I didn't want to waste juice scaring the poor mutt, so we learned mutual respect, I respect that he can outrun me, he respects that I have food, snacks and a nice warm place to sleep. I want his company, he wants mine (or so I jokingly tell myself, but I'm a capitalist at heart, I already KNOW that he wants food, shelter and whatever else he can get from me, and trades his companionship for these things HE wants... and I find it an acceptable relationship/exchange. We both benefit.)
Now... when I first raised him, he chewed every leash, rope, cable I tied him with. Now, I began to use a STEEL mesh cable... guaranteed to hold a 100 lb dog. The little nutbag broke the first one and chewed through the next two. I finally got a BIG THICK cable and intertwined it with a chain... and that FINALLY did the trick.
So then he dug up the cork screw stake I had chained him to. Tied him to a tree then. That finally worked!! I was SO relieved.
A few days later, he got bored, and began chewing around the TREE I had tied him to. There was a nice 3 inch wide band missing bark and some pulp a bit below the spot where the chain looped around the tree.
THE LITTLE BUGGER WAS TRYING TO CHEW THE TREE IN HALF!!!!!!
Actually I find that your remark, while seemingly offended is off the mark. I stayed OUT of the Bush/Clinton election, I stayed out of the Gore/Bush election and I WISH I had stayed out of the Kerry/Bush election. Regardless of who runs things, nothing changes, and by voting for them, what we are ACTUALLY doing is CONSENTING to being ruled by them.
Consciously withhold your vote, and make it known that you WITHDRAW your consent. At least then, whatever they do to you, you know you didn't toe their line and consent to that abuse, or the waste of your tax dollars, or the "broken campaign promises" or whatnot.
Hell I regret EVER voting in the Bush/Kerry election because I KNEW neither of them was good, and their opponents were unlikely to win... nor likely to change a thing if they did.
And no, FAR worse stuff happened on Komrade Klinton's watch than on Herr Bush Jr.'s but just like the crap that Komrade Klinton did, neither the press nor the fan were turned on when Klinton and Kompany did their dirty deeds. Sure some people exposed Waco, and Vince Foster/Mena Arkansas, and the Randy Weaver/Idaho incident "Ruby Ridge"... and YET, the only thing the Komrade got hammered for was... a mere blow job and perjury? NAFTA, WTO, etc were ok, but a blow job was bad? And what is worse, this "superbowl" mentallity is why America is so messed up. Instead of looking at elections critically... (we get fucked no matter who wins) the bovines in the cattle pen moo with great joy when their nuts are cut off by the republicans, or they are soddomized by the democrats, because at least a few of them can cry out with great jubilation... "MY CANDIDATE WON!!!" Before mooing in agony as the candidate brands them and takes yet MORE of their "income" and restricts more of their no longer "inalienable rights".
You know, as much as I think your idea is good, stampedes are the reason Remington sells.44 Remington Magnum Wadcutter ammo... to crack the heads of the lead beasts. The rest, as you said, get herded quietly. This has been the direct outcome of every slave revolt since Spartacus (lest you forget, he LOST, and a LOT of weaker men were crucified along both sides of a LONG road, all courtesy of our "civilized" Western Roman Empire, the CRADLE of the fine and civilized Catholic/Christian Religion and of the marvel of Western "Civilization".
You'd do well to think on that carefully.
Please, do not feel that I'm discouraging your stampede. As far as I'm concerned, do what you THINK or FEEL is right.
Do what you feel is right, I won't argue your decision... but if you do it, make sure you WIN... it would be the second SEMI-SUCCESSFUL slave revolt in history, and if you keep what you WIN (freedom) it will be the first FULLY successful one. The last semi-successful one was in 1776, and they only managed to keep that hard won freedom until 1791, when the cattle consented to have a new fence built, to "enable interstate trade" or some such excuse, when the only REAL purpose was... indeed, to BUILT A NEW PEN for the bovine-men.
When necessity is argued, look closely at what is being proposed.
"Necessity is the creed of slaves, it is the argument of tyrants."
As for getting out into space, I can guarantee that if the government STAYS OUT OF IT (highly unlikely), the private sector would probably solve the problem in 10 years tops, and more likely in 5 or so. Private individuals have DRIVEN innovation and discovery, whether the concept of BSD, or that of Linux (it was a private endeavor by Linus Torvalds that started it, and those that undertook projects did it mostly to satisfy egos, needs or desires) or AC electricity distribution/generation (Nikola Tesla), or Diesel engines (Rudolf Diesel), or Gas engines or whatever invention have you, its all been the result of private endeavors. Monolithic/Institutionalized government has only been a roadblock to actual progress, generally adapting all inventions to maintain its own existence and blocking advances that would've dissipated the great struggle for resources that justifies the very existence of monolithic institutionalized government... generally at great cost to its peons... ahem slaves... ahem... "citizens".
Think on it like this. When a whole generation grows up tagged like cattle, always submitting to the cops, never having shot or carried a gun or trained in any form of hand to hand combat (call it martial arts, call it PT, call it what you will), and never having exercised their own rights (which are now presumed "granted by government" anyways) what more do you need to enslave them?
The fence is like that which a dog learns of early in life inside the electric fence. Walk too far and BZZT. Eventually even if the power dies, that dog will NEVER test the limits again (unless he's one of those rare individuals that resist submission at all costs (dominant/alpha)).
I don't see this as being that useful, other than as a way to keep the cattle of mankind in line and teach them that "someone's always watching"... the great "eye in the sky" and all.
The upside is that there will be plenty who will exercise their freedom, and circumvent these technologies, and eventually leave this planet to the meek/cattle-people to live on. It is the only logical outcome. You cannot "save the world" because it includes the bovine-men alongside those who will not be cowed, and the bovines refuse to be saved... better to be hamburger for sure than to contest with the wild beasts for survival on the range. The only solution is to leave (if anyone suggests crushing the bovine-people in a genocidal armageddon, while fun to entertain in Quake 4 Enemy Territory, in real life, such an endeavor is doomed to fail, and in the unlikely event of success, the drain on the psyche would leave the victors in worse shape than the now nonexistent losers). And I would not be too surprised if the exodus I'm suggesting, has happened at least once before in the history of mankind.
It wasn't that FEMA lied, or FEMA screwed up (or that there are several dozen Presidential Executive Orders in place allowing them to supersede the Constitution, hijack transportation, communications, food and fuel supplies accross the whole country, including private and commercial farm land, etc (thanks to Komrade Klinton's handiwork)). All it takes is a "real big disaster". And given how inept "ordinary Americans" are at just about every damn thing that is involved in surviving a catastrophe (or just plain every day life) I am surprised it hasn't happened yet.
No, sireee, you had to get pissed because they got busted lying. This was an attempt to see how hijacking the press would work, is my guess. I don't recall if "commandeering" the press is yet among the executive orders, but the rest is in place.
Somehow, "I told you so" just does not seem to tell it.
Wow, man, just wow. According to you, I should have been dead, as should all my extended family. Not only were we NOT chipped and tagged like cattle, but we grew up spending quite a bit of time on the streets (videogames weren't available where I grew up, until I was about 10). Amazing, and you're saying that without the EOG (eye of god) mechanism, a child cannot be expected to be responsible?
No wonder you people need lords and masters to tell you when to breathe.
Rubbish? Must be BritISH. Out here its TRASH, we take it we take it to the DUMP and its a PRIVATE service. Taxes didn't pay for our local dump, its setup by a local trash company. Then again, we don't have public sewer or public water where I live... and I like it that way...
Oh, and a gravel road... not state paved, not state owned. Speed limit? On my property, whatever doesn't get you killed. Quite fun actually.
Your evidence is quite visible. Quite a few of the big "nature parks", "national monuments", etc are in the midwest. Most of the megalopolis style sprawls are near military bases or near coasts. Take, for example, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, you've got Yellowstone taking a HUGE chunk out of that tri state area, add to that all the Minuteman staging areas in Montana (talking about the missiles, not the militia styled group).
Also, take Virginia, they've recently installed a 1000.00 - 1900.00 USD extra ticket "law" solely for residents. Not visitors, just us living here. What do we have in office? A socialist democrat (Tim Kaine) who wasted the entire state funds completing the DC interchange on I95 and claimed he spent the money so "Bush wouldn't use it to fund the war in Iraq"... little did he tell anyone that he planned to spend FAR more and would get it by extracting blood from rocks... or at least his subjects... AHEM... "constituents".
How about to simply not force any particular "monopoly" on education, nor taxing those unwilling to participate?
After all, I'm not a PHD in physics, but I got my math and science education from one at home. I have met many of the school system's finest who are STILL unable to lay claim to ANY of the cognitive abilities and skills you described. Schooling or no schooling aside, my question is the same. Why be force to eat at the public trough and pay for it, when one can cook his or her own and NOT pay for the slop others choose to eat for "free".? Same can be said of education. Public education hasn't given us history's greatest minds, but it has given us lots of easily replaced "cogs in the machine", which IS after all, what the Prussian system was designed to do, and what it did admirably.
It was designed to provide easily controlled drones, not enlightened minds able to think things out for themselves. That a few come out undamaged is no doubt a sign of the absolute resilience of human intellect... not proof of how enlightening the public school system is.
Also NY (socialist hellhole that it is, dominated by NYC and Buffalo politics) and "other north eastern states"... hmmm... let me think, Marxistchussets and Vermont? Perhaps Maine? How about Neue Jersei and Pennsylvania? I mean, I'm sure they said "and other states" because the list reads like a whos who of socialist control freak locales.
Interesting, I have two of his books on my shelf and have re-read them recently, other than minor help to the truly needy (crop failure, disaster victims, massive disease outbreak, etc) it seemed to me, as of my last writing, that Smith referred to the MARKET itself as the invisible hand, self correcting and balancing if left alone instead of being interfered with.
If anything at all, Smith seemed to draw the parallel that the invisible hand ONLY works as a correction to the market when the market is left be, and the only things kept out by government are outright criminal endeavors. Of course when the government establishes itself as the only monopoly on any service, and enacts what the US Post Office did to "out compete" Lysander Spooner (http://www.lysanderspooner.org/) whom it put out of business only by cutting costs beyond what a realistic business would. In other words, to keep its monopoly, the USPS WASTED taxpayer money to chokehold a legitimate and superior business out of the marketplace. Eventually LS went on to write "No Treason" and several other texts that market anarchists seem to enjoy.
Of course I let you be reasonable and side with the masses. Just recall that when SHTF you'd best keep to the other side of someone's property line. They might mistake you for a looter (or perhaps notice you to be such) and take appropriate action. Nobel prizes and snippy quotes of collectivist enforcers will not keep you fed, safe or warm during an emergency... unless you're an enforcer, and the problem with enforcers is that they still need a group of victims to "enforce" against.
As is yours. Public education hasn't created some of the most enlightened minds in history. In fact, even up to Einstein which so many glorify, he mentioned that the reason he felt enlightened was not because of the schooling but because he managed to "survive it".
Most nobel prize winners get it not for achievement, but for parroting the system's teachings back at it.
Voila, Al Gore.
And you ARE correct, if it weren't for "public education" we'd have a better economy where people aren't borrowing money from the "house ATM" (aka the second mortgage, etc) to pay for crap they don't really need, nor can afford.
Ah, what am I wasting my keyboard's lifetime for? You won't get it, and I have no desire to really argue this out.
Buddy, in places with heavy education spending (big city in Virginia several years back) my house was Burglarized... the educational system spends cash and teaches thugs that its safe to rob people, because the cops are their only real problem... not at my house, not since then:)
Last point.... my properties are generally far enough that short of a nuclear blast , I do not, and would not require ANY of their so called "essential" services, and even IN the case of said blast, I wager I can survive longer hiding in my basement and washing my veggies than living in a concentration camp or "safety zone" as they call it.
There is honestly NOTHING that government does that could not be BETTER handled by a local business or a local coalition. Monolithic government as an entity, instead of a PACT between NEIGHBORS is nothing short of criminal... it drains resources, accomplishes little short of its own propagation, and ends up harming everyone involved, with the exception of those who cannot enjoy life without controlling others, who invariably end up at the helm of said monolithic government entity.
Last point.... my properties are generally far enough that short of a nuclear blast (yet another failure of our governing masters, parading themselves as representatives, instead of what they are) is that I do not, and SHOULD not pay taxes. I put out my own fires, I clear my own brush, I built my own home out here. I neither receive, nor ask for services, and I'm not plugged into the 911 service lines. If cops were late as hell when I lived in the city, they would be here much later than the flies if I ever called them out here.
I deal very little with the educational system, and I wager I've got a more sizeable library than what others may term "rich" people, spanning a pretty vast array of subjects from the technical to the esoteric...
So then, the question arises... why am I forced to pay property taxes, if it isn't rent? If I refuse to pay, the government moves in jack booted thugs and takes my land from me. Guess it isn't really mine, then, is it?
And if you try to argue that I pay so "soldiers can defend us from the enemy"... I can defend this land FAR more effectively than the local cops, and the local national guard or even the army. In fact, if it weren't for politicians, over here and in whatever country is our designated enemy of the day, not even you would have the audacity to say "defense" is "essential services" because there would be little reason to use it. Much like the cops, who as a cop acquaintance of mine says "they are a bag and tag service".
Hmmm, "essential services" ? I don't seem to recall the fire fighters in my local jurisdiction being paid out of taxes. In fact, the local pool for the firefighter is all volunteers and donations, taxes go to pay cops to give speeding tickets.
Local population "education" isn't worth the cash and never was or will be.
Warren Buffet is smart enough to have plenty of physical wealth. What he uses to make a profit isn't what he uses for physical assets. In the end, what you cannot get during a "bank panic" is what you "don't have".
I'm sure I'm a kook to you. And a good thing it is, too.
Actually, unless you're a true homesteader, you neither own your home, nor ever will. Unless you're willing to pull your estate OFF the economic market, you'll always be paying rent to your local, state and federal leeches (taxmen).
Home ownership is up only if you count the UNPAID mortgages that are skyrocketting.
No surprise there. In typical true geek fashion, many of us still count the numbers on the screen as a measure of true wealth.
As a friend of mine told me several years back... "Those numbers on paper or on the screen mean NOTHING until you've converted them into real, tangible, physical goods. Until then, they merely show potential wealth that you aren't acquiring."
The more I deal with my "fellow geeks" the more I realize this to be a truth.
Given that the information I gave isn't the least bit personal (I can't really be identified by any of the data I've yet output on slashdot) I find it to be "somewhat relevant" and yet "private" at the same time.
There are plenty of people who've undertaken their education outside of the sycophantic and costly circle known as college. I learned after a few years, others did before, others do after. To each his (or her) own. If you disagree, feel free to slam me:) It stopped hurting after I left puberty, and it stopped bothering me after I left college:)
Actually, some fellow from E.L.F. was training to shoot the executive officers of Monsanto after firebombing a Ford dealership and cutting loose some horses from a meat packing plant or some such.
Anyways, to cut a story short, one of the execs at Monsanto back then was Rumsfeld... as in Don Rumsfeld.
As it turns out, the kid was sold out by his friends, and "choked himself to death in the sheriff's jail with a plastic bag" which he miraculously held shut over his throat until after he was dead... after which he let go (some rigormortis, eh?)
Most believe he was murdered so he wouldn't inspire others to try the same trick... I don't hold any beliefs on this issue but find it very telling what taking "effective" action against Monsanto will guarantee you... a black plastic bag over your head:)
Hmmm... how about acquiring some Dragon Skin (tm) and using that and having a buddy slug you with an AK47 or an M16 right in those 4 spots.
Much more "life like".
Course Dragon Skin (tm) costs about $3500.00 USD, but it actually has practical uses (like helping you survive an unarmed walk to the store to gawk at all the shit you cant afford once the economy tanks).
I write also, and I can attest to the fact that ODT, OD* documents actually take up MORE space, on average than MS documents. Now the fun part is this. I don't really use windows for any serious "work", at all. Hell even Nvidia's hardware firewall on their nForce chipset (NIC comes with it) is powered by Apache as a "remote control" facility. The fun part is this, to me, the Open Document standards are read by a wide variety of utils, as are, in fact, html, latex, txt, pdf and possibly rtf. They are less prone to being infected with a common virus, or attack scripts, which makes it easier to distribute with confidence and peace of mind. Since the Open Document format utils tend not to be embedded or deeply hooked into their host OS, they also lack the "all your rights are belong to us" capacity that MS Office has had since its Windows 95 inception.
In fact, privilege/rights escalation has been a "feature" of various windows Apps, precisely because they have to run from System or Root to get their jobs done right (and removing them from said group/user removes the access they would have to have to actually do their job properly.)
All in all, its not space efficiency that bothers me, as much as "can I read this the way I wrote it on another platform?" "Can I edit this next year without having to install 5 different versions of the same suite?" "Will this be likely to get infected if my system gets hit with something I do not foresee?"
In fact I wager I would've been in far greater debt, wasted more time, and been in worse shape (financially and physically) if I had stayed in college. I got what I wanted and moved on.
Bottom line, if it works for you, great. It, frankly wasn't worth it for me. That's it.
I'd rather be hiking, fishing, or hunting, rather than be stuck sycophantic to a priest or a professor. Simple as that, really. I drew my line in the sand, and unlike the vast majority of people, I didn't draw a new one, I responded when the line was breached. I owe it to a few very strong people I've had the pleasure to grow up around, even if I dare say I didn't meet some until I was into my 20's.
The beauty of things is that I seek to mostly simplify my life. Compiling kernels and patching my own scripts is the extent of complexity I desire. (I like building my own software from source or with a text editor and a compiler when I so desire and have the time), however I have not one damn thing that requires more than a couple of simple formulas, not even my book keeping. That's the irony.
For others who want to do the MS thing, I fully enforce it. Then I let them screw it up, so they pay MORE. It suits me fine, when they're ready to stop the pain, I help them, if they don't I am only too happy to receive their hard earned cash for the advanced features.
Make no mistake about it, the customer is ALWAYS right. If they want to pay ten times more to make their lives difficult, I am ALL for it. If I can sell them Quickbooks, Quicken, ten different versions of antivirus, and 3 different versions of a buggy OS... and show up to patch it once every 3 months as per contract, damn straight I will. Their money is worth a lot more to me than giving myself a headache to "save" them. I save myself and those willing, everyone else can keep paying, and I'll be glad to be the payee!
Last time I went to a class like that I told the teacher I'd print it for her since it was against my religion and found it very offensive to my beliefs that she would demand I pay the "vile darkness" for products.
She called me crazy, I took it up with the billing department and demanded a refund of my tuition and filed a complaint. A week later I was turning in written papers to a different professor.:)
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I didn't want to waste juice scaring the poor mutt, so we learned mutual respect, I respect that he can outrun me, he respects that I have food, snacks and a nice warm place to sleep. I want his company, he wants mine (or so I jokingly tell myself, but I'm a capitalist at heart, I already KNOW that he wants food, shelter and whatever else he can get from me, and trades his companionship for these things HE wants... and I find it an acceptable relationship/exchange. We both benefit.)
Now... when I first raised him, he chewed every leash, rope, cable I tied him with. Now, I began to use a STEEL mesh cable... guaranteed to hold a 100 lb dog. The little nutbag broke the first one and chewed through the next two. I finally got a BIG THICK cable and intertwined it with a chain... and that FINALLY did the trick.
So then he dug up the cork screw stake I had chained him to. Tied him to a tree then. That finally worked!! I was SO relieved.
A few days later, he got bored, and began chewing around the TREE I had tied him to. There was a nice 3 inch wide band missing bark and some pulp a bit below the spot where the chain looped around the tree.
THE LITTLE BUGGER WAS TRYING TO CHEW THE TREE IN HALF!!!!!!
Actually I find that your remark, while seemingly offended is off the mark. I stayed OUT of the Bush/Clinton election, I stayed out of the Gore/Bush election and I WISH I had stayed out of the Kerry/Bush election. Regardless of who runs things, nothing changes, and by voting for them, what we are ACTUALLY doing is CONSENTING to being ruled by them.
Consciously withhold your vote, and make it known that you WITHDRAW your consent. At least then, whatever they do to you, you know you didn't toe their line and consent to that abuse, or the waste of your tax dollars, or the "broken campaign promises" or whatnot.
Hell I regret EVER voting in the Bush/Kerry election because I KNEW neither of them was good, and their opponents were unlikely to win... nor likely to change a thing if they did.
And no, FAR worse stuff happened on Komrade Klinton's watch than on Herr Bush Jr.'s but just like the crap that Komrade Klinton did, neither the press nor the fan were turned on when Klinton and Kompany did their dirty deeds. Sure some people exposed Waco, and Vince Foster/Mena Arkansas, and the Randy Weaver/Idaho incident "Ruby Ridge"... and YET, the only thing the Komrade got hammered for was... a mere blow job and perjury? NAFTA, WTO, etc were ok, but a blow job was bad? And what is worse, this "superbowl" mentallity is why America is so messed up. Instead of looking at elections critically... (we get fucked no matter who wins) the bovines in the cattle pen moo with great joy when their nuts are cut off by the republicans, or they are soddomized by the democrats, because at least a few of them can cry out with great jubilation... "MY CANDIDATE WON!!!" Before mooing in agony as the candidate brands them and takes yet MORE of their "income" and restricts more of their no longer "inalienable rights".
You know, as much as I think your idea is good, stampedes are the reason Remington sells .44 Remington Magnum Wadcutter ammo... to crack the heads of the lead beasts. The rest, as you said, get herded quietly. This has been the direct outcome of every slave revolt since Spartacus (lest you forget, he LOST, and a LOT of weaker men were crucified along both sides of a LONG road, all courtesy of our "civilized" Western Roman Empire, the CRADLE of the fine and civilized Catholic/Christian Religion and of the marvel of Western "Civilization".
You'd do well to think on that carefully.
Please, do not feel that I'm discouraging your stampede. As far as I'm concerned, do what you THINK or FEEL is right.
Do what you feel is right, I won't argue your decision... but if you do it, make sure you WIN... it would be the second SEMI-SUCCESSFUL slave revolt in history, and if you keep what you WIN (freedom) it will be the first FULLY successful one. The last semi-successful one was in 1776, and they only managed to keep that hard won freedom until 1791, when the cattle consented to have a new fence built, to "enable interstate trade" or some such excuse, when the only REAL purpose was... indeed, to BUILT A NEW PEN for the bovine-men.
When necessity is argued, look closely at what is being proposed.
"Necessity is the creed of slaves, it is the argument of tyrants."
As for getting out into space, I can guarantee that if the government STAYS OUT OF IT (highly unlikely), the private sector would probably solve the problem in 10 years tops, and more likely in 5 or so. Private individuals have DRIVEN innovation and discovery, whether the concept of BSD, or that of Linux (it was a private endeavor by Linus Torvalds that started it, and those that undertook projects did it mostly to satisfy egos, needs or desires) or AC electricity distribution/generation (Nikola Tesla), or Diesel engines (Rudolf Diesel), or Gas engines or whatever invention have you, its all been the result of private endeavors. Monolithic/Institutionalized government has only been a roadblock to actual progress, generally adapting all inventions to maintain its own existence and blocking advances that would've dissipated the great struggle for resources that justifies the very existence of monolithic institutionalized government... generally at great cost to its peons... ahem slaves... ahem... "citizens".
Think on it like this. When a whole generation grows up tagged like cattle, always submitting to the cops, never having shot or carried a gun or trained in any form of hand to hand combat (call it martial arts, call it PT, call it what you will), and never having exercised their own rights (which are now presumed "granted by government" anyways) what more do you need to enslave them?
The fence is like that which a dog learns of early in life inside the electric fence. Walk too far and BZZT. Eventually even if the power dies, that dog will NEVER test the limits again (unless he's one of those rare individuals that resist submission at all costs (dominant/alpha)).
I don't see this as being that useful, other than as a way to keep the cattle of mankind in line and teach them that "someone's always watching"... the great "eye in the sky" and all.
The upside is that there will be plenty who will exercise their freedom, and circumvent these technologies, and eventually leave this planet to the meek/cattle-people to live on. It is the only logical outcome. You cannot "save the world" because it includes the bovine-men alongside those who will not be cowed, and the bovines refuse to be saved... better to be hamburger for sure than to contest with the wild beasts for survival on the range. The only solution is to leave (if anyone suggests crushing the bovine-people in a genocidal armageddon, while fun to entertain in Quake 4 Enemy Territory, in real life, such an endeavor is doomed to fail, and in the unlikely event of success, the drain on the psyche would leave the victors in worse shape than the now nonexistent losers). And I would not be too surprised if the exodus I'm suggesting, has happened at least once before in the history of mankind.
It wasn't that FEMA lied, or FEMA screwed up (or that there are several dozen Presidential Executive Orders in place allowing them to supersede the Constitution, hijack transportation, communications, food and fuel supplies accross the whole country, including private and commercial farm land, etc (thanks to Komrade Klinton's handiwork)). All it takes is a "real big disaster". And given how inept "ordinary Americans" are at just about every damn thing that is involved in surviving a catastrophe (or just plain every day life) I am surprised it hasn't happened yet.
No, sireee, you had to get pissed because they got busted lying. This was an attempt to see how hijacking the press would work, is my guess. I don't recall if "commandeering" the press is yet among the executive orders, but the rest is in place.
Somehow, "I told you so" just does not seem to tell it.
Wow, man, just wow. According to you, I should have been dead, as should all my extended family. Not only were we NOT chipped and tagged like cattle, but we grew up spending quite a bit of time on the streets (videogames weren't available where I grew up, until I was about 10). Amazing, and you're saying that without the EOG (eye of god) mechanism, a child cannot be expected to be responsible?
No wonder you people need lords and masters to tell you when to breathe.
Bah, you've a long way to go kid.
Rubbish? Must be BritISH. Out here its TRASH, we take it we take it to the DUMP and its a PRIVATE service. Taxes didn't pay for our local dump, its setup by a local trash company. Then again, we don't have public sewer or public water where I live... and I like it that way...
Oh, and a gravel road... not state paved, not state owned. Speed limit? On my property, whatever doesn't get you killed. Quite fun actually.
Your evidence is quite visible. Quite a few of the big "nature parks", "national monuments", etc are in the midwest. Most of the megalopolis style sprawls are near military bases or near coasts. Take, for example, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, you've got Yellowstone taking a HUGE chunk out of that tri state area, add to that all the Minuteman staging areas in Montana (talking about the missiles, not the militia styled group).
Also, take Virginia, they've recently installed a 1000.00 - 1900.00 USD extra ticket "law" solely for residents. Not visitors, just us living here. What do we have in office? A socialist democrat (Tim Kaine) who wasted the entire state funds completing the DC interchange on I95 and claimed he spent the money so "Bush wouldn't use it to fund the war in Iraq"... little did he tell anyone that he planned to spend FAR more and would get it by extracting blood from rocks... or at least his subjects... AHEM... "constituents".
How about to simply not force any particular "monopoly" on education, nor taxing those unwilling to participate?
After all, I'm not a PHD in physics, but I got my math and science education from one at home. I have met many of the school system's finest who are STILL unable to lay claim to ANY of the cognitive abilities and skills you described. Schooling or no schooling aside, my question is the same. Why be force to eat at the public trough and pay for it, when one can cook his or her own and NOT pay for the slop others choose to eat for "free".? Same can be said of education. Public education hasn't given us history's greatest minds, but it has given us lots of easily replaced "cogs in the machine", which IS after all, what the Prussian system was designed to do, and what it did admirably.
It was designed to provide easily controlled drones, not enlightened minds able to think things out for themselves. That a few come out undamaged is no doubt a sign of the absolute resilience of human intellect... not proof of how enlightening the public school system is.
Also NY (socialist hellhole that it is, dominated by NYC and Buffalo politics) and "other north eastern states"... hmmm... let me think, Marxistchussets and Vermont? Perhaps Maine? How about Neue Jersei and Pennsylvania? I mean, I'm sure they said "and other states" because the list reads like a whos who of socialist control freak locales.
Interesting, I have two of his books on my shelf and have re-read them recently, other than minor help to the truly needy (crop failure, disaster victims, massive disease outbreak, etc) it seemed to me, as of my last writing, that Smith referred to the MARKET itself as the invisible hand, self correcting and balancing if left alone instead of being interfered with.
If anything at all, Smith seemed to draw the parallel that the invisible hand ONLY works as a correction to the market when the market is left be, and the only things kept out by government are outright criminal endeavors. Of course when the government establishes itself as the only monopoly on any service, and enacts what the US Post Office did to "out compete" Lysander Spooner (http://www.lysanderspooner.org/) whom it put out of business only by cutting costs beyond what a realistic business would. In other words, to keep its monopoly, the USPS WASTED taxpayer money to chokehold a legitimate and superior business out of the marketplace. Eventually LS went on to write "No Treason" and several other texts that market anarchists seem to enjoy.
Of course I let you be reasonable and side with the masses. Just recall that when SHTF you'd best keep to the other side of someone's property line. They might mistake you for a looter (or perhaps notice you to be such) and take appropriate action. Nobel prizes and snippy quotes of collectivist enforcers will not keep you fed, safe or warm during an emergency... unless you're an enforcer, and the problem with enforcers is that they still need a group of victims to "enforce" against.
As is yours. Public education hasn't created some of the most enlightened minds in history. In fact, even up to Einstein which so many glorify, he mentioned that the reason he felt enlightened was not because of the schooling but because he managed to "survive it".
Most nobel prize winners get it not for achievement, but for parroting the system's teachings back at it.
Voila, Al Gore.
And you ARE correct, if it weren't for "public education" we'd have a better economy where people aren't borrowing money from the "house ATM" (aka the second mortgage, etc) to pay for crap they don't really need, nor can afford.
Ah, what am I wasting my keyboard's lifetime for? You won't get it, and I have no desire to really argue this out.
Buddy, in places with heavy education spending (big city in Virginia several years back) my house was Burglarized... the educational system spends cash and teaches thugs that its safe to rob people, because the cops are their only real problem... not at my house, not since then :)
Last point.... my properties are generally far enough that short of a nuclear blast , I do not, and would not require ANY of their so called "essential" services, and even IN the case of said blast, I wager I can survive longer hiding in my basement and washing my veggies than living in a concentration camp or "safety zone" as they call it.
There is honestly NOTHING that government does that could not be BETTER handled by a local business or a local coalition. Monolithic government as an entity, instead of a PACT between NEIGHBORS is nothing short of criminal... it drains resources, accomplishes little short of its own propagation, and ends up harming everyone involved, with the exception of those who cannot enjoy life without controlling others, who invariably end up at the helm of said monolithic government entity.
gotta go, lunch awaits
Fine and fine.
Last point.... my properties are generally far enough that short of a nuclear blast (yet another failure of our governing masters, parading themselves as representatives, instead of what they are) is that I do not, and SHOULD not pay taxes. I put out my own fires, I clear my own brush, I built my own home out here. I neither receive, nor ask for services, and I'm not plugged into the 911 service lines. If cops were late as hell when I lived in the city, they would be here much later than the flies if I ever called them out here.
I deal very little with the educational system, and I wager I've got a more sizeable library than what others may term "rich" people, spanning a pretty vast array of subjects from the technical to the esoteric...
So then, the question arises... why am I forced to pay property taxes, if it isn't rent? If I refuse to pay, the government moves in jack booted thugs and takes my land from me. Guess it isn't really mine, then, is it?
And if you try to argue that I pay so "soldiers can defend us from the enemy"... I can defend this land FAR more effectively than the local cops, and the local national guard or even the army. In fact, if it weren't for politicians, over here and in whatever country is our designated enemy of the day, not even you would have the audacity to say "defense" is "essential services" because there would be little reason to use it. Much like the cops, who as a cop acquaintance of mine says "they are a bag and tag service".
Hmmm, "essential services" ? I don't seem to recall the fire fighters in my local jurisdiction being paid out of taxes. In fact, the local pool for the firefighter is all volunteers and donations, taxes go to pay cops to give speeding tickets.
Local population "education" isn't worth the cash and never was or will be.
Warren Buffet is smart enough to have plenty of physical wealth. What he uses to make a profit isn't what he uses for physical assets. In the end, what you cannot get during a "bank panic" is what you "don't have".
I'm sure I'm a kook to you. And a good thing it is, too.
Actually, unless you're a true homesteader, you neither own your home, nor ever will. Unless you're willing to pull your estate OFF the economic market, you'll always be paying rent to your local, state and federal leeches (taxmen).
Home ownership is up only if you count the UNPAID mortgages that are skyrocketting.
No surprise there. In typical true geek fashion, many of us still count the numbers on the screen as a measure of true wealth.
As a friend of mine told me several years back... "Those numbers on paper or on the screen mean NOTHING until you've converted them into real, tangible, physical goods. Until then, they merely show potential wealth that you aren't acquiring."
The more I deal with my "fellow geeks" the more I realize this to be a truth.
Given that the information I gave isn't the least bit personal (I can't really be identified by any of the data I've yet output on slashdot) I find it to be "somewhat relevant" and yet "private" at the same time.
:) It stopped hurting after I left puberty, and it stopped bothering me after I left college :)
There are plenty of people who've undertaken their education outside of the sycophantic and costly circle known as college. I learned after a few years, others did before, others do after. To each his (or her) own. If you disagree, feel free to slam me
Thanks for the time.
Actually, some fellow from E.L.F. was training to shoot the executive officers of Monsanto after firebombing a Ford dealership and cutting loose some horses from a meat packing plant or some such.
:)
Anyways, to cut a story short, one of the execs at Monsanto back then was Rumsfeld... as in Don Rumsfeld.
As it turns out, the kid was sold out by his friends, and "choked himself to death in the sheriff's jail with a plastic bag" which he miraculously held shut over his throat until after he was dead... after which he let go (some rigormortis, eh?)
Most believe he was murdered so he wouldn't inspire others to try the same trick... I don't hold any beliefs on this issue but find it very telling what taking "effective" action against Monsanto will guarantee you... a black plastic bag over your head
Actually that's the downside, it will cross pollinate, and eventually your backyard crops will not "grow" without Monsanto's "blessing".
They are supposed to have dominant genes.
This story is old, by the way.
Hmmm... how about acquiring some Dragon Skin (tm) and using that and having a buddy slug you with an AK47 or an M16 right in those 4 spots.
Much more "life like".
Course Dragon Skin (tm) costs about $3500.00 USD, but it actually has practical uses (like helping you survive an unarmed walk to the store to gawk at all the shit you cant afford once the economy tanks).
I write also, and I can attest to the fact that ODT, OD* documents actually take up MORE space, on average than MS documents. Now the fun part is this. I don't really use windows for any serious "work", at all. Hell even Nvidia's hardware firewall on their nForce chipset (NIC comes with it) is powered by Apache as a "remote control" facility. The fun part is this, to me, the Open Document standards are read by a wide variety of utils, as are, in fact, html, latex, txt, pdf and possibly rtf. They are less prone to being infected with a common virus, or attack scripts, which makes it easier to distribute with confidence and peace of mind. Since the Open Document format utils tend not to be embedded or deeply hooked into their host OS, they also lack the "all your rights are belong to us" capacity that MS Office has had since its Windows 95 inception.
In fact, privilege/rights escalation has been a "feature" of various windows Apps, precisely because they have to run from System or Root to get their jobs done right (and removing them from said group/user removes the access they would have to have to actually do their job properly.)
All in all, its not space efficiency that bothers me, as much as "can I read this the way I wrote it on another platform?" "Can I edit this next year without having to install 5 different versions of the same suite?" "Will this be likely to get infected if my system gets hit with something I do not foresee?"
In fact I wager I would've been in far greater debt, wasted more time, and been in worse shape (financially and physically) if I had stayed in college. I got what I wanted and moved on.
Bottom line, if it works for you, great. It, frankly wasn't worth it for me. That's it.
I'd rather be hiking, fishing, or hunting, rather than be stuck sycophantic to a priest or a professor. Simple as that, really. I drew my line in the sand, and unlike the vast majority of people, I didn't draw a new one, I responded when the line was breached. I owe it to a few very strong people I've had the pleasure to grow up around, even if I dare say I didn't meet some until I was into my 20's.
The beauty of things is that I seek to mostly simplify my life. Compiling kernels and patching my own scripts is the extent of complexity I desire. (I like building my own software from source or with a text editor and a compiler when I so desire and have the time), however I have not one damn thing that requires more than a couple of simple formulas, not even my book keeping. That's the irony.
For others who want to do the MS thing, I fully enforce it. Then I let them screw it up, so they pay MORE. It suits me fine, when they're ready to stop the pain, I help them, if they don't I am only too happy to receive their hard earned cash for the advanced features.
Make no mistake about it, the customer is ALWAYS right. If they want to pay ten times more to make their lives difficult, I am ALL for it. If I can sell them Quickbooks, Quicken, ten different versions of antivirus, and 3 different versions of a buggy OS... and show up to patch it once every 3 months as per contract, damn straight I will. Their money is worth a lot more to me than giving myself a headache to "save" them. I save myself and those willing, everyone else can keep paying, and I'll be glad to be the payee!
Last time I went to a class like that I told the teacher I'd print it for her since it was against my religion and found it very offensive to my beliefs that she would demand I pay the "vile darkness" for products.
:)
She called me crazy, I took it up with the billing department and demanded a refund of my tuition and filed a complaint. A week later I was turning in written papers to a different professor.