In democratic countries, threats against the functionaries of democracy are seen as threats against democracy itself. This is because the functionaries should act according to their own convictions and the promises that they have made to their voters. If instead they are forced or swayed by threats, democracy is subverted.
Indeed you're right. The US has sabotaged its own good name and goodwill over and over again. And they just keep at it, over and over, again and again.
The most stunning example of this is how they gained sympathy all over the world after 9/11 and then somehow managed to squander it all in a few months, simply by showing an astonishingly bullying attitude rather than looking for co-operation regarding the Iraq war.
They had such amazing goodwill and sympathy, even in Islamic countries. Sadly, their propaganda machine refused to portray this goodwill, preferring to stir up conflict. But outside the US and its propaganda machine there was so much goodwill, it felt like some kind of world-wide friendship among nations was growing forth. So many past mistakes were being forgiven.
And yet somehow they managed to squander almost all of this in just a few months, by showing an amazingly bullying attitude and disdainfully neglecting all the persistent warnings about the chaos and surging terrorism that would unavoidably ensue if they went forth with their Iraq adventure.
*Sigh!* For a while it looked so promising!
I suppose their war industry didn't like that promising outlook.
Is there something undemocratic about protesting against government policy? This depends on which democracy you're protesting against. In the US democracy, protesting against the government's "anti-terrorism" activities is not exactly undemocratic, but it's unpatriotic. In most European democracies there are no such restrictions, questioning such policies can never get you labeled unpatriotic.
In the US, to be a true patriot you should "rally around the flag" in this "time of need" and "time of war". You're not supposed to question the President on these issues. The Great Leader should have a free rein to do as he pleases.
It's still far, far more free than, say, Cuba or China. Vastly more free. But it's trampling its own principles in stunning, alarming ways, reducing democratic rights and principles and rule of law and freedom, all of these essential things taking second stage in the holy war against terrorism, this war against a featureless monster that serves as an excuse for anything.
I have to wonder if Castro would have been overthrown a long time ago if the American government hadn't been jumping up and down with huge "Blame us for everything" sign on their foreheads. As the former husband of a Cuban woman, which means I have plenty of family ties and friendship ties with Cubans, I agree wholeheartedly with your analysis. The US embargo is propping up the Castro government. There's no way Castro could survive without the US persistently presenting itself as Blame Target and Enemy. He'd be gone long ago, and Cuba would be democratic since long ago.
Sadly, this is not the only example of the US acting against its own interests in disastrous ways.
RMS should be put on trial for treason... Treason, yes. How dare he question the government of his country! After all, the US is a democracy. In any democracy, questioning your government's actions is trea... Wait... Never mind.
Maybe we can finally that prove Yes, finally you can that prove you have brains!
us teens can actually think for themselves Indeed, why don't people realize that you can they do that?
How can anyone give a Funny mod to an In Soviet "joke"? Those "jokes" are so painfully predictable and uncreative that the only reasonable mod is Redundant.
You seem to argue that there is no downside whatsoever to giving terrorists free reign. No I don't. Not at all!
I argue that there is moderation and there is excess. The so-called counter-terrorist efforts of the US, seen together as a whole, are not just excessive, but way over-the-top excessive. In many important ways they are betrayals against the principles on which the US was founded, principles that the US needs to keep alive in order to stay cohesive.
This ID thing is in fact a minor thing in this whole sorry mess. But occasionally when opportunity arises I can't resist letting off some steam in a comment like the above, meant mainly to be thought-provoking. But I can understand that it can also be rather annoying, after all I am letting off steam...
Why not just require passports instead of driver's licenses? Passports? No way! Only police states require that their own citizens carry around passports. We can't have that. The US is no police state! That's why it has to be ID cards instead.
FTA:
[...] said Schweitzer, a Democrat. "This is still a free country and there are no freer people than the people that we have in Montana." Well, that's precisely the problem! That's exactly the problem that we're solving here.
No one hates your freedom like we do... Uh, oops, I mean, like the terrorists do. Everybody knows it's the terrorists who hate your freedom. And of course only the terrorists can take your freedom away... Uh, um, no, not exactly, they can't... In fact only we can take your freedom away... er... You shouldn't question these things... Now be a good patriot and lie down and let us step on you for your protection.
I think the standard placement on keyboards in all EU countries is AltGr+E (which seems to be synonymous with Ctrl+Alt+E). The keystroke you quoted gets me the dollar sign.
Well if you would stop using such loaded terms like evil then I wouldn't say anything. It's their term, it's their motto. How could I comment on their claim of doing no evil without commenting on their claim of doing no evil?
It doesn't affect you, It affects me a lot, me and everyone else who tries to find decent domain names for new websites. Have you tried that lately? Every reasonable word is taken, to be used for inane automatically generated crap that contains only ads and some links. Hundreds of thousands of domain names are squatted in this way, and people who create new sites must either make do with a crappy name or pay thousands of dollars to squatters.
I agree with you that there are far worse evils in the world. I do not agree with your implication that this fact makes domain squatting okay.
When a company has a motto like "Do no evil" I don't expect it to mean that they promise not to fly planes into buildings, cause genocide and so on. I expect it to mean something to do with their business and their business practices. I don't see how their motto can have any meaning if all it means is that they won't repeat the worst evils of the world.
Maybe lying isn't evil in their book. Google has yet to define what they consider evil and what they consider good. For instance, encouraging and promoting domain squatting is definitely evil in my book, but apparently not in theirs.
Either that, or "Do no evil" doesn't apply in all fields.
You had ones? Luxury. We had neither ones nor zeros, we had nothing. Nothing! In other words, we had holes. All we could use was holes. Do you have any idea how annoying holes are? Put one in your pocket, next thing you know everything in your pocket falls out through the hole.
So what are you worried about? Is your question intended as a response to my worry in this other comment that they might lose heart? With my very limited knowledge about these things, I was unable to guess how large a proportion of the difficulties they had overcome and how much remained. I also didn't know if they had lost a valuable, important satellite.
But indeed you're right, they seem very enthusiastic and confident, they say that they overcame 90% of the risks, and that the problems that remain are easy. This looks great indeed! There's every reason to celebrate!
Now going for t-16 at 00:54 for a launch at 01:10. Several preparations are in progress.
I'm a little impressed that they could abort so smoothly several seconds after main engine ignition. Considering the energies that are unleashed I assumed that that would be rather difficult. But maybe that just proves that I'm no rocket scientist.
Slashdot Mirror
In democratic countries, threats against the functionaries of democracy are seen as threats against democracy itself. This is because the functionaries should act according to their own convictions and the promises that they have made to their voters. If instead they are forced or swayed by threats, democracy is subverted.
Translation: EEUU is Spanish for The US.
Indeed you're right. The US has sabotaged its own good name and goodwill over and over again. And they just keep at it, over and over, again and again.
The most stunning example of this is how they gained sympathy all over the world after 9/11 and then somehow managed to squander it all in a few months, simply by showing an astonishingly bullying attitude rather than looking for co-operation regarding the Iraq war.
They had such amazing goodwill and sympathy, even in Islamic countries. Sadly, their propaganda machine refused to portray this goodwill, preferring to stir up conflict. But outside the US and its propaganda machine there was so much goodwill, it felt like some kind of world-wide friendship among nations was growing forth. So many past mistakes were being forgiven.
And yet somehow they managed to squander almost all of this in just a few months, by showing an amazingly bullying attitude and disdainfully neglecting all the persistent warnings about the chaos and surging terrorism that would unavoidably ensue if they went forth with their Iraq adventure.
*Sigh!* For a while it looked so promising!
I suppose their war industry didn't like that promising outlook.
In the US, to be a true patriot you should "rally around the flag" in this "time of need" and "time of war". You're not supposed to question the President on these issues. The Great Leader should have a free rein to do as he pleases.
It's still far, far more free than, say, Cuba or China. Vastly more free. But it's trampling its own principles in stunning, alarming ways, reducing democratic rights and principles and rule of law and freedom, all of these essential things taking second stage in the holy war against terrorism, this war against a featureless monster that serves as an excuse for anything.
Sadly, this is not the only example of the US acting against its own interests in disastrous ways.
Maybe we can finally that prove Yes, finally you can that prove you have brains! us teens can actually think for themselves Indeed, why don't people realize that you can they do that?
How can anyone give a Funny mod to an In Soviet "joke"? Those "jokes" are so painfully predictable and uncreative that the only reasonable mod is Redundant.
I argue that there is moderation and there is excess. The so-called counter-terrorist efforts of the US, seen together as a whole, are not just excessive, but way over-the-top excessive. In many important ways they are betrayals against the principles on which the US was founded, principles that the US needs to keep alive in order to stay cohesive.
This ID thing is in fact a minor thing in this whole sorry mess. But occasionally when opportunity arises I can't resist letting off some steam in a comment like the above, meant mainly to be thought-provoking. But I can understand that it can also be rather annoying, after all I am letting off steam...
No one hates your freedom like we do... Uh, oops, I mean, like the terrorists do. Everybody knows it's the terrorists who hate your freedom. And of course only the terrorists can take your freedom away... Uh, um, no, not exactly, they can't... In fact only we can take your freedom away... er... You shouldn't question these things... Now be a good patriot and lie down and let us step on you for your protection.
A good proposal, insightful, interesting.
I think the standard placement on keyboards in all EU countries is AltGr+E (which seems to be synonymous with Ctrl+Alt+E). The keystroke you quoted gets me the dollar sign.
It affects quite a lot of people.
I agree with you that there are far worse evils in the world. I do not agree with your implication that this fact makes domain squatting okay.
When a company has a motto like "Do no evil" I don't expect it to mean that they promise not to fly planes into buildings, cause genocide and so on. I expect it to mean something to do with their business and their business practices. I don't see how their motto can have any meaning if all it means is that they won't repeat the worst evils of the world.
Maybe lying isn't evil in their book. Google has yet to define what they consider evil and what they consider good. For instance, encouraging and promoting domain squatting is definitely evil in my book, but apparently not in theirs.
Either that, or "Do no evil" doesn't apply in all fields.
You had ones? Luxury. We had neither ones nor zeros, we had nothing. Nothing! In other words, we had holes. All we could use was holes. Do you have any idea how annoying holes are? Put one in your pocket, next thing you know everything in your pocket falls out through the hole.
Yes, as the word "Jet" in "LaserJet" clearly indicates, it shoots jets of laser droplets onto the paper.
It's much cheaper than the street stuff, and you get your hallucinations in cyan, magenta, yellow and black!
But indeed you're right, they seem very enthusiastic and confident, they say that they overcame 90% of the risks, and that the problems that remain are easy. This looks great indeed! There's every reason to celebrate!
Wonderful!
Indeed they do!
I really, really hope they don't lose heart. With their rocket making it this far, it seems to me that they are very close to success now.
What does oscillation mean in this context? The vehicle shaking?
Does this mean it's lost or is there still hope?
They're going to try again in a few minutes, starting with the countdown at t-16 minutes at 00:54 GMT, for a launch at 01:10 GMT.
Now going for t-16 at 00:54 for a launch at 01:10. Several preparations are in progress.
I'm a little impressed that they could abort so smoothly several seconds after main engine ignition. Considering the energies that are unleashed I assumed that that would be rather difficult. But maybe that just proves that I'm no rocket scientist.