This man is absolutely right, how dare you people question the wise and all-knowing decsions of our goverment and our loyal, never rape people with broomhandles military?!?!
The fact of the matter is that our goverment and our armed forces have, in the last few years, proven themselves wonderful and fully trustworthy guardians of our liberty. I trust firelane will forgive our ill considered and treasonous remarks. We should all be ashamed of ourselves, how will this conversation affect the troops?
You're preaching the gospel, that entire series is far (far) and away better than anything Uncle George has cranked out of his wheezing marketing factory in the last decade. Even ignoring the fact that Epidsode One could have been replaced by flashing pictures of the characters w/ captions explaining who they are, never mind that Episode Two had a plot that only a demented crackhead could follow. They managed to screw up Darth Vader's origin story! How in the hell does that work.
Lucas should just stick to toymaking and leave creative work to the creative people he hired and paid to carry on his "legacy."
It's so funny when people butt-rape their own life's work the way he has.
But the gated communities do? I live in a reasonably affluent suburb (when not attending my ridiculously expensive university) and I would be hard-pressed to give you the first or last names of any of my neighbors and I can't say as I "give a damn" about them or expect them to give a damn about me.
Social isolation is not only a growing trend among the poor, it just hits them harder because they have traditionally relied on extra-familial/neighborhood social networks to provide things (childcare, extra income in the form of neighborhood charity, etc) that the more affluent pay for (daycares, jobs, and so on)
I do agree that the statement "slavery wasn't an issue in the Civil War" is woefully inadequate considering the complicated nature of that conflict. However, it is just as shortsighted and simplistic to view the North's actions as a "Cusade to End Slavery" and its important to remember that no less an authority than Fredrick Douglas gave a speech in which he acknowledged Lincoln's role as the "Great Emancipator" but also that it had not been Lincoln's aim to free the slaves but persuade the Union. I honestly can't remember the name of the speech or where it took place but I believe if someone would be good enough to google "Not Lincoln's children but at best his stepchildren" or words to that effect more info would present itself. Very few conflicts can be boiled down to the highschool textbook causes, trying to do so just undermines our understanding of history.
Well to go ahead and triple my mistake I apologize for the dueling responses to your post. I was informed that there had been an error and that my comment wouldn't be posted and then it was. Again sorry.
What I was attempting to imply is that our business owners talk up capitalism until the market starts to squeeze them. That they are in fact all hypocrites interested not in some lofty "free market" but just in the bottom line. Taking the current example, I guarantee you that Blockbuster will appeal to the "sacred" free market and the "neccesity" of competition in said free market during their defense. Then, if a similar case arises where their business is threatened, turn around and use the exact same tactics and arguments Netflix is currently employing.
Apologies if my arguments were confusing or misleading.
Apologies, correction accepted. However, what my remarks were meant to imply is that business owners sure do talk up capitalism, at least until they start to get squeezed by the free market. I guarantee you that Blockbuster is going to appeal to the "sacred" free market in this case. Then, if there business is ever seriously threatened, they'll use the exact same tactics that they deride in this case. Apologies if my remarks were unclear or confusing in any way.
But that will cost the industry tens of dollars a year! How will our multi-million dollar movie industry survive if it loses its massive profits on DVD's that cost a few cents to produce but are sold for 30-50 dollars!?!?!
I do feel so very sorry for those multi-millionares with their private jets and super-model girlfriends.
Oh crap! I'm late for work, I hope the truck dock that pays me seven dollars an hour for ten hours of backbreaking labor doesn't fire me...
But really, my concern is all for the movie industry, those poor guys just can't catch a break...
This really is all the court's fault. It was some case called Diamond v. Chakrabarty which defined a patentable item as, "anything under the sun that is made by man." This has opened the door (far wider anyway than it was) to all kinds of ridiculous lawsuits.
Witness, a company called Knight and Associates attempting to claim that it's perfectly legal to file patents on plots (for books, movies, etc) and attempting to file said plot. It's just an attempt to set up a monopoly of ideas and eliminate all competition. Truly we live in a wonderfully capitalist society.
Our business owners believe in free markets completely and totally, until someone bigger and better comes along and the market dictates their destruction. Then they squawk louder than any socialist I ever heard.
If you're going to play football in a giant inflatable space balloon, you're going to take those pointy ended flags away from the refs right? Also presumably steel cleats would be a bad idea.
"And Jim Johnson is headed for the thirty, the forty, "
Spontaneous decompression, Woops, there goes another one!
How dare we humans pollute the vast worthless emptiness of space! How dare you horrible, horrible people support such efforts! If we start building hotels in space where does it stop!
What becomes of the habitat of the Great Humpbacked Space-Whale!
Seriously, though, if NASA isn't ever going to get us off the ground (and its not) then kudos to anyone who gives it a shot.
Of course NASA can barely get a mission of the ground without something exploding on or falling off of the space shuttle and Russia is in the middle of an authoritarian boondoggle and is spending most of its time flying celebrities into space. But hey, who's counting?
Judges can suffer bouts of temporary insanity too. I look for this to be overturned in not too long. We could help the program along a bit by (as one poster suggested) accusing everyone who had a hand in this of child molestation and getting them put on the list.
"As to making war on a country "half way around the world" only for oil.... maybe you need a globe, most of the world is half way around the world for the US. The US isn't in Europe, or Asia. Besides, it wasn't oil that was at issue, but Iraq's behavior. I also doubt that what oil Iraq sells to the US is really any cheaper than it is on the world markets. Furthermore, the Iraqi government controls its oil these days, not the US."
Well thanks for playing but you forgot to phrase your answer in the form of a question. Control of Iraq's oil economy was centralized under Saadam and is in the process of being decentralized in the name of free enterprise by the occupying authorities (that's us).
Also why I do agree with your facts, declarations of war have become uncommon since it became illegal to wage anything but a defensive war (UN Charter), that doesn't mean that it's okay for our goverment (or any other one) to weasel out of the law by declaring "we are going to send troops into a country to topple its goverment and bomb its cities" then turn around and say "however, we are not declaring war."
The United States actions in Iraq are a direct violation of international law as laid out in the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter, as well as numerous other documents. Since any document signed and ratified with the authority of the United States becomes part of our body of laws (amazing what you learn when reading the Constitution).
That means Bush and his cronies need to be impeached and tried here then handed over to a duly convened world court and tried under international law as well.
We can create a similar "low fraud" (acknowledging your point that you can cheat any system) with electronic machines we just need them to leave a verifiable and tamper free trail.
Oh and also, not be as easy to hack as Diebolds slap-dash "Fraudomatic" is.
How do we solve this problem oh wise one?
If you have a way to motivate the American sheeple to vote then I'm all ears. Until then though I think I'll go right on being concerned about whether the goverment or some Chalcedon Institute motivated corporation like Diebold is fixing elections.
As to your criticism of the electoral college, well for the most part I'm right there with you, but then again are we absolutely sure that simple snout-counting is a good idea in a country where more people watch a football game than vote for their leaders?
We really are talking about something damn near unbreakable here. High winds pose almost no threat to the cable. I'll admit you're a little more on base with the earthquake idea and a direct hit from a plane would most likely cause severe problems. But at the same time geologically stable areas are not that hard to locate and SAM sites are not that hard to build.
On a related note, I'm not trying to anger anyone unduly, but these arguments that keep coming up seem to be an argument against doing anything because "something could go wrong."
Should we never build another skyscraper, ever again, because of September 11th? Should we permanently evacuate California because of earthquakes, the midwest because of tornadoes, the East Coast because of snootiness? Should we cancel all flight, trains, automobiles? Risk is a part of life and is often followed by massive gains.
I agree there are risks to building a space elevator, but look around and open your eyes, "nothing ventured, nothing gained."
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This man is absolutely right, how dare you people question the wise and all-knowing decsions of our goverment and our loyal, never rape people with broomhandles military?!?! The fact of the matter is that our goverment and our armed forces have, in the last few years, proven themselves wonderful and fully trustworthy guardians of our liberty. I trust firelane will forgive our ill considered and treasonous remarks. We should all be ashamed of ourselves, how will this conversation affect the troops?
You're preaching the gospel, that entire series is far (far) and away better than anything Uncle George has cranked out of his wheezing marketing factory in the last decade. Even ignoring the fact that Epidsode One could have been replaced by flashing pictures of the characters w/ captions explaining who they are, never mind that Episode Two had a plot that only a demented crackhead could follow. They managed to screw up Darth Vader's origin story! How in the hell does that work. Lucas should just stick to toymaking and leave creative work to the creative people he hired and paid to carry on his "legacy." It's so funny when people butt-rape their own life's work the way he has.
Apparently its pretty fucking hard.
But the gated communities do? I live in a reasonably affluent suburb (when not attending my ridiculously expensive university) and I would be hard-pressed to give you the first or last names of any of my neighbors and I can't say as I "give a damn" about them or expect them to give a damn about me. Social isolation is not only a growing trend among the poor, it just hits them harder because they have traditionally relied on extra-familial/neighborhood social networks to provide things (childcare, extra income in the form of neighborhood charity, etc) that the more affluent pay for (daycares, jobs, and so on)
I do agree that the statement "slavery wasn't an issue in the Civil War" is woefully inadequate considering the complicated nature of that conflict. However, it is just as shortsighted and simplistic to view the North's actions as a "Cusade to End Slavery" and its important to remember that no less an authority than Fredrick Douglas gave a speech in which he acknowledged Lincoln's role as the "Great Emancipator" but also that it had not been Lincoln's aim to free the slaves but persuade the Union. I honestly can't remember the name of the speech or where it took place but I believe if someone would be good enough to google "Not Lincoln's children but at best his stepchildren" or words to that effect more info would present itself. Very few conflicts can be boiled down to the highschool textbook causes, trying to do so just undermines our understanding of history.
Well to go ahead and triple my mistake I apologize for the dueling responses to your post. I was informed that there had been an error and that my comment wouldn't be posted and then it was. Again sorry.
What I was attempting to imply is that our business owners talk up capitalism until the market starts to squeeze them. That they are in fact all hypocrites interested not in some lofty "free market" but just in the bottom line. Taking the current example, I guarantee you that Blockbuster will appeal to the "sacred" free market and the "neccesity" of competition in said free market during their defense. Then, if a similar case arises where their business is threatened, turn around and use the exact same tactics and arguments Netflix is currently employing. Apologies if my arguments were confusing or misleading.
Apologies, correction accepted. However, what my remarks were meant to imply is that business owners sure do talk up capitalism, at least until they start to get squeezed by the free market. I guarantee you that Blockbuster is going to appeal to the "sacred" free market in this case. Then, if there business is ever seriously threatened, they'll use the exact same tactics that they deride in this case. Apologies if my remarks were unclear or confusing in any way.
But that will cost the industry tens of dollars a year! How will our multi-million dollar movie industry survive if it loses its massive profits on DVD's that cost a few cents to produce but are sold for 30-50 dollars!?!?! I do feel so very sorry for those multi-millionares with their private jets and super-model girlfriends. Oh crap! I'm late for work, I hope the truck dock that pays me seven dollars an hour for ten hours of backbreaking labor doesn't fire me... But really, my concern is all for the movie industry, those poor guys just can't catch a break...
This really is all the court's fault. It was some case called Diamond v. Chakrabarty which defined a patentable item as, "anything under the sun that is made by man." This has opened the door (far wider anyway than it was) to all kinds of ridiculous lawsuits. Witness, a company called Knight and Associates attempting to claim that it's perfectly legal to file patents on plots (for books, movies, etc) and attempting to file said plot. It's just an attempt to set up a monopoly of ideas and eliminate all competition. Truly we live in a wonderfully capitalist society. Our business owners believe in free markets completely and totally, until someone bigger and better comes along and the market dictates their destruction. Then they squawk louder than any socialist I ever heard.
If you're going to play football in a giant inflatable space balloon, you're going to take those pointy ended flags away from the refs right? Also presumably steel cleats would be a bad idea. "And Jim Johnson is headed for the thirty, the forty, " Spontaneous decompression, Woops, there goes another one!
How dare we humans pollute the vast worthless emptiness of space! How dare you horrible, horrible people support such efforts! If we start building hotels in space where does it stop! What becomes of the habitat of the Great Humpbacked Space-Whale! Seriously, though, if NASA isn't ever going to get us off the ground (and its not) then kudos to anyone who gives it a shot.
You mean crap like e-mail firing right?
Of course NASA can barely get a mission of the ground without something exploding on or falling off of the space shuttle and Russia is in the middle of an authoritarian boondoggle and is spending most of its time flying celebrities into space. But hey, who's counting?
I can see NASA's next publicity stunt. Yakov Smirnoff live from the moon!
Is the stone a rocket propelled, cost several billion euros, stone or not? That seems kind of important to the question...
Judges can suffer bouts of temporary insanity too. I look for this to be overturned in not too long. We could help the program along a bit by (as one poster suggested) accusing everyone who had a hand in this of child molestation and getting them put on the list.
Shudder, computer programming forever? That sounds unpleasant...
"As to making war on a country "half way around the world" only for oil.... maybe you need a globe, most of the world is half way around the world for the US. The US isn't in Europe, or Asia. Besides, it wasn't oil that was at issue, but Iraq's behavior. I also doubt that what oil Iraq sells to the US is really any cheaper than it is on the world markets. Furthermore, the Iraqi government controls its oil these days, not the US." Well thanks for playing but you forgot to phrase your answer in the form of a question. Control of Iraq's oil economy was centralized under Saadam and is in the process of being decentralized in the name of free enterprise by the occupying authorities (that's us). Also why I do agree with your facts, declarations of war have become uncommon since it became illegal to wage anything but a defensive war (UN Charter), that doesn't mean that it's okay for our goverment (or any other one) to weasel out of the law by declaring "we are going to send troops into a country to topple its goverment and bomb its cities" then turn around and say "however, we are not declaring war." The United States actions in Iraq are a direct violation of international law as laid out in the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter, as well as numerous other documents. Since any document signed and ratified with the authority of the United States becomes part of our body of laws (amazing what you learn when reading the Constitution). That means Bush and his cronies need to be impeached and tried here then handed over to a duly convened world court and tried under international law as well.
We can create a similar "low fraud" (acknowledging your point that you can cheat any system) with electronic machines we just need them to leave a verifiable and tamper free trail. Oh and also, not be as easy to hack as Diebolds slap-dash "Fraudomatic" is.
How do we solve this problem oh wise one? If you have a way to motivate the American sheeple to vote then I'm all ears. Until then though I think I'll go right on being concerned about whether the goverment or some Chalcedon Institute motivated corporation like Diebold is fixing elections. As to your criticism of the electoral college, well for the most part I'm right there with you, but then again are we absolutely sure that simple snout-counting is a good idea in a country where more people watch a football game than vote for their leaders?
How'd you know?!?!
The trick is not to care about the customers or your co-workers. That is how one loses ones soul and engages in guilt free telemarketing.
But did the Sedgeway revolutionize your life?
It totally changed mine, since I bought one I have been cured of my cancer, am in the best shape of my life and am dating a super model.
But I just saw a commercial for a little magnetic bracelet that could fix that nagging lower back pain.
Where's my phone?
We really are talking about something damn near unbreakable here. High winds pose almost no threat to the cable. I'll admit you're a little more on base with the earthquake idea and a direct hit from a plane would most likely cause severe problems. But at the same time geologically stable areas are not that hard to locate and SAM sites are not that hard to build. On a related note, I'm not trying to anger anyone unduly, but these arguments that keep coming up seem to be an argument against doing anything because "something could go wrong." Should we never build another skyscraper, ever again, because of September 11th? Should we permanently evacuate California because of earthquakes, the midwest because of tornadoes, the East Coast because of snootiness? Should we cancel all flight, trains, automobiles? Risk is a part of life and is often followed by massive gains. I agree there are risks to building a space elevator, but look around and open your eyes, "nothing ventured, nothing gained."