Important issues ... the trouble with decade long important issues is it's usually the side with the deepest pockets that win out. Who can line up more copious amounts of bs for the longest and squawk it the loudest.
Ultimately it's still a constitutional republic though; if we all do our homework wiser heads will prevail, and if not the failing is ours as much as anyones.
Did you happen to see that Microsoft has applied for a patent "for being a fan." Yeah, so soon the decade long argument for all sport fans will be "Why do I need to pay Microsoft for being a Colts fan ?"
Frankly, I hope you're joking. Again I say, I don't trust Big Brother OR Big Business, and thus prefer to play them off against each other, since no single private citizen can overcome the resources and organization of either. Our best bet seems to be using what influence each of us has with both, combined with their natural distrust of each other, to play both ends against the middle (as they routinely do with us; the left says you can't trust private industry and the right says you can't trust the government, but while neither of them is really wrong, they aren't exactly "right" either. )
Actually I am not kidding. http://techflash.com/seattle/2011/01/microsoft-applies-for-patent-on-being.html
Yup .. clicking that "like" button or being a "fan" .. any one way relationship really ... will lead to royalties being paid to micro$oft FFS. Evilness.
If they're just trying to patent an app people click to become a fan online that's a little different, but I suspect the various people (and companies) already using those apps will dispute their right to the patent. Of course, if you've got Bill Gates money it may not matter, but I understood the Patent Office took a dim view of trying to patent things already in use, especially by others.
Pfft .. the patent office is broken. Has been for a long time. Nothing they approve surprises me at all, although they rarely fail to disappoint. i.e. ... they approved a patent by a child for swinging backwards on a swing.
Congress is supposed to set the rules for these agencies and hold them accountable, but both partys Congressional delegations have been bought and paid for so long that they ceased to perform that duty decades ago. It falls to self appointed citizen watchdog groups inform voters and try to hold Congress accountable for failing to hold regulators accountable. Unfortunately they're often as not lumped with corporate lobbies and PACs to be dismissed as "special interest groups". Consumer safety, environmental protection and the like aren't "special" interests at all; they directly affect every person in the country, not just some, and treating them the same as the US Chamber of Commerce does us all a great disservice. Apart from more organized citizen led activity I'm not sure what remedy there is, but then, the Founding Father no more intended citizens to wholly delegate their government to political parties than to business interests.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Child Psychology: Are Todays Parents Mental?
06/01/2011 11:21:53 PM
- 1128 Views
Very interesting article, thanks for posting.
07/01/2011 01:36:51 AM
- 722 Views
Welcome, and I'll pass that along to the person through whom I learned of it.
07/01/2011 02:19:07 AM
- 496 Views
I just began thinking about how my parents raised me as I was reading this.
07/01/2011 02:24:33 AM
- 625 Views
The middle way seems best; 'grats to you and your folks.
07/01/2011 06:35:50 PM
- 491 Views
Thanks Joel. And I agree with you that most of the time, the middle way is best.
07/01/2011 06:52:10 PM
- 432 Views
meh
07/01/2011 02:34:47 PM
- 636 Views
I disagree; even to the extent that's the real problem it's still down to indulgent parents.
07/01/2011 04:52:26 PM
- 694 Views
exterem paretnal involment is being overstated
08/01/2011 03:10:09 AM
- 631 Views
It's extreme indulgence, not involvement.
08/01/2011 03:44:43 AM
- 653 Views
extreme indulgence is a problem but with one exception those were not good examples
08/01/2011 04:47:05 PM
- 660 Views
"Kids need to feel badly sometimes"? What should we do? Dip their fingers in acid?
07/01/2011 03:00:17 PM
- 561 Views
It would work, and definitely put an end to all this touchy-feeliness.
07/01/2011 04:47:16 PM
- 508 Views
I would classify editing the N-word out of Huckleberry Finn to apply to this issue...
07/01/2011 11:26:05 PM
- 595 Views
"Undiplomatic" is one thing, "inflammatory" quite another.
07/01/2011 11:51:03 PM
- 522 Views
Re: "Undiplomatic" is one thing, "inflammatory" quite another.
09/01/2011 12:20:47 AM
- 624 Views
If the stakes are small or there's no alternative I don't mind going with your gut.
09/01/2011 01:20:42 AM
- 595 Views
Re: If the stakes are small or there's no alternative I don't mind going with your gut.
09/01/2011 01:28:28 AM
- 532 Views
Sadly so.
09/01/2011 01:32:23 AM
- 534 Views
Re: Sadly so.
09/01/2011 01:41:39 AM
- 478 Views
Hadn't seen that, no.
09/01/2011 11:21:20 PM
- 629 Views
Re: Hadn't seen that, no.
10/01/2011 04:59:53 PM
- 660 Views
Does M$ have U2 and Steves permission to use their names in that patent application?
10/01/2011 07:46:54 PM
- 609 Views
Re: Does M$ have U2 and Steves permission to use their names in that patent application?
10/01/2011 09:54:50 PM
- 613 Views
We need public oversight desperately.
10/01/2011 11:10:55 PM
- 595 Views
well your reply shows us what we end up with if we have over indulgent parnets
10/01/2011 04:08:38 PM
- 580 Views
It's a good article, but contains a bit of oversimplification.
11/01/2011 09:36:35 PM
- 572 Views
Actually, I tend to agree, 'cos I somewhat agree with rt it diagnoses symptoms better than problems
11/01/2011 11:53:48 PM
- 767 Views