#1: yes, it would be lovely if corporations were merely appendages of the government. unfortunately the truth is that our government is somewhat of an appendage of corporations
#2: corporations would trample on your rights with blackwater style private military forces and private prison systems in a heart beat, and some people in this country are working hard to make sure they can (whether they realize it or not). i'm not talking about science fiction, i'm talking about historical american fact:
if you fear police or military abuse by your government: if those who wish to weaken our government get their way, you haven't seen anything yet. you will see a lot worse. not fanciful conjecture, its historical fact from when corporations were able to run roughshod over american lives, the gilded age
to explain away the democratic element as ineffectual?
when the democratic element is the one extraordinary gem of your government which makes it so much better and superior (as a function of social stability and everything else that is important in the american experiment)
do not be dismissive or contemptuous of the idea that people should or could be allowed to govern themselves. it is the most important attribute of the american government and one you should trumpet and champion, not perform an autopsy on it as if it were already dead. it clearly is not. pessimists and nihilists and cynics are not realists, they're just assholes who've already given up the good fight and accepted the worst and are therefore part of what is wrong with the world. don't be one of those losers
since the dawn of time, the rights of the INDIVIDUAL are pitted against the rights of the GROUP
pretty much the entire history of mankind is a narrative about this essential struggle
so some ancient greeks, a few others, and finally some american colonists said "hey, this abuse by the group sucks, but we still have to coordinate our activities if we are to survive as a strong entity able to fend off such abuse by large injust groups. so how do we do that? maybe this democracy thing, hmmm..."
and so began a silly experiment called democracy, which has always been messy, always imperfect, but still better than lying down and accepting horrible abuse at the hands of a group
so what i am saying is: yes, the government abused your rights, is abusing your rights, and will always abuse your rights. i understand and agree with that assessment completely, and offer no lala land tales about the wonderful joys of big government: i am not an idiot. but at least, in a democracy, in theory IT IS ACCOUNTABLE TO YOU and you have CIVIL AND LEGAL AVENUES FOR RECOURSE. you don't have to pick up a gun or throw a molotov cocktail to address your grievances. you can stand on a soap box or start a blog or a lawsuit instead. and if enough people agree with you, you begin to see satisfactory justice for your abuse, without violence
what about corporations? who or what are they accountable to? answer: profit, greed, make more bucks AT ANY COST. a corporation will clearly trample your rights in order to get more profit. a government will also trample your rights for various random goals. but only one of those entities allows you to say "this is not fair!" and if enough of your fellow citizens agree with you, the abuse is addressed, reversed, and not allowed
see my point?
because democracy is imperfect is no reason to accept something clearly worse. because the government nibbles your toes is no reason to accept or see as superior a world in which corporations gnaw your fingers off
i agree to every single criticism of it you can muster, and a few more creative complaints you might make up
and yet it is still superior to the fucking joke of a broken health care system that the usa operates under. in terms of bureaucracy (yes, bureaucracy: the government is the only one who can bury you in paperwork?), access to preventative care, quality, cost, both on a national level and a personal level, etc. dude just look at obvious healthcare measures like longevity, newborn survival, cost (YES COST!), etc: comparing the usa to other industrial countries with universal healthcare. its a no brainer, our system SUCKS IN COMPARISON, and universal healthcare is CLEARLY better, according to any real life measure
why is it that the deficiencies of government run healthcare figure so heavily in your mind, but you fail to recognize, address, or conceive of the obvious horrible failures of the bullshit system we currently exist under? its idealistic of you: you examine the failures of a system in a vacuum, not comparing it against your other real world choices. choosing instead to analyze universal healthcare against idealized fantasies and stereotypes, good and bad, of human behavior that have never existed and never will
its like what churchill said about democracy: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." so i say to you: "Government run healthcare is the worst form of healthcare, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
and that's the truth sir
and i find it particularly hilarious that you say you are not an idealist, and then fall back on idealistic mindfarts about collectivism and tribalism and what not. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOUR SIMPLEMINDED THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS HAVE TO DO WITH REAL WORLD NATIONAL HEALTHCARE, you naive idealist
the real world bears no resemblence to simpleton essays in introductory philosophy class. please get your head out of your idealistic ass and examine REAL WORLD FACTS. the usa system SUCKS and FAILS. you have too much ivory tower castle in the sky philosophical air headed brain droppings, not enough real world concrete truth. wake the fuck up
to the extent the state is NOT an extension of my willpower is the same as the extent to which it is corrupted by corporate influence
some argue that because the government works against individual rights (since it is corrupted by powerful corporate interests), then the government should be reduced. however, this merely reduces the only (imperfect) buffer we have between our abusers (the corporate infection of our government) and our rights. with less government comes more abuse of our individual liberties. do you deny this? missed out on the gilded ages in your history lessons, huh?
the government, in theory, is beholden to our wishes. so therefore, we must insist that the government's idealistic purpose be adhered to as closely as possible. of course, it will never be perfect, but accepting the corporate infection of our government, or, even worse, arguing for even less protection from corporate abuse (by reducing the government) is clearly not a valid alternative. we must scrub our government of corporate infection, and be ever vigilant of the fungus's return
with a weaker government, a power vacuum will exist that will be filled by corporations, and your rights will certainly be abused. this is not science fiction, this is historical fact. do you fear your government's army and police? then why aren't you afraid of something like blackwater, a private, corporate-controlled army, that is CLEARLY not beholden to you, not even in theory, like your own elected government? didn't you learn from history? behold, blackwater 1.0:
why do some people not see the REAL source of the abuse of their individual liberties? the government is NOT THE REAL SOURCE
finally, some see government's regulations and rules as intrusions onto capitalism. some reading my words here will also conclude that i am anti-capitalist
on the contrary: the greatest enemy capitalism has ever known was never socialism or communism, but corporatism: monopolies and oligopolies. again, read your economic history. and PLEASE do not confuse the fight against corporatism as a fight against capitalism. if anything, the fight to reduce corporate influence and power in our lives is a fight FOR a purer more fair and level field in capitalism. the small smart start up company with a good idea, in pure capitalism, will reap much profit. in reality, the greatest threat to this small smart start up is not taxes, its not regulations: its entrenched big players, who abuse the government to change the rules to suit them, and otherwise take advantage of natural imperfections in the marketplace to keep smaller rivals at bay, to maintain the status quo, not maintain true capitalism
capitalism != corporatism
corporatism > communism + socialism, as a threat to capitalism
do NOT forget that, and do not confuse attacks on corporatism as attacks on capitalism, or you have failed to understand your own principles and the reality you live in
why is it that so many free market fundamentalists forget about the banking panics in the 1800s (no regulations=bubbles and pops... hello 2008)? why do so many libertarians ignore the abuses of individual liberties by corporations in the gilded age (corporations, not governments, remove your liberties)? why do so many right wing small government zealots completely ignore the hard fought and hard won protections for workers in the 1800s? (40 hour work week, minimum wage, etc... you think these ideas were not developed in an atmosphere of constant abuse of the individual by corporations?)
fact, solid motherfucking fact: corporations will abuse your individual liberties as much as they can in the pursuit of the buck. they ARE NOT BEHOLDEN TO YOU. you NEED the government as your protector with all those regulations and enforcement, or YOU WILL BE ABUSED. to the extent that the government has been coopted by corporate interests and infected from the inside is the extent YOU NEED TO CLEAN UP YOUR GOVERNMENT OF CORPORATE INFECTION...not destroy the only entity which keeps the REAL abusers from defiling your rights!
corporations are the single greatest abusers of individual liberties. government is your only source of protection from those abuses. you NEED a strong central government, or every abuse you detest will be visited upon you MORE
so stop working to DESTROY government, start working to CLEAN UP government
if you argue for smaller government, in the name of individual liberties, the real world effect of your efforts is increased abuses of individual liberties, because you do not understand who the real abusers are
if the patient is sick, don't kill the patient and let the disease spread, treat the patient of the disease and stop the spread of the disease. fight the disease, not the patient. the patient is YOUR government, the disease is corporate dollars
read the first fucking sentence:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
WE. THE. PEOPLE. to the extent that the government is not we the people is the extent to which it has been corrupted by corporate dollars. so get rid of the corporate dollars, not the government!
reclaim YOUR government from corporate infection and make it a more effective tool in protecting your rights and freedoms from the real abusers: corporations who would destroy your rights and freedoms, and have done so in the past, and will happily do so again in the pursuit of more profit, if there is only a weak ineffective government between them and more profit
CLEAN UP GOVERNMENT. DON'T DESTROY THE ONLY THING THAT PROTECTS YOU FROM THE REAL ABUSERS OF YOUR RIGHTS
1. uses 10x less of the fuel as a breeder reactor does 2. produces 10x more waste as a breeder reactor does 3. the waste produced lasts 10,000 years (as opposed to 100 years for a breeder reactor) 4. the type of radioactivity from the waste is more troublesome than that with breeder reactors
so that's 10x the power, 10x less waste, and waste that lasts 100x less with less powerful radiation, with breeder reactors
combine that with modern design, not the 1960s era tech that so many opinions of nuclear power are based on. you can walk away from a pebble bed reactor, just everyone at the plant get up and go, and you will have no china syndrome, no meltdown, no danger. modern reactor design is passively safe, not actively safe (that is, requiring constant human intervention to keep from going chernobyl apeshit)
the problem of course, is the word "breeder" in breeder reactors: breeder reactors produce plutonium, which can be used in bombs. that's why they are avoided (except by iran and north korea). additionally, nuclear reactors make fantastic terrorist targets
so what you need is fantastic security at nuclear plants: all inventory tracked down to the gram, multiple layers of security at all intersections with the rest of the world
we use fission as a stopgap measure until we figure out fusion, and put all this nonsense of energy problems and shortages behind us, FOREVER
if we don't figure out fusion, however, we are doomed
solar, hydrothermal, geothermal, biofuel, wind, tidal, wave: cute little boutique sources. nothing more than that. sorry
because of infection of the government by corporate money
read the first sentence:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
We. The. People.
to the extent that the interests of the corporations are more important to the politicians than the interests of we the people, is the extent to which that government MUST BE CLEANED UP, not destroyed
your position is this: you see a sick person in front of you (the government). your solution is to condemn the sick person, rather than treat him for the disease
"At least a "greedy" corporation is putting people to work"
additionally, you completely absolve the disease of any wrongdoing for the fact that the patient is sick
it just blows my fucking mind, its fucking incredible: that some people should see the corporate infection of our government and conclude the only solution is to destroy the government!
the only thing standing between us and the infection that is the real source of the abuse of our rights is the government. it needs to be CLEANED UP, not DESTROYED, or then all of the abuses you see GET WORSE. that really is the truth. wake the fuck up
however, the vast amount of users are not technically astute, and laws must be passed and enforced to protect them. it is not beholden upon the computer user to have a computer science degree to use a browser, nor should it be, all elitist snarky slashdot comments to the contrary
do you have to be an auto mechanic before you drive on the road?
do you have to be a lawyer before you sit in a jury box?
do you have to be a architect before you own a home?
no?
then it is obvious that your appeal to technical competency before someone gets behind a computer browser is an elitist position, not to mention an impossible position
it is beholden upon SOCIETY to pass and enforce laws to protect the weak and the innocent, not punish them for being weak and innocent and then tell them after the fact they should have known. this is a vision of a brutal and injust society that you operate from
i have every right to say what happens on my machine
additionally, i have every right to insist you change your behavior, such as with logs, if suitable logical reason can be found that my rights could potentially be abused by your practices
in other words, there are principles that govern society, and no one is above those principles. and claims to be exempt from those principles, for reasons of trade and commerce, is the road to hell
understand that, or be the enemy of freedom
individual liberty is not trumped by corporate interest, despite all the paid legal whores and assorted apologists to the contrary
you need government regulations. you want to pay taxes for the legions of government bureaucrats toiling away somewhere interfering with business
because without such regulation business will trample your rights
you heard me correctly: the government protects your rights and corporations trample them. i'm sorry of this idea contrasts with certain brands of low brain wattage propaganda about the government trampling your rights: if the paranoid schizophrenic fantasies of certain right wing zealots ever come to fruition, those abuses will not happen at the hands of washington dc, they will happen at the hands of large corporate entities
ascap's existence is due to a flow of cash that is being threatened by technological change
so there is nothing to debate, there is only the relentless march of progress, and those who resist it because their revenue streams are drying up because of technological change are already living in denial
with denial as their logical baseline, "debate" is an exercise in absurdity. there's simply nothing to debate or talk about: ascap's position is logically untenable from the start, yet they continue to hold their position, therefore, logic will not nor ever sway them. force is the only language they know or understand. so they must be forcibly killed off (by this i mean it becomes acceptable to deny them their revenue streams, i'm not talking about real world physical violence: you have to be careful to note your words are only symbolic because there are real lunatics out there)
" The difference is that we were all free to opt-out and nobody forced us to participate and that is very important in a free society"
the guy who opts out, and then breaks his arm, and then doesn't pay (you do realize our hospitals are constantly being bailed out by THE TAXPAYERS, correct?) shows the folly of your "choice"
the "choice" that is being made to not have insurance is the "choice" being made to freeload (which is the delicious irony in your attitude: you dislike freeloading, and yet this is what your philosophy is arguing for)
this is your REAL choice:
1. mandatory insurance
2. freeloaders. who "choose" not be insured, then break their arms, then we the tax payers pay for them because they avoid the bill
that's your choice in reality
everything else you wrote is idealism: workable only if human beings suddenly start behaving in ways people never have behaved
furthermore, your "socialism sucks because communism sucks" line of reasoning is laughable and tedious. surely you understand socialism is not communism, correct? communism is stupid. likewise, libertarianism, free market fundamentalism: equally stupid. the only workable middle ground is socialism: capitalism with social safety nets. is what you are advocating for social darwinism?: do you want people who can't pay their hospital bills to be rejected from healthcare and allowed to die in the street? no?
i won't pay you the disrespect like you have to me (by criticizing communism when that's not what i am advocating for). surely you don't mean to advocate social darwinism. so surely you see the braindead obvious: health insurance MUST BE MANDATORY. or you are choosing to let some people freeload. you do understand that inevitable real world effect, or are you a hopeless castle in the sky naive idealist? arguing about that which will never be true because you don't understand human nature?
ok: then the military should have acted like it was an anthrax ray or something horribly nasty. and then let simple fear in the people it was pointed at do the rest of the work: "get the hell out of here, the americans have some scary new technology that causes your eyes to glow/ flesh to fall off in a month/ all your female relatives to lose their virginity!"
by advocating a new story topic (not displaying here properly - alt-ctrl-del) as the new form of grammar and coherence. Either way, this will be one interesting turnout. With bad grammar and coherence across the web, advocating a new story topic properly might be an issue. PS Left out new story topic end sentence as Slashdot doesn't display the alt-ctrl-del character.
I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint.
- Hesiod, 700 BC
Our earth is degenerate in these latter days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.
- Assyrian tablet, 2800 BC
We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control.
- Egyptian tomb, 4000 BC
what you perceive to be changing, in absolute truth, is not changing in the slightest. point of fact
and your anecdote about your dad's era as a cop is especially laughable, as the era your dad was a cop was marked by much corruption, the thin blue line, the cops functioning as a sort of mafia etc. ever hear of serpico?
crap like that was embarassing enough that police departments were cleaned up of their internal graft and corruption. of course that shit still goes on today. just to a lesser extent than your dad's era
so if anything law enforcement has been cleaned up in recent years and has been more accountable (and, in no small part, crime has fallen from the era your dad was a cop). in other words, in the short term, law enforcement has improved in quality from your dad's era (as a function of crime statistics). in other words, your anecdote about your dad's opinion of what is happening with police today versus his era is the exact reverse as you describe it
it is what human beings do when they engage in the genetic engineering of the dna of other creatures (or of homo sapiens)
the way creationists propose that god designed us is something that will be in the realm of the ability of human beings within a century. and if us lowly imperfect human beings have the powers of god, that says one of two things:
1. we have become gods
2. your understanding of what god is and how god works is wrong
why don't we pay, as a society, for a pool of cash to educate our youth, and pay for our health issues, and then just not have to worry about that? do you understand the notion of quality of life?
why exactly is the idea of sharing healthcare and educational costs such a horrible idea to you? do you not see the benefits of that idea? why aren't those benefits attractive to you?
why should you be burdened for 6 months for your bike accident why not just burden society in aggregate? because a few selfish 40 something assholes don't like their tax rate? why should we care what those a few selfish assholes think of their tax rate?
i'm all for taxing a few 40 something assholes more than forcing a young kid to work for 6 months because he got in a bike accident. what exactly is wrong with that? you understand the value of insurance, right? why not just pay the damn insurance at a group rate? its that simple a concept!
i'm also for society paying completely for youth's education, so they aren't slaves to their debt the moment they graduate. what's the downside of that? the complaints of some 40 somethings who have to pay more in taxes. ok. so fucking what?
those 40 somethings enjoy the fruits of their society just as much as the 20 year old. its just that the way costs are structured, the burden is placed on those entering society (as young folk), rather than on those already in the prime of life. this is a bad structure: it should be structured to ease the young folk into the structure of society, otherwise, they have reason and interest to reject society, to drop out of society as useless debt shirkers or flee the country or hate their lives or hate you and hate americna society for being unfairly structured to reward only 40 something assholes. the way society structures its costs puts so much burden on the young, for what? so some 40 year old asshole can buy another gas guzzling SUV or mcmansion? fuck the 40 something, make it easier for the 20 something
the problem is, you are playing a class warfare game and a generational warfare game, but you either are unaware of the clash of your priorities versus the priorities of others who are more deserving than you, or you honestly believe that there are no social costs to burdening 20 somethings without trust funds with so much, or that you generate social costs that you aren't paying your fair share of. i openly admit to the generational and class warfare game, i don't cage my opinions in libertarian bullshit (libertarianism is just selfishness, dressed up as philosophy: you can dress a whore up in a nice dress, she's still a whore)
why exactly is the idea of sharing healthcare and educational costs such a horrible idea to you? do you honestly believe you are an island and that your fortunes are not tied to the fortunes of your society? do you honestly believe that if the health and education of others suffers you won't suffer as well?
take care of and be concerned about the welfare of your society. or live in haiti. you don't realize that the fruits of your "ideology" is a country like haiti. you honestly believe your "ideology" is a gateway to a better society, erroneously, or you admit that you are a selfish asshole and you are just playing a game to get more than you deserve
the money in your pocket is an abstract representation of the wealth of the community you live in. that's not some hippie far out dude thought, that's economic fact. so take care of your investment, or truly be a poor man
i for one will not be a poor man, simply because there are selfish assholes in my society who don't realize that that is what they are choosing for themselves, and me, by shafting the community they live in by demanding to invest less in their society, as shortsighted and selfish as that is
Slashdot Mirror
#1: yes, it would be lovely if corporations were merely appendages of the government. unfortunately the truth is that our government is somewhat of an appendage of corporations
#2: corporations would trample on your rights with blackwater style private military forces and private prison systems in a heart beat, and some people in this country are working hard to make sure they can (whether they realize it or not). i'm not talking about science fiction, i'm talking about historical american fact:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency
if you fear police or military abuse by your government: if those who wish to weaken our government get their way, you haven't seen anything yet. you will see a lot worse. not fanciful conjecture, its historical fact from when corporations were able to run roughshod over american lives, the gilded age
to explain away the democratic element as ineffectual?
when the democratic element is the one extraordinary gem of your government which makes it so much better and superior (as a function of social stability and everything else that is important in the american experiment)
do not be dismissive or contemptuous of the idea that people should or could be allowed to govern themselves. it is the most important attribute of the american government and one you should trumpet and champion, not perform an autopsy on it as if it were already dead. it clearly is not. pessimists and nihilists and cynics are not realists, they're just assholes who've already given up the good fight and accepted the worst and are therefore part of what is wrong with the world. don't be one of those losers
since the dawn of time, the rights of the INDIVIDUAL are pitted against the rights of the GROUP
pretty much the entire history of mankind is a narrative about this essential struggle
so some ancient greeks, a few others, and finally some american colonists said "hey, this abuse by the group sucks, but we still have to coordinate our activities if we are to survive as a strong entity able to fend off such abuse by large injust groups. so how do we do that? maybe this democracy thing, hmmm..."
and so began a silly experiment called democracy, which has always been messy, always imperfect, but still better than lying down and accepting horrible abuse at the hands of a group
so what i am saying is: yes, the government abused your rights, is abusing your rights, and will always abuse your rights. i understand and agree with that assessment completely, and offer no lala land tales about the wonderful joys of big government: i am not an idiot. but at least, in a democracy, in theory IT IS ACCOUNTABLE TO YOU and you have CIVIL AND LEGAL AVENUES FOR RECOURSE. you don't have to pick up a gun or throw a molotov cocktail to address your grievances. you can stand on a soap box or start a blog or a lawsuit instead. and if enough people agree with you, you begin to see satisfactory justice for your abuse, without violence
what about corporations? who or what are they accountable to? answer: profit, greed, make more bucks AT ANY COST. a corporation will clearly trample your rights in order to get more profit. a government will also trample your rights for various random goals. but only one of those entities allows you to say "this is not fair!" and if enough of your fellow citizens agree with you, the abuse is addressed, reversed, and not allowed
see my point?
because democracy is imperfect is no reason to accept something clearly worse. because the government nibbles your toes is no reason to accept or see as superior a world in which corporations gnaw your fingers off
i agree to every single criticism of it you can muster, and a few more creative complaints you might make up
and yet it is still superior to the fucking joke of a broken health care system that the usa operates under. in terms of bureaucracy (yes, bureaucracy: the government is the only one who can bury you in paperwork?), access to preventative care, quality, cost, both on a national level and a personal level, etc. dude just look at obvious healthcare measures like longevity, newborn survival, cost (YES COST!), etc: comparing the usa to other industrial countries with universal healthcare. its a no brainer, our system SUCKS IN COMPARISON, and universal healthcare is CLEARLY better, according to any real life measure
why is it that the deficiencies of government run healthcare figure so heavily in your mind, but you fail to recognize, address, or conceive of the obvious horrible failures of the bullshit system we currently exist under? its idealistic of you: you examine the failures of a system in a vacuum, not comparing it against your other real world choices. choosing instead to analyze universal healthcare against idealized fantasies and stereotypes, good and bad, of human behavior that have never existed and never will
its like what churchill said about democracy: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." so i say to you: "Government run healthcare is the worst form of healthcare, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
and that's the truth sir
and i find it particularly hilarious that you say you are not an idealist, and then fall back on idealistic mindfarts about collectivism and tribalism and what not. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOUR SIMPLEMINDED THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS HAVE TO DO WITH REAL WORLD NATIONAL HEALTHCARE, you naive idealist
the real world bears no resemblence to simpleton essays in introductory philosophy class. please get your head out of your idealistic ass and examine REAL WORLD FACTS. the usa system SUCKS and FAILS. you have too much ivory tower castle in the sky philosophical air headed brain droppings, not enough real world concrete truth. wake the fuck up
the state IS me
well, it should be me
to the extent the state is NOT an extension of my willpower is the same as the extent to which it is corrupted by corporate influence
some argue that because the government works against individual rights (since it is corrupted by powerful corporate interests), then the government should be reduced. however, this merely reduces the only (imperfect) buffer we have between our abusers (the corporate infection of our government) and our rights. with less government comes more abuse of our individual liberties. do you deny this? missed out on the gilded ages in your history lessons, huh?
the government, in theory, is beholden to our wishes. so therefore, we must insist that the government's idealistic purpose be adhered to as closely as possible. of course, it will never be perfect, but accepting the corporate infection of our government, or, even worse, arguing for even less protection from corporate abuse (by reducing the government) is clearly not a valid alternative. we must scrub our government of corporate infection, and be ever vigilant of the fungus's return
with a weaker government, a power vacuum will exist that will be filled by corporations, and your rights will certainly be abused. this is not science fiction, this is historical fact. do you fear your government's army and police? then why aren't you afraid of something like blackwater, a private, corporate-controlled army, that is CLEARLY not beholden to you, not even in theory, like your own elected government? didn't you learn from history? behold, blackwater 1.0:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency
why do some people not see the REAL source of the abuse of their individual liberties? the government is NOT THE REAL SOURCE
finally, some see government's regulations and rules as intrusions onto capitalism. some reading my words here will also conclude that i am anti-capitalist
on the contrary: the greatest enemy capitalism has ever known was never socialism or communism, but corporatism: monopolies and oligopolies. again, read your economic history. and PLEASE do not confuse the fight against corporatism as a fight against capitalism. if anything, the fight to reduce corporate influence and power in our lives is a fight FOR a purer more fair and level field in capitalism. the small smart start up company with a good idea, in pure capitalism, will reap much profit. in reality, the greatest threat to this small smart start up is not taxes, its not regulations: its entrenched big players, who abuse the government to change the rules to suit them, and otherwise take advantage of natural imperfections in the marketplace to keep smaller rivals at bay, to maintain the status quo, not maintain true capitalism
capitalism != corporatism
corporatism > communism + socialism, as a threat to capitalism
do NOT forget that, and do not confuse attacks on corporatism as attacks on capitalism, or you have failed to understand your own principles and the reality you live in
well said
he should have called it robin hood
right subject matter (wealth redistribution), wrong direction (down to the lower classes: robin hood, not up to the higher classes: scrooge)
then there is a power vacuum
that power vacuum will be filled by corporations, who will employ blackwater private security forces against individual liberty
am i talking science fiction?
no, i'm talking HISTORICAL AMERICAN FACT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency
why is it that so many free market fundamentalists forget about the banking panics in the 1800s (no regulations=bubbles and pops... hello 2008)? why do so many libertarians ignore the abuses of individual liberties by corporations in the gilded age (corporations, not governments, remove your liberties)? why do so many right wing small government zealots completely ignore the hard fought and hard won protections for workers in the 1800s? (40 hour work week, minimum wage, etc... you think these ideas were not developed in an atmosphere of constant abuse of the individual by corporations?)
fact, solid motherfucking fact: corporations will abuse your individual liberties as much as they can in the pursuit of the buck. they ARE NOT BEHOLDEN TO YOU. you NEED the government as your protector with all those regulations and enforcement, or YOU WILL BE ABUSED. to the extent that the government has been coopted by corporate interests and infected from the inside is the extent YOU NEED TO CLEAN UP YOUR GOVERNMENT OF CORPORATE INFECTION...not destroy the only entity which keeps the REAL abusers from defiling your rights!
corporations are the single greatest abusers of individual liberties. government is your only source of protection from those abuses. you NEED a strong central government, or every abuse you detest will be visited upon you MORE
so stop working to DESTROY government, start working to CLEAN UP government
if you argue for smaller government, in the name of individual liberties, the real world effect of your efforts is increased abuses of individual liberties, because you do not understand who the real abusers are
if the patient is sick, don't kill the patient and let the disease spread, treat the patient of the disease and stop the spread of the disease. fight the disease, not the patient. the patient is YOUR government, the disease is corporate dollars
read the first fucking sentence:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
WE. THE. PEOPLE. to the extent that the government is not we the people is the extent to which it has been corrupted by corporate dollars. so get rid of the corporate dollars, not the government!
reclaim YOUR government from corporate infection and make it a more effective tool in protecting your rights and freedoms from the real abusers: corporations who would destroy your rights and freedoms, and have done so in the past, and will happily do so again in the pursuit of more profit, if there is only a weak ineffective government between them and more profit
CLEAN UP GOVERNMENT. DON'T DESTROY THE ONLY THING THAT PROTECTS YOU FROM THE REAL ABUSERS OF YOUR RIGHTS
conventional nuclear tech
1. uses 10x less of the fuel as a breeder reactor does
2. produces 10x more waste as a breeder reactor does
3. the waste produced lasts 10,000 years (as opposed to 100 years for a breeder reactor)
4. the type of radioactivity from the waste is more troublesome than that with breeder reactors
so that's 10x the power, 10x less waste, and waste that lasts 100x less with less powerful radiation, with breeder reactors
combine that with modern design, not the 1960s era tech that so many opinions of nuclear power are based on. you can walk away from a pebble bed reactor, just everyone at the plant get up and go, and you will have no china syndrome, no meltdown, no danger. modern reactor design is passively safe, not actively safe (that is, requiring constant human intervention to keep from going chernobyl apeshit)
the problem of course, is the word "breeder" in breeder reactors: breeder reactors produce plutonium, which can be used in bombs. that's why they are avoided (except by iran and north korea). additionally, nuclear reactors make fantastic terrorist targets
so what you need is fantastic security at nuclear plants: all inventory tracked down to the gram, multiple layers of security at all intersections with the rest of the world
we use fission as a stopgap measure until we figure out fusion, and put all this nonsense of energy problems and shortages behind us, FOREVER
if we don't figure out fusion, however, we are doomed
solar, hydrothermal, geothermal, biofuel, wind, tidal, wave: cute little boutique sources. nothing more than that. sorry
separate form their constituents interests?
because of infection of the government by corporate money
read the first sentence:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
We. The. People.
to the extent that the interests of the corporations are more important to the politicians than the interests of we the people, is the extent to which that government MUST BE CLEANED UP, not destroyed
your position is this: you see a sick person in front of you (the government). your solution is to condemn the sick person, rather than treat him for the disease
"At least a "greedy" corporation is putting people to work"
additionally, you completely absolve the disease of any wrongdoing for the fact that the patient is sick
it just blows my fucking mind, its fucking incredible: that some people should see the corporate infection of our government and conclude the only solution is to destroy the government!
the only thing standing between us and the infection that is the real source of the abuse of our rights is the government. it needs to be CLEANED UP, not DESTROYED, or then all of the abuses you see GET WORSE. that really is the truth. wake the fuck up
however, the vast amount of users are not technically astute, and laws must be passed and enforced to protect them. it is not beholden upon the computer user to have a computer science degree to use a browser, nor should it be, all elitist snarky slashdot comments to the contrary
do you have to be an auto mechanic before you drive on the road?
do you have to be a lawyer before you sit in a jury box?
do you have to be a architect before you own a home?
no?
then it is obvious that your appeal to technical competency before someone gets behind a computer browser is an elitist position, not to mention an impossible position
it is beholden upon SOCIETY to pass and enforce laws to protect the weak and the innocent, not punish them for being weak and innocent and then tell them after the fact they should have known. this is a vision of a brutal and injust society that you operate from
i have every right to say what happens on my machine
additionally, i have every right to insist you change your behavior, such as with logs, if suitable logical reason can be found that my rights could potentially be abused by your practices
in other words, there are principles that govern society, and no one is above those principles. and claims to be exempt from those principles, for reasons of trade and commerce, is the road to hell
understand that, or be the enemy of freedom
individual liberty is not trumped by corporate interest, despite all the paid legal whores and assorted apologists to the contrary
and assorted free market fundamentalists:
you need government regulations. you want to pay taxes for the legions of government bureaucrats toiling away somewhere interfering with business
because without such regulation business will trample your rights
you heard me correctly: the government protects your rights and corporations trample them. i'm sorry of this idea contrasts with certain brands of low brain wattage propaganda about the government trampling your rights: if the paranoid schizophrenic fantasies of certain right wing zealots ever come to fruition, those abuses will not happen at the hands of washington dc, they will happen at the hands of large corporate entities
you kill the beast
ascap's existence is due to a flow of cash that is being threatened by technological change
so there is nothing to debate, there is only the relentless march of progress, and those who resist it because their revenue streams are drying up because of technological change are already living in denial
with denial as their logical baseline, "debate" is an exercise in absurdity. there's simply nothing to debate or talk about: ascap's position is logically untenable from the start, yet they continue to hold their position, therefore, logic will not nor ever sway them. force is the only language they know or understand. so they must be forcibly killed off (by this i mean it becomes acceptable to deny them their revenue streams, i'm not talking about real world physical violence: you have to be careful to note your words are only symbolic because there are real lunatics out there)
" The difference is that we were all free to opt-out and nobody forced us to participate and that is very important in a free society"
the guy who opts out, and then breaks his arm, and then doesn't pay (you do realize our hospitals are constantly being bailed out by THE TAXPAYERS, correct?) shows the folly of your "choice"
the "choice" that is being made to not have insurance is the "choice" being made to freeload (which is the delicious irony in your attitude: you dislike freeloading, and yet this is what your philosophy is arguing for)
this is your REAL choice:
1. mandatory insurance
2. freeloaders. who "choose" not be insured, then break their arms, then we the tax payers pay for them because they avoid the bill
that's your choice in reality
everything else you wrote is idealism: workable only if human beings suddenly start behaving in ways people never have behaved
furthermore, your "socialism sucks because communism sucks" line of reasoning is laughable and tedious. surely you understand socialism is not communism, correct? communism is stupid. likewise, libertarianism, free market fundamentalism: equally stupid. the only workable middle ground is socialism: capitalism with social safety nets. is what you are advocating for social darwinism?: do you want people who can't pay their hospital bills to be rejected from healthcare and allowed to die in the street? no?
i won't pay you the disrespect like you have to me (by criticizing communism when that's not what i am advocating for). surely you don't mean to advocate social darwinism. so surely you see the braindead obvious: health insurance MUST BE MANDATORY. or you are choosing to let some people freeload. you do understand that inevitable real world effect, or are you a hopeless castle in the sky naive idealist? arguing about that which will never be true because you don't understand human nature?
wikileaks waited on release of the information so it could redact all personally identifying information of military personnel
i guess you need to get your news about wikileaks form somewhere other than breitbart
talib don't surf!
benefits open societies and hurts closed ones
i jut wish that there were a way wikileaks could get more secrets from closed societies in a way that was less deadly
say it simply gave you an itchy feeling, no more
ok: then the military should have acted like it was an anthrax ray or something horribly nasty. and then let simple fear in the people it was pointed at do the rest of the work: "get the hell out of here, the americans have some scary new technology that causes your eyes to glow/ flesh to fall off in a month/ all your female relatives to lose their virginity!"
We are nemesis
Created by god to punish mother earth for having the hubris of being so green and bountiful
by advocating a new story topic (not displaying here properly - alt-ctrl-del) as the new form of grammar and coherence. Either way, this will be one interesting turnout. With bad grammar and coherence across the web, advocating a new story topic properly might be an issue. PS Left out new story topic end sentence as Slashdot doesn't display the alt-ctrl-del character.
in which things seem to be changing that are not actually changing, rather the only thing changing is your perceptions (and assumptions)
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1350875&cid=29231109
what you perceive to be changing, in absolute truth, is not changing in the slightest. point of fact
and your anecdote about your dad's era as a cop is especially laughable, as the era your dad was a cop was marked by much corruption, the thin blue line, the cops functioning as a sort of mafia etc. ever hear of serpico?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Serpico
crap like that was embarassing enough that police departments were cleaned up of their internal graft and corruption. of course that shit still goes on today. just to a lesser extent than your dad's era
so if anything law enforcement has been cleaned up in recent years and has been more accountable (and, in no small part, crime has fallen from the era your dad was a cop). in other words, in the short term, law enforcement has improved in quality from your dad's era (as a function of crime statistics). in other words, your anecdote about your dad's opinion of what is happening with police today versus his era is the exact reverse as you describe it
it is what human beings do when they engage in the genetic engineering of the dna of other creatures (or of homo sapiens)
the way creationists propose that god designed us is something that will be in the realm of the ability of human beings within a century. and if us lowly imperfect human beings have the powers of god, that says one of two things:
1. we have become gods
2. your understanding of what god is and how god works is wrong
you are old enough to have avoided the facebook boondoggle in the first place
so its a wash
incidentally, discovering the philosophical connection between global thermonuclear war and social networking is both deep and hilarious
why don't we pay, as a society, for a pool of cash to educate our youth, and pay for our health issues, and then just not have to worry about that? do you understand the notion of quality of life?
why exactly is the idea of sharing healthcare and educational costs such a horrible idea to you? do you not see the benefits of that idea? why aren't those benefits attractive to you?
why should you be burdened for 6 months for your bike accident why not just burden society in aggregate? because a few selfish 40 something assholes don't like their tax rate? why should we care what those a few selfish assholes think of their tax rate?
i'm all for taxing a few 40 something assholes more than forcing a young kid to work for 6 months because he got in a bike accident. what exactly is wrong with that? you understand the value of insurance, right? why not just pay the damn insurance at a group rate? its that simple a concept!
i'm also for society paying completely for youth's education, so they aren't slaves to their debt the moment they graduate. what's the downside of that? the complaints of some 40 somethings who have to pay more in taxes. ok. so fucking what?
those 40 somethings enjoy the fruits of their society just as much as the 20 year old. its just that the way costs are structured, the burden is placed on those entering society (as young folk), rather than on those already in the prime of life. this is a bad structure: it should be structured to ease the young folk into the structure of society, otherwise, they have reason and interest to reject society, to drop out of society as useless debt shirkers or flee the country or hate their lives or hate you and hate americna society for being unfairly structured to reward only 40 something assholes. the way society structures its costs puts so much burden on the young, for what? so some 40 year old asshole can buy another gas guzzling SUV or mcmansion? fuck the 40 something, make it easier for the 20 something
the problem is, you are playing a class warfare game and a generational warfare game, but you either are unaware of the clash of your priorities versus the priorities of others who are more deserving than you, or you honestly believe that there are no social costs to burdening 20 somethings without trust funds with so much, or that you generate social costs that you aren't paying your fair share of. i openly admit to the generational and class warfare game, i don't cage my opinions in libertarian bullshit (libertarianism is just selfishness, dressed up as philosophy: you can dress a whore up in a nice dress, she's still a whore)
why exactly is the idea of sharing healthcare and educational costs such a horrible idea to you? do you honestly believe you are an island and that your fortunes are not tied to the fortunes of your society? do you honestly believe that if the health and education of others suffers you won't suffer as well?
take care of and be concerned about the welfare of your society. or live in haiti. you don't realize that the fruits of your "ideology" is a country like haiti. you honestly believe your "ideology" is a gateway to a better society, erroneously, or you admit that you are a selfish asshole and you are just playing a game to get more than you deserve
the money in your pocket is an abstract representation of the wealth of the community you live in. that's not some hippie far out dude thought, that's economic fact. so take care of your investment, or truly be a poor man
i for one will not be a poor man, simply because there are selfish assholes in my society who don't realize that that is what they are choosing for themselves, and me, by shafting the community they live in by demanding to invest less in their society, as shortsighted and selfish as that is