Did you actually read the whole Hardylaw site? When a film wins awards for Best Documentary, it should contain 100% truth, 0% lies.
That is the fault of the Academy for choosing to nominate and award him.
20/20, Dateline, 60 Minutes, etc., all cut things out of interviews and speeches because of time limitations.
I hope you don't actually believe that. Sure, I know sometimes they do cut things out because of time, but they have been proven guilty time and again cutting a single sentence completely out of context for a sound bite. A concert promoter in my area was intervened by Dateline about the rise of non-commercial music. They spent almost 2 hours interviewing him. He was asked if he knew of any drugs present. He replied "Yea, there are drugs here. If I had to guess, I'd say just as much as any run of the mill rock concert. I'm confident in the abilities of our security which also happens to be mostly off duty cops." 10 seconds of it got aired. Guess which part got aired? "Yea, there are drugs here."
Michael Moore did it to change the nature, content, and appearance of Charlton Hesston's speeches.
Just like the popular media. The splitting Moore did wasn't nearly as ruthless as the Medias common tricks, though. Besides, we all know the nature of his speeches; you don't need any cutwork for that. We all know the content of the speeches; it's the same stuff he's been spouting for decades. And why does the appearance matter? This isn't a presidential debate between Kennedy and a flu-ridden Nixon. Hesston needs little help to be seen as the nut he is. He isn't a smart or wise man, he's an actor. That is actors get elected to head positions, because they are charismatic and know how to manipulate people.
Hell, he combined two separate speeches so that they appear to be the same speech.
If I remember right, he cut from an on stage sermon to a back stage Q&A with Hesston about how the NRA tries to help kids. Who cares if one took place in Colorado and the other outside a McDonalds or something? Does he need a specific time or place to lie or tell the truth? He said it, plain and simple. Location matters not.
... he would have presented both sides of the issue with no distortion, left it at that, and let people decide for themselves. Instead, he leads the viewer along, using trickery to try and have viewers come to the conclusions Mr. Moore wants them to reach.
If that even had a shot of working you would see the 6PM news doing it too. The one thing that motivates people the best is shock value. Never once did he say that what he was showing was the pure truth. Anyone who considers one source credible enough is a fool. Only an idiot would trust something they've seen or heard in one place. I've done a bit or research myself and found that his part about the welfare to work program is right on the money. Unfortunately, you probably think he's lying again since Hardylaw says so. That site is written by gun nuts and Hesston lovers who would discredit the entire films underlying message because he made them look like slack jawed troglodytes. What about Nichols interview? Any opinions on him? What about when he said he got caught with a lot of fertilizer and he said it was for his farm, shortly after he says he grows organic soy. For those who don't know organic means no pesticides, herbicides, or inorganic fertilizer. How about the militia interview or the Kmart interview? Sometimes people just need a swift kick in their preconceived notions in order to think. Anyone who believes the whole story is foolish, just like people who dismiss all of it because they can't find a deeper message.
And your Hardylaw site isn't biased? Ever consider his movie wasn't supposed to be a 100% pure, unbiased documentary? If I recall an over hyped movie named Blair witch was shot in a documentary style; are we to believe it was a true story because of the cinematography? Maybe it was supposed to stir political debate. What was the last movie you saw that had you contemplating pressing social issues without using popular rhetoric or cliché? Maybe he wanted some people to form their own opinions instead of thinking along party lines. If there is one thing his production should have showed you is that you shouldn't trust information form one source. Maybe he felt like embellishing some half truths was acceptable in order to get people to notice things, and educate themselves on the subject, instead of going about business as usual.
As far as the Heston interview is concerned: I did not see or hear any cutwork putting together words or sentences. Maybe a half hour did go by, and only a few minutes were showed. Do you think that when the news airs a 24 minute interview that they sat there for exactly 24 minutes and ran straight through? Moore is no more guilty than 20/20, Dateline, and 60 Minutes. The NRA is still the master manipulator. Remember when they funded a republican congress into office after the Brady Bill fiasco, just to make life hard on the president. Or do you remember when they ran a staged picture of fully armed federal agents as a full page anti-government ad in newspapers and magazines? If I recall, that convinced the first Bush to withdraw his lifetime membership in the NRA.
Common reasoning but, have you had much first hand experience as a disadvantaged, inner-city youth? There is something much worse that affects many kids no matter how many parents they have. Broken homes and weak parental figures are just contemporary rhetoric that are contributing factors at best. Simply put, we are dealing with the end of the classic American dream. Having no hope at a better life than your parents, or friends did, tears some people up emotionally. You are forced to go to a school where they teach you about how your government, your society, is supposed to behave according to centuries old principals. Then you leave the building only to realize that the reality of the world can make you think that everything they teach is some utopian fantasy. Every day you see a country that kills people in order to prevent death, a biased justice system with the odds against you, and corporations spending billions trying to separate you from what money you have. You know there are people who you will never meet, who will never know you beyond a statistic, deciding your fate based on what the media can exploit for profit. You try to escape a system that you know will consume you one way or another, but become branded a trouble maker.
In order to escape you need money. To get money you have to feed the machine you are running from. Any way of making money without feeding said machine is illegal by criminal or tax laws.
Our generation doesn't have our own great communist enemy to unify against. We see that we only won the cold war because the soviets went bankrupt before we did. We are supposed to buy into systems, like social security, that we know probably won't be there to help us when we need it. We are playing a fixed game, and our failures are being used as evidence against us. What's the most common question asked by people who quit, or want to quit school? "What's the point?" The question isn't "Why have they failed", it is "Why have we continued to fail so much of our future?" Someday when the boomers are all retired, they are going to depend on us. How is the government going to help support the elderly while it also supports what could have been such a large, productive portion of society? One third of us cannot support the other two thirds.
I forgot one thing. Please don't complain about your property taxes if you are so worried about public education. Next time you see a teacher, no matter who it is, thank them for devoting their life to a meager income and bureaucratic system in order to educate your child on how to further reduce their pay and insult them when they can't do more with less, when they grow up. I find it odd that the people educating our children are also among the lowest paid people in the public sector.
My old roommate from college knew math like he knew English. He could have very well have been a Nobel laurite one day because of his amazing ability to hear or see it once, and remember it forever; not to mention he also knew exactly how to apply that knowledge. Instead, he has chosen to live below the poverty line in order to teach some inner-city high school kids algebra and geometry. He could have been teaching graduate physics students if that were his choice, but he feels that doing a thankless job for your children is more socially important. You should have heard all the shit his well-to-do upper class parents gave him. My favorite was his father asking him why in the hell he wants to throw away his well-being for some "common, middle class trash". His parents are now ashamed of his decision and rarely talk. He now makes in one year about one eighth of what his father spends on a new car every year. The poor bastard never lost his principals and ideals. I wonder what it's like to not be a jaded bastard like most of us cynical slashdotters.
I also saw someone complaining about how inner-city schools are not producing. First we take control away from teachers because of BS law suits, and then we complain about them being unable to correct the damages done by the society and environment around them. Would someone please walk around a Beverly Hills public high school and then an LA inner-city school and then post the differences in appearance, technology, teacher's salary, education materials, and school rules and policies. Tying a teachers hands and then berating them when they fail is like kicking a dead hoarse. Yea it's popular mindless social conversation, but it's stupid and useless. Stop letting the media be your education you fools.
Have you had much experience with large corporations? Bureaucracy is not limited to the government. The media just makes more money advertising waste and inefficiency in the government than they do airing their own dirty laundry. I don't even want to think what Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, or the executives at GE and Clear Channel waste their money on.
For all the distrust I have towards the government bureaucracies, especially education, I am still alive and productive despite many lapses in my judgment skills. Think in terms of principles. A government is like a co-op, we each buy in, and the expected result is a lowered price on goods and services for members. Now consider a private company managing something such as schools or health care. I do not want (part of) my child's education to be sacrificed because it isn't cost effective just like I don't want my doctor to skip something because it isn't economically viable. Despite its many problems, we still have much more control over the government than a private company. I will fall in rank-and-file behind our mentally disabled, hedonist president before I ever consider entrusting my, or my family's, well-being to a corporation.
That is total BS. Every first year CS major knows that analog carries infinitely more data than digital. While the real temperature might be 82.567394758..... degrees, your digital thermometer might say 82 or 82.5 or 82.6. Speaking strictly as a DJ, I would say vinyl sounds much 'warmer' than digital copy. A high quality press can still compete with any CD, and especially lossy formats like MP3 or OGG.
Keep in mind this is the same industry which will slap you silly with tort BS if you play one of their CDs for an audience, but releases many new things on vinyl days, even weeks, before CD so the DJs can get everyone crazy about the next 'hot' thing. I remember seeing some guy just handing out copies of Dr. Dre's new chronic album 2 weeks before the CD was released to the public. From what I can remember, he wasn't collecting royalties for Dre, and I doubt that the label even bothered to record the number or pay Dre for what was handed out. Guess it's true shit rolls down a hill.
By overriding this mechanism in nature you create a child of inferior genetic make up who would no otherwise be by natural process. I think this is going to bite us in the ass in a few generations.
Sorry to break your ideals, but modern medicine has been doing this for years. There used to be a time when being 40 also meant that you were a definately grandfather, if not a great grandfather. That's if you survived to that ripe old age. Now people commonly live double that, if not more. If over-population is your concern, you should be worried about 10% less people dropping dead in a timely manner instead of a 1% (at the most) increase in a the birth rate.
The tiles themselves are not the problem, nor their reuse. If it's cheaper to pull them all and inspect them than it would be to replace the whole thing without question, then go ahead. The Columbia accident wouldn't have been prevented even if the entire underside were virgin tiles. The sheer forces involved slipped the foam between the weak spot, the vertical seams in the tiles. The tiles themselves were a major breakthrough in thermal design. By now everyone has seen the video clip of the person holding a glowing hot chunk of it right out of the furnace. Not to mention, per volume, the modern heat tiles are much lighter than the heat shields of the mercury and Apollo eras. The material itself is not the problem; it is their design and application.
The only other such remarkable substance was something I saw years ago. I think the inventor called it starlight or styralight. He demonstrated it capabilities by smearing some over half and egg and then holding a propane torch on it for a few minutes. Afterwards he cracked it open on the unprotected side and removed the perfectly raw contents. NASA, of course, picked up interest in it, but I haven't heard anything since.
Maybe when the full potential of the ISS is realized, people will realize that it can be possible to repair damage in space. Would it have been too difficult to dock with the ISS, and then return the crew with the Soyuz capsule? The semi-abandoned shuttle would still be operational, so maneuvering thrusters would have been able to make any necessary corrections. The thing cost a fortune, and did not need to risk reentry. The crew could have found other was back. Mothball the thing and stick it in orbit until people decide to try and fix it. If nobody wants to risk it, leave it in the vacuum of space for our grandchildren to restore and stick in the Smithsonian or National Aeronautical Space Museum. Despite everyone's bitching about it, it was a major and relatively long lived, milestone in manned space flight.
In all fairness, most of the shuttle and many other NASA projects are built by private contractors. If I recall, with the contractors and Challenger, NASA officials were made aware of the risks in advance and decided to go ahead. That was a human error, plain and simple. It's not like anyone got off free either, the one person it came down to probably spent the longest time kicking his own ass over it. Being human, we will mess up. I don't care too deeply, or I would try to compare the amount of money they spend, to the number of accidents, with those of other engineering projects. The only difference is, when dealing with the stresses and environments of space travel, the tolerance for faults is much lower than terrestrial projects. The majority of people are also indifferent to space travel these days. Unless it's capable of making headlines, no one really notices.
If some more college build a search engine and then a high profile, some people or organization might step in and argue a good case that might provide a blow to the hard handed influence of the RIAA on institutions. It might even create or help create precedent over similar DMCA bullying to security analysts, educators, and whistle-blowers. If a company refuses to fix an exploit or vulnerability, even after proper means are taken to inform them, the only other available way must be to inform the public. Security through obscurity is a poor methodology.
My school did us an amazing favor. Since it is such a large university (+40K students during reg. seasons) it attracts almost daily threat letters from the RIAA/MPAA. So they blocked traffic outbound from the campus for various standard ports. Smart IP tools (ex. packet shapers) then try to make up for what is missed. The result is that most downloads absolutely fly since most P2P traffic stays on the campus network; making it much faster, and harder for the two bodies to snoop in on since the network can't be accessed off campus (except thru VPN). Of course, there are some who are smart enough to work our way off campus if we can't find
something.
I was bitching a few years ago when they spent all this money upgrading the campus backbone from 100Mbs to multimode fiber. I have since withdrawn my complaints. I like watching shareaza when it starts to fly with a total DL speed of around 5120Kbps. Sometimes it goes even higher. Now I'd like to see them upgrade all the data ports from half-duplex 10Mb connections to 100Mb.
I remember the old napster block getting people mad until the school paper published a small article about napigator. It was an alumni article written by a man whose $100 million offer to the RIAA to ignore our schools P2P traffic was harshly refused. A suit was file against the paper until several highly respected and dedicated law professors convinced them it wasn't in their best interest. The prospect of these tenured Profs. working pro bono to defend their schools free press must have made a financial statement to the RIAA/MPAA.
Movies are made of a photons and music is made of acoustic vibrations. Until they steal the material it is printed on, they are not stealing. Instead, they are infring on someone else's rights and possibly depriving them of income. If someone points out the difference, they can not be justifying an action since either are clearly illegal. Besides, depriving someone of income is not stealing because in order to steal from someone, must have it in the first place. Instead, they are depriving them of possible income, assuming that a person would have bought what they downloaded.
Stealing, infringing and depriving are not interchangable words. Ask an intelligent lawyer (if such a beast exists). You can not go to court and say someone deprived you of your car if they, in fact, stole it. They may have deprived you of personal mobility or your wages at work that day, but not your car.
No, by his argument you can only steal tangible objects. If you can hold it in your hands, or touch it, you can steal it. Since music is sound, and sound is vibrations in air molecules; what is there to steal? That is why people use words like copyright, patent, or trademark infringement.
Welcome to Earth. Please check your logic at the door. Anyone using or attempting to use logic shall be branded a liberal and slandered in the court of public opinion. You have been warned!
If the lord is blessing us, then who is he cursing? My god is the god of peace and love. I don't know who your god is, but he sounds angry and spiteful. An omni powerful being should know that humans respond better to love than they do fear. You ignorance even continues to deny that Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are different religions. As I stated earlier, the difference is mostly political; it is simply which faith decided to nominate who as their messiah. And calling Islamic culture bankrupt is the strongest evidence of either a very poor education or a rigidly closed mind. Should the U.S follow the lead of many middle-eastern countries and institute religion as a government? Maybe it shall fix our problems as it fixed theirs. You should realize that in, confusing for god, and following the word of man, you can not know the spirit behind the message. You are blinded by your fear, hate, and ignorance. I weep for your children just as I weep for the children of klan members, for they are not raised to know any better; and so the circle shall continue.
So you stop listening that quickly? You mistake my contempt for the ignorance of history for hate of the lord and suddenly I'm completely wrong and am not even worth listening to? Please, for your sake, do not mistake other christians or their actions for the lord. You made the common religious mistake of concentrating so hard on my words that you could not see the message behind them. You also mistake religion for spirituality. Religion is nothing more than the political regimes that man has instituted for his spirituality. I will admit that christianity is a peaceful and beautiful religion, in its theory. Unfortunately theory and practice have little to do in common for most everything related to mans' creations and institutions.
As for products of non-christian societies: democracy, philosophy, poetry, the first hospital as well as the idea of communication of disease (which christians thought were evil spirits, not microscopic bodies), paper, gun powder, domesticated animals, agriculture, the wheel, the scientific method, mathematics, and even many of your religious principals (which came from hebrew religious societies). Christian societies have been around for a very short time when compared to the length of human existence.
My quote from the Reverend was to show that popular christian leaders can be just as guilty as any muslim extremist. People listen to him as a spiritual leader, yet he continues to ignore history and propagate fear and distrust in the name of religion despite the inevitable outcome of hate, or worse, bloodshed. For many, it is easier to demonize, condemn, and dismiss people unlike them than it is to attempt to understand them. It is infinitely worse to not make an attempt because of illogical preconceived notions than it is to quit after making a concerted effort.
Good rebuttal on all points, except that you forgot a couple. Our current Bush has allowed the trading of pollution credits as well as pulling out of the Kyoto treaty. There must be a reason behind taking two steps back after taking such a big one forward. Second; when politicians get money from corporations, they get to use it at their discretion as long as it is legal such as 'fact finding missions' and re-election campaigns. The government will still need to tax no matter how much politicians take in for themselves.
Also, please do not confuse communism with socialism. They are two very distinct *ism's and should not be interchanged at will. Socialist systems outside of communist governments have a much better track record than a country where the two have been combined. I would defend that England, France, and especially Canada are very competitive with the U.S. as far as environmental protection is concerned..
I shall quote the morally immaculate Rev. Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham) and his courageous words of peace, tolerance, and love for his fellow man: We're not attacking Islam, but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God... He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.
It must really suck to feel like another religion, in its entirety, has it in for you. Maybe we should start sending wave after wave of holy christian soldier overseas to eradicate those whorish muslims in one final holy war. Every last one of those dogs are evil and don't deserve to live, wouldn't you agree? I think, for once, christians are on the receiving end of what they have been dishing out for centuries, and they don't like it one bit.
You are correct! No evil has ever been done by a christian majority. I mean, look at great prosperity between the beginning of the medieval times and the end of the inquisitions. Those had to be the best times for human kind. It is only through religious intolerance and blind fear that we humans shall come together and treat others with the dignity that all humans deserve.
Maybe if all christians, or every religion for that matter, could practice the principals of their beliefs instead of the politics set forth by its ancestors, the world would be a much more tolerant place. You should not delude yourself either. Americe is powerful because of its historical christian power-holders who broke the backs of countless people in the name of religion and progress. Your ancestors sure showed those savage Indians and godless niggers didn't they!?! They were truly shown the infinite love of jesus. Maybe they rejected your religion because they saw the christians saying one thing and doing something completely opposite; something which still goes on to this day. Stealing their land, taking them from their homes, and working them as free labor for the rest of their lives on cotton and tobacco fields... and all using religion as a backdrop for slavery and genocide. I know it isn't just christians who have committed unspeakable evils, but they are the ones who have shaped the political and social climates for America and Europe, so their actions hold more relevance to our current state than those of other religious atrocities. For most of the first millennium, christians controlled the power over the western hemisphere and most of Europe. To put it bluntly, it was the slowest progression of the political, social, and scientific, fields ever, since the beginning of recorded human history.
REPENT and beg absolution for the sins of your fathers so that you may shake off these shackles of self-righteousness and supremacy that bind your mind, body, and soul to repetition of their indecencies and condemnation of their fate. Being christian is not a prerequisite for being a good person.
Who cares? We're both screwed anyway. In Canada, you'd better be mortally threatened if you want treatment today. In America, you'd better have insurance or we're going to ship you down to the county hospital and hope you don't die en route.
Why did Kevorkian go to jail for euthanasia? Our HMO's have been letting people die for decades.
Seriously, I think he forgot the sarcasm modifier. Anyone who can properly spell that many multi-syllable can't be that dumb. It takes someone who just crawled out of their bomb shelter to still believe that socialists are the enemy instead of the munti-national conglomerates. I would rather live in a socialist system like Canada's or England's than a 'corparchy' like America's, at least until I needed health services for something that's non-life threatening.
The problem with the American system is that politicians are bought by corporations, and we have allowed it to become, and stay, common practice. I know other systems have similar problems, but in America, they insult our intelligence by continuing to advocate that what they are doing is in our best interest. It's obvious that you have been bought by media giants, auto makers, or industry polluters. Why slap me in the face by insisting that violating my fair use rights, allowing SUVs (the minivan of the new millenium) to pollute like trucks, or letting companies trade pollution credits are in my best interests?
Breathe polluted air, drink polluted water, eat tainted meat, care only for yourself; vote conservative.
I didn't know you met my grandparents. You should teach them the difference between their yahoo email name and aol screen name. Next time they get it mixed up I don't have to drive 20 miles to fix it and remind them that they aren't the same thing.
My grandmother has about had it with AOL. She wants to know why everyone wants to enlarge her penis. My personal favorite was when I was helping her out and she got the pictorial advert for fisting transsexuals. They've got more than just mail. I've never heard grandma say a single swear in my entire life, until that day. Thanks AOL.
AOL can't be the ONLY service in your area. Have you checked out any sites that list ISPs by area code?
This is a pretty decent site. I know it's not a complete list, but it lists services that are lower than $20. From the sound of things, you definately want to stay away from the free services because they were all bought out by NetZero and are giving people a really shitty experience now.
You should really ditch the AOL, you look foolish riding a bike with training wheels. If you can't cancel, call and threaten to. They will offer you at least 2 free months to stay on.
Of course permits are necessary. Too bad these aren't abandoned warehouses, or your argument might apply. These are venues that regularly hold mainstream music events with no fuss. Every permit that is required is there.
What I'm talking about, for example, would be a skating rink. Capacity would be, lets say around 1,000 people. A normal event in this area would draw no more than 500 or 600, at the most. I don't see how the addition of music to a well below capicity crowd would increase the risk of danger. My uneducated opinion would be that higher capicity crowds would be more prone to danger.
The reasons for it being shut down are numerous. It is not 'normal' music, and is being targeted by politicians who use poor excuses and have forgone logic in the pursuit of their self serving careers. The people who attend are stereotyped as being evil, subversive, addicts, or whatever else sounds socially immoral. Every permit that is need has already been obtained because you need them to legally run such a venue. The only thing missing is the danceall permit, which costs a bit less than a license to sell hard liquor. A roller rink operator, not selling high profit items or services like liquor, can't afford it so he doesn't get it. People dance there durring normal hours, but the law is not enforced. That is until the sun sets and evil people fill the place. Selective enforcement of laws is a travesty of the american legal and justice systems, plain and simple.
As far as the libertarian 'insult' goes; I'm sure as I age and begin to care only for myself, I will become a conservative, but until then I will fight for both of our rights; despite the fact you don't care to practice them. A dancehall permit is nothing more than a way to legally scapegoat music as the force behind a small number of people making bad decisions. As I said earlier, it's been happening since jazz. If they were correct to begin with, why does society still exist? We should have fallen into hell-fire long ago if they were right.
And if you want to see my tinfoil hat, check the federal laws. One is called the RAVE act (Reducing Americas Vulnerability to Ecstasy), because as we all know, every last one of those subversive commies sells and does drugs. That's right, every last single one. I saw it on the news so it must be true.
I can't remember the exact name of the other one. It's commonly refered to as the "crack house law" because it was passed in the 80s to shut down crack houses. Only recently have sheister lawers been clever enough to apply it to venue owners and operators.
I didn't know that they still enforced that arcane law with such vigor. The last I heard of it was when it was used to shut down most of the sex and fetish stores around Times Square (among other places). I haven't been to NY for several years now, but the last trip I made was because of a visit to its' booming underground music scene. Do you know anything about its' health now? I have to drive out of state now to hear any live music that isn't on the top 100 or 200 charts. Hell, even Chicago forces its venue owners to shut down. You can't dance in Chicago after bar hours (2 or 3am).
Our mayor has done such a good job at driving live music performance out. Basically, if you want to hear anything live, and it's not played on the radio, you run the risk of being arrested. It's even worse if you are performing or promoting it. Musicians will get their equipment confiscated, and will never have it returned. It becomes labeled as evidence or drug paraphernalia and eventually gets auctioned off.
I was at one very memorable event where the cops walked in and shut down an event because of a fire code violation. Sounds important, right? ONE fire extinguisher near the bathroom was dangerously undercharged. They called the news, and kept everyone inside until the camera trucks got there. Then they walked everyone out the door single file. As soon as the cameras and lights went on, they started to line up and pat down the kids. As soon as they got their video bite, they continued to move everyone out without any sort of search or observation. The next day at 10am the mayor was out front publicizing how 'tough' he was on drugs and how he is the savior of our children. Pardon me, I'm not a parent, but if little Johnny or Susie is out at 2am, I have only myself to blame. Shit, my parents did a fine job at keeping my locked down. I thank them for my computer skills, because they wouldn't be so developed if I didn't completely lack a social life growing up. I'm not socially well adjusted at all, but at least I make more than them combined.
Back to my slightly off topic rant, promoters who allow water, junk food, or many other daily items to be sold at their event run the risk of being tossed in jail for many years. A recent federal law that was stapled onto the amber alert bill makes anyone who sells such items in the presence of music not only a potential drug user, but illegally supporting drug use. Oddly, the same senator who put it in this session tried to put it through last session by itself. It made a very loud bang when it hit the floor. So, he decided to hide it in a bill that had no chance of failing. This, in conjunction with a federal "crack house" law, is the first time in history that venue owners and operators are felonious criminals as a result of their patron's activities, no matter how tight security is. Under these laws, people who run prisons are just as guilty because they can't even keep drugs or weapons out. Do a google search about "Disco Donnie" because he was the first, and most publicized, victim of this law. These federal laws are being used all over the nation to shut down music events that aren't government taxed or sanctioned. The help of strict local laws, and complete indifference, in my area makes it even worse.
I know that as the younger generation's age and gains control, things will change. But I don't want to wait 50 years before I don't run the risk of being arrested, strip searched and humiliated on the evening news just because of my passion for music. They did the same thing to Jazz, and they are doing it again. History is definitely a class politicians slept though. I heard in some movie one time about how politicians work: They tell you about something, and then they tell you to be afraid of it; then they tell you that they are your only solution.
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Did you actually read the whole Hardylaw site? When a film wins awards for Best Documentary, it should contain 100% truth, 0% lies.
... he would have presented both sides of the issue with no distortion, left it at that, and let people decide for themselves. Instead, he leads the viewer along, using trickery to try and have viewers come to the conclusions Mr. Moore wants them to reach.
That is the fault of the Academy for choosing to nominate and award him.
20/20, Dateline, 60 Minutes, etc., all cut things out of interviews and speeches because of time limitations.
I hope you don't actually believe that. Sure, I know sometimes they do cut things out because of time, but they have been proven guilty time and again cutting a single sentence completely out of context for a sound bite. A concert promoter in my area was intervened by Dateline about the rise of non-commercial music. They spent almost 2 hours interviewing him. He was asked if he knew of any drugs present. He replied "Yea, there are drugs here. If I had to guess, I'd say just as much as any run of the mill rock concert. I'm confident in the abilities of our security which also happens to be mostly off duty cops." 10 seconds of it got aired. Guess which part got aired? "Yea, there are drugs here."
Michael Moore did it to change the nature, content, and appearance of Charlton Hesston's speeches.
Just like the popular media. The splitting Moore did wasn't nearly as ruthless as the Medias common tricks, though. Besides, we all know the nature of his speeches; you don't need any cutwork for that. We all know the content of the speeches; it's the same stuff he's been spouting for decades. And why does the appearance matter? This isn't a presidential debate between Kennedy and a flu-ridden Nixon. Hesston needs little help to be seen as the nut he is. He isn't a smart or wise man, he's an actor. That is actors get elected to head positions, because they are charismatic and know how to manipulate people.
Hell, he combined two separate speeches so that they appear to be the same speech.
If I remember right, he cut from an on stage sermon to a back stage Q&A with Hesston about how the NRA tries to help kids. Who cares if one took place in Colorado and the other outside a McDonalds or something? Does he need a specific time or place to lie or tell the truth? He said it, plain and simple. Location matters not.
If that even had a shot of working you would see the 6PM news doing it too. The one thing that motivates people the best is shock value. Never once did he say that what he was showing was the pure truth. Anyone who considers one source credible enough is a fool. Only an idiot would trust something they've seen or heard in one place. I've done a bit or research myself and found that his part about the welfare to work program is right on the money. Unfortunately, you probably think he's lying again since Hardylaw says so. That site is written by gun nuts and Hesston lovers who would discredit the entire films underlying message because he made them look like slack jawed troglodytes. What about Nichols interview? Any opinions on him? What about when he said he got caught with a lot of fertilizer and he said it was for his farm, shortly after he says he grows organic soy. For those who don't know organic means no pesticides, herbicides, or inorganic fertilizer. How about the militia interview or the Kmart interview? Sometimes people just need a swift kick in their preconceived notions in order to think. Anyone who believes the whole story is foolish, just like people who dismiss all of it because they can't find a deeper message.
And your Hardylaw site isn't biased? Ever consider his movie wasn't supposed to be a 100% pure, unbiased documentary? If I recall an over hyped movie named Blair witch was shot in a documentary style; are we to believe it was a true story because of the cinematography? Maybe it was supposed to stir political debate. What was the last movie you saw that had you contemplating pressing social issues without using popular rhetoric or cliché? Maybe he wanted some people to form their own opinions instead of thinking along party lines. If there is one thing his production should have showed you is that you shouldn't trust information form one source. Maybe he felt like embellishing some half truths was acceptable in order to get people to notice things, and educate themselves on the subject, instead of going about business as usual.
As far as the Heston interview is concerned: I did not see or hear any cutwork putting together words or sentences. Maybe a half hour did go by, and only a few minutes were showed. Do you think that when the news airs a 24 minute interview that they sat there for exactly 24 minutes and ran straight through? Moore is no more guilty than 20/20, Dateline, and 60 Minutes. The NRA is still the master manipulator. Remember when they funded a republican congress into office after the Brady Bill fiasco, just to make life hard on the president. Or do you remember when they ran a staged picture of fully armed federal agents as a full page anti-government ad in newspapers and magazines? If I recall, that convinced the first Bush to withdraw his lifetime membership in the NRA.
Common reasoning but, have you had much first hand experience as a disadvantaged, inner-city youth? There is something much worse that affects many kids no matter how many parents they have. Broken homes and weak parental figures are just contemporary rhetoric that are contributing factors at best. Simply put, we are dealing with the end of the classic American dream. Having no hope at a better life than your parents, or friends did, tears some people up emotionally. You are forced to go to a school where they teach you about how your government, your society, is supposed to behave according to centuries old principals. Then you leave the building only to realize that the reality of the world can make you think that everything they teach is some utopian fantasy. Every day you see a country that kills people in order to prevent death, a biased justice system with the odds against you, and corporations spending billions trying to separate you from what money you have. You know there are people who you will never meet, who will never know you beyond a statistic, deciding your fate based on what the media can exploit for profit. You try to escape a system that you know will consume you one way or another, but become branded a trouble maker.
In order to escape you need money. To get money you have to feed the machine you are running from. Any way of making money without feeding said machine is illegal by criminal or tax laws.
Our generation doesn't have our own great communist enemy to unify against. We see that we only won the cold war because the soviets went bankrupt before we did. We are supposed to buy into systems, like social security, that we know probably won't be there to help us when we need it. We are playing a fixed game, and our failures are being used as evidence against us. What's the most common question asked by people who quit, or want to quit school? "What's the point?" The question isn't "Why have they failed", it is "Why have we continued to fail so much of our future?" Someday when the boomers are all retired, they are going to depend on us. How is the government going to help support the elderly while it also supports what could have been such a large, productive portion of society? One third of us cannot support the other two thirds.
Some interesting listening for all of you: Sage Francis - Makeshift Patriot
I suggest you find the recording, it's rather good.
I forgot one thing. Please don't complain about your property taxes if you are so worried about public education. Next time you see a teacher, no matter who it is, thank them for devoting their life to a meager income and bureaucratic system in order to educate your child on how to further reduce their pay and insult them when they can't do more with less, when they grow up. I find it odd that the people educating our children are also among the lowest paid people in the public sector.
My old roommate from college knew math like he knew English. He could have very well have been a Nobel laurite one day because of his amazing ability to hear or see it once, and remember it forever; not to mention he also knew exactly how to apply that knowledge. Instead, he has chosen to live below the poverty line in order to teach some inner-city high school kids algebra and geometry. He could have been teaching graduate physics students if that were his choice, but he feels that doing a thankless job for your children is more socially important. You should have heard all the shit his well-to-do upper class parents gave him. My favorite was his father asking him why in the hell he wants to throw away his well-being for some "common, middle class trash". His parents are now ashamed of his decision and rarely talk. He now makes in one year about one eighth of what his father spends on a new car every year. The poor bastard never lost his principals and ideals. I wonder what it's like to not be a jaded bastard like most of us cynical slashdotters.
I also saw someone complaining about how inner-city schools are not producing. First we take control away from teachers because of BS law suits, and then we complain about them being unable to correct the damages done by the society and environment around them. Would someone please walk around a Beverly Hills public high school and then an LA inner-city school and then post the differences in appearance, technology, teacher's salary, education materials, and school rules and policies. Tying a teachers hands and then berating them when they fail is like kicking a dead hoarse. Yea it's popular mindless social conversation, but it's stupid and useless. Stop letting the media be your education you fools.
Have you had much experience with large corporations? Bureaucracy is not limited to the government. The media just makes more money advertising waste and inefficiency in the government than they do airing their own dirty laundry. I don't even want to think what Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, or the executives at GE and Clear Channel waste their money on.
For all the distrust I have towards the government bureaucracies, especially education, I am still alive and productive despite many lapses in my judgment skills. Think in terms of principles. A government is like a co-op, we each buy in, and the expected result is a lowered price on goods and services for members. Now consider a private company managing something such as schools or health care. I do not want (part of) my child's education to be sacrificed because it isn't cost effective just like I don't want my doctor to skip something because it isn't economically viable. Despite its many problems, we still have much more control over the government than a private company. I will fall in rank-and-file behind our mentally disabled, hedonist president before I ever consider entrusting my, or my family's, well-being to a corporation.
That is total BS. Every first year CS major knows that analog carries infinitely more data than digital. While the real temperature might be 82.567394758..... degrees, your digital thermometer might say 82 or 82.5 or 82.6. Speaking strictly as a DJ, I would say vinyl sounds much 'warmer' than digital copy. A high quality press can still compete with any CD, and especially lossy formats like MP3 or OGG.
..RIAA
....Performer
.............Consumer
Keep in mind this is the same industry which will slap you silly with tort BS if you play one of their CDs for an audience, but releases many new things on vinyl days, even weeks, before CD so the DJs can get everyone crazy about the next 'hot' thing. I remember seeing some guy just handing out copies of Dr. Dre's new chronic album 2 weeks before the CD was released to the public. From what I can remember, he wasn't collecting royalties for Dre, and I doubt that the label even bothered to record the number or pay Dre for what was handed out. Guess it's true shit rolls down a hill.
By overriding this mechanism in nature you create a child of inferior genetic make up who would no otherwise be by natural process. I think this is going to bite us in the ass in a few generations.
Sorry to break your ideals, but modern medicine has been doing this for years. There used to be a time when being 40 also meant that you were a definately grandfather, if not a great grandfather. That's if you survived to that ripe old age. Now people commonly live double that, if not more. If over-population is your concern, you should be worried about 10% less people dropping dead in a timely manner instead of a 1% (at the most) increase in a the birth rate.
I bet he's apple's case designer.
The tiles themselves are not the problem, nor their reuse. If it's cheaper to pull them all and inspect them than it would be to replace the whole thing without question, then go ahead. The Columbia accident wouldn't have been prevented even if the entire underside were virgin tiles. The sheer forces involved slipped the foam between the weak spot, the vertical seams in the tiles. The tiles themselves were a major breakthrough in thermal design. By now everyone has seen the video clip of the person holding a glowing hot chunk of it right out of the furnace. Not to mention, per volume, the modern heat tiles are much lighter than the heat shields of the mercury and Apollo eras. The material itself is not the problem; it is their design and application. The only other such remarkable substance was something I saw years ago. I think the inventor called it starlight or styralight. He demonstrated it capabilities by smearing some over half and egg and then holding a propane torch on it for a few minutes. Afterwards he cracked it open on the unprotected side and removed the perfectly raw contents. NASA, of course, picked up interest in it, but I haven't heard anything since. Maybe when the full potential of the ISS is realized, people will realize that it can be possible to repair damage in space. Would it have been too difficult to dock with the ISS, and then return the crew with the Soyuz capsule? The semi-abandoned shuttle would still be operational, so maneuvering thrusters would have been able to make any necessary corrections. The thing cost a fortune, and did not need to risk reentry. The crew could have found other was back. Mothball the thing and stick it in orbit until people decide to try and fix it. If nobody wants to risk it, leave it in the vacuum of space for our grandchildren to restore and stick in the Smithsonian or National Aeronautical Space Museum. Despite everyone's bitching about it, it was a major and relatively long lived, milestone in manned space flight.
I was under the impression that their heat shield was made of some epoxy or resin that had a limited use since it burned away to dissipate heat.
In all fairness, most of the shuttle and many other NASA projects are built by private contractors. If I recall, with the contractors and Challenger, NASA officials were made aware of the risks in advance and decided to go ahead. That was a human error, plain and simple. It's not like anyone got off free either, the one person it came down to probably spent the longest time kicking his own ass over it. Being human, we will mess up. I don't care too deeply, or I would try to compare the amount of money they spend, to the number of accidents, with those of other engineering projects. The only difference is, when dealing with the stresses and environments of space travel, the tolerance for faults is much lower than terrestrial projects. The majority of people are also indifferent to space travel these days. Unless it's capable of making headlines, no one really notices.
If some more college build a search engine and then a high profile, some people or organization might step in and argue a good case that might provide a blow to the hard handed influence of the RIAA on institutions. It might even create or help create precedent over similar DMCA bullying to security analysts, educators, and whistle-blowers. If a company refuses to fix an exploit or vulnerability, even after proper means are taken to inform them, the only other available way must be to inform the public. Security through obscurity is a poor methodology.
My school did us an amazing favor. Since it is such a large university (+40K students during reg. seasons) it attracts almost daily threat letters from the RIAA/MPAA. So they blocked traffic outbound from the campus for various standard ports. Smart IP tools (ex. packet shapers) then try to make up for what is missed. The result is that most downloads absolutely fly since most P2P traffic stays on the campus network; making it much faster, and harder for the two bodies to snoop in on since the network can't be accessed off campus (except thru VPN). Of course, there are some who are smart enough to work our way off campus if we can't find something.
I was bitching a few years ago when they spent all this money upgrading the campus backbone from 100Mbs to multimode fiber. I have since withdrawn my complaints. I like watching shareaza when it starts to fly with a total DL speed of around 5120Kbps. Sometimes it goes even higher. Now I'd like to see them upgrade all the data ports from half-duplex 10Mb connections to 100Mb.
I remember the old napster block getting people mad until the school paper published a small article about napigator. It was an alumni article written by a man whose $100 million offer to the RIAA to ignore our schools P2P traffic was harshly refused. A suit was file against the paper until several highly respected and dedicated law professors convinced them it wasn't in their best interest. The prospect of these tenured Profs. working pro bono to defend their schools free press must have made a financial statement to the RIAA/MPAA.
Movies are made of a photons and music is made of acoustic vibrations. Until they steal the material it is printed on, they are not stealing. Instead, they are infring on someone else's rights and possibly depriving them of income. If someone points out the difference, they can not be justifying an action since either are clearly illegal. Besides, depriving someone of income is not stealing because in order to steal from someone, must have it in the first place. Instead, they are depriving them of possible income, assuming that a person would have bought what they downloaded.
Stealing, infringing and depriving are not interchangable words. Ask an intelligent lawyer (if such a beast exists). You can not go to court and say someone deprived you of your car if they, in fact, stole it. They may have deprived you of personal mobility or your wages at work that day, but not your car.
No, by his argument you can only steal tangible objects. If you can hold it in your hands, or touch it, you can steal it. Since music is sound, and sound is vibrations in air molecules; what is there to steal? That is why people use words like copyright, patent, or trademark infringement.
Welcome to Earth. Please check your logic at the door. Anyone using or attempting to use logic shall be branded a liberal and slandered in the court of public opinion. You have been warned!
Our illustrious leader, hard at work.
If the lord is blessing us, then who is he cursing? My god is the god of peace and love. I don't know who your god is, but he sounds angry and spiteful. An omni powerful being should know that humans respond better to love than they do fear. You ignorance even continues to deny that Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are different religions. As I stated earlier, the difference is mostly political; it is simply which faith decided to nominate who as their messiah. And calling Islamic culture bankrupt is the strongest evidence of either a very poor education or a rigidly closed mind. Should the U.S follow the lead of many middle-eastern countries and institute religion as a government? Maybe it shall fix our problems as it fixed theirs. You should realize that in, confusing for god, and following the word of man, you can not know the spirit behind the message. You are blinded by your fear, hate, and ignorance. I weep for your children just as I weep for the children of klan members, for they are not raised to know any better; and so the circle shall continue.
So you stop listening that quickly? You mistake my contempt for the ignorance of history for hate of the lord and suddenly I'm completely wrong and am not even worth listening to? Please, for your sake, do not mistake other christians or their actions for the lord. You made the common religious mistake of concentrating so hard on my words that you could not see the message behind them. You also mistake religion for spirituality. Religion is nothing more than the political regimes that man has instituted for his spirituality. I will admit that christianity is a peaceful and beautiful religion, in its theory. Unfortunately theory and practice have little to do in common for most everything related to mans' creations and institutions.
As for products of non-christian societies: democracy, philosophy, poetry, the first hospital as well as the idea of communication of disease (which christians thought were evil spirits, not microscopic bodies), paper, gun powder, domesticated animals, agriculture, the wheel, the scientific method, mathematics, and even many of your religious principals (which came from hebrew religious societies). Christian societies have been around for a very short time when compared to the length of human existence.
My quote from the Reverend was to show that popular christian leaders can be just as guilty as any muslim extremist. People listen to him as a spiritual leader, yet he continues to ignore history and propagate fear and distrust in the name of religion despite the inevitable outcome of hate, or worse, bloodshed. For many, it is easier to demonize, condemn, and dismiss people unlike them than it is to attempt to understand them. It is infinitely worse to not make an attempt because of illogical preconceived notions than it is to quit after making a concerted effort.
Good rebuttal on all points, except that you forgot a couple. Our current Bush has allowed the trading of pollution credits as well as pulling out of the Kyoto treaty. There must be a reason behind taking two steps back after taking such a big one forward. Second; when politicians get money from corporations, they get to use it at their discretion as long as it is legal such as 'fact finding missions' and re-election campaigns. The government will still need to tax no matter how much politicians take in for themselves.
Also, please do not confuse communism with socialism. They are two very distinct *ism's and should not be interchanged at will. Socialist systems outside of communist governments have a much better track record than a country where the two have been combined. I would defend that England, France, and especially Canada are very competitive with the U.S. as far as environmental protection is concerned..
I shall quote the morally immaculate Rev. Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham) and his courageous words of peace, tolerance, and love for his fellow man:
We're not attacking Islam, but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God... He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.
It must really suck to feel like another religion, in its entirety, has it in for you. Maybe we should start sending wave after wave of holy christian soldier overseas to eradicate those whorish muslims in one final holy war. Every last one of those dogs are evil and don't deserve to live, wouldn't you agree? I think, for once, christians are on the receiving end of what they have been dishing out for centuries, and they don't like it one bit.
You are correct! No evil has ever been done by a christian majority. I mean, look at great prosperity between the beginning of the medieval times and the end of the inquisitions. Those had to be the best times for human kind. It is only through religious intolerance and blind fear that we humans shall come together and treat others with the dignity that all humans deserve.
Maybe if all christians, or every religion for that matter, could practice the principals of their beliefs instead of the politics set forth by its ancestors, the world would be a much more tolerant place. You should not delude yourself either. Americe is powerful because of its historical christian power-holders who broke the backs of countless people in the name of religion and progress. Your ancestors sure showed those savage Indians and godless niggers didn't they!?! They were truly shown the infinite love of jesus. Maybe they rejected your religion because they saw the christians saying one thing and doing something completely opposite; something which still goes on to this day. Stealing their land, taking them from their homes, and working them as free labor for the rest of their lives on cotton and tobacco fields... and all using religion as a backdrop for slavery and genocide. I know it isn't just christians who have committed unspeakable evils, but they are the ones who have shaped the political and social climates for America and Europe, so their actions hold more relevance to our current state than those of other religious atrocities. For most of the first millennium, christians controlled the power over the western hemisphere and most of Europe. To put it bluntly, it was the slowest progression of the political, social, and scientific, fields ever, since the beginning of recorded human history.
REPENT and beg absolution for the sins of your fathers so that you may shake off these shackles of self-righteousness and supremacy that bind your mind, body, and soul to repetition of their indecencies and condemnation of their fate. Being christian is not a prerequisite for being a good person.
Who cares? We're both screwed anyway. In Canada, you'd better be mortally threatened if you want treatment today. In America, you'd better have insurance or we're going to ship you down to the county hospital and hope you don't die en route.
Why did Kevorkian go to jail for euthanasia? Our HMO's have been letting people die for decades.
Seriously, I think he forgot the sarcasm modifier. Anyone who can properly spell that many multi-syllable can't be that dumb. It takes someone who just crawled out of their bomb shelter to still believe that socialists are the enemy instead of the munti-national conglomerates. I would rather live in a socialist system like Canada's or England's than a 'corparchy' like America's, at least until I needed health services for something that's non-life threatening.
The problem with the American system is that politicians are bought by corporations, and we have allowed it to become, and stay, common practice. I know other systems have similar problems, but in America, they insult our intelligence by continuing to advocate that what they are doing is in our best interest. It's obvious that you have been bought by media giants, auto makers, or industry polluters. Why slap me in the face by insisting that violating my fair use rights, allowing SUVs (the minivan of the new millenium) to pollute like trucks, or letting companies trade pollution credits are in my best interests?
Breathe polluted air, drink polluted water, eat tainted meat, care only for yourself; vote conservative.
I didn't know you met my grandparents. You should teach them the difference between their yahoo email name and aol screen name. Next time they get it mixed up I don't have to drive 20 miles to fix it and remind them that they aren't the same thing.
My grandmother has about had it with AOL. She wants to know why everyone wants to enlarge her penis. My personal favorite was when I was helping her out and she got the pictorial advert for fisting transsexuals. They've got more than just mail. I've never heard grandma say a single swear in my entire life, until that day. Thanks AOL.
AOL can't be the ONLY service in your area. Have you checked out any sites that list ISPs by area code? This is a pretty decent site. I know it's not a complete list, but it lists services that are lower than $20. From the sound of things, you definately want to stay away from the free services because they were all bought out by NetZero and are giving people a really shitty experience now.
You should really ditch the AOL, you look foolish riding a bike with training wheels. If you can't cancel, call and threaten to. They will offer you at least 2 free months to stay on.
Of course permits are necessary. Too bad these aren't abandoned warehouses, or your argument might apply. These are venues that regularly hold mainstream music events with no fuss. Every permit that is required is there.
What I'm talking about, for example, would be a skating rink. Capacity would be, lets say around 1,000 people. A normal event in this area would draw no more than 500 or 600, at the most. I don't see how the addition of music to a well below capicity crowd would increase the risk of danger. My uneducated opinion would be that higher capicity crowds would be more prone to danger.
The reasons for it being shut down are numerous. It is not 'normal' music, and is being targeted by politicians who use poor excuses and have forgone logic in the pursuit of their self serving careers. The people who attend are stereotyped as being evil, subversive, addicts, or whatever else sounds socially immoral. Every permit that is need has already been obtained because you need them to legally run such a venue. The only thing missing is the danceall permit, which costs a bit less than a license to sell hard liquor. A roller rink operator, not selling high profit items or services like liquor, can't afford it so he doesn't get it. People dance there durring normal hours, but the law is not enforced. That is until the sun sets and evil people fill the place. Selective enforcement of laws is a travesty of the american legal and justice systems, plain and simple.
As far as the libertarian 'insult' goes; I'm sure as I age and begin to care only for myself, I will become a conservative, but until then I will fight for both of our rights; despite the fact you don't care to practice them.
A dancehall permit is nothing more than a way to legally scapegoat music as the force behind a small number of people making bad decisions. As I said earlier, it's been happening since jazz. If they were correct to begin with, why does society still exist? We should have fallen into hell-fire long ago if they were right.
And if you want to see my tinfoil hat, check the federal laws. One is called the RAVE act (Reducing Americas Vulnerability to Ecstasy), because as we all know, every last one of those subversive commies sells and does drugs. That's right, every last single one. I saw it on the news so it must be true.
I can't remember the exact name of the other one. It's commonly refered to as the "crack house law" because it was passed in the 80s to shut down crack houses. Only recently have sheister lawers been clever enough to apply it to venue owners and operators.
I didn't know that they still enforced that arcane law with such vigor. The last I heard of it was when it was used to shut down most of the sex and fetish stores around Times Square (among other places). I haven't been to NY for several years now, but the last trip I made was because of a visit to its' booming underground music scene. Do you know anything about its' health now? I have to drive out of state now to hear any live music that isn't on the top 100 or 200 charts. Hell, even Chicago forces its venue owners to shut down. You can't dance in Chicago after bar hours (2 or 3am). Our mayor has done such a good job at driving live music performance out. Basically, if you want to hear anything live, and it's not played on the radio, you run the risk of being arrested. It's even worse if you are performing or promoting it. Musicians will get their equipment confiscated, and will never have it returned. It becomes labeled as evidence or drug paraphernalia and eventually gets auctioned off.
I was at one very memorable event where the cops walked in and shut down an event because of a fire code violation. Sounds important, right? ONE fire extinguisher near the bathroom was dangerously undercharged. They called the news, and kept everyone inside until the camera trucks got there. Then they walked everyone out the door single file. As soon as the cameras and lights went on, they started to line up and pat down the kids. As soon as they got their video bite, they continued to move everyone out without any sort of search or observation. The next day at 10am the mayor was out front publicizing how 'tough' he was on drugs and how he is the savior of our children. Pardon me, I'm not a parent, but if little Johnny or Susie is out at 2am, I have only myself to blame. Shit, my parents did a fine job at keeping my locked down. I thank them for my computer skills, because they wouldn't be so developed if I didn't completely lack a social life growing up. I'm not socially well adjusted at all, but at least I make more than them combined.
Back to my slightly off topic rant, promoters who allow water, junk food, or many other daily items to be sold at their event run the risk of being tossed in jail for many years. A recent federal law that was stapled onto the amber alert bill makes anyone who sells such items in the presence of music not only a potential drug user, but illegally supporting drug use. Oddly, the same senator who put it in this session tried to put it through last session by itself. It made a very loud bang when it hit the floor. So, he decided to hide it in a bill that had no chance of failing. This, in conjunction with a federal "crack house" law, is the first time in history that venue owners and operators are felonious criminals as a result of their patron's activities, no matter how tight security is. Under these laws, people who run prisons are just as guilty because they can't even keep drugs or weapons out. Do a google search about "Disco Donnie" because he was the first, and most publicized, victim of this law. These federal laws are being used all over the nation to shut down music events that aren't government taxed or sanctioned. The help of strict local laws, and complete indifference, in my area makes it even worse.
I know that as the younger generation's age and gains control, things will change. But I don't want to wait 50 years before I don't run the risk of being arrested, strip searched and humiliated on the evening news just because of my passion for music. They did the same thing to Jazz, and they are doing it again. History is definitely a class politicians slept though. I heard in some movie one time about how politicians work: They tell you about something, and then they tell you to be afraid of it; then they tell you that they are your only solution.