Other than using it as a way of making fun of the bible-thumping Republicans, I think it is pretty ridiculous that the "upside down" star really means anything at all. Satanism? Not really any different than Christianity....just another stupid religion that drives people nuts... or that nutty people choose to believe in. Do we really want to sound as idiotic as people like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or some thumpin' bumpkin' from the bible belt? Who is more intellectual someone who believes in all manner of nonsense or someone who doesn't?
Palindromedary ~ Seriously! You take the turning of the stars in the Republican party logo that lightly. Then I am so sorry. Obviously you are not the sophisticated intellectual I took you for. Even Thom takes that particular gesture seriously! Anyone else got any serious ideas?
Before you laugh at an idea, why don't you look for a logical explanation for it. Without that you come across as a crack pot!
(just delete the watch? and the = leaving the /v/ and it works for any youtube video)
It also works to show videos that youtube has deemed too "sexy" and says you have to sign in to view...but with this method...you don't have to sign in.
The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, is a museum about Ancient Egypt located at AMORC's Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose, California, United States. Wikipedia
Address: 1660 Park Ave, San Jose, CA 95191
37deg 19'54.00" 121deg 55'25.00"
Hours:
Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm - See all
Phone: (408) 947-3635
Palindromedary ~ Rosicrucians? Never heard of that before. San Jose? You mean San Jose CA? Could you provide the coordinates/address? I might just visit this "museum" soon. Thanks for that heads up!
Quote DAnneMarc:maybe you would like to explain why the Republican party turned the stars on their emblem upside down the day GW Bush was elected; and, never offered a public explanation!
Why...because they are all Satanists, of course! And look how many fools they have beguiled! Beware the people preaching Jesus when they act like Satan.
And, you're right, about the 80%...I haven't been keeping up with Alex Jones lately. So I am out of touch with what is really going on in this world. So, is this a Rosicrucian plot to kill off 80% of the world's population? Are the Rosicrucians ...Satanists? By the way, have you ever gone to the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose? I went there a couple of times many years ago.
Aliceinwonderland ~ Point well taken. I can't argue with your logic. However, concerning the former "middle class", as I have stated in post #8, they were never the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. It is fully understandable for them to strike out in anger. I don't deny them the right. Yes, indeed, it is misdirected anger. I fully agree. Yet it is that misdirected anger--that is the responsibility of those of us who understand the grand picture--to redirect where it will do the most good. I say, God bless Ducinni, and everyone in his shoes. It is they who built the wealth of our nation; and, it is they who we owe our debt of gratitude when we wrestle that wealth back from those who stole it from us all.
Ducinni, you anger and frustration sound justified. I too have characterized the deadbeats in Congress, and the billionaires they serve, as welfare queens. But you've lost me on that last sentence. Thom is not the enemy. If this isn't another example of misdirected anger, I don't know what is. - AIW
Chris hedges gives some of the similar, thkough different numbers, in his explanations. One of them involves the comparison of waages in the sixties if inflated according to the inflation rate of CEO's salaries. Very interesting!
I like you Thom, BUT!!! your a tool and a clown, you made the statement on your show one evening that these Senators and Congresspersons deserved their six figure income for doing nothiing. That staying away from their home state was hard on them and their families (cry cry cry boo hoo hoo boo hoo hoo). I'm a former Union Iron Worker ($45 to $53,000 a year), I have traveled over 800 miles from my family and home to work, because there were no local jobs.... and slept on the back seat of my car for weeks, only to clean myself off in a rest room so I could save money for my step daughter's private schooling, mortage payments, food for my wife and her children, car notes, electric and gas bills, Christmas, and Birthday presents....etc. I worked for a living risking my life earning my money with my hands and brains. While the WELFARE QUEENS in Washington D.C. sit on thier ass making over 100,000 a year. eating at the finest restaurants on my hard earn tax dollars. Thom you and your WELFARE QUEENS (friends) can suck my COCK, BITCH!!!
Palindromedary ~ I know you are treating the "Satanist" statement on the vandalism with respect; however, before you might criticize it, maybe you would like to explain why the Republican party turned the stars on their emblem upside down the day GW Bush was elected; and, never offered a public explanation!
Palindromedary ~ The first mandate on the Georgia Guidestone states that it is the responsibility of mankind to maintain world wide population under 500,000,000; or, roughly 29% of what it is today. That translates into eliminating over 71% of humanity. Read it for yourself.
Whether or not you are speaking of 71% or 80% is rather irrelevant. How massive needs to be mass murder to be wrong? The vandalism of the Georgia Guidestone is news to me; however, considering the circumstances, not surprising.
Palindromedary ~ Yeah, I did the same thing originally. My first two real PC's I built myself from scratch. I used two cabinets from old 386 processor boards and modified them to fit Intel 3 processor mother boards. I bought the same motherboards and the same processors of course. (I liked the large size box because I knew it would help circulate the air better. There were plenty of room for add on's too. Also, not to mention the fact that they were free.) The only real problem was that I needed to find four boxes because I needed to use the reset button on two of them for both the power and reset button on the boxes I built. Thank goodness for bulk garbage pickup.
Making random PCI boards work that I got cheap at the flea market taught me a lot about configuring computers and networks. Yeah, I learned the hard way. It was most useful to have a working twin to help diagnose the one I screwed up. The occasion was quite frequent in those days. Nevertheless, I still cherish those twins that taught me so much. I named them "Thundermaker" and "Hurricane." They lived up to their names. Though I don't use them anymore, they are my babies and not for sale. You know what I mean.
And that is most likely true...but I can't agree with everything that was painted on those stones...referring to "Jesus will beat U Satanists". And it was just such a shame that people would desecrate a piece of art like that. Maybe they were upset that everything wasn't written in English. Arabic script is just so threatening...you know!
Those poor ignorant people must have thought Satan was showing his stuff when they saw fireworks shooting out of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai on new years. That was a pretty stunning display.
Not only do corporate dictates hiring and wages but they are pretty F'n picky as well. They want to hire well experienced well trained workers for less. They are certainly not willing to do any on the job training or working with unionized training or apprentice programs. They want it all. A perfect utopian work force which more often than not are expendable. Not too old and not too youg, not militant or demanding for rights. There are a potential wealth of minimum wage jobs that goes untapped in most states in America. Here in Oregon we have service station attendants. If all states were required to hire service station attendents it would create a great deal of work and we as consumers would actully get something for the price we pay for fuel. In oregon we pay no more for fuel than our neighboring states so cost should not be an issue and right now it would really help a great many folks who need help. Another move corporations are moving on here in Oregon is the recycle bottle bill. If that falls through in Oregon we will be faced with a major mess on our streets and highways. I've been around long enough to remember what Oregon was like before the bottle bill. It wasn't pretty. From a corporate standpoint it requires employment to recycle and they don't like that.
DAnneMarc: Yikes! That is bad news...I often wonder what happened to my motherboard in my last PC...it went out after I did one of those monthly Microsoft Security updates...right after! My screen went black...no video. A black screen of death...not blue! No, the monitor was ok...in fact I am still using that monitor.
Although, I sure thought that my computer was zapped by something from Microsoft...I later discovered that my computer was plugged into a wall socket that did not have a ground. I couldn't believe that all those years I operated that computer that it didn't get zapped much earlier. I also couldn't believe that I never checked the polarity of that wall socket prior to plugging in my computer when I installed it. Heck, I was in the business of making sure the equipment I installed had the right polarity and yet I somehow overlooked it in my own home. So, now it makes sense why my MOBO was zapped.
I even bought a little IDE POST-monitoring-board to plug in to see the error codes displayed on LED segments. Listening for sequence of beeps is usually used to see the state of a POST operation...indicated it was likely the mobo. I swapped out the monitor and cables. Checked the power supply voltages and they were ok. Removed components one by one...I even sent for new BIOS chips pre-programmed with my BIOS brand and revision. Of course, I ensured no static would zap anything. I didn't go as far as swapping out the mobo or processor though. So, I never did fix the problem..just decided to build my own.
Anyway, that was a special Fry's PC...almost a home built one...at least it wasn't a mass manufactured brand name one like HP or Dell. I decided to build my own PC. I selected a new wicked looking case, mother board, memory, cpu, video card, and other peripherals threw them all together and loaded my OS and mobo drivers. I had seriously considered dropping Microsoft for a Linux distro...but I caved in and spent the money for Windows 7. I had since gone to a dual boot...Windows 7/Ubuntu...that is, before I changed to an SSD..in which case I just started over fresh. Good practice! Still have my other drives with the O/S and data though. I didn't have to do it that way...could have just cloned it to my SSD..but my system was getting too bloated anyway.
I do remember that, when I worked in the IC manufacturing business, that I had read that, because of the theft of chips from manufacturers, they decided to serialize them....put the serial numbers right into the die...not external. I do know that the CPU chips have serial numbers that you can allow or prevent from being sent on to the internet. MAC addresses on Network Cards also get shipped onto the internet to identify you...although it is easy to spoof them. In fact, one mode of IPV6 actually includes the MAC address right in the IP number. I think I'd prefer the other mode...which is configurable.
Some of those chips were almost worth as much as gold...and if you compared them ounce to ounce...worth more than gold. I got a kick out of one IC manufacturer's fab that had an ingot of gold under a bell jar...as they needed gold in the manufacturing process of those ICs.
The thing about buying a computer from a name brand company...like you said..they tend to customize their components so that you have to buy only from them at much higher prices for replacements. They use special proprietary firmware embedded in the device's i/o chips..that have to match the proprietary BIOS. You can't just (easily anyway) buy cheaper parts from a third party vendor and plug them in. Although I have done so for hard drives inside of lap tops.
By building your own computer, you pretty much have control of what goes in and it is not hard to find parts, fairly cheaply, from a variety of sources. If I get tired of my mother board or my 6 core processor and want to change to another..I can do so. Slap in a new hard drive or extra memory, or whatever, I can do so.
One other thing that is a real pain when buying "name brand" from well-known manufacturers... is that they load up the computer with all kinds of crap trial programs...and even phone home spyware that eats up resources. It is a pain to get rid of it all. You get much less of it when you build your own...although some still comes with the mother board software. But you have control of whether to install it or not.
Quote DAnneMarc:There is one US manufacturer who screws all US customers by limiting access to cheap parts; but, makes cheap parts available everywhere else in the world. I won't state their name, but, they are world famous and their name begins and ends with an "X."
Hmmm...what company do we know that starts and ends with an "X"...not hard to guess. But, I'd venture to say that they are most likely not the only company that does that. They do that all the time with pharmaceuticals as well. Many of the pharmaceuticals that they push in the US are not made in the US and these companies who make these drugs cheap in other countries try to scare us against buying pharmaceuticals from other countries...like Mexico or Canada. They try to insinuate that they are unsafe..adulterated...fake.
Yes, they are putting the squeeze on us...not only wages and benefits...or sending our jobs overseas..but they are conniving to drain us of whatever little we have left before we die.
The biggest change in the work force is loyalty. There is none. Either way. Employers will let you go in a heart beat for the bottom line and employees will leave you in a second when they can get a 50 cent raise.
It will get even worst when the ACA kicks in and you don't have to stay in a job for the health care. It will help bring wages up as it will be harder to keep employees.
Quote michaelmoore052:We'll soon have more to worry about than low pay. They (international bankers) want 80% of the world's population dead. The Twin Towers were just the beginning.
michaelmoore052 ~ Tell me, are you referring to the Georgia Guide Stone; or, is there some other conspiracy theory I don't know about? Any link would be appreciated.
Quote SHFabian:Do you realize how many families have already been torn apart, how many lives have been destroyed since 1996, by social/economic policies chosen by this generation of middle class workers? And now that it's their own butts are going over the cliff, they suddenly want to change the rules?
SHFabian ~ First, I can only imagine what the SH stands for. Yet I digress. Nobody here is going to argue with you that the middle class in this country is composed of some of the stupidest people to have ever walked God's green Earth. Let's face it, they supported the Vietnam war when they couldn't logically explain why. They supported both Iraq wars... for the same reason. They elected Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama not once, but twice. They are a prime example of Darwin Laws in motion. But please don't blame the victims. They were BS'ed by some of the best BS artists money can buy.
In 1996 when they demanded limited unemployment there were plenty of good paying jobs to go around. Also, massive unemployment due to free trade wasn't yet a reality. Of course, dispite the verbal warnings of economists and celebs such as Ross Perot, these people were too dumbed down and too short sighted to believe the stark truth laid out before them. Why, because they were too busy working and too busy minding their own business. In fact, their only major mistake was believing their elected officials. At the time, they had no urgent reason not too. Only after seeing it with their own eyes do they now realize the misjudgement. A day late and a dollar short for sure. Nevertheless, they were mislead, cheated, robbed, and disenfranchised. They are the victims and not the problem. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes of judgement.
To continue on a path of blaming these victims is to defend the vile establishment that caused all these problems. It is a course not unlike that of every citizen of Nazi Germany in the 1930's. It is a course that if embraced by others would open the door of opportunity for the elite for greater exploitation of the underclass and greater human hardships in this country. You can wave any flag you want for the establishment trying to misplace blame for this tragedy on the victims who are in such dire straits right not that most of them are incapable of defending themselves on this forum. However, know that you will not get away with it here.
We'll soon have more to worry about than low pay. They (international bankers) want 80% of the world's population dead. The Twin Towers were just the beginning.
Mr. Hartman, You can't rebuild a middle class out of thin air. As our own history shows, it's necessary to shore up the poor, putting rungs back on the ladder out of poverty. We won't do that.
Do you realize how many families have already been torn apart, how many lives have been destroyed since 1996, by social/economic policies chosen by this generation of middle class workers? And now that it's their own butts are going over the cliff, they suddenly want to change the rules? The middle class very firmly stated that any aid (by any name) provided must be strictly time-limited, with those limits serving as an incentive to "get up every morning and find a job." This is required of some of our most disadvantaged, so how can we expect less of middle classs workers? Bill Clinton declared, "There is NO excuse for long-term unemployment!" Many of our (former) middle class now have to live with the policies that they chose. The middle class has breen getting phased out for years. Those pushed out of the middle class often become the poor. We got tough on the poor.
Other than using it as a way of making fun of the bible-thumping Republicans, I think it is pretty ridiculous that the "upside down" star really means anything at all. Satanism? Not really any different than Christianity....just another stupid religion that drives people nuts... or that nutty people choose to believe in. Do we really want to sound as idiotic as people like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or some thumpin' bumpkin' from the bible belt? Who is more intellectual someone who believes in all manner of nonsense or someone who doesn't?
I don't think of it as sticking it to the rich, I think of it as saving the poor, the middle class and democracy from the rich.
Palindromedary ~ Why don't you watch this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB8DTd5Di3E
Palindromedary ~ Seriously! You take the turning of the stars in the Republican party logo that lightly. Then I am so sorry. Obviously you are not the sophisticated intellectual I took you for. Even Thom takes that particular gesture seriously! Anyone else got any serious ideas?
Before you laugh at an idea, why don't you look for a logical explanation for it. Without that you come across as a crack pot!
By the way...here's a little trick:
Just change this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4q6Zx5n9Jw
To this:
http://www.youtube.com/v/P4q6Zx5n9Jw
And see what happens...
(just delete the watch? and the = leaving the /v/ and it works for any youtube video)
It also works to show videos that youtube has deemed too "sexy" and says you have to sign in to view...but with this method...you don't have to sign in.
The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, is a museum about Ancient Egypt located at AMORC's Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose, California, United States. Wikipedia
Address: 1660 Park Ave, San Jose, CA 95191
37deg 19'54.00" 121deg 55'25.00"
Hours:
Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm - See all
Phone: (408) 947-3635
Palindromedary ~ Rosicrucians? Never heard of that before. San Jose? You mean San Jose CA? Could you provide the coordinates/address? I might just visit this "museum" soon. Thanks for that heads up!
And, you're right, about the 80%...I haven't been keeping up with Alex Jones lately. So I am out of touch with what is really going on in this world. So, is this a Rosicrucian plot to kill off 80% of the world's population? Are the Rosicrucians ...Satanists? By the way, have you ever gone to the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose? I went there a couple of times many years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4q6Zx5n9Jw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgrSyokK6H0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVugsBipaMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8DgTnPq2S4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQcV3gNHFmA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naqOC0vLWv0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7BaTsBMKWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PgsECLKde0
Aliceinwonderland ~ Point well taken. I can't argue with your logic. However, concerning the former "middle class", as I have stated in post #8, they were never the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. It is fully understandable for them to strike out in anger. I don't deny them the right. Yes, indeed, it is misdirected anger. I fully agree. Yet it is that misdirected anger--that is the responsibility of those of us who understand the grand picture--to redirect where it will do the most good. I say, God bless Ducinni, and everyone in his shoes. It is they who built the wealth of our nation; and, it is they who we owe our debt of gratitude when we wrestle that wealth back from those who stole it from us all.
Ducinni, you anger and frustration sound justified. I too have characterized the deadbeats in Congress, and the billionaires they serve, as welfare queens. But you've lost me on that last sentence. Thom is not the enemy. If this isn't another example of misdirected anger, I don't know what is. - AIW
Ducinni ~ All I can say is... Very well said!!!
Chris hedges gives some of the similar, thkough different numbers, in his explanations. One of them involves the comparison of waages in the sixties if inflated according to the inflation rate of CEO's salaries. Very interesting!
I like you Thom, BUT!!! your a tool and a clown, you made the statement on your show one evening that these Senators and Congresspersons deserved their six figure income for doing nothiing. That staying away from their home state was hard on them and their families (cry cry cry boo hoo hoo boo hoo hoo). I'm a former Union Iron Worker ($45 to $53,000 a year), I have traveled over 800 miles from my family and home to work, because there were no local jobs.... and slept on the back seat of my car for weeks, only to clean myself off in a rest room so I could save money for my step daughter's private schooling, mortage payments, food for my wife and her children, car notes, electric and gas bills, Christmas, and Birthday presents....etc. I worked for a living risking my life earning my money with my hands and brains. While the WELFARE QUEENS in Washington D.C. sit on thier ass making over 100,000 a year. eating at the finest restaurants on my hard earn tax dollars. Thom you and your WELFARE QUEENS (friends) can suck my COCK, BITCH!!!
Palindromedary ~ I know you are treating the "Satanist" statement on the vandalism with respect; however, before you might criticize it, maybe you would like to explain why the Republican party turned the stars on their emblem upside down the day GW Bush was elected; and, never offered a public explanation!
Palindromedary ~ The first mandate on the Georgia Guidestone states that it is the responsibility of mankind to maintain world wide population under 500,000,000; or, roughly 29% of what it is today. That translates into eliminating over 71% of humanity. Read it for yourself.
http://www.thegeorgiaguidestones.com/Message.htm
Whether or not you are speaking of 71% or 80% is rather irrelevant. How massive needs to be mass murder to be wrong? The vandalism of the Georgia Guidestone is news to me; however, considering the circumstances, not surprising.
Palindromedary ~ Yeah, I did the same thing originally. My first two real PC's I built myself from scratch. I used two cabinets from old 386 processor boards and modified them to fit Intel 3 processor mother boards. I bought the same motherboards and the same processors of course. (I liked the large size box because I knew it would help circulate the air better. There were plenty of room for add on's too. Also, not to mention the fact that they were free.) The only real problem was that I needed to find four boxes because I needed to use the reset button on two of them for both the power and reset button on the boxes I built. Thank goodness for bulk garbage pickup.
Making random PCI boards work that I got cheap at the flea market taught me a lot about configuring computers and networks. Yeah, I learned the hard way. It was most useful to have a working twin to help diagnose the one I screwed up. The occasion was quite frequent in those days. Nevertheless, I still cherish those twins that taught me so much. I named them "Thundermaker" and "Hurricane." They lived up to their names. Though I don't use them anymore, they are my babies and not for sale. You know what I mean.
DAnneMarc: I had never heard of the Georgia Guidestones but Wikipedia shows a photo of the vandalism. And as you probably already know...the face of one stone was defaced by red ink saying: "The elite want 80% of us dead"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Georgia_Guidestones_v...
And that is most likely true...but I can't agree with everything that was painted on those stones...referring to "Jesus will beat U Satanists". And it was just such a shame that people would desecrate a piece of art like that. Maybe they were upset that everything wasn't written in English. Arabic script is just so threatening...you know!
Those poor ignorant people must have thought Satan was showing his stuff when they saw fireworks shooting out of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai on new years. That was a pretty stunning display.
Not only do corporate dictates hiring and wages but they are pretty F'n picky as well. They want to hire well experienced well trained workers for less. They are certainly not willing to do any on the job training or working with unionized training or apprentice programs. They want it all. A perfect utopian work force which more often than not are expendable. Not too old and not too youg, not militant or demanding for rights. There are a potential wealth of minimum wage jobs that goes untapped in most states in America. Here in Oregon we have service station attendants. If all states were required to hire service station attendents it would create a great deal of work and we as consumers would actully get something for the price we pay for fuel. In oregon we pay no more for fuel than our neighboring states so cost should not be an issue and right now it would really help a great many folks who need help. Another move corporations are moving on here in Oregon is the recycle bottle bill. If that falls through in Oregon we will be faced with a major mess on our streets and highways. I've been around long enough to remember what Oregon was like before the bottle bill. It wasn't pretty. From a corporate standpoint it requires employment to recycle and they don't like that.
DAnneMarc: Yikes! That is bad news...I often wonder what happened to my motherboard in my last PC...it went out after I did one of those monthly Microsoft Security updates...right after! My screen went black...no video. A black screen of death...not blue! No, the monitor was ok...in fact I am still using that monitor.
Although, I sure thought that my computer was zapped by something from Microsoft...I later discovered that my computer was plugged into a wall socket that did not have a ground. I couldn't believe that all those years I operated that computer that it didn't get zapped much earlier. I also couldn't believe that I never checked the polarity of that wall socket prior to plugging in my computer when I installed it. Heck, I was in the business of making sure the equipment I installed had the right polarity and yet I somehow overlooked it in my own home. So, now it makes sense why my MOBO was zapped.
I even bought a little IDE POST-monitoring-board to plug in to see the error codes displayed on LED segments. Listening for sequence of beeps is usually used to see the state of a POST operation...indicated it was likely the mobo. I swapped out the monitor and cables. Checked the power supply voltages and they were ok. Removed components one by one...I even sent for new BIOS chips pre-programmed with my BIOS brand and revision. Of course, I ensured no static would zap anything. I didn't go as far as swapping out the mobo or processor though. So, I never did fix the problem..just decided to build my own.
Anyway, that was a special Fry's PC...almost a home built one...at least it wasn't a mass manufactured brand name one like HP or Dell. I decided to build my own PC. I selected a new wicked looking case, mother board, memory, cpu, video card, and other peripherals threw them all together and loaded my OS and mobo drivers. I had seriously considered dropping Microsoft for a Linux distro...but I caved in and spent the money for Windows 7. I had since gone to a dual boot...Windows 7/Ubuntu...that is, before I changed to an SSD..in which case I just started over fresh. Good practice! Still have my other drives with the O/S and data though. I didn't have to do it that way...could have just cloned it to my SSD..but my system was getting too bloated anyway.
I do remember that, when I worked in the IC manufacturing business, that I had read that, because of the theft of chips from manufacturers, they decided to serialize them....put the serial numbers right into the die...not external. I do know that the CPU chips have serial numbers that you can allow or prevent from being sent on to the internet. MAC addresses on Network Cards also get shipped onto the internet to identify you...although it is easy to spoof them. In fact, one mode of IPV6 actually includes the MAC address right in the IP number. I think I'd prefer the other mode...which is configurable.
Some of those chips were almost worth as much as gold...and if you compared them ounce to ounce...worth more than gold. I got a kick out of one IC manufacturer's fab that had an ingot of gold under a bell jar...as they needed gold in the manufacturing process of those ICs.
The thing about buying a computer from a name brand company...like you said..they tend to customize their components so that you have to buy only from them at much higher prices for replacements. They use special proprietary firmware embedded in the device's i/o chips..that have to match the proprietary BIOS. You can't just (easily anyway) buy cheaper parts from a third party vendor and plug them in. Although I have done so for hard drives inside of lap tops.
By building your own computer, you pretty much have control of what goes in and it is not hard to find parts, fairly cheaply, from a variety of sources. If I get tired of my mother board or my 6 core processor and want to change to another..I can do so. Slap in a new hard drive or extra memory, or whatever, I can do so.
One other thing that is a real pain when buying "name brand" from well-known manufacturers... is that they load up the computer with all kinds of crap trial programs...and even phone home spyware that eats up resources. It is a pain to get rid of it all. You get much less of it when you build your own...although some still comes with the mother board software. But you have control of whether to install it or not.
Hmmm...what company do we know that starts and ends with an "X"...not hard to guess. But, I'd venture to say that they are most likely not the only company that does that. They do that all the time with pharmaceuticals as well. Many of the pharmaceuticals that they push in the US are not made in the US and these companies who make these drugs cheap in other countries try to scare us against buying pharmaceuticals from other countries...like Mexico or Canada. They try to insinuate that they are unsafe..adulterated...fake.
Yes, they are putting the squeeze on us...not only wages and benefits...or sending our jobs overseas..but they are conniving to drain us of whatever little we have left before we die.
The biggest change in the work force is loyalty. There is none. Either way. Employers will let you go in a heart beat for the bottom line and employees will leave you in a second when they can get a 50 cent raise.
It will get even worst when the ACA kicks in and you don't have to stay in a job for the health care. It will help bring wages up as it will be harder to keep employees.
michaelmoore052 ~ Tell me, are you referring to the Georgia Guide Stone; or, is there some other conspiracy theory I don't know about? Any link would be appreciated.
SHFabian ~ First, I can only imagine what the SH stands for. Yet I digress. Nobody here is going to argue with you that the middle class in this country is composed of some of the stupidest people to have ever walked God's green Earth. Let's face it, they supported the Vietnam war when they couldn't logically explain why. They supported both Iraq wars... for the same reason. They elected Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama not once, but twice. They are a prime example of Darwin Laws in motion. But please don't blame the victims. They were BS'ed by some of the best BS artists money can buy.
In 1996 when they demanded limited unemployment there were plenty of good paying jobs to go around. Also, massive unemployment due to free trade wasn't yet a reality. Of course, dispite the verbal warnings of economists and celebs such as Ross Perot, these people were too dumbed down and too short sighted to believe the stark truth laid out before them. Why, because they were too busy working and too busy minding their own business. In fact, their only major mistake was believing their elected officials. At the time, they had no urgent reason not too. Only after seeing it with their own eyes do they now realize the misjudgement. A day late and a dollar short for sure. Nevertheless, they were mislead, cheated, robbed, and disenfranchised. They are the victims and not the problem. Nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes of judgement.
To continue on a path of blaming these victims is to defend the vile establishment that caused all these problems. It is a course not unlike that of every citizen of Nazi Germany in the 1930's. It is a course that if embraced by others would open the door of opportunity for the elite for greater exploitation of the underclass and greater human hardships in this country. You can wave any flag you want for the establishment trying to misplace blame for this tragedy on the victims who are in such dire straits right not that most of them are incapable of defending themselves on this forum. However, know that you will not get away with it here.
We'll soon have more to worry about than low pay. They (international bankers) want 80% of the world's population dead. The Twin Towers were just the beginning.
Mr. Hartman, You can't rebuild a middle class out of thin air. As our own history shows, it's necessary to shore up the poor, putting rungs back on the ladder out of poverty. We won't do that.
Do you realize how many families have already been torn apart, how many lives have been destroyed since 1996, by social/economic policies chosen by this generation of middle class workers? And now that it's their own butts are going over the cliff, they suddenly want to change the rules? The middle class very firmly stated that any aid (by any name) provided must be strictly time-limited, with those limits serving as an incentive to "get up every morning and find a job." This is required of some of our most disadvantaged, so how can we expect less of middle classs workers? Bill Clinton declared, "There is NO excuse for long-term unemployment!" Many of our (former) middle class now have to live with the policies that they chose. The middle class has breen getting phased out for years. Those pushed out of the middle class often become the poor. We got tough on the poor.