...cuz they'd be the laughing stock of their industry.
The TV Ope Geeks always get such a big kick out of their l'il Internet brothers. It was fascinating to watch the melding of these two geek cultures in some shops circa late 90's. The I-Net guys were still getting all the dough and new toys, but thought that "Five Nines" was the name of a new Goth Band. Meanwhile, the TV dudes ("Yo, I got yer "streamin' video" right *here*!) were besides themselves as they watched the Young Gods attempt to re-invent rich-content distribution.
This not meant as a knock to either "side" of course; the story just inspired a brief traipse down Memory Lane...
it should be one man one vote, and the person with the most votes wins...
Here's the deal:
The US is a big place. Ya got areas where we all live on top of each other, stacked hundreds of floors deep, like New York, and ya got places where you can travel for hours and see nothing but sheep, like Montana. All part of what makes America great, etc. etc.
Now, if it were "one man, one vote," there's very little statistical percentage behind a politician travelling beyond the country's major urban centers (NorthEast, West Coast, North Central, and mebbe Texas). He focuses his eforts there, he minimizes his travels and he maximizes his exposure. Why spend an hour doing a morning talk show in Boise, Idaho when he can sextuple or better his audience by spending an hour on local L.A. radio?
Of course, in this scenario, the politico need only address the issues meaningful to the people living in these high-density urban areas. The issues of the farmers, conservationists, and rural Americans in general become third tier concerns.
As it is now, in this republic, even though states like Idaho and South Dakota don't have as many Electoral College votes as New York and California, the 'points' for 'winning' these smaller population states rack up quickly. Consequently, no politician can elect to ignore them -- and that, of course, is a good thing.
Incidently, the same "republic-esque" principals carry over into our Federal Legislature. The Senate consists of two politicians per state, regardless of a state's population. And the Senate is inarguably more powerful and prestigious than our free-for-all House of Represntatives whose membership is a function of various district's population (e.g., NY has more Reps than Mississippi).
Appreciate that the views and perspectives you get by and large here on slashdot DO NOT reflect "average" US opinion at all, for good or for ill. I would hazard a guess that the great majority of the readership here is from those "urban population centers," cuz that's where the tech industry is. (I also think this board's become mostly high school and college kids, but that's more of an intuitive hunch...)
There hasn't been a great clamor in the consumer sector for *nix boxes. Those in the know sculpt their own (or buy Apple, of course).
I interpret this move by concumer-friendly HP less as their being proactive vis-a-vis consumer needs and more as their being proactive to get the best OEM deal possible next quarter with Redmond.
This is the type of stuff that must absolutely friggin' terrify the MS sales-suits nurturing the OEM supply chain. The fact that other consumer dealers could follow HP's lead is even more chilling to them. The sound you hear is a half-dozen executive sales assistants in Redmond slamming open file cabinets and searching for contracts their bosses can review with an eye towards sweetening.
Ultimately, whether you are a fan of Linux or Windows, you benefit. A Good Thing.
"Oh, Beneficent Deities Who smile down upon our bandwidth and HTML, please don't make the posting of completely counter-productive and useful-to-no-one "non-affiliate links" assume the same popularity with the/. High School set as "registration free" links, "Soviet Russia" Jokes, "Obligatory" anything, and Subject lines consisting solely of the words "One Word." Let us grow together into maturity, with the realization that even a site catering to the rants and tirades of pseudo-socialist geeks still has to make a buck somehow. Give us the discipline not to try and undermine every commerce-oriented Internet endeavor we stumble across, and the wisdom to find where our energies might be directed to stimulate Growth rather than Anarchy."
Well, then it makes perfect sense that you guys would be vehemently against any strong EU copyright laws.
Hey, for laughs, why don't you guys throw "your" name behind a bunch of really, really wacky and borderline illegal causes so we can see how OSDN handles the moral dilemma of having to defend their own IP and copyright?
Did I miss a meeting? Is there really a Spanish language edition of Slashdot now? Kudos to Taco and everyone at OSDN for their ongoing global domination!
I know this is off-topic, but I'm curious as to the structure: Is there a single editor-in-chief overseeing both sites? Is there a shared database of UID's, etc.? Do the stories overlap completely/somewhat/not at all? Is the Spanish Slashdot more Euro- or Southern Hemisphere-oriented in either its news or editorial? Is "barrpunto" Spanish for "Slashdot?"
In Latin, yes. The Romans used the letters v-i-r-u-s to denote what we would call "toxin" or "evil, poisonous, gunky stuff that snakes and such spit." Somehow or other, we English speaking people have adopted the same word to describe certain types of fast-spreading diseases, biological and otherwise.
But (probably because we use the word differently, and its meaning is so different) the plural of "our" virus is "viruses."
it's obviously more important to know our latin roots than to communicate accurately!
D00d, if it hasn't been clear up to now, allow me to point out that I spend much more time among Adult English-Speaking Humans than I do among script-kiddies, and I assure you that the (still) correct "viruses" is vastly more clear in that less-rarefied air than the gimmicky and tech-prentious "virii."
Bet on it.
So, I can't use words like "mung" or LDAP (pronounced ell-dapp) anymore You can use 'em, sure. They're industry terms. Work in every endeavor would grind to a halt if we could not use the slang of our workplaces. Doesn't make it formal English, though. Certainly doesn't make it Latin....which is the contention to which I was responding ever so long ago. Call 'em "virii" if it amuses you. Hell, call 'em "charlie." Call 'em "throatwarblermangroves." Just don't attempt to justify your language-mangling in some pseudo-elite fashion by calling it "Latin."...because, unlike "mung" or "LDAP," there is already a perfectly good, legitimate, and universally recognized English word for what we have been discussing. It's -- wait for it -- "viruses."
Having the resources or knowledge to maintain a blog does not make what you have to write in the blog any more worth reading than what the Yahoo-ites have to say. Sadly, many of the technically-savvy have failed to realize this.
The truth of the matter is, if what you say is worth reading on a regular, or even daily basis, someone will step in and provide you with the resources to maintain your blog, thereby freeing you up to focus on your writing. These resource-providers are called publishers. Whether or not the blog-writer has a publisher is a good litmus test for whether I will devote any of my time reading what he writes.
As for keeping up with friends' activities: we use the telephone. Terribly Old School that way.
It's like graphic design. The personal computer programs that have made it cheap and easy for someone to do the *work* of a designer do not magically transform everyone *into* a designer.
Computerese variant; you can find it all over the websites of virus authors and script kiddies.
We here on earth call that "slang." Every industry, culture, and sub-culture has it. All well and good. Sometimes a slang term gets to be so prevalent it will enter a dictionary and be noted as such (usually with sl.) If the term can really hang on, and/or enter into a mainstream culture beyond it's industry (as "byte" has) it may receive "official, formal" language status. The English language "benchmark" (to borrow the technologist's phrase for a moment) is the OED. I'm sure the folks who edit that are monitoring "virii" very closely *cough*
The word "viruses" refers to biological organisms, and the distinction is valid and desirable.
What, are you making this up as you go along? I give you credit for thinking on your feet. The OED cites several colloquial and figurative uses of "virus" as a rapidly spreading "poisonous influence." It's from this sub-text that computers are said to have viruses. No distinction between non- and biological use exists. Good one, though.
Now back on topic: The previous poster contended that "virii" was a Latin term. It's not. The plural of "virus" in Latin (if one fancies oneself as a dead Roman) is "virus." (I don't know what the plural is in Klingon.) Currently, "virii" is a *slang* term spottily popular among youthful script kiddies for the plural of virus. It is akin to "boxen," only several tiers more dorky as many of its users actually think it has some etymological legitimacy, and is not merely a made-up "play-on-words" word.
Happy to help. Glad you stopped by. First one's free.
Some people on bugtraq are already speculating that the blaster worm may have had something to do with it...
Dude, people everywhere are speculating that their own personal boogeyman is responsible. Here in New York, Mets fans are blaming Yankee fans, Brooklyn is blaming Manhattan, and everyone is kinda suspicious of Jersey...
The average age demographic for gamers these days is circa 28 years old, and, frankly, going to a LAN Party or whatever the heck you call it is not high on our list of fun nightly activities. I don't remember how big or heavy my Xbox is cuz I haven't moved it since I bought it shortly after its launch. I suspect the non-movers are in the majority for XBox, with that number skewing younger for the PS2 and 'cube cuz the games skew younger.
As for the controllers. Logitech Wireless, baby. No cords, no fuss, no mess. Better than the originals (although they gobble AA's like M&M's...)
If you had said to the Founding Fathers that you were going to take their "Freedom of Speech" language and use it to allow someone to sell tentacle-sex manga in a comic book store nextdoor to Liberty Hall in Philly, they would have taken you behind the Liberty Bell and beaten the shit out of you with the sticks from their butter churns.
Which is not to say they would forbid its sale in their new nation, or that they would not fight to the death for your right to sell it (especially Ben Franklin, who was, by all accounts, a hound dog). They would be looking for a little common sense on your part, and a little direction to be provided on the local level if that common sense was shown lacking. And a little enforcement if that direction was ignored.
Ever been to Amsterdam? Great city. My favorite in Northern Europe. Their Red Light District is amazing. But there must be some kind of statutes on the books there that keeps the vice trade confined to certain geographical borders. I'm reasonably certain that a strip club that opened next to a church uptown would be shut down pretty quickly -- even in "liberal" Amsterdam. Again, I have not seen the Dallas statutes, but if a law was broken, a law was broken. If it's a bad law, if the people of Dallas want it changed, let them petition their legislators to change it (*Legislators*, not judges). But please, in the name of Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin and all that's Holy, let's keep the federal government out of it!
I grew up in the midwest and I can testify that the stupid ignorant jerks outnumber the OK people about 20 to 1. I live in Seattle by way of Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas
That's fascinating. I've lived in New York all my life (which, I'm guessing by the way most of the views are being expressed in this thread, is two to three times longer then most here have been alive) but have travelled extensively and I have found that no area has a lock on intelligence, wisdom, or culture.
But I am glad you were able to find happiness in Seattle (certainly in the top three of my list of "smug" cities, but hey, that's a conversation for another time). Now think how horrible it would be for you, having finally found your niche, for the Supreme Court to overturn a whole ledger of local Seattle statutes to bring them more in line with the country's centrist-to-conservative plurality.
Pretty scary, huh? So why is anyone's knickers in a twist over the Supreme Court refusing to rule vis-a-vis local Dallas obscenity laws? If the Supremes imposed a curfew and strict blue laws in Seattle, you'd go berserk, and rightly so.
You make some excellent points. Unfortunatelty, we are still debating in something of a vacuum here, as none of the links provided any detail on Dallas statutes. Are the obscenity laws in Dallas more stringent than, say, Ft. Worth? Houston? Salt Lake City? Are there areas -- "red light districts" -- specific to such trade, or not?
What this whole thread comes down to is a discussion re the scope of a local south Texas law, and our opinions re whether it's enforcement has been overly zealous or severe. Where "Free Speech" and "Our Rights Online" came into this, I have no idea.
Oh, yeah, the original poster.....who is also a slashdot editor.
Huh?
(Hey, Hemos, no dig intended, bro. Besides, ya got a Hemos Hat-Trick: You managed to mention Comics, the EFF, and Neil Gaiman in a single post! Does it get any better than that?)
Of course, if the fine folk in Tulsa don't want that stuff they won't buy it, and the shops will fold due to lack of business.
They may want it. I think they might be a bit abnormal if they did not. They just don't want it sold locally. Some people don't want to live next to a power plant, but they still use electricity. They can move away from the power plant, campaign to establish the apropos zoning laws (and pay higher taxes as consequence), or not. Free Country.
Of course, the Feds shouldn't be worrying themselves over what is obscene at all, universally or not. The US Constitution doesn't have any "except for obscene materials" clauses in it.
See the discussion about the Constitution and Free Speech and Obscenity above. What the Founding Fathers *did* intend was for states' sovereignity to be better respected.
So if it was a zoning issue, why didn't they just close the shop instead of throwing an employee in jail?
I'm using Local Zoning as a metaphor, but as no one has posted any real links of any substance regarding the case, I don't know what the practice is in Dallas.
I do. We've got a sub-population in this country that's rampaging out of control, trying to get anyone who differs from them thrown in prison. You can't run a free country on that basis.
You're right, although I suspect my rampaging sub-population differs somewhat from yours. Thankfully, it's a big country, with plenty of diversity cherished and protected at the neighborhood level. Hopefully, no Supreme Court judge legislating from the bench will seek to homogenize any of us anytime soon.
I followed the links, but got no information re what the local obscenity laws are in Dallas. Did the comic sold violate them? If so, then what's the issue...?
Lookit, laws re obscenity and speed limits and such are made on the state and local levels Because That Makes Sense! The people in downtown Tulsa don't want L.A.-style porn shops opening in their area, and the people in L.A. don't want to live in a Tulsa-esque climate. Fine! Great! Makes perfect sense! If the Fed comes in to determine what is "universally" obscene or not, folks in both Oklahoma and California aren't going to be happy by the compromise.
Hey, this is America, Land of Opportunity, and if I want to get rich with a chain of Car Washes, I can go for it. But if I try to open one next to your suburban golf course or grammar school, I'm going to be denied. Why? Cuz of the local zoning laws. So I go elsewhere to pursue my "opportunity." Makes sense to me, and the people with the kids in the local school. Some guy selling some explicit tentacle-sex manga is cuffed in Dallas. That makes sense too.
How refreshing that the Supreme Court is repsecting state statute on this one. I really do not want the Federal Goverment involving themselves with local lifestyle laws. There's a Big Big World West of the Beltway and East of Hollywood.
But I thought we *liked* litigation: Big Government Lawyers stepping up to the plate, knocking Microsoft into bite-size pieces, putting telemarketers out of business, crucifying spammers... Yes?
These messy double-edged swords... so much blood, everywhere...
increased brain-wave activity, enhanced intuition, better concentration, and the alleviation of the kinds of aches and pains that plague employees most
Personally, I derive the same benefits from my Scotch-and-Cigar breaks, without the added mystic baggage. Fortunately, I work from home.
But, hey, whatever floats your boat. If sitting in the Lotus Position and intoning chants from the Vedas is what we have to do to keep jobs from going to India, I'm all for it.
...appreciating the irony it, but all for it, nonetheless.
Slashdot Mirror
...cuz they'd be the laughing stock of their industry.
The TV Ope Geeks always get such a big kick out of their l'il Internet brothers. It was fascinating to watch the melding of these two geek cultures in some shops circa late 90's. The I-Net guys were still getting all the dough and new toys, but thought that "Five Nines" was the name of a new Goth Band. Meanwhile, the TV dudes ("Yo, I got yer "streamin' video" right *here*!) were besides themselves as they watched the Young Gods attempt to re-invent rich-content distribution.
This not meant as a knock to either "side" of course; the story just inspired a brief traipse down Memory Lane...
it should be one man one vote, and the person with the most votes wins...
Here's the deal:
The US is a big place. Ya got areas where we all live on top of each other, stacked hundreds of floors deep, like New York, and ya got places where you can travel for hours and see nothing but sheep, like Montana. All part of what makes America great, etc. etc.
Now, if it were "one man, one vote," there's very little statistical percentage behind a politician travelling beyond the country's major urban centers (NorthEast, West Coast, North Central, and mebbe Texas). He focuses his eforts there, he minimizes his travels and he maximizes his exposure. Why spend an hour doing a morning talk show in Boise, Idaho when he can sextuple or better his audience by spending an hour on local L.A. radio?
Of course, in this scenario, the politico need only address the issues meaningful to the people living in these high-density urban areas. The issues of the farmers, conservationists, and rural Americans in general become third tier concerns.
As it is now, in this republic, even though states like Idaho and South Dakota don't have as many Electoral College votes as New York and California, the 'points' for 'winning' these smaller population states rack up quickly. Consequently, no politician can elect to ignore them -- and that, of course, is a good thing.
Incidently, the same "republic-esque" principals carry over into our Federal Legislature. The Senate consists of two politicians per state, regardless of a state's population. And the Senate is inarguably more powerful and prestigious than our free-for-all House of Represntatives whose membership is a function of various district's population (e.g., NY has more Reps than Mississippi).
Appreciate that the views and perspectives you get by and large here on slashdot DO NOT reflect "average" US opinion at all, for good or for ill. I would hazard a guess that the great majority of the readership here is from those "urban population centers," cuz that's where the tech industry is. (I also think this board's become mostly high school and college kids, but that's more of an intuitive hunch...)
There hasn't been a great clamor in the consumer sector for *nix boxes. Those in the know sculpt their own (or buy Apple, of course).
I interpret this move by concumer-friendly HP less as their being proactive vis-a-vis consumer needs and more as their being proactive to get the best OEM deal possible next quarter with Redmond.
This is the type of stuff that must absolutely friggin' terrify the MS sales-suits nurturing the OEM supply chain. The fact that other consumer dealers could follow HP's lead is even more chilling to them. The sound you hear is a half-dozen executive sales assistants in Redmond slamming open file cabinets and searching for contracts their bosses can review with an eye towards sweetening.
Ultimately, whether you are a fan of Linux or Windows, you benefit. A Good Thing.
"Oh, Beneficent Deities Who smile down upon our bandwidth and HTML, please don't make the posting of completely counter-productive and useful-to-no-one "non-affiliate links" assume the same popularity with the /. High School set as "registration free" links, "Soviet Russia" Jokes, "Obligatory" anything, and Subject lines consisting solely of the words "One Word." Let us grow together into maturity, with the realization that even a site catering to the rants and tirades of pseudo-socialist geeks still has to make a buck somehow. Give us the discipline not to try and undermine every commerce-oriented Internet endeavor we stumble across, and the wisdom to find where our energies might be directed to stimulate Growth rather than Anarchy."
Amen.
Well, then it makes perfect sense that you guys would be vehemently against any strong EU copyright laws.
Hey, for laughs, why don't you guys throw "your" name behind a bunch of really, really wacky and borderline illegal causes so we can see how OSDN handles the moral dilemma of having to defend their own IP and copyright?
Now, *THAT'S* Entertainment!
(C'mon, it'll be fun...)
Did I miss a meeting? Is there really a Spanish language edition of Slashdot now? Kudos to Taco and everyone at OSDN for their ongoing global domination!
I know this is off-topic, but I'm curious as to the structure: Is there a single editor-in-chief overseeing both sites? Is there a shared database of UID's, etc.? Do the stories overlap completely/somewhat/not at all? Is the Spanish Slashdot more Euro- or Southern Hemisphere-oriented in either its news or editorial? Is "barrpunto" Spanish for "Slashdot?"
Thanks.
umm isn't the plurel for virus, virus?
In Latin, yes. The Romans used the letters v-i-r-u-s to denote what we would call "toxin" or "evil, poisonous, gunky stuff that snakes and such spit." Somehow or other, we English speaking people have adopted the same word to describe certain types of fast-spreading diseases, biological and otherwise.
But (probably because we use the word differently, and its meaning is so different) the plural of "our" virus is "viruses."
the same server (which I built)
...which is the contention to which I was responding ever so long ago. Call 'em "virii" if it amuses you. Hell, call 'em "charlie." Call 'em "throatwarblermangroves." Just don't attempt to justify your language-mangling in some pseudo-elite fashion by calling it "Latin." ...because, unlike "mung" or "LDAP," there is already a perfectly good, legitimate, and universally recognized English word for what we have been discussing. It's -- wait for it -- "viruses."
Here's a cookie.
it's obviously more important to know our latin roots than to communicate accurately!
D00d, if it hasn't been clear up to now, allow me to point out that I spend much more time among Adult English-Speaking Humans than I do among script-kiddies, and I assure you that the (still) correct "viruses" is vastly more clear in that less-rarefied air than the gimmicky and tech-prentious "virii."
Bet on it.
So, I can't use words like "mung" or LDAP (pronounced ell-dapp) anymore You can use 'em, sure. They're industry terms. Work in every endeavor would grind to a halt if we could not use the slang of our workplaces. Doesn't make it formal English, though. Certainly doesn't make it Latin.
Re-read the post, Mr. Webster. I was referring to the Latin "virus."
Having the resources or knowledge to maintain a blog does not make what you have to write in the blog any more worth reading than what the Yahoo-ites have to say. Sadly, many of the technically-savvy have failed to realize this.
The truth of the matter is, if what you say is worth reading on a regular, or even daily basis, someone will step in and provide you with the resources to maintain your blog, thereby freeing you up to focus on your writing. These resource-providers are called publishers. Whether or not the blog-writer has a publisher is a good litmus test for whether I will devote any of my time reading what he writes.
As for keeping up with friends' activities: we use the telephone. Terribly Old School that way.
It's like graphic design. The personal computer programs that have made it cheap and easy for someone to do the *work* of a designer do not magically transform everyone *into* a designer.
Computerese variant; you can find it all over the websites of virus authors and script kiddies.
We here on earth call that "slang." Every industry, culture, and sub-culture has it. All well and good. Sometimes a slang term gets to be so prevalent it will enter a dictionary and be noted as such (usually with sl.) If the term can really hang on, and/or enter into a mainstream culture beyond it's industry (as "byte" has) it may receive "official, formal" language status. The English language "benchmark" (to borrow the technologist's phrase for a moment) is the OED. I'm sure the folks who edit that are monitoring "virii" very closely *cough*
The word "viruses" refers to biological organisms, and the distinction is valid and desirable.
What, are you making this up as you go along? I give you credit for thinking on your feet. The OED cites several colloquial and figurative uses of "virus" as a rapidly spreading "poisonous influence." It's from this sub-text that computers are said to have viruses. No distinction between non- and biological use exists. Good one, though.
Now back on topic: The previous poster contended that "virii" was a Latin term. It's not. The plural of "virus" in Latin (if one fancies oneself as a dead Roman) is "virus." (I don't know what the plural is in Klingon.) Currently, "virii" is a *slang* term spottily popular among youthful script kiddies for the plural of virus. It is akin to "boxen," only several tiers more dorky as many of its users actually think it has some etymological legitimacy, and is not merely a made-up "play-on-words" word.
Happy to help. Glad you stopped by. First one's free.
virii is Latin.
No, actually it's not. There is no such word in either Latin or English. In Latin, "virus" is a collective noun, like 'butter.'
if we want it to be virii then its virii
Why don't you substitute a word in Klingon? You'll still sound just as goofy, but at least you won't be flat-out incorrect.
Some people on bugtraq are already speculating that the blaster worm may have had something to do with it...
Dude, people everywhere are speculating that their own personal boogeyman is responsible. Here in New York, Mets fans are blaming Yankee fans, Brooklyn is blaming Manhattan, and everyone is kinda suspicious of Jersey...
Too bad X-Files has been cancelled, eh?
The average age demographic for gamers these days is circa 28 years old, and, frankly, going to a LAN Party or whatever the heck you call it is not high on our list of fun nightly activities. I don't remember how big or heavy my Xbox is cuz I haven't moved it since I bought it shortly after its launch. I suspect the non-movers are in the majority for XBox, with that number skewing younger for the PS2 and 'cube cuz the games skew younger.
As for the controllers. Logitech Wireless, baby. No cords, no fuss, no mess. Better than the originals (although they gobble AA's like M&M's...)
"Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we have to continually pay."
Nice to see Star Trek carrying on it's hallowed tradition of split infinitives.
Let's have a common sense break here, shall we?
If you had said to the Founding Fathers that you were going to take their "Freedom of Speech" language and use it to allow someone to sell tentacle-sex manga in a comic book store nextdoor to Liberty Hall in Philly, they would have taken you behind the Liberty Bell and beaten the shit out of you with the sticks from their butter churns.
Which is not to say they would forbid its sale in their new nation, or that they would not fight to the death for your right to sell it (especially Ben Franklin, who was, by all accounts, a hound dog). They would be looking for a little common sense on your part, and a little direction to be provided on the local level if that common sense was shown lacking. And a little enforcement if that direction was ignored.
Ever been to Amsterdam? Great city. My favorite in Northern Europe. Their Red Light District is amazing. But there must be some kind of statutes on the books there that keeps the vice trade confined to certain geographical borders. I'm reasonably certain that a strip club that opened next to a church uptown would be shut down pretty quickly -- even in "liberal" Amsterdam. Again, I have not seen the Dallas statutes, but if a law was broken, a law was broken. If it's a bad law, if the people of Dallas want it changed, let them petition their legislators to change it (*Legislators*, not judges). But please, in the name of Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin and all that's Holy, let's keep the federal government out of it!
I grew up in the midwest and I can testify that the stupid ignorant jerks outnumber the OK people about 20 to 1. I live in Seattle by way of Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas
That's fascinating. I've lived in New York all my life (which, I'm guessing by the way most of the views are being expressed in this thread, is two to three times longer then most here have been alive) but have travelled extensively and I have found that no area has a lock on intelligence, wisdom, or culture.
But I am glad you were able to find happiness in Seattle (certainly in the top three of my list of "smug" cities, but hey, that's a conversation for another time). Now think how horrible it would be for you, having finally found your niche, for the Supreme Court to overturn a whole ledger of local Seattle statutes to bring them more in line with the country's centrist-to-conservative plurality.
Pretty scary, huh? So why is anyone's knickers in a twist over the Supreme Court refusing to rule vis-a-vis local Dallas obscenity laws? If the Supremes imposed a curfew and strict blue laws in Seattle, you'd go berserk, and rightly so.
You make some excellent points. Unfortunatelty, we are still debating in something of a vacuum here, as none of the links provided any detail on Dallas statutes. Are the obscenity laws in Dallas more stringent than, say, Ft. Worth? Houston? Salt Lake City? Are there areas -- "red light districts" -- specific to such trade, or not?
....who is also a slashdot editor.
What this whole thread comes down to is a discussion re the scope of a local south Texas law, and our opinions re whether it's enforcement has been overly zealous or severe. Where "Free Speech" and "Our Rights Online" came into this, I have no idea.
Oh, yeah, the original poster.
Huh?
(Hey, Hemos, no dig intended, bro. Besides, ya got a Hemos Hat-Trick: You managed to mention Comics, the EFF, and Neil Gaiman in a single post! Does it get any better than that?)
There's an even bigger world than the USA out there
Yeah, and I've probably seen more of it than you ever will unless you join the Peace Corps. What point are you trying to make?
Of course, if the fine folk in Tulsa don't want that stuff they won't buy it, and the shops will fold due to lack of business.
They may want it. I think they might be a bit abnormal if they did not. They just don't want it sold locally. Some people don't want to live next to a power plant, but they still use electricity. They can move away from the power plant, campaign to establish the apropos zoning laws (and pay higher taxes as consequence), or not. Free Country.
Of course, the Feds shouldn't be worrying themselves over what is obscene at all, universally or not. The US Constitution doesn't have any "except for obscene materials" clauses in it.
See the discussion about the Constitution and Free Speech and Obscenity above. What the Founding Fathers *did* intend was for states' sovereignity to be better respected.
So if it was a zoning issue, why didn't they just close the shop instead of throwing an employee in jail?
I'm using Local Zoning as a metaphor, but as no one has posted any real links of any substance regarding the case, I don't know what the practice is in Dallas.
I do. We've got a sub-population in this country that's rampaging out of control, trying to get anyone who differs from them thrown in prison. You can't run a free country on that basis.
You're right, although I suspect my rampaging sub-population differs somewhat from yours. Thankfully, it's a big country, with plenty of diversity cherished and protected at the neighborhood level. Hopefully, no Supreme Court judge legislating from the bench will seek to homogenize any of us anytime soon.
I followed the links, but got no information re what the local obscenity laws are in Dallas. Did the comic sold violate them? If so, then what's the issue...?
Lookit, laws re obscenity and speed limits and such are made on the state and local levels Because That Makes Sense! The people in downtown Tulsa don't want L.A.-style porn shops opening in their area, and the people in L.A. don't want to live in a Tulsa-esque climate. Fine! Great! Makes perfect sense! If the Fed comes in to determine what is "universally" obscene or not, folks in both Oklahoma and California aren't going to be happy by the compromise.
Hey, this is America, Land of Opportunity, and if I want to get rich with a chain of Car Washes, I can go for it. But if I try to open one next to your suburban golf course or grammar school, I'm going to be denied. Why? Cuz of the local zoning laws. So I go elsewhere to pursue my "opportunity." Makes sense to me, and the people with the kids in the local school. Some guy selling some explicit tentacle-sex manga is cuffed in Dallas. That makes sense too.
How refreshing that the Supreme Court is repsecting state statute on this one. I really do not want the Federal Goverment involving themselves with local lifestyle laws. There's a Big Big World West of the Beltway and East of Hollywood.
So very, very right -- but if someone started a "machinima blog", I'd want to punch them even harder
If they started a "machinma blog" while "wardriving" I would let you use my gun.
Painful, true, and life in America.
But I thought we *liked* litigation: Big Government Lawyers stepping up to the plate, knocking Microsoft into bite-size pieces, putting telemarketers out of business, crucifying spammers... Yes?
These messy double-edged swords... so much blood, everywhere...
What's to stop me from being a dickhead troll?
Obviously nothing. Carry on.
Personally, I derive the same benefits from my Scotch-and-Cigar breaks, without the added mystic baggage. Fortunately, I work from home.
But, hey, whatever floats your boat. If sitting in the Lotus Position and intoning chants from the Vedas is what we have to do to keep jobs from going to India, I'm all for it.
...appreciating the irony it, but all for it, nonetheless.