Yet not nearly so devastating per kilowatt produced as what you get from a coal plant. Furthermore, the damage done by a hydro plant is locally confined; that done by a coal plant is not. And finally, no hydro plant in the world will ruin your lungs or give you cancer.
Given the choice, I'll go with "fuck the fish" for $200!
Many arguing for shorter copyright terms are only doing so because they simply want shit for free.
That's kind of the point, MPAA fanboy. The Constitution - y'know, the one that YOU must abide by along with all the rest of us mere mortals - allows Congress to temporarily grant IP the status of artificial property, after which it enters the public domain.
And becomes FREE.
Without that clause, all IP would be free from the get-go.
I just tried it and no, it doesn't work in Konqueror. Or in Opera. And since I don't plan on switching to Mozilla just to use a bloody webmail account, I'll be passing on gmail until they decide to fix the code for compatibility.
As someone who once owned a ferret, I can tell you'll they'll definitely bite when annoyed. And ferrets have locking jaws, which means that they'll clamp down - somewhat like a pit bull - and if they don't want to let go it's damned near impossible to get them off without injuring the ferret, or the person the ferret is hanging on to, or both.
(Although I quickly learned that dunking an unruly ferret underwater, or sticking the little bastard under a shower head, will convince him to let go. They don't seem to care for either.)
However, while ferrets will bite just about anything that irritates them, they're very picky about what they eat. And 'living human' just isn't on the menu. In fact, a lot of things you'd think would be on the menu aren't, unless they're close to starvation.
but there are some very intellectual roots in the Star Wars story.
Oh, please. It's space opera, pure and simple, and was never meant to be anything else. Lucas himself said as much, repeatedly, until his head started to swell and he began making up all sorts of drivel after the fact to make himself look like a deep, philosophical, brilliant guy.
Lucas' brilliance was in marketing. The story was campy, the acting was mediocre (on a good day), there weren't any deep messages or morals. It was good fun, and nothing else, and nobody pretended any different until Lucas started down the road of egomaniacal self-absorption.
Don't read anything into the original Star Wars trilogy. It isn't there.
At some point you have to realize that it's in your best interest to lay down your guns and MOVE ON.
If some nation invaded America I don't think I'd be looking at it this way, especially if they'd killed tens of thousands of my countrymen in the process and imposed a military dictatorship with a farcical 'representative government' on top of it.
Fact is, I think I'd be out there killing the motherfuckers. As often and as brutally as I could. And I'd brand those Americans who refused to fight for their country as spineless little cowards who don't get any say in how the country will be reconstructed if/when the invaders are driven off.
Max
Re:Tariffs make things BETTER, not worse
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 2
Capitalism is fine, but only to the extent that it benefits us, right?
Of course. What are you, master of the obvious? Our government has a mandate to promote the general welfare of the AMERICAN people, not all people world-wide. It is the business of the Chinese government to promote the welfare of the Chinese people, the Indian government to promote the welfare of the Indian people, and so on. China and India are not our problems, nor should we feel obligated to damage our own economy to promote theirs simply because some idiot liberals start yakking about the 'greater good' and 'hypocrisy'.
Take a look at the states with sales taxes. With just a few exceptions they also have income taxes, property taxes, and a whole host of 'administrative fees' which are somehow exempt from being called taxes. In most of these states the sales tax has steadily climbed over time, without a concurrent decrease in other forms of taxation.
In nearly all of these cases the poorer you are, the harsher the burden of a sales tax. The sales tax you refer to doesn't exist in any state in the union. And there's no reason whatsoever to believe that a federal sales tax will be any different than your average state sales tax.
And why should I approve of any plan which will *increase* my tax burden? Are you going to eliminate property and income taxes when you levy this sales tax? Or is it going to be in addition to other forms of taxation, as has been the case with state taxes? If so, do you honestly believe that Congress will, out of the goodness of its heart, balance these forms of taxation or adhere to any publicly proclaimed cap, barring an amendment to the Constitution?
No thanks, I'll pass on the sales tax. Don't have one, and sure as hell don't want the fucking feds forcing one on me.
Max
Re:poor choice of story for slashdot frontpage
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
If everyone does so, justice is delivered at the ballot box.
This is assuming that at least one of the choices offered is one you approve of. If the system only results in choices you despise then you'll never get justice at the ballot box.
Max
Re:Blame it on the weatherman.
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
U.S. people also have their history on intolerance, racism and xenophoby.
Which makes us no different than any other nation on the face of the Earth.
Max
Re:Thank god for that article
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
What's really telling here is that you posted as an anonymous coward, apparently because you don't have the guts to do so *even under a pseudonym*. Talk about losers.
No one man should deserve to have a personal fortune of $48B. Such a man is no better a human being than anyone else, yet he is allowed to attain and horde riches that could help millions of people.
If he earned it honestly then why shouldn't he get to keep what he's made? What gives you the right to take it from him like a common thief?
Max
Re:Can you guys drop the Socialist moniker please?
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
Cuba and North Korea aren't socialist; the first is closer to fascism than anything else, the second is an old-style absolute dictatorship.
The country closest to true, economic socialism would be Sweden, in my opinion.
Max
Re:Those numbers are doctored everywhere...
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Remember that here in America *any offer of work* is enough to disqualify one from unemployment benefits even if the offered job doesn't pay as much as you get from unemployment.
Max
Re:All I know is...
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
we aren't compete against other Americans for our own survival, but against THE WORLD !
That's what tariffs are for, boy.
their cheaper labor is taking away our jobs.
That's what tariffs and restrictive trade policies are for, boy.
COMPETE AGAINST THE CHEAPEST LABOR IN BANGLADESH, by using OUR BRAIN.
Oh, good show! Now provide some concrete, real-world examples of how our 'brains' will allow us to compete with labor you can pay $2/hour.
Why, I know! Tariffs and restrictive trade policies! Problem solved!
And then, there are Americans who accuse me of "exporting jobs to other countries". Again, I don't mind.
Then do us all a favor and stop pretending that you're an American. If you're exporting jobs to India, then go become a fucking Indian citizen; it's certain you're doing more for India than for the U.S.
Really, if we had any brains at all we'd ban corporations that employed foreigners in excess of 10% of it's workforce. Half your employees are Indian? Then fuck you and the horse you road in on! You're no longer an American company, but an Indian one! And now you're subject to tariffs and - you guessed it - trade restrictions! Eat shit, traitors.
No matter how I like the world outside America, America is still my country.
Yeah, right. Go ahead and tell yourself that while you're selling out your neighbors. Bastard.
You can close the border to "immigrant, but you can't stop those things from coming in.
We sure can. It's called 'tariffs' and 'restrictive trade policies'. It might put guys like you out of work, but why should I give a shit? It's just the way things go, and you're okay with that, right?
Next thing you know you'll be hearing your (gainfully employed) wife yelling "get in the kitchen and make me a pot pie, bitch!" Scamper along now, before she gets angry with you!
Max
Re:All I know is...
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 2, Informative
And yet even if we assume the government is fudging the figures (e.g., the 'marginally employed' - I mean, c'mon!), the average wage has declined markedly. The new jobs created within the economy pay, on average, $9,000 less than the old jobs did.
As a percentage of the population the middle class stands at its lowest point in American history. As a percentage of the population the number of lower-class and poor folks, along with the very rich, are at their highest points ever in American history.
These are facts. They aren't up for debate. Employment rates don't matter a whole lot if all you're doing is turning former middle-class folks into poor folks, while making rich folks richer. For the vast majority of the population things are considerably worse than they were four years ago.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm blaming Bush for all of this. He is a tool, no doubt about it, but while Bush has done nothing but make things worse it was Clinton who really accelerated the process. And Clinton inherited the mess from Bush and his inane fiscal policies, who in turn got it from the Reagan crowd with their idiotic 'trickle-down' policies. Our government has been screwing things up royally since the Carter years, regardless of whether the Democrats or the Republicans have been in charge.
Neither party has done anything to improve the situation, nor will they so long as they are, or answer to, the people who profit from this situation. I don't expect Kerry to do any better; I only hope that he deadlocks the government and thereby prevents it from doing any more harm.
Jesus, I'm getting depressed just thinking about how low my expectations have dropped....
Functional illiteracy is defined as not being able to read or write above the fourth-grade level. This may not be the way you think about literacy, e.g., not being able to read or write *at all*.
However, by most measures a person who can't read above the fourth-grade level is incapable of comprehending even basic newspaper articles unless someone else reads the articles to them. They can't deal with paperwork, with legal documents, even with basic forms (e.g., job applications). This is what is meant by 'functional illiteracy'.
Is it lack of education?
How can it be? We pay more money per child than ever before in our history. School districts bitch and moan about a lack of funds despite the fact that thirty years ago these same districts would be slavering at the mouth to have today's budgets.
Are the school so bad
This isn't a new problem. All absolute measures of student achievement have been declining since the advent of the modern schooling system in the late 1800's. The government gets around these absolute measures by devising relative ones and then lowering the standards over time. For example, the SAT test given today is considerably easier than the one given twenty years ago, as are all standardized tests used in grade schools and high schools. The requirements for getting a passing grade in school subjects have also declined markedly, resulting in rampant grade inflation (I'm sure you've heard of this, if not the changing test requirements). And so on.
Forced government schooling has been an abysmal failure from the get-go, *if you assume that education is the goal of schooling*. If you instead assume that the goal is to produce a stupid, uneducated proletariat willing to work for slave wages and who'll be unable to properly question it's own government or corporate economic entities, then school has been a spectacular, unparalleled success. But for this last you have to be paranoid enough to do some research on the topic, which is pretty damned disturbing when you get into it.
Are students no longer interested?
Student disaffection with forced schooling isn't a new problem; it's been a problem right from the beginning. Teacher's associations like to blame 'society' or parents for student disaffection and point to it as a growin problem, but the simple fact is that it's always been a problem and that it's no worse today than it was a century ago. In fact, a century ago schools not only had to deal with unruly, unwilling students, but also with parents who would storm schools to 'free' their children, refuse to send their kids to school, in some cases hang teachers and administrators, and even engaged troops in battle in order to prevent their kids from being forced into school. Of course you don't learn about *this* in public school, now do you?
If anything, overall disaffection has *declined* because parents no longer string teachers and administrators up, nor do they form off-the-cuff militias and go to war over the idea of mandatory schooling.
Max
Re:I'm a micro-view of the job situation
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 1
That is absolutely false. We don't have nearly enough teachers in this country.
This would be assuming that you buy into the entire idea of forced government schooling, despite the abysmal failure of the system. Which I don't.
And in that case, there certainly are too many so-called professional 'teachers' in this country.
Flat taxes and sales taxes are rigged against the poor
A sales tax is just plain evil, I'll grant you, but a flat tax doesn't unjustly burden the poor. Especially when you consider that most flat tax plans completely exempt people earning below a certain income level.
If you had a 20% flat tax rate, then a person earning $30,000 a year would pay $6,000. A person earning $300,000 a year would pay $60,000. How, exactly, is the second guy getting a better deal than the first? I don't see it, and I suspect I'd have to be some pseudo-socialist yahoo looking for revenge against the rich 'cuz, like, I'm not one of them, to truly comprehend the logic in your statement.
Max
Re:Ohio is a mess...
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
receive the benefits of the education systems
You mean that despite the fact that we're paying more per child (adjusted for inflation) in our schools than at any previous time in American history, our literacy rates (among other measures) have been steadily declining? That in fact, when this country rebelled in 1776 the average literacy rate was 98% despite having no forced schooling, and now, with this enormous forced schooling infrastructure we now have a literacy rate of around 68%?
Exactly how is that going to help anything? So long as you have a two-party system dominated by the DemoRepublicans then you can fuck with the money system any way you please and you'll STILL get one Democrat and one Republican running for the Presidency every four years.
Campaign finance reform is the issue that the DemoRepublicans use to distract us from the real problem: that the current system is rigged so only they can play the game.
Slashdot Mirror
It's also devastating to downstream ecologies.
Yet not nearly so devastating per kilowatt produced as what you get from a coal plant. Furthermore, the damage done by a hydro plant is locally confined; that done by a coal plant is not. And finally, no hydro plant in the world will ruin your lungs or give you cancer.
Given the choice, I'll go with "fuck the fish" for $200!
Max
I'd find it quite amusing to see Mickey and Donald beat your sorry ass to a pulp after they ran you down for shoplifting. What a show that would be!
Max
Many arguing for shorter copyright terms are only doing so because they simply want shit for free.
That's kind of the point, MPAA fanboy. The Constitution - y'know, the one that YOU must abide by along with all the rest of us mere mortals - allows Congress to temporarily grant IP the status of artificial property, after which it enters the public domain.
And becomes FREE.
Without that clause, all IP would be free from the get-go.
Max
Me too. Imagine my disappointment....
Max
Yes it is, it has a lot more variation and thus gives you a better chance on seeing different sides.
That's what the internet is for. If your sole source of news is what you see on TV, that's your problem.
Max
so I guess that Konqueror works too
I just tried it and no, it doesn't work in Konqueror. Or in Opera. And since I don't plan on switching to Mozilla just to use a bloody webmail account, I'll be passing on gmail until they decide to fix the code for compatibility.
Max
As someone who once owned a ferret, I can tell you'll they'll definitely bite when annoyed. And ferrets have locking jaws, which means that they'll clamp down - somewhat like a pit bull - and if they don't want to let go it's damned near impossible to get them off without injuring the ferret, or the person the ferret is hanging on to, or both.
(Although I quickly learned that dunking an unruly ferret underwater, or sticking the little bastard under a shower head, will convince him to let go. They don't seem to care for either.)
However, while ferrets will bite just about anything that irritates them, they're very picky about what they eat. And 'living human' just isn't on the menu. In fact, a lot of things you'd think would be on the menu aren't, unless they're close to starvation.
Max
but there are some very intellectual roots in the Star Wars story.
Oh, please. It's space opera, pure and simple, and was never meant to be anything else. Lucas himself said as much, repeatedly, until his head started to swell and he began making up all sorts of drivel after the fact to make himself look like a deep, philosophical, brilliant guy.
Lucas' brilliance was in marketing. The story was campy, the acting was mediocre (on a good day), there weren't any deep messages or morals. It was good fun, and nothing else, and nobody pretended any different until Lucas started down the road of egomaniacal self-absorption.
Don't read anything into the original Star Wars trilogy. It isn't there.
Max
Hey, you're talking about the same audience who thought that the schlock philosophy tossed about in "The Matrix" was, like, so deep, d00d!
Max
At some point you have to realize that it's in your best interest to lay down your guns and MOVE ON.
If some nation invaded America I don't think I'd be looking at it this way, especially if they'd killed tens of thousands of my countrymen in the process and imposed a military dictatorship with a farcical 'representative government' on top of it.
Fact is, I think I'd be out there killing the motherfuckers. As often and as brutally as I could. And I'd brand those Americans who refused to fight for their country as spineless little cowards who don't get any say in how the country will be reconstructed if/when the invaders are driven off.
Max
Capitalism is fine, but only to the extent that it benefits us, right?
Of course. What are you, master of the obvious? Our government has a mandate to promote the general welfare of the AMERICAN people, not all people world-wide. It is the business of the Chinese government to promote the welfare of the Chinese people, the Indian government to promote the welfare of the Indian people, and so on. China and India are not our problems, nor should we feel obligated to damage our own economy to promote theirs simply because some idiot liberals start yakking about the 'greater good' and 'hypocrisy'.
Max
Take a look at the states with sales taxes. With just a few exceptions they also have income taxes, property taxes, and a whole host of 'administrative fees' which are somehow exempt from being called taxes. In most of these states the sales tax has steadily climbed over time, without a concurrent decrease in other forms of taxation.
In nearly all of these cases the poorer you are, the harsher the burden of a sales tax. The sales tax you refer to doesn't exist in any state in the union. And there's no reason whatsoever to believe that a federal sales tax will be any different than your average state sales tax.
And why should I approve of any plan which will *increase* my tax burden? Are you going to eliminate property and income taxes when you levy this sales tax? Or is it going to be in addition to other forms of taxation, as has been the case with state taxes? If so, do you honestly believe that Congress will, out of the goodness of its heart, balance these forms of taxation or adhere to any publicly proclaimed cap, barring an amendment to the Constitution?
No thanks, I'll pass on the sales tax. Don't have one, and sure as hell don't want the fucking feds forcing one on me.
Max
If everyone does so, justice is delivered at the ballot box.
This is assuming that at least one of the choices offered is one you approve of. If the system only results in choices you despise then you'll never get justice at the ballot box.
Max
U.S. people also have their history on intolerance, racism and xenophoby.
Which makes us no different than any other nation on the face of the Earth.
Max
What's really telling here is that you posted as an anonymous coward, apparently because you don't have the guts to do so *even under a pseudonym*. Talk about losers.
Max
No one man should deserve to have a personal fortune of $48B. Such a man is no better a human being than anyone else, yet he is allowed to attain and horde riches that could help millions of people.
If he earned it honestly then why shouldn't he get to keep what he's made? What gives you the right to take it from him like a common thief?
Max
Cuba and North Korea aren't socialist; the first is closer to fascism than anything else, the second is an old-style absolute dictatorship.
The country closest to true, economic socialism would be Sweden, in my opinion.
Max
Remember that here in America *any offer of work* is enough to disqualify one from unemployment benefits even if the offered job doesn't pay as much as you get from unemployment.
Max
we aren't compete against other Americans for our own survival, but against THE WORLD !
That's what tariffs are for, boy.
their cheaper labor is taking away our jobs.
That's what tariffs and restrictive trade policies are for, boy.
COMPETE AGAINST THE CHEAPEST LABOR IN BANGLADESH, by using OUR BRAIN.
Oh, good show! Now provide some concrete, real-world examples of how our 'brains' will allow us to compete with labor you can pay $2/hour.
Why, I know! Tariffs and restrictive trade policies! Problem solved!
And then, there are Americans who accuse me of "exporting jobs to other countries". Again, I don't mind.
Then do us all a favor and stop pretending that you're an American. If you're exporting jobs to India, then go become a fucking Indian citizen; it's certain you're doing more for India than for the U.S.
Really, if we had any brains at all we'd ban corporations that employed foreigners in excess of 10% of it's workforce. Half your employees are Indian? Then fuck you and the horse you road in on! You're no longer an American company, but an Indian one! And now you're subject to tariffs and - you guessed it - trade restrictions! Eat shit, traitors.
No matter how I like the world outside America, America is still my country.
Yeah, right. Go ahead and tell yourself that while you're selling out your neighbors. Bastard.
You can close the border to "immigrant, but you can't stop those things from coming in.
We sure can. It's called 'tariffs' and 'restrictive trade policies'. It might put guys like you out of work, but why should I give a shit? It's just the way things go, and you're okay with that, right?
Next thing you know you'll be hearing your (gainfully employed) wife yelling "get in the kitchen and make me a pot pie, bitch!" Scamper along now, before she gets angry with you!
Max
And yet even if we assume the government is fudging the figures (e.g., the 'marginally employed' - I mean, c'mon!), the average wage has declined markedly. The new jobs created within the economy pay, on average, $9,000 less than the old jobs did.
As a percentage of the population the middle class stands at its lowest point in American history. As a percentage of the population the number of lower-class and poor folks, along with the very rich, are at their highest points ever in American history.
These are facts. They aren't up for debate. Employment rates don't matter a whole lot if all you're doing is turning former middle-class folks into poor folks, while making rich folks richer. For the vast majority of the population things are considerably worse than they were four years ago.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm blaming Bush for all of this. He is a tool, no doubt about it, but while Bush has done nothing but make things worse it was Clinton who really accelerated the process. And Clinton inherited the mess from Bush and his inane fiscal policies, who in turn got it from the Reagan crowd with their idiotic 'trickle-down' policies. Our government has been screwing things up royally since the Carter years, regardless of whether the Democrats or the Republicans have been in charge.
Neither party has done anything to improve the situation, nor will they so long as they are, or answer to, the people who profit from this situation. I don't expect Kerry to do any better; I only hope that he deadlocks the government and thereby prevents it from doing any more harm.
Jesus, I'm getting depressed just thinking about how low my expectations have dropped....
Max
Functional illiteracy is defined as not being able to read or write above the fourth-grade level. This may not be the way you think about literacy, e.g., not being able to read or write *at all*.
However, by most measures a person who can't read above the fourth-grade level is incapable of comprehending even basic newspaper articles unless someone else reads the articles to them. They can't deal with paperwork, with legal documents, even with basic forms (e.g., job applications). This is what is meant by 'functional illiteracy'.
Is it lack of education?
How can it be? We pay more money per child than ever before in our history. School districts bitch and moan about a lack of funds despite the fact that thirty years ago these same districts would be slavering at the mouth to have today's budgets.
Are the school so bad
This isn't a new problem. All absolute measures of student achievement have been declining since the advent of the modern schooling system in the late 1800's. The government gets around these absolute measures by devising relative ones and then lowering the standards over time. For example, the SAT test given today is considerably easier than the one given twenty years ago, as are all standardized tests used in grade schools and high schools. The requirements for getting a passing grade in school subjects have also declined markedly, resulting in rampant grade inflation (I'm sure you've heard of this, if not the changing test requirements). And so on.
Forced government schooling has been an abysmal failure from the get-go, *if you assume that education is the goal of schooling*. If you instead assume that the goal is to produce a stupid, uneducated proletariat willing to work for slave wages and who'll be unable to properly question it's own government or corporate economic entities, then school has been a spectacular, unparalleled success. But for this last you have to be paranoid enough to do some research on the topic, which is pretty damned disturbing when you get into it.
Are students no longer interested?
Student disaffection with forced schooling isn't a new problem; it's been a problem right from the beginning. Teacher's associations like to blame 'society' or parents for student disaffection and point to it as a growin problem, but the simple fact is that it's always been a problem and that it's no worse today than it was a century ago. In fact, a century ago schools not only had to deal with unruly, unwilling students, but also with parents who would storm schools to 'free' their children, refuse to send their kids to school, in some cases hang teachers and administrators, and even engaged troops in battle in order to prevent their kids from being forced into school. Of course you don't learn about *this* in public school, now do you?
If anything, overall disaffection has *declined* because parents no longer string teachers and administrators up, nor do they form off-the-cuff militias and go to war over the idea of mandatory schooling.
Max
That is absolutely false. We don't have nearly enough teachers in this country.
This would be assuming that you buy into the entire idea of forced government schooling, despite the abysmal failure of the system. Which I don't.
And in that case, there certainly are too many so-called professional 'teachers' in this country.
Max
Flat taxes and sales taxes are rigged against the poor
A sales tax is just plain evil, I'll grant you, but a flat tax doesn't unjustly burden the poor. Especially when you consider that most flat tax plans completely exempt people earning below a certain income level.
If you had a 20% flat tax rate, then a person earning $30,000 a year would pay $6,000. A person earning $300,000 a year would pay $60,000. How, exactly, is the second guy getting a better deal than the first? I don't see it, and I suspect I'd have to be some pseudo-socialist yahoo looking for revenge against the rich 'cuz, like, I'm not one of them, to truly comprehend the logic in your statement.
Max
receive the benefits of the education systems
You mean that despite the fact that we're paying more per child (adjusted for inflation) in our schools than at any previous time in American history, our literacy rates (among other measures) have been steadily declining? That in fact, when this country rebelled in 1776 the average literacy rate was 98% despite having no forced schooling, and now, with this enormous forced schooling infrastructure we now have a literacy rate of around 68%?
You mean *those* benefits?
Max
What we need is campaign finance reform.
Exactly how is that going to help anything? So long as you have a two-party system dominated by the DemoRepublicans then you can fuck with the money system any way you please and you'll STILL get one Democrat and one Republican running for the Presidency every four years.
Campaign finance reform is the issue that the DemoRepublicans use to distract us from the real problem: that the current system is rigged so only they can play the game.
Max