The way things are going, I will be able to enjoy a fairly nice lifestyle for 30 to 40 years on my Social Security and free medical care (my family tends to live long time), and die just in time to leave all you young, poor suckers to pay off the debt. While this works well for me, it's a bad idea for the nation. Sorry!:D
You paid taxes while you were working, your children will pay taxes while they are working, their children will pay taxes while they are working...Why does the debt magically crystallise on your death?
The military cannot be cut because they'll need the military to put down the insurrection in the States when martial law is declared. Frankly, I don't think it will do them any good. There are so many gun toting civilians and many will step up their game to more powerful methods once the martial law police start coming for their families to cull the population. It's gonna be messy.
I'm sure you'll be fine with your stash of guns, ammo, tinned food and Bibles.
I know I can readily go back to working in manual labor (and, sadly, make far more money than I ever have working in IT),
I don't know if you have a special definition of "manual labor" in the US, but in the rest of the world we mean things like carrying bricks on a building site, driving a delivery vehicle or doing gardening. And the idea that by doing those sorts of jobs you'll earn more than in IT is just laughable.
If you mean "working in a manufacturing environment as an engineer who has to get his hands dirty", I still doubt that it's better paid than all but the most junior-level IT job.
The myth that all plumbers earn hundreds of thousands a year is normally heard expressed by whining middle class elitists who can't believe someone has the nerve to charge them for changing a tap washer.
Why do so many people on slashdot think that being an independent contractor earning "outrageous" fees is the norm for most working people? And if they don't what is the point of mentioning it, other than showing off?
Sure if there's something urgent I'll come in on the weekend or work late.
You're already bought in to their crap in that case. Your kid going to hospital is urgent. Work can wait til the next day. I'm assuming you're not in Special Forces.
Or you could just say 'No'. So long as people are willing (if not eager) to be tied to work 24/7, companies will be happy to allow them to be.
I had jury duty today, 7 blissful hours of no-cell-phones-or-internet-devices allowed. Just got home, read through some/., now I have to make up the work I missed today. The "benefits" of making a 6 digit salary. I'm sure I could say no, but then I'd be marginalized and making probably half of what I'm making. Not ready to make that jump (just yet).
Slacker. At my company, anyone who isn't clever enough to wangle a way out of doing jury service is fired on the spot. And then they and their children are murdered horribly. Pour encourager les autres, you know. Society can go fuck itself as long as my workers are on the clock 24/7.
It may be a bit of conceit on the part of the learned, I suppose - they're "smart enough" to handle their own job affairs without having someone else dictate their working conditions.
Clever people fall for the "anyone can become President/a billionaire" US bullshit much more easily than those who are less educated, as the latter have had it drummed into them enough to know they're never goint to get anywhere without help.
I'm quite comfortable with taking care of myself in my business dealings.
Great, we know you're really successful and everything, but you are ignoring the simple fact that for the vast majority of people the relationship between employee and employer is skewed horribly in favour of the latter.
Personally, I do not care a jot about interfering with the freedom of a few very well off people to make themselves more money. It's getting the majority decent jobs and living conditions that is of more concern.
The grandparent's attempt boils down to "I don't want to take a pay cut and/or look for a new job so I put up with a lot of shit." That's voluntary. Nobody's holding a gun to their head, physically or metaphorically. They aren't going to jail, if they leave the job.
Yes, everyone is perfectly free to starve themselves to death or otherwise commit suicide too. What is your point?
It is only the evil government interference in the free market (by taxing peopl and paying unemployment and other benefits) which makes it possible for leaving a job not to be a literal matter of life and death, and even then the overwheming balance of power is in favour of the rich employer.
Libertarian is just a nice-sounding alternative to "absolutely selfish, dog-eat-dog, heartless, pitiless laissez faire capitalism". We tried that up until a hundred years ago, and decided it didn't produce a very nice society.
If you are senior/brilliant/indispensable enough, then by definition you can re-negotiate your contract and keep the upper hand in employment negotiations.
Unfortunately, 99% of people don't have that luxury.
when I informed people I didn't want to get work email on my phone, I was greeted with both awkward looks and suspicion.
Couldn't you just have said yes, then not checked your work email account outside work hours? Or was the implication that you had to respond immediately?
They probably didn't think that the simple fact of being a homicidal maniac should interfere with his constitutional right to bear arms. In other words the NSA is run by insane libertarians.
Luckily I used my elite Special Forces ANTICOINTELPRO training to subvert the evil slashdot censorship by clicking on the same fucking link you posted last time.
?
You should at least have mocked up some fake "this website is currently under investigation by the FBI" page or something to give us something to bitch about.
Back in the 90s pgp and widespread up public key crypto were going to be the next thing. Never caught on . But I am sure even the NSA doesn't have to power to decrypt the volume of a fraction of the populations communication if they were to use crypto regularly and even mundane communications
The reason encryption never caught on with the general public for their mundane communications is because, well, their communications are mundane.
It's not a question of "if you're not guilty you've got nothing to hide", it's "you're never going to be go to prison for emailing that you want lamb for dinner".
Obama ended the war in Iraq, just like he said he would. He hasn't ended Afghanistan and, if you were actually paying attention to the 2008 campaign, it was extremely clear that he was never going to. You have to be an idiot to believe that he would.
I thought the official US/UK line was still that Afghanistan was still a jolly good idea, unlike Iraq which luckily we can blame on previous politicians?
I know there is always a problem with terminology when discussing US politics as an outsider, but in non-American usage, a liberal is in the centre of the political spectrum and not left wing at all (other than in the sense of not being right wing).
A true libertarian would be FOR environmental regs, because "your right to swing your fist stops where my nose begins".
No. A True Libertarian would argue the government should NOT have environmental regs. It should have courts, where you can sue someone whose activities are having spill over effects harming your person or property. That court should either force them stop or fairly compensate you.
Indeed, your True Libertarian is insane, not hypocritical.
Now, back to the abortion question. Remember that I started out by saying that, in my opinion, a fetus is a person rather than tissue. If that is so, then that unborn person's right to live trumps the mother's right to choose, to convenience, or to whatever other reason she might have for getting an abortion. In my viewpoint, just as my right to keep and bear arms ends the moment I start using a firearm in a way that creates an undue hazard to other people, the mother's freedom of choice ends at the point where it involves taking a baby's life. If you do not believe that a fetus is a person, then you will most likely come to a different conclusion, which is why I stated earlier that we cannot come to a consensus on abortion until we come to a consensus on when a fetus becomes a person.
So you would have abortifacient contraceptives like IUDs and the morning after pill made illegal ?
Well logically they'd make all contraception illegal, as well as male masturbation, since each sperm is a potential life-bringer just waiting to find its soul mate and create another baby for Jesus.
Paul, like me, doesn't believe a fetus is just "tissue;" he believes it is a person.
That is to say, he's an extreme right wing loony, which we all knew anyway. Calling a person or belief "libertarian" doesn't make them magically different from the standard issue frothing-at-the-mouth reactionary fuckbag.
Slashdot Mirror
The way things are going, I will be able to enjoy a fairly nice lifestyle for 30 to 40 years on my Social Security and free medical care (my family tends to live long time), and die just in time to leave all you young, poor suckers to pay off the debt. While this works well for me, it's a bad idea for the nation. Sorry! :D
You paid taxes while you were working, your children will pay taxes while they are working, their children will pay taxes while they are working...Why does the debt magically crystallise on your death?
The military cannot be cut because they'll need the military to put down the insurrection in the States when martial law is declared. Frankly, I don't think it will do them any good. There are so many gun toting civilians and many will step up their game to more powerful methods once the martial law police start coming for their families to cull the population. It's gonna be messy.
I'm sure you'll be fine with your stash of guns, ammo, tinned food and Bibles.
I know I can readily go back to working in manual labor (and, sadly, make far more money than I ever have working in IT),
I don't know if you have a special definition of "manual labor" in the US, but in the rest of the world we mean things like carrying bricks on a building site, driving a delivery vehicle or doing gardening. And the idea that by doing those sorts of jobs you'll earn more than in IT is just laughable.
If you mean "working in a manufacturing environment as an engineer who has to get his hands dirty", I still doubt that it's better paid than all but the most junior-level IT job.
The myth that all plumbers earn hundreds of thousands a year is normally heard expressed by whining middle class elitists who can't believe someone has the nerve to charge them for changing a tap washer.
Why do so many people on slashdot think that being an independent contractor earning "outrageous" fees is the norm for most working people? And if they don't what is the point of mentioning it, other than showing off?
Sure if there's something urgent I'll come in on the weekend or work late.
You're already bought in to their crap in that case. Your kid going to hospital is urgent. Work can wait til the next day. I'm assuming you're not in Special Forces.
But this should never become a habit.
Oh, it will.
Sure, I'm interactive with work 24/7
No you're not.
but I'm also interactive with my family and friends 24/7
No you're not.
and have more quality time with them
No you don't.
Or you could just say 'No'. So long as people are willing (if not eager) to be tied to work 24/7, companies will be happy to allow them to be.
I had jury duty today, 7 blissful hours of no-cell-phones-or-internet-devices allowed. Just got home, read through some /., now I have to make up the work I missed today. The "benefits" of making a 6 digit salary. I'm sure I could say no, but then I'd be marginalized and making probably half of what I'm making. Not ready to make that jump (just yet).
Slacker. At my company, anyone who isn't clever enough to wangle a way out of doing jury service is fired on the spot. And then they and their children are murdered horribly. Pour encourager les autres, you know. Society can go fuck itself as long as my workers are on the clock 24/7.
It may be a bit of conceit on the part of the learned, I suppose - they're "smart enough" to handle their own job affairs without having someone else dictate their working conditions.
Clever people fall for the "anyone can become President/a billionaire" US bullshit much more easily than those who are less educated, as the latter have had it drummed into them enough to know they're never goint to get anywhere without help.
I'm quite comfortable with taking care of myself in my business dealings.
Great, we know you're really successful and everything, but you are ignoring the simple fact that for the vast majority of people the relationship between employee and employer is skewed horribly in favour of the latter.
Personally, I do not care a jot about interfering with the freedom of a few very well off people to make themselves more money. It's getting the majority decent jobs and living conditions that is of more concern.
The grandparent's attempt boils down to "I don't want to take a pay cut and/or look for a new job so I put up with a lot of shit." That's voluntary. Nobody's holding a gun to their head, physically or metaphorically. They aren't going to jail, if they leave the job.
Yes, everyone is perfectly free to starve themselves to death or otherwise commit suicide too. What is your point?
It is only the evil government interference in the free market (by taxing peopl and paying unemployment and other benefits) which makes it possible for leaving a job not to be a literal matter of life and death, and even then the overwheming balance of power is in favour of the rich employer.
Libertarian is just a nice-sounding alternative to "absolutely selfish, dog-eat-dog, heartless, pitiless laissez faire capitalism". We tried that up until a hundred years ago, and decided it didn't produce a very nice society.
As a very anti-union person
Unless you are a rich capitalist who can only make money by exploiting un-organised labour (in which case you an fuck off) then just fuck off.
If you are senior/brilliant/indispensable enough, then by definition you can re-negotiate your contract and keep the upper hand in employment negotiations.
Unfortunately, 99% of people don't have that luxury.
when I informed people I didn't want to get work email on my phone, I was greeted with both awkward looks and suspicion.
Couldn't you just have said yes, then not checked your work email account outside work hours? Or was the implication that you had to respond immediately?
They probably didn't think that the simple fact of being a homicidal maniac should interfere with his constitutional right to bear arms. In other words the NSA is run by insane libertarians.
Luckily I used my elite Special Forces ANTICOINTELPRO training to subvert the evil slashdot censorship by clicking on the same fucking link you posted last time. ?
You should at least have mocked up some fake "this website is currently under investigation by the FBI" page or something to give us something to bitch about.
Back in the 90s pgp and widespread up public key crypto were going to be the next thing. Never caught on . But I am sure even the NSA doesn't have to power to decrypt the volume of a fraction of the populations communication if they were to use crypto regularly and even mundane communications
The reason encryption never caught on with the general public for their mundane communications is because, well, their communications are mundane.
It's not a question of "if you're not guilty you've got nothing to hide", it's "you're never going to be go to prison for emailing that you want lamb for dinner".
Obama ended the war in Iraq, just like he said he would. He hasn't ended Afghanistan and, if you were actually paying attention to the 2008 campaign, it was extremely clear that he was never going to. You have to be an idiot to believe that he would.
I thought the official US/UK line was still that Afghanistan was still a jolly good idea, unlike Iraq which luckily we can blame on previous politicians?
I know there is always a problem with terminology when discussing US politics as an outsider, but in non-American usage, a liberal is in the centre of the political spectrum and not left wing at all (other than in the sense of not being right wing).
If the American right is as radical as the European far right, but the American left isn't as radical as the European far left, well... there you go.
Speaking as a European, I have to ask whether there is an American far left at all?
Seriously, are there any socialist/communist/actual left wing politicians in any position of power whatsoever?
And, no, I don't count Barack Obama.
The fact that the media and Wall-street don't like Ron Paul speaks for itself.
Yes, it speaks for the fact that he is more right wing and insane than people like Rupert Murdoch and Gordon Gecko.
Maybe he should have used that as his campaign slogan.
A true libertarian would be FOR environmental regs, because "your right to swing your fist stops where my nose begins".
No. A True Libertarian would argue the government should NOT have environmental regs. It should have courts, where you can sue someone whose activities are having spill over effects harming your person or property. That court should either force them stop or fairly compensate you.
Indeed, your True Libertarian is insane, not hypocritical.
Now, back to the abortion question. Remember that I started out by saying that, in my opinion, a fetus is a person rather than tissue. If that is so, then that unborn person's right to live trumps the mother's right to choose, to convenience, or to whatever other reason she might have for getting an abortion. In my viewpoint, just as my right to keep and bear arms ends the moment I start using a firearm in a way that creates an undue hazard to other people, the mother's freedom of choice ends at the point where it involves taking a baby's life. If you do not believe that a fetus is a person, then you will most likely come to a different conclusion, which is why I stated earlier that we cannot come to a consensus on abortion until we come to a consensus on when a fetus becomes a person.
So you would have abortifacient contraceptives like IUDs and the morning after pill made illegal ?
Well logically they'd make all contraception illegal, as well as male masturbation, since each sperm is a potential life-bringer just waiting to find its soul mate and create another baby for Jesus.
That, in a nutshell, is the crux of the abortion debate. Until we can come to a consensus on when a fetus becomes a person
Isn't the logical answer "when it can survive as a person"?
I don't think many abortin advocates would suggest that you would abort a child at 37 weeks and knock it on the head with a hammer.
Paul, like me, doesn't believe a fetus is just "tissue;" he believes it is a person.
That is to say, he's an extreme right wing loony, which we all knew anyway. Calling a person or belief "libertarian" doesn't make them magically different from the standard issue frothing-at-the-mouth reactionary fuckbag.
Yes Joseph, you're completely safe posting as "Anonymous Coward."
And by doing that you've done a great job of protecting your lovely wife Cindy and two kids, Mark and Mac.
Just keep posting as Anonymous Coward, and no one, not even your neighbors on Shelly St., will ever know who you are.
Sincerely,
NSA 9800 Savage Road Fort Meade, MD 20755 (301) 688-6524
Ha! You can't fool me, you're not really the NSA.
It's Shelby, not Shelly Street, fascists.