And it is wryly amusing that launching them seems to be a piece of cake; getting all the way through the mission without blowing up, well, that's a whole other story!
Seems to ME that the big media blitz should be along the lines of "Hey! They made it! Look! They're safe, having burgers in the spaceport lunchroom!"
My point was very specifically about Bush and the rich. What happens with OTHER Americans is beside the point. IRRELEVANT.
My argument is that it doesn't MATTER what "everybody" does, it matters what this particular set of people do, because I'm criticising THEM for their inappropriate behavior.
You have replied once again with "everybody's doing it so it doesn't matter" which is, again, BULLSHIT.
No run along and take your meds like a nice nut-job.
By your philosophy, the fact that there are other murderers in the world means that we shouldn't prosecute an individual murderer. By your approach, if "everybody's doing it" then "it's ok". This is of course a logical fallacy.
Nothing. It's way too far gone for anyone to stop it now. The government is composed entirely of extremely wealthy people who do NOT care about us. Look how much it "costs" to run for president in 2008: it's like a hundred million bucks. That's ridiculous.
What can the public do?
Again, nothing. Nobody cares about the public anymore. Rich people only care about other rich people and that's a fact.
About the only thing ANY of us can do is move to a country with a parlimentary democracy, like Canada. When every M.P. is someone from your own town, and you know him, AND he doesn't want to be harshly judged in the town where he lives, at least then you have some hope of him caring about the same things as you.
Sadly, I'm stuck here for at least a few years. Sigh...
Good points; I hadn't thought about Ford until I read your post.
I think our government itself needs to be redesigned. We'd probably be a lot better off with a parlimentary system like Canada's. At least then, all representatives would be local people who are known to us. Currently, the U.S. system amounts to a bunch of rich assholes I'll never meet and who don't care about me, making decisions that won't affect them in any way, with no possibility of consequences for their mammoth failures.
Wow. You totally drank the kool-ade. That's the most credulous yes-man line of BS I've ever heard, and that goes a ways.
Hmm... Let's take 'em one by one.
Spying on Everybody: How this works is, the NSA sets up filters at choke points in the network (where the majority of packets will pass through on their way somewhere else). They configure their gear to automatically start recording and analysing whenever certain phrases are detected. These phrases can be anything from "Bush sucks" to "bomb" to "protest march". The fact that it's targeted means they can tell the public anything they want about who they're supposedly after, while making it look like they aren't filtering all packets. Look up Echelon sometime. And that's the OLD system everybody knows about.
This is how the "Big Brother" concept works, by the way. It stifles conversations because you know they're listening, and you never know whether they'll take an interest in this particular phone call. This is why the constitution is supposed to ban this sort of thing, by the way.
And why would they do that? BECAUSE THEY CAN. Because it gives them more power than they had before. Because it enables them to crush dissent and remove opponents. Duh.
Next up... The FISA court oversees only what Bush et al allow it to oversee. They're supposed to ASK FISA for permission to do wiretaps. So far they've been IGNORING IT and doing whatever they want, so don't talk to me about FISA.
Next... Who have they tortured to death? Are you serious? THEY ADMITTED THAT THEY'VE DONE THIS. There are photos circulating around the web of bodies of people who've died in interrogation in Afghanistan and Iraq. There have been coroners reports stating matter of factly that people have been tortured to death. Don't you read the news? Ok, fine, here's an article. It's from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and has a nice interview for you: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1576271.h tm. Ok, here's one more, from Amnesty International: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR5106120 06.
Ok, next up... The paragraph about the justification for Iraq was just dumb, man. All of that has been debunked long ago, and if I gave you a list of articles this post would be a mile long. The fact is, Bush lied about Iraq to trick everybody into the war, and he keeps lying about it. I don't even respect your claim enough to discuss it further. Let's move along.
Next: Scooter's going to jail; that's good enough for me. Of course, Bush will try to pardon him -- no justice for friends of the president, don'cha know! Cronyism at its best. Totally unAmerican. And you know damn well the order to out poor Ms. Plame came down from on high, don't be ridiculous. Her husband outed Bush on the phony yellow cake claims, and the administration wanted to punish him for it. It's telling that they picked on his WIFE, it shows you what juvenile scum they are. These people don't deserve to run a world power.
U.S. Attorneys are NOT supposed to be fired for refusing to act as tools of a political agenda, pal! They're supposed to be civil servants guarding the interests of justice, not the republican party's attack dogs! So your suggestion, here, is crap.
Cozy with the commies in China = allowing China to hold all of our debt, not doing anything about trade imbalances with China, not taking any action to force China to improve its human rights record, not making any effort to force China to throttle back their amazing level of air pollution (which is contributing to global warming and air pollution throughout the region)... Come on, are you serious?
Extraordinary Rendition -- YES, which has been used against several TOTALLY INNOCENT PEOPLE who were torn from their families for a year for torture in a foreign country. Remember that poor Canuck who got yanked out of JFK in NY, s
Oh, I agree with you 100%. I know people in the red states who are completely sensible and normal. And it really is small business types and security moms who are the real problem... It's like they've tied their egos to the U.S. being a colonial empire. Shame that there's so many of them.
But, whether most "bible thumpers" are peaceful Christians or not, their LEADERS are crazier than two cats in a footlocker. Remember that 700 club guy who advocated the assassination of a world leader not so long ago? Some'a them guys are NUTS.
Ah, well... We'll have to see how things turn out.
Ah, but impeaching THIS fellow will put all of the information in one place, making it that much easier on the Hague later on when they catch up with him.
But perhaps you don't think that's going to happen. We'll see.
Re-read my post. I didn't say anything about WHEN they were "all over him like a cheap suit" I only said it was directly tied to Watergate, and that Bush has done so much worse (without any real consequences).
Your post reinforces mine, actually. It suggests that Nixon didn't even particularly DESERVE to be picked on. It makes the distance between Bush and Nixon even farther.
I mean, think about it, all Nixon did was send some spooks into the Watergate Hotel to snoop on the Democratic Convention. Suddenly he was Satan incarnate, and the whole country was on him like a cheap suit.
Dubya and his cronies spy on EVERYBODY, brag about it, torture people to death, invade other countries for personal gain, "out" CIA agents, fire U.S. attorneys, get cozy with the commies in China, kidnap people (extraordinary rendition)...
And nothing! Not a whimper! And the Red States think he's a Good Ole' Boy!
The brits are funny, with their talking cameras... We New Yorkers like our cameras QUIET, so the cops can sneak up behind the guy and properly deliver his can of whoopass.
A misdemeanor is a crime that is punishable by less than one year in a local jail rather than a state prison.
A felony is a crime that is punishable by more than one year in a state-owned prison or penitentiary.
That's what a felony is about -- length and location of sentence. By the way, this should make it even MORE "over the top" for you because local jails are relatively much safer and nicer than state prisons, which are hell-holes by comparison. Unless you live in NYC, in which case the local jails are the "tombs" (shudder).
...That submarines with screen windows offer slightly better floatation than submarines with screen doors.
MacroSubs has affirmed that this is incorrect, however, and stated today that the question will be settled once and for all when their new submarine, entirely made out of screening material, captures the imagination of the nation with its launch in 2009.
So-called "alternative" submarine manufacturers continue to insist on using steel for their doors and heavy lexan for their windows. They claim this quaint, antiquated approach lets them offer better floatation, efficiency at depth, and crew survivability, but independent studies have shown that their apparent "floatation edge" is due to the fact that far fewer of these submarines are produced, not any superiority in design. A. Noying, of an independent think-tank funded in part by contributions from MacroSubs, had this to say:
"Look, we all know that as more of these all-steel and plastic subs get produced, you'll start seeing network effects and their buoyancy will be reduced down to normal levels. Currently, with only a few percent of the market, the oceans aren't interested in them as a point of ingress. This will change soon and you'll see some interesting numbers from my lab to back this up."
When asked about the widespread buoyancy failures of MacroSub submarines around the world, Mr. Noying said only "it's hardly MacroSub's fault if submarine captains tend to drive their submarines into reefs and long-forgotten sea monsters. Their duty is only to make subs buoyant, not idiotproof. However, they are working on an interesting feature called USC, or User Submergence Controls, which should make things a little easier. The submarine will basically ask the captain if he's really, really sure he wants to increase depth, once per fathom. If the captain insists on running into that reef after all the help he's been given, perhaps he shouldn't be driving a sub anyway..."
Most of your post is based on out of date information. As a result, each of your points is a "straw man" argument.
First, the VM issue. If you're doing Java, you're usually doing server-side code and your VM is under your control. The user interface is a browser, but the Java's running server-side so you have no compatability issues. If you're writing a Java application, all you have to do is make sure your users upgrade to the most current VM available, and provide a copy of the installer on your install disk (this is what EVERYBODY does). You're thinking way, way too far in the past. It's a straw man.
Second, designing forms is just as easy in Java as it is in C# -- IF YOU USE NETBEANS. Or JDeveloper. It's drag and drop, works just like Microsoft's tools. Another straw man. Nobody said you HAVE to use Eclipse, so don't. I can't stand it, personally.
And third, modern Java comes complete with a JIT compiler so the code is running at native code speeds. It's optimized, compiled to native code, and cached. It ONLY runs slowly the very first time you fire it up; after that it runs like a C++ application. That's three straw men in a row!
I don't think you're FUD'ing, I think you used Java "way back when" got turned off and never came back. Why not take another look? Things are Quite Nice Now.
When Microsoft switched from VB6 to VB.Net, I happened to be working in a government agency with a lot of old timers who only knew VB6. They found the whole thing QUITE painful. And there were a number of grassroots movements to complain to Microsoft about the changes.
For instance, Microsoft claimed that there was an easy converter for VB6 code to turn it into VB.Net, but what this actually did was comment out much of the code and pronounce the file "converted". Very cute, but not quite what people had in mind.
The core problem was that VB6 was not object oriented, and VB.Net WAS. It simply wasn't possible to directly convert any non-trivial project from one to the other without a complete rewrite. And don't give me any shit about VB6 being object oriented because they call dynamic link libraries "objects" -- all they REALLY are are old-school function libraries. Crap, really.
Also VB6 skills are not portable to VB.Net, and this pissed people off to no end.
Maybe you're blessed with staff that don't mind changing their skill set every year or two when Microsoft senses a change in wind direction. Good for you! But take the blinders off, you're gonna walk off a cliff like that.
Finally, if your java coders aren't good enough to write portable code, fire 'em and get some new ones. Seriously.
Hold on. You have just made several obvious errors.
First of all, who said frameworks are designed to "overcome shortcomings"? They're designed to increase productivity. They get most of the plumbing out of the way so you can get started on the interesting parts. Your precious Microsoft.Net IS A FRAMEWORK that exists for this exact reason. Java's frameworks aren't dumbed down for you; Microsoft's are. Java is harder; we get paid more. This is by design.
Second, All a Javabean is is a class that follows certain conventions, including providing get and set methods (PROPERTIES). You can put those in any class you want. Why do you think Java doesn't have them? Maybe you didn't know how to use them.
And what's up with your nutty point about events and AddActionListener??? Google "AddActionListener" sometime and READ IT, by the way -- all it does is give you an easy way to set up a method that handles an event (the SAME THING you do in C# when you create an event handling function, they just call it something else).
I'm not going to go through your laundry list of syntactic sugar, but I will say it's mostly unnecessary. If it turns you on, good for you, but don't preach about it making C# better than Java, because that's a bogus argument. Java has many things that C# does NOT have, which in my view are a bit more significant, like the ability to run (patent UNENCUMBERED) on Linux, the ability to run on Mac OS/X, the fact that it's GPL now, so no company can force its will on the community...
I understand that C# is your new girlfriend and if you don't talk bad about your old girlfriend you won't feel like you're giving the new girl 100%, but please, at least bring up valid points.
Native code that works in older versions of Windows doesn't always work in Vista. Someone else mentioned Delphi apps, which I was going to mention (he beat me to it). I'm currently rewriting a Delphi app in Java for this exact reason.
Slashdot Mirror
And it is wryly amusing that launching them seems to be a piece of cake; getting all the way through the mission without blowing up, well, that's a whole other story!
Seems to ME that the big media blitz should be along the lines of "Hey! They made it! Look! They're safe, having burgers in the spaceport lunchroom!"
Dumbass,
My point was very specifically about Bush and the rich. What happens with OTHER Americans is beside the point. IRRELEVANT.
My argument is that it doesn't MATTER what "everybody" does, it matters what this particular set of people do, because I'm criticising THEM for their inappropriate behavior.
You have replied once again with "everybody's doing it so it doesn't matter" which is, again, BULLSHIT.
No run along and take your meds like a nice nut-job.
By your philosophy, the fact that there are other murderers in the world means that we shouldn't prosecute an individual murderer. By your approach, if "everybody's doing it" then "it's ok". This is of course a logical fallacy.
Thanks! I wonder if I should .sig it... ? :)
Spoken like a true, dyed in the wool supporter of cronyism! I guess without cronyism, you rich kids wouldn't be able to compete, eh?
Tough nuts. Run along to your country club, your Tom Collins' ice is melting.
Good questions. I'll do my best:
What can we do about this?
Nothing. It's way too far gone for anyone to stop it now. The government is composed entirely of extremely wealthy people who do NOT care about us. Look how much it "costs" to run for president in 2008: it's like a hundred million bucks. That's ridiculous.
What can the public do?
Again, nothing. Nobody cares about the public anymore. Rich people only care about other rich people and that's a fact.
About the only thing ANY of us can do is move to a country with a parlimentary democracy, like Canada. When every M.P. is someone from your own town, and you know him, AND he doesn't want to be harshly judged in the town where he lives, at least then you have some hope of him caring about the same things as you.
Sadly, I'm stuck here for at least a few years. Sigh...
That was marvellously done. Bravo!
Good points; I hadn't thought about Ford until I read your post.
I think our government itself needs to be redesigned. We'd probably be a lot better off with a parlimentary system like Canada's. At least then, all representatives would be local people who are known to us. Currently, the U.S. system amounts to a bunch of rich assholes I'll never meet and who don't care about me, making decisions that won't affect them in any way, with no possibility of consequences for their mammoth failures.
Sigh...
I get more depressed every year. I dream of moving to a sensible, civilized country like Canada, but can't yet.
Wow. You totally drank the kool-ade. That's the most credulous yes-man line of BS I've ever heard, and that goes a ways.
Hmm... Let's take 'em one by one.
Spying on Everybody: How this works is, the NSA sets up filters at choke points in the network (where the majority of packets will pass through on their way somewhere else). They configure their gear to automatically start recording and analysing whenever certain phrases are detected. These phrases can be anything from "Bush sucks" to "bomb" to "protest march". The fact that it's targeted means they can tell the public anything they want about who they're supposedly after, while making it look like they aren't filtering all packets. Look up Echelon sometime. And that's the OLD system everybody knows about.
This is how the "Big Brother" concept works, by the way. It stifles conversations because you know they're listening, and you never know whether they'll take an interest in this particular phone call. This is why the constitution is supposed to ban this sort of thing, by the way.
And why would they do that? BECAUSE THEY CAN. Because it gives them more power than they had before. Because it enables them to crush dissent and remove opponents. Duh.
Next up... The FISA court oversees only what Bush et al allow it to oversee. They're supposed to ASK FISA for permission to do wiretaps. So far they've been IGNORING IT and doing whatever they want, so don't talk to me about FISA.
Next... Who have they tortured to death? Are you serious? THEY ADMITTED THAT THEY'VE DONE THIS. There are photos circulating around the web of bodies of people who've died in interrogation in Afghanistan and Iraq. There have been coroners reports stating matter of factly that people have been tortured to death. Don't you read the news? Ok, fine, here's an article. It's from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and has a nice interview for you: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1576271.h tm. Ok, here's one more, from Amnesty International: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR5106120 06.
Ok, next up... The paragraph about the justification for Iraq was just dumb, man. All of that has been debunked long ago, and if I gave you a list of articles this post would be a mile long. The fact is, Bush lied about Iraq to trick everybody into the war, and he keeps lying about it. I don't even respect your claim enough to discuss it further. Let's move along.
Next: Scooter's going to jail; that's good enough for me. Of course, Bush will try to pardon him -- no justice for friends of the president, don'cha know! Cronyism at its best. Totally unAmerican. And you know damn well the order to out poor Ms. Plame came down from on high, don't be ridiculous. Her husband outed Bush on the phony yellow cake claims, and the administration wanted to punish him for it. It's telling that they picked on his WIFE, it shows you what juvenile scum they are. These people don't deserve to run a world power.
U.S. Attorneys are NOT supposed to be fired for refusing to act as tools of a political agenda, pal! They're supposed to be civil servants guarding the interests of justice, not the republican party's attack dogs! So your suggestion, here, is crap.
Cozy with the commies in China = allowing China to hold all of our debt, not doing anything about trade imbalances with China, not taking any action to force China to improve its human rights record, not making any effort to force China to throttle back their amazing level of air pollution (which is contributing to global warming and air pollution throughout the region)... Come on, are you serious?
Extraordinary Rendition -- YES, which has been used against several TOTALLY INNOCENT PEOPLE who were torn from their families for a year for torture in a foreign country. Remember that poor Canuck who got yanked out of JFK in NY, s
Awwww... Poor little guy. Does this make you sad?
Not off topic, not a troll. You just don't like hearing the TRUTH about your boy dubya, right, there, gomer?
Run along home now and take your meds.
Oh, I agree with you 100%. I know people in the red states who are completely sensible and normal. And it really is small business types and security moms who are the real problem... It's like they've tied their egos to the U.S. being a colonial empire. Shame that there's so many of them.
But, whether most "bible thumpers" are peaceful Christians or not, their LEADERS are crazier than two cats in a footlocker. Remember that 700 club guy who advocated the assassination of a world leader not so long ago? Some'a them guys are NUTS.
Ah, well... We'll have to see how things turn out.
Ah, but impeaching THIS fellow will put all of the information in one place, making it that much easier on the Hague later on when they catch up with him.
But perhaps you don't think that's going to happen. We'll see.
Re-read my post. I didn't say anything about WHEN they were "all over him like a cheap suit" I only said it was directly tied to Watergate, and that Bush has done so much worse (without any real consequences).
Your post reinforces mine, actually. It suggests that Nixon didn't even particularly DESERVE to be picked on. It makes the distance between Bush and Nixon even farther.
So... What you're really saying is that because:
Social Security is the Democrat's doing;
Medicare is the Democrat's doing;
Food stamps and welfare are the Democrat's doing;
(I.E. all of the most humanistic, compassionate programs our government has ever created were done by Democrats)
The Democratic party is the party that actually cares about people?
Yeah, you know? I think you're right. Thanks for the compliment.
Except that Dubya is spying on all of US. ALL of us. Not just foreigners, and definitely not just arabs.
The NSA is equipped to filter and process ALL telephone communications. Don't fool yourself; they're listening.
Actually, they have been for a long time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON
So, you know... Your argument is like unto a cup of yummy kool ade!
I mean, think about it, all Nixon did was send some spooks into the Watergate Hotel to snoop on the Democratic Convention. Suddenly he was Satan incarnate, and the whole country was on him like a cheap suit.
Dubya and his cronies spy on EVERYBODY, brag about it, torture people to death, invade other countries for personal gain, "out" CIA agents, fire U.S. attorneys, get cozy with the commies in China, kidnap people (extraordinary rendition)...
And nothing! Not a whimper! And the Red States think he's a Good Ole' Boy!
Seriously, people -- WTF???
The brits are funny, with their talking cameras... We New Yorkers like our cameras QUIET, so the cops can sneak up behind the guy and properly deliver his can of whoopass.
That's so depressing on so many levels.
NOTE: IANAL. Just a New Yorker.
Generally,
A misdemeanor is a crime that is punishable by less than one year in a local jail rather than a state prison.
A felony is a crime that is punishable by more than one year in a state-owned prison or penitentiary.
That's what a felony is about -- length and location of sentence. By the way, this should make it even MORE "over the top" for you because local jails are relatively much safer and nicer than state prisons, which are hell-holes by comparison. Unless you live in NYC, in which case the local jails are the "tombs" (shudder).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tombs
...That submarines with screen windows offer slightly better floatation than submarines with screen doors.
MacroSubs has affirmed that this is incorrect, however, and stated today that the question will be settled once and for all when their new submarine, entirely made out of screening material, captures the imagination of the nation with its launch in 2009.
So-called "alternative" submarine manufacturers continue to insist on using steel for their doors and heavy lexan for their windows. They claim this quaint, antiquated approach lets them offer better floatation, efficiency at depth, and crew survivability, but independent studies have shown that their apparent "floatation edge" is due to the fact that far fewer of these submarines are produced, not any superiority in design. A. Noying, of an independent think-tank funded in part by contributions from MacroSubs, had this to say:
"Look, we all know that as more of these all-steel and plastic subs get produced, you'll start seeing network effects and their buoyancy will be reduced down to normal levels. Currently, with only a few percent of the market, the oceans aren't interested in them as a point of ingress. This will change soon and you'll see some interesting numbers from my lab to back this up."
When asked about the widespread buoyancy failures of MacroSub submarines around the world, Mr. Noying said only "it's hardly MacroSub's fault if submarine captains tend to drive their submarines into reefs and long-forgotten sea monsters. Their duty is only to make subs buoyant, not idiotproof. However, they are working on an interesting feature called USC, or User Submergence Controls, which should make things a little easier. The submarine will basically ask the captain if he's really, really sure he wants to increase depth, once per fathom. If the captain insists on running into that reef after all the help he's been given, perhaps he shouldn't be driving a sub anyway..."
Most of your post is based on out of date information. As a result, each of your points is a "straw man" argument.
First, the VM issue. If you're doing Java, you're usually doing server-side code and your VM is under your control. The user interface is a browser, but the Java's running server-side so you have no compatability issues. If you're writing a Java application, all you have to do is make sure your users upgrade to the most current VM available, and provide a copy of the installer on your install disk (this is what EVERYBODY does). You're thinking way, way too far in the past. It's a straw man.
Second, designing forms is just as easy in Java as it is in C# -- IF YOU USE NETBEANS. Or JDeveloper. It's drag and drop, works just like Microsoft's tools. Another straw man. Nobody said you HAVE to use Eclipse, so don't. I can't stand it, personally.
And third, modern Java comes complete with a JIT compiler so the code is running at native code speeds. It's optimized, compiled to native code, and cached. It ONLY runs slowly the very first time you fire it up; after that it runs like a C++ application. That's three straw men in a row!
I don't think you're FUD'ing, I think you used Java "way back when" got turned off and never came back. Why not take another look? Things are Quite Nice Now.
Sigh...
When Microsoft switched from VB6 to VB.Net, I happened to be working in a government agency with a lot of old timers who only knew VB6. They found the whole thing QUITE painful. And there were a number of grassroots movements to complain to Microsoft about the changes.
For instance, Microsoft claimed that there was an easy converter for VB6 code to turn it into VB.Net, but what this actually did was comment out much of the code and pronounce the file "converted". Very cute, but not quite what people had in mind.
The core problem was that VB6 was not object oriented, and VB.Net WAS. It simply wasn't possible to directly convert any non-trivial project from one to the other without a complete rewrite. And don't give me any shit about VB6 being object oriented because they call dynamic link libraries "objects" -- all they REALLY are are old-school function libraries. Crap, really.
Also VB6 skills are not portable to VB.Net, and this pissed people off to no end.
Maybe you're blessed with staff that don't mind changing their skill set every year or two when Microsoft senses a change in wind direction. Good for you! But take the blinders off, you're gonna walk off a cliff like that.
Finally, if your java coders aren't good enough to write portable code, fire 'em and get some new ones. Seriously.
Hold on. You have just made several obvious errors.
.Net IS A FRAMEWORK that exists for this exact reason. Java's frameworks aren't dumbed down for you; Microsoft's are. Java is harder; we get paid more. This is by design.
/ Iterator.html
First of all, who said frameworks are designed to "overcome shortcomings"? They're designed to increase productivity. They get most of the plumbing out of the way so you can get started on the interesting parts. Your precious Microsoft
Second, All a Javabean is is a class that follows certain conventions, including providing get and set methods (PROPERTIES). You can put those in any class you want. Why do you think Java doesn't have them? Maybe you didn't know how to use them.
And how could you miss the fact that Java DOES have iterators:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util
And what's up with your nutty point about events and AddActionListener??? Google "AddActionListener" sometime and READ IT, by the way -- all it does is give you an easy way to set up a method that handles an event (the SAME THING you do in C# when you create an event handling function, they just call it something else).
I'm not going to go through your laundry list of syntactic sugar, but I will say it's mostly unnecessary. If it turns you on, good for you, but don't preach about it making C# better than Java, because that's a bogus argument. Java has many things that C# does NOT have, which in my view are a bit more significant, like the ability to run (patent UNENCUMBERED) on Linux, the ability to run on Mac OS/X, the fact that it's GPL now, so no company can force its will on the community...
I understand that C# is your new girlfriend and if you don't talk bad about your old girlfriend you won't feel like you're giving the new girl 100%, but please, at least bring up valid points.
Native code that works in older versions of Windows doesn't always work in Vista. Someone else mentioned Delphi apps, which I was going to mention (he beat me to it). I'm currently rewriting a Delphi app in Java for this exact reason.