The logic is pretty simple. Microsoft want to stop other people spamming Hotmail subscribers. It costs them money in bandwidth, storage etc. Microsoft like to send their customer base "email updates and special offers". As the vast majority of computer users use some MS product (be it Hotmail, Windows, Office etc) that gives them a very large number of people to send email to. At the moment, if you use Hotmail you will get a monthly email from Hotmail which will mention some commercial services available and some of their sponsors. If they are unable to do this they will lose the revenue from people who pay to have their products/services included in this type of email. While not unsolicited it is (in most cases) unwanted. Microsoft want to be able to reduce their costs from being spammed but still want to benefit from eing able to send bulk email to their subscriber base.
I have a few situations which US lawmakers may need to look at.
1.If I (a foreign national) visit the US and buy goods subject to sales tax, when I leave the country I am able to claim this sales tax back. How does this apply in this situation when I do not physically arrive in the US and I do not physically leave?
2. I (hypothetically) own an e-commerce business based in Australia. If I sell goods to a customer in say, California, will I be required to charge them a Californian sales tax? If so, how will the state of California ensure that I pay the tax to them. They have no recourse through the californian courts as I have no material resources in California and any judgement against me would be ineffectual. They have no legal recourse under Australian law as Californian legislation is overidden by Australian federal or state(NSW for the sake of argument) law.
3. I reside in Australia. I use my credit card to buy a book online at Amazon.com. I ask for the book to be sent to the UK. As Amazon has UK offices they elect to send stock from there rather than ship the book across from the US. Who gets to levy the taxes here? The purchaser is in Australia, the vendor is in the US (I forget which state) while the goods are in the UK.
It seems to me that this is a mad grab to try and get money which the states feel they are losing out on. My personal feeling is that the entire thing is unworkable and that the effort will not be worth the end result.
Back in the stone age, a friend of mine was a supplier of BBC computers. Now, these came either complete or in component form. Both were mail order. He received a letter from a customer who had bought the kit and was having problems getting the computer to work. Nothing happened, not a sausage, no lights, no beeps, so my friend paid the postage to have the computer sent back to him. Upon opening the case he could easily see what the problem was. All of the components had been fitted with precision, with care, with glue.
If my kids are watching a DVD in the living room and I record my show on the DVD recorder in my study I won't be able to watch it on the DVD player in the living room. This is insane nonsense. The truth is that most people won't realise that they are being butt-fucked until it is too late.
Valenti's quote should read "Grab the Vaseline and bend over, here comes the MPAA."
While I don't disagree with the findings, the author lacks objectivity and is clearly biased. "Friends shouldn't help friends run Windows".
Had this been a proper test rather than an opinion piece he would have tested the installation process using different methods (CD, network etc) and left out the rhetoric. If he had wanted effect from this article it should have been published in a main stream PC publication and he should have kept his opinions to himself.
I think it is very interesting that it works by using phrases rather than individual words. Most translators in the past have used words and that leaves room for error with idiomatic phrases such as "window shopping" (the french equivalent translates as "window licking"). Maybe it would be a good idea to put something on the web and let us test it, at least without the speech components.
Research deos show that it is very likely that Vermeer used the camera obscura to obtain an image. He would be in a darkened room with an image projected on to the canvas. On some of his pictures details are "out of focus". However, you can hardly call what he did a photograph as all he did was use the camera obscura to obtain the basis for a painting. Had he chemically burned the image onto the canvas then you may have a case for an early photograph.
On his other page I particularly liked the machine for switching itself off. Mind you, he'd need to be careful, he might be breaching Microsoft's patent on Windows.
In Australia we used to have the benevolent dictatorship of Robert Elz. He was the instigator of the.au domain until he was thrown out by the ICANN lap dog that is auDA. There was a huge amount of negative press about his 'unnaccountability' and the 'arrogant' way he dealt with people. There were press stories that if he refused to give up the name then they would have to force him via the courts. Throughout this Robert kept a dignified silence. When he released the name to auDA ICANN released this statement
"Whereas Robert Elz has devoted over 15 years of selfless and dedicated service to the global Internet community as the registry founder and operator of.au. Resolved that the ICANN Board on behalf of the global Internet community extends its deepest thanks to Robert Elz for his profound countributions to the evolution and stable performance of the global Internet."
Part of the issue is not just the existing laws, but whose existing laws. The Internet is multinational and as such every country on the planet has some jurisdiction over legislation. Many countries have issues with US laws, the French for example. As is evident from comments here, many were not fans of the decision by the French courts to stop Yahoo from selling Nazi memorabilia on their sites. Yet there are many cases of countries who have had their Internet 'freedoms' curtailed by the US. There are laws which govern international trade, diplomacy, war, why not have an international body enact laws which govern an international entity, the Internet?
I'm not sure that it is just a question of the public interest. As far as most members of the public (which slashdotters do not represent) they tend to think that integrated software is great. No need to go out and find a browser, media player, messenging tool etc. They don't want a modular O/S. The judge is there to serve the interest of competition. That interest is served (in my humble opinion) by exiting MS from the software market. That way they cannot act anti-competitively. I'm not talking about breaking them up, I mean forcing them to exit all non O/S based software by selling the rights to the highest bidder.
It doesn't seem to use any personal details, just how many phones are switched on in a certain area. I suppose that major office buildings with lots of office phones could cause problems (appearing as a localised traffic jam). Go for it I say, it would seem to make life easier.
What you are not getting is that by drawing the graph manually you are fulfilling the old maxim: Tell me and I'll forget Show me and I might remember Involve me and I'll learn
It's not fiddling with pen and paper it's learning the practical application of the theory. As you plot each point you are intimately involved with the graph, not just viewing the results. By all means check it with a graphic calculator but do it by hand first, or at least until you have the theory well and truly mastered.
There is also the feeling of achievement by doing something yourself. Tell me, what feels like you achieved something, cooking a great meal, or defrosting an oven ready pack?
If it were only that simple. Nuclear waste takes many thousands of years to decay. In the case of some isotopes it takes millions. Siberia has some of the most fragile ecosystems on the planet. Not only that but the Siberian forest contains (some estimate) half of the world's conifers (currently a great big fire is burning over 54,000 hectares). I agree that coastal areas are fragile, but so is every other environment on earth. Burying nuclear waste is just (no pun intended) sweeping the problem under the carpet. It is simply letting another generation deal with our problem. What happens if climate changes cause the emlting of much of the permafrost and you suddently find that the waste is now in the water table? Nah, don't like nukes, it has a habit of going wrong. Chernobyl anyone?
I heard of a nice idea about 10 years or more ago. NASA wanted to take a very large coil into orbit. Passing wire through a magnetic field creates electricity. Using the earth's magnetic field and a low orbit it is theoretically possible to produce lots of electricity with little environmental impact (except the fuel used to ferry the stuff back and forth). I never heard what the studies said about the feasability but I like the idea.
I am a cycling coach. I also make a little bit of money making bikes and sell one to Bob. Bob rides the bike home and on the way the brakes fail and he gets himself mangled by a sixteen wheeler. Not only am I going to get my ass sued by Bob's family for selling a "lemon", the settlement will be much more than what I sold the bike for.
This could seriously hurt the open source business. If a company uses say, RedHat, and finds that not only does it not work, it corrupts lots of information, RedHat is going to get itself in court. Microsoft would probably be in deeper water. I would imagine that "known issues" would be like a company selling a toy which they know contains asbestos (maybe a bit harsh, but you get the idea). It may not hurt the developers in a big way but it could effectively kill Open Source by killing off any company which tries to release a distribution. I mean, what CEO is going to authorise his techs to load an OS which was put together by his friends and he has no recourse should it mess up his entire operation, when he can buy software that he knows will compensate him should it all go SNAFU.
This is going to be a very hard area to try and legislate, and knowing the government, they are going to screw it up but good.
C-3PO is not present at the battle of Naboo, not really a minor plot point. Maybe the midichlorians told him what happened.
C-3PO is a droid. Everything he sees, hears etc would be stored. Which would also mean that he would remember that Anakin was Darth Vader and that he had children, and that one of them had been left with Owen Lars on Tatooine. It would seem logical that parts of his memory would be deleted to avoid that information falling into the wrong hands.
Now, Microsoft is an acknowledged monopoly - no suprise there.
Sorry, Microsoft is not a monopoly, if it were there would be no Novell, no Linux etc. Microsoft has market dominance and this is very different from being a monopoly. There are alternatives to Windows and they are readily available, just like Pepsi and Coke. Microsoft is accused of using its market dominance in an anticompetitive way. In the case of Pepsi and Coke neither has clear market dominance and that is why they have never been hauled over the coals. It is common practice for both drinks manufacturers and ice cream companies to lease very expensive fridge/freezers to shops at very cheap prices. However, should the retailer have competitors products on sale, they will start paying the genuine lease price. That is surprisingly similar to what MS are doing except that MS have market dominance and doing so will inhibit competition. No monopoly, just alleged abuse of market dominance.
For the record: "Until well after the Revolution had started Washington and his officers were continuing the nightly tradition of toasting the mother country (if not the monarch himself) and the Continental Congress was professing an earnest - we might almost say slavish - loyalty" Bill Bryson, Made in America, 1994 Secker and Warburg, pg 41
"It is not much of an exaggeration to say that one had to be a fool or a fanatic in early January 1776 to advocate American independance" Bernard Bailyn, American Heritage, 1973, pg 37
There is also a reference to the toast before the signing of the Declaration but I couldn't put my finger on it. Not that any of this has anything to do with the topic at hand
Bin Laden has links to the CIA, does that mean that the CIA were involved? They certainly have the resources, the people and the motive. The CIA profits from war, their budget is increased, they sell arms, Congress gives them the green light to do black ops. But again, there is no proof that they were involved. If we hit Afghanistan and Bin Laden without any proof then we run the risk of having the rest of the world turn on us. We will be doing exactly what we say we are trying to stop, terrorists.
Re:The World is going to change
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· Score: 1
If you want to stand by what you said, defend it. Answer my questions. What you are saying is that democracy=good, nondemocracy=bad. You would condemn people because of their government system? I would contend that the vast majority of people are good. Find me a country where there is only isolated good. Just because someone is elected doesn't mean that they are good. A king may be good, a king may be bad. A president may be good, a president may be bad. The difference is that it usually takes less to get rid of a bad president. Hitler was democratically elected by the people of Germany, and in has been argued that he enjoyed the support of most Germans up until troops marched into Germany. Whereas Gerald Ford, a president of the United States was never elected at all. His name did not appear on any presidential ballot.
How well do the different systens serve their people? Less than half of those eligible to vote in the US did so. That would seem to indicate that the majority of the population is not happy with the system. In over 200 years of the United States find me a single president who was not male, not white, not Christian. I am not saying that democracy is wrong, just that your blinkered view of it as the be all and end all of right and wrong is at best naive.
If you think what I am saying is bullshit, then argue that, don't just say it. Add to the discussion, don't just dismiss it or you may turn into a troll.
Re:there's an argument to be made....
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· Score: 1
Re: Kuwait. Part of the UN resolution was that if Kuwait was liberated then they would need to hold democratic elections. The only reason that no pressure has been put on Kuwait to do this is that the current power base in Kuwait is a known quantity to the western powers. Slavery is still legal, and practised in Kuwait.
I stand by my citation of Hiroshima as terrorism. I quote from the dictionary (.com) definition of the word terrorism "use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the end of the War n the Pacific, however it did so using the death of millions of civilians. Not only those who died as a direct result of the explosion but those who were affected by radiation, those who had not even been born at the time. It was an act of terror. Just as the WTC was an act of terror. Do as we say or more of this will happen.
The pledge of allegiance to the flag was instituted after the war of Independence to ensure that the next generation would support the government, as only around one third of the population of America actually supported the war. It was and is enforcing ideals on others.
In regards to the Gulf War. More British soldiers died at the hands of the Americans than died because of Iraqis.
As for the fact that you can tell that I do not live in a Western country, I do. I have lived in the US, in France, in the UK, in Australia and in Russia. You can assume what you like, but never think that you will be right.
Anyway, my comments were not meant to be an antiAmerican tirade. I merely wanted to show that as a country, America has blood on its hands. Many around the world see this as an evening of the scores. I condemn this act and my condolences go to the people of the United States.
Re:The World is going to change
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· Score: 1
Whose ideals do you base this on? The US President? The US Congress? The US Senate? The US people, have a referendum? The people of the UK? The peoples of the security council? The people of France? What you are proposing that the US impose its ideals on the world and that anyone who fails to agree with or meet those ideals should be cast aside.
What would you do with countries like Russia, who because of the Cold War are now run by gangsters? The Russian government is trying to rid itself of the corruption of the Russian Mafia but because of the power that money wields, are unable to.
What about the Sultan of Brunei? He gives his people free educatio, free health care, no taxes but he is not democratically elected? The American presidential election was decided not by the will of the people, or even by its representatives, but by judges. Do you fail your own criteria?
What of the drug trade? The majority of drug traders in South East Asia were encouraged by the CIA as they opposed the Communists in the 60s and 70s. The same can be said of the South American trade.
To say that Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East is bullshit. This is a nation which practices extra judicial killings as a policy. It is persecuting a poor and displaced people and would happily make war on all of their neighbours.
To appoint the worldwide benchmark would indeed be a sad day for all.
Slashdot Mirror
The logic is pretty simple. Microsoft want to stop other people spamming Hotmail subscribers. It costs them money in bandwidth, storage etc. Microsoft like to send their customer base "email updates and special offers". As the vast majority of computer users use some MS product (be it Hotmail, Windows, Office etc) that gives them a very large number of people to send email to. At the moment, if you use Hotmail you will get a monthly email from Hotmail which will mention some commercial services available and some of their sponsors. If they are unable to do this they will lose the revenue from people who pay to have their products/services included in this type of email. While not unsolicited it is (in most cases) unwanted.
Microsoft want to be able to reduce their costs from being spammed but still want to benefit from eing able to send bulk email to their subscriber base.
I have a few situations which US lawmakers may need to look at.
1.If I (a foreign national) visit the US and buy goods subject to sales tax, when I leave the country I am able to claim this sales tax back. How does this apply in this situation when I do not physically arrive in the US and I do not physically leave?
2. I (hypothetically) own an e-commerce business based in Australia. If I sell goods to a customer in say, California, will I be required to charge them a Californian sales tax? If so, how will the state of California ensure that I pay the tax to them. They have no recourse through the californian courts as I have no material resources in California and any judgement against me would be ineffectual. They have no legal recourse under Australian law as Californian legislation is overidden by Australian federal or state(NSW for the sake of argument) law.
3. I reside in Australia. I use my credit card to buy a book online at Amazon.com. I ask for the book to be sent to the UK. As Amazon has UK offices they elect to send stock from there rather than ship the book across from the US. Who gets to levy the taxes here? The purchaser is in Australia, the vendor is in the US (I forget which state) while the goods are in the UK.
It seems to me that this is a mad grab to try and get money which the states feel they are losing out on. My personal feeling is that the entire thing is unworkable and that the effort will not be worth the end result.
Back in the stone age, a friend of mine was a supplier of BBC computers. Now, these came either complete or in component form. Both were mail order. He received a letter from a customer who had bought the kit and was having problems getting the computer to work. Nothing happened, not a sausage, no lights, no beeps, so my friend paid the postage to have the computer sent back to him. Upon opening the case he could easily see what the problem was. All of the components had been fitted with precision, with care, with glue.
Remember to look for Cut, Clarity, Color, Carat and Corpse.
If my kids are watching a DVD in the living room and I record my show on the DVD recorder in my study I won't be able to watch it on the DVD player in the living room.
This is insane nonsense. The truth is that most people won't realise that they are being butt-fucked until it is too late.
Valenti's quote should read "Grab the Vaseline and bend over, here comes the MPAA."
assuming the card has a driver for Linux
Yes, and if it doesn't, tell me that most users won't turn tht Linux disk into a coaster.
While I don't disagree with the findings, the author lacks objectivity and is clearly biased.
"Friends shouldn't help friends run Windows".
Had this been a proper test rather than an opinion piece he would have tested the installation process using different methods (CD, network etc) and left out the rhetoric. If he had wanted effect from this article it should have been published in a main stream PC publication and he should have kept his opinions to himself.
I think it is very interesting that it works by using phrases rather than individual words. Most translators in the past have used words and that leaves room for error with idiomatic phrases such as "window shopping" (the french equivalent translates as "window licking").
Maybe it would be a good idea to put something on the web and let us test it, at least without the speech components.
Research deos show that it is very likely that Vermeer used the camera obscura to obtain an image. He would be in a darkened room with an image projected on to the canvas. On some of his pictures details are "out of focus". However, you can hardly call what he did a photograph as all he did was use the camera obscura to obtain the basis for a painting. Had he chemically burned the image onto the canvas then you may have a case for an early photograph.
On his other page I particularly liked the machine for switching itself off. Mind you, he'd need to be careful, he might be breaching Microsoft's patent on Windows.
In Australia we used to have the benevolent dictatorship of Robert Elz. He was the instigator of the .au domain until he was thrown out by the ICANN lap dog that is auDA. There was a huge amount of negative press about his 'unnaccountability' and the 'arrogant' way he dealt with people. There were press stories that if he refused to give up the name then they would have to force him via the courts. Throughout this Robert kept a dignified silence. When he released the name to auDA ICANN released this statement
.au.
"Whereas Robert Elz has devoted over 15 years of selfless and dedicated service to the global Internet community as the registry founder and operator of
Resolved that the ICANN Board on behalf of the global Internet community extends its deepest thanks to Robert Elz for his profound
countributions to the evolution and stable performance of the global Internet."
We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants
Part of the issue is not just the existing laws, but whose existing laws. The Internet is multinational and as such every country on the planet has some jurisdiction over legislation. Many countries have issues with US laws, the French for example. As is evident from comments here, many were not fans of the decision by the French courts to stop Yahoo from selling Nazi memorabilia on their sites. Yet there are many cases of countries who have had their Internet 'freedoms' curtailed by the US. There are laws which govern international trade, diplomacy, war, why not have an international body enact laws which govern an international entity, the Internet?
I'm not sure that it is just a question of the public interest. As far as most members of the public (which slashdotters do not represent) they tend to think that integrated software is great. No need to go out and find a browser, media player, messenging tool etc. They don't want a modular O/S. The judge is there to serve the interest of competition. That interest is served (in my humble opinion) by exiting MS from the software market. That way they cannot act anti-competitively. I'm not talking about breaking them up, I mean forcing them to exit all non O/S based software by selling the rights to the highest bidder.
It doesn't seem to use any personal details, just how many phones are switched on in a certain area. I suppose that major office buildings with lots of office phones could cause problems (appearing as a localised traffic jam). Go for it I say, it would seem to make life easier.
What you are not getting is that by drawing the graph manually you are fulfilling the old maxim :
Tell me and I'll forget
Show me and I might remember
Involve me and I'll learn
It's not fiddling with pen and paper it's learning the practical application of the theory. As you plot each point you are intimately involved with the graph, not just viewing the results. By all means check it with a graphic calculator but do it by hand first, or at least until you have the theory well and truly mastered.
There is also the feeling of achievement by doing something yourself. Tell me, what feels like you achieved something, cooking a great meal, or defrosting an oven ready pack?
Yes it is an unnatural progression from Dungeons and Dragons to Occultism and Satanism. Here, I have the proof
This story is true I tell you, true!
If it were only that simple. Nuclear waste takes many thousands of years to decay. In the case of some isotopes it takes millions. Siberia has some of the most fragile ecosystems on the planet. Not only that but the Siberian forest contains (some estimate) half of the world's conifers (currently a great big fire is burning over 54,000 hectares).
I agree that coastal areas are fragile, but so is every other environment on earth. Burying nuclear waste is just (no pun intended) sweeping the problem under the carpet. It is simply letting another generation deal with our problem. What happens if climate changes cause the emlting of much of the permafrost and you suddently find that the waste is now in the water table? Nah, don't like nukes, it has a habit of going wrong. Chernobyl anyone?
I heard of a nice idea about 10 years or more ago. NASA wanted to take a very large coil into orbit. Passing wire through a magnetic field creates electricity. Using the earth's magnetic field and a low orbit it is theoretically possible to produce lots of electricity with little environmental impact (except the fuel used to ferry the stuff back and forth). I never heard what the studies said about the feasability but I like the idea.
Here's a hypothetical to test the theory.
I am a cycling coach. I also make a little bit of money making bikes and sell one to Bob. Bob rides the bike home and on the way the brakes fail and he gets himself mangled by a sixteen wheeler. Not only am I going to get my ass sued by Bob's family for selling a "lemon", the settlement will be much more than what I sold the bike for.
This could seriously hurt the open source business. If a company uses say, RedHat, and finds that not only does it not work, it corrupts lots of information, RedHat is going to get itself in court.
Microsoft would probably be in deeper water. I would imagine that "known issues" would be like a company selling a toy which they know contains asbestos (maybe a bit harsh, but you get the idea).
It may not hurt the developers in a big way but it could effectively kill Open Source by killing off any company which tries to release a distribution. I mean, what CEO is going to authorise his techs to load an OS which was put together by his friends and he has no recourse should it mess up his entire operation, when he can buy software that he knows will compensate him should it all go SNAFU.
This is going to be a very hard area to try and legislate, and knowing the government, they are going to screw it up but good.
C-3PO is not present at the battle of Naboo, not really a minor plot point. Maybe the midichlorians told him what happened.
C-3PO is a droid. Everything he sees, hears etc would be stored. Which would also mean that he would remember that Anakin was Darth Vader and that he had children, and that one of them had been left with Owen Lars on Tatooine. It would seem logical that parts of his memory would be deleted to avoid that information falling into the wrong hands.
Now, Microsoft is an acknowledged monopoly - no suprise there.
Sorry, Microsoft is not a monopoly, if it were there would be no Novell, no Linux etc. Microsoft has market dominance and this is very different from being a monopoly. There are alternatives to Windows and they are readily available, just like Pepsi and Coke. Microsoft is accused of using its market dominance in an anticompetitive way. In the case of Pepsi and Coke neither has clear market dominance and that is why they have never been hauled over the coals. It is common practice for both drinks manufacturers and ice cream companies to lease very expensive fridge/freezers to shops at very cheap prices. However, should the retailer have competitors products on sale, they will start paying the genuine lease price. That is surprisingly similar to what MS are doing except that MS have market dominance and doing so will inhibit competition. No monopoly, just alleged abuse of market dominance.
For the record:
"Until well after the Revolution had started Washington and his officers were continuing the nightly tradition of toasting the mother country (if not the monarch himself) and the Continental Congress was professing an earnest - we might almost say slavish - loyalty" Bill Bryson, Made in America, 1994 Secker and Warburg, pg 41
"It is not much of an exaggeration to say that one had to be a fool or a fanatic in early January 1776 to advocate American independance"
Bernard Bailyn, American Heritage, 1973, pg 37
There is also a reference to the toast before the signing of the Declaration but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Not that any of this has anything to do with the topic at hand
Bin Laden has links to the CIA, does that mean that the CIA were involved? They certainly have the resources, the people and the motive. The CIA profits from war, their budget is increased, they sell arms, Congress gives them the green light to do black ops. But again, there is no proof that they were involved. If we hit Afghanistan and Bin Laden without any proof then we run the risk of having the rest of the world turn on us. We will be doing exactly what we say we are trying to stop, terrorists.
If you want to stand by what you said, defend it. Answer my questions. What you are saying is that democracy=good, nondemocracy=bad. You would condemn people because of their government system? I would contend that the vast majority of people are good. Find me a country where there is only isolated good. Just because someone is elected doesn't mean that they are good. A king may be good, a king may be bad. A president may be good, a president may be bad. The difference is that it usually takes less to get rid of a bad president. Hitler was democratically elected by the people of Germany, and in has been argued that he enjoyed the support of most Germans up until troops marched into Germany. Whereas Gerald Ford, a president of the United States was never elected at all. His name did not appear on any presidential ballot.
How well do the different systens serve their people? Less than half of those eligible to vote in the US did so. That would seem to indicate that the majority of the population is not happy with the system. In over 200 years of the United States find me a single president who was not male, not white, not Christian. I am not saying that democracy is wrong, just that your blinkered view of it as the be all and end all of right and wrong is at best naive.
If you think what I am saying is bullshit, then argue that, don't just say it. Add to the discussion, don't just dismiss it or you may turn into a troll.
Re: Kuwait. Part of the UN resolution was that if Kuwait was liberated then they would need to hold democratic elections. The only reason that no pressure has been put on Kuwait to do this is that the current power base in Kuwait is a known quantity to the western powers. Slavery is still legal, and practised in Kuwait.
I stand by my citation of Hiroshima as terrorism. I quote from the dictionary (.com) definition of the word terrorism "use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the end of the War n the Pacific, however it did so using the death of millions of civilians. Not only those who died as a direct result of the explosion but those who were affected by radiation, those who had not even been born at the time. It was an act of terror. Just as the WTC was an act of terror. Do as we say or more of this will happen.
The pledge of allegiance to the flag was instituted after the war of Independence to ensure that the next generation would support the government, as only around one third of the population of America actually supported the war. It was and is enforcing ideals on others.
In regards to the Gulf War. More British soldiers died at the hands of the Americans than died because of Iraqis.
As for the fact that you can tell that I do not live in a Western country, I do. I have lived in the US, in France, in the UK, in Australia and in Russia. You can assume what you like, but never think that you will be right.
Anyway, my comments were not meant to be an antiAmerican tirade. I merely wanted to show that as a country, America has blood on its hands. Many around the world see this as an evening of the scores. I condemn this act and my condolences go to the people of the United States.
What would you do with countries like Russia, who because of the Cold War are now run by gangsters? The Russian government is trying to rid itself of the corruption of the Russian Mafia but because of the power that money wields, are unable to.
What about the Sultan of Brunei? He gives his people free educatio, free health care, no taxes but he is not democratically elected? The American presidential election was decided not by the will of the people, or even by its representatives, but by judges. Do you fail your own criteria?
What of the drug trade? The majority of drug traders in South East Asia were encouraged by the CIA as they opposed the Communists in the 60s and 70s. The same can be said of the South American trade.
To say that Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East is bullshit. This is a nation which practices extra judicial killings as a policy. It is persecuting a poor and displaced people and would happily make war on all of their neighbours.
To appoint the worldwide benchmark would indeed be a sad day for all.