The United States is good at two things. Being rich, and being rebellious.

The first is the product of two geographic accidents and one extremely intelligent decision.

We were close enough to Europe to provide an exciting, temperate, and vast destination for the bored and downtrodden of the 19th century, and yet far enough away to keep us from taking much more then a few bruises when the place collapsed on itself in the 20th.

The extremely intelligent decision was to keep the church out of government affairs. Thomas Jefferson accurately predicted that our southern, "priest ridden," neighbors would succumb to corrupt ineptitude for centuries.

We peaked about 1955. The space program, adjusted for inflation, made our present fiscally unilateral adventures in the middle east look like a minor expense.

We're still quite accustomed to being the richest people on the planet and few seem to be aware that we're in decline. If our military expenditures don't suck us dry the coming implosion of Social Security and Medicare certainly will.

In 40 years we're not going to be the richest anymore.

Neither cost should be underestimated. The domestic concern is now quite well documented. On the other hand, Islamic fundamentalism is an ancient, intractable hate that flourishes because it gives meaning to lives that have none.

Can we really replace that meaning with economic purpose? We can't even create economic purpose here at home.

The other thing, besides being rich, that Americans are good at is rebellion. Our culture is the space that exists between the dress codes of protestant piety and the cloud of pot smoke emanating from the local motorcycle bar. You are taught how to be, and they you are taught not to be it.

Our heros aren't the ones who worked together to solve the problem. They're the ones who stepped outside and succeeded. We don't care about the team. Only the star quarterback matters to us.

Americans are good at going off in a garage somewhere and doing something innovative on one's own. Rebellion is at the heart of that. Thats why the hacker scene was so edgy.

Thats the one hope we have that we can really build a future on once our geographic blessings are spent and everyone else gets an education.

And we're killing it. Between the outsourcing, and the attack on options, and the skittish contraction of meaningful technology investment, we're eliminating the dream that you can go out and work on the edges and be successful.

Sure, Steven Levy found people doing innovative things in Silicon Valley after the crash. There are those among us who don't care about taking risks because they could loose almost all of their net worth without having to change their lifestyles. They are bored and have nothing better to do then tinker. Are we really hanging the future of our economy on a few guys who are rich enough to create their own space programs for fun?

One in one hundred are successful and the more we scale this back the more good opportunities will slip through our fingers.

Today technology innovation consists of screwing up the DNS system. And its not just there. We've even forgotten how to make good music. Our endless co-option of the rebels has been too efficient. The rebels don't have anything more to say.

Taxes and Terrorism. Thats all I can see for years to come. And I'm sick of it already. We heading into a Japanese style socio-economic malaise.

Malaise

] His license is suspended and he's under probation. What more
] do you want? We don't even prosecute repeat DUI offenders
] after they brutally run down pregnant women. There are such
] things as ACCIDENTS. It doesn't require people get sued or go
] to jail. It's exactly that mentality that's eroding the
] foundations of this society.

Holding people accountable for their actions certainly doesn't erode the foundation of a society. Yes there are such things as accidents, and sometimes accidents result in someone getting dead. IMHO The difference between an accident and an offense are decisions you make.

Heatly chose to drink, he then chose to drive at nearly double the speed limit, and thus he chose to put himself and others in an unreasonable state of risk. He should be held accountable for any injuries he caused. Period.

RE: How not to drive a Lamborghini

] So pictures of horror, at a certain point, no longer
] function as news; they become, themselves, the news. The
] papers that have run the photographs from Fallujah have
] been getting scores of letters from readers, some
] appreciative, some not. But that's just the problem: It's
] a fine thing when readers think about what their local
] papers do, but on the whole, one would rather they were
] thinking about Iraq.

Front Page Horror - Should newspapers show us violent images from Iraq? By Jim Lewis

"Juror No. 4 was a lawyer, and the problem with having lawyers on
juries is they bring into that jury room with them three years of
legal training. And one of the things that legal training does to
you is it basically beats the common sense out of you," he said.

Oh god forbid a jury of your peers aren't dumbasses!

Judge declares mistrial in Tyco corruption case - Apr. 2, 2004

] Omniscience Protocol Requirements

April fools RFC for 2004. My personal Fav:

OR3: The OP must be able to communicate through uncooperative
firewalls, NATs, and when the computer is disconnected from
the Internet.

Plus its not a big long circular loop of RFC's like Abaddon got spoofed on a while back...

RFC 3751 - Omniscience Protocol Requirements

] And what I really hate, is the idea that a 9/11 investigation
] is being used like this during an election year. I agree that
] it's worthwhile to find out the truth, but I see many other
] motivations here than truth-finding.

Both sides are making this political. Clarke to sell books, but Bush to pospone the release of important information regarding how well he and his administration handled one of the worst events in American History. Which is do you care about more?

] this investigation. I also really despise any insinuation
] that the White House knew about the impending attack but did
] nothing to stop it. That's just absurd.

I agree as well.

My complain is Bush's decisions are based seemly *entirely* on public opinion. He didn't think Rice testifing was important until after the media reamed him for a week. Bush kept moving the Exit date from Iraq earlier and earlier the more soldiers died. A man who makes policy based on opinion polls is not a man to be President. That statement applies to all candidate or officals.

RE: Bush Agrees to Let Rice Testify Publicly

] "I don't think it's the function of Congress to monkey
] around with state court jurisdiction," Barr said in
] testimony that put him at odds with Judiciary Committee
] Republicans looking back from the dais.

] Once a state sets its own definition of marriage, Barr
] said, "I think the role of Congress is nil."

Oh my God. I agree *with* Bob Barr? .... [Head Explodes]

Bob Barr on Gay marriage

] ``I've ordered this level of cooperation because I
] consider it necessary to gaining a complete picture of
] the months and years that preceded the murder of our
] fellow citizens on Sept. 11, 2001,'' Bush said.

You considered it necessary? Or you consider it necessary only after getting your ass handed to you by the media during the last week?

Seriously this man so transparent. Why would any vote for him in Nov?

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Bush Agrees to Let Rice Testify Publicly

] President George W. Bush has reversed course under
] pressure by agreeing to let his national security adviser
] give sworn public testimony before the September 11
] commission, while he and Vice President Dick Cheney will
] meet privately with the full panel.

Agreeing to let? WTF? What good is a special investigation commitee if the executive branch can decide whether or not to give public testimony. Did LBJ try to pull that shit with the Warren Commition? Hell no.

Thanks almost a funny/sad as Bush saying "Testify... I'd be happy to visit with them."

.... [FINGER]... bastards

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

] "Ten years out, in terms of actual hardware costs you can
] almost think of hardware as being free -- I'm not saying
] it will be absolutely free -- but in terms of the power
] of the servers, the power of the network will not be a
] limiting factor," Gates said, referring to networked
] computers and advances in the speed of the Internet.

Oh course not you fucking twit. Its your bloated bullshit of an OS that is the bottleneck! 32 bit color depth for icons indeed!

Army General: You told us that Windows 98 would be faster and more efficient with better access to the Internet!
Bill Gates: It IS faster! Over five million ...
[Army General shoots him in the face]

Yahoo! News - Bill Gates: Hardware to Be Nearly Free in 10 Years