Want a fresh look at the subject? Google which country we invaded (a friendly one, too) after we were attacked after Perl Harbor. America makes these moves with a strategy in mind, it's not just a simple "japan attacked, we go attack Japan" kind of mindset. And when we very nearly collapsed the military in such short order (when the UN directed we should stop) we learned that the civil war concerns weren't warranted- as they aren't, now.
Right now the Kurds are doing exactly what we want them to (not fight, care for their wounds) and both the sectarians are starting to see that random bombing is getting them nowhere, and Iran's influence is costing that country more. It's not a morass; it's not a Vietnam. It's not complete and total chaos. But that's what it will be, should we just hit the road.
For further perspective, consider that Hitler's Germany, a country familiar with Democracy, took five years occupation to get them settled, and Japan, who had no idea of Democracy, took SEVEN years. Notice how Americans are *still* posted to both countries, some 60+ years later. It's not a bad thing. (In fact the Japanese and American navies often have cookouts, fer cryin' out loud!)
"Civil War" is an easy charge to make...it doesn't cut it, here. Once again, the media programming.
No, I wrote that before I read the article. And, because every time I try to bring reason into the frothy, hateful faces of liberals (yeah, kinda like the way you seem...) I get pounded for not having all my data.
Conservatives are a lot closer to what you want, than what you're voting for as a Democrat; the single-payer system Hillary proposed (and almost got, if not for complaining Conservatives) would have have YOU AND THE DOCTOR in federal prison, should you go to someone outside the network, so you won't die.
Bringing healthcare, driven by the government (remember the $600 toliet seats, and the cruelty of the blind government) is a bad idea. The biggest reason the medicals are screwed up is because everyone's trying to cover the problems the government brings into it in the first place. More only makes it worse.
Republicans (who are NOT perfect Conservatives) could not care less what car you drive, what you eat, who you deal with (as long as it's not radical Islam...) or what you do for a living, so long as you don't hurt anyone. Meanwhile the Democrats want you to be a victim of one kind of the other, want to limit what you eat (the recent trans-fats) don't want you to drive SUVs (that's a legacy) and don't want you making "too much money" as if there's something wrong with it. Democrats bring pain. Republicans bring opportunity.
Now, we're not keen on anything that puts a 'bounty' on the heads of the unborn...especially since adult stem cells have dozens of sucess stories....because no such stories are there for those the consume human life. (Human life, like you and I, in fact.)
Meanwhile, Democrats find it their purpose to break every tradition you have. It makes you pliable in times of trouble....dependent on them. You don't need to be dependent on anyone; being independent means you're *safer*. (Ask those in Katrina that had no way to leave.)
Seriously; it's time to re-think your voting and your mindset. Once upon a time, Democrats put forth actual, sane possibilities. Now, they just attack the USA (unless their guy is in office.) You really need to reconsider your position, when the party you vote for has the exact same talking points as the terrorists who want us all dead. (See the Bin Laden tape the other day.)
There's another good point; everyone assumes "the illuminatti" to be perfect and all-knowing, but let's face it: if they DO exist, they're people like us, and bound to the same problems as anyone else trying to get something done.
Remember that Saddam was a slick one; remember the US Cruiser that shot down the airliner? The airliner drove STRAIGHT towards the ship, and the ship, doing due-dilligence, shot it down after all kinds of attempts to contact it, to no avail.
When they got to the downed airplanes, they saw a curious site: naked people...COLD naked people, not falling below the surface, but floating. That's because they were all dead a week or more before the downing; Saddam emptied the morgues....taking everyone's uncle Ned (or whoever) and spilling the dead bodies over the waves for media purposes.
So why would he **NOT** be smart enough to move the N/B/C materials, knowing his enemy is coming for it? He didn't like any more than anyone else in the Beltway.
The issue is that MOST PEOPLE DON'T pay attention to the news, so background stuff like this goes right over their heads, and they'll buy any programming that supports the "Bush stole the election" nonsense. It's programmed hate. We need to be together now; none of the terrorists will stop to check how we vote, to kill us.
I can't tell you how many people I've talked to that thing Don Rumsfeld is the devil himself...or at least he was until he left. But what they couldn't tell me....none of them, in fact, was what he did _wrong_. There was nothing, in fact: just the media trying it's best to demonify each and every thing the Bush Adminsitration did. I got "He's not one of us" and "He's not American" and "I forgot", but clearly this was nothing more than programming.
Carl Rove: same thing. Tom DeLay, same thing. In fact almost each and every person, drawn to such passion as if to spit on me, just because I asked the question, couldn't respond with an answer.
Guys, they're selling it as "First Amemendment Radio" and "The Truth" and all that, but there are some things you need to know.
1. There are no "Neo-Cons". There is, and has always been only one kind of Conservative. Use of the word helps me spot 'bots' every time.
2. The Gulf War was shut down by the UN, who called George Senior, and was told "You're angering the Arab street" by killing their entire army in the pass....so Senior told Schwartzkopf to end the fighting....and that's where it lay, all the way through the Clinton Administration, with a cease-fire. However, Saddam fired 492 SAM missiles at our aircraft, any one of which could have restarted the war, but Clinton was a very 'don't rock the boat' kind of administration.
3. Yes, Oil was a big part of the war. But face it: without oil, we'd all live on farms. Because of oil, we get to live other lives, and the oil brings the food to us in various forms. Do you know how we stopped Hitler's armies? Not by hitting the factories, but by stopping the flow of oil to the Panzers. It will stop all of us, too, if it stops. There's nothing wrong with this. (Other than we're so dependent on it.)
4. Oil profits was not what the war was about; oil was cheaper when we didn't have to fight for it. Had we been 'French' about Saddam's rage against the common man, the mutilation and us looking the other way, fuel would have been cheaper. But stopping the man that could stop the flow of oil at competitive rates- that had to happen.
5. We didn't just go to war; our men sat in tanks that were 130 degrees out in the sun for EIGHT MONTHS getting 'permission' to go to war. And Senator Rockefellor went out to the Middle East, talking to, of all people, Saddam Hussien, saying "He's going to war; we're not gonna be able to stop him!" So what's so freakin' hard to understand that Saddam moved his NBC materials to Syria, where he sent his Foxbats, hoping to outlast the war? How is that so hard to believe, and instead we should think it was merely a lie? It wasn't a lie when Kerry, Hillary, Bill, dozens of other senators all said the same words, leading up to the attack on Saddam that never came....
6. No, not an inside job. You just can get 30-40 people to open holes in concrete, wrap retaining wires around structural parts of the building, planting dynamite, and have business go on inside, completely unaware. It would take weeks. To think this possible is just insane.
The power of this programming is so powerful that Sean Penn took himself all the way to Iraq and stand in front of weapons stashes, not school kids, to be a human shield. (He came home with his tail between his legs when he learned the truth...) And Rosie O'Donnell has screamed, "It's an inside job: fire doesn't melt steel!"
(But...is there anything *else* that melts steel?)
My point in this is that despite the Democratic National Committee and George Soros, they're trying to split us apart again. On 9/11 we were unified. But the DNC doesn't need us all being happy Americans- it needs Democratic voters. So, Bush became the terrorist, Saddam wasn't such a bad guy, and calling things a "failed policy" (while we've paid off most of the war debt AND cut the defecit by 50% at the same time) doesn't make it 'failed'. We're winning. And the Democrats had nothing to do with it, but get in the way.
If you think you're "enlightened", what if instead you were snowblind? Would you know the difference? How could you tell if your hate has programmed you? Do you use the word "NeoCon"?
Then yes.
The propoganda, handed out as "the straight truth" and "What Bush doesn't want you to know" has made you insane. Ever pick up history books? Ever pay attention to the news _before_ you were programmed?
I'm not so worried about the Fed coming in and knocking down my door....the possibility of it is extremely rare. But every credit card purchase is watched by a bunch of people who *didn't* get a security clearance. Every store I go into has me on film. And every job application (because of the credit checks) remind my creditors of my new name and phone number, as well as what I've been doing since the last time. No security clearances here, either.
All these people mean well; they just have jobs to do. But how many of them lately have lost in excess of a million records...this calendar year?
Face it guys, we're so transparent to large corporations, it's not funny. To allow them and deny someone who's trying to stop terrorism...does that make sense?
Yeah, I know; Ben Franklin, liberty and safety...but in his day no one was blowing up buildings...potentially CITIES...for want of a single piece of information. Being alive is probably the most useful civil right.
For example, a large number of non-Republicans were informed of wrong and hurtful things, mostly rumors about a fixed election. that's why the country was together on 9/12, and couldn't be further apart, now.
In particular:
"It's an illegal war"; no, actually- the first half of the war ended in ceasefire, called in by the UN secretary general, and Bush Senior relented. During the cessation of operations, the largest amount of it, the Clinton Administration, Clinton ignored the 492 times SAM sites attempted to shoot down our planes. Schwartzkopf laments that it was his own idea to allow helicopters to be flown in Iraq, because Saddam wanted them to strafe and kill the civilians he didn't like. Upon the _first_ launch of a missile, it was legal to re-open the war. But Clinton had a 'don't rock the boat' term.
"9/11 was an inside job"/"Fire doesn't melt steel!" This concept suggested that an entire crew of properly-trained individuals snuck in, under the cover of darkness when *no one* was in the building (of as many as 50,000 people), used concrete saws, mounted the explosives and waited for the show. Ever watch one of these on The Discovery Channel? It takes _weeks_ to set up. Ignoring for the removal of useful things, tearing down the concrete-n-whatever to get to the right places to set the charges, this isn't something done by distraction. This is no simple job- ever see the ACRE PER FLOOR involved in EACH tower? It's just a stretch, but not completely impossible. And yea, Rosie O'Donnell actually claimed it must be true because "fire doesn't melt steel". This, folks is blind hatred.
"George Bush sat still for 22 minutes as the second plane hit" is another one; he was at a 'dog-n-pony' with a bunch of school kids...a scheduled thing a president does when he's not at war. The agents whisper into his ear, but he sits still. Why? History. No one today seems to remember that in 1947-48, a B-25 flying through fog smacked RIGHT INTO the Empire State Building. One can be an accident...there's no reason to scare the kids. And exactly what would he do, anyway? Strip to the waist, put on an ammo belt and play Rambo? It just doesn't work like that. With a similar whisper he can have a city nuked, respond to a terrorist event, or just get a piece of obscure information found for him...he has an entire section of the government dedicated to learning what happened, and offering responses.
The key with all of these ideas is hate. Enough people thought the election was rigged, because their news provider was certain Bush would lose. And since most people get 2-3 minutes of news each day, and it's usually one headline, this caused some anger. This, unlike the decline of Western Values, the melting of glaciers, Global Warming, and really bad music, is not George's fault.:)
But these ideas 'sold' so well because of these people; uninformed people. People who can't find America on a map, but can recall certain episodes of Desperate Housewives from memory. Unions used to drive the rank-and-file the same way. In a union dispute, in the hall with all the members there, they'd plant four people in the corners of the crowd. And at a certain point, they would, one by one, cheer "Yeah, let's strike" or "Those dirty bastards!" or whatever the script called for. Encircled by proponents, the crowd assumed this is the right thing, and that action was voted in. It's just human behaviour. (And they say P.T. Barnham left nothing behind.):>
There's been a wildfire of propaganda this go-around. Know how to spot it? Ask someone what specific crime [Ashcroft|Donald Rumsfeld|Carl Rove|Tom Delay] was accused of: "What did he actually do?" They'll respond with disgust, with lines all the broadcast media dinosaurs have programmed them with, but can't recall. They'll also use the term "Neo-Conservative" even though no such people exist...I know, I've been a Conservative for 30 years. The Republicans are less Conservative than they used to be, but the
What was that about the spirit of Free Speech? Sure, this isn't a "do it and go to jail" situation, so it's not a First Amendment issue, but I keep hearing about people shutting down Christian topics because they're too controversial, but allow the 'Jackass(TM)' mindset to flourish, skinning knees, breaking legs, and leaving a 'cool' video.
Sure, the name has an obscured curse word in the title, but so what? I've heard a hundred times, "If you don't like the content [gratutious sex, violence, adult topics on broadcast], change the channel". Well, now I don't watch TV at all.
If this bothers you so certainly, I suggest you do the same. Isn't that the 'enlightened' thing to do, my liberal friends?
Correct: the head: the thinking of man. The hand: the deeds of man. Like most apocalyptic literature is in metaphor. The lament is of the saviour recounting that, when all is said and done, you'll either follow your own pride, doing things you're pushed into, or let Christ have a place in your heart, and live better..and treat everyone else that way, too.
You should check out Hank Hannigraaf's "The Apocalypse Code". Just on the outset, the most basic ramifications, the book seems to hit the nail on the head:
-Keeping in mind there's *always* money, advertising and a voice for the heretic, this book is receiving some scorn by those with a financial investment, or a tradition to uphold. *ALL* of it comes from study of the Bible itself, not an outside source. Since Christ arrived in the time of the Old Testament mindset, he made specific references to the Old Testament. whose meanings clarify the text.
-The 'decoded' message isn't contra-revealing; it doesn't talk about Ewoks, Christ in America, or any other crazy stuff that has no basis in the Scripture. Instead it presents a message consistant with the *entire* rest of the canon. It's a message of hope that all will shake themselves free of their pride and He can take them all home, but sadness that they won't.
-Basic interpretation is clear. Dispensationalism tries to ignore where Christ uses terms like "*this* generation will not pass away before it comes to pass", although dispensationalists need "this" generation to be one, 20 centuries later. Terms like "soon" mean soon. And "now" means now. He centers on these specifics in a way I can't defeat.
It's called the "Apocalypse Code" because of Hal Lindsey's popular book that interpreted things like helicopters, the European Union, and all that. Best of all, this isn't a copy of that book....it's the tools to read it for yourself. It seems logical, without merchandising or specific financial gain (though, now that he's written it, he needs it).
It's kinda tough reading- it's an abstract of the worlds most complex document, so everything's in terms of a theologist. But it's a good read.
The line from Revelations talking about 'wearing the mark of the beast' or '...the mark of the lamb' is not a physical implant. It's about being a Christian...a true Christian, not just a church-goer and being saved, or not. There will come a time when being Christian is considered the most vile of all things....strange, for a people expressing peace, inclusion, and goodwill to others. "The AntiChrist" is a people, not a person. And there's sure a lot of them.
But as we speak, Christians are dying for the message of salvation all over. China comes to mind, Korea is holding Christian hostages. These people will rank high about the others in the next world; I don't have the guts to do as they do.
And as you watch the responses to this non-offending message and see the crap I get for mentioning the word Christ should also be an indicator...
Sorry, it just isn't so. The organization of the Roman Catholic does not hold the decision over which human gets "Sainthood" for example- if a person is saved, he's saved. He knows, it, too, he doesn't need a guy in a pointy hat to tell him so; God decides.
Any organization bent so far on worshiping a tradition more than a God, is gonna get into trouble. From Christ's own lips in Matthew, when asked "[If you're going to be gone] how do we pray to you?" He started the sentence with "Don't recite to me..." I know perhaps a million Roman Catholic Priests/Monks/etc has read this, even when trascribing it before the printing press....SO WHY DON'T THEY FOLLOW IT? It's nuts.
And that "Malochai Prophecy"; now THAT is a hoot. Centuries ago a guy claimed to know the sequence of popes. It was right 2-3 times while he was alive, and nowdays the Popes change names to that prophecy so they'll all match. How's that a prophecy?!?!?
Some of the things they do are so egg-headed; I wish they'd actually *read* the Bible sometime, and not just follow tradition.
If the Pope called Google evil, would it actually change your minds, or is this just a chance for the organization to seem more 'hip'? If you'll recall a previous Pope called contraception evil, too.
Swift has helped us root out terrorists for many years now...I don't understand how every ethical use of available tools has to be sold as some gestapo investigation. GUYS, WE'RE AT WAR. The radicle musilims have just done their homework, so that we don't all _realize_ that. How many more rings have to be discovered; there's been 20-30 in the last two years.
Don'tcha get it? It's not a bumper sticker...at least not the to the 3,000 dead on our own homeland. Turn off the CNN and George Soros feeds a while and take a breath!
When you risk everything to make a new application (for, what else?) Windows, you run the risk of it going up in smoke when Microsoft puts the bone to you. Thus, angel investors for such projects have been hard to find for a couple of decades.
And if you're going to do it on any other platform, you have to MAKE the entire platform, a'la iPod, iPhone, etc. Not cheap.
So thanks to the monopoly, we all sit and watch nothing new happen. Not my fault. I've not admin'ed a Windows box this century. I quit cold-turkey...you can too.:>
A lot of people think Bill Gates is a computer genius, but he's actually a marketting genius. These people are going to pick up the pieces of their shattered OS, flush-n-fill, and start over. Some people just don' learn!
If we had, say, cars that had to have $5000 of repair done every month, we'd be good friends with several lawyers. Microsoft does nothing about viruses for two decades and such calamity is considered a 'way of life'....and people wonder why I'm such a hardcore Linux fan. Sheesh.
PERFECT! Yes, thank you for an example of someone reading the Bible for things it's not intended. Things like 'four corners of the Earth' and such are part of the literature. Each and every instance you cite is precisely what I was talking about. Good show!
And taking individual verses out of context is a brilliant example of the work of Christopher Hitchens- take a line from Shakespeare. 'Every cock will crow, every ass will bray, and every dog will have his day." Think *that*'s literal? Think *that* is prophecy? Of course not.
And this is what I'm talking about, when I say that if you've had problems with Christianity, you've had people-problems, not Bible problems. But is that to say the rest of your life involves only trouble-free people? Everyone at work lives in a utopia? Heck, no. They're people like everyone, everywhere else.
Think you can get away from hippocrits? Dig a deep hole, throw yourself in; you'll STILL be in the presence of one hippocrit. We all are. But that doesn't stop you from going to the supermarket....doesn't stop you from going to work, doesn't stop you from anything else- why would it stop you from finding God?
I'm not gonna yell at ya; my responsibility is to speak truth to those seeking...and I'm not gonna push you into anything. You need to find your own way. And good luck with it, aye?
Well, you'll never know if you don't go looking, now will ya?:)
There are *lots* of checkable features in the Bible; some that come to mind are the dimensions necessary for a sea-going vehicle describing the ark, the command to bury, not leave in the open feces. (Sure, we know now, but when it was written it seemed like a strange request.)
But the Bible isn't a chronology- the big-bang start of this universe doesn't stop to define terms or measure in units...it's meant to explain it in (mostly) general terms to the largest audience, ever...not just college kids at MIT.
And it's not a comprehensive manual, either; don't go looking for the development of animals from bacteria to amoeba, for example- there's no room for 20M+ species in a hand-held book. It has a message to tell, with citations of history and a very loving message- it's not a issue of JAMA. Parts are poetry, parts are written more like the Wall Street Journal, and some use hyperbole like you and I use punctuation.
But there is a mention of the development of plants, talking about mosses, pines, and the other trees (well, fauna) by category. That matches the fossil record.
Much like Shakespeare or Keats, if you pick it up thinking it's a scientific manual and use a literal translation, you're not going to get what you should...see also: Christopher Hitchens who does exactly that.
And the reason we 'must believe'? (Other than a huge field of checkable information we didn't know until recently) because science and Christianity are cooperative efforts- the desire to know "why" drives science, the message "how" is in the Bible.
But there's always money to support/publish/advertise heretics; people who would have you believe the book is a simple collection of quaint fairytales with no reason or rhyme. But that's not the truth; there's more connections and themes in the Bible than anything Shakespeare wrote. Blind faith is dumb. Dangerous, too. There actually are people that believe that the billions of years of planet-spinning and oxygen-trapping all happened in 7, 24-hour days. And that the world is only 6,000 years old.
The 6,000 year thing comes from a priest trying to make sense of Numbers, and determine how many years since Adam. Problem is, while he meant well, his five assumptions, which he listed duly as any scientist would, are all incorrect. But you'd not believe how many people will believe it, anyway, even though this isn't in the scriptures.
If you've had problems with Christianity, and the reply suggests you have, it's most likely with bad Christians, not bad scripture. Ya see, in Christianity, UNLIKE ANYWHERE ELSE MANKIND DOES THINGS people like to protect their 'turf' of understanding. They _want_ to remain true to the word, but often times the follow priests/pastors/Jim Jones who leads them astray without ever asking these people for a head-check.
For example, the entire Left-Behind series is based on Dispensationalist doctrine- the idea that we much move all the Jews back to the land called Isreal, have them conquer the old temple and do sacrifices (as done before Christ) and then 3/4 of them will die. And there will be TWO returns of Christ, not just one, for both people. But God doesn't care- he has one message for all. All are welcomed. He doesn't care if you're slave or free, Greek or Hebrew...those are things *we* as people made up.
This doctrine's wrong. But it's about to get millions killed, as the Arabs want to snuff out Isreal. I don't want'em snuffed out, but maybe moved. Read Leviticus 26; once they're 'vomited out' of the land, others will claim it. The patent on the land was in no way permanent.
And why would you support something that would kill 3/4 of any nation? That's just mean.
Yeah, there's more for you to find in the Bible. And it's YOUR choice to read it, or discard it, at your choosing. But don't quote it, if you don't read it...too many people do that, now.
I don't know if it's still the same, but back in the Windows98 era, vendors used to pick-n-choose system DLLs, making life very tough. I took a single, USB, Creative Webcam 3 and pluggeed it into a Compaq. After three hours of drivers searching, replacing, using the various disks available to me, I gave up.
The webcam was designed for Windows, not Linux. Everything about it was supposed to work, yet the CD that came with it bumped heads with the installed software AND the Compaq disk. How does this happen?
Meanwhile on Linux, I plugged it in, and spent an hour learning all I had to do was open/dev/video with an application. Once again, a forehead slap. If it works at all, it'll work easy on Linux. Even though it wasn't designed with Linux in mind.
Is it too much to ask this of Microsoft, whom we're _paying_?
Why do we put so much stock in people so often surprised?
We don't know it all. We don't control it all; it's an illusion.
What's THE most exercized part of your body- your mouth and toungue? It's been going before you 'knew' you were alive. You use it tens-of-thousands of times a day- everyone (not in a coma) does. But STILL there are 80yo's that bite their lip.
Science follows the Bible, not the other way around. The Bible brings up key points about how to live a happier (not thrilling, not rampaging, not miserable) life, but doesn't say why. Later, science comes along and shows why. Ask yourself; how did the Jews have germ-avoiding techniques during the plagues? Why were they not so ticked-off to be put in ghettos in those ages? [Because there, in the places no one wanted to go, they could keep things clean- no peeing in the streets, which the French still do.]
Long, long ago the Bible talks of the Earth being suspended from nothing, and the north pole pointing to the center of the universe (in so many words). It's the only ancient book that gets it right. SURE, the Roman Catholic church imprisoned geniuses for crossing what the Pope thought, but that's not a religion-thing- that's a people-thing. Just like when Christians blow up abortion clinics. They know it's wrong to kill this way...but they should also know it's not the Christian's job to make such decisions. [The parable of the tares].
So sure, being able to float a frog with magnetisim is cool; very cool, in fact, but understand our place...we're occupants of a very rich and complex environment in which we live. Go with humility and non-judgement into science; soak it all in. To ignore the Bible when searching the heavens is kinda like splitting atoms while ignoring Einstein.
It doesn't so much simulate a flu panic, as much as it simulates a **PANIC**.
Like at the end of the DotComBoom, the recent housing(lending) problem, and any other panic situations. Panic is panic; those involved will always operate the same way: based on fear, not facts.
GET OUTSIDE THE CITIES LABELED WITH LETTERS: DC, NYC, LA.
It's very true the vast majority of America has dialup-at-best...it' a lot of square miles to cover! The cities are a tiny, tiny fraction of the mileage to cover, but they're dense enough to fund the effort.
(Thanks for noticing since the internet startup was around 1993...)
It's funny, sure...but is this any different than a scarecrow, or plastic owl near a small garden? Do we _have_ to stop and form focus groups as to what _we_ perceive (today) of the situation.
Just do it!
And while you're at it, start spraying DDT; it's not dangerous when handled properly and will stop the annual deaths of 300,000 poor people to malaria every year. (Or, you can have France sell them mosquito nets.)
Yeah, off-topic, but too bad. The third world is being raped by the 'enlightened' EU, and it's just not fair. These people need freedom, food, education, and the rest of us to give a damn.
You and I are morons; we couldn't possibly understand the complexities of the music business...we just don't have their pay! Inconceivable!
Yet the old-world robber-barrons who hire people to be on the watch for people singing "Happy Birthday" can't seem to identify the same thing this story shows: in computers, there's always someone more clever than yourself. Time and time again they try some lame attempt to get paid for every copy of a title (Oh! And give $.03 or so to the artist!) and they get crazy because they can't stop the piracy and sales keep going down.
It's time to see these old-timers for what they are: future exhibits next to the cavemen.
What makes this worse is that, in the same week-or-so, another kid cracked the AT&T/iPhone lock, so it could be used on other carriers. Wouldn't it make more sense to SELL as many iPhones as possible, considering a royalty on the idea?
TIME TO CHANGE THE PARADIGM, GUYS.
But ignorance is bliss; aren't we happy? Now let's go down to NYC and watch the robber-barons fight to get a cab!:>
SCADA systems, until recently, weren't build with security in mind; kinda like running everyting 'root' because you have a decent firewall. I used to program them; imagine blowing open a 3', 500psi natural gas pipeline?
SO MUCH MORE fun than hanging up an airport for hours, now isn't it?
Though, I'm not sure how far they'd really get...all these devices are different...kinda like Linux boxes. What works on a Vax with a communications network to controllers will be different from site to site...and they'd need to get the nomenclature from the inside. It would still be non-trivial, and the 'testing' to learn the system might tip off the Feds.
It's like the first time someone mentioned blowing up buses/trains; if there are people involved and a spectacular media coverage, it's a target. (Shouldn't be a big surprise, actually)
Slashdot Mirror
Want a fresh look at the subject? Google which country we invaded (a friendly one, too) after we were attacked after Perl Harbor. America makes these moves with a strategy in mind, it's not just a simple "japan attacked, we go attack Japan" kind of mindset. And when we very nearly collapsed the military in such short order (when the UN directed we should stop) we learned that the civil war concerns weren't warranted- as they aren't, now.
Right now the Kurds are doing exactly what we want them to (not fight, care for their wounds) and both the sectarians are starting to see that random bombing is getting them nowhere, and Iran's influence is costing that country more. It's not a morass; it's not a Vietnam. It's not complete and total chaos. But that's what it will be, should we just hit the road.
For further perspective, consider that Hitler's Germany, a country familiar with Democracy, took five years occupation to get them settled, and Japan, who had no idea of Democracy, took SEVEN years. Notice how Americans are *still* posted to both countries, some 60+ years later. It's not a bad thing. (In fact the Japanese and American navies often have cookouts, fer cryin' out loud!)
"Civil War" is an easy charge to make...it doesn't cut it, here. Once again, the media programming.
No, I wrote that before I read the article. And, because every time I try to bring reason into the frothy, hateful faces of liberals (yeah, kinda like the way you seem...) I get pounded for not having all my data.
Conservatives are a lot closer to what you want, than what you're voting for as a Democrat; the single-payer system Hillary proposed (and almost got, if not for complaining Conservatives) would have have YOU AND THE DOCTOR in federal prison, should you go to someone outside the network, so you won't die.
Bringing healthcare, driven by the government (remember the $600 toliet seats, and the cruelty of the blind government) is a bad idea. The biggest reason the medicals are screwed up is because everyone's trying to cover the problems the government brings into it in the first place. More only makes it worse.
Republicans (who are NOT perfect Conservatives) could not care less what car you drive, what you eat, who you deal with (as long as it's not radical Islam...) or what you do for a living, so long as you don't hurt anyone. Meanwhile the Democrats want you to be a victim of one kind of the other, want to limit what you eat (the recent trans-fats) don't want you to drive SUVs (that's a legacy) and don't want you making "too much money" as if there's something wrong with it. Democrats bring pain. Republicans bring opportunity.
Now, we're not keen on anything that puts a 'bounty' on the heads of the unborn...especially since adult stem cells have dozens of sucess stories....because no such stories are there for those the consume human life. (Human life, like you and I, in fact.)
Meanwhile, Democrats find it their purpose to break every tradition you have. It makes you pliable in times of trouble....dependent on them. You don't need to be dependent on anyone; being independent means you're *safer*. (Ask those in Katrina that had no way to leave.)
Seriously; it's time to re-think your voting and your mindset. Once upon a time, Democrats put forth actual, sane possibilities. Now, they just attack the USA (unless their guy is in office.) You really need to reconsider your position, when the party you vote for has the exact same talking points as the terrorists who want us all dead. (See the Bin Laden tape the other day.)
There's another good point; everyone assumes "the illuminatti" to be perfect and all-knowing, but let's face it: if they DO exist, they're people like us, and bound to the same problems as anyone else trying to get something done.
Remember that Saddam was a slick one; remember the US Cruiser that shot down the airliner? The airliner drove STRAIGHT towards the ship, and the ship, doing due-dilligence, shot it down after all kinds of attempts to contact it, to no avail.
When they got to the downed airplanes, they saw a curious site: naked people...COLD naked people, not falling below the surface, but floating. That's because they were all dead a week or more before the downing; Saddam emptied the morgues....taking everyone's uncle Ned (or whoever) and spilling the dead bodies over the waves for media purposes.
So why would he **NOT** be smart enough to move the N/B/C materials, knowing his enemy is coming for it? He didn't like any more than anyone else in the Beltway.
The issue is that MOST PEOPLE DON'T pay attention to the news, so background stuff like this goes right over their heads, and they'll buy any programming that supports the "Bush stole the election" nonsense. It's programmed hate. We need to be together now; none of the terrorists will stop to check how we vote, to kill us.
I can't tell you how many people I've talked to that thing Don Rumsfeld is the devil himself...or at least he was until he left. But what they couldn't tell me....none of them, in fact, was what he did _wrong_. There was nothing, in fact: just the media trying it's best to demonify each and every thing the Bush Adminsitration did. I got "He's not one of us" and "He's not American" and "I forgot", but clearly this was nothing more than programming.
Carl Rove: same thing. Tom DeLay, same thing. In fact almost each and every person, drawn to such passion as if to spit on me, just because I asked the question, couldn't respond with an answer.
Guys, they're selling it as "First Amemendment Radio" and "The Truth" and all that, but there are some things you need to know.
1. There are no "Neo-Cons". There is, and has always been only one kind of Conservative. Use of the word helps me spot 'bots' every time.
2. The Gulf War was shut down by the UN, who called George Senior, and was told "You're angering the Arab street" by killing their entire army in the pass....so Senior told Schwartzkopf to end the fighting....and that's where it lay, all the way through the Clinton Administration, with a cease-fire. However, Saddam fired 492 SAM missiles at our aircraft, any one of which could have restarted the war, but Clinton was a very 'don't rock the boat' kind of administration.
3. Yes, Oil was a big part of the war. But face it: without oil, we'd all live on farms. Because of oil, we get to live other lives, and the oil brings the food to us in various forms. Do you know how we stopped Hitler's armies? Not by hitting the factories, but by stopping the flow of oil to the Panzers. It will stop all of us, too, if it stops. There's nothing wrong with this. (Other than we're so dependent on it.)
4. Oil profits was not what the war was about; oil was cheaper when we didn't have to fight for it. Had we been 'French' about Saddam's rage against the common man, the mutilation and us looking the other way, fuel would have been cheaper. But stopping the man that could stop the flow of oil at competitive rates- that had to happen.
5. We didn't just go to war; our men sat in tanks that were 130 degrees out in the sun for EIGHT MONTHS getting 'permission' to go to war. And Senator Rockefellor went out to the Middle East, talking to, of all people, Saddam Hussien, saying "He's going to war; we're not gonna be able to stop him!" So what's so freakin' hard to understand that Saddam moved his NBC materials to Syria, where he sent his Foxbats, hoping to outlast the war? How is that so hard to believe, and instead we should think it was merely a lie? It wasn't a lie when Kerry, Hillary, Bill, dozens of other senators all said the same words, leading up to the attack on Saddam that never came....
6. No, not an inside job. You just can get 30-40 people to open holes in concrete, wrap retaining wires around structural parts of the building, planting dynamite, and have business go on inside, completely unaware. It would take weeks. To think this possible is just insane.
The power of this programming is so powerful that Sean Penn took himself all the way to Iraq and stand in front of weapons stashes, not school kids, to be a human shield. (He came home with his tail between his legs when he learned the truth...) And Rosie O'Donnell has screamed, "It's an inside job: fire doesn't melt steel!"
(But...is there anything *else* that melts steel?)
My point in this is that despite the Democratic National Committee and George Soros, they're trying to split us apart again. On 9/11 we were unified. But the DNC doesn't need us all being happy Americans- it needs Democratic voters. So, Bush became the terrorist, Saddam wasn't such a bad guy, and calling things a "failed policy" (while we've paid off most of the war debt AND cut the defecit by 50% at the same time) doesn't make it 'failed'. We're winning. And the Democrats had nothing to do with it, but get in the way.
If you think you're "enlightened", what if instead you were snowblind? Would you know the difference? How could you tell if your hate has programmed you? Do you use the word "NeoCon"?
Then yes.
The propoganda, handed out as "the straight truth" and "What Bush doesn't want you to know" has made you insane. Ever pick up history books? Ever pay attention to the news _before_ you were programmed?
I'm getting tired of hearing it.
I'm not so worried about the Fed coming in and knocking down my door....the possibility of it is extremely rare. But every credit card purchase is watched by a bunch of people who *didn't* get a security clearance. Every store I go into has me on film. And every job application (because of the credit checks) remind my creditors of my new name and phone number, as well as what I've been doing since the last time. No security clearances here, either.
All these people mean well; they just have jobs to do. But how many of them lately have lost in excess of a million records...this calendar year?
Face it guys, we're so transparent to large corporations, it's not funny. To allow them and deny someone who's trying to stop terrorism...does that make sense?
Yeah, I know; Ben Franklin, liberty and safety...but in his day no one was blowing up buildings...potentially CITIES...for want of a single piece of information. Being alive is probably the most useful civil right.
For example, a large number of non-Republicans were informed of wrong and hurtful things, mostly rumors about a fixed election. that's why the country was together on 9/12, and couldn't be further apart, now.
:)
:>
In particular:
"It's an illegal war"; no, actually- the first half of the war ended in ceasefire, called in by the UN secretary general, and Bush Senior relented. During the cessation of operations, the largest amount of it, the Clinton Administration, Clinton ignored the 492 times SAM sites attempted to shoot down our planes. Schwartzkopf laments that it was his own idea to allow helicopters to be flown in Iraq, because Saddam wanted them to strafe and kill the civilians he didn't like. Upon the _first_ launch of a missile, it was legal to re-open the war. But Clinton had a 'don't rock the boat' term.
"9/11 was an inside job"/"Fire doesn't melt steel!" This concept suggested that an entire crew of properly-trained individuals snuck in, under the cover of darkness when *no one* was in the building (of as many as 50,000 people), used concrete saws, mounted the explosives and waited for the show. Ever watch one of these on The Discovery Channel? It takes _weeks_ to set up. Ignoring for the removal of useful things, tearing down the concrete-n-whatever to get to the right places to set the charges, this isn't something done by distraction. This is no simple job- ever see the ACRE PER FLOOR involved in EACH tower? It's just a stretch, but not completely impossible. And yea, Rosie O'Donnell actually claimed it must be true because "fire doesn't melt steel". This, folks is blind hatred.
"George Bush sat still for 22 minutes as the second plane hit" is another one; he was at a 'dog-n-pony' with a bunch of school kids...a scheduled thing a president does when he's not at war. The agents whisper into his ear, but he sits still. Why? History. No one today seems to remember that in 1947-48, a B-25 flying through fog smacked RIGHT INTO the Empire State Building. One can be an accident...there's no reason to scare the kids. And exactly what would he do, anyway? Strip to the waist, put on an ammo belt and play Rambo? It just doesn't work like that. With a similar whisper he can have a city nuked, respond to a terrorist event, or just get a piece of obscure information found for him...he has an entire section of the government dedicated to learning what happened, and offering responses.
The key with all of these ideas is hate. Enough people thought the election was rigged, because their news provider was certain Bush would lose. And since most people get 2-3 minutes of news each day, and it's usually one headline, this caused some anger. This, unlike the decline of Western Values, the melting of glaciers, Global Warming, and really bad music, is not George's fault.
But these ideas 'sold' so well because of these people; uninformed people. People who can't find America on a map, but can recall certain episodes of Desperate Housewives from memory. Unions used to drive the rank-and-file the same way. In a union dispute, in the hall with all the members there, they'd plant four people in the corners of the crowd. And at a certain point, they would, one by one, cheer "Yeah, let's strike" or "Those dirty bastards!" or whatever the script called for. Encircled by proponents, the crowd assumed this is the right thing, and that action was voted in. It's just human behaviour. (And they say P.T. Barnham left nothing behind.)
There's been a wildfire of propaganda this go-around. Know how to spot it? Ask someone what specific crime [Ashcroft|Donald Rumsfeld|Carl Rove|Tom Delay] was accused of: "What did he actually do?" They'll respond with disgust, with lines all the broadcast media dinosaurs have programmed them with, but can't recall. They'll also use the term "Neo-Conservative" even though no such people exist...I know, I've been a Conservative for 30 years. The Republicans are less Conservative than they used to be, but the
What was that about the spirit of Free Speech? Sure, this isn't a "do it and go to jail" situation, so it's not a First Amendment issue, but I keep hearing about people shutting down Christian topics because they're too controversial, but allow the 'Jackass(TM)' mindset to flourish, skinning knees, breaking legs, and leaving a 'cool' video.
Sure, the name has an obscured curse word in the title, but so what? I've heard a hundred times, "If you don't like the content [gratutious sex, violence, adult topics on broadcast], change the channel". Well, now I don't watch TV at all.
If this bothers you so certainly, I suggest you do the same. Isn't that the 'enlightened' thing to do, my liberal friends?
Correct: the head: the thinking of man. The hand: the deeds of man. Like most apocalyptic literature is in metaphor. The lament is of the saviour recounting that, when all is said and done, you'll either follow your own pride, doing things you're pushed into, or let Christ have a place in your heart, and live better..and treat everyone else that way, too.
You should check out Hank Hannigraaf's "The Apocalypse Code". Just on the outset, the most basic ramifications, the book seems to hit the nail on the head:
-Keeping in mind there's *always* money, advertising and a voice for the heretic, this book is receiving some scorn by those with a financial investment, or a tradition to uphold. *ALL* of it comes from study of the Bible itself, not an outside source. Since Christ arrived in the time of the Old Testament mindset, he made specific references to the Old Testament. whose meanings clarify the text.
-The 'decoded' message isn't contra-revealing; it doesn't talk about Ewoks, Christ in America, or any other crazy stuff that has no basis in the Scripture. Instead it presents a message consistant with the *entire* rest of the canon. It's a message of hope that all will shake themselves free of their pride and He can take them all home, but sadness that they won't.
-Basic interpretation is clear. Dispensationalism tries to ignore where Christ uses terms like "*this* generation will not pass away before it comes to pass", although dispensationalists need "this" generation to be one, 20 centuries later. Terms like "soon" mean soon. And "now" means now. He centers on these specifics in a way I can't defeat.
It's called the "Apocalypse Code" because of Hal Lindsey's popular book that interpreted things like helicopters, the European Union, and all that. Best of all, this isn't a copy of that book....it's the tools to read it for yourself. It seems logical, without merchandising or specific financial gain (though, now that he's written it, he needs it).
It's kinda tough reading- it's an abstract of the worlds most complex document, so everything's in terms of a theologist. But it's a good read.
The line from Revelations talking about 'wearing the mark of the beast' or '...the mark of the lamb' is not a physical implant. It's about being a Christian...a true Christian, not just a church-goer and being saved, or not. There will come a time when being Christian is considered the most vile of all things....strange, for a people expressing peace, inclusion, and goodwill to others. "The AntiChrist" is a people, not a person. And there's sure a lot of them.
But as we speak, Christians are dying for the message of salvation all over. China comes to mind, Korea is holding Christian hostages. These people will rank high about the others in the next world; I don't have the guts to do as they do.
And as you watch the responses to this non-offending message and see the crap I get for mentioning the word Christ should also be an indicator...
Now that the Pope says it, it must be true.
Sorry, it just isn't so. The organization of the Roman Catholic does not hold the decision over which human gets "Sainthood" for example- if a person is saved, he's saved. He knows, it, too, he doesn't need a guy in a pointy hat to tell him so; God decides.
Any organization bent so far on worshiping a tradition more than a God, is gonna get into trouble. From Christ's own lips in Matthew, when asked "[If you're going to be gone] how do we pray to you?" He started the sentence with "Don't recite to me..." I know perhaps a million Roman Catholic Priests/Monks/etc has read this, even when trascribing it before the printing press....SO WHY DON'T THEY FOLLOW IT? It's nuts.
And that "Malochai Prophecy"; now THAT is a hoot. Centuries ago a guy claimed to know the sequence of popes. It was right 2-3 times while he was alive, and nowdays the Popes change names to that prophecy so they'll all match. How's that a prophecy?!?!?
Some of the things they do are so egg-headed; I wish they'd actually *read* the Bible sometime, and not just follow tradition.
If the Pope called Google evil, would it actually change your minds, or is this just a chance for the organization to seem more 'hip'? If you'll recall a previous Pope called contraception evil, too.
Swift has helped us root out terrorists for many years now...I don't understand how every ethical use of available tools has to be sold as some gestapo investigation. GUYS, WE'RE AT WAR. The radicle musilims have just done their homework, so that we don't all _realize_ that. How many more rings have to be discovered; there's been 20-30 in the last two years.
Don'tcha get it? It's not a bumper sticker...at least not the to the 3,000 dead on our own homeland. Turn off the CNN and George Soros feeds a while and take a breath!
When you risk everything to make a new application (for, what else?) Windows, you run the risk of it going up in smoke when Microsoft puts the bone to you. Thus, angel investors for such projects have been hard to find for a couple of decades.
:>
And if you're going to do it on any other platform, you have to MAKE the entire platform, a'la iPod, iPhone, etc. Not cheap.
So thanks to the monopoly, we all sit and watch nothing new happen. Not my fault. I've not admin'ed a Windows box this century. I quit cold-turkey...you can too.
A lot of people think Bill Gates is a computer genius, but he's actually a marketting genius. These people are going to pick up the pieces of their shattered OS, flush-n-fill, and start over. Some people just don' learn!
...and people wonder why I'm such a hardcore Linux fan. Sheesh.
If we had, say, cars that had to have $5000 of repair done every month, we'd be good friends with several lawyers. Microsoft does nothing about viruses for two decades and such calamity is considered a 'way of life'.
Troy's email's been down *forever*. And when it wasn't, that tramp Helen was sniffing all the packets, anyway. :)
(Ya gotta love headlines, from time to time...)
"SUV breaks from the crowd and kills 5". (Or, perhaps a DRIVER of an SUV went out of control and killed five, no? See what I mean?
PERFECT! Yes, thank you for an example of someone reading the Bible for things it's not intended. Things like 'four corners of the Earth' and such are part of the literature. Each and every instance you cite is precisely what I was talking about. Good show!
And taking individual verses out of context is a brilliant example of the work of Christopher Hitchens- take a line from Shakespeare. 'Every cock will crow, every ass will bray, and every dog will have his day." Think *that*'s literal? Think *that* is prophecy? Of course not.
And this is what I'm talking about, when I say that if you've had problems with Christianity, you've had people-problems, not Bible problems. But is that to say the rest of your life involves only trouble-free people? Everyone at work lives in a utopia? Heck, no. They're people like everyone, everywhere else.
Think you can get away from hippocrits? Dig a deep hole, throw yourself in; you'll STILL be in the presence of one hippocrit. We all are. But that doesn't stop you from going to the supermarket....doesn't stop you from going to work, doesn't stop you from anything else- why would it stop you from finding God?
I'm not gonna yell at ya; my responsibility is to speak truth to those seeking...and I'm not gonna push you into anything. You need to find your own way. And good luck with it, aye?
Well, you'll never know if you don't go looking, now will ya? :)
There are *lots* of checkable features in the Bible; some that come to mind are the dimensions necessary for a sea-going vehicle describing the ark, the command to bury, not leave in the open feces. (Sure, we know now, but when it was written it seemed like a strange request.)
But the Bible isn't a chronology- the big-bang start of this universe doesn't stop to define terms or measure in units...it's meant to explain it in (mostly) general terms to the largest audience, ever...not just college kids at MIT.
And it's not a comprehensive manual, either; don't go looking for the development of animals from bacteria to amoeba, for example- there's no room for 20M+ species in a hand-held book. It has a message to tell, with citations of history and a very loving message- it's not a issue of JAMA. Parts are poetry, parts are written more like the Wall Street Journal, and some use hyperbole like you and I use punctuation.
But there is a mention of the development of plants, talking about mosses, pines, and the other trees (well, fauna) by category. That matches the fossil record.
Much like Shakespeare or Keats, if you pick it up thinking it's a scientific manual and use a literal translation, you're not going to get what you should...see also: Christopher Hitchens who does exactly that.
And the reason we 'must believe'? (Other than a huge field of checkable information we didn't know until recently) because science and Christianity are cooperative efforts- the desire to know "why" drives science, the message "how" is in the Bible.
But there's always money to support/publish/advertise heretics; people who would have you believe the book is a simple collection of quaint fairytales with no reason or rhyme. But that's not the truth; there's more connections and themes in the Bible than anything Shakespeare wrote. Blind faith is dumb. Dangerous, too. There actually are people that believe that the billions of years of planet-spinning and oxygen-trapping all happened in 7, 24-hour days. And that the world is only 6,000 years old.
The 6,000 year thing comes from a priest trying to make sense of Numbers, and determine how many years since Adam. Problem is, while he meant well, his five assumptions, which he listed duly as any scientist would, are all incorrect. But you'd not believe how many people will believe it, anyway, even though this isn't in the scriptures.
If you've had problems with Christianity, and the reply suggests you have, it's most likely with bad Christians, not bad scripture. Ya see, in Christianity, UNLIKE ANYWHERE ELSE MANKIND DOES THINGS people like to protect their 'turf' of understanding. They _want_ to remain true to the word, but often times the follow priests/pastors/Jim Jones who leads them astray without ever asking these people for a head-check.
For example, the entire Left-Behind series is based on Dispensationalist doctrine- the idea that we much move all the Jews back to the land called Isreal, have them conquer the old temple and do sacrifices (as done before Christ) and then 3/4 of them will die. And there will be TWO returns of Christ, not just one, for both people. But God doesn't care- he has one message for all. All are welcomed. He doesn't care if you're slave or free, Greek or Hebrew...those are things *we* as people made up.
This doctrine's wrong. But it's about to get millions killed, as the Arabs want to snuff out Isreal. I don't want'em snuffed out, but maybe moved. Read Leviticus 26; once they're 'vomited out' of the land, others will claim it. The patent on the land was in no way permanent.
And why would you support something that would kill 3/4 of any nation? That's just mean.
Yeah, there's more for you to find in the Bible. And it's YOUR choice to read it, or discard it, at your choosing. But don't quote it, if you don't read it...too many people do that, now.
[Casablanca] Gambling? HERE? No!
/dev/video with an application. Once again, a forehead slap. If it works at all, it'll work easy on Linux. Even though it wasn't designed with Linux in mind.
I don't know if it's still the same, but back in the Windows98 era, vendors used to pick-n-choose system DLLs, making life very tough. I took a single, USB, Creative Webcam 3 and pluggeed it into a Compaq. After three hours of drivers searching, replacing, using the various disks available to me, I gave up.
The webcam was designed for Windows, not Linux. Everything about it was supposed to work, yet the CD that came with it bumped heads with the installed software AND the Compaq disk. How does this happen?
Meanwhile on Linux, I plugged it in, and spent an hour learning all I had to do was open
Is it too much to ask this of Microsoft, whom we're _paying_?
Why do we put so much stock in people so often surprised?
We don't know it all. We don't control it all; it's an illusion.
What's THE most exercized part of your body- your mouth and toungue? It's been going before you 'knew' you were alive. You use it tens-of-thousands of times a day- everyone (not in a coma) does. But STILL there are 80yo's that bite their lip.
Science follows the Bible, not the other way around. The Bible brings up key points about how to live a happier (not thrilling, not rampaging, not miserable) life, but doesn't say why. Later, science comes along and shows why. Ask yourself; how did the Jews have germ-avoiding techniques during the plagues? Why were they not so ticked-off to be put in ghettos in those ages? [Because there, in the places no one wanted to go, they could keep things clean- no peeing in the streets, which the French still do.]
Long, long ago the Bible talks of the Earth being suspended from nothing, and the north pole pointing to the center of the universe (in so many words). It's the only ancient book that gets it right. SURE, the Roman Catholic church imprisoned geniuses for crossing what the Pope thought, but that's not a religion-thing- that's a people-thing. Just like when Christians blow up abortion clinics. They know it's wrong to kill this way...but they should also know it's not the Christian's job to make such decisions. [The parable of the tares].
So sure, being able to float a frog with magnetisim is cool; very cool, in fact, but understand our place...we're occupants of a very rich and complex environment in which we live. Go with humility and non-judgement into science; soak it all in. To ignore the Bible when searching the heavens is kinda like splitting atoms while ignoring Einstein.
It doesn't so much simulate a flu panic, as much as it simulates a **PANIC**.
Like at the end of the DotComBoom, the recent housing(lending) problem, and any other panic situations. Panic is panic; those involved will always operate the same way: based on fear, not facts.
GET OUTSIDE THE CITIES LABELED WITH LETTERS: DC, NYC, LA.
It's very true the vast majority of America has dialup-at-best...it' a lot of square miles to cover! The cities are a tiny, tiny fraction of the mileage to cover, but they're dense enough to fund the effort.
(Thanks for noticing since the internet startup was around 1993...)
It's funny, sure...but is this any different than a scarecrow, or plastic owl near a small garden? Do we _have_ to stop and form focus groups as to what _we_ perceive (today) of the situation.
Just do it!
And while you're at it, start spraying DDT; it's not dangerous when handled properly and will stop the annual deaths of 300,000 poor people to malaria every year. (Or, you can have France sell them mosquito nets.)
Yeah, off-topic, but too bad. The third world is being raped by the 'enlightened' EU, and it's just not fair. These people need freedom, food, education, and the rest of us to give a damn.
You and I are morons; we couldn't possibly understand the complexities of the music business...we just don't have their pay! Inconceivable!
:>
Yet the old-world robber-barrons who hire people to be on the watch for people singing "Happy Birthday" can't seem to identify the same thing this story shows: in computers, there's always someone more clever than yourself. Time and time again they try some lame attempt to get paid for every copy of a title (Oh! And give $.03 or so to the artist!) and they get crazy because they can't stop the piracy and sales keep going down.
It's time to see these old-timers for what they are: future exhibits next to the cavemen.
What makes this worse is that, in the same week-or-so, another kid cracked the AT&T/iPhone lock, so it could be used on other carriers. Wouldn't it make more sense to SELL as many iPhones as possible, considering a royalty on the idea?
TIME TO CHANGE THE PARADIGM, GUYS.
But ignorance is bliss; aren't we happy? Now let's go down to NYC and watch the robber-barons fight to get a cab!
Well, just another fault of George Bush, somehow. :)
Or how about this? How about...there's a lot of unknown out there!
SCADA systems, until recently, weren't build with security in mind; kinda like running everyting 'root' because you have a decent firewall. I used to program them; imagine blowing open a 3', 500psi natural gas pipeline?
SO MUCH MORE fun than hanging up an airport for hours, now isn't it?
Though, I'm not sure how far they'd really get...all these devices are different...kinda like Linux boxes. What works on a Vax with a communications network to controllers will be different from site to site...and they'd need to get the nomenclature from the inside. It would still be non-trivial, and the 'testing' to learn the system might tip off the Feds.
It's like the first time someone mentioned blowing up buses/trains; if there are people involved and a spectacular media coverage, it's a target. (Shouldn't be a big surprise, actually)