If so, these geneaologies only go back to Adam. The earth (or land) was void before then according to thw writings. The Hebrew word that is translated as Earth simply meant dirt or land. Does "the entire earth (eretz or land)" mean every square inch of land on every continent, or does it refer to only the land where Adam lived? The Bible does not make that exactly clear clear.
"No just that you have the wrong information."
The wrong information that I have (teaching about carbon 14 dating) just so happens to come from a (government-run) school textbook. I have just also read the wikipedia article on carbon 14 dating, and yes, there are attempt by scientists to calibrate the carbon 14 dating. However there are still many factors that may not have been taken into account when measuring the carbon 14 ration in the listed samples.
Rather than saying that one has to assume that there has been NO CHANGE in the level of carbon 14 from year to year. I should have stated one would have to prove what these changes are from year to year. Core samples are not exactly proof but rather EDUCATED GUESSES. An example of this is the fact that we do not know exactly what period of time each core sample covers. An extremely large amount of ice can be deposited in an extremely short period of time. At other times, an extremely small layer of ice may be deposited over an extremely long period of time. At other times, certain layers may have even melted away. If there are record measurements taken during each each past year since the cration of earth with the accurate measurement equipment we have today, then I would be much more confident in the carbon 14 dating. However, these calibrations are based on the EDUCATED GUESSES of scientists.
The point is that NOBODY REALLY KNOWS FOR SURE. In the '70's scientisits were sounding the alarm that we are on the verge of entering another ice age, Recently that has changed to global warming. Years ago it was thought that eggs were very bad for you. Now it is thought that eggs are not so bad. It was also thought that there was less than one percent gebetic difference in hunmans, now, scientists say that there is much more difference than that. I have been alive for many years and have seen many different fads in science. Some science gives use many new toys and luxuries, however other science has caused the destabilization of nations. Science has been used to skew public policy for both the good and the bad.
"They are only biased in the same way that a jury might be made biased upon seeing an overwhelming amount of evidence. They have reached their conclusions based on the large amount of compelling evidence, what have you reached your upon?"
I base mine on a compelling amount of evidence. What is your evidence?
"First of all the novelty of an alarm system is notification of the police, who job it is to *gasp* uphold the law."
The alarm usually notifies a central monitoring company which in turn notifies the police. If a phone line to which the alarm iss attached is cut, or the burglary is a quick 30 second smash and grab job, then the alarm may prove to be useless. Car alarms for example are very useless unless the car is in its owners yard and makes a distinct sound.
"There are plenty of professionals that can or profession demands the ability to pick locks, bypass alarm systems and assault a building in a manner that would make a gun have very little effect."
There are many ways of opening licks that leave very little damage besides picking. Yes picking high security locks can be very difficult, however there are other quick ways of opening these locks such as bumping. Besides, one may be able to enter a room or vehicle without causing damage nor by manipulating a lock. I have entered buildings many times without doing either. Why spend 10 minutes screwing with a lock when one can enter the same room by going through a tiled ceiling and over a wall? Why pick a lock when one can lever the door, bump the lock, insert a bypass rod or even remove hinges from a door? If one is unconcerned with damages, there are many even quicker methods of entering a room. A sheetrock knife works wonders. There are quite a few people who make a good living in the illegal entry business. These entries can be made in the traditional brick and morter establishments or into computers or even both.
"Perhaps the knowledge that maybe losing a chunk of your life to jail may put some second thoughts into these people."
Jail may prove to be a motivational factor to a few people, but it is not to many. In the U.S., jail terms are much too long for many crimes committed, and the result of that is police, judges, and innocents get killed during the capture attempt. If I were a criminal, I believe I would much rather kill a cop than spend the rest of my life in prison. While the chance of getting caught is a deterrant for some, religious beliefs (even the worship of governmental law) is a deterrent for many, many others. Another deterrant is the ability to obtain wealth without breaking the law. A person working 10 hours a day and yet still living paycheck to paycheck or cannot obtain enough money to take care of a pressing need is more likely to take an avantage of an illegal wealth obtaining opportunity than someone who make a decent living.
I have knowlege of how to enter building, pick locks, and hack computers as weel as other black arts. I obtained this knowlege not by attending any school but rather by going online and even buying books. I have also successfully demonstrated this knowlege many times. I can obtain much wealth by using this knowlege both legally and illegally. However, what prevents me from committing crimes is not the corrupt local, state, and federal government (all of which I despise), but rather my belief in YHWH. Even though the U.S. has the largest percentage of its population in prison, crime continues to grow (crime statistics are skewed in many ways). People ought to quit deriding those who believe in a Creator, since religous belief is a primary factor in keeping crime at bay.
"Of course hacking is profitable -- the laws of supply and demand cover this as any service or product."
I totally agree. Lok at spamming. There is so much moneyt in spam that it now swamps just about anyone's email box. Yeas, there are draconian penalties for spamming, and yes, people get caught. However people still do it because they make money at it, and many just do not think it is wrong.
There is NO PLACE in the Bible that says that the Earth is 6000 years old. In Genesis it says that the earth BECAME (or CAME TO BE) void and without form. In other words, there is NO PLACE THAT STATES THAT THE EARTH IS ONLY 6000 YEARS OLD.
The Monkeyists might like to know:
The way that dating mechanisms work is based on unproven assumption. In order for Carbin 14 dating system to be accurate, there hase to be NO CHANGE in the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12 in the atmosphere over the years for which the system is claimed to be accurate.
Of course these points are not allowed to be brought up in any "science" program in the public schools. Do I believe that natural selection should be taught in school? YES I DO!!! It is a proven fact. Now do I believe that evolution is the basis for all life appearing on this planet? No I DO NOT!!! That THEORY might be mentioned with arguments for and against it, but there is equal amount of evidence for other possibilities regarding the origin of life on this planet, and I am not just talking a god creating everything. I do expect at least 5 posts arguing against what I say because most people here are biased towards evolution as being the source of all life.
"The first is basic functionality and reliability. Right now people put up with disconnects all the time on data connections. What? That page didn't load? Click it again!" I could not agree more.
"Most of the telecommunications that the Internet relies on was bought and paid for because of telephone services." I somewhat disagree. Much of today's telephone infrastructure was put in with TAXPAYER money. Telephone, cable, and other utilities are MONOPOLIES that effectively charge whatever they think they can get out of the people under their control.
"When DSL service has to pay for the copper and maintenance of it, the costs are going to be a lot more realistic." By "more realistic," I believe you are talking about higher priced. DSL when it is available in my county costs over $35 a month. $35 a month for service in a suburban area is way more than enough to cover maintenance costs. If costs increase too much, people will switch to other alternatives.
"I don't believe anywhere in the world today is experiencing the real costs." It would be nice if people did. I would much rather pay about 10 to 15 dollars a month to have a high speed Internet connection.
Mesh networks, FreeWans, Muninets, and other networks when perfected will bring high speed networks to the masses. These network will likely transmit data over the airwaves, via lightwave, or even via cheap wire such as electric fence type wire. In an area with sufficient population density, a local network can be constructed wqith very little cost to each user. IMHO, with the technology available today, it is possible for nearly everyone to have a 1 Megabit/sec connection to the rest of the world. However, this will not happen until people decide to take charge and actually start building these networks.
But, government size and power would continue to increase. There would be more attacks against our Second amendment RIGHTS, people would more likely have to get a permit to cut down a tree on their own property, taxes would still be likely to go up, ther would be more first Amendment attacks such as the CDA, etc.
I'm right, there is no difference between a "Demoncrat" and "Repugnican." The Demoncrats had their chance, and so did the Repugnicans. It is time for a real change.
The pig (swine) and "long pig" (what cannibals call people) are very similar internally. It is one reason why swine diseases are so easily transmitted between humans and pigs. When questioned by police, the cannibal will say, "Yes I ate her, she tasted like pork. Now may she rest in pieces."
The monkyist religion (Darwinism) states that our ancestor is an apelike critter, yet the pig is much more similar to humans than are other primates. Even the protein structures of primate flesh is more different from humans than pigs are from humans. This is one of many holes in the monkeyist religion. However, other theories of how we got here are not allowed to be presented in schools despite scientific evidence.
The last 6 years have proven him to be correct. In the last 6 years, government has grown, spending has increased, security has not improved, and our jobs continue to go overseas. The Demoncrats would not have done significantly better.
"If the government has no place in the marriage business, then why aren't conservatives or Republicans opposing legally-sanctioned heterosexual marriages?"
The answer to that is based on thousands of years of precedent. That is what marriage is - a union between a man or woman (women in some cases). I however believe that marriage is between God, a man, and his wife. I personally believe that government has no place in marriage (I do not and will not consider a homosexual union marriage). Most other people also believe that it is necessary for society to have certain standards of decency in order to survive. If you believe that I am in a minority, please take a look at voter initiatives in many states that ban gay "marriage." The people have spoken on this issue and have spoken very loudly. In all but Arizona, these initiatives passed. People who believe in a Surpreme Creator (not just Christians) are sick and tired of being pushed around and bullied by those who wish to force acceptance of a lifestyle that many consider abominable. The same also goes for other moral issues. The Tanak, Bible, Qu'ran, Talmud or many other religious text specifically condemn sodomy. People who read these books and believe their contents have just as many rights as homosexuals do, and they are tired of their rights being ignored!
I am against, and will be against modifying the U.S. Constitution in order to regulate marriage. However, that power rests within the hand of the states. If you want to participate in a homosexual union and insist on having benefits as a married couple, then by all means move to a state such as VT or MS where such unions are recognized. Don't try to force me to accept and reward a lifestyle that goes against my religious beliefs by forcing me to provide marriage benefits to homosexual couples. I will not do so. Forcing me to do so violates my rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Before the stereotyping begins, please not that I AM NOT a Christian or an evangelical. I do however rely on thousands of years of tradition, precedent, and standards.
The candidates that promised to uphold certain values got elected based on their promises. When they ignore their base voters, they in effect broke their promises. Therefore they got fired. I am glad that the Repugnican party lost the election. I say GOOD RIDDANCE. Now it is time to work on doing the same to the Demoncrat Party. If your ar a socialist, then by all means vote for candidates of the Socialist Party. If you lean towards the Green Party, then by all means vote for candidates of the Green Party. If you are truly Libertarian then by all means vote for candidates in the Libertarian Party. I respect your vote. However I will try to discourage you from voting for anyone in the Demoncratic-Repugnican Party because they're devoid of principly and for the most part are only in it for the power and money.
So you are accusing me of being a fundamentalists and an enemy simply because I am pointing out the lies preached by the repugnicans? Wow talk about insecurity! I was just attempting to show some of the lies that the Repugnicans used to woo Christian voters. Just to point out to you, I also mentioned low-cost healthcare as a demoncratic issue to expose the lies that the demoncrats tell. (Healthcare is between you and your healthcare practioner - government should not be involved.
However, if you want to know where I stand on these issues, then I'll tell you:
People, including preborn have a RIGHT to life, liberty, and persuit of happiness. I guess you want to pick and choose who has these rights.
You said "After extremist foreign terrorists are wiped out, it's going to be a tooth and nails fight with our homegrown funamentalist nutbags, and it's going to be a dirty fight." I guess anyone who disagrees with you is a nutbag. You want to impose your values or lack thereof on the rest of society and not allow people to have their own values. In that case, your are just as much of a nutbag as what you accuse me of being. To tell you the truth, marriage is between a man, woman, and God. Government has no place in the marriage business. If you and your lover want legal protections, you already have that right. People should not finance behaviour that they disagree with. Are you going to force a Christian (btw, I'm not a Christian) businessman to provide monitary benefits to gey couples if he disagrees with homosexuality? If so, then you are imposing your views on someone else.
Your attitude and words indicate that you want to force your belief system on other people. You even suggest that those who disagree with you should be "wiped out." That puts you in the same catagory as the Islamic extremeists. If you
"So the Republicans just weren't reactionary and Fundamentalist enough you mean?"
No, I mean that this is the platform that they ran on in order to woo Christian voters. I'm not stating that I agree or disagree with "gay marriage" or abortion. I am saying that these are lies that the Repugnicans used to get Christians to vote for them. I'm not advocating an issue here. I am pointing out a lie.
I am not happy with Bush or MOST of the Repugnicans, and I would not have been happy with Gore an most of the Demoncrats. Neither is more harmful than the other. Both are basically the same despite their rhetoric.
To be up front, I will state that I am a conservative and vote along that ideology. Even so, I am pointing out the lies and hypocrisy of the "Repugnacan" Party.
The Republicans had control of both houses of congress, the presidency, and "right wing" majority in Supreme Court. In other words, they had a monopoly on power in the United States? Did they live up to their "party platform?" NO THEY DIDN'T!!! Rather than reduce the size and scop of government they have made the government size and scope the largest in U.S. history. As far as abortions and "gay marriage," the carnage continues at abortion mills, and NO LAW was passed to prevent "gay marriage." In fact, the Bush administration has appointed the largest number of openly gay people to office. The Republicans claim that they were tough on Muslim extremeists, yet they voted to outsource our nation's security to Arab companies while at the same time passing unconstitutional laws that intrude upon American freedoms. Christians and other moral majority type people fell for the Republican con plain and simple, and the Republicans did not keep their promises as a party. As a result, FED UP voters rightfully threw their sorry asses out of office:-)
The problem I have with the election, however, is the fact that Demoncrats were elected in their place:-( Will the Demoncrats live up to their promises of affordable, quality healthcare? Will they do something to steady the flow of American jobs to overseas slave labor countries? Will they repeal the "Patriot" Act? Will they restore the legal protections that Americans had under the Constitution? The most likely answer to all of these questions is likely not just no, but HELL NO!!! Remember the Democrats' promise when they ran against George Bush Senior? They railed against the republicans about their eagerness to send American jobs overseas (to repressive countries such as Red China). When in office, they did nothing to stem the flow of American jobs overseas. In fact most voted for the North American "Free Trade" Agreement. Healthcare costs also skyrocketed during the Clinton era. There were also the uncoinstitutional intrusions on peoples freedoms. Will there be any real changes in the way we are governed in the next few years? HELL NO!!! It will be business as usual.
I call the state of American politics the "swinging pendulum of sameness." When voters become fed up with the lies, deceit, and corruption of the Democrats, they fall for the lies, deceit, and corruption of the Republicans. It is the same game, but with a different name. The main difference between each political party is which group of voters they target with their empty campaign promises and lies, deceit, and corruption. Each election, voters are still stupid enough to actually swallow these lies. It is the stupidity of voters that allow these assholes to get away with all their crap. I am sure that this post will be modded down or catagorized as a troll. So be it. However, that still does not change the fact that the American voters as a whole are still stupid. Most believe that they have no choice but to vote the "Lessor of Two Evils." ost are also too lazy to do research on the candidates on the ballot even when sample ballots are available weeks in advance. If they would actually take about 15 minutes to do research, they would see that they never even heard of the majority of the candidates on the ballot. This is because the vooice of these candidates are squelched by the mainstream media. In fact, most media outlets will not even list them as being in the race.
I did my research this election, and I found several alternative party or independent candidates who had very good ideas. I also found quite a few who were plainly kooks. I told people about the candidates that I like as well as the other alternative ones. Most people's reactions were, "but they have no chance of winning. You are throwing away your vote." I say that they are throwing away th
Spammers, ad-ware writers, and other scum have made many, many people's online experience a nightmare. While most people try to defend themselves by installing spam filters, spyware detectors, anti-virus programs and other software, spammers continue to come up with yet even more insideous ways around these defenses with impunity. We have even asked the government to help us, and what does Uncle Sam do? He passes a law that is most favorable to spammers. The law is called the CANNSPAM act. CANNSPAM puts the burden of "opting out" of spam on us users. We have been instructed many times by anti-spam gurus to not to reply to spam or visit a spammer's websit in order to "opt out". This is because spammers in many cases use these opt out requests to confirm an actual working email address. Spam filters in many cases miss some spam and can actually flag very important legitimate email as spam. Again, we are punish while spammers continue to profit.
Spammers will continue to spam as long as there is money to be made in doing so. The economics are on the spammers' side. If a spammer sends out one million spams that advertises a product, and only one person out of ten thousand buys the advertised product, the spammer has made one hundred sales. These sales were generated at little cost to the spammer, and at big cost to users and internet providers. The Internet service providers have to pay the costs of storage and equipment to process the spam. Time is money, and many users spend their precious time deleting spam, upgrading filters, etc. If the user is at work, then their company has to pay for this time in lost productivity. The same thing goes for malicious software that generates popup ads, skews search engine result, etc. People can continue to use their antivirus, antispam, and antiadware programs to try to protect themselves, while the bad guys continue to get away with their spamming, pop-up advertising, and search engine skewing with impunity. Using defensive means to defend against spammers is much like putting one's hands over one's face in order to protect against the punches of a schoolyard bully. One might keep a specific blow from blackening an eye, or fattening a lip, but he or she has so far done nothing to deter the bully from throwing even more punches. The bully will continue to throw punches as long as there is satisfaction in doing so. It is only when the bully is confronted with a crowd of angry people, or a damned good fighter does he or she have an incentive to quit throwing punches. As it goes with bullies, the same thing goes with spammers. Punching back can definitely be a deterrent! Spammers will stop spamming only when the cost of spamming becomes higher than the profits made from spamming.
There have been many people who have made small steps in making spamming more expensive. These people understand that the spammers' weakest point is at their point of sale - usually a website. Many of these people have written programs called "spam vampires." These "vampires" are usually small programs or scripts embedded on a webpage, and they cause a visitor's browser to repeatedly download content from a spammer's website. These repeated downloads can cost spammer's a lot of money for bandwidth usage as well as processing power required to handle the data transfer. When enough people run "spam vampires," a spammer's website can cost a spammer money while at the same be too busy to process requests from those people who actually buy products advertised in spam. Programs that download content from spammers websites have been proven very effective. A program called, "Make Love Not Spam" was so effective, that it actually shut down many spammer's websites. "Blue Security" was another hard hitter against spammers. When "Blue Security" was up and running, many people, including me, noticed a huge decrease in the amount of spam received. Unfortunately, both Blue Securi
It is very possible that this support group is there to help paedophiles resist their attraction to children. I don't know because I'm not into that kind of thing. However, this censorship (of filtering) can have major implications elswhere. These implications can range from what content gets blocked, which content provider gets preferencial treatment and so on. One thing is very clear is the fact that for whatever reason, when a government or corporate power gets or usurps authority to take certain actions, that authority will eventually be abused.
I believe that companies like Verizon, SBC, AT&T, and their various combinations will likely abuse the power of censorship for the sake of making lots of money and squelching competitors. This is the reason why I advocate such things as FreeWan's Mesh Networks, Muni-nets and so on. People themselves need to build their own infrastructure so that the infrastructure is owned and controlled by everyday people rather than governments and mega-corporations. It will get to the point where the monitoring, filtering, and throttling will get so bad that the Internet will become just another medium controlled by mainstream media. When this happens, people will get creative and more local networks will be built. The technology to do this is already out there, and hackers will use it to their advantage. The telcos and media cartels need to accept the fact that their monopoly on information is finished. We the people are in control, now.
Saddam Hussein and his sons murdered men, women and children based on the outcomes of kangaroo courts and sometimes on mere whims. He is captured and his sons have been killed based on the whim of the U.S. government to go to war with his regime.
Now, the same thing is going to happen to him. I say that it (the hanging) needs to be done. A murderer (a person who intentionally kills another person without just cause such as putting to death a murderer or preventing a murder) should be killed regardless of social or political status. I take no pleasure in seeing him or anyone else being killed, though.
To answer your question, "That's a deliberate attempt to time the news with the election, right?" I think it could be a very deliberate attempt to time the news.
"What do you believe?" I do not know what to believe. I believe that the news about Saddam Hussein hurts the 'Democratic' side, but I believe that the hypocrisy of the evengelical leader being exposed hurts the 'Republican' side. What I do KNOW, however, is that both sides of America's mainstream political party are driven by power, money, greed, and corruption. I believe that most candidates in NEITHER side of mainstream party will remember the interest of the nation when they assume office.
"What do you think the Iraqis believe?" I believe that most Kurds and Shi'ites are happy about the verdict and will be even happier to see him dangle. However, I believe that many, if not moost, Sunni's are dissatisied with the verdict. Since the majority of Iraqis are Shi'ite or Kurdish, I believe that a majority of Iraqis are happy with the verdict and will be glad to see him dangle. However, I believe that that most Iraqis still want the U.S. military out of Iraq. I WANT our service members out of Iraq. I believe that the war in Iraq was an unconstitutional action on the part of the U.S. government (my slant on the story).
"Given that there are very few Republicans in Iraq, do you suppose it's possible that they might take a more cynical view on the timing of the verdict?" The Sunni's, Baathists, and a small percentage Shi'ites may be VERY cynical. However, most Shi'ites, Kurds, and some Sunni's will be very glad to see Saddam hang. As far as timing goes, those who are against the U.S. occupation will most likely try to use the timing issue to their advantage.
"Could an appearance of impropriety by the Iraqi court could be, by far, the most reckless of the 'October Surprises'?" I could very well be - here in the United States. I believe that those who are fighting the Americans in Iraq will try to use this as a propaganda point. I also believe that the Baathists and a majority of Sunnis will probably see the court as a kangaroo court.
Why target each other? The hackers were not the cause as far as I know. If people want to use violence, then they should select the correct target. I usually don't support violence, however, I can unsderstand why people get frustrated enough to do something like this. It seems that the little guy or the common person has absolutely no recourse when screwed by a big company. The police usually do not want to pursue people who screw over the common man. The FBI only assists if the amount is $5000 or above. Even a thousand dollars is a lot of money for the common person. However, governments do not care about the common person. It seems that the only way to fight back is by doing some sort of damage or breaking some law. I can now hear all of those "Well, if you do not like it, then do business with someone else people." The problem is that that "someone else" is also most likely a big corporation who also screws over some of their customers.
I just encourage people who feel the need to take some form of disruptive action to make sure they only affect the deserving target. The last major L.A. riot is a prime example of the wrongful use of violence. Why were small businessess and innocent truckers attacked when the police were the target of protesters? It seems to make more sense to me for the rioters to burn down, rob, or vandalize every police precint or police car rather than small businesses whose propriators were probably equally appalled at the verdict. Rather than using violence to punish a target, I suggest other, more creative action that reduces the chance of collateral damage. Does the target have a toll free number? A computer or botnet can fine the target by repeatedly calling that number (from an untracable line). How about bad publicity? I noticed a guy who had lage signs on his car that stated "I got ripped off by....." The guy drove that car around town and lots of people saw the sign. The targetted business almost closed down as a result. It is also easy to glue doors shut, cut air conditioning lines, use herbicide on landscaping, etc. Big business care about only one thing, and that thing is bringing in money. Damage the money stream will damage the company.
A public utility is almost invincible against a customer who uses legal channels to file a complaint, however that same utility becomes very vulnerable to vandalism. It is deeply amazing what a crossed line, a closed valve, an open switch, or a plugged meter can do. It is also amazing what instruction passed onto others who are equally dissatisfied with service can also do. When a target is on the defensive it has to think of every way to prevent a malcontent from doing damage while a malcontent only has to discover a single way of exacting damage to be successful.
Spammers, ad-ware writers, and other scum have made many, many people's online experience a nightmare. While most people try to defend themselves by installing spam filters, spyware detectors, anti-virus programs and other software, spammers continue to come up with yet even more insideous ways around these defenses with impunity. We have even asked the government to help us, and what does Uncle Sam do? He passes a law that is most favorable to spammers. The law is called the CANNSPAM act. CANNSPAM puts the burden of "opting out" of spam on us users. We have been instructed many times by anti-spam gurus to not to reply to spam or visit a spammer's websit in order to "opt out". This is because spammers in many cases use these opt out requests to confirm an actual working email address. Spam filters in many cases miss some spam and can actually flag very important legitimate email as spam. Again, we are punished while spammers continue to profit.
Spammers will continue to spam as long as there is money to be made in doing so. The economics are on the spammers' side. If a spammer sends out one million spams that advertises a product, and only one person out of ten thousand buys the advertised product, the spammer has made one hundred sales. These sales were generated at little cost to the spammer, and at big cost to users and internet providers. The Internet service providers have to pay the costs of storage and equipment to process the spam. Time is money, and many users spend their precious time deleting spam, upgrading filters, etc. If the user is at work, then their company has to pay for this time in lost productivity. The same thing goes for malicious software that generates popup ads, skews search engine result, etc. People can continue to use their antivirus, antispam, and antiadware programs to try to protect themselves, while the bad guys continue to get away with their spamming, pop-up advertising, and search engine skewing with impunity. Using defensive means to defend against spammers is much like putting one's hands over one's face in order to protect against the punches of a schoolyard bully. One might keep a specific blow from blackening an eye, or fattening a lip, but he or she has so far done nothing to deter the bully from throwing even more punches. The bully will continue to throw punches as long as there is satisfaction in doing so. It is only when the bully is confronted with a crowd of angry people, or a damned good fighter does he or she have an incentive to quit throwing punches. As it goes with bullies, the same thing goes with spammers. Punching back can definitely be a deterrent! Spammers will stop spamming only when the cost of spamming becomes higher than the profits made from spamming.
I have written a Java-based program that will work by following instructions on how to sumbit complaints via order forms on spamvertised websites. Instruction files will be cryptographically signed and distributed via a peer to peer network. My program is designed this way so that spammers cannot maliciously modify instruction files to attack innocent websites or shut down updates. The main obsticle to releasing it at the moment is programming uPnP to allow home routers to allow incoming connection. I am willing to collaberate with anyone who has Java UPnP experience to resolve this one last issue
I have been anxious for products for several years. However, I have been sorely disappointed by so called advances in alternative energy. I will be happy when I can spend a couple of thousand of dollars on this stuff and have no power bills for about 10-20 years. If this technology is as promising as many say, then it would be a very good investment towards improving national security. Imagine taking a small part of the money being used to bomb a country into oblivion and using it to get the U.S. off of the oil tit. We would not even have a power grid crisis if everyone all of the sudden became able to produce their own power. If this technology is as cheap as people say it is, why is it not on the roofs of every Tom Dick and Harry's homes.
I am not optimistic. I do not see the entrenched corporate interest allowing this type of independence. What we need is for someone to come up with a cheap and easy way of producing alternative energy that can be manufactured in the homes of any reasonably competent Tom Dick or Harry. WHen that happens, then we will see real advances in technology and freedom.
The part of the law creating a database of sexual offenders is a good marketing tool for PORNO DISTRIBUTERS!!! Just think, they now have a free tool to collect the names and addressess of tens or hundreds of thousand potential customers. Ahh! just think, some creep who sells kiddy pr0n now only needs to consult the database and give out samples of product. A nice way to hurt kids at taxpayer expense!!! That monster in Florida, Cooley was on the state's sex offender website, but what good did that do for nine years old Jessica Lundsford? She was raped and and murdered by being buried alive just the same!!! Rather than creating a sex offender database, it would have been better to keep that monster locked away for life for his previous crime. If this were the case, Jessica would be alive today. But NO, lawmakers prefer to pass unconstitutional, feel-good laws that do more harm than good.
Congress critters and others with power should think about the consequences of passing unconstitutional laws. This law can definity infringe on the right to pursue happiness as this not only ostricises the offender, but it also hurts people in his or her neighborhood as it can severely reduce property values. A sex offender lived near my old house, and the registry might be the reason why I could not sell the place. It also denies those who have served their time the equal protection of the law. Those wrongfully convicted are now legally slandered by their own government with no opportunity for rebuttal. If I was to go around an post signs stating that Bush is a child rapist, I could be sued for lible. However, when the government does this to a wrongfully convicted person, there is no recourse for the person slandered.
Despite what people think, most people accused of sex crimes do not get a fair trial, especially when the alleged victim is a child. Their RIGHT to confront their accuser can be suppressed at the whim of the judge. Also, in many cases, the seating arangement of the alleged victim in relation to others in the court is designed to create jury sympathy for the alleged victim as well as dislike for the alleged criminal. I know this for a fact because I had a roommate in the Nave who was accused of molesting a child. His lawyers told him that he would definitely be going to prison because the evidence against him was "overwhelming." His fate was virtually sealed, and he would have gone to prison except the child had a twinge of conscience and admitted that she lied. It turns out that forensic evidence used to prove rape resulted from the girl's voluntary intercopurse with her 14 years old boyfriend.
If a person does get a fair trial and is convicted of rape, child molesting, etc, there should be only two sentences given. One is life without parole, or death (if guilt is absolutely proven). A person convicted should have ample opportunity to appeal. Many neocons would think that I am a coddler of child molesters, etc. but I am not. I believe that punishment should be appropriate for the crime and that sex offender databases set some very insideous legal precedents. Imagine how easy it would be to have shoplifter forced to register in a shoplifter's database. What about laws that permantly restrict where a shoplifter can live, work or play (much like those convicted of sex crimes even after sentence is served)? What about same type of laws applying to speeders? The slope is indeed slippery.
Yes, sometime their result do suck, but many times theyt also return pretty good results as well. I imagine that they will grow and improve as more revenue comes in. If and when they get big and start abusing their market power, then I will support another search engine company.
http://wwww.p2pnet.net/ is a website deicated to filesharing news. The owner of the website, Jon Newton, runs the website and barely breaks even. He subscibed to Google's adsense in order to generate some revenue. When a story about a filesharing lawsuit broke in the lamescream news, an article in p2pnet was referenced. This article generate a huge number of visits and therefore a much larger than usual number of adsense clicks. Rather than pay what was owed to Jon, Google accused Jon of click fraud and even showed information implying his guilt. Google continues to ignore Jon's request for information relating to this accusation and refuses to communicate with him to clear things up.
You can read about it at http://www.p2pnet.net/story/9086 . This has happened not only to Jon Newton but also to many other small website owners. I am a Geek who used to love using Google, but now that Google has become big, it is doing what most other big companies do - screw the small guy and just walk away. Needless to say, I use alternative search engines instead.
"What Bible are you reading? I recall specific mentions of God, of a holy spirit, and of Jesus. There's your Trinity right there"
The Father has the Name Yahweh, the Son has the Name Yeshua or Yahshua in some dialects. The holy spirit does not have its own name because the holy spirit is a POWER or force, not a personality. The places where it refers to the holy spirit as "he" is due to the fact that in the original language, the article (the) is of the male gender. Some languages do not have a gender neutral word for "the." Yeshua (Jesus if you prefer) was born somewhere between the Day of Trumpets and Festival of Booths. Jesus is a translated term (the letter "J" is only about 400 years old. This is one of the things that have been perpetrated by the corporate religious system.
"It's your attempts to mold government in your narrow religious image that makes me hostile"
The main reason why I encourage people to read the Scripture themselves and do their own research and study is so that they can have an informed opinion of their own rather than regurgitating the B.S. of the corporate religious establishment. Laws in free-er countries almost always reflect the moral standards of the population. The writers of the U.S. Constitution understood that only a moral population can be governed via a republic-style system. Freedom does not mean that people can do just anything that they want. This is the main probl;em with the Libertarian Party. The Libertarians as a whole believe that poisons such as Crystal meth should be consumed by anyone who wishes to do so (Yes, the Scriptures do refer to this - it is called sorcery). If crystal meth becomes legal, there will be many, many drug-crazed people out there beating children to death, bearing children with severe birth defects and so on. I am a foster parent, and I have seen how devastating illicit drug use is to children. The same goes for many other so called "victimless crimes." The Scriptures provide a moral compass for people. Without a moral compass, society declines. Nazi Germany as well as the Roman Empire are prime examples.
People who do not wish to live in places where there are moral laws are still free to move to places that do not have such laws such as San Francisco or Los Angeles, California. I do not wish to pay the high taxes that the governments of these places impose in order to cover the costs of immoral behavior. I have NEVER had the children of PRACTICING Christians or Jews as foster children, and I do not know of any other families that had to keep children of those who tried to lead a Scriptural life. ALL of the children I know of who are in the foster care system come from families who do not practice the principles that are taught by Scripture.
The Constitutions doe NOT say that people in government cannot pass laws based upon their moral beliefs. It does however, forbid governments from requiring people to worship at a certain church or banning the existance of other churches. What I want to see is this nation regain its moral compass. It is only a moral people that can governed by a republican (I'm talking about the form of government here - not the corrupt political party) government. It is not "my narrow religious views," as you call it that I want to see imposed on people. It is a moral government that I would like to see the people be blessed with.
Slashdot Mirror
"Yes it does, run the math on the geologies."
Did you mean geneaologies (as in generations)?
If so, these geneaologies only go back to Adam. The earth (or land) was void before then according to thw writings.
The Hebrew word that is translated as Earth simply meant dirt or land. Does "the entire earth (eretz or land)" mean every square inch of land on every continent, or does it refer to only the land where Adam lived? The Bible does not make that exactly clear clear.
"No just that you have the wrong information."
The wrong information that I have (teaching about carbon 14 dating) just so happens to come from a (government-run) school textbook. I have just also read the wikipedia article on carbon 14 dating, and yes, there are attempt by scientists to calibrate the carbon 14 dating. However there are still many factors that may not have been taken into account when measuring the carbon 14 ration in the listed samples.
Rather than saying that one has to assume that there has been NO CHANGE in the level of carbon 14 from year to year. I should have stated one would have to prove what these changes are from year to year. Core samples are not exactly proof but rather EDUCATED GUESSES. An example of this is the fact that we do not know exactly what period of time each core sample covers. An extremely large amount of ice can be deposited in an extremely short period of time. At other times, an extremely small layer of ice may be deposited over an extremely long period of time. At other times, certain layers may have even melted away. If there are record measurements taken during each each past year since the cration of earth with the accurate measurement equipment we have today, then I would be much more confident in the carbon 14 dating. However, these calibrations are based on the EDUCATED GUESSES of scientists.
The point is that NOBODY REALLY KNOWS FOR SURE. In the '70's scientisits were sounding the alarm that we are on the verge of entering another ice age, Recently that has changed to global warming. Years ago it was thought that eggs were very bad for you. Now it is thought that eggs are not so bad. It was also thought that there was less than one percent gebetic difference in hunmans, now, scientists say that there is much more difference than that.
I have been alive for many years and have seen many different fads in science. Some science gives use many new toys and luxuries, however other science has caused the destabilization of nations. Science has been used to skew public policy for both the good and the bad.
"They are only biased in the same way that a jury might be made biased upon seeing an overwhelming amount of evidence. They have reached their conclusions based on the large amount of compelling evidence, what have you reached your upon?"
I base mine on a compelling amount of evidence. What is your evidence?
"First of all the novelty of an alarm system is notification of the police, who job it is to *gasp* uphold the law." The alarm usually notifies a central monitoring company which in turn notifies the police. If a phone line to which the alarm iss attached is cut, or the burglary is a quick 30 second smash and grab job, then the alarm may prove to be useless. Car alarms for example are very useless unless the car is in its owners yard and makes a distinct sound. "There are plenty of professionals that can or profession demands the ability to pick locks, bypass alarm systems and assault a building in a manner that would make a gun have very little effect." There are many ways of opening licks that leave very little damage besides picking. Yes picking high security locks can be very difficult, however there are other quick ways of opening these locks such as bumping. Besides, one may be able to enter a room or vehicle without causing damage nor by manipulating a lock. I have entered buildings many times without doing either. Why spend 10 minutes screwing with a lock when one can enter the same room by going through a tiled ceiling and over a wall? Why pick a lock when one can lever the door, bump the lock, insert a bypass rod or even remove hinges from a door? If one is unconcerned with damages, there are many even quicker methods of entering a room. A sheetrock knife works wonders. There are quite a few people who make a good living in the illegal entry business. These entries can be made in the traditional brick and morter establishments or into computers or even both. "Perhaps the knowledge that maybe losing a chunk of your life to jail may put some second thoughts into these people." Jail may prove to be a motivational factor to a few people, but it is not to many. In the U.S., jail terms are much too long for many crimes committed, and the result of that is police, judges, and innocents get killed during the capture attempt. If I were a criminal, I believe I would much rather kill a cop than spend the rest of my life in prison. While the chance of getting caught is a deterrant for some, religious beliefs (even the worship of governmental law) is a deterrent for many, many others. Another deterrant is the ability to obtain wealth without breaking the law. A person working 10 hours a day and yet still living paycheck to paycheck or cannot obtain enough money to take care of a pressing need is more likely to take an avantage of an illegal wealth obtaining opportunity than someone who make a decent living. I have knowlege of how to enter building, pick locks, and hack computers as weel as other black arts. I obtained this knowlege not by attending any school but rather by going online and even buying books. I have also successfully demonstrated this knowlege many times. I can obtain much wealth by using this knowlege both legally and illegally. However, what prevents me from committing crimes is not the corrupt local, state, and federal government (all of which I despise), but rather my belief in YHWH. Even though the U.S. has the largest percentage of its population in prison, crime continues to grow (crime statistics are skewed in many ways). People ought to quit deriding those who believe in a Creator, since religous belief is a primary factor in keeping crime at bay.
"Of course hacking is profitable -- the laws of supply and demand cover this as any service or product." I totally agree. Lok at spamming. There is so much moneyt in spam that it now swamps just about anyone's email box. Yeas, there are draconian penalties for spamming, and yes, people get caught. However people still do it because they make money at it, and many just do not think it is wrong.
The Creationalist might like to know that:
There is NO PLACE in the Bible that says that the Earth is 6000 years old. In Genesis it says that the earth BECAME (or CAME TO BE) void and without form. In other words, there is NO PLACE THAT STATES THAT THE EARTH IS ONLY 6000 YEARS OLD.
The Monkeyists might like to know:
The way that dating mechanisms work is based on unproven assumption. In order for Carbin 14 dating system to be accurate, there hase to be NO CHANGE in the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12 in the atmosphere over the years for which the system is claimed to be accurate.
Of course these points are not allowed to be brought up in any "science" program in the public schools. Do I believe that natural selection should be taught in school? YES I DO!!! It is a proven fact. Now do I believe that evolution is the basis for all life appearing on this planet? No I DO NOT!!! That THEORY might be mentioned with arguments for and against it, but there is equal amount of evidence for other possibilities regarding the origin of life on this planet, and I am not just talking a god creating everything. I do expect at least 5 posts arguing against what I say because most people here are biased towards evolution as being the source of all life.
"The first is basic functionality and reliability. Right now people put up with disconnects all the time on data connections. What? That page didn't load? Click it again!"
I could not agree more.
"Most of the telecommunications that the Internet relies on was bought and paid for because of telephone services."
I somewhat disagree. Much of today's telephone infrastructure was put in with TAXPAYER money. Telephone, cable, and other utilities are MONOPOLIES that effectively charge whatever they think they can get out of the people under their control.
"When DSL service has to pay for the copper and maintenance of it, the costs are going to be a lot more realistic."
By "more realistic," I believe you are talking about higher priced. DSL when it is available in my county costs over $35 a month. $35 a month for service in a suburban area is way more than enough to cover maintenance costs. If costs increase too much, people will switch to other alternatives.
"I don't believe anywhere in the world today is experiencing the real costs."
It would be nice if people did. I would much rather pay about 10 to 15 dollars a month to have a high speed Internet connection.
Mesh networks, FreeWans, Muninets, and other networks when perfected will bring high speed networks to the masses. These network will likely transmit data over the airwaves, via lightwave, or even via cheap wire such as electric fence type wire. In an area with sufficient population density, a local network can be constructed wqith very little cost to each user. IMHO, with the technology available today, it is possible for nearly everyone to have a 1 Megabit/sec connection to the rest of the world. However, this will not happen until people decide to take charge and actually start building these networks.
But, government size and power would continue to increase. There would be more attacks against our Second amendment RIGHTS, people would more likely have to get a permit to cut down a tree on their own property, taxes would still be likely to go up, ther would be more first Amendment attacks such as the CDA, etc.
I'm right, there is no difference between a "Demoncrat" and "Repugnican." The Demoncrats had their chance, and so did the Repugnicans. It is time for a real change.
The pig (swine) and "long pig" (what cannibals call people) are very similar internally. It is one reason why swine diseases are so easily transmitted between humans and pigs. When questioned by police, the cannibal will say, "Yes I ate her, she tasted like pork. Now may she rest in pieces."
The monkyist religion (Darwinism) states that our ancestor is an apelike critter, yet the pig is much more similar to humans than are other primates. Even the protein structures of primate flesh is more different from humans than pigs are from humans. This is one of many holes in the monkeyist religion. However, other theories of how we got here are not allowed to be presented in schools despite scientific evidence.
The last 6 years have proven him to be correct. In the last 6 years, government has grown, spending has increased, security has not improved, and our jobs continue to go overseas. The Demoncrats would not have done significantly better.
"If the government has no place in the marriage business, then why aren't conservatives or Republicans opposing legally-sanctioned heterosexual marriages?"
The answer to that is based on thousands of years of precedent. That is what marriage is - a union between a man or woman (women in some cases). I however believe that marriage is between God, a man, and his wife. I personally believe that government has no place in marriage (I do not and will not consider a homosexual union marriage). Most other people also believe that it is necessary for society to have certain standards of decency in order to survive. If you believe that I am in a minority, please take a look at voter initiatives in many states that ban gay "marriage." The people have spoken on this issue and have spoken very loudly. In all but Arizona, these initiatives passed. People who believe in a Surpreme Creator (not just Christians) are sick and tired of being pushed around and bullied by those who wish to force acceptance of a lifestyle that many consider abominable. The same also goes for other moral issues. The Tanak, Bible, Qu'ran, Talmud or many other religious text specifically condemn sodomy. People who read these books and believe their contents have just as many rights as homosexuals do, and they are tired of their rights being ignored!
I am against, and will be against modifying the U.S. Constitution in order to regulate marriage. However, that power rests within the hand of the states. If you want to participate in a homosexual union and insist on having benefits as a married couple, then by all means move to a state such as VT or MS where such unions are recognized. Don't try to force me to accept and reward a lifestyle that goes against my religious beliefs by forcing me to provide marriage benefits to homosexual couples. I will not do so. Forcing me to do so violates my rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Before the stereotyping begins, please not that I AM NOT a Christian or an evangelical. I do however rely on thousands of years of tradition, precedent, and standards.
The candidates that promised to uphold certain values got elected based on their promises. When they ignore their base voters, they in effect broke their promises. Therefore they got fired. I am glad that the Repugnican party lost the election. I say GOOD RIDDANCE. Now it is time to work on doing the same to the Demoncrat Party. If your ar a socialist, then by all means vote for candidates of the Socialist Party. If you lean towards the Green Party, then by all means vote for candidates of the Green Party. If you are truly Libertarian then by all means vote for candidates in the Libertarian Party. I respect your vote. However I will try to discourage you from voting for anyone in the Demoncratic-Repugnican Party because they're devoid of principly and for the most part are only in it for the power and money.
So you are accusing me of being a fundamentalists and an enemy simply because I am pointing out the lies preached by the repugnicans? Wow talk about insecurity! I was just attempting to show some of the lies that the Repugnicans used to woo Christian voters. Just to point out to you, I also mentioned low-cost healthcare as a demoncratic issue to expose the lies that the demoncrats tell. (Healthcare is between you and your healthcare practioner - government should not be involved. However, if you want to know where I stand on these issues, then I'll tell you: People, including preborn have a RIGHT to life, liberty, and persuit of happiness. I guess you want to pick and choose who has these rights. You said "After extremist foreign terrorists are wiped out, it's going to be a tooth and nails fight with our homegrown funamentalist nutbags, and it's going to be a dirty fight." I guess anyone who disagrees with you is a nutbag. You want to impose your values or lack thereof on the rest of society and not allow people to have their own values. In that case, your are just as much of a nutbag as what you accuse me of being. To tell you the truth, marriage is between a man, woman, and God. Government has no place in the marriage business. If you and your lover want legal protections, you already have that right. People should not finance behaviour that they disagree with. Are you going to force a Christian (btw, I'm not a Christian) businessman to provide monitary benefits to gey couples if he disagrees with homosexuality? If so, then you are imposing your views on someone else. Your attitude and words indicate that you want to force your belief system on other people. You even suggest that those who disagree with you should be "wiped out." That puts you in the same catagory as the Islamic extremeists. If you
"So the Republicans just weren't reactionary and Fundamentalist enough you mean?" No, I mean that this is the platform that they ran on in order to woo Christian voters. I'm not stating that I agree or disagree with "gay marriage" or abortion. I am saying that these are lies that the Repugnicans used to get Christians to vote for them. I'm not advocating an issue here. I am pointing out a lie.
I am not happy with Bush or MOST of the Repugnicans, and I would not have been happy with Gore an most of the Demoncrats. Neither is more harmful than the other. Both are basically the same despite their rhetoric.
To be up front, I will state that I am a conservative and vote along that ideology. Even so, I am pointing out the lies and hypocrisy of the "Repugnacan" Party.
:-)
:-( Will the Demoncrats live up to their promises of affordable, quality healthcare? Will they do something to steady the flow of American jobs to overseas slave labor countries? Will they repeal the "Patriot" Act? Will they restore the legal protections that Americans had under the Constitution? The most likely answer to all of these questions is likely not just no, but HELL NO!!! Remember the Democrats' promise when they ran against George Bush Senior? They railed against the republicans about their eagerness to send American jobs overseas (to repressive countries such as Red China). When in office, they did nothing to stem the flow of American jobs overseas. In fact most voted for the North American "Free Trade" Agreement. Healthcare costs also skyrocketed during the Clinton era. There were also the uncoinstitutional intrusions on peoples freedoms. Will there be any real changes in the way we are governed in the next few years? HELL NO!!! It will be business as usual.
The Republicans had control of both houses of congress, the presidency, and "right wing" majority in Supreme Court. In other words, they had a monopoly on power in the United States? Did they live up to their "party platform?" NO THEY DIDN'T!!! Rather than reduce the size and scop of government they have made the government size and scope the largest in U.S. history. As far as abortions and "gay marriage," the carnage continues at abortion mills, and NO LAW was passed to prevent "gay marriage." In fact, the Bush administration has appointed the largest number of openly gay people to office. The Republicans claim that they were tough on Muslim extremeists, yet they voted to outsource our nation's security to Arab companies while at the same time passing unconstitutional laws that intrude upon American freedoms. Christians and other moral majority type people fell for the Republican con plain and simple, and the Republicans did not keep their promises as a party. As a result, FED UP voters rightfully threw their sorry asses out of office
The problem I have with the election, however, is the fact that Demoncrats were elected in their place
I call the state of American politics the "swinging pendulum of sameness." When voters become fed up with the lies, deceit, and corruption of the Democrats, they fall for the lies, deceit, and corruption of the Republicans. It is the same game, but with a different name. The main difference between each political party is which group of voters they target with their empty campaign promises and lies, deceit, and corruption. Each election, voters are still stupid enough to actually swallow these lies. It is the stupidity of voters that allow these assholes to get away with all their crap. I am sure that this post will be modded down or catagorized as a troll. So be it. However, that still does not change the fact that the American voters as a whole are still stupid. Most believe that they have no choice but to vote the "Lessor of Two Evils." ost are also too lazy to do research on the candidates on the ballot even when sample ballots are available weeks in advance. If they would actually take about 15 minutes to do research, they would see that they never even heard of the majority of the candidates on the ballot. This is because the vooice of these candidates are squelched by the mainstream media. In fact, most media outlets will not even list them as being in the race.
I did my research this election, and I found several alternative party or independent candidates who had very good ideas. I also found quite a few who were plainly kooks. I told people about the candidates that I like as well as the other alternative ones. Most people's reactions were, "but they have no chance of winning. You are throwing away your vote." I say that they are throwing away th
Spammers, ad-ware writers, and other scum have made many, many people's online experience a nightmare. While most people try to defend themselves by installing spam filters, spyware detectors, anti-virus programs and other software, spammers continue to come up with yet even more insideous ways around these defenses with impunity. We have even asked the government to help us, and what does Uncle Sam do? He passes a law that is most favorable to spammers. The law is called the CANNSPAM act. CANNSPAM puts the burden of "opting out" of spam on us users. We have been instructed many times by anti-spam gurus to not to reply to spam or visit a spammer's websit in order to "opt out". This is because spammers in many cases use these opt out requests to confirm an actual working email address. Spam filters in many cases miss some spam and can actually flag very important legitimate email as spam. Again, we are punish while spammers continue to profit.
Spammers will continue to spam as long as there is money to be made in doing so. The economics are on the spammers' side. If a spammer sends out one million spams that advertises a product, and only one person out of ten thousand buys the advertised product, the spammer has made one hundred sales. These sales were generated at little cost to the spammer, and at big cost to users and internet providers. The Internet service providers have to pay the costs of storage and equipment to process the spam. Time is money, and many users spend their precious time deleting spam, upgrading filters, etc. If the user is at work, then their company has to pay for this time in lost productivity. The same thing goes for malicious software that generates popup ads, skews search engine result, etc. People can continue to use their antivirus, antispam, and antiadware programs to try to protect themselves, while the bad guys continue to get away with their spamming, pop-up advertising, and search engine skewing with impunity. Using defensive means to defend against spammers is much like putting one's hands over one's face in order to protect against the punches of a schoolyard bully. One might keep a specific blow from blackening an eye, or fattening a lip, but he or she has so far done nothing to deter the bully from throwing even more punches. The bully will continue to throw punches as long as there is satisfaction in doing so. It is only when the bully is confronted with a crowd of angry people, or a damned good fighter does he or she have an incentive to quit throwing punches. As it goes with bullies, the same thing goes with spammers. Punching back can definitely be a deterrent! Spammers will stop spamming only when the cost of spamming becomes higher than the profits made from spamming.
There have been many people who have made small steps in making spamming more expensive. These people understand that the spammers' weakest point is at their point of sale - usually a website. Many of these people have written programs called "spam vampires." These "vampires" are usually small programs or scripts embedded on a webpage, and they cause a visitor's browser to repeatedly download content from a spammer's website. These repeated downloads can cost spammer's a lot of money for bandwidth usage as well as processing power required to handle the data transfer. When enough people run "spam vampires," a spammer's website can cost a spammer money while at the same be too busy to process requests from those people who actually buy products advertised in spam. Programs that download content from spammers websites have been proven very effective. A program called, "Make Love Not Spam" was so effective, that it actually shut down many spammer's websites. "Blue Security" was another hard hitter against spammers. When "Blue Security" was up and running, many people, including me, noticed a huge decrease in the amount of spam received. Unfortunately, both Blue Securi
It is very possible that this support group is there to help paedophiles resist their attraction to children. I don't know because I'm not into that kind of thing. However, this censorship (of filtering) can have major implications elswhere. These implications can range from what content gets blocked, which content provider gets preferencial treatment and so on. One thing is very clear is the fact that for whatever reason, when a government or corporate power gets or usurps authority to take certain actions, that authority will eventually be abused.
I believe that companies like Verizon, SBC, AT&T, and their various combinations will likely abuse the power of censorship for the sake of making lots of money and squelching competitors. This is the reason why I advocate such things as FreeWan's Mesh Networks, Muni-nets and so on. People themselves need to build their own infrastructure so that the infrastructure is owned and controlled by everyday people rather than governments and mega-corporations. It will get to the point where the monitoring, filtering, and throttling will get so bad that the Internet will become just another medium controlled by mainstream media. When this happens, people will get creative and more local networks will be built. The technology to do this is already out there, and hackers will use it to their advantage. The telcos and media cartels need to accept the fact that their monopoly on information is finished. We the people are in control, now.
Saddam Hussein and his sons murdered men, women and children based on the outcomes of kangaroo courts and sometimes on mere whims. He is captured and his sons have been killed based on the whim of the U.S. government to go to war with his regime.
Now, the same thing is going to happen to him. I say that it (the hanging) needs to be done. A murderer (a person who intentionally kills another person without just cause such as putting to death a murderer or preventing a murder) should be killed regardless of social or political status. I take no pleasure in seeing him or anyone else being killed, though.
To answer your question, "That's a deliberate attempt to time the news with the election, right?"
I think it could be a very deliberate attempt to time the news.
"What do you believe?"
I do not know what to believe. I believe that the news about Saddam Hussein hurts the 'Democratic' side, but I believe that the hypocrisy of the evengelical leader being exposed hurts the 'Republican' side. What I do KNOW, however, is that both sides of America's mainstream political party are driven by power, money, greed, and corruption. I believe that most candidates in NEITHER side of mainstream party will remember the interest of the nation when they assume office.
"What do you think the Iraqis believe?"
I believe that most Kurds and Shi'ites are happy about the verdict and will be even happier to see him dangle. However, I believe that many, if not moost, Sunni's are dissatisied with the verdict. Since the majority of Iraqis are Shi'ite or Kurdish, I believe that a majority of Iraqis are happy with the verdict and will be glad to see him dangle. However, I believe that that most Iraqis still want the U.S. military out of Iraq. I WANT our service members out of Iraq. I believe that the war in Iraq was an unconstitutional action on the part of the U.S. government (my slant on the story).
"Given that there are very few Republicans in Iraq, do you suppose it's possible that they might take a more cynical view on the timing of the verdict?" The Sunni's, Baathists, and a small percentage Shi'ites may be VERY cynical. However, most Shi'ites, Kurds, and some Sunni's will be very glad to see Saddam hang. As far as timing goes, those who are against the U.S. occupation will most likely try to use the timing issue to their advantage.
"Could an appearance of impropriety by the Iraqi court could be, by far, the most reckless of the 'October Surprises'?"
I could very well be - here in the United States. I believe that those who are fighting the Americans in Iraq will try to use this as a propaganda point. I also believe that the Baathists and a majority of Sunnis will probably see the court as a kangaroo court.
"So chomp on this you moronic chimps. I hate every fucking one of you and hope you get what you fucking deserve."
I was finding myself agreeing until I came to the quote above. Now you have shown yourself to be just another American-hating bigot.
Why target each other? The hackers were not the cause as far as I know. If people want to use violence, then they should select the correct target. I usually don't support violence, however, I can unsderstand why people get frustrated enough to do something like this. It seems that the little guy or the common person has absolutely no recourse when screwed by a big company. The police usually do not want to pursue people who screw over the common man. The FBI only assists if the amount is $5000 or above. Even a thousand dollars is a lot of money for the common person. However, governments do not care about the common person. It seems that the only way to fight back is by doing some sort of damage or breaking some law. I can now hear all of those "Well, if you do not like it, then do business with someone else people." The problem is that that "someone else" is also most likely a big corporation who also screws over some of their customers.
....." The guy drove that car around town and lots of people saw the sign. The targetted business almost closed down as a result. It is also easy to glue doors shut, cut air conditioning lines, use herbicide on landscaping, etc. Big business care about only one thing, and that thing is bringing in money. Damage the money stream will damage the company.
I just encourage people who feel the need to take some form of disruptive action to make sure they only affect the deserving target. The last major L.A. riot is a prime example of the wrongful use of violence. Why were small businessess and innocent truckers attacked when the police were the target of protesters? It seems to make more sense to me for the rioters to burn down, rob, or vandalize every police precint or police car rather than small businesses whose propriators were probably equally appalled at the verdict. Rather than using violence to punish a target, I suggest other, more creative action that reduces the chance of collateral damage. Does the target have a toll free number? A computer or botnet can fine the target by repeatedly calling that number (from an untracable line). How about bad publicity? I noticed a guy who had lage signs on his car that stated "I got ripped off by
A public utility is almost invincible against a customer who uses legal channels to file a complaint, however that same utility becomes very vulnerable to vandalism. It is deeply amazing what a crossed line, a closed valve, an open switch, or a plugged meter can do. It is also amazing what instruction passed onto others who are equally dissatisfied with service can also do. When a target is on the defensive it has to think of every way to prevent a malcontent from doing damage while a malcontent only has to discover a single way of exacting damage to be successful.
Spammers, ad-ware writers, and other scum have made many, many people's online experience a nightmare. While most people try to defend themselves by installing spam filters, spyware detectors, anti-virus programs and other software, spammers continue to come up with yet even more insideous ways around these defenses with impunity. We have even asked the government to help us, and what does Uncle Sam do? He passes a law that is most favorable to spammers. The law is called the CANNSPAM act. CANNSPAM puts the burden of "opting out" of spam on us users. We have been instructed many times by anti-spam gurus to not to reply to spam or visit a spammer's websit in order to "opt out". This is because spammers in many cases use these opt out requests to confirm an actual working email address. Spam filters in many cases miss some spam and can actually flag very important legitimate email as spam. Again, we are punished while spammers continue to profit.
Spammers will continue to spam as long as there is money to be made in doing so. The economics are on the spammers' side. If a spammer sends out one million spams that advertises a product, and only one person out of ten thousand buys the advertised product, the spammer has made one hundred sales. These sales were generated at little cost to the spammer, and at big cost to users and internet providers. The Internet service providers have to pay the costs of storage and equipment to process the spam. Time is money, and many users spend their precious time deleting spam, upgrading filters, etc. If the user is at work, then their company has to pay for this time in lost productivity. The same thing goes for malicious software that generates popup ads, skews search engine result, etc. People can continue to use their antivirus, antispam, and antiadware programs to try to protect themselves, while the bad guys continue to get away with their spamming, pop-up advertising, and search engine skewing with impunity. Using defensive means to defend against spammers is much like putting one's hands over one's face in order to protect against the punches of a schoolyard bully. One might keep a specific blow from blackening an eye, or fattening a lip, but he or she has so far done nothing to deter the bully from throwing even more punches. The bully will continue to throw punches as long as there is satisfaction in doing so. It is only when the bully is confronted with a crowd of angry people, or a damned good fighter does he or she have an incentive to quit throwing punches. As it goes with bullies, the same thing goes with spammers. Punching back can definitely be a deterrent! Spammers will stop spamming only when the cost of spamming becomes higher than the profits made from spamming.
I have written a Java-based program that will work by following instructions on how to sumbit complaints via order forms on spamvertised websites. Instruction files will be cryptographically signed and distributed via a peer to peer network. My program is designed this way so that spammers cannot maliciously modify instruction files to attack innocent websites or shut down updates. The main obsticle to releasing it at the moment is programming uPnP to allow home routers to allow incoming connection. I am willing to collaberate with anyone who has Java UPnP experience to resolve this one last issue
I have been anxious for products for several years. However, I have been sorely disappointed by so called advances in alternative energy. I will be happy when I can spend a couple of thousand of dollars on this stuff and have no power bills for about 10-20 years. If this technology is as promising as many say, then it would be a very good investment towards improving national security. Imagine taking a small part of the money being used to bomb a country into oblivion and using it to get the U.S. off of the oil tit. We would not even have a power grid crisis if everyone all of the sudden became able to produce their own power. If this technology is as cheap as people say it is, why is it not on the roofs of every Tom Dick and Harry's homes.
I am not optimistic. I do not see the entrenched corporate interest allowing this type of independence. What we need is for someone to come up with a cheap and easy way of producing alternative energy that can be manufactured in the homes of any reasonably competent Tom Dick or Harry. WHen that happens, then we will see real advances in technology and freedom.
The part of the law creating a database of sexual offenders is a good marketing tool for PORNO DISTRIBUTERS!!! Just think, they now have a free tool to collect the names and addressess of tens or hundreds of thousand potential customers. Ahh! just think, some creep who sells kiddy pr0n now only needs to consult the database and give out samples of product. A nice way to hurt kids at taxpayer expense!!! That monster in Florida, Cooley was on the state's sex offender website, but what good did that do for nine years old Jessica Lundsford? She was raped and and murdered by being buried alive just the same!!! Rather than creating a sex offender database, it would have been better to keep that monster locked away for life for his previous crime. If this were the case, Jessica would be alive today. But NO, lawmakers prefer to pass unconstitutional, feel-good laws that do more harm than good.
Congress critters and others with power should think about the consequences of passing unconstitutional laws. This law can definity infringe on the right to pursue happiness as this not only ostricises the offender, but it also hurts people in his or her neighborhood as it can severely reduce property values. A sex offender lived near my old house, and the registry might be the reason why I could not sell the place. It also denies those who have served their time the equal protection of the law. Those wrongfully convicted are now legally slandered by their own government with no opportunity for rebuttal. If I was to go around an post signs stating that Bush is a child rapist, I could be sued for lible. However, when the government does this to a wrongfully convicted person, there is no recourse for the person slandered.
Despite what people think, most people accused of sex crimes do not get a fair trial, especially when the alleged victim is a child. Their RIGHT to confront their accuser can be suppressed at the whim of the judge. Also, in many cases, the seating arangement of the alleged victim in relation to others in the court is designed to create jury sympathy for the alleged victim as well as dislike for the alleged criminal. I know this for a fact because I had a roommate in the Nave who was accused of molesting a child. His lawyers told him that he would definitely be going to prison because the evidence against him was "overwhelming." His fate was virtually sealed, and he would have gone to prison except the child had a twinge of conscience and admitted that she lied. It turns out that forensic evidence used to prove rape resulted from the girl's voluntary intercopurse with her 14 years old boyfriend.
If a person does get a fair trial and is convicted of rape, child molesting, etc, there should be only two sentences given. One is life without parole, or death (if guilt is absolutely proven). A person convicted should have ample opportunity to appeal. Many neocons would think that I am a coddler of child molesters, etc. but I am not. I believe that punishment should be appropriate for the crime and that sex offender databases set some very insideous legal precedents. Imagine how easy it would be to have shoplifter forced to register in a shoplifter's database. What about laws that permantly restrict where a shoplifter can live, work or play (much like those convicted of sex crimes even after sentence is served)? What about same type of laws applying to speeders? The slope is indeed slippery.
http://www.fija.org/ Judge the law as well as the facts!!!
http://www.constitutionparty.org/ An alternative to "voting for the lessor of two evils."
http://www.lp.org/ Another alternative to the "lessor of two evils."
I sometimes use www.clusty.com and www.ask.com
Yes, sometime their result do suck, but many times theyt also return pretty good results as well.
I imagine that they will grow and improve as more revenue comes in. If and when they get big and start abusing their market power, then I will support another search engine company.
http://wwww.p2pnet.net/ is a website deicated to filesharing news. The owner of the website, Jon Newton, runs the website and barely breaks even. He subscibed to Google's adsense in order to generate some revenue. When a story about a filesharing lawsuit broke in the lamescream news, an article in p2pnet was referenced. This article generate a huge number of visits and therefore a much larger than usual number of adsense clicks. Rather than pay what was owed to Jon, Google accused Jon of click fraud and even showed information implying his guilt. Google continues to ignore Jon's request for information relating to this accusation and refuses to communicate with him to clear things up.
You can read about it at http://www.p2pnet.net/story/9086 . This has happened not only to Jon Newton but also to many other small website owners. I am a Geek who used to love using Google, but now that Google has become big, it is doing what most other big companies do - screw the small guy and just walk away. Needless to say, I use alternative search engines instead.
"What Bible are you reading? I recall specific mentions of God, of a holy spirit, and of Jesus. There's your Trinity right there"
The Father has the Name Yahweh, the Son has the Name Yeshua or Yahshua in some dialects. The holy spirit does not have its own name because the holy spirit is a POWER or force, not a personality. The places where it refers to the holy spirit as "he" is due to the fact that in the original language, the article (the) is of the male gender. Some languages do not have a gender neutral word for "the." Yeshua (Jesus if you prefer) was born somewhere between the Day of Trumpets and Festival of Booths. Jesus is a translated term (the letter "J" is only about 400 years old. This is one of the things that have been perpetrated by the corporate religious system.
"It's your attempts to mold government in your narrow religious image that makes me hostile"
The main reason why I encourage people to read the Scripture themselves and do their own research and study is so that they can have an informed opinion of their own rather than regurgitating the B.S. of the corporate religious establishment. Laws in free-er countries almost always reflect the moral standards of the population. The writers of the U.S. Constitution understood that only a moral population can be governed via a republic-style system. Freedom does not mean that people can do just anything that they want. This is the main probl;em with the Libertarian Party. The Libertarians as a whole believe that poisons such as Crystal meth should be consumed by anyone who wishes to do so (Yes, the Scriptures do refer to this - it is called sorcery). If crystal meth becomes legal, there will be many, many drug-crazed people out there beating children to death, bearing children with severe birth defects and so on. I am a foster parent, and I have seen how devastating illicit drug use is to children. The same goes for many other so called "victimless crimes." The Scriptures provide a moral compass for people. Without a moral compass, society declines. Nazi Germany as well as the Roman Empire are prime examples.
People who do not wish to live in places where there are moral laws are still free to move to places that do not have such laws such as San Francisco or Los Angeles, California. I do not wish to pay the high taxes that the governments of these places impose in order to cover the costs of immoral behavior. I have NEVER had the children of PRACTICING Christians or Jews as foster children, and I do not know of any other families that had to keep children of those who tried to lead a Scriptural life. ALL of the children I know of who are in the foster care system come from families who do not practice the principles that are taught by Scripture.
The Constitutions doe NOT say that people in government cannot pass laws based upon their moral beliefs. It does however, forbid governments from requiring people to worship at a certain church or banning the existance of other churches. What I want to see is this nation regain its moral compass. It is only a moral people that can governed by a republican (I'm talking about the form of government here - not the corrupt political party) government. It is not "my narrow religious views," as you call it that I want to see imposed on people. It is a moral government that I would like to see the people be blessed with.