May I See The Receipt?
Consumerism sucks the hind titties of the Hounds of Hell. Even the Supreme Court has been seduced.
Giant pharmaceuticals feel threatened by medical marijuana; the supreme court sides with them citing a need for federal control over local jurisdiction's autonomy.
Giant developers have subdued local governments to their whims, and use eminent domain to evict home owners; the supreme court sides with them citing the need for local jurisdictions to maintain autonomy.
Giant corporations and corrupt government officials feel threatened by confidential leaks about their wrong-doings and have reporters prosecuted; the supreme court implicitly sides with them by refusing to hear the case, allowing the convictions to stand.
Giant media companies (who have been penalized over and over and over for gouging the public) feel threatened by file sharing, and persuade small and big time prosecutors to go after services which support this; the supreme court once again sides with big money. File sharing -- the idiots don't even understand that sharing files is the backbone of the internet. When you are reading this tirade you are looking at a shared file. You can pass a file via http, ftp, etc. through any ISP. I suppose the vague verbiage intended to let MS, AOL, etc. off the hook for providing the same technology was the deciding factor. Time to dust off the old cassette recorder.
This is to be expected. There may be artificially erudite justifications for these decisions, but that doesn't change the bottom line. The faceless entities of big business have more rights and liberties than actual people, suckers like you and I, and the Supreme Court has told us so loud and clear.
The most cherished virtue in this country is not courage. It is not honesty. It is not loyalty. It is not compassion. It IS avarice. Anything is acceptable if it saves money or increases profits. Take a good look around, listen to how we run government, look at advertisements closely, watch network programming, etc. If you don't see the overwhelming worship of bargains and hoarding of riches portrayed as the penultimate virtue you are more toxic and dense than Uranium 238.
At one time "Made In U.S.A." was considered a guarantee of high quality. Now we are the land of "Good enough!" It's cheaper, buy it. For example, those payless shoes cost a third of what quality shoes cost, they cause intense foot pain even when sitting at a desk, and they last a tenth as long. They cost less, and that is the final arbiter for followers of consumerism. (Must all western religions be self-destructive?) Same with VCR's. They used to cost more, but the life expectancy was measured in decades, not several years. DVD players are even less durable -- take one apart and look at the ridiculously small micro-motor used to spin the disc.
We are building the new super power, while frittering away our status, politically, economically, and morally. We say, "Oh, that's not nice." when students are gunned down by tanks in Tiananmen Square. In a firm response we open our markets like the legs of a cheap whore to them, because we can save a few cents. Meanwhile we lose manufacturing capability for things like high quality optics and many kinds of precision machinery, both of which are absolutely critical to our military readiness. We justify it by saying, "Oh, they'll stop persecuting their own populace because we are making them rich and setting a good example[, instead of instituting even the mildest of sanctions]." If you believe that, I've this bridge for sale...
We are sitting on our hands and watching our leaders flush our way of life down the gutter, and all the mythical conservative majority has to say is, "What's wrong with you? The water here is fine!" The children the neo-cons (disingenuously) claim to be so concerned about won't be grateful when they realize this generation worked so hard to change the Horn of Plenty we hand down to them, into the Toilet-bowl of Emptiness.
Giant pharmaceuticals feel threatened by medical marijuana; the supreme court sides with them citing a need for federal control over local jurisdiction's autonomy.
Giant developers have subdued local governments to their whims, and use eminent domain to evict home owners; the supreme court sides with them citing the need for local jurisdictions to maintain autonomy.
Giant corporations and corrupt government officials feel threatened by confidential leaks about their wrong-doings and have reporters prosecuted; the supreme court implicitly sides with them by refusing to hear the case, allowing the convictions to stand.
Giant media companies (who have been penalized over and over and over for gouging the public) feel threatened by file sharing, and persuade small and big time prosecutors to go after services which support this; the supreme court once again sides with big money. File sharing -- the idiots don't even understand that sharing files is the backbone of the internet. When you are reading this tirade you are looking at a shared file. You can pass a file via http, ftp, etc. through any ISP. I suppose the vague verbiage intended to let MS, AOL, etc. off the hook for providing the same technology was the deciding factor. Time to dust off the old cassette recorder.
This is to be expected. There may be artificially erudite justifications for these decisions, but that doesn't change the bottom line. The faceless entities of big business have more rights and liberties than actual people, suckers like you and I, and the Supreme Court has told us so loud and clear.
The most cherished virtue in this country is not courage. It is not honesty. It is not loyalty. It is not compassion. It IS avarice. Anything is acceptable if it saves money or increases profits. Take a good look around, listen to how we run government, look at advertisements closely, watch network programming, etc. If you don't see the overwhelming worship of bargains and hoarding of riches portrayed as the penultimate virtue you are more toxic and dense than Uranium 238.
At one time "Made In U.S.A." was considered a guarantee of high quality. Now we are the land of "Good enough!" It's cheaper, buy it. For example, those payless shoes cost a third of what quality shoes cost, they cause intense foot pain even when sitting at a desk, and they last a tenth as long. They cost less, and that is the final arbiter for followers of consumerism. (Must all western religions be self-destructive?) Same with VCR's. They used to cost more, but the life expectancy was measured in decades, not several years. DVD players are even less durable -- take one apart and look at the ridiculously small micro-motor used to spin the disc.
We are building the new super power, while frittering away our status, politically, economically, and morally. We say, "Oh, that's not nice." when students are gunned down by tanks in Tiananmen Square. In a firm response we open our markets like the legs of a cheap whore to them, because we can save a few cents. Meanwhile we lose manufacturing capability for things like high quality optics and many kinds of precision machinery, both of which are absolutely critical to our military readiness. We justify it by saying, "Oh, they'll stop persecuting their own populace because we are making them rich and setting a good example[, instead of instituting even the mildest of sanctions]." If you believe that, I've this bridge for sale...
We are sitting on our hands and watching our leaders flush our way of life down the gutter, and all the mythical conservative majority has to say is, "What's wrong with you? The water here is fine!" The children the neo-cons (disingenuously) claim to be so concerned about won't be grateful when they realize this generation worked so hard to change the Horn of Plenty we hand down to them, into the Toilet-bowl of Emptiness.
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