Remember, Microsoft is a for-profit corporation. They do NOTHING without a profit-derived motive.
Emerging 3rd world countries using refurbed hardware has been a huuuge market for Linux in the past two years. It could profit M$ greatly just to slow this adoptation down.
Wow! I can honestly say I agreed with almost every point you made in that post:p .
Would Roosevelt and Churchill have been so Cozy with Stalin had they known the extent of his butchery to his own people? Or if they knew the path he was planning on leading the Soviet Union down? I don't know. The point is we ("we" defined as all nations who didn't want the Axis to rule) needed an allegiance with Stalin. What would have happened if Hitler didn't have an Eastern Front to worry about? I shudder at that thought. It was a scant two years after the war that the relationship with Stalin went south. Now I'm not saying that the war to push the Soviets out of Afganistan was as noble as WW2, but it's the same end result as far as our "short-term allies" are concerned.
Also, a Free Palestine, thriving Muslim nations free of perceived "western influence", the end of TB, end of world hunger, etc. Will take away OBL's support from the more mainstream Muslims, which can only be a "good thing". But keep in mind that the events of 9/11 were planned and perpetrated by probabally fewer than 50 individuals. Peace in Our Time will assuridly make the Muslim world less hostile towards the US. But Al-Quaida will still exist. And how hard would it be for them to find 50 more disenfranchised young men somewhere in the world who are willing to kill themselves along with thousands of Civilians?
So by your logic, an American citizen arrested somewhere with fewer intrinsic rights shouldn't be let go?
Oh puhleeeze. That is not my point at all. A soldier or civilian who commits a "crime" in another country is bound by that countries laws, and rightly so. However, putting the U.S. Military under the jurisdiction of a Global Court goes against everything our Constitution stands for. There are many international laws that our Military are bound by (i.e. the Geneva Conventions), but joining the World Court would have been an unnecessary step too far.
ending your argument with an attack on Islam and the entire muslim world is not a good way to get more support
Now you're just trolling. But WTF, I'll bite. If you'd RMFP, I specifically said militant ultra-radical Islam. I have many Muslim friends, and they detest OBL's bastardization of Islam as much as I do. A woman wearing a head scarf for tradition and modesty I totally respect. But forcing her to wear a Burqua, walk two feet behind you, and treating her like an inferior piece of property that you can beat and rape at will, just plain sucks. And I have no respect for any people or god that would demand or endorse such a thing. So quit putting words in my mouth, and quit being such a prick.
My friend, I understand your passions, and I know that you are not the only one who shares them. However, you are severely misinformed on some of your points.
Somalia - did the right thing, but buggered off when the heat was turned up. As a result, Osama bin Laden and his ilk saw that the US would cut and run if attacked. So, OBL decided to attack the US. Result: September 11, 2001. Guess you shoulda stuck it out and done the right thing, huh?
True, OBL saw our withdrawl as a sign of weakness. But it in no way resulted his decision to launch 9/11. If we stayed, he would have used our presence in a Moslem nation as another "saber rattling" point. Had we stuck it out and "done the right thing" you would probabally would accuse us of installing a "puppet regime" to keep the peace. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
If Iraq didn't have oil, Saddam would not have become the butcher he was, since he wouldn't had all those US dollars to by the weapons with.
Without our support, he wouldn't have had the weapons to attack Iran. And yes, supplying him with Chemical Weapon technology was a mistake. But it didn't take American technology to make him a butcher. Look at his torture chambers: nothing more sophisticated than rope, iron, wooden poles and electric current. How do you apply the Oil + America = brutal dictator argument here? Yes, WMD was used against his own people, but just as many died through small arms fire or other "low cost" means.
They claim to be about justice, yet opt out of the world criminal court in the Hague. You know, the ones trying war crimes and crimes against humanity committed Bosnia, Kosovo and Rawanda.
This is where you are the most misinformed. We opted out of the WCC for a damn good reason. Plain and simple: An American soldier charged by the World Criminal Court would have fewer rights and due process than he would through the U.S. Military Justice System Please read that again, very slowly, and digest it. We opted out not because we don't care about war crimes, or because we're imperialistic nation-building tyrants bent on world domination, or just because we're assholes. We did it to guarantee that American Military justice is not superceeded by a foreign system that provides fewer rights to the accused. Period!!!
All that terrorism is just the result of "evil" or jealousy or something...
In a word, well, yes. What is it that Bin Laden wants? Listen to his tapes so generously provided by Al-Jazeera:
The destruction of the Zionists and their supporters (the US) and a free Palestinian state.
Removal of US troops from the Land of the Prophet
and.. oh yes..
(paraphrased) We will continue our Jihad until every nation of the world declares "There is No god but Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet".
There you have it sparky. Al-Qaida exists to further the cause of a militant ultra-radical pan-islamic state. There can be peace in Israel and a Free Palestine - They'll still hate us. The U.S. can shed it's dependancy on foreign oil (something I'm 100% in favor of) and never step foot into a Moslem nation again - They'll still hate us. Until I (and 300m other Americans) start shouting "Ahllau Akbar!", cover our wives with burlap potato sacks, overthrow our government and replace it with some whacko Imam, they will continue to hate us. And I can guarantee that the first fatwah that will come out of Washington is to overthrow the Infidel, Secular, Satanist nation to the north of us. Better start studying your Koran.
And do you know what the US did to help? They (along with Britain and France) VETOED a UN Security Council resolution that would have sent the troops and equipment to Rawanda and allowed General Dalaire to conduct opperations. The US signed the death warrant of 800 000 innocent civilians, because preventing genocide is not in the best interests of the US. Why aren't you crying for them? They most certainly did not diserve to die. Too bad there wasn't oil in Kigali, the 1st Marine Expiditionary Force would have been in there in a heart beat....
How much Oil was there in Somalia?? Or in the Baltics? Or in Haiti? Or any other of a dozen backwater hellholes that the U.S. has committed troops to in the past dozen years? People like you pick and choose when you bitch about the U.S. Policy. You whine about us not getting involved in Rwanda where 800,000 were butchered, and you whine about us removing Saddam, whose regime easily butchered just as many people. You blame the U.S. for acting, you blame the U.S. for not acting. Pick a side already.
Enemies of the US that were formerly funded/supported by the US....
Perhaps you should read Sun Tzu: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." In the 70's and 80's, the threat posed by militant religious fanatics, political despots, etc. paled in comparason to the (perceived) threat of the spread of Soviet Communism. Bin Laden hated having the Soviets in Afganastan; we hated having the Soviets in Afganastan. We certainly couldn't send our troops to fight them, lest we wanted to test the MAD theory, so we send cash and weapons to the Mujahedeen to push them back for us. Same story with Hussein. Had Iran won the war with Iraq, there would have been a large and resourse-rich portion of the Middle East that owed allegiance to Moscow. We chose the lesser of two evils and armed Saddam.
Have some of our allegiances been short-sighted? Yes. But at the time, they served to push the tide of the Cold War in our favor. Your analysis of this situation is woefully oversimplified.
The anti-smoking crusade is almost entirely liberal. Conservatives have a principled opposition on the grounds of individual freedom and private property rights.
Sorry, they aren't that noble. It so happens that the tobacco lobbies (wounded, but still a powerful force in the U.S) spend hundreds of millions on Republican election campaigns.
One point that we must never forget: SCO has produced something very significant in the past year. Prior to their lawsuit, SCOX was hovering around $1. After they released their lawyers, it shot up to $22. IIRC, all the major insiders dumped their shares prior to the current downturn. The travesty of this story isn't the Trial By Fire that Linux/OSS have had to endure and it isn't the FUD that's been generated and weathered. The sad fact, my friends, is that when all is said and done, Darl and his cronies will still have been made obscenely $rich$ by this little pump && dump scheme. And we must not lose sight of this fact. As long as our present system "rewards" slimy execs for this kind of behavior, we will always have another Darl and another Boies waiting for their turn to cash in. The only happy ending for this story could be if Darl and his sychophants are imprisoned for Securities Fraud. That's the only way justice will be served in this case.
The idea is to shoot off a rocket and intercept another rocket or aircraft.
1.) Its like hitting a baseball with a needle as its about to go over the fence.
Well!! Better go tell that to the U.S. Army. No sense in them wasting our money on something that won't work!!.
Tell that to all of the people who get off on state charges only to find themselves facing Federal charges....
Jeez, anyone who's taken Criminal Justice 101 knows that this is not double jeopardy!! If you steal a credit card number and make purchases on it, chances are, your state has a law against this kind of fraud, so you've committed a crime against the state. Theft of a credit card is also a Federal Offense. And you've probabally also violated a Civil law that will open you up to a lawsuit from the theft victim for his "pain and suffering". Yes, you've committed "one" act, but that act is a crime in three separate jurisdictions - ergo three separate crimes, which means each jurisdiction will have an opportunity to get a piece of you. Double Jeopardy would be if you had been aquitted of the State charges, and afterwords the State charged you again for the same crime.
I don't quite understand the animosity towards the prequels on/. either. Although I think I might have been close to the mark here.
Personally, I think the prequels tell an excellent story. Of course there's going to be wooden acting & some crappy dialog; so did the original trilogy!!! I agree that while TPM was far from perfect (and even farther off than the expectations for it), it did a good job of setting the stage for things to come. What I can't understand is how down the/. crowd is on AOTC. This site is very hostile towards any SW film that isn't ESB, so don't think that the geeks here are a representative of the SW geek population as a whole. After the film was released, almost every fan site poll I read showed that it placed a strong second as the fan-favorite of the whole franchise (just under ESB, of course). Yeah, you've got to endure five minutes of "I don't like sand" scenes, but beyond that, you have a Fantastic film. Seriously, if I have to see one more "George-Lucas-sucks-and-has-no-talent-and-should-b e shot" post modded up to +5, the Poodoo's gonna hit the fan!
And it's an intergalactic war with a bunch of Bankers. Bankers.
Huh? If it's the Intergalactic Banking Clan you're referring to, you're a bit off the mark. When the banking clan joined the Seperatists, there were already thousands of Systems breaking away from the Republic. If you read the original screenplays and scripts
of A New Hope, you'll see that this is an idea that Lucas had from day 1. A galactic democracy falls under the lobbying and corruption of the most financially powerful cartels in the galaxy. The banking clan provides funding, the Techno Union provides the military technology, the Commerce Guild and Trade Federation use their monopolies (and vast personal armies) to starve out systems that don't "play ball". So yes, bankers were involved, but no more or less than they are in our "real life" wars.
Yoda says, "Luminous beings are we... not this crude matter." The flaw in the midichlorian explanation, in my thinking, is that it binds the Force to a thing, making it physical. Furthermore, this thing is bound to the body, the crude matter of which Yoda speaks. If that's the case, then the Force would only seem to be relevant while an individual is alive
Obi-wan said of the Force It is an energy field created by all living things. So it's not 'bound' to an individual. However, an individual who is force sensitive enough can bend it to its will. The mystery of "disappearing" jedi will be resolved in the next film. If it is the "will of the Force" that a particularly powerful Jedi can retain their identity after death, who am I to argue:)
Or for that matter, what would prevent someone from distilling midichlorians and making some uber-Jedi injection?
That is exactly my point from my original post!! The Jedi would never interfere with the Force in such a way. But a Sith lord on the other hand!!! If Sidious had the ability to use genetics to create the perfect soldier, he certainly would want to use midicholorians to create the perfect Sith Apprentice!! Another parallel we can draw: The clones were genetically modified to make them subserviant to their masters. They would follow orders without question. Could the same technique have been applied to Anakin? Is that why in ROTJ, Vader asserts, You don't know the power of the Dark Side. I must obey my Master!! ?
Another, for instance, is Obi-Wan's description of Anakin in A New Hope as "already a great star pilot"
Well, he was the only Human who could Podrace, and he did destroy the Droid Control Ship. Granted the film sequence itself was forgettable, but I think it prevents that contradiction.
It feels a bit like Lucas is getting funny in the head
Okay, one thing that really bothered me about the midichlorian explanation (aside from how damn pat and tidy it is) is that it seems to conflict with Yoda's description of the Force in Empire -- how can biological entities similar to mitochondria live in rocks?
Hmmm, I don't think it contradicts it. If anything, it reinforces it (my italics):
YODA: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm?
Mmmm. And well you should not. For my ally in the Force. And a
powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It's energy
surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we...(Yoda pinches
Luke's shoulder)...not this crude matter. (a sweeping gesture) You must
feel the Force around you. (gesturing) Here, between you...me...the
tree...the rock...everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that
ship!
So Yoda isn't saying that the Force 'lives' in rocks or inanimate objects. But the Force - created by living things - can effect the inanimate. Again, this deals with the "symbiotic relationship" motif that kept being brought up in TPM. Midicholorians live within the cells of the "crude matter", but in turn, the energy they generate gives way to the "luminous beings".
So I just start searching for "AK-47", "AK-47 clip" and such.
Gad, did you even test this theory out? Noooooo, you didn't!!! Google for AK-47 - the main Kalishnakov site shows up second on the list, along with sites dealing w/ the history, techical specs, and care and feeding of your AK. Do some research before you start posting blindly!
I admit, originally the midicholorian idea rubbed me the wrong way. And the "Immaculate Conception" idea for Anakin seemed ludicrous at the time. But now that some time has passed, and we have a more full picture of the prequel trilogy, I really do think that these elements will have a *lot* of bearing on epIII.
The midicholorians apparently represent a biological way of quantifying someone's force potential. Beyond this, they are also intrenched into the Jedi religion itself. A person created by the midicholorians could be viewed as both a biological act (i.e. a virus causing impregnation) and a spiritual act (the Force "willing" someone into being). We have both the divine and mundane aspects involved - Obi Wan confirms the Anakin's midicholorian count at the behest of Qui-Gon's belief that Anakin's birth is the fulfillment of prophecy.
Here, again, we see how "the truths we cling to depend on our point of view", and also how "our focus determines our reality". Anakin was brought up to believe he was the "chosen one" who will "bring balance". What these terms mean, we can only conjecture. By joining the Dark side, he does bring balance by reducing the number of Jedi to exactly the number of Sith; master and apprentice. You can also argue that balance is returned when Palpatine/Sidious is ultimately destroyed by Anakin's sacrifice.
Anakin's lineage has been kept a mystery, and perhaps for good reason. I personally believe that Shmi Skywalker knew more about Anakin's conception than she told Qui-gon. While I don't doubt that "there was no father", I would hardly believe that it was the "will of the Force" alone that caused it.
One thing we know about the Sith is they *love* playing gods. How Darth Sidious and Darth Tyrannus work both sides of the war to their own means is, imho, nothing short of brilliant storytelling; a fact that is overlooked far to often on/. We'd much rather complain about Anakin's "sand dialog", but I digress...
Sidious has already shown his willing to create abomination. His creation of the Clone Army is evident of this; tampering with life itself. So here's the real rub: Since midicholorians are a quantifiable biological entity, and an apparent physical link to the spiritual aspects of the Force, it only makes sense that Sidious would use this fact to his advantage. My theory is that Anakin's creation is part of a diabolical Sith experiment. Find some poor slave girl in the ass-end of the galaxy, load her up with Midicholorians, and wait. The child created will be the most Force - sensitive being in existance. Since he is outside of the reach of the Republic, his early impressions and experiences will be out of the control of the Jedi. By the time he becomes a Padawan, it's already too late to change these impressions. Add on the fact that once his training does begin, he's considered by many to be devine: The Morning Star who is soon to fall from grace.
This is just my theory, of course. But Lucas has promised that Anakin's origins will be revealed in the next film. It may very well be that the so fan-reviled Midicholorians, are in fact, the most important element in the entire Trilogy.
Slashdot Mirror
Emerging 3rd world countries using refurbed hardware has been a huuuge market for Linux in the past two years. It could profit M$ greatly just to slow this adoptation down.
Actually, I have a theory that the midichlorians could fit the story in a way that works very well with the SW mythology.
"Echo 3 to Echo 7, Han ol' Buddy, do you read me?"
"There isn't enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser!"
College courses? Surely you must be joking. In most states you just need to be 21 w/ a clean record, and pass a Police Academy.
We could really use something to emulate httpd after a good Slashdotting, like this site is getting right now :
Would Roosevelt and Churchill have been so Cozy with Stalin had they known the extent of his butchery to his own people? Or if they knew the path he was planning on leading the Soviet Union down? I don't know. The point is we ("we" defined as all nations who didn't want the Axis to rule) needed an allegiance with Stalin. What would have happened if Hitler didn't have an Eastern Front to worry about? I shudder at that thought. It was a scant two years after the war that the relationship with Stalin went south. Now I'm not saying that the war to push the Soviets out of Afganistan was as noble as WW2, but it's the same end result as far as our "short-term allies" are concerned.
Also, a Free Palestine, thriving Muslim nations free of perceived "western influence", the end of TB, end of world hunger, etc. Will take away OBL's support from the more mainstream Muslims, which can only be a "good thing". But keep in mind that the events of 9/11 were planned and perpetrated by probabally fewer than 50 individuals. Peace in Our Time will assuridly make the Muslim world less hostile towards the US. But Al-Quaida will still exist. And how hard would it be for them to find 50 more disenfranchised young men somewhere in the world who are willing to kill themselves along with thousands of Civilians?
Oh puhleeeze. That is not my point at all. A soldier or civilian who commits a "crime" in another country is bound by that countries laws, and rightly so. However, putting the U.S. Military under the jurisdiction of a Global Court goes against everything our Constitution stands for. There are many international laws that our Military are bound by (i.e. the Geneva Conventions), but joining the World Court would have been an unnecessary step too far.
ending your argument with an attack on Islam and the entire muslim world is not a good way to get more support
Now you're just trolling. But WTF, I'll bite. If you'd RMFP, I specifically said militant ultra-radical Islam. I have many Muslim friends, and they detest OBL's bastardization of Islam as much as I do. A woman wearing a head scarf for tradition and modesty I totally respect. But forcing her to wear a Burqua, walk two feet behind you, and treating her like an inferior piece of property that you can beat and rape at will, just plain sucks. And I have no respect for any people or god that would demand or endorse such a thing. So quit putting words in my mouth, and quit being such a prick.
Somalia - did the right thing, but buggered off when the heat was turned up. As a result, Osama bin Laden and his ilk saw that the US would cut and run if attacked. So, OBL decided to attack the US. Result: September 11, 2001. Guess you shoulda stuck it out and done the right thing, huh?
True, OBL saw our withdrawl as a sign of weakness. But it in no way resulted his decision to launch 9/11. If we stayed, he would have used our presence in a Moslem nation as another "saber rattling" point. Had we stuck it out and "done the right thing" you would probabally would accuse us of installing a "puppet regime" to keep the peace. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
If Iraq didn't have oil, Saddam would not have become the butcher he was, since he wouldn't had all those US dollars to by the weapons with.
Without our support, he wouldn't have had the weapons to attack Iran. And yes, supplying him with Chemical Weapon technology was a mistake. But it didn't take American technology to make him a butcher. Look at his torture chambers: nothing more sophisticated than rope, iron, wooden poles and electric current. How do you apply the Oil + America = brutal dictator argument here? Yes, WMD was used against his own people, but just as many died through small arms fire or other "low cost" means.
They claim to be about justice, yet opt out of the world criminal court in the Hague. You know, the ones trying war crimes and crimes against humanity committed Bosnia, Kosovo and Rawanda.
This is where you are the most misinformed. We opted out of the WCC for a damn good reason. Plain and simple: An American soldier charged by the World Criminal Court would have fewer rights and due process than he would through the U.S. Military Justice System Please read that again, very slowly, and digest it. We opted out not because we don't care about war crimes, or because we're imperialistic nation-building tyrants bent on world domination, or just because we're assholes. We did it to guarantee that American Military justice is not superceeded by a foreign system that provides fewer rights to the accused. Period!!!
All that terrorism is just the result of "evil" or jealousy or something...
In a word, well, yes. What is it that Bin Laden wants? Listen to his tapes so generously provided by Al-Jazeera:
and.. oh yes..
There you have it sparky. Al-Qaida exists to further the cause of a militant ultra-radical pan-islamic state. There can be peace in Israel and a Free Palestine - They'll still hate us. The U.S. can shed it's dependancy on foreign oil (something I'm 100% in favor of) and never step foot into a Moslem nation again - They'll still hate us. Until I (and 300m other Americans) start shouting "Ahllau Akbar!", cover our wives with burlap potato sacks, overthrow our government and replace it with some whacko Imam, they will continue to hate us. And I can guarantee that the first fatwah that will come out of Washington is to overthrow the Infidel, Secular, Satanist nation to the north of us. Better start studying your Koran.
How much Oil was there in Somalia?? Or in the Baltics? Or in Haiti? Or any other of a dozen backwater hellholes that the U.S. has committed troops to in the past dozen years? People like you pick and choose when you bitch about the U.S. Policy. You whine about us not getting involved in Rwanda where 800,000 were butchered, and you whine about us removing Saddam, whose regime easily butchered just as many people. You blame the U.S. for acting, you blame the U.S. for not acting. Pick a side already.
Perhaps you should read Sun Tzu: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." In the 70's and 80's, the threat posed by militant religious fanatics, political despots, etc. paled in comparason to the (perceived) threat of the spread of Soviet Communism. Bin Laden hated having the Soviets in Afganastan; we hated having the Soviets in Afganastan. We certainly couldn't send our troops to fight them, lest we wanted to test the MAD theory, so we send cash and weapons to the Mujahedeen to push them back for us. Same story with Hussein. Had Iran won the war with Iraq, there would have been a large and resourse-rich portion of the Middle East that owed allegiance to Moscow. We chose the lesser of two evils and armed Saddam.
Have some of our allegiances been short-sighted? Yes. But at the time, they served to push the tide of the Cold War in our favor. Your analysis of this situation is woefully oversimplified.
Sorry, they aren't that noble. It so happens that the tobacco lobbies (wounded, but still a powerful force in the U.S) spend hundreds of millions on Republican election campaigns.
One point that we must never forget: SCO has produced something very significant in the past year. Prior to their lawsuit, SCOX was hovering around $1. After they released their lawyers, it shot up to $22. IIRC, all the major insiders dumped their shares prior to the current downturn. The travesty of this story isn't the Trial By Fire that Linux/OSS have had to endure and it isn't the FUD that's been generated and weathered. The sad fact, my friends, is that when all is said and done, Darl and his cronies will still have been made obscenely $rich$ by this little pump && dump scheme. And we must not lose sight of this fact. As long as our present system "rewards" slimy execs for this kind of behavior, we will always have another Darl and another Boies waiting for their turn to cash in. The only happy ending for this story could be if Darl and his sychophants are imprisoned for Securities Fraud. That's the only way justice will be served in this case.
Now, where have I heard that before???"
1.) Its like hitting a baseball with a needle as its about to go over the fence.
Well!! Better go tell that to the U.S. Army. No sense in them wasting our money on something that won't work!!.
Jeez, anyone who's taken Criminal Justice 101 knows that this is not double jeopardy!! If you steal a credit card number and make purchases on it, chances are, your state has a law against this kind of fraud, so you've committed a crime against the state. Theft of a credit card is also a Federal Offense. And you've probabally also violated a Civil law that will open you up to a lawsuit from the theft victim for his "pain and suffering". Yes, you've committed "one" act, but that act is a crime in three separate jurisdictions - ergo three separate crimes, which means each jurisdiction will have an opportunity to get a piece of you. Double Jeopardy would be if you had been aquitted of the State charges, and afterwords the State charged you again for the same crime.
Actually, I happen to be one of Senator McCain's constituants. And yes, this is something he has been fighting for for quite a while.
I don't quite understand the animosity towards the prequels on /. either. Although I think I might have been close to the mark here.
Personally, I think the prequels tell an excellent story. Of course there's going to be wooden acting & some crappy dialog; so did the original trilogy!!! I agree that while TPM was far from perfect (and even farther off than the expectations for it), it did a good job of setting the stage for things to come. What I can't understand is how down the /. crowd is on AOTC. This site is very hostile towards any SW film that isn't ESB, so don't think that the geeks here are a representative of the SW geek population as a whole. After the film was released, almost every fan site poll I read showed that it placed a strong second as the fan-favorite of the whole franchise (just under ESB, of course). Yeah, you've got to endure five minutes of "I don't like sand" scenes, but beyond that, you have a Fantastic film. Seriously, if I have to see one more "George-Lucas-sucks-and-has-no-talent-and-should-b e shot" post modded up to +5, the Poodoo's gonna hit the fan!
Huh? If it's the Intergalactic Banking Clan you're referring to, you're a bit off the mark. When the banking clan joined the Seperatists, there were already thousands of Systems breaking away from the Republic. If you read the original screenplays and scripts of A New Hope, you'll see that this is an idea that Lucas had from day 1. A galactic democracy falls under the lobbying and corruption of the most financially powerful cartels in the galaxy. The banking clan provides funding, the Techno Union provides the military technology, the Commerce Guild and Trade Federation use their monopolies (and vast personal armies) to starve out systems that don't "play ball". So yes, bankers were involved, but no more or less than they are in our "real life" wars.
Well, we saw how long that corporate strategy lasted...
Ummm, The Battle of Five Armies???
Obi-wan said of the Force It is an energy field created by all living things. So it's not 'bound' to an individual. However, an individual who is force sensitive enough can bend it to its will. The mystery of "disappearing" jedi will be resolved in the next film. If it is the "will of the Force" that a particularly powerful Jedi can retain their identity after death, who am I to argue :)
Or for that matter, what would prevent someone from distilling midichlorians and making some uber-Jedi injection?
That is exactly my point from my original post!! The Jedi would never interfere with the Force in such a way. But a Sith lord on the other hand!!! If Sidious had the ability to use genetics to create the perfect soldier, he certainly would want to use midicholorians to create the perfect Sith Apprentice!! Another parallel we can draw: The clones were genetically modified to make them subserviant to their masters. They would follow orders without question. Could the same technique have been applied to Anakin? Is that why in ROTJ, Vader asserts, You don't know the power of the Dark Side. I must obey my Master!! ?
Another, for instance, is Obi-Wan's description of Anakin in A New Hope as "already a great star pilot"
Well, he was the only Human who could Podrace, and he did destroy the Droid Control Ship. Granted the film sequence itself was forgettable, but I think it prevents that contradiction.
It feels a bit like Lucas is getting funny in the head
We've known this since Howard the Duck :)
Hmmm, I don't think it contradicts it. If anything, it reinforces it (my italics):
YODA: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm? Mmmm. And well you should not. For my ally in the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It's energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we...(Yoda pinches Luke's shoulder)...not this crude matter. (a sweeping gesture) You must feel the Force around you. (gesturing) Here, between you...me...the tree...the rock...everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that ship!
So Yoda isn't saying that the Force 'lives' in rocks or inanimate objects. But the Force - created by living things - can effect the inanimate. Again, this deals with the "symbiotic relationship" motif that kept being brought up in TPM. Midicholorians live within the cells of the "crude matter", but in turn, the energy they generate gives way to the "luminous beings".
Gad, did you even test this theory out? Noooooo, you didn't!!! Google for AK-47 - the main Kalishnakov site shows up second on the list, along with sites dealing w/ the history, techical specs, and care and feeding of your AK. Do some research before you start posting blindly!
Well, if you think about it, if they counted all of the geocities pages that look like this:
This is my web page
You could reach a number like that pretty quickly
The midicholorians apparently represent a biological way of quantifying someone's force potential. Beyond this, they are also intrenched into the Jedi religion itself. A person created by the midicholorians could be viewed as both a biological act (i.e. a virus causing impregnation) and a spiritual act (the Force "willing" someone into being). We have both the divine and mundane aspects involved - Obi Wan confirms the Anakin's midicholorian count at the behest of Qui-Gon's belief that Anakin's birth is the fulfillment of prophecy.
Here, again, we see how "the truths we cling to depend on our point of view", and also how "our focus determines our reality". Anakin was brought up to believe he was the "chosen one" who will "bring balance". What these terms mean, we can only conjecture. By joining the Dark side, he does bring balance by reducing the number of Jedi to exactly the number of Sith; master and apprentice. You can also argue that balance is returned when Palpatine/Sidious is ultimately destroyed by Anakin's sacrifice.
Anakin's lineage has been kept a mystery, and perhaps for good reason. I personally believe that Shmi Skywalker knew more about Anakin's conception than she told Qui-gon. While I don't doubt that "there was no father", I would hardly believe that it was the "will of the Force" alone that caused it.
One thing we know about the Sith is they *love* playing gods. How Darth Sidious and Darth Tyrannus work both sides of the war to their own means is, imho, nothing short of brilliant storytelling; a fact that is overlooked far to often on /. We'd much rather complain about Anakin's "sand dialog", but I digress...
Sidious has already shown his willing to create abomination. His creation of the Clone Army is evident of this; tampering with life itself. So here's the real rub: Since midicholorians are a quantifiable biological entity, and an apparent physical link to the spiritual aspects of the Force, it only makes sense that Sidious would use this fact to his advantage. My theory is that Anakin's creation is part of a diabolical Sith experiment. Find some poor slave girl in the ass-end of the galaxy, load her up with Midicholorians, and wait. The child created will be the most Force - sensitive being in existance. Since he is outside of the reach of the Republic, his early impressions and experiences will be out of the control of the Jedi. By the time he becomes a Padawan, it's already too late to change these impressions. Add on the fact that once his training does begin, he's considered by many to be devine: The Morning Star who is soon to fall from grace.
This is just my theory, of course. But Lucas has promised that Anakin's origins will be revealed in the next film. It may very well be that the so fan-reviled Midicholorians, are in fact, the most important element in the entire Trilogy.