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Just in case anyone was wondering whether the FBI were getting this guy all wrong here's Bobby Fischer's radio call-in on 9/11 applauding the terrorists [mp3] [Newspaper report on Bobby Fischer's 9/11 radio call].

Generally you're right, although it's worth noting that both your examples are BBC ones.

Sky News is pretty good from the now and then that I catch it, as is Channel 4 news.

All the broadsheet newspapers generally provide more challenge to the government than the present Westminster opposition do - even The Guardian which is nominally a Labour-supporting paper.

It's actually quite interesting that the one policy theme that the current opposition could successfully pick up on as a basis for the next election is the Libertarian agenda, currently being touted by The Daily Telegraph (which has been the Conservative Party's candid friend for a long time).

However, the Conservative Party has far too many internal interests who are bound to social authoritarianism despite their economic liberalism to go for this. It would be a brave step for them to refocus the party and lose a large part of the existing (small) support in the hope of gaining a larger support elsewhere.

They've started to recognise this - that their authoritarianism makes the country view them as the 'nasty' party - but they'll have to move very carefully to make the move effectively.

The Telegraph had an article back in February of last year (no longer available) that set the rate of autism in the UK at 1 in 175 children, or 58 out of every 10,000 (compared to the 10 in 10,000 rate reported in California.)

The evidence is becoming very persuasive that immunizations do bear a large portion of the blame. See the National Vaccine Information Center for some good articles on links to this and other complications.

For our part, after reading dozens of books and talking to as many people, we made the decision not to vaccinate our now six year old. (Commence the flamebait about how we're playing with fire, yadda yadda yadda...)

Dr. Mercola, a naturopathic doctor out of Chicago, also has many good articles about the possible causes of austism. WARNING: /.'ers may find Mercola's website hard to stomach, since he's going to tell you to exercise and to stop eating McD's fries and twinkies. ;-)

Crocuta

Sorry, here's a link.

Enjoy

Enjoy

This is the case. A man was sued by a woman. He was driving at the time, and as a result of the fit he crashed into her car, injuring her. Thus it was mainly a personal (physical) injury case, in which various psychological factors were included as aggravating features. Any alleged trauma itself would not have been grounds to bring suit, but aggravated the charge which was actionable. This is still slightly silly, but nowhere near as silly as the mis-report above.

Unlike Britain, news is not disseminated from one source.

Oh, oh, it's a dig at the BBC by an ignoramous non-Brit who thinks that any country east of Boston is a dictatorship, especially if it happens to have a publically funded media company and the people there like something they call "socialism"!

Where did you read this nonsense? I'm guessing not the BBC website, nor ITN's, nor Sky's (the three major TV news sources.) Nor I suspect did you read it in The Guardian, The Torygraph, The Times or the Independent. Nor any of the tabloids, or the regional newspapers, or on independent local radio, or, or...

Yes, it's a flame, I'll post it as an AC so it doesn't bother anyone but you. But do try to keep your neanderthal You-Ess-Eh! prejudices to yourself in future. I've met many, many, bright yanks. One, indeed, came and spoke at the Labour Party conference the other day. Do try to live up to their standards, you let the side down with this kind of drivel.

Oh, they never sue for stupid shit in Europe. Glad to know it.

With hate from him to them By Chris Hastings

Letters written by John Lennon in which he reveals the full extent of his hatred for Paul McCartney and his wife Linda are to be aired in a New York courtroom.

The previously unseen handwritten correspondence is at the centre of a bitter legal battle involving Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, and one of her husband's former aides.

As well as shedding new light on the often fraught relationship between two of the world's most successful songwriters, they reveal new details about the demise of the Beatles in 1970.

In particular, they prove that it was Lennon rather than McCartney who was responsible for the break-up of the world's most successful pop band. He seems to have been particularly upset about the refusal of the McCartneys to acknowledge his relationship with Ono.

He wrote: "I hope you realise what s*** you and the rest of my kind and unselfish friends laid on Yoko and me since we have been together - it may have sometimes been a bit more subtle or should I say middle class - but not often. We both 'rose above it' . . . quite a few times forgave you two - so it's the least you can do for us."

At the end of this particular six-page letter, Lennon criticises the McCartneys for failing to acknowledge Ono, even in writing. "P.S. about addressing your letter just to me - STILL!!!"

Copies of the letters have been filed with the Manhattan Federal Court, which will tomorrow begin hearing details of an action brought by Ono against Fred Seaman, who began working for her husband in 1979. Ono claims that Seaman stole the letters and a number of photographs.

It is not the first time that the pair have clashed in court. In 1983 Seaman, a New Yorker, pleaded guilty to grand larceny for stealing Lennon's diaries and was sentenced to five years' probation.

In the letter Lennon wrote about the McCartneys failure to acknowledge Ono - which is littered with expletives and crossings-out - the singer angrily denounces Linda McCartney, who had upbraided him for criticising the band's achievements.

Lennon reveals that after he decided to quit the Beatles attempts were made to give the impression that the band was continuing as a financially viable concern.

Addressing his remarks to Linda, he writes: "Paul and Klein [the group's then manager] both spent the day persuading me it was better not to say anything because it 'would hurt the Beatles' - and 'let's just let it peter out', remember. So get that into your petty little perversion of a mind."

In a final barrage of insults, Lennon adds that he does not expect the McCartneys' marriage to last more than two years. "Of course the money angle is important - to all of us - especially after all the petty s*** that came from your insane family and God help you and Paul - see you in two years - I reckon you'll be out by then in spite of it all."

Despite his rant, the singer still feels able to sign his letter: "Love to you both, from us two." Lennon's letter was in response to one from Linda. In it, he finds it impossible to hide his distaste for those who cannot separate themselves from the hype surrounding the band.

He wrote: "Dear Linda and Paul, I was reading your letter and wondering what middle-aged cranky Beatle fan wrote it. I resisted looking at the last page to find out - I kept thinking - who is it - Queenie? [Brian Epstein's mother] Clive [brother of Brian] Epstein's wife? - Alan Williams? [the band's first manager] - What the hell - it's Linda!"

He added: "I'm not ashamed of the Beatles, but of some of the s*** we took to make them so big - I thought we all felt that way in varying degrees - obviously not. Do you think most of today's art came about because of the Beatles? - I don't believe you're that insane - Paul - do you believe that? When you stop believing it you might wake up! Didn't we always say we were part of the movement - not all of it? Of course we changed the world - but try and follow it through - get off your gold disc and fly!"

Lennon's rants seemed to have been saved exclusively for the McCartneys. In another letter he is full of praise for the guitarist Eric Clapton, with whom he was keen to tour.

He contrasts what he hopes that experience will be like to touring with the Beatles, which he claims was "night after night of torture".

More than 30 years after their demise the Beatles continue to top the charts around the world. An anthology of their greatest hits, released two years ago, reached the number one spot in Britain and America and was named Album of the Year by Billboard magazine.

A history of the band written by McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr was an international bestseller.

McCartney, who began an American tour last night, was unavailable for comment.

See (free registration required) or here.

[snip]...when is he going after the catholics in the USA?
Actually the United States has gone after numerous IRA funding organizations and gun smugglers for many years. But since it seems to be a pretty constant operation you aren't going to get big splashy headlines on it every week (the same with Mafia or Columbian cartel stings).

So what do you want? To lock up everyone with a 'Mc' or 'O' prefixed to their name?

You forgot Riyadh. People danced in the streets of Saudi Arabia, as well as the streets of other Arab allies. Why did we only bomb Afghanistan, and perhaps Iraq, the latter having fuck-all to do with 9/11, and the former bombed to smithereens with no indication that we've found bin Laden or anybody worth a shit in al Qaeda except a fucking white boy from Marin County?!

Yeah there were people celebrating 911 all over the Arab world, and in parts of the non-Arab world; at least give the dancing Arabs credit for showing their feelings publicly, while the Russians and Chinese snicker behind (mostly) closed doors.

Look, the mass indoctrination of Arab Muslims with hardcore ideology that teaches them that God smiles on suicide bombers as martyrs is beyond sick -- I'm not going to argue with that. But I think it's a cynical and calculated strategy on the part of the Arab leaders this benefits -- especially the Saudis -- rather than a sign of an "evil culture" (which is a construct that has no validity from any perspective).

What have we learned from extreme Islamic fundamentalism? That greedy and tyrannical assholes in positions of power in corrupt incestuous dictatorships can use a perverse bastardization of a widespread religion in order to manipulate a large group of people (whom they openly conspire to keep poor and uneducated) to cheer on a few suicide-murderers? Are we really that surprised?

There has never in human history been an entire people who publicly revel in mass murder like the current Islamic Arab/Palestinian fuck-head idiots.

Bullshit. It happens frequently after military actions, and we have to understand that they interpret 911 as a military action. Americans danced and celebrated during the inordinately one-sided Gulf War; which in spite of our precision bombing, was probably indistinguishable from mass murder from the ground. Hell, Americans celebrated the nuclear attack on Japan, when we incinerated 100,000 people in seconds. Everyone celebrates their team's military victory. Even more so if they see their (civilian) family members die every day under Israeli gunfire. So I'm not surprised Palestinians in particular celebrated, even in New York.

A lot of respondents here have said that a shaped charge projects a jet of molten copper. Years ago, when I used to subscribe to sci.military, I made that mistake. Many of the correspondents there didn't hesitate to quickly set me straight, and explain that the shaped charge projects a plasma jet.

Here is an article from Lawrence Livermore Labs with some excellent pictures of the jets in action.

Here is another article.

And here are some animations.
1 meg avi
770K avi
10 meg avi

This newspaper article gets the scale wrong. It says the jet travels at around 1000 miles per hour, ie not much more than the speed of sound, whereas the Lawrence Livermore article I linked to above says the jet travels at 10,000 kilometers per second. Michael Smith, the telegraph's defence correspondent, was off by a factor of just 57,000,000.

Yes - I saw that version of events in the Telegraph via the Register

Serious question: What if the first time you see a gun outside a museum and not in the possession of police/security is when you are looking down the barrel of one in the hand of a criminal? Do you think you'd wish your country had more gun control (which obviously didn't keep this gun away from a criminal) or less (so that you could have your own for self-defense)?

Hypothetical, but compelling.

• Gun crimes soaring despite ban brought in following Dunblane
• A world without guns is not a pretty picture
• Gun-toting Swiss see fewer crimes
• Too many guns?
• Handgun Ban Fails to Quell Surge in Gun Crimes Across Britain
• When guns are banned in England
• Ivy League research says Anti-gun Crackdown Didn't Lower Crime

I have more, but that's probably enough.

-ChristTrekker

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This graphic from The Telegraph article shows where Pioneer 10 is (outside of our Solar System). It also shows pictures it took of Jupiter (1973), Saturn (1979) and Pluto (1983). It has been almost 20 years since it left our Solar System. Apparently it is heading towards the "Eye" of the Taurus Bull constellation, and will take 2 million years to reach it. however it is slowing down by some "mysterious" force.

What I want to know is, why does the plaque showing humanity in all its naked glory have the man waving hello? How are aliens supposed to interpret this? For all we know that could be the intergalactic symbol for 'come and eat my species, we taste really yummy'...

Mation

What I want to know is, why does the plaque showing humanity in all its naked glory have the man waving hello? How are aliens supposed to interpret this? For all we know that could be the intergalactic symbol for 'come and eat my species, we taste really yummy'...

Mation

Very many streets are almost clear of traffic, despite the news reports. But I'm sure much greater throughput on the busier streets could be managed by selective use of one-way streets to avoid requiring lights.

Incidentally, the proposed cameras are not the same as the surveillance cameras. The car toll cameras will need to be more like speed cameras, to provide evidence of individual cars entering (and presumable number-plate recognition).

For more on "helping" congestion, see news on filling in bus lay-bys to force cars to queue (free registration may be required. Of course, the planners don't mention that the following buses will also be forced to queue behind the queuing cars.

You have to admit... AT THE VERY LEAST.. that whether or not America is the only nation whose citizens enjoy so much freedom is NOT A FORGONE CONCLUSION. ie: (And I'm being nice here) it's at least *debatable*.

Well, clearly it's `debatable' -- we're debating it. :-)

However, while most nations of the EU are at least free enough to earn `free' rating from Freedom House, I have a serious problem with considering any of the nations of the EU to be as free as the US. Here are a few of the reasons:

• The European Treaty on Extraditions -- this is simply a showstopper, as it requires any EU nation to be ready to present any citizen for trial in any other EU nation without any form of judicial review -- even if the action the individual will be tried for is not a crime in the nation where it was committed. Criticize the Greek government (a crime in Greece) on a website in England, go to Greek Jail. Write an article for a website in Spain which violates the (quite strict) English definition of libel, go to an English jail. Do not pass go (or any sort of extradition hearing on either end), do not collect 200 Euros. As some EU nations score as low as `3' in Freedom House's index of civil liberties, I would argue that this treaty makes them all 3's.
• Prior restraint on speech and the press -- from England's Official Secrets Act to similar laws in almost all EU nations, prior restraint is the norm in Europe. More troubling, recent rulings have extended this doctrine to the highest levels of the EUCHR, establishing a right for the government to silence criticism of governmental policies in defense of a `human right' of European citizens not to hear the EU criticized..
• No right to keep and bear arms -- this is another one which I find troubling. From the earliest days of our culture, self-defense has been understood to be a basic human right. Taking away people's right to defend themselves effectively puts this right in question, with predictable results -- for example, the UK has seen a skyrocketing rate of violent crime since banning handguns completely a few years back, with London now being more dangerous than any large US city. France has seen similar results, with Paris similarly more dangerous than any large US city.

It's been a real pleasure debating with you. You argue like a gentleman. I hope we have the opportunity to be on the same side of an issue one day! ;)

Likewise. :-)

And I'm telling you that the article is not a legimate interpretation of what the court ruled. You're reading a hysterical interpretation of what the EJC ruled, that conflicts with what it actually said. The fact that it confuses the ECHR with the ECJ by itself should be ringing alarm bells. In any case, the ECJ can rule what it wants, the ECHR trumps it in those countries that have signed up. Even if the ECJ had ruled that European citizens have the "right" to be denied access to conflicting opinions, the ECHR would never allow such a thing in the countries the ECHR covers.

The court's actual ruling, which as I said ruled not that he could be dismissed because he was an EU employee (a ruling which would not bother me), but rather that the citizens of the EU have a `human right' not to here the EU criticized can be read here. The relevant passage reads:

148 In that regard, it must be recalled that the right to freedom of expression laid down in Article 10 of the ECHR constitutes, as has already been made clear, a fundamental right, the observance of which is
guaranteed by the Community Courts and which Community officials also enjoy (Oyowe and Traore v Commission, paragraph 16, and E v ESC, paragraph 41). None the less, it is also clear from settled
case-law that fundamental rights do not constitute an unfettered prerogative but may be subject to restrictions, provided that the restrictions in fact correspond to objectives of general public interest
pursued by the Community and do not constitute, with regard to the objectives pursued, a disproportionate and intolerable interference which infringes upon the very substance of the rights protected (see
Schräder v Hauptzollamt Gronau, paragraph 15; Case C-404/92 P X v Commission [1994] ECR I-4737, paragraph 18; Case T-176/94 K v Commission [1995] ECR-SC I-A-203, II-621, paragraph 33; and
N v Commission, paragraph 73).

46 In terms of Article 10(2) of the ECHR, specific restrictions on the exercise of the right of freedom of expression can, in principle, be justified by the legitimate aim of protecting the rights of others. The
rights at issue here are those of the institutions that are charged with the responsibility of carrying out tasks in the public interest. Citizens must be able to rely on their doing so effectively.
47 That is the aim of the regulations setting out the duties and responsibilities of the European public service. So an official may not, by oral or written expression, act in breach of his obligations under the
regulations, particularly Articles 11, 12 and 17, towards the institution that he is supposed to serve. That would destroy the relationship of trust between himself and that institution and make it thereafter
more difficult, if not impossible, for the work of the institution to be carried out in cooperation with that official.
48 In exercising their power of review, the Community Courts must decide, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, whether a fair balance has been struck between the individual's fundamental
right to freedom of expression and the legitimate concern of the institution to ensure that its officials and agents observe the duties and responsibilities implicit in the performance of their tasks.

Another article on this matter can be found here. There was also some discussion of the matter on the floor of parliament the week that article came out, but I don't have a cite for that at the moment.

You would think so, but that would ignore the fact that since guns were completely banned in England, their rate of gun crime has gone up drastically -- see this article for more.

You should also keep in mind that the rate of violent crime in London is now substantially higher than, for example, New York.

Press reports of private censorship:

The London Daily Telegraph: High clearance fees inhibit the work of art historians.(John Whitley, "Protection - or racket? How they're keeping art out of sight--Art historians and biographers are going to the wall as the high-finance stranglehold on copyright tightens.", The Telegraph, "11/09/1999" -- I think in a UK context that means September 11th, not November 9th.)

The Irish Times: The James Joyce estate prevents the performance of a song. (Medb Ruane, "The war of words over Joyce's literary legacy" Irish Times, June 10, 2000.)

The Irish Times: As a result of Joyce estate threats, Cork University Press decides that it must excise Joyce's works from a "comprehensive" anthology of 20th century Irish literature. (Terence Killeen, "Copyright row over Joyce excerpts", Irish Times, February 19th, 2001.)

The Irish Times: The Samuel Beckett estate suppresses a 1988 French production of Endgame and a 1994 London production of Footfalls. These incidents are mentions in the article's next-to-last and 4th-to-last paragraphs.(Louise East, "All Beckett's plays to be filmed here for millennium", Irish Times, July 17th, 1999.)

The Guardian: Peter Schaufuss rewrites a ballet under pressure from the Elvis Presley estate.(Jann Parry, "Thin Elvis--Copyright problems have made rock'n'roll spectacular The King a pale shadow of its subject", April 30th, 2000.). Richard Morrison of The London Times comments on the same incident here. (Richard Morrison, "Why Elvis will never leave the auditorium", London Times, April 20th, 2000.)

The Shawnee (Oklahoma) News-Star: The Martha Graham Trust suppresses the production of Graham's Panorama at a Frostburg State University summer workshop. ("Officials try to shield school from fight over dancer's, legacy", Shawnee (Oklahoma) News-Star. The web page's graphics give a date of May 2, 2000, but the story's correct date is July 18th, 2000, as can be verified by examining the page's html source.) The New York Times article (free registration might be needed) is here. (Doreen Carvajal, "Symposium's Vision Fades in Fight Over Martha Graham's Legacy", New York Times, July 17th, 2000)

Animerica Magazine: Special Sailor Moon issue delayed due to rights clearance complications.(Julie Davis, "Sailor Moon Blues", Animerica Magazine, Volume 9, Number 5.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2F news%2F2001%2F09%2F07%2Fnba07.xml

Digital terrestrial includes many new non-analogue including BBC3 and BBC4.

Not quite. BBC4 is up and running (actually, they just renamed BBC Knowledge), but BBC3 is still in the pipeline [The consultation papers can be found here]

ITV Digital faced an uphill struggle since the beginning. They actually started out life as "ON Digital", but no-one knew who they were, or really what they did. Bad marketing saw this "faceless" TV company (for whom very few Brits even saw it in action) struggle. So they renamed, and rebranded after a bright spark thought "The two shareholders are Carlton and Granada - everyone knows who they are!". Hence ITV Digital. A bad start, but perhaps a better future after Monkey and Johnny Vegas (listed in order of merit) might help turn things around, and if they could get the rights to the Nation's Passion (football) they might be in with a chance!

So they bid for the rights to show Nationwide League games. [details of exact amounts here] Everyone thought that the bean counters at ITV Digital had done their homework, and could afford the legally binding amounts to be paid to the League.

Alas, no. They came up short in the money stakes: Dear Mr Digital, your account is overdrawn to the amount of a squillion pounds. Please advise us how you intend to rectify this matter. Until you contact this branch, I have cancelled your cash card. You have been charge 25 quid for this letter..."

Because of ITV Digital's bad management at all points, they are in trouble. Or dead - depends who you believe. Maybe Microsoft can inject the cash and management required to make it work.

One thing (OK the only thing, apart from Futurama) I admire about Sky, is their ability to make a business plan and stick to it. They sunk a whole load of money, investing in the infrastructure to make Satellite work - and it now pays. They are now doing the same to Sky Digital. Good on them - they made it work.

It's a shame that the prat at ITV Digital who signed the contract is now causing a number of football clubs around England to suffer because ITV are refusing to pay what they legally bound themselves to.

Graham
--------

Montana is a cool state, but you green fascists should just stay in your fucking metro areas and leave everyone else alone.

I tried to look for more information about Gavin Menzies, to find out what his background is and previous work he may have done. I suppose amateur historians are just as credible, but I wanted to know if he was well established and would be well receieved. I came up with relatively nothing about him or his previous work. I did however find a ton of information on Gavin Menzies, guitar tech for the stars. : )

I also came across another couple places carrying this same story with slightly different angles.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200203/07/eng200 20307_91604.shtml
and
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2F news%2F2002%2F03%2F04%2Fnexp04.xml

The most exciting part of Mr. Menzies discovery was not only that discovered America; Zheng He's ships also circumnavigated the globe and got very close to both the North and South poles.

Additionally, Cook, Magellan, de Gama and Columbus all had accurate maps of the world. Mr. Menzies says: "What nobody has explained is why the European explorers had maps. Who drew the maps? There are millions of square miles of ocean. It required huge fleets to chart them. If you say it wasn't the Chinese, with the biggest fleets and ships in the world, then who was it?"

Also, apparently the Chinese ships dwarfed european ships of the 15th and 16th centuries, and only about 5% of the Chinese explorers survived to return to China; But by the time Zheng He returned to China, the government was in chaos and the fleets were mothballed.

A small number of records and charts survived to be passed to Western explorers.

There is a more complete article about this in the London Daily Telegraph.

"This is especially true here in the UK where free dial up internet access appeared, then promptly disappeared. Now a similar thing seems to be happening to broadband. Rather than becoming more accessible to the average man in the street, companies seem to be raising prices and limiting signups right, left and centre. "

I thought broadband prices are coming down in the UK? With the recent introduction of the "wires-only" ADSL service, and the lower wholesale charge for this service, compared to the initial engineer-comes-to-visit deal, there are some good deals coming out.

Indeed, Pipex has just announced a sub-£30 (inc VAT) home service. For a little bit extra, there are better deals out there for the geekier potential broadband customer...

The Daily Telegraph is also reporting that BT will announce, later this week, that the wholesale cost of ADSL will be cut by 50% as ADSL take-up rates in the UK are well below other areas of Europe.

Why grammar is the first casualty of war

"WHAT really alarms me about President Bush's "war on terrorism" is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun? It's rather like bombing murder."

"Imagine if Bush had said: "We're going to bomb murder wherever it lurks. We are going to seek out the murderers and the would-be murderers, and bomb any government that harbours murderers.""
...

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Bush Family Values Photo Album
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Book: U.S. Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities to Provoke War With Cuba

In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.


Bush and Ashcroft are making laws to keep this kind of revealing information from ever being released. The Freedom of Information Act was created after Nixon's antics, and it is being withdrawn for the wrong reasons. We need to keep gov't checks and balances, as this article clearly proves.
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An article about Gulf War propaganda, outlining how the 'Babies Torn from Incubators by Iraqi Soldiers' was manufactured and used by Bush to instill war fever. 2 minute read.
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More gov't lies - Trumped up terrorism numbers
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I think I figured out the reason the White House covered up Bush's condition!

FACT 1)
REPORT: President Bush Has A Heart Arrhythmia; White House Did Not Disclose After Pretzel Incident That Mr. Bush Has Sinus Bradycardia
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FACT 2)
Arrhythmias Causes and Risks:
[...]
Arrhythmias are also caused by some drugs. These include antiarrhythmics, Beta blockers, caffeine , COCAINE , psychotropics, and sympathomimetics.
...
---
GRAPH COMPARISON The EKG on the top shows normal sinus rhythm. The EKG at the bottom shows sinus bradycardia

A slowly beating heart means that he's not getting as much oxygen to his brain as healthy people, right? Could this partly be the reason his intelligence suffers?
:)

The problem is that they aren't that effective. The turnaround time from intel collection to a conventional bombing run is usally far too long. You need to have bombers in the area, bombs in the arsenal, and generally have a static target that won't move from the time of intel collection to bomb run; generally pointless for taking out personnel; much more effective for equipment.

It appears that the millitary has shortened the turnaround time (article describing U.S. infantry using laser designators to hit enemy troops in realtime) for bombing runs.

you could more or less pin-point any area under the satellite within a few momements of getting the intel. Throw enough of them above the earth in a geo-synchronous orbit and you could cover all the inhabited portions of the planet. Yes, yes, I'm completing ignoring the political ramifications of a space based assassination system

It seems like aiming the laser that accurately (within the meter or so you'd have to hit to assasinate someone with it) would be pretty difficult... Besides, how often do you know someone's exact location without having someone present who could just shoot them? (ignoring the unmanned drone situation, which, like you said, was fixed)

--
Benjamin Coates

First of all lots of real americans do benefit from defense spending. I grew up in a blue-collar, rural area and this area, and many, many more just like it were very dependent on defense spending. Of the 10000 people in my hometown, around 1500 worked at the local foundries, forges, and steel mills. They had good paying union jobs and unemployment hovered around 0 in the area.

However, these companies did 60-90% of their business for the defense industry (US firms just aren't competitive for commercial products, but are necessary for defense products). When the defense build-up of the 80's ended, the area went into a severe depression. *All* of the foundries, forges, mills, and machine shops went bankrupt. Everybody, from the owners to the guys grinding castings, was out of a job. By 1994, unemployment was around 25% and the population had been reduced to less than 4000.

And people wonder why rural areas vote republican? I consider myself and my family pretty average americans that benefitted immensely from military spending. Later, while the coasts were enjoying the boom of the late 90's, rural areas were struggling to keep their unemployment under 15%.

Secondly, this isn't just make-work. There are tangible benfits from having a strong military and the industrial capacity to bolster it in case of, you know, an actual major war. With the US foundry and forge industries completely decimated, it'll be extremely tough if there actually is a need to crank out new planes on a daily basis to replace ones getting shot down.

Also, the reason the rest of the US friendly world has the luxury of not spending money on their militaries is that the US does it for them. Do you really think the Soviets would have felt constrained from taking the rest of Europe if the NATO didn't have massive amounts of US armor to make it a risky propostition? Do you think that the French could hold stop anyone given the current state of their military?

Tim

"Should there be laws against eating while driving, or having a stereo which has no on-wheel controls? "

In some places, it is illegal: http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/n ews/2000/10/07/nbot07.xml. Oh, and if you hadn't guessed, you're only allowed to use a hands-free phone when you're driving in Britain too.

As somebody who used to cycle to work, I can tell you who were the most dangerous drivers (i.e. the ones who scared the shit out of me the most and came closest to hitting me): really old people, and people on cell phones. Really old people are another story though: they're second only to 16 year olds in the US for causing fatal crashes.

The original source of the story is the Sunday Telegraph.
There is a little more information here than at the BBC.

Actually, the only place I've actually seen that report was on the Telegraph. Could you find that information anywhere else, too?

Big Toy balloons I grant you, but still fun.

"THE actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock in Star Trek, has admitted that his role as the Starship Enterprise's straight-laced Vulcan with two hearts and no emotions, led him to alcohol addiction."

Not quite so funny when you consider the following:

Did Al Gore Win After All? US Newspapers Would Rather Not Say.

Media Supresses News That Bush Lost Election to Gore.

Palast Clarifies "Gore Won" Statements.

The NORC Florida Ballot Study.

You have to search The Daily
Telegraph for the above story because they
generate a unique URL for each browser hit.

Thanks and have a nice day

Our government is far more powerful than the terrorists.

And a good thing, too. We're counting on the government to win this one and they aren't going to do it by waving the Bill of Rights at the terrorists.

As for rampaging old ladies, consider this story from from the Daily Telegraph.

Yes, the British and Canadian contingient is recognized and appreciated. As is anyone else willing to send their money and their aircraft and their boys (and girls) to open a can of whoop-ass on all those who would destroy freedom in the world.

A cynic would note that the U.K. would likely not exist in its present form had it not been for its former colonies coming it its rescue about sixty years ago. Me, I'm not so certain, but I'm bloody sure that if it hadn't been for Tojo's insistience that Yamamoto awaken the sleeping giant, France would be speaking Russian these days... (not German; Hitler, like Napoleon before him, made the mistake of starting a land war in Asia after Easter... and the Red Army would not have stopped at the Rhine without Patton (and Monty!) there to keep them from it.)

So you Tories will excuse us Yanks a little tongue in cheek arrogance, no? After all, the RAF's next fighter aircraft will be built in either Marietta, Georgia, or (hopefully) right here in Seattle....

I will give the Brits credit, though. They have some of the best news services in the world.... unlike the crap we generate here in the States.... (I think it's funny that perhaps America's best news network is run by an Aussie... )

--
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
-- Mr. William Shakespeare, Henry V
(yes, of course we love you, John Bull, now quit being tetchy about it.)

The right to trial by jury would be abolished in all instances where the sentence was likely to be less than two years. This would include most prosecutions under sec. 296 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act (the UK's DMCA), as well as serious reputation-destroying charges such as theft, assault and drug offences, where defendants can at the moment insist on jury trials. To prevent "perverse" decisions, Auld also recommends that judges should be allowed to ask juries specific menus of questions about the facts of the case instead of innocent-or-guilty verdicts, reserving the final decision for the judge themself.

In a democratic system, the last ditch defence against a really bad law is that a jury can refuse to convict, in spite of the evidence, if they think that the prosecution is unfair or unreasonable. Cases thrown out by UK juries against the evidence in recent years include vandalism charges against GM crop protesters, official secrets charges against civil service whistleblowers and shoplifting charges against confused elderly people. Juries have also tended to be more critical of police evidence than judges and court officials; and to have had more relaxed views in obscenity and pornography cases.

Specific comment: Independent, Guardian
General reports: BBC, Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent
(submitted to /. yro yesterday; rejected).

And remember, as this week's NTK points out, bad UK law is often just version 0.1 for bad law in the US.

A "bleeding plague" is torturing Afganistan refugees today. Three years of drought, twenty years of civil war, and the anticpiated US retailer have caused dreadful living conditions.

Ebola-style killer virus sweeps Afghan border

DEVELOPING NEWS: RUSSIA CRASH

A flight from Israel to Russia has crashed in the Black Sea, according to Russian news agency Interfax.
FULL STORY SOON

CCHF is well ahead of you in that department...

Your comment violated the postercomment compression filter. Comment aborted

• On September 11, someone allegedly threatened the president with codes indicating inside knowledge of the president's whereabouts. If this story true, it means there is a traitor somewhere at a high level in the administration. If it's false, it means that the government is deliberately leaking false information, in an attempt not to make the president look bad.
• There is some evidence that there were warnings of the attack:
  Security heightened at WTC, Bin Laden warnings, State Dept. advisory
  Echelon warnings
  Israeli intelligence
  San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
  A crazed Iranian in Germany
  A US army base in New Jersey
• Circumstantial evidence of the US training terrorists.

So why is it unreasonable to speculate about the US government?

• On September 11, someone allegedly threatened the president with codes indicating inside knowledge of the president's whereabouts. If this story true, it means there is a traitor somewhere at a high level in the administration. If it's false, it means that the government is deliberately leaking false information, in an attempt not to make the president look bad.
• There is some evidence that there were warnings of the attack:
  Security heightened at WTC, Bin Laden warnings, State Dept. advisory
  Echelon warnings
  Israeli intelligence
  San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
  A crazed Iranian in Germany
  A US army base in New Jersey
• Circumstantial evidence of the US training terrorists.

So why is it unreasonable to speculate about the US government?

they are saying that NOTHING is going to happen

These two articles from the Daily Telegraph give a fairly detailed descriptions of the military preparation that is underway:

SAS to play key role in capturing bin Laden

SAS to join American special forces

Both articles describe a scenario involving cruise missles and air strikes followed by special forces brought in by helicopter. One article says the assault could begin within a week.