I wrestled with that for 3 whole seconds before I post it.
Anyways, I don't think spelling is really that important in old-school eastern European type curses, like the one I used.
Now if I had tried to lay down some ole' cabbalistic(sp?) mojo, then I'd likely have a nasty demon riding my ass for mispronouncing his favorite syllabic intonation or something.
I'd use The Voodoo, but not too many anonymous cowards will submit to hair and nail-clipping samples.
Makes me wish some linux hacker would write some libraries to put a universal interface on some of the various mystical traditions. That way we could all make roll-your-own curse-laying binaries.
Yep, that's what happens when you take a train of thought too far.
And with that, we've come back full circle to the topic of the XO.
This machine has a high likelihood (if coupled with an internet connection, and that is being developed alongside the XO, IIRC) of creating blogs of starving villages. These WILL get noticed, and WILL receive charitable donations whether solicited or not from bleeding hearts. ('bleeding hearts' not meant derisively)
Put another way, I think there's a really good chance that these laptops will actually end up feeding people, very possibly more people than the equivalent amount spent on food, by making them more a part of the *OVERUSED EUPHEMISM WARNING* 'global village'. It'll bring their reality into our personal world more.
For example, when a person's kid tells them that their friend that they talk to over the internet hasn't been to school for 4 days because he/she is too hungry to walk there, said person has a much higher chance of writing a charitable check than seeing the kids on the Save the Children Fund commercials, at least in my opinion.
And in other Bizarro World news a new study finds that reducing the number of traffic laws helps reduce accidents caused by red tape, this conclusion being based on the same evidence as presented for our previous story. None, with a slight mix of reality denial.
*Ahem* Could you please give SOMETHING to back up such a grand statement? I mean, it's okay if you ignore the fact that nearly every major corporate scandal happens due to the results of deregulation and lack of oversight (acknowledging that fact would 'hurt your case'), but toss us a bone and give at least an anecdotal example of self-regulation working or something to that effect.
I too lived in Michigan in the 80s (and 90s), and would like to add a small part to your observation. The vending machines stopped taking Canadian at one point. More than once I've been stymied by a vending machine because I had the wrong countries currency.
*chuckle* I think the worst is being 5 cents short but having a Canadian nickel and 5 U.S. pennies.
The first article I clicked on to read about this story (wish I could remember what paper it was, Google News is pretty thorough) actually equated this with the ATHF sign incident with something like this:
(relatively accurate paraphrase) '... comparisons to an incident in Boston where bomb-like devices were used to promote...'
So yes, your average Joe/Jane on the street probably DOES think that anything with dangling wires and God FORBID a couple 7-segment displays is at least MAYBE a bomb, and with something so TV-Dramatic as a BOMB, even a little maybe is justification to shut down the state for an hour and strip search a busload of elderly nuns.
I know I'm being over-dramatic, but due to the obvious satire what I said is orders of magnitude more reasonable than calling an LED moonanite(sp?) a bomb-like device, but that's called 'journalism'. Someone got PAID to write that, I do this for your amusement.
Yes, people ARE both ignorant and fearful of things they don't understand. It's a pretty obnoxious feedback loop.
Just for the sake of completeness, I'd like to point out that I'm a Kucinich supporter myself. No, he's not 100% what I'd like, but he's honestly closer than any other politician I've ever heard.
And I would vote for Ron Paul myself if he were up against the Hillary or Obama. I'd rather not be drafted into a war with Iran thank you very much.
You're trying SO hard to win this through being cool and edgy. You're failing miserably.
Interesting you bring into the conversation what color or race your sister is, I made no reference as to what background she was, how quickly you jump in to make racist remarks.
I was explaining to you what happened, and you know that. Trying to turn me into a racist will fail most miserably. If you think I'm racist because I think it's possible for the police to be racist, you're a goddam moron.
One would have to be narrow minded to hold a grudge against "the police" because of an incident where someone (or was it someones wife) accidentally killed a family member, you really think that person had intent?
Maybe you're right here, I -DIDN'T- explain that it was the cover-up of the crime that pissed me off. I betcha most everyone else (read: anyone not trying to find any flaw to throw a desperate argument at) understood what I meant. And the killing of a family member can bring a grudge to even the most open-minded of people, but any sane person already knows that too.
I assume be 'petty criminals' you're reffering to drug dealers, theives who need money for drugs, etc. who need their money and are prepared to kill and mutilate to get it... personal opinion... I think you already know.
Well, I've found the best defense against drug dealers to be 'Just Say No', perhaps you'll give it a try? As for the others, yes, that's exactly who I am comfortable protecting myself (and my family incidentally) against, amongst other thugs who think they they can push people around. Why does this seem incredulous to you? Really, I'm not being sarcastic this time, I don't understand what you're getting at here. Maybe you're implying that I am somehow unequipped to defend myself from such people. If so you would be seriously wrong. You see, I'm one of those Bill of Rights liberals, and I cherish them all, even (especially?) the Second. Could it get me killed? Of course it could, but that's the price of freedom in case you haven't been told.
That depends on your definition of 'free'. If by 'free' you mean free to kill, steal, assault, etc. then you may be a little confused.
You're really stretching here. Let my quote the first post I responded to in order to show you why...
One would have to be a slow learner if one did not learn after the first or second time that continuing to do whatever illegal activity one is involved in will result in disciplinary action by authourities. If one can't learn from temporary pain, without any physical injuries, one is not going to learn from verbal correction, so what suggestion would you make for steps the authourities can take to subdue an out-of-line individual/criminal?
The pattern you can't seem to escape is that you're assuming that whoever is assaulted by police is deserving of such an assault. I have no where in any of my posts said anything even remotely to the effect that all law enforcement should go, but not only do you imply that that's what I'm arguing for, you take it a step FURTHER and assume that my freedom leads me to "kill, steal, assault, etc.". That's just plain fear. It's also wrong, foolish, and deserving of derision.
The police are there to protect us from these 'boogeymen', as you put it, so that we can have freedom.
Yeah, in principle. Too bad it doesn't work like that and the cops often (not always, because I know you're going to imply I said that) become the threat, even to the innocent. Don't believe it? Then turn off the TV dramas and read a fucking newspaper.
Be thankful in the country you live in you don't get executed for expressing your opinion.
Mmmkay, first, fuck you for telling me to be thankful for anything (especially such a watered down sheeple version of freedom like that), you don't have that right.
More importantly, what kind of 'freedom' do you have when you must
I see where you're coming from, but I -SERIOUSLY- doubt that those relatively minor (not to say that they aren't good ideas, they are) offsets could compare to the giants like microsoft, google, walmart (especially walmart, they'll figure out how to reintroduce indentured servitude) etc unleashed from accountability.
Oh, you can say that they're accountable to the stock owners, but let's face it, in today's Ameritrade, mutual fund, 401K, blind investment world stockholders become more and more irrelevant when compared to company officers. Oh, the BIG stockholders count, but those big dawgs are as likely as not to take a loss on company A (where they own 12% and have significant influence) to double the stock on company B (where they own 55%) or dump tons of toxic waste in a river because it saves them massive cleanup costs and they know they'll be shutting that plant down in 6 months anyways. It's all shell-game strategy. This is already a problem due to under-regulation, no regulation will exasperate the problem, in my opinion.
Either way, you seem to believe what you say, and what you say (regardless of my doubts) makes sense. I can at least respect that. Hey, at least your guy doesn't think paying companies to ship jobs overseas is a good thing.:-)
Sounds to me like you're just scared of democracy.
Why do you fear my freedom? Do I really scare you THAT much?
Oh, and about the 'figment of my imagination', you can fuck off. The cop said RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME (as I was standing there, AFTER he had told me to go back inside, and AFTER my polite refusal to comply) "Why were you driving down [NAME OF STREET] at this time of night?" I suppose that means something else, right? She was a white girl driving through a black neighborhood in the 'bad' (if you're scared of dark skin) part of town. Know what makes that little nugget of racism and overstepping authority even WORSE? The cop was a black man. Remember what I said about power corrupting, I didn't make that up you know. Well, maybe YOU don't....
As far as my uncle is concerned, you have more than enough detail, you're not even close to important enough to elaborate on it. (frankly, thinking about it in depth gets me unreasonably angry) If you REALLY can't believe something like that could happen, it's all because your little worldview can't handle the truth.
Not a single thing I said is untrue, neither is it even improbable. In fact, most would go as far as to call them 'mundane' if it wasn't a personal issue.
Oh, and since we're sharing opinions as to what we'd rather have, I'll choose defending myself from petty criminals over blind obedience to self-anointed superiors any day.
So you go on cowering in deference to your shiny-tin-badged overlords in the hopes that they will protect you from the boogeyman. Meanwhile, I'll live life as an American should, and if I get arrested, tasered or killed because of it, that's the price some of us pay to live free.
You apparently DON'T know the difference between "unpleasant acts and illegal ones" if you think the bar of legality is that if a government agent does something (or asks you to), it's legal.
Here's a hint, in the U.S. even the President is required (by law, ironically) to obey the law.
Your assumption of illegal activity proceeding the abuse is where you're going wrong.
What about police make them automatically the good guys? This is what I really don't understand.
Oh, BTW, my uncle was killed by a cop (actually it was probably a cop's wife) when I was 8, so I have a grudge. What was my uncle's crime you ask? Oh, that was walking within a crosswalk WITH the traffic light's blessing but doing so too slow to not get hit by a drunken driver doing over 70 (according the the medical report on his pulverized (that's the word they used) pelvis) in a residential area.
My most RECENT incident with the police was punking one out with the threat of a video camera after he pulled my sister over for being the wrong color in a neighborhood she drove through on the way home from work.
Stop the sniveling authority worship, police are just people as susceptible to corruption (probably even moreso, remember the old maxim about power corrupting) as anyone else. Deferring to the shiny piece of tin on their chest makes you look weak and fearful.
I read your post, agreed heartily then saw your sig. My jaw dropped.
Ron Paul may have a sane foreign policy, but his economic policy leads to worsening the nightmare situation you described. Massive deregulation is exactly what makes the money pump from bottom to top.
*shrug* the fact that I can (and did) buy a product from Creative that does the same thing without trying to tie my hands down because I'm a dirty dirty pirate.
Fanboi opinions have nothing to do with it, the attitude "here ya go, this does what you want it to do. what's that? no, you don't want it to do that, that could lead to you being naughty" doesn't float well with me.
Can you imagine a car (slashdot's favorite analogy topic!) that somehow stopped you from having alcohol in it? I mean if you can't even put a bottle of gin in the trunk because you might be trying to drink and drive? Would you thank Ford for offering you such a cool product? Probably not, you'd probably be pissed that they think you're such a damn twinky. It's the same thing with the ipod.
That's why I won't be an apple customer for a long time, assuming I'm a damn criminal of some sort isn't the best way to draw in my business.
they've been getting a green rating because SA felt they didn't deserve to get a red rating overall because they are a trusted financial institution.. I've heard of security through obscurity, but security through clout? Wow.
WTF, did you go to the GWBush school of discussion? If you're going to try and seem all cool by attacking the GP with your hip and fresh attitude, at least try and figure out what the GP is saying.
Using your logic anybody that's ever used the omnipresent (or do I have to use the word ubiquitous with someone so hip and edgy?) slashdot car analogy is just stupid and wrong because computers don't have transmission fluid.
You're being a shit while completely avoiding the point the GP is making, it kinda makes you look like -YOU- don't know what you're talking about, but are too cool (or afraid, yeah, probably afraid) to say so.
I was going to use my time to explain it to you, but after a quick review of your posts, I can see that you don't WANT it explained to you, you want to be derisive and seem (that's an important word, seem) knowledgeable while saying nothing of value.
Really? Because Vista works magically with any old hardware you throw at it, right? Or maybe because linux is known for using closed source stuff as a crutch?
Put more effort into your trolling, I demand at least a modicum of entertainment from my Anon Coward trolls.
I too met my wife online, and get funny looks when telling people so.
We met almost 12 years ago at a place called Shadow BBS, hosted at the Illinois Institue of Technology, it's all but gone now (I think it's still running, but always empty) but in the heyday of telnet BBSs it had a 55 user limit and commonly a 40 person queue. She's not the first woman I met online, so I can attest to the numerous posters above being accurate in the 'crap shoot' type description they're offering.
In our case however, we've been together for nearly 11 years, married for soon-to-be 8 years. Needless to say it worked out. Through all my relationships, online and offline, I've realized one piece of advice that seems to be accurate, and I'll give it to you now.
Relationships (regardless of online/offline status) work in the long term if and ONLY if: A) it is a marriage of convenience for both parties, and that is -understood- by both parties, or B) the people involved are (or at least CAN be) best friends.
Option B above is where it's at for people actually seeking a real relationship. Too often I hear people spouting bullshit like 'we're too good of friends' or 'I don't want to spoil the friendship'. Really now, people ACTUALLY think that spending a significant portion (likely the greatest portion) of your life with someone who turns you on but pisses you off is superior somehow to living and getting sexual gratification from your best friend. Foolish.
My wife and I have a marriage in which the longest fights take about 6 hours, and we only have one of those every couple of years. The ability to look at someone and know that you truly LIKE THEM is such a problem solver. It facilitates forgiveness and compromise. The vast majority of that friendship groundwork was laid out in our time talking to each other online. I know I liked this person, I knew we had a similar sense of humor, and I knew she was the kind of person I admire.
Okay, so saying 'I KNEW' is strong there, but once you meet someone it (in my experience) doesn't take very long at all to figure out if someone was misrepresenting themselves, and by how much. She was the real deal. Once I SAW her, the physical attraction (which was already rather strong, she was shaped in a way I particularly enjoy) was boosted significantly by the knowledge of just how COOL this person was (from my POV, of course).
Here's my rant in summary:
Real Life and On Line relationships are different, yes, but they cover a lot of common ground, and can certainly have real and lasting effects on each other.
One more (very condensed) example: Back in the dial-up BBS days there were some kids at my school that I never really liked, some of who I had never really met (2700 student high school), but we ran into each other on the boards. Some of those relationships grew into honest and strong friendships, some of them grew into bitter contempt, but most of them had consequences that spanned the RL/OL divide.
Remember kiddies: A big chunk of what is 'you' is an in-training neural-net. Any input who's signal is strong enough to evoke a non-rote response is also re-writing your personality as it does so. Just because what you're experiencing is symbolically represented doesn't mean it's not being experienced.
As far as I know (I could be very wrong, but this is what I've read) when you start to get into the more rarefied reaches of the Scientologist hierarchy the lessons (they actually have step-ladder type lessons that become increasingly more expensive to purchase) start to tell you that the lower lessons are lies meant to prod a persons mind in THIS direction, or THAT direction, in order to prepare them for the REAL secrets, of course.
From what I've gathered, the end result is a mixture of the second and third scenarios from your second paragraph, with a pinch of the first scenario thrown in for good measure. Actually, the way my mind has gestalted the information I have, seems to me like the Powerpoint presentations of earnings reports and debates of Scientological theology are one and the same, they know it's a control structure, but the lessons they have been taking have eventually taught them that the control structure IS the religion.
At least that's my take on the matter. Remember though, this isn't first hand knowledge, so I might be way off base.
Spoken like a true liberal lemming. Wait, aren't lemmings the ones that walk off cliffs without looking, just trusting that everything is gonna work out alright? Isn't that kinda the polar opposite of what the GP is talking about?
Of course it is, you're just another AC troll who thinks they are cute.. Heh, "liberal lemming", that's almost creative. Almost.
I think people who just keep on going with the flow, telling themselves "hey, the people up front know what they are doing, just keep moving along" are more like lemmings. I think anyone with a thought outside a talking points memo would agree.
Hey, but you keep on walking toward that cliff, snidely (and with ludicrous hypocrisy) tossing out cute little marching slogans like "lemming".
Just out of curiosity, what part of GP's post is unreasonable?
Take that balance and shove it up your (and FOXNews') ass. Balanced means giving as much time and consideration to the guy with a gun to your wife's head demanding she take off her clothes as you do a marriage counselor. You can keep all the balance you want, to yourself.
Viewpoint free of paranoia? Where is the paranoia here? Isn't this whole thread about the NSA wiretapping equipment? Oh, and no, it's not a debate about if it even exists, we're discussing a SECURITY HOLE in the software... Pretty good indication said software exists. So anyways, how do you construe anything GP said as paranoid?
I personally think you're a FOXNews (the Fascist and Belligerent network) zombie, or even a knowing, willfull troll. I'm surprised you didn't bring up GP's supposed 'tinfoil hat'. I mean, that's what you guys do, isn't it? Talk about how people are paranoid and crazy, until 'tinfoil hat' guy's theories are televised enough (as FICTION, of course) so that everyone KNOWS tinfoil hat guy's theory but just don't care anymore (usually about 25-50 years later) and then, OMGPONIES, the 'tinfoil hat' people were right, but it doesn't matter, because the government needed to do that stuff because [RANDOM_FASCISM_JUSTIFICATION] and [STATEMENT_OF_WHY_YOU'RE_A_CHILD_AND_NEED_PROTECTI NG].
I've been hearing fools spout this 'nothing to see here' crap for too many years and seen too many of the 'nothing to see here' stories be far too accurate. And as an addendum to this rant (I know you didn't use the specific term I'm about to rant about, but your post sure evokes the feeling of it) I don't understand why tinfoil hats aren't in fashion yet, they seem to be attributed to those people who have a better grasp of the big picture and it's probable future manifestations than any OTHER group out there...
Slashdot Mirror
The magical word you're looking for is 'virtualization'.
Google it and be well citizen.
I wrestled with that for 3 whole seconds before I post it.
Anyways, I don't think spelling is really that important in old-school eastern European type curses, like the one I used.
Now if I had tried to lay down some ole' cabbalistic(sp?) mojo, then I'd likely have a nasty demon riding my ass for mispronouncing his favorite syllabic intonation or something.
I'd use The Voodoo, but not too many anonymous cowards will submit to hair and nail-clipping samples.
Makes me wish some linux hacker would write some libraries to put a universal interface on some of the various mystical traditions. That way we could all make roll-your-own curse-laying binaries.
Yep, that's what happens when you take a train of thought too far.
May your daughters bare you many multi-racial grandchildren.
The trifecta! Offtopic, troll and flamebait all in one post. Your mommy should be proud.
And with that, we've come back full circle to the topic of the XO.
This machine has a high likelihood (if coupled with an internet connection, and that is being developed alongside the XO, IIRC) of creating blogs of starving villages. These WILL get noticed, and WILL receive charitable donations whether solicited or not from bleeding hearts. ('bleeding hearts' not meant derisively)
Put another way, I think there's a really good chance that these laptops will actually end up feeding people, very possibly more people than the equivalent amount spent on food, by making them more a part of the *OVERUSED EUPHEMISM WARNING* 'global village'. It'll bring their reality into our personal world more.
For example, when a person's kid tells them that their friend that they talk to over the internet hasn't been to school for 4 days because he/she is too hungry to walk there, said person has a much higher chance of writing a charitable check than seeing the kids on the Save the Children Fund commercials, at least in my opinion.
And in other Bizarro World news a new study finds that reducing the number of traffic laws helps reduce accidents caused by red tape, this conclusion being based on the same evidence as presented for our previous story. None, with a slight mix of reality denial.
*Ahem* Could you please give SOMETHING to back up such a grand statement? I mean, it's okay if you ignore the fact that nearly every major corporate scandal happens due to the results of deregulation and lack of oversight (acknowledging that fact would 'hurt your case'), but toss us a bone and give at least an anecdotal example of self-regulation working or something to that effect.
I too lived in Michigan in the 80s (and 90s), and would like to add a small part to your observation. The vending machines stopped taking Canadian at one point. More than once I've been stymied by a vending machine because I had the wrong countries currency.
*chuckle* I think the worst is being 5 cents short but having a Canadian nickel and 5 U.S. pennies.
The first article I clicked on to read about this story (wish I could remember what paper it was, Google News is pretty thorough) actually equated this with the ATHF sign incident with something like this:
(relatively accurate paraphrase)
'... comparisons to an incident in Boston where bomb-like devices were used to promote...'
So yes, your average Joe/Jane on the street probably DOES think that anything with dangling wires and God FORBID a couple 7-segment displays is at least MAYBE a bomb, and with something so TV-Dramatic as a BOMB, even a little maybe is justification to shut down the state for an hour and strip search a busload of elderly nuns.
I know I'm being over-dramatic, but due to the obvious satire what I said is orders of magnitude more reasonable than calling an LED moonanite(sp?) a bomb-like device, but that's called 'journalism'. Someone got PAID to write that, I do this for your amusement.
Yes, people ARE both ignorant and fearful of things they don't understand. It's a pretty obnoxious feedback loop.
Thank you for clarifying, and I apologize for my harsh tone. (it was a bad day for me, but that does not excuse uncalled for rudeness)
I don't necessarily agree with you, but your point does have merit.
Again, I apologize for being so venomous.
Just for the sake of completeness, I'd like to point out that I'm a Kucinich supporter myself. No, he's not 100% what I'd like, but he's honestly closer than any other politician I've ever heard.
;-)
And I would vote for Ron Paul myself if he were up against the Hillary or Obama. I'd rather not be drafted into a war with Iran thank you very much.
Kucinich / Paul '08
Interesting you bring into the conversation what color or race your sister is, I made no reference as to what background she was, how quickly you jump in to make racist remarks.
I was explaining to you what happened, and you know that. Trying to turn me into a racist will fail most miserably. If you think I'm racist because I think it's possible for the police to be racist, you're a goddam moron.
One would have to be narrow minded to hold a grudge against "the police" because of an incident where someone (or was it someones wife) accidentally killed a family member, you really think that person had intent?
Maybe you're right here, I -DIDN'T- explain that it was the cover-up of the crime that pissed me off. I betcha most everyone else (read: anyone not trying to find any flaw to throw a desperate argument at) understood what I meant. And the killing of a family member can bring a grudge to even the most open-minded of people, but any sane person already knows that too.
I assume be 'petty criminals' you're reffering to drug dealers, theives who need money for drugs, etc. who need their money and are prepared to kill and mutilate to get it... personal opinion... I think you already know.
Well, I've found the best defense against drug dealers to be 'Just Say No', perhaps you'll give it a try? As for the others, yes, that's exactly who I am comfortable protecting myself (and my family incidentally) against, amongst other thugs who think they they can push people around. Why does this seem incredulous to you? Really, I'm not being sarcastic this time, I don't understand what you're getting at here. Maybe you're implying that I am somehow unequipped to defend myself from such people. If so you would be seriously wrong. You see, I'm one of those Bill of Rights liberals, and I cherish them all, even (especially?) the Second. Could it get me killed? Of course it could, but that's the price of freedom in case you haven't been told.
That depends on your definition of 'free'. If by 'free' you mean free to kill, steal, assault, etc. then you may be a little confused.
You're really stretching here. Let my quote the first post I responded to in order to show you why...
One would have to be a slow learner if one did not learn after the first or second time that continuing to do whatever illegal activity one is involved in will result in disciplinary action by authourities. If one can't learn from temporary pain, without any physical injuries, one is not going to learn from verbal correction, so what suggestion would you make for steps the authourities can take to subdue an out-of-line individual/criminal?
The pattern you can't seem to escape is that you're assuming that whoever is assaulted by police is deserving of such an assault. I have no where in any of my posts said anything even remotely to the effect that all law enforcement should go, but not only do you imply that that's what I'm arguing for, you take it a step FURTHER and assume that my freedom leads me to "kill, steal, assault, etc.". That's just plain fear. It's also wrong, foolish, and deserving of derision.
The police are there to protect us from these 'boogeymen', as you put it, so that we can have freedom.
Yeah, in principle. Too bad it doesn't work like that and the cops often (not always, because I know you're going to imply I said that) become the threat, even to the innocent. Don't believe it? Then turn off the TV dramas and read a fucking newspaper.
Be thankful in the country you live in you don't get executed for expressing your opinion.
Mmmkay, first, fuck you for telling me to be thankful for anything (especially such a watered down sheeple version of freedom like that), you don't have that right.
More importantly, what kind of 'freedom' do you have when you must
I see where you're coming from, but I -SERIOUSLY- doubt that those relatively minor (not to say that they aren't good ideas, they are) offsets could compare to the giants like microsoft, google, walmart (especially walmart, they'll figure out how to reintroduce indentured servitude) etc unleashed from accountability.
:-)
Oh, you can say that they're accountable to the stock owners, but let's face it, in today's Ameritrade, mutual fund, 401K, blind investment world stockholders become more and more irrelevant when compared to company officers. Oh, the BIG stockholders count, but those big dawgs are as likely as not to take a loss on company A (where they own 12% and have significant influence) to double the stock on company B (where they own 55%) or dump tons of toxic waste in a river because it saves them massive cleanup costs and they know they'll be shutting that plant down in 6 months anyways. It's all shell-game strategy. This is already a problem due to under-regulation, no regulation will exasperate the problem, in my opinion.
Either way, you seem to believe what you say, and what you say (regardless of my doubts) makes sense. I can at least respect that. Hey, at least your guy doesn't think paying companies to ship jobs overseas is a good thing.
Sounds to me like you're just scared of democracy.
Why do you fear my freedom? Do I really scare you THAT much?
Oh, and about the 'figment of my imagination', you can fuck off. The cop said RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME (as I was standing there, AFTER he had told me to go back inside, and AFTER my polite refusal to comply) "Why were you driving down [NAME OF STREET] at this time of night?" I suppose that means something else, right? She was a white girl driving through a black neighborhood in the 'bad' (if you're scared of dark skin) part of town. Know what makes that little nugget of racism and overstepping authority even WORSE? The cop was a black man. Remember what I said about power corrupting, I didn't make that up you know. Well, maybe YOU don't....
As far as my uncle is concerned, you have more than enough detail, you're not even close to important enough to elaborate on it. (frankly, thinking about it in depth gets me unreasonably angry) If you REALLY can't believe something like that could happen, it's all because your little worldview can't handle the truth.
Not a single thing I said is untrue, neither is it even improbable. In fact, most would go as far as to call them 'mundane' if it wasn't a personal issue.
Oh, and since we're sharing opinions as to what we'd rather have, I'll choose defending myself from petty criminals over blind obedience to self-anointed superiors any day.
So you go on cowering in deference to your shiny-tin-badged overlords in the hopes that they will protect you from the boogeyman. Meanwhile, I'll live life as an American should, and if I get arrested, tasered or killed because of it, that's the price some of us pay to live free.
You apparently DON'T know the difference between "unpleasant acts and illegal ones" if you think the bar of legality is that if a government agent does something (or asks you to), it's legal.
Here's a hint, in the U.S. even the President is required (by law, ironically) to obey the law.
Your assumption of illegal activity proceeding the abuse is where you're going wrong.
What about police make them automatically the good guys? This is what I really don't understand.
Oh, BTW, my uncle was killed by a cop (actually it was probably a cop's wife) when I was 8, so I have a grudge.
What was my uncle's crime you ask? Oh, that was walking within a crosswalk WITH the traffic light's blessing but doing so too slow to not get hit by a drunken driver doing over 70 (according the the medical report on his pulverized (that's the word they used) pelvis) in a residential area.
My most RECENT incident with the police was punking one out with the threat of a video camera after he pulled my sister over for being the wrong color in a neighborhood she drove through on the way home from work.
Stop the sniveling authority worship, police are just people as susceptible to corruption (probably even moreso, remember the old maxim about power corrupting) as anyone else. Deferring to the shiny piece of tin on their chest makes you look weak and fearful.
I read your post, agreed heartily then saw your sig. My jaw dropped.
Ron Paul may have a sane foreign policy, but his economic policy leads to worsening the nightmare situation you described. Massive deregulation is exactly what makes the money pump from bottom to top.
*shrug* the fact that I can (and did) buy a product from Creative that does the same thing without trying to tie my hands down because I'm a dirty dirty pirate.
Fanboi opinions have nothing to do with it, the attitude "here ya go, this does what you want it to do. what's that? no, you don't want it to do that, that could lead to you being naughty" doesn't float well with me.
Can you imagine a car (slashdot's favorite analogy topic!) that somehow stopped you from having alcohol in it? I mean if you can't even put a bottle of gin in the trunk because you might be trying to drink and drive? Would you thank Ford for offering you such a cool product? Probably not, you'd probably be pissed that they think you're such a damn twinky. It's the same thing with the ipod.
That's why I won't be an apple customer for a long time, assuming I'm a damn criminal of some sort isn't the best way to draw in my business.
WTF, did you go to the GWBush school of discussion? If you're going to try and seem all cool by attacking the GP with your hip and fresh attitude, at least try and figure out what the GP is saying.
Using your logic anybody that's ever used the omnipresent (or do I have to use the word ubiquitous with someone so hip and edgy?) slashdot car analogy is just stupid and wrong because computers don't have transmission fluid.
You're being a shit while completely avoiding the point the GP is making, it kinda makes you look like -YOU- don't know what you're talking about, but are too cool (or afraid, yeah, probably afraid) to say so.
I was going to use my time to explain it to you, but after a quick review of your posts, I can see that you don't WANT it explained to you, you want to be derisive and seem (that's an important word, seem) knowledgeable while saying nothing of value.
Really? Because Vista works magically with any old hardware you throw at it, right? Or maybe because linux is known for using closed source stuff as a crutch?
Put more effort into your trolling, I demand at least a modicum of entertainment from my Anon Coward trolls.
I too met my wife online, and get funny looks when telling people so.
We met almost 12 years ago at a place called Shadow BBS, hosted at the Illinois Institue of Technology, it's all but gone now (I think it's still running, but always empty) but in the heyday of telnet BBSs it had a 55 user limit and commonly a 40 person queue. She's not the first woman I met online, so I can attest to the numerous posters above being accurate in the 'crap shoot' type description they're offering.
In our case however, we've been together for nearly 11 years, married for soon-to-be 8 years. Needless to say it worked out. Through all my relationships, online and offline, I've realized one piece of advice that seems to be accurate, and I'll give it to you now.
Relationships (regardless of online/offline status) work in the long term if and ONLY if:
A) it is a marriage of convenience for both parties, and that is -understood- by both parties, or
B) the people involved are (or at least CAN be) best friends.
Option B above is where it's at for people actually seeking a real relationship. Too often I hear people spouting bullshit like 'we're too good of friends' or 'I don't want to spoil the friendship'. Really now, people ACTUALLY think that spending a significant portion (likely the greatest portion) of your life with someone who turns you on but pisses you off is superior somehow to living and getting sexual gratification from your best friend. Foolish.
My wife and I have a marriage in which the longest fights take about 6 hours, and we only have one of those every couple of years. The ability to look at someone and know that you truly LIKE THEM is such a problem solver. It facilitates forgiveness and compromise. The vast majority of that friendship groundwork was laid out in our time talking to each other online. I know I liked this person, I knew we had a similar sense of humor, and I knew she was the kind of person I admire.
Okay, so saying 'I KNEW' is strong there, but once you meet someone it (in my experience) doesn't take very long at all to figure out if someone was misrepresenting themselves, and by how much. She was the real deal. Once I SAW her, the physical attraction (which was already rather strong, she was shaped in a way I particularly enjoy) was boosted significantly by the knowledge of just how COOL this person was (from my POV, of course).
Here's my rant in summary:
Real Life and On Line relationships are different, yes, but they cover a lot of common ground, and can certainly have real and lasting effects on each other.
One more (very condensed) example: Back in the dial-up BBS days there were some kids at my school that I never really liked, some of who I had never really met (2700 student high school), but we ran into each other on the boards. Some of those relationships grew into honest and strong friendships, some of them grew into bitter contempt, but most of them had consequences that spanned the RL/OL divide.
Remember kiddies: A big chunk of what is 'you' is an in-training neural-net. Any input who's signal is strong enough to evoke a non-rote response is also re-writing your personality as it does so. Just because what you're experiencing is symbolically represented doesn't mean it's not being experienced.
Yeah, just like the U.S. did after Gulf War I... er... umm... nevermind.
As far as I know (I could be very wrong, but this is what I've read) when you start to get into the more rarefied reaches of the Scientologist hierarchy the lessons (they actually have step-ladder type lessons that become increasingly more expensive to purchase) start to tell you that the lower lessons are lies meant to prod a persons mind in THIS direction, or THAT direction, in order to prepare them for the REAL secrets, of course.
From what I've gathered, the end result is a mixture of the second and third scenarios from your second paragraph, with a pinch of the first scenario thrown in for good measure. Actually, the way my mind has gestalted the information I have, seems to me like the Powerpoint presentations of earnings reports and debates of Scientological theology are one and the same, they know it's a control structure, but the lessons they have been taking have eventually taught them that the control structure IS the religion.
At least that's my take on the matter. Remember though, this isn't first hand knowledge, so I might be way off base.
Of course it is, you're just another AC troll who thinks they are cute.. Heh, "liberal lemming", that's almost creative. Almost.
I think people who just keep on going with the flow, telling themselves "hey, the people up front know what they are doing, just keep moving along" are more like lemmings. I think anyone with a thought outside a talking points memo would agree.
Hey, but you keep on walking toward that cliff, snidely (and with ludicrous hypocrisy) tossing out cute little marching slogans like "lemming".
Just out of curiosity, what part of GP's post is unreasonable?
I NG].
Take that balance and shove it up your (and FOXNews') ass. Balanced means giving as much time and consideration to the guy with a gun to your wife's head demanding she take off her clothes as you do a marriage counselor. You can keep all the balance you want, to yourself.
Viewpoint free of paranoia? Where is the paranoia here? Isn't this whole thread about the NSA wiretapping equipment? Oh, and no, it's not a debate about if it even exists, we're discussing a SECURITY HOLE in the software... Pretty good indication said software exists. So anyways, how do you construe anything GP said as paranoid?
I personally think you're a FOXNews (the Fascist and Belligerent network) zombie, or even a knowing, willfull troll. I'm surprised you didn't bring up GP's supposed 'tinfoil hat'. I mean, that's what you guys do, isn't it? Talk about how people are paranoid and crazy, until 'tinfoil hat' guy's theories are televised enough (as FICTION, of course) so that everyone KNOWS tinfoil hat guy's theory but just don't care anymore (usually about 25-50 years later) and then, OMGPONIES, the 'tinfoil hat' people were right, but it doesn't matter, because the government needed to do that stuff because [RANDOM_FASCISM_JUSTIFICATION] and [STATEMENT_OF_WHY_YOU'RE_A_CHILD_AND_NEED_PROTECT
I've been hearing fools spout this 'nothing to see here' crap for too many years and seen too many of the 'nothing to see here' stories be far too accurate. And as an addendum to this rant (I know you didn't use the specific term I'm about to rant about, but your post sure evokes the feeling of it) I don't understand why tinfoil hats aren't in fashion yet, they seem to be attributed to those people who have a better grasp of the big picture and it's probable future manifestations than any OTHER group out there...