Billy's mother is buried in Silver City, NM so getting her remains should be easy, except for the minor detail that the cemetary where she is buried has undergone some serious rearangement in the past century thus there is no assurance that his mom is actually buried under the stone that says "Billy's mom lies here." In fact, it is highly unlikely that there are remains under her stone and even if there are, the remains are almost certainly not his mom.
All that the digging around is going to prove is that technology will answer the question presented (are these remains related) rather than the question intended (Which of these guys is Billy).
Which translates to: "if you object to certain types of content AND you object to programs which censor that content, then you're relying on the good faith of the people using your machine."
By saying "give parents control" you ignore all others who might wish to do so (your employer, your neighbor, your politicians). Are you certain you WANT others to decide what you can see and do?
um, what exactly do the United Nations have to do with a treaty promulgated by US corporate interests? The UN isn't in enforcement (unless it's a war) and they don't have the ability to force anyone to do anything (see: US refusal to pay dues).
What we have here are a series of loosely organized, neo-governmental organizations (WTO, WIPO) driven by US Corporations. Black helecopters and One World Government are a smokescreen. Read "Jihad vs. McWorld: how the world is coming together and falling apart (and what this means for democracy." The Corps want a bunch of unit consumers with unit desires, packaging indifferent and culturally bland. That way the corps need make only one unit good in any plant in the world and ship it to any consumer in the world.
Where does the UN come in to this debate? The corps and their lawyers are involved here so are the several governments. The UN has no voice in this.
Blacklisting Asia is not such a bad idea. The biggest problem with blacklisting asia is all the people that won't unblacklist them if they get their problem fixed.
And the fact that most of my spam comes from.it and.ru. So does that mean we need to start blocking Europe as well as Asia? And if we do block Europe, eventually we'll only be able to send mail to 127.0.0.1 Then again, that might mean folks will stop sending chain letters "get free stuff!" "hug your friends!" bah.
Qohelet was right "there is nothing new under the sun."
How much surveilence is too much? How much privacy is too little? Is there a real benefit to this surveilence or am I "subject #23"
I have a name and I have a history, you can learn these things from me by asking. If I choose to invite you into that level of closeness/community with me, I will share these things. My objection is simply that I want to have some say/control over how much data is gathered and how it is used.
One of the big issues here is when is surveilence de-humanizing. In a small town, folks can know each others business and though there are busibodies, they are usually ignored by the population at large. Now we are dealing with semi-legal entities which want to know our business. A corporation is a piece of paper which is recognized by the courts as having standing as a 'person' humans in service of this 'person' want to watch us suspiciously.
I will live with people and I will submit to a certain ammount of friendly inquiry into my life. I'm not all that interested in being suspected of $NefariousThings and watched like the criminal I am suspected of being.
well, the Stasi employed one quarter of the population to do their work so they certainly had a high overhead. At the same time, their effort was wasted because they couldn't interpret the data. If we have a national tracking system, we'll end up with the same damned problem. "We know where all 250million US Citizens are, but how do we find the terrorists/criminals/bad guys of the week?"
And again, do we want that kind of privacy invasion? If we start handing out speeding tickets based on GPS signals and toll readers, what $MajorAbuse will we get if that kind of data gathering goes into effect. Fankly, it's none of $GovernmentAgency's business that I went to the bathroom five times yesterday or that I attend church regularly (or not).
If you make people criminals, they will live down to your expectations.
Lastly, let's stop calling terrorists "criminals" and accept them for what they are, highly dedicated soldiers engaged in a war. That some members of a task group are killed to acheive an objective is simply a matter of military calculation, not insanity. We won't do this because this would require us to treat the acts as rational which calls into question a whole host of things we do.
"if he does nothing wrong, a citizen has no need of privacy." -Hitler
Thank you for reminding me of that vitally important quote. Note, this does not mean that all folks who want to implant and track are Nazis, it's simply that the Nazis developed a Total State based on suspicion of citizens, preusumption of guilt, and a vast network of internal spies. Hey, as long as you don't do something the government thinks is wrong, you're OK! But what if someone lies about you? What if the government decides that $behaviour is now illegal? Suddenly you're a criminal and we know where you are and we'll have your ass behind bars faster than you can say "first amendment."
As for criminals "deserving" punishment, that is only valid if the justice system works 100% correctly. But the assumption is utterly false. Look in the mirror and say "OJ did not kill his ex-wife" could you keep a straight face? I didn't think so. Then ask yourself why Illinois decided to give up on the death penalty until full review of all cases (hint: they were finding that a bunch of people were wrongly convicted). Finally, What happens when you have done your time and paid your debt? Does one criminal act mean that you are a criminal by nature? Remember, speeding is against the law. So is underage drinking.
I certainly don't want to live in your total state where forgiveness and reconciliation are banned. It takes a lot more guts to work with people who have hurt you, ask Desmond Tutu about the Truth and Reconciliation Comittee in South Africa.
And yours is in thinking that deploring "moral impairment" is a value unique to Christians.
Discussion of moral imperatives/values is by no means unique to Christians. Aristotle, Plato, and Epictetus discussed morality, Kong Fuzi and Lao Tze spoke of a "way" of life, Islam and Judaism have some things to say about morality as well (I end here only because I haven't studied others).
so, Chistians can discuss morality, but not everyone discussing morality is Christian (nor are they speaking from a Christian worldview). QED
Not to mention that education is the last Mac stronghold. I just wonder what'll happen in five years when the 'free stuff' runs out. Will MS continue to provide low cost solutions? Didn't think so.
It's horrible that the Somalians have essentially been shut off from the outside world but while such an action may have negative short term effects, it will benefit the Somalians in the long run.
Negative Short Term Effects:
the two companies are together, the largest employer in Somalia (think shutting down GM and GE)
Many Somalis depend on folks outside the country to send them money. With the lines shut down, no money gets in. (think of the US if 60% of the cash were to simply vanish, no grease for the wheels of commerce).
And yeah, there's that whole thing about Jus in bello where you do not harm non-guilty parties
While we're at it, with all this talk about "new war" how come the US hasn't simply arrested/assasinated the guys who ran the damned thing?
Actually, the original poster was going the "auslander raus" route we in the west all know and love. It sounds like he wants all non-anglos out of the country and that sounds a whole lot like the 'get rid of the wetbacks' stuff we get on the border.
Now that you mention it though, democracy is mostly a non-issue. The arab nations failed themselves and the west certainly helped them in that. At the same time, the people failed their nations as well.
And let's not forget the riots in Nigeria in support of Bin Laden. Sayid Qutb et al. have linked up a very big network of fellow feeling which is not something that we can dismiss with the idea that 'our bombs are bigger than yours.' He hates us and we hate him but careful with the 'open the doors on a total state in order to enforce our prejudices.'
BTW: FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE are killed each year by automobiles in the United States, so waving numbers isn't going to make NY/DC/PA any more or less disruptive. If there had been no one in the buildings it would still have been a horrid deed.
Sure, and I did the same thing when I got my first set in '75. At the same time, I got ticked off at lego when their sets started getting too focused on "part does this and just this." Heck, I had the old set where you built the boat hull out of parts, now they are prebuilt.
It's not so much that creativity will die, as that by being directed with specialized parts, the end results are more limited. This is my biggest argument with most software. Most users need a small set of generalizable tools rather than a bunch of "one shot" tools. My work in tech support would have been so much more straightforward if less effort was wasted on chrome 'features' and instead focused on basic tools. If you have mastered your toolset, you can find a way to describe new items. Otherwise you need to use the supplied 'solution' and hope it works just right.
And can someone tell me why HTML is not the default file storage format of wordprocessing docs? HTML can handle images, text, and layout and, being text, is readable on any platform I have used.
I'm not sure his point was that folks need to know everything about you in order for you to be responsible, just that they have to be able to connect you to something.
Frinstance, in my profession, I wear a uniform. My uniform is very clearly recognizable and widely understood. When I wear that uniform, I don't go to all the places I might "out of uniform" even if I'm "off duty." The rememberance that I can be recognized and 'placed' means that I pay attention to what I am doing and how my actions may reflect on others in my profession.
So yes, I think having folks know you (on some level) does actually induce a certain level of responsibility, and sometimes that can be a good thing. Howsomever, I don't think that walking around with a big neon sign that says "Hi, my name is $name and I live at $location" would make the world safer. In fact, it would make the world less safe (think of the stalker value). So yes, he's a freak and yes, he's right.
And for my next trick I will explain how George W. Shrub is actually a tool of the education industry.
While we're at it, why don't we confiscate all guns and lock up dissenters too? Nothing you have described is even fscking legal!
And why do you assume that it's just those 'middle-eastern' people who are a threat to our nation? Could english speaking anti-government wackos also be a threat? How about demagogues who stir up public anger to further their power mongering? Remember 99 Luftballons? "Riefen: Krieg und wollten Macht" Thank you for playing into their hands.
The Arabs still remember when they had a nation that streched from Java to Gibralter. They remember the way white english speaking people screwed them over in the crusades, 1920 and 1948. If we think it's wrong for "them" to hate "us" just because we resemble the people who fscked them over, why are you trying to do the same thing?
Racial profiling is racial profiling no matter how you describe it. It was wrong when NJ cops did it, it was wrong when the NSDAP did it, it is still wrong and will remain WRONG!
Actually, most folks could figure it out if they knew that the damn system could do that. the whole complaint about making it a hassle to change to something else is that it is this same concer which keeps MS users, using the stuff. If they don't know the feature's there, how will they use it?
As for the 'if they can't figure it out, they chouldn't have a machine' thing, solly cholly if customer has money, they will buy whatever the salesperson suggests. The salesperson will suggest windows and the customer will use the machine as is with all the MS stuff built in by default. They won't change because 1. they don't know that they can 2. MS makes it seem really bad if you want to change "are you sure you want to... yes {no}" It certainly insults my sense of fitness and elegance in life, but that is my own complaint.
10,000 soldiers? Boy are you optimistic. Adjust upwards by a power of ten at least. Now ask yourself if that isn't a steep price for futility. You see, terrorism isn't a person, it's an idea. You can't kill ideas with bombs, guns or secret state police. Ask the members of every revolution ever waged.
The position that we go in John Wayne style and then the folks leave us alone is simplistic. Terrorism has been a way of war since the 1300's when the Old Man of the Mountain ruled a good portion of the Islamic world without a standing army. No one messed with him because he was too far away and could have them killed at any moment.
The only ways to stop planes from flying into buildings are as follows:
1. ban planes
2. ban buildings
3. ban people
4. deal with the mind numbingly complex world that exists out there. Start from where the other guy looks at things and see if you can agree on something and try to fix what's broken. This one takes your entire life, is mostly no fun, and might actually work.
Mind you, this is not one of those "It's all America's fault" or "this is a judgement on US" posts. The world is not that simple and trying to beat it with a stick won't work. Or, as H.L. Menken put it "to every problem there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong."
And I'd agree with you if I had been making that point. Actually I was attemping to point out that "we have stepped in $excrement of our own making." Every nation in the world plays power politics, the US is just bigger financially/militarily than most other nations, so they do it a bit better than others now. This is the Way of Big Nations (see also Pax Britiania). This is also why the US is the Big Target at the moment.
Except that the Northern Alliance is NOT the legitimate government of Afghanistan. After the Afghan war, Najibullah (a communist) went ahead and resumed the rule which had been interrupted by the Soviet takeover. ReganBush didn't like that one bit so we forced him to step down in favour of the seven bickering factions which became the Northern alliance. They promptly hanged Najibullah and started turf wars in Kabul (abt 50,000 dead IIRC). Finally, we (through the pakistani ISI) supported some students (talabeh) in Qandahar as they attempted to end corruption caused by seven warlords trying to run Afghanistan. We stepped out of supporting them early on, but the ISI kept right on and has backed them all the way to government. The Northern Alliance lost their only popular face when Masood was killed monday last. If we support the NA, the Afghans will just settle in for another huge season of agony. The BBC has a wonderful story by one of their correspondents (who has lived there for years). check it out here
We have to realize that this nation has been bombed and burned out and shot for over twenty years. We cannot defeat Afghanistan because as their anthem says "as long as there is an Afghan people, there will be Afghanistan." Picture people who are used to living off the land, fiercly tribal and territorial, and armed with modern weapons. Think about what would have happened in the Indian Wars if the Indians had been more numerous, in even better terrain, and armed with Spencers. We would never have taken the west. Now look at Afghanistan. Are you feeling Queasy yet?
40,000 people die each year on our roads, but we write them off as a 'cost of convenience.' A non zero number of children are killed by their parents/caregivers each year and we think nothing of it. Why does it take 5000 folks dying in an explosion to pull our heads out of our collective butts and recognize the fleeting beauty of life and the elusiveness of peace?
And you're not going to be thinking about giving criminals more rights anymore when they're about to crash the plane you're on.
WTF? we're talking about keeping the rights we have, not giving anyone any more rights. I understand that it hurts terribly to see this happen (again and again and again through the miracle of Instant Replay) but let's not allow the pain to confuse us. The FBI/CIA/NSA can't intercept and interpret all the data they have in hand now, why dump more on them? I see a huge reaction where we want the pain to stop. We want things to go back to normal, but it can't. We need to deal with the pain and the reality of life's awfulness. We need to feel the hurt, and then we need to do the best job we can.
First off, this is not going to be a "short, victorious war." Terrorism has been a weapon since the 1300's when the Old Man of the Mountain used his assasins (hashishim) to rule from Tabriz (Iran). It is the tool of the small against the large and relies on creativity more than brute force. If we give up privacy (amendment 10, US Constitution) to fight this war, we won't get it back becasue after these perpetrators are eliminated, we will have to be on guard against their replacements. This war will be like trying to kill fire ants. You can get the top of the nest, but only regular patrols and the willingness to kill at the first hint of ants will keep them out of your yard.
So, if we give the government the right to spy on anything we do we will make ourselves less private while not neccessarily halting the terror. The real problem of signal interception (SigInt) isn't getting the data, it's interpreting the data. We lost a Sub in WWII because our code breakers were overwhelmed with messages to crack and they missed a "notice to mariners" indicating a minefield astride the patrol route they set up for the sub.
Brent Crude went up about $3.20 today to $30.65 (or so). We may not see it at the pump all at once, but someone's betting that demand is going to be high. In a side note, gold hit $290 an ounce. In all it looks like folks expect war and American leaders aren't doing much for the peace party ("This is war." -Sen. John McCain).
And sadly, it looks like the "Blame the Rag Heads" crowd are in full cry already. I do wish the States wouldn't be so keyed up to go off half cocked. If they attack, the Shelter Now detainees are dead. Maybe we find a better answer than bombs, please?
And I for one would like to thank you guys for producing the best stuff on the radio: to the best of our knowledge, marketplace, the world, prarie home companion. Now if the were just available in Arizona, life would be better here. It's too bad that when folks think of public radio, they immediately think NPR.
yes and no, my place has POTS (which is often unreliable) and my lines have been "conditioned" so DSL/ADSL is not an option. No cable company offers cable modem service in this area and my line of sight is blocked to the only local wireless service. Just in case you're wondering, I do live in an urban (over 700,000 ppl) area. The phone and cable companies see no reason to offer service in this area so my choice is break my lease and move for service or "trouble heaven with bootless cries."
So here I sit with a desire for high speed access, the money to pay for it and no company willing to offer service. In the Free Market economy, I should be able to negotiate service, but my individual need is small enough that the free market can ignore me. That's why government regulates utility monopolies, otherwise the 'unprofitable' get ignored. Our local Health Organisations have decided to stop offering service in rural areas because those areas don't bring in enough to cover their cost. If the free market is allowed to decide, sectors get ignored.
Slashdot Mirror
Billy's mother is buried in Silver City, NM so getting her remains should be easy, except for the minor detail that the cemetary where she is buried has undergone some serious rearangement in the past century thus there is no assurance that his mom is actually buried under the stone that says "Billy's mom lies here." In fact, it is highly unlikely that there are remains under her stone and even if there are, the remains are almost certainly not his mom.
All that the digging around is going to prove is that technology will answer the question presented (are these remains related) rather than the question intended (Which of these guys is Billy).
Which translates to: "if you object to certain types of content AND you object to programs which censor that content, then you're relying on the good faith of the people using your machine."
By saying "give parents control" you ignore all others who might wish to do so (your employer, your neighbor, your politicians). Are you certain you WANT others to decide what you can see and do?
Actually, it's a reminder for those who like to yell "kill the ragheads!" That there's a little more history involved (look it up).
um, what exactly do the United Nations have to do with a treaty promulgated by US corporate interests? The UN isn't in enforcement (unless it's a war) and they don't have the ability to force anyone to do anything (see: US refusal to pay dues).
What we have here are a series of loosely organized, neo-governmental organizations (WTO, WIPO) driven by US Corporations. Black helecopters and One World Government are a smokescreen. Read "Jihad vs. McWorld: how the world is coming together and falling apart (and what this means for democracy." The Corps want a bunch of unit consumers with unit desires, packaging indifferent and culturally bland. That way the corps need make only one unit good in any plant in the world and ship it to any consumer in the world.
Where does the UN come in to this debate? The corps and their lawyers are involved here so are the several governments. The UN has no voice in this.
And the fact that most of my spam comes from
Qohelet was right "there is nothing new under the sun."
All true, the question is "how much?"
How much surveilence is too much? How much privacy is too little? Is there a real benefit to this surveilence or am I "subject #23"
I have a name and I have a history, you can learn these things from me by asking. If I choose to invite you into that level of closeness/community with me, I will share these things. My objection is simply that I want to have some say/control over how much data is gathered and how it is used.
One of the big issues here is when is surveilence de-humanizing. In a small town, folks can know each others business and though there are busibodies, they are usually ignored by the population at large. Now we are dealing with semi-legal entities which want to know our business. A corporation is a piece of paper which is recognized by the courts as having standing as a 'person' humans in service of this 'person' want to watch us suspiciously.
I will live with people and I will submit to a certain ammount of friendly inquiry into my life. I'm not all that interested in being suspected of $NefariousThings and watched like the criminal I am suspected of being.
well, the Stasi employed one quarter of the population to do their work so they certainly had a high overhead. At the same time, their effort was wasted because they couldn't interpret the data. If we have a national tracking system, we'll end up with the same damned problem. "We know where all 250million US Citizens are, but how do we find the terrorists/criminals/bad guys of the week?"
And again, do we want that kind of privacy invasion? If we start handing out speeding tickets based on GPS signals and toll readers, what $MajorAbuse will we get if that kind of data gathering goes into effect. Fankly, it's none of $GovernmentAgency's business that I went to the bathroom five times yesterday or that I attend church regularly (or not).
If you make people criminals, they will live down to your expectations.
Lastly, let's stop calling terrorists "criminals" and accept them for what they are, highly dedicated soldiers engaged in a war. That some members of a task group are killed to acheive an objective is simply a matter of military calculation, not insanity. We won't do this because this would require us to treat the acts as rational which calls into question a whole host of things we do.
"if he does nothing wrong, a citizen has no need of privacy." -Hitler
Thank you for reminding me of that vitally important quote. Note, this does not mean that all folks who want to implant and track are Nazis, it's simply that the Nazis developed a Total State based on suspicion of citizens, preusumption of guilt, and a vast network of internal spies. Hey, as long as you don't do something the government thinks is wrong, you're OK! But what if someone lies about you? What if the government decides that $behaviour is now illegal? Suddenly you're a criminal and we know where you are and we'll have your ass behind bars faster than you can say "first amendment."
As for criminals "deserving" punishment, that is only valid if the justice system works 100% correctly. But the assumption is utterly false. Look in the mirror and say "OJ did not kill his ex-wife" could you keep a straight face? I didn't think so. Then ask yourself why Illinois decided to give up on the death penalty until full review of all cases (hint: they were finding that a bunch of people were wrongly convicted). Finally, What happens when you have done your time and paid your debt? Does one criminal act mean that you are a criminal by nature? Remember, speeding is against the law. So is underage drinking.
I certainly don't want to live in your total state where forgiveness and reconciliation are banned. It takes a lot more guts to work with people who have hurt you, ask Desmond Tutu about the Truth and Reconciliation Comittee in South Africa.
And yours is in thinking that deploring "moral impairment" is a value unique to Christians.
Discussion of moral imperatives/values is by no means unique to Christians. Aristotle, Plato, and Epictetus discussed morality, Kong Fuzi and Lao Tze spoke of a "way" of life, Islam and Judaism have some things to say about morality as well (I end here only because I haven't studied others).
so, Chistians can discuss morality, but not everyone discussing morality is Christian (nor are they speaking from a Christian worldview). QED
"sir, we're a monopoly, we get to set the price"
Not to mention that education is the last Mac stronghold. I just wonder what'll happen in five years when the 'free stuff' runs out. Will MS continue to provide low cost solutions? Didn't think so.
Drug dealers always like to give out free samples
Negative Short Term Effects:
Actually, the original poster was going the "auslander raus" route we in the west all know and love. It sounds like he wants all non-anglos out of the country and that sounds a whole lot like the 'get rid of the wetbacks' stuff we get on the border.
Now that you mention it though, democracy is mostly a non-issue. The arab nations failed themselves and the west certainly helped them in that. At the same time, the people failed their nations as well.
And let's not forget the riots in Nigeria in support of Bin Laden. Sayid Qutb et al. have linked up a very big network of fellow feeling which is not something that we can dismiss with the idea that 'our bombs are bigger than yours.' He hates us and we hate him but careful with the 'open the doors on a total state in order to enforce our prejudices.'
BTW: FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE are killed each year by automobiles in the United States, so waving numbers isn't going to make NY/DC/PA any more or less disruptive. If there had been no one in the buildings it would still have been a horrid deed.
Sure, and I did the same thing when I got my first set in '75. At the same time, I got ticked off at lego when their sets started getting too focused on "part does this and just this." Heck, I had the old set where you built the boat hull out of parts, now they are prebuilt.
It's not so much that creativity will die, as that by being directed with specialized parts, the end results are more limited. This is my biggest argument with most software. Most users need a small set of generalizable tools rather than a bunch of "one shot" tools. My work in tech support would have been so much more straightforward if less effort was wasted on chrome 'features' and instead focused on basic tools. If you have mastered your toolset, you can find a way to describe new items. Otherwise you need to use the supplied 'solution' and hope it works just right.
And can someone tell me why HTML is not the default file storage format of wordprocessing docs? HTML can handle images, text, and layout and, being text, is readable on any platform I have used.
I'm not sure his point was that folks need to know everything about you in order for you to be responsible, just that they have to be able to connect you to something.
Frinstance, in my profession, I wear a uniform. My uniform is very clearly recognizable and widely understood. When I wear that uniform, I don't go to all the places I might "out of uniform" even if I'm "off duty." The rememberance that I can be recognized and 'placed' means that I pay attention to what I am doing and how my actions may reflect on others in my profession.
So yes, I think having folks know you (on some level) does actually induce a certain level of responsibility, and sometimes that can be a good thing. Howsomever, I don't think that walking around with a big neon sign that says "Hi, my name is $name and I live at $location" would make the world safer. In fact, it would make the world less safe (think of the stalker value). So yes, he's a freak and yes, he's right.
And for my next trick I will explain how George W. Shrub is actually a tool of the education industry.
While we're at it, why don't we confiscate all guns and lock up dissenters too? Nothing you have described is even fscking legal!
And why do you assume that it's just those 'middle-eastern' people who are a threat to our nation? Could english speaking anti-government wackos also be a threat? How about demagogues who stir up public anger to further their power mongering? Remember 99 Luftballons? "Riefen: Krieg und wollten Macht" Thank you for playing into their hands.
The Arabs still remember when they had a nation that streched from Java to Gibralter. They remember the way white english speaking people screwed them over in the crusades, 1920 and 1948. If we think it's wrong for "them" to hate "us" just because we resemble the people who fscked them over, why are you trying to do the same thing?
Racial profiling is racial profiling no matter how you describe it. It was wrong when NJ cops did it, it was wrong when the NSDAP did it, it is still wrong and will remain WRONG!
Actually, most folks could figure it out if they knew that the damn system could do that. the whole complaint about making it a hassle to change to something else is that it is this same concer which keeps MS users, using the stuff. If they don't know the feature's there, how will they use it?
As for the 'if they can't figure it out, they chouldn't have a machine' thing, solly cholly if customer has money, they will buy whatever the salesperson suggests. The salesperson will suggest windows and the customer will use the machine as is with all the MS stuff built in by default. They won't change because 1. they don't know that they can 2. MS makes it seem really bad if you want to change "are you sure you want to... yes {no}" It certainly insults my sense of fitness and elegance in life, but that is my own complaint.
10,000 soldiers? Boy are you optimistic. Adjust upwards by a power of ten at least. Now ask yourself if that isn't a steep price for futility. You see, terrorism isn't a person, it's an idea. You can't kill ideas with bombs, guns or secret state police. Ask the members of every revolution ever waged.
The position that we go in John Wayne style and then the folks leave us alone is simplistic. Terrorism has been a way of war since the 1300's when the Old Man of the Mountain ruled a good portion of the Islamic world without a standing army. No one messed with him because he was too far away and could have them killed at any moment.
The only ways to stop planes from flying into buildings are as follows:
1. ban planes
2. ban buildings
3. ban people
4. deal with the mind numbingly complex world that exists out there. Start from where the other guy looks at things and see if you can agree on something and try to fix what's broken. This one takes your entire life, is mostly no fun, and might actually work.
Mind you, this is not one of those "It's all America's fault" or "this is a judgement on US" posts. The world is not that simple and trying to beat it with a stick won't work. Or, as H.L. Menken put it "to every problem there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong."
And I'd agree with you if I had been making that point. Actually I was attemping to point out that "we have stepped in $excrement of our own making." Every nation in the world plays power politics, the US is just bigger financially/militarily than most other nations, so they do it a bit better than others now. This is the Way of Big Nations (see also Pax Britiania). This is also why the US is the Big Target at the moment.
We have to realize that this nation has been bombed and burned out and shot for over twenty years. We cannot defeat Afghanistan because as their anthem says "as long as there is an Afghan people, there will be Afghanistan." Picture people who are used to living off the land, fiercly tribal and territorial, and armed with modern weapons. Think about what would have happened in the Indian Wars if the Indians had been more numerous, in even better terrain, and armed with Spencers. We would never have taken the west. Now look at Afghanistan. Are you feeling Queasy yet?
And you're not going to be thinking about giving criminals more rights anymore when they're about to crash the plane you're on.
WTF? we're talking about keeping the rights we have, not giving anyone any more rights. I understand that it hurts terribly to see this happen (again and again and again through the miracle of Instant Replay) but let's not allow the pain to confuse us. The FBI/CIA/NSA can't intercept and interpret all the data they have in hand now, why dump more on them? I see a huge reaction where we want the pain to stop. We want things to go back to normal, but it can't. We need to deal with the pain and the reality of life's awfulness. We need to feel the hurt, and then we need to do the best job we can.
May $deity have mercy on us all
First off, this is not going to be a "short, victorious war." Terrorism has been a weapon since the 1300's when the Old Man of the Mountain used his assasins (hashishim) to rule from Tabriz (Iran). It is the tool of the small against the large and relies on creativity more than brute force. If we give up privacy (amendment 10, US Constitution) to fight this war, we won't get it back becasue after these perpetrators are eliminated, we will have to be on guard against their replacements. This war will be like trying to kill fire ants. You can get the top of the nest, but only regular patrols and the willingness to kill at the first hint of ants will keep them out of your yard. So, if we give the government the right to spy on anything we do we will make ourselves less private while not neccessarily halting the terror. The real problem of signal interception (SigInt) isn't getting the data, it's interpreting the data. We lost a Sub in WWII because our code breakers were overwhelmed with messages to crack and they missed a "notice to mariners" indicating a minefield astride the patrol route they set up for the sub.
Brent Crude went up about $3.20 today to $30.65 (or so). We may not see it at the pump all at once, but someone's betting that demand is going to be high. In a side note, gold hit $290 an ounce. In all it looks like folks expect war and American leaders aren't doing much for the peace party ("This is war." -Sen. John McCain).
And sadly, it looks like the "Blame the Rag Heads" crowd are in full cry already. I do wish the States wouldn't be so keyed up to go off half cocked. If they attack, the Shelter Now detainees are dead. Maybe we find a better answer than bombs, please?
And I for one would like to thank you guys for producing the best stuff on the radio: to the best of our knowledge, marketplace, the world, prarie home companion. Now if the were just available in Arizona, life would be better here. It's too bad that when folks think of public radio, they immediately think NPR.
Well they serve Nimbus (local craft brewery) at my smaller ballpark. A ten minute bike from work and I'm on the left field line. MLB can get stuffed.
yes and no, my place has POTS (which is often unreliable) and my lines have been "conditioned" so DSL/ADSL is not an option. No cable company offers cable modem service in this area and my line of sight is blocked to the only local wireless service. Just in case you're wondering, I do live in an urban (over 700,000 ppl) area. The phone and cable companies see no reason to offer service in this area so my choice is break my lease and move for service or "trouble heaven with bootless cries."
So here I sit with a desire for high speed access, the money to pay for it and no company willing to offer service. In the Free Market economy, I should be able to negotiate service, but my individual need is small enough that the free market can ignore me. That's why government regulates utility monopolies, otherwise the 'unprofitable' get ignored. Our local Health Organisations have decided to stop offering service in rural areas because those areas don't bring in enough to cover their cost. If the free market is allowed to decide, sectors get ignored.