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>>preaching to the converted

Casting zealotry stones in a glass house, are we?

This only happened with apple iconography:

digitaltrends.com/apple/apple-causes-religious-reaction-in-brains-of-fans-say-neuroscientists/
https://www.digitaltrends.com/...

cnet.com/news/scientists-apple-makes-your-brain-go-all-religious/
https://www.cnet.com/news/scie...

disinfo.com/2011/06/apple-products-trigger-the-same-parts-of-the-brain-as-religion
https://www.disinfo.com/2011/0...

geek.com/apple/apple-fanaticism-similar-to-religious-devotion-according-to-scientists-1381035/
https://www.geek.com/apple/app...

cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/05/19/apple.religion/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/g...

WHATEVA, ANDROYD CULTZ has always been a shitty deflection, sorry. They're not the ones circlejerking.

I can't stand the KOS, but Primaries should be closed.

A frequently heard mantra - mostly after closed primaries helped Clinton - but it's not a justifiable one:

• 1) You can't hold an election at taxpayer expense and then tell taxpayers they can't vote in it unless they join your little club. It's a non-starter, but it's not the most brazenly arrogant attitude the party has. That would be:
• 2) Democrats have now spent the better part of 20 years screaming at everyone that will listen that independent Nader voters are responsible for Bush's election in 2000 - even if it's total bullshit. But it takes a Biblical sense of entitlement to tell those voters that they can't vote on a candidate in their primary, then savage them for not voting for their candidate in the general.
• 3) The two major parties are still the two major parties because they have colluded to exclude third parties on both a national and local levels. Which means, with few exceptions, that aspiring politicians must join the Dems or the GOP. Which means that the vote in the primary is just as important as the vote in the general election.
• 4) Being limited to candidates for one party limits a voters choices for ad hoc reasons. To go with #3, an otherwise right-wing voter in Pennsylvania who lost his job to NAFTA should not have been barred from voting for Sanders and against the pro-NAFTA-and-TPP Hillary. Just as an otherwise liberal hispanic voter should have been able to vote against Trump in the GOP primary because he's a flaming racist.

The party is selecting it's nominee, those not part of the party should not have any say.

Which would be a very reasonable position - if it was the nominee to chair the DNC. But not for the the President of the United States of America, who will represent all voters and the federal government.

When the various party nominee's then run for the office in question. At that point it's open to everybody.

Only after you've closed off access to the most meaningful vote. Republicans had 17 choices for president before the general election. The Democrats had half a dozen high-profile candidates to choose from in 2008 - only one this cycle, due to the corrupt party establishment clearing it for Hillary. Whereas independent voters are left with the functional choice of the two most incompetent, unpopular candidates in living memory - or "throwing their vote away" on a third party.

That, or join the corrupt and insular Democratic Party, or the corrupt and insular GOP.

Open primaries allow the other side to choose the weakest candidate. Had the first 10 or so primaries been closed Trump likely would not be the nominee.

Trump isn't a sign of a problem with open primaries. Trump is a sign that the right is as fed up with establishment politics of the left, and that the unhinged Bircher/NRA/Tebaggerization of the GOP has fully metastasized.

That's funny -- I only know a single person who uses gmail.

I know many, however it is not clear to me why any of them should feel comfortable sharing their most private information with Google, a company that has gone on record as having no respect for privacy..

I use Gmail, but sparingly, and only as a last resort. I simply do not trust Google. Or Facebook or Microsoft or Yahoo for that matter. Not that I totally trust my ISP either, but I do regard them as not at all in the same league of evil as Google and friends.

By the way, be careful what you search for.

you are morally bankrupt . nothing else need be said.

Oh right, I'm "morally bankrupt " because I don't take people seriously when they froth at the mouth and throw terms like "fascist" and "racist" and "sexist" at anyone they disagree with. On the other hand, I'm not an Anonymous Coward making absurd and unsubstantiated charges. Anyone who reads just the linked interviews should be able to see that you don't know what you're talking about. I doubt if anyone who knows R.U. thinks he's any of those things. I don't know what your problem is, but in this discussion you're just a troll. If you don't like transhumanism, fine, lots of people don't. There's even a section of the book called "Criticisms of Transhumanism," which is online here. I doubt you can cite anything in the book that any sane person would call "fascist" or "racist" or "sexist."

http://disinfo.com/2014/12/elo...

Yet Musk’s so-called gigafactory may soon become an existential threat to the 100-year-old utility business model. The facility will also churn out stationary battery packs that can be paired with rooftop solar panels to store power. Already, a second company led by Musk, SolarCity Corp. (SCTY), is packaging solar panels and batteries to power California homes and companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) - See more at: http://disinfo.com/2014/12/elo...

http://disinfo.com/2014/12/elo...

Yet Musk’s so-called gigafactory may soon become an existential threat to the 100-year-old utility business model. The facility will also churn out stationary battery packs that can be paired with rooftop solar panels to store power. Already, a second company led by Musk, SolarCity Corp. (SCTY), is packaging solar panels and batteries to power California homes and companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) - See more at: http://disinfo.com/2014/12/elo...

Society has strictly no duty to help those who truly cannot fend for themselves, just like cops have strictly no duty to put their lives on the line to save others. And before you contradict me on this point, have a look there: http://disinfo.com/2010/03/the...

Yup.

The grandparent poster is stating the socialism spin on an accurate statement.

There is no "duty" to protect the weak as it were. There just isn't. Philosophically you can't get there. That's pure political progressive ideas based on emotion and not actual thinking.

You CAN however, expand the argument a bit and come up with a compelling reason why helping the weak is actually helping yourself. First, everybody, at some point, is "weak" or "strong." For example. I am a nerd. I am generally, less physically capable than other adult men. (This is my own doing, shut up, I know.)

On the other hand, I carry a gun.

Someone, a large young man, could walk into a store and toss around a clerk or two while stealing swisher sweets and be the "strong" one. While he has no philosophical duty to protect the weak, it is SMART for him to do so, because there just may well be a nerd behind him with a loaded gun. Or, a skinny cop may tell him to get back on the sidewalk, where playing "tough" only gets the moron deaded.

The short version is, the "philosophy of using strength" gets you into conflicts in a society, where "philosophy of cooperating" tends to keep you out of conflicts. No matter how tough you are, you might end up standing in front of a nerd with a gun. This is true whether or not you are a socialist or some other political bent.

Society has strictly no duty to help those who truly cannot fend for themselves, just like cops have strictly no duty to put their lives on the line to save others. And before you contradict me on this point, have a look there: http://disinfo.com/2010/03/the...

You're going to cite a blog post that contains almost no citations of it's own, and those it does provide do not exactly support the assertions made by the blogger.
Really? That's your source?

Society has strictly no duty to help those who truly cannot fend for themselves, just like cops have strictly no duty to put their lives on the line to save others. And before you contradict me on this point, have a look there: http://disinfo.com/2010/03/the...

Here's the full Bundy statement, in context:

http://disinfo.com/2014/04/une...

Here's the extended Sterling transcript which shows his lady friend attempting to bait him into saying something out of bounds -- note the leading questions and that she brings up race first:

http://deadspin.com/exclusive-...

Recommdation 31: Governments should not use their offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial systems;

http://disinfo.com/2013/12/report-suggests-nsa-may-manipulating-financial-data/

http://disinfo.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/LwJ1J6r.jpg

If you look at the roots of all of this it goes back to the 1979 Supreme Court Ruling in Smith vs. Maryland where:

“A person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties’’

The case centered around the installation of a pen register, which records phone numbers dialed in the phone company office. As all of the current press indicates the NSA and other Federal Agencies and Administrations to justify scooping up all of information they can. In 1979 it was difficult to trace phone calls because most of the local COs were analog and getting this kind of data meant installing devices, requiring court orders, anybody remember rotary dial? The 1979 ruling has therefore been applied now in our current era where this information is "at hand." Using this we can now see why the large Data Center in Utah is being built to collect the billions of Call Detail Records and other Internet IP data that the NSA can gobble up. Strangely enough the safeguards that protect a US citizen fall down suddenly if you have contact with a foreign country. Let's see, going on vacation to Europe this year? You're sucked into the system. Have friends or family members overseas? You're sucked into the system. Compound that over zealous approach to collection and the fact that they can save the data for up to 10 years for historical analysis and you have a huge storage problem. Now if you add it Network Graph Analysis, you'll be sucked in if your friends or family members have contacts with people in other countries. That means effectively everybody in US is on a graph somewhere and it's being used to create fake evidence chains against your fellow citizens. I'm not advocating crime or terrorism in any way but there has to be oversight of law enforcement in this nation, with the NSA scoping up everything they can you have a police state where evidence can be created out of thin air and you can't challenge it's authenticity.

The ramifications of this are staggering and I for one have been in touch with my congressman and written to both my Senators to voice my opposition to it but the only way to fix this is to end the two party stranglehold of our government that has allowed this to happen behind closed doors. The FISA court needs to be abolished and the NSA systems need to be dismantled. That won't happen when you have elected officials who don't fear the electorate and the only way that will change is to force our government to enact:

• Term Limits. Stop allowing the same assholes who get re-elected over and over again from serving on these committees. Look at the Senate Intelligence Committee who has partial oversight of the NSA, how many members have changed over the past decade? Despite Republicans or Democrats running the Senate, the players strangely enough remain the same. Fuck that and start electing people who have your interests at heart, not the defense industry!
• Campaign finance reform. Washington politics runs on money, no money, no incentive for these fucktards to constantly get re-elected or to have the process corrupted by corporations and lobbying groups up on M street. Plus it will free up a lot of office space in DC.
• Get off your lazy butts and vote! General Elections get shitty turnout, it's time we take back our nation and get this career politicians afraid of the electorate again. Stop voting on pure party lines too. Democrats and Republicans could give a shit about you, it's about them maintaining power and getting re-elected so wake up.
• Stop Gerrymandering. Every 10 years we go through endless redistricting battles with lawsuits over

In what it helps is in the case that the NSA (or related) intercepted your past, encrypted communications (as is doing for long now), then (maybe in a near future) decides that it worths to check what is there and use the private key to decrypt what is already stored, without being actively being MITM right now. With forward secrecy that should keep being secret.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_scarcity

Or:
http://www.disinfo.com/2013/01/is-sowing-artificial-scarcity-the-future-of-business/
http://www.cracked.com/article_18817_5-reasons-future-will-be-ruled-by-b.s..html

Or:
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1990s/1998/no-1124-april-1998/artificial-scarcity
"Technological capacity to produce enough to satisfy everyone's needs already exists globally and has done so for many decades. Yet needs continue to remain unmet on a massive scale. Why? Quite simply because scarcity is a functional requirement of capitalism itself."

This web page includes suggestion by me on ways to transcend artificial scarcity as the basis of our modern economy:
http://www.artificialscarcity.com/

Anyway, it was a great video as piece of performance art related to the idea, which also connects to "planned obsolescence" or even, to a lesser extent, "fashion".

A story entirely referencing Romney's personal disclosure of events, without documentary references.

Russ Kick's Disinfo.com hipped to a Kos poster - who has a nice pick-up on this:
Romney tells the story of going around a curve and being struck at full speed by a Catholic priest named Albert Marie - who supposedly died. Albert Marie does not, and never did exist. The other driver survived. So, no one was drunk and nobody but Leola died - unless you count the Truth as a casualty.

Bishop Jean Vilnet was the driver of the other car in Mitt Romney's fatal accident back on June 16th in 1968. Romney has been lying about what happened that Sunday for 44 years. Telling his gawd-awful lie about that crash is the single longest running project of Romneyâ(TM)s life.

In 2014, Mgr Vilnet will have been a Catholic priest for 70 years.

The âoedrunk priestâ named "Albert Marie" of Mitt Romney's imaginative fantasy about that 1968 accident has been spread around to his own family, to the families of the other Mormons involved, New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, Boston Globe, to Michael Kranish and Scott Helman for their book, "The Real Romney." That person does not exist. Never did. Photos at foolmoon dot com and elsewhere prove it. Bishop Jean Vilnet was injured in the crash and he can be seen in hospital at Bazas with his right arm bandaged.

Bishop Vilnet, then 46 years old by American count, was not drunk, not speeding, and not out of his own lane. He was driving along and Romney hit him.

That 1968 accident took place when Mitt Romney ignored painted roadway lines and went head-on into an on-coming left turn lane, opposite the post office at Beaulac, France. Concrete traffic separators were added later on. Good piece of engineering, that, but too late for Mrs. Leola Anderson. She died of her injuries as she was the sixth person in a five passenger car, so she had no seat belt.

Mitt Romney claims over and over that he was blameless for that accident.

Romney's view could well have been obstructed, particularly if a car or a truck ahead of him had slowed to make an acute right turn into Rue de la Poste. That is when being careful matters. Aggressive driving, guessing where the road goes can get someone killed. That is exactly what happened.

http://www.disinfo.com/2012/08/mitt-romneys-coma/

Oh but there is...

Well, it certainly has been working quite well in Libya.

Courts have ruled that police don't have any duty to protect you for the most part.

I'd think Katrina would have taught people by now - you can't depend on the government to protect you. It took the federal government five days to get boots on the ground. How well do you think "The police are on their way!" will protect you in that situation?

Get a gun, learn how to use it safely and legally, and protect yourself. Remember, when seconds count the police are only minutes away.

http://www.disinfo.com/2010/12/thomas-edisons-concrete-houses/

Awful places. Damp. Cold in the winter. Just awful. Just because it was "printed" with concrete won't make it better. It'll still be a concrete house. Damp. Cold in the winter. Just awful.

The impending chocolate shortage will not be an issue with Sugar being declared a Schedule I drug!

It looks that one of the "raped" ladies have a clear connection to anti-Castro-Cuba movement and a link to the CIA.
http://www.disinfo.com/2010/12/non-surprise-assanges-accuser-linked-to-cia/

No shit, Sherlock. Of course it'd cause them to suffer!

However, if you're in a situation where you or your family is starving, but you have the means to take food and water by force from other people who have it, then why wouldn't you? Obviously, by this point, society has broken down and it's anarchy, but that's pretty much where we're headed. The USA is already a Banana Republic, so from here our only path is downwards until we're like Mexico or Somalia.

Um...one word? Blackwater. I have NO problems with the soldiers of the US military,I have many friends that have fought in Iraq. What I have a problem with is the fact that the government seems to be in love with mercs,who WILL end up with this technology. The men and women I know who have served believe in words like honor and justice. A merc will happily shoot an entire family for a paycheck. To see what kind of guys they are simply read here. And now it looks like they are being used on US soil which means it ain't just Iraqis that have to worry.

And the simple fact of the matter is the Army Rangers don't need this stuff.They already ARE invisible. believe me,I know. I had a buddy who was a Ranger get me a visitor pass to watch some exercises in the '80s,and he and his buddies decided to play "spook the hippie". needless to say,I was the hippie. We were walking to the range when suddenly the ground moved and I'm surrounded by Rangers. Hell,I wasn't a foot from them and I never knew they were there. And just as quickly they blended back into their surroundings and were gone. What worries me about this stuff is it in the hands of mercs like Blackwater. Would we have ever had King's "I have a dream" speech if this kind of tech was in the hands of mercs then?

What worries me is the genie getting out of the bottle. Like an earlier poster said,what if you wrap a chemical or biological bomb in this stuff? Do you think your average police force is going to have the tech to detect this stuff? But as always this is my 02c,YMMV. And as far as you accusing me of Karma whoring,mine has been at excellent for years and I couldn't honestly care less. Anyone who has read my past posts knows I simply speak what is on my mind. And this tech looks like it is going to bring a world of bad and little if any good. Maybe we'll get lucky and it won't be horribly abused. But I'm not betting on it.

I actually have more respect for someone who is willing to say "Yep, I fucked up. Lets do it a better way."

I would just point out that they haven't said that. Instead they've done a sleight of hand -- "What? We never had a problem with downloading. Just some criminals. We got nothing wrong, so nothing to apologize for. Here, buy our album!"

Of course, they're really rewriting history when they try such stunts. Lars personally delivered a list of 300,000 "criminals" (fans) he wanted fined/booted. He was truly hostile. His label followed up with another 300,000. Some of the people here on /. may have been the ones who had to defend themselves against their crazy attacks.

I don't know if people will believe that Metallica is turning over a new leaf, but judging from the comments here, it looks like some will be happy to buy the new album. That disappoints me, as I feel Metallica may be manipulating the geek crowd to sell a few more copies. ("Hey, we're poster boys for the anti-RIAA now! Right? That's what is trendy now? OK! So buy our CD!") If they turned on their fans once, they can do it again.

Actually, it you really want to understand the original purpose of the BoR, check this link: http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1206/pg1/index.html

Tell you what, I am merely a middle class individual. I have to
work for the little that I can have and guess what...

I don't own a television and I consider watching television if not
vulgar, then self-defeating.

You see, my mind is precious and it's the only thing I can really
take control of in this stage of my life.

As far as the internet is concerned, I would say his Lordship is
painfully aware that it is severely interfering with the peace of the land, i.e. the ignorance of the serfs:

http://www.informationliberation.com/?multimedia
http://www.informationliberation.com/
http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.disinfo.com/
http://deoxy.ory/

are just a fair sample right off the top of my mind.

There were reports, haven't checked them first-hand, that Wal-Mart tried not to stock "Outfoxed": http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle13960.ht ml

The US censor doesn't like these sites at all but right now they're still legal
(even though they're information terrorists, you know).

I wonder though what the Ayatollah Al Censori makes of these here:

Unwelcome Guests
Alex Jones Infowars
Disinformation gateway
Alan Watt's site (do watch Reality Check)
alternate thought, psychodelic substance experimentation
Learn about Astrotheology
History _is_ a weapon

Most of the stuff you can download with a 128kbs connection, okay, so instead of a minute a 20Mb
mpeg like "Reality Check" you will have to wait half an hour to get it. So what. Most of the
stuff out there is text anyway and you could even re- or rather de-educate yourself with a
16Kbps connection.

Btw... don't visit these sites in internet cafes etc, especially in countries where they have
execution buses in the parking lot (China) or whip and hang you in public (Iran, I suppose) or in
countries where somebody peeking at your screen will surreptiously take out his mobile phone to
call Homeland Security (you know where that happens, don't you).

Happy self-deprogramming!

Hmm, the All-seeing eye logo, and the invocation IAO, all wrapped up in one juicy package.

I'll say this much for our rulers at the Information Awareness Office, they do have a sense of humor.

Either that, or Robert Anton Wilson really is running the show, and we're all just characters in one of his novels.

Fnord.

1) It's not cost efficient, even when compared to wind.
2) It's dangerous. (That's a really good article, by the way. It should be required reading for anyone commenting on this Slashdot story.)

We really need to look toward alternatives (wind, solar-thermal, solar tower, wave, tidal, biomass...) if we intend to keep consuming power at current rates. (alternatives are also great for generating hydrogen, because the hydrogen can be a storage medium to account for the unreliability of sources like wind.)

-Daniel

I've always held the view that the main aim of Greenpeace is to preserve the existence of Greenpeace. But I guess that's the way many large organisations eventually go.

I read a book called, "You are being lied to" from these guys One of the last articles was by one of the original founders of Greenpeace. He basically said he formed it to achieve certain goals. He split when people started talking about retirement plans etc.

This dichotomy is all in your head, and is only reflective of your own personal judgment.

Have you ever asked anyone why they were pierced? There are many reasons, most of which are very personal (extra sexual stimulation, to name just one).

Now, assuming you wear a suit and tie, why do you do this? Is it for comfort, self expression, or is it because it's the ultimate 'in thing to do'? (you dress in a suit, and you're in!)

A former CIA agent, Ed Wilson, was released from jail after 22 years because he was able to show that the government lied about his case. One of the charges that he was convicted on was selling 20 tons of C-4 to Libya.

He claimed that, even though he was no longer employed by the CIA, that he was working with them at the time. The prosecution produced a document that said he had no substantail contact with the agency after he left it. This was a lie. He had more then 80 'non-social contacts' after he left and the gonvernment knew this. The railroaded him.

His conviction on the explosive charge was overturned and he is now out of jail. He is currently involved in legal action over his false conviction.

Wilson is a scumbag. It is also likely that he was involved in running drugs for the CIA before Iran-Contra. Even so, he was raped by the CIA and DOJ. An investigation is in the works, but Wilson is already 71 and I expect that they will drag it out until he dies.

Now think about all those wire taps and how they were justified.

Check out http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id334 /pg1/ and http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Investigation/stor y?id=708779&page=1

Propaganda is the manipulation or fabrication of information for the sake of influencing public opinion, which is exactly what these PR companies do.

There is no discernible difference between propaganda and PR drivel. They both spin the facts to put a positive shine on their team and a great stinking stain on the opposition. See political ads. See those adds from Exxon on how they are helping to preserve the environment for tigers.

Buson-Marsteller, the worlds largest PR firm, has in the past contracted their services to governments, including brutal dictators.

The better name you seek... is propaganda.

Yep. They did a great job in Australia too.

Sounds pretty similar to this idea

I find it hard to believe that they'll find the Holy Grail from a 10 letter code.

It's in his book. They used Crisco.

• Aggie walks into a bar with a big, steaming cowchip in his hands and shouts "Look what I almost STEPPED in!"

----- I didn't use to believe in Conspiracies... but that before I witnessed the power of the fully operational battlestation that is the Mass Media. The moment when it finally hit home to me that something sinister was going on was watching the Machine resurrect the career of Meatloaf right before my very eyes. Don't get me wrong, Meatloaf seems like a nice guy, but I'm just saying, "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" How does something like that just happen? His career was deader than Julius Caesar and whammo, suddenly, the song is NUMBER ONE! Hose me down with holy water if I get too hot? Are you kidding me? Number one song in America folks. #1. Meatloaf.

And now we've got things far more nefarious than the lyrics of Jim Steadman to worry about, like a friggin chip that goes under your flesh and tracks every single place you might go and whatever it was you bought when you got there and there are people here so throughly manipulated that they root for it because anything that freaks the Bible-believing Christians out can't be all THAT bad, right?

Wake up and smell what they're shovelling down your throat!

A View to a Shill

Andy Rooney shills the Mark to "the greatest generation." Andy Rooney saying "We need some system for permanently identifying safe people. Most of us are never going to blow anything up and there's got to be something better than one of these photo IDs - a tattoo somewhere maybe."

Thank you Number 89, we'll deposit those work units in your account once we bring the Village fully online.

For the WIRED generation, it's Kevin Warwick and his ilk. In an interview with Geek News, the Jaron Lanier of Cybernetics had this to say "I have read many letters and emails about the 'mark of the beast'. Although I do not consider myself to be a beast, if you actually read the passage in the bible [Heaven forbid!] then there may well be something in it! Essentially, it is saying that those who have the mark will be a part of the action, those that do not will be out of it. This could easily become true."

Or how about this one, the DisInfo entry on Kevin Warwick. And of course, the crazed religious paranoia of religious cults who insist that the 'Mark Of The Beast 666' will take the form of microchips planted on the forehead and right hand of the unbelievers may just have a point after all.

For the Baby Boomers, well, let's telecast the Jacobs' Family getting chipped on Good Morning America, the Today Show, Fox News, CNN, TelefrigginMundo for cielo's sake!

Give it to Mikey. He'll eat anything

In the words of Jacques Ellul "the educated man does not believe in propaganda; he shrugs and is convinced that propaganda has no effect on him. This is, in fact, one of his great weaknesses, and propagandists are well aware that in order to reach someone, one must first convince him that propaganda is ineffectual and not very clever. Because he is convinced of his own superiority, the intellectual is much more vulnerable than anybody else to this maneuver..."

The completion of the Ziggurat...

...establishes our Metropolis | as the world leader...
....in industry, economics and culture.
....Thus is born a state that | will last a thousand years!
....I tremble at the honour | of announcing...
... the culmination of humanity's | long history of intellect and science.
....Our power spans the e

Slashdot has successfully proven that Roswell was not a cover-up. Now can they do the same for 9/11?

Prove to me that the Bush administration had nothing to do with it.

Prove to me that the US government had nothing to do with it. I'm talking about number 3. I've already looked up the documents in question and they were signed by Jeb Bush on Sep. 7. So...

call me a conspiracy nut, if you can.

. How on earth can you justify making something a crime, when you cannot show that it harms anybody?

Lie.

Seriously. They just lie about it. For example, in Virginia, our "crimes against nature" sodomy laws have been attacked each year with a bill to repeal them. When the bill comes up, several reps argue loudly that it will make pedophilia and incest legal. It's a blatent lie, but it seems to work each year.

Same thing happened when GHB became illegal federally. Link

www.takebackthemedia.com
www.gnn.tv
www.pbs.org/now/
disinfo.com
www.truthout.org
www.propagandamatrix.com
www.indymedia.org
www.rense.com
www.infowars.com

I won't pretend that they are unbiased, but the news-related sites I read are the AP wire on Salon, Google news, Metafilter, and especially WRT recent events: Truthout, Common Dreams, and also Disinformation.

reed

To be fair, that 100 - 200 billion (probably more) is not his money. On the other hand, companies that Still have top administration officials on their payroll are getting sweet contracts in Iraq directly related to the war effort.

It looks like a sound business plan to me. Create a market, then exploit it. Don't worry about the Oversight committees, those can be taken care of with a little pressure from the top and a quick nip off the old budget.

Every time I see an AOL commercial on TV, I think "man, their advertising department needs to be shot."

Hey, not just AOL:

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the marketing people are thinking now too: 'Oh. He's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market.' Oh man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags."

-- Bill Hicks

(lifted from http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id1025/pg1/)

• Browsing of terrorist or dissenting, un-patriotic, or otherwise not wholesome all-american websites.
  
  
• Use of any audio/video compression technology other than lisenced and government approved encoding protocols. No matter if you have no pirate material, If you have the ability and tools, you're dangerous enough!
  
  
• Any expression of dissenting or un-patriotic views or opinions in your messenger histories, message board/newsgroup postings, emails, or slashdot poll votes.

Is there danger in those who do take the games seriously? Does practicing basketball or skateboarding make one a better player or rider? Does practicing virtual move-and-shoot hone the instincts for real life move-and-shoot (here, or here, or here)? Does practicing "kill everything in sight" desensitize one, so that the same behavior in real life is easier?

In every case, the answer is "yes". Visualization and mental repetition is a widely utilized training technique -- practice makes perfect. Anyone who wants to be a better killer has to train to kill, practice killing, and visualize killing. FPS games fulfill 2 of these requirements.

It's been almost completely concluded that 9/11 happened because of US Intelligence failures.

Yeah, an intelligence failure like this? Or this? Or this? Or this? As opposed to the US Gov planning to invade Afghanistan before 9-11, to get a nice fat oil pipeline in there, and thus pissing off Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia being the country that almost all the highjackers came from, and the country funding Al Q'aida (sp?), and... err... the country supplying a very large portion of the USA's oil needs.

This TIA thing is research into how to improve it and prevent another 9/11.

War is good for business; there's arms manufacturers to please. George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four has a good explanation, written by "Emannuel Goldstein"(sp?). It is also a nice handy tool to crush dissent. A simplistic example would be the way Ford in the UK filtered out, with the help of the government, "subversives" from job applicants, for fear of union activity. Now we all know how much the US Corporate Government loves worker's unions!

It has nothing to do with spying on anyone. And everything to do with spying on everyone, collectively. Googling for dissenters, if you will.

Try this: The disinfo quiz. And this: The ACLU Quiz.

The only intelligence failure in this world is that of the people happy to just sit on their lazy ignorant arses and be spoonfed the "news" by their governments and Big Corps, instead of taking a few minutes to find out what's really going on.

Sorry if I've hurt anyones delicate idealistic feelings, but it has to be said.

Ali

It's been almost completely concluded that 9/11 happened because of US Intelligence failures.

Yeah, an intelligence failure like this? Or this? Or this? Or this? As opposed to the US Gov planning to invade Afghanistan before 9-11, to get a nice fat oil pipeline in there, and thus pissing off Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia being the country that almost all the highjackers came from, and the country funding Al Q'aida (sp?), and... err... the country supplying a very large portion of the USA's oil needs.

This TIA thing is research into how to improve it and prevent another 9/11.

War is good for business; there's arms manufacturers to please. George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four has a good explanation, written by "Emannuel Goldstein"(sp?). It is also a nice handy tool to crush dissent. A simplistic example would be the way Ford in the UK filtered out, with the help of the government, "subversives" from job applicants, for fear of union activity. Now we all know how much the US Corporate Government loves worker's unions!

It has nothing to do with spying on anyone. And everything to do with spying on everyone, collectively. Googling for dissenters, if you will.

Try this: The disinfo quiz. And this: The ACLU Quiz.

The only intelligence failure in this world is that of the people happy to just sit on their lazy ignorant arses and be spoonfed the "news" by their governments and Big Corps, instead of taking a few minutes to find out what's really going on.

Sorry if I've hurt anyones delicate idealistic feelings, but it has to be said.

Ali

Are you a patriot, or are you a terrorist?

Because if you're not with us, you're against us.

And if you're not a patriot, you're a terrorist.

A patriot has nothing to hide from his [sic] Country. A patriot is glad, glad with all his heart to hear that his country is taking the initiative, a patriot supports the party -- if the party wants to know whom Sam or Sally is speaking with, let the party know. If the party wants to know where every Citizen is, what every Citizen does, what every Citizen knows, then let the party know.

A patriot believes. A patriot is the opposite of the dissident.

A patriot does not support laws that allow terrorists, those who do not believe in the strength and ideals of our country, to hide behind anonymity. A patriot does not support anarchy, the total chaos that results when you allow dissidents to mess with public awareness, to spread their lies about our country.

And a patriot does not call for public hearings, checks and balances, handcuffs to hold the hand of Justice, to keep our men [sic] in uniforms -- who believe -- from doing what they believe in, what Americans -- real Americans, not bleeding-heart-liberals need for their protection.

A patriot does not question.

You're either with us, or against us.

If you're not a patriot, you're a terrorist.

I guess I'm a terrorist.