You are assuming the purpose of the criminal justice system is to catch criminals. It isn't. It is to keep the jails full.
That's why they tune release in such a way as to maximize the likelihood of going back as soon as possible. The criminal becomes unemployable in any upwardly mobile capacity, everything from insurance rates to participation in social programs are altered by this "status." So if you still want nice things... and who doesn't, especially after months or years of privation... it's pretty obvious how you'll have to get them.
This is why recidivism is so high: Not because everyone wants to be a career criminal, but because the system is tuned to keep released individuals at that status. Only the most self-reliant, innovative and clever can escape the trap. Most people don't qualify, and so the prisons remain full, the money keeps flowing, the taxpayers remain cowed and pro-maximum-penalty... and round and round we go.
Parole boards prefer to to grant parole to somebody that's likely to go out and commit more crimes.
"Sir, come with us. Based upon your documented anti-parole-board statements, we have a warrant for your arrest. You have fallen into a statistical bin that includes many types of criminals, and society has decided it would be better off with people like you incarcerated. Turn around, place your hands upon the wall."
It's not even that. It's just a way to keep the population up. Lots of money in prisons, you know.
Rehabilitation: That's not part of the US prison system (can't speak for others.) We don't rehabilitate. We cage you, abuse you to the most extreme limits we can arrange, including rape, terror, and the very real possibility of death, then we release you but we do so while marking you indelibly as unemployable in any significant job, thus cutting you off from most legitimate upward paths. Only the most clever, most self-reliant, and the most skilled -- or those with friends in high places -- can navigate those rocks to rise above the most basic levels of existence in this country.
Willingness to be scanned: Been to an airport recently?
No, but it does bring one step closer: The cops showing up at your door with a warrant without the precursor of you actually committing a crime.
"Sir, the TSA took this brain scan on your last trip to Seattle; at the time, you were under the metric, but the legislature has since changed the metric and applied it retroactively. You'll have to come with us."
You are under the impression that providing low wages reduces costs. It's not that simple.
When people work part time or for low wages, they consistently use more services provided by the state, from food stamps to medical care. This is because they can't afford them otherwise. We (including you) pay for this via taxation. When the trend is to hire two part timers instead of one full timer, as does McDonalds and Wal-Mart, or to host an entire layer of low paid employees, this heavily loads the system and taxation increases accordingly (and in my observations, it never goes down again, either.)
But, since the money for these services goes through extra hands (layers of bureaucrats), more of it is skimmed off prior to the actual purchase of service; resulting in a loss of efficiency as compared to the worker being able to pay for it on their own.
There is no free lunch. When you disadvantage people, they're going to turn to other methods that work. You pay for those methods. We all do. Your low wages increase my taxes. I don't look upon that with any particular favor, I have to say.
As I said, I found it hilarious. The smiley was insufficient to its task, though. You could just as easily been happy about garbage collection. A lot of people are -- why do you think it's infested so many languages?
I would suggest a mod system where everyone can moderate, all the time. Mod up and mod down are supported, and tracked separately (thumbs up, thumbs down.) Each moderation is signed; if I had modded a post, you could both see my id, and which way I modded it. You can, at that time, check a box that says, essentially, "don't listen to this guy." After you did that, my mods would no longer count in scoring posts for your review.
In this way, you could tune your experience for moderation by people who earn your trust by not modding for what you consider the wrong reasons, and at the same time, tune for moderation you consider sensible.
This is imperfect, and would certainly require some client processing (that's where I'd place and utilize your list, for instance, to reduce/. server load) but I think it's a better mechanism than what we have, which as I indicated above, is used in ways not particularly useful. I read at -1 so I can see the posts people disagree with; and that's exactly what I get. Of course, I also get the spam and the trolls and the legitimately useless comments, but right now, it's either -1 or miss important and/or useful posts.
From my POV, a moderation system that forces me to ignore it is pretty badly broken.
They haven't really tried yet. They're still working on moving the penalties from civil to criminal. But don't worry, based upon the warnings in the front of every BD I watch these days, looks like they've almost got that wrapped up.
They're expert at setting up high volume and/or special purpose courts, too. Seriously, "haven't been caught" doesn't mean "can't be caught."
Fantasy is only good for you when it doesn't lead into foolish head-to-head contact with the state. I'd advise you to lighten up on the hallucinogens.
To the extent that things are allowed to go on that are nominally declared ungood by the state, you can be sure there is a strong motivation for same. For instance, in the case of the drug war, if they "win" it, guess how many agencies and industries lose funding?
It's pretty much always like that, these days. The NSA and other agencies that actually comprise the government's collective information base are aware of just about everything you and I do; the question is, and has been for some time, does what we do rise to exceed the metric that they care about it?
No torrent is untracked, no email unread, no website visit immune from notice.
If you are convinced otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for a great shock.
What you're completely missing is that they can, and are perfectly willing to, control you. Without the latter, the former become irrelevant. They have done this many times. They'll do it again.
Let's cast your argument this way: Cocaine is based upon a natural property. The state has about as much chance of controlling this as it has to declaring Alcohol is non-inoxicating.
Now lets look at how the state actually exerts control over cocaine. Do they attempt to revise the laws of nature?
Oh, I see you're way ahead of me now. As are the huge numbers of US citizens in prison, permanently branded as felons, etc.
Funny how actual contact with the system in these matters brings reality directly, immediately, irrevocably home to even the staunchest freedom fighter.
Now THAT is hilarious. Complaining that malloc is non-deterministic and then alluding to dependence upon garbage collection. I get the distinct impression you've never written anything requiring high performance memory allocation/deallocation.
No, no. You must be new here. The moderation system is there so you can impose your opinion on otherwise reasonable posts. That's what it's used for, that's what it's best at, Slashdot refuses to change it (I'd say fix it, but it appears to be working as intended) and so... one must conclude that is what it was designed for.
Its ironic that both of these groups are moving over to a Google Os.
LOL. It's not ironic. It's imaginary. There's no significant move towards Google Chrome or Google anything else for that matter in the OS space. There are three players, and only three: Microsoft, Apple, and linux. Apple's got the ball right now, as their machines can run all three OS's, all at once, legally and legitimately. If you're worried about movement, worry about Apple. Google? No chance.
Slashdot Mirror
You are assuming the purpose of the criminal justice system is to catch criminals. It isn't. It is to keep the jails full.
That's why they tune release in such a way as to maximize the likelihood of going back as soon as possible. The criminal becomes unemployable in any upwardly mobile capacity, everything from insurance rates to participation in social programs are altered by this "status." So if you still want nice things... and who doesn't, especially after months or years of privation... it's pretty obvious how you'll have to get them.
This is why recidivism is so high: Not because everyone wants to be a career criminal, but because the system is tuned to keep released individuals at that status. Only the most self-reliant, innovative and clever can escape the trap. Most people don't qualify, and so the prisons remain full, the money keeps flowing, the taxpayers remain cowed and pro-maximum-penalty... and round and round we go.
"Sir, come with us. Based upon your documented anti-parole-board statements, we have a warrant for your arrest. You have fallen into a statistical bin that includes many types of criminals, and society has decided it would be better off with people like you incarcerated. Turn around, place your hands upon the wall."
Politician: "Why, SURE it does! We'll give them FREE brain scans!"
It's not even that. It's just a way to keep the population up. Lots of money in prisons, you know.
Rehabilitation: That's not part of the US prison system (can't speak for others.) We don't rehabilitate. We cage you, abuse you to the most extreme limits we can arrange, including rape, terror, and the very real possibility of death, then we release you but we do so while marking you indelibly as unemployable in any significant job, thus cutting you off from most legitimate upward paths. Only the most clever, most self-reliant, and the most skilled -- or those with friends in high places -- can navigate those rocks to rise above the most basic levels of existence in this country.
Willingness to be scanned: Been to an airport recently?
No, but it does bring one step closer: The cops showing up at your door with a warrant without the precursor of you actually committing a crime.
"Sir, the TSA took this brain scan on your last trip to Seattle; at the time, you were under the metric, but the legislature has since changed the metric and applied it retroactively. You'll have to come with us."
The problem is not the toddlers, or the magnets. The problem is the parents.
No. I said my pet was better accoutered.
Reading. It's fundamental. :)
You mean, like buggy-whip stores? Funny, I generally see ads for rack mounted server gear. Maybe you should delete your cookies.
You are under the impression that providing low wages reduces costs. It's not that simple.
When people work part time or for low wages, they consistently use more services provided by the state, from food stamps to medical care. This is because they can't afford them otherwise. We (including you) pay for this via taxation. When the trend is to hire two part timers instead of one full timer, as does McDonalds and Wal-Mart, or to host an entire layer of low paid employees, this heavily loads the system and taxation increases accordingly (and in my observations, it never goes down again, either.)
But, since the money for these services goes through extra hands (layers of bureaucrats), more of it is skimmed off prior to the actual purchase of service; resulting in a loss of efficiency as compared to the worker being able to pay for it on their own.
There is no free lunch. When you disadvantage people, they're going to turn to other methods that work. You pay for those methods. We all do. Your low wages increase my taxes. I don't look upon that with any particular favor, I have to say.
As I said, I found it hilarious. The smiley was insufficient to its task, though. You could just as easily been happy about garbage collection. A lot of people are -- why do you think it's infested so many languages?
A moderator totally disagreed with you, or perhaps your tone. Welcome to the machine. :)
Now aren't you glad I read at -1? I saw your post despite the moderation: not because of it.
I would suggest a mod system where everyone can moderate, all the time. Mod up and mod down are supported, and tracked separately (thumbs up, thumbs down.) Each moderation is signed; if I had modded a post, you could both see my id, and which way I modded it. You can, at that time, check a box that says, essentially, "don't listen to this guy." After you did that, my mods would no longer count in scoring posts for your review.
In this way, you could tune your experience for moderation by people who earn your trust by not modding for what you consider the wrong reasons, and at the same time, tune for moderation you consider sensible.
This is imperfect, and would certainly require some client processing (that's where I'd place and utilize your list, for instance, to reduce /. server load) but I think it's a better mechanism than what we have, which as I indicated above, is used in ways not particularly useful. I read at -1 so I can see the posts people disagree with; and that's exactly what I get. Of course, I also get the spam and the trolls and the legitimately useless comments, but right now, it's either -1 or miss important and/or useful posts.
From my POV, a moderation system that forces me to ignore it is pretty badly broken.
Of course. And nothing can possibly go wrong. ibly go wrong. ibly go wrong. ibly go wrong. ibly go wrong.
I'm just laughing at their canine... fashion sense. I'm perfectly ok with being out-programmed by them. But my animals are better accoutered. :)
Yes, but, there's this .
Not sure that's actually recoverable.
They haven't really tried yet. They're still working on moving the penalties from civil to criminal. But don't worry, based upon the warnings in the front of every BD I watch these days, looks like they've almost got that wrapped up.
They're expert at setting up high volume and/or special purpose courts, too. Seriously, "haven't been caught" doesn't mean "can't be caught."
Fantasy is only good for you when it doesn't lead into foolish head-to-head contact with the state. I'd advise you to lighten up on the hallucinogens.
To the extent that things are allowed to go on that are nominally declared ungood by the state, you can be sure there is a strong motivation for same. For instance, in the case of the drug war, if they "win" it, guess how many agencies and industries lose funding?
It's pretty much always like that, these days. The NSA and other agencies that actually comprise the government's collective information base are aware of just about everything you and I do; the question is, and has been for some time, does what we do rise to exceed the metric that they care about it?
No torrent is untracked, no email unread, no website visit immune from notice.
If you are convinced otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for a great shock.
What you're completely missing is that they can, and are perfectly willing to, control you. Without the latter, the former become irrelevant. They have done this many times. They'll do it again.
Let's cast your argument this way: Cocaine is based upon a natural property. The state has about as much chance of controlling this as it has to declaring Alcohol is non-inoxicating.
Now lets look at how the state actually exerts control over cocaine. Do they attempt to revise the laws of nature?
Oh, I see you're way ahead of me now. As are the huge numbers of US citizens in prison, permanently branded as felons, etc.
Funny how actual contact with the system in these matters brings reality directly, immediately, irrevocably home to even the staunchest freedom fighter.
Yes, but was activated long ago, has multiple complete VM backups of the "machine" it was activated In, and therefore will have an infinite life.
And of course, as you allude, there is the OEM version floating around out there.
It's not broken. Never felt the need to fix it.
Now THAT is hilarious. Complaining that malloc is non-deterministic and then alluding to dependence upon garbage collection. I get the distinct impression you've never written anything requiring high performance memory allocation/deallocation.
Stack-based appreciation is frowned upon. You will express your feelings in algebraic terms or be severely modded down.
No, no. You must be new here. The moderation system is there so you can impose your opinion on otherwise reasonable posts. That's what it's used for, that's what it's best at, Slashdot refuses to change it (I'd say fix it, but it appears to be working as intended) and so... one must conclude that is what it was designed for.
LOL. It's not ironic. It's imaginary. There's no significant move towards Google Chrome or Google anything else for that matter in the OS space. There are three players, and only three: Microsoft, Apple, and linux. Apple's got the ball right now, as their machines can run all three OS's, all at once, legally and legitimately. If you're worried about movement, worry about Apple. Google? No chance.
I dunno how they could do that with XP, as I've not given an Internet connection to its VM.
You can't trust Windows on the net; and you can't trust Microsoft, period.
Win7? Huh? (checks Excel under XP, still works just fine, just like yesterday, as does the rest of Office)
No, still no need for Win7. [goes back to sleep]