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James Powderly of Graffiti Research Labs Detained In China
An anonymous reader writes "News from Free Tibet 2008 that internationally known artist, technologist and co-founder of the Graffiti Research Lab, James Powderly, was detained in Beijing early on August 19th while preparing to debut a new work and technology of protest, the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil. According to a Twitter message received yesterday by Students for a Free Tibet at approximately 5 pm Beijing Standard Time, Powderly had been detained by Chinese authorities at 3 am. His current whereabouts remain unknown. Powderly was the inventor of throwies." (Powderly's detention was also mentioned at Make Magazine's blog.)
He made the mistake of catching the wrong bus to the olympics.
The stupid motherfucker. What did he expect?
Username taken, please choose another one.
The Chinese must be really serious about fighting graffiti in their country.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
i love china, because i can buy an ipod for 75 dollars. i dont care who they kill to do it. im a capitalist, free market uber alles!!
Powderly was the inventor of throwies."
Was? You're writing him off already? Geez! And people say *I'm* a pessimist.
His current whereabouts remain unknown.
Anyone got a feeling they'll remain that way?
Anyone else think that China's human rights record doesn't affect them just because they're not Chinese citizens?
Consider him lucky if we hear from and about him ever again.
(Granted, going to China for the express purpose of protesting is going to get you in hot water with the Chinese authorities, but is that the sign of a healthy society?)
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
Rosa Parks knew that she was SUPPOSED to give up her seat, but she took a stand. It was arguably dangerous for her to do so.
People who have the balls to stand up against tyrants may be called stupid by some, but they will be called heroes by others.
Oh, and non-destructive graffiti is pretty damned cool.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I've never heard of most of these "activists" before the Olympics and I've got a feeling we won't be hearing much from them afterwards. If people have been involved with pro-Tibet, pro-Darfur, pro-democracy, pro-whatever stuff all along, then good for them. But most of these loudmouths getting press recently seem to only be interested in complaining when their neighbors are taking pleasure in something China-related.
It reminds me of all those goofs who are so indignantly outraged every Thanksgiving, but never lift a finger to help American Indians on the other 364 days a year. Or even on Thanksgiving, for that matter.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
The issue of Tibet and Chinese imperialism is well-known and is never out of the public eye.
However, making a spectacle of yourself in a venue designed to showcase the absolute best of the best athletes in the world, when your total contribution to their preparation is all but zero, seems to be an act of hubris and self-absorption. Even if what you are doing is ostensibly for the benefit of someone else.
The Olympics aren't about you, and they aren't about your pet issue. There are plenty of other venues to air these protests. Disrespecting the athletes by marring the games with these protests is no better than what happened in Munich in 1972.
I'm sure he knew what might happen when he decided to protest in China about Tibet. I commend him for that, it might get some attention to people around the world to his cause. I think he either had to have had some seriouse balls or have been a little nieve to think of what would happen if he was detained by athorities. I don't think hes a dumb man he knew what he was doing and he knew what would probably happen.
Hopefully they just ship him home after a couple days or weeks and this doesn't get too ugly for him.
On another note "I know hippies. I've hated them all my life. I've kept this town free of hippies on my own since I was five and a half. But I can't contain them on my own anymore. We have to do something, fast!" hehe China is Cartman
dumb colonists, blabbering about their rights.
I've seen a fair share of stencil art around the traps, but would somebody illuminate me on what a L.A.S.E.R stencil is, please. Does it have anything to do with sharks?
War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.- Shelley
He is still having a better day than this guy.
Going to foreign countries run by totalitarian governments to protest is a bit on the unwise side regardless of how just the cause.
The cake is a pie
Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes?
He won't be long.
Confucius say "It will take many many throwies to enlighten all of China."
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
At least all the Chinese prisons serve Chinese food (or as the Chinese call it, "food").
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
We should send more of our hippies and crackpots there to be detained. We have completely failed to deal with them here due to these silly laws we have.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Bullshit. All the other western "Free Tibet" protesters were chucked out of the country the next day, unharmed.
Incidentally, the INS have the power to do exactly the same thing if I (a foreigner) came to the US to protest at some event.
Protestors... always demanding people change what they're doing, never buckling down to create infrastructure to support new ways of life.
Tibet is better off now than they were before. China is doing all the right things.
I hope they shoot the guy.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What does this have to do with my online rights? Shouldn't this be filed under politics?
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
... that I beat the crap out of a guy in school every day who looked very much like the "Censorship" graphic icon? A swirly would have been the mildest punishment I doled out to this poor schmuck. I hope his old man owned stock in Optical Clinic because I broke his glasses at least once a week too.
I know Rosa Parks, I sat in the bus with Rosa Parks, that guy is no Rosa Parks!
And he wasn't even protesting.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
That's sort of fatalist, isn't it? I'm sure he'll be released in good time.
knows for 5ure what
So you go on to point out how dangerous it is for the people in America to shine lasers upwards and in people's eyes, but you seem to be supporting this idiot's efforts to get people to do exactly that. Or don't you think that there can be any people in those buildings looking out of windows when the crowd below shines those lasers.Don't you think the Chinese have helicopters, and that they would be present at just such events? And do you completely discount the likely hood that someone will hold the laser low so to make it harder to pinpoint them as the protester in the crowd rather than overtly hold it high over their head, and in doing so would direct it through an area that is likely to be crossed by someone else's head and eyes? It's just fine for the US government to protect us from people who do this, but it comes as a complete shock to you that this guy would be stopped by Chinese authorities for organizing people to do the same, particularly when he is a foreigner going into the country to organize political protests?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Tibet has been part of China since 1792. Yes, for over two freaking centuries! You might not like it, but tough shit. And guess what, if a bunch of Chinese students came to the US and flung banners around Stanford demanding we give California back to Mexico, we'd probably tell them to get their butts back to China and mind their own business. Heck, we'd probably even detain a couple of them.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Should be in Chinese, not English!!!
Then you've been sleeping with your head up your ass. They've been around a lot longer than the time since China was awarded the Olympics.
Obviously comparing what he is doing to Rosa Parks is a horrible analogy that would give you low scores on the SAT verbal. However he is doing exactly what all people of privilege should do: use their 'gifted' place in society to help others. While most of us take our white male privilege for granted, he is openly willing to place his life on the line to share it with other people. Because he has the resources he is helping others accomplish their goals. And you mock him for this? You should have posted as a coward because that's is clearly what you are Whether or not he is correct concerning the stance and situation of Tibet with China, his goal is to allow freedom of expression through the reclamation of public spaces. How can you sit there and lambaste him when he is actually taking chances to do something he believes in- in a non-violent fashion? Besides this I won't comment on your terribly stated and obvious flamebait responses to his political ideals. I know this is /. and you obviously didn't RTFA but he isn't saying ANYTHING about the USA while he is in China.
We need a mod tool to amend sigs to have "community sponsored 'special person' tag".
He never learned the 11th commandment.
"Don't Get Caught."
Also it is always good to talk about what you are going to do...
I went to a a Communist country myself to help smuggle illegal documents (read Bibles).
Many /.ers don't agree with religion or the faith but that isn't the point. I don't agree with a lot but the beauty of America and several other countries is the FREEDOM of religion and FREEDOM of expression.
I got caught at the border. I have ~70 lbs of Bibles with me so it was very obvious they were for distribution. But I am an American and had a passport and they let me go. We know that they (Chinese and others) don't want to create an international incident. Most of the time the documents get confiscated but even if 50% of them get through, it is a 'win'.
You can call me stupid. Many of us believe in what we are doing. We aren't blowing up bombs or shooting men/women/children. As for martyrdom, I was prepared to die for my faith. Many others were too. I won't kill for my faith. I don't think we are called to do that (anymore).
Many people of many faiths are willing to die (or kill) for what they believe in. Others are willing to post to a website. And there are those in between.
Someone brought up Rosa Parks. Unjust laws are not to be followed. She didn't die or get beaten. She got fined. In China, the stakes are higher.
AC for obvious reasons.
He is not helping anyone. He is an attention hound, nothing more. And, I suggest you learn to comprehend what you are reading because you have failed to understand what I wrote.
He is not trying to reclaim public space. He is to claim public space as his own personal canvas which he can deface at will, with no regard for the rest of the public.
I guess you forgot that there are OTHER people in the public, just like he did. Or is it that you believe you somehow have a greater right to public space than anyone else?
You are obviously ignorant because you don't even know the meaning of the word "coward". You, however, are the epitome of "arrogant, self-righteous fool".
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Puts a whole new ... spin... on MEC(H) warriors?
I guess Justice is "on a roll". Amnesty might say, "But THAT's NOT JUSTICE!" And Redd Fox might say, "Just As Good..."
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
[citation needed]
These "technologists" without any actual techincal knowlege are only popular in the decaying United States as it strips off manutacturing assets and sells them off to China. What replaces technology in the US are MBAs on one side, and these "artists"/ "technologists" on the other (in reality, they are socialists, political activists). In China, these "technologists" go to jail. Technologists WORK, they do spread their peacock tails.
I lived in china 30 years ago during the "poor times". The staple wasnt the sugar+spicy rich "Chinese food" you see in American Chinese restaurants, but simple steamed rice and cabbage. Plus a seasonal vegetable and maybe pork on Sunday.
Israelis shot foreign protestors on multiple occasions.
How is China worse than that?
(mind you, I don't like what either of them are doing, but that's another story)
Let's keep things in perspective here. The guy isn't spray-painting public property, he's just projecting laser-generated images onto buildings. Used often enough it might become a genuine nuisance, but as a tool for protest it is actually rather interesting.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
Yeah, it is just a nuisance to put up those laser generated images. And, when he blinds someone in the building with his laser generated images, I am sure that someone will consider being blind just a nuisance.
Yes, let's keep things in perspective, because the risk of permanently damaging someone's vision is less important than getting one's message across
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
unless of course you were arrested as a suspected terrorist for a reason or another and get shipped to Guantanamo, in which case you could be stuck for a few years.
To be honest, I was about to foe you for your first comment... But I think you have a point, even if you phrase it in the most inflammatory of ways. I am getting sick of people thinking of graffiti as art, much less activism. Its destructive and antisocial, and shouldn't be considered to have any merits, unless you only deface your own property. (I've gone so far as to report some acquaintances to the authorities for being "artists")
Its another case of people thinking that their individual rights should always trump that of the society as a whole. Which is becoming more and more common these days.
Yes, this graffiti is rather non-invasive, and doesn't damage much. But when your in a foreign country, you must follow their rules and mores, even if you don't like them. If you have the urge to "do the right thing", then you must be a trooper and accept the consequences of your actions, no matter what they are.
Also, does this guy really think graffiti will change the world? This might be among the stupidest ideas I've heard in the last year or so.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
He had to know that if he went to China and attempted to protest for free Tibet that he'd be arrested and deported. I doubt he'll get much mileage out of this though because the authorities will probably quietly put him on a plane for home and with no dramatic aspects, the whole incident will be ignored by the press.
and to think that chinese were trying to feed the bullshit before the opening of olympic games ...
Read radical news here
Every other American protester so far has been, basically, taken to the airport and deported.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Wired ran an article in 2005 about American jailed in China for pirating IP. Its kind of rough when your own government hates you too. (He should have been released about now)
..."PEE-POLE"...
But, I wonder about:
"Injections leave the whole body intact and require participation of doctors. Organs can "be extracted in a speedier and more effective way than if the prisoner is shot," says Mark Allison, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong. "We have gathered strong evidence suggesting the involvement of (Chinese) police, courts and hospitals in the organ trade.""
Is the lethal cocktail an air injection? How do they remove the toxic lethal injection from any black market organs (of which they are accused of being in). Is the video showing the full event duration? I would imagine that IF there is organ harvesting going on, it might be better to sedate the condemned and dispatch them in a manner that doesn't pollute or derange the organs. Does an embolism by injection demolish the heart or a sedated person? Suffocating a conscious person might cause excessive adrenaline dumping.
And, if a monkey's organs are in demand, what about human former-prisoner magic extract powder? Could alter the meaning of "Tiger Balm Medicated Ointment".... Unless the sign of the condemned IS the Tiger.
But, as for hauling the condemned aboard the vehicle, it's probably more convenient to have a panicking, defecating dispatching occur on a ramp with a buttocks-located hole to avoid having to wash/decontaminate the Mobi-Cution Mobile. Plus, it's probably scary for the guards and staff to roam around in a $6 Million Dollar Man-like Death Probe containing the souls of the dispatched. Imagine 1700 souls a year: ~ 4 per day, and 4, in China and some other Asian locales is the same sound as "death", which is an unlucky number. Who'd want to roam the country in a tool symbolic of 4, execution, death? If executions rise, they might want to build a quantity not equal to nor divisible by nor a multiple of 4.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Hong Kong.
Slashdot ... always respecting freedom of expression.
Well, except yours obviously. You don't agree with the commisar (these days the commissar is "Barack Hussein Obama"). Besides ... anti-China protests are dying. China doesn't listen and is generally too scary. So they get to massacre (hey so do the muslims, who even worship a massacring child-rapist).
As the Barack said : let's just say the UN needs to put a stop to this ! ... I respectfully request you leave, sir, through the window. The top floor window. Yep you have to, Chinese tradition.
Sane individual : China has a veto to any UN decision
Barack, and other progressives : that guy is not toeing the party line ! Everybody knows just how much we find it necessary to stop other socialists from killing indiscriminately
Meanwhile some chinese guy : *pang*
Some Tibettan : *gurgle* aargh
(sorry but after the "oh no the police attempted to break the privacy of a child molester"-post I think this is most justified, besides the label "troll" just means you're opressing me ! whei !)
Now, please, STFU.
Not going to happen, pal. Not with requests, pleading, negative moderation - you name it.
And since you bring it up, you kind of left off that we kept a guy locked up for almost a half a year with no trial. For something he did in another country. Which happened to be legal there. A six month jail term for a thoughtcrime.
All this whining about China being a totalitarian regime would be better spent on keeping our own noses clean in that regard.
I'll bring up the Dmitry debacle every single chance I get, thank you very much. Six months in the can away from his young family - time lost forever.
What do you want to bet James gets less time? I'll bet he does. Imagine that. Jump a plane to communist China with the express intention of protesting there, and getting less time than you would if you talk about a simple security problem in a software product in the good 'ol USA.
This entire thing is shameful, and the only way to make sure it never happens again is to raise awareness. You do that by continually bringing it up.
Which I did. And will continue to do.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
and the political cartoonist: "It's not an execution chamber. It's a "Reincarnation ACCELERATION Chamber!"
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I might be inflammatory, but people like this piss me off.
What Powderly is doing might be "rather non-invasive", but the fact is he is using a 500mW green laser to do the projections.
I am sure that someone who accidentally looks directly at the laser will consider it quite invasive. A laser of that power can have a permanent effect on someone eyesight, including total blindness in one or both eyes.
That is what really pisses me off. This jackass is doing something that is dangerous to others and doesn't have the brains to realize it.
Take those "throwies". Wasting batteries and LED, leaving them in public where they will eventually contaminate the soil and be litter, light polluting litter at that. Did anyone stop to think about where those batteries are going to end up? I will give you a clue: They will not be taken to be recycled. Want to bet they will end up in a land fill, or washed down a storm drain? And, where I live, many storm drains go directly to the sea.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
You're as much of a liar as your parent poster.
I would've shown people the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre instead of Tibet. There is a documentary about Tank Man where a group of university students are asked if they recognize the pictures and only one of a dozen has a clue, and doesn't dare to say it out loud. The masses are brainwashed even though the protests were in the millions so it is amazing educated twentysomethings don't have a clue.
tossed, unconscious (if he' STILL alive for planning of forensics purposes) into the streets during another 5.3 quake when 500,000 people run out into the street and smear him to the pavement. Even an autopsy would be... "inconclusive" in "determination"...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
if they dare to "protest" in Chinese. They'll be humiliated and beaten to death by Chinese people on the street. Average Chinese hate those who support Tibet or Taiwan independence. By "protesting" in English, these idiots are just playing a show, not to the Chinese, but to the western.
The images are made by a projector. A laser pointer is used to tell the computer where to draw. I doubt the laser is pointed at the building long enough to cause damage.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
Tibet has been part of China since 1792. Yes, for over two freaking centuries! You might not like it, but tough shit
Tibetans don't think they've been part of China since 1792. They thought they were running Tibet. And they did, until they were invaded in 1959. You might not like it, but tough shit
And guess what, if a bunch of Chinese students came to the US and flung banners around Stanford demanding we give California back to Mexico, we'd probably tell them to get their butts back to China and mind their own business.
NONSENSE! We'd laugh. That's it. We'd laugh and laugh and laugh.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
It's a powerful projector (read: light bulb), not a laser. He only uses a standard green laser to paint the images. Good luck blinding somebody 200 feet away with it by drawing a picture the size of a building. You're just being silly.
Actually, it occurs to me that foreigners are the best people to do the protesting, because we are relatively untouchable and can't be made to quietly disappear.
"The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but here's my shot on it. He went to another country to speak out against something that everyone knows is happening, and just as well everyone is rather passive about. You can have millions of people in a movement, and the majority of 'activists' could be doing nothing. However rather than doing like others and saying 'yeah I support this, I'm pro-tibet', instead of sitting around he went to China to one of the most publicized events to do something he probably knew was a risk. When you do graffiti, you know very well the risks you take before the first spray of paint or the first flash of light. It's nothing new, they just have a different take on it.
Now pointing lasers in peoples' direction is a awfully rude thing to do. It is often detrimental to others' physical health, and is also plainly inpolite. What they do is take light and show it off on walls, usually office building where there aren't people working late in the evening, and display shows of light on the sides with artificial graffiti. Perhaps going there and showing off was just a retarded move, a wave in the air and nothing more. Perhaps at sacrifice of themselves it'll get the attention of more people, perhaps not.
Either way, all I know is I'm rather bitter about it. I look up to this guy.
They would get their heads ripped off.
This douchebag had it coming, having the gall to foment terrorism during the Olympics. Being arrested is a merciful punishment for him, we could have just let a crowd beat the shit out of him while the cops look the other way.
Free Tibet is a terrorist, separatist organization dedicated to establishing a Western protectorate over an "independent" Tibet so the Lamas can reinstitute theocracy, slavery, and poverty to the territory. They will never succeed, no matter how much the Western imperialists and the traitors who sold themselves to the West want it to be so.
Nah, I've got to go to the Robinsons', they've lost nine today.
Considering that going to the US and looking dark-skinned could get you not thrown out, but straight into Gitmo...
Oh, here we go with the despicable, positionless, cowardly and anonymous marking of "off-topic".
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
You're absolutely correct about the Youtube video posted above, where the laser is used by hand and a camera sensor detects what image should be sent to the projector to be displayed on the building. He's also working on a project now that uses a laser that rapidly moves in a "stencil" shape that traces out simple words or simple, one-color line-drawn pictures. The laser stencil has been done for more than a decade at the minimum, but maybe it's news because he's an amateur doing this, and also he is protesting.
Explain to me how broadcasting light onto a building "defaces it" Or maybe you are talking about the sticky lights WHICH COME OFF. Seriously this isn't your gang tagger here.
And in this instance, as in many instances of public space reclamation, the people have in fact lost their right to public space. Perhaps you should read up about the loss of common land . Or about the hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced to build the Olympic grounds.
BTW, I'm pretty sure I understand the meaning definition of coward. However, I don't think I ever explicitly said anything about my character, e.g. I didn't mention my concepts of my own self-worth. Whatever you may have garned you must have infered. And since we already have an example of your stellar deduction skills , I'm sure we can make an educated guess about how good you are at inference.
Better off in what way? In Tibet the monks used to be able to live how they chose to live. Worship how, who, and what they chose to worship. The people who lived in Tibet lived as the wished. Then the Chinese came in. Now they are not free to live as they wish any more. If it was me no level of "civilization" is worth losing liberty. So in what way exactly is Tibet better?
I just have to mention that I get tired of Americans who constantly lambaste China as the bad guys in the Tibet deal. The people of Tibet were treated as slaves by the ruling class before China stepped in.
Don't believe me? Look it up before you attack me on this one.
China is by no means perfect, but in the Tibet situation, they actually did end the medieval serfdom that plagued Tibet up until the 1950s.
How did China even get the Olympics, it just proves that the ideals of the Olympic games have been trumped by vapid consumerism and it only has teeth when it is deciding where to host a new games.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Try wearing an "Impeach Bush" t-shirt and wander around Washington to contrast what happens in a "democratic" country.
in. Now they are not free to live as they wish any more. If it was me no level of "civilization" is worth losing liberty. So in what way exactly is Tibet better?
I agree with you.
Civilization, on the other hand, does not: it depends on repression heavily.
If it was up to me, they wouldnt have gotten me off the trees with any kind of treat whatsoever, or even leave the sea.
NO SIG
Strictly speaking, if you're talking about continuity of government, the "Chinese Government" is a robust democracy in Taiwan - they are the heirs to the traditional Chinese government. The murderous thugs ruling mainland China don't have a pedigree going back past 1949.
I've always wondered if there would have been a war in 1997 if England had said, "Ok...our 100 year lease on Hong Kong is up. Time to give Hong Kong back to China...here you go, TAIWAN!"\
Free Tibet to what? Since when Tibetans were free under the religious ruling class. It's a worst form of dictatorship/autocracies/aristocracies morph into one. Think they are peaceful, just check how they slaughter other monks from other branches. This info is readily available on the web.
He will be questioned for couple hours then kicked out of country. That will be it.
I just have to mention that I get tired of Americans who constantly lambaste China as the bad guys in the Tibet deal. The people of Tibet were treated as slaves by the ruling class before China stepped in.
Don't believe me? Look it up before you attack me on this one.
Telling China what to do by saying, "I want you to free Tibet", is not even the point. He's trying to bring attention to this situation so more people look into the relationship between Tibet and China, and he obviously believes people will agree with him.
This is the point of, for instance, Political Graffiti. I know absolutely nothing about what in the hell this Free Tibet shit is about, but perhaps now I will look into it. This is the point.
China Youth Daily is a communist mouth piece owned by the communist party. If you read the editorials, you will see for yourself, some of the comments on here are so far off from reality. Here is the google translation: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2F2008.china.com%2Fzh_cn%2Fsy%2Fpl%2F11068961%2F20080821%2F15042887.html&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=zh-CN&tl=en People, you are supposed to be the smart bunch.
I didn't think the parent was very funny, but it sounds more like satire/off-topic than trolling.
I'd rather spend my mod points on something interesting or something worth cleaning out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XCZJD3qeUI
Oh yeah, your claim just got debunked.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
GWB goes over there and raises a stink about "human rights", now this clown, too. You're not going to change anyone's mind over there. They're doing this on purpose, economic freedoms are given to the Chinese people first, political will follow. Compared to 4 year cycle of US politics, they think in a span of 50 years or so - way too long an attention span for an average US politician to be able to muster.
It's not like there are no problems here at home, either. Infrastructure is crumbling, economy is in the toilet, military budget is astronomical, high schools put out idiots who need remedial courses to even be able to study further, space program is lagging behind, middle class is being raped with taxes, etc, etc.
It sure as heck is much easier to just bash foreign governments for their perceived shortcomings. Fixing problems here would actually require a brain and quite a bit of work.
OK, first of all stop saying detained and call it by its name: arrested. Second, what the hell was this guy doing in China? He should've seen it coming.
Um... That's why I said 'relatively', and you supported my claim that they 'can't be made to quietly disappear'
People notice when things like this happen. You can be sure that the citizens' executions don't make it onto YouTube.
"The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
Not really. Just find your ass in an alley with your though cut and your wallet gone. You just went from political execution to random mugging.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asE7CdX1t6c
Once again, your claim just got debunked... once more.
FYI, I never argued against the point of foreigners disappearing quietly. That would be idiotic knowing I just posted a YouTube video of it.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
So you found two instances disproving the stated weaker (based on the word 'relatively') point, but which directly and strongly enforce the main point of my statement?
Debunk: to expose the sham or falseness of <debunk a legend>
"The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497