If what authority makes sense, I may do it. If it does not make sense, I won't, unless they have a gun pointed to my head.
What the TSA does makes no sense because:
There is no credible security threat.
It impacts the lives of millions of innocents and makes the airport an unpleasant place to be.
It chews up tax dollars just to go after a paper tiger.
They are so easy to defeat by a real terrorist, anyway.
Well, they hold the gun, and I suppose I will bend over and take it up the @$$ at gunpoint, but it only means that I will seek other means to travel to avoid the airport if at all possible.
Have you forgotten about the Oahkahlomona City Bombing? Or the Unibomber? Or the many times abortion clinics have been bombed or whose workers were shot?
They don't need to recruit. We have enough of our own.
Not seeing a hard-drive is not evidence of explosives. Seeing the outline of explosive is evidence of explosives.
What if I decided to take my hard drive or my CD-ROM out of my laptop for some reason? Is that really sufficient cause for needless harassment?
Besides, how much trouble would it be for someone to fashion an explosive to look like a hard drive, anyway?
Poor excuses for harassing the innocent. This man missed his flight do to the incompetence of the TSA. What if he lost his job over it? It could happen.
Besides, I loathe the "just doing my job" excuse. That excuse has been used so many times as justification for others to harass me. And I'm the one that suffers for it, not they.
Yep, the Nazis were "just doing their jobs" as well, I suppose. As were the soliders in Viet Nam that slaughtered millions of civilians in Viet Nam during that war. Or the troops that blew up innocent villages in Afghanistan during the Afghanistan "war" shortly after 9-11.
Humans are no better than apes if that's the best we can do.
"Just doing my job" at pointing out the truth of the matter.
One of the biggest problems I see with people in this country is that they simply can't mind their own business. They are constantly poking their noses in other people's affairs, disrupting lives and what not.
I sued one such busybody a little while back -- and this was in New England, of all places. The particular busybody in question was Allison Beal, who lived in Stoneham, Mass, at the time. This woman with her elderly father came to a pizza restaurant near where I live, got drunk, and uttered some racist allegations that got ME arrested and in jail for part of the night.
I sued her and won a settlement. But it did leave a very sour taste in my mouth.
Her racist slander turned the entire restaurant against me, which goes to show something about the people in general in this area, and in this country at large.
So perhaps US-America is getting what it deserves. 9-11 occurred because the government itself can't simply mind its own business in geopolitical affairs -- always trying to manipulate other countries and various and nefarious ways. But few called that to attention after the towers fell. I thought that was a fine time for the US to review its "foreign policy" practices -- instead, it use that as an excuse to invade two countries in the Middle East -- countries it had wanted, apparently, to invade all along, but couldn't "justify" it.
So, to the little guy and the big wigs in the US alike, I have one thing and only one thing to say:
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!
You remember the kids in school who caught flies alive and plucked their wings off and watched them struggle while they died? Yup. That's them. At least in my experience.:-(
Must be a part of the job description! I wouldn't even be surprised if one of the questions on their application is "did you EVER pull wings and/or legs off an insect when you were a kid?" All that answer "yes" are hired on the spot!
I also find it amusing that they don't think the Macbook is a "device". Man, these morons have even less brains than I had anticipated.
Wonderful Airport Insecurity. Gotta make you wonder.
I just wonder how much longer must we deal with the TSA? I mean, for the actual "threat" of "terrorism", they are overkill to the max. And are completely useless. All a would-be terrorist would have to do is pick a really busy time to come into the airport, stand in the TSA security line, and blow himself sky-high before he got to the checkpoint. Many would die instantly.
The fact that this has not happened since 9-11 tells me the "terrorism threat" is largely nonexistent.
Some level of caution should be exercised, for sure, but not these insane levels. The actual TSA process would make more people vunerable to the scenario I described above because more people would be concentrated in a small area for greater effect AS WELL AS showing egg on face of the US Insecurity measures.
Meanwhile, 41,000 people die each year on our highways, and no one seems concerned about that. When I drive everyday, I am fully aware of this and watch every car around me like a hawk. Everyday I see nutty drivers dancing with death on the highways, and have seen quite a few nasty accidents as well. Improving road safety would cost far less than the TSA and actually save real lives. And improving road safety is easy -- it begins with educating the idiot drivers or get them off the road altogether.
But then, I expect way too much of my government. Bad me!
You've just gotta love those silly predictions, like "The Extinction Timeline predicts libraries will R.I.P. in 2019." Of course, by 2019 everyone will forget the silly prediction and the brick-and-mortar libraries will still be standing.
Having said that, one of my biggest complaints about public libraries -- in the States, anyway -- are the lack of a good selection of books. I usually find myself hanging out in either college libraries or bookstores like Borders to find a good selection of books to choose from, and I even find Borders and B&N lacking in many areas.
Fortunately, for me at least, I do live near Boston and have ready access to the MIT area, where a lot of great bookstores -- mom-and-pop, university-run, and mega chains -- reside for my savory pickings. Each bookstore has it's distinct "flavor" of selections, and I kinda like that.
On the issue of public libraries, my suggestions on how to save them and make them more relevant to the 21st century:
Remove all restrictions to access. Given the political nature of their funding and control, this may be difficult to achieve. But it's silly to have restrictions in place when you can go to any bookstore or college library without those restrictions.
Have a better selection of books on the bookshelves.
Truly embrace the cafe concept. I mean, have a real cafe there with a selection of good snackables to go along with that.
Nix the Dewey Decimal system and adopt the Library of Congress one. It has always been a mystery to me why public libraries still use that antiquated and outmoded system, fought with many problems.
Well, I could think of more suggestions, but I am overdue for my cafe fix for today!
Well, now you can retreat to the recesses of a cave and be sure to get all the nocturnal winks one desires -- and needs.
I defenestrated the TV long ago. These days, it's my ongoing nasty divorce situation keeping me up at night, and there is nothing much I can do about that. Defenestrating the wife is a difficult thing to do.:-)
"The researchers Dr. Orlin Velev, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and lead author of the paper; Sumit Gangwal, an NC State graduate student; Dr. Olivier Cayre, a post-doctoral researcher in Velev's lab; and Dr. Martin Bazant from Massachusetts Institute of Technology created tiny two-faced gold and plastic particles and applied low frequency alternating current to the water containing the particles. The electric field was of voltage and frequency similar to the ones you'd get if you plugged a device into a socket in your home or office."
What galls me is how they "water-down" even the simplest of details, such as what range of frequencies were used to drive the particles. And I fail to understand what that frequency has anything to do with the 50/60 Hz that comes from your wall socket. Maybe I am missing something here. It would be far more informative to see the range -- in exact numbers -- of frequencies used and where they saw the peak performance, where the performance drops off, etc.
But then, that's my general pet peeve whenever a non-scientist attempts to report on a matter of science. Details are dropped out or distored all over the place. Just to get at even the minimal details I'll have to go to the actual scientifc publications, which, BTW, Eurekalert fails to provide any references or links to.
So, a bit of lousy reporting if you ask me, on something otherwise truly interesting.
"While this move if triggered by this motive is as foolish as burning an entire library just because on a page of one of the books someone has scribbled a couple of words against you,..."
The burning of libraries is nothing new in the sordid history of humanity. How foolish of us to think it wouldn't take on a new form in today's technologically enhanced world.
The problem with having private details of your life exposed are multifarious. You can't always expect to know how the information may be used against you in the future.
One case in point that I often beat to death (among those who know me, of course!) is the case in California, where "Megan's Law" resulted in quite a few gays being put on the list because they were considered "sexual offenders" by an earlier set of laws, and their names remained in files sitting around in the office of the bureaucrats for years.
Do we all have stuff to hide? Yes! But what is wrong with that? Just because we have stuff to hide doesn't mean that it's "illegal" -- just that we don't want the entire world knowing about it as all. People tend to judge you on the basis of their own morality, and their own expectations. If you happen to simply not "fit in", you could be harassed by the very private information on yourself were it to be exposed.
So the whole sneaky argument of "do you have anything to hide" becomes a semantic one, one in which we all
privately answer "yes" to, but because of the implication we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Even the very question is in and of itself an invasion into our privacy. That very question turns privacy upside down and invites further inquiry. Instead, the question should be answered with a question -- the same question -- thrown back at the person asking it. And if said person says "no", then start asking that person really private questions and see how they respond. Questions like, "do you do cunninglingus with your wife" or similar. That act, by the way, is still considered illegal in some states!
So, the truth is, if you are human at all, you have something to hide. That is nothing to be ashamed of. There is nothing wrong with that. Privacy, by its very definition, is all about "hiding" details of your life you don't wish the world to know -- and of course, is nobody's business, anyway.
So, really, the question is really saying "Do you have anything to be private about", and nearly everyone of course will answer "yes" to that. If you have something you wish to keep private, then you have something you wish to keep hidden. Period.
You know, Hitler and Stalin would be mighty proud that the US is developing this despicable high-tech torture technology that could be used to, say, put down war protesters or any other demonstration the government found disfavorable.
And I am always leery when they claim it's "non-lethal". A so-called "non-lethal" gun killed a woman after a ball game in Boston not all that long ago.
Some may criticize my Libertarian stance, but this is a good reason why I am. I am against any government that promotes oppression and torture. It is a sign that the government has grown too large and too powerful, and stands poised to strip us of what few remaining freedoms we have left by these "modern technologies."
Well, we can either site around and let it happen, or we can take action -- assuming it's not too late already.
Well, we can go back and forth forever over semantics and the definition of words, and totally miss the point.
The problems of government cannot be ignored. In Libertarianism, government has a specific function -- basically, to protect us from each other and to protect the country in general from external aggressors. Outside of that, government should but out of our private lives as long as we are not harming anyone against their will.
Yes, I agree, a transition to complete libertarianism overnight would be disastrous for many, but that is not what I am proposing. It would not be any more successful than what the US is doing trying to ram "democracy" down the throats of countries that have never known democracy.
Central to success of Libertarianism is self responsibility. You have to agree that if everyone -- or at least a good majority -- acts responsibly in all things, you'd need far less government than you have today.
Another problem with government is it is next to impossible to eliminate a department/ministry/agency once its instituted and firmly entrenched, even if the need for it goes away. Like a cancer, government has this annoying tendency to grow and grow without bound. And if you've been paying attention, the US government is probably the worst offender with regards to growing new departments, agencies, and bureaucracies without bound. Not to mention the quality of service goes downhill because the extract tax dollars from you and I at gunpoint.
Libertarianism is not anarchy. It is a minimalist approach to government, not the complete elimination of it. There's a huge difference, and there are those who wish to scare you by trying desperately to muddy up the waters on the distinction.
We are all essentially selfish creatures, and we are motivated best by selfish reasons. In all actions that humans choose to do there is always an underlying selfish component, even if it's nothing more than the satisfaction of helping your fellow humans. I freely admit this is what motivates me to help others.
Many fear change and wish to cling to the status quo, because they cannot imagine the alternative. There is a better way, but the better way will never see the light of day because the rank-and-file will fight against it out of fear, clinging even stronger to the status quo, and thus nothing will ever be accomplished.
I propose a solution that I need to work out the details on, but basically it has to do with ending geographic monopolies current governments exerts over us. We must have the freedom to choose association and alligence without having to change our geography. This is a very dangerous idea because nearly all current governments will rail against the notion, but think for a moment of the advantages:
Wars would become infeasible because your own citizens may be living in the land.
Governments would have to actually compete for our citizenship. Think of how much would improve!
Governments all over would have to think more business-like and trim down their bureaucracies to run smoothly and efficiently. No excuses.
If you don't like any of the existing governments, you can always start your own. Or even be stateless.
If a government is misbehaving, simply disassociate without having to move anywhere.
Poverty and the Poor
To address your -- and mine as well -- concerns about the poor and poverty in general, one must look at the root cause of such. Basically, the root problem lies in the very real fact that it is nearly impossible to do subsistence living these days. Everything you own is taxed to death, and even your real estate is taxed annually even after you've paid off the loan. This forces you either to continue to work or secure an income by other means, or to be homeless. The elderly are kicked out of the very homes they've spent a lifetime in for no other reason than not being able to pay the ever-increasing property tax. Is that fair? And wh
While there is some truth in what you state, it's not the entire picture. Also, not all commercial software is so easy to use a monkey could pound his way through it. I have yet to see an "easy to use" 3-D package that didn't require some serious time becoming familiar with the science of creating 3-D animation. I mean, is Maya really that much easier to use than Blender?
A large part of the problem between, say, Photoshop over Gimp is corporate acceptance. It's the same story they used to say about IBM many years ago. Won't be fired if something goes wrong. In a positive-feedback market like software, you will get that every darn time. Just the bias of paying for something vs. "freeware" will always tilt the positive feedback in favor of the commercial product. Linux literally had to sneak in through the back door and was later discovered -- by corporate -- to be more reliable than the accepted OS.
Today there is a much greater acceptance of opensource solutions, but the desktop will remain very stubborn since it affects users that must be retrained and hate change. Windows techs who support them tend to only know Windows products and will favor Microsoft solutions over opensource in most cases, if for no other reason than the strong support they can get with a Microsoft contract.
And here is a challenge for some entreprenurial type who is listening: Create some sort of support organization for the opensource desktop. A number of opensource products, like MySQL, has similar in place and makes $$$$$ for the owners. Come up with a business plan that will cut the TCO of a OpenSource desktop in half over a Microsoft Desktop for your large corporate types, and you'll have it made. One of your big selling points could be how a Linux desktop will be immune by nature to Windows spyware and viruses, and that employees will be less likely to install their own software on such platforms. Upgrading will also be low-cost -- no new license fees from Ubuntu or Fedora, for example. You can also have network-booting desktops to further lower the costs. Older hardware can hang around longer and still be perfectly usable. And on and on.
Well, this one particular "anti-American" has attempted to do quite a bit about it, but have not seen much change. I have spent many years trying to make the US a better place and it's only gotten worse despite my best efforts.
You know, I only have one lifetime and I rather spend the rest of my life having fun than beating my already bloody head against a brick wall.
And yes, I've been considering an exit for some time now. Alas, kids complicates my plans. So I may delay my exit at least until they are all grown up.
We do expect experience, but we are also willing to pay market rates. But the quality of the interviewees have been paltry, to say the least.
On the other hand, I have experimented with "cross-training" with great results. I have trained a seasoned MS SQL guy on MySQL and its going great. Many places refuse to cross-train, so they may be missing out on some great talent.
I would like to think that the majority of people in the US are against war in general. But having done quite a few war protests, I've seen attitudes change since 911. This is obviously very informal and unscientific, but interesting nonetheless to note that around the time the Iraq war began I noticed about a 50/50 split between thumbs up and thumbs down with passers-by. But as time progressed, I noticed the ration increase slowly to more of a 90/10 split.
There were many details that were plainly obvious to anyone paying attention, but not covered by the big news media outlets until much, much later. When they began covering what the rest of us long since knew, only then did the thumbs-up rate began to go up.
In general, it would appear that the vast majority at large are only driven by what they see in the major news outlets, and this is problematic since the major news outlets are very much controlled. It is my conjecture that the Iraq war was only possible because of this level of control.
So when China rises, it will probably come as a shock to many, and we may even see violence against many Chinese-Americans, many of whom have probably never been to China. The Media has hell-power control over how the average joe-blow thinks, mainly because joe-blow in general does not think at all.
As a long-standing Libertarian myself, and NOT a teenager (I am 46), I will have to strongly differ with you. I would not consider myself nor most of my libertarian friends "self-serving" or anything of the sort. However, many of us are simply tired of being harassed by the police, the IRS, the child "protective" services, and on and on, when we've done nothing wrong. We've not harmed anyone, we've not acted irresponsibly, we do not put people in danger or jeopardy, and many of us -- myself included -- actually do things to enhance the community at large positively.
So it makes me angry to see us slammed as "selfish" and "self-serving" when all we want is freedom not only for ourselves, but everyone.
But I guess freedom is becoming a pejorative in these days and times.
Also, I never claimed that Democrats don't care about freedom, especially since I know they do first hand. Indeed, myself and a libertarian friend of mine founded a local peace group, NashuaPeace.org, which we handed off to those more of a Democratic bent to carry forth the candle.
I and other fellow libertarians have done much in our local area to promote peace and freedom and prosperity, so I take strong offense at anyone who would dare suggest we are "self-serving" or "selfish". I personally have put a lot of effort into helping others in the local community, libertarians and non-libertarians alike, atheist and non-atheist alike, etc.
We hackers hated it when the media came in and turned our name into a pejorative -- are you now to do the same to Libertarianism?
I've had my Fios Fibre-optic connection for over a year now, and unlike everything else I've had before -- including Crumcast -- Fios has been fast and trouble-free. I can sustain the 5Mb down and the 2Mb up without a hitch, and I've tested this with BitTorrent, of all things.
It's so good, in fact, that it's been exposing problems with my Netgear Wireless Router RangeMax -- I don't think they'd figured on someone sustaining that kind of bandwidth. So it's time for me to upgrade!!!!!!
If you don't have Fios in your area, SCREAM at Verizon. I mean, I've always despised Verizon up till they delivered on Fios. What a rare occasion for a large otherwise stuck-in-the-mud bureauractic company to -- finally -- get it right. And you can't beat the 5/2 service at $40 a month. I was paying twice that for Crumcast!!!!
Fios TV is avaliable in some areas if you still find anything interesting to watch in that medium. For you lucky chums, you'll be able to nuke Crumcast entirely. No idea how good Fios TV is, since I threw out that particle accelerator long ago...
Slashdot Mirror
If more people are below the mean, that's not much of a mean, now is it? :-)
Don't they learn anything from the training they get? Or is that equally moronic too?
If what authority makes sense, I may do it. If it does not make sense, I won't, unless they have a gun pointed to my head.
What the TSA does makes no sense because:
- There is no credible security threat.
- It impacts the lives of millions of innocents and makes the airport an unpleasant place to be.
- It chews up tax dollars just to go after a paper tiger.
- They are so easy to defeat by a real terrorist, anyway.
Well, they hold the gun, and I suppose I will bend over and take it up the @$$ at gunpoint, but it only means that I will seek other means to travel to avoid the airport if at all possible.They don't need to recruit. We have enough of our own.
Long live Commodore...
What if I decided to take my hard drive or my CD-ROM out of my laptop for some reason? Is that really sufficient cause for needless harassment?
Besides, how much trouble would it be for someone to fashion an explosive to look like a hard drive, anyway?
Poor excuses for harassing the innocent. This man missed his flight do to the incompetence of the TSA. What if he lost his job over it? It could happen.
Besides, I loathe the "just doing my job" excuse. That excuse has been used so many times as justification for others to harass me. And I'm the one that suffers for it, not they.
Yep, the Nazis were "just doing their jobs" as well, I suppose. As were the soliders in Viet Nam that slaughtered millions of civilians in Viet Nam during that war. Or the troops that blew up innocent villages in Afghanistan during the Afghanistan "war" shortly after 9-11.
Humans are no better than apes if that's the best we can do.
"Just doing my job" at pointing out the truth of the matter.
I sued one such busybody a little while back -- and this was in New England, of all places. The particular busybody in question was Allison Beal, who lived in Stoneham, Mass, at the time. This woman with her elderly father came to a pizza restaurant near where I live, got drunk, and uttered some racist allegations that got ME arrested and in jail for part of the night.
I sued her and won a settlement. But it did leave a very sour taste in my mouth.
Her racist slander turned the entire restaurant against me, which goes to show something about the people in general in this area, and in this country at large.
So perhaps US-America is getting what it deserves. 9-11 occurred because the government itself can't simply mind its own business in geopolitical affairs -- always trying to manipulate other countries and various and nefarious ways. But few called that to attention after the towers fell. I thought that was a fine time for the US to review its "foreign policy" practices -- instead, it use that as an excuse to invade two countries in the Middle East -- countries it had wanted, apparently, to invade all along, but couldn't "justify" it.
So, to the little guy and the big wigs in the US alike, I have one thing and only one thing to say:
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!
Must be a part of the job description! I wouldn't even be surprised if one of the questions on their application is "did you EVER pull wings and/or legs off an insect when you were a kid?" All that answer "yes" are hired on the spot!
I also find it amusing that they don't think the Macbook is a "device". Man, these morons have even less brains than I had anticipated.
Wonderful Airport Insecurity. Gotta make you wonder.
I just wonder how much longer must we deal with the TSA? I mean, for the actual "threat" of "terrorism", they are overkill to the max. And are completely useless. All a would-be terrorist would have to do is pick a really busy time to come into the airport, stand in the TSA security line, and blow himself sky-high before he got to the checkpoint. Many would die instantly.
The fact that this has not happened since 9-11 tells me the "terrorism threat" is largely nonexistent.
Some level of caution should be exercised, for sure, but not these insane levels. The actual TSA process would make more people vunerable to the scenario I described above because more people would be concentrated in a small area for greater effect AS WELL AS showing egg on face of the US Insecurity measures.
Meanwhile, 41,000 people die each year on our highways, and no one seems concerned about that. When I drive everyday, I am fully aware of this and watch every car around me like a hawk. Everyday I see nutty drivers dancing with death on the highways, and have seen quite a few nasty accidents as well. Improving road safety would cost far less than the TSA and actually save real lives. And improving road safety is easy -- it begins with educating the idiot drivers or get them off the road altogether.
But then, I expect way too much of my government. Bad me!
There you have it. Homeland Insecurity. A bomb in every laptop. What morons.
Having said that, one of my biggest complaints about public libraries -- in the States, anyway -- are the lack of a good selection of books. I usually find myself hanging out in either college libraries or bookstores like Borders to find a good selection of books to choose from, and I even find Borders and B&N lacking in many areas.
Fortunately, for me at least, I do live near Boston and have ready access to the MIT area, where a lot of great bookstores -- mom-and-pop, university-run, and mega chains -- reside for my savory pickings. Each bookstore has it's distinct "flavor" of selections, and I kinda like that.
On the issue of public libraries, my suggestions on how to save them and make them more relevant to the 21st century:
Well, I could think of more suggestions, but I am overdue for my cafe fix for today!
I defenestrated the TV long ago. These days, it's my ongoing nasty divorce situation keeping me up at night, and there is nothing much I can do about that. Defenestrating the wife is a difficult thing to do. :-)
What galls me is how they "water-down" even the simplest of details, such as what range of frequencies were used to drive the particles. And I fail to understand what that frequency has anything to do with the 50/60 Hz that comes from your wall socket. Maybe I am missing something here. It would be far more informative to see the range -- in exact numbers -- of frequencies used and where they saw the peak performance, where the performance drops off, etc.
But then, that's my general pet peeve whenever a non-scientist attempts to report on a matter of science. Details are dropped out or distored all over the place. Just to get at even the minimal details I'll have to go to the actual scientifc publications, which, BTW, Eurekalert fails to provide any references or links to.
So, a bit of lousy reporting if you ask me, on something otherwise truly interesting.
The burning of libraries is nothing new in the sordid history of humanity. How foolish of us to think it wouldn't take on a new form in today's technologically enhanced world.
One case in point that I often beat to death (among those who know me, of course!) is the case in California, where "Megan's Law" resulted in quite a few gays being put on the list because they were considered "sexual offenders" by an earlier set of laws, and their names remained in files sitting around in the office of the bureaucrats for years.
Do we all have stuff to hide? Yes! But what is wrong with that? Just because we have stuff to hide doesn't mean that it's "illegal" -- just that we don't want the entire world knowing about it as all. People tend to judge you on the basis of their own morality, and their own expectations. If you happen to simply not "fit in", you could be harassed by the very private information on yourself were it to be exposed.
So the whole sneaky argument of "do you have anything to hide" becomes a semantic one, one in which we all
privately answer "yes" to, but because of the implication we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Even the very question is in and of itself an invasion into our privacy. That very question turns privacy upside down and invites further inquiry. Instead, the question should be answered with a question -- the same question -- thrown back at the person asking it. And if said person says "no", then start asking that person really private questions and see how they respond. Questions like, "do you do cunninglingus with your wife" or similar. That act, by the way, is still considered illegal in some states!
So, the truth is, if you are human at all, you have something to hide. That is nothing to be ashamed of. There is nothing wrong with that. Privacy, by its very definition, is all about "hiding" details of your life you don't wish the world to know -- and of course, is nobody's business, anyway.
So, really, the question is really saying "Do you have anything to be private about", and nearly everyone of course will answer "yes" to that. If you have something you wish to keep private, then you have something you wish to keep hidden. Period.
And I am always leery when they claim it's "non-lethal". A so-called "non-lethal" gun killed a woman after a ball game in Boston not all that long ago.
Some may criticize my Libertarian stance, but this is a good reason why I am. I am against any government that promotes oppression and torture. It is a sign that the government has grown too large and too powerful, and stands poised to strip us of what few remaining freedoms we have left by these "modern technologies."
Well, we can either site around and let it happen, or we can take action -- assuming it's not too late already.
I propose a solution that I need to work out the details on, but basically it has to do with ending geographic monopolies current governments exerts over us. We must have the freedom to choose association and alligence without having to change our geography. This is a very dangerous idea because nearly all current governments will rail against the notion, but think for a moment of the advantages:
Poverty and the Poor
To address your -- and mine as well -- concerns about the poor and poverty in general, one must look at the root cause of such. Basically, the root problem lies in the very real fact that it is nearly impossible to do subsistence living these days. Everything you own is taxed to death, and even your real estate is taxed annually even after you've paid off the loan. This forces you either to continue to work or secure an income by other means, or to be homeless. The elderly are kicked out of the very homes they've spent a lifetime in for no other reason than not being able to pay the ever-increasing property tax. Is that fair? And wh
A large part of the problem between, say, Photoshop over Gimp is corporate acceptance. It's the same story they used to say about IBM many years ago. Won't be fired if something goes wrong. In a positive-feedback market like software, you will get that every darn time. Just the bias of paying for something vs. "freeware" will always tilt the positive feedback in favor of the commercial product. Linux literally had to sneak in through the back door and was later discovered -- by corporate -- to be more reliable than the accepted OS.
Today there is a much greater acceptance of opensource solutions, but the desktop will remain very stubborn since it affects users that must be retrained and hate change. Windows techs who support them tend to only know Windows products and will favor Microsoft solutions over opensource in most cases, if for no other reason than the strong support they can get with a Microsoft contract.
And here is a challenge for some entreprenurial type who is listening: Create some sort of support organization for the opensource desktop. A number of opensource products, like MySQL, has similar in place and makes $$$$$ for the owners. Come up with a business plan that will cut the TCO of a OpenSource desktop in half over a Microsoft Desktop for your large corporate types, and you'll have it made. One of your big selling points could be how a Linux desktop will be immune by nature to Windows spyware and viruses, and that employees will be less likely to install their own software on such platforms. Upgrading will also be low-cost -- no new license fees from Ubuntu or Fedora, for example. You can also have network-booting desktops to further lower the costs. Older hardware can hang around longer and still be perfectly usable. And on and on.
You know, I only have one lifetime and I rather spend the rest of my life having fun than beating my already bloody head against a brick wall.
And yes, I've been considering an exit for some time now. Alas, kids complicates my plans. So I may delay my exit at least until they are all grown up.
On the other hand, I have experimented with "cross-training" with great results. I have trained a seasoned MS SQL guy on MySQL and its going great. Many places refuse to cross-train, so they may be missing out on some great talent.
I would like to think that the majority of people in the US are against war in general. But having done quite a few war protests, I've seen attitudes change since 911. This is obviously very informal and unscientific, but interesting nonetheless to note that around the time the Iraq war began I noticed about a 50/50 split between thumbs up and thumbs down with passers-by. But as time progressed, I noticed the ration increase slowly to more of a 90/10 split.
There were many details that were plainly obvious to anyone paying attention, but not covered by the big news media outlets until much, much later. When they began covering what the rest of us long since knew, only then did the thumbs-up rate began to go up.
In general, it would appear that the vast majority at large are only driven by what they see in the major news outlets, and this is problematic since the major news outlets are very much controlled. It is my conjecture that the Iraq war was only possible because of this level of control.
So when China rises, it will probably come as a shock to many, and we may even see violence against many Chinese-Americans, many of whom have probably never been to China. The Media has hell-power control over how the average joe-blow thinks, mainly because joe-blow in general does not think at all.
Not sure where I was going with this. Oh well...
So it makes me angry to see us slammed as "selfish" and "self-serving" when all we want is freedom not only for ourselves, but everyone.
But I guess freedom is becoming a pejorative in these days and times.
Also, I never claimed that Democrats don't care about freedom, especially since I know they do first hand. Indeed, myself and a libertarian friend of mine founded a local peace group, NashuaPeace.org, which we handed off to those more of a Democratic bent to carry forth the candle.
I and other fellow libertarians have done much in our local area to promote peace and freedom and prosperity, so I take strong offense at anyone who would dare suggest we are "self-serving" or "selfish". I personally have put a lot of effort into helping others in the local community, libertarians and non-libertarians alike, atheist and non-atheist alike, etc.
We hackers hated it when the media came in and turned our name into a pejorative -- are you now to do the same to Libertarianism?
It has been a long painful thing watching the US slip behind the rest of the world tech-wise, education-wise, freedom-wise, etc.
I've had my Fios Fibre-optic connection for over a year now, and unlike everything else I've had before -- including Crumcast -- Fios has been fast and trouble-free. I can sustain the 5Mb down and the 2Mb up without a hitch, and I've tested this with BitTorrent, of all things.
It's so good, in fact, that it's been exposing problems with my Netgear Wireless Router RangeMax -- I don't think they'd figured on someone sustaining that kind of bandwidth. So it's time for me to upgrade!!!!!!
If you don't have Fios in your area, SCREAM at Verizon. I mean, I've always despised Verizon up till they delivered on Fios. What a rare occasion for a large otherwise stuck-in-the-mud bureauractic company to -- finally -- get it right. And you can't beat the 5/2 service at $40 a month. I was paying twice that for Crumcast!!!!
Fios TV is avaliable in some areas if you still find anything interesting to watch in that medium. For you lucky chums, you'll be able to nuke Crumcast entirely. No idea how good Fios TV is, since I threw out that particle accelerator long ago...
US policies towards Cuba only works to keep the current regime in power, because they will always be able to say, "see the big bully...!"
Of course, the US cannot expect to take the moral high ground at all, especially with what the US has been doing in Guantanamo Bay all these years.
I for one would like to see that depot of torture to come to an end already.