Yes it does. I was saying that the "vote with your money" is not democratic as only those with money (and enough of it to buy or not a product) can vote. In a democracy, everyone from Bill Gates to the poorest guy sleeping in the streets can vote. In the "vote with your money" the guy in the streets has no voice, no right to it's Bill Gates who makes decisions for him.
nearly everybody can aford Microsoft Products
Considering the price of Office XP, I'd say billions of people on earth can't afford it. Remember : you (and me) have a very high standard of life compared to the majority of mankind. While we can "vote with our dollars", billions of people can't. For those, the idea that you don't need any governement because you can voice your ideas with your wallet is totally absurd.
Why ? Because for one he is not a president but a much less visible guy, so there's no point in trying to destitute him and ask him about his sexual life and then air it on TV. For two, they often need a few more voices for any law they want to pass, and the only way to do that is lure a few "rightish" Democracts their way.
But put Charles Stenholm president and you can be sure they'll dig into his private life and cry that he is the devil incarnation. But that's the way politics works...
nominating a flaming homosexual to an overwhelmingly Catholic country (Hormel was nominated to Luxembourg).
While many people in Luxembourg are christian, I wouldn't go that far as saying that nominating a gay ambassador there was inapproriate. Luxembourg is a very rich and modern (yet tiny) country that is as tolerant as it's neighbours : Belgium or Germany for example. Now nominating one to the Vatican on the other hand would have been a big mistake, bug Luxembourg is no problem at all.
State department has language classes for ambassadors
You make a good point, but French is a rather important language in diplomacy, it's spoken in several countries including of course France but also Belgium, part of Canada, Luxembourg and a lot of African countries. It's also one of the two UN official language with English. And it's very much spoken amongst the elites accross the world. There were probably hundreds of very capable officials who speak French and could have been good ambassadors. Yet Bush decided to pay back it's debts put putting a less-than-ideal campaign contributor there - I doubt this is legal, and I doubt this is in the US interest too.
If you put only 1 min per equation - (fast mathematician), work 24h/day (no sleep, no food) and 7 days/week (no holidays) that's roughtly 555 days of work. I'd say either the number is bogus or some equations were generated automatically.
Beside, if Amazon would cut the marketing, it would already be close to profitability.
Yeah - like nobody ever got this piece of paper in exchange of a big check... in the good USofA, you can actually buy your diplomas - even from reputable universities. And the Bush familly is very rich and influent...
a pilot and he's bilingual
Truly a genius then... surely we should build a monument to such enormous feats ! Mastering two languages (inc. your own), wow !!! I'm shocked !!!
mistake to underestimate him
Actually many people underestimated his dangerousness... then he refused the Kyoto protocol, wanted to drill in Alaska and keep what is considered poisoned water in other country a perfectly drinkable water in US. Then people realised he was stupid AND dangerous for everyone who lives on this planet.
Half of the country didn't even move it's fat-ass to the voting booth. USians got the dumb-president they deserve.
And because you are born in a country doesn't mean you have to go around claiming your president is the greatest genius of all times. Actually doing so is pretty dumb - especially when that president is Bush (or Reagan, who was quite dumb too)
But what about Operating Systems with ACTIVATION SCHEMES? If we don't like them, we vote them out of existance by NOT BUYING THEM.
What if the laptop I want does come with Windows XP bundled ? Even if I don't activate it, I've still had to pay for it... this ain't self-regulation, this is corporation occupying the vaccuum left by a shrinking governement. Society, much like nature, hates vaccuum and if you make some by cutting of the governement, then corporations will grow accordingly to fill it.
COMPANY, I can refuse to pay them
Again you can't always. See MS example above. And also, when you didn't bought something in the first place, you can't protest the company who makes it by not buying it. Say Ferrari does something you dislike, you can't really boycott Ferrari (at least I wish I could, but I can't).
I think you got it wrong - it's easier to change a law than have, say, Microsoft release Office XP for Linux. Changing a laws requires rewriting some bits of papers. Changing an industry... is a bit harder.
then it really makes me wonder, why didn't any of the conservatives like him?
Because he wasn't a Republican party member ? Sounds good enough a reason to me - most politicians feel they have to show their opposition to someone "from the other side" even when they agree with that person. They don't want to "confuse" the electors.
and stands in bread lines... oh wait, that is describing socialism
Nope... that's Russia - communist AND capitalist (going from one to another hasn't really improved things). Finland for example is socialist and doing pretty fine well - and if you see someone waiting in line for bread it's really because the bakery is top-notch !
, I assume you can't control or police yourself
Actually I'd rather have the governement run a police than do it the US way, with everyone carrying a gun and doing "on the spot" justice with some bullets. As to the gov. telling when to pray - at least socialist countries don't put bibles in every court-room. The US is one of the few western countries where christianity is actually almost mendatory in many public places (courtrooms, schools, public events, etc...). If the president ever did swear on the bible (or talmud, etc...) in France he would have to resign on the spot.
You vote for the fucking chemical company every time buy their products
That's odd - no one I know has ever bought anything from Union Carbide, yet it's still there alive and kicking - and enough toxic chemicals to kill a few more third-world cities.
Also your argument has a huge gaping hole in it (even bigger than in your head !) : only people with money can vote. Hence, in your beautiful perfect capitalist paradise, only rich peoples can buy/vote. If tomorrow Ferrari or Mercedes does something bad - I can't "vote" against either of them with my money.
Corperations are made of people who are remarkable like you and I, and run by people who actually grew up pretty much the same as you did.
This argument applies to the governement too. People who work there aren't aliens from another galaxy bent on dominating this tiny world. So what's the difference then between corporations and governement ? I'll give you an hint :
in one, people are paid to get as much money out of you.
in the other, people are paid to make the country work better for everyone. At key places, those people are actually elected by everyone
When you'd rather ask for less governement and more "self-regulating industry", you basically ask for less democracy (as citizen choices have less influence on things) and more feodality (a bunch of very rich guys decides things for everyone and usually in their own best interest only). Beside, there's no such thing as "self regulation" - as this axiom states : "when left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse".
Don't forget DVD and hard drive.... at 299 $, it will make terrific Linux/BSD boxes, all subsidised by MS as they are selling at a loss and hope to make it even on games:)
The world is at peace - period ! Russians don't give a shit about international politics anymore (they have enough problems getting food and heat for the winter). China is playing tiger with Taïwan, but that's part of the routine Chinese diplomacy. They won't invade Taïwan because they are too busy becoming a capitalist market and because Taïwan is busy doing business with China.
So what's left ? Israel ? Well if the US was not bent on supporting it beyond all decency, there would be peacekeepers there already. And eventhough, Palestinian don't have any nuke or any major military force, so they'll keep being oppressed and slaughtered by Israelians. We have seen this for decades, and it won't change unfortunately. There's also India vs Pakistan, but that's really between the two of them and the forces are balanced enough to keep everyone quiey. Iraq, Cuba ? Joke. North Korea ? A straw man used by the Pentagon to scare the WASP. Since Saddam, Ben Laden and Milosevic are useless to play the Bad Guy (TM) role, they picked North Korea. But this country is on its knees and they are even less equiped than Iraq before the Gulf War, which means that their hungry army is armed with sticks & stones and will surrender at the first sight of a BigMac. If N-Korea wasn't so important in keeping the bag guy seat for the US, it would already be a solved problem. It's not like you can't assasinate Kim Il Sung and it's familly or organised a fake revolution (CIA does this almost everyday in South America)
Basically, the whole world is so busy running after money and doing business that they keep their nuke in the closet. It would even be more stable if the stupid Bush Junior wasn't so stuborn on preparing war with the NMD. His father used to be the same too (Iraq here we go again). That's just a way to push lots of public money into the military sector and away from environement, eduction and health.
Not only is this NMD dangerous for world stability, it's effectiveness is highly doubtfull and yet to be proven. Don't forget the star wars project was started by Reagan (a real genius...).
And if missiles can be stopped - the enemy will just send a guy with a miniaturised nuke and blow the city that way. It's not like stopping missiles will make the country any safer. It'll just feel safer - which is even more dangerous...
Does anyone else feel Bush was voted in the wrong decade?
What is worst is that almost half the country voted for him - yet much more people than that oppose driling in Alaska. Now Bush Junior never hidden his pro-oil positions, so what where those electors thinking ? "oh he is a good christian, and has a nice tie, I'll vote for him ?". You have to wonder...
Well I'd say killing a few desert snakes vs raising the ocean level by 5 meters and changing the whole planet climate... would prefer killing the desert snakes anyday:-) . Especially since solar panel would reduce albedo, hence fight global warming.
There's no such thing as a energy-crisis in California. There's an economy crisis, where some capitalist lunatics have deregulated an energy market that was working perfectly fine before, and made it into a mess where the middle-man (the one who buys power and distribute it) is bankrupt.
There's no need to dril for more oil anywhere in Alaska to bring back electricity in California (of course it's easier to claim so that say the truth : "I need to pay back the oil companies who bought my election" )
And your pathetic economies will shrivel and die without the American market place to sustain your industry
That's ok - 1,3 billion Chinese and 1 billion Indians are just waiting to take your place as the largest consummer market. We can do without your measly 300 million consummers, they are all debt riddled anyways.
Rebulicans are for less government, **NOT** more poverty, **NOT** more pollution, **NOT** more wars, and **NOT** more racism.
True - unless this goes against the all-sacred holy economy. If republicans must choose between economy vs (evironment, equality, peace, etc) they'll always pick economy. Not only that, they also want less governement but the only thing they offer instead is religion and mega-corporation.
Neato science fiction idea that might be viable in 20 years on a NASA schedule & budget (read 40+ years and $200 billion additional).
Yeah - like the Star wars system ? If it can be done to stop missile that *might* come someday, but has 99.9999% of never happening, why can't it be done to solve an energy crisis that is 100% sure to happen ? Oh yeah, one is a weapon (Republican love weapon and guns) and the other is something that improve the life of everyone on the planet. That's a tough one (at least for Junior, who has the IQ of a pigeon)
Fine - we (the rest of the world) will size all your assets outside of USA, then stop shipping you all those fine things used to enjoy, starting with cars & petrol, computers, TV, etc...
Nice piece of a racist rewrite of mankind history.
the western, white man is fundamentally (genetically, perhaps) unable to create stable societies.
Yeah - like Europe doesn't have any stable society. Do I have to remind you that it was occupied and has been since before the time of Stonedge by european populations ? Europe has always been at least as stable as China. Peace & war at times, but still a solid society nonetheless.
any contact with the white man has usually resulted in the destruction of the native culture
History is full of cultures destroyed by another (more powerfull) culture. The fact is that in the XXth century western populations was the main responsible for these destruction, but from the Jewish turned into slaves of the Egyptians to Tibet, history have been full of it (and I'd ready to bet that it's not over yet).
Magnificent and highly civilized black kingdoms
*caugh caugh* . Where are the cities ? Where are the temples ? Where are the texts ? Where are the realisations and leftovers of those "magnificient black kingdoms" ?? Nowhere to be found. AFAIK, appart from north Africa (Egypt, Morroco, etc...) which were mostly Arab populations, there's nothing. The African cultures have left little to history. A huge continent hasn't produced in 4000 years as much artifacts, buildings and texts that the Greeks (and their tiny country) or Chineses in a single century. I'm not drawing any conclusions, just stating the facts.
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Your Ferrari example doesn't quite work
Yes it does. I was saying that the "vote with your money" is not democratic as only those with money (and enough of it to buy or not a product) can vote. In a democracy, everyone from Bill Gates to the poorest guy sleeping in the streets can vote. In the "vote with your money" the guy in the streets has no voice, no right to it's Bill Gates who makes decisions for him.
nearly everybody can aford Microsoft Products
Considering the price of Office XP, I'd say billions of people on earth can't afford it. Remember : you (and me) have a very high standard of life compared to the majority of mankind. While we can "vote with our dollars", billions of people can't. For those, the idea that you don't need any governement because you can voice your ideas with your wallet is totally absurd.
Why ? Because for one he is not a president but a much less visible guy, so there's no point in trying to destitute him and ask him about his sexual life and then air it on TV. For two, they often need a few more voices for any law they want to pass, and the only way to do that is lure a few "rightish" Democracts their way.
But put Charles Stenholm president and you can be sure they'll dig into his private life and cry that he is the devil incarnation. But that's the way politics works...
nominating a flaming homosexual to an overwhelmingly Catholic country (Hormel was nominated to Luxembourg).
While many people in Luxembourg are christian, I wouldn't go that far as saying that nominating a gay ambassador there was inapproriate. Luxembourg is a very rich and modern (yet tiny) country that is as tolerant as it's neighbours : Belgium or Germany for example. Now nominating one to the Vatican on the other hand would have been a big mistake, bug Luxembourg is no problem at all.
State department has language classes for ambassadors
You make a good point, but French is a rather important language in diplomacy, it's spoken in several countries including of course France but also Belgium, part of Canada, Luxembourg and a lot of African countries. It's also one of the two UN official language with English. And it's very much spoken amongst the elites accross the world. There were probably hundreds of very capable officials who speak French and could have been good ambassadors. Yet Bush decided to pay back it's debts put putting a less-than-ideal campaign contributor there - I doubt this is legal, and I doubt this is in the US interest too.
If you put only 1 min per equation - (fast mathematician), work 24h/day (no sleep, no food) and 7 days/week (no holidays) that's roughtly 555 days of work. I'd say either the number is bogus or some equations were generated automatically.
Beside, if Amazon would cut the marketing, it would already be close to profitability.
He's a Harvard MBA
Yeah - like nobody ever got this piece of paper in exchange of a big check... in the good USofA, you can actually buy your diplomas - even from reputable universities. And the Bush familly is very rich and influent...
a pilot and he's bilingual
Truly a genius then... surely we should build a monument to such enormous feats ! Mastering two languages (inc. your own), wow !!! I'm shocked !!!
mistake to underestimate him
Actually many people underestimated his dangerousness... then he refused the Kyoto protocol, wanted to drill in Alaska and keep what is considered poisoned water in other country a perfectly drinkable water in US. Then people realised he was stupid AND dangerous for everyone who lives on this planet.
The problem is easily solved by forcing individuals to be responsible for their own actions
You call that easy ?
Half of the country didn't even move it's fat-ass to the voting booth. USians got the dumb-president they deserve.
And because you are born in a country doesn't mean you have to go around claiming your president is the greatest genius of all times. Actually doing so is pretty dumb - especially when that president is Bush (or Reagan, who was quite dumb too)
But what about Operating Systems with ACTIVATION SCHEMES? If we don't like them, we vote them out of existance by NOT BUYING THEM.
What if the laptop I want does come with Windows XP bundled ? Even if I don't activate it, I've still had to pay for it... this ain't self-regulation, this is corporation occupying the vaccuum left by a shrinking governement. Society, much like nature, hates vaccuum and if you make some by cutting of the governement, then corporations will grow accordingly to fill it.
COMPANY, I can refuse to pay them
Again you can't always. See MS example above. And also, when you didn't bought something in the first place, you can't protest the company who makes it by not buying it. Say Ferrari does something you dislike, you can't really boycott Ferrari (at least I wish I could, but I can't).
I think you got it wrong - it's easier to change a law than have, say, Microsoft release Office XP for Linux. Changing a laws requires rewriting some bits of papers. Changing an industry... is a bit harder.
Howard Leach, a San Fransisco banker, put up $282000 last year, and is going to be the next ambassador to France.
Yep - and this guy doesn't even speak a single word of French... Bush Jr could have as well named a muslim Palestinian as the US embassador in Israel.
then it really makes me wonder, why didn't any of the conservatives like him?
Because he wasn't a Republican party member ? Sounds good enough a reason to me - most politicians feel they have to show their opposition to someone "from the other side" even when they agree with that person. They don't want to "confuse" the electors.
and stands in bread lines... oh wait, that is describing socialism
Nope... that's Russia - communist AND capitalist (going from one to another hasn't really improved things). Finland for example is socialist and doing pretty fine well - and if you see someone waiting in line for bread it's really because the bakery is top-notch !
, I assume you can't control or police yourself
Actually I'd rather have the governement run a police than do it the US way, with everyone carrying a gun and doing "on the spot" justice with some bullets. As to the gov. telling when to pray - at least socialist countries don't put bibles in every court-room. The US is one of the few western countries where christianity is actually almost mendatory in many public places (courtrooms, schools, public events, etc...). If the president ever did swear on the bible (or talmud, etc...) in France he would have to resign on the spot.
You vote for the fucking chemical company every time buy their products
That's odd - no one I know has ever bought anything from Union Carbide, yet it's still there alive and kicking - and enough toxic chemicals to kill a few more third-world cities.
Also your argument has a huge gaping hole in it (even bigger than in your head !) : only people with money can vote. Hence, in your beautiful perfect capitalist paradise, only rich peoples can buy/vote. If tomorrow Ferrari or Mercedes does something bad - I can't "vote" against either of them with my money.
This argument applies to the governement too. People who work there aren't aliens from another galaxy bent on dominating this tiny world. So what's the difference then between corporations and governement ? I'll give you an hint :
When you'd rather ask for less governement and more "self-regulating industry", you basically ask for less democracy (as citizen choices have less influence on things) and more feodality (a bunch of very rich guys decides things for everyone and usually in their own best interest only). Beside, there's no such thing as "self regulation" - as this axiom states : "when left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse".
Don't forget DVD and hard drive.... at 299 $, it will make terrific Linux/BSD boxes, all subsidised by MS as they are selling at a loss and hope to make it even on games :)
The world is at peace - period ! Russians don't give a shit about international politics anymore (they have enough problems getting food and heat for the winter). China is playing tiger with Taïwan, but that's part of the routine Chinese diplomacy. They won't invade Taïwan because they are too busy becoming a capitalist market and because Taïwan is busy doing business with China.
So what's left ? Israel ? Well if the US was not bent on supporting it beyond all decency, there would be peacekeepers there already. And eventhough, Palestinian don't have any nuke or any major military force, so they'll keep being oppressed and slaughtered by Israelians. We have seen this for decades, and it won't change unfortunately. There's also India vs Pakistan, but that's really between the two of them and the forces are balanced enough to keep everyone quiey. Iraq, Cuba ? Joke. North Korea ? A straw man used by the Pentagon to scare the WASP. Since Saddam, Ben Laden and Milosevic are useless to play the Bad Guy (TM) role, they picked North Korea. But this country is on its knees and they are even less equiped than Iraq before the Gulf War, which means that their hungry army is armed with sticks & stones and will surrender at the first sight of a BigMac. If N-Korea wasn't so important in keeping the bag guy seat for the US, it would already be a solved problem. It's not like you can't assasinate Kim Il Sung and it's familly or organised a fake revolution (CIA does this almost everyday in South America)
Basically, the whole world is so busy running after money and doing business that they keep their nuke in the closet. It would even be more stable if the stupid Bush Junior wasn't so stuborn on preparing war with the NMD. His father used to be the same too (Iraq here we go again). That's just a way to push lots of public money into the military sector and away from environement, eduction and health.
Not only is this NMD dangerous for world stability, it's effectiveness is highly doubtfull and yet to be proven. Don't forget the star wars project was started by Reagan (a real genius...).
And if missiles can be stopped - the enemy will just send a guy with a miniaturised nuke and blow the city that way. It's not like stopping missiles will make the country any safer. It'll just feel safer - which is even more dangerous...
Does anyone else feel Bush was voted in the wrong decade?
What is worst is that almost half the country voted for him - yet much more people than that oppose driling in Alaska. Now Bush Junior never hidden his pro-oil positions, so what where those electors thinking ? "oh he is a good christian, and has a nice tie, I'll vote for him ?". You have to wonder...
Well I'd say killing a few desert snakes vs raising the ocean level by 5 meters and changing the whole planet climate... would prefer killing the desert snakes anyday :-) . Especially since solar panel would reduce albedo, hence fight global warming.
There's no such thing as a energy-crisis in California. There's an economy crisis, where some capitalist lunatics have deregulated an energy market that was working perfectly fine before, and made it into a mess where the middle-man (the one who buys power and distribute it) is bankrupt.
There's no need to dril for more oil anywhere in Alaska to bring back electricity in California (of course it's easier to claim so that say the truth : "I need to pay back the oil companies who bought my election" )
And your pathetic economies will shrivel and die without the American market place to sustain your industry
That's ok - 1,3 billion Chinese and 1 billion Indians are just waiting to take your place as the largest consummer market. We can do without your measly 300 million consummers, they are all debt riddled anyways.
I'll grant you many republicans have a 'gun' fetish. We all have our short commings we need to compensate for
;-)
I can already imagine what kind of "shortcomings" republican have that create this gun fetish
I'm not sofistikated enough to understand our President's foreward thinking energy policy,
"Bush" and "forward thinking". Isn't that contradicting ?
Rebulicans are for less government, **NOT** more poverty, **NOT** more pollution, **NOT** more wars, and **NOT** more racism.
True - unless this goes against the all-sacred holy economy. If republicans must choose between economy vs (evironment, equality, peace, etc) they'll always pick economy. Not only that, they also want less governement but the only thing they offer instead is religion and mega-corporation.
Neato science fiction idea that might be viable in 20 years on a NASA schedule & budget (read 40+ years and $200 billion additional).
Yeah - like the Star wars system ? If it can be done to stop missile that *might* come someday, but has 99.9999% of never happening, why can't it be done to solve an energy crisis that is 100% sure to happen ? Oh yeah, one is a weapon (Republican love weapon and guns) and the other is something that improve the life of everyone on the planet. That's a tough one (at least for Junior, who has the IQ of a pigeon)
NB : sorry for the pigeons out there.
Fine - we (the rest of the world) will size all your assets outside of USA, then stop shipping you all those fine things used to enjoy, starting with cars & petrol, computers, TV, etc...
Nice piece of a racist rewrite of mankind history.
the western, white man is fundamentally (genetically, perhaps) unable to create stable societies.
Yeah - like Europe doesn't have any stable society. Do I have to remind you that it was occupied and has been since before the time of Stonedge by european populations ? Europe has always been at least as stable as China. Peace & war at times, but still a solid society nonetheless.
any contact with the white man has usually resulted in the destruction of the native culture
History is full of cultures destroyed by another (more powerfull) culture. The fact is that in the XXth century western populations was the main responsible for these destruction, but from the Jewish turned into slaves of the Egyptians to Tibet, history have been full of it (and I'd ready to bet that it's not over yet).
Magnificent and highly civilized black kingdoms
*caugh caugh* . Where are the cities ? Where are the temples ? Where are the texts ? Where are the realisations and leftovers of those "magnificient black kingdoms" ?? Nowhere to be found. AFAIK, appart from north Africa (Egypt, Morroco, etc...) which were mostly Arab populations, there's nothing. The African cultures have left little to history. A huge continent hasn't produced in 4000 years as much artifacts, buildings and texts that the Greeks (and their tiny country) or Chineses in a single century. I'm not drawing any conclusions, just stating the facts.