1 The Breakfast Club 7.9 1985
2 Real Genius 7 1985
3 Sixteen Candles 7.2 1984
4 Weird Science 6.6 1985
5 Pretty in Pink 6.7 1986
6 Back to the Future 8.5 1985
7 Back to the Future Part II 7.8 1989
8 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back 8.8 1980
9 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi 8.4 1983
10 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 7.7 1982
11 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 7.3 1986
12 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 7.8 1982
13 Dirty Dancing 6.9 1987
14 Platoon 8.1 1986
15 The Princess Bride 8.1 1987
16 Raiders of the Lost Ark 8.5 1981
17 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 7.6 1984
18 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 8.3 1989
19 The Terminator 8.1 1984
20 Who Framed Roger Rabbit 7.7 1988
21 When Harry Met Sally... 7.6 1989
22 Labyrinth 7.4 1986
23 Legend 6.5 1985
24 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure 6.9 1989
25 Top Gun 6.9 1986
26 Footloose 6.5 1984
27 Desperately Seeking Susan 5.8 1985
28 Poltergeist 7.4 1982
29 Flashdance 6.1 1983
30 Ghostbusters 7.8 1984
31 Ghostbusters II 6.5 1989
32 Gremlins 7.2 1984
33 Superman II 6.8 1980
34 Splash 6.2 1984
35 Some Kind of Wonderful 7.1 1987
36 The Legend of Billie Jean 6.5 1985
37 Risky Business 6.8 1983
38 Working Girl 6.7 1988
39 Roxanne 6.6 1987
40 Ruthless People 6.9 1986
41 The Lost Boys 7.2 1987
42 Adventures in Babysitting 6.8 1987
43 Beetlejuice 7.5 1988
44 St. Elmo's Fire 6.3 1985
45 All the Right Moves 5.9 1983
46 Mannequin 5.7 1987
47 The Karate Kid 7.2 1984
48 The Karate Kid, Part II 5.9 1986
49 Weekend at Bernie's 6.3 1989
50 The Untouchables 8 1987
51 Die Hard 8.2 1988
52 Raising Arizona 7.4 1987
53 The Last Emperor 7.8 1987
54 A Christmas Story 8.1 1983
55 Terms of Endearment 7.4 1983
56 The Little Mermaid 7.6 1989
57 The Fox and the Hound 7.3 1981
58 Glory 7.9 1989
59 A Fish Called Wanda 7.6 1988
60 Witness 7.4 1985
61 Field of Dreams 7.6 1989
62 Moonstruck 7.1 1987
63 Ferris Bueller's Day Off 7.9 1986
64 Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior 7.6 1981
65 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome 6.2 1985
66 Stand by Me 8.1 1986
67 The Abyss 7.6 1989
68 The Accused 7.1 1988
69 Akira 8.1 1988
70 An American Tail 6.9 1986
71 The NeverEnding Story 7.4 1984
72 The Secret of NIMH 7.6 1982
73 The Last Unicorn 7.5 1982
74 An American Werewolf in London 7.6 1981
75 Anne of Green Gables 8.4 1985
76 Annie 6.5 1982
77 The Fly 7.5 1986
78 The Fly II 4.9 1989
79 Armed and Dangerous 5.5 1986
80 Batman 7.6 1989
81 The Bay Boy 6.5 1984
82 Steel Magnolias 7.2 1989
83 Beaches 6.8 1988
84 Beverly Hills Cop II 6.4 1987
85 Big 7.3 1988
86 The Big Chill 7.2 1983
87 The Black Cauldron 6.4 1985
88 The Black Stallion Returns 5.9 1983
89 Bloodsport 6.8 1988
90 The Blue Lagoon 5.7 1980
91 Blue Thunder 6.3 1983
92 Born on the Fourth of July 7.2 1989
93 The 'Burbs 6.8 1989
94 Caddyshack 7.4 1980
95 The Muppets Take Manhattan 6.9 1984
96 Firestarter 6 1984
97 Cat's Eye 6.2 1985
98 Chariots of Fire 7.3 1981
99 Children of the Corn 5.6 1984
100 Child's Play 6.5 1988
101 Cocktail 5.8 1988
102 Cocoon 6.6 1985
103 Cocoon: The Return 5.3 1988
104 *batteries not included 6.5 1987
105 The Color Purple 7.8 1985
106 Commando 6.7 1985
107 Communion 5.7 1989
108 Crocodile Dundee 6.5 1986
109 Crocodile Dundee II 5.5 1988
110 Crusoe 6.4 1988
111 Cujo 6 1983
112 Dangerous Liaisons 7.7 1988
113 The Dark Crystal 7.2 1982
114 D.A.R.Y.L. 6.1 1985
115 Police Academy 6.6 1984
116 Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment 5.6 1985
117 Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol 4.7 1987
118 Police Academy 6: City Under Siege 4.1 1989
119 Date with an Angel 5.7 1987
120 Dead Calm 6.8 1989
121 Deadly Friend 5.5 1986
122 The Dead Pool 6.3 1988
123 Dead Ringers 7.3 1988
124 The Dead Zone 7.2 1983
125 D.O.A. 6.1 1988
126 Dominick and Eugene 7 1988
127 Dragnet 5.9 1987
128 Troop Beverly Hills 5.4 1989
129 Dream a Little Dream 5.9 1989
130 Earth Girls Are Easy 5.2 1988
131 Enemy Mine 6.9 1985
132 Escape from New York 7.2 1981
133 Lethal Weapon 7.6 1987
134 Lethal Weapon 2 7.2 1989
135 Explorers 6.6 1985
136 Fatal Attraction 6.9 1987
137 Jumpin' Jack Flash 5.8 1986
138 The Flamingo Kid 6.2 1984
139 One Crazy Summer 6.4 1986
140 Stand and Deliver 7.3 1988
141 Lean on Me 7.4 1989
142 Flowers in the Attic 5.6 1987
143 Highlander 7.2 1986
144 48 Hrs. 6.9 1982
145 Frantic 6.9 1988
146 From the Hip 6.2 1987
147 F/X 6.6 1986
148 Gleaming the Cube 6.1 1989
149 Heathers 7.3 1988
150 The Golden Child 5.9 1986
151 Good Morning, Vietnam 7.3 1987
152 The Great Outdoors 6.6 1988
153 Planes, Trains & Automobiles 7.6 1987
154 Throw Momma from the Train 6.2 1987
155 Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes 6.3 1984
156 Altered States 6.9 1980
157 The Rescue 5.3 1988
158 Hannah and Her Sisters 8 1986
159 Harry and the Hendersons 5.9 1987
160 Heavy Metal 6.7 1981
161 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids 6.3 1989
162 Hoosiers 7.6 1986
163 The Wizard 6 1989
164 The Name of the Rose 7.8 1986
165 The Journey of Natty Gann 7 1985
166 Twins 6 1988
167 Kickboxer 6.3 1989
168 K-9 5.9 1989
169 La Bamba 6.8 1987
170 Ladyhawke 7 1985
171 Lady in White 6.7 1988
172 The Land Before Time 7.3 1988
173 The Last Starfighter 6.7 1984
174 Legal Eagles 5.9 1986
175 Less Than Zero 6.3 1987
176 Little Shop of Horrors 6.9 1986
177 Look Who's Talking 5.8 1989
178 Lucas 6.8 1986
179 Major League 7.2 1989
180 The Man from Snowy River 7.2 1982
181 Return to Snowy River 6.5 1988
182 The Manhattan Project 6.1 1986
183 Married to the Mob 6.1 1988
184 Mask 7.2 1985
185 Maximum Overdrive 5.4 1986
186 Midnight Run 7.6 1988
187 Mississippi Burning 7.8 1988
188 The Money Pit 6.3 1986
189 Monkey Shines 6.2 1988
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Democrats matrix
Last Saturday morning, I went for a nice long run in South Florida and pondered the presidential primary contests. It appears that the GOP is down to three fellas. But it was the Democrat duel that made me think the most. I wondered how Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders was causing such an uproar in the Democratic primary. After all, what he is proposing with this “Democratic Socialism” has never found lasting success anywhere in the world, unless you appreciate equality of outcomes.
Then it hit me: the message Sanders is delivering reminded me of the 90’s movie “The Matrix.” The basic premise of the film correlates to the governing philosophy of which Sanders promotes. In the film, humans have been overtaken by the “machines” and are being used as energy sources since their prior energy source – the sun – has been lost. The machines create a perfect, computer-generated world for their human batteries to reside in – the Matrix.
However, there are humans who have escaped the Matrix and live in the “real world,” where life is imperfect and tough. It is a world all about survival, where they are constantly hunted by the machines. Even within the Matrix, there are agents who police the computer generated world making sure there are no disruptions – they can take on any form.
My favorite scene was when the character Morpheus asks the lead character Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, to take a red pill or a blue pill. "You take the blue pill, the story ends,” says Morpheus. “You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
The idea of progressive socialism is our world’s Matrix. It is a utopian world that promises all that one would desire. It is based upon a belief that one can have as many “free” things as they wish. These “free” things are guaranteed by the “machines” of progressive socialism, who believe they can create this world that does not exist. Just as the Matrix’s machines needed humans plugged in as their energy source, progressive socialists need to collectively drain the energy of individuals to make their schemes work.
When one is plugged into the matrix of progressive socialism, you do not exist for yourself. Your energy is usurped for the collective existence of the machines, and in exchange you are rewarded with the fantasy life of the Matrix.
Then come along those who have been “unplugged” from the matrix; conservatives who seek to, as Morpheus stated, free other minds. Conservatives come along and confront those plugged in with the seminal question, blue pill or red pill. How very interesting that in American politics that blue is associated with the Democrat party and red with the Republican party. If you take the blue pill you can stay in the fantasy world of the Matrix…but the red pill will free your mind, and you will see how deep the rabbit hole goes. The red pill represents freedom and liberty, allowing the individual to separate from the collective. However, the real world is not one of fantasy and pleasure; it is about survival, working hard, and evading the sentinels – the hunter machines, the liberal progressive media.
That is what it is like as the conservative today, and especially a minority conservative. The agents seek to prevent you from freeing more minds from the Matrix. They cannot allow you to educate and inform and have people taking the red pill and escaping their grip.
Friday, February 19, 2016
Voting
Many Christians are convinced that being “political,” or even voting, somehow violates their religious faith. They think Christians should be ”in the world, but not of it” abstaining from earthly messes like government and instead keep their eyes on the sky, patiently awaiting Christ’s return that will fix everything. Lucky for us, the Founders, virtually all of whom were Christians steeped in the Bible since school days, never bought that view, or they wouldn’t have started the revolution against King George that gave us our great nation. And we would all be British.
Four times in the Declaration of Independence the Christian God is credited as author of the values and rights on which America was founded and his protection invoked. It is way past time to rise up and revive those values. This election, Christians who are sick and tired of government’s chokehold, sick and tired of God’s man-woman marriage being mocked and branded homophobic, sick and tired of the moral rot in which our society is wallowing, must come out and vote against it.
The only way to stop the relentless zombie march of the God-challenged secularists against believers is by voting for leaders from school board to president who pledge to tirelessly defend the original Christian morals of this country and have actually done so, not merely waved their mom’s Bible from a staged rally.
Everywhere, an all-powerful “culture” and arrogant government are shredding the Bible as well as the Constitution. The immorality that God warns us against rampages across the society from a young woman seen by millions mimicking sex onstage, to the vile woman-hating lyrics of the songs our kids constantly have plugged into their ears, to the celebration of aberrant “marriage” that the Supreme Court declares normal, overturning the will of millions in 30-plus states. After the Supreme Court justices trashed God’s law, the White House--in gleeful party mode--lit up the rainbow colors of the same-sex marriage lobby, deliberately insulting the faithful in this Christian-majority nation.
Humans created by God in his own image are reduced to body parts and a non-profit that pretends to be a woman’s health provider dismembers babies in the womb for profit. And this outrage is funded by we the taxpayers. Television is a slaughterhouse of rape, mutilation, murder and dissection of human beings as if they were so much hamburger. The victims are nearly all women. The most-searched topic on the Internet is pornography which horrifically abuses women, men, and even young children while destroying marriages and families.
“Sex education” starting in grade school is convincing our kids that the same-sex affection so typical in the pre-teen years means they will be homosexuals for life, while gays are really only 3 or 4 percent of the population.
Our citizens are increasingly addicted to drugs and other peoples’ money. Fully half of the population takes government support in the form of housing, food stamps, or other types of welfare. Half of the population also pays no federal income tax. The socialist worldview – taking from those who earn their income by working, and giving to those who don’t – is a page ripped from the fevered Communist brain of Karl Marx who in 1875 decreed, “from each according to his ability; to each according to his need.” Now, after over 140 years of disastrous failures that have killed about 120 million of their own people (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc.) this lethal atrocity is being resuscitated like the living dead.
Our nation has always provided the truly needy a generous safety net as it should, but in the last seven years the safety net has morphed into a feather bed. The “social gospel” preached by liberals actually contradicts the real Gospel. The Apostle Paul warned, “… if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work…such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” 2 Thess. 3:10-12. God knew what great human satisfaction comes from work, and so he gifted us each with talents and abilities so we would find fulfillment using our God-given skills.
But the idea of “income redistribution” in the name of “equality” defies God’s plan for earning our own way. Taking from others is really a government-driven form of stealing, forbidden by the Bible’s Eighth Commandment. Its evil twin, coveting whatever your neighbor has, is banned by the Tenth Commandment yet promoted by this government as class warfare. Our 20 trillion dollar debt is an even more deeply troubling form of theft, stealing from our own children and grandchildren.
This is why the big-government juggernaut is a hugely destructive immoral force that must be defeated. It steals our children’s futures, and even takes possession of our bodies, erasing our freedom to make our own medical decisions. It hunts down Christian dissenters from its perverse orthodoxy, compassionate groups like Little Sisters of the poor, or a Christian cake baker who declines to participate in a same-sex wedding; even pastors who refuse to marry “couples” of identical gender. In these and hundreds of other ways, it denies us as Christians the “free exercise “of our religion promised in the First Amendment.
When evangelical Christians vote, they overwhelmingly vote Republican because the GOP’s freedom ideology is more aligned with their belief system than the Democrats. And those who don’t vote are, by their absence, unwittingly voting for the other side.
It’s been estimated that about four million Christians who had voted for George Bush stayed home in 2014 rather than support Romney. Significantly, according to the Census Bureau, of the 220 million eligible voters (registered and not registered) nearly 60 percent didn’t vote. If even half of those 132 million voted for leaders with Christian values (and 70 to 75 percent of citizens proclaim they’re Christians) that would mean 66 million new Christian voters!
Such an outpouring would dramatically change our wayward nation into one that again reveres and practices the moral principles that God has set for us. Evangelist Franklin Graham, who leads Samaritan’s Purse, the charity helping desperate Christians and non-Christians alike world-wide, says, “If we turn our nation back to God, I believe that God will help us fix the problems that we face.”
Accordingly he is visiting each state with his Decision America prayer rally. “I’m going to every state to challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box – and I will share the Gospel,” he says. “I want the evangelical Christians, the Bible-believing Christians to stand up and vote.”
Although as Christians we know God is in control, our faith can’t be an excuse not to vote. Would our God want us to idly watch as the nation he so favored is demolished, or would he want us to choose leaders who uphold the standards he has put so lovingly in place for us?
Four times in the Declaration of Independence the Christian God is credited as author of the values and rights on which America was founded and his protection invoked. It is way past time to rise up and revive those values. This election, Christians who are sick and tired of government’s chokehold, sick and tired of God’s man-woman marriage being mocked and branded homophobic, sick and tired of the moral rot in which our society is wallowing, must come out and vote against it.
The only way to stop the relentless zombie march of the God-challenged secularists against believers is by voting for leaders from school board to president who pledge to tirelessly defend the original Christian morals of this country and have actually done so, not merely waved their mom’s Bible from a staged rally.
Everywhere, an all-powerful “culture” and arrogant government are shredding the Bible as well as the Constitution. The immorality that God warns us against rampages across the society from a young woman seen by millions mimicking sex onstage, to the vile woman-hating lyrics of the songs our kids constantly have plugged into their ears, to the celebration of aberrant “marriage” that the Supreme Court declares normal, overturning the will of millions in 30-plus states. After the Supreme Court justices trashed God’s law, the White House--in gleeful party mode--lit up the rainbow colors of the same-sex marriage lobby, deliberately insulting the faithful in this Christian-majority nation.
Humans created by God in his own image are reduced to body parts and a non-profit that pretends to be a woman’s health provider dismembers babies in the womb for profit. And this outrage is funded by we the taxpayers. Television is a slaughterhouse of rape, mutilation, murder and dissection of human beings as if they were so much hamburger. The victims are nearly all women. The most-searched topic on the Internet is pornography which horrifically abuses women, men, and even young children while destroying marriages and families.
“Sex education” starting in grade school is convincing our kids that the same-sex affection so typical in the pre-teen years means they will be homosexuals for life, while gays are really only 3 or 4 percent of the population.
Our citizens are increasingly addicted to drugs and other peoples’ money. Fully half of the population takes government support in the form of housing, food stamps, or other types of welfare. Half of the population also pays no federal income tax. The socialist worldview – taking from those who earn their income by working, and giving to those who don’t – is a page ripped from the fevered Communist brain of Karl Marx who in 1875 decreed, “from each according to his ability; to each according to his need.” Now, after over 140 years of disastrous failures that have killed about 120 million of their own people (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc.) this lethal atrocity is being resuscitated like the living dead.
Our nation has always provided the truly needy a generous safety net as it should, but in the last seven years the safety net has morphed into a feather bed. The “social gospel” preached by liberals actually contradicts the real Gospel. The Apostle Paul warned, “… if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work…such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” 2 Thess. 3:10-12. God knew what great human satisfaction comes from work, and so he gifted us each with talents and abilities so we would find fulfillment using our God-given skills.
But the idea of “income redistribution” in the name of “equality” defies God’s plan for earning our own way. Taking from others is really a government-driven form of stealing, forbidden by the Bible’s Eighth Commandment. Its evil twin, coveting whatever your neighbor has, is banned by the Tenth Commandment yet promoted by this government as class warfare. Our 20 trillion dollar debt is an even more deeply troubling form of theft, stealing from our own children and grandchildren.
This is why the big-government juggernaut is a hugely destructive immoral force that must be defeated. It steals our children’s futures, and even takes possession of our bodies, erasing our freedom to make our own medical decisions. It hunts down Christian dissenters from its perverse orthodoxy, compassionate groups like Little Sisters of the poor, or a Christian cake baker who declines to participate in a same-sex wedding; even pastors who refuse to marry “couples” of identical gender. In these and hundreds of other ways, it denies us as Christians the “free exercise “of our religion promised in the First Amendment.
When evangelical Christians vote, they overwhelmingly vote Republican because the GOP’s freedom ideology is more aligned with their belief system than the Democrats. And those who don’t vote are, by their absence, unwittingly voting for the other side.
It’s been estimated that about four million Christians who had voted for George Bush stayed home in 2014 rather than support Romney. Significantly, according to the Census Bureau, of the 220 million eligible voters (registered and not registered) nearly 60 percent didn’t vote. If even half of those 132 million voted for leaders with Christian values (and 70 to 75 percent of citizens proclaim they’re Christians) that would mean 66 million new Christian voters!
Such an outpouring would dramatically change our wayward nation into one that again reveres and practices the moral principles that God has set for us. Evangelist Franklin Graham, who leads Samaritan’s Purse, the charity helping desperate Christians and non-Christians alike world-wide, says, “If we turn our nation back to God, I believe that God will help us fix the problems that we face.”
Accordingly he is visiting each state with his Decision America prayer rally. “I’m going to every state to challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box – and I will share the Gospel,” he says. “I want the evangelical Christians, the Bible-believing Christians to stand up and vote.”
Although as Christians we know God is in control, our faith can’t be an excuse not to vote. Would our God want us to idly watch as the nation he so favored is demolished, or would he want us to choose leaders who uphold the standards he has put so lovingly in place for us?
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Anonymous has declared 'total war' on Donald Trump, threatening to 'dismantle his campaign'
Hackers affiliated with the Anonymous hacktivist collective have
vowed to relaunch cyber-operations against US presidential candidate
Donald Trump from 1 April. They threaten to 'dismantle his campaign' by
taking his election websites offline in a large-scale and orchestrated
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
In December 2015, Anonymous officially 'declared war' on Trump after a radical speech in which he said Muslims should be banned from entering the United States. The operation at the time resulted in a number of websites being targeted by hackers, but failed to have lasting impact.
A new video statement has been posted to YouTube which claims the 'loyalists and veterans' of Anonymous have decided to ramp up cyber-operations against Trump – dubbed #OpTrump – on a far larger scale than ever before.
"Dear Donald Trump, we have been watching you for a long time and what we see is deeply disturbing. Your inconsistent and hateful campaign has not only shocked the United States of America [but] you have shocked the entire planet with your appalling actions and ideas. You say what your audience wants to hear but in reality you don't stand for anything except for your personal greed and power."
The video, which features the traditional Guy Fawkes mask-wearing spokesperson speaking directly to camera, called the operation a "call to arms" for hacktivists across the globe.
YouTube/Anonymous
"We need you to shut down his websites, to research and expose what he doesn't want the public to know. We need to dismantle his campaign and sabotage his brand. We are encouraging every able person with a computer to participate in this operation. This is not a warning, this is a declaration of total war. Donald Trump – it is too late to expect us."
In a separate written message posted online, Anonymous listed a number of websites chosen to be the initial targets in the attack including trump.com, donaldjtrump.com andtrumphotelcollection.com.
Alongside these chosen targets, the post lists a slew of unverified personal information purporting to belong to Donald Trump, including a social security number, personal phone number and the contact details of his agent and legal representation.
This is not the first time a hacking group has attempted to take on Donald Trump. In January 2016 a separate group called the New World Hackers carried out multiple DDoS attacks on his official election campaign website – effectively taking it offline for a short period of time. Recently, Anonymous leaked messages from his phone's voicemail account which included personal communications from journalists, sports stars and boxing promotors.
Anonymous, which is a loose collective of hacktivists, routinely engages high-profile targets as part of its cyber-campaigns. Previous subjects have included the Islamic State (IS), the Vatican and most recently the Turkish government.
In December 2015, Anonymous officially 'declared war' on Trump after a radical speech in which he said Muslims should be banned from entering the United States. The operation at the time resulted in a number of websites being targeted by hackers, but failed to have lasting impact.
A new video statement has been posted to YouTube which claims the 'loyalists and veterans' of Anonymous have decided to ramp up cyber-operations against Trump – dubbed #OpTrump – on a far larger scale than ever before.
"Dear Donald Trump, we have been watching you for a long time and what we see is deeply disturbing. Your inconsistent and hateful campaign has not only shocked the United States of America [but] you have shocked the entire planet with your appalling actions and ideas. You say what your audience wants to hear but in reality you don't stand for anything except for your personal greed and power."
The video, which features the traditional Guy Fawkes mask-wearing spokesperson speaking directly to camera, called the operation a "call to arms" for hacktivists across the globe.
YouTube/Anonymous
"We need you to shut down his websites, to research and expose what he doesn't want the public to know. We need to dismantle his campaign and sabotage his brand. We are encouraging every able person with a computer to participate in this operation. This is not a warning, this is a declaration of total war. Donald Trump – it is too late to expect us."
In a separate written message posted online, Anonymous listed a number of websites chosen to be the initial targets in the attack including trump.com, donaldjtrump.com andtrumphotelcollection.com.
Alongside these chosen targets, the post lists a slew of unverified personal information purporting to belong to Donald Trump, including a social security number, personal phone number and the contact details of his agent and legal representation.
This is not the first time a hacking group has attempted to take on Donald Trump. In January 2016 a separate group called the New World Hackers carried out multiple DDoS attacks on his official election campaign website – effectively taking it offline for a short period of time. Recently, Anonymous leaked messages from his phone's voicemail account which included personal communications from journalists, sports stars and boxing promotors.
Anonymous, which is a loose collective of hacktivists, routinely engages high-profile targets as part of its cyber-campaigns. Previous subjects have included the Islamic State (IS), the Vatican and most recently the Turkish government.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Sanders would make college taxes worse
Many people of mature years are amazed at how many young people have voted for Senator Bernie Sanders, and are enthusiastic about the socialism he preaches.
Many of those older people have lived long enough to have seen socialism fail, time and again, in countries around the world. Venezuela, with all its rich oil resources, is currently on the verge of economic collapse, after its heady fling with socialism.
But, most of the young have missed all that, and their dumbed-down education is far more likely to present the inspiring rhetoric of socialism than to present its dismal track record.
Socialism is in fact a wonderful vision -- a world of the imagination far better than any place anywhere in the real world, at any time over the thousands of years of recorded history. Even many conservatives would probably prefer to live in such a world, if they thought it was possible.
Who would not want to live in a world where college was free, along with many other things, and where government protected us from the shocks of life and guaranteed our happiness? It would be Disneyland for adults!
Free college of course has an appeal to the young, especially those who have never studied economics. But college cannot possibly be free. It would not be free even if there was no such thing as money.
Consider the costs of just one professor teaching just one course. He or she has probably spent more than 20 years being educated, from kindergarten to the Ph.D., before ending up standing in front of a class and trying to convey some of the knowledge picked up in all those years. That means being fed, clothed and housed all those years, along with other expenses.
All the people who grew the food, manufactured the clothing and built the housing used by this one professor, for at least two decades, had to be compensated for their efforts, or those efforts would not continue. And of course someone has to produce food, clothing and shelter for all the students in this one course, as well as books, computers and other requirements or amenities.
Add up all these costs -- and multiply by a hundred or so -- and you have a rough idea of what going to college costs. Whether these costs are paid by using money in a capitalist economy or by some other mechanism in a feudal economy, a socialist economy, or whatever, there are heavy costs to pay.
Moreover, under any economic system, those costs are either going to be paid or there are not going to be any colleges. Money is just an artificial device for getting real things done.
Those young people who understand this, whether clearly or vaguely, are not likely to be deterred from wanting socialism. Because what they really want is for somebody else to pay for their decision to go to college.
A market economy is one in which whoever makes a decision is the one who pays for that decision. It forces people to be sure that what they want to do is really worth what it is going to cost.
Even the existing subsidies of college have led many people to go to college who have very little interest in, or benefit from, going to college, except for enjoying the social scene while postponing adult responsibilities for a few years.
Whether judging by test results, by number of hours per week devoted to studying or by on-campus interviews, it is clear that today's college students learn a lot less than college students once did. If college becomes "free," even more people can attend college without bothering to become educated and without acquiring re any economically meaningful skills.
More fundamentally, making all sorts of other things "free" means more of those things being wasted as well. Even worse, it means putting more and more of the decisions that shape our lives into the hands of politicians and bureaucrats who control the purse strings.
Obamacare has given us a foretaste of what that means in reality, despite how wonderful it may sound in political rhetoric.
Worst of all, government giveaways polarize society into segments, each trying to get what it wants at somebody else's expense, creating mutual bitterness that can tear a society apart. Some seem to blithely assume that "the rich" can be taxed to pay for what they want -- as if "the rich" don't see what is coming and take their wealth elsewhere.
Many of those older people have lived long enough to have seen socialism fail, time and again, in countries around the world. Venezuela, with all its rich oil resources, is currently on the verge of economic collapse, after its heady fling with socialism.
But, most of the young have missed all that, and their dumbed-down education is far more likely to present the inspiring rhetoric of socialism than to present its dismal track record.
Socialism is in fact a wonderful vision -- a world of the imagination far better than any place anywhere in the real world, at any time over the thousands of years of recorded history. Even many conservatives would probably prefer to live in such a world, if they thought it was possible.
Who would not want to live in a world where college was free, along with many other things, and where government protected us from the shocks of life and guaranteed our happiness? It would be Disneyland for adults!
Free college of course has an appeal to the young, especially those who have never studied economics. But college cannot possibly be free. It would not be free even if there was no such thing as money.
Consider the costs of just one professor teaching just one course. He or she has probably spent more than 20 years being educated, from kindergarten to the Ph.D., before ending up standing in front of a class and trying to convey some of the knowledge picked up in all those years. That means being fed, clothed and housed all those years, along with other expenses.
All the people who grew the food, manufactured the clothing and built the housing used by this one professor, for at least two decades, had to be compensated for their efforts, or those efforts would not continue. And of course someone has to produce food, clothing and shelter for all the students in this one course, as well as books, computers and other requirements or amenities.
Add up all these costs -- and multiply by a hundred or so -- and you have a rough idea of what going to college costs. Whether these costs are paid by using money in a capitalist economy or by some other mechanism in a feudal economy, a socialist economy, or whatever, there are heavy costs to pay.
Moreover, under any economic system, those costs are either going to be paid or there are not going to be any colleges. Money is just an artificial device for getting real things done.
Those young people who understand this, whether clearly or vaguely, are not likely to be deterred from wanting socialism. Because what they really want is for somebody else to pay for their decision to go to college.
A market economy is one in which whoever makes a decision is the one who pays for that decision. It forces people to be sure that what they want to do is really worth what it is going to cost.
Even the existing subsidies of college have led many people to go to college who have very little interest in, or benefit from, going to college, except for enjoying the social scene while postponing adult responsibilities for a few years.
Whether judging by test results, by number of hours per week devoted to studying or by on-campus interviews, it is clear that today's college students learn a lot less than college students once did. If college becomes "free," even more people can attend college without bothering to become educated and without acquiring re any economically meaningful skills.
More fundamentally, making all sorts of other things "free" means more of those things being wasted as well. Even worse, it means putting more and more of the decisions that shape our lives into the hands of politicians and bureaucrats who control the purse strings.
Obamacare has given us a foretaste of what that means in reality, despite how wonderful it may sound in political rhetoric.
Worst of all, government giveaways polarize society into segments, each trying to get what it wants at somebody else's expense, creating mutual bitterness that can tear a society apart. Some seem to blithely assume that "the rich" can be taxed to pay for what they want -- as if "the rich" don't see what is coming and take their wealth elsewhere.
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