What, I wonder, would justify Bush's response, in your opinion?
I mean, if one of the sides to an armed conflict (USA) can not resume hostilities after the other side (Iraq) continues to violate the cease-fire agreement for twelve years, when can it?..
Are we justified sanctioning and otherwise punishing it, even if it lied?
This is more than an abstract question (like the famous "if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there...").
Saddam's Hussein downfall was (at least partially) brought about by his insinuating that he still has WMDs privately — to keep neighbors in fear, soldiers brave, and citizens proud, while claiming loudly, that he got rid of them all (which turned out to be true, after all)...
The fact no country's legal system is perfect doesn't mean we have to accept the US as the world's supreme court.
That is not the subject here. The subject is America's jurisdiction over ICANN. "Perfection" was not the subject either. Nor was the "legal system", really, but rather the laws governing freedom of expressions and such.
and I don't hear too many complaints about the UN regulation of the international phone system
Oh yeah? What do you know about telephony, exactly? How about:
To this day countries have different-sized country-codes, area codes, and phone-numbers.
The emergency phone-number(s) is/are different everywhere.
The collect-calling arrangments are pitiful.
There are several different "touch-tone" standards in the world (different tones produced by the same buttons) — including variations in the most dominant one.
There are also big differences in how BUSY and RINGBACK sound in different parts of the world (both, different tones and different intervals).
The 1-4 above problems affect mostly the phone-related software and the "wet-ware", which tries to use the telephone. You would've mentioned them, if you weren't trying to white-wash the "international phone system" for the sake of argument. The 5-6 are even heavier charges, although unnoticable to the end-user.
They all make telephony a lot more complicated (and thus expensive), than it needs to be.
[...] or their handling of international disease prevention.
Really? I guess, you have not heard of things like "mad cow", "bird flu", and "polio comeback", have you?
Frankly, I'm much more scared about censorship of non-US based websites due to political and/or judicial pressure from the US on ICANN and its US-based registrars*
Just as frankly, you are a fool, if you are afraid of US more than you are of UN...
Ever heard of United Nations? They even have courts you know.
I have heard of them... It is a place, where China and Russia each have powers equal to America's. It is not an organization, to which America (or, seriously, any other decent nation) should want the power to migrate from the USA.
Levees are bursting on Jupiter, and the increase in the number of hurricanes has been directly linked to the SUV-related climate changes brought to you by the evil corporationy Corporations.
For many, many years Muammar Gaddafi was seen as the ultimate bad guy, worse even than Saddam Hussain.
Although pressured for a years, Gaddafi only gave up on December 19, 2003 after seeing pictures of Saddam Hussein pulled out of his rathole by US troops on December 13, 2003. Correlation is not always the sign of causation, of course, but you just can not brush this one off as a mere "coincidence"...
If Iraq is a classic example of 'how not to do regime change' then Lybia is a classic example of 'how to do it right'.
False dichotomy... Enticing carrots require credibly threatening sticks to be effective... Bush's treatment of Saddam's regime (what Clinton should have done years earlier) put that credibility back into our threats.
Liberia's Charles Taylor is another example of how useful that credibility was, until undermined by setbacks in Iraq and anti-American backlash world-wide.
It may be a little more fashionable in a country without a Constitution to debate important issues politically, as Spamhaus is currently doing, rather than legally.
But even there ignoring the legal system will cost you dearly.
Courts and judges may be ignorant of the Internet, but you still have to call them "Your Hono(u)r", and using them — despite the ignorance — is still better than settling the matters via violence (either directly by the parties or by their champions), which is the only alternative currently known.
Can anyone say he has left office leaving the future with less problems than, about equal, or more?
He has not left office yet. In fact, there are two more years to go. Hold your breath.
But, still today, we have never been shown a clear connection to terrorism against the US and Iraq, nor any good motivations besides perhaps revenge in that Saddam was his father's enemy
Putting Saddam to prison, besides being a great thing on its own, persuaded Muammar Qaddafi to change his ways (even if he already thought about folding), and Charles Taylor to give up. If it weren't for the despickable sabotage of by foreign governments and domestic illiberals, Iranian and North Korean regimes could well have fallen by now too.
Those are good things internationally. Inside, cutting taxes and making public schools accountable are no small achievements too.
Umm, it's not a mentality. It's a reality. It does devalue the property.
It does devalue the property. The mentality I suggest we fight is that such devaluing is somehow construed as a valid justification for dictating, what one can and can not do with her house. My wearing torn jeans devalues the property as well. Are we going to mandate a dress code too, so as to keep the prices up? Shaving frequency? Oh, and be sure to buy only pretty cars, and don't you dare to marry an ugly person either.
That being said, I'd never buy a home in a HOA
The case being discussed did not involve a House-Owners Association. If it did, there would've been no judge... The neighbor sued the man for painting his house. It can happen to you even if you buy outside an HOA.
However, sheds an interesting light on the priority of your "government", doesn't it?
Oh, come on — "priority"? Any time a policeman writes a traffic citation, does it mean, his priorities are wrong, and he should concentrate on fighting terrorism instead?
I mean, you may be a genius nearing a breakthrough on eternal life and happiness. So, can I question your priorities, when you go to a toilet?
I'm sure, there is a fancy word in Ancient Greek (or Latin) for the logical fallacy you have just displayed, but I'm not that well schooled — you'll have to look it up yourself.
Those are some funny links you posted. "DHS Gestapo... poisons a cat"...
The story about the Rubik's vs. Magick Cube was particularly reeking with suppression of dissent:
After the agents left, Cox called the manufacturer of the Magic Cube, the Toysmith Group, which is based in Auburn, Wash. A representative told her that the Homeland Security agents had it wrong. The Rubik's Cube patent had expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on rival toy's trademark.
broadcast of a program conceived for aliens and broadcast towards a point 45 light years away
Granted, the directional signal will get noticably broader by the time it reaches the destination, but does not anyone else see the term as self-inconsistent?
We are giving these companies money, as if they were state-enteprises and we were a Socialist regime.
But we don't get to control them, because we are a Capitalist system.
Stick the to the good old Capitalism and let these companies eat each other out competing. And if it means, they all have to lay competing fiber to our houses, then so be it.
You gave AT&T a monopoly once, how did that work out?
oh, wait, I live in DC and therefore am not enough of a citizen to have voting representatives.
I, actually, rather like it, that the residents of the national capital can not vote on national issues. You have too much influence already. One only needs to recall, how governments were overthrown in most of the revolts in history (from the Ancient World to the current Mexico City scandal) to appreciate the Founding Fathers' desire to keep the capital small and underprivileged. Even the (failry recent) decision to allow you to pick your own mayor was, probably, a mistake...
If voting is so important to you, move out. But, I guess, it is not...
Never mind we have more people than Rhode Island, or Montana.
There are even more people in, say, Sao Paolo, Brazil. They don't get to vote in America's elections and neither should you. I don't mean to offend you — just being blunt. Unlike the above-mentioned Brazilians, you have the option of moving into any of the three neighboring States... Do so, then "Vote or Die".
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What, I wonder, would justify Bush's response, in your opinion?
I mean, if one of the sides to an armed conflict (USA) can not resume hostilities after the other side (Iraq) continues to violate the cease-fire agreement for twelve years, when can it?..
Are we justified sanctioning and otherwise punishing it, even if it lied?
This is more than an abstract question (like the famous "if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there...").
Saddam's Hussein downfall was (at least partially) brought about by his insinuating that he still has WMDs privately — to keep neighbors in fear, soldiers brave, and citizens proud, while claiming loudly, that he got rid of them all (which turned out to be true, after all)...
That is not the subject here. The subject is America's jurisdiction over ICANN. "Perfection" was not the subject either. Nor was the "legal system", really, but rather the laws governing freedom of expressions and such.
Your self-declared "spin doctoring" did not work.
Oh yeah? What do you know about telephony, exactly? How about:
The 1-4 above problems affect mostly the phone-related software and the "wet-ware", which tries to use the telephone. You would've mentioned them, if you weren't trying to white-wash the "international phone system" for the sake of argument. The 5-6 are even heavier charges, although unnoticable to the end-user. They all make telephony a lot more complicated (and thus expensive), than it needs to be.
Really? I guess, you have not heard of things like "mad cow", "bird flu", and "polio comeback", have you?
Just as frankly, you are a fool, if you are afraid of US more than you are of UN...
I have heard of them... It is a place, where China and Russia each have powers equal to America's. It is not an organization, to which America (or, seriously, any other decent nation) should want the power to migrate from the USA.
If an American one is "bad", can anyone name a better one?
A European country's? Where denying Holocaust and/or Turkey's genocide of Armenians is illegal? Chinese? Nigerian?
Levees are bursting on Jupiter, and the increase in the number of hurricanes has been directly linked to the SUV-related climate changes brought to you by the evil corporationy Corporations.
Although pressured for a years, Gaddafi only gave up on December 19, 2003 after seeing pictures of Saddam Hussein pulled out of his rathole by US troops on December 13, 2003. Correlation is not always the sign of causation, of course, but you just can not brush this one off as a mere "coincidence"...
False dichotomy... Enticing carrots require credibly threatening sticks to be effective... Bush's treatment of Saddam's regime (what Clinton should have done years earlier) put that credibility back into our threats.
Liberia's Charles Taylor is another example of how useful that credibility was, until undermined by setbacks in Iraq and anti-American backlash world-wide.
... change for the last 200 years?
I, actually, agree with your argument. But they failed to present it in court and thus automatically lost their case...
It may be a little more fashionable in a country without a Constitution to debate important issues politically, as Spamhaus is currently doing, rather than legally.
But even there ignoring the legal system will cost you dearly.
Courts and judges may be ignorant of the Internet, but you still have to call them "Your Hono(u)r", and using them — despite the ignorance — is still better than settling the matters via violence (either directly by the parties or by their champions), which is the only alternative currently known.
Where am I talking about Iraq being a step up or down? Where am I talking about the world being safer or not?
Can't you respond to the actual argument, or must you change the subject to something, for which you were already supplied with talking points?
The write-up and the actual article talk about EFF suing FBI. Yet the title says "Department of Defense". WTF?
There is no word "defense" in the entire FA, in fact...
He has not left office yet. In fact, there are two more years to go. Hold your breath.
How about this? A nice, independent read...
Putting Saddam to prison, besides being a great thing on its own, persuaded Muammar Qaddafi to change his ways (even if he already thought about folding), and Charles Taylor to give up. If it weren't for the despickable sabotage of by foreign governments and domestic illiberals, Iranian and North Korean regimes could well have fallen by now too.
Those are good things internationally. Inside, cutting taxes and making public schools accountable are no small achievements too.
It does devalue the property. The mentality I suggest we fight is that such devaluing is somehow construed as a valid justification for dictating, what one can and can not do with her house. My wearing torn jeans devalues the property as well. Are we going to mandate a dress code too, so as to keep the prices up? Shaving frequency? Oh, and be sure to buy only pretty cars, and don't you dare to marry an ugly person either.
The case being discussed did not involve a House-Owners Association. If it did, there would've been no judge... The neighbor sued the man for painting his house. It can happen to you even if you buy outside an HOA.
And I say: "Deal with it". If it is my house, I can paint it anything I like and you stay away, or I'll shoot.
The sort of mentality you describe waters down the sacred private property rights, and should be fought tooth-and-nail, in my opinion.
The language barrier may be easier to overcome (although some places in US have rather thick accents), but everything else?..
Oh, come on — "priority"? Any time a policeman writes a traffic citation, does it mean, his priorities are wrong, and he should concentrate on fighting terrorism instead?
I mean, you may be a genius nearing a breakthrough on eternal life and happiness. So, can I question your priorities, when you go to a toilet?
I'm sure, there is a fancy word in Ancient Greek (or Latin) for the logical fallacy you have just displayed, but I'm not that well schooled — you'll have to look it up yourself.
Those are some funny links you posted. "DHS Gestapo ... poisons a cat"...
The story about the Rubik's vs. Magick Cube was particularly reeking with suppression of dissent:
I mean, was not that awful?
Granted, the directional signal will get noticably broader by the time it reaches the destination, but does not anyone else see the term as self-inconsistent?
It will be "January 2007" in about 15 weeks. Three years is 156 weeks. "Within 10%" is pretty "near", as far as I care...
We are giving these companies money, as if they were state-enteprises and we were a Socialist regime.
But we don't get to control them, because we are a Capitalist system.
Stick the to the good old Capitalism and let these companies eat each other out competing. And if it means, they all have to lay competing fiber to our houses, then so be it.
You gave AT&T a monopoly once, how did that work out?
I, actually, rather like it, that the residents of the national capital can not vote on national issues. You have too much influence already. One only needs to recall, how governments were overthrown in most of the revolts in history (from the Ancient World to the current Mexico City scandal) to appreciate the Founding Fathers' desire to keep the capital small and underprivileged. Even the (failry recent) decision to allow you to pick your own mayor was, probably, a mistake...
If voting is so important to you, move out. But, I guess, it is not...
There are even more people in, say, Sao Paolo, Brazil. They don't get to vote in America's elections and neither should you. I don't mean to offend you — just being blunt. Unlike the above-mentioned Brazilians, you have the option of moving into any of the three neighboring States... Do so, then "Vote or Die".
What's the relevance of Israeli Defense Forces?