You're right -- and, I think, you're wrong. This has been on my mind lately.
Instead of the Brits, let's take that most hated of cultures in the U.S.: the French. I'm convinced the administration makes such a point of conditioning us to hate the French because they have odd concepts like national health care and the workers still have rights. We don't want American workers to start thinking like that. On the other hand, we know this refuge of Brits and American movie stars has recently had another round of riots, which are basically race riots. I seem to remember reading that burning cars has a long tradition in French vandalism in general. And, sorry that I can't remember the title, I am reminded of a hilarious dark comedy from the late 70s where a gang of disgruntled soccer fans hunt an umpire they think made a bad call through the streets of Paris all night long. Which, of course, played on sports hooliganism.
What's the point? Two things: (1) every country on the planet has a low-life class. (2) A country should be judged instead by its leadership, direction and cultural vision.
Which means there is still plenty of reason to bash the U.S. with our current leadership, direction and cultural vision.
Gonzales, however, is wrong. The war on terror is over! We're now in the "struggle against Islamic extremism" [heritage.org].
They need to hire a PR firm to work on that phrase. "Struggle" is rather negative and connotes an uncertain outcome. And why "extremism" instead of simply "evil"? "Extremism in the pursuit of virtue is no vice." The term is tainted and "evil-doers" has worked really well so far. But you are still left with something like "Glorious campaign against Islamic evil".
Let's just cut to the chase: "Crusade" evokes a strong historical resonance with our traditional European heritage and fits nicely on a banner. It would offend the Islamic world? Like they aren't yet?
I want some big, important pundit on the right to give an example of something the president does not, by their lights, have the authority to do. If he becomes a dictator in wartime (which it's mighty sketchy to say we're in), why not come out and say this? Can he rape and murder? No, seriously, if he can break one law, why not others?
Bush Advisor Says President Has Legal Power to Torture Children By Philip Watts
01/08/06 "revcom.us" -- -- John Yoo publicly argued there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody - including by crushing that child's testicles.
A little thought should give some idea of where the Neocon would draw the line. Clearly, a suspect, or those close to a suspect, could only be tortured in private. Public torture or the broadcast of torture would be both obscene and degrading. Rumsfeld has already weighed in on this issue when he said that publishing pictures of our prisoners would be considered degrading treatment under international law. I would also assume that it would be sacrilegious to cruxify suspects or burn inverted crosses and pentagrams on their bodies. This is a regime that cares deeply about public decency and religion so I am sure we can all think of similar examples of things they would be unlikely to do.
Of course, if some enthusiastic field operative tortures beyond decency and piety, how can our glorious leader be blamed?
Oh! But can't you see that we're in a war on terrorism? A war on a tactic, with no clearly-defined enemy, no location where it's taking place, no fighting, and - most importantly - not even a clear condition whereby we could determine that we have won it...
Nixon really was less evil than Dubya. At least he declared a war on cancer.
Of course, but liberals can be guilty of the behavior the article discusses. The Neocons, for example, are not Nazis, they're fascists. Nazis were members of a 20th century German political party. Fascism is a government structure. One label is namecalling. The other can be rationally discussed. Confusing the two blunts liberal response.
'Google officials characterized the censorship concessions in China as an excruciating decision for a company that adopted "don't be evil" as a motto. But management believes it's a worthwhile sacrifice.'"
Heh, heh. Should be posted above the gate of every corporation.
Sacrifice for whom? The sociology of group dynamics -- window into the root of most evil.
Also remember that if you are creating value without getting a reward, you are a loser. And if you complain about it on a website, you are a wanker.
Ah, another/. Libertarian. Right, the guy's a total loser for being an employee. He should have created the content and marketed it while he still had the option of living in his parents' basement.
I'm too old for the second bottle these days so I just might try that. I think I've noticed shiraz getting some print lately and it has been a while for me with positive memories.
You mean he isn't going to put it in the stock market? My retirement account is already back to where it was in 2000.
And how does he know it won't cost $100 million for 1000 Chinese with fiberoptics and nanotools to repair his jelly pan back to where he can lurch and crave human flesh.
It would certainly add a range of chemicals. My first reaction is to think that I've had many well-aged wines without the same invariable headache but perhaps I should pay more careful attention to chardonney and wooding in particular.
Not the worst thing that can happen. You've heard about the occasional Italian distributor who adds antifreeze to his chianti for that extra fullness? I consumed a bottle of Argentinian red one Friday night in 1989 (by way of saying my _weekly_ bottle of wine, just in that night) and was experiencing acute loss of liver function by Saturday night. Working temporarily out of town my choice of medical care was catch-as-catch-can and between the GP I picked from the phone book and the emergency room's bloodwork we only determined that it was my liver and I didn't have hepatitis. There are some odd events that can cause that sort of thing but the time frame makes the wine suspect.
Livers good! Really took the wind out of me for many weeks.
[Oh, and it was the three-store "status name" liquor chain for that metro -- so you never know.]
Winetasting is an exercise in differences and is anti-modern at its heart considering we want every Whopper and Coke to be identical. We don't have the mindset. You don't have to be a person who methodically categorizes every wine by vintage, region, varietal and chateau but when you buy a chateau wine, appreciating that distinctiveness is part of what you are paying for. If that doesn't interest you, then it is wasted money. Just pay attention to the dominent grape in the blend of particular bottles you like and follow your tastes. Over time you might notice that you prefer one chardonney over a chardonney from a different region or vintage and then you are making a more specific distinction.
A corollary of distinctiveness is that it might be a distinctiveness you don't find appealing. And that's OK. I remember when the Gallo brothers were alive and one of them related in an interview how they were mulling over what wine to bring up to celebrate the new year and they decided in the end to just drink one of their own because it was something they honestly liked.
Aside from recognizing the effects of bad weather, various rot, taint and poor storage, I'm not sure there aren't some basics to good taste however. A decade+ aged cabernet is fine thing, but I guess I wasn't paying attention to register how that cough syrup straight from fermentation got trendy a few years ago. I think there is some pretty good agreement about mixing wines with food as well.
Now if anyone could explain what it is about Australian whites that can invariably give me a headache with only one glass....??
Indeed. Quite a few posts before we get to your's pointing that out,
Seems an odd choice. Probably cheaper than cabernet but not as cheap as other varietals if he just wants to experiment with artifically inducing aging.
Is 70 too cold? Damn straight if it is 95 outside. As one of the suffering first-world cube workers who has regularly worn a wool sweater in July, sneaked in an incandescent desk lamp to occasionally warm the keyboarding fingers and gotten on his chair to plug the overhead air vent with paper towels, I would say the corporate fascination with air conditioning is highly disfunctional. Just fix the attitude and the resources problem is partially solved. I realize it puts me squarely in the "want to solve the energy crisis, quit driving SUVs" crowd, but, hey, there is something to be said for rational realism.
A company wants to talk about climate and productivity, I would be fascinated to learn whether there has been a study of office climate and summer illness. From my experience, I would really like to see a 10 degree indoor/outdoor difference below 100 degrees ouside, 15-20 degrees for 100s, 100 and teens. Who ever got heat stroke at a dehumidified 85-90? But I sure know people who have gotten summer pneumonia at 70. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Maybe we need a lawsuit where somebody dies of summer pneumonia and the surviving family sues the company for inficting it on him before business will get out of their weird rut of "the more we refrigerate our employees the better".
I've heard of professors who dress up in period costume. Maybe Political Science 101 should be taught by four professors dressed as Stalin, Hitler, Jefferson and Robert Owen each defending their systems.
In just a nod to modern rationalism, it would nonetheless be nice if there were a fifth professor to provide commentary.
That should get North Dakotans interested in those funny TVs with the detached screen -- speaking as someone who went to public school in North Dakota.
I just sense that this fascination people have in beaming product up from Little House on the Prairie is wrong in so many ways. And usually some urban guy's neo-hippie fantasy when he has never actually lived in a rural area.
Aside from the precedent of business being concentrated in metropolitan areas for the sum total of recorded history:
1. North Dakota isn't under snow from about mid-April to mid-October. Lots of luck recruiting if the idea is to bring labor in.
2. Nearest Starbucks -- 50 miles. That'll go over well.
3. What's your idea of "small town"? If it's much under 100,000 how will your salesforce feel about driving 50-100 miles through a blizzard to get on a national/international flight? Company near where I grew up felt they had to maintain a private airstrip, plane and pilot.
4. Is this a serious plan to hire the locals? North Dakota has had education spending ranks in the high 40s for decades competing with the likes of Alabama and Mississippi for least spent per pupil. When the bonding bill comes up for the school's shiny new computer lab how do you think those farmers driving into town are going to vote?
5. And can you honestly blame them that much? When you are talking about an area where the population density is that low there aren't enough taxpayers to build high-tech schools every 50 miles. Look it up in Wikipedia. You are talking about 183,000 square kilometers (360 miles by 210 miles) with the population of Baltimore City.
6. Last time I was in North Dakota, my town hospital had become mostly a nursing home. So when you are offered that job, go back and tell the wife, "Honey, when you go into labor, we'll have to drive 70 miles to the hospital" and see how it plays. And how much sex you get nine months before blizzard season.
7. The plasma TV is going to cost you. I doubt whether metropolitan people can imagine how many truly small towns don't even have a movie theater.
8. Think you are getting the kids away from bad influences? Rural/urban -- where do you think meth is made? You better hope the kids like hunting, fishing and school sports. If they're like me and my group we mostly amused ourselves with petty vandalism and pranks, drinking and driving, determining the top end on dad's hemi, whether we could touch bumpers at 90 mph and, of course, sex. That sort of thing.
Hire talent that is not stupid enough to not move from the horribly overpriced location they are at now.
Well, there you are. You're suggesting that people move from the tech center to a small town. But what does this do to get the native bango player from Deliverance his MSCE?
Depends on if you consider x% of the interweb population to be valuable to your business.
That's about the size of it. Extrapolate from the server's browser stats. My wife is webmaster of a company that can, in fact, have a signficant viewer population using Win9X from their double-wide in the trailer park. She accordingly works for broad site compatibility.
Caucasian? Odd. Back when I was working at an Ivy, it seemed like the archtypal tech nerd was Asian.
I once saw a boss give what I thought was scant interest in Indian greencarders with years of experience on the vitae and Indian grad degrees. Racism, ethnic discrimination, or prudent caution?
What drug do you get for the trauma of being jailed for abusing PTSD drugs?
What will the mental landscape be of a long-term PTSD drug abuser?
Presumably, the military super-psycho killer will at least have memories of burning these women and children. So soldiers will be on them for life to kill the middle-of-the-night flashbacks?
Either that, or they will come up with a drug that _permanently_ lets people learn from the moment that killing people is juusstt ffiiinnnneee. Yeah, I want to work in the cube next to that dude when he gets discharged.
In civilian use, who hands them out? Night psychiatrist on duty at every precinct station?
Oh, yeah. Distributing this stuff throughout society will be just great.
But it does open artistic opportunities like "Mi Lai, the Musical Comedy As I Remember It.", which I suppose a hip crowd of PSTD drug abusers would find hilarious.
Answer: Because they empower the second industrial revolution.
Steam engines allowed reliable manufacturing and transport beyond anything manpower or horsepower could imagine. They augmented muscle.
Computers allow research and information flow beyond anything people could imagine. They augment brains.
As the steam engine released an extraordinary flood of products, computers will unleash an extraordinary flood of discovery -- and that means things like cancer cures.
A "big picture" thought presumably obvious to/.ers but one I think a lot of people who don't work in cubes don't appreciate -- particularly mothers and other such older folk who might hark back to when the U.S. was a manufacturing hub that still made "things".
It's beyond time to question "free trade" when America can't sell it's #1 product: the freedom to say what you want.
Actually, I think that is pretty profound. What is "Western Culture" except science on one hand and the "rights of man" on the other hand. The rest of the world has science now. All we have left to give is Enlightment humanism. Failing that, our culture has no reason to exist beyond Hollywood and Las Vegas.
Slashdot Mirror
Did it occur to you that maybe they'll do more Good by being a western influence in China than by not being there at all?
So if our influence is demonstrating that we will always sacrifice the morals we talk about for money, the good we are doing is........?
You're right -- and, I think, you're wrong. This has been on my mind lately.
Instead of the Brits, let's take that most hated of cultures in the U.S.: the French. I'm convinced the administration makes such a point of conditioning us to hate the French because they have odd concepts like national health care and the workers still have rights. We don't want American workers to start thinking like that. On the other hand, we know this refuge of Brits and American movie stars has recently had another round of riots, which are basically race riots. I seem to remember reading that burning cars has a long tradition in French vandalism in general. And, sorry that I can't remember the title, I am reminded of a hilarious dark comedy from the late 70s where a gang of disgruntled soccer fans hunt an umpire they think made a bad call through the streets of Paris all night long. Which, of course, played on sports hooliganism.
What's the point? Two things: (1) every country on the planet has a low-life class. (2) A country should be judged instead by its leadership, direction and cultural vision.
Which means there is still plenty of reason to bash the U.S. with our current leadership, direction and cultural vision.
Gonzales, however, is wrong. The war on terror is over! We're now in the "struggle against Islamic extremism" [heritage.org].
They need to hire a PR firm to work on that phrase. "Struggle" is rather negative and connotes an uncertain outcome. And why "extremism" instead of simply "evil"? "Extremism in the pursuit of virtue is no vice." The term is tainted and "evil-doers" has worked really well so far. But you are still left with something like "Glorious campaign against Islamic evil".
Let's just cut to the chase: "Crusade" evokes a strong historical resonance with our traditional European heritage and fits nicely on a banner. It would offend the Islamic world? Like they aren't yet?
I want some big, important pundit on the right to give an example of something the president does not, by their lights, have the authority to do. If he becomes a dictator in wartime (which it's mighty sketchy to say we're in), why not come out and say this? Can he rape and murder? No, seriously, if he can break one law, why not others?
1 488.htm
Bush Advisor Says President Has Legal Power to Torture Children
By Philip Watts
01/08/06 "revcom.us" -- -- John Yoo publicly argued there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody - including by crushing that child's testicles.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1
A little thought should give some idea of where the Neocon would draw the line. Clearly, a suspect, or those close to a suspect, could only be tortured in private. Public torture or the broadcast of torture would be both obscene and degrading. Rumsfeld has already weighed in on this issue when he said that publishing pictures of our prisoners would be considered degrading treatment under international law. I would also assume that it would be sacrilegious to cruxify suspects or burn inverted crosses and pentagrams on their bodies. This is a regime that cares deeply about public decency and religion so I am sure we can all think of similar examples of things they would be unlikely to do.
Of course, if some enthusiastic field operative tortures beyond decency and piety, how can our glorious leader be blamed?
Oh! But can't you see that we're in a war on terrorism? A war on a tactic, with no clearly-defined enemy, no location where it's taking place, no fighting, and - most importantly - not even a clear condition whereby we could determine that we have won it...
Nixon really was less evil than Dubya. At least he declared a war on cancer.
It's a level of goverment control that I don't think most of us can really grasp.
Unfortunately, that's true -- like the percentage of Americans who still think Saddam had WMDs?
It's really just the difference between state run media and state partnered media.
Of course, but liberals can be guilty of the behavior the article discusses. The Neocons, for example, are not Nazis, they're fascists. Nazis were members of a 20th century German political party. Fascism is a government structure. One label is namecalling. The other can be rationally discussed. Confusing the two blunts liberal response.
'Google officials characterized the censorship concessions in China as an excruciating decision for a company that adopted "don't be evil" as a motto. But management believes it's a worthwhile sacrifice.'"
Heh, heh. Should be posted above the gate of every corporation.
Sacrifice for whom? The sociology of group dynamics -- window into the root of most evil.
Also remember that if you are creating value without getting a reward, you are a loser. And if you complain about it on a website, you are a wanker.
/. Libertarian. Right, the guy's a total loser for being an employee. He should have created the content and marketed it while he still had the option of living in his parents' basement.
Ah, another
I'm owned by a cat so I know that you keep them away from parking lots. Apparently, antifreeze has a rich, full-bodied sweetness.
I'm too old for the second bottle these days so I just might try that. I think I've noticed shiraz getting some print lately and it has been a while for me with positive memories.
You mean he isn't going to put it in the stock market? My retirement account is already back to where it was in 2000.
And how does he know it won't cost $100 million for 1000 Chinese with fiberoptics and nanotools to repair his jelly pan back to where he can lurch and crave human flesh.
It would certainly add a range of chemicals. My first reaction is to think that I've had many well-aged wines without the same invariable headache but perhaps I should pay more careful attention to chardonney and wooding in particular.
Not the worst thing that can happen. You've heard about the occasional Italian distributor who adds antifreeze to his chianti for that extra fullness? I consumed a bottle of Argentinian red one Friday night in 1989 (by way of saying my _weekly_ bottle of wine, just in that night) and was experiencing acute loss of liver function by Saturday night. Working temporarily out of town my choice of medical care was catch-as-catch-can and between the GP I picked from the phone book and the emergency room's bloodwork we only determined that it was my liver and I didn't have hepatitis. There are some odd events that can cause that sort of thing but the time frame makes the wine suspect.
Livers good! Really took the wind out of me for many weeks.
[Oh, and it was the three-store "status name" liquor chain for that metro -- so you never know.]
Winetasting is an exercise in differences and is anti-modern at its heart considering we want every Whopper and Coke to be identical. We don't have the mindset. You don't have to be a person who methodically categorizes every wine by vintage, region, varietal and chateau but when you buy a chateau wine, appreciating that distinctiveness is part of what you are paying for. If that doesn't interest you, then it is wasted money. Just pay attention to the dominent grape in the blend of particular bottles you like and follow your tastes. Over time you might notice that you prefer one chardonney over a chardonney from a different region or vintage and then you are making a more specific distinction.
A corollary of distinctiveness is that it might be a distinctiveness you don't find appealing. And that's OK. I remember when the Gallo brothers were alive and one of them related in an interview how they were mulling over what wine to bring up to celebrate the new year and they decided in the end to just drink one of their own because it was something they honestly liked.
Aside from recognizing the effects of bad weather, various rot, taint and poor storage, I'm not sure there aren't some basics to good taste however. A decade+ aged cabernet is fine thing, but I guess I wasn't paying attention to register how that cough syrup straight from fermentation got trendy a few years ago. I think there is some pretty good agreement about mixing wines with food as well.
Now if anyone could explain what it is about Australian whites that can invariably give me a headache with only one glass....??
Indeed. Quite a few posts before we get to your's pointing that out,
Seems an odd choice. Probably cheaper than cabernet but not as cheap as other varietals if he just wants to experiment with artifically inducing aging.
Is 70 too cold? Damn straight if it is 95 outside. As one of the suffering first-world cube workers who has regularly worn a wool sweater in July, sneaked in an incandescent desk lamp to occasionally warm the keyboarding fingers and gotten on his chair to plug the overhead air vent with paper towels, I would say the corporate fascination with air conditioning is highly disfunctional. Just fix the attitude and the resources problem is partially solved. I realize it puts me squarely in the "want to solve the energy crisis, quit driving SUVs" crowd, but, hey, there is something to be said for rational realism.
A company wants to talk about climate and productivity, I would be fascinated to learn whether there has been a study of office climate and summer illness. From my experience, I would really like to see a 10 degree indoor/outdoor difference below 100 degrees ouside, 15-20 degrees for 100s, 100 and teens. Who ever got heat stroke at a dehumidified 85-90? But I sure know people who have gotten summer pneumonia at 70. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Maybe we need a lawsuit where somebody dies of summer pneumonia and the surviving family sues the company for inficting it on him before business will get out of their weird rut of "the more we refrigerate our employees the better".
I've heard of professors who dress up in period costume. Maybe Political Science 101 should be taught by four professors dressed as Stalin, Hitler, Jefferson and Robert Owen each defending their systems.
In just a nod to modern rationalism, it would nonetheless be nice if there were a fifth professor to provide commentary.
That should get North Dakotans interested in those funny TVs with the detached screen -- speaking as someone who went to public school in North Dakota.
I just sense that this fascination people have in beaming product up from Little House on the Prairie is wrong in so many ways. And usually some urban guy's neo-hippie fantasy when he has never actually lived in a rural area.
Aside from the precedent of business being concentrated in metropolitan areas for the sum total of recorded history:
1. North Dakota isn't under snow from about mid-April to mid-October. Lots of luck recruiting if the idea is to bring labor in.
2. Nearest Starbucks -- 50 miles. That'll go over well.
3. What's your idea of "small town"? If it's much under 100,000 how will your salesforce feel about driving 50-100 miles through a blizzard to get on a national/international flight? Company near where I grew up felt they had to maintain a private airstrip, plane and pilot.
4. Is this a serious plan to hire the locals? North Dakota has had education spending ranks in the high 40s for decades competing with the likes of Alabama and Mississippi for least spent per pupil. When the bonding bill comes up for the school's shiny new computer lab how do you think those farmers driving into town are going to vote?
5. And can you honestly blame them that much? When you are talking about an area where the population density is that low there aren't enough taxpayers to build high-tech schools every 50 miles. Look it up in Wikipedia. You are talking about 183,000 square kilometers (360 miles by 210 miles) with the population of Baltimore City.
6. Last time I was in North Dakota, my town hospital had become mostly a nursing home. So when you are offered that job, go back and tell the wife, "Honey, when you go into labor, we'll have to drive 70 miles to the hospital" and see how it plays. And how much sex you get nine months before blizzard season.
7. The plasma TV is going to cost you. I doubt whether metropolitan people can imagine how many truly small towns don't even have a movie theater.
8. Think you are getting the kids away from bad influences? Rural/urban -- where do you think meth is made? You better hope the kids like hunting, fishing and school sports. If they're like me and my group we mostly amused ourselves with petty vandalism and pranks, drinking and driving, determining the top end on dad's hemi, whether we could touch bumpers at 90 mph and, of course, sex. That sort of thing.
Enjoy.
Hire talent that is not stupid enough to not move from the horribly overpriced location they are at now.
Well, there you are. You're suggesting that people move from the tech center to a small town. But what does this do to get the native bango player from Deliverance his MSCE?
Depends on if you consider x% of the interweb population to be valuable to your business.
That's about the size of it. Extrapolate from the server's browser stats. My wife is webmaster of a company that can, in fact, have a signficant viewer population using Win9X from their double-wide in the trailer park. She accordingly works for broad site compatibility.
Caucasian? Odd. Back when I was working at an Ivy, it seemed like the archtypal tech nerd was Asian.
I once saw a boss give what I thought was scant interest in Indian greencarders with years of experience on the vitae and Indian grad degrees. Racism, ethnic discrimination, or prudent caution?
I hope the little weasel at Bell South who came up with the project gets slapped down instead of getting the advancement he hoped for.
What drug do you get for the trauma of being jailed for abusing PTSD drugs?
What will the mental landscape be of a long-term PTSD drug abuser?
Presumably, the military super-psycho killer will at least have memories of burning these women and children. So soldiers will be on them for life to kill the middle-of-the-night flashbacks?
Either that, or they will come up with a drug that _permanently_ lets people learn from the moment that killing people is juusstt ffiiinnnneee. Yeah, I want to work in the cube next to that dude when he gets discharged.
In civilian use, who hands them out? Night psychiatrist on duty at every precinct station?
Oh, yeah. Distributing this stuff throughout society will be just great.
But it does open artistic opportunities like "Mi Lai, the Musical Comedy As I Remember It.", which I suppose a hip crowd of PSTD drug abusers would find hilarious.
Answer: Because they empower the second industrial revolution.
/.ers but one I think a lot of people who don't work in cubes don't appreciate -- particularly mothers and other such older folk who might hark back to when the U.S. was a manufacturing hub that still made "things".
Steam engines allowed reliable manufacturing and transport beyond anything manpower or horsepower could imagine. They augmented muscle.
Computers allow research and information flow beyond anything people could imagine. They augment brains.
As the steam engine released an extraordinary flood of products, computers will unleash an extraordinary flood of discovery -- and that means things like cancer cures.
A "big picture" thought presumably obvious to
It's beyond time to question "free trade" when America can't sell it's #1 product: the freedom to say what you want.
Actually, I think that is pretty profound. What is "Western Culture" except science on one hand and the "rights of man" on the other hand. The rest of the world has science now. All we have left to give is Enlightment humanism. Failing that, our culture has no reason to exist beyond Hollywood and Las Vegas.