I say let them die in jail, make them spend the rest of there lives rotting away.
Too expensive, plus we need the prison space for the next batch of crooks. Alas, I have to agree. I oppose the death penalty, if only for the reason that I wouldn't trust the government to tie my shoelaces, much less trust it not to occasionally execute an innocent man here or there.
A nation should be judged not upon how it treats its most noble, but how it treats the most deplorable. Anyone can be a monster to someone who deserves it, but far better they who treat such a monster in the opposite.
Uh... why, exactly? Why shouldn't monsters get what they deserve?
So the sentiment expressed above extends to the U.S. government?
They were more than happy to overlook the gassings as long as Saddam was putting the boot to the Ayatollah's screaming masses...
I didn't see any other country running off to invade Iraq for its crimes, during that time, either. While the US may have overlooked the gassings, which admittedly was a really crappy thing to do, the fact remains that it was Hussein (well, his thugs) who were doing the gassing, not the US.
- surveillance and wiretapping is an evil method - unless it's of someone we dislike.
Not surveillance and wiretapping - illegal surveillance and wiretapping. When there's a law that says the White House can do all the wiretapping it wants, as long as it files a little paperwork - which it can even file after the fact - and the White House, in its arrogance, refuses to do even that - that's evil.
but how much MORE effective would you be if you could talk to real people like you talk to slashdotters? How much more could you contribute if you could function in "management" type discussions... that we all avoid to live in mom's basement.
But what if "gaining" that "ability" also meant losing the analytical/logical skills that may come with the Asperger's/autism-spectrum? Then you'd have nothing to contribute in those management meetings, except more hot air...
A good manager doesn't necessarily need to be knowledgeable about technology; they need to trust the engineers working for them to make correct decisions.
It sure helps when a manager is knowledgable enough to know one of his engineers is about to screw something up royally.
or seriously considering an MBA, then you're not really interested in technology. You're bound to be a manager, who is clueless about technology, so don't be one of those people I had to take classes with who needed to cheat on their programming projects.
Geez, dude, the guy went to school for four years to get a CS degree. You've got some awfully high standards for "interested in technology".
No, I got you, I just don't buy your position. "Socialist" is a term that gets misused a lot. Food stamps are not socialist. State ownership or control of the means of production is socialist. If the government told the food manufacturers, "you must give away 20% of your annual production to the poor", that would be socialist. Nobody forced the Apollo program contractors to participate; their work was not forcibly expropriated. NASA (and food stamps) may be Keynesian in nature, but they're not socialist.
NASA didn't build most of the stuff that went into space; private companies did.
And food stamps are not socialist because the food was manufactured by private companies.
In a really truly socialist country, the food isn't manufactured by private companies; it's manufactured by the State Ministry of Nutrition or whatever.
By "mandate" you mean money as well as the decision. I'm aware that companies sometimes build parts, but in a socialist state, the work is still done by the people or organisations - the point is that the decisions and the money come from the state. And NASA are not private industry in any meaningful sense.
Just because the initial entry into and exploration of space was done by public institutions, doesn't mean it had to be that way. If we'd let the porn industry find a way to commercialize it, we'd have fry cooks on Venus by now.
Similarly, if you don't like the country you live in, go live somewhere else, or start your own country. What's all this "representation" and "voting" crap people seem to think they're entitled to?
Government (at least the one I live in) is supposed to be democratic. Private property, on the other hand, is supposed to be, well, y'know, private. Again, if you don't own the company you work for, why do you expect to be "represented" or have a "vote" regarding someone else's property and how they use it?
and how much energy goes into getting gas to the pump? (Hint: A lot more)
Not that much, relatively speaking. It may take a lot of energy, for example, to move a supertanker from the Persian Gulf to a New Jersey refinery, but think of how many millions of kg of oil (at how many millions of joules per kg) you are moving in the process. Ditto for the tank truck that carries the gasoline from the refinery to the gas station; the energy used by the truck is small in comparison to the amount of energy being transported. It's like the old adage about not being able to beat a station wagon full of tapes (or hard drives, etc.) when it comes to bandwidth.
We DO have *several* nuclear programmes in Europe... who else made those two nuclear submarines carrying ballistic missiles that collided in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago? (Perhaps the Americans did, I'm not sure).
No, we crash our ballistic missile submarines into Japanese freighters. For collisions with other subs, we use our attack subs instead.
George W. Bush is a reasonably balanced leader? That's a first!
On a historical, worldwide scale? Yes, I'd have to say so. It's not as though I would have (or did) vote for him, or would have even if you paid me, but he certainly could have been a lot worse. Let's try to maintain a little perspective, shall we?
Slashdot Mirror
Would you like to be wrapped in a Snuggie before you die?
Hell, yes, those things look nice and comfortable.
I say let them die in jail, make them spend the rest of there lives rotting away.
Too expensive, plus we need the prison space for the next batch of crooks. Alas, I have to agree. I oppose the death penalty, if only for the reason that I wouldn't trust the government to tie my shoelaces, much less trust it not to occasionally execute an innocent man here or there.
A nation should be judged not upon how it treats its most noble, but how it treats the most deplorable. Anyone can be a monster to someone who deserves it, but far better they who treat such a monster in the opposite.
Uh... why, exactly? Why shouldn't monsters get what they deserve?
So the sentiment expressed above extends to the U.S. government?
They were more than happy to overlook the gassings as long as Saddam was putting the boot to the Ayatollah's screaming masses...
I didn't see any other country running off to invade Iraq for its crimes, during that time, either. While the US may have overlooked the gassings, which admittedly was a really crappy thing to do, the fact remains that it was Hussein (well, his thugs) who were doing the gassing, not the US.
Hangings still happen in a few states. Agreed with your comment, however, it was distasteful and unnecessary what we did to Saddam.
Feh. We should've gassed him, like he did to all those Kurds.
Um, I'm pretty sure the Palin crowd is NOT ashamed of anything Palin said or did.
Well, yeah. Trailer trash tend not to have much shame.
You let me know when CEO boards are infiltrated by the FBI or others with "leftist" agenda.
I wonder what Rick Wagoner would have to say about that...
- surveillance and wiretapping is an evil method - unless it's of someone we dislike.
Not surveillance and wiretapping - illegal surveillance and wiretapping. When there's a law that says the White House can do all the wiretapping it wants, as long as it files a little paperwork - which it can even file after the fact - and the White House, in its arrogance, refuses to do even that - that's evil.
It would be legally considered torture. Deliberate and repeated humiliation.
It's only "humiliation" if Saddam is a homophobe. And has no sense of humor whatsoever.
What I want to know is... why the hell would he autograph a photo for US troops?
"Not everyone on the autism spectrum wants to be cured." -- Sigourney Weaver
But I'll bet that some of them do. Shouldn't they have that option if they want it?
[citation needed]
Sorry to be blunt, but this sounds like rubbish to me.
Hmm. Do you excel in math, by any chance?
Slams the buzzer
What are colors not found in the standard Crayola box, Alex?
[connery] Now I'll take Anal Bum Cover for a hundred, Trebek... [/connery]
but how much MORE effective would you be if you could talk to real people like you talk to slashdotters? How much more could you contribute if you could function in "management" type discussions... that we all avoid to live in mom's basement.
But what if "gaining" that "ability" also meant losing the analytical/logical skills that may come with the Asperger's/autism-spectrum? Then you'd have nothing to contribute in those management meetings, except more hot air...
A good manager doesn't necessarily need to be knowledgeable about technology; they need to trust the engineers working for them to make correct decisions.
It sure helps when a manager is knowledgable enough to know one of his engineers is about to screw something up royally.
or seriously considering an MBA, then you're not really interested in technology. You're bound to be a manager, who is clueless about technology, so don't be one of those people I had to take classes with who needed to cheat on their programming projects.
Geez, dude, the guy went to school for four years to get a CS degree. You've got some awfully high standards for "interested in technology".
It's a good thing you're not trying to help him with his HTML skills...
Whoosh!
No, I got you, I just don't buy your position. "Socialist" is a term that gets misused a lot. Food stamps are not socialist. State ownership or control of the means of production is socialist. If the government told the food manufacturers, "you must give away 20% of your annual production to the poor", that would be socialist. Nobody forced the Apollo program contractors to participate; their work was not forcibly expropriated. NASA (and food stamps) may be Keynesian in nature, but they're not socialist.
NASA didn't build most of the stuff that went into space; private companies did.
And food stamps are not socialist because the food was manufactured by private companies.
In a really truly socialist country, the food isn't manufactured by private companies; it's manufactured by the State Ministry of Nutrition or whatever.
By "mandate" you mean money as well as the decision. I'm aware that companies sometimes build parts, but in a socialist state, the work is still done by the people or organisations - the point is that the decisions and the money come from the state. And NASA are not private industry in any meaningful sense.
Just because the initial entry into and exploration of space was done by public institutions, doesn't mean it had to be that way. If we'd let the porn industry find a way to commercialize it, we'd have fry cooks on Venus by now.
And remind me again, how exactly did the US "lead in space"? Was that through private means of production, or a Government funded organisation?
Well, both, actually. NASA didn't build most of the stuff that went into space; private companies did.
Again someone who misses the point: What do non-technical writers do that never wrote a line of code and therefore would never think that way?
Say, an economist, like me.
They ask their IT guy, who should know better if he's worth his salary.
Similarly, if you don't like the country you live in, go live somewhere else, or start your own country. What's all this "representation" and "voting" crap people seem to think they're entitled to?
Government (at least the one I live in) is supposed to be democratic. Private property, on the other hand, is supposed to be, well, y'know, private. Again, if you don't own the company you work for, why do you expect to be "represented" or have a "vote" regarding someone else's property and how they use it?
and how much energy goes into getting gas to the pump? (Hint: A lot more)
Not that much, relatively speaking. It may take a lot of energy, for example, to move a supertanker from the Persian Gulf to a New Jersey refinery, but think of how many millions of kg of oil (at how many millions of joules per kg) you are moving in the process. Ditto for the tank truck that carries the gasoline from the refinery to the gas station; the energy used by the truck is small in comparison to the amount of energy being transported. It's like the old adage about not being able to beat a station wagon full of tapes (or hard drives, etc.) when it comes to bandwidth.
We DO have *several* nuclear programmes in Europe... who else made those two nuclear submarines carrying ballistic missiles that collided in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago? (Perhaps the Americans did, I'm not sure).
No, we crash our ballistic missile submarines into Japanese freighters. For collisions with other subs, we use our attack subs instead.
George W. Bush is a reasonably balanced leader? That's a first!
On a historical, worldwide scale? Yes, I'd have to say so. It's not as though I would have (or did) vote for him, or would have even if you paid me, but he certainly could have been a lot worse. Let's try to maintain a little perspective, shall we?
Q: How many bones are in the human body?
A: Did the human in question have a recent encounter with 2 mafia men and a baseball bat?
Hm. Do the two halves of a broken bone count as one bone?