Support the Blog — Buy This Book!
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Put this ad on your blog!
Syndicate
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Junk Email Filter
Ah, let’s just shut it down and start over. We could all use a little more fresh air anyway.
Mesh network anyone?
Stuff like this could never happen if Republicans and Democrats weren’t controlled by special interests. The passing of even $1 dollar to any politician or political group should be illegal. Even purchasing the lunch of a politician should be illegal. The most power any lobby/special interest group should have is the power of verbal persuasion to present their case to whomever they can convince to listen.
The problem is that the two are the same. Changing who receives the money is a cosmetic fix.
Consider the following, in Minnesota campaign law restricts the contributions of unions and corporations to make direct contributions. Illinois does not.
One would think that Minnesota has a fairer system than Illinois on that basis alone. There is basically no difference in practical terms between Minnesota and Illinois because anything can establish a PAC in Minnesota. If you read through even a few of the disclosures by some of these PACs it becomes abundantly obvious that a corporation can start a PAC and donate money in their employees names to circumvent that restriction.
Perfect examples of this can be seen in the larger metro law firms PACs that receive “donations” from their employees that all happen to be the exact same amount. No one donates the same amount to “No Agenda” because everyone has a different situation and different view of the show.
BTW… it is also illegal to buy a politician lunch in Minnesota. Some cite that law as an event that sparked a deteriorration in politics.
PACMAN see money gobble gobble gobble.
I keep telling you, Repubes or democraps, our politicians are equipped with the morals of gutter cats.
The problem with republics is the same as with monarchies. After a while, the noble intentions at the start are as dead as the noble individuals which founded the kingdom or the republic. (The methods of creation for either are equally bloody.)
If we want a representative government, we’ll have to RE-create it. (There were no parties in 1776. Is that sinking in yet? There were no parties in 1776)
If we want smaller government, we’ll have to take out the incentives for its growth too.
We’ve become a government
• OF the thousandaires (the 99%, that would be me and thee,)
• BY the millionaires (the 1%, that would be the extremely insular privileged overlords and bosses,)
• FOR the billionaires (the 12,400 individuals identified by the IRS as the people who count (though they don’t really count as they hire some thousandaires to run machines to do that.)
The first thing we do is change from an ELECTED to a SELECTED form of government.
Pick names at random out an eligible citizen pool and they’re stuck with doing the job for one, and only one, four year term.
There could/should/would be no such thing as a career in politics. (The only thing worse than getting stuck with somebody who didn’t want the job is getting stuck with some idiot who did, figuring it was going to lift him a few rungs up the social/economic ladder.)
Eligibility requirements are:
• were you born here or are you a naturalized citizen?
• are you a permanent resident in a village, town or city within our borders?
• are you above the age of 25?
• are you healthy enough? (you don’t suffer from any clinical health issue(s) or mental impairment(s) which would prevent you from fulfilling your duties?)
• have you NEVER served on the government before?
• have you NEVER been found guilty of a violent crime?
• have you NEVER been found to be clinically insane?
Answer yes to all of these questions, you’re eligible for selection.
Don’t want to be bothered?
Go live elsewhere!
That would get rid of all PACs, K Street lobbyists, a lot of graft, waste and expense that WE’RE all paying for.
I don’t think this would work. The country is too complex for complete neophytes to be expected to come in to office and make meaningful decisions. I assume that’s what you mean… have them be in office for only a few years. In this case, the real power will be in the hands of the “unselected” staff members that the officeholder relies upon. And firing them every time a selected officeholder leaves makes no sense. You need to have people around who understand how the system works.
Please, I don’t want to impose, but I humbly suggest that you need a Canadian to run your country. Naturally, I will make myself available. Thank you for your time. Have a pleasant evening.
Shut up Slave and Zet Me Zee Yourz Paperz.
Won’t they think of the pr0n?
The good news: This only deals with IPv4 and not the coming IPv6 standards.
The bad news: YOU DIDN’T CALL OR WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON! SO DO IT NOW!!! (or you suck!)
IPv6 is not a coming IPv6 standard; its here already.
ComCast is running IPv6. Verizon Fios is running IPv6.
I’m trying to figure out who’s stupider. The entertainment industry or the politicians.
Either way it means more new jobs and companies shift out of the US.
The result are in and they’re tied.
The politicians is as tone deaf as the industry.
The industry is as ignorant of the law as the politicians.
They’re both totally unnecessary and a complete and total waste of time and money in the internet age.
I predict any and all musicians worthy of the name will be going indie and any and all cinematographers worthy of the name will be recruiting funds for and then releasing their projects on the internet and doing away with the whole studio system altogether.
For instance, I found out tonight about “Somebody That I Used to Know” by “Walk Off The Earth” from an item on “Fark”, loved the song and was thoroughly impressed by the video, found more on YouTube, bought their music off of iTunes and got their freebies off of the internet.
Total time from discovery to purchase was about 1.5 hours.
For another instance, I found out about “Louis C.K.” show from an item on “Boing Boing” about his self releasing a comedy special. As it turns out I was not alone. He’s made over $1 million from that video and had to pay none of it to some shysters in the industry.
Total time from discovery to purchase was about 10 minutes.
And thus you have documented what the *AA’s really fear, their disintermediation and irrelevance in an open internet. JCD’s PC Mag article points out a likely outcome, but even easier and more insdious would be outlawing of unlicensed encryption. Remember it’s already been tried, and will keep coming back in one form or another until it’s implemented while we’re distracted by America’s Got Talented Dancers With X Stars Football.
I’m interested in SOPA passing with all the warts in its current form.
I believe our political system is broken beyond repair and feel that the best way that the country can be helped is for it to crash itself on the rocks.
Congress and Obama should do everything in their power to chase away venture capital across the border to Canada in the interest of reducing US economic power even further.
The sooner the US economy totally collapses, the better for everyone.
Where were you when we, ahem, rescued the financial system from itself.
We’re going to be paying for that little piece of bullshit and perfidy for generations.
There’s not going to be any money left because it will all have been stolen by people who needed it the least.
The only countries that are going to be left are going to be the ones with strong national borders and tariffs on their imports.
The US (and the EU) have neither.
Welcome to the Fascist States of Amerika.
Sure sounds like something Zero would love….
Just in case we might get some _real_ news someplace instead of manufactured lies….
I considered this for a moment and came to the conclusion that IP holders had a right to protect their interests. Nonetheless this SOPA biz dropped straight from ‘twixt the nether cheeks of Satan Himself. It’s insane. And repressive. And whoever cooked it up needs to get his soul back from The Devil, or get off of meth once and for all. JESUS! In the old days, no one would dare initiate such a thing for fear of a good, righteous ass kicking. Nowadays, it’s like evil people don’t fear anything. When and how did we lose our will? Our strength?
Give people the power to shut down the net and they will. Some out of malice and some because they expect to gain from it.