It's clear that the era of hands-off government is over.
Indeed, that's been clear since Hammurabi. WTF is wrong with this guy?
Almost every industry is highly regulated except for...oh, I don't know...the book industry. Maybe it's time for an "unfettered capitalist" like Mr. O' Reilly to be regulated, to prevent the damage he's been doing. (Damage being variously defined by whatever phantasms J. Random Bureaucrat determines.)
Think of the problem unregulated websites could cause. One poorly designed one could infect people with spyware that could cause the whole system to crash. Clearly, it's time to end this unfettered market and bring some much needed regulation to the web. Each proposed website or change to a website should go through a careful review by an appropriate government agency before it goes live. This is clearly becoming more important as more financial information and other sensitive data goes over the web.
The fact that a link is about politics doesn't mean that it's not hacker news. The overlap isn't zero. And arguably anything Tim O'Reilly takes the time to write a long piece like this about is ipso facto hacker news, because he is one of the leading thinkers about hacking.
Has he long been known as a socialist? It was news to me.
I hope I'm not the only one who found this piece alternately very creepy and idiotic. Creepy for the naive statism and high hopes for government power and efficiency. (You WANT the government to regulate the internet? Really!?) Idiotic in the ignorance of economic matters: blaming laissez faire for the current crisis; misunderstanding that Obama and the democrats get much more wall st. money.
We have to fight the growth of authoritarian government by electing the guy who A) spinelessly voted with his party on all the privacy-destroying measures asked for by Bush, sometimes with token resistance and B) wants the government to have much more power over society.
Don't forget, he's a great leader, intelligent and courageous, though he's never had an original thought or differed from his party on any significant issue.
I wouldn't dislike him so much as President if there were going to be some substantial resistance from an opposition party, but it looks like the Congressional Republicans are going to get destroyed.
Seems like I remember a commentary yesterday about schools of higher education that at the end had sentence like "and this is just a preface to discuss the media's treatment of Sarah Palin and Barack Obama" Otherwise it seemed to be a well-written argument against formal higher education.
That post was denounced as being partisan.
WTF?
Just checking. My bullshit detector is going off with how you guys view what's partisan and what's not around here.
Reading up on candidates, being enthused about them, and voting based on the issues you believe in, isn't the same as buying into propaganda. You have a right to your cynicism, but don't mock the people who genuinely care.
He is simply looking at what the candidates say they will do. Based on their actions, Obama has one of the most partisan voting records in Congress. He does whatever the Democratic Party does. As President, he will be driven by Congress, he will sign any legislation written by the blue team.
Surveillance laws will not be repealed. Non-farmers will be screwed over to benefit farmers. Young people will be screwed over to pay off elderly voters. Consumers will be screwed over to benefit unions. School children will be screwed over to benefit the NEA. Future generations will be screwed over to benefit current generations. Funding for new programs to make Americans more dependent on government will be piled on top of a deficit fast approaching $1 trillion.
His speech might be sparkling, but his record does not fill me with Hope. I miss gridlock.
Here's a little brain teaser that anybody can try (I think I can do this without taking a side. I'll give it a shot anyway)
Pick a candidate. Imagine that they win. Based on past performance, will the other candidate who lost help them enact bipartisan legislation?
Now do that with the other candidate. Does the first guy help out for the greater good, or pull back to join in with the rest of his party in the regular old political games. Is there substance there or just smoke?
So which choice is going to help the maximum amount of voters?
Interestingly enough, you can use this exercise to support either candidate no matter what the results. But I think it does enlighten things a bit.
Frankly, I think it's worth the effort to research candidates and pick the one you think will make the country better. I've read up on Obama and McCain for quite a while, and I place my vote for Obama with confidence. My time was well-spent.
In none of the elections within my lifetime have elected candidates ended up doing anything remotely resembling their platforms. You often got the exact opposite. Bush was going to shrink the government and run a humble foreign policy. Clinton was going to massively expand social programs but instead the bond market constrained him and you got the opposite.
On this track record alone voting is a waste of time.
I hope once it becomes clear within a couple years how much of a standard issue establishment tool Obama is that you learn your lesson and remember it rather than get sucked into delusions next time around.
Indeed, that's been clear since Hammurabi. WTF is wrong with this guy?
Almost every industry is highly regulated except for...oh, I don't know...the book industry. Maybe it's time for an "unfettered capitalist" like Mr. O' Reilly to be regulated, to prevent the damage he's been doing. (Damage being variously defined by whatever phantasms J. Random Bureaucrat determines.)
The hand that feeds.