I guess the kind of people buying these cars will use chaffeurs anyways. I guess a lot of MCSE's will be doing a bit of moonlighting when this car comes out.
...they just come out and say, "We want a bigger budget!"? And with Bush Jnr in office, they will get whatever they want. The CIA are the biggest threat in this world, not China.
>>"I ask them, 'What have you done last week?' They may say they wrote a paper on this or that. So I tell them, 'Oh, you wrote a paper, and you got an A? Would it bother you if somebody could just take that paper and get an A too? Would that bug you?'
Quite frankly Hilary, no. Art for arts sake, and all.
Can you say, Ad hoc reasoning?
Eg.
Q.
If time travel is possible, why dont we ever meet any time travellers?
A.
Well, obviously, because there are many parallel universes out there that they travel to. [insert theory du jour here] theory tell us this! Dont you know anything? [Insert rant about other dimensions/time lines/universes et cetera here].
---------
Yes, the world looks so much clearer if you are the one writing the rules.
I have read a lot about the universe, all the latest theories et cetera; but I dont think for one minute, that these theories are any different from Orgone energy theory. Most of the theories here are nothing more than speculation. Fun to read, interesting at times, but speculation none the same.
The US is a society of extremes - Violence is just one example. Is it just coincidence that incidents such as this generally always happen in the US? These unfortunate killings are symptoms of a failing society. Nothing more, nothing less. And that goes for any society. However, I cannot ignore the fact that the rate of violent crime in America is far higher than that of say, European countries. Residents of European countries all (with a few exceptions) have access to the same video games as US citizens do - Draw your own conclusions on whether video games have an adverse effect on society. But blaming society is the next step up from blaming video games: At the end of the day, we as individuals are responsible for our own actions. Like video games, society is also used as a scape goat by people; to blame what are ultimately *THEIR* own actions upon. Although I feel it has to be said that in a healty society (or healthier), incidents such as this will no doubt happen far less often. Using video games as the straw guy is far too short sighted for the situation. It is us as collective individuals that make a society, the day that the Columbine's stop happening is the day after we take a good hard look at ourselves. I find it very difficult that this will happen in the US anytime soon, money is the only thing that governs there: I cant see a billion dollar weapon industry being made obsolete in the forseeable future.
This trend of 'Who Is To Blame®' was spawned by the media, many people will follow it like sheep. The notion of personal responsibility is sadly diminishing.
More to the point, the very idea of resorting to adversarial behaviour is common in the US, to the point where it is nonchalently accepted: It is regularly practiced by the US government and is seen by many of its citizens as a viable solution - This will have an effect on peoples subconscious. Not everyone will resort to killing people that they have a grievence against, but expect it to be more common in a society where adversarial behaviour is the norm.
Where I live, and most other European countries, there isnt this problem with gun related violence. Criminals have guns, but look at the difference in crime rates (especially murder rate) between the US and European countries. Violence clearly does not solve violence. I simply cant go down to Wallmart and buy a gun and what's more; I dont have a need to. The problem in the US is that it is far too late to deal with easily; guns are accepted by society. I live in a society where you cant buy anything other than simple guns (eg. Shotguns, 22 rifles - mainly for farmers and country people), there are also *very* stringent laws regarding the ownership of guns - Guns should NOT be part of society by a 'long shot' (so to speak=) I feel sorry for the responsible citizens that live in the US that feel the need to buy a gun for protection. I am not critisizing you, but societies can do without guns. I am not saying that guns should be banned outright, it will require a long well thought out process to phase them out of US culture. I am just glad that I dont live in a place where I need to buy a gun to feel safe. However, I can empathize with you, if I were in your shoes I would probably own a gun. So not a personal attack on gun ownership, more of a reflection on the problems it gives a society. It is too easy to use hindsight and say it should have been nipped in the bud decades ago, the reality is that they are part of US culture and will be for a long time yet. The solution is not to simply ban guns completely, that would be ludicrous. They need to be phased out over a l_o_n_g period of time, gradually pushing them out of widespread acceptance. I feel that this wont be easily done due to all the pro gun lobbies, there is a hell of a lot of money in guns, its like the Oil business. Money talks. I cannot forsee weapons manufacturers (or a Republican government) allowing guns to be phased out of society without a hell of a fight. That greatly saddens me, that profit comes before people: Weapons manufacturers (and those other people who make big money from guns) will actively seek to make guns acceptable, when quite clearly, judging by every other civilised society, they are not.
Gun ownership should be obsolete in a modern society (times have changed since the wild west=), but like I said before, profits come before people.
The US has a very violent society. These stupid ex post facto remedies only reflect on how ignorant the law makers are about the situation, they are avoiding the *real* issue. Society itself is failing, this will prove very hard to stop.
The U.S. has the highest percentage of its citizens in prison of any country ever, in the history of the world - About 3% of all adult Americans are in prison as I write this. What's worse, is that the prison population growth is still rising. The U.S. has about 6 times the percentage of its citizens in prison or gaol (US: jail) as the European countries. More evidence of social breakdown in the U.S, is its alarmingly high murder rate. The US is a society of extremes. There are many fundamental issues regarding its social breakdown that need to be seriously addressed. The 'Violent Video Game Protection Act' is sort of like King Kanute (sic), trying to get the tide to stop. There is no point in creating acts such as this when people can still just go down to WallMart® and easily pick up some serious weaponary. The *right* to have a gun may have been handy a dozen decades ago; but now it is quite obviously having a detrimental effect on US society.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess the kind of people buying these cars will use chaffeurs anyways. I guess a lot of MCSE's will be doing a bit of moonlighting when this car comes out.
...they just come out and say, "We want a bigger budget!"? And with Bush Jnr in office, they will get whatever they want. The CIA are the biggest threat in this world, not China.
>>"I ask them, 'What have you done last week?' They may say they wrote a paper on this or that. So I tell them, 'Oh, you wrote a paper, and you got an A? Would it bother you if somebody could just take that paper and get an A too? Would that bug you?' Quite frankly Hilary, no. Art for arts sake, and all.
Can you say, Ad hoc reasoning? Eg. Q. If time travel is possible, why dont we ever meet any time travellers? A. Well, obviously, because there are many parallel universes out there that they travel to. [insert theory du jour here] theory tell us this! Dont you know anything? [Insert rant about other dimensions/time lines/universes et cetera here]. --------- Yes, the world looks so much clearer if you are the one writing the rules. I have read a lot about the universe, all the latest theories et cetera; but I dont think for one minute, that these theories are any different from Orgone energy theory. Most of the theories here are nothing more than speculation. Fun to read, interesting at times, but speculation none the same.
The US is a society of extremes - Violence is just one example. Is it just coincidence that incidents such as this generally always happen in the US?
These unfortunate killings are symptoms of a failing society. Nothing more, nothing less.
And that goes for any society. However, I cannot ignore the fact that the rate of violent crime in America is far higher than that of say, European countries. Residents of European countries all (with a few exceptions) have access to the same video games as US citizens do - Draw your own conclusions on whether video games have an adverse effect on society.
But blaming society is the next step up from blaming video games: At the end of the day, we as individuals are responsible for our own actions. Like video games, society is also used as a scape goat by people; to blame what are ultimately *THEIR* own actions upon. Although I feel it has to be said that in a healty society (or healthier), incidents such as this will no doubt happen far less often. Using video games as the straw guy is far too short sighted for the situation. It is us as collective individuals that make a society, the day that the Columbine's stop happening is the day after we take a good hard look at ourselves. I find it very difficult that this will happen in the US anytime soon, money is the only thing that governs there: I cant see a billion dollar weapon industry being made obsolete in the forseeable future.
This trend of 'Who Is To Blame®' was spawned by the media, many people will follow it like sheep. The notion of personal responsibility is sadly diminishing.
More to the point, the very idea of resorting to adversarial behaviour is common in the US, to the point where it is nonchalently accepted: It is regularly practiced by the US government and is seen by many of its citizens as a viable solution - This will have an effect on peoples subconscious. Not everyone will resort to killing people that they have a grievence against, but expect it to be more common in a society where adversarial behaviour is the norm.
Where I live, and most other European countries, there isnt this problem with gun related violence. Criminals have guns, but look at the difference in crime rates (especially murder rate) between the US and European countries. Violence clearly does not solve violence. I simply cant go down to Wallmart and buy a gun and what's more; I dont have a need to. The problem in the US is that it is far too late to deal with easily; guns are accepted by society. I live in a society where you cant buy anything other than simple guns (eg. Shotguns, 22 rifles - mainly for farmers and country people), there are also *very* stringent laws regarding the ownership of guns - Guns should NOT be part of society by a 'long shot' (so to speak=) I feel sorry for the responsible citizens that live in the US that feel the need to buy a gun for protection. I am not critisizing you, but societies can do without guns. I am not saying that guns should be banned outright, it will require a long well thought out process to phase them out of US culture. I am just glad that I dont live in a place where I need to buy a gun to feel safe. However, I can empathize with you, if I were in your shoes I would probably own a gun. So not a personal attack on gun ownership, more of a reflection on the problems it gives a society. It is too easy to use hindsight and say it should have been nipped in the bud decades ago, the reality is that they are part of US culture and will be for a long time yet. The solution is not to simply ban guns completely, that would be ludicrous. They need to be phased out over a l_o_n_g period of time, gradually pushing them out of widespread acceptance. I feel that this wont be easily done due to all the pro gun lobbies, there is a hell of a lot of money in guns, its like the Oil business. Money talks. I cannot forsee weapons manufacturers (or a Republican government) allowing guns to be phased out of society without a hell of a fight. That greatly saddens me, that profit comes before people: Weapons manufacturers (and those other people who make big money from guns) will actively seek to make guns acceptable, when quite clearly, judging by every other civilised society, they are not. Gun ownership should be obsolete in a modern society (times have changed since the wild west=), but like I said before, profits come before people.
If anyone of my kids had violent tendancies, I'd give him a good beatin'. Yeah, I sure would learn him good that violence is bad.
The US has a very violent society. These stupid ex post facto remedies only reflect on how ignorant the law makers are about the situation, they are avoiding the *real* issue. Society itself is failing, this will prove very hard to stop.
The U.S. has the highest percentage of its citizens in prison of any country ever, in the history of the world - About 3% of all adult Americans are in prison as I write this. What's worse, is that the prison population growth is still rising. The U.S. has about 6 times the percentage of its citizens in prison or gaol (US: jail) as the European countries. More evidence of social breakdown in the U.S, is its alarmingly high murder rate.
The US is a society of extremes. There are many fundamental issues regarding its social breakdown that need to be seriously addressed. The 'Violent Video Game Protection Act' is sort of like King Kanute (sic), trying to get the tide to stop. There is no point in creating acts such as this when people can still just go down to WallMart® and easily pick up some serious weaponary. The *right* to have a gun may have been handy a dozen decades ago; but now it is quite obviously having a detrimental effect on US society.