| taxi licenses are limited to ensure that taxi drivers can still make a decent living
But in practice it doesn't work that way, taxi drivers still make a crap living working for owning companies who actually own the licenses, who make a great living.
And that's where the noise is coming from. Why else are the licenses/medallions, bought and sold on the free market, so expensive? Because they're profitable.
Uber drivers keep substantially more of their fare.
What's special about taxis that doesn't apply to grocery stores? Why aren't there a limited number of Grocery Store Medallions to be auctioned? People need to eat even more than they need a taxi.
| If/when uber and other private entities take business away from public services,
How does that work?
I see additional taxi-limo-driver-like services. If prices for transportation go down, does that
a) help b) hurt
people?
Is the problem that Uber et al might get so convenient and inexpensive that people will use it instead of the public buses? Is that really going to be a problem?
There's an illusion that the USA is unique in this. It isn't, it's just that there aren't any other whistleblowers.
If you contract with Deutsche Telecom, you'll be subjected to German intelligence interception certainly.
Realistically---you'll be subjected to German, British, Chinese, French, Russian, American and Israeli intelligence interception to some degree or another.
"I don't think we should blame the language for being powerful enough that an evil programmer can be unfathomably evil, if it also enables a just programmer to be eminently understandable"
Why not?
Other language designs restrict an evil programmer to be only ordinary orc-level evil, and not unfathomably balrog evil.
It started out as "Freedom Works", a group against crony capitalism and scot-free bailouts for bankers without responsibility or prosecution.
I was on the list. The messages then started getting weirder and more aggressively right wing and hysterical in ways distinct from its original purpose. I dug around and found it was Dick Armey who was responsible for the hijacking. It was intentional and by a powerful insider. I removed my name from their list.
Actually it seems that homosexual rights is the only area in which Republicans are more to the left than in 1980, much less 1956.
Exceprts from the 1956 Republican platform.
On Antitrust:
We also propose: Legislation to enable closer Federal scrutiny of mergers which have a significant or potential monopolistic connotations; Procedural changes in the antitrust laws to facilitate their enforcement;
On labor & wages & benefits:
The record of performance of the Republican Administration on behalf of our working men and women goes still further. The Federal minimum wage has been raised for more than 2 million workers. Social Security has been extended to an additional 10 million workers and the benefits raised for 6 1/2 million. The protection of unemployment insurance has been brought to 4 million additional workers. There have been increased workmen's compensation benefits for longshoremen and harbor workers, increased retirement benefits for railroad employees, and wage increases and improved welfare and pension plans for federal employees.
In addition, the Eisenhower Administration has enforced more vigorously and effectively than ever before, the laws which protect the working standards of our people.
Workers have benefited by the progress which has been made in carrying out the programs and principles set forth in the 1952 Republican platform. All workers have gained and unions have grown in strength and responsibility, and have increased their membership by 2 millions.
The Eisenhower Administration will continue to fight for dynamic and progressive programs which, among other things, will:
Stimulate improved job safety of our workers, through assistance to the States, employees and employers;
Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers;
Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system;
Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits;
Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;
Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts;
Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable;
Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex;
Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment;
Revise and improve the Taft-Hartley Act so as to protect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration.0--
Health & education:
Republican leadership has enlarged Federal assistance for construction of hospitals, emphasizing low-cost care of chronic diseases and the special problems of older persons, and increased Federal aid for medical care of the needy.
We have asked the largest increase in research funds ever sought in one year to intensify attacks on cancer, mental illness, heart disease and other dread diseases.
We will vigorously promote, as we have in the past, a non-political career service under the merit system which will attract and retain able servants of the people. Many gains in this field, notably pay increases and a host of new benefits, have been achieved in their behalf in l
So I assume this soon-to-be new Congressman from Virginia is going to vote to repeal Social Security and Medicare, am I right?
Funny how that doesn't ever happen. In actual practice, the extreme right is voting to repeal Obamacare in the name of opposing socialism and for protecting Medicare, which is of course actual (poorly managed) socialized medicine.
"Our fundamental rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness precede the existence of government and come from God, the Author of Nature."
And apparently the great Author Of Nature put a dotted line on the ground somewhere and wrote in fiery Hebrew letters "Thou shalt enjoy My Rights only one side of The Holy Dotted Line"
You do realize that George Soros was a major anti-Communist activist against the rule of the USSR and helped former quasi-occupied Communist sstates of the Warsaw Pact, like his home country, move towards liberal market democracies.
And Bill Gates? *Bill* *Gates*? A totalitarian Communist supporter? Really? REALLY? A hedge fund trader and a technology billionaires, now because they don't agree with some of the lunatic wingnuttery are now seriously considered to be a sniff away from Trotskyite madness? And people don't recognize how totally insane that thought is? And if some of the smartest leading hedge fund and capitalist technology billionaires are going for the (comparatively) *left* party then that may mean that the right-aligned party maybe could be hurtling into insane madness?
Do you know what a Communist actually acts like and what they do and want? Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro were socialist dictators.
Is there actual evidence for this? Which Tea Party members of Congress have introduced legislation or policy which significantly reduces financial profits of corporate supporters of Republican leadership?
| Personally, I believe a married gay couple should be able to grow marijuana on their property and defend it with guns. Which party is that again?
The Democratic party, of course.
Where are the the major Democratic politicians (let's say a Senator or a few Representatives) trying seriously to ban legal home-defense firearms in total? I can't think of one.
| Progressive Christians. Socially conservative but poor and beaten people that have started to realize the filthy-rich republicans they used to vote for aren't looking out for anyone but the very very rich.
This will work when they realize the truth was: Republicans they used to vote for **weren't** looking out for anyone but the very very rich, and they should have stuck with Jimmy Carter instead of the fraud of Ronald Reagan.
| I wonder what percentage of contemporary scientists thought Galileo and Copernicus were all wet.
Galileo? Virtually none, if you could describe people at that time as "scientists". They looked through the telescopes and saw the same Jovian moons as Galileo.
Copernicus didn't have convincing experimental evidence, but Galileo did.
And the Catholic church struck back at Galileo as he was also a harsh political critic.
States and local governments are significantly more dysfunctional and corrupt in most cases. Federal employees are much smarter than state and local employees, though frustrated by exceptionally vexatious rules.
In the CA system, (which is a great idea) there are not separate, closed party nomination elections.
There is a primary, and the top two candidates run in the general election. Therefore, if, hypothetically Democrats voted for a right-wing-nut in mass, the wing-nut and a Republican will be in the general election, not an outcome a Democrat would prefer.
In practice, when people have their actually favored candidate on the ballot and are able to vote for them, they do.
The primary purpose of the top-two election system is to change the nature of the candidates who decide to run and think they can win.
It's an approximation to ranked preference voting.
Slashdot Mirror
| taxi licenses are limited to ensure that taxi drivers can still make a decent living
But in practice it doesn't work that way, taxi drivers still make a crap living working for owning companies who actually own the licenses, who make a great living.
And that's where the noise is coming from. Why else are the licenses/medallions, bought and sold on the free market, so expensive? Because they're profitable.
Uber drivers keep substantially more of their fare.
What's special about taxis that doesn't apply to grocery stores? Why aren't there a limited number of Grocery Store Medallions to be auctioned? People need to eat even more than they need a taxi.
| If/when uber and other private entities take business away from public services,
How does that work?
I see additional taxi-limo-driver-like services. If prices for transportation go down, does that
a) help
b) hurt
people?
Is the problem that Uber et al might get so convenient and inexpensive that people will use it instead of the public buses? Is that really going to be a problem?
What else is a small minority at Google?
Programmers over 45 years old.
Funny, they aren't getting free classes. I guess youth privilege is still golden.
There's an illusion that the USA is unique in this. It isn't, it's just that there aren't any other whistleblowers.
If you contract with Deutsche Telecom, you'll be subjected to German intelligence interception certainly.
Realistically---you'll be subjected to German, British, Chinese, French, Russian, American and Israeli intelligence interception to some degree or another.
"I don't think we should blame the language for being powerful enough that an evil programmer can be unfathomably evil, if it also enables a just programmer to be eminently understandable"
Why not?
Other language designs restrict an evil programmer to be only ordinary orc-level evil, and not unfathomably balrog evil.
"As far as we know so far, Truecrypt hasn't been compromised"
The message from the originator may be covert side-channel communication that this is not the case.
Only the first was was necessary.
| IQ is basically a measurement of your social/economic advantages in education and a nurturing environment
Not adult IQ. Effects of childhood rearing become smaller.
Identical twins reared separately have a far stronger correlation than unrelated children raised together.
So how often did a review sample perform worse than subsequent manufacturing changes?
It started out as "Freedom Works", a group against crony capitalism and scot-free bailouts for bankers without responsibility or prosecution.
I was on the list. The messages then started getting weirder and more aggressively right wing and hysterical in ways distinct from its original purpose. I dug around and found it was Dick Armey who was responsible for the hijacking. It was intentional and by a powerful insider. I removed my name from their list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Armey
Actually it seems that homosexual rights is the only area in which Republicans are more to the left than in 1980, much less 1956.
Exceprts from the 1956 Republican platform.
On Antitrust:
We also propose: Legislation to enable closer Federal scrutiny of mergers which have a significant or potential monopolistic connotations;
Procedural changes in the antitrust laws to facilitate their enforcement;
On labor & wages & benefits:
The record of performance of the Republican Administration on behalf of our working men and women goes still further. The Federal minimum wage has been raised for more than 2 million workers. Social Security has been extended to an additional 10 million workers and the benefits raised for 6 1/2 million. The protection of unemployment insurance has been brought to 4 million additional workers. There have been increased workmen's compensation benefits for longshoremen and harbor workers, increased retirement benefits for railroad employees, and wage increases and improved welfare and pension plans for federal employees.
In addition, the Eisenhower Administration has enforced more vigorously and effectively than ever before, the laws which protect the working standards of our people.
Workers have benefited by the progress which has been made in carrying out the programs and principles set forth in the 1952 Republican platform. All workers have gained and unions have grown in strength and responsibility, and have increased their membership by 2 millions.
The Eisenhower Administration will continue to fight for dynamic and progressive programs which, among other things, will:
Stimulate improved job safety of our workers, through assistance to the States, employees and employers;
Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers;
Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system;
Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits;
Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;
Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts;
Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable;
Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex;
Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment;
Revise and improve the Taft-Hartley Act so as to protect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration.0--
Health & education:
Republican leadership has enlarged Federal assistance for construction of hospitals, emphasizing low-cost care of chronic diseases and the special problems of older persons, and increased Federal aid for medical care of the needy.
We have asked the largest increase in research funds ever sought in one year to intensify attacks on cancer, mental illness, heart disease and other dread diseases.
We will vigorously promote, as we have in the past, a non-political career service under the merit system which will attract and retain able servants of the people. Many gains in this field, notably pay increases and a host of new benefits, have been achieved in their behalf in l
| Republicans will still welcome a pro-gun guy who is happy with the government providing welfare.
Only to old, white people.
| But burn him at the stake if you want to be a Democrat and think a stong military is ok.
What do you mean? Other than, perhaps, getting elected to the US Senate?
http://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/warner-kaine-applaud-support-for-uss-george-washington-in-house-spending-bill
So I assume this soon-to-be new Congressman from Virginia is going to vote to repeal Social Security and Medicare, am I right?
Funny how that doesn't ever happen. In actual practice, the extreme right is voting to repeal Obamacare in the name of opposing socialism and for protecting Medicare, which is of course actual (poorly managed) socialized medicine.
Give me an example of liberals openly advocating labor exploitation.
"Our fundamental rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness precede the existence of government and come from God, the Author of Nature."
And apparently the great Author Of Nature put a dotted line on the ground somewhere and wrote in fiery Hebrew letters "Thou shalt enjoy My Rights only one side of The Holy Dotted Line"
You do realize that George Soros was a major anti-Communist activist against the rule of the USSR and helped former quasi-occupied Communist sstates of the Warsaw Pact, like his home country, move towards liberal market democracies.
And Bill Gates? *Bill* *Gates*? A totalitarian Communist supporter? Really? REALLY? A hedge fund trader and a technology billionaires, now because they don't agree with some of the lunatic wingnuttery are now seriously considered to be a sniff away from Trotskyite madness? And people don't recognize how totally insane that thought is? And if some of the smartest leading hedge fund and capitalist technology billionaires are going for the (comparatively) *left* party then that may mean that the right-aligned party maybe could be hurtling into insane madness?
Do you know what a Communist actually acts like and what they do and want? Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro were socialist dictators.
I have heard this.
Is there actual evidence for this? Which Tea Party members of Congress have introduced legislation or policy which significantly reduces financial profits of corporate supporters of Republican leadership?
| Personally, I believe a married gay couple should be able to grow marijuana on their property and defend it with guns. Which party is that again?
The Democratic party, of course.
Where are the the major Democratic politicians (let's say a Senator or a few Representatives) trying seriously to ban legal home-defense firearms in total?
I can't think of one.
| Progressive Christians. Socially conservative but poor and beaten people that have started to realize the filthy-rich republicans they used to vote for aren't looking out for anyone but the very very rich.
This will work when they realize the truth was: Republicans they used to vote for **weren't** looking out for anyone but the very very rich, and they should have stuck with Jimmy Carter instead of the fraud of Ronald Reagan.
When will that happen?
Sure.
Sen John Tester (MT), Rep Heath Shuler (NC), Rep Dan Boren, Rep Mike Thompson.
And by the way, the supposed "anti-gun" democrats, like Barack Obama, have advocated modest regulations.
Compare to the parallel in Republicans.
| I wonder what percentage of contemporary scientists thought Galileo and Copernicus were all wet.
Galileo? Virtually none, if you could describe people at that time as "scientists". They looked through the telescopes and saw the same Jovian moons as Galileo.
Copernicus didn't have convincing experimental evidence, but Galileo did.
And the Catholic church struck back at Galileo as he was also a harsh political critic.
| The Church Rs are exactly like the Leftest Ds.
Yes, the leftist Democrats in the late 1960's, perhaps.
States and local governments are significantly more dysfunctional and corrupt in most cases. Federal employees are much smarter than state and local employees, though frustrated by exceptionally vexatious rules.
In the CA system, (which is a great idea) there are not separate, closed party nomination elections.
There is a primary, and the top two candidates run in the general election. Therefore, if, hypothetically Democrats voted for a right-wing-nut in mass, the wing-nut and a Republican will be in the general election, not an outcome a Democrat would prefer.
In practice, when people have their actually favored candidate on the ballot and are able to vote for them, they do.
The primary purpose of the top-two election system is to change the nature of the candidates who decide to run and think they can win.
It's an approximation to ranked preference voting.
The physical infrastructure---dark fiber---is a natural monopoly, and could be supplied and owned by government.
The service itself, equipment to transport information on and off, and policies would be privately owned and maintained, and competition required.
It's little different than rails or roads which have cars and service operated by competing carriers on the same transport infrastructure.