My question is why aren't people going to prison? The Supreme Court gave a legally binding order and nobody complied, that means somebody's got to go to prison.
Though you are modded Troll, I basically agree with this. Dynastic wealth is detrimental to society and democracy. Once a person becomes wealthy enough they can exert undue influence on society. I think we need a new (or a few more) top marginal tax rate. Set it at 90% of income over $10 million (yes, I'm pulling that number out of my ass). People can still make a lot of money. But people should not be allowed to amass unlimited wealth.
Actually, we didn't vote for them. That's part of the problem.
http://www.wanttoknow.info/votingproblems
This is a perfect example of how the US corporate media ignore important issues. Even though a lot of the links on that page are from the corporate media, they are able to keep an issue front and center if they want, rather than just reporting a story once and moving on. Something like widespread voting irregularities should be kept front and center IMO. More people should be aware of this issue.
Those who let themselves be ruled by fear, they are the problem.
It happens everywhere; countries get richer, standards rise. People become unable to handle danger, risk and death. Do not accept it as a natural part of life anymore. They start freaking out about minor threats (radical islamists, pedophiles, etc).
The sociopathic construct that are governments/corporatations are never late to capitalize on those fears.
And while I'm the first to say that those who let themselves be ruled by fear and scare tactics deserve [insert whatever nastiness], they are the same drones who will happily assimilate to whatever neo-fascist/nazist/whatever regime is coming. As long as they feel safe.
Two awesome quotes come to mind:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. / Ben Franklin
And I am reminded, on this holy day, of the sad story of Kitty Genovese. As you all may remember, a long time ago, almost thirty years ago, this poor soul cried out for help time and time again, but no person answered her calls. Though many saw, no one so much as called the police. They all just watched as Kitty was being stabbed to death in broad daylight. They watched as her assailant walked away. Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. / Monsignor - Boondock Saints
Another quote comes to mind for me.
voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
Whenever I hear the American People blamed for the state of the country, I feel I must add in a could of caveats. I agree that if the people of the country were more vocal and active, they could change things. But at the same time I am aware that the American people are lied to and manipulated from all angles. It's really hard to get good, unvarnished information these days. Politicians will not tell people the truth. The military will not tell people the truth. Advertisers will not tell people the truth. The news media will tell people part of the truth, but leave out the uncomfortable bits. Even then they often rely on press releases and official spokespeople, who will not tell them the truth.
Some people watch Fox News and think they know what's up. Others watch CNN and think the same. Still others go to Infowars and think the really know what's up. Alex Jones is right about at least one thing though: There is a war on for your mind. Many people want a piece of it to further their agenda, whether that's selling ad time, or convincing us Lloyd Blankfein doesn't deserve jail time, or scaring us into war and giving up our rights. It's difficult to make good decisions if you have bad information. And we are surrounded by bad information.
So I try to give the American people a bit of a break. As my sig suggests, they are at least partly defined by their ignorance. And that ignorance is engineered. I don't mean that in a tinfoil hat way, but that so many interests are interested in people getting a particular message without regard for the truth. Then there's the fact that the truth is often ugly, and people naturally prefer their comfortable illusions.
People cannot accept someone else who is out to kill them intentionally because of hatred or a belief system. Yes, foreign policy, resources, economics, geopolitics, and myriad other nuances are involved here, but it really is that simple at its core.
While there is some irrational hatred at play, the fact remains that the US and its allies have been overthrowing governments, propping up dictators, and generally fucking with many countries in the Middle East for over 50 years now. I'd say it adds up to a bit more than nuance.
The reason there ever was a "war on terror" isn't to "funnel money to corporate buddies" — it's because, to be blunt, we don't put up with that shit, even if our response is imperfect — not to mention that Europe and the West has enjoyed US defense-by-proxy for over a half-century. The fact that war is an economic driver is incidental (even if it can be argued to be important in its own way). But make no mistake: when US policy makers of any political stripe make the decision to go to war, the thinking isn't, "Hey, this can line the pockets of my corporate buddies!! Lulz!"
The reasons for the War on Terror are myriad. Many players are interested in it for their own reasons. For the defense contractors and the banks, the purpose of the War on Terror is very much to make money. That $500 billion the Pentagon spends every year has to go into someones' pocket. And the debt to finance the war has to come from somewhere. Not much gets done in America that doesn't have a profit motive.
But I know that you and many other readers here are cynical (and ignorant) enough to actually twist a story about Pakistan and Islam into, yet again in true topsy-turvy bizarro-world style, how the US is evil. (Same thing happened with the recent Syria Wikileaks story.) It might be amusing if it weren't so predictable, pathetic, and shameful.
On the world stage it's never about good and evil. It's about power and control; who has it and who wants it. It's as simple as that.
19,187 separate attacks? Can we get a citation for this? Or some methodology? While thereligionofpeace.com seems totally unbiased, I'd like to know where that number comes from. If 11 years (or so) have passed since 9/11/01, that's 1744 and a quarter attacks per year, or 4 and three quarters attacks per day, not taking time off for Ramadan, for 11 years. Just seems like a lot is all.
Did you read the article? It was not a wanted poster. It was an internal police memorandum accurately calling these two people professional agitators, and instructing the police NOT TO BOTHER THEM. That's right. The evil wanted poster was a warning to police officers that these two people were not meant to be messed with.
Bullshit. Police officers are citizens too. Please describe for me one 'privilege' that a police officer has that a citizen who is not a police officer does not have.
Apparently, it's illegal to put up fake wanted posters. Impersonating police officers and whatnot.
It cost me a misdemeanor charge and banishment from every Walmart in the city to find this out.
If the image you want to project is that of a bad guy tough guy, stop fucking whining when you are treated that way.
Who are you, George Zimmerman? The fact is, you don't lose your right against unreasonable search and seizure just for wearing baggy jeans. The tone of your post makes me think you do not often get searched by police just for walking down the street.
Tell you what: You tell me what you're wearing and I'll declare it suspicious and send the cops to search your house. When you complain you did nothing wrong, I'll tell you you had it coming.
Yeah, basically. What this story says is that the government plans on strategically lying to people. When your government lies to you and hides things from you, how can you say you have any voice in what it does? You can't even find out what it does, let alone change it! My sig gets truer by the day...
I don't think it's quite so black-and-white. Sure, the profit motive gives us new tech. But there is a question of allocation of resources and which problems are addressed. Others have pointed out that the profit motive also gives the drug companies an incentive to manage illness rather than cure it. It also reduces incentive to create drugs that would help a lot of people, but not make much money (vaccines and antibiotics as a couple of examples).
The problem with the profit motive is right there in the name: profit. The motivation is not to make new drugs to help people. It is not to look at where the need is most dire and address it. The motivation is to make money. The benefit to society is a side effect, and will be ignored if the primary motivation is put in jeopardy. This is why the profit motive is fine for relatively unimportant stuff like toasters and cars and video games. But really important stuff that affects people's lives perhaps should not be left to the whims of self-interest.
I've been building a network of RHEL servers lately using, but have been using predominately MS products for about 12 years. I've come to the realization that for enterprise networks, Microsoft has been THE leader with Active Directory. Linux has a few open source loose-ends lying around but they aren't production ready integrated tools.
Red Hat has introduced some similar tools recently with the identity management software (DNS, LDAP, Kerberos, NTP, etc.) but they are late to the party still not really production ready or integrated.
AD is certainly a great feature set. But they ripped it off from Novell. It's basically the Novell tree.
Freedom of speech is not Freedom to be a idiot. When you make your bed, you must lie in it. If you cannot handle the outcome of your own words perhaps it would be best to shut your mouth and forget about saying it (or in this case typing it).
Why not? So if I want to speak out against a government policy, and the outcome of that speech is being put on a watch list, having my house searched and my taxes audited, I should just shut up? Freedom of speech means not being targeted by the authorities just for what you say. Sometimes that requires anonymity.
Close. Surface is their multi-touch-for-high-values-of-'multi' large-display technology, but yes, it is rather silly of them to use one name for two unrelated products.
Well, they already used Internet Explorer for their Internet browser and Explorer for their file browser. That never gets confusing, let me tell you.
You forgot one. Every single american is guilty of some crime that carries at least 5 year minimum sentence. If they start to stir shit, the government will start looking into their lives (through a secret warrants most likely) find it and lock them up. In a state where everyone is guilty of breaking some law, the prosecutor is the judge, the courts are just a farce at that point. The real problem are the overbroad laws.
While I agree, I didn't include that because I'm not sure that's a calculation a lot of people are making. I have found that most people I meet fall into the category of having no idea they are living in a totalitarian state, or at least not appreciating the extent and significance.
I was listening to the NY police commissioner say on record while arguing for marihuana possession laws that often they cannot prove a case, so they opt for locking the guy on marihuana possession with mandatory sentence (often higher than that of the crime they wanted to lock him up for) and they are happy that a guy got locked in, because they "know" he is guilty. And he did not even see anything wrong with saying that. I cringed.
Yeah, that's a reprehensible attitude. Though, knowing what I do about the NYC PD, I can't say I'm too surprised. Such a friendly bunch!
The level of government propaganda in US is at least 10 times higher than it was in communist Czechoslovakia where I grew up, with the slight difference that there people knew that the government is lying to them, in US they eat it up. It turns my stomach when I listen to it. The president can go to war with any country simply by calling them 'evil', because naturally "Americans are good and they have to fight evil." Ingenious. The propaganda around drug prohibition is even worse. Not to mention the overly broad laws being spoon fed based on false pretense.
This is a really important point, and it relates to my last point in the post above. The US populace is propagandized on a massive scale. I mean on a scale that few would even consider possible. Not long ago someone made a comment to me to the effect of "You wouldn't believe how much of the news is bullshit." and I replied "No, you wouldn't believe how much of the news is bullshit." And it's not just the news. There are think tanks, business groups, intelligence agencies, and who knows who else constantly working to shape the minds and opinions of Americans through PR and advertising. And it works. Like you said the people just eat it up. If you try to tell them, they will think you are a crazy person. For some reason, it's hard to convince people that much of what they consider to be real, or the truth, is an illusion!;-) But this is a lot of why the American public is so ignorant of how and why things really work. Critical thinking is not their strong suit, and they don't question their information sources. And then there's the fact that when you really get into some of the hidden truths, they are pretty fucking horrifying. So a lot of people just don't want to know. The blue pill suits them just fine.
Slashdot Mirror
My question is why aren't people going to prison? The Supreme Court gave a legally binding order and nobody complied, that means somebody's got to go to prison.
I think we all know the answer to that, don't we?
Though you are modded Troll, I basically agree with this. Dynastic wealth is detrimental to society and democracy. Once a person becomes wealthy enough they can exert undue influence on society. I think we need a new (or a few more) top marginal tax rate. Set it at 90% of income over $10 million (yes, I'm pulling that number out of my ass). People can still make a lot of money. But people should not be allowed to amass unlimited wealth.
Actually, we didn't vote for them. That's part of the problem.
http://www.wanttoknow.info/votingproblems
This is a perfect example of how the US corporate media ignore important issues. Even though a lot of the links on that page are from the corporate media, they are able to keep an issue front and center if they want, rather than just reporting a story once and moving on. Something like widespread voting irregularities should be kept front and center IMO. More people should be aware of this issue.
Those who let themselves be ruled by fear, they are the problem.
It happens everywhere; countries get richer, standards rise. People become unable to handle danger, risk and death. Do not accept it as a natural part of life anymore. They start freaking out about minor threats (radical islamists, pedophiles, etc).
The sociopathic construct that are governments/corporatations are never late to capitalize on those fears.
And while I'm the first to say that those who let themselves be ruled by fear and scare tactics deserve [insert whatever nastiness], they are the same drones who will happily assimilate to whatever neo-fascist/nazist/whatever regime is coming. As long as they feel safe.
Two awesome quotes come to mind: Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. / Ben Franklin
And I am reminded, on this holy day, of the sad story of Kitty Genovese. As you all may remember, a long time ago, almost thirty years ago, this poor soul cried out for help time and time again, but no person answered her calls. Though many saw, no one so much as called the police. They all just watched as Kitty was being stabbed to death in broad daylight. They watched as her assailant walked away. Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. / Monsignor - Boondock Saints
Another quote comes to mind for me.
Whenever I hear the American People blamed for the state of the country, I feel I must add in a could of caveats. I agree that if the people of the country were more vocal and active, they could change things. But at the same time I am aware that the American people are lied to and manipulated from all angles. It's really hard to get good, unvarnished information these days. Politicians will not tell people the truth. The military will not tell people the truth. Advertisers will not tell people the truth. The news media will tell people part of the truth, but leave out the uncomfortable bits. Even then they often rely on press releases and official spokespeople, who will not tell them the truth.
Some people watch Fox News and think they know what's up. Others watch CNN and think the same. Still others go to Infowars and think the really know what's up. Alex Jones is right about at least one thing though: There is a war on for your mind. Many people want a piece of it to further their agenda, whether that's selling ad time, or convincing us Lloyd Blankfein doesn't deserve jail time, or scaring us into war and giving up our rights. It's difficult to make good decisions if you have bad information. And we are surrounded by bad information.
So I try to give the American people a bit of a break. As my sig suggests, they are at least partly defined by their ignorance. And that ignorance is engineered. I don't mean that in a tinfoil hat way, but that so many interests are interested in people getting a particular message without regard for the truth. Then there's the fact that the truth is often ugly, and people naturally prefer their comfortable illusions.
Romney started out rich. Just sayin'.
People cannot accept someone else who is out to kill them intentionally because of hatred or a belief system. Yes, foreign policy, resources, economics, geopolitics, and myriad other nuances are involved here, but it really is that simple at its core.
While there is some irrational hatred at play, the fact remains that the US and its allies have been overthrowing governments, propping up dictators, and generally fucking with many countries in the Middle East for over 50 years now. I'd say it adds up to a bit more than nuance.
The reason there ever was a "war on terror" isn't to "funnel money to corporate buddies" — it's because, to be blunt, we don't put up with that shit, even if our response is imperfect — not to mention that Europe and the West has enjoyed US defense-by-proxy for over a half-century. The fact that war is an economic driver is incidental (even if it can be argued to be important in its own way). But make no mistake: when US policy makers of any political stripe make the decision to go to war, the thinking isn't, "Hey, this can line the pockets of my corporate buddies!! Lulz!"
The reasons for the War on Terror are myriad. Many players are interested in it for their own reasons. For the defense contractors and the banks, the purpose of the War on Terror is very much to make money. That $500 billion the Pentagon spends every year has to go into someones' pocket. And the debt to finance the war has to come from somewhere. Not much gets done in America that doesn't have a profit motive.
But I know that you and many other readers here are cynical (and ignorant) enough to actually twist a story about Pakistan and Islam into, yet again in true topsy-turvy bizarro-world style, how the US is evil. (Same thing happened with the recent Syria Wikileaks story.) It might be amusing if it weren't so predictable, pathetic, and shameful.
On the world stage it's never about good and evil. It's about power and control; who has it and who wants it. It's as simple as that.
280 people killed in the last killed by muslim terrorists between June 23 and June 29th. 1173 people killed by muslim terrorists in June alone. 19,187 terrorist attacks by muslims since 9/11.
19,187 separate attacks? Can we get a citation for this? Or some methodology? While thereligionofpeace.com seems totally unbiased, I'd like to know where that number comes from. If 11 years (or so) have passed since 9/11/01, that's 1744 and a quarter attacks per year, or 4 and three quarters attacks per day, not taking time off for Ramadan, for 11 years. Just seems like a lot is all.
That's fine. I don't associate with people who dress like criminals anyway.
No, it's pretty darn useless.
Thank you. That's why I used the word "literally". When I said that Windows 7 search is literally useless, I meant it literally.
Did you read the article? It was not a wanted poster. It was an internal police memorandum accurately calling these two people professional agitators, and instructing the police NOT TO BOTHER THEM. That's right. The evil wanted poster was a warning to police officers that these two people were not meant to be messed with.
Check it out. They're finally smartening up!
Bullshit. Police officers are citizens too. Please describe for me one 'privilege' that a police officer has that a citizen who is not a police officer does not have.
This can't be serious.
Apparently, it's illegal to put up fake wanted posters. Impersonating police officers and whatnot. It cost me a misdemeanor charge and banishment from every Walmart in the city to find this out.
So, it was a win?
If the image you want to project is that of a bad guy tough guy, stop fucking whining when you are treated that way.
Who are you, George Zimmerman? The fact is, you don't lose your right against unreasonable search and seizure just for wearing baggy jeans. The tone of your post makes me think you do not often get searched by police just for walking down the street.
Tell you what: You tell me what you're wearing and I'll declare it suspicious and send the cops to search your house. When you complain you did nothing wrong, I'll tell you you had it coming.
The U.S. government is very corrupt.
Where there is secrecy, there is no democracy.
Yeah, basically. What this story says is that the government plans on strategically lying to people. When your government lies to you and hides things from you, how can you say you have any voice in what it does? You can't even find out what it does, let alone change it! My sig gets truer by the day...
Lettuce
I don't think it's quite so black-and-white. Sure, the profit motive gives us new tech. But there is a question of allocation of resources and which problems are addressed. Others have pointed out that the profit motive also gives the drug companies an incentive to manage illness rather than cure it. It also reduces incentive to create drugs that would help a lot of people, but not make much money (vaccines and antibiotics as a couple of examples).
The problem with the profit motive is right there in the name: profit. The motivation is not to make new drugs to help people. It is not to look at where the need is most dire and address it. The motivation is to make money. The benefit to society is a side effect, and will be ignored if the primary motivation is put in jeopardy. This is why the profit motive is fine for relatively unimportant stuff like toasters and cars and video games. But really important stuff that affects people's lives perhaps should not be left to the whims of self-interest.
I've been building a network of RHEL servers lately using, but have been using predominately MS products for about 12 years. I've come to the realization that for enterprise networks, Microsoft has been THE leader with Active Directory. Linux has a few open source loose-ends lying around but they aren't production ready integrated tools.
Red Hat has introduced some similar tools recently with the identity management software (DNS, LDAP, Kerberos, NTP, etc.) but they are late to the party still not really production ready or integrated.
AD is certainly a great feature set. But they ripped it off from Novell. It's basically the Novell tree.
Introducing the GUI to the masses was not innovative?
Mac OS X has had that for a while. It's called Spotlight.
And it actually works, unlike the search feature in Windows 7. Overall I like Win 7, but the search feature is literally useless.
After opening with a false premise like "storied history of leadership", do you really want to read more?
Yeah, that was a good one. I also liked "...and the company has driven innovation for decades." That made me chuckle.
Freedom of speech is not Freedom to be a idiot. When you make your bed, you must lie in it. If you cannot handle the outcome of your own words perhaps it would be best to shut your mouth and forget about saying it (or in this case typing it).
Why not? So if I want to speak out against a government policy, and the outcome of that speech is being put on a watch list, having my house searched and my taxes audited, I should just shut up? Freedom of speech means not being targeted by the authorities just for what you say. Sometimes that requires anonymity.
Cue, you dick.
What if they were lining up to complain about government overreach? ;-)
So tiresome...
Close. Surface is their multi-touch-for-high-values-of-'multi' large-display technology, but yes, it is rather silly of them to use one name for two unrelated products.
Well, they already used Internet Explorer for their Internet browser and Explorer for their file browser. That never gets confusing, let me tell you.
You forgot one. Every single american is guilty of some crime that carries at least 5 year minimum sentence. If they start to stir shit, the government will start looking into their lives (through a secret warrants most likely) find it and lock them up. In a state where everyone is guilty of breaking some law, the prosecutor is the judge, the courts are just a farce at that point. The real problem are the overbroad laws.
While I agree, I didn't include that because I'm not sure that's a calculation a lot of people are making. I have found that most people I meet fall into the category of having no idea they are living in a totalitarian state, or at least not appreciating the extent and significance.
I was listening to the NY police commissioner say on record while arguing for marihuana possession laws that often they cannot prove a case, so they opt for locking the guy on marihuana possession with mandatory sentence (often higher than that of the crime they wanted to lock him up for) and they are happy that a guy got locked in, because they "know" he is guilty. And he did not even see anything wrong with saying that. I cringed.
Yeah, that's a reprehensible attitude. Though, knowing what I do about the NYC PD, I can't say I'm too surprised. Such a friendly bunch!
The level of government propaganda in US is at least 10 times higher than it was in communist Czechoslovakia where I grew up, with the slight difference that there people knew that the government is lying to them, in US they eat it up. It turns my stomach when I listen to it. The president can go to war with any country simply by calling them 'evil', because naturally "Americans are good and they have to fight evil." Ingenious. The propaganda around drug prohibition is even worse. Not to mention the overly broad laws being spoon fed based on false pretense.
This is a really important point, and it relates to my last point in the post above. The US populace is propagandized on a massive scale. I mean on a scale that few would even consider possible. Not long ago someone made a comment to me to the effect of "You wouldn't believe how much of the news is bullshit." and I replied "No, you wouldn't believe how much of the news is bullshit." And it's not just the news. There are think tanks, business groups, intelligence agencies, and who knows who else constantly working to shape the minds and opinions of Americans through PR and advertising. And it works. Like you said the people just eat it up. If you try to tell them, they will think you are a crazy person. For some reason, it's hard to convince people that much of what they consider to be real, or the truth, is an illusion! ;-) But this is a lot of why the American public is so ignorant of how and why things really work. Critical thinking is not their strong suit, and they don't question their information sources. And then there's the fact that when you really get into some of the hidden truths, they are pretty fucking horrifying. So a lot of people just don't want to know. The blue pill suits them just fine.