There's no reason why every urban home can't have access to Comcast, Cox, Time-Warner, et cetera and simply choose which provider they like best.
Yes there is: why lay 2 sets of fiber when you can have only 1? Communications is a natural monopoly, in that really the cheapest possible phone service (in terms of real costs, not price charged to consumers) is a single phone company.
First off, your source is not appropriate for a serious argument. It's an op/ed by a columnist with accusations of plagiarism to his name, not a news article.
The loans that caused the vast majority of the current mess were issued by mortgage brokers (firms like Countrywide Financial, Ameriquest Mortgage, and Ditech), not banks. Brokers are not held to the CRA standards. The idea that the CRA caused this mess has been debunked repeatedly by every study done on the subject. If you want some real sources on this, I'd suggest studies put out by a university, the Federal Reserve, or the US Treasury Department.
Some real reasons behind the arguments about the CRA: 1. Banks have hated the CRA for a long time. They were trying to dodge it or get rid of it back in the 1990's as well. 2. Conservatives oppose most government regulation on principle. 3. By blaming the CRA, it absolved the bankers of any role in creating the problem. 4. It creates an image of a foreclosed subprime homes is owned by a black person in a bad urban neighborhood. In reality, the areas with the most subprime loans are in suburbs near LA, San Diego, Denver, and Miami. In short, racism.
And at least equally important, a single member of such a jury could force an acquittal if both they and the defendant happened to members of a certain secret society. If it ever came to trial over something so trivial as lynching.
What if you're putting stuff out there that you want associated with you? For instance, I have no need of anonymity if I'm providing useful and correct technical information: a potential employer looking at that is likely to think "this guy knows his stuff".
You mean, it's better to have an electronic system illegally and nefariously choose a candidate quickly, than a paper system slowly choose a candidate based on actual votes?
Yes, election integrity is something that regularly comes under attack. Possibly more in the US than in Europe, but I can't think of a reason why other countries would be immune.
1. Some election officials have major roles in political campaigns (e.g. Katherine Harris in Florida in 2000). There's at least a temptation to make sure their guy wins.
2. Some political ideologies believe that the people are not really capable of governing themselves, and so they don't care of the election results don't match the will of the majority.
3. If a politician believes that their agenda is what's best for the country, they want it to be enacted, and thus want to make it easier to elect allies rather than enemies. The most common way of doing this is gerrymandering, but rigging the election system is tempting.
But it's not just me getting a slice, it's the collective knowledge of the open source community and anyone else who wants it. It's turning deficit spending into tangible benefits, which is at least as useful as turning deficit spending into CEO bonuses.
When Social Security outlays exceed Social Security revenues, there's a third option you left out: C) General income taxes will be raised.
Mentioning option C is important because one could reasonably argue that Greenspan and others pulled a bait-and-switch: They convinced Congress to raise FICA taxes to pay for Baby Boomer retirement, but the money is effectively getting shuffled into the general fund via T-Bills, then the effect of increasing FICA was to shift the tax burden from the upper brackets (who got a nice tax break) to people making less than around $70K / year.
The most efficiently run medical payment service in this country right now is medicare with over 95% efficiency in terms of money going to treatment vs. overhead.
They have some competition, actually: the VA does a remarkably good job given the funds they have to work with. What's definitely true is that the private systems can't hold a candle to the government systems when it comes to using their money well.
And we're definitely not just throwing money down a black hole: among other things, this sort of project could easily lead to some improvements to SELinux.
Well, without the scientific content of the article, I thought it was really a dastardly plot to DDOS Iran with the Slashdot Effect, especially with the inclusion of video.
And if you're having a hard time getting your manager on the record about giving a bad reference, I'd suggest a bit of deception: say that your new employer needs proof of why you're staying longer in order to change the start date. Once you have it (or a confederate at your new job has it and gives it to you), talk to your lawyer.
What is true is that libertarians tend to be rural, while liberals tend to be urban. In some ways there's a logical reason for that: in a city the conditions of your neighbors affect you a lot more directly than in rural areas.
You don't necessarily have to give it to companies. There are plenty of non-profits that could probably use the help: FSF, Mozilla, Apache, etc. Or you could go with Obama's standard approach on this sort of thing and pull RMS, ESR, Guido, Linus, etc into a room to figure out what everyone wanted to do.
When I lived in near Cleveland, Ohio, back in the '90s, we could drive up to Warrensville, park for free, and take the Rapid (light rail) all the way downtown, then walk over to Jacob's Field from Tower City to see the Tribe play.
Cleveland's an interesting example: they have one of the better public transit systems in the country, and it is quite possible to manage without a car with a bit of planning (I did that for a couple of years). However, the challenge is that there are significant areas of town that are popular and completely inaccessible by public transit without walking well over a mile. These areas are places like major shopping plazas, office parks, and the IX Convention Center. The lack of public transit I chalk up to either people with cars not thinking about people who rely on public transit, or organizers trying to keep out "undesirables".
Slashdot Mirror
There's no reason why every urban home can't have access to Comcast, Cox, Time-Warner, et cetera and simply choose which provider they like best.
Yes there is: why lay 2 sets of fiber when you can have only 1? Communications is a natural monopoly, in that really the cheapest possible phone service (in terms of real costs, not price charged to consumers) is a single phone company.
First off, your source is not appropriate for a serious argument. It's an op/ed by a columnist with accusations of plagiarism to his name, not a news article.
The loans that caused the vast majority of the current mess were issued by mortgage brokers (firms like Countrywide Financial, Ameriquest Mortgage, and Ditech), not banks. Brokers are not held to the CRA standards. The idea that the CRA caused this mess has been debunked repeatedly by every study done on the subject. If you want some real sources on this, I'd suggest studies put out by a university, the Federal Reserve, or the US Treasury Department.
Some real reasons behind the arguments about the CRA:
1. Banks have hated the CRA for a long time. They were trying to dodge it or get rid of it back in the 1990's as well.
2. Conservatives oppose most government regulation on principle.
3. By blaming the CRA, it absolved the bankers of any role in creating the problem.
4. It creates an image of a foreclosed subprime homes is owned by a black person in a bad urban neighborhood. In reality, the areas with the most subprime loans are in suburbs near LA, San Diego, Denver, and Miami. In short, racism.
... and if all of those are against you, bang a juror. *ducks*
And at least equally important, a single member of such a jury could force an acquittal if both they and the defendant happened to members of a certain secret society. If it ever came to trial over something so trivial as lynching.
What if you're putting stuff out there that you want associated with you? For instance, I have no need of anonymity if I'm providing useful and correct technical information: a potential employer looking at that is likely to think "this guy knows his stuff".
You mean, it's better to have an electronic system illegally and nefariously choose a candidate quickly, than a paper system slowly choose a candidate based on actual votes?
FTFY.
Yes, election integrity is something that regularly comes under attack. Possibly more in the US than in Europe, but I can't think of a reason why other countries would be immune.
1. Some election officials have major roles in political campaigns (e.g. Katherine Harris in Florida in 2000). There's at least a temptation to make sure their guy wins.
2. Some political ideologies believe that the people are not really capable of governing themselves, and so they don't care of the election results don't match the will of the majority.
3. If a politician believes that their agenda is what's best for the country, they want it to be enacted, and thus want to make it easier to elect allies rather than enemies. The most common way of doing this is gerrymandering, but rigging the election system is tempting.
But it's not just me getting a slice, it's the collective knowledge of the open source community and anyone else who wants it. It's turning deficit spending into tangible benefits, which is at least as useful as turning deficit spending into CEO bonuses.
When Social Security outlays exceed Social Security revenues, there's a third option you left out:
C) General income taxes will be raised.
Mentioning option C is important because one could reasonably argue that Greenspan and others pulled a bait-and-switch: They convinced Congress to raise FICA taxes to pay for Baby Boomer retirement, but the money is effectively getting shuffled into the general fund via T-Bills, then the effect of increasing FICA was to shift the tax burden from the upper brackets (who got a nice tax break) to people making less than around $70K / year.
I got the gist of the OP, but I thought it worth mentioning that perfectly legal stuff can also be useful.
Next thing you know you're going to be suggesting that ordinary herbs are perfectly good for helping people sleep or combating migraines too.
Hippie, commie, open sources will never learn indeed.
The most efficiently run medical payment service in this country right now is medicare with over 95% efficiency in terms of money going to treatment vs. overhead.
They have some competition, actually: the VA does a remarkably good job given the funds they have to work with. What's definitely true is that the private systems can't hold a candle to the government systems when it comes to using their money well.
And we're definitely not just throwing money down a black hole: among other things, this sort of project could easily lead to some improvements to SELinux.
Not just Unix, all great feats of programming:
http://khason.net/blog/computer-languages-and-facial-hair-%E2%80%93-take-two/
Well, without the scientific content of the article, I thought it was really a dastardly plot to DDOS Iran with the Slashdot Effect, especially with the inclusion of video.
* Genesis device explodes *
astronomers: Bedroom window
That telescope is not for looking at stars. Which neighbors don't close the shades?
And if you're having a hard time getting your manager on the record about giving a bad reference, I'd suggest a bit of deception: say that your new employer needs proof of why you're staying longer in order to change the start date. Once you have it (or a confederate at your new job has it and gives it to you), talk to your lawyer.
Now there's a modest proposal that I can support.
Companies generally prefer to use bench trial to take advantage of the judge's bias
FTFY, at least in places where the judge is elected.
Usually those advocating a more liberal system are the wealthier.
Not true:
http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/6885.html
What is true is that libertarians tend to be rural, while liberals tend to be urban. In some ways there's a logical reason for that: in a city the conditions of your neighbors affect you a lot more directly than in rural areas.
You don't necessarily have to give it to companies. There are plenty of non-profits that could probably use the help: FSF, Mozilla, Apache, etc. Or you could go with Obama's standard approach on this sort of thing and pull RMS, ESR, Guido, Linus, etc into a room to figure out what everyone wanted to do.
Hey, it's better than a nuclear meltdown.
There aren't many things (you can do at work) that are as satisfying as throwing an NT box off a roof...
Sure there are: Throwing the boss that made you get an NT box in the first place off a roof ...
When I lived in near Cleveland, Ohio, back in the '90s, we could drive up to Warrensville, park for free, and take the Rapid (light rail) all the way downtown, then walk over to Jacob's Field from Tower City to see the Tribe play.
Cleveland's an interesting example: they have one of the better public transit systems in the country, and it is quite possible to manage without a car with a bit of planning (I did that for a couple of years). However, the challenge is that there are significant areas of town that are popular and completely inaccessible by public transit without walking well over a mile. These areas are places like major shopping plazas, office parks, and the IX Convention Center. The lack of public transit I chalk up to either people with cars not thinking about people who rely on public transit, or organizers trying to keep out "undesirables".