of whether you support that politician overall. But yes, I've given her money, made calls and knocked on doors on her behalf.
That's a good question. We didn't get much past agreeing that the current system is broken (specifically software patents).
She would be one of hundreds in Congress, so I don't expect sweeping changes from her. Patent reform is not at the top of her priorities, nor is it at mine. But restricting the influence of special interests (some of whom you list) on our politics is a top priority for both of us. And even chipping away at that is a worthwhile step.
What does it matter how informed and clued-in the electorate is if the politicians won't listen?
There are elections every couple years.
The more power and wealth government controls, the more money it's worth spending to those seeking influence. The reverse is also true, which is the point.
You stopped before you got to anything concrete, but you seemed to be headed to either eliminating the USPTO or privatizing it. Neither one seems like a good idea to me.
Just because we (U.S. citizens) are largely apathetic about this topic doesn't mean we don't own the USPTO. It's only our collective apathy that allows you corporations to effectively control the USPTO.
Well, I was going to go beating up patent trolls vigilante-style, but I have this agreement with Commissioner Gordon to keep a low profile. So instead I find the good candidates, donate and do phone-banking and canvassing.
So you want to just roll over for the patent trolls instead of electing better candidates or convincing those in office? Do the trolls scratch your belly when you roll over?
FYI, the candidate in question actually blacked out her site for the big SOPA protest in January. She gets this stuff.
Good point. I didn't get my Indy until 1994, so I was just seeing the text over telnet until then. Was content type linked to a helper application to show the graphics? It wasn't until I saw Mosaic, with in-page graphics, that I recognized how much more powerful than gopher it was.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course they're not the same thing. Many on the right, for example, focus solely on small government. My point stands.
Thanks for that info. I can think of one documented case of someone "pretending to be somebody else" to get a ballot though. It was one of James O'Keefe's shenanigans, and someone at the polls knew that "Michael Bolton" was recently deceased. If there was widespread voter impersonation going on, some of them would be caught.
I vote by mail. It seems to me that anyone pushing to require ID at the polls but is ok with voting by mail has dropped the pretense that it's about the integrity of the vote.
You brought up 3 examples and shot them down yourself. Maybe your point is that the Sikh temple shooter may not be the white supremacist he's being reported as? Or that white supremacy isn't right wing? Or...?
If you want to compare the fairly clear cases of right wing vs. left wing domestic terrorism, off the top of my head we've got Oklahoma City, Centennial Olympic Park, Knoxville Unitarian and the murder of George Till versus some cases of eco-terrorism property damage.
or even just on a downtown street
That's happening already. It's called Stop and Frisk.
Or...they start selling them when the total stock is such that they expect to sell out. They could have probably waited a couple weeks or a month and had enough for anyone that wanted one, but then it wouldn't have sold out.
Ok. As in many things, the answer is "it depends". Was hoping for something more concrete, but I don't have a good answer either. Though I don't have a study to back this up, I do think most U.S. citizens identify primarily with their country rather than their state.
I think you are describing the end of society as we know it, but maybe there's some limited way you're thinking of that could work. To start with, if some people decide to disjoin themselves, how do they give us notice and where do we deport them to? Or are you talking about secession of some piece of land with all the people living there, which creates a lot of other problems?
Ok, but I wasn't really interested in California's constitution or suggesting they shouldn't follow it. I was asking for your opinion on how big a population should govern itself.
Google is incredibly cost-conscious. Every little bit of server hardware, network, power and cooling cost they can wring out of their datacenters, they do. Spending money on food keeps people on campus (and working more) and keeps employees happy (and competition for the best employees is fierce). No, I don't work there, but I've worked with them a few times.
States' rights seems rather arbitrary. If some group you're a part of oppresses you, you're going to hate it no matter the size of the group.
Wyoming has around 568K people. There are over 30 individual cities in the U.S. with more people than that. Is 37M people too many? Should California be run by county rights?
We don't need government-run channels because the "need" is already being fulfilled.
The "need", if it exists at all, is for a source of news and other programming that does not have a corporate slant to it.
I'm not sure who you're calling the anti-government people in the mining example
I think AngryDeuce was referring to people upset at the WI state Senate for not passing the mining bill.
This seemed to be the lone Republican's reason for not voting for the bill:
He cited changes to current law that would have allowed mining companies to fill in rivers, streams and shorelines.
I took it as anti-government types decrying state involvement in a mining issue that could have been decided more locally.
It's an illustration that anti-government sentiment doesn't stop at the federal level. Those calling for states' rights can call for county rights if they disagree with their state government. And then there's city rights, neighborhood rights and finally their individual right to not cooperate. Not all those people hide behind "states' rights", of course. Some are consistent and honest about their view of individual rights.
Well, I think voicing concerns as a constituent (or potential constituent) is good regardless of whether you support that politician overall. But yes, I've given her money, made calls and knocked on doors on her behalf.
That's a good question. We didn't get much past agreeing that the current system is broken (specifically software patents).
She would be one of hundreds in Congress, so I don't expect sweeping changes from her. Patent reform is not at the top of her priorities, nor is it at mine. But restricting the influence of special interests (some of whom you list) on our politics is a top priority for both of us. And even chipping away at that is a worthwhile step.
What does it matter how informed and clued-in the electorate is if the politicians won't listen?
There are elections every couple years.
The more power and wealth government controls, the more money it's worth spending to those seeking influence. The reverse is also true, which is the point.
You stopped before you got to anything concrete, but you seemed to be headed to either eliminating the USPTO or privatizing it. Neither one seems like a good idea to me.
Just because we (U.S. citizens) are largely apathetic about this topic doesn't mean we don't own the USPTO. It's only our collective apathy that allows you corporations to effectively control the USPTO.
Well, I was going to go beating up patent trolls vigilante-style, but I have this agreement with Commissioner Gordon to keep a low profile. So instead I find the good candidates, donate and do phone-banking and canvassing.
So you want to just roll over for the patent trolls instead of electing better candidates or convincing those in office? Do the trolls scratch your belly when you roll over?
FYI, the candidate in question actually blacked out her site for the big SOPA protest in January. She gets this stuff.
You claim to know a lot about this person I haven't even named. No wonder you're cowardly posting anonymously.
Well, she's leading the polls and she agreed with me. :)
My current congressman doesn't answer his phone when I call, but I believe I did mention the USPTO to his staff when I called about SOPA.
Good point. I didn't get my Indy until 1994, so I was just seeing the text over telnet until then. Was content type linked to a helper application to show the graphics? It wasn't until I saw Mosaic, with in-page graphics, that I recognized how much more powerful than gopher it was.
But I already did talk to my hopefully-soon-to-be congresswoman about it. Guess that shoots your theory.
But toss it on the pile of other bogus patents and it makes a good bargaining chip (threat).
We (U.S. citizens) do, and we should be telling our congresscritters that this has to stop.
The Web was born at CERN in 1990, as a specific, visual protocol
The first web browser I used was text-only, called 'www', running on a Sun box. Was the visual component really there initially with the hyperlinks?