Dick Armey is the House Majority leader. He's a congressman from Texas. Dick Morris, the ex-Clinton advisor, runs vote.com. I'm tempted to ask "Can't you keep your dicks straight?" but I won't! Save your best laughter, though, for (former) Rep. from New Hampshire, Dick Swett.
Your comment about vote.com is right on the money, by the way.:)
You;re right. They're going to have to find a way to separate the sensible letters like yours from all the crap their boxes will attract. It'd be great if we could fix bad legislation the same way we patch bugs in the kernel...
Haha they really need are more properly trained staff, and less-broad government. No person can educate themselves about 1/10 of the stuff they vote on. So they need to vote on less, too.
My limited experience: They don't have it printed out unless it's important. Busy staffers respond to the email, the phone, and the snail-mail. A Congressman is overwhelmed with committee meetings, votes, constituent meetings, speeches, and travel back to his district. Of course, most Reps look over the few important messages, and certainly get reports as to what constituents are saying. If Congress is out of session, and they are in town, they sometimes participate more in this process.
It's not a troll, even with her mistake. You ignore her points that it takes a while to get a client, and that it really isn't needed. And shés also right that this is a silly story.
There's representatives from Guam, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. A couple more, too, but it's hard to remember them. They don't vote on legislation, but they get to talk.
When I worked as a Congressional staffer a couple of years ago, the staffs were stretched pretty thin, even in majority offices. The assumption was that email came third after phone calls and non-photocopied snail mail. Most offices believed that email was too convenient, and the folks who really cared would phone or write a letter. Some offices had been experimenting with context-sensitive auto-responders, but those still have to be double-checked.
Of course, some members of Congress just don't give a flip. Several hundred members are in safe seats, where they really have to screw up to risk losing. It's the others who have the best constituent services, not surprisingly.
Also, keep in mind that Congress attracts lawyers, activists, and a few businessmen. Most are not really tech-savvy (though most are curious). I'd like to make an Al Gore joke here, but you can do that for yourself. For those of you sick of the Al Gore/Internet gaffe, he recently claimed to have discovered and publicized the Love Canal problem in the 80's (he didn't, and it was in the news for a year before he saw it) and he claimed to have written the original Earned Income Tax Credit legislation, which was actually written before he entered Congress. Clinton also credited the growth of the WWW from "50-60 pages to millions of pages", to Al Gore this week.
Reliance on email and internet communication will eventually happen all over Capitol Hill. Just allow for a ten-year lag or so between them and the non-governmental world. They just got used to fax machines in the early 90's.
How about Seven Cities of Gold? Any more C-64 junkies out there? That game was the most addictive game of it's day, along with Temple of Apshai. It's amazing what they used to fit into a couple of hundred k disk space.
Archon, Mule, and ultima IV ate my choldhood. And do you remember Bard's Tale? I had to give up comptuer games after that. Whew. Why aren't games that addictive anymore?
I know this article is sort of a neato-fluff piece, and shouldn't be taken too seriously, but since we are all taking it seriously already..
It is not at all apparent that an extremely high resolution "scan" of the neural structure of the brain would be worth anything at all. The assumption seems to be that the phenomena associated with brain activity could be modeled by a computer, whatever the processing power. Computer models always rely on a drastic simplification of the phenomenon in question. They are ALWAYS an approximation. Many phenomena, fortunately, lend themselves to this sort of analysis. For example, if I model a rocket moving through space, I don't have to account for zillions of tiny effects on it, like most relativistic effects, to get an answer accurate enough to return safely. But lots of other phenomena, like, say, the weather, or financial markets, are very difficult to reduce to a model no matter how much data we input. They are not reducible.
The brain is perhaps like that. It's one thing to know a few basic properties of each neuron, like location, connections, and some stuff about your signal thresholds, whatever. But the actual activity may depend on variables more subtle than that. So even if you had all the information, you'd have to model the processes of interaction and life. There might be dozens and hundreds of things that effect the neuron - variables that are essential to any reliable model. Neurons are, of course, cells, and receive oxygen and chemical nutrients. What if there are Quantum effects? Are they going to model those, too? Good luck.
I know nothing about biology, but have done enough mathematical modeling to see the assumptions of this article are very very presumptuous. Modeling of complex phenomena is much much more complicated than the folks at Psychology Today think.
I appreciate the eagerness of people wanting to move to australia, and no doubt it's a wonderful place, but a few hundred a week is a tiny, tiny quantity compared to the US. You asserted that nobody would want to move here, and that "most foreigners" see the US as some horrible fascist state. But the facts belie your opinion. We get several MILLION immigrants each year, and would get many many many more if immigration was any easier. So it's obvious you don't so much speak for "most foreigners" as you do "a few foreigners."
Re:"Too Sexy For This Site"
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HA! This is your best yet! I am in awe. But.. what is a Harma?
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Wow. You're depressing. All the married people I know are happy.
Then why does the US accept more immigrants than all other nations combined? Why are there several-year-long waiting lists to move here? If we opened the borders the country would grow by 100,000 a week.
No offense, but you obviously don't speak for "Most foreigners".
based on their national voting record, the Democrats have been much more concerned with civil liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly
What rights of assembly and speech are the Republicans at odds with? It is Democrats who favor those campus speech codes which get you expelled for calling names. Democrats, not Reps. are the ones who want you to be forced to join a labor union and pay dues if such a union exists in your state. Reps. are typically "Right-to Work". More significantly, Dems want to spend much more of your money for you, depriving you of your individual freedom.
more accurately, it has to do with the pressure from the religious right, who are about twice (?) as likely to vote as everyone else.
I sincerely disagree. They are no more likely to vote than radical homosexuals or Pro-abortion types. In fact they're criticized as too picky and often stay home if there is not a candidate they like. Hence the Bush and Dole defeats. And to your first point, yes it's true that the religious right is strong in TN, but it's not strong in the Democratic Party of TN. The bluehair in question was possessed by nothing more than perfidity.
David Duke ran as a Democrat in two elections and then tried as a Republican. He was thoroughly repudiated by the GOP and lost. Ballot access allows anybody with signatures and votes to run.
I wonder how you feel, though, about out-and-out Jew-hating racist Democratic politicians like the Rev. Al Sharpton in NYC? He led a riot against a Jewish shopkeeper (who was killed by a rioter. Thanks, Al.) and has said many many nasty things about Jews (and whites, too, of course.) Has he been repudiated by the Democrats? NO, Mrs. Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Bradley, and all the other pay him homage, in search of the Black Racist constituency, I guess. Not a word of criticism. And how about Jesse Jackson calling New York "Hymie-town"? It's like calling Chicago Spic-town. Is he criticized? Shunned? Of course not! He is fawned over.
You need to pay closer attention to who tolerates racists, and who repudiates them.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh sorry, I was assuming the expression meant what it says, not the screwed-up Slashdot "Intellectual Property is theft!" definition.
Your comment about vote.com is right on the money, by the way. :)
You;re right. They're going to have to find a way to separate the sensible letters like yours from all the crap their boxes will attract. It'd be great if we could fix bad legislation the same way we patch bugs in the kernel...
Also, keep in mind that he has to deal with 1/100 the constituents of a Senator from Florida or California, but with the same number of staffers.
But you've just described most city governments.
and they think that giving monopoly rights to big business will keep our economy growing.
I'm curious to know which big business has been granted monopoly power. That would make the cover of the Wall Street Journal.
Haha they really need are more properly trained staff, and less-broad government. No person can educate themselves about 1/10 of the stuff they vote on. So they need to vote on less, too.
My limited experience: They don't have it printed out unless it's important. Busy staffers respond to the email, the phone, and the snail-mail. A Congressman is overwhelmed with committee meetings, votes, constituent meetings, speeches, and travel back to his district. Of course, most Reps look over the few important messages, and certainly get reports as to what constituents are saying. If Congress is out of session, and they are in town, they sometimes participate more in this process.
It's not a troll, even with her mistake. You ignore her points that it takes a while to get a client, and that it really isn't needed. And shés also right that this is a silly story.
There's representatives from Guam, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. A couple more, too, but it's hard to remember them. They don't vote on legislation, but they get to talk.
Of course, some members of Congress just don't give a flip. Several hundred members are in safe seats, where they really have to screw up to risk losing. It's the others who have the best constituent services, not surprisingly.
Also, keep in mind that Congress attracts lawyers, activists, and a few businessmen. Most are not really tech-savvy (though most are curious). I'd like to make an Al Gore joke here, but you can do that for yourself. For those of you sick of the Al Gore/Internet gaffe, he recently claimed to have discovered and publicized the Love Canal problem in the 80's (he didn't, and it was in the news for a year before he saw it) and he claimed to have written the original Earned Income Tax Credit legislation, which was actually written before he entered Congress. Clinton also credited the growth of the WWW from "50-60 pages to millions of pages", to Al Gore this week.
Reliance on email and internet communication will eventually happen all over Capitol Hill. Just allow for a ten-year lag or so between them and the non-governmental world. They just got used to fax machines in the early 90's.
How about Seven Cities of Gold? Any more C-64 junkies out there? That game was the most addictive game of it's day, along with Temple of Apshai. It's amazing what they used to fit into a couple of hundred k disk space.
Anarchy has an even worse track record of failure. what a buummer.
I think all Michael Chaney wanted to do was check his damn email. Some people rely on it.
I like the line where they say free as in "freedom", not as in free of charge". That's a more direct formulation than the free speech/beer analogy.
Archon, Mule, and ultima IV ate my choldhood. And do you remember Bard's Tale? I had to give up comptuer games after that. Whew. Why aren't games that addictive anymore?
It is not at all apparent that an extremely high resolution "scan" of the neural structure of the brain would be worth anything at all. The assumption seems to be that the phenomena associated with brain activity could be modeled by a computer, whatever the processing power. Computer models always rely on a drastic simplification of the phenomenon in question. They are ALWAYS an approximation. Many phenomena, fortunately, lend themselves to this sort of analysis. For example, if I model a rocket moving through space, I don't have to account for zillions of tiny effects on it, like most relativistic effects, to get an answer accurate enough to return safely. But lots of other phenomena, like, say, the weather, or financial markets, are very difficult to reduce to a model no matter how much data we input. They are not reducible.
The brain is perhaps like that. It's one thing to know a few basic properties of each neuron, like location, connections, and some stuff about your signal thresholds, whatever. But the actual activity may depend on variables more subtle than that. So even if you had all the information, you'd have to model the processes of interaction and life. There might be dozens and hundreds of things that effect the neuron - variables that are essential to any reliable model. Neurons are, of course, cells, and receive oxygen and chemical nutrients. What if there are Quantum effects? Are they going to model those, too? Good luck.
I know nothing about biology, but have done enough mathematical modeling to see the assumptions of this article are very very presumptuous. Modeling of complex phenomena is much much more complicated than the folks at Psychology Today think.
I appreciate the eagerness of people wanting to move to australia, and no doubt it's a wonderful place, but a few hundred a week is a tiny, tiny quantity compared to the US. You asserted that nobody would want to move here, and that "most foreigners" see the US as some horrible fascist state. But the facts belie your opinion. We get several MILLION immigrants each year, and would get many many many more if immigration was any easier. So it's obvious you don't so much speak for "most foreigners" as you do "a few foreigners."
HA! This is your best yet! I am in awe. But.. what is a Harma?
Wow. You're depressing. All the married people I know are happy.
No offense, but you obviously don't speak for "Most foreigners".
How can you compare this woman to a Nazi? Why do you devalue genocide with your juvenille rants? She is a silly woman, not a Nazi.
Nazis gassed Jews. This silly woman just wants to limit internet porn. Are you aware of the difference?
What rights of assembly and speech are the Republicans at odds with? It is Democrats who favor those campus speech codes which get you expelled for calling names. Democrats, not Reps. are the ones who want you to be forced to join a labor union and pay dues if such a union exists in your state. Reps. are typically "Right-to Work". More significantly, Dems want to spend much more of your money for you, depriving you of your individual freedom.
more accurately, it has to do with the pressure from the religious right, who are about twice (?) as likely to vote as everyone else.
I sincerely disagree. They are no more likely to vote than radical homosexuals or Pro-abortion types. In fact they're criticized as too picky and often stay home if there is not a candidate they like. Hence the Bush and Dole defeats. And to your first point, yes it's true that the religious right is strong in TN, but it's not strong in the Democratic Party of TN. The bluehair in question was possessed by nothing more than perfidity.
She's definitely right about this one. Have you ever been in a Women's Studies class?
I wonder how you feel, though, about out-and-out Jew-hating racist Democratic politicians like the Rev. Al Sharpton in NYC? He led a riot against a Jewish shopkeeper (who was killed by a rioter. Thanks, Al.) and has said many many nasty things about Jews (and whites, too, of course.) Has he been repudiated by the Democrats? NO, Mrs. Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Bradley, and all the other pay him homage, in search of the Black Racist constituency, I guess. Not a word of criticism. And how about Jesse Jackson calling New York "Hymie-town"? It's like calling Chicago Spic-town. Is he criticized? Shunned? Of course not! He is fawned over.
You need to pay closer attention to who tolerates racists, and who repudiates them.