" The bug is from the fact that SUN has PROHIBITED Microsoft from updating their JAVA VM since 1999."
Not true. MS could have updated their JVM as many times as they wanted to. The only obstacles were that MS did not break the sun JAVA standard. MS is unable to to adhere to any standards so they chose not to upgrade.
"C# was opened to the standards body for other vendors to create C#"
Yes the standard C# is great for writing hello world applications. Is it any wonder nobody outside of MS shops is using C# for anything? Lets face it python, ruby, java, and yes even the lowly perl is more useful then "standard C#".
"How do you justify this in light of the common practice of charging union dues to non-union employees?"
Under some circumstances if the general employee population benefits from the presense of the union it is only fair to pay the union for their efforts.
For example if the workplace is safer due to the efforts of a union then everybody is better off not just the union members. Another common example is if the union fights for higher wages and the company gives everybody a higher wage (as opposed to just the union members). In that case the non union members have benefitted from union activities.
Under those circumstances I don't see how it's unfair to ask those people to pay the union dues.
"Maybe it's something in the air, but on this continent, people tend to believe that they aren't beholden to anyone for their rights, and that 'taxation' does not equal 'representation.'"
Any right you have are a result of people fighting to get them. You don't "get" rights you fight tooth and nail for them. Remember a thing called the American revolution? That's where your rights came from.
On this continent for better or worse business is an antagonistic system of the business owners, the customers and the employees. Each one of these sets of people have conflicting goals.
The customer wants to pay as little as possible while receiving the best possible product and service.
The Employee wants to get paid as much as possible while doing the least amount of work.
The business person wants to pay the least amount of salary while getting the most work and wants to charge the most amount of money for the product while keeping the least amount of quality and service.
The customer fights for their rights by shopping around for the best prices and service. Sometimes they have lots of choices and they win other times they are dealing with a monopoly and they lose and get ripped off (see microsoft).
In the employee employer relationship you have to fight against the owners desire to keep you in the lowest income bracket possible. To a business person the ideal world consists of slaves working 20 hour days for subsidence.
Sure you can fight by yourself but it's more effective to fight by organizing with your fellow employees. The boss might fire you or tell you to go to hell but he would be less likely to do that if all his employees would also leave in response.
I am sure you have heard the saying "United we stand, divided we fall".
So go ahead. Don't unionize and walk into your bosses office to demand more money, less work, better hours, or more consideration for your sick wife. Maybe your boss is kind and generous and will give you an immediate raise and cut back your hours. More likely he will tell you to go to hell because he can hire a thousand monkeys to do your job for less.
The world is full of suckers like you who are convinced that unions are evil and are perfectly happy to work in a job where job security means you will be given a days notice before they will take away your keycard.
Who says you are guaranteed individuality if you don't join a union?
"The cost to employees."
Yes. Your salary is a cost to employees. Unions try to get highest possible salaries for their members which means higher costs to the employers. Don't join a union, make less money, and save your boss money.
"Exclusive representation."
Without a union you have no representation.
"This power carries with it a duty of fair representation that requires the union to negotiate fairly on behalf of all employees in the "bargaining unit," whether they are union members or not."
This is silly. Unions normally do this but it's not a duty. It's not fair for the non union members to benefit from the activities of the union. They should be left to negotiate with management by themselves outside of the union.
Junkscience.com does not show scientific sources and they do not limit themselves to global warming. They link to republican and corporate financed "studies" which have not been peer reviewed and have not been published in reputable journals.
I will repeat myself. Junkscience.com is a propaganda arm of the republican party and is therefore the propaganda arm of corporate america. A quick perusing of their web site ought to make this clear to any five year old but apparently not you.
There are expats living all over the world. Even in places like vietnam and philipines and such. In places like that where the US dollar goes far you can live a simple and comfortable life for a few thousand dollars per year. Selling your current house and car could probably set you up for a decade or so. Granted it wouldn't be the champagne and caviar life but I think you'll find that food grown naturally and picked off the wine will tase much better then the carboard tasting fruits and vegetables you are used to eating.
"right now (forgoing the orwellian near future, for a moment), there is simply no better place to be."
Wow what an odd thing to say. Do you really mean that? On what basis do you form that argument. Let's look at some of your statements.
"You live in a country with an incredibly good road system. "
Well I didn't know this was so important but I have traveled to many countries with real good road systems. Last I checked all of europe had good road systems as did japan, australia, new zealand, and even a few asian countries.
"You have running water. Reliably. You have indoor plumbing. You have readily available food. You have electricity. You live in a place that has as many cars as families, because cars and gas are just that damned cheap here."
Let's see I guess the above mentioned countries all also have clean water, food, electricy and cars. Gas is more expensive in most fo the world but the public transportaion is great too.
"You have the best military in the world. "
No argument there. We likes to kill!. We spend more of our taxes on military then anybody else. We would rather have a bigger bombs then affordable health care and education.
"ou don't have to fear for your life walking down the street (well, in some places, you do, but it's safer here than much of the rest of the world)."
We have one of the highest crime rates in the world and the highest murder rate. US is quite possibly the most dangerous place to live when it comes to being victims of violent crime.
"This is a nation in which *anyone* can get a job. Not necessarily a good job, or the job they want, but you can land a job that'll pay well enough for you to eat every day."
Most of europe, canada, new zealand, and australia enjoy great unemployment rates. Also if for some reason you can't get a job they have great social programs to make sure you don't starve or die of disease. I think they have us beat on that one.
"I can drink the water anywhere in this nation without fear. Some places it looks a little brown, or have hard water, etc., but you can drink it without *dying*."
Yes I know all those europeans die every day from drinking the water. I also heard of the great water pestilence in japan and china. It is said that if your lips ever touch water in singapore you simply keel over and die.
"You have incredible medical care. I know many places have better systems for covering payment, and it's free in many places, but there's very few places in US where you can't get immediate medical care."
US health care is great if you can pay for it. Otherwise you have to declare banckrupcy after vising the emergency room. Other countries seem to be able to make sure everybody can get decent health care and preventitive care. Last I checked US was somewhere around fourth or fifth in infant mortality.
"but I see every day how much worse it could be, and I'm happy for what we have."
It could always be worse. I bet even people in cambodia were saying that during the reign on Pol Pot. Sure it can always get worse but if you ever take the time to actually travel you will find out that it can get so much better too.
" When Clinton was bombing Baghdad [salon.com] the day of his impeachment, where were the protesters? Where were the demonstractions? Where where the cries of "career politician?""
Plenty of people protested the cruel and immoral torture of the iraqis with sanctions. Plenty of people protested the continual bombing of Iraq for 20 years. It's just that you never heard about it. Rush didn't tell you, O'Reilly didn't tell you because they agreed with clinton on this matter.
BTW: Do you think that in hindsight impeaching the president because he lied about cock might have been an unnecessary distraction?
"The liberals sure love to be cynical when it's not their administration anymore."
Oh those darn america hating liberals. They are the only people who are cynical. US God loving and fearing patriotic conservatives supported bombing the shit out bosnia 100% and we also supported unconditionally the military intervention in Haiti to install a democracy over there. Only if those traitor liberals could be lined up and shot and buried in mass graves the world would be so much better off. Who needs those communist, fag, pinko, un-american niggers anyway.
"Where the hell do you get this pathetic thinking from? The attitude of the leaders trickles down to the lower levels. The military literally reflects the attitudes of the top generals, the president, and his advisors."
Having been in the military I can state with 100% certainty that you know nothing about this matter. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"You want to know why the Iraqis are putting pregnant women in car bombs?"
It's not because they are being invaded?
"In fact, the true hero of this entire conflict is President Bush. He sticks to his morals."
Bush is nothing more then the first sexually transmitted president. Yes he is a morally rigid man who is incapable of understanding the complexitites of human existance. He is totaly devoid of imagination and intelligence (or as he says "I don't have much book learning") and therefore tries to solve every problem by dropping bombs but that does not make him a hero.
"He is bringing dignity and freedom to a country that has been ravaged for twenty years."
Considering that the US has been ravaging iraq for the past 20 years it seems like good idea to bring freedom to that country. I suspect however that this operation will end up like afghanistan and kuwait. You remember the huge lines of people anxiously waiting to vote for their first elected leader in kuwait and afghanistan? It will be just like that.
"What is in this for him? What is he going to take home at the end of the day? The answer is nothing."
The approval of his god. The approval of his political base. Increased personal wealth for him and his close friends. The warm feeling inside knowing that he is fulfilling the word of god as it was prophesized in the bible. Knowing that he is playing a part in making sure the stage is set for the return of Jesus Christ.
"How would you like to know that you were directly responsible for young men and women being tortured and brutally killed? "
They are just muslims, what's the big deal? Sure a few christian american soldiers got killed too but it's a small price to pay.
"He is doing all this, sacrificing his political career"
He is helping his career. War talk won him big in the mid term elections and actual war will guarantee him a re-election despite the horrid state of the economy.
"sacrificing his peace of mind, all to bring freedom to a couple of people in a faraway land that nobody seems to care about."
Where were you for the past 20 years? Where were you when we were bombing bridges, electrical plants, water treatment facilites. Where were you when the depleted uranium armament we were using increased cancer rates by 10 fold? Where did you get this new found love of the iraqi people when not a month went by in the past 20 years when we were not dropping a bomb on that country.
"He does this to ensure that our children will grow up without planes crashing into their office buildings, and without worrying about being burned alive by savage terrorists."
Saddam didn't do that. Please learn to read. It was osama bin laden. You are severely confused.
"It's people like you that make Saddam Hussein think he stands a chance, and give aid and comfort to the enemy."
I don't think saddam reads slashdot. Do you?
"If you would've stood with your president from the beginning, Saddam would've left long ago, and we would've ended the torture that is the daily lives of the Iraqi people years ago."
Yes of course. A dictator who does not leave when the biggest most advanced military in the world is dropping cluster bombs and bunker busters on his house would leave if we simply subjugated our will to Bush. Why didn't I think that of before. Just give up your freedom to think and speak and Saddam will leave!.
"We're not (yet?) rounding up Arabs and Muslims, sending them to forced labor camps, and murdering them en masse. No matter how bad Ashcroft is (very), he's not quite Hitler."
We have already set up concentration camps in cuba and afghanistan. They are filled with muslims and arabs. Neither you nor I know what is actually going on in them though because we do not live in a country with free press. The ones in afghanistan sound especially gruesome because they were built to shed the shackles of the US constitution. One official joked that they call it "Hotel California" because "you can never leave".
DO you think one day some army is going to liberate those camps and find the same thing we found when we liberated aushwitz?
Actually this is not true. He hasn't been charged with anything. He is being held just because the president called him a terrorist.
The irony is that Ashcroft admitted on TV that even he does not know where this guy is. My guess is that he is in "hotel california" which is a concentration camp outside the US borders.
"We're criticized as much for NOT involving ourselves in countries as for the opposite (we "abandoned Afghanistan" after the Soviet invasion was pushed back, we "allow" people to starve in 3rd world nations)."
We do both. It's not that hard to understand is it? Try to think of a ten year period since world war 2 that US bombs or cover ops were not killing some people some place. I dare you to name the time period go ahead. At the same time we let dicators opress their own people or minorities in their own countries when it suits us.
I don't know how you define evil but I think that being concerned only with your own self interest at the expense of entire mankind is probably on the evil side of the good-o-meter.
"Compare America's "economic imperialism" to the military imperialism practiced by western Europe in the 19th century."
Oh great. US is "less evil" then the soviet union. I feel much better now. Here is a thought. Maybe it's not good enough to be "less evil". Maybe we ought to try to be good.
"The rise of the middle class in the United States and other countries is the result of their governments not meddling in economic affairs, and only ensuring rule of law"
Which country do you live in? DO you honestly believe that the US govt govt does not meddle in economic affairs and only ensures the rule of war?
Honestly why should we listen to anything else you say when you are so utterly naive?
That is to be expected considering they are only getting one side of the story. If the US had free press then you'd probably see more dissent. Americans are not even allowed to see the people they kill on TV. They can go on pretending that all those bombs falling on Bagdad spew cinnamon buns instead of body parts.
"Such a circumstance would be illegal on public roads but it is completely legal on private property."
Irrelevent.
" Non-stock racing cars often do not use car keys, and often lack many of the safety features and emission standards applied to cars licenced to drive on public roads."
Once again irrelevent.
"Guns are already illegal to operate on public roads, and their possession and use on private property is already subject to many regulations."
Guns get used on public property all the time. Not only on public lands such as state parks but all kinds of national forests. They are also legal to carry on public roads and presumably it's not illegal to shoot them from a road as long as you are not actually commiting murder at the time.
This is a red herring you are throwing here. Guns should have more oversight. Guns should be licences and registered. Like cars the registrations should be renewed every year. The licenses also ought to expire and be renewed periodically. There should be child safety features on guns as well as devices to make sure only the owners can use the guns.
Of course if anybody actually proposed something like this NRA would throw a fit and start running around yelling "liberals are going to take your guns, they hate america" and people like you would nod your heads in unison and say "why yes those liberals do hate america and they want to take away my guns".
Slashdot Mirror
Yes we should ignore the security holes in windows from now on and pretend they don't exist.
Or maybe
Windows can't have security holes in it because it's market share is so good.
What exactly was your point anyway?
" The bug is from the fact that SUN has PROHIBITED Microsoft from updating their JAVA VM since 1999."
Not true. MS could have updated their JVM as many times as they wanted to. The only obstacles were that MS did not break the sun JAVA standard. MS is unable to to adhere to any standards so they chose not to upgrade.
"C# was opened to the standards body for other vendors to create C#"
Yes the standard C# is great for writing hello world applications. Is it any wonder nobody outside of MS shops is using C# for anything? Lets face it python, ruby, java, and yes even the lowly perl is more useful then "standard C#".
"How do you justify this in light of the common practice of charging union dues to non-union employees?"
Under some circumstances if the general employee population benefits from the presense of the union it is only fair to pay the union for their efforts.
For example if the workplace is safer due to the efforts of a union then everybody is better off not just the union members. Another common example is if the union fights for higher wages and the company gives everybody a higher wage (as opposed to just the union members). In that case the non union members have benefitted from union activities.
Under those circumstances I don't see how it's unfair to ask those people to pay the union dues.
"Maybe it's something in the air, but on this continent, people tend to believe that they aren't beholden to anyone for their rights, and that 'taxation' does not equal 'representation.'"
Any right you have are a result of people fighting to get them. You don't "get" rights you fight tooth and nail for them. Remember a thing called the American revolution? That's where your rights came from.
On this continent for better or worse business is an antagonistic system of the business owners, the customers and the employees. Each one of these sets of people have conflicting goals.
The customer wants to pay as little as possible while receiving the best possible product and service.
The Employee wants to get paid as much as possible while doing the least amount of work.
The business person wants to pay the least amount of salary while getting the most work and wants to charge the most amount of money for the product while keeping the least amount of quality and service.
The customer fights for their rights by shopping around for the best prices and service. Sometimes they have lots of choices and they win other times they are dealing with a monopoly and they lose and get ripped off (see microsoft).
In the employee employer relationship you have to fight against the owners desire to keep you in the lowest income bracket possible. To a business person the ideal world consists of slaves working 20 hour days for subsidence.
Sure you can fight by yourself but it's more effective to fight by organizing with your fellow employees. The boss might fire you or tell you to go to hell but he would be less likely to do that if all his employees would also leave in response.
I am sure you have heard the saying "United we stand, divided we fall".
So go ahead. Don't unionize and walk into your bosses office to demand more money, less work, better hours, or more consideration for your sick wife. Maybe your boss is kind and generous and will give you an immediate raise and cut back your hours. More likely he will tell you to go to hell because he can hire a thousand monkeys to do your job for less.
The world is full of suckers like you who are convinced that unions are evil and are perfectly happy to work in a job where job security means you will be given a days notice before they will take away your keycard.
"The loss of individuality. "
Who says you are guaranteed individuality if you don't join a union?
"The cost to employees."
Yes. Your salary is a cost to employees. Unions try to get highest possible salaries for their members which means higher costs to the employers. Don't join a union, make less money, and save your boss money.
"Exclusive representation."
Without a union you have no representation.
"This power carries with it a duty of fair representation that requires the union to negotiate fairly on behalf of all employees in the "bargaining unit," whether they are union members or not."
This is silly. Unions normally do this but it's not a duty. It's not fair for the non union members to benefit from the activities of the union. They should be left to negotiate with management by themselves outside of the union.
"He was going up against a prosecutor who is funded by state/fed."
Kind of a moot point really. The corporation bought the law and now they don't even have to pay for the lawyers to enforce it.
"I think he had a horrible lawyer to plead guilty to this."
Most people can't afford good lawyers. They either use the court appointed one who sleeps through the trial of they flip through the yellow pages.
"Can that happen in the US?"
Nah. We have legalized bribery here.
Junkscience.com does not show scientific sources and they do not limit themselves to global warming. They link to republican and corporate financed "studies" which have not been peer reviewed and have not been published in reputable journals.
I will repeat myself. Junkscience.com is a propaganda arm of the republican party and is therefore the propaganda arm of corporate america. A quick perusing of their web site ought to make this clear to any five year old but apparently not you.
Junkscience.com is nothing but a republican propaganda outfit. When you make a reference to them you display your bias.
"That is the VERY DEFINITION of NON-PORTABLE!"
No. The definition of non portable is that it can not be ported without a complete rewrite of the code. It may be hard to port but it's portable.
There are expats living all over the world. Even in places like vietnam and philipines and such. In places like that where the US dollar goes far you can live a simple and comfortable life for a few thousand dollars per year. Selling your current house and car could probably set you up for a decade or so. Granted it wouldn't be the champagne and caviar life but I think you'll find that food grown naturally and picked off the wine will tase much better then the carboard tasting fruits and vegetables you are used to eating.
"right now (forgoing the orwellian near future, for a moment), there is simply no better place to be."
Wow what an odd thing to say. Do you really mean that? On what basis do you form that argument. Let's look at some of your statements.
"You live in a country with an incredibly good road system. "
Well I didn't know this was so important but I have traveled to many countries with real good road systems. Last I checked all of europe had good road systems as did japan, australia, new zealand, and even a few asian countries.
"You have running water. Reliably. You have indoor plumbing. You have readily available food. You have electricity. You live in a place that has as many cars as families, because cars and gas are just that damned cheap here."
Let's see I guess the above mentioned countries all also have clean water, food, electricy and cars. Gas is more expensive in most fo the world but the public transportaion is great too.
"You have the best military in the world. "
No argument there. We likes to kill!. We spend more of our taxes on military then anybody else. We would rather have a bigger bombs then affordable health care and education.
"ou don't have to fear for your life walking down the street (well, in some places, you do, but it's safer here than much of the rest of the world)."
We have one of the highest crime rates in the world and the highest murder rate. US is quite possibly the most dangerous place to live when it comes to being victims of violent crime.
"This is a nation in which *anyone* can get a job. Not necessarily a good job, or the job they want, but you can land a job that'll pay well enough for you to eat every day."
Most of europe, canada, new zealand, and australia enjoy great unemployment rates. Also if for some reason you can't get a job they have great social programs to make sure you don't starve or die of disease. I think they have us beat on that one.
"I can drink the water anywhere in this nation without fear. Some places it looks a little brown, or have hard water, etc., but you can drink it without *dying*."
Yes I know all those europeans die every day from drinking the water. I also heard of the great water pestilence in japan and china. It is said that if your lips ever touch water in singapore you simply keel over and die.
"You have incredible medical care. I know many places have better systems for covering payment, and it's free in many places, but there's very few places in US where you can't get immediate medical care."
US health care is great if you can pay for it. Otherwise you have to declare banckrupcy after vising the emergency room. Other countries seem to be able to make sure everybody can get decent health care and preventitive care. Last I checked US was somewhere around fourth or fifth in infant mortality.
"but I see every day how much worse it could be, and I'm happy for what we have."
It could always be worse. I bet even people in cambodia were saying that during the reign on Pol Pot. Sure it can always get worse but if you ever take the time to actually travel you will find out that it can get so much better too.
" When Clinton was bombing Baghdad [salon.com] the day of his impeachment, where were the protesters? Where were the demonstractions? Where where the cries of "career politician?""
Plenty of people protested the cruel and immoral torture of the iraqis with sanctions. Plenty of people protested the continual bombing of Iraq for 20 years. It's just that you never heard about it. Rush didn't tell you, O'Reilly didn't tell you because they agreed with clinton on this matter.
BTW: Do you think that in hindsight impeaching the president because he lied about cock might have been an unnecessary distraction?
"The liberals sure love to be cynical when it's not their administration anymore."
Oh those darn america hating liberals. They are the only people who are cynical. US God loving and fearing patriotic conservatives supported bombing the shit out bosnia 100% and we also supported unconditionally the military intervention in Haiti to install a democracy over there. Only if those traitor liberals could be lined up and shot and buried in mass graves the world would be so much better off. Who needs those communist, fag, pinko, un-american niggers anyway.
Who modded this guy up?
"Where the hell do you get this pathetic thinking from? The attitude of the leaders trickles down to the lower levels. The military literally reflects the attitudes of the top generals, the president, and his advisors."
Having been in the military I can state with 100% certainty that you know nothing about this matter. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"You want to know why the Iraqis are putting pregnant women in car bombs?"
It's not because they are being invaded?
"In fact, the true hero of this entire conflict is President Bush. He sticks to his morals."
Bush is nothing more then the first sexually transmitted president. Yes he is a morally rigid man who is incapable of understanding the complexitites of human existance. He is totaly devoid of imagination and intelligence (or as he says "I don't have much book learning") and therefore tries to solve every problem by dropping bombs but that does not make him a hero.
"He is bringing dignity and freedom to a country that has been ravaged for twenty years."
Considering that the US has been ravaging iraq for the past 20 years it seems like good idea to bring freedom to that country. I suspect however that this operation will end up like afghanistan and kuwait. You remember the huge lines of people anxiously waiting to vote for their first elected leader in kuwait and afghanistan? It will be just like that.
"What is in this for him? What is he going to take home at the end of the day? The answer is nothing."
The approval of his god. The approval of his political base. Increased personal wealth for him and his close friends. The warm feeling inside knowing that he is fulfilling the word of god as it was prophesized in the bible. Knowing that he is playing a part in making sure the stage is set for the return of Jesus Christ.
"How would you like to know that you were directly responsible for young men and women being tortured and brutally killed? "
They are just muslims, what's the big deal? Sure a few christian american soldiers got killed too but it's a small price to pay.
"He is doing all this, sacrificing his political career"
He is helping his career. War talk won him big in the mid term elections and actual war will guarantee him a re-election despite the horrid state of the economy.
"sacrificing his peace of mind, all to bring freedom to a couple of people in a faraway land that nobody seems to care about."
Where were you for the past 20 years? Where were you when we were bombing bridges, electrical plants, water treatment facilites. Where were you when the depleted uranium armament we were using increased cancer rates by 10 fold? Where did you get this new found love of the iraqi people when not a month went by in the past 20 years when we were not dropping a bomb on that country.
"He does this to ensure that our children will grow up without planes crashing into their office buildings, and without worrying about being burned alive by savage terrorists."
Saddam didn't do that. Please learn to read. It was osama bin laden. You are severely confused.
"It's people like you that make Saddam Hussein think he stands a chance, and give aid and comfort to the enemy."
I don't think saddam reads slashdot. Do you?
"If you would've stood with your president from the beginning, Saddam would've left long ago, and we would've ended the torture that is the daily lives of the Iraqi people years ago."
Yes of course. A dictator who does not leave when the biggest most advanced military in the world is dropping cluster bombs and bunker busters on his house would leave if we simply subjugated our will to Bush. Why didn't I think that of before. Just give up your freedom to think and speak and Saddam will leave!.
" Err huh, are you on acid or is it silly pills?"
No he's just been watching too much Fox News.
"We're not (yet?) rounding up Arabs and Muslims, sending them to forced labor camps, and murdering them en masse. No matter how bad Ashcroft is (very), he's not quite Hitler."
We have already set up concentration camps in cuba and afghanistan. They are filled with muslims and arabs. Neither you nor I know what is actually going on in them though because we do not live in a country with free press. The ones in afghanistan sound especially gruesome because they were built to shed the shackles of the US constitution. One official joked that they call it "Hotel California" because "you can never leave".
DO you think one day some army is going to liberate those camps and find the same thing we found when we liberated aushwitz?
Actually this is not true. He hasn't been charged with anything. He is being held just because the president called him a terrorist.
The irony is that Ashcroft admitted on TV that even he does not know where this guy is. My guess is that he is in "hotel california" which is a concentration camp outside the US borders.
Freudian slip.
I'd settle for a search engine that works. Have you noticed how many busy screens you get since they switched to DB/2?
Is that anything like republicans saying that liberals hate america and that the people who oppose the war are traitors?
" Noam Chomsky liked the Khmer Rouge's actions in Cambodia."
I seriously doubt it. I think you are lying.
First of all your quotes don't even back up your statement. Secondly they are most likely taken out of context.
Even in the unlikely event that you are actually telling the truth it does not make him wrong now. People are sometimes right and sometimes wrong.
"We're criticized as much for NOT involving ourselves in countries as for the opposite (we "abandoned Afghanistan" after the Soviet invasion was pushed back, we "allow" people to starve in 3rd world nations)."
We do both. It's not that hard to understand is it? Try to think of a ten year period since world war 2 that US bombs or cover ops were not killing some people some place. I dare you to name the time period go ahead. At the same time we let dicators opress their own people or minorities in their own countries when it suits us.
I don't know how you define evil but I think that being concerned only with your own self interest at the expense of entire mankind is probably on the evil side of the good-o-meter.
"Compare America's "economic imperialism" to the military imperialism practiced by western Europe in the 19th century."
Oh great. US is "less evil" then the soviet union. I feel much better now. Here is a thought. Maybe it's not good enough to be "less evil". Maybe we ought to try to be good.
"The rise of the middle class in the United States and other countries is the result of their governments not meddling in economic affairs, and only ensuring rule of law"
Which country do you live in? DO you honestly believe that the US govt govt does not meddle in economic affairs and only ensures the rule of war?
Honestly why should we listen to anything else you say when you are so utterly naive?
"Americans supported this action"
That is to be expected considering they are only getting one side of the story. If the US had free press then you'd probably see more dissent. Americans are not even allowed to see the people they kill on TV. They can go on pretending that all those bombs falling on Bagdad spew cinnamon buns instead of body parts.
"Such a circumstance would be illegal on public roads but it is completely legal on private property."
Irrelevent.
" Non-stock racing cars often do not use car keys, and often lack many of the safety features and emission standards applied to cars licenced to drive on public roads."
Once again irrelevent.
"Guns are already illegal to operate on public roads, and their possession and use on private property is already subject to many regulations."
Guns get used on public property all the time. Not only on public lands such as state parks but all kinds of national forests. They are also legal to carry on public roads and presumably it's not illegal to shoot them from a road as long as you are not actually commiting murder at the time.
This is a red herring you are throwing here. Guns should have more oversight. Guns should be licences and registered. Like cars the registrations should be renewed every year. The licenses also ought to expire and be renewed periodically. There should be child safety features on guns as well as devices to make sure only the owners can use the guns.
Of course if anybody actually proposed something like this NRA would throw a fit and start running around yelling "liberals are going to take your guns, they hate america" and people like you would nod your heads in unison and say "why yes those liberals do hate america and they want to take away my guns".