Speaking of subjectivity, this summary is rife with it. Even though I agree 100% with it, I would prefer my news fed to me in the form of low grade homogeneous neutral gruel.
the abuses we Americans have been subjected to in the name of battling terrorism.
Is it abuse if the people consent? Worse than consent, they reelected the team that was "abusing" them. Obviously, the sheeple want a facist police state to keep the wolves at bay.
Hell, it's not really surprising that Presidents would want to expand the power of their own branch. What's surprising/depressing is that the other two branches let them get away with it.
It's not surprising when all three branches were controlled by the same party. The three branches were designed to oppose each other, not to be in the same hands, if the electorate allows that to happen, well, they get the government they deserve, it seems.
"And a "No Fly" list that is so easily added to that includes children *isn't* a violation of Constitutional rights?"
Wait....because they can add children, that makes it worse??
Any person with an IQ above 70 knows that children lack the motivation, knowledge, skills and physical strenght to pose a real and present threat to an airliner.
Geez, when did everything become 'about the children'. There is nothing special about them, and society needs to quit catering to them and their parents...This is a "grownups" world, lets start treating it that way again.
Children are simply little people who have yet to reach the age of majority.
The no fly list is screwing with people...age one way or another does not make it worse or better.
I don't know why you feel you need to rant against children, of all things, and I sure as hell don't see how that blind hatred qualifies as "insight", but the difference between a child and an adult are not, as you seem to believe, limited to an arbitrary legal number of solar circumnavigations, and therefore their inclusion onto a list of threats to the security of the entire western civilization is quite different from the inclusion of a elderly person, who might have the motivation, skills and knowhow to bring down a plane onto a nuclear powerstation.
You can make a convincing argument that we are in Iraq because of oil, but there is absolutely no natural resource of any significance in Afghanistan. No reason at all to be in there except that they were harboring our enemies.
THERE'S A HUGE PIPELINE going through afghanistan, it IS about oil.
Before the invasion the pipeline contract was taken care of by a south american company (brazilian, IIRC), and now? US company, big surprise there.
What makes it illegal for the FBI to request and be given the computers?
I've been wondering that, I kmow it's creepy, but I'm not 100% sure it's illegal. If it was an abuse of their authority and they overstepped the legal limit granted to their special agent position, then it was a crime. But I don't know if asking for stuff and then walking away with it is illegal per se if you actually tell the person responsible for that property what you intend to do with the material in question, they watch you take it and walk out with it, and they aren't complaining that you took it.
Still, it's a step towards a full and complete police state, and that's bad. There's been too much shuffling in that direction already.
I disagree with you. I also think Firemen should need a court order to remove people from buildings. I mean, these were just computers, but Firemen can move *people*! Our Government is getting out of control.
I am happy when even television shows get it right (Law and Order occasionally)
Feel good propaganda. Add some bread, and you've got a population Caesar himself would be proud of.
Remember, subliminal means "below a threshold", and the limit here is coming right out and actually saying "see, the system works!", they just repeatedly show you examples of the system working. That falls below the textual threshold.
It always bugs me how the military treats the 'senior military officials' better than the soldiers even though the soldiers are the ones putting their lives on the line.
Class warfare, read up on it.
The soldiers' job is 100% to protect and further the advantageous lifestyle of their 'betters'. Stop idealizing the soldiers, they're just tools, and stop believing their masters, they just want the tools to have good morale so they'll be more productive.
It is hard to believe the FBI won't do the study to get real numbers, but we've been here before. These are the same people who presented bullet lead evidence with equal certainty.
If they've done it before, why would it be hard to believe they're doing it again???
I sorta am. I mean, as a punishment from the justice system, not a 'free' market. Have Reiser contribute full time to open source projects for the duration of his incarceration, to repay his debt to society he should have to spend some time working for everyone except him, while he's locked up.
Give him time off for good performance as a carrot and information denial as a stick (tell a geek you're taking away all his electronics and paper, he'll freak).
The scary specter of greed-based convictions already exists thanks to private prisons and their innate need to maximize profits, so the exploitation front shouldn't be a deal breaker. I think it would be better than having them do push ups and fight amongst themselves, MUCH better for rehabilitation and society than the shellshocked hepatitis bonanza of prison rape.
If people never died, we'd all be starving, etc. Can you imagine having your overly-senile great-great-great-20-times-removed ancestors hanging around - and ALL their offspring - you'd want to kill them, just to get some breathing room.
I imagine I'd be doing it for the meat more than the stress relief.
There is something very morbid about using the work of a murderer.
Just because Nazis killed innocent Jews to discover the best way to save someone from hypothermia (put them in a naked pile with warm living bodies under a good blanket) doesn't mean you don't use the technique (or its' less homoerotic technological equivalent). You just hope it saves more lives than it cost to figure it out (in needlessly cruel experiments).
This guy murdered his wife, and told his kids their mommy had abandoned them. He deserves all the hard times they throw at him, but his work is not a moral being, it's just a tool. Use it for good, that makes it good. Use for wrongs, it'll be bad.
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking of subjectivity, this summary is rife with it. Even though I agree 100% with it, I would prefer my news fed to me in the form of low grade homogeneous neutral gruel.
Good, if you ever find such a thing, let us know.
You'd think our friends in Congress would take their oath of office more seriously
I wouldn't, they're asking crooks to swear to be honest, and the crooks use their well practised ability to lie with a straight face.
Oaths are just a show.
the abuses we Americans have been subjected to in the name of battling terrorism.
Is it abuse if the people consent?
Worse than consent, they reelected the team that was "abusing" them. Obviously, the sheeple want a facist police state to keep the wolves at bay.
Hell, it's not really surprising that Presidents would want to expand the power of their own branch. What's surprising/depressing is that the other two branches let them get away with it.
It's not surprising when all three branches were controlled by the same party.
The three branches were designed to oppose each other, not to be in the same hands, if the electorate allows that to happen, well, they get the government they deserve, it seems.
"And a "No Fly" list that is so easily added to that includes children *isn't* a violation of Constitutional rights?"
Wait....because they can add children, that makes it worse??
Any person with an IQ above 70 knows that children lack the motivation, knowledge, skills and physical strenght to pose a real and present threat to an airliner.
Geez, when did everything become 'about the children'. There is nothing special about them, and society needs to quit catering to them and their parents...This is a "grownups" world, lets start treating it that way again.
Children are simply little people who have yet to reach the age of majority.
The no fly list is screwing with people...age one way or another does not make it worse or better.
I don't know why you feel you need to rant against children, of all things, and I sure as hell don't see how that blind hatred qualifies as "insight", but the difference between a child and an adult are not, as you seem to believe, limited to an arbitrary legal number of solar circumnavigations, and therefore their inclusion onto a list of threats to the security of the entire western civilization is quite different from the inclusion of a elderly person, who might have the motivation, skills and knowhow to bring down a plane onto a nuclear powerstation.
any creation of 'No Sue' list as mentioned would be a violation of your Constitutional right
So?
That's never stopped this administration before.
BTW, you still think the Big Bad Osama also was rensposible for the Oklahoma city bombing? Because he was the first suspect for that too.
One news media bringing up the name of Osama Bin Laden, does not mean the USA accused him of being responsible for the OKC bombing.
the FBI and Oklahoma police put out an alert for three men believed to be of Middle Eastern origin
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/19/newsid_2733000/2733321.stm
BTW, you still think the Big Bad Osama also was rensposible for the Oklahoma city bombing? Because he was the first suspect for that too.
One news media bringing up the name of Osama Bin Laden, does not mean the USA accused him of being responsible for the OKC bombing.
One?
wtf
"Large portions of Afghanistan are still under effective Taliban control"
Yeah, caves and desert shit holes that no one else wants.
"and elections mean didly squat if the elected government has no real power."
Well, then they were great, as the government does have real power.
"Your view of the situation is awefully rose colored."
And your view of the situation is awfully ignorant of reality.
Pot, I'm not a kettle.
You can make a convincing argument that we are in Iraq because of oil, but there is absolutely no natural resource of any significance in Afghanistan. No reason at all to be in there except that they were harboring our enemies.
THERE'S A HUGE PIPELINE going through afghanistan, it IS about oil.
Before the invasion the pipeline contract was taken care of by a south american company (brazilian, IIRC), and now? US company, big surprise there.
The ignorance, the mind numbing ignorance! GAH!
The objective was to kill the talibans and, by the way, the US failed MISSERABLY in that.
Yes, because they are still in power and those elections we saw were produced in Hollywood.
Large portions of Afghanistan are still under effective Taliban control and elections mean didly squat if the elected government has no real power.
Your view of the situation is awefully rose colored.
the US provided no proof of the involvment of Bin Laden. Most countries do not extradict people without proof.
I guess you are right. I mean, unless we had a VIDEO TAPE of Osama Bin Laden admitting to planning 9-11, I guess we shouldn't have gone in.
Sigh.
What passes for proof these days...
BTW, you still think the Big Bad Osama also was rensposible for the Oklahoma city bombing? Because he was the first suspect for that too.
we didn't overthrow the Taliban alone. First, we had NATO support.
I didn't do it alone! My lackeys helped!
They harbored Osama Bin Laden. You remember him, right?
I think I do... wasn't he one of the guys who was trained, armed and funded by the CIA in the 80s?
The question is: do you remember?
What makes it illegal for the FBI to request and be given the computers?
I've been wondering that, I kmow it's creepy, but I'm not 100% sure it's illegal. If it was an abuse of their authority and they overstepped the legal limit granted to their special agent position, then it was a crime. But I don't know if asking for stuff and then walking away with it is illegal per se if you actually tell the person responsible for that property what you intend to do with the material in question, they watch you take it and walk out with it, and they aren't complaining that you took it.
Still, it's a step towards a full and complete police state, and that's bad. There's been too much shuffling in that direction already.
I disagree with you. I also think Firemen should need a court order to remove people from buildings. I mean, these were just computers, but Firemen can move *people*! Our Government is getting out of control.
Ok, mildly funny, but WTF modded that Insightful?
Also: DIAF, fireman hater! : )
I am happy when even television shows get it right (Law and Order occasionally)
Feel good propaganda.
Add some bread, and you've got a population Caesar himself would be proud of.
Remember, subliminal means "below a threshold", and the limit here is coming right out and actually saying "see, the system works!", they just repeatedly show you examples of the system working. That falls below the textual threshold.
At the very least you don't want the pilot distracted by a large load he can't dump.
Hey, that's the bombadeers' job!
That might work for your average soldier, but do you really want the guy in command of all your forces arriving somewhere absolutely tired?
Yes, they shouldn't be willing to send the soldiers that way if it's not good enough for them.
Then maybe they'll think twice about invading oil fields under false pretenses of "democracy and freedom and puppies for all" next time.
It always bugs me how the military treats the 'senior military officials' better than the soldiers even though the soldiers are the ones putting their lives on the line.
Class warfare, read up on it.
The soldiers' job is 100% to protect and further the advantageous lifestyle of their 'betters'. Stop idealizing the soldiers, they're just tools, and stop believing their masters, they just want the tools to have good morale so they'll be more productive.
Well call me naive, but I don't think things like this are driven by greed
Call me cynical, but I think you're very naive.
It is hard to believe the FBI won't do the study to get real numbers, but we've been here before. These are the same people who presented bullet lead evidence with equal certainty.
If they've done it before, why would it be hard to believe they're doing it again???
unless you are pro-slavery of course.
I sorta am. I mean, as a punishment from the justice system, not a 'free' market.
Have Reiser contribute full time to open source projects for the duration of his incarceration, to repay his debt to society he should have to spend some time working for everyone except him, while he's locked up.
Give him time off for good performance as a carrot and information denial as a stick (tell a geek you're taking away all his electronics and paper, he'll freak).
The scary specter of greed-based convictions already exists thanks to private prisons and their innate need to maximize profits, so the exploitation front shouldn't be a deal breaker. I think it would be better than having them do push ups and fight amongst themselves, MUCH better for rehabilitation and society than the shellshocked hepatitis bonanza of prison rape.
If people never died, we'd all be starving, etc. Can you imagine having your overly-senile great-great-great-20-times-removed ancestors hanging around - and ALL their offspring - you'd want to kill them, just to get some breathing room.
I imagine I'd be doing it for the meat more than the stress relief.
There is something very morbid about using the work of a murderer.
Just because Nazis killed innocent Jews to discover the best way to save someone from hypothermia (put them in a naked pile with warm living bodies under a good blanket) doesn't mean you don't use the technique (or its' less homoerotic technological equivalent).
You just hope it saves more lives than it cost to figure it out (in needlessly cruel experiments).
This guy murdered his wife, and told his kids their mommy had abandoned them. He deserves all the hard times they throw at him, but his work is not a moral being, it's just a tool. Use it for good, that makes it good. Use for wrongs, it'll be bad.