"Military R&D is a necessary evil. We could stop it today, but I can promise you Iran, China, and North Korea (among others) won't do the same."
So in your little black and white world there are only choices. 1) keep spending more then the rest of the world combined, invade countries under false pretenses, wage way every four to eight years. 2) Stop all spending.
You see no alternatives whatsoever. None huh. I mean Canada or sweden don't spend a lot but china isn't invading them and north korea hasn't invaded anybody for a really long time. Why do you think North Korea want to kill Americans?
"he Wealth of Nations is all about the efficient utilization of limited resources."
Really? So it was a treatise on how we should carefully manage natural resources and make sure we preserve the environment right? It was a book that talked about sustainable development right? No? It wasn't? Adam Smith never actually took the environment into account you say?
"There is no continuing 'civilization' that's been around for even 500 years"
Well the china has been around longer then that. The ottomans, indians, persians, arabs, iraqis and dozens of other nations have been around for more then five hundred years. Hell the english have been around more then five hundred years. No wonder you are a liberterian, you are completely ignorant of history.
But hey I will play nice. Show me a country that was run by liberterian principles that existed for five years. Go ahead, I dare you. Then ask yourself "gee if in the thousands of years that people have been building societies there has never once been a liberterian society what makes me think it will ever work?"
look fuckwad. What kind of a person thinks that military spending is the best and most efficient way to get R&D? What kind of a retard thinks that the govt is the best and most effective way to accomplish R&D?
All tort reform will accomlish will be the ability of corporations and the govt to kill people without paying the consequences.
I would be in favor of tort reform if the monetary damages were limited but if found guilty the doctor or the CEO went to jail. You know hold people personally responsible for their actions and decisions.
It will never happen of course. They will limit the monetary damages and also make themselves immune from any other punishment too.
Adam Smith was a philosopher, he was not a scientist. As a philosopher he was a piss poor one at that. The fact that natural resources were finite and were being used up faster then they were being re-generated never occured to him. He never foresaw a period in the future where clean water would become a rare commodity. The had a few ideas that were accurate observations and he missed the boat on a lot more. In that regard he is no different then skinner, or even aristotle. We the 21st century americans have moved beyond the science of aristotle and we have moved beyond the philosphy of smith. We keep learning, we keep gathering evidence, we keep experimenting, we keep learning. Only idiots (and religious fundamentalists) think that some book written a long time ago is somehow omnicient.
It's one thing to read a philosopher and say "this person thinks like me" and another to gather evidence. Surely in the past ten thousand years of human history there must have been one or two civilizations that governed by liberterian principles right? If so how come they are not around anymore? Maybe that says something about the feasability of liberterian systems.
All around the world there are governments with various degrees of weakness and strength. According to the theories of liberterians the countries with the weakest governments ought to be the ones that are most properous and with the people who are the happiest. Is that right? Can you make such a correlation? If not then you are talking out of your ass and Adam Smith was full of shit like every other half baked philosopher throughout history.
Never in the history of mankind has any group of human beings ever (not even once) been able to create and sustain a liberterian government. Ever. That tells me that liberians are stupid and deluded into thinking that libeterianism is possible. It's not. It's an interesting theory just like communism is. It doesn't work. If was possible for it to work then somebody would have done it. If it was sustainable somebody would still be doing it.
Quote a dead philosopher all you want, it doesn't change reality.
It seems that making portable apps is a better business idea (and a throwback to the DOS days!). Instead of making a web app why not make a portable office which can run completely from a USB drive.
I disagree. Many people love war. War gives their lives meaning. It defines them as people and as a country. US goes to war every four to eight years. Like clockwork. Without war it feels lost and feminine. It loves war because it makes it feel like a man, it gives it purpose and meaning.
Many people love war. That's why so many people advocate for it as the first and only solution to any problem.
Yes I have heard of NASA. You fucking completely missed the point. Can you even read you fucking moron. What the fuck kind of a republitard are you???
Instead of spending money building bombers which do nobody any good how about spending the money with NASA and actually expanding our knowledge of the universe? NASAs budget is what? 16.2 billion last I checked. US is spending 100 billion per year in Iraq alone!. Why not spend that 100 billion per year on something good and will advance mankind instead of killing brown people till they accept the govt we chose for them?
The military can still have the rest of the money, let's just take the money being spent on Iraq.
"This war isn't fun. This war hasn't been profitable."
For who? Certainly it's been fun for the neocons, and profitable for them too. It's also been very profitable for the president and the vice president whose personal fortunes probably soared as a result of increasing oil prices and increased defense spending.
"This war, however, remains necessary."
Bullshit. Really I won't go into why because millions of people who are much smarter then me have made the argument that war was in no way, shape or form necessary. It's just bullshit. The fact that you believe that says a lot about you.
Why do they believe that? Have they looked at periods of history or places in the world where there existed weak governments and came to the conclusion that there was a measurable difference in the welfare of the public? Surely there have been periods in the history of mankind where people were governed little or none.
My guess is that liberterians believe that in the same way that a hippie believes that crystals cure diabetes. They think it ought to be true. Neither one has a lick of evidence for it and both will ignore all evidence that contradicts their belief.
"Don't you want to do the right thing? Even if the party you vote for looses, doing the right thing is surely better than actually voting for the Democrats/Republicans?: "
You are presuming that the liberterian party is better then the democrats or the republicans. I don't think so and neither do hundreds of millions of other Americans.
Fact of the matter is that the republican and democrat parties are the best we have. I know that sounds horrid but it's true. The liberterians would not be a cure for this disease, they would make it worse. Liberterians disregard thousands of years of human history, never once in the history of human development and civilization has any govt large or small been run under liberterian principles. Not the smallest tribe, not the largest govt. Maybe that says something? It certainly does to billions of people on this planet who have overwhelmingly rejected liberterian ideals over and over again.
Sorry to break the news to you but that's reality.
WOuldn't it be more efficient to take the war out of it and spend the money on pure R&D? Better yet why not just provide incentives for private enterprise to do R&D and give the money back to the taxpayers? How about R&D through the space program? Wouln't that be better then making new bombers to drop bombs on miami on a band of al-quada sypathisers?
I can imagine how useful this weapon will be to drop bombs on big cities in the US which have terrorist cells in them.
National defense is mandated but is spending billions on a program which is useless against terrorist mandated too?
I am all for defense. I do object to waging war for fun and profit though. Where is it mandated that the US taxpayers should get rid of every two bit dictator with oil while making nice with dictators in pakistan and africa?
Remember when AOL bought netscape thinking those millions of people who had netscape.com as a home page would become AOL users? It would be just like that.
A subject of a cross platform open source SVG designer comes up and you reccomend a product that doesn't produce SVG, is proprietary and only runs on windows as an alternative?
"MS has its place, just like linux does. Can't we all just get along?"
He who turns the other cheek gets hit twice.
Sure we could get along if MS was in the least bit interested in getting along and playing nice. The problem is that we are dealing with a ruthless and vicious monopoly out to destroy everybody who sells anything even remotely similar to their products (which span the entire IT industry).
Play nice? Sure with nice people. When MS is around you better put up your dukes cos you know he is going to smack you with a shovel the minute you turn your back.
It's not a CMS but check out ifolders. It's a different way of sharing but it's amazing in it's simplicity and power. Basically what happens is that you create a series ifolders and choose to share them with whoever you choose. It's not a centralized system. Each person gets a complete copy of the contents of the folders and all changes are synced transparently. Think of it as a auto backup or a distribution system too. Since everybody has the files locally you just use normal tools to edit and to search.
It's got a couple of glitches but they are due for a major upgrade soon.
Sharepoint is more of a document management system then a filespace. We use it at work, it's not that great. Zope is better in just about every aspect (except checkin and checkout which are still a royal pain in plone)
There is definately a war going with MS and the rest of the IT industry. Anybody who ignores that is doing so at their own peril. MS doesn't give quarter in this war. They are make a product in virtually every category of business and they are giving them all away in order to kill the other players in the market.
No there isn't. That's why you should pollute as much as possible and live your life with no consideration of the environment, animals, plants or the future generations.
Slashdot Mirror
Why not? We jail people now based on no evidence whatsoever. Guantanamo is full of them and so are other prisons all over the world.
"Military R&D is a necessary evil. We could stop it today, but I can promise you Iran, China, and North Korea (among others) won't do the same."
So in your little black and white world there are only choices. 1) keep spending more then the rest of the world combined, invade countries under false pretenses, wage way every four to eight years. 2) Stop all spending.
You see no alternatives whatsoever. None huh. I mean Canada or sweden don't spend a lot but china isn't invading them and north korea hasn't invaded anybody for a really long time. Why do you think North Korea want to kill Americans?
"he Wealth of Nations is all about the efficient utilization of limited resources."
Really? So it was a treatise on how we should carefully manage natural resources and make sure we preserve the environment right? It was a book that talked about sustainable development right? No? It wasn't? Adam Smith never actually took the environment into account you say?
"There is no continuing 'civilization' that's been around for even 500 years"
Well the china has been around longer then that. The ottomans, indians, persians, arabs, iraqis and dozens of other nations have been around for more then five hundred years. Hell the english have been around more then five hundred years. No wonder you are a liberterian, you are completely ignorant of history.
But hey I will play nice. Show me a country that was run by liberterian principles that existed for five years. Go ahead, I dare you. Then ask yourself "gee if in the thousands of years that people have been building societies there has never once been a liberterian society what makes me think it will ever work?"
look fuckwad. What kind of a person thinks that military spending is the best and most efficient way to get R&D? What kind of a retard thinks that the govt is the best and most effective way to accomplish R&D?
You are a retarded moron. A republitard.
All tort reform will accomlish will be the ability of corporations and the govt to kill people without paying the consequences.
I would be in favor of tort reform if the monetary damages were limited but if found guilty the doctor or the CEO went to jail. You know hold people personally responsible for their actions and decisions.
It will never happen of course. They will limit the monetary damages and also make themselves immune from any other punishment too.
Adam Smith was a philosopher, he was not a scientist. As a philosopher he was a piss poor one at that. The fact that natural resources were finite and were being used up faster then they were being re-generated never occured to him. He never foresaw a period in the future where clean water would become a rare commodity. The had a few ideas that were accurate observations and he missed the boat on a lot more. In that regard he is no different then skinner, or even aristotle. We the 21st century americans have moved beyond the science of aristotle and we have moved beyond the philosphy of smith. We keep learning, we keep gathering evidence, we keep experimenting, we keep learning. Only idiots (and religious fundamentalists) think that some book written a long time ago is somehow omnicient.
It's one thing to read a philosopher and say "this person thinks like me" and another to gather evidence. Surely in the past ten thousand years of human history there must have been one or two civilizations that governed by liberterian principles right? If so how come they are not around anymore? Maybe that says something about the feasability of liberterian systems.
All around the world there are governments with various degrees of weakness and strength. According to the theories of liberterians the countries with the weakest governments ought to be the ones that are most properous and with the people who are the happiest. Is that right? Can you make such a correlation? If not then you are talking out of your ass and Adam Smith was full of shit like every other half baked philosopher throughout history.
Never in the history of mankind has any group of human beings ever (not even once) been able to create and sustain a liberterian government. Ever. That tells me that liberians are stupid and deluded into thinking that libeterianism is possible. It's not. It's an interesting theory just like communism is. It doesn't work. If was possible for it to work then somebody would have done it. If it was sustainable somebody would still be doing it.
Quote a dead philosopher all you want, it doesn't change reality.
It seems that making portable apps is a better business idea (and a throwback to the DOS days!). Instead of making a web app why not make a portable office which can run completely from a USB drive.
"As much as no one likes war"
I disagree. Many people love war. War gives their lives meaning. It defines them as people and as a country. US goes to war every four to eight years. Like clockwork. Without war it feels lost and feminine. It loves war because it makes it feel like a man, it gives it purpose and meaning.
Many people love war. That's why so many people advocate for it as the first and only solution to any problem.
"Have you ever heard of NASA? "
Yes I have heard of NASA. You fucking completely missed the point. Can you even read you fucking moron. What the fuck kind of a republitard are you???
Instead of spending money building bombers which do nobody any good how about spending the money with NASA and actually expanding our knowledge of the universe? NASAs budget is what? 16.2 billion last I checked. US is spending 100 billion per year in Iraq alone!. Why not spend that 100 billion per year on something good and will advance mankind instead of killing brown people till they accept the govt we chose for them?
The military can still have the rest of the money, let's just take the money being spent on Iraq.
"This war isn't fun.
This war hasn't been profitable."
For who? Certainly it's been fun for the neocons, and profitable for them too. It's also been very profitable for the president and the vice president whose personal fortunes probably soared as a result of increasing oil prices and increased defense spending.
"This war, however, remains necessary."
Bullshit. Really I won't go into why because millions of people who are much smarter then me have made the argument that war was in no way, shape or form necessary. It's just bullshit. The fact that you believe that says a lot about you.
Well facts do tend to have a liberal bias.
Why do they believe that? Have they looked at periods of history or places in the world where there existed weak governments and came to the conclusion that there was a measurable difference in the welfare of the public? Surely there have been periods in the history of mankind where people were governed little or none.
My guess is that liberterians believe that in the same way that a hippie believes that crystals cure diabetes. They think it ought to be true. Neither one has a lick of evidence for it and both will ignore all evidence that contradicts their belief.
"Don't you want to do the right thing? Even if the party you vote for looses, doing the right thing is surely better than actually voting for the Democrats/Republicans?: "
You are presuming that the liberterian party is better then the democrats or the republicans. I don't think so and neither do hundreds of millions of other Americans.
Fact of the matter is that the republican and democrat parties are the best we have. I know that sounds horrid but it's true. The liberterians would not be a cure for this disease, they would make it worse. Liberterians disregard thousands of years of human history, never once in the history of human development and civilization has any govt large or small been run under liberterian principles. Not the smallest tribe, not the largest govt. Maybe that says something? It certainly does to billions of people on this planet who have overwhelmingly rejected liberterian ideals over and over again.
Sorry to break the news to you but that's reality.
WOuldn't it be more efficient to take the war out of it and spend the money on pure R&D? Better yet why not just provide incentives for private enterprise to do R&D and give the money back to the taxpayers? How about R&D through the space program? Wouln't that be better then making new bombers to drop bombs on miami on a band of al-quada sypathisers?
I can imagine how useful this weapon will be to drop bombs on big cities in the US which have terrorist cells in them.
National defense is mandated but is spending billions on a program which is useless against terrorist mandated too?
I am all for defense. I do object to waging war for fun and profit though. Where is it mandated that the US taxpayers should get rid of every two bit dictator with oil while making nice with dictators in pakistan and africa?
Remember when AOL bought netscape thinking those millions of people who had netscape.com as a home page would become AOL users? It would be just like that.
A subject of a cross platform open source SVG designer comes up and you reccomend a product that doesn't produce SVG, is proprietary and only runs on windows as an alternative?
Come on now, give the astro turfing a rest.
"MS has its place, just like linux does. Can't we all just get along?"
He who turns the other cheek gets hit twice.
Sure we could get along if MS was in the least bit interested in getting along and playing nice. The problem is that we are dealing with a ruthless and vicious monopoly out to destroy everybody who sells anything even remotely similar to their products (which span the entire IT industry).
Play nice? Sure with nice people. When MS is around you better put up your dukes cos you know he is going to smack you with a shovel the minute you turn your back.
It's not a CMS but check out ifolders. It's a different way of sharing but it's amazing in it's simplicity and power. Basically what happens is that you create a series ifolders and choose to share them with whoever you choose. It's not a centralized system. Each person gets a complete copy of the contents of the folders and all changes are synced transparently. Think of it as a auto backup or a distribution system too. Since everybody has the files locally you just use normal tools to edit and to search.
It's got a couple of glitches but they are due for a major upgrade soon.
Ifolders rocks. It's different in that everybody has the files locally but all files are synced. Cross platform too. Really great and open source.
Sharepoint is more of a document management system then a filespace. We use it at work, it's not that great. Zope is better in just about every aspect (except checkin and checkout which are still a royal pain in plone)
There is definately a war going with MS and the rest of the IT industry. Anybody who ignores that is doing so at their own peril. MS doesn't give quarter in this war. They are make a product in virtually every category of business and they are giving them all away in order to kill the other players in the market.
Aren't we seeing in MS too. How many top MS management have left the company in the last six months? It must be the season.
No there isn't. That's why you should pollute as much as possible and live your life with no consideration of the environment, animals, plants or the future generations.
The rest of the world: Look we are doing cool things. We have VOIP, we have softphones, we have SIP.
MS: Mee Too!.