Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
Political independence.
Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.
Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition: freedom from want.
The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
Ease or facility of movement: loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom.
Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve: the new freedom in movies and novels.
The right to unrestricted use; full access: was given the freedom of their research facilities.
The right of enjoying all of the privileges of membership or citizenship: the freedom of the city.
A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference: the seductive freedoms and excesses of the picaresque form (John W. Aldridge).
[Middle English fredom, from Old English frodm: fro, free; see free + -dm, -dom.]
Synonyms: freedom, liberty, license
These nouns refer to the power to act, speak, or think without externally imposed restraints. Freedom is the most general term: In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the
free (Abraham Lincoln).
Liberty stresses the power of free choice: liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do just as one pleases (William Hazlitt).
License sometimes denotes deliberate deviation from normally applicable rules or practices to achieve a desired effect: poetic license. Frequently, though, it denotes undue freedom:
the intolerable license with which the newspapers break... the rules of decorum (Edmund Burke).
You are quite right, we are free to make choices, have thoughts, and express ourselves but not because every human has the God-given right to do so (even if everyone should), but because we stand up for attempts to take those rights away from us.
How exactly did property and land come into this? Sorry, but this discussion isn't about property ownership and taxes on it, it's about freedom from unreasonable persecution (which I hope I can spell properly today:p) by the government side-stepping around due process in the name of 'safety'.
Everybody has things that they want to hide. Are they things that should get them in trouble with the law? In most cases, probably not. Unfortunately, 'innocence' is a very relative term. By our and definition of 'innocence', all the girls running around in belly shirts and painted-on shorts are not generally guilty of anything besides (occasionally) bad taste. In most fundamental Arab countries, they are guilty of a number of things. Depending on whose definition of 'innocent' you're using, everyong is guilty of something. That's where the government knowing everything about everyone is dangerous. What happens when, say, a new President and Congress are elected, and happen to agree that, say, Japanese Anime corrupts people and undermines the American way. Since they already (in your world, where I sure as Hell hope to never live) know everything about everyone, they can (without having to justify it or explain why) round up anyone who has ever bought, rented, or borrowed, etc., any Anime and lock them up as Enemies of the State. Replace Anime with just about anything. From the news the last few years, violent FPS games. We could lock up anyone who has ever bought Quake, UT, Doom, GTA, etc. for being prone to violence. Granted, these are extremes, but those are what have to be guarded against.
I personally don't happen to be as fatalistic as to believe that nearly as drastic measures are necessary to ensure the continuation of the human race. I do believe that giving away our freedoms at the drop of a hat isn't fighting or preventing terrorism, especially when all it will likely do is cause problems for more innocent (by our current laws and my opinion) people.
"libraries are paid for by taxes.... Yes, duh. Of course, and that makes them free. "
No, that is what makes them exist. They're only 'free' to people who don't pay taxes. If our tax dollars didn't go to them, they would have to charge for membership.
"When you checked out a book and what books you checked out should be public information, because my tax dollars pay for you to be able to check out books"
My tax dollars (presumably) pay for the roads that you drive on- thus, I (or anyone else) should be able to search your car at will. Sound unreasonable? Of course. But it's the exact same principle.
"Also, I have to mention this, people did not die defending their rights to not have their library records seen"
People didn't die defending your rights to P2P either- they died for their country and for what they believed in. I don't know what those who died thought, but from what I've seen as an Army brat, they probably would have prefered that any freedom not be taken away so lightly.
"Freedom means, doing what is best for the majority."
This is where I most strongly object. Freedom does NOT mean "doing what is best for the majority." Following that logic, Hitler was a champion of freedom, because he was doing what was best for the majority of Germans. If anything, freedom is doing, or at least attempting to do, what is best for everyone. Does this mean that the majority will not always get their way? Yes. But it also means that the minorities won't get neglected, trampled on, or 'cleansed' (in a perfect situation).
"There is no due process in a time of war, and we are at war right now."
I believe that Congress (who, according to the Constitution, if my memory serves, is the only body capable of legally declaring war...) would beg to differ with you. Due process was not (and has not been) suspended during the 'war on drugs'.:p
"And yes, you do have to pick your battles, you do have to play the game. People who do not believe this and still hold fast to their "library rights" will never win the game and never make any impact on the world or their own freedom."
I would rather fight every battle there is rather than sit back and say "Nope, not important. Not important either. Not yet... What? What do you mean the game is over?!?!" Besides, there is no way of knowing whether this will be an 'important' or 'impactful' battle. The only time it is possible to see that is after the 'war'...
Being Americans means (or at least I feel it should mean) holding what we do to a higher standard. If we decide that due process isn't important during a 'time of war', what will be next? How much due process existed in all of the regimes that we have fought in the past? If you take away due process and accountability by the government, the U.S. is that much closer to the Third Reich.
Re:A non-literal translation
on
Sen To, X-Men 2
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· Score: 2, Informative
The dub of Tonari no Totoro that was released some time ago was for the longest time, at least in my eyes, the benchmark for quality dubbing. The voices actually very very closely matched the original voice cast- and the acting was pretty much spot on. They also didn't change much in the way of dialogue or cultural references, or at least stayed with the spirit (no pun intended) of the original dialogue (at least as I've seen it subtitled- as I don't speak Japanese nearly well enough I can't say for certain).
The Mononoke Hime dub wasn't bad- it was impressive that it tried hard to convey the spirit of what was going on and while they didn't particularly keep with matching up voices they didn't do too bad- but I still think the Totoro dub was far better (though admittedly easier- it had a much smaller cast, somewhat simpler plot, and less action to deal with).
Re:About LINEAR (the guys who found the big rock)
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A Rock Moves In Space
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· Score: 1
Hmm. That does look similar, but not quite. If I remember right, the game's plot was something about you getting sucked into a computer and having to find and re-wire these robots to go through mazes, pick up key-cards, and all sorts of other things.
Re:Does anyone remember...?
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High Score
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· Score: 1
I'm not sure if it's the same game, but I remember a game I had for my Color Computer that involved robots and basic circuit design where you had to 'wire' robots to solve puzzles... I can't remember what it's called anymore:/
Unfortunately, even MainActor doesn't have a lot of the tools that I needed in a video editor (for example, easily changing the speed of a video clip), so for now I'm stuck with Premiere. I'll definitely have to check this out and see if it's worth trying to switch to, though.
Unfortunately, there is probably a reasoanble chance that the merchants won't suffer... they probably aren't US based, and the demand for those goods will only likely increase if tensions do.
(at which point BOBA FETT's anonymous bigchested female assassin associate bursts into the room and fires twenty blaster rounds straight at MACE's head)...
I'll throw my own suggestion in- www.prontomail.com. I haven't played much with the spam filters and such, but it has POP3 and I can actually get to it through my company's firewall. (nice thing about being a relatively unknown site ^o^ )
This is definitely common- I've lost count of how many times instrumental segments from the "Backdraft" soundtrack have been used in movie trailers (not to mention in The Iron Chef....).
Unfortunately, this isn't all that mind-boggling... it's simply an unfortunate part of human nature- kind of like how kids who are bullied by their parents have a tendency to bully weaker children...
A HDTV-TiVo may be a ways off, but there is a HDTV-resolution VCR available now- Mitsubishi makes it, the HS-HD2000U(I saw it and got a demo when I was poking around my local Tweeter). It's godawful expensive ($600+) and has to use digital tape (which is also likely not cheap), but it is probably the only non-computer way you're going to be able to record HD signals at the moment, and it looked pretty damn good.
Unfortunately, at least from what I have seen and my experience with it, none of the Non-Linear Video Editing tools currently available in Linux stack up to Premiere. I've used (or tried to use) both BCast2000 and MainActor, and neither have the functionality that Premiere does. Admittedly, I learned video editing on Premiere and am therefore most comfortable on it, and I haven't had a chance to try out the newer NLE tool from the creators of BCast, but I will be VERY happy if Adobe ports Premiere to Linux- at the moment, Premiere is the only reason that I still use my Windows partition. If there were a native version of it for Linux or if it would run using Wine , I wouldn't have to use Windows at all anymore...
While my wife would probably be jumping up and down agreeing with this (she's as much the Mac zealot as I am a Linux zealot), this wouldn't likely be practical for the situation at hand- at last count, you can't install MacOS on a PC, and I'd put hard money that the vast majority of the donated computers that they're worried about are PCs, not Macs. And the problem is that they are extremely short on both time and money- and replacing all their non-compliant computers with Macs would almost certainly cost more than paying the MS licensing tax.
Unfortunately, despite being pay-ware, MainActor still isn't up to snuff with the main tool I'm used to using for video editing- Premiere. These days, the only reason I use Windows is for Premiere, FlaskMPEG, and SmartRipper. MainActor just doesn't do some of the things that I consider very basic and necessary, like easily slowing down and speeding up video clips.
Unfortunately, the main problem with this is that for most people, the government has (comparatively) an infinite amount of money to spend prosecuting them, whereas your average person has a decidedly finite amount of money to spend defending themselves (the EFF, ACLU, etc. can't pay for everyone's lawyers). As was the case in the P3tswearhouse that a story was posted about a little while back, most people will likely roll over and pay whatever fine they are given instead of spending N times more than the fee defending themselves...
It seems like this guy is running around suing anyone who has ever said anything remotely bad about him on the internet... does that mean/. and all of us are next, since the company name (which seems to be his hot button) is up on the main page?
The amusing thing to know would be- what does this CD do to one of Sony's own products, the PS2? Will it make it crash, or did they 'accidentally' build/program it so that it would not cause problems for their own hardware? This gets even more interesting when you throw Linux-on-PS2 into the equation...
Now that would be an amusing lawsuit- M$ suing Sony for one of their CDs breaking X-Boxes....
Slashdot Mirror
freedom n.
[Middle English fredom, from Old English frodm: fro, free; see free + -dm, -dom.]
You are quite right, we are free to make choices, have thoughts, and express ourselves but not because every human has the God-given right to do so (even if everyone should), but because we stand up for attempts to take those rights away from us.
How exactly did property and land come into this? Sorry, but this discussion isn't about property ownership and taxes on it, it's about freedom from unreasonable persecution (which I hope I can spell properly today :p) by the government side-stepping around due process in the name of 'safety'.
Everybody has things that they want to hide. Are they things that should get them in trouble with the law? In most cases, probably not. Unfortunately, 'innocence' is a very relative term. By our and definition of 'innocence', all the girls running around in belly shirts and painted-on shorts are not generally guilty of anything besides (occasionally) bad taste. In most fundamental Arab countries, they are guilty of a number of things. Depending on whose definition of 'innocent' you're using, everyong is guilty of something. That's where the government knowing everything about everyone is dangerous. What happens when, say, a new President and Congress are elected, and happen to agree that, say, Japanese Anime corrupts people and undermines the American way. Since they already (in your world, where I sure as Hell hope to never live) know everything about everyone, they can (without having to justify it or explain why) round up anyone who has ever bought, rented, or borrowed, etc., any Anime and lock them up as Enemies of the State. Replace Anime with just about anything. From the news the last few years, violent FPS games. We could lock up anyone who has ever bought Quake, UT, Doom, GTA, etc. for being prone to violence. Granted, these are extremes, but those are what have to be guarded against.
I personally don't happen to be as fatalistic as to believe that nearly as drastic measures are necessary to ensure the continuation of the human race. I do believe that giving away our freedoms at the drop of a hat isn't fighting or preventing terrorism, especially when all it will likely do is cause problems for more innocent (by our current laws and my opinion) people.
"libraries are paid for by taxes.... Yes, duh. Of course, and that makes them free. "
No, that is what makes them exist. They're only 'free' to people who don't pay taxes. If our tax dollars didn't go to them, they would have to charge for membership.
"When you checked out a book and what books you checked out should be public information, because my tax dollars pay for you to be able to check out books"
My tax dollars (presumably) pay for the roads that you drive on- thus, I (or anyone else) should be able to search your car at will. Sound unreasonable? Of course. But it's the exact same principle.
"Also, I have to mention this, people did not die defending their rights to not have their library records seen"
People didn't die defending your rights to P2P either- they died for their country and for what they believed in. I don't know what those who died thought, but from what I've seen as an Army brat, they probably would have prefered that any freedom not be taken away so lightly.
"Freedom means, doing what is best for the majority."
This is where I most strongly object. Freedom does NOT mean "doing what is best for the majority." Following that logic, Hitler was a champion of freedom, because he was doing what was best for the majority of Germans. If anything, freedom is doing, or at least attempting to do, what is best for everyone. Does this mean that the majority will not always get their way? Yes. But it also means that the minorities won't get neglected, trampled on, or 'cleansed' (in a perfect situation).
"There is no due process in a time of war, and we are at war right now."
I believe that Congress (who, according to the Constitution, if my memory serves, is the only body capable of legally declaring war...) would beg to differ with you. Due process was not (and has not been) suspended during the 'war on drugs'. :p
"And yes, you do have to pick your battles, you do have to play the game. People who do not believe this and still hold fast to their "library rights" will never win the game and never make any impact on the world or their own freedom."
I would rather fight every battle there is rather than sit back and say "Nope, not important. Not important either. Not yet... What? What do you mean the game is over?!?!" Besides, there is no way of knowing whether this will be an 'important' or 'impactful' battle. The only time it is possible to see that is after the 'war'...
Being Americans means (or at least I feel it should mean) holding what we do to a higher standard. If we decide that due process isn't important during a 'time of war', what will be next? How much due process existed in all of the regimes that we have fought in the past? If you take away due process and accountability by the government, the U.S. is that much closer to the Third Reich.
Thank you, Opus... :p
The dub of Tonari no Totoro that was released some time ago was for the longest time, at least in my eyes, the benchmark for quality dubbing. The voices actually very very closely matched the original voice cast- and the acting was pretty much spot on. They also didn't change much in the way of dialogue or cultural references, or at least stayed with the spirit (no pun intended) of the original dialogue (at least as I've seen it subtitled- as I don't speak Japanese nearly well enough I can't say for certain). The Mononoke Hime dub wasn't bad- it was impressive that it tried hard to convey the spirit of what was going on and while they didn't particularly keep with matching up voices they didn't do too bad- but I still think the Totoro dub was far better (though admittedly easier- it had a much smaller cast, somewhat simpler plot, and less action to deal with).
Well, at least he didn't say Lincoln -LOGS-....
Actually, according to some engine repair reports I saw last year, weasels may not get sucked into jet engines, but coyotes apparently do...
Hmm. That does look similar, but not quite. If I remember right, the game's plot was something about you getting sucked into a computer and having to find and re-wire these robots to go through mazes, pick up key-cards, and all sorts of other things.
I'm not sure if it's the same game, but I remember a game I had for my Color Computer that involved robots and basic circuit design where you had to 'wire' robots to solve puzzles... I can't remember what it's called anymore :/
Unfortunately, even MainActor doesn't have a lot of the tools that I needed in a video editor (for example, easily changing the speed of a video clip), so for now I'm stuck with Premiere. I'll definitely have to check this out and see if it's worth trying to switch to, though.
Unfortunately, there is probably a reasoanble chance that the merchants won't suffer... they probably aren't US based, and the demand for those goods will only likely increase if tensions do.
All of which, miraculously, miss.
"In time of war, we cannot dawdle around in carrying out our constitutional obligations."
The link directly to the debate in question is here.
I'll throw my own suggestion in- www.prontomail.com. I haven't played much with the spam filters and such, but it has POP3 and I can actually get to it through my company's firewall. (nice thing about being a relatively unknown site ^o^ )
This is definitely common- I've lost count of how many times instrumental segments from the "Backdraft" soundtrack have been used in movie trailers (not to mention in The Iron Chef....).
Hey, there has to be -some- advantage to living close to/in NYC...
Unfortunately, this isn't all that mind-boggling... it's simply an unfortunate part of human nature- kind of like how kids who are bullied by their parents have a tendency to bully weaker children...
A HDTV-TiVo may be a ways off, but there is a HDTV-resolution VCR available now- Mitsubishi makes it, the HS-HD2000U(I saw it and got a demo when I was poking around my local Tweeter). It's godawful expensive ($600+) and has to use digital tape (which is also likely not cheap), but it is probably the only non-computer way you're going to be able to record HD signals at the moment, and it looked pretty damn good.
Unfortunately, at least from what I have seen and my experience with it, none of the Non-Linear Video Editing tools currently available in Linux stack up to Premiere. I've used (or tried to use) both BCast2000 and MainActor, and neither have the functionality that Premiere does. Admittedly, I learned video editing on Premiere and am therefore most comfortable on it, and I haven't had a chance to try out the newer NLE tool from the creators of BCast, but I will be VERY happy if Adobe ports Premiere to Linux- at the moment, Premiere is the only reason that I still use my Windows partition. If there were a native version of it for Linux or if it would run using Wine , I wouldn't have to use Windows at all anymore...
While my wife would probably be jumping up and down agreeing with this (she's as much the Mac zealot as I am a Linux zealot), this wouldn't likely be practical for the situation at hand- at last count, you can't install MacOS on a PC, and I'd put hard money that the vast majority of the donated computers that they're worried about are PCs, not Macs. And the problem is that they are extremely short on both time and money- and replacing all their non-compliant computers with Macs would almost certainly cost more than paying the MS licensing tax.
Unfortunately, despite being pay-ware, MainActor still isn't up to snuff with the main tool I'm used to using for video editing- Premiere. These days, the only reason I use Windows is for Premiere, FlaskMPEG, and SmartRipper. MainActor just doesn't do some of the things that I consider very basic and necessary, like easily slowing down and speeding up video clips.
Unfortunately, the main problem with this is that for most people, the government has (comparatively) an infinite amount of money to spend prosecuting them, whereas your average person has a decidedly finite amount of money to spend defending themselves (the EFF, ACLU, etc. can't pay for everyone's lawyers). As was the case in the P3tswearhouse that a story was posted about a little while back, most people will likely roll over and pay whatever fine they are given instead of spending N times more than the fee defending themselves...
It seems like this guy is running around suing anyone who has ever said anything remotely bad about him on the internet... does that mean /. and all of us are next, since the company name (which seems to be his hot button) is up on the main page?
Okay, maybe it's just me, but why the smeg is this moderated as funny??
The amusing thing to know would be- what does this CD do to one of Sony's own products, the PS2? Will it make it crash, or did they 'accidentally' build/program it so that it would not cause problems for their own hardware? This gets even more interesting when you throw Linux-on-PS2 into the equation... Now that would be an amusing lawsuit- M$ suing Sony for one of their CDs breaking X-Boxes....