I rounded down because the last 1000 people added were the foreigners killed. The number I used, 5500, was the number of Americans killed. Since I was comparing the number of Americans killed to the number of Palestinians killed that seemed like the right number to use.
I could also have used the numbers for New York City, and I could have used the numbers from the West Bank in Palestine, or Israelis in Tel Aviv. In both cases the deaths have been mostly isolated in one area.
When the Taliban requested proof that bin Laden was behind the attacks, the US refused to provide it. The US doesn't need to convince the world to support them. They can simply do whatever they want, and use economic and military force to keep the rest of the world in line.
I agree that the number killed in New York is worse than other isolated killings elsewhere in the world. But compared to atrocities in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia and lots of other places, it's nothing.
So "innocent until proven guilty" is only for Americans? The rest of the world is guilty if the President and CNN say so?
"Decreasing motive is a good goal, but then some people will accuse us of bribing the world" Only if we do things that could be construed as bribing the world. If the US stops trying to reshape the world the way they want -- regardless of what the people affected want -- nobody will accuse the world of bribery.
"Some people have such dispair in their hearts that happiness hurts. It is harder to be nice than to be evil." It's a lot easier to just assume your enemies are evil, then to actually try to understand them. But that is a good way to make new enemies and to understimate the ones you have.
Israel and Palestine are a footnote now, nobody cares what happens there, it seems like a schoolyard fight compared to everything else that has happened.
Again, this is exactly the attitude that the world hates. Here are some statistics for you:
Over the last year, the ratio of of people killed in Palestine due to Israeli actions is 10x the ratio of Americans killed due to terrorist actions.
Palestinian deaths and injuries from Israeli actions Population: 2,890,630 Number:....... % of population 141 dead...... 0.005% from 09/29 to 10/31 2000 671 dead...... 0.023% 15,806 injured . 0.547%
US deaths from terrorist actions Population: 278,058,881 Number:....... % of population 5,500 dead .... 0.002%
When did anybody declare ware on the United States? I've heard Dubya say that, but I haven't even heard anybody claim responsibility for the attack. It's pretty hard to declare war without even admitting to doing something.
What proof do you have that the Taliban has supported or protected bin Laden? Last I heard they were asking him to leave. He (a Saudi btw) lives in Afghanistan at least some of the time, but what proof do you have that he is even welcome there? What makes you think the Taliban could get him to leave if they wanted to?
Which is the easier statement to back up with proof? That the Taliban is protecting the terrorists or that innocent people will die in a "war on terrorism"?
If you want to talk about Hitler, then let's talk about him. Should the US have attacked the French government in World War 2 because they were harboring Hitler?
Maybe instead of blindly attacking anybody who isn't "With America", we should look at what caused this attack. Why is it that so many places hate the US? Should we really be supporting Israel with money and weapons? Should we really be defending Saudi Arabia, or should a rich country like that have their own army? Isn't it time we either arrested or killed Saddam Hussien, or left Iraq alone?
Everybody is welcome to their own opinion, but they shouldn't just get their opinions off CNN without even thinking about what's being said.
The poster never said that the events at the World Trade Center weren't important, or that 6000 deaths weren't important. They are, but he's right that people need some perspective. Every year in the US approx 2.4 million people die. That's approx 6500 a day. Since 9/11, about 80,000 people have died across the US. Every year, 20,000 people die of AIDS in the US. In New York, approx 2500 people have died since the attack in completely unrelated ways. Since you mention murder, almost 20,000 people have been murdered in the US since 9/11.
A lot of people died, and it is sad. A lot of property was destroyed, and that's sad too. A well known landmark of NYC was levelled and that's sad. But more than sad, most of these things are scary to people who didn't see it coming. But the world is fundamentally the same as it was 2 weeks ago before everything happened. Air travel is far less convenient, Manhattan is drastically changed, but the US has barely changed at all.
I think the map CNN made to show the damage to NYC is neat. It does a good job of showing the scale of the damage. The fact I think the map is neat doesn't mean I don't think the damage is horrible, but I am able to differentiate between the map and the damage itself. I also think SmartMoney's map of the market is neat (http://www.smartmoney.com/marketmap/index.cfm?sho wWeekStats=true). It shows graphically what the market has been doing in the last week. This doesn't mean I think it's neat that the market lost 15% in 1 week, or that the weapons contractors are up; Lockheed Martin is up 10%, General Dynamics is up 10% and Northrop Grumman is up 20%.
I know it's a troll, I'll to make it clear to anybody who might be fooled. Open source software can be used to do anything you want. You can use your Emacs editor on your Linux box to write a MS driver or even to write Word itself if you're so inclined. It's only when you're using GPLed *code* that you have to release modifications and addons to that code under the GPL.
Many of the political cartoons compare the events of 9/11 with Pearl Harbor and quote part of the famous "A date which will live in infamy" speech. This makes me wonder, have there been any speeches we will all remember this time?
Banning encryption isn't like banning guns. If you accidentally use crypto nobody gets hurt. Crypto is a shield against someone looking at your private data. As a shield it is more like a bullet-proof vest. What the law-enforcement people are asking for is more like "nobody can buy a bullet-proof vest that can stop a bullet fired by a cop".
The problem with this is that you can't tell if someone's bullet-proof vest can stop a cop's bullet until the cop shoots. I.E. you can't tell if an encrypted message is decryptable until you try to decrypt it.
Properly encrypted text should be completely random, indistinguishable from random noise. It might have helpful headers on it saying "--- Begin US Government Cryptosystem Signed Message ---" but the body of the cyphertext will be gibberish. The only way you can tell if illegal encryption is being used is to decrypt the message and see if what you get is plaintext.
If the header is true and the message was truly encrypted by an approved cryptosystem that means nothing. The text that was encrypted by the Government Approved Cypher could start with "--- Begin Evil Criminal Unbreakable Cryptosystem ---". It could also simply be "The RED DOG barks at MIDNIGHT. 4 HERONS are BATHING". It could also contain a porn image, but that porn image could contain a hidden stego message.
To go back to the bullet-proof vest analogy. The government wants everyone to wear a vest that can't stop a cop's bullet. They might be identified by a red stripe running across the middle of the vest. Some criminals might get an illegal vest and paint a stripe across the middle. Other criminals might get an illegal vest and wear it underneath the government approved vest. Some of these fakes might be so convincing that they'd fool every cop.
Maybe a better question to ask people would be "Should the government shoot everybody to find out who is wearing the illegal cop-bullet-stopping bulletproof vest?"
Ah, but cooler heads are prevailing. I'm sure that many of the lobbyists and lawmakers pushing legislation through are as coolheaded as they are coldhearted. They know just what buttons to push to drum up popular support.
Remember these proposals were originally made well before any terrorist attacks. They weren't being hotheaded then, but they couldn't find a way to drum up popular support for privacy invasion. But now if lawmakers said they needed cameras in everybody's underwear drawers "for national security" you'd probably find strong support for that too.
I assume that Jon Katz is allowed to post his views on the main page of Slashdot because he's a journalist, not just another geek. But part of being a journalist is checking your facts. This is something Jon obviously did not do. This makes him just another geek posting a biased uninformed rant that belongs in comments, not on the main page.
We've all heard US lawmakers and law-enforcers on TV the last few days saying the same thing as Jon in almost the same words: "Existing wiretap laws require warrants for each telephone, even though criminals and terrorists might use dozens of phones or a variety of communications systems." This simply isn't the case.
Emergency Wiretap
Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 119, Section 2518, Subsection 7:
[A]ny investigative or law enforcement officer [...] who reasonably determines that -
(a) an emergency situation exists that involves -
[...]
(ii) conspiratorial activities threatening the national security interest,
[...]
that requires a wire, oral, or electronic communication to be
intercepted before an order authorizing such interception [...]
may intercept such wire, oral, or electronic communication if an
application for an order approving the interception is made in
accordance with this section within forty-eight hours after the
interception has occurred, or begins to occur.
Roving Wiretap
Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 119, Section 2518, Subsection 11:
The requirements [...] of this section relating to the specification of the facilities from which, or the place where, the communication is to be intercepted do not apply if [...]
(ii) the application identifies the person believed to be committing the offense and whose communications are to be intercepted and the applicant makes a showing that there is probable cause to believe that the person's actions could have the effect of thwarting interception from a specified facility.
If terrorists are proven to be using encrypted files, aren't government agents entitled -- even obligated, on behalf of the thousands of innocent victims and many more future victims -- to get warrants to intercept them?
That's what many of us are arguing, that they are obligated to get warrants. I don't want my local cop shop being able to decide to tap the phones at the local mosque, just because it's a known muslim hang-out.
We might want to ponder what rights we owe the living and owed the dead -- the right to live, to be and have parents, to work or fly without being torn to bits or crushed in a collapsing inferno.
My right to free speech allows me to post this message without law-enforcement officers arresting me. If lawmakers could make a law that would prevent me from "being torn to bits or crushed in a collapsing inferno" I would be all for it. Unfortunately they can't. There's no question that the rights of the people killed in the disaster were violated. The question is, do we need new laws, or do we need better enforcement of existing laws? Before I give up my right to privacy, free speech, and free mobility I want to be convinced that giving up those rights will actually help guarantee the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for everybody else.
Until tuesday, carrying box cutters and having pilot training meant nothing. Whoever searched them would have said: "Well, they don't have guns, so they must be ok", and thought nothing of the flight training manuals.
And how, on checkin to an airport, would you connect these people to other people on the plane? Because they're "Ay-Rabs" too?
How many other people on the plane were on watch lists of some kind? The FBI only mentions the ones they thought were connected to the terrorist attack, but they might have been watching Joe Blow for possible drug connections, or John Doe for possible paedophiliac tendancies...
You know, the whole problem is this "innocent until proven guilty" thing. Foreigners, especially suspected "Ay-Rabs" should be assumed guilty until proven innocent. If your neighbor tells the police you're an "Ay-Rab" or a communist, the police should be able to come bursting into your house with guns blazing, to protect innocent Americans.
Ok, now try rpm -e kernel-2.2.14-5.0. I understand that an operating system like RedHat (yes, that's what I call my OS) requires both the Linux kernel and GNU tools/libraries. My point is that saying saying "GNU is an operating system" is pretty misleading.
And if you call it GNU? You forget that the kernel exists? As far as I know, HURD isn't ready for prime-time. The kernel is a pretty durn important part of an OS. Some might say it's the most important part.
I call it "RedHat". RedHat is an operating system that uses the Linux kernel, GNU utilities and libraries, XFree86 as a windowing system, Gnome / KDE as a window manager.
GNU is a Free Software Unix-like operating system. GNU/Linux is the integrated combination of the GNU operating system with the kernel, Linux.
I thought that GNU was a project, a recursive acronym, and a bunch of utilities (GNU Software), used in operating systems like Debian, RedHat, Slackware...
The software on one of my RedHat 7.1 machines includes a large number of GNU tools, as well as the Linux kernel, as well as Apache, Gnome, KDE... But according to the FSF, the operating system is "GNU"?
It seems that not only is the GPL viral, but the GNU term itself keeps growing in what it is supposed to mean...
For the moment I'll ignore the fact this post brings up Nazis and Hitler and Godwin's law says this thread should stop.
I think what most people might find disturbing about this point of view is "we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land". What makes an Israeli Jew think that it is his land? Israel was created by the UN (not by Jews themselves) from a land that was already occupied. Is it any surprise that the people who were there were a little upset, and continue to be upset?
Why is it "your land"? The justification you give is "[it is] the same homeland from which we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world". 1900 years is a long time. Can you honestly trace your family line back 1900 years and say they really lived in what is now Israel? Can all Jews living in Israel? By your own admission the romans were the ones who drove you out... should modern day Italians have a claim on the land? Or is it the religion that matters, and all Roman Catholics should consider it their homeland?
I think the entire situation in the Middle East is a horrible mess. Now that Israel has been there for 50 years it is a true home for many people. But the creation of that home, and its defence is too recent to be forgotten by the people who thought of it as theirs before that.
As an average Canadian, on the news I see suicide bombers blowing themselves and as many bystanders as possible up in the streets of Israel. And then I see fighter planes, helicopter gunships, tanks, and other modern military weapons used against questionable semi-military targets in Palestine.
Neither of these actions is justifiable behavior to me. But the actions of Israel look worse, why? Because they can clearly be attributed to the Israeli government, and they're arms-length attacks by a vastly superior fighting force against what appears to be stone-throwing teenagers.
While it's easy to see the Jews as persecuted through their history, it's hard to see the modern state of Israel as being an underdog.
2) (one side of mouth) America has stood idly by while terrorism has gripped the rest of the world.
(other side of mouth) United States has been accused of acting like the global police department. Come on, say what you mean. Contradictory statements don't help your point.
Ask poor people with dark skin in L.A. if they see a contradiction here. The police in L.A. are quick to react to anything involving Hollywood or people with money, but not quite so fair when it comes to everybody else.
The US has been quick to act like a cop overseas, when something hurts their economic interests. Otherwise they happily ignore it.
Do you know how hard it is to buy a bazooka? I had to get one shipped in an unmarked box from Russia! I mean, I wanted to buy Amurikan, but I couldn't! The damn government doesn't want me to protect my house, or go hunting!
I mean, it's not like it's really dangerous or anything. I flipped through the instructions, it didn't look too hard, just push the red button! It's not like I might accidentally hurt myself or someone else! I keep the bazooka out of the way in the corner of my living room. And I make sure Junior knows "my bazooka is really cool, but it's only for home defence and hunting, don't touch it!" He's a good kid, I know he'll follow my instructions.
What's the government worried about anyhow? It's not like I don't have a good reason for wanting the bazooka! I need to defend my house! What if a criminal tried to do a drive-by shooting with an armored car? If all I had was my M16, M60 and pair of Desert Eagles I wouldn't be able to dent that thing, but with my bazooka, my home would be safe! And what about going hunting? Why should I be forced to spend long minutes hosing down the bushes with my machine gun when I can take one shot with my bazooka and nail that deer! It makes it much easier to take the head home as a trophy too -- I mean, I don't even have to worry about cutting up the body!
I sometimes worry about Lenny though. He's really whacked in the head, and I always see him eyeing that clock tower and muttering to himself. But if he stole my bazooka and went up there, I'm sure I could get him before he kilt too many people. On second thought, maybe I should tell Hank to get a bazooka too. That way, if Lenny steals mine then Hank can take him out.
The government wouldn't be dumb enough to use F-16s and nukes against its own population. Instead, they'll use the media. If everybody thinks you're a wacko, holed up on the mountainside, trying to resist the nice FBI troops who are just doing their job, ma'am...
A popular uprising depends on popular support. The media, forms public opinion. If CNN calls you "a wacko resisting arrest" then it's going to be you, all alone with your gun(s) resisting a few dozen FBI troops, snipers, and negotiators.
If people could be trusted to be responsible with their guns, arming the populace would be a good idea. But guns are too easy. People get mad and grab them without considering what they're doing. People forget to lock them up and kids take them. People untrained or unwilling to shoot properly simply give criminals another weapon to use. And having legal guns sure makes it easy for criminals to get them.
I agree that being able to create MS-Word documents is essential, but I don't think it needs to be part of the same program. It just needs to be cleanly integrated into the same GUI. When you say "save as Word document", it could pipe the output of the program as XML to a XML-to-Word converter. This program could come as a default program, then be changed by preferences. This would allow the program to keep up with changing Word formats, etc.
My point is that a word processor should not be a format converter. It should be a WYSIWYG editor and nothing more. Format conversion, spell checking, printing, etc. should all be handled by seperate changeable components.
Did you check to see if these apps are using a "smart load" type setting? I know that both Word and IE have many components loaded well before you open the app. I also know that at least Word tends to load a GUI before it's truly done. If you choose menu items right away there's a huge lag before anything happens.
Anyhow, 3 seconds is a long time for certain things. If I want to open a text file that happens to have a.doc extension, 3 seconds is an eternity. It shouldn't require that unless the document being opened is complex.
In nearly all sci-fi, people in space wear skin-tight suits. Since space is a vacuum, I can understand why a suit would tend to billow out, but does anybody know if it is possible to make a non-bulky skinsuit? Maybe something like the G suits pilots wear? Maybe something related to scuba diving (though I know the pressure difference there is the opposite)? I dunno, but if I'm not going to get my hovercar anytime soon, I at least want my spacesuit.
Slashdot Mirror
I rounded down because the last 1000 people added were the foreigners killed. The number I used, 5500, was the number of Americans killed. Since I was comparing the number of Americans killed to the number of Palestinians killed that seemed like the right number to use.
I could also have used the numbers for New York City, and I could have used the numbers from the West Bank in Palestine, or Israelis in Tel Aviv. In both cases the deaths have been mostly isolated in one area.
When the Taliban requested proof that bin Laden was behind the attacks, the US refused to provide it. The US doesn't need to convince the world to support them. They can simply do whatever they want, and use economic and military force to keep the rest of the world in line.
I agree that the number killed in New York is worse than other isolated killings elsewhere in the world. But compared to atrocities in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia and lots of other places, it's nothing.
"ABSCENCE OF PROOF IS NOT DISPROOF"
So "innocent until proven guilty" is only for Americans? The rest of the world is guilty if the President and CNN say so?
"Decreasing motive is a good goal, but then some people will accuse us of bribing the world" Only if we do things that could be construed as bribing the world. If the US stops trying to reshape the world the way they want -- regardless of what the people affected want -- nobody will accuse the world of bribery.
"Some people have such dispair in their hearts that happiness hurts. It is harder to be nice than to be evil." It's a lot easier to just assume your enemies are evil, then to actually try to understand them. But that is a good way to make new enemies and to understimate the ones you have.
Again, this is exactly the attitude that the world hates. Here are some statistics for you:
Over the last year, the ratio of of people killed in Palestine due to Israeli actions is 10x the ratio of Americans killed due to terrorist actions.
Palestinian deaths and injuries from Israeli actionsPopulation: 2,890,630
Number:
141 dead
671 dead
15,806 injured . 0.547%
US deaths from terrorist actions
Population: 278,058,881
Number:
5,500 dead .
Sources: http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/980227/1 998022735.html
http://www.palestinercs.org/Crisis%20Tables/table_ of_figures.htm
When did anybody declare ware on the United States? I've heard Dubya say that, but I haven't even heard anybody claim responsibility for the attack. It's pretty hard to declare war without even admitting to doing something.
What proof do you have that the Taliban has supported or protected bin Laden? Last I heard they were asking him to leave. He (a Saudi btw) lives in Afghanistan at least some of the time, but what proof do you have that he is even welcome there? What makes you think the Taliban could get him to leave if they wanted to?
Which is the easier statement to back up with proof? That the Taliban is protecting the terrorists or that innocent people will die in a "war on terrorism"?
If you want to talk about Hitler, then let's talk about him. Should the US have attacked the French government in World War 2 because they were harboring Hitler?
Maybe instead of blindly attacking anybody who isn't "With America", we should look at what caused this attack. Why is it that so many places hate the US? Should we really be supporting Israel with money and weapons? Should we really be defending Saudi Arabia, or should a rich country like that have their own army? Isn't it time we either arrested or killed Saddam Hussien, or left Iraq alone?
Everybody is welcome to their own opinion, but they shouldn't just get their opinions off CNN without even thinking about what's being said.
The poster never said that the events at the World Trade Center weren't important, or that 6000 deaths weren't important. They are, but he's right that people need some perspective. Every year in the US approx 2.4 million people die. That's approx 6500 a day. Since 9/11, about 80,000 people have died across the US. Every year, 20,000 people die of AIDS in the US. In New York, approx 2500 people have died since the attack in completely unrelated ways. Since you mention murder, almost 20,000 people have been murdered in the US since 9/11.
A lot of people died, and it is sad. A lot of property was destroyed, and that's sad too. A well known landmark of NYC was levelled and that's sad. But more than sad, most of these things are scary to people who didn't see it coming. But the world is fundamentally the same as it was 2 weeks ago before everything happened. Air travel is far less convenient, Manhattan is drastically changed, but the US has barely changed at all.
I think the map CNN made to show the damage to NYC is neat. It does a good job of showing the scale of the damage. The fact I think the map is neat doesn't mean I don't think the damage is horrible, but I am able to differentiate between the map and the damage itself. I also think SmartMoney's map of the market is neat (http://www.smartmoney.com/marketmap/index.cfm?sho wWeekStats=true). It shows graphically what the market has been doing in the last week. This doesn't mean I think it's neat that the market lost 15% in 1 week, or that the weapons contractors are up; Lockheed Martin is up 10%, General Dynamics is up 10% and Northrop Grumman is up 20%.
Don't confuse the messenger with the message.
Sources: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/, http://www.citypopulation.de/ http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/keytabs.htm
I know it's a troll, I'll to make it clear to anybody who might be fooled. Open source software can be used to do anything you want. You can use your Emacs editor on your Linux box to write a MS driver or even to write Word itself if you're so inclined. It's only when you're using GPLed *code* that you have to release modifications and addons to that code under the GPL.
Many of the political cartoons compare the events of 9/11 with Pearl Harbor and quote part of the famous "A date which will live in infamy" speech. This makes me wonder, have there been any speeches we will all remember this time?
Banning encryption isn't like banning guns. If you accidentally use crypto nobody gets hurt. Crypto is a shield against someone looking at your private data. As a shield it is more like a bullet-proof vest. What the law-enforcement people are asking for is more like "nobody can buy a bullet-proof vest that can stop a bullet fired by a cop".
The problem with this is that you can't tell if someone's bullet-proof vest can stop a cop's bullet until the cop shoots. I.E. you can't tell if an encrypted message is decryptable until you try to decrypt it.
Properly encrypted text should be completely random, indistinguishable from random noise. It might have helpful headers on it saying "--- Begin US Government Cryptosystem Signed Message ---" but the body of the cyphertext will be gibberish. The only way you can tell if illegal encryption is being used is to decrypt the message and see if what you get is plaintext.
If the header is true and the message was truly encrypted by an approved cryptosystem that means nothing. The text that was encrypted by the Government Approved Cypher could start with "--- Begin Evil Criminal Unbreakable Cryptosystem ---". It could also simply be "The RED DOG barks at MIDNIGHT. 4 HERONS are BATHING". It could also contain a porn image, but that porn image could contain a hidden stego message.
To go back to the bullet-proof vest analogy. The government wants everyone to wear a vest that can't stop a cop's bullet. They might be identified by a red stripe running across the middle of the vest. Some criminals might get an illegal vest and paint a stripe across the middle. Other criminals might get an illegal vest and wear it underneath the government approved vest. Some of these fakes might be so convincing that they'd fool every cop.
Maybe a better question to ask people would be "Should the government shoot everybody to find out who is wearing the illegal cop-bullet-stopping bulletproof vest?"
Except if you accidentally encrypt something nobody dies.
It's not about what you *did* say, it's about what you *can* say and what you *can't* say.
Z P7 U2U+yhlZ1Me4o0
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: PGP 6.5.2
pDQ4D/QMJFD/xj8JREYsHIfxry70Qna4w4bke58scDJCUPx
wOVI3A9E
=nFRx
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
Would that be breaking the law?
Ah, but cooler heads are prevailing. I'm sure that many of the lobbyists and lawmakers pushing legislation through are as coolheaded as they are coldhearted. They know just what buttons to push to drum up popular support.
Remember these proposals were originally made well before any terrorist attacks. They weren't being hotheaded then, but they couldn't find a way to drum up popular support for privacy invasion. But now if lawmakers said they needed cameras in everybody's underwear drawers "for national security" you'd probably find strong support for that too.
I assume that Jon Katz is allowed to post his views on the main page of Slashdot because he's a journalist, not just another geek. But part of being a journalist is checking your facts. This is something Jon obviously did not do. This makes him just another geek posting a biased uninformed rant that belongs in comments, not on the main page.
We've all heard US lawmakers and law-enforcers on TV the last few days saying the same thing as Jon in almost the same words: "Existing wiretap laws require warrants for each telephone, even though criminals and terrorists might use dozens of phones or a variety of communications systems." This simply isn't the case.
Emergency Wiretap
Roving Wiretap
Read the full version http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/2518.html
Jon says:
That's what many of us are arguing, that they are obligated to get warrants. I don't want my local cop shop being able to decide to tap the phones at the local mosque, just because it's a known muslim hang-out.
My right to free speech allows me to post this message without law-enforcement officers arresting me. If lawmakers could make a law that would prevent me from "being torn to bits or crushed in a collapsing inferno" I would be all for it. Unfortunately they can't. There's no question that the rights of the people killed in the disaster were violated. The question is, do we need new laws, or do we need better enforcement of existing laws? Before I give up my right to privacy, free speech, and free mobility I want to be convinced that giving up those rights will actually help guarantee the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for everybody else.
Uh, more like...
Congressman: I need more money for my pet programs so I get more bri... campaign contributions.
Others: Whatever.
Congressman: I need more money for my pet programs so I get more bri... campaign contributions.
Others: Whatever.
Congressman: I need more money for my pet programs so I get more bri... campaign contributions.
Others: Whatever.
[Insert terrorist attack]
Congressman: I need more money for my pet programs so I can protect the world against terrorism!
Others: Make me feel safer, kill non-americans!
Until tuesday, carrying box cutters and having pilot training meant nothing. Whoever searched them would have said: "Well, they don't have guns, so they must be ok", and thought nothing of the flight training manuals.
And how, on checkin to an airport, would you connect these people to other people on the plane? Because they're "Ay-Rabs" too?
How many other people on the plane were on watch lists of some kind? The FBI only mentions the ones they thought were connected to the terrorist attack, but they might have been watching Joe Blow for possible drug connections, or John Doe for possible paedophiliac tendancies...
You know, the whole problem is this "innocent until proven guilty" thing. Foreigners, especially suspected "Ay-Rabs" should be assumed guilty until proven innocent. If your neighbor tells the police you're an "Ay-Rab" or a communist, the police should be able to come bursting into your house with guns blazing, to protect innocent Americans.
Gee, the US has a lower crime rate than countries like it? Lower than say... Canada? That's news to this Canadian.
Ok, now try rpm -e kernel-2.2.14-5.0. I understand that an operating system like RedHat (yes, that's what I call my OS) requires both the Linux kernel and GNU tools/libraries. My point is that saying saying "GNU is an operating system" is pretty misleading.
And if you call it GNU? You forget that the kernel exists? As far as I know, HURD isn't ready for prime-time. The kernel is a pretty durn important part of an OS. Some might say it's the most important part.
I call it "RedHat". RedHat is an operating system that uses the Linux kernel, GNU utilities and libraries, XFree86 as a windowing system, Gnome / KDE as a window manager.
I thought that GNU was a project, a recursive acronym, and a bunch of utilities (GNU Software), used in operating systems like Debian, RedHat, Slackware...
The software on one of my RedHat 7.1 machines includes a large number of GNU tools, as well as the Linux kernel, as well as Apache, Gnome, KDE... But according to the FSF, the operating system is "GNU"?
It seems that not only is the GPL viral, but the GNU term itself keeps growing in what it is supposed to mean...
For the moment I'll ignore the fact this post brings up Nazis and Hitler and Godwin's law says this thread should stop.
I think what most people might find disturbing about this point of view is "we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land". What makes an Israeli Jew think that it is his land? Israel was created by the UN (not by Jews themselves) from a land that was already occupied. Is it any surprise that the people who were there were a little upset, and continue to be upset?
Why is it "your land"? The justification you give is "[it is] the same homeland from which we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world". 1900 years is a long time. Can you honestly trace your family line back 1900 years and say they really lived in what is now Israel? Can all Jews living in Israel? By your own admission the romans were the ones who drove you out... should modern day Italians have a claim on the land? Or is it the religion that matters, and all Roman Catholics should consider it their homeland?
I think the entire situation in the Middle East is a horrible mess. Now that Israel has been there for 50 years it is a true home for many people. But the creation of that home, and its defence is too recent to be forgotten by the people who thought of it as theirs before that.
As an average Canadian, on the news I see suicide bombers blowing themselves and as many bystanders as possible up in the streets of Israel. And then I see fighter planes, helicopter gunships, tanks, and other modern military weapons used against questionable semi-military targets in Palestine.
Neither of these actions is justifiable behavior to me. But the actions of Israel look worse, why? Because they can clearly be attributed to the Israeli government, and they're arms-length attacks by a vastly superior fighting force against what appears to be stone-throwing teenagers.
While it's easy to see the Jews as persecuted through their history, it's hard to see the modern state of Israel as being an underdog.
Ask poor people with dark skin in L.A. if they see a contradiction here. The police in L.A. are quick to react to anything involving Hollywood or people with money, but not quite so fair when it comes to everybody else.
The US has been quick to act like a cop overseas, when something hurts their economic interests. Otherwise they happily ignore it.
Do you know how hard it is to buy a bazooka? I had to get one shipped in an unmarked box from Russia! I mean, I wanted to buy Amurikan, but I couldn't! The damn government doesn't want me to protect my house, or go hunting!
I mean, it's not like it's really dangerous or anything. I flipped through the instructions, it didn't look too hard, just push the red button! It's not like I might accidentally hurt myself or someone else! I keep the bazooka out of the way in the corner of my living room. And I make sure Junior knows "my bazooka is really cool, but it's only for home defence and hunting, don't touch it!" He's a good kid, I know he'll follow my instructions.
What's the government worried about anyhow? It's not like I don't have a good reason for wanting the bazooka! I need to defend my house! What if a criminal tried to do a drive-by shooting with an armored car? If all I had was my M16, M60 and pair of Desert Eagles I wouldn't be able to dent that thing, but with my bazooka, my home would be safe! And what about going hunting? Why should I be forced to spend long minutes hosing down the bushes with my machine gun when I can take one shot with my bazooka and nail that deer! It makes it much easier to take the head home as a trophy too -- I mean, I don't even have to worry about cutting up the body!
I sometimes worry about Lenny though. He's really whacked in the head, and I always see him eyeing that clock tower and muttering to himself. But if he stole my bazooka and went up there, I'm sure I could get him before he kilt too many people. On second thought, maybe I should tell Hank to get a bazooka too. That way, if Lenny steals mine then Hank can take him out.
The government wouldn't be dumb enough to use F-16s and nukes against its own population. Instead, they'll use the media. If everybody thinks you're a wacko, holed up on the mountainside, trying to resist the nice FBI troops who are just doing their job, ma'am...
A popular uprising depends on popular support. The media, forms public opinion. If CNN calls you "a wacko resisting arrest" then it's going to be you, all alone with your gun(s) resisting a few dozen FBI troops, snipers, and negotiators.
If people could be trusted to be responsible with their guns, arming the populace would be a good idea. But guns are too easy. People get mad and grab them without considering what they're doing. People forget to lock them up and kids take them. People untrained or unwilling to shoot properly simply give criminals another weapon to use. And having legal guns sure makes it easy for criminals to get them.
It does, as long as you tell it to pre-load, like office does. But mozilla does it without using kernel-mode components.
I agree that being able to create MS-Word documents is essential, but I don't think it needs to be part of the same program. It just needs to be cleanly integrated into the same GUI. When you say "save as Word document", it could pipe the output of the program as XML to a XML-to-Word converter. This program could come as a default program, then be changed by preferences. This would allow the program to keep up with changing Word formats, etc.
My point is that a word processor should not be a format converter. It should be a WYSIWYG editor and nothing more. Format conversion, spell checking, printing, etc. should all be handled by seperate changeable components.
Did you check to see if these apps are using a "smart load" type setting? I know that both Word and IE have many components loaded well before you open the app. I also know that at least Word tends to load a GUI before it's truly done. If you choose menu items right away there's a huge lag before anything happens.
Anyhow, 3 seconds is a long time for certain things. If I want to open a text file that happens to have a .doc extension, 3 seconds is an eternity. It shouldn't require that unless the document being opened is complex.
In nearly all sci-fi, people in space wear skin-tight suits. Since space is a vacuum, I can understand why a suit would tend to billow out, but does anybody know if it is possible to make a non-bulky skinsuit? Maybe something like the G suits pilots wear? Maybe something related to scuba diving (though I know the pressure difference there is the opposite)? I dunno, but if I'm not going to get my hovercar anytime soon, I at least want my spacesuit.