Golf is a skill. And it can be a very lucrative skill for those who can perfect it.
But alas, I agree, it is not a sport. IMO it barely qualifies as a hobby.
To all of the golf-happy minions around here (both of you), consider an alternative plan: a gym membership. A good walk spoiled doesn't do shit for your cardiovascular system.
BARSTOW, CA (AP) - Today, computer scientists at the DeVry Institute claimed to have solved the Halting Problem, a classic thought experiment of theoretical computer science. The problem's insolvability, a landmark in the field, was proposed by theoretician Alan Turing in 1938.
"We were skeptical at first, of course", said Dr. Ephraim P. Fingerbottom, emeritus professor of computability theory at DeVry. "The Halting Problem's intractibility is one of those snippets of lore we love to torture undergraduates with, so we really had no practical motive for accepting this hypothesis. Come to think of it, we have no practical motives at all, we're theoreticians. Anyway, our faces fell when we proofed the submission, let me tell you. Never ask a theoretician to come up with new material. Hell, now we may to juggle teaching and the hunt for grant money like everyone else."
Nonetheless, Dr. Fingerbottom was heartened by the new-found stature of his department in light of these findings. "We're attracting some exciting new talent here", he said, perspiring under the layers of chalk dust that have covered his face since 1962. "This development, coupled with our reduction of the '3-SAT problem' to a scientific proof of the existence of God, has swelled our ranks with students who want to do something else other than write software and make money."
The resulting paper will soon be published in the next issues of Communications of the ACM and the DIMACS Journal for Applied Math.
Just a pitty [sic] the millions dying of starvation probably won't be the ones responsible for the climate change in the first place.
That's why we need a good old fashioned pestilence.
I'll admit it: I wouldn't mind too much if we managed to shed a few billion people on this planet, including those in the developed areas of the globe.
Can't remember where I read it, but one of the reasons why the dire overpopulation predictions of the 1970s never panned out was that their models assumed that the distribution of wealth during that time would hold indefinitely. But, global wealth has concentrated into proportionately fewer hands, thus skewing the models. The average person on Earth these days has a lower standard of living that 30 years ago, but the richer nations have only gotten richer.
We would be in big trouble today if this wasn't so (and the original models were still valid), because the average person would have more purchasing power, consume more resources, and deplete the planet even further. (You have to wonder about a global economic system that depends on disparity to maintain its balance.)
Reducing the birth rate (as China did with the one-child policy) would help, but it may take a century to have any effect. And that assumes we're not too picky about pesky issues like human rights and basic freedoms.
So, methinks one way or another we will be deleting quite a few of our fellow inhabitants, and if we could, we should just get it over with. (To be fair, if I our my loved ones are slated for the pile, well, so be it. Not much one can do anyway in the face of a plague.)
Actually, I'd fault the GOP too when it was in power in Harrisburg. Dick Thornburgh didn't do squat for western PA.
The sad fact is that nobody in H'burg will ever help the western end of the state. They can take it for granted, or ignore it entirely once it depopulates. Remember: Alabama North.
(My sister-in-law used to work for the state version of C-SPAN, and got to see a ton of shit firsthand. She hates most state legislators today, especially Republicans. Generally, most of these specimens use the General Assembly as an excuse to eat. It was no surprise then when her crew would occasionally turn their cameras on sleeping assemblymen drooling on their notes. That didn't last long.. hee hee..)
Oh wow. Didn't know about the 'stay invent PA' scam. Mea culpa. Have you considered the other (prosperous) side of the state?
To be honest, I'd love to see the city rebound too. It's still home in a way, even though I've been gone for.. oh.. 18 years or so.
(You might be a Pittsburgher if:
You remember Chilly Billy.
You remember SCTV, and native son Joe Flaherty -- especially "Count Floyd". Verry scarrry boys and girls.
You don't flinch when the "t" isn't pronounced in Saturday.
Your favorite dining area is called the Strip, and you don't think it's weird if a restaurant there starts serving breakfast at 11pm.
Sister Sledge actually means something to you (hint: 1979).
Donnie Iris is one of your top ten classic rock artists.
Nothing seems wrong with naming a town "Blawnox".
Nothing seems wrong about pronouncing the name of that one suburb "ver-SAILS", even though it was named after that large palace outside Paris (you know, the one where the treaty ending World War One was signed..)
You know, in your heart, that no matter how bad things get, Cleveland will always suck more.)
But I think waiting for the city to turn around is a fool's errand. I'm sorry to say it. Really am.
I know this isn't the hub of technology, but when you [have a lot going for you], and still have an impossible time finding employment something is wrong.
ARRRGH! Would you move already?!
I used to live near the Burgh, and while the city has a lot to recommend, a robust job market (of any kind) is not one of them. And it hasn't been that way for over twenty years!
Sure, the cost of living is dirt cheap, but the jobs just aren't happening. The place is rapidly turning into Alabama North. (Especially outside the city. Each year it looks more and more like wherever Larry the Cable Guy grew up).
And everyone I know who lives there still just bitches about how things are falling apart. Now, they don't do anything about this, mind you..
Get over it. Ain't no money to be found there. Just ask Mario Lemieux.
And I'm sure if you looked outside the box known as Western Pee-Ay, you'd find quite a few places that would like to have you around. They may be in more expensive areas of the country (Bay Area, NoVa, Raleigh/Durham), or not (most of Texas), but I think having an income might just offset the homesickness, no?
Thank you so very much for reminding me of that song.
It took me four years off and on to purge it from my cerebral cortex with a Brillo pad. All for naught.
I hope RuPaul covers this song someday, and that the new version haunts you to the end of your days, like a curiously tall diva wailing in the eternal night.
Excuse me while I burn a little karma. I loved this bit from the web page:
Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.
If he makes a film as good as his last one (or better), more folks will be in the know.
(Granted, a lot of people won't see it because it challenges what they already believe to be true.
If you find such a person, do your patriotic duty. Kill them.)
How can it be possible that people in this nation think the Republicans can GIVE them anything without first TAKING it from future Americans? We are a goverment of and by the people. We can't extend to govenment a power that we don't have as individuals. Can I walk up to you on the street and demand money from your pocket for $700 military-grade toilet seats!? If I can't how can I extend that power to my elected officials? Whats next? Total Information Awareness? These were just some of the most pathetic effort at vote buying I've ever seen. Its unAmerican, anti-Freedom and plain ole theft from everyone to buy off a few. Next time I see someone who agrees with this junk, I'm leaving your stuff, ALL OF IT, and wiping out all civil liberties of any kind, nope, nada, zilch. Let's see how you like being left swimming in a goldfish bowl, cause hey, you NEEDED my children's property to pay for your false feelings of safety. I just can't believe this. At what point did we gain the "Right" to security at the cost of our neighbors property? I hear the GOP has a new term, instead of "theft" they'll call it "pre-emptive warfare". GRRRR!
And make sure it burns up on re-entry too!
on
Golf in Space
·
· Score: 1
Are we the only 2 people who don't get golf?
I don't get it at all. You pay a buttload of cash for the equipment, for bad clothing, and for the privilege to play on a manicured field. And you keep paying the latter, over and over again, to avoid sucking that badly.
All this for "a good walk spoiled".
Sorry, I have an MBA, and I still don't understand the fascination. I can increase positive cash flow by opening my front door and have an unspoiled good walk for free. And that reminds me..
<RANT>
And what's with calling golf a sport anyway? In the past two weeks, I watched the Super Bowl, some of the Winter Olympics, college B-ball, and pro hockey -- and you know what? Those people were involved with sports. I also went to my gym, and saw plenty of weight-trainers, bodybuilders, and Tae Kwon Do students. These people participated in sports too.
Do you want to know how I know this? Not one participant was wearing slacks.
Let's get serious. Golf is not a "sport", it is a "skill". It is a highly lucrative skill for those with considerable talent, but it is a "skill" nonetheless. If you're wearing Dockers (or driving a cart, or hiring a lackey to ruck for you), it's just.. not.. a sport.
You're preaching to the converted, my friend. One of the curious side-effects of this meddling (that neo-cons fail to grasp) is that the receivers wind up hating America.
And who can blame them?
This has deeper, and weirder, repercussions than we think. Do you remember the old "Superman" TV show? The one with George Reeves that aired in the 1950s, and was syndicated in the very early 1980's? Well, its intro always ended with a narrator claiming how Superman would defend "truth, justice, and the American way!".
In Latin America, the dubbed version of "Superman" left out the last three words.
(And I found this out from a co-worker who used to watch it in Puerto Rico.. which isn't exactly a bastion of liberal activism, let alone anti-American agitation.)
Advertising during the Super Bowl was always pricey, since so many American eyeballs would end up following it (when their owners weren't getting beer or visiting the bathroom). But the mad advertising rush really didn't take off until January 1984, with Apple's "Big Brother" add, which aired once, and only once, during the first few minutes of the broadcast.
That commercial was (and still is) considered one of the best ad campaigns of all time, despite its one lone airing. It's still breathtaking -- Ridley Scott directed it, in fact.
Advertisers were soon spending outlandish sums of money on producing enthralling eye-candy, and paying hefty sums to American TV networks for the air time (up to $2 million per minute, the last time I checked).
The odd thing these days is that because of the slickness of the ads and the decline in quality of the football being played (especially during this last Super Bowl -- pee-yew!), quite a few people watch the "game" for the commercials alone.
One of the more heinous human tragedies occured on September 11, 1973.
The democratically elected government of Chilean president Salvadore Allende was
overthrown in a coup d'etat by General Augusto Pinochet. The new regime killed
thousands of dissidents and other "enemies of the state".
The reason? Allende was a Marxist, and the CIA (and by extension, Richard Nixon)
were keen to keep Latin America firmly in the American camp during the Cold War,
even if installing fascist dictatorships was necessary.
I'm willing to bet anyone here that we'll attempt something similar in the Palestinian
territory, so long as we can keep the Israelis from doing it themselves in some wickedly
obvious fashion, like firing a rocket from a chopper, or hare-brained assassination attempts.
Rumors that a secret house-to-house gun collection program is underway
The funny thing is that most of the NRA's "pry it out of my cold dead hands" types would support such a maneuver, if the word "terrorist" was (carefully?) applied to the pitch of the program.
Now that the War on Drugs has practically eroded the Fourth Amendment, and that the War on Terror is effectively neutering the First, there's not really that much left to prop up the Second.
It should be relatively easy to convince most gun owners that a "soldier in the War on Terror" (a.k.a. a policeman) should be given free reign to check any citizen's "potential weapons of mass destruction" (read: guns) to prevent "possible attacks on America" (read: using weapons in any way), and that only "those who hate America" and have something to hide would ever obstruct "our troops on the domestic front".
(To put it another way: "If we can take your voice, and take your privacy, we can also take your toys.")
For the record, I grew up around deer hunters, and I honestly don't care if anyone wants to own a gun legally -- even if most of the hunters I've met were, well, not the shiniest dimes in the jar.
But I really do wish most of the gun advocates in this country would understand that the ten articles of the Bill of Rights are all First Freedoms.
Amen. I can't remember the last time I listened to conventional radio (for music at least), and KEXP is the reason for that. Good programming by people who love music: What a concept!
(Attention ClearChannel lurkers: This is the Official Secret Formula (tm) of KEXP. Don't try this at home, or in the studios of your lackeys, I mean, stations. Proper, I mean, incorrect usage of this formula may cause several middle managers' heads within your corporate headquarters to explode. Shhhhhh!)
We had a situation in our home not too long ago that shines as an example. My wife was a product manager at a firm with international presence (can't go into more detail, sorry). She was thrown on airplanes to many far-flung places -- that's not a perq; business travels sucks -- during and after her pursuit of a part-time MBA at a top-notch program. While this was going on, she was also using her spare time to come up with business plans for said firm. Granted, it helped that she needed one for a class, but she poured a lot of effort into them for the sake of future use.
The lovely little firm used her plans, gave her no credit for them, threw her on more planes, trashed her in a performance review, never publicly acknowleged her MBA (despite a very nice ad taken out by the university in the Wall Street Journal that printed the company's name as well as hers), and was forced to sit through a team event where the laziest sacks of shit received accolades while her name went unmentioned.
(Our evenings at home, with her black moods at the time, were a real treat too. Being the supportive spouse was getting exhausting as well.)
Her manager's only advice to her during all of this? Quoting from memory: "We're here to collect paychecks, make money, and retire. That's it." What a nice motivational career statement: Go Along to Get Along, For We Are Waiting Around to Die.
I should also add that the former employer loved to dole out huge bonuses (near 20% of salary) in lieu of having a non-dysfunctional culture.
My point? Without power and satisfaction, the money means next to nothing. My wife left the firm. We left a lot of money on the table because we valued her sanity more. She now works for a group that thinks she's Wonder Woman, just because she's used to working very hard with a lot less support than she's getting today. That which does not kill you etc., I suppose.
I managed to get the MBA from the same school as well, and I understand the fineries of organizational behavior and business etiquette. Having said that, I'd still punch her ex-manager in the face if I saw him on the street.
And if that's not enough, Clinton just said that it's the biggest problem ever, and Gore said he was going to write ANOTHER book about it...
And Fox and Rush Limbaugh will continue to report on all of this in a rather, shall we say, selective manner.
Do you silly twits have to bring in Clinton and Gore (both of whom have been *ahem* private citizens for some time now) when you have nothing else to offer?
In case you're wondering, the damage we're inflicting on the environment isn't hype. The sustainability of our way of life is hanging by a thread at best. We'll need three Earths to continue on our present course, and six to allow everyone on the globe to enjoy the living standards acceptable in the West.
The source of this observation? The commie pinkos at the Harvard Business School.
(I don't have the back issue of HBR, sorry; talk to any B-school student to get it if their department deals with "sustainable enterprise". Trust me, it's more informative reading than Michael Crichton.)
And that's without global warming entering the picture.
Kids, I don't envy you. You'll have to deal with problems on a global scale, far more so than any previous generation, and if the current sociopolitical climate (all puns intended) is any indication, you'll be lucky to make any progress. Idiots like the OP won't help either.
How shall we define "socially responsible"? Do you mean:
Reacting to media pressure or activist campaigns...?
Espousing progressive ideas in daily business practice...?
Using capitalism to find opportunity in and improve the developing world...?
A previous poster had it right: There are plenty of opportunities for corporations to both "do well" (see the last two bullets) and "do good" (same as it ever was). The concept of "sustainable enterprise" is gaining traction in some very interesting places, not the least of which are top-ranked B-schools.
Now, I should ignore the crack about the 401(k) reduction (straw man alert!), but you will note the previous occurrence of the word "do" in that last sentence. Nobody is claiming that a company must lose money for the greater good, nor that investors should lose their shirts as a matter of principle.
I find it ironic that many free-marketers like Milton Friedman despise the concept of social responsiblity, yet continue to insist that capitalism is the best antidote for social evils. I think the latter part is quite true, and social responsibility and sustainable enterprise directly test that hypothesis ("Is capitalism a positive force for increasing the wealth and well-being for all (the inevitable variance of that increase notwithstanding) ?").
Yet free-marketers seem afraid of the test. Blind faith is more reassuring than tested truths for some, I suppose.
Slashdot Mirror
Golf is a skill. And it can be a very lucrative skill for those who can perfect it.
But alas, I agree, it is not a sport. IMO it barely qualifies as a hobby.
To all of the golf-happy minions around here (both of you), consider an alternative plan: a gym membership. A good walk spoiled doesn't do shit for your cardiovascular system.
I've never heard of Marshmallow Peeps. Are they our secret masters?
Yes.
One peep to rule them all,
With Easter now behind them.
'Cuz one peep is all it takes
To constipate and bind them.
BARSTOW, CA (AP) - Today, computer scientists at the DeVry Institute claimed to have solved the Halting Problem, a classic thought experiment of theoretical computer science. The problem's insolvability, a landmark in the field, was proposed by theoretician Alan Turing in 1938.
"We were skeptical at first, of course", said Dr. Ephraim P. Fingerbottom, emeritus professor of computability theory at DeVry. "The Halting Problem's intractibility is one of those snippets of lore we love to torture undergraduates with, so we really had no practical motive for accepting this hypothesis. Come to think of it, we have no practical motives at all, we're theoreticians. Anyway, our faces fell when we proofed the submission, let me tell you. Never ask a theoretician to come up with new material. Hell, now we may to juggle teaching and the hunt for grant money like everyone else."
Nonetheless, Dr. Fingerbottom was heartened by the new-found stature of his department in light of these findings. "We're attracting some exciting new talent here", he said, perspiring under the layers of chalk dust that have covered his face since 1962. "This development, coupled with our reduction of the '3-SAT problem' to a scientific proof of the existence of God, has swelled our ranks with students who want to do something else other than write software and make money."
The resulting paper will soon be published in the next issues of Communications of the ACM and the DIMACS Journal for Applied Math.
Just a pitty [sic] the millions dying of starvation probably won't be the ones responsible for the climate change in the first place.
That's why we need a good old fashioned pestilence.
I'll admit it: I wouldn't mind too much if we managed to shed a few billion people on this planet, including those in the developed areas of the globe.
Can't remember where I read it, but one of the reasons why the dire overpopulation predictions of the 1970s never panned out was that their models assumed that the distribution of wealth during that time would hold indefinitely. But, global wealth has concentrated into proportionately fewer hands, thus skewing the models. The average person on Earth these days has a lower standard of living that 30 years ago, but the richer nations have only gotten richer.
We would be in big trouble today if this wasn't so (and the original models were still valid), because the average person would have more purchasing power, consume more resources, and deplete the planet even further. (You have to wonder about a global economic system that depends on disparity to maintain its balance.)
Reducing the birth rate (as China did with the one-child policy) would help, but it may take a century to have any effect. And that assumes we're not too picky about pesky issues like human rights and basic freedoms.
So, methinks one way or another we will be deleting quite a few of our fellow inhabitants, and if we could, we should just get it over with. (To be fair, if I our my loved ones are slated for the pile, well, so be it. Not much one can do anyway in the face of a plague.)
Actually, I'd fault the GOP too when it was in power in Harrisburg. Dick Thornburgh didn't do squat for western PA. The sad fact is that nobody in H'burg will ever help the western end of the state. They can take it for granted, or ignore it entirely once it depopulates. Remember: Alabama North. (My sister-in-law used to work for the state version of C-SPAN, and got to see a ton of shit firsthand. She hates most state legislators today, especially Republicans. Generally, most of these specimens use the General Assembly as an excuse to eat. It was no surprise then when her crew would occasionally turn their cameras on sleeping assemblymen drooling on their notes. That didn't last long.. hee hee..)
Oh wow. Didn't know about the 'stay invent PA' scam. Mea culpa. Have you considered the other (prosperous) side of the state?
To be honest, I'd love to see the city rebound too. It's still home in a way, even though I've been gone for.. oh.. 18 years or so.
(You might be a Pittsburgher if:
But I think waiting for the city to turn around is a fool's errand. I'm sorry to say it. Really am.
Take care, good luck, and more power to you.
I know this isn't the hub of technology, but when you [have a lot going for you], and still have an impossible time finding employment something is wrong.
ARRRGH! Would you move already?!
I used to live near the Burgh, and while the city has a lot to recommend, a robust job market (of any kind) is not one of them. And it hasn't been that way for over twenty years!
Sure, the cost of living is dirt cheap, but the jobs just aren't happening. The place is rapidly turning into Alabama North. (Especially outside the city. Each year it looks more and more like wherever Larry the Cable Guy grew up).
And everyone I know who lives there still just bitches about how things are falling apart. Now, they don't do anything about this, mind you..
Get over it. Ain't no money to be found there. Just ask Mario Lemieux.
And I'm sure if you looked outside the box known as Western Pee-Ay, you'd find quite a few places that would like to have you around. They may be in more expensive areas of the country (Bay Area, NoVa, Raleigh/Durham), or not (most of Texas), but I think having an income might just offset the homesickness, no?
To reiterate: Move.
Thank you so very much for reminding me of that song.
It took me four years off and on to purge it from my cerebral cortex with a Brillo pad. All for naught.
I hope RuPaul covers this song someday, and that the new version haunts you to the end of your days, like a curiously tall diva wailing in the eternal night.
Excuse me while I burn a little karma. I loved this bit from the web page:
Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.
Once I called 911 to report an emergency, Livestock were wondering
'Tis a sad day in our fair republic when the imagination of livestock is a threat.
(Let's focus on the real problems, shall we? Like the imagination of those humans who wonder about livestock..)
If he makes a film as good as his last one (or better), more folks will be in the know.
(Granted, a lot of people won't see it because it challenges what they already believe to be true. If you find such a person, do your patriotic duty. Kill them.)
How can it be possible that people in this nation think the Republicans can GIVE them anything without first TAKING it from future Americans? We are a goverment of and by the people. We can't extend to govenment a power that we don't have as individuals. Can I walk up to you on the street and demand money from your pocket for $700 military-grade toilet seats!? If I can't how can I extend that power to my elected officials? Whats next? Total Information Awareness? These were just some of the most pathetic effort at vote buying I've ever seen. Its unAmerican, anti-Freedom and plain ole theft from everyone to buy off a few. Next time I see someone who agrees with this junk, I'm leaving your stuff, ALL OF IT, and wiping out all civil liberties of any kind, nope, nada, zilch. Let's see how you like being left swimming in a goldfish bowl, cause hey, you NEEDED my children's property to pay for your false feelings of safety. I just can't believe this. At what point did we gain the "Right" to security at the cost of our neighbors property? I hear the GOP has a new term, instead of "theft" they'll call it "pre-emptive warfare". GRRRR!
Are we the only 2 people who don't get golf?
I don't get it at all. You pay a buttload of cash for the equipment, for bad clothing, and for the privilege to play on a manicured field. And you keep paying the latter, over and over again, to avoid sucking that badly.
All this for "a good walk spoiled".
Sorry, I have an MBA, and I still don't understand the fascination. I can increase positive cash flow by opening my front door and have an unspoiled good walk for free. And that reminds me..
And what's with calling golf a sport anyway? In the past two weeks, I watched the Super Bowl, some of the Winter Olympics, college B-ball, and pro hockey -- and you know what? Those people were involved with sports. I also went to my gym, and saw plenty of weight-trainers, bodybuilders, and Tae Kwon Do students. These people participated in sports too.
Do you want to know how I know this? Not one participant was wearing slacks.
Let's get serious. Golf is not a "sport", it is a "skill". It is a highly lucrative skill for those with considerable talent, but it is a "skill" nonetheless. If you're wearing Dockers (or driving a cart, or hiring a lackey to ruck for you), it's just.. not.. a sport.
Billiards is more aerobic by comparison.
You're preaching to the converted, my friend. One of the curious side-effects of this meddling (that neo-cons fail to grasp) is that the receivers wind up hating America.
And who can blame them?
This has deeper, and weirder, repercussions than we think. Do you remember the old "Superman" TV show? The one with George Reeves that aired in the 1950s, and was syndicated in the very early 1980's? Well, its intro always ended with a narrator claiming how Superman would defend "truth, justice, and the American way!".
In Latin America, the dubbed version of "Superman" left out the last three words.
(And I found this out from a co-worker who used to watch it in Puerto Rico.. which isn't exactly a bastion of liberal activism, let alone anti-American agitation.)
So, ya think we have an image problem here?
Happy to oblige. It's all Steve Jobs' fault.
Advertising during the Super Bowl was always pricey, since so many American eyeballs would end up following it (when their owners weren't getting beer or visiting the bathroom). But the mad advertising rush really didn't take off until January 1984, with Apple's "Big Brother" add, which aired once, and only once, during the first few minutes of the broadcast.
That commercial was (and still is) considered one of the best ad campaigns of all time, despite its one lone airing. It's still breathtaking -- Ridley Scott directed it, in fact.
Advertisers were soon spending outlandish sums of money on producing enthralling eye-candy, and paying hefty sums to American TV networks for the air time (up to $2 million per minute, the last time I checked).
The odd thing these days is that because of the slickness of the ads and the decline in quality of the football being played (especially during this last Super Bowl -- pee-yew!), quite a few people watch the "game" for the commercials alone.
"Thank you, professor. We now take you to Grover's Mill, New Jersey, where one of the mysterious objects has landed."
One of the more heinous human tragedies occured on September 11, 1973.
The democratically elected government of Chilean president Salvadore Allende was overthrown in a coup d'etat by General Augusto Pinochet. The new regime killed thousands of dissidents and other "enemies of the state".
The reason? Allende was a Marxist, and the CIA (and by extension, Richard Nixon) were keen to keep Latin America firmly in the American camp during the Cold War, even if installing fascist dictatorships was necessary.
I'm willing to bet anyone here that we'll attempt something similar in the Palestinian territory, so long as we can keep the Israelis from doing it themselves in some wickedly obvious fashion, like firing a rocket from a chopper, or hare-brained assassination attempts.
Of course, we're far more civilzed at home. We rely on factual information reported in an objective fashion to an educated public.
Quoth matt martin:
Rumors that a secret house-to-house gun collection program is underway
The funny thing is that most of the NRA's "pry it out of my cold dead hands" types would support such a maneuver, if the word "terrorist" was (carefully?) applied to the pitch of the program.
Now that the War on Drugs has practically eroded the Fourth Amendment, and that the War on Terror is effectively neutering the First, there's not really that much left to prop up the Second.
It should be relatively easy to convince most gun owners that a "soldier in the War on Terror" (a.k.a. a policeman) should be given free reign to check any citizen's "potential weapons of mass destruction" (read: guns) to prevent "possible attacks on America" (read: using weapons in any way), and that only "those who hate America" and have something to hide would ever obstruct "our troops on the domestic front".
(To put it another way: "If we can take your voice, and take your privacy, we can also take your toys.")
For the record, I grew up around deer hunters, and I honestly don't care if anyone wants to own a gun legally -- even if most of the hunters I've met were, well, not the shiniest dimes in the jar.
But I really do wish most of the gun advocates in this country would understand that the ten articles of the Bill of Rights are all First Freedoms.
Amen. I can't remember the last time I listened to conventional radio (for music at least), and KEXP is the reason for that. Good programming by people who love music: What a concept!
(Attention ClearChannel lurkers: This is the Official Secret Formula (tm) of KEXP. Don't try this at home, or in the studios of your lackeys, I mean, stations. Proper, I mean, incorrect usage of this formula may cause several middle managers' heads within your corporate headquarters to explode. Shhhhhh!)
..cuz I read "Test Coverage Leading You to Ashtray".
Test coverage efforts are more likely to drive people to drink, IMO.
I couldn't agree more.
We had a situation in our home not too long ago that shines as an example. My wife was a product manager at a firm with international presence (can't go into more detail, sorry). She was thrown on airplanes to many far-flung places -- that's not a perq; business travels sucks -- during and after her pursuit of a part-time MBA at a top-notch program. While this was going on, she was also using her spare time to come up with business plans for said firm. Granted, it helped that she needed one for a class, but she poured a lot of effort into them for the sake of future use.
The lovely little firm used her plans, gave her no credit for them, threw her on more planes, trashed her in a performance review, never publicly acknowleged her MBA (despite a very nice ad taken out by the university in the Wall Street Journal that printed the company's name as well as hers), and was forced to sit through a team event where the laziest sacks of shit received accolades while her name went unmentioned.
(Our evenings at home, with her black moods at the time, were a real treat too. Being the supportive spouse was getting exhausting as well.)
Her manager's only advice to her during all of this? Quoting from memory: "We're here to collect paychecks, make money, and retire. That's it." What a nice motivational career statement: Go Along to Get Along, For We Are Waiting Around to Die.
I should also add that the former employer loved to dole out huge bonuses (near 20% of salary) in lieu of having a non-dysfunctional culture.
My point? Without power and satisfaction, the money means next to nothing. My wife left the firm. We left a lot of money on the table because we valued her sanity more. She now works for a group that thinks she's Wonder Woman, just because she's used to working very hard with a lot less support than she's getting today. That which does not kill you etc., I suppose.
I managed to get the MBA from the same school as well, and I understand the fineries of organizational behavior and business etiquette. Having said that, I'd still punch her ex-manager in the face if I saw him on the street.
Over Jesus? Maybe not forever, just for now?
But.. where's the clever insightful satire?
(rimshot)
And if that's not enough, Clinton just said that it's the biggest problem ever, and Gore said he was going to write ANOTHER book about it...
And Fox and Rush Limbaugh will continue to report on all of this in a rather, shall we say, selective manner.
Do you silly twits have to bring in Clinton and Gore (both of whom have been *ahem* private citizens for some time now) when you have nothing else to offer?
In case you're wondering, the damage we're inflicting on the environment isn't hype. The sustainability of our way of life is hanging by a thread at best. We'll need three Earths to continue on our present course, and six to allow everyone on the globe to enjoy the living standards acceptable in the West.
The source of this observation? The commie pinkos at the Harvard Business School.
(I don't have the back issue of HBR, sorry; talk to any B-school student to get it if their department deals with "sustainable enterprise". Trust me, it's more informative reading than Michael Crichton.)
And that's without global warming entering the picture.
Kids, I don't envy you. You'll have to deal with problems on a global scale, far more so than any previous generation, and if the current sociopolitical climate (all puns intended) is any indication, you'll be lucky to make any progress. Idiots like the OP won't help either.
How shall we define "socially responsible"? Do you mean:
A previous poster had it right: There are plenty of opportunities for corporations to both "do well" (see the last two bullets) and "do good" (same as it ever was). The concept of "sustainable enterprise" is gaining traction in some very interesting places, not the least of which are top-ranked B-schools.
Now, I should ignore the crack about the 401(k) reduction (straw man alert!), but you will note the previous occurrence of the word "do" in that last sentence. Nobody is claiming that a company must lose money for the greater good, nor that investors should lose their shirts as a matter of principle.
I find it ironic that many free-marketers like Milton Friedman despise the concept of social responsiblity, yet continue to insist that capitalism is the best antidote for social evils. I think the latter part is quite true, and social responsibility and sustainable enterprise directly test that hypothesis ("Is capitalism a positive force for increasing the wealth and well-being for all (the inevitable variance of that increase notwithstanding) ?").
Yet free-marketers seem afraid of the test. Blind faith is more reassuring than tested truths for some, I suppose.