Slashdot Mirror

If they're ever able to engineer (or buy) a working delivery mechanism, South Korea, Japan, and even US interests,are at risk of nuclear escalation and bombardment."

It's not the threat of bombardment that worries me, it's the threat of an EMP attack you should be worried about..

The loss of our grid infrastructure would inevitably lead to multiple Fukishima like meltdowns in the USA.

The great thing about drone operators is that you can outsource the job to China or India. So probably not much

Somehow I doubt the US Air Force, or local law enforcement for that matter, will be giving control over drones that are armed or simply used for surveillance to either the Chinese or Indians.

Slashdot: Comment is free - but it shouldn't be thought free.

Both Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama were opposed to the video to cover up their arming of Al Qaeda elements in Libya through the embassy in Benghazi

Wait, what? Did I read that right? Did you just claim that the US funnelled weapons to an Al Qaeda franchaise through the US consulate in Benghazi? Really? And you got a +5 for that bullshit? Man.

"The evidence suggests that the Obama administration has not simply been engaging, legitimating, enriching and emboldening Islamists who have taken over or are ascendant in much of the Middle East ... the Obama administration has been arming them, including jihadists like Abdelhakim Belhadj, leader of the al Qaeda franchise known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group."

Gaffney is a far from reliable source but at least he is looking into it and he is right that this is what the evidence suggests. What actually happened is classified and is likely to remain secret for another 20-40 years if it ever gets out, so all we can do is speculate. What I've been hearing through the rumour mill is that it was Qatar directly arming al-Qaeda right under the nose of the US, and Stevens found out about it and was trying to talk one of their factions into giving up their guns. More speculation: "Several sources have pointed to the possibility that a major CIA gun-running operation aimed at arming anti-Assad Al-Qaeda-affiliated forces was in danger of being exposed", which is not inconsistent with either possibility.

If you don't like right-wing sources, here's one from the left: "Benghazi, US-NATO Sponsored Base of Operations for Al Qaeda"

That said there are an awful lot of war vets in the US as well. However somehow I doubt most of these would be on a side of revolution, I would suspect unless extremely disenchanted, they would likely be with government forces, further making this sort of action pointless.

I know a *lot* of ex-military (literally hundreds of guys who served anywhere from the 70's Vietnam all the way to current Afghanistan and everything in between). About 95% of them are thoroughly disgusted and *extremely* disenchanted with the government. Why do you think the government automatically considers veterans to be such a potential threat to them?

Well, we can start with the destruction of the last piece of the Library of Alexandria following with the assassination of Hypatia.

A little later of course there was the Crusades.

And today of course it's happening in Africa.

http://www.thebereancall.org/content/christian-doctrine-speeds-destruction-artifacts

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/sep/06/african-evangelists-destroy-artifacts/?page=all

Horsemeat has never been popular in the US.... there's just too strong of a cultural memory of the "wild west", cowboys, pioneers, etc and Americans love their horses almost as well as dogs and cats. The small horse slaughter business in the US was finally ended by a law in 2006 which was well-intentioned but had a perverse side-effect: The surplus horses that used to be slaughtered here (with the meat often exported) were instead packed into trucks for a very long unhappy and uncomfortable trip to ...... slaughterhouses in Mexico. Since the new law ultimately spared no horses and removed no horsemeat from the market and actually made life worse for any doomed horses, a new law was recently passed through the Republican House, the Democrat Senate, and signed by president Obama to re-legalize the American horse slaughter industry. In the US, it seems, even the most partisan political hacks can get together to lessen the suffering of some horses.

Most laws are written by people who mean well, but laws, by their very nature, are blunt instruments which all-too-often have negative side-effects that sometimes are actually worse than what they were intended to fix.

You're right, more gun laws would just turn America into a police state.

I'll repeat: the value of oil, based on the value of gold, has remained very stable since 1950.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/energy-harnassed/2012/jul/17/does-gold-set-price-oil/
http://pricedingold.com/crude-oil/

Talking heads, and the latest generations of "economists" would have you believe that the dollar is stable, while all other commodities fluctuate. The prices you see at the pump reflect, instead, the relative strength of the dollar.

Speculation does have a short transitory effect on the price of oil, or gold, or any other commodity. Thus, the spikes in the charts reflect speculation.

They called it Wilding in NYC like when the central park jogger was raped and beaten

... as if that was a real thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park_Jogger_case#Convictions_vacated

I guess I fail to see your point: while those five were wrongfully convicted of this particular assault, some of the "reasonable doubt" seems to stem from...

Perhaps more important, eyewitness testimony from other victims that night seems to suggest that at the time the jogger was being attacked, the boys were involved in muggings elsewhere in the park.

...and let's not neglect that the central park jogger was indeed raped, savagely beaten, and left for dead. It's not like she fabricated a story and backed it up by sending herself into a coma, causing the removal of her left eyeball, etc. Her case was infamous, but she's certainly not the only example of horrific violence in NYC.

Finally, the term seems to be legitimately coined at this point: ‘Wilding’ leaves four wounded in N.Y.

So, yeah, the "wilding" term is a real thing, describes real events, and your point about the wrongful convictions is a non sequitur.

Read the Wiki page here. Also read the declaration of Independence for the purpose of the amendment, it becomes very clear "why" the founders felt this was worthy of being put in to our Constitution.

From the Wiki Page you will see the following.

* deterring tyrannical government;[34]

* repelling invasion;

* suppressing insurrection;

* facilitating a natural right of self-defense;

* participating in law enforcement;

* enabling the people to organize a militia system.

Lets not overlook the obvious. If the purpose of Guns is to deter a tyrannical government, do you believe that gun registration is within the spirit of the law? No "but but but" answers allowed, look at the facts. Gun registration provides a hit list for a government we are supposed to be protecting ourselves from.

Would such a list be of benefit to a tyrannical government? Of course, it is a huge benefit. Suddenly we would have people being disarmed by said government prior to a tyrannical take over. This could be by bogus criminal charges or charges of insanity right? Like here (one of many vets recently labelled and forced into treatment), or here, or here? Of course these are not nation wide or common, but the fact is that they are happening to military veterans. These are the ones that make some form of media, but you should suspect that there are more.

Registration is most definitely not within the spirit of the amendment, and is not constitutional.

Now with that said, do I feel that some form of checking is required? Well yes, I do. If my batshit crazy neighbor has a gun, I'd report him to his family when he started waving it around and threatening to shoot the clouds. Well, most of us don't know our batshit crazy neighbors do we? When there has been a sociological break down, and we don't know our own neighbors, we have more pressing concerns than guns right? It's a mixture of "see something say something" bullshit being spread (welcome to Nazi Germany) and our addictions to mass media. Both of those things are signs of a tyrannical government as well.. but you will probably deny it.

Enjoy the puppet show, and tell us if your neighbor tries to remove their bonds. The Cave is wonderful, you should read the allegory sometime.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/energy-harnassed/2012/jul/17/does-gold-set-price-oil/

In effect, the central bank establishes what we are paying for oil, or anything else for that matter.

Lesson: Facts do not cease to be facts just because they were reported on Fox News.

Different members of the Obama Administration have said different things about Benghazi at different times.

American forces in a position to help were evidently told repeatedly to stand down.

Charles Woods, the father of the slain Tyrone Woods, thinks Obama is lying. And the mother of slain State Department employee Sean Patrick Smith just came out and said "I believe that Obama murdered my son” though his negligence. Compare the amount of press given to them compared to Cindy Sheehan.

Now two chain-of-command figures central to the Benghazi controversy, CIA Director David Petraeus and General Carter Ham, commander of AFRICOM, have resigned, while a third, Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette, has been reassigned.

None of this necessarily means that Obama issued the stand-down order, or validates the speculation in some quarters that Ambassador Stevens may have been involved in arms transfers. But how blind do you have to be to think that the fact that no additional forces were sent to protect Americans during a seven hour battle with jihadests is unworthy of being investigated?

Retired Army Col. Ken Allard, a career intelligence officer, described Delta Force members as "quiet professionals. Silence is security."

Read more about it here.

I have done quite a bit of research actually.

Right...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/20/obama-asserts-executive-privilege-over-ff-docs/?page=all
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/page/univision-news-investigation-operation-fast-furious-weapons-revealed-17352963
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/the-benghazi-drip-drip-drip/
http://www.examiner.com/article/retired-officer-obama-watched-benghazi-attack-happen-sources-say
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/20/more-than-500-economists-5-nobel-laureates-back-romneys-economic-strategy/
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/25/news/economy/obama-congress-grades/index.htm
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2012/oct/2/real-obama-economic-policy-record/
http://www.ijreview.com/2012/07/10891-top-4-most-wasteful-michelle-obama-vacations/ http://obamagolfcounter.com/

Note the many right-wing sources like CNN and ABC News.

I saved the apology tour for last, as I found several quotes you'll no doubt enjoy:

- At a Summit of the Americas, Obama regretted how “at times we sought to dictate our terms.” In an op-ed about policy toward the America’s, Obama declared: “Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors.”

- Speaking to the Turkish parliament, Obama rationalized: “The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history.”

- Addressing CIA employees about an administration report which castigated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques against terrorist suspects, the President urged: “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes.”

- In a speech, Obama denounced the techniques used in the war on terror: “Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And during this season of fear, too many of us – Democrats and Republicans, politicians, journalists, and citizens – fell silent.”

- In that same address at the National Archives, he went into full apology mode over Guantanamo: “There is also no question that Guantanamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world. Instead of building a durable framework for the struggle against Al Qaeda that drew upon our deeply held values and traditions, our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law.”

0's rhetoric and actions have weakened America considerably, which is reflected in the actions of the PRC and Russia in particular.

I have done quite a bit of research actually.

Right...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/20/obama-asserts-executive-privilege-over-ff-docs/?page=all
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/page/univision-news-investigation-operation-fast-furious-weapons-revealed-17352963
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/the-benghazi-drip-drip-drip/
http://www.examiner.com/article/retired-officer-obama-watched-benghazi-attack-happen-sources-say
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/20/more-than-500-economists-5-nobel-laureates-back-romneys-economic-strategy/
http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/25/news/economy/obama-congress-grades/index.htm
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2012/oct/2/real-obama-economic-policy-record/
http://www.ijreview.com/2012/07/10891-top-4-most-wasteful-michelle-obama-vacations/ http://obamagolfcounter.com/

Note the many right-wing sources like CNN and ABC News.

I saved the apology tour for last, as I found several quotes you'll no doubt enjoy:

- At a Summit of the Americas, Obama regretted how “at times we sought to dictate our terms.” In an op-ed about policy toward the America’s, Obama declared: “Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors.”

- Speaking to the Turkish parliament, Obama rationalized: “The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history.”

- Addressing CIA employees about an administration report which castigated the use of enhanced interrogation techniques against terrorist suspects, the President urged: “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes.”

- In a speech, Obama denounced the techniques used in the war on terror: “Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And during this season of fear, too many of us – Democrats and Republicans, politicians, journalists, and citizens – fell silent.”

- In that same address at the National Archives, he went into full apology mode over Guantanamo: “There is also no question that Guantanamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world. Instead of building a durable framework for the struggle against Al Qaeda that drew upon our deeply held values and traditions, our government was defending positions that undermined the rule of law.”

0's rhetoric and actions have weakened America considerably, which is reflected in the actions of the PRC and Russia in particular.

You think voter fraud doesn't occur both ways? How about these:

Black Panthers patrolling polling centers, and election monitors being forbidden from scrutinizing:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/6/problems-black-panthers-surface-pa-polling-places/

Voters picking Romney, but the machine gives their vote to Obama:
http://www2.wbtw.com/news/2012/nov/05/more-nc-voters-report-selecting-romney-machine-cho-ar-4900469/

Poll worker pushing voters to vote Democrat:
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/poll-worker-tells-people-to-vote-democrat.html

Polling center has a pro-Obama mural in violation of election laws:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20121106_GOP_goes_to_court_to_remove_Obama_mural_at_polling_site.html

Planning on going to the polls after work today. The boss is letting us leave early to vote after I suggested he do so, so yay for me. Then Minecraft time!
Here's just a few of the stories about shenanigans today.
Philly GOP: Poll inspectors being ousted for Dems
Election Judge Wears Obama Cap While Checking in Voters in Obama's Chicago Ward
GOP - Poll watcher in Detroit threatened with gun, 911 call rejected
Former DNC Chair Howard Dean: The Only Way We Lose Is Through Fraud
Obama Poster Hanging in Florida Polling Station
GOP officials booted, Black Panthers return -- and Obama at polling site?

Yes assuming this "new negative news stream" that I haven't noticed is coming from Fox News. It also explains why you think no one has read the bill.

I'm sure you don't mean to be obtuse, but what I wrote was, "passed without anyone reading the whole thing first." Are you going to deny that is true? They were making massive deletions and additions up till the last moment. Do you think passing major laws with massive effects on 1/6 of the economy without reading them first, let alone study, understand, and debate them, is a good thing? This isn't the first time that happed.

Passing unread laws

Welcome to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives. The “people’s House” is now a place where bills are voted on not only before legislators or the public have read them, but also before parts of the bills even have been written. Such was the case with a 300-page amendment to the cap-and-trade bill the House passed on June 26. The House leadership could not even produce this amendment on paper, in final form, before it was voted on.

Fox New, AP, whatever, I can't account for you being uninformed.

Kids with Pre-Existing Conditions NOT Covered By Obamacare
Now the AP tells us

Hours after President Barack Obama signed historic health care legislation, a potential problem emerged. Administration officials are now scrambling to fix a gap in highly touted benefits for children.

Obama made better coverage for children a centerpiece of his health care remake, but it turns out the letter of the law provided a less-than-complete guarantee that kids with health problems would not be shut out of coverage.

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday.

- - - - -

So let's perpetually bend over to the insurance companies hoping to God that they keep rates reasonable. The point of the exchanges is to introduce some competition so that insurance companies can't easily abuse customers as you describe.

To borrow your phrase, do you know who you will bending over to instead? (And won't that be so much better? You can always try to change insurance companies, at least till now, but you aren't really going to change the IRS, are you?)

IRS looking to hire thousands of tax agents to enforce health care laws

A March 18 report from House Ways & Means Committee Republicans estimates the IRS will need to hire between 11,800 and 16,500 new agents to enforce the bill.

No One Would Miss ObamaCare, but the Window for Repeal Is Two Years
Its alleged benefits are overrated, and by 2014 the bureaucratic mess may be impossible to untangle.

The primary place ObamaCare's pre-existing condition provision will have an impact is in the individual market, where about 14 million people buy their own coverage. Individuals are the ones most likely to wait until they need coverage to buy it; hence ObamaCare's mandate requiring them to have insurance.

However, most states had made provisions for the "uninsurables" long before ObamaCare came around. Thirty-five states have created state-based high-risk pools—Minnesota and Connecticut established the first ones as far back as 1976

The Republican Party has created a bubble of alternate facts and alternate narratives.
It damages their ability to govern and has destroyed their ability to compromise.

Do tell.

Reid says he can't work with Romney

As of August 11, 2012: '1,200 Days and $5 Trillion in New Debt Since Senate Dems Passed a Budget'

a women's right to do what she wants with her body affects over 50% of the US population

Well, a women's right to do what she wants with her body affects over 50% of the US population, so I'd say that affects a hell of a lot more people than warrantless wiretapping every day

Except that the right to choose abortion does not affect 100% of women, it affects only the very small minority who have an unplanned pregnancy and who cannot or are unwilling to raise a (new) child. The warrantless wiretap program violated the rights of all Americans, simultaneously; a small percentage might have been directly affected. Here, however, is a policy that is not only supported by bother Democrats and Republicans (and is vigorously pushed by the Obama administration) which directly affects (in a harmful way) vastly more Americans than abortion rights:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs

gay marriage, immigration reform, and affirmative action are obviously less than 50%, but the same applies

Yes, the same does apply. Here are some additional issues that affect Americans on a wider scale and more directly than any of the above:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_education

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_loans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_busting

So you see, while I fully support the idea that gay people should have the right to marry those that they love (as opposed to only civil unions), I am far more concerned about the fact that paramilitary police are called in when people exercise their right to protest:

http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/6140/peaceful-rally-for-womens-health-dispersed-by-swat-team-in-richmond

Or the fact that we are expected to "speak freely" in designated areas that are nowhere near the people at whom are speech is targeted:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/4/free-speech-zone-proves-audience-free/?page=all

It takes a very selfish person to state that only the causes that they think affect them directly are important

Which is irrelevant, since:

1. No SWAT team has ever attacked me
2. I have never stepped foot in a free speech zone, and prefer to exercise my rights with a keyboard rather than a bullhorn
3. I do not use telephones (and therefore the phone tapping program could not have affected me)

gay marriage is one of those self-evident inalienable human rights

Nonsense; marriage is and has always been a legal construct, since the first marriages were performed. See, where you are confused is that you think that gay marriage is equivalent to the striking down of sodomy laws. Sodomy laws are dead; gay men can dance together and have sex without fear of being arrested. That the issue now is whether or not the government will recognize a gay marriage beyond recognizing a civil union, that the difference between the two boils down to technical details, is proof that gay rights are not the most pressing civil rights issue facing us.

Remember, the Constitution was designed to describe the limits of government, not exhaustively list the rights citizens have

1. It does explicitly list our rights, and those are rights are being violated.
2. The governm

NIF has three missions:

- National security (stockpile stewardship
- Basic fusion science
- Understanding the origins of the basic building blocks of the universe

That's it.

I hate to break it you you, but much of what we do in basic science research is dual-use. It can be used for military applications, or purely scientific applications. Doing stockpile stewardship without nuclear tests is not "getting around" nuclear test ban treaties. It's maintaining the integrity of our increasingly smaller nuclear stockpile as a credible deterrent.

This overwhelming deterrent capability is part of the reason why the world has seen no major global conflict for seven decades, and has had the longest period of peace without global conflict for over five centuries. Tens of millions of people died in WWI and WWII.

We maintain a credible deterrent so it's clear that no one can ever strike us first without the certainty of themselves also being destroyed -- and if our principles and ideals and those of our allies are something you care about, then that should be important to you.

The world is changing, and some might say that the general "cyber" and information threats will more important than nuclear. China certainly seems to think so. Then again, China is also building out its nuclear weapons capabilities and stockpiles as the rest of the world, including the US, disarms. No worries, right? Delivery systems that can rain down nuclear warheads on targets anywhere in the world is just for "peaceful regional defense", right?

A world where the US doesn't maintain an overwhelming deterrent to forces which espouse principles and ideals counter to those of freedom and liberal democracy is not a pretty place.

(Note to people who think that the US is what's wrong with the world: you are sorely in need of historical perspective -- or, any perspective. The US is not perfect, but the US and West has done far more for the benefit of human life and humanity, on the whole, than any other nation, especially those with Communist, Socialist, or totalitarian systems of government. Wake up.)

I am confused by your statement "I don't understand austerity". From my viewpoint, it is simple: pay for the programs you implement, don't leave it to your grandkids to pay for. In my country, we have Social Security. I like Social Security, it is a good idea. yet we ahve this notion that seniors have paid for their benefits. The reality is that the current generation of recipients paid between 50-70 cents on the dollar for the benefit they are receiving. My generation will likely be in the 70-75 percent range. At some point, someone has to pay for the shortfall, and it will likely be my kids and grandkids. That is a horrible sign of selfishness and immaturity.

I assume you live in the USA. One way to permanently fund Social Security [1] would be to remove the limits on the tax (which is currently limited to an arbitrary $106k) so millionaires (who do receive SS benefits when they retire) have to pay the same overall % of income as middle-class and the poor.

This is but one of the more well known ways to fix shortfalls in government without having "our kids and grandkids pay". Perhaps we should remove corporate loopholes that allow companies to essentially pay no tax? The fact is, many corporations [2] and wealthy people [3] have lower tax rates than folks who are scraping to get by. I pay a significantly higher rate than Romney.

[1] http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_snapshots_20050217/
[2] http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/ad-lib/2011/apr/10/tax-evaders-wall-shame/
[3] http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/21/pf/taxes/romney-tax-return/index.html

Germany was initially only limited to their own immediate neighborhood in Europe back in World War 2, right? How did that work out last time?

Germany had been a world power into World War 1, and had regained much of their might by World War 2, including a blue water navy. China is still working their way there for the first time.

China has a huge population that needs more resources. And this being a small planet, your resources are eventually on the menu, whether you acknowledge that fact or not.

Do tell.

I assure you, other countries have noticed China's rise, and its aspirations to hegemony, and are taking action.

Moscow plays on fears of China in global quest for naval bases

Russia is allying, informally, with other Asian countries that also worry about China’s ascendance. South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and India have seen Chinese ships assert sovereignty over contested areas in East and Southeast Asia.

Russian bases in Vietnam and the Seychelles will be welcomed by those countries along the Chinese periphery. Indeed, Russia’s moves probably come after quiet diplomacy by several of them to strengthen their hand against China – diplomacy certainly supported if not initiated by the U.S.

Maybe some waterboarding?

Exclusive: Only Three Have Been Waterboarded by CIA

The last time was in 2003.

Do you think they might steal his organs?

It's Obama's fault for oversimplification of the problem and with his Democratic cohorts, Pelosi, Reid et al. for doing a lot of backroom deals to push bad legislation through. Do we all want affordable health care? Yes! Do we want to be able to make sure that we can get care for pre-existing conditions? Yes! Do we want 16000 new IRS agents enforcing the insurance mandate? No.

Ask yourself why an industry like the health care industry has seen increases in costs much faster than inflation? Sure, the number of uninsured has risen but also some of these deals that were made allow the drug companies and others to not be challenged in terms of their costs. They will continue to rake in record profits and are allowed monopolies in this country that they shouldn't have. You think software patents are bad? How about the prohibition of importing drugs from say India? You have a licensed monopoly and they will rape you for every dollar.

Electronic Record keeping isn't bad, it's bad when you have fraud already and you don't work on closing that out before you give crooks another way to steal from us all.

Also, despite the "grand legislation" there are more uninsured as of 2011 then there were back in 2008 when they started tracking it.

Almost 18% of GDP is spent on healthcare in this country now and in comparison to other developed nations we spend more than our peers. Germany spends 10% of their GDP on Healthcare with 22% coming from private spending, meaning insurers and the government pay out 78%. In the US, 17.9% of GDP is spent on healthcare with 47% coming from private spending. It's an industry out of control and the whole Obamacare legislation won't fix it.

So, I don't just blame Obama, I blame the Democrats and the Republicans, in fact all of these idiots in DC and the statehouses who have allowed this to happen to us. I'll be retiring in 20 years, probably into a cardboard box. Why? Because I'll get free health care and I won't have to pay any taxes.

Facebook users don't care, and get angry when you try to eduucate them. They think I'm crazy,, but mostly I post inane rubbish just to keep the data miners off kilter.. Spam away!

Just don't post anti-big-government opinions and Canadian rap song lyrics if you're a military veteran, or you could get the "Soviet dissident" treatment, and get thrown into a mental ward without warrant or due process.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/citizen-warrior/2012/aug/22/can-government-detain-you-over-facebook-posts/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/29/former-marine-facebook-sue-fbi

Thankfully for Raub, someone caught his detainment on video and it went viral. What if nobody had taken video? Would he still be doing the "Thorazine shuffle" and drooling on himself in a tranq'ed-out stupor in some mental ward doing a real-world remake of Jack Nicholson's role in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"?

Scary times we live in.

Strat

Eleven carriers. And frankly, they may even get cut to ten or even nine carriers in the next few years, to pay for Obama's budget. You can say it's dumb if you want, but having more carriers than the whole world put together means that nobody even thinks of challenging you. Cut it down to a reasonable number like five, or two, or zero, and suddenly everyone and his dog thinks he can control the sea. Get ready for free navigation of international waters to become a quaint artifact of the past.

Unions are monopoly on labour, and government does not crack down on their illegal practices clearly, especially government unions, that shouldn't even exist. If you are a government monopoly, you shouldn't have the right to unionise but even if you do have a public sector union, then you shouldn't be able to hold people hostage with a strike.

The people in the private sector are hit pretty hard. First of all every time a union gets a pay raise, that's an involuntary pay cut for the private sector workers, most of who do not even make as much money as these public sector union employees. Interestingly enough, the proportion of people who send their kids to private schools is higher among the public school teachers, teachers are twice as likely to send their kids to private schools than the rest of the parents! They are more familiar with the system, so they understand that the value is just not there for the kids.

Teachers do not want to be evaluated based on performance, that's what unions are afraid - to allow teachers to be graded (just like they grade students, nice hypocrisy right there).

now that Steve Jobs is dead, there is no reason to continue his personal thermonuclear war. Tim Cook should get together with Samsung, Google, HTC et al and sign the equivalent of ABM treaty and cross-license all patents like all normal industries.

Tim Cook needs to get his product blocked and his patents invalidated before he will see the light. The Samsung verdict is 90% sure to be overturned on appeal if for no other reason than Jury Misconduct, and the patents Apple relied on were trivial UI features (software patents).

But as long as Cook's lawyers keep dragging in billion dollar judgements for million dollar expenditures Cook will not stop.

Maybe if Cook spent the Lawyer money improving the iPhone's user interface the man who's campaign chest he is filling could actually figure out how to use it.

No, they really aren't. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/20/three-years-and-no-senate-budget/?page=all

How about by the standards of the right wing just a generation ago right here in the good ole USA.

How is that fair? Times have changed, and significantly I might add...what we could afford them we can't afford now. It seems to be pretty common sense that the entire country would shift more towards the "fiscally responsible" side of the scale. It just so happens that it shifted Republicans from "we're willing to spend responsibly" to "we don't want to spend at all, cut cut cut!" and it shifted Democrats from "we want to spend like hogs on speed" to "we're willing to spend responsibly".

The other big exception is that Obama after his continuation of big bailouts and stimulus started by bush to save the economy from the freefall we were in, has been that Obama has actually tried to reign in the deficit unlike his borrow and spend republican opponents.

Umm, since when? He wants another huge stimulus: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/12/obama-pushes-billion-dollar-stimulus-plan/

And he seems only willing to pay for it primarily through tax hikes, instead of budget cuts. That's hardly what I'd call "tried to reign in the deficit". Regardless, how can someone take you seriously when spend several trillion dollars in three years and then offer a plan to cut the deficit maybe 100-200 billion per year for the next 10 years?

Apparently you have not heard of China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Equador and Bolivia.

China embraced capitalism.
Viet Nam is mixing Capitalism with Marxism.
Cuba is embracing capitalism.
Venezuela is failing at constructing a Communist economy.
Brazil has prospered by not governing from hard left principals.

That leaves you with Ecuador(a mix of capitalism and communism) and North Korea(a completely failed state). That doesn't seem to match up with your paranoid narrative, though, does it?

And you have not heard of the latest developments in Marxism, created by Antonio Gramsci, Herbert Marcuse and Theodor Adorno.

The latest deveopments? From a series of authors who have been dead for decades? Care to elucidate what makes these particular dead men so dangerous to your worldview?

Cultural Marxism is alive and kicking in the West. Just go to an average university and see what books the philosophy/geography students read.

That's funny. I had enough philosophy for a minor, and I never once had a philosophy professor mention Marxism more than in passing. And geography? Care to list out the horrible things students are learning?

Check out what "moderate socialism" did to the economy of Europe.

Oh, you mean the debt based economic problems? How is that different from the US? How is it the fault of socialism?

The Bible says "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" What happened in the Middle Ages was a perversion of Christianity. AND IT HAPPENED 400 YEARS AGO.

WTF are you talking about? I never said anything about the Dark Ages.

Saying that "bin Laden is religious" is as relevant as saying "bin Laden has a long beard".

If you think that bin Laden's actions were due to something other than his religion, then you are so wildly misinformed that I'm not sure where to start.

The probability of a Christian commiting terrorism is the same as a long-bearded man commiting terrorism. Being "similar" to bin Laden in one aspect does mean one is a terrorist.

Holding an irrational belief as your core philosophy is always dangerous.

Pat Robertson is more a politician then a pastor; and he is a televangelist.

No True Scotsman fallacy.

You don't find this kind of rhetoric in Catholic churches.

You are wrong. Moreover, the Catholic church is quite comfortable in claiming that homosexual marriage will result in the destruction of the fabric of society.

The crimes primarily happened 30 YEARS AGO, during the ecclesial chaos that followed the revolution of 1968.

The crimes were horrific. The cover up by the entire Vatican heirarchy was arguably worse. And that cover up and and denial persists to this day. The Catholic church still wants to brush this under the rug.

On average, a Catholic priest less likely to comit such a crime then a publich school teacher, and a Catholic bishop is less likely to cover it up than a public school principal. But you conveniently focus on priests.

And those priests and bishops claim to speak with t

The police are most likely to behave as you suggest when they either have the wrong address, or the offense involved is one prone to involvement with violence, such as drug cases

I know the media paints a scary picture, but most drug dealers or producers do not turn their homes into fortresses. SWAT deployment should be limited to extreme cases, where there is good reason to believe that the suspects are heavily armed and dangerous. Right now, SWAT assaults are routinely used to execute search and arrest warrants, regardless of there being any suspicion of the suspect being armed. Here are some typical examples of the excessive use of SWAT:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/05/criminalizing-everyone/

http://www.ktsm.com/news/las-cruces-coach-accused-child-porn-passed-background-checks

There is no need for SWAT to arrest a man accused of downloading child pornography, and there is certainly no excuse for deploying a SWAT team to arrest someone who is accused of illegally importing orchids. These are not armed robbery suspects or terrorists, and there is no reason to think they would have even put up a fight had the SWAT team not shown up. Yes, by the way, these are typical examples:

http://www.cato.org/publications/white-paper/overkill-rise-paramilitary-police-raids-america

The executive branch has zero power to declare laws, although it can regulate

The executive branch has the power, under the Controlled Substances Act, to declare that a drug is illegal to possess or distribute for up to a year without any congressional or democratic process whatsoever -- and the same organization that has been delegated that power, the DEA, is also responsible for enforcing drug laws, which includes such declarations. A ban is not "regulation" by any sane definition of the word, and sending people to prison for possessing a substance is not "regulating" that substance in any way. The executive branch also has the power to overrule recommendations on drug scheduling to create bans that are not supported by regulatory agencies like HHS or the FDA.

This is not about "regulation" -- this is about a law enforcement agency, the DEA, which is part of the executive branch, having both the power to declare a drug illegal and the final say in whether or not drugs will be banned or regulated. That same agency is responsible for enforcing the very laws it can enact.

None of what you wrote negates what I wrote. The bureaucracy is as dependent on the legislature and president as always.

Except that over the past 40 years, more and more power has shifted away from the legislature and towards the executive. That is not "as always" -- it is a modern trend, and it is a trend with immediate and real consequences.

I'm a good law-and-order conservative

I bet you would change your tune if you were arrested for something like this:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/05/criminalizing-everyone/

"Law and order" attitudes are fine when the only people we imprison are murderers, rapists, etc. -- dangerous people who need to be separated from society to keep everyone else safe. These days, there are so many vague laws on the books that everyone is guilty of at least some felony, and by some estimates people are committing felonies every day just by living their lives.

Until we see major, sweeping reforms to our criminal laws, "law and order" approaches to crime are dangerous.

The second link is to "World Net Daily", a site that has about as much credibility as the John Birch Society.

Allow me -

Chinese step up computer espionage against United States
The Evolution of Espionage: Beijing’s Red Spider Web
Chinese telecom firm tied to spy ministry

Exactly!

Pervasive espionage.

Chinese step up computer espionage against United States
FBI estimates there are currently more than 3,000 corporations operating in the United States that have ties to the PRC and its government technology collection program.
Chinese telecom firm tied to spy ministry

The report by the CIA-based Open Source Center states that Huawei’s chairwoman, Sun Yafang, worked for the Ministry of State Security (MSS) Communications Department before joining the company.

The report on Huawei’s board members states that Ms. Sun used her connections at MSS to help Huawei through “financial difficulties” when the company was founded in 1987.

Based in part on Chinese media reports and Huawei’s website, the report reveals that the Beijing government paid Huawei $228.2 million for research and development during the past three years.

I'm sure you can figure out why this might be important. . . well, maybe not.

Fine, you see it different, but then would you please put out there the accomplishments of the republican congress, positive laws that has helped this country?

Would you settle for things accomplished by a previous Republican Congress that are being undone by Obama?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/26/ending-welfare-reform-as-we-know-it/print/

Welfare reform has been an overwhelming success. Since 1996, welfare caseloads have decreased 70 percent, which translates into 8.8 million fewer people dependent on government. Child-poverty rates dropped, particularly among blacks and Hispanics. Teen pregnancies have (until recently) decreased, and child-support collections have increased.

Hard to argue with that kind of success (and deficit reduction as well).

I'm amazed the Iranians have been so restrained.

I'm amazed that anyone would say that they believe that.

Malaysia court orders extradition of Iranian over bomb plot
Israel says Thai bombs similar to those in India, Georgia

Good 'ole peace loving Iran.
Iran sends troops to Syria

Tehran, May 30 — Iran has sent its troops to help the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fight opposition forces, a senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has said.

Iran boosts Qods shock troops in Venezuela

Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Pentagon’s first report to Congress on Tehran’s military.

Iran's Quds Force: Supporting Terrorism Worldwide
Experts: Iran's Quds Force Deeply Enmeshed in Iraq

State Sponsors: Iran

Tehran Attempts to Deceive U.S. President Obama, Sec'y of State Clinton With Nonexistent Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa
Chairman of the Gulf Forum for Peace and Security Fahed Al-Shelaimi Accuses Iran of State-Sponsored Terrorism

there might be some truth to that:

Last month, for example, the Peruvian Defense Ministry canceled a $114 million contract with a consortium that included U.S. defense manufacturer Northrop Grumman after a Chinese company convinced officials the project did not meet technical specifications.

Not really going to rely on a 9/11 truther.

I don't know WTF you're talking about, but if you prefer do deal with all the crazy ads that the MSM puts on their sites, you could check the Washington Times, or just Google it yourself.

epic failure of an IPO? The company's goal is to sell a share of itself for the highest price it can. How did Facebook fail?

By doing just about everything that would have raised its price wrong. Source: Pretty much every major news outlet that's reported on it. http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2012/may/25/why-facebook-ipo-failed/ http://www.theage.com.au/business/world-business/facebook-ipo-fail-may-cost-nasdaq-us100m-20120606-1zuys.html http://rt.com/usa/news/facebook-ipo-globe-internet-644/ http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/business/962290-192/signs-of-facebook-ipo-failure-dots-connecting.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/tykiisel/2012/05/23/facebooks-ipo-dealing-with-a-failed-project/

China is growing quickly, but it's because they have a lot of room to grow. Once you have a developed economy, it's hard to wring the same kind of growth out of it, because you're a lot closer to your potential.

Hear Hear!

The next round, will be played in space.

Cheers!

61% of Americans thinks the stories in the Bible are literal truth according to the Washington Times And that's all Americans, when you look at protestants and evangelical protestants the percentage is closer to 80% and 90% respectively. Catholics are split.

Hansen in 1971 predicted an ice age: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/sep/19/inside-the-beltway-69748548/

This Martin/Zimmerman case is one that gun advocates should be backing off of and disavowing any association with this Zimmerman nut; they should be spinning it as an example of a lone cowboy who doesn't understand the law going vigilante and committing manslaughter (or premeditated murder, even). Instead? They can't get in line fast enough to defend the piece of shit, citing the very law that created the problem in a way that even a somewhat slow preschooler could have predicted.

I don't know who "they" are, because every single gun advocate - myself included - have been consistently telling that what Zimmerman did was clearly wrong, because in no meaningful sense it can be called self-defense, and it's emphatically not what "stand your ground" is about.

Heck, NRA spokespersons have already stated on several occasions that self-defense and "stand your ground" almost certainly do not apply to Zimmerman - what else do you want?

There is no evidence of that.

"No" is a strong word. Huawei was founded in 1988 by Ren Zhengfei (he's still the CEO of the company). Right out of University, he joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) working on military technology. He joined the Communist Part of China in 1978, and retired from the PLA in 1982. He was an elected member of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (1980's).

Sun Yafang, the chairman of the board, worked at the Ministry of State Security (MSS) Communications Department before joining Huawei.

In China, companies are not directly owned by the government, but they are controlled by Communist Party members... When people say X is a Chinese government subsidiary, this is what they are referring to (the close ties of the company to the Communist Party).

Maybe, but when Chinese subs can surface within a US carrier group without the US knowing about it, the number of planes the Chinese carrier has becomes less of an issue.

Go to the US with a few copies of the Qur'an and see what happens.

The outcome is pretty predictable: Oh, I see you have a Quran. You must be a Muslim? There are millions of them in the US. Have a nice day.

Wow, that is pretty horrible, but not on a par with nations living under Sharia.

Saudi jailed for discussing the Bible

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) — A court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for “mocking religion” after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews, a Saudi newspaper reported yesterday.

In Iran, Covert Christian Converts Live With Secrecy and Fear

Leaving Islam for another religion, or apostasy, has long invited reprisals from the Iranian government, forcing the likes of Illyas and his family into absolute secrecy, practicing their new beliefs only in the privacy of their home. In Iran, Christians are prohibited from seeking Muslim converts, although there has been tolerance for those who are born into Christian families.

The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has introduced legislation before the Iranian Majlis that would mandate the death penalty for apostates from Islam, a sign that it will brook no proselytizing in the country. "Life for so-called apostates in Iran has never been easy, but it could become literally impossible if Iran passes this new draft penal code," says Joseph Grieboski, the president of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy in Washington. "For anyone who dares question the regime's religious ideology, there could soon be no room to argue—only death.''

There are rare-earth deposits in other places - like Elk City, Nebraska having resources of the rare metals. However, it wouldn't be much fun to be running a mine in the middle of the desert.