The real issue really might be the type of info not the quantity. For diet, it's the type of calories that matter. I've started consuming lots of fat and reducing starch and other sugars without regard to total calorie count and my weight has dropped substantially and my health has improved as measured by lipid panels and my own athletic performance. Gotta be a an information analog. Plenty of junk out there on the intertubes along with good stuff.
I don't understand the outrage. A majority of people scream that "I want a government that tells us, and enforces that decision, that the average American is too stupid to..."
buy any car we want, have to save the planet of course,
use any kind of light bulb we want, to save the planet of course
own guns because we might do something wrong
leave all our money to our kids if we happen to have a lot.
handle our own retirement planning
handle our own medical situations. After all, Europe controls that for their populations, we must as well
You get the point. (and probably agree). Well you're right. Many people ARE going to make mistakes in one or all of these areas.
I mees up now and then myself, but I had a mommy and daddy to tell me what to do when I was a child. I am no longer a child and would rather make my own way in life. A totalitarian state or Mad Max anarchy aren't the only options. Limited, not non-existant, government is what I want to live under, but that makes me a kook it seems.
If you want the government to run your life, it will. Completely.
I wrote some CC processing software just a few years ago that replaced dialup boxes and the users made me play a wav file of a modem negotiation so they would "know" the CC was being processed. Still in operation today and if I tried to remove the sound, there'd be a rebellion!
VISA doesn't track every penny spent. I write credit card billing software. VISA, MC, et al just get a transaction total. Only the vendor knows what was charged. VISA can look at the vendor and make assumptions, however they don't know if I bought a lot of candy bars or gas or what mixture of transactions from a Mobil station.
...Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment.
I've never understood this way of thinking. Sure, people waste money on lots of things in their lives, but having good equipment set up well in a good room is somehow silly? By that logic having the slowest possible computer must be a better experiance than a fast one. Watching the lowest res video must be more "pure" than high res video. After all, watching blu-ray is just snobbery. Real film buff insist on VHS if they can't get it on someing more primitive.
Wrong. It's a dangerous place because of the PROFIT on drugs. Simply replacing "evade the cops" with "evade the tax man" will still mean that it's profitable to go outside the law. If the government is "making money hand over fist" on taxes, the gangs will be "making money hand over fist" not paying taxes.
It's all about who gets the money and it makes more sense if you consider the state a "gang" in this context.
...And if drugs were legalised, there would no longer be any reason to operate a back street meth lab...
Wrong, wrong, wrong! Legal drugs != no crime.
I'm originally from North Carolina (Southern USA for the rest of the world). The state pastime is moonshine, illegal liquor. Few things are easier to get than legal alcohol and almost no one is so dysfunctional that they can't get and pretty much stay drunk if that's really important to them.
Why then is moonshine still being produced and actively fought by the ATF? TAXES!!! As long as there is a high tax on something, and every "Legalize drugs!" rant I hear proposes the tax angle, people will produce it illegally. You are just trading the ATF for the DEA.
Someone who says "Well the catastrophe hasn't happened yet, but it surely will if we don't raise taxes and establish a totalitarian state" can be wrong as well.
No first amendment type protection that prevents the government from regulating speech "for our own good"? That cure is worse than the disease, as far as I’m concerned.
By the way, do Republicans believe that vaccines cause autism?
I know plenty of hard core Obama voting, alternative health care folks that fanatically believe the same. It ain't just Republicians. There is a huge subset of unicorn loving Socialists that are anti science.
The whole point is that when everything is regulated to the point that the average Joe is a law breaker somewhere just living his life, then you can be singled out and prosecuted for something if some bureaucrat doesn't like your politics or race or religion or...
America has become a totalitarian state. "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State" Mussolini.
The fact that you can do a lot of stuff without asking the government for permission ignores the fact that everything you are doing is with the permission of the State or at least being ignored by the State for the moment. Permission is not the same thing as freedom.
One can't simply vote someone out of office. We have to vote someone INTO office. When there are few or no good people running, we are stuck with what we have unless you are advocating voting with a gun.
Efficiency isn't the issue. It's massive bureaucracies/government controls that aren't needed/wanted. The Nazis were probably efficient. If the DHS is efficient, does that make it a good thing to have around?
Too many people here are discussing higher gas taxes vs newer, more expensive cars. Stupid discussion. We'll get both because as soon as gas milage goes up to any real degree, the parasitic government will raise the gas tax to offset falling revenues.
Slashdot Mirror
The real issue really might be the type of info not the quantity. For diet, it's the type of calories that matter. I've started consuming lots of fat and reducing starch and other sugars without regard to total calorie count and my weight has dropped substantially and my health has improved as measured by lipid panels and my own athletic performance. Gotta be a an information analog. Plenty of junk out there on the intertubes along with good stuff.
buy any car we want, have to save the planet of course,
use any kind of light bulb we want, to save the planet of course
own guns because we might do something wrong
leave all our money to our kids if we happen to have a lot.
handle our own retirement planning
handle our own medical situations. After all, Europe controls that for their populations, we must as well
You get the point. (and probably agree). Well you're right. Many people ARE going to make mistakes in one or all of these areas.
I mees up now and then myself, but I had a mommy and daddy to tell me what to do when I was a child. I am no longer a child and would rather make my own way in life. A totalitarian state or Mad Max anarchy aren't the only options. Limited, not non-existant, government is what I want to live under, but that makes me a kook it seems. If you want the government to run your life, it will. Completely.
I wrote some CC processing software just a few years ago that replaced dialup boxes and the users made me play a wav file of a modem negotiation so they would "know" the CC was being processed. Still in operation today and if I tried to remove the sound, there'd be a rebellion!
VISA doesn't track every penny spent. I write credit card billing software. VISA, MC, et al just get a transaction total. Only the vendor knows what was charged. VISA can look at the vendor and make assumptions, however they don't know if I bought a lot of candy bars or gas or what mixture of transactions from a Mobil station.
Wait until you get to the "Obama" phase. As bad as the "Bush" phase is, it will look like the good 'ole days. And that's just sad.
Wrong, wrong wrong! I cut back on starchy carbs, INCREASED my fat intake and lost 35 lbs in about six months without increasing excercise. http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Challenging-Conventional/dp/1400040787
I've never understood this way of thinking. Sure, people waste money on lots of things in their lives, but having good equipment set up well in a good room is somehow silly? By that logic having the slowest possible computer must be a better experiance than a fast one. Watching the lowest res video must be more "pure" than high res video. After all, watching blu-ray is just snobbery. Real film buff insist on VHS if they can't get it on someing more primitive.
It's all about who gets the money and it makes more sense if you consider the state a "gang" in this context.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! Legal drugs != no crime.
I'm originally from North Carolina (Southern USA for the rest of the world). The state pastime is moonshine, illegal liquor. Few things are easier to get than legal alcohol and almost no one is so dysfunctional that they can't get and pretty much stay drunk if that's really important to them.
Why then is moonshine still being produced and actively fought by the ATF? TAXES!!! As long as there is a high tax on something, and every "Legalize drugs!" rant I hear proposes the tax angle, people will produce it illegally. You are just trading the ATF for the DEA.
Seriously?? Have you ever seen girls fight?
Someone who says "Well the catastrophe hasn't happened yet, but it surely will if we don't raise taxes and establish a totalitarian state" can be wrong as well.
No first amendment type protection that prevents the government from regulating speech "for our own good"? That cure is worse than the disease, as far as I’m concerned.
By the way, do Republicans believe that vaccines cause autism?
I know plenty of hard core Obama voting, alternative health care folks that fanatically believe the same. It ain't just Republicians. There is a huge subset of unicorn loving Socialists that are anti science.
Being revolting is not the same thing *as* revolting. (It's a joke guys, lighten up.)
Bad idea, bad, bad idea
...he has turned into the worst sort of lying, deceitful, two-faced power monger. It's not that he's a dirtbag...
Isn't "lying, deceitful, two-faced power monger" the very definition of dirtbag?
America has become a totalitarian state. "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State" Mussolini.
The fact that you can do a lot of stuff without asking the government for permission ignores the fact that everything you are doing is with the permission of the State or at least being ignored by the State for the moment. Permission is not the same thing as freedom.
Everyone with a brain knows Democrats ideas(yearly trillion+ deficits) will bankrupt the US but they can't be ignored as the lunatic fringe they are.
There, fixed it for you.
One can't simply vote someone out of office. We have to vote someone INTO office. When there are few or no good people running, we are stuck with what we have unless you are advocating voting with a gun.
Efficiency isn't the issue. It's massive bureaucracies/government controls that aren't needed/wanted. The Nazis were probably efficient. If the DHS is efficient, does that make it a good thing to have around?
Too many people here are discussing higher gas taxes vs newer, more expensive cars. Stupid discussion. We'll get both because as soon as gas milage goes up to any real degree, the parasitic government will raise the gas tax to offset falling revenues.
Oblig. reference Mimsy were the Borogroves
I'd sure hate to find a VW Bug bug while being driven around town.
There's no empirical evidence that people make rational decisions about their own health care spending.
There's no empirical evidence that people make rational decisions about their own health care spending when a third party pays for it.
There, fixed it for you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River