You play the Lotto for investment purposes too? In REALITY we have two candidates who can win the election. And for all intents and purposes, they are running a statistical dead heat. Therefore - each candidate needs as many votes as they can get, and any vote not given to one is effectively a vote for the other.
Is this a good or desireable situation? Unless you are one of the two candidates, it is not...
But it's what we have to work with.
When a vote can impact someone's life greatly, as it can in this election, it is selfish to to be so idealistic. I have family members who can end up dying in Iraq. They would appreciate people understanding that.
And just because you think both Kerry and Bush would make lousy presidents - doesn't mean one of them wont be. Make no mistake, one of them WILL be president - no matter if you vote for Mickey Mouse or Jack Kavorkian. So the REALISTIC thing to do would be to pick the cantidate that BEST MATCHES the idealology you hold, and vote there. Because on a NATIONAL election, voting for a third party candidate is a wasted vote.
Now Locally - the third party candidates CAN and WILL get elected.
Sadly, we have only Bush or Kerry to look forward to as president. And Bush is not an option for me.
You can't win a war on terror. It's like winning a war on jealousy...
-David Cross
Re:Why so many Libetarians voting for Kerry?
on
Pre-Election Discussion
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
A vote for anyone else than Kerry is a vote for Bush. And i can't vote for Bush.
The best thing you (we) could do is find someone who is in your same district/precinct/state/whatever who is going to vote Bush. Thus your Kerry vote and their Bush vote would be a wash. Instead, you each vote for a third party candidate that you would *really* like to win.
That way - you don't impact the election, but you send a message with your votes....
Just goes to show how people see different things different ways. I saw it and immediately thought it was making fun of Bush, and Bush followers...
And for those who think Libertarians are right (idealogically right) - not entirely true. Libertarians are all over the map idealogically. Libertiarians believe that the GOVERNMENT should not LEGISLATE idealogy. Libertarians tend to seem to be right-focused because many Republicans USED to believe in smaller government. That has largely changed, but the stereotype remains.
But the basic point is there is not one size fits all. People can support a "party" even when they disagree with some or many of their platform standings. Sometimes, people even (gasp!) disagree with candidates they vote for or parties they support!
I have been very involved in the process. Hillsboro, OR.
I don't understand how people like you can be anti-corporate when it comes to Walmart, but not see the evil in unions.
Where did I say I was pro-union? I simply pointed out that WAL-MART resists unionization because it would require them to pay better and provide benefits and minimum numbers of hours. Unions are paid for by the employee - so the only reason an employer would want to fight them is they don't want to meet reasonable employment standards. Personally, I dislike unions. My opinion is that *if* you require everyone to have the right *to* join a union, they should have the right to *not* join a union as well. But in most states, if the position is unionized you have to pay union dues no matter what. I disagree with that. But WAl-MART simply is a bad place to work, they know this, so they fight unionization.
I'd like to point out that there are plenty of distributors who have dropped Walmart as a customers.
So point them out. Which ones? And was it they who dropped WAL-MART or WAL-MART who dropped them?
What do you think a loss leader is?
I was not talking about loss-leaders. Loss-leaders are a few highly sought-after items to get people in the door hoping they will buy other stuff while they are there. It is why Grocery stores put Milk and Bread in the back of the store - hoping as you walk through you will buy something else. It is why casinos put the restaurants and stores in the back, so you have to walk all the way through the casino to get there, and hopefully stop and drop a few bucks in the process. Loss-Leaders are a few items at a time. I was talking about MASS markdowns, of the majority of the stock. Just below competitor prices. Probably more like "dumping" than "loss leader". And I do know how to run a business. WAL-MART runs their business very good, and I applaud them. But i believe there is more to a business than bottom line profits. Because I live in my community, and I see the impact decisions have on the community. I would prefer WAL-MART make a little less, and we keep our freedom of choice. We keep our high labor standards and healthy workforce with good medical care and all of that jazz. I would prefer we not spend millions of dollars cleaning up rivers and streams because of the runoff pollution from small nation sized parking lots. I would prefer that we not have massive one story buildings and parking lots that are only used part of the day or for only one use. I would prefer a world where people considered ALL the impacts of their decisions. Where they have the freedom to make them, but they still understand their implications and consequences. (Will driving a vehicle that gets 10 miles per gallon cause more of the kids in my neighborhood to get killed in a foreign war for oil? Will saving $3 on a DVD player cost people in California good paying jobs? Will buying a coat made in my home state actually help decrease the tax burden on the poor? Will chosing to eat at a locally owned and operated restaurant instead of a chain give more money to schools for supplies?)
Walmart is the only economic engine in many small rural areas,a nd that has always been their niche
Then let them stay there. What did we do before WAL-MART existed?
Big is not bad. But with "Big" comes responsibility to the community. Some companies are better at that than others. Look at Kroger. They are huge, but still do not damage local economies like WAL-MART.
Who says I am leftist? You have no idea where I lie on the broader spectrum of things. I simply am pointing out that ONE COMPANY is bad for our society. Do we HAVE to agree with and LIKE a company just because they have billions of dollars? Why can't *some* companies be bad? Is it anti-capitalist to believe that companies should
It's called "lobbying", and its perfectly legal and a right enjoyed by every American. Or perhaps you think government should be rigid and inflexible in the face of the needs of its community?
Who said anything about lobbying? I said "manipulating". Have you ever sat on a community board where WAL-MART is trying to come in? They first make under-the-table offers. If those don't work, they make threats. When those don't work, they try to buy community member off. Often these tactics earn them not only permits, but excessive tax breaks. Usually permits and tax breaks that other businesses do not recieve.
WalMart has one of the most generous pay and benefits packages of any retail chain. In a small town like where I live, WalMart stores are typically the number one employer, with queues months long of people trying to a position.
Another poster showed you WAL-MART does not pay well. Unions have been fighting WAL_MART all over the place. WAL-MART actually resists hiring people full time so they don't have to provide benefits. They pay the bare minimum they can get away with legally, and then advertise how good the jobs they provide are.
nobody is forcing distributors to sell to WalMart
You don't understand supply chains I guess. WAL-MART forces suppliers to sell to them at WAL-MARTs prices. Whether the supplier or distributer wants to or not. WAL-MART requires suppliers to sell at a certain price or not at all. There is no supply/demand forces at work, only WAL-MART. Suppliers are forced - if they want to sell any product at all - to sell to WAL-MART below what they need to be profitable. So that forces a couple things to happen. The first is they will try and cut costs. This means cutting labor costs. Second, the suppliers will raise their prices to other retailers to make up the difference. Other retailers then can't compete with WAL-MART, and eventually close down. WAL-MART then gains more of the market, and has more influence on suppliers.
The very nature of competition is that whoever has the lowest price wins the market.
The problem with WAL-MART is that they are so big, they can price things however they want. If they lose money in one store for a year - it is a drop in the bucket. When they move into an area, they price their products just below what they are at the other stores - often selling at large losses. They keep their prices lower than all of the retailers in the area, until the retailers are forced to close down. Then WAL-MART raises their prices above where they were to start, an no one knows because they only have WAL-MART left.
I don't claim all the other chains to be perfect either. But none are as heinous as WAL-MART.
One day YOU will FEEL reality, and you will be broken.
You see, this is the WAL-MARTification of America. WAL-MART drives down prices getting people all excited. But suppliers can't provide products at WAL-MART prices without outsourcing jobs or outright buying from cheaper nations. This shrinks the job market and lowers salaries here in the USA. Because people have fewer jobs, and lower salaries - they are forced to shop at WAL-MART to save money. This drives local chains and competitors out of business, further reducing the job pool while increasing WAL-MART's market strength. It is a never ending cycle.
At some point in time we pay the cost. Sure, toilet paper and laundry detergent might be cheaper. But unemployment burdens go up. Medical coverages go up. Tax rates increase to cover them. We always pay. Some people need to just realize that perhaps paying $1 more for a product at a local business saves them money in the long run. Small local business keep a higher percentage of each $ in the local community. That has a direct local impact. WAL-MART has been eroding this for years.
But if WAL-MART is so great, why are so many communities fighting to keep WAL-MART out? People are learning.
Big Block retail in general is bad for local communities, but WAL-MART is the worst.
Hydro power is cleaner, but at the expense of wildlife, and at the cost of destroying natural flood patterns and waterside ecosystems.
Everything has an impact. Some impacts are lesser, or more tolerable than others. But it is hard to explain to the Salmon why they are getting turned into paste by turbines because California needs more air conditioning.
The problem is not that they are successfull. The problem is that they are successful by manipulating local governments, keeping employees pay and benefits low, forcing their hand against their suppliers, and using unethical pricing standards to force local competitors out of business.
There has been enough written on this, and local governments are starting to see the "light" on the matter. I don't need to elaborate.
But that is why. I have no problem with K-Mart, Target, or Costco (aside from their using 3 pounds of plastic to package a phone card). They operate business ethically for the most part... Wal-Mart does not.
Awesome!. As a former Military and Local Government employee - I know all about it.
Thanks for your hard work. I mean that honestly.
How can we donate equipment, money, and software, or time to the VolcanoCam efforts?
As a Portland, OR resident, I am quite interested. I am sure others would be as well. I have given money to the observatories and visitor centers (in addition to the entrance fees) every time I have visited. But it would be nice for myself and all of the other slashdotters to be able to give directly to you and your VolcanoCam effort...
Yeah, like I said. Route66 is not that great. DeLorme Street Atlas on the PC was 1000 times better.
You should give MacGPSPro a shot, as it has a lot of GPS functionality and will just about work with ANY map. They only thing it doesn't do is the "locations" database, like the StreetAtlas and Route66 products do... Oh, and of course you are correct, Garmin only supports Windows for "MapSource" maps... We should suggestion bomb them...;)
I am just curios. What is your "huge disadvantage in software"? Because I am a switcher, and so far I have found 2 things that OSX is lacking in, and only 2.
1. Children's games. We all know that OSX has fewer games than Windows, but Childrens games are much fewer - and most of them that are out barely work at all.
GPS and Mapping. OSX only really has one street mapping software - Route66. Which is merely OK. It is not the most stable, and it doesn't do a whole lot. It won't track GPS histories and such.... There is MacGPSPro, which works good. I have used it for Marine charts, I have yet to import regular maps in, but you can... And there are a few others now as well, and I think Topo! is now out... But Definately OSX, even though it might have GPS/Mapping software - they are less mature than Windows counterparts.
Now having said that, the article missed a couple. Fire is a great IM client, I like it better than Adium. And OSX has CuteFTP and Adobe Acrobat as well...
I have been working full time in OSX for about 2 months now, on a PowerBook 15.GhzG4 with 1GB memory. I am a Java developer, and I use eclipse and other tools. So far I am much happier working in OSX than in Windows. I have been using OSX at home since OSX 10.0.4, and I like it much more than Windows....
Hmm. So something you saw, but can't provide any information about. Lets stop the world.
While at the same time, Myself and many people are actually USING Biodiesel, and I can show you my emissions test results.... I could probably record you video of my car's tailpipe with Dino compared to Bio. But why bother?
Do you work for Exxon or something?
Here is a summary of a study(pdf)(google html) that the EPA did, which shows that Bio does in fact produce less emissions that regular diesel. Here is another summary of the study.
Slashdot Mirror
Go to Micheal Moore .com and see why people who can read and write don't think Bush is qualified to lead a dog on a leash.
Come on people. Both sides have propaganda - we all know the "swift boats" crap is as one sided as "F9/11".
And what, exactly, made Jimmy Carter such a terrible president?
You play the Lotto for investment purposes too? In REALITY we have two candidates who can win the election. And for all intents and purposes, they are running a statistical dead heat. Therefore - each candidate needs as many votes as they can get, and any vote not given to one is effectively a vote for the other.
Is this a good or desireable situation? Unless you are one of the two candidates, it is not...
But it's what we have to work with.
When a vote can impact someone's life greatly, as it can in this election, it is selfish to to be so idealistic. I have family members who can end up dying in Iraq. They would appreciate people understanding that.
And just because you think both Kerry and Bush would make lousy presidents - doesn't mean one of them wont be. Make no mistake, one of them WILL be president - no matter if you vote for Mickey Mouse or Jack Kavorkian. So the REALISTIC thing to do would be to pick the cantidate that BEST MATCHES the idealology you hold, and vote there. Because on a NATIONAL election, voting for a third party candidate is a wasted vote.
Now Locally - the third party candidates CAN and WILL get elected.
Sadly, we have only Bush or Kerry to look forward to as president. And Bush is not an option for me.
You can't win a war on terror. It's like winning a war on jealousy...
-David Cross
A vote for anyone else than Kerry is a vote for Bush. And i can't vote for Bush.
The best thing you (we) could do is find someone who is in your same district/precinct/state/whatever who is going to vote Bush. Thus your Kerry vote and their Bush vote would be a wash. Instead, you each vote for a third party candidate that you would *really* like to win.
That way - you don't impact the election, but you send a message with your votes....
According to Netcraft
Tony Soprano did this to Carmela.
Just goes to show how people see different things different ways. I saw it and immediately thought it was making fun of Bush, and Bush followers...
;)
And for those who think Libertarians are right (idealogically right) - not entirely true. Libertarians are all over the map idealogically. Libertiarians believe that the GOVERNMENT should not LEGISLATE idealogy. Libertarians tend to seem to be right-focused because many Republicans USED to believe in smaller government. That has largely changed, but the stereotype remains.
But the basic point is there is not one size fits all. People can support a "party" even when they disagree with some or many of their platform standings. Sometimes, people even (gasp!) disagree with candidates they vote for or parties they support!
No room for thinking in politics I guess....
Those are the same people who don't pull over for emergency vehicles on the highway.
Everyone complains, until they are on a stretcher in the ambulance...
No. Apparently neither have you
I have been very involved in the process. Hillsboro, OR.
I don't understand how people like you can be anti-corporate when it comes to Walmart, but not see the evil in unions.
Where did I say I was pro-union? I simply pointed out that WAL-MART resists unionization because it would require them to pay better and provide benefits and minimum numbers of hours. Unions are paid for by the employee - so the only reason an employer would want to fight them is they don't want to meet reasonable employment standards. Personally, I dislike unions. My opinion is that *if* you require everyone to have the right *to* join a union, they should have the right to *not* join a union as well. But in most states, if the position is unionized you have to pay union dues no matter what. I disagree with that. But WAl-MART simply is a bad place to work, they know this, so they fight unionization.
I'd like to point out that there are plenty of distributors who have dropped Walmart as a customers.
So point them out. Which ones? And was it they who dropped WAL-MART or WAL-MART who dropped them?
What do you think a loss leader is?
I was not talking about loss-leaders. Loss-leaders are a few highly sought-after items to get people in the door hoping they will buy other stuff while they are there. It is why Grocery stores put Milk and Bread in the back of the store - hoping as you walk through you will buy something else. It is why casinos put the restaurants and stores in the back, so you have to walk all the way through the casino to get there, and hopefully stop and drop a few bucks in the process. Loss-Leaders are a few items at a time. I was talking about MASS markdowns, of the majority of the stock. Just below competitor prices. Probably more like "dumping" than "loss leader". And I do know how to run a business. WAL-MART runs their business very good, and I applaud them. But i believe there is more to a business than bottom line profits. Because I live in my community, and I see the impact decisions have on the community. I would prefer WAL-MART make a little less, and we keep our freedom of choice. We keep our high labor standards and healthy workforce with good medical care and all of that jazz. I would prefer we not spend millions of dollars cleaning up rivers and streams because of the runoff pollution from small nation sized parking lots. I would prefer that we not have massive one story buildings and parking lots that are only used part of the day or for only one use. I would prefer a world where people considered ALL the impacts of their decisions. Where they have the freedom to make them, but they still understand their implications and consequences. (Will driving a vehicle that gets 10 miles per gallon cause more of the kids in my neighborhood to get killed in a foreign war for oil? Will saving $3 on a DVD player cost people in California good paying jobs? Will buying a coat made in my home state actually help decrease the tax burden on the poor? Will chosing to eat at a locally owned and operated restaurant instead of a chain give more money to schools for supplies?)
Walmart is the only economic engine in many small rural areas,a nd that has always been their niche
Then let them stay there. What did we do before WAL-MART existed?
Big is not bad. But with "Big" comes responsibility to the community. Some companies are better at that than others. Look at Kroger. They are huge, but still do not damage local economies like WAL-MART.
Who says I am leftist? You have no idea where I lie on the broader spectrum of things. I simply am pointing out that ONE COMPANY is bad for our society. Do we HAVE to agree with and LIKE a company just because they have billions of dollars? Why can't *some* companies be bad? Is it anti-capitalist to believe that companies should
It's called "lobbying", and its perfectly legal and a right enjoyed by every American. Or perhaps you think government should be rigid and inflexible in the face of the needs of its community?
Who said anything about lobbying? I said "manipulating". Have you ever sat on a community board where WAL-MART is trying to come in? They first make under-the-table offers. If those don't work, they make threats. When those don't work, they try to buy community member off. Often these tactics earn them not only permits, but excessive tax breaks. Usually permits and tax breaks that other businesses do not recieve.
WalMart has one of the most generous pay and benefits packages of any retail chain. In a small town like where I live, WalMart stores are typically the number one employer, with queues months long of people trying to a position.
Another poster showed you WAL-MART does not pay well. Unions have been fighting WAL_MART all over the place. WAL-MART actually resists hiring people full time so they don't have to provide benefits. They pay the bare minimum they can get away with legally, and then advertise how good the jobs they provide are.
nobody is forcing distributors to sell to WalMart
You don't understand supply chains I guess. WAL-MART forces suppliers to sell to them at WAL-MARTs prices. Whether the supplier or distributer wants to or not. WAL-MART requires suppliers to sell at a certain price or not at all. There is no supply/demand forces at work, only WAL-MART. Suppliers are forced - if they want to sell any product at all - to sell to WAL-MART below what they need to be profitable. So that forces a couple things to happen. The first is they will try and cut costs. This means cutting labor costs. Second, the suppliers will raise their prices to other retailers to make up the difference. Other retailers then can't compete with WAL-MART, and eventually close down. WAL-MART then gains more of the market, and has more influence on suppliers.
The very nature of competition is that whoever has the lowest price wins the market.
The problem with WAL-MART is that they are so big, they can price things however they want. If they lose money in one store for a year - it is a drop in the bucket. When they move into an area, they price their products just below what they are at the other stores - often selling at large losses. They keep their prices lower than all of the retailers in the area, until the retailers are forced to close down. Then WAL-MART raises their prices above where they were to start, an no one knows because they only have WAL-MART left.
I don't claim all the other chains to be perfect either. But none are as heinous as WAL-MART.
One day YOU will FEEL reality, and you will be broken.
You see, this is the WAL-MARTification of America. WAL-MART drives down prices getting people all excited. But suppliers can't provide products at WAL-MART prices without outsourcing jobs or outright buying from cheaper nations. This shrinks the job market and lowers salaries here in the USA. Because people have fewer jobs, and lower salaries - they are forced to shop at WAL-MART to save money. This drives local chains and competitors out of business, further reducing the job pool while increasing WAL-MART's market strength. It is a never ending cycle.
At some point in time we pay the cost. Sure, toilet paper and laundry detergent might be cheaper. But unemployment burdens go up. Medical coverages go up. Tax rates increase to cover them. We always pay. Some people need to just realize that perhaps paying $1 more for a product at a local business saves them money in the long run. Small local business keep a higher percentage of each $ in the local community. That has a direct local impact. WAL-MART has been eroding this for years.
But if WAL-MART is so great, why are so many communities fighting to keep WAL-MART out? People are learning.
Big Block retail in general is bad for local communities, but WAL-MART is the worst.
Everybody but you and me. And a few select people of my chosing. ;)
People who are concerned about nuclear waste should keep away from table salt and smoke detectors....
Won't the plants get in the way of our strip malls and big block retail development?
:)
Hydro power is cleaner, but at the expense of wildlife, and at the cost of destroying natural flood patterns and waterside ecosystems.
Everything has an impact. Some impacts are lesser, or more tolerable than others. But it is hard to explain to the Salmon why they are getting turned into paste by turbines because California needs more air conditioning.
We need more projects like CAESAR and Integral Fast Reactors to solve our energy problems...
The problem is not that they are successfull. The problem is that they are successful by manipulating local governments, keeping employees pay and benefits low, forcing their hand against their suppliers, and using unethical pricing standards to force local competitors out of business.
There has been enough written on this, and local governments are starting to see the "light" on the matter. I don't need to elaborate.
But that is why. I have no problem with K-Mart, Target, or Costco (aside from their using 3 pounds of plastic to package a phone card). They operate business ethically for the most part... Wal-Mart does not.
Awesome!. As a former Military and Local Government employee - I know all about it.
Thanks for your hard work. I mean that honestly.
How can we donate equipment, money, and software, or time to the VolcanoCam efforts?
As a Portland, OR resident, I am quite interested. I am sure others would be as well. I have given money to the observatories and visitor centers (in addition to the entrance fees) every time I have visited. But it would be nice for myself and all of the other slashdotters to be able to give directly to you and your VolcanoCam effort...
Thanks again!
Anyone with Kids? Anyone who was a Kid when they came out? Anyone who has been to Dinsey[land][world] with Kids and had to ride the Pooh ride?
Note to Moderators: SOMETHING CAN'T BE REDUNDANT IF IT WAS THE FIRST ONE.
and that it will give high priority tasks all the time they need.
DOS did this back in the 80's....
Heffalumps and Woozles. Heffalumps and Woozles!
Sex for Dummies
and a few more.
The main difference is that these books come with stain resistant pages...
All that for only $10 a person.
Yeah, like I said. Route66 is not that great. DeLorme Street Atlas on the PC was 1000 times better.
;)
You should give MacGPSPro a shot, as it has a lot of GPS functionality and will just about work with ANY map. They only thing it doesn't do is the "locations" database, like the StreetAtlas and Route66 products do... Oh, and of course you are correct, Garmin only supports Windows for "MapSource" maps... We should suggestion bomb them...
I am just curios. What is your "huge disadvantage in software"? Because I am a switcher, and so far I have found 2 things that OSX is lacking in, and only 2.
1. Children's games. We all know that OSX has fewer games than Windows, but Childrens games are much fewer - and most of them that are out barely work at all.
GPS and Mapping. OSX only really has one street mapping software - Route66. Which is merely OK. It is not the most stable, and it doesn't do a whole lot. It won't track GPS histories and such.... There is MacGPSPro, which works good. I have used it for Marine charts, I have yet to import regular maps in, but you can... And there are a few others now as well, and I think Topo! is now out... But Definately OSX, even though it might have GPS/Mapping software - they are less mature than Windows counterparts.
Now having said that, the article missed a couple. Fire is a great IM client, I like it better than Adium. And OSX has CuteFTP and Adobe Acrobat as well...
I have been working full time in OSX for about 2 months now, on a PowerBook 15.GhzG4 with 1GB memory. I am a Java developer, and I use eclipse and other tools. So far I am much happier working in OSX than in Windows. I have been using OSX at home since OSX 10.0.4, and I like it much more than Windows....
If this were Apple, people would threaten and sue, people would scream and cry, people would talk about how shoddy Apple stuff is.
Gotta love Slashdot.
I guess *anyone* who makes things or sells things can have a few bad lots come through the pipeline. Even flu shot manufacturers....
As a side note, this affects 9 out of 10 of the power bricks in our company... Pretty big deal...
Hmm. So something you saw, but can't provide any information about. Lets stop the world.
While at the same time, Myself and many people are actually USING Biodiesel, and I can show you my emissions test results.... I could probably record you video of my car's tailpipe with Dino compared to Bio. But why bother?
Do you work for Exxon or something?
Here is a summary of a study(pdf) (google html) that the EPA did, which shows that Bio does in fact produce less emissions that regular diesel. Here is another summary of the study.