In America today, one can advocate torture and preventative detention without being assumed sarcastic, fringe, or insane
This is offtopic and will probably be modded as such, but who has advocated for "preventative detention"? There are a fair number of people who have advocated for detention of those captured on the battlefield until such time as hostilities end (as is usually the case in war) but I've not heard any mainstream American politician call for "preventative" detention.
Unless you watch movies on your computer (which I don't) I don't see the point.
Or work with spreadsheets/financial software. Movies aren't the only purpose of a widescreen monitor and your experiences do not represent everybody else who uses a PC.
But go shopping for a monitor today, and it's impossible to find 4:3.
Yeah, it's as hard as going to Newegg, clicking on 'monitors', clicking on 'advanced search' and setting 'widescreen' to 'no'. I can see why you haven't been able to find any 4:3 monitors. Maybeafewlinks will help you?
Yeah, but he only ass raped her to do her a favor.
The sad thing is I'm not joking. I made the mistake of reading the grand jury transcripts a few days ago. He ass raped her because she wasn't on the pill and couldn't remember when her last period was. Charming fellow, isn't he?
I hope he spends the rest of his natural life in an overcrowded pound-me-in-the-ass California prison. As far as I know they don't have any other kind right now.....
That's a nice bit of flower child idealism you've got there. Tell me, where did I advocate doing a job you hate just because it pays more money? All I said was would you continue working for one employer if your skillset allowed you to make more money working for another?
Sheridan stepped down as president and handed the reins over to somebody else, just as George Washington peaceably handed the control over to John Adams
Except George Washington didn't hand the Presidency over to Martha, did he?
And turning over your whitestars or galaxy-class cruisers to Earth's president would make about as much sense as the U.S. giving nuclear weapons to the State of Texas, so Texas could go-around conquering Kansas and Arizona and Colorado.
Except the ISA isn't the same as the United States. The ISA as I understand it takes no position on the internal affairs of it's members. It exists to keep the peace between them. The Centauri were initially members of the ISA and they had slavery of all things. Hardly compatible with the lofty notions expressed by G'Kar, is it?
You don't turn-over your central weapons to the lower-level member states, else how would you keep them inline?
Except that Sheridan swore an oath to Earth. He didn't swear an oath to some interstellar alliance designed to keep Earth "in line". It's arguable that he was following his oath when he rebelled against Clark (the US military is sworn to protect against all enemies, foreign and domestic, Earthforce probably operates under a similar oath). It's his actions after Clark was defeated that I take issue with. He set himself up as above his home planet and threatened it with his private warfleet to get it to go along with his designs. That's many things but I don't think it's particularly Washington-like.
Although with our modern day aversion to risk, I can't see it getting a very enthusiastic welcome from todays "sailors".
We'll get rid of the aversion to risk beforehand by lining up all of the lawyers in the country and telling them that there was just a car accident near Jupiter. They'll race each other to get there first, after which the rest of us can explore the solar system in peace and quiet;)
A cynical view I know. But the US Gov pays through the nose to train these guys who then just retire and try to cash in on the Washington gravy train. Just like the rest of the high level military, political and bureaucratic employees that leave gov employment in order to cash in. Typical and sad.
Why is that "sad"? Would you keep working for the Government if you had a skillset that was going to enable you to make a lot more money in the private sector? Does it also bother you when someone gets an entry level IT job and then leaves for greener pastures once they acquire sufficient work experience?
However for political and social commentary, what do I get from reading a web log written from the point of view of my own biases? Someone to tell me what I already believe so I can respond with how insightful the poster is?
Unfortunately that seems to be the state of the majority of our political discourse. People fill up on web logs that cater to their own biases (Dailykos, Redstate) or watch "news" networks (MSNBC, Fox) that do the same. Why expose yourself to competing points of view when you can join an echo chamber and shout down anyone who dares to disagree with the group think?
Actually I found the Shadow War to be much less compelling than the Earth Alliance Civil War. One can only imagine what JMS would have done with that if he had devoted Season 5 to it (as originally planned) instead of compressing it into Season 4.
I wouldn't mind seeing a story where the megalomaniac Sheridan got his comeuppance. Rebelling against Earth because a dictator comes to power and shreds the Constitution is one thing. Creating your own private army filled with outsiders and imposing "take it or leave it" terms on Earth after said dictator has been dealt with is another thing entirely. If Sheridan had any loyalty to Earth whatsoever he should have turned over some of his toys after Clark ate his own PPG.
In the same vain it would be nice to see Delenn knocked down a peg or two. There are quite a few Minbari in the B5 story that I found it easy to sympathize with (Neroon). Delenn was not one of them. At best she was a religious fanatic willing to condemn billions of people to death because of prophesy. At worst she was every bit as delusional as Sheridan and saw herself as being fit to rule the Galaxy and "keep the peace" (at gunpoint, interesting concept that) between the younger races.
You know, there's hundreds and thousands (if not millions) of Palestinians who were kicked out first to carve up the land that became Israel.
Which wouldn't have happened if the Arabs had accepted the UN's partition of Palestine rather than attempting to settle the issue on the battlefield. They lost on the battlefield and have been whining about it ever since.
As far as I'm concerned, neither side in this argument is clean -- Israel, for how it was created in the first place, and the Arabs, for the killing of innocents.
What does Israel have to do with a conversation about Iran? Or are you just interested in changing the topic so you can bash Israel?
I'd still like to see a B5 feature film. Too bad that JMS hasn't been up to it since the passing of Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs. I still think that B5 is rather underrated/unknown in the general population (although it has a large following here on/.) and suspect that it could do very well at the box office with the right storyline.
I've watched a lot of Sci-Fi but I always wind up coming back to B5. It's the only series that I care enough about to invest the money to buy up all the DVDs. I can still pick up new things when I re-watch the series. How do you go wrong with characters like Londo, G'Kar and Garibaldi?
since one example is enough: why do I have to put up with noise of bells early in the morning, every morning?
OMG, church bells! I had no idea that your day to day activities were so unbearable. How do you manage to endure under such persecution?
Yes, I, somehow by habit, wrongly assumed that you are religious because in here only religious people don't mind this disgusting (you really won't agree with that description?) situation;
The only thing that I see as disgusting is your extreme hostility towards religion and people of faith.
That I will still think similarly about them? Now I don't have a right to do think freely?
You have the right to think whatever you want. I also have the right to point out your hypocrisy and hostility. Why are you assuming that I don't think you have the right to think freely? It seems to me that you've got quite the victim complex.
Well, IMHO you have a skewed view of religions because you are lucky to live in slightly atypical (when you look at whole world) place that manages, more or less, to implement effective safety checks.
I think we have a bit of a language barrier here because I have no idea what you mean by "effective safety checks". My country doesn't impose any sort of "safety check" on religion. We'll let you practice and believe anything over here. Even something as crazy as Scientology.
Oh, how cute, another compassionate, loving, caring worshipper.
You fail. I'm not particularly religious. I would describe myself as agnostic if pushed to describe my own beliefs.
Stop intruding into my life every day
Where do you live that religious influences are "intruding" into your life every day? Saudi Arabia? I've lived in some of the most religious parts of the United States (South Carolina, Utah, Mississippi) and I've never felt like I've had religion "intruding" into my life every day.
only then you are free to privately cheerish whatever brainfart you have
I think it's funny that you claim that you don't have tolerance for intolerance and then dismiss the deeply held beliefs of millions (billions?) of people as "brainfarts". Then you call me a hypocrite? That's rich.
I said nothing about whether or not the Pahlevi regime was a "good" thing. All I said was that Iran had fairly good relations with Israel until the Iranian revolution and that after the revolution they started using anti-Israeli rhetoric and sponsering terrorist organizations that attack Israel.
If you put down a $20k deposit without reading the description "Sub-Orbital flight of about 10 minutes" expecting a multi-day orbital flight then you deserve whatever comes your way in life.
Don't let any liberals hear you say that. Next we'll have a "Commercial Spaceflight Consumers Protection Act" pending before Congress, because everybody knows it's a proper role for the Federal Government to protect people too stupid to protect themselves before they sign a contract.
That made me think... anybody remember when the USA used to actually pioneer anything, back when it used to innovate and do new things? Unless you're a member of the geriatric crowd you probably don't remember this at all.
You got modded up for this? What do you define as a 'geriatric'? Ten years ago nobody had heard of Google. 15 years ago nobody had heard of Viagra. 20 years ago the internet was an novelty item that was little used outside of academia and the US Government. 25 years ago nobody outside of the military had any use for GPS. 30 years ago the personal computer was a novelty item that was priced out of reach for most households.
Yes, I can see why you would bemoan the fact that the US no longer innovates or does new things.
Slashdot Mirror
now, please place a dna sample in the cup provided and move right along.
I might need some magazines or an internet connection before I can accommodate your request ;)
In America today, one can advocate torture and preventative detention without being assumed sarcastic, fringe, or insane
This is offtopic and will probably be modded as such, but who has advocated for "preventative detention"? There are a fair number of people who have advocated for detention of those captured on the battlefield until such time as hostilities end (as is usually the case in war) but I've not heard any mainstream American politician call for "preventative" detention.
Unless you watch movies on your computer (which I don't) I don't see the point.
Or work with spreadsheets/financial software. Movies aren't the only purpose of a widescreen monitor and your experiences do not represent everybody else who uses a PC.
But go shopping for a monitor today, and it's impossible to find 4:3.
Yeah, it's as hard as going to Newegg, clicking on 'monitors', clicking on 'advanced search' and setting 'widescreen' to 'no'. I can see why you haven't been able to find any 4:3 monitors. Maybe a few links will help you?
Yeah, but he only ass raped her to do her a favor.
The sad thing is I'm not joking. I made the mistake of reading the grand jury transcripts a few days ago. He ass raped her because she wasn't on the pill and couldn't remember when her last period was. Charming fellow, isn't he?
I hope he spends the rest of his natural life in an overcrowded pound-me-in-the-ass California prison. As far as I know they don't have any other kind right now.....
That's a nice bit of flower child idealism you've got there. Tell me, where did I advocate doing a job you hate just because it pays more money? All I said was would you continue working for one employer if your skillset allowed you to make more money working for another?
Because it's a slow news day?
Sheridan stepped down as president and handed the reins over to somebody else, just as George Washington peaceably handed the control over to John Adams
Except George Washington didn't hand the Presidency over to Martha, did he?
And turning over your whitestars or galaxy-class cruisers to Earth's president would make about as much sense as the U.S. giving nuclear weapons to the State of Texas, so Texas could go-around conquering Kansas and Arizona and Colorado.
Except the ISA isn't the same as the United States. The ISA as I understand it takes no position on the internal affairs of it's members. It exists to keep the peace between them. The Centauri were initially members of the ISA and they had slavery of all things. Hardly compatible with the lofty notions expressed by G'Kar, is it?
You don't turn-over your central weapons to the lower-level member states, else how would you keep them inline?
Except that Sheridan swore an oath to Earth. He didn't swear an oath to some interstellar alliance designed to keep Earth "in line". It's arguable that he was following his oath when he rebelled against Clark (the US military is sworn to protect against all enemies, foreign and domestic, Earthforce probably operates under a similar oath). It's his actions after Clark was defeated that I take issue with. He set himself up as above his home planet and threatened it with his private warfleet to get it to go along with his designs. That's many things but I don't think it's particularly Washington-like.
Although with our modern day aversion to risk, I can't see it getting a very enthusiastic welcome from todays "sailors".
We'll get rid of the aversion to risk beforehand by lining up all of the lawyers in the country and telling them that there was just a car accident near Jupiter. They'll race each other to get there first, after which the rest of us can explore the solar system in peace and quiet ;)
A cynical view I know. But the US Gov pays through the nose to train these guys who then just retire and try to cash in on the Washington gravy train. Just like the rest of the high level military, political and bureaucratic employees that leave gov employment in order to cash in. Typical and sad.
Why is that "sad"? Would you keep working for the Government if you had a skillset that was going to enable you to make a lot more money in the private sector? Does it also bother you when someone gets an entry level IT job and then leaves for greener pastures once they acquire sufficient work experience?
Last I checked, most places won't extradite you for things that aren't crimes in their legal code
In the case of France they won't even extradite you if you rape a 13 year old girl and flee from justice after admitting to your crime.
However for political and social commentary, what do I get from reading a web log written from the point of view of my own biases? Someone to tell me what I already believe so I can respond with how insightful the poster is?
Unfortunately that seems to be the state of the majority of our political discourse. People fill up on web logs that cater to their own biases (Dailykos, Redstate) or watch "news" networks (MSNBC, Fox) that do the same. Why expose yourself to competing points of view when you can join an echo chamber and shout down anyone who dares to disagree with the group think?
Malda thrives on astroturfing, it's what keeps this site alive.
I guess Apple must have missed his memo then, because I wouldn't exactly call his review of the iPod astroturfing ;)
although cultural references can sometimes give it away.
Yada, yada, yada, I have no idea what you are talking about. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go welcome our astroturfing overlords.
Actually I found the Shadow War to be much less compelling than the Earth Alliance Civil War. One can only imagine what JMS would have done with that if he had devoted Season 5 to it (as originally planned) instead of compressing it into Season 4.
I wouldn't mind seeing a story where the megalomaniac Sheridan got his comeuppance. Rebelling against Earth because a dictator comes to power and shreds the Constitution is one thing. Creating your own private army filled with outsiders and imposing "take it or leave it" terms on Earth after said dictator has been dealt with is another thing entirely. If Sheridan had any loyalty to Earth whatsoever he should have turned over some of his toys after Clark ate his own PPG.
In the same vain it would be nice to see Delenn knocked down a peg or two. There are quite a few Minbari in the B5 story that I found it easy to sympathize with (Neroon). Delenn was not one of them. At best she was a religious fanatic willing to condemn billions of people to death because of prophesy. At worst she was every bit as delusional as Sheridan and saw herself as being fit to rule the Galaxy and "keep the peace" (at gunpoint, interesting concept that) between the younger races.
It even had the potential to be the next Star Trek-like franchise.
Star Trek stopped having potential somewhere around 1995. Now it's all about recycled plots, recycled characters, reset buttons and lens flares.
I liked the show... but they they still need some thinking writers.
They don't need writers. What they need is more lens flares. You can't have a Sci-Fi show without them, ya know?
You know, there's hundreds and thousands (if not millions) of Palestinians who were kicked out first to carve up the land that became Israel.
Which wouldn't have happened if the Arabs had accepted the UN's partition of Palestine rather than attempting to settle the issue on the battlefield. They lost on the battlefield and have been whining about it ever since.
As far as I'm concerned, neither side in this argument is clean -- Israel, for how it was created in the first place, and the Arabs, for the killing of innocents.
What does Israel have to do with a conversation about Iran? Or are you just interested in changing the topic so you can bash Israel?
I'd still like to see a B5 feature film. Too bad that JMS hasn't been up to it since the passing of Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs. I still think that B5 is rather underrated/unknown in the general population (although it has a large following here on /.) and suspect that it could do very well at the box office with the right storyline.
I've watched a lot of Sci-Fi but I always wind up coming back to B5. It's the only series that I care enough about to invest the money to buy up all the DVDs. I can still pick up new things when I re-watch the series. How do you go wrong with characters like Londo, G'Kar and Garibaldi?
since one example is enough: why do I have to put up with noise of bells early in the morning, every morning?
OMG, church bells! I had no idea that your day to day activities were so unbearable. How do you manage to endure under such persecution?
Yes, I, somehow by habit, wrongly assumed that you are religious because in here only religious people don't mind this disgusting (you really won't agree with that description?) situation;
The only thing that I see as disgusting is your extreme hostility towards religion and people of faith.
That I will still think similarly about them? Now I don't have a right to do think freely?
You have the right to think whatever you want. I also have the right to point out your hypocrisy and hostility. Why are you assuming that I don't think you have the right to think freely? It seems to me that you've got quite the victim complex.
Well, IMHO you have a skewed view of religions because you are lucky to live in slightly atypical (when you look at whole world) place that manages, more or less, to implement effective safety checks.
I think we have a bit of a language barrier here because I have no idea what you mean by "effective safety checks". My country doesn't impose any sort of "safety check" on religion. We'll let you practice and believe anything over here. Even something as crazy as Scientology.
Well, if the scum are the quickest to recover ....
Shit, I guess that means we can't count on an asteroid to take care of our politicians and lawyers.....
Oh, how cute, another compassionate, loving, caring worshipper.
You fail. I'm not particularly religious. I would describe myself as agnostic if pushed to describe my own beliefs.
Stop intruding into my life every day
Where do you live that religious influences are "intruding" into your life every day? Saudi Arabia? I've lived in some of the most religious parts of the United States (South Carolina, Utah, Mississippi) and I've never felt like I've had religion "intruding" into my life every day.
only then you are free to privately cheerish whatever brainfart you have
I think it's funny that you claim that you don't have tolerance for intolerance and then dismiss the deeply held beliefs of millions (billions?) of people as "brainfarts". Then you call me a hypocrite? That's rich.
I said nothing about whether or not the Pahlevi regime was a "good" thing. All I said was that Iran had fairly good relations with Israel until the Iranian revolution and that after the revolution they started using anti-Israeli rhetoric and sponsering terrorist organizations that attack Israel.
Nice attempt at changing the topic though.
If you put down a $20k deposit without reading the description "Sub-Orbital flight of about 10 minutes" expecting a multi-day orbital flight then you deserve whatever comes your way in life.
Don't let any liberals hear you say that. Next we'll have a "Commercial Spaceflight Consumers Protection Act" pending before Congress, because everybody knows it's a proper role for the Federal Government to protect people too stupid to protect themselves before they sign a contract.
That made me think... anybody remember when the USA used to actually pioneer anything, back when it used to innovate and do new things? Unless you're a member of the geriatric crowd you probably don't remember this at all.
You got modded up for this? What do you define as a 'geriatric'? Ten years ago nobody had heard of Google. 15 years ago nobody had heard of Viagra. 20 years ago the internet was an novelty item that was little used outside of academia and the US Government. 25 years ago nobody outside of the military had any use for GPS. 30 years ago the personal computer was a novelty item that was priced out of reach for most households.
Yes, I can see why you would bemoan the fact that the US no longer innovates or does new things.
Israel's claim to the land of Israel comes from their holy religious texts.
No, actually it comes from the United Nations.