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Comment Re:Liberals and Libraries (Score 1) 331

I don't think liberals care much at all about *who* is helping redistribute the nation's wealth, as long as it gets redistributed in a way that benefits all, and not just a few. It's a great idea, really, letting churches help.

Good point--but it often happens that churches will deny access to social services to individuals that do not fit the church's definition of acceptable conduct (disclosure: I worked for a church with a homeless ministry--part of my job was connecting people with social services in the area). This could be something as simple as not being a member of the church, or something more fundamental like being gay or having a child out of wedlock. It's one thing if the church is prioritizing distribution of Sunday's collection plate offerings, but if it's taxpayer dollars then discrimination of this sort should not be tolerated.

Comment We? Who's we? (Score 1) 505

I don't know that "we" are the ones who are so strangely territorial about our bandwidth. Open wireless networks were a lot more common in the USA before ISPs started shutting people down for it.

It hasn't even been so long since ISPs had a problem with in-home networks of any kind. And it wasn't because they were worried about viruses or CP, either.

Comment Former student (Score 2) 52

I had Dr. Baase as a professor at SDSU for assembly language as well as a course with the same name as the book (albeit a much earlier edition). The book is a good read and Dr Baase definitely knows her stuff, but as previous comments have pointed out her book doesn't do more than touch on issues of copyright. What I remember from the ethics course had mostly to do with privacy and personal information, but being an undergrad course it didn't do much more than provide a broad overview.

Comment Re:What are you smoking? (Score 1) 690

I think part of the issue stems from the fact that what you'd call racism or sexism would merely be called "prejudice" by many scholars and experts on the subject. To a lot of people whose business it is to study these things, racism and sexism are specific cases of prejudice with the added component of institutionalized privilege or power. In such a context, the average American white male could indeed be the victim of prejudice, but not racism or sexism because it's still white males who are the dominant group in America (the "lowest difficulty setting", if you will).

YMMV of course; you may not agree with the definitions as they're used or commonly understood (and there are compelling arguments for and against defining them this way). But it may help you frame future discussions of this nature--I doubt parent is trying to say that men/whites are never victims of prejudice (and this is a problem), but it is a fundamentally different kind of problem.

Comment Re:Going to get modded down as sexist for this, bu (Score 3, Insightful) 690

Your argument might be more convincing if you provided evidence that this cultural backlash against men has actually resulted in a structurally-supported norm of female privilege in each of the arenas you mentioned.

I'm sorry that you've been made to feel "male guilt" (while I'm female, I'm also white and have experienced similar discomfort dealing with my own privilege, so I know well what "white guilt" feels like), but your hurt feelings are not sufficient proof of the systemic subjugation of men (in the video game industry? Seriously?). You seem very concerned that men have to "pass laws and decree pro female bias" but you're overlooking the fact that it's still overwhelmingly men who are in the position to pass those laws to begin with. This harms both men and women--and the guilt isn't a matter of assigning blame, but collectively shouldering the responsibility to make things more fair and equal.

Comment Re:Field Sobriety Test (Score 1) 608

Washington's had medical marijuana legalized for several years. The vote legalized recreational use (up to a certain amount) for adults over 21. Figuring out how the two distinct laws could/should interact with each other has been an interesting process--some of the most vocal opponents to the recreational law were from medical marijuana dispensaries. Their arguments have been on behalf of patients under 21 who might be impacted by the new law, but also heavy-use patients who would effectively be illegal to drive 100% of the time under the new "stoned driving" definitions. Cynics say the dispensaries are just trying to protect their profit margins. YMMV.

Comment Re:Easy (Score 1) 608

Washington had decriminalized marijuana by deprioritizing prosecution down to near-but-not-total nonexistence. Medical marijuana is also legal [t]here. That said, when Washington voted to legalize pot for recreational use, over a hundred possession cases were immediately dropped, even though the law doesn't go into effect until December 6. There's a pretty significant difference.

As the FAQ on the Seattle PD blotter site states, though, they're not planning on giving back any of the pot they've confiscated. Bummer, dude.

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