And it serves two purposes, videos (DVD, VHS) and playstation:) And of those things I don't partake nearly as much (they mostly save as discussion to see where the social programming is being done or what message is being passed onto the audience, which makes for heated discussions, and enjoyable ones at that.)
Strangely, since I reduced that "junk diet", I have discovered I have several extra hours available during the day and more sleep every night than when I watched TV. Interesting dillema... vegge out or get actual restful sleep... what a boggle!
Life is not only "stranger" than fiction, it is often much better... but to discover that, we actually have to live it.
Anti trust legislation was a way to "throw a bone".
It reminds me of when the government fired on the crowd that demanded another false promise, their WW1 benefit. 1932 Bonus Army in Washington DC. Instead FDR devalued the currency, screwed the vets and ended up making a bundle. This was government scam. Sure they later paid SOME of the benefits but with far less valuable currency. I.E. they paid with money that couldn't buy as much as when it was earned/promised during that first World War.
Of course, you'll continue to defend those who fleece you, in hopes that when they're done, they'll pay some of it back to you. Good luck with that.
Perhaps instead, you should seek out and patronize local businesses, maybe even start your own. Most of those huge corpos were little companies long ago, but they got big and forgot, or were bought by huge chartered arms of government (big corps) and then lost the leadership that gave a damn.
Should it not be up to you whether you live or die? For a bunch of geeks who talk about evolution, you certainly are immune to your own rhetoric... how can you evolve if you haven't the means or the ability? Humanity, is so far the only species of animal that crushes its strong and upholds its weak, and the results are obvious in all facets of society.
I love this quote... even if it is by a classic American, who had several ideas I would rather not agree with.
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."
Good to see a few folks outside of the usual socialist circles here on slashdot.
Congrats.
Don't worry, the brits that weren't socialist scum and many that were have all left "merry ole England" for greener pastures. Regardless of their socialist propaganda, Brits like their bread buttered, and those government checks barely provide the bread. I've met a whole bunch who came to America so they could BUY the butter:)
Ding Ding Ding... it was the government. Corporate documents give the benefit of government backing to a piece of paper, which then protects the corporation from consequences. Short of assassination or lynch mob, the people NEVER get what they should from corporate abuse, because it is so nearly indistinguishable from government abuse. Corporations have the monopoly on power that government backs them up with (it being the original monopolizer of power.)
I have yet to see true freemarkets outside of black markets, but perhaps I'll get to witness them in action above the ground someday, before old age.
There is a BIG difference between... PACK animals (which are hunter killers) and HERD animals, which are prey. Society teaches us to be HERD animals. Humans are the apex predator on this planet. We are indeed PACK animals, but packs associate voluntarily (even the weak), while herds associate because someone wants to eat them all, or someone has already put them inside a pen.
Most of "society" and its tendencies remind me of HERDS, not PACKS. In a pack, the vast majority fight together and can do so. The weak are exterminated or left behind or don't make it past childhood. In HERDS, those who breed and care for the herds make sure the weak grow up (by denying the predators their prey, i.e. the weak, sick or old) through the use of fences (literal or figurative/laws). In HERDS, the young and all stages of live are exterminated whenever those who care for the HERDS cull the ranks, whether to entertain themselves or to feed/clothe/provide for themselves from among the culled.
Those who advertise for "social care" are basically saying that the HERD is where they all belong. The Randian's at least talk a good show about becoming voluntary members in whatever PACK they so desire. To be in a PACK, you pull your own weight. Call it "government by consent", rather than "servitude by pre-natal consent" (which is what social care governments really are, they force you to accept their kindness and extract it back at gun point even if you manage to avoid being a target of their "services" while young.)
My family taught me something when I was young and came to America, and miraculously became pudgy... "they have sugar in EVERYTHING here", so we cooked at home, and ate at home a lot, and bought mostly the basic building blocks of food, and... (ding ding) made it at home. There was never a shortage of sweets in the house, or of food. And once we dropped the soda pop and store bought cookie fads, our fat content dropped.
Here's the catch. I work out and jog (swim, bike, etc, that's beside the point), but I do it to keep myself physically strong and resilient. I don't exercise to lose weight. It didn't really work, all it did was convert some of the fat to muscle. The rest went away as I began to eat regular healthy meals and cut down on the crap food to once a week or less. (Never cut the nasty stuff completely, or the cravings will find another way to surface, psychologically speaking. We're human and we're tempted, find a way to replace your cravings with something less nasty, that'd be it.)
My secret? I eat at least an egg a day, regular tea and hot chocolate, sausages or meat once a day:) Salads, etc. My diet is as varied as it gets, and yet I'm in good shape and I've lost weight. Interesting? I was shocked. I have had two to three week breaks in my exercise routine, and yet no weight gained, and I lose little to none of my conditioning. (First day back I usually run half a mile, but I can get back to two to three miles a day the next day... shocked the life out of me since I was so used to what the idiots in school taught us. Seems almost everything school teaches can be thrown out once you graduate... preferably before. Including the lack of a good warmup before exercise, which is what destroys so many people's joints.) Strangely enough, I have "healthy levels" of the following. "Blood Sugar", "cholesterol", "blood pressure", "heart rate", with no murmurs, no palpitations and roughly no issues whatsoever.
Rule #1? Live a good, healthy and complete life, stop struggling for shit you don't need, and stop fighting battles that don't gain you anything, not even satisfaction (which is more important than people think.)
Rule #2? Stop living with fear. Fear is the only thing you should fear, if anything at all. If something you do makes you "afraid", find out why, and get rid of the problem, don't just suppress the symptoms. Oftentimes fear will simply be some choice you make that you don't understand. Fear is among the worst stressors out there, yet few realize this. Getting into a fight with your boss and walking out of a job without fear is better than living each day at that job constantly afraid that you'll lose it someday and that you won't make payments on that brand new SUV you didn't really need (or want) or that three story house that only you and several ghosts live in (or whatever it is that keeps turning on the lights each night.)
All in all, remove fear by understanding what causes it and deal with it. That and discover the things that satisfy and please you, and surround yourself with those things. Often they are cheaper than you can imagine. Short of hunting and fishing, I have VERY few expensive hobbies. My garage is bigger than my house, as is my shop. Most of my "toys" I built myself, and will continue to do so. I use my life as an example, merely because I've been through all the problems many complain about, and have found ways to complete the needs behind each problem without rushing into a marriage or running into the arms of the nanny state or going on clinical drugs. Do I still have issues? Hell yeah. If I was perfect, I wouldn't be human.
Are you perhaps a British Subject who hasn't gotten past the part where your mighty armies surrendered to those sissy Americans, roughly after the REAL warriors, the Hessian Mercenaries fighting on behalf of the Crown, threw the fight by not being prepared for a Christmas day ambush? (Remember that little fairy tale told about Washington proudly crossing the Delaware? It was more like fleeing accross and sneaking back with more men... either way, it wasn't the BRITISH who were winning at the time, it was the German Mercs from Hess. That basically means that as soon as the mercs were out of the picture, British arms were far less effective, and far more easy to convince to give up.)
Yeah, seems it wasn't the Brits that were winning the revolutionary war... it was the German Mercs (from Hess), which reinforces my concept that the English have only been good at butchering defenseless populations, even if sometimes it was their own, throughout their entire history. Even in India, America, etc. Throughout history, Brits only won when the other side wasn't capable of fighting or ran out of banker finances. I seem to recall that the British were miserably lost until Americans bailed their asses out in both World Wars. Interesting, eh? Personally I think a little German rule would've been wonderful for Britain. Put things into perspective and all that.
And while we're on the subject, "the Crown" refers to a lot more than just the queen and some jewels...
Then again, when have the majority of English been anything but docile authority worshippers, the vast majority who werent, always left for other lands, I happen to have met quite a few in modern day America, just here on the East Coast, I recognize those funky accents when I run into them out and about? Gods only know how many more are elsewhere in the USA.
As for "jolly ole england..." just deserts, all aorund, as far as I care. You get what you pay for, and in the case of government abuse, socialists pay a lot, and get their money's worth as always:)
Weren't these the same idiots who just passed a law to "punish irresponsible data loss"? So I guess the rule is as always "trust us with your safety, even if we let the enemy into your house, keep waiting for us to save you, keep submitting, obey, and all will be well... we promise, you can trust us. Don't you dare do anything without permission. Trust us, we'll take care of you."
And the results, as I'm forced to keep saying... "are very very visible, and completely predictable."
What I'm suggesting is simple, by not seriously patronizing the credit establishment, always buying used or old cars (give up some of the glamor and save a boatload of cash and headaches), etc, I have reduced my footprint, hard to steal an identity when I live life in the flesh instead of on paper in someone else's computer (at least I believe I am). I have no real credit rating, nor do I truly require one, and frankly, I can barely wait for the credit crunch. All those suckers living FAR beyond their means are already losing their mortgages/house ATM's, and soon their plastic ATM's. Sooner or later they'll have to live within their means, and that will make for an amusing show.
What I was getting at is simple. Identity theft is only a problem for those who have been deeply engaged in the identity dependent system and not paying attention to their footprints they leave behind. You don't have to live in the woods to cut your footprint down, though I'm sure it helps. Area I live in, is in fact, semi rural, somewhat suburbia, somewhat rural, not really either. Still got rednecks out here hunting rabbits and squirrels with.22's on the edge of town and shooting off fireworks in town after dark, and none of us mind it (actually I like it, personally speaking), except for a few sissies who keep bringing it up for ballot each year and thankfully, get slapped down each year like the socialist control freaks they are.
As for social security numbers, it is ILLEGAL for any company to require you to give it out to do business with you. Even the cops have no right to get that number from you unless you volunteer it. All you owe them at all is your name, your address and your birthdate. Technically, only if you HAVE an address. That number is intended ONLY for social security withholding/benefits so technically nobody has a right to ask you for it, and you have the right to decline to give it. I think the problem with people giving it out to every scumbag that asks is simply the authority worshipping / socialist conditioning... "when somenone in authority asks you a question, you answer!"
The results or the indoctrination and the system that carries it out are apparently very visible but not well understood yet.
I was hoping individuals would've taken the cue as well, but it seems we're still dealing with "peoples" and we all know how independent thinking those types will be. Or perhaps we don't, or that inside the box crap would've changed a long time ago.
We are agreed, but I keep telling you that you're not going to make Big Brother whup Little Brother's ass. Only time that occurs is when Little Brother hurts something that Big Brother has interest in, and I hate to tell you, but Big Brother has NEVER had any interest in preserving the livestock's freedom. Livestock is food, and people who act as such get treated as such:)
As for "it happens", I will differ, and I won't beg to do it. I have yet to lose any of the following (back when I actually carried all this crap). A) Laptop, B) Cellphone, C)Dayplanner, D)Wallet/ID's/CreditCards/Sunglasses. In fact the only screwup I've ever done was when I was a teenager, I locked my keys in the car without having a backup in my pocket. That was the first and only time. All it takes is preparation and willingness to plan ahead. I understand that this is not a trait that is common among the general populace, since Britney's latest nipple show or tit operation is FAR more important. Or perhaps OJ found the "other bloody glove." Who knows, but thinking and planning ahead are such a bother, why bother?
I drove around Washington DC for several years. They still haven't fixed those roads, despite non stop construction. Those projects are meant to keep going, not to accomplish anything. For all the socialism here, the reds in the west could learn a lot from the reds in the east. Those commies at least get things done quickly and well.
As for the potholes around DC, part of it was fixed with Virginia highway funds. And the fun part? Now they've passed a law that puts $1000.00 speeding, seatbelt and noncompliance tickets on the books, but ONLY against Virginia residents. Interesting that it was a socialist who got that bill authorized, the fascist, until now, had shot that bill down each time (about his only saving grace). Every time "the people's voice is heard" things get worse, government gets bigger, gets more powers and swallows up yet more rights. Now a cop can stop you and make up a charge and as usual, you can't fight it, but now you get to pay quadruple for an infraction. Nobody harmed but the citizen.
Corporations are government vehicles for eschewing responsibility (also for protecting one's assets, but that's a different story, since it moves the assets into the ownership of the tool of the government, which is basically only as valid as the government that issued it or upholds it.)
That being said, I think it'd make people's mistakes less doable, and make people more responsible to be punished IF the damage can be linked to them. Have the corpo pay half fro being stupid enough to allow that sort of data to walk off, and the idiot with the lost laptop the other half. Seriously, if nothing is lost, who gives a damn, write it off, and done.
Government has seen that it is being cut out of the next great protection racket and they're dying to get in. As for me, I have no need of it:)
PS - I'm still waiting for a gun to load itself, jump out of its holster and start blasting away. If that happens I'll be the first one filing a report of "gun crime":) (I understand what you said, I'm merely enjoying good humor at the term "gun crime".)
Why not punish resulting crime. If a company fails its customers like this, or if your ID is stolen and you follow some great loss and then follow it back to that company, you should A, have options to go to while suing said company, and B the company should not be running the courts and thus have an inherent interest in protecting itself.
I.E. one of the biggest losers of ID info is who? Yes, the government, followed closely by BANKS, which are heavily regulated by? Ahem, yes, the government. Irony at its best? Why not. Everything people clamor for as safety is merely slavery with a sugar coated topping. Irony indeed. I love it.
It is a piece of paper, a bunch of numbers. It is what someone else says you are, or details about you might be. If tomorrow it was erased, you would be a truly free man. (Or woman.)
Think about it, someone asks "who are you." You answer to a question that 50 years ago used to be "what is your name?" YOUR NAME, not YOU. YOU are you, your name is changeable, and it doesn't really describe you. It's like asking, "Hi Joe, what are you." "Oh I'm a computer engineer." NO, that is what you do to pay the rent. It's pretty "in the box" thinking, actually.
As for me, I use cash for my transactions, and have a very small credit/debit account. I watch it carefully and keep only what I need in it, but since most of my online personal purchases are made with money orders or a few online payment systems that haven't caught onto the mainstream yet, but will since they're OSS and there's no overhead organization to lose your data, its all up to you. I won't put their names up here because I doubt there'd be any productive use of their resources by the average slashdotter:)
All in all, they can steal my identity all day long, all they'd do is steal it from those who already stole it... the classifying freaks at whatever alphabet soup bureau controls people licensing. After all, you do need a permit to live, its just not called that... yet.
Government spending provides crappier roads. I say give it up to those who benefit from it to maintain it. Don't create "road maintenance" bureaucracies, we've already seen how bad it got with Bell Atlantic and its surviving Baby Bells. No, give it to the oil companies. They want to maintain the roads to keep selling gas, lettem do it, then only those who use roads or benefit from their use will pay. You want to use a road, pay for gas, you want to buy goods shipped on a road, you pay for it through the costs of things. NO tax can work, but nobody in government wants to try it, they'd have to actually be productive to survive the change. Highly unlikely.
Canada is generally a sparsely populated place, with almost the same area as the USA but nowhere NEAR the population, OR the multiple ethnicity. French and English speaking WHITE PEOPLE can barely get along, and just imagine what will happen if they had the multiple ethnicities we have down here up there. I recall a friend of mine who is very pro gun restrictions (weapons in general) who had this joyful period where she hid in her house. Why? Because the Ethiopian immigrants were causing all sorts of trouble up in the Medicine Hat area... seems the meat packing plant where they were working was shut down for some period. Amazing how a simple thing as rampant unemployment or mass firings can ruin the "peace" of a semi rural place, especially one as "gun safe" as Canada.
Oh well, not my problem.
As for your organized crime comment. Recall that Canada doesn't have even have one quarter of the USA's population, nor population density, nor the ethnic diversity. This is out of date, but round up by 10 to 15 million, and they still barely have less than 1/9th of the USA's "recorded" population last year. Canada isn't even catching up, they're still way ahead, density wise, in "crime statistics". I forgot where I read it, but they're proud of their serial killer count being less than a third of that of the USA. Interesting pride, given that by density alone, they should have less than a ninth of the USA's active killers, but don't let something like "per capita occurence" bother them.
I use arms ownership (not necessarily guns) as a statistic to study when studying how easy a people will be to bully over using force. As I understand it, police routinely bully people protesting in any area with a low occurrence of arms ownership/carry. I routinely read reports from alternative media (only credible media anymore) detailing how a protest or get together or whatnot was busted up using SWAT teams and riot tanks, they either lacked a license to protest against some injustice or lacked the RIGHT license... riot tanks in "free countries", licensing a non violent protest?? I've heard these arguments before, but back then I was hearing them in Eastern Europe during the 1980's... guess the "free world" is fast catching up. At least the sheeple are kept safe until their time to be butchered is decided upon.
One word:) As the sheeple say, I say. "Not my problem. They want it, I won't deny it to them, in fact I won't lift a finger except to enjoy the irony, as I am doing now."
You really should read up on contracts. Generally a merc's word will hold, though there are bad apples. If you're rich enough to hire mercs, you're rich enough for them not to screw you over:) You're also rich enough to influence governments so despite the "protection" racket, you're one of those who A) does not pay for it, and B) gets the TRUE full protection government can provide. Regardless of whether you live under socialism, communism, fascism or theocracy. Depending on which of those you live under, you are either a "philanthropist", a "people's party leader", a "business tycoon" or an "imam", "ayatollah", "pope" or "rabbi." They all mean the same thing, they just each fleece you a different way in exchange for the right to serve them willingly.
Instead of stating what is wrong, I will ask a question.
Presume, for a moment that your data has been put on one of these laptops. Presume for a moment that this laptop is stolen. Now, the government quickly goes and blows that heavy cash they steal from everyone as taxes in suing and jailing and then FEEDING said miscreant with the bad business practices. You as a "customer" still have NO options, will probably never find out if your data was actually lost, or anything else. Would it not seem a bit more clever to actually punish those who actually LOSE the data? Easier access to lawsuits, less protections from corporate creations, etc? Company screws up, company pays, individuals pay half the bill, corpo pays the other half. Betcha if THAT is how it was done, we'd be done with lost laptops and lost data in a year or two tops. But again, why punish drunk drivers who run over someone, when you can nail'em all, raise lots of revenue for the state, and STILL provide NO recourse for those who are hit by drunk drivers OR anyone else for that matter. It ends up requiring a lawsuit anyways, so what the hell does the government do by jailing (housing and feeding) drunk drivers on my tab and yours? It doesn't stop them from doing it again... majority of drunk drivers tend to repeat their "misdeeds". Perhaps if they knew that it wasn't just a lottery but a true "your ass is grass if you hurt someone", it might put a different incentive into it.
Back to the article in question. It seems to me that these politicians in England, who are so well known for other fine working legislation (gun control, now knife control, myriad cameras covering every angle and yet robberies and home invasions are supposed to be at an all time high in London alone, and fear of "gun crime" is at a high, despite the fact that everyone who could be disarmed HAS been disarmed of everything but their teeth, fists and shoes, and cops are shooting disarmed and subdued Brazilian electricians in the head repeatedly... forget the queen, God save England:) With lawmakers and enforcers like that, who needs enemies? No surprise though, they're going to make yet ANOTHER Malum Prohibitum, and nobody's going to stop them, cuz "Goddamit they're English and they're Damn Proud Of It!!"
They got their chips known for performance with the Athlon/K7 and the overclockers and tweakers (one of whom I once was, when I had more time and cash to blow on testing hardware and new rigs every few months.) Anyways, to cut to the chase, remember when AMD stopped their majority overclockers dead, and began to make it tougher and tougher to OC their chips? This despite the fact that the vast majority of tweakers ended up buying more and more AMD chips. It was basically AMD saying "thanks folks, you got us to be known as performance chip makers, and now here's us flipping you the bird, we got corporate marketshare now, we don't really give a shit anymore." This is exactly what the Japanese Anime studio/government bitch and moaners are doing. They got the US market interested through the fansubs (frankly until the corporate studio schmucks do as faithful a translation without americanizing the shows to "appease" to the masses, I prefer the fansubs most of the time... with VERY few exceptions. Vampire Hunter D is better in English, and Noir was good in both languages, IMHO.)
I always saved the "you suck" for the ones whom the ref showed favor towards. If they played a good game, the "I'll/We'll get you next time was par for the course:)"
Slashdot Mirror
And it serves two purposes, videos (DVD, VHS) and playstation :) And of those things I don't partake nearly as much (they mostly save as discussion to see where the social programming is being done or what message is being passed onto the audience, which makes for heated discussions, and enjoyable ones at that.)
Strangely, since I reduced that "junk diet", I have discovered I have several extra hours available during the day and more sleep every night than when I watched TV. Interesting dillema... vegge out or get actual restful sleep... what a boggle!
Life is not only "stranger" than fiction, it is often much better... but to discover that, we actually have to live it.
Anti trust legislation was a way to "throw a bone".
It reminds me of when the government fired on the crowd that demanded another false promise, their WW1 benefit. 1932 Bonus Army in Washington DC. Instead FDR devalued the currency, screwed the vets and ended up making a bundle. This was government scam. Sure they later paid SOME of the benefits but with far less valuable currency. I.E. they paid with money that couldn't buy as much as when it was earned/promised during that first World War.
Of course, you'll continue to defend those who fleece you, in hopes that when they're done, they'll pay some of it back to you. Good luck with that.
"As with every government, I often find that the most accurate records are the tax records."
Perhaps instead, you should seek out and patronize local businesses, maybe even start your own. Most of those huge corpos were little companies long ago, but they got big and forgot, or were bought by huge chartered arms of government (big corps) and then lost the leadership that gave a damn.
... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."
Should it not be up to you whether you live or die? For a bunch of geeks who talk about evolution, you certainly are immune to your own rhetoric... how can you evolve if you haven't the means or the ability? Humanity, is so far the only species of animal that crushes its strong and upholds its weak, and the results are obvious in all facets of society.
I love this quote... even if it is by a classic American, who had several ideas I would rather not agree with.
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have
Good to see a few folks outside of the usual socialist circles here on slashdot.
:)
Congrats.
Don't worry, the brits that weren't socialist scum and many that were have all left "merry ole England" for greener pastures. Regardless of their socialist propaganda, Brits like their bread buttered, and those government checks barely provide the bread. I've met a whole bunch who came to America so they could BUY the butter
And who was it that helped Enron?
Ding Ding Ding... it was the government. Corporate documents give the benefit of government backing to a piece of paper, which then protects the corporation from consequences. Short of assassination or lynch mob, the people NEVER get what they should from corporate abuse, because it is so nearly indistinguishable from government abuse. Corporations have the monopoly on power that government backs them up with (it being the original monopolizer of power.)
I have yet to see true freemarkets outside of black markets, but perhaps I'll get to witness them in action above the ground someday, before old age.
There is a BIG difference between... PACK animals (which are hunter killers) and HERD animals, which are prey. Society teaches us to be HERD animals. Humans are the apex predator on this planet. We are indeed PACK animals, but packs associate voluntarily (even the weak), while herds associate because someone wants to eat them all, or someone has already put them inside a pen.
Most of "society" and its tendencies remind me of HERDS, not PACKS. In a pack, the vast majority fight together and can do so. The weak are exterminated or left behind or don't make it past childhood. In HERDS, those who breed and care for the herds make sure the weak grow up (by denying the predators their prey, i.e. the weak, sick or old) through the use of fences (literal or figurative/laws). In HERDS, the young and all stages of live are exterminated whenever those who care for the HERDS cull the ranks, whether to entertain themselves or to feed/clothe/provide for themselves from among the culled.
Those who advertise for "social care" are basically saying that the HERD is where they all belong. The Randian's at least talk a good show about becoming voluntary members in whatever PACK they so desire. To be in a PACK, you pull your own weight. Call it "government by consent", rather than "servitude by pre-natal consent" (which is what social care governments really are, they force you to accept their kindness and extract it back at gun point even if you manage to avoid being a target of their "services" while young.)
My family taught me something when I was young and came to America, and miraculously became pudgy... "they have sugar in EVERYTHING here", so we cooked at home, and ate at home a lot, and bought mostly the basic building blocks of food, and... (ding ding) made it at home. There was never a shortage of sweets in the house, or of food. And once we dropped the soda pop and store bought cookie fads, our fat content dropped.
:) Salads, etc. My diet is as varied as it gets, and yet I'm in good shape and I've lost weight. Interesting? I was shocked. I have had two to three week breaks in my exercise routine, and yet no weight gained, and I lose little to none of my conditioning. (First day back I usually run half a mile, but I can get back to two to three miles a day the next day... shocked the life out of me since I was so used to what the idiots in school taught us. Seems almost everything school teaches can be thrown out once you graduate... preferably before. Including the lack of a good warmup before exercise, which is what destroys so many people's joints.) Strangely enough, I have "healthy levels" of the following. "Blood Sugar", "cholesterol", "blood pressure", "heart rate", with no murmurs, no palpitations and roughly no issues whatsoever.
Here's the catch. I work out and jog (swim, bike, etc, that's beside the point), but I do it to keep myself physically strong and resilient. I don't exercise to lose weight. It didn't really work, all it did was convert some of the fat to muscle. The rest went away as I began to eat regular healthy meals and cut down on the crap food to once a week or less. (Never cut the nasty stuff completely, or the cravings will find another way to surface, psychologically speaking. We're human and we're tempted, find a way to replace your cravings with something less nasty, that'd be it.)
My secret? I eat at least an egg a day, regular tea and hot chocolate, sausages or meat once a day
Rule #1? Live a good, healthy and complete life, stop struggling for shit you don't need, and stop fighting battles that don't gain you anything, not even satisfaction (which is more important than people think.)
Rule #2? Stop living with fear. Fear is the only thing you should fear, if anything at all. If something you do makes you "afraid", find out why, and get rid of the problem, don't just suppress the symptoms. Oftentimes fear will simply be some choice you make that you don't understand. Fear is among the worst stressors out there, yet few realize this. Getting into a fight with your boss and walking out of a job without fear is better than living each day at that job constantly afraid that you'll lose it someday and that you won't make payments on that brand new SUV you didn't really need (or want) or that three story house that only you and several ghosts live in (or whatever it is that keeps turning on the lights each night.)
All in all, remove fear by understanding what causes it and deal with it. That and discover the things that satisfy and please you, and surround yourself with those things. Often they are cheaper than you can imagine. Short of hunting and fishing, I have VERY few expensive hobbies. My garage is bigger than my house, as is my shop. Most of my "toys" I built myself, and will continue to do so. I use my life as an example, merely because I've been through all the problems many complain about, and have found ways to complete the needs behind each problem without rushing into a marriage or running into the arms of the nanny state or going on clinical drugs. Do I still have issues? Hell yeah. If I was perfect, I wouldn't be human.
We use those in corporate offices and school systems / public offices in America. Internal couriers are nothing new :)
Are you perhaps a British Subject who hasn't gotten past the part where your mighty armies surrendered to those sissy Americans, roughly after the REAL warriors, the Hessian Mercenaries fighting on behalf of the Crown, threw the fight by not being prepared for a Christmas day ambush? (Remember that little fairy tale told about Washington proudly crossing the Delaware? It was more like fleeing accross and sneaking back with more men... either way, it wasn't the BRITISH who were winning at the time, it was the German Mercs from Hess. That basically means that as soon as the mercs were out of the picture, British arms were far less effective, and far more easy to convince to give up.)
:)
Yeah, seems it wasn't the Brits that were winning the revolutionary war... it was the German Mercs (from Hess), which reinforces my concept that the English have only been good at butchering defenseless populations, even if sometimes it was their own, throughout their entire history. Even in India, America, etc. Throughout history, Brits only won when the other side wasn't capable of fighting or ran out of banker finances. I seem to recall that the British were miserably lost until Americans bailed their asses out in both World Wars. Interesting, eh? Personally I think a little German rule would've been wonderful for Britain. Put things into perspective and all that.
And while we're on the subject, "the Crown" refers to a lot more than just the queen and some jewels...
Then again, when have the majority of English been anything but docile authority worshippers, the vast majority who werent, always left for other lands, I happen to have met quite a few in modern day America, just here on the East Coast, I recognize those funky accents when I run into them out and about? Gods only know how many more are elsewhere in the USA.
As for "jolly ole england..." just deserts, all aorund, as far as I care. You get what you pay for, and in the case of government abuse, socialists pay a lot, and get their money's worth as always
Weren't these the same idiots who just passed a law to "punish irresponsible data loss"? So I guess the rule is as always "trust us with your safety, even if we let the enemy into your house, keep waiting for us to save you, keep submitting, obey, and all will be well... we promise, you can trust us. Don't you dare do anything without permission. Trust us, we'll take care of you."
And the results, as I'm forced to keep saying... "are very very visible, and completely predictable."
What I'm suggesting is simple, by not seriously patronizing the credit establishment, always buying used or old cars (give up some of the glamor and save a boatload of cash and headaches), etc, I have reduced my footprint, hard to steal an identity when I live life in the flesh instead of on paper in someone else's computer (at least I believe I am). I have no real credit rating, nor do I truly require one, and frankly, I can barely wait for the credit crunch. All those suckers living FAR beyond their means are already losing their mortgages/house ATM's, and soon their plastic ATM's. Sooner or later they'll have to live within their means, and that will make for an amusing show.
.22's on the edge of town and shooting off fireworks in town after dark, and none of us mind it (actually I like it, personally speaking), except for a few sissies who keep bringing it up for ballot each year and thankfully, get slapped down each year like the socialist control freaks they are.
What I was getting at is simple. Identity theft is only a problem for those who have been deeply engaged in the identity dependent system and not paying attention to their footprints they leave behind. You don't have to live in the woods to cut your footprint down, though I'm sure it helps. Area I live in, is in fact, semi rural, somewhat suburbia, somewhat rural, not really either. Still got rednecks out here hunting rabbits and squirrels with
As for social security numbers, it is ILLEGAL for any company to require you to give it out to do business with you. Even the cops have no right to get that number from you unless you volunteer it. All you owe them at all is your name, your address and your birthdate. Technically, only if you HAVE an address. That number is intended ONLY for social security withholding/benefits so technically nobody has a right to ask you for it, and you have the right to decline to give it. I think the problem with people giving it out to every scumbag that asks is simply the authority worshipping / socialist conditioning... "when somenone in authority asks you a question, you answer!"
The results or the indoctrination and the system that carries it out are apparently very visible but not well understood yet.
I was hoping individuals would've taken the cue as well, but it seems we're still dealing with "peoples" and we all know how independent thinking those types will be. Or perhaps we don't, or that inside the box crap would've changed a long time ago.
:)
We are agreed, but I keep telling you that you're not going to make Big Brother whup Little Brother's ass. Only time that occurs is when Little Brother hurts something that Big Brother has interest in, and I hate to tell you, but Big Brother has NEVER had any interest in preserving the livestock's freedom. Livestock is food, and people who act as such get treated as such
As for "it happens", I will differ, and I won't beg to do it. I have yet to lose any of the following (back when I actually carried all this crap). A) Laptop, B) Cellphone, C)Dayplanner, D)Wallet/ID's/CreditCards/Sunglasses. In fact the only screwup I've ever done was when I was a teenager, I locked my keys in the car without having a backup in my pocket. That was the first and only time. All it takes is preparation and willingness to plan ahead. I understand that this is not a trait that is common among the general populace, since Britney's latest nipple show or tit operation is FAR more important. Or perhaps OJ found the "other bloody glove." Who knows, but thinking and planning ahead are such a bother, why bother?
You're posting on a "geek" site and yet you cannot notice the mathematical usage of the term "area"?? Sheesh.
I drove around Washington DC for several years. They still haven't fixed those roads, despite non stop construction. Those projects are meant to keep going, not to accomplish anything. For all the socialism here, the reds in the west could learn a lot from the reds in the east. Those commies at least get things done quickly and well.
As for the potholes around DC, part of it was fixed with Virginia highway funds. And the fun part? Now they've passed a law that puts $1000.00 speeding, seatbelt and noncompliance tickets on the books, but ONLY against Virginia residents. Interesting that it was a socialist who got that bill authorized, the fascist, until now, had shot that bill down each time (about his only saving grace). Every time "the people's voice is heard" things get worse, government gets bigger, gets more powers and swallows up yet more rights. Now a cop can stop you and make up a charge and as usual, you can't fight it, but now you get to pay quadruple for an infraction. Nobody harmed but the citizen.
Wait, I know this one. "SURPRISE!!"
Corporations are government vehicles for eschewing responsibility (also for protecting one's assets, but that's a different story, since it moves the assets into the ownership of the tool of the government, which is basically only as valid as the government that issued it or upholds it.)
:)
:) (I understand what you said, I'm merely enjoying good humor at the term "gun crime".)
That being said, I think it'd make people's mistakes less doable, and make people more responsible to be punished IF the damage can be linked to them. Have the corpo pay half fro being stupid enough to allow that sort of data to walk off, and the idiot with the lost laptop the other half. Seriously, if nothing is lost, who gives a damn, write it off, and done.
Government has seen that it is being cut out of the next great protection racket and they're dying to get in. As for me, I have no need of it
PS - I'm still waiting for a gun to load itself, jump out of its holster and start blasting away. If that happens I'll be the first one filing a report of "gun crime"
Why not punish resulting crime. If a company fails its customers like this, or if your ID is stolen and you follow some great loss and then follow it back to that company, you should A, have options to go to while suing said company, and B the company should not be running the courts and thus have an inherent interest in protecting itself.
I.E. one of the biggest losers of ID info is who? Yes, the government, followed closely by BANKS, which are heavily regulated by? Ahem, yes, the government. Irony at its best? Why not. Everything people clamor for as safety is merely slavery with a sugar coated topping. Irony indeed. I love it.
It is a piece of paper, a bunch of numbers. It is what someone else says you are, or details about you might be. If tomorrow it was erased, you would be a truly free man. (Or woman.)
:)
Think about it, someone asks "who are you." You answer to a question that 50 years ago used to be "what is your name?" YOUR NAME, not YOU. YOU are you, your name is changeable, and it doesn't really describe you. It's like asking, "Hi Joe, what are you." "Oh I'm a computer engineer." NO, that is what you do to pay the rent. It's pretty "in the box" thinking, actually.
As for me, I use cash for my transactions, and have a very small credit/debit account. I watch it carefully and keep only what I need in it, but since most of my online personal purchases are made with money orders or a few online payment systems that haven't caught onto the mainstream yet, but will since they're OSS and there's no overhead organization to lose your data, its all up to you. I won't put their names up here because I doubt there'd be any productive use of their resources by the average slashdotter
All in all, they can steal my identity all day long, all they'd do is steal it from those who already stole it... the classifying freaks at whatever alphabet soup bureau controls people licensing. After all, you do need a permit to live, its just not called that... yet.
Government spending provides crappier roads. I say give it up to those who benefit from it to maintain it. Don't create "road maintenance" bureaucracies, we've already seen how bad it got with Bell Atlantic and its surviving Baby Bells. No, give it to the oil companies. They want to maintain the roads to keep selling gas, lettem do it, then only those who use roads or benefit from their use will pay. You want to use a road, pay for gas, you want to buy goods shipped on a road, you pay for it through the costs of things. NO tax can work, but nobody in government wants to try it, they'd have to actually be productive to survive the change. Highly unlikely.
Canada is generally a sparsely populated place, with almost the same area as the USA but nowhere NEAR the population, OR the multiple ethnicity. French and English speaking WHITE PEOPLE can barely get along, and just imagine what will happen if they had the multiple ethnicities we have down here up there. I recall a friend of mine who is very pro gun restrictions (weapons in general) who had this joyful period where she hid in her house. Why? Because the Ethiopian immigrants were causing all sorts of trouble up in the Medicine Hat area... seems the meat packing plant where they were working was shut down for some period. Amazing how a simple thing as rampant unemployment or mass firings can ruin the "peace" of a semi rural place, especially one as "gun safe" as Canada.
:) As the sheeple say, I say. "Not my problem. They want it, I won't deny it to them, in fact I won't lift a finger except to enjoy the irony, as I am doing now."
Oh well, not my problem.
As for your organized crime comment. Recall that Canada doesn't have even have one quarter of the USA's population, nor population density, nor the ethnic diversity. This is out of date, but round up by 10 to 15 million, and they still barely have less than 1/9th of the USA's "recorded" population last year. Canada isn't even catching up, they're still way ahead, density wise, in "crime statistics". I forgot where I read it, but they're proud of their serial killer count being less than a third of that of the USA. Interesting pride, given that by density alone, they should have less than a ninth of the USA's active killers, but don't let something like "per capita occurence" bother them.
I use arms ownership (not necessarily guns) as a statistic to study when studying how easy a people will be to bully over using force. As I understand it, police routinely bully people protesting in any area with a low occurrence of arms ownership/carry. I routinely read reports from alternative media (only credible media anymore) detailing how a protest or get together or whatnot was busted up using SWAT teams and riot tanks, they either lacked a license to protest against some injustice or lacked the RIGHT license... riot tanks in "free countries", licensing a non violent protest?? I've heard these arguments before, but back then I was hearing them in Eastern Europe during the 1980's... guess the "free world" is fast catching up. At least the sheeple are kept safe until their time to be butchered is decided upon.
One word
You really should read up on contracts. Generally a merc's word will hold, though there are bad apples. If you're rich enough to hire mercs, you're rich enough for them not to screw you over :) You're also rich enough to influence governments so despite the "protection" racket, you're one of those who A) does not pay for it, and B) gets the TRUE full protection government can provide. Regardless of whether you live under socialism, communism, fascism or theocracy. Depending on which of those you live under, you are either a "philanthropist", a "people's party leader", a "business tycoon" or an "imam", "ayatollah", "pope" or "rabbi." They all mean the same thing, they just each fleece you a different way in exchange for the right to serve them willingly.
Instead of stating what is wrong, I will ask a question.
:) With lawmakers and enforcers like that, who needs enemies? No surprise though, they're going to make yet ANOTHER Malum Prohibitum, and nobody's going to stop them, cuz "Goddamit they're English and they're Damn Proud Of It!!"
Presume, for a moment that your data has been put on one of these laptops. Presume for a moment that this laptop is stolen. Now, the government quickly goes and blows that heavy cash they steal from everyone as taxes in suing and jailing and then FEEDING said miscreant with the bad business practices. You as a "customer" still have NO options, will probably never find out if your data was actually lost, or anything else. Would it not seem a bit more clever to actually punish those who actually LOSE the data? Easier access to lawsuits, less protections from corporate creations, etc? Company screws up, company pays, individuals pay half the bill, corpo pays the other half. Betcha if THAT is how it was done, we'd be done with lost laptops and lost data in a year or two tops. But again, why punish drunk drivers who run over someone, when you can nail'em all, raise lots of revenue for the state, and STILL provide NO recourse for those who are hit by drunk drivers OR anyone else for that matter. It ends up requiring a lawsuit anyways, so what the hell does the government do by jailing (housing and feeding) drunk drivers on my tab and yours? It doesn't stop them from doing it again... majority of drunk drivers tend to repeat their "misdeeds". Perhaps if they knew that it wasn't just a lottery but a true "your ass is grass if you hurt someone", it might put a different incentive into it.
Back to the article in question. It seems to me that these politicians in England, who are so well known for other fine working legislation (gun control, now knife control, myriad cameras covering every angle and yet robberies and home invasions are supposed to be at an all time high in London alone, and fear of "gun crime" is at a high, despite the fact that everyone who could be disarmed HAS been disarmed of everything but their teeth, fists and shoes, and cops are shooting disarmed and subdued Brazilian electricians in the head repeatedly... forget the queen, God save England
The anime people are no different than AMD was.
They got their chips known for performance with the Athlon/K7 and the overclockers and tweakers (one of whom I once was, when I had more time and cash to blow on testing hardware and new rigs every few months.) Anyways, to cut to the chase, remember when AMD stopped their majority overclockers dead, and began to make it tougher and tougher to OC their chips? This despite the fact that the vast majority of tweakers ended up buying more and more AMD chips. It was basically AMD saying "thanks folks, you got us to be known as performance chip makers, and now here's us flipping you the bird, we got corporate marketshare now, we don't really give a shit anymore." This is exactly what the Japanese Anime studio/government bitch and moaners are doing. They got the US market interested through the fansubs (frankly until the corporate studio schmucks do as faithful a translation without americanizing the shows to "appease" to the masses, I prefer the fansubs most of the time... with VERY few exceptions. Vampire Hunter D is better in English, and Noir was good in both languages, IMHO.)
Good Sig. I dig.
I always saved the "you suck" for the ones whom the ref showed favor towards. If they played a good game, the "I'll/We'll get you next time was par for the course :)"