Most people I know on the left have no problem with the concept of christianity per se, hell Jesus was a leftie through and through, however what they object to is the structures that have arisen around christianity. The churches, cathedrals and priests have all, over two thousand years been built to one end, keeping the structure going. This has meant in the past, persecution of any one challanging the churches doctorine, to protecting those who have committed crimes that need to be brought to a court of law(Render Unto Ceaser that which is Ceasers) but instead because it puts the church in a bad light, they are shipped off out of sight.
And before you get all in a huff, yes all other regligions are guilty of the same sins to a greater or lesser extent.
Of course this is a film that the left will love and the right will loath, its preaching to the converted, but hell so does FOX.
I am a lefty and while I think Bush is a complete idiot with all the foreign policy talent of a drunken newt, I don't hate him. I think the people to hate are the second time rounders, Rumsfeld, Cheney and the rest of them. Instead of concentrating on tackling the true threat to both the US and my country (Australia) they allowed their hatred of Saddam to divert much needed resources into an invasion which despite all protestations to the contrary, is not going well and threatens to leave Iraq a splintered shattered shell used as a proxy battlefield for the regions players.
I supported the invasion of Afghanistan because the Taliban had with Al-Queda declared war on America. However as with Iraq, once the US had won the war, they don't know how to win the peace. The warlords are splintering again, the Taliban is making a small but noticable come back, and Afghanistans main export (poppy) is thriving. It is this failure to follow through and learn from past mistakes that tends to piss people off.
Well I've had my rant and rave, and before I go just let me say that there is plenty about the US that I do admire, the Bill of Rights for one, and the ideals that founded it.
OKay I'm going to nit pick here. Just because there is a consensus that CD prices are too high doesn't automatically mean that people will stop buying them.
A consensus is an agreement, that is all. What action is taken from there is up to the parties involved.
I know you're not looking for a response, but if Iraq is a better place five to ten years from now thenit will be in spite of the americans not because.
Your average/.er will simply move on to another cause, however there will still be those of us who will look back and think Bush was an idiot.
Europe needs to realize that, unlike them, we take our Constitution dead serious and don't allow compromise.
I'm sorry, but when was the right to a fair trial removed from the Constitution? Me thinks locking someone up without charge would technically be unconstitutional.
Hey you called Windows a one stop shop, thus implying you could do anything you wanted with the OS. I was just pointing out areas where Windows may be a little lacking.
Im sorry in what way is the Windows OS a one stop shop? Can your basic do high def graphics work? 3d content generation? Complex data mining operations?
You show me an OS that can do that out of the box then I will show you a one stop shop.
Because while it cannot be forged it can be hacked. No bank would ever be secure enough just as no note could ever be forgery proof. As it is now credit card fraud seriously out weighs forgery in terms of actual damage to the economy.
With regards to IM, whats to stop IM protocols being abused the same way as email? We already have bots galore on the major chatroom services including Yahoo, MSN and IRC, so basically all we would be doing would be fragmenting across different, incompatible protocols and still dealing with the same problems.
I think you'll find that aside from a tiny minority of pimply gits, most people here would love to take virus writers out the back and show them the sharp end of a mainframe. However we would also like to have a quiet word with the idiots who wrote the code that allows these viruses, malwares and trojans to infest your machine without any iaction by the user.
It is a two way street, the virus writers are a pain in the arse for the damage they do, but MS has allowed these attacks to happen through non-existant security and software development run by the fucking Marketing Department.
So basically what you are saying is that aside from reading/. the only experience you have with computers is through MS related products?
If all you are used to is MS stuff then yes they have gotten better - sort of. They still have major issues with stupid coding mistakes, security and dodgy software models. Try exploring the rest of the IT world a little, you might be suprised by what you find.
Well apart from the whole balance of international relations being thrown out of whack and the start of a new arms race that could lead to even more death and destruction and polarisation of international factions, yes it is a good idea.
How about some anecdotal evidence that child sexual abuse fucks you up big time. We are talking severe mental trauma, confusion over sexuality, huge amounts of guilt and shame and everything else that goes with it.
Having sex with children is wrong on so many levels, let alone the fact they are not physically or mentally mature enough.
But until we can determine without a shadow of a doubt that no innocent person will be sent to the chair/gas chamber/weasel pit it is not appropriate to keep using the death penalty, the risk is to great and its deterence factor over the greater community is debatable at best.
But by not preventing the first crime the death penalty is a failure.
Let's not even get into the large number of innocent people who have been sentenced to death on false evidence and as a result of an incompetent system.
Nope sorry the death penalty is a complete failure. It only occures after the crime has happened, therefore it follows that as a deterent it is a complete failure.
It is such thought processes that make us human. Logic has very little to do with the human brain. The urge to anthropomorphise non-human objects and ideas is what helps people to understand the world around them.
Calling it a waste of mental energy is a waste in itself. Anthropomorphisis(sp?) is an automatic response, therefore controlling the urge is actually a larger waste of "Mental Energy" than just going with the flow.
The way I see it, the real waste is running around attacking people for possessing a basic mental function that is a prime example of the abstract thought that has brought our species so far up the food chain.
Assigning human characteristics to non-human objects is something that our species has been doing for thousands of years. It is one tool that allows us to believe that we can see a pattern in behaviours that really have nothing to do with us.
There isn't anything wrong with assigning human characteristics to things so long as you don't take it to extremes.
Okay firstly on the US, most people like the ideas that the US espouses, but hate the fact that the US keeps ignoring those ideas.
With regards to MS, those of us who are just teenage pimply hax0r dud35, trying to stick it to M$, actually have issues with the way the software is written, the illegal and near illegal conduct and the borg like assimilation. We who have to support the crap also have issues with major holes being left unplugged for months, even years, the html email hole being a big glaring example.
As for NSync, as far as I am concerned they are a safe plastic dish for the teeny boppers, those of us who like real music, performed by real musicians prefer to listen to music from the heart, rather than the committee.
Umm I think you'll find that Bill didn't actually write most of the original DOS. He got a copy of QDOS and modified it a bit then licensed it to IBM, thus establishing a pattern that MS has followed down the years.
Microsoft has never innovated in the Technological sense, they have always run with the pack letting the leaders do the innovation and research and then using their massive marketing muscle to make the average joe think they came up with the idea in the first place.
Remember this is the company who thought the Internet was going to fizzle out and when it didn't tried to introduce their own version.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay just a couple of points.
Most people I know on the left have no problem with the concept of christianity per se, hell Jesus was a leftie through and through, however what they object to is the structures that have arisen around christianity. The churches, cathedrals and priests have all, over two thousand years been built to one end, keeping the structure going. This has meant in the past, persecution of any one challanging the churches doctorine, to protecting those who have committed crimes that need to be brought to a court of law(Render Unto Ceaser that which is Ceasers) but instead because it puts the church in a bad light, they are shipped off out of sight.
And before you get all in a huff, yes all other regligions are guilty of the same sins to a greater or lesser extent.
Of course this is a film that the left will love and the right will loath, its preaching to the converted, but hell so does FOX.
I am a lefty and while I think Bush is a complete idiot with all the foreign policy talent of a drunken newt, I don't hate him. I think the people to hate are the second time rounders, Rumsfeld, Cheney and the rest of them. Instead of concentrating on tackling the true threat to both the US and my country (Australia) they allowed their hatred of Saddam to divert much needed resources into an invasion which despite all protestations to the contrary, is not going well and threatens to leave Iraq a splintered shattered shell used as a proxy battlefield for the regions players.
I supported the invasion of Afghanistan because the Taliban had with Al-Queda declared war on America. However as with Iraq, once the US had won the war, they don't know how to win the peace. The warlords are splintering again, the Taliban is making a small but noticable come back, and Afghanistans main export (poppy) is thriving. It is this failure to follow through and learn from past mistakes that tends to piss people off.
Well I've had my rant and rave, and before I go just let me say that there is plenty about the US that I do admire, the Bill of Rights for one, and the ideals that founded it.
When it broke off the continent and became an island perhaps? ;)
I guess that makes Manhatten Island seperate from the Continental US.
OKay I'm going to nit pick here. Just because there is a consensus that CD prices are too high doesn't automatically mean that people will stop buying them.
A consensus is an agreement, that is all. What action is taken from there is up to the parties involved.
I know you're not looking for a response, but if Iraq is a better place five to ten years from now thenit will be in spite of the americans not because.
/.er will simply move on to another cause, however there will still be those of us who will look back and think Bush was an idiot.
Your average
Europe needs to realize that, unlike them, we take our Constitution dead serious and don't allow compromise.
I'm sorry, but when was the right to a fair trial removed from the Constitution? Me thinks locking someone up without charge would technically be unconstitutional.
Hey you called Windows a one stop shop, thus implying you could do anything you wanted with the OS. I was just pointing out areas where Windows may be a little lacking.
Anyone else have visions of the latest Rubber and Leather Monthly on DVD?
Or maybe they had released the monkey dance on DVD
I give up I'm shattered
Im sorry in what way is the Windows OS a one stop shop? Can your basic do high def graphics work? 3d content generation? Complex data mining operations?
You show me an OS that can do that out of the box then I will show you a one stop shop.
Bastard
Because while it cannot be forged it can be hacked. No bank would ever be secure enough just as no note could ever be forgery proof. As it is now credit card fraud seriously out weighs forgery in terms of actual damage to the economy.
With regards to IM, whats to stop IM protocols being abused the same way as email? We already have bots galore on the major chatroom services including Yahoo, MSN and IRC, so basically all we would be doing would be fragmenting across different, incompatible protocols and still dealing with the same problems.
I think you'll find that aside from a tiny minority of pimply gits, most people here would love to take virus writers out the back and show them the sharp end of a mainframe. However we would also like to have a quiet word with the idiots who wrote the code that allows these viruses, malwares and trojans to infest your machine without any iaction by the user.
It is a two way street, the virus writers are a pain in the arse for the damage they do, but MS has allowed these attacks to happen through non-existant security and software development run by the fucking Marketing Department.
So basically what you are saying is that aside from reading /. the only experience you have with computers is through MS related products?
If all you are used to is MS stuff then yes they have gotten better - sort of. They still have major issues with stupid coding mistakes, security and dodgy software models. Try exploring the rest of the IT world a little, you might be suprised by what you find.
Well apart from the whole balance of international relations being thrown out of whack and the start of a new arms race that could lead to even more death and destruction and polarisation of international factions, yes it is a good idea.
How about some anecdotal evidence that child sexual abuse fucks you up big time. We are talking severe mental trauma, confusion over sexuality, huge amounts of guilt and shame and everything else that goes with it.
Having sex with children is wrong on so many levels, let alone the fact they are not physically or mentally mature enough.
But until we can determine without a shadow of a doubt that no innocent person will be sent to the chair/gas chamber/weasel pit it is not appropriate to keep using the death penalty, the risk is to great and its deterence factor over the greater community is debatable at best.
I will concede the point that logically the death penalty prevents future crimes.
But by not preventing the first crime the death penalty is a failure.
Let's not even get into the large number of innocent people who have been sentenced to death on false evidence and as a result of an incompetent system.
Nope sorry the death penalty is a complete failure. It only occures after the crime has happened, therefore it follows that as a deterent it is a complete failure.
It is such thought processes that make us human. Logic has very little to do with the human brain. The urge to anthropomorphise non-human objects and ideas is what helps people to understand the world around them.
Calling it a waste of mental energy is a waste in itself. Anthropomorphisis(sp?) is an automatic response, therefore controlling the urge is actually a larger waste of "Mental Energy" than just going with the flow.
The way I see it, the real waste is running around attacking people for possessing a basic mental function that is a prime example of the abstract thought that has brought our species so far up the food chain.
Assigning human characteristics to non-human objects is something that our species has been doing for thousands of years. It is one tool that allows us to believe that we can see a pattern in behaviours that really have nothing to do with us.
There isn't anything wrong with assigning human characteristics to things so long as you don't take it to extremes.
This got insightful?? Funny yes, but insightful?
Okay firstly on the US, most people like the ideas that the US espouses, but hate the fact that the US keeps ignoring those ideas.
With regards to MS, those of us who are just teenage pimply hax0r dud35, trying to stick it to M$, actually have issues with the way the software is written, the illegal and near illegal conduct and the borg like assimilation. We who have to support the crap also have issues with major holes being left unplugged for months, even years, the html email hole being a big glaring example.
As for NSync, as far as I am concerned they are a safe plastic dish for the teeny boppers, those of us who like real music, performed by real musicians prefer to listen to music from the heart, rather than the committee.
And we should run Real Player why?
The codecs suck big time, the companies software is bloated and intrusive and we have better players in the likes of MPlayer or Xine.
Umm I think you'll find that Bill didn't actually write most of the original DOS. He got a copy of QDOS and modified it a bit then licensed it to IBM, thus establishing a pattern that MS has followed down the years.
Microsoft has never innovated in the Technological sense, they have always run with the pack letting the leaders do the innovation and research and then using their massive marketing muscle to make the average joe think they came up with the idea in the first place.
Remember this is the company who thought the Internet was going to fizzle out and when it didn't tried to introduce their own version.