After I did trucking, and racing, and a few other things, I ended up pre-tripping my daily driver at least once a week. That's called "check fluids, tires, mirrors, seals, etc".
As a result? My vehicle requires FAR less maintenance than it used to. Surprising? Why should it be. Its like the idiots who think guns work like in videogames. Pick up a dusty old rifle that's been hidden in a warehouse for half a century, and pull the trigger. Reminds me of that Lara Croft movie where she picks up the rifle and clicks the empty chamber. Was she stupid enough to think rifles would be shipped A) loaded, and B) chambered and C) that they would fire through a 70 year old, possibly obstructed barrel without exploding in their hands?
The status quo is stupidity and ignorance. I choose not to be part of that. If my friends choose to remain so, I simply negate our "friendship"... I will not be a friend to those whom would not be friends to me. That simple. That easy.
As for other things. Maintenance checks are not that difficult. Most people skip them and bitch when the BIG problem occurs despite having been visible with a mere routine check. Ignorance should be expensive, and stupidity, should, as it does, be ungodly expensive! Same goes for email, virus checks, etc. First, use a clean OS. Secondly, don't download everything marketed as free. Thirdly, don't communicate with people who do this. If they refuse, then you should refuse their messages.
Far too many people associate with losers who bring them down to their level. I've yet to hear of a loser uplifting a winner. Usually the loser wants the other guy to be a loser also... misery and company and all that.
Prime Example: Someone who practices unsafe sex with AIDS patients would be a POOR choice of marital partner to anyone, but try telling that to the stupid or ignorant lazy schmucks out there!
(AIW, this isn't just aimed at you man, I just found your comment a good place to latch this. Feel free to respond. Hopefully insightful remarks... as I would appreciate them, they're rare on slashdot.)
Rather than "evil" or "helplessness" have you tried demanding that all who travel be responsible for themselves and their co-travelers? I.E. do it the old fashioned way. If you're weak, pathetic and can't handle yourselves, travel with those who are. If you demand that you and yours be helpless, don't get upset when nobody else saves your ass when trouble hits.
Pay your way. If you are too weak minded or weak to learn to look out for yourself, then pay someone to do it for you, and accept the consequences of this choice. It will still be cheaper than hiring cops, who, for 30k to 50k a year are supposed to "look out" for you? Only the truly stupid (not ignorant, but truly stupid) would believe anyone would exchange their life or health for a pittance of a salary like that. Cops do it because they like the power, assured defense and prestige. Mercenaries are honest and admit they do it for the paycheck and reputation. Hire a few mercs if you want reliable defense. I've relied on cops on several occasions, and have never had them be on time, not even to ask for a report to be filed. To me they are not worth the return on investment... call it a total loss on my tax money.
Airlines are on their way out, short of being sustained through tax money, they were unsound business behemoths. They are on their way out like oversized dinosaurs and mammals. Useless and incapable of survival when surrounded by smaller more agile hunters. The only thing keeping them alive is government handouts. When governments can't tax enough to pay the interest on what they borrow, they can't pay their bills anymore, and the big airlines are out. Period.
As for being afraid that the evil bad guys will get you, get yourself a few types of weapons, master them, and master your fists and feet as well. Master the one just behind your eyes while you're at it. With proper training, the world stops being so scary, even without jack booted, ninja masked, tax fed thugs to "protect you" to your last dollar.
Live a little man, and stop asking people to protect you, especially those who have NO INTEREST in doing so.
PS - My government, regardless of which country I lived in, has NEVER spoken for me. I used to try to change that, but learned that it is impossible. The pretenses and pretexts change, but those in positions of power have #1 in mind... as do I. Thus I will not pretend that some scumbag has this individual's interests in mind. If we have common interests, I will be glad to call you and I a "we" for that duration. Afterwards, it is back to you and I, for all other endeavors. (That, by the way, is the actual legitimate definition of a "company", in case you were wondering.) Thus, please stop complaining that "we" Americans, started this. I didn't demand ANYONE be checked in their anal cavity. In fact I demanded that nobody be searched and all gun bans on planes and boats be rescinded. Disarming the honest gives the dishonest all the more ability to attack and defraud them with no penalty or risk. These "safety" movements have so far managed to de-claw and de-horn all the honest people. The reduction of their mental faculties didn't help them either. We now have disarmed, dumbed down weaklings, who clamor to be 'the free and the brave'. You cannot be those things until such time that should a bad guy start shit on your plane, even with merely an arm rest (those floating rests) you can gladly beat the snot out of him, hostage or no hostage. Until then, nothing will change, and people will continue to bitch for more safety.
What the fuck?! Everyone wants to live forever... but what kind of lives do they want? The lives we lead today are long, boring, and downright pathetic, multitudes who enjoy better health and wealth than any other previous culture, live in fear of death
And since the oil won't run out, just get more "expensive" to extract, what's the big deal?
The problem is another altogether. The sheeple (even here on the great and "enlightened") slashdot, will clamor for shepherds because their small minds get upset every time something doesn't fit into their world view.
There are plenty of things that "don't make sense" and plenty of things that "don't make sense to a certain world view". Regardless of how we view it, someone else will view it differently. And the vast masses are too busy hating themselves to go outside and try something. This experiment, if slashdot was the haven for enlightened minds, should have been repeated at least a hundred times, and rather than see a flame fest, we should be seeing people comparing notes with the originator or with each other.
Fear not, however, as with any potentially new and potentially world changing (or potentially hoax) invention, if it truly IS what it claims to be or what others claim it to be, it will BECOME a hoax as soon as certain individuals have it proven or developed to the point where unwashed masses (and slashdotters) should not receive such a gift.
Personally, I'm starting to see their point more and more.
The beauty of what you just described is simple. Computers have gotten nearly to the point where further technological increases are mostly necessary for e-peen bragging rather than actual needs. There is nothing, gaming, or actual serious work related that any of my 2.0 ghz rigs cannot do. Hell, with Linux, even my old 1200 mhz thunderbird is OVERKILL. Short of compile time and other time intensive tasks, extra cycles is just wasted electrical charge.
There was a fellow by the name of R. Buckminster Fuller, mentioned and predicted that technology would become invisible, as would successful businesses. We are seeing the beginning of that. He also predicted the death of the Industrial Age. We are seeing that also. He died in 1983, before he could see his predictions come true. To truly enter the "information" age, we will need to each understand that collectives are doomed to fail the majority of their members, because collectives are still collective groups of individuals... suppressed individuals, to be sure, but still such. In the so called information age, each is responsible for him or herself. Dr. Fuller called it the "coming age of integrity."
I am waiting to see.
A note here, I came accross Dr. Fuller's work, speeches and predictions (not to mention private patents) long after his death, and long after I made my own predictions about technology to similar effects (sadly I discovered that while I had come to those conclusions, others had beaten me there.) I do, however, believe that technology will require invisibility to become ubiquitous, and through ubiquity it will become less visible, but by the same principle, a lot of the work done by the user, should be given over to the hardware (driver installs, syncing, communication, etc) and by the same token, the user should, if willing, have FULL control over the features in question. This way, hard core geeks, nerds and their ilk can still control their hardware fully, while those less inclined can still get the intended use of the device without requiring skills beyond average, or even none at all.
Take the telephone. Invisible to the naked eye? No, but through ubiquity and ease of use, the back end is invisible, and telephone grids are pretty much uninterrupted at this point. Nobody gets dropped calls on land lines anymore, and everyone has some form of land line phone in their home. Cell phones are heading that way also. Common protocol in human mating (read: dating) is to get a phone number or give one. We take this for granted, yet only 100 years ago, phones didn't even exist, and people sent letters via couriers. Couriers got robbed, misplaced, had accidents, opened the mail, were intercepted by governments for espionage/surveillance purposes, or many other things. Nowadays, even in Zimbabwe, or Sri Lanka, you can pick up the phone and call someone. So while I may think of invisibility in different terms than Linus, or Dr. Fuller, I do agree that as machines have become more ubiquitous, and the Open Firmware groups are getting more work done, sooner or later, driver installs will be a thing of the past.
OSS has been a fantastic stepping stone towards this goal.
One can only ask this question. Have the governments of the world and their confiscatory policies of taxation and prohibition, and policy of granted monopolies been a "driving force" behind the improvements in technology, or has this technology (open source, etc) been able to flourish "DESPITE" the abuses and roadblocks imposed by governing forces? In other words, do we owe the government that we can talk on the phone, or to intelligent and inventive individuals who came up with the phone? Do we owe governments the ability to go into space, or have they stood in the path of multitudes of individuals outside of their own overpriced programs who might have reached outer space with purposes and endeavors OTHER than oppression and war? There are more questions, but I don't have the desire to write a novel here on slashdot.
Actually, he seems to be more clear thought than you.
He's saying "aim for as much security as you can get" not "aim for 100% impregnable", there is no such thing. Even Open BSD isn't impregnable, despite their claims. Nothing is impregnable to a determined and resourceful attacker.
He is correct in saying, "rather than bunkering up, strive to be indigestible to AS many potential predators and parasites as you can"... i.e. he is admitting the one fact of the universe... "there is an exception to every rule, just because you haven't found it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist somewhere else, in some form.
The arrow through the roof, for those with the intellectual openness to understand the metaphor is an unlikely incident, but if it does happen, what then. Peter is using that concept, to teach those willing to learn/understand, that for a car to be 100% impregnable, it would have to be arrow, bullet, cannon, nuclear weapon, weather and everything proof, including driver and other driver error proof, road proof, etc. However, the COSTS involved, and the final results are out of reach of even the rich, would make for a rather heavy, expensive and CLUMSY vehicle, and judging by risk, the benefits would far outweigh the costs. Its like flu shots. I travel, talk, do meetings, etc. I get sick very rarely, yet I see so many immediately taking "flu vaccines" out of fear that the flu will kill them. I've never had a relative who either died of the flu or had complications. Neither have I known anyone in my personal life who had these complications, and I have associates who have lived in first, second as well as third world scenarios.
Thus, in similar vein, driver training gives better results than building the bullet proof car. Don't surf porn with internet explorer is FAR better advice than installing the latest antispyware, and "don't accept email except in plaintext format" is far better advice than trying to balance a proper load of antivirus (which the user might not allow to update, or might become broken, etc). There have been plenty of virus samples that hijacked the latest Symantec and McAfee antivirus, why? Because they tried to be everything to everyone, and when you over extend your coverage, you end up leaving holes in your defenses.
Properly trained users is like having the original Citizen Militia, not truly powerful, but if properly trained in guerilla warfare and survival, and properly equipped, they can make ANY invading army's life, VERY difficult, to the point where the invading country finds the "host" or "prey" country to be "indigestible."
Nothing is unassailable, but plenty of plants are poisonous to their consumers, so as to make it a known thing that they are indigestible. The one size fits all solution, from antivirus, to security departments, to everything else, is STILL the same age old problem. No risk can be reduced to 0%. But it can be minimized and compensated for. This is what Peter talks about.
Its disappointing, I expected that those frequenting this board would've had the ability to apply metaphors in design. Good book for all to read. The Art of War. Get it bundled with The Prince. Good way to learn how to think.
So you're telling me that medication made you capable of performing your single track life that you lead since you were little.
Ironically, I got out of comp sci because I realized it wasn't a good fit for me. Sure I was good at it, I even liked the feeling of superiority it gave me in comp sci classes. But it bored me to tears and was going to give me a good reason to suicide when it got outsourced... so I avoided all that and went to live life. I found I prefered engineering in the real world, and almost all kinds of real building, real design and real life. I still do a bit of Info. Tech., but I avoid working for others, even if it means I'll someday have to eat Ramen for years on end to prepare the field for a new business.
Does that mean that my life is the fit all miraculous equation and psychologists will force it down your throat? I hope not. In fact, I hope you stay happy as you say you are, and continue to take your medication, and I hope the vast masses will continue to take meds in order to live unfulfilling, even "boring" lives. I don't want employees and serfs and those who require drugs to follow a path that bores them silly, to populate the world... but when you wish for a path, I will NOT be the one that tells you that you can do better. By all means I will enable you to do what you wish or at least not restrict you from it. Even if that means putting your own chains on and keeping them there. If it makes you and 90% of the masses feel better... I have NO desire to deny you your happiness.
As a result, however, I think your large and verbose account, reminds me of my own life when I tried to force myself to fit a certain "mold" of "good employee". Certainly good employees are good to have, and for those made happy by it, its not a bad thing. However, most will even take drugs to remain a "good employee" even if that isn't a good enough fit for them. These are people who never live up to any of their potential, or find that so elusive "true happiness" because they continue to look only forward, and fail to check out the periphery of their lives. Chances are you deliberately avoided checking your periphery and continued only the path you follow now... chances are you missed out, deliberately or subconsciously, on many forks in your life. Take heed that I am NOT berating you for making mistakes, merely asking you the question... "if you had to even take drugs to stay with comp sci or comp engineering or the like, are you SURE that you are doing something that you find worth doing? At the end of your life, will you feel like you've lived a life worth living again?"
Again, I am not saying the life you lead may be good nor bad, I'm sure my life, with its constant ups and downs would be ill fit for those who feel badly under stress, but I enjoy every moment of it. To me it is an adventure worth undertaking. Even if the end is painful, the trip will have well been worth the finale. I'm sure to most, it will not be worth it, and to SOME it will actually be too "boring" (because their lives are even more strange and risky than my own.) But these choices are what make or break one's life and its enjoyment. If you find a 9-5 comp sci teacher's "job" fulfilling, then by all means continue to take the drugs and follow that path. Just make sure it is truly what you want. I spent 40 grand in college before I realized comp sci was a bore and I didn't like it (not just because it did not suit my personality, but it was just utterly a boring grind.) Up to you man. Up to you. Period.
***
As for keeping eye contact. We call that being able to "feign interest". Technically, its more of the same. You're lying to yourself and the other guy. An honest man would demand the strong and weak points of the topic and then drop the conversation. I have a friend who consistently demands that I get to the point of topics whenever I start getting mired in minutia. By t
And yet, as all newer technologies become licensed through the clamoring of the stupid and ignorants among the vast masses (stupid and ignorant themselves), government WILL be involved, and WILL have control of these technologies, leading to a worse than Gattaca-esque environment. This is because the vast masses want government control, want safety, security and all but freedom. As a result they get EXACTLY what they asked for, and then get upset.
That's what I find peculiar. As soon as they "discover" that the old adage "not everyone is wired the same way", they immediately declare these people "damaged" or "worthless". Such is the fate of those who entrust their families to the cookie cutter society... they get a cookie cutter family, and if it doesn't fit the mold, its declared "defective."
Case in point, you have certain so called "flaws", but also talents in other areas. Every last one of us does, but most keep trying to fit the idiotic mold of society, that they miss out on where their talents would be best placed. Whether you blame genes, parental upbringing, childhood experiences or chemicals in your diet, the pedigree means far less than what is done with it.
I congratulate you on benefitting from your strongpoints, and not letting your weaker points take you down. There truly is little reason to let the crooks and liars shape your life. Ten years from now they will once again discover that the research in a certain direction was paid by certain people. Live your life, enjoy it, and let the crooks sell to other suckers.:)
Interesting. So you mean to tell me that I'm going to be more likely to do evil? Interesting, I seem to be among the last minority of polite people. I generally pack, unless I have a bodyguard 24/7, and I happen to not have one. I've moved to a more semi-rural area and then rural, and found that the more people packed, openly or not, the more polite they were likely to be.
The rule of thumb is always, when you are strong, and powerful, even on a small scale, you feel less need to be rude, because you already know you wield enough power to solve any problems that can be caused by others abusing theirs. I.E. remove force from the equation of persuasion. Reason and force are the only two to use. You can reason or force someone. Most socialists prefer force, so long as THEY don't have to be the ones using it (cowards, in other words.) Most individualists tend not to resort to force immediately. At least most of the ones I met. Why not? As Heinlein put it, "an armed society, is a polite society."
I prefer to enhance that... "an Enlightened and Armed society is a Polite society."
If you bother to improve yourself, before fighting hard to improve your financial means, all things will come to you. I learned this back in the days when I was seeking myself. I tried to change the world until these last few years, when I simply let go, and began to live my life. You know what my observation has been? I changed MY circumstances, and everything around me ALSO changed. Without me lifting a finger. I surrounded myself with better quality people, and suddenly I have less headaches. Rule #1... ALWAYS change yourself before changing the world. Its the missing rule for socialists and authoritarians of all stripes. They think that by forcing change upon others, they will somehow "fix" the world. The world has been as it is for aeons. Do you truly think you can "change" it? Do you not think that such an opinion is a slight bit... "ignorant"? I've been in your shoes, fighting, campaigning, trying to "change the world" to "disarm society" and other crap. And then thugs cased my place, cops didn't come, thugs kicked in my door, cops didn't come. Only thing that saved my life or at least my physical integrity, was the fact that I had enough presence of mind to realize that I couldn't engage a half dozen thugs with a hand to hand weapon. I had no prior intelligence on their abilities or their armaments... to engage them would've been Hollywood bravado, and a sure fire way to die. I, however, unlike many, have several escape plans for my residence, in case I am assaulted, even though I do pack, I prefer NOT to engage my opponents, unless I am offered no other choice. But I have no delusions that "society" will help me. Society never did, and I've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes (after tax refunds) and I got NO service for it. Please excuse me while I refuse to believe in your illusion that my paying for cops is or "social services" will make me safer. It hasn't, and it won't. Not now, not ever, and I harbor no delusions.
Actually a solar powered burst teslacoil could do wonders for a cheap cost (all your electronics, etc), even on EM shielded variants that are soon to appear. I'm not sure if those will use mica, since mica is a bit rare and expensive at this point, but makes a phenomenal radiation shield for bunkers and paranoid individuals (more paranoid than I, methinks).
Incorrect. Authority as it is today, if you bother to read the Common Law documents since its early roots in England (and a few other places) they all state that authority is in the INDIVIDUAL MAN, but he DELEGATES IT... (capitalized are important terms you should look up in their original form) to others, in GOOD FAITH, until such time as that GOOD FAITH is VIOLATED.
The LAW, comes from YOU, ME, and everyone else. Government was meant as an arbiter everyone could agree upon. So far, they have VIOLATED that GOOD FAITH. Perhaps the realization that letting the fools burn themselves is a good thing, will come in time.
I find your statements interesting, because most people externalize their own faults to others. For example, someone who has never lived in a dangerous neighborhood will extoll the values of the police state, I should know, I've been like you, long long ago, years ago, in fact. Someone who has, will tell you that your first enemy is the thugs, your second enemy is the enemy of the thugs, aka the crooked cops. Both will abuse you. But at least the thugs do it for free, and you can kill them in self defense. The crooked cops are an army, and will kill you with far greater ease, and no one will hold them liable, nor have the power to do so (since cops and judges back each other up, call it a collusion of interests.)
There is no enemy to crime, like a healthy and vibrant economy. And no, governments don't create, nor protect, healthy vibrant economies, they never have. Wherever government gets confiscatory and begins to tax its inhabitants, the economy shrivels, crime rises, and tyranny rises with it. Government can HELP a healthy economy by making sure nobody else messes with it either, but it does not help the participants in a healthy economy by taxing them and starting "economic health" projects. Whenever government has gotten involved in running the economy, failure was a sure thing. Wherever it stayed out of people's business and wallets, success was guaranteed. Look around the world, if you want examples. (And stop trusting Hollywood to give you an accurate world report. Hollywood would let you believe the cops are always good AND ON TIME... there is always a savior when judges or cops do what is human and look out for number one... but in real life, none of those things are true, each is responsible for himself or herself. No more, no less.)
I would love to see a small area come under the sway of "informed consensual accord" rules, but I wager there aren't enough people who actually want to live without being depredated by others "for their own good."
Oh well, to each his own, and it seems the majority wants tyranny, so I say, let them rot in the bed they've made for themselves. I plan to sleep elsewhere.
Before I retired (yes, I'm mostly retired now), I used to donate 12 to 20k a year in taxes to "cops" and their ilk. I find it pointless to actually donate anything else to them. If they couldn't do well with the money they took through their income tax frauds and state tax frauds and municipal tax frauds, then they were the most financially incompetent beings on the planet.
I advocate arming yourself for protection against ANY thug who would take something from you by force. How and when to use your force to defend yourself is YOUR prerogative and exclusively at YOUR discretion.
Exactly what I said. Here's a presumed example:
If someone were to dump poison chemicals in your water supply, YOU would be their greatest threat.
Government is a paper tiger to all but the law abiding. You and me stand to get shafted since we're lawful and honest (I make a big presumption here), but the REAL crooks, murderers, thugs, robbers and terrorists do not require permission, nor wait to be busted. Patsies and honest people do. Real evil people rarely get caught, and generally they get caught by an attentive passersby.
I find this to be an ironic thing but I believe that Australia is a land on its own, socialized and gun controlled and socially controlled, and yet full of "individualistic Aussies". As always, Australia is on its own out there. However, aside from the Aussies, we have the rest of the world, even my former homeland. The Commies got "free" and their education plummeted, as they borrowed high levels of stupidity and illiteracy from the Free West. The Free West borrowed all the tyrannical methodology of the old Communists, and put it to good use. Ironically it is the West that will suffer the most, because until now, the West borrowed lots of trained and skilled (and talented) people from the East (eastern Europe to be exact). Hell even the jet engine is owed to a Romanian scientist, that only engineers are familiar with. Most breakthroughs have come from enlightened minds that fled the Soviet encroachment, but brought the top notch training they received in the maths and sciences to the West. This influx of well trained individuals will cease, now that those countries are no longer the personnel production plants that the West used to depend on. All those who were imported as immigrants were mostly quality people, or at least skilled assholes. One way or another, they improved this country. Now that the West is teetering, many of these people have stayed behind. Especially since jobs were outsourced their way, so they didn't have to risk being interdicted while fleeing their homelands.
The fall of the Berlin wall was supposed to make the West as well educated as the East and the East as "free" and "prosperous" as the West. Irony intervened here, at its best, in a cosmic sense.
What I mean by that is obvious, the West teeters on the verge of financial collapse, and has been in recession since 2001 (where outright depression was avoided through the masterful and timely occurence of 9/11, regardless of who did it or why, and the remarkably well implemented energy and finance sinks that were the Afghani and Iraqi Police Actions (they aren't Wars, regardless of who tells you they are). They averted the looming financial disaster masterfully, even if the future depression will be all that much harder to weather. The system needed a reboot, but it has been patched and kept online for a few more years. Gods help us when it finally crashes.
Heh heh... First Aid is not a requirement for a "driver's" license out here, but then again, neither is knowing how to actually safely control the damn vehicle.
Had the insurance companies run the licensing program, instead of lobbying the government to do it, we might have FAR stricter licensing exams and far more rigorous training courses.
I don't know if you are aware of that little sweet gem, that the insurance companies lobbied for state/federal run licensing schemes to offset their own costs here in the USA. Not sure how it came to pass in western europe, though eastern europe was simply because the government was communist in most of those countries and thus it WAS the insurance company AND the licensing company.
But yes, skill at operating a vehicle is not truly necessary after taking the exam, during which a minimum of operating skill is required to actually pass. Strangely, the same can be said of trucking (of which I've done a bit) other than the fact that trucking requires that you know what you are doing, since wrecking a 200k USD tractor tends to leave you forever unemployed in that field (since neither trucking firms nor shippers will be willing to put you in a truck or hand you their loads for you to possibly wreck, they would sooner hire ex felons, than someone with a truck wreck on their record.) That being said, the number of wrecks I've seen are usually caused by sleepless truckers (very rare) or idiot car drivers (very common) who try to climb under a tractor trailer and take a look at the poor bastard's rear suspensions.
Police, of course, always blames the trucker. Regardless of who's guilty, the burden of proof often is left on the trucker, and if he doesn't have enough expensive equipment (cameras, turn signal sensors, radar/collision alert, etc) he's shit out of luck. That and the insane taxes and bureaucracy is why I got out of it, I figured I was better off getting out with a perfect record and no legal issues, rather than risking it, the roads are getting CRAZY out there.
How many times have you been abused (robbed under color of law/authority) by a cop? How many times have you been attacked by an idiot with a gun (other than a cop or "official" agent)??
How many times has a mannered man with a pistol on his hip and NO symbol of "authority" ever drawn and fired at you (without you trespassing in his home or otherwise initiating some form of unprovoked aggression against him)? I wager none... but who knows?
And speaking of your declaration, how do you know you're a non criminal? Have any of your past hobbies been declared criminal? Do any of them run that risk? Do any activities you've ever partaken in, now carry a legal penalty? Things change, and government gets bigger. Never smaller. Sooner or later you'll be a criminal too. Even if its a ticket for expired tags, or driving 2 mph faster than the "speed limit", preferably in a speed trap (as those are used SOLELY for the raising of revenue from their hapless victims), you will eventually be a "criminal."
You have to ask yourself, why are you afraid of "mad gunmen" when they kill LESS people, even on their most bloody years, than UL tested household wares!! Sheesh man, you should really double check your fears. You should fear getting in your car FAR more than you fear gunmen. As for the gunmen, get your own and some training, you'll find yourself far less afraid of guns afterwards.
I actually spent some of my youth (truly misspent if you ask me) in the public school system, and it didn't teach me how to "coexist with nitwits" it only taught me how to "obey instructions," which doesn't create a healthy human being, only a properly mentally damaged slave. You know, the kind who isn't aware of the mental and emotional chains he's been shackled with since kindergarten.
Anything processed on their machines becomes something they have a stake in, and something they KNOW about, in INTIMATE detail. Nothing runs on my machines with my permission without me knowing something about it. I have a pretty good feeling that the federales are no different. If they're giving out access, you can guarantee that THEY are ALSO getting access to the data that is getting crunched. Wouldn't want any breakthroughs to go to the free market rather than to the strangulated market run by the government, would ya? I mean damn, some inventor might get it into his head to benefit from his own invention. How dare those damn inventors do that? Don't they know that ANY work they do is to benefit mankind, and not themselves?!
So the government found a solution. Donate some of those tax dollars that they take by force each year, in such a way that they will have a stake in any technological breakthroughs that they cannot confiscate and silence outright.
Hey, big surprise. At least they try to keep it reasonably legit. On the soviet side, they would've appropriated your invention ANYWAYS, and given you a wooden plaque and named an institute for you (if your invention was life changing for enough of the masses)... otherwise you'd get a free vacation to the nearest gulag.
I spent 15 minutes reading a first aid manual when I was a kid. Amazing how much of the "medical help learned in America's Army" is just common sense and first aid basics. That ANYONE above the age of 12, in a CIVILIZED FIRST WORLD COUNTRY, would LACK THESE SKILLS, tells me all I need to know about how "educated" and "enlightened" westerners truly are as compared to how much they THINK they are.
Sheesh. Keeping wounds above heart level keeps the blood from spurting out as rapidly. That's basic physics mixed with basic anatomy or first aid. These were actually taught in 4th to 7th grade in most of the eastern block commie countries not that long ago. In the meanwhile they've "westernized" also. In other words, they now attend twice as much school and get half as much education. IMHO, its all the more reason to teach your own kids, presuming, of course, that you've got some actual knowledge to impart and can offer them a good start in the experience that is life and didn't just breed pointlessly as most humans today do.
Actually the monstrosity SUV with too high a Center of Gravity is its own issue, the IDIOT WHO BOUGHT IT HOLDS HIMSELF TO BLAME! Stop blaming he who offers, and blame the moron who purchases the Piece of Crap, Overpriced, Underperforming urban junker!
Sheesh, we really need to stop holding the seller responsible and start putting the blame on the scumbags who enable them, aka their goddamn wallet voters. As long as people keep buying them, the desire to build an underperforming piece of on road crap, is impossible to rein in.
No amount of laws will stop stupidity. What we need are LESS laws, and MORE responsibility. Responsibility will not occur until the safety net of government backup disappears. Then, and ONLY then will "illegal immigration", shitty products, dangerous foods and other such ridiculous things disappear. The only fear a criminal has, is someone OTHER than a cop who draws a gun. That or a lynch mob. Cops have yet to stop crime. Courts have yet to stop crime. Gulags and prison camps have yet to stop crime. Only individuals and groups who refuse to be victimized have stopped crime, quite literally, dead in its tracks.
Actually, after they broke the stage1 install, I walked off from gentoo, but until then, I ran a local repository alongside my debian and bsd ones.
Most of my "work" is now done off of a Linux From Scratch setup (though with less patches than their actual versions). Quite useful... even if it isn't an official distro anymore (my version of LFS that is.)
Brilliant comment, I'd mod you up if I had points.
But not only that, but the Hindenburg had a NAME... it was "unique" as was the Titanic (how many steam ships sank, how many ships sink today, compared to how many planes wreck?).
It wasn't the fact that they were rarities, and there were plenty of survivors. It was that they had names and were memorable, movies were made, books were written.
They were patronized by a variety of big names of their age. Some, (like Astor and some of his high class acquaintances) died in those wrecks (Titanic to be precise), but who, of any reputation as a big banker or hotel mogul died on the nameless flights that crash yearly? Exactly. Death tolls are higher, but the quality of people killed is far less interesting. Usually just faceless, nameless John and Jane Does. Hence nobody gives a damn or pays heed to jet liner crashes. TWA got some press for themselves, as did United and a few others back in September 2001. But nobody remembers the names of the planes except the fanatical worshippers of the 9/11 cult (could be that the planes didn't even have memorable sounding NUMBERS, nevermind "names"). The Hindenburg everyone can remember because it was an oddity, as was its destruction. Same goes for the Titanic.
So lets recap, nameless ships, nameless victims, nobody gives a fuck. Named Ships, Named Victims, you suddenly have a terror filled movie and book deal waiting in the wings.
So the question then becomes, why are you allowing yourself to be deceived into thinking "Government By Others Through Force And Fraud" is something you're willing to fight for (and likely willing to die on someone else's whim, as all who fight for others eventually do)? More precisely, when you get the shaft rather than the payoff, why are you so hard and hell bent on fighting for them and enforcing these ideas even more? I mean, I can understand if you hadn't been shafted by the crooks in charge, that you might give them "the benefit of the doubt", but when the shaft gets rammed up your collective asses, each and every election, why remain a collectivist and fight for the politicians? I am failing to understand this.
Any serious or logical reason other than usual half-brained excuse of "we *need* the politicians because only they build the roads with 10% of the loot and stuff the other 90% in their own pockets" ??
Slashdot Mirror
After I did trucking, and racing, and a few other things, I ended up pre-tripping my daily driver at least once a week. That's called "check fluids, tires, mirrors, seals, etc".
As a result? My vehicle requires FAR less maintenance than it used to. Surprising? Why should it be. Its like the idiots who think guns work like in videogames. Pick up a dusty old rifle that's been hidden in a warehouse for half a century, and pull the trigger. Reminds me of that Lara Croft movie where she picks up the rifle and clicks the empty chamber. Was she stupid enough to think rifles would be shipped A) loaded, and B) chambered and C) that they would fire through a 70 year old, possibly obstructed barrel without exploding in their hands?
The status quo is stupidity and ignorance. I choose not to be part of that. If my friends choose to remain so, I simply negate our "friendship"... I will not be a friend to those whom would not be friends to me. That simple. That easy.
As for other things. Maintenance checks are not that difficult. Most people skip them and bitch when the BIG problem occurs despite having been visible with a mere routine check. Ignorance should be expensive, and stupidity, should, as it does, be ungodly expensive! Same goes for email, virus checks, etc. First, use a clean OS. Secondly, don't download everything marketed as free. Thirdly, don't communicate with people who do this. If they refuse, then you should refuse their messages.
Far too many people associate with losers who bring them down to their level. I've yet to hear of a loser uplifting a winner. Usually the loser wants the other guy to be a loser also... misery and company and all that.
Prime Example: Someone who practices unsafe sex with AIDS patients would be a POOR choice of marital partner to anyone, but try telling that to the stupid or ignorant lazy schmucks out there!
(AIW, this isn't just aimed at you man, I just found your comment a good place to latch this. Feel free to respond. Hopefully insightful remarks... as I would appreciate them, they're rare on slashdot.)
Rather than "evil" or "helplessness" have you tried demanding that all who travel be responsible for themselves and their co-travelers? I.E. do it the old fashioned way. If you're weak, pathetic and can't handle yourselves, travel with those who are. If you demand that you and yours be helpless, don't get upset when nobody else saves your ass when trouble hits.
Pay your way. If you are too weak minded or weak to learn to look out for yourself, then pay someone to do it for you, and accept the consequences of this choice. It will still be cheaper than hiring cops, who, for 30k to 50k a year are supposed to "look out" for you? Only the truly stupid (not ignorant, but truly stupid) would believe anyone would exchange their life or health for a pittance of a salary like that. Cops do it because they like the power, assured defense and prestige. Mercenaries are honest and admit they do it for the paycheck and reputation. Hire a few mercs if you want reliable defense. I've relied on cops on several occasions, and have never had them be on time, not even to ask for a report to be filed. To me they are not worth the return on investment... call it a total loss on my tax money.
Airlines are on their way out, short of being sustained through tax money, they were unsound business behemoths. They are on their way out like oversized dinosaurs and mammals. Useless and incapable of survival when surrounded by smaller more agile hunters. The only thing keeping them alive is government handouts. When governments can't tax enough to pay the interest on what they borrow, they can't pay their bills anymore, and the big airlines are out. Period.
As for being afraid that the evil bad guys will get you, get yourself a few types of weapons, master them, and master your fists and feet as well. Master the one just behind your eyes while you're at it. With proper training, the world stops being so scary, even without jack booted, ninja masked, tax fed thugs to "protect you" to your last dollar.
Live a little man, and stop asking people to protect you, especially those who have NO INTEREST in doing so.
PS - My government, regardless of which country I lived in, has NEVER spoken for me. I used to try to change that, but learned that it is impossible. The pretenses and pretexts change, but those in positions of power have #1 in mind... as do I. Thus I will not pretend that some scumbag has this individual's interests in mind. If we have common interests, I will be glad to call you and I a "we" for that duration. Afterwards, it is back to you and I, for all other endeavors. (That, by the way, is the actual legitimate definition of a "company", in case you were wondering.) Thus, please stop complaining that "we" Americans, started this. I didn't demand ANYONE be checked in their anal cavity. In fact I demanded that nobody be searched and all gun bans on planes and boats be rescinded. Disarming the honest gives the dishonest all the more ability to attack and defraud them with no penalty or risk. These "safety" movements have so far managed to de-claw and de-horn all the honest people. The reduction of their mental faculties didn't help them either. We now have disarmed, dumbed down weaklings, who clamor to be 'the free and the brave'. You cannot be those things until such time that should a bad guy start shit on your plane, even with merely an arm rest (those floating rests) you can gladly beat the snot out of him, hostage or no hostage. Until then, nothing will change, and people will continue to bitch for more safety.
What the fuck?! Everyone wants to live forever... but what kind of lives do they want? The lives we lead today are long, boring, and downright pathetic, multitudes who enjoy better health and wealth than any other previous culture, live in fear of death
And since the oil won't run out, just get more "expensive" to extract, what's the big deal?
The problem is another altogether. The sheeple (even here on the great and "enlightened") slashdot, will clamor for shepherds because their small minds get upset every time something doesn't fit into their world view.
There are plenty of things that "don't make sense" and plenty of things that "don't make sense to a certain world view". Regardless of how we view it, someone else will view it differently. And the vast masses are too busy hating themselves to go outside and try something. This experiment, if slashdot was the haven for enlightened minds, should have been repeated at least a hundred times, and rather than see a flame fest, we should be seeing people comparing notes with the originator or with each other.
Fear not, however, as with any potentially new and potentially world changing (or potentially hoax) invention, if it truly IS what it claims to be or what others claim it to be, it will BECOME a hoax as soon as certain individuals have it proven or developed to the point where unwashed masses (and slashdotters) should not receive such a gift.
Personally, I'm starting to see their point more and more.
The beauty of what you just described is simple. Computers have gotten nearly to the point where further technological increases are mostly necessary for e-peen bragging rather than actual needs. There is nothing, gaming, or actual serious work related that any of my 2.0 ghz rigs cannot do. Hell, with Linux, even my old 1200 mhz thunderbird is OVERKILL. Short of compile time and other time intensive tasks, extra cycles is just wasted electrical charge.
There was a fellow by the name of R. Buckminster Fuller, mentioned and predicted that technology would become invisible, as would successful businesses. We are seeing the beginning of that. He also predicted the death of the Industrial Age. We are seeing that also. He died in 1983, before he could see his predictions come true. To truly enter the "information" age, we will need to each understand that collectives are doomed to fail the majority of their members, because collectives are still collective groups of individuals... suppressed individuals, to be sure, but still such. In the so called information age, each is responsible for him or herself. Dr. Fuller called it the "coming age of integrity."
I am waiting to see.
A note here, I came accross Dr. Fuller's work, speeches and predictions (not to mention private patents) long after his death, and long after I made my own predictions about technology to similar effects (sadly I discovered that while I had come to those conclusions, others had beaten me there.) I do, however, believe that technology will require invisibility to become ubiquitous, and through ubiquity it will become less visible, but by the same principle, a lot of the work done by the user, should be given over to the hardware (driver installs, syncing, communication, etc) and by the same token, the user should, if willing, have FULL control over the features in question. This way, hard core geeks, nerds and their ilk can still control their hardware fully, while those less inclined can still get the intended use of the device without requiring skills beyond average, or even none at all.
Take the telephone. Invisible to the naked eye? No, but through ubiquity and ease of use, the back end is invisible, and telephone grids are pretty much uninterrupted at this point. Nobody gets dropped calls on land lines anymore, and everyone has some form of land line phone in their home. Cell phones are heading that way also. Common protocol in human mating (read: dating) is to get a phone number or give one. We take this for granted, yet only 100 years ago, phones didn't even exist, and people sent letters via couriers. Couriers got robbed, misplaced, had accidents, opened the mail, were intercepted by governments for espionage/surveillance purposes, or many other things. Nowadays, even in Zimbabwe, or Sri Lanka, you can pick up the phone and call someone. So while I may think of invisibility in different terms than Linus, or Dr. Fuller, I do agree that as machines have become more ubiquitous, and the Open Firmware groups are getting more work done, sooner or later, driver installs will be a thing of the past.
OSS has been a fantastic stepping stone towards this goal.
One can only ask this question. Have the governments of the world and their confiscatory policies of taxation and prohibition, and policy of granted monopolies been a "driving force" behind the improvements in technology, or has this technology (open source, etc) been able to flourish "DESPITE" the abuses and roadblocks imposed by governing forces? In other words, do we owe the government that we can talk on the phone, or to intelligent and inventive individuals who came up with the phone? Do we owe governments the ability to go into space, or have they stood in the path of multitudes of individuals outside of their own overpriced programs who might have reached outer space with purposes and endeavors OTHER than oppression and war? There are more questions, but I don't have the desire to write a novel here on slashdot.
We can each argue what we wish. I will check out your recommendation. Thanks for the tip.
Actually, he seems to be more clear thought than you.
He's saying "aim for as much security as you can get" not "aim for 100% impregnable", there is no such thing. Even Open BSD isn't impregnable, despite their claims. Nothing is impregnable to a determined and resourceful attacker.
He is correct in saying, "rather than bunkering up, strive to be indigestible to AS many potential predators and parasites as you can"... i.e. he is admitting the one fact of the universe... "there is an exception to every rule, just because you haven't found it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist somewhere else, in some form.
The arrow through the roof, for those with the intellectual openness to understand the metaphor is an unlikely incident, but if it does happen, what then. Peter is using that concept, to teach those willing to learn/understand, that for a car to be 100% impregnable, it would have to be arrow, bullet, cannon, nuclear weapon, weather and everything proof, including driver and other driver error proof, road proof, etc. However, the COSTS involved, and the final results are out of reach of even the rich, would make for a rather heavy, expensive and CLUMSY vehicle, and judging by risk, the benefits would far outweigh the costs. Its like flu shots. I travel, talk, do meetings, etc. I get sick very rarely, yet I see so many immediately taking "flu vaccines" out of fear that the flu will kill them. I've never had a relative who either died of the flu or had complications. Neither have I known anyone in my personal life who had these complications, and I have associates who have lived in first, second as well as third world scenarios.
Thus, in similar vein, driver training gives better results than building the bullet proof car. Don't surf porn with internet explorer is FAR better advice than installing the latest antispyware, and "don't accept email except in plaintext format" is far better advice than trying to balance a proper load of antivirus (which the user might not allow to update, or might become broken, etc). There have been plenty of virus samples that hijacked the latest Symantec and McAfee antivirus, why? Because they tried to be everything to everyone, and when you over extend your coverage, you end up leaving holes in your defenses.
Properly trained users is like having the original Citizen Militia, not truly powerful, but if properly trained in guerilla warfare and survival, and properly equipped, they can make ANY invading army's life, VERY difficult, to the point where the invading country finds the "host" or "prey" country to be "indigestible."
Nothing is unassailable, but plenty of plants are poisonous to their consumers, so as to make it a known thing that they are indigestible. The one size fits all solution, from antivirus, to security departments, to everything else, is STILL the same age old problem. No risk can be reduced to 0%. But it can be minimized and compensated for. This is what Peter talks about.
Its disappointing, I expected that those frequenting this board would've had the ability to apply metaphors in design. Good book for all to read. The Art of War. Get it bundled with The Prince. Good way to learn how to think.
So you're telling me that medication made you capable of performing your single track life that you lead since you were little.
Ironically, I got out of comp sci because I realized it wasn't a good fit for me. Sure I was good at it, I even liked the feeling of superiority it gave me in comp sci classes. But it bored me to tears and was going to give me a good reason to suicide when it got outsourced... so I avoided all that and went to live life. I found I prefered engineering in the real world, and almost all kinds of real building, real design and real life. I still do a bit of Info. Tech., but I avoid working for others, even if it means I'll someday have to eat Ramen for years on end to prepare the field for a new business.
Does that mean that my life is the fit all miraculous equation and psychologists will force it down your throat? I hope not. In fact, I hope you stay happy as you say you are, and continue to take your medication, and I hope the vast masses will continue to take meds in order to live unfulfilling, even "boring" lives. I don't want employees and serfs and those who require drugs to follow a path that bores them silly, to populate the world... but when you wish for a path, I will NOT be the one that tells you that you can do better. By all means I will enable you to do what you wish or at least not restrict you from it. Even if that means putting your own chains on and keeping them there. If it makes you and 90% of the masses feel better... I have NO desire to deny you your happiness.
As a result, however, I think your large and verbose account, reminds me of my own life when I tried to force myself to fit a certain "mold" of "good employee". Certainly good employees are good to have, and for those made happy by it, its not a bad thing. However, most will even take drugs to remain a "good employee" even if that isn't a good enough fit for them. These are people who never live up to any of their potential, or find that so elusive "true happiness" because they continue to look only forward, and fail to check out the periphery of their lives. Chances are you deliberately avoided checking your periphery and continued only the path you follow now... chances are you missed out, deliberately or subconsciously, on many forks in your life. Take heed that I am NOT berating you for making mistakes, merely asking you the question... "if you had to even take drugs to stay with comp sci or comp engineering or the like, are you SURE that you are doing something that you find worth doing? At the end of your life, will you feel like you've lived a life worth living again?"
Again, I am not saying the life you lead may be good nor bad, I'm sure my life, with its constant ups and downs would be ill fit for those who feel badly under stress, but I enjoy every moment of it. To me it is an adventure worth undertaking. Even if the end is painful, the trip will have well been worth the finale. I'm sure to most, it will not be worth it, and to SOME it will actually be too "boring" (because their lives are even more strange and risky than my own.) But these choices are what make or break one's life and its enjoyment. If you find a 9-5 comp sci teacher's "job" fulfilling, then by all means continue to take the drugs and follow that path. Just make sure it is truly what you want. I spent 40 grand in college before I realized comp sci was a bore and I didn't like it (not just because it did not suit my personality, but it was just utterly a boring grind.) Up to you man. Up to you. Period.
***
As for keeping eye contact. We call that being able to "feign interest". Technically, its more of the same. You're lying to yourself and the other guy. An honest man would demand the strong and weak points of the topic and then drop the conversation. I have a friend who consistently demands that I get to the point of topics whenever I start getting mired in minutia. By t
And yet, as all newer technologies become licensed through the clamoring of the stupid and ignorants among the vast masses (stupid and ignorant themselves), government WILL be involved, and WILL have control of these technologies, leading to a worse than Gattaca-esque environment. This is because the vast masses want government control, want safety, security and all but freedom. As a result they get EXACTLY what they asked for, and then get upset.
That's what I find peculiar. As soon as they "discover" that the old adage "not everyone is wired the same way", they immediately declare these people "damaged" or "worthless". Such is the fate of those who entrust their families to the cookie cutter society... they get a cookie cutter family, and if it doesn't fit the mold, its declared "defective."
:)
Case in point, you have certain so called "flaws", but also talents in other areas. Every last one of us does, but most keep trying to fit the idiotic mold of society, that they miss out on where their talents would be best placed. Whether you blame genes, parental upbringing, childhood experiences or chemicals in your diet, the pedigree means far less than what is done with it.
I congratulate you on benefitting from your strongpoints, and not letting your weaker points take you down. There truly is little reason to let the crooks and liars shape your life. Ten years from now they will once again discover that the research in a certain direction was paid by certain people. Live your life, enjoy it, and let the crooks sell to other suckers.
aggressive, paranoid people...
Interesting. So you mean to tell me that I'm going to be more likely to do evil? Interesting, I seem to be among the last minority of polite people. I generally pack, unless I have a bodyguard 24/7, and I happen to not have one. I've moved to a more semi-rural area and then rural, and found that the more people packed, openly or not, the more polite they were likely to be.
The rule of thumb is always, when you are strong, and powerful, even on a small scale, you feel less need to be rude, because you already know you wield enough power to solve any problems that can be caused by others abusing theirs. I.E. remove force from the equation of persuasion. Reason and force are the only two to use. You can reason or force someone. Most socialists prefer force, so long as THEY don't have to be the ones using it (cowards, in other words.) Most individualists tend not to resort to force immediately. At least most of the ones I met. Why not? As Heinlein put it, "an armed society, is a polite society."
I prefer to enhance that... "an Enlightened and Armed society is a Polite society."
If you bother to improve yourself, before fighting hard to improve your financial means, all things will come to you. I learned this back in the days when I was seeking myself. I tried to change the world until these last few years, when I simply let go, and began to live my life. You know what my observation has been? I changed MY circumstances, and everything around me ALSO changed. Without me lifting a finger. I surrounded myself with better quality people, and suddenly I have less headaches. Rule #1... ALWAYS change yourself before changing the world. Its the missing rule for socialists and authoritarians of all stripes. They think that by forcing change upon others, they will somehow "fix" the world. The world has been as it is for aeons. Do you truly think you can "change" it? Do you not think that such an opinion is a slight bit... "ignorant"? I've been in your shoes, fighting, campaigning, trying to "change the world" to "disarm society" and other crap. And then thugs cased my place, cops didn't come, thugs kicked in my door, cops didn't come. Only thing that saved my life or at least my physical integrity, was the fact that I had enough presence of mind to realize that I couldn't engage a half dozen thugs with a hand to hand weapon. I had no prior intelligence on their abilities or their armaments... to engage them would've been Hollywood bravado, and a sure fire way to die. I, however, unlike many, have several escape plans for my residence, in case I am assaulted, even though I do pack, I prefer NOT to engage my opponents, unless I am offered no other choice. But I have no delusions that "society" will help me. Society never did, and I've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes (after tax refunds) and I got NO service for it. Please excuse me while I refuse to believe in your illusion that my paying for cops is or "social services" will make me safer. It hasn't, and it won't. Not now, not ever, and I harbor no delusions.
Actually a solar powered burst teslacoil could do wonders for a cheap cost (all your electronics, etc), even on EM shielded variants that are soon to appear. I'm not sure if those will use mica, since mica is a bit rare and expensive at this point, but makes a phenomenal radiation shield for bunkers and paranoid individuals (more paranoid than I, methinks).
Interesting times, indeed.
Incorrect. Authority as it is today, if you bother to read the Common Law documents since its early roots in England (and a few other places) they all state that authority is in the INDIVIDUAL MAN, but he DELEGATES IT... (capitalized are important terms you should look up in their original form) to others, in GOOD FAITH, until such time as that GOOD FAITH is VIOLATED.
The LAW, comes from YOU, ME, and everyone else. Government was meant as an arbiter everyone could agree upon. So far, they have VIOLATED that GOOD FAITH. Perhaps the realization that letting the fools burn themselves is a good thing, will come in time.
I find your statements interesting, because most people externalize their own faults to others. For example, someone who has never lived in a dangerous neighborhood will extoll the values of the police state, I should know, I've been like you, long long ago, years ago, in fact. Someone who has, will tell you that your first enemy is the thugs, your second enemy is the enemy of the thugs, aka the crooked cops. Both will abuse you. But at least the thugs do it for free, and you can kill them in self defense. The crooked cops are an army, and will kill you with far greater ease, and no one will hold them liable, nor have the power to do so (since cops and judges back each other up, call it a collusion of interests.)
There is no enemy to crime, like a healthy and vibrant economy. And no, governments don't create, nor protect, healthy vibrant economies, they never have. Wherever government gets confiscatory and begins to tax its inhabitants, the economy shrivels, crime rises, and tyranny rises with it. Government can HELP a healthy economy by making sure nobody else messes with it either, but it does not help the participants in a healthy economy by taxing them and starting "economic health" projects. Whenever government has gotten involved in running the economy, failure was a sure thing. Wherever it stayed out of people's business and wallets, success was guaranteed. Look around the world, if you want examples. (And stop trusting Hollywood to give you an accurate world report. Hollywood would let you believe the cops are always good AND ON TIME... there is always a savior when judges or cops do what is human and look out for number one... but in real life, none of those things are true, each is responsible for himself or herself. No more, no less.)
I would love to see a small area come under the sway of "informed consensual accord" rules, but I wager there aren't enough people who actually want to live without being depredated by others "for their own good."
Oh well, to each his own, and it seems the majority wants tyranny, so I say, let them rot in the bed they've made for themselves. I plan to sleep elsewhere.
By all means. I'm paranoid, and you're gullible. What's the difference, in the long run, I wonder?
Before I retired (yes, I'm mostly retired now), I used to donate 12 to 20k a year in taxes to "cops" and their ilk. I find it pointless to actually donate anything else to them. If they couldn't do well with the money they took through their income tax frauds and state tax frauds and municipal tax frauds, then they were the most financially incompetent beings on the planet.
I advocate arming yourself for protection against ANY thug who would take something from you by force. How and when to use your force to defend yourself is YOUR prerogative and exclusively at YOUR discretion.
Exactly what I said. Here's a presumed example:
If someone were to dump poison chemicals in your water supply, YOU would be their greatest threat.
Government is a paper tiger to all but the law abiding. You and me stand to get shafted since we're lawful and honest (I make a big presumption here), but the REAL crooks, murderers, thugs, robbers and terrorists do not require permission, nor wait to be busted. Patsies and honest people do. Real evil people rarely get caught, and generally they get caught by an attentive passersby.
I find this to be an ironic thing but I believe that Australia is a land on its own, socialized and gun controlled and socially controlled, and yet full of "individualistic Aussies". As always, Australia is on its own out there. However, aside from the Aussies, we have the rest of the world, even my former homeland. The Commies got "free" and their education plummeted, as they borrowed high levels of stupidity and illiteracy from the Free West. The Free West borrowed all the tyrannical methodology of the old Communists, and put it to good use. Ironically it is the West that will suffer the most, because until now, the West borrowed lots of trained and skilled (and talented) people from the East (eastern Europe to be exact). Hell even the jet engine is owed to a Romanian scientist, that only engineers are familiar with. Most breakthroughs have come from enlightened minds that fled the Soviet encroachment, but brought the top notch training they received in the maths and sciences to the West. This influx of well trained individuals will cease, now that those countries are no longer the personnel production plants that the West used to depend on. All those who were imported as immigrants were mostly quality people, or at least skilled assholes. One way or another, they improved this country. Now that the West is teetering, many of these people have stayed behind. Especially since jobs were outsourced their way, so they didn't have to risk being interdicted while fleeing their homelands.
The fall of the Berlin wall was supposed to make the West as well educated as the East and the East as "free" and "prosperous" as the West. Irony intervened here, at its best, in a cosmic sense.
What I mean by that is obvious, the West teeters on the verge of financial collapse, and has been in recession since 2001 (where outright depression was avoided through the masterful and timely occurence of 9/11, regardless of who did it or why, and the remarkably well implemented energy and finance sinks that were the Afghani and Iraqi Police Actions (they aren't Wars, regardless of who tells you they are). They averted the looming financial disaster masterfully, even if the future depression will be all that much harder to weather. The system needed a reboot, but it has been patched and kept online for a few more years. Gods help us when it finally crashes.
Heh heh... First Aid is not a requirement for a "driver's" license out here, but then again, neither is knowing how to actually safely control the damn vehicle.
Had the insurance companies run the licensing program, instead of lobbying the government to do it, we might have FAR stricter licensing exams and far more rigorous training courses.
I don't know if you are aware of that little sweet gem, that the insurance companies lobbied for state/federal run licensing schemes to offset their own costs here in the USA. Not sure how it came to pass in western europe, though eastern europe was simply because the government was communist in most of those countries and thus it WAS the insurance company AND the licensing company.
But yes, skill at operating a vehicle is not truly necessary after taking the exam, during which a minimum of operating skill is required to actually pass. Strangely, the same can be said of trucking (of which I've done a bit) other than the fact that trucking requires that you know what you are doing, since wrecking a 200k USD tractor tends to leave you forever unemployed in that field (since neither trucking firms nor shippers will be willing to put you in a truck or hand you their loads for you to possibly wreck, they would sooner hire ex felons, than someone with a truck wreck on their record.) That being said, the number of wrecks I've seen are usually caused by sleepless truckers (very rare) or idiot car drivers (very common) who try to climb under a tractor trailer and take a look at the poor bastard's rear suspensions.
Police, of course, always blames the trucker. Regardless of who's guilty, the burden of proof often is left on the trucker, and if he doesn't have enough expensive equipment (cameras, turn signal sensors, radar/collision alert, etc) he's shit out of luck. That and the insane taxes and bureaucracy is why I got out of it, I figured I was better off getting out with a perfect record and no legal issues, rather than risking it, the roads are getting CRAZY out there.
How many times have you been abused (robbed under color of law/authority) by a cop? How many times have you been attacked by an idiot with a gun (other than a cop or "official" agent)??
How many times has a mannered man with a pistol on his hip and NO symbol of "authority" ever drawn and fired at you (without you trespassing in his home or otherwise initiating some form of unprovoked aggression against him)? I wager none... but who knows?
And speaking of your declaration, how do you know you're a non criminal? Have any of your past hobbies been declared criminal? Do any of them run that risk? Do any activities you've ever partaken in, now carry a legal penalty? Things change, and government gets bigger. Never smaller. Sooner or later you'll be a criminal too. Even if its a ticket for expired tags, or driving 2 mph faster than the "speed limit", preferably in a speed trap (as those are used SOLELY for the raising of revenue from their hapless victims), you will eventually be a "criminal."
You have to ask yourself, why are you afraid of "mad gunmen" when they kill LESS people, even on their most bloody years, than UL tested household wares!! Sheesh man, you should really double check your fears. You should fear getting in your car FAR more than you fear gunmen. As for the gunmen, get your own and some training, you'll find yourself far less afraid of guns afterwards.
I actually spent some of my youth (truly misspent if you ask me) in the public school system, and it didn't teach me how to "coexist with nitwits" it only taught me how to "obey instructions," which doesn't create a healthy human being, only a properly mentally damaged slave. You know, the kind who isn't aware of the mental and emotional chains he's been shackled with since kindergarten.
Sad but shamefully true.
Anything processed on their machines becomes something they have a stake in, and something they KNOW about, in INTIMATE detail. Nothing runs on my machines with my permission without me knowing something about it. I have a pretty good feeling that the federales are no different. If they're giving out access, you can guarantee that THEY are ALSO getting access to the data that is getting crunched. Wouldn't want any breakthroughs to go to the free market rather than to the strangulated market run by the government, would ya? I mean damn, some inventor might get it into his head to benefit from his own invention. How dare those damn inventors do that? Don't they know that ANY work they do is to benefit mankind, and not themselves?!
So the government found a solution. Donate some of those tax dollars that they take by force each year, in such a way that they will have a stake in any technological breakthroughs that they cannot confiscate and silence outright.
Hey, big surprise. At least they try to keep it reasonably legit. On the soviet side, they would've appropriated your invention ANYWAYS, and given you a wooden plaque and named an institute for you (if your invention was life changing for enough of the masses)... otherwise you'd get a free vacation to the nearest gulag.
Of course it is, and a time sink to boot.
I spent 15 minutes reading a first aid manual when I was a kid. Amazing how much of the "medical help learned in America's Army" is just common sense and first aid basics. That ANYONE above the age of 12, in a CIVILIZED FIRST WORLD COUNTRY, would LACK THESE SKILLS, tells me all I need to know about how "educated" and "enlightened" westerners truly are as compared to how much they THINK they are.
Sheesh. Keeping wounds above heart level keeps the blood from spurting out as rapidly. That's basic physics mixed with basic anatomy or first aid. These were actually taught in 4th to 7th grade in most of the eastern block commie countries not that long ago. In the meanwhile they've "westernized" also. In other words, they now attend twice as much school and get half as much education. IMHO, its all the more reason to teach your own kids, presuming, of course, that you've got some actual knowledge to impart and can offer them a good start in the experience that is life and didn't just breed pointlessly as most humans today do.
Actually the monstrosity SUV with too high a Center of Gravity is its own issue, the IDIOT WHO BOUGHT IT HOLDS HIMSELF TO BLAME! Stop blaming he who offers, and blame the moron who purchases the Piece of Crap, Overpriced, Underperforming urban junker!
Sheesh, we really need to stop holding the seller responsible and start putting the blame on the scumbags who enable them, aka their goddamn wallet voters. As long as people keep buying them, the desire to build an underperforming piece of on road crap, is impossible to rein in.
No amount of laws will stop stupidity. What we need are LESS laws, and MORE responsibility. Responsibility will not occur until the safety net of government backup disappears. Then, and ONLY then will "illegal immigration", shitty products, dangerous foods and other such ridiculous things disappear. The only fear a criminal has, is someone OTHER than a cop who draws a gun. That or a lynch mob. Cops have yet to stop crime. Courts have yet to stop crime. Gulags and prison camps have yet to stop crime. Only individuals and groups who refuse to be victimized have stopped crime, quite literally, dead in its tracks.
Actually, after they broke the stage1 install, I walked off from gentoo, but until then, I ran a local repository alongside my debian and bsd ones.
Most of my "work" is now done off of a Linux From Scratch setup (though with less patches than their actual versions). Quite useful... even if it isn't an official distro anymore (my version of LFS that is.)
Brilliant comment, I'd mod you up if I had points.
But not only that, but the Hindenburg had a NAME... it was "unique" as was the Titanic (how many steam ships sank, how many ships sink today, compared to how many planes wreck?).
It wasn't the fact that they were rarities, and there were plenty of survivors. It was that they had names and were memorable, movies were made, books were written.
They were patronized by a variety of big names of their age. Some, (like Astor and some of his high class acquaintances) died in those wrecks (Titanic to be precise), but who, of any reputation as a big banker or hotel mogul died on the nameless flights that crash yearly? Exactly. Death tolls are higher, but the quality of people killed is far less interesting. Usually just faceless, nameless John and Jane Does. Hence nobody gives a damn or pays heed to jet liner crashes. TWA got some press for themselves, as did United and a few others back in September 2001. But nobody remembers the names of the planes except the fanatical worshippers of the 9/11 cult (could be that the planes didn't even have memorable sounding NUMBERS, nevermind "names"). The Hindenburg everyone can remember because it was an oddity, as was its destruction. Same goes for the Titanic.
So lets recap, nameless ships, nameless victims, nobody gives a fuck. Named Ships, Named Victims, you suddenly have a terror filled movie and book deal waiting in the wings.
So the question then becomes, why are you allowing yourself to be deceived into thinking "Government By Others Through Force And Fraud" is something you're willing to fight for (and likely willing to die on someone else's whim, as all who fight for others eventually do)? More precisely, when you get the shaft rather than the payoff, why are you so hard and hell bent on fighting for them and enforcing these ideas even more? I mean, I can understand if you hadn't been shafted by the crooks in charge, that you might give them "the benefit of the doubt", but when the shaft gets rammed up your collective asses, each and every election, why remain a collectivist and fight for the politicians? I am failing to understand this.
Any serious or logical reason other than usual half-brained excuse of "we *need* the politicians because only they build the roads with 10% of the loot and stuff the other 90% in their own pockets" ??