I don't believe there is anything protectionist about a law like: Any country wishing to trade with the US must obey the US federal minimum wage.
Especialy since in the country where workers earn a median $1000 per year income, they can feed four in a nice restaraunt for a buck, take a taxi anywhere in the country for a buck or a bus for a nickle, buy a hand-stitched tailored shirt for $5, or rent a house for $30 a month.
I'm twice as rich as someone living 300 miles away in Chicago who earns the exact same salary as I do, because prices are all twice as high there.
You miss the part where he said he's short on cash. taxis are expensive, trains are nonexiatant, and where I live walking us usually faster than taking the bus, and taking the bus is more expensive than driving your car.
there are so many regulations that complying with them all is an undue burden on business.
That's what the guy in the penthouse bringing down millions per year in salary and stock options says, but I, for one, don't believe a fucking word of it.
Now go add in all the tax laws,
How are you to fund government without taxes? Or are you an anarchist?
all the environmental regulations you listed,
Look here, boy, that's a sore spot with me. I grew up in Cahokia, IL a couple miles south of the Monsanto plant in Sauget. Before environmental regs, you had to roll the windows up driving past, even in 100 degree heat and no AC because the air BURNED YOUR LUNGS. Rivers caught fire back then. You ignorant kids have no fucking clue how bad the environment was before the regulations.
I didn't see Monsanto going out of business, but drive past there now and you can actualy breathe. It doesn't even stink any more.
the work laws
You mean like the ones this comapny broke? Like OSHA, which if it were in place in 1959 my grandfather wouldn't have fallen down four stories? Son, I hate to break it to you, but you are a damned fool who listens to those who would do you harm in the guise of doing you good. Wake up and smell the sewage.
Well, they did a lot of R&D all right.. On how to loose the crowd's interest
Well, setting the crowd's interest free is a GOOD thing. You did say "loose", which means "set free". I must assume you actually meant what you wrote, since I don't know how to read minds.
MOST people I know pirate movies because they are greedy and want it for free.
Let me guess... you're the only pirate you know? If not, birds of a feather and all that. Did you know that studies show that pirates spend more on media than non-pirates? But to hell with studies, your morally indigent friends are a good enough metric, right?
aimed at those who think that this government intervention in the market is a good thing (or any government intervention).
When your house catches fire be sure to shoo the firefighters away. You don't want any government interference now, do you?
When the EPA comes by to test your well to see if Monsanto is poisoning you, shoo them away, you don't need any government regulations.
When you buy that tainted beef because you dimwitted neocons have disbanded the FDA, don't bitch when you get sick.
Moron. Those regulations are in place to protect YOU from those who would do you harm -- like multinationsl corporations who are run my money-worshiping sociopaths who don't give a rat's ass who they kill as long as they get their money.
"The Chicago way," and it's been like that since at least prohibition. Chicago is perhaps the most corrupt city in the US. Note that both previous Illinois governors are in federal prison for corruption? Both are Chicagoans.
No politician in Chicago does anything whatever that his cronies don't get a cut of. It's horible, and unfortunately affects the rest of the state as well.
If everything north of I-80 were deemed a new state, most of Illinois' problems would go away.
You're the dishonest freak, fool. Most people are, in fact, honest. Yes, I've known quite a few theives and bastards, and you're apparently one as well, but I've known far more good, decent people.
The problem with people like you is that you thieves think everyone else is as dishonest as you are. That's why Epic has DRM on their games, Warren Marshall was a pirate in his college days (said so himself) and thinks everyone else is, as well.
He's wrong and so are you. Fool. You must live a miserable existence.
Rich people aren't any smarter or dumber than anyone else. Some of them are brain-dead stupid, some are members of MENSA. You really think Steve Wosniac and Bill Allen are stupid and can't set up a ripper?
The thing is, they don't have to bother with Handbrake and XBMC; they have the cash to buy anything they want and probably simply have no desire to do it. I know how to change my car's oil but I pay someone to do it, just because I hate working on cars. And I'm not even rich.
Many things are illegal only partially for the damage they allow you to do to yourself. The abuse of many substances could/would also have a widespread negative effect on society.
And unproven and thoroughly inaccurate assumption. Considering the harm those laws do to society -- gang wars, bribery, corruption, violence, the incarceration and ruination of the non-violent, it's pretty damned hard to imagine how legalization could possibly have a worse effect on society than prohibition does.
And consider this -- the two most deadly and addictive drugs in exiustance are legal -- tobacco and alcohol. More prople die from overdose of alcohol than overdose of all other drugs combined. Tobacco kills most of uts users.
You speak of opiates, the only reason they do anything at all is because they fit in endorphin receptors. Those idiots you see in their $200 shoes and short pants in winter running out from behind that UPS truck that you have to slam on the skids to keep from running over? Stoned out of his mind on endorphins. At least the heroin junkies shoot up and pass out in their living rooms instead of running in front of my car like the endorphin junkies do -- and remember, heroin is just synthetic endorphins.
I'd say it's not genetically modified weed, but the kool=aid you're drinking. Where did you get that oil company-sponsored blog and why in the world do you think it carries any credence whatever? Here's what the New York Times says:
But an examination of the American tax code indicates that oil production is among the most heavily subsidized businesses, with tax breaks available at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process.
According to the most recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, released in 2005, capital investments like oil field leases and drilling equipment are taxed at an effective rate of 9 percent, significantly lower than the overall rate of 25 percent for businesses in general and lower than virtually any other industry.
And for many small and midsize oil companies, the tax on capital investments is so low that it is more than eliminated by var-ious credits. These companiesâ(TM) returns on those investments are often higher after taxes than before.
âoeThe flow of revenues to oil companies is like the gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico: heavy and constant,â said Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who has worked alongside the Obama administration on a bill that would cut $20 billion in oil industry tax breaks over the next decade. âoeThere is no reason for these corporations to shortchange the American taxpayer.â
You are 100% incorrect. To change from oil and gas to green renewables you would have to replace every gas and coal fired generating plant with wind or solar or hydro or nukes, and replace every single vehicle with an electric one. The financial costs would be enormous.
OTOH if Microsoft ceased to exist tomorrow, nobody would be the worse for wear except maybe Adobe. Nobody would have to buy new hardware, there are alternate OSes out there that are not only equal to but in most cases superior to Windows. Switching from one release of Windows to the next takes a bigger learning curve than switching from any flavor of Windows to almost any KDE-based Linux distro.
You don't have to use the command line or compile your own programs as the MS Fudsters would have you believe. Any software you need is only a few clicks away in your repository. And unlike Windows, Linux is even easy to install!
Please use the flag this post on every post, that way it will go away
You like spam and GNAA trolls? That's what the flag is for. There's nothing automatic about it, clicking the flag only flags it for/. staff to see. If it's spam or goatse it's removed, otherwise it's ignored completely.
I wish they would have posted a story explaining the flag. Maybe they did and I missed it, but staff have explained it in many in-topic posts.
As a completely misinformed athiest you are 100% incorrect. God is indeed Allah; the Jews, Muslims, and Christians sare the old testament, which the Jews call the "Torah". We all worship the same God, the God of creation. The son is Jesus, who came to pay in blood for all the nasty things you and I do. The Holy Ghost is God within us; see "communion".
Thank God technology progresses faster than patent trolls
No, thank God that patents don't last as long as copyrights. Can you imagine how technology would stagnate with 95 year long patents? That is how art and literature are stagnating now.
A dollar for a bulb that lasts six months if you're lucky. I started switching to CFLs in 2000 when I bought a house with twelve foot ceilings and had some lights that were a pain to change. I no longer have that house or unreachable lamps, but I'm now 100% CFL and don't miss that strange, sunset-like orange light the incandescants put out at all.
I may pay $3 for one, but it lasts ten years and uses 1/4 the electricity as your sunset colored lights. Today's CFLs are more like daylight.
I can see a conversation 100 years ago: "No, I ain't gettin' none o' them thar newfangled electric lamps. I heared they was dangerous, and the laight just glares, nothin' like the warm, friendly light you get from good old fashioned candles and kerosene lamps. Now whar's my whip, I be takin' the buggy down to the general store. I need some new candles and some kerosine."
I spent a year in Thailand, a devoutly Bhuddist country, so yes, I know that he was not a deity, he would be more like Muhammed than Jesus (AFAIK Christianity is the only religion with "god born as man"). But Bhuddism when I was in Thailand certainly WAS a religion. In fact, males in Thailand are expected to spend a year in the Bhuddist priesthood. What other kind of organization besides religions have priests?
Muhammed wasn't a diety, either, would you say that Islam isn't a religion?
It's always been that way. Twenty years ago my then-brother in law worked at a factory producing cheap physical devices. The boss would bring a competing factory's widget and say "can we make one of these?" He would say "not without violating their patent." The boss' answer was always "that's why we have a legal department. Start making them."
I think that was the fellow's name, he was known as "The Cajun Cook" and was a pretty funny guy. He told this gem:
A Cajun sends his son off to college. When the kid comes home on break, the old man asks, So, wad'ya larn, boy?" The son thinks for a second and says "Pi R squared." The old man jumps up and says "what kind o' tomfoolery is they teachin' you, boy?? Pie are Round, cornbread are square!"
I've been using CFLs for over a decade and not only do I have no problem with them, they keep improving. The earlier ones took a second to light, which was really no big deal that people whined about. Newer ones come on instantly. They never did have the "greenish" tint that TFS mentions that flourescent tubes have. Rather than the warm light one gets from candles or incandescants, they give a light more like daylight. A lot of it is just whatever you're used to, that orangeish light that comes from incandescants I now find annoying.
As to the mercury, a coal-fired generator spews more mercury into the environment powering the incandescant than is in the CFL. The amount of mercury in a CFL is minute and really no cause for concern; I've broken several and had no undue effects.
They had to pass a law because people are stupid, and will buy an incandescent for a dollar rather than a CFL for three, even though the CFL lasts 10 times as long and is far cheaper to use. People are "penny wise and pound foolish." IMO, use of incandescent lighting is just plain stupid.
Agreed completely. This is the PETA nuts' agenda, and guess what? Getting rid of every cow and pig on the planet wouldn't stop global warming. We'd still have to change our heating, lighting, and transportation to non-emitting power sources.
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I don't believe there is anything protectionist about a law like: Any country wishing to trade with the US must obey the US federal minimum wage.
Especialy since in the country where workers earn a median $1000 per year income, they can feed four in a nice restaraunt for a buck, take a taxi anywhere in the country for a buck or a bus for a nickle, buy a hand-stitched tailored shirt for $5, or rent a house for $30 a month.
I'm twice as rich as someone living 300 miles away in Chicago who earns the exact same salary as I do, because prices are all twice as high there.
You miss the part where he said he's short on cash. taxis are expensive, trains are nonexiatant, and where I live walking us usually faster than taking the bus, and taking the bus is more expensive than driving your car.
Since DVDs and BluRays are encrypted, the DMCA applies. CDs no longer have DRM. That's why this is illegal and ripping CDs isn't.
there are so many regulations that complying with them all is an undue burden on business.
That's what the guy in the penthouse bringing down millions per year in salary and stock options says, but I, for one, don't believe a fucking word of it.
Now go add in all the tax laws,
How are you to fund government without taxes? Or are you an anarchist?
all the environmental regulations you listed,
Look here, boy, that's a sore spot with me. I grew up in Cahokia, IL a couple miles south of the Monsanto plant in Sauget. Before environmental regs, you had to roll the windows up driving past, even in 100 degree heat and no AC because the air BURNED YOUR LUNGS. Rivers caught fire back then. You ignorant kids have no fucking clue how bad the environment was before the regulations.
I didn't see Monsanto going out of business, but drive past there now and you can actualy breathe. It doesn't even stink any more.
the work laws
You mean like the ones this comapny broke? Like OSHA, which if it were in place in 1959 my grandfather wouldn't have fallen down four stories? Son, I hate to break it to you, but you are a damned fool who listens to those who would do you harm in the guise of doing you good. Wake up and smell the sewage.
Well, they did a lot of R&D all right.. On how to loose the crowd's interest
Well, setting the crowd's interest free is a GOOD thing. You did say "loose", which means "set free". I must assume you actually meant what you wrote, since I don't know how to read minds.
MOST people I know pirate movies because they are greedy and want it for free.
Let me guess... you're the only pirate you know? If not, birds of a feather and all that. Did you know that studies show that pirates spend more on media than non-pirates? But to hell with studies, your morally indigent friends are a good enough metric, right?
aimed at those who think that this government intervention in the market is a good thing (or any government intervention).
When your house catches fire be sure to shoo the firefighters away. You don't want any government interference now, do you?
When the EPA comes by to test your well to see if Monsanto is poisoning you, shoo them away, you don't need any government regulations.
When you buy that tainted beef because you dimwitted neocons have disbanded the FDA, don't bitch when you get sick.
Moron. Those regulations are in place to protect YOU from those who would do you harm -- like multinationsl corporations who are run my money-worshiping sociopaths who don't give a rat's ass who they kill as long as they get their money.
"The Chicago way," and it's been like that since at least prohibition. Chicago is perhaps the most corrupt city in the US. Note that both previous Illinois governors are in federal prison for corruption? Both are Chicagoans.
No politician in Chicago does anything whatever that his cronies don't get a cut of. It's horible, and unfortunately affects the rest of the state as well.
If everything north of I-80 were deemed a new state, most of Illinois' problems would go away.
You're the dishonest freak, fool. Most people are, in fact, honest. Yes, I've known quite a few theives and bastards, and you're apparently one as well, but I've known far more good, decent people.
The problem with people like you is that you thieves think everyone else is as dishonest as you are. That's why Epic has DRM on their games, Warren Marshall was a pirate in his college days (said so himself) and thinks everyone else is, as well.
He's wrong and so are you. Fool. You must live a miserable existence.
Rich people aren't any smarter or dumber than anyone else. Some of them are brain-dead stupid, some are members of MENSA. You really think Steve Wosniac and Bill Allen are stupid and can't set up a ripper?
The thing is, they don't have to bother with Handbrake and XBMC; they have the cash to buy anything they want and probably simply have no desire to do it. I know how to change my car's oil but I pay someone to do it, just because I hate working on cars. And I'm not even rich.
Indeed, did 95 even come on CDs? I may still have the win 95 floppies laying around somewhere...
Many things are illegal only partially for the damage they allow you to do to yourself. The abuse of many substances could/would also have a widespread negative effect on society.
And unproven and thoroughly inaccurate assumption. Considering the harm those laws do to society -- gang wars, bribery, corruption, violence, the incarceration and ruination of the non-violent, it's pretty damned hard to imagine how legalization could possibly have a worse effect on society than prohibition does.
And consider this -- the two most deadly and addictive drugs in exiustance are legal -- tobacco and alcohol. More prople die from overdose of alcohol than overdose of all other drugs combined. Tobacco kills most of uts users.
You speak of opiates, the only reason they do anything at all is because they fit in endorphin receptors. Those idiots you see in their $200 shoes and short pants in winter running out from behind that UPS truck that you have to slam on the skids to keep from running over? Stoned out of his mind on endorphins. At least the heroin junkies shoot up and pass out in their living rooms instead of running in front of my car like the endorphin junkies do -- and remember, heroin is just synthetic endorphins.
The AC obviously has a humor deficit. I laughed out loud at it. Funny? No, it was hilarious.
The GE tech rep said it was going to be Linux all the way down as far as GE is concerned
Maybe we should replace Tux with a new mascot, maybe this guy?
Nah, Linux is too fast. hey, Windows doesn't have a mascot and this would fit them better. Maybe GE will reconsider their OS choice?
I'd say it's not genetically modified weed, but the kool=aid you're drinking. Where did you get that oil company-sponsored blog and why in the world do you think it carries any credence whatever? Here's what the New York Times says:
You are 100% incorrect. To change from oil and gas to green renewables you would have to replace every gas and coal fired generating plant with wind or solar or hydro or nukes, and replace every single vehicle with an electric one. The financial costs would be enormous.
OTOH if Microsoft ceased to exist tomorrow, nobody would be the worse for wear except maybe Adobe. Nobody would have to buy new hardware, there are alternate OSes out there that are not only equal to but in most cases superior to Windows. Switching from one release of Windows to the next takes a bigger learning curve than switching from any flavor of Windows to almost any KDE-based Linux distro.
You don't have to use the command line or compile your own programs as the MS Fudsters would have you believe. Any software you need is only a few clicks away in your repository. And unlike Windows, Linux is even easy to install!
Please use the flag this post on every post, that way it will go away
/. staff to see. If it's spam or goatse it's removed, otherwise it's ignored completely.
You like spam and GNAA trolls? That's what the flag is for. There's nothing automatic about it, clicking the flag only flags it for
I wish they would have posted a story explaining the flag. Maybe they did and I missed it, but staff have explained it in many in-topic posts.
As a completely misinformed athiest you are 100% incorrect. God is indeed Allah; the Jews, Muslims, and Christians sare the old testament, which the Jews call the "Torah". We all worship the same God, the God of creation. The son is Jesus, who came to pay in blood for all the nasty things you and I do. The Holy Ghost is God within us; see "communion".
Thank God technology progresses faster than patent trolls
No, thank God that patents don't last as long as copyrights. Can you imagine how technology would stagnate with 95 year long patents? That is how art and literature are stagnating now.
A dollar for a bulb that lasts six months if you're lucky. I started switching to CFLs in 2000 when I bought a house with twelve foot ceilings and had some lights that were a pain to change. I no longer have that house or unreachable lamps, but I'm now 100% CFL and don't miss that strange, sunset-like orange light the incandescants put out at all.
I may pay $3 for one, but it lasts ten years and uses 1/4 the electricity as your sunset colored lights. Today's CFLs are more like daylight.
I can see a conversation 100 years ago: "No, I ain't gettin' none o' them thar newfangled electric lamps. I heared they was dangerous, and the laight just glares, nothin' like the warm, friendly light you get from good old fashioned candles and kerosene lamps. Now whar's my whip, I be takin' the buggy down to the general store. I need some new candles and some kerosine."
I spent a year in Thailand, a devoutly Bhuddist country, so yes, I know that he was not a deity, he would be more like Muhammed than Jesus (AFAIK Christianity is the only religion with "god born as man"). But Bhuddism when I was in Thailand certainly WAS a religion. In fact, males in Thailand are expected to spend a year in the Bhuddist priesthood. What other kind of organization besides religions have priests?
Muhammed wasn't a diety, either, would you say that Islam isn't a religion?
It's always been that way. Twenty years ago my then-brother in law worked at a factory producing cheap physical devices. The boss would bring a competing factory's widget and say "can we make one of these?" He would say "not without violating their patent." The boss' answer was always "that's why we have a legal department. Start making them."
I think that was the fellow's name, he was known as "The Cajun Cook" and was a pretty funny guy. He told this gem:
A Cajun sends his son off to college. When the kid comes home on break, the old man asks, So, wad'ya larn, boy?" The son thinks for a second and says "Pi R squared." The old man jumps up and says "what kind o' tomfoolery is they teachin' you, boy?? Pie are Round, cornbread are square!"
I've been using CFLs for over a decade and not only do I have no problem with them, they keep improving. The earlier ones took a second to light, which was really no big deal that people whined about. Newer ones come on instantly. They never did have the "greenish" tint that TFS mentions that flourescent tubes have. Rather than the warm light one gets from candles or incandescants, they give a light more like daylight. A lot of it is just whatever you're used to, that orangeish light that comes from incandescants I now find annoying.
As to the mercury, a coal-fired generator spews more mercury into the environment powering the incandescant than is in the CFL. The amount of mercury in a CFL is minute and really no cause for concern; I've broken several and had no undue effects.
They had to pass a law because people are stupid, and will buy an incandescent for a dollar rather than a CFL for three, even though the CFL lasts 10 times as long and is far cheaper to use. People are "penny wise and pound foolish." IMO, use of incandescent lighting is just plain stupid.
Agreed completely. This is the PETA nuts' agenda, and guess what? Getting rid of every cow and pig on the planet wouldn't stop global warming. We'd still have to change our heating, lighting, and transportation to non-emitting power sources.
Not eating meat won't help much at all.
PETA has shown itself to be completely unethical.