In America we spend money on vaccines for small pox and Anthrax and we don't have enough flu vaccine.
In America we are going to spend hundreds of millions on a nationwide grid of biochemical warfare sensors.
In America we will spend $200 billion and counting on a misguided war in Iraq instead of on education and research.
In America we overturn the theory of evolution in favor of creationism and try to claim the Grand Canyon is a few thousand years old and was created by the great flood.
I always wondered what it would be like to live in the Dark Ages.
Because they turn in to PhD's and top flight scientists, technologists and thinkers and its desirable to get them to stay in your country, especially when your education system is cratering and you don't have enough natives to fill these roles.
I can kind of see your point though. America is fast moving beyond the point it needs or wants people who think, reference a recent Tuesday in November.
Its a really big thing lately in the media to cover the religious right as they use their new political clout to try to undo the theory of evolution, geology and science. They forced the people who run the Grand Canyon book store to include a book that claims the Grand Canyon is a few thousand years old and was created by the great flood.... heh... what a country.
America is in for a world of hurt as it continues to rush to abandon science in favor of religious zealotry.
It kind of sounds like the problem is you want them to filter..err.. edit everything that doesn't confirm your predetermined and wonderfully right wing view of the world, Twirp.
The thing I LIKE most is when Google News features off beat articles from quirky sources, no matter what the political leaning and I especially like it when it shows two articles from opposite polls on the same event. That is how you open your mind Twirp, by listening to conflicting viewpoints. Living in your echo chamber isn't good for you.
I sure wish America's drug companies could spend some of those billions the Republicans are giving them to develop a cure for cognitive dissonance. Twirp needs it desperately. Of course they probably already have developed it and buried it where the sun don't shine. If it ever gets out the Bush administration and the Republican party would be doomed. That would in turn result in a major hit to gratuitous drug company profits. The are the most profitable major industry in America.
I'm afraid I don't follow your point Twirp, but it wouldn't be the first time. I thought you were a reporter and knew all about this stuff?
I'm pretty sure some combination of the editor's and publisher's names are in a box some where in the neighborhood of their "unsigned editorial", at least they are in the few tree killing papers I still read. Its kind of a waste of space to put their names in two places. Even if the editor didn't write it, the editor is endorsing it by putting it in the paper as an editorial. I think the chances are slim some anonymous rogue editor/reporter is going to slip some lurid editorial in without the endorsement of the paper's management staff and its pretty easy to find out who they are and hold them accountable by not giving them your quarter next time or pulling your ad.
What are you talking about Twirp? Might have been true before the election controversy started but all the major networks have had people there since the dispute started. I know the BBC and CNN do. CNN's Jill Dougherty has interviewed Yushenko among other.
I hate to point it out to you but bloggers coming out of these places are likely to be heavily biased, telling one side of the story, and are no more believable than... oh say... your posts on Slashdot are. Of course the networks and major paper aren't any better so I'd say its a race to the bottom.
Which news organization did you say you work for Twirp or where is your blog since you seem to be such a fan?
This is a really great extension to the program to insure top flight undergraduate and graduate students from around the world stop coming to the U.S. Last I heard they are already opting for places like Toronto and Oxford since its already really hard to get a visa to the U.S. and once you get here you risk being arrested and held indefinitely, without due process. Having no assurance of due process part used to be something you could only say about dictatorships, who would have though we would be saying it about the U.S.
Here is a two step program to crater your economy:
- Let your primary and secondary education system crater(bad underpaid teachers, promoting everyone, huge dropout rate, prioritize athletics and athletes over academics).
-Drive away all the top flight well educated foreign students and professors America has become so dependent on especially in science and tech.
Al Qaida's plan to destroy America seems to be working pretty well, launch one spectacular attack and let brain dead politicians and law enforcement officers do the rest of the damage as they seek to make everyone "safe".
"Um. Shitwit, the other Afghan candidates were tribal leaders...They never even traveled to Kabul. "
Thank you for proving who the shitwit is here with the gross over simplification and kind of proving my point:) How were they supposed to stand a chance to win an election if they never made it to the largest city? Some of them are former ministers in Karzai's government until he canned them to insure his iron grip on power. I'm pretty sure they must have been to Kabul:) I think you are agreeing with me Karzai was the only one able to campaign in the whole country because he had an American supplied helicopter and body guards.
Karzai is a tribal leader too, Popolzai tribe, some 400,000 members, like everyone is in one tribe or another. Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai - Religious and mujadeen leader Abdul Rashid Dostum - Uzbek general, presumably a tribal leader since he is a general Sayed Ishaq Gailani - Sufi spiritial leader(not exactly tribal), member of the religious elite Yunus Qanuni - Former Education minister, yes he is kind of a tribal leader but he was mostly the Northern Alliance Tajik candidate. Massouda Jalal, only woman in the race, a doctor, I'm positive she is not a tribal leader.
Here is one CNN write up on the election including the supposedly indelible ink to prevent multiple voting that washed right off and all 14 candidates, other than Karzai, pretty much boycotted because it was so unlikely to be a fair election.
Here is a BBC take on it, I like this part to prove my point:
In south-eastern Khost province, elders of the Terezay tribe threatened to burn down houses of tribe members who did not vote for Mr Karzai.
"How many stamps are on your passport, asshole? The number, right now. Tell me. How many times have you been to central Asia? How much do you know about it? Or do you get all your news from the Internet and call yourself well-informed?"
Oooooo. Look at the anonymous coward bragging about his globe trotting ways. I'm guessing this must be you Twirp, if not you are stealing his lines. Hate to break it to you but you are an anonymous a**hole posting on the Internet and your resume and passport aren't available for scrutiny any more than mine is so stop patting yourself on the back. I've lived outside the U.S. as much of my life as I've lived in it which is why I don't subscribe to American B.S.
"Yeah, right. Asshole."
Great post friend. Zero facts and non stop name calling. You really did yourself proud, Twirp or one who worships his style. (I'm guessing from the times on Twirps non anonymous posts today this must be you cowering under AC again replying to my posts as is your way since I've rhetoricly kicked your ass).
Ever notice how its impossible to criticize Israel or America's blank check support for Israel without being called an anti-semite. Its why Israel quite literally get away with murder and brutal oppression in Palastine, like the school girl the Israeli army office pumped a clip in to(and was being charge with illegal use of weapon instead of murdger last I heard). In other nations Israel's behavior would be called apartheid or ethnic cleansing.
Ever notice Israel is the only nation on earth you can't criticize(unless you are in an Arab or Muslim nation).
"The distinction is key."
Only if you are a phony Christian trying to reconcile your thirst for war mongering and killing with a religion that would oppose it if it were true to its teachings.
I never said any such thing. Again, stop putting words in my mouth, its getting old. I said the current government of Israel are tyrants and that is not the same thing though that fact is lost on you.
"you say christ was pacifist. this is lie."
Well you are just proving you don't understand the teachings of Christ or the early church. The early Christian church was led by people who knew Jesus and heard his teachings directly. They were pacifists because that was, for the most part, what Jesus taught. It was only over time that Jesus's message was lost and Christianity was corrupted because pacifism ran counter to attainment of wealth and power by Lings, President's, Popes and Dictators who bent Christianity to serve their purposes.
The extent of his pacifism is certainly a subject for debate, but when you start calling me a liar for saying it you are just proving how biased and closed minded you are.
In the ten commandments:
Thou shalt not kill
How do you reconcile this with fighting wars and killing people.
"Matthew 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also"
In this passage Jesus is overturning an age old testament teaching of vengance and replacing it with one of pacifism.
Romans 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
"he understands what it is like to live under tyranny"
George W. Bush has no clue about tyranny. He's never had to face a day in his life with adversity. He was born to wealth and power. The only time he faced any risk was from the draft during Vietnam and he dodged that with help from his dad's friends. He had traveled the world less than I had when he became President and couldn't even name many of the world's leaders. That speech you heard was written for him by talented speech writers and designed to sucker gullible people like yourself. It obviously worked.
"i am not had too much school,"
I'm not really surprised. Having a poor education and not questioning the world around you, makes you easy prey for conmen, whether they by psuedo Christian ministers or George W. Bush. Its pretty much the same story in rural America which is the part of America which reelected George W. Bush. Rural America is full of people who are poorly educated and easily manipulated like you. The better educated you are the less likely you are to fall for George Bush's con game.
"i think maybe i don't like you too much...i am sorry but this is what i think of you."
Don't be sorry. I'm glad you don't like what I write. For me it is a badge of honor. I write what I write in the hope I might challenge people in to thinking about their world and consider viewpoints that differ from the one the tyranny of the majority, and the powers that be, inflict on them. Even if people reject what I write it does them good if they consider alternatives. You on the other hand appear to be a lost cause. Your mind is closed and as long as it is, its unlikely to grow. Why don't you try to avoid reading anything I write from now on. You apparently can't understand it, can't deal with it and it obviously upsets you.
I don't think you have to much further than the Ukraine to deduce that most elections today are shams. Eastern Ukraine(industrial and tied to the old U.S.S.R) and Russia were trying to steal the election in one direction, Western Ukraine, agricultural and closer to Europe, with the help of the U.S. and the CIA are trying to steal it in the other. At this point its impossible to tell who actually won. One thing that speaks highly of the Ukranians on both sides, they actually care enough to turn out en masse in freezing weather to protest fraudulent elections. The question is can they actually hold a fair election with the U.S. and Russia and their puppets doing everything in their power to rig it.
By contrast American elections are starting to look equally corrupt but no one in the U.S. seems to really care.
You don't even really need electronic voting to steal elections, there are old fashioned ways that work just as well, here is a report from Tampa on simple voter intimidation. Here is an unproven allegations of an effort to suppress black votes in South Carolina.
If you live in a swing state you were probably bombarded by auto dialers and recorded messages which if you actually listen to them, you found were basicly slander. Apparently there is no accountability or regulation of the bile you can pump out to voters, en masse, using computerized dialers these days.
Many right wingers love to point out how Afghanistan had "free" and democratic elections for the first time in nearly forever. Well they forget to mention that one candidate, Karzai, former oil executive, and America's hand picked ruler had a U.S. supplied helicopter so he could visit every tribal chief, while the rest of the candidates couldn't campaign much outside Kabul because its to dangerous the roads in much of Afghanistan. And of course when Karzai flew in to a tribe he could hand out buckets of "reconstruction" money to the tribal chiefs who in turn tell their tribe how to vote, illerate people in the countryside with no media access so it works.
Its going to be interesting to see how rigged the elections in Iraq look. Putting my hands to my head like Karnak, I predict the U.S. favored candidate will win:)
At this point nearly every contested election in the third world is being "influenced" by the U.S. and the CIA, and increasingly Putin is trying to influence them his way in Russia's sphere of influence. Of course Russia's elections have also reached the point they are a sham. Putin controls most of the media, and suppresses opposition parties so he is for all practical purposes a dictator again.
Its not really such a leap to assume U.S. elections are being rigged either. The 1960 election was probably rigged by the Democrats and swung the election to Kennedy. It would appear likely that since the Reagan era and especially since the late 1990's the Republican's have formed a well oiled machine for acquiring power at any cost. Not sure you can just blame it on electronic voting. It includes intimidation of minority voters, massive mobilization of white, conservative voters through churches in violation of their non profit restrictions, ruthless smear campaigns against the Democrats(Clinton impeachment and Kerry Swift Boat Vets). Of course the Dems help them out a lot by being incompetent and pathetic(exemplified by Kerry).
The next move you are going to see towards a Republican dominated police state, and they are already talking about it, is a change in Senate rules for approving judicial nominations. Since the Republican's didn't get the magic 60 votes to steamroll the senate, they are apparently going to try to just change the rules for approving judges in the Senate to a simple majority vote. They can then proceed to pack the courts, especially the Supreme Court, with radical right wing judges. I predict it may well happen
I appreciate English is not your first language. You are unfortunately not understanding most of what I'm saying and you are leaping to some fairly offensive conclusions about it.
You may not have understood it but I said I respect the teachings of Jesus, I also respect Christian sects who actually follow his teachings, like the Quakers and Amish. If your Calvinist sect is one of those I have no problem with them or you. These Christian sects who are true to the teachings of Jesus are very much in the minority in America if not the world.
Unfortunately in America many Christian sects have completely lost the meaning of the teachings of Jesus and that is what I oppose, vehemently. In the U.S. the military is dominated by "Christian" officers who despite the anti violence teachings of Christ kill people in his name as they pretend to pray to him. Many ministers are preaching from the pulpit support for wars like those in Iraq. They are really anti Christians, not Christians, and they give Jesus a bad name. Jesus preached tolerance and forgiveness, but in America fundamentalist Christians are the least forgiving and least tolerant of people.
Catholicism is as bad in America as fundamentalist Protestant churches. You need look no further than the widespread pedophilia Catholic priests have engaged in and their Bishops have condoned to see they have turned anti Christian too.
Again I don't hate Jews for any racial reason but I do despise the current government of Israel and the people, Jewish and Christian who support its tyranny.
My opinion of most Christian sects, in America, is based on good reasons. There are many bad people among them who've lost the meaning of the teachings of the New Testament and are trying to force their hypocrisy and malevolence on everyone else. Not sure its obvious in Europe but since the reelection of George Bush, who was heavily backed by these mindless hypocrites, they are claiming it is their right to dictate to our government, and the rest of the world their twisted world view. This is VERY, VERY dangerous to America and the rest of the world.
"same reasons you don't like jews, blacks, americans?"
Stuff the race baiting friend. Didn't say anything of the kind. I dislike the government of Israel and its backers, has nothing to do with being Jewish. Never said a derogatory word about blacks. Americans, yes, but thats because I've lived there and I've seen America's culture close up, and I've lived in others, and America's leaves a LOT to be desired. There are a lot better cultures in the world today, cultures better educated, more enlightened, more tolerant and less bent on dominating the rest of the world at the barrel of a gun.
Americans are badly educated and if you are in rural America, especially so. Americans score dismally compared to the rest of the developed world on basic things like geography, history and politics. They are completely clueless about the world yet they are intent on dominating it and forcing it in to their monocultural mold.
In rural America especially there is a protestant church on every block. If they spent a fraction of the time and money they waste on churches and preachers they would have the better hospitals, teachers, libraries and schools they desperately need.
Hard to say why America is like it is though one Christian sect after another fled persecution in Europe and set up shop in America. Ironically Americas separation of church and state let them all flourish and now they seem to be rushing to a destroy it with a fusion of religion and government which is the basis of the religious intolerance they fled in Europe (where the state pushed one religious sect to the exclusion and persecution of all others).
"i don't like way you talk about christians."
Well then offer a reasoned arguement in its defense instead of just race baiting. I think the world of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately the organized religion that has grown around his name doesn't adhere to or apparently even understand most of his teachings. He taught tolerance, forgiveness, non violence and anti materialism, while most of his followers today gleefully support wars, wealth acquisition, and intolerance of everyone not like them(with noticeable exceptions like the Quakers and Amish).
Born again Christians ARE sitting around waiting for the second coming, rapture, and apocalypse(though perhaps in some sects more than others) whether you like it or not. Its a key reason the Bush administration is so rabidly pro Israel because a Jewish state in Israel, with an imperial master is as it was 2000 years ago. Its the basis for the second coming and the end of the world in their eyes. I don't really want doomsday cultists running the world's most powerful military or with their finger on a button that can trigger that apocalypse in a the space of a half hour using a nuclear arsenal. One man, the U.S. President, can unleash it at his whim.
You see I have a really good and valid reason to dislike the dominant Christian sects in the U.S. and I really don't care whether you like it or not.
At this point you can probably have the last word. So far you haven't said anything insightful or worthy of a good debate.
Heh, it tells me you are the confused one. Can't you parse sentences. I said the majority of "AMERICANS are dumb and easily manipulated". That doesn't say anything about the majority of people in the rest of the world being dumb and easily manipulated. The fact that the majority of the people in the rest of the world see Bush for the nitwit that he is suggests they are smarter and not being by American/Murdoch propaganda. I eagerly await the day Blair has to face elections and George's poodle gets sacked, though he is apparently stoking the politics of 9/11 fear to stay in office too(reference recently leaks of a nebulous foiled terror plot in the UK).
You don't have to look any further than the number of Americans who buy into born again Christianity, far greater numbers than most of the world. You have to be pretty dumb and manipulated to hand billions of dollars to conmen (i.e. Falwell, Roberts, the Bakers, Swaggert, etc) and to live your life fixated on the imminent second coming, rapture and apocalypse. Why do you need to worry about 9/11, global warming or nuclear holocaust when you are waiting for the imminent arrival of the end of the world and your ascendence to heaven? Hate to break it to you but millions and millions of American's are basicly worshiping a suicide cult, and they vote for Bush in a big way.
"what this tells you?!?"
It tells me you are dumb and easily manipulated. Which are you, in the majority in America or in the minority in the rest of the world.
Heh, I stand corrected. Sky One is one of the backers of the series and that is part of Rupert Murdoch's empire, so it is pretty much the same as Fox News producing it. So, Twirp, you must be right, it is a parable on 9/11 or more accurately political propaganda about 9/11 masking as entertainment, especially for kids. I guess, like Madrasas we have to pump our kids full of the politics of fear at an early age and rather than use religious schools the tube is the tool of choice.
Remember the movie "Red Dawn", from the Reagan era, and the vivid images of Cubans invading the U.S.
"irrational fixation on Bush"
Not much irrational about it, he is without a doubt the most dangerous person in the world today unless you are a right wing extremist or fundamentalist Christian (Though Cheney and Rumsfeld are the really dangeorus ones really running things).
"didn't he win the election already?"
Not much you can do about that when:
A. A majority of Americans are dumb and easily manipulated, especially by fear B. The democrats run a candidate as pathetic as Kerry.
Doesn't mean Americans with brains have to like the fact their President is an embarrassment. I'm nearly positive opinion polls show the vast majority of the people in the rest of the world have as much contempt for Bush/Cheney as I do.
"If you don't think the new "Battlestar" is a parable for 9/11 and for terrorism in general, you're just not paying attention."
If its slipped that far in to political propaganda masking as entertainment I think I'd just as soon miss it. The fact that Twirp (a.k.a. Chicken Little) is raving about it is probably an indicator there is something fundementally wrong with it. Whose producing it, Fox?
Leave it to Twirp to spin a SciFi series in to some great parable about 9/11.
"I mean, for cryin' out loud: the premise of the show is based on the near-annihilation of the human race."
Uh, so was the original series and it was made just a tinch before 9/11, not to mention 9/11 is one part of the human race waging war against another which isn't a new concept. The original Star Wars trilogy was more or less the same concept, a small band of adventurers defending humanity from being devoured by evil. Dune is pretty similar though the hero race there is more Arab in character than Western.
Its a pretty common theme in fiction in general and SciFi in general and it has NOTHING to do with 9/11, your overreaching prose trying to make the tie aside.
Maybe the style is "gritty" but the style of most video is grittier than it was in the 70's and its not like it suddenly started on 9/11.
Lest we forget, way more people have died, or been maimed for life, in the war in Iraq than on 9/11. Just the death toll among Americans is certain to surpass 9/11 before its over. 9/11 was a tragedy but as you like to say when talking about the death toll in Iraq, way more people die in urban murders or traffic accidents.
Letting our government destroy our civil liberties and run rough shod across the globe, killing and torturing, has led to a situation where our governments reaction to 9/11 has done more damage to America's security than the original attack. The U.S. really does need to be a fortified, police state now that the whole world really hates it. Al Qaida no doubt wished for just that and they got their wish in spade. Abu Graib and Fallujah are recruiting posters for whole new waves of Muslims who want to launch suicide attacks against Americans. Moderate Arabs who might have once supported the U.S. and empathized with the U.S. over the tragedy of 9/11 have been pushed in to the "against us" camp in George W.'s simplistic "you're either with us or you're against us" view of the world.
Lets also not forget that if the Bush administration hadn't been asleep at the switch maybe they would have actually stopped 9/11. For example Ashcroft trying to deprioritize terrorism while the FBI was watching the perpetrators in flight schools training, and the CIA gave the President a briefing saying Bin Laden was determined to attack the U.S. with airplanes and as nearly as we can tell they ignored all the danger signals and did nothing. Bush being to busy "clearing brush" in Texas in August to focus on his job. You have to not the parallels to Pearl Harbor, another place the U.S. was ignoring signals of an impending attack because a sneak attack was the one way to mobilize the U.S. to support a war they would have otherwise refused to get involved in. You have to wonder if the Bush administration wanted the attack so they could get a blank check to launch their extremist agenda. Even if that wasn't the plan it sure worked out well for them.
Its another basic indicator of his arrogance and bad judgement. He actually said out loud, as a joke, an unspoken truth about American government in general and his administration in particular.
Its right up there with his other "joke" at another dinner, with pictures of him looking around the oval office, about not being able to "find" the WMD's. Well there are 1200 Americans dead, thousands maimed for life, and we don't know how many dead Iraqi civilian since the U.S. refuses to count them, all looking for those WMD's. Great "joke".
Problem 1 is workers in the U.S. have unilaterally disarmed. They've been trained to hate unions and strikes. They have no clue how to organize a strike or more importantly win one. Employers know that. Anyone tries to organize one they are going to just start axing them and strike fear in everyone else.
Problem 2 If American workers did launch a successful strike EA would have the jobs moved to India or China in a few months. It would be a hiccup in their product cycle but they would have cheaper and even more oppressed workers. If they were doing leading edge development they would have a problem, but it sounds like they are mostly churning out content for old games and almost anyone can do that. To be honest I don't know why they are still in incredibly overpriced places like Redwood City for this business. Only thing I can guess is their sports and Sims title probably benefit from having workers who have a clue about American sports and life style.
Problem 3 is if you did manage to organize a strike there is a fair chance you would destroy you career. No big game developer is going to employ you if you participated in a strike at EA, chances are no tech employer would hire you either. Tech companies are rabidly anti union. That was OK when it was a booming sector and everybody was making money but its a real problem now that its turning in to a sweat shop industry.
Re:As an IT Guru
on
NYT on EA Games
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· Score: 4, Interesting
"I know I have."
How exactly did you do that, just curious? Some things I can guess:
A. You moved to a third world country. If you are living in the U.S. you are inherently at a disadvantage because the cost of living WILL price you out of the new global market. Maybe you have forgone health insurance and are living in rural America or maybe a slum?
B. You made the jump from worker to employer or at least self employed. This is the only real way to escape the impending race to the bottom in wages until the U.S. levels with China and India (finding a level is kind of tough when you are competing against a billion plus new workers). An especially good variation is you have jumped to an employer or at least an executive exploiting the cheap labor in China, India and Eastern Europe. Is that why you've been visiting there? That may work until the workers and executives in China an India acquire your skills, expertise and customers at which point you will be expendable to them. Its a key thing American executives are missing in their rush to cheap labor. Eventually those countries are going to figure out they don't need American executives raking in the 7 figure salaries and not doing much for it. They will also have better markets than the U.S. China is already rapidly approaching that. Their workers are seeing expanding prosperity while American real income is declining. China is a better market to enter now and the Chinese are better equipped to tap it than Americans.
C. Maybe you've acquired skills that are still in demand and you skills haven't been overwhelmed with low cost workers that have them. All I can say is hope it last. There aren't many skills you can have someone else can't develop too. When manufacturing workers started losing their jobs to China, IT workers scoffed because they were in the bubble and in demand. Well now their jobs are going their too. So now biotech workers scoff about their skills, well guess what they are going too now. Lawyers and doctors, harder but a lot of non courtroom legal work is going and doctors in India are increasingly marketing a plane ticket and an operation. Maybe you have skills in an area that requires your physical presence in the U.S. well more H-1B's can nail you there too. Any skills you have someone in China and India can acquire too and they will work for a lot less than you.
As other's responding to your post have suggested what you are calling global competition can also be called class warfare. Trade barriers, poor communications and cost of shipping goods(when longshoreman had to load and unload ships) hamstrung capitalists in most of the 20th century. It resulted in rising wages, wider prosperity and expensive labor in the U.S., Western Europe and later Japan. Dropping of trade barrier, ubiquitous cheap communications and container shipping have given them the upper hand again. The end result is they are pushing workers back to where they were at the beginning of the 20th century. 80 hour work weeks for a subsistence wage, no job security(layoff 1/3rd of your workers just to keep the other 2/3rds focused and not demanding more wages or luxuries like health care), age discrimination.
In the U.S. the fact a pro business and anti labor party now completely dominates government is currently dooming American workers to return to where they were in the early 20th century, they just wont be working in factories, they will be in cube farms shackled to computers....... exactly like EA. It doesn't look as bad but in most of the ways its the same. 80 hour work weeks for long periods destroys people mentally, physically and spiritually, whether its at a computer or in a factory, take if from someone who knows. If you are going it for your own business you might survive and prosper. If you are working for some dick who is making 100X what you are and who would just as soon shit on you as look at your life is going to suck.
How did you get +5 insightful when you apparently didn't know it was NSA not NASA.
"gcj/gcc/etc you say its probably not a good thing"
You misunderstood though I wasn't clear. I meant to say I'm not sure its a good thing Cygnus is part of Red Hat since it gives one vendor with dubious motives more control over the some important fundamental tools.
"Just that almost every top notch app for linux you can think of had a money player behind it like RedHat/SuSE/etc."
All depends on your outlook. Another way to look at it is someone will proably step up to fill the niches that need filled. Without all the money flowing from Wall Street maybe it will be slower or rougher, but it is a really bad thing for Linux if we reach the point it has to have huge infusions of money from Wall Street to exist and grow.
If a publicly traded company contributes, great, as long as they don't start acting like they own Linux. Maybe I should clarify my point. There are a lot of great engineers and programmers doing great work for Red Hat. I have no bone to pick with them, I'm glad they are getting paid for their work. Still doesn't mean I can't have complete and utter contempt for their execs, especially their founders and their marketing people. They look to be about standard for the obnoxious marketing people you find in any proprietary software company. Young and company have giant gobs of cash in their pockets from their IPO and they should be treating the community that made it for them with more respect.
The one great beauty of Linux is no one company or person owns it. When companies start acting like they do or conning people in to thinking they do, which Red Hat seems to have done to a lot of suits in the U.S. it is just bad.
The community needs to drive whom to them that they can fall of the face of the earth and we wont care. If they wont to contribute great, just don't sucker us in to buying their software and services and jerk us around like proprietary companies do.
Ingo's work is cool, don't use it but its good. Doesn't make up for Red Hat shafting their loyal customers and developers.
> selinux
I think the NSA did this originally. Not going to worship Red Hat over it.
> O(1) scheduler, O(1) VM layer, drivers, tcp/ip stack...
If Red Hat's wasn't there someone else's would be if there was a need. Sure maybe it would take longer, or be a little rougher, not really gonna adopt your apparent position Linux would be useless and hopeless were it not for Red Hat.
> Anaconda
Don't use it, don't care, most packaged distro's have installers, big f**king deal.
> RPM
Did use it, don't anymore. I found it to be a curse, looking for the damn things that match the system I had, and you eventually end up with a Frankenstein of an unmaintanable system. After you've installed enough of them outside of the official release you eventually end up with an urge to wipe the whole thing and do a fresh install.
I'll take Gentoo anyday. Tried both and I sleep better at night with the Gentoo approach. I never have to look for a binary match and I at least know everything is compiled against the same bits.
> kudzu
Was this the prober in Red Hat 8. If so I did use it, I quickly started despising it. Don't use it any more, don't care. Maybe its better now, naive users obviously need something like it, again I personally dont care.
> gcj, glibc, gcc
Again mostly Cygnus, and yes they are a part of Red Hat now. Its probably not a good thing.
> GTK2
Well I have used it and I can say I'm generally happier using Qt or almost any other GUI than either version of GTK.
> ext2, ext3
Mostly predates the evil Red Hat. I'm using reiser lately. Filesystems are dime a dozen now, not anything I need to worship Red Hat for.
> Mozilla
Don't know how big their contribution to it is, sure there is some, doubt they like "own" it. I use Konqueror so I don't care though its cool Firefox is putting a dent in IE, it was actually covered on CNN this morning.
Bottomline I really don't care if you spend all night listing everything they ever touched. If they fell off the face of the earth Linux would keep on keeping on. Like I said I used to love and worship them as much as you do. They jerked my loyalty over in a big way. Companies only do that to me once and they are toast.
I have no problem if they decided to do their enterprise edition but they should have left their flagship desktop release and their subscription service as it was, charge enough to break even, and deal with it if it wasn't hugely profitable. By axing it they did serious harm to Linux because they caused a massive discontinuity in a distro that up till then had been reliable. If nothing else they obviously created a whole lot of animosity they would have been better off without.
I'll say this again. I was a loyal Red Hat buyer back to 5.x. I went out of my way to buy box sets up to 8.0 just to give them money to put in to Linux. I bought a subscription for the update service as soon as they came out with it. I used to love them. No more.
The day they stick a knife in their flagship product and all the loyal users and developers who got them where they are they stopped being worthy of your hero worship.
The fact that they were once the best thing that ever happened to Linux has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the new Red Hat of the last year or two, since they started fixating on their stock price, bites.
Like I said this is not differentiating between the work they did when they were a good company and now when they are chasing quarterly numbers, jerking around their loyal users, and seeking to milk Linux for all its worth. They aren't doing it out of any benevolence anymore, at least it sure doesn't feel like it did before they went public.
Obviously they are contributing to it still but so are IBM, Novell/SUSE, HP, SGI, etc. They are trying to make quarterly numbers just like all the other companies on this list and they have to contribute the work they are doing to justify their premium license costs, back to the kernel thanks to the GPL. They don't deserve any more or less credit than all of the other companies that are doing the same thing. Companies like IBM are probably a little higher on the benevolence scale since Linux is more just a cool tool to them and they make their money on consulting and services and not so much on the subscription scheme Red Hat is using now to exploit Linux.
Its still a fact that they are milking unpaid volunteers to put together their distribution for them. I don't follow SUSE much but I doubt its quite as blatant a milking of volunteers as Fedora is.
All in all I'll take the Debian or Gentoo model where volunteers are contributing their efforts for the benefit of themselves and their user community and not to benefit some nameless shareholders on Wall Street.
"Kyoto shows a mind set that predates globalization because in the modern age polluters can just migrate to countries that don't sign it or to those who are given a blank check to pollute under it, namely "developing" countries."
To expand on this I wager the U.S. could sign Kyoto and meet its emission limits just by staying the course and migrating all of its heavy industry to China.
One area that is hard to migrate is American's dependence on and fondness for coal fired power plants.
The U.S. still clinges to its steel production which is another set of big green house gas producers and that could easily end up in China in its entirety in the next 10 years. If it does the U.S. could coast on meeting the Kyoto limits.
Kyoto trying to set pollution limits based on national borders is just flat out quaint in the globalized world. Only things it can cap are transportation and power production(and power production can be migrated across national borders to an extent(for example to Mexico and Canada in the case of the U.S.).
Slashdot Mirror
Right on.
In America we spend money on vaccines for small pox and Anthrax and we don't have enough flu vaccine.
In America we are going to spend hundreds of millions on a nationwide grid of biochemical warfare sensors.
In America we will spend $200 billion and counting on a misguided war in Iraq instead of on education and research.
In America we overturn the theory of evolution in favor of creationism and try to claim the Grand Canyon is a few thousand years old and was created by the great flood.
I always wondered what it would be like to live in the Dark Ages.
Because they turn in to PhD's and top flight scientists, technologists and thinkers and its desirable to get them to stay in your country, especially when your education system is cratering and you don't have enough natives to fill these roles.
.... heh ... what a country.
I can kind of see your point though. America is fast moving beyond the point it needs or wants people who think, reference a recent Tuesday in November.
Its a really big thing lately in the media to cover the religious right as they use their new political clout to try to undo the theory of evolution, geology and science. They forced the people who run the Grand Canyon book store to include a book that claims the Grand Canyon is a few thousand years old and was created by the great flood
America is in for a world of hurt as it continues to rush to abandon science in favor of religious zealotry.
It kind of sounds like the problem is you want them to filter ..err.. edit everything that doesn't confirm your predetermined and wonderfully right wing view of the world, Twirp.
The thing I LIKE most is when Google News features off beat articles from quirky sources, no matter what the political leaning and I especially like it when it shows two articles from opposite polls on the same event. That is how you open your mind Twirp, by listening to conflicting viewpoints. Living in your echo chamber isn't good for you.
I sure wish America's drug companies could spend some of those billions the Republicans are giving them to develop a cure for cognitive dissonance. Twirp needs it desperately. Of course they probably already have developed it and buried it where the sun don't shine. If it ever gets out the Bush administration and the Republican party would be doomed. That would in turn result in a major hit to gratuitous drug company profits. The are the most profitable major industry in America.
For an example of internet posts full of disinformation see Mists, Twirp of the :)
I'm afraid I don't follow your point Twirp, but it wouldn't be the first time. I thought you were a reporter and knew all about this stuff?
I'm pretty sure some combination of the editor's and publisher's names are in a box some where in the neighborhood of their "unsigned editorial", at least they are in the few tree killing papers I still read. Its kind of a waste of space to put their names in two places. Even if the editor didn't write it, the editor is endorsing it by putting it in the paper as an editorial. I think the chances are slim some anonymous rogue editor/reporter is going to slip some lurid editorial in without the endorsement of the paper's management staff and its pretty easy to find out who they are and hold them accountable by not giving them your quarter next time or pulling your ad.
You baffle me Twirp.
What are you talking about Twirp? Might have been true before the election controversy started but all the major networks have had people there since the dispute started. I know the BBC and CNN do. CNN's Jill Dougherty has interviewed Yushenko among other.
... oh say ... your posts on Slashdot are. Of course the networks and major paper aren't any better so I'd say its a race to the bottom.
I hate to point it out to you but bloggers coming out of these places are likely to be heavily biased, telling one side of the story, and are no more believable than
Which news organization did you say you work for Twirp or where is your blog since you seem to be such a fan?
This is a really great extension to the program to insure top flight undergraduate and graduate students from around the world stop coming to the U.S. Last I heard they are already opting for places like Toronto and Oxford since its already really hard to get a visa to the U.S. and once you get here you risk being arrested and held indefinitely, without due process. Having no assurance of due process part used to be something you could only say about dictatorships, who would have though we would be saying it about the U.S.
Here is a two step program to crater your economy:
- Let your primary and secondary education system crater(bad underpaid teachers, promoting everyone, huge dropout rate, prioritize athletics and athletes over academics).
-Drive away all the top flight well educated foreign students and professors America has become so dependent on especially in science and tech.
Al Qaida's plan to destroy America seems to be working pretty well, launch one spectacular attack and let brain dead politicians and law enforcement officers do the rest of the damage as they seek to make everyone "safe".
"Um. Shitwit, the other Afghan candidates were tribal leaders...They never even traveled to Kabul. "
:) I think you are agreeing with me Karzai was the only one able to campaign in the whole country because he had an American supplied helicopter and body guards.
Thank you for proving who the shitwit is here with the gross over simplification and kind of proving my point:) How were they supposed to stand a chance to win an election if they never made it to the largest city? Some of them are former ministers in Karzai's government until he canned them to insure his iron grip on power. I'm pretty sure they must have been to Kabul
Karzai is a tribal leader too, Popolzai tribe, some 400,000 members, like everyone is in one tribe or another.
Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai - Religious and mujadeen leader
Abdul Rashid Dostum - Uzbek general, presumably a tribal leader since he is a general
Sayed Ishaq Gailani - Sufi spiritial leader(not exactly tribal), member of the religious elite
Yunus Qanuni - Former Education minister, yes he is kind of a tribal leader but he was mostly the Northern Alliance Tajik candidate.
Massouda Jalal, only woman in the race, a doctor, I'm positive she is not a tribal leader.
Here is one CNN write up on the election including the supposedly indelible ink to prevent multiple voting that washed right off and all 14 candidates, other than Karzai, pretty much boycotted because it was so unlikely to be a fair election.
Here is a BBC take on it, I like this part to prove my point:
In south-eastern Khost province, elders of the Terezay tribe threatened to burn down houses of tribe members who did not vote for Mr Karzai.
"How many stamps are on your passport, asshole? The number, right now. Tell me. How many times have you been to central Asia? How much do you know about it? Or do you get all your news from the Internet and call yourself well-informed?"
Oooooo. Look at the anonymous coward bragging about his globe trotting ways. I'm guessing this must be you Twirp, if not you are stealing his lines. Hate to break it to you but you are an anonymous a**hole posting on the Internet and your resume and passport aren't available for scrutiny any more than mine is so stop patting yourself on the back. I've lived outside the U.S. as much of my life as I've lived in it which is why I don't subscribe to American B.S.
"Yeah, right. Asshole."
Great post friend. Zero facts and non stop name calling. You really did yourself proud, Twirp or one who worships his style. (I'm guessing from the times on Twirps non anonymous posts today this must be you cowering under AC again replying to my posts as is your way since I've rhetoricly kicked your ass).
"Have you ever noticed that anti-Semites "
Ever notice how its impossible to criticize Israel or America's blank check support for Israel without being called an anti-semite. Its why Israel quite literally get away with murder and brutal oppression in Palastine, like the school girl the Israeli army office pumped a clip in to(and was being charge with illegal use of weapon instead of murdger last I heard). In other nations Israel's behavior would be called apartheid or ethnic cleansing.
Ever notice Israel is the only nation on earth you can't criticize(unless you are in an Arab or Muslim nation).
"The distinction is key."
Only if you are a phony Christian trying to reconcile your thirst for war mongering and killing with a religion that would oppose it if it were true to its teachings.
"This is amateur-hour stuff, man..."
Heh. Only when you showed up. Is that you Twirp?
"you say jews are tyrants"
I never said any such thing. Again, stop putting words in my mouth, its getting old. I said the current government of Israel are tyrants and that is not the same thing though that fact is lost on you.
"you say christ was pacifist. this is lie."
Well you are just proving you don't understand the teachings of Christ or the early church. The early Christian church was led by people who knew Jesus and heard his teachings directly. They were pacifists because that was, for the most part, what Jesus taught. It was only over time that Jesus's message was lost and Christianity was corrupted because pacifism ran counter to attainment of wealth and power by Lings, President's, Popes and Dictators who bent Christianity to serve their purposes.
Here is a pretty good article on the subject this
The extent of his pacifism is certainly a subject for debate, but when you start calling me a liar for saying it you are just proving how biased and closed minded you are.
In the ten commandments:
Thou shalt not kill
How do you reconcile this with fighting wars and killing people.
"Matthew 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also"
In this passage Jesus is overturning an age old testament teaching of vengance and replacing it with one of pacifism.
Romans 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
"he understands what it is like to live under tyranny"
George W. Bush has no clue about tyranny. He's never had to face a day in his life with adversity. He was born to wealth and power. The only time he faced any risk was from the draft during Vietnam and he dodged that with help from his dad's friends. He had traveled the world less than I had when he became President and couldn't even name many of the world's leaders. That speech you heard was written for him by talented speech writers and designed to sucker gullible people like yourself. It obviously worked.
"i am not had too much school,"
I'm not really surprised. Having a poor education and not questioning the world around you, makes you easy prey for conmen, whether they by psuedo Christian ministers or George W. Bush. Its pretty much the same story in rural America which is the part of America which reelected George W. Bush. Rural America is full of people who are poorly educated and easily manipulated like you. The better educated you are the less likely you are to fall for George Bush's con game.
"i think maybe i don't like you too much...i am sorry but this is what i think of you."
Don't be sorry. I'm glad you don't like what I write. For me it is a badge of honor. I write what I write in the hope I might challenge people in to thinking about their world and consider viewpoints that differ from the one the tyranny of the majority, and the powers that be, inflict on them. Even if people reject what I write it does them good if they consider alternatives. You on the other hand appear to be a lost cause. Your mind is closed and as long as it is, its unlikely to grow. Why don't you try to avoid reading anything I write from now on. You apparently can't understand it, can't deal with it and it obviously upsets you.
I don't think you have to much further than the Ukraine to deduce that most elections today are shams. Eastern Ukraine(industrial and tied to the old U.S.S.R) and Russia were trying to steal the election in one direction, Western Ukraine, agricultural and closer to Europe, with the help of the U.S. and the CIA are trying to steal it in the other. At this point its impossible to tell who actually won. One thing that speaks highly of the Ukranians on both sides, they actually care enough to turn out en masse in freezing weather to protest fraudulent elections. The question is can they actually hold a fair election with the U.S. and Russia and their puppets doing everything in their power to rig it.
:)
By contrast American elections are starting to look equally corrupt but no one in the U.S. seems to really care.
You don't even really need electronic voting to steal elections, there are old fashioned ways that work just as well, here is a report from Tampa on simple voter intimidation. Here is an unproven allegations of an effort to suppress black votes in South Carolina.
If you live in a swing state you were probably bombarded by auto dialers and recorded messages which if you actually listen to them, you found were basicly slander. Apparently there is no accountability or regulation of the bile you can pump out to voters, en masse, using computerized dialers these days.
Many right wingers love to point out how Afghanistan had "free" and democratic elections for the first time in nearly forever. Well they forget to mention that one candidate, Karzai, former oil executive, and America's hand picked ruler had a U.S. supplied helicopter so he could visit every tribal chief, while the rest of the candidates couldn't campaign much outside Kabul because its to dangerous the roads in much of Afghanistan. And of course when Karzai flew in to a tribe he could hand out buckets of "reconstruction" money to the tribal chiefs who in turn tell their tribe how to vote, illerate people in the countryside with no media access so it works.
Its going to be interesting to see how rigged the elections in Iraq look. Putting my hands to my head like Karnak, I predict the U.S. favored candidate will win
At this point nearly every contested election in the third world is being "influenced" by the U.S. and the CIA, and increasingly Putin is trying to influence them his way in Russia's sphere of influence. Of course Russia's elections have also reached the point they are a sham. Putin controls most of the media, and suppresses opposition parties so he is for all practical purposes a dictator again.
Its not really such a leap to assume U.S. elections are being rigged either. The 1960 election was probably rigged by the Democrats and swung the election to Kennedy. It would appear likely that since the Reagan era and especially since the late 1990's the Republican's have formed a well oiled machine for acquiring power at any cost. Not sure you can just blame it on electronic voting. It includes intimidation of minority voters, massive mobilization of white, conservative voters through churches in violation of their non profit restrictions, ruthless smear campaigns against the Democrats(Clinton impeachment and Kerry Swift Boat Vets). Of course the Dems help them out a lot by being incompetent and pathetic(exemplified by Kerry).
The next move you are going to see towards a Republican dominated police state, and they are already talking about it, is a change in Senate rules for approving judicial nominations. Since the Republican's didn't get the magic 60 votes to steamroll the senate, they are apparently going to try to just change the rules for approving judges in the Senate to a simple majority vote. They can then proceed to pack the courts, especially the Supreme Court, with radical right wing judges. I predict it may well happen
I appreciate English is not your first language. You are unfortunately not understanding most of what I'm saying and you are leaping to some fairly offensive conclusions about it.
You may not have understood it but I said I respect the teachings of Jesus, I also respect Christian sects who actually follow his teachings, like the Quakers and Amish. If your Calvinist sect is one of those I have no problem with them or you. These Christian sects who are true to the teachings of Jesus are very much in the minority in America if not the world.
Unfortunately in America many Christian sects have completely lost the meaning of the teachings of Jesus and that is what I oppose, vehemently. In the U.S. the military is dominated by "Christian" officers who despite the anti violence teachings of Christ kill people in his name as they pretend to pray to him. Many ministers are preaching from the pulpit support for wars like those in Iraq. They are really anti Christians, not Christians, and they give Jesus a bad name. Jesus preached tolerance and forgiveness, but in America fundamentalist Christians are the least forgiving and least tolerant of people.
Catholicism is as bad in America as fundamentalist Protestant churches. You need look no further than the widespread pedophilia Catholic priests have engaged in and their Bishops have condoned to see they have turned anti Christian too.
Again I don't hate Jews for any racial reason but I do despise the current government of Israel and the people, Jewish and Christian who support its tyranny.
My opinion of most Christian sects, in America, is based on good reasons. There are many bad people among them who've lost the meaning of the teachings of the New Testament and are trying to force their hypocrisy and malevolence on everyone else. Not sure its obvious in Europe but since the reelection of George Bush, who was heavily backed by these mindless hypocrites, they are claiming it is their right to dictate to our government, and the rest of the world their twisted world view. This is VERY, VERY dangerous to America and the rest of the world.
"same reasons you don't like jews, blacks, americans?"
Stuff the race baiting friend. Didn't say anything of the kind. I dislike the government of Israel and its backers, has nothing to do with being Jewish. Never said a derogatory word about blacks. Americans, yes, but thats because I've lived there and I've seen America's culture close up, and I've lived in others, and America's leaves a LOT to be desired. There are a lot better cultures in the world today, cultures better educated, more enlightened, more tolerant and less bent on dominating the rest of the world at the barrel of a gun.
Americans are badly educated and if you are in rural America, especially so. Americans score dismally compared to the rest of the developed world on basic things like geography, history and politics. They are completely clueless about the world yet they are intent on dominating it and forcing it in to their monocultural mold.
In rural America especially there is a protestant church on every block. If they spent a fraction of the time and money they waste on churches and preachers they would have the better hospitals, teachers, libraries and schools they desperately need.
Hard to say why America is like it is though one Christian sect after another fled persecution in Europe and set up shop in America. Ironically Americas separation of church and state let them all flourish and now they seem to be rushing to a destroy it with a fusion of religion and government which is the basis of the religious intolerance they fled in Europe (where the state pushed one religious sect to the exclusion and persecution of all others).
"i don't like way you talk about christians."
Well then offer a reasoned arguement in its defense instead of just race baiting. I think the world of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately the organized religion that has grown around his name doesn't adhere to or apparently even understand most of his teachings. He taught tolerance, forgiveness, non violence and anti materialism, while most of his followers today gleefully support wars, wealth acquisition, and intolerance of everyone not like them(with noticeable exceptions like the Quakers and Amish).
Born again Christians ARE sitting around waiting for the second coming, rapture, and apocalypse(though perhaps in some sects more than others) whether you like it or not. Its a key reason the Bush administration is so rabidly pro Israel because a Jewish state in Israel, with an imperial master is as it was 2000 years ago. Its the basis for the second coming and the end of the world in their eyes. I don't really want doomsday cultists running the world's most powerful military or with their finger on a button that can trigger that apocalypse in a the space of a half hour using a nuclear arsenal. One man, the U.S. President, can unleash it at his whim.
You see I have a really good and valid reason to dislike the dominant Christian sects in the U.S. and I really don't care whether you like it or not.
At this point you can probably have the last word. So far you haven't said anything insightful or worthy of a good debate.
Heh, it tells me you are the confused one. Can't you parse sentences. I said the majority of "AMERICANS are dumb and easily manipulated". That doesn't say anything about the majority of people in the rest of the world being dumb and easily manipulated. The fact that the majority of the people in the rest of the world see Bush for the nitwit that he is suggests they are smarter and not being by American/Murdoch propaganda. I eagerly await the day Blair has to face elections and George's poodle gets sacked, though he is apparently stoking the politics of 9/11 fear to stay in office too(reference recently leaks of a nebulous foiled terror plot in the UK).
You don't have to look any further than the number of Americans who buy into born again Christianity, far greater numbers than most of the world. You have to be pretty dumb and manipulated to hand billions of dollars to conmen (i.e. Falwell, Roberts, the Bakers, Swaggert, etc) and to live your life fixated on the imminent second coming, rapture and apocalypse. Why do you need to worry about 9/11, global warming or nuclear holocaust when you are waiting for the imminent arrival of the end of the world and your ascendence to heaven? Hate to break it to you but millions and millions of American's are basicly worshiping a suicide cult, and they vote for Bush in a big way.
"what this tells you?!?"
It tells me you are dumb and easily manipulated. Which are you, in the majority in America or in the minority in the rest of the world.
Heh, I stand corrected. Sky One is one of the backers of the series and that is part of Rupert Murdoch's empire, so it is pretty much the same as Fox News producing it. So, Twirp, you must be right, it is a parable on 9/11 or more accurately political propaganda about 9/11 masking as entertainment, especially for kids. I guess, like Madrasas we have to pump our kids full of the politics of fear at an early age and rather than use religious schools the tube is the tool of choice.
Remember the movie "Red Dawn", from the Reagan era, and the vivid images of Cubans invading the U.S.
"irrational fixation on Bush"
Not much irrational about it, he is without a doubt the most dangerous person in the world today unless you are a right wing extremist or fundamentalist Christian (Though Cheney and Rumsfeld are the really dangeorus ones really running things).
"didn't he win the election already?"
Not much you can do about that when:
A. A majority of Americans are dumb and easily manipulated, especially by fear
B. The democrats run a candidate as pathetic as Kerry.
Doesn't mean Americans with brains have to like the fact their President is an embarrassment. I'm nearly positive opinion polls show the vast majority of the people in the rest of the world have as much contempt for Bush/Cheney as I do.
"If you don't think the new "Battlestar" is a parable for 9/11 and for terrorism in general, you're just not paying attention."
If its slipped that far in to political propaganda masking as entertainment I think I'd just as soon miss it. The fact that Twirp (a.k.a. Chicken Little) is raving about it is probably an indicator there is something fundementally wrong with it. Whose producing it, Fox?
Leave it to Twirp to spin a SciFi series in to some great parable about 9/11.
"I mean, for cryin' out loud: the premise of the show is based on the near-annihilation of the human race."
Uh, so was the original series and it was made just a tinch before 9/11, not to mention 9/11 is one part of the human race waging war against another which isn't a new concept. The original Star Wars trilogy was more or less the same concept, a small band of adventurers defending humanity from being devoured by evil. Dune is pretty similar though the hero race there is more Arab in character than Western.
Its a pretty common theme in fiction in general and SciFi in general and it has NOTHING to do with 9/11, your overreaching prose trying to make the tie aside.
Maybe the style is "gritty" but the style of most video is grittier than it was in the 70's and its not like it suddenly started on 9/11.
Lest we forget, way more people have died, or been maimed for life, in the war in Iraq than on 9/11. Just the death toll among Americans is certain to surpass 9/11 before its over. 9/11 was a tragedy but as you like to say when talking about the death toll in Iraq, way more people die in urban murders or traffic accidents.
Letting our government destroy our civil liberties and run rough shod across the globe, killing and torturing, has led to a situation where our governments reaction to 9/11 has done more damage to America's security than the original attack. The U.S. really does need to be a fortified, police state now that the whole world really hates it. Al Qaida no doubt wished for just that and they got their wish in spade. Abu Graib and Fallujah are recruiting posters for whole new waves of Muslims who want to launch suicide attacks against Americans. Moderate Arabs who might have once supported the U.S. and empathized with the U.S. over the tragedy of 9/11 have been pushed in to the "against us" camp in George W.'s simplistic "you're either with us or you're against us" view of the world.
Lets also not forget that if the Bush administration hadn't been asleep at the switch maybe they would have actually stopped 9/11. For example Ashcroft trying to deprioritize terrorism while the FBI was watching the perpetrators in flight schools training, and the CIA gave the President a briefing saying Bin Laden was determined to attack the U.S. with airplanes and as nearly as we can tell they ignored all the danger signals and did nothing. Bush being to busy "clearing brush" in Texas in August to focus on his job. You have to not the parallels to Pearl Harbor, another place the U.S. was ignoring signals of an impending attack because a sneak attack was the one way to mobilize the U.S. to support a war they would have otherwise refused to get involved in. You have to wonder if the Bush administration wanted the attack so they could get a blank check to launch their extremist agenda. Even if that wasn't the plan it sure worked out well for them.
Much truth is said in gest.
Its another basic indicator of his arrogance and bad judgement. He actually said out loud, as a joke, an unspoken truth about American government in general and his administration in particular.
Its right up there with his other "joke" at another dinner, with pictures of him looking around the oval office, about not being able to "find" the WMD's. Well there are 1200 Americans dead, thousands maimed for life, and we don't know how many dead Iraqi civilian since the U.S. refuses to count them, all looking for those WMD's. Great "joke".
Problem 1 is workers in the U.S. have unilaterally disarmed. They've been trained to hate unions and strikes. They have no clue how to organize a strike or more importantly win one. Employers know that. Anyone tries to organize one they are going to just start axing them and strike fear in everyone else.
Problem 2 If American workers did launch a successful strike EA would have the jobs moved to India or China in a few months. It would be a hiccup in their product cycle but they would have cheaper and even more oppressed workers. If they were doing leading edge development they would have a problem, but it sounds like they are mostly churning out content for old games and almost anyone can do that. To be honest I don't know why they are still in incredibly overpriced places like Redwood City for this business. Only thing I can guess is their sports and Sims title probably benefit from having workers who have a clue about American sports and life style.
Problem 3 is if you did manage to organize a strike there is a fair chance you would destroy you career. No big game developer is going to employ you if you participated in a strike at EA, chances are no tech employer would hire you either. Tech companies are rabidly anti union. That was OK when it was a booming sector and everybody was making money but its a real problem now that its turning in to a sweat shop industry.
"I know I have."
How exactly did you do that, just curious? Some things I can guess:
A. You moved to a third world country. If you are living in the U.S. you are inherently at a disadvantage because the cost of living WILL price you out of the new global market. Maybe you have forgone health insurance and are living in rural America or maybe a slum?
B. You made the jump from worker to employer or at least self employed. This is the only real way to escape the impending race to the bottom in wages until the U.S. levels with China and India (finding a level is kind of tough when you are competing against a billion plus new workers). An especially good variation is you have jumped to an employer or at least an executive exploiting the cheap labor in China, India and Eastern Europe. Is that why you've been visiting there? That may work until the workers and executives in China an India acquire your skills, expertise and customers at which point you will be expendable to them. Its a key thing American executives are missing in their rush to cheap labor. Eventually those countries are going to figure out they don't need American executives raking in the 7 figure salaries and not doing much for it. They will also have better markets than the U.S. China is already rapidly approaching that. Their workers are seeing expanding prosperity while American real income is declining. China is a better market to enter now and the Chinese are better equipped to tap it than Americans.
C. Maybe you've acquired skills that are still in demand and you skills haven't been overwhelmed with low cost workers that have them. All I can say is hope it last. There aren't many skills you can have someone else can't develop too. When manufacturing workers started losing their jobs to China, IT workers scoffed because they were in the bubble and in demand. Well now their jobs are going their too. So now biotech workers scoff about their skills, well guess what they are going too now. Lawyers and doctors, harder but a lot of non courtroom legal work is going and doctors in India are increasingly marketing a plane ticket and an operation. Maybe you have skills in an area that requires your physical presence in the U.S. well more H-1B's can nail you there too. Any skills you have someone in China and India can acquire too and they will work for a lot less than you.
As other's responding to your post have suggested what you are calling global competition can also be called class warfare. Trade barriers, poor communications and cost of shipping goods(when longshoreman had to load and unload ships) hamstrung capitalists in most of the 20th century. It resulted in rising wages, wider prosperity and expensive labor in the U.S., Western Europe and later Japan. Dropping of trade barrier, ubiquitous cheap communications and container shipping have given them the upper hand again. The end result is they are pushing workers back to where they were at the beginning of the 20th century. 80 hour work weeks for a subsistence wage, no job security(layoff 1/3rd of your workers just to keep the other 2/3rds focused and not demanding more wages or luxuries like health care), age discrimination.
In the U.S. the fact a pro business and anti labor party now completely dominates government is currently dooming American workers to return to where they were in the early 20th century, they just wont be working in factories, they will be in cube farms shackled to computers....... exactly like EA. It doesn't look as bad but in most of the ways its the same. 80 hour work weeks for long periods destroys people mentally, physically and spiritually, whether its at a computer or in a factory, take if from someone who knows. If you are going it for your own business you might survive and prosper. If you are working for some dick who is making 100X what you are and who would just as soon shit on you as look at your life is going to suck.
"Yes NASA developed SElinux"
How did you get +5 insightful when you apparently didn't know it was NSA not NASA.
"gcj/gcc/etc you say its probably not a good thing"
You misunderstood though I wasn't clear. I meant to say I'm not sure its a good thing Cygnus is part of Red Hat since it gives one vendor with dubious motives more control over the some important fundamental tools.
"Just that almost every top notch app for linux you can think of had a money player behind it like RedHat/SuSE/etc."
All depends on your outlook. Another way to look at it is someone will proably step up to fill the niches that need filled. Without all the money flowing from Wall Street maybe it will be slower or rougher, but it is a really bad thing for Linux if we reach the point it has to have huge infusions of money from Wall Street to exist and grow.
If a publicly traded company contributes, great, as long as they don't start acting like they own Linux. Maybe I should clarify my point. There are a lot of great engineers and programmers doing great work for Red Hat. I have no bone to pick with them, I'm glad they are getting paid for their work. Still doesn't mean I can't have complete and utter contempt for their execs, especially their founders and their marketing people. They look to be about standard for the obnoxious marketing people you find in any proprietary software company. Young and company have giant gobs of cash in their pockets from their IPO and they should be treating the community that made it for them with more respect.
The one great beauty of Linux is no one company or person owns it. When companies start acting like they do or conning people in to thinking they do, which Red Hat seems to have done to a lot of suits in the U.S. it is just bad.
The community needs to drive whom to them that they can fall of the face of the earth and we wont care. If they wont to contribute great, just don't sucker us in to buying their software and services and jerk us around like proprietary companies do.
> exec-shield
Ingo's work is cool, don't use it but its good. Doesn't make up for Red Hat shafting their loyal customers and developers.
> selinux
I think the NSA did this originally. Not going to worship Red Hat over it.
> O(1) scheduler, O(1) VM layer, drivers, tcp/ip stack...
If Red Hat's wasn't there someone else's would be if there was a need. Sure maybe it would take longer, or be a little rougher, not really gonna adopt your apparent position Linux would be useless and hopeless were it not for Red Hat.
> Anaconda
Don't use it, don't care, most packaged distro's have installers, big f**king deal.
> RPM
Did use it, don't anymore. I found it to be a curse, looking for the damn things that match the system I had, and you eventually end up with a Frankenstein of an unmaintanable system. After you've installed enough of them outside of the official release you eventually end up with an urge to wipe the whole thing and do a fresh install.
I'll take Gentoo anyday. Tried both and I sleep better at night with the Gentoo approach. I never have to look for a binary match and I at least know everything is compiled against the same bits.
> kudzu
Was this the prober in Red Hat 8. If so I did use it, I quickly started despising it. Don't use it any more, don't care. Maybe its better now, naive users obviously need something like it, again I personally dont care.
> gcj, glibc, gcc
Again mostly Cygnus, and yes they are a part of Red Hat now. Its probably not a good thing.
> GTK2
Well I have used it and I can say I'm generally happier using Qt or almost any other GUI than either version of GTK.
> ext2, ext3
Mostly predates the evil Red Hat. I'm using reiser lately. Filesystems are dime a dozen now, not anything I need to worship Red Hat for.
> Mozilla
Don't know how big their contribution to it is, sure there is some, doubt they like "own" it. I use Konqueror so I don't care though its cool Firefox is putting a dent in IE, it was actually covered on CNN this morning.
Bottomline I really don't care if you spend all night listing everything they ever touched. If they fell off the face of the earth Linux would keep on keeping on. Like I said I used to love and worship them as much as you do. They jerked my loyalty over in a big way. Companies only do that to me once and they are toast.
I have no problem if they decided to do their enterprise edition but they should have left their flagship desktop release and their subscription service as it was, charge enough to break even, and deal with it if it wasn't hugely profitable. By axing it they did serious harm to Linux because they caused a massive discontinuity in a distro that up till then had been reliable. If nothing else they obviously created a whole lot of animosity they would have been better off without.
"and they've been doing it for years"
I'll say this again. I was a loyal Red Hat buyer back to 5.x. I went out of my way to buy box sets up to 8.0 just to give them money to put in to Linux. I bought a subscription for the update service as soon as they came out with it. I used to love them. No more.
The day they stick a knife in their flagship product and all the loyal users and developers who got them where they are they stopped being worthy of your hero worship.
The fact that they were once the best thing that ever happened to Linux has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the new Red Hat of the last year or two, since they started fixating on their stock price, bites.
Like I said this is not differentiating between the work they did when they were a good company and now when they are chasing quarterly numbers, jerking around their loyal users, and seeking to milk Linux for all its worth. They aren't doing it out of any benevolence anymore, at least it sure doesn't feel like it did before they went public.
Obviously they are contributing to it still but so are IBM, Novell/SUSE, HP, SGI, etc. They are trying to make quarterly numbers just like all the other companies on this list and they have to contribute the work they are doing to justify their premium license costs, back to the kernel thanks to the GPL. They don't deserve any more or less credit than all of the other companies that are doing the same thing. Companies like IBM are probably a little higher on the benevolence scale since Linux is more just a cool tool to them and they make their money on consulting and services and not so much on the subscription scheme Red Hat is using now to exploit Linux.
Its still a fact that they are milking unpaid volunteers to put together their distribution for them. I don't follow SUSE much but I doubt its quite as blatant a milking of volunteers as Fedora is.
All in all I'll take the Debian or Gentoo model where volunteers are contributing their efforts for the benefit of themselves and their user community and not to benefit some nameless shareholders on Wall Street.
"Kyoto shows a mind set that predates globalization because in the modern age polluters can just migrate to countries that don't sign it or to those who are given a blank check to pollute under it, namely "developing" countries."
To expand on this I wager the U.S. could sign Kyoto and meet its emission limits just by staying the course and migrating all of its heavy industry to China.
One area that is hard to migrate is American's dependence on and fondness for coal fired power plants.
The U.S. still clinges to its steel production which is another set of big green house gas producers and that could easily end up in China in its entirety in the next 10 years. If it does the U.S. could coast on meeting the Kyoto limits.
Kyoto trying to set pollution limits based on national borders is just flat out quaint in the globalized world. Only things it can cap are transportation and power production(and power production can be migrated across national borders to an extent(for example to Mexico and Canada in the case of the U.S.).