They clearly want the SS Censorship to return to port to be disassembled, the planks turned back into trees and the sails reverted to raw cotton. Easy-peasy, just have a lawyer demand it!
Seldom see identity politics accomplish anything but divisiveness and excuse-making, so this is truly refreshing.
People adopting aspects of some other culture is seldom anything other than enriching and positive. But when a CORPORATION does it, it's probably wise to assume the motives are less innocent. In this case, it's the abuse, rather than the appropriation, that's most problematic, but go get 'em anyway!
Well, if you consider their actual "function" as being enriching the family and co-tribal members of the leader, some of them work quite efficiently.
Leaving a coterie of Western-educated technocrats sputtering and serving as an entry point for 1st world aid and NGOs. It's a tragedy that all that post-colonial revolutionary rhetoric has resulted in nothing better, in almost every case.
This is not entirely unique to Africa though. Witness the fact that, despite the "savage economic warfare waged by the CIA" against the Venezuelan economy, the Chavez and Maduro families have managed to become very wealthy.
The "race to the bottom" approach of the big companies is very discouraging. When you quit one because of bad service, on your way over to their competitor you'll see a bunch of dissatisfied customers heading in the other direction.
And that. ain't. capitalism! It's what I call a "disguised monopoly" where several companies (without even having to formally collude with each other) agree to non-competition, benefiting all of their bottom lines.
How is a legal mechanism for redress against falsehoods directed at a person "in conflict" with free speech?
You can speak freely. You can be wrong, mendacious, perverse, etc., etc. But what you can't do is misrepresent a person in such a way that it adversely affects them. NOT just "you ca't say bad things about someone".
I actually agree with you about this particular lawsuit's merits, but the existence of "defamation" and "slander" laws in no way goes against the existence of and support for, free speech.
Re: This has been happening with Disney / Star Wars as well.
There's a video of Rian Johnson expressing the sophomoric film school ambition to make movies that half the audience would love and half would hate. Against all odds (and, presumably, marketing department advice), he has succeeded!
And instead of being happy, Disney-beholden media and contractors are attacking the half that didn't like his movie! Wut?
I think they'll find that the long tail of rabid Star Wars fans they are now calling "toxic" accounted for a very large percentage of the money spent on the franchise, as well as generating the social momentum for interest in the property. Who do they think spent literally thousands per year on costumes, models, games, books, multi-repeat theater viewings, collectibles etc? Casual fans?
Disney seems to believe the success of Star Wars was solely and entirely the result of LucasFilms' management and marketing. An idea that is currently undergoing real-world testing.
Is there no place in EU law for the judge to say "Yeah, sorry about your "losses" but your business model sucks and you should go broke."?? Or is that not an EU kind of thing.
*sigh* This is why I favor an exit of the US from the EU, man.
I remain unconvinced that the hyperbolic, hysterical and borderline insane claims about what Trump "has done to the world" will be remembered as accurate. Or rather, about as accurate as, say, the logic that "Obama has made the world safe for peace, give him the Nobel Prize." prior to his inauguration.
And I say that as someone who has no delusions that Trump has any virtues at all beyond not being Hillary. I mean, a little self-awareness please?
Re: Re: 'You are free to lavish all the praise you want on them'
Ah. Did the people who wrote the book you read, correcting the record...get jailed or executed?? And were these bad guys Democrats, Republicans, Teamsters...I mean, yeah, sounds inaccurate, but not strongly protecting the existing government.
Not so much equivalence, then. But sure, we're evil too. Of course.
I had heard. but I stopped even trying to be more "hands on" a while ago anyway. I'm not surprised that MS traded in one of their (unintentionally?) positive features for $$$ and control.
My very first computer (a 386 that leapfrogged my computer mentors' model! "Why do you need 24 megs of RAM, man?"), I remmed out the 'win' command in the startup bat file and ran it from a command line because I liked feeling that I was more into the guts of the machine.
So, after hearing how evil Micro$oft was, I checked into Apple...and found I couldn't even do THAT? Couldn't build my own (which I did with my second and all subsequent computers for many years)? Screw that. I could deal with 'evil', didn't even have any interest in "proprietary". Screw Apple.
*sigh* I was going to make a snarky post about the government version of the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect, where you all can see how government handles everything within your area of expertise so badly and then blindly assume it will handle things you know little of just wonderfully...so I would end up preferring the ministrations of a heartless, investor-funded corporation over the magical treatments of placebos, homeopathic tinctures, ginseng and altruism, handed out by the super-efficient bureaucracy.
But really, the mortality rate will hover around 100% in either case so...not very funny.
The comments about a functioning Patent system being the REAL solution for motivating and monetizing medical innovation while also benefiting society are more on point than the "heartless bastards!" outrage posts though.
Yeah, it appears to be a really, really difficult problem that people just can't wrap their minds around yet...but only because they are trying to solve the problem without pointing fingers at a sacred cow. Makes any solution much trickier.
As "Cattress", above, stated: "...the reality is that police and other public sector unions have too much power and the local laws giving them that power need to change." This reality also applies to the apparently-difficult-to-correct problem of Civil Asset Forfeiture, which, even when normally unenlightened state legislatures attempt to resolve it, owes its persistence to...yep, you guessed it, support from the police unions. I mean, it's a policy that encourages theft from, and abuse of, the very citizens they are supposed to 'serve and protect', especially minorities, but gosh, we just can't put our fingers on why it's so hard to root it out.
For a perfect trifecta, it's also a central source of resistance to the recalibration of marijuana policy. It benefits SOMEBODY to have otherwise-harmless people permanently marked as "felons". It benefits SOMEBODY to have non-violent customers of the prison industrial complex...but it sure as hell ain't the citizenry.
Go ahead and pretend this behavior of this particular union is atypical of unions in general if you must, but none of this gets resolved without reform of police unions.
Well, if they're just throwing up their hands and saying "Fuck it. We can't get into this phone. Let the guy go." then yeah, they will have demonstrated that there is a problem. But, once again, not the one they think.
And, correct me if I'm wrong...but wasn't the FBI able to solve cases WITHOUT information from cell phones "back in the day"?? I mean, in the 40s they solved crime without access to everyones' text messages, and in the 30s they were able to go after gangsters without their voicemails, and in the 60s they broke criminal cases without having every suspects emails..maybe they could try and figure out how THAT was done, and, you know, emulate those procedures?
Sooo...are you saying there are some special "good things" that warrant illegal actions by elected officials? Okay, we go by feels instead of principles. Got it.
And you're absolutely sure, based on some vague 3rd? 4th? hand statement, that these actions were undertaken "for the chiiildrens" and not for a competitor of this company?? Like how they protect the public, and not restaraunt owners, when they go after food trucks. That kind of good works?
Maybe. And maybe decades of evidence have failed to trigger an adequate degree of cynicism. Abuse of government power directed at people of whom you disapprove is still abuse of government power.
On the post: School Board Demands Journalists Be Punished For Reporting On The School Board's Redaction Failure
Re: Re:
On the post: Aloha Poke Co. Rewarded For Trademark Bullying With Protests Outside Its Headquarters In Chicago
Good to see
People adopting aspects of some other culture is seldom anything other than enriching and positive. But when a CORPORATION does it, it's probably wise to assume the motives are less innocent. In this case, it's the abuse, rather than the appropriation, that's most problematic, but go get 'em anyway!
On the post: Kenyan Music Licensing Collections In Full Chaos As Unlicensed MCSK Society Issues Rival C&D For Royalty Collections
Re: "fighting corruption"
Leaving a coterie of Western-educated technocrats sputtering and serving as an entry point for 1st world aid and NGOs. It's a tragedy that all that post-colonial revolutionary rhetoric has resulted in nothing better, in almost every case.
This is not entirely unique to Africa though. Witness the fact that, despite the "savage economic warfare waged by the CIA" against the Venezuelan economy, the Chavez and Maduro families have managed to become very wealthy.
On the post: New York State Threatens To Revoke Charter's Cable Franchise For Bullshitting
Re: Re: I've actually had decent luck...
And that. ain't. capitalism! It's what I call a "disguised monopoly" where several companies (without even having to formally collude with each other) agree to non-competition, benefiting all of their bottom lines.
On the post: Supposed 'Free Speech' Warrior Jordan Peterson Sues University Because Silly Professor Said Some Mean Things About Him
Re: Re: Re: Re:
You can speak freely. You can be wrong, mendacious, perverse, etc., etc. But what you can't do is misrepresent a person in such a way that it adversely affects them. NOT just "you ca't say bad things about someone".
I actually agree with you about this particular lawsuit's merits, but the existence of "defamation" and "slander" laws in no way goes against the existence of and support for, free speech.
On the post: Warner Bros. Turns Harry Potter Fan Events Into Events For The Franchise That Must Not Be Named
Re: This has been happening with Disney / Star Wars as well.
And instead of being happy, Disney-beholden media and contractors are attacking the half that didn't like his movie! Wut?
I think they'll find that the long tail of rabid Star Wars fans they are now calling "toxic" accounted for a very large percentage of the money spent on the franchise, as well as generating the social momentum for interest in the property. Who do they think spent literally thousands per year on costumes, models, games, books, multi-repeat theater viewings, collectibles etc? Casual fans?
Disney seems to believe the success of Star Wars was solely and entirely the result of LucasFilms' management and marketing. An idea that is currently undergoing real-world testing.
On the post: Norwegian Court Orders Website Of Public Domain Court Decisions Shut Down With No Due Process
Re: Due process
*sigh* This is why I favor an exit of the US from the EU, man.
On the post: Norwegian Court Orders Website Of Public Domain Court Decisions Shut Down With No Due Process
Re: Speaking of lack of due process - drug dogs blowback
On the post: Norwegian Court Orders Website Of Public Domain Court Decisions Shut Down With No Due Process
Re: Re: Re: Re: Good old fractally wrong...
This is not aberrant, it is as predictable as sunrise, or gravity.
On the post: China Outlaws Telling The Truth About Communist Party 'Heroes And Martyrs'
One would hope you'd have enough time to clearly explain the rhetorical victory you've achieved as you're being hauled off.
On the post: China Outlaws Telling The Truth About Communist Party 'Heroes And Martyrs'
Re:
On the post: China Outlaws Telling The Truth About Communist Party 'Heroes And Martyrs'
Re:
And I say that as someone who has no delusions that Trump has any virtues at all beyond not being Hillary. I mean, a little self-awareness please?
On the post: China Outlaws Telling The Truth About Communist Party 'Heroes And Martyrs'
Re: Re: 'You are free to lavish all the praise you want on them'
Not so much equivalence, then. But sure, we're evil too. Of course.
On the post: Apple Sued An Independent Norwegian Repair Shop In Bid To Monopolize Repair -- And Lost
Re: Re:
On the post: Apple Sued An Independent Norwegian Repair Shop In Bid To Monopolize Repair -- And Lost
So, after hearing how evil Micro$oft was, I checked into Apple...and found I couldn't even do THAT? Couldn't build my own (which I did with my second and all subsequent computers for many years)? Screw that. I could deal with 'evil', didn't even have any interest in "proprietary". Screw Apple.
On the post: Goldman Sachs Analyst Asks Whether Curing Patients Is A Sustainable Business Model
But really, the mortality rate will hover around 100% in either case so...not very funny.
The comments about a functioning Patent system being the REAL solution for motivating and monetizing medical innovation while also benefiting society are more on point than the "heartless bastards!" outrage posts though.
On the post: Recordings Capture Cops Discussing Department's Most Rotten Apple
Yeah, it appears to be a really, really difficult problem that people just can't wrap their minds around yet...but only because they are trying to solve the problem without pointing fingers at a sacred cow. Makes any solution much trickier.
As "Cattress", above, stated: "...the reality is that police and other public sector unions have too much power and the local laws giving them that power need to change." This reality also applies to the apparently-difficult-to-correct problem of Civil Asset Forfeiture, which, even when normally unenlightened state legislatures attempt to resolve it, owes its persistence to...yep, you guessed it, support from the police unions. I mean, it's a policy that encourages theft from, and abuse of, the very citizens they are supposed to 'serve and protect', especially minorities, but gosh, we just can't put our fingers on why it's so hard to root it out.
For a perfect trifecta, it's also a central source of resistance to the recalibration of marijuana policy. It benefits SOMEBODY to have otherwise-harmless people permanently marked as "felons". It benefits SOMEBODY to have non-violent customers of the prison industrial complex...but it sure as hell ain't the citizenry.
Go ahead and pretend this behavior of this particular union is atypical of unions in general if you must, but none of this gets resolved without reform of police unions.
On the post: FBI Says Device Encryption Is 'Evil' And A Threat To Public Safety
Re:
On the post: FBI Says Device Encryption Is 'Evil' And A Threat To Public Safety
Re: Might have to get off their asses
On the post: Florida Public Officials Face Criminal Charges For Dodging Public Records Laws
Re: Florida Public Officials
And you're absolutely sure, based on some vague 3rd? 4th? hand statement, that these actions were undertaken "for the chiiildrens" and not for a competitor of this company?? Like how they protect the public, and not restaraunt owners, when they go after food trucks. That kind of good works?
Maybe. And maybe decades of evidence have failed to trigger an adequate degree of cynicism. Abuse of government power directed at people of whom you disapprove is still abuse of government power.
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