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| 2004/8/5 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:32701 Activity:very high |
8/4 Is it just me or is the current Politburo a bunch of unresponsive
monkeys? Turned off kchang, have not been responsive to creating
and official motd repository, do not answer email to root etc.
\_ If the day ever comes when the CSUA Poliburo are not jackasses
you'll know: that will be the day they stop calling it the
"Politburo."
\_ How about this proposal: ask kchang to donate a license of his
archive program to CSUA, which houses it on its own site. (Or
maybe he can donate the source code to all of us sodans.) This way
everybody will be happy. Also, in time of crisis, the poliburo
can still exert emergency power and keep motd from being world
readable like 3 years ago to protect the organization.
\_ Um. Why should he? The CSUA got him squished twice already.
As for '3 years ago' the organization did not need protecting.
The then president's gf complained about feeling 'threatened' and
he squished the motd. As if that made said gf feel any safer...
\_ What eventually happened to her? Gang banged?
\_ afaik, no email to root has gone unanswered. if you think we've not
responded to either an email to root or a request in that email, feel
free to email me personally. -erikk
\_ why did they turn off kchang?
\_ It was overheating. -John
\_ It's still the summer. Don't get your panties in a bunch.
\_ First of all, no one except the old boys cares about the motd.
Secondly, it is evil. It has been the focal point of many
squishage and controversies (kchang writing a script to
modify it, paolo abusing his power to render it completely
useless, emarkp using an auto script to take out profanity,
tom partially nuking threads that make him look
like a moron, ilyas using a script to taking out active but
old threads, twinks cursing at each other for not using
motdedit, asswipes writing politically incorrect statements
and really REALLY offensive remarks on the Jews and
minorities, blah blah blah the list goes on and on.
Now imagine this. If there were no motd.public, then
there would not exist any controversy. Therefore, I propose
that the public motd be shut down for good. It's a bad
tradition to keep and it needs to go. Thank you.
\_ it is, and always has been, the only point of the CSUA.
fuck off. |
| 2004/8/5 [Computer/SW/OS/Linux, Computer/HW/Memory] UID:32702 Activity:high |
8/4 Lunar landing computer: 74kb:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/moon/computer.htm
\_ Does anyone else think the switches in the picture look
somewhat rude?
\_ Those switches serve dual purposes. Why else do you think they
are installed at mouth level? |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President] UID:32703 Activity:very high |
8/4 What is a decent book on general US history? One that is intelligent
and well researched, not consists of fairy tale or only diatribes,
and the intended audience are neither freepers nor Spartakusbund.
Ok thanks.
\_ I am Spartakusbund!
\_ No, I am Spartakusbund!
\_ Personally, I think that the people with an axe to grind tend to
be the best writers, and that it's useful to read biased stuff
like "A People's History of the United States" as long as you
recognize and igore the bias and the propoganda. I'd be curious
to know what the conservative equivalent of Zinn's book is.
A history text with no bias at all which attempts to cover all
of U.S. history will probably be a massive compilation of
dry facts with no focus on anything that's not very readable, IMHO.
I'd love to see a counterexample to this, however.
\_ agreed. one (of many) good things about 'peoples history...'
is that he specifically chooses his biases, and states them
in the introduction. and his biases cover a lot of information
that is rarely touched upon in more conservative history books.
plus it was a fun read.
\_ The Americans series by Daniel J. Boorstin (former Librarian of
Congress and yaDJB :-)) is pretty good:
Colonial Experience: http://tinyurl.com/63gey
Democratic Experience: http://tinyurl.com/55gc2
National Experience: http://tinyurl.com/594nv
I also liked his Discovers: http://tinyurl.com/4cyov
--ranga
\_ What's yaDJB? Yet another himself????
\_ A People's History of the United States is pretty good and
non-biased. by Howard Zinn.
\_ your idiocy knows no bounds.
\_ and your recommendation is ....
\_ yes! I think this counts as my first successful troll.
\_ whatever. i was calling you an idiot because the first
reply was about Zinn's book, and the reply to that
was also about Zinn's book. |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:32704 Activity:moderate |
8/5 a funny poke at bush, kerry and friends set to this land.
flash, probably not work safe: http://csua.org/u/8gy
\_ http://jibjab.com <-- fewer characters
\_ jibjab again. |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:32705 Activity:moderate |
8/5 http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/rnc/9574/index.html Norman Mailer and son discuss GWB, RNC in NYC, McCain, Kerry, Nader, others. \_ Who is this guy? \_ Mailer is about as U.S.-friendly as Chirac is \_ Ah, attacking the patriotism of those who disagree with you. \_ Why do you hate nationalist jingoism? \_ Why do you hate the Jews? |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/President/Reagan] UID:32706 Activity:high |
8/5 Hey, what happened to my "Obama as Max Headrom" post?
\_ I'd like to see it if you can repost it.
\_ It wasn't all that interesting. I was just pointing out
that Obama's angluar face and vinil like skin remind me of
Max Headrom. Only interesting because it's been deleted
twice and edited once.
\_ Well, Ronald Reagan looks more like him, IMO!
\_ One of the "Back to the Future" movies had a diner scene
in which all the waiters were celebs "headroomized".
The MJ Fox character is helped by Reagan. |
| 2004/8/5 [Uncategorized] UID:32707 Activity:nil |
8/5 Africans really have bigger penises than Caucasians
http://www.afraidtoask.com/members/mgenitalafricanamerican.html
\_ yermom already knew that |
| 2004/8/5 [Science/Space] UID:32708 Activity:high |
8/5 Fishtank in your toilet: http://csua.org/u/8gw \_ What happens when you flush? Goodbye Nemo! \_ It says the tank is standard 1.6gpf and the tank in picture looks bigger than 1.6gal. So I guess there's a tank within the fish tank which holds the actual water for flushing, and the fish lives in the surrounding task. lives in the surrounding tank. \_ I saw something like this in Korea. They had a fish in the water tank that took up about a quarter of the total tank volume. (Big fish, small tank.) Everytime you flushed all the water would drain out and the fish would just sit there and flop around until the water got back up to where it could breath again. It was kinda disturbing, but I guess it keeps your Sushi fresh. -jrleek |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/Election, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:32709 Activity:nil |
8/5 I just ran the numbers again, and I was wrong. Even if Bush wins
Florida, I have Bush leading Kerry a little on electoral votes, before
counting seven medium states in a dead heat. |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:32710 Activity:moderate |
8/5 And McCain says it better than I could:
link:www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9327026.htm?1c
\_ from http://bugmenot.com:
login:jsmith123@hotmail.com
pw:1234567
\_ "I wish they hadn't done it," McCain said of his former advisers. "I
don't know if they knew all the facts." So he condemns it without
knowing if it's true? My respect for McCain is waning.
\_ perhaps he thinks they acted before they knew everything?
\_ That's how I read it too. The PP sounds like he's saying
"Dear God! He formed an opinion based on an assumption,
rather than a gauranteed fact!"
\_ Three veterans on Kerry's boat that day -- Jim Rassmann, who says
Kerry saved his life, Gene Thorson and Del Sandusky, the driver on
Kerry's boat, said the group was lying on all fronts. They say
Kerry was injured, and Rassmann called the group's account "pure
fabrication." ... McCain: "It was the same kind of deal that was
pulled on me ... I can't believe the president would pull such a
cheap stunt." ... The ad, scheduled to air in a few markets in
Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin, was produced by Stevens, Reed,
Curcio and Potham, the same team that produced McCain's ads in
2000.
\_ How does what McCain says bear any factual relevance to what
Kerry did when he returned from Vietnam? Why won't any of you
leftists answer this question?
\_ He's calling the commercial a dirty political trick, and compares
it to what the Bush campaign did to him 4 years ago. What Kerry
did after Vietnam was condemn a war of which he had firsthand
knowledge, a war which didn't need to be fought and which killed
far too many young men.
\_ Easy. McCain says the Bushies found some vets to smear his
record in vietnam. If McCain is telling the truth, it would
suggest that the vets dissing Kerry now are also making stuff up
for Bush's benefit.
\_ How many times do I have to repeat this. I'm interested
in facts not the messenger. Why are leftists so impassioned
about OPINIONS.
\_ Okay, let's discuss: What fact are you looking for?
\_ There are no facts to discuss. There's only what I think
about what McCain thinks about what some people are saying
about Kerry. Don't start a conversation about people's
opinions and then complain that you wanted facts.
\_ The facts are what Kerry did in Vietnam, and more
more importantly what he did AFTER Vietnam.
\_ This thread is about anti-Kerry attack ads on
the Vietnam War. If you have an issue with what
Kerry did after the war, you would do us a big
favor by saying what exactly it was, and maybe in
a new thread. Or, you could stay as you are,
wondering why leftists aren't answering your
question.
\_ I have, repeatedly. They are deleted.
http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/index.php?topic=Timeline
http://www.stopjohn.com/movies/winter-soldier.htm
http://www.stopjohn.com/movies/hanoi-john.htm
\_ Dewd, you're not going to get very far
with laundry lists from partisan web sites.
Pick one or two individual items you like, and
post it. After you have established
credibility, the sky's the limit.
\_ Partisanship in the Congressional record...
I see. The audio is fake and so are the
pictures?
\_ Please don't forget the advice I just
gave you. Start with one or two items.
New thread. |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:32711 Activity:very high |
8/5 For the person who brought up Kerry's meeting with Madame Binh:
What are we supposed to glean from this one time meeting? Or
from his meeting with Ortega (out of which sprung the investigations
into Iran-Contra)? That he's a traitor by association? The same
argument can be applied to nearly everyone in the current administ-
ration. Cheney for his company's dealings in countries with standing
sanctions, Rumsfeld for his handshakes and arms sales to Saddam after
him gassing his own people, and yes that picture of Bush holding
hands with bin aziz. The difference in my eyes: Kerry was trying
to open a dialog to end a conflict that we couldn't afford, even if
he may have been very naive in the manner. It's 30 years later. I'd
like to think his goal is still the same but his execution has been
seasoned by experience. -scotsman
\_ You are imagining reasoned dialogue with people who still think they
are fighting communism and/or that the Vietnam war wasn't a bad
idea. -- ulysses
\_ The fight against communism isn't over yet. The great dragon
and the fine cigar remain.
\_ you forgot the old ginseng and the yummy pho
\_ and I see the fight against communism in Yemen and Afghanistan
turned out *REALLY* well. Why don't you continue your policy
of supporting Islamic Fundamentalist?
\_ Don't be an idiot. I've never met anyone who thought
Vietnam was a good idea. The amazing thing about Vietnam
was that _everything_ was done wrong. The other thing I
always find amazing, is that every wrong thing was done by
"liberals," and yet conservitives are always blamed. Wierd.
Just because getting in the war was a bad idea, doesn't
mean that wasting thousands of lives and allowing South
Vietnam to fall were GOOD ideas.
\_ South Vietnam government were puppet government set up by
French / American. North Vietnamese government were
underground organization who fought French and Japanese
occupation years before S. Vietnam was created. S. Viet
never had a chance.
\_ You need to write a book:
"Vietnam: The Liberal Failure - The Republican Scapegoat"
\_ the beauty of this idea is that if you put Kerry's picture
on the cover, you can have it ghost written by a total
hack, and still make millions of dollars. good idea.
\_ Well S. Vietnam was free for over a year until N. Vietnam
invaded. Do you think S. Koreans would say their was a
good idea?
\_ actually, they probably would, i don't know why but
a lot of south koreans believe the propaganda and somehow
think the presence of US troops is keeping them
from peacefully reuniting with their n. korean
brothers. they might be right, except for the
peaceful part.
\_ that is very true. American want a base in Pacific
Rim. If Koreas are united, there will be no reason
for having a US military base there. For that reason
alone, USA will do everything to prevent Koreas to be
united.
\_ "their?"
\_ Ha! Where'd you get this load of BS? The
communist World Weekly? Not to mention, even if
the Koreas did reunite, there would still be reason
to have army bases there. Every here of a friendly
little country call China?
\_ Where the hell do you think chicom troll is from?
\_ I don't think n. korea is as benevolent and fun
as some s. koreans believe.
\_ It's basically the same as similar movements we get
over here. The college students with a poor knowledge
of history and poor critical thinking skills descide
that NK is run by friendly teddy bears. Korea is very
nationalist, and they'd like to be re-unitied. This
leads to the usual set of wackiness by certain groups.
-jrleek
\_ I posted it, and if you can't distinguish between what Kerry
did and those other acts I think your judgement is lacking.
There is difference between meeting an
enemy or official in a public capacity and assiduoulsy
advocating his position. Kerry is repeatedly guilty of the
latter.
As for Kerry's Vietnam activities, his contemporaries vets are
much more articulate than I:
http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/index.php?topic=Letters
Lastly, have you bothered to learn what actions these groups
are most upset about?
Doesn't it bother you Kerry published a book mocking Iwo Jima
with anti-war figures and upside down flag? |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:32712 Activity:very high |
8/5 John Kerry: The Chameleon Senator (from 1996)
http://www.usvetdsp.com/story10.htm
\_ Assertion: We shouldn't have gone to war in Vietnam; we didn't
understand it was a fight to form a new nation more than a
Communist one. When they saw Americans coming over, they thought
we were just colonialists like the French.
Kerry returned after fighting for four months, and opposed the
war. He got it right before history did.
\_ he got it right, um. a communist nation was formed
where everyone got their wealth stripped and freedom taken
\_ ~ 5 million Vietnamese (North and South combined) died
in that war. I wonder what percentage of the population
that was.
\_ since millions died in WWII , we should have just let
Hitler take over the world without fighting back
\_ What percentage of the population was 5 million
Vietnamese back then? WWII was clear -- Vietnam was not.
At what price do we fight a war which the U.S. people
aren't certain about?
\_ http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/23/kerry.vietnam
Rapes. Razed villages. Ears and heads cut off. Random shootings of
civilians. Bodies blown up. Wires from portable telephones taped to
genitals, with the power then turned on. Food stocks poisoned. Dogs
and cats shot for the fun of it. ... To those who were against the
war, he was a courageous hero standing up for the truth; to those
who supported it, he was a treasonous pariah aiding the enemy.
\_ that's only the things Kerry admitted to doing,
for being only their 2 months, he has weak character to
immediately start committing those atrocities
\_ are you ted rall now? - danh
\_ hehe, http://www.ucomics.com/rallcom
\_ can I say "troll" yet
\_ Wait a minute, some of the quotes in this seem to have Kerry
as either saying, "I lied then," or "I would lie if asked
the same question today."
\_ You should be more careful in your use of quotation marks.
I doubt you can find a politican ever saying, "I lied" or
"I would lie" about anything.
\_ It would have looked very funny without the quotes.
Just imagine Kerry saying "some bitter sysadmin from
UC Berkeley lied back in the 70's, and may lie again!"
\_ So, what do you think he lied about back then, and which
part would he lie again today about? (referring to the
article)
\_ Well, he talked about all this rape and whatnot. But
the article says: "The senator concedes he wouldn't
say the same things in the same way today, that talk
of "atrocities" back then was over the top." "I'm
older, I'm wiser. I'm farther from it. But they were
the words that came out of my gut at that time, based
on the anger and frustration that I felt back when it
was happening." So... they weren't true, they just
came out of your gut? Huh?
\_ My interpretation is that, although the things he
said were described to him by other fighting soldiers,
if he had another chance, he would have put more
blame on the Administration rather than the soldiers.
\_ You're trying to blame him for haveing overly-passionate
opinions when he's young? He overstated his case a
bit 30 years ago and that somehow makes him a bad man?
Let he who is without exaggeration cast the first stone.
\_ I don't call late 20's young.
\_ So Bush wasn't young when he was a boozing
coke-head drunk driver?
\_ No, I'm saying that if a congressional committe
asks you about the facts of what you say, you
should probably stick to the fact regaurdless of
your opinions.
\_ I'm not the one you responded to, but I believe
Kerry did tell the truth: Remember, he did
qualify his remarks by saying they were stories
told to him by other soldiers
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/20/1535232
\_ w00t! We descide world affecting issues
on hearsay!
\_ Hell, happens on wall all the time.
\_ "I... I heard about this Kid? In Vietnam?
His name was Mai Kay? And like, so
this GI? Like, gave him some coke, and
like, some pop-rocks? And the kid? His
head, like, totally exploded man. It
was crazy. Serious war crimes, man."
\_ Actually, re-reading the transcript, I got
it wrong. The stories were told by 150
honorably discharged soldiers -- some soldiers
personally confessing to atrocities. All you
other losers didn't bother to check the URL
at all. |
| 2004/8/5 [Uncategorized] UID:32713 Activity:nil |
8/5 Is http://buy.com having trouble fulfilling orders? I've got a order sent on 7/30 and it still shows "Sent to warehouse". Anyone got a number I can call them about? |
| 2004/8/5 [Recreation/Dating, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:32714 Activity:high |
8/5 Do you hate your life? Or love it?
\_ I'm indifferent about it.
\_ (indifferent == apathy)?
\_ No, indifferent == pointing out a false dichotomy.
\_ Hate it with an undying passion. -geordan
\_ Of all the places and periods of history that a person
could be born in, I was lucky enough to be born in
America in the 20th, attend one of the finest institutions
of learning in the world and find a job programming
computers. Considering that just 50 years ago my family
was living in a part of the world where running water,
telephones and electricity were unheard (and considering
that I could have been born in a place like that even
in this day and age), I love my life. |
| 2004/8/5 [Transportation/Car/RoadHogs] UID:32715 Activity:nil |
8/5 http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2104755& Yes, I'm a hater. Now get your huge ass vehicle off my roads. \_ YES! |
| 2004/8/5 [Reference/RealEstate, Reference/Tax] UID:32716 Activity:high |
8/5 Berkeley homeowners: what are the bad things about owning
in Berkeley? -brain
\_ I have some friendss whose property splits thhe oakland/berkeley
border, which made them happy because they could get a number of
permits cheaper in oakland. --scotsman
\_ your friends should be happy, nay, *proud*, to pay the higher
berkeley fees because those fees support the community.
\_ Socialism.
\_ You can't rent it out without dealing with the
city rent control board.
\_ Anyone live near the N. Berkeley BART station? How do you like
your neighborhood? We're thinking of buying there, within a few
blocks (walking distance). Thoughts?
\_ n berkeley is great, by n berkeley bart
\_ Used to rent a few blocks east of there. Nice neighborhood but
busses and emergency vehicles favor taking MLK to I wouldn't
want to buy a place on MLK or Sacramento.
\_ Property taxes are thousands more per year than neighboring cities.
\_ 1.8%/year, versus 1.2% in many other cities. This adds $50/month
This is based on the figure that mortgage,taxes, insurance and
maintainance run you about $750/mo/100k
per $100,000 your house costs over neighboring cities. So a
house in Berkeley is about 7% more expensive to own than a
house that has the same price but is in a different city.
\_ A $500,000 house will cost $3000 more per year in
property tax. This is significant. What do you get for
the extra money?
\_ Probably the biggest thing is public schools; Berkeley's
one of the better districts in the state, Oakland's one
of the worst.
\_ wildly inflated profits when your house appreciates? - danh
\_ does berkeley house prices appreciate faster than
the surrounding cities?
\_ A cable-access show where a bunch of hippie retards do
naked interprative dance and show off their wrinkles.
\_ I could do without http://www.eroplay.com
too. - danh
\_ What's your point? If you can afford a half million
dollar house, you shouldn't complain about paying extra
$3k in property tax. We should have a graduated property
tax schedule so that expensive houses pay a higher rate
of property tax.
\_ not necessarily, some people might have come across
a large wad of cash (inheritance for instance) but
do not have a high income.
\_ The homebuyer should know how much property tax
is owed for the house and should plan according.
If he spends his windfall in one wad and does not
plan for taxes, insurance, and other fees, then
he's an idiot.
\_ Hey asshole: maybe the homeowner did
plan for taxes. The question was what
sucks about Berkeley. Paying more taxes
sucks. STFU.
\_ If you planned for the higher tax, then
you shouldn't complain you can't afford
to pay it. Buy a cheaper house, or buy
it in another city than Berkeley, if you
can't afford the tax here.
\_ This is the most stupid reply I've seen,
I mean really, STFU. -!op.
\_ I take it you're another selfish property
owner who doesn't want to pay his fair share?
But you'll vote Kerry and go to bed at night
with a clear conscience because you've done
your share for democracy. You make me sick.
\_ I agree. Vote Bush!
\_ Ermm. what does Kerry have to do with
local property taxes?
\_ The point is that its $3K less in the city next
door. What am I getting for that extra money? By
the way, why the hell should more expensive houses
pay a higher % of property tax? Property tax is
beautiful in that it is FLAT. People pay more if
they buy a more expensive place. Why raise the RATE?
\_ Because it would be *fair*, the same way the
regular income tax is graduated, despite what some
Republican zealots would like to do otherwise.
Those who have more money, who can afford the big
expensive houses, should pay their fair share to
maintain the community. Instead of making the
poor family who can barely pay the mortgage for a
broken down house in marginal neighborhood pay
more taxes, why not make the fat cat who can
afford it pay more? Sounds reasonable to me.
\_ Fair share? The most fair system is
the same tax rate, be it the income
tax or the property tax. With
income tax, people who makes more
have the luxury (most of the time)
to pay a slightly higher tax rate.
With property tax, most home owners
in the bay area do not have the
luxury to pay a higher property tax
rate. Ask most working family in
the bay area, do they have extra
10k to burn on property tax each
year? This has nothing to do with
fairness. I worked hard to save up
the money to buy the house while at
the same time paying my share of
taxes. With income tax, we are
talking about the top 1%, with
property tax, you are talking about
50% of the home owners (higher than
the medium price). With income tax,
you only pay when you make money,
with property tax, you pay no
matter what. Do you think it's fair
that older people who have worked
all their life has to move out of
their homes into a dirty shit area
because now they cannot pay the
higher property tax rate you
proposed? And what does this have to
do with Kerry or Bush you troll?
\_ Actually, in CA property tax is largely regressive.
Because of Prop 13 the peopel who bought their
houses earlier are paying tax on a price far below
market value. They are paying a lower tax rate
even though they have seen more appreciation and
have more equity than a recent buyer. There are
legitimate public-policy reasons for progressive
taxation, and instituting it in property taxes would
not necessarily raise the average rate, though it
*would* raise it for people with more expensive
houses.
poor family who can barely pay the mortgage for a
broken down house in marginal neighborhood pay
more taxes, why not make the fat cat who can
afford it pay more? Sounds reasonable to me.
\_ Even better, how about we do this? Keep the
property tax rate as it is for houses under
some kind of state or regional median price.
Have a graduated property tax schedule for
houses more expensive than the median, and
use the additional tax revenue to fund schools
and other projects in poorer neighborboods.
\_ You obviously are not a home owner.
Keep dreaming.
\_ I am obviously not a selfish hypocrit.
\_ Have you ever lived in a poor
neighborhood? Do you think more money
is the solution? I for one have lived
in one and a bullet is a much better
solution for some of those fuckers.
\_ I don't like the idea of a high property tax
at all. It discourages savings. It
discourages home ownership. It forces people
to work forever. For instance, I have a
good job and is earning big bucks, and
already bought a nice home. Now I want to
devote the last 5 years of my working life
to charity work, but can't because I want
to keep my house but charity work job pays
very little and high property tax would be
a big hit. High property tax is also bad
for older people and retirees who labored
all their life and should now enjoy the
fruits of their labor in the form of a
nice house. A home is important part of
one's life and highly illiquid in that one
can't just move on a whim; but life circum-
stances changes, and a high property tax
(a recurring cost) would force people to move
when they suffer a bad break. I don't mind
a graduated income tax and inheritance tax,
but property tax should be low (we are
already taxing rent income).
\_ You have no right to save money. You have
no right to live in a nice house. You have
no right to stop working when you can't
afford to.
\_ Very well said, thank you!
\_ I don't think it's a good idea to just tax
income and leave assets (like a house)
un-taxable. Your house needs police and fire
protection whether or not you are retired, and
I think you'd still like schools to run and
roads to be repaired irrespective of how many
of the homeowners are working. For people
who are retired or in your situation, there is
something called a "reverse mortgage". In any
case, you still need money for food and
clothes, so you should just budget for your
property taxes too.
\_ I don't think housing price necessarily
reflects the income level. If you really
want the fat cats to pay more, then
increase income tax on the rich people.
Housing price reflects more than just the
income level, it reflects years of hard
working, saving up, sacrifice, family
contribution, etc. People should not be
punished for that. If you and I make the
same amount but I saved more than you do
and I bought a more expensive house, then
why should I cover your share? Home is not
a luxury, it is a necessarily.
\_ A house is a necessity, but a $750k house is
a luxury.
\_ Your 1500 sq. foot half million dollar house
in Berkeley is certainly a luxury and not a
necessity. Come back to me with that
necessity line when you're in a 10' x 10' hut.
\_ WTF? Can you find ANY DECENT HOUSE under
half a million now a days? shut the fuck up!
\_ Berkeley Hills homes are very nice. You just have to worry about
hill fire. |
| 2004/8/5 [Uncategorized] UID:32717 Activity:nil |
8/5 After spending some time doing research, it looks like the motd mudging
fucker was around since 1999:
http://csua.com/?entry=16530 |
| 2004/8/5 [Uncategorized] UID:32718 Activity:nil |
8/4 all deleted because all the threads were partially nuked |
| 2004/8/5 [Uncategorized] UID:32719 Activity:nil 80%like:13438 |
8/5 The motd needs to be nuked!! someone nuke it!! |
| 2004/8/5 [ERROR, uid:32720, category id '18005#5.73875' has no name! , ] UID:32720 Activity:nil 66%like:34064 |
8/7 Swift Boat Liars
http://csua.org/u/8hd |
| 2004/8/5 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:32721 Activity:nil |
8/7 kchang, although you have been squished:
Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that the trolling goes on ...
\_ I ask again: what happed to kchang?
\_ Read the top, in black:
http://csua.com
\_ You mean kchang is no longer archiving the motd?
Ok, let me think about whether this is a good thing
or a bad thing..... ;) |
| 2004/8/5 [Science/GlobalWarming] UID:32722 Activity:high |
8/7 I'll say this again, terrorism is the only answer to superpower
oppression. Why do you think the Muslim world hates the US?
Just look at what we did to them. We either kill them all and
be done with it, like we did to the Native Americans, or treat
them with the proper respect. Anything else, you'll have
terrorism and it will never end. I am sure some of you would
like to do the former, but the world it is now, it's just not
possible. But we also don't want to go with the 2nd option,
because it's just so much better to rob (oil) than to buy.
\_ it's mercy that is preventing the US from nuking the
muslim world off the face of the earth
\_ lets see, the US wasn't around in 1000 AD when the
muslims slaughtered everything that didnt want to convert
to islam.
\_ It's obvious you have no real understanding of the
Middle East or the Muslim world. The problem with the Muslim
world is not the US, it is not Isreal, it is not Europe, it
is not Asia. The problem with the Muslim world is itself.
The 22 nations that comprise the Arab league has a population
about the size of Europe, yet it's combined GDP is about the size
of Belgium and Portugal combined. Their only real industry is
oil. Within these 22 countries there are no real democracies,
no real free press, no rights for women, an antiquated legal
\_ Factually incorrect statement
system that advocates stoning to death adulterous women, an
education system that harkens back to the 12th century,
an infrastructure in which some 25% of the general male population
is unemployed. The governments of these 22 are either autocratic
or corrupt. Dissent is dealt with swiftly and quietely, tolerance
for other religions is non-existant. In the 21st century when
all other nations on this planet (with few exceptions) have
at least attempted to establish basic civil rights for their
populations the Arab world continues to be completely intransigent.
Their states sponsor terrorism and encourages extremist thought.
They program their citizens by continously scapegoating the west
and spread their lies to the uninformed. If you do not believe me
you can try watching Al-Jezeera for a day.
The point is that the the middle east is dysfunctional, and
unless there are some fundmental changes in this part of the world
the suicide bombings will continue. By attempting to respect
the individuals who perpetuate the continued state of affairs
like Arafat, like Qadaffi, like the insurgents in Iraq who still
support Hussein you merely embolden them to continue their
tyrannical regimes.
\_ A neoconservative would probably argue that by spending hundreds
of billions of dollars of our money to try to construct a liberal
democracy in the middle east, we are (finally) treating them
with respect.
\_ The muslim world has been at war with the west since they met the
west in the middle ages. You might note this pre-dates the
existence of the US. And no, we didn't kill all the Native
Americans. As far as respect goes, if they treated their own
people with some, it might set an example for the rest of the
world in that regard. This is all standard blame the victim
mentality. What's next up on your list? We abandon the only
democracy in the middle east? The only place women are allowed
to vote? The only place where the court system holds the military
\_ Factually incorrect statement
in check despite the fact that security would be increased overall
if the military was allowed a completely free hand? Okey dokey!
\_ You're framing your argument toward potential jihadis, not
American voters. Terrorism isn't the only answer to superpower
oppression, but it is an expectable result. Look at the converse
of your argument: if there were no great injustices, there would be
far fewer terrorists- people making a decent living, with hope of
a better future for their children, simply cannot be persuaded to
strap a bomb to their chest and storm a bus. The way you phrased
your post grants your rhetorical opponent the opportunity to claim
that terrorists are fundamentally different (well, perhaps they are,
but they weren't always that way).
\_ The muslim "world" has been at war with the rest of civilization
for centuries (don't forget all the bad things they have done
and continue to do in India). Terrorism is nothing new for Islam,
either. In the old days they would butcher entire families for
refusing to convert (among other less than reputable things).
The war with islam is the war against oppression and tyranny.
If we start discussing terms with the armies of darkness, all
hope for the free and civilized will be lost forever.
\_ Kettle, please meet medieval era pot. Pot, kettle. Do say
hello.
\_ The rest of the world has grown up a little in the
past thousand years, the islamic world has not. In
fact they have gotten worse. We must not forget that
during the dark ages it was the arabs who preserved
the knowledge and learning of the ancients and also
transmitted to renaissance italy the mathematics of
the east. Do you really think that the islamic world
is capable of such things today? |
| 2004/8/5-6 [Reference/Tax] UID:32723 Activity:very high |
8/5 On taxes from the housing thread below. I think this deserves it's
^^^^
own thread. I was thinking about what a 'fair' tax rate is, whether
it is for income, property tax, whatever, doesn't matter. If 'fair'
means the tax has the same level of burden on each tax payer, there
can be only 2 truly 'fair' tax rates: 0% and 100%. Anything else
is going to be unfair to someone. What do you think?
\_ I don't think there is anything inherently unfair in a progressive
tax rate. It may however be stupid, discouraging of enterprise and
hard work, etc. But as long as everyone is in the same system it's
not unfair... no one forces the high income guy to do that work.
Personally I do believe we'd be better off with a small tax rate,
with some progressivity but a pretty low slope up to a defined
"rich point" of at least $150k, and moving up to about 33% as the
very top rate even for super high income. The fed. gov't may be too
huge right now to make it ideal. But even at $150k I'd like to see
less than 15%. Such a system would 1) encourage doing higher paying
work since you can actually get ahead for your efforts, 2) keep
the wealthy still with a big incentive to invest in the economy, and
3) be more fair to those who are able to earn a lot in just a few
years for some reason, rather than a smaller amount each year.
Ideally the gov't would be a lot smaller in the first place. And
I would prefer taxing from the consumption side than the income side
although there are practical problems with that now. --foo22
\_ you could also blame howard jarvis. - danh
\_ Depends on your definition of fairness. I think fairness is
achieved when each tax-payer has approximately the same level
of post-tax income. This is similar to the scheduling definition
of fairness, I think.
\_ Why is that fair? If someone works harder, they should make more
money. If money was not a hoardable resource, I would say
fairness is achieved where everyone has the same results/reward
ratio (note: not effort/reward). Since money is hoardable,
and reasonable people believe in property rights, things become
a lot more complicated. The feeling I get from people who
know a lot more about 'fairness' (as a formal concept) is that
the closest tax scheme to 'fair' (as most people define it)
would be some sort of flat tax scheme. -- ilyas
\_ Is hard work the only contributing factor to income? Should
someone be rewarded for good luck, in the sense of having the
right parents, or born with natural ability, or having chosen
a career that turns out to be high paying rather than not?
Notice you did a switch in your argument. In the beginning
you said "if someone works harder", then in the middle you
switched to "note: not effort/reward". Which one is it?
Do you reward effort? Do you reward result? Do you reward
good luck? Is money the measure? Is societal benefit?
Might incentive for some of the above actually
be detrimental in some societal sense? Fairness. I prefer
the communications model where fairness is achieved when
all competing consumers of a resource have an equal share of
the resource. In that case, a high-consumer of the resource
is throttled (or pay a greater tax, if you will) more than
an low-consumer of the resource. I'd be perfectly happy to
discuss other models of fairness if you wish.
\_ You are right, I did switch (not on purpose). I meant
'results' not 'hard work.' -- ilyas
\_ You are right, I did switch (not on purpose). I believe
results are what's important, not effort. I view money in
a very basic sense: money are the symbol of value. Value is
a very basic sense: money are the symbol of value. Value is
that which people want. I compared money to a resource,
but I don't believe it is, in the same sense as air or oil
or natural gas. However, let's run with it for a while.
It seems your notion of fairness goes something like
this: There are 2 people digging for oil in the desert.
One works 16 hour days, the other works 2 hour days. Both
are equally good diggers, but one digs up about 8 times as
much oil. You say, there are two agents competing for the
same resource, so each should get an equal share of the oil.
I say that's stupid. They should keep what they dig up.
-- ilyas
\_ I'm not the pp. Of course hard work isn't the only way to
make money. Should it be? Should we 100% tax gamblers in
Vegas? The lottery? Should people with greater natural
ability be paid the same as someone doing the same thing
with less natural ability? Should I get the same money as
a million bucks a year NFL quarterback even though I lack
his natural physical ability? To answer your question,
the result is what counts. You don't 'reward' good luck
but I don't see a need to punish it either. How exactly
would you go about taxing good luck, anyway? Why is it
fair that all competitors for a resource get the same
amount? What if one competes harder for it because they
want or need it more than someone who puts in less effort
to acquire the resource? Should they be punished or capped
in their ability to acquire? Should the lazy do nothing
get the same reward for little or no effort? That is
certainly not fair in any sense of the word I know.
\_ When I raised my approximately equal post-tax income
proposal, people complained that it would kill the
incentive to work. I merely observed that there are
many contributing components to income, and hard work
is but one. How about a proposal that says we set up
a tax regime where we limit the post-tax income min-max
spread to 3x? Would that still provide incentive to
succeed and at the same time be more fair?
\_ Do you think it should be results that counts or
ability (I include hardwork as part of ability, you
can say "ability + hardwork" if you wish) that counts?
I can achieve more results than someone more capable
and hardworking than me simply because I have more
resources, for instance. Do you think that is fair?
\_ How can you include hard work in ability? If someone
decides to work hard at writing a book nobody wants
to read should he get the same as the guy who is a
bestseller? --foo22
\_ Just for sake of argument, what if the 2 hour guy
gets lucky and strikes oil and the 16 hour guy
never does? Tough luck? That's my answer, but I'd
like to hear yours.
\_ In my experience (with commercial fishing, not
with oil specifically) the two hour guy probably
did not just find the valueble stuff because
of luck. The same skippers get "lucky" or
"unlucky" way too many times in a row for it to
be luck. If one guy takes the time to read up
on the behavior of the fish they're hunting for
and catches all the fish he certainly earned
his massively larger keep even if there was some
luck involved. I think the same thing is almost
certainly true in the oil industry. Why do you
think that Monkey Boy was unable to find any
oil in texas with Arbusto? it wasn't luck.
\_ You think oil company executives personally choose
where to drill?
\_ Them's the breaks. Maybe we can create a government
entitlement system for oil hole diggers who never hit
it big? Or maybe the 16 hour guy was just stupid and
didn't know as much geology as the 2 hour guy so
education wins out? Or maybe the oil just wants to
be free so we should tax both of them at 100% and
take the oil by force and just keep it for the rest
of us because after all we stand on the shoulders of
(oil digging) giants and without the guys who came
before us to invent shovels we wouldn't have any oil
today.
\_ Mmmm, socialism. You do realize that this is all well and good
until someone loses an eye, right?
\_ It's easy to give something a label and dismiss it based on
that label. It's easy, but all it is is intellectual laziness.
that label.It's easy, but all it is is intellectual laziness.
Propose your model of fairness or attack mine, if you can.
\_ I'm not the pp, but, that pretty much sounds like
Socialism, man. The reason it doesn't work is because
it removes incentives.
\_ I said "aproximately the same level of post-tax
\_ Do you know anything about Europe? There is very
little downward/upward mobility in Europe. The
rich have always been rich and will always be
rich. The poor and middle class have little chance
at being rich. My whole family is European and
this is what Europe is like. Do you really want
that? In the US, most uber-rich families are back
to the mean in about 3 generations and there are all
\_ Good post, dim. One serious difference tho--a
lot of the immobility in Europe is the way the
educational systems and vocational training are
structured (there's also not as much sideways
professional mobility as in the US.) -John
\_ Yes, but this ties into it. If your parents
went to a certain school or had a certain
vocation then you have a much better chance at
it. I know, for example, that science positions
in France factor in who your parents were
and your age. That's ridiculous and it is why
so many foreign students come to the US to
study and perhaps even to stay. --dim
\_ Not with the Bush tax cuts. Goodbye estate taxes,
goodbye investment taxes. This is the most
disturbing part of Bush the younger's policies.
--scotsman
\_ But you ignore the other side of the coin where
the poor stay poor in EU as well. You seem
more interested in tearing down the rich rather
than raising up the poor.
\_ I haven't said anything to the other side
of the coin. That's not to say I ignore
it. Are you suggesting that Bush's tax
policy raises up the poor? How 'bout his
other economic policies? His environmental
policies? --scotsman
\_ Haven't said = ignored. Anyway, Bush's
tax policies don't hold down the poor,
they allow the poor to keep what they
have should hard work and/or luck lead
them to being rich. What other economic
policies are you refering to? What about
his environmental policies is bad for the
poor or worse for them than the rich? We
all drink the same water, breath the same
air, and get the same cancers.
\_ That's not true, although it's
certainly not the fault of policy
at the federal level. A
disproportionate number of destructive
polluting industries get located in
poor areas, such as power plants in
cities. Of course, this problem
will really only get solved by
making the factories and power plants
not kill people anymore, which
will only come from technology.
\_ Please explain how tax cuts for the rich some
how oppress the poor.
\_ It's a systemic effect. These tax cuts
create a tendency to horde. Wealth begets
wealth, and humans are horders. I don't
want to see a pure plutocracy in this
country. There's also the direct effect
of massively shifting the tax burden onto
income tax. When it comes to paying of
the current deficits it will be much harder
politically to make the case for restoring
those cuts than to tell the public "we all
have to tighten our belts..." -scotsman
\_ So you think making people have less
money will make them spend more absolute
dollars of those they have left? This
makes no sense. By your reasoning, the
richest person would spend near zero
absolute dollars and the poorest would
spend more absolute dollars than the
richest person. This is clearly false.
People who have more money available
to spend will spend more money. I don't
understand how anyone could claim the
opposite. As far as hording goes, so
what? If someone somehow makes a billion
dollars and doesn't spend any of it,
hordes it as you say, so what? It is
their money to spend or save as they
choose. The government sure as hell
won't spend it more efficiently. If the
government were more efficient then
communism would be the most efficient
economic system which we know to be
false. So, how exactly is it that rich
people keeping more of their money is
bad for poor people again?
sorts of rags-to-riches success stories. Hard work
here can get rewarded. The person who mentioned
incentives is exactly right. --dim
income". You can go a long way to reduce the min-max
spread in American income distribution (the European
spread is, what, an order of magnitude or two less?)
and improve fairness without eliminating incentives.
\- i havent read the entire thread above
however if you look at say the bottom
quintile in the US, they are essentially
at the same place as the bottom 20%
in sweeden in terms of purchasing power,
or absolute terms. in relative terms,
the top 10% here is a lot wealthier
than all the other normal countries.
which make "inquality" in the narrow
statistical sense greater. as a crude
measure you can see if you can find a
number called the "gini coeficient"
for the national economies you are
interested in. --psb
\_ So, a heavier margin-based tax rate with a higher
exemption? I can get behind that. But i'm deeply
bothered by the european VAT taxes.
\_ Wow, so you're definition of "aproximately" is
"within 2 orders of magnitude?" I guess it
kinda works on an astrophysics scale.
\_ You need to work on your reading comprehension.
You also need to learn how to use quotation marks.
\_ So taxing the rich at a really high
rate is really about bringing them
down, not about bringing the poor up. |
| 2004/8/5-6 [Computer/HW/Drives] UID:32724 Activity:high |
8/5 I have a VCD which is in PAL format. How can I convert it
to NTSC, either in DVD or VHS, so I can play it in players
here in the US? Do commercial video converter places know
how to deal with VCD?
\_ I have a link to a good site with all sorts of converters
and media tools at home. Mail me and I'll dig it out. -John
\_ on linux, mencoder/mplayer is very nice and supports all kinds
of resampling/transcoding options. i've never tried to change
video framerate or interlacing, but i think it allows any
playback filter to be used during translation.
\_ i am looking for similiar beast: convert real video to
mpeg-1 format. Is there anything non-commercial exists for
linux/unix platform?
\_ Are there such things as PAL VCD and NTSC VCD? I thought PAL and
NTSC are TV formats, and all VCDs are of the same format that can
be played on a PC. I thought there are only such things as PAL VCD
player which outputs PAL signals to the TV when playing a VCD, and
NTSC VCD which outpus NTSC singals when playing the same VCD. No?
\_ No, totally wrong. NTSC VCDs are 29.97 fps (or 23.976 fps) and
352x240, whereas PAL VCDs are 25 fps and 352x288. Anyhow,
to the OP, if you're using Windows, you can use AviSynth +
VirtualDub to do the conversion. I probably can you walk you
through this if you want. Email me if interested. --jameslin
\_ No, you're wrong. There is no such thing as a PAL/NTSC
VCD or DVD. The data is in digital format. The terms have
no real meaning but merely denote the resolution and the
fps. FPS and resolution have no real bearing on NTSC or PAL
format. A so-called PAL DVD can technically be played on
an NTSC device and vice versa. The device outputs NTSC or
PAL. NTSC and PAL are analog formats, not digital.
Relevant link:
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Articles/PALvsNTSC/PALvsNTSC.asp
-williamc
\_ You're arguing technicalities in semantics. Does it
matter? You still can't play a "PAL" disc in an NTSC
player, because most NTSC players won't do any conversion
for you. The grandparent post said that "all VCDs
are of the same format", but that's not true; there are
different frame sizes and frame rates, and they are real
issues. --jameslin
\_ I see! So is NTSC TV 29.97 fps or 23.976 fps? Or does an
NTSC TV switch fps according to the broadcast signal?
\_ NTSC is 29.97 frames per second (well, 59.94 fields per
second). A DVD or VCD that is 23.976 frames/second
(i.e., from a film source) gets telecined to 29.97 fps
by the DVD/VCD player by duplicating two fields of
every 10 (29.97 * 8/10 = 23.976). --jameslin
\_ Say NO to PAL! Support Freedom Videos! |
| 2004/8/5-8 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA, Industry/Jobs, Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus] UID:32725 Activity:nil 50%like:36020 |
8/5 Another Mountain View job. Senior C++ developer.
/csua/pub/jobs/coral8
_________________________________________________________________ |
| 2004/8/5-7 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:32726 Activity:high |
8/5 Who can hack together an RSS/Atom feed of the motd? -- misha.
\- kchang could do this easily.
\_ what is rss/atom and what does it do to the motd?
\_ http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html
\_ Hey, that sounds like fun, and I've been looking for a small
project to pick up RSS. I'll see if I can whip something up
this weekend. -dans
\_ RSS works best when the content is entry based, like news
articles. How do you propose to publish RSS of the motd?
Are you going to republish the whole MOTD every time it's
a comment is made? If so, you should at least come up w/ a
mechanism to highlight what was changed.
\_ diff.
\_ I was looking into this yesterday and it looks like atom
would be better than rss for this purpose, as there are
some extensions to atom that allow for publishing followups.
\_ Atom is generally better. Not sure if you want to publish
followups as comments, though. -- misha. |
| 2004/8/5 [ERROR, uid:32727, category id '18005#21.58' has no name! , ] UID:32727 Activity:nil 50%like:33089 57%like:34064 |
8/7 http://www.thehistorynet.com/ah/blkerryinvietnam/index.html Kerry's Swift boat rescue |
| 2004/8/5 [Computer/Companies/Google, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:32728 Activity:nil |
8/6 I am upset, my motd bitching is being archived forever like
google/gmail? This is fucked up. The motd should be purged
every now and then. Does kchang work for google? Is he into
archiving everything??
\_ You know motdedit records your id in a root read-only
file right?
\_ this is bullshit.
\_ Then why haven't we caught the evil purgers yet?
\_ If you care just fork motdedit and add your own privacy
safeguards.
\_ You know that the above person is shitting you right?
\_ Yes, but I do have my own version of motdedit in case
whoever owns /csua/bin/me decides to change it. Btw,
I do use the same merge routine so I'm not overwriting
your post or anything like that.
\_ You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and
will be used against you in a court of motd h0z3rs. (In other
words, your peers.) |
| 2004/8/5 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:32729 Activity:nil |
8/7 Didn't Bush snub CA a while back? How supportive do you think Arnie
is going to be? Should he pull a few punches to try and
negotiate or is he better off going 'all out' so that Bush 'owes us'.
I don't like Bush, but you have to give him credit that he's pretty
damn good at returning favors to his buddies... |
| 5/17 |