I doubt you're right. *Every* expert says - "they must not have had anything." Even David Kay who said we'd "find a smoking arsenal" concluded that Iraq didn't have any significant quantities of WMD and even it's programs/plans were pretty limited.
Their nuclear program, yes. Not their missile production activity. Read it here for yourself (and that was just the first hit on google).
Need I continue? We support(ed) all theses despots when they were convienient for us.
You're right. We did it at a time when we were trying to keep communism from spreading.
Once our hands are clean, I'll be a lot more supportive about "cleaning house" when needed.
The problem is, all those things were done 20 or more years ago. How long does the world want us to sit on our hands before we start doing something? Should we just leave everyone alone, no matter what state their in, for 50 years? What is the time frame that we wait before we start "cleaning house"? Why not start cleaning up the messes we've made now?
They found ONE shell with Sarin in it. Hardly a weapon of mass destruction.
Sarin itself is a weapon of mass destruction. Google it for yourself if you don't believe me.
We know Iraq *had* large stockpile of WMDs, I believe the UN inspectors got rid of most of them, maybe some went to Syria, obviously some got scavenged and are now in the hand of unstable elements. Also I believe that the CIA accounting was simply wrong. In other words the situation is worse than it was before the war.
You have one factual statement in that whole paragraph, yet you come up with the conclusion that things are worse than they were before. It doesn't really matter what you BELIEVE to be happening. It only matters what IS happening. Like you said, we KNOW they had WMDs. What we don't know is what happened to them. Believing the inspectors found them doesn't mean that's what happened. Also believing that CIA accounting was wrong doesn't make it true.
When GWB attacked Iraq was complying, opening up all the facilities that the inspectors wanted.
That's an outright lie. The Iraqi's in charge with giving them full disclosure simply weren't doing it. They were either delaying the inspectors or just outright keeping facilities off limits. If they really had nothing to hide, they should've just opened everything up and let the inspectors do their jobs completely unhindered.
the inspectors were asking for more time, which was not granted because GWB was getting impatient.
But moreso because several UN resolutions had already been broken.
Finally Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11
Al-Qaeda funding has been linked to Iraq and Saddam. This has been stated by many politicians, both Dems and Reps alike. 9/11 couldn't have been planned without funding.
and as you are seeing around the world only today (hostages killed in Saudi Arabia), invading Iraq has done very little to quench international terrorism and has done a great deal to discredit the US with a lot of countries.
A lot? I count 3 now. Spain, France, and Germany. But since France and Germany were making money on the side from Iraq, it doesn't surprise me at all that they didn't want us invading. I wouldn't want someone cutting off a source of income to me either.
Of course, keeping the population complacent with ignorance has shown to be a good way of getting around that.
The population keeps itself complacent by not making themselves informed. It's not the governments job to make sure the populace knows about everything, that's what the press is for. You can't blame the government for the media not reporting on things or for the populace not reading about it.
If you could possibly show me how U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners had anything to do with ending the atrocities of Saddam, you might have a point.
I'm not saying it does. What I'm saying is that Saddam murdered hundreds of thousands of people for years and everyone turned their backs. Something was finally done about it and some soldiers unfortunately abused their power and now it seems the US is the devil incarnate.
If you'll remember, the attacks on the occupying forces went up sharply last December, after Saddam was captured, reflecting the Iraqi opinion shown in polls: Being ruled by the U.S. isn't great, but it is better than Saddam coming back.
Yes, but the attacks seem to be coming from those groups that want power and want to control the country. It doesn't seem to be coming from people who truely want freedom. With Saddam out of the way, those other groups were free to act without fear of his retribution. If Saddam caught them doing that, they'd be killed. With the US, they at least stand a chance of getting caught alive.
So, out of just 500 *tons* we were able to find *ONE* artillary shell.
First, it's a big country. They could've buried the stuff anywhere. Second, they could've also moved the stuff to a number of neighboring countries. Third and finally, we know he had the weapons before. There are no records of their destruction so where are they now?
My prediction is that Iraq will be a tribal factional Afgainistan type country soon, or under the imperial rule of the US.
You could be right about the tribal part, though I hope you're not. But I get so sick of hearing "they'll be under the imperial rule of the US." It wouldn't matter if we left tomorrow, everyone would think we were still ruling Iraq, no matter what we said.
Rather than regime change, we ought to focus on doing the world right, and being honest brokers. The world would hate us a lot less and we'd have fewer excuses to revoke personal liberties to "save" us from the terrorists.
This is simply crap. It doesn't matter how much good we do for the world, the terrorists would hate us anyway. They'd find some reason to hate the USA, however lame it might be. Hell, even if we got out of everyones business, they'd probably hate us for doing that instead of helping out a bit. Someone would hate us anyway, whether it be terrorists or others. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
A Corporation is a legal entity. It can have great power and is controlled by a few individuals, someitmes they are elected.
This is true.
A government is a legal entitiy. It can have great power and is controlled by a few individuals, sometimes they are elected.
This is mostly false. At least in the US, the government is controlled by the people. We all have a right, and IMO a duty, to vote. So it's not just controlled by a few individuals, it's controlled by the majority of the population (over 18). The only people that aren't elected are judges and committee members, but judges are appointed by the President who is elected. Committee members end up being elected to their seat in the house or senate so they can be booted as well. People have a lot more power over the government then they do a corporation since they can effectively change all the "management" of the government in one day.
The US Constitution says the government cannot censor things, with some exceptions (yelling fire in a crowded theater for example). It says nothing about what a corporation can and cannot censor.
So while your analogy is true on a VERY basic level, it's false on a much grander scale. EVERYONE at age 18 has the right to vote for their elected officials. Only the STOCKHOLDERS of a company have the privilege of voting for the officers of that company. That's a pretty big difference. If you don't like a company censoring things, don't buy ANYTHING from that company.
And here's the big difference between us (the US) and them (the Islamic fundamentalists). Those soldiers are standing trial.
But forget I said anything. The guy that killed hundreds of thousands with meat grinders and poison gas should've been left alone and the soldiers that killed a few (not saying it's right) are the devil incarnate and their entire country is evil.
The point is that the ultimatums had been layed down time and time again over the past 10 years and nothing had been done about their non-compliance. Someone finally steps in and decides to do something about it and he gets shit for it. I don't see you whining about Clintons attack. Bush did what should've been done years ago, possibly even the moment the inspectors were first kicked out, back in 1998. Or have we forgotten that regime change was a US policy since Clinton was in office.
Give your opinion all you want. You seem to be upset about corporate censorship and how it's the same as government censorship. It's not the same, period. Speak out about them censoring it if you like, but until the government starts censoring things I have no problem with it. It really just comes down to 1 individual, the CEO, deciding that he doesn't want to distribute it. It's no different from one friend telling another "Hey, shut the hell up, I don't want to hear it." Same thing.
And let me correct you "I support personal censorship of things I don't want to hear":P
So you're comparing all Americans to your GF's, more than likely ignorant, teenage brother? Yeah, that makes sense.
And I don't need to check out the BBC to get balanced stories. I can check more than one US news source. For the record, I don't watch CNN or the mainstream news because everytime I turn it on to get a different point of view, I see them leaving things out that other sources have reported. Give me all the facts and then let me make my own decision. That's the news I like and it's the news I usually read/see/hear.
When a incident arises in the middle east, say you bombed a wedding party.
Do you have any proof, from independent unbiased reporters (not Al-Jazeera), that a wedding party was intentionally bombed? All I've heard are reports from the afore mentioned news agency, which is so obviously pro middle east it's not even funny, and no one else.
The US media will spin in as positive a light as possible because the majority of the News audience doesn't respond well to havign their side becoem the bad guy.
The US media has been doing everything BUT spin the war positively. All reports that come from servicemen and women over there are positive. All reports that come from the media are negative. Why is that? Because bad news gets ratings. It's as simple as that.
Take a look at the difference in coverage between the prison abuse scandal and the beheading of a civilian contractor. The media was all over the military abuse but barely touched the beheading. Why is that? Because everyone hates the US military of course. If they were reporting on real atrocities (being humiliated is not an atrocity, at least you're still alive) then they would've covered the beheading a whole helluvalot more than they did.
The US media sure is biased, but they're biased against the US (CNN, mainstream news, etc).
Any film by Michael Moore is the worst example you can give. This is the type of person that distorts everything he doesn't like to make it fit why he doesn't like it. Admittedly I've only watched Bowling for Columbine, but if that's any indication of his style, I don't need to see anymore. There's enough falsehoods and outright lies in that movie to turn him off completely.
And like others have said, corporate censorship is not the same as government censorship. I'd be behind you all the way if it was the government censoring this movie, but it's not, so shut the hell up.
Oh: and Bush will win this next election, because the people who make the voting machines will make sure of it. Count on it.
The same voting machines that have just been completely decertified in the entire state of California, forcing election officials to offer paper ballots as well? Think again.
Churches can be downright mean, especially if you manage to violate the mores of a particular congregation in some heinous fashion such as wearing a short-sleeved shirt or singing off key. Where else do you go where, when you come in, you're asked to stand up in front of a couple of hundred people so they can all get a good look at you?
Not at any of the churches I've ever been to. Some of the people at the church might be downright mean, but you're not there for them, you're there for God and his word. If they can't look past your clothes or your off key voice, they shouldn't be there. This is something I even had to do for myself, since I wanted to go to church, I just didn't want to be around the people. Now I don't care what they think of me. My focus is 100% on the service.
California use to require parallel parking. They stopped doing it because to many people were failing. While I'm glad I didn't have to do it, I think it's pretty crazy that they stopped it because people were failing. It's not like you don't need to know how to parallel park around here.
* Why doesn't C3P0 remember being created by Anakin? He keeps saying "Thank the Maker", when he could easily thank him in person.
* Assuming that C3PO has had his memory wiped, what about R2D2? Are we going to have to say they wiped him, too, or does he just not bother telling what he knows?
You answered your own question. 3PO gets a memory wipe, R2 does not. This actually explains why R2 knows about his "former master" and knows exactly where Obi-Wan and yet 3PO has no clue about what's going on. In case you didn't notice in the originals, 3PO is quite the blabermouth and was awefully quick to suggest surrender.
* In Ep IV, Darth Vader doesn't seem to ascribe any particular significance to Tatooine -- his birthplace.
Perhaps in Ep3 he vows never to return, much like Luke did in Ep4, except that he did come upon it in Ep4. Maybe he makes a conscious decision to just not go down to the surface. His mother was killed there, maybe he didn't want to relive those memories.
The rest of your questions/arguments were responded to, quite well I might add, by someone else.
I suspect Lucas would remake Eps IV, V, VI in a heartbeat, if the studios were fool enough to let him.
Let him? And what would they do to stop him? He's funded the prequels entirely on his own. Do you really think that with the success of the Special Editions that Fox would not gladly distribute them? And even if they wouldn't, he could probably fund the distribution himself as well.
Newsflash: It's not that easy in America either. Sure, you don't have to pay the bills you had. However, that stays on your record for 7 YEARS and it's murder trying to get credit after that. Want to buy a house? To bad. Want a credit card? Not without some cash to back it up and a 25% interest rate. Filing for bankruptcy in America isn't exactly as peachy as you make it out to be.
And that proves only that deck conforms to a certain standard. It does not prove that the cards were not marked. It does not prove that cards were dealt from the top. It does not prove that a specific shuffling technique was employed to increase the casino's winnings.
Have you been to a casion lately? The last time I was in Vegas, they had machines for shuffling the cards. Then they went into another machine where the dealer pulled the cards from a feeder one at a time. It was not possible for the dealer to shuffle any special way or deal the cards from the bottom of the deck.
I do agree with your sentiment on how gambling should be thought of. It should be thought as strictly entertainment. You should not be doing it to get rich. If you win some money, great. Otherwise, just have a good time while you're playing. This is the main reason I don't gamble. I don't find it very entertaining.
Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. The salesperson's job is to help you make up your mind by getting into your face with their sales pitch before you have a chance to make an excuse for yourself to say "no".
It's their job to make it difficult for you to say no, and convince you that it's in your best interest to say "yes".
Do you work in sales? I always thought it was their job to tell you things about the product you might not know. These things would then get you to say "yes".
Basic telemarketing. There's a lot of psychology going on here that you wouldn't be aware of if you haven't worked in sales before.
I don't think so. The only "psychological" thing going on is to keep asking the other person questions in hopes that they'll give positive responses. Things like "You want to save money, right?". I've learned to just keep with the same line "I'm happy with what I have right now." Don't even bother answering their questions. Keep repeating the same statement and they'll move on.
Re:Expensive Electronics Cheap Scams, not taken do
on
eBay Fraud Vigilantes
·
· Score: 1
This is more in the category of preying on the hopelessly gullible and exploiting their stupidity, rather than scam. Less like nigerian 419, more like religion.
On a semi-related matter, have you been to a Home Depot lately? I bet their checkers are shitting their pants with those quick checkout self-service lanes they've got. I was there two days ago and witnessed one employee basically act as a little helper for four of the self-checkouts. Personally, if I worked there, I would've immediately started to get myself reeducated the moment they put those things in. I'm betting that within a year or so they'll have all the bugs worked out and the stores will only need 1 quarter of the employees they have right now. To top it off, the self-checkout is almost always faster. I think the only thing you can't do in that line is write a check. In any case, I sense a lot of jobs being eliminated on the horizon due simply to an improvement in technology.
Oh, and by the way, maybe most computer users couldn't unload docks, but I'm sure a lot of them could be shown how it's done and then do it. I konw I'd personally like to learn how to operate a forklift, just in case I'm ever that in need of some work. It would just be one more skill that I'd have.
1) If 5-year-olds were voting, that's a sure sign that something funny was going on.
Smart ass. 5 year olds were shown the ballot during the whole debacle, as I'm sure you're aware, and had no problem matching the arrows, holes, and candidates up.
2) Did you see a picture of the ballot? not only was the butterfly design rather confusing, it was actually misprinted in many locations, so that the arrow for Gore was halfway *between* two holes. One of those holes was the Buchanan spot. The odd layout (which is illegal in many states) combined with the misprint meant that many people, especially those with poor eyesight, could honestly make a mistake. And, given that Buchanan got more votes in Florida than anywhere else, they probably did.
I saw the ballot on the news and on websites. The one thing you forgot is that people are free to ask for help. Did they ask for help or were they to stupid to even consider that? With the stink they raised, you'd think they would've stopped if they were confused.
If they hadn't misprinted it, there might not have been a problem with the layout. If they hadn't used the strange layout, there might not have been a problem with the misprint. Between the two, some folks were bound to get tripped up.
And if the dog hadn't stopped to take a shit, maybe it wouldn't have gotten hit by a car.
Slashdot Mirror
I doubt you're right. *Every* expert says - "they must not have had anything." Even David Kay who said we'd "find a smoking arsenal" concluded that Iraq didn't have any significant quantities of WMD and even it's programs/plans were pretty limited.
Their nuclear program, yes. Not their missile production activity. Read it here for yourself (and that was just the first hit on google).
Need I continue? We support(ed) all theses despots when they were convienient for us.
You're right. We did it at a time when we were trying to keep communism from spreading.
Once our hands are clean, I'll be a lot more supportive about "cleaning house" when needed.
The problem is, all those things were done 20 or more years ago. How long does the world want us to sit on our hands before we start doing something? Should we just leave everyone alone, no matter what state their in, for 50 years? What is the time frame that we wait before we start "cleaning house"? Why not start cleaning up the messes we've made now?
They found ONE shell with Sarin in it. Hardly a weapon of mass destruction.
Sarin itself is a weapon of mass destruction. Google it for yourself if you don't believe me.
We know Iraq *had* large stockpile of WMDs, I believe the UN inspectors got rid of most of them, maybe some went to Syria, obviously some got scavenged and are now in the hand of unstable elements. Also I believe that the CIA accounting was simply wrong. In other words the situation is worse than it was before the war.
You have one factual statement in that whole paragraph, yet you come up with the conclusion that things are worse than they were before. It doesn't really matter what you BELIEVE to be happening. It only matters what IS happening. Like you said, we KNOW they had WMDs. What we don't know is what happened to them. Believing the inspectors found them doesn't mean that's what happened. Also believing that CIA accounting was wrong doesn't make it true.
When GWB attacked Iraq was complying, opening up all the facilities that the inspectors wanted.
That's an outright lie. The Iraqi's in charge with giving them full disclosure simply weren't doing it. They were either delaying the inspectors or just outright keeping facilities off limits. If they really had nothing to hide, they should've just opened everything up and let the inspectors do their jobs completely unhindered.
the inspectors were asking for more time, which was not granted because GWB was getting impatient.
But moreso because several UN resolutions had already been broken.
Finally Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11
Al-Qaeda funding has been linked to Iraq and Saddam. This has been stated by many politicians, both Dems and Reps alike. 9/11 couldn't have been planned without funding.
and as you are seeing around the world only today (hostages killed in Saudi Arabia), invading Iraq has done very little to quench international terrorism and has done a great deal to discredit the US with a lot of countries.
A lot? I count 3 now. Spain, France, and Germany. But since France and Germany were making money on the side from Iraq, it doesn't surprise me at all that they didn't want us invading. I wouldn't want someone cutting off a source of income to me either.
Don't rewrite history.
You're one to talk.
Bush did what his dad should have done.
I agree with you 100%.
Of course, keeping the population complacent with ignorance has shown to be a good way of getting around that.
The population keeps itself complacent by not making themselves informed. It's not the governments job to make sure the populace knows about everything, that's what the press is for. You can't blame the government for the media not reporting on things or for the populace not reading about it.
If you could possibly show me how U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners had anything to do with ending the atrocities of Saddam, you might have a point.
I'm not saying it does. What I'm saying is that Saddam murdered hundreds of thousands of people for years and everyone turned their backs. Something was finally done about it and some soldiers unfortunately abused their power and now it seems the US is the devil incarnate.
If you'll remember, the attacks on the occupying forces went up sharply last December, after Saddam was captured, reflecting the Iraqi opinion shown in polls: Being ruled by the U.S. isn't great, but it is better than Saddam coming back.
Yes, but the attacks seem to be coming from those groups that want power and want to control the country. It doesn't seem to be coming from people who truely want freedom. With Saddam out of the way, those other groups were free to act without fear of his retribution. If Saddam caught them doing that, they'd be killed. With the US, they at least stand a chance of getting caught alive.
Ah, sorry about that. Understood.
So, out of just 500 *tons* we were able to find *ONE* artillary shell.
First, it's a big country. They could've buried the stuff anywhere. Second, they could've also moved the stuff to a number of neighboring countries. Third and finally, we know he had the weapons before. There are no records of their destruction so where are they now?
My prediction is that Iraq will be a tribal factional Afgainistan type country soon, or under the imperial rule of the US.
You could be right about the tribal part, though I hope you're not. But I get so sick of hearing "they'll be under the imperial rule of the US." It wouldn't matter if we left tomorrow, everyone would think we were still ruling Iraq, no matter what we said.
Rather than regime change, we ought to focus on doing the world right, and being honest brokers. The world would hate us a lot less and we'd have fewer excuses to revoke personal liberties to "save" us from the terrorists.
This is simply crap. It doesn't matter how much good we do for the world, the terrorists would hate us anyway. They'd find some reason to hate the USA, however lame it might be. Hell, even if we got out of everyones business, they'd probably hate us for doing that instead of helping out a bit. Someone would hate us anyway, whether it be terrorists or others. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
A Corporation is a legal entity. It can have great power and is controlled by a few individuals, someitmes they are elected.
This is true.
A government is a legal entitiy. It can have great power and is controlled by a few individuals, sometimes they are elected.
This is mostly false. At least in the US, the government is controlled by the people. We all have a right, and IMO a duty, to vote. So it's not just controlled by a few individuals, it's controlled by the majority of the population (over 18). The only people that aren't elected are judges and committee members, but judges are appointed by the President who is elected. Committee members end up being elected to their seat in the house or senate so they can be booted as well. People have a lot more power over the government then they do a corporation since they can effectively change all the "management" of the government in one day.
The US Constitution says the government cannot censor things, with some exceptions (yelling fire in a crowded theater for example). It says nothing about what a corporation can and cannot censor.
So while your analogy is true on a VERY basic level, it's false on a much grander scale. EVERYONE at age 18 has the right to vote for their elected officials. Only the STOCKHOLDERS of a company have the privilege of voting for the officers of that company. That's a pretty big difference. If you don't like a company censoring things, don't buy ANYTHING from that company.
And here's the big difference between us (the US) and them (the Islamic fundamentalists). Those soldiers are standing trial.
But forget I said anything. The guy that killed hundreds of thousands with meat grinders and poison gas should've been left alone and the soldiers that killed a few (not saying it's right) are the devil incarnate and their entire country is evil.
We did mostly nothing for 10 years to Iraq.
Clinton attacked Iraq in 1998. That was 6 years after the first war.
Sarin was found last week.
The point is that the ultimatums had been layed down time and time again over the past 10 years and nothing had been done about their non-compliance. Someone finally steps in and decides to do something about it and he gets shit for it. I don't see you whining about Clintons attack. Bush did what should've been done years ago, possibly even the moment the inspectors were first kicked out, back in 1998. Or have we forgotten that regime change was a US policy since Clinton was in office.
Give your opinion all you want. You seem to be upset about corporate censorship and how it's the same as government censorship. It's not the same, period. Speak out about them censoring it if you like, but until the government starts censoring things I have no problem with it. It really just comes down to 1 individual, the CEO, deciding that he doesn't want to distribute it. It's no different from one friend telling another "Hey, shut the hell up, I don't want to hear it." Same thing.
:P
And let me correct you "I support personal censorship of things I don't want to hear"
So you're comparing all Americans to your GF's, more than likely ignorant, teenage brother? Yeah, that makes sense.
And I don't need to check out the BBC to get balanced stories. I can check more than one US news source. For the record, I don't watch CNN or the mainstream news because everytime I turn it on to get a different point of view, I see them leaving things out that other sources have reported. Give me all the facts and then let me make my own decision. That's the news I like and it's the news I usually read/see/hear.
When a incident arises in the middle east, say you bombed a wedding party.
Do you have any proof, from independent unbiased reporters (not Al-Jazeera), that a wedding party was intentionally bombed? All I've heard are reports from the afore mentioned news agency, which is so obviously pro middle east it's not even funny, and no one else.
The US media will spin in as positive a light as possible because the majority of the News audience doesn't respond well to havign their side becoem the bad guy.
The US media has been doing everything BUT spin the war positively. All reports that come from servicemen and women over there are positive. All reports that come from the media are negative. Why is that? Because bad news gets ratings. It's as simple as that.
Take a look at the difference in coverage between the prison abuse scandal and the beheading of a civilian contractor. The media was all over the military abuse but barely touched the beheading. Why is that? Because everyone hates the US military of course. If they were reporting on real atrocities (being humiliated is not an atrocity, at least you're still alive) then they would've covered the beheading a whole helluvalot more than they did.
The US media sure is biased, but they're biased against the US (CNN, mainstream news, etc).
Any film by Michael Moore is the worst example you can give. This is the type of person that distorts everything he doesn't like to make it fit why he doesn't like it. Admittedly I've only watched Bowling for Columbine, but if that's any indication of his style, I don't need to see anymore. There's enough falsehoods and outright lies in that movie to turn him off completely.
And like others have said, corporate censorship is not the same as government censorship. I'd be behind you all the way if it was the government censoring this movie, but it's not, so shut the hell up.
Don't even get me started on daylight savings time..
:p
It's daylight saving time, not savings
Oh: and Bush will win this next election, because the people who make the voting machines will make sure of it. Count on it.
The same voting machines that have just been completely decertified in the entire state of California, forcing election officials to offer paper ballots as well? Think again.
Churches can be downright mean, especially if you manage to violate the mores of a particular congregation in some heinous fashion such as wearing a short-sleeved shirt or singing off key. Where else do you go where, when you come in, you're asked to stand up in front of a couple of hundred people so they can all get a good look at you?
Not at any of the churches I've ever been to. Some of the people at the church might be downright mean, but you're not there for them, you're there for God and his word. If they can't look past your clothes or your off key voice, they shouldn't be there. This is something I even had to do for myself, since I wanted to go to church, I just didn't want to be around the people. Now I don't care what they think of me. My focus is 100% on the service.
OMG! This looks like the greatest utility ever. As soon as I have a chance I'm going to try building one for Win2k.
California use to require parallel parking. They stopped doing it because to many people were failing. While I'm glad I didn't have to do it, I think it's pretty crazy that they stopped it because people were failing. It's not like you don't need to know how to parallel park around here.
* Why doesn't C3P0 remember being created by Anakin? He keeps saying "Thank the Maker", when he could easily thank him in person.
* Assuming that C3PO has had his memory wiped, what about R2D2? Are we going to have to say they wiped him, too, or does he just not bother telling what he knows?
You answered your own question. 3PO gets a memory wipe, R2 does not. This actually explains why R2 knows about his "former master" and knows exactly where Obi-Wan and yet 3PO has no clue about what's going on. In case you didn't notice in the originals, 3PO is quite the blabermouth and was awefully quick to suggest surrender.
* In Ep IV, Darth Vader doesn't seem to ascribe any particular significance to Tatooine -- his birthplace.
Perhaps in Ep3 he vows never to return, much like Luke did in Ep4, except that he did come upon it in Ep4. Maybe he makes a conscious decision to just not go down to the surface. His mother was killed there, maybe he didn't want to relive those memories.
The rest of your questions/arguments were responded to, quite well I might add, by someone else.
I suspect Lucas would remake Eps IV, V, VI in a heartbeat, if the studios were fool enough to let him.
Let him? And what would they do to stop him? He's funded the prequels entirely on his own. Do you really think that with the success of the Special Editions that Fox would not gladly distribute them? And even if they wouldn't, he could probably fund the distribution himself as well.
Newsflash: It's not that easy in America either. Sure, you don't have to pay the bills you had. However, that stays on your record for 7 YEARS and it's murder trying to get credit after that. Want to buy a house? To bad. Want a credit card? Not without some cash to back it up and a 25% interest rate. Filing for bankruptcy in America isn't exactly as peachy as you make it out to be.
And that proves only that deck conforms to a certain standard. It does not prove that the cards were not marked. It does not prove that cards were dealt from the top. It does not prove that a specific shuffling technique was employed to increase the casino's winnings.
Have you been to a casion lately? The last time I was in Vegas, they had machines for shuffling the cards. Then they went into another machine where the dealer pulled the cards from a feeder one at a time. It was not possible for the dealer to shuffle any special way or deal the cards from the bottom of the deck.
I do agree with your sentiment on how gambling should be thought of. It should be thought as strictly entertainment. You should not be doing it to get rich. If you win some money, great. Otherwise, just have a good time while you're playing. This is the main reason I don't gamble. I don't find it very entertaining.
Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. The salesperson's job is to help you make up your mind by getting into your face with their sales pitch before you have a chance to make an excuse for yourself to say "no".
It's their job to make it difficult for you to say no, and convince you that it's in your best interest to say "yes".
Do you work in sales? I always thought it was their job to tell you things about the product you might not know. These things would then get you to say "yes".
Basic telemarketing. There's a lot of psychology going on here that you wouldn't be aware of if you haven't worked in sales before.
I don't think so. The only "psychological" thing going on is to keep asking the other person questions in hopes that they'll give positive responses. Things like "You want to save money, right?". I've learned to just keep with the same line "I'm happy with what I have right now." Don't even bother answering their questions. Keep repeating the same statement and they'll move on.
This is more in the category of preying on the hopelessly gullible and exploiting their stupidity, rather than scam. Less like nigerian 419, more like religion.
Or government.
On a semi-related matter, have you been to a Home Depot lately? I bet their checkers are shitting their pants with those quick checkout self-service lanes they've got. I was there two days ago and witnessed one employee basically act as a little helper for four of the self-checkouts. Personally, if I worked there, I would've immediately started to get myself reeducated the moment they put those things in. I'm betting that within a year or so they'll have all the bugs worked out and the stores will only need 1 quarter of the employees they have right now. To top it off, the self-checkout is almost always faster. I think the only thing you can't do in that line is write a check. In any case, I sense a lot of jobs being eliminated on the horizon due simply to an improvement in technology.
Oh, and by the way, maybe most computer users couldn't unload docks, but I'm sure a lot of them could be shown how it's done and then do it. I konw I'd personally like to learn how to operate a forklift, just in case I'm ever that in need of some work. It would just be one more skill that I'd have.
1) If 5-year-olds were voting, that's a sure sign that something funny was going on.
Smart ass. 5 year olds were shown the ballot during the whole debacle, as I'm sure you're aware, and had no problem matching the arrows, holes, and candidates up.
2) Did you see a picture of the ballot? not only was the butterfly design rather confusing, it was actually misprinted in many locations, so that the arrow for Gore was halfway *between* two holes. One of those holes was the Buchanan spot. The odd layout (which is illegal in many states) combined with the misprint meant that many people, especially those with poor eyesight, could honestly make a mistake. And, given that Buchanan got more votes in Florida than anywhere else, they probably did.
I saw the ballot on the news and on websites. The one thing you forgot is that people are free to ask for help. Did they ask for help or were they to stupid to even consider that? With the stink they raised, you'd think they would've stopped if they were confused.
If they hadn't misprinted it, there might not have been a problem with the layout. If they hadn't used the strange layout, there might not have been a problem with the misprint. Between the two, some folks were bound to get tripped up.
And if the dog hadn't stopped to take a shit, maybe it wouldn't have gotten hit by a car.