Gentlemen,now is not a good time to be an insurgent.Assination is a tool that has been used more then the powers that be would have us be cognizent of,if done covertly and carefully there may be suspicions-while we may have doubts,in truth we are none the wiser.When a person ceases to have worth in the judgement of others there are plenty of options for disposal,clever poisonings, car wrecks,etc; Even structures are not safe if the profit and greater good outweigh the worth,In truth we know why the 2 Trade Centers collapsed(Heat) you cannot convince me that No.7 had to fall(apparently these buildings are unique in thier failure modes)
The point is if you are expendable,you may be toast-Kevin
No.64- (I think) a fair tax structure,conceived by a think tank of honest ,smart people(utilizing Mensa folks,tax people and lower income people with families.
No.65-would be a reassement of infrastructure needs and funding modes(no more bridges to nowhere)-Kevin
And Kevin
Just to get a rise out of our most conservative friends on an issue we thought was over and done …
The second amendment DOES NOT guarantee a person’s right to bear arms; it never did. And repeating it over again just means they never read it or don’t want to acknowledge the difference between individual and collective rights.
Well Dag,when have they paid attention to the constitution lately anyway? The 2nd amendment has been abused enough(remember in history class when the Kings Men seized the Gunpowder at Williamsburg? well the cats out of the bag now folks and people are not going to surrender thier “equalizers” easily,if we do the “Bullies” will take over-Kevin
Taking away our firepower is no where near as big a threat to our being taken over as taking away the “press.” We are fed a ration of propaganda from the right and the left and the vast majority of Americans fall for one side or the other. While the mobs shout each other down over guns, abortion, immigrants, et al, their pockets are being picked and their homes stolen and their jobs shipped to China. The Ministry of Truth will have us fighting each other to the death and the Ministers will take our inheritance, not our children.
@RodKnox "taking away the press. "
For that reason, I am extremely interested in this FCC proposal.
We need to have the realization that our citizens cannot function as well in our society without Internet access. Giving that freedom to all does much to limit the influence of a selected few. Yes, once you given free access you can still select what you want to hear…but at least everything will be available to those who can’t afford the often too expensive access that is available. There will be lots of whining about freebies for the poor and the poor profit making businesses that sell access now. But, the Internet itself has changed our lives in ways we never dreamed. The govt. rightfully feels that making this technology available to all, is in the best intrest of all. This is a change, like the interstate highway that enhances freedom and advances our democracy.
Singapore, London and other places are or are about to expand free wifi access. If we delay, we place are citizens further behind the rest of the world.
Kevin… " if we do then the bullies take over"
Now that may be a relative arguement. But, let’s stop allowing people to throw the second amendment in as reinforcement when it has no bearing.
Would universal access to the www defrock the Ministers on the left or right, dagosa?
Americans seem to be programmed to rush at being included in some group of like minded people and their prerequisites are often shallow and/or emotional. It amazes me just how fanatic people can get with regard to political opinions. But then when you consider that the vast majority of the 600,000 Americans who died in the Civil War were at best barely literate sons of subsistence farm families whose lives weren’t a great deal more fulfilling than the slaves that they fought over it is apparent that human nature hasn’t changed much. Access to the internet allows US to be more in touch with the fanatics of our choice and the truth be damned.
I feel it’s very difficult for people to admit there is a different way. Some of us go to one extreme and consider everything, others go to the other and consider nothing more then what they are committed to. Many, like being born with brown eyes, are raised tto think the way they do. When that happens, nothing else matters, most of all, logic. While some fear change, I fear the unwillingness to consider it.
quite worth the half hour
But what does the good doctor think of the dozens of young men who lived near him who didn’t quite make the grade at some point? I guess the winners always agree with the “winner takes all” game plan. All the others are losers and don’t deserve anything more than a warm grate to sleep on until they cross paths with the law and then a cell will keep them out of sight, right…
This country must have an economy that offers even a poor person a recognizable and realizable future if they put forth an honest effort and sadly that is not the case. So we build more prisons and pay for them with freshly printed “liquidity.” After all we can’t expect the wealthy to pay any more taxes.
We need to have the realization that our citizens cannot function as well in our society without Internet access.
As someone who relies on the internet to even work…then I agree that internet access is very very important.
HOWEVER…To get everyone on the internet is NOT going to be cheap. Here in NH…we have one community that I know of (it’s been on the news) near Crotchet Mt…where the people living there don’t even have TV. There’s no cable…they live in a Valley where they can’t get satellite. They don’t have any cell towers. They do have phone…HOWEVER…The internet is so riddled with visual presentation that 56k just doesn’t cut it anymore. And there are hundreds of these areas like this in the country.
Wireless is the cheapest to get everyone on the internet. But that’s still going to be in the MILLIONS.
The other problem I have…is information isn’t free today. Doesn’t matter how poor you are…you still have to buy a TV or a paper. So free internet to people who can’t afford it…well I’m not too sure. There are also many many people who don’t understand the internet. My in-laws are a perfect example. They can afford the internet…but they have no idea how to use it (NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I’VE TRIED)…
Sure we can expect the wealthy to pay more taxes, as warren buffet said his secratary pays more takes than he does, trickle down does not work. Opponent view, Michelle Bachman, “Giving the poor the right to vote is like giving a robber a gun” yet the bachmans get millions in subsidies and she says we cannot extend unemployment benefits.
“To get everyone on the Internet is not going to be cheap”
I have heard as much as $178 billion, and that is conservative. But what is the alternative ? Other industrialized countries will do it in very quick order when they find out that jobs in the US will be available to their people without competition from us. It is beginning to happen to some extent and will accelerate rapidly without education and the means to it here at home. Do we make available every secretarial service, engineering and other jobs to talent in every other country in the world because all of their populous has free access to "our business net " ? Business won’t care who does the job if it turns a profit.
Also, Having the best teachers in the world as well as their assistants offering guidance to students not just at. school, but at home as well with active teaching over the net from anywhere is already here in some places. Making this service available to all our minds and not just the special few is a must. Other countries are doing it.
Now, our graduate programs are filled with foreign nationals because they are sponsored by their govt. while our kids can’t even get into college. Do we blow it at both ends ?
This is another case of counting pennies instead of doing what is right. It used to be we were the leaders and the innovators. Where is our greatness that we have to sit back and let other nations lead ? We have as much potential in those without access as we do with those with. We need all hands on deck.
So, can we afford it ? I say we can’t afford not to. The business community won’t. They didn’t 't make the oceans safe, the Internet available, open space for future travel and exploration, the interstate highway and a host of other govt. not for profit projects. This is no different. Our govt. must step up and do what only the govt. can do.
So Mike, I hear what you are saying as far as your in laws are saying. But, even though leading some horses to water doesn’t mean you can make them drink, making the water available to all horses will get more of them drinking…
“We need to have the realization that our citizens cannot function as well in our society without Internet access”.
When our son was in graduate school and money for him was tight, he used the internet in the library for free. He could read the newspaper for free. Any citizen of the community had access to this free information.
When he got married and he and his wife started a family, they didn’t have the money for the internet or cable television. Instead of watching Sesame street, they took our grand daughter at a very young age to the children’s section of the library where she picked out books for her mother to read to her. Now that he has an elementary teaching job, finances are still tight. He does have high speed internet access, but decided that cable television isn’t worth it. Our grand daughter would rather read than watch television anyway.
When I go to the public library in my community, there are many people there using the internet. Before I retired, I would read the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post at the library of the university where I taught. I didn’t subscribe to these papers.
I think there are lots of resources that are free to the public. I just wish more people had the drive to take advantage of the free resources that are available.
@Triedaq
I agree, there are many places with free access. But until it’s free to everyone, everywhere with the same minimal effort and expense like the privileged few now have, there is no equality in opportunity.
“But until it’s free to everyone, everywhere with the same minimal effort. . .”
@dagosa. . .I would like equality of opportunity for all, but that is very difficult to accomplish. On the other hand, if we could educate people to put forth a little more than minimum effort and take advantage of free access as in public libraries, maybe we can come just a little closer to a level playing field.
In my 44 years of college teaching, I’ve seen students that seemingly were disadvantaged financially and in poor college preparation from high school and through hard work tilt the playing field to their advantage. In my first teaching experience as a graduate assistant, I was assigned the lowest level math course the university offered. I had one student from the class come to see me and he told me that he wanted to be a mathematics teacher. I explained to him the courses he would have to take and sketched out what these courses were about. After he left, the other graduate assistants were laughing and told me that I had wasted my time. They said that if he had to begin in the lowest level course he would never make it. Two years later, I would see the student in the music building when I went over there to practice my horn. He was the assistant to the janitor while working his way through school. He had completed the calculus sequence and linear algebra and was in his upper division mathematics courses. On the other hand, maybe these students who seemingly come in disadvantaged but have the drive to succeed really have an advantage over their more affluent and better prepared classmates.
If I were appointed chief my first edict would be to distribute learning tasks that would be challenging, but when mastered, give the learner a sense of accomplishment to go on to more challenging tasks.
@treidaq
Internet access to many will open up opportunities that will allow then to further their education. We know from our experience with Head Start, an acknowledged successful program, that providing developmental opportunities to people early in life is very important. I may be mistaken, but I believe you are talking about those who have already realized the importance of furthering their education and have made a commitment to do so. I’m talking about kids who don’t get enough " food"to even think about that part of their life and in the same respect don’t get enough available stimulus mentally that the more fortunate have. Yes, kids can go to a library. I know rural families where that is such an inconveinience, it just doesn’t happen. IMO, you are seeing the end game and for every disadvantaged students who succeed to make it to college, there are many times that number who never got the chance to try.
Think of @MikeInNh reference to his in laws.
My grandchildren are growing up with controlled Internet access with the guidance of their parents. They have a huge advantage over those less fortunate. Think of two indentical kids, one with a WiFi ready IPod touch, and one without, both being given the same assignment that required research…one has info available at home, at school, at a resturant and anytime it’s convienient. One must make the time in an already more difficult life regardless of their motivation. The world is stacked against these people, even those with potentially great minds. They should not be ignored. We will all suffer for doing nothing.
Finding an excuse for doing nothing is the easy way out. Looking for a way to help not only helps them, but it helps the rest of us as well.
bscar,I cant play your videos.Rod its time we level the playing field,the state incarcerates these people,(oft times for victimless crimes) the state should be required to provide employment for a couple of years and stop putting the big F on peoples resumes-Kevin
Also, Having the best teachers in the world as well as their assistants offering guidance to students not just at. school, but at home as well with active teaching over the net from anywhere is already here in some places
All my kids went to a private high-school. My youngest is at one right now. They are 5-10 years ahead of the local public schools as far as internet and qualified teachers who knows how to use it. Yet it’s not even close to being utilized. This school also gives out scholarships to many underprivileged kids.
The advantage to these kids for learning is NOT the internet…it’s their family support and the kids personal drive. When my daughter graduated and went to MIT…two of her friends were in that situation. One went to Harvard…the other went to RPI…