I'm am American who is proud of our technological superiority over the rest of the world.
I'm an American who is proud of our technological ability but not naive enough to believe we have superiority. Sure, we do a lot of things really well (aerospace, computers, medicine) but other countries are ahead of us in certain areas. Russia builds some really amazing rockets and missiles that don't compare to anything in the West. There is no Western equivalent of Russia's supersonic anti-ship missiles. Or their 200 knot torpedoes.
Anybody that doesn't think our enemies wouldn't have a few rude surprises in store for us if the shit really hit the fan is kidding themselves.
Audi is logically taking a cautious and considered approach because the negative publicity of a car plunging over a fatal drop would hinder the development.
You mean like this? Lockheed Martin invited local media out to test drive their new vehicle. One of their guys started the day off by stating "You can't flip this vehicle." Care to guess what one of the reporters managed to do?
This is Slashdot, dammit, we're supposed to be talking about the tech the car uses, the sensor fields, blind spots, known bugs, and so forth.
It uses magic pixie dust. There are no bugs. It will eventually replace humanity. All our base are belong to it. I for one welcome our new machine overlords.
But recently, our Supreme Court changed the rules, making it legal for anyone to give money to politicians and keep the source of the money a secret.
Actually, no, SCOTUS said nothing of the kind. Citizens United dealt with speech, not money. The current anonymous groups are using loopholes in the tax code that existed long before SCOTUS ruled on Citizens United.
You are comparing a common rapist to the people that planned and executed the mass murder of 3,000 people along with billions of dollars in property damage? Really?
The mace/OC ban is one of the few they have that makes sense. If you've ever used OC spray (and I have, unfortunately) you know that you are going to get some of it back in your own face. Now imagine using it in an enclosed space with a ventilation system. Every single person on the aircraft is going to wind up breathing the shit.
but in many cities/counties...the debt collector will have a warrant sworn out on you. Until you pay the amount owed to the debt collector...you're sitting in jail.
You are seriously misinformed. The worst thing that a debt collector can do to you is obtain a civil judgment after suing you. They may (depending on the laws of your state) be able to use that judgment to seize your wages or other property but they can not put you jail for a failure to pay.
Actually the FBI didn't track him down. He caught the attention of a Oklahoma State Trooper because his car had no license plates. During the traffic stop the officer noticed a budge under his shirt and arrested him for illegal weapons possession. He sat in a small town jail for a few days before the FBI realized that their man was already in custody.
I've always found it ironic that the man was smart enough to construct a bomb capable of leveling a multistory office building but couldn't be bothered to ensure that his getaway vehicle was in working order with the proper tags and paperwork. Hell, he might still have gotten away with it if he had concealed his firearm a little bit better. I guess it's the little things that screw you.....
There are ways to get into the US that don't involve visas and plane tickets. Just ask one of the 20,000,000 illegal immigrants currently living here how they got into the country.
I'll grant you the point that our security apparatus dropped the ball on 9/11 but that still doesn't change the fact that it's not really a matter for law enforcement when foreign operatives are plotting to kill Americans with the backing of a foreign government. Dealing with such people is a job for the United States Armed Forces.
Any American LEO can carry his service weapon on a flight if he's willing to take the TSA course and his agency approves of him carrying on the aircraft.
Air marshals carry specially designed firearms that are less likely to cause explosive decompression.
This is a myth. The air marshals carry Sig Sauers chambered in.357 SIG that fire conventional jacketed hollow point bullets. They experimented with glaser safety slugs in the 70s and 80s but found they lacked sufficient stopping power to be effective against determined adversaries.
Pocket knives have been banned in government buildings for a long time. It's only right that we get the same protection when flying.
You feel that you need protection from pocket knives? Really? In a country that allows (even encourages) citizens to carry loaded handguns you are worried about pocket knives?
Terrorist acts are criminal offenses and need to be dealt with as criminal offenses. This has worked very well in the past, and in 2001 there was no reason to believe that it would not have worked with the people who planned and financed the September 11 skyjackings.
Which law enforcement agency has jurisdiction in Afghanistan and the ability to go into that country and arrest those responsible for 9/11?
Terrorism was a police matter when it was Timothy McVeigh blowing up a federal building.
That's not really a valid comparison. Timothy McVeigh was an American citizen on American soil. He was caught and arrested by a State Trooper in OK or KS as I recall. The people who were responsible for 9/11 were operating on foreign soil and being shielded by a foreign Government. How exactly do you propose to solve this problem using conventional law enforcement? Did I miss the creation of an American law enforcement agency with jurisdiction in Afghanistan?
showing that juries are best off determining that the law is being properly applied
Sounds like you just made an argument in FAVOR of nullification. If I don't think the law is being properly applied then I'm voting for acquittal even if the defendant broke the letter of said law.
Do you think this guy deserved to be convicted of a crime? He should go to prison for seven years and permanently lose the right to own firearms and vote, along with all the other consequences that go with a felony conviction?
Remember, again, the jury can convict wrongfully as easily as it can acquit wrongfully
So what? That's not an argument against jury nullification. Voting for acquittal when you think the law is unfair and/or being unfairly applied is not the same thing as voting to convict an innocent man.
And a wrongful conviction is a far worse thing than a rightful conviction on a law that should be changed.
I'm not in the business of measuring degrees of "wrongness". If I think something is wrong you aren't going to compel me to go along with it. My conscience will trump the jury instructions.
it's also an unethical abuse of the power of the jury
You see an unethical abuse of power, I see a valuable check against unethical abuses of power on the part of lawmakers, judges and prosecutors.
but would you trust 11 other people not to feel like they should brag that they deliberately stuck it to the man?
Frankly it doesn't matter if they brag about sticking it to the man. Jurors can not be held responsible for their vote. It is not a crime to vote for acquittal.
You realize that you are already losing a few months worth of earnings to taxes right? Why are you complaining about Jury Duty but not the percentage of your income that you never even see because Uncle Sam compels your employer to send it directly to him?
In most of Europe, every agricultural town has its train station
The United States has States that are larger than most European countries.
And they have foreign agricultural workers too, from Poland and so on, and those folks come by train
And how do they get to the fields? Oh right, via automobiles, which was the point I was making earlier......
They also have a higher standard of living
Depends on what you are looking at. Many Europeans don't own cars because they can't afford to keep them on the road. Most Americans do.
and heath care is a right rather than a privilege
If you can make health care a right without taking away my freedom of choice I'll be the first one to support you. If making health care a right involves compelling me through force of law to play in the sandbox that you've created then I'll fight you tooth and nail.
and people aren't living on the street
You didn't look hard enough if you couldn't find homeless people in Europe.
Yeah, they're mindless fucking sheep because they were never informed about what juries are
Yes, they are mindless fucking sheep if they are relying on someone else to educate them. We have books, libraries and the internet for a reason. If you were about to assume the responsibility of deciding if someone should lose his freedom wouldn't you take the time to educate yourself a bit? Hell, did any of them pay attention in civics class even? Jury nullification predates this Republic and I recall learning about it while studying the American revolution.
They don't get to decide not to convict even though the facts fit the law.
Yes they do. It's called jury nullification. Pretending that it doesn't exist will not change the fact that it does. Even if you outlaw nullification you will not be able to stop it -- jury deliberations are secret and they do not need to provide any explanation for why their decision.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you ever seen the way a cat looks at you when you give them a "command"? It's not a blank look, it's a "you gotta be kidding me" look.
Why are you taking human mannerisms and trying to apply them to a non-human?
For pussy you might put up with a really annoying movie and listen to someone bitch about how all the women at work piss them off ;)
It's all about motivation.
I'm am American who is proud of our technological superiority over the rest of the world.
I'm an American who is proud of our technological ability but not naive enough to believe we have superiority. Sure, we do a lot of things really well (aerospace, computers, medicine) but other countries are ahead of us in certain areas. Russia builds some really amazing rockets and missiles that don't compare to anything in the West. There is no Western equivalent of Russia's supersonic anti-ship missiles. Or their 200 knot torpedoes.
Anybody that doesn't think our enemies wouldn't have a few rude surprises in store for us if the shit really hit the fan is kidding themselves.
It's a certainty, that humanity will either exploit itself to extinction, or be surpassed by AI creatures of our own making.
Neither one of those are a "certainty".
Audi is logically taking a cautious and considered approach because the negative publicity of a car plunging over a fatal drop would hinder the development.
You mean like this? Lockheed Martin invited local media out to test drive their new vehicle. One of their guys started the day off by stating "You can't flip this vehicle." Care to guess what one of the reporters managed to do?
Whoops....
This is Slashdot, dammit, we're supposed to be talking about the tech the car uses, the sensor fields, blind spots, known bugs, and so forth.
It uses magic pixie dust. There are no bugs. It will eventually replace humanity. All our base are belong to it. I for one welcome our new machine overlords.
See, that wasn't so hard, was it?
But recently, our Supreme Court changed the rules, making it legal for anyone to give money to politicians and keep the source of the money a secret.
Actually, no, SCOTUS said nothing of the kind. Citizens United dealt with speech, not money. The current anonymous groups are using loopholes in the tax code that existed long before SCOTUS ruled on Citizens United.
You are comparing a common rapist to the people that planned and executed the mass murder of 3,000 people along with billions of dollars in property damage? Really?
So why are you complaining? ;)
The mace/OC ban is one of the few they have that makes sense. If you've ever used OC spray (and I have, unfortunately) you know that you are going to get some of it back in your own face. Now imagine using it in an enclosed space with a ventilation system. Every single person on the aircraft is going to wind up breathing the shit.
but in many cities/counties...the debt collector will have a warrant sworn out on you. Until you pay the amount owed to the debt collector...you're sitting in jail.
You are seriously misinformed. The worst thing that a debt collector can do to you is obtain a civil judgment after suing you. They may (depending on the laws of your state) be able to use that judgment to seize your wages or other property but they can not put you jail for a failure to pay.
Actually the FBI didn't track him down. He caught the attention of a Oklahoma State Trooper because his car had no license plates. During the traffic stop the officer noticed a budge under his shirt and arrested him for illegal weapons possession. He sat in a small town jail for a few days before the FBI realized that their man was already in custody.
I've always found it ironic that the man was smart enough to construct a bomb capable of leveling a multistory office building but couldn't be bothered to ensure that his getaway vehicle was in working order with the proper tags and paperwork. Hell, he might still have gotten away with it if he had concealed his firearm a little bit better. I guess it's the little things that screw you.....
There are ways to get into the US that don't involve visas and plane tickets. Just ask one of the 20,000,000 illegal immigrants currently living here how they got into the country.
I'll grant you the point that our security apparatus dropped the ball on 9/11 but that still doesn't change the fact that it's not really a matter for law enforcement when foreign operatives are plotting to kill Americans with the backing of a foreign government. Dealing with such people is a job for the United States Armed Forces.
Any American LEO can carry his service weapon on a flight if he's willing to take the TSA course and his agency approves of him carrying on the aircraft.
Air marshals carry specially designed firearms that are less likely to cause explosive decompression.
This is a myth. The air marshals carry Sig Sauers chambered in .357 SIG that fire conventional jacketed hollow point bullets. They experimented with glaser safety slugs in the 70s and 80s but found they lacked sufficient stopping power to be effective against determined adversaries.
Pocket knives have been banned in government buildings for a long time. It's only right that we get the same protection when flying.
You feel that you need protection from pocket knives? Really? In a country that allows (even encourages) citizens to carry loaded handguns you are worried about pocket knives?
Terrorist acts are criminal offenses and need to be dealt with as criminal offenses. This has worked very well in the past, and in 2001 there was no reason to believe that it would not have worked with the people who planned and financed the September 11 skyjackings.
Which law enforcement agency has jurisdiction in Afghanistan and the ability to go into that country and arrest those responsible for 9/11?
Terrorism was a police matter when it was Timothy McVeigh blowing up a federal building.
That's not really a valid comparison. Timothy McVeigh was an American citizen on American soil. He was caught and arrested by a State Trooper in OK or KS as I recall. The people who were responsible for 9/11 were operating on foreign soil and being shielded by a foreign Government. How exactly do you propose to solve this problem using conventional law enforcement? Did I miss the creation of an American law enforcement agency with jurisdiction in Afghanistan?
You left out the jury.
showing that juries are best off determining that the law is being properly applied
Sounds like you just made an argument in FAVOR of nullification. If I don't think the law is being properly applied then I'm voting for acquittal even if the defendant broke the letter of said law.
Do you think this guy deserved to be convicted of a crime? He should go to prison for seven years and permanently lose the right to own firearms and vote, along with all the other consequences that go with a felony conviction?
Remember, again, the jury can convict wrongfully as easily as it can acquit wrongfully
So what? That's not an argument against jury nullification. Voting for acquittal when you think the law is unfair and/or being unfairly applied is not the same thing as voting to convict an innocent man.
And a wrongful conviction is a far worse thing than a rightful conviction on a law that should be changed.
I'm not in the business of measuring degrees of "wrongness". If I think something is wrong you aren't going to compel me to go along with it. My conscience will trump the jury instructions.
it's also an unethical abuse of the power of the jury
You see an unethical abuse of power, I see a valuable check against unethical abuses of power on the part of lawmakers, judges and prosecutors.
but would you trust 11 other people not to feel like they should brag that they deliberately stuck it to the man?
Frankly it doesn't matter if they brag about sticking it to the man. Jurors can not be held responsible for their vote. It is not a crime to vote for acquittal.
You realize that you are already losing a few months worth of earnings to taxes right? Why are you complaining about Jury Duty but not the percentage of your income that you never even see because Uncle Sam compels your employer to send it directly to him?
In most of Europe, every agricultural town has its train station
The United States has States that are larger than most European countries.
And they have foreign agricultural workers too, from Poland and so on, and those folks come by train
And how do they get to the fields? Oh right, via automobiles, which was the point I was making earlier......
They also have a higher standard of living
Depends on what you are looking at. Many Europeans don't own cars because they can't afford to keep them on the road. Most Americans do.
and heath care is a right rather than a privilege
If you can make health care a right without taking away my freedom of choice I'll be the first one to support you. If making health care a right involves compelling me through force of law to play in the sandbox that you've created then I'll fight you tooth and nail.
and people aren't living on the street
You didn't look hard enough if you couldn't find homeless people in Europe.
Yeah, they're mindless fucking sheep because they were never informed about what juries are
Yes, they are mindless fucking sheep if they are relying on someone else to educate them. We have books, libraries and the internet for a reason. If you were about to assume the responsibility of deciding if someone should lose his freedom wouldn't you take the time to educate yourself a bit? Hell, did any of them pay attention in civics class even? Jury nullification predates this Republic and I recall learning about it while studying the American revolution.
They don't get to decide not to convict even though the facts fit the law.
Yes they do. It's called jury nullification. Pretending that it doesn't exist will not change the fact that it does. Even if you outlaw nullification you will not be able to stop it -- jury deliberations are secret and they do not need to provide any explanation for why their decision.