Nah, that whole generation, IMHO, were misunderstood. I agree though, about the whole bouncing from job to job. My father used to fire his employers, (aka, walk out in a huff) until eventually he went and started his own companies. The commies told him "no way" so he moved to America and did his own thing (and thus he no longer had to quit every time some boss pissed him off). I think a certain bit of genius or whatever that trait is, involves being unable or rather, unwilling to surrender, or give in to adversity.
Everyone says "oh yeah, only the rulers are to blame."
Seriously, I disagree, and I'm sure I'll be in the minority, because it seems insight into these things always gets lost when the going is good, all the way up until shit hits the fan, then all the fools come back asking "why didn't anyone warn us?! Why did those who made it through okay not warn us, those greedy bastards!"
Mao Tse Dun was capable of his butchery not because he single handedly carried out the "cultural revolution" in China, but because plenty of Chinese "folks" were "just doing their jobs."
In the USSR, during Lenin's time and all the way through Stalin and up to Nikita Hruschev, the butcheries, the pogroms, and the gulag work was carried out by Russians, many of them actually JEWS (yes, butchering their own "brethren") and yet, everyone blamed the rulers, not those "folks" who by "just doing their jobs", were the real murderers and enablers.
In Fascist Italy, everyone blames Mussolini the dictator, but nobody noticed that it was his BlackShirts that carried out the orders, not Mussolini himself. He would have had a hard time doing all that he did without willing murderers , ahem, I mean "folks" there to "just do their jobs."
How about the long forgotten Japanese butchery in China and Eastern Asia during World War II? Was it Emperor Hirohito's fault? Hell the Emperor was one of the few voices for peace in the whole cabinet. Was the cabinet to blame? How about all those willing Japanese "folks" who eagerly threw their lives into the fray so they could "just do their jobs."
We can always make a quick stop in Nazi Germany. Was it Hitler, or Himmler, or even Goering or Goebbels that were to blame? Was it the bankers? No, these men took advantage of human willingness to "be folks" "just doing their jobs." It was the "ostrich trait" that "ordinary folks" apply when "just doing their jobs", especially jobs that involve violating the very boundaries that define other men and women, traits like dignity, respect, honor, honesty, integrity.
Unquestioning obedience, stupidity, docility or servility does not make you forgiven for those sins you commit while violating the rights of others. If you treat innocents and honest men like slaves, if you violate their dignity, when the time comes to pay the piper, the only one you have to blame is yourself, and the only one you'll have to answer to is yourself, not some holy mystic God, or some fiery sword wielding angels or any such stuff. Your most difficult judge will be yourself. Granted the vast majority don't care until years later when they can't sleep after "just doing their jobs", but there is always that first one to say "no thanks, I'll find another job."
I like one thing. If "freedom" were a server of any type, there is no shortage of unclaimed accounts on the whole "freedom" server. Practically so few want to claim accounts, that it is a lag free, crash proof server. I should probably be happy and stop asking others to join up. The other players might get upset... and frankly, I'm soon going to stop posting on here because I have, weeks ago, learned what i needed to know, but I keep hoping I might find a few others. Heh, that ancient Pandora's Curse, the worst of all the plagues she unleashed from that box... Hope, futile, pointless, Hope.
You sound like my dad, only he doesn't use a cane and he DID work on those punch card systems... he still reminisces about it and had that EXACT attitude when I showed him some of my OOP work in college, he asked me "where's the workflow, where's your goto's and breaks? what's all this mess?"
Granted he was from a generation that could use that "poor coding practice" of "goto's" and the like to go to the moon (presuming the naysayers are wrong:)... while the current generation can't even turn the damn TV off long enough to think for themselves... perhaps gates was right about that.... 640K is all you ever need, if you're not filling it up with pictures of Britney and the latest American Idol's nudie pics.
And this is coming from a defender of the free market and devout believer in its virtues, but since Microsoft has largely benefited from partnering up with other large manufacturers of hardware and assemblers of said parts into systems to be sold, it would not be that hard to believe that they designed to a certain market level.
I.E.... "here you go gentlemen, the standard system you are able to use is X Ghz, and X Gigabytes of DDR 1600, anything less than that will be obsolete by the first service pack anyways, so get crackin'!!"
Linux people and most of the OSS folks (Unix as well) have been server dedicated systems for a long time, and built on a robust or rather "efficient" (perhaps a better term is "effective"?) platform. As a result, they've been building to extract as many cycles and memory space as possible for use by client applications, not the Host Operating System.
As a result, Microsoft has it in its best interests to PUSH the upgrade cycle. If they can be depended to push the upgrade cycle to keep selling new boxes, the retail computer builders will continue to give Microsoft the plugs and keep shipping their OS as the "default" or "preferred" or "Supported" Operating System for their Big Bad Ass Kicking Rigs (tm).
The plane needs to generate enough vertical thrust, or lift, or a combination thereof, to keep itself at least cruising level. The moment the push of the air rushing above the plane produces more downward push than the lift produced by the plane and its surfaces/airflow below, that plane will start heading downwards. Using motors to stay afloat will require some real innovative designs and a high degree of "perpetual machine" syndrome, since keeping a heavy piece of metal up in the air requires either lots of momentum or lots of upward thrust... and fuel has this really crappy tendency to... well, you know... run out.
A little bit more on that: --They will either give out research grants until a workable prototype proves viable. --They will give out military contracts, bid or no bid.
The amusing thing is, and what no "average citizen of the world", American, British or otherwise, seems to get through their thick skulls, is that generally, the only low key and sure fire public approved way for the government to keep inflating the currency at astronomical rates, without talking about it, is to go adventuring abroad, or spend massively on military and social programs at home.
I know what you mean, it just irks me that people actually believe "the Jews" or any other major group is behind it.
Sure, Israel is a hybrid Marxist Jewish Theocracy, sure the quiet consent and sometimes gushing adulation which the average Jews give to their rulers (and not just Jews, but also Catholics, Protestant Christians and even Muslims are notorious for this herd mentality, in varying degrees) certainly makes the Jews (and every other authority worshiping system of belief) seem complicit, but those who are in charge, most certainly owe no particular loyalty to any dogma or doctrine.
The reason they are in charge, in fact, is due to the fact that they CAN manipulate dogma and faith in their favor and consistently create situations that closely resemble various prophesized events from the dogmas that the majority of the masses fall sucker for.
Sort of reminds me of watching Apocalypto, at that crucial scenario where the captured villagers are getting carved up by the Mayan death priest (historically it should have been Aztec, but we can blame it on artistic tinge) so that Kukulkan might "give the people a sign that his thirst for blood is sated and he will release the rains once more" (to end the drought they were apparently having), and just then, WHAM an eclipse occurs. Which of course, to those of us familiar with the various Meso-American cultures, would have been obvious. These "elites" had access to the entirety of their culture's wealth of information on astronomical events, patterns in nature and solar system, sky charts, codices (most of which was recorded as being destroyed or carted off by the invading Catholics) and whatever else may have been lost in the process.
Being able to "cause the gods to give a sign" would be merely a matter of manipulating local politics in such way as to make the politics fit in with known natural events or patterns. This is not as difficult as some might believe. Especially if the rulers are intelligent enough, but can play dumb well enough to fit in with the "mass man" mentality. This is not that hard to believe, because, judging by the bovine credulity of the "mass man" mindset, it is to be EXPECTED that the truly intelligent individual or group of individuals would eventually take advantage of the bovine credulity and rather than built robots, they would merely get the bovine masses to do their bidding for them, and provide endless entertainment in the process. (Slave girls (or boys), whether willing or resisting of advances and attentions, would most certainly appeal to the emperor than a mere robot or rubber doll.)
Yes, it is getting to the point where I'm surprised Atlas hasn't completely Shrugged, but I guess it will take another election cycle or another 9/11 to either get total fascism, or a total collapse when Atlas Shrugs and nobody wants to work for the government (produce taxable "income") anymore.
As I recall the sonic boom is produced by the motion of an object through air at faster than sound speeds.
Its the same reason that bullets have that crack that movie goers have come to believe is the sound of a "gun shot", when it is really the sound of a sonic boom from a minuscule object travelling between one and three times the speed of sound (called "sonic crack" in the gun culture in America, not sure what the Europeans call it, can't be much different.)
Thus, I doubt the engine can mitigate the fact that a huge volume of air is being compressed and moved at very high speeds. Sure, some will get sucked in, but the very principle of the angle of attack on a wing (wing shape, profile, etc) and of the fuselage will end up causing some sort of sonic boom. Sure, the engine in a ramjet or scramjet might suck in some air but that will not mitigate the fact that air is rushing around and "below" the plane, which part will be observable as sonic boom to the ground based observer. The compression shockwave is heard from below, but is also present in different degrees to all sides of the plane/projectile from all angles in which air is being compressed out of the way, or sucked in to fill in the vacuum created by the passage of the object.
Of course materials will have to advance further, and not just structural components (which might well strip off the plane or warp at speeds too far past a few Mach) but new fuel mixtures will have to be worked out. This was similar to the requirement to add Cesium to current fighter plane fuel along with a few other rare elements to raise its flash point. Experimental planes blowing up because the fuel overheated or certain electronics received more heat than they could tolerate is nothing new, but the production models will obviously have to have gotten past that point when they roll out:)
I wager this technology has been near perfected sometime ago, but as with all things, it was probably kept back to be used in case of sagging sales due to rights abuses at airports (Atlas has Shrugged, and it is visible in that people are avoiding airports now because of the downright abusive behaviors of the TSA and federal shock troops there to protect us from incompetent unshaven twits with box cutters and toothpaste.
Seriously, this will be the carrot on a stick to dissuade people from using other less regulated means of transportation. Obviously L.O.S.T. was ratified recently in Congress to restrict private sea travel... now only warships and those with "permission papers" will be "allowed" to travel, and who knows what else is coming. Free travel is becoming far less so.
Now... lets see here... sure, the war has been used to destroy more collateral than actually "win" a war, because its not a war, its a "police action" (that's what undeclared wars are).
Now that we're done with that clarification. These kids dying, are useful idiots thinking they're honest patriots (and in their minds they are), however, in 2008, when "you win", which "you" probably will, so to speak, your Democraps will be no different than the Rethuglicans. I'm willing to lay down cash on a wager that if the Democrats win... they will not even TOUCH Bush or his family.
Perhaps you missed the fact that Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush (daddy) vacation together. Its like the WWF Pro Wrestling... on screen they're deathly enemies, off screen they're friends who party together.
Some day you suckers will get it. But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting:) Asphyxiation is a crappy way to suicide.
That was a perfectly legitimate comment... especially given the tendency of governments worldwide to legislate the competition out of business, or confiscate or hijack a beneficial process through legislation or taxation.
Personally I think that fellow should be marked +5 Insightful... but who are we kidding. The only people still using mod points to slam down insightful remarks are usually collectivist shills.
The only way to get "like minded people elected" is to get together in Galt's Gulch. It will never happen "out here".
No like minded people (to me) will ever run for office. Sure, some will be branded as such, but they have become easy to see through (or I have become very good at seeing through them, not sure which). Why would one of my peers spend his life in a perpetual infliction of tyranny, in the hopes that some day, he gets elected to the ultimate spot for tyranny, and then make some pretense of changing the system. The only people who get elected are "selected" and the funniest part is that when they don't play ball, they get to pull "a Kennedy". Remember JFK? His great sin was threatening to shut down the CIA for being an "un-American den of snakes and corruption" or some such thing. That and he wouldn't even sign the spending bill for that anti-communist (but not pro-freedom, mind you) police action in Vietnam. So he lost his head (or part of it) and his successor signed the spending bill immediately and kept his head.
No politician who values his life or that of his family and friends can actually abolish a single one of the tyrannical institutions currently running the world from the shadows. No parasite can remove its own species habit for parasitism... and politicians are parasites, not a single one inside the system will ever stop that system from doing what it does and make it do what it does not.
Yes, the bond movie in question was actually Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life...
The flying squirrel suit thing I'll buy. That is not "news", but I'm glad someone mentioned that the technology is improving. Once people can land without needing a parachute (and without losing any limbs while doing so), I'll buy myself one:)
And yet you still buy their falsely advertised and tainted product willingly?
Do you not find this a bit strange? Its not like Canada's government can profess to protect you, if anyone invades it, your country is toast. The army is pathetic, the equipment outdated, and the populace is far less armed and far less numerous than equivalently equipped and trained Americans, so what exactly does your government promise to protect you from? (At least in the USA there are privately held arms to the tune of 300 million (accounted for) and several dozen GOOD tactical and self defense schools that have no shortage of students (even the poor quality schools have quite a bit of patronage.))
Hypothetical Situation: If some foreign nation (say Russia or China) landed troops in Canada tomorrow, short of American intervention, there is no other country that would be able to hold up to such an invasion, and short of Nuclear Warfare, I see no way that any other country, even the USA, would stop our hypothetical invaders from burning the Maple Leaf and putting up their version of the "red white and blue"... Of course I'll be told that Canucks are all heavily armed with single shot break over carbines, and carry "excessive" amounts of ammo (according to news media) of OVER 20 rounds (**GASP!!**) for each gun they own, and have trained with said guns extensively (they've actually fired a few shots and would've zeroed the sights, or even broken in the barrel after buying the gun but they couldn't find enough affordable ammo to get more than a rough 25 yard boresight.)
And I don't really see anyone that really gives a shit about Canadians enough to threaten and actually ENGAGE in Nuclear Warfare with said theoretical invader, not even (theoretically) the USA... if the leaders of any country DO nuke any theoretical nuclear behemoth, regardless of some vaunted "ballistic missile shield", you can guarantee that they have already secured some form of orbital or underground city (about the only safe places for a few years), well shielded from the blasts and fall out. These rulers are all evil, but not as clueless as the people who continue to vote for them and pay for their abuses and excesses.
It still amazes me with how much ease the few can dupe the many. I guess I still hold too much esteem for the beasts of burden that, at first glance, appear to be men and women, and then, through behavior, immediately dispel that illusion. I really should set my standards for those I consider to be my "peers" a lot higher than mere physical resemblance and common means of communication.
Again, there is no WE... so I will get what I want, and what I need. You will do whatever you choose to, even if you choose to do what others choose for you. That is your prerogative, as it is for every one out there.
How about... "if dinosaurs existed long enough ago that they're fossils now, then perhaps the planet warming up is merely a return to its original conditions, when our ancestors were food, rather than the apex predator"... who knows, maybe the dinosaurs should've burned more hydrocarbons so maybe the globe would've warmed and they would still be alive chomping on those poorly evolved mammals.
You recall that it was the so called "liberal" PM that signed the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement with Bush and Fox, right? It wasn't your current "conservative" PM.
I saw about 5 minutes of "public outcry" about as much as I saw when Clinton's team ratified NAFTA and the WTO. Suckers on every side of the Canada/USA border will buy anything the government sells so long as it taxes "someone else" more than them. Wealth redistribution systems have worked marvels for governments. Back in Nero and Caligula's day it was called "bread and circuses" today its called "war on terror" and "welfare"... nothing new. Give people "free" food and "victories" and they'll love you for it.
You've responded to better than a half dozen of my posts, so I presume you've read quite a few, and you seem to always miss the point. What is it about being one of the masses that automatically makes you miss any proposal but those of further tyranny and serfdom? You've chosen your path, and I've chosen mine. Re-read my posts (again) if you must and try to take note of where I've mentioned alternatives to being a serf in the system. There are ways, and they're not even illegal, though the mass media certainly equates them as such... then again, the mass media equates lots of legal things to being "bad" but since when have reporters been bothered by such a tiny little thing as the truth?
Bingo. Do your research and respond to my replies either with actual solutions or answers, not simply justifying the crap that already is.
Yes, I am partly bitter watching pearls being thrown before swine... or is that people willingly feeding themselves into the meat grinders and wondering why it hurts... seriously, only thing I'm still bitter about is that I have to watch you people drag so many others with you before they have a chance to awaken.
No, but it throws a BIGGER monkey wrench in the theory of (global warming) == (bad for life on earth), unless of course mankind existed before dinosaurs, and we drove our SUV's until they all died from CO2 overdose and the SUV's disintegrated completely (even the plastics) but the dinosaur bones remained... Which means Al Gore has reincarnated to save the poor dinosaurs agai... oh wait, they're not around. Tough tamales, eh?
We agree on this. However, we seem to disagree on HOW to participate to actually cause or effect change (I mean effect, not affect). Lets see.
I've voted libertarian when I voted, and only once for a democrat, and NOTHING changed. Not a damn thing. And once the libertarians win, they'll be corrupted no differently. They will not manage to roll back any abusive programs because they won't be permitted to. Government propagates like any plague, it does not cure itself, except when all available hosts die or become immune.
Here's what I can do: I can vote for a socialist to feed the poor (which will result in higher taxes, more government spending and JUST as many starving poor as there are now). Or I can donate to a bureaucracy such as "feed the poor" or "XYZ church" so their staff can buy new BMW's. Or I can take a poor fellow to a restaurant or buy him a baggie lunch or even run a soup operation in my spare time or take a pickup truck worth of (cord, about $50 or $100 depending where you live) split and dry firewood to people who can use it in their fireplaces to stay warm. Which of these makes an actual change for the better, even in the short term? Which of those methods is the ONLY way you can truly KNOW, not just BELIEVE that you've effected any form of good, or change, or even good change? Is it by trusting that your monthly $20.00 to Greenpeace has saved an inch of land somewhere? Or that it put gas into a Greenpeace leader's BMW or Lexus? Its no different than the "right wing" and the NRA, the NRA has long been a democrat subversion engine, they do what they negotiate, and their members be damned. Happens every time after a shooting that makes the news. NRA endorses yet another further creep into the right to carry whatever arms you want... nothing new, just hard to spot when you're not trying.
The only good that can be done, is the good each man or woman can effect with their own property and actions, not with that which is confiscated from others through force and fraud (of any kind, for those who need it enumerated).
That's why self rule is so important. It even occurred in America when the Articles of Confederation were in place, but that was a short decade and then tyranny set back in.
Central government is NEVER in the interest of those ruled.
Ask those intelligentsia types who were butchered in Russia and China during their "cultural revolutions" and "collectivization". Sure its nice to be the one that gets to take the goods from those butchered by government, but at some point those people BUILT that wealth, and had it stolen, along with their lives... and not by evil Invading Europeans like the Native Americans, oh hell now, this was done by their very own "elected" (or not so elected, but still "permitted" representatives). But "the people" got what they deserved. They robbed their fellows through government fiat and genocide, and then they STARVED when that food was taken away from them also. Just deserts.
And think. All it would've taken for Mao to stop killing people was ONE BULLET. One well placed bullet. It worked for Kennedy and Lincoln, and there was a ready surplus of military arms in China at the time... snap one neck, stab one back, voila, new gun. Yet it never happened, the cattle went along. Which leads me to believe that no assassination in history is the work of "the people", because left to their own devices, "the people" just bleat and moo their way to the meat packing plant without so much as a single real bit of resistance. This holds true whether its Europe, or Asia, or yes, even the mighty America (North America, since any part of South America is just an extension of European Socialism and Fascism respectively).
Let me put it like this: There is no chance, of being free, if you consent to being ruled. If you object AFTER consenting, you've already lost the battle because paperwork exists to PROVE that you consented to being ruled. An election is a LOTTERY. You enter and play the odds that YOUR half will win. If you lose, you cannot say you "did not consent" because you did. You partook of a LOTTERY and LOST. Lottery losers do not only consent to winning the jackpot, they also consent to NOT winning it. One way or the other, they played and they accept the results by buying that ticket. Same thing here. If you play, you cannot object to the results. You have no right to. If you do object, you aren't exercising a right, you're merely a SORE LOSER. You lost the LOTTERY so instead of YOUR winning ticket tyrannizing the other half of the populace, THEIR winning ticket tyrannizes you. Fun huh? Keep registering and voting.
Who is this WE... I'm not part of WE. I don't want my kids NEAR a public school. Why should I be part of WE just to pay for YOUR benefit and see no benefit myself.
Your side of the equation wants to strip me of a lot of things... not just cash. Why should I contribute willingly to the robbery and fleecing of me, all the while not really receiving any benefits for said fleecing? YOUR kids have accidents with cars and drugs and alcohol, YOUR kids abuse tobacco, YOUR kids live defenseless and prefer to strip others of their defenses rather than learn to deal with the world, so why should ***I*** be forced to provide for those who care not to provide for themselves? I am not against being good to strangers, I am completely not of the mindset that I should be fleeced by others to do so. That, in any other context is called Robbery... it used to be a felony when "citizens" did it, but now that the government does it for YOUR benefit, its called "social contract" or "the greater good".
Seriously, teaching kids is important, but school isn't the place to learn those important things. Communists did a better job (even of the obedience training) with a LOT LESS MONEY... so it is NOT the money issue. There is something else at hand, and it isn't the "low pay". Teachers in communist countries were low paid. American teachers are swimming in money by comparison... I made less than some of my teachers when I went trucking a few years ago. And I even had enough money to not touch my savings and side investments and AND save up, AND still have time for my hobbies, without ever touching my savings! And to top it off, I made less than a teacher while I worked that job. (Sure I had side investments, but I didn't touch any of them.) How is this possible, I wonder... if teachers get paid so little, that with less, I could still manage to live off one sole source of cash that paid LESS than what a teacher makes in any school system in the USA or Canada? And I can guarantee that trucking is a lot more stressful and a lot less thankful job than teaching. People try to run you off the road, treat you like shit, and then say you're trash, and in the end, they go shopping at the very store you delivered their goods to. They'd die in a week of starvation if you didn't bring them food and goods, but the scum try to run you off the roads, and you aren't even paid by the government, so its not like they paid for you with forced taxes. They willingly patronize that store or any other. Unlike teachers, whom you pay whether you patronize their services or not. And judging by how many kids cannot even do basic math (such as making change in a store, which should be quick and reflexive to anyone with a 1st or 2nd grade education) one has to wonder why we're paying teachers at all.
What I'm saying is one way or another it will pass.
For example. 3 years ago, everyone thought the so called "NAFTA superhighway" was a myth. Now its been discovered that Canada and the USA have working groups bringing it about through low level regulation and land grabs (eminent domain here has been abused forever, so its nothing new, Canada is using drug busts as far as I hear, to confiscate homes and land... and Mexico... well, Mexico doesn't need its people's permission to abuse them, not even to make the abuse legal.)
So in the spirit of that, if the powers that be WANT DMCA in Canada, you can be guaranteed they'll have it. Just like your PM signed that agreement with George and Fox without so much as consulting his "constituents" (or is that "willing subjects")... you people are doing nothing more than choosing HOW the masters will abuse you, but you voted for them, so you gave them carte blanche to abuse you. They rule you through your consent not against your consent, and thus, they can do whatever they want... sure you can recall them, but by the time you do, they'll want to retire anyways. Show me ONE head of state who got poorer by running a country into the ground. Show me ONE head of state pushing carts at Walmart. None. No politician ever gets poor or broke. Ever.
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Nah, that whole generation, IMHO, were misunderstood. I agree though, about the whole bouncing from job to job. My father used to fire his employers, (aka, walk out in a huff) until eventually he went and started his own companies. The commies told him "no way" so he moved to America and did his own thing (and thus he no longer had to quit every time some boss pissed him off). I think a certain bit of genius or whatever that trait is, involves being unable or rather, unwilling to surrender, or give in to adversity.
Everyone says "oh yeah, only the rulers are to blame."
Seriously, I disagree, and I'm sure I'll be in the minority, because it seems insight into these things always gets lost when the going is good, all the way up until shit hits the fan, then all the fools come back asking "why didn't anyone warn us?! Why did those who made it through okay not warn us, those greedy bastards!"
Mao Tse Dun was capable of his butchery not because he single handedly carried out the "cultural revolution" in China, but because plenty of Chinese "folks" were "just doing their jobs."
In the USSR, during Lenin's time and all the way through Stalin and up to Nikita Hruschev, the butcheries, the pogroms, and the gulag work was carried out by Russians, many of them actually JEWS (yes, butchering their own "brethren") and yet, everyone blamed the rulers, not those "folks" who by "just doing their jobs", were the real murderers and enablers.
In Fascist Italy, everyone blames Mussolini the dictator, but nobody noticed that it was his BlackShirts that carried out the orders, not Mussolini himself. He would have had a hard time doing all that he did without willing murderers , ahem, I mean "folks" there to "just do their jobs."
How about the long forgotten Japanese butchery in China and Eastern Asia during World War II? Was it Emperor Hirohito's fault? Hell the Emperor was one of the few voices for peace in the whole cabinet. Was the cabinet to blame? How about all those willing Japanese "folks" who eagerly threw their lives into the fray so they could "just do their jobs."
We can always make a quick stop in Nazi Germany. Was it Hitler, or Himmler, or even Goering or Goebbels that were to blame? Was it the bankers? No, these men took advantage of human willingness to "be folks" "just doing their jobs." It was the "ostrich trait" that "ordinary folks" apply when "just doing their jobs", especially jobs that involve violating the very boundaries that define other men and women, traits like dignity, respect, honor, honesty, integrity.
Unquestioning obedience, stupidity, docility or servility does not make you forgiven for those sins you commit while violating the rights of others. If you treat innocents and honest men like slaves, if you violate their dignity, when the time comes to pay the piper, the only one you have to blame is yourself, and the only one you'll have to answer to is yourself, not some holy mystic God, or some fiery sword wielding angels or any such stuff. Your most difficult judge will be yourself. Granted the vast majority don't care until years later when they can't sleep after "just doing their jobs", but there is always that first one to say "no thanks, I'll find another job."
I like one thing. If "freedom" were a server of any type, there is no shortage of unclaimed accounts on the whole "freedom" server. Practically so few want to claim accounts, that it is a lag free, crash proof server. I should probably be happy and stop asking others to join up. The other players might get upset... and frankly, I'm soon going to stop posting on here because I have, weeks ago, learned what i needed to know, but I keep hoping I might find a few others. Heh, that ancient Pandora's Curse, the worst of all the plagues she unleashed from that box... Hope, futile, pointless, Hope.
Hey!
:)... while the current generation can't even turn the damn TV off long enough to think for themselves... perhaps gates was right about that.... 640K is all you ever need, if you're not filling it up with pictures of Britney and the latest American Idol's nudie pics.
You sound like my dad, only he doesn't use a cane and he DID work on those punch card systems... he still reminisces about it and had that EXACT attitude when I showed him some of my OOP work in college, he asked me "where's the workflow, where's your goto's and breaks? what's all this mess?"
Granted he was from a generation that could use that "poor coding practice" of "goto's" and the like to go to the moon (presuming the naysayers are wrong
And this is coming from a defender of the free market and devout believer in its virtues, but since Microsoft has largely benefited from partnering up with other large manufacturers of hardware and assemblers of said parts into systems to be sold, it would not be that hard to believe that they designed to a certain market level.
I.E.... "here you go gentlemen, the standard system you are able to use is X Ghz, and X Gigabytes of DDR 1600, anything less than that will be obsolete by the first service pack anyways, so get crackin'!!"
Linux people and most of the OSS folks (Unix as well) have been server dedicated systems for a long time, and built on a robust or rather "efficient" (perhaps a better term is "effective"?) platform. As a result, they've been building to extract as many cycles and memory space as possible for use by client applications, not the Host Operating System.
As a result, Microsoft has it in its best interests to PUSH the upgrade cycle. If they can be depended to push the upgrade cycle to keep selling new boxes, the retail computer builders will continue to give Microsoft the plugs and keep shipping their OS as the "default" or "preferred" or "Supported" Operating System for their Big Bad Ass Kicking Rigs (tm).
The plane needs to generate enough vertical thrust, or lift, or a combination thereof, to keep itself at least cruising level. The moment the push of the air rushing above the plane produces more downward push than the lift produced by the plane and its surfaces/airflow below, that plane will start heading downwards. Using motors to stay afloat will require some real innovative designs and a high degree of "perpetual machine" syndrome, since keeping a heavy piece of metal up in the air requires either lots of momentum or lots of upward thrust... and fuel has this really crappy tendency to... well, you know... run out.
Two words: Corporate Welfare.
A little bit more on that:
--They will either give out research grants until a workable prototype proves viable.
--They will give out military contracts, bid or no bid.
The amusing thing is, and what no "average citizen of the world", American, British or otherwise, seems to get through their thick skulls, is that generally, the only low key and sure fire public approved way for the government to keep inflating the currency at astronomical rates, without talking about it, is to go adventuring abroad, or spend massively on military and social programs at home.
I know what you mean, it just irks me that people actually believe "the Jews" or any other major group is behind it.
Sure, Israel is a hybrid Marxist Jewish Theocracy, sure the quiet consent and sometimes gushing adulation which the average Jews give to their rulers (and not just Jews, but also Catholics, Protestant Christians and even Muslims are notorious for this herd mentality, in varying degrees) certainly makes the Jews (and every other authority worshiping system of belief) seem complicit, but those who are in charge, most certainly owe no particular loyalty to any dogma or doctrine.
The reason they are in charge, in fact, is due to the fact that they CAN manipulate dogma and faith in their favor and consistently create situations that closely resemble various prophesized events from the dogmas that the majority of the masses fall sucker for.
Sort of reminds me of watching Apocalypto, at that crucial scenario where the captured villagers are getting carved up by the Mayan death priest (historically it should have been Aztec, but we can blame it on artistic tinge) so that Kukulkan might "give the people a sign that his thirst for blood is sated and he will release the rains once more" (to end the drought they were apparently having), and just then, WHAM an eclipse occurs. Which of course, to those of us familiar with the various Meso-American cultures, would have been obvious. These "elites" had access to the entirety of their culture's wealth of information on astronomical events, patterns in nature and solar system, sky charts, codices (most of which was recorded as being destroyed or carted off by the invading Catholics) and whatever else may have been lost in the process.
Being able to "cause the gods to give a sign" would be merely a matter of manipulating local politics in such way as to make the politics fit in with known natural events or patterns. This is not as difficult as some might believe. Especially if the rulers are intelligent enough, but can play dumb well enough to fit in with the "mass man" mentality. This is not that hard to believe, because, judging by the bovine credulity of the "mass man" mindset, it is to be EXPECTED that the truly intelligent individual or group of individuals would eventually take advantage of the bovine credulity and rather than built robots, they would merely get the bovine masses to do their bidding for them, and provide endless entertainment in the process. (Slave girls (or boys), whether willing or resisting of advances and attentions, would most certainly appeal to the emperor than a mere robot or rubber doll.)
Nice sig.
Yes, it is getting to the point where I'm surprised Atlas hasn't completely Shrugged, but I guess it will take another election cycle or another 9/11 to either get total fascism, or a total collapse when Atlas Shrugs and nobody wants to work for the government (produce taxable "income") anymore.
As I recall the sonic boom is produced by the motion of an object through air at faster than sound speeds.
Its the same reason that bullets have that crack that movie goers have come to believe is the sound of a "gun shot", when it is really the sound of a sonic boom from a minuscule object travelling between one and three times the speed of sound (called "sonic crack" in the gun culture in America, not sure what the Europeans call it, can't be much different.)
Thus, I doubt the engine can mitigate the fact that a huge volume of air is being compressed and moved at very high speeds. Sure, some will get sucked in, but the very principle of the angle of attack on a wing (wing shape, profile, etc) and of the fuselage will end up causing some sort of sonic boom. Sure, the engine in a ramjet or scramjet might suck in some air but that will not mitigate the fact that air is rushing around and "below" the plane, which part will be observable as sonic boom to the ground based observer. The compression shockwave is heard from below, but is also present in different degrees to all sides of the plane/projectile from all angles in which air is being compressed out of the way, or sucked in to fill in the vacuum created by the passage of the object.
Of course materials will have to advance further, and not just structural components (which might well strip off the plane or warp at speeds too far past a few Mach) but new fuel mixtures will have to be worked out. This was similar to the requirement to add Cesium to current fighter plane fuel along with a few other rare elements to raise its flash point. Experimental planes blowing up because the fuel overheated or certain electronics received more heat than they could tolerate is nothing new, but the production models will obviously have to have gotten past that point when they roll out :)
I wager this technology has been near perfected sometime ago, but as with all things, it was probably kept back to be used in case of sagging sales due to rights abuses at airports (Atlas has Shrugged, and it is visible in that people are avoiding airports now because of the downright abusive behaviors of the TSA and federal shock troops there to protect us from incompetent unshaven twits with box cutters and toothpaste.
Seriously, this will be the carrot on a stick to dissuade people from using other less regulated means of transportation. Obviously L.O.S.T. was ratified recently in Congress to restrict private sea travel... now only warships and those with "permission papers" will be "allowed" to travel, and who knows what else is coming. Free travel is becoming far less so.
All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
NICE quote.
Now... lets see here... sure, the war has been used to destroy more collateral than actually "win" a war, because its not a war, its a "police action" (that's what undeclared wars are).
:) Asphyxiation is a crappy way to suicide.
Now that we're done with that clarification. These kids dying, are useful idiots thinking they're honest patriots (and in their minds they are), however, in 2008, when "you win", which "you" probably will, so to speak, your Democraps will be no different than the Rethuglicans. I'm willing to lay down cash on a wager that if the Democrats win... they will not even TOUCH Bush or his family.
Perhaps you missed the fact that Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush (daddy) vacation together. Its like the WWF Pro Wrestling... on screen they're deathly enemies, off screen they're friends who party together.
Some day you suckers will get it. But I'm not going to hold my breath waiting
That was a perfectly legitimate comment... especially given the tendency of governments worldwide to legislate the competition out of business, or confiscate or hijack a beneficial process through legislation or taxation.
Personally I think that fellow should be marked +5 Insightful... but who are we kidding. The only people still using mod points to slam down insightful remarks are usually collectivist shills.
The only way to get "like minded people elected" is to get together in Galt's Gulch. It will never happen "out here".
No like minded people (to me) will ever run for office. Sure, some will be branded as such, but they have become easy to see through (or I have become very good at seeing through them, not sure which). Why would one of my peers spend his life in a perpetual infliction of tyranny, in the hopes that some day, he gets elected to the ultimate spot for tyranny, and then make some pretense of changing the system. The only people who get elected are "selected" and the funniest part is that when they don't play ball, they get to pull "a Kennedy". Remember JFK? His great sin was threatening to shut down the CIA for being an "un-American den of snakes and corruption" or some such thing. That and he wouldn't even sign the spending bill for that anti-communist (but not pro-freedom, mind you) police action in Vietnam. So he lost his head (or part of it) and his successor signed the spending bill immediately and kept his head.
No politician who values his life or that of his family and friends can actually abolish a single one of the tyrannical institutions currently running the world from the shadows. No parasite can remove its own species habit for parasitism... and politicians are parasites, not a single one inside the system will ever stop that system from doing what it does and make it do what it does not.
Yes, the bond movie in question was actually Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life...
:)
The flying squirrel suit thing I'll buy. That is not "news", but I'm glad someone mentioned that the technology is improving. Once people can land without needing a parachute (and without losing any limbs while doing so), I'll buy myself one
And yet you still buy their falsely advertised and tainted product willingly?
Do you not find this a bit strange? Its not like Canada's government can profess to protect you, if anyone invades it, your country is toast. The army is pathetic, the equipment outdated, and the populace is far less armed and far less numerous than equivalently equipped and trained Americans, so what exactly does your government promise to protect you from? (At least in the USA there are privately held arms to the tune of 300 million (accounted for) and several dozen GOOD tactical and self defense schools that have no shortage of students (even the poor quality schools have quite a bit of patronage.))
Hypothetical Situation: If some foreign nation (say Russia or China) landed troops in Canada tomorrow, short of American intervention, there is no other country that would be able to hold up to such an invasion, and short of Nuclear Warfare, I see no way that any other country, even the USA, would stop our hypothetical invaders from burning the Maple Leaf and putting up their version of the "red white and blue"... Of course I'll be told that Canucks are all heavily armed with single shot break over carbines, and carry "excessive" amounts of ammo (according to news media) of OVER 20 rounds (**GASP!!**) for each gun they own, and have trained with said guns extensively (they've actually fired a few shots and would've zeroed the sights, or even broken in the barrel after buying the gun but they couldn't find enough affordable ammo to get more than a rough 25 yard boresight.)
And I don't really see anyone that really gives a shit about Canadians enough to threaten and actually ENGAGE in Nuclear Warfare with said theoretical invader, not even (theoretically) the USA... if the leaders of any country DO nuke any theoretical nuclear behemoth, regardless of some vaunted "ballistic missile shield", you can guarantee that they have already secured some form of orbital or underground city (about the only safe places for a few years), well shielded from the blasts and fall out. These rulers are all evil, but not as clueless as the people who continue to vote for them and pay for their abuses and excesses.
It still amazes me with how much ease the few can dupe the many. I guess I still hold too much esteem for the beasts of burden that, at first glance, appear to be men and women, and then, through behavior, immediately dispel that illusion. I really should set my standards for those I consider to be my "peers" a lot higher than mere physical resemblance and common means of communication.
Again, there is no WE... so I will get what I want, and what I need. You will do whatever you choose to, even if you choose to do what others choose for you. That is your prerogative, as it is for every one out there.
How about... "if dinosaurs existed long enough ago that they're fossils now, then perhaps the planet warming up is merely a return to its original conditions, when our ancestors were food, rather than the apex predator"... who knows, maybe the dinosaurs should've burned more hydrocarbons so maybe the globe would've warmed and they would still be alive chomping on those poorly evolved mammals.
You recall that it was the so called "liberal" PM that signed the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement with Bush and Fox, right? It wasn't your current "conservative" PM.
I saw about 5 minutes of "public outcry" about as much as I saw when Clinton's team ratified NAFTA and the WTO. Suckers on every side of the Canada/USA border will buy anything the government sells so long as it taxes "someone else" more than them. Wealth redistribution systems have worked marvels for governments. Back in Nero and Caligula's day it was called "bread and circuses" today its called "war on terror" and "welfare"... nothing new. Give people "free" food and "victories" and they'll love you for it.
You've responded to better than a half dozen of my posts, so I presume you've read quite a few, and you seem to always miss the point. What is it about being one of the masses that automatically makes you miss any proposal but those of further tyranny and serfdom? You've chosen your path, and I've chosen mine. Re-read my posts (again) if you must and try to take note of where I've mentioned alternatives to being a serf in the system. There are ways, and they're not even illegal, though the mass media certainly equates them as such... then again, the mass media equates lots of legal things to being "bad" but since when have reporters been bothered by such a tiny little thing as the truth?
Bingo. Do your research and respond to my replies either with actual solutions or answers, not simply justifying the crap that already is.
Yes, I am partly bitter watching pearls being thrown before swine... or is that people willingly feeding themselves into the meat grinders and wondering why it hurts... seriously, only thing I'm still bitter about is that I have to watch you people drag so many others with you before they have a chance to awaken.
No, but it throws a BIGGER monkey wrench in the theory of (global warming) == (bad for life on earth), unless of course mankind existed before dinosaurs, and we drove our SUV's until they all died from CO2 overdose and the SUV's disintegrated completely (even the plastics) but the dinosaur bones remained... Which means Al Gore has reincarnated to save the poor dinosaurs agai... oh wait, they're not around. Tough tamales, eh?
We agree on this. However, we seem to disagree on HOW to participate to actually cause or effect change (I mean effect, not affect). Lets see.
I've voted libertarian when I voted, and only once for a democrat, and NOTHING changed. Not a damn thing. And once the libertarians win, they'll be corrupted no differently. They will not manage to roll back any abusive programs because they won't be permitted to. Government propagates like any plague, it does not cure itself, except when all available hosts die or become immune.
Here's what I can do: I can vote for a socialist to feed the poor (which will result in higher taxes, more government spending and JUST as many starving poor as there are now). Or I can donate to a bureaucracy such as "feed the poor" or "XYZ church" so their staff can buy new BMW's. Or I can take a poor fellow to a restaurant or buy him a baggie lunch or even run a soup operation in my spare time or take a pickup truck worth of (cord, about $50 or $100 depending where you live) split and dry firewood to people who can use it in their fireplaces to stay warm. Which of these makes an actual change for the better, even in the short term? Which of those methods is the ONLY way you can truly KNOW, not just BELIEVE that you've effected any form of good, or change, or even good change? Is it by trusting that your monthly $20.00 to Greenpeace has saved an inch of land somewhere? Or that it put gas into a Greenpeace leader's BMW or Lexus? Its no different than the "right wing" and the NRA, the NRA has long been a democrat subversion engine, they do what they negotiate, and their members be damned. Happens every time after a shooting that makes the news. NRA endorses yet another further creep into the right to carry whatever arms you want... nothing new, just hard to spot when you're not trying.
The only good that can be done, is the good each man or woman can effect with their own property and actions, not with that which is confiscated from others through force and fraud (of any kind, for those who need it enumerated).
That's why self rule is so important. It even occurred in America when the Articles of Confederation were in place, but that was a short decade and then tyranny set back in.
Central government is NEVER in the interest of those ruled.
Ask those intelligentsia types who were butchered in Russia and China during their "cultural revolutions" and "collectivization". Sure its nice to be the one that gets to take the goods from those butchered by government, but at some point those people BUILT that wealth, and had it stolen, along with their lives... and not by evil Invading Europeans like the Native Americans, oh hell now, this was done by their very own "elected" (or not so elected, but still "permitted" representatives). But "the people" got what they deserved. They robbed their fellows through government fiat and genocide, and then they STARVED when that food was taken away from them also. Just deserts.
And think. All it would've taken for Mao to stop killing people was ONE BULLET. One well placed bullet. It worked for Kennedy and Lincoln, and there was a ready surplus of military arms in China at the time... snap one neck, stab one back, voila, new gun. Yet it never happened, the cattle went along. Which leads me to believe that no assassination in history is the work of "the people", because left to their own devices, "the people" just bleat and moo their way to the meat packing plant without so much as a single real bit of resistance. This holds true whether its Europe, or Asia, or yes, even the mighty America (North America, since any part of South America is just an extension of European Socialism and Fascism respectively).
Let me put it like this: There is no chance, of being free, if you consent to being ruled. If you object AFTER consenting, you've already lost the battle because paperwork exists to PROVE that you consented to being ruled. An election is a LOTTERY. You enter and play the odds that YOUR half will win. If you lose, you cannot say you "did not consent" because you did. You partook of a LOTTERY and LOST. Lottery losers do not only consent to winning the jackpot, they also consent to NOT winning it. One way or the other, they played and they accept the results by buying that ticket. Same thing here. If you play, you cannot object to the results. You have no right to. If you do object, you aren't exercising a right, you're merely a SORE LOSER. You lost the LOTTERY so instead of YOUR winning ticket tyrannizing the other half of the populace, THEIR winning ticket tyrannizes you. Fun huh? Keep registering and voting.
Who is this WE... I'm not part of WE. I don't want my kids NEAR a public school. Why should I be part of WE just to pay for YOUR benefit and see no benefit myself.
Your side of the equation wants to strip me of a lot of things... not just cash. Why should I contribute willingly to the robbery and fleecing of me, all the while not really receiving any benefits for said fleecing? YOUR kids have accidents with cars and drugs and alcohol, YOUR kids abuse tobacco, YOUR kids live defenseless and prefer to strip others of their defenses rather than learn to deal with the world, so why should ***I*** be forced to provide for those who care not to provide for themselves? I am not against being good to strangers, I am completely not of the mindset that I should be fleeced by others to do so. That, in any other context is called Robbery... it used to be a felony when "citizens" did it, but now that the government does it for YOUR benefit, its called "social contract" or "the greater good".
Seriously, teaching kids is important, but school isn't the place to learn those important things. Communists did a better job (even of the obedience training) with a LOT LESS MONEY... so it is NOT the money issue. There is something else at hand, and it isn't the "low pay". Teachers in communist countries were low paid. American teachers are swimming in money by comparison... I made less than some of my teachers when I went trucking a few years ago. And I even had enough money to not touch my savings and side investments and AND save up, AND still have time for my hobbies, without ever touching my savings! And to top it off, I made less than a teacher while I worked that job. (Sure I had side investments, but I didn't touch any of them.) How is this possible, I wonder... if teachers get paid so little, that with less, I could still manage to live off one sole source of cash that paid LESS than what a teacher makes in any school system in the USA or Canada? And I can guarantee that trucking is a lot more stressful and a lot less thankful job than teaching. People try to run you off the road, treat you like shit, and then say you're trash, and in the end, they go shopping at the very store you delivered their goods to. They'd die in a week of starvation if you didn't bring them food and goods, but the scum try to run you off the roads, and you aren't even paid by the government, so its not like they paid for you with forced taxes. They willingly patronize that store or any other. Unlike teachers, whom you pay whether you patronize their services or not. And judging by how many kids cannot even do basic math (such as making change in a store, which should be quick and reflexive to anyone with a 1st or 2nd grade education) one has to wonder why we're paying teachers at all.
What I'm saying is one way or another it will pass.
For example. 3 years ago, everyone thought the so called "NAFTA superhighway" was a myth. Now its been discovered that Canada and the USA have working groups bringing it about through low level regulation and land grabs (eminent domain here has been abused forever, so its nothing new, Canada is using drug busts as far as I hear, to confiscate homes and land... and Mexico... well, Mexico doesn't need its people's permission to abuse them, not even to make the abuse legal.)
So in the spirit of that, if the powers that be WANT DMCA in Canada, you can be guaranteed they'll have it. Just like your PM signed that agreement with George and Fox without so much as consulting his "constituents" (or is that "willing subjects")... you people are doing nothing more than choosing HOW the masters will abuse you, but you voted for them, so you gave them carte blanche to abuse you. They rule you through your consent not against your consent, and thus, they can do whatever they want... sure you can recall them, but by the time you do, they'll want to retire anyways. Show me ONE head of state who got poorer by running a country into the ground. Show me ONE head of state pushing carts at Walmart. None. No politician ever gets poor or broke. Ever.