The Democrats were using words like "hope" and "change," while the Republicans were using words like "terrorist" and "anti-American." And you are shocked - SHOCKED - that one of those messages got more air time than the other?
No, they're just shocked that it wasn't their "Fear! Be ascared! BOO!!" message that didn't get all the airtime. After all, it worked for the last eight years.
With the monarchies that were dominant in the 18th century, the status quo was for authoritarian control of nearly all parts of society; that is why the idea of a small government that answered to the people was considered free ("liberte", if you will) and liberal.
I'm not sure where the "small" part comes in. What difference does it make whether it's big or small as long as it answers to the people?
I have yet to find any television channels that espouses using the People, exercising their own freedom of choice, as a solution to problems (a bottom-up solution).
Isn't that just what we did, by having an election? We all exercised our freedom of choice (of candidate) to solve the problems we see (by having those we elected work on them).
I don't understand why people keep forgetting that, in this country, in theory at least, We The People are the government.
The best thing is for this and every other business method patent (and software patent, and patent on a naturally occurring gene, etc.) to be denied until people get the message that patents are intended to cover physical inventions, and nothing else.
Wouldn't be even better if it were simply explicitly stated by the law that this is the case?
Uh-huh. And what do we do about people who are "addicted" to ALL CAPS? And repeating the same point a hundred different ways in a row? And judging and berating others? And harboring a superiority complex?
On another note, you seem to have a particularly deep well of vitriol (maybe even hate) reserved for the obese. Permit me to remind you that, unlike all those other things whose status as addictions you mock, eating is something which you cannot simply quit "cold turkey".
Finally: these various addictions are not the only things that make people tend not want to hang around you. There's also being a shrill, unsympathetic asshole.
You can't "give away" your freedom. If you sign a contract that says, for example, that you agree to be a prisoner of the company, they still have to let you out of their jail the minute you ask them to, or they're guilty of false imprisonment. Contracts cannot enforce agreements that are contrary to the law.
At least, that's my contractor-level understanding of how this works. Any actual lawyers care to pipe up?
I find it kind of shocking how a good portion of slashdotters don't care much for Obama.
One explanation: A lot of Slashdotters think they know better than everyone else about everything, and so imagine that they'll have some sort of competitive advantage over The Norms if only there were no rules at all. Few of them seem to realize that if we all work in our mutual interests, we'll all be better off. They only care about the differential improvement in their lives over others, not greater absolute improvement for all, I guess.
I didn't like either the Facist (McCain) or the Socialist, and there were no other important elections locally. So who won is really no disappointment to me--at least, not more than I was expecting anyway. McCain would have engaged in blatant idiocy as well, it only would have been different idiocy.
Ah, now novel. You're above the fray -- better than all the fools who slavishly voted for anyone at all.
That took me by surprise. I was sure it was going to be because of the vast number of virtual particles constantly appearing and disappearing within the vacuum.
Personally I am all for socialized Medicine *at the state level* I am also for free college education *at the state level* and Living wage enforcement *at the state level*. The more local the government the more they should be the ones who I have to interact with on a day to day level.
By this way of thinking, it would be even better if all these things were done at a municipal (county/city) level -- more local than state equals better, right? Come to that, maybe you'd rather make it even more local: each block would convene its own Board Of Social Good. Hell, why stop there? You can do it all by yourself, for yourself! Meaning, everyone's on his own. And finally we reach the end of the divide-and-conquer chain of thought which seeks to eliminate pesky collective action by people.
In my dorm in college, there was a guy who quickly slid into a state of MUD addiction, and I'm not being cute. Eventually, he stopped going to his classes, he stopped going to the dining hall (opting for Domino's delivered constantly), he stopped interacting with most of us. We were sure he must have dropped out after that year. It was a sad case, though none of us felt too bad about it because he was kind of a dick even apart from MUDs.
You're absolutely right -- people just get jaded. The comedian Louis CK has a bit where he asks when flying went from man's greatest dream to a dreaded bore, and points out how people whine that their choices of movie is quite limited and their chicken was overdone while they're hurtling along from continent to continent at 30,000 feet. "It's A MIRACLE. You're FLYING! The airlines shouldn't even have to advertise anything other than 'WE can FLY!!'".
I still have a sense of wonder that we can get voice recognition and optical character recognition to work.
And that's how all the fabulous gov't regulations happen. They all start of with "To keep you safe, we need to...".
...require that cars have seat belts?...require doctors to have licenses?...require buildings to meet code?...prevent banks from sketchy activities?
It's not that regulations are or are not needed. They are. The question is what the regulations are. To lump all regulations in as bad (or good) is stupid.
Agreed. Also, I just discovered a new use for it: recently, a business on a main drag near my house was torn down, leaving an empty lot and a pile of dirt. I couldn't for the life of me remember what it had been. Google Street View to the rescue!
Slashdot Mirror
No, they're just shocked that it wasn't their "Fear! Be ascared! BOO!!" message that didn't get all the airtime. After all, it worked for the last eight years.
I'm not sure where the "small" part comes in. What difference does it make whether it's big or small as long as it answers to the people?
Isn't that just what we did, by having an election? We all exercised our freedom of choice (of candidate) to solve the problems we see (by having those we elected work on them).
I don't understand why people keep forgetting that, in this country, in theory at least, We The People are the government.
Depending on which regex flavor you're using, the empty string matches everything. Here, look:
You forgot comma separators, currency symbols, and parentheses for negative.
Hey, now I see why users are always pulling this crap on me. It's fun!
The one I always use does the same thing:
And it has the advantage that it fits on a regular CD-R.
Don't forget the DIVX debacle. I boycotted them for a few years after that doozy.
Wouldn't be even better if it were simply explicitly stated by the law that this is the case?
But how broad is your patent?
Have you covered miffed face shooting?
How about winging someone's face instead of a direct hit?
What about the shooting medium? Birdshot? Buckshot? Fifty-cal? Arrows? Crossbow bolts? Throwing knives? Spooge?
Uh-huh. And what do we do about people who are "addicted" to ALL CAPS? And repeating the same point a hundred different ways in a row? And judging and berating others? And harboring a superiority complex?
On another note, you seem to have a particularly deep well of vitriol (maybe even hate) reserved for the obese. Permit me to remind you that, unlike all those other things whose status as addictions you mock, eating is something which you cannot simply quit "cold turkey".
Finally: these various addictions are not the only things that make people tend not want to hang around you. There's also being a shrill, unsympathetic asshole.
Fixed.
You can't "give away" your freedom. If you sign a contract that says, for example, that you agree to be a prisoner of the company, they still have to let you out of their jail the minute you ask them to, or they're guilty of false imprisonment. Contracts cannot enforce agreements that are contrary to the law.
At least, that's my contractor-level understanding of how this works. Any actual lawyers care to pipe up?
No, but it's fun.
I suppose next you're going to object to "VAXen" and "boxen"?
Get off my damn lawn.
Clearly. "Virii" would be from "virius". It's "viri".
Open a bunch of files in separate windows (which I generally do with the context menu in Explorer, your mileage may vary), then do
to do the <command> on every file you opened.
One explanation: A lot of Slashdotters think they know better than everyone else about everything, and so imagine that they'll have some sort of competitive advantage over The Norms if only there were no rules at all. Few of them seem to realize that if we all work in our mutual interests, we'll all be better off. They only care about the differential improvement in their lives over others, not greater absolute improvement for all, I guess.
A different explanation: Sturgeon's law
Ah, now novel. You're above the fray -- better than all the fools who slavishly voted for anyone at all.
Is it lonely up there on your pedestal?
That took me by surprise. I was sure it was going to be because of the vast number of virtual particles constantly appearing and disappearing within the vacuum.
By this way of thinking, it would be even better if all these things were done at a municipal (county/city) level -- more local than state equals better, right? Come to that, maybe you'd rather make it even more local: each block would convene its own Board Of Social Good. Hell, why stop there? You can do it all by yourself, for yourself! Meaning, everyone's on his own. And finally we reach the end of the divide-and-conquer chain of thought which seeks to eliminate pesky collective action by people.
In my dorm in college, there was a guy who quickly slid into a state of MUD addiction, and I'm not being cute. Eventually, he stopped going to his classes, he stopped going to the dining hall (opting for Domino's delivered constantly), he stopped interacting with most of us. We were sure he must have dropped out after that year. It was a sad case, though none of us felt too bad about it because he was kind of a dick even apart from MUDs.
You're absolutely right -- people just get jaded. The comedian Louis CK has a bit where he asks when flying went from man's greatest dream to a dreaded bore, and points out how people whine that their choices of movie is quite limited and their chicken was overdone while they're hurtling along from continent to continent at 30,000 feet. "It's A MIRACLE. You're FLYING! The airlines shouldn't even have to advertise anything other than 'WE can FLY!!'".
I still have a sense of wonder that we can get voice recognition and optical character recognition to work.
Invest in realistic-mask-making companies.
...require that cars have seat belts? ...require doctors to have licenses? ...require buildings to meet code? ...prevent banks from sketchy activities?
It's not that regulations are or are not needed. They are. The question is what the regulations are. To lump all regulations in as bad (or good) is stupid.
Agreed. Also, I just discovered a new use for it: recently, a business on a main drag near my house was torn down, leaving an empty lot and a pile of dirt. I couldn't for the life of me remember what it had been. Google Street View to the rescue!
Congratulations, you just started an arms race of text-based steganography.