(no subject)
May. 9th, 2011 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vicarzMy eljay account expires soon. I don't even know the difference between paid and free, though I know it isn't much money. Is this worth money at all?
Only 3 days left of the semi-consensual progressive ass-watching. Still a few, but very few "hard stops" They now show me more tracking information. My speed rating is 100% green - but almost all of my driving times are "medium risk," including 6-9am...3-6pm...it seems all but 6 hours a day are considered medium or high risk (high-risk is 12-4am, 100% necessary for social/club activity). So we'll see if I get an addl discount or not. My low mileage might be key though.
Today I'm wondering if democracy works. All chaos leads to gangs, warlords, and a dictator in that order throughout most history. North Korea stands out as a reason ultimately a tiny amount of people can control an entire population - with 1 asshole with a gun able to subvert a social group of 1000. NPR was reminding me this AM about the lucky sub venture that netted the Brit military enigma and very likely changed the course of the war. The one little coincidence...it seems that nearly half the world was ready to practice fascism out of fear or liking it just a lifetime ago. This just shows to me how shitty humanity is and how close they are to the brink of repeated enslavement.
Then this freedom thing - sure it's neat to watch the middle east scrabbling for freedom, but with freedom and democracy I look to the civil war conditions in Iraq before and Pakistan today - with Pakistan's vocal extremist minority taking out the last high-ranking official some time ago, again with democracy and freedom a small minority has, through sheer heartlessness and force, subverted the majority tolerant opinions. In the US of A, a small vocal minority always rules - be it pro-program groups, or wacky religious folks.
It's not about freedom to do anything! The minority that grabs the reins of public policy is not asking for the right to do what they want - unless you count the near majority in this country that want legalized drugs (likely I'm wrong on the #s here and too lazy to look mid-rant). The influential seems to be trying to stop others from doing things those others want to do. Sex, children, women showing their faces, alcohol, drugs - these are the battlegrounds - all things that you can choose not to do if you wish. It's not about freedom to run your mouth, to go to church, to bow to mecca 5 times a day, to not drink, to not fuck - over and over groups want to control what others do.
Liberals want to be free to do things, and are willing to tolerate the actions of those that do things that make them uncomfortable. It seems that, and my fear today, is the intolerant are consistently more powerful and ultimately land in charge. With freedom in the US, we are destroying the environment as each selfish decision kills the environment and pushes us towards likely large-scale food shortages base on blight or "natural" disaster. Religious groups have always, and consistently engage today, in programs to restrict the general populace. The liberal victories are merely blocked punches with no way to punch back. Will freedom come to the middle-east, only to shoot down the toilet into minority-control based on theology as Pakistan appears teetering? Is freedom really the likely end-product, or is it merely another step towards an eventual Orwellian boot-on-neck reality forever?
Only 3 days left of the semi-consensual progressive ass-watching. Still a few, but very few "hard stops" They now show me more tracking information. My speed rating is 100% green - but almost all of my driving times are "medium risk," including 6-9am...3-6pm...it seems all but 6 hours a day are considered medium or high risk (high-risk is 12-4am, 100% necessary for social/club activity). So we'll see if I get an addl discount or not. My low mileage might be key though.
Today I'm wondering if democracy works. All chaos leads to gangs, warlords, and a dictator in that order throughout most history. North Korea stands out as a reason ultimately a tiny amount of people can control an entire population - with 1 asshole with a gun able to subvert a social group of 1000. NPR was reminding me this AM about the lucky sub venture that netted the Brit military enigma and very likely changed the course of the war. The one little coincidence...it seems that nearly half the world was ready to practice fascism out of fear or liking it just a lifetime ago. This just shows to me how shitty humanity is and how close they are to the brink of repeated enslavement.
Then this freedom thing - sure it's neat to watch the middle east scrabbling for freedom, but with freedom and democracy I look to the civil war conditions in Iraq before and Pakistan today - with Pakistan's vocal extremist minority taking out the last high-ranking official some time ago, again with democracy and freedom a small minority has, through sheer heartlessness and force, subverted the majority tolerant opinions. In the US of A, a small vocal minority always rules - be it pro-program groups, or wacky religious folks.
It's not about freedom to do anything! The minority that grabs the reins of public policy is not asking for the right to do what they want - unless you count the near majority in this country that want legalized drugs (likely I'm wrong on the #s here and too lazy to look mid-rant). The influential seems to be trying to stop others from doing things those others want to do. Sex, children, women showing their faces, alcohol, drugs - these are the battlegrounds - all things that you can choose not to do if you wish. It's not about freedom to run your mouth, to go to church, to bow to mecca 5 times a day, to not drink, to not fuck - over and over groups want to control what others do.
Liberals want to be free to do things, and are willing to tolerate the actions of those that do things that make them uncomfortable. It seems that, and my fear today, is the intolerant are consistently more powerful and ultimately land in charge. With freedom in the US, we are destroying the environment as each selfish decision kills the environment and pushes us towards likely large-scale food shortages base on blight or "natural" disaster. Religious groups have always, and consistently engage today, in programs to restrict the general populace. The liberal victories are merely blocked punches with no way to punch back. Will freedom come to the middle-east, only to shoot down the toilet into minority-control based on theology as Pakistan appears teetering? Is freedom really the likely end-product, or is it merely another step towards an eventual Orwellian boot-on-neck reality forever?
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 01:07 pm (UTC)there is a difference. you see ads. it's true that they put the paid accounts on faster servers, so your page load times will be a little slower. but really, now that (sob) LJ is not as active as it used to be, it matters less.
YMMV, but for me, i don't regret letting it lapse.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 01:23 pm (UTC)PS we never did bike maintenance :) and stuff. I'm thinking of re-arranging what I have, and still
never
rode
Brian's
bike
isuckisuckisuck
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 01:26 pm (UTC)1) it gives you a lower maximum number of icons you can have (10? 20? i never had that many anyway so it didn't matter to me)
2) dammit! ok. next weekend is a little crazy, but maybe you can come here after i get back from my bike ride on sunday (first time riding since the accident!)... we'll maintain bikes, i'll get Brian's set up for you, etc.
i'm off to Kinetik starting the 18th, back on the 26th, so if next sunday doesn't work for you, it's memorial day or the weekend after.
sound good?
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-03 12:53 am (UTC)I agree that the current trend is for the intolerant to rise to power but I hope that that trend shifts back to the middle.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-03 11:09 am (UTC)