Can you even imagine? 10 000 12 year olds all vying for attention.. Man I just gotta see the cess pool of prepubescent circus freaks that it would create.
Let me get this straight... Camcorded movies is why we need a DMCA?
First, I won't even watch one of those. And I can't see millions of dollars being lost to people who do. I mean seriously - who trades a theatre experience -- even a "home theatre" for a 'camcord rip'?? Anyone who does that was NEVER going to pay for the movie anyway.
Second, if that's the issue, we don't need a DMCA, at most we need a 'no video cameras in theatres' policy. And that's something the theatres are already welcome to enforce. (And many do so on advance screenings, and opening weekend shows.)
I also seem to recall theatres were developing camera detection technology to further combat cameras in theatres -- some sort of way to detect camera lenses as i recall...
Flouride in water supplies is beneficial. The others aren't.
Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
Have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure-grain alcohol?
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
just because the old lady is computer illiterate does not excuse her from not being knowledgeable about the law.
True.
The difference is that speed limits were written with the intent that it apply even to ignorant drivers, and drivers who exceeded the limit even by accident, and the penalties reflect that. (There are a ton of problems with it, especially as we move to automatic enforcement, so don't get me wrong, I think speeding laws need a complete overhaul, but that's a separate argument.)
With copyright infringment however, this situation wasn't foreseeable; the laws were written mostly to combat organized criminal activity. And they were designed to scale up, so that large scale infringers got hit with massive fines.
It was unthinkable when the law was drafted that a little old lady could be completely unwittingly responsible for 10's of thousands of counts of copyright infringement, or that this could be a common everyday occurrence. Yet its happened and these little out ladies are being targeted with lawsuits that would have been approriate for large scale cd counterfeiting rings. They are entirely inappropriate for unwitting old women.
As for the RIAA/MPAA extortion tactics, they are wrong for TWO reasons. First, as you observed, the legal expenses involved are high, and its much easier to settle than to fight. But ALSO, and more importantly, because the lawsuits being brought against these people are entirely inappropriate in the first place. And with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line and few precedents the stakes are MUCH too high for the average person to gamble on the courts which must judge you based on the law, not on the appropriateness of the law.
For example, if the law were updated to state that it was illegal for an individual not part of an organized piracy ring to run a p2p app sharing copy protected works without authorization, and the fine was $100, $500, $1000, or $2000 or $5000 depending on the size of the collection and the circumstances, that would be appropriate. If a person was charged, and felt she was innocent, she could fight it. It would be small claims court and wouldn't cost that much. The **AA could still go after large file sharers with punishments high enough to act as real deterrent, but gross miscarriages of justice would be avoided.
Of course, much harsher penalties and laws would still exist for large scale organized criminal piracy.
I find it extremely silly that people object to the word "piracy." It has a specific meaning in context. t does not "demonize" copyright infringement in any way.
You are ok with creating a distinction between infringement and theft, but think piracy which, in a lay person's mind, implies theft is ok? I think that is a tad silly.
I think the term piracy is demonization, to the extent that it suggests 'organized criminal activity', which really is the main threat to corporate interests.
ie - a group in china creating counterfeit MS windows discs complete with keys, and holographic stickers is a 'software pirate'.
Installing the copy of Windows XP Home edition that came with your dell into that used PC you got free from work when they upgraded the LAN might be infringement (though it might even be fair use despite the EULA) but it isn't 'software piracy'.
To really overdo it, lumping both those groups into one term and then saying piracy = copyright infringement is somewhat akin to grouping say 'people with brownish skin' and 'fundamentalist islamic extremists' into one group and then equating that with 'terrorists'. And absurd as it is, it happened, and so we end up with completely innocent people in secret prisons facing torture. Don't chew me out yet, because as over-the-top as that is, consider this:
In the world of 'piracy', we end up with computer illiterate elderly women being dragged through the courts on the presumption they owe the recording industry a few hundred million bucks for the remorseless and obscene damage they've dealt to these American mega-corporations.;)
And the key conflict can only happen if the copies of Windows can contact MS. Otherwise, why couldn't there be 2 or more copies out there using the same key, with no problem?
Actually, even copies that cannot 'contact' MS -must- be activated, by phone if necessary.
However, yeah, multiple copies of windows can use the same key. I have an xp box that I installed on 2 different computers, when the first one died I installed XP onto the 2nd. Activation went through without a problem. My understanding is that, with XP, at least, keys that aren't blacklisted, CAN be re-used on different hardware provided there is a enough of a time lapse between uses.
At least that's been my experience and I've done it a couple times now, both with XP and 2003 server.
Note that my keys are retail boxed though, not OEM. I wouldn't be surprised if MS is more relaxed with retail keys, given that their legit owners actually have license to transfer the OS, and MS likely expects them to do so from time to time. Unlike OEMs.
So you imagine he probably works for a non-commercial software company?
Regardless, its copyright infringement, not 'theft' and not 'piracy'. Its really quite simple, theft is when you physically take something that doesn't belong to you. Copyright infringement is, amongst other things, when you make a copy of something you aren't authorized too.
In fact in this case the real issue isn't even copyright infringement. Suppose I use this keygen on legally purchased software. What laws are being broken?
I didn't 'steal' your key, I happened to come up with the same number MS assigned to someone else independantly. Hell, I might have come up with the number before MS, which, if anything, would make it -my- intellectual property; and MS would be infringing my copyright by issueing you "my" key string.
Yeah, so a copy of the order was issued. Then what? They're all going to meticulously remove their records on him. Hardly, this will just get added to those records. So, yeah, when they pull up his file which will still exist, they'll see his past, and the fact that they won't be allowed to use it.
Sort of like instructing a jury to disregard testimony. They might be able to try, and I'm sure they do their level best, but its never really gone.
For example any "lists" he's been added to over the last 13 years will not be updated to reflect his new 'never was a criminal' status. Be it terrorist watch lists, no fly lists, FBI persons of interest list, or whatever else, not to mention his prints will remain in the system, etc, etc.
In your own words, holding onto Rational's "Visual Test" source is still making them profits, by preventing "Visual Test" from cannibalizing sales of their other products.
Why on earth would/should they release the source and effectively create competition for their own products?
In particular, there is a speed limiter in your car, in all liklihood. It's probably set at somewhere between 100 and 140 mph.
Do you have a source for that?
In all the cars I've ever owned, from Acura Integra's to VW Golfs to Porsche 911s I have never encountered a 'speed limiter'.
Several of the cars did have 'rev limiters' which prevented the engine from going too far past the red line. But those are there to prevent over revving in 1st/2nd, not to limit speed in 5th or 6th. Most cars can't even reach their red line in top gear, so the rev limiters aren't really an 'artificial' limit.
All WP is claiming is that Xiph.org claimed it was patent free. Hardly 'final word' stuff. Especially given that it even admits their is some dissent (although from parties with an vested interest in saying so).
I wouldn't be so sure, both Dynamics ("Great Plain's Dynamics" from North Dakota), and Navision (out of europe) had good market presence before being swallowed by MS. If MS hadn't started buying up accounting packages, I strongly suspect you'd have found them.
Oh, and an interesting tidbit - Dynamics used to run on Macs, not just Windows.
With accounting software for businesses (that are bigger than Simply Accounting and Quickbooks) it has ALWAYS been a pay-as-you-go service, it just wasn't marketed as such. If you ever tried to stop paying, you'd hit a bug, or data corruption, or need updated features to handle new tax rules, and be forced into shelling out for the next version....
I'm also extremely annoyed Microsoft is buying so many of the medium business accounting packages. (Dynamics, Navision)
Its an application space that REALLY needs to be addressed by open source. We need a decent OSS alternative, and open Standards for accounting data exchange are DESPERATELY required. Too bad there's nothing less sexy to OSS hackers than working on an accounting project.:(
Your conflating 'extreme actions' with 'extreme differences'.
They aren't that different. They are blowing those differences out of way out of proportion to the point of killing people over it, something that is hypocritcal even within their own religions. Much like fanatic pro-lifers.
Ultimately, it is NOT the case that we can't all just get along due to some "great cultural divide" that makes it simply impossible for us to coexist peacefully. That sort of difference simply isn't there. At this point yeah, a lot of factions are refusing to bend so much as a hair to live in peace -- but that's not really due to differences in culture or religion. Its the same pig-headedness, politics, power plays and egos, that can get in the way of peaceful relations between *anybody*.
I think your odds are much better. I certainly would risk bringing a bunch of Korans into the US before I bring a bunch of bibles into Saudi Arabia.
When I said "Taliban endorsed religious texts" I was attempting to explictly expand the scope to specically Taliban -endorsed- content. So, not just Koran's, but Taliban endorsed interpretations thereof, the Taliban 'coles notes' to the Koran, if you will, etc.
Will U.S. customs let you through? Yeah probably. Eventually. But I think the same can be said of Saudi Arabia. Its against the law to publicly display Christian symbols such as crosses and bibles, but I'm fairly confident you could move a box of bibles through Saudi customs provided it was done properly and with the appropriate propriety. Ironically, I think U.S. customs is more apt to cause an unfounded incident.
This is my latest experience with US customs:
A coworker forgot their laptop in Canada when on a business trip, and so we tried to courier it to him. US customs held it up.
They wanted us to provide information regarding its origin of manufacture. (Its stamped on the bottom of the laptop, but of course THEY had it not us.) Then they wanted the address IN CHINA where it was manufactured - who knows?! Then they wanted the Social Insurance Number of the individual who was receiving it because he was a "Canadian". Then they wanted clarification of our business relationship - were we selling it or repairing it under warranty etc? (None of the above! It was his laptop. His own employer was sending him his own beat up 2 year old laptop, that he'd simply left behind, for him to use, and which he will bring back.)... THEN they wanted paperwork for the FCC for the "importation of electronics" (Fedex at least had anticipated that one, and we'd actually sent those forms, and kept copies). But even so it was ridiculous, the FCC ID was stamped right on it after all. And it wasn't being 'imported' to the US for resale nor even to be left behind.
If he'd remembered to take it with him, they wouldn't have given it more than a glance. But put it in a box and try to mail it, and suddenly its the most complex transaction you can imagine.
The biggest irony though, was the that the laptop in question was actually originally purchased in Oregon, on one of the employees previous business trips.
Try carrying a stack of bibles into Saudi Arabia and see how far you get through customs. I'll tell you how far - to the line that leads to jail:
Try this on for size: Try carrying a stack of Taliban-endorsed religious texts into the United States of America and see how far you get through customs. For bonus fun, get a deep tan, grow a beard, and wear traditional middle eastern attire. You might make it through... eventually.
In America, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I worked in Japan for some time and realized that a somewhat similar Japanese phrase crystallizes the difference between our two cultures - the nail that sticks up gets hit.
If by crstallize you mean, "make no sense whatsoever".
Common western phrases such as:
"rock the boat" or "make waves" or "stick your neck out" all refer to idea that if you make yourself noticed you'll end up in trouble, as all of these phrases are usually warnings, and are often preceded by "Don't". I'd say the idea characterized by Japan's "the nail that sticks up gets hit" phrase is WELL represented here.
Certainly, we are not without sin, but the current rift is more complex than you portray. At the very least, it is due in part to a clash of cultures and religions that are almost diametrically opposed to one another. Freedom of speech, expression and, yes, religion are basic tenets of American society. We have grown so used to these basic freedoms that we assume that they are universally true...and they are not...regardless of how much we (or others) would like them to be.
1) The various cultural and religious disputes going on are rarely diametric. The differences are usually pretty minor details. People will still hate each other over them, and fight to the death over them, but if you take a step back, these great 'cultural divides' you are suggesting simply don't exist.
2) America was not attacked because of "freedom of speech, expression, and religion". The terrorist threat is entirely due to the Wests interfering in the middle east for its own selfish interests.
If the US was an oppressive fascist state run by the Taliban, but had interfered in the Middle East for its own interests the same way the 'free and democratic US' had, the terrorists would hate THAT U.S. just as much. The only difference would be the rhetoric used to keep the 'hate-on' up.
If the Middle East was a predominantly Catholic region, and the US had interfered with it in the same way, there would still be terrorists that hate us just as much. The only difference would be the rhetoric...
Not quite. But he might say, wait a second, he's got difficulties fitting in into social groups...
Or perhaps he'll get hired, but word about him will get around the office, and he'll become something of a joke, ultimately creating the same hostile environment he endured in school.
Vladsinger is a total pussy. he's a little gay bitch and cries like one. i heard he got busted yanking his meat while looking at the other guys in the locker room. Fucked up little shit. i hate that little whiny two faced bitch.
Now vladsinger, substitute your real name in, add some photoshops of you blowing a guy in an alley, and put that out on the internet for your future classmates, employers, coworkers, political adversaries, potential girl friends, and even your own children to see every time they google your name.
It used to be you could switch schools, or move, or simply graduate to adulthood and leave the crap life you had in school behind, get a restart. Now that shit follows you, and can follow you for life.
I'm not saying we need a nanny state, but people should be protected or at least able to protect themselves effectively from this sort of cyber bullying, and cyber smearing.
Slashdot Mirror
Port forwarding in the NAT 'router' is really the only step related to NAT or the limitations of ipv4.
And we have uPnP which can handle both port forwarding and the windows firewall.
Try giving them the same exercise on one of those unix accounts you mentioned earlier.
Personally, I give them better odds with the dhcp/firewall/nat setup.
Can you even imagine? 10 000 12 year olds all vying for attention.. Man I just gotta see the cess pool of prepubescent circus freaks that it would create.
It turns out there is a preview:
www.myspace.com
Let me get this straight... Camcorded movies is why we need a DMCA?
First, I won't even watch one of those. And I can't see millions of dollars being lost to people who do. I mean seriously - who trades a theatre experience -- even a "home theatre" for a 'camcord rip'?? Anyone who does that was NEVER going to pay for the movie anyway.
Second, if that's the issue, we don't need a DMCA, at most we need a 'no video cameras in theatres' policy. And that's something the theatres are already welcome to enforce. (And many do so on advance screenings, and opening weekend shows.)
I also seem to recall theatres were developing camera detection technology to further combat cameras in theatres -- some sort of way to detect camera lenses as i recall...
Flouride in water supplies is beneficial. The others aren't.
Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
Have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure-grain alcohol?
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
just because the old lady is computer illiterate does not excuse her from not being knowledgeable about the law.
True.
The difference is that speed limits were written with the intent that it apply even to ignorant drivers, and drivers who exceeded the limit even by accident, and the penalties reflect that. (There are a ton of problems with it, especially as we move to automatic enforcement, so don't get me wrong, I think speeding laws need a complete overhaul, but that's a separate argument.)
With copyright infringment however, this situation wasn't foreseeable; the laws were written mostly to combat organized criminal activity. And they were designed to scale up, so that large scale infringers got hit with massive fines.
It was unthinkable when the law was drafted that a little old lady could be completely unwittingly responsible for 10's of thousands of counts of copyright infringement, or that this could be a common everyday occurrence. Yet its happened and these little out ladies are being targeted with lawsuits that would have been approriate for large scale cd counterfeiting rings. They are entirely inappropriate for unwitting old women.
As for the RIAA/MPAA extortion tactics, they are wrong for TWO reasons. First, as you observed, the legal expenses involved are high, and its much easier to settle than to fight. But ALSO, and more importantly, because the lawsuits being brought against these people are entirely inappropriate in the first place. And with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line and few precedents the stakes are MUCH too high for the average person to gamble on the courts which must judge you based on the law, not on the appropriateness of the law.
For example, if the law were updated to state that it was illegal for an individual not part of an organized piracy ring to run a p2p app sharing copy protected works without authorization, and the fine was $100, $500, $1000, or $2000 or $5000 depending on the size of the collection and the circumstances, that would be appropriate. If a person was charged, and felt she was innocent, she could fight it. It would be small claims court and wouldn't cost that much. The **AA could still go after large file sharers with punishments high enough to act as real deterrent, but gross miscarriages of justice would be avoided.
Of course, much harsher penalties and laws would still exist for large scale organized criminal piracy.
I find it extremely silly that people object to the word "piracy." It has a specific meaning in context. t does not "demonize" copyright infringement in any way.
;)
You are ok with creating a distinction between infringement and theft, but think piracy which, in a lay person's mind, implies theft is ok? I think that is a tad silly.
I think the term piracy is demonization, to the extent that it suggests 'organized criminal activity', which really is the main threat to corporate interests.
ie - a group in china creating counterfeit MS windows discs complete with keys, and holographic stickers is a 'software pirate'.
Installing the copy of Windows XP Home edition that came with your dell into that used PC you got free from work when they upgraded the LAN might be infringement (though it might even be fair use despite the EULA) but it isn't 'software piracy'.
To really overdo it, lumping both those groups into one term and then saying piracy = copyright infringement is somewhat akin to grouping say 'people with brownish skin' and 'fundamentalist islamic extremists' into one group and then equating that with 'terrorists'. And absurd as it is, it happened, and so we end up with completely innocent people in secret prisons facing torture. Don't chew me out yet, because as over-the-top as that is, consider this:
In the world of 'piracy', we end up with computer illiterate elderly women being dragged through the courts on the presumption they owe the recording industry a few hundred million bucks for the remorseless and obscene damage they've dealt to these American mega-corporations.
cheers
Alrighty then... I'll just replace them before I install them ;)
And the key conflict can only happen if the copies of Windows can contact MS. Otherwise, why couldn't there be 2 or more copies out there using the same key, with no problem?
Actually, even copies that cannot 'contact' MS -must- be activated, by phone if necessary.
However, yeah, multiple copies of windows can use the same key. I have an xp box that I installed on 2 different computers, when the first one died I installed XP onto the 2nd. Activation went through without a problem. My understanding is that, with XP, at least, keys that aren't blacklisted, CAN be re-used on different hardware provided there is a enough of a time lapse between uses.
At least that's been my experience and I've done it a couple times now, both with XP and 2003 server.
Note that my keys are retail boxed though, not OEM. I wouldn't be surprised if MS is more relaxed with retail keys, given that their legit owners actually have license to transfer the OS, and MS likely expects them to do so from time to time. Unlike OEMs.
I don't know what the rules with Vista are.
So you imagine he probably works for a non-commercial software company?
Regardless, its copyright infringement, not 'theft' and not 'piracy'. Its really quite simple, theft is when you physically take something that doesn't belong to you. Copyright infringement is, amongst other things, when you make a copy of something you aren't authorized too.
In fact in this case the real issue isn't even copyright infringement. Suppose I use this keygen on legally purchased software. What laws are being broken?
I didn't 'steal' your key, I happened to come up with the same number MS assigned to someone else independantly. Hell, I might have come up with the number before MS, which, if anything, would make it -my- intellectual property; and MS would be infringing my copyright by issueing you "my" key string.
Which is of course absurd.
Yeah, so a copy of the order was issued. Then what? They're all going to meticulously remove their records on him. Hardly, this will just get added to those records. So, yeah, when they pull up his file which will still exist, they'll see his past, and the fact that they won't be allowed to use it.
Sort of like instructing a jury to disregard testimony. They might be able to try, and I'm sure they do their level best, but its never really gone.
Except that it did.
And all the effects can never be erased.
For example any "lists" he's been added to over the last 13 years will not be updated to reflect his new 'never was a criminal' status. Be it terrorist watch lists, no fly lists, FBI persons of interest list, or whatever else, not to mention his prints will remain in the system, etc, etc.
They are also legally and ethically responsible to their shareholders.
Belief in F/OSS isn't enough to deliberately do something outright unprofitable.
In your own words, holding onto Rational's "Visual Test" source is still making them profits, by preventing "Visual Test" from cannibalizing sales of their other products.
Why on earth would/should they release the source and effectively create competition for their own products?
In particular, there is a speed limiter in your car, in all liklihood. It's probably set at somewhere between 100 and 140 mph.
Do you have a source for that?
In all the cars I've ever owned, from Acura Integra's to VW Golfs to Porsche 911s I have never encountered a 'speed limiter'.
Several of the cars did have 'rev limiters' which prevented the engine from going too far past the red line. But those are there to prevent over revving in 1st/2nd, not to limit speed in 5th or 6th. Most cars can't even reach their red line in top gear, so the rev limiters aren't really an 'artificial' limit.
All WP is claiming is that Xiph.org claimed it was patent free. Hardly 'final word' stuff. Especially given that it even admits their is some dissent (although from parties with an vested interest in saying so).
"Dynamics" *was* the name of the product when it was still owned by Great Plains.
I wouldn't be so sure, both Dynamics ("Great Plain's Dynamics" from North Dakota), and Navision (out of europe) had good market presence before being swallowed by MS. If MS hadn't started buying up accounting packages, I strongly suspect you'd have found them.
Oh, and an interesting tidbit - Dynamics used to run on Macs, not just Windows.
With accounting software for businesses (that are bigger than Simply Accounting and Quickbooks) it has ALWAYS been a pay-as-you-go service, it just wasn't marketed as such. If you ever tried to stop paying, you'd hit a bug, or data corruption, or need updated features to handle new tax rules, and be forced into shelling out for the next version....
:(
I'm also extremely annoyed Microsoft is buying so many of the medium business accounting packages. (Dynamics, Navision)
Its an application space that REALLY needs to be addressed by open source. We need a decent OSS alternative, and open Standards for accounting data exchange are DESPERATELY required. Too bad there's nothing less sexy to OSS hackers than working on an accounting project.
Your obviously being sarcastic, and yet that is exactly right. Far too many people ARE that shallow.
Your conflating 'extreme actions' with 'extreme differences'.
They aren't that different. They are blowing those differences out of way out of proportion to the point of killing people over it, something that is hypocritcal even within their own religions. Much like fanatic pro-lifers.
Ultimately, it is NOT the case that we can't all just get along due to some "great cultural divide" that makes it simply impossible for us to coexist peacefully. That sort of difference simply isn't there. At this point yeah, a lot of factions are refusing to bend so much as a hair to live in peace -- but that's not really due to differences in culture or religion. Its the same pig-headedness, politics, power plays and egos, that can get in the way of peaceful relations between *anybody*.
I think your odds are much better. I certainly would risk bringing a bunch of Korans into the US before I bring a bunch of bibles into Saudi Arabia.
... THEN they wanted paperwork for the FCC for the "importation of electronics" (Fedex at least had anticipated that one, and we'd actually sent those forms, and kept copies). But even so it was ridiculous, the FCC ID was stamped right on it after all. And it wasn't being 'imported' to the US for resale nor even to be left behind.
When I said "Taliban endorsed religious texts" I was attempting to explictly expand the scope to specically Taliban -endorsed- content. So, not just Koran's, but Taliban endorsed interpretations thereof, the Taliban 'coles notes' to the Koran, if you will, etc.
Will U.S. customs let you through? Yeah probably. Eventually. But I think the same can be said of Saudi Arabia. Its against the law to publicly display Christian symbols such as crosses and bibles, but I'm fairly confident you could move a box of bibles through Saudi customs provided it was done properly and with the appropriate propriety. Ironically, I think U.S. customs is more apt to cause an unfounded incident.
This is my latest experience with US customs:
A coworker forgot their laptop in Canada when on a business trip, and so we tried to courier it to him. US customs held it up.
They wanted us to provide information regarding its origin of manufacture. (Its stamped on the bottom of the laptop, but of course THEY had it not us.) Then they wanted the address IN CHINA where it was manufactured - who knows?! Then they wanted the Social Insurance Number of the individual who was receiving it because he was a "Canadian". Then they wanted clarification of our business relationship - were we selling it or repairing it under warranty etc? (None of the above! It was his laptop. His own employer was sending him his own beat up 2 year old laptop, that he'd simply left behind, for him to use, and which he will bring back.)
If he'd remembered to take it with him, they wouldn't have given it more than a glance. But put it in a box and try to mail it, and suddenly its the most complex transaction you can imagine.
The biggest irony though, was the that the laptop in question was actually originally purchased in Oregon, on one of the employees previous business trips.
Try carrying a stack of bibles into Saudi Arabia and see how far you get through customs. I'll tell you how far - to the line that leads to jail:
Try this on for size: Try carrying a stack of Taliban-endorsed religious texts into the United States of America and see how far you get through customs. For bonus fun, get a deep tan, grow a beard, and wear traditional middle eastern attire. You might make it through... eventually.
In America, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I worked in Japan for some time and realized that a somewhat similar Japanese phrase crystallizes the difference between our two cultures - the nail that sticks up gets hit.
If by crstallize you mean, "make no sense whatsoever".
Common western phrases such as:
"rock the boat" or "make waves" or "stick your neck out" all refer to idea that if you make yourself noticed you'll end up in trouble, as all of these phrases are usually warnings, and are often preceded by "Don't". I'd say the idea characterized by Japan's "the nail that sticks up gets hit" phrase is WELL represented here.
Certainly, we are not without sin, but the current rift is more complex than you portray. At the very least, it is due in part to a clash of cultures and religions that are almost diametrically opposed to one another. Freedom of speech, expression and, yes, religion are basic tenets of American society. We have grown so used to these basic freedoms that we assume that they are universally true...and they are not...regardless of how much we (or others) would like them to be.
1) The various cultural and religious disputes going on are rarely diametric. The differences are usually pretty minor details. People will still hate each other over them, and fight to the death over them, but if you take a step back, these great 'cultural divides' you are suggesting simply don't exist.
2) America was not attacked because of "freedom of speech, expression, and religion". The terrorist threat is entirely due to the Wests interfering in the middle east for its own selfish interests.
If the US was an oppressive fascist state run by the Taliban, but had interfered in the Middle East for its own interests the same way the 'free and democratic US' had, the terrorists would hate THAT U.S. just as much. The only difference would be the rhetoric used to keep the 'hate-on' up.
If the Middle East was a predominantly Catholic region, and the US had interfered with it in the same way, there would still be terrorists that hate us just as much. The only difference would be the rhetoric...
Not quite. But he might say, wait a second, he's got difficulties fitting in into social groups...
Or perhaps he'll get hired, but word about him will get around the office, and he'll become something of a joke, ultimately creating the same hostile environment he endured in school.
Vladsinger is a total pussy. he's a little gay bitch and cries like one. i heard he got busted yanking his meat while looking at the other guys in the locker room. Fucked up little shit. i hate that little whiny two faced bitch.
Now vladsinger, substitute your real name in, add some photoshops of you blowing a guy in an alley, and put that out on the internet for your future classmates, employers, coworkers, political adversaries, potential girl friends, and even your own children to see every time they google your name.
It used to be you could switch schools, or move, or simply graduate to adulthood and leave the crap life you had in school behind, get a restart. Now that shit follows you, and can follow you for life.
I'm not saying we need a nanny state, but people should be protected or at least able to protect themselves effectively from this sort of cyber bullying, and cyber smearing.