National Phone in Sick Day? 270
bor xitwise writes "i dont know if anti-capitalist sentiment
and the open source community necessarily
go hand in hand (cough), but i thought you
might want to mention
"world phone in sick
day", which is coming up on the 6th of april.
hopefully we can get a larger participation in the u.s. this
year!! " Thats strange. I wish I wasn't my own company- could
use a sick day.
baseball (Score:1)
That is when the baseball season starts in the US.
It should be a national holiday IMO
Socialism is nothing like Open Source. It's dumb. (Score:1)
Oh Hell, in fact, there are dozens of critical differences. Capitalism gives us the freedom and leisure time to do open source. Note Linus' employer.
How did you get to be so wrong, and so stupid?
McCarthy ? (Score:1)
ugh. This is why nerds (and everyone else) who don't know two shits about political theory should just shut the hell up and keep their ignorant opinions from poisoning those who really want to learn and not be spoon-fed proaganda.
Socialism definitely == bad.
A reasoned response to your poorly reasoned one (Score:2)
As far as providing computers to 50% of the households, what country that had a completely backwards economy 100 years ago can provide computers to everyone? The US can do it because it was in a kick-ass position at the end of WWII. Even a fairly mismanaged economy could keep itself in a decent position. The problem is that a Communist revolution occured in most countries far before they were ready for it. The US is just now getting to the point where it's ready, and the revolution is happening in the ready industries (software, and soon, other information). Information became ready with the Internet, when the marginal cost of production fell to zero.
A Reasoned response (Score:1)
Socialism != Bad (Score:1)
National Socialism != socialism (Score:1)
Don't be such a tightass. (Score:1)
- A.P.
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"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
Reschedule... (Score:1)
prank (Score:1)
Read the texts. Look at the sites on their "Links" page. It's primarily a prank, folks. They're performance artists. That doesn't mean some people aren't going to really phone in sick, just that their purpose is less political and more like a pie in a billionaire's face.
What a childish idea (Score:1)
Let's say DA has their way and the economy collapses. Then what? What usually happens when an economy collapses? You get fascism, totalitarianism, and war. What does DA have to say about that? Will everyone just magically become socialist if a capitalist economy collapses?
This is an idea you might expect to hear from a seventh grader.
What a childish idea (Score:1)
I don't think this quote really has much to do with what DA is about. There is the freedom to be sick- one that everyone supports- and then there is shirking responsibility. I'm sure franklin has another insipid quote about this. At any rate by acting responsibly and understanding that if everyone followed the DA's "ideals" of laziness then society would collapse, one certainly does not give up freedom. If anything he preserves it, for in anarchy a lot more freedom would be lost than having to go to work every day (if you can consider this oppression under the working conditions for most of the people who post to this site and would participate in such an event)- how much freedom would you have if there were no food, or internet connection
As far as the US economy being good because of oppression, etc. you may be right to an extent, but this has little to do with the argument that you present.
I am utterly amazed... (Score:1)
It's Easter Sunday (Happy Easter to all! He is risen indeed, etc, etc...), a very special day to some people. So it's interesting to see all the offended reactions at a bunch of performance artists who dare to poke some fun at what is apparently the Great Y*hw*h of the West -- El Capitalismo!
Browse through the site. Read the articles and the press clippings. Enjoy! The best humor often contains a grain or two of truth. (I also recommend Petreley's April Fools column, if you haven't seen it yet).
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McCarthy was never right (Score:1)
It is a lesson to be learned. If the mainstream press hadn't kow-tow'd to the meme-hypers of the day, but instead had challenged their various inane assertions, we wouldn't have gone through those dark days. The lesson has yet to be learned.
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Oops! Wrong graphic (Score:1)
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I say again: McCarthy was never right (Score:1)
These "communist subversives, infiltrators, and fellow travelers" were just human beings. They may have been socialists or communists during the Great Depression, or had friends and relatives who were -- it was not all that uncommon back then. And the name-calling of the day was only a hair's breadth away from the taunts of "liberal" and "socialist" today, to put it in a more modern context; what was different then was the widely-held belief that these people were somehow agents of Stalin (99.9% of them were, in fact, not). Even the flouridation of the water supply was thought by some to be a Soviet plot; take Joe's opportunist hype with a grain of salt, keeping in mind the political and cultural climate.
How old are you? I'm old enough to have had neighbors and babysitters who had first-hand stories to tell. Grow the fsck up, and get your history from books, not pamphlets. Hell, at least grab some of Herblock's books that touch upon that era -- lots of nice pictures for you to look at, if the text is a bit too much for you.
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Say "good night", little troll. (Score:1)
I still stand by every single word I've uploaded. Including the admonition that you should take the time to study the era (circa 1930-1955).
It's opening night for baseball. You go hunting witches if you want; I'll just sit and watch some stud paint the corners. You'll have to wait 'til tomorrow to catch some Reds.
Say "good night", Gracie.
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NSDAP (Score:1)
"Kinder, Kirche, Küche" was, IIRC, a big slogan of theirs (though my German sucks nowadays -- someone can correct me). If anything, the slogan isn't far removed from all those "family values" and "God-and-Country" US pols. Socialists? Come on.
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You're the one supplying ghost stories (Score:1)
Alger Hiss
That's a person, not an accomplishment.
The Bomb
I don't see what Stalin's German scientists have to do with a bunch of ordinary State Department employees (they wouldn't have known a Klaus Fuchs from a Klaus Flouride). You're confusing the issue of a list of people (the "Wheeling List") with the very real activities of a bunch of very real spies. McCarthy's "commies" had as much to do with the bomb as they did with Truman's German scientists.
12hr notice of the invasion of Korea at Inchon
See previous riposte.
notice of the Berlin Airlift
See previous paragraph.
The knowledge that Marshall told Chang Kai-Shek we weren't going to intervene militarily in China
See previous. Chiang was a bastard, but he was our bastard, eh?
Pre-knowledge of the creation of West Germany
Like that one was a big surprise. East and West Germany were essentially created from day one, just like the Koreas and the Vietnams. It was a secret only in the sense that Double-U Bush's presidential candidacy is. The Berlin Wall was a surprise; the Federal Republic was not.
Notice that none of the witch hunts did anything to eliminate spying. That's probably because the "witches" by and large weren't the spies. The "they" that achieved this list of "accomplishments" are not the "they" that McCarthy were after. Only paranoiacs (and, at the time, cheap publicity-starved opportunists) will take the time to connect the dubious dots.
I know how stubborn pride can make you stand by your incorrect assertions. I was a communist once, too.
I was always a conservative, and I've never much liked being lumped in with morally and ethically challenged "conservatives" like McCarthy, Reagan, and Gingrich -- that's why this is a big issue to me. And I stubbornly stand by my correct assertions. We were off topic to begin with, and now you're saying a bunch of cowed deer-in-the-headlights government employees were the master spies of the age. I don't think so.
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I will refer you to my previous post, but... (Score:1)
It's crap, just like your posts (I've read all of the above). Where was Saint-Simon in '33? Where was he during Peron's heyday? Until he writes his accounts of the reigns of Hitler, Peron, Pinochet, Suharto, Franco, and Franjo, your parrotings are no better than those of a Nostradamus freak. "Socialism" the word and "socialism" the 20th Century reality are two different things, especially in the hands of someone so virulently and irrationally anti-"socialist" like you. Given that Saint-Simon was dead long before Marx published a single word and long before Keynes, Lenin, and Harrington were born, maybe you shouldn't drag him into this without his permission. Learn to do your own thinking and learn to write in your own words, not half-assed misappropriations of vaguely tangentially-relevant dead Frenchmen.
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I will refer you to my previous post, but... (Score:1)
No it isn't. This is very stupid.
All modern socialism sprang from Saint-Simon. He was the first to coalesce (sp?) all the fragments of envy and hatred under one philosophical roof. He even coined the term "Socialism." Understand this, and understand history better.
This is also very stupid. If you're going to reduce socialism to "envy" and "anger", then there's a hell of a lot of stuff that you need to understand.
It is very common these days for socialists to marginalize Saint Simon, since he openly endorsed the horror that socialism would eventually spring upon the earth. In this, he was not only the father of socialism, but it's greatest adversary, since he flamed other socialists for their dishonesty.
Dishonesty comes in all political flavors. I would refer Saint-Simon to Matthew 7:3-5. I'm sure there's many reasons for people to marginalize Saint-Simon. Your post does nothing to change what I wrote in the previous post; the guy who coined the word "television" would probably not be the best person to manage the hardware at an HDTV station.
To quote someone else: "Signs are signs, and some of them are lies."
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facts == ghost stories? Ok, whatever... (Score:1)
No. I'm just not a big fan of mindless anti-communism.
You make a lame assertion with no backup, I supply facts which deny your assertion, you slander and make new lame assertion.
Your scattershot "facts" have little to do with the argument. Yes, there were -- and are -- spies afoot. No, I don't think McCarthy was being honest; like many politicians these days, he demagogued the surfaces of a popular issue without wasting time with relevant facts. It was extremely successful until enough people from both parties called him on the pointlessness of his "quest".
Sen. McCarthy wanted to know why there were communist agents working at the State Department. He was stonewalled. His personality didn't help matters, but he understood the brevity of the situation. He understood that communism seeks the violent enslavement of productive people. He understood that communism kills. He understood that communism lies. He understood that communism was (and still is) the single greatest threat to life and liberty.
Communists, real or imagined, have some sort of monopoly on lies? You make it sound like some sort of alien virus. If Communism is so uniquely a threat, then why is life and liberty threatened all around the world today without the help of communists? There haven't been riots in Paraguay and Indonesia because of communist oppression -- it was good old "democratically elected" governments that were at fault. American governments have enslaved and "ethnic cleansed" their own populace without the help of some sort of "Agenda from Moscow". It's not about ideology; it's about people. An anti-communist like Hitler did as much damage as a "communist" like Stalin. An anti-communist like Chiang was every bit the toxic despot that Mao was. Do you get it now? They all summoned their boogie men as a means of getting or holding onto power, but it would be ludicrous to take their words seriously.
There were communists in the State Department. There were communists in the Defense Department. There were even communists in the White House staff. Are we to believe your assertion that they were simply doing their jobs and minding their own business? Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs proved that they weren't. KGB documents proved that they weren't. The HUAC proved that they weren't.
I'm sure there were "communists" in those places before, during, and after this era. It's just name-calling in your hands and in McCarthy's. You even labeled me a communist just because I point out McCarthy's making use of the era's hysteria to advance his career.
To the communists, every little bit helped. Every communist government employee, every communist labor leader, every communist school teacher, and every communist film director meant as much to the cause of communism as any pair of scientists or any Undersecretary of State, because a twisted mind means with influence over others means as much a tidbit of information.
The United States and Western Europe was in serious danger in the 40s and 50s from a communist insurgency, and it took the Red Scare and the help of the Kruchschev report for that danger to subside.
For that Joe McCarthy was a hero.
Geez! You're sounding like Frank Burns and J Edgar. To equate the popularity of a Communist Party in Western Europe with some sort of impending Soviet takeover is just paranoid; in a sane person, that popularity might be cause to be wary, but it's not the same thing as actual guerrillas like there must have been in Greece or Turkey. This silly line of thought led to all those corrupt Italian governments, among many other things, like the "redistribution of wealth" that was the Marshall Plan, the rape of East Timor, the murderous governments of Pinochet and Videla, and the utter sham known as the "Vietnam War".
Give it a rest, Major Burns. Joe McCarthy is a dead two-bit politician, not a martyr.
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Excuse me? (Score:1)
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The Marshall Plan was great! (Score:1)
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...and I hit "Submit" too early! (Score:1)
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facts == ghost stories? Ok, whatever... (Score:1)
Then why can you spell Marcuse? Or Khrushchev, for that matter?
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that would be "can't" (Score:1)
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That's not all. (Score:1)
Why on weekdays? (Score:1)
Socialism doesn't work (Score:2)
call in sick on saturday? (Score:1)
Can not participate (Score:1)
1: I am unemployed,
2: I am sick for real. =)
Capatilist Sheep -- you should be thankful (Score:1)
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Brainwashing. (Score:1)
Daniel
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. (Score:1)
That's what it's about.
On the other hand...I am happy (Score:1)
No doubt about... (Score:1)
I wonder, do those folks with varied bill sizes have changers?
It's on RedHat! (Score:1)
I don't think this news item is very techie-oriented, it's more of an ideological nature, so it's arguable why it's on Slashdot.
But it's here, so it's there at Red Hat's portal as well, which I think is a good policy: Mirror Slashdot without filtering out any articles. If they would censor the news, there wouldn't be much point to it, it would raise suspicion. Since they do not censor, I made Red Hat's portal my starting homepage. Gives me a great overview over all of my favorite sites which I visit afterwards when I noticed some interesting stuff. Saves me the time to visit several sites if they haven't updated or interesting news, so if they would limit their mirrors, I'd have to go there all the time. Personally, I think the advantage of making this kind of comfortable surfing possible outweighs the disadvantage of a few unrelated items on their site. Of course it would be nice if we could customize Red Hat's portal just like Slashdot, but still, the uncensored overview is what counts.
Regarding unrelated news, well, get a Slashdot account and filter it out. Maybe we'll get a score system for topics as well. Would be nice, but I'm happy as it is. Thanks to all who made this possible, both here at Slashdot and there at Red Hat, keep up the good work.
What does this have to do with anything? (Score:1)
A Reasoned response (Score:3)
Although (hopefully I won't offend any communists here
And free software isn't necessarily communist-like. Communism was still just an oligarchy trying to control one big-ass nation of far too many people, and being mighty restrictive as well. It was still based on currency and money, but the government had control over it. Money doesn't factor in at all with free software -- communism, socialism, capitalism, feudalism, monarchy, you name it, any political system that's been devised doesn't really lend itself to or away from free software as far as I can see.
McCarthy ? (Score:1)
It's a shame that the philosophy of liberty is only understood in the US, and even then by so few. We should have listened to Pres. Washington and left Europe to destroy itself.
BTW, if you would stop throwing that McCarthy moniker around as if it were some sort of slander and bother to research Sen. McCarthy's actual beef with the State Department at that time, you would actually realize that HE WAS RIGHT!
McCarthy was never right (Score:1)
That list was surpressed by both the Speaker of the House (a Republican!), the committee chairmen (Democrat in '50, Republican in '47) and in executive orders by Truman himself (in '47 and again in '50).
McCarthy was in over his head, but only because the Truman (and later Eisenhower) administrations put politics above national security.
Sen. McCarthy demanded answers as to why these people were still working at State after three years, and he was fsck'd for it.
Get your facts straight.
Down with capitalist pig-dogs! (Score:1)
I say again: You are wrong, and I will demonstrate (Score:1)
KGB documents demonstrated that McCarthy's original Wheeling list(i.e. the '47 list) was extraordinarily accurate WRT who were communist agents. In fact, the KGB docs show that the '47 list was not only VERY accurate as far as WHO was a Red in State, but it was also very accurate as far extent of involvement these individuals had with Moscow. There are only two or three instances where the House findings differ from the KGB docs.
Now, are you going to slander me some more, or are you going to get some facts yourself? Oh, but wait! The facts support Sen. McCarthy and my position! I guess you have to bash me and bash YAF some more!
I'm the one supplying facts, and I'm the troll, OK (Score:1)
Alger Hiss
The Bomb
12hr notice of the invasion of Korea at Inchon
notice of the Berlin Airlift
The knowledge that Marshall told Chang Kai-Shek we weren't going to intervene militarily in China
Pre-knowledge of the creation of West Germany
... and lots of other fun little tidbits.
I know how stubborn pride can make you stand by your incorrect assertions. I was a communist once, too.
I will refer you to my previous post, but... (Score:1)
I would encourage you to read the works of the Comte de Saint Simon. His frankness about the realities of socialism (in all its forms) will turn your hair white. His explanation of his plan and the variants of his socialism is extraordinarily prophetic.
I will refer you to my previous post, but... (Score:1)
Your irrationality is getting the best of you, because you missed several points.
You are right that Saint-Simon was dead long before Marx, Keynes, Lenin or Harrington were on the scene. However, it was very helpful for him to have already published his work when the more modern socialists began forming their opinions, otherwise he would not have been the influence he was on them. You seem to think that people come up with ideas in a vacuum. Well they don't. The socialists immediately after Saint-Simon frequently cited him, and those after those cited them, and so on.
All modern socialism sprang from Saint-Simon. He was the first to coalesce (sp?) all the fragments of envy and hatred under one philosophical roof. He even coined the term "Socialism." Understand this, and understand history better.
Saint-Simon talked about the Terror, he talked about touchy-feely socialism, he talked about nationalistic socialism, he talked about internationalistic socialism, and he even talked about how every form of socialism requires the violence of the Terror and that to deny the violence is to deny the basic nature of socialism itself.
It is very common these days for socialists to marginalize Saint Simon, since he openly endorsed the horror that socialism would eventually spring upon the earth. In this, he was not only the father of socialism, but it's greatest adversary, since he flamed other socialists for their dishonesty.
That is something you can't run away from, no matter how hard you slander. The Comte de Saint Simon talked about what would become all the forms of socialism we know of today, he exposed the lies they would tell to get power, and what they will do when they got that power. He hasn't been wrong yet.
Waiting for the next slander...
facts == ghost stories? Ok, whatever... (Score:1)
Sen. McCarthy wanted to know why there were communist agents working at the State Department. He was stonewalled. His personality didn't help matters, but he understood the brevity of the situation. He understood that communism seeks the violent enslavement of productive people. He understood that communism kills. He understood that communism lies. He understood that communism was (and still is) the single greatest threat to life and liberty. There were communists in the State Department. There were communists in the Defense Department. There were even communists in the White House staff. Are we to believe your assertion that they were simply doing their jobs and minding their own business? Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs proved that they weren't. KGB documents proved that they weren't. The HUAC proved that they weren't.
To the communists, every little bit helped. Every communist government employee, every communist labor leader, every communist school teacher, and every communist film director meant as much to the cause of communism as any pair of scientists or any Undersecretary of State, because a twisted mind means with influence over others means as much a tidbit of information.
The United States and Western Europe was in serious danger in the 40s and 50s from a communist insurgency, and it took the Red Scare and the help of the Kruchschev report for that danger to subside.
For that Joe McCarthy was a hero.
I will refer you to my previous post, but... (Score:1)
Down with capitalist pig-dogs! (Score:1)
Down with capitalist pig-dogs! (Score:1)
Exactly how do big corporations emerge and exactly how do they crush those weaker?
Exactly how do lobbying groups have more power than citizens?
Exactly how does Texaco (or any large corp) have more power than a member of Congress?
What is power?
Who has it?
How did they get it?
Who gave it to them?
Just to be fair, I'm not setting you up, but trying to get you to understand the hidden fallacy of your statement.
facts == ghost stories? Ok, whatever... (Score:1)
What is the concept of communism?
Down with capitalist pig-dogs! (Score:1)
Why does it matter to a corporation whether to influence governments?
facts == ghost stories? Ok, whatever... (Score:1)
National Socialism = socialism (Score:2)
Did you know that national socialism claims the same philosophical roots as international socialism (i.e. communism)?
Did you know that modern euro-socialism (what so many refer to as socialism today) also has the same philosophical roots as both national and international socialism?
Did you know that the term "Socialism" was first coined by the Comte de Saint Simon during the French Revolution and was the philosophical basis for "the Terror"?
Do you know what are the philosophically determined end results are for international socialism, national socialism, modern euro-socialism, and the socialism first described by the Comte de Saint Simon? (Quick answer: The exact same thing.)
Do you know the differences in tactics for implementation of the various different types of socialism as philosophically described by each? (Quick Answer: nothing but for degree.)
Did you know that the tactic of equating capitalism with fascism and with the "right wing" came from Stalin himself?
Did you know that fascism's anti-communism is not derived from differences with communism, but with similarities with communism and competition for the same people in the marketplace of ideas, and that this was routinely refered to by fascist philosophers and by Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco?
Rob, you can´t be serious. (Score:1)
I bet youve never been employed the old fashioned way, have you?
Yeah. It´s a bad deal for all participants (Score:1)
That doesn't follow. (Score:1)
The trasition of some set of assumptions in the past does not guarentee the trasition of all assumtptions in the future.
Right on (Score:1)
Honestly this is pretty sad. If you're not happy in your current job to this extent, perhaps you need to consider trading off some pay for a job you really enjoy.
There are a lot of elementary schools out there that could use some dedicated people. Does your system need an experienced technology person to set up Internet access in schools (and spread a little Free OS lovin' along the way)?
Even if you're not ready to quit your job, you might find yourself a little happier if you do something worthwhile.
In the end it's not really your PHB's fault you don't quit and leave his ass in the dust.
A reasoned response to your poorly reasoned one (Score:1)
Well... (Score:1)
Well more seriously. I take these ideas with a sense of humour because if everyone was to call in sick then what would happen is they'd probably get sacked as the bosses would know something is going on and there's plenty of people just willing to take a job. It'd probably be bad for people who were *really* sick on that day as the boss would just think they were staying off for the sake of it.
Anyway talk about this day - but don't be serious about it.
It should have been on a Monday. As a jingle on a local radio station goes:
It's a Monday and you know it call in sick
Got a cold a flu a fever take your pick
If you want to ditch the day and still collect your pay
It's a Monday and you know it call in sick
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baseball (more and more offtopic) (Score:1)
All our football (soccer) matches are played outside of normal working hours (Saturday/Sunday afternoons or weekday evenings) so it's very rarely we need to find an excuse to call in sick in the name of sport.
It's the best way to have it.
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It's on RedHat! (Score:1)
A. It's publicised on the RedHat website!! http://www.redhat.com/
At this present moment you'll find this article listed on the RedHat.com website as part of their stupid policy of blindly copying slashdot articles. RedHat have a massively supportive policy of supporting open source software and as their site is promoting the event it could be bad for RedHat as well as the open source community in general when these sort of articles are mirrored on a website.
Perhaps redhat.com should apply some of slashdots new preference features to customise the content that appears on their site so only relavant slashdot information gets published.
RedHat aren't doing themselves any good with this portal. A few days ago it mentioned that Rob had switched slashdot over to Debian!!
http://www.redhat.com/news/slashdot/archive/0.h
(on the JWZ article!!)
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Oops! Wrong graphic (Score:1)
Seriously does the US still have banknotes that all look the same or have they changed since I was last there 8 years ago?
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It's on RedHat! (Score:1)
RedHat need to do something to improve that site or at least move it to a location more appropriate e.g. www.linux-news.com but that seems to have been taken - RedHat think they must be some more suitable domains around.
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ZDNET: RedHat supports call in sick day (Score:1)
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Not only is it rather silly... (Score:1)
However, here in the US at least, National Call In Sick Day is May 19th. We were just talking about it a day or two ago.
Well... (Score:1)
Socialism doesn't work, except it does (Score:1)
Seems to work as well as anything else up here in Canada. Even our consevatives are socialist.
What does this have to do with anything? (Score:1)
Well, if one person understands this, we have done our part.
Remember - What was the wild fantasy of lunatic communists yesterday becomes the accepted standard today (progressive income tax, anyone?), so what is a wild fantasy of a lunatic communist today, _will_ be the accepted standard tomorrow.
It's on RedHat! (Score:1)
embrace and extend (Score:1)
May 19th (Score:1)
Go Libertarian! was:Socialism doesn't work (Score:1)
up in suburbia, with middle class families, never known poverty, got a decent education, and have a lot of job
prospects generalizing about how good Capitalism is. Isn't it easy to see things in a vacuum?
I didn't grow up in suburbia, nor am I from the middle class, I've known poverty both as a child and an adult. I dragged my ass, kicking and screaming through an education, and have fought tooth and nail for every freakin' scrap I own. On top of that, our 1/2 socialist govt takes 43% of EVERYTHING I earn.
The "slave labor" practices in South American and PacRim nations is abhorent. However, those are the same conditions that most of our ancestors, in the U.S., went through to get where we are. My greatgrandparents all worked in factories (in Maine and New Jersey), in terrible conditions, to make lives for themselves and their families.
The people, and especially children, in those nasty factories now, will grow up with better access to capital than their parents, and eventually, will be able to pay for educations for themselves and their children. Now, point taken on the factories that actually impliment slave labor: boycott the companies that support that sort of economics. Don't buy Nike or Reebok (they use the same factories). Part of the beauty of capitalism, is that YOU have a CHOICE as to what you buy, and that choice equals a "vote" that hits companies right where they feel it - their income. Use that power if you don't like the conditions those companies allow.
The U.S. influences in other countries, esp in South America, are so far from what capitalism is supposed to be as to be indistinguishable from totalitarian solcialism. Just because our experiment in capitalism is failing, fast, doesn't mean that capitalism is a bad thing. Capitalism is the most fair economic system possible: if you work, you benefit; if you don't, you suffer. Charity can easily handle (esp. with lower/no tax burden) the few in any society that simply can't work.
The list goes on... So you see, I can understand why a lot of people love Capitalism, because they don't take the
time to consider why their country has so much relative to their neighbors to the south. Or maybe they do, and
just don't care (even scarier).
I do take that into consideration, in my purchases and my thinking. I try not to buy from companies that use bad labor practices, both in and out of the States. I don't own a car (BIKE!), for a number of reasons. I don't support the American meat habit, for health and global economic reasons.
However, I am a capitalist. I like earning money for my labors, and like supporting others with that money. I don't like other people telling me what I can and cannot do with my earnings, esp. with the implied violence of our current tax system.
Last thought on socialism: What would you do when the Worker's Generosity Party tells you that you cannot be a programmer anymore, that you have to go and work in the fields, harvesting grain, for the "good of the people"?
Immoderate moderation? (Score:1)
Monopoly money (Score:1)
What does this have to do with anything? (Score:1)
Two things:
One, I would hardly call a progressive income tax a resounding endorsement of Communism. It's just an easy way for the government (any government, Communist or otherwise) to extort more money out of the citizenry.
Two, even if the ideas of people who were once considered radicals have become acceptable now, it's very faulty logic to assume that the same must always be true for the future. Maybe today's radicals will be considered wacko idiots by future generations. Just being against the status quo does not guarantee anyone eternal hero status. History is littered with a million nutcases for every Galileo...
TWIAVBP (Score:1)
The World Is A Very Big Place, as they would say in alt.folklore.urban.
Here in the U.S., the fiscal year begins 1 July, not 6 April.
Happy Easter, to those /.ers of the Christian persuasion.
Very UK-centric, probably pointless many places (Score:1)
In the US at least, it won't cost your employer a dime usually. Most jobs have a certain number of sick days allowed per year. Take one, so what? Employer had to allow for it anyway.
--
Socialism != Bad (Score:1)
It's *auto*socialism. As in everybody involved is doing it 'cause they believe in it and want to. Nobody is forced to work for the state and give all of their (oh, sorry, "the people's") stuff to the same.
Hurray for the USA! --- DAMN RIGHT! (Score:2)
Stupid unethical excuse for lazy bastards (Score:1)
If you do, it'll be because of the tremendous commercial success of the Internet.
BTW, where'd the computer you posted that come from? Built by a capitalist company, or did a "benevolent" government just pull it out of their ass?
Capatilist Sheep -- you should be thankful (Score:1)
There are flaws and benefits of any system. Pointing out all the flaws is not the way to make anyone here happy, or willing to consider other things. Instead of pointing to capatilism as bad sue to Microsoft or other examples, find the good things about other systems.
What an idiotoc idea!! (Score:1)
Also, don't blame crime on capitalism or socialism or any form or government.
And finaly, revevber what you see on the news is bad. The news does not represent the way of life in a country. If it did, I would think of any country as a bad place due to riots and terrorist attacks and other "news making stories".
A reasoned response to your poorly reasoned one (Score:1)
Also, changing from communism to capitalism or vice versa would take alot of work in a country the size of Russia. Let me put this is terms
Take a poorly running Windows system and all it's programs, and try to convert this to a Linux system, witl all functions from the windows programs covered in Linux (including Indeo 5 codecs, IE bookmark importing, etc...) This would take time, and result in a sizeable down time. Now apply this example to communism to capitalism or capitalism to communism.
Money (Score:1)
The one thing that I couldn't understand was the bills in Scotland and England. It was nice to see varity, but the fact there is no standard for the bills drove me nuts. Having several 10 pound bills that looked completly different was hard to get used to. What would be nice to see for bills anywhere is different size, and somethign that looks the same. I could even deal with every bank having their own design as long as say the corners or the outer rectangle is the same for bills of the same amount.
I called in Sick last Week (Score:1)
who said capitalism was effective? (Score:1)
Do we have an item in the federal budget called "Foreign Aid" because of money they loan to us? Is it their technology and resources that are helping us to improve our standard of living?
Capatilist Sheep -- you should be thankful (Score:1)
This hasn't ever worked, and never will.
Socialism != Bad (Score:1)
I don't think this will ever happen. Let's say you have a business problem that my software can solve TODAY, but for a fee. You, as the consumer, have two choices: Assuming it doesn't already exist, you can wait until someone in the open source community decides that it's important enough to THEM to put in the time required, or you can hire a programmer to do it for you. What do you think the most likely choice would be?
who said capitalism was effective? (Score:1)
While oil is an excellent example of a valuable resource supplied by foreign countries, do we "take" it from them? And how many of those who supply us with oil are considered "developing" countries?
Here's what I don't understand - if foreign aid and military defense are exchanged as part of a TRADE agreement, how is it that these foreign countries are getting screwed (which is what was suggested in the original post)?
Down with capitalist pig-dogs! (Score:1)
-lx
Down with capitalist pig-dogs! (Score:1)
-lx
What does this have to do with opensource? (Score:3)
This isn't anticapitalism. If you don't like your employer, then change jobs. At least in the U.S. this should be easy.
Hey, I have an idea--why not just fudge our billable hours on the sixth? We can all get $50 extra and donate it to worthy causes!
Uggh. Having this sort of thing associated with good things like freed software makes me ill.
A strike against capitalism? Whatever! (Score:2)
In my case, as I work at a University, if I take an unnecessary sick-day, there is a cost to the institution
And what about the poor schmoes that DO work while their "consumer terrorist" coworkers call in sick? Is punishing them by making them carry a bigger workload part of this whole plan?
YS
Socialism == Bad (Score:2)
Open Source software isn't socialism, as it is totally voluntary. No one is forcing you to pay taxes into some kind of 'software collective' which is then redistributed. People write Open Source because they enjoy it, not because they have to.
Open Source vs. Anti-Capitalism (Score:3)
Where does open source have the slightest connection with anti-capitalist sentiment? Through the head of OSI, Eric S. Raymond, a packin' Libertarian? Is it through RMS, the father of ideological opposition to proprietary software? Read the GNU Manifesto [gnu.org]. Is that a work of anti-capitalism? Is it Linus Torvalds, now working for big bucks in Transmeta, an archetypal example of that icon of contemporary capitalism, the Silicon Valley start-up? Is Larry Wall a Marxist? Is Sendmail, Inc. a front for anarchist agitation?
Some Open Source figures have objections, on principle or on pragmatic grounds, to the intellectual property system. That is NOT a rejection of the right to private property. The very argument that Stallman uses to assert that there is no intellectual property right (at, for example, the "Natural Rights" bulletpoint in his "Why Software Should Not Have Owners" essay), by arguing the contrast between ideas and physical things, implicitly accepts private physical property. (And incidentally, not even RMS argues that operating "intellectual property" systems is wrong in all circumstances).
But I may have somewhat misinterpreted what was meant. There are pockets of anti-capitalist sentiment around the "open-source community": among the old GNU Usenet hangers-on (or so I'm told), and on Slashdot now (as well as loudmouths of opposing persuasions, too). But neither the heavyweight thinkers of free software (eg. Stallman, Raymond, Wall), nor most people who do serious work for it, endorse that sentiment. Let alone do the supporters of the Open Source program! It is after all thanks to the wealth generated by the scarcity economy of capitalism that the "gift economy" of Open Source can exist at all.
star wars (Score:2)
-John
The traditional "rebel without a clue" (Score:2)
I'm not sure why I would want to overthrow capitalism anyway. I don't always like capitalism - it's cold, greedy, fiercely competitive (divides the world into "winners" and "losers"), and places money above humanity - but it has shown itself to be the most successful system we have.
Is this group offering a practical alternative to capitalism for when they've destroyed the current system? Or are we supposed to just die when we suddenly finds there is no food in the stores, no medicine, no hospitals, no transport system etc?
Their whole manifesto can be summed up as "let's show everyone how cool we are by 'fighting the system'". What sort of philosophy is that? These kids should grow up, maybe read some books on sociology and history, and come back when they've actually reasoned this whole thing out.
A Reasoned response (Score:3)
Open Source software may reflect the ideals of communism in as much as authors 'contribute according to their means', and everyone is free to 'take what they need', in the truest spirit of communism.
However, software is nothing without hardware to run on. We have seen how every (so-called) communist regime has failed at providing goods and services to its people. What communist government is capable of achieving the 50% household penetration of computers that we currently see in the United States and similar free-market based economies?
Secondly, open source software is about choice. Open source software is the antithesis of monopolies like Microsoft, which control the source code. Well, the communist party has a monopoly on power (we have yet to see any democratic communist countries, the true communist ideal, and likely never will for many years to come). A communist government would be very unlikely to resist trying to control the future of software development. Do you want to be told what to program, when and why?
A truly free market will allow people to contribute what they like to software community, and to exploit their work for profit. It will resist controls put on it by communist and monopolistic dictatorships.
I read the article calling for the 'sick-out', and find that perhaps it shouldn't be taken so seriously. However, my curiousity was piqued when the submitter of this story made a relationship between communism and open source, and I felt it necessary to respond.
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/declaration