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In fact, this newspaper has even been found guilty by a French court for "racist defamation" against Israel and the Jewish people in the past.

Sources:
http://rense.com/general65/aanit.htm
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000375.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1415355/posts

As a poster below pointed out, the NSA practically confessed to the spying:

The American authorities noted that the activities of the intelligence service "were carried out according to law."

And the documents in the article stated that the NSA said it wasn't a joint operation with the Israelis. The Israeli prime minister's office made an official statement claiming they were not involved.

All evidence points to the NSA with no Israeli involvement.

This article is nothing but antisemitism and has no place on Slashdot.

Doesn't this amount to the Department of the Defense propagandizing directly to the U.S. public? What is acceptable and what is not?

I can see press conferences, announcements, and factual information, but when does it become an attempt to persuade the public?

Oh, you didn't hear? They repealed the law that forbade the US government from using it's (formerly) foreign propaganda tools and assets domestically against US citizens.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130715/11210223804/anti-propaganda-ban-repealed-freeing-state-dept-to-direct-its-broadcasting-arm-american-citizens.shtml

http://reason.com/24-7/2013/07/15/with-ban-repealed-us-aims-propaganda-mac

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/17/1224321/-U-S-Government-Repeals-Ban-Opens-Floodgate-to-Mass-Agitprop-Meant-for-Domestic-Consumption

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3043041/posts

What I find interesting is that we see publications as politically/ideologically diverse as Daily KOS and Free Republic both highly critical of this travesty.

If only people would stop looking at only what they differ on and unite on what they agree on. That's how the government and their lackeys plays people. They stir up wedge-issue shit, create a carefully-crafted narrative, and push it through the various communications medias to enrage and divide people and suck all of the oxygen out of the air for public discussion about actual meaningful oversight, reform, and accountability of government and the political class.

I guarantee that even as a white male in his mid-50s, I and a 16-YO black or Latino gang-banger in the 'hood STILL have far, far more in common and agree with each other's views far more across the board then either of us would with the average Washington D.C. politician or apparatchik, regardless of political party.

Instead of, for instance, arguing over "racism" over the Trayvon/Zimmerman incident, how about holding those responsible for the 35% black unemployment rate and the generally crap economy that had Trayvon and has many more like him out on the streets instead of working a job and raising a family, responsible for their actions or lack of, and craft some practical solutions instead of trying to start a race war.

Same thing with Chicago/Detroit gun violence...treat the cause not the symptoms. Hold the politicians responsible for the high poverty & unemployment in those cities and others around nation responsible for the crime, violence, and hopelessness it breeds instead of attempting to shift the blame to 2A rights and individual gun ownership.

Always watch the other hand. Do you really think any of those politicians and political apparatchiks give a single damn about gun deaths or racism? All any of them (outside of a couple of pariahs of the mainstream party-establishments) actually care about is securing and increasing their wealth & power by increasing and broadening every aspect of their control over YOU.

Welcome to "Serfdom, 21st-Century Style!".

Strat

The short answer is because the demands were unreasonable, and ending health care reform to appease a small minority of the country's demands doesn't make sense. The longer answer can be found in across a thousand other websites and is completely off-topic.

After the administration has handed a long list of waivers to the ACA to large organizations, and has now delayed the employer mandate till 2015 (which will have a variety of implications), It isn't clear that delaying the individual mandate, the same as the other delays, for a piece of legislation that is planned to ultimately fail, would be a bad thing at all.

Here's my suggestion: in the event of a shutdown, absolutely no congressional support services will be provided. No staffers can answer the phone from their congresspeople. No electricity in the capitol. No fucking gym open. No paychecks including back pay for congress persons. No security guards will be protecting the reps. None. Congressmen can hold meetings at a starbucks or something if they feel like it. Conversely, science research will absolutely not be affected.

One could get the sense that you consider the Government-Science complex more important than anything else the government does.

I think your comment is more +11 dreamy, not +5 "insightful".

So what you would say if he was white was that he was robotripping.

The exact same thing. I didn't bring race into it. Person A didn't like Person B watching and/or following them in a public area and decided to beat Person B. Person B was armed and defended himself. Watching a person and/or following a person isn't against the law. It isn't justification to attack a person. There is a ton of evidence that Person A started the attack. There is no evidence that Person B landed a single punch.

Cough syrup with codeine is not available over the counter in the USA. So DXM is a far more like candidate for the active ingredient.

Codeine is preferred... not required. If you read this post, you will see a screenshot of a facebook post by Trayvon trying to get Codeine cough syrup, and a friend suggesting DXM.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3044402/posts

Cough syrup is sold behind the counter in some places because people steal it. In my area it is generally left on the shelf in any store I would visit.

No, It's sold behind the counter because it is used in making more potent drugs. That's why you need ID. If it was just because it was being stolen, ID wouldn't be required. Every sale is tracked and if you buy too much the DEA will be notified. Cough syrup without DXM and such are left on the shelf.

Robotripping is not exactly unheard of nor is it that dangerous to anyone save for the user.

Any prolonged drug use has potential for behavior changes.

I was one of the Taliban's torturers: I crucified people

How do you think they should be referred to?

Well, let's take a look at your facts. According to this story, the Taliban, if that's what this man is referring to, were supported by the U.S. to fight the Soviets. So at that time, they weren't our enemies. They did the same brutal murders (of Najibulla, for example) and the U.S. smiled and patted their heads.

Now they switched alliances and they're "our" enemies.

I don't think dividing the world into "good guys" and "bad guys," depending on whether they're committing brutal murders on our behalf or against it, is useful.

For that reason, I don't think the term "enemies" is useful either. Historians don't use that word.

You take issue with referring to the ever fun-loving Taliban and al Qaida as enemies?

17 Beheaded in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan for Attending Wedding Party with Dancing Taliban Hangs Afghan Boy, 7, for Spying I was one of the Taliban's torturers: I crucified people

How do you think they should be referred to? As the, "Asian gentlemen with a minor beheading problem?" "The life of the party with a suicide vest?" "The local representatives of Crucifier's Anonymous - the 12 step program to kill all your enemies?"

And how is this our problem? It's not nice, for sure, but why is it our job to fix it? To stabilize the region? Why should we care? For Israel and Saudi Arabia? The Saudis can go fuck themselves and Israel is only our friend when they want something (usually guns and money). Are we trying to impress Europe? All they ever do is complain anyway. Don't tell me it's for `stopping human suffering', because you know damn well that that shithole was a shithole for the previous century and it will be for the next few centuries too.

Designed to create the belief:
1 - Intelligence intercepts and interrogations are effective at getting information that "protects" "us".

And you dispute that? People seem to be pretty eager to read them for what you think are ineffective methods.

2 - Drones are an effective weapon against "our" "enemies" and not principally dangerous to villagers and local civic functions.

Pakistani General: Actually, The Drones Are Awesome

You take issue with referring to the ever fun-loving Taliban and al Qaida as enemies?

17 Beheaded in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan for Attending Wedding Party with Dancing
Taliban Hangs Afghan Boy, 7, for Spying
I was one of the Taliban's torturers: I crucified people

How do you think they should be referred to? As the, "Asian gentlemen with a minor beheading problem?" "The life of the party with a suicide vest?" "The local representatives of Crucifier's Anonymous - the 12 step program to kill all your enemies?"

Trayvon, in fact, had become a devotee of the druggy concoction known as “Lean,” also known in southern hip-hop culture as “Sizzurp” and “Purple Drank.” Lean consists of three basic ingredients — codeine, a soft drink, and candy. If his Facebook postings are to be believed, Trayvon had been using Lean since at least June 2011.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3044402/posts

Yet Another False Flag operation. Has everyone seen the newly leaked emails alleging that the United States is actually responsible for the chemical weapons attack precisely to justify this invasion? See this and this and this and this and this and this and this.

-1 for posting an alternative point of view that has links to back up assertion? The neocon contingent of /. mods must be out in force today.

Yet Another False Flag operation. Has everyone seen the newly leaked emails alleging that the United States is actually responsible for the chemical weapons attack precisely to justify this invasion? See this and this and this and this and this and this and this.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621459/posts

Posted on Tue 25 Apr 2006 07:28:51 PM EDT by Malsua

Big Brother Is Watching WHO??

TSA "Terrorist" Turns Out To Be A Homeward-Bound Marine by ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

The Transportation Security Administration bagged a terrorist in Los Angeles International Airport Tuesday, or so they thought. Daniel Brown's name came up on their no-fly watchlist, so they dragged him into interrogation and grilled him, despite the protestations of Brown and his fellow travelers, who swore they could vouch for him.

The others in Brown's party went on their Northwest Airlines flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul, where they waited on a bus at the airport. You see, the detained man was Staff Sergeant Daniel Brown, USMC Reserve, and he was traveling with the other members of his Marine Reserve Military Police unit, which was heading home to Minnesota from eight months of combat in Iraq. The Marines were in full uniform and all, including Brown, had travel orders and military identification cards.

After attempts to stonewall under claims of "security," TSA spokesmen finally admitted that Staff Sergeant Daniel Brown was placed on the no-fly list, and ultimately detained, because they had detected gunpowder on his footgear -- not on this flight, but on a prior flight, which earned Brown a permanent place on the TSA's mysterious terrorist lists.

The footgear that had been exposed to gunpowder? Brown's combat boots, and the occasion of that flight was after his return from his first combat tour in Iraq. Gee... a combat Marine in Al-Anbar Province being exposed to gunpowder.

Ok I get it now... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2825347/posts

When will people understand that the U.S. military loses these mock battle so they can demand more funding? American aircraft were outnumbered 3:1 at Cope Indian. But that allows us to say, "Oh, noes, we lost to Indians. We need $100 billion in new planes." From an article: "The Cope India exercise also seemingly shocked some in Congress and the Pentagon who used the event to renew the call for modernizing the U.S. fighter force with stealthy F/A-22s and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters."

If the People say they don`t want drones over their heads, and the People`s Representatives truly "represent" vox populi,

So if the majority of the city council decided to condemn your home, tear it down, and sell the land to McDonalds, you'd be fine with that because it was "vox populi"?

Read and weep: or at least prepare to get really pissed!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/968577/posts

There is actually a lot of this going on I googled "eminent domain for shopping center" Yikes!

It's funny.

everyone forgot.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2204511/posts

Sure, but it won't do you any good. Any self-respecting company has legal staff that's seen the "How to not hire an American" video.

Interestingly, you can get links to that video from either DailyKos or Free Republic (actually the first two sites in a search) so you can see that the outrage covers a pretty broad part of the political spectrum. Not that our congress cares - we're just the @#%#^! voters and citizens of this country.

For all the spills and air pollution how often do you hear about fines?

Frequently. Here's a map. Those dots you see are aggregate. Zoom in and they bloom into many, many enforcement actions, which are nearly always fines. The rest of your post is nonsense based on your false premise.

You don't hear about this stuff because you isolate yourself from sources that cover EPA abuse.

From the Dilbert Newsletter:

I've also learned recently that "ironic" means anything you want it to mean. Example:

Me: "I heard that Bob was killed by a meteor."

Induhvidual: "Wow. That's ironic."

Me: "Why is it ironic? Was he an astronomer?"

Induhvidual: "No, it's ironic because, you know, what are the odds?"

Me: "So anything unlikely is automatically ironic?"

Induhvidual: "No, it also needs to be bad."

Me: "This conversation is ironic."

I took chemistry a long time ago. The teacher said if you turn in dissociation constants with more than two decimal places, he'd mark them wrong (for those students who did their calculations on digital devices and copied all 10 digits of result.) He explained that these were chaotic events and everything past the second digit was noise.

I think the point of the very specific number above is simply it being a single data point. In fact heat effects may travel tremendously further than even that. More important, if heat is shifting the jet stream, secondary and tertiary effects may be happening downstream many thousands of miles and include drought, flood, or unseasonable weather. As well, the city heat drives low altitude moisture and chemical particulates (soot and industrial dust) into the higher atmosphere (potentially punching a hole in the common inversion layers) and that moisture/nucleation may have significant down wind impacts as well. I'm looking forward to seeing what the models say. If we're lucky, the effect will be more cloud cover, increasing earth's albido, and be a thermal cooling factor over-all. If not, it may be adding to a climate that is growing ever more unstable and that's bad news for everyone.

My question is, why isn't anyone talking about the air pollution problems happening this month in China? Air that's being called lethal by some, over 40x more polluted that world health limits recommend. Here's a story about a factory that burned for 3 hours because nobody could tell the difference between the smoke and the pall of smog. My greatest concern is that over the last ten years there have been several events of smog from China reaching the western U.S., this being the worst smog event in remembrance, there is a real chance it could make it to America. Thankfully, it winter and most likely will be washed into the sea by storm systems. Had this been summer we would certainly be facing serious environmental threat. So why isn't this a HUGE conversation right now, virtually nobody is even talking about it.

umm, I think they're doing this precisely because everybody already knows how much of a bully the US is. But hey, whip out your penis if you want.

US bullies?

It is strange that someone with your interest in penises has such a difficult time figuring out who the real dicks are between the two. As to world-wide? Not even close.

A US made nuke, good!
A NK made nuke, evil!

Got it!

Somehow I doubt it. Maybe this will help:

Good US, made nuke, OK. Evil NK, made nuke, evil.

Do you still get it?

While we don't need religion to tell us that murder is wrong,

Although arguments have been made regarding humanity's innate moral sense, I still have to ask, are you quite sure about that?

Druids Committed Human Sacrifice, Cannibalism?
Human sacrifices 'on the rise in Uganda' as witch doctors admit to rituals
Four held for kidnapping kids for human sacrifice
Nigeria: Prevalence of ritual murder and human sacrifice and reaction by government authorities (March 2000-July 2005)"
Evidence found of human sacrifice in North America
"Chilling" Child Sacrifices Found at Prehistoric Site

Many in the West cannot conceive of things being different in any way if foundations of its morality and culture are destroyed, but that is an epic mistake. Things will change, and many of the possibilities make for something that may not be nice at all.

"why the fuck should they waste all that money? To make some license nazi happy?"

No. To not lose market share.

The great strategist Karl Rove seemed to think Romney had it.

Here he flips out on FOX News when they start projecting an Obama win in Ohio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLV7nqD3CA

You might want to hang out with these guys who have decided FOX is too liberal.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2956240/posts

Agreed.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2866084/posts

There is a google map here.

The question is why then did zimmerman talk calmly to 911 on the phone for over a minute after losing Martin? Why didn't zimmerman say, "Oh I see him again to 911?".

Martin couldn't have been in plain sight. Martin had a long time to move the short distance to his house. Yet he didn't.

Since when does asking someone what they are doing in your neighborhood authorize you to beat them?

When after we are five years old is it okay to start hitting someone who isn't touching you?

Is zimmerman suspicious? Yup. Is zimmerman a premeditated murderer? Very hard to believe. Was zimmerman being soundly beaten? It looks like he was.

Perhaps he started something he shouldn't have. But I'd have a hard time convicting him of murder.

Simberg is best known for a fabricated "Reuters" article allegedly from 1945 [educate-yourself.org] which, unbelievably, was taken seriously and cited by both Condoleeza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld. Basically, it was a lame satire about the Iraqi resistance which (falsely) claimed that similar things had happened in Germany after WWII.

The article you point to contains bogus information. The author didn't do his homework.

The Last Nazis: SS Werewolf Guerrilla Resistance in Europe 1944-1947

Minutemen of the Third Reich ("Werewolf" guerilla movement - postwar sabotage & terror not new)

Probably the most sensational action taken by Werewolf personnel:

Franz Oppenhoff (August 18, 1902 - March 25, 1945) was a German lawyer who was appointed Mayor of the city of Aachen by Allied forces and subsequently murdered on the order of Heinrich Himmler. . .

Operation Carnival

Oppenhoff was considered a traitor and a collaborationist by the Nazi regime, and his assassination, codenamed Unternehmen Karneval ("Operation Carnival"), was ordered by Heinrich Himmler, planned by SS Obergruppenführer Hans-Adolf Prützmann, and carried out by an assassination unit composed of four SS men and two members of the Hitler Youth.[3]

The unit was commanded by SS Untersturmführer Herbert Wenzel, who was a training officer at Prützmann's Werwolf training facility at Hülchrath Castle; Wenzel arranged the necessary equipment and decided on methods. Unterscharführer (Junior Squad Leader) Josef Leitgeb, also a training officer at Hülchrath, was second-in-command. Ilse Hirsch, a Hauptgruppenführerin (Sergeant) in the BDM (League of German Girls) was supposed to provide supplies but turned out to play an important part in the operation. Wenzel also picked a Werwolf trainee from Hülchrath to accompany them, 16-year old Erich Morgenschweiss.[4] Two former members of the Border Patrol completed the team, to act as guides in the area around Aachen.[3]

The unit parachuted from a captured B-17 bomber into a Belgian forest on March 20, 1945. They killed a Belgian border guard at the frontier, then moved on to set up camp near the target. Hirsch became separated from the rest and made her own way to Aachen, where she contacted a friend in the BDM and discovered Oppenhoff's whereabouts.

The rest of the unit arrived in Aachen on March 25. Wenzel, Leitgeb and one other confronted Oppenhoff on his own doorstep after he had been fetched from a party at his neighbours' house. They pretended to be German pilots who were looking for the German lines. Oppenhoff tried to persuade them to surrender. Wenzel hesitated, and Leitgeib shouted "Heil Hitler" and shot Oppenhoff in the head. Just before a US patrol arrived to check the telephone line which Wenzel had previously cut, the three assassins scattered.[3]

Thank you for defending free speech.
Ideological censorship (see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2944086/posts) scares me. The world is heading towards a totalitarian dictatorship, where any politically incorrect idea is persecuted as "hate speech".

Also, "hate speech" can easily be misused for direct political gain. In Brazil, people have already been punished for criticizing the MST (Landless Workers Movement), which is a violent group of vandals with a far-left ideology.
Criticizing the MST was considered an act of "prejudice" and "violation of human rights". Of course, this is convenient for the Brazilian government, which is dominated by the PT (Workers' Party), which is partly center-left and partly far-left.
If you read Portuguese, you can see for yourself in http://www.mst.org.br/Outdoor-garante-direito-de-resposta-ao-MST-em-Pernambuco (this if from the MST's own mouth!).

I say, restricting free speech and religious freedom is itself a gross violation of human rights.

Okay, if cold fusion is so limited, explain why NASA has applied for a cold fusion patent.

pork is fungible commodity ... Auto fuel, OTOH is not fungible

You keep using that word. It doesn't mean what you think it does.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1584659/posts

Academic records have been a hot button issue for the last few presidential cycles? Kerry, Bush had similar grades at Yale, Comparing the academic record of Al Gore, John Kerry and George W. Bush, John McCain's academic record, Gore's Dubious School Record. I personally am not asking, I really don't care to be honest. But it is a fair comparison. Neither candidate is required to provide any such documentation, precedent or not. If you feel you have not been given enough info about a candidate, then vote for the other guy.

The main stream democrats will not use this information because it is not from legal means

Oh, you mean the same way no one used Joe the Plumber's tax returns in 2008? And remember, this was just some guy who dared to as Obama a question, not the Republican Presidential nominee. They'll use them in a Chicago minute.

Or like how no one in the media would use Jack Ryan's sealed divorce records when the Ombama for Senate campaign illegally leaked them in 2004?

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html

Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.

A simple sleep function in an "off" phone to wake up and ping the tower to see if there's some command waiting is pretty low-power, especially if it only does it once an hour or even less frequently.

Supposedly this dude tested it, but only for half an hour. Would be fun to re-do this experiment on modern "smart" phones over a week-long period:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2770534/replies?c=37

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." - by President Obama on Tuesday Jan 20, @10:35AM (#32151184)

LOL! You just got your ass handed to you by an old guy from Arizona! When you libeled SLP Obamadouche (or should I say Kerrynozzle, because you are the same person as well as the anonymous people I am reading in the newspapers) you didn't chose conflict over discord then.

"We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned." - by President Obama on Tuesday Jan 20, @10:35AM (#32151184)

OH so you proclaim to be some expert on our nation now?? And SLP, who is an entirely different person to me, is not? SLP is an actual GOVERNOR of a State my friend! And you are just a community organizer! Tell me, if you are an EXPERT on our nation, where is your birth certificate? Are you even a citizen? I notice you don't answer! So maybe you shouldn't libel SLP??

"This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America." - by President Obama on Tuesday Jan 20, @10:35AM (#32151184)

So you defend a libeller like JoeBiden76, while claiming you are a citizen of the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth? And you libel SLP too. Unlike you SLP has a degree and has done work for a living. Which is why your PUNY attempts to shut her up with GOVERNMENT DEATH PANELS is not going to work.

PROOFS/EXAMPLES OF SLPS GOVERNORSHIPS EFFICACY? Ok, below:

http://forums.freerepublic.com/index.php?s=80bbbffc22d358de6b01b8450d596746&showtopic=89123&st=60&start=60

"the use of the bridge to nowhere has worked for me in many ways. for one it raises everyone's taxes, it helps speed up trips to the middle of nowhere as well. if you need more proof i am writing to you from a 400cc snowmobile and i run with ease. If you want my opinion if you stick to what SLP says in her speeches about securing the border with Russia then you will be safe and should not get invaded if Putin rears his head, but if you do get invaded by Russia then it will your own fault. keep up the good fight SLP." - Kings Joker, campaign donor @ FREE REPUBLIC

AND

http://www.hotair.com/forums/showthread.php?s=672ebdf47af75a0c5b0d9e7278be305f&t=28430&page=2

"I recently, months ago when you finally got your manifesto done, had authorization to read it from my Tea Party group. My client, who paid me an ungodly amount of money to do this, has been ABLE TO LAY OFF EMPLOYEES FOR MONTHS WITH EVERYONE DISTRACTED BY YOUR CONCERNS ABOUT DEATH PANELS! I haven't even had a follow up call which is unusual." - THRONKA, user of my guide @ HotAir

AND

"SLP, than

If correlation proved causality, your statistics might actually mean something. I could also easily say that gun control results in more murders because the cities in the US with the greatest gun control laws in general have the highest percent of murders. In reality, while this may possibly be a result of tighter gun control, it is also the case that gun control laws were enacted BECAUSE these cities had high murder rates. The fact that they did not work or made things work is only part of the story.

A better question would be if murders went down significantly in countries that banned guns after the ban. They did not, and in fact the opposite happened.
Since Canada passed strict gun control laws, their homicide rate has gone up while at the same time going down in the US:
Canada 1
Canada 2
In England, people injured by firearms has increased by 110% in the 10 years leading up to 2008. (Ban was enacted in 1997). In late 2009 The Telegraph reported that gun crime had doubled in the last 10 years, with an increase in both firearms offences and deaths.
UK Gun Statistics
Australia did not ban guns, but has seen mixed results with their efforts to reduce the amount of guns owned. Accidental gun deaths are up, gun suicides are down with other suicides are up by the same amount, and assault rates are up. Gun robberies increased for the first 5 years but are now back down to the levels they were before the gun buyback program.
Australia Statistics

So comparing gun deaths in the US to countries that already had much lower gun deaths before the ban guns is obviously an irreverent comparison for this debate. Violence in the US is a complex issue, and one that will not be solved by more gun control laws. As long as one group of people is always blaming others for the problem, we will never get a handle on how to change our culture to reduce the attractiveness of violence in the minds of our children. For that to happen, we need to co-operation of parents, government, the media, Hollywood, etc. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen, because in my mind the biggest problem is children growing up without fathers being raised by TV, movies, and "music" artists which promote violence. As long as the government pays people to have children and pays single mothers to stay single and poor, this is not going to change.

The US Navy had a program to integrate the CIWS gun with the Oto Melara 76mm Compact 75 on US frigates. The project, called Swarmbuster, does not seem to have been completed. The Compact 75 is a long range 3 inch gun that is effective in the counter-ship counter-boat role. It also has ammunition with sufficient burst to blow a swarming boat out of the water. Improved versions of the Oto gun fire 100 rounds per minute or better. It can use the same sensor as the CIWS gun.

If they haven't taken it to completion, it's because they don't think it's a big enough threat to bother.

"You still have the problem that we don't have the technology to effectively search a DB that large."

yer kidding right? you think a database of 10 billion records is incapable of being searched?
learn a smidge more about the planet you live on

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2508670/posts
Similar to Sprint, the United States' oldest telecommunications company AT&T maintains one of the world's largest databases. Architecturally speaking, the largest AT&T database is the cream of the crop as it boasts titles including the largest volume of data in one unique database (312 terabytes) and the second largest number of rows in a unique database (1.9 trillion), which comprises AT&T's extensive calling records.

The 1.9 trillion calling records include data on the number called, the time and duration of the call and various other billing categories. AT&T is so meticulous with their records that they've maintained calling data from decades ago -- long before the technology to store hundreds of terabytes of data ever became available. Chances are, if you're reading this have made a call via AT&T, the company still has all of your call's information.

Um, yeah...because DDT is safe

Supporting those black natives, however, are two researchers, Richard Tren and Roger Bate, whose Malaria and the DDT Story, recently published by the Institute for Economic Affairs in London, shows how to foster both a healthier and an environmentally friendlier Third World. Greenpeace, in its self-assurance, embodies a contemporary cultural imperialism as offensive as any Jesuit's.

The Telegraph at its finest.

There's nothing I detest more than some douche who has spent some time
at a university telling us all "we have nothing to fear".

Oddly, there's nothing I detest more than some idiot who is terribly afraid of something long after it's been proven to be safe.

I'd happily live in an area with 200x the level of background radiation (hey, my AT&T reception couldn't get any worse). The best benefit is that I can be sure compete morons like yourself will not be neighbors.

They said that about DDT.

Um, yeah...because DDT is safe. And millions have been killed from malaria that could have been saved without idiots like yourself "protecting" them.

Moron.

I should clarify something (and also state that IANAL, but I am pretty familiar with the law in my state):

If I knew that someone were planning to rob a bank tomorrow, for example, and I aided them in any way, and/or did not at least report it, it is possible that I could be charged as an accessory, or even an accomplice if my actions actually helped, even a little.

BUT... and this is the kind of situation I was talking about... if I am standing in a bank and somebody decides to rob it (that is, I knew nothing about any such plan), I am not legally obligated to try to prevent it, even if I am behind the guy and have a monkey wrench in my hand and could easily bash his skull in to prevent the robbery.

Also, if my neighbor steals my gun when I am not looking, and goes out and shoots somebody with it, I am generally not liable even though it was my gun he did it with.

If I loan a gun to the neighbor (which is perfectly legal here), and he goes out and shoots somebody with it without telling me about it, I am still not liable. Even though he did it with my gun.

If I am standing next to my neighbor, and he suddenly pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot another neighbor, I am not obligated to intervene then, either. Again even if it's my gun he's using.

So, there are lots of situations (almost all situations when there is no foreknowledge), I am simply not obligated to try to prevent someone else from committing a crime. There is no law or even legal principle requiring me to do that.

You may be interested to know that there are number of different court rulings, including by the Supreme Court that say even the police are not required by law to try to prevent crimes. It might be part of their job description but there is no law saying they have to.

If we as an industry think that diversity is important,

Diversity is overrated at best.

I think making others feel welcome is important.

Finishing projects on time and on budget is more important.

Just be glad the Germans didn't win a medal . . . . I'm sure they had "Deutschland über alles" and the swastika flag prepared, too.

Quite.

Their Kampf - Hitler’s book in Arab hands.
Mein Kampf for sale, in Arabic

Hitler book bestseller in Turkey
Mein Kampf, best-seller au Qatar
MEIN KAMPF: Palestinkian Best seller
Mein Kampf: Best Seller on the Streets of Bangladesh
Hitler memorabilia 'attracts young Indians'

Hitler's book now available even in Kurdish

Henrik Ahrens, a German citizen living in Erbil and country director of Media Academy-Iraq, a German-funded academy for training and consulting media outlets in Iraq, says seeing Hitler's book in the bookstores of Erbil makes him disappointed, because it is the only book that has a connection to Germany in the market and it is pure Nazi propaganda. "I was living and traveling in other countries in the Middle East and I know that Hitler's book is a best-seller in many countries in the region. I felt that the success of Mein Kampf is related to the existence of Israel, a Jewish state, and a general anti-Semitism in the region. The Nazi ideology and its anti-Semitism match the irrational hate and prejudices of many people in the region. It's sad but true; many people can identify with its content."

Ahrens added that "Here in Kurdistan, it is a bit special because people consider themselves Arians. But the only ideology that distinguished the German people between Arians and non-Arians (Jews, for instance) was Hitler's Nazi propaganda. So, they feel like we're part of one family. But as a matter of fact, Germans didn't identify with being Arian before Hitler and they don't do it today. I guess that most of those who mention these common roots want me to feel welcome. But it actually makes me feel awkward. I feel very welcome, respected and well treated in Kurdistan and even in the non-Arian parts of Iraq."

The Al Qaeda Reader and Mein Kampf
Is today's Jihad a Nazi movement?"

Closest thing I could find was a thread on freerepublic in which a poster makes references to Rush Limbaugh making similar comments during a Katie Couric interview:

Oh bitter, bitter ironies...

#39365465 - timestamped 1 minute earlier

From Dilbert Newsletter 49.0 -- InDUHviduals Humor Break

I've also learned recently that "ironic" means anything you want it to mean. Example:

Me: "I heard that Bob was killed by a meteor."

Induhvidual: "Wow. That's ironic."

Me: "Why is it ironic? Was he an astronomer?"

Induhvidual: "No, it's ironic because, you know, what are the odds?"

Me: "So anything unlikely is automatically ironic?"

Induhvidual: "No, it also needs to be bad."

Me: "This conversation is ironic."

In the USA, we are lucky if a simple majority of people vote at all. Internet based voting might help with that, since it takes some of the effort out of voting.

Whereas in North Korea the turnout is almost 100%. Higher turnout clearly makes for a better election. For some definitions of "better".

Such a powerful jamming device would be relatively easy to home-in on. However, for a short duration such jamming would be useful during a bank heist. Given all the people in direct view of the crime would be calling 911, jamming all signals might buy enough time for a quick getaway.

BTW - even commercially available cell-phone jammers can potentially disrupt police digital radios, as described in this article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2134869/posts

If anyone has doubts about whether jamming would really work or not, consider that SWAT teams employ such jammers during hostage situations to isolate the perpetrators, but these jammers specifically target the frequencies the perpetrators would be expected to use, like cell phones and maybe handheld HAM radios.

For greatest effectiveness of jamming the widest range of RF frequencies for the widest radius, use a spark-gap generator. These were the earliest form of wireless communication but banned in 1916 because they interfered with all other frequencies. They were used during WWI, WWII, and the Cold War to jam radio communication, and they tended to jam all signals indiscriminately.

One episode of Burn Notice involved using a spark gap generator as part of a trap to make a group of Westin's adversaries appear to be planning a bank heist. The prop used in the show however looked more like a "Jacob's Ladder" from a middle school science project.

You mean the Bradley Manning award for being an angry child the punches women, throws tantrums and doesn't read what he releases. Let's call it the Darling of the Left and excused for being an Abusive Manchild award. After all, it's ok that he beat up a woman, as long as he's on our side! He's a hero!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/may/27/bradley-manning-wikileaks-iraq-video

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075943/Bradley-Manning-trial-Wikileaks-suspect-punched-female-superior.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2822182/posts

Unless you honestly thing there were controlled experiments to establish the attraction of objects proportional to their mass in Newton's time.

On this point, John Mitchell, in 1750 (23 years after Newton's death) used a torsion pendulum to measure the density of the earth. [1] Of course the ones used in modern experiments [2] are quite different, but the basic principle is still used.

So, to say that the experiments were not conducted is accurate, but doesn't convey the entirety of the situation when it comes to talking about gravitational attraction.

[1]: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1391714/posts search for John Mitchell.

[2]: http://www.physics.uci.edu/~glab/papers/Bern2008.pdf[PDF].

"Its a nice rosy thought but we really don't have the unlimited energy you speak of; or if we do we haven't the ability to transport it where we need it and concentrate it enough for many of the applications our society has come to depend on."

"GE: Solar Power Cheaper than Fossil Fuels in 5 years"
http://cleantechnica.com/2011/05/29/ge-solar-power-cheaper-than-fossil-fuels-in-5-years/

Also, maybe:
"NASA seriously believes in Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)"
http://mnispel.net/neengineer/?p=320
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2832338/posts

And:
http://energyfromthorium.com/

And there are others. Energy is not a big issue if we want to solve that. Lack of imagination, will, and social consensus is more of the problem:
http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Ultimate_Resource/

As well as the diversion of most of our resources into guarding, competition, and war...

As to your quote, I answer it with another quote: "The woods would be pretty quiet if no bird sang there but the best." :-)

Also, who is to judge what "best" is?

Clearly, even third rate is soon going to be enough to create WMDs (like the biotech, nanotech, or microrobotic equivalent of what script kiddies do with computers). So, we still need to figure out a way to make a world that works better and better for more and more people (including by reducing violence through healthier nutrition); see for example:
"Omega-3, junk food and the link between violence and what we eat: Research with British and US offenders suggests nutritional deficiencies may play a key role in aggressive behaviour"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/17/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime

Also, if the brains of the masses are dulled in the 21st century, it is in large part because the "best" put in place systems to make them that way through compulsory schooling; see John Taylor Gatto's writings:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16a.htm
"I'll bring this down to earth. Try to see that an intricately subordinated industrial/commercial system has only limited use for hundreds of millions of self-reliant, resourceful readers and critical thinkers. In an egalitarian, entrepreneurially based economy of confederated families like the one the Amish have or the Mondragon folk in the Basque region of Spain, any number of self-reliant people can be accommodated usefully, but not in a concentrated command-type economy like our own. Where on earth would they fit?"

How much our resources do you think are currently consumed by guarding, competition, and warfare? I'd suggest over 90%... See for example:
http://www.whywork.org/rethinking/whywork/abolition.html
"Only a small and diminishing fraction of work serves any useful purpose independent of the defense and reproduction of the work-system and its political and legal appendages. Twenty years ago, Paul and Percival Goodman estimated that just five percent of the work then being done -- presumably the figure, if accurate, is lower now -- would satisfy our minimal needs for food, clothing and shelter. Theirs was only an educated guess but the main point is quite clear: directly or indirectly, most work serves the unproductive purposes of commerce or social control. Right off the bat we can liberate tens of millions of salesmen, soldiers, managers, cops, stockbrokers, clergymen, bankers, lawyers, teachers, landlords, security guards, ad-men and everyone who works for them. Ther

I can't find that Amish fire code one either, though I did find a rather amusing case in which one of them argued that his religion forbade him from displaying a 'slow vehicle' warning sign on his buggy... and actually won, at least at first! ( http://louisville-accident-lawyer.com/2011/09/kentucky-statute-189-820-for-slow-moving-vehicles-is-found-constitutional-for-amish-buggies/ ) The case was overturned on appeal. I can find many, many news stories and discussions detailing the conflict between the Amish and regulators over enforcing building codes (http://www.firehouse.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-91475.html, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,466606,00.html, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1991276/posts ) but no actual case name.

I discovered an interesting one in Wisconsin v Yoder though, in which they successfully challenged a state law requiring compulsory education as an infringement upon their freedom of religion - the Amish religion strictly prohibits any formal education beyond the eigth grade. I already knew that, but I didn't know they'd had to go to court to get it. It is one reason I am so comfortable mocking them all as ignorant: They actually are uneducated, and by choice too. Their deliberate refusal of education fuels my deep dislike for them, espicially as it makes leaving their community almost impossible: Someone raised in an Amish community is unemployable elsewhere. Can you imagine trying to get a job when you don't even know how to operate a telephone?

Presented to U.S. officials by the Iraqi National Congress, a London-based exile group pushing for an American attack on Iraq, the defector says Saddam is close to finishing a long-range ballistic missile that could hit Cairo; Ankara; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Nicosia, Cyprus, or Tehran. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/658542/posts

That was what we were told in 2002. A decade on, we now know that those "intelligence" reports of WMDs from the INC were actually supplied by a double agent working for Iranian intelligence.

According to a US intelligence official, the CIA has hard evidence that Mr Chalabi and his intelligence chief, Aras Karim Habib, passed US secrets to Tehran, and that Mr Habib has been a paid Iranian agent for several years, involved in passing intelligence in both directions. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/may/25/usa.iraq10

Oops. And what about those mobile bioweapon labs? It turned out that intelligence came from another unreliable source:

Despite warnings from the German Federal Intelligence Service questioning the authenticity of the claims, the US Government utilized them to build a rationale for military action in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, including in the 2003 State of the Union address, where President Bush said "we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs", and Colin Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council, which contained a computer generated image of a mobile biological weapons laboratory.[1][4] On November 4, 2007, 60 Minutes revealed Curveball's real identity.[5] Former CIA official Tyler Drumheller summed up Curveball as "a guy trying to get his green card essentially, in Germany, and playing the system for what it was worth." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curveball_(informant)

The whole story was made up by one guy who wanted his immigration card, and yet - without any verification - it was used by the Bush administration to justify a war.

And since you brought it up, alll of the intelligence that linked Iraq to 911 was lies as well.... There was no Iraq Islamist link (well, at least until the coalition invaded and plunged the country into a bloody sectarian civil war)