As a financial support of the Free Software Foundation over the years, and also a Debian user, I have sometimes been amused at the conflicts that arise between the two organizations. However, the conflicts have never really been an issue for me, including the recent GNU Free Documentation problem in Debian.
However, I must say that RMS is seriously missing the point in recommending the Extremadura distro. There is some incredible irony is favoring a distro pushed by a governing authority and saying that is the most free option (I am sure that George Orwell would have some thoughts on this). Don't misunderstand me, I think all governments should be moving toward linux. However, I will never look to ANY government as the standard bearer for free software. So Extremadura uses nothing but GNU software right now. That is great. But what keeps them from changing that down the road when it is most convenient for them?
RMS may not like Debian anymore because they have a non-free branch. But if he so desired, he stands a much better chance of getting involved with the Debian project in an effort to influence them to drop the non-free branch. Debian is a non-profit organization run by the developers, not big-brother. Free software purity will never come from government. In this case, RMS is "not seeing the forest because of the trees".
The page you refer to says:
-- BEGIN QUOTE --
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AT AUBURN
This e-mail from an Auburn University student.
After explaining to the class that The Oddyssey was written in 1150 B.C.,my liberal great books professor (great books is basically a core literature class) quickly apologized for the offensive religious language embodied in "B.C.". She then went on to tell us that if we were offended that she would use the term "B.C.E" or, Before Common Era. (Auburn University)
It's worse than you think. In the reading assignments you'll find two more links about liberalism and political correctness at our colleges and universities. Mona Charen tells us that a college professor was fired for telling the class that all of the hijackers on September 11th were Arabs. Also a link to some study results which will show the overwhelming number of leftists on our campuses.
-- END QUOTE --
Sorry jackalvcs2. You are wrongly mixing two different parts of the story. This piece if talking about political correctness on college campuses. The email from the Auburn student says nothing about a professor being fired for comments. The web site then goes on to make another example of political correctness gone wild, and says that Mona Charen, a syndicated columist cites a college professor being fired for his comments about Arabs. Sorry, nothing in this piece says that it was an Auburn University professor. It is unfortunate that the web site is so poorly put together that someone can read one quote from a student, then read something entirely different from someone else -- but believe that they are related. It is also unfortunate that the site is willing to float second hand information from a syndicated columnist but not offer any citations to the source. To the contrary, it was NOT an Auburn professor. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is keeping a running collection of people who have been fired due to issues relating to September 11. Someone else who replied to you seems to be correct, the only professor fired for derogatory comments was a person at Orange County College in California. A guy was also apparently fired in Florida because he allegedly supports terrorists. But it looks like Auburn University isn't involved with any of the stuff you mention. See the following link for details: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism_ militias/antiterrorism_chill.html
I am for MORE privacy than the next guy. There is no reason that we need a social security number to function in society, unless you want the governement to be your mommy and keep tabs on you. Not only is Japan's system unfortunate, it is wrong. And the US SS system should be abolished also.
http://www.lp.org/issues/social-security.html
"That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have." -- Henry David Thoreau
Slashdot Mirror
Hell, even Debian has it already. How slow can Microsoft be?
As a financial support of the Free Software Foundation over the years, and also a Debian user, I have sometimes been amused at the conflicts that arise between the two organizations. However, the conflicts have never really been an issue for me, including the recent GNU Free Documentation problem in Debian.
However, I must say that RMS is seriously missing the point in recommending the Extremadura distro. There is some incredible irony is favoring a distro pushed by a governing authority and saying that is the most free option (I am sure that George Orwell would have some thoughts on this). Don't misunderstand me, I think all governments should be moving toward linux. However, I will never look to ANY government as the standard bearer for free software. So Extremadura uses nothing but GNU software right now. That is great. But what keeps them from changing that down the road when it is most convenient for them?
RMS may not like Debian anymore because they have a non-free branch. But if he so desired, he stands a much better chance of getting involved with the Debian project in an effort to influence them to drop the non-free branch. Debian is a non-profit organization run by the developers, not big-brother. Free software purity will never come from government. In this case, RMS is "not seeing the forest because of the trees".
The page you refer to says: -- BEGIN QUOTE -- POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AT AUBURN This e-mail from an Auburn University student. After explaining to the class that The Oddyssey was written in 1150 B.C.,my liberal great books professor (great books is basically a core literature class) quickly apologized for the offensive religious language embodied in "B.C.". She then went on to tell us that if we were offended that she would use the term "B.C.E" or, Before Common Era. (Auburn University) It's worse than you think. In the reading assignments you'll find two more links about liberalism and political correctness at our colleges and universities. Mona Charen tells us that a college professor was fired for telling the class that all of the hijackers on September 11th were Arabs. Also a link to some study results which will show the overwhelming number of leftists on our campuses. -- END QUOTE -- Sorry jackalvcs2. You are wrongly mixing two different parts of the story. This piece if talking about political correctness on college campuses. The email from the Auburn student says nothing about a professor being fired for comments. The web site then goes on to make another example of political correctness gone wild, and says that Mona Charen, a syndicated columist cites a college professor being fired for his comments about Arabs. Sorry, nothing in this piece says that it was an Auburn University professor. It is unfortunate that the web site is so poorly put together that someone can read one quote from a student, then read something entirely different from someone else -- but believe that they are related. It is also unfortunate that the site is willing to float second hand information from a syndicated columnist but not offer any citations to the source. To the contrary, it was NOT an Auburn professor. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is keeping a running collection of people who have been fired due to issues relating to September 11. Someone else who replied to you seems to be correct, the only professor fired for derogatory comments was a person at Orange County College in California. A guy was also apparently fired in Florida because he allegedly supports terrorists. But it looks like Auburn University isn't involved with any of the stuff you mention. See the following link for details: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism_ militias/antiterrorism_chill.html
I am for MORE privacy than the next guy. There is no reason that we need a social security number to function in society, unless you want the governement to be your mommy and keep tabs on you. Not only is Japan's system unfortunate, it is wrong. And the US SS system should be abolished also.
http://www.lp.org/issues/social-security.html
"That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have." -- Henry David Thoreau
VOTE LIBERTARIAN!!