your totally pointless reply denotes that it is YOU who has the inferiority complex.
A country only 200 years old which is nonetheless the monetary standard of the world, which kept the USSR from taking over all of Europe..... I hardly think I have an inferiority complex. His remark was asinine and unnecessary. He could have made a remark about the unwise direction Americans have taken in regards to public transportation without saying 'stupid yankees.' Therefore, he is Eurotrash with an inferiority complex.
Europe was there thousands of years before the US,
I always get a kick out of the old 'ancient civilization' argument; it has absolutely no bearing on life today or tomorrow. First, America is made up of people from ancient civ's all over the globe. Second, Africa has much more ancient civ's than Europe, and some of these people still run around in loincloths with bones in their noses shooting arrows at the sky during an eclipse. Third, lots of terrible ideas come from these ancient folk; doesn't make much sense to rationalize it with this argument.
I'm sure have much better arguments if I hadn't just had surgery and a couple of Lortabs...:)
It depends upon which population you are talking about. Americans would blow an O-ring, and fight, and vote the bums out, if it all were to occur overnight.
The Japanese - no offense to them - would possibly grumble, but might just follow along. Two diametrically opposed views of government, society, and the individual's place in it or personal rights.
Of course, since these laws are step-by-step type things, the populace doesn't notice the creeping control until they have a cop living in their basement.
You can put whatever laws or standards you want, but this system will be abused.
Ah, but there lies the catch-22 that makes this so dangerous. We (you and I) can both agree that this invites 'abuse.' Our definition of abuse now is one thing; even the legislatative body passing the law may say that it won't be 'abused' in a particular manner.
Enter 10 years from now: "It only makes sense, now that we have had this technology working for a decade, to use it to log all movement of citizens/subjects into databases; coupled with face recognition at corners, tied to your ATM, behind the counter at McDonalds, etc. After all, if you don't have anything to hide, why would you be against this? Its really no different than a cop randomly seeing you on the corner and recognizing you from his briefing that morning, as the dangerous 'Jaywalking Joe,' who owes fines for his neferious deeds."
Blah blah, and so on and so forth. The slippery slope of well-deserved paranoia. What we call abuse now, will be commonplace in the future. And that 10 years I mentioned, I'd really bet it'll be more like 5.
some are very employer-friendly (TX is notorious - I think they'll let you sign away your own soul).
Speaking as a Texan employee, I can say that Texas is a right-to-work state, which means that you don't have to join a mandatory union in order to have a job here. Employment is at the will of the two parties, employee/employer. Yes, you can get fired/layed off. But contracts containing unenforceable clauses are generally thrown out on their ears.
Why should it be taxed? It has already been taxed; to tax it again is unfair, and simply more of your class envy showing.
People are losing their family businesses because of this stupid Clintonista tripe. If some family has a business, lets say a butcher's shop, that has been in a building for 30 years, and did well enough that papa was able to buy the building and now makes a buck or two on leasing out the other few spaces, then papa keels over, guess what? The family gets hit with an inheritance tax on the entire lot, assessed by a caring, loving IRS beaurocrat. Now, they have to pay a hundred thousand dollars, so they have to sell the building, which incidentally contains their livlihood.
Are these the 'rich assholes' you guys keep mentioning?
You know, you people are just idiots. I am single, and when working my profession in the US, gross about 60k/year. Take away all the taxes, and its about 30k. How the hell is that fair? The US Consitution gives the US gov. certain powers and obligations, such as the national defense and 'promoting the common welfare,' which does not mean 'providing welfare to the public.' Nothing's free in this world, it all has to come from somewhere, and people like me are sick of taking care of individuals on welfare, WIC, HUD, Medicaid, and seeing them with their cell phones, video cameras, and brand new vehicles with keyless ignition, then going out and getting in our POS and driving home to our small apartments that we pay the entire bill for ourselves. You are not owed anything by mere providence of being inside this countries borders, not by me, not by the next guy. If you want a helping hand through difficult times, it can be found; but you guys want a freebie for life.
Good points.
You know, its funny, here in the US, we complain constantly about HMO's. And with good reason; they are arrogant, not knowlegable (who wants a guy with MAYBE a high school education deciding what tests/procedures are allowed and what are not?), and ration health care in a way that we, as pampered Americans, don't like.
But then the same columnists and media talking heads and 'social activists' who bash HMO's will praise a Canada/Europe/Japan/whomever style socialised medical system - which is basically a giant, government run HMO.
I'm confused.
What is he, a podiatrist? Ok, barb aside, a doctor makes enough money to be able to afford medication for the family. If he has the freebie samples in his drug closet at work, it seems natural to raid that than go pay out for the same stuff.
Perhaps. And is it your right, or my right, to determine who 'deserves' this money more? I think not.
So, the repairman will simply have to repair a few more windows, have money of his own, and use it in the way he wants. But then, someone can come along and presume they know better what to do with this money than our hard working repairman. And so forth. Its usually these idiots who think of the economy as a pie; that there are percentages to be had, and if you miss out your 'share,' its because someone else has it.
The truth is, the economy works more like a stack. It can keep getting bigger, without meaning that someone's 'share' is getting smaller. It can be called growing the economy, or creating wealth, or whatever, but its a simple concept that tax-n-share liberals don't (or pretend not to) understand.
Ah, I see; people are jealous of the property owned by others, and since they don't get free handouts from the workers to buy similar property, it is understandable that they would want to vandalize that of others.
Nice, circular argument. Usually, made by people with nice, block heads.
You're probably not thinking. Anyone who thinks that civilization=confiscation from the workers/handouts to the bums, is obviously an non-thinking individual.
Comparing coffee to powertools is amazingly off the mark.
No, its not. Whether the coffee is 212 or 180F, you don't put yourself in the position of spilling it on yourself, then blame someone else when you get the snot burned out of yourself. That's just ignorant. Yes, Mickey D's did not represent themselves well in that lawsuit; apparently they were fairly arrogant, and it didn't help that people had complained before about the temp of their coffee. But, people complain about companies all the damned time. I saw a guy in Sears once complaining quite loudly about his Craftsman screwdriver ruining the head of the screw, which was too tight, and he actually said he thought the screwdriver should be made to bend before the screw's head did.
Just because people are too stupid to breed, doesn't mean they have a good case in court. This country just makes me laugh with all are stupid lawsuits.
BS...
People injure themselves every day with power tools, through their own actions. That doesn't mean the company making the power tool is either at fault, or financially liable.
I voted for Congressman X, but I didn't know that a kneejerk fundie neoconservative would actually FOLLOW THROUGH on the slow REPEAL of the First Amendment!).
Why is it whiney types always blame 'conservatives' for things you don't like? Don't like broccoli? Probably a vast right wing conspiracy. Don't like Cream of Wheat? Must be that Shrub guy.
Guess what, moron? Democrats voted for this abortion of a bill, too! Who do you think they get their money from? The entertainment industry pays big bucks for these guys in their back pockets!
Now, I'm not totally familliar with the Kyoto treaty, but I'm quite settled that it's just another of those international agreements that the United States should sign and follow
The Kyoto treaty is not a pollution control system, it is a wealth distribution system. Why should the US citizens fund the growth of other countries? Not like we don't already, but still....
You can suggest all you want, it still doesn't change the fact that this is bullshit, stoner. Go back to your rally and fondle your wooden beads, and let those who know how to distinguish reality from leftist make-believe get back to what we were doing.
Why, whaddaya know, KILLING IS WRONG. This one's a no-brainer. If you disagree with me on this, I hope I never meet you in a dark ally.
Killing is not wrong. Murder is; if a man uses a rifle to kill an elk that he feeds his family, it is killing, but not wrong. If my daughter is in the hands of a man with a knife to her throat, I will not feel it wrong for me or anyone else to shoot his ass dead.
Killing is *not* the 'wrong' thing; it depends on the circumstances.
Which makes me laugh at your 'dark alley' reference... Are you saying you don't want to meet me in a dark alley, because you are afraid I will kill you? OR that you will kill me? Either way, you're an idiot.
I have a friend who is a cop. He was involved in a shooting once, which saved his life so he could go back to his wife and kids. Was he wrong? Should police departments fire all cops involved in shootings, simply because panty-waisted lily-livered pansies don't want to 'meet them in a dark alley' now? Shit, you'd better hope you meet my friend, if you're in some dark alleys I've seen. It might keep you from getting dead.
ERGO: WAR IS WRONG. And anyone who believes otherwise is wrong too. This is not just my opinion, this is not open to debate, this is a MORAL FACT
It is difficult to argue with someone who has such a warped sense of his own personal insignificance in the world, but I'll try anyway.
War is not wrong; it is a terrible concept, that of killing people and breaking things. But wrong? That depends on the side you're on, doesn't it? If you and your country decide to invade a country, murder its citizens, rape its women, and burn its land, then you are waging war, and are wrong, in my view. If the country being invaded rallies its army, who bring arms and fight the invaders, thereby (hopefully) killing them and driving them off, you are saying that these people are WRONG.
This is why pacifism is such a stupid concept. THere can be no such thing, even in a peaceful society. You are relying on force or the threat of force to keep people from robbing you and killing your wife after raping her. Otherwise, why else would we have police, courts, prisons?
Why am I arguing with a rutebega?
you may call it crap, but this war is against the UN, and the ones that are violating more the Geneva Conventions are the US bombers.
First, if this war is against the UN, we really *are* bombing the wrong country - they are headquartered in NYC. Second, which of the Geneva Conventions are we violating?
wrong, the chemical weapons...
I notice you conveniently didn't quote the part where I ask you idiots who spout this shit to back up or shut up. There's a simple reason for that: You can't. We did not give/sell/whatever chemical weapons to Iraq. Just because your voices tell you it is so, doesn't make it so.
sure, france, has his economics reasons also (as germany & russia )
Which are illegal, and yet one more proof against your idiotic statement that this is a war against the UN. God, what a moron.
America has no support for this war because it did not try to diffuse the situation.
NO support? That's a little melodramatic... We do have support. One of the best things for me personally to have done was to work in a foreign country for two years, with people from all over the world. In the critical care unit I worked in, I worked with South Africans (black and white), English, Dutch, Indian, Canadian (English and French), Australians, New Zealanders, a German, and Saudis. The level of support/lack thereof was predictable, ie, some for, some against. Canadians - by reputation, very polite, non-violent people - told me they wished the US would just nuke - yes, nuke - Iraq and get it over with. Fellow Americans whined against the war.
Just to show you, that all over the world, people have different opinions. To say the US has NO support is BS, my AC-troll friend.
George Bush never met with Saddam and gave him clear requests, such as no more human rights violations, destruction of weapons in exchange for the repeal of the sanctions.
The governor of my state (coincidentally, it was GW Bush) has never told me what is expected of me as a responsible citizen of my state/community. But I'm pretty damned sure that if I start murdering people in my neighborhood, lack of prior personal communication with a government official regarding such activity would not be an effective defense against prosecution.
Besides, that goon has had 12 years to comply. He has not. Bush did not exactly beat around the, uh, bush, over the past 6 months telling Saddam what was expected of him. 3 countries who have made illegal deals with Iraq have fought tooth and nail anything the US has tried in order to get this situation dealt with, for their own selfish reasons. In the meantime, children die. Too bad, so sad, you anti-war folks, its time to compel compliance if it is not voluntary.
We are a bad as he is, we declare an illegal war with out UN approval or any real hard evidence
The last time I checked the US Constitution, it said nothing about asking permission from a world body to defend our interests. Have they slipped an amendment by or something? I knew I shouldn't have smoked that shit in 11th grade...
The weapons we gave him were of the worst kind, the ones we could not use under weapons treaties, umm anthrax, VX gas, sarin, tabun(sp), technology to build nuclear weapons
You guys keep saying this. I say, we gave Saddam all the secret weapons work done from the Roswell, NM alien crash, and you can't prove we didn't. I can't prove we did, but this lack of proof doesn't seem to throw you off your one little track about us supplying Saddam with WMD, does it?
The issue is not the war, it is not Saddam it is the refusal of George Bush to at least try to save lives and make nice with our neighbors.
12 years is long enough; he is saving lives - ours - and that is what I pay him for; Iraq is not our neighbor, or it wouldn't have taken us 6 months to fly all our big green/tan toys over to the sandbox to play.
I guess we apologized really, really well for this... Thanks, I'd forgotten about this! This just goes to show, when people want to rant against this war, they usually don't know what they are talking about. (coughMichaelMoorecough)
Re:Freedom of the Press
on
4l-j4z333ra 0wn3d
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· Score: 2, Informative
And it was bombed by the US in the first Gulf War when it reported the killing of civilians in a supposedly military target.
Wow, the BullshitDetector just pegged out at 11!
Al Jazeera is based in Qatar. We did not bomb anything in Qatar.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure have much better arguments if I hadn't just had surgery and a couple of Lortabs... :)
The Japanese - no offense to them - would possibly grumble, but might just follow along. Two diametrically opposed views of government, society, and the individual's place in it or personal rights.
Of course, since these laws are step-by-step type things, the populace doesn't notice the creeping control until they have a cop living in their basement.Enter 10 years from now: "It only makes sense, now that we have had this technology working for a decade, to use it to log all movement of citizens/subjects into databases; coupled with face recognition at corners, tied to your ATM, behind the counter at McDonalds, etc. After all, if you don't have anything to hide, why would you be against this? Its really no different than a cop randomly seeing you on the corner and recognizing you from his briefing that morning, as the dangerous 'Jaywalking Joe,' who owes fines for his neferious deeds."
Blah blah, and so on and so forth. The slippery slope of well-deserved paranoia. What we call abuse now, will be commonplace in the future. And that 10 years I mentioned, I'd really bet it'll be more like 5.
Why should it be taxed? It has already been taxed; to tax it again is unfair, and simply more of your class envy showing.
People are losing their family businesses because of this stupid Clintonista tripe. If some family has a business, lets say a butcher's shop, that has been in a building for 30 years, and did well enough that papa was able to buy the building and now makes a buck or two on leasing out the other few spaces, then papa keels over, guess what? The family gets hit with an inheritance tax on the entire lot, assessed by a caring, loving IRS beaurocrat. Now, they have to pay a hundred thousand dollars, so they have to sell the building, which incidentally contains their livlihood.
Are these the 'rich assholes' you guys keep mentioning?
You know, you people are just idiots. I am single, and when working my profession in the US, gross about 60k/year. Take away all the taxes, and its about 30k. How the hell is that fair? The US Consitution gives the US gov. certain powers and obligations, such as the national defense and 'promoting the common welfare,' which does not mean 'providing welfare to the public.' Nothing's free in this world, it all has to come from somewhere, and people like me are sick of taking care of individuals on welfare, WIC, HUD, Medicaid, and seeing them with their cell phones, video cameras, and brand new vehicles with keyless ignition, then going out and getting in our POS and driving home to our small apartments that we pay the entire bill for ourselves. You are not owed anything by mere providence of being inside this countries borders, not by me, not by the next guy. If you want a helping hand through difficult times, it can be found; but you guys want a freebie for life.
Good points. You know, its funny, here in the US, we complain constantly about HMO's. And with good reason; they are arrogant, not knowlegable (who wants a guy with MAYBE a high school education deciding what tests/procedures are allowed and what are not?), and ration health care in a way that we, as pampered Americans, don't like. But then the same columnists and media talking heads and 'social activists' who bash HMO's will praise a Canada/Europe/Japan/whomever style socialised medical system - which is basically a giant, government run HMO. I'm confused.
What is he, a podiatrist?
Ok, barb aside, a doctor makes enough money to be able to afford medication for the family. If he has the freebie samples in his drug closet at work, it seems natural to raid that than go pay out for the same stuff.
Basically, I don't understand your argument.
Perhaps. And is it your right, or my right, to determine who 'deserves' this money more? I think not.
So, the repairman will simply have to repair a few more windows, have money of his own, and use it in the way he wants. But then, someone can come along and presume they know better what to do with this money than our hard working repairman. And so forth. Its usually these idiots who think of the economy as a pie; that there are percentages to be had, and if you miss out your 'share,' its because someone else has it.
The truth is, the economy works more like a stack. It can keep getting bigger, without meaning that someone's 'share' is getting smaller. It can be called growing the economy, or creating wealth, or whatever, but its a simple concept that tax-n-share liberals don't (or pretend not to) understand.
Ah, I see; people are jealous of the property owned by others, and since they don't get free handouts from the workers to buy similar property, it is understandable that they would want to vandalize that of others. Nice, circular argument. Usually, made by people with nice, block heads.
You're probably not thinking. Anyone who thinks that civilization=confiscation from the workers/handouts to the bums, is obviously an non-thinking individual.
BS... People injure themselves every day with power tools, through their own actions. That doesn't mean the company making the power tool is either at fault, or financially liable.
Why is it whiney types always blame 'conservatives' for things you don't like? Don't like broccoli? Probably a vast right wing conspiracy. Don't like Cream of Wheat? Must be that Shrub guy.
Guess what, moron? Democrats voted for this abortion of a bill, too! Who do you think they get their money from? The entertainment industry pays big bucks for these guys in their back pockets!
You can suggest all you want, it still doesn't change the fact that this is bullshit, stoner. Go back to your rally and fondle your wooden beads, and let those who know how to distinguish reality from leftist make-believe get back to what we were doing.
Since this in no way happened, I guess that makes you the April Fool year-round.
Let me guess, it was the Jews behind this, right?
That was me!! I had a really good working model in my room, and I put the plans... Um... I forgot....
Screw it, lets order a pizza, 'k?
I have a feeling that today's date has more to do with this than anything....
Killing is *not* the 'wrong' thing; it depends on the circumstances. Which makes me laugh at your 'dark alley' reference... Are you saying you don't want to meet me in a dark alley, because you are afraid I will kill you? OR that you will kill me? Either way, you're an idiot.
I have a friend who is a cop. He was involved in a shooting once, which saved his life so he could go back to his wife and kids. Was he wrong? Should police departments fire all cops involved in shootings, simply because panty-waisted lily-livered pansies don't want to 'meet them in a dark alley' now? Shit, you'd better hope you meet my friend, if you're in some dark alleys I've seen. It might keep you from getting dead.
It is difficult to argue with someone who has such a warped sense of his own personal insignificance in the world, but I'll try anyway.War is not wrong; it is a terrible concept, that of killing people and breaking things. But wrong? That depends on the side you're on, doesn't it? If you and your country decide to invade a country, murder its citizens, rape its women, and burn its land, then you are waging war, and are wrong, in my view. If the country being invaded rallies its army, who bring arms and fight the invaders, thereby (hopefully) killing them and driving them off, you are saying that these people are WRONG.
This is why pacifism is such a stupid concept. THere can be no such thing, even in a peaceful society. You are relying on force or the threat of force to keep people from robbing you and killing your wife after raping her. Otherwise, why else would we have police, courts, prisons? Why am I arguing with a rutebega?
So what? I shaved with Occam's Razor this morning.
Damn, I'm smooth.
Just to show you, that all over the world, people have different opinions. To say the US has NO support is BS, my AC-troll friend.
The governor of my state (coincidentally, it was GW Bush) has never told me what is expected of me as a responsible citizen of my state/community. But I'm pretty damned sure that if I start murdering people in my neighborhood, lack of prior personal communication with a government official regarding such activity would not be an effective defense against prosecution.Besides, that goon has had 12 years to comply. He has not. Bush did not exactly beat around the, uh, bush, over the past 6 months telling Saddam what was expected of him. 3 countries who have made illegal deals with Iraq have fought tooth and nail anything the US has tried in order to get this situation dealt with, for their own selfish reasons. In the meantime, children die. Too bad, so sad, you anti-war folks, its time to compel compliance if it is not voluntary.
The last time I checked the US Constitution, it said nothing about asking permission from a world body to defend our interests. Have they slipped an amendment by or something? I knew I shouldn't have smoked that shit in 11th grade... You guys keep saying this. I say, we gave Saddam all the secret weapons work done from the Roswell, NM alien crash, and you can't prove we didn't. I can't prove we did, but this lack of proof doesn't seem to throw you off your one little track about us supplying Saddam with WMD, does it? 12 years is long enough; he is saving lives - ours - and that is what I pay him for; Iraq is not our neighbor, or it wouldn't have taken us 6 months to fly all our big green/tan toys over to the sandbox to play.I guess we apologized really, really well for this... Thanks, I'd forgotten about this! This just goes to show, when people want to rant against this war, they usually don't know what they are talking about. (coughMichaelMoorecough)
Al Jazeera is based in Qatar. We did not bomb anything in Qatar.
So, what was that line of crapola again?