I really think that over the next thirty years we will find out whether in fact it was Smith or Marx who was right
Marxism already failed. The Soviet Union is no more, China is partially capitalistic, and even in Cuba there are private businesses. North Korea can't even be called Marxist, it's a dictatorship run by Kim Il Jung, and has people starving to death in the streets. The ones not being executed.
I do think its unfair that they get a "cost of living adjustment" for software and medicine, yet we have to compete for techie jobs on our own cost of living. They get the best of both worlds.
I think you're mixed up here. If it were free trade then there won't be a law requiring an OS to be installed. Laws like this are an interference in a freemarket. Not only that but a freemarket would also allow someone to go to China and buy a warehouse full of disks then ship them back to the US and sell them here, thus giving MS a big incentive to drop the prices here. Better yet, under a true freemarket, nobody would legally be stopped from simply copying MS software and selling it. Adam Smith, the Father of Capitalism, was against copyrights and patents. They are an interference in a free market.
| "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. |
OMG... What a business model !!!
It is a good, hell great, business model. It creates lockin. As TFA says software piracy is how MS got so big. Now with China being part of the WTO they have to crack down on piracy. MS knew it was either the price of MS software was dropped or Chinese would use FOSS, so they dropped the price. Since per capita income is rising, a hell of a lot for Chinese, once people are locked in MS will raise prices again.
I doubt most people, more than 50% believe that. I doubt 25% believe that. About the only ones I can think of that do believe this are Christian Dominionists and Reconstructionists as well as some Muslims.
Clinton and the liberals gave a lot of leeway in that gray area, allowing head shops to essentially break the law, selling wares that were unequivocally intended for drug use.
Like what wares? Rolling paper? I used to roll my own cigarette. Pipes? I used to smoke a pipe legally, heck I smoked one while in the army. Bongs? Though I didn't have one I occassionally smoked some tobacco with bongs friends had. Needles? A friend is insulin dependent diabetic. She had to check her blood sugar twice a day and if her blood sugar was too high she'd give herself a shot of insulin. I know of nothing drug users and abusers use that does not have legitimate uses.
I think Ubuntu with the CNR plugin for proprietary codecs will be the removal of probably one of the largest remaining barriers to "Joe User" adoption of linux as a safe, solid, PC
Actually I think the biggest barrier the wide adoption of Linux in the general community is getting PCs with Linux preinstalled, like Dell is now doing. The only way most people will ever use Linux is if they get a PC running it as most people don't install an OS. About the only tyme someone does install an OS is when they have to call tech support for service and the tech tells them the OS has to be reinstalled. Another way to get people to try Linux is for geeks and hackers to install Linux on PCs when people they know ask for help. That would take a long tyme to reach many people though.
The only reason I use Linux is because I got it preinstalled. I bought two PCs with Linux, one's a dualboot the other OS being Windows NT 4.0. It's old. The other I got almost 10 months ago with Linspire installed. The dualboot I haven't used much, I don't really know how to setup things in Linux, and I couldn't get much software installed in NT. And currently I use the new PC for storage as I don't have it setup yet with all the software. I plan on using it as a server because I plan to get a Macbook Pro for my primary computer. Now I'm wondering about installing Ubuntu on it as a dualboot.
One has to wonder if the founding fathers were time warped from then to now what they would think of the staggering tax burden the government they created inflicts on its own citizens. The tarifs of 1776 pale next to the staggering and intrusive income, sales and property taxes today, though in a curious inversion tarifs are rapidly disappearing in the name of "free trade".
People living during the Civil War would be staggered by today's tax burden. Pres Lincoln raised income tax to pay for the war to about 5% and the people were upset over that. They only accepted it because they knew the war had to be paid for.
I really want a government that builds roads(and taxes fuel to pay for that) and provides a bare minimum defense and police force. Not sure schools are even a proper role considering how bad public schools have turned out.
Yeap, have user fees, ie a tax on gas, pay for road building and maintainance. Reduce the size of the professional military and have a citizen's army like Switzerland. Include in that the requiremment for a rifle in each home, maybe excepting a conscious objector. Then get rid of all of those agencies, authorities, departments, and offices in the federal government that aren't Constitutionally authorized and the federal income tax can be significantly reduced if not eliminated. And that includes education. Leave schools to the locals, at the highest level, the states.
He had gangs of thugs, called "redcoats" who could enter your home, and take whatever they liked, and charge you with treason if you were friends with guys like Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, et. al. No trial was necessary, and you couldn't demand to see the evidence against you in order to contest it.
Actually a trial was required, the Magna Carta from 1215 AD guaranteed Habeas Corpus in which a person could not be held, imprisoned, without access to a court. However that King George, like the one we have today, disregards Habeas Corpus.
I honestly do disagree. While many of his underlings don't share his beliefs, Bush is a zealot who really does think he's doing God's work. His religious convictions can't really legitimately be called "Christian", except in the term's broadest sense, but he thinks every bomb he has dropped, every bullet he has fired, is part of a pure and noble cause.
Whatever happened to "Thou shalt not kill"? Many more have been killed under Bush's orders than all of those killed from bin Ladin's orders. And didn't he stand up in front of the world claiming Saddam had WMDs? Despite waiting I have yet to see the first WMD.
See how you feel if you imagine they put your name on such a list.
A few year back or so this teenager was put on a sexual offender registry in, I believe it was Gainsville, FL, something about him "exposing himself indecently" or some such and because the hassazment he went through he eventually killed himself.
The constitution offers the means to make changes; but this is not convenient enough, and so we are faced on all sides with unconstitutional law, and told that it'll all be worked out in court if necessary, and in the meantime, comply or face the music.
Ah but a couple of those methods used in court, Fully Informed Jury and jury nullification, the courts try to prevent. Even though they were used by Founding Fathers of the USA. Jurors are told they can't look up or investigate themself and if they do they can be disqualified from the jury. And judges tell jurors they must just make a ruling on the facts of the case, they're not supposed to decide if a law is unconstitutional nor are they able to follow their conciousness. Personally I've been called for jury duty twice, hoping to get selected as a juror for a drug trial, so I could vote "not guilty" saying drug laws are unconstitutional. However neither tyme was I even called up for questioning.
I am glad to hear that you were able to recover from your injury.
Thanks, but I've only partially recovered and will never fully recover without some sort of breakthrough in neurology, in Neurogenesis say. Which is unfortunate. My sister told me that after I came out of the coma I screamed at everyone to let me die, and more than 10 years later I still wish I had died. I love life but between living the way my life is and being dead I'd rather be dead.
I had a discussion concerning helmet laws and motorcycles with a relative in Canada once. He pointed out the fact that society as a whole pays the cost of patching up and possibly supporting an injured motorcycle rider through the health care system and thus by society as a whole.
That may be true in Canada and other nations with socialized healthcare but it shouldn't in the US. Here in order to drive you or the vehicle has to be insured. I have to pay for insurance that at a minimum covers $50,000 pre person and $100,000 total per accident. At least I think that's what required, I don't recall for sure. When I get coverage I am asked if I wear a seatbelt, and if I don't I have to pay more. Or at least that's how it was when seatbelts weren't required. And that's how it is for health insurance and smoking. I smoke so my health insurance is higher than if I didn't smoke, when I had coverage. I currently live in a state that does not require helmets and I bet motorcycle insurance is the same, if you don't wear one you pay more.
Thus all those who have health insurance pay more when a person is injured severely because they did not wear a simple protective device.
As for severe injuries and helmet trquirments, I survived one while riding my bike years ago after classes I had in college. I am a Traumatic Brain Injury, TBI, survivor and after coming out of the coma I was in and leaving the hospital I had to move into a rehab house for several weeks. I then started therapy 8 hours a day 3 days a week. All together I went to 4 different places and spent more than a year in therapy. In each case the docs told me it would not of mattered at all if I had worn a helmet or not. My head was not hit, instead the injury was caused by the sudden violent movement of my brain. Heck, the only direct physical injury I sustained was to my left thumb, I can no longer bend or move it properly.
TurboLinux comes with a licensed dvd player, though I don't know what it is. Mandriva comes with LinDVD which is a licensed player, unfortunately it isn't downloadable. Whether it is or not I don't know but it might be installable from a Mandriva disk, I doubt it as it's a binary application. Linspire also has a licensed player, which is probably also binary only. However it is downloadable from their CNR warehouse. The thing is is there may be a price attached, I didn't look, and you have to have the CNR software installed.
Thanks. There may be something appropriate there, it's hard to tell. The CNR warehouse doesn't have the best descriptions in the world.
I know it may take a while but you could Google each app until you find one that's right for you. Perhaps Sourceforge or Freshmeat has a description. All Linspire does is take software that's already out there and makes it easy to install and uninstall on PCs running the CNR software. They also have agreements with proprietary vendors to offer closed source proprietary software and cedecs.
Recently we had a tragic accident here in our valley involving teenagers. All those in the vehicle wearing seat belts survived mostly uninjured, but one wonderful young lady who did not wear hers was killed.
I know of an accident that the results were the opposite. I knew a little girl who was wearing her seatbelt when there was an accident. Because the seatbelt was jambed she couldn't get out of the car and the car caught on fire. She burned to death, which is one of the worst ways to die. I hear some say make sure you have a knife with you. Yea right, you're going to carry a knife with you today. If you want to get carried off to jail go ahead. And like a little girl under 10 is supposed to have one she carries.
Unfunded mandates at any level of government is nothing more than another tax upon the people.
Actually a mandate whether funded or not is another tax demand. Unfunded and it's those who have to impliment it that's taxed or does the axing (taxing) and if the feds fund it then it's everyone who's taxed.
A universal tamper-resistant national ID is in itself not such a bad idea
There is no such thing as a tamper proof ID, and pretending there is only makes it worse. As for whether a national ID is bad or not, there is no need for one and since there isn't the only reason to have one is to keep tabs on everyone which is bad.
Biometric IDs would certainly reduce identity fraud dramatically as well as the influx of illegal aliens.
Until someone is able to fake biometrics. There has to be a db somewhere so people's biometrics can be checked out. This requires people to admin the db and input new data. All it takes is one person with access who can then turn around and sale either data or data entry. Hell even Homeland security can't secure thier computers why would anyone else be able to either? As for "illegal aliens" I have no problem allowing anyone who wants to and can take care of their needs to immigrate. Laws making immigration illegal or difficult are nothing more than an attempt to keep "the other", undesirables, out. It's been going on for a long tyme. Benjamin Frankiln proposed a law making it illegal for Germans to immigrate. During the 1850s the No Nothings wanted to stop Irish immigrants. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed excluding Chinese from immigratiing to the USA.
If you want to talk about "illegal immigration" then I want to know what Native American Indian tribe are you from. If you are not American Indian then you're illegal. Not one European, African, or Asian had their immigration documents stamped by any tribe. Those who came then massacred and tried to wipe out natives, I don't see that happening now though.
No, FDR did not follow through on his court-packing plan. He didn't have to, because the Court gave in to the mere threat of it. Look it up, for God's sake.
Perhaps you're right, partially at least. Googling I found where FDR tried to expand the USSC, by adding up to six new justices, however he lost. Appearently he tried this because the USSC invalidated some of his New Deal measures. However some of those rulings were modified with new liberal justices on the bench, justices he nominated.
That may be true now but would you like it if your political or religious opponent had the same power? Say, if you except it now would you like it if Clinton had the same power? Actually in the '90s Clinton did ask congress for these powers however the Republican congress was afraid he'd abuse it. What's legal now may be illegal later and they can go after you after it was made illegal. There are any number of reason it's bad government, or anyone else, can create a db of your life. Especailly when it's not needed!
The Federal government has a piss-poor history of IT and information security. The whole place, at least on the civilan/unclassified side, leaks like a sieve and loses computers and data at a terrifying rate.
It's not just "civilian" agencies that have trouble keeping information secure. FEMA, part of Homeland security, don't keep their computers secure.
Also, I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing 200 years ago they didn't write 1,000 page bills. Who the hell can read through 10,000 pages a week to search for this crap?
No, 200 years ago congress didn't write 200 page never mind 1000 page bills. Back then congressional sessions were short, most of congress had to work for a living and couldn't take much tyme off to go to Washington. A few states are still like this, Texas for instance. By law, or constitutional, the Texas legislature can only meet for 90, 120, or however many days every other year, without the governor calling for a special session. We need to have a Constitutional amendment saying the same thing, and add the requirement that anybody, most everybody, be able to understand all bills. Also add the requiremment that each bill have only one item it deals with, no unrelated riders or anything like that.
I know a person would be living in fantasyland if they actually believe congress would ever go for any of these amendments, but it would be nice if they gave up some of their power.
The authors of the constitution were well aware of slavery and simply bypassed the issue. They had the opportunity to make it illegal and did not do it.
Now, Justice Thomas of the US Supreme Court alone believes that the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution should basically the force of law, although nearly everyone else thinks the words are merely aspirational. I tend to agree with Justice Thomas on this; there is just something powerful and basic about "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."
In his first drafts of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the DOI, wrote that everybody including slaves and women had the same rights. He had to remove these parts though because other signatories were against them. Many believed in slavery and were slave owners and some thought of females as property as well. Thomas Jefferson himself was a contradiction, he both owned slaves and was against slavery. He also believed women had the same rights but he thought they should stay "in thier place".
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Heh, mainstreamer. Actually, it's Mises who's right about pretty much everything.
Mises and Hayek.
FalconI really think that over the next thirty years we will find out whether in fact it was Smith or Marx who was right
Marxism already failed. The Soviet Union is no more, China is partially capitalistic, and even in Cuba there are private businesses. North Korea can't even be called Marxist, it's a dictatorship run by Kim Il Jung, and has people starving to death in the streets. The ones not being executed.
FalconI do think its unfair that they get a "cost of living adjustment" for software and medicine, yet we have to compete for techie jobs on our own cost of living. They get the best of both worlds.
I think you're mixed up here. If it were free trade then there won't be a law requiring an OS to be installed. Laws like this are an interference in a freemarket. Not only that but a freemarket would also allow someone to go to China and buy a warehouse full of disks then ship them back to the US and sell them here, thus giving MS a big incentive to drop the prices here. Better yet, under a true freemarket, nobody would legally be stopped from simply copying MS software and selling it. Adam Smith, the Father of Capitalism, was against copyrights and patents. They are an interference in a free market.
Falcon| "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. |
OMG... What a business model !!!
It is a good, hell great, business model. It creates lockin. As TFA says software piracy is how MS got so big. Now with China being part of the WTO they have to crack down on piracy. MS knew it was either the price of MS software was dropped or Chinese would use FOSS, so they dropped the price. Since per capita income is rising, a hell of a lot for Chinese, once people are locked in MS will raise prices again.
FalconWe already have a national ID system...its just a bad one.... the Social Security number.
Actually the SSN can not be used as an id legally.
Falconat the stake, but it's not a law.
I doubt most people, more than 50% believe that. I doubt 25% believe that. About the only ones I can think of that do believe this are Christian Dominionists and Reconstructionists as well as some Muslims.
FalconClinton and the liberals gave a lot of leeway in that gray area, allowing head shops to essentially break the law, selling wares that were unequivocally intended for drug use.
Like what wares? Rolling paper? I used to roll my own cigarette. Pipes? I used to smoke a pipe legally, heck I smoked one while in the army. Bongs? Though I didn't have one I occassionally smoked some tobacco with bongs friends had. Needles? A friend is insulin dependent diabetic. She had to check her blood sugar twice a day and if her blood sugar was too high she'd give herself a shot of insulin. I know of nothing drug users and abusers use that does not have legitimate uses.
FalconI think Ubuntu with the CNR plugin for proprietary codecs will be the removal of probably one of the largest remaining barriers to "Joe User" adoption of linux as a safe, solid, PC
Actually I think the biggest barrier the wide adoption of Linux in the general community is getting PCs with Linux preinstalled, like Dell is now doing. The only way most people will ever use Linux is if they get a PC running it as most people don't install an OS. About the only tyme someone does install an OS is when they have to call tech support for service and the tech tells them the OS has to be reinstalled. Another way to get people to try Linux is for geeks and hackers to install Linux on PCs when people they know ask for help. That would take a long tyme to reach many people though.
The only reason I use Linux is because I got it preinstalled. I bought two PCs with Linux, one's a dualboot the other OS being Windows NT 4.0. It's old. The other I got almost 10 months ago with Linspire installed. The dualboot I haven't used much, I don't really know how to setup things in Linux, and I couldn't get much software installed in NT. And currently I use the new PC for storage as I don't have it setup yet with all the software. I plan on using it as a server because I plan to get a Macbook Pro for my primary computer. Now I'm wondering about installing Ubuntu on it as a dualboot.
FalconOne has to wonder if the founding fathers were time warped from then to now what they would think of the staggering tax burden the government they created inflicts on its own citizens. The tarifs of 1776 pale next to the staggering and intrusive income, sales and property taxes today, though in a curious inversion tarifs are rapidly disappearing in the name of "free trade".
People living during the Civil War would be staggered by today's tax burden. Pres Lincoln raised income tax to pay for the war to about 5% and the people were upset over that. They only accepted it because they knew the war had to be paid for.
I really want a government that builds roads(and taxes fuel to pay for that) and provides a bare minimum defense and police force. Not sure schools are even a proper role considering how bad public schools have turned out.
Yeap, have user fees, ie a tax on gas, pay for road building and maintainance. Reduce the size of the professional military and have a citizen's army like Switzerland. Include in that the requiremment for a rifle in each home, maybe excepting a conscious objector. Then get rid of all of those agencies, authorities, departments, and offices in the federal government that aren't Constitutionally authorized and the federal income tax can be significantly reduced if not eliminated. And that includes education. Leave schools to the locals, at the highest level, the states.
FalconHe had gangs of thugs, called "redcoats" who could enter your home, and take whatever they liked, and charge you with treason if you were friends with guys like Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, et. al. No trial was necessary, and you couldn't demand to see the evidence against you in order to contest it.
Actually a trial was required, the Magna Carta from 1215 AD guaranteed Habeas Corpus in which a person could not be held, imprisoned, without access to a court. However that King George, like the one we have today, disregards Habeas Corpus.
FalconI honestly do disagree. While many of his underlings don't share his beliefs, Bush is a zealot who really does think he's doing God's work. His religious convictions can't really legitimately be called "Christian", except in the term's broadest sense, but he thinks every bomb he has dropped, every bullet he has fired, is part of a pure and noble cause.
Whatever happened to "Thou shalt not kill"? Many more have been killed under Bush's orders than all of those killed from bin Ladin's orders. And didn't he stand up in front of the world claiming Saddam had WMDs? Despite waiting I have yet to see the first WMD.
Falcon. if that is true... God's got a wicked sense of humor...
God made Woman, right? I'd say that's about as wicked as someone could get.
I'd say it was wicked, and sadistic, of "God" if it didn't create Woman.
FalconSee how you feel if you imagine they put your name on such a list.
A few year back or so this teenager was put on a sexual offender registry in, I believe it was Gainsville, FL, something about him "exposing himself indecently" or some such and because the hassazment he went through he eventually killed himself.
The constitution offers the means to make changes; but this is not convenient enough, and so we are faced on all sides with unconstitutional law, and told that it'll all be worked out in court if necessary, and in the meantime, comply or face the music.
Ah but a couple of those methods used in court, Fully Informed Jury and jury nullification, the courts try to prevent. Even though they were used by Founding Fathers of the USA. Jurors are told they can't look up or investigate themself and if they do they can be disqualified from the jury. And judges tell jurors they must just make a ruling on the facts of the case, they're not supposed to decide if a law is unconstitutional nor are they able to follow their conciousness. Personally I've been called for jury duty twice, hoping to get selected as a juror for a drug trial, so I could vote "not guilty" saying drug laws are unconstitutional. However neither tyme was I even called up for questioning.
FalconI am glad to hear that you were able to recover from your injury.
Thanks, but I've only partially recovered and will never fully recover without some sort of breakthrough in neurology, in Neurogenesis say. Which is unfortunate. My sister told me that after I came out of the coma I screamed at everyone to let me die, and more than 10 years later I still wish I had died. I love life but between living the way my life is and being dead I'd rather be dead.
FalconI had a discussion concerning helmet laws and motorcycles with a relative in Canada once. He pointed out the fact that society as a whole pays the cost of patching up and possibly supporting an injured motorcycle rider through the health care system and thus by society as a whole.
That may be true in Canada and other nations with socialized healthcare but it shouldn't in the US. Here in order to drive you or the vehicle has to be insured. I have to pay for insurance that at a minimum covers $50,000 pre person and $100,000 total per accident. At least I think that's what required, I don't recall for sure. When I get coverage I am asked if I wear a seatbelt, and if I don't I have to pay more. Or at least that's how it was when seatbelts weren't required. And that's how it is for health insurance and smoking. I smoke so my health insurance is higher than if I didn't smoke, when I had coverage. I currently live in a state that does not require helmets and I bet motorcycle insurance is the same, if you don't wear one you pay more.
Thus all those who have health insurance pay more when a person is injured severely because they did not wear a simple protective device.
As for severe injuries and helmet trquirments, I survived one while riding my bike years ago after classes I had in college. I am a Traumatic Brain Injury, TBI, survivor and after coming out of the coma I was in and leaving the hospital I had to move into a rehab house for several weeks. I then started therapy 8 hours a day 3 days a week. All together I went to 4 different places and spent more than a year in therapy. In each case the docs told me it would not of mattered at all if I had worn a helmet or not. My head was not hit, instead the injury was caused by the sudden violent movement of my brain. Heck, the only direct physical injury I sustained was to my left thumb, I can no longer bend or move it properly.
FalconIs the legal player free, as in cost?
TurboLinux comes with a licensed dvd player, though I don't know what it is. Mandriva comes with LinDVD which is a licensed player, unfortunately it isn't downloadable. Whether it is or not I don't know but it might be installable from a Mandriva disk, I doubt it as it's a binary application. Linspire also has a licensed player, which is probably also binary only. However it is downloadable from their CNR warehouse. The thing is is there may be a price attached, I didn't look, and you have to have the CNR software installed.
FalconThanks. There may be something appropriate there, it's hard to tell. The CNR warehouse doesn't have the best descriptions in the world.
I know it may take a while but you could Google each app until you find one that's right for you. Perhaps Sourceforge or Freshmeat has a description. All Linspire does is take software that's already out there and makes it easy to install and uninstall on PCs running the CNR software. They also have agreements with proprietary vendors to offer closed source proprietary software and cedecs.
FalconRecently we had a tragic accident here in our valley involving teenagers. All those in the vehicle wearing seat belts survived mostly uninjured, but one wonderful young lady who did not wear hers was killed.
I know of an accident that the results were the opposite. I knew a little girl who was wearing her seatbelt when there was an accident. Because the seatbelt was jambed she couldn't get out of the car and the car caught on fire. She burned to death, which is one of the worst ways to die. I hear some say make sure you have a knife with you. Yea right, you're going to carry a knife with you today. If you want to get carried off to jail go ahead. And like a little girl under 10 is supposed to have one she carries.
FalconUnfunded mandates at any level of government is nothing more than another tax upon the people.
Actually a mandate whether funded or not is another tax demand. Unfunded and it's those who have to impliment it that's taxed or does the axing (taxing) and if the feds fund it then it's everyone who's taxed.
A universal tamper-resistant national ID is in itself not such a bad idea
There is no such thing as a tamper proof ID, and pretending there is only makes it worse. As for whether a national ID is bad or not, there is no need for one and since there isn't the only reason to have one is to keep tabs on everyone which is bad.
Biometric IDs would certainly reduce identity fraud dramatically as well as the influx of illegal aliens.
Until someone is able to fake biometrics. There has to be a db somewhere so people's biometrics can be checked out. This requires people to admin the db and input new data. All it takes is one person with access who can then turn around and sale either data or data entry. Hell even Homeland security can't secure thier computers why would anyone else be able to either? As for "illegal aliens" I have no problem allowing anyone who wants to and can take care of their needs to immigrate. Laws making immigration illegal or difficult are nothing more than an attempt to keep "the other", undesirables, out. It's been going on for a long tyme. Benjamin Frankiln proposed a law making it illegal for Germans to immigrate. During the 1850s the No Nothings wanted to stop Irish immigrants. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed excluding Chinese from immigratiing to the USA.
If you want to talk about "illegal immigration" then I want to know what Native American Indian tribe are you from. If you are not American Indian then you're illegal. Not one European, African, or Asian had their immigration documents stamped by any tribe. Those who came then massacred and tried to wipe out natives, I don't see that happening now though.
FalconNo, FDR did not follow through on his court-packing plan. He didn't have to, because the Court gave in to the mere threat of it. Look it up, for God's sake.
Perhaps you're right, partially at least. Googling I found where FDR tried to expand the USSC, by adding up to six new justices, however he lost. Appearently he tried this because the USSC invalidated some of his New Deal measures. However some of those rulings were modified with new liberal justices on the bench, justices he nominated.
FalconThat may be true now but would you like it if your political or religious opponent had the same power? Say, if you except it now would you like it if Clinton had the same power? Actually in the '90s Clinton did ask congress for these powers however the Republican congress was afraid he'd abuse it. What's legal now may be illegal later and they can go after you after it was made illegal. There are any number of reason it's bad government, or anyone else, can create a db of your life. Especailly when it's not needed!
FalconThe Federal government has a piss-poor history of IT and information security. The whole place, at least on the civilan/unclassified side, leaks like a sieve and loses computers and data at a terrifying rate.
It's not just "civilian" agencies that have trouble keeping information secure. FEMA, part of Homeland security, don't keep their computers secure.
FalconAlso, I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing 200 years ago they didn't write 1,000 page bills. Who the hell can read through 10,000 pages a week to search for this crap?
No, 200 years ago congress didn't write 200 page never mind 1000 page bills. Back then congressional sessions were short, most of congress had to work for a living and couldn't take much tyme off to go to Washington. A few states are still like this, Texas for instance. By law, or constitutional, the Texas legislature can only meet for 90, 120, or however many days every other year, without the governor calling for a special session. We need to have a Constitutional amendment saying the same thing, and add the requirement that anybody, most everybody, be able to understand all bills. Also add the requiremment that each bill have only one item it deals with, no unrelated riders or anything like that.
I know a person would be living in fantasyland if they actually believe congress would ever go for any of these amendments, but it would be nice if they gave up some of their power.
FalconThe authors of the constitution were well aware of slavery and simply bypassed the issue. They had the opportunity to make it illegal and did not do it.
That's because some of them were slave owners.
FalconNow, Justice Thomas of the US Supreme Court alone believes that the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution should basically the force of law, although nearly everyone else thinks the words are merely aspirational. I tend to agree with Justice Thomas on this; there is just something powerful and basic about "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."
In his first drafts of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the DOI, wrote that everybody including slaves and women had the same rights. He had to remove these parts though because other signatories were against them. Many believed in slavery and were slave owners and some thought of females as property as well. Thomas Jefferson himself was a contradiction, he both owned slaves and was against slavery. He also believed women had the same rights but he thought they should stay "in thier place".
Falcon