The Social Security thing is another example of politicians playing on the media'a innumerancy -- the Administration's proposals just don't add up. If we accept the SS commission's "high" estimates for economic growth (which are still much lower than historic rates), SS is good into the forseeable future. If we accept the "low" growth rate, there's no bleepin' way stock index funds can return enough to fund the Administratrion's "retirement accounts".
See what I get from reading Brad DeLong? (:-)
One of the most horrifying statements to come out of this Administration was the line about the SS trust fund being "nothing but scraps of paper". The US has never defaulted on its bonds. Never. Doing so would be a disaster; US bonds are regarded as the safest investment on the planet. Default, and *nobody* would want them. And who would fund our deficits?
If this was being arranged for political gain, it would have happened Monday or a couple of days earlier, to give Lieberman a chance to remind people how tough he is.
The reason that they're ignoring checked baggage for now is that they think they can spot an assembled bomb. What they're worried about is bomb parts smuggled onto the plane by several passengers and assembled in flight. Supposedly, this is how Chechnyan terrorists brought down an Aeroflot flight.
Ahh, the Secret Masters of Fandom. "*Somebody* has to be running this mess. It couldn't get this screwed up by itself!"
How about dichondra? When I was living in AZ, it was the non-grass of choice to crowd out bermuda grass. Slow growing, though.
I'd not recommend mint to try and crowd out bermuda grass. "The winner would emerge stronger than either, and free from doubt."
<snicker> I thought the whole point of the "Modern Art" movement was to get rid of the idea of the "art critic", who tells us what is Good, what is Bad, and what Isn't Art. If it talks to you, it's art.
"Humourless Git" tags it exactly.
I've heard this idea of "winning by losing" a number of times. Has it *ever* worked? Anywhere?
Mostly it seems to be losers looking for a silver lining. (And generally, not finding one.)
Somehow, I don't think that the Rs built up this whole "Imperial Presidency" thing in order to hand it over to Hillary.
They've still got Diebold.
This stuff is ugly, but it's good to drag it out occasionally so evreybody can get a good look at some of the attitudes behind the current debate.
Sunlight is, after all, the best disinfectant.
Perhaps after it's been out for a couple of years, we can use it to grow flowers.
To me, the most interesting aspect of this debate is the legality of these pieces of software. A "clickthrough" or "shrink wrap" license is of questionable legality as a "contract" -- one of the features of a "real" contract is the ability of both sides to negotiate. This is obviously impossible with software. Microsoft negotiate ten million different contracts? No way!
Most people don't even read the "clickthrough" license. Presumably, we're supposed to run these things past a lawyer. With shrink wrap licenses, you can't even do that without opening the package.
Read the "terms of service" or whatever they call it for your bank, your stockbroker, your ISP. You may get some rude surprises.
I think the way to deal with this is a "customer's bill of rights" that spells out exactly what we can expect from software. With the current political climate, I suspect that trying to pas a law like this would do more harm than good.
I have no doubt that the "real" target of the phone companies is "voice over IP" (VoIP). It competes directly with the telcos.
Shortsighted? Yes. Surprising? No.
Yeah, the Left is angry.
As opposed to the Right, which is shivering, pants-crapping terrified.
They've got all three branches of government*, the media, the churches, and the Fortune 500. Yet they still whimper like a toddler at the Monsters Under The Bed, whether the Monster of the Day is uppity blacks, uppity women, Arabs, Mexicans, environmentalists, child molesters, drug dealers, Communists, or Quakers.
And frightened people are very, very dangerous. Much more dangerous than angry people.
* Well, two and a half. The courts are still trying to hang in there.
The problem with right-wing "parody" is that the current right-wing cant is self-parodying. In other words, a parody of a right-wing screed is another right-wing screed. And the right-wingers have already pushed their limits about as far as they can without attracting the attention of law enforcement.
For another example of self-parody, "The Weekly World News" is a parody of a tabloid. It's another tabloid.
“First, just if I may correct a misperception. I don't think we ever said—at least I know I didn't say—that there was a direct connection between Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein.”
This is actually true. However, the Administration was very clever in *implying* that there was a connection. Similarly, nobody in the Admin ever gave a timetable or budget estimate for the Iraq war that contained real numbers, but they said a lot of things that sure sounded like it.
And the news media, who are supposed to notice this kind of thing, said nothing.
Growl. Snarl. Snap.
Rikibeth has what's called the "dog reaction" to codine -- you get sick as a dog. I have the "cat reaction" -- I climb the walls. I react the way I've heard a bad reaction to PCP described -- I get hyperactive, delusional, and violent. The icing on the turd is that it has no painkilling effect at all.
Darvon is the only painkiller I've tried that's stronger than ibuprofen and actually works.
Adrian -- check out what *kind* of pain Darvon is "less effective than acetominophen" in handling. The study I heard about looked only at headaches.
As a drug to tempt Public Citizen into going after, how about acetominophen? It's a major cause of liver failure.
It's the difference between leadership and management. A leader grabs a flag and gets out in front. A manager holds meetings.
We have a President with a Harvard MBA, who promised to make government "more like a business". This is the result. Arse-covering is a far more important managerial skill than leadership, or even competence.
Christmas time is here, by golly!
Disapproval would be folly.
Deck the halls with hunks of holly,
Fill the cup and don't say when!
Kill the turkeys, ducks, and chickens,
Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens.
Even though the prospect sickens,
Brother, here we go again!
-- Tom Lehrer
For me, the siren call of the Great Old Ones, summoning my feeble brain into madness, is "Frosty the Snowman", followed closely by "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". This year, one of the local shopping malls seems to have a continuous loop of "Frosty". Bleaugh.
Overall, I don't mind religious carols, even though it isn't my religion. It's *somebody's*, which is worth something. Older is better -- the Christmas Revels have some wonderful stuff. They even have a listenable version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". (It's what's called a "penalty". Everybody gets a certain set of verses to sing. If you sing a verse that isn't yours or if you miss one that you should be singing, you "pay the penalty", which is usually taking a drink or removing an article of clothing. Much fun.)
And then there's the one that *everybody* likes ....
I find it a bit small, and I don't like reading large amounts of text in a sans-serif font. Contrast is OK for me, however.
Why specify a type font family/size at all for the main content? Most folks have their browser set for a font they find readable -- do you know better than they do what they find comfortable?
If you want to control the way people see your pages, publish them as PDF files.
Well, I missed two; one each false positive and false negative. Unfortunately, I couldn't use my main means of detecting phish -- looking at the link URLs. Those in phish tend to be obviously bogus.
That said, I'd say they were all phish:
1. I don't have accounts with any of these organizations (duh!)
2. None of them are digitally signed.
Digital signature software is built in to all e-mail programs that I know of that are even remotely up to date. If a message is signed by the organization that's supposedly sending it, you can be pretty darn sure it's legit.
If you want to send your own signed/encrypted e-mail, Thawte will give you a free personal e-mail certificate to play with. Setting up to use it is a bit tedious but not particularly difficult.
I've been beating my gums on this subject for over ten years. Fat lot of good it's done.
Steve Gillet --
Problem with the issue of liability and lawsuits is that there is plenty of truth on both sides. The system is broken, but there is no obvious fix. It's a system problem; trying to fix just one part (like by capping damage payouts) will just make things worse.
What is *not* controversial is the role of the Astroturf organizations that exist only for the purposes of disinformation and character assassination. They're vile and should be stomped on with whatever force is available. (Revealing their sources of funding usually does it.)
As to the "Common Good" business, remenber that one of the goals of the Right Wing is to destroy public education.
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| 2006 | 15 |
| 2005 | 1 |
| 2004 | 10 |
| 2003 | 17 |
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