We can't fix any of this because of the entrenched two party system, and because the legislators themselves are corrupt (with the exception of one or two.)
I think I may have posted this idea once before, so apologies if its familiar, but what about a movement to un-elect the incumbents?
Next time you vote, vote against anyone currently holding office. Keep your party affiliations, if you must, just make sure the old blood is booted out the door. Make it widely known that your reasons for doing so are to refresh the state of the union.
Don't worry about the ones going home; they'll make more money as lobbyists.
I think the parent's point was that the term is tossed about by people who have no idea what it means, and automatically lump all "liberals" in the extreme left-wing camps. I'm sure there are plenty of conservatives that would take mighty offense at being labeled "gun-toting, tax-hating, Jesus freaks", but if you throw an insult in one direction, don't be surprised if there's a ricochet.
For a tort, you do have to prove financial harm. However, this case wasn't a tort, it was about violating the fourth amendment (and the first, but that was the weaker argument).
I know it goes against the current liberal anti-Bush Slashdot crowd - If you aren't doing illegal activities over the phone / airwaves / Internet then why worry ?
Because what it perfectly legal now, may not be so in the near future.
The only way to prove you were affected is to be affected. The fact you were affected you can't prove even when you are affected because the fact that you were is to remain a state secret.
And I suspect if the media contacts them, then it will be the classic "the intern did it" type response.... These guys make the russian mafia look good by comparison...
Then we adjust our tactics to match.
It's easier to break a poorly paid fall guy than an overly paid CEO. Have the intern charged, brought in for "extensive questioning", and punished severely. I don't imagine it'll take too long to get a whole pile of information out of him when he sees pictures of his former employer sunning on the beaches of Belize while he's sweating his life away in court/jail/other.
For those of you in the music department writing papers on modern artists, we kindly suggest that you rename your documents so that no reference to a band, album, or song title remains. Students in possession of file such as "Metallica's_Greatest_Hits.doc" "Que_Sera_Sera_.wpd" will most likely receive a settlement letter, as the RIAA lacks the intellect to distinguish the difference between such documents and actual downloaded music.
Additionally, it is not in your bets interest to bait the RIAA by placing hundreds of files with names similar to those above on your university file share. Trust us, they have bigger balls than you.
Try to remember that terrorism is not an import. Before 9/11 we had Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, Eric Rudolph, and host of serial killers and mass murderers that were entirely homegrown. Fingerprinting all civilians inserts the impression that all are suspect, and creates a strong resentment towards the people in power who appear to be immune from suspicion. Increased restrictions on freedom (yes, that's the same "freedom" our president claims to be protecting) only reinforces resentment, and this can lead to an overtly hostile populace. Stop to consider that this very same populace is fed a steady stream of stories about government corruption and you have a fine recipe for revolt.
This is not the idea that is "America", this is a perversion.
In the early days of OCR, one of our attorneys wanted to see if he could scan a ton of his old hard copy docs into the computer and said he'd heard how wonderful scanners were. In spite of my repeated explanations of how immature the tech was (think 1.0), he insisted, so I had him send down a couple of docs for a test.
Needless to say, the resulting OCR scan was a ridiculous mess. The "old fashioned" font used for "United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia" came out as:
____________________@____________________
But the funniest side effect was seeing "witness for the prosecution" converted to "witness to the prostitution".
Whereas we, on the other hand, are making some very important calls.
Seriously, the best way to avoid an accident is to pay attention to what you're doing, and realize that life itself does not revolve around your schedule. Courtesy makes the driving experience more enjoyable for everyone, but caution will keep you from getting squished.
When I was learning to drive, my Dad beat me over the head with detailed questions. What color is the car behind you? How close is it? If the woman in front of you, the one applying mascara and reading the latest Stephen King, were to drop the book, could you stop in time when she slams on the brakes? Are turn signals optional equipment? [usually accompanied by a smack to the head] He taught me to constantly scan the road and look at everything that was going on around me. The end result was I learned to be patient - not driving like there's a NASCAR ranking on the line - and cautious - better able to react to the selfish gits who could care less about the safety of their fellow man.
Thank you for that clarification. I feel so much better now knowing that the department in charge of protecting the U.S. from terrorists has no technical skills.
This looks generally good, except for this one part:
and have personal information policies that are clear, understandable and readily available.
I would like to this amended to say: "have fixed personal information policies".
Lots of web sites have pretty good privacy policies, but they generally contain a line the the effect of "we reserve the right to update this policy...please check this page for the latest version". What's to stop a site from updating it's policy to say "We pwn j00r data, and now we're gonna sell it!", do just that, then change it back? It only takes a minute to dump a DB to an "affiliate".
In the early days, Yahoo! used to reset their privacy options fairly often, and while they did at least let the users know of the change, the users had to re-set their opt-out preferences every time. God only knows what was done with customer data in the meantime.
I have no problem with companies changing the policy, just let me know beforehand. And, don't require me to monitor your site's (and every other site I do business with) policy 24-7 for fear of an ambush change.
Any time the police start talking about their estimated value of items seized I'm reminded of a scene from the movie Tequila Sunrise. I can't remember the dollar amounts used anymore, but you should get the drift:
TV: Deputies seized over... kilos of cocaine... a street value of $X million.
Carlos (Raul Julia): Street value $X million?!? What street is that?
Dale (Mel Gibson): You show me how to get there just once.
It's a viral marketing site for the film - entering "takara83" at the password prompt is supposed to get you in. Some discussion can be found at this site.
In case you missed it, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' aide, Monica Gooding, instituted a screening policy where only ideologically compatible people were hired at the Dept. of Justice. According to DOJ hiring rules, this is a violation of their rules. Other Gonzales aides also fingered and fired those of whom were ideologically independent (i.e. not loyal Bushies). With that in mind, there really is no one left at the DOJ to ensure the current administration abides by the letter and spirit of the law.
Looks like you left off the bit about "PROFIT!!!" . . .
Some historians point to a declining birthrate as the cause of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Decadence and homosexuality (which avoided children) caused massive drops in birth rates, and eventually Rome collapsed.
Personally, I think Rome's collapse had a lot more to do with its rulers being batshit crazy, but, that's just my opinion.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Who would've thought Best Buy wanted to enter into the porn distribution market?
I think I may have posted this idea once before, so apologies if its familiar, but what about a movement to un-elect the incumbents?
Next time you vote, vote against anyone currently holding office. Keep your party affiliations, if you must, just make sure the old blood is booted out the door. Make it widely known that your reasons for doing so are to refresh the state of the union.
Don't worry about the ones going home; they'll make more money as lobbyists.
A little bit of both, actually. ;)
Depends on who gets to do the defining, I guess.
I think the parent's point was that the term is tossed about by people who have no idea what it means, and automatically lump all "liberals" in the extreme left-wing camps. I'm sure there are plenty of conservatives that would take mighty offense at being labeled "gun-toting, tax-hating, Jesus freaks", but if you throw an insult in one direction, don't be surprised if there's a ricochet.
It's sad, really.
For a tort, you do have to prove financial harm. However, this case wasn't a tort, it was about violating the fourth amendment (and the first, but that was the weaker argument).
Because what it perfectly legal now, may not be so in the near future.
Ok . . my head just exploded.
Then we adjust our tactics to match.
It's easier to break a poorly paid fall guy than an overly paid CEO. Have the intern charged, brought in for "extensive questioning", and punished severely. I don't imagine it'll take too long to get a whole pile of information out of him when he sees pictures of his former employer sunning on the beaches of Belize while he's sweating his life away in court/jail/other.
When I first read this, Slashdot's quote at the bottom of the page said:
I don't think the Rove/Gonzales appointees count.
For those of you in the music department writing papers on modern artists, we kindly suggest that you rename your documents so that no reference to a band, album, or song title remains. Students in possession of file such as "Metallica's_Greatest_Hits.doc" "Que_Sera_Sera_.wpd" will most likely receive a settlement letter, as the RIAA lacks the intellect to distinguish the difference between such documents and actual downloaded music.
Additionally, it is not in your bets interest to bait the RIAA by placing hundreds of files with names similar to those above on your university file share. Trust us, they have bigger balls than you.
Because it won't defeat terrorism.
Try to remember that terrorism is not an import. Before 9/11 we had Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, Eric Rudolph, and host of serial killers and mass murderers that were entirely homegrown. Fingerprinting all civilians inserts the impression that all are suspect, and creates a strong resentment towards the people in power who appear to be immune from suspicion. Increased restrictions on freedom (yes, that's the same "freedom" our president claims to be protecting) only reinforces resentment, and this can lead to an overtly hostile populace. Stop to consider that this very same populace is fed a steady stream of stories about government corruption and you have a fine recipe for revolt.
This is not the idea that is "America", this is a perversion.
Literary tea-bagging. Who'da thunk?
True story:
In the early days of OCR, one of our attorneys wanted to see if he could scan a ton of his old hard copy docs into the computer and said he'd heard how wonderful scanners were. In spite of my repeated explanations of how immature the tech was (think 1.0), he insisted, so I had him send down a couple of docs for a test.
Needless to say, the resulting OCR scan was a ridiculous mess. The "old fashioned" font used for "United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia" came out as:
But the funniest side effect was seeing "witness for the prosecution" converted to "witness to the prostitution".
Whereas we, on the other hand, are making some very important calls.
Seriously, the best way to avoid an accident is to pay attention to what you're doing, and realize that life itself does not revolve around your schedule. Courtesy makes the driving experience more enjoyable for everyone, but caution will keep you from getting squished.
When I was learning to drive, my Dad beat me over the head with detailed questions. What color is the car behind you? How close is it? If the woman in front of you, the one applying mascara and reading the latest Stephen King, were to drop the book, could you stop in time when she slams on the brakes? Are turn signals optional equipment? [usually accompanied by a smack to the head] He taught me to constantly scan the road and look at everything that was going on around me. The end result was I learned to be patient - not driving like there's a NASCAR ranking on the line - and cautious - better able to react to the selfish gits who could care less about the safety of their fellow man.
Thank you for that clarification. I feel so much better now knowing that the department in charge of protecting the U.S. from terrorists has no technical skills.
This looks generally good, except for this one part:
I would like to this amended to say: "have fixed personal information policies".
Lots of web sites have pretty good privacy policies, but they generally contain a line the the effect of "we reserve the right to update this policy...please check this page for the latest version". What's to stop a site from updating it's policy to say "We pwn j00r data, and now we're gonna sell it!", do just that, then change it back? It only takes a minute to dump a DB to an "affiliate".
In the early days, Yahoo! used to reset their privacy options fairly often, and while they did at least let the users know of the change, the users had to re-set their opt-out preferences every time. God only knows what was done with customer data in the meantime.
I have no problem with companies changing the policy, just let me know beforehand. And, don't require me to monitor your site's (and every other site I do business with) policy 24-7 for fear of an ambush change.
Same with politics . . .
That was my thought, as well.
Any time the police start talking about their estimated value of items seized I'm reminded of a scene from the movie Tequila Sunrise. I can't remember the dollar amounts used anymore, but you should get the drift:
TV: Deputies seized overCarlos (Raul Julia): Street value $X million?!? What street is that?
Dale (Mel Gibson): You show me how to get there just once.
Funny, I was thinking about a different politician; one with proven record of shooting people in the head. ;-)
It's a viral marketing site for the film - entering "takara83" at the password prompt is supposed to get you in. Some discussion can be found at this site.
Looks like you left off the bit about "PROFIT!!!" . . .
Personally, I think Rome's collapse had a lot more to do with its rulers being batshit crazy, but, that's just my opinion. ;-)
Big deal. Five minutes of C-SPAN will show you the same thing . . .
Defendant, goes home, gets a job and returns to a steady bill payer's lifestyle.
The RIAA . . . well . . .
Nevermind. I really don't care what happens to them.