We can't change or influence the weather in any way! That means doing anything is futility itself.
I love this shit! Of course we can change and influence the weather. But unfortunately, actually being informed of the world around you is not a requirement for public office. Cloud-seeding has been going on for a while. The Chinese used it to affect the weather during the Beijing Olympics. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/research/2008-02-29-china-weather_N.htm
Wake me up when there's a successful criminal prosecution. Bernie Madoff doesn't count: he targeted the wealthy.
He also doesn't count because he confessed. It's not like they actually caught him. In fact the SEC actively avoided catching him until he showed up and said yeah, it's a Ponzi scheme.
So how many people did they rape? You know, attack a woman, hold her down, beat the shit out of her, then forcefully have sex with her, kick her in the head and leave her for dead alone in an alleyway?
Why are you obsessed with the monetary amount of damage? It's just money. The biggest criminals and the people who destroy human life and dignity.
No, but they threw people out of their houses making them homeless. They crashed the world economy, costing millions their livelihood. It's just money? Go tell someone that has gone bankrupt or been foreclosed on that it's just money. From their reckless lending and trading to their predatory lending to their financing of wars around the world, the bankers have destroyed plenty of human life and dignity.
The biggest criminals and the people who destroy human life and dignity.
Yep, and the bankers got away with it in 2008.
Too bad you were modded Troll. The bankers have destroyed more human life and dignity than most people realize. It's just money? Try having a decent and dignified life without money.
You haven't identified the cause either. The most elite, wealthy, privileged blacks are still far more likely to commit crimes than the most disadvantaged non-blacks (including downtrodden whites in Appalachia, incredibly poor Asian immigrants with no English skills, etc).
I agree, it's more about class than race. But race and class have been intertwined in the US, largely because of the disenfranchisement of blacks.
Facebook took my number from a friend's mobile phone's contact list and added it to my profile two weeks later. I never gave it to them. They can die in a fire.
Yeah, see, that's why I don't Facebook. Right there.
People who live and work in the system are usually believers. They will always believe that they are trying to do the right thing, that they are helping not hurting. Every time governments start doing evil things and people finally get prosecuted, they always seem to have convinced themselves that they were somehow acting in then best interests of the people.
This is very insightful, and I think you are absolutely correct. It goes a long way toward explaining how people end up taking actions that seem so misguided from the outside.
But, in this case, I just can't seem to figure out what the person who redacted those pages was thinking. Did they actually believe that it was too dangerous to communicate the FBI's policy to the very people they are supposed to be protecting? I just can't figure out what mental twisting they could have used to justify keeping this secret. I can only conclude that they don't actually believe they are acting in the best interests of the people, but in their own interests. Do they really have so much contempt for us?
This is a very good time to point out how much organizations like the ACLU and EFF are needed. Donate if you can, it's tax deductible!
If people see law enforcement as a force for Good, and the War on Terror as a righteous endeavor, they will work to protect the agency that is fighting those fights. They might not appreciate it when an organization like the ACLU comes in and wants to criticize their work. It's like Col. Jessup in A Few Good Men. He was up on that wall providing security for the country, and Lt. Kaffee had the temerity to question the manner in which he provided it. I think that's a likely dynamic at play here. And I do support the EFF and ACLU!
Do you have any actual "journalists" at geekwire? Redactions, advertorials - you kiddies act like you just found out how reporting and journalism works in the last 12 hours. Take a news reporting class at your local community college - you'll learn a thing or two that the hippies knew all about regarding the FOIA in the 70's. Or read a stinking "Reporting for Dummies" book.
I see, so a group submits a request for information that the government refuses to release by way of redaction, and that's called Journalism? Thanks for clearing that up.
Congress doesn't run the executive agencies. Go to them if you want new legislation passed, or old legislation repealed. Go to the Judicial branch if you want to do something about them violating existing law.
Seems that's what the ACLU did. And we see how far it has gotten them so far.
I hope that you realize that passive RFID can also be tracked. What happens when we start having RFID sensors on everywhere in our society? Do we revolt again to overthrow our oppression or do we just let the rich and powerfull enslave us?
Based on my observation of recent history, I'm going with letting the rich and powerful enslave us. We're kind of enslaved already and most people don't notice.
Well, just students. In Saudi-Arabia, every woman is tracked via her cellphone. If she is found to try leaving the state, her male guardian (every woman has a mostly legally responsible guardian like a husband, brother or father) is notified by SMS. Of course, that's just a compromise as, strictly speaking, women are not allowed to move without their guardian's supervision in public at all, at penalty of flaying.
We're ok with all that because Saudi-Arabia has a whole lot of oil.
We're okay with lots of stuff if there's a whole lot of oil involved.
No, but draughting requires a greater reach for longer hours and with greater precision, and I don't recall hearing of any physiological issues from my peers.
Draughting? Is that what we're calling bartending nowadays?
... there are obvious trends that some people learn more and learn faster then others and I'm certain this can be measured at a gross level. I bet there are methodological flaws with the study that will be debunked soon.
Everyday, it seems, someone wants to watch me, be it government or websites that track my movements across the web. Short of pulling the plug or exerting massive amounts of proxy, mixmaster, VPS expensive nonsense, I'm about ready to just live and not worry about it. Actually, corporations are more likely to keep me awake at night than government. When there is money to be made, you can bet they will stop at nothing to achieve their sinister goals.
For the most part you can just live your life. If you are just going about daily business you have little to fear. The problem arises if and when you want to make a significant change to the status quo. Say you want to join the Occupy movement, or advocate against hydraulic fracking, or agitate for criminal proceedings against Wall Street felons. These new law enforcement abilities will be used against you to preserve that status quo that so many powerful people benefit so much from.
Question: What do people do with all that wealth. How many cars or nice houses does it take? How many islands, how many women in your wake suing? Why cannot people be content with normal?
At a certain level it becomes not about wealth but power. Money talks in the US like nothing else. If you have enough money, you can have a hand in shaping society to be the way you want it to be; no election necessary. You can buy ad time on TV to broadcast the message you want. You can fund foundations and think tanks to do the work and write policy papers reflecting your point of view. You can fund political campaigns and make demands of the Congresspeople you help elect. You can hire lobbyists for similar purposes. Hell, you can break the law and get away with it by hiring a legal dream team, or better yet getting your Congressman buddy to squash the investigation.
Like you said, at a certain level you don't care about Ferraris and private islands anymore. You've got 6 of each already. You turn your attention to making society the way you want it to be, and for your own interests. Have your ever wanted to remake the world according to your own image? If you had $50 billion you could start doing it.
Agreed. And it's not even potential, it's pretty much guaranteed. Years ago when I heard about all these new laws being used only in terrorism cases I thought, "Yeah, right." And I was amazed at the lack of perception of those around me who insisted that they would only be used for terrorism. Ten years later I'm not at all surprised at how things have proceeded.
If you want to be a drug dealer or engage in other criminal activity, don't broadcast your location to the rest of the world with your cellphone.
Why do you assume I am a criminal if i don't want the government or law enforcement to be able to track me without a warrant? Not everyone suspected or accused of a crime is a criminal.
The Mayan's I've talked to think this is funny; they equate the calendar ending like December 31st. The cycle then repeats itself.
A few years ago I dug into this Mayan prophesy/end-of-the-world/Nibiru stuff on the Internet. That was the conclusion I came to; that the Mayans had a very long calendar, and it ended in 2012. But like all calendars, you just start over at the beginning.
Slashdot Mirror
We can't change or influence the weather in any way! That means doing anything is futility itself.
I love this shit! Of course we can change and influence the weather. But unfortunately, actually being informed of the world around you is not a requirement for public office. Cloud-seeding has been going on for a while. The Chinese used it to affect the weather during the Beijing Olympics. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/research/2008-02-29-china-weather_N.htm
Oy, this canard again?
Sorry, no: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/06/cra-thought-experiment/
Wake me up when there's a successful criminal prosecution. Bernie Madoff doesn't count: he targeted the wealthy.
He also doesn't count because he confessed. It's not like they actually caught him. In fact the SEC actively avoided catching him until he showed up and said yeah, it's a Ponzi scheme.
So how many people did they rape? You know, attack a woman, hold her down, beat the shit out of her, then forcefully have sex with her, kick her in the head and leave her for dead alone in an alleyway?
Why are you obsessed with the monetary amount of damage? It's just money. The biggest criminals and the people who destroy human life and dignity.
No, but they threw people out of their houses making them homeless. They crashed the world economy, costing millions their livelihood. It's just money? Go tell someone that has gone bankrupt or been foreclosed on that it's just money. From their reckless lending and trading to their predatory lending to their financing of wars around the world, the bankers have destroyed plenty of human life and dignity.
The biggest criminals and the people who destroy human life and dignity.
Yep, and the bankers got away with it in 2008.
Too bad you were modded Troll. The bankers have destroyed more human life and dignity than most people realize. It's just money? Try having a decent and dignified life without money.
You haven't identified the cause either. The most elite, wealthy, privileged blacks are still far more likely to commit crimes than the most disadvantaged non-blacks (including downtrodden whites in Appalachia, incredibly poor Asian immigrants with no English skills, etc).
I agree, it's more about class than race. But race and class have been intertwined in the US, largely because of the disenfranchisement of blacks.
Facebook took my number from a friend's mobile phone's contact list and added it to my profile two weeks later. I never gave it to them. They can die in a fire.
Yeah, see, that's why I don't Facebook. Right there.
It's what plants crave!
People who live and work in the system are usually believers. They will always believe that they are trying to do the right thing, that they are helping not hurting. Every time governments start doing evil things and people finally get prosecuted, they always seem to have convinced themselves that they were somehow acting in then best interests of the people.
This is very insightful, and I think you are absolutely correct. It goes a long way toward explaining how people end up taking actions that seem so misguided from the outside.
But, in this case, I just can't seem to figure out what the person who redacted those pages was thinking. Did they actually believe that it was too dangerous to communicate the FBI's policy to the very people they are supposed to be protecting? I just can't figure out what mental twisting they could have used to justify keeping this secret. I can only conclude that they don't actually believe they are acting in the best interests of the people, but in their own interests. Do they really have so much contempt for us?
This is a very good time to point out how much organizations like the ACLU and EFF are needed. Donate if you can, it's tax deductible!
If people see law enforcement as a force for Good, and the War on Terror as a righteous endeavor, they will work to protect the agency that is fighting those fights. They might not appreciate it when an organization like the ACLU comes in and wants to criticize their work. It's like Col. Jessup in A Few Good Men. He was up on that wall providing security for the country, and Lt. Kaffee had the temerity to question the manner in which he provided it. I think that's a likely dynamic at play here. And I do support the EFF and ACLU!
Do you have any actual "journalists" at geekwire? Redactions, advertorials - you kiddies act like you just found out how reporting and journalism works in the last 12 hours. Take a news reporting class at your local community college - you'll learn a thing or two that the hippies knew all about regarding the FOIA in the 70's. Or read a stinking "Reporting for Dummies" book.
I see, so a group submits a request for information that the government refuses to release by way of redaction, and that's called Journalism? Thanks for clearing that up.
You have no idea just how right you are. I could tell you some insider stories but I will spare you because you'd have nightmares.
I already have nightmares. What's your story?
Congress doesn't run the executive agencies. Go to them if you want new legislation passed, or old legislation repealed. Go to the Judicial branch if you want to do something about them violating existing law.
Seems that's what the ACLU did. And we see how far it has gotten them so far.
This country's owners are the citizens.
That hasn't been the case for a while now, IMO. The US is effectively an oligarchy at this point.
I hope that you realize that passive RFID can also be tracked. What happens when we start having RFID sensors on everywhere in our society? Do we revolt again to overthrow our oppression or do we just let the rich and powerfull enslave us?
Based on my observation of recent history, I'm going with letting the rich and powerful enslave us. We're kind of enslaved already and most people don't notice.
Well, just students. In Saudi-Arabia, every woman is tracked via her cellphone. If she is found to try leaving the state, her male guardian (every woman has a mostly legally responsible guardian like a husband, brother or father) is notified by SMS. Of course, that's just a compromise as, strictly speaking, women are not allowed to move without their guardian's supervision in public at all, at penalty of flaying.
We're ok with all that because Saudi-Arabia has a whole lot of oil.
We're okay with lots of stuff if there's a whole lot of oil involved.
I used to be able to play Spy Hunter forever for just 25 cents.
No, but draughting requires a greater reach for longer hours and with greater precision, and I don't recall hearing of any physiological issues from my peers.
Draughting? Is that what we're calling bartending nowadays?
"purpose" ? Whose purpose ? Surely you're not implying that nature as such has a purpose ?
We humans ascribe meaning to things. We just like to do it.
... there are obvious trends that some people learn more and learn faster then others and I'm certain this can be measured at a gross level. I bet there are methodological flaws with the study that will be debunked soon.
Perhaps spelling and grammar? ;-)
Everyday, it seems, someone wants to watch me, be it government or websites that track my movements across the web. Short of pulling the plug or exerting massive amounts of proxy, mixmaster, VPS expensive nonsense, I'm about ready to just live and not worry about it. Actually, corporations are more likely to keep me awake at night than government. When there is money to be made, you can bet they will stop at nothing to achieve their sinister goals.
For the most part you can just live your life. If you are just going about daily business you have little to fear. The problem arises if and when you want to make a significant change to the status quo. Say you want to join the Occupy movement, or advocate against hydraulic fracking, or agitate for criminal proceedings against Wall Street felons. These new law enforcement abilities will be used against you to preserve that status quo that so many powerful people benefit so much from.
Question: What do people do with all that wealth. How many cars or nice houses does it take? How many islands, how many women in your wake suing? Why cannot people be content with normal?
At a certain level it becomes not about wealth but power. Money talks in the US like nothing else. If you have enough money, you can have a hand in shaping society to be the way you want it to be; no election necessary. You can buy ad time on TV to broadcast the message you want. You can fund foundations and think tanks to do the work and write policy papers reflecting your point of view. You can fund political campaigns and make demands of the Congresspeople you help elect. You can hire lobbyists for similar purposes. Hell, you can break the law and get away with it by hiring a legal dream team, or better yet getting your Congressman buddy to squash the investigation.
Like you said, at a certain level you don't care about Ferraris and private islands anymore. You've got 6 of each already. You turn your attention to making society the way you want it to be, and for your own interests. Have your ever wanted to remake the world according to your own image? If you had $50 billion you could start doing it.
Agreed. And it's not even potential, it's pretty much guaranteed. Years ago when I heard about all these new laws being used only in terrorism cases I thought, "Yeah, right." And I was amazed at the lack of perception of those around me who insisted that they would only be used for terrorism. Ten years later I'm not at all surprised at how things have proceeded.
If you want to be a drug dealer or engage in other criminal activity, don't broadcast your location to the rest of the world with your cellphone.
Why do you assume I am a criminal if i don't want the government or law enforcement to be able to track me without a warrant? Not everyone suspected or accused of a crime is a criminal.
And their donors!
The Mayan's I've talked to think this is funny; they equate the calendar ending like December 31st. The cycle then repeats itself.
A few years ago I dug into this Mayan prophesy/end-of-the-world/Nibiru stuff on the Internet. That was the conclusion I came to; that the Mayans had a very long calendar, and it ended in 2012. But like all calendars, you just start over at the beginning.
Meh, I don't know. I think at the end of the day, someone determined to do something will find a way to do it.