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http://life.nationalpost.com/2...

Not nearly as interesting as a conversation with this guy.

I guess I need to draw you a picture.

The possibility of abuse of this law if it's passed is mind-boggling. I do hope the Canadian people wakes up and take their politicians to task.

Look at Canadian and BC civil fortiture laws. They were enacted in the name of organized crime and now have shifted into a way to punish people if the cases don't go the Crowns way. Even judges are steppng in and saying the law is being abused

http://news.nationalpost.com/2...

When every other candidate is certifiably loopy, there's a pretty low bar for competing with them.

Toronto mayoral candidates are currently running on platforms of smoking weed in office but not crack, getting publicly drunk without threatening to kill anyone, and only urinating in public where there are no cameras around.

Sadly, all of these promises put them ahead of the incumbent.

Except you were hiding it, for years.

Hiding it? Then how come I watched it live streamed over the internet?

http://news.nationalpost.com/2...

Some fucking fucked up definition of "hiding" you have there. What's next? You'll accuse the US government of "hiding" the amount of national debt? Sometimes ignorance is *your own* fault. At least own up to it instead of hiding from the truth.

And the general leaks in seals were known. They were looked at and were deemed immaterial by everyone involved, including the astronauts. That's been known for as long as US has used water in their suits.

And then across the border in Ontario there is no language police. You can setup a business where somebody only speaks language X and that's completely fine.

Please note that the Quebec language police have infected some border towns

...carried out beheadings in this century?

How many synagogues did they burn?

How many honor killings did they carry out?

Sure, and apparently Toronto also has trouble with snow and ice and traffic and commuter rail being shutdown.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2...

http://www.cp24.com/weather/cr...

http://www.thestar.com/opinion...

You bet, you will get a free "Google Privacy protector" at any local shopping store for free. simply place on your head and cut holes for your eyes. The stores call them "grocery bags" but that is because they don't understand the Google nomenclature.

Yeah, that sounds great, except the trend is now to make it illegal to wear something that covers your face in public...

http://www.wtvq.com/content/localnews/story/Lexington-Adult-Masks-Illegal-To-Wear-In-Public/kduA8xtDwE6DV1LdXH5D5w.cspx

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/01/outrageous-critics-angered-by-new-law-making-it-illegal-to-wear-a-mask-at-unlawful-protests/

http://gothamist.com/2011/09/19/nypd_uses_law_from_1845_to_arrest_m.php#photo-1

You do realize that Canada is the one who ratted out Mahar Rar, right? And you are also aware that your government allows the US to route these people through your country?

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/13/graphic-the-extraordinary-renditions-54-guilty-nations/

Maybe we should hold off a bit to assess the affects. "Whistle blowers" aren't the only ones that Snowden has "inspired."

Virtually every terrorist group in the world shifting tactics in wake of NSA leaks: U.S. officials/A.

So, I see the Canadians are taking notes from the Americans and the British.

Hardly. It was exactly this type of abuse back in the 80's(1984 actually), when the RCMP was responsible for national security that caused the mandate to be ripped away from the RCMP, and the creation of CSIS with...a civilian oversight board. Very nasty bit of history with the entire organization on that. The real question of course is, why didn't the board do anything, say anything, or check this. The other part is, this will end up before the senate, and a house committee, both of which are good. Maybe, just maybe, it'll get the senate abolitionists to back off if they manage to get their act together. This is also going to cause a huge mess with on-going terrorism trials, especially the muslim nutbar that wanted to cause a terrorist attack on a VIA train going from Canada to the US.

There's a lot more to this than what we're seeing, just going by what I know from past history of CSIS and RCMPSS. And in this case, like the previous one I'm going to hazard a guess that it was also someone in CSIS who believed that "they could get away with it."

Not the first time canada post employees have stolen things. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/15/canada-post-employee-arrested-for-allegedly-stealing-gift-cards-from-mail/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/10080320/Stockholm-riots-leave-Swedens-dreams-of-perfect-society-up-in-smoke.html
http://www.thelocal.se/20110810/35462
http://phys.org/news/2011-10-group-boundaries-key-ethnic-violence.html
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/01/police-routinely-suppress-racial-data-in-canada-study-says/

I suppose like many things in life it will remain a mystery.

Russia Simulated A Large-Scale Aerial Night Attack On Sweden
Canadian jets repel Russian bombers

Canadian navy officer sentenced to 20 years for being Russian spy
Canadian Police Arrest Man on Trying to Spy for China

Bombs from thwarted B.C. terror plot planted among crowd of 40,000 Canada Day revelers

No, they just executed 80 people for watching the news at 11.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/09/13/jesse-kline-u-k-surveillance-state-goes-too-far-by-putting-cameras-in-school-bathrooms/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/spy-cameras-are-used-to-target-student-protesters-2290783.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District

I started out looking for a story from a few years ago. The United Kingdom child services was installing cameras into the homes of troubled youth. Has the internet been "sanitized", or was that a false story? Even false stories are usually available to find again. Things that make you go "Hmmmmm".

But, yes, the government can install surveillance equipment into your home. The UK has apparently done so.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/204775/Surveillance_Camera_Code_of_Practice_WEB.pdf That PDF only applies to surveillance in "public places". It does make reference to yet other regulations that might not be "public places".

Hold that thought!

Bull. National security be damned - have you ever known a politician not to take credit? That's why I don't believe these operations are even effective. The biggest fish they've bragged about is some cabbie in LA and his friends who sent a whopping $8500 to some terrorist group in Africa. Are we willing to sell the Bill of Rights for that?

Maybe you haven't paid any attention to the criticism leveled at the Obama administration from current or former members of the intelligence and special operations community for some of the details they have released over the last couple of years. When it comes to intelligence operations, the public tends to hear about the failures, but the successes are generally kept secret for a very long time, if they are ever acknowledged. Publicizing intelligence operations can destroy their value, and not just for that operation, but even for all current and future operations of the same type.

Intelligence operations aren't like building a new bridge in a congressional district. Chances are that most people want the bridge, welcome the jobs and spending in the district, will think highly of the congressman for getting it (if needed), many people will use the bridge when it's completed, and people might even vote for the congressman in the future. By definition the target of an intelligence operation isn't going to want it, will avoid its consequences if possible, might try to capture or kill the people involved with the operation, and might even completely avoid things associated with it in the future.

You can see that going on now, with the Snowden / Guardian leaks: Virtually every terrorist group in the world shifting tactics in wake of NSA leaks
Snowden's leaks are far worse than some politician bragging, and it is having the anticipated affect.

The US isn't selling out the Bill of Rights, and it seems to me that politicians aren't the only ones with an attitude of, "National security be damned."

It is worse in the US than in Korea. But Canada also has bad Internet. South Africa has some slow speeds and usage caps. Also Australia and other countries.

We're neither the slowest nor the most expensive.

What gave it away? Sloppy work 'cause nobody gives a fuck anymore. Why bother hiding that you're spying on the people after you noticed that, hey, the people don't care?

Wouldn't you feel a bit let down? I mean, think about it, you spend resources, time and energy on hiding that you're essentially putting your citizens under total surveillance, you enjoy how you manage to deceive and fool your population, only to notice that the main reason it worked was that nobody gives a shit?

You're quite mistaken. Somebody cares.

Unfortunately things can be a bit more complicated than what the phrase about journalists and your praise of Greenwald suggests.

Actually that isn't really true, is it? Only a small hand full of the documents he stole have been made available. Snowden reportedly had 50,000 documents just on UK intelligence operations. He obviously had many more about the US, not to mention Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and other countries. We've only seen just the smallest, filtered part of the documents numbering, what, a couple of dozen? I think you are greatly exaggerating what has been seen. Also, we know that what has been released isn't limited to purely domestic surveillance which most people here think it is legitimate to expose, which means foreign intelligence gathering has been compromised, which many people here claim to not support. And yet the damage is still done.

As to repeating this sort of infiltration and theft, once Snowden left there was bound to be an investigation whether he disclosed the documents publically or not. There is no way that they could count on repeating this anyway, even if it was all a Russian operation. This really isn't much different than when the Cambridge Five left, and in particular, Kim Philby.

As for your theory, whatever helps you sleep at night. Personally, I don't believe that either the US or UK government is all powerful, which is why this incident will be so damaging. If they were all-powerful they could shrug off the damage, but they aren't all-powerful. The damage has in fact been irreversible. Regardless of whether or not Snowden had help, he did the inside work, and is responsible for the damage.

You should understand that it will take time before the damage is apparent. In some cases it will probably be years before certain consequences take place since it can take years of planning and preparation for terrorist attacks. But be clear, it is already having an effect.

There is a certain irony at play here. For decades, people suspected, and were very put off about it, that the NSA had weakened the DES encryption standard by the mysterious alteration of the S-Boxes when in fact they had secretly strengthened it against an attack they knew about that nobody outside of IBM (as far as we know) knew about. The mere possibility of the NSA weakening a current NIST approved encryption standard has people in a uproar despite the fact that the so-called evidence for it hovers between thin to non-existent, seems to be magnified in the retelling, and even if it was true could probably only be exploited by a nation state, and possibly only the US. And yet the same people are cheering on what must be the greatest loss of secret intelligence information on methods and operations ever, affecting multiple nations, as if there would be no consequence to that. Time will tell.

We ALL wear red shirts.

That's an interesting insight. In Star Trek the "red shirts" are members of the same crew as the rest of the people wearing other shirt colors. I'm not sure that I can think of many cases where the "red shirts" were killed by their own crew, I believe it was almost entirely killing done by the enemy. That enemy was often unseen until it killed a red shirt, and then threatened or attempted to kill the rest.

Well, just a reminder that there really is an enemy out there (not the NSA), and now they are activating their cloaks. Is it solely to escape, or to strike by surprise? I guess as red shirts we'll eventually find out.

It is biologically possible and actually not difficult at all to rape a man.

From a very quick google.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013870/Robber-broke-hair-salon-beaten-black-belt-owner-kept-sex-slave-days--fed-Viagra.html
http://www.policymic.com/articles/33593/canadian-man-sexually-assaulted-by-four-women-showing-rape-goes-both-ways
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/06/chicago-woman-charged-with-raping-a-man-at-gunpoint-stealing-his-iphone/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/07/four-women-wanted-in-alleged-sex-assault-of-19-year-old-man-in-downtown-toronto/

There are also a number of stories I know from an all female residence at the university I went to where girls get a guy drunk at university part and take turns having sex with him when he's passed out. It's a frosh week hazing ritual of sorts, but it's not rape of course because guys don't get raped so afterwards they'll always make a joke of it and act macho, but essentially he has sex with multiple partners without his consent. I can see people laughing already saying to themselves, "yeah like he didn't want it."

Virtually every terrorist group in the world shifting tactics in wake of NSA leaks: U.S. officials
Terrorists harder to track after Snowden's leaks, officials say

It's amazing to me that you would think terrorists changing tactics in light of Snowden's leaks would even be a question.

There already is a war in Syria. I'm not sure how you think the US could start one.

The presence of WMDs in Syria has been verified by many countries, not that there was really much question. It has been known for a long time.

Saddam had the Iraqi government behave as if it still had WMDs to fool the Iran which it had fought a war against in the recent past. The only reason they didn't still have WMDs was that they secretly disposed of their last stockpiles after fooling the inspectors for years. After the invasion they were still found to have banned weapons, just not WMDs. The Coalition forces did find unfilled chemical warheads for missiles though. Prior to the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq both possessed and used chemical weapons in the war against Iran, used chemical weapons on the people of Iraq, and had a biological weapons. They repeatedly lied and hid their stockpiles from inspectors.

Iraq continues to make use of its expertise with WMDs by helping the Libyans dispose of their chemical weapons. Saddam wouldn't have had interest in that.

Iraq to help Libya destroy its chemical weapons

Iraq is better off without Saddam, and the price of the transition was fewer people killed than Saddam's long term average annual death toll.

> If those damned telephone poles would quit getting drunk and
> jumping into the middle of the road, it wouldn't be a problem.

You mean like so?

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/20/miscommunication-leads-to-hydro-pole-in-the-middle-of-a-quebec-roadway

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/19/dangerous-driving-power-pole-appears-smack-in-the-middle-of-quebec-highway/

The hired gun ratfuckers called themselves Pierre Poutine. A very cheesy name for a spin doctor who was only in it for the political gravy.

They have learned to hide in the shadows of the internet and cover their asses before the public gets any info about what they do. At least that is what the investigators want the public to believe, the ratfucking that went on in BC to side swipe the NDP in the last provincial election was even more amazing. They went from leading in the polls by a 20% margin to losing an election almost overnight with the financial help of pro ratfuckers mostly trained in American universities, whatever the hell the academic moniker "political science" means.

One thing, the Republican party in the States seems to be rather afraid of using them anymore and they just hire "PR" firms instead and distance themselves from the mud slinging if at all possible. Funny but the last American election defaulted to Obama largely because the Republicans seemed to be ratfucking each other more than going after the Democrats as a unified entity. LOL

Perhaps ratfucking should be restricted to in party elections and the ensuing blood bath could make a two party system more competitive both in the US and Canada.

Then completely eliminate political advertising, telephone and internet polls and all other electoral forms of advertising except moderated tv and internet debates between all prospective candidates for 6 months leading up to the elections. And these debates will be on all issues leading up to the election. Perhaps allow only the transcriptions of the debates to be mailed out unedited and publicized to voters by the candidates.

This could completely stop the nonsense of letting the spin doctors and lawyers work on a politician's image. The days of having leaders like John Chretien, who dominated debates with a real human personality are unfortunately gone. If a politician cannot speak directly to the electorate from their gut then they do not deserve to be elected period. Paid University "political science" spin doctors and politically motivated lawyers need to be exposed for who and what they are and hung out to dry by real politicians for a change.

Coincidentally Luka Magnotta had previously been accused of killing kittens on video and posting it to this type of site, if not the same site.

Not responding to the parent post, but I think there is a valid argument that the operator of the site hosting Luka's videos is guilty of collaborating with the killer. He didn't plan the murder, but he is acting as an instrument of Magnotta by delivering the infamy that was Magnotta's goal.

The mature and humane response would have been to say, "Hey Luka. You killed a guy to become infamous. I'm not going to assist you in this goal by publishing this video of the crime you committed to become infamous. I'm going to hand it over to the cops." Instead, this website operator responded by helping Luka to achieve infamy.

Actually, hate speech is now protected. The exemption was repealed. http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/27/hate-speech-no-longer-part-of-canadas-human-rights-act/

It's cute that you think politics and campaign donations work that way, but they really don't. For one thing, most donations don't come from "rich people" or even "corporations", they come from non-profits, unions, and other non-corporate lobbies.

My local billionaire would disagree with you - he (I'm sorry, him and 16 of his friends and family) contributed several hundred thousand dollars (or, $30,000 *each*) in the last election.

It's no great mystery how this works. The first priority of a politician is to make their voters happy, the second priority to make their donors happy, and doing the right thing has the lowest priority. Since most voters actually don't care about most decisions either way, usually the donors come off best in the end.

I'll agree on the low priority right thing, but it's rare to see a politician who will side with a voter over a donor IMO.

Regulate. I rest my fucking case.

They've been at least partially repealed in Canada.
Our long gun registry (LGR) was recently scrapped. Unfortunately, too recently to show any difference between before and after, so you'll have to wait a while for that.
What you may be interested in, however, is an editorial about the LGR in the National Post, which is a conservative paper, but only mildly so.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/12/11/gary-mauser-why-the-long-gun-registry-doesnt-work-and-never-did/
It's definitely strongly against the LGR, but is very logical and factual in its reasoning, without the usual emotional knee-jerk reactions that the subject normally evokes on both sides.

The National Post has an excellent graphic of the worlds nuclear stockpile that helps to put things into perspective.

On free speech and Canadian politics William Watson, writing in the Ottawa Citizen, argues that Tom Flanagan’s ordeal has been “Orwellian,” except inasmuch as “it wasn’t organized by the state” which rather takes some of the sting out of the term, doesn’t it? We certainly agree that Flanagan didn’t say anything that should instantly torch the career of an academic or a CBC commentator, and that it’s healthier to explain forcefully why he’s wrong than to demand “firing” or “shunning” — but then, if he wasn’t also Tom Flanagan, hard-bitten political strategist, his remarks wouldn’t have caused such a furor in the first place. As for the notion that Flanagan was “surreptitiously videoed” or somehow entrapped, we’re just a bit baffled. The problem is what he said, surely, not why or how we came to learn that he said it.

In some cases, voter fraud is done by those who do have the right to vote

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/06/u-s-election-machine-glitches-and-voter-fraud-reported-as-america-goes-to-the-polls/

Outright fraud seemed to be the case in Clackamas County, Oregon, though, when an election worker was fired and now faces a criminal investigation after “alleged ballot tampering was discovered,” according to a press release.

Deanna Swenson, 55, was “relieved of duty immediately” after an elections official allegedly caught her filling in the Republican options on ballots where voters had left the choices had been left blank, Raw Story reported.

Swenson, a registered Republican, claimed she had only tampered with two ballots, though the local sheriff’s office said the total was not yet clear.

If convicted, Swenson could face a five-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $125,000.

I'm guessing you're that ignorant of canadian politics that you don't know that Liberals(are the name of the party). But that's okay, let me educate you. Let's see here. Well now that's from all three sides of the political spectrum of the news. Going from left wing, to centerist, to right wing. And I haven't even touched the gas power plants that were gutted out, and the $250M+ bill that taxpayers were stuck with or the 50k documents that people are still pouring over, or the reason that it was cut was due to environmentalists and his desire to push "green energy."

And in the new today, a guy in Nunavut is still in jail after 2 years after self-defending himself in his home. His conviction was overturned but he has to have another trial. He called the police and they made it in time to arrest him.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/31/chris-bishop/

Before you get upset about this, you should know that he has been offered a job at the very company making the software he exploited. http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/22/student-expelled-after-he-discovered-flaw-in-schools-data-security-was-warned-twice-college-says/

From what I understand about the case he wasn't expelled for demonstrating the problem by "pressing the detonator". He was expelled for coming back days later without permission to see what else would blow up.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/20/youth-expelled-from-montreal-college-after-finding-sloppy-coding-that-compromised-security-of-250000-students-personal-data/

Two days later, Mr. Al-Khabaz decided to run a software program called Acunetix, designed to test for vulnerabilities in websites, to ensure that the issues he and Mija had identified had been corrected.

A bit harsh (and the NDA signing under duress is unfair) perhaps but I think he should learn from that as it applies in the nonacademic world too.

In the outside world if you find a problem, report it, and you're lucky that they don't shoot you the messenger, you certainly shouldn't push your luck by continuing to look for problems without permission especially by running automated scanners like Acunetix!

He did something wrong, sure. But what he did was not bad enough to justify completely destroying his future from an academic and professional standpoint.

Did something wrong? Destryong his future from a professional standpoint?

Skytech. He said that this was the second time they had seen me in their logs, and what I was doing was a cyber attack. I apologized, repeatedly, and explained that I was one of the people who discovered the vulnerability earlier that week and was just testing to make sure it was fixed. He told me that I could go to jail for six to twelve months for what I had just done and if I didn’t agree to meet with him and sign a non-disclosure agreement he was going to call the RCMP and have me arrested. So I signed the agreement.” -- Youth Expelled from Montreal College... (emphasis mine)

If it hadn't attracted all this attention, he wouldn't have had all these job offers, and would have been screwed.

"In the meantime, Al-Khabaz has received more than one job offer from technology firms, including Skytech, the company that makes Omnivox" -- from the summary (again, emphasis mine)

So, in short, what Al-Khabaz did was so horrible the president of Skytech threatened him with 6-12 months jail time for a "cyber attack" (with a convenient way to get out of jail card to sign a NDA) and *now* Skytech wants to hire him? The whole thing screams out that Skytech's president was overly reactionary and the whole "cyber attack" angle has more to do with Skytech's pants being proverbial down than any real wrong doing on Al-Khabaz's part.

Of course, I'm sure I'd feel a lot differently if I saw a pen tester being run against my site. But, then, if I were in that position I'd as quickly as possible run the same pen tester myself and *fix the bugs* because the next person who comes along is unlikely to be a person well intentioned enough to call me up and tell me about the bugs nor someone I myself could call as someone I can confirm any problems they expose. But then perhaps the only lesson to be learned is that Al-Khabaz should have used a Tor proxy to run the scan and companies really should treat the internet like waves battering against a levee with more concern about building a better levee and a lot less on getting the name and number of every big wave that comes along.

Not as high as you're referring to but...in this case the immediate higher-up is Dianne Gauvin, The Dean of Social Science and Business Technologies (dgauvin@dawsoncollege.qc.ca). Perhaps even a little higher is Robert Kavanagh, the Academic Dean (rkavanagh@dawsoncollege.qc.ca).

Snippet from the original article:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/20/youth-expelled-from-montreal-college-after-finding-sloppy-coding-that-compromised-security-of-250000-students-personal-data/

The administration of Dawson College clearly saw things differently, proceeding to expel Mr. Al-Khabaz for a “serious professional conduct issue.”

“I was called into a meeting with the co–ordinator of my program, Ken Fogel, and the dean, Dianne Gauvin,” says Mr. Al-Khabaz. “They asked a lot of questions, mostly about who knew about the problems and who I had told. I got the sense that their primary concern was covering up the problem.”

Following this meeting, the fifteen professors in the computer science department were asked to vote on whether to expel Mr. Al-Khabaz, and fourteen voted in favour. Mr. Al-Khabaz argues that the process was flawed because he was never given a chance to explain his side of the story to the faculty. He appealed his expulsion to the academic dean and even director-general Richard Filion. Both denied the appeal, leaving him in academic limbo.

They are.

When Israel engages in ethnic cleansing

If Israel is engaging in ethnic cleansing, why are they sending food and medical supplies into Gaza?

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/11/21/matt-gurney-while-hamas-fires-rockets-israel-delivers-food-and-medicine/

Conveniently timed just before he was to testify to Congress about the Benghazi attack. Now he doesn't testify. So, within days of Obama being re-elected:
- Petraeus resigns (he should have to answer questions about Benghazi)
- Clinton signals she will resign (she should have to answer questions about Benghazi)
- A drone is shot at by Iran prior to the election


And there is more. If this was Bush's reelection and this happened right after we would be up in arms!

Conveniently timed just before he was to testify to Congress about the Benghazi attack. Now he doesn't testify. So, within days of Obama being re-elected:
- Petraeus resigns (he should have to answer questions about Benghazi)
- Clinton signals she will resign (she should have to answer questions about Benghazi)
- A drone is shot at by Iran prior to the election


And there is more. If this was Bush's reelection and this happened right after we would be up in arms!

This was due to good regulations and social(liberal) policies.

Canada isn't heavily regulated at all, it's #6 in economic freedom: http://www.heritage.org/index/country/canada
Another cite: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/18/canada-rises-to-top-five-in-world-economic-freedom-ranking-as-u-s-plummets-to-18th/

Canada fared well because its businesses/banks/consumers/government did not overleverage, whereas in the US, all 4 did.

It's also questionable to call modern Canadian policies "liberal" in the traditional sense (which means "federal social policy"). Canada is heavily province focused. The provinces collect more taxes than the federal government (the way it should be). In that aspect, the provinces choose to be liberal whereas the federal government remains conservative small government (exactly what many Republicans want in the US).

If you define 1953 as not so long ago you must be in it for the long run. Waiting for the return of Zoroaster?

In 1953 we overthrew their democratic government, and then for 26 years we sponsored a puppet government that tortured and killed dissidents. A direct result of that radicalization and suppression is the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Our further interference by arranging loans for Saddam Hussein to punish them with a war cost the lives of one million people, including those who died in the gas attacks at Halabja, in the Iran-Iraq War. That ended in 1988.

This is the problem with stupid, simplistic understandings of history. It has been a policy of the United States for over a century to control and occupy the Middle East with extreme forms of violence that have killed millions, and sanctions that have killed hundreds of thousands more. There is no difference between us and the methods of other colonial powers, except that instead of pretending that natives are savages that are not worthy of consideration, we are pretending that Arabs and Iranians are savages that are not worthy of consideration. We kill them, take control of their oil, and they should just learn to accept that their natural resources may be under their feet, but God has intended them to belong to us as veto power against our enemies, or just so we can burn through it ourselves.

The historical evidence for those facts is overwhelming, and if you think you disagree with the hypothesis of American colonialism, you are either innocently or willfully ignorant.

As proof of this truism, without looking it up, name one nation that does not have a United States military presence inside of their national border, or inside of a neighboring nation. The same cannot be said for any other nation because the fact is and remains that we are a colonial power. That doesn't make us evil because we are America, but it does make us evil because we are an empire. Telling people how to live without giving them the opportunity to decide for themselves is simple tyranny, and it's wrong. It always has been, and it always will be, and there is never a legitimate principled foundation for taking away someone's right to choose their own path, especially when we take that right away from entire nations.