Southern Illinois, where I grew up and have lived most of my life has been "rural industrial" since before I was born. My home town, a fairly small one...filled with factories. Plastics, car parts, light fixtures, industrial cable, industrial electronics, as well as shipping and distribution for factories in other towns. The smaller towns and villages around that don't have factories...generally people commute from there to here, to to other bigger towns with factories nearby.
Hell, in my great grandmother's day, the town boasted a big shoe factory that she worked at. And Effingham Illinois was industrial since around the beginning of the 20th century, and center for an important munitions plant during WW1. So seriously, what's new about this "outsourcing" to rural areas? Cities have never been the only places with important industries in America. At least, not since maybe the 1800s.
that looks suspiciously like Grand Theft Auto. From the description: 'Delko witnesses a bank robbery and the CSIs soon discover that the culprits are playing out the action from the videogame 'Urban Hellraisers' on the streets of Miami. As they score points for each crime committed, the CSIs must discover what consists of getting to the next level in the game in order to stop the culprits before they strike again.'"
Next level? Scoring points for each crime committed? I mean...does that sound remotely like GTA to you? GTA uses money, and doesn't use levels. Surely there's a game that comes closer to this description than GTA right?
Ok, now that that's out of the way...games don't make people screwed up in the head and inspire them to do things. People who do those kinds of things are screwed up in the head to begin with, and would be a danger regardless. Video games are just the popular blame. I remember when D&D was, and rap music, and rock music, and punk rock music, and violent movies, and violence on TV, and cartoons, and books. I've also heard people complain about CSI... Everything that has ideas, or leads to fantasy, brings out this type of bullshit. Mainly because certain people do not like the idea of other people thinking in any way other than how they are told to think by them. It's ultimately about control.
So RIAA sees nothing wrong with Sony's violation of copyright law so long as it's to protect their big corporate property...no surprise there, not like RIAA hasn't encouraged violations of other areas of copyright law in order to benefit themselves. And RIAA evidentally sees nothing wrong with introducing software to people's computers without their permission, that does undisclosed things, and cannot be removed without breaking the machine. Nope, nothing wrong with screwing over other people's property to make a buck.... No surprise there either though, they've constantly been encouraging that very thing for quite some time.
Is it no wonder that so many people think that RIAA is evil?
I didn't say exploring I said exploiting. We want to go there and mine that fat resource cow that is the moon. We should be mining the near earth asteroids while we're at it but that doesn't seem to be on the agenda. Maybe later.
And here I thought the US was king of the nonsensical pork projects, what with our bridges to nowhere and such. Hell, locally there's a highway that's torn up, and rebuilt.....a several feet to the east of where it use to be, and in some cases a few feet west. Entirely pointless. Must be millions down the tube. But this one, this one beats all.
George W. Bush said he wants us to go to the Moon again. I haven't heard anything about science in his statement on the topic; merely flag-waving.
Not flag waving. Also not quite pure science. The main interest in the current US administration in going to the Moon is in aquiring important resources and the ability to use said resources. We're going there to do what everyone else keeps claiming we Americans do best....exploitation. Not some silly flag planting and nationalistic bullshit. Good for us I say.
I can come over to your house and steal everything you have, doesn't mean you have no right to your property. I can murder you in your sleep, it doesn't mean you have no right to life. I could cut you open and take your kidneys, doesn't mean you have no right to your body.
A right isn't an assurance that something with never happen. It's merely a thing to which you are entitled due to the fact you are a human being. In the United States, rights are derived out of a view that they are simply natural, and from the people themselves being sovereign. We limit and define the government, rather than the government limiting and defining us. We limit our own sovereignty....but keep certain rights and privilages to ourselves.
If someone kills you, that doesn't mean you didn't deserve to live. That's all a right to life is. Have a nice day.
I don't know about not practicing torture any longer. I'd personally consider the French prison system as a whole a method of torture...along with the Italian and Spanish systems. I hear that if you do more than a few months in one of those places you'll be lucky to come out anywhere close to sane. Those places are built to break human beings.
See....we Americans would have simply fought to the end, and continued to fight even after all 50 States were fully occupied, without any formal surrender. Ever. We're just like that. We've actually had our capital taken in a war (twice actually, if you count the Revolution as well as the War of 1812), and burned, and we didn't surrender before the threat of it (unlike the French). Hell, we fought that war to what is often technically considered a draw by many, a victory by people in the US (we did, ultimately, get everything we wanted short of Canada...), and a victory by people in Canada and Britain (and other former British colonies I suppose). By French standards in WWII we would have surrendered. Hell, by all standard of the time of that war we should have due to our Capital being lost. But we're tough bastards like that. Losing our capital just pissed us off. And you know, many European countries did fight at least until they clearly lost, but never formally surrendered. The French on the other hand, surrendered the moment the Germans came within spitting distance of Paris, out of fear of it being destroyed and losing all your precious art and culture.
Everything fun has, at one point or another, been compared to "drug addiction." There was a study that said that web comics have similar effects to drug addiction. Evidentally, if you ask scientists, enjoyment of anything, having a hobby, or even hobbies...well that's no different from being a filthy crackhead. Me, personally I think these studies are being interpreted by people who have no fun in their lives and have giant sticks up their asses, wanting to ruin it for everyone else. And of course such studies are always of benefit to those with a political agenda....especially since many of those want to outlaw or regulate anything fun too.
Well let's see....I've personally helped poor people get food and clothing, been an ongoing advocate for Linux and Open Source and their spread (which is helpful, even if you might not think so), been an advocate for a more free society and even been somewhat active in politics to that goal, and I've voted (hey, that alone is more than most people do...).
Just because you have a right, doesn't alone prevent others from violating them. The fact that evil people violate other people's rights....doesn't mean you don't have any.
Swearing in public is fine. You won't get in trouble for that. If you stand around doing nothing but swearing, loudly, perhaps right in people's faces....even children's faces...that's a different matter entirely. Obsenity is a fine line. Simple swearing does not cross it. So yes, I am perfectly free in this country to tell you that I fucked your mother, in the ass, with a rustry barbed wire dildo, and she liked it and wants another go next week.
As for things of a visual nature which tend to be considered sexual in our culture...I agree with you. But hey, I'd rather they were not permitted, than certain political opinions (no matter how offensive, or "dangerous to the State")...which are illegal in many European countries.
True, but bear in mind that none of those actions (quashing public protests, censoring the media, infiltrating seditious organisations, using agents provocateurs, etc) were unusual for 18th Century governments.
None of these actions are unusual for 20th or 21st century governments either. Doesn't make them proper or correct. Of course, such actions were somewhat unusual for 18th Century America (well, journalists occasionally had trouble before the revolution...), the people of the English Colonies in the Americas were used to quite a bit of freedom.
Actually it wasn't the fact that we were being taxed by the UK. It was the fact that we were being taxed by them and no representation in Parliment. Leading to the rallying cry of "No Taxation without Representation".
That's what got a political protest started, what turned that into a Revolution was when the British government arrested (or even murdered) peaceful protestors, censored and jailed journalists (and even required permits for printing), forced troops into peoples homes, carried out imprisonment and even execution without a trial by jury, and outright refused to negotiate in any way concerning any of this, including taxation. But basically, ultimately, it came down to a violation of our rights as Englishmen, which we were at the time.
But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."
That is from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. It speaks of absolutism, despotism, it wasn't just as tax issue.
So, your definition of free speech is that there isn't a speech controller chip implanted in your brain, and/or some guy walking behind you ready to gag you if you were to start uttering a sentence the government don't agree with? If you say in public that the leader of your country is a dummy, and get arrested and executed for it, is that free speech? You were, after all, able to say it.;)
Now...he said no such thing and you know it. In the US you can say pretty much anything, the government can't do jack shit. That doesn't prevent some private citizen you offended from beating the living shit out of you...although the law would punish them afterwards.
inasmuch as rights derive from laws (and like politics, are the art of the possible) but you don't have any such right at present.
You obviously have no idea what a "right" is. Rights are inherent, we establish Constitutional protections for certain rights, but the fact remains that others exist. We merely choose whether or not to give them away. The government doesn't give you rights through law, it can only protect them, or take them away.
See, this is why I actually vote libertarian instead of phoneytarian. Sure, snowball's chance and all that, and some downright insane politicians...but they are the good kind of insane and the party actually has small government, free market ideals.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a libertarian Republican
Ouch that must suck....being in a party that completely left those "small government, live and let live" ideals behind.....decades ago. Full of right-wing statists and theocrats these days.
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Southern Illinois, where I grew up and have lived most of my life has been "rural industrial" since before I was born. My home town, a fairly small one...filled with factories. Plastics, car parts, light fixtures, industrial cable, industrial electronics, as well as shipping and distribution for factories in other towns. The smaller towns and villages around that don't have factories...generally people commute from there to here, to to other bigger towns with factories nearby.
Hell, in my great grandmother's day, the town boasted a big shoe factory that she worked at. And Effingham Illinois was industrial since around the beginning of the 20th century, and center for an important munitions plant during WW1. So seriously, what's new about this "outsourcing" to rural areas? Cities have never been the only places with important industries in America. At least, not since maybe the 1800s.
Next level? Scoring points for each crime committed? I mean...does that sound remotely like GTA to you? GTA uses money, and doesn't use levels. Surely there's a game that comes closer to this description than GTA right?
Ok, now that that's out of the way...games don't make people screwed up in the head and inspire them to do things. People who do those kinds of things are screwed up in the head to begin with, and would be a danger regardless. Video games are just the popular blame. I remember when D&D was, and rap music, and rock music, and punk rock music, and violent movies, and violence on TV, and cartoons, and books. I've also heard people complain about CSI... Everything that has ideas, or leads to fantasy, brings out this type of bullshit. Mainly because certain people do not like the idea of other people thinking in any way other than how they are told to think by them. It's ultimately about control.
So RIAA sees nothing wrong with Sony's violation of copyright law so long as it's to protect their big corporate property...no surprise there, not like RIAA hasn't encouraged violations of other areas of copyright law in order to benefit themselves. And RIAA evidentally sees nothing wrong with introducing software to people's computers without their permission, that does undisclosed things, and cannot be removed without breaking the machine. Nope, nothing wrong with screwing over other people's property to make a buck.... No surprise there either though, they've constantly been encouraging that very thing for quite some time.
Is it no wonder that so many people think that RIAA is evil?
I didn't say exploring I said exploiting. We want to go there and mine that fat resource cow that is the moon. We should be mining the near earth asteroids while we're at it but that doesn't seem to be on the agenda. Maybe later.
And here I thought the US was king of the nonsensical pork projects, what with our bridges to nowhere and such. Hell, locally there's a highway that's torn up, and rebuilt.....a several feet to the east of where it use to be, and in some cases a few feet west. Entirely pointless. Must be millions down the tube. But this one, this one beats all.
I blame the King of all Cosmos.
I can come over to your house and steal everything you have, doesn't mean you have no right to your property. I can murder you in your sleep, it doesn't mean you have no right to life. I could cut you open and take your kidneys, doesn't mean you have no right to your body.
A right isn't an assurance that something with never happen. It's merely a thing to which you are entitled due to the fact you are a human being. In the United States, rights are derived out of a view that they are simply natural, and from the people themselves being sovereign. We limit and define the government, rather than the government limiting and defining us. We limit our own sovereignty....but keep certain rights and privilages to ourselves.
If someone kills you, that doesn't mean you didn't deserve to live. That's all a right to life is. Have a nice day.
Probably because the dinosaur was an herbivore, and didn't eat animals at all. Just like a lot of species around today.
I don't know about not practicing torture any longer. I'd personally consider the French prison system as a whole a method of torture...along with the Italian and Spanish systems. I hear that if you do more than a few months in one of those places you'll be lucky to come out anywhere close to sane. Those places are built to break human beings.
See....we Americans would have simply fought to the end, and continued to fight even after all 50 States were fully occupied, without any formal surrender. Ever. We're just like that. We've actually had our capital taken in a war (twice actually, if you count the Revolution as well as the War of 1812), and burned, and we didn't surrender before the threat of it (unlike the French). Hell, we fought that war to what is often technically considered a draw by many, a victory by people in the US (we did, ultimately, get everything we wanted short of Canada...), and a victory by people in Canada and Britain (and other former British colonies I suppose). By French standards in WWII we would have surrendered. Hell, by all standard of the time of that war we should have due to our Capital being lost. But we're tough bastards like that. Losing our capital just pissed us off. And you know, many European countries did fight at least until they clearly lost, but never formally surrendered. The French on the other hand, surrendered the moment the Germans came within spitting distance of Paris, out of fear of it being destroyed and losing all your precious art and culture.
Well, they don't call it Mad Science for nothing...
Everything fun has, at one point or another, been compared to "drug addiction." There was a study that said that web comics have similar effects to drug addiction. Evidentally, if you ask scientists, enjoyment of anything, having a hobby, or even hobbies...well that's no different from being a filthy crackhead. Me, personally I think these studies are being interpreted by people who have no fun in their lives and have giant sticks up their asses, wanting to ruin it for everyone else. And of course such studies are always of benefit to those with a political agenda....especially since many of those want to outlaw or regulate anything fun too.
Well let's see....I've personally helped poor people get food and clothing, been an ongoing advocate for Linux and Open Source and their spread (which is helpful, even if you might not think so), been an advocate for a more free society and even been somewhat active in politics to that goal, and I've voted (hey, that alone is more than most people do...).
Just because you have a right, doesn't alone prevent others from violating them. The fact that evil people violate other people's rights....doesn't mean you don't have any.
Swearing in public is fine. You won't get in trouble for that. If you stand around doing nothing but swearing, loudly, perhaps right in people's faces....even children's faces...that's a different matter entirely. Obsenity is a fine line. Simple swearing does not cross it. So yes, I am perfectly free in this country to tell you that I fucked your mother, in the ass, with a rustry barbed wire dildo, and she liked it and wants another go next week.
As for things of a visual nature which tend to be considered sexual in our culture...I agree with you. But hey, I'd rather they were not permitted, than certain political opinions (no matter how offensive, or "dangerous to the State")...which are illegal in many European countries.
That's what got a political protest started, what turned that into a Revolution was when the British government arrested (or even murdered) peaceful protestors, censored and jailed journalists (and even required permits for printing), forced troops into peoples homes, carried out imprisonment and even execution without a trial by jury, and outright refused to negotiate in any way concerning any of this, including taxation. But basically, ultimately, it came down to a violation of our rights as Englishmen, which we were at the time.
That is from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. It speaks of absolutism, despotism, it wasn't just as tax issue.I mean...John Cleese does look a bit like a lemur after all...
Microsoft Doesn't Compete in Supercomputer Market?
See, this is why I actually vote libertarian instead of phoneytarian. Sure, snowball's chance and all that, and some downright insane politicians...but they are the good kind of insane and the party actually has small government, free market ideals.