Actually, I think the Alliance Parliament can't help but do evil, even though their intentions may be good. It's because of size. Consider the United States Federal Government, and Congress. Now imagine a legislative body that gets to spend the governmental budget of not just one superpower, or one planet, but an entire collection of planets.
I believe that the 'evilness'/corruption-level/corruptibility of a legislative body is directly proportional to the size of its budget. And the Alliance Parliament's budget is huge. And their ratio of legislators-to-subjects is probably even worse than the national legislatures we know now.
The problem with our political/media system is that the only people who tend to end up in positions of power are those who really want it (and are willing to do whatever it takes to get that power). Unfortunately, these are precisely the people you don't want in power.
That's not a problem with "our" political system; that's a feature of all political systems. Which is why we should encourage people to avoid using political systems to solve their problems.
I Heart Tim too. He is marvelous: Imagine you took Neil Stephenson, minus about 10 years of maturity, and marooned him in Tokyo with no money.
(I was laughing my ass off when I read the other day on his site that he had just now started reading Stephenson. Tim, stop now before it's
too late!)
And today, I am laughing my ass off again when I see that Slashdot is linking to Tim for a "game review." Let's see, linear-minded Slashdotters meet decidedly non-linear Tim. CALAMITY ENSUES.
But to log into a Notes account, all you need is a copy of the.id keyfile, with a known password.
And how do Notes sysadmins handle the situation where a user has forgotten the password which unlocks their.id keyfile?
They keep a backup copy of the users.id keyfile, with a password known to the sysadmin on it.
The alternative is trusting the user to make and keep backup.id files. And when they fail to do so, and forget their password, telling the user "Sorry, your mail is lost forever and not even the NSA can help you now."
"...spam (unsolicited commercial electronic mail), fraud, theft, pornography, and the long list of other abuses that creative human beings have invented for the Internet."
Spam, fraud, and theft are all wrongs done by one person to another.
Pornography per se, assuming that the producers and consumers are all consenting adults, should not be grouped in with them as an "abuse" of the Internet.
Higher levels of violence in the United States are mostly associated with the following three cultures: * Low-income white southerners * Low-income African-American descendants of slaves. * Low-income Hispanic-American descendants of immigrant laborers.
All three have in common: * An "honor culture", where personal affronts demand a violent response. This follows from their shared cultural histories of being oppressed by an aristocratic upper class, where all they had left to defend was their dignity. * Poverty, which more than anything else is a predictor for violent behavior.
If you add enough poor people with this cultural background to Canada, Canada would have the same rate of violence and homicide as the United states.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I think the Alliance Parliament can't help but do evil, even though their intentions may be good. It's because of size. Consider the United States Federal Government, and Congress. Now imagine a legislative body that gets to spend the governmental budget of not just one superpower, or one planet, but an entire collection of planets.
I believe that the 'evilness'/corruption-level/corruptibility of a legislative body is directly proportional to the size of its budget. And the Alliance Parliament's budget is huge. And their ratio of legislators-to-subjects is probably even worse than the national legislatures we know now.
(I was laughing my ass off when I read the other day on his site that he had just now started reading Stephenson. Tim, stop now before it's too late!)
And today, I am laughing my ass off again when I see that Slashdot is linking to Tim for a "game review." Let's see, linear-minded Slashdotters meet decidedly non-linear Tim. CALAMITY ENSUES.
But to log into a Notes account, all you need is a copy of the .id keyfile, with a known password.
.id keyfile?
.id keyfile, with a password known to the sysadmin on it.
.id files. And when they fail to do so, and forget their password, telling the user "Sorry, your mail is lost forever and not even the NSA can help you now."
And how do Notes sysadmins handle the situation where a user has forgotten the password which unlocks their
They keep a backup copy of the users
The alternative is trusting the user to make and keep backup
Spam, fraud, and theft are all wrongs done by one person to another.
Pornography per se, assuming that the producers and consumers are all consenting adults, should not be grouped in with them as an "abuse" of the Internet.
What motivations would other parties have to alter the legislation?
Higher levels of violence in the United States are mostly associated with the following three cultures:
* Low-income white southerners
* Low-income African-American descendants of slaves.
* Low-income Hispanic-American descendants of immigrant laborers.
All three have in common:
* An "honor culture", where personal affronts demand a violent response. This follows from their shared cultural histories of being oppressed by an aristocratic upper class, where all they had left to defend was their dignity.
* Poverty, which more than anything else is a predictor for violent behavior.
If you add enough poor people with this cultural background to Canada, Canada would have the same rate of violence and homicide as the United states.