[geeks] FYI: CompUSA is offering OS X 10.5 for $99 (after rebate)

[Phil Stracchino]

Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Oct 2007, der Mouse wrote:
> 
>>> Or, of course, we could quit "wetting our pants over te'rists" (and
>>> everything else)[0] and start working on just plain general emergency
>>> preparedness that's applicable to ANY kind of emergency.
>> It might also help if you were to stop being such an A-hole to the rest
>> of the world as to generate te'rist-producing sentiment to begin with.
> 
> Well, yes, that was implied.  This nonsense of "delivering Democracy[0]"
> far and wide has to stop.  I really do feel for people that live in
> despotic regimes, but things are rough all over, and this isn't the way
> to fix them.  We have neither the right nor the godlike level of clarity
> to pick and choose who gets to "progress" to whatever misguided next
> level of societal evolution we see as best for another sovereign nation,
> especially at the point of a gun.

Nor, frankly, do we have the ability.  You cannot just march in and
impose a mature, fair, just, democratic society at gunpoint.
(Especially when it's quite arguable whether you actually have one
yourself.)

> <rant>
> Our country, in general, has a problem that hasn't yet hit Canada nearly
> as hard.  We're stupid.
> 
> No, scratch that, we're not just stupid.  We're absolutely and willingly
> clueless.
[...]
> But, then, what can you expect from two generations of kids who were sat
> in front of televisions for hours at a time, starting at a very young
> age, and then pushed through schools too weak-willed to correct and
> hold-back because it would damage some poor kid's self-esteem.  At least
> when I was in school, we still had "gifted and talented" programs.
> Friends of mine who are teachers tell me those are going away because
> their exclusive nature also damages self-esteem.

Indeed, the misplaced idealism of the hippie generation is coming home
to roost in education.  Johnny can't read because Johnny's teacher can't
TEACH, because even if he knows how, his hands are tied by school
administrators who've bought into some crock about how everything has to
be inoffensive and shiny and brightly-colored and nobody's feelings can
ever be allowed to be hurt or their delicate sensibilities offended.  We
have an educational system where a four year old -- no, that's not a
typo, not a fourth-grader, a four-year-old -- gets prosecuted for sexual
harassment because he hugged his teacher as he got on the bus, fer
crissakes.  (And it was the TEACHER who filed charges.  For crying out
loud, woman, if you can't take a hug from a four-year-old without
feeling you've been sexually assaulted, what the FUCK do you think
you're doing trying to teach a class full of four-year-olds?!?  Are you
planning to teach them all never to touch each other, and have them all
grow up repressed and emotionally crippled?)

Guess what.  The universe is not shiny and brightly colored.  It ain't
inoffensive.  It ain't fair.  And it ain't politically correct.  And
right now, by maintaining the fiction that it can be (and everything
that grows out of that fiction), we are doing a WOEFULLY piss-poor job
of preparing our children to cope with it and make their way in it.


Now if I were nasty and cynical and paranoid, I could speculate that it
was intentionally planned that way because the government loves the idea
of a docile, sheep-like population that believes whatever it's told and
votes however it's told to vote.  But I'm just nasty and cynical,[0] so
I'll just speculate that they're probably not the least displeased when
it works out that way.

"If the government is big enough to give you everything you need, it's
big enough to take away everything you have." -- Gerald R. Ford


> [2] Oh boy do I have a fun side-story about that.

Do tell.  :)


[0] After all, it's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you.  The
first priority of any entrenched government is to ensure its own
continued existence; the second priority is to ensure the continued
growth of its own wealth and power.  The actual well-being of the
citizens it's supposed to serve comes far down the list.


-- 
        Phil Stracchino                CDK#2
 Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
 phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net   alaric at caerllewys.net
 Landline: 603-429-0220           Mobile: 603-320-5438
        It's not the years, it's the mileage.