even if they get there way in Congress the IRS will be on all the small-time artist's asses over the taxes due for work for hire jobs.
FTFY
What, you didn't actually think they'd bother the labels did you?
Besides all the campaign contributions, etc protecting the labels, the artists are easier and less trouble for the IRS to strangle as they don't use whole legal-dept-worth's of lawyers in defensive legal saturation-bombing and mass lobbyist assaults that would turn the skies of D.C. dark with connected-political-influence-peddler suits-with-cash-hookers-and-coke parachuting in.
Pundits just WANT the PC to go away because they realize they screwed up in that early product cycle by giving all the power to the users. Users have the ability to change anything or do anything they want and can un-cripple anything they do to that class of devices. They want to introduce something shiny and new that is locked down and sealed box like smart phones where they can cripple them and sell the features back to you piecemill.
I would argue it's not the "pundits" that would like very much for PCs to go away, but the movie, gaming, software, and music industries, as well as governments.
It's the "general purpose computer" part they don't like, I agree.
A general purpose computer allows users to do things these power centers don't like and can't control, and/or can't anticipate well. They allow things like Anonymous, Wikileaks, TOR, Bittorrent, and Freenet just to name a few.
It's one area both governments and many powerful business sectors can agree on...removing power, freedom, and flexibility from the masses, to them, is a good thing.
They tried floating "Trusted Computing" and that type of obviously intentionally restricted/crippled system was fairly roundly rejected. So, they got smart and got some marketing brains together and found that if they could tie the reduced power, freedom, and flexibility to "ooh, shiny!...and SMALL!!", they stood a good chance of succeeding in shifting the momentum towards largely removing the power, freedom, and flexibility of the general-purpose computer from the hands of much of the general population without the population realizing what is happening until it's far too late to change the direction of the technology shift.
It already happens in clubs and pubs in the UK that only play indie music or non-mainstream music, they get letters and threats legal action if they do not get a contract from media cartels to play live music to the public. Insane huh?
Insane, yes. Happens in the States here as well. Even had one of the suits in come into a club I was gigging at, and while he was waiting to speak to the owner, he tried to tell me and my band we had to pay for performance rights, even though we weren't a "cover" band, all our music was original songs written ourselves.
I'm a biker-looking leather-jacket type, a bit over 6-ft, and a fit & solid 185 lbs. I happened to still be wearing my Stratocaster, having just come off-stage between sets. I asked him, theoretically speaking of course, how much damage he thought a ~12 pound alder wood guitar could do to a human skull.
He suddenly found somewhere else he vitally needed to be.:)
Of course, he was actually in no danger. I would never soil my guitar that badly for such as him.
Unless you happen to have sold out to a big enough publisher (of any kind) capable of bribing the ISPs, they will not care about your valuable content being "illegally" copied.
Worse than that, I'm certain the big content cartels would prefer (and will float trying to enact) more of a "whitelist" type of system, wherein you'd start getting warnings and begin the progressive throttling/punishments/banishments journey for downloading any content that's NOT on their lists as "approved" with little recourse, or painfully difficult & impractical means and procedures for recourse, in the event that no infringement is actually occurring...like a small-time artist distributing their own music, video, etc.
The big content cartels are increasingly viewing independent artists bypassing the cartels' distribution networks by direct internet distribution as a serious threat to their business model. This would be an excellent vector for them to push back on this trend and limit their perceived losses and the threats to their lock on distribution.
With more and more consolidation of "big content" with ISPs, this is a threat that must be addressed.
Then all you're engaging in is intellectual masturbation. This is not some theoretical philosophical debate with no consequences.
This has real-world, life-and-death consequences that affect everyone, including you. Unless you include yourself, you're being totally disingenuous and intellectually dishonest.
I can see that this discussion can go no further, as you simply want the freedom to do whatever you want without any restrictions but what you decide to place on yourself. Until you decide to join civilization, there's nothing more to discuss.
I would submit that attacking and injuring random people for kicks would qualify as "wrongness". Would it be wrong if some stranger just walked up to you and bashed in your head for no other reason than the entertainment value? You'd be OK with that?
We're not talking the subjective wrongness of violating patent or copyright laws, or something similar. There's plenty of room for debate there. But inflicting grievous physical harm or even death on another for entertainment? That's not "subjective". That's very "objective", as in objective physical bodily harm and/or death.
If it's self defense, then I'd have no problem with it. Keep in mind that criminals are a minority (even if in some situations it doesn't seem that way).
Well, there at least two ways to view this;
A) It's simply putting Darwin to work. The kids that tend to participate in this behavior will not survive to breed, and therefor genetics will tend to breed for more early-maturing children. As a side benefit, the funeral home & casket-maker businesses will experience an upswing.
B) We could restrict minor children's freedom to be out late at night until such age as the majority of them are mature enough to understand the wrongness of their immature behavior and the risk of death/maiming/serious injury it incurs upon themselves and others.
Personally, I tend to favor the temporary restrictions in order for the children to have a fair chance to grow up and achieve a reasonable level of mental and emotional maturity without being killed, hopefully to then become productive citizens rather than a youth-death statistic.
But, that's just me being a an old softy I suppose.
Let's hope that more than the typical stern warnings, fines, temporary suspensions, or local firings while leaving them eligible to be employed as an LEO elsewhere occurs.
By all rights those officers should see significant prison time. We shall see how the wheels of Justice turn for those who trample on the trust given to those who are entrusted with the enforcement of Law.
I don't know how much good it'll do but I've written the mayor asking for the firing of those officers involved.
Though I applaud your effort, unless you vote in their district and/or are a known & significant political donator to local politicians, I doubt it will have much effect.
A less sinister and conspiratorial reason might simply be that, now that the launch complex isn't seeing a shuttle launch every couple of months, there's a good bit of downtime to do the cleanup without interfering with launch operations.
One would think that if future launches were planned that would contaminate the area all over again, where's the logic? It's not like there's a whole new class of "green" rocket propulsion tech out there ready to be used, at least for the Earth-to-LOE leg where heavy lift is necessary. Seems it would be a complete waste of an enormous amount of money and resources in that case.
Most industrial sites aren't cleaned up until the facilities creating the contamination are no longer in operation, like all the EPA Superfund sites. I used to live in the Satellite Beach area in the '70s and early '80s. We're talking an enormous area that's a mix of heavily developed commercial & condominium real estate as well as a lot of swamp in the Indian and Banana River area. Cleanup will be a huge and very, very expensive operation.
Cleaning up the area will cause significant disruption and costs to the surrounding area and economy outside of the cleanup costs & difficulties as well as cause major disturbance to local wildlife and environment. It's not something that one wants to repeat every decade or two.
I'm not necessarily trying to be some sort of conspiracy theorist here, but there are some large questions regarding the logic of timing, long term space program plans, and questions of government waste behind the whole thing that nobody is asking.
...Why they've decided, after how many decades, to start cleaning up *now*? Are they never planning on launching any more missions...like, ever?
Makes me think they plan on completely shutting down any further NASA manned space missions (or even heavy-lift unmanned missions) for the foreseeable future, or maybe permanently.
Do they plan on turning it all over to private enterprise, or do they plan on simply halting all further US space exploration, outside of Earth-orbiting satellites?
If they do, is it simply a government funding/budget issue, or do they fear that possible future expansion of humans into space might threaten their ability to maintain control over every human, and are stopping any future human expansion beyond their ability to maintain control before it has a chance to truly begin?
There are more important questions than what exact compounds they are attempting to clean up.
Note to self: BlueStrat is apparently Christian, hillbilly trailer-trash.
Christian, yes.
However, judging from the posts in reply, I can only aspire in my wildest dreams to the level of power and control of the entire society, economy, and all it's ethnic & religious sub-groups, attributed by said posters to "hillbilly trailer-trash".
I think this is where I say; "I, for one, welcome our moon-shining, NASCAR-watching, double-wide overlords".
- well, I am not your president, so what do you care?
Really? I so thought you were!
Damn, I wish he WAS!!
Too bad, as he'd be a whole *hell* of a lot better than anyone the American political system is offering up currently for the position. He's certainly demonstrated a far greater understanding of what the US *was* all about than any US politician, or even most of its' citizens.
Sadly, I find any more that I have much more ideologically in common with those survivors from the former USSR and satellite countries that actually understand what freedom is and it's value, and also tyranny and it's horrors, than I do most of my fellow countrymen, many who seem hell-bent on repeating those horrors of tyranny.
I don't see this same level of "PC" sensitivity when others make tasteless jokes about "hillbillys", "trailer-trash", or any derogatory Christian references or insults, regardless of factual/cultural accuracy.
This is just a plot by Bush Cheney & Big Oil to destroy the world!! Now hurry up with the organic hempseed paint so I can finish my sign protesting Nuclear power plants and solar power plants that despoil Nature's beauty and wind turbines that spoil the views of multimillionares in Nantucket!! We won't save the world until China produces everything because there's no pollution in China!
I agree it's all a lie, but for a different reason. There is no NASA anymore with the ending of manned space flight.
It's now the National Aeronautics and Space Simulator agency (N-ASS).
In keeping with their new Presidential directive to participate in Muslim outreach, I understand that they've been tasked with producing the next-gen MechWarrior simulator game, all in Farsi. The "battlemechs" all wear burkhas and have no weapons systems....they just explode with a cellphone call.
Dad still plays on his 30 year old stereo 30 year old music. Not a lot of wrong notes (or mixer catastrophes) on Dark Side of the Moon. Goes well with a 30 year old whiskey, too.
In my case, the amplifier is a NAD 7040 and a small pair of B&W S3. The NAD doesn't give a damn about driving 4 ohms. This speaker is reputed to be 8 ohms at most, and well less than 8 ohms over fairly wide sub bands.
You should hear DSotM through a pair of McIntosh monoblock vacuum tube amps (or current-day vacuum tube based equivalents in quality) and a good set of speakers. You won't miss the whiskey if you don't happen to have any around.
There's something pleasing to the human ear when listening to well-mastered music through a vacuum tube amp that's missing with a solid-state amp.
Most electric guitarists also strongly prefer the sound they get playing through a vacuum tube based amplifier as well (I'm one of those...I even design & build them as a hobby and business).
Post back here when you notice the increase in blacked out SUVs in your neighborhood.
For extra fun, direct a low-powered IR laser, and maybe a low-powered microwave beam as well (extra points for an obvious-looking dish antenna also pointed at the SUV), at the blacked out rear-side windows, while making sure you're seen near your dwelling's windows wearing industrial/communications-style headphones while staring directly at the vehicle and typing madly on a laptop.
For extra credit, casually walk by the SUV and attach an empty box (or filled with junk PCBs) with magnets to the underside of the bumper.
For extra-super credit, place nothing but a note in the under-bumper box that says "Eat At Joe's". They'll go mad attempting to decode it.
When was the Internet anything other than a "lawless wild west"?
The internet is the wild west, but it is far from lawless... it just so happens that there are very few laws.
One of those laws is the trustworthiness of DNS. The proposal at hand is actually one that makes the internet MORE lawless...
Indeed. Funny thing, this requires judges and lawyers being woven into the fabric of internet - I don't like the idea.
And politicians.
Don't forget the damned politicians.
Politicians, lawyers, and judges.
The Unholy Trinity.
Of course, it was inevitable that a source of such wealth, information, and power available to the unwashed such as the internet would become a target for control for such as they.
It had to happen. They by their very nature are unable to tolerate anything that empowers regular people unless it's been made "safe"..."safe" from use against *them* by the people, and "safe" against regular people using it to communicate information, ideas, and wealth created independently from, and unmonitored by, those in power.
I'm surprised the freedom of the internet hasn't been attacked more intensely and with more determination than it has at this point in the 'net's history.
I guess looting the country and the citizens while trying to turn it into a Third-World hellhole takes most of their attention. It must be really hard work, too, judging by the number of vacations they take on the taxpayer's dime.
There are elephants in rooms, and there are white elephants. The two never combine. I know, I read the manual.
The elephant in the room is an unavoidable fact everyone is ignoring. A white elephant is a rarity, something never seen normally. Then there are pink elephants, which are hallucinations no one ever wants to see.
You see, the white elephants never hang around in rooms long enough for everyone to notice, but not comment on.
Sorry, just a pet peeve like "irregardless"... In fact I have several pet peeves, I got my last one from a shelter!
I humbly bow before your obviously superior grasp of hypothetical-phylopachydermological grammanariousness. Please forgive, it *is* a rather specialized field.:P
Slashdot Mirror
You have a very jaded view of your police force.
Maybe there is some cause for mistrust?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kassP7zI0qc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Vp32WeGHE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_SBnZXCaGI
Just sayin'
Strat
Its the LABELS that would owe taxes.
I'm not arguing that at all.
I'm saying that regardless of who might actually technically owe, the labels won't be paying in the end, the artists will.
Simply because artists aren't politically connected nor contribute large sums to politicians, nor do they have teams of lawyers & lobbyists.
Strat
even if they get there way in Congress the IRS will be on all the small-time artist's asses over the taxes due for work for hire jobs.
FTFY
What, you didn't actually think they'd bother the labels did you?
Besides all the campaign contributions, etc protecting the labels, the artists are easier and less trouble for the IRS to strangle as they don't use whole legal-dept-worth's of lawyers in defensive legal saturation-bombing and mass lobbyist assaults that would turn the skies of D.C. dark with connected-political-influence-peddler suits-with-cash-hookers-and-coke parachuting in.
Strat
Pundits just WANT the PC to go away because they realize they screwed up in that early product cycle by giving all the power to the users. Users have the ability to change anything or do anything they want and can un-cripple anything they do to that class of devices. They want to introduce something shiny and new that is locked down and sealed box like smart phones where they can cripple them and sell the features back to you piecemill.
I would argue it's not the "pundits" that would like very much for PCs to go away, but the movie, gaming, software, and music industries, as well as governments.
It's the "general purpose computer" part they don't like, I agree.
A general purpose computer allows users to do things these power centers don't like and can't control, and/or can't anticipate well. They allow things like Anonymous, Wikileaks, TOR, Bittorrent, and Freenet just to name a few.
It's one area both governments and many powerful business sectors can agree on...removing power, freedom, and flexibility from the masses, to them, is a good thing.
They tried floating "Trusted Computing" and that type of obviously intentionally restricted/crippled system was fairly roundly rejected. So, they got smart and got some marketing brains together and found that if they could tie the reduced power, freedom, and flexibility to "ooh, shiny!...and SMALL!!", they stood a good chance of succeeding in shifting the momentum towards largely removing the power, freedom, and flexibility of the general-purpose computer from the hands of much of the general population without the population realizing what is happening until it's far too late to change the direction of the technology shift.
Strat
It already happens in clubs and pubs in the UK that only play indie music or non-mainstream music, they get letters and threats legal action if they do not get a contract from media cartels to play live music to the public. Insane huh?
Insane, yes. Happens in the States here as well. Even had one of the suits in come into a club I was gigging at, and while he was waiting to speak to the owner, he tried to tell me and my band we had to pay for performance rights, even though we weren't a "cover" band, all our music was original songs written ourselves.
I'm a biker-looking leather-jacket type, a bit over 6-ft, and a fit & solid 185 lbs. I happened to still be wearing my Stratocaster, having just come off-stage between sets. I asked him, theoretically speaking of course, how much damage he thought a ~12 pound alder wood guitar could do to a human skull.
He suddenly found somewhere else he vitally needed to be. :)
Of course, he was actually in no danger. I would never soil my guitar that badly for such as him.
Strat
Unless you happen to have sold out to a big enough publisher (of any kind) capable of bribing the ISPs, they will not care about your valuable content being "illegally" copied.
Worse than that, I'm certain the big content cartels would prefer (and will float trying to enact) more of a "whitelist" type of system, wherein you'd start getting warnings and begin the progressive throttling/punishments/banishments journey for downloading any content that's NOT on their lists as "approved" with little recourse, or painfully difficult & impractical means and procedures for recourse, in the event that no infringement is actually occurring...like a small-time artist distributing their own music, video, etc.
The big content cartels are increasingly viewing independent artists bypassing the cartels' distribution networks by direct internet distribution as a serious threat to their business model. This would be an excellent vector for them to push back on this trend and limit their perceived losses and the threats to their lock on distribution.
With more and more consolidation of "big content" with ISPs, this is a threat that must be addressed.
Strat
No, but I wasn't talking about me.
Then all you're engaging in is intellectual masturbation. This is not some theoretical philosophical debate with no consequences.
This has real-world, life-and-death consequences that affect everyone, including you. Unless you include yourself, you're being totally disingenuous and intellectually dishonest.
I can see that this discussion can go no further, as you simply want the freedom to do whatever you want without any restrictions but what you decide to place on yourself. Until you decide to join civilization, there's nothing more to discuss.
Regards
Strat
What "wrongness"? That's subjective.
I would submit that attacking and injuring random people for kicks would qualify as "wrongness". Would it be wrong if some stranger just walked up to you and bashed in your head for no other reason than the entertainment value? You'd be OK with that?
We're not talking the subjective wrongness of violating patent or copyright laws, or something similar. There's plenty of room for debate there. But inflicting grievous physical harm or even death on another for entertainment? That's not "subjective". That's very "objective", as in objective physical bodily harm and/or death.
Strat
If it's self defense, then I'd have no problem with it. Keep in mind that criminals are a minority (even if in some situations it doesn't seem that way).
Well, there at least two ways to view this;
A) It's simply putting Darwin to work. The kids that tend to participate in this behavior will not survive to breed, and therefor genetics will tend to breed for more early-maturing children. As a side benefit, the funeral home & casket-maker businesses will experience an upswing.
B) We could restrict minor children's freedom to be out late at night until such age as the majority of them are mature enough to understand the wrongness of their immature behavior and the risk of death/maiming/serious injury it incurs upon themselves and others.
Personally, I tend to favor the temporary restrictions in order for the children to have a fair chance to grow up and achieve a reasonable level of mental and emotional maturity without being killed, hopefully to then become productive citizens rather than a youth-death statistic.
But, that's just me being a an old softy I suppose.
Strat
Well, I say bravo sir!
Definitely more than I expected.
Let's hope that more than the typical stern warnings, fines, temporary suspensions, or local firings while leaving them eligible to be employed as an LEO elsewhere occurs.
By all rights those officers should see significant prison time. We shall see how the wheels of Justice turn for those who trample on the trust given to those who are entrusted with the enforcement of Law.
Strat
I don't know how much good it'll do but I've written the mayor asking for the firing of those officers involved.
Though I applaud your effort, unless you vote in their district and/or are a known & significant political donator to local politicians, I doubt it will have much effect.
It's all about the Pentiu^W^W^WBenjamins baby!
Strat
It's never too late to educate your police force on the fine points of the Constitution.
They might even grow to appreciate it.
Yeah, right...
Try telling that to *this* cop and then get back to us. If you survive, that is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kassP7zI0qc
Strat
Why not energy? All one has to do is convert some mass to energy. If you run low on mass, just convert some energy to mass.
See? Simple! :P
Strat
A less sinister and conspiratorial reason might simply be that, now that the launch complex isn't seeing a shuttle launch every couple of months, there's a good bit of downtime to do the cleanup without interfering with launch operations.
One would think that if future launches were planned that would contaminate the area all over again, where's the logic? It's not like there's a whole new class of "green" rocket propulsion tech out there ready to be used, at least for the Earth-to-LOE leg where heavy lift is necessary. Seems it would be a complete waste of an enormous amount of money and resources in that case.
Most industrial sites aren't cleaned up until the facilities creating the contamination are no longer in operation, like all the EPA Superfund sites. I used to live in the Satellite Beach area in the '70s and early '80s. We're talking an enormous area that's a mix of heavily developed commercial & condominium real estate as well as a lot of swamp in the Indian and Banana River area. Cleanup will be a huge and very, very expensive operation.
Cleaning up the area will cause significant disruption and costs to the surrounding area and economy outside of the cleanup costs & difficulties as well as cause major disturbance to local wildlife and environment. It's not something that one wants to repeat every decade or two.
I'm not necessarily trying to be some sort of conspiracy theorist here, but there are some large questions regarding the logic of timing, long term space program plans, and questions of government waste behind the whole thing that nobody is asking.
Strat
...Why they've decided, after how many decades, to start cleaning up *now*? Are they never planning on launching any more missions...like, ever?
Makes me think they plan on completely shutting down any further NASA manned space missions (or even heavy-lift unmanned missions) for the foreseeable future, or maybe permanently.
Do they plan on turning it all over to private enterprise, or do they plan on simply halting all further US space exploration, outside of Earth-orbiting satellites?
If they do, is it simply a government funding/budget issue, or do they fear that possible future expansion of humans into space might threaten their ability to maintain control over every human, and are stopping any future human expansion beyond their ability to maintain control before it has a chance to truly begin?
There are more important questions than what exact compounds they are attempting to clean up.
Strat
Note to self: BlueStrat is apparently Christian, hillbilly trailer-trash.
Christian, yes.
However, judging from the posts in reply, I can only aspire in my wildest dreams to the level of power and control of the entire society, economy, and all it's ethnic & religious sub-groups, attributed by said posters to "hillbilly trailer-trash".
I think this is where I say; "I, for one, welcome our moon-shining, NASCAR-watching, double-wide overlords".
Strat
Damn, I wish he WAS!!
Too bad, as he'd be a whole *hell* of a lot better than anyone the American political system is offering up currently for the position. He's certainly demonstrated a far greater understanding of what the US *was* all about than any US politician, or even most of its' citizens.
Sadly, I find any more that I have much more ideologically in common with those survivors from the former USSR and satellite countries that actually understand what freedom is and it's value, and also tyranny and it's horrors, than I do most of my fellow countrymen, many who seem hell-bent on repeating those horrors of tyranny.
Strat
Relax, "Francis".
I don't see this same level of "PC" sensitivity when others make tasteless jokes about "hillbillys", "trailer-trash", or any derogatory Christian references or insults, regardless of factual/cultural accuracy.
This is just a plot by Bush Cheney & Big Oil to destroy the world!! Now hurry up with the organic hempseed paint so I can finish my sign protesting Nuclear power plants and solar power plants that despoil Nature's beauty and wind turbines that spoil the views of multimillionares in Nantucket!! We won't save the world until China produces everything because there's no pollution in China!
I agree it's all a lie, but for a different reason. There is no NASA anymore with the ending of manned space flight.
It's now the National Aeronautics and Space Simulator agency (N-ASS).
In keeping with their new Presidential directive to participate in Muslim outreach, I understand that they've been tasked with producing the next-gen MechWarrior simulator game, all in Farsi. The "battlemechs" all wear burkhas and have no weapons systems....they just explode with a cellphone call.
It's OK to laugh. Really.
Strat
Dad still plays on his 30 year old stereo 30 year old music. Not a lot of wrong notes (or mixer catastrophes) on Dark Side of the Moon. Goes well with a 30 year old whiskey, too.
In my case, the amplifier is a NAD 7040 and a small pair of B&W S3. The NAD doesn't give a damn about driving 4 ohms. This speaker is reputed to be 8 ohms at most, and well less than 8 ohms over fairly wide sub bands.
You should hear DSotM through a pair of McIntosh monoblock vacuum tube amps (or current-day vacuum tube based equivalents in quality) and a good set of speakers. You won't miss the whiskey if you don't happen to have any around.
There's something pleasing to the human ear when listening to well-mastered music through a vacuum tube amp that's missing with a solid-state amp.
Most electric guitarists also strongly prefer the sound they get playing through a vacuum tube based amplifier as well (I'm one of those...I even design & build them as a hobby and business).
Strat
Post back here when you notice the increase in blacked out SUVs in your neighborhood.
For extra fun, direct a low-powered IR laser, and maybe a low-powered microwave beam as well (extra points for an obvious-looking dish antenna also pointed at the SUV), at the blacked out rear-side windows, while making sure you're seen near your dwelling's windows wearing industrial/communications-style headphones while staring directly at the vehicle and typing madly on a laptop.
For extra credit, casually walk by the SUV and attach an empty box (or filled with junk PCBs) with magnets to the underside of the bumper.
For extra-super credit, place nothing but a note in the under-bumper box that says "Eat At Joe's". They'll go mad attempting to decode it.
Strat
Better me getting my tax back than some bludger.
Well, to be accurate, you got a fraction of a cricket's balls worth of your taxes back.
The bludgers (or the crickets) got the rest.
Strat
You're correct, of course. I just didn't want the Unholy Trinity to go unmentioned and possibly be missed by someone not already well aware.
I thought about going for the "series of tubes" thing, but decided the straighter, more philosophical(?) approach might be more effective.
But, who am I really kidding? This is Slashdot, that needs a car analogy for nearly every concept. :)
Strat
And politicians.
Don't forget the damned politicians.
Politicians, lawyers, and judges.
The Unholy Trinity.
Of course, it was inevitable that a source of such wealth, information, and power available to the unwashed such as the internet would become a target for control for such as they.
It had to happen. They by their very nature are unable to tolerate anything that empowers regular people unless it's been made "safe"..."safe" from use against *them* by the people, and "safe" against regular people using it to communicate information, ideas, and wealth created independently from, and unmonitored by, those in power.
I'm surprised the freedom of the internet hasn't been attacked more intensely and with more determination than it has at this point in the 'net's history.
I guess looting the country and the citizens while trying to turn it into a Third-World hellhole takes most of their attention. It must be really hard work, too, judging by the number of vacations they take on the taxpayer's dime.
Strat
There are elephants in rooms, and there are white elephants. The two never combine. I know, I read the manual.
The elephant in the room is an unavoidable fact everyone is ignoring. A white elephant is a rarity, something never seen normally. Then there are pink elephants, which are hallucinations no one ever wants to see.
You see, the white elephants never hang around in rooms long enough for everyone to notice, but not comment on.
Sorry, just a pet peeve like "irregardless"... In fact I have several pet peeves, I got my last one from a shelter!
I humbly bow before your obviously superior grasp of hypothetical-phylopachydermological grammanariousness. Please forgive, it *is* a rather specialized field. :P
Or-
Oops. :D
Strat