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It is just like those mechanical booths that many of us are used to with little levers that you pull down next to the name of the candidate.

[The PR] system universally came under attack from the politicians and parties who lost power and privileges. In Michigan and California, the dominant political parties mounted legal challenges and the courts in these states ruled that PR violated their constitutions. A more common attack was the effort to repeal PR by popular referendum. The referendum was a two-edged sword for PR--initially making it easier to adopt this reform, but also making it easier for opponents to challenge it. In Cleveland, well-financed opponents sponsored five repeal referendums in the first ten years of PR, with the final one succeeding. Similarly, PR opponents in Hamilton finally won their repeal effort after four failed referendums in 12 years ... Opponents of PR were not above fanning the flames of prejudice in their efforts to get rid of this reform. In particular, critics often played upon two of the most basic fears of white, middle class Americans: communists and African-Americans.

Do a quick google for "iraqi super cannon". Also check out William Safire's article.

The Afghanistan problem was created by the British. If you look into it, European imperialism has created every situation the U.S. has been taking the blame for: the former Yugoslavia, Palestine/Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, and (since you mentioned it) Vietnam.

As the only remaining super power it is now the task of the U.S. to clean up after everyone else has left and take the blame for the mess. Luckily for the world, the U.S. has the resources and the good nature to do this. Europeans love to deride Americans for not knowing world history. Maybe the Europeans are lucky we at least chose to ignore their role in it.

3.14159

Icons are cool. I am glad computers have icons. They make them prettier and more functional. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on icons.

This Susan Kare chick is a MILF!

Results for GIS of "Susan Kare"

she's hot

It's certainly something that George Orwell would have frowned upon, but it's not incorrect sentence construction per se.

PS: Read that Orwell article if you haven't yet, it's really very good

You know, they occasionally a special on the History Channel that includes this as part of a espionage program. Very cool. Not likely to see it too soon, it's like their doing a loop of Teddy Rosevelt and set of blowing up Iraq programs. All very cool, of course.

I did find a text version. But if you see the History Channel version, I'd recomend it, but that almost goes without saying. Especially lately.

Col. Chang Hsien-yi, who was deputy director of Taiwan's nuclear energy research institute

In Taiwan's special case, the nuclear weapon actually serious undermined their security. China knows Taiwan's is hands off. They can posture, and rattle their saber a little. But they damn well know better because of Taiwan's special relationship with the US. And China needs to cultivate good relations too, as do we with them.

But Taiwan with a nuclear weapon.... Especially Chang Ki Shek who *HATED* communists with a passion that would intimidate Joe McCarthy. Was a pretty significant threat to China. After one, is multiple. China, with the stance they pretty much need to take, their hand would be forced. It was probably a mixture of nationalist pride, and mostly intense loathing on a very primitive level that lead to Taiwan launching a nuclear program. Being more secure, might have been a justification to sell it in some circles, but I doubt it ever seriously entered into the discussion.

I agree. The problem here is not the Supreme COurt but Congress, and the problem with Congress is that like idiots we continue to vote for lizards to rule us - because otherwise the wrong lizard might wind up in charge.

As someone who grew up in the former G.D.R.(German Democratic Republic), I think I am allowed to draw a parallel here: The Berlin Wall (here an excellent link for those of you who wants to polish up there German language capabilities) was originally erected in order to protect East Germany from the West (and to retain the people in the Soviet Occupation Zone). The GDR-offiziell term for this perverse building was "Antifascistic Protective Wall"... wink wink, nudge nudge, know whatahmean, say no more?(see).

The bottom line is: While I am quite tempted to see a European Net as a way to protect us Europeans from the sillyness and corruption of the current US government (no offence to you honest US citizens), I cannot see why the European government(s) should be somehow immune against stupidity and corruption... Ultimately, a European Net would be used to imprison us rather than to protect us from the outside world.

Simple answer to that: proportional representation.

OK, to the uninitiated... Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis has influenced everything from Blade Runner's iconography to Madonna's 'Express Yourself' video to virtually every subsequent film rendition of Frankenstein.

So when I read on /. about an anime 'Metrpolis,' my immediate assumption is that we're talking about an anime-version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the world-famous movie by that title.

Various african nations boycotted New Zealand's attendance at the Olympics in 1976.

The reason was that New Zealand was planning a rugby series with South Africa, which was at the time practising apartheid.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/howthe.htm This article certaintly gives a lot of information about Afghanistan, the Taliban and a bit of their history. I can't decide whether or not to believe some of the things it says. It certainly gives an interesting perspective on America's early interaction with the Taliban.

A google.com search on "einstein's wife" turns up a number of hits and books, including this or this or here. None can really doubt that Einstein wasn't brilliant, but perhaps at least one woman was also not too shabby?

And if so, what kind of standards would allow a 250 million gallon coal sludge spill in Martin County, KY (Oct 11, 2000) be blacked out from the media? This is at least an order of magnitude greater than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, and the clean-up is significantly more difficult because the sludge sinks to the bottom of the streams and rivers. (It can't be skimmed off the top.)

What about the Election 2000 fiasco with the major networks calling FL before the people in CA had finished voting?

How about the absence of news regarding civilian conditions in Iraq? If you think the NATO vets are suffering from a bad case of Gulf War Syndrome, think about the people that were continuosly bombed with depleted (though still radioactive) Uranium munitions.)

On the brighter side, the internet at least allows people to search and find alternative views on most events. John Q. Public doesn't have to swallow the official media stance on any issue anymore.

We need to wake up.

That's a pretty fine line to be treading. The real reason why the public has a right to know isn't that we pay NASA's salary, but that our representatives oversee NASA and tell them what to do. The purpose of democracy is to force accountability on the government, and if mistakes can be kept secret, there's no accountability.

Obviously, there are certain types of information that we don't want the government putting on the Web right away (e.g., troop movements). But it's pretty dangerous to give the government a blank check to keep damning and/or embarrassing material secret forever under the pretext that it would "cause panics" if it were released. If there's no regular declassification procedure and if no one can review their decision without seeing the documents, then merely upsetting information could be labeled as panic-causing, and even the narrowest exceptions for national security would be abused.

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. kept all kinds of things secret, and tried to prevent the New York Times from publishing diplomatically embarrassing documents from the Pentagon Papers under the pretext of national security; luckily, the Supreme Court saw through it. Even though the release may have hurt us by showing all the nasty stuff we did in pre-war Vietnam, it was the kind of information the public had the greatest need to know -- so that we could hold accountable the people who had acted in our name.

Click Here for more info on proportional representation.

In addition, the situation in many states is that the majority of those who plan to vote will do so by voting against Bush. However, due to the lack of proportional representation, he will in many cases win the electoral vote for that state due to Gore's lack of appeal to Nader-voting progressive-minded liberals. Thus voters who believe Nader is the finer of the two liberal candidates are encouraged not to vote their conscience. It also means that a state with overwhelmingly progressive views has an fair chance that they will instead be represented by a right-wing candidate.

Check this out for more info on proportional representation & why most western countries agree that it's a better system.

However, obviously the electoral college is only part of the problem for 3rd party candidates. Aside from an overall biased media, the Commission for Private, I mean Political Debate was a hugely contributing factor to the notion that a 2 party system accurately portrays the wide range of political convictions. The fact that candidates such as Nader were not only barred from participating in these "official" forums for democracy, but even barred from watching them just goes to show the extent to which the dominant power structure seeks to retain dominance.

Having attended one of the many Super Rallies staged by the Greens this year, I would have to contend that their platform seems highly devoted to not only undermining authoritarian systems through campaign finance reform, support for Gays & Lesbians, Pro Choice, and other progressive policies, but also to promote critical thinking in the face of biased mainstream media drivel.

Your opinion that politics is a competition to herd the most sheep is rather frighteningly elitist, though by definition correct. Popular support is not gained by failing to inform people of your cause. However, there's a fine line between dogma and objective arguments & it is possible to spread your message without flat out forcing people to think something. Thus the arts of persuasion.

As stated by Granny D at the Greens rally, (the little old lady who walked across America in support of her stance on campaign finance reform), "When my friends ask me who I think they should vote for, I tell them that choosing a candidate is something which each individual should do for themself - taking into careful account the variety of facts and issues involved & then choosing the best candidate. But if they ask me who I am voting for, then I tell them, Ralph Nader".

Rule of, by, and for the people hasn't existed in so many years that we'd be shocked to see what it truly looks like. Given the fact that less than 50% of the people voted in the last presidential election, I can't help but posit that the most popular opinions are not necessarily reflected by the candidates elected.

--vents closed--

Javascript is useful for lots of stuff. Like check out the link in the middle of this page. You don't even have to click through, yet it will take you to the next page. Think of the ramifications for ad forwarding. Oh wait, that was (d). You're right; javascript is useless.

If you're running Windows (which I wouldn't recommend), then you can run Proxomitron which is a stupidly named yet sublimely wonderful non-caching proxy server (like the Junkbusters one) that you can run on your own client side which will let you strip out all the annoying javascript crap you hate (in addition to filtering out ad banners). You'd actually be able to go to Geocities websites without that stupid branded logo in the corner, that is, if there is anything at Geocities worth seeing. The friend whose computer I set it up on has had only good things to say about it.