They know that folowing ideas and principles (such as liberty and justice) can be worth all the people on a hundred planets.
Surely, you arent accusing me of putting words in your mouth. It seems more likely that you realize the arrogant words you chose in stating something, believing nobody would really pay any attention to you. Which, I certainly hope is the case as your children grow up. Do you think you would have been led to another 'god' if it was the predominant religion in this country? Do rational perople in India, like you, come to accept the god of the bible? More likely it seems that they will gravitate twords the prevailing thought patterns of those around them; i.e Hindu, etc. You live in an incredibly isolated environment, and the only reason you dont know is that you have never wanted to step out of it.
Few more insidious vices than labelling others? How about the vice of calling for the extermination of entrie planets? You claim to have the utmost respect for the planet earth, but again, your own words betray you.
I drive an hour each way to work every day. I don't mind the drive itself, nor really the expense of the drive or what it does to the environment. I'm used to the hour in the car. The cost of living in my little town is a lot lower than in a city, so I'm keeping the oil companies in business instead of some landlord or bank. And I think the fields of corn and soybeans I drive past look fairly healthy despite, or the cynic in me says because of, my production of greenhouse gases.
And here is the link to the page for anyone else to look at.
Priorities indeed. There is nothing unique about your patterns of thought, just because they are wrong does not mean you cannot live a life by them. But lets try to keep it within YOUR life, and let your children figure out that the god of the bible is the only answer. After all, would you want to deprive them of the experiences that led you to the same conclusion?
I do not think I am asking the impossible. I am asking for self-reflection, which is difficult for many individuals, but certainly not impossible.
As for myself, none of my beliefs are rock solid. My 'belief' to use the term loosely, is that I have a set of archetypes for looking at the world that work MOST of the time. Sometimes, they are wrong, and it is up to me to decide if my perception is wrong, or if I am witnessing a 'miracle'. A miracle simply being a lack of all the available information. To accpet something as a miracle, is rather lazy, in my view. It used to be a miracle that a voice could be transmitted over air to another device(radio). Lots of things are miracle to those who dont understand what is going on. Lets just say, I have never come across a circumstance where it was my perception that wasnt wrong.
As you can see, my own choice of words has been pointed out. That I 'accept' people being homosexual from birth. While I dont think ALL homosexuals are born to be homosexuals, I do have a certain exposure to the world that has led me to 'believe' that. If I begin to see another aspect that I have missed before, then my views on this will change. But Im not holding my breath
Frankly, that is the biggest pile of garbage I have ever heard. Well second to the school board decision of course.
While you are to be acknowledged for your beliefs, you are also to be castigated for them! Do you really think that one human life is worth all the other organisms of a species on all the other planets?
This is how wars start. Except, on our planet, we used to base it on race. Would you honestly tell me that to save one human life, you would exterminate an entire planet of life somewhere else?
You are the problem. Not the solution.
Lets see what your own words have said to such an end.... quoting from one of your posts;
I always thought "dark matter" was a kind of special pleading, an appeal to magic in the face of the unknown.
So I ask you, why is the appeal to magic any different in what you are saying? The majority of the universe is an unknown, yet you fill it up with magic. Worse yet, its not even your magic, its stuff thats been passed around for 2000 years. A Long time, but hardly all of human history.
As for me, I am able to accept that people are born homosexual and that there is nothing 'wrong with them'. I am also able to accept the fact that some people are born 'religious', and while self-defeating, there is nothing wrong with them either. In the end, reality always wins. Whether it is dark matter being found to be a bad explination, or your concepts of 'created' and 'value'. Both fallacies exist only in your mind.
To address your worry that others are 'spouting off', you would be best to realize that rational people will fight the darkness of religion every step of the way. The opposition to that thought process is not going to go away. Because many of us WERE brought up that way, and we have grown up to see the reality, not the myth. All this will do is further polarize this country, and it NEEDS to. It needs to be shown that rationality will prevail over 'belief'. And it will, although we may not live to see it. But rest assured, either the human race will go extinct, or the fallacies that are being 'accepted' will be shown to be smoke and mirrors. A modern day version of the 'celestial spheres'. I for one will fight against ANYONE who believes that a whole planet should be wiped out to save one human being. Your insecurity of death, ends at you. If you would kill off an unlimited amount of life to make one person live a little bit longer, then you are the problem. And should be dealt with accordingly.
You are free to believe anyhting you want. But lets draw the line at trying to dictate the world of reality. Because you say something is true, does not mean that it is. You think independent thought can not be trained out of a person? I would like to hear your social explanation of what happened to allow the nazi party to come to power in Germany. I would love to hear you talk to people who lived through it and see your reaction when they say "We all thought there was nothing spectacular going on, it wasnt even a big deal then.", or how it is looked at as a dark spot in their history, because they realize that almost the entire nation made a collective error in judgement. Its called 'groupthink' and it is a very studied aspect of human nature. So while rational thought might not 'go away' it certainly can take large leaves of absence.
I never understood this argument. Not on its face value, but on the state of mind it describes for BOTH sides.
Lets teach it in school, bring it on. Its just another sentence uttered by a teacher, and we all know how infallible they are.
I went to a Catholic school for 8 years. I remember them trying to teach us this back then, with some vague references to the earth only being a few thousand years old. But then, I realized that almost ALL of the behavior of the teachers meant absolutely nothing outside of the walls of the school. Which, inevitabely led me to the conclusion that the things they said, as well as the things they did were merely the imperfections of mankind.
upon realizing this, it became clear what the result was of being presented this information was... that reality has a way of uprooting incorrect assumptions. It may not happen that all of the things I know that are incorrect will be uprooted in my lifetime, but nevertheless, they WILL be uprooted.
So please, lets just back off and accept the fact that even though they are 'kids' who we are trying to protect from either side of this argument. The end result is that they will not learn anything by restricting information. Not one single person has become more intelligent because of information that is ommitted.
Hell, I have a physics textbook from the 30's that talks about the 'luminiforous ether' as if it actually exists. Well, guess what, nobody became stupider by learning that. In fact, I would say quite the opposite. By being presented something as 'fact' there are certain people who will notice that reality does not fit 'fact' and will relize that reality is more of a truth than 'facts' will ever be. For example, we are all taught that storms rotate on the earth due to the 'coriolis effect'. So is that the same reason the earth rotates on its axis? Is that the same reason the earth rotates around the sun? Is that the same reason that the sun rotates around the galaxy? If these are all similar physical events... then what is the galaxy rotating around? In other words, with just a small amount of personal reflection, it becomes obvious that the world we live in is so complex that questions will always exist, and the people who dont care to know any more will always use the horizon of knowledge to 'explain' their beliefs.
If we, as progressive thinkers, can accept the fact that being homosexual is how you are born, and that there is nothing wrong with it. Then why cant we accept the fact that there are people who are born religious, and that there is nothing wrong with that either?
So just stop with all the personality disorders on both sides of this argument, and release the idea that you have any control over how somebody else thinks.
We dont have to worry about addressing the ideas you have brought up, anymore than we have to address the ideas I bring up. It has already been decided by the society we choose to live in. And you DO choose to live here, as by your own words, you have the means to live anywhere you want.
You talk about me throwing up straw-man arguments, again it still doesnt change the fact that you do not live the ideas you expouse.
Take a stand, live the way you think you should. After all, the consequences are just proof that the way we do things now is 'wrong', and you can be percieved as a trailblazer which attracts attention to an alternate way.
Face it, most people dont have any interest in your ideas, and have already chosen the alternative to it a long, long time ago. Many of us lived in the land you describe. However, most people stop being so selfish at some point in their adult life. While it certainly is no measure of correctness, the moderation of our conversation and the associated mod points should give you some idea of how the people in the country you live in want to govern themselves.
Will PBS or NPR cease to exist without government funding? Absolutely not. Will they be better off without that grant money? Absolutely not. Its not about a mere matter of existance, its about using money as a proxy to support the things that are important to you. To aim to get the most useful, and important information out to as many people as possible. After all, you can exist just fine with a cardboard box for shelter. But you think that something more is of more benefit to you, so you live in a house or in your case an apartment.
"This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans will earn their high school or college degrees through courses screened by local public television stations. Millions of teachers will use classroom versions of our most famous programs."
Its not that I disagree with your view, which I do. But that you are offering statistics that say just because some wealthy people do watch and listen to PBS that its funding must be eliminated. You simply do not have an original argument. It is the same one that has been going around for over a decade, and its worn out. Mainly because most people see right through it.
The main problem being, is that your opinoins are all words, and no actions. Somehow, its ok that you are using the "Internet" which was started with public money. Somehow its ok that you drive on roads, which are constructed using public money. You talk a great game, but you dont live any of it. ad hominem or not, your argument is as easy to see through as you are. I can be the biggest jackass in the world, it still doesnt change the fact that your argument is not your own. When you stay off the internet, dont drive on the roads, notify your local paramedic to stay off your property under all circumstances, never use a landline telephone, and grow ALL of your own food... then and only then will the argument you put forward carry any weight. Live by example, show us that its a better life, and the law of the free market will dictate which solution is the better. That is what you want, right? To make everyone see the light of day? Well, get to it! Lets all see the example, and let each choose the system of living that they want. There is nothing more libratarian that that. The choice is truly left to the individual. Dont pawn off what you think are your ideas as a better practice if you wont even follow them yourself.
We have jails that are federally funded because some members of society cannot control their actions and it hurts other people, and we consider that important. We have schools because some members of society cannot educated their own children, and we consider that important. We have roads because some members of society want to move from point a and point b. We have libraries because "private book stores" do not have the same materials available readily. You get picked up in an ambulance when you are injured, because you might be incabable of driving yourself to a hospital. We have hospitals because nobody can take care of themselves when they are unconcious.
No man is an island, where you are now is not independent of other people. And some members of society do not want to see, or care about the advancement of their fellow human beings in a way that they choose to embark on. Even though you might want that, as you rightly claim "You are not a statistically significant sample size." And if you dont want to see the success of others, its simply because you are failing to recognise that your success is directly related to the success of others.
Are you free to not pay taxes, absolutely. Move to an island and grow your own food, and tend to your own wounds. Better yet, take all the money you have and buy a large tract of land, and incorporate yourself as a villiage. Thats an option too. If not, accept the fact that you live in a place where we DO care about the rest of our society. And a place where we DO recognise that if left to the individual, while we would be more 'independent' in your view, we would also be much less developed as a society.
Word of advice; argue by your actions, not by your words. Otherwise, everyone will see it for what it is. A bunch of ideas you think so highly about, that you dont even live by them yourself.
How exactly is PBS and NPR a service for the most well off members of society? Are you well off? Do You listen or watch either of those entities?
Something tells me that the richest memebers of society arent taking telecourses on PBS at 10pm at night. Merely, it is somehow your preconception that only rich people listen to NPR, or watch PBS. Rich children dont watch sesame st, they get taken shopping by their servants.
So, lets take all govt funding out, INLCUDING the standard deduction you get on your income taxes every year. After all, it wouldnt endanger your existance in the slightest. And writing off property taxes as a deduction? Hell no, if you can afford a house, then you can afford to not take the deduction. Its just a boondoggle for the homeowners that they can be exempt from paying taxes to the govt because they pay taxes on a house.
Or, in other words, you dont have the slightest idea what you are talking about. Mainly, because the views you are expousing are not your own, you are simply parroting what you have heard other people say.
When you finally figure out where rights 'come from'... please get back to the rest of the human race, we will be patiently waiting.
Heres a hint to hurry you along... rights only come from, and get taken away by, one thing. thats all you need to figure out. Heres another hint, look in a mirror!
For example, using your 'copyright' question. Since YOU agreed to the terms of the copyright, then YOU accepted the rights, and lack thereof. Dont like it, dont accept it. What you accept as 'rights' is your choice to make, and to try to 'blame' somebody for 'restricting rights' just tries to shift the responsibility away from where it belongs. And that is on You.
In a world of give and take, my rights are proably much different than yours. But only because you have been so willing to 'give them up', in which case they werent that important to you in the first place. Thus, you want no responsibility but all the rights. Therefore, you define your rights by your willingness to live under someone elses rule. So, to answer your question, the responsibility is accepting whatever compromise you chose in your life.
In other words, this is a question you should be asking yourself, not me.
This is how it works, voting!=good decisions. There are more than enough examples that just having the 'right' to vote is of no real benefit. Recent history being an example. The point is responsibility. Not 'rights'. Rights do not come free of charge, they come with responsibility. Simply because you are not accustomed to recognizing that responsibility and think its 'absence' is some sort of melevolant action, is quite frankly, naive.
If you think you have something important to CONTRIBUTE to this license that is being developed, then get off your fat ass and make yourself heard. They are ASKING for you to do that if you simply read the statements of the organizers. But since nobody ever does... here it is;
This will also be a very public and watched process and so we need those leaders in the community to step forward and play an important role. It is also rare that we get to see a license under development and to get involved in that process," she said.
It just isnt possible that there is nobody competent enough on slashdot, who has editor status, who can write an article that presents the IMPORTANT parts of the story, and not the sensationalist parts...
Im just guessing that the editor is american, because nobody else is so disconnected from the responsibilities that come with voting as americans seem to be.
Like I said, stop listening to the rhetoric and pay attention to facts.
You cannot 'shutdown' a site by allying yourself with a democrat. But if you do form such an alliance, you will have to DISCLOSE for all to see what your alliances are, if they exist. And then the POLITICIAN is limited in how much money he can spend on such 'advertising', in no way does it impact you. Unless of course you are playing a shell game and posting multiple blogs from the same source information and monies.
Its not a hard concept, read the actual bill. For once, its less complicated than you think it is. And actually, fairly comprehensible even for a non-political person.
This bill in NO WAY will effect your ability to post whatever you want on your website, UNLESS you recieve money from somebody in a political party to post said content. You can post or publish ANYTHING you like, as long as you do it with your money. In no way would that restrain your ability to read other people who run, and edit THEIR OWN blogs. And then, EVEN IF these websites recieved such money, the only thing you would notice is the disclosure of WHO paid money.
For some reason, this is being posted with a title that disparages democrats, when in actuality they struck down a bill that would have made the funding source similar to CLOSED-SOURCE software, ie you cant look at it. Or by striking down this bill, the funding stream FOR EVERYONE has to BY LAW be disclosed just like everywhere else, ie OPEN-SOURCE. I mean isnt that the republican line on all this Patriot Act smoke and mirrors? The basic line of thinking, if you arent hiding anything in your funding sources, why wouldnt you want to disclose them? If you stopped listening to the rhetoric, you wouldnt get caught up in such inconsistancies of logic.
Stop being such an uninformed alarminst!
On a side note, I stopped having stories posted by 'Zonk' display on my slashdot homepage, because they were just garbage and it made me start to stay away from this site. The only way I noticed this article was by logging in on a computer that wasnt mine. It was amazing how much removing just that single editor made a difference in the percieved, and actual, quality of slashdot.
I can appreciate the fact that YOU think the role of journalism has changed. But that is the only thing that has changed here, not journalists, only your perception of them over time. And to the notion of some sort of 'ethical' responsibility, well people will say all sorts of things to justify their employment. Just consider yourself lucky that you became aware of that fact in your lifetime, for most do not.
But the fact still remains, newspapers, and journalism in general are a means to convey a certain message to the public. It has nothing, and never has had anything, to do with factual reporting. Read just a sample, you can find your own if you just look;
Publishing War
William Randolph Hurst, and Jospeph Pulitzer. Robert McCormick, or any other OWNER of media distribution have ALWAYS told you what they wanted to tell you, and thats all. There has never been any sort of universal notion among any educated person, that newspapers are a reliable source of facts based on some sort of 'ethics'. There is on the other hand, no shortage of people who are willing to believe anything you tell them... even if the 'facts' are just made up to increase your print circulation. Snake oil salesman didnt sell their goods to tree posts after all...
And innovate? That is not even an option! Newspapers are a method of spreading propaganda, thats all. They have been innovated to almost a state of perfection. Because you are just now realizing this, does not make it an external truth universal to everyone. Its not an accident that a REPORTER was paid by the white house to spew PROPAGANDA about the no child left behind act. That is precisely what reporters do, and all they have ever done. This guy just was exposed.
Im not trying to attack you personally, but you are white, and that I am sure of. Some of the statements I made are unfounded of course, beacause I gathered only things I felt were of value, some of the statements I made were just opinions and 'sensationalism' to make my point more interesting to those other than the two of us who might be reading this(it does work that way).
No, you defintely are not an economist. But you also arent much of a realist either
It never ceases to amaze me how easily people automatically think the past is some sort of "good ol' days". And you have given yet another fine example of this part of human nature.
Newspapers were practically invented in this country to be sensationalist, and full of lies. More specifically, full of lies about the owners competitors. Perhaps you think the term "yellow journalism" is some sort of new concept. Perhaps you should look into the life of Rockefeller, or McCormick and his alliance with the chicago tribune.
Son, this is nothing new, the only thing that is different is that more people KNOW it is bullshit and ads. Although, the recent two presidential elections still leave that up to a healthy debate.
Basically, if you want 'facts' you should be reading scientific journals, not newspapers. Otherwise what you are asking for is 'someone else' to gather all the information YOU want, because frankly you are lazy and dont know where to look. If something is so important to you that you want to read about it, then you would be best served by gathering your own facts. Anything less leaves you no room to complain, and makes you look like a simpleton.
Lets take an relevant example, your post. From that there are certain 'facts' which can be ascertained;
1) You are white
2) You are probably in your early to mid 30's
3) You are not an economist
And the following are 'editorial content'
1) Such a poor grasp of understanding human nature has left you bitter to the ways of women
2) Although you are not specifically aligned politically, you voted for Bush at least once.
3) Even though you dont have an accurate idea on the subject, proven by your statement of referring to the 'good old days', you still have formulated a solution. Although based on what you THINK the problem is, and not on what the actual problem is. And no amount of facts will change your opinions, based mostly on your reaction to reading this so far...
Conclusion
You do not want to be presented facts. You want presented to you the things you want to read, whether they are facts or not. You have already formed your opinion and are looking for corroborative articles to back it up.
In the end, ask yourself who is feeding you 'information'? Yourself, or someone else?
B.T.W - No one other than white males uses the term 'good old days'. Your language exposes your truth. Just imagine if you knew that, how much easier things would be...
When did posts like this become the norm? This used to be a site where people knew what they were talking about, not all that long ago. Sure, they were often stubborn headed ass-hats, but they still had a basic understanding of the universe in which we lived.
Please, oh mighty poster of electromagnets... Tell us how you are going to impart enough energy to an electromagnet and equal, or surpass the amount of energy described by E=mc^2 from a non mass to energy reaction.
Basic field theory, along with a rudimentary understanding of vector equations, should be more than enough to tell you that the magnitude of the EMP needed to even remotely impact a hurricane cannot come from your 'electromagnet', unless of course you used a nuclear mass-energy explosion to generate the power input. And in that case, your electromagent really becomes a useless appendage in the experiment.
And who said the American Education system wasnt up to par?
Yes. As long as humor makes you feel comfortable living in the world that you live in, keep it up. I mean if its the only thing keeping you sane when you look at the world right now, laugh it up. People have been doing it for many years before you were born, in fact some of your past contemporaries made light of their own situation too. They even left us a little rhyme about it.
Something about rings around a rosie...
human nature never changes, only its clothes. For to laugh in the face of your own demimse is the essence of being human, almost as much as it is that we are bound to repeat our own history, no matter how foolish we think it is
I mean, doesnt everyone have obscene amounts of money just lying around to use for start up business ventures? who needs all that testing, and marketing?
Obviously, since you saw the film, you are aware that these people used nothing but the best equipment money could buy. selling this is simply a matter of finding someone to buy the already perfected prototype they were using.
Only a pure simpleton would bother with all that business model thingy stuff.
Good line of thinking. Now, all you need to do is stop worrying what other people think of your methodology, and you are all set. Teacher doesnt pass you, so what. Go out in the real world and excel at something you used to fail at. I used to get pissed when my HS math teacher would fail my tests because I didnt follow the steps 'exactly' but still got the correct answer. What you need to be aware of is if the teacher is trying to teach you, or trying to make you a machine. The latter is the one who will fail you for having correct answers. And guess what... that person is still stuck in the same job, in the same town, failing the same people for the same reasons. Personally, I think Ive done much better for myself...
Its wonderful being a human being, even with all our shortcomings.
For some reason, you think that making letters bold makes them more relevant. OK...
Actually, the way it works is this; too bad for you since you bought it. Dont like it, dont buy it. Has nothing to do with being fair. You wanted the easy way, as in buying something that has been available since TV in/out video cards existed. You lost. Deal with it.
What you stated is not even remotely 'fair', as you say. What you want is for everyone to build the toys exactly how you want them, and when they dont, all the blame goes somewhere other than where it should(you). You somehow think it is your 'right' to become brain dead on a couch for hours at a time, and will call for the removal of heads of those who try to make this bothersome for you.
Get off your ass, build your own toys, and stop acting like a spoiled child.
Insightful? Hardly? Unless its giving insight into the selfish motivations of the phosphorus screen zombies!
I tend to think that an university education should stress scientific topics over vocational ones, but since I'm just planning to get a job after I grad, am I in the right program? "
No, you are in the wrong SCHOOL.
Actually, you are wasting your time, and money. You are basically paying someone to train you for a job in 4 years, that you may or may not have.
If you are really interested in copmuter science, then you need to place yourself in an environment where that will be your focus throughout the day. Not pay someone to tell you what you need to know, which more often than not is what the large contributors to the technology school would like you to know.
Experience in technical matters and solutions will carry far more weight for you in the real world than whatever a PHB might think about what school you attended for 4 years of your life.
Your initial pretense is right though, school should focus more on science than vocation. Perhaps you are in the wrong program if all you want is a job. Hell, why waste any more time or money? Just sign up for a correspondence course for your 'piece of paper'.
Although, if you havent figured out by yet that most schools in the US are nothing more than employee factories, than you might be better off just aiming for a 'job'. Probagbly a job with someone who didnt waste their time and money and just started up a business 4 years ago, and is just waiting for you to graduate for the cheap labor and mind numbing tasks you are about to embark upon.
Yet they started arriving there in force on the third day.
Even if that were true, how is that a supporting point to your argument? Earlier you said that the facilites to move large convoys across the country werent intact. So, somehow the entire interstate highway system in the US disintegrated and was repaired over a three day period. I live in the upper midwest, and it would take me about 11 hours to get to new orleans. If the aid was coming from as far away as chicago, what were they doing for the other 2 1/2 days? loading it?
Unfortunately, the 'company' you are refering to is no doubt a subcontractor to the oil companies. Because those were the priority sites. Jesus, most of the refineries had power restored to them before any meaningful amount of food and water was being shipped in! Will you wake the fuck up already? The shipments from private companies are not the issue here, the issue is the inept planning the department of homeland security in particluar, and the federal governemnt in general, has done to protect the country from widespread disasters.
Whether you are a bush brownnoser or not is none of my concern. What is my concern is when people cannot realize what an orginazational failure is on their own. No organization is going to voluntarily tell you it failed, and absolutly not the federal government. But you can bet your ass there will be people trying to CYA and patting themselves on the back to make sure they tell you how good everything is going.
Read the response to hurricane camille in 1969, over 35 years ago, and tell me if you think the majority of those things have, or will, be responded to this time. Did HUD fly in, in less than a week, over 5,000 mobile homes to be used as shelter for the displaced? By the way, many of those same roads were washed out.
Dont tell me that trickles of relief were happening 3 DAYS after this occured and think you are pointing out a positive. Just because you have been so conditioned by an inept administration and political climate in this country for the past 5 years, does not mean they are doing a good job. The past shows a different climate indeed. And hopefully so will the future.
Nobody expected things to be fixed in 20 minutes. However, the whole point of disaster response is the response part. There is absolutely no reason why there should be a 5 day period of no response other than pretty words.
The money in the federal budget that goes to homeland security, you know the agency in charge of protecting the homeland, is obviously the biggest shell game in the history of the US govt. If this is what we can expect for a response, is crowd-control weapons being deployed almost as soon or sooner than food and water, than it is a pathetic country indeed. The interstate highway system in this country was developed for EXACTLY this kind of mobilization. Highways and bridges were built wide enough to allow military vehicles to cross the country in an organized fashion.
As far as your 'questions' that you even admit to having no answers to, well they are quite frankly disturbing. Where do you think the money comes to pay the people to drive all those busses around to pick up everyone. Where do you think the money comes from to organize the infrastructure for the eventuality of such a disaster? Obviously you are not aware that the funding stream to enable all of those 'questions' is from the federal govt in the form of 'homeland security grants'. Did New Orleans get any of those? I do know the answer to that, and you should stop being fed your information and learn for yourself. New Orleans did have a plan and countermeasures in place to deal with such a circumstance, however my friend, unless you are paying for these things out of your own pocket it would be to your benefit to realize that these things take a level of financial commitment in order to implement correctly.
As far as 'comparing' disasters, which is woefully innapriopriate, well lets compare them. What was the reposnse time for national guard troops being deployed to all the above incidents you cited? New York, less than one day. San Fran, also less than one day. LA, less than one day. How exactly does this compare to 5 days?
And bush doesnt need anyone to make him look bad. He does just fine on his own. Take some time away from the TV for a few weeks(better months), better yet, go on a vacation to see how people in other parts of the world live. Then come back and watch your TV... unfortunately, the only way for you to see that the government is failing is when it will fail you. I wish you and your family are never in a disaster so catasrophic, that you learn first hand how inept our system of social protections has become. But life is long, and you are just playing the odds if you hope, or think, it cant happen to you.
Keep trying what? Im not sure who this 'god' you are refering to is, but he sounds intelligent. Perhaps I could see the information he has available to him at his facility. It would shed some light on other theories of aurora and either support or disprove them.
Its almost like you were saying to me that because something is hard for me to understand its impossible for me to understand. Unless of course, you are this 'god' guy you refered to earlier. Imagine what could be done to advance humanity if we could get the funding stream into science that this guy has! It would be amazing!
Perhaps your friend god could share the knowledge he has with the rest of us? Oh, wait, he must be selling it right? Nothing is free these days you know, I guess even some scientists are becoming capitalists and not releasing their information without 'just compensation'.
Damn market forces... oh well, I guess Ill have to keep trying... to understand
You have made everyone feel dumber for a few seconds by making them read what you just wrote.
Actually Co2 concentrations in the atmosphere are almost 20% higher than they were 50 years ago. I would hardly call that 'changing very, very little'.
Sunlight does not 'come in' during an aurora. And ozone is not created in them.
Three cheers for the US school system!!! Its making me rich!
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Perhaps I read your statement wrong...
They know that folowing ideas and principles (such as liberty and justice) can be worth all the people on a hundred planets.
Surely, you arent accusing me of putting words in your mouth. It seems more likely that you realize the arrogant words you chose in stating something, believing nobody would really pay any attention to you. Which, I certainly hope is the case as your children grow up. Do you think you would have been led to another 'god' if it was the predominant religion in this country? Do rational perople in India, like you, come to accept the god of the bible? More likely it seems that they will gravitate twords the prevailing thought patterns of those around them; i.e Hindu, etc. You live in an incredibly isolated environment, and the only reason you dont know is that you have never wanted to step out of it.
Few more insidious vices than labelling others? How about the vice of calling for the extermination of entrie planets? You claim to have the utmost respect for the planet earth, but again, your own words betray you.
I drive an hour each way to work every day. I don't mind the drive itself, nor really the expense of the drive or what it does to the environment. I'm used to the hour in the car. The cost of living in my little town is a lot lower than in a city, so I'm keeping the oil companies in business instead of some landlord or bank. And I think the fields of corn and soybeans I drive past look fairly healthy despite, or the cynic in me says because of, my production of greenhouse gases.
And here is the link to the page for anyone else to look at.
Priorities indeed. There is nothing unique about your patterns of thought, just because they are wrong does not mean you cannot live a life by them. But lets try to keep it within YOUR life, and let your children figure out that the god of the bible is the only answer. After all, would you want to deprive them of the experiences that led you to the same conclusion?
I do not think I am asking the impossible. I am asking for self-reflection, which is difficult for many individuals, but certainly not impossible.
As for myself, none of my beliefs are rock solid. My 'belief' to use the term loosely, is that I have a set of archetypes for looking at the world that work MOST of the time. Sometimes, they are wrong, and it is up to me to decide if my perception is wrong, or if I am witnessing a 'miracle'. A miracle simply being a lack of all the available information. To accpet something as a miracle, is rather lazy, in my view. It used to be a miracle that a voice could be transmitted over air to another device(radio). Lots of things are miracle to those who dont understand what is going on. Lets just say, I have never come across a circumstance where it was my perception that wasnt wrong.
As you can see, my own choice of words has been pointed out. That I 'accept' people being homosexual from birth. While I dont think ALL homosexuals are born to be homosexuals, I do have a certain exposure to the world that has led me to 'believe' that. If I begin to see another aspect that I have missed before, then my views on this will change. But Im not holding my breath
Im just wish I could see what will happen to the kids that go to college.
For some reason, Im stuck with an image of Adam Sandler in the back of a college biology classroom talking about alligators... :)
Frankly, that is the biggest pile of garbage I have ever heard. Well second to the school board decision of course.
While you are to be acknowledged for your beliefs, you are also to be castigated for them! Do you really think that one human life is worth all the other organisms of a species on all the other planets?
This is how wars start. Except, on our planet, we used to base it on race. Would you honestly tell me that to save one human life, you would exterminate an entire planet of life somewhere else?
You are the problem. Not the solution.
Lets see what your own words have said to such an end.... quoting from one of your posts;
I always thought "dark matter" was a kind of special pleading, an appeal to magic in the face of the unknown.
So I ask you, why is the appeal to magic any different in what you are saying? The majority of the universe is an unknown, yet you fill it up with magic. Worse yet, its not even your magic, its stuff thats been passed around for 2000 years. A Long time, but hardly all of human history.
As for me, I am able to accept that people are born homosexual and that there is nothing 'wrong with them'. I am also able to accept the fact that some people are born 'religious', and while self-defeating, there is nothing wrong with them either. In the end, reality always wins. Whether it is dark matter being found to be a bad explination, or your concepts of 'created' and 'value'. Both fallacies exist only in your mind.
To address your worry that others are 'spouting off', you would be best to realize that rational people will fight the darkness of religion every step of the way. The opposition to that thought process is not going to go away. Because many of us WERE brought up that way, and we have grown up to see the reality, not the myth. All this will do is further polarize this country, and it NEEDS to. It needs to be shown that rationality will prevail over 'belief'. And it will, although we may not live to see it. But rest assured, either the human race will go extinct, or the fallacies that are being 'accepted' will be shown to be smoke and mirrors. A modern day version of the 'celestial spheres'. I for one will fight against ANYONE who believes that a whole planet should be wiped out to save one human being. Your insecurity of death, ends at you. If you would kill off an unlimited amount of life to make one person live a little bit longer, then you are the problem. And should be dealt with accordingly.
You are free to believe anyhting you want. But lets draw the line at trying to dictate the world of reality. Because you say something is true, does not mean that it is. You think independent thought can not be trained out of a person? I would like to hear your social explanation of what happened to allow the nazi party to come to power in Germany. I would love to hear you talk to people who lived through it and see your reaction when they say "We all thought there was nothing spectacular going on, it wasnt even a big deal then.", or how it is looked at as a dark spot in their history, because they realize that almost the entire nation made a collective error in judgement. Its called 'groupthink' and it is a very studied aspect of human nature. So while rational thought might not 'go away' it certainly can take large leaves of absence.
I never understood this argument. Not on its face value, but on the state of mind it describes for BOTH sides.
Lets teach it in school, bring it on. Its just another sentence uttered by a teacher, and we all know how infallible they are.
I went to a Catholic school for 8 years. I remember them trying to teach us this back then, with some vague references to the earth only being a few thousand years old. But then, I realized that almost ALL of the behavior of the teachers meant absolutely nothing outside of the walls of the school. Which, inevitabely led me to the conclusion that the things they said, as well as the things they did were merely the imperfections of mankind.
upon realizing this, it became clear what the result was of being presented this information was... that reality has a way of uprooting incorrect assumptions. It may not happen that all of the things I know that are incorrect will be uprooted in my lifetime, but nevertheless, they WILL be uprooted.
So please, lets just back off and accept the fact that even though they are 'kids' who we are trying to protect from either side of this argument. The end result is that they will not learn anything by restricting information. Not one single person has become more intelligent because of information that is ommitted.
Hell, I have a physics textbook from the 30's that talks about the 'luminiforous ether' as if it actually exists. Well, guess what, nobody became stupider by learning that. In fact, I would say quite the opposite. By being presented something as 'fact' there are certain people who will notice that reality does not fit 'fact' and will relize that reality is more of a truth than 'facts' will ever be. For example, we are all taught that storms rotate on the earth due to the 'coriolis effect'. So is that the same reason the earth rotates on its axis? Is that the same reason the earth rotates around the sun? Is that the same reason that the sun rotates around the galaxy? If these are all similar physical events... then what is the galaxy rotating around? In other words, with just a small amount of personal reflection, it becomes obvious that the world we live in is so complex that questions will always exist, and the people who dont care to know any more will always use the horizon of knowledge to 'explain' their beliefs.
If we, as progressive thinkers, can accept the fact that being homosexual is how you are born, and that there is nothing wrong with it. Then why cant we accept the fact that there are people who are born religious, and that there is nothing wrong with that either?
So just stop with all the personality disorders on both sides of this argument, and release the idea that you have any control over how somebody else thinks.
We dont have to worry about addressing the ideas you have brought up, anymore than we have to address the ideas I bring up. It has already been decided by the society we choose to live in. And you DO choose to live here, as by your own words, you have the means to live anywhere you want.
You talk about me throwing up straw-man arguments, again it still doesnt change the fact that you do not live the ideas you expouse.
Take a stand, live the way you think you should. After all, the consequences are just proof that the way we do things now is 'wrong', and you can be percieved as a trailblazer which attracts attention to an alternate way.
Face it, most people dont have any interest in your ideas, and have already chosen the alternative to it a long, long time ago. Many of us lived in the land you describe. However, most people stop being so selfish at some point in their adult life. While it certainly is no measure of correctness, the moderation of our conversation and the associated mod points should give you some idea of how the people in the country you live in want to govern themselves.
Will PBS or NPR cease to exist without government funding? Absolutely not. Will they be better off without that grant money? Absolutely not. Its not about a mere matter of existance, its about using money as a proxy to support the things that are important to you. To aim to get the most useful, and important information out to as many people as possible. After all, you can exist just fine with a cardboard box for shelter. But you think that something more is of more benefit to you, so you live in a house or in your case an apartment.
"This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans will earn their high school or college degrees through courses screened by local public television stations. Millions of teachers will use classroom versions of our most famous programs."
Its not that I disagree with your view, which I do. But that you are offering statistics that say just because some wealthy people do watch and listen to PBS that its funding must be eliminated. You simply do not have an original argument. It is the same one that has been going around for over a decade, and its worn out. Mainly because most people see right through it.
The main problem being, is that your opinoins are all words, and no actions. Somehow, its ok that you are using the "Internet" which was started with public money. Somehow its ok that you drive on roads, which are constructed using public money. You talk a great game, but you dont live any of it. ad hominem or not, your argument is as easy to see through as you are. I can be the biggest jackass in the world, it still doesnt change the fact that your argument is not your own. When you stay off the internet, dont drive on the roads, notify your local paramedic to stay off your property under all circumstances, never use a landline telephone, and grow ALL of your own food... then and only then will the argument you put forward carry any weight. Live by example, show us that its a better life, and the law of the free market will dictate which solution is the better. That is what you want, right? To make everyone see the light of day? Well, get to it! Lets all see the example, and let each choose the system of living that they want. There is nothing more libratarian that that. The choice is truly left to the individual. Dont pawn off what you think are your ideas as a better practice if you wont even follow them yourself.
We have jails that are federally funded because some members of society cannot control their actions and it hurts other people, and we consider that important. We have schools because some members of society cannot educated their own children, and we consider that important. We have roads because some members of society want to move from point a and point b. We have libraries because "private book stores" do not have the same materials available readily. You get picked up in an ambulance when you are injured, because you might be incabable of driving yourself to a hospital. We have hospitals because nobody can take care of themselves when they are unconcious.
No man is an island, where you are now is not independent of other people. And some members of society do not want to see, or care about the advancement of their fellow human beings in a way that they choose to embark on. Even though you might want that, as you rightly claim "You are not a statistically significant sample size." And if you dont want to see the success of others, its simply because you are failing to recognise that your success is directly related to the success of others.
Are you free to not pay taxes, absolutely. Move to an island and grow your own food, and tend to your own wounds. Better yet, take all the money you have and buy a large tract of land, and incorporate yourself as a villiage. Thats an option too. If not, accept the fact that you live in a place where we DO care about the rest of our society. And a place where we DO recognise that if left to the individual, while we would be more 'independent' in your view, we would also be much less developed as a society.
Word of advice; argue by your actions, not by your words. Otherwise, everyone will see it for what it is. A bunch of ideas you think so highly about, that you dont even live by them yourself.
How exactly is PBS and NPR a service for the most well off members of society? Are you well off? Do You listen or watch either of those entities?
Something tells me that the richest memebers of society arent taking telecourses on PBS at 10pm at night. Merely, it is somehow your preconception that only rich people listen to NPR, or watch PBS. Rich children dont watch sesame st, they get taken shopping by their servants.
So, lets take all govt funding out, INLCUDING the standard deduction you get on your income taxes every year. After all, it wouldnt endanger your existance in the slightest. And writing off property taxes as a deduction? Hell no, if you can afford a house, then you can afford to not take the deduction. Its just a boondoggle for the homeowners that they can be exempt from paying taxes to the govt because they pay taxes on a house.
Or, in other words, you dont have the slightest idea what you are talking about. Mainly, because the views you are expousing are not your own, you are simply parroting what you have heard other people say.
and this is why this process isnt a democracy...
When you finally figure out where rights 'come from'... please get back to the rest of the human race, we will be patiently waiting.
Heres a hint to hurry you along... rights only come from, and get taken away by, one thing. thats all you need to figure out. Heres another hint, look in a mirror!
For example, using your 'copyright' question. Since YOU agreed to the terms of the copyright, then YOU accepted the rights, and lack thereof. Dont like it, dont accept it. What you accept as 'rights' is your choice to make, and to try to 'blame' somebody for 'restricting rights' just tries to shift the responsibility away from where it belongs. And that is on You.
In a world of give and take, my rights are proably much different than yours. But only because you have been so willing to 'give them up', in which case they werent that important to you in the first place. Thus, you want no responsibility but all the rights. Therefore, you define your rights by your willingness to live under someone elses rule. So, to answer your question, the responsibility is accepting whatever compromise you chose in your life.
In other words, this is a question you should be asking yourself, not me.
Its time to put away childish things...
Why is this presented as a netgative?
This is how it works, voting!=good decisions. There are more than enough examples that just having the 'right' to vote is of no real benefit. Recent history being an example. The point is responsibility. Not 'rights'. Rights do not come free of charge, they come with responsibility. Simply because you are not accustomed to recognizing that responsibility and think its 'absence' is some sort of melevolant action, is quite frankly, naive.
If you think you have something important to CONTRIBUTE to this license that is being developed, then get off your fat ass and make yourself heard. They are ASKING for you to do that if you simply read the statements of the organizers. But since nobody ever does... here it is; This will also be a very public and watched process and so we need those leaders in the community to step forward and play an important role. It is also rare that we get to see a license under development and to get involved in that process," she said.
It just isnt possible that there is nobody competent enough on slashdot, who has editor status, who can write an article that presents the IMPORTANT parts of the story, and not the sensationalist parts...
Im just guessing that the editor is american, because nobody else is so disconnected from the responsibilities that come with voting as americans seem to be.
um no, thats not what I said at all.
Like I said, stop listening to the rhetoric and pay attention to facts.
You cannot 'shutdown' a site by allying yourself with a democrat. But if you do form such an alliance, you will have to DISCLOSE for all to see what your alliances are, if they exist. And then the POLITICIAN is limited in how much money he can spend on such 'advertising', in no way does it impact you. Unless of course you are playing a shell game and posting multiple blogs from the same source information and monies.
Its not a hard concept, read the actual bill. For once, its less complicated than you think it is. And actually, fairly comprehensible even for a non-political person.
Somehow the parent was modded 'insightful'?
Ignorance has covered the land, eh whos suprised?
This bill in NO WAY will effect your ability to post whatever you want on your website, UNLESS you recieve money from somebody in a political party to post said content. You can post or publish ANYTHING you like, as long as you do it with your money. In no way would that restrain your ability to read other people who run, and edit THEIR OWN blogs. And then, EVEN IF these websites recieved such money, the only thing you would notice is the disclosure of WHO paid money.
For some reason, this is being posted with a title that disparages democrats, when in actuality they struck down a bill that would have made the funding source similar to CLOSED-SOURCE software, ie you cant look at it. Or by striking down this bill, the funding stream FOR EVERYONE has to BY LAW be disclosed just like everywhere else, ie OPEN-SOURCE. I mean isnt that the republican line on all this Patriot Act smoke and mirrors? The basic line of thinking, if you arent hiding anything in your funding sources, why wouldnt you want to disclose them? If you stopped listening to the rhetoric, you wouldnt get caught up in such inconsistancies of logic.
Stop being such an uninformed alarminst!
On a side note, I stopped having stories posted by 'Zonk' display on my slashdot homepage, because they were just garbage and it made me start to stay away from this site. The only way I noticed this article was by logging in on a computer that wasnt mine. It was amazing how much removing just that single editor made a difference in the percieved, and actual, quality of slashdot.
I can appreciate the fact that YOU think the role of journalism has changed. But that is the only thing that has changed here, not journalists, only your perception of them over time. And to the notion of some sort of 'ethical' responsibility, well people will say all sorts of things to justify their employment. Just consider yourself lucky that you became aware of that fact in your lifetime, for most do not.
But the fact still remains, newspapers, and journalism in general are a means to convey a certain message to the public. It has nothing, and never has had anything, to do with factual reporting. Read just a sample, you can find your own if you just look; Publishing War William Randolph Hurst, and Jospeph Pulitzer. Robert McCormick, or any other OWNER of media distribution have ALWAYS told you what they wanted to tell you, and thats all. There has never been any sort of universal notion among any educated person, that newspapers are a reliable source of facts based on some sort of 'ethics'. There is on the other hand, no shortage of people who are willing to believe anything you tell them... even if the 'facts' are just made up to increase your print circulation. Snake oil salesman didnt sell their goods to tree posts after all...
And innovate? That is not even an option! Newspapers are a method of spreading propaganda, thats all. They have been innovated to almost a state of perfection. Because you are just now realizing this, does not make it an external truth universal to everyone. Its not an accident that a REPORTER was paid by the white house to spew PROPAGANDA about the no child left behind act. That is precisely what reporters do, and all they have ever done. This guy just was exposed.
Im not trying to attack you personally, but you are white, and that I am sure of. Some of the statements I made are unfounded of course, beacause I gathered only things I felt were of value, some of the statements I made were just opinions and 'sensationalism' to make my point more interesting to those other than the two of us who might be reading this(it does work that way).
You neglected to say if they were white or not.
I am talking about people who ARE alive. Thus the use of present tense, i.e. 'uses' and not 'used'. Are they alive?
If youre gonna nitpick, you better come prepared.
No, you defintely are not an economist. But you also arent much of a realist either
It never ceases to amaze me how easily people automatically think the past is some sort of "good ol' days". And you have given yet another fine example of this part of human nature.
Newspapers were practically invented in this country to be sensationalist, and full of lies. More specifically, full of lies about the owners competitors. Perhaps you think the term "yellow journalism" is some sort of new concept. Perhaps you should look into the life of Rockefeller, or McCormick and his alliance with the chicago tribune.
Son, this is nothing new, the only thing that is different is that more people KNOW it is bullshit and ads. Although, the recent two presidential elections still leave that up to a healthy debate.
Basically, if you want 'facts' you should be reading scientific journals, not newspapers. Otherwise what you are asking for is 'someone else' to gather all the information YOU want, because frankly you are lazy and dont know where to look. If something is so important to you that you want to read about it, then you would be best served by gathering your own facts. Anything less leaves you no room to complain, and makes you look like a simpleton.
Lets take an relevant example, your post. From that there are certain 'facts' which can be ascertained;
1) You are white
2) You are probably in your early to mid 30's
3) You are not an economist
And the following are 'editorial content'
1) Such a poor grasp of understanding human nature has left you bitter to the ways of women
2) Although you are not specifically aligned politically, you voted for Bush at least once.
3) Even though you dont have an accurate idea on the subject, proven by your statement of referring to the 'good old days', you still have formulated a solution. Although based on what you THINK the problem is, and not on what the actual problem is. And no amount of facts will change your opinions, based mostly on your reaction to reading this so far...
Conclusion
You do not want to be presented facts. You want presented to you the things you want to read, whether they are facts or not. You have already formed your opinion and are looking for corroborative articles to back it up.
In the end, ask yourself who is feeding you 'information'? Yourself, or someone else?
B.T.W - No one other than white males uses the term 'good old days'. Your language exposes your truth. Just imagine if you knew that, how much easier things would be...
When did posts like this become the norm? This used to be a site where people knew what they were talking about, not all that long ago. Sure, they were often stubborn headed ass-hats, but they still had a basic understanding of the universe in which we lived.
Please, oh mighty poster of electromagnets... Tell us how you are going to impart enough energy to an electromagnet and equal, or surpass the amount of energy described by E=mc^2 from a non mass to energy reaction.
Basic field theory, along with a rudimentary understanding of vector equations, should be more than enough to tell you that the magnitude of the EMP needed to even remotely impact a hurricane cannot come from your 'electromagnet', unless of course you used a nuclear mass-energy explosion to generate the power input. And in that case, your electromagent really becomes a useless appendage in the experiment.
And who said the American Education system wasnt up to par?
Yes. As long as humor makes you feel comfortable living in the world that you live in, keep it up. I mean if its the only thing keeping you sane when you look at the world right now, laugh it up. People have been doing it for many years before you were born, in fact some of your past contemporaries made light of their own situation too. They even left us a little rhyme about it.
Something about rings around a rosie...
human nature never changes, only its clothes. For to laugh in the face of your own demimse is the essence of being human, almost as much as it is that we are bound to repeat our own history, no matter how foolish we think it is
No Kidding!
I mean, doesnt everyone have obscene amounts of money just lying around to use for start up business ventures? who needs all that testing, and marketing?
Obviously, since you saw the film, you are aware that these people used nothing but the best equipment money could buy. selling this is simply a matter of finding someone to buy the already perfected prototype they were using.
Only a pure simpleton would bother with all that business model thingy stuff.
Good line of thinking. Now, all you need to do is stop worrying what other people think of your methodology, and you are all set. Teacher doesnt pass you, so what. Go out in the real world and excel at something you used to fail at. I used to get pissed when my HS math teacher would fail my tests because I didnt follow the steps 'exactly' but still got the correct answer. What you need to be aware of is if the teacher is trying to teach you, or trying to make you a machine. The latter is the one who will fail you for having correct answers. And guess what... that person is still stuck in the same job, in the same town, failing the same people for the same reasons. Personally, I think Ive done much better for myself...
Its wonderful being a human being, even with all our shortcomings.
For some reason, you think that making letters bold makes them more relevant. OK...
Actually, the way it works is this; too bad for you since you bought it. Dont like it, dont buy it. Has nothing to do with being fair. You wanted the easy way, as in buying something that has been available since TV in/out video cards existed. You lost. Deal with it.
What you stated is not even remotely 'fair', as you say. What you want is for everyone to build the toys exactly how you want them, and when they dont, all the blame goes somewhere other than where it should(you). You somehow think it is your 'right' to become brain dead on a couch for hours at a time, and will call for the removal of heads of those who try to make this bothersome for you.
Get off your ass, build your own toys, and stop acting like a spoiled child.
Insightful? Hardly? Unless its giving insight into the selfish motivations of the phosphorus screen zombies!
No, you are in the wrong SCHOOL.
Actually, you are wasting your time, and money. You are basically paying someone to train you for a job in 4 years, that you may or may not have.
If you are really interested in copmuter science, then you need to place yourself in an environment where that will be your focus throughout the day. Not pay someone to tell you what you need to know, which more often than not is what the large contributors to the technology school would like you to know.
Experience in technical matters and solutions will carry far more weight for you in the real world than whatever a PHB might think about what school you attended for 4 years of your life.
Your initial pretense is right though, school should focus more on science than vocation. Perhaps you are in the wrong program if all you want is a job. Hell, why waste any more time or money? Just sign up for a correspondence course for your 'piece of paper'.
Although, if you havent figured out by yet that most schools in the US are nothing more than employee factories, than you might be better off just aiming for a 'job'. Probagbly a job with someone who didnt waste their time and money and just started up a business 4 years ago, and is just waiting for you to graduate for the cheap labor and mind numbing tasks you are about to embark upon.
Enjoy!
Even if that were true, how is that a supporting point to your argument? Earlier you said that the facilites to move large convoys across the country werent intact. So, somehow the entire interstate highway system in the US disintegrated and was repaired over a three day period. I live in the upper midwest, and it would take me about 11 hours to get to new orleans. If the aid was coming from as far away as chicago, what were they doing for the other 2 1/2 days? loading it?
Unfortunately, the 'company' you are refering to is no doubt a subcontractor to the oil companies. Because those were the priority sites. Jesus, most of the refineries had power restored to them before any meaningful amount of food and water was being shipped in! Will you wake the fuck up already? The shipments from private companies are not the issue here, the issue is the inept planning the department of homeland security in particluar, and the federal governemnt in general, has done to protect the country from widespread disasters.
Whether you are a bush brownnoser or not is none of my concern. What is my concern is when people cannot realize what an orginazational failure is on their own. No organization is going to voluntarily tell you it failed, and absolutly not the federal government. But you can bet your ass there will be people trying to CYA and patting themselves on the back to make sure they tell you how good everything is going.
Read the response to hurricane camille in 1969, over 35 years ago, and tell me if you think the majority of those things have, or will, be responded to this time. Did HUD fly in, in less than a week, over 5,000 mobile homes to be used as shelter for the displaced? By the way, many of those same roads were washed out.
Dont tell me that trickles of relief were happening 3 DAYS after this occured and think you are pointing out a positive. Just because you have been so conditioned by an inept administration and political climate in this country for the past 5 years, does not mean they are doing a good job. The past shows a different climate indeed. And hopefully so will the future.
Nobody expected things to be fixed in 20 minutes. However, the whole point of disaster response is the response part. There is absolutely no reason why there should be a 5 day period of no response other than pretty words.
The money in the federal budget that goes to homeland security, you know the agency in charge of protecting the homeland, is obviously the biggest shell game in the history of the US govt. If this is what we can expect for a response, is crowd-control weapons being deployed almost as soon or sooner than food and water, than it is a pathetic country indeed. The interstate highway system in this country was developed for EXACTLY this kind of mobilization. Highways and bridges were built wide enough to allow military vehicles to cross the country in an organized fashion.
As far as your 'questions' that you even admit to having no answers to, well they are quite frankly disturbing. Where do you think the money comes to pay the people to drive all those busses around to pick up everyone. Where do you think the money comes from to organize the infrastructure for the eventuality of such a disaster? Obviously you are not aware that the funding stream to enable all of those 'questions' is from the federal govt in the form of 'homeland security grants'. Did New Orleans get any of those? I do know the answer to that, and you should stop being fed your information and learn for yourself. New Orleans did have a plan and countermeasures in place to deal with such a circumstance, however my friend, unless you are paying for these things out of your own pocket it would be to your benefit to realize that these things take a level of financial commitment in order to implement correctly.
As far as 'comparing' disasters, which is woefully innapriopriate, well lets compare them. What was the reposnse time for national guard troops being deployed to all the above incidents you cited? New York, less than one day. San Fran, also less than one day. LA, less than one day. How exactly does this compare to 5 days?
And bush doesnt need anyone to make him look bad. He does just fine on his own. Take some time away from the TV for a few weeks(better months), better yet, go on a vacation to see how people in other parts of the world live. Then come back and watch your TV... unfortunately, the only way for you to see that the government is failing is when it will fail you. I wish you and your family are never in a disaster so catasrophic, that you learn first hand how inept our system of social protections has become. But life is long, and you are just playing the odds if you hope, or think, it cant happen to you.
Keep trying what? Im not sure who this 'god' you are refering to is, but he sounds intelligent. Perhaps I could see the information he has available to him at his facility. It would shed some light on other theories of aurora and either support or disprove them.
Its almost like you were saying to me that because something is hard for me to understand its impossible for me to understand. Unless of course, you are this 'god' guy you refered to earlier. Imagine what could be done to advance humanity if we could get the funding stream into science that this guy has! It would be amazing!
Perhaps your friend god could share the knowledge he has with the rest of us? Oh, wait, he must be selling it right? Nothing is free these days you know, I guess even some scientists are becoming capitalists and not releasing their information without 'just compensation'.
Damn market forces... oh well, I guess Ill have to keep trying... to understand
You have made everyone feel dumber for a few seconds by making them read what you just wrote.
Actually Co2 concentrations in the atmosphere are almost 20% higher than they were 50 years ago. I would hardly call that 'changing very, very little'.
Sunlight does not 'come in' during an aurora. And ozone is not created in them.
Three cheers for the US school system!!! Its making me rich!