I am somewhat curious about the fellow who somehow appeared to think this situation demonstrates the need for more "government oversight and regulation". How do you figger that.
Yes, if you accept "a good chance" as a mathematical term equivalent to the chance of a coin landing heads or tails.
Also, though I am an honest-to-God NotRepublican, I still feel obliged to point out that our first half-white president comes out of the very same political culture identified here.
@The Devil's Coachman:
In a budget-reduction move that will cost only $2B, the Department of Redundancy Department has been folded into the Office of Bureaus and Departments (though retaining its name, budget and physical resources, to be housed in the new $5B "Senator Redacted Memorial Office Building Complex Center")
It's not FUD at all, it's reductio ad absurdam, which, while itself a logical fallacy, often has value in forcing a re-examination of the starting assumptions.
Now, use of a logical fallacy does not guarantee a false result. In fact, in this case, the starting assumptions are proven to be pretty accurate, foremost among them "IP owners (not artists) have no guiding principle save greater revenue generation from the 'property'." and "This has nothing to do with art, the common good, or established legal and moral principles." Then you examine the steps they've taken already, extrapolate, go a little farther and see what you get.
And look! The reductio turns out not to be so absurdam after all.
ps) "Ceci n’est pas un box" is a sweet and appropriate reference to Magritte's Surrealist painting "Ceci n’est pas un pipe"
Qwest is an almost perfect exemplar of corporate villany, short-sightedness, customer abuse and generally evile behavior.
I don't have a lot of links, as this is all from personal experience, but they violated Utah law regarding DSL service, specifically engaging in false service outages directed at a medium-size ISP/internet wholesaler I worked for. They further endeared themselves to me by unilaterally switching me from my FREE, work-provided DSL service (maintained and supported by friends and co-workers) to their overpriced shite service.
When my phone bill arrived, with congratulations on my new service, I called, screamed at some poor support guy, made damn clear that I did not want their service, had never ordered their service and, given the circumstances, would have no conceivable reason to order their service.
Month later, came back from a weekend in the mountains to find the service had been switched. Called, screamed, act2, spoke to a supervisor who was so beat down she didn't even offer terms, just accepted my cancellation of land line, DSL, everything related to Qwest. As if it happened a lot.
Oh, and when she checked the notes on my first cancellation call, she claimed all they said was "Explained new service to caller." Nice. That's not ineptitude of support, that's instructing your support personnel to participate in a fucking policy of fraud. No wonder he sounded a little weird.
There's a lot more, SLAMming, SLAPPing, dirty lobbying, pretty much the whole role call of bad corporate practice.
Good luck, anybody involved in any way with these fucks.
Meh. What would have been a more accurate formulation would be: "Welcome to totalitarianism."
The economic or social justification behind totalitarian government is irrelevant. Infringement on individual freedom "for the good of society" is found, with differing justifications, on both sides of the largely-useless left/right dichotomy.
But as long as "they" can keep us slinging such "I know what it means when I use it!" terms as treehugger, teabagger, anti-American, bible-thumper, socialist, communist, racist, etc, etc at each other the slow gathering-in of all power to a central elite will continue.
And trust me, "they" aren't all oilmen or hollywood stars, or pointy-head academic proponents of the various -isms or cynical manipulators of clueless religious fundamentalists.
The problem is systemic. There is a major benefit to ruining these people's lives for some few (prosecutors, lawmakers, campaigners to end child sexual abuse) and not enough benefit to the many who see what a bad thing it has become for them (us, I guess) to do anything about it.
Same with marijuana laws. Same with imminent domain. Same with public employee pensions. Same with IP and patent policy.
The forces driving bad law and bad policy, in case after case move things to a worse and less logical and less just place and leave people fuming about the "liberal media" and "hate radio" and ranting about the bad people on the other side of the bogus divisions we've been presented with.
"Welcome to socialism.", my ass. I wish it was that simple.
Maybe you should register as "Simplistic Argument Guy", AC.
Let's see...not having a million dollars is detrimental to people's health, as is the related "deadly" risk of driving old cars in imperfect condition, as is the potentially deadly risk of heart and mental problems caused by the stress of not having enough money to make the mortgage payment and other financial obligations.
So are you really saying that because the world is not perfect for all people...ripping them off for the emergency service their taxes already subsidize is OK??? Really?
Of course you're not. You're making an entirely different, and mostly unrelated, stupid argument.
I'm surprised you didn't work in a zinger directed at Bush there...
I suppose Wolfgang Werle and his half-brother Manfred Lauber who murdered Bavarian actor Walter Sedlmayr will also want expunged from the internet all mention of their complicity in the events of 9/11? (And the Moon Landing Hoax.)
Ummm...maybe they should look at revenues generated by, say, SELLING HOUSES as opposed to the ad revenue generated by the site.
They might find the latter benefit the people who administer their website, while the former benefits the people ON WHOSE BEHALF THE WEBSITE WAS SET UP.
Not a conflict of interest exactly...more of a failure of communication and prioritization.
Let's not be too hard on our British cousins regarding an "appalling lack of suspicion" of their government.
After all, a few sweet words was all that was necessary to persuade the freedom-loving individualists of this country that if an Illinois/Cook County politician is corrupt it doesn't mean the next is a liar. And if the next is a liar, it doesn't mean the NEXT is a liar. And if the third IS a liar (and so on through 999)...it doesn't mean the thousandth (Obama) is a regular say-anything-to-get-elected, do-anything-to-stay-in-power politician.
I'm not saying Obama is better or worse than any other politico, but the gullibility of his supporters surely rivals anything we've see in England.
"Journalists every day are faced with the choice of laboriously checking the validity of what they are told or just putting it in the paper. Both approaches pay the same."
~More or less accurate Scott Adams quote
Also, good points above about the incestuous "sourcing" practices of the MSM. Not surprising from media that can't or doesn't bother to differentiate between advocacy group press releases and scientific stuides.
Damn EA anyway. I stopped playing football sims when EA killed off all the competing games by buying out the "official" league licenses. FP Sports had a series of games that had a useful play and playbook editor that gave you a way to win games besides a) superior hand/eye coordination or b) a roster with superior players. That was fun, and interesting, and nowhere to be found in the EA "dump that strategic crap and add more touchdown dance moves" versions.
Also, I found EA's implementation of PC versions to be weak, at best...lots of bugs, inferior keyboard/mouse control support, rigid playstyle (You vill chooce ein team, und play only dat team...und you vill like it!)...just not as much fun.
And what's up with this drive to perfect verisimilitde anyway?? If you have the exact same players with the exact same skills as the real league, is the goal to exactly replicate or anticipate the exact results of the games played on Sundays?? Ummm...is there a point to that? Why not also have a game called Real Life, wherein a player with my appearance, budget and job goes to work, comes home and plays a game called Real Life on his virtual PC? I'm seeing a 'durrrr' factor here...
When a genre of games becomes LESS enjoyable when greater technology and resources are applied to the development...yeah, there's a problem. Frickin' EA...
Rank hypocrisy or total failure of critical thinki
So...these 'independent' filmmakers, despite the fact they can't be arsed to create content the networks want to show their viewers...want the networks to show their content to the network's viewers?? Have I got that right? And this is, somehow, 'for our own good'??
Never mind the fact that I can 'not watch' content that's on the networks as easily as I can 'not watch' content that sits on a DVD in the 'indie filmmakers' grubby apartment...this differs from government propaganda only in the minor detail of what's in that particular hour or half-hour. And God knows we've got enough government-sponsored nanny state hectoring already...'for our own good'.
The same could be said of correct political views or uplifting moral thinking (for our own good)...and I'm guessing most of these 'indies' would shit themselves if we had too much of that. Matter of fact, they'd probably make documentaries exposing the danger of government-dictated programming...and then demand the government force the networks to show it??
Is that ironic? Or just stupid? It's so hard to tell sometimes...
Godwin's meme was, of course, directed at the (common but certainly not universal) internet MISUSE of the Nazi analogy, as in "Soybean subsidies??? That's JUST HOW NAZI GERMANY STARTED!!" or "I bet Hitler would have deleted my post just like you did, you nazi!"
Such usages DO trivialize the horrors of the Nazi regieme.
I don't really see how speculation about Yahoo's imaginary dealings with the Nazis is any more useful than speculation about how they would have dealt with Ghengis Khan or the Big Bad Wof. The conversation about Yahoo's actions does not have to be declared 'over' for such speculation to be seen as useless.
The Third Reich presents an easy target, uniformly viewed as entirely evil. Its use in analogy with any current regieme is clearly an attempt to sneak unwarranted assumptions into the argument.
On the post: Feds Finally Realize That AT&T Has Been Enabling Scammers To Abuse IP Fraud... Financed By Taxpayers
Re: Re: Re: TrollHard 2: Virgin Lust
Sorry, the tags kinda showed through there.
I am somewhat curious about the fellow who somehow appeared to think this situation demonstrates the need for more "government oversight and regulation". How do you figger that.
On the post: Yet Another Court Says Illinois 'Eavesdropping' Law That Criminalizes Recording Police Is Unconstitutional
Re: Ah yes...
Also, though I am an honest-to-God NotRepublican, I still feel obliged to point out that our first half-white president comes out of the very same political culture identified here.
Just. Sayin'.
On the post: Do Not Discuss The Movie You Just Saw
In a budget-reduction move that will cost only $2B, the Department of Redundancy Department has been folded into the Office of Bureaus and Departments (though retaining its name, budget and physical resources, to be housed in the new $5B "Senator Redacted Memorial Office Building Complex Center")
On the post: Do Not Discuss The Movie You Just Saw
Now, use of a logical fallacy does not guarantee a false result. In fact, in this case, the starting assumptions are proven to be pretty accurate, foremost among them "IP owners (not artists) have no guiding principle save greater revenue generation from the 'property'." and "This has nothing to do with art, the common good, or established legal and moral principles." Then you examine the steps they've taken already, extrapolate, go a little farther and see what you get.
And look! The reductio turns out not to be so absurdam after all.
ps) "Ceci n’est pas un box" is a sweet and appropriate reference to Magritte's Surrealist painting "Ceci n’est pas un pipe"
On the post: The Boy Who Mistook An iPhone For His Mother
I'm pretty sure the problem...
On the post: Qwest, CenturyLink Merge, Create Even Bigger Marginally-Relevant USF Money Pit
Oh, it's worse than that...
I don't have a lot of links, as this is all from personal experience, but they violated Utah law regarding DSL service, specifically engaging in false service outages directed at a medium-size ISP/internet wholesaler I worked for. They further endeared themselves to me by unilaterally switching me from my FREE, work-provided DSL service (maintained and supported by friends and co-workers) to their overpriced shite service.
When my phone bill arrived, with congratulations on my new service, I called, screamed at some poor support guy, made damn clear that I did not want their service, had never ordered their service and, given the circumstances, would have no conceivable reason to order their service.
Month later, came back from a weekend in the mountains to find the service had been switched. Called, screamed, act2, spoke to a supervisor who was so beat down she didn't even offer terms, just accepted my cancellation of land line, DSL, everything related to Qwest. As if it happened a lot.
Oh, and when she checked the notes on my first cancellation call, she claimed all they said was "Explained new service to caller." Nice. That's not ineptitude of support, that's instructing your support personnel to participate in a fucking policy of fraud. No wonder he sounded a little weird.
There's a lot more, SLAMming, SLAPPing, dirty lobbying, pretty much the whole role call of bad corporate practice.
Good luck, anybody involved in any way with these fucks.
On the post: Georgia Supreme Court Says It's Okay To Put Non-Sex Offenders On The Registered Sex Offender List
The economic or social justification behind totalitarian government is irrelevant. Infringement on individual freedom "for the good of society" is found, with differing justifications, on both sides of the largely-useless left/right dichotomy.
But as long as "they" can keep us slinging such "I know what it means when I use it!" terms as treehugger, teabagger, anti-American, bible-thumper, socialist, communist, racist, etc, etc at each other the slow gathering-in of all power to a central elite will continue.
And trust me, "they" aren't all oilmen or hollywood stars, or pointy-head academic proponents of the various -isms or cynical manipulators of clueless religious fundamentalists.
The problem is systemic. There is a major benefit to ruining these people's lives for some few (prosecutors, lawmakers, campaigners to end child sexual abuse) and not enough benefit to the many who see what a bad thing it has become for them (us, I guess) to do anything about it.
Same with marijuana laws. Same with imminent domain. Same with public employee pensions. Same with IP and patent policy.
The forces driving bad law and bad policy, in case after case move things to a worse and less logical and less just place and leave people fuming about the "liberal media" and "hate radio" and ranting about the bad people on the other side of the bogus divisions we've been presented with.
"Welcome to socialism.", my ass. I wish it was that simple.
On the post: Calling 911? That'll Be $300
Re: Re: Re: Paying extra? A possible exception.
Let's see...not having a million dollars is detrimental to people's health, as is the related "deadly" risk of driving old cars in imperfect condition, as is the potentially deadly risk of heart and mental problems caused by the stress of not having enough money to make the mortgage payment and other financial obligations.
So are you really saying that because the world is not perfect for all people...ripping them off for the emergency service their taxes already subsidize is OK??? Really?
Of course you're not. You're making an entirely different, and mostly unrelated, stupid argument.
I'm surprised you didn't work in a zinger directed at Bush there...
On the post: Convicted German Murderer Wants His Conviction Erased From Wikipedia
Re: Re: Okay
On the post: Convicted German Murderer Wants His Conviction Erased From Wikipedia
More unmentionables...
On the post: Why Doesn't Century 21 Canada Want More People Viewing Its Real Estate Listings?
Ummm...maybe they should look at revenues generated by, say, SELLING HOUSES as opposed to the ad revenue generated by the site.
They might find the latter benefit the people who administer their website, while the former benefits the people ON WHOSE BEHALF THE WEBSITE WAS SET UP.
Not a conflict of interest exactly...more of a failure of communication and prioritization.
On the post: UK Wants Surveillance Cameras To Watch 20,000 Worst Families?
After all, a few sweet words was all that was necessary to persuade the freedom-loving individualists of this country that if an Illinois/Cook County politician is corrupt it doesn't mean the next is a liar. And if the next is a liar, it doesn't mean the NEXT is a liar. And if the third IS a liar (and so on through 999)...it doesn't mean the thousandth (Obama) is a regular say-anything-to-get-elected, do-anything-to-stay-in-power politician.
I'm not saying Obama is better or worse than any other politico, but the gullibility of his supporters surely rivals anything we've see in England.
On the post: Fact Checking? UK Paper Simply Takes The Word Of Guy Who Claims WiFi Allergy
~More or less accurate Scott Adams quote
Also, good points above about the incestuous "sourcing" practices of the MSM. Not surprising from media that can't or doesn't bother to differentiate between advocacy group press releases and scientific stuides.
On the post: Is That The Best Cato Can Do In Defense Of Copyright?
Hot rumors
On the post: EA Boss Admits: We Have A Problem
*faugh*
Also, I found EA's implementation of PC versions to be weak, at best...lots of bugs, inferior keyboard/mouse control support, rigid playstyle (You vill chooce ein team, und play only dat team...und you vill like it!)...just not as much fun.
And what's up with this drive to perfect verisimilitde anyway?? If you have the exact same players with the exact same skills as the real league, is the goal to exactly replicate or anticipate the exact results of the games played on Sundays?? Ummm...is there a point to that? Why not also have a game called Real Life, wherein a player with my appearance, budget and job goes to work, comes home and plays a game called Real Life on his virtual PC? I'm seeing a 'durrrr' factor here...
When a genre of games becomes LESS enjoyable when greater technology and resources are applied to the development...yeah, there's a problem. Frickin' EA...
On the post: Indy Film Makers Ask FCC To Promise Them 25% Of Prime Time TV
Rank hypocrisy or total failure of critical thinki
Never mind the fact that I can 'not watch' content that's on the networks as easily as I can 'not watch' content that sits on a DVD in the 'indie filmmakers' grubby apartment...this differs from government propaganda only in the minor detail of what's in that particular hour or half-hour. And God knows we've got enough government-sponsored nanny state hectoring already...'for our own good'.
The same could be said of correct political views or uplifting moral thinking (for our own good)...and I'm guessing most of these 'indies' would shit themselves if we had too much of that. Matter of fact, they'd probably make documentaries exposing the danger of government-dictated programming...and then demand the government force the networks to show it??
Is that ironic? Or just stupid? It's so hard to tell sometimes...
On the post: Nice Patent... For Me to Poop On!
Simply patenting stupidity isn't feasible...
We could use a similar drawing, too, just substitute a Patent Attorney for the dog and the Patent Office for the net.
On the post: Terry Semel Trips Over Godwin's Law
and furthermore...
Such usages DO trivialize the horrors of the Nazi regieme.
I don't really see how speculation about Yahoo's imaginary dealings with the Nazis is any more useful than speculation about how they would have dealt with Ghengis Khan or the Big Bad Wof. The conversation about Yahoo's actions does not have to be declared 'over' for such speculation to be seen as useless.
The Third Reich presents an easy target, uniformly viewed as entirely evil. Its use in analogy with any current regieme is clearly an attempt to sneak unwarranted assumptions into the argument.
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