Re: Letter to US Sen. Byron Dorgan re unpaid overtime

From: Randy Howard (randy.howard_at_FOOmegapathdslBAR.net)
Date: 12/23/03 

Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 14:01:32 -0600

In article <f5dda427.0312231126.2b77844e@posting.google.com>, spinoza1111
@yahoo.com says...
> Instead, we questioned whether to be "patriotic" one has to be pro-war
> all the time, for any old war.

Which have you been in favor of? Specifically, which wars were not
just "any old war" and how did they differ to make you think of
them in a different way?

> This was the legal exercise of our rights to free speech and assembly,
> and to shop, or not shop, at whatever merchant we choose.

True.
 
> Because liberals are generally more fit and more interested in the
> outdoor activities which Uncle Dan's supports (for example, I've
> completed three Outward Bound expeditions), the proprietors of Uncle
> Dan's made a business decision. They decided to remove the display.

Right. I remember Al Gore, the great outdoorsman and tree protector
getting lost in the woods, during the daytime and having to be found
by his "handlers". Do you not recognize that hunters, fishermen,
farmers, ranchers, etc. tend do be conservative by a wide margin
and dramatically outnumber "outward bound" "let's pretend we're
real men for a few days" outings?

> Everybody except for the clerk who (in an unbusinesslike fashion that
> would have gotten his ass fired at The Gap) snarled at an anti-war
> complainant acted legally and responsibly.

The fact is, the clerk probably would have gotten fired at the GAP,
which is one reason I don't shop there. The other, more important
reason being that you look like a dork wearing clothes from there.

Also, you said "except for the clerk". He acted legally, there is
no law against him telling you to shove off, in whatever form he
desires. So, you're using a false premise. "responsibly" is an
opinion, and I disagree with yours.

> It would be impossible for a conservative to re-present this incident
> as "censorship" or as anything except a functioning community.

To use wording from your psychobabble, a dysfunctional community.

> To return to the comp.programming charter, indeed, part of the problem
> with programming today is precisely that
> (1) programmers are so overworked they have no time for political activity
Actually, I don't see anything in the charter about work hours interfering
with political activity. Wrong again.

More importantly, I never had trouble making time for political activity.
I assume this statement by you though is proof that you have a lot
of free time on your hands, otherwise you wouldn't have contradicted
yourself (as if you've never done that). Of course, in your case the
escape hatch of you not actually *being* a programmer might be useful
for a change.

> and
> (2) as a result, they are easy prey for arguments that community
> organizing is somehow evil and oppressive.

It's not evil, or oppressive. In your case, the specific arguments were
based upon stupidity. Your right to be wrong, I fully support and in
point of fact have come to expect.

> > You've been unemployed for quite a while, haven't you?
> >
> At the time I was working as an author and consultant.

Which is a flowery way of saying "unemployed". Ask any real author, or
consultant what they think of the employment status of someone that
claims to be working for a company with their name on it between
paying jobs elsewhere.

> Today I am working in technology full time, while continuing my
> authorship activities. Your point being?

I feel sorry for your full time employer. I feel sorry for anyone
that reads your books. Clear enough?

> > I couldn't find a single thing in the above paragraph that gave a
> > single iota of credence to the first line. There isn't a shred
> > of relevance to comp.programming in the drivel above.
>
> The relevance is that programmers are disempowered politically to such
> an extent that they cannot create end-to-end solutions to real
> problems.

Funny, there are a very large number of solutions available for
free or for a fee in the market today. Maybe they all don't
use politics as an excuse for their programming skills, or lack
thereof? In fact, I think you are the only programmer (self-
proclaimed in this case) I have ever met that used politics as
an excuse for shabby code. Either way, there is still no
relevance to comp.programming in the original paragraph, or your
response.

> The relevance is that the moment at which many programmers became in
> my opinion less competent than they should be was precisely the moment
> (in the Reagan administration, shortly after the firing of the air
> traffic controllers, a parallel occupation) most programmers seem to
> have become politically conservative.

What about those that weren't even in the business during the
Reagan administration? Also, I do not think that most programmers
are conservative, not by a long shot. Once again, you claim
relevance, yet prove yourself false.

> In my early end-to-end solutions including a complete payroll system

First semester homework problem, third week.

> and a complete student grade system,

First semester homework problem, second week, usually right after
the "utility bill" problem with variable electric rates based
upon consumption.

> I found that my New Left activities helped me to get through elementary
> problems including the lack of end user comprehension, because I had
> become anti-authoritarian enough not to take the end user's statement of
> requirements at face value.

Somehow these "New Left activities" apparently provided no assistance with
your own lack of comprehension of basic programming principles.

> For example, I had from my political activities the moxie to
> re-present the user's rather vague and incomplete statements about the
> grading logic as a complete decision table.

Most people in this field have the ability to improve on poorly written
specifications without ever even reading a newspaper article on
politics, much less boycotting flags in storefront windows.

Apart from the description of your "early homework problems", none of
the rest was relevant to this newsgroup. Even then, you gave
insufficient detail to involve any actual programming content, so
in a sense, not even that is clearly relevant.
  

-- 
Randy Howard            _o     
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