"There is real incentive to make something efficient from a business standpoint, because your customers see the real cost of the service in their bill every month."
Yeah right, tell me another one. You obviously don't pay a cable or satellite TV bill every month for a basic package. In case you haven't noticed they are routinely jacking up rates faster than inflation by a substantial amount, and the quality of the channels and programming they provide is either staying the same or getting worse. They claim they add more channel but neglect to point out most of the channels they add are garbage.
Since 1996 when rates were deregulated they've gone up 50%, three times inflation, 150 channels and there is still nothing on worth watching most of the time.
OK so you are paying maybe $40 a month for this fine service. We are talking basic cable. Pretty much every channel you get on basic is laden with commercials so you get to pay twice, both for the service and you still have to watch programs laden with ads.
Ever watch TV late in the evening or early morning. Nearly every channel is running infomericals all night not to mention most packages carry a half dozen shopping channels which are basicly infomercials 24x7.
You want efficient cable/satellite then make them sell you each channel individually and if you don't want 3/4 of the channels they provide you pay 1/4 of the price you do now. John McCain among others have tried to push this in congress and the TV/Satellite companies kill it in short order.
"but since it's in taxes, you never actually know this"
Bah again. Any city worth a plug nickel will have the costs of the service broken out in black and white in its budget. Wouldn't take much more for them to provide usage statistics on numbers of users and bandwidth used.
"And, things will never get better, since commercial providers can't compete against "free". Everyone loses."
Well actually no. The only losers are private companies that want to rake in a lot of money on internet service. Internet access IS a lot more like essential infrastructure today. Any kid in school needs it for research and if they don't have it at home they are forced to libraries or to do without. Most cities do provide internet service through libraries at taxpayer expense already, you are just saving people from having to go to the library and queue up to get it, assuming you can swing a second hand computer.
If you make each household pay monthly the affluent get it, the poor don't and you just reinforce the digital divide. If it is done through taxes everyone has equal access.
Wireless access points are cheap, there is so much dark fiber sitting around bandwidth is also cheap. Its key you don't have to run something in to every home. Just setup evenly spaced access points. It is totally rationale and efficient for cities to provide this as a public service.
Cable and DSL will never be able to compete against wireless, free or not, so they have a lot to fear. They have to run copper or fiber in to every home, send crews around to hook, unhook and repair every home. They have to spend a small fortune mailing out bills, cashing checks and dealing with deadbeats. The can't beat public wireless on efficiency, how its paid for.
Exactly right. Chalk another one up to Slashdot editor lameness.
Yahoo's toolbar isn't close to being spyware, its only marginally different from Google's toolbar and Yahoo is a big reputable company. Its border line slander of both Yahoo and Flash to post a glaring headline that implies Yahoo's toolbar is Spyware and Flash is installing spyware. Yes it is tacky on Yahoo's part and Macromedia's part but geez.
Perhaps Slashdot editors need a brief refresher on what being an editor means, in particular it means you are putting your personal credibility on the line that you are making a reasonable effort to publish factual information.
I'm still laughing it up about Cmdr Taco falling for the spoof that Microsoft's antispyware software was flagging Firefox as spyware, of course it seems maybe EVERYTHING is spyware by Slashdot editor standards.
A couple questions.
Is there another site on the web that is a good competitor for Slashdot. After the quality editing I've seen here the last month or so I'm thinking I want to move on and try something different.
I'd fallback on my previous suggestion though hell will freeze over before it happens:
A. Make all submissions over the last 24-48 hours available to everyone to see, maybe with some minimal editing to remove the offensive and juvenile ones so I can start making my own editing decisions. I'd really like to see what Slashdotters find interesting, not what a half dozen self appointed gods think is interesting.
B. I'd really like to see a trial where Slashdotters are given front page moderator points so average readers can pick one or two stories to make the front page free of slashdot editor bias.
First answer is the TV networks obviously are trying to do something about, which is what the broadcast flag thing is all about. It will take a while for it to take any hold and it will never stamp out recording their content but obviously they are concerned about it and trying to stop it. I assure they are deeply concerned about people using Tivo's to skip their commercials, or people putting copies of their shows on the net with commercials edited out.
The network executives are eventually going to catch up with the RIAA and MPAA in ham handed enforcement, its just network executives have for a long time known to be exceptionally slow learners.
At the moment I wager they can't really sort out all the variables influencing their revenue:
A. People are watching less broadcast television in favor of video games, internet, pay per view, DVD's etc.
B. There are so many channels now that broadcast television has a deep inherent viability problem. It is nearly impossible to fill up all the channels with interesting content, and the viewership for each channel shrinks as more channels are added.
I think at the moment networks are focusing their efforts at propping up their revenue on:
A. Steadily increasing the number, length and volume of commercials so they can get the same revenue for the dwindling number of suckers that still sit through them. Ironicly they are reaching the point they so annoy viewers they are forcing consumers to find ways to avoiding them, either Tivo'ing, downloading edited shows off the net or stop watching commericial laden channels.
B. Increase the amount of reality TV because it costs next to nothing to make. Since they have lower production costs they make more profit even if their ad revenue is weakening. Lucky for them people are apparently complete suckers and watch this foolishness.
C. Put ever more infomercials on ever more channels. Not sure who the idiot is in the loop that makes this a viable strategy, the companies paying for the time, the people who are stupid or braindead enough to actually sit and watch a half hour advertisement and buy the worthless crap they push, or the networks who are willing to fill up ever larger blocks of time with garbage no one in their right mind woulf actually watch.
D. Push the broadcast flag in a futile effort to stamp out digital copies of their shows
E. Try to milk revenue out of people through a cut from cable and satellite subscriptions, pay per view, DVD's, etc.
If you haven't recognized the name Kollar-Kotelly, this is the same judge that gave Microsoft the get out jail free card after they were found to be a monopolist and violating anti trust law. Ralph Nader wrote a good letter to her summarizing her flawed decision making in that case.
She also ruled against a number of the FEC efforts to implement McCain-Feingold last year.
She also serves on the Foreign Intelligence court, whose proceedings are mostly secret but is widely thought to be a rubber stamp for the Bush administration's abuse of civil liberties.
Not sure if she is incompetent, malevolent or something completely different, but I suspect she is in over her heading ruling on cases that involve computing and technology. She may also have developed a mind set that causes her to routinely side with the power thats be, big government, big business and establishment politics over the people.
"Now, it could be argued that the first computer viruses were for Macs. But that would pretty much kill your political rant, wouldn't it?"
Not sure I see why. Sure you can write viruses for any OS, but that doesn't change the fact the Microsoft time after time opted for ease of use or sloppy programming over security, creating an environment that nurtures virus writers rather than discourages them. They were also years late in even starting to deal with the problem, and in fact are just now really started to deal with it.
I think you are missing the problem here assuming you are American. You see 99% of Americans are so used to the giant free ride they've had since the end of World War II they have settling in to thinking:
A. The American gravy train will never end, no matter how much our government or we as a people cock it up so why care.
B. American's as a whole have resigned themselves to the fact there is nothing they can do about anything which is completely wrong. First off we need to get together and stop putting incompetents in to government, as a people we need to stop ignoring economic and political issues that matter while we obsess over issues that for the most part don't matter like gay marriage, abortion, gun control, or whose stabbing who in the back on the current reality TV rage.
America's preeminence over the last 50 years is mostly due to an accident of geography allowing it to be the only major industrial nation not flattened in World War II. Current American superiority is not inherent in the American people or the Amercan system like most American's delude themselves in to thinking. By thinking they are inherently superior they've created a trap they are now falling it (i.e. no matter how much we hose our government and economics we will still rule the world).
I assure you most of the world is way hungrier than America is now and they are working a LOT hard and a lot smarter to get ahead.
Bad movies, TV and video games are real close to being at the heart of the problem, if not the problem. Americans would way rather obsess over and hear about the lastest sensational celebrity trial than news that actually matters for something. They would way rather be told how to think about economics and politics by whomever controls the TV than thinking for themselves and spot all the lies the government and the media are telling on a daily basis. As an example there is apparently a right wing group pissed at AARP for opposing private social security accounts so they've started a propaganda campaign claiming AARP supports gay marriage, just because that worked to well destroying their opponents in November. Geeez.
Most Americans would rather escape in to the fantasy world of TV, movies or video games than deal with the real world. Trust me living your life inside a MMORPG or an FPS is a sweet job if you can get it but for 99.9% of the people doing it you can't make a living at it and are slowly wasting away your life instead of doing something useful and productive like developing real world skills, or being productive. Only real world skill I can see from FPS's is you are being trained to kill people using high tech weapons (which is why the Army ships their own FPS).
Lord knows ranting here does absolutely no good but it makes you feel a little better knowing you are at least slightly differentiated from the rest of the sheeple.
I really need to stop getting hacked off watching American's in particular obsess over stuff like bad Star Wars sequels, O.C., reality TV and video games.
Me I'm getting all worried for no reason about scenarios like this. This article is a bit alarmist but the economic issues cited are VERY real and anyone with a clue about economics is deeply concerned about the precarious postition the U.S. is in today and I've heard it from multiple independent and generall relaiable source in recent weeks.
It does bother me when Americans in particular are obsessing over meaningluss crap lik movies, TV and video games, while we've basicly stopped most productive economic activity, and our government is shredding basic civil liberties, and the Bush administration is doleing out hundreds of billions of our tax dollars to their rich friends and miring us in a debt hole we will never get out of.
America has turned in to the world biggest debtor nation to the tune of $7-8 trillion dollars. Someone, usually foreign, has to buy $2 billion dollars worth of our debt a DAY just to keep us afloat, mostly thanks to a $600 billion a year trade deficit and a $400 billion a year budget deficit both of which are exploding. Our wealth as a nation is disappearing at a rate of maybe a trillion dollars a year, and accelerating.
And the key problem TODAY is, most foreign central banks and investors are coming to the conclusion that it is insane to be buying U.S. dollars and U.S. debt when the dollar is tanking and the U.S. economy is being managed by incompetents. As the U.S. dollar is plunging all those foreign investors are taking a bath holding dollars, and if it continues they are going to dump the U.S. and try to salvage their positions before things go really bad.
We are THIS close to seeing the rest of the world start dumping dollars and move the global economy to the Euro, including trading oil in Euro's. If that happens and there is a run on the U.S. dollar this country is going to be in a world of hurt like that Thailand and Korea saw a few years ago when there were runs on their currencies, though this run could be 100 times larger.
If oil producers switch to selling oil in Euros the price of oil in the U.S. is going to spike due to the collapse of the dollar. That aside people in OPEC are predicting oil demand is about to oustripe supply on a strucutural basis and oil could easily spike to $80 a barell.
I wager the only reasong foreign central banks haven't started dumping dollars is fear of the global economic crisis that would ensue if the dollar and the U.S. economy collapse.
I assure there is significant risk of this happening. Greenspan testified yesterday the Fed is watching anxiously for it to happen, it hasn't yet but it could at any moment. Greenspan also vented his strongest warning yet on the dangers of the U.S. continue to borrow $2 billion dollars a day, unfortunately it is falling on deaf ears in Washington.
Another key point is the Bush administration's arrogant contempt for the rest of the world has used up every ounce of good will the U.S. has in the world, so most places would be delighted if the U.S. economy collapsed if only it could happen without taking the rest of the world with it.
All in all, yea I think we should probably focus our attention on bad movies, bad ads, and bad TV.
Look at this way, chances are high that patents on basic methods for dealing with spyware and viruses detection are probably the ONLY thing that is going to keep Microsoft from wiping out yet another third part software industry. In another year or two they are going to have firewalls, virus and spyware detection, and anti spam measures all bundled in to the OS, for free, and Symantec and McAfee will be toast. Their software might not be as good as Symantec and McAfee but it will be free and bundled so it will win as long as it doesn't completely suck.
Now it could be argued that that all this stuff SHOULD be built in to the OS, and it should, but Microsoft pretty much created the market for virus writer and spyware due to their shitty software design and incompetence for the last decade. Symantec and McAfee stepped in and built a business out of fixing that incompetence. There really isn't any justice in Microsoft coming in now and putting them out of business through predatory practices.
It will be really interesting if Microsoft bundles and give away all their spyware and virus software.... and then starts a monthly or yearly subscription service, like Symantec has, for the signatures and updates. I wager Microsoft is DROOLING over the prospect of getting a steady stream of subscription revenue to juice their quarterly results, and get them off of dependence on upgrades.
On the other hand they know they have to reign in the security disaster that the Internet in general, and Windows in particular, has become because it is starting to turn people off to computers and the Internet, so they may well do all this for free, or at least hide the cost in the base OS cost for Windows.
THX-1138 was a great effort, though the ending is pretty weak. Lucas has a great imagination but really can't write a script.
To borrow a THX-1138'ism I am quite convinced the state made Lucas resume his full daily dose of meds before he started work on the prequels, which is why they are the sad pieces of work they are.
I'd be overjoyed if Sith recaptures the magic of the first two installments of the original trilogies, kids in particular deserve some of the magic the original Star Wars brought to the big screen, but there is zero reason to be fanatics about it this franchise after the disappointment of the first two prequels.
So Slashdot editors decided it was front page worthy to plug both a trailer(a.k.a an ad) for a so far bad trilogy, premiering on a bad TV show.
What demographic does it boost for O.C. when Slashdot geeks, who need a life and think Star Wars is still cool even though Lucas has butchered his franchise with the prequels, rush to Slashdot O.C. with their TV remotes?
How much do you think Lucas and O.C. paid Slashdot editors to plug their lame ass media "event" to the one demographic most vulnerable to their manipulation, Slashdot geeks?
Its a little off topic, but there was a brief breath of fresh air for civil liberties monday when a Federal judge, appointed by George W. no less, found George W. and John Ashcroft had no constitutional authority to hold an American citizen indefinitely without charges or any due process. Jose Padilla, was arrested in the U.S. and had set a precedent where the Bush administration could arrest and detain ANY American citizen in perpetuity without any due process or even access to a lawyer. That is the definition of a police state.
Of course the government will appeal in hopes of finding a friendly court, probably in Virginia. Last time this case made it to the Supreme Court they punted on a jurisdiction technicality and let the person rot in jail for a while longer while it was filed in South Carolina where Padilla, a civilian, is being held in isolation in a Navy brig. Padilla may be an Al Qaida member, and might have been planning terrorist acts but if there is any shred of our constitution left the government has to lay charges and prove it in a court of law, and not in front of a kangaroo court of a military tribunal.
On a less happy note I found thisarticle nteresting about an obscure defense contractor called ESSI who with the help of George W.'s Uncle Bucky has rocketed to being a major defense contractor, and is specializing in war profiteering in Iraq, mostly thanks to sole source contracts steered their way by friends in the Bush administration. Uncle Bucky was apparently tipped off that the Pentagon was going to launch an investigation of how they were landing all these juicy sole source, no risk contracts, and dumped a half million in stock just before the bad news came out. It sure is great to be a Bush and friend of the Republicans these days
I just submitted a story to the Slashdot editors titled "Vi or Emacs, which is the better editor". If we are going to feature religious wars tonight we may as well have all the classics. Anyone else want to submit "C, C++, C#, Perl, PHP, Python, Scheme, Ada, Ruby or Java, which is the best language" or "Democrat and Republican, Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich".
"The initial hump is steeper, but the total area under the work curve, over the product lifecycle, is much less."
Excepting that everytime you replicate the code in alternate forms you are creating something that has to be kept synced, and unless all these things are kept in perfect sync they are more deception than aid. There should only be one copy of the algorithm because it is gospel, and it is the code not the docs.
If you have reams of design docs, requirement docs, and feature definitions, you are going to have a massive tarbaby, a tool for wrecking your schedule, inflating cost, wasting time, an incentive to never change anything because you have 5 places you have to go back and update and basicly say the same thing in 5 different ways.
Comments in code are priceless when there is something that is not obvious that needs to be explained. They are a complete waste of time and space if you just say the same thing the code already says but differently. 90% of the time careful class hierarchy, file organization and variable naming do the job and comments are a complete waste of time and space and again you are just doing the same thing twice. But when you really need to explain an intricacy of a less than obvious algorithm you should write a book, in comments next to the algorithm, not in some doc far, far away. So bottomline is comments are priceless when you put the right comments in the right places, gratuitous spewing of comments just for the sake of saying your code is commented is not a good thing.
It is very true an object oriented language used by someone who has a minimal clue of how to write object oriented code is going to be vastly easier for other programmers to read, pick up and use. Sure you can accomplish the same end in C but it will be ugly, tedious and inadequate by comparison. God bless GTK, and lord knows I've used it enough but developing a UI toolkit in C was not a good idea.
All that said there are places where you do have to do the reams of documents. If you are writing code that is an API for someone else you must properly document the API. You will be way ahead of the game if you use one of the document tools that builds the API doc from the code and comments automaticly so you know that the API is always in sync automaticly and not through laborious manual labor.
Part of being a good programmer is maximizing efficiency and wasting massive time syncing multiple sets of docs with code is not efficiency.
When you are coding something for someone elses need, then THEY should absolutely document as best the can and in as much detail as they can their requirements, and then the programmer(s) should read those and have meticulous discussions with the client on every gray area, or where the asked for something the probably didn't actually want because there is a better way. This is an essential form of communication and unavoidable.
To put it another way the extent to which you document code is almost entirely a function of the audience around the code. If its buried inside a module that people are going to just use and rarely ever care about, then you are completely wasting your time whipping it to death with reams of documents. You are wasting time that could be better spent developing useful code. If you are writing code that is an API for others it would be criminal on your part to not document the API in one form or another, but most of the people using your API don't need or want massive documents on every gory detail of what is underneath the API, they just need to know that the stuff underneath reliably does what the API says it does.
Don't suppose anyone noticed this article is just a way to launch an entirely predictable religious war, with the submitter insuring that OSX launched the first salvo, in something of a preemptive strike, increasing it chances for victory were this particular war not an unwinnable exercise in futility.
I'm not even gonna read any further because everything that will be said has been said a million times before, every other time this jihad has been launched. Thanks/. editors for launching a pointless religious war instead of putting something new and interesting on the front page.
OSX and Linux are both wonderfully productive for me, I see no reason to have these two kindred spirits turn on each other in internecine strife when we all know who the one true enemy is.
" Will you make it easier for me to send my child to a private school where they will receive a far better education than the local school district offers, without me having to pay for both schools? (Yes, that means waivers.)"
This is such an odd concept. You see I pay for the public school system through property taxes and Federal income taxes and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS. Why exactly should you be exempted from paying taxes for public schools, or get vouchers, so you can defray the cost of sending your kid to a plush private school while I still have to help pay for public schools, probably even more so if you people opt out, and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS. Either you go to a system where only people with kids in public schools pay for public schools at which point they stop being public schools or everyone shares the burden. Not sure why I get to help pay for both public schools and your kids plush private education and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS.
"Would we be the richest nation on Earth if we did dump all kinds of money into a national health care system?"
I'd say its a stretch so say the U.S. is the world's "richest nation". The U.S. is the world's biggest debtor nation to the tune of 7-8 trillion. The U.S. is rich in terms of GDP but the EU which is pretty much a "nation" now is pretty close to the same size. China will almost certainly pass the U.S. in GDP in another 20 years barring calamity. If the U.S. continues to drown in debt the U.S. economy could easily collapse before then. The U.S. requires foreign countries, mostly central banks, to buy $2 billion worth of our debt a day and all indications are Japan, Korea and others may stop due to the fact the Bush administration is letting the dollar collapse and the U.S is no so fiscally unsound it is turning in to a bad investment which is pretty much a first. If central banks stop buying dollars and our debt this country is going to be in a world of hurt.
China, Canada, and most EU nations have universal health care in one form or another and it doesn't hurt their competitiveness at all, in fact it probably helps. Their systems aren't perfect but the U.S. system is far from perfect. Canada is the fastest growing country in the G-9 at the moment.
Actually we would probably have a dramaticly healthier economy if we did have universal health care and regulated drug prices. Our private and public health care system combined has reach the point it is bleeding our economy white, mostly due to out of control inflation, inflation far beyond the rest of the economy.
The cost to employers for insurance in the U.S. has become prohibitively expensive and is a huge factor in making them uncompetitive globally. Employers in countries with socialized health care don't have to bare this cost(except through taxes). At this point many companies are cutting health care for employees or dropping it all together, meaning the U.S. increasingly has great health care only if you are rich enough to afford it.
The drug companies in particular are engaged in such massive profiteering that they are the single most profitable business in the U.S. Unchecked drug costs are going to wreck the U.S. economy almost single handedly. Of course lawyers, insurance companies, HMO's and giant health care companies are all taking hung chunks out of the U.S. economy too.
"I consider it a fundamental freedom to own and legally make use of a firearm."
I keep hearing right wingers rant about that but I really don't know why. It is incredibly easy to buy all the guns you want in this country, more so than almost any other country. If the (D)'s are trying to outlaw them they are doing a crappy job of it and its not an issue worthy of deciding who runs this country. About all the D's have done was some registration which isn't entirely bad, and they did pass an ineffective ban against some assault weapons which has since lapsed. It was easy to circumvent and I really, honestly don't entirely understand why people really need to own
Here is more than you want to know about Herb Vest except it doesn't say if he has a criminal record or if Eliyon did a criminal background check on him.
Some highlights:
Herb Vest, owner of True, is quoted as saying, "We went into this business to help reduce the national divorce rate."
He has a masters in Taxation, one of 7 degrees. He does seem to have an amazing educational background, almost to amazing, Princeton, Harvard Law and Wharton, though maybe Eliyon didn't verify his background:)
One small blow from freedom and sanity was struck today when a Federal judge ordered Jose Padilla to be either charged or released in 45 days. Padilla is the case study in abuse of power by the Bush administration, a U.S. citizen arrested in the U.S. and detained for 2 years without charges, in a military brig in South Carolina, with no charges filed, and most of the time with no access to a lawyer.
Of course the DOJ can appeal this decision until they find a friendly court. Last time his case reached the Supreme Court they punted it on a technicality and left him in purgatory.
Padilla may be a low life scum bag and a legitimate terrorist but unless the DOJ can prove it in a court of law they have zero right to hold him. The fact that they have for two years pretty much shredded our constitution, due process and the rule of law.
In the last decade or so there was a lot of soul searching about how the U.S. treated Japanese Americans in World War II, mostly siezing all their property and indefinite internment without charges. We even paid the survivors reparations a few years ago. Then we turn around and do exactly the same thing to Muslims and Arabs.
Some quotes from the judge, ironicly appointed by George W. in 2003:
"The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold Petitioner as an enemy combatant," Floyd ruled in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
"Floyd said the case was a law enforcement matter, not a military one, and that unless Padilla is charged with a crime, he should be freed."
"If the law in its current state is found by the president to be insufficient to protect this country from terrorist plots, such as the one alleged here, then the president should prevail upon Congress to remedy the problem," said Floyd, who was appointed to the federal bench by Bush in 2003."
How exactly did you read his mind to establish the rationale for his action. In choosing to kill 216 people that pretty much made him a terrorist be default, even if he had no ties to a terrorist organization.
If a suicide bomber kills 216 people in Israel or Iraq he is going to be labeled a terrorist first and suicidal second. Why is committing the same act using an airplane any different.
"We do have a fairly robust and open justice system, despite all its flaws, in cases not involving terrorism."
Dude! That is one whopper of a qualification. The whole point is the government in the U.S. can now unilaterally decide what is terrorism, and who is a terrorist, with no proof whatsover, without judicial oversight, and lock the person up indefinitely without access to a lawyer, or to their family, without due process and on a number of occasions have shipped them to third party countries to be tortured by proxy.
The whole crux of their strategy for wiping out our civil liberties and due process, is for them to say "we only do this to terrorists" to which the public is supposed to reply, "oh well if you only do it to terrorists thats OK". The only catch is the government never at any point has to offer any proof the person was actually a terrorist under their new rules, so they in fact can arrest anyone without charges, not just "terrorists".
If you are going to have a civilized nation with due process and the rule of law you HAVE to apply the same rules, equally, to everyone. As soon as you give your government an exemption allowing them to deny due process to one person you have set a precedent allowing them to do it to anyone and everyone, and have opened the door to totalitarianism, and its entirely at the discretion of the powers if they decide to seize the opportunity and turn your country in to a police state.
"re: egyptian air lines -- the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea because the terrorists were stupid and stubbornly insisted on flying the plane to a destination it couldn't possibly reach."
I am almost positive that is not true or you are talking about a different crash. The one I'm talking about the airplane just suddenly went in to a steep dive, and the pilot(or probably co pilot actuall) was uttering the name Allah. The plane was clearly never hijacked or least it wasn't obvious on the voice recorder. Their was also no chance it ran out of fuel.
Either the pilot intentionally crashed the plane or there was a mechanical malfunction that didn't show up on the data recorder that put it in a sudden uncontrollable dive. The Egyptians insisted it was a mechanical problem, the Americans leaned strongly towards the pilot intentionally crashing the plane.
" From the perspective of the powers-that-be, doing nothing looks like, well, doing nothing. Enforcing watch lists is "doing something", and then they can say "hey, we're tough on terrorists!" or some equivalent BS. Please tell me you at least understand the position they're in."
Uh, no I don't. They HAVE done something and it was inexpensive, effective and not an assault on the public or our civil liberties. They put armored doors on all cockpits. They put air marshalls on some flights, and with more expense they can put them on all flights. Those are effective steps and not punishing innocent people.
There is absolutely zero justification for tolerating knee jerk reactions from incompetent bureaucrats, that are punishing innocent people, and which aren't adding one iota to real security. We can't hold these people's feet to the fire because they aren't elected and we don't actually even know who they are though Tom Ridge is the leading suspect.
Again all they had to do was to send someone to examine what Isreal did, see that its worked over a long period and do the same thing. There was proven precedent for how to solve this problem without delving in to stupidity.
I'm also not really sure there is any real demand in Congress for a "Do Not Fly" list. They've shot down CAPPS multiple times because its so intrusive. Ted Kennedy I'm sure is against is since his name landed on the Do Not List last year. Some of the EPIC FOIA docs are letters to and from Congressman trying to figure out how to free their constituents from this insanity. If they had any splines they would have passed a law killing the whole thing, though I do completely understand Congress is deathly afraid of doing anything that the paranoid nutcases can use against them in a campaign.
This push for lists is mostly coming out of Homeland Security and that is an agency that has proven its incompetency time and again. They brought us the stupid color coded alert system which has also proven itself to be completely moronic. They also suggested we all stock up on duck tape and plastic sheeting. They've pushed stockpiling anthrax and small pox vaccines while we ran out of flu vaccine.
It is our duty as citizen's to fight our government everytime the do stupid shit, and if your elected representatives don't deal with the problem its time to elect people that have a clue.
"What if I told you that I have flown, post-September 11, with no ID? ORD to MSN."
Forgot to answer this. Well my response would be that maybe the airline or the person at the counter decided to cut you a break. Then again maybe the regulations allow people to fly without an ID as long as you are extensively searched. Maybe they allow this exception if you are White and Christian looking, but not if you are Arab and Muslim looking.
This get back to the whole problem that the regulations are secret so no one really knows what they actually says, or how it mutates as its relayed from the TSA to the airline to the person at the counter.
It is known that the there are two lists. One is an a red list and the names on it absolutely aren't supposed to be allowed to fly, chances are most on it are Muslim and Arab and known terrorists. The other is a yellow list and if your name is on it you will be allowed to fly but only with extra screening and a more intrusive search like you recieved.
It might be quite possible that if you are white, obviously American, give them a sob story about a lost wallet, and are not obviously Muslim the regulations will allow you to fly under the yellow list rules. Again who knows because the regulations are secret. Maybe they say you absolutely can't fly without an ID but the person at the counter unilaterally decided to cut you a break because you didn't look like a sterotypical Arab terrorist. It would be real interesting if someone who looks Arab were to try your stolen ID scam. I wager they would never make it on to the plane.
Airlines really don't need or want this bullshit. It totally pisses off their customers and the more rigorously they enforce it the more it pisses off customers, and they risk losing them to airlines that enforce it less rigorously. In the EPIC FOIA docs I posted a link to elsewhere there are letters from people who have fallen victim to having there names on the list. They are really sad and you really feel their pain. One of them was from a senior citizen, a frequent flyer who was massively pissed off at an airline to which he was a loyal customer when his name started popping up on the list. Airlines have NO reason to piss off loyal customers for no reason and risk driving off their business so it follows they probably cut people slack as long as they dont look like Muslim terrorists.
"but many of Gilmore's own comments echo of Nazi Germany or Soviet states, and I simply don't think the comparison is apt"
I think you would change your toon if a terrorist starts using Dave Schroeder as an alias, and the next time you try to fly your name matches the "Do Not Fly" list and a couple guys in suits come and take you away in front of everyone at the gate for interrogation, especially if you are flying with coworkers, friends or family. They are going to make you look like criminal or a terrorist.
The only reason you are so cavalier about this insanity is you haven't suffered the worst it is routinely dishing out to innocent people. That is how totalitarian states start out. As long as they only inflict their madness on a small percentage of the people most people wont give a damn, as long as its not them.
To continue with my scenario, after having been taken aside once then you know you are going to get taken aside everytime you fly, you may not be able to fly at all, you may miss flights and your job may be in jeopardy. At this point you will start desperately trying to find out why this is happening and to figure out how to make it stop. At this point everyone will tell you this is a secret "regulation" and the secretness will devestate you. Their is either no proceedure for getting your name off the list, or if there is its secret. If you want to fly you will either have to get your congressman to lobby the bureaucracy on your half, or get your name legally changed, or use a false ID name and take even greater risk, or stop flying.
Orwellian indeed.
A guy responded to one of my posts elsewhere, just check with Israel, they've been dealing with this problem successfully for decades.
- They armor their cockpits - They put armed undercover air marshall's on all flights - They screen passengers for weapons and explosives
They don't even attempt an Orwellian "Do Not Fly" list because they know its an exercise in futility. This monstrosity is entirely a product of bureaucratic incompetence and anyone willing to fight it deserves a medal.
Your point about Israel is spot on though I have reservations about armed air marshals. At that point you are putting someone with a potent weapon on the airplane. If a terrorist group infiltrates someone in to the air marshall program they can walk on to a plane with a weapon that might be able to breach the cockpit(not sure how bullet proof they are).
Infiltration is not real likely in Israel because the number of plans and marshalls are small and their religion/ethnicity autoscreens them. The Air Marshall program in the U.S. is much bigger, chaotic and incompetent.
The other risk is several terrorists could overpower the air marshall and seize his weapon or the air marshall could accidentally cause decompression with his gun shooting at terrorists.
Not a big fan of the crew having gun's either. Again you could infiltrate a terrorist on the crew as may have happened with the Egyptian air line that may have been intentionally crashed in to the sea by one of the pilots.
Slashdot Mirror
"There is real incentive to make something efficient from a business standpoint, because your customers see the real cost of the service in their bill every month."
Yeah right, tell me another one. You obviously don't pay a cable or satellite TV bill every month for a basic package. In case you haven't noticed they are routinely jacking up rates faster than inflation by a substantial amount, and the quality of the channels and programming they provide is either staying the same or getting worse. They claim they add more channel but neglect to point out most of the channels they add are garbage.
Since 1996 when rates were deregulated they've gone up 50%, three times inflation, 150 channels and there is still nothing on worth watching most of the time.
OK so you are paying maybe $40 a month for this fine service. We are talking basic cable. Pretty much every channel you get on basic is laden with commercials so you get to pay twice, both for the service and you still have to watch programs laden with ads.
Ever watch TV late in the evening or early morning. Nearly every channel is running infomericals all night not to mention most packages carry a half dozen shopping channels which are basicly infomercials 24x7.
You want efficient cable/satellite then make them sell you each channel individually and if you don't want 3/4 of the channels they provide you pay 1/4 of the price you do now. John McCain among others have tried to push this in congress and the TV/Satellite companies kill it in short order.
"but since it's in taxes, you never actually know this"
Bah again. Any city worth a plug nickel will have the costs of the service broken out in black and white in its budget. Wouldn't take much more for them to provide usage statistics on numbers of users and bandwidth used.
"And, things will never get better, since commercial providers can't compete against "free". Everyone loses."
Well actually no. The only losers are private companies that want to rake in a lot of money on internet service. Internet access IS a lot more like essential infrastructure today. Any kid in school needs it for research and if they don't have it at home they are forced to libraries or to do without. Most cities do provide internet service through libraries at taxpayer expense already, you are just saving people from having to go to the library and queue up to get it, assuming you can swing a second hand computer.
If you make each household pay monthly the affluent get it, the poor don't and you just reinforce the digital divide. If it is done through taxes everyone has equal access.
Wireless access points are cheap, there is so much dark fiber sitting around bandwidth is also cheap. Its key you don't have to run something in to every home. Just setup evenly spaced access points. It is totally rationale and efficient for cities to provide this as a public service.
Cable and DSL will never be able to compete against wireless, free or not, so they have a lot to fear. They have to run copper or fiber in to every home, send crews around to hook, unhook and repair every home. They have to spend a small fortune mailing out bills, cashing checks and dealing with deadbeats. The can't beat public wireless on efficiency, how its paid for.
Exactly right. Chalk another one up to Slashdot editor lameness.
Yahoo's toolbar isn't close to being spyware, its only marginally different from Google's toolbar and Yahoo is a big reputable company. Its border line slander of both Yahoo and Flash to post a glaring headline that implies Yahoo's toolbar is Spyware and Flash is installing spyware. Yes it is tacky on Yahoo's part and Macromedia's part but geez.
Perhaps Slashdot editors need a brief refresher on what being an editor means, in particular it means you are putting your personal credibility on the line that you are making a reasonable effort to publish factual information.
I'm still laughing it up about Cmdr Taco falling for the spoof that Microsoft's antispyware software was flagging Firefox as spyware, of course it seems maybe EVERYTHING is spyware by Slashdot editor standards.
A couple questions.
Is there another site on the web that is a good competitor for Slashdot. After the quality editing I've seen here the last month or so I'm thinking I want to move on and try something different.
I'd fallback on my previous suggestion though hell will freeze over before it happens:
A. Make all submissions over the last 24-48 hours available to everyone to see, maybe with some minimal editing to remove the offensive and juvenile ones so I can start making my own editing decisions. I'd really like to see what Slashdotters find interesting, not what a half dozen self appointed gods think is interesting.
B. I'd really like to see a trial where Slashdotters are given front page moderator points so average readers can pick one or two stories to make the front page free of slashdot editor bias.
First answer is the TV networks obviously are trying to do something about, which is what the broadcast flag thing is all about. It will take a while for it to take any hold and it will never stamp out recording their content but obviously they are concerned about it and trying to stop it. I assure they are deeply concerned about people using Tivo's to skip their commercials, or people putting copies of their shows on the net with commercials edited out.
The network executives are eventually going to catch up with the RIAA and MPAA in ham handed enforcement, its just network executives have for a long time known to be exceptionally slow learners.
At the moment I wager they can't really sort out all the variables influencing their revenue:
A. People are watching less broadcast television in favor of video games, internet, pay per view, DVD's etc.
B. There are so many channels now that broadcast television has a deep inherent viability problem. It is nearly impossible to fill up all the channels with interesting content, and the viewership for each channel shrinks as more channels are added.
I think at the moment networks are focusing their efforts at propping up their revenue on:
A. Steadily increasing the number, length and volume of commercials so they can get the same revenue for the dwindling number of suckers that still sit through them. Ironicly they are reaching the point they so annoy viewers they are forcing consumers to find ways to avoiding them, either Tivo'ing, downloading edited shows off the net or stop watching commericial laden channels.
B. Increase the amount of reality TV because it costs next to nothing to make. Since they have lower production costs they make more profit even if their ad revenue is weakening. Lucky for them people are apparently complete suckers and watch this foolishness.
C. Put ever more infomercials on ever more channels. Not sure who the idiot is in the loop that makes this a viable strategy, the companies paying for the time, the people who are stupid or braindead enough to actually sit and watch a half hour advertisement and buy the worthless crap they push, or the networks who are willing to fill up ever larger blocks of time with garbage no one in their right mind woulf actually watch.
D. Push the broadcast flag in a futile effort to stamp out digital copies of their shows
E. Try to milk revenue out of people through a cut from cable and satellite subscriptions, pay per view, DVD's, etc.
If you haven't recognized the name Kollar-Kotelly, this is the same judge that gave Microsoft the get out jail free card after they were found to be a monopolist and violating anti trust law. Ralph Nader wrote a good letter to her summarizing her flawed decision making in that case.
She also ruled against a number of the FEC efforts to implement McCain-Feingold last year.
She also serves on the Foreign Intelligence court, whose proceedings are mostly secret but is widely thought to be a rubber stamp for the Bush administration's abuse of civil liberties.
Not sure if she is incompetent, malevolent or something completely different, but I suspect she is in over her heading ruling on cases that involve computing and technology. She may also have developed a mind set that causes her to routinely side with the power thats be, big government, big business and establishment politics over the people.
"Now, it could be argued that the first computer viruses were for Macs. But that would pretty much kill your political rant, wouldn't it?"
Not sure I see why. Sure you can write viruses for any OS, but that doesn't change the fact the Microsoft time after time opted for ease of use or sloppy programming over security, creating an environment that nurtures virus writers rather than discourages them. They were also years late in even starting to deal with the problem, and in fact are just now really started to deal with it.
I think you are missing the problem here assuming you are American. You see 99% of Americans are so used to the giant free ride they've had since the end of World War II they have settling in to thinking:
A. The American gravy train will never end, no matter how much our government or we as a people cock it up so why care.
B. American's as a whole have resigned themselves to the fact there is nothing they can do about anything which is completely wrong. First off we need to get together and stop putting incompetents in to government, as a people we need to stop ignoring economic and political issues that matter while we obsess over issues that for the most part don't matter like gay marriage, abortion, gun control, or whose stabbing who in the back on the current reality TV rage.
America's preeminence over the last 50 years is mostly due to an accident of geography allowing it to be the only major industrial nation not flattened in World War II. Current American superiority is not inherent in the American people or the Amercan system like most American's delude themselves in to thinking. By thinking they are inherently superior they've created a trap they are now falling it (i.e. no matter how much we hose our government and economics we will still rule the world).
I assure you most of the world is way hungrier than America is now and they are working a LOT hard and a lot smarter to get ahead.
Bad movies, TV and video games are real close to being at the heart of the problem, if not the problem. Americans would way rather obsess over and hear about the lastest sensational celebrity trial than news that actually matters for something. They would way rather be told how to think about economics and politics by whomever controls the TV than thinking for themselves and spot all the lies the government and the media are telling on a daily basis. As an example there is apparently a right wing group pissed at AARP for opposing private social security accounts so they've started a propaganda campaign claiming AARP supports gay marriage, just because that worked to well destroying their opponents in November. Geeez.
Most Americans would rather escape in to the fantasy world of TV, movies or video games than deal with the real world. Trust me living your life inside a MMORPG or an FPS is a sweet job if you can get it but for 99.9% of the people doing it you can't make a living at it and are slowly wasting away your life instead of doing something useful and productive like developing real world skills, or being productive. Only real world skill I can see from FPS's is you are being trained to kill people using high tech weapons (which is why the Army ships their own FPS).
Lord knows ranting here does absolutely no good but it makes you feel a little better knowing you are at least slightly differentiated from the rest of the sheeple.
God damn, you are SOOO right.
I really need to stop getting hacked off watching American's in particular obsess over stuff like bad Star Wars sequels, O.C., reality TV and video games.
Me I'm getting all worried for no reason about scenarios like this. This article is a bit alarmist but the economic issues cited are VERY real and anyone with a clue about economics is deeply concerned about the precarious postition the U.S. is in today and I've heard it from multiple independent and generall relaiable source in recent weeks.
It does bother me when Americans in particular are obsessing over meaningluss crap lik movies, TV and video games, while we've basicly stopped most productive economic activity, and our government is shredding basic civil liberties, and the Bush administration is doleing out hundreds of billions of our tax dollars to their rich friends and miring us in a debt hole we will never get out of.
America has turned in to the world biggest debtor nation to the tune of $7-8 trillion dollars. Someone, usually foreign, has to buy $2 billion dollars worth of our debt a DAY just to keep us afloat, mostly thanks to a $600 billion a year trade deficit and a $400 billion a year budget deficit both of which are exploding. Our wealth as a nation is disappearing at a rate of maybe a trillion dollars a year, and accelerating.
And the key problem TODAY is, most foreign central banks and investors are coming to the conclusion that it is insane to be buying U.S. dollars and U.S. debt when the dollar is tanking and the U.S. economy is being managed by incompetents. As the U.S. dollar is plunging all those foreign investors are taking a bath holding dollars, and if it continues they are going to dump the U.S. and try to salvage their positions before things go really bad.
We are THIS close to seeing the rest of the world start dumping dollars and move the global economy to the Euro, including trading oil in Euro's. If that happens and there is a run on the U.S. dollar this country is going to be in a world of hurt like that Thailand and Korea saw a few years ago when there were runs on their currencies, though this run could be 100 times larger.
If oil producers switch to selling oil in Euros the price of oil in the U.S. is going to spike due to the collapse of the dollar. That aside people in OPEC are predicting oil demand is about to oustripe supply on a strucutural basis and oil could easily spike to $80 a barell.
I wager the only reasong foreign central banks haven't started dumping dollars is fear of the global economic crisis that would ensue if the dollar and the U.S. economy collapse.
I assure there is significant risk of this happening. Greenspan testified yesterday the Fed is watching anxiously for it to happen, it hasn't yet but it could at any moment. Greenspan also vented his strongest warning yet on the dangers of the U.S. continue to borrow $2 billion dollars a day, unfortunately it is falling on deaf ears in Washington.
Another key point is the Bush administration's arrogant contempt for the rest of the world has used up every ounce of good will the U.S. has in the world, so most places would be delighted if the U.S. economy collapsed if only it could happen without taking the rest of the world with it.
All in all, yea I think we should probably focus our attention on bad movies, bad ads, and bad TV.
Look at this way, chances are high that patents on basic methods for dealing with spyware and viruses detection are probably the ONLY thing that is going to keep Microsoft from wiping out yet another third part software industry. In another year or two they are going to have firewalls, virus and spyware detection, and anti spam measures all bundled in to the OS, for free, and Symantec and McAfee will be toast. Their software might not be as good as Symantec and McAfee but it will be free and bundled so it will win as long as it doesn't completely suck.
.... and then starts a monthly or yearly subscription service, like Symantec has, for the signatures and updates. I wager Microsoft is DROOLING over the prospect of getting a steady stream of subscription revenue to juice their quarterly results, and get them off of dependence on upgrades.
Now it could be argued that that all this stuff SHOULD be built in to the OS, and it should, but Microsoft pretty much created the market for virus writer and spyware due to their shitty software design and incompetence for the last decade. Symantec and McAfee stepped in and built a business out of fixing that incompetence. There really isn't any justice in Microsoft coming in now and putting them out of business through predatory practices.
It will be really interesting if Microsoft bundles and give away all their spyware and virus software
On the other hand they know they have to reign in the security disaster that the Internet in general, and Windows in particular, has become because it is starting to turn people off to computers and the Internet, so they may well do all this for free, or at least hide the cost in the base OS cost for Windows.
THX-1138 was a great effort, though the ending is pretty weak. Lucas has a great imagination but really can't write a script.
To borrow a THX-1138'ism I am quite convinced the state made Lucas resume his full daily dose of meds before he started work on the prequels, which is why they are the sad pieces of work they are.
I'd be overjoyed if Sith recaptures the magic of the first two installments of the original trilogies, kids in particular deserve some of the magic the original Star Wars brought to the big screen, but there is zero reason to be fanatics about it this franchise after the disappointment of the first two prequels.
Yawn.....
So Slashdot editors decided it was front page worthy to plug both a trailer(a.k.a an ad) for a so far bad trilogy, premiering on a bad TV show.
What demographic does it boost for O.C. when Slashdot geeks, who need a life and think Star Wars is still cool even though Lucas has butchered his franchise with the prequels, rush to Slashdot O.C. with their TV remotes?
How much do you think Lucas and O.C. paid Slashdot editors to plug their lame ass media "event" to the one demographic most vulnerable to their manipulation, Slashdot geeks?
Its a little off topic, but there was a brief breath of fresh air for civil liberties monday when a Federal judge, appointed by George W. no less, found George W. and John Ashcroft had no constitutional authority to hold an American citizen indefinitely without charges or any due process. Jose Padilla, was arrested in the U.S. and had set a precedent where the Bush administration could arrest and detain ANY American citizen in perpetuity without any due process or even access to a lawyer. That is the definition of a police state.
Of course the government will appeal in hopes of finding a friendly court, probably in Virginia. Last time this case made it to the Supreme Court they punted on a jurisdiction technicality and let the person rot in jail for a while longer while it was filed in South Carolina where Padilla, a civilian, is being held in isolation in a Navy brig. Padilla may be an Al Qaida member, and might have been planning terrorist acts but if there is any shred of our constitution left the government has to lay charges and prove it in a court of law, and not in front of a kangaroo court of a military tribunal.
On a less happy note I found thisarticle nteresting about an obscure defense contractor called ESSI who with the help of George W.'s Uncle Bucky has rocketed to being a major defense contractor, and is specializing in war profiteering in Iraq, mostly thanks to sole source contracts steered their way by friends in the Bush administration. Uncle Bucky was apparently tipped off that the Pentagon was going to launch an investigation of how they were landing all these juicy sole source, no risk contracts, and dumped a half million in stock just before the bad news came out. It sure is great to be a Bush and friend of the Republicans these days
I just submitted a story to the Slashdot editors titled "Vi or Emacs, which is the better editor". If we are going to feature religious wars tonight we may as well have all the classics. Anyone else want to submit "C, C++, C#, Perl, PHP, Python, Scheme, Ada, Ruby or Java, which is the best language" or "Democrat and Republican, Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich".
"The initial hump is steeper, but the total area under the work curve, over the product lifecycle, is much less."
Excepting that everytime you replicate the code in alternate forms you are creating something that has to be kept synced, and unless all these things are kept in perfect sync they are more deception than aid. There should only be one copy of the algorithm because it is gospel, and it is the code not the docs.
If you have reams of design docs, requirement docs, and feature definitions, you are going to have a massive tarbaby, a tool for wrecking your schedule, inflating cost, wasting time, an incentive to never change anything because you have 5 places you have to go back and update and basicly say the same thing in 5 different ways.
Comments in code are priceless when there is something that is not obvious that needs to be explained. They are a complete waste of time and space if you just say the same thing the code already says but differently. 90% of the time careful class hierarchy, file organization and variable naming do the job and comments are a complete waste of time and space and again you are just doing the same thing twice. But when you really need to explain an intricacy of a less than obvious algorithm you should write a book, in comments next to the algorithm, not in some doc far, far away. So bottomline is comments are priceless when you put the right comments in the right places, gratuitous spewing of comments just for the sake of saying your code is commented is not a good thing.
It is very true an object oriented language used by someone who has a minimal clue of how to write object oriented code is going to be vastly easier for other programmers to read, pick up and use. Sure you can accomplish the same end in C but it will be ugly, tedious and inadequate by comparison. God bless GTK, and lord knows I've used it enough but developing a UI toolkit in C was not a good idea.
All that said there are places where you do have to do the reams of documents. If you are writing code that is an API for someone else you must properly document the API. You will be way ahead of the game if you use one of the document tools that builds the API doc from the code and comments automaticly so you know that the API is always in sync automaticly and not through laborious manual labor.
Part of being a good programmer is maximizing efficiency and wasting massive time syncing multiple sets of docs with code is not efficiency.
When you are coding something for someone elses need, then THEY should absolutely document as best the can and in as much detail as they can their requirements, and then the programmer(s) should read those and have meticulous discussions with the client on every gray area, or where the asked for something the probably didn't actually want because there is a better way. This is an essential form of communication and unavoidable.
To put it another way the extent to which you document code is almost entirely a function of the audience around the code. If its buried inside a module that people are going to just use and rarely ever care about, then you are completely wasting your time whipping it to death with reams of documents. You are wasting time that could be better spent developing useful code. If you are writing code that is an API for others it would be criminal on your part to not document the API in one form or another, but most of the people using your API don't need or want massive documents on every gory detail of what is underneath the API, they just need to know that the stuff underneath reliably does what the API says it does.
Don't suppose anyone noticed this article is just a way to launch an entirely predictable religious war, with the submitter insuring that OSX launched the first salvo, in something of a preemptive strike, increasing it chances for victory were this particular war not an unwinnable exercise in futility.
/. editors for launching a pointless religious war instead of putting something new and interesting on the front page.
I'm not even gonna read any further because everything that will be said has been said a million times before, every other time this jihad has been launched. Thanks
OSX and Linux are both wonderfully productive for me, I see no reason to have these two kindred spirits turn on each other in internecine strife when we all know who the one true enemy is.
" Will you make it easier for me to send my child to a private school where they will receive a far better education than the local school district offers, without me having to pay for both schools? (Yes, that means waivers.)"
This is such an odd concept. You see I pay for the public school system through property taxes and Federal income taxes and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS. Why exactly should you be exempted from paying taxes for public schools, or get vouchers, so you can defray the cost of sending your kid to a plush private school while I still have to help pay for public schools, probably even more so if you people opt out, and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS. Either you go to a system where only people with kids in public schools pay for public schools at which point they stop being public schools or everyone shares the burden. Not sure why I get to help pay for both public schools and your kids plush private education and I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS.
"Would we be the richest nation on Earth if we did dump all kinds of money into a national health care system?"
I'd say its a stretch so say the U.S. is the world's "richest nation". The U.S. is the world's biggest debtor nation to the tune of 7-8 trillion. The U.S. is rich in terms of GDP but the EU which is pretty much a "nation" now is pretty close to the same size. China will almost certainly pass the U.S. in GDP in another 20 years barring calamity. If the U.S. continues to drown in debt the U.S. economy could easily collapse before then. The U.S. requires foreign countries, mostly central banks, to buy $2 billion worth of our debt a day and all indications are Japan, Korea and others may stop due to the fact the Bush administration is letting the dollar collapse and the U.S is no so fiscally unsound it is turning in to a bad investment which is pretty much a first. If central banks stop buying dollars and our debt this country is going to be in a world of hurt.
China, Canada, and most EU nations have universal health care in one form or another and it doesn't hurt their competitiveness at all, in fact it probably helps. Their systems aren't perfect but the U.S. system is far from perfect. Canada is the fastest growing country in the G-9 at the moment.
Actually we would probably have a dramaticly healthier economy if we did have universal health care and regulated drug prices. Our private and public health care system combined has reach the point it is bleeding our economy white, mostly due to out of control inflation, inflation far beyond the rest of the economy.
The cost to employers for insurance in the U.S. has become prohibitively expensive and is a huge factor in making them uncompetitive globally. Employers in countries with socialized health care don't have to bare this cost(except through taxes). At this point many companies are cutting health care for employees or dropping it all together, meaning the U.S. increasingly has great health care only if you are rich enough to afford it.
The drug companies in particular are engaged in such massive profiteering that they are the single most profitable business in the U.S. Unchecked drug costs are going to wreck the U.S. economy almost single handedly. Of course lawyers, insurance companies, HMO's and giant health care companies are all taking hung chunks out of the U.S. economy too.
"I consider it a fundamental freedom to own and legally make use of a firearm."
I keep hearing right wingers rant about that but I really don't know why. It is incredibly easy to buy all the guns you want in this country, more so than almost any other country. If the (D)'s are trying to outlaw them they are doing a crappy job of it and its not an issue worthy of deciding who runs this country. About all the D's have done was some registration which isn't entirely bad, and they did pass an ineffective ban against some assault weapons which has since lapsed. It was easy to circumvent and I really, honestly don't entirely understand why people really need to own
That's atrocious not "attrocious". Mr. Pot meet Mr. Kettle, you are both black :)
Here is more than you want to know about Herb Vest except it doesn't say if he has a criminal record or if Eliyon did a criminal background check on him.
:)
Some highlights:
Herb Vest, owner of True, is quoted as saying, "We went into this business to help reduce the national divorce rate."
He has a masters in Taxation, one of 7 degrees. He does seem to have an amazing educational background, almost to amazing, Princeton, Harvard Law and Wharton, though maybe Eliyon didn't verify his background
One small blow from freedom and sanity was struck today when a Federal judge ordered Jose Padilla to be either charged or released in 45 days. Padilla is the case study in abuse of power by the Bush administration, a U.S. citizen arrested in the U.S. and detained for 2 years without charges, in a military brig in South Carolina, with no charges filed, and most of the time with no access to a lawyer.
Of course the DOJ can appeal this decision until they find a friendly court. Last time his case reached the Supreme Court they punted it on a technicality and left him in purgatory.
Padilla may be a low life scum bag and a legitimate terrorist but unless the DOJ can prove it in a court of law they have zero right to hold him. The fact that they have for two years pretty much shredded our constitution, due process and the rule of law.
In the last decade or so there was a lot of soul searching about how the U.S. treated Japanese Americans in World War II, mostly siezing all their property and indefinite internment without charges. We even paid the survivors reparations a few years ago. Then we turn around and do exactly the same thing to Muslims and Arabs.
Some quotes from the judge, ironicly appointed by George W. in 2003:
"The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold Petitioner as an enemy combatant," Floyd ruled in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
"Floyd said the case was a law enforcement matter, not a military one, and that unless Padilla is charged with a crime, he should be freed."
"If the law in its current state is found by the president to be insufficient to protect this country from terrorist plots, such as the one alleged here, then the president should prevail upon Congress to remedy the problem," said Floyd, who was appointed to the federal bench by Bush in 2003."
"The pilot wasn't a terrorist; he was suicidal."
How exactly did you read his mind to establish the rationale for his action. In choosing to kill 216 people that pretty much made him a terrorist be default, even if he had no ties to a terrorist organization.
If a suicide bomber kills 216 people in Israel or Iraq he is going to be labeled a terrorist first and suicidal second. Why is committing the same act using an airplane any different.
"We do have a fairly robust and open justice system, despite all its flaws, in cases not involving terrorism."
Dude! That is one whopper of a qualification. The whole point is the government in the U.S. can now unilaterally decide what is terrorism, and who is a terrorist, with no proof whatsover, without judicial oversight, and lock the person up indefinitely without access to a lawyer, or to their family, without due process and on a number of occasions have shipped them to third party countries to be tortured by proxy.
The whole crux of their strategy for wiping out our civil liberties and due process, is for them to say "we only do this to terrorists" to which the public is supposed to reply, "oh well if you only do it to terrorists thats OK". The only catch is the government never at any point has to offer any proof the person was actually a terrorist under their new rules, so they in fact can arrest anyone without charges, not just "terrorists".
If you are going to have a civilized nation with due process and the rule of law you HAVE to apply the same rules, equally, to everyone. As soon as you give your government an exemption allowing them to deny due process to one person you have set a precedent allowing them to do it to anyone and everyone, and have opened the door to totalitarianism, and its entirely at the discretion of the powers if they decide to seize the opportunity and turn your country in to a police state.
"re: egyptian air lines -- the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea because the terrorists were stupid and stubbornly insisted on flying the plane to a destination it couldn't possibly reach."
I am almost positive that is not true or you are talking about a different crash. The one I'm talking about the airplane just suddenly went in to a steep dive, and the pilot(or probably co pilot actuall) was uttering the name Allah. The plane was clearly never hijacked or least it wasn't obvious on the voice recorder. Their was also no chance it ran out of fuel.
Either the pilot intentionally crashed the plane or there was a mechanical malfunction that didn't show up on the data recorder that put it in a sudden uncontrollable dive. The Egyptians insisted it was a mechanical problem, the Americans leaned strongly towards the pilot intentionally crashing the plane.
" From the perspective of the powers-that-be, doing nothing looks like, well, doing nothing. Enforcing watch lists is "doing something", and then they can say "hey, we're tough on terrorists!" or some equivalent BS. Please tell me you at least understand the position they're in."
Uh, no I don't. They HAVE done something and it was inexpensive, effective and not an assault on the public or our civil liberties. They put armored doors on all cockpits. They put air marshalls on some flights, and with more expense they can put them on all flights. Those are effective steps and not punishing innocent people.
There is absolutely zero justification for tolerating knee jerk reactions from incompetent bureaucrats, that are punishing innocent people, and which aren't adding one iota to real security. We can't hold these people's feet to the fire because they aren't elected and we don't actually even know who they are though Tom Ridge is the leading suspect.
Again all they had to do was to send someone to examine what Isreal did, see that its worked over a long period and do the same thing. There was proven precedent for how to solve this problem without delving in to stupidity.
I'm also not really sure there is any real demand in Congress for a "Do Not Fly" list. They've shot down CAPPS multiple times because its so intrusive. Ted Kennedy I'm sure is against is since his name landed on the Do Not List last year. Some of the EPIC FOIA docs are letters to and from Congressman trying to figure out how to free their constituents from this insanity. If they had any splines they would have passed a law killing the whole thing, though I do completely understand Congress is deathly afraid of doing anything that the paranoid nutcases can use against them in a campaign.
This push for lists is mostly coming out of Homeland Security and that is an agency that has proven its incompetency time and again. They brought us the stupid color coded alert system which has also proven itself to be completely moronic. They also suggested we all stock up on duck tape and plastic sheeting. They've pushed stockpiling anthrax and small pox vaccines while we ran out of flu vaccine.
It is our duty as citizen's to fight our government everytime the do stupid shit, and if your elected representatives don't deal with the problem its time to elect people that have a clue.
"What if I told you that I have flown, post-September 11, with no ID? ORD to MSN."
Forgot to answer this. Well my response would be that maybe the airline or the person at the counter decided to cut you a break. Then again maybe the regulations allow people to fly without an ID as long as you are extensively searched. Maybe they allow this exception if you are White and Christian looking, but not if you are Arab and Muslim looking.
This get back to the whole problem that the regulations are secret so no one really knows what they actually says, or how it mutates as its relayed from the TSA to the airline to the person at the counter.
It is known that the there are two lists. One is an a red list and the names on it absolutely aren't supposed to be allowed to fly, chances are most on it are Muslim and Arab and known terrorists. The other is a yellow list and if your name is on it you will be allowed to fly but only with extra screening and a more intrusive search like you recieved.
It might be quite possible that if you are white, obviously American, give them a sob story about a lost wallet, and are not obviously Muslim the regulations will allow you to fly under the yellow list rules. Again who knows because the regulations are secret. Maybe they say you absolutely can't fly without an ID but the person at the counter unilaterally decided to cut you a break because you didn't look like a sterotypical Arab terrorist. It would be real interesting if someone who looks Arab were to try your stolen ID scam. I wager they would never make it on to the plane.
Airlines really don't need or want this bullshit. It totally pisses off their customers and the more rigorously they enforce it the more it pisses off customers, and they risk losing them to airlines that enforce it less rigorously. In the EPIC FOIA docs I posted a link to elsewhere there are letters from people who have fallen victim to having there names on the list. They are really sad and you really feel their pain. One of them was from a senior citizen, a frequent flyer who was massively pissed off at an airline to which he was a loyal customer when his name started popping up on the list. Airlines have NO reason to piss off loyal customers for no reason and risk driving off their business so it follows they probably cut people slack as long as they dont look like Muslim terrorists.
"but many of Gilmore's own comments echo of Nazi Germany or Soviet states, and I simply don't think the comparison is apt"
I think you would change your toon if a terrorist starts using Dave Schroeder as an alias, and the next time you try to fly your name matches the "Do Not Fly" list and a couple guys in suits come and take you away in front of everyone at the gate for interrogation, especially if you are flying with coworkers, friends or family. They are going to make you look like criminal or a terrorist.
The only reason you are so cavalier about this insanity is you haven't suffered the worst it is routinely dishing out to innocent people. That is how totalitarian states start out. As long as they only inflict their madness on a small percentage of the people most people wont give a damn, as long as its not them.
To continue with my scenario, after having been taken aside once then you know you are going to get taken aside everytime you fly, you may not be able to fly at all, you may miss flights and your job may be in jeopardy. At this point you will start desperately trying to find out why this is happening and to figure out how to make it stop. At this point everyone will tell you this is a secret "regulation" and the secretness will devestate you. Their is either no proceedure for getting your name off the list, or if there is its secret. If you want to fly you will either have to get your congressman to lobby the bureaucracy on your half, or get your name legally changed, or use a false ID name and take even greater risk, or stop flying.
Orwellian indeed.
A guy responded to one of my posts elsewhere, just check with Israel, they've been dealing with this problem successfully for decades.
- They armor their cockpits
- They put armed undercover air marshall's on all flights
- They screen passengers for weapons and explosives
They don't even attempt an Orwellian "Do Not Fly" list because they know its an exercise in futility. This monstrosity is entirely a product of bureaucratic incompetence and anyone willing to fight it deserves a medal.
Your point about Israel is spot on though I have reservations about armed air marshals. At that point you are putting someone with a potent weapon on the airplane. If a terrorist group infiltrates someone in to the air marshall program they can walk on to a plane with a weapon that might be able to breach the cockpit(not sure how bullet proof they are).
Infiltration is not real likely in Israel because the number of plans and marshalls are small and their religion/ethnicity autoscreens them. The Air Marshall program in the U.S. is much bigger, chaotic and incompetent.
The other risk is several terrorists could overpower the air marshall and seize his weapon or the air marshall could accidentally cause decompression with his gun shooting at terrorists.
Not a big fan of the crew having gun's either. Again you could infiltrate a terrorist on the crew as may have happened with the Egyptian air line that may have been intentionally crashed in to the sea by one of the pilots.