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FWD.us Remixes the Statue of Liberty Greeting 160

theodp writes "In the days leading up to the Senate's passage of the landmark immigration bill, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new ad from FWD.us, his pro-immigration reform PAC. The ad, 'Emma', contains an altered version of Emma Lazarus' famous 1883 poem 'The New Colossus' ('Give me your tired, your poor...'), which is engraved on a bronze plaque inside the Statue of Liberty. 'In doing so,' notes the Latin Times, 'it [the ad] departs radically from the meaning of Lazarus' original — which exalted the Statue of Liberty as a "mother of exiles" and redeemer of the world's rootless poor — to accommodate the PAC's call for more high-skilled workers from abroad be allowed to work and live legally in the United States.' Instead of the original's call for 'the wretched refuse of your teeming shore' and 'the homeless, tempest-tossed', the FWD.us remix asks for 'the influencers and the dreamers...talent that is searching for purpose...those dedicated to the doing'. Here's a YouTube Doubler of readings of both versions — pick your fave, kids!"
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FWD.us Remixes the Statue of Liberty Greeting

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    The idea was that the USA would be a shining city on a hill, an example for other nations.
    It wasn't supposed to be a beacon for immigrants.
    "Hey, you can do this too"... not "Hey, come over here cause you can't get your shit together over there"...

    • by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @06:56PM (#44160595)

      The idea was that the USA would be a shining city on a hill, an example for other nations.
      It wasn't supposed to be a beacon for immigrants.
      "Hey, you can do this too"... not "Hey, come over here cause you can't get your shit together over there"...

      Whose idea?

      Why did the people who wrote our constitution include a clause granting citizenship to those who are born here? Had *they* already perverted the idea?

      When I was a schoolboy we were taught to take pride in the fact that we were and always had been a melting pot. Somehow we've run off the rails since then.

      • Why did the people who wrote our constitution include a clause granting citizenship to those who are born here?

        To ensure that former slaves and their descendants were considered citizens. You're talking about the 14th Amendment, which was ratified 3 years after the Civil War. I believe in birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants, but as a matter of historical fact that was not why the 14th Amendment was enacted. In fact children of white immigrants were considered citizens by birthright long before the Civil War.

        When I was a schoolboy we were taught to take pride in the fact that we were and always had been a melting pot.

        They told me it was a salad bowl (seriously). The idea that "we were and always had been a m

        • They told me it was a salad bowl (seriously).

          I had a history professor who referred to it as a "giant tossed salad."

          • by readin ( 838620 )
            It wasn't where I grew up in the Midwest. We had two ingredients that could be considered separated like the ingredients in a tossed salad - there were blacks and whites. Have ingredients act like a tossed salad wasn't working out so well.

            On the other hand, the people from all over Europe, as well as native Americans and people from other places too, were pretty thoroughly mixed and there were no other ethnic tensions to speak of. It was very common for people to have a little bit of Cherokee in them
      • The melting pot thing has been, IMHO, always been more an observation of fact, rather than an ideal. That is to say, the melting of several different kinds of metals together does, at times, give birth, to a stronger alloy. You don't want to use a weapon of pure iron up against someone using a blade of forged steel...your blade will crack in two when the blades meet. Unfortunately, the process is, as we've seen, closer to serendipity when a new alloy is discovered, especially since the science is still matu

        • by readin ( 838620 )
          Whether or not the melting of metals together creates a something stronger than the original metals may be chance. But certainly an alloy is better than blade composed of various chunks of unalloyed metals barely attached to each other.

          The alternative to the melting pot isn't the salad bowl, it's the Balkans. Or pick your favorite salad bowl. Pretty much anywhere in the world where various cultures and peoples have become mixed they've either assimilated to the point of no longer being able to easily
          • So by all means let's have a melting pot. Even if melting two metals together forms a blade weaker than either of the two metals, that blade will still be stronger than a blade made of two separate pieces of metal or a blade made from metals that have not thoroughly blended.

            Wrong: bi-metal blades are extremely common in applications like jigsaws (sabre saws) and reciprocating saws ("sawzalls"), because they're more durable than single-metal blades. Bi-metal is not an allow, it's two separate metals joined

        • by Zynder ( 2773551 )
          This is an absolutely awesome nerd explanation and one of the reasons I still frequent this site. However, you have a 6 digit UID so you can't be new here. Please in traditional slashdot style, make an equally epic analogy using a car. I expect the resultant analogy to be akin to a Mustang with a Delorean engine, Citroen running gear, Allison transmission, and some sort of JATO rocket sticking out of the trunk. DON'T LET ME DOWN!!!!!!
      • When I was a schoolboy we were taught to take pride in the fact that we were and always had been a melting pot.

        Yes - I've always found it amusing that the US is so proud of being a "melting pot". This suggests that all cultural distinctiveness will be lost and you have to become just like everyone else - it's the Borg approach to immigration. Not sure why you would want to be so proud of that but, having once been a US resident, I'll grant that it is an accurate metaphor.

        • by 0123456 ( 636235 )

          You're right. Ghettos, no-go areas and riots are much better than assimilation.

          • False dichotomy. Can't you think of any alternatives?

            In Canada (not sure about other places) they often contrast the tossed salad with the melting pot. In a tossed salad, there is distinction without separation (no ghettos yet no assimilation).

            Of course these are both metaphors and we can argue about reality, but surely you can at least conceptualize two distinct cultures living together without race riots. Realistically, swathes of the US are like that, regardless of the melting pot metaphor.

            • by 0123456 ( 636235 )

              In Canada (not sure about other places) they often contrast the tossed salad with the melting pot. In a tossed salad, there is distinction without separation (no ghettos yet no assimilation).

              And what makes you think there are no immigrant ghettos in Canada?

            • by readin ( 838620 )

              False dichotomy. Can't you think of any alternatives?

              In Canada (not sure about other places) they often contrast the tossed salad with the melting pot. In a tossed salad, there is distinction without separation (no ghettos yet no assimilation).

              Of course these are both metaphors and we can argue about reality, but surely you can at least conceptualize two distinct cultures living together without race riots.

              If I naively assume the best about people, or assume they're all just like me, then sure I can conceptualize that. But people aren't like that. Can you give an example of a society that has long endured and prospered as a salad bowl? (America is not an example, while there are salad bowl sections most have historically melted together and the most salad bowl like relation-between blacks and whites-nearly destroyed the country).

              Realistically, swathes of the US are like that, regardless of the melting pot metaphor.

              And realistically it often causes problems.

            • False dichotomy. Can't you think of any alternatives?

              In Canada (not sure about other places) they often contrast the tossed salad with the melting pot. In a tossed salad, there is distinction without separation (no ghettos yet no assimilation).

              Of course these are both metaphors and we can argue about reality, but surely you can at least conceptualize two distinct cultures living together without race riots. Realistically, swathes of the US are like that, regardless of the melting pot metaphor.

              The dichotomy is not false, it just simply hasn't come to fruition yet. If we look to history when you have large numbers of people from different ethnic or cultural values coming together one of two things must happen. They all blend to form a new people or, in the best case, they live together with mutual tension and the occasional flare up and/or war.

              It is not possible to be both one people and many. You can have a country made up of many different peoples. You cannot have a Nation made up of such.

              The Am

        • Yes - I've always found it amusing that the US is so proud of being a "melting pot". This suggests that all cultural distinctiveness will be lost and you have to become just like everyone else

          Nice try at snarky low-level anti-Americanism, but it means no such thing. It does not mean that any more than being, say Polish, means that Poles have no individual identity. It does mean that our culture is an American alloy.

        • This suggests that all cultural distinctiveness will be lost and you have to become just like everyone else - it's the Borg approach to immigration. Not sure why you would want to be so proud of that

          Because it's the only solution that works long-term.

          (I am an immigrant in US, so I would dare say that I have the moral right to judge.)

        • You really think crossing the border strips any and all cultural identity from everyone? The whole melting pot metaphor is supposed to represent how culturally diverse we are, and it's true almost to an annoying level in some places.

          If you really were a US resident, I don't know where you lived to feel so disconnected from the amplitude of intertwined cultures, but it's certainly not the norm.

        • by readin ( 838620 ) on Tuesday July 02, 2013 @01:46AM (#44162739)

          When I was a schoolboy we were taught to take pride in the fact that we were and always had been a melting pot.

          Yes - I've always found it amusing that the US is so proud of being a "melting pot". This suggests that all cultural distinctiveness will be lost and you have to become just like everyone else - it's the Borg approach to immigration. Not sure why you would want to be so proud of that but, having once been a US resident, I'll grant that it is an accurate metaphor.

          Although the metaphor isn't perfect, part of the idea of the melting pot is that you take the best parts from every culture. As for the cultural distinctiveness, the original cultures remain in whatever land they came from - where they still fight with their neighbors over those differences.

          If you're born here, you're not losing your culture - you're living the culture you were born to. If you came here, well, why did you come if you didn't think the culture had a lot to offer? If you want to come here and embrace American culture while keeping a few of your own things that you honestly think are better, great! But if you want to come here and make is just like the place that was so much worse that you wanted to leave, then WTF?

        • When I was a schoolboy we were taught to take pride in the fact that we were and always had been a melting pot.

          Yes - I've always found it amusing that the US is so proud of being a "melting pot". This suggests that all cultural distinctiveness will be lost and you have to become just like everyone else - it's the Borg approach to immigration. Not sure why you would want to be so proud of that but, having once been a US resident, I'll grant that it is an accurate metaphor.

          Well, there is a certain danger in mistaking metaphors for reality. But when you melt stuff together, you don't lose the original characteristics, you blend them. Which is how we ended up with spaghetti and meatballs. Which isn't actually Italian, but owes its existence to Italian immigrants adapting their cuisine to American food pricing and availability. And is regularly enjoyed by almost everyone else in the USA.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by gandhi_2 ( 1108023 )

        They were the Enlightenment ideas. Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Thomas Jefferson.
        The United States of America was the first nation in history to be founded on ideas.
        Every other country that ever existed was based on ethnicity. Even today we see people trying to break away to form ethnic homelands.

        What Idea? The idea that the people allow a government, rather than the government allowing the people. The idea that a government was a social contract among free people in a state of nature. Personal sovereignty. E

        • by ebno-10db ( 1459097 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @08:06PM (#44161053)

          Every other country that ever existed was based on ethnicity. ... The melting pot idea was introduced by people who had something to gain.

          First you praise the US for not being based on ethnicity, and then you criticize the melting pot. Talk about a confused argument.

          • His point was that ethnicity was not an important factor in the formation of the US, neither in one direction (separate ethnicities/only ethnicity x) nor in the other direction (melting pot). Basing your country on ideas instead of ethnicity of course encourages some kind of melting pot, but the melting pot is neither the means nor the end - it is just a side effect.
      • When I was a schoolboy we were taught to take pride in the fact that we were and always had been a melting pot.

        Anti-immigration sentiment has run high and low to varying degrees since at least the 1890s, when we essentially shut down all immigration for China, and much for the same reasons, "they are taking our jobs." Somehow we still have jobs in America, even after four centuries of immigration......

        • we do?
          • Maybe you haven't been paying attention, but almost all the anti-immigration sentiment that you see is because 'they' are taking our jobs.
            • I was asking what jobs we had left.

              welfare is at an all time high, less Americans are employeed at any time since women entered the work force.

              Lets be blunt the concept of hiring immigrants has never been about compassion, but about paying them lower wages than they could pay Americans.

              If you want to have a conversation about Americans being lazy it starts with the stock holders and ends hipsters with bigger mouths than brains and 4 year degrees in beer drinking, and existential bullshit philosphy.

              So immigr
              • How many jobs do you think there were available in 1850? How many jobs do you think there are today? If immigrants destroyed jobs, there wouldn't be nearly as many.

                Basically, if you're upset at "Indians" taking your job or "Mexicans" taking your job, you're not only racist, you're an idiot. If that doesn't match you, then please realize I am not talking about you.
          • At what point in your lifetime has America not had jobs? I'm only in my mid 30s, but at no point in my life has America not had jobs.

            In the past few years there were plenty of lazy fucks who were unwilling to work a job that was 'beneath' them.

            The people 'taking our jobs' are taking jobs the complainers are unwilling to work for pay they are unwilling to accept.

            Foreigners don't take American jobs, American's are too fucking lazy to do them in the first place.

            • by readin ( 838620 )

              At what point in your lifetime has America not had jobs? I'm only in my mid 30s, but at no point in my life has America not had jobs.

              In the past few years there were plenty of lazy fucks who were unwilling to work a job that was 'beneath' them.

              The people 'taking our jobs' are taking jobs the complainers are unwilling to work for pay they are unwilling to accept.

              Foreigners don't take American jobs, American's are too fucking lazy to do them in the first place.

              "...jobs, Mexicans are too fucking lazy to do them..."
              "...jobs, Africans are too fucking lazy to do them..."
              "...jobs, Chinese are too fucking lazy to do them..."
              "...jobs, Arabs are too fucking lazy to do them..."
              It sure sounds racist if you say that for any other nationality. For Americans it's ok?

              • Whether it sounds racist should not be important, whether it is true should be the important distinction. And although I disagree with much of the sentiment behind GPs post, technically it seems to be true. Disclaimer: I don't live in the US and have only limited knowledge about the situation.
            • the present, real unemployment around 19%, and more people not working since.

              and stop with this Lazy American bullshit. Your projecting YOUR lazyness onto others who's "laziness" is wanting to make minimum wage.

              Why is that so called liberals resort of conservative arguments when backed into a corner.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by nbauman ( 624611 )

        When I was a schoolboy we were taught to take pride in the fact that we were and always had been a melting pot. Somehow we've run off the rails since then.

        The idea of a melting pot was first popularized in the play, The Melting Pot (1908) by Israel Zangwill.
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Melting_Pot_(play) [wikipedia.org] The famous line is:

        "America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming... Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians - into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American."

        If you read the play, you'll see that he was talking about what became a popular idea of assimilation, while preserving some of the native culture. Don't worry, we're not going to take your Christmas trees away.

        Emma Lazarus wrote her poem in a climate of socialism. She was a supporter of the immigrant poor.
        The Latin Times is correct to

    • The idea was that the USA would be a shining city on a hill, an example for other nations.
      It wasn't supposed to be a beacon for immigrants.

      "The shining city on a hill" is very recent, far more so than massive US immigration promoted by the US. The US desire for immigrants dates back at-least to the Louisiana Purchase (1803), where it was acknowledged that holding the land against other powers with colonial ambitions required occupation by US citizens, with economic ties to the east coast.

  • by ebno-10db ( 1459097 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @06:46PM (#44160489)

    From the summary:

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new ad from FWD.us, his pro-immigration reform PAC.

    This is inaccurate. The main focus of the PAC is on guest workers, not immigrants.

    • by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @06:57PM (#44160599)

      "Guest workers" is such a euphemism, we should use something more accurate:

      out-sourcing trainees
      skill exporters
      wage reducers
      foreign vulnerables

      Don't get me wrong, I welcome actual immigrants. I don't even have a problem with individuals who come here for temporary jobs of any sort. I just think that a system where the top 10 h1b employers - accounting for half of all h1b visa holders are outsourcers [motherjones.com] is in any way good for americans citizens or immigrants. If anything it discourages the next generation from even considering the idea of going to school to learn how to be an engineer which just makes things even worse for us down the road.

      • If Big Business was serious about their rhetoric, they'd be trying to expand the E-visa quotas [state.gov] instead of the H1-B quotas.
        That would allow us to truly recruit the cream of the crop instead of trying to vacuum up even more of the 1~1.5 million engineers that India graduates every year.

    • by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @06:59PM (#44160625)

      From the summary:

      Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new ad from FWD.us, his pro-immigration reform PAC.

      This is inaccurate. The main focus of the PAC is on guest workers, not immigrants.

      Yeah, "pro-immigration reform" is a bit of a stretch for "pro-cheap-foreign-labor reform".

      "Give us your (somewhat) skilled workers willing to work for a sub-standard wage.
        Or rather, just loan them to us long enough for the next group to be ready."

    • From the summary:

      Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new ad from FWD.us, his pro-immigration reform PAC.

      This is inaccurate. The main focus of the PAC is on guest workers, not immigrants.

      That always works so well. To alleviate a shortage of workers after WW2, Germany had
      a "guest worker [wikipedia.org]" program, inviting over a million of mostly young
      men to work in German industries, for what was assumed would be a limited
      time, after which they would return "home".

      Guess what: Germany became home, and over 60 years later, there are now
      millions of third-generation descendants of those guest workers living in Germany.

      "There was a call for workers, and there came people." – Max Frisch

      • by hjf ( 703092 )

        But it did turn out pretty well for germany! The whole fucking country was destroyed after war and it's one of the most industrialized countries in the world now!

        Let's not forget: the problem with immigration in the US is not the illegal immigrants. It's the non white immigrants ;)

        Don't believe me? Look at the linked facebook page "boo hoo, these are not Ellis Island immigrants, they are southern border" Wow. Come on. We all know it's a racism issue, but at least try to keep pretending it's about illegal im

    • of course it is, its a PAC, promoting the self-intrest of facebook's CEOs, as well as the intrests of other corporate and stockholders of various tech companies.

      The message is simple: more cheap foreign labor

    • This is inaccurate. The main focus of the PAC is on guest workers, not immigrants.

      If by "guest workers" you mean all H-1Bs, then you should understand that for many people this is, effectively, the only viable path to green card and citizenship, so they're guest workers in name only (and, coincidentally, handling this is precisely why H-1B is considered a "dual intent" [wikipedia.org] visa).

      I can't say for Facebook specifically, but if they're anything like Google and Microsoft in that regard (and I would expect that to be the case), then they sponsor all their H-1B employees for green cards as soon as

      • If by "guest workers" you mean all H-1Bs, then you should understand that for many people this is, effectively, the only viable path to green card

        Why is that effectively the only viable path? Because there are limits and quotas on immigration to the US, and there are many more applicants than available slots. So why are H-1B's entitled to special consideration? There's no objective evidence that their skills are in short supply in this country.

        In which case their stance would be very much pro-immigration in practice.

        No, the H-1B doesn't increase chances for immigrants in general, it just skews the selection of immigrants in a way that's to the advantage of tech billionaires. If you believe that Zuckerberg, Gates, and the r

        • Why is that effectively the only viable path? Because there are limits and quotas on immigration to the US, and there are many more applicants than available slots. So why are H-1B's entitled to special consideration?

          Your logic is flawed. It's not that "H1Bs are entitled to special consideration". It's that people who want to immigrate take whatever paths are available to them, and for people without relatives in the country, H1B is often the only track available.

          And what is wrong with that, exactly? Most other countries that do immigration also provide the work-to-citizenship track.

          • It's not that "H1Bs are entitled to special consideration". It's that people who want to immigrate take whatever paths are available to them

            It is special consideration because there is no justification for it, but I don't blame people here on H-1B's or hold any animosity towards them whatsoever. It's US government policy that I have a problem with.

            Most other countries that do immigration also provide the work-to-citizenship track.

            We're talking about work-to-green-card, not work-to-citizenship. If US policies were seriously about immigration then we'd skip the indentured servitude step and just give them green cards. That was the correct and traditional US approach. Five years and you can apply for citizenship (a policy we had

            • We're talking about work-to-green-card, not work-to-citizenship.

              Pragmatically, it's the same thing with one extra step. Most people who get green cards go on go get citizenship, and getting it is pretty easy at that point - if you want it, you'll have it.

              . If US policies were seriously about immigration then we'd skip the indentured servitude step and just give them green cards. That was the correct and traditional US approach. Five years and you can apply for citizenship (a policy we had since 1790).

              The policy that you've had since 1790 was no entry visas at all, and a person only needed to live and pay taxes in the country for a year (in a few locations, two years) to become a full-fledged citizen. There was no such thing as a green card, either.

              Mind you, if every H1B (who declared intent to immigrate) would just

  • Fuckerberg (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @06:48PM (#44160497)

    Seriously fuck that guy. I'm sure that if it wasn't him, some other unscrupulous douche would be in his place doing basically the same shit but he's the one here and now so fuck him and his abuse of the powerless.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Looking at the list there, it's basically everyone in Silicon Valley, except... Apple? (I'd say Amazon, too, but they're not Silicon Valley).

      All the big names are there, including Google and Microsoft, and various other ones.

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @06:50PM (#44160517)
    whichever one doesn't involve me competing head on with 1 million new (and desperate) working in the worst economy since WWII?
  • by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @06:50PM (#44160527) Journal

    "Keep your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
    Send me your young, your rich,
    Your highly skilled, willing to work 18 hour days.
    They will soon be returned to you as wretched refuse,
    on your teeming shore."

    • Sadly, this is probably the most accurate version of what's happening today. The immigrants cheering this on seem to not realize that the immigration reform currently in the works is merely a way to legalize and increase the exploitation of those already here illegally. This will not end well, for anyone. We'll bring more tired and poor from overseas, as long as they have barely sufficient technical skill to push the right buttons at approximately the right time. We'll displace skilled workers with chea

    • by adisakp ( 705706 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @07:09PM (#44160713) Journal
      Here's the original for those too lazy to search:

      "The New Colossus"
      Emma Lazarus - 1883

      Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
      With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
      Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
      A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
      Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
      Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
      Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
      The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
      "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
      With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
      Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
      The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
      Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
      I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
      • I'm actually crying when I read this, but thank you for posting it.

      • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @10:58PM (#44161907) Journal
        You can see the difference between the original and the Zuckerberg version.

        The original version says, "all those people that you rejected, we can see that, even though on the outside they like worthless, they have good in them. Send them to us and we will help bring out their greatness."

        Zuckerberg is saying, "Hey send us all your good people, who everyone knows is good. We want them."

        The generosity of the first is easily matched by the selfishness of the second.
      • I like a lot of poetry of this era (so I'm not necessarily put off by the formalism, heightened style and Classical references)... but nonetheless my opinion of this poem ranges from "mediocre" to "fucking awful". It's also more than a little insulting to its target audience of prospective immigrants.

        And I gotta say that the actual statue is the most hideous thing I've ever seen. What a horrible first impression to make: "Welcome to the U.S., where we have no taste in art or literature!" (Not saying that

  • Should be (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 01, 2013 @07:00PM (#44160639)

    I am a brazen giant of Geek fame,
    Who conquered networks astride from lan to lan;
    Here at our white-washed, paywalls shall stand
    A nerdy man whose torch lights flame wars
    Master of walled gardens
    Father of social Exiles. From his mouse-hand
    Glows the world-wide web; his code wileding minions command
    The air-gapped harbor that geocities frame.
    "Keep, ancient pictures, your funny stories!" cries he
    With silent lips. "Give me your engineers , your admins,
    Your huddled masses yearning to code C,
    The wretched refuse of your Mac store.
    Send these, the clueless, tempest-tost to me,
    I need more fodder for my golden horde!"

  • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @07:01PM (#44160643) Journal
    Here are the added lines:

    And give me the influencers and the dreamers/
    Talent that is searching for purpose/
    Those dedicated to the doing
    ...
    Send all these, the boundless born to me


    I guess that's what you get when your writers are unaware of meter......I'd really like to know who thought the word 'influencers' meant anything. Woodie Guthrie could improvise more poetic speech live.
    • influencers: those who influence.
    • Those dedicated to the doing

      How transcendentally awful. Adding lines to a sonnet and not respecting the structure. Was it too much effort to do it in iambic pentameter?

  • Mr Zuckerburg would throw the statue of liberty in your face with his ad. But when I see the H1B's roll in, I see no families. Why?

    As for India, isn't it time to let them be free, of us? Canada's oil pipe to Huston Texas can only help the buyers in Brazil; are they not able to be free of us?
    • But when I see the H1B's roll in, I see no families. Why?

      Because you aren't looking hard? I'm an H-1B employee, and I moved with my wife (divorced since). Every single person on that visa I know who is in a relationship (which is most of them) have their partners, kids etc with them.

      • Sucks to be you. I have a relationship with my family also. By the way, I'm not divorced. I have observed the family values of Asia to be every bit as intense as those on the other side of the planet, north and south. So when I see a new crop of harvested geniuses shipped in from the loading dock; my first thought is "congratulations" for makng it here. It's a shame you didn't bring the reason for coming here." So I ask you, "Why do you come here and not bring the ones you dearly love, your family?" I ques
        • I couldn't care less about "family values" of my home country (and it is not in Asia). One of the reasons why I moved here is because I wanted to avoid the intolerant bigotry that passes for "values" there, and because I gave up on trying to change that.

  • by Ryanrule ( 1657199 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @08:21PM (#44161115)

    Zuck him. He can go zuck himself. What a motherzucker.

  • I try to tell myself it was all an illusion in the first place.

    But it doesn't feel that way.

    • It wasn't this way until after 1980 or so when everything became all about the DOLLAR.

      It could easily swing back. All it would take is another activist generation. The seeds for that already exist in the current abuses.

  • by hessian ( 467078 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @08:50PM (#44161247) Homepage Journal

    We'll invite everyone in.

    Culture? We have none. We are all citizens of the television.

    Heritage? None. We are arbitrary, gray and without origins. We need government, television and shopping to feel a sense of place.

    Values? We have nothing in common except that we like money, we like sex, and we like to shop.

    It's the path to Idiocracy + Brave New World.

    Why does Zuckerberg support it? Cheap labor. People who permanent vote for no majority rule. And more customers who haven't yet gotten jaded about the decay.

    • Values? We have nothing in common except that we like money, we like sex, and we like to shop.

      ...as long as no tits pop out at us on the TV through all the sex, or the National Security Federal Bureau of Intelligence Agency Communications Commission may get angry.

    • by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      funny how you have no culture despite your culture being the most visible international export culture.

      the ipod may be assembled in china but it sure exports american culture.

  • The new one to makes me want to puke.

    The old one is genius, and what my great-grandfather lived.

  • FUCK.US (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Monday July 01, 2013 @09:11PM (#44161369)
    Zuckerberg spelled FWD.US wrong. He got lucky and made billions, and now he wants the rest of us to go fuck ourselves so he can make ever more billions.

    I think that he is the one who should get fucked. If he was on fire i wouldn't piss on him to put him out.

  • FWD.us made me think of the defunct VoIP service known as FreeWorldDialup and run by Jeff Pulver. Nevermind, then.

  • by readin ( 838620 ) on Tuesday July 02, 2013 @01:34AM (#44162693)
    I dream of someday being rich enough to support more immigration and even illegal immigration like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"...a most excellent barbarian ... Genghis Kahn!" -- _Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure_

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