patrick.net

I like Menlo Park as well. My wife is trying to convince me that we need to move out of The City and into a better school district and most tech jobs are on The Peninsula, so it makes sense to move in that direction, rather than East Bay, which we both prefer.

Menlo Park has a nice mellow vibe as well as good (but not great) schools. It is also quite a bit cheaper than Palo Alto, probably for that reason. I have heard that Menlo-Atherton was a bad school, but that was from some people who are from Palo Alto. It seems fine to me.

But we agreed to hold off for a while and see where the housing market goes. I assume you are not buying anytime soon, right Randy?

All I have to say is, if you are in a position to fire or lay off someone, be extra careful, you may be laying the last straw on the camel's back.

In 2001, a friend of mine who had to lay off one long-time employee got death threat mailed to his home address. The police got involved and didn't find plausible links between the ex-employee and the death threat notice, but my friend was convinced of its originator. Luckily nothing happened.

In 2002, a laid-off mid-level manager of a pharma startup in South Bay went to the ex-VP's home and shot him dead before taking his own life.

I have heard that Menlo-Atherton was a bad school, but that was from some people who are from Palo Alto. It seems fine to me.

I heard that it was bad too, because it has people from EPA.

What if they go for your head?

Most people are not that good and they usually go for the center mass.

In 2002, a laid-off mid-level manager of a pharma startup in South Bay went to the ex-VP’s home and shot him dead before taking his own life.

People are taking their jobs way too seriously.

All I have to say is, if you are in a position to fire or lay off someone, be extra careful, you may be laying the last straw on the camel’s back.

The same goes for criticizing a person who needed a Second chance in his Life. :)

People are taking their jobs way too seriously.

Sometimes it's the one who's laying people off that takes the job too seriously. After the dot.com bust, our company had a massive lay-off, at the all hands meeting after, the directior said at least 3 or 4 times that we were lucky to still have jobs and that we need to stay focus. It seems highly inappropriate but he was on a power trip.

OO Says:

All I have to say is, if you are in a position to fire or lay off someone, be extra careful, you may be laying the last straw on the camel’s back.

better talk to randy h. about that. he's an advocate of the 'cash nexus' approach to labour and firing people on a whim without explanation or follow-up supports... such is the nature of the 'civilised' capitalist society we have constructed...

Peter P says:
Guns don’t kill. People do. We should have an informant network for neighbors to report dangerous psychopaths and those who evade taxes.

hmmm. but isn't that the very level of STASI-like control that you are trying to fight with your gun ownership? to one day turn it against a police state or oppressive govt? (according to any retrospectively constructed ahistorical reading of convenience of the 2nd amendment.) besides which, how do you know who a dangerous psycho is? and i thought libertarians opposed 'high' taxation (not that the US is very high) and the existence of govt and govt interference generally...

(postmodernism v. sophistry, who'll win?)

2) ‘Cool off’ periods.

hmm, so you get your cool-off period, and a year later go psycho after another relationship bust-up or recurring psychotic episode ...

3) You get a felony, you don’t get to own guns. Hell, you don’t get trusted to vote, so why should you be trusted to pack heat?

in some states you do get trusted to vote after a felony, as you are considered to have repaid your debt to society with your original sentence. it's more a convenient mechanism to increasingly strike people off the voting registers who are likely to vote against conservative, Republican candidates...

well, experiential logic and comparison vs sophistry, at least...

Don't stop there. We should also inform on vegetarians.

I narrowly avoided invoking Godwin's law by referencing the STASI, which is possibly more appropriate anyhow:

By the time East Germany collapsed in 1989, it was estimated that 91,000 full-time employees and 300,000 informants were employed by the Stasi. In other words, about one in fifty East Germans collaborated with the Stasi—one of the highest penetrations of any civilian society by an intelligence-gathering organization. During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Stasi offices became overrun by enraged citizens but not before a large amount of confidential material was first destroyed by Stasi officers. The remaining files were later made available for review to those who were targets of Stasi surveillance; many of the reports revealed that the individual's friends, colleagues, spouses, and relatives had regularly filed reports with the organization.

there's a reason the English vegetarian restaurant chain is called 'Cranks', you know... only red-blooded sushi eaters should be permitted to breed in the new society...

Of course. We should also legalize bear baiting and cock fights, just to extra-stick it to the animals. You know they would kill humans if they could...

. After the dot.com bust, our company had a massive lay-off, at the all hands meeting after, the directior said at least 3 or 4 times that we were lucky to still have jobs and that we need to stay focus.

Of course, most managers are minions who lack focus themselves. What is so unlucky about getting laid-off? It is just a new start. Many people can use a new start.

There are only a few people in the world that actually matter (Bill Gates is probably one). The rest are just thinking too highly of their purposes.

omg the killer was/is an asian --- breaking news

There was a time when the govt would offer returned servicemen extremely affordable housing in new suburbs and so on post-WWII. Unfortunately, the beneficiaries of that housing are now selling them for $850K with no new affordable housing being constructed for anyone...

Don’t stop there. We should also inform on vegetarians.

I love vegetarians like everybody else.

Are you a Manchurian agent sent by the Communist party?

That movie is my all-time favorite. :)

Communism is as dead as the piece of fish on my sushi rice.

Korean, to be exact. American Korean from the Bay Area, the rumor says, Jay Kim.

Huh, I heard that for a couple hours, Asian guy in his mid 20s. There might be two shooters though, the reporting is really unclear on that point.

There are only a few people in the world that actually matter.

hmm, most people seem to think that they matter... the days of French aristocrats being able to run over peasants with their coaches with impunity have passed...

We should also legalize bear baiting and cock fights, just to extra-stick it to the animals.

This was all perfectly legal in Shakespeare's time, how I miss those days. And the hanging drawing and quartering especially...

*Note, warning and disclaimer: *Different posters* quoted. No responsibility accepted or admitted for anything anytime anywhere.

I don’t, and I have no intention to live in a society where everyone is obliged to carry a gun with him wherever he goes so that he can “protect” himself.

Why do you hate our Freedom(TM)? That's exactly what Bin Laden would want you to say.

Because... uh...

Go read my post above. We've given up on this "society" stuff in America. Mexico City of today is our future: be rich, live in a compound, have an armored car - or not.

Peter P Says:
Communism is as dead as the piece of fish on my sushi rice.

How about social democracies? How are they going?

Seems to me like theocracies are on the rise, both at home and abroad!

hmm, most people seem to think that they matter… the days of French aristocrats being able to run over peasants with their coaches with impunity have passed…

I know I do not matter.

One good measure is the number of persons that will miss you 3 years after your passing.

My number is about 3.

You matter when your number is over 1000000.

Peter P,

By that measure, I never want to matter. Reagan and Nixon don't count... I don't think Mother Theresea would either. Or the pope. 1 million people actually missing you?

Missing = thinking you are important to them

Of course Mother Theresea would count.

You matter when your number is over 1000000.

So by that measure, when you consider all the tabloid junkies & guys who remember her from her Playboy days, Anna Nicole Smith will probably "matter".

How about social democracies? How are they going?

Social democracies totally s*ck ass. Except when compared to every other form of government.

So by that measure, when you consider all the tabloid junkies & guys who remember her from her Playboy days, Anna Nicole Smith will probably “matter”.

Yes. "Matter" is a neutral word.

More to the point, does anyone give a flying fukk?

People care enough to watch Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason.

It’s a free market for trust as well as labor and capital.

Trust should be used sparingly. Strategic balance is more reliable.

It's paradise if you use George W. Bush's dictionary.

I saw the story about the BMW, yes... it created quite a storm at the time. Somewhat connected to pre-Revolution French attitudes, perhaps...

Yes, anyone is welcome to talk to me any time they wish if they are interested in learning what words like “market” and “capitalism” mean aside from the rhetoric and politics.

The market makes a good servant but a poor master?

Does 3 years sociology and political economy study qualify me as pre-informed? As well as innate notions of fair play and social security. Have you read Marris on 'The Politics of Uncertainty'? Perhaps there would be fewer massacres and holdups etc if people got a fairer deal from their society, rather than resorting to acts of desperation.

What do these symbols '2', '+', '=' and '5' mean again?

I have no idea what we as a whole lose if nobody is allowed to carry a gun, plain and simple. I grew up in a place with strict gun control, lived in a few countries with strict gun control, all of them have substantially lower crime rate than the US.

I do not want to drag the thread into *yet another* gun control tangent, but I can't let this one pass without comment.

Anyone who still buys into the popular (misguided) notion that civilian gun ban = safer society should consider the information contained in the following link:

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html

--Some countries have per capita private gun ownership rates similar to U.S. (Switzerland, Finland, Canada), yet MUCH lower gun & non-gun homicide rates.

--Some countries that either ban or severely restrict private gun ownership have far higher gun-homicide rates (South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, etc.)

It's not just % of gun ownership that matters --it's a whole lot of other factors, including distribution of wealth, social/economic stability, level of political corruption & organized crime, average literacy & education level, population growth rate (younger, poorer populations tend to have more violent crime per capita than older), etc.

It’s not just % of gun ownership that matters –it’s a whole lot of other factors, including distribution of wealth, social/economic stability, level of political corruption & organized crime, average literacy & education level, population growth rate (younger, poorer populations tend to have more violent crime per capita than older), etc.

Exactly.

Countries with beautiful sceneries (Canada, Switzerland, Finland, etc) but few people have lower overall crime rate.

Poor countries do worse. The key is to be rich.