My thoughts exactly. If SCO hadreceived the mob justice they so richly deserved, they'd have had Elizabethan justice: hung (gently, so as not to snap the vertebrae), their privy members cut off and burnt on a brazier in front of them, drawn (disembowled, preferably in the words of a contemporary witness whilst "alive and seeing"), these also being burnt on a brazier in front of them, before quartering, from the bottom up. (Precise descriptions of that are available from your friendly local google, if you've a strong stomach or had the kind of day at work that I just had.) All this at Marble Arch, before a bayoing, frenzied mob of 20000-30000 kernel developers.
Sounds like somebody's a little angry they were outed for who they really are. *baffled* Not sure what I said that sounds angry? And I don't think you've outed me as anything. I didn't agree with the war in Iraq, I took various actions to communicate that to my elected leaders. I think you're missing the point, here, I'm not trying to claim I *achieved* anything, except the luxury of a relatively clear conscience over the ensuing catastrophe, by my actions; they, the government ignored me as they ignored all the rest of us. Sure, there was more I could have done; I did what I felt motivated enough to do. In retrospect I wish I'd done more, of course, but there you go.
In the long run though, we were right and we've been proved right. Blair's out of power, and the comprehensive destruction of what he hoped would be his "legacy" (*spit*) will be a powerful lesson from history the next time a British PM's in the position of deciding whether to send our forces to war. Not to say that we should never do so, of course, but I guarantee Blair's sticky end will come to mind...
what have you accomplished in the way of stopping extraordinary rendition? Pretty much jack shit directly, although the slow motion public outcry over this issue in Europe has made it politically impossible for the USG to do it over here. For now, anyway.
That's kinda missing the point, though... I posted a rant about ER, you replied "your government lets it all happen, whilst you stand idly by and do nothing but post angry replies on internet forums." -- to which I said "they did" (the govt. did let it all happen) but I didn't (stand idly by and let it all happen.)
Well, for one thing this is unequivocally illegal in the EU. Luckily for these criminals, the US is the only country in the world that regards it as entirely legal and proper to kidnap a citizen of another country, in another country, smuggle them in the US and (if they're lucky) try and imprison them for doing something that's illegal in the US but legal elsewhere.
I hope Americans realise that pretty much every country in the world is queueing up to piss on you when you're on the way back down.
(aside from the governments of the UK and Australia), Australia just voted out Howard for Kevin Rudd, one of whose main election pledges was an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Here in the UK we also just changed PM (though without an election), and new-old guy Broon is clearly intending to withdraw the UK troops as quickly as he can get away without generating too much press about having "lost" (they will pitch it as a successful campaign completed as the local government takes over - which it will, though it's the local government from Tehran.
Actually you need both diplomatic solutions *and* police You only need them if you've got a problem because you've illegally occupied another country. The only way to win is not to take part.
When we started this little adventure, it was the right tactic, because we believed in good faith that their hearts and minds didn't need changing. We were wrong; they're not a bunch of repressed people looking for freedom, they're a bunch of fucking tribal shitheels. Half a trillion dollars later, it's time for us to either shit or get off the pot. Either abandon the place and let 'em go back to butchering each other (and we'll buy the oil from whichever side wins the civil war), or we just dust off an nuke the site from orbit, because it's the only way to be sure. It's depressing for me as a Liberal Democrat (really, that's the name of the party) here in the UK to find an unpleasant knee-jerk anti-Americanism becoming increasingly sociably acceptable. Indeed, a lot of my leftie friends regard me as a bit of an eccentric because I defend America and Americans against the ad-hominem - should that be ad homenii? -- shorthand that American is a shorthand for, well, "belligerent stupidity and arrogance" in a nutshell I guess. And it's imbeciles that you that are making it a harder and harder argument to make every day.:(
The Lancet paper also used methodologically rigorous stastical techniques, the same used to gauge the spread of any disease or pandemic in fact, and arrived at a total of 650,000 dead. (In the modern military I believe the ratio of dead:injured is something like 1:6 now, and of course that doesn't count the mass psychological trauma that will only become evident in alcoholic drug addicted homeless vets who you'll be stepping over on the sidewalk in 10 years' time. So that'd make about 3.5 million casualties, in a nation of around 30 million people. (Don't forget the more than 3 million refugees currently being received with such warm solidarity by the muslim brotherhood in the neighbouring countries of Syria, Jordan, Iran and further afield in the Middle East. (When will the US start admitting Iraqi refugees, by the way? Denmark has taken more than you guys.)
and be a lot less humane. Anoxia / asphyxsia, or just simple hypothermia, are way way easier ways to go than cyanide, which is an excruciatingly agonising death. Google away if you've a strong stomach and/or a poor imagination.
well, yeah, cos just because you bring the troops home doesn't mean you've paid for it, done, finished, over. You realise the USG has borrowed that trillion dollars from the bankers of the rest of the world, right? You still have to pay it back. That's the deal with debt, you see... they give you the money... then you give it back later, plus a bit more. So enjoy social security and medicare whilst you've got 'em; they're not going to last long. 15 years is my guess.
If I were you, having such a bleak outlook on the future, I'd kill myself So you recommend clinging to a delusion caused by watching to much crap made-for-TV SF, because it gives you the warm fuzzies? Thanks, I'll take reality and work on the depression. Anyway, why on earth does it make any difference to you whether humans land on Mars or not in 30 years' time? If one random activity three or four decades in the future mattered that much to me, I'd kill myself. Get a sense of perspective man!
I am also guessing that before 2025, the private world will already be heading there, with just the set-up I described. What on earth gives you that (insane) idea?! (a) where's the company with $200-$450 billion spare? (Oh wait, this is private industry, so they're gonna reimplement everything NASA has now by way of manned orbital and interplanetary spaceflight - in their garages!! In ten years!!) (b) Assuming John Carmack manages to scale up the Armadillo gadget from a machine capable of hovering a few hundred feet up for three minutes into one capable of orbiting the hundreds of tons of mass needed to get to mars, land and return and return to earth orbit, what in the name of giant exploding turnips makes you think he fritter it all away flying to Mars and back? For the view?? Jesus fuck, kid, I'd tell you to grow up but I've a disturbing notion that you're already old enough to distinguish the physics of the real world from Star Trek fantasy. And you wonder why the US is so fucked...
Hallelujah, someone says the unsayable about manned space exploration (and dare I say 'colonisation') and doesn't get instantly modd'd into oblivion. This is very encouraging, it means the retarded adolescent "Star Trek is the future" meme is starting to be questioned by some on Slashdot. I remember when global warming stories got a mass of "That's all bullshit, it's all because of the Milankovic cycles / the sun heating up / urban heat islands / the satellites are wrong / anyway what's wrong with warmer weather?" denial from fuckwits without the first clue what they were talking about. Five years later it seems that the average/.er at least is a little more up to speed with the physics and climatology and 'gets it' to some extent. (There's still a lot of bullshit about giant space mirrors being the answer, hopefully the $500 barrel of oil (coming your way sooner than you think folks!) will provide the reality-based cluesticking those fools so richly deserve.)
ere's a real chance of a large object hitting Earth in the near future; O rilly? Send emphemerides! Enquiring minds, and Brian Marsden, want to know about it if you can stand that comment up in any way. (Hint: you can't, because it's not true.)
One trillion dollars is about 1/60th of US GDP over the time period in question. Put another way, it's like a person making $50,000 per year paying for a $4,200 television set over a 5 year period. A trillion dollars sounds like a lot of money, but compared to US GDP it's pretty insignificant. O rilly? The invisible hand of the market begs to differ.
Slashdot Mirror
sudden-outbreak-of-common-sense on the part of Congress, I'd say.
My thoughts exactly. If SCO hadreceived the mob justice they so richly deserved, they'd have had Elizabethan justice: hung (gently, so as not to snap the vertebrae), their privy members cut off and burnt on a brazier in front of them, drawn (disembowled, preferably in the words of a contemporary witness whilst "alive and seeing"), these also being burnt on a brazier in front of them, before quartering, from the bottom up. (Precise descriptions of that are available from your friendly local google, if you've a strong stomach or had the kind of day at work that I just had.) All this at Marble Arch, before a bayoing, frenzied mob of 20000-30000 kernel developers.
Er, this is Marcus Ranum you're talking about. Not a "futurist". He wrote this thing called fwtk...
In the long run though, we were right and we've been proved right. Blair's out of power, and the comprehensive destruction of what he hoped would be his "legacy" (*spit*) will be a powerful lesson from history the next time a British PM's in the position of deciding whether to send our forces to war. Not to say that we should never do so, of course, but I guarantee Blair's sticky end will come to mind...
what have you accomplished in the way of stopping extraordinary rendition? Pretty much jack shit directly, although the slow motion public outcry over this issue in Europe has made it politically impossible for the USG to do it over here. For now, anyway.That's kinda missing the point, though... I posted a rant about ER, you replied "your government lets it all happen, whilst you stand idly by and do nothing but post angry replies on internet forums." -- to which I said "they did" (the govt. did let it all happen) but I didn't (stand idly by and let it all happen.)
Yes, that's what I'm asking you.
I accept your apology for presuming to know what I do in my life when I'm not posting on Slashdot :)
I hope Americans realise that pretty much every country in the world is queueing up to piss on you when you're on the way back down.
My ex-grilf if a Serbian linguist ;)
The Lancet paper also used methodologically rigorous stastical techniques, the same used to gauge the spread of any disease or pandemic in fact, and arrived at a total of 650,000 dead. (In the modern military I believe the ratio of dead:injured is something like 1:6 now, and of course that doesn't count the mass psychological trauma that will only become evident in alcoholic drug addicted homeless vets who you'll be stepping over on the sidewalk in 10 years' time. So that'd make about 3.5 million casualties, in a nation of around 30 million people. (Don't forget the more than 3 million refugees currently being received with such warm solidarity by the muslim brotherhood in the neighbouring countries of Syria, Jordan, Iran and further afield in the Middle East. (When will the US start admitting Iraqi refugees, by the way? Denmark has taken more than you guys.)
Another modern-day menace we can lay at the feet of Internet pornography, no doubt.
(/me looks out of the window at all the humanity.) Fooouuunnnddd it!
and be a lot less humane. Anoxia / asphyxsia, or just simple hypothermia, are way way easier ways to go than cyanide, which is an excruciatingly agonising death. Google away if you've a strong stomach and/or a poor imagination.
well, yeah, cos just because you bring the troops home doesn't mean you've paid for it, done, finished, over. You realise the USG has borrowed that trillion dollars from the bankers of the rest of the world, right? You still have to pay it back. That's the deal with debt, you see... they give you the money... then you give it back later, plus a bit more. So enjoy social security and medicare whilst you've got 'em; they're not going to last long. 15 years is my guess.
This is supposed to be a good thing?
Thanks for a great post.
...and your point is?