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Russian Police Seize Kasparov
An anonymous reader writes "Russian police seized Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess champion, for staging a political rally against Vladimir Putin. IBM's Deep Blue computer was the first to beat a world champion when it defeated Kasparov, who is one of the strongest players in history." He's also been a giant critic of the Russian administration which is increasingly restricting free speech.
Checkmate!
Seriously, this sucks.
Don't worry. George Bush has looked at Putin's soul and pronounced it excellent.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
*tips king* but seriously, first beaten by Blue and now by Mother Russia. Wonder which will be a worse defat?
In Soviet Russia, they sieze dissidents. What, you were expecting a joke? 'Cuz this isn't funny.
Quiz: True or False -- On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your middle name?
Surely a story about the greatest chessplayer of all time, and a key campaigner for civil liberties in Soviet Russia counts as "news for nerds" without some Deep Blue window-dressing. Do we really need to fake-tag this story as being about supercomputers to get it here?
Who tagged this "Stern but fair"? Please explain how this is "fair" and not just more of Putin's power grab?
'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
Russia never was a democracy, and never wanted to be. At least seems to me.
Yeah, I know, it sucks, because no one wants another Cold War. But seemingly US and West pays now for their lack of involvement of helping Russia to scurb corruption, investigating old crimes and anything else.
Now we all pay the price.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Even the recent ouster of Australia's pygmy fascist Howard does not restore confidence, since that public already elected Howard twice, the second time unforgivably
You're butting up against the ugly side of democracy. Being a democracy it means that people who don't think the same as you do get to cast their ballots. Whether you like it or not.
Asking for a democracy in which the only people that are elected are the ones you like isn't asking for much of a democracy.
If the transition had been a little milder than it was then the crime bosses in Russia would not have been able to grab as much as they did. The last thing the new 'vlasti' want is to have their playground taken away from them. This is going to be an extremely tense time for Russia.
MP3 Search Engine
*shakesfist*
he's a little weird and crazy on this point. It's really clear now that the computers are stronger, even just a fast desktop running Rybka or something would probably beat him, or Anand.
stomach. He wouldn't have to worry about Putin arresting him at all. Kissing on the other hand.....
Monstar L
some politicians get angry when attacked and bang underneath the board. they barely follow the rules specially when there is no referee!
I wish our president had such powers to sieze anti-American politicians like Clinton
No idea if it's right that Mr. Kasparov is arrested. Honestly, I don't care. Just have a look at some of his allies and you'll know why: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bolshevik_Party - these guys are as much about freedom of speech as Adolf Hitler was, and you know how it ended. In this case it's better to be safe than sorry, in my honest opinion. Using Gary Kasparov and his political friends arrests as proof for diminishing freedom of speech in russia is just wrong. In this case there wouldn't be any political freedom in Germany, too, as the national socialist party is forbidden here, too.
...he's not the same as the old boss. He IS the old boss.
At least with Russia, the citizens can blame Putin for their woes. In the USA, we've got nobody to blame for Bush but ourselves.
According to a report recently issued by Reuters, the leading political candidate representing the liberal anti-Kremlin Yabloko party has been shot by an unknown assailant. The candidate is now in serious condition in a hospital. This attempted assassination caps a year-long effort, by the Kremlin, to rig the parliamentary election on December 2. Under orders from the Kremlin, banks have refused to accept donations from supporters for deposit in the accounts of opposition parties. Owners of assembly halls have canceled contracts allowing opposition politicians to stage rallies. The police have seized the newspapers of opposition parties in a draconian attempt to prevent them from spreading their message.
In early November, the election-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declined to send election observers to Russia to monitor the 2007 parliamentary election. This OSCE decision resulted from (1) the Kremlin's refusing to allow more than 70 OSCE observers to enter Russia and (2) the Kremlin's delaying the granting of visas to them. In 2003, the Kremlin had accepted 400 OSCE observers, but after the OSCE condemned the 2003 election for being unfair, many folks in the Kremlin vowed to stymie OSCE's efforts in future elections.
It doesn't mention the fact that Kasparov is the main opposition candidate in the upcoming Russian presidential election.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
... Maybe he DID see that move comming and planned this "sacrifice" for the greater check mate in the future... Strategy was his strong side in chess after all.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
I find it amusing how this was written; Garry Kasparov was arrested for being part of a political demonstration in Russia. On a completely irrelevant note, he was beaten by a computer! Isn't that amazing?!
I hope that you are right, but if the world hasn't been able to do anything about Russia's horrible crimes against the people of Chechnya, how big are the chances that Kasparov can make a difference? Also, don't forget that Putin's approval ratings are pretty high even if you disbelieve the official statistics from the Kremlin, i.e. the Russians themselves might not even care about this and that is what's really required here. You can't force changes like this from the outside (are you going to sanction Russia? Use military force? Hardly), it has to come from the people of Russia.
Where other candidates barred from the parliament election Putin is running in?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
As Bill Clinton would say: "It's the economy, stupid". From the article:
In Free West, dissidents seize YOU!!!
In chess, you seize the opponent's King.
Wikileaks, no DNS
at comparing a nation that doesn't hide the fact that it arrests political dissidents, with a nation hosting more political asylum seekers than all other states in the world. Keep trying...
damaged by dogma
Also, the authour is anonymous; what does it matter? Without a name, it matters little what the intent is. You don't even know whether the other reply to your post is the same guy! Despite my comments about punishment above (a disguised critique of the fact that funny can't at least cancel down-mods), there's no need to punish such people. If your find it funny, mod it accordingly! If they don't, then your mod takes on an ironic quality.
Wikileaks, no DNS
Thank you.
Is frankly a bunch of bullshit. I mean, unless you LIKE what he's doing I can't see why you'd think it'd be cowardly to protest him.
If not, you should realize that he was actually born [Cyrillic doesn't post on Slashdot, see Wikipedia for actual spelling]. Garry Kasparov is an excellent phonetic representation of this.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
Either you didn't get his post or you haven't been an /. for long.
This is a personal tragedy for Kasparov, but dangerous for the rest of the world too.
Stick Men
> This is akin to arresting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
This is also akin Hillary organizing illegal political rally against George Bush.
3.243F6A8885A308D313
Agreed. Figuring Russia has only been democratic for a little more than 15 years, and god knows how many ex-soviets are still in the government. It will take some time to root out those who have Soviet Nostalgia through elections.
how big are the chances that Kasparov can make a difference
Even less while imprisoned.
Free speech doesn't apply to private property like Slashdot.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
He's got a massive ego, so people dismiss him as a bad loser. But his accusations of cheating aren't without merit.
My respect for him has gone up quite a bit because of this incident. I wonder if I would have the courage to stand up to police and arbitrary imprisonment, knowing what Russian jails must be like these days.
I hear lots of griping about the state of the world on /. and elsewhere, but I wonder if any of us would have the courage to put our beliefs into action like he has.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
Yeah, damn slashdot for being so against freedom of speech that they removed your post. I'm outraged! I REALLY wanted to reply and tell you how right you are, but now I just CAN'T because slashdot has gone and censored you. ...
Show me the censorship. That's all I ask. Back that childish whining up with some bruises from the abuse you've taken. Oh, that's right, slashdot doesn't censor.... ever. That's right, I said it, EVER, as in being an absolute (I'm the kind of guy that likes to tack qualifiers and quantifiers on everything). That's why it's one of the few places I actually post instead of lurk. (I know, it looks like I'm saying I troll alot, I don't, I troll alittle, (and almost exclusively non-anon) I'm just principled about free speech like that)
As far as your list of topics goes, you're not being censored, you're RIGHTLY being pushed to the back of the room by the CROWD (not the site) for being a... well... what IS the right-wing equivalent of a tin foil hat wearer? Oh yes, a Kool-Aid drinker. Very few of the little factoids you present have any basis in real-life at ALL, and those that do have a tenuous connection to reality at best.
To sum up: You're not being censored for being 'edgy', you're being ignored for being ridiculous. You don't get to be a martyr for that.
Color me embarrassed...
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
Actually, Putin's regime bears a closer resemblance to fascist regimes... if you look at near history, there's several common points with Germany of 1933-1939.
-Hitler and Putin were both elected by democratic elections (initially)
-Both were "strong leaders" who "rescued" their countries from a depression
-Both refused to yield power once they got it
-Both suppressed dissidents with a firm hand
-Both had politically inconvenient people "dissappeared" or jailed
-Both garner support from embracing a militant nationalism
I know, I know, i'm bringing out the Nazi card in a conversation, but atleast i'm trying to point out valid similarities instead of just shouting "You nazi".
In Soviet Russia, Chess plays you...?
"...Sleep comes like a drug in God's country Sad eyes, crooked crosses in God's country..."
This is akin to arresting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
Kasparov is an off-kilter, conspiracy theorist with minimal backing in the electorate.
No, this would be akin to arresting Ron Paul.
(ducks)
..to a dictature.
Most of them involves democratic elections.
Mundus Vult Decipi
Now that the US has become transparently hypocritical to it's own citizens and the rest of the world in regard to "democracy" and civil liberties, there is no country to serve as the example/beacon/leader of "democracy."
Obviously it isn't quite that simple; I don't for a minute think that the current administration (or many before) even cares about the rights of it's own citizens tpo petition for redress, let alone the citizens of Russia - but now they can't even pretend to pressure these other countries to allow freedom of speech and respect the rights of the individual.
Unfortunately it seems like things are trending toward the corporations and governments getting all of the rights, basically becoming untouchable - while the individual is is losing rights, control and even "having a say" by the day.
the waaaambulance just crashed into the lollercopter
Good point, I suppose you win this round with your superior logic. You've outsmarted me once again, Anonymous Coward.
Assuming you're the original AC (or at least an AC of like 'mind') here is the spot where you're supposed to back up your developmentally-stunted opinion with some reason or at least some halfway decent sensationalism.
Point was that OP's analogy was invalid to begin with.
3.243F6A8885A308D313
"He's also been a giant critic of the Russian administration which is increasingly restricting free speech." And all U.S Citizens can come back to told that Russion speech is more restricted when they get own "free speech" to better state. U.S has biggest mediacontrol in world and same thing is happening all other countries unless someone starts keeping eye that there should not be bad news in every f*n news paper page or television news or webpage etc etc.... What really is restricting free mind and free speech is big news corporations and coverment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3kI8LNTqNo
Any time you find yourself using the term "neocon talking point", chances are you've been spending WAY too much time hanging out with the Kos Kids!
Sort of reminds me of how Geraldo Rivera was born Gerry Rivers.
Both seem to be grandmasters at grandstanding.
I don't buy that Gary Kasparov is a legitimate good-faith democratic reformer, any more than I buy that Geraldo is a good faith investigative journalist. All I see is demagoguery. The fact that Russia has a lot of valuable oil that the West COVETS certainly doesn't help matters.
I spent a couple of years living in Russia back in the Yeltsin years of the mid 90's. Overall Russians are extremely friendly and hospitable, but they have a long sad history of instituting governments that are in effect a legitimized mafia. From the 10th through the 19th centuries the rule of the Tsars were essentially a gang of thugs with pretensions of royalty. The better part of the 20th century they switched to a government that was another gang of thugs with pretense of communism. And now they have switched to a new band of thugs with pretensions of democracy. (Actually this is still the same band of thugs as the communist ones, they just switched pretensions). It seems that Putin is slowly dropping any pretense of democracy.
"I'm making perfect sense, you're just not keeping up."
I read the linked article and there's nothing in it but speculation. And even then, it seems very thin. It looks like typical complex-machine anthropomorphizing; put enough MIPS behind it, and even a toaster can play chess with "extraordinarily refined sophistication." Basically, the accusations of cheating mostly boil down to 'no machine can play that well,' which when you get down to it, is exactly what the Kasparov / Deep Blue match was all about. They're basically just rejecting the premise of the whole match.
Also, I don't think it's surprising that IBM decided not to try again. Why should they? They won; it was the best publicity they were going to get from the effort. Why keep going and risk a loss? Knowing a lot of engineers, it doesn't seem at all unbelievable that most of the team would probably want to move on to new things after a multiyear effort that had culminated in a win. Sometimes you just want to quit while you're ahead, take the resume line, and see what else is out there.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
When an AI can mimic *this* aspect of human intelligence and decide to risk a change from "well-off and greatly respected", to being shut in a concrete box, all for the greater good of its fellows, THEN I'll be impressed with AI.
Until then, its just a glorified calculator brute-forcing its way through a mechanical computation, as impressive as a newspaper press making 500,000 copies of todays celebrity news faster than 50,000 human scribes.
He first began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution... His father died when he was seven years old.
I suppose that is one way to stop the old man from testing you.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's like he's looking in a mirror.
Yep, as far as I know, there has been only one comment ever removed from Slashdot. It was removed because some AC posted material copyrighted by those crazy Scientology fucktards. You know how they are. There was nothing Slashdot could do about it, so for that you must blame both Scientology and the US government (for unjust copyright laws), not Slashdot.
Has anyone listened to an interview of Kasparov? He is dumber than Bush in everything not related to chess!
Kings check YOU!
Why is there so little reporting on what this Kasparov actually stands for? Check wikipedia, about the only thing I can find is that he is far-left (communist?) and that the Other Russia party is a coalition of parties including communists and nationalists. Well, that is a load of my mind. That is Stalin and Hitler in one party, why choose when you can have two!
It is kinda like the US people who keep saying vote Ron Paul, then you read up on the guy and learn that, yes there people who would make even worse presidents then Bush.
Just what does Kasparov stand for, just because he is against Putin who clearly ain't all that nice does NOT make kasparov himself any better. The problem with the media is that they like the idea of heroes, Putin clearly no longer is one so they need someone else. The world doesn't work like that.
No comments so far seem to explain anything about Kasparov except one commenter who points out that his dad was jewish. Oh well that eases my mind. I think another person rallying against a troubled goverment promising better things had a jewish father (step-father).
Godwin or not, just what does the Unitied Civil Front (his real party, Other Russia is a coalition of multiple parties) stand for? I do not know and don't speak russian and the western media seems almost reluctant (or kasparov just ain't as intresting as britney spears) to report on it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
There's a difference between being "against free speech" by imprisoning the speaker and being "against free speech" by posting things which contradict a speaker's arguments. I'm sorry if you've been emotionally scarred by the latter experience, but my advice is to try sucking it up, accepting that some of your opinions are unsubstantiated and unpopular, and moving on.
Claiming that it's cowardly to protest Bush and get stuffed into the Pier 57 cages just makes it seem more pathetic that you're simultaneously whining about Slashdot users modding you down. Somehow I'm guessing you're not battling the evil Modstapo from an airport wifi connection on your way to Darfur.
I like how this is tagged "sternbutfair", and yet if the same thing happened in the US it'd be tagged "bigbrother" "fascism" and "policestate" instantaneously.
Given the person, the times and the "gewinne oder verliere" part I would expect "rammelt" to mean fight ... not fuck in the sexual sense.
Kxd4!?
:wq
In Soviet Russia, most people in the goulags were there for crimes of black market. Thing is, everybody practiced the black market, so when the authorities wanted to send someone away, they just picked that.
While I too laughed at your joke, I'd have trouble marking it anything but 'funny', as it is not informative, nor insightful. But hey, there's 'underrated', and it works much better than a 'funny' as one can help a joke the '+5 Troll', or even the legondary '+5 Off Topic'. Also, don't confuse my love for 'underrated' as even a fondness for 'overrated', which is the abonination of Slashdot's moderation system. To cast a negitive mod, one should be required to give a reason, and for it to be subject to meta moderation.
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
We wish -- no, must -- make our disgust at this abuse perfectly clear.
Even less while imprisoned.
They said the same about Nelson Mandela...
I would add that Iran is clearly far more democratic than Russia is today. Russia is more like Iraq under Saddam, where elections occur but nobody has any possibility of being elected except Putin. Despite meddling in the elections by the Council of Guardians, there are actual and real political dynamics which exist in Iran today. No such real dynamics occur under Russia today.
The big difference is that, unlike Saddam, Putin actually does have weapons of mass destruction.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Russian official: The Soviet Union will be pleased to offer amnesty to your wayward vessel.
American official: The Soviet Union? I thought you guys broke up.
Russian official: Yes, that's what we wanted you to think! [laughs]
Look at the Litvenenko case. The assassination was designed to be clearly traceable to Russia (since you can fingerprint artificial isotopes to show what reactors they come from), and could not have been done without state help. Russia denies this, and this represents an assassination of a dissident emigrant specifically to warn other emigrants not to speak out against Putin. This is violence for the sole purpose of invoking terror, and it is arguably a greater threat to our way of life than Al Qaeda ever has been.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I would add that we saw the same thing with Fujomori in Peru-- a man who managed to bring an end to the horribly bloody civil war and then decided to stay in power after his term.
I am watching Ecuador's Correa but at the moment I think he is acting to preserve rather than undermine democracy. He has gone into things thus far with appropriate checks and balances, but we will see if that changes.
However, I see Putin as a very dangerous man in world politics. Under him, Russia might internally have some semblance of a rule of law (even if it is only a facade over a government of men), but domestically and internationally, Russia has become a state sponsor of terrorism. Everything that anyone ever accused Saddam of doing, Putin has done. But Putin is a better politician than Saddam, and Russia, like Saudi Arabia, has sufficient oil reserves to buy favor with Washington.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
:S
Is this guy from the KGB? Or how they call it now... FSB?
1's and 0's should be free.
Sociopath symptoms 1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest
2. Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
4. Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults
5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others
6. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain steady work or honor financial obligations
7. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another Psychopath symptoms * 1. Superficial charm and good "intelligence".
* 2. Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking.
* 3. Absence of nervousness or neurotic manifestations.
* 4. Unreliability.
* 5. Untruthfulness and insincerity.
* 6. Lack of remorse or shame.
* 7. Antisocial behavior without apparent compunction.
* 8. Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience.
* 9. Pathological egocentricity and incapacity to love.
* 10. General poverty in major affective reactions.
* 11. Specific loss of insight.
* 12. Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations.
* 13. Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink, and sometimes without.
* 14. Suicide threats rarely carried out.
* 15. Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated.
* 16. Failure to follow any life plan. Bush has continually stated in public that he's had no second thoughts. There is no indication if this is the case in his private life.
Both men will do absolutely anything they think they can get away with to retain power and control. Fortunately for the US, there are less viable options. Fortunately for Russia, Putin recognizes that a thriving oil based economy is key to dampening dissent.
The right to express dissent is not worth forfeiting for any economic gain.
Apparently most Russians would disagree with a six to one favoring of a strong economy over a strong democracy.
Depressing.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
A Google search verifies this.
(Though I'd post AC too if I was admitting that I recognized a quote from that stupid show.)
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Free speech doesn't mean freedom from being called an idiot for saying stupid things.
It means the opposite. Welcome to dissent -- you must be new here!
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Kasparov is a smart man, but somehow he bought right into left wing propaganda and he now _believes_ it. In US there are neocons, in Russia there are neolibs. They don't really give a shit about the most important thing for Russia - putting the economy back on its feet. They're more concerned about the abstract, Moscow-only bullshit like democracy (where "democracy" is defined much more radically than here in the US) and freedom of speech (which in their understanding is the freedom of the owner of a TV station to force the talking heads to constantly slam the president).
There are two problems with their plan, however:
1. 90% of the population in Russia are pretty poor. They aren't starving, most of them actually live good lives, but they're by no means economically active business class the country needs. So for them GDP growth and controlled inflation at this point in history easily outweighs the fact that TV stations and certain strategic companies are no longer controlled by a bunch of Jewish folks hammering their own agenda and buying up the democratically elected parliament. Think Maslow's pyramid, it explains a lot. Once there's something resembling a healthy proportion of middle class, you will get democracy and all that comes with it. This is WAY in the future for Russia, however.
2. The only thing they're good at is bashing the current president. Putin actually isn't that bad. The brown nosing around him is bad, but I don't think he enjoys it. For the first time in decades Russia decides on issues while keeping its interest in mind. Both Gorbachev and Yeltsin would just sign anything that the US gave them, just to please the rich white man from the West. These days, Russia is much more sane in this respect. They sign things they like and don't sign the ones they don't. This is exactly like any other sane country approaches international relations.
Russia is shifting to Chinese model. In the Chinese model, you can be a capitalist for as long as you don't try to buy up the legislative and/or executive branch of the government. If you do, you go to prison, like Khodorkovsky (you didn't really think he's in the labor camp only for tax evasion, right?).
As far as I'm concerned, their only remaining issue is that the court system is in the crapper. A lot of issues would simply go away if this wasn't the case. If I were running the country, this is what I'd focus on, not on abstract issues related to whether the country conforms to the "american" model of democracy.
Kasparov merely got caught in the crossfire here. He doesn't play chess anymore, but he needs adrenaline - so he gets his adrenaline through other means. It was always "romantic" to be a dissident in Russia, even if you're the only one who cares about your particular set of issues.
The difference is that he'd be let go, would have any charges against him thrown out of court, and most likely have a chance of pursuing a section 1983 tort against local or state police and a Bivens action against federal officers.
"Free speech zones" are complete BS, but we're not as bad as Russia yet. There's still some rule of law.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
if anyone didnt read the bbc site: "The trouble broke out at the end of the rally when about 100 protesters tried to break through police lines."
this is all just staged.. he wanted to get arrested... he wanted the story to be posted on bbc..
the OTHER side of the OTHER RUSSIA lead by chess man.. for those that dont know: "Mr. Limonov and his mainly youthful followers have been a mainstay of the Other Russia movement, a pro-democracy coalition led by chess champion Garry Kasparov"
source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0706/p07s02-woeu.html
more information on mr. limonov - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Limonov more information on this party - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bolshevik_Party
western media and their support for anti-putin, the lose use of the words like "authoritarianism" are all very interesting these days. in fact russia today is very interesting as well. however remember that american media print receives 90% of there material almost word for word from the same source the AP. i highly recommend anyone interested in world news to dig a little and research things and question what they read from western news.
in my post i do not make any conclusions. just questions to think about.
But they do not tell you the details - like those that the Burmese monks indeed broke Burmese law and were treated exactly according to it.
However, your post is obviously either a troll or a flamebait. In order to help avoid future flames, I am going to try to answer some of your posts.
BTW, I am not a Muslim or a Christian. The main god I follow is one who represents human capacity and potential, and his name is Odin.
When it's about
-> violence in muslim holy texts and the violent life of the paedophile prophet
The Bible is not without violence or pedophilia?
;-). Why this double standard? We should discuss issues for what they are rather than coming up with new ways to pick fights, for those will ultimately be turned back on one's own culture.
Note also that if we are looking at things from a modern perspective, Jesus's father (i.e. God if you are a Christian) would have been a pedophile since Mary would have been only 12-13 when conceiving Christ
However you are also correct that Islam is not nor ever has been a religion of peace, except in the sense that there would be peace if everyone followed the same interpretation of Islamic law. Islam is indeed a religion of law, where social prescriptions are at the center of the religion. Any concept of a separation of mosque and state is foreign to Islam (although this is arguably the case with the separation of church and state in Christianity, there is no possible argument for such separation possible within an Islamic framework). So personally I do believe that Islam is inherently in conflict with our current ideas of religious freedom and the separation of temporal and sacred authority.
-> the relation (that indeed exists) between violence on tv/video games and violence in real life
I am not sure that we know what that relationship is. With violent crime rates at much lower rates than they were, say, 50 years ago, it is hard to make that comparison.
-> anything related to bush
Bush pronounced Putin's soul excellent, and has endeavored to cheat our legal system in ways which are frighteningly similar to what Putin has done. However, the difference is one of a great degree quantitatively, but not one qualitatively.
For example, seizing Mr Padilla, holding him without the right to Habeas Corpus guaranteed in our Constitution in such a way that Congress only can temporarily suspend (Habeas being the single greatest guardian of our liberty). Then, when the Supreme Court is set to rule on the case, they not only transfer him to civilian custody to avoid such a ruling but ask the 4th Circuit to vacate their current ruling so they can draw out the next case longer! If we didn't have our Constitution, there is no doubt in my mind that Putin and Bush would be no different.
-> discussion of the fact that abortion does indeed kill a human being and is thus not a laughing matter
I would not classify that as a statement of fact, but rather a statement of philosophy. Regardless of that, I don't think even many supporters of abortion rights see abortion as "a laughing matter."
-> science that contradicts global warming (it exists, and like everything in science, the true answer is "we don't know"), or even the science that states that a 6 degree rise in temperature will generate exactly 0 "extra disasters"
Of course, provided that rising sea levels from the melting of the antarctic ice caps, which then would flood a large part of Florida would not count as an "extra disaster..."
The fact is that we don't know what global warming will really bring. All our computer models are vastly oversimplified versions of the real world and hence they could all be wrong. For example However, we do know that the polar ice caps are melting (this is a matter of observation and not modelling) and that this does threaten to cause sea levels to rise. And that a large n
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
Figuring Russia has only been democratic for a little more than 15 years, and god knows how many ex-soviets are still in the government. It will take some time to root out those who have Soviet Nostalgia through elections.
During the most democratic time, the economy was wobbly and many of the poor, old, and sick got hit pretty hard. Capitalism started looking like the dog-eat-dog cruel system that Soviet doctrine had painted it as. Many associate democracy with capitalism, whether they are really related or not.
Table-ized A.I.
"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
I really, really disagree with you here. Computers have gotten significantly better but they are not even close to being able to have the positional understanding that humans do. They run millions of calculations a second but the best players in the world have not yet been completely overshadowed by them because of the positional (non-understandable by computers...yet) aspect of the game.
Unfortunately, Putin and the ruling party ("Edinaya Rossiya" - "United Russia") have enough public support to win the upcoming elections without resorting to violence and voting fraud.
In any case, Kasparov's approval rate is about 2%, it's really that small. I personally won't vote for him in any case (I'm a Russian citizen). For example, he have neo-Nazis (no, I'm not joking) as political allies.
He's a good chess player, but not a good politician.
The problem is that Putin doesn't NEED to tamper with the elections. He has a high enough approval rate as it is :(
I suggest curious people look into the chess match. I did at the time and I had a little A.I. experience and gained a little more since then. Chess is an interesting test because the problem is so vast that brute force attacks are unrealistic; although, still used by computers since it helps and they can out calculate humans. In terms of actually learning to play chess well, computers have a long way to go.
;-)
I'll consider computers as better at chess when they can honestly beat someone at Kasparov's peak WITHOUT unfair advantages such as a whole team of engineers tweaking the system DURING AND IN BETWEEN MATCHES!
The purpose of the chess exercise is to develop Applied Intelligence so it can be approximately as good as a human and hopefully learn enough to apply the discovered concepts to other areas. Any advancement in Applied Intelligence is a win since that is the true purpose for the game. Actually, 'winning' is actually a loss for Applied Intelligence as well as A.I. and sadly IBM was only thinking of themselves when they got lucky. They dare not risk losing again-- after all, they LOST ALL THE TIME until they finally beat a top human once.
Life is a non-linear approximation
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Unfortunately there's a saying:
"Every country gets the leader it deserves."
That holds true for Russia, as well as the US of A.
I for one hope the Russians, like the Italians, will get their act together and discard their despots.
True but, well, let's just say that the ability to get TV airtime and general media attention isn't exactly equal, mainly due to the fact that Putin's allies own most of the media...
My guess is that Ahmadinjad has never threatened USA.
when did he do that?!
-
....In Soviet Russia Government protests you!
Similar to the upcoming US election results
Very funny. FYI, the history of democracy in Russia counts less then 20 years. There still are politicians in power that were in power back in USSR times. And "neolibs" actually can't be anyone else than "classical" Russian liberals.
They are concerned about what Constitution states (of course you can call it bullshit but it is strange when a man supposed to be its "guarantor" acts like if he thought it was bullshit):
Yes, it is true after 8 years of Putin's ruling given that oil prices were constantly rising since he came to power (from minimal back in Gorbachev and Yeltsin times BTW to historically maximal).
You are absolutely right: court system in Russia is the most important issue. And it is not going to be worked out as long as Putin is in power. Simply because good-working truly independent court system doesn't fit into Putin's-invented "Power Vertical".
Jesus, Fischer, get over it already.
I seriously doubt there is any positive outcome now, considering what happened to the last person seized: Larisa Arap I think they now know they could have gone much, much further with her without any kind of retribution from the outside world (we all like their oil and gas) or domestically. The Russians would rather have the known Putin, who they seem to like, than Kasparov, who many dislike and distrust as he is not really "Russian" at all. Ethnically or nationally it seems (or so I've been repeatedly admonished).
Beisides, why not? Who would challenge Putin (meaningfully, I mean)? No one. The U.S. has no traction anymore, and the U.N. is starting to wonder if they can accomplish anything at all together...
An excerpt from her wikipedia entry:
I'll be surprised if he can even figure out how to tie his own shoes by the time they are done with him.
A russian friend told me that Russia will never go that far under the existing regime. He said the TV is very positive about the government, and most people just believe it. I also noticed some unusual behaviour from him, like not trusting banks and other institutions. Spending time with him made me realize how russia is really in a lot of pain. A simple fact: if Putin was so wonderful, he wouldn't condone thuggery on anyone, let alone an old man. There are far poorer nations in the world where people are happier, like Bhutan, where the police chief asked the monks to purify the police-force for the conflict they created by doing their job. People trusting each other is worth more than money. If I didn't believe that, then I'd join the mafia. Oh, I get it, Putin *is* the mafia, and you're their for the gold bricks right?
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
The people of Russia? I wouldn't put much faith in them.
They're the ones that sat by during the purges of Stalin. They let themselves be deluded by the single most evil man in recorded history.
Unless something has changed in this latest generation, I would place zero trust in the people of Russia, simply because they've been historically very apathetic to causes, particularly their own!
I have nothing against the people of Russia, but historically speaking they have everything against themselves. It pains me to see such people so abused by so many horrible people.
Consider yourself spoken to.
prepare for the flames...
Ask Me About... The 80's!
rememberlitvinenko
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
You left out a vital detail that makes this completely different from what's happening in Russia...
They went out of their way to get arrested. They were trying. It was their plan all along. They weren't invited to the debate, so they intentionally created a disturbance, so they would be arrested for publicity.
That is completely different from being arrested to silence your protest.
You've got a seriously fucked up definition of "happen" you you think this happens here. That, and you really have no appreciation for how good you've got it when it comes to political freedoms compared to what the Russians have.
It couldn't have helped appearing on the HBO program real-time (which I like). It is sort of high profile here in the usa.
Slashdot has removed a post before being it was infringing on the property rights of the church of scientology. A DMCA notice no less. In any case slashdot certainly does censor things. I didn't even see his post because it was modded so low, but that was my choice (preferences) and by a nice democratic system of moderating.
If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
Under Russian law, one must obtain a permission to do an event of this magnitude in a public place. The center of Moscow qualifies as a public place I believe. The event must then stay within the bounds outlined in the permission. Any provocations towards law enforcement personnel are met with sometimes asymmetric response, just like here in the US.
This is exactly what happened - some people in the crowd thought they were above the law (or just wanted some adrenaline), so a few folks (including Kasparov) were picked from the crowd and sent to a local jail for a few days. Kasparov got five days, for example. This is EXACTLY what would happen in Seattle (where I live) under the same circumstances.
Putin is far less "mafia" than Yeltsin & Co were. Yeltsin just carved up Russia and gave it away for pennies on the dollar to a few folks who are billionaires now. Compared to this, Putin is actually a HUGE improvement. And if you think that Russian "democratic" forces are acting on their own, you're naive beyond belief.
This doesn't even happen in the US - the self professed "bastion of democracy". Corporations pay to get folks elected, and then lobby the heck out of them to pass the laws they want. President and vice president simply work as representatives of the military industrial complex in exchange for a "consultancy" contract with multimillion dollar salary after their term ends. This goes right across party boundaries, too. And the TV just shows the right thing, because it's in their best monetary interest to do so.
Most earlier posters got it backwards...
In Soviet Chess tournament,
YOU beat Kasparov!
.
- aqk
F U
the sort of guy that many people in the administration wish they were.
Despite all of the continuous fuckups of this administration, it is clear that the only thing that they will regret when their eight years are up is that they have to leave at all. They've spent eight years consolidating power, but are still short of their holy grail.
And tell me, where is Bush Jr. on this? Do I see him invading the USSR and overthrowing a dictator? Do I seem him speaking out aloud about the growing lack of democracy and freedom of speech in the USSR? Do I see him condemning human rights issues there? Do I see him and his regime, oops, I mean government trying to honour their countries promises of nuclear arm disarmament?
/. readers are Americans, and many of them blind patriotic idiots, but open your eyes and you might begin to see why the US is so distrusted by the rest of the world, and more importantly, dislike is growing. If the US wants to be a world police man, then apply the laws equally - take full economic sanctions against the USSR, lead by example and encourage other nations to do the same.
In a real world, the UN would look at economic sanctions against the USSR, but the VETO vote kills it. The US government would know all about immoral applications of UN Veto votes.
Lucky for the USSR it doesn't have huge reserves of easily accessible oil, and that it has a much larger military group than weak nations like Iraq and Iran, which proves to me that the US is nothing more than an international bullshit artist and bully.
I know that many
Dave
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. --Martin Luther King Jr.
To most chess players, the competition between a human player and a computer is about as interesting as the competition between Marion Jones and a Ferrari or a weight lifter against a fork lift. As a footnote to this. the competition was not exactly fair as the Deep blue team had access to all of kasparov's games while kasparov did not know anything about his opponent before the match. In chess preparation is half the fight so Kasparov had an uphill struggle. He had himself to thank for that because that were the match conditions he agreed upon.
I think that we can be fairly certain of involvement by Putin's government in the Litvinenko assassination or at least interference in the subsequent investigation. The amount of Polonium which would have been used was quite high and there are a large number of controls relating to strong alpha emitters (like Polonium and Americium). Although these elements do have commercial uses, fairly strict accounting and control measures are in place as with any source of ionizing radiation. (Alpha emitters are often used to create electrical conduction in air, for example in smoke detectors or certain types of antistatic equipment. When contained they are reasonably safe-- the alpha particle cannot penetrate the skin so the decay has to happen inside the human body to be dangerous. In this case, however, it is the most dangerous form of radiation because it steals 2 electrons from various molecules thereby creating twice the free radicals of a single interaction of any other form of ionizing radiation.) Aside from commercial uses, Polonium is also used in older generations of detonators for nuclear weapons and therefore tends to be subject to even tighter controls than other alpha emitters.
The Polonium in the Litvinenko case was traced to a reactor in Russia. This is not cost effective nor is it the MO of various organized crime syndicates. Therefore the choice of Polonium must be significant. Due to the various accounting and control of Polonium, and due to its discovery on airplanes used in the London/Moscow route, we can be quite sure that this came from Russia, not from anywhere else. Either it was Putin's government sending a warning to dissidents or it was an extremely powerful opponent of Putin who would be able to pay off all the right people to obtain a significant quantity of Polonium.
Poisoning is one MO of the Kremlin. See the Yuchenko poisoning by dioxin, which the Ukrain argued was political assassination by the Kremlin and orchestrated by Russian agents (there is a definite pattern of political opponents at home or abroad being poisoned or shot).
The question is quite simple: Is this a message from the Kremlin that dissidents must remain quiet? Or is it an attempt to frame the Kremlin? If the assassination of Litvinenko, Politkavskaya, and others are the latter, then it would seem to be counterproductive, because of the chilling effect it has on getting other people to come forward. On the other hand, given other known similar incidents and given the chilling effect which has occurred, I would suggest that the Kremlin is almost certainly involved in these assassinations. No, we can't prove it, but the circumstantial evidence is fairly substantial.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I don't think people should be thrown into prison for just being jackass... but Kasparov is definitely a jackass.
As a officially sanctioned IT Consultant of the Commonwealth of Australia, I Officially announce sanctions against the so called United Socialist Soviet Republic (USSR), I Refuse to repair computers of anyone originating from the USSR, Nothing personal but your (so called) president is a commie saddamist f#$kwit, who will end up where john howard and tim costello is right now. HELL. Your (and most politicians) Nazi bullshit stopped being accepted by humans in general back in 1945... I did a google search for alexander putin and found out he is actually a long lost relative of Hitler! Oh and any USSR hackers who think they are better than the 3rd world hackers they actually are... i double dare you to hack putin's computer and find out what is realy going on.... it happened with media defender why couldnt it happen to putin? hmm the RIAA... Putin... Mp34All or what ever it was called, hmmm it looks like george bush has basically said to putin that he can have a free for all of his own country if he abides by the FTA agreements and laws that the USA cares about, capitalist money hungry so and so on.... Little Johnny is gone and its george bush's turn next! its a shame the next person in his place is probably going to be just as corrupt and morally retarded. I guess the same goes for Russia and Putin....
-> Okay first, the quran is both a LOT shorter than the bible (even without the new testament) AND contains a LOT more violence (have you read them both ? Really ?), so per volume the situation is even worse. Also the bible contains STORIES with violence, the quran contains ORDERS to be violent. To say there's no difference is beyond stupid. Different religions are different, okay ? Is it really that controversial a point ? And yes, that means that some are more violent than others, some a LOT more violent. Furthermore the prophet was a military conqueror, obviously he was a LOT worse than Jesus. He stole, raped, he was a paedophile, and worse, according to muslims own texts, while Jesus, according to christian's holy texts, was either sinless, or VERY close to it. At best there are a few controversies over some things Jesus SAID. With the muslim's prophet, well he massacred amongst a lot of other people his own family ("tribe"), so it's not really debateable whether he was a moral abomination or not. He also fucked a 9 year old girl against her will, and that's still called paedophilic rape. (Citations needed ?)
-> look you cannot agree that there is a correlation and then say that is an unsupported conclusion. I mean, that just truly makes no sense. The people who study this say that there IS a correlation, and that preventing exposure helps. At the very least, I think this justifies whatever measures are necessary to let parents decide whether their child gets to see it, in an easy way. Something like the v-chip. (again if you need citations, no problem)
-> I really fail to see the point you want to make here. I could also make the point that congress's poll ratings are worse than Bush's. So I guess all democrat candidates are even worse. To say hillary is worse than Bush is right now would imho be a serious understatement. I could perhaps like Obama if he truly was who he says he is, but this seems to me unlikely in the extreme. He is a lyer.
-> 200 years ago abortion was not an option, so there was NO DIFFERENCE in saying human life begins at birth and at conception. It didn't have any practical implications. Besides 200 years ago you got convicted for double homocide if you killed a pregnant women, so I guess you're at least partially wrong.
-> to be honest I couldn't care less about global warming. It's a storm in a glass of water, so to speak, and I say WAY too many scary indicators of foul play on BOTH sides. I suggest ignoring it, or at the very least keep the government's paws OUT OF IT. So let's just drop this. I know very capable people in meteorology that say that 6 degrees rise won't make shit hit the fan.
-> an occupation is if the occupying force decides any and all politics, which the US obviously doesn't do. The terrorists dream of becoming an occupying force, but the US is not.
-> I just would like to make the point. If you truly prefer Saddam to Bush, why don't you go to Syria ? There baathists (the muslim's version of nazism, in case you wonder about what this is) are still in power. The current president is responsible for at least 80.000 executions, and his daddy once killed a million palestinians for being "uppity". Clearly you prefer this situation to living under Bush. The entire population is (literally) terrified. Since you obviously say that this situation is preferable to "American occupation", how come you're living in America, which obviously is under "American occupation", and not in Syria, which is not ? You're just a hypocrite, nothing more.
About global warming : mostly I question the motives of the UN :
http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=4112
There's a UN climate conference in Bali. The airport is worries. Apparently they don't have the parking space required to house all the private jets that will land for that conference.
I claim no knowledge of the inner workings of Deep Blue's code, and in any case my formal knowledge of AI is barely any deeper than understanding how minimax with alpha/beta cuts works. This said, there are two thing about that article I want to mention.
First, and forgive the ad hominem feel of the statement, it takes a pretty enormous amount of hubris to say things like "his side claimed that White wins a Pawn or two and that no machine could resist snatching the material". The whole point of good AI is to be able to detect stuff like this. "it is impressive how Deep Blue has used so many of the well worn positional motifs of this particular opening. An opening that Deep Blue's programmers could not have reasonably expected" is also used to argue that there was some foul play afoot. Once again, the whole point of good AI is that it's capable of coming up with stuff that its creators can't.
Second, still related to the latter quote, I'm pretty sure that Deep Blue is freaking complex. If the heuristics generic and complex enough, emergent behaviour is prone to crop up. So the whole argument of certain plays being exceptionally elaborate or beyond the engineers' capacity to predict is pretty empty.
This said, Kasparov is still a hell of a player (understatement of the year), and I fully agree that this move by him shows a strength of belief and ideals that most of us should aspire to.
As someone who is actually a Russian living in Russia I have to say that these opposition meeting are nothing but staged shows for western press (helpfully invited beforehand to film the "police atrocities", and yet another arrest of poor G. Kasparov for gross hooliganism, only to be released a few hours later, it's has become almost a part-time job for him). These people really have a as you say "a snowball's chance in hell" to be elected for anything yet alone President. And their party despite flooding mailboxes with their weekly political spam still is less popular than American Communist Party in America.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
I'd be one to argue for intervention but I have so many liberal knives in my back I've become an advocate of isolationism. Let em go to hell. Let Russia and Venezuela burn. Start cutting all imports and withdrawal from all these bullshit international agreements where we never get reciprocity from other members anyhow. Screw them all.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Russia has lots of oil and gas. In fact, it could hold Western Europe to ransom with the gas tap.
Perhaps it might need "liberating?"
/me sighs resignedly.
Stick Men
Sounds like the usual list: cushy job, nice home, car, entertainment system, vacation, etc.
Nothing is more obnoxious than an unpleasant truth.
Submission as evidence constitutes plaintiff and/or prosecutorial misconduct.
And Vladimir Lenin too...
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
no, it's not controversial to point out that different religions are different. but you're ignoring history. i agree, Jesus' portrayal in Christian texts is much better (by any secular or objective standards) than Mohammed's portrayal in Islamic texts. but you need to keep in mind that every major Christian denomination claims the old testament as part of their Bible. that means Christians don't get to just point to Jesus and say "see? all good!". we also have to own up to David, a military conquerer with... "significant moral blemishes." we have to own up to Abraham's marriage practices. Noah's drunkenness and the resulting incest (and these were the best folks God could find!). i could believe that, on some percentage basis, the Koran is more violent than the Old Testament (i don't believe that at current, based on my reading, but i've only read the Koran once, don't own one to compare, and probably wouldn't bother with the lengthy textual comparison if i did (i'm not that bored). the point is i could be convinced). my point is that the differences are, at best, one of degree, and not a huge degree, either.
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
- In October 2005, at least eighty-five people were killed in street fighting in the southern Russian city of Nalchik after Chechen rebels assaulted government buildings, telecommunications facilities, and the airport.
- A three-day attack on Ingushetia in June 2004, which killed almost a hundred people and injured another 120.
- A December 2002 dual suicide bombing attack on the headquarters of Chechnya's Russian-backed government in the Chechen capital, Grozny. Russian officials claim that international terrorists helped local Chechens mount the assault, which killed eighty-three people.
- A bomb blast that killed at least forty-one people, including seventeen children, during a military parade in the southwestern town of Kaspiisk in May 2002; Russia blamed the attack on Chechen terrorists.
- In Moscow, an August 1999 bombing of a shopping arcade and a September 1999 bombing of an apartment building that killed sixty-four people, and two more terrorist bombings in September 1999 in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan and southern Russian city Volgodonsk. Controversy still surrounds questions about whether these attacks were conclusively linked to Chechens.
- In 2004, when Basayev, ordered an attack on a school Beslan, a town in North Ossetia. More than 300 people died in the three-day siege, most of them children. There were thirty-two militants, all but three or four were non-Chechens, and all but one were reportedly killed during the siege.
Why should the people of Russia demand change in the policy against Chechens when the image they portray is not that of the righteous freedom fighter, but that of the ruthless, child killing terrorist? If my child was held hostage and then slaughtered, I wouldn't have much sympathy for their cause, either.Slow Down, Cowboy! It's been 60 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
I could argue semantics, that "seize" doesn't necessarily mean "take", but it would be, most likely, implausible.
GGP was funny; I was trying to explain why to the hard of modding.
The Russians have always sucked at government. One of the world's great tragedies.
Wikileaks, no DNS
During the most democratic time, the economy was wobbly and many of the poor, old, and sick got hit pretty hard.
Whereas in Putin's Russia, none of these people get hit. At least, none of it makes the TV.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Putin still bears some strong measure of responsibility. He is under your theory still an accomplice.
If these were rogue FSB agents, then Putin has command responsibility for their actions, especially when there is no major effort to find and punish these people in a way which lets people know that these were in now way sponsored by Putin's government.
When rogue elements of one's own government commit crimes, if the government does not hold them accountable, then the government could be said to be supporting them. This was the major case against Milosevic at the Hague and it is reasonable. If a government turns a blind eye to such crimes, the government is supporting the crimes. End of story.
BTW, this is exactly the reason why I opposed the calls for Rumsfeld to step down after Abu Ghraib. Had he done so, the Bush Administration could have moved on and more or less argued that the matter was closed. But since he stayed, it meant that we had to continue to hold the Administration accountable for its failings there.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
* In October 2005, at least eighty-five people were killed in street fighting in the southern Russian city of Nalchik after Chechen rebels assaulted government buildings, telecommunications facilities, and the airport.
* A three-day attack on Ingushetia in June 2004, which killed almost a hundred people and injured another 120.
* A December 2002 dual suicide bombing attack on the headquarters of Chechnya's Russian-backed government in the Chechen capital, Grozny. Russian officials claim that international terrorists helped local Chechens mount the assault, which killed eighty-three people.
* A bomb blast that killed at least forty-one people, including seventeen children, during a military parade in the southwestern town of Kaspiisk in May 2002; Russia blamed the attack on Chechen terrorists.
* In Moscow, an August 1999 bombing of a shopping arcade and a September 1999 bombing of an apartment building that killed sixty-four people, and two more terrorist bombings in September 1999 in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan and southern Russian city Volgodonsk. Controversy still surrounds questions about whether these attacks were conclusively linked to Chechens.
* In 2004, when Basayev, ordered an attack on a school Beslan, a town in North Ossetia. More than 300 people died in the three-day siege, most of them children. There were thirty-two militants, all but three or four were non-Chechens, and all but one were reportedly killed during the siege.
Why should the people of Russia demand change in the policy against Chechens when the image they portray is not that of the righteous freedom fighter, but that of the ruthless, child killing terrorist? If my child was held hostage and then slaughtered, I wouldn't have much sympathy for their cause, either.
Let me add that the Chechen butchers also brutally murdered four telecommunications workers in 1998, who were installing a system that would greatly benefit the ordinary citizen of Chechnya. The more brutality that the Russians can mete out on those worms, the better AFAIC.
Well first of all I meant the guy from the dumb pro-Putin posts above, not Putin himself.
But you raise a good point. No, it's not as dumb, it's much worse. You can't compare CIA to KGB. As much as CIA is disliked in the US (and people really love to hate CIA, it's so "in"...), they really don't deserve this treatment. The CIA's job, and this should be really trivial when you think about it, is to PROTECT american citizens, and this is what they do every day. Often while endangering their own lives. I really don't understand just how ungrateful people can be (btw, I'm not an american citizen, so I consider myself to have an unbiased view on this). I truely believe that most of the CIA staff are really good people who do they best to protect the citizens of US. How they keep doing this in such an ungrateful environment is a mistery to me.
The KGB's job, on the other hand, was to spy on and torture Soviet citizens. So no comparison here. To elect a president from KGB is really a kind of masochism.
1's and 0's should be free.
First of all, pointing fingers at holy books doesn't matter. Every holy book I have ever studied has contained divinely inspired sexually questionable acts (or sexually questionable acts by divine powers, for example, Mary conceiving at the age of 12, which seems to be a pedophilia-laden version of Leda and the Swan).
On the other hand something I do find greatly disturbing is t
The fact that Islam does not allow for a separation of sacred and social authority or law. These two concepts are very deeply homogenized in Islamic thought which leads inexorably to a world where there is no freedom of religion and no ability to seek one's own roots back beyond Islam. What is the penalty for converting away from Islam according to Islamic tradition again? Religious laws do not work, and "religion of law" is an oxymoron.
Secondly, I won't say Bush is the worst president ever. I think Harding was probably worse, and Woodrow Wilson (the great supporter of the KKK) doesn't seem that much better... However, we have a definite decline in leadership certainly since Kennedy and probably since Eisenhower.
Third, I think that Iraqis probably were better off prior to the invasion. You had a functioning educational infrastructure, etc. Sure Saddam was terrorizing the populations but he was relatively predictable (as opposed to the various criminal, terrorist, sectarian, etc. group terrorizing the population now). I.e. there was more security under Saddam, and there is probably more terror now that there is no law or order in most of the country.
We never should have invaded. There is no rational case which can be made for saying that Saddam was our problem or our responsibility. We would have had a greater moral right to invade Russia than we did to invade Iraq (I still think we should add Russia to the list of state sponsors of terrorism). Now, however, we have made the Iraqi civil war our responsibility. Every lawless killing is on our hands because we made it our responsibility when we invaded. However, this is not something we can now just turn and walk away from it now. We need a good plan to do what is necessary in Iraq to let the Iraqis take ownership for their country, but we also need to provide security to make it work. There are ways forward but our current leadership seems more intent on letting one side in the civil war (the Shiite sectarian militias) hide behind our troops and the Iraqi government, and then let our soldiers get killed instead. That is neither fair nor constructive, and it is one reason why we are losing the war of occupation in Iraq.
Furthermore this being the mistake of the Bush Administration, the Iraqi civil war is very much on his hands as well.
No, I wouldn't prefer to live in Iraq under Saddam than in America under Bush. We are protected from such acts of arbitrary government by our constitution, so regardless of the ambitions of the leader, we as a country have protections in place for our freedom. However, my statement holds that Iraqis were better off living under Saddam than living in the lawless area which has followed.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
What do you make of "this move looks like a human mistake?"
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
However, if the machine played consistently well that would be one thing, but what do you make of the moves that people point to and say that they look like human mistakes? Either the machine is so complex it is capable of making human mistakes or humans were making the mistakes.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
XJS*C4JDBQADN1.NSBN3*2IDNEN*GTUBE-STANDARD-ANTI-U
Seeing as CIA staff regularly break the Constitution by inflicting cruel and unusual punishments on suspected terrorists, I don't have much respect for agency brass who order these punishments or the people who carry them out.
Yeah, there are a lot of good guys there, I'm sure, but even the RIAA does some good some of the time.
Since someone already claimed the Godwin prize I feel at liberty to mention Hitler. Wasn't it his rejuvenation of Germany's weak post-WWI economy that got things moving in such an unfortunate direction with that whole wonderful chapter of world history? True Russia doesn't currently have any policies of state-endorsed racism that I know of, but the Nazi party does staqnd as a pretty good example of a group of people going along with some pretty rotten ideas in the long term after some initial economic successes. Maybe it isn't realistic to expect everything to start off on the right foot in a new Russia, but I can't help but wonder what sort of people will result from growing up in such a political climate.
Yes, they were evil slaving bastards (Im a yank) but we were designed as a federation and states should have been allowed to opt out. FWIW the war did not start to be hot until the south fired on a union base in S. Carolina. The firing on Union troops was an act of War by the confederate states. Should the union have up and left? maybe but the south could have *at least* attempted to settle it amicably.
This in no way answers if Russia should free areas under its control..
When someone (particularly the Debate Commission or the Media) decides that Candidate X hasn't a chance of winning, it falls under the category of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Constitutionally Correct
You don't understand. In the past 20 years or so, folks were subjected to so much political BS, they can't take it anymore. They care about more basic things, such as whether they can put bread on the family table, whether their elderly parents can sustain themselves on their state pension, whether they can go to a restaurant or a movie every now and then with their wife/husband/girl-/boyfriend. Politics comes after the basic needs and wants are met, not before.
Whereas in Putin's Russia, none of these people get hit. At least, none of it makes the TV.
Increasing oil revenues probably saved Putti's arse.
Table-ized A.I.
Here in Australia, the ABC just showed the conclusion to the two-part documentary "The Rise And Fall Of The Russian Oligarchs", which is precisely about the title.
It's fascinating viewing and this weeks episode detailed how the oligarchs put Putin into power, thinking he'd be their patsy like Yeltsin had been, and how he turned around and stabbed them all in the back.
For me, it has put the current situation in Russia into context. Not that I agree with all of what Putin is currently doing, but I suppose it is the realpolitik of the situation.