Michael Feathers: "Recently when people have asked me what a unit test is I tell them it is a test that runs in under 1/10th of a second." (XP mailing list)
"If the computer gets wet, would compressing its files help dry it out?" (said in a dream I had.)
They have put a huge amount of money into creating the language for their worldview and getting it out there....
Language always comes with what is called "framing." Every word is defined relative to a conceptual framework.... "revolt," that implies a population that is being ruled unfairly... If you then add the word "voter" in front of "revolt," you get a metaphorical meaning saying that the voters are the oppressed people....
In Arnold Schwarzenegger's acceptance speech, he said, "When the people win, politics as usual loses." ... what he has done is frame himself and also Republican politicians as the people, while framing Democratic politicians as politics as usual....
The conservative worldview, the strict father model, assumes that the world is dangerous and difficult and that children are born bad and must be made good. ... The only way to do that is through painful discipline ... good people are the disciplined people. ... to the right wing, the good citizens are the disciplined ones ... Wealth is a measure of discipline.
... With Schwarzenegger, it's in his movies: most of the characters that he plays exemplify that moral system. ... He just had to stand up there, and he represents Mr. Discipline.
The phrase "Tax relief" ... got picked up by the newspapers as if it were a neutral term, which it is not. First, you have the frame for "relief." For there to be relief, there has to be an affliction, an afflicted party, somebody who administers the relief, and an act in which you are relieved of the affliction. The reliever is the hero, and anybody who tries to stop them is the bad guy intent on keeping the affliction going. So, add "tax" to "relief" and you get a metaphor that taxation is an affliction, and anybody against relieving this affliction is a villain.
So what should they be calling it [taxes]?
... Taxes are what you pay to be an American, to live in a civilized society that is democratic and offers opportunity, and where there's an infrastructure that has been paid for by previous taxpayers. ... The highway system, the Internet, the TV system, the public education system, the power grid, the system for training scientists ... which has to be maintained and paid for. Taxes are your dues — you pay your dues to be an American. In addition, the wealthiest Americans use that infrastructure more than anyone else, and they use parts of it that other people don't. The federal justice system, for example, is nine-tenths devoted to corporate law. The Securities and Exchange Commission and all the apparatus of the Commerce Department are mainly used by the wealthy. And we're all paying for it.
People vote their identity, they don't just vote on the issues, and Democrats don't understand that. Look at Schwarzenegger, who says nothing about the issues. The Democrats ask, How could anyone vote for this guy? They did because he put forth an identity.
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