People who are truly poor probably have to work one or more crappy jobs. The reason the idea of having a family meal around the dinner table/breakfast table/whatever is so lost on this society is that it now takes a two person income (and sometimes, the income from multiple jobs by both people in some situations) to afford to put a roof over their head, transportation, keep little Johnny in clothes and school supplies and lunch tickets and so forth.
Even those who are not poor may not have the time to spend cooking at home. If you commute two to four hours a day and work nine to twelve hours a day and need about eight hours of sleep, when exactly are you going to be cooking this wonderful healthy meal that takes a half hour or an hour or more every day? Not to mention, if you have a spouse, children and other responsibilities which will give you even less time.
This is exactly why if I ever do have children, I won't do so until I am financially stable and old enough so that my wife could stay at home and take care of the children properly. I'm a big believer that if you're going to bother having children, you should give them the time and attention that children used to get - rather than the latch-key, fast-food, "one hour a week of quality time" bullshit that children have been forced to accept for the last thirty years.
You might be interested in noting that policies such as the Patriot Act are often created, supported and pushed by the president and the cabinet that he has chosen for various positions (such as Homeland Security) and those who support him because of his political and religious positions (see, senators, etc).
After the 3/11 terrorist attacks in Madrid, elections were postponed for a length of time I don't precisely recall.
Postponing an election indefinately because of a terrorist attack (or threat of one) is so plausible that the discussion of it by US Government Officials was covered last year in the media.
Depends on what part of Europe you're talking about. Most governments/countires are many centuries old and are filled with very passive people. The level of apathy in many european countries is astonishing. As long as they can drink wine, loung around in pants without underwear and have a long lunch every afternoon, they're happy.
The difference is that America is far younger as a nation and shouldn't be succumbing to that level of complacency and apathy already.
Sounds like Job Security, to me. Try to talk your boss into a more realistic set of expectations and then relish in the fact that you're probably one of only a few of your friends who isn't unemployed, underemployed or using their EE degree to provide tech support to end-users on per-incident pay-support lines for some crappy line of USB-powered personal laptop fans.
Oh, don't you worry. We're working on locking up all the fat little piggies who can't run a quarter mile in government-sanctioned times. And the parents will be locked up for negligence.
By the way, I knew a guy from Russia. He told me about the brainwashing by their government. There were taught (in school, in the news - everywhere) that America was losing the cold war and that we had no freedom and that Americans were starving and were having to stand in long lines just to get food to survive. He didn't realize until he talked to a family member who returned from America after a visit that it was all lies.
Just goes to show you that whatever you swear you know about the rest of the world is very likely shoe-shined government bullshit.
The American Bill of Rights was scrubbed clean of ink, then re-cut and bound so that god-fearing monks could create a prayer book out of it. Don't worry, it'll be protected (because jesus-books are more important than freedom-books) and some day far in the future - hundreds of years - it will be discovered by university scientists who will be able to detect the originally written text.
Yes, but if you consume any of the news from the American press, you would have the impression that Amnesty International is pretty much just like the French. Meaning, anti-American, anti-Freedom, hippy snobs that we have to boycott and hate.
Remember, you can't be with us if you criticise us. And if you aren't with us, you're with the terrorists.
Do you know when people are at their most likely to overthrow tyranny? When they're starving, poor and unemployed. Otherwise, they are too busy working and providing for their family and trying to stay alive.
People get up in the morning, commute for a couple hours, work for ten or twelve hours, telecommute for a couple more hours. Feed the family. Pay the bills. Try and save a bit for retirement (or children's education, etc). Fix the broken shit in the house. Spend quality time with the kids and wife. Get some rest before doing it all again the next day.
Only when the majority are starving, poor and unemployed do they have both the incentive and the TIME to put everything on the line and make a change. Otherwise, it's all they can do to keep up with current events, much less act on them.
It's sad, but it's true. And for more of us than would like to admit it.
You have to register with you local town hall, this is not for taxes or services or anything(that is all seperate) you just have to register that you are living in there city
In America, you have to "register" with the US Post Office and IRS (and the DMV since you need a state ID or driver's license to exist). And, by way of employment or banking, the social security administration.
You are required to carry identification with you all the time, stopped without it, instant jail.
In America, if you have no identification on you or you refuse to produce it, you are going to be hassled, possibly threatened, and probably detained (perhaps taken to the local station for a lengthy period of time until they sort things out). Though it isn't illegal, lack of identification will get you some serious mistreatment.
Oh, and then there was that case in Texas where the guy was basically arrested for refusing to provide identification on the side of the road by his home.
When you stay at a hotel your information and picture is send to the police.
When you stay at a hotel in America, you need to provide photo identification and a credit card. There are few (and seedy) hotels that will allow you to use cash. And even if you do, they often still require identification and a credit card for security reasons. It's a simple step for the police to locate you or find out where you stayed and when.
No, this isn't Communist China or the STASI. Not yet. But it ain't all that "free", either. Christ, we're letting the MPAA pay the police force in LA to monitor the streets with video cameras for bootlegging. And most big cities have videocamera surveilance at intersections and public gathering spots.
If we think we "aren't like europe", it's only because we've been brainwashed to percieve it that way. Just like, growing up, society brainwashes us to think that America is the only democracy in the world and that everyone else is imprisoned for speaking their mind outside our borders.
True. He has admitted that he speaks with god or jesus. I suppose he could announce that Jesus told him to serve a third term - and there are enough crazy religious sheeple in this country that would accept it.
I just hope the general freedom thing as a citizen lasts another 40 years. Once I'm dead, to hell with you all. Just don't stick me in a gulag during my life time.
The thing is, you can't expect a society raised by public schools (the government) to question things like The Patriot Act. Remember, these are the same people who today overwhelmingly state that the government should have the authority to censor news papers and that the press has too much freedom and that they should even be required to recieve approval from the government before publishing all stories.
In a society where the young people think we have to much freedom we are seriously fucked. Our young people are supposed to be the rebels. The fighters. The change-makers. Not sheep.
Five years ago, I wished I'd lived in bastions of freedom like the Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, Cuba or Communist China. After five years of Bush in office, I realize that I already do.
How about Slashdot as the new advertising Frontier?
I just saw on television (G4TV's Attack of the Show) that OSDN is in the process of deploying new commercial initiatives at Slashdot, including those fucking annoying interstitials.
I hope that isn't true. Well, actually, I hope it is. I'd love to see Slashdot shoot themselves in the foot by pissing everyone off. After all, how many "ads are bad!" stories have been posted here, berating other sites and services for just that kind of behavior?
So your rationalization is sort of the same of stripping us of all our rights because "someday there COULD be terrorists that COULD anthrax the hell out of us!".
Brilliant.
And what does the Animal Liberation Front have to do with ebola?!
Well, the good thing is that they have a potential vaccine.
The downside is that, just like with most other vaccines, they will not distribute it to everyone everywhere. It simply isn't affordable. And once youcome in contact with it, the vaccine isn't going to do you a damn bit of good.
I don't see how an ebola vaccine is of any use, other than to vaccinate people just before they go to regions which are currently experiencing an ebola outbreak and the person being vaccinated will be directly in contact with those suffering from the outbreak.
Other studies have shown that it's more than just pesticides. A major concern is that plastics used in drinking bottles cause a major change in male hormones. This became fairly widely reported just a couple weeks ago, finally, too. They believe it affects male genital size, estrogen levels and so on.
I'm not a "sky is falling" type of person, but I had been looking at buying a really nice "nalgene" plastic water bottle (the kind that you can order in different colors and that are really sturdy - see the Google store for an example of one). I did some research and found reason to be concerned. Or, rather, cautious. So for now, I'll drink my drinks out of non-plastic containers.
While perhaps not scientifically proven, I think common sense would almost demand that we acknowledge that man made plastics and pesticides probably cause some undesired effects in humans. Making both of these products is not a simple, clean process and with enough exposure to the end-product, I think it's reasonable to suspect they could cause health problems of some sort to people.
Scientific proof is, of course, a different issue. But until there is irrefutable proof, I think it's sensible to avoid them. I also avoid fruits with pesticides when I can (or at least clean them very well to do what I can to protect myself). Again, not because of anything irrefutably proven by science, but because common sense tells me that something intended to kill insects is probably not great for me, either. I'm sure not going to take an apple sprayed with RAID, for example.
The problem I have is not with people who decide "I'll be safe until there's proof one way or the other", but with the people who scaremonger and invent facts or distort facts to push their causes like some of these groups do. It's beyond being cautionary and becomes just another tool for them to "dismantle" "the man" as they see him.
Abusive parents, negligant parents, abusive students at school, being teased, beat up, shoved into lockers, having problems ignored by teachers (basically making it a breeding ground for you to get beat up), competition for girls, attention, drinking, drugs, grades, religious ideaologies that teach you to hate anyone different than you, etc... clearly those things don't combine to make a poor little kid violent. And that's why you only see popular, beefy, successful, town-beloved jocks going on shooting sprees and never neglected outcasts from violent/dangerous/abusive homes.
Slashdot Mirror
People who are truly poor probably have to work one or more crappy jobs. The reason the idea of having a family meal around the dinner table/breakfast table/whatever is so lost on this society is that it now takes a two person income (and sometimes, the income from multiple jobs by both people in some situations) to afford to put a roof over their head, transportation, keep little Johnny in clothes and school supplies and lunch tickets and so forth.
Even those who are not poor may not have the time to spend cooking at home. If you commute two to four hours a day and work nine to twelve hours a day and need about eight hours of sleep, when exactly are you going to be cooking this wonderful healthy meal that takes a half hour or an hour or more every day? Not to mention, if you have a spouse, children and other responsibilities which will give you even less time.
This is exactly why if I ever do have children, I won't do so until I am financially stable and old enough so that my wife could stay at home and take care of the children properly. I'm a big believer that if you're going to bother having children, you should give them the time and attention that children used to get - rather than the latch-key, fast-food, "one hour a week of quality time" bullshit that children have been forced to accept for the last thirty years.
Greetings, Bush apologist.
You might be interested in noting that policies such as the Patriot Act are often created, supported and pushed by the president and the cabinet that he has chosen for various positions (such as Homeland Security) and those who support him because of his political and religious positions (see, senators, etc).
After the 3/11 terrorist attacks in Madrid, elections were postponed for a length of time I don't precisely recall.
Postponing an election indefinately because of a terrorist attack (or threat of one) is so plausible that the discussion of it by US Government Officials was covered last year in the media.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a terrorist attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.
Depends on what part of Europe you're talking about. Most governments/countires are many centuries old and are filled with very passive people. The level of apathy in many european countries is astonishing. As long as they can drink wine, loung around in pants without underwear and have a long lunch every afternoon, they're happy.
The difference is that America is far younger as a nation and shouldn't be succumbing to that level of complacency and apathy already.
Sounds like Job Security, to me. Try to talk your boss into a more realistic set of expectations and then relish in the fact that you're probably one of only a few of your friends who isn't unemployed, underemployed or using their EE degree to provide tech support to end-users on per-incident pay-support lines for some crappy line of USB-powered personal laptop fans.
Oh, don't you worry. We're working on locking up all the fat little piggies who can't run a quarter mile in government-sanctioned times. And the parents will be locked up for negligence.
By the way, I knew a guy from Russia. He told me about the brainwashing by their government. There were taught (in school, in the news - everywhere) that America was losing the cold war and that we had no freedom and that Americans were starving and were having to stand in long lines just to get food to survive. He didn't realize until he talked to a family member who returned from America after a visit that it was all lies.
Just goes to show you that whatever you swear you know about the rest of the world is very likely shoe-shined government bullshit.
The American Bill of Rights was scrubbed clean of ink, then re-cut and bound so that god-fearing monks could create a prayer book out of it. Don't worry, it'll be protected (because jesus-books are more important than freedom-books) and some day far in the future - hundreds of years - it will be discovered by university scientists who will be able to detect the originally written text.
I'm sorry, but even Americans aren't stupid enough to elect a president named "Jeb". I mean, that's some Beverly Hillbilly shit right there.
Yes, but if you consume any of the news from the American press, you would have the impression that Amnesty International is pretty much just like the French. Meaning, anti-American, anti-Freedom, hippy snobs that we have to boycott and hate.
Remember, you can't be with us if you criticise us. And if you aren't with us, you're with the terrorists.
Do you know when people are at their most likely to overthrow tyranny? When they're starving, poor and unemployed. Otherwise, they are too busy working and providing for their family and trying to stay alive.
People get up in the morning, commute for a couple hours, work for ten or twelve hours, telecommute for a couple more hours. Feed the family. Pay the bills. Try and save a bit for retirement (or children's education, etc). Fix the broken shit in the house. Spend quality time with the kids and wife. Get some rest before doing it all again the next day.
Only when the majority are starving, poor and unemployed do they have both the incentive and the TIME to put everything on the line and make a change. Otherwise, it's all they can do to keep up with current events, much less act on them.
It's sad, but it's true. And for more of us than would like to admit it.
You have to register with you local town hall, this is not for taxes or services or anything(that is all seperate) you just have to register that you are living in there city
In America, you have to "register" with the US Post Office and IRS (and the DMV since you need a state ID or driver's license to exist). And, by way of employment or banking, the social security administration.
You are required to carry identification with you all the time, stopped without it, instant jail.
In America, if you have no identification on you or you refuse to produce it, you are going to be hassled, possibly threatened, and probably detained (perhaps taken to the local station for a lengthy period of time until they sort things out). Though it isn't illegal, lack of identification will get you some serious mistreatment.
Oh, and then there was that case in Texas where the guy was basically arrested for refusing to provide identification on the side of the road by his home.
When you stay at a hotel your information and picture is send to the police.
When you stay at a hotel in America, you need to provide photo identification and a credit card. There are few (and seedy) hotels that will allow you to use cash. And even if you do, they often still require identification and a credit card for security reasons. It's a simple step for the police to locate you or find out where you stayed and when.
No, this isn't Communist China or the STASI. Not yet. But it ain't all that "free", either. Christ, we're letting the MPAA pay the police force in LA to monitor the streets with video cameras for bootlegging. And most big cities have videocamera surveilance at intersections and public gathering spots.
If we think we "aren't like europe", it's only because we've been brainwashed to percieve it that way. Just like, growing up, society brainwashes us to think that America is the only democracy in the world and that everyone else is imprisoned for speaking their mind outside our borders.
True. He has admitted that he speaks with god or jesus. I suppose he could announce that Jesus told him to serve a third term - and there are enough crazy religious sheeple in this country that would accept it.
I just hope the general freedom thing as a citizen lasts another 40 years. Once I'm dead, to hell with you all. Just don't stick me in a gulag during my life time.
The thing is, you can't expect a society raised by public schools (the government) to question things like The Patriot Act. Remember, these are the same people who today overwhelmingly state that the government should have the authority to censor news papers and that the press has too much freedom and that they should even be required to recieve approval from the government before publishing all stories.
In a society where the young people think we have to much freedom we are seriously fucked. Our young people are supposed to be the rebels. The fighters. The change-makers. Not sheep.
I agree. And I, for one, intend to stand up and do something about it!
. . . Right after I finish watching America's Next Top Model . . .
Because the smart thing to do in a country where they have the power to "disappear" you is to be a squeaky wheel.
Five years ago, I wished I'd lived in bastions of freedom like the Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, Cuba or Communist China. After five years of Bush in office, I realize that I already do.
Yet another step is assuring freedom will overcome terrorism!
It's just too bad Bush can't have a third term. How will we be safe when he is gone?!
If it's in sixth, how is it in the top five?
How about Slashdot as the new advertising Frontier?
I just saw on television (G4TV's Attack of the Show) that OSDN is in the process of deploying new commercial initiatives at Slashdot, including those fucking annoying interstitials.
I hope that isn't true. Well, actually, I hope it is. I'd love to see Slashdot shoot themselves in the foot by pissing everyone off. After all, how many "ads are bad!" stories have been posted here, berating other sites and services for just that kind of behavior?
So your rationalization is sort of the same of stripping us of all our rights because "someday there COULD be terrorists that COULD anthrax the hell out of us!".
Brilliant.
And what does the Animal Liberation Front have to do with ebola?!
Talk about a whacko.
Save millions of people? You do realize ebola has only ever killed, like, 800 people?
Well, the good thing is that they have a potential vaccine.
The downside is that, just like with most other vaccines, they will not distribute it to everyone everywhere. It simply isn't affordable. And once youcome in contact with it, the vaccine isn't going to do you a damn bit of good.
I don't see how an ebola vaccine is of any use, other than to vaccinate people just before they go to regions which are currently experiencing an ebola outbreak and the person being vaccinated will be directly in contact with those suffering from the outbreak.
Other studies have shown that it's more than just pesticides. A major concern is that plastics used in drinking bottles cause a major change in male hormones. This became fairly widely reported just a couple weeks ago, finally, too. They believe it affects male genital size, estrogen levels and so on.
I'm not a "sky is falling" type of person, but I had been looking at buying a really nice "nalgene" plastic water bottle (the kind that you can order in different colors and that are really sturdy - see the Google store for an example of one). I did some research and found reason to be concerned. Or, rather, cautious. So for now, I'll drink my drinks out of non-plastic containers.
While perhaps not scientifically proven, I think common sense would almost demand that we acknowledge that man made plastics and pesticides probably cause some undesired effects in humans. Making both of these products is not a simple, clean process and with enough exposure to the end-product, I think it's reasonable to suspect they could cause health problems of some sort to people.
Scientific proof is, of course, a different issue. But until there is irrefutable proof, I think it's sensible to avoid them. I also avoid fruits with pesticides when I can (or at least clean them very well to do what I can to protect myself). Again, not because of anything irrefutably proven by science, but because common sense tells me that something intended to kill insects is probably not great for me, either. I'm sure not going to take an apple sprayed with RAID, for example.
The problem I have is not with people who decide "I'll be safe until there's proof one way or the other", but with the people who scaremonger and invent facts or distort facts to push their causes like some of these groups do. It's beyond being cautionary and becomes just another tool for them to "dismantle" "the man" as they see him.
If you knew where I worked, you'd realize that I gave up self-respect a long time ago. :D
Watch out. You'll get attacked by all the stupid fucks who don't understand that you're being sarcastic about the Christian Science Monitor.
Cleary, videogames make children violent.
Abusive parents, negligant parents, abusive students at school, being teased, beat up, shoved into lockers, having problems ignored by teachers (basically making it a breeding ground for you to get beat up), competition for girls, attention, drinking, drugs, grades, religious ideaologies that teach you to hate anyone different than you, etc... clearly those things don't combine to make a poor little kid violent. And that's why you only see popular, beefy, successful, town-beloved jocks going on shooting sprees and never neglected outcasts from violent/dangerous/abusive homes.