Well, in the long run Al-Qaida wants to install the sharia [wikipedia.org], which would take away a lot of freedom
When Al-Qaida has the wherewithal to invade and conquer the United States I'll start to worry about their long term plans. We aren't talking about a powerful nation-state here. We are talking about a bunch of bandits living in caves. I'm not real worried about them pouring across the border and conquering our country.
Why? It's hidden in plain sight, and I dare the DHS to search all packages containing anything larger than a SD micro flash card for information carrying shipments.
Well if all you need to smuggle into the country is data why not just encrypt it and e-mail or upload it to yourself?
Next time a cell phone talker lights up their phone next to you on a bus, the street, anywhere...ask them in a pleasant voice to stop talking on the phone, it is causing noise pollution. Let me know the response you get.
The last time I did just that, using words like 'please' and a pleasant tone of voice got me a look that "f--- you" and they kept on talking.
You don't have a right to complain about it on the street as the street is a public place the last time I checked. On the bus or airplane you can complain to the driver or flight attendant. If they refuse to do anything about it then next time fly/ride on a carrier that does.
In short let the marketplace decide and don't turn to the Government to outlaw something that's merely annoying and not actually dangerous or harmful. I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty tired of the nanny state.
On a less brutal note try some regular fucking discipline.
Just what kind of "regular fucking discipline" do you purpose to use on an infant? The GP was talking about the screaming infant not the obnoxious three year old. Newsflash: babies cry. Exactly what kind of "discipline" do you purpose to use on an infant that's making noise?
The majority is ruling, and complaining, about a minority that is making itself so obnoxious as to border on rude. If these cell phone talkers had any sense of respect of others and would turn off their digital leash for the flight, we wouldn't have this problem. But, noooo, we get hear all about Aunt Edna's colonoscopy and your cousin Fred's erectile dysfunction problem.
Then wouldn't it be more logical for the airline to ask that person to desist from the obnoxious conversation then to get Congress to ban the usage of something that most people are quite capable of using without annoying those around them?
What is even worse is that if you try to use encryption to maintain a level of privacy and security, that will just mean they'll keep it longer while they try to crack it.
Good luck with that. The NSA is subject to the same laws of physics as the rest of us the last time I checked. My understanding is that the US Government typically relies on keyloggers in these instances -- but how does that help them if they seize the laptop at the border and don't give it back to you?
If they tried to compel you to produce the key you could always go with the time honored "I don't recall" defense. Hey if it's good enough for US Senators and administration officials......
Since when does something developed by private entities (universities across the globe) need to be treated as a public utility, hrm?
I'm pretty sure that the US Government had a hand in getting the internet where it is today and regardless electricity and the telephone were both developed by private entities and yet both are regarded as utilities in most of this country.
When the latest Ubuntu was released and my ISP was slowing BitTorrent to a crawl, where did I turn? Newsgroups
Wouldn't it have been faster to just find an http and/or ftp mirror and download it that way instead of downloading an encoded copy off Usenet that was probably 30-40% larger than the actual files?
If you can find out who's contributing to Andrew Cuomo's campaign so far, you'll be able to verify this. I have a feeling that you are right though.
Oh come on. I can understand being cynical but do you really think that he wouldn't have ample motivation to go after kiddie porn without prodding from RIAA?
The headline of "Andrew Cuomo secures agreement to prevent distribution of child pornography" was worth far more in political capital than any donations from RIAA. You and I both know that these agreements do nothing to limit the spread kiddie porn but Joe six pack has no idea.... hell, I'd be surprised if Cuomo himself understood the net well enough to know that this move is completely useless.
I didn't say it was a "right". I said that it should be thought of as a utility and regulated as such.
You don't have the "right" to free electricity or phone service if you don't pay your bill. But the companies are generally limited in the types of policies they can impose due to the essential nature of their service (which is often a local monopoly meaning you have no where else to go to get it).
As a random example in New York State regulated utilities (natural gas, electric, landline phone, cable, steam, water) can't impose contracts or ask for more than two months of service as a security deposit. They also can't refuse to give you service if you don't want to give them your SSN.
Just like the US Mail service is permitted to refuse to transport helium yet retain common carrier status.
Offtopic, but USPS won't transport helium? Why is that? I could understand if it was a flammable gas (hydrogen and methane both come to mind) but what's wrong with helium? Is there anything more stable and less reactive than helium?
Bullshit. The internet is the electric or telephone company of the 21st century. You need it to do everything from communications to research to banking. It should be treated as a utility and held to the same standards that the local electric company is.
I recommend ATT or Verizon, both equally, and no one else.
I disagree. If you live in a major city both T-Mobile and Sprint are valid options. Both of them are focused on covering the areas where 90% of the population spends 90% of it's time. If you live in a decent sized city and rarely venture out into the countryside then why the hell should you pay half again as much (or more) for service with Verizon or AT&T?
They'll find a sympathetic ear with countries not friendly to the US, who will accuse the US of further meddling, and that will spill over into countries sympathetic to said enemy states.
Why are you making this solely about the US? There was quite a bit of outrage in the EU over their actions in Tibet as I recall. I could see your point if we were talking about the US walking out of the games or some such unilateral move. None of that was ever discussed. Instead the Chinese got all pissy because a few European leaders and the American President floated the idea of boycotting the opening ceremonies. And just like that the Democracies of the World caved in. I guess it's better to keep doing business with the murders in Beijing than it is to stand up for our principles.
Look at the big picture, here. China is one of the world's most populous countries. Pissing them off sufficiently has a lot greater stakes than just human rights abuses. They're developing a massive inferiority complex- not that it isn't deserved, but...we're talking World-scale war if they feel sufficiently alienated, pissed off, and robbed of trade (for political reasons.)
Somehow I don't think the Chinese are insane enough to start a "World-scale war" in the nuclear age over a little bit of human rights criticism. They do seem to have a massive inferiority complex but I think it's a pretty big leap from that to WW3. Then again, these are the people that celebrate "victories" like the Battle of Chosin Reservoir where the loss ratio was 10 to 1 against them. Congratulations -- you outnumbered us 10 to 1 and we still managed to escape your encirclement and destroy seven divisions in the process. Interesting definition of "victory".
Let's face it, we've replaced a military cold war with an economic one; where the competing powers now hold the capacity to destroy each other's economies
I don't buy this. How could they "destroy" our economy? What critical resource do we get from China that we can't obtain elsewhere? Cheap manufactured goods that can't be economically produced in the United States? There's lots of developing countries that would LOVE the chance to sell those types of goods to the American market. Latin and South America both come to mind. Heck you don't even need a trade dispute/war to make this happen -- I've heard quite a few different economists say that energy prices are starting to become a drag on globalization and trade.
There was an interesting segment on Newshour regarding this -- most of the experts they talked to disagreed about the exact number but all agreed that if oil rises beyond a certain point ($200/bbl on the low end, $300/bbl on the high end) that transportation costs will become prohibitive enough to start to rollback globalization. If that happens I think that China will be worse off then we will -- who else is going to buy that amount of cheap crap besides the EU and United States?
We're seen as goodie-twoshoe, meddling complainers by many Chinese...and they're especially sensitive to criticism.
So we shouldn't call out abuses of human rights because the people we are calling out are "especially sensitive to criticism"?
If only the Russians had known this.... they could have started to whine very loudly when Reagan called them the "Evil Empire" and might have still won the Cold War.
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Well, in the long run Al-Qaida wants to install the sharia [wikipedia.org], which would take away a lot of freedom
When Al-Qaida has the wherewithal to invade and conquer the United States I'll start to worry about their long term plans. We aren't talking about a powerful nation-state here. We are talking about a bunch of bandits living in caves. I'm not real worried about them pouring across the border and conquering our country.
Even better, fill large files with random data tagged as an ecrypted file
Eh you can get more creative than that. Download a few thousand pictures of puppies and kittens off the internet and encrypt them all ;)
Why? It's hidden in plain sight, and I dare the DHS to search all packages containing anything larger than a SD micro flash card for information carrying shipments.
Well if all you need to smuggle into the country is data why not just encrypt it and e-mail or upload it to yourself?
Next time a cell phone talker lights up their phone next to you on a bus, the street, anywhere...ask them in a pleasant voice to stop talking on the phone, it is causing noise pollution. Let me know the response you get.
The last time I did just that, using words like 'please' and a pleasant tone of voice got me a look that "f--- you" and they kept on talking.
You don't have a right to complain about it on the street as the street is a public place the last time I checked. On the bus or airplane you can complain to the driver or flight attendant. If they refuse to do anything about it then next time fly/ride on a carrier that does.
In short let the marketplace decide and don't turn to the Government to outlaw something that's merely annoying and not actually dangerous or harmful. I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty tired of the nanny state.
On a less brutal note try some regular fucking discipline.
Just what kind of "regular fucking discipline" do you purpose to use on an infant? The GP was talking about the screaming infant not the obnoxious three year old. Newsflash: babies cry. Exactly what kind of "discipline" do you purpose to use on an infant that's making noise?
The majority is ruling, and complaining, about a minority that is making itself so obnoxious as to border on rude. If these cell phone talkers had any sense of respect of others and would turn off their digital leash for the flight, we wouldn't have this problem. But, noooo, we get hear all about Aunt Edna's colonoscopy and your cousin Fred's erectile dysfunction problem.
Then wouldn't it be more logical for the airline to ask that person to desist from the obnoxious conversation then to get Congress to ban the usage of something that most people are quite capable of using without annoying those around them?
I don't know who I fear the most, Al-Queda, or the US government
That's easy. Al-Queda can't take away your freedom. All they can take away is your life. The US Government can do both.....
What is even worse is that if you try to use encryption to maintain a level of privacy and security, that will just mean they'll keep it longer while they try to crack it.
Good luck with that. The NSA is subject to the same laws of physics as the rest of us the last time I checked. My understanding is that the US Government typically relies on keyloggers in these instances -- but how does that help them if they seize the laptop at the border and don't give it back to you?
If they tried to compel you to produce the key you could always go with the time honored "I don't recall" defense. Hey if it's good enough for US Senators and administration officials......
he cant find beavers large enough to ship 17 inch laptops anymore
Yeah I hate when I can't find a beaver large enough to contain something that's 17 inches in size ;)
The constitution doesn't apply until you get past the customs officer. And even then only to US citizens.
Do you have a citation for the Constitution not applying to non-Americans on American soil or are you just talking out of your ass?
Honest citizens need to act like international spies.
I would think that most self-respecting international spies would have a cooler way of smuggling their laptops into the country than Fedex ;)
Since when does something developed by private entities (universities across the globe) need to be treated as a public utility, hrm?
I'm pretty sure that the US Government had a hand in getting the internet where it is today and regardless electricity and the telephone were both developed by private entities and yet both are regarded as utilities in most of this country.
When the latest Ubuntu was released and my ISP was slowing BitTorrent to a crawl, where did I turn? Newsgroups
Wouldn't it have been faster to just find an http and/or ftp mirror and download it that way instead of downloading an encoded copy off Usenet that was probably 30-40% larger than the actual files?
I'm fairly sure you need three strikes in a basball metaphor.
Not really......
Strike one!
Strike two!
???
Your out!
Gmail has one hell of a good filter
Is that why I keep winning the British lottery and getting spam in Asian languages that I don't even speak, read or write?
If you can find out who's contributing to Andrew Cuomo's campaign so far, you'll be able to verify this. I have a feeling that you are right though.
Oh come on. I can understand being cynical but do you really think that he wouldn't have ample motivation to go after kiddie porn without prodding from RIAA?
The headline of "Andrew Cuomo secures agreement to prevent distribution of child pornography" was worth far more in political capital than any donations from RIAA. You and I both know that these agreements do nothing to limit the spread kiddie porn but Joe six pack has no idea.... hell, I'd be surprised if Cuomo himself understood the net well enough to know that this move is completely useless.
I didn't say it was a "right". I said that it should be thought of as a utility and regulated as such.
You don't have the "right" to free electricity or phone service if you don't pay your bill. But the companies are generally limited in the types of policies they can impose due to the essential nature of their service (which is often a local monopoly meaning you have no where else to go to get it).
As a random example in New York State regulated utilities (natural gas, electric, landline phone, cable, steam, water) can't impose contracts or ask for more than two months of service as a security deposit. They also can't refuse to give you service if you don't want to give them your SSN.
Just like the US Mail service is permitted to refuse to transport helium yet retain common carrier status.
Offtopic, but USPS won't transport helium? Why is that? I could understand if it was a flammable gas (hydrogen and methane both come to mind) but what's wrong with helium? Is there anything more stable and less reactive than helium?
internet access is a product not a right
Bullshit. The internet is the electric or telephone company of the 21st century. You need it to do everything from communications to research to banking. It should be treated as a utility and held to the same standards that the local electric company is.
I recommend ATT or Verizon, both equally, and no one else.
I disagree. If you live in a major city both T-Mobile and Sprint are valid options. Both of them are focused on covering the areas where 90% of the population spends 90% of it's time. If you live in a decent sized city and rarely venture out into the countryside then why the hell should you pay half again as much (or more) for service with Verizon or AT&T?
They'll find a sympathetic ear with countries not friendly to the US, who will accuse the US of further meddling, and that will spill over into countries sympathetic to said enemy states.
Why are you making this solely about the US? There was quite a bit of outrage in the EU over their actions in Tibet as I recall. I could see your point if we were talking about the US walking out of the games or some such unilateral move. None of that was ever discussed. Instead the Chinese got all pissy because a few European leaders and the American President floated the idea of boycotting the opening ceremonies. And just like that the Democracies of the World caved in. I guess it's better to keep doing business with the murders in Beijing than it is to stand up for our principles.
Look at the big picture, here. China is one of the world's most populous countries. Pissing them off sufficiently has a lot greater stakes than just human rights abuses. They're developing a massive inferiority complex- not that it isn't deserved, but...we're talking World-scale war if they feel sufficiently alienated, pissed off, and robbed of trade (for political reasons.)
Somehow I don't think the Chinese are insane enough to start a "World-scale war" in the nuclear age over a little bit of human rights criticism. They do seem to have a massive inferiority complex but I think it's a pretty big leap from that to WW3. Then again, these are the people that celebrate "victories" like the Battle of Chosin Reservoir where the loss ratio was 10 to 1 against them. Congratulations -- you outnumbered us 10 to 1 and we still managed to escape your encirclement and destroy seven divisions in the process. Interesting definition of "victory".
Let's face it, we've replaced a military cold war with an economic one; where the competing powers now hold the capacity to destroy each other's economies
I don't buy this. How could they "destroy" our economy? What critical resource do we get from China that we can't obtain elsewhere? Cheap manufactured goods that can't be economically produced in the United States? There's lots of developing countries that would LOVE the chance to sell those types of goods to the American market. Latin and South America both come to mind. Heck you don't even need a trade dispute/war to make this happen -- I've heard quite a few different economists say that energy prices are starting to become a drag on globalization and trade.
There was an interesting segment on Newshour regarding this -- most of the experts they talked to disagreed about the exact number but all agreed that if oil rises beyond a certain point ($200/bbl on the low end, $300/bbl on the high end) that transportation costs will become prohibitive enough to start to rollback globalization. If that happens I think that China will be worse off then we will -- who else is going to buy that amount of cheap crap besides the EU and United States?
most of whom are east coast liberals who weren't going to watch it anyway (sports are for blue collar people)
Stereotype much do you?
I'm automatically excluding every brand on my purchase list as long as they feature ads in the Olympics theme or sponsor the Olympics.
I hope you don't carry any Visa branded debit or credit cards then.....
Not that I don't agree with you in spirit but I think you'll find it pretty hard to not do business with ANYONE that sponsors the games.
We're seen as goodie-twoshoe, meddling complainers by many Chinese...and they're especially sensitive to criticism.
So we shouldn't call out abuses of human rights because the people we are calling out are "especially sensitive to criticism"?
If only the Russians had known this.... they could have started to whine very loudly when Reagan called them the "Evil Empire" and might have still won the Cold War.