"When i said that i was talking about the people who are (in excess) liberals. They think that people restriction of ANY kind, are wrong"
These people are not liberals, they are anarchists. There is a strong element of this in the USA Libertarian Party which is one reason why I can no longer can support them without reservation.
"I'm not talking on run after everybody who has that file... it's insane"
I do not have the faith in the current political climate, at least in the USA that those currently in power, that is Republicans, would not abuse this to punish dissent as they seem determined to create a corporate theological fascist state. I do not have much more faith in the Democrats in their efforts to create a socialist nanny state. Yes I realize I have just expressed dissatisfaction with three of the largest political parties in the USA, I have similar reservations about most others as well. Yet I do vote always, for it seems always the "lesser evil" at the time. I do not expect perfection from any, and if any one would reform itself reasonably I would most tone down my aggression. However I will always be a voice for what I perceive as legitimate dissent especially when our civil liberties are threatened, that is what is really means to be a liberal. Besides I still have a problem with any files that are designed to carry hidden payloads. We have too much a problem with this already. In the right political climate and with proper oversight from say an internationally selected FOSS community I might consider this as a reasonable method to sniff out the true criminals. However I suspect that the most productive methods will always involve active undercover infiltration of these networks.
"And... if the people exchange the current material, they are sick sure, but they aren't criminals. I mean, its not a crime have this pictures (and IMO that's right) the crime is the abuse of a little child"
I believe we are on the same page when it comes to the actual issue of child pornography. The issues of what deems such a crime and the necessary punishment needs to be very fine grained. I do not think that serious criminal charges that involve prison time need to be applied to the crime of simple possession of such images. I do think that in the case of images that depict, not virtual, but actual hardcore sexual acts between a preteen child and an adult or staged hardcore sexual acts between preteens should be a criminal act and require mandatory psychological intervention with the threat of low security incarceration and or life disruptive monitoring for those who do not submit to counseling or are multiple repeat offenders. This is with a allowance that those involved in the science and treatment of such human behavior and law enforcement investigators be granted exceptions for simple possession and profession required distribution of such. As for the persons that commit or stage such acts on these children, there needs to be a opportunity for them to seek confidential consulting. However if caught regardless whether they are in a treatment program or not they should be dealt with most harshly when convicted. Not the death sentence like some idiot legislators in Georgia propose but serious hard prison time. Hell that might be a death sentence in itself, which disturbs me. Mainly because so many non violent petty criminals and some that should not even be labeled and treated as criminals are exposed to it due to the insanely stupid drug war.
For issues involving young adults, that is teenagers below the age of consent some mediation of these laws should be applied. Often the teenager is complicit in that they misrepresent themselves. Physical, emotional and sexual maturity varies in its onset and stages of progression. I would suggest that the discerning of what is criminal be decided by the age difference between the individuals. Several US states at one time used the approach of age differential, Tennessee was one that I had personal experience with in this regard. I am not sure wher
"I cannot think of any other OS that even approaches the maturity of Linux at this point."
IBM might just decide to knock the dust off OS/2. In many ways Linux and Windows and yes even OSX still have not caught up with where it was a decade ago. I don't know of a 64 bit kernel for it or its offspring eCS but it might be hiding in one of the IBM labs in Boca Raton.
Actually the advances in hardware, emulators and virtualizers are making real time simulation of an entire hardware platform API or a specific OS API more practical. I suspect that any posix compliant OS with well written emulators or virtulizers will soon make reduce a specific OS like Windows to application level importance anyway.
I realize that most here are aware of these efforts, but are some urls anyway for the few that are not.
Out of curiosity I looked up Asperger syndrome on Wikipedia. I did not read any references in the article about concerns of pedophilia. It did indicate that there could be some social maladjustment issues, especially among age specific peer groups. Is this the concern the therapist had? That you might gravitate to relationships with those younger than yourself?
I have not see such gravitation in myself but I did read many aspects of my own life in the article description of this "disorder". My nickname from about the fifth grade on was "professor". I did have a keen interest in the sciences, the details of history, and philosophy. I regularly read college level texts by junior high, but then my IQ had tested in the low 140's and such was encouraged, even pushed at me. I was regularly addressed in a patronizing manner by many adults including teachers or avoided like a leper by others, most adults don't like being corrected by a kid I guess. I usually found conservation with adults embarrassing or painful but easier than most of my peers. Plus I was small for my age and not very athletically inclined, in fact generally awkward and clumsy, I would have 'nawed off my arm at the elbow to get out of PE, and somewhat thus picked at and ostracized by my peers. This led me to becoming very defensive and thus quickly to be offensive at times. Thus I have many encounters with those set on installing discipline in my life, including a mostly miserable summer in a early precursor of the "outward bound" program. If it had not been for the easy going open minded nature and patient mentoring by my grandfather I believe my life would have been a disaster or worst ended early.
To this day I have some issues with communicating with the average person. I still have trouble, not so much with public speaking or writing via a PC, though I do have trouble drifting between lower case, caps, cursor and print in my handwriting, though mechanically it is very good. My thoughts tend to outrun my speech or writing so live non preprepared events sometimes get away from me. In presentations and reporting of technical issues to non technical types and even other technicians I sometimes tend to go way too deep in detail and explanation for most of them, I usually don't realize it until their eyes glaze over though. I have to stay conscious of my physical state less I regress to some apparently incorrect posture, expression or make an inappropriate body adjustment. In discussions of philosophical and political issues it seems as often as not I just piss people off. I do realize these things and hack away at them though, and it seems I am getting more adept at these interactions over time.
All in all I always though I was just a independent thinking geek. However I now feel the need to ask, does any of this sound familiar to you? If you don't wish to discuss this here I will understand, but I am curious.
"I don't want to sound liberal, I'm against child pornography"
How the hell does something that contains the quote above get modded insightful, are you people on crack? As an unabashed liberal I take offense to the posters implication that being of a liberal mindset equates to being supportive of child pornography. Just because I support my AND YOUR right to enjoy the freedoms many of our ancestors died for it does NOT make me a fan, apologist, or enabler of immoral criminal activity. The existence of this nation, in fact the observation of many of the human rights we accept as basic were founded in the time of the Western Enlightenment on LIBERAL principles by courageous people of a liberal mindset. If this is not what the poster meant I will accept a retraction and apology. Otherwise they can bite my LIBERAL ass.
"Another idea could be the "infection" of some images/files/videos and leave in the wild"
Yea thats what we need a bunch of infected files floating around out there so some asshole can compromise some else's system and mass mail to pretty much anyone. Once again I ask, are you people on crack? This is an insane idea, there is already enough risk of this with viruses, trojans and malware, XXS and the like. There are already laws to deal with pedophilia related crimes, the answer is simple, use existing constitutionally sanction legal methods and enforce the laws.
Before the Internet most of this material was exchanged via the postal service, and that was dealt with without the need to open everyones mail. It seems to me that those who trade this material over the Internet by its base nature leave themselves more exposed than the ones using the postal service, without resorting to methods that cause wholesale loss of everyone else's privacy. This pedophilia stuff is like all immoral, unethical and criminal activity, it has always been with us and will always be, all we can do is resist it and minimize it.
As for P2P, freenet and other darknets and the like I don't have a answer here and now. But I can't see where there is any serious difference between them and a closed envelope with a fake return address using the postal service. I suspect these platforms and other forms of private electronic communication will eventually be outlawed by politicians using these issues as the reason.
Yes I am a LIBERAL in that I am concerned about the loss of liberty and I am aggressive in the defense of the freedoms that are intrinsic to our liberty. Many western nations, especially the USA are well on the way to becoming neo-fascist police states, empowered by some that like to call themselves liberal who really want a nanny state, and a few others that like to call themselves conservatives who really want a paternal theological state. If people like these continue to support such ideas and policies without any serious and courageous resistance our descendants will curse us all as a few generations of mindless cowards that selfishly pissed away their liberty, hopes and dreams.
Meaning that the poster never flushs it? Heck that's the fun part, watch the little brown boat go down, down, down. It's even more fun to try and hit a moving target like a tuff of paper with a warm stream, though that usually means flushing twice. However with my water costing $25 per 1k gal the mature part of me usually makes me live without the extra fun.
I read in this passage (Mark 12: 41-44) the same basic message as most of the teachings of Jesus. That of placing ones self interest below ones compassion for others, especially those of lesser abilities and of greater needs. Marx actually came close to the same ideal in "from each according to ability, to each according to need. However Marx was attempting to codify such into a social structure, something that did not really have anything to do with the ideals or intents of the individual regardless of how lofty the goal. I believe that Jesus had the correct approach in that his teachings were almost always directed at coaxing a selfless compassion for the welfare for others in individual hearts. Society after all is merely a collection of individuals with at least some common ideals and intentions. This was intended as grass roots building of a kind and noble civilization based on love and compassion. Sadly many Christians I have encountered seem to misunderstand this most basic of testaments. You don't simply do these things out of fear because an all powerful and vengeful God insists you do them. You need to cultivate the softness of heart that makes YOU WANT to do them out of love and compassion. But then this interpretation of Jesus's teachings is from old agnostic me.
"The Democrats are more fascist (yes, I know what the word means) and inept than the Republicans will ever be"
Apparently you don't. It may be somewhat fair to say that the Democrats of today have socialist tendency's but fascist, naw they can't compete with Republicans there. The definition of fascist does however describe todays corporate butt sucking, bible thumping, flag waving, issue baiting, war mongering Republican party very well. And as for "inept", well I will agree that the Democrats seem to be inept at politics lately, or maybe it is just a matter of ethics that keeps them from sinking to the new lows of the Republican party. All in all though it looks to me like the "decider" has provided all the data necessary to complete the definition of inept to perfection. This guy would be a riot to watch if he was not in command of the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. Just think how much better off we would have all been if he would have went into stand up comedy. You know I hear Hitler was a closet artist, actually a pretty good one.
"I don't want the children to have healthcare if it has to be paid for by non-voluntary contributions out of my wallet. The same goes for old people and drugs, and poor people and food."
I suspect you would like to get rid of SSI or dump it into a 401k type account as well. I hope for your sake that all our 401k type retirement accounts are safer than I suspect they are. Because one of those "children" may be the one responsible for what to do with your sick "old" "poor" ass someday. Be a shame if you ended up in a bottom of the barrel nursing home, where the people responsible for feeding you, medicating you and wiping you ass had to resort to stealing your food and medication to take care of their own. Be a shame if they left you laying in your urine soaked, feces soiled drawers for hours due to staffing shortages cause by budget cuts.
"But I suppose I'm just one of those crazy extremists. Ummm... actually, I am."
I think there were a several reasons that this administration decided a war with Iraq was in their best interest. Historians will deem some of the theory's reasonable and legitimate, others as not supportable by fact. If, that is, historians are allowed to openly and honestly investigate these issues, this may not be a possibility in the future. A lot of past history being taught is inaccurate, incomplete, over simplified or just plainly used as propaganda. Often this is due to information being classified, and the volume of that increasing.
I believe that the 911 events were used in premeditated manner by the perpetrators to elicit just such a response. It is well know now that Bush had Iraq in his sights before 911. I find it hard to believe that the perpetrators of 911 were not aware of this. A mostly absentee president who was in power via a close election that was beginning to appear stolen. The economy in a steady downward spiral after several years of steady gains by his predecessor of the opposing party. There were many hints of coming legal troubles for the leaders of his own party. The chances of his reelection were not very good.
This presidents cabinet was and is infested with neo-conservatives and totally in bed with the big energy and construction companies that make trillions from the Middle East oil and natural gas reserves. The spread of the theocratic Islamic states in the area were and still are a huge concern for these global corporate interests. It is unlikely that these states would decide to just sit on these resources, after all that is about all most have going for them. They would however be very likely to demand a much better deal that the totalitarian or monarchy's that exist in most today. I can even see how Bush and company thought they could plant a democratic republic in the Middle East. It is not implausible that such could happen. It is just that like everything else this type attempts they tried to do it on the cheap. End result, as usual penny wise a pound foolish, the cost will be many times what it should have been if the effort is ever successful at all.
Even the politically unchallenged war in Afghanistan is not all that it seems to be. Afghanistan lies between the Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and the ports on the Arabian Sea. These relatively undeveloped nations hold huge natural gas reserves that have for some time now been courted or already actively assisted under contract by US energy companies in the development of these reserves and the construction of pipelines.
The results of 911 were the same as one would get by smacking a hungry dog in the nose with a rib eye steak. Today one of the theocratic Islamist's most formidable opponents in the Middle East has been not only neutered, the half dead carcass serves as a breeding ground for new recruits. Even worse it may very well be democratically elected into a theocratic Islamic state itself in the near future. In the end though I have to say this war is not directly about oil, not in the way many believe. It is about WHO gets to make the money off the oil, natural gas, and all the activities that surround and support the industry.
BTW this is also what the deal is with coal as well. The technology exists to burn coal cleanly, or to convert it to LPG and thus even plastics efficaciously. The whole oil and natural gas or coal debate is a red herring, it is simply all about WHO gets to make the money in the short term. If you are under thirty you will probably live to see a transition away from oil as the predominate energy source, because it will be exhausted as a source or too expensive to get at. The same people that make trillions off oil now will move to making trillion more off coal and biomass.
For me it is work hours, not much time left for non family relationships, not that much for family either. Of course I am here on/., I guess one could say that proves the point of the article. But the Internet is a social medium that does not require I travel which I have little time or energy for after work, not to mention the upswing in fuel expenses. Since I live in a rural area travel is required for most any non family, non internet social contact. Also the area I currently live in seems to have a high proportion of dumb asses, so there is not that many social relationships that I would want to cultivate anyway.
"'Family values', 'american values', 'traditions' - any improvement on these so far ?"
Improvements? Improvement is antithetical to a conservative mindset. In 1956 everything was near perfect, Ike & Dicki ran the show, wifey and minorities knew their place. The only real big problems were those pesky unions and that damn rock % roll. For them everything since 1956 has went to hell in a hand basket. Improvement that sounds "progressive" to me. Ya must be one of those darned ole malcontent liberals--dirty word:).
Matthew
I suspect this a red herring. I live in the "boonies", about seven miles from the closest city/teleco office. My basic rate is US $58.00, with county to county, taxes, Internet , more taxes, more taxes and surcharges my bill without any long distance calls or other special services is $118.00 a month. Somehow I don't think my and my several dozen local neighbors max 28k lines are being supported by the seven mile off city dwellers that pay around $16 a month for 56k capable lines. Do you believe everything the teleco companies and politicians tell you? Besides by your logic my taxes regularly support construction for bridges in New York, new super highways in LA, new water projects in Las Vegas or as yet another new missle factory outside Dallas, whats the diff?
"The people that produce and distribute it are willing to let you listen to it,_if_ you are willing to agree to their terms. You don't have to agree to their terms. But, then you don't get to listen."
I can live with that. I keep my money and they can keep their over priced, restrictive and mostly crappy material. Screw 'em, I'll bet they miss me more than I miss them. But then even GOOD music is only at best a minuscule part of a happy life, for me anyways. This applies to DRM and to proprietary formats and technology's as well.
"Linus started Linux to access his school account"
I thought he wrote the first kernel as a thesis project, or maybe it was because he needed a PC based varient of UNIX to use as a tool to complete a thesis project. Didn't some of his work on the Linux kernel evolve out of Minix?
"I'd be mighty angry if I was at the movies, and the babysitter couldn't call me and let me know that my children had hurt themselves and was in ICU at the hospital."
I agree, plus it could be even more disruptive. Imagine if the cell phone of the on-call surgeon the kids needed were blocked as well. I am a controls technician for a health care foundation. If I get call on my cell phone it is very likely because there is an issue with a critical system that patient care depends upon. With systems redundancy it is rarely life threating, but can still be disruptive. I think most people would consider having air conditioning in the hospital, working fire alarm systems and getting their pain medication on time enough reason for an occasional interruption of a few seconds of "quality" movie time. We really do not need more "big brother" or "nanny" laws or in most cases similar applications of technology either.
"I've said it for many years now: what this country needs is a Constitutional Convention, to bring the Constitution more up-to-date and to iron out inequities in the system."
Be careful of what you wish for. In such all possible choices are open, including the bad ones. I would hardly trust those in power today to make choices comparable with the wisdom the founders. You can see proof of this in the prohibition amendment and it's subsequent repealing amendment. Maybe in few more years after things have become intolerable the people might somehow manage to clean house and elect representatives with the peoples personal liberty and general welfare as the basis for such choices this might be a good idea. But in such as case it would probably be unnecessary. If the constitution was simply honored and applied as it exists today most of the things that concern you would cease to be an issue. The problem is we have leaders that consider it a "god damned piece of paper". I believe we need to change the elected representatives not the constitution.
"... are subsequently presented with another page which requests them to enter further details to remove limits on the access of their account. Information requested includes social security number, credit card number, expiration date, card verification number and ATM PIN."
Now who in their right mind would ever enter their SSN or especially ATM PIN into such a web based form? The only place I have ever been asked to use my ATM PIN online is my banks login, and I whined and cried to the bank about that. The bank now has a password feature that does not use the ATM PIN which I feel much better with. My main problems with using the ATM PIN as a IP transmitted login password were A: It made my account less secure if my PIN was stolen via a store spycam or similar non IP "over the shoulder" type exploit. B: The PIN length the bank used (4 char) was too short for a decently secure transmitted password. C: Simple separation of risk. D: The only way I could change my PIN and thus IP login was via a bank visit and physical note to a cashier. My bank now allows for an 8-16 character login password that I can change over IP.
Other notes on these issues. I recently backed out of a credit report service signup form because I was uncomfortable with the information they wanted. These credit reporting agency's and the information they want make me nervous. I have used one of the big three a couple of times before and guess I will probably just stick with the expensive services they offer. I ALWAYS do my banking with a single session of Firefox or Mozilla, clear the cache and kill the session when I am done, then start a new instance BEFORE I browse anything else. Of course this is pretty much not possible with Paypal and eBay. However I typically only use the eBay provided "Pay Now" button in "My eBay" instead of one provided by a vendor, even if I have to use their checkout service to process my shipping address and such.
It is unfortunate that it does seem to require more than just "a little common sense" to use such online services safely. The be any kind of safe one it seems one needs to be almost pathologically paranoid. The silver lining is at least I guess that part of my sometimes warped psyche finally might work for my benefit.
"In next week's news: A guy puts a cup of ice in front of the fan for even more X-treme cooling."
Just wait until next month when he uses salted ice, in his other "cup" and eXperiences the feeling of his balls getting sucked.
Oh my did I just endange the reproductive capacity of many jr slashdotters. Oh well its not like this segment were going to get the chance to use it anyhow:)
I believe they got into trouble over this with SSI checks? Somtime around 2004 in California a class action lawsuit left them liable for damages that might exceed $1 billion over something at least similar.
"Welcome to the free market" "The politicians in this country have not introduced any kind of real legislation which protects US jobs. And this is because big business donates billions of dollars to politicians to prevent them from doing it."
I am fed up with hearing about how "free market" economics are causing these problems. Listen close now. The markets are anything but free! Global corporations have bought the legislation to ensure such. This has always been the case to some extent, there has never been a truly free market anywhere on as a grand scale as a nation. Today the manipulation of markets for the gain of the privileged few are happening very effectively all over the world, it is just a bit father along in the USA than in say Europe. Anywhere national or state level legislation doesn't work out they just bribe or coerce local officials. Wonder why so many in the third world hate us? They see us in the light of these "business leaders".
As for free markets I am not even sure we want really free markets, as they are probably just too volatile to support a stable society. What annoys me is all these business and political types running around holding up a free market as some sort of holy rule that we cannot muck with, when such does not even exist. I wish I had all the answers, I would be most pleased to share them. I can share this much, DO NOT believe the propaganda that we have a free market economy in the USA! The professed aspirations of such aside it is not and never has been such and getting less and less free with every congress. The big difference between today and recent history in the USA is that the balance of power, political influence and wealth distribution between those that produce via their labor and the parasites that exist upon that labor has gotten out of hand, again. Not that is has ever been fair.
The genius and ethics of Amadeo Giannini are once again insulted by the modern day managers of what he once built. I know a lot of other entities have had a hand in the BOA of today, some as honorable and some not. However the Bank of Italy that he founded in the 1920's is a important keystone of the modern BOA. From what I have read about Mr Giannini he would be ashamed of what his legacy has produced.
Oh well what should we expect from managers that settled a class action lawsuit brought on by Enron investors, for $69m? Of course under the settlement agreement , the bank denies that it violated any law. These are the same managers that, even after buying out a $9M class action lawsuit, still continue the unethical practice of "Largest Check First" check clearing. That is when the bank clears checks in order from largest to smallest, with less regard to when they come in causing more checks to bounce, triggering more overdraft fees for the bank to collect from their customers. The same company that has been convicted of raiding the Social Security benefits of customers with awarded damages that could exceed $1 billion.
I can't help but to wonder what this companies shareholders think of these type of practices and losses, regardless of the bottom line effect. The really bad part is I suspect it is almost certain that my 401K is at least in some small way or another linked to this company or another one just as bad. This type of issue has been nagging at me for while. The meager amount that I have invested in 401K and 403K accounts is still a considerable part of my overall wealth, and my late years will depend upon their wise investments now. I have them well diversified in various managed funds.
There sure seems to be a lot of liquid variation in these funds investment allocations, almost to the point of abstraction for someone of my non professional investment skills. I mean I really do not have the skill set or time to learn such to follow theses things in the detail that it seems is necessary to determine just where my money is invested. I suspect that the only way I would ever be sure is to try and gain full control of the accounts and personally make explicit stock purchases of specific companies. Even if I could find the time to acquire and hone these skills, I am not sure it is viable legally for these type of accounts.
These things extend past my personal financial future. There is also the issue of the ethics of how my money is being used. It is easy with everyday stuff. I noticed who the gas station owners were that gouged prices on September 12 for example, and no longer do business with them. However difficult such decisions might be with individual stocks, they seem near impossible with these managed funds. Anyone took this to the next step? I for one would like to at least do what I could to not make our problems worse, if not help fix some of them.
To the tune of "It's me again Margret" by Ray Stevens (sorry Ray:))
Well there is a feller named Billy G Gates And there is one thing thats he especially hates That one of his customers might have a unlicensed cp So each day he would spy on his customers over tcp/ip
It's me again PC, hello is this a Windoze PC, hehehehe You don't know me PC, but I know you, hehehehe
Well this upset the customers, and it made them all blue So they got together, hired a lawyer and asked what can we do Well the lawyer setup logging warez on each and every PC And the next few weeks ran trace routes right back to ole Billy G
It's me again PC, hello is this a Windoze PC, hehehehe I know its you PC, hey do you still have your naked pic's that I can see, hehehehe
Mean while the lawyers caught ole Ma Bell up in the same type of jokes Selling customers personal info to some nutty "government" folks It was not much later that the government once again changed hands And privacy laws started being applied again all across the customers lands
It's me again PC, hello is this a Windoze PC, hehehehe I know its you PC, I bet you can't guess what I'm doin', hehehehe
Well the customers sued them and dragged their companies to court And I still can't believe it but the customers won the cases in tort The companies both issued the standard press statement's that read The rotten ole employees that did this, to the sharks have been fed
It's me again PC, they got me PC, you ain't gonna miss me PC I know that, but I'll miss you.... hello PC who is this? Linux? Linux who? huh?
Well when I get my people back in power I'm gonna come over there With a wireless router, some more spyware, and some tacky new laws We'll have a big ole tme PC, hehehe, whowhowhoooo
Matthew
There is an even more insidious problem
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DRM and Democracy
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· Score: 1
There is an even more insidious problem with this picture. To quote Simon & Garfunkel in The Boxer "A man hears wants he wants to hear and disregards the rest". There is a tendency, especially among the hard right to watch, listen and read only what reinforces their already warped views. What if the "pay per view" model was extended into news programming as well? How many FOX "News" fans would ever choose to pay for ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or MSNBC much less CSPAN, Link or PBS. Now I realize they don't watch much else anyway, it is pretty obvious. But this would pretty much lock that in by removing the rare opportunity for them to blunder on something besides the rancid propaganda Fox feeds them. Now on the other hand if I could remove my meager contribution to FOX "News" as a revenue stream for Rupert Murdoch by breaking it out of my DTV package, well I would be much happier. I do watch it every now and then when I think my blood pressure may be a bit low. Honestly, I try to get my information from a variety of truly "balanced" and even some disagreeable unbalanced sources, but explicitly paying for Fox "News" would be kinda of like paying for an Ann Coulter book, not likely to happen here.
The problem is there are very few true Republican or Democratic state (at least in my state) or federal Executives, Senators and Representatives. I have become fond of saying that Washington and most state capitals have become infested with Republic-rats. This is not say they are moderates, instead they seem to have managed to devolve into a vile species of creature that has the attributes of the worst aspects of both parties.
There are way to many opportunist types calling themselves Republicans that who do not hold traditional Republican values like self responsibility, constitutional caution and thrift. Instead they seem hell bent on perverting private issues into divisive social confrontations all the while picking the pockets of the small business person and working people and creating a revolving door political-corporate oligarchical Neo-fascist big brother state.
It also seems to me that way to many so called Democrats have forgotten the honorable liberal principles of freedom of the individual to live as they please, innovation and courage in the face of change and the ethics of striving to progressively create a more equatable society. Instead they seem too often to be obsessed with creating an always politically correct socialist nanny state, are too greedy or cowardly to say no to way too many special interest agendas, and too self interested to stand up for core liberal values.
The sometimes conflicting agendas of true Republicans and Democrats work well to rein in the extremes of either. However the perversions of those values into what we see today may very well destroy this nation if not corrected in time. If this situation is not corrected soon our descendants may very well curse the selfishness, ignorance and cowardice of those that allowed the destruction of the greatest scientific, economic and culture power in history and allowed its children to be robbed of their hopes, dreams and liberty.
Wabi-Sabi Matthew
When the people fear their Government, there is tyranny. When the Government fears it's people, there is liberty.." Thomas Paine
Slashdot Mirror
"When i said that i was talking about the people who are (in excess) liberals. They think that people restriction of ANY kind, are wrong"
These people are not liberals, they are anarchists. There is a strong element of this in the USA Libertarian Party which is one reason why I can no longer can support them without reservation.
"I'm not talking on run after everybody who has that file... it's insane"
I do not have the faith in the current political climate, at least in the USA that those currently in power, that is Republicans, would not abuse this to punish dissent as they seem determined to create a corporate theological fascist state. I do not have much more faith in the Democrats in their efforts to create a socialist nanny state. Yes I realize I have just expressed dissatisfaction with three of the largest political parties in the USA, I have similar reservations about most others as well. Yet I do vote always, for it seems always the "lesser evil" at the time. I do not expect perfection from any, and if any one would reform itself reasonably I would most tone down my aggression. However I will always be a voice for what I perceive as legitimate dissent especially when our civil liberties are threatened, that is what is really means to be a liberal. Besides I still have a problem with any files that are designed to carry hidden payloads. We have too much a problem with this already. In the right political climate and with proper oversight from say an internationally selected FOSS community I might consider this as a reasonable method to sniff out the true criminals. However I suspect that the most productive methods will always involve active undercover infiltration of these networks.
"And... if the people exchange the current material, they are sick sure, but they aren't criminals. I mean, its not a crime have this pictures (and IMO that's right) the crime is the abuse of a little child"
I believe we are on the same page when it comes to the actual issue of child pornography. The issues of what deems such a crime and the necessary punishment needs to be very fine grained. I do not think that serious criminal charges that involve prison time need to be applied to the crime of simple possession of such images. I do think that in the case of images that depict, not virtual, but actual hardcore sexual acts between a preteen child and an adult or staged hardcore sexual acts between preteens should be a criminal act and require mandatory psychological intervention with the threat of low security incarceration and or life disruptive monitoring for those who do not submit to counseling or are multiple repeat offenders. This is with a allowance that those involved in the science and treatment of such human behavior and law enforcement investigators be granted exceptions for simple possession and profession required distribution of such. As for the persons that commit or stage such acts on these children, there needs to be a opportunity for them to seek confidential consulting. However if caught regardless whether they are in a treatment program or not they should be dealt with most harshly when convicted. Not the death sentence like some idiot legislators in Georgia propose but serious hard prison time. Hell that might be a death sentence in itself, which disturbs me. Mainly because so many non violent petty criminals and some that should not even be labeled and treated as criminals are exposed to it due to the insanely stupid drug war.
For issues involving young adults, that is teenagers below the age of consent some mediation of these laws should be applied. Often the teenager is complicit in that they misrepresent themselves. Physical, emotional and sexual maturity varies in its onset and stages of progression. I would suggest that the discerning of what is criminal be decided by the age difference between the individuals. Several US states at one time used the approach of age differential, Tennessee was one that I had personal experience with in this regard. I am not sure wher
"I cannot think of any other OS that even approaches the maturity of Linux at this point."
a lization/about/systems.html. shtml
IBM might just decide to knock the dust off OS/2. In many ways Linux and Windows and yes even OSX still have not caught up with where it was a decade ago. I don't know of a 64 bit kernel for it or its offspring eCS but it might be hiding in one of the IBM labs in Boca Raton.
Actually the advances in hardware, emulators and virtualizers are making real time simulation of an entire hardware platform API or a specific OS API more practical. I suspect that any posix compliant OS with well written emulators or virtulizers will soon make reduce a specific OS like Windows to application level importance anyway.
I realize that most here are aware of these efforts, but are some urls anyway for the few that are not.
http://www.xensource.com/
http://www.parallels.com/
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/about/virtu
http://www.thefreecountry.com/emulators/pc.shtml
http://www.thefreecountry.com/emulators/macintosh
http://www.winehq.com/
Matthew
Out of curiosity I looked up Asperger syndrome on Wikipedia. I did not read any references in the article about concerns of pedophilia. It did indicate that there could be some social maladjustment issues, especially among age specific peer groups. Is this the concern the therapist had? That you might gravitate to relationships with those younger than yourself?
I have not see such gravitation in myself but I did read many aspects of my own life in the article description of this "disorder". My nickname from about the fifth grade on was "professor". I did have a keen interest in the sciences, the details of history, and philosophy. I regularly read college level texts by junior high, but then my IQ had tested in the low 140's and such was encouraged, even pushed at me. I was regularly addressed in a patronizing manner by many adults including teachers or avoided like a leper by others, most adults don't like being corrected by a kid I guess. I usually found conservation with adults embarrassing or painful but easier than most of my peers. Plus I was small for my age and not very athletically inclined, in fact generally awkward and clumsy, I would have 'nawed off my arm at the elbow to get out of PE, and somewhat thus picked at and ostracized by my peers. This led me to becoming very defensive and thus quickly to be offensive at times. Thus I have many encounters with those set on installing discipline in my life, including a mostly miserable summer in a early precursor of the "outward bound" program. If it had not been for the easy going open minded nature and patient mentoring by my grandfather I believe my life would have been a disaster or worst ended early.
To this day I have some issues with communicating with the average person. I still have trouble, not so much with public speaking or writing via a PC, though I do have trouble drifting between lower case, caps, cursor and print in my handwriting, though mechanically it is very good. My thoughts tend to outrun my speech or writing so live non preprepared events sometimes get away from me. In presentations and reporting of technical issues to non technical types and even other technicians I sometimes tend to go way too deep in detail and explanation for most of them, I usually don't realize it until their eyes glaze over though. I have to stay conscious of my physical state less I regress to some apparently incorrect posture, expression or make an inappropriate body adjustment. In discussions of philosophical and political issues it seems as often as not I just piss people off. I do realize these things and hack away at them though, and it seems I am getting more adept at these interactions over time.
All in all I always though I was just a independent thinking geek. However I now feel the need to ask, does any of this sound familiar to you? If you don't wish to discuss this here I will understand, but I am curious.
Matthew
"I don't want to sound liberal, I'm against child pornography"
How the hell does something that contains the quote above get modded insightful, are you people on crack? As an unabashed liberal I take offense to the posters implication that being of a liberal mindset equates to being supportive of child pornography. Just because I support my AND YOUR right to enjoy the freedoms many of our ancestors died for it does NOT make me a fan, apologist, or enabler of immoral criminal activity. The existence of this nation, in fact the observation of many of the human rights we accept as basic were founded in the time of the Western Enlightenment on LIBERAL principles by courageous people of a liberal mindset. If this is not what the poster meant I will accept a retraction and apology. Otherwise they can bite my LIBERAL ass.
"Another idea could be the "infection" of some images/files/videos and leave in the wild"
Yea thats what we need a bunch of infected files floating around out there so some asshole can compromise some else's system and mass mail to pretty much anyone. Once again I ask, are you people on crack? This is an insane idea, there is already enough risk of this with viruses, trojans and malware, XXS and the like. There are already laws to deal with pedophilia related crimes, the answer is simple, use existing constitutionally sanction legal methods and enforce the laws.
Before the Internet most of this material was exchanged via the postal service, and that was dealt with without the need to open everyones mail. It seems to me that those who trade this material over the Internet by its base nature leave themselves more exposed than the ones using the postal service, without resorting to methods that cause wholesale loss of everyone else's privacy. This pedophilia stuff is like all immoral, unethical and criminal activity, it has always been with us and will always be, all we can do is resist it and minimize it.
As for P2P, freenet and other darknets and the like I don't have a answer here and now. But I can't see where there is any serious difference between them and a closed envelope with a fake return address using the postal service. I suspect these platforms and other forms of private electronic communication will eventually be outlawed by politicians using these issues as the reason.
Yes I am a LIBERAL in that I am concerned about the loss of liberty and I am aggressive in the defense of the freedoms that are intrinsic to our liberty. Many western nations, especially the USA are well on the way to becoming neo-fascist police states, empowered by some that like to call themselves liberal who really want a nanny state, and a few others that like to call themselves conservatives who really want a paternal theological state. If people like these continue to support such ideas and policies without any serious and courageous resistance our descendants will curse us all as a few generations of mindless cowards that selfishly pissed away their liberty, hopes and dreams.
Matthew
"Man I would hate to see your toilet"
Meaning that the poster never flushs it? Heck that's the fun part, watch the little brown boat go down, down, down. It's even more fun to try and hit a moving target like a tuff of paper with a warm stream, though that usually means flushing twice. However with my water costing $25 per 1k gal the mature part of me usually makes me live without the extra fun.
Matthew
I read in this passage (Mark 12: 41-44) the same basic message as most of the teachings of Jesus. That of placing ones self interest below ones compassion for others, especially those of lesser abilities and of greater needs. Marx actually came close to the same ideal in "from each according to ability, to each according to need. However Marx was attempting to codify such into a social structure, something that did not really have anything to do with the ideals or intents of the individual regardless of how lofty the goal. I believe that Jesus had the correct approach in that his teachings were almost always directed at coaxing a selfless compassion for the welfare for others in individual hearts. Society after all is merely a collection of individuals with at least some common ideals and intentions. This was intended as grass roots building of a kind and noble civilization based on love and compassion. Sadly many Christians I have encountered seem to misunderstand this most basic of testaments. You don't simply do these things out of fear because an all powerful and vengeful God insists you do them. You need to cultivate the softness of heart that makes YOU WANT to do them out of love and compassion. But then this interpretation of Jesus's teachings is from old agnostic me.
Matthew
"The Democrats are more fascist (yes, I know what the word means) and inept than the Republicans will ever be"
:)
Apparently you don't. It may be somewhat fair to say that the Democrats of today have socialist tendency's but fascist, naw they can't compete with Republicans there. The definition of fascist does however describe todays corporate butt sucking, bible thumping, flag waving, issue baiting, war mongering Republican party very well. And as for "inept", well I will agree that the Democrats seem to be inept at politics lately, or maybe it is just a matter of ethics that keeps them from sinking to the new lows of the Republican party. All in all though it looks to me like the "decider" has provided all the data necessary to complete the definition of inept to perfection. This guy would be a riot to watch if he was not in command of the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. Just think how much better off we would have all been if he would have went into stand up comedy. You know I hear Hitler was a closet artist, actually a pretty good one.
"I don't want the children to have healthcare if it has to be paid for by non-voluntary contributions out of my wallet. The same goes for old people and drugs, and poor people and food."
I suspect you would like to get rid of SSI or dump it into a 401k type account as well. I hope for your sake that all our 401k type retirement accounts are safer than I suspect they are. Because one of those "children" may be the one responsible for what to do with your sick "old" "poor" ass someday. Be a shame if you ended up in a bottom of the barrel nursing home, where the people responsible for feeding you, medicating you and wiping you ass had to resort to stealing your food and medication to take care of their own. Be a shame if they left you laying in your urine soaked, feces soiled drawers for hours due to staffing shortages cause by budget cuts.
"But I suppose I'm just one of those crazy extremists. Ummm... actually, I am."
Hey at least we can agree on something
Matthew
I think there were a several reasons that this administration decided a war with Iraq was in their best interest. Historians will deem some of the theory's reasonable and legitimate, others as not supportable by fact. If, that is, historians are allowed to openly and honestly investigate these issues, this may not be a possibility in the future. A lot of past history being taught is inaccurate, incomplete, over simplified or just plainly used as propaganda. Often this is due to information being classified, and the volume of that increasing.
I believe that the 911 events were used in premeditated manner by the perpetrators to elicit just such a response. It is well know now that Bush had Iraq in his sights before 911. I find it hard to believe that the perpetrators of 911 were not aware of this. A mostly absentee president who was in power via a close election that was beginning to appear stolen. The economy in a steady downward spiral after several years of steady gains by his predecessor of the opposing party. There were many hints of coming legal troubles for the leaders of his own party. The chances of his reelection were not very good.
This presidents cabinet was and is infested with neo-conservatives and totally in bed with the big energy and construction companies that make trillions from the Middle East oil and natural gas reserves. The spread of the theocratic Islamic states in the area were and still are a huge concern for these global corporate interests. It is unlikely that these states would decide to just sit on these resources, after all that is about all most have going for them. They would however be very likely to demand a much better deal that the totalitarian or monarchy's that exist in most today. I can even see how Bush and company thought they could plant a democratic republic in the Middle East. It is not implausible that such could happen. It is just that like everything else this type attempts they tried to do it on the cheap. End result, as usual penny wise a pound foolish, the cost will be many times what it should have been if the effort is ever successful at all.
Even the politically unchallenged war in Afghanistan is not all that it seems to be. Afghanistan lies between the Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and the ports on the Arabian Sea. These relatively undeveloped nations hold huge natural gas reserves that have for some time now been courted or already actively assisted under contract by US energy companies in the development of these reserves and the construction of pipelines.
The results of 911 were the same as one would get by smacking a hungry dog in the nose with a rib eye steak. Today one of the theocratic Islamist's most formidable opponents in the Middle East has been not only neutered, the half dead carcass serves as a breeding ground for new recruits. Even worse it may very well be democratically elected into a theocratic Islamic state itself in the near future. In the end though I have to say this war is not directly about oil, not in the way many believe. It is about WHO gets to make the money off the oil, natural gas, and all the activities that surround and support the industry.
BTW this is also what the deal is with coal as well. The technology exists to burn coal cleanly, or to convert it to LPG and thus even plastics efficaciously. The whole oil and natural gas or coal debate is a red herring, it is simply all about WHO gets to make the money in the short term. If you are under thirty you will probably live to see a transition away from oil as the predominate energy source, because it will be exhausted as a source or too expensive to get at. The same people that make trillions off oil now will move to making trillion more off coal and biomass.
Matthew
For me it is work hours, not much time left for non family relationships, not that much for family either. Of course I am here on /., I guess one could say that proves the point of the article. But the Internet is a social medium that does not require I travel which I have little time or energy for after work, not to mention the upswing in fuel expenses. Since I live in a rural area travel is required for most any non family, non internet social contact. Also the area I currently live in seems to have a high proportion of dumb asses, so there is not that many social relationships that I would want to cultivate anyway.
Matthew
"'Family values', 'american values', 'traditions' - any improvement on these so far ?" Improvements? Improvement is antithetical to a conservative mindset. In 1956 everything was near perfect, Ike & Dicki ran the show, wifey and minorities knew their place. The only real big problems were those pesky unions and that damn rock % roll. For them everything since 1956 has went to hell in a hand basket. Improvement that sounds "progressive" to me. Ya must be one of those darned ole malcontent liberals--dirty word :).
Matthew
I suspect this a red herring. I live in the "boonies", about seven miles from the closest city/teleco office. My basic rate is US $58.00, with county to county, taxes, Internet , more taxes, more taxes and surcharges my bill without any long distance calls or other special services is $118.00 a month. Somehow I don't think my and my several dozen local neighbors max 28k lines are being supported by the seven mile off city dwellers that pay around $16 a month for 56k capable lines. Do you believe everything the teleco companies and politicians tell you? Besides by your logic my taxes regularly support construction for bridges in New York, new super highways in LA, new water projects in Las Vegas or as yet another new missle factory outside Dallas, whats the diff?
Matthew
"The people that produce and distribute it are willing to let you listen to it,_if_ you are willing to agree to their terms. You don't have to agree to their terms. But, then you don't get to listen."
I can live with that. I keep my money and they can keep their over priced, restrictive and mostly crappy material. Screw 'em, I'll bet they miss me more than I miss them. But then even GOOD music is only at best a minuscule part of a happy life, for me anyways. This applies to DRM and to proprietary formats and technology's as well.
Matthew
"Linus started Linux to access his school account"
I thought he wrote the first kernel as a thesis project, or maybe it was because he needed a PC based varient of UNIX to use as a tool to complete a thesis project. Didn't some of his work on the Linux kernel evolve out of Minix?
Matthew
"I'd be mighty angry if I was at the movies, and the babysitter couldn't call me and let me know that my children had hurt themselves and was in ICU at the hospital."
I agree, plus it could be even more disruptive. Imagine if the cell phone of the on-call surgeon the kids needed were blocked as well. I am a controls technician for a health care foundation. If I get call on my cell phone it is very likely because there is an issue with a critical system that patient care depends upon. With systems redundancy it is rarely life threating, but can still be disruptive. I think most people would consider having air conditioning in the hospital, working fire alarm systems and getting their pain medication on time enough reason for an occasional interruption of a few seconds of "quality" movie time. We really do not need more "big brother" or "nanny" laws or in most cases similar applications of technology either.
Matthew
"I've said it for many years now: what this country needs is a Constitutional Convention, to bring the Constitution more up-to-date and to iron out inequities in the system."
Be careful of what you wish for. In such all possible choices are open, including the bad ones. I would hardly trust those in power today to make choices comparable with the wisdom the founders. You can see proof of this in the prohibition amendment and it's subsequent repealing amendment. Maybe in few more years after things have become intolerable the people might somehow manage to clean house and elect representatives with the peoples personal liberty and general welfare as the basis for such choices this might be a good idea. But in such as case it would probably be unnecessary. If the constitution was simply honored and applied as it exists today most of the things that concern you would cease to be an issue. The problem is we have leaders that consider it a "god damned piece of paper". I believe we need to change the elected representatives not the constitution.
Matthew
From the article:
"... are subsequently presented with another page which requests them to enter further details to remove limits on the access of their account. Information requested includes social security number, credit card number, expiration date, card verification number and ATM PIN."
Now who in their right mind would ever enter their SSN or especially ATM PIN into such a web based form? The only place I have ever been asked to use my ATM PIN online is my banks login, and I whined and cried to the bank about that. The bank now has a password feature that does not use the ATM PIN which I feel much better with. My main problems with using the ATM PIN as a IP transmitted login password were A: It made my account less secure if my PIN was stolen via a store spycam or similar non IP "over the shoulder" type exploit. B: The PIN length the bank used (4 char) was too short for a decently secure transmitted password. C: Simple separation of risk. D: The only way I could change my PIN and thus IP login was via a bank visit and physical note to a cashier. My bank now allows for an 8-16 character login password that I can change over IP.
Other notes on these issues. I recently backed out of a credit report service signup form because I was uncomfortable with the information they wanted. These credit reporting agency's and the information they want make me nervous. I have used one of the big three a couple of times before and guess I will probably just stick with the expensive services they offer. I ALWAYS do my banking with a single session of Firefox or Mozilla, clear the cache and kill the session when I am done, then start a new instance BEFORE I browse anything else. Of course this is pretty much not possible with Paypal and eBay. However I typically only use the eBay provided "Pay Now" button in "My eBay" instead of one provided by a vendor, even if I have to use their checkout service to process my shipping address and such.
It is unfortunate that it does seem to require more than just "a little common sense" to use such online services safely. The be any kind of safe one it seems one needs to be almost pathologically paranoid. The silver lining is at least I guess that part of my sometimes warped psyche finally might work for my benefit.
Matthew
"In next week's news: A guy puts a cup of ice in front of the fan for even more X-treme cooling."
:)
Just wait until next month when he uses salted ice, in his other "cup" and eXperiences the feeling of his balls getting sucked.
Oh my did I just endange the reproductive capacity of many jr slashdotters. Oh well its not like this segment were going to get the chance to use it anyhow
sorry I couldn't help myself
I believe they got into trouble over this with SSI checks? Somtime around 2004 in California a class action lawsuit left them liable for damages that might exceed $1 billion over something at least similar.
Matthew
"2) You can be an equally stupid cow and do so diligently until slaughter day..."
Brings to mind an appropiate quote:
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." Winston Churchill
Matthew
"Welcome to the free market"
"The politicians in this country have not introduced any kind of real legislation which protects US jobs. And this is because big business donates billions of dollars to politicians to prevent them from doing it."
I am fed up with hearing about how "free market" economics are causing these problems. Listen close now. The markets are anything but free! Global corporations have bought the legislation to ensure such. This has always been the case to some extent, there has never been a truly free market anywhere on as a grand scale as a nation. Today the manipulation of markets for the gain of the privileged few are happening very effectively all over the world, it is just a bit father along in the USA than in say Europe. Anywhere national or state level legislation doesn't work out they just bribe or coerce local officials. Wonder why so many in the third world hate us? They see us in the light of these "business leaders".
As for free markets I am not even sure we want really free markets, as they are probably just too volatile to support a stable society. What annoys me is all these business and political types running around holding up a free market as some sort of holy rule that we cannot muck with, when such does not even exist. I wish I had all the answers, I would be most pleased to share them. I can share this much, DO NOT believe the propaganda that we have a free market economy in the USA! The professed aspirations of such aside it is not and never has been such and getting less and less free with every congress. The big difference between today and recent history in the USA is that the balance of power, political influence and wealth distribution between those that produce via their labor and the parasites that exist upon that labor has gotten out of hand, again. Not that is has ever been fair.
Matthew
The genius and ethics of Amadeo Giannini are once again insulted by the modern day managers of what he once built. I know a lot of other entities have had a hand in the BOA of today, some as honorable and some not. However the Bank of Italy that he founded in the 1920's is a important keystone of the modern BOA. From what I have read about Mr Giannini he would be ashamed of what his legacy has produced.
Oh well what should we expect from managers that settled a class action lawsuit brought on by Enron investors, for $69m? Of course under the settlement agreement , the bank denies that it violated any law. These are the same managers that, even after buying out a $9M class action lawsuit, still continue the unethical practice of "Largest Check First" check clearing. That is when the bank clears checks in order from largest to smallest, with less regard to when they come in causing more checks to bounce, triggering more overdraft fees for the bank to collect from their customers. The same company that has been convicted of raiding the Social Security benefits of customers with awarded damages that could exceed $1 billion.
I can't help but to wonder what this companies shareholders think of these type of practices and losses, regardless of the bottom line effect. The really bad part is I suspect it is almost certain that my 401K is at least in some small way or another linked to this company or another one just as bad. This type of issue has been nagging at me for while. The meager amount that I have invested in 401K and 403K accounts is still a considerable part of my overall wealth, and my late years will depend upon their wise investments now. I have them well diversified in various managed funds.
There sure seems to be a lot of liquid variation in these funds investment allocations, almost to the point of abstraction for someone of my non professional investment skills. I mean I really do not have the skill set or time to learn such to follow theses things in the detail that it seems is necessary to determine just where my money is invested. I suspect that the only way I would ever be sure is to try and gain full control of the accounts and personally make explicit stock purchases of specific companies. Even if I could find the time to acquire and hone these skills, I am not sure it is viable legally for these type of accounts.
These things extend past my personal financial future. There is also the issue of the ethics of how my money is being used. It is easy with everyday stuff. I noticed who the gas station owners were that gouged prices on September 12 for example, and no longer do business with them. However difficult such decisions might be with individual stocks, they seem near impossible with these managed funds. Anyone took this to the next step? I for one would like to at least do what I could to not make our problems worse, if not help fix some of them.
Matthew
Naw the 'dotter's with really big drives have more than a few with the last names of .vob, .vcd, .mpg, .avi, .rm and a few others as well.
Matthew
To the tune of "It's me again Margret" by Ray Stevens (sorry Ray :))
.... hello PC who is this? Linux? Linux who? huh?
Well there is a feller named Billy G Gates
And there is one thing thats he especially hates
That one of his customers might have a unlicensed cp
So each day he would spy on his customers over tcp/ip
It's me again PC, hello is this a Windoze PC, hehehehe
You don't know me PC, but I know you, hehehehe
Well this upset the customers, and it made them all blue
So they got together, hired a lawyer and asked what can we do
Well the lawyer setup logging warez on each and every PC
And the next few weeks ran trace routes right back to ole Billy G
It's me again PC, hello is this a Windoze PC, hehehehe
I know its you PC, hey do you still have your naked pic's that I can see, hehehehe
Mean while the lawyers caught ole Ma Bell up in the same type of jokes
Selling customers personal info to some nutty "government" folks
It was not much later that the government once again changed hands
And privacy laws started being applied again all across the customers lands
It's me again PC, hello is this a Windoze PC, hehehehe
I know its you PC, I bet you can't guess what I'm doin', hehehehe
Well the customers sued them and dragged their companies to court
And I still can't believe it but the customers won the cases in tort
The companies both issued the standard press statement's that read
The rotten ole employees that did this, to the sharks have been fed
It's me again PC, they got me PC, you ain't gonna miss me PC
I know that, but I'll miss you
Well when I get my people back in power I'm gonna come over there
With a wireless router, some more spyware, and some tacky new laws
We'll have a big ole tme PC, hehehe, whowhowhoooo
Matthew
There is an even more insidious problem with this picture. To quote Simon & Garfunkel in The Boxer "A man hears wants he wants to hear and disregards the rest". There is a tendency, especially among the hard right to watch, listen and read only what reinforces their already warped
views. What if the "pay per view" model was extended into news programming as well? How many FOX "News" fans would ever choose to pay for ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or MSNBC much less CSPAN, Link or PBS. Now I realize they don't watch much else anyway, it is pretty obvious. But this would pretty much lock that in by removing the rare opportunity for them to blunder on something besides the rancid propaganda Fox feeds them. Now on the other hand if I could remove my meager contribution to FOX "News" as a revenue stream for Rupert Murdoch by breaking it out of my DTV package, well I would be much happier. I do watch it every now and then when I think my blood pressure may be a bit low. Honestly, I try to get my information from a variety of truly "balanced" and even some disagreeable unbalanced sources, but explicitly paying for Fox "News" would be kinda of like paying for an Ann Coulter book, not likely to happen here.
Matthew
The problem is there are very few true Republican or Democratic state (at least in my state) or federal Executives, Senators and Representatives. I have become fond of saying that Washington and most state capitals have become infested with Republic-rats. This is not say they are moderates, instead they seem to have managed to devolve into a vile species of creature that has the attributes of the worst aspects of both parties.
There are way to many opportunist types calling themselves Republicans that who do not hold traditional Republican values like self responsibility, constitutional caution and thrift. Instead they seem hell bent on perverting private issues into divisive social confrontations all the while picking the pockets of the small business person and working people and creating a revolving door political-corporate oligarchical Neo-fascist big brother state.
It also seems to me that way to many so called Democrats have forgotten the honorable liberal principles of freedom of the individual to live as they please, innovation and courage in the face of change and the ethics of striving to progressively create a more equatable society. Instead they seem too often to be obsessed with creating an always politically correct socialist nanny state, are too greedy or cowardly to say no to way too many special interest agendas, and too self interested to stand up for core liberal values.
The sometimes conflicting agendas of true Republicans and Democrats work well to rein in the extremes of either. However the perversions of those values into what we see today may very well destroy this nation if not corrected in time. If this situation is not corrected soon our descendants may very well curse the selfishness, ignorance and cowardice of those that allowed the destruction of the greatest scientific, economic and culture power in history and allowed its children to be robbed of their hopes, dreams and liberty.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
When the people fear their Government, there is tyranny. When the Government fears it's people, there is liberty.." Thomas Paine