I think you're thinking of Stanislaw Lem, who wrote "Solaris".
And you may have Heinlein confused with Asimov. Asimov was born in Russia and came to America when he was a small child (around three years old). I've read that he never knew what his exact birthday was.
I know exactly what you mean by the end of the Rama series. It made me think of the line out of Star Trek V: "Why does God need a starship?". Lamest. Ending. Ever.
It was also pretty hard to believe that Earth would staff a starship like that with criminals. The society that developed on the ship was, IMHO, totally unbelievable. I blame Gentry Lee:).
Well, then, the obvious solution is more realistic gibbing in games. We'll get there one of these days. Maybe with Smell-O-Vision (tm) so you can get the whiff of your victim voiding his (or her) bowels and the smell of escaping digestive gasses.
Wow, you said it yourself. "When you attack people they will reprise". Guess what. A democracy *is* the people. Attack them, they hit back. Most people (obviously, not all) know that giving in to terrorist's demands is a sure way of making sure there is more terrorism.
The IRA didn't get what they want until they *stopped* violence. Ghandi *never* used violence, and he was primarily responsible for India's independence. You hit me, I hit you back. You shame me, you can make me change my behaviour.
And the first entry in dictionary.com for agnostic reads:
"One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God".
Yeah, sounds abour right. I'm not about to go slughtering people over something I think is impossible to prove or disprove.
You stiff the waiter on a $20 dinner. The IRS assumes he got an 8% tip, and taxes him accordingly. This will be 2 to 3% of the $20, which he will have to pay out of his own pocket because you're a cheap prick.
If you don't want to tip, why don't you do everyone a favor and limit yourselft to eating at McDonalds and Subway, where you don't have to deal with waiters. Or better yet, tell them when you're being seated that you don't believe in tipping. Do it. You're a hypocrite if you don't.
So because England at one time started a war with France, they shouldn't have declared war on Nazi Germany? And because the US once kicked the Spanish out of the Phillipines, we shouldn't have declared war on the Japanese? You may as well carry your absurd argument to its absurd conclusion.
Terrorists in BG?? I'm going to assume you meant GB, and the IRA, and I'm not quite sure why we should bomb GB because at one time they had IRA terrorists blowing up their citizens.
As far as Isreal and the Palestineans are concerned, anybody with any knowledge of history knows that if you want freedom from an oppressive democracy, a fairly proven way is by peaceful protest (India, South Africa, US civil rights). How successful was the IRA before it renounced terrorism? For the Palestinians to continue using terror attacks against Israel when it'll get them absolutely *no* pity from the vast majority of Americans (who are about the only nation that can yank Israel's chain), shows that they are either 1) complete idiots, 2) that gaining their freedom isn't their ultimate goal, or 3) both. I'm going with 3).
Personally, though, I don't really care. As an agnostic, the fact that extremely religious people are indiscriminately slaughtering each other's women and children something that validates my (lack of) faith.
The problems of the working poor have been exacerbated over the last couple of decades by 1) the large increase in the SS rates under Reagan, 2) increase in divorce and single parent families, and 3) low skill jobs going overseas. The first two have nothing to do with how wages are set, and if companies are forced to pay their employees substantially above free-market wages, it'll jusr result in even more jobs going overseas.
I live in the US, and I work for a French company. That French company hired me because France is run by people with your attitude, and you'd have to point a gun to their head before they'd hire someone in France, since they'd essentially have to pay them for the rest of their life.
I'm not concerned about the people that will often behave like they should. I'm concerned about the people who don't.
There's always going to be scarcity. At the very least, population growth will guarantee that. The reason industrialized countries have low birth rates is because kids are expensive; in your perfect la-la land that won't be true, and eventually scarcity will kick in again, at the very least for real estate.
And if you look around, you'll see that the more people have, the more they want. Kind of hard to get to a world without scarcity considering that little aspect of human nature.
Actually, communism only needs one thing to work: A fundamental redesign of human nature.
No, those Kurds probably died of old age before Saddam gassed them.
Is it the view of the left that it's not evil if it's something a democracy has done at some point in history? Cause, you know, that would really cut down on the list of evil things. Slavery, burning cities to the ground, giving smallpox infested blankets to natives.
A democratic nation is building up defenses against a large, nuclear-armed tyranny and that's a threat to piece? Are you brain-damaged?
Hey, let Taiwan have nukes. It'll go a long way towards keeping China from invading. Eventually, China will be a democracy and *then* they can reunite. If they want to.
Re:This isn't another homosexual sodomy romp is it
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As I recall, Covenant raped a woman not related to him.
And then there's the pederasty in Gerrold's "A Matter For Men" (or one of its sequels).
Re:Scudder/ The Past Through Tomorrow
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As far as flight attendants are concerned, their main role is to assist in emergencies. They do the food and beverage thing on the side. That's why they get insulted if you tip them, and it's also why they would rather you call them flight attendants instead of stewardesses (or stewards).
Not only is the $2 an hour almost nothing, but the IRS assumes that they get 8% tip, and the place is supposed to keep track of how much food/beverage each waiter sells. So usually almost all of that pay goes to tax.
Stiffing a waiter actually *costs* him money; about 2 or 3 percent of your bill will be withheld out of his paycheck as income tax. So if you *are* going to be an a-hole, at least pay with a credit card so they can prove to the man that they didn't get a tip.
Compensation for work done is what is mutually agreed to by the employer and the employee. If the employer can find someone to do the job better and/or cheaper, they hire that person. If the employee can find a job that is better/pays more, they go to that job. How hard is that to understand?
BTW, slavery is when you are not allowed to find another job; it has *nothing* to do with whether or not you have a "decent" wage.
Screw that. If a company goes out of business the workers lose maybe two weeks pay. The owners lose all the money they've put into the company. How about we say the people who own the money tell the workers how much they're willing to pay them, and if the workers don't like it, they can find employment elsewhere.
You live in America. Start your own business and then come back here spouting crap if you still believe it.
Labor is a resource, just like electricity and drill presses. For that matter, so is capital. When I choose where to invest my money, it sure as hell isn't going to go to a company that pays their employees enough for them to live in a state of exalted bliss. I'll put it into a company where they pay so as to get the maximum return. People will try to earn as much as they can from their investment money just like they try to earn as much as they can from their labor.
And guess what. That actually works. Standards of living rise when people do that.
So what you're saying is you think America would be a better place if every country in the world had open immigration? I guess one way to keep programmers in India from making $10,000 a year is to have them all move here.
Yeah, we could set it up so it's almost impossible for companies to fire people, and be protectionist. You're right, that would get rid of the 5% unemployment. It'd be like France, with 20% unemployment.
How the hell do you outsource health care to other countries? Ship bedpans to India to clean them? Stethoscopes with really, really long tubes?
Global govt? Aargh. The only reason any govt is worth a crap right now is because they have to compete. A global govt means everything will incrementally get worse until revolution occurs.
BTW, I'll be losing my programming job by the end of the year. If I can't find another programming job, I'll change careers.
Lastly, has it ever occured to you that, if things keep going the way they are going, the world will eventually run out of third-world sh*thole countries to exploit. Some people would consider that to be a good thing.
Well, my first school, in about 1968, had outhouses, with drinking water pumped by a windmill. Not everybody in 1950 lived in NYC, not by a long shot. Back then most Americans still lived in rural areas or small towns.
I will agree that 50% sounds high, but it's not as low as you seem to think.
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I think you're thinking of Stanislaw Lem, who wrote "Solaris".
And you may have Heinlein confused with Asimov. Asimov was born in Russia and came to America when he was a small child (around three years old). I've read that he never knew what his exact birthday was.
I know exactly what you mean by the end of the Rama series. It made me think of the line out of Star Trek V: "Why does God need a starship?". Lamest. Ending. Ever.
:).
It was also pretty hard to believe that Earth would staff a starship like that with criminals. The society that developed on the ship was, IMHO, totally unbelievable. I blame Gentry Lee
Not true. They make plenty of money selling drugs and missiles. Gotta pay for Kim Il Jong II's Swedish hookers somehow.
Well, then, the obvious solution is more realistic gibbing in games. We'll get there one of these days. Maybe with Smell-O-Vision (tm) so you can get the whiff of your victim voiding his (or her) bowels and the smell of escaping digestive gasses.
It'd probably work even better, cause then they'd get pity because they're orphans.
Wow, you said it yourself. "When you attack people they will reprise". Guess what. A democracy *is* the people. Attack them, they hit back. Most people (obviously, not all) know that giving in to terrorist's demands is a sure way of making sure there is more terrorism.
The IRA didn't get what they want until they *stopped* violence. Ghandi *never* used violence, and he was primarily responsible for India's independence. You hit me, I hit you back. You shame me, you can make me change my behaviour.
And the first entry in dictionary.com for agnostic reads:
"One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God".
Yeah, sounds abour right. I'm not about to go slughtering people over something I think is impossible to prove or disprove.
Do you have a problem with reading comprehension?
You stiff the waiter on a $20 dinner. The IRS assumes he got an 8% tip, and taxes him accordingly. This will be 2 to 3% of the $20, which he will have to pay out of his own pocket because you're a cheap prick.
If you don't want to tip, why don't you do everyone a favor and limit yourselft to eating at McDonalds and Subway, where you don't have to deal with waiters. Or better yet, tell them when you're being seated that you don't believe in tipping. Do it. You're a hypocrite if you don't.
So because England at one time started a war with France, they shouldn't have declared war on Nazi Germany? And because the US once kicked the Spanish out of the Phillipines, we shouldn't have declared war on the Japanese? You may as well carry your absurd argument to its absurd conclusion.
Terrorists in BG?? I'm going to assume you meant GB, and the IRA, and I'm not quite sure why we should bomb GB because at one time they had IRA terrorists blowing up their citizens.
As far as Isreal and the Palestineans are concerned, anybody with any knowledge of history knows that if you want freedom from an oppressive democracy, a fairly proven way is by peaceful protest (India, South Africa, US civil rights). How successful was the IRA before it renounced terrorism? For the Palestinians to continue using terror attacks against Israel when it'll get them absolutely *no* pity from the vast majority of Americans (who are about the only nation that can yank Israel's chain), shows that they are either 1) complete idiots, 2) that gaining their freedom isn't their ultimate goal, or 3) both. I'm going with 3).
Personally, though, I don't really care. As an agnostic, the fact that extremely religious people are indiscriminately slaughtering each other's women and children something that validates my (lack of) faith.
The problems of the working poor have been exacerbated over the last couple of decades by 1) the large increase in the SS rates under Reagan, 2) increase in divorce and single parent families, and 3) low skill jobs going overseas. The first two have nothing to do with how wages are set, and if companies are forced to pay their employees substantially above free-market wages, it'll jusr result in even more jobs going overseas.
I live in the US, and I work for a French company. That French company hired me because France is run by people with your attitude, and you'd have to point a gun to their head before they'd hire someone in France, since they'd essentially have to pay them for the rest of their life.
I'm not concerned about the people that will often behave like they should. I'm concerned about the people who don't.
There's always going to be scarcity. At the very least, population growth will guarantee that. The reason industrialized countries have low birth rates is because kids are expensive; in your perfect la-la land that won't be true, and eventually scarcity will kick in again, at the very least for real estate.
And if you look around, you'll see that the more people have, the more they want. Kind of hard to get to a world without scarcity considering that little aspect of human nature.
Actually, communism only needs one thing to work: A fundamental redesign of human nature.
You forgot about Billy becoming a lobbyist for Libya.
No, those Kurds probably died of old age before Saddam gassed them.
Is it the view of the left that it's not evil if it's something a democracy has done at some point in history? Cause, you know, that would really cut down on the list of evil things. Slavery, burning cities to the ground, giving smallpox infested blankets to natives.
A democratic nation is building up defenses against a large, nuclear-armed tyranny and that's a threat to piece? Are you brain-damaged?
Hey, let Taiwan have nukes. It'll go a long way towards keeping China from invading. Eventually, China will be a democracy and *then* they can reunite. If they want to.
As I recall, Covenant raped a woman not related to him.
And then there's the pederasty in Gerrold's "A Matter For Men" (or one of its sequels).
Alliance Airport ouside of Fort Worth, I believe.
Hell, let them go swimming the wrong time of year and let the jellies get them. Or let them play with some of your spiders :)
As far as flight attendants are concerned, their main role is to assist in emergencies. They do the food and beverage thing on the side. That's why they get insulted if you tip them, and it's also why they would rather you call them flight attendants instead of stewardesses (or stewards).
Get rid of tips, waiter's pay will have to go up in order to get people to do the job.
There are countries where they don't tip. You still pay for it (they get higher wages), and the service is worse.
Not only is the $2 an hour almost nothing, but the IRS assumes that they get 8% tip, and the place is supposed to keep track of how much food/beverage each waiter sells. So usually almost all of that pay goes to tax.
Stiffing a waiter actually *costs* him money; about 2 or 3 percent of your bill will be withheld out of his paycheck as income tax. So if you *are* going to be an a-hole, at least pay with a credit card so they can prove to the man that they didn't get a tip.
Compensation for work done is what is mutually agreed to by the employer and the employee. If the employer can find someone to do the job better and/or cheaper, they hire that person. If the employee can find a job that is better/pays more, they go to that job. How hard is that to understand?
BTW, slavery is when you are not allowed to find another job; it has *nothing* to do with whether or not you have a "decent" wage.
Screw that. If a company goes out of business the workers lose maybe two weeks pay. The owners lose all the money they've put into the company. How about we say the people who own the money tell the workers how much they're willing to pay them, and if the workers don't like it, they can find employment elsewhere.
You live in America. Start your own business and then come back here spouting crap if you still believe it.
Labor is a resource, just like electricity and drill presses. For that matter, so is capital. When I choose where to invest my money, it sure as hell isn't going to go to a company that pays their employees enough for them to live in a state of exalted bliss. I'll put it into a company where they pay so as to get the maximum return. People will try to earn as much as they can from their investment money just like they try to earn as much as they can from their labor.
And guess what. That actually works. Standards of living rise when people do that.
So what you're saying is you think America would be a better place if every country in the world had open immigration? I guess one way to keep programmers in India from making $10,000 a year is to have them all move here.
Study economics. Please.
Yeah, we could set it up so it's almost impossible for companies to fire people, and be protectionist. You're right, that would get rid of the 5% unemployment. It'd be like France, with 20% unemployment.
How the hell do you outsource health care to other countries? Ship bedpans to India to clean them? Stethoscopes with really, really long tubes?
Global govt? Aargh. The only reason any govt is worth a crap right now is because they have to compete. A global govt means everything will incrementally get worse until revolution occurs.
BTW, I'll be losing my programming job by the end of the year. If I can't find another programming job, I'll change careers.
Lastly, has it ever occured to you that, if things keep going the way they are going, the world will eventually run out of third-world sh*thole countries to exploit. Some people would consider that to be a good thing.
The disadvantage to living in a Star Trek universe, one without money: Why do you think Geordi and Harry Kim can't get any? :)
Maybe the Ferengi are onto something. Some things are always going to be scarce . . .
Well, my first school, in about 1968, had outhouses, with drinking water pumped by a windmill. Not everybody in 1950 lived in NYC, not by a long shot. Back then most Americans still lived in rural areas or small towns.
I will agree that 50% sounds high, but it's not as low as you seem to think.