voting is supposed to be a matter of conscience in one's own locality
With one major problem - 3rd party candidates can't get elected mostly because everyone knows that 3rd party candidates can't get elected
But people who vote their conscience, actually vote their conscience. Their not going to be so afraid of Pol Pot that they vote for Stalin to keep Pol Pot out - they'll say that both Stalin and Pol Pot have crossed all the ethical lines, and while one may be worse than the other they will not vote for either of them because it would be unethical to vote for someone that bad. They'll vote for Gandhi, despite the fact that 95% of the population will vote for either Stalin or Pol Pot to keep the other one out.
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No", said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd", said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did", said Ford. "It is."
"So", said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them", said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes", said Ford with a shrug, "of course".
"But", said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."
- Douglas Adams So long, and thanks for all the fish, chapter 36.
"It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it." - Eugene Victor Debs
I'd've voted with my cash also once the OptiPlex 740 Energy Smart MT was made available with Ubuntu (or just, crazy idea: an OS free PC), except for the fact that Dell is now part of the Novell/Microsoft deal according to Techworld. No cash for Dell.
If IETs were able to break what we consider the physical laws by traveling FTL, I doubt governments would be able hide them against their will. Also, if these IETs wanted to abduct people but keep the abductions secret, surely they'd be able to.
If the amount of sex correlates to number of children (which is not necessarily true), and IQ is mostly inherited (which I don't think it is), then Fig. 2 indicates that women will stay the same, but that men will become dumber and dumber; and according to Fig. 2a the world will be overrun by religious artists...
When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
Boston Legal, "Stick It" (season 2, episode 19), written by David E. Kelley & Janet Leahy.
Green Party: "Greens are pushing for instant run-off voting, proportional representation, and other ways to give minorities of all kinds a greater say in government" [1]
Libertarian Party: ""The problem is that we are a minority party in a winner-take-all voting system," said Mr. Redpath, urging party activists to support "electoral reform" aimed at creating a system of proportional representation." - LNC Chairman William Redpath [2]
Socialist Party: "We continue our involvement with the Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party and FairVote/CFER (Californians For electoral Reform)" [3] (PDF)
You're assuming many Nader voters would have voted for Gore if their only option was Gore or Bush, or that Gore is much better for these voters than Bush. Given the choice between only a D or a R, they'd rather spoil their ballots than vote for either. It's like a choice between Stalin and Pol Pot. One may be worse than the other, but both have crossed the line so far that some are not prepared to support them.
I've read Manufacturing consent, and there is still no excuse of saying that voters who vote for the R or Ds get to say they have no culpability. Another book I've read is Douglas Adams' So long, and thanks for all the fish. From chapter 36:
It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No", said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee
forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are
lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd", said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did", said Ford. "It is."
"So", said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the
lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them", said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the
government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes", said Ford with a shrug, "of course".
"But", said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."
Actually, the most selfish are those who insist on working directly with the charity -- even though an extra hour of work would provide them with the money to do far better good for the masses.
"it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve." -- Henry David Thoreau, Walden, p. 70.
... or they realize that due to the spoiler problem, voting third party doesn't actually get them any closer to getting the government that they want, and is in fact equivalent to not voting at all. Thus they vote for the lesser of two evils, not because they like doing so, but because they are forced to either do that or essentially throw away their vote. That's an unfortunate fact about the winner-take-all electoral system used in the USA, but it's still a fact, and no amount of complaining about the two major parties will change it. If you really want better politics in the USA, we need reforms to the way elections are run (e.g. instant runoff elections, proportional voting, etc) so that more than two parties can realistically compete at a time.
Is voting for the Republicans and Democrats (RD) going to cause election reform? It seems to me it's the opposite. It seems to me that voting third party does actually get them closer to getting the government that they want, and voting for the RD takes them further from it.
I can understand that there are people who actually agree with the RD' platforms and voting histories. I can also understand that there are people who think that either the Rs or the Ds are much closer to their personal philosophies. What I do not understand is how in a country with a total population of about 300 million people, ~97% of voters can be that close to the RD. What I certainly don't understand is how people who say they are libertarian left or libertarian right can either not vote, or actually vote RD and then complain about the government they have and the actions that government takes in their name using their tax dollars.
"It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it." - Eugene Victor Debs
Leaving completely ignorant and unsophisticated children alone with the greatest predator in the universe does not seem like a wise parenting decision.
So is sacrificing your only child after having him tortured because you made one of your creations do things you didn't want them to. Scaring your children with the zombies (Matthew 27:52-53) is also not a very fatherly thing to do. Oh, and that whole flood thing could've been handled better...
The US still has serious, fundamental concerns about this draft statement.
Correction: The US Government.
Correction: The companies who bought off the representatives of the U.S. government.
Correction: The ~97% of voters who keep voting for Republicans and Democrats. These people seem to consider genocidal greed a virtue, not a vice; or they actually keep voting for platforms they despise because they'd rather be on the winning team of monsters than do the right thing.
[Microsoft] signed a Linux deal with Novell that indemnifies the company against Microsoft patent claims over Linux.
Two weeks ago Dell joined the deal, becoming the first hardware vendor to do so.
/me scratches off the Dell Inspiron 9400 from my shortlist of notebooks I'm looking into.
I've tried to put hard facts (well-cited, thank you) to give a counter to obviously left-biased articles (or articles where the viewpoint is used to justify government intrusion), only to have them removed or edited to oblivion
When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
Boston Legal, "Stick It" (season 2, episode 19), written by David E. Kelley & Janet Leahy.
19:8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
This is not God endorsing rape, it is a report of the actions of Lot.
The apostle Peter in the New Testament says Lot was a righteous man: 2 Peter 2:7-8.
In the next chapter it is described how those who don't believe in his God will be punished with fire 2 Peter 3:7. So if there is a creator God, and he created some people to not believe in the supernatural (ghosts (holy or not), people rising from the dead...) but instead to see experiment as the best way to find the truth and value the truth over wishfull thinking; why does he punish them "where the fire never goes out" Mark 9:43?
See Isaiah 13:16-17 for another rape command (with a side order of infants dashed to pieces).
I find people have a tendency to ally themselves with a certain bit of media or subsection of culture, they'll then defend any show, movie, or book that falls into this subsection even though they realize that it isn't very good.
I think this is a good explanation for the result of the poll. While Firefly is definitely up there with the best visual SF like Gattaca and Blade runner, I think few flans will honestly rate Serenity that highly - not a bad movie, but nothing special. The result may indicate indirect support for Firefly.
If all the exercise machines were in use 10 hours a day for a year, the gym could generate roughly $183 worth of electricity. At that rate, it would take about 82 years to pay off the initial $15,000 investment.
Enviu, a Dutch environmental group, is building a nightclub in Rotterdam that will have a dance floor that converts vibrations from all those feet into electricity. One potential design for the floor involves piezoelectric crystals, which generate a small electric current when compressed. But Enviu's 20-by-20-foot floor cost $260,000 and will generate only enough power to run some lights embedded in it.
While there's potential in the human-powered area, these examples are clearly making things worse:
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Douglas Adams, So long, and thanks for all the fish, chapter 36:
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No", said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee
forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are
lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd", said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did", said Ford. "It is."
"So", said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the
lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them", said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the
government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes", said Ford with a shrug, "of course".
"But", said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."
Eugene Victor Debs:
"It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it."
When you click on the "Cite this article" link of any article it states (and has stated for a long time):
IMPORTANT NOTE: Most educators and professionals do not consider it appropriate to use tertiary sources such as encyclopedias as a sole source for any information -- citing an encyclopedia as an important reference in footnotes or bibiliographies may result in censure or a failing grade. Wikipedia articles should be used for background information, as a reference for correct terminology and search terms, and as a starting point for further research.
As with any community-built reference, there is a possibility for error in Wikipedia's content -- please check your facts against multiple sources and read our disclaimers for more information.
University level students should usually just be failed for citing Wikipedia unless they're writing about Wikipedia/wikis/online communities etc..
I also think Wikipedia's tagline should be changed to clearly indicate that the site can be edited by almost anyone, so that random people finding a page via a search engine have more of a chance of understanding what the "wiki" in Wikipedia means.
WebCite allows you to grab a page to cite - like Internet Archive but with you in control.
You can use this until the site's taken out by the copyrightists.
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve." - Walden (1854), Chapter 1: Economy, Henry David Thoreau
If consumers contribute to complaint/compliment sites like Hello Peter (mostly.za companies currently), we can build up stats on companies. The site allows companies to respond to the reports, and is a good place to check before having any dealings with a company.
46.3 (+3.4 -2.6) your Apple fanboy level 18.8 (+0.9 -1.5) your telecoms fanboy level 13.3 (+0.7 -0.6) your Futurama fanboy level 12.4 (+0.7 -0.8) your games fanboy level 06.3 (±0.3) your evil Star Wars versions fanboy level -9.9 (-0.6 +0.5) your Microsoft fanboy level
Disclaimer: mod scores were not used in calculations.
Second, how many other animals can thrive on 6 of the 7 continents
At least ants and some rodents.
(or all 7 if you let people use tools)?
Okay, now you've made me think of ants in environment suits;).
our population is enormous compared to the minimum number needed to sustain the species
Ants have us beat there.
Extinction is probably impossible for humans
According to Leaky and Lewin's The sixth extinction there's a lot of luck involved in who survives extinction events, being big doesn't help (ants win again), and intelligence isn't that much of a help.
Actively destroying your habitat also doesn't help.
Slashdot Mirror
That is about as wrong as you can get. Externalities that are severely damaging the human habitable biosphere are almost never part the price.
"It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it." - Eugene Victor Debs
I'd've voted with my cash also once the OptiPlex 740 Energy Smart MT was made available with Ubuntu (or just, crazy idea: an OS free PC), except for the fact that Dell is now part of the Novell/Microsoft deal according to Techworld. No cash for Dell.
If IETs were able to break what we consider the physical laws by traveling FTL, I doubt governments would be able hide them against their will. Also, if these IETs wanted to abduct people but keep the abductions secret, surely they'd be able to.
I personally think it's unethical to become a biological parent considering all the problems the current 6608952031 are causing, and considering the tens of millions of unadopted orphans out there.
Boston Legal, "Stick It" (season 2, episode 19), written by David E. Kelley & Janet Leahy.
Green Party: "Greens are pushing for instant run-off voting, proportional representation, and other ways to give minorities of all kinds a greater say in government" [1]
Libertarian Party: ""The problem is that we are a minority party in a winner-take-all voting system," said Mr. Redpath, urging party activists to support "electoral reform" aimed at creating a system of proportional representation." - LNC Chairman William Redpath [2]
Socialist Party: "We continue our involvement with the Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party and FairVote/CFER (Californians For electoral Reform)" [3] (PDF)
You're assuming many Nader voters would have voted for Gore if their only option was Gore or Bush, or that Gore is much better for these voters than Bush. Given the choice between only a D or a R, they'd rather spoil their ballots than vote for either. It's like a choice between Stalin and Pol Pot. One may be worse than the other, but both have crossed the line so far that some are not prepared to support them.
I've read Manufacturing consent, and there is still no excuse of saying that voters who vote for the R or Ds get to say they have no culpability. Another book I've read is Douglas Adams' So long, and thanks for all the fish. From chapter 36:Is voting for the Republicans and Democrats (RD) going to cause election reform? It seems to me it's the opposite. It seems to me that voting third party does actually get them closer to getting the government that they want, and voting for the RD takes them further from it.
I can understand that there are people who actually agree with the RD' platforms and voting histories. I can also understand that there are people who think that either the Rs or the Ds are much closer to their personal philosophies. What I do not understand is how in a country with a total population of about 300 million people, ~97% of voters can be that close to the RD. What I certainly don't understand is how people who say they are libertarian left or libertarian right can either not vote, or actually vote RD and then complain about the government they have and the actions that government takes in their name using their tax dollars.
"It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it." - Eugene Victor Debs
/me scratches off the Dell Inspiron 9400 from my shortlist of notebooks I'm looking into.
The apostle Peter in the New Testament says Lot was a righteous man: 2 Peter 2:7-8.
In the next chapter it is described how those who don't believe in his God will be punished with fire 2 Peter 3:7. So if there is a creator God, and he created some people to not believe in the supernatural (ghosts (holy or not), people rising from the dead...) but instead to see experiment as the best way to find the truth and value the truth over wishfull thinking; why does he punish them "where the fire never goes out" Mark 9:43?
See Isaiah 13:16-17 for another rape command (with a side order of infants dashed to pieces).
Douglas Adams, So long, and thanks for all the fish, chapter 36:
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No", said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd", said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did", said Ford. "It is."
"So", said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them", said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes", said Ford with a shrug, "of course".
"But", said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."
Eugene Victor Debs:
"It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it."
WebCite allows you to grab a page to cite - like Internet Archive but with you in control. You can use this until the site's taken out by the copyrightists.
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve." - Walden (1854), Chapter 1: Economy, Henry David Thoreau
If consumers contribute to complaint/compliment sites like Hello Peter (mostly .za companies currently), we can build up stats on companies. The site allows companies to respond to the reports, and is a good place to check before having any dealings with a company.
Disclaimer: mod scores were not used in calculations.
Actively destroying your habitat also doesn't help.