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The religion of peace
 
And you think these fuckers won't kill you for saying that there is no god? Get your head out of your ignorant ass.
 
FUCK MOHAMMAD!!!!! FUCK ALLAH!!!!! FUCK ISLAM!!!!!!

Did anybody actually read some of the wikileaks? The US state dept is always doing things like this and the people making the "crazy" claims for decades were vindicated, those people should be listened to even more today (track record, duh. Meanwhile, people who are always wrong stay employed in US media outlets.)

NZ has an economy they do just fine on their own. But when huge movie projects come to promote their nation beyond what the tourism dept's could dream of doing, they'll CHANGE LAWS. This happens constantly in the USA state by state for movies where they'll heavily subsidize movie productions (both parties!) using demand-side economic arguments (which are usually despised.)

Will it be fully conclusive proof that can hold up in court? No. Little is; especially in politics where everybody playing the game is skilled at self preservation. People with an eye for corruption will do well spotting the signs; however, it takes leaks on parties involved in their own words to prove it and even then an expert is often important/necessary to understanding it.

As far as conspiracies about shows like '24' ( the show is supposed to be realistic but portrays greater conspiracies than the ones about the show,) it doesn't take any master plan for such things to happen. A like minded individual with connections can benefit from making decisions aligned with the powerful; being rewarded later or simply encouraged for their help for the cause. It could happen outside FOX and it's GOP TV wing, but since it was FOX it wasn't likely it was entirely organic.

Despotism is on the rise in the USA. everybody living there should be seeing it by now... who isn't sticking their head in the sand...or more appropriately, in their "reality" TV. We have so much BS in all aspects of life, people crave reality so "realism" is popular... and what happens? We get pseudo realism to partially fill the need, creating another unhealthy addiction cycle that promotes consumption.

The religion of peace.
 
Fucking cunt ass whore bitches. See the violence inherent in the system!
 
FUCK MOOHAMMAD!!!! FUCK ALLAH!!!! FUCK ISLAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There might be an answer for that.

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

(a) In General.--That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

That document was issued after this series of events:

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - Text of the fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya - 224 dead, est. 4,000 injured, both embassies heavily damaged

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video USS Cole - 17 dead, 39 injured, major damage to destroyer

2001 9/11 attacks - 2,973 dead. Two skyscraper towers destroyed, heavy damage to Pentagon.
Estimated damage to US economy: ~ $100,000,000.

Oops, here's the link.

I'll try to shed some light on this, as an American speaking to a Canadian. Small preface, because I think it's warranted:

I'm a 36 year old white American of introverted personality who has never felt any kind of patriotism towards his country (the concept eludes me), nor (by choice) partakes in the process which so many Americans claim is the most important part of our country: voting. I'm the odd man out, but more importantly I'm just one man with his own opinion -- mine are no more right or wrong than the next.

I've thought about all this ("the state of our nation", why Americans are the way they are, etc.) since I was roughly 14. How often I've pondered it has gradually increased over the years, solely because of all the events going on within our country. I stopped reading newspapers, online news/media, etc. (barring occasional things -- the Snowden situation is one of them) in 2000 when one day I opened up CNN's home page and every single headline in every single category had negative connotations (denotations?). I am not a good writer (I am too verbose, and my vocabulary is limited due to my education), but I did write something eloquent and terse about this last month that I feel proud about and feel is relevant to your question/comment (will get to that in a moment).

Most of the items you listed off can all be explained by one single trait: apathy. Some might say lazy, but I don't think that's necessarily the right word nor true. In my opinion, it started roughly in the early 90s and has progressively gotten worse. Folks older than me will likely state it began way before that but I'd disagree, citing the opposition to the Vietnam war (mid-60s to early 70s) as my main rebuttal; that was the last real, widespread, and massive "uprising" we Americans held. The keyword here is massive, because our governments (local, state, and federal) do not care about a few hundred people here and there. For example the Occupy Wall Street movement did absolutely nothing to impact people's thought processes or make them question their ethics -- and those are what need to happen for us to heal as a country. This has nothing to do with religion, this has to do with refocusing on the concept of the "Right Thing(tm)" and having that be our driving force. I'm not sure how or where to start in that process either, but a good friend of mine suggested bringing back war gardens and the simple process of getting to know your immediate neighbours (to the point of considering them friends); the concept here is to change thinking about oneself and instead think about others or "the group".

As for what I wrote last month: a broadband/tech forum I frequent mentioned the DOJ demanding telephone records from the Associated Press (and here's some more information if you wish to read it). This didn't shock me one bit, because you could say I've grown apathetic to this type of thing happening in our country: a strange combination form of paranoia and hastiness running rampant throughout the government and its citizens. This isn't a new thing to me, it's been going on for a long time (like I said, at least 20 years).

A person replied to the news, shocked by what had been transpiring "recently" (not sure what hole they were living in, but that's okay), which prompted another individual to ask "How many gross violations of the Constitution would it take for people to rise up against an unjust government?".

I chose to respond.

It's very hard to put into text the thoughts and feelings folks have about what's been going on, but it

Making a car safer to drive because accidents becmoe more survivable is not the same thing as making accidents less likely, which is what we've been discussing. Those two cars will of course behave differently. Do you think that the presence of an airbag or a seat belt materially affects the car's handling? Of course not. The differences are due to a litany of other changes to cars over time.

As for that limb you're on. Don't look down:
https://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/2006/060927ManneringOffset.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8198694?dopt=Abstract
http://john-adams.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/failure%20of%20seatbelt%20legislation.pdf
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Presence-of-Mind-Buckle-Up-And-Behave.html

And it's not limited to cars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IB2xRfRHOA
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/07/peltzman-effect.html
http://www.damninteresting.com/the-balance-of-risk/
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607603134/abstract
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/27/AR2009032702825.html
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)61755-3/fulltext?_eventId=login
http://web.williams.edu/Economics/wp/Wilson_Circumcision.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation

I know little that you couldn't, but apparently much that you don't. And that is sad, really. But you aren't alone. So, here is what I'm talking about to help you along.

Attacks against Americans that were attempted and not intercepted, or completed (this excludes war zones):

2013 Boston Marathon bombing 3 dead, 254 wounded. Fifteen victims suffered amputations, two of which had double amputations.

2010 Attempted bombing of Times Square in New York City by the Taliban - Attack failed, car bomb could have been mass casualty event.

2009 The "Underwear" bomber - Attack failed, potentially could have brought down aircraft with death of all aboard

2009 Fort Hood massacre - 13 dead, 30 wounded

2001 9/11 attacks - 2,973 dead. Two skyscraper towers destroyed, heavy damage to Pentagon.
Estimated damage to US economy: ~ $100,000,000,000.

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video USS Cole - 17 dead, 39 wounded, major damage to US Navy destroyer

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya - 224 dead, est. 4,000 wounded, both embassies heavily damaged

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - Text of the fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

Small, limited sample, of other terrorism arrests and trials in the US:

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012

Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested by members of the FBI’s Denver and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Forces on a charge of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization.

Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center

U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland.

Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty to damaging property and to firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia between October and November 2010, and to attempting to damage veterans’ memorials at Arlington National Cemetery.

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 13, 2012

1.Tampa: Florida Resident Charged with Plotting to Bomb Locations in Tampa

A

When Glenn Beck, Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, Arianna Huffington, Al Gore and Van Jones all agree on something, you can definitely say that the issue is non-partisan and actually transcends politics. That should tell the American people all they need to know.

I like to pay taxes - I feel that contributing to my nation is a great way of demonstrating true patriotism.

I feel that contributing to the economy through my work and consumption is a better way of demonstrating true patriotism, as it helps create jobs and wealth for both myself and others.

The money is used to benefit those who are less advantaged than me.

Then you must be rich, because the bulk of entitlement program spending goes toward the middle class, and 10% even goes to the top 20% of household incomes. And of course that is only entitlement spending, most military spending and agriculture support spending ends up going into profits of large corporations and the rich as well.

#1 - What do you say to the phrase "Taxation is the price we pay for civilized society"?

That's what the warlords told their slaves, and what the kings told their serfs, what the Aztecs told the parents of the children they sacrificed. It's the old argument from tyrants that it's for the "good of the people" that people must suffer. The suffering is never for the rulers, of course.

#2 - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/hayek_on_social_insurance.html , what do you have to say?

Ezra Klein is disingenuously being deceptive. He quotes a Hayek passage that saying that a "comprehensive system of social insurance" can be supported as if Hayek was talking about health insurance, which is of course laughably false. He was talking about a limited safety net and government support for victims of natural disasters and the like. It's just BS. Hayek's grudging nod to the necessity of a bare-minimum welfare mechanism for the very neediest in society was not an endorsement of the kind of welfare state currently in evidence, with the IRS enforcing pages of Cadillac health benefits for any "qualifying" insurance, and taxing every implementation of any health provider or consumer up and down the line.

#3 - What other forms of liberty deserve protection? The right to vote? The right to participate in society? The right to have your money, and not your skin color or gender or sexual preference, determine whether or not you can patronize a business?

Individual liberties all deserve protection, collectivist liberties are justifications for tyrannical leadership. Voting, having a say in governance, and other "participation" in society is a necessary duty of individuals for any free society. The current overly burdensome government is a result of too little participation by too few. In the "society" that you seem to be advocating, that "money" isn't even "yours" - it's just an allowance from your ruling overlords.

Note that racism and other forms of discrimination was institutionalized by the very same government that you seem so willing to put in place as the sole arbiter of fairness. It was the moral and religious institutions in the United States that fought for the end to slavery and championed civil rights for all races, and they were opposed at every step by the federal government and the Democratic party. Governments do not have morals, and when they enforce the morals that the most vocal and powerful participants in the political process it's not always a good thing. I happen to think that even were it legal, no business in the US could survive today openly discriminating against people because of race or sexual orientation. And that's the way it should be. The people have the real power, after all, and government is simply a coercive force. They can force businesses to do things you like today, just as they forced liberty-minded people in the 19th century to return slaves to their owners.

One reason Peter King sees terrorists everywhere is that he personally has a history of fundraising and offering political support for terrorist groups. A bit of projection, perhaps.

$200K job without only a GED (high school equivalency). Home in Hawaii. I am impressed. story

There is a big difference between kidnapping someone, throwing them in a secret prison and denying them access to a lawyer and looking at badly anonymized metadata. Of the two I would rather someone look at my anonymized call logs than to haul me off to a secret prison and a secret military tribunal.

He's done that, too.

As far as I'm aware Obama also hasn't manufactured evidence to send hundreds of thousands of troops into harms way resulting in a war that's killed tens of thousands of civilians and thousands of Americans and costing trillions of dollars.

Well, he did start the drone program that indiscriminately killed civillians.

I had hopes when Obama was first elected but I think it's time to judge the man by his deeds, not by the words he says. That also goes for the acts of officials he appointed, the acts of officials he allowed to be retained in the government and the acts of officials which he sanctioned or were aware of.

Let us not act like cuckolded husbands who insist all evidence to the contrary that their unfaithful wife is a virgin.

Ps. if you disagree, by all means please present your facts. I will be more than happy to be proven wrong.

The limited revelations so far have focused on the technical scheme and said little about the regulatory scheme, how it was used operationally. Leaving out that sort of data is like noting that almost everybody has in their house or on their person a device which has a microphone and transmits all it hears to remote listeners, that is a telephone, but leaving out the fact that it is off until you pick it up or turn it on. The existence of this technology and program says very little about if it is legal and if it has been used appropriately.

Turning off telephone service is inconvenient. Turning off the intelligence services ability to gather timely intelligence can perilous.

Bali death toll set at 202
London 7/7 terrorist attacks
Madrid train attacks
9-11 attacks

What has MI-5 had to say?

U.K. tracking 30 terror plots, 1,600 suspects - updated 11/10/2006

British authorities are tracking almost 30 high-priority terrorist plots involving 200 networks and 1,600 suspects, the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency said, adding that many of those under surveillance are homegrown terrorists plotting suicide attacks and other mass-casualty bombings.

What did the next head of MI-5 say a year later?

New MI5 chief says terror suspects in Britain have doubled in the last year - November 6, 2007

The new chief of Britain's intelligence service MI5 painted a troubling picture of growing terrorist threat in Britain, saying the number of suspects in the country has more than doubled in the past year – and that many of the new recruits are teenagers....

and more:

At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says - November 6, 2007

LONDON, Nov. 5 -- British security officials suspect that at least 4,000 people are involved in terrorism-related activities in Britain and that al-Qaeda's "deliberate campaign" against Britain poses the "most immediate and acute peacetime threat" to the nation in a century, the head of Britain's domestic spy agency said Monday.

And in 2012?

MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring

You cripple the security services at your peril. Unlike the IRA, al Qaida doesn't tend to phone in warnings before a blast.

Cheers

During the cold war the NSA was focused on the Soviet Union, which was an actual real threat to our national security. There is little evidence that the NSA was engaged in domestic spying during that time. Today the NSA, and all this surveillance, is focused on stopping some hermits in Afghanistan from talking to a few guys with a pressure cooker full of gunpowder.

So you acknowledge that the Soviet Union was a threat to national security? Well, good, that's a first step. Now things get a bit more interesting. I recall that the Soviet Union shot down a number of surveillance planes during the Cold War, such as the famous U2 incident. I don't recall that they ever bombed or torpedoed any American warships. I also don't recall that they bombed any, let alone two, American embassies, killing large numbers of people. Nor do I recall that they ever attacked any American skyscrapers or military headquarters, killing thousands of people on American soil (2,973 ) - approximately as many as died in the war igniting attack on Pearl Harbor. Nor did they recruit any attackers to shoot dead American soldiers engaging in administrative processing at an American military base. And yet Al Qaida and company has done all these things, and they continue to attempt to recruit extremists to commit further attacks.

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - Text of the fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya - 224 dead, est. 4,000 injured, both embassies heavily damaged

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video USS Cole - 17 dead, 39 injured, major damage to destroyer

2001 9/11 attacks - 2,973 dead. Two skyscraper towers destroyed, heavy damage to Pentagon.
Estimated damage to US economy: ~ $100,000,000.

2009 Fort Hood massacre - 13 dead, 30 injured

2010 Attempted bombing of Times Square in New York City by the Taliban - Attack failed

You dismiss intelligence efforts to halt attacks like this as "stopping some hermits in Afghanistan from talking to a few guys with a pressure cooker". You don't think those sorts of attacks need to be stopped? I'm curious, what sort of body count or damage will it take for you to realize you're wrong?

Prior to the US invasion in 2001, Al Qaida was turning out thousands of trained terrorists per year in Afghanistan. That pretty much stopped after the invasion.

Meanwhile, our diplomatic relations with China and Russia have deteriorated, and we have very little idea what is going on in Iran or North Korea.

There should be no surprises there.

From Warren Christopher to John Kerry — Slow learners about weak horses in the Middle East

Remember last month, when the Chinese Red Army was identified as actively behind cyber-spying? It was some gumshoes working for a private company that tracked it to a specific building in Shanghai.

You aren't suggesting either that the NSA had no idea, or that they make regular press announcements

Correct. Obama is merely continuing and expanding on Bush's policies

Bull shit!! Bull shit!!! Bull shiiiiit! Bush hired enough lawyers to make sure he walked just on the line between legal an illegal. He chose to stay within the law and to demand that laws change just so that the head of state of this nation would still be bound by the laws of this nation. Obama does not even pretend to be restricted by such frivolities as the law. The obsequious news media is what does it. No benevolent dictatorship stays benevolent for long.

Hmmmm. I guess this slide from the NSA PRISM presentation, showing the program starting in 2007 must be mistaken. Or, maybe, you're claiming Obama was president in 2007...?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/images/prism-slide-5.jpg

and yes liberal groups were denied for being too political.

Evidence. Over 90 conservative groups targeted by IRS, and the "lone wolf" workers doing it told Congress yesterday they were under orders from DC to do so. You claim that liberal groups were also targeted, I checked and found a grand total of 3.

The Minority party in the House, the DNC, didn't have a SINGLE witness to tell how their group was targeted by the IRS. Despite the Democrats looking for similar treatment on their side they were not able to find one.

Pro tip: If a liberal says something that can factually be checked, check it out, 90% of the time I have found it to be a lie.

that's quite possibly the honest truth since neither that "war" nor "terrorism" has been defined to any degree.

For it is the doom of men that they forget. -- Merlin, Excalibur

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

(a) In General.--That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

By their deeds you shall know them.

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - The following text is a fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video: 2000: USS Cole Attack in Yemen

2001 9-11

2002 Bali terror attack

2004 Madrid train attacks

2005 London 7/7 Terrorist Attacks

2009 Now classified as "workplace violence" - Nidal Hasan Admitted Jihadist Motive, Ft. Hood Victims’ Attorneys Say

2013 Boston Marathon Bombing

Note that this is only a snapshot of attacks, and doesn't include the many attacks that occurred in the Middle East (except the Cole). It also doesn't include the many plots disrupted by the security services, or cancelled by the terrorists planning them. It doesn't include the many arrests for terrorism related activity, but snapshot of that over a short period of time is below:

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012

Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested by members of the FBI’s Denver and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Forces on a charge of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization.

Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center

U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland.

Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty to damaging property and to firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia betwe

when they have all the access through the corporations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html

The list includes Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple, with Dropbox coming soon.

You should be a lot more afraid of the government than of terrorists. Your probability of being affected by a terrorist attack is approximately zero (odds of being killed by terrorists are about one in 20 million for Americans). Your probability of being affected by your government is approximately one.

Some news sources have speculated that this program was related to the Boston Marathon Bombing. However The Washington Post sys that

... the order appears to be a routine renewal of a similar order first issued by the same court in 2006. The expert, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said that the order is reissued routinely every 90 days and that it is not related to any particular investigation by the FBI or any other agency.

This particular order was classified as Top Secret/NoForn/SI. The routine nature of the order was likewise highly classified.

Ordinary people-- those not initiated into the orders of nobility associated with "clearances"-- cannot select their government based on real, verifiable information. They have no means to judge the effectiveness, or lack of effectiveness of their political candidates. Instead, they must have faith that their government is either incompetent, or competent.

Do you believe that your government is doing its best to protect you? Surely its effectiveness would be diminished if carefully guarded secrets like this got out, and were use by enemies of the nation and of the state?

Do you believe that the government is doing its best to cynically exploit the security apparatus for its own political benefit? Surely this is but the tip of the iceberg. Were it not for classification, the entire enterprise would be exposed as a cesspool of corruption and criminality.

But in the absence of good solid, reliable data, both of these viewpoints can be freely adopted by any voter who chooses to have an opinion on the matter. Instead of a mass of peoples carefully using their judgements to select the good leaders over the bad, the entire electorate, kept in ignorance, has been reduced to flipping coins.

Government, it seems, is to important to be left to the governed.

And now the Obama administration has defended the practice as a "critical tool."

Not only is the Executive branch in favor, but there's strong bipartisan support in the Legislative branch: immediately after this leak, both parties' ranking members on the Senate Intelligence Committee (Dianne Feinstein for the Democrats, Saxby Chambliss for the Republicans) held a press conference to defend the necessity of this kind of dragnet surveillance, and to claim that it's not a big deal since it's "just" metadata.

Looks like more information is needed:

VAN JONES
Van Jones, 'Green Jobs Czar', a self-described 'communist' arrested during Rodney King riots
White House Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy Over Past Activism
The resignation (and coming MSM/left-wing martyrdom) of Van Jones; Obama “thanks him for his service”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/05/al-gore-calls-obama-administrations-collection-of-phone-records-obscenely-outrageous/
Is this guy liberal enough for you?

Analysis: Obamacare to cost $2.6 trillion over first full decade [dailycaller.com] ... Total spending under the Affordable Care Act will reach $2.6 trillion over its first full decade, according to a Senate Budget Committee analysis, which was based on Congressional Budget Office estimates and growth rates.

The Affordable Care Act will cost at least twice what the war is costing. If the road to ruin is the incremental cost of the war over the baseline defense budget, then we need to stop implementation of the Affordable Care Act now.

If the ACA costs 2.6 trillion then it is still less than the estimated cost for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A recent Harvard study estimated the cost of the two wars at between 4 and 6 trillion dollars: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-28/world/38097452_1_iraq-price-tag-first-gulf-war-veterans. One could certainly make the case that the ACA provides more benefit to the American people than the wars have.

Feeling in their own skin what they are doing to others (via their "representatives") is a good first step. That antivirus could not detect that kind of things because government orders adds a bit of spice. But anyway, they won't know how widespread this will become, whoever could warn them will be considered an enemy of the state, and prosecuted no matter where in the world they are.

Looks like more information is needed:

White House Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy Over Past Activism

White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned late Saturday after a simmering controversy over his past statements and activism erupted into calls for his ouster from Republican leaders on Friday....

Jones's position did not require Senate confirmation, so he avoided the kind of vetting Cabinet officials were subjected to. In addition, as an adviser to the Council on Environmental Quality, rather than to Obama directly, his past was not reviewed to the same degree as the more senior "assistants to the president" and other top advisers inside the West Wing.....

Jones, who joined the administration in March as special adviser for green jobs at the CEQ, had issued two public apologies in recent days, one for signing a petition in 2004 from the group 911Truth.org that questioned whether Bush administration officials "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war" and the other for using a crude term to describe Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the administration.

His one-time involvement with the Bay Area radical group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), which had Marxist roots, had also become an issue. And on Saturday his advocacy on behalf of death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of shooting a Philadelphia police officer in 1981, threatened to develop into a fresh point of controversy.

The resignation (and coming MSM/left-wing martyrdom) of Van Jones; Obama “thanks him for his service”

Van Jones, 'Green Jobs Czar', a self-described 'communist' arrested during Rodney King riots

Yes, I did notice it. I'm not sure if you are familiar with police practices, but "assault on an officer" is often used as a blanket crime by police to arrest people in any situation where the police use force, especially if they use improper or excessive force. It is completely logical to me that both would drop by 60% because very often they are the same thing.

That is, often a police officer will aggress against a person for whatever reason and then later claim that the person they aggressed against was the agressor. It basically allows an officer to arrest or even beat anyone up for anything and is a much more common tactic than you think. When the citizen gets to court, do you think a judge or jury will believe the police officer or the citizen?

We hear a lot about the minority of cases where a bystander taped the scene and the police did something wrong, but you don't hear about the majority where nobody was there to video tape it.

You are the troll. And a very low-value poster. The Guardian link refers to a nano-diamond creation device supplied by Russia for industry, and which "western" intelligence tried to spin as related to weapons research. Here is the thorough debunking from Moon of Alabama. [moonofalabama.org] The "reporting" on nano diamonds was spanked SO BADLY by this blog, that all traces disappeared from press and punditry before November ended.

My posts do tend to have a very low value for perpetuating the lies and distractions used to defend the terrorist sponsoring and would be genocidal Iranian regime. I don't see that as a negative. The MoonbatofAlabama blog didn't really serve much purpose other than to provide another distractions to fool the unwary.

Vyacheslav Danilenko – Background, Research, and Proliferation Concerns

In the debate about the November 11 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards report, some have falsely implied that Vyacheslav Danilenko did not know anything about nuclear weapons, or that he worked solely on nanodiamonds from the beginning of his research career, even though he worked at Chelyabinsk-70 for almost thirty years.1 The open source record demonstrates that these statements are incorrect and that Danilenko was involved in developing and using inwardly converging high pressure explosions and diagnostic systems to measure their effectiveness vital to the development of Soviet nuclear weapons. As such, the open source record supports that when he assisted Iran in the 1990s, he was an ex-Soviet nuclear weapons expert. Given his background, Danilenko should have had reason to believe that his knowledge and expertise related to high explosive compression in nuclear weapons could be misused by the Iranians, even if he limited himself to advising on strictly non-nuclear weapon applications.

In his statement to the IAEA Danilenko denied helping Iran build nuclear weapons but he admitted that he could not exclude that the information he provided was used for other purposes. Despite his denials, the IAEA suspects he helped Iran more than he has admitted so far. . .

Russian scientist Vyacheslav Danilenko’s aid to Iran offers peek at nuclear program

As is common in this matter, you have things badly confused. Israel did nothing to Iran to deserve they way the new Iranian government turned on them. If you think otherwise, please provide a list. One hint to reduce the chances of you going down the wrong path again: the Palestinians are not Iranian, and the Iranians are not Arabs.

As to "untermenschen," that would be the view of post-revolution Iranian government, and many Arabs living in Palestine.

Reading Mein Kampf in Tehran

On Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry held an international conference. Nothing unusual in that: Foreign ministries hold conferences, mostly dull ones, all the time. But this one was different. For one, "Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision" dealt with history, not current politics. Instead of the usual suspects — deputy ministers and the like — the invitees seem to have included David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader; Georges Theil, a Frenchman who has called the Holocaust "an enormous lie"; and Fredrick Toeben, a German-born Australian whose specialty is the denial of Nazi gas chambers.

The guest list was selective: No one with any academic eminence, or indeed any scholarly credentials, was invited. One Palestinian scholar, Khaled Mahameed, was asked to come but then barred because he holds an Israeli passport — and also perhaps because he, unlike other guests, believes that the Holocaust really did happen.

In response, Europe, America, and Israel expressed official outrage. The German government, to its credit, organized a counter-conference. ...

Hamas video: Killing Jews is 'worship that draws us close to Allah'
The Jews Were Brought to Palestine for the Great Massacre

As to the rest, you should catch up on some reading and get back to me.

UN agency stops aid imports to Gaza, cites Hamas 'thefts'
Looters strip Gaza greenhouses
Gazans seethe over taxes and blackouts
Sewage flood causes Gaza deaths
Hamas Bulldozes UN-Designated Historical Site to Make Room for Terrorist Training Camp
In Gaza, Hamas rule has not turned out as many expected
Rights watchdog accuses Hamas of torture, abuse of Palestinians
Hamas accused of routine torture of detainees in Gaza Strip
Palestinian Authority: Still Stealing "Hundreds of Millions," Hamas Taking Over
NY Times ignores Gaza's millionaires, hypes poverty, blames Israel (natch)

According to reports in the Arab press, a thriving smuggling economy in Gaza has produced no fewer than 600 millionaires. Hundreds of tunnels to Egypt have become bustling export and import conduits -- with the ruling Hamas elite siphoning off milli

Well, they don't just make up statistics; they insert alarmist and armageddonist factoids, too.

Perhaps it was not a good idea to shut down nuclear plants and embark on an unsustainable energy policy that demands increasing purchases of electricity from neighboring countries, and a requisite surge in shale gas development.

I would hope that my ancestral country chooses a more pragmatic approach to help us crack this existential energy problem once and for all instead of castrating itself as an industrial power.

The same thing is happening in the United States, people are jousting one another with windmills.

This is what happens when units organically change. Boom.

Despite all your reasoning it is nonetheless true that American citizens are (somehow) able to use firearms to defend themselves on a regular basis.

In some countries this woman would probably have been badly hurt or killed. Do you know how she avoided it?
Elderly Woman Shoots at Intruder

Tough Targets - When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens
Stories That Happened In MI

I can see why you might be misled on the subject though: Self-Defense: An Endangered Right

On the other hand, HM seems to (second picture down) know what she likes.

Cheers

Concealed carry permits have not been linked with a reduction in crime.

The supposed rebuttal, to which you linked, cites a single study, which did not rebut the original assertion by John Lott. The large collection of people authoring it could not come up to any conclusion — in their esteemed opinion, there is no link between the carry laws and the murder rate. From your link:

We conclude that Lott and Mustard have made an important scholarly contribution in establishing that these laws have not led to the massive bloodbath of death and injury that some of their opponents feared. On the other hand, we find that the statistical evidence that these laws have reduced crime is limited, sporadic, and extraordinarily fragile.

So, if John Lott is right, relaxing concealed carry laws will help. If he is wrong, it will not hurt. What grounds are there, again, for the massive violations of the 2nd Amendment, that you and yours are demanding?

Guns aren't about "killing one another."

A credible threat of retaliatory violence is the single most effective deterrent to actual violence.

Guns are about stopping YOU from attacking ME. Having it can make that possible even if I never use it to kill anyone.

You are using logic. The Libtards really hate that because they cannot refute it. They have to mod you down (done), call you names, scream at you, defame and mischaracterize you, and then pat themselves on the back for championing their ideology and its favorite methods. What they WILL NOT do is explain why mass shootings almost always happen in "gun free" zones where law-abiding citizens are unarmed, explain why conceal-carry permits decrease violent crime, explain why places like Chicago with terribly restrictive gun laws have such high murder rates, or explain how the "zero tolerance" schools they run benefit children in any way when they expel them for point a frenchfry at another child and saying "bang bang" like the cops-and-robbers games children have always played. You see, it is not that they don't want to explain those things. They would love to. They simply cannot. They are not reasonable people. They are highly emotional and emotionally volatile. Your post was on-topic, was not trolling, etc. But they modded it down anyway. It went against their ideology, you see.

Oh we explain these things, because most of the NRA's claims about shooters and guns are flat out wrong. Folks such as yourself have to forget that we explain these things so that your internal narrative remains consistent. But of course, facts have a liberal bias.

They had to mod it down for the same reason the Catholic Church had to refuse to look through Galileo's telescope (and then punish him). Galileo did nothing wrong. You have done nothing wrong.

Then lets look through that telescope! After all, if the gun lobby is like Galileo, then the facts will support their narrative. And if the facts don't support their narrative, then they are like the Catholic Church: didn't bother to look at the facts, just jumped to the conclusion they liked.

The NRA Myth of Gun-Free Zones Data shows the gun lobby's chief argument for more firearms in schools, malls, and beyond is just plain wrong.

Among the 62 mass shootings over the last 30 years that we studied, not a single case includes evidence that the killer chose to target a place because it banned guns.

Concealed carry permits have not been linked with a reduction in crime.

No link between right-to-carry laws and changes in crime is apparent in the raw data, even in the initial sample; it is only once numerous covariates are included that the negative results in the early data emerge. ... [W]e find that the statistical evidence that these laws have reduced crime is limited, sporadic, and extraordinarily fragile. Minor changes of specifications can generate wide shifts in the estimated effects of these laws, and some of the most persistent findings — such as the association of shall-issue laws with increases in (or no effect on) robbery and with substantial increases in various types of property crime — are not consistent with any plausible theory of deterrence.

Chicago's murder rate is largely the result of the lax gun regulations outside Chicago, not Chicago's gun control. If anything, Chicago is proof that we need more gun control, not less.

Most

We're all just still waiting on the change to come.

The wait is over, it's here.

A special prosecutor in the IRS matter is inevitable
IRS Official Lois Lerner: 'I Have Not Done Anything Wrong'
IRS tea-party bloodbath continues in Congress, as evidence emerges that IRS's own internal probe ended in May 2012, six months before election, but was hidden from legislators
Report: 'Rogue' IRS Agent Claim Unraveling

Plenty of studies show that healthcare costs more in the states even when broken down by procedure or otherwise controlling for such theories.

Cite? The studies I've seen show no rhyme or reason in determining the manner in which procedures are priced: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/08/one-hospital-charges-8000-another-38000/

You listed off a set of heavily regulated oligopolies as examples of the free market ideal?

Heavily regulated? Fedex? Comcast? I assure you the healthcare & health insurance industry is regulated far more heavily than any of those companies. Do you know how many pages long the HIPAA regulation is? Or Obamacare? Healthcare is a red tape nightmare. Hell, just look at the original application paperwork: http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottlieb/2013/04/03/to-sign-up-for-obamacare-start-filling-out-the-forms-now-and-hire-a-good-accountant/

She is not in a position to negotiate. That is the antithesis of the free market. She needs what they are selling in a way that makes rational cost analysis impossible. How much is your life worth to you?

And that's the straw man. Because you act like every health care provider out there is going to illegally collude to get you to pay any price. Except that price fixing is against the law in all industries, including medicine. If one hospital tells you "give me all your money or I let you die", you go to the next doctor who is is willing to be reasonable. By the same straw man, why don't plumbers let your entire house flood when a pipe bursts? They certainly have you by the balls there. Or what if your AC dies in mid July in sweltering 110 degree weather? Are the HVAC people going to say "give me every penny you have or I let you suffer heat stroke?". Services are trying to make money -- they're not all teaming up to dick you over.

What is the value of your life? Not an easy number

I disagree. For one, you're phrasing the question wrong. It's "what is your healthcare worth"? And those are numbers that are finite and can be determined using statistics, labor rates, and drug costs. Even for the unforeseen emergency case, probability and cost-analysis will give us a weighted average cost of a given event that might occur in your lifetime. The entire field of insurance is devoted to running those kinds of analyses. To pretend those numbers are mystical and out of reach is silly -- we have databases and databases of historical medical records, pricing histories decades long. Those numbers are accessible.

The article you linked to is what is bullshit.

The recession ended in 2009.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/20/AR2010092006355.html

In areas of the country with less restrictive gun laws and higher gun ownership, violent crime is lower. The stats speak for themselves.

The reason that the gun laws are more restrictive in those parts of the country is because they've realised what a huge problem they represent. The stats certainly do speak for themselves but you have to look at the right stats.

For almost all areas, when making international comparisons the USA is compared to other 'similar' countries normally meaning Western Europe, Canada, Japan Australia and so on. In other words the 'Western World'. These are countries with similar levels of education, democracy freedom and wealth.

For many areas the USA compares impressively well but there is a glaring discrepancy when it comes to prison population and gun crime. The two are obviously linked but I'll ignore the prison population since we are talking about guns.

Look at this chart and tell me that guns are making you safer.

I also notice that you start talking about 'accidental' gun deaths for children. I didn't mention 'accidental' deaths I just stated the plain truth that thousands of children are being injured or killed by guns in your country every year. I suppose if they are not accidents you don't care?

Look to the real tyranny that has taken place during the 20th century - 20 million killed by Stalin, millions dead by Hitler's regime, 3 million (out of a population of 8 million) killed due to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, millions killed by Mao, etc. Each of these populations had been disarmed. The history of the 20th century was the history of tyranny and the fight against it and if the populations had arms they may have been able to resist their oppressors.

I think possibly because the USA is a relativley new country it doesn't place as much emphasis on history teaching as older countries do. Certainly you appear to be pretty uninformed.

Hitler's regime did not disarm the German people, like all European countries the vast majority of people in Germany were never armed, certainly not in the 20th century and certainly never with guns. The regime was very popular and won power through the ballot box and through propaganda.

if the populations had arms they may have been able to resist their oppressors

The majority of Germans never saw themselves as being oppressed, you do not know what you are talking about.

The same argument goes for Stalin's Russia. The people were not disarmed. You are simply incorrect.

Bringing Cambodia into your argument is pretty desperate but again the population of Cambodia had no history of being armed. The truly unfortunate events that took place in that country were a tragic combination of colonial withdrawal and cold war power play. You can lay the blame at France, Russia and the USA but to suggest that the problem was that the peasants didn't have guns is ridiculous.

You are blind to the harm guns cause in your country because you like guns.

The argument that you need them to keep the government at bay is unbelievably weak and does not justify those dead or maimed children that you ignore, or the large number of suicides that wouldn't happen if guns did not make it so easy.

Iraq had plenty of guns and your government and mine had little trouble taking over. The idea that people with pistols or rifles are going to make any difference to the US military is laughable.

By the way boats have plenty of good uses. Tell me what use a .55 Magnum has.

It's good to see then taking the Muzzy threat seriously. And they needto:

Florida Man Charged With Plotting Terror Campaign in Name of Islam
Florida Terrorism Suspect Planned New York Attack, Feds Say
Hafiz Khan, Florida Imam, Convicted In Terror Case Of Aiding Pakistani Taliban
Witness Is Silent in Terror Probe

Or, for a source that doesn't blank the whole screen with a meta refresh and demand you enable javascript before it will let you read the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/us-judge-in-ore-dismisses-movie-pirating-lawsuit-calling-it-unfair-reverse-class-action/2013/05/14/74ca6946-bcde-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_story.html

But you're right, we do think so little of mass shootings that we refuse to regulate the access to firearms. And we are absolutely correct to do so. 100 deaths per year in a country of 300 million is negligable.

Although mass shootings get all the headlines, controlling access to firearms will save a whole lot more than 100 lives per year. Most of the savings will come from reduced accidental deaths and suicides.

There is a widespread belief that having a gun in the house makes you safer: this is not true.

In the 1990s, a team headed by Arthur Kellermann of Emory University looked at all injuries involving guns kept in the home in Memphis, Seattle and Galveston, Tex. They found that these weapons were fired far more often in accidents, criminal assaults, homicides or suicide attempts than in self-defense. For every instance in which a gun in the home was shot in self-defense, there were seven criminal assaults or homicides, four accidental shootings, and 11 attempted or successful suicides. source

(other sources along those lines)

There is also a widespread belief a person who dies from suicide would have done so no matter what method: this also is not true. Most suicide attempts are impulsive acts, and most are unsuccessful. An impulse act with pills or slit wrists is unlikely to succeed: it takes time, the person may have second thoughts, and usually recovers through medical and psychological treatment. A suicide attempt by a gun is much, much more likely to succeed. If that suicidal person did not have ready access to a gun, and had to resort to a different method, the changes are good that most (i.e., more than 50%) of those people would still be with us today.

I think the western governments would be a bit more clever than that. They have the resources to develop their own home grown spying tools. They don't need an outside consultant, which is what this guy would have been. Otherwise you'd be hearing about this kind of stuff all the time.

Western governments employ a more than a few outside contractors for 'electronic operations'(and quite a few others for other purposes). They just aren't generally foolish enough to contact known, high-profile, security researchers with a history of publicity for sensitive work...

See what happens when IRS officials get sidetracked investigating conservative groups? :-)

The prices of CO2 allowances remained stable throughout 2012 with monthly average prices ranging from a high of $2.01 in February to a low of $1.93 in October. The auction clearing prices of CO2 allowances were also very stable as each auction cleared at the auction reserve price of $1.93.

There's probably more costs with complying with the market regulation than with the actual trading of allowances. We didn't see drama in the European CO2 emission markets until they hit actual hard caps and emitting CO2 had large regulatory costs. Then things broke. Note that the price never passed $30 per ton (of CO2 not carbon as claimed in the article). So how will the RGGI region fare when CO2 allowance costs grow higher and surrounding regions aren't subject to these costs?

Citation needed.

The best data on educational achievement is from the NAEP.
http://nationsreportcard.gov/ltt_2008/

The NAEP shows a small but steady increase from 1971 to 2008 in math and reading scores. The major change over that period is that the hispanic students, and especially the black students, had a fairly significant increase. That's the result of ending the blatant discrimination that existed in 1971, and improving the schools in black neighborhoods where they couldn't overcome segregation.

Diane Ravitch was assistant secretary of education under both GHW Bush and Bill Clinton. At first she supported these reforms. Then when she looked at the data, she decided she was wrong. Here's what she thinks about NCLB.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/ravitch-no-child-left-behind-and-the-damage-done/2012/01/10/gIQAR4gxoP_blog.html

Ravitch said elsewhere that the most significant factor in student achievement is parent income. Raise the parent income and you raise the student achievement. Ravitch said that (based on an NAEP study) charter schools were worse overall than public schools, when you correct for parent income (although a few charter schools did well).

As far as the intellectual quality of the boycott, I guess Stephen Hawking hasn't sat around and thought about it as deeply as you have.

Seeing as he is now being accused of hypocrisy over his continued use of Israeli technology, I'm guessing he didn't think about it very much. Great physicist, I enjoy his work, and fortunately he seems to bounce back from his previous mistakes. I'm sure he'll bounce back from this mistake too.