If there's nobody there to hear the tree, the tree may not exist at all. If anything, the falling tree both makes a sound and is silent, until an observer is there to resolve it.
"I think people who were wavering about whether what we are doing in Guantanamo is right,"
All six of them? After all, it's been over five years now.
"will come down on the side of Bush when they see unkempt hippie commies like RMS"
Ah yes, victim of the ol' Secret Constitutional Amendment that strips citizenship away from "unkempt hippie commies."
"we are at WAR after all."
With whom, exactly? Iran? North Korea? Cuba? And whether your answer is Afghanistan, Iraq, or Oceania this week, there's still the fact that the United States hasn't been at war with anybody since 1945.
"RMS should be put on trial for treason..."
It's nice to know you share your grasp of the federal constitution with your chosen president.
"Yes, but how many corporate heads could even bother to familiarize themselves with the lingo of their target audience?"
The kind with a marketing department the size of Rhode Island. No doubt there were countless focus groups, surveys, polls and statistical aggregations behind the decision to use that one word alone.
We've already seen such cases dismissed by federal courts because the administration has cried "state secrets." While even a cursory glance at the groups website shows their displeasure with such measures, there's little that could be done in federal courts.
"Every society has nutters, both permanent and occasional."
And you honestly believe the United States doesn't have more than its fair share? Everything is just peachy-keen and all we'd need to establish a utopia is to remove all the guns?
"The facility to mow innocents down like wheat should be denied to all."
The only way to accomplish that is to regress to a medieval level technology with the addition of everybody being bound and gagged. I can point out any number of incidents where large numbers of people were murdered by a relative few where there wasn't a firearm involved at all.
"Perhaps universities should implement mandatory counseling for high pressure students."
That would just leave the mental health workers too burdened with conducting these mandatory sessions to deal with those seeking help on their own volition.
Rather, we should be focused on the stigma attached to mental health issues.
"if you could conceal and carry (this is Ohio) in a liquor establishment, then the shooter would of been lucky to kill only one person because this person (the poster on the forum), could of drawn his weapon and taken out the madman."
What the fuck?!
I'm fairly pro-gun, but no! You do not allow firearms and liquor to mix! Perhaps there would have been one gun owner there sober enough to get a clean shot, but that isn't worth having to deal with the any number of gun-carrying drunks throughout the state.
I'd sooner wish to see drunk driving legalized than what you are proposing.
Jack Thompson, Jack Thompson, Jack Thompson... when do we blame the news networks for rushing to some Florida lawyer to comment on a shooting in Virginia?
"A computer-gaming Marilyn Manson obsessed repressed Islamic fundamentalist, inconsistently educated mentalist engineer with an Arabic look about him, does a lot less damage when armed with a toothpick."
Don't be so fast to discount the toothpick. It's amazing what one could do with a box cutter, or with a rental truck and some fertilizer.
Even if such a thing were feasible, what would you do if it were possible to ensure that nobody with anything remotely resembling murderous intent could get near a firearm? Declare the problem solved and walk away, at least until you have to react to a new object you hadn't considered as a weapon before, or some new tactic is used to circumvent your safeguards?
When is it time to start dealing with murderous desires to being with, and the society that willfully lets it fester until people end up dead? We'd accomplish a lot more if we focused less on potential weapons and more on this "somebody else's problem" attitude that we all have.
The illusion that the availability of firearms or the lack thereof will have anything to do with the desire of one person to kill another. The desire to murder is a far greater problem in an individual or a society than the capability to follow through on that desire, and so long as we insist on ignoring this sociocultural problem and instead focus on reactive, stopgap measures that seek to prevent access to lethal tools, those desires will always be able to find a new outlet.
As an analogy, which is worse: someone using drugs, or someone's life being so miserable that they turn to drugs?
"I don't even think it is seen as grotesque by most people any more."... which is how these scenes come about to begin with.
Perhaps the talking heads aren't the root cause of the problem, but the constant "How can I spin this for my own personal benefit?" game they play and sell to their viewers doesn't do anything but perpetuate the cycle.
"I was under the impression that most consoles have been loss-leaders for some time now, at least at launch, with the real money coming from licensing."
"It's the way things have always been done" doesn't mean it's sustainable.
"but like some "CDs" in the past that incorporated some copy protection and couldn't carry the CD logo/seal any longer on the cover"
"Some?" A pseudorandom sample of CDs inspected at some local big-name stores that sell CDs have produced no CD audio logos that I could find. These newfangled "FBI warnings" seem to have taken their place.
Slashdot Mirror
If there's nobody there to hear the tree, the tree may not exist at all. If anything, the falling tree both makes a sound and is silent, until an observer is there to resolve it.
"Just a reminder to ACCEPT jury duty if you get called."
You mean all this time it's been voluntary?
"I think people who were wavering about whether what we are doing in Guantanamo is right,"
All six of them? After all, it's been over five years now.
"will come down on the side of Bush when they see unkempt hippie commies like RMS"
Ah yes, victim of the ol' Secret Constitutional Amendment that strips citizenship away from "unkempt hippie commies."
"we are at WAR after all."
With whom, exactly? Iran? North Korea? Cuba? And whether your answer is Afghanistan, Iraq, or Oceania this week, there's still the fact that the United States hasn't been at war with anybody since 1945.
"RMS should be put on trial for treason..."
It's nice to know you share your grasp of the federal constitution with your chosen president.
Tubular! Radical! Awesome! Reaganomics!
"Yes, but how many corporate heads could even bother to familiarize themselves with the lingo of their target audience?"
The kind with a marketing department the size of Rhode Island. No doubt there were countless focus groups, surveys, polls and statistical aggregations behind the decision to use that one word alone.
"What kind of corporate head uses flame with its internet definition?"
He's edgy, he's hip, he's "with it," he's using the kind of lingo the kids today are down with!
Far out, man!
I heard it from an Anonymous Coward on Slashdot who provided no links to any sources, so it must be true!
"Informative" my ass.
for several US Attorneys to be fired for wholly unrelated reasons that the Attorney General had no involvement in.
We've already seen such cases dismissed by federal courts because the administration has cried "state secrets." While even a cursory glance at the groups website shows their displeasure with such measures, there's little that could be done in federal courts.
"matching skintight pajamas,"
As I recall, they still don't allow women in front line units, so no thanks.
Then why is it that Alaska is one of the vast majority of states that is a net drain on federal coffers, rather than providing a surplus?
"I surrendered 2 hours before the East Coast deadline and schlepped on down to the Post Office."
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a mail truck full of tax returns!
Shot in the dark: Buckaroo Banzai
"The rest just makes sense- the chimps, without major building projects and air conditioning,"
Don't forget the digital watches!
So we shouldn't even bother to try doing anything about them and instead focus solely on what we believe might be their choice of weapons?
"Every society has nutters, both permanent and occasional."
And you honestly believe the United States doesn't have more than its fair share? Everything is just peachy-keen and all we'd need to establish a utopia is to remove all the guns?
"The facility to mow innocents down like wheat should be denied to all."
The only way to accomplish that is to regress to a medieval level technology with the addition of everybody being bound and gagged. I can point out any number of incidents where large numbers of people were murdered by a relative few where there wasn't a firearm involved at all.
"Perhaps universities should implement mandatory counseling for high pressure students."
That would just leave the mental health workers too burdened with conducting these mandatory sessions to deal with those seeking help on their own volition.
Rather, we should be focused on the stigma attached to mental health issues.
"if you could conceal and carry (this is Ohio) in a liquor establishment, then the shooter would of been lucky to kill only one person because this person (the poster on the forum), could of drawn his weapon and taken out the madman."
What the fuck?!
I'm fairly pro-gun, but no! You do not allow firearms and liquor to mix! Perhaps there would have been one gun owner there sober enough to get a clean shot, but that isn't worth having to deal with the any number of gun-carrying drunks throughout the state.
I'd sooner wish to see drunk driving legalized than what you are proposing.
"I am native of Japan, and where I grew up nobody but cops were allowed to carry guns."
And everybody in Japan is perfectly safe from mass murder.
Jack Thompson, Jack Thompson, Jack Thompson... when do we blame the news networks for rushing to some Florida lawyer to comment on a shooting in Virginia?
"A computer-gaming Marilyn Manson obsessed repressed Islamic fundamentalist, inconsistently educated mentalist engineer with an Arabic look about him, does a lot less damage when armed with a toothpick."
Don't be so fast to discount the toothpick. It's amazing what one could do with a box cutter, or with a rental truck and some fertilizer.
Even if such a thing were feasible, what would you do if it were possible to ensure that nobody with anything remotely resembling murderous intent could get near a firearm? Declare the problem solved and walk away, at least until you have to react to a new object you hadn't considered as a weapon before, or some new tactic is used to circumvent your safeguards?
When is it time to start dealing with murderous desires to being with, and the society that willfully lets it fester until people end up dead? We'd accomplish a lot more if we focused less on potential weapons and more on this "somebody else's problem" attitude that we all have.
The illusion that the availability of firearms or the lack thereof will have anything to do with the desire of one person to kill another. The desire to murder is a far greater problem in an individual or a society than the capability to follow through on that desire, and so long as we insist on ignoring this sociocultural problem and instead focus on reactive, stopgap measures that seek to prevent access to lethal tools, those desires will always be able to find a new outlet.
As an analogy, which is worse: someone using drugs, or someone's life being so miserable that they turn to drugs?
"I don't even think it is seen as grotesque by most people any more." ... which is how these scenes come about to begin with.
Perhaps the talking heads aren't the root cause of the problem, but the constant "How can I spin this for my own personal benefit?" game they play and sell to their viewers doesn't do anything but perpetuate the cycle.
"I was under the impression that most consoles have been loss-leaders for some time now, at least at launch, with the real money coming from licensing."
"It's the way things have always been done" doesn't mean it's sustainable.
"but like some "CDs" in the past that incorporated some copy protection and couldn't carry the CD logo/seal any longer on the cover"
"Some?" A pseudorandom sample of CDs inspected at some local big-name stores that sell CDs have produced no CD audio logos that I could find. These newfangled "FBI warnings" seem to have taken their place.