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A New Meaning For Geotargeting At Monster.com

Duke submits a link to this New York Times story, according to which "it seems that Monster.com has taken the U.S. government's policy of sanctions against certain countries and run with it where no man has gone before. Monster 'has deleted resumes that list current addresses in those countries.' and more fun stuff. If you haven't had the opportunity for a really self-rightous post in a while, Monster.com has made it simple for you." Update: 04/28 01:34 GMT by T : Note that the New York Times ran the story, but like many other newspaper stories, the real credit goes to the Associated Press.

419 comments

  1. Yes, it's a dupe. by Lethyos · · Score: 2

    Yes, it's a dupe.

    --
    Why bother.
    1. Re:Yes, it's a dupe. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now the moderation question I must now face... ...was your repeating of that sentence worth a "funny", or shall I just give you a troll...

    2. Re:Yes, it's a dupe. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't mod now you've postd.

  2. uhh by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it's their service, it's 100% free, and something tells me they covered there ass in the EULA. Is it nice? is it moral? probably not. But it is their company, and their service. Is this smart of them to do? Probably not, bad publicity could spell disaster for them.
    If you don't agree with me, then discuss your view point, don't just mod me down cuz you disagree with me. FP.

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
    1. Re:uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      is it moral? probably not.

      Right: It's NOT moral and they CAN get away with it because the law lets them.

      Now what you don't seem to grasp is that this means that this is a BAD combination and that's why one should get upset over it.

    2. Re:uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, right and if I want to prevent blacks from shopping at my store, it's ok as well right? it's my company after all.

    3. Re:uhh by kmweber · · Score: 0

      So they shouldn't be allowed to run their service the way they want? Sounds awfuly immoral to me.

      --
      "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
    4. Re:uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you have the right to only sell to people you want to sell to. Course, they are AMERICAN citizens, so they would have a case against you. But monster isnt getting rid of american apps, just foeign ones. foreign policy is different

    5. Re:uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have the moral right to allow anyone you want ON YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY.

      Of course all the left-wing crybabies would never allow such a simple concept to "corrupt" their ideological thinking.

      No, they want you to allow in an equal number of black people as white people. Unless you're a "black-owned business". In that case you can have some no-strings-attached taxpayer dollars and we won't pay attention to who is in your store.

      Bleh. Racial equality comes when the government is color-blind, not the citizens.

    6. Re:uhh by Cuthalion · · Score: 1

      They should be allowed to do all kinds of dishonest and scuzzy things.

      That doesn't mean they should do them.

      --
      Trees can't go dancing
      So do them a big favor
      Pretend dancing stinks!
    7. Re:uhh by Coocha · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Probably not, bad publicity could spell disaster for them.

      Isn't monster.com a corporation based in the USA? Maybe it's not even bad publicity, considering current events. They say any publicity is good publicity ;-)

      Ride the apocalypse...

      --
      May the threads progress competently.
    8. Re:uhh by bedouin · · Score: 2, Funny

      Greetings Brother deadsaijinx:

      You probably know me, I'm Attorney John Ashcroft.

      I was browsing Slashdot this morning and stumbled upon your wonderfully written, and highly objective post. I'm hoping, my dear friend, that you would contact me. You seem to have the right attitude for helping my colleagues and I with our pursuit of Total Information Awareness.

      Just five minutes ago I spoke with Condoleezza and she agreed you have what it takes: absolute submission to authority and belief in the morality of bureaucracy, regardless of any thought or self-reasoning. After 9/11 this is preciously the people we've been looking for, and I'm hoping you can join our team, including such members as Colin Powel, Donald Rumsfield, and Dick, or as we nickname him around the office "Killa" Cheney.

      Waiting to hear from you!

      Sincerely,
      John

      PS: Colin and Condy asked if I could post a help wanted ad too. They're looking for a person to bring them tea, as well as coffee, and clean up the offices. Preferably the person to fill this position should be black, and willing to be referred to as "boy" on numerous occasions.

    9. Re:uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, only someone pro-terrorist would hire someone from a country that has had terrorist organizations in them.

      But really, just because a few bad people do something doesn't mean everything even those few people do are bad. Just because a lot of terrorists come from some place doesn't mean that everyone from that place is bad.

      And yes, it's not right, and probably illegal, to provide service to the general public with exceptions based on religion or race. I don't know if you remember, but we had this little thing called seggregation, and the military even came in to enforce the abolishment of it in an Arkansas university.

      What kind of message does it send a few good people from a country looking to find a good job and get away from the madness there when you start closing service to them? What if Eistein was left to rot during WWII? This policy will lead to good smart people forced to work for "the bad guy." Since it effects all of us, I think we all have a right to force them into not hurting us.

      We do have a right to force people to play nice when they open up their service to the general public. Why do you think it is that every time you here about a contest that everyone's family from that corperation is barred from participation?

      Other examples of where you can't do what you want with your property:
      1) Call it a name that can be confused with another product/service in the same market
      2) Say my product/service does something that it doesn't

      Both of these rules were put in place to protect the general population from the actions of a company, just like anti-seggregation laws.

    10. Re:uhh by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

      lol, you've earned yourself a fan!

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    11. Re:uhh by bedouin · · Score: 1

      I'm glad you took it well :)

    12. Re:uhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you are telling me when all those white executives get together in coffee shops and those high class restaurant they aren't wheeling and dealing and playing favoritism?

      Do you know how one becomes an executive in this country? The number one rules is that you have to have white friends or at leaset some white contacts otherwise you can forget about getting taking a step forward.

      In downtown Seattle their is a health club that costs $160 a month and right next to it there is a restaurant that requires that you pay an annual fee of 100 thousand dollars to even set foot in it. Places like these are were white executives wheel and deal and play favoritism!

  3. In other news.... by Musashi+Miyamoto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Monster has removed all resumes with Arab-sounding names and has forward their contact information to der fuhrer^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Mr. Ashcroft.

    1. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were probably terrorist towelheads, anyway.

    2. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you compare the actions of John Ashcroft to the 8million Jews killed by Hitler, you trivialize their deaths.

    3. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just give it a few more years -- he already started sliding down the slippery slope about a year ago when he began locking up US citizens without a trial.

    4. Re:In other news.... by istartedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly how does protesting against the policy of detaining citizens without due process make one a "communist"?

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    5. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was a groundless ad hominem attack. Labelling it insightful is indicative of slashbot "thinking".

    6. Re:In other news.... by martyn+s · · Score: 1

      Of course it was an ad hominem attack. That is what we are discussing: the nature of Mr. John Ashcroft. An ad hominem attack is a logically flawed way of invalidating someone else's logic by attacking their character. He wasn't saying "John Ashcroft's beliefs about X are wrong because he's a big fat idiot." He was saying "John Ashcroft is a big fat idiot because he locks up American Citizens indefinitely without any trial." Now explain to me, how is that a "groundless ad hominem attack"?

    7. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the indefinite detention claim is a myth. The Patriot Act specifically states that citizens and residents may only be detained up to a week on resonable suspicion. Aliens on the other hand are not subject to the same civil liberties as citizens and permanent residents.

    8. Re:In other news.... by On+the+Run+from+the · · Score: 1

      When you get overly self-righteous about a simple joke, you make baby Jesus cry.

    9. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Implying that Ashcroft will be slaughtering Jews en masse in the near future is groundless.

    10. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Because the indefinite detention claim is a myth. The Patriot Act specifically states that citizens and residents may only be detained up to a week on resonable suspicion"

      He's locking them up as material witnesses. He locked up one Intel guy on that basis, no trial, no trial of anything he's supposed to have witness, Ashcroft is just using the 'material witness' to lock Americans up without trial.

    11. Re:In other news.... by mbogosian · · Score: 1

      Monster has removed all resumes with Arab-sounding names

      Well, at least it was aptly named.... Does that mean that Monster can't post EOE (equal opportunity employer) job listings anymore? Personally, I can tell you that our company won't be doing any recruiting through Monster.com for the next several years (at least), if ever.

      That being said, to all the Muslims, Shi'ites, Sunnis, Bahai or anyone else who has recently had a resume removed from Monster.com or similar listing because of your linguistic, geographical or religious affliations: If you're talented, passionate, team-oriented and looking to move to a new Internet technology company in the Bay Area in the coming months, please send resumes directly to my e-mail address. We'll be happy to circumvent the outrageous recuiting fees to acquire new talent, regardless of origin.

    12. Re:In other news.... by Frodrick · · Score: 1
      "When you compare the actions of John Ashcroft to the 8million Jews killed by Hitler, you trivialize their deaths."

      But even Hitler had to start somewhere - detaining Jews without due process, for example.

      The "material witness" abductions, Concentration Camp X-ray, and State Security Police/Department of Homeland Security (Gestapo) strike me as a damn fine start for Mr. Ashcroft.

    13. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      8 million now? what? the official
      blackmail number the jews use to extort the
      world has gone up by two million??? is that
      with interest?? it was 60 yrs ago. the war
      is over schweinstein. give it up.

    14. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It never stops with just one group. Freedom for all or Freedom for none.

    15. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Implying that Ashcroft will be slaughtering Jews en masse in the near future is groundless."

      Of course it is. He will be slaughtering Muslims - at least the ones that still live in America by then.
    16. Re:In other news.... by Cyberdyne · · Score: 1
      That being said, to all the Muslims, Shi'ites, Sunnis, Bahai or anyone else who has recently had a resume removed from Monster.com or similar listing because of your linguistic, geographical or religious affliations:

      It's not supposed to involve linguistic or religious affiliations, just references to a specific (US government) list of countries. Apparently, they've also done a U-turn on excluding education from those countries:

      But the company said Friday that, after receiving complaints, it had re-examined its technology and beginning next week would allow the countries specified to be listed in the education entry.

      So you can't list vacancies located in the listed countries (fair enough I think: US companies aren't supposed to do business with those countries at all, AIUI) - and people in those countries can't list their resumes (not so good, but probably prohibited by the same law). You won't get deleted for being Muslim (why did you refer to "Muslim, Shi'ites, Sunnis" by the way?)

      I was never very impressed with Monster; their website seemed very limited and clumsy. On the other hand, another service I tried sold my email address to spammers, which is worse than just being crap! (Own domain: I gave the site companyname@domain, so when I started getting spam to companyname@domain, I knew whom to blame...)

      ...anyone else who has recently had a resume removed from Monster.com or similar listing because of your linguistic, geographical or religious affliations: If you're talented, passionate, team-oriented and looking to move to a new Internet technology company in the Bay Area in the coming months, please send resumes directly to my e-mail address.

      Sounds interesting, but I haven't been delisted from Monster.com... ;-( Any more details??

    17. Re:In other news.... by Jagasian · · Score: 1

      Actually, I thought accurate counts had it at 3 million, but I am sure it is hard to get an accurate count in the first place.

    18. Re:In other news.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By the McCarthyist principle, of course. Try to keep up. I think he was being facetious.

    19. Re:In other news.... by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 1


      It isn't a myth. You're just too much of a coward to recognize what's happening in this country. As another poster mentioned, a citizen of our country has been detained for weeks without charges or a public hearing. I wonder--why haven't the same people that told you that was a myth tell you about the injustices being done to Mike Hawash?

      --

      --
      $tar -xvf .sig.tar
  4. uh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If you can't even send so much as a marshmallow peep to these TERRORIST-RUN states, why the heck would you HIRE anybody from there? We should sever all ties with these corrupt regimes.

    Shucks, we can't sell these guys american frisbees, but we'll happily send FAT CHECKS over there so they can hand it over to their corrupt regimes?

    Really, I don't care WHAT monster.com does. They can choose to only show resumes from people named "Harvey" for all I care.

    1. Re:uh by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you can't even send so much as a marshmallow peep to these TERRORIST-RUN states, why the heck would you HIRE anybody from there? We should sever all ties with these corrupt regimes.

      The corrupt regime or the people over whom it has dominion? They aren't the same thing.

    2. Re:uh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because Monster runs job ads from all over the world, not just from the US.

    3. Re:uh by kmweber · · Score: 0

      Only if they choose to.

      It's their company, their service, to run as they see fit.

      --
      "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
    4. Re:uh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, looks like it's time for me to change my name to Harvey!

    5. Re:uh by Saiai+Hakutyoutani · · Score: 1

      "Corrupt regime".

      That's funny compared to the country that won't offer jobs to people of an Arabic origin, stores illegal prisoners in concentration camps in countries they have, or dream of, occupying, that has effectively abolished any form of civil rights in less than one century and traded it for "National Security", and whose foreign policy roughly translates "bomb them before they can copy our weapons". (And sell their harbor to Denmark, no less.)

      Which, I wonder, is more corrupt? Between Saddam Hussein and Bush, I would actually have to think for a couple of minutes if I were to choose one of them as my leader.

      We, the non-Americans, or "everybody else", if you will, see this, but still, being the forgiving people we are, still don't go out of our way to delete your resumes.

      Go ahead and check yours. It's probably still there.

      Even if you put up a picture of Hitler over your bed and shout on National TV, "burn the Arabs! Fight the Arabic-Gay-Democrat conspiracy!", your resume will probably still be safe.

      It's a shame, I think, that the Arabic people, whose only crime is to have crooked noses and bushy eyebrows, don't have this same privilege.

    6. Re:uh by scrod · · Score: 1
      That's funny compared to the country that won't offer jobs to people of an Arabic origin
      ...

      but still, being the forgiving people we are, still don't go out of our way to delete your resumes.

      Wow, so now somehow the entire United States of America is refusing resumes from people in Arabic-speaking countries? Do you even know what the article is about?
      It's not that I disagree with the fact that the U.S. is a corporate oligarchy, but generally when making a strong argument for or against something, it helps if the very first piece of evidence that you give isn't blatantly incorrect.
    7. Re:uh by Guppy06 · · Score: 1
      "The corrupt regime or the people over whom it has dominion? They aren't the same thing."

      When it comes to hiring, they may as well be.
      • First off, such governments don't like the idea of people contrary to their own opinions leaving the country, especially when they're going someplace where they're allowed to badmouth their government. See Cuba. If they're able to put their resume on Monster, it's because the government let them, and anybody the government allows to work for you should logically be treated with large amounts of suspicion.
      • If these people are allowed to leave the country to work, the government usually makes sure that there's some income coming back to them. For example, the government will make sure that the worker still has relatives in the Worker's Paradise for the worker to send (taxable) income back to. (Which would, BTW, violate US laws).
      • This all assumes that the person is willing/allowed to relocate outside the country. If the potential employee is unable or unwilling to come to the business, it would be illegal from the US POV for the business to go to the employee (because, again, tax dollars would be going to the government).
  5. You forgot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    ... to say why I should give a flying rat fuck.

    Sorry, I guess I do need my opinions spoon-fed to me.

  6. Hell yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    American Jobs = American Workers!

    THE END!

  7. Makes sense to me by George+Walker+Bush · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If we have sanctions against other countries, people from those countries shouldn't be able to make money from jobs or companies in the US anyhow. So we are just preventing them from violating the law.

    Thank you and God bless America.

    --
    George W. Bush
    President, United States of America
    1. Re:Makes sense to me by localghost · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are you really the President? That would be pretty cool if GWB posted on Slashdot.

    2. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll be 2 next month, you insensitive clod!

    3. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you really fucking your mom right now? 'Cause it would be cool if motherfuckers like you STOPPED posting on slashdot.

    4. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, right. So a guy from Afghanistan who came to the US for work, suddenly can't. Now he can't feed his family back home, which makes the whole family curse the US and the west. Following that, the Taliban comes back due to the majority wanting the no crime, no drugs, no alcohol and pork that the Taliban enforced.

    5. Re:Makes sense to me by sigxcpu · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dear Mr President,
      If I mod you up, will you find me a nice job in the DC area?

      (p.s. since I just posted to this discussion, I can't mod it any more.)

      --
      As of Postgres v6.2, time travel is no longer supported.
    6. Re:Makes sense to me by ChemicalSpider · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Monster.com only removed resume's that list "current address" from sanctioned countries. So if a guy from Afghanistan came to the US for work, well he can list his US address as his current address on his resume and it won't be deleted. The only reason he doesn't have a US address, if he came here for work, is if he is an illegal immigrant, and in that case he can't post on Monster.com anyway.

      Also, it might be pertinent to point out that I seriously doubt that Afghanistan is under sanctions right now, seeing as the US is trying its darndest to establish a democracy there. Killing whatever economy it may have is not a good idea.

    7. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MOD PARENT DOWN.

      This type of vapid false patriotism should have no sway in a place of intellectual debate. right, nevermind.

    8. Re:Makes sense to me by Malcontent · · Score: 5, Funny

      " Are you really the President? That would be pretty cool if GWB posted on Slashdot."

      It can't possibly be him. All the words are spelled correctly.

      --

      War is necrophilia.

    9. Re:Makes sense to me by alonsoac · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sactions against countries are often imposed because of policies of the administration of that country. It does not mean that every single human being in that country deserves that treatment. I figure that often people seeking jobs abroad are trying to escape from a regime that they dislike. If someone form country X comes and asks for a job and proves he can do it, am I supposed to tell him to fuck off just because the president of his country is an asshole? Hmm, I think the president of my country is an asshole, but I sure didn't have anything to do with that.

    10. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well put. I agree completely.

    11. Re:Makes sense to me by Leers · · Score: 1

      The comment is kinda funny, but the sig is genious! I want that on a T-shirt. "Who would jesus bomb".....big letters.....mmmmmm....

    12. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      An illegal immigrant still has a US address, unless he's also homeless.
      The problem with your reasoning is that according to US immigration laws, a prospective immigrant is supposed to find a job BEFORE coming to the US (unless it's family immigration, or a couple of uncommon cases). Simply "coming to the US for work" is not allowed.

    13. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      . .. seeing as the US is trying its darndest to establish a democracy there. Killing whatever economy it may have is not a good idea

      You were joking right?

    14. Re:Makes sense to me by Zakabog · · Score: 1

      Maybe with an infinite number of GWB's and an infinite number of keyboards you'd get one post on slashdot with proper spelling.

    15. Re:Makes sense to me by sigxcpu · · Score: 1

      Q. Who would Jesus Bomb?

      A. Not being on speaking termes with him , I wouldn't know.
      But what I'd realy want to know is -
      how would he explain the "colateral damage"?

      --
      As of Postgres v6.2, time travel is no longer supported.
    16. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because you know the government shouldn't have hired Einstein from Austria during WWII.

    17. Re:Makes sense to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, please, just comdamn the whole for actions from a part.

      Thank you and God bless the Innocent.

  8. This just in! by Cutriss · · Score: 1, Funny

    Slashdot endorses Karma-whoring!

    "If you haven't had the opportunity for a really self-rightous post in a while, Monster.com has made it simple for you."

    --
    "Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
    1. Re:This just in! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's called a joke, moderators...Get a grip. :-)

  9. For once, no "FP!!!" by Stephonovich · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Amazing. A FP that actually possesed some intellect. I would mod it up, except #1, I just used mine up, and #2, I'm participating... (-:Stephonovich:-)

    --
    "Who needs reincarnation when we've got parallel universes?" -Me
    1. Re:For once, no "FP!!!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you mean the "Yes, this is a dupe post"? cuz, uh, thats the first post. and, well, that aint to much intelligence :P

  10. The American Way by Metallic+Matty · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After all, if its not the American Way, its the highway.

    This isn't quite as bad as the "Freedom Fries" bullshit, but its pretty bad.. Can't people deal with the world at large without placing labels on certain ethnic groups, nationalities, etc. Perhaps that's too much to ask.

    Yay patriotism..

    1. Re:The American Way by Jhon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are three basic ways you can deal with a country that is unfriendly or just plain mean -- once diplomatic pressure fails.

      (1) Ignore them (Has little effect al la China)
      (2) Sanctions (Cuba, Iraq, Libia)
      (3) War

      Do you have any suggestions? Remember, "dealing" with people goes both ways. All the worlds problems aren't the fault of the US.

    2. Re:The American Way by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 4, Insightful

      lets not try diplomatic pressure at all? lets try true diplomacy. let's try to see their problems, express our own problems, and then have an intelligent negotiation with compromises that leave people satisfied. Course, we'd have to assume that politicians are socially-conscious and intelligent persons capable of actually caring that the world is a better place for everyone. Course, they dont, which is why we have the other three options. sad.

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    3. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You forgot the 4th way, which the bulk of the world employs to deal with America.

      (4) Put up with the sanctimonious, self-centered, illegally invading arrogance because you have no choice.

      My suggestion would be that America isn't the arbiter of what is fair and right in this world. It should stop trying to force its opinions, views and beliefs on the rest of the world. How about taking a look at your domestic problems before invading other countries? How about not influencing politics in other countries to get the leaders that you want, and then turning around 10 years later and trying to oust them? How about just leaving the rest of us the fuck alone?

    4. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey your right, Iraq did have to put up with its illegal invading arrogance and had to deal with America, good point.

    5. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      their problems: They are evil power-hungry dictators who torture and imprison their citizens, fund terrorists who attack our interests, and teach their children that americans are evil christian warriors who must be destroyed. They lust for power and there's no mechanism in place to limit their power.

      our problems: our leader mispronounces words and likes big business a little too much.

      time for a hug!

    6. Re:The American Way by Jhon · · Score: 1

      Diplomacy *IS* the use of pressure. And if you believe that anyone in a position to make policy in the listed nations are "...truely socially conscious persons caring that the world is a better place for every one", I have no idea what to say to you.

      Apartheid? Communism?

      There are too many examples where diplomatic and economic pressure worked. Sometimes the other 'guys' don't give a rats ass about our 'express(ing) our own problems'. When they do, diplomacy works. When they don't, you move on to something that *DOES* work.

    7. Re:The American Way by ChemicalSpider · · Score: 1

      What about those hostile states that possess dangerous weapons? I'm not just talking Iraq here, North Korea's got nukes and the Prime Minister isn't a nice person. Diplomacy will hopefully work, but at the very least America has to keep its nose in the world's business when it comes to issues like that, or governments that support terrorism.

      Or how about Mexico? They do nothing to stop the stream of illegal immigrants across the border. In fact, it could be argued that they encourage it. Instead of dealing with their own economic problems, they force America to deal with them. Many illegal immigrants collect welfare and unemployment. Is that fair?

    8. Re:The American Way by Talez · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What about those hostile states that possess dangerous weapons? I'm not just talking Iraq here, America's got nukes and the President isn't a nice person.

    9. Re:The American Way by EinarH · · Score: 5, Insightful
      There are three basic ways you can deal with a country that is unfriendly or just plain mean -- once diplomatic pressure fails.

      Where is this obsession on "dealing" with a country come from? Why do you have to deal with a country?
      Ignoring* a "evil" country/regime/place worked fine in the case of USA vs. Soviet Union. Eventually Soviet Union broke down inside by itself without any serious war.
      Think about this: If the Soviet Union had existed today it would probably be one of the Axis of Evil- states. Bush-administration plans for preventive/pre-emptive warfare probably would have resulted in an attack on this "evil empire". Imagien the result if every other country on earth should start to "deal" with counties they don't like?
      China would have started to deal with Taiwan, Japan and India. India would follow up with Pakistan. Russia would deal with some former republics... And Africa and the Middle East would be in total chaos.

      *Ignoring here means not going to war or placing sanctions, not to ignore it completly or quit paying attention to a country.

      (1) Ignore them (Has little effect al la China)
      Wored fine on Soviet Union. (in this context a little war over Vietnam/Afghanistan/some South-American contries don't count) It will probablly work on China in some years too.
      (2) Sanctions (Cuba, Iraq, Libia)
      Cuba: Castro still rules...Do I really need to say more?
      Iraq: 600000 childrens dead under the sanctions; didn't work, Instead they strnghtened Saddams regime.
      Libia: I would call it even. Sanctions have crippled their economy, but Ghadaffi still in power.

      (3) War
      Going to war over every disagreement ain't a long term solution in conflicts.

      Do you have any suggestions? Remember, "dealing" with people goes both ways. All the worlds problems aren't the fault of the US.
      I agree. I think this is the problem with some parts of the corrent US administration; failing to see that they don't have to try t correct (in terms of correcting with military force) every regime they don't like.

      But what I don't like about about your rethoric is that you try to limit the possible actions USA can take against other countries into two possibillities; either
      1. Do nothing. When some republicans talk about this option on dubius radio shows they make it look like this is bound to result in every fucking country whom disagree with US will start supplying Osama with nukes.
      2. Harsh reactions like sanctions or war.

      When you do that, you and everyone following your rhetoric fail to see that there are other options; such as trying to work out a deal trough UN.

      --

      Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.

    10. Re:The American Way by JanneM · · Score: 1

      (1) Ignore them (Has little effect al la China)
      (2) Sanctions (Cuba, Iraq, Libia)
      (3) War


      I don't know. Declaring war on the US seems a little premature. I think I'll just ignore them for the time being.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    11. Re:The American Way by Jhon · · Score: 1
      Put up with the sanctimonious, self-centered, illegally invading arrogance because you have no choice.
      Be careful what you wish for. America provides more in economic aid, more in trade, more in technology than the rest of the world combined. If we leave 'the rest of (you) the fuck alone', who's going to fill that void? Because TREATIES work BOTH ways. It's not the USs job to look after the interests of the world BEFORE ITS OWN INTERESTS. Neither is it the job of ANY OTHER government to look after the USs interest before theirs. Instead, the decided to look to line their own pockets with iraqi oil. "Money for Food Program". Yeah, right.

      You say "sanctimony". I say "charity", "grants", "loans", "imbalanced trade".

      You say "self-centered". I say "self interest". Is it self centered to try and make sure we come out on top whenever possible? Who would deliberatly sabotage themselves?

      You say "illegally invading". Read the cease fire agreement from the first Gulf war. I don't need a note from my local police chief to cross the street, nor did the US need the UN to sanction what the US did. Maybe if the French, Germans, Chinese and Russians put as much PRESSURE on IRAQ to comply with the previous 17 SANCTIONS, the WAR wouldn't have been necessary. UN? Please. It's the League of Nations II.

      "Arrogance"? Jeez.
    12. Re:The American Way by mwm158 · · Score: 1

      sprinkle some magic pixie dust on them too.

    13. Re:The American Way by Jhon · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Ignoring* a "evil" country/regime/place worked fine in the case of USA vs. Soviet Union.
      Yeah. We ignored them. Sure.

      Ever hear of the Cuban Missle Crisis? We had a gun on their temple for over 40 years -- and they had one on ours.

      We did EVERYTHING we could to force them in to economic ruin. "Ignoring" was never an option.
      Cuba: Castro still rules...Do I really need to say more?
      Yeah. Say more. Like the part where Cuba suffers from such an economic burden that it can in no way be a threat to the US.
      Iraq: 600000 childrens dead under the sanctions; didn't work, Instead they strnghtened Saddams regime.
      While luxury palaces were built and funds skimmed off the "oil for food" programs. Yeah, that was the USs fault. It did do quite a bit to keep them from rebuilding their miltary to any great degree.
      Libia: I would call it even. Sanctions have crippled their economy, but Ghadaffi still in power.
      See Cuba.
      But what I don't like about about your rethoric is that you try to limit the possible actions USA can take against other countries into two possibillities
      Then you missed my point. I said AFTER diplomacy fails. What I dont like about YOUR rethoric is that diplomacy seems to be the ONLY option. It's not.
      When you do that, you and everyone following your rhetoric fail to see that there are other options; such as trying to work out a deal trough UN.
      And the UN is so good at working things out, huh? There's a huge number of dead in Rwanda, the Balkens, Ivory Coast, etc... that might disagree with you -- were they alive to voice their opinion. The UN is a good place to TRY and work out deals, but it's not the END of the road when it fails.

      12 years of the UN unwillingness to either hard pressure Iraq or otherwise force Iraq to disarm should be a CLEAR example of this. 17 resolutions... 17. A piece of paper doesn't do anything to destroy poison gas -- but 250,000 highly armed soldiers sure do.
    14. Re:The American Way by GnarlyNome · · Score: 1

      The only Evil is when good men turn a blind eye to evil.

      --
      Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
    15. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Little dogs with no teeth have loud barks. Declare war. See "The Mouse that Roared".

    16. Re:The American Way by CyberWolf · · Score: 1
      Or, how about Mexico?..

      What about Mexico? Do you think that it is easy for Mexico to be neighbors with one of the richest countries in the world? You work in the States, you take home over $10 a day easily; you work in Mexico and chances are you will get under $10 a day.

      Mexicans are over-worked under-paid compared to Americans, and then you wonder why they try to immigrate (legally and otherwise) to the States? The Mexican Government does not have the budget to stop the illegal immigration of Mexicans to the States. They have other priorities to look into, like keeping the country from getting poorer. So no, they do not encourage it, since for every Mexican that leaves the country the government looses taxes that are used to keep the country running).

      It is not fair, I agree, Mexicans work hard to try to feed their families on very small wages and the Americans have welfare and unemployment benefits that pays per day more than a family earns in a week.

      Anyways, I have ranted and raved enough, I would have commented on the first part of his comment, but some else already did a good job (IMHO).

    17. Re:The American Way by Jhon · · Score: 1

      Yay! I love equivocation! Like painting a 'hitler' mustache on GW! BOY, that was FUN! And we ALL know that GW is starving countless americans, has his own torture chamber, diging mass graves outside the whitehouse mall. Yah! equivocation is such FUN!

      Do me a favor. Read the UN charter on nuclear proliferation -- THEN comment about why the US has nukes and why North Korea shouldn't. Jeez.

    18. Re:The American Way by maxpublic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How about just leaving the rest of us the fuck alone?

      Buddy, I'm an American and I can't get my government to leave me the fuck alone. Hell, I can't even get my neighbors to leave me the fuck alone. What chance do you furriners think you have?

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
    19. Re:The American Way by maxpublic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And the UN is so good at working things out, huh? There's a huge number of dead in Rwanda, the Balkens, Ivory Coast, etc... that might disagree with you -- were they alive to voice their opinion. The UN is a good place to TRY and work out deals, but it's not the END of the road when it fails.

      As an American, I say "what fucking business is it of ours?" Not a single one of the so-called 'threats to national security' is any threat at all, if we just mind our own goddamned business and stop trying to impose a 'Pax Americana' on the rest of the world.

      I don't want an empire, thanks. And no, I'm not so fucking paranoid as to think that every goddamned Third World country is out to 'get me' and that I have to conquer one of their asses every once in a while to show who's boss. That's the purview of dick-measuring loons, much like our own King George.

      Let the world work out its own problems. All we need are places to buy things from, and places to sell things to. Other than that the rest just isn't our goddamned business.

      Unfortunately both the government and my own people seem to think that *everything* is their business nowadays, including my own private life. Seems to me the only thing that'll teach the average American to keep the fuck out of my life and the life of others is to bitch-slap the cocksuckers into submission, much like those very same cocksuckers are doing to others right now.

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
    20. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well why don't you take a look at the UN Charter on Human Rights as long as you're reading UN Charters. THEN comment on why America can ignore the Charters that it chooses to and enforce the ones it likes.

    21. Re:The American Way by The+Herbaliser · · Score: 1
      (1) Ignore them (Difficult to do when they're the most powerful country in the world).

      (2) Sanctions (Also difficult when they're the world's largest economy).

      (3) War (We don't need any more wars, they start enough on their own).

      Yeah, you all know who I'm talking about. The U.S. playing international police is kind of like letting a convicted criminal play domestic cop. Oh wait, they're already doing that... his name is John Poindexter.

      How can a country with an abominable human-rights record and the world's largest stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, not to mention a nasty habit of invading places and seriously fucking them up, call any country "unfriendly" or "just plain mean"?

    22. Re:The American Way by Jhon · · Score: 0, Redundant
      As an American, I say "what fucking business is it of ours?" Not a single one of the so-called 'threats to national security' is any threat at all, if we just mind our own goddamned business and stop trying to impose a 'Pax Americana' on the rest of the world.
      I wish I lived in a world as simple as yours. I truly do.

      However, as an American, I agree with you. America as an empire a bad idea. But America does have and will look out for it's interests -- so long as the American people want us to. Just as every other country looks out for it's interests. Why should the US be different?
    23. Re:The American Way by Jhon · · Score: 1

      You mean this? You need to learn what a General Assembly resolution is before you try and make that arguement. It's not valid. There's a difference between a GA resoltion and the NPT. At least take the time to LEARN how the UN works (or fails to work) before you post.

    24. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quote: "Iraq: 600000 childrens dead under the sanctions; didn't work, Instead they strnghtened Saddams regime."

      Thank the UN for that.

    25. Re:The American Way by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I agree, but for a little bit different reason.

      If we are going to have "diplomatic" solutions to everything, then any country in the world can "threaten" and then get diplomatic solutions right?

      If we were in the world of Pre-Bush strong handed politics, what exactly would we be doing if say... Cuba, said "hey guys you know back in '68, we really do have nukes" and say... someone more "level headed" was in office (level headed I mean, and facetiously, a far left liberal) would they "give" Castro whatever he wanted, if thats what he said. If he said "lets do a diplomatic solution" what "diplomatic" solution COULD there be in a case like that?

      That is something I always wondered about Saddaam Hussein, we had 12 years of attempting "diplomatic solutions" and they found that when "diplomatic" people were in power (Clinton God bless 6 years of financial bliss for the country) the situation in Iraq got worse considerably, because the person we were contending with was not searching for diplomatic solutions, he wasnt searching for "compromise" unless you mean "compromise" as "you give us everything we want, because what your doing now only makes you look bad" as compromise.

      I think that the United States WAS justified in attacking Iraq, the only thing I feel is that it was not done soon enough. The United NATIONS should have done something about it earlier, the problem with the United Nations, is it really is as teathless a body as the League Of Nations (for those of you that miss that, its the ones that watched hitler do what he wanted prior to WW2).

      The United States IS the teeth of the U.N. without the U.S. the U.N. has no teeth. We have shown that against Russian technology, we can litterally take destroy an entire modern army into mush within 90 days (not talking about iraqi freedom). The only countries with as modern equipment are the European countries, and the thing is, they will always take a diplomatic solutiion before going to war, and it doesnt even need to be to there advantage, because you can stall them..

      That is all this has shown the world, yes a lot of people HATE the U.S.A. but the thing is, it reflects JUST AS BADLY on the United Nations, and how does that reflect on the world?

      The thing is shows is that.

      1. If the U.N. goes and says something, lets say against a foriegn power that attacks its neighbors, its sanctions against that country mean nothing to its leaders.

      2. It shows that the U.N. cannot control its own members, IE the United States.

      Those two things completely invalidate the United Nations as a legislative body, because legistlation means absolutely nothing without enforcement of that legislation.

      And the United Nations does not seem to really enforce its legislation. As for "enforcement" power, the United States has more Enforcement Power than the United Nations, simply because you would never get the United Nations to agree on anything.

      You could have the entire known world going "you know I think these guys are bad" but it doesnt matter a wit if you do not do something about it.

      And I think thats what people really are getting at when they say things like "....Chinese and Russians put as much PRESSURE on IRAQ to comply with the previous 17 SANCTIONS..." (previous post).

      It isnt that they are United States Imperialist Warmonger (which I have seen people say), its simply that there is no faith in the United Nations, the world has not matured enough to have a United Nations, because the world cannot agree on what is right and wrong.

      How does this affect jobs for Monster.com? It is not simple United States arrogance, it is a company trying to obey the spirit of the United States sanctions and Embargos. Sanctions and Embargos ARE OUR Diplomatic solutions, to allow jobs to be exported oversees, and work to be imported, is to CIRCUMVENT our diplomatic solutions.

      People often have the beleif that diplomacy is a peacfull solution to a problem, this is NOT true. D

      --
      If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
    26. Re:The American Way by ItsBacon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Abominable human rights record compared to what? Iraq? The Sudan? Cambodia? North Korea? China?

      When was the last time you heard about torture chambers, mass graves, tens of thousands of people starving, sweatshops, and the like in America?

      Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot about that "information extraction" facility just outside of Chicago, or all those poor little schoolchildren in San Luis Obispo working 12 hours a day sewing sneakers. Then there's the spot in Tampa where Herr Ashcroft had 10,000 "dissidents" summarily executed and buried, and that time George Bush gassed a bunch of hippies in San Francisco for protesting against the government.

      Sound familiar to you? It shouldn't. Because IT HASN'T HAPPENED. We don't brutalize and murder our own citizens, and we tried our damndest to control collateral damage in Iraq.

      Name a couple of places we've "seriously fucked up." Fine, I'll give you Guatemala and Vietnam, but just about every other place has come out better after we're through, and unlike every other country in history, we leave when we're done.

    27. Re:The American Way by EinarH · · Score: 4, Informative
      We did EVERYTHING we could to force them in to economic ruin. "Ignoring" was never an option.
      My point was that you don't have to go to military action or start with sanctions to crush a country.
      I wrote: "*Ignoring here means not going to war or placing sanctions, not to ignore it completly or quit paying attention to a country."

      Yeah. Say more. Like the part where Cuba suffers from such an economic burden that it can in no way be a threat to the US.
      Where they ever a treat to US? Yah, maybe 40 yeas ago during the Cubile missile crisis. (you started the whole thing by placing nukes in Turkey BTW. But the Soviet Union did not start with sanctions agaist them even though they also was a country pretty close with a diffrient type of government di they?
      But, you know what? I Castro wanted to blow Miami to pices with a warhead today ( he don't as far as I know) he could probably done it.

      While luxury palaces were built and funds skimmed off the "oil for food" programs. Yeah, that was the USs fault. It did do quite a bit to keep them from rebuilding their miltary to any great degree.
      The luxary palaces was not build from money from the oil-for food prog. UN has stated that 95% of the money in the programm where used correctly (food, aid, drugs etc.) The remaining 5% went for UN admnistration of the program.
      If Saddam built any major new palaces after '91 it was probably from money either from smuggling or from taxes
      Yes, the sanctions worked in keeping them from rebuilding their military. But putting sanctions on a country is not a long term sollution on a problem as it hurts the people of the country more than the government.
      Dealing with whoms fault it is... USA supported Saddams regime greatly (economic support,political and weapons as chemical and biological)during the eighties when it served US interest. Running away and saying it's all one mad mans faullt is to easy.

      Then you missed my point. I said AFTER diplomacy fails. What I dont like about YOUR rethoric is that diplomacy seems to be the ONLY option. It's not.
      I have never said that diplomacy is the only way of handling conflicts. But in many conflict even after diplomacy has ended is it possible to solving problems without the use of millitary.
      In the recent case of Iraq it was your goverment who did not want to continue with inspections. In some cases the use of military force is legitimate, in some it's not.

      And the UN is so good at working things out, huh? There's a huge number of dead in Rwanda, the Balkens, Ivory Coast, etc... that might disagree with you -- were they alive to voice their opinion. The UN is a good place to TRY and work out deals, but it's not the END of the road when it fails.
      UN is nothing more then what it members wants it to be. Noone have ever said its a perfect system.
      In the recent case of Iraq it was in fact USA who did not want to continue with pressure on Iraq and continuing of weapon inspections. Probably because they would not have been able to remove Saddam that way. The UN sanctions where made to keep Saddam from getting WMD, not to remove him.

      According to the UN charter when diplomacy fails and the security council faills to agrre on a resolutions that is the end of the road per se. The fact that your country choose to ignore this and attack Iraq anyway says alot about the USA today.

      12 years of the UN unwillingness to either hard pressure Iraq or otherwise force Iraq to disarm should be a CLEAR example of this. 17 resolutions... 17. A piece of paper doesn't do anything to destroy poison gas -- but 250,000 highly armed soldiers sure do.
      In those 12 years Iraq never attacked any of their neighbours or used any WMD. As long as the inspections had continud it is also unlikly that Iraq would have been able to build, import or use WMD.

      An please show me where that poison gas is hidden will you?

      --

      Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.

    28. Re:The American Way by Jhon · · Score: 1
      How can a country with an abominable human-rights record and the world's largest stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, not to mention a nasty habit of invading places and seriously fucking them up, call any country "unfriendly" or "just plain mean"?
      Human-Rights violations? At least CITE some examples and provide some type of comparison to declare it "abominable". Kind of hard to debate 'pot shots'.

      Why is it an issue that the US has stockpiles of WMDs? Doesn't the UN address this and attempt to keep other countries from aquiring/developing them?

      "...nasty habit of invading places and seriously fucking them up"... yeah. Like France, Germany and Japan. BOY they are hurting, huh?
    29. Re:The American Way by vought · · Score: 1, Insightful
      United Nations, is it really is as teathless a body as the League Of Nations


      Do you brush your teath before you go to bed? Why should I take anything you say seriously if you can't be bothered to use correct tense and spelling?


      For what it's worth I agree with you on some points. I believe Bush 43 acted to deflect public mistrust over the economy and his failure to nab Osama, who apparently perpetrated the WTC attacks peronally with a team of dedicated Iraqis. (19 Saudis and Egyptians led the attacks.) Bush looks like a tough guy to the uneducated majority of U.S. voters. Sometimes I wonder if our shitty edumacational system is handicapped by politicians on purpose.

      These are the same voters who are looking for an excuse to get mad (and even!)after being laid off by ruthless companies that aren't forced to justify executive bonuses in bankruptcy court as the court obviates any and all severance for 15-year veteran engineers from the same company. I'd be pissed too. That'd make me wanna kick some towelhead ass.

      Bush doesn't love the U.S. He loves himself and Ari Fliescher. And big corporations. Perhaps rightly so. If the price of gas went up to $5.00, we'd all be sunk.

      So where's our visionary Mahattan project-style crash course, providing alternative energy and power? Ooops. I guess Bush really is beholden to to the oil companies.

      When it's all said and done, all 43 has done is piss off the world we depend on for cross-pollination of ideas, trade, and good will.
      The rest of the world hates us, George. And they think we're using too much oil per capita. And they're right. We're squandering our time and riches on GW Bush's political capitol.

      Unfortunately, we have to live with the rest of the world, and fighting them off at the Alamo isn't going to work this time.


      Jeez.

    30. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh god, not the spelling excuse...

    31. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Do me a favor. Read the UN charter on nuclear proliferation -- THEN comment about why the US has nukes and why North Korea shouldn't. Jeez"

      Ermm, let me guess, I know this one.....

      is it because US is on the UN permanent security council and North Korean isn't and so gets to write the Charters with its friends? Thats it isn't it?

    32. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hmmm...

      Their problems: They are evil power-hungry dictators who torture and imprison their citizens, fund terrorists who attack our interests, and teach their children that americans are evil Christian warriors who must be destroyed. They lust for power and there's no mechanism in place to limit their power.

      Your problems: Your leaders are evil power-hungry dictators who torture and imprison their citizens, fund terrorists within other countries, and teach your children that people from certain countries are evil Islamic warriors who must be destroyed. They lust for power and they're busy removing any mechanisms in place to limit their power.

    33. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, America is allowed to 'look out for its own interests' even when that results in bombing innocent people? ...So, explain to me again how you're different from Al Quaeda?

    34. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you canadian? (you didn't say what kind of american are you....north, south, central..)

    35. Re:The American Way by dracocat · · Score: 1

      And what planet do you live on?

    36. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, executing people for crimes committed as minors. Executing mentally ill people. Holding minors at Guantanamo. Holding people without access to a lawyer. Holding people indefinitely, without trial. Secret courts, where the accused is not informad of the charges.

      Oh, and the UN does not adress WMD:s in this manner; why, exactly, is the US allowed to have them, but not other countries?

    37. Re:The American Way by mythr · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The only Evil is when good men turn a blind eye to evil.

      But if there was no evil in the first place, then no good man could turn a blind eye to it (as it does not exist.) Obviously there is evil in the world, that means that there was evil before a good man turned a blind eye, and your statement cannot be true.

    38. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      youre a fucking idiot.

    39. Re:The American Way by Telex4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And the UN is so good at working things out, huh? There's a huge number of dead in Rwanda, the Balkens, Ivory Coast, etc.

      Actually, you provide two good examples that immediately rubbish any idea that America and Britain "police" the world for humanitarian reasons, and any idea that America and Britain give a damn about the UN as a method of dealing with humanitarian crises. If you look at every intervention the two nations been involved with since WW2, then in every single one there is an obvious political/strategic/economic reason for doing so (central america - political, south east asia - strategic/economic, iraq - economic/strategic, balkans - strategic). Where they haven't done a thing, there is no particular reason beyond humanitarianism (rwanda - nothing thre but people dying, boo hoo).

      The likes of Robert Kagan, Richard Perle and Donald Rumsfeld have pulled a huge coup in convincing America that we should see America as the benevolent and willing actor, and the UN as the impotent fool. Really, America is the self-interested willing actor, and the UN is the melting pot of diplomacy made impotent by America and the former USSR.

      Where the UN hasn't followed up on numerous resolutions (Iraq, Israel, America), it is because at least one member of the security council (Iraq - Russia, France and America, Israel - America, America - America ;) vetoes any forceful resolution in their own interests. If states would follow the likes of most "old Europe" states (Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, to some extent Germany, etc.) and focus forieign policy on common security, peace and sustainable propserity, we wouldn't have these problems. But as it stands, the G8's economies and international strategies are so tied up in supporting corrupt regimes that we don't get anywhere.

    40. Re:The American Way by AndersM · · Score: 2, Insightful

      2. It shows that the U.N. cannot control its own members, IE the United States.


      The U.N. isn't supposed to "control" it's own members - it's supposed to be an organization where efforts are joined together, not forced from the individual member. If someone doesn't want to play ball, the other member nations will try to convince the outsider to join back in, but not with brute force.

      It is not simple United States arrogance, it is a company trying to obey the spirit of the United States sanctions and Embargos


      Quite a few of those sanctions and embargos are seen as United States arrogance by the rest of the world. Remember, most of the world isn't American, and a lot of us are becoming quite fed up with your holy War on Terror.
      --
      My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right! =)
    41. Re:The American Way by evilviper · · Score: 1
      That's the purview of dick-measuring loons, much like our own King George.

      Does no-one else see how history may be repeating itself here?

      The American Revolution was started because of the oppression of King George III of the British Empire. In office right now, we have President George II, forming the American Empire at light-speed... Coincidence? Yeah, probably... (fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony)

      Speaking of history repeating, when the voting public saw what G.W. Sr. did with his 4 years in office, they sumarily kicked him to the curb. With everything Jr is doing, I wouldn't be surprised to see history repeat itself in that regard. I mean, come on! You know you're screwing up when the librarians are against you.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    42. Re:The American Way by Spellbinder · · Score: 1

      any weapons of mass destruction ???
      or where they just weapons of mass distraction???

      --


      stop supporting microsoft with pirating their software!!!!!
    43. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Israel has nukes and is arguably one of the most evil regimes currently on the planet. Not many countries are able to walk into neighbouring countries with the soul purpose of annhilating it's population, while the "rest of the world" (i.e. the USA) takes no notice. And not only is the USA turning a blind eye to it, they are actually funding it! (They won't stop it, or they will lose the votes of every JEW in the US!).

    44. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but think about it ...
      the US is a lot more dangerous then north korea ...
      they fight a war ever 2 - 5 years or so ...
      once they will pick a fight they cant win.. (without making a lot of americans unhappy with their government) and then a stupid shithead like bush will use nukes!!!

    45. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      then add laos
      you dropped more bombs on them then you dropped during the whole second world war while you where not at war with 'em
      maybe dropping bombs on inocent farmers has nothing to do with human rights
      and your death penalty is strange too ...
      it is just murder ...

    46. Re:The American Way by jafiwam · · Score: 1

      The United States IS the teeth of the U.N. without the U.S. the U.N. has no teeth.

      In that case, I think the dentures of the U.N. just dropped out, got a wind up motor, and went clattering across the floor after a rat.

    47. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You miss the point. The US government has a record of supporting totalitarian regimes abroad in order to further its own interests.

      A few examples

      Chile - Helped Augusto Pinochet overthrow the democratically elected government and become dictator, in 1973. Pinochet then made thousands of people "disappear".

      Nicaragua - Funded the Contras guerilla movement. As with Chile, Nicaragua was (and is) a democracy.

      Iraq - Supplied weapons for the war against Iran. Indirectly, this gave Iraq the means (ie chemical weapons) to kill thousands of its own citizens, Kurds mostly.

    48. Re:The American Way by sagthang · · Score: 1

      :- Apartheid? [...] There are too many examples
      :- where diplomatic and economic pressure worked.


      Apartheid survived sanctions: while under sanctions the South African apartheid government developed high-tech nuclear power and oil production programmes, and the white and (to a much lesser degree) non-white South African populace did not want for material things. Apartheid also survived external (diplomatic) pressure from both the West and East, and apartheid survived brute force attacks: internal urban warfare and terrorist/freedom fighter attacks, as well as armed conflict with Soviet-backed forces in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and Cuban-backed forces in Angola and South-West Africa/Namibia.

      Sanctions, diplomatic pressure and open warfare only strengthened the resolve of the ruling minority and their supporters, and had the effect of placing a damper on the will to change.

      Apartheid ended when a small group of people from within the ruling Afrikaner establishment manoeuvred their way into positions of influence and performed a bloodless and largely unacknowledged coup (remember P.W. Botha's fortuitous stroke which rocketed F.W. de Klerk into power?). The system collapsed despite pressure from the outside, and because of internal change over time.

    49. Re:The American Way by radish · · Score: 1

      piece of paper doesn't do anything to destroy poison gas -- but 250,000 highly armed soldiers sure do

      There was poison gas? Where? Oh right, it got "stolen" or "hidden" or something. Bullshit. The only thing the US is interested in is black, sticky, and under the desert in Iraq. Fucking hypocrites.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    50. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Silly! The mass graves and torture chambers aren't at the whitehouse. They're in Guantanamo Bay.

    51. Re:The American Way by MKalus · · Score: 1
      The United States IS the teeth of the U.N. without the U.S. the U.N. has no teeth. We have shown that against Russian technology, we can litterally take destroy an entire modern army into mush within 90 days (not talking about iraqi freedom). The only countries with as modern equipment are the European countries, and the thing is, they will always take a diplomatic solutiion before going to war, and it doesnt even need to be to there advantage, because you can stall them..


      Here is where I see a little problem.

      Yes, the UN has not teeth of it's own but there is no other way for her to get them but by using other countries armies. And here is why:

      The UN is not a state. It cannot have it's own people and it's own army. If it would try to have it's own army where would it be based? Where would the people in the army come from? This could only work if the UN became some kind of "World Government" and that would also mean that countries like the US would need to give up some of their powers, what are the chances to this?

      Furthermore, unlike the US Europe had been devastated by war, and I think this is why Europe rather looks for a Diplomatic solution these days than a war solution. Of course there are always financial interrests at stake as well but I think Europe as a whole (maybe because of the way the European Union is created) is a lot better "Integrated" in the world than the US is.

      And the United Nations does not seem to really enforce its legislation. As for "enforcement" power, the United States has more Enforcement Power than the United Nations, simply because you would never get the United Nations to agree on anything.


      True, for now. Don't forget for the USA it always seems like there never is any thought about tomorrow, it always seems that the only thing they see is the present. The reality is though that the past 10 years are nothing compared to everything that has already happened to everything that will happen. The UN might have a crisis, but a lot of countries outside the US see the UN still as the way to go. Give it another 10 years and the cards will most likely change. China could (if they would be interrested) easily provide military power, so can Europe if they make a commitment. To write the UN off now because of a lack of teeth besides the US is a bit early in my opinion.

      --
      If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
    52. Re:The American Way by benny_lama · · Score: 1

      (1) Ignore them (Has little effect al la China) Wored fine on Soviet Union. (in this context a little war over Vietnam/Afghanistan/some South-American contries don't count) It will probablly work on China in some years too.

      Ignore them....good idea. This idea is what allowed Hitler to gain power and start a world war. The Cold War was NOT ignoring the Soviet Union. The US actively used its power to prevent the Soviet Union from expanding its influence. A lot of people spent many hours conducting operations to make that happen. Ignoring and appeasing people like Hitler and Saddam Hussien in the end only causes more problems than confronting them and removing them from power.

      The fact that you can call the war in Vietnam a little war makes me sick. What is your definition of a "little war"....less than 100,000 casualties? How do you define WWII? A "big war"?

      (2) Sanctions (Cuba, Iraq, Libia) Cuba: Castro still rules...Do I really need to say more? Iraq: 600000 childrens dead under the sanctions; didn't work, Instead they strnghtened Saddams regime.
      Libia: I would call it even. Sanctions have crippled their economy, but Ghadaffi still in power.


      Sanctions do work....but only if they are applied and the issue is resolved in the short term. Sanctions are meant to be a warning and shouldn't remain in place for decades while the people the sanctions are designed to displace remain in power.

      I think the numbers you quote above are incorrect.....either way, the world community did its best to prevent innocents from suffering. Remember....the UN eased the sanctions to allow Iraq to sell oil to buy food and medicine. What did Saddam do with the money? He used it to equip his military in violation of an agreement that he made with the UN.

      (3) War Going to war over every disagreement ain't a long term solution in conflicts.

      This is true. However, war is sometimes necessary. Iraq for instance.....we gave them over a decade to work out the disagreement. How long do you propose that we wait next time?

      When you do that, you and everyone following your rhetoric fail to see that there are other options; such as trying to work out a deal trough UN.

      Hmmm......I'm almost positive this is exactly what we did for over a decade.

      You have bought in too strongly to the idea that if we curl up in our shell and ignore the bad things in the world, they will go away. This will never happen. The US learned awhile ago (Pearl Harbor) and recently (9/11) that an isolation policy does not ensure security.

      --
      "No Comm, No Bomb"
    53. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the UN is so good at working things out, huh? There's a huge number of dead in Rwanda, the Balkens, Ivory Coast, etc... that might disagree with you -- were they alive to voice their opinion. The UN is a good place to TRY and work out deals, but it's not the END of the road when it fails.
      As a Canadian I find this amusing as hell. Our General Romeo Dallaire was the commander of the Rwanda mission. Security Council Resolution 872 pushed for the downsizing of UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda). Who introduced that? Madeleine Albright. U.S. Presidential Decision Directive No.25 of March 1994 limited which peace-keeping missions that the U.S. would support with it's vote in the Security Council. Not even talking about commiting troops here, just saying "Okay, we give the UN the authorization to commit troops" General Dallaire made personal appeals and had contingents (Ethiopian and Ghanaian contigents could have been there in days) ready to deploy, he put a battle plan in front of the U.N. Security Council to end the genocide. Oh excuse me, tribal killings. See if anyone in the U.S. actually used the term 'genocide' then under the 1948 convention of genocide the U.S. would be obligated by treaty to act. So the US wouldn't look at anything that had the word genocide on it. The pentagon refused to transport any of the U.N. contigents back to Rwanda to stop the killing, without American airlift capacity it takes a long time to deploy troops. Dallaire didn't ask for U.S. involvement (he was dealing with the French and Belgians mostly looking for an armored brigade) he just wanted a lift for the units that were involved. The whitehouse wouldn't even take that minimal level of involvement. The U.S. blocked all U.N. resolutions that would have allowed our contingents actively engage the factions involved, insisted on downsizeing the reaction force from 4000 to 850 troops, and then dickered over the lease price for supplying the U.N. contigent with APCs from Germany. The blood of 800000 Rwanda isn't on the U.N.s hands. It rests solely on the American government.

    54. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We hardly "ingnored" the Soviet Union, dumbass. We pressured them, globally, non-stop. We made them enter a massive arms race that directly lead to their bankruptcy, and got involved in various proxy wars along the way.

    55. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      who apparently perpetrated the WTC attacks peronally with a team of dedicated Iraqis

      riches on GW Bush's political capitol.

      Ooops. I guess Bush really is beholden to to the oil companies.

      Why should I take anything you say seriously if you can't be bothered to use correct tense and spelling?

      Yeah, and like you're in any position to make such a statement.

    56. Re:The American Way by loucura! · · Score: 1

      According to the UN charter when diplomacy fails and the security council faills to agrre on a resolutions that is the end of the road per se. The fact that your country choose to ignore this and attack Iraq anyway says alot about the USA today.

      Ah, but according to the US Constitution, the UN Charter can go fuck itself.

      --
      Black and grey are both shades of white.
    57. Re:The American Way by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 1

      There are no mass graves, but there are citizens being detained without charge (a number of cases have appeared on '/.'). This is not as bad, but it is still against basic human-rights.

      The USA is still the only 'civilised' country that still has member states using the death penalty.

      No country is without fault. No country should use external poltics as a way of covering the interal mess. No country should ignore human-rights, whether in time of peace or time of war.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    58. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My, that's a cogent argument. Are you going to bomb me now?

    59. Re:The American Way by bj8rn · · Score: 1
      We have shown that against Russian technology, we can litterally take destroy an entire modern army into mush within 90 days

      A minor correction: you're talking about Russian technology that's 20 or 30 years old. I'm not quite sure how you could manage the technology they have now (or would have, if they had the money to build any...). Stealth bombers? Well, Russians discovered that when you use some kind of old radars (from WWII era), they're not so stealthy anymore. GPS? the Iraqis had GPS jammers, and it turned out that they were built in Russia. I bet there's lot more that hasn't been made public.

      By the way, you don't actually need bleeding edge laser-guided weapons to destroy Russian tanks 20 years old. The guerillas in Chechnya (also called terrorists) do fine with AK-47's and RPG's. I bet they could do just as well against modern US weapons. It's not the weapons that win the war, it's what you do with them that does.

      --
      Hell is not other people; it is yourself. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
    60. Re:The American Way by hiryuu · · Score: 1
      Course, we'd have to assume that politicians are socially-conscious and intelligent persons capable of actually caring that the world is a better place for everyone.

      Assume that politicians are socially-conscious and intelligent? Hell, people aren't socially conscious or intelligent. The vast bulk of people are unmitigatedly self-absorbed, self-centered, and stupid. The world sucks because people, at large, suck.

      Politicians, by and large, aren't a different or special class of people. They come from the pool available - stick your hand in raw sewage, and of course all you're likely to find is excrement.

      </cynical bastard>

      --
      Karma: Excellent, but still won't get you laid.
    61. Re:The American Way by The+Herbaliser · · Score: 1

      compared to what? compared to every other first-world nation since WWII.

      let's take iraq for an example of how the us handles things:

      did anyone notice that iraq's human rights record improved when they were no longer allied with the us?
      development of weapons of mass destruction: their biological samples came from the us. torture, summary imprisonments, gassing curds: all occurred under us watch. the us and iraq were such fucking buddies that the us gave them permission to attack kuwait ("we will not interfere in the affairs of the middle east...") and then turned around and butt-fucked their former allies because kuwait offered to give them a whole crapload of oil to fight for them. kuwait is still paying off their debts to the us. The US basically pimped it's army. Mass starvation: that's from the sanctions... pre-sanctions, iraq had better education, public health-care, public housing, etc. than the US.

      The sweatshops in the third world are a result of economic conditions that are largely perpetuated by US trade policies and are generally producing products for american companies for sale to american consumers.

      Mass executions: captured taliban were loaded into trucks with no air-holes and shipped accross afghanistan. most of them didn't make it. when they cried out for air, air holes were shot into the side of the trucks, but with the captives still in them. This was done by the northern alliance soldiers under the orders/supervision of US troops.

      I wouldn't want any of the countries you mentioned playing international police either, but two wrongs don't make a right, and just because there are other bad countries out there, and some of them don't like the US, doesn't make the US without blame.

      Seriously fucked up: cuba (why do you think they had the revolution in the first place), iran (same deal), vietnam(as you mention), afghanistan (the cia trained and armed bin laden and the taliban and now do you know how hated karzai is? everyone keeps trying to assassinate him), iraq (armed and supported repressive government, helped it gas it's own people, starved it's citizens with sanctions, including sanctions on water filtration equipment, despite military documents showing estimates of the civilian casualties this would cause, and the fact that any sanctions that could reasonably be expected to cause civilian casualties are illegal under international law, and then killed a whole bunch of people overthrowing the government), guatemala (as you mentioned), nicaragua(iran-contra), east timor (provided support), chile, etc.

      I don't have the details on this, but i've heard the US was planning on keeping france after WWII until churchill talked them out of it.

      of course, the us has done good stuff too. post-WWII germany turned out alright, and some of their wars, fighting crazy regimes like the nazis and the japanese did a lot of good. never mind that in both cases, they weren't the ones who declared war, and in the case of japan, the us was the only country in history to use nukes, and they still maintain a vastly unpopular military presence there.

    62. Re:The American Way by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Iraqis had GPS jammers, and it turned out that they were built in Russia.

      I take it you are reffering to the GPS jammers that were destroyed by GPS guided bombs? :D

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    63. Re:The American Way by bj8rn · · Score: 1

      Erm... yes, I think these were the same jammers I was referring to. And what I was trying to say was, that you should better not become over-confident because of some neat gadgets that you have. There isn't too many things that a big enough and well aimed stone can't break...

      --
      Hell is not other people; it is yourself. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
    64. Re:The American Way by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 1

      Sadly, as everyone and his troll brother pointed out, my spelling was a bit off.

      [quote]Don't forget for the USA it always seems like there never is any thought about tomorrow [/quote]

      This is actually where I disagree with you, I think the U.S. IS looking toward the future. The United Nations, if not a state, is nothing at all. The reason for this is that if it does not control its own members, then it HAS no power. The United Nations HAS to be a world government, to simply be a facilitator of trade and negotiations means nothing when you come to a belligerent nation. If the United States/United Nation had had foresight 12 years ago, and finished the job in Iraq the world MIGHT be a more stable place today, simply because they would have cut the funding of groups unfriendly to the United States at the knees.

      I very much think the United States is taking the LONG view of the situation, I know Bush seems like the big almighty dickhead right now, and in most cases I completely AGREE!!! War sucks, and we know that, but there are legitimate reasons to go to war.

      To the point of the United Nations having its own army, it does not necessarily need one, it just has to rely on its own member nations, but as I said if its member nations cannot agree on anything, then the United Nations is very pointless. The Long view for the United States is if we spend a considerable amount of money now, and stomp the biggest current and future threats to our country, then the future will be more prosperous. The only thing I am sad about is how hypocritical we are, and not in the sense that some of you might take it considering "Bush as dictator" (just wanted to get that stupidity out of the way) but that we are ALLIES with countries that have brutal, and or oppressive dictatorships and turn a blind eye to them for economic reasons. Is it right for us not to go to war with these people? I am not a War Lover by any means, but I do feel that a diplomatic solution should be sought with foreign countries of such persuasion, so that the United States does not look hypocritical.

      As to the fellow that went on to the hype about "ruthless corporations." Yes the United States has "ruthless corporations" luckily though they can be deterred by laws against them, and every oh... 4 years or so the people of the United States have a good chance of changing how the United States operates fundamentally. Corporations are around to make money; it is a base definition of capitalism. Capitalism is the most efficient type of government in the world, but it is not necessarily the most humane. And for better or worse we are stuck with it, and all we can do is try to mitigate the worse effects of capitalism, but that comes with being American, and hell if you do not think it can be mitigated think about what web site you are reading right now, and think about the issues and stances going on here. If you believe in the things posted on Slashdot (thinks like RIAA is bad, Open Source good) you are taking an opinion and running with it, and you are being swayed and directed by the writers of Slashdot, and Slashdot gets read by people with less certain opinions as well, and it gets people exposed to matters that are of technological abuse (yro section, oddly enough... here). So do not tell me that freedom of the people does not work... look your sitting here reading something I am sure Monster, the RIAA, and the MPAA would rather have you not doing since it probably considers the site a group of terrorists!

      Oh well, I wander in tangents but I do so hate to post a lot of different times ;-0

      --
      If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
    65. Re:The American Way by EinarH · · Score: 1
      Ignore them....good idea. This idea is what allowed Hitler to gain power and start a world war. The Cold War was NOT ignoring the Soviet Union.
      Read my other post to see what i meant by ignoring. (In short, ignoring here means to avoid direct military action or sanctions.)

      The fact that you can call the war in Vietnam a little war makes me sick. What is your definition of a "little war"....less than 100,000 casualties? How do you define WWII? A "big war"?
      With all respect off those who died in those wars; compared to a possible nuclear WWIII between USA and Soviet with probably more than 100 million casualties even the 100,000 casualties in the Vietnam war becomes small.

      Sanctions do work....but only if they are applied and the issue is resolved in the short term. Sanctions are meant to be a warning and shouldn't remain in place for decades while the people the sanctions are designed to displace remain in power.
      I think wee agrre here. See my other post.
      I think the numbers you quote above are incorrect.....either way, the world community did its best to prevent innocents from suffering. Remember....the UN eased the sanctions to allow Iraq to sell oil to buy food and medicine. What did Saddam do with the money? He used it to equip his military in violation of an agreement that he made with the UN.
      Numbers: They are from a UN-report. I think it was the UN foof agency (?) It's an estimate but its the best estimate yet.
      Saddam did not use the money from this programm to military or luxary. See my other post.
      I have not yet seen any evidence that Saddam equiped his millitary in violation of the agreements with UN.
      How long do you propose that we wait next time?
      As long as i takes. If USA wanted weapon inspections to find any possible WMD they could have voted for a continuing of the inspections.

      You have bought in too strongly to the idea that if we curl up in our shell and ignore the bad things in the world, they will go away. This will never happen. The US learned awhile ago (Pearl Harbor) and recently (9/11) that an isolation policy does not ensure security.
      I'm not a US citizen so I might have a different wiew on this than what you have.
      But neither Pearl Harbour or 9.11 happend due to isolationism. Pearl Harbour happened because of Japan whanted to expand their territory, nearly impossible to guard onself against that happening sometimes.
      I you think 9.11 took place because USA isolated itself from the rest of the world i think you serious need to cosider the way you look at the world. 9.11 happened beacause of US involvment in the Middle East; not beacuse of isolationism.

      There is a option in the middle between isolationism and preventive(pre-emptive warfare.

      --

      Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.

    66. Re:The American Way by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      The US is an active participant in the various SALT treaties and is eliminating its nuclear arsenal under the watchful eyes of the world in general and Russia (formerly USSR) in particular.

      Instead of saying "we never had them," we destroy our ICBMs and have the scrap metal to proove it.

    67. Re:The American Way by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "Where is this obsession on "dealing" with a country come from? Why do you have to deal with a country?"

      That's what sanctions are: A concerted effort to pretend the country doesn't exist. "Not dealing" with a country doesn't mean ignoring what they're doing and continuing to conduct business as usual with them, it means not having anything to do with the country in any way, shape or form. That's what the federal government is attempting to do by passing sanctions.

      The problem comes about when the world starts to blame the other country's problems on the US sanctions. Cuba's biggest complaint about the US isn't that we're allowing people who make it to Miami to stay but that we're not buying their sugar. And that's before we look at all those Iraqi children the US killed with those sanctions France tried so hard to get rid of for the past decade or so...

      "Imagien the result if every other country on earth should start to "deal" with counties they don't like? China would have started to deal with Taiwan"

      I see somebody's not familiar with the "One China" policy...

      "China would have started to deal with... Japan"

      Japan still has no military to speak of (even less than the PRC). China's main complaint about Japan is that Japan isn't giving China enough money.

      "Ignoring here means not going to war or placing sanctions, not to ignore it completly or quit paying attention to a country."

      You seem to be confusing "completely ignoring them" with "giving them money anyway." Make up your mind on what you want and state it plainly.

      "> Ignore them (Has little effect al la China)

      Wored fine on Soviet Union. (in this context a little war over Vietnam/Afghanistan/some South-American contries don't count)"


      Tell that to Tibet and Viet Nam. And note the US, since WWII, has never had anything even vaguely resembling "permanent normal trade relations" with the Soviet Union or any other signatory of the Warsaw Pact. Again, do you want to truly ignore them, or just pretend they're not doing anything bad?

      "Cuba: Castro still rules...Do I really need to say more?"

      While he's still in power, it's not because of American money. Talk to the EU about that one.

      "Iraq: 600000 childrens dead under the sanctions; didn't work, Instead they strnghtened Saddams regime."

      "Strengthened Sadam's regime?" Somebody's been paying too much attention to the Ministry of Information again...

      "Libia: I would call it even. Sanctions have crippled their economy, but Ghadaffi still in power."

      See previous reference to Cuba.

      At any rate, you're coming off as extremely hypocritical with your calls to "ignore" these countries, or at least self-serving. The only kind of "ignorance" you seem to be looking for is the way you would "ignore" domestic abuse. In the international community, calling the police is out of the question. What you're suggesting is that you pretend an abusive parent doesn't beat their children instead of doing the half-way decent thing of turning your back on them.

    68. Re:The American Way by alienmole · · Score: 1
      You're promoting a single-explanation fallacy, i.e. that there's a single explanation for these various actions. Reality is much more complicated.

      As for Rwanda, what exactly should have been done there? The problem wasn't "just" a dictator that could be militarily subdued. Perhaps airlifting all Tutsis and Hutus to different parts of the world might have worked?

      Simplifying the facts in these discussions down to single dimensions results in completely bogus conclusions. You can't compare Rwanda to Iraq.

    69. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, the infamous "youre (sp) a fucking idiot" argument, the last resort of mental deficients everywhere, frequently used when a basic logical inconsistancy of their position has just been pointed out. Ironic, as its use in this situation makes its user look the idiot, not its target.

    70. Re:The American Way by spun · · Score: 1

      Reality is always more complicated than an attempt to explain it. We have to simplify, create models of it, in order to think about it at all, let alone communicate those thoughts. Telex4 proposed a simple thesis: American "police actions" against tyranny abroad correspond strikingly well with American interests.

      Alienmole has not voiced a cogent counter argument to Telex4's ideas. He just tries to cloud the issue by saying "Oh, silly, it's more complicated than that," without explaining how.

      Rwanda is just one example of American inaction in the face of tyranny when it lacks sufficient self interest to get involved. What about Cambodia, East Timor, Bangladesh, and Uganda, just to name a few of the worst?

      America goes to war for American self interest and nothing else. Lets not pretend just because it makes use feel better to think we have the moral high ground.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    71. Re:The American Way by cpeterso · · Score: 1



      "Los Alamos restores U.S. ability to make nuclear weapons" (April 23, 2003)

      http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-04/dan l-lar042303.php

    72. Re:The American Way by spun · · Score: 1

      We leave when we're done? Hardly. This is like the American civil war, when the Northern Industrialist taught the South that keeping slaves is more expensive than letting the slaves think they have freedom. If you keep a slave, you have to pay for it. If you let it think it's free, you can buy it's labor, and then it has to pay you in order to live. If it can't support itself, it dies, but you lose nothing. Plenty more poor and desperate people where that came from.

      It is the same with countries. Running them is expensive, and troublesome. People want freedom, and security. Much more efficient to force privatization of other countries resources through armed conflict. Then the army leaves, the conquered nation is forced to take care of itself, and the conquerer's businesses own the oil, the roads, the electricity, the water, the health care system, and so on. Or, the conquerer's businesses may just get sweetheart deals from the puppet rulers that rode to power on the conquewrer's coattails. Either way, the people lose, and the conquering nation's wealthy get wealthier.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    73. Re:The American Way by alienmole · · Score: 1
      Actually, I wasn't trying to cloud the issue or even disagreeing with the notion that American military actions are anything other than strategic. However, I don't think that the Rwandan example is relevant, since it relates to inaction, not action, and there were some clear reasons for that inaction. The simplifications which Telex4 chose were not appropriate for the Rwandan example.

      Rwanda wasn't a situation that would easily have been remedied by military action. Imagine instead a case more like Iraq vs. Kuwait: if one sovereign African nation had invaded another, and the UN found this to be unacceptable, and passed resolutions that the hostile nation should withdraw, would the US get involved in an enforcement action? It might not lead it with the same fervor that it does when taking down people that threaten its allies and its oil supply, but I suspect it would get involved.

      P.S. your simplified model of my motives in this discussion are invalid. :)

    74. Re:The American Way by Lord+Ender · · Score: 1

      "Course, we'd have to assume that politicians are socially-conscious and intelligent persons capable of actually caring that the world is a better place for everyone"

      Actually, politicians are supposed to care about the people they are representing, not 'the world'.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    75. Re:The American Way by Telex4 · · Score: 1

      Rwanda is very different to Iraq, I accept, but not all that different to the Balkans. Most ignored African conflicts share the common themes (with the Balkans) of civil war, ethnic cleansing and refugee problems. In the Balkans, despite UN intransigence, NATO took action, later backed up by EU&UN peacekeeping forces. The reason they gave? To stop a humanitarian crisis developing within a country. How is that so different to Rwanda? Whilst there are many finer points to be made, the most obvious and important difference is that the Balkans are on the doorstep of the EU, they're close to home, and it's a conflict in an ex-Soviety area that Europe is keen to keep stable, and America is keen to have in the EU asap.

      So I believe my simplistic thesis still stands. It is kind of funny that the anti-war movement has to repeat the basic tenets of realism to the rest of the public, because that is what our governments are operating on, when the anti-war movement believes either in idealism or liberalism. It is sick that the pro-war camp preach liberalism when in fact they know full well that their world view is one of realism, and that they are covering each "intervention" in the cloak of liberalism.

    76. Re:The American Way by stanmann · · Score: 1
      The blood of 800000 Rwanda isn't on the U.N.s hands. It rests solely on the American government.
      I have good news for you... the American government that did nothing in 94 is no longer in power.
      --
      Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
    77. Re:The American Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ignoring* a "evil" country/regime/place worked fine in the case of USA vs. Soviet Union. Eventually Soviet Union broke down inside by itself without any serious war.

      we didn't ignore them. we "dealt" with the ussr the whole time by outspending them in the arms race throughout the cold war.


      Cuba: Castro still rules...Do I really need to say more?

      that's becuase castro has the best health care system in the world, or something equally impressive. i don't remember what it was, but it shocked the pants off of me when i found out. the point is that we're placing economic pressure on him and he's still making his people LOVE him. they're not terrified of him in the same way that the people of iraq were of saddam.


      But what I don't like about about your rethoric is that you try to limit the possible actions USA can take against other countries into two possibillities; either
      1. Do nothing. When some republicans talk about this option on dubius radio shows they make it look like this is bound to result in every fucking country whom disagree with US will start supplying Osama with nukes.
      2. Harsh reactions like sanctions or war.

      we WERE doing NOTHING when 9/11 happened, remember dufus? So what are we supposed to do? play ostritch? ignoring a problem does not make it go away.

    78. Re:The American Way by alienmole · · Score: 1
      I think an important difference in the Balkans, compared to Rwanda, is that many of the countries who wanted to take action in the Balkans were direct or nearly direct neighbours, countries which could potentially be directly impacted in all sorts of ways by Balkan instability.

      Africa suffers from a vicious circle of not having countries with strong, stable economies, by Western or Asian/Eastern standards. Any intervention would need to be almost entirely from off-continent, with very little "local buy-in", even if the action were locally supported. The European NATO members picked much of the tab for Bosnia - because it was to their benefit. Action in Africa would be pure charity.

      So, sure countries act in their self-interest. There are no countries willing to act as a global daddy, willing to bail out any errant child nation regardless of the circumstances. Nevertheless, pure humanitarian considerations are an issue for many people, and you can hear that being discussed on the political stage in the US Congress and Senate, and in the British Parliament.

      Not all of the people raising these issues are doing so completely cynically. If it weren't for the humanitarian element, many of these actions would be much more difficult to defend. I recently suggested in another thread that a humanitarian issue is a necessary but not usually sufficient condition to intervene in another country's affairs.

    79. Re:The American Way by neitzsche · · Score: 1

      As an semi-frequent bicyclist, I would love for gasoline here in the US to be over $5/gallon.

      --
      "God is dead." - Frederik Nietzsche
    80. Re:The American Way by Telex4 · · Score: 1

      But doesn't it worry you that we get, one the one hand (in journals, and occasionally newspapers) the realist agenda coming from the think-tanks who push the policy but can get away with being frank, and on the other the liberal agenda coming from politicians who are the human face of the actions? The radical split between words and deeds certainly worries me, especially because it seems that politicians don't feel it necessary or expedient to be honest with their electorate.

      Even in British Parliament, we get dismissals and bluffs from Government ministers when asked about the material interests we have in Iraq/Afghanistan... they just will not be seen publicly to admit the obvious, and so many simply believe that the agenda is in fact liberal, and not realist.

      I'd have a lot less problems with these Governments if they were at least honest democrats.

    81. Re:The American Way by alienmole · · Score: 1
      The radical split between words and deeds certainly worries me, especially because it seems that politicians don't feel it necessary or expedient to be honest with their electorate.

      I agree, I don't like that. But I also think it's somewhat inevitable. The article recently posted here with the subject "On The Collapse of Complex Societies" has some interesting info which attempts to explain some of these societal behaviors. I liked this message.

      A little while ago, there was a South Park episode which proposed that the liberal/peaceful vs. conservative/hawkish sides of the debate were both necessary - the latter to get the dirty work done, and the former to act as a conscience and both temper the hawkish position, and as you say put a human face on it. (It was put a little more humorously than that in the episode.) It's not just that two different constituency's voices are being reflected, but that the two constituencies balance each other and are essential to each other. It's cynical and disingenuous on the whole, but perhaps effective.

      I'd be quite happy with everyone bluntly coming out and saying exactly what they think/mean/feel about an issue, but I have the feeling that game theory probably dictates against that approach in general, given conflicting self-interests and especially given human nature.

      None of this is to say that we shouldn't try to hold our politicians to high standards. But I think I'm a bit of a realist about that too.

    82. Re:The American Way by Sevn · · Score: 1

      I'm not quite sure how you could manage the technology they have now (or would have, if they had the money to build any...)

      Hmmmm. It seems we did manage to end the cold war
      a while ago making the world a much safer place
      for just about everyone. You kinda made no sense
      at all there saying that we wouldn't be able to
      defend ourselves as well against the technology
      they don't have because they don't have the money to
      make it. Amazing.

      Stealth bombers? Well, Russians discovered that when you use some kind of old radars (from WWII era), they're not so stealthy anymore.

      I'd love to know what you are going on about
      there. Sounds like something from a poorly
      written spy novel. Someone should coin a term
      for an urban legend about military technology.
      That's right up there with putting foil in your
      hat to keep the satellites from reading your
      brainwaves. The stealth technology is designed
      to deflect radar away at steep angles so as to
      make little to none reflect back to the
      gathering dish/antennae, while absorbing as much
      as possible also. No ancient radar is going to
      do anything but perform even more poorly, and
      be 10 times easier to jam.

      By the way, you don't actually need bleeding edge laser-guided weapons to destroy Russian tanks 20 years old. The guerillas in Chechnya (also called terrorists) do fine with AK-47's and RPG's. I bet they could do just as well against modern US weapons. It's not the weapons that win the war, it's what you do with them that does.

      Where to start....
      You are right. You don't need much more than an
      RPG to destroy older russian tanks. It's a lot
      different when you are talking about modern US
      hardware. It seems to me that saddam's forces
      were using ak-47's and RPG's against our tanks
      and didn't seem to do so well. You have an actual
      product test to consider. That's why I have no
      idea why you'd think they'd do well against our
      hardware. Not to mention that our military isn't
      a ragtag bunch of rebels. It's a highly trained,
      well fed, well commanded killing machine with
      the most advanced weaponry in the world. It's
      not the weapons that win the war. It's the
      General that wins the war. It's the commander that
      understands how to use what's at his disposal.
      You should pick up and read Sun Tzu's Art Of War.
      You'd probably understand what you are trying to
      talk about a little better.

      --
      For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
  11. Re:Announcement of Great Religious Significance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clearly that says: "SEE, YOU! 'EM BE OX! FIRE!"

    He's telling you: "WATCH OUT, YOU! Those large animals are dangerous! Draw your weapon and SHOOT!"

    The message is clear. The "large animals" represent the terrorist threat from middle-east nations. (The "OX" or beast of burden is clearly a reference to the primitive lives lead by many in the Middle East).

    The admonishment to "shoot" is a sign that we must use our overwhelming force (as a man with a gun vs. an ox) to put down these countries, before they use their sheer mass (large populations) against us.

    Make no mistake: Jesus is telling you (and us as a nation) that we must CONQUER and DESTROY the threat, we must create a great crusade against the EVIL that is someday going to come charging our way.

    I guess you're not used to secret messages from Jesus delivered to you via your computer's entropy device file. That's okay, surprised me the first time too.

  12. Monster.com: Unethical Pirates by Crispin+Cowan · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Two months ago, I posted some job ads (open position) to various forums, noting clearly that I did not want to work with recruiters or third parties. Then I started getting candidate applications responding to a post on flipdog.com (a Monster subsidiary). But I could not access this ad describing my own position unless I paid flipdog.com for the privilege.

    Advice to job seekers: never, ever, ever deal with Monster.com or their subsidiaries. I have monster.com and flipdog.com in my spam filters.

    Crispin
    ----
    Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
    Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc.
    Immunix: Security Hardened Linux Distribution
    Available for purchase

    1. Re:Monster.com: Unethical Pirates by ugen · · Score: 1

      And what other means of procuring a bread-winning position would You suggest from Your high-horse, Dr. Cowan?

    2. Re:Monster.com: Unethical Pirates by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Crispin Cowan wrote:
      Two months ago, I posted some job ads (open position) to various forums, noting clearly that I did not want to work with recruiters or third parties. Then I started getting candidate applications responding to a post on flipdog.com (a Monster subsidiary). But I could not access this ad describing my own position unless I paid flipdog.com for the privilege.

      Advice to job seekers: never, ever, ever deal with Monster.com or their subsidiaries. I have monster.com and flipdog.com in my spam filters.
      And ugen replied:
      And what other means of procuring a bread-winning position would You suggest from Your high-horse, Dr. Cowan?


      Um ... applying for jobs advertised in the local paper? Working with reputable job-search sites like Dice.com? Networking, which according to the studies I've seen is still how most positions are filled?

      The point isn't that job-search sites are inherently a bad thing. The point is that job-search sites (or for that matter, any kind of sites) that sell your information to spammers are inherently evil. When you put your resume up on a site, you're not sending out an open invitation for people to send you e-mail about things you're not interested in. You're simply and solely announcing your availability for a job -- and you have the right to be as picky as you want to be in that announcement.

      Of course, I suspect from ugen's response that his point is that he feels an irrational hostility toward people with Ph.D.'s. "Don't be thinkin' you're better'n us with all them books 'n' larnin'!"
      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    3. Re:Monster.com: Unethical Pirates by Crispin+Cowan · · Score: 1
      Hey, solicit work using Guido the Pimp if you want to :-) but I don't recommend it.

      Crispin

    4. Re:Monster.com: Unethical Pirates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoa! Hostility!

      Here's a dime kid, go get yourself an education.

    5. Re:Monster.com: Unethical Pirates by ugen · · Score: 1

      Dice.com? Reputable? What have you been smoking? They used to be (before their bancrupcy) a shameless front for recruiter agencies. My local newspapers don't have too many jobs for high-tech professionals and the largest of them is using monster.com database.

      I have no specific resentment for anyone with Ph.D , I myself hold a (somewhat?) advanced degree in Computer Science (MSc at that).

      What i do resent is someone with clearly safe and convenient job giving advice of "not using the largest job site on the internet" to everyone else. That is in the current tough job market where people spend long months to get anything at all.

      It's as if a well fed westerner telling a poor hungry 3rd world citizen to stay away from the truffles because they will give him a bad case of indigestion. Hypocritical at best...

    6. Re:Monster.com: Unethical Pirates by Crispin+Cowan · · Score: 1
      It's as if a well fed westerner telling a poor hungry 3rd world citizen to stay away from the truffles because they will give him a bad case of indigestion. Hypocritical at best...
      hypocrisy: The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

      So, are you saying that I don't believe that Monster.com is a scumbag organization? That I have some sekrit plan to keep the joyous motherlode of high-quality opportunities at Monster.com all for my eviil self?

      Perhaps you might consider that I am an employer, and that therefore my views on where I will and won't look for candidates might be of some use to job seekers.

      So for those who might actually care, when I am recruiting I post & read in these kinds of forums:

      • local Linux user group mailing lists (we are a Linux vendor)
      • local system administration mailing lists (I have high respect for admins as potential developers)
      • Craig's List
      • Security Jobs
      • "networking", i.e. friends of friends
      Caveat: we have no open positions at this time. We filled several positions last month.

      Crispin
      ----
      Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.
      Chief Scientist, WireX Communications, Inc.
      Immunix: Security Hardened Linux Distribution
      Available for purchase

    7. Re:Monster.com: Unethical Pirates by ugen · · Score: 1

      1) Thank you for clarifying the point by specifying a list of other potential employment search methods. Have you had placed these in your original post - I wouldn'y have replied.

      2) I am reasonably employed at the moment but will soon take your advice as the time comes to look for a new job. Hopefully someone else is reading your reply as well, taking notice.

      3) "Hypocricy" was perhaps a wrong word. Giving an advice based on assumed high moral ground but not helpful to someone in distress should have been called sanctimonious or self-righteous. Pardon me, but English is not my native tongue.

  13. Ignorant Policy by jmping · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The biggest problem in many of the countries that the United States is currently sanctioning is that (relative) poverty has driven people to hate the United States. Terrorism is a funtion of that very hatred of our economic superiority. The only way to deal with a problem like this is to address the economic discrepancies between our nation and theirs and help to allow countries and people that have gotten left behind to join the global community. By preventing US companies from hiring these people, job sites can exacerbate that discrepancy and become part of the problem instead of a possible solution.

    --
    **When craziness is bliss, 'tis folly to be sane**
    1. Re:Ignorant Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Another way to deal with the problem is to BOMB THE FUCK OUT OF THEM. Put the fear of God and Jesus in the heart of those heathens, and they'll leave us alone.

    2. Re:Ignorant Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      destroy their infrastructure, make sure those bastards cant use ANY planes or ANYTHING to get over here. Make it so they cant even use a boat, in a moat, to get it to float. doh, i wigged out and went Dr. Sues

    3. Re:Ignorant Policy by netblade83 · · Score: 1

      problem is, these countries are only in relative poverty compared to the US, because their leaders take all their money for themselves! Theyre sitting on BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS in oil.. yet the people are starving.. dont tell me its the USs fault

    4. Re:Ignorant Policy by Erwos · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So let me get this straight: it's OK to kill people because you're jealous of them? "I'm poor, so you deserve to die" is a corrupt, immoral philosophy, to say the least. Screw "cultural differences" - I haven't seen a single religion that says it's OK to kill someone and take his stuff just because he's done better in life than you.

      Also, why is it the US's responsibility to address the economic discrepancies? At the end of the day, the only person who can improve your lot in life is you. Certainly, it makes no sense to _reward_ countries which we consider our enemies with economic aid. It only amounts to simple blackmail. I also doubt that sending money to a corrupt regime would prove effective for anything except lining Swiss bank accounts.

      Throwing money at a problem isn't the solution. Some of these countries are still trying to get a grip on the aftershocks of centuries of BRITISH and FRENCH colonialism. If anyone's fully responsible for cleaning up some of those places, it's those two former colonial powers. Don't underestimate cultural problems which arose with colonization, such as corruption and the like. But, of course, it's much simpler to blame the US, as any /.'er has seen.

      This is not to say the US is blameless - indeed, every country makes mistakes, and the US certainly made more than its fair share of them. But thrusting full and total responsibility on the US for fixing broken former colonies is stupid. It is a problem which needs to be addressed by _EVERYONE_. The policy may or may not be ignorant, but your solution is certainly naive.

      -Erwos

      --
      Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
    5. Re:Ignorant Policy by jmping · · Score: 1

      I'm not justifying the terrorism by any means, but we can only really combat terrorism by dealing with the underlying root of the problem of why ordianary people become terrorists.

      --
      **When craziness is bliss, 'tis folly to be sane**
    6. Re:Ignorant Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget most of these terrorists are WELL-FUNDED. They don't care about their poor compatriots, they care about their CORRUPT IDEOLOGY that's been pounded into them by CORRUPT REGIMES since they were children.

      I don't doubt that the suffering of these people was a part of their thinking long ago. But today, that reasoning is long gone and is replaced by a deep-seated ideology of destruction.

    7. Re:Ignorant Policy by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 1

      Do a Google search on "the Dutch disease" and get back to me. You'll learn why having a valuable natural resource can always only help a small number of people in the country, and can often hurt, unless that country does like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia do and become massive welfare states for anyone not in the oil industry.

    8. Re:Ignorant Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So... why is America, which is full of valuable resources, such a wealthy country, and why didn't these countries do whatever we did to exploit them? And if massive welfare states will keep people comfortable, why don't they become welfare states then? oh yeah.. because their LEADERS ARE CORRUPT.

    9. Re:Ignorant Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Bah, I'm posting as an AC.
      (relative) poverty has driven people to hate the United States.

      I passed by a TV showing Toronto (Maple Leafs) playing in Philadelphia (the Flyers) just as the game was starting. There was the regular "Please stand for the Canadian national anthem." message which was followed by a round of booing.

      According the the hockey fan in the room this has been standard for the past few months. So I have to say this: Look, if you (as US americans) don't respect people who live in other countries then you shouldn't be too surprised to find out they don't really like you.

      I don't boo the stars and stripes. It's just a respect thing that some of us do, even if we might not be to fond of you.

      There is no need for you to tell yourself the rest of the world is just jealous. The not so secret reason is it's a result of the way you treat the rest of the world.
    10. Re:Ignorant Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The only way to deal with a problem like this is to address the economic discrepancies between our nation and theirs"

      I disagree, I lived in a SE Asian country living on $2500 a year and it was great.

      Hard work on the farm sure, but the food was fresh, the air clear, fish caught in the morning eaten in the afternoon, no long hours in traffic, no huge bills to worry about.

      Sure we did with less luxury, a PSone instead of a PSTwo! VCD's instead of DVDs! But I can't say I missed anything. If I could get the residence visa, I'd be there now.

      Americans work hard to earn big money to pay for overpriced toner and overpriced CDs and big taxes, and expensive DSL. I walked into Walmart and there are hundreds of cheeses, all varieties of cheddar, three day old stinking fish. Food was crud, traffic was crud, work was long and hard and unfullfilling.

      To my point: all the rest of the world wants is for the US to chill out. Relax, no need to turn every disagreement into a war. No need to control everything everywhere. No need to send over money. The rest of the world is very happy on their little incomes.

    11. Re:Ignorant Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At some unknown time in the future, this may work, or it may not. However, another tried-and-true, quick and guarenteed method:

      Kill'em all and let God sort it out.

      When you have a prefessed mortal enemy, and you don't want to end up as the one dead.. you don't tell them they are cute and give them some cash and a pat on the back. You destroy them, raze their cities, and sow salt into the soil so that nothing ever grows again. Then you remove all traces of them from the history books, except that they were bad & evil, so we killed them all.

      But, of course, you only do this to groups that say things like, 'We will kill all americans everywhere and all their allies and we hate them forever, for they watch MTV and drive sports cars. Allah is just.' Bin Laden et. al. Yeah, these 3rd-world tards really do need to be dealt with.

      >>

    12. Re:Ignorant Policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It has nothing to do with poverty or economy. It's all about violence and invasions. I'm sure that this one is a stronger reason that just envying others richness.

      Probably not all the interventions were wrong, but I'm sure that this created a lot of enemies for America.

    13. Re:Ignorant Policy by radish · · Score: 1

      So let me get this straight: it's OK to kill people because you're jealous of them?

      No of course not. It's only OK to kill people who happen to live in a country whose leader you dislike.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    14. Re:Ignorant Policy by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 1

      Because America didn't have an economy based on commodity exports, which is what the dutch disease is all about. And those regions of the country that *did* have economies built on commodity exports - the South in particular - had the most vulnerable economies with the greatest inequities.

    15. Re:Ignorant Policy by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      This is just plain stupid. I *really* don't hink that economic superiority is the reason why these people hates the US...

      Does black africans hates the US? No.
      Does middle east people hates the US? Yes.

      Why is that? Don't you think the US foreign policy of monkeying with different governments in Afghanistan has nothing to do with it? The wole russia-afghanistan war wouldn't have existed without the US support to Afghans people. So it is fair to say that a *lot* of afghans died because of the US government (like a lot of vietnam people died because of russia).

      Now don't get me wrong, I don't say that the US shoudn't have supported afghan people at this time, but the side effect of this (and plenty of other things like US helping talibans to take power) is the main reason why terrorism existed in the first place.

      Do these people hate japan (and japanses) ? No, because the Japanese government mind its own business.

      That's the point. If you want to be intrusive, face the consequences.

    16. Re:Ignorant Policy by jmping · · Score: 1

      It's not that people hate the fact that we are better, it is that people in many nations of the world feel that they are not being given a chance to succeed. In the US, economic, political and social structures are oriented in such a way as to allow some level of success for those who work hard. In other countries this is not the case. Sure, we exacerbated things by arming the Taliban, but the Taliban did not just decide "oh well, the russians aren't fighting us, lets support enemies of another state." The discrepancy in the middle east is a political and social structure that does not allow for dissent. When forces like the market come to dominate many of these states, the market leaders, in this case the US, can often be portrayed as enemies. The more chances people in these countries have to join the global marketplace, instead of merely seeing others around the world get comparitively better-off, the less likely it becomes an individual arab, or anyone else for that matter, to decided that their life is a fair price to pay.

      --
      **When craziness is bliss, 'tis folly to be sane**
  14. Associated Press by ramzak2k · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is an associated press article and u can access it without the registration here

    --

    Siggy Say, Siggy Do
  15. Proofreading wotj pleasure by AllieA · · Score: 3, Funny

    ".. including immigrants wotj ties to some of the countries in question.."

    Glad to see the New York Times have their spellcheckers working correctly.

    1. Re:Proofreading wotj pleasure by carpe_noctem · · Score: 2

      I've heard the NY Times editors have taken to reading slashdot. Expect a dupe of this story on their frontpage in a day or so.

      --
      "Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
  16. I hope this doesn't start a trend.. by switched4OSX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hopefully, companies will realize that there is some talent out there that cannot be filled by a US citizen. I'd like to see Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf get his own late -night talk show. He'd beat the crap out of Conan or Letterman (or at least strenously deny there presence).

    1. Re:I hope this doesn't start a trend.. by Malcontent · · Score: 1

      Actually he should get a job at Fox news. Because fox news is the information ministry of the republican party.

      --

      War is necrophilia.

    2. Re:I hope this doesn't start a trend.. by wcbarksdale · · Score: 1

      No, he's an entertainment reporter.

    3. Re:I hope this doesn't start a trend.. by Dylan+Zimmerman · · Score: 1

      Well, there is the problem of him being dead. Somehow, I doubt that he could be nearly as funny as a rotting corpse when it was his actions that amused us so.

    4. Re:I hope this doesn't start a trend.. by switched4OSX · · Score: 1

      Actually, there is a report that he was going to surrender to a couple of Portugese journalists, but he never showed up at the agreed meeting point.

  17. my rights???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    i understand that the slashdot editors have no real clue about what my "rights" are, but here is yet another example of their idiocy.

    Instead of framing this story about monster.com and the righteousness of their policy, the editors have used this story as yet another "infringement" of your rights. Of course the editors have no clue that monster.com can do as they please, but somehow they think you have a right to do whatever you like, and monster.com are the bad guys.

    this is why i like coming to slashdot... for a good laugh at the idiocy at this site.

  18. God help me... by JVert · · Score: 0

    1). Establish complete blockade with known terrorist countries.
    2). Declare India a terrorist country.
    3. Profit!

    1. Re:God help me... by atam · · Score: 1

      We don't need the terrorist link. India already has WMD (nuclear bomb). That is enough reason to impose sanction or even invade it. Oh, it is the US's ally, please just turn your head and pretend you don't see it.

    2. Re:God help me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I bet you are an anti-semite aren't you ?

  19. all right... by geekoid · · Score: 1

    Now if we can get india, china and russia out of the picture, We can bring programming jobs back!

    or not.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    1. Re:all right... by Graelin · · Score: 1

      Hmmm, ok so now I have a reason to re-elect Bush. Thanks, I was trying to find one.

    2. Re:all right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should better learn to code. Or even better, BECOME a developer.

      PD: Drop the VB book your momma gave you 5 years ago.

  20. Old news, out of date by ActMatrix · · Score: 4, Informative

    Monster.com has already partially retracted this new policy. Now you just can't pick one of the blacklisted countries as a place you'd like to work. News.com has the updated story.

  21. I'll say what's on all our minds...flame away. by techstar25 · · Score: 1

    Why doesn't monster.com do us all a favor and disallow resumes from India as well.
    Okay, okay, I'm kidding. Well, sort of.

    1. Re:I'll say what's on all our minds...flame away. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wouldn't worry about them, enough companies (like mine) have tried them and the words gotten out now that they are not good at problem solving, they are just good code monkeys at drudge work like the y2k bug fixes. Ask one to solve a business problem in code and nothing happens or it is all wrong.

    2. Re:I'll say what's on all our minds...flame away. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Why doesn't monster.com do us all a favor and disallow resumes from India as well.
      Okay, okay, I'm kidding. Well, sort of.

      Well just because u are incompetent you think you can blame others huh! It was the United States of God Bless America which tried coughing down free market and trade among third world countries. You cant have your cake and eat it too. I didint see any protests in us when Coke and pepsi took over indian cola market, but yes if a indian comapny does that your pride is hurt. "How did these dirty dark skinned buggers get to do it" is one thought you losers get. Grow up dammit.

    3. Re:I'll say what's on all our minds...flame away. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember buddy, he's an American. His country can do whatever it likes. Including take over another country if it wants to. We're just bystanders who love the American way of life.

  22. ipravata@techstarweb.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    -SpamTroll

    1. Re:ipravata@techstarweb.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      roflmmfao

      ipravata@techstarweb.com posting for spambots to harvest...that rich!

      roflmmfao

      (Hell with India though I agree)

  23. A monsterour attack against Islam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess there is a such thing as an islamic sounding name, just as there is a christian or jewish sounding name. Ever filled out a form with Christian Name?

    I guess this means purge all records with mohammed, mohammet, muhammed, muhammet, omar, usama, osama, mohamed, mohhammed, hussein, abdulla, abdullah, abdula, hrmm that should cover most of it?

  24. Darn, I'll have to change my policy. by jspoon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For the last few months whenever I've been forced to register for any site, in the process of making up a fictitious address, I've set my country of origin to some random third world country. Afghanistan is nice and close to the top of the list, so it certainly gets used a lot. Otherwise, I tend to prefer Sudan. Lots of sun. Of course, I wouldn't do this on something like monster where they actually have a REASON for asking my address. I guess I'll have to stop though before the practice becomes more widespread.

  25. Off Topic: Spyware? by Seeker51 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Didn't know where else to put this, but I hope that one of the admins here will see it. A lot of your adds seem to be trying to install the Avenue A Inc. Cookie on my comp. Is Spyware really something Slashdot should be supporting?

    1. Re:Off Topic: Spyware? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course!

      It helps them spy on TROLLS!

      TROLLS TROLLS, the flaming shits
      They to mod us down to the pits
      The more you mod, the more of us you make
      So TROLL TROLL for fucks sake!

    2. Re:Off Topic: Spyware? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  26. Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by pantropik · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Here is an interesting article.

    An excerpt:

    The sanctions against Iraq, and the massive, long-term human suffering they have inflicted, have undermined this common view of sanctions. Since 1991, international agencies have documented Iraq's explosion in child mortality rates, water-borne diseases from untreated water supplies, malnutrition in large sectors of the population, and on and on. The most reliable estimate holds that 237,000 Iraqi children under five are dead as a result of sanctions, with other estimates going as high as one million.(2) The deaths from sanctions are far greater than the number of Iraqis directly killed in the Persian Gulf War -- an estimated 40,000 casualties, both military and civilian.(3) But the sanctions are shocking not only because of the extent of the human damage, but also because the suffering has been borne primarily by women, children, the elderly, the sick, and the poor; the state and the wealthy classes seem to be inconvenienced, but are otherwise exempt from extreme hardship.


    All this while Hussein et al were shitting on golden toilets. Did the sanctions hurt Saddam? Sure. But the damage done to the Iraqi people was orders of magnitude worse. Twelve years of sanctions, and what was accomplished? The task of removing Saddam through the use of military force was made easier, I suppose. But the primary reason for using sanctions in the first place is to avoid the use of military force. So, our sanctions against Iraq inconvenienced Saddam, killed a quarter-million children, and failed miserably at their stated purpose.

    Way to go, Monster. That'll teach 'em.
    1. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by rossz · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      When the sanctions were in place the United States sent large quantities of food and medicine to help the common Iraqi people. Unfortunately, Saddam just gave the food and medicine to his military. The US decided that subsidizing the Iraqi military was not such a good idea, so the aid packages were terminated. Stop trying to blame the US for killing Iraqi citizens. We didn't do it. Saddam did it.

      BTW, using worst-case estimates for civilian casualties in the Iraqi war (aka Three Week War), fewer Iraqi civilians died due to our military intervention than would have been killed by Saddam's murderous regime.

      Also, someone tell former weapons inspector Scott Ritter to shut the fuck up. We don't need to hear the opinion of a pedaphile. Especially one that was on Saddam's payroll.

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
    2. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right .. so let's not make the same mistake with Syria. Bomb the fuckers NOW.

    3. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by atam · · Score: 0, Troll

      I think the human suffering by the ordinary people is part of the intended purpose from the US government's point of view. They think that with enough suffering, the people will rise up against the government. They do the same to Cuba and North Korea (and Iraq before the war) and always urge the people to topple their government thru uprising or coup.

    4. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by pantropik · · Score: 1

      Believe it or not, I agree with you for the most part.

      Where we differ is that I do blame the US for killing Iraqi citizens. Tens of thousands dead during the Gulf War, yet Saddam remained in power. Those responsible had to know he wasn't going to turn tame just because he'd been given a spanking.

      We were there. We were in a position to act. We did nothing (just as we urged citizens to revolt, then sat idly by while the revolt was brutally put down and tens of thousands were slaughtered).

      We kill tens of thousands, stop short of doing the real job, turn Iraq into a poverty state and THEN go back in over a decade later to finish what we started. Of course, after 12 years of letting Iraq simmer in its own filth ... well, it only took 3 weeks the second time. It was much easier. Surely the lives of all those who starved or died from drinking filthy water were worth it.

      He should never have been left in power to start with. Problem would have been solved.

      I'm not for or against war in a general sense. Sometimes it's right, sometimes not, and I don't claim to be an authority on which is which. But, damn ... if you're going to do it, do it. Don't start, get cold feet, torture millions for years, and then swoop in for an easy kill. Where's the honor in that? Where are the high-blown American morals?

      "Truth, Justice and The American Way ... but only when it's easy."

    5. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, more people died due to the sanction than the people killed by both Gulf wars and Saddam's murder squad. So why do the US still insist on sanction the countries they don't like? Why don't they just bomb the hell out of North Korea and Cuba now? Is it because North Korea really has WMD (unlike Saddam) and Cuba is too close to home? So both of them could inflict certain amount of damage to the US people. Now that is self-righteous.

    6. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by pantropik · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That might even work. Except let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that some nation leveled sanctions against the US and impoverished us all. Finland, maybe. Linus always looked a little shifty to me ... (silly, yeah, yeah ... just pretending, remember?)

      Anyway, sure, we might rise up to overthrow the government just like Finland wants. But I bet when all was said and done Finland wouldn't be real popular in the hearts and minds of American citizens ...

      "They starved us because of our evil rulers." Once those evil rulers are gone it becomes real easy for the survivors to shorten that to, "They starved us ..."

      War. Sanctions. They both kind of suck. Too bad good will and common sense seem to be in such short supply among the powerful. Or maybe among all of us and it just doesn't show because we little guys don't have as much freedom to flex our muscles.

    7. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by Commutative+Monoid · · Score: 1

      Where we differ is that I do blame the US for killing Iraqi citizens. Tens of thousands dead during the Gulf War, yet Saddam remained in power. Those responsible had to know he wasn't going to turn tame just because he'd been given a spanking.

      We were there. We were in a position to act.


      The U.S. was acting as part of a UN force that had no mandate for deposing the Government of Iraq. Had the U.S. acted against Iraq in such a manner as to replace its Government, it would have received the same foot-dragging from the UN. It would have also lacked the overwhelming public support the recent war in Iraq enjoyed.

      You can blame whomever you want for whatever you want, but at the end of the day the U.S. did more to give the people of Iraq a chance at overthrowing their own Government than anyone else. No one else pushed to finish the job. I mean, really, countries who will remain nameless but have an amusingly high opinion of what "human rights" are, had no qualms selling weapons to the Iraqi Government. If you want to place the U.S. on the list of complicit enablers of the Iraqi Government (that itself allowed for widespread poverty and death), then I hope to see other nations higher on the list.

      --
      You have exactly 314 seconds to come up with a less retarded plot.
    8. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Explain the US's intent to disobey the UN this time.

      Also, when it came to weapons inspectory looking the the US, why did the US say "no", but for Saddam say "Look harder!!"?

    9. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by Commutative+Monoid · · Score: 1

      Firstly, both of your questions are really tangential to the subject.

      Explain the US's intent to disobey the UN this time.

      There has been a persistent group of people in the political realm that have wanted to depose Iraq's Government from even before the Gulf War. After the Gulf War, when it was apparent that the people of Iraq were not going to remove their Government, it became imperative to various conservatives to take meaningful action against Iraq, as UN inspections were clearly failing.
      If you don't understand how the events of 9/11 made the American public more receptive to long-term security planning, and in this case to the agenda to those that have always wanted to remove the Iraqi Government, then I'm afraid there's little I can say. Americans are by-and-large less concerned with the political consequences of ignoring the UN than in the '90s. It only helps the case of the conservative hawks that the UN has been entirely useless in changing the situation in Iraq for the better.

      Also, when it came to weapons inspectory looking the the US, why did the US say "no", but for Saddam say "Look harder!!"?

      This question is even more irrelevant to my comment than the previous one, but...

      Saddam wasn't interested in complying with inspections until there was a massive build-up of U.S. troops on the borders of Iraq. The Government of Iraq quite likely (this is speculation) expected it could play on the "international community," and rely on pressure from European countries that had money-interests in maintaining the then current Iraq Government, long enough to play out the money-clock on maintaining a massive military force near Iraq, and perhaps for the U.S. public to lose its overwhelming support for disarming and liberating Iraq from its then current Government. The U.S.'s position was likely partly economical but mostly political. They probably didn't want to miss the the window of opportunity for deposing the Iraqi Government, belieiving the benefits to be far greater than whether or not Europeans were satisfied with Iraq's inability to even account for the weapons inspectors knew of in the later '90s.

      This is all largely disinteresting and not particularly relevant, though.

      --
      You have exactly 314 seconds to come up with a less retarded plot.
    10. Re:Sanctions Instead of Military Force? by rossz · · Score: 1

      Some donkey biter moderated you down rather unfairly. Your response was true and correct. I guess the fool was a typical Fiskian idiotarian who doesn't like to hear the truth.

      Of course, in the idiotarian mindset, the gassing of villages was the direct result of sanctions and had nothing to do with Saddam being a murdering thug.

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
  27. Shooting ourselves in the foot twice over? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This policy omits people who are experts on these countries and potentially useful in our anti-terror activities. It seems appropriate to hire people from these countries *at least* for that, and these are people we sorely need in intelligence and foreign policy efforts.

    Besides, there's plenty of evidence that sanctions are a stupid idea in the first place because they help the totalitarian regime to suppress information, retain control of all trade and money, and thus stay more deeply in power. By actually trading with them we could exert tremendous control in how and to whom we trade with. Instead of cutting off the whole country, cut off the bad guys and help the rest.

  28. MOD PARENT UP by kmweber · · Score: 0

    Despite its rough cover, the guy's absolutely right.

    --
    "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
  29. Sanctions again, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It'd never happen but sometimes I wish my country was going to be on the 'wrong end' of some U.S. sanctions. At least then I'd have a good reason not to do any business whatsoever with Cheney's America.

    We need that kind of discipline to break free sometimes. Otherwise it's all to easy to sit back and take the bread and circuses for granted. =/

    -Anonymous 'humanist' Coward

  30. Why does it matter... by PhiloHmm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...it's not like anybody is really hiring, sponsoring visas, etc. That and it sounds like a publicity stunt to me (no such thing as bad PR).

  31. This is wrong, wrong, wrong by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's an outdated, Marxist view of conflict as "class struggle".

    The fact is the majority of terrorism that exists today is state sponsored and has nothing to do with economics. To steal from Mark Steyn:

    As Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, neatly put it, 'We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.'.

    From the horses mouth, that little quote destroys your argument.

    Ultimately terrorism isn't about getting money, it's about getting power. After all, terrorism is an expensive business. Terrorists usually aren't poor, and even the foot soldiers (like the ones in the September 11th attacks) usually have good economic prospects.

    Terrorists don't attack us because we have 3 TV's per capita and they don't. If you follow that logic to it's logical conclusion, you'll give the terrorists 3 tv's and still have people hating and killing you.

    Ultimately the best cure for curing terrorism is killing the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure (states) that support it. There really is no other way.

    1. Re:This is wrong, wrong, wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ultimately the best cure for curing terrorism is killing the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure (states) that support it. There really is no other way.

      Ultimately, the best cure for curing countries that attack other countries is to kill their leaders and destroy their infrastructrure. But as a citizen of one such country, I do hope that there is some other way.

    2. Re:This is wrong, wrong, wrong by ColaMan · · Score: 1

      Ultimately the best cure for curing terrorism is killing the terrorists and destroying the infrastructure (states) that support it. There really is no other way.


      How about finding out the reason why they want to hate and kill you, and doing something about that? Apart from a few true maniacs in the world, people do not suddenly wake up one day and decide to wage war against some other party, they normally require a pretty compelling reason to do so.

      My personal opinion is that you cannot surgically remove all the "terrorists" in the world, without pissing off someone. A relative of a "terrorist", some poor random person in the street who lost his kids when you blew up a building to clear out a "terrorist cell", there's always someone who'll be more than a little pissed off that you killed someone else. And so, you end up never getting rid of all the angry people who want to kill you, but instead tend to make more enemies.
      This cycle continues until there's enough angry people that finally they outnumber you, and then you'll get eliminated, because you've become the "terrorist".

      --

      You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
      There is a lot of hype here.
    3. Re:This is wrong, wrong, wrong by Alsee · · Score: 1

      How about finding out the reason why they want to hate and kill you, and doing something about that?

      They must be upset for a good and fair reason. All you have to do is ask them what's wrong and do whatever they say.

      Yeah, that works REAL well when they want something unjust and unreasonable. Or it's pure race hate. Or religious hate. Or "Ethnic cleansing". Or when their own government makes their lives misarable for the sole purpose of blaming someone else and creating more hatred. Or when they are in a cycle of biased information distrust and falsehoods -> hate -> more bias information distrust and falsehoods. A hatred cycle driven by lies and propaganda.

      Do you really think a group producing suicide bombers is really maintining a fair and unbiased perception of events? It is a culture of hatred paranoia and conspiracies. Any statement against their enemy is "obvious truth", any statement favorable to their enemy is "obviously lies and propaganda".

      It is impossible to "negotiate" with a bunch of scattered terrorists. Even if you could somehow make one happy the other 99 will still kill you. You could give them everything they want - even the most unfair and unreasonable things - and they won't stop.

      If a terrorist attacks without government consent then they are criminals. If terrorists attack WITH government consent that is an act of war by that government, it is merely an army out of uniform. According to international law that is a criminal government with an illegal army.

      Terrorists are either criminals or an illegal army. Period.

      The Palistinian situation is the "classic" terrorisim example. There's finally some hope there. There is a government body forming. It is possible to negotiate in good faith with a governemnt and address valid grievances of those people. That is the only way to "fix" any legitimate complaints they may have. But that government MUST be able deal with criminals within it's jurisdiction. A government MUST be responsible for keeping it's people from causing outside harm.

      If the new Palistinian government is incapable of dealing with its criminals then it's going to be incapable of negotiating on behalf of it's population. Palistinian terrorists are now the biggest threat to actually improving the situation for the Palistinian people.

      There are people who have no interest negotiating or solving problems, people who will accept nothing short of genocide. Those people must be killed or imprisioned.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  32. If Timothy posted it by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 1

    There's a good chance it's going to be an idiotic post concerning violations of your "rights", usually by a Republican but sometimes by an evil Corporation.

  33. Interestingly enough by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 1

    The Kurdish area of Iraq got the same amount of money under the sanctions as the rest of Iraq, yet they had no starvation there, nor did they have the thousands of dead infants. Iraq wasn't short of medicines...in Jordan at pharmacies they would ask if you if you wanted name brand, generic, or Iraqi.

    The sanctions didn't kill the Iraqi children...Saddam Hussein did. Rather than channel the aid to people who needed it, he resold it (illegally) and kept the money for himself while starving the Iraqis in the south.

    The point of this is, that part of the Iraqi economy that was under the control of the Hussein regime was used to enrich the Hussein regime. This was true before sanctions were ever in place.

    The solution to this was NOT to end the sanctions regime.

    The solution was the removal of Hussein from power.

    1. Re:Interestingly enough by pantropik · · Score: 1

      Exactly, and by waiting over a decade to enact that solution, the leadership of the US and its allies committed mass murder and torture.

      If you were starving your babies and I tried to give them some food only to have you sell it to buy drugs or stuff yourself with it ... well, if I don't do everything in my power to stop that from ever happening again and the babies die, I'm complicit in those deaths, right?

      I guess I could always look the other way and just stop sending food. Sure, the babies would die, but I wouldn't have to risk you giving me a bloody nose if I acted to stop you ...

      If my neighbors were starving their babies and I knew it and did nothing I'd be labelled an evil bastard. If they were starving the babies in part because I was taking a big chunk of the family's money to "punish" the parents for being bad parents even though I knew they'd take what little was left for themselves ... well, what would I be then?

  34. stop using IE by Indy1 · · Score: 1

    Its almost impossible to get web based spyware using mozilla. IE is damn permissive in letting spyware into your box, espcially cookies.

    --
    Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
    1. Re:stop using IE by Seeker51 · · Score: 1

      lol. The cookie isn't getting on my system. I use a program called Spybot Search and Destroy. Its kindof like adaware in that it can delete spyware from your computer but it has the added feature of immunizing your system against additional spyware being installed to it. I simply set it to let me know when a site tries to install some spyware.

  35. Here's the altered text... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NEW YORK (AP) -- Monster.com says it is only trying to follow the rules.

    But the nation's largest useless Internet job board is taking heat from some users over a new policy blocking consumers or employers from seeking work or posting jobs in countries sanctioned by the U.S. government.

    Under the policy, which took effect Thursday, Monster will no longer allow posting of resumes or job openings originating from Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, Slashdot, Sudan or Syria.

    In an e-mail explaining the change, Monster last week told consumers whose resumes include a reference to one of the countries that ``your resume will be altered, removing all the sanctioned countries from your resume,''

    A spokesman for Monster, which is owned by New York-based TMP Worldwide, said Friday the policy affects ``a few thousand suckas'' of the 26 million unviewed resumes posted on its site. It will affect zero of the dozen or so real jobs listed on their site.

    In some cases, the company has deleted resumes that list current addresses in those countries. It has altered other resumes so that they no longer list those countries as targets for employment or the location of jobseekers' education. Not like they will ever be hired by a company on Monster anyways.

    The change resulted from an internal review by company lawyers to comply with sanctions set out by the U.S. Department of Treasury, Monster said.

    ``OK, don't get your panties in a wad here. It's simply following the U.S. regulations in terms of companies and individuals prohibited from providing certain services to certain countries; Additionally, our service is so useless that we felt we needed to do something...anything to make users think that we are thinning out the applicant pool. Monster is like a lottery- anything we can do to increase a player's odds are welcome changes by most users.'' Monster spokesman Kevin Mullins said.

    The change has angered some Monster suckas, who say the policy censors and discriminates against people including immigrants wotj ties to some of the countries in question or businesses seeking to recruit there.

    ``It bothers me professionally and personally,'' said Dokhi Fassihian, who was born in Iran and moved to the U.S. with her family when she was three. Fassihian, a policy analyst specializing in Middle Eastern affairs, said the resume she posted on Monster uses the word ``Iran'' 35 times. Clearly, it is an idiotic resume in the first place, so they are actually doing her a favor.

    ``How can you be an Iran expert if you can't work there ... or do research there. And what Monster is saying is that that country doesn't matter. It doesn't exist for us,'' said Fassihian, of Arlington, Va. She is the only "Iran expert" who thinks there is such a demand for such odd qualifications.

    Another Monster user who received the notice, Jeffrey Obser of Oakland, Calif., said the policy smacks of censorship. Of course, its not as bad as his home country of Turkey, where he spent 69 years in a Turkish prison.

    ``It just struck me as being absurd and rather totalitarian,'' said Obser, a free-lance journalist whose Monster resume listed Syria as one of the countries where he sought work. He sought work in Syria, beacuse he likes being treated like shit and starved.

    Monster said its policy was being misunderstood.

    ``Much of the criticism out there that I've heard is that we're censoring people,'' Mullins said. ``We would never remove words from profiles or alter the actual content of resumes. Besides, truth is that no one even looks at those resumes either....That is, except for our dedicated spam clientele that check resumes and email addresses religiously.''

    Monster eliminated the sanctioned countries from drop-down menus jobseekers use to list their current address, target job location, and location where they obtained their education.

    But the company said Friday that, after receiving complaints, it had re-examined its te

  36. Self-rightous post by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 2, Funny
    If you haven't had the opportunity for a really self-rightous post in a while, Monster.com has made it simple for you.

    Not to stray too far off topic here, but since when has any story submission not prevented people at Slashdot from making a self-rightous post? ;-)

  37. Banana Chan is the BEST ANIME CONCEPT! by Alan+Holman · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I read the words "opportunity for", and the words "self-righteous post"; thus, it's somewhat appropriate for props to be given regarding my l33t slillz in the art of teleplay writing. BANANA CHAN is a virtual television series whose scripts are posted to the internet in television season schedules. Season one is completely scripted, using software called SOPHOCLES which helps me to write proper-length scripts in television format. If you read the first season, at the web-site, you'll see that it's a really awesome sci-fi/fantasy about the effects of a single wish... Be careful what you wish for, especially when your wish is "I wish there were no more poor people." Anyway, read the series, and you'll know what I mean about how cool it is. And when you're done, tell me what skillz I got for monster.ca to list, eh?

    1. Re:Banana Chan is the BEST ANIME CONCEPT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I read it. It sucked. The drawings are gay. I bet you are, too.

      And you mis-spelled "l33t slillz". It should read "no skills".

    2. Re:Banana Chan is the BEST ANIME CONCEPT! by Alan+Holman · · Score: 0

      I didn't make the drawings, and they're great. And how can you have read it in just an hour? There's thirteen scripts -- I'm assuming that you just read the comic which doesn't even tell the story of the first quarter of the first script -- that's about what you had time for between the post and your reply. In other words, you're mocking something that you didn't even get to know. That's not cool, man. You're not cool.

  38. Bad analogy by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 1

    For one thing, we weren't taking money "away" from Iraq...just limiting how we would do business with them and what we would sell them.

    They could buy all the food and medicine they wanted (and in fact, Iraq imported more food in 2002 than it did pre-Gulf War I).

    But I'm curious...were you pro-war or anti-war here? Personally, I think we should've finished the job back in 1991, but I disagree that the Iraqis that Hussein killed after then were somehow "caused by us". No, they were caused by Hussein.

    1. Re:Bad analogy by pantropik · · Score: 1

      I was a teenager during the Gulf War and didn't know nearly as much as I thought (not much different now, I'm sure). At the time, I was all for it. Just had to look at Kuwait and look at Iraq. Kuwait didn't have a chance in hell of resisting and you know what they say, "For evil to triumph good must only do nothing," or words to that effect. Besides, the US literally created the monster (Saddam) beginning back in 1959 (CIA recruited him as an assassin and he failed miserably, too lazy to look for a link).

      So, damn right, we should have to deal with it. He was in a literal sense our creation and his mess was our mess. Yet another reason to blame the US for the atrocities he committed. You don't make a monster and set it loose and then wash your hands of the whole thing. Not and stand next to the Stars and Stripes and talk about what a great American you are, anyway.

      So we did something about him in 91. But far from enough. The current war is more complicated. We hear the talking heads spouting crap about weapons of mass destruction when in fact the weapons of mass destruction he USED on people were given to him by -- surprise -- us. The pressing question about Gulf War Syndrome isn't really whether he used WMDs against our troops but whether he used WMDs we gave him against our troops. But, prior to Kuwait everything was fine as long as he was doing our dirty work (destabilizing and terrorizing the evil Iran, giving Moscow the cold shoulder, and basically keeping the rest of his neighbors on pins and needles). If you pressed me I could find links for all this, but Google works for everyone.

      It's hard to be for the war when you detest the blatant hypocrisy of the people and politics responsible. It's hard to not be for the war when it's the right thing to do for nearly 30 million people. I was whole-heartedly for liberating Iraq, but the way Bush went about it sucked. Or maybe it didn't. I don't know.

      Bush could end world hunger and deliver peace on earth and I'd probably still despise him on principle and that's certainly a small-minded attitude. Fortunately, I'm not in a position of power to force that attitude on the world.

      I just think he's a small-minded, not-very-bright piece of redneck trash dressed up in family money who's been handed everything he ever had, including a presidential election. I live in Florida (only a few miles from the capital building, actually) and also have no great love for Jeb with his heavy-handed "morals" and drug-addled offspring.

      Bush is turning the country I love into a country I could easily learn to fear. I don't trust him and I never will. So I support removing Hussein from power (should have been done long ago, or better yet we should have never created him as an instrument of the Cold War to start with) but I don't trust the motives of the people responsible for doing it. Did they do a good thing? Yes. Are they going to turn it to their own purposes? Just ask Halliburton ...

      Sorry if this is less than crystal clear, but I've been up for ages and the screen is starting to blur ...

  39. .THIS .IS .A .PAGE .WIDENING .POST .SO .STICK .IT. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You .Other .Brothers .Can't .Deny .I .like .wide .pages .I .wish .all .pages .could .be .as .wide .as .this .dont .you .wide .pages .are .much .cooler .than .those .narrow .pages .you .are .used .to .reading .because .you .dont .have .to .worry .about .the .lameness .filter .telling .you .that .you .don't .have .enough .charaters .per .line .that .really .sucks .when .that .happens .and .you .have .to .put .some .lame .lameness .filter .defeater .text .in .there .i .wonder .how .many .people .will .read .this .whole .comment .I .certainly .hope .it .doesnt .annoy .too .many .people .This .is .just .the .beginning .because .PAGE .WIDENING .IS .BACK You .Other .Brothers .Can't .Deny .I .like .wide .pages .I .wish .all .pages .could .be .as .wide .as .this .dont .you .wide .pages .are .much .cooler .than .those .narrow .pages .you .are .used .to .reading .because .you .dont .have .to .worry .about .the .lameness .filter .telling .you .that .you .don't .have .enough .charaters .per .line .that .really .sucks .when .that .happens .and .you .have .to .put .some

  40. Re:Announcement of Great Religious Significance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hahaha. that was funny. Ah ya, slashdot still has some gems at -1.

  41. Re:And this surprises you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With ideas of "this isn't fair", "people are poor and starving over there", and if you go to any sort of liberal rallies you will see people using very expressive (sometimes overly exaggerated speech). Keep this in mind, this is a common technique to excite people and get them involved emotionally in your cause. And emotions have no place in logic.

    HA HA sorry man I was totally with you up until this part of your post. I really don't think you can point the finger at libbies on this one.

    How about when the president says "september 11" in every other sentence? How about whenever somebody says a certain law is unconstitutional, the other guy says "3000 lives lost ... tragic events of 9/11 ... post-9/11 world ... blah blah".

    Seriously, when the guy across the table is talking about people who died in terrorist attacks, you'll look like a FOOL if you question his plan to install cameras in every bathroom around the country at a taxpayer cost of billions of dollars.

    How many people die in a year from non-terrorism related accidents..let's have some perspective...whenever somebody invokes the "tragic events of 9/11" he should be removed from the table and replaced with someone who can make a reasoned argument.

    They interviewed the guy who was pouring expensive French champagne down the toilet and they asked him why .. he said "because 3000 of my countrymen died on 9/11" .. that doesn't even make any SENSE... but you can't say anything because invoking the ghosts of those people who died instantly shuts up all critics.

    Cop: "Why did you just run that red light?"

    Me: "On that tragic day September 2001, the world changed."

    Cop: *sniff* "Yeah, shit, what was I thinking .. go ahead man .. may God be with you."

    Emotional manipulation is at the core of any politician's speech.

  42. I am so turned on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You make me HOT, I want to fuck you!
    Keep widening those pages, you sexy thing.

    (This was not sarcasm, keep trolling good man)

  43. You must be a real devil with the ladies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    n/t, idiot

  44. Reply by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares if monster.com deletes these people's resumes. It's their service and they can list who they want.

  45. Condoleezza proof read (nt) by jeti · · Score: 1

    simple

  46. Soo by autopr0n · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I suppose you think it's perfictly alright for a club keep out black people? or for a company not to hire mexicans?

    Just because you own something dosn't mean you should be able to do whatever the hell you want on it.

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:Soo by Robert1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm so going to get modded down for this "negative opinion" but here it goes anyway.

      Yes, a private club should be able to do anything they please. A company that provides a free service should be allowed to give it to whomever they please.

      Hey, if I don't want you coming to my house, I can kick you out. If I were to give free car-washes down the street and I don't like you, too bad, you're not getting one.

      The hiring practices of corporations is unrelated to the issue. No one is hiring anyone to work at monster.com, they're simply denying their FREE SERVICE to whomever they please.

      Remember when you walk into a store and they " reserve the right to kick you out for any reason?" Yeah, same idea.

      Public does not equal private.
      Paying service does not equal gift.

      That's my 2 cents.

    2. Re:Soo by GileadGreene · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I suppose you think it's perfictly alright for a club keep out black people?

      Yes.

      or for a company not to hire mexicans?

      Yes.

      Just because you own something dosn't mean you should be able to do whatever the hell you want on it.

      Actually, it does. That's what ownership is.

      I may think that it's stupid and bigoted for a club to not accept black members, and I think I have a right to tell them so, but I don't think it's my right to force a private club to do something it doesn't choose to do. Similarly, I may think that it's idiotic for a company to refuse to hire Mexicans instead of just hiring the best person for the job, but I also think that the company has a right to make that decision. The whole point of private ownership is that the owner of something has control over that something. If they don't have ultimate control, they are not the owner - by definition.

      The advantage of this particular approach is that it not only stops me from forcing other people to things they don't want to do, it also prevents other people from making me do things that I disagree with. I like to have that freedom.

    3. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Troll

      Strangely enough, I seem to remember some very high-profile court cases about some country clubs that wouldn't let in female or black members.

      So, discrimination's only OK when those discriminated against live in another country and can't sue you, huh?

    4. Re:Soo by CAIMLAS · · Score: 1

      A perfectly valid reason to not hire a black or mexican person, or to deny them access to a club, is pretty straightforward. Let's say I've previously hired a black/mexican person, and possibly several of them, because I'm required to by law. They all ended up stealing from me, not working and just standing about, or something like that. Another black man that comes to the bar looking for work with similar character traits as the previous goons comes along, and I now have a valid reason to not hire them.

      Now, if some cool black or mexican guy came along and wanted a job at my pub, then sure, he has the job.

      --
      ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
    5. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The whole point of private ownership is that the owner of something has control over that something. If they don't have ultimate control, they are not the owner - by definition.

      Should landowners be allowed to kill trespassers?
    6. Re:Soo by sg_oneill · · Score: 1

      Here I was thinking we wheren't in the 50's. Who do those black people think they are with those civil rights and stuff. Thinking they can ask for jobs. THE SHEER NERVE!

      YeeeeHAAW! I'm gunna go feed the chickens!

      Awww.... I give up. I can't even tolerate being sarcastic about this sort of bullshit... Robert, If someone refuses stuff on racist grounds, by definition they are always racist.
      I'll even go one further and say racist fucking scum.

      Nah Fuck Monster. It maybe there own private service, but hiring practices based on ethnicity is a hanging offence in my books. DDOS anyone?

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    7. Re:Soo by Bodrius · · Score: 1

      I don't know if they should, but I think they are.

      As a matter of fact, that's why you can kill the stranger that broke into your house before you seen him stealing, or say, trying to rape/kill you.

      It's also one of the reasons police have to identify themselves before barging into people's houses.

      Owners and/or guardians of a property CAN shoot unauthorized intruders at will.

      Of course, they might have some problems while proving that the other person was effectively trespassing (there was no implicit or explicit invitation, etc. ) and there will be no lack of legal hassle, but the same thing applies to other human-death justifications: self-defense, accidents, etc.

      The fact that most landowners don't go shooting every door-to-door salesman that appears on their property, and most private security guards don't go postal on local teenage vandals has more to do with common sense and lawyer's bills than fear of actually breaking the law.

      --
      Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
    8. Re:Soo by TopShelf · · Score: 1

      Nothing seems to get people more worked up for a self-righteous rant than the possibility of "racism." This has absolutely nothing to do with ethnicity or race, but merely government policy. Monster is trying to comply with federal law, and not engaging in commerce with sanctioned countries. Get a grip...

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
    9. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and this federal law is discriminating
      1938 was it right for a german to be rasistic just because their government said it was right?????

    10. Re:Soo by skillet-thief · · Score: 5, Insightful
      The whole point of private ownership is that the owner of something has control over that something. If they don't have ultimate control, they are not the owner - by definition.

      The whole point of private ownership is that no one can take your stuff away from you. They have to buy it. Private ownership doesn't give you ultimate control over anything.

      If I own a gun, it doesn't mean I can do whatever I want with it. Ditto for a car, and so on. Private ownership means the gov't shouldn't be able to come along and take those things away from me without some kind of due process.

      The basic problem here is that, even if you own something, including a business, you still have to live in society with other people who also have rights. Private ownership doesn't eliminate all concern for other people or their rights, or their aspirations for equality.

      --

      Congratulations! Now we are the Evil Empire

    11. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and a white one with the same character will be hired???

    12. Re:Soo by Elequin · · Score: 1

      I suppose you think it's perfictly alright for a club keep out black people? or for a company not to hire mexicans?

      Well.. No. It's not okay for a company to not hire mexicans. If that's the only reason they're not hiring a person, that's against the law. However, it's perfectly legal for a club to not allow a person in because of just about anything they choose.

      Employment laws are quite a bit different from any sort of anti-segregation feelings most of us have.

      Just because you own something dosn't mean you should be able to do whatever the hell you want on it.

      That most certainly depends on what you're doing. :) If you're not hiring someone or giving someone a loan (or a few other exceptions), the government shouldn't really be telling you what you can and can not do.

    13. Re:Soo by RattRigg · · Score: 1

      Spoken like someone who doesnt own anything.

      --
      I started with nothing and I still have most of it.
    14. Re:Soo by Zakabog · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Ummm actually... if you legally own a gun, you can do whatever you want with it on your own property. You can point it at your wife, your dog, your foot, take it apart, shove it up your ass, it's your gun. Now if you shoot someone and cause bodily harm, that's illegal, if you kill them, that's even worse. Same with a car, you wanna drive around in your private parking lot for hours in circles? Have fun! Go onto a public road and drive like a maniac and you're putting other people at risk, that's illegal. You can drive your car into a cement wall, if you own the car, the wall, and the land the wall's on. But you can't drive it into the house of someone you dislike. Restricting a black person from entering your night club is completely legal, it's your club let in whoever you'd like. Taking them inside and beating the crap out of them before kicking them out is illegal though.

      My grandmother owns a restaurant/bar, she's allowed to chose who comes in, it's her buisiness. If she doesn't want to let a black man in she's allowed to do that. If she doesn't want to let you use cell phones, she's allowed to do that. If she wants to make everyone do 20 jumping jacks before they order, she can do that. It might be bad for buisiness (well the cell phone thing she does, cell phones are just annoying) but it's completely legal. She isn't allowed to deny a person a job based on race/religion/sex, that's illegal (at least I'm pretty sure it is.)

    15. Re:Soo by skillet-thief · · Score: 1
      My grandmother owns a restaurant/bar, she's allowed to chose who comes in, it's her buisiness. If she doesn't want to let a black man in she's allowed to do that. If she doesn't want to let you use cell phones, she's allowed to do that.

      Using cell phones and being black are 2 different things.

      Your grandmother can refuse to serve anyone she wants, on an individual basis. However, if she decides to refuse all black people, she is going to get into trouble with the law.

      --

      Congratulations! Now we are the Evil Empire

    16. Re:Soo by Zakabog · · Score: 2, Funny

      No she won't, if it was a public place than anyone is allowed in. But it is a private buisiness, she can say that black people aren't allowed in and that's fine.

    17. Re:Soo by radish · · Score: 1

      Rubbish - it's called Racial Discrimination and it's very illegal.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    18. Re:Soo by The+AtomicPunk · · Score: 1

      I suppose you think it's perfictly alright for a club keep out black people? or for a company not to hire mexicans?

      Just because you own something dosn't mean you should be able to do whatever the hell you want on it.
      You want some freedom with those fries?


      Apparently you don't want any freedom with those fries.

      Forcing a company to abide by YOUR viewpoint isn't Freedom. Freedom requires allowing someone to hire who they want, for whatever reason, no matter how reprehensible.

      If they won't hire blacks or Mexicans, it'll eventually hurt them a lot more than it will hurt blacks or Mexicans.

    19. Re:Soo by The+AtomicPunk · · Score: 1

      Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose; other than that, swing away.

      Likewise, you have the right to do whatever you want with a gun, provided you don't infringe on anyone else's right to life, liberty, or property.

    20. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Will Sienfeld ever air on BET?

    21. Re:Soo by notb4dinner · · Score: 1

      I agree with you completely, however.... Any member of the public also has the right to publicly state that they believe what you are doing is immoral, organise boycotts against the business or apply pressure by any other means that lies within the law.

    22. Re:Soo by skillet-thief · · Score: 1
      Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose; other than that, swing away.

      But what about these chemical weapons I've got in my basement? Can I keep them, as long as I promise not to use them on anyone?

      --

      Congratulations! Now we are the Evil Empire

    23. Re:Soo by Tonytheloony · · Score: 1
      Remember when you walk into a store and they " reserve the right to kick you out for any reason?" Yeah, same idea.

      Since when can stores kick out black people just because they don't like them? It would be discrimination and that's illegal.

      --
      The quickest way to become an atheist is to study the Bible thoroughly.
    24. Re:Soo by PyromanFO · · Score: 1

      Okay, so Monster.com owns thier company, but they can't do things like that because you disagree.

      Fine. Next time Microsoft gets Administrator access on your box, and deletes non-Microsoft programs, you have no right to bitch. You may own the box, but they disagree with your choice of software, so you can't choose it.

      Just because its an evil and despicable thing to do doesn't mean they should be barred from doing it. Its thier service, to tell them what they can and cannot do with it is exactly like telling you what you can and cannot do with your computer. Let em do it and lose all thier customers. Id much rather see them humiliated than litigated to death.

    25. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn where is the "WRONG!" moderation option when you need it.

    26. Re:Soo by chickenboy2064 · · Score: 1

      Just to pick nits, that would be racial discrimination, and that is illegal. Other forms of discrimination are legal.

    27. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I was developing a website for a client, I was using your standard country pop-up menu code snippet.

      It was in alphabetical order (of course; why not?) and so, naturally, Afghanistan was the first country listed in the menu when people filled out the form.

      In the wake of September 11, people freaked and assumed that someone had hacked the website! My client told me to simply go ahead and remove Afghanistan from the list of countries in the code snippet.

      Since then, noone in Afghanistan has been able to fill out any of the forms on that website. No real loss, probably, as I doubt that the organization has *ever* had members or participants from Afghanistan anyway. Nonetheless, it does mean that one country was effectively "blocked" from participating in that organization.

      I imagine that part of Monster's actions derive from an understanding of the political sensitivity of listing countries that many Americans feel fear towards at this moment. There are probably many factors, but that no doubt is one of them.

    28. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      I suppose you think it's perfectly alright for a club keep out black people? yes
      or for a company not to hire mexicans? yes


      I must agree with this poster, but let's clarify a few points:

      I do believe a private club should accept whomever they wish. BUT if a "private club" refuses blacks, I will do my best to let them know I find them despicable, and would avoid doing business/relations with the club or any members (not buy from them, not be present in activities if one of the members is an active organizer/participant). I might go to the occasional rally in front of their building, and I will make sure to propagate to all the fact that "Joe" is a member of that racists club.

      As for Mexicans, I live in Los Angeles, and it is illegal to hire Mexicans unless they have the proper working papers/visa. Latinos in general on the other hand are hired constantly.

      I don't agree with Monster's decision. It should be the hiring party to sort candidates. ***But if Monster fears the government to bash in the door because of the DMCA or the Patriot Act then they just have to cover their ars.

    29. Re:Soo by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "I suppose you think it's perfictly alright for a club keep out black people?"

      As long as they're not getting any government money, it's well within their First Amendment rights to do so. Whether or not they want to deal with the PR is another issue.

      "or for a company not to hire mexicans?"

      My, how interestingly vague that statement is. That could mean anything from "natural-born US citizen of Mexican descent," it could mean "illegal Mexican aliens," or just about anything in between. But why muddy up a perfectly good troll with details?

      "Just because you own something dosn't mean you should be able to do whatever the hell you want on it."

      As long as it's not infringing on anybody else's rights (and no, you don't have the right to join somebody else's private organization), that's exactly what it means.

    30. Re:Soo by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "If I own a gun, it doesn't mean I can do whatever I want with it."

      Yes, you are, so long as you're not putting anybody else (or their property) at risk by doing so.

      "Ditto for a car, and so on."

      You can do whatever you damned well please with your car as long as it's not on state-own roads.

    31. Re:Soo by bani · · Score: 1

      sure. the boy scouts keep out atheists, which is religious discrimination.

      i dont see why a club shouldnt be able to demonstrate to the whole world that they are bigoted fuckwits. not that you didnt know that already about the boy scouts.

    32. Re:Soo by rindeee · · Score: 1

      Damn straight...you tell'em. I'm taking my angry-white-mail self down to New Lady Fitness right now and DEMAND that they give me a membership! What a moron.

    33. Re:Soo by phriedom · · Score: 1

      "Remember when you walk into a store and they " reserve the right to kick you out for any reason?" Yeah, same idea."

      You do realize that just because they put of a sign, doesn't mean that they really have that right, don't you? Self appointed rights have all the legal authority of tissue paper.

      Some kinds of discrimination are just fine, and some are judged by society to be immoral, and a further subset are judged by lawmakers to be illegal. Just because it is a free service or private property, doesn't mean some laws don't apply.

      --
      Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
    34. Re:Soo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For a club to base wether or not to accept a member or a hier a person based on race would be totally unacceptable in most cases unless affrimative action was involved, but if Monster.com is removing listing based on geographic data that would be totally acceptable, I'm sure the employers would feel somewhat better knowing that they are at least not aiding Al Quaeda or any other terror network to get valid visas into this country. I for one think is a good idea, at least for the time being when the Middle-East is still such a hot zone.

    35. Re:Soo by saden1 · · Score: 1

      There is such a thing as JUST CAUSE! Because if you kick someone out without stating the cause you are likely to get you ass sue and probably lose a lot of money at that.

      In the state of Washington there is a law that says an Employee can terminate you at will BUT if an employee doesn't give a reason you are allowed to sue their ass off. Essencially, you can claim anything you want.

      Just because a law is in the books doesn't mean they can't be challenged, Especially when one law conflicts with another.

      --

      -----
      One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
    36. Re:Soo by Rares+Marian · · Score: 1

      So much for night clubs...

      --
      The message on the other side of this sig is false.
    37. Re:Soo by stanmann · · Score: 1

      Ok, You listed two reasons, One black, two I don't like them. If you happen to be black and I don't like you, I can kick you out. I just can't kick you out because you are black...

      --
      Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
  47. At least you are honest by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 1

    with the fact that your dislike of Bush is largely irrational. That doesn't mean you don't have real or even good reasons for disliking him, but like a lot of people that seem to dislike him, if you strip the good or real reasons, you are still left with a large amount of bile.

    This is somewhat similar to the way conservatives viewed Clinton, only the Democratic/left hatred of Bush is of substantially greater magnitude...bordering on the black helicopter crowd.

    I suggest you do some more research on the US-Iraq relationship. It was never as cozy as the left likes to claim. All of the stuff we gave Iraq that went to their WMD was dual use chemicals, of which the primary purpose was not the production of WMD. We certainly didn't help him in his quest to produce VX. For that, you can blame the Germans.

    Back to Bush, what exactly is Bush doing that you fear so much?

    1. Re:At least you are honest by pantropik · · Score: 1

      I don't think the whole "dual use" chemicals thing really holds up. I mean, if I know some guy is an evil son-of-a-bitch who gets his rocks off blowing people's guts out I could give him a high-powered rifle and some ammo "just for hunting". Could I really plead innocence when he blew a lot of people's guts out instead (or even in addition to)?

      To answer your question, here's some stream-of-consciousness crap as it pops into my head. Don't expect much ...

      The Bush administration lacks transparency, even actively shuns it. Ashcroft has all but gutted the Freedom of Information act. Thanks to the Patriot Act we now have an embryonic (or is that too optimistic an assessment) Secret Police. Patriot II goes even further. Not only can you be surveilled and detained indefinitely without being told why and with little to no judicial oversight, your citizenship (and all attendent rights) can literally be taken away. A government with nothing to hide embraces disclosure, or at least has the decency to make a grand show of pretending to.

      The government condemns Syria out one side of its mouth and asks them to vigorously "question" people for us out the other side.

      We are told that protesters are at best unAmerican and at worst no better than terrorists. The Chinese say the same thing, oddly enough ...

      Senator Santorum says "... I have a problem with homosexual acts. As I would with acts of other, what I would consider to be, acts outside of traditional heterosexual relationships. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." The administration tacitly approves: "But the president believes that the senator is an inclusive man. ... The president has confidence in Senator Santorum and thinks he's doing a good job as senator -- including in his leadership post." Fortunately racism is out of fashion ...

      The government condemns the Iraqis for wanting a strong religious element in their new government while every eighth word out of Bush's mouth is "God". He is welcome to his faith, don't get me wrong, but it has no place in matters of foreign policy and certainly no place in his decision to wage war. Every time I hear him mixing God into his war propaganda I get a little shiver of revulsion. I have great respect for those with faith, probably because I have none of my own and maybe that's a weakness or maybe it isn't. At any rate, Bush was quoted before he became president as saying that (paraphrased, of course) atheists aren't good Americans anyway ... so what does my opinion matter?

      Congress has willingly castrated itself (by pretty much gutting the War Powers Act, among other things, such as signing the Patriot Act into law literally without knowing what it was in any specific way). The sunset clause that would rescind the Patriot Act in 2005? An amendment is making the rounds that would do away with that and make the new powers permnanent, even though the administration actively refuses to disclose, even to high-ranking members of Congress, exactly how these new powers have been used and how effective they've been at achieving their stated goals.

      Libraries are supposed to keep records of who checks out what books, make those records available to law enforcement officials on demand, and are forbidden under law to tell their patrons any disclosure has been made. What is the difference between forbidding the populace to read about certain topics and making them very very scared to read about certain topics?

      I could think of plenty more, but I'm sure this is enough to piss off any number of people and get my karma slaughtered quite nicely. Plus I'm just plain old tired. If someone absolutely insists I provide links to substantiate this stuff, it'll have to wait.

  48. But... by Loki_1929 · · Score: 1

    But... but... I thought you had the right to remain silent? I thought that anything you say can be used against you in a court of law? I thought you had the right to an attourney, and that if you couldn't afford one, one would be appointed to you?

    [Ashcroft] This is normally the case, except the terrorism terrorist was terrorizing September 11th terrorist weapons of mass destruction nuclear biological radiological terrorist chemical radiation death September 11th die fear terrorist terrorism pain alert death red alert nuclear radioactive terrorist terrorist.

    [Public] Oh my God, lock him up! Terrorist?! Terrorism?! Make it stop, please! We'll do anything just-make-it-stop!



    Pathetic.

    --
    -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    1. Re:But... by standsolid · · Score: 1

      no. i'm sorry but this is a pathetic attempt at seeming intelligent or "cool" with the community. Just becasue everyone else is doing it doesn't make it cool to totally twist things out of proportion. ashcroft (and the bush administration) are making mistakes, but do you really think the public is SO DUMB that they can't make concience decisions fro themselves? i mean seriously. I'm the public, you're the public. I don't cry when a country singer hits a high note singin' "nine eleven" or "iraq and i roll". Yes miranda rights are read to you when being arrested, very good. but where do you go when you're arrested? i mean it's cool if you strongly believe the public eats up whatever the administrations deals out -- but give them /some/ credit.

      --
      WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
      What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
    2. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but do you really think the public is SO DUMB that they can't make concience decisions fro themselves?

      I don't for him, but I really think this.

    3. Re:But... by Loki_1929 · · Score: 1

      "i'm sorry but this is a pathetic attempt at seeming intelligent or "cool" with the community."

      Actually, it's a personal pot-shot. Check my previous postings on the subject and you'll get a sense for my feelings.

      " i mean it's cool if you strongly believe the public eats up whatever the administrations deals out -- but give them /some/ credit."

      I'll give them some credit when they rise up in defense of the rights of Jose Padilla. I'll give them some credit when they rise up against statements by Ashcroft equating dissent to treason. I'll give them some credit when they break down the courthouse doors to get into these secret deportation proceedings to find out what the hell's being done in the name of the American public. I'll give them some credit when they give a damn. When I say this, I'm referring to the overwhelming majority, not the few folks here or at the EFF or the ACLU; obviously.

      I'll now paraphrase what another poster said regarding the American public a few months ago:

      "Menace the average modern American with anything halfway alarming -- terrorism, crime, or any other of today's various boogeymen -- and in place ot their forbearer's bravery, idealism, and resolve, they will show cowardice, surrender, and an astounding aptitude for cognative dissonence. They will gratefully trade their liberties for even the illusion of security, and will gladly indenture themselves to anyone who claims to offer them safety."

      I strike at the American public for the aforementioned reasons, and I strike at Ashcroft and the administration in general for taking advantage of the situation and the public.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    4. Re:But... by arkanes · · Score: 1

      It's even sadder when you realized that we teach high school studends all about this sort of government technique (1984, how Hitler came to power), and people still can't recognize it when it's in front of them.

    5. Re:But... by standsolid · · Score: 1
      are you an american? (i mean that totally geographically) I assume you are reading your past comments/journals as you suggested. you know, i don't personally agree with most of our administration's decisions, and i agree with the feel of your message, saying you have rights taht aren't being given.
      This is what upset me in your post

      ...[Public] Oh my God, lock him up! Terrorist?! Terrorism?! Make it stop, please! We'll do anything just-make-it-stop!


      who is this generalized "public"? I'm the "public". Aren't you're the "public"? I see your stance against the US administration's misuse of power, but i really fail to grasp why it is you are attacking the american public under this big umbrella. there are portions of the population that blindly follow what their leaders say... "I rekin' you shoul' throw all o' dem ter'st's with sah-dam on an island...out there... and blow 'em up" but generalizing the entire population? I've seen some pretty thick brained people make the correlation of this to mcarthy procedings at least. For example, In a high school english class students say "hey, communism was used kind of like how terrorism is being used".

      c'mon. it really doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the connection (maybe if ashcroft holds upa folder proclaiming he has names of terrorists within us administration -- then it'd get blatant). Could you give me some examples of ignorant americans spouting off on how great their administration is? (honestly, i haven't seen any that weren't wearing cowboy boots and strummin' a guitar). I await your responce

      (oh and by the way, the typos are just out of my plain laziness)
      --
      WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
      What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
    6. Re:But... by Loki_1929 · · Score: 1

      Yes, I'm an American. And more than that, I'm a patriot who loves his country with all his heart. What's more, my government's current actions with regard to the "war on terrorism" are absolutely killing me.

      "Could you give me some examples of ignorant americans spouting off on how great their administration is?"

      My own mother for starters. Every time I'm visiting I get an earful about how great the administration is, and every time I mention a violation of the Constitution, the response is: "oh, go hug a terrorist". Truly sad. But think about it; Bush has a 70%+ approval rating. Who on Earth would give their approval of an administration geared toward bringing about the same Justice Dept abuses of the 1960's and 1970's on a "1984" scale using McCarthy era tactics? How about someone who doesn't recognize that these are abuses because they're blinded by fear?

      In my previous post, I qualified the "American Public" as the majority; not folks like you and me, or those at the EFF or ACLU who understand what's going on and have been working against it. If the American Public thought like you and I, there would be 200+million Americans protesting throughout the country to stop the Justice Dept tactics in place, calling for the resignation and prosecution of John Ashcroft, calling for the USA PATRIOT Act to be put through a shredder, tearing apart the FBI's and NSA's offices to find out just how much our lives have been invaded by our government, and tearing through the FISA court's documents to see just how bad of a "rubber stamp" court it really is; possibly leading to us calling for an end to the FISA court as it exists today.

      What we have instead is the President with a 70%+ approval rating by the "American Public". That means that even a number of people who consider themselves Democrats still approve of this Republican President. Now, don't get me wrong; I think a person should give their approval to a President who they believe is doing a good job regardless of their political affiliation. However, I think this is clearly a case where so many people are blinded by the fear perpetuated by this administration that nearly any abuse can go virtually unnoticed. When a major administration official, the AG, can stand up in Congress and equate dissent with treason (even going so far as to quote the Constitutional definition), and more than 70% of the American public still give their approval, I think there's a major problem. When the government can put up signs on the side of the road without them being ripped up that say the following:

      ANY suspicious person or activity will IMMEDIATELY be reported to our Law Enforcement Agency
      (Posted by the Homeland Security Dept)

      I think there's a problem. There were limits placed on the government by those who created it precisely because they didn't trust that the government would always be one working in the best interests of the people. That we now have an administration actively working to bypass those restrictions really says something about that administration. But more than that, it says something about the American public, which is allowing and even approving of it. I attack the stance of the American public, and the vision (for lack of a better word) of the American public because it is the American public under a big umbrella which is supporting the incredibly unconstitutional acts of this administration.

      "saying you have rights taht aren't being given."

      I also take issue with this statement. I understand your message, and I agree with that, but when you say "rights that aren't being given", the implication is that the rights are given to me by the government or the administration. According to the Declaration of Independence, on which the US Constitution's power is based, the rights I have are given to me by my creator; my God if you will. The government exists soley to ensure that those rights are secured; so says the US Declaration of Independence. Also from the Dec

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    7. Re:But... by standsolid · · Score: 1

      thank you for giving me an example. i am surrounded with intelligent people (not to e harsh or demeaning to your mother) that really think things through when it comes to actins taken by your administration... or at least from what i've seen so far. Your mother is a prefect example and if there are more like that i can see 100% where you are coming from and i will retract any statement from before. I didn't know the approval was still at 70% -- jeez.

      --
      WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
      What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
    8. Re:But... by Loki_1929 · · Score: 1

      " i am surrounded with intelligent people (not to e harsh or demeaning to your mother) that really think things through when it comes to actins taken by your administration..."

      That's just it, she's extremely intelligent, but has shifted further and further right in her latter years. Boardering on what I would consider extremist at this point, she continues to be able to support everything she says with a (albeit twisted) logical base. All the more reason why it's tough to talk some sense into her.

      In terms of the approval rating, in his capacity as commander in chief, it's expected that he have a high rating. In a perpetual conflict with terrorism, however, it looks to me as though it's more and more of a political capital generator. In any event, all we can hope for at this point is that the Dems can come up with a reasonable and viable alternative to Bush. So far, the Dems seem confused and fractured; completely unable to beat anyone, let alone a popular sitting President.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    9. Re:But... by standsolid · · Score: 1

      So far, the Dems seem confused and fractured; completely unable to beat anyone, let alone a popular sitting President.

      well you can always vote third-party

      Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away!

      don't blame me, i voted for kodos :)

      --
      WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
      What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
    10. Re:But... by Loki_1929 · · Score: 1

      I'd vote for Perot if that crazy little bastard runs again :P

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  49. Can this be legal? by jeti · · Score: 2, Insightful

    (Ok, slashdot is not the place to ask this.)

    But don't the USA have laws against racism and discrimination that might apply?

    1. Re:Can this be legal? by porkchop_d_clown · · Score: 1

      Yes, because monster did it in order to comply with the law. There are laws that forbid US firms from doing business with certain countries; such as Cuba, Libya and so on....

  50. Balki by Vampyre_Dark · · Score: 1

    Poor Balki Bartakamous, cast out because he's from Mypos.

  51. Oh man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know two cute girls from Iraq that're going to be thrilled about this.

    One in her best vally girl (amusing to here with a Iraq accent): DUUDE that's SO fucked up!

    The other: Men are bastards and evil...wan't a coffe?

  52. Too much PC bad too by 0x0d0a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I suppose you think it's perfictly alright for a club keep out black people?

    Sure, I don't have any problem with it. It's perfectly legitimate for organizations that practice discrimination along just about any lines they want to exist. There are a few very specific rules: government organizations and even private businesses when it comes to employment have some constraints on them. It's part of letting ideas flow freely. If people want to hang out with a bunch of other white supremacists and not let blacks join a club, I think they should certainly be entitled to do so. Trying to prohibit something like this becomes completely unenforceable, because race plays a role in all sorts of small organizations.

    However, a business is more than entitled not to sell their product to anyone they want to, if they so choose.

    or for a company not to hire mexicans?

    As long as they're Mexican-Americans, legal citizens of the United States of America, I don't think it's legal to hire based on race, though it can be hard to prove.

    Actually, I wish even this restriction was eliminated. Let natural selection take over. If IBM decides that it doesn't want to hire any Hispanics at all, and Apple does, and Miguel de Izaca works for Apple instead, it's IBM's loss.

    When I see lawsuits like the infamous Hooters one (where a male was suing because he couldn't work as a waiter in a Hooters restauraunt), I get a little disgusted with the state of enforced PCness.

    1. Re:Too much PC bad too by skillet-thief · · Score: 4, Insightful
      However, a business is more than entitled not to sell their product to anyone they want to, if they so choose.

      This is just not true...

      From a legal point of view, all the court decisions on segregration should be more than enough to prove that. A grocery store can't refuse to sell food to people based on race, a restaurant can't refuse to serve people based on race. You can't refuse to sell your house to someone for racial reasons. Etc. etc.

      The rest of your post just shows how far unbridled libertarianism can lead you.

      --

      Congratulations! Now we are the Evil Empire

    2. Re:Too much PC bad too by autopr0n · · Score: 1

      Sure, I don't have any problem with it. It's perfectly legitimate for organizations that practice discrimination along just about any lines they want to exist.

      Well, you might not have a problem with it, but that dosn't mean anything at all.

      --
      autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    3. Re:Too much PC bad too by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      "Legitimate" as in legal under our current system, which means the majority has presumably agreed with me. ;-)

    4. Re:Too much PC bad too by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1, Insightful

      This is just not true...

      Umm, sorry, it is true. Hate to be the one to break it to you.

      From a legal point of view, all the court decisions on segregration should be more than enough to prove that.

      No, it should not be. Desegregation laws state that government and publicly funded organizations cannot discriminate, but private organizations are free to do whatever they want, and this is perfectly within the bounds of the Constitution by the Right of Freedom to Associate. Try looking at your Constitution a bit and you'll see that you can choose to associate with whomever you like and you cannot be compelled to associate with someone you don't.

      grocery store can't refuse to sell food to people based on race,

      Yes, it can. It would be stupid for someone to do so, but it most certainly can. If you disagree with me, then kindly point out the exact article and paragraph of any law in the United States that forces a private business owner to accept a particular type of customer. But you won't be able to do so, because such laws do not exist, and they would be unconstitutional.

      restaurant can't refuse to serve people based on race.

      Yes, you can, for exactly the same reasons as outlined above.

      You can't refuse to sell your house to someone for racial reasons

      Again, YES, YOU CAN. It's against the law for a publicly funded loan organization to deny someone a loan because of their race, color, creed, sex, age, or national origin, but a private owner of a home can choose to sell to whomever he or she wishes. What kind of society would you have? One that forces someone to sell their property or services, regardless of that person's wishes? Not a very free society.

      The rest of your post just shows how far unbridled libertarianism can lead you

      And your posts show just how shallow your thinking processes really are. You've spent absolutely zero brainpower thinking about the actual consequence of the implementation of what you propose. You've essentially said, "we don't care if it's your business, your property, your time, or whatever, we, the government, will force you to use your life/liberty/property in the way we see fit, and your free will has nothing to do with it." I'm sure you're a big fan of democracy, too...so long as it's your brand of democracy.

      The point of our society, as framed by the Founding Fathers, is that every person should have the rights to do whatever they want, whenver they want, however they want, so long as the exercise thereof does not impinge upon someone else's similar rights. It is the most fundamental law of the land! If I want to don a white sheet, chant racist slogans, and burn a cross in my front yard along with a bunch of other like-minded goons, I have every right to do so. You, as a free-thinking individual, have every right to refuse to serve me food at your restaurant (see, this racism thing works both ways, doesn't it?) because you don't like the Klan. Conversely, if that Klan member you refused to serve runs a gas station down the road, he's within his rights to refuse to sell you gas.

      It goes on and on, but the results the Founding Fathers intended is that socially undesirable traits will be naturally weeded out over time. Racists tend to congregate with more their kind but are generally shunned by enlightened society. If they wish to associate within their own inbred group, they're entitled to do so, and we have no right whatsoever to impose our collective wills upon them. We can, however, by exemption, keep them from associating with us, and they have no rights to force us to include them.

      Final comment: you, in your high-minded liberalism, have said that it ought to be illegal to refuse service to someone you don't like. I wonder how you'd feel if it was you who were providing the service to someone that you despi

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    5. Re:Too much PC bad too by Vellmont · · Score: 1
      I'm pretty sure most of what you said is wrong, with the exception of private clubs. (I believe the discrimination laws make a distinction between public, and private businesses/clubs/etc). I'm almost positive that you're wrong about housing discrimination laws, so let's start there.
      You can't refuse to sell your house to someone for racial reasons Again, YES, YOU CAN. It's against the law for a publicly funded loan organization to deny someone a loan because of their race, color, creed, sex, age, or national origin, but a private owner of a home can choose to sell to whomever he or she wishes. What kind of society would you have? One that forces someone to sell their property or services, regardless of that person's wishes? Not a very free society.
      Hmm.. a quick Google search turns up something called the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968. I found a good summary here. , but here's a quote of the relevant parts (emphasis mine):

      Protected Classes
      The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin or sex. The March 12, 1989 amendment expands the protected class to include the handicapped and families with children. ("Handicapped" is defined in the amendment to include any person who has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of having such a impairment or being regarded as having such an impairment.)

      Prohibited Practices
      The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits the following practices: 1. Refusal to sell, rent or otherwise deal with any person 2. Discrimination against any person in establishing terms or conditions for the sale or rented of housing 3. Discrimination in any advertising for the sale or rental of a dwelling 4. Denying that housing is available when it is 5. Panic Selling- attempting to influence any individual to sell or rent with threats that persons of a particular protected class status are entering the neighborhood. 6. Channeling- showing members of a protected class property in neighborhoods made up predominantly of the same minority background while not showing comparable properties in other neighborhoods.
      I really don't have the time, or interest to find laws on every point you're trying to make, I'll leave that as an excercise for the reader. The point is that there are federal laws that protect against racial discrimination. Do you really think racial discrimination at lunch counters and the like ended for economic reasons?

      As for "high minded liberalism", sorry, but laws against discrimnation for things like jobs, housing, and sitting at lunch counters isn't restricted to the "high minded liberal" camp anymore, it's a mainstream belief.
      --
      AccountKiller
    6. Re:Too much PC bad too by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

      you make so many excellent points, that I would hate to nit-pick, but I will anyway. It is illegal to not sell property because of race, this goes back to the 60's when the federal govt was trying to enforce desegregation laws and had to end the pratice of red-lining, a form of faux de-facto segregation where-in people could keep people of various ethnicities out of public schools by refusing to sell to them. Other than that, you made some excellent points.

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    7. Re:Too much PC bad too by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      Protected Classes
      The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin or sex. ...blah blah...

      Prohibited Practices
      The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits the following practices: 1. Refusal to sell, rent or otherwise deal with any person 2.


      If you'd done a bit more reading and a little less jumping to conclusions you'd have noted that the above guidelines only apply if you're trying to get a loan that is federally backed (i.e. a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan). As a private individual, you are free to sell to whomever you like for whatever reasons you like...PERIOD. If I own a house and I don't want to sell it to you, I don't even have to have a reason to not sell it to you. I could discriminate against you because of your race, your hairstyle, or whether you wore mismatched socks when I first saw you. It's my damned property, and neither you nor anyone else in this entire world has any damned rights to force me to sell it to anyone for any reason. If someone wants to be a racist bigoted jerk, they have every right to be, and you cannot force them into a particular behavior mode.

      I really don't have the time, or interest to find laws on every point you're trying to make, I'll leave that as an excercise for the reader. The point is that there are federal laws that protect against racial discrimination.

      Yes, and these laws applicable in many situations, but not all. As I have repeatedly stated, private transactions are not bound by these laws, yet for some reason you keep refusing to even acknowledge that I've said it. Instead, you keep holding up this ridiculous shield of "the feds say you can't do that" without having any relevant legal grounds to back it up. Are you suggesting that federal laws somehow prohibit me, an individual, from deciding who I'll sell my house, car, boat, or anything else to? You're deluding yourself! No such laws exist, nor can they exist within the framework of the Constitution!

      Do you really think racial discrimination at lunch counters and the like ended for economic reasons?

      Actually, I do. Social upheaval was tremendously unprofitable during the sixties. While there were undeniably many factors involved that led to desegregation, I tend to think that economic conditions had a fairly significant position in the mix. The maintenance of two separate infrastructures, one for whites and another for blacks, was very inefficient. Further, the exclusion of blacks from certain businesses hurt the businesses as much as those they discriminated against. A black person's dollars spent just the same as a white's, despite how many toothless rednecks wanted to believe otherwise.

      As for "high minded liberalism", sorry, but laws against discrimnation for things like jobs, housing, and sitting at lunch counters isn't restricted to the "high minded liberal" camp anymore, it's a mainstream belief.

      I was not suggesting that anti-discriminatory behavior was the purview of the the elites -- quite the opposite. What I was saying is that the poster's admonition that your private behavior should be strictly regulated by the government was evidence enough of his shallow thinking process, which it most certainly was and still is.

      Look, it doesn't matter whether the intentions of behavior laws are good or bad, it matters whether or not they're Constitutional. When somebody starts recklessly throwing around concepts like "the government regulates (or ought to regulate) how private individuals or organizations can conduct their associations and affairs", it makes me angry, because it's obvious these folks haven't fully thought through the ramifications of their actions. Can you not see that by advocating government control of private transactions, we'd be giving up a cherished right guaranteed to us in the Bill of Rights? Sure, the goal is noble (the reduction of discriminatio

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    8. Re:Too much PC bad too by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      And, like so many others who disagreed with me and think they have some magical law that nails the case, you're wrong.

      The statues you speak of do not apply to private transactions between individuals or private organizations that are not publicly funded. And if you'd do a small amount of thinking, you'd see why: such laws, if they existed, would be practically unenforceable. Allow me to give an example.

      Suppose I have a car to sell, but I'm some racist bigot. I place an ad in the paper, and two people come to bid on the car, one white, one black. I get to choose who I want to sell the car to. I have to provide absolutely no reasons whatsoever to anyone on the face of God's green Earth as to why I might chose the white guy over the black guy. There are no forms to fill out, no interrogations, no questionaires, no racial quota police standing over my shoulder. And if anybody asks, I sold it to the white guy because I liked his haircut, or because he was friendlier, or for whatever reason I might want to manufacture to cover up my racist motivations. There is absolutely no way anyone can prove that I acted based solely on race, since it was my property to do with as I liked. Further, the losing bidder cannot drag me into court and demand that I sell him the car...again, simply because it is private property, and as the owner I'm free to do whatever I damn well please with my private property, including not selling it to folks who "ain't the right color, y'know".

      Sure, it's crude and socially backwards, but the Constitution absolutely forbids the government to compell a citizen to behave a certain way with their property (with but few exceptions like eminent domain and such).

      Again, I'll ask you just like I asked everyone else to show me the exact law and/or statute that empowers the government to regulate membership, association, or transfer of property from one private person/organization to another. Do not bother me with some crap about federal loans or federal housing, because that's not a private transaction anymore.

      Good luck looking. You'll need it, because such laws do not exist, and further cannot exist under the current Constitution. As it states:

      Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble (emphasis mine), and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    9. Re:Too much PC bad too by goodhell · · Score: 1

      Actually, a business can discriminate against anyone they want.

      My dad owns a business and has a sign above the cash register. It reads. "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone at anytime." That way if a customer comes in starts being an asshole to the customers and the employees we can say. "RTFS. Now leave."

      But based solely on race, that is illegal and has been proven time and again in courts. The key word would be 'any-one'.

    10. Re:Too much PC bad too by saden1 · · Score: 1

      Like they say, tyranny is give birth by men with good intention (i.e. The Patriot Act).

      --

      -----
      One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
    11. Re:Too much PC bad too by saden1 · · Score: 1

      It is illegal to not sell property because of race

      This is a misnomer. If you are selling through a bank or an institution that is FDIC backed (who isn't now a days?) then you can't discriminate. But if you are willing to sit on your property and wait for someone to come along with 200+ thousand in cash to buy you house then you can certainly discriminate.

      --

      -----
      One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
    12. Re:Too much PC bad too by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

      jesus man, no reason to get so touchy about it. I didn't mean private sellers, becuase most houses are sold through banks and companies that are gov't certified. I mean, seriously, what crawled up your ass and died.

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    13. Re:Too much PC bad too by Vellmont · · Score: 1
      Well I'm not a lawyer so I can't interpret the actual law (and I did find it, it's quite complicated), but at least according to the HUD the Fair Housing Act applies to:

      The Fair Housing Act covers most housing. In some circumstances, the Act exempts owner-occupied buildings with no more than four units, single-family housing sold or rented without the use of a broker, and housing operated by organizations and private clubs that limit occupancy to members.


      So if I'm reading this right if you live in your house, and sell it yourself you may be able to discriminate. The vast majority of people use brokers to sell houses, so effectively most housing is protected by this law.
      --
      AccountKiller
    14. Re:Too much PC bad too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh, I thought Miguel worked for Microsoft...

    15. Re:Too much PC bad too by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      Is that the best, most thoughtful response you can make? An attack on me personally? You'd think that you might've tried to at least comment on the argument at hand. Alas...

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    16. Re:Too much PC bad too by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 1

      You're right that the vast majority is protected, but the reason this whole housing thing was brought into the argument in the first place was to prove that there are no legal or Constitutional mechanisms in place that govern how private property or assocation can be controlled by the government. Some poster mentioned that it's illegal to discriminate when selling a house, and that's patently wrong. It's not even illegal to discriminate on who gets a private loan, but it is illegal to discriminate on who'll get a federally backed and insured loan from an FDIC insured banking and loan institution. Just because the vast majority of the cases are protected does not confer some sort of blanket legal authority, and it's dangerous for anyone to assume that it does.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    17. Re:Too much PC bad too by StingRayGun · · Score: 1

      Have you read much early american history (post civil war-ww2)?

      Unenforced libertarian economics does not work. It's proven history. People, unless checked by the group will only do what helps themselves.

      BTW: it's nice to hear someone with your point of view not sound like a complete prick. I have had many discussions with people with hands-off economic ideas, most of them don't realize how easy they have it as white males.

    18. Re:Too much PC bad too by skillet-thief · · Score: 1
      Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble

      I don't quite see why private property and commerce fall under the right to assemble. Due process, possible. I think you are reading the Constitution as basically a defense of private property.

      --

      Congratulations! Now we are the Evil Empire

    19. Re:Too much PC bad too by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      We have a free market, with only a few restrictions, today.

      I agree that some things, like antitrust laws, are necessary. The reason antitrust is important, though, is because the Real World differs from naive free market models in that it doesn't have an infinite number of companies, which allows monopolies to form.

      I'm not sure that anti-discrimination laws are necessary, though. They don't seem to address a particular flaw in our current model.

      People, unless checked by the group will only do what helps themselves.

      Sure...but if the company does what helps itself, and the company tends to check employees that are doing things not in the company's interest, your requirements are fulfilled.

      it's nice to hear someone with your point of view not sound like a complete prick.

      Uh, thanks. Heh.

  53. Not following American values not always bad by 0x0d0a · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Apartheid?

    Apartheid is a legitimate choice that the people of South Africa decided to live with for a while (and as it happened, went away after a while). I think it's a bit silly, but the US has no business waltzing in and shaking things up. The US has a far darker history of racial problems than most nations do.

    I *do* think that it might be legitimate for the US to push the idea that if someone wants to emmigrate to the United States, and the United States is willing, that the host country should be forced to allow him to do so (barring a few international crimes like spying or espionage). That would solve quite a few problems...if the US wants to allow people to have the US's value system, they can open their arms to the people that want to take part.

    Communism?

    Communism is also a perfectly legitimate view. The only time it's potentially nasty is when it's advocating global revolution and actively trying to foment revolution. Communism was quite popular among intelligentsia for a long time, and we have a Communist Party in the United States.

    Taking over a country to wipe out a communist regime is pretty disgusting, frankly. The US promotes the concept of self-determination, and then simply waltzes into other countries and forces a government and political system on them. You can't have it both ways.

    1. Re:Not following American values not always bad by Jhon · · Score: 1
      The US has a far darker history of racial problems than most nations do.
      I really take issues with these et tu falacies. The US has a history of racial problems -- it also has a history of correcting them.

      And a "far" darker history than "most" nations"? Please. American's are pikers compaired to what the europeans did to africa, india, the middle east. Africa alone has such a dirty history of tribal issues and slavery -- unfortunately, by 'history' here, we mean last week.

      Just give me a break. Because someone once owned a gun doesn't mean they cant EVER speak up about gun-control.

      My only advice is when forming opinion, avoid equivication.
    2. Re:Not following American values not always bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ok so you americans should stop bitch about saving the europeans ass back in ww2

    3. Re:Not following American values not always bad by mickwd · · Score: 1

      "Apartheid is a legitimate choice that the people of South Africa decided to live with for a while"

      Yes, but isn't it strange why all those black people voted for it ?

      What's that ? You mean they didn't have the choice ?

      Hasn't the USA just gone to war, partly (so we are told) to give another country a chance of democracy, and not just to be ruled by the select few ?

    4. Re:Not following American values not always bad by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      I really take issues with these et tu falacies. The US has a history of racial problems -- it also has a history of correcting them.

      We had race-based slavery *long* after most of the rest of the world had abolished it. We built our nation by making bogus deals which we promptly broke and then force-marched entire populations of natives, into progressively worse wastelands where most of them died. Because of the sheer amount of immigration to the United States, we've also had lesser problems with many other races -- Chinese, Irish, Mexican -- that make things like English blue-collar dislike of Indian immigration look like nothing.

    5. Re:Not following American values not always bad by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      Hasn't the USA just gone to war, partly (so we are told) to give another country a chance of democracy, and not just to be ruled by the select few ?

      How did the United States become a democracy? Because Spain decided that its rights were being violated, marched in, and set up a puppet government, along with installing a forced set of Spanish values and exploiting US natural resources?

      Hell, no. It was because enough people decided that they wanted a different system to revolt. I don't think you can march in and simply set something like that up and have everyone there buy into it (as evidenced by the collapse of US puppet governments -- Vietnam, Iran -- and the need for continued US influence propping up others -- the Saudi royal family).

      Democracy is fairly robust, but it's certainly not necessarily the only system of government that works well. A republic -- well, what we have in the United States is a republic instead of a democracy, so that's pretty obvious. There are a couple of places that have had good parlimentary monarchies -- England and Spain. As a matter of fact, prior to two hundred years ago, there were plenty of monarchies around -- a monarchy doesn't have to be a failure or oppressive. Kuwait still has a monarchy today. I think communism tends to have some serious problems, but even so, a significant factor in it failing in lots of smaller countries is effort from the US in undermining it, not fundamental flaws.

      Hasn't the USA just gone to war, partly (so we are told) to give another country a chance of democracy, and not just to be ruled by the select few ?

      How is it, I have to ask, that it's justified for the USA to go to war to give other countries the chance for "democracy", but not for the Soviet Union or China to go to war to give them a chance for communism? Because we have a bigger army and might makes right? If the Chinese came up with a superweapon tomorrow, would your opinions change?

    6. Re:Not following American values not always bad by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "that the host country should be forced to allow him to do so"

      How would you know that the person really wants to leave their country and come to the US when expressing that desire is a felony? The only way around that is military force to coerce the other government to allowing its people to do that, which makes you seem quite the hypocrite looking at what you had to say about apartheid...

      And then there's the question of "Who pays for the plane ticket?"

      "Communism was quite popular among intelligentsia for a long time,"

      As a philosophy, yes, but in practice it has the nasty habit of rounding up and butchering the "intelligentsia" you mention. See Viet Nam, Cambodia, USSR, PRC for examples.

      "The US promotes the concept of self-determination, and then simply waltzes into other countries and forces a government and political system on them."

      You mean like returning political escapees to their original country? After all, it's "their" government, what right do we have to offer them "assylum?"

      Make up your damned mind...

    7. Re:Not following American values not always bad by alienmole · · Score: 1
      Apartheid is a legitimate choice that the people of South Africa decided to live with for a while.

      Apartheid was a choice made by a subset of the white minority in South Africa, imposed on the majority of blacks, by force and threat of force, by a brutal regime that used murder, torture, and subversion of their own legal system as means to their ends. It doesn't qualify as "legitimate" in my book.

      The involvement of the international community in South Africa was largely at the request of the leaders of the black community there. The African National Congress, for example, did a lot of lobbying internationally in order to focus attention on the problem. Without the resulting international pressure, the situation in South Africa would not have changed when it did.

      As such, the US had excellent justifications, from a moral perspective, for "waltzing in and shaking things up". They were dealing with a brutal and backwards regime which was oppressing the majority of the local population. US and other international involvement was welcomed in South Africa by all but the members of the ruling regime and its supporters, which were a subset of a racial minority. The situation was by no means a "legitimate choice" made by the people of South Africa.

    8. Re:Not following American values not always bad by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      So, putting the shoe on the other foot, you feel that it would be entirely legitimate for China (assuming China develops some kind of superweapon) to waltz in and legalize drugs in the United States?

    9. Re:Not following American values not always bad by alienmole · · Score: 1
      I wasn't taking a position in the overall discussion on this thread, but I didn't agree that apartheid represented a "legitimate choice" by the people of South Africa.

      I don't see a comparison with US drug policy, because the United States has a government elected by all its citizens, and is not restricting freedom of association, speech, and movement in order to prevent citizens from expressing their political views. It's not torturing and murdering dissenting citizens in order to maintain its policies. US drug policy is a "legitimate choice" of the citizens of the US. China or any other nation has no basis on which to interfere.

      In the situations in both Iraq and South Africa, the United Nations saw fit to impose sanctions and other mandates. Despite the ineffectiveness of the UN in general - or perhaps because of it - that's no little thing. It means the countries in question were doing something sufficiently obnoxious, that other countries could agree it was not acceptable.

      Besides, "interference" in South Africa by the US and everyone else (e.g. the UN) was limited primarily to economic sanctions. There were never any US troops on the ground in South Africa. The opposite, actually: the US supported South Africa in its military actions in neighbouring communist-backed states such as Angola. That was why Reagan wanted to pursue a policy of "constructive engagement" with South Africa, which meant "we want S.A. as a military ally, so we'll overlook its human rights abuses".

    10. Re:Not following American values not always bad by aeryn_sunn · · Score: 1

      Your hypothetical makes zero (0) sense and is not evenly closely related to the difference between say apartheid and illegal drugs. Apartheid has to do with the denigration and subjugation of a person based on race. A complete abrogation of one's inherent human rights. Illegal drugs don't even belong on the same planet, much less in the same ballpark with any discussion of apartheid.

    11. Re:Not following American values not always bad by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      So the issue that's irritating you is a lack of equal representation?

      What if the same thing happened during, say, the 1800s? England or someone invaded, took over, and forced us to allow women the vote? Would we appreciate that? Would it be justified?

      How about voting age? What if we take the same scenario, but with a country feeling that our voting age wasn't low enough, and the people that *couldn't* vote didn't have any ability to change the system? And they forcibly make us lower our voting age to 13?

      Or, even better, what if another country, which is governed by a direct democracy, feels that our country is controlled by two tyranical parties that don't allow people to express their particular views on a given issue -- for example, I may like conservative Christian family values but not favor tax breaks for the wealthy. I don't have a single party that expresses exactly my viewpoint, so I'm politically suppressed to some degree. Anyway, this other country marches in, and forces us to change to a direct democracy. Is that legitimate?

      Basically, what I'm upset about is mostly that the "we [US] should act as a global policeman" bit seems to be mostly used to provide a moral justification for us doing whatever we feel like doing.

      You are certainly right about S.A. and US military involvement...I'm more fired up over Iraq than over S.A.

    12. Re:Not following American values not always bad by alienmole · · Score: 1
      Yes, I think lack of equal representation is a big issue, or any situation where political representation of citizens is severely restricted, as in Iraq.

      I'm not saying that's a sufficient condition for military involvement, but it does tend to be a necessary condition. It'd be much more difficult to justify invading a country like Iraq with the knowledge that the majority of its people are in full support of the country's policies. In that sense, the supposed moral issue is actually a strategic issue.

      But the full reasons for actions like the one in Iraq are always going to go a long way beyond any moral question, so I agree that trying to argue it on the moral question alone is misleading. In practice, the US doesn't act as a global policeman - it acts to serve its strategic interests (or other interests, such as the Halliburton balance sheet.)

      Or, even better, what if another country, which is governed by a direct democracy, feels that our country is controlled by two tyranical parties that don't allow people to express their particular views on a given issue [...] Anyway, this other country marches in, and forces us to change to a direct democracy. Is that legitimate?

      That could get interesting - if, for example, the two-party system was successfully being used to suppress attempts to move to a direct democracy, then you could argue that an invasion like that was "legitimate" - and subsequent history books probably would do exactly that. Of course, legitimacy is relative.

      Really, beyond the national level, where political representation via a voting system hasn't worked so well, this stuff is mainly about might making right. It would all be playing out very differently if the only global superpower was an Islamic-led state. The best any country can do is try to ensure that its military actions are at least somewhat aligned with the morality of its citizens and perhaps its allies.

    13. Re:Not following American values not always bad by jasonditz · · Score: 1

      is it really democracy if you conquer a country and only allow candidates you approve of to run in the election?

    14. Re:Not following American values not always bad by Jhon · · Score: 1
      How did the United States become a democracy? Because Spain decided that its rights were being violated, marched in, and set up a puppet government, along with installing a forced set of Spanish values and exploiting US natural resources?
      How is is that Japan becaome a democracy? Because the US marched in, set up a puppet government, installed a forced set of western values?

      Oh yeah. It did.
    15. Re:Not following American values not always bad by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      Western ideas had been growing in Japan since way, way before World War II. The Emperor had been losing relevance compared to more modern Japanese politicians by the end of WWII. I'm not certain that the US was necessary, though I'll grant that it may have sped things up a bit.

      But that's still a poor batting average for the US...

  54. I think the parent deserves a mod up by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

    I really liked the parent post, and would recommend reading it over to moderators.

  55. Re:.THIS .IS .A .PAGE .WIDENING .POST .SO .STICK . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is a page widening post. And furthermore, it actually works on Opera. Sir, I must congratulate you.

  56. Proofreading? by AntiOrganic · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The change has angered some Monster users, who say the policy censors and discriminates against people including immigrants wotj ties to some of the countries in question or businesses seeking to recruit there.

    It's good to see that even the Times can't run as much as a spell check anymore.

  57. Dumbass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    PD? You mean "PS" right? Surprised you didn't call it a "VN" book while you were mis-typing abbreviations.


    BTW, go ahead and waste your points, stupid moderators.

  58. Do you really believe that? by bint · · Score: 1

    Did you buy the propaganda about terrorists hating the US due to it being such a free country, too? You don't think it has anything to do with US policies? Invading countries and stageing coups across the world since the second world war? No matter if you think it was right or wrong, don't you think you'd find yourself lots of enemies that way?

  59. Illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As per Australia's anti racial vilification laws I will be petetioning the federal government to have monster.com's IP range blocked by all ISPs in Australia, using both the anti-racial vilification laws and Australia's internet censorship regime this should be simple.

  60. Dual use and other stuff by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 1

    No, the dual use stuff really is dual use. For example, thiodiglycol is a pre-cursor of mustard gas, but it is also used for, among other things, producing ink for ballpoint pens.

    A lot of the dual use chemicals we sold to Iraq have legimate uses in the manufacture of pesticides (or in some cases WERE pesticides). Not only are we talking about materials where the civilian use is legitimate, we are also talking about chemicals were the vast bulk of the uses are legimate. It is almost as if you are talking about banning the sale of bathtubs because Yates drowned her children in it.

    There have been some legitimate and illegitimate criticisms on Bush's administration on transparency. It seems, among some other things, that Bush is covering up some of the Clinton excesses. I'd like to know why.

    Bush isn't claiming protestors are no better than terrorists. And considering these terrorists, er, I mean protestors are claiming that Bush is no better than Hitler, can they really complain? The problem with the left is they think freedom of speech means freedom from criticism (unless they are doing the criticizing). It's a bit hypocritical to call Bush Hitler then get all bent out of shape when someone calls you a terrorist sympathizer. And it's also a bit disengenous. The protestors aren't being muzzled. You see them and their POV on the news every night.

    The Santorum thing was a hatchet job. This is what he said:

    "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."

    Which is ipsofacto true. It is a slippery slope. The same fundamental argument could be applied to incest (assuming we are talking about adults).

    What he also said is, the Supreme Court should stay out of it. Whether or not the acts (in this case, sodomy) should be viewed as criminal should be left to the states, not the Supreme Court.

    It was a long way from gay bashing, which is what this has been spun into being.

    Hey, guess what, I'm an atheist too. But Bush or Ashcroft being religious doesn't bother me. No one has made me go to Church since they've been elected. To be honest, I feel more comfortable with someone like Bush or Ashcroft who believe their might be a reckoning for their actions than I do with someone like Clinton who (despite finding religion at all the right moments), obviously did not.

    War Powers Act...well, that piece of legislation was probably un-Constitutional anyway. But, to a degree, you are correct, the judicial and executive branch are taking on more and more power over time. But what do you expect when both parties obstruct the functioning of government in Congress (see judicial nominations being blocked now by democrats..."advise and consent" is the charge given to the Senate, not "filibuster and obstruct")?

  61. Oh yeah by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 1

    Karma bashing...we are probably both safe. I think we've nested far enough down where we are the only ones reading this.

    I'd argue that given the liberal tilt of Slashdot, I probably have more to fear than you do.

    BTW, enjoyed the debate. Good luck to you.

    1. Re:Oh yeah by pantropik · · Score: 1

      The thing with religion ... what scares me is that people like Bush and Ashcroft DO believe there will come a reckoning, but they always believe the reckoning will serve to vindicate them. "We face adversity now, but our faith leads us. In the end, God will show us to have been right." That's the feeling I get and it might be doing a disservice to both men. Bush just does not seem humble in his faith. He does not seem humble in anything. I've never gotten the sense that he stops to question, I can't picture him laying awake at night seeking guidance from within OR without and, indeed, when asked at the start of the war how he was sleeping he said he was sleeping quite nicely, thanks for asking.

      I'd have felt much better if he'd said he wasn't sleeping well at all. There's a fine line between showing humanity and showing weakness and he tends to err on the side of coming across as unfeeling to my eyes.

      As for the gay/Santorum thing: NO ONE should be regulating that. Period. Not the feds, not the state, no one. Your wording of what the man said does nothing to change my mind. He is not gay. He has no business even talking about it in any official capacity. It's not his job. It is certainly not acceptable for two men to be arrested in the privacy of their own home for having consensual sex. The American Psychiatric Association officially removed homosexuality from the books almost 30 years ago. There is simply no rational scientific or moral basis for equating homosexuality with any of the things he said (whether he said them or not or how it was phrased).

      In the end, the question comes down to this: If those cops in Texas had burst in on a man and woman having "perverse" sex, would they have grinned and apologized (and given the guy a high-five on the way out) or would they have arrested the two of them on the spot? Imagine the leers if it had been two women. But I bet no arrests would have been made. I can't PROVE that it would have gone down that way, but I'd bet next year's salary on it. And unequal application of the law is, by definition, discriminatory.

      The cops weren't even in the right house! I don't understand how it was allowed to happen. I'm all for states' rights, but common sense must prevail. I honestly don't understand how such a law can be legally defended.

      Finally, as to the chemical thing ... we'll have to agree to disagree, though I'll grant that the truth is probably a lot murkier and closer to the middle than either of us will ever know for sure (especially with Ashcroft on guard).

      Ditto on enjoying the debate. The ability to disagree with civility is rare. Being given incentive to actually think (rather than just react as expected or make wisecracks) on Slashdot is also pretty rare.

    2. Re:Oh yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cops *were* in the right house.

      A neighbor called to complain about something gun related in that house and got nailed later for filing a false report.

      If the neighbor called about gunshots but it was really a man beating his wife to death should they have excused themselves for being in the wrong house or for witnessing the wrong crime?

    3. Re:Oh yeah by pantropik · · Score: 1

      So a man beating his wife to death == two men having sex.

      Haha. I'll let the logic of that speak for itself.

    4. Re:Oh yeah by bluelan · · Score: 1
      Scratch the AC scenario then.

      What if they'd been called to respond to gun shots, but found two adults smoking a small amount of pot for recreational purposes, should they have excused themselves and walked out?

      I mean, an individual cop might walk out, maybe. But, if they witness the crime as a group, and they know it's a crime, there's going to be an arrest.

      I found this article on the issue to be pretty interesting. It's by a Republican senator who believes the law should be abolished, legislatively.

      --

      I used to be a narrator for bad mimes. (wright)

  62. Pure genious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's next? Monster.com deleting resumes of people who have certain political or religious views? As an American, I'm deeply disturbed by this story as well as the following because they are intertwined: Bias in the media where no credible opposing views are given remotely equal airtime. I'm neither conservative nor liberal so I'm amused at the irony of hearing from the media that the media was too liberal (what are the odds...). These articles with specific numbers show what is really going (very interesting stuff): http://projectcensored.org/stories/2003/default.ht m http://www.fair.org/extra/0303/reliability.html http://www.fair.org/activism/iraq-sources-networks .html http://www.fair.org/activism/fcc-call-action.html NOTE: This isn't about conservatives vs liberals. It is about the media spouting whatever certain people in our government want to be heard while actively discrediting opposing views in order to gain the government's favor. Why? So that the government repeals existing laws that protect us from media monopolies. According to Reporters without Borders, we're ranked number 17th in the world in terms of "free press" due in part to this mixture of corporate greed and the fact that all our news in the USA comes from only 6 corporations (if you incent all of these 6 corporations properly, you can have the "majority" of Americans believe anything you want within a month or two regardless of the actual facts). And if the government can incent the 6 corporations controlling the US media, what is to stop it from incenting other corporations like Monster.com (jobs) or Equifax/Experian (credit reports)? Pure freaking genious on the part of the folks who are in charge. What a brilliant strategy: expose the masses to news entirely from their own sources, then scare the masses into following the party line by making them afraid of losing their jobs or the ability to find new ones. Oh yea, that reminds me, how many jobs in the USA were lost under the current regime? How convenient.

  63. mid-thread surfing confusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    just jumped into this thread from space and immediately upon reading the parent post i thought: sounds like the U.S. elite alright. but then again, all elites act in self-serving ways that (face it) are the very definition of their position (elite). this includes deceptive brutality, and not the "honesty hurts" kind, more the "this knife is so cool so sharp so nice you won't feel it entering your shoulderblades while i smile to the cameras" kind.

    anyway, it is possible, if apparently paradoxical, to be elite and yet non-exclusionary. cultivating free software authorship skills is one way to get on the path. cultivating ignorance is one way to get off it.

  64. why would the rich care about the poor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    basically you asked, "why would the rich care about the poor?"

    • they have family they care about who are not so rich
    • they were once poor and did not forget the hardship
    • they want to maintain their standard of living by (wisely) not fomenting resentment in those around them
    • they understand their path to riches is not unique to them
    • they like to build upon their riches by non-zero-sum investment in others
    • they are worried their children will be murdered unjustly for their perceived lack of attention to society
    • ego kick

    these are some reasons well-to-do people help less well-to-do people. there are others, i'm sure. note that this question is similar to "why do people write free software?"

  65. No they arn't by autopr0n · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you'd read the artical, you'd see the quote from someone at the government agency responsible for implementing those regulations saying that what monster did is not required by the law.

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:No they arn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its spelt article, not artical.

  66. You're an idiot by autopr0n · · Score: 1

    The reason it's legally permissible to shoot an intruder is because there is a definite risk associated with someone if they break into your home, not because of some legal right to kill whoever you want on your property.

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:You're an idiot by Bodrius · · Score: 1

      A trespasser is by definition someone who breaks into your property.

      There is an implicit risk whenever someone breaks into your property, i.e.: trespass. The trespasser is an uninvited intruder which can and usually is considered a threat.

      I don't think there is a legal difference if it's "your home", "your office" or "your piece of land". And I don't think there is a legal difference on the intention of the trespasser because said intention cannot be defined without an accompanying act.

      Hence, if you can shoot someone that broke into your property before they attack you or even steal something, it must be BECAUSE they broke into your property, not because some imaginary cause. And yes, you can.

      As I said, first you have to prove they were trespassing and that's another matter. Depending on the local legislature, that may or may not include providing a fair warning and clear demarcation of the property.

      In many cases, a fair warning can very well be a "Trespassers will be shot" sign.

      But as far as I know, if the property is fenced and the signs are there, they can shot you on sight.

      --
      Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
  67. Fake story? by linuxislandsucks · · Score: 1

    Considering the wealth of information about those in sanctioned countries and that Ashcroft is till the stormtrooper in charge of infromation gathering..I seriously doubt Monster.com actually did this..

    They proably truned over the reocrds to Ashcroft without Ashcroft even saying please..

    --
    Don't Tread on OpenSource
  68. Yeah, but those countries are bad by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 1

    We already embargoed and/or sanctioned all those countries, so there's not a lot of work you'd be doing there anyways. Or, if you did land a job in Syria, you can expect a visit from the FBI. This has already been in place for years.

    --
    stuff |
  69. myths and revisionism by zogger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    --the act has a provision to re-classify you as a terrorist (primarily from participation in a protest 'threat, intimidate, coerce',or membership in an organization they deem terroristic, etc, fairly broad, you donated 5 bucks to some group before, they get classified as a terrorist group, whoops, you lose), which means you are no longer a "citizen" with any born with rights. This classification is completely on their say-so, no hearing or anything is required, they (any nameless governmental employee) merely state such and such is true, they win, you lose. You can then be "detained" and held in secret,deported to some other country, prosecuted, and punished up to the death penalty. It's about as extreme of a dictatorial move as you can get. Anyone who is aware of your detention and reclassification into sub human non citizen status is forbidden by law to inform anyone else, violations of which can get you reclassified. See above.

    The gestalt is they left it broad enough that they can apply it to virtually anyone if they choose to do so. That is patriot act 1. Patriot act 2,which is even more extreme, after being leaked and denied, has now been chopped up and parts of it inserted into various other bills to disguise it.

    What has happened is in essence the entire critical parts of the constitution have been re written, and most born-with rights are now null and void. Originally the constitution was written to detail government restrictions. Even the so called bill of rights was just a further description of the limits of government, as the basic fundamental to the constitution was that individual persons and the states had the most power and soverignty. The constitution doesn't "grant" anyone any "rights". You are born-with ALL rights, then there's a small sections of restrictions delineated in some detail which primarily apply to "government". That is now completely reversed, as full a 180 as is possible.

    We are not supposed to have a royal, neo-royal, VIP class of "citizens" who are above the law. This explicitly applies to governmental employees. Explicitly, that was the entire purpose of the original secession from england and royal rule, there was no other reason of note. We got rid of the overlord class. that was the deal. This treatment of governmental employees as VIPs with unlimited powers to just grant themselves more powers, even calling them "laws" is not supposed to occur, nor are they even remotely *allowed* to grant themselves powers that they clearly do not have.

    Any governmental employee who engages in unconstitutional actions, whether knowing or unknowing, is doing so under the explicit notice under the constititution that at some point they may be held personally liable for some serious citizen reactions, ie, "you don't want to go there", with "you" being any said employee,either elected, appointed, volunteered, or hired on, any "branch" or "level" or "title", civil, military, or "paramilitary", in any "government" federal, state, county, incorporated township or territory or unincorporated territory.

  70. Discrimination Through Software by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I suppose you think it's perfictly alright for a club keep out black people? or for a company not to hire mexicans?

    What about a company that refuses to make its website work on NetScape4? What about a company that only allows resumes to be uploaded in MicroSoft Word format? Monster.Com has a dismal record on both counts.

  71. it's not *FINE* you idiot by autopr0n · · Score: 1

    It's absolutly moraly wrong, and it's also illegal.

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    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
  72. MOD PARENT UP! by NumbThumb · · Score: 1

    It's insightfull.

    --
    I have discovered a truly remarkable sig which this 120 chars is too small to contain.
  73. I'm with Monster on ths one! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hasn't the United States already done enough for terrorists? Our universities have educated plenty of them. Our flight schools taught some of them to fly jumbo jets, with unforgettable results. Our titty bars gave them a last little bit of joy as they prepared themselves for their trips to Hell. And now you fuckers want equal-opportunity for them in the online job market? WTF is wrong with you all???

    Monster is completely within their rights to nuke the resumes of whomever they wish from their system. It is, after all, THEIR system.

    What next, you going to get bent out of shape over some store's "no shoes, no shirt, no service" policy?

    Dorks.

  74. Re:.THIS .IS .A .PAGE .WIDENING .POST .SO .STICK . by EdMcMan · · Score: 1

    Not on mozilla

  75. Not "racism"... by mi · · Score: 1
    Awww.... I give up. I can't even tolerate being sarcastic about this sort of bullshit... Robert, If someone refuses stuff on racist grounds, by definition they are always racist. I'll even go one further and say racist fucking scum. Nah Fuck Monster.

    I don't think, race had much to do with the Monster's decision. They "filtered" based on the address. Black or yellow -- the resumes don't say. So, don't get too worked up. This is not the cause -- yet...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  76. Illegal in California by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    The Unruh Civil Rights Act, or Unruh Act, as discussed in the housing chapter of this publication, applies to all business establishments of every kind whatsoever which provide services, goods, or accommodations to the public. Businesses subject to the Unruh Act include bookstores, gymnasiums, shopping centers, mobile home parks, bars and restaurants, schools, medical and dental offices, hotels and motels, and condominium homeowners associations. The Unruh Act prohibits all types of arbitrary discrimination, and not just discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability or medical condition. The Unruh Act also prohibits discrimination based on personal characteristics, geographical origin, physical attributes, and individual beliefs. For example, the arbitrary exclusion of individuals from a restaurant based on their sexual orientation is prohibited.

    Your own state's laws may vary.

  77. Chemical weapons. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The problem is that, by keeping them, you are creating a significant risk that they might accidentally go off and kill all your neighbors. Weapon control laws aside, there are laws governing the safe storage of dangerous chemicals. It is the exact same principle as your right to swing your fist. If you walk around with a blindold on in public swinging your fist, you may not punch someone in the face on purpose, but it would be negligent to assume that you might not do it by accident.

  78. MOD PARENT UP. by mattACK · · Score: 1

    Seriously.

    --


    "My God, this must be a truly remarkable corn chip, to be so widely and confidently touted."
  79. just a tool.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no, not what your thinking. Shame on you.

    Monster is indeed a resource. But, again, not what your thinking. See a posting on Monster? Then it's from some clueless fuck-tards you don't want to work for.

    Pretty simple really. Whether or not you let said c f-t's know of this process is up to you.

  80. You cannot leave monster.com!!! by mat+catastrophe · · Score: 1

    This story did two things for me. One, it annoyed me that a company would bend so far over backwards to make the government happy and, two, it reminded me that I no longer need my monster account anyways.

    So, I went to the site and logged in, hoping to find a nice little link from the Help or FAQ section, or maybe the My Account area that would tell me how to remove my account from monster.com.

    I didn't find one. Nor did I find a way to email anyone about this. It isn't listed in the Topics you can email them about. So, what gives? Shall I just load up my resume with bogus references to the Middle East so that they will kick me out? Should I email admin@monster.com in the dim hopes that they have one?

    Or should I just sit back and not give a damn one way or another? After all, for three years I've only had my resume seen 15 times and only got one bogus offer from it. So, it's not like it's a big deal or anything.

    Still, my question is: Does anyone know how to remove your account from monster.com?

    --
    sig not found
  81. or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...just drive the US economy into the toilet. The way the US$ and foriegn invetstment is going, everything should equal out pretty soon.

  82. A small issue which will turn into a larger issue by clevershark · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What would happen if, say, a bank were to introduce "single-look-and-feel" personal banking functionality... and then couldn't implement it because of not only the countries on the list now, but the fact that Yanks like to add a place or two to the list every once in a while?

    Well, the project could go forward, but not in the United States. Certain parts of the system would have to be served abroad. We're not just talking about functionality here though -- legally you can't even link to Iranian-hosted resources from a US web site without the possibility of incurring criminal charges not only against the person in charge, but against everyone involved in the project (Thanks mmr. Helms and Burton! You bastards).

    This is not just theoretical. These are ongoing concerns with a number of companies; I used the example of a bank because that's what seemed most obvious to me.

    I used to roll my eyes when people called for "regime change in Washington"... now I'm not so sure the idea is either silly or unnecessary. Looks like the US Gov't. is falling victim to the Internet -- a tool it created.

    --

    My sig is too lon

  83. Hold on just one second... by The+Herbaliser · · Score: 1

    I just realized something kind of amusing, yet sad.

    The dialogue on US foreign policy usually goes something like this:

    "The US is fucked up man."
    "What are you talking about, they're so much better than (insert nasty regime here)"
    "Oh yeah they are."
    "Give me some examples."
    And of course, people have posted some examples here.

    Who the fuck cares whether the US is better or worse than the Khmer Rouge (for example, could have been many others). The Khmer Rouge was seriously fucked up. If there's even the slightest possibility that the two regimes are in any way comprable, then that's a pretty bad sign. Comparing a country to the worst regimes in history is setting the bar pretty low. "Nice, we do less raping and pillaging than the vikings (norsemen or football team, both apply)... we're the fucking best."

    If you've got that much money and that much power and there's even the slightest doubt about your country's record, that's a pretty bad sign.

    At the same time, I feel pretty fucking immature for all this US bashing I tend to do. It doesn't really solve anything. If we can make more US citizens understand what is going on in the world, then that's good thing, but if we just really piss them off and make them defensive and xenophobic, the world is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It seems more like I'm kicking them when they're down than trying to help them see things differently.

  84. Violation of Federal Law by hamhocks · · Score: 1
    Even Bush, and Monster.com, are not above the law.

    Civil Rights Act of 1967:

    SEC. 2000e-2. [Section 703]


    (a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer -

    (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his
    compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or

    (2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

    (b) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employment agency to fail or refuse to refer for employment, or otherwise to discriminate against, any individual because of his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, or to classify or refer for employment any individual on the basis of his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
    1. Re:Violation of Federal Law by lkaos · · Score: 1

      because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;

      Yes, and if these folks aren't citizens of this country, then the constitution doesn't apply to them.

      Besides, a private business can do whatever it pleases with regards to discrimination. Monster.com can make an arbitrary rule against who's allowed to post resumes.

      --
      int func(int a);
      func((b += 3, b));
  85. Violation of U.S. Federal Law by hamhocks · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Even the Bush Administration, and Monster.com, are not above the law.

    Civil Rights Act of 1964:

    SEC. 2000e-2. [Section 703]


    (a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer -

    (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his
    compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or

    (2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

    (b) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employment agency to fail or refuse to refer for employment, or otherwise to discriminate against, any individual because of his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, or to classify or refer for employment any individual on the basis of his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
    1. Re:Violation of U.S. Federal Law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are stupid.

      The law allows you to descriminate on basis of nation of residence.

      NATIONAL ORIGIN != NATION OF RESIDENCE.

  86. Racially motivated? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where did I see that? It just says from certain regions, while some people may jump to conclusions I'm willing to bet some "regular ol white folk" were in that geographic pool too.

  87. Has anyone noticed the hypocricy here? by rfc1394 · · Score: 1
    Notice that U.S. law requires companies to refuse to do business with, i.e. to boycott Cuba, Libya, North Korea and a few other countries.

    U.S. Law also makes it illegal to cooperate in any boycott against Israel by other countries.

    I wonder how the U.S. would take it if other countries prohibited U.S. companies from doing business there if they cooperate in boycotts against Cuba, North Korea or those countries, or required them to comply with their anti-boycott rules if they prohibited such practices?

    Not that I personally agree with how those countries operate, I find it rather amusing that the U.S. requires a boycott of certain other countries, but makes it illegal to follow required boycotts by some countries of their disfavored country(ies).

    Paul Robinson < postmaster@paul.washington.dc.us>, or < paul@elusive-butterfly.net>

    --
    The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
    1. Re:Has anyone noticed the hypocricy here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very easy answer. Any arab boycotts of Israel (as just about anything Arabs do in relation to Israel) are aimed at destroying the country.

      US boycotts of N. Korea etc... are aimed at denying funds to the governments of said countris (name one country that US "boycotts", according to your definition, which does not have some form of authoritarian regime?)

  88. Thank You by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "How is it, I have to ask, that it's justified for the USA to go to war to give other countries the chance for "democracy", but not for the Soviet Union or China to go to war to give them a chance for communism?"

    You sir have made my day.

  89. US code != Libertarian wish list by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's some confusion in this thread about what's actually legal as opposed to what maybe should be legal.

    The "Soo" poster is correct: owning something doesn't mean you can do whatever you want with it. Under United States law, it is illegal to practice discrimination or segregation in places of public accommodation. This is Title 42, Chapter 21, Subchapter II. (See the US Code Collection.) Places of public accommodation include inns, hotels, stadiums, etc., etc., regardless of ownership. A privately owned hotel is still subject to these laws.

    For restaurants and bars and things, other than those serving interstate travelers, you need to go to state law. I believe that all 50 states have analogous laws. In New York, for instance, it's Article 4 of Chapter 6 of the Consolidated Laws. (Read it.) Public accommodations here include restaurants, ice cream shops, bars, rinks, bowling alleys, golf courses, etc.

    You cannot refuse service to blacks in your privately owned restaurant. It is illegal.

    You can't charge them more, or even put up a sign saying they are less welcome than whites.

    A number of posters have asserted: "I am free to refuse service to any group I choose, in my restaurant, because I own it; this freedom is balanced by your right to boycott me for it." Like it or not, this is just plain false. Legally, you don't have that freedom.

  90. Islamist terrrorism by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 1

    Groups like Al Qaeda are fighting to restore the Caliphate, and impose Islam on the 'House of War'.

    They hate us quite simply because we are infidels. That hate us even more because we are powerful and stand in the way of them imposing their religious beliefs on the rest of the world.

    What, exactly, do you propose as a counter-solution? Embrace Islam and start praying 5 times a day? Adopt the shariah as the Constitution and have all non-Muslims pay a poll tax in order to not be killed by the devout followers of the prophet Mohammed, may peace be upon him?

    Again, most terrorism does not come from the wellspring of injustice. It is not about righting wrongs. And the suppression of terrorism by violent means is QUITE effective historically speaking. Historical fact is on my side, not yours. In fact, I challenge you to find a case where accomodating the terrorists ended terrorism. Has yet to work for Northern Ireland, and that's the best case I can think of off the top of my head.

  91. As a matter of fact.... by NeoChichiri · · Score: 1

    do you really think the public is SO DUMB that they can't make concience decisions fro themselves?

    Ignoring your spelling mistakes...as a matter of fact, I DO believe that the public as a whole is stupid. While a person may be smart, the general public is incredibly stupid. It does not follow logic that the things that an individual does not agree with, when the PUBLIC says it, they go along with as if they had no problems with it.

    If the public were truly intelligent, they would protest the way the government treated its own citizens after 9-11. They would protest the limiting of freedoms in the sake of "national security". Let's face it...all the new laws and regulations created to help "protect against terrorism" do is limit the freedoms of normal people. The only difference is that instead of getting on a plane and blowing themselves up, now they have to go to a public building where there are more people to kill because of the security at the airports.

    Much as I hate to restate what so many people have already said, the references to 1984 and the McCarthy era are becoming closer and closer to reality.

    --
    NeoChichiri
    http://www.neochichiri.net
  92. Racism is wrong, but should be legal by Chris+Y+Taylor · · Score: 1

    "I suppose you think it's perfictly alright for a club keep out black people? or for a company not to hire mexicans? "

    That depends on what the club or company does, but in almost all cases I'd say its not "perfectly alright". I would think it is bigoted.

    It is also not legal.

    But, I think it should be legal.

    GASP! Yes, that's right, I think it should be legal for other people to do something that I think is morally wrong. I know that is a strange concept to some people, but I happen to think that if some lefthanded dentist without tonsils wants to set up a business, club, or other organization that only hires or serves or offers membership to other lefthanded dentists without tonsils... then I think he ought to be free to do that. I, on the otherhand, should also be free to not like (and not do business with) stupid bigots. But, as long as they don't infringe on someone else's rights*, they should be free to associate with, do business with, and snub whoever they want. I do think that making such non-equal opportunity organziations ineligble for gov't funding would be a good policy.

    * Before anyone tries telling me that people have a Right to a certain job, or a Right to a certain house, or a Right to a car loan, or a Right to be a member of the Left-handed No-tonsil Destist Association, I think I should point out that I am niether a socialist nor a commie, so I don't think those are real Rights.

    1. Re:Racism is wrong, but should be legal by phriedom · · Score: 1

      I have a Libertarian friend and we have this kind of arguement frequently. For us, I think it has come down to a belief in social engineering, or in his case not believing in social engineering. He thinks individual freedom is paramount. I think that if society is harmed by something, and workable laws can reduce it without giving up more than is gained, then they are good laws. He would argue that speed limits are unnecessary, and government should just hold the individual responsible for their actions if they get in an accident and let them drive as fast as they want. I maintain that we can scientifically impose restrictions and see their results and conclude that they have a large positive effect.

      I say that if you just let people drive as fast as they want and have accidents and kill people and then go to jail, WE ALL are worse off. I think if you let companies not hire blacks or latinos then WE ALL are worse off. So their freedom to hire certain people infringes on everyone else's liberty and pursuit of happiness.

      I think there is a contract here: If you are going to be part of our society and use our roads and our public utilities and our schools and our emergency services and have a government that protects our interests abroad and profit from the innumerable other benefits of our society, then there are actions that would harm society that we demand you not take. So on that basis, I think it is fair for government to demand that business not hire employees based on race.

      I also think that while Monster may or may not be breaking any law, they are being asinine.

      --
      Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
    2. Re:Racism is wrong, but should be legal by Chris+Y+Taylor · · Score: 1

      I agree and disagree with you. I agree that the gov't can and should have speedlimits... on GOVERNMENT roads (and I think that the Fed. Gov't shouldn't mandate maximum speed limits on State or Local roads). If I build a road on my own property, I ought to be able to drive as fast as I want on it. Not many people want to build a racetrack or dragstrip in their wheat field, but I think it should be legal for those who do it.

      Similarly, I stated that I thought persons competing for Gov't contracts (or getting subsidies, ect.) should be required to be an equal opportunity employer. I think that if some nut group up in Montana wants to have a "whites only" society, and they don't participate in any gov't programs or contracts, then that ought to be legal. I wouldn't think it right, but I would be ok with it being legal. Same for someone who wanted to set up a charity that only helped redheads. It ought to be ineligible for participation in gov't programs, but we shouldn't go and seize their assets and arrest their staff because they don't want to give their own money to people THEY think don't need or deserve it (though I would be suspicous that they were trying to tunnel into a bank). If I want to only give money to black panhandlers because I feel guilty about my Southern ancestors oppresing their ancestors, should I be arrested for it?

      I think your correct in saying that your broad reaching "social contract" argument is based on a belief in social engineering. I assume you mean engineering others to do what you like, not in the belief that you should be engineered to behave like what the politburo thinks you should do. I would probably not go as far as your Libertarian friend, because I do believe that individual actions that have a signficant externality are legitimate targets for public regulation, on those specific externality issues. But, I think that such regulation and what constitutes a significant externality that would justify it have to be defined in a very limited way and non externality-specific regulation should be avoided or else we would wind up being no different than the Commies who tried to create a New Soviet Man to what they thought people should be.

      Saying that because you use the public roads, you must obey traffic laws makes sense to me. Endangering other drivers would meet my definition of a significant externality, and the traffic laws specifically address that issue. Saying that because you use the public roads you cannot just hire someone to be your gardner or mechanic based on anything except gov't approved criteria does not make sense to me and seems to obviously be an excuse to attempt to make a New American Man.

      If I want to be told how I should behave (and what I should think), I'll go to church. Gov't should stay on the other side of Jefferson's "Wall of Separation". Be careful of tearing down that wall to do social engineering; you never know when you'll find that the politicians who get put in charge of engineering YOU are from the "wrong" party.

    3. Re:Racism is wrong, but should be legal by phriedom · · Score: 1

      You probably aren't listening any more, but since you have been articulate and refrain from name-calling (which is far too rare) I'm going to try to continue this exchange of ideas.

      " Saying that because you use the public roads you cannot just hire someone to be your gardner or mechanic based on anything except gov't approved criteria does not make sense to me"

      What I was trying to say is that the roads are part of the economy. So if you accept that to drive on public roads, one must obey traffic laws, can you accept that to use the public economy, one must obey those laws? So to operate a business and benefit from the SEC, FDIC, and Federal monetary policy that keeps interest and inflation rates stable, and all the other ways that the society, the government and the economy are intertwined, one must pay taxes, obey lots of labor laws, pay more taxes, obey other operating laws (like providing handicapped access if applicable) etc. I think that is a moral justification for a law that says "You may not dicriminate on the basis of race in your hiring."

      I also think it is a bit unfair for you to characterize this as "gov't approved criteria." I think we are a long way from exchanging a list of prohibited things for a list of allowed things. But I respectfully acknowledge your warning against social engineering that would lead to thought control.

      Okay that gets me off on a tangent. Totally off-topic now. You know what I see as thought control? Laws that would make burning the US flag in protest illegal. You see, incinerating an old flag as trash wouldn't be illegal, nor any other disposal of flags or images of flags. It is only illegal if it is burnt in protest. It is the thought that they want to make illegal. That is not what America is about.

      --
      Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
  93. nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    americans workers are morons, they don't deserve to get the job. PERIOD!

  94. Re:And this surprises you? by cpeterso · · Score: 1


    Is September 11 the new Godwin's Law?

  95. Buy "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" bumperstickers here by cpeterso · · Score: 1
  96. Proof Positive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This post is proof positive that the slashdot community is just as ignorant as the rest of us "non-geeks".

  97. Disturbing by PingPongBoy · · Score: 1

    The whole idea is disturbing. It's not a question of whether a private free service has the right.

    What if

    it was a company's hiring policy to reject resumes from certain places (other than jails and the like)?

    Do people expect the origin of an otherwise qualified person to determine whether they are hiring a troublemaker?

    For Pete's sake, these resumes are coming from the Internet so they are coming from a civilization advanced enough to even have computers.

    A lot of people want to work in the US to escape their oppressive governments. They're being told that they are bad people.

    --
    Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
  98. If only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...more people would feel this way. They think more about what kind of wine to buy with dinner tomorrow than they do their freedoms...

  99. Geo-targeting Products Used by Monster.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm always wondering which company supply Monster.com geo-location information. Here are some in my list. ip2location.com infosplit.com digitalenvoy.net location.com.my

  100. American discussion by Britz · · Score: 1

    Now that is something very American. In Germany, where I come from we have certain taboos. Talking this openly about segragation would not be possible. Even though I am very sure what the outcome has to be of those discussions and it really gets to me when someone speaks on favour of some very stupid things the whole discussion seems to be necessary.

    In Germany we just had a case of police torture. The officer in question thought he could save the live of a boy be torturing the guy he thought to be the one who kidnapped the boy. Turned out the he was right. Then a judge publicly stated that if the life of a child is in danger and You have the guy that is responsible for it it is OK to torture that person (ignoring the fact that one can always be wrong and You can get anything You want using torture, if You torture me I will confess that I killed Kennedy).

    Since the public discussion about that subject was held so uptight, because we were talking about a taboo many people I met came out with the opinion that torture would be OK, something the society that originally imposed the taboo didn't have in mind, I think.

    Anyways, there seem to be still people out there that think there is a difference between emporer A trying to rid the people of king B and waging for for religous/ownership/whatever reasons or bullying that king into doing something using military threat and the current situation in Iraq and in Syria. An interesting effect that democrazy has on people. But public support for wars came about with the emergence of nation states. In times of kings people had to be pressured to do military service. That is the reason why George Washington was successful. The colonists fought against people that didn't give a damn (many Germany were sold to the English as soldiers and fought on the British side). In WWI the Germans were eager to get to the front, even though we still had a king. So I don't blame democrazy for people so stupid to support wars, they started earlier. Maybe nation states are to blame. I dunno.

  101. dang by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was really hoping to work in Sudan or Libya.

  102. RE. Your sig by tombeard · · Score: 1

    IIRC, I-N are Intiger unless declared real, therefor, Magic is Integer unless declared Real.

    --
    The reason we subjugate ourselves to law is to better procure justice. If law does not accomplish this purpose then it m
  103. Duh by MSTCrow5429 · · Score: 1

    Perhaps companies that use Monster.com for potential hires don't want to have to worry about accidentally hiring a terrorist, hacker, or someone with a grudge.

    --
    Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
  104. Furriners? by MonkeyCookie · · Score: 1

    I don't think PETA likes those nasty furriners either.