: Political banter..

[Fairlight]

>From inside the gravity well of a singularity, GCC Consulting shouted:
>  
> Freedom of speech, yes.  down right lying no.  He lied to his listeners and not
> a political lie.  The constitution protects political speech not all speech.
> More then yelling fire in a theater is unconstitutional.  

Well that's not unconstitutional, it's just illegal.  Technically, the
law that forbids it is probably unconstitutional, but since it's a
relatively sensible law, nobody will challenge it.  Of course, it didn't
just stop there.  Nowadays you can't even tell someone what you think of
them, in private, without facing a lawsuit--even if it's a frivolous one.

> People are finding that they are not free to express themselves about their
> bosses or company's.   They can loose their jobs or be held libel for looses.
> People posting complaints about their employers on the web have been fired.
> These firings have been upheld.

Yeah, and I happen to think that's BS.  If it's -factual- and not actually
libel, they should NOT be held liable for anything.  Whether or not they
can prove that in court is another story.  In many cases it will come down
to "he said, she said", and in too many cases, companies will conveniently
manufacture documentation that proves their case.  I've seen it happen.
I've seen documentation that backs the individual's case -disappear- from
the institution's records.  If they want to railroad you, they will.

> This is the problem today,  individuals feel that they can say what ever they
> want to whom ever they want with no consideration of the others individual.
> This is why kids have no respect for other people property,  why music is
> blasted from boom boxes or car radios.  I can go on and on. 

Hey, I -like- my music loud.  I have a nice K2500XS synth, although I only
have dual 40 watt bass amp/speaker cabinets.  It can still go plenty loud,
especially for an apartment this size. let's put it this way--if I put the
synth up all the way with the right patch and mixer settings, I -will-
blow the speakers.  The outs on this synth are pretty hot, and I'm using
the mixer outs.  If I used the actual hot outs meant to be fed to a mixing
board, it would be 5-10 times the level.  I was warned about that when I
bought it. :) You can hear it 40' away in the parking lot if I have it
up--inside a car, and that's on cheap low-powered amps at less than full
blast.  It's relatively easy to get carried away.

Have I been known to actually crank it up while playing along with a CD
and enjoying myself?  Sure.  Do I make sure that either nobody is home
upstairs and that it's definitely between 8am and 10pm before doing so?
Yes.  There's some modicum of consideration involved.  My neighbor asks
me to turn it down, hey, no problem.  Of course I've felt free to ring
her bell and ask her to get her visiting grandkids to stop JUMPING on our
bloody ceiling when I have a headache from hell, and she complied without
complaint that time.  It's a state of polite detente.  Actually, she told
me once that she and her sister actually like hearing me play--just not
after about 10pm when she has to get up at 5am.  I can live with that.

But it's annoying when one pretty much has no choice but to be considerate
of the other person, but it's not reciprocated.  I sometimes do wonder why
I bother even trying to accomodate them when they seem completely oblivious
to the fact that they're obnoxiously hard on the nerves themselves most
of the time.  There's no consideration when they're banging about and
hoovering for an hour or two at bloody 9am on a Saturday when I'm trying to
get to sleep after a night of coding.  Where the hell is the consideration
for -my- sleeping schedule?  There isn't any.  And -that- is what pisses
me off.  I have no choice but to accomodate them, they don't give a 
thought towards doing the same for us.  I'd say that's a bit unbalanced.

The solution, of course, is to move out of an apartment and into a house
with a relatively large plot of land.  Perhaps someday.  But in the
interim, there's still a bit of an imbalance in consideration.

> As a society we have lost respect for those around us.  It has become "me" and
> other don;'t count.  Now, much of this attitude can be laid at my generation,
> "the me generation; make love not war".  But when all one thinks about is "me",
> society as a whole looses.    

It got worse though.  I'd say 80% of my peers were raised without any sort
of values regarding having concern for much beyond themselves, and probably
at a guess, 95% of those more than 5 years younger than me.  Depends on the
parents, too.  Old-country east-bloc-originated families that immigrated
circa 1930 or so tended to have stricter rules for whatever reason.  Man,
you couldn't get away with -anything-.  And what you did get away with in
public for the sake of saving public face over a dispute in front of
people, you dreaded going home because you knew you were for it when you
got in private.  I have a dichotomatic view on that kind of upbringing.  It
does a lot of good, but depending on the implementation, it can do some
harm as well.  Overall, I'd say it beats the alternative of having no
discipline instilled at all.

mark->
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