People in cities generate excess revenue for the federal government. It's the people who are in rural areas that are revenue sinks. In other words, your argument should be the other way around.
No, the argument works both ways. People in cities should not be taxed to pay for projects for rural communities half way across the country either.
First you can't back up your assertion because you claim it's been "scoured" from the Internet. Sorry, but that's even more ridiculous than your original assertion. Then you go on to imply that the libertarian ideology would be against communities being able to choose to have sidewalks which they pay for themselves. If you actually believe such a thing, then I doubt I or anyone else is going to be able to convince you otherwise.
The reason I personally support Ron Paul, and that I've voted Libertarian in the past three presidential elections, is that I believe government needs to be brought closer to the local level, so that people have greater control over the laws to which they are subject. I, nor anyone else I've talked to, is so inflexible as to believe that there is no role for the federal government or public property whatsoever.
The key is being able to understand that not every issue is black and white. For example you can believe in smaller government without being an anarchist.
Yeah, but he's also opposed to publicly funded sidewalks.
You mean he's against federally funded public sidewalks. A community's sidewalks should be paid by someone locally, not by people that live on a farm halfway across the country. Please get your facts straight.
That's what it really boils down to for me too. The rest are just going say what they think we want to hear, then do what their funding sources want them to do. I just finished a little rant about this. It went something like this:
Don't wait for the mainstream media to pick your presidential candidates for you otherwise you'll be voting for the lesser of two sell-outs. Voting in November 2008 alone is not going to get us out of this mess. If you want a change you need to start doing your research now so you can vote in the primaries. There are good candidates that aren't hard to find if you look. Remember, the candidates with the most funding are the candidates that will get the most air-time. And, the candidates that are getting the most funding now aren't being funded by organizations with America's citizens' best interests at heart. Just some food for thought.
An acoustic coupler was a (probably 300 baud) modem. Rather than plugging it into a jack, you would dial-up the other modem with your phone, then place the handset into the coupler and turn on your carrier.
Well, not exactly WordStar. I grew up with WordStar on my Apple II+. Some years later when I started using Linux I found JOE (Joe's Own Editor.) I checked it out for the hell of it and was surprised how naturally all the WordStar commands came back to me. I've been using it ever since. It's not exactly WYSIWYG by today's standards, but it works great over SSH!
Thanks. I'm committed to the business I've started, at least for the next year, so I won't be looking a job before that. In fact I think that in a couple months it will be profitable enough to stay with long term or sell it--of course, I've said that before and the growth wasn't as fast as I'd expected. Still I think I've got a solid foundation now, so I'm not looking for new work at present.
If I were to apply for a new job I'd definitely do everything in my power to make sure they knew I was not a criminal. The problem in the past was that I had no reason to believe there was anything on my record, let alone a bunch of felonies, so I had no idea why I'd started getting turned down for jobs all of a sudden.
Even with proof that my identity was stolen I think I'd still be at a disadvantage--at least with a big company. If it's their policy not to hire people that fail a background check, they'll most likely just pass me over for someone with a clean record rather than doing the extra work to push it through the corporate bureaucracy. And, the fact is, anyone can claim that their record is inaccurate, and it will always require that someone go the extra mile to verify that my claim is true.
It becomes especially hard to disprove when your potential employer doesn't even bring up the data they retrieved during your "background check." The HR department will decide they have better things to do than justify the background check that they did--they'll just tell you and the management that wanted to hire you that you're not qualified.
None of the bogus tickets were felonies, so I would not have been able to get a court-appointed attorney for that--at least that's my understanding. The attorney I did talk to about it wanted $500 to show up but said he couldn't guarantee anything. He also pointed out that the officers were unlikely to admit to writing the bogus tickets even if they were informed that I wasn't the guy they thought I was. By the time I was able to sell my car my only option was to pay them if I wanted to be sure to keep my license--which as you know they suspended anyway.
I think maybe you're right that I should have swallowed my pride and accepted money from my friends when they offered. Several people that I don't even know have offered to give me money since I started the blog, but I keep turning it down because I keep thinking I'll be able to take care of it myself. I'm really going to have to think about it seriously but it's hard because I feel like such a loser. I can't explain why. I know logically that this wasn't my fault. But sometimes I think how I'm a 36 year old man that can't even take care of himself and has practically nothing to show for his life. I already feel like people have done too much for me.
That last paragraph was probably the hardest thing I've had to write so far. I'm going to think about what you said. Thanks.
I appreciate the offer, but I've since started my own business and I'm going to stick with it for a while and see if it pans out. As far as verification, I'm still leery about giving out all the related information publicly. If I'm contacted by a respectable journalist I'll be happy to walk them through finding all the data online. Also, background check on me in combination with the Department of Corrections photos of the criminal will provide them with all the evidence they need.
If I were to apply for a job at a big company now, Human Resources would take one look at my record and hire someone else--even if I told them about the identity theft. The HR person probably wouldn't spend a couple hours verifying my story if they can just pick up the next resume and hire that person.
I used to work as a contractor at several of the big financial institutions here in Jacksonville. Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, Wachovia, and a couple others. Suddenly I couldn't get in anywhere. At first I thought it was the economy, then I thought it was because I'd been out of work too long. It took me five years to find out that the state had me listed as a felon--and I still wouldn't know if it wasn't for the cops harassing me.
I can see it now. One more database managed by the government, containing inaccurate data, and no way to change it without paying a lawyer to force the issue. Read my blog and you'll see why I'm so cynical.
But white-collar and legal workers will be more likely to be checked through the database. And in the wrong hands, the database could be used to enforce a blacklist of people not allowed to work for various reasons.
I wonder what else will be in this database besides "not allowed" to work. I'd be afraid that eventually it'll turn into something where you have a "work score" similar to a credit score. Maybe I'm just paranoid because I spent five years unable to get a decent job before finding out the government has me listed as a felon. A year after notifying them of their error I'm still listed as a felon. I don't trust a database like this one bit. This is a bad idea.
Maybe I'll get a landline phone when it's $10 a month for unlimited calling in the US. My cell and VOIP give me a better deal overall for the calls I need to make. VOIP is great for calls where delay and reliability don't matter (this accounts for most of my minutes on the phone.) I can use the cell for the rest (and I hardly use my cell at all.)
For an E911-capable or business line I can understand where a landline is still necessary, but for everything else, why bother?
Messing around with computers my hobby first, then it became a career. Then programming became my hobby, but has now turned into a career. Now I'm looking for a dirt bike. At 36 years old I doubt I'll be turning that into a career.
Point is, it's necessarily a bad idea to turn your hobby into a career. Once you're doing it for a living you have time for a new hobby.
Is there a time-lapse video of this somewhere? The article I read only had an artist's rendering. Or when they say "observed" are they just talking about measurements?
Think about this: Two or more people qualify for the same job. Who is going to get the job? Will it be the guy that they deem will be healthiest or the one of the others. Sure they may not be allowed to discriminate based on that, but I have a feeling that the healthiest candidate will be chosen as the best qualified for the job. Nothing illegal about hiring the most qualified candidate.
Maybe you'll already have a job, but your company needs to lay some people off. Who's going to get laid off? If it's you, how can you prove that you got laid off because of discrimination? Maybe you can, maybe you can't.
That loophole will be abused. Think about that next time you have to give a company a specimen containing genetic material just to get a job. That part of the system is already in place.
I could say: The Internet is a network of computers linked together. Different pieces are owned by different companies and individuals. There is no central authority that controls the Internet. However the computers, services, and network connections that make up the Internet can be controlled by the owners of the parts.
Of course, that only describes one aspect. There are many aspects, so your layman's description should change with context.
I've been writing a bit about my personal experiences with Criminal Identity Theft. It's something quite a bit different than your typical identity theft. I'm wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the states to do much about theft of personal data on their own. They didn't even bother to notify me when they found out some jerk had been using my names to commit crimes. I've come to the conclusion that the government just doesn't give a rats ass about these things.
I'll be writing something to these guys. If you're interested in what I've been dealing with, my story starts here:
In order to prevent the loss of pass-keys to these machines (and the resulting loss of important information,) users will be required to keep a copy of the pass-key taped to the bottom of their computers.
oops, I misread the comment. The video I was referring to was not of the election night, but of Bush returning to the White House after the second election.
It's in Fahrenheit 911 complete with the president's limo getting egged by the protesters. I always thought it odd that I never knew about that happening until I saw the movie. You would think that's the kind of thing the media would make a big deal about.
Most of the spam I get probably comes from people harvesting the whois database since I never use the address elsewhere online. Nearly all the spam is automatically detected by Gmail and moved automatically to junk mail. If I bother to look at any of these messages the almost always fall into one of two categories:
1) The spelling and grammar are so poor that I would have to make an active effort to decipher what the spam says, assuming that the message makes any sense at all to begin with.
2) The message is encoded in little gif or jpg files which show up as thumbnails in Gmail that I would have to go through a bunch of trouble to download and re-arrange to make legible.
At this point it seems like sending spam is just a tremendous waste of time. It amazes me how much of it I get, but it no longer bothers me because it simply doesn't even get close enough to accomplish anything. That's not to say that I don't think spammers are a bunch of douchebags. If you're an e-mail admin, I feel your pain man. But spam is a non-issue for me as an end-user anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
People in cities generate excess revenue for the federal government. It's the people who are in rural areas that are revenue sinks. In other words, your argument should be the other way around.
No, the argument works both ways. People in cities should not be taxed to pay for projects for rural communities half way across the country either.
First you can't back up your assertion because you claim it's been "scoured" from the Internet. Sorry, but that's even more ridiculous than your original assertion. Then you go on to imply that the libertarian ideology would be against communities being able to choose to have sidewalks which they pay for themselves. If you actually believe such a thing, then I doubt I or anyone else is going to be able to convince you otherwise.
The reason I personally support Ron Paul, and that I've voted Libertarian in the past three presidential elections, is that I believe government needs to be brought closer to the local level, so that people have greater control over the laws to which they are subject. I, nor anyone else I've talked to, is so inflexible as to believe that there is no role for the federal government or public property whatsoever.
The key is being able to understand that not every issue is black and white. For example you can believe in smaller government without being an anarchist.
Yeah, but he's also opposed to publicly funded sidewalks.
You mean he's against federally funded public sidewalks. A community's sidewalks should be paid by someone locally, not by people that live on a farm halfway across the country. Please get your facts straight.
That's what it really boils down to for me too. The rest are just going say what they think we want to hear, then do what their funding sources want them to do. I just finished a little rant about this. It went something like this:
Don't wait for the mainstream media to pick your presidential candidates for you otherwise you'll be voting for the lesser of two sell-outs. Voting in November 2008 alone is not going to get us out of this mess. If you want a change you need to start doing your research now so you can vote in the primaries. There are good candidates that aren't hard to find if you look. Remember, the candidates with the most funding are the candidates that will get the most air-time. And, the candidates that are getting the most funding now aren't being funded by organizations with America's citizens' best interests at heart. Just some food for thought.
An acoustic coupler was a (probably 300 baud) modem. Rather than plugging it into a jack, you would dial-up the other modem with your phone, then place the handset into the coupler and turn on your carrier.
Well, not exactly WordStar. I grew up with WordStar on my Apple II+. Some years later when I started using Linux I found JOE (Joe's Own Editor.) I checked it out for the hell of it and was surprised how naturally all the WordStar commands came back to me. I've been using it ever since. It's not exactly WYSIWYG by today's standards, but it works great over SSH!
Thanks. I'm committed to the business I've started, at least for the next year, so I won't be looking a job before that. In fact I think that in a couple months it will be profitable enough to stay with long term or sell it--of course, I've said that before and the growth wasn't as fast as I'd expected. Still I think I've got a solid foundation now, so I'm not looking for new work at present.
If I were to apply for a new job I'd definitely do everything in my power to make sure they knew I was not a criminal. The problem in the past was that I had no reason to believe there was anything on my record, let alone a bunch of felonies, so I had no idea why I'd started getting turned down for jobs all of a sudden.
Even with proof that my identity was stolen I think I'd still be at a disadvantage--at least with a big company. If it's their policy not to hire people that fail a background check, they'll most likely just pass me over for someone with a clean record rather than doing the extra work to push it through the corporate bureaucracy. And, the fact is, anyone can claim that their record is inaccurate, and it will always require that someone go the extra mile to verify that my claim is true.
It becomes especially hard to disprove when your potential employer doesn't even bring up the data they retrieved during your "background check." The HR department will decide they have better things to do than justify the background check that they did--they'll just tell you and the management that wanted to hire you that you're not qualified.
None of the bogus tickets were felonies, so I would not have been able to get a court-appointed attorney for that--at least that's my understanding. The attorney I did talk to about it wanted $500 to show up but said he couldn't guarantee anything. He also pointed out that the officers were unlikely to admit to writing the bogus tickets even if they were informed that I wasn't the guy they thought I was. By the time I was able to sell my car my only option was to pay them if I wanted to be sure to keep my license--which as you know they suspended anyway.
I think maybe you're right that I should have swallowed my pride and accepted money from my friends when they offered. Several people that I don't even know have offered to give me money since I started the blog, but I keep turning it down because I keep thinking I'll be able to take care of it myself. I'm really going to have to think about it seriously but it's hard because I feel like such a loser. I can't explain why. I know logically that this wasn't my fault. But sometimes I think how I'm a 36 year old man that can't even take care of himself and has practically nothing to show for his life. I already feel like people have done too much for me.
That last paragraph was probably the hardest thing I've had to write so far. I'm going to think about what you said. Thanks.
I appreciate the offer, but I've since started my own business and I'm going to stick with it for a while and see if it pans out. As far as verification, I'm still leery about giving out all the related information publicly. If I'm contacted by a respectable journalist I'll be happy to walk them through finding all the data online. Also, background check on me in combination with the Department of Corrections photos of the criminal will provide them with all the evidence they need.
If I were to apply for a job at a big company now, Human Resources would take one look at my record and hire someone else--even if I told them about the identity theft. The HR person probably wouldn't spend a couple hours verifying my story if they can just pick up the next resume and hire that person.
I used to work as a contractor at several of the big financial institutions here in Jacksonville. Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, Wachovia, and a couple others. Suddenly I couldn't get in anywhere. At first I thought it was the economy, then I thought it was because I'd been out of work too long. It took me five years to find out that the state had me listed as a felon--and I still wouldn't know if it wasn't for the cops harassing me.
I can see it now. One more database managed by the government, containing inaccurate data, and no way to change it without paying a lawyer to force the issue. Read my blog and you'll see why I'm so cynical.
But white-collar and legal workers will be more likely to be checked through the database. And in the wrong hands, the database could be used to enforce a blacklist of people not allowed to work for various reasons.
I wonder what else will be in this database besides "not allowed" to work. I'd be afraid that eventually it'll turn into something where you have a "work score" similar to a credit score. Maybe I'm just paranoid because I spent five years unable to get a decent job before finding out the government has me listed as a felon. A year after notifying them of their error I'm still listed as a felon. I don't trust a database like this one bit. This is a bad idea.
Maybe I'll get a landline phone when it's $10 a month for unlimited calling in the US. My cell and VOIP give me a better deal overall for the calls I need to make. VOIP is great for calls where delay and reliability don't matter (this accounts for most of my minutes on the phone.) I can use the cell for the rest (and I hardly use my cell at all.)
For an E911-capable or business line I can understand where a landline is still necessary, but for everything else, why bother?
Messing around with computers my hobby first, then it became a career. Then programming became my hobby, but has now turned into a career. Now I'm looking for a dirt bike. At 36 years old I doubt I'll be turning that into a career.
Point is, it's necessarily a bad idea to turn your hobby into a career. Once you're doing it for a living you have time for a new hobby.
Is there a time-lapse video of this somewhere? The article I read only had an artist's rendering. Or when they say "observed" are they just talking about measurements?
I think you're absolutely correct.
Think about this: Two or more people qualify for the same job. Who is going to get the job? Will it be the guy that they deem will be healthiest or the one of the others. Sure they may not be allowed to discriminate based on that, but I have a feeling that the healthiest candidate will be chosen as the best qualified for the job. Nothing illegal about hiring the most qualified candidate.
Maybe you'll already have a job, but your company needs to lay some people off. Who's going to get laid off? If it's you, how can you prove that you got laid off because of discrimination? Maybe you can, maybe you can't.
That loophole will be abused. Think about that next time you have to give a company a specimen containing genetic material just to get a job. That part of the system is already in place.
Imagine losing your car keys and being able to search for them with Google Earth.
http://static.flickr.com/108/261905722_d2912c0465
Still waiting for them to add it to Earth.
I could say: The Internet is a network of computers linked together. Different pieces are owned by different companies and individuals. There is no central authority that controls the Internet. However the computers, services, and network connections that make up the Internet can be controlled by the owners of the parts.
Of course, that only describes one aspect. There are many aspects, so your layman's description should change with context.
Yeah, I noticed it right after I submitted it. I'm trying to get back to just one on my record at this point!
I've been writing a bit about my personal experiences with Criminal Identity Theft. It's something quite a bit different than your typical identity theft. I'm wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the states to do much about theft of personal data on their own. They didn't even bother to notify me when they found out some jerk had been using my names to commit crimes. I've come to the conclusion that the government just doesn't give a rats ass about these things.
s afe.html
I'll be writing something to these guys. If you're interested in what I've been dealing with, my story starts here:
http://g27radio.blogspot.com/2007/04/think-youre-
Wow, I hadn't thought about that in years. BTW, that scan is from the back of the disk jacket.
In order to prevent the loss of pass-keys to these machines (and the resulting loss of important information,) users will be required to keep a copy of the pass-key taped to the bottom of their computers.
Yes, you're correct. It was the first election.
oops, I misread the comment. The video I was referring to was not of the election night, but of Bush returning to the White House after the second election.
It's in Fahrenheit 911 complete with the president's limo getting egged by the protesters. I always thought it odd that I never knew about that happening until I saw the movie. You would think that's the kind of thing the media would make a big deal about.
Most of the spam I get probably comes from people harvesting the whois database since I never use the address elsewhere online. Nearly all the spam is automatically detected by Gmail and moved automatically to junk mail. If I bother to look at any of these messages the almost always fall into one of two categories:
1) The spelling and grammar are so poor that I would have to make an active effort to decipher what the spam says, assuming that the message makes any sense at all to begin with.
2) The message is encoded in little gif or jpg files which show up as thumbnails in Gmail that I would have to go through a bunch of trouble to download and re-arrange to make legible.
At this point it seems like sending spam is just a tremendous waste of time. It amazes me how much of it I get, but it no longer bothers me because it simply doesn't even get close enough to accomplish anything. That's not to say that I don't think spammers are a bunch of douchebags. If you're an e-mail admin, I feel your pain man. But spam is a non-issue for me as an end-user anymore.