Does anyone remember when cable was first introduced? This might not be an exact comparison, but the concept was we all pay for TV and get it commercial free. Well THAT worked out well.

The point is, as soon as anything gets "nudged" closer to the private sector, they, their lobbyists, and their political friends will find a way to monetize and control it.

And they WILL be relentless in their efforts. Just note how many variations of ACTA we've seen so far. When they want something, they can make more attempts to get it than any of us can imagine.

NO way! They can take some of the money out of those obscenely huge executive compensation packages to finance the effort to expand into rural areas or whatever.

Sure they might include it in their "platform," but a "platform" is just another word for a "marketing message." And this is just the usual pre-election market research. They're looking for anything that will give them a lift in the polls. They'll put it out there as if it's really their intention to protect “Internet Freedom” (whatever they mean by that).

We already know politicians are really good at using rhetoric to disguise their real intentions. I don't believe for a minute this has anything to do with preserving "net neutrality."

Thus far, they have very effectively demonstrated their complete ignorance re "net neutrality." Now they're trying to find a way to pitch a position that will sound appealing to the voting public. All they want is an election win. After that, ALL bets are off.

And especially from the Republicans. Protecting and supporting big business is what the Republican party is about. Whatever benefits business will be the focus of their legislative efforts. Remember we have already seen more than a few major lobbying efforts by large business interests to grab control of the internet and its data. So whatever the Republicans say about protecting "internet freedom" is just 100% pure political BS.

...queue Pat Robertson.

"You have been smitten because of your sinful behavior and..."

Oh. Sorry. Wrong party.

I just realized that is who the Dems are missing. They don't have some pompous, self-righteous guy to condemn people after disasters.

...from fracking, but something else.

I'm still skeptical about any pro-fracking news. There has been some evidence that fracking and the sequestration of the fracking fluids is causing some problems. So my impression is the pro-fracking interests need some good press.

Taking a quick look at some other sources, it looks as if coal still plays a big part in power generation and isn't letting up any time soon.

Political and investment

Those links do not absolutely refute the possibility that fracked gas has helped nor do they suggest it has. They do suggest coal is doing okay despite some EPA controls re emissions.

It just seems more likely to me there is a cumulative effective of better emission controls on cars, high-efficiency heating systems, and emission controls on industry operations (eg, power generating stations) over a period of years.

I just checked the emissions of a nearby coal-fired plant. Between 1999 and 2003, emissions dropped by more than half and have been held there ever since. It looks as if the EPA regs are having a positive impact in our area.

...reborn.

Now life imitates art.

@smitty -- Outstanding! I wonder how many /.'s actually know about Burma Shave. I grew up in the upper midwest and saw the signs fairly often. Thanks for a great comment made in fine fashion. And a King Lear quote to boot! you get all the "style points" for today. I unfortunately don't have any mod points at this time. But if I did...

Thanks, tooyoung. You just saved me some time and irritation.

@dgatwood -- THANK YOU!!!

I've been challenging the don't-tax-the-wealthy crowd with that question re the gap between the wealthy and everyone else. I ask them to point out one time in history when it ended well. So far nobody has been able to answer. That's because it has never happened. Actually most of the time they try to change the subject because they know what the answer is.

You've stated the case re distribution of wealth quite well.

Here are two more important details being ignored re this debate.

1. Some people say increasing taxes has been tried and it has not worked. False. Prior to the Crash of '29, the wealthy got a healthy tax cut in 1925 from 73% to 25%. Four years later the market crashed. Three years after the market crash, the tax rates for the wealthy went back up to over 60%. Rates remained high and a few years later we were recovering but headed for WWII. During and after WWII, the rates stayed high as we paid for the war. The national debt did not become an issue until the wealthy were given a series of tax cuts and a variety of loopholes. Basic accounting says if income goes down while cost of ops remain steady or go up, debt will increase. History shows while taxes on the wealthy were higher, we did pretty well as a nation. ie, We managed our debt. And an interesting point to remember, even while the wealthy were paying these higher taxes, they were still wealthy; they were still living in comfort.

2. Redistribution of wealth is presented as though the common, hard-working American is going to be forced to give his/her money to some indigent who has no intention of ever trying to work. False. Redistribution will occur through the elimination of tax loopholes and an increase of taxes for the wealthy. The wealthy are trying to portray the redistribution effort as though it's going to come directly out of the wallets of the middle class (what's left of it). And when I say "wealthy," I include our "owned" politicians; left and right.

...at it's best.

I've just dropped aptosid for Magiea. Started having problems w/aptosid. Some probably my fault, but I didn't want to deal with it anymore. Plus the distro has forked and I can't tell what is going on anymore. Again, probably my ignorance. Whatever.

So I went to DistroWatch and searched for any 64-bit distro. Eventually I found Magiea. And I have to say, it is slick. And so far so good re operation.

I too cut my (very dull) Linux teeth on Mandrake. I used a "SAMS" book. I think it was version 7. But I liked it. So I tried 8 and maybe one more. Then I started distro-hopping.

Eventually I found sidux which changed to aptosid, etc. I've used it for about 3+ years.

I am very impressed with Magiea. If things continue as they are, I'll be using it for a long time.

What could possibly go wrong?

FWIW

Tried "Ask" (my favorite SE) and got a nice mix of responses. FF was #1, but an interesting mix followed.

DuckDuckGo also gave an interesting mix of responses.

Yup. It's annoying. The current generation of video producers are afflicted with the same behavior we saw in the early years of the web. Remember when people used the now infamous "blink" tag? Yah! It was a real treat to load a page with 20 blinking links. And this behavior was carried on with animated gifs. I remember opening pages that had lists with each list item bulleted with an animated gif; eg, a spinning ball or star, or a flashing diamond, etc. The next "craze" was to do all sorts of stuff with flash. I'm amazed how many sites are still doing all their nav in flash. The most recent bane to web design is jQuery. Take a look at the source of some pages once. It's astonishing just how many jQuery scripts are being used on some pages.

[begin rant] Well, now video producers are going through the same thing. It's cool to video the person talking, but they're looking somewhere else entirely. Or they zoom on the person's eye or hands or mouth while the person is talking. Real cool! I know that always stimulates my interest.[/sarcasm]

Now they're going absolutely freaking nuts using zooming in then out and back in, fast motion to slow back to fast, strobing, flashing, blurring, jerky images, a series of 30 images within 2 secs, etc. And NONE of the programs or ads using these effects contain ANY worthwhile information.

I was always amused by the Ford truck commercials and just how juvenile and primitive they were. All big, block letters sliding around the screen. Brilliant! I swear a person has to be functioning full-time with their lizard brain to respond to a commercial like that.

If I should happen to meet one of these video producers, I just might club him/her senseless. Then ask, "How's THAT for a special effect?"[/end rant]

Aw nuts! I forgot to take my meds again. Excuse me. I have to go.

"Throw the ball. Throw the ball."