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One problem with outsourcing to Mississippi or Louisiana is that people CAN't read helpdesk checklists. Here is an example of Toyota picking Canadian workers because training illiterate workers was so difficult for other companies in the south. (http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/050 708/toyota.shtml)

India has a large pool of WELL EDUCATED cheap labor. I am from Mississippi. I have friends down there who can't read. My brother works in a car factory in MS and the employee training was done using pictograms because there are so many illiterate workers in the class.

Even before the hurricane Mississippi and Louisiana were education backwaters. One in 3 residents can not read or write. (http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/oct1998/ill-o14.sht ml)

And the sad thing is since so many people "never needed no education" they don't see a reason to "get their kids learnt up neither". So the viscous cycle continues with each generation poorer and with less hope than the last.

Nations that consider education important will always prosper over nations that chose to stagnate. The US has long stigmatized intelligence and this leads to ignorant workers. Until it is sexy to know something we will continue to crank out barely educated frat boys and few scientists and engineers.

I think you are reffering to the beeper/cut-off device that is installed by the famous "Mel Farr SuperStar" dealerships in Michigan. They target low income customers, and provide weekly installment option. If you miss your payment they will shut you car down until you call in and make payment arrangments to get a reactivation pin. Due to the potential for accidents, the device should only shut off the vehicle after the vehicle's engine has stopped running for a short period of time. So, when someone is late for their payment, an they need a way to get home from work, they leave the car running. But that can only buy them an extra day or two. it gets expensive quickly. it is sort of an extra intrest payment on the loan in the form of gas consumption. read the article at the bottom: http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/snap-s03 _prn.shtml [wsws.org] This is True, I used to work in Detroit.

I think the original post is reffering to the beeper/cut-off device that is installed by the famous "Mel Farr SuperStar" dealerships in Michigan. They target low income customers, and provide weekly installment option. If you miss your payment they will shut you car down until you call in and make payment arrangments to get a reactivation pin. Due to the potential for accidents, the device should only shut off the vehicle after the vehicle's engine has stopped running for a short period of time. So, when someone is late for their payment, an they need a way to get home from work, they leave the car running. But that can only buy them an extra day or two. it gets expensive quickly. it is sort of an extra intrest payment on the loan in the form of gas consumption. read the article at the bottom: http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/snap-s03 _prn.shtml This is True, I used to work in Detroit.

I notice you are using an IBM system. Why buy from an unethical company?

In the case of U-238 (which constitutes 99.8%+ of depleted uranium) in four and a half billion years, roughly half the atoms in your sample will have ejected an alpha particle and turned into lead. The other half have just been sitting there, doing nothing, being inert, for four and a half billion years.

Completely false information. The decay products from DU are actually more radioactive than DU itself. DU dirty bombs and missiles produce a form of fallout where the contamination continues to get more and more radioactive for thousands of years. See http://www.ccnr.org/decay_U238.html and http://www.wise-uranium.org/rccu.html. There are actually 14 decay steps before a stable isotope is reached, lead-206.

Quite apart from the effects of U238, the depleted uranium that has been used by the US has been seriously contaminated with radioactive wastes from nuclear reactors. This makes it much more radioactive than it would be if it were pure DU, and some of the trans-uranium contaminants also have a significant chemical toxicity as well.

Now, with regard to those alpha particles: they're flying helium nuclei. They're not very good at penetrating things. Like, oh, skin. Paper.

More misleading info, since the main danger is internal and our cell contents and DNA are not protected by a layer of paper. Up to 70% of a weapon's DU is converted to an aerosol of micron-sized particles after impact and conflagration. Dust particles lodge in the lungs (and exposed tissues such as the eyes or open cuts) and can be adsorbed and transported around the body by the bloodstream.

Doctors in Kosovo and Iraq have reported large increases in cancer and numbers of malformed babies following the USA's use of DU radiological weapons in its various wars. To quote from http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/may2005/iraq-m10 .shtml:

The rate of birth defects, after increasing ten-fold from 11 per 100,000 births in 1989 to 116 per 100,000 in 2001, is soaring further. Dr Nawar Ali, a medical researcher into birth deformities at Baghdad University, told the UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) last month: "There have been 650 cases [birth deformities] in total since August 2003 reported in government hospitals. That is a 20 percent increase from the previous regime. Private hospitals were not included in the study, so the number could be higher."

The rise in birth defects is matched by a continuing increase in the incidence of childhood cancers. Six years ago, the College of Medicine at Basra University carried out a study into the rate of cancer among children under the age of 15 in southern Iraq from 1976 to 1999. It revealed a horrific change between 1990 and 1999. In the province of Basra, the incidence of cancer of all types rose by 242 percent, while the rate of leukaemia among children rose 100 percent. Children living in the area were falling ill with cancer at the rate of 10.1 per 100,000. In districts where the use of DU had been the most concentrated, the rate rose to 13.2 per 100,000.

too many misstatements, and too many numbers that just don't add up

Further, the whole thing started at the time he got sued by the govt. It was originally a PR exercise.

Still, it is doing some good work.

Yeah, right.

Postal 2 has been banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) in New Zealand, where it's now illegal to own or sell the game with various fines and even prison time for offenders.

In a major attack on artistic freedom and democratic rights, Australia's censor board has banned screenings of the US film Ken Park at the June 6-20 Sydney Film Festival. The decision was made by the government's Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and is the first time a movie scheduled for a local festival has been banned in Australia for almost a quarter of a century.

"The Australian Senate passed legislation today that requires ISPs to block any web site in the world that is classified as offensive by an Australian film board. The law is set to go into effect January 2000. Check out the news and even more news."

Here in NZ, we didn't require the Black Eyed Peas to rename their song "Don't Phunk With my Heart"

You Americans are so blinded by your own hype you think the entire rest of the world is some 3rd world dictatorship. Grow up, actually LOOK at the rest of the world and realise it doesn't match your cardboard cutout preconceptions. The average US slashbot view of the rest of the world is laughably naive.

No shit, Sherlock. That's because she's a Senator, not a Representative.

Be assured that she is firmly in the pocket of the Hollywood fat cats on this. In fact, she co-sponsored the bill in the Senate.

Democrats have historically been more servile than Republicans to the entertainment industry moguls, despite their pious declarations of support for the interests of the little guy, and their campaign donations reflect this.

-ccm

Microsoft's political contributions, both at corporate and employee levels, are overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates. Fortunately nobody has to take an anonymous coward's word for this, let alone a partisan hack who has an agenda in spreading disinformation like the former poster (usually you can tell something is up when the language is overwhelmingly hostile and irrational - these are societies bomb throwers who somehow didn't fit in and "play well with others" in school).

Don't taken anyone's word for it when you can check out first-hand objective data. opensecrets.org is an excellent resource to see where people are putting their money. For Microsoft information and overall Democratic support, see Open Secrets - Microsoft Search.

Incidentally, someone's got to help re-educate the progressivists on the use of "fascist" and help them understand these are their political first-cousins. Don't be ashamed of your ancestors! National socialism was a progressivist, liberal cause as was Italy's fascism, and was understood by most American progressivists in the 1930s to be an acceptable, moderate form of socialism (where some had difficulties with the USSR's more extreme collectivism). Some would argue that it's an effective model, eliminating pressures of middle classes and creating a coalition between industry captains and the labor market with a close partnership with authoritarian government. Many of FDR's initiatives, in fact, paralleled those of the party's fascist cousins and were effective in shortening the duration of the depression.

Fascism was a socialist coalition between the state and major industries, much like the organization of today's Democratic Party and corporate sponsors like the Soros Fund, Global Crossing, Time Warner, etc. See the party's own cousins and their reporting of corporate alliance who frown on the DNC's fascist model and prefer the detachment of corporate sponsorship for true socialism. As usual, Wikipedia is helpful in providing a definition, and also points out the incorrect colloquial usage of the term.

Progressives have a compelling argument in that normal people are incapable of handling their own life, making competent decisions, etc. Look at any inner city neighborhood and you'll find evidence supporting this theory. Some would argue that a certain segment of the less intelligent populace simply needs a government to determine things. I'd support an opt-in model where citizens could elect the progressive fascist model (flat wage regardless of occupation, ability or effort, 60% income tax, government-provided housing, government health care, free abortions on demand, drug plans, cafeterias, schools, retirement, senior care, etc.) or a totally government-free option with zero of the benefits, taxes, restrictions, etc.

This would certainly test the progressivist claim that such a model is sustainable without being completely parasitic to intelligent producers, as this segment would likely opt-out of the fascist model. Still, it'd be refreshing to see progressivists get a chance to discover if their model has any chance at working.

William Bennett's 'hypothetical' on racial genocide
A spreading stench of fascism
By Bill Van Auken
3 October 2005
http://www.wsws.org/

The statement of former Republican education secretary and "drug czar" William Bennett that the crime rate could be reduced through the abortion of all African-American children has touched off a political firestorm in the US.

Democratic lawmakers and civil rights organizations have demanded he apologize, while some have called for the termination of his syndicated radio program "Morning in America." In Philadelphia, parents and education advocates responded by demanding the city's school district--two-thirds of whose students are black--cancel a $3 million contract it awarded earlier this year to K12 Inc., a for-profit company chaired by Bennett.

Bennett is a key player in Republican politics and a leading neoconservative ideologue. In spite of revelations two years ago concerning his own multimillion-dollar gambling habit, he still postures as a moral instructor to the nation. It is a lucrative calling, bringing in money from right-wing foundations like those of Richard Mellon Scaife and John M. Olin, as well as retainers from broadcast news networks anxious to air his reactionary opinions.

On his radio broadcast Wednesday, he said:

"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could--if that were your sole purpose--you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down."

He continued: "That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."

Bush's press secretary issued a terse statement declaring, "The president believes the comments were not appropriate." The Republican Party responded in almost identical terms.

Bennett himself defended his remarks, calling them "a thought experiment about public policy."

"I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition," he said.

Such "thought experiments" and "hypothetical propositions" have a long and repellent history. Theories about "racial hygiene" and eugenics as a means of curing social problems were widely discussed in right-wing political and academic circles before they were implemented as a policy of mass extermination in Nazi Germany.

Significantly, Bennett in his defense tied his comments directly to the social catastrophe unleashed upon New Orleans and its predominantly black and poor population in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"There was a lot of discussion about race and crime in New Orleans," he told ABC news. "There was discussion--a lot of it wrong--but nevertheless, media jumping on stories about looting and shooting, and roving gangs and so on.

"There's no question this is on our minds," he continued. "What I do on our show is talk about things that people are thinking.... I'm sorry if people are hurt, I really am. But we can't say this is an area of American life [and] public policy that we're not allowed to talk about--race and crime."

Whose minds--in the aftermath of Katrina--are preoccupied with exterminating black babies? Who are the people who are "thinking" about the fascistic policy that Bennett put into words on his radio show?

For most who watched as tens of thousands in New Orleans were left to suffer--and many hundreds left to die--without food, water, medical aid or means of evacuation, the reaction was one of horror and anger over the abject failure of the American government and American society as a whole.

But a significant element within the American ruling elite and among its political representatives saw the chaos in New Orleans as the fault of the victims themselves, and drew the most reactionary conclusions. Just a day after Bennett's radio remarks, the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy editorial comment by Charles Murray, author of the infamous pseudo-scientific and racist tract, The Bell Curve. The thrust of the book, published a decade

Because the Republicans would never stifle free-speech.

Before you point out that the Dems did more or less the same thing, I'm not even attempting to exonerate them. It's actually possible to see the flaws in both parties.

However, from my perception, the Republican track record does seem worse than the Democratic one. Many right-wingers like to talk about the shackles of political correctness, but have no problem with calling you anti-American if you point out that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.

Well, there are 7.5 million millionaires in the US with $11 trillion in assets who need to spend their money on something. This looks like a very good option to me and I think our upperclass would flock to it much like luxury cruising in the 30s.

You are off by more than 50%.. While I am not wild about the site, it is far more accurate than the funny acocunting that is going on in D.C.

With that said, yeah, I agree with you. NASA is not the problem. It is spending far more than we bring in. This admin and Congress are irresponsible to the point of criminal. If any business ran this way, we would have the SEC and DOJ investigating them.

when they dealt with the Nazis.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/ibm-j27. shtml

It'd be better if all companies took at stand, that would more likely change the attitudes of the Chinese government than having companies act as collaborators in their opression.

Like rest of you, I've been staring at screens for twenty years and have an undeniable, ravenous appetite for all things innovative and technological. However, I lead a double life - biomedical engineer and english major. That other ever-present side of me has never gone away, no matter how much newly digitized information you throw at it. I devour books, textbook and entirely fictional alike - few paperbacks survive my multiple readings. It pains me to witness the downfall of literacy in our midst. The internet and computer have served as tools of limitless value; the merits of each cannot be enumerated. However, I pray that each child may at least once discover the profound nature of the written word upon its intended medium.

That may be true for the TGV, but apparently not for the ICE train. When you derail at 200kph, things get grim.

BTW, we call them "trucks" in English, but I kind of like "wagons"....

Can you please provide something by the way of information on that comment? I would imagine that a "hidden laws" clause in any act of legislation would not only be unconstitutional, but also loudly mentioned in every single news and talk outfit in the country...

First, the law need not be hidden, but merely not noticed in time for anyone to protest it. Perfectly legal although not moral. Secondly, the news and talk outfits in this country are mostly owned by the big corps, who benefit from this sort of behavior. No way they will talking about them.

Need proof? The protests in NY during the republican convention of 2004 were not reported by any of the big media outlets. Only smaller, more independent outfits (I think /. was one of them) reported anything. Major illegal activity that when all is said and done will cost the city of NY millions. Yet, not even the mayor's democratic opponents are taking him to task for this. If this isn't reported, do you really think "hiding" legislation will be?

we should be careful that the entire star wars sage is not banned by the Christian right, the way they`re trying to ban video games and Ozzy albums, for being a evil influence on our youth.

Ah yes, because it's only the right trying to censor... How I forgot...

And let's not forget Good old Tipper!

Other sectors, like textiles and consumer electronics, are not shielded by tariffs and consequently, those companies have either shut down or been moved overseas, ironically enough to places like China and India, who place outrageous tariffs on numerous categories of imports in order to bolster their own industries.

This is a situation that directly pits U.S. economic strength against the cheap, tariff-protected workers in the Asian economies, a losing proposition for the U.S, which is why we see political band-aids like DHS's unworkable subsidy program. The "Buy American" program will reassure the more naive voters that the new state police buraucracy will not only protect their physical safety, but their economic safety as well, when in fact it will do neither, not only because they are as incompetent as any other government agency, but because the American industries to provide the equipment they need no longer exist. If it proceeds, it will resurrect in a certain, zombie-like fashion, a passel of inefficient, politically-connected companies (I'm thinking Bechtel and Halliburton here) who will draw their pay more or less directly from the pockets of taxpayers. You could call it socialistic, but a better term would be "crony capitalist," which is socialism for wealthy parasites. It is very much like the New Deal programs, but unlike the America those programs helped/fleeced, I don't think the modern America will recover. We've become a vulgar mob administered by feudal masters, but I digress.

Now, let the real flaming begin. I think I hear the ultranationalists coming...

...Christians have been consistent throughout the ages. Squashing the advancement of our knowledge about the world time and time again. Can you imagine if Bush was in the White House during the 50s and 60s. Instead of giving the American people an amazing goal to reach, he'd have arrested scientist who were attempting to disprove the existence of the firmament!

What Marueen did is NOT journalism. It was a personal attack. It wasn't professional. For instance, you won't see anything like that in the NYT or WSJ.

You either don't read the WSJ or you turn a blind eye to the hatchet jobs they do on anyone who doesn't agree with their ideology. They even go as far as defending treason when it fits their views. So don't pretend this crap isn't prevalent...

For the Working Class

THanks

On august 6th 2001 PDB( Presidential Daily Breefing) With the heading of 'Bin Laden determined to attack inside United States.'
What does the president do?
Well nothing.

A month before 9/11 Moussaoui (Supposed 20th hijacker) is arrested by the FBI on immigration charges but was drawn to the attention of FBI when he wanted to learn to fly 747's on the flight simmulators.
What does the FBI do?

Well nothing because Counterterrorism officials at F.B.I. headquarters were aware of Mr. Moussaoui's case, partly because they had evaluated and rejected requests by agents in Minnesota to examine Mr. Moussaoui's computer. Law enforcement officials said FBI counterterrorism analysts discussed the case in at least two secure conference calls that included their counterparts at the CIA. They also consulted with the NSA, which eavesdrops on communications around the world.

Well based on these two points alone one could say see thats why we need Patriot Act, to protect us from future atacks!

Well if you look deeper into these one can also say that even with out Patriot Act We knew enough and FBI Director Could have authorized the search of his computer. Which in turn would have shed more light on 9/11.

And Maybe Just Maybe Prevented it from happening!

But could it be, that perhaps with preasure from above(the white house) They did not want to prevent 9/11 for they were the ones that planed the whole thing where they can in turn achive what Communist Stallinist had all along from days after the WWII and that is a Police State and total control over us, the slaves of the Ruling Elite.

Those that think no way man you are full of shit our gov. is here to protect us!!!

I tell you this look look into how the Vietnam war got started.

Look into The Operation Northwood documents

And tell me if Democrats or Republicans are the right choice for the USA.

Now I am not an expert on the politcs and netiher is any of us geeks on /. but from reading http://www.wsws.org/ I have come to terms that both Democrats and Republicans (The Ruling Elite) is thinking only of their big bussiness intrests and not for us the slaves of the system which was after all was built on our backs.

A white woman and a black man are, are you sitting down? They are a man and a woman!

Heh, you're a dense one. 50 years ago, the black man would have been lynched for such an offense. Now it's normal.

You're right, the government doesn't have a right to tell them that they can't go to a "gay" church and get married. However, the government doesn't have to recognize that marriage either since efficient reproduction, the primary reason why the government has a vested interest in marriage, doesn't come into the picture.

Sorry, no. Church has nothing to do with this - this is solely about government recognition of a union, and the government should have to recognize that union, as the primary reason that they're interested is because married people have a bunch of rights already enumerated in this thread. The high points are inheritance, parental rights, and social security.

I believe that mr bush did not lie when he said that the Draft will not be adopted ever! And yet this is a perfect example of what is to come. all you geeks out there might think that this machine is cool. But keep in mind that those who control the machine will no longer need willing people to fight their wars!!!

Hence this is another steping stone for the ruling elite!!

Read the Turth here http://www.wsws.org/

"I heard a guard talking into his radio, 'ERF, ERF, ERF,' and I knew what was coming--the Extreme Reaction Force. The five cowards, I called them--five guys came running in with riot gear. They pepper-sprayed me in the face and I started vomiting; in all I must have brought up five cupfuls. They pinned me down and attacked me, poking their fingers in my eyes, and forced my head into the toilet pan and flushed. They tied me up like a beast and then they were kneeling on me, kicking and punching. Finally they dragged me out of the cell in chains, into the rec yard, and shaved my beard, my hair, my eyebrows."

A month later he was moved to a Kandahar prison camp. His frostbitten feet, which were not treated, became septic, the infection spread and his toe had to be amputated. Part of his arm also had to be amputated because of shrapnel wounds. [is it really that cold on Cuba??? no, but you can always torture people by freezing them with air condition...]

He told the Observer that he was only allowed two showers in three months at Kandahar before being transported--bound, blindfolded and sedated--to Guantanamo Bay. He was held in a high-level isolation block at Camp Delta for over a year where he was deprived all stimulation or "comfort items." Because he helped organize a series of hunger strikes and other protests he was targeted by the ERF.

For a month last year he was taken every day to an interrogation room chained to a ring in the floor and then left alone for up to eight hours with the air conditioning running at the lowest temperatures and unable to go to the toilet. The cold air would become extremely painful on his amputation stumps. Eventually, he would be taken back to his cell for a few hours and then returned to the freezing interrogation room again. "It was not about trying to get information. It was just about trying to break you," he said.

The London-born and raised Dergoul, who said he had been "non-political" prior to his illegal detention, told the newspaper: "I now look on America as a terrorist state because that's what they have done--terrorized us--and I condemn Britain as well for contributing to it."

"I heard a guard talking into his radio, 'ERF, ERF, ERF,' and I knew what was coming--the Extreme Reaction Force. The five cowards, I called them--five guys came running in with riot gear. They pepper-sprayed me in the face and I started vomiting; in all I must have brought up five cupfuls. They pinned me down and attacked me, poking their fingers in my eyes, and forced my head into the toilet pan and flushed. They tied me up like a beast and then they were kneeling on me, kicking and punching. Finally they dragged me out of the cell in chains, into the rec yard, and shaved my beard, my hair, my eyebrows."

A month later he was moved to a Kandahar prison camp. His frostbitten feet, which were not treated, became septic, the infection spread and his toe had to be amputated. Part of his arm also had to be amputated because of shrapnel wounds. [is it really that cold on Cuba??? no, but you can always torture people by freezing them with air condition...]

He told the Observer that he was only allowed two showers in three months at Kandahar before being transported--bound, blindfolded and sedated--to Guantanamo Bay. He was held in a high-level isolation block at Camp Delta for over a year where he was deprived all stimulation or "comfort items." Because he helped organize a series of hunger strikes and other protests he was targeted by the ERF.

For a month last year he was taken every day to an interrogation room chained to a ring in the floor and then left alone for up to eight hours with the air conditioning running at the lowest temperatures and unable to go to the toilet. The cold air would become extremely painful on his amputation stumps. Eventually, he would be taken back to his cell for a few hours and then returned to the freezing interrogation room again. "It was not about trying to get information. It was just about trying to break you," he said.

The London-born and raised Dergoul, who said he had been "non-political" prior to his illegal detention, told the newspaper: "I now look on America as a terrorist state because that's what they have done--terrorized us--and I condemn Britain as well for contributing to it."

'over-inflated' == "spending more than you have"

Hype, because Americans, due to their proclivity for cults of personality and inability to dis-introvert themselves long enough to escape Club Med Nirvana and have a Real Look At The World, hyperbolically still consider theirs the greatest nation on Earth, irresponsibly, when in fact as a nation America is far, far, far less great than many others in an exceedingly expansive number of realms, such as education, agrigultural sciences, manufacturing, even 'entertainment' .. oh wait, militant mass programming of police-state-asseted inebriated peon hordes, America and its Gigantic Drug and Propaganda Apparatus is very great at that.. but in fact, the only bouyant export from the U.S., economically, is police force/forms of warfare, and we all know (those of us who were paying attention in History class) just how long police states can go before collapsing on themselves. (Hint: not very long.)

Every single one of those Shock and Awe weapons could've been used for far, far greater, peaceful purposes which would have made an awesome impact on world stability, but instead Americans allow their politicians to use its technology to destroy. [Is George W. Bush really the best America can do? Honest?]

Show me a cruise missile, and I'll show you a highly effective way of peacefully delivering a very badly needed water pump and medical supplies, to precisely where its needed, very rapidly. Show me a fleet of B52 bombers with heavy lift capabilities, and I'll show you a Dafur that didn't need to happen. 10,000 pounds of Uranium would do well to safely improve the condition of life for multiple millions of people, yet America prefers it be weaponized "just in case".

Crimes of America: Vietnam. Honduras, Nicuragua. Venezuela. Iraq "Highway of Death", Desert Storm. Afghanistan. Iraq War Two. Sure, you've got excuses for every one of these 'wars', but for every excuse to kill, there are also a hundred reasons not to kill thousands of people.

The list goes on ... And on ... And on ... (not a single Geocities link there, buddy ..)

HAH!

Teen violence rising in Japan

Of course, that article is seven years old.

Then, of course, there was Japan in shock at school murder where an 11-year old school girl killed her 12-year old classmate. From that article:

The number of children under 14 committing serious crimes in 2003 rose to 212, a 47% increase on the previous year.

Then there's this five year old article: A child murder in Japan points to a growing social alienation

In short: Japan has youth violence problems, and they appear to be rising.

Crichton statement is that the judging of models based on real-world correlation has ceased. The models are judged by how well they reproduce data (among other things.) The papers cited show examples of models being judged.

I repeat: I repeat: so what? This does *not* show that *in all cases* it is true, and this could very well be precisely what Chrichton is bemoaning. The "I repeat" is in there twice becuase I keep making a point that you ignore. The examples do not disprove Chricton's claim because they are not necessarily represenative of the entire sample.

But Crichton said something much more absolute, and that's where he went awry.

I don't think it was absolute. His statement was, "increasingly," not "entirely" or "all." I think you choose to see an absolutist statement and that is why you think a few examples disprove it. I do not see an absolutist statement and that is why the examples prove nothing to me.

When Crichton says "Nobody believes a weather prediction twelve hours ahead. Now we're asked to believe a prediction that goes out 100 years into the future?", he compares two predictions. The first is a weather prediction; what's the second prediction?

A weather prediction. I expect you to want to reply, "But see! That's not weather, that's climate!"

Which is a good time to point out a question that you've chosen to ignore: If what you say is true, then why did RealClimate.org define things the way they did (specifically, weather == "what you observe", climate == "what you expect")? This is not a rhetorical question. Answer it!

I think the second blanket statement, that all climate scientists that are presenting evidence that humans are causing global warming are motivated by the destruction of capitalism, requires a conspiracy theory of Crichtion proportions.

Nice gushing. Do you have any data to support why a conspiracy theory is necessary in order for some scientists to hate capitalism and champion "global warming is caused by human activity" for the ultimate goal of the destruction of captialism? This is not a rhetorical question!

Have you bounced around the body of climate science writing?

Why would I? I do not trust those scientists!

There are not a lot of blind assertions or unquestioned assumptions anywhere in the peer-reviewed articles; there is skepticism and cross-checking galore. There are people coming up with multiple new approaches to re-measure past phenomenon my independant means. There are articles correcting and refining past observations.

*yawn*

Christians gush similarly about the amount of scholarship that their pet scholars can produce.

It does not strike me as body of science that could be put together by a group of politically motivated anti-capitalists.

You're beating up a strawman. I'm not claiming that a bunch of socialists got together and "put together" a body of science. I'm claiming that there are scientists who have socialist, anti-capitalist leanings, and they are not above using their lofty positions to influence public policy (with the intent of ultimately destroying captialistm). That socialists would gladly use global warming as a means to an end is well documented. A quick google search? turned up a few links .

But you're arguing for my point: science is all about questioning every step, precisely because of human failings.

One of these human failings is that science may be motivated by proving what is already known to be True(TM) rather than observing the world around us and making reasoned

how we can compare the World Trade Center destruction to the tsunami disaster. After all, around 2,000 people died at the World Trade Center. Indonesia alone is reporting 241,687 dead and missing. Sri Lanka is reporting "more than 30,000" dead. India is reporting "over 14,000" dead, although this is from an old article and is most certainly out of date. A rough estimate, I would guess, is that approximately a third of million people died in the tsunami, making the death (and other devastation) from it have the same proportion to the WTC as the WTC has to Princess Diana's death. This does not in any way lessen the significance of the WTC, nor of the Princess Di's death.

""Arresting authorities entered houses usually after dark, breaking down doors, waking up residents roughly, yelling orders, forcing family members into one room under military guard while searching the rest of the house.... They arrested suspects, tying their hands in the back with flexi-cuffs, hooding them, and taking them away. Sometimes they arrested all adult males present in a house, including elderly, handicapped or sick people. Treatment often included pushing people around, insulting, taking aim with rifles, punching and kicking and striking with rifles. Individuals were often led away in whatever they happened to be wearing at the time of arrest--sometimes in pyjamas or underwear--and were denied the opportunity to gather a few essential belongings, such as clothing, hygiene items, medicine or eyeglasses."

Furthermore, "certain CF military intelligence officers" told the ICRC they estimated that between 70 and 90 percent of those rounded up in these terror raids were arrested by mistake.

-FL

And you say 'fuck them' to the ones who don't give a shit? Really? These people are just trying to survive. Saddam didn't kill any of their family. But the US/UK did. No wonder they're pissed. If apathy is such a problem - what about abroad? What percentage of americans voted? Have you ever heard of the eugenics program a few decades back? No american I've ever met personally has, but these sorts of atrocities were committed with government backing until 1963 . They are just as wrong. Or how about Guantanamo Bay? Or the fact that the only two countries who chose to censor the torture of POWs at Abu Ghraib (until everyone else had printed them, then the cat was out of the bag) were the US and Iraq , whose media was at the time under the control of... the US?

Of course I am assuming that you are american. If not, let me know and I will tailor the response to your own country. I am from the UK and I know our history is just as bad over the last 100 years, and worse over the last 1000 years.

California is nearly bankrupt as it is, large tax credits are probably not a good idea right now.

You are kidding, right? California is bankrupt exactly because of the political power wielded by the energy companies and their cronies (Bush Halliburton 2000, 2004) - Remember they crafted the deregulation and fed it to the PUC, then their competition created the "energy crisis" and when all the tin foil hat wearers said at the time it was market manipulation, their wardrobe choices were pointed out to them and they were told to shut up - then part of the curtain dropped and revealed some of the behind the scenes actors Enron, EDS, Cheney, etc. (Of course, by then everyone changed their story and said, "Oh, yeah, I knew it was total bullshit and market manipulation")

The State under the previous administration(s) and the current one caved to the demands of big energy when they couldn't taken a few hundred million from the billions and fucking billions of our money that they gave to the big energy companies and set it aside for distributed, alternative energy projects (there was even a bill before Arny to do some of that and I think his budget weasels suggested similar initiatives) - if Arny wanted to be remembered for his term, he could have did what he said, turned government to work for the people, not corporations.

But I don't know if any politician in California ever had the balls to stand up to the railroads either, so there appears to be a long, proud tradition of Calfornia politicians dropping to their knees before the big corporate dongs.

"What we need to do is to help in the cause of, ah, downfall of California," an employee is heard saying on the tapes. "You guys need to pull your megawatts out of California on a daily basis."

BTW, if you read mags, like Home Power you will see example after example of where the energy companies put up (illegal in many cases) roadblocks to residential and farm, small scale alternative energy systems. So changing the building codes is a great idea - builder would love it because it would add to what they could charge for a place and look like they were the good guys at the same time, but it would never get past the energy lobbists.

(Not as OT as it seems: the new head of the CIA, Porter Goss, has said that all CIA officers must support the Bush government's policies. Draw your own conclusions about political control of instruments of the state - extra credit for reference to the early years after the 1917 revolution and Marxist/Leninist thought. Oh and whilst I'm giong dopwn tangents, I just read today that a key political ally for the US in Iraq is... the ICP (Iraqi Communist Party)! (No, that's just the first Google result, not where I read it.))

More obviously on-topic - I have worked as a penetration tester, including work for one of the five most significant financial institutions in the world and many large corporates. Naturally Nmap was probably the single most important app I used. I'd just like to thank Fyodor for Nmap and to offer my own, insignificant, support in knocking back spurious and dangerous attempts to institute a surveillance society and remove our freedoms in the name of (ha!) security.

You mean this patriot system? The one that was almost a complete disaster?

Scary stuff. Besides, putting bombs up there will encourage other people to put bombs up there, and sooner or later we'll be back to the height of the cold war. It's only due to several small miracles that we got through the last one--let's not push our luck!

... and in case that isn't what you want take alook at a real alternatives: http://www.wsws.org/

I didn't say he was a *perfect* libertarian. But that's my whole point -- his leanings, by and large, are of a libertarian nature.

* Economics? Staunchly free-market and anti-tax. Why do you suppose he used a $15b bond issue to try to pay off CA's deficit, rather than raising taxes?

Also, Arnie reads Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek. Economic girly-men need not apply where such authors are concerned, and Arnie calls Friedman, in fact, "my great hero"... The California GOP tried to paint him as a "liberal" (the evil "l" word) in the election, but failed b/c his capitalist tendencies are so strong. He has also attended an Austrian economics conference hosted by the Reason Foundation (and personally, for as libertarian as my ideals are, even *I* think the Austrians go too far).

BTW, have a look at his 16 person economic advisory board. It's reads like a who's-who list of outstanding free-market economists: Milton Friedman, Arthur Laffer, and Gary Becker are on that list, to name a few!

* Marijuana? He favors decriminalization (or is it legalization?) for medicinal purposes. No, he's not going for out-and-out drug legalization, but admit it: it's a step in the right direction, and a bigger one than virtually all Republicans are taking now.

* Abortion? Pro-choice.

* Gay marriage? Opposes a Constitutional amendment, and while he says it's illegal under CA law, he otherwise doesn't really care and seems to have no intention of actually having the law enforced.

Now, granted, he's not perfect. His stance on gun control is *far* from libertarian, and his stance on the environment is rather liberal (not that this is an entirely-bad thing IMO though).

But, when all else fails in demonstrating Arnie's libertarian cred, at least economically, well, he pisses off the socialists with his economic policies. That alone speaks volumes. And even socially, as I have described above, he is *far* more tolerant and moderate than most Republicans.

Face it, he's a libertarian-Republican; not a Libertarian, but not a Republican either. California could have done *far* worse than to elect the Terminator for governor.

Frankly, as *electable* candidates go (that is, the hardline Libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, etc. are obviously not electable), he is about the best one could hope for; in stark contrast to President Bush, who is about as bad as it gets.

Maybe not
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/oct2004/afgh-o12 .shtml

Just saying that it's easier to accept casualties when the victims are far away and different from you. It's hard to identify with their problems. And that the US has a huge history of racism, which is currently focusing on Arabs right now.

"war is killing" therefore abortion is irrelevant - whatever helps *you* sleep at night

An unfortunate by-product of modern democracy. The system really stands very little chance about representing the people, with people being forced to accept huge divides based on things that are important to them. You obviously have a considered opinion on the matter of abortions, and I think it's a shame that you have to vote for the likes of G.W.Bush in order to make your opinion heard. I don't know Kerry's stance on the issue, but I'm guessing from your sentiment that he is pro-choice.

I've got friends who are or recently have been in Iraq

Likewise.

and they tell me that almost every Iraqi they've met has been thrilled to have the US there.

Then they are either lying or didn't get out much. Yes, the vast majority of Iraqi's are happy that Saddam has gone and most will freely admit that. The fact of the matter is that the people do not agree with how it was done. The US doesn't even control parts of Iraq at the moment, the situation is a military disaster. Western media is barely touching on it, and I'd imagine the US media would be a little pre-disposed with the election right now. Things are bleak in Iraq. Head on over to BBC News to see fair coverage of what's going on. Daily attacks. Pictures of kids dancing around buring military vehicles. It's a soldiers worst nightmare, Vietnam all over again, where you can't tell the innocent from the enemy.

And get this; one side-effect of modern medicine is that many more solidiers survive battlefield injurires and are returning home having lost body parts in-country. These numbers never make it on to the news. This site is just one I pulled from a google for "number of injured in iraq" claims:

Estimates on the number of US soldiers, sailors and Marines medically evacuated from Iraq by the end of 2003 because of battlefield wounds, illness or other reasons range from 11,000 to 22,000

Many Iraqis are glad that a mass muderer and capricious dictator no longer rules their country with an iron fist.

Absolutely. The number in my sig pertains to the number of non-combatant deaths, that's women and children to you and me. The site lists them all. Take a look. Then consider the dead collalition forces, around 4000 IIRC, but don't quote me on that! Then consider the number of dead Iraqi's who were either in the Army or took arms against the invasion. Then there are the terrorists who are thriving on the anti-US sentiment there. We're over 20,000 dead I'd reckon. In contrast, 9.11 claimed the lives of what, 3500 people and look at the outrage. We're back to my point on other peoples having less of a value of life in your eyes.

Ask yourself this...was it worth it? To remove a man that presented no threat, while as I type there are other men just like him doing the same things. Right now. Do something about them. Ah, no oil. And that's what it comes down to. The profits made by those close to the administration have been phenomenal. It is well documented that the invasion of Iraq was in planning prior to 9.11.

Frankly, I don't see how anyone can vote for Bush after the lies, mis-direction and outright failure of winning the peace in Iraq. Winning wars is easy, winning the peace isn't. The response to the invasion is as predicatable as it is tragic.

And so what about your opinion on abortion? Is Bush going to actually change anything? Abortion is a hot-potato

Ethics and legality are certainly closely linked. Acts widely considered unethical will eventually become illegal (if politicians don't enjoy doing it). From what I've seen in the news over the last few years I think laws apply to citizens and companies, whereas ethics only apply to citizens.

In the Slashdot tradition I'll use an example:

BHP used to mine a mineral in Papua New Guinea at Ok Tedi. They used to allow a highly carcinogenic chemical used in their process to wash into the local river. That river was the drinking, washing and bathing water for thousands of natives downstream. The natives suffered horribly, the "interests of shareholders" and the legality of the process was used as the defense for the grossly unethical behaviour of BHP.

Now there were no specific laws in PNG to stop companies dumping into waterways so it was completely legal, yet only the most scummy lowlife executive or the lawyer who represents him would think it was remotely acceptable.

Ethics has nothing to do with religion. Ethics is about respect for your fellow man, his property and empathy for his feelings. Religion is about skimming enough cash from the surrounding community to support the local witchdoctor.

If anyone is having problems understanding ethics, try this.... Would I like to have Mr XYZ do to me, what I just did to him?

The Ok Tedi Settlement: Issues, Outcomes and Implications
http://dannyreviews.com/h/Ok_Tedi.html


Rio Tinto and Ok Tedi back in the courts?
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Company/rio15.h tm

Ok Tedi mine closure--BHP and PNG government in conflict
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/ok-s14.s html

Hmm...actually, less than I thought -- in the past, Microsoft gave about 2/3 to the Republicans.

Where did you get 53%, though? I see 58% here.

"Most of the uproar is from the Republicans trying to reverse the grossly partisan gerrymandering that took place just a little while ago to keep the Republicans from coming to power."

As a Texan, I have to say that is a totally false and highly partisan mischaracterization of the situation prior to the Republican's abusive redistricting. What actually happened was that both parties had fought in our legislature and could not come up with a solution for the redistricting. So the map was drawn by a nonpartisan panel of federal judges, based on the 2000 Census figures. A year later, the Republicans got enough control to push their new redistricting along, and a new Republican map was pushed through which was not based on any new Census information, but was purley designed to try to get a political advantage.

Remember, last time Al Gore had the army of lawyers, and Bush had a premature declaration of victory from Fox News.

Guess who won.

I wonder how they picked the Socialist Party USA as "The" party to represent the Socialists. Myself, I'm much more partial to the Socialist Equality Party. I think that their election statement is quite a bit better than that of SP-USA.

I know about them because I like reading their main webpage for news analysis. It certainly gives a different perspective than that which is found elsewhere.

I wonder how they picked the Socialist Party USA as "The" party to represent the Socialists. Myself, I'm much more partial to the Socialist Equality Party. I think that their election statement is quite a bit better than that of SP-USA.

I know about them because I like reading their main webpage for news analysis. It certainly gives a different perspective than that which is found elsewhere.

I wonder how they picked the Socialist Party USA as "The" party to represent the Socialists. Myself, I'm much more partial to the Socialist Equality Party. I think that their election statement is quite a bit better than that of SP-USA.

I know about them because I like reading their main webpage for news analysis. It certainly gives a different perspective than that which is found elsewhere.

Really, picking on cars for emissions is by now a dead horse. The exhaust from a modern, emissions-controlled car is so clean that it is difficult to kill yourself by leaving the car running with the garage closed. There are bigger fish to fry, like tractor trailers, that emit far dirtier emissions than any modern car.

If you've ever been to a large congested city you will know emissions is NOT a dead horse. Pollution is appalling. And modern cars slowly degrade into no-so-efficient cars.

The use of hydrogen makes cars more dangerous, too. To put it simply, a compressed fuel is a dangerous fuel. Any accident that breaches the H2 tank turns the vehicle into a fuel-air explosive. I don't think the public will stand for too many fireballs on the highway. Contrary to what Hollywood would have you believe, cars almost never explode and rarely catch fire in accidents.

I think we've seen enough posts disproving this. A gasoline car is FAR more likely to explode that a hydrogen powered car. In fact, didn't Ford and GM have to recall an entire makes of car specifically because they exploded far too often in accidents?

Worse still, a mass changeover to hydrogen as our vehicle fuel would cause huge economic upheaval.

As in create more jobs? Start up new fields in innovation? Threaten the established cartels used to creaming enourmous profits into being more competative?

Hydrogen consumes huge amounts of power to produce, and it adds no energy to our system; it merely acts as a relatively convenient energy storage vessel. Petroleum, on the other hand, consumes very little energy to reach its refined state and contributes a large portion of our total energy use.

Hydrogen is zero-polluting and efficient at the end-generation side. There are many ways of generating hydrogen, and even the polluting methods can be done out of the heavily-populated towns. Upgrading the extraction process will reduce pollution. Upgrading technology for reducing petrol pollution means replacing every car each time.

Hydrogen makes nice PR, but it will never power vehicles until oil has become so expensive due to scarcity that we've already migrated to other, renewable energy sources.

How are these other renewable energy sources going to power a car? Battery technology doesn't give that much hope at the moment. Also pollution will indirectly drive up costs of petrol though its burden on the health care industry, sick-days at work, etc.

If it were mandated today that hydrogen must replace gasoline for vehicles, energy prices across the board would probably triple.

Probably, but the things you want don't come at the click of your fingers. You have to work hard towards it; the extraction process needs to be refined and many of the alternatives followed up, fuel-cell components need to be commoditised, business deals need to be done to make creating the intrastructure economical.

But it WILL come.

Phillip.

I read the World Socialist Web Site http://www.wsws.org/ daily and find it to be the most insightful commentary on the political undercurrents of society. Instead of looking at the surface of poltical events, it evinces a historical perspective that I can't find anywhere else. It explains the contradictions of the capitalist system and the nation-state, and how the incompatibily of the two leads to a crisis that will lead to either socialism (which is the political and economic control of society by the working class) or else to barbarism, war, massive unemployment, etc., as the ruling class can find no way out of it's contradictions.

Also, it is host to excellent culutral coverage (fanatastic film reviews!)