Domain: guardian.co.uk
Stories and comments across the archive that link to guardian.co.uk.
Comments · 6,585
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Re:Did any of this need to be confirmed?Also worth pointing out this gives lie to the "They hate us for our freedom" rubbish repeatedly heard from our leaders when conflicts and violence occur in unfamiliar parts of the world.
In his letter to America, Bin Laden states his demands that we must meet for Al Qaeda to stop trying to kill us:(Q2) As for the second question that we want to answer: What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.Convert to Islam, or die. So much for freedom of religion.
(2) The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.
(a) We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling's, and trading with interest.
We call you to all of this that you may be freed from that which you have become caught up in; that you may be freed from the deceptive lies that you are a great nation, that your leaders spread amongst you to conceal from you the despicable state to which you have reached.
(b) It is saddening to tell you that you are the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind:
(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?Eliminate the separation of church and state, and implement Islamic Sharia law, or die.
To comply we will have to completely revamp our banking laws, completely change the relationship between the sexes, force women into "modest" clothes, kill homosexuals by either crushing them under walls or pushing them off buildings, kill blasphemers, chop off body parts of thieves, severely punish people who drink alcohol, take drugs, publish cartoons featuring Mohammad, and a very long list of other things. They probably won't be happy unless we also oppress Jews, kill pagans and pantheists. We will need to institute dietary laws for ceremonial purity of food, ban some types of food, pray 5 times a day, and visit Mecca at least once. Our marriage laws will need to change to allow men to marry multiple women, and divorce them by saying "I divorce you!" three times. The sex habits of Americans deeply offend them, as do pornography and much of our literature. The Taliban banned kite flying as unIslamic. We'll have to start separating men and women in many activities... at least when we allow women out of the house. The 'Burqini' (not a joke) will be the hot new swimwear.... for those wanting to avoid a whipping for immodesty. Forget concerns about if lethal injection is too harsh under the Constitution because stoning, beheading, and crucifiction will be making a comeback. Democracy is unIslamic.
Sense a pattern there? They don't like our freedoms to worship, dress, eat, marry, work, pray, read, play, and just about anything else, the way to do now, including the way we govern ourselves. If it isn't getting through to you that, yes, they (Al Qaeda) really do hate our freedoms (to live as we do now), it isn't because the evidence isn't there, and it isn't because they don't tell us. Why aren't you listening to what they say?
By the way, New Y -
Re:Did any of this need to be confirmed?
No point mistaking bad intelligence and unquestioning politicians for malice.
Ok, as you are speaking of Australia, this may not apply to you. After all, I could see the government of Australia accepting intelligence from their ally the United States in good faith. However, citizens of the United States, you should understand that there is a difference between cooked intelligence and bad intelligence.Bad intelligence is when Achmed is giving you information, but he is actually secretly working for the Taliban. Cooked intelligence is when there is no Achmed, and the information you supposedly got from him was actually created by the Office of Special Plans out of whole cloth. Basically, black propaganda aimed at your own populace.
Bad intellegence can be incompetence (or it can just mean the other side is better than you), but cooked intelligence is definitely malice.
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political prisoners are popular again ...they're making a big comeback in many so-called "civilized countries", this is just one example of many (see this for quiet Austria e.g.). It's just the logical consequence of giving governments too much power and the tools to enforce it while the public is put under curfew by the ridiculous anti-terrorism laws.
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Re:You don't own your DNADo you have any actual data that backs this up?
The US Government Accountability Office compiled a report of genetic testing that is available here, although it's only a smallish snapshot of the current situation.
Both the positive and negative implications for widespread genetic testing are favourite subjects of Ron Zimmern and Muin Khoury, and if you're interested you'll find a lot of discussion of genetic test regulation by searching for them. There's a newspaper report of a study by Khoury here, but annoyingly I can't find the original work.
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Re:Sexual orientation and coding style?However, if there's any validity to the claim about a difference in coding styles between the male and female populations, I wonder whether gay men tend to pattern one way or the other.
Probably
.From the Grauniad June 16 2008:
A subject dear to my heart, as I'm Intersexed. Also not so much ambidextrous as ambiclumsy.Striking similarities between the brains of gay men and straight women have been discovered by neuroscientists, offering fresh evidence that sexual orientation is hardwired into our neural circuitry.
Scans reveal homosexual men and heterosexual women have symmetrical brains, with the right and left hemispheres almost exactly the same size. Conversely, lesbians and straight men have asymmetrical brains, with the right hemisphere significantly larger than the left.
Scientists at the prestigious Stockholm Brain Institute in Sweden also found certain brain circuits linked to emotional responses were the same in gay men and straight women.
The findings, published tomorrow in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest the biological factors that influence sexual orientation - such as exposure to testosterone in the womb - may also shape the brain's anatomy.
The study, led by the neurobiologist Ivanka Savic, builds on previous research that has identified differences in spatial and verbal abilities related to sex and sexual orientation. Tests have found gay men and straight women fare better at certain language tasks, while heterosexual men and lesbians tend to have better spatial awareness.
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Re:Public perceptionNot likely...
True, but since when has rational debate held sway in the realm of reporting science stories?
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The CIA will save usLook guys don't panic. We will be fine, no one is crazy enough to give them designs for the sophisticated bomb triggers they need.
........ Doh !! -
Re:Garage Nukes
Nuclear Cat crawling out of the bag? The US seems busy throwing the Nuclear Cat everywhere.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/jan/05/energy.g2
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/03/26/warhead_fuses_mistakenly_sent_to_taiwan/
There's plenty of info on making nukes already in the "wild". So if you give people more details, I'm sure it helps a lot. -
Re:Sudden?
Hasn't the supreme court been the voice of reason since 9/11? They don't seem to be able to stop the maniacs in power, but they seem to make sane decisions most of the time.
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Re:And when are we being too critical?
Not global warming, but several of Africa's presidents have not believed that AIDS is caused by HIV or believed it can be cured by folk magic: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jan/27/aids.badscience
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Re:Sometimes you wonderYou said: The US Constitution applies to "We the People of the United States". The protections and rights described therein do not automatically apply to enemies captured on the battlefield, or any non-US-citizen. The prisoners fall under the purview of the president in his role as Commander-in-Chief. The Constitution does not use citizen and person interchangeably. In the Amendment 14, for example, it says All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (Emphasis added)
So the Constitution does establish that there is a difference between 'people' in general and 'citizens' specifically. Now, I admit, that's a separate question from whether, in this specific case, the prisoners at Guantanamo have the right to habeas corpus, so lets look at that. From Article 1, Section 9: The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. Unfortunately, the Constitution does not use 'person,' citizen,' or any other potentially clarifying language. However, I read the Constitution to mean to apply to 'persons' when identifying language is absent, as the Constitution seems to go out of its way to identify when it's talking about someone else.
Shockingly, I'm not a lawyer, so my opinion has no legal bearing. However, the SCOTUS would seem to agree...
You said: Actually, the Red Cross has had extensive access to the detainees, and there never was any "torture", despite insinuations to the contrary. Red Cross access:
Red Cross Monitors Barred from Guantanamo
U.S. Rebuffs Red Cross Request for Access to Detainees Held in Secret
Red Cross blasts Gitmo
Claims of torture:
Text to be displayed
Claims of torture at Guantanamo
Top Bush aides pushed for Guantanamo torture
UK Rights Group: US has photographic evidence of torture
Searching for 'guantanamo torture' and 'guantanamo red cross access' brings up tons more.
-Trillian -
Re:Whoa what happened
I guess so...eventually. Now for the guys who've been locked up for the past 6 years without charge, that might seem like a long time. Now, about those ships?.
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Re:Only one solution thenYou advocated the current law, which means significant jail time for possession of weed, whether smoked in public, private or never at all.
First, define what you mean by "significant jail time".
Then, find one good example of someone who has been busted for possession, and possession only. That was what we started by discussing here. Find someone who did nothing else to attract attention of police, and was busted only for possession.
it doesn't say a night in the cells if stoned in public, like I said stand by your arguments.
If you are such an expert on the law, tell us what people serve for possession only. Of course, you'll have to find someone who was busted for possession only in order to find that example. I'll be waiting, but I doubt you'll find an example before this thread is closed.
Oh look, Black people are more likely to be charged when found with drugs than white people! my my, what do we call this? Racist persecution. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/sep/18/drugsandalcohol.ukcrime [guardian.co.uk] http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/Rcedrg00-05.htm [hrw.org]
First of all, the first link you gave was for the UK. I won't pretend to be knowledgeable on UK drug laws. You can feel free to do so if you wish.
However, as for the second - did you actually read the portion of that article titled "origins of racially disproportionate arrests"? You'll find that actually a lot of the drug arrests - for marijuana as well as other drugs - comes down to where police enforcement is most prevalent. Police enforcement is generally more concentrated in higher density, lower income neighborhoods. You can't really say that the laws themselves are targeting minorities because of the way police departments assign their officers.
If you want to accuse the police departments of racism, there is plenty of evidence against a number of large agencies for that. But your argument of the laws themselves being racist is pretty flaky.
sexually harass Raping
Interesting that I said harassment and you inserted rape. Un-welcomed advances can be prosecuted, even if they don't lead to rape. But if you don't want to differentiate between the two, I can't force you to.
try to do to get money Robbing
Why are you trying so hard to put words into my mouth? I suppose its because that has been the basis of your argument the whole time. However, I never said anything about robbery. Haven't you ever lived in a city with panhandling laws?
But clearly I can't do anything to get you to actually read what I write for what I write. You will continue to take what I write, apply your own beliefs to it, and then regurgitate it to somehow (very weakly) buttress your claim of "persecution". And you're welcomed to do that. You don't have to agree with me, nor do you have to agree with the law. You are free to do as you wish in defiance of the law or the wishes of society, at your own risk.
As I've said before, I would prefer you take those risks in private so that those of us who chose not to partake in recreational drugs won't be subjected to the effects of you on drugs. If I chose to wander drunk down Main Street - on foot, bicycle, horseback, in a car, or other such means - I can expect there is a good chance I will be arrested for drunk in public. Why is it that people who chose to smoke pot should be not subjected to the same?
That is all that I asked for, and all that I have supported. Everything else you have accused me of thus far has been based on your own interpretation of what I have said. -
Re:Only one solution thenYou advocated the current law, which means significant jail time for possession of weed, whether smoked in public, private or never at all. That is what the law says, it doesn't say a night in the cells if stoned in public, like I said stand by your arguments.
Oh look, Black people are more likely to be charged when found with drugs than white people! my my, what do we call this? Racist persecution. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/sep/18/drugsandalcohol.ukcrime http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/Rcedrg00-05.htm
You don't know if either one may sexually harass someone else. Raping, You don't know what either one may try to do to get money. Robbing, And if they choose to be in public while under the influence, they are choosing to be oblivious to the risks of their decisions to the public. Sociopaths. if you don't believe it, why say it? -
Not difficult to find differences at all
I disagree completely. In most ways, the nominees from the Democratic and Republican parties are incredibly similar. In fact, it's quite difficult to find any substantial differences in the campaign promises of either Obama or McCain
It's not difficult at all to find substantial differences. At least one was all over the news today:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/usa/2008/06/fallout_from_the_gitmo_ruling.html
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/12/mccain-habeas-court/
We've recently discussed some substantial differences in tech policy and in advisor selection on slashdot.
I get it that to some extent, certain political realities force every mainstream candidate into certain positions. But it's wildly wrong to take the further step and equate all their positions, and furthermore, it's dangerous. -
Re:Okay. Here's *MY* blog entry, Senator
Haliburton/Cheney sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/world/middleeast/25reconstruct.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040607-644111,00.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/politics/main575356.shtml
Bush sources:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0207/S00104.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jul/10/qanda.usa
Obviously, you can also just use Google to find other sources.
These are not conspiracy theories. These are fact-supported TRUTHS. You could likely find some of the press conferences referenced in those sources on youtube, if you need video as well. -
Re:Jumping the gun a bit....Got a decent reference? Seriously, that link is to the 'Daily Mail', the sensationalism in that paper is renowned. Fair point. Any of these good enough? http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/jul/30/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article463521.ece, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3936213.stm?
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Re:Jumping the gun a bit....
Got a decent reference? Seriously, that link is to the 'Daily Mail'.
The UK has certainly forced those wrongly convicted to pay for their time inside as in the case of the Bridgewater Four: The Times and The Guardian -
Re:Jumping the gun a bit....
it was an election promise
This being the crucial difference between fox hunting and 42 days.
There is a convention that the Lords does not block legislation in a winning party's election manifesto. But 42 days was not in Labour's manifesto for the 2005 election, which took place shortly before the 7/7 attacks.
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Re:Tories vs Labor
But the majority of the public WANT this change. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/08/terrorism.uksecurity
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Re:Hey!"Our collective failure has been to take our political leaders at their word. This week, the BBC reported that the government's own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins study on Iraq civilian mortality was accurate and reliable. This paper was published in the Lancet last October. It estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died since the American- and British-led invasion in March 2003." -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/mar/27/countingthecost
Yes, "only" 650,000 from March 2003 - March 2007. Well done indeed.
PS. Linear extrapolation would give ~800,000 by this March.
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Why are you all bitching about this ?
A lot of people are complaining about this law. Why do you hate our country so much? Why do you want to make things easy for scumbag terrorists who want to kill us all in our beds or on our world class public transport?
There will be checks and balances in place for this to make sure that the police do not abuse these powers and that no innocent people suffer from the outcomes. I mean, lets be honest here - why would you want to WALK on a cycle path? (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article579334.ece) That's just dodgy!
As for the bloke who kept all of his belongings close to him on the tube, he did look a little odd and he had far too much techy stuff on him. (http://gizmonaut.net/bits/suspect.html).
The 82 year old who got arrested under the terrorism act at the labour conference (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4293502.stm) was a known trouble maker having already evaded one lawful regime's attempts to bring him to justice under their current laws back in the 40's, so he probably deserved what happened.
And the bloke who recently spent 6 days in a cell (http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2282045,00.html) for trying to print a document freely available on the Internet should have known better - why do you REALLY need to print stuff these days?
That's killing trees, that is, and deserves this kind of punishment!
In all of the above cases, these people were set free. And it's not like just being arrested can fuck up your life or anything. Or end up with your DNA on file for life. And I'm sure that most of the MPs voting for this bill know what it's like to spend a night or 6 in prison, so they'd never do that to an innocent person, knowing how badly you can come out of that experience.
We actually NAILED on terroristwith this law already - that uppity bitch won't go writing any more bad poetry in the near future, now will she!?
I mean, you have to understand that in a post 9/11 world, things are _different_ now. Al Kayeeda is really really really scary! Ok, sure, there have been fewer attacks than during the IRA years, but that's not the point here! We need this law so that... uhm...
Hang on a sec... This is the UK right, not Iran? Fuck :( -
Re:Hmmm....
The tragic thing about all this, is that it won't get through the upper chamber and Gordon Brown knows this. His problem was that losing the vote would show him up as a weak leader, and not in control of his own party. This way he'll get to blame the unelected House of Lords (many of whom he and Tony appointed under their People's Peers programme) for the legislation not being passed.
Ironically, we may end up with all the negative effects from such legislation without any of the (supposed) benefits - i.e. actually being able to lock people up. World + dog outside the UK will believe that it's been passed, removing us even further from what little moral high ground we've got left to stand on and eroding UK citizens' perceptions of their own liberty. This is perhaps the first time I've ever said this, but thank god for the unelected, undemocratic House of Lords. Without them, this would already be law.
Am I simplifying this? Probably, yes. It just seems that regardless of the merits or otherwise of this legislation (and no Slashdot, I'm not arguing in favour of it), getting the vote through the House of Commons was more about saving Brown's arse than actually achieving anything.
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Re:What you mean we, white man?
Wow are you wrong. Hans Blix and his inspections team were in Iraq with what they described as unfettered access for 11 weeks in late 2002/early 2003. Inspectors had been denied access earlier in 2002, but the claim that the UN was never allowed to do inspections is false.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/14/iraq.unitednations1
please note that, to the best of my knowledge, no one in the Bush administration claimed Saddam was an imminent threat. that allegation started with Democrats.
9/18/2002: Donald Rumsfeld tells Congress, "Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent, that Saddam Hussein is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certainÂ--we should be just as concerned about the immediate threat from biological weapons. Iraq has these weapons."
http://www.motherjones.com/bush_war_timeline/ (warning: source is biased, but comprehensive) -
Re:Your papers, please.First, what do bin Laden his cohorts ultimately want? What is the ultimate intent? A pan-Arab Caliphate. To unite the entire Arab world under one Islamic theocracy. That is bin Laden's utopia, that is his perfect answer that will supposed solve all the problems he sees of the world. bin Laden fundamentally doesn't give a shit about the Western World, he's perfectly happy for the rest of us to (figuratively and literally) go to hell.
Not quite. If you read Bin Laden's first demand in his Letter to America, you will see that his first demand that we must meet for Al Qaeda to stop trying to kill us is:(Q2) As for the second question that we want to answer: What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.
i.e., that we convert to Islam
He follows up with demands that we implement Islamic law and morality (Sharia), scrap our Constitution, and end the separation of church and state.
He doesn't "hate our freedoms", he hates us for stabilizing the Mideast and for working to keep Arab governments from collapsing in chaos, because he has the notion that such collapses and chaos would lead to an Islamic Utopia.
No, he really does hate our freedoms, most of which he views as either immoral, or enabling immorality.
bin Laden miscalculated in that 9/11 was so insanely obscene that the entire world - and even the overall Arab/Muslim public opinion - supported the invasion of Afghanistan. It didn't create the Arab outrage, uprising, and general population army that bin Laden hoped to create. We had effectively WON the War On Terror at that point. bin Laden's organization was destroyed, the Taliban was struck down, and the general Arab public opinion was to reject such terrorist tactics and was to oppose and turn in terrorist groups.
Hardly. Large percentages of the Arab and Muslim street backed Bin Laden's attacks (remember this?), neither the Taliban nor Al Qaeda was destroyed, but were badly damaged, and the War on Terror was just beginning at that point. There were far too many trained terrorists from the camps in Afghanistan running around the world, and there was far too much support for them.
The rest of your history is off as well. It is only seeing the results of Al Qaeda attacks in Iraq that has really eaten into support for Al Qaeda, and yes, Saddam's Iraq was harboring Al Qaeda members.
Bush and mostly the Republican party did organize into an abusive iron fisted domestic rule, cracking down on political dissent and cracking down on civil liberties and provoking substantial unrest and even hatred against that government.
Well, maybe some day soon we will be able to free the millions of Democrats and "Progressives" that were rounded up and jailed for their political views, get them back the jobs they lost due to "dissent", reopen the newspapers that were closed for anti-Bush editorials, and the book companies closed for even trying to print anti-Bush books (which are "impossible to find"), and .... oh, thats right... none of that never happened. Never mind.
Bush (and his entire administration) has a simplistic cartoon image of the enemy.
Thank goodness most people are more "sophisticated". -
Re:Yeah, about fake IDsOnly if anyone is claiming to have found the physical passports then you are correct. They were:
less than a week came another find, two blocks away from the twin towers, in the shape of Atta's passport. We had all seen the blizzard of paper rain down from the towers, but the idea that Atta's passport had escaped from that inferno unsinged would have tested the credulity of the staunchest supporter of the FBI's crackdown on terrorism. -
We have a winner!
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2210259,00.html
Read about the ongoing feud between Radiohead and their former big label here.
I'd bet that the summary article is incorrect and the band itself did not directly approve of the iTunes move. -
Re:Peak Oil Loonies?We reached Peak Oil back in 2005.
Peak Oil: when discoveries don't match what's taken out of the ground.
One of the ad hoc tests of the theory is how quickly opponents refer to the people with the evidence as "loonies". It's axiomatic that there's only so much oil and that it will end some day. A good way to gauge whether or not we've passed the peak is to actually look at production records and see if the production has declined. According to Kenneth Deffeyes, the chief academic petrologist in the country before his retirement, production peaked in the 4th quarter of 2005. You may be right, but people have been saying the same thing about food production for decades, if not centuries. You quote Che, "To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary." Ernesto "Che" Guevara
I wonder if Che would see the irony of the trials in Gitmo. Che would certainly be against any trials at Gitmo. By his quote, those people would already be dead. I put the quote up there because it's usually the same people screaming Constitutional rights for foreign terrorists and the complete closure of Gitmo are usually the ones wearing a Che shirt. Now THAT is irony! -
Re:Where is Ron Paul?
I know this is a little OT, but it turns out that Murdoch is practically endorsing Obama.
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Re:Let me be sure I understand....
This is totally wrong but I will cite sources to prove my point that the Indiana law DID go into effect already.
http://www.in.gov/sos/photoid/
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26725
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/28/uselections2008.usa?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/28/scotus.voter.id/ -
But...If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear (/sarcasm)
Also my local council used the law to spy on a family trying to give their kids a decent education http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/apr/11/localgovernment.ukcrime
Or if you want you can download the forms to apply to spy on someone form here http://security.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/about-ripa/forms/
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Re:In other news...
I think the point of TFA is that the OLPC's security system can be mis-used as an assistive technology for those dictators in their efforts to control their people.
I wonder if you'd be equally glib in your dismissal if this article were about Google filtering content at the request of Chinese authorities, or Yahoo disclosing the identities of people advocating democratic reforms? -
Re:EEEPC already does that. M$ is over.
EEE PC already has enough horsepower to play movies and music as well as anything else. Battery life could be improved and it already is up to 7.5 hours.
Apple dominates the high end market and GNU/Linux rules the low. Soon the ends will meet and M$ will be squeezed out. Vista is a failure and it has taken M$ down with it.
The change is permenant. Vendors have revolted, M$ won't be able to come back. Good riddance.
Must be amazing living in your world. -
Universities giving up on A levels
In my time at school (late 80s), universities selected their students by looking at their A-level grades. 4 good A levels was enough to guarantee you a place at a top university. Today I read that universities are starting to set entrance exams of their own because they can't tell who the good students are anymore, as they ALL have 4 or 5 A-levels. More details in the story from todays Guardian
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EEEPC already does that. M$ is over.
EEE PC already has enough horsepower to play movies and music as well as anything else. Battery life could be improved and it already is up to 7.5 hours.
Apple dominates the high end market and GNU/Linux rules the low. Soon the ends will meet and M$ will be squeezed out. Vista is a failure and it has taken M$ down with it.
The change is permenant. Vendors have revolted, M$ won't be able to come back. Good riddance.
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Re:People don't learn from history
"Those tax cuts sure helped me out." Right, and how is $4 gas and an extremely devalued dollar impacting that?
We are spending $4.00 for gas because of Democrats and environmentalists won't let the US drill for oil. Bush and Republicans have been pushing for more domestic drilling and exploration, which would have driven the price of oil down. So don't blame them!
Are you aware that your debt is now astronomical due to the Iraq war, or have you not gotten that far in your finances yet? That's economics you tit.
First, our debt is greater than the amount we have spent on Iraq, which means that our debt can not be attributed solely to Iraq. That's elementary school mathematics. Next, our government has pulled in more money since the tax cuts over the past eight years. That's the Laffer Curve, which is economics.
The ultra rich and welfare corporations are not "opening savings accounts" and investing in America, they're taking their money overseas, hiring foreigners, and selling off assets to China for a quick profit.
I keep hearing that, but no one can provide an example. From personal experience, I can tell you that exact opposite is happening. I work for a publicly traded European company that has operations in the US. They found that they do better in the US, which is why I have a job here.
And "the US has not conquered a single country since the 1800s?" You must not be aware that the US has waged attacks on a variety of countries that it did not make into new states. Hawaii was taken over in the middle of the 1900s, the Philippines were grabbed and lost, Laos was bombed without ever being annexed, and then you have Reagan's legacy of illegal attacks on sovereign countries, followed by Bush's.
Hawaii was a territory that voted to become a state, much like Puerto Rico could do if they so choose. The Philippines were never a state. They have been a sovereign nation since we liberated them from the Japanese. You mention Reagan's legacy of attacks, but conveniently left out Clinton's attack on Bosnia. Tell me, what did Milosovich do that made attacking Bosnia OK, that Saddam Hussein did not?
Bush hasn't turned Iraq into a US state, but it sure is getting more investment than any actual states.
Whats the worst thing you can do to Islamic terrorists? Provide a thriving democracy in the middle of the Mid East. Regardless of what you see on the news, it is working out quite well so far.
Speaking of whom, perhaps you're aware that Bush's grandfather along with other industrialists supported a Nazi-sympathetic fascism in the US prior to WW II. Linking the Bush family fortunes to two eras of military industrial fascism is not a stretch, it's simple reality.
First, that's quite a stretch.
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany...
While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade.So, it's not like the Bushes were Nazi's. And even if it were somehow true, so what? George Washington owned slaves. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was an "inside trader" that dealt with worthless stocks that led to the stock market crash in the late 20's. He also opposed helping out Great Britain during WWII stating "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US]." I don't hear anyone bashing Ted over that. You know, Ted Kennedy? The only man in Massachusetts that takes eight hours to open the car door for a lady. I guess you are more concerned with B
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Not entirely accurate.
That's simply the current extrapolation based on most recent polling. He wrote a column for the Guardian explaining some reasons why Obama may in fact have a better shot. All are valid arguments, I think the last one is particularly poignant:
5. It's the campaign, stupid
Finally, Obama's camp could point to things like his fundraising prowess and his stable campaign team and make the claim that it has run the superior campaign. Put more crudely, the argument might take the following form: if Clinton had relinquished a 20-point lead against Obama, who's to say she'd hold a two-point advantage against McCain?
The rest: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nate_silver/2008/06/strength_in_numbers.html -
Create alarm, plant GM crops, Profit!!!Exactly, how does extinction / loss of a food supply / mutating desease which have earlier almost killed a whole industry become small news?
This "news" has been around for a long time. Even the summary says so. It's an old story: monoculture -> disease -> no more bananas. Unless you have zero knowledge of bananas, you heard about this years ago. Hmm, I wonder why they'd be raising the alarm now, even when the banana companies like Dole and Chiquita don't care?
Right now, regulations have prevented even publicly funded research organizations from testing more than a handful of transformed bananas in the field.
Oh, I see. Somebody wants to skirt regulations regarding transgenic crops. "Won't somebody think of the bananas!!"
... Suckers. -
out of season
Great we can then but locally produced bananas! oh wait nvm
Gordon Ramsay has must be loving this latest development
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2008/05/seasonal_disorder.html -
Re:Another line a long line of insults
"Oh yes, a war for oil. And how great has that worked out?"
Badly.
"Considering that oil is at record highs, I don't think that it was a "war for oil" because had it been a "war for oil" we would have more oil."
You can't use the outcome as evidence, because it is flagrantly obvious that the planning for the aftermath of the Iraq invasion was inadequate and the expectations quite different. There weren't enough troops to properly secure the country. Some military people said so before the invasion, but it's taken years for others to admit they were right. I'm sure Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld expected the oil to be flowing copiously from a mostly peaceful and democratic Iraq by now -- a demonstration for the whole Middle East of how it should be done. That's what they said, anyway.
You've really got to go back and read the bold speeches from the time before or very shortly after the invasion.
"As for it being a war on oil, give your baseless theories a rest and take off the tin-foil hat."
Baseless? Speculative, maybe, but not baseless.
Here's the thing: what were the first things secured in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion? Was it the museum full of priceless artifacts? No. But those could hardly be considered military priorities, so I can kind of understand it, even if it was entirely predictable and unnecessary.
Was it the Iraqi army weapons dumps that would later be raided to make IEDs? No. A big strategic mistake.
Even stranger in light of the concern about WMDs: was it the well-known nuclear facility on the outskirts of Baghdad where the locals were rolling out drums of uranium oxide in the days after the invasion? No.
No, it was the oil wells -- many secured within DAYS of the invasion. Pretty impressive, really, but there was plenty of planning beforehand, and resources devoted to the task.
By what they did and did not promptly secure in Iraq the US made its priorities VERY clear in the days and weeks following the invasion. Actions speak louder than words. You are confusing the FAILURE of US planning for evidence that there wasn't a plan and expectation of how Iraq would work out eventually.
Iraq has the second-biggest conventional oil reserves in the world. It's hard to imagine that is unimportant to the equation. I'm certain the US did not plan to take Iraq's oil overtly. That's too cynical and it's unnecessary. But I'm as certain they were indeed hoping to get it flowing to the world markets after many years of embargo, which would increase competition with other suppliers and allow the US to buy it at a fair price.
In fact, the plan might even work out in the long run, at which point I'm sure Bush and his cronies will take credit, unless the whole thing collapses in on itself in civil war instead. -
Re:BBCSome may prefer reading the BBC article, which for one doesn't misspell 'al-Qaeda'. For once, this isn't a Grauniad typo, rather them following their own style guide.
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What "Free Trade" Looks Like.
Software patents are one small but important piece of the IP Empire which demands universally oppressive laws.
- Silencing protest before it happens and then pushing protesters aside where they are not heard and can be abused, arrested and tortured. Need work? Apply here!
- Subordination of local law to US corporate interests.
- Globally depressed wages
- Dangerous genetic modifications and ecological ruin.
- And now, all your Email are belong to US. Why not? we treat everyone like criminals here.
- We should not forget free flow of slave labor for US agriculture. It might be claimed that no US Citizen would take the kind of work mega farms import Mexican citizens to do, but why not pay those people US wages and treat them as immigrants rather than keep them locked up?
The list goes on and on but it has one common theme, your rights mean nothing, shut up and get back to work for the man.
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It's not the only problem they've had recently
First there was this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/may/17/horseracing
and then just today, the use of illegal search warrants has been frowned upon:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7416117.stm
For the benefit of those outside the UK, the police force that covers most of London is the Metropolitan Police. The "City of London" force just covers a small patch of ground to the east of the centre (the historic "City"). -
Re:In other news
Half true. BP at least are investing in alternative energy, while some like Exxon are, well, being fuckwits to such an extent some of their shareholders are up in arms. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/01/exxonmobil.oil
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Re:The first problem is
Yep. Though probably you are thinking of the wrong Orwell
After all the church has spent a considerable amount of money on wooing that particular police department.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/nov/22/freedomofinformation.religion
It is the "All animals are equal, some are more equal than the other" bit of Orwell. -
Re:Obligatory Strawman (I'm being ironic here)
Actually, I started off by calling candidates who would support your ideas idiots. So you can cut your half a dozen times down quite a bit.
Your better defense would have been to admit that you don't write well enough for anyone to discern precisely who you are insulting. Given that you have spewed insults on a couple of continents of people it is pretty clear you aren't that discriminating anyway.
Well, first off what did he lie to congress about? Are you talking about the state of the union address that was corrected the very next day and anyone with access to a radio, TV, or newspaper would have known that.
I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that 2nd sentence was a question. It's as good a place to start as any because it is utter nonsense and fiction, as usual.
Ignoring the significant evidence otherwise, let's assume the Niger uranium story made its way into the speech "by accident". You would be the only person to remember such an immediate correction. I refuse to play the game where you pull something out of your ass and I spend time proving you're lying. So show me the proof. Give me a traceable citation from January 29, 2003 to prove what you say. It should be easy, right?
On the other hand, here is a statement from the White House 2 and 1/2 months later repeating the same lie.
Or are you talking about the WMDs that there was specific inteligence (sic) to support. Hell, All during the Clinton years, the idea was the same and then all the after 2 years in office we are supposed to ignore all that because france said it wasn't true. well, here's a hint. France hasn't won a war in so long, nobody trusts their positions because they know it leads to defeat.
Wow, right out of the right wing lunatic play book. Never admit mistakes. Blame Clinton and the French, instead. Keep running that play for another election cycle or two, please!
Yup, a brilliant Bush move. Ignore the French. So what if they had much better contacts within the Hussein government than the US? They eat cheese! And ignore the Germans. And the UN. And even the British who wanted to wait on the UN. And, god forbid, don't wait for the UN inspectors to finish their work - they might report there was nothing to find and we would be denied shock and awe!
And all that "intelligence". You know, the plagiarized student papers, the the forged documents, the blurry satellite photos, and aluminum tubes, among so much other fabricated material. Whoever could have seen through that? Certainly not a Yale graduate or his entire administration and military!
And now, Mr. SumDumAss, who trusts us "knowing" it leads to defeat?
How it is unconstitutional to use signing statements of the law can't be passed to cover him in the first place.
Not that I really understand that sentence but...it isn't unconstitutional to issue signing statements, it's unconstitutional to use them to pretend that the president can ignore parts of the bill to which it is attached because he issued them. The signing statement is a footnote, not a line item veto.
You see, here is where the problems arise, You don't know what all of his signing statements are and you just assum that congress has the ultimate authority over the other branches by passing a law. Well, here is a hint for you. The roles and positions the different branches play can't be don't by another branch because the constitution gives each of those branches the power ha
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Re:That's a bit of a fallacy.Greenpeace is certainly involved in piracy (the nautical kind) against Japanese whaling ships. If that's not terrorism, then there's a pretty thin line. And that fine line is awesome! Piracy is awesome and terrorism is not.
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Re:That's a bit of a fallacy.Greenpeace != Terrorist organization That's what Hamas-backers say about Hamas.
Greenpeace is certainly involved in piracy (the nautical kind) against Japanese whaling ships. If that's not terrorism, then there's a pretty thin line. -
Re:Sounds Like A Reasonable ProposalAlthough this is apparently an appealing sentiment to some people, it has next to nothing to do with the current problem of Islamist terrorism. All you have to do is read Bin Laden's letter to American to understand their demands. They want to conquer the world and convert it to Islam, even if it takes a thousand years.
First - convert to Islam:(Q2) As for the second question that we want to answer: What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?
(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.
Second - enforce Islamic morality, replace the Constitution with Sharia, and eliminate the separation of church and state.(2) The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.
(a) We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling's, and trading with interest. ..... ...
(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?
If Israel were to disappear tomorrow and all UK troops were brought home it would have no effect because the United Kingdom is not an Islamic state subservient to the Caliphate. -
Re:Seriously, what is wrong with the United Kingdo
"that insane proposal for a law to allow laws to be made and abolished by regulation (i.e. without a vote in parliament)"
It's called the Civil Contingencies Act. And we've already got it, despite the efforts of the House of Lords.
Although you'd not expect the landowning classes to care much about civil liberty, the Earl of Onslow put it all fairly well in an open letter two years ago: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/apr/23/comment.conservatives