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1. Afghanistan, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003
2. Bosnia, 1994, 1995
3. Cambodia, 1969-70
4. China, 1945-46
5. Congo (now Zaire), 1964
6. Cuba, 1959-1961 ("Bay of Pigs" invasion)
7. El Salvador, 1980s
8. Grenada, 1983
9. Guatemala, 1954, 1960, 1967-69
10. Indonesia, 1958
11. Iran, 1987
12. Iraq, 1991-2000, 2003 (The U.S. government used radioactive bombs in the first war against Iraq. See United States War Crimes Against Iraq for what appears to be an accurate history.)
13. Korea and China, 1950-53 (Korean War)
14. Kuwait, 1991
15. Laos, 1964-73
16. Lebanon, 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
17. Libya, 1986
18. Nicaragua, 1980s
19. Panama, 1989. The U.S. government called it "Operation Just Cause". The link is to a U.S. military web site.
20. Peru, 1965
21. Somalia, 1993
22. Sudan 1998. There are doubts that the pharmaceutical plant that was bombed was making weapons.
23. Vietnam, 1961-73 (An estimated 2,000,000 Vietnamese were killed.)
24. Yugoslavia, 1999

There are many sources for this information. For example, see this PBS web page: PBS: A Chronology of U.S. Military Interventions (PBS is the Public Broadcasting System in the U.S.) Also see From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan: A Century of U.S. Military Interventions [zmag.org] and The government of the United States is a consistent opponent of international law. [

I forgot to mention this but according to the CIA Fact Book entry for Singapore, it has a population of about 4.5 million in 692 sq km of area. That works out to about 1.6 million people iper 100 square miles! I'd say that that's close to what the article speaks of. (Ofcourse anyone who's been to Singapore will know that the population distribution is not uniform, given that a lot of Singapore is sparsely populated forest area.)

Hey, maybe once Ghana gets their IT infrastructure up to speed, they can launch their own version of the Nigerian Email Scam.

Unfortunately this says "the lack of a well-developed financial infrastructure limits the country's utility as a money-laundering center". Bummer.

An Anonymous Coward writes "Apparently, Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator in the employ of the Kingdom of Spain has found a way to navigate west across the Atlantic Ocean to new territories in India." No word yet on we can expect broadband internet access there, but this could be a mighty blow to the RIAA.

The Symbonese Liberation Army. The Bader-Meinhoff Gang. Those were both terrorist groups, recruited from the spoiled brats of white middle and upper classes of the US and Germany, respectively. The white middle and upper classes in those two countries weren't significantly oppressed during the 60's through 90's. I think that counts as a counter example.

Most of the terrorists we've seen in the news recently have been from Saudi Arabia; I think that they provided at least a plurality of Al Qida manpower. Saudi Arabia is not poor, is under local control, and if they aren't treated fairly, they certainly shouldn't blame us. Yet, they have funded most of the terrorist effort in recent years, and have produced a lot of the suicidal mass murders.

The one thing that all of the terrorists have in common is that they come from truely FOUL dictatorships. The Palestinians are misruled by the PLO. We've all been hearing accounts of how Hussein had oppressed and abused the Iraqis; the PLO is just as murderous. Indonesia and Malaysia are far better than Iraq or Saudi Arabia, but they still have bad governments, and they do produce some terrorists. The Phillipines has a big problem with Muslim terrorists, and also a notoriously corrupt government (they do seem to be working on improving that, slowly). Saudi Arabia has a terribly oppressive government, and in the previous paragraph I pointed out that they've done more than their share to export hatred and death.

Terrorism seems to be a creature of bad government. Even when the governments don't explicitly use it as a tool as Libya did, they use hatred of some convenient target like the US to keep their citizens too busy to hate their oppressors.

Bad government may be a product of bad society, or vise versa. Certainly, soemone who's grown up in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, and watched as evil murders get ahead by doing evil, will have a very different view of the world than will an American.

You'll notice that many of the riots we see reported in the Middle East happen on a Friday, local time. The imams preach in the mosques on Friday. That's not coincidence: the imams preach hatred and murder, and incite the mobs. They go out and riot after church. This religious reinforcement might help explain why oppressive governments in non muslim countries, such as Burma, haven't produced so many terrorists.

Perhaps US foriegn policy should concentrate less on supporting repressive regimes so they can get cheap oil and more on helping the people live free (without all the bombing ;) ).

That's what those recent wars in Afganistan and Iraq were all about. If the people there are free, they won't be bombing others.

The Symbonese Liberation Army. The Bader-Meinhoff Gang. Those were both terrorist groups, recruited from the spoiled brats of white middle and upper classes of the US and Germany, respectively. The white middle and upper classes in those two countries weren't significantly oppressed during the 60's through 90's. I think that counts as a counter example.

Most of the terrorists we've seen in the news recently have been from Saudi Arabia; I think that they provided at least a plurality of Al Qida manpower. Saudi Arabia is not poor, is under local control, and if they aren't treated fairly, they certainly shouldn't blame us. Yet, they have funded most of the terrorist effort in recent years, and have produced a lot of the suicidal mass murders.

The one thing that all of the terrorists have in common is that they come from truely FOUL dictatorships. The Palestinians are misruled by the PLO. We've all been hearing accounts of how Hussein had oppressed and abused the Iraqis; the PLO is just as murderous. Indonesia and Malaysia are far better than Iraq or Saudi Arabia, but they still have bad governments, and they do produce some terrorists. The Phillipines has a big problem with Muslim terrorists, and also a notoriously corrupt government (they do seem to be working on improving that, slowly). Saudi Arabia has a terribly oppressive government, and in the previous paragraph I pointed out that they've done more than their share to export hatred and death.

Terrorism seems to be a creature of bad government. Even when the governments don't explicitly use it as a tool as Libya did, they use hatred of some convenient target like the US to keep their citizens too busy to hate their oppressors.

Bad government may be a product of bad society, or vise versa. Certainly, soemone who's grown up in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, and watched as evil murders get ahead by doing evil, will have a very different view of the world than will an American.

You'll notice that many of the riots we see reported in the Middle East happen on a Friday, local time. The imams preach in the mosques on Friday. That's not coincidence: the imams preach hatred and murder, and incite the mobs. They go out and riot after church. This religious reinforcement might help explain why oppressive governments in non muslim countries, such as Burma, haven't produced so many terrorists.

Perhaps US foriegn policy should concentrate less on supporting repressive regimes so they can get cheap oil and more on helping the people live free (without all the bombing ;) ).

That's what those recent wars in Afganistan and Iraq were all about. If the people there are free, they won't be bombing others.

The Symbonese Liberation Army. The Bader-Meinhoff Gang. Those were both terrorist groups, recruited from the spoiled brats of white middle and upper classes of the US and Germany, respectively. The white middle and upper classes in those two countries weren't significantly oppressed during the 60's through 90's. I think that counts as a counter example.

Most of the terrorists we've seen in the news recently have been from Saudi Arabia; I think that they provided at least a plurality of Al Qida manpower. Saudi Arabia is not poor, is under local control, and if they aren't treated fairly, they certainly shouldn't blame us. Yet, they have funded most of the terrorist effort in recent years, and have produced a lot of the suicidal mass murders.

The one thing that all of the terrorists have in common is that they come from truely FOUL dictatorships. The Palestinians are misruled by the PLO. We've all been hearing accounts of how Hussein had oppressed and abused the Iraqis; the PLO is just as murderous. Indonesia and Malaysia are far better than Iraq or Saudi Arabia, but they still have bad governments, and they do produce some terrorists. The Phillipines has a big problem with Muslim terrorists, and also a notoriously corrupt government (they do seem to be working on improving that, slowly). Saudi Arabia has a terribly oppressive government, and in the previous paragraph I pointed out that they've done more than their share to export hatred and death.

Terrorism seems to be a creature of bad government. Even when the governments don't explicitly use it as a tool as Libya did, they use hatred of some convenient target like the US to keep their citizens too busy to hate their oppressors.

Bad government may be a product of bad society, or vise versa. Certainly, soemone who's grown up in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, and watched as evil murders get ahead by doing evil, will have a very different view of the world than will an American.

You'll notice that many of the riots we see reported in the Middle East happen on a Friday, local time. The imams preach in the mosques on Friday. That's not coincidence: the imams preach hatred and murder, and incite the mobs. They go out and riot after church. This religious reinforcement might help explain why oppressive governments in non muslim countries, such as Burma, haven't produced so many terrorists.

Perhaps US foriegn policy should concentrate less on supporting repressive regimes so they can get cheap oil and more on helping the people live free (without all the bombing ;) ).

That's what those recent wars in Afganistan and Iraq were all about. If the people there are free, they won't be bombing others.

The Symbonese Liberation Army. The Bader-Meinhoff Gang. Those were both terrorist groups, recruited from the spoiled brats of white middle and upper classes of the US and Germany, respectively. The white middle and upper classes in those two countries weren't significantly oppressed during the 60's through 90's. I think that counts as a counter example.

Most of the terrorists we've seen in the news recently have been from Saudi Arabia; I think that they provided at least a plurality of Al Qida manpower. Saudi Arabia is not poor, is under local control, and if they aren't treated fairly, they certainly shouldn't blame us. Yet, they have funded most of the terrorist effort in recent years, and have produced a lot of the suicidal mass murders.

The one thing that all of the terrorists have in common is that they come from truely FOUL dictatorships. The Palestinians are misruled by the PLO. We've all been hearing accounts of how Hussein had oppressed and abused the Iraqis; the PLO is just as murderous. Indonesia and Malaysia are far better than Iraq or Saudi Arabia, but they still have bad governments, and they do produce some terrorists. The Phillipines has a big problem with Muslim terrorists, and also a notoriously corrupt government (they do seem to be working on improving that, slowly). Saudi Arabia has a terribly oppressive government, and in the previous paragraph I pointed out that they've done more than their share to export hatred and death.

Terrorism seems to be a creature of bad government. Even when the governments don't explicitly use it as a tool as Libya did, they use hatred of some convenient target like the US to keep their citizens too busy to hate their oppressors.

Bad government may be a product of bad society, or vise versa. Certainly, soemone who's grown up in Iraq or Saudi Arabia, and watched as evil murders get ahead by doing evil, will have a very different view of the world than will an American.

You'll notice that many of the riots we see reported in the Middle East happen on a Friday, local time. The imams preach in the mosques on Friday. That's not coincidence: the imams preach hatred and murder, and incite the mobs. They go out and riot after church. This religious reinforcement might help explain why oppressive governments in non muslim countries, such as Burma, haven't produced so many terrorists.

Perhaps US foriegn policy should concentrate less on supporting repressive regimes so they can get cheap oil and more on helping the people live free (without all the bombing ;) ).

That's what those recent wars in Afganistan and Iraq were all about. If the people there are free, they won't be bombing others.

You're assuming that all people in a certain economic class will behave in exactly the same way; in addition, you're assuming that their behavior happen to be exactly the type of behavior that benefits your argument.

No, it's enough that most people behave like that, and they do. If you give someone making 20k/yr an extra $50 - $100/mo, he'd probably spend it on something, since he's probably got a list of things that he'd like to have, but can't afford. Rich people don't usually behave that way - they've got a pile of cash and all the baubles they can use (that's the whole point). They're more likely to save the extra money or invest it.

In any case, even if we follow your logic, you're wrong. Assume that every "rich" person takes their tax refund and dumps it into foreign investments. Assume that every "poor" person takes their tax refund and uses it to pay of debts and buy new goods.

Ok, let's use these numbers, or these numbers

It may not be as large a stimulus as possible, but it will be there.

That's kind of the point. The tax cut would be more effective if it targetted those who would use it today instead of 20 years from now.

Besides, why are offshore investments bad? Aren't we living in a global economy now?

It's great if you're rich, but it sucks otherwise. Anyway, the point of the tax cut is supposedly economic stimulus in this country. I'm sure India and China would like to see more cash, but that's not what we're doing here.

"But thanks for the Canada bit, I guess I knew that, but it had never been made obvious to me."

Remember: The Factbook is our friend.

"But what do I know, im just a geography nerd looking for anonymous lesbian three-ways"

Speaking as someone who went to my state's geography bee finals (many many years ago), trust me: It doesn't help. All it does do is help you get the blue piece of the pie in Trivial Pursuit.

keep in mind to check the facts:

S. Korea : 98,190 sq km
New Jersey : 20,295 sq km.

so by my math: S.Korea is roughly 5 times bigger than NJ, more like Indiana.

Oops.

Canada has a commanding 19% share of the USA's total import considerations, according to the CIA. Not just oil (I suspect that Iraq and Saudi Arabia would be higher for oil imports alone), but for all imported stuff.

Canada 19%, Mexico 11.5%, Japan 11.1%, China 8.9%, Germany 5.2%, UK, Taiwan (2001)

source

If your unemployed for a long period there is a reason for that. That reason is not 'your skills are dazzlingly bright', nor is it 'you're trying too hard'.

The unemployment rate is currently 5.8% in the US (as of March 2003). It's notably less if you male, or, for that matter white - in which case it's more like 5.1% (relevant as most /.'ers will of course be white males).

Even 5.8% is low, it's one of the lowest in the world. This table for example, maybe a little out of date, being as it is from last year, but it's still useful at putting everything in perspective.

Compared to unemployment rates of 50, 60 or 70% in Africa (and double-digit dates in the last century in the US) the current whinging about unemployment is a-something-about-nothing that's been blown largely out of proportion by media and public opinion.

Certain factions of the public find it easier to believe that they are a victim of a weak economy rather than admit responsibility for their own circumstance. My own father, who I haven't seen in years, has not been in full time employment in a regular job for a decade due entirely to his own inadequacy - and he regularly blames the current government, the previous government (going back 20 years) and the state of the economy (but oddly enough, not himself).

do you perhaps mean ethiopia?

My next 'phone' will be either Palm-based Tungsten or Symbian-based Ericsson/Nokia. Which one to get?
The Palm has thousends of applications and games, but Symbian has Repton, and is more 'modern'. GPRS here is surprisingly cheap, so I'm looking forward to use it, since I don't talk much on the phone.
Choices, choices....

Really, they have a page just for kids:

The CIA's Homepage for Kids
http://www.cia.gov/cia/ciakids/index.html

All sorts of places have great kids pages: You could try the NRA or the CIA, for instance.

More seriously, you could try somethings like HowStuffWorks.com or project-oriented sites like PARTS or FIRST (yes, I have a robotics bias) that could get them involved in activities beyond just websurfing.

I'll betcha places like Smithsonian, National Geo, NPR, PBS or other traditional educational media organizations are good places to look as well. I swear BBC has a kid's oriented news page. It's just too bad 2600 doesn't have a kid's page...

You remember seeing all those Kuwaitis we freed voting for their president? Me neither.

Perhaps because they don't have a President? They do however have elections for their legislative body, as part of a constitutional monarchy. Read more about it.

You remember the Bush speech in which he said "we will pick the new administration of Iraq and not the UN"..

It's called an interim government, just like the one in Afghanistan. Once things are stable, and a small minority aren't trying to disrupt life for the majority, they will have open and free elections. It took time in Japan and Germany, too, or do you consider those simple puppet regimes?

Anyway, I notice how you never bothered to address things such as where you were getting your high casuality numbers, or the fact that the American people (And thus their government) changes all the time. A few members of the President's staff aren't the entire government.

Anyway, even "The Economist" (the newspaper) aggrees that access to the Internet is a useful tool for farmers in the developping world

Singapore is a western country, with a high GDP, a less corrupt government than the US (read corporate influence). The racial mix of SG is Malay, Chinese and others, christian, muslim and buddhist in strong numbers. There is no clear majority [do all people with 'slitty eyes' look the same to you?].

Oh really. Funny, the references I come across seem to indicate that 75% of the population is of Chinese descent. Is that not a clear enough majority to you? Don't counter the original poster's misinformation with more misinformation.

An American in Singapore

Yes. Per quarter.

No. Per year. People might quote GDP growth per quarter (but even then the rate is often "annualised") but I've never seen anyone quote GDP per quarter.

what?! where do you get this information from?! think oil?! you actually think the money made from oil goes to iraqi citizens and not to Saddam's weapons programs? if Iraqi people made so much money, then home come the UN had to set up a food for oil program? a quick look at the A world fact book revels that the GDP per captia is about $2,100 in Iraq and 36,300 in the US, its not even close! why dont you make an effort and think before you post something blatently false next time.
and what does newer construction have to do with anything? are you going to tear down entire cities and rebuild them every 50 years to make them newer?

Iraq is a Republic. Yeah, there's only one party, kinda like there's only two parties here, but that just means they don't have a real choice for President/Prime Minister as their nomination comes from the party. You think every polictical position in Iraq is voted on with a single check box with 1 guys name next to it? There are 18 administrative divisions, hundreds of regional governments, and pretty much anyone, even Kurds (though no one would vote for them in the south because they are brutal separatists), can take those offices.

People in Iraq are used to voting. Women in Iraq are used to voting. If we do declare martial law there for 3 years (some meme floating about, I don't think it'll happen), there will be serious uprising because they are proud or their right to vote (even if a lot of them disagree with their government, kinda like here).

The CIA World Fact book entry for Iraq shows their Infant Mortality Rate at 57.61/1000 births. There were also quite a few other countries that had a higer rate then Iraq going from either list. You can't necessarily form a conclusive cause-and-effect because of the embargo.

Also, your math is flawed because you are assuming that an additional 65 infants died per 1000 births each year of the embargo. Without the figures for each year, this is an invalid assumtion. There could have been 40 deaths/1000 for each year between 90-94. Not likely but you can't just assuming that it was 105 for every year not shown.

"ok, here we go.. the auto was invented in Germany? maybe one design. the auto was DEVELOPED in the USA (Ford Motors) first mass production."

The internal combustion engine and the diesel engine were both invented in Europe. They are fairly vital to the motorcar. Yes Henry Ford did invent mass production of the car and bring it to the masses but from that point onwards it wasn't just the USA which invovated in motor vehicle design.

"This Country the one that brought us the telegraph, lightbulb..."

The light bulb was invented by Joseph Swan in the UK but Edison being owner of the electric company ended up being known as the inventor of the lightbulb. Even worse, Edison didn't use the carbon filament at first (he used bamboo), that was suggested by one of his employees and he claimed it as his own.

"afterall, we STILL have 80% of the worlds wealth"

Using what criteria? US GDP is $10 trillion, Japan's GDP is $4 trillion, Germany's GDP is $2 trillion, UK GDP is $2 trillion, CIA Factbook. External debt US $862 billion, Japan N/A, UK N/A, Germany N/A.

The US has some very bright people. But it also has some very dumb people and it's education of non US matters needs improvement. A significant proportion of the US's schoolchildren don't know where Canada is. It seems that the knowledge of the rest of the world isn't much better.

The US is alright but most non US citizens will tell you that it's not as great as you all believe it is and that's partly the problem with the US's image. Your nation does come across as arogant treating the rest of the world as country bumkins.

Exactly, considering

(Percentage of trading (from CIA World Factbook 2002, US Page))

Canada 22.4% Export, 19% Import
German 4.1% Export, 5.2% Import
France 4.1% Export, Import not marked. (5%)

Thus, cutting off just these 3 partners, they would lose over a quarter of their exports, which I think considering the war losses would be absolutely absurd for them to do.

India is the world's most populous democracy. We're still the largest (square-footage-wise ;).

Wrong again. Even in terms of land size, the USA is not the largest democracy in the world - it's the third largest. You can even check US government sources to verify it (ie the CIA World Factbook).

You still might be able to argue that Russia isn't a true democracy yet, but that only bumps the USA up to second, anyway.

In the context of the phrase "largest democracy", land size doesn't make sense anyway. Population is the logical measure, unless you favour some bizarre system of weighting votes depending on land holdings:)

After seeing a post in another thread regarding Iraqi news sources, I noticed every Iraqi news site, informative site, or government site that appeared to be in Iraq down, was down. Considering as of 2000 there was only one ISP in the country (maybe 2 or 3 by now at most), its suffice to say the 1 or 2 laser guided smart bombs cuts off Slashdot access for Iraqis. Some key sites down:

Iraqi Government Gateway

Iraqi news site

Iraqnet

Iraq.com

As much as I would like to be optimistic, I have to ask: Can you give some examples, other than CH?

Brazil? Mexico?

Here's a list from the CIA world factbook listing ethnic percentages for various nations.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print /ca.html

"...Area - comparative: somewhat larger than the US..."

In fact, Canada is the second largest country in the world, with Russia being in first place.

Yeah, it really sucks that Canada is so reliant on the following natural resources:

iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, potash, silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, petroleum, natural gas, hydropower

</sarcasm>

The only real problem Canada has right now is immigration, and revitalizing it's healthcare and education systems. Oh, of course, Quebec, but that's a whole other issue. ;)

"That is if your electricity power plant is using fossils fuels."

From the CIA World Factbook:

Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 71%
hydro: 7%
other: 2% (2000)
nuclear: 20%

"Look a little bit further (or back, a couple of days ago on /.) and you see that electricity is a good step between the way you turn a natural source of energy and the movement you want in your vehicle."

Yes, they do it in trains all the time. But they still use diesel engines to turn the generators because fossil fuels are about as good as you're going to get when it comes to "energy needed to find" versus "energy from use" ratios. Solar and wind have their places, but first you need to lay waste to a few square miles of wilderness to get enough open land to produce a reasonable amount of power. Hydroelectric is alright (if it's nearby), but even ignoring the "think about the fish!" non-green aspects, you're still going to end up with square miles of land under water that wasn't submerged before. Hydrogen sounds nice until you realize how much power is needed to crack water to begin with (power that ends up coming from fossil fuels). "Alternate" fuel sources for cars really just pass the onus of polluting off to somebody else.

The only real way to power cars with a minimal impact on the environment is with either geothermal/OTEC/etc (which depends more on geography than does hydro) power plants or nuclear.

That 300000 decline is nothing compared to the drop from 2.06 million, that according to the CIA world fact book claims there were in 2002.

But on the other hand, look at the Swiss. There is a reason they were "neutral" in both World Wars. No one wanted to invade a country that had a standing army of over 1 million people. Also, it can be noted that there is almost no crime in Switzerland likely because every male between 18 to (60 something I think) has a government issued fire arm. It can work as a deturrant and give the people safety when it is implemented in the correct way, but don't take my word on it, ask the CIA.

COMMUNICATIONS

• Telephones - main lines in use: 234,916 (2001)
• Telephones - mobile cellular: 373,965 (2001)
• Telephone system: general assessment: good system domestic: above-average urban system; microwave radio relay, coaxial cable and fiber-optic cable in trunk system international: 4 submarine cables; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)
• Radio broadcast stations: AM 10, FM 14, shortwave 0 (1998)
• Radios: 1.24 million (1997)
• Television broadcast stations: 1 (1997)
• Televisions: 361,000 (1997)
• Internet country code: .sn
• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 15 (2002)
• Internet users: 40,000 (2001)

Sounds like the Peace Corps needs to Wi-Fi Senegal rather than wire it.

Actually It's doubled,
GDP - per capita:
Definition Field Listing
purchasing power parity - $1,580 (2001)

but still has over half it's people below the poverty line, and nearly 50% unemployment.

Exactly, wouldn't this money be better spent? On the flip side it sounds like the move is generating private investment.

From the CIA world fact book (hey its what google gave me): [CIA World Fact Book]

"Senegal ... realized full Internet connectivity in 1996, creating a miniboom in information technology-based services. Private activity now accounts for 82% of GDP."

However, I worry about the mentality that the internet can solve all our problems. I think we all saw the fallacy of that misconception after the bubble. Further, the question should be asked, is this a society that is ready for this technology? Will this have adverse impacts on a culture that has not prepared itself for such drastic change (now I sound like my old Tech and Society prof)? Will the average Senegalese be receptive to such a cultural shift?

I'll add a little steam to the debate:

Whether Americans are fatter than the British or not, the net effect of the difference is negligible as far as life expectancy goes.

So, live in whichever country that has the food you like. :-)

I'll add a little steam to the debate:

Whether Americans are fatter than the British or not, the net effect of the difference is negligible as far as life expectancy goes.

So, live in whichever country that has the food you like. :-)

"Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature, Dude. It's Asian-American."

Ahh. My mistake. I didn't know Asia explicitly meant China. I bet Japan is kinda pissed off about that. :) ... And I certainly didn't mean American.

Actually, I would have used the phrase "a Chinese," as is proper, but I have to disagree with propriety. That just sounds stupid.

Taiwan is hardly a poor country! Remember, Taiwan is a powerhouse in electronics manufacturing, much of the world's memory chips come from this small country. GDP per capita in Taiwan for 2001 is around $17,000. Only 1% of Taiwanese live below the poverty line.

What's your source for this info? To me it seems like you're using CIA as source and that renders your 'facts' pretty worthless. CIA is working for it's survival and for a president who wants a war. Of course they'll claim Saddam is the great satan and that it's totaly worth killing 10s of thousands Iraqie citizens to kill him. Do you trust all marketing companies?

It's very important to remember that Bush sr, Clinton and Bush jr all have wanted war against Iraq, and they've all been against inspections. Amongst the things you 'forget' to mention is that CIA infiltrated UNSEC and used it to both collect info for the -98 desert fox attack and for trying to get an uprising -96. It's not like that has been helping UNSEC and later UNMOVIC. I'd suggest you read the book War Plan Iraq It takes up most of what you mention but from another point of view, a view that never gets through in normal media.

C'mon we all know the first place any terrorist is going to go when they're looking for those big bad bombs - Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

No, the smarter terrorists will head to Chechnya for their WMD needs. It's still uncontrolled and violent (easy for guerillas to move in and out), and it's got stockpiles of nuculear missiles that are tested, proven and functional.

We're not talking some tin-pot dictator's vanity A-Bomb program here; the fruits of 50 years of USSR R&D are up for grabs.

Seriously, though, doesn't it seem like there's just one security failure after another at these labs recently? I remember after the Wen Ho Lee "incident" they tightened things up to the point where the scientists were complaining, but apparently that was just a temporary thing.

It seems to me that installations which are especially key deserve much closer attention than they seem to get. Why isn't there a national security force staffed by professionals? They could guard non-military installations which have specific value, like nuclear plants, dams and national labs.

This is just another example of how nothing's changed since 9-11 except our willingness to give away our rights to those who consider themselves our masters. It's getting depressing to watch as we (the US) waste our time and attention on imaginary or, at best, overinflated threats while doing nothing to focus on our real problems.

I'm not quite sure it's worth comparing China's music industry situation with the possible future of the industry here in the US. Arguably, the piracy in China has far different causes than piracy here has.

From the CIA World Factbook 2002 - China:
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $4,300 (2001 est.)

To me, that says that piracy is probably as prevalent as it is because people simply cannot afford music at the prices they'd be with a legitimate album sales market in place. Perhaps I'm wrong - it could very well just be a social issue, stemming form differing cultures.

Here in the US, though, there are probably a number of factors for music piracy.

Price may be an issue for some. As a college student, I can't really afford to spend $20 a pop on CDs when my school is sucking me dry.

For others, downloading music may simply be a way to preview music. The radio stations play nothing but top 40 crap unless an artist pays the station to get their stuff on air. Sometimes the only way to expose yourself to new music is find it online and download it.

Still others pirate music because of a philosophical disagreement with the industry's treatment of artists - money from albums goes almost entirely to the labels. If we want to support our favorite bands, we would be better off going to concerts.

On top of this, typical record contracts state that the label owns the music. To me, this is a travesty, and totally contradictory of the whole point of intellectual property and copyright. Who was the most successful band in history? The Beatles. Who owns the rights to all the music produced by The Beatles? The Beatles? No. Why not? Their contract gave the rights to their label, and when the copyright came up for renewal, someone else (Michael Jackson) renewed it. Personally, this part bothers me the most.

Many artists get stuck in contracts that give ownership of their music to their label, and if they wish to perform their music after their contract expires, they have to pay their old label to do it(assuming the label even allows them to play it). However, this isn't limited to the music industry, and the rant is best saved for a "why copyright law needs to be gutted and rewritten" topic.

Other people dislike how the record labels treat music consumers. Price fixing, filler music, bogus copy protection schemes, DMCA, DRM, and to top it all off, big, rich executives telling me how, when, and where I can listen to music I bought... doesn't make me think fondly upon the prospect of supporting the music industry. It seems that with every RIAA-related press release, I find myself more determined never to buy CDs again.

In spite of all this, though... I genuinely want to pay for the music I have, so long as I could guarantee that the artists get a decent share of the money. I like the feel of owning things, and I like the feel of giving money to people who make things I like to use. I would imagine many people feel like I do. As a result, I can't really see the Chinese model happening here. There's a certain pride embedded in the idea of owning something in our particular culture. Instead of seeing pirate booths lining the streets, I can forsee labels finally getting the clue and changing how they sell their music or the artists breaking free of labels and finding a better way to distribute music...

...that, or the RIAA/MPAA will successfully lobby Congress to enact further legislation that effectively limits our consumption of intellectual property to what the RIAA and MPAA want us to consume. If (when) that happens, I'll start practicing my "eh?" and move north.

Here's a brief summary of what the Church Committee came up with in 1975

Wow, someone who thinks times dont change. I think youre the that needs to be tranquilized, tagged, and returned to the wild so scientists can study your habits because you are a rare and fascinating aberration.

You describe something that happened before 1975.

The CIA's restrictions on domestic intelligence came AFTER that year. Specifically, Exec Order 12333, which was issued in 1981.

They'll continue the project by funding it through the "black budget." Congress doesn't even know how much it is. Hell, the Federation of American Scientists had to sue the CIA just to get same to release the 1997 aggregate amount appropriated. This was after the CIA rebuffed FAS's request for the 1947 number!

Make no mistake about it, they're going to continue developing this project even if Congress defunds it, if they haven't fully implemented it already.

They'll continue the project by funding it through the "black budget." Congress doesn't even know how much it is. Hell, the Federation of American Scientists had to sue the CIA just to get same to release the 1997 aggregate amount appropriated. This was after the CIA rebuffed FAS's request for the 1947 number!

Make no mistake about it, they're going to continue developing this project even if Congress defunds it, if they haven't fully implemented it already.

As a capitalist, I always smile when Sweden is placed upon a pillar as the paragon of socialist ideals.

The only way Sweden can afford to be so 'socialist' with its domestic policies is that it is so 'capitalistic' in its foreign trade with the rest of the capitalistic world[1]. That and the Swedes enjoy the stability of being surrounded by NATO countries and having not fought in a war for two centuries. Basically, Sweden is living proof that you may (and I'd even believe you should) create enclaves of socialism _within_ a capitalist context. In other words, socialism works only by using capitalism to support it.

From the CIA World Factbook

Literacy in Japan: 99% (1970 est)

Literacy in US: 97% (1979 est)

But those numbers are pretty meaningless being a generation out of date. Even if those numbers are accurate a difference of 2% is no difference at all. More interesting figures would be the number of people who read the newspaper daily, or who read outside of work. I suspect those numbers are quite low in North America.

• We (the country likely to build a space elvator) own it
• it's 22 minutes from the equator
• it's surrounded by a reef (makes amphibious attacks difficult)

• location
• location
• location