There's not much we can do to keep another attack from happening.
Yes there is. There's much that can be done. As Michael Savage told me, last Friday Night, on his radio program, we could nuke Mecca and Medina. Then we could threaten to nuke Ryadh if they cut off the oil. We could just nuke anybody who objected. (I'm not making this up. This nationally sydicated radio talkshow host actually said this.)
Remember the stock market crash after 9/11? That was due to uncertainty of the future.
Due to Enron. (thanks Bush. Ken Lay in jail yet?) People lost confidence in the market because of the WIDESPREAD, UNCHALLENGED FRAUD!
Again - we cannot afford to fight terrorism indefinately if we have a crippled economy. We can only fight on a credit card for so long. How long do you think the Chinese will keep loaning us money? Why do you think the value of the dollar has plummeted? Why do you think oil is at $50/bbl? (the war in Afganistan didn't give us crippling oil-price spikes, the Iraq war did!). We can grow GDP, short term, compared to a crappy quarter if companies keep hacking away at payroll. But if we don't have jobs, (and I'm not talking about the guy who sells hotdogs in front of the World Trade Center, I'm talking about the hundreds of thousands of IT jobs that went to India) - then nobody can afford to buy stuff. If nobody can afford to buy stuff, profits go down. GDP growth isn't sustainable in such an environment. Bush's policies do not promote job growth, they ONLY promote Swiss Bank Account Growth.
We are losing the war on terror, and Bush is fucking making it happen!
George Bush has significantly slowed the number of deaths per year in Iraq.
WRONG.
Read the study in The Lancet last week. According to that study, 100,000 Iraqis are dead since the invasion, that would otherwise have been alive, given the death rate of the previous 10 years.
And much of the bluster about Saddam's mass-murdering (as well as the Oil For Fraud evidence) came from partisan INC hacks (Ahmed Chalabi, Iranian Spy, Jordanian Embezzler, Buddy of Bush - sat behind Laura at the 2003 State of the Union Address). Only a fraction of the bodies at mass graves were actually found, compared with the numbers in the tens of thousands that have been widely (and falsely) reported.
Was Saddam a bad person? Sure. But when he punished criminals by cutting their hands off, he at least anesthetised them. Bush's buddies in Saudi Arabia do it with a sword, in front of a crowd. Weekly beheadings on Friday, bring the kids!
Your right, we are at fault. We are at fault because of the moral degeneracy your side created.
MY side? I have a side? How about the moral degenerecy YOUR side created? Got your woman in a Burhqua? Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorism is NO DIFFERENT than Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism. It all springs forth from the same, closed, medieval mindset.
So sit back: - smoke your dope
Bible never said NOTHING about pot smoking - though Genesis did say something about taking every seed-bearing plant and using it however you will. It's MORE morally degenerate to misinterpret scripture (if you believe in scriptural infallibility) than it is to smoke a joint.
- watch porn
Yeah, I'll watch porn like fine upstanding republicans do. Like Jack Ryan, who goes to sex clubs. Like Jim Bakker, who embezzles money from followers and goes to hookers. Republicans talking about sexual morality is a riot.
- slap yo moma and call her a bitch and a ho
?
- keep killing babies
Like the innocent babies blown into shreds of meat by Bush's fake war in Iraq?
- dont take any responsibility for your actions, nothing is every your fault
By the way, when will Bush take responsibility for his failure to adequately secure the weapons he supposedly went into Iraq to secure. 380 tons of IAEA sealed HMX was videotaped on April 19th 2003, is no longer there, and likely in the hands of terrorists who are blowing our soldiers up, might even have been shipped to the US for the next bombing on our soil. Will Bush say that it's the soldiers' fault (like Guliani did?). Or will he come up with the cockammamie storie about Russian Special Forces took it before the war started? (videotaped evidence, April 19th, AFTER the war started!).
When will Bush take responsibility for the "few bad apples" who produced over 10,000 photographs of Geneva Conventions Violations, disappearences, torture, rape - of people who were improsoned, up to 70% of whom were just innocent civillians who weren't connected with the insurgency or terror or any damn thing other than having brown skin?
- promote deviant lifestyles in the guise of tolerance which you lack
If the "left" lacked tolerance, you would be in a concentration camp right now. Your right to speak and dissent is cherished and protected. Nobody on the left is going to suggest you should be arrested for being a traitor for questioning a "wartime president"
- support the aclu by telling firefighters they can't have a christmas tree in their station due to some nonexistent "seperation of church and state"
I bet it makes you squirm to think that the ACLU is defending Rush Limbaugh's right to privacy against seizure of his medical records in his little drug case. - - oh, but since it came from a drug company, it must be okay, right?
- brainwash our children with earth day and global warming with no empirical evidence to support it, you know your sunk when you get a whole south park episode dedicated to the topic
um - last I checked, homeschooling was legal. If you want to raise ignorant little bastards like yourself, you can isolate them from the real world as much as you want until they're 18.
and finally, last but not least:
- I get to pay for you to do all of the above.
Render unto Caesar, motherfucker. Or go move to Jonestown and drink some kool aide. Freak.
Thanks faggot! Don't worry when we take the country back, I'll make sure to slap yo mama and call her a bitch before I hang you for treason.
Why don't you move to Saudi Arabia instead? Your hero Georgie loves the Saudis. It's close to where Jesus lived, and when someone steps out of line, they go all hardcore on their ass and cut their head off. Not like liberal pussy America where people have free speech and all that garbage.
If I stomp on your foot and you punch me in the face, do I get to shoot you dead? No.
Unless you're in Texas. . .
Re:2 Questions (1 for Bush & 1 for Kerry)
on
Pre-Election Discussion
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Question for Kerry supporters:
What are the chances that 2 trial lawyers (who's biggest contributors are the trial lawyers associations) giving us the litigation reforms so crucial to getting escalating health care and pharm costs under control for the long term viability of our economy?
Answer: It's not about litigation reforms. FACTS: Frivolous Lawsuits account for less that 1% of medical malpractice insurance hikes. States which have imposed damage caps have seen their rates skyrocket even faster.
The root issue is health care costs are going up at a rate roughly 6 times that of inflation. There are many, many factors besides medical malpractice lawsuits. Factors: 1) IP Law is an item which is routinely abused by big pharmaceutical companies in order to maintain and extend monopolies to sqeeze out higher profits. They bitch and moan about not having enough money to pay the R&D costs for "what could be the cure for cancer" (still no cure for cancer), but on average, their advertising budgets are 3x the R&D budged. Question: If you're sick, and dying, and need a certain drug to live, does a commercial influence your decision?
2) The AMA has been completely negligent in pulling licenses of bad doctors (which is what drives up the medical malpractice insurance).
3) Drug companies, insurance companies, and hospital chains have been allowed to merge and consolidate far beyond any reasonable level that fosters healthy competition in a free market.
4) The fragmentation of health plans (not companies) in this nation combined with the consolidation of the drug industry creates an environment where the bargaining power is in the hands of the drug companies. They can basically set whatever price they choose. You want to live? Pay up.
If you believe the problem is frivolous lawsuits, you've drunk the kool aide. The ONLY thing that will get health care and pharm costs under control is Single Payer Health Care. Litigation Reform doesn't play on that map.
But if you spice it up with a dash of reality, you'll realize that idealists like yourself are a rare breed, and most people are more pragmatic (though uninformed). Most people do not vote their conscience.
Vote for Badnarik, and you can be certain that after we all die and merge with the great light, or whatever, you'll be able to brag that you voted your conscience in 2004. Whatever you think that will be worth. I, personally wouldn't hold a third-party idealist responsible for the outcome of this election. (I was one in 2000). That's about the same as blaming an MP3 downloader for decreased record sales. I will, however, say that - wow, please be a little more pragmatic and realize that electoral victory by a slim margin gets a guy into office. A wide-margin landslide sends an irrefutable message of broad hatred of the loser, which can very thoroughly shape the zeitgeist of the nation for decades to come.
I don't know why you're voting libertarian, either you're a Fiscal Conservative, or a Social Liberal. If you reject Social Conservativism, then voting Democratic is a reasonable compromise. If you're for Fiscal Conservativism, then the Party of Bill Clinton is a far cry from the Party of Jimmy Carter (or Ted Kennedy). The Democratic Party has changed, and it can be more accurately described as the party of Fiscal Conservativism than the Republican party. All one needs to do to SEE that, is to look at the Repbulican-dominated spending record of the past 3 years. Hell, look at Reagan's deficits. They TALK about Fiscal conservativism, then they brew up a war, and use it to justify massive spending to benefit their campaign donors. Voting Democrat is the best logical compromise for a Libertarian-pragmatist.
But if you still insist on voting your conscience, that's fine, and I'm happy have countrymen like you. I just want you to consider what kind of a message your vote sends.
the US will find itself more and more isolated and possible facing sanctions or trade embargoes. Before you mod me down as a troll, take a second to listen to me and try and comprehend what I am saying.
The US people have got to realise that the words 'compromise' and 'diplomacy' will get them a lot further in a medium/long term perspective than 'aggression' and 'shock and awe tactics' will. A level playing field, a little more understanding and less of the arrogance and favouritism currently in place will quickly change the perception of the US, and hence there will be little reason for other countries to put things in place like Canada has done.
Well, in these respects, what's bad for the US may end up being the benefit of Canada, or other nations.
Behold, over the next 10 years, as American religious radicalism converts a once-shining beacon of hope and freedom into a third world shithole. Let it be an example to you. Some of us tried to stop it, but apparently, in the end, we couldn't. The downward slide appears inevitable now.
It reminds me of the Demotivators poster. . . "perhaps your purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others."
I hope that's the case with America, and I hope others HEED the warning.
Interesting thing about the Hawaiian language from whence "wiki" came;
It has no plural form. To invoke the idea of plurality, the word is simply stated twice. For adverbs (in the case of wiki), the same treatment is used to denote the superlative. Therefore if "wiki" means "fast", "wikiwiki" means "faster". (the tour bus driver wasn't clear about how they'd denote "fastest" - he explained the noun thing more thoroughly. . . )
Each and every one of them, without exception, pissed on the rug.
The reason these animals are in the shelter, is because somebody else screwed up in the house-training phase.
I will never ever again adopt someone else's mistake. My next dog (after my current one expires or runs away) will be a new puppy. And I will make certain that the new puppy is house-trained *RIGHT*.
And if I fail - then it's off to the animal shelter!
unless they come up with a way to transfer photos directly from the Camera to the iPod. ..
Most cameras have USB, not fire-wire.
My preference, of course, is for the cameras to start offering fire-wire, rather than put a USB plug on the iPod.
But really, with such a small screen, the only utility a photo-capable iPod has is basically for portable mass-storage (for obsessive-compulsive shutterbugs). And with that level of expense, the main competition is thumbdrives and flash cards (like the ones most cameras already have).
He's saying that the Ba'ath party was NOT the party of radical islamists. It was about as close to a secular party as one could get within the middle east.
. . . in fact, Iraq was the ONLY predominantly arab country that had not outlawed Christians.
In Fact, Tariq Aziz, Saddam's public mouthpiece, was the administrations "Token Christian".
In Fact, since the invasion, life for Iraqi Christians has become much much more difficult, as Kurdish fighters have occupied predominantly Christian cities, expelling Christians, forcing them into refugee camps or simply out into the wilderness.
In Fact, the official party platform of Sadr's party contains language that would outlaw Christianity - the US (we do not negotiate with Terrorists) has negotiated with Sadr, to allow him to run for office (despite the murder charges against him) - in exchange for laying down arms in Najaf (of course, his fighters just hopped in their trucks and drove to Baghdad and Mosul).
Those on the far right who would like to think of this war as a war of Christiandom against Radical Islam seem to be blind to these facts.
When you listen to the hyperbole that "Kerry voted against it before he voted for it" - it's actually a dishonest statement, because the two "it's" were not equal. In the case of the Iraq War funding, the bill had some sticky little riders about accounting oversight, and where the funding was going to come from. But I've found after trying to argue these points until I'm blue in the face with Bush supporters, that, in general, Bush supporters don't do "nuance". It makes their lives too complicated to have to actually earn the responsibility to be a voting citizen in a democracy.
And what did Clinton say about legalizing marijuana? Nothing.
NOT TRUE:
If you recall, his appointed Surgeon General was hounded out of office by the Gingrich-ites, when she mentioned in a speech that the US needed to seriously reconsider marijuana prohibition. Clinton had cujones to appoint that one. . . He was probably our last best hope for legalization. The best we can hope for now is for the Republican "State's Rights" to trump desires to outlaw medical uses.
Hell, Apollo 11 had some failures that nearly cost the mission (and loss of crew). Some false error conditions reported by the flight hardware on descent, and a very slim margin of fuel consumption prior to landing, they came within less than 10 seconds of depleting the fuel alloted for landing, but they were too low to abort.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but it says that Dashboard hosts applications called Widgets, which are written in HTML, which have access to "plugins" which can be written in Objective-C.
Isn't this the same mistake Microsoft made with ActiveX (ie. Virus-writer's best friend)?
Well, I think that the "slippery slope" argument comes in here somewhere.
When it comes to the 2nd Amendment - the right to "keep and bear arms" leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to specifying precisely WHAT arms. If you interpret the spirit of the intent behind what they were thinking when they wrote it - you could easily come away with the impression that they included not only nuclear arms, but antimatter, bioweapons, or nanoweapons as well. Arms is arms, and as long as an "opressive regime" has the Power lent to it by posession of a given weapons technology, then THE PEOPLE also should have a right to own it.
This, of course, is ridiculous. Look at the mayhem in third world countries where people are permitted to "bear arms" (due to poor enforcement or a weak central authority) - case-in-point: in Iraq, families are allowed to have 1 AK-47 in their home. (I am not making this shit up, I wish I were!) - which is scary when you think of how that stacks up against the desire to preserve civic order. Then again, 1 AK-47 is a far cry from IED's, Mortars, Rockets, RPG's, etc.
The point is, in the broader context, like you say, of the rest of the Constitution (particularly the preamble), or the phrase you quote from the Declaration of Independence - you simply HAVE to draw the line somewhere. I don't accept that allowing groups like the Branch Davidians to stockpile belt-fed.50-cal machineguns is going to benefit ME and my political freedom. On the other hand, where DO you draw the line. The 2nd Amendment was about civillian power against government military force. So a 30-06 hunting rifle, or a.44 magnum revolver are similarly ridiculous, given that intent. Those are about empowering a civillian to enforce the law or protect his livestock from wild animals. The 2nd Amendment and attendant writings by the Founding Fathers don't talk much at all about that purpose. Following that line of reasoning, why not ban ALL guns?
To me, the obvious answer is, let's find a happy medium. With an eye towards modulation for circumstances and individual interest weighed against community interest. People living in Rural Areas sure as hell should NOT be prohibited from owning and operating tools vital for their survival and maintenance of their livelyhood (protecting livestock from wild animals). People living in Urban Areas sure as hell should be permitted to, if they agree, ban all handguns, to deter criminal misuse. They're different environments, and have different requirements.
In neither case do I advocate a situation that grants ordinary civillians the right to own technology that would allow them to take on the local military. I don't want to live in Somalia, Afghanistan, or Iraq. This is a case where right-wing ideology, where confronted with hard facts, falls flat on it's face.
I've been reading for years here on/. about how cool Neal Stephenson is, and how great his books are, etc. I was motivated to read Diamond Age first (because I couldn't find the copy of Snow Crash that I *know* I bought, years ago, but squirrelled away somewhere) - then, when I figured out it was my WIFE who squirrelled it away, I found Snow Crash, and I'm reading that, and when I'm done with that, I'll move on to Cryptonomicon - it's really been YEARS since I've been able to take the time to read some fiction on my own time.
That said - I'm finding Snow Crash to be a big disappointment, compared to the Diamond Age. And not just because Cyberpunk, as a genre is passe now. There's just something. . . less mature, about Snow Crash. I was *very* impressed with Diamond Age. As I have not yet cracked the cover of Cryptonomicon, I remain desperately intimindated by it's girth. As I'm also reading aloud, JK Rowling's latest work to my kids, I think I'll finish up that effort with a tad more self-confidence on "big books". After all, back in the day, I read Godel, Escher, Bach - for sheer pleasure. So I doubt Cryptonomicon can really do me in.
The Citrix "saga" is one of the great untold stories of the otherwise well-known Microsoft quest for dominance.
At the time, I worked for a company whose product was just plain not at all stable on Citrix, so I became intimately familliar with Citrix back in the mid 1990's. Ironically, I'm working for a different company, and I'm supporting/developing a product for Citrix today. It's really an awesome platform, if it weren't for the onerous licensing model foisted on us by Microsoft.
The political landscape of the US was changed forever when Nixon's election commitee began using modern marketing techniques to sell their candidate like a packaged product.
This science has been elevated to an artform by the likes of Karl Rove, who has become quite adept at figuring out how to push some people's "VOTE" button. And worse still, he's figured out how to get people so disgusted and turned off, that they abstain from voting altogether, leading to the abysimal voter turnouts of the last several elections.
Slashdot Mirror
If Bush wins, Republicans will likely control all 3 branches of goverment, allowing for the most extreme changes since FDR.
. . . more likely, the most extreme changes since Washington. . .
There's not much we can do to keep another attack from happening.
Yes there is. There's much that can be done. As Michael Savage told me, last Friday Night, on his radio program, we could nuke Mecca and Medina. Then we could threaten to nuke Ryadh if they cut off the oil. We could just nuke anybody who objected.
(I'm not making this up. This nationally sydicated radio talkshow host actually said this.)
Remember the stock market crash after 9/11? That was due to uncertainty of the future.
Due to Enron. (thanks Bush. Ken Lay in jail yet?) People lost confidence in the market because of the WIDESPREAD, UNCHALLENGED FRAUD!
Again - we cannot afford to fight terrorism indefinately if we have a crippled economy. We can only fight on a credit card for so long. How long do you think the Chinese will keep loaning us money? Why do you think the value of the dollar has plummeted? Why do you think oil is at $50/bbl? (the war in Afganistan didn't give us crippling oil-price spikes, the Iraq war did!). We can grow GDP, short term, compared to a crappy quarter if companies keep hacking away at payroll. But if we don't have jobs, (and I'm not talking about the guy who sells hotdogs in front of the World Trade Center, I'm talking about the hundreds of thousands of IT jobs that went to India) - then nobody can afford to buy stuff. If nobody can afford to buy stuff, profits go down. GDP growth isn't sustainable in such an environment. Bush's policies do not promote job growth, they ONLY promote Swiss Bank Account Growth.
We are losing the war on terror, and Bush is fucking making it happen!
George Bush has significantly slowed the number of deaths per year in Iraq.
WRONG.
Read the study in The Lancet last week.
According to that study, 100,000 Iraqis are dead since the invasion, that would otherwise have been alive, given the death rate of the previous 10 years.
And much of the bluster about Saddam's mass-murdering (as well as the Oil For Fraud evidence) came from partisan INC hacks (Ahmed Chalabi, Iranian Spy, Jordanian Embezzler, Buddy of Bush - sat behind Laura at the 2003 State of the Union Address). Only a fraction of the bodies at mass graves were actually found, compared with the numbers in the tens of thousands that have been widely (and falsely) reported.
Was Saddam a bad person? Sure. But when he punished criminals by cutting their hands off, he at least anesthetised them. Bush's buddies in Saudi Arabia do it with a sword, in front of a crowd. Weekly beheadings on Friday, bring the kids!
Your right, we are at fault. We are at fault because of the moral degeneracy your side created.
MY side? I have a side? How about the moral degenerecy YOUR side created? Got your woman in a Burhqua? Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorism is NO DIFFERENT than Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism. It all springs forth from the same, closed, medieval mindset.
So sit back:
- smoke your dope
Bible never said NOTHING about pot smoking - though Genesis did say something about taking every seed-bearing plant and using it however you will. It's MORE morally degenerate to misinterpret scripture (if you believe in scriptural infallibility) than it is to smoke a joint.
- watch porn
Yeah, I'll watch porn like fine upstanding republicans do. Like Jack Ryan, who goes to sex clubs. Like Jim Bakker, who embezzles money from followers and goes to hookers. Republicans talking about sexual morality is a riot.
- slap yo moma and call her a bitch and a ho
?
- keep killing babies
Like the innocent babies blown into shreds of meat by Bush's fake war in Iraq?
- dont take any responsibility for your actions, nothing is every your fault
By the way, when will Bush take responsibility for his failure to adequately secure the weapons he supposedly went into Iraq to secure. 380 tons of IAEA sealed HMX was videotaped on April 19th 2003, is no longer there, and likely in the hands of terrorists who are blowing our soldiers up, might even have been shipped to the US for the next bombing on our soil. Will Bush say that it's the soldiers' fault (like Guliani did?). Or will he come up with the cockammamie storie about Russian Special Forces took it before the war started? (videotaped evidence, April 19th, AFTER the war started!).
When will Bush take responsibility for the "few bad apples" who produced over 10,000 photographs of Geneva Conventions Violations, disappearences, torture, rape - of people who were improsoned, up to 70% of whom were just innocent civillians who weren't connected with the insurgency or terror or any damn thing other than having brown skin?
- promote deviant lifestyles in the guise of tolerance which you lack
If the "left" lacked tolerance, you would be in a concentration camp right now. Your right to speak and dissent is cherished and protected. Nobody on the left is going to suggest you should be arrested for being a traitor for questioning a "wartime president"
- support the aclu by telling firefighters they can't have a christmas tree in their station due to some nonexistent "seperation of church and state"
I bet it makes you squirm to think that the ACLU is defending Rush Limbaugh's right to privacy against seizure of his medical records in his little drug case. - - oh, but since it came from a drug company, it must be okay, right?
- brainwash our children with earth day and global warming with no empirical evidence to support it, you know your sunk when you get a whole south park episode dedicated to the topic
um - last I checked, homeschooling was legal. If you want to raise ignorant little bastards like yourself, you can isolate them from the real world as much as you want until they're 18.
and finally, last but not least:
- I get to pay for you to do all of the above.
Render unto Caesar, motherfucker. Or go move to Jonestown and drink some kool aide. Freak.
Thanks faggot! Don't worry when we take the country back, I'll make sure to slap yo mama and call her a bitch before I hang you for treason.
Why don't you move to Saudi Arabia instead? Your hero Georgie loves the Saudis. It's close to where Jesus lived, and when someone steps out of line, they go all hardcore on their ass and cut their head off. Not like liberal pussy America where people have free speech and all that garbage.
If I stomp on your foot and you punch me in the face, do I get to shoot you dead? No.
Unless you're in Texas. . .
Question for Kerry supporters:
What are the chances that 2 trial lawyers (who's biggest contributors are the trial lawyers associations) giving us the litigation reforms so crucial to getting escalating health care and pharm costs under control for the long term viability of our economy?
Answer:
It's not about litigation reforms.
FACTS:
Frivolous Lawsuits account for less that 1% of medical malpractice insurance hikes.
States which have imposed damage caps have seen their rates skyrocket even faster.
The root issue is health care costs are going up at a rate roughly 6 times that of inflation. There are many, many factors besides medical malpractice lawsuits.
Factors:
1) IP Law is an item which is routinely abused by big pharmaceutical companies in order to maintain and extend monopolies to sqeeze out higher profits. They bitch and moan about not having enough money to pay the R&D costs for "what could be the cure for cancer" (still no cure for cancer), but on average, their advertising budgets are 3x the R&D budged. Question: If you're sick, and dying, and need a certain drug to live, does a commercial influence your decision?
2) The AMA has been completely negligent in pulling licenses of bad doctors (which is what drives up the medical malpractice insurance).
3) Drug companies, insurance companies, and hospital chains have been allowed to merge and consolidate far beyond any reasonable level that fosters healthy competition in a free market.
4) The fragmentation of health plans (not companies) in this nation combined with the consolidation of the drug industry creates an environment where the bargaining power is in the hands of the drug companies. They can basically set whatever price they choose. You want to live? Pay up.
If you believe the problem is frivolous lawsuits, you've drunk the kool aide. The ONLY thing that will get health care and pharm costs under control is Single Payer Health Care. Litigation Reform doesn't play on that map.
All that idealism is fine and dandy.
But if you spice it up with a dash of reality, you'll realize that idealists like yourself are a rare breed, and most people are more pragmatic (though uninformed). Most people do not vote their conscience.
Vote for Badnarik, and you can be certain that after we all die and merge with the great light, or whatever, you'll be able to brag that you voted your conscience in 2004. Whatever you think that will be worth.
I, personally wouldn't hold a third-party idealist responsible for the outcome of this election. (I was one in 2000). That's about the same as blaming an MP3 downloader for decreased record sales.
I will, however, say that - wow, please be a little more pragmatic and realize that electoral victory by a slim margin gets a guy into office. A wide-margin landslide sends an irrefutable message of broad hatred of the loser, which can very thoroughly shape the zeitgeist of the nation for decades to come.
I don't know why you're voting libertarian, either you're a Fiscal Conservative, or a Social Liberal. If you reject Social Conservativism, then voting Democratic is a reasonable compromise. If you're for Fiscal Conservativism, then the Party of Bill Clinton is a far cry from the Party of Jimmy Carter (or Ted Kennedy). The Democratic Party has changed, and it can be more accurately described as the party of Fiscal Conservativism than the Republican party. All one needs to do to SEE that, is to look at the Repbulican-dominated spending record of the past 3 years. Hell, look at Reagan's deficits. They TALK about Fiscal conservativism, then they brew up a war, and use it to justify massive spending to benefit their campaign donors. Voting Democrat is the best logical compromise for a Libertarian-pragmatist.
But if you still insist on voting your conscience, that's fine, and I'm happy have countrymen like you. I just want you to consider what kind of a message your vote sends.
Too bad we can't make an exception to the 5-up-mod limit for the parent post.
Hell, I wish I could donate all the mod points I've ever not used, and all the points I'm likely to get over the next 5 years for the parent post.
the US will find itself more and more isolated and possible facing sanctions or trade embargoes. Before you mod me down as a troll, take a second to listen to me and try and comprehend what I am saying.
The US people have got to realise that the words 'compromise' and 'diplomacy' will get them a lot further in a medium/long term perspective than 'aggression' and 'shock and awe tactics' will. A level playing field, a little more understanding and less of the arrogance and favouritism currently in place will quickly change the perception of the US, and hence there will be little reason for other countries to put things in place like Canada has done.
Well, in these respects, what's bad for the US may end up being the benefit of Canada, or other nations.
Behold, over the next 10 years, as American religious radicalism converts a once-shining beacon of hope and freedom into a third world shithole. Let it be an example to you. Some of us tried to stop it, but apparently, in the end, we couldn't. The downward slide appears inevitable now.
It reminds me of the Demotivators poster. . . "perhaps your purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others."
I hope that's the case with America, and I hope others HEED the warning.
You also don't need to watch 'The Day After Tomorrow' now.
Where the fuck were you two weeks ago? You could have prevented a second disaster when I made the mistake of watching this wreched movie. . .
Interesting thing about the Hawaiian language from whence "wiki" came;
It has no plural form. To invoke the idea of plurality, the word is simply stated twice. For adverbs (in the case of wiki), the same treatment is used to denote the superlative. Therefore if "wiki" means "fast", "wikiwiki" means "faster". (the tour bus driver wasn't clear about how they'd denote "fastest" - he explained the noun thing more thoroughly. . . )
I have "rescued" 5 dogs in my life.
Each and every one of them, without exception, pissed on the rug.
The reason these animals are in the shelter, is because somebody else screwed up in the house-training phase.
I will never ever again adopt someone else's mistake. My next dog (after my current one expires or runs away) will be a new puppy. And I will make certain that the new puppy is house-trained *RIGHT*.
And if I fail - then it's off to the animal shelter!
. . . yeah, and they're ALL fucking ugly as hell.
Exactly.
.
unless they come up with a way to transfer photos directly from the Camera to the iPod. .
Most cameras have USB, not fire-wire.
My preference, of course, is for the cameras to start offering fire-wire, rather than put a USB plug on the iPod.
But really, with such a small screen, the only utility a photo-capable iPod has is basically for portable mass-storage (for obsessive-compulsive shutterbugs). And with that level of expense, the main competition is thumbdrives and flash cards (like the ones most cameras already have).
Anti-abortion legislation was aimed at the protection of human life.
Please don't be naive.
Anti-abortion legislation is aimed at gaining campaign $$$ from religious wingnuts.
He's saying that the Ba'ath party was NOT the party of radical islamists. It was about as close to a secular party as one could get within the middle east.
. . . in fact, Iraq was the ONLY predominantly arab country that had not outlawed Christians.
In Fact, Tariq Aziz, Saddam's public mouthpiece, was the administrations "Token Christian".
In Fact, since the invasion, life for Iraqi Christians has become much much more difficult, as Kurdish fighters have occupied predominantly Christian cities, expelling Christians, forcing them into refugee camps or simply out into the wilderness.
In Fact, the official party platform of Sadr's party contains language that would outlaw Christianity - the US (we do not negotiate with Terrorists) has negotiated with Sadr, to allow him to run for office (despite the murder charges against him) - in exchange for laying down arms in Najaf (of course, his fighters just hopped in their trucks and drove to Baghdad and Mosul).
Those on the far right who would like to think of this war as a war of Christiandom against Radical Islam seem to be blind to these facts.
bah.
Sounds like you need a new wife.
And we need a new president.
When you listen to the hyperbole that "Kerry voted against it before he voted for it" - it's actually a dishonest statement, because the two "it's" were not equal. In the case of the Iraq War funding, the bill had some sticky little riders about accounting oversight, and where the funding was going to come from. But I've found after trying to argue these points until I'm blue in the face with Bush supporters, that, in general, Bush supporters don't do "nuance". It makes their lives too complicated to have to actually earn the responsibility to be a voting citizen in a democracy.
And what did Clinton say about legalizing marijuana? Nothing.
NOT TRUE:
If you recall, his appointed Surgeon General was hounded out of office by the Gingrich-ites, when she mentioned in a speech that the US needed to seriously reconsider marijuana prohibition. Clinton had cujones to appoint that one. . . He was probably our last best hope for legalization. The best we can hope for now is for the Republican "State's Rights" to trump desires to outlaw medical uses.
Hell, Apollo 11 had some failures that nearly cost the mission (and loss of crew). Some false error conditions reported by the flight hardware on descent, and a very slim margin of fuel consumption prior to landing, they came within less than 10 seconds of depleting the fuel alloted for landing, but they were too low to abort.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but it says that Dashboard hosts applications called Widgets, which are written in HTML, which have access to "plugins" which can be written in Objective-C.
Isn't this the same mistake Microsoft made with ActiveX (ie. Virus-writer's best friend)?
Well, I think that the "slippery slope" argument comes in here somewhere.
.50-cal machineguns is going to benefit ME and my political freedom. On the other hand, where DO you draw the line. The 2nd Amendment was about civillian power against government military force. So a 30-06 hunting rifle, or a .44 magnum revolver are similarly ridiculous, given that intent. Those are about empowering a civillian to enforce the law or protect his livestock from wild animals. The 2nd Amendment and attendant writings by the Founding Fathers don't talk much at all about that purpose. Following that line of reasoning, why not ban ALL guns?
When it comes to the 2nd Amendment - the right to "keep and bear arms" leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to specifying precisely WHAT arms. If you interpret the spirit of the intent behind what they were thinking when they wrote it - you could easily come away with the impression that they included not only nuclear arms, but antimatter, bioweapons, or nanoweapons as well. Arms is arms, and as long as an "opressive regime" has the Power lent to it by posession of a given weapons technology, then THE PEOPLE also should have a right to own it.
This, of course, is ridiculous. Look at the mayhem in third world countries where people are permitted to "bear arms" (due to poor enforcement or a weak central authority) - case-in-point: in Iraq, families are allowed to have 1 AK-47 in their home. (I am not making this shit up, I wish I were!) - which is scary when you think of how that stacks up against the desire to preserve civic order. Then again, 1 AK-47 is a far cry from IED's, Mortars, Rockets, RPG's, etc.
The point is, in the broader context, like you say, of the rest of the Constitution (particularly the preamble), or the phrase you quote from the Declaration of Independence - you simply HAVE to draw the line somewhere. I don't accept that allowing groups like the Branch Davidians to stockpile belt-fed
To me, the obvious answer is, let's find a happy medium. With an eye towards modulation for circumstances and individual interest weighed against community interest. People living in Rural Areas sure as hell should NOT be prohibited from owning and operating tools vital for their survival and maintenance of their livelyhood (protecting livestock from wild animals). People living in Urban Areas sure as hell should be permitted to, if they agree, ban all handguns, to deter criminal misuse. They're different environments, and have different requirements.
In neither case do I advocate a situation that grants ordinary civillians the right to own technology that would allow them to take on the local military. I don't want to live in Somalia, Afghanistan, or Iraq. This is a case where right-wing ideology, where confronted with hard facts, falls flat on it's face.
I've been reading for years here on /. about how cool Neal Stephenson is, and how great his books are, etc. I was motivated to read Diamond Age first (because I couldn't find the copy of Snow Crash that I *know* I bought, years ago, but squirrelled away somewhere) - then, when I figured out it was my WIFE who squirrelled it away, I found Snow Crash, and I'm reading that, and when I'm done with that, I'll move on to Cryptonomicon - it's really been YEARS since I've been able to take the time to read some fiction on my own time.
That said - I'm finding Snow Crash to be a big disappointment, compared to the Diamond Age. And not just because Cyberpunk, as a genre is passe now. There's just something. . . less mature, about Snow Crash. I was *very* impressed with Diamond Age. As I have not yet cracked the cover of Cryptonomicon, I remain desperately intimindated by it's girth. As I'm also reading aloud, JK Rowling's latest work to my kids, I think I'll finish up that effort with a tad more self-confidence on "big books". After all, back in the day, I read Godel, Escher, Bach - for sheer pleasure. So I doubt Cryptonomicon can really do me in.
Great post.
The Citrix "saga" is one of the great untold stories of the otherwise well-known Microsoft quest for dominance.
At the time, I worked for a company whose product was just plain not at all stable on Citrix, so I became intimately familliar with Citrix back in the mid 1990's. Ironically, I'm working for a different company, and I'm supporting/developing a product for Citrix today. It's really an awesome platform, if it weren't for the onerous licensing model foisted on us by Microsoft.
True.
The political landscape of the US was changed forever when Nixon's election commitee began using modern marketing techniques to sell their candidate like a packaged product.
This science has been elevated to an artform by the likes of Karl Rove, who has become quite adept at figuring out how to push some people's "VOTE" button. And worse still, he's figured out how to get people so disgusted and turned off, that they abstain from voting altogether, leading to the abysimal voter turnouts of the last several elections.