Re: Taking a Stand in the War on General-Purpose Computing

same way Michael Mann does. By opening the mouth that looks like a hairy muff and letting blow

--
?Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.? 

H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy

Were the secrets visble on the outside? Rare.

--




/ \  Mail | -- No unannounced, large, binary attachments, please! --

Locally.

Can be a big boon in huge and dense metroloplises, which is why China has begun using them a lot.

--




/ \  Mail | -- No unannounced, large, binary attachments, please! --

haha - USA will become Europe - man here they do not have the ability to manufacture independently anything - the f**king vaccine, not even masks. They have the machines, but not the materials, which they had to import, but couldn't. Europe is already a pathetic case - but hey there were 2 world wars carried out here - and the third one, that is going on is an invisible one. I wonder how USA will develop - at least you have right to own guns there.

For now .... but the Citizen Disempowerment crusade never ends.

But yes, with massive taxes - mostly going to "feel good/ look good" projects - and enhanced central "management" of the economy from the top down, the USA could easily take on the look and feel of the EU.

Maybe the Brits were the smart ones ....

Anyway, it is my hypothesis that the huge drive to legalize marijuana (and in some cases all dope) is part of the "socialist" plan. The idea is to knock twenty+ IQ points and all motivation from the Great Unwashed. It is the only way their sort of USA could possibly persist. Stonies don't give a shit. don't analyze too deeply. don't have the focus or energy to protest effectively. So, THIS is our "Soylent Green(leaf)", the perfect way to get the masses to pacify themselves.

Excellent analysis by TNP as usual.

Except that too-small control structures lead to local tyrannies. In the UK we have about 50 police departments, for 65 million people. The US has more than

15000. And the US elects judges and chiefs of police, so sometimes people don't get justice, they get law and plenty of it. It's noticeable that road signage in the UK is designed to get people safely from A to B, whereas in the US it's designed to raise revenue. And then there are quotas - conspiracies betwen a city Mayor and the Chief of Police to fill the City's coffers; this is just a form of legalised banditry.

--
Tim

Not since the 1960s.

whereas in the

As it is here largely. Or break cars.

Its the same here. Parking schemes employ wardens whose wages are paid out of the fines. Car parks are a monopoly that is 'revenue neutral' as a minimum. The cost of installing the machines is paid for by the parking charges, The same goes for speed cameras.

In my local town there used to be a complete absence of traffic lights. Sometimes one had to wait a while for a gap in the traffic, to emerge from or enter a major side road. But the road was wide enough that queueing traffic did not hold up the other traffic.

Now with traffic lights one *always* queues, congestion is increased. But people are told it 'improves safety'. I think it creates jobs for people who manufacture and install traffic lights.

Even in our village there was a proposal that extra speed limit enforcement should be added to the rural roads 'to reduce accidents' I researched. The only fatal accident in the last 30 years was a motorcyclist who failed to make a bend in an *unrestricted* zone.

Bureaucracy becomes a self justifying parasite, all for the best possible reasons.

--
"Women actually are capable of being far more than the feminists will  
let them."

Not quite. At least here, speeding fines go to central government, rather than the local authority. That removes the incentive for local collusion.

--
Tim

Indeed. While the Race Relations Act in the UK did bring some improvement in race relations, it also taught the post-war generation that if you want to eliminate an evil, the very last thing you should consider doing is to create a government department or quango to do the job.

When the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork was told that the city's rat problem was increasing despite the bounty on dead rats, he thought for a moment and then ordered his civil service to tax the rat farms.

--
Joe

Ah, the phenomenon of "general revenue", which is government-speak for "money laundering".

--
/~\  Charlie Gibbs                  |  They don't understand Microsoft 
\ /        |  has stolen their car and parked 
 X   I'm really at ac.dekanfrus     |  a taxi in their driveway. 
/ \  if you read it the right way.  |    -- Mayayana

There is some truth in that. Perhaps THE most hated lowest-level control structure are so-called "neighborhood associations". These are tiny-headed people who are suddenly infused with a big meth injection of micromanging local power over others. If your flowers are an inch too high they will attack. They really hit people quite literally where they live - and a surprising amount of new housing falls under the control of said petty tyrants. There is something, perhaps intentionally, USSR/Stasi about that ....

As for the number of police organizations, remember tht the USA is physically LARGE - plus the police mentality needed for large urban areas is inappropriate for farm/ranch/mining areas that are wide-open spaces.

Now in our larger cities, you ARE likely to see several layers of political and police authority - NYC is a fair example. Still, again, it has something to do with size and population and, in NYCs case, ethnic and historical factors. Brooklyn does NOT get to tell Queens how to do things. However London is similarly partitioned ......

As for "banditry" ... are you referring to "speed trap towns" or something ? For the most part, transit in the USA is dead practical - has to be because of the vast distances. I think there are single counties in Texas and Wyoming and certainly Alaska that could swallow up Scotland.

For fun, GoogleEarth a town called "Waldo" in Florida. "Drive" the main road coming into town, especially from the south. There are huge signs announcing the towns zero-tolerance policies towards roadway speeders ... which they felt they HAD to put up because it WAS a nefarious, highly publicized, speed trap. Their POLICIES did not change however until the state legislature passed a bill forbidding police officers to have traffic-ticket quotas - unofficially known as the "Waldo Bill" :-)

I think a few towns in Louisiana have since usurped Waldo. Something like 60+ percent of revenue coming from fines and shakedowns.

I lived in the US for 12 years, and amassed two speeding tickets in that time. So I went to traffic school for a Saturday. Towards the end of one of these days, the person running the course (an off-duty San Francisco cop) asked if anyone had any questions. A little old lady said, is it true that there are quotas? The guy was quiet for a moment and then said, yes, but no one would ever admit it publicly. I didn't understand this, but eventually found out that what was meant was:

1) Mayor decides the city needs more money 2) He talks to his mate the Chief of Police (elected on the same political ticket) 3) The Chief tells the traffic cops that for the next shift or two they all need to book, say, three sitters and three movers (people parking wrong or committing a 'moving offence' - speeding or being in the wrong lane, etc)

So these would be minor infringements that would normally be overlooked because the cop would pragmatically decide that there was no danger to life, limb, property, etc. But now these people get a fine instead.

IOW, legalised banditry.

--
Tim

All government is best understood if it its regarded simply as a self legalising protection racket.

Democracy is how you overthrow it without bloodshed, and install a new one that costs a bit less and protects a bit better.

--
Climate is what you expect but weather is what you get. 
Mark Twain

__________^ hopefully

All too often the limited options available at election time make this hope faint.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays 
C:\>WIN                                     | A better way to focus the sun 
The computer obeys and wins.                |    licences available see 
You lose and Bill collects.                 |    http://www.sohara.org/

Indeed. In the UK we had to create whole new party as none of the existing ones were any different.

'two cheeks of the same arse' was not an inaccurate description

That frightened (some of) the existing ones just enough to see a bit of movement.

The system is biased towards 'more of the same' but if there is sufficient popular traction it *can* be changed

--
?Progress is precisely that which rules and regulations did not foresee,? 

  ? Ludwig von Mises

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. -- Yogi Berra

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. -- The Who

--
/~\  Charlie Gibbs                  |  They don't understand Microsoft 
\ /        |  has stolen their car and parked 
 X   I'm really at ac.dekanfrus     |  a taxi in their driveway. 
/ \  if you read it the right way.  |    -- Mayayana

So people do you want the cheek with the fresh boil on it or the cheek with the make up over the scars from the forgotten boils ?

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith                          |   Directable Mirror Arrays 
C:\>WIN                                     | A better way to focus the sun 
The computer obeys and wins.                |    licences available see 
You lose and Bill collects.                 |    http://www.sohara.org/

Definitely go for the makeup. Who cares if the covered-up boils are far worse - at least they look pretty.

Windows is video games for managers. -- me

--
/~\  Charlie Gibbs                  |  They don't understand Microsoft 
\ /        |  has stolen their car and parked 
 X   I'm really at ac.dekanfrus     |  a taxi in their driveway. 
/ \  if you read it the right way.  |    -- Mayayana