However, if you Americans elect Ron Paul as president, the list will just disappear altogether, along with the secret military prisons and the warrantless wiretaps.
Power corrupts. Great power corrupts quickly. Even if by some miracle Ron Paul was elected President, he'd find some reason to keep most of these measures around "at least on a temporary basis".
The rebels didn't (only) meet the redcoats on the field of battle either. They did nasty stuff like hide in the woods and ambush them. The British considered this "unsporting".
But to be fair, the US military doesn't call those blowing up soldiers in Iraq "terrorists" either.
Although communism was never proven to be a successful economic system, socialist-capitalist policies (ie. nationalized healthcare) have proven to be extremely popular and successful in nations that have the economic resources to support them.
Until said policies drain the public treasury, and exhaust (or drive away) those being taxed to support it. It's the bread-and-circuses thing all over again.
Hmm. If your summary is correct, then as a pessimist, I just don't want any optimists around. They're not going to make contingency plans, and if things do go wrong (as of course they will), they're going to blame "external causes" -- which of course includes the pessimists around.
Scott Adams had a Dilbert strip where he coined the term 'technological savant'. This is an individual who can solve the most sophisticated technical problems in his/her field, but is too stupid to compare paychecks between professions.
Hmm. As long as I'm on that Bureau of Labor Statistics page, I might point out that the the mean salary for a "Computer Software Engineer, Applications" is $82,000. By the numbers, it's not a bad field to be in.
Closest I can find to your 26,000 figure is "Computer and Information Scientists, Research" (27,650). The iPhone and Palm jobs you mention wouldn't fall under that, they'd most likely fall under "Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software" (employment of 329,060). Then there's the 472,520 jobs in "Computer Software Engineers, Applications". And the 396,020 "Computer Programmers". There's also 446,460 "Computer Systems Analysts".
Running hedge funds takes an entirely different skillset. There's probably a lot of people with both, I've known a few programmers who went into finance also. But I think the part of the iPhone job most closely related to that is the "getting yelled at by Jobs", not the technical problems.
. This sense of entitlement, that the world needs to adjust to 'my' lifestyle and needs. Unless you are going to own and run your own business, that ain't gonna happen.
Even if you are going to own and run your own business. There's always someone to answer to -- most commonly investors and customers.
RTFO. Nobody disputes that he's innocent. The only evidence against him was an ground to air radio supposedly found in his hotel room safe. As it turns out, it actually belonged to a pilot on the floor below; it's not clear how (or even IF -- perhaps it was merely mismarked) it got into his safe. When they started threatening his family, he started making up stories he thought they wanted to hear.
Hey, Comcast, here's the deal. You give me the highest tier of Triple Play and all the premium channels for free, and I'll keep sprinkling "Osama Bin Laden", "Echelon", "terrorism", and other keywords into my Internet usage to keep the Feds interested. I won't even ask for a cut of what's left of the $750.
I mean seriously, if the Feds are going to listen anyway <cough>AT&T</cough> I might as well get something out of it.
What you're not mentioning is that the baggage compartments and ULDs are built like a clothes dryer or lottery machine, and once the flight starts they spin it up and completely randomize the baggage. This also ensures the minimum quota of wear and tear on the luggage per flight.
Retroactive taxes are legal in the United States (most recently decided with a retroactive income tax increase during the Clinton administration). The Ex Post Facto law provision hasn't applied to taxes since Calder v. Bull in the 18th centry, and since the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the various "Megan's laws" it really doesn't apply to much anymore. Probably the final nail was Kansas v Hendricks, the decision to allow those who had finished serving their sentences for certain crimes to be indefinitely confined to a mental institution.
The US Constitution: It's just a goddamn piece of paper.
If you really want to make it fair, then if the tax is, e.g., 1%, just download one illegal song for every 100 you buy. Then you're paying for your own piracy, right?
We currently live in a world where for some time, local hard disk capacity and processing power have been growing far, far, faster than bandwidth.
Adobe makes applications which work with huge amounts of data and often require significant processing power to do it. Obviously, the right thing to do is to take these applications and make them limited by bandwidth rather than local resources.
F'ing genius.
A legitimate copy of the last desktop version of Photoshop,etc is going to be like gold to publishers. Piracy of that last version is going to make Windows piracy look like a drop in the bucket.
The fact the tax system is not fair is no reason to evade taxes. It's reason to get engaged in politics, something very few do and not always with the best intentions.
As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then?
the problem is that they charge a lot, they collect a lot and give almost nothing back. police? marginally effective, but in fact most of the population are scared of them. legal system? any cases take years to even begin being heard. public health system? don't get me started on that. is a s***hole, all capable citizens resort to private health insurance. public schools? horrible, able citizens put their kids on private schools.
Slashdot Mirror
You forgot, last but not least:
4) Publicity for the New York State Attorney General's Office.
These sorts of suits got Eliot Spitzer the governorship, no reason for the A.G. to stop now.
And don't they know by now you're supposed to demand one BILLION dollars?
Power corrupts. Great power corrupts quickly. Even if by some miracle Ron Paul was elected President, he'd find some reason to keep most of these measures around "at least on a temporary basis".
The rebels didn't (only) meet the redcoats on the field of battle either. They did nasty stuff like hide in the woods and ambush them. The British considered this "unsporting".
But to be fair, the US military doesn't call those blowing up soldiers in Iraq "terrorists" either.
Until said policies drain the public treasury, and exhaust (or drive away) those being taxed to support it. It's the bread-and-circuses thing all over again.
It's raining and overcast here, you insensitive clod!
(and always is for any significant astronomical phenomenon)
Hmm. If your summary is correct, then as a pessimist, I just don't want any optimists around. They're not going to make contingency plans, and if things do go wrong (as of course they will), they're going to blame "external causes" -- which of course includes the pessimists around.
Hmm. As long as I'm on that Bureau of Labor Statistics page, I might point out that the the mean salary for a "Computer Software Engineer, Applications" is $82,000. By the numbers, it's not a bad field to be in.
Closest I can find to your 26,000 figure is "Computer and Information Scientists, Research" (27,650). The iPhone and Palm jobs you mention wouldn't fall under that, they'd most likely fall under "Computer Software Engineers, Systems Software" (employment of 329,060). Then there's the 472,520 jobs in "Computer Software Engineers, Applications". And the 396,020 "Computer Programmers". There's also 446,460 "Computer Systems Analysts".
Running hedge funds takes an entirely different skillset. There's probably a lot of people with both, I've known a few programmers who went into finance also. But I think the part of the iPhone job most closely related to that is the "getting yelled at by Jobs", not the technical problems.
No, the DMCA passed the Senate 99-0, and the House by voice vote. And Boucher was one of the 99, so forget about him.
RTFO. Nobody disputes that he's innocent. The only evidence against him was an ground to air radio supposedly found in his hotel room safe. As it turns out, it actually belonged to a pilot on the floor below; it's not clear how (or even IF -- perhaps it was merely mismarked) it got into his safe. When they started threatening his family, he started making up stories he thought they wanted to hear.
Hey, Comcast, here's the deal. You give me the highest tier of Triple Play and all the premium channels for free, and I'll keep sprinkling "Osama Bin Laden", "Echelon", "terrorism", and other keywords into my Internet usage to keep the Feds interested. I won't even ask for a cut of what's left of the $750.
I mean seriously, if the Feds are going to listen anyway <cough>AT&T</cough> I might as well get something out of it.
What you're not mentioning is that the baggage compartments and ULDs are built like a clothes dryer or lottery machine, and once the flight starts they spin it up and completely randomize the baggage. This also ensures the minimum quota of wear and tear on the luggage per flight.
Retroactive taxes are legal in the United States (most recently decided with a retroactive income tax increase during the Clinton administration). The Ex Post Facto law provision hasn't applied to taxes since Calder v. Bull in the 18th centry, and since the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the various "Megan's laws" it really doesn't apply to much anymore. Probably the final nail was Kansas v Hendricks, the decision to allow those who had finished serving their sentences for certain crimes to be indefinitely confined to a mental institution.
The US Constitution: It's just a goddamn piece of paper.
Illegal downloads are still free, right?
If you really want to make it fair, then if the tax is, e.g., 1%, just download one illegal song for every 100 you buy. Then you're paying for your own piracy, right?
It's a felony to carry a lighter in your checked baggage.
We currently live in a world where for some time, local hard disk capacity and processing power have been growing far, far, faster than bandwidth.
Adobe makes applications which work with huge amounts of data and often
require significant processing power to do it. Obviously, the right thing to do is to take these applications and make them limited by bandwidth rather than local resources.
F'ing genius.
A legitimate copy of the last desktop version of Photoshop,etc is going to be like gold to publishers. Piracy of that last version is going to make Windows piracy look like a drop in the bucket.
Tried the soap box. Nobody's listening.
Tried the ballot box. Didn't make no difference.
Tried the jury box. Was excluded from the jury.
Ain't touching that last box. Looks like there's nothing to be done.
As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then?
-- Henry David Thoreau
But enough about the US, the subject was Brazil.
If shipping $500M in equipment incurs $1500M in taxes, any businessman would have to be nuts to open an office there.