But I believe if they are sold as toys (even as toys for adults) many parents will through carelessness or ignorance give them to their children anyway.
Then you prosecute the parents for child endangerment/neglect/etc, you don't try to child-proof the entire planet.
I am concerned that my child could find them on the floor at someone else's house and swallow them before I even saw them.
Then maybe you should get to know this "someone else" first, before you allow your child free rein to wander around in an environment controlled by somebody else that you don't know well enough to know whether their home is kept safe for children.
Even the most vigilent parents are not able to entirely prevent their children from picking things up and putting them in their mouths.
This is true. However, that does not mean trying to child-proof the world is a good or even effective strategy, unless of course your goal is a future like the one depicted in the movie "Idiocracy". I'm sorry, but not every child born is smart enough to survive long term and will self-select themselves for removal from the gene pool.
Perhaps you'd be for the formation of official government-run creches to raise children, like the Clans from the BattleTech/Mechwarrior fictional universe? Then you wouldn't be burdened with worrying about the mouth-breathing fruit of your loins playing in traffic or swallowing razor blades while you play WoW and comment on/.
I thought one could avoid a statutory rape conviction by marrying before sex, and one could avoid a public urination conviction by claiming that draining oneself was "necessary as an emergency measure". --
Pretty much generally correct on the first one, not so much on the second.
They don't consider pissing one's pants an emergency worthy of breaking the law. To add insult to injury, in many US cities it's become nearly impossible to find any public business, office, etc that allows anyone to use their bathrooms any longer, even paying customers.
Next time you're stuck on an overcrowded bus, train, subway, etc and are forced to stand near some piss-soaked person, remember he/she may not have had a choice.
One would think the public health hazards posed in a large and crowded city would indicate strongly against such laws, at least with such extreme and life-altering and permanent negative ramifications as punishment for something that really doesn't rise to the level of requiring such severity.
I'm thinking more along the lines of a ticket-able minor infraction with fines ranging from $50 to $150 or more in areas where it's become more of an immediate sanitation/health problem. No need to go ruining somebody's entire life, fer chrissake!
Talk about "cruel and unusual punishment"! Are we chopping off children's hands for shoplifting candy yet? Makes about as much sense. Oh, I forgot. We're only sending armed enforcement personnel to halt the threat to the public health (and licensing/permit income) posed by preteen lemonade stands at this point:-| Sheesh!
It may be of limited usefulness, but, I wouldn't want to bet on it. You never know what someone is going to come up with, and it wouldn't be hard or even conspicuous to drive through and collect data on whole neighorhoods. I Would bet you can see who is running a lot of electronic equipment and who is growing pot in their basement....
Just mining that data for leads could be very lucrative for LEAs and TLAs in drumming up convictions to justify ever-more taxpayer money and powers to violate ever-more civil rights.
The machine has a theoretical compute capacity of ~1% of the human brain and will be used for simulating the formation of stars, planets and galaxies."
May I be the first to say; Formation of stars, planets, and galaxies my ASS!
Nominate it in a special Act for POTUS!
I mean, c'mon. Could it seriously be that much worse than the choices at present?
At least then, maybe the US populace would begin to grasp the concept of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) and maybe begin to apply it to the other parts of government. And no, nothing at all to do with political party/ideology. Rather, more a perspective from a "CS101 basics" point of view.:)
So I have a crystal ball that tells me how the rest of this conversation will go. I will introduce many facts detailing exactly how awful [wikipedia.org] US hegemony has been for most of the world. You will bring up the few times this has been positive
The "few" times the US has done positive things?
Really?
Over the majority of it's history as a nation, the US has done overwhelmingly more positve things, like disaster aid, than any other nation.
Over the last roughly 4-5 decades, however, I grant that the US government's actions and behaviors internationally and domestically have become increasingly bad and negative. This is largely due to the ideological shift over the last number of decades towards Progressivism, which tends to see more gray area when it comes to acceptable behaviors in pursuing the goal of "progressing" (see what they did there with the name?) past the limitations upon government power imposed by the constitution and implement a C&C central government controlling and planning everything...and everyone.
I guess that when your ideological goal is to incrementally render the constitution of your own nation...the laws and rules under which your home country operates...powerless, the laws and rules of other nations and international bodies aren't that important anymore either.
If we (and by we, I of course mean "our government") didn't give a shit about anything outside our own borders, we wouldn't spend 23 times as much blood and treasure as the next nation showing off how big our (militaristic) dick is.
And while "showing off how big our (militaristic) dick is" we save most of the EU from having to learn to speak Russian and much of the rest of the world from having to learn to speak Chinese, not to mention saving all those countries from having to spend a much larger portion of their GDP on defense, while the people that benefit in those same countries piss and moan about US military might.
I'd be fine with rolling back US military participation with NATO and the UN and drastically reduce our economic support as well. Let the other countries spend their own people's money on their own military...or learn to speak Chinese or Russian.
And you are sure that the new gov'ment that replaces the old one will be better because all revolutions lead to better government... right?
Well, there was this one little uprising in the British Colonies in the 1770s that didn't turn out too bad...at least for about the first 100-150 years before the founding documents came to be regarded as little more than interesting historical curiosities they saw pictures of once in school, at any rate.
don't know why Schneier focuses entirely on the time of the last hijacking before 9/11 - hijackings were extremely frequent during the 70s and the wikipedia page quoted by him shows just that.
If you have to look all the way back to the 70s to find frequent hijackings, then this shows that the problem was already pretty well solved. Whatever changes were made due to 911 had nothing to do with the huge drop in hijackings by the 90s.
What occurred in the '70s up to the 9/11 attacks could better be described as hostage-taking that happened to involve aircraft for their ability to move a significant number of hostages quickly while making rescue attempts much more risky. However, aircraft hijacking/hostage situations became less attractive because the public's shock and horror at them (the "terror" part) had all but disappeared, and authorities had grown increasingly sophisticated and successful in dealing with such aircraft hostage situations. They all but stopped due to diminishing returns.
The attack of 9/11 was a completely different type of attack, more akin to a suicide bomber or a kamikaze attack. The aircraft passengers were just convenient additional "bonus" victims that added more horror. The passengers and the aircraft itself were not the primary targets.
The only two changes made since 9/11 that have actually been effective at preventing repeats are that now the passengers as a whole will stomp any "terrorist" into the cabin deck...hard...at their first move, and the upgrade to locked cockpit doors that prevent seizing the controls of the aircraft.
biggest threat to peace and tolerance nowadays is Islam...
OK, I'll bite. So do you want to invade Iraq or Afghanistan? Or would you prefer drone strikes on Pakistan or Iran?
Oops. Christianity has already done that!
Wow, you mean the Vatican has drone-strike capability now!?!? What do they call their strike-drone? The "Pope-inator"? "Altar-Boy Ass-Avenger"? Does it launch Holyfire missiles?
"Go ahead, punk! Make my holy-day!"
Get real. Drone strikes have about as much to do with Christianity as they do with who won the fourth race at the horse track Tuesday last.
Disobeying authority would have been is she said "no" and walked away. The TSA agents are supposed to be fine with that.
Wrong. Once someone enters the designated security-screening area they are not allowed to leave without being screened, even if they have no further intent to board an airplane. Refusal to comply results in arrest, possible jail time, and fines of up to $10K USD.
The TSA's VIPR teams are now setting up surprise, random checkpoints at train/bus stations, even randomly stopping city metro buses to screen passengers. There are YT videos. I don't know how a refusal to submit to a pat-down and ID-check by a rider caught up in a random stop of a metro bus would be treated. I suppose if I'm caught in such a stop I'll find out.
That's why I wrote "almost always" rather than "always".
Oh, no...I wasn't trying to fault you on your comment. Just trying to add to the discussion.
I showed up for class, but was bored out of my skull because I already knew what they were trying to teach me, often with a better understanding than the teacher. I got an A+ on one science paper because it was over the teacher's head.
Heh. We've got a lot in common. Especially regarding the A+'s for papers/projects the teachers couldn't grasp.
But for most, missing class is missing information.
Actually I expect you to be fooled again. Its probably a recurring thing in your life.
Clue: NASA doesn't do the war fighting stuff. They do the civilian aviation stuff. Aviation and safety research, keeping track of accidents and incidents, etc. See: http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/
Clue: That in no way means any tech innovations won't be immediately adapted/adopted by the military for their use. Or by DHS for domestic civilian population monitoring/control and suppression of dissenters, for that matter. New tech/discoveries/etc have always been shared both ways between NASA and the military throughout NASA's history.
You can rest assured anything NASA and/or groups working with NASA develop that the military/DHS/TLAs think might be useful they'll use.
Besides, the government isn't the only one that can build drones. If it came down to it, drones could be built in a garage that could intercept/down things like the Predator-class drones.
Have it power a drone carrying a pound or two of HE, and a simple guidance system tuned to the opposing drone's uplink frequency. Launch it straight up to ~60K ft altitude so it's above the opposing drone (to be in the satellite uplink signal path from the other drone) and have the guidance system kick in when it acquires the signal and guide it straight to the other drone.
No more Predator-class drone.
Of course, bringing down an autonomous drone would be more difficult and require a different type of interceptor-drone, possibly one with remote-video and a remote pilot.
How adding more vehicles to overcrowded streets is an "efficiency improvement"
Why do you assume there would be significantly more cabs, to the point of becoming a problem, than there are currently?
See, there are these things involved with operating a taxi called costs and expenses. If there are too many taxis competing for riders, some of those taxis won't generate enough income to cover these costs and expenses and will stop operating.
Other large cities that don't restrict taxi licensing like NYC are not flooded with cabs. Service is generally much cheaper and better as well for the passengers compared to NYC taxis.
Just goes to show you that people forget their history.
Here's a clue about the history bureaucracy: Once upon a time it was considered to be the efficient way to better human society, the way that would remove obstructions yet prevent abuses.
Perception changes, huh?
You'd better check history again. Bureaucracy has always been a necessary evil that needs to be kept heavily restricted and overseen in it's power and budget, as like with governments as a whole, they always grow and expand over time, eventually causing collapse/chaos/tyranny if left unchecked.
The problem in the US is that we keep choosing to cede more and more power over ever more things and give larger and larger budgets to the bureaucracy to "fix it".
This is typically followed up, after it's evident that things didn't get fixed but got worse, with cries to cede even more power and give even larger budgets, because the reason for the failure to fix things was that the previous increases were not quite enough, we'll fix it this time, promise! Rinse and repeat.
...poor attendance almost always guarantees bad grades.
Not necessarily, and definitely not in every case.
I don't think I attended more than two weeks of classes total during my entire junior and senior years in high school combined. I didn't do homework either. I simply made sure to be present for tests and aced every single one without any cheating needed. I graduated with a B+ grade average and not an A+ average only because I received an "Incomplete" for P.E. because I was never there:). No worries about being a fatbody though. I lived in FL near the ocean and spent a large number of my school days surfing (and partying!).
Who cares if they do it when the surveillance and anything gained from it (fruit of the poisoned tree) can not be used in court?
It's cute that you think these "courts" you speak of are some kind of a necessity anymore. They don't even need a warrant thanks to PATRIOT and NDAA, wtf makes you think you'll see a courtroom on your way to Rendition?
Unless the materials mined in space magically disappear, will they not have survived their impact with the Earth's surface when their spaceship lands?
By definition controlled landings are not impacts.
A "landing" is nothing more than a controlled impact.
You're also not factoring in that the legal/judicial system doesn't always follow normal logic in it's interpretations and decisions. If they wanted the law to include the refined products brought to Earth they probably would just get a court to agree or have Congress add a rider to some essential bill to redefine what is considered a "meteorite" for the purposes of this law.
Its because they can silently flyby near your house window and record you and your wife naked in details.
Which has already been declared illegal in court. Any pilot caught doing this would be charged.
Lots of things cops and the DHS do every day has been "decalred illegal" yet they still occur. The TSA ignores court orders. The DoJ ignores Congressional orders and more. BATFE insists gun stores sell firearms to drug cartels despite their protests which later are used to murder both Mexicans and Americans.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any government officials (besides possibly some mid-level scapegoat if there were widespread strong opposition) going to trial for using/abusing drones, no matter how "illegal" it might be.
Laws and regulations are for the proles, not the ruling elite. Didn't you get the memo?
It may qualify as a Greek comedy however, which often ended tragically for the proponents in the play as well.
Make a decision. You know how this type of domestic government surveillance/secret police crap always ends. History is filled with such. There's not much time left in which anything can really be done politically by the people short of global chaos, death, and destruction before their control infrastructure is complete and it's too late. The window of time remaining for people to affect relatively peaceful change is closing as we speak.
Or do nothing. You, me, and everybody else will be living out that line from "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd; "'Listen Son,' said the man with the gun, 'there's room for you inside'."
This is insane. I can't even comprehend how a government can even make a claim like this.
Apparently, the politicians in Oz are learning by US example.
"We have to pass the bill...to find out what's in the bill."
"When Congress refuses to act, Joe and I will act."
I think it's about time we cleaned out the whole lot. They seem to think they're the ones in charge or something. Time to introduce some politicians to this thing called "humility", as they obviously are unacquainted with the concept.
Not if you stop and read this first part (that you left out of your quotation) and think about what he's saying here.
"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied.."
He's making a case for restricting speech that offends any of multiple ethnic and religious groups. Add a little creative interpretation and selective enforcement of such restrictions and you have a wonderful tool for the suppression of all sorts and types of speech.
When presidents from both parties commonly do things like using the IRS to harass citizens that speak out, the length of time before such laws against "offensive speech" are abused would likely make the decay time of a free Higgs boson look like a geologic age.
Be very, very alarmed and concerned when politicians start talking about making any kind of speech illegal. History shows repeatedly that it invariably grows to include all kinds of speech and eventually to tyranny.
Slashdot Mirror
But I believe if they are sold as toys (even as toys for adults) many parents will through carelessness or ignorance give them to their children anyway.
Then you prosecute the parents for child endangerment/neglect/etc, you don't try to child-proof the entire planet.
I am concerned that my child could find them on the floor at someone else's house and swallow them before I even saw them.
Then maybe you should get to know this "someone else" first, before you allow your child free rein to wander around in an environment controlled by somebody else that you don't know well enough to know whether their home is kept safe for children.
Even the most vigilent parents are not able to entirely prevent their children from picking things up and putting them in their mouths.
This is true. However, that does not mean trying to child-proof the world is a good or even effective strategy, unless of course your goal is a future like the one depicted in the movie "Idiocracy". I'm sorry, but not every child born is smart enough to survive long term and will self-select themselves for removal from the gene pool.
Perhaps you'd be for the formation of official government-run creches to raise children, like the Clans from the BattleTech/Mechwarrior fictional universe? Then you wouldn't be burdened with worrying about the mouth-breathing fruit of your loins playing in traffic or swallowing razor blades while you play WoW and comment on /.
Strat
I thought one could avoid a statutory rape conviction by marrying before sex, and one could avoid a public urination conviction by claiming that draining oneself was "necessary as an emergency measure".
--
Pretty much generally correct on the first one, not so much on the second.
They don't consider pissing one's pants an emergency worthy of breaking the law. To add insult to injury, in many US cities it's become nearly impossible to find any public business, office, etc that allows anyone to use their bathrooms any longer, even paying customers.
Next time you're stuck on an overcrowded bus, train, subway, etc and are forced to stand near some piss-soaked person, remember he/she may not have had a choice.
One would think the public health hazards posed in a large and crowded city would indicate strongly against such laws, at least with such extreme and life-altering and permanent negative ramifications as punishment for something that really doesn't rise to the level of requiring such severity.
I'm thinking more along the lines of a ticket-able minor infraction with fines ranging from $50 to $150 or more in areas where it's become more of an immediate sanitation/health problem. No need to go ruining somebody's entire life, fer chrissake!
Talk about "cruel and unusual punishment"! Are we chopping off children's hands for shoplifting candy yet? Makes about as much sense. Oh, I forgot. We're only sending armed enforcement personnel to halt the threat to the public health (and licensing/permit income) posed by preteen lemonade stands at this point :-| Sheesh!
Strat
It may be of limited usefulness, but, I wouldn't want to bet on it. You never know what someone is going to come up with, and it wouldn't be hard or even conspicuous to drive through and collect data on whole neighorhoods. I Would bet you can see who is running a lot of electronic equipment and who is growing pot in their basement....
Just mining that data for leads could be very lucrative for LEAs and TLAs in drumming up convictions to justify ever-more taxpayer money and powers to violate ever-more civil rights.
FTFY
Strat
Then I remembered we're about 1 year out from a new generation Xbox with this stuff built in, so no disconnecting for us.
My Torx drivers, diagonal cutters, and soldering station disagree. :)
Strat
Just remember, penile extension ads are votes for Romney, and free credit ads are also votes for Romney.
LOL!
So I guess that defaults the "Nigerian prince" and "please confirm your bank login details" ads to votes for BHO?
At least we can be sure the Classmates.com emails aren't a vote for Obama, LOL.
Strat
The machine has a theoretical compute capacity of ~1% of the human brain and will be used for simulating the formation of stars, planets and galaxies."
May I be the first to say; Formation of stars, planets, and galaxies my ASS!
Nominate it in a special Act for POTUS!
I mean, c'mon. Could it seriously be that much worse than the choices at present?
At least then, maybe the US populace would begin to grasp the concept of GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) and maybe begin to apply it to the other parts of government. And no, nothing at all to do with political party/ideology. Rather, more a perspective from a "CS101 basics" point of view. :)
Strat
So I have a crystal ball that tells me how the rest of this conversation will go. I will introduce many facts detailing exactly how awful [wikipedia.org] US hegemony has been for most of the world. You will bring up the few times this has been positive
The "few" times the US has done positive things?
Really?
Over the majority of it's history as a nation, the US has done overwhelmingly more positve things, like disaster aid, than any other nation.
Over the last roughly 4-5 decades, however, I grant that the US government's actions and behaviors internationally and domestically have become increasingly bad and negative. This is largely due to the ideological shift over the last number of decades towards Progressivism, which tends to see more gray area when it comes to acceptable behaviors in pursuing the goal of "progressing" (see what they did there with the name?) past the limitations upon government power imposed by the constitution and implement a C&C central government controlling and planning everything...and everyone.
I guess that when your ideological goal is to incrementally render the constitution of your own nation...the laws and rules under which your home country operates...powerless, the laws and rules of other nations and international bodies aren't that important anymore either.
Strat
1080p is crap mate.
"640 x 480 should be enough for anyone"? :)
Strat
If we (and by we, I of course mean "our government") didn't give a shit about anything outside our own borders, we wouldn't spend 23 times as much blood and treasure as the next nation showing off how big our (militaristic) dick is.
And while "showing off how big our (militaristic) dick is" we save most of the EU from having to learn to speak Russian and much of the rest of the world from having to learn to speak Chinese, not to mention saving all those countries from having to spend a much larger portion of their GDP on defense, while the people that benefit in those same countries piss and moan about US military might.
I'd be fine with rolling back US military participation with NATO and the UN and drastically reduce our economic support as well. Let the other countries spend their own people's money on their own military...or learn to speak Chinese or Russian.
Strat
And you are sure that the new gov'ment that replaces the old one will be better because all revolutions lead to better government... right?
Well, there was this one little uprising in the British Colonies in the 1770s that didn't turn out too bad...at least for about the first 100-150 years before the founding documents came to be regarded as little more than interesting historical curiosities they saw pictures of once in school, at any rate.
Strat
What occurred in the '70s up to the 9/11 attacks could better be described as hostage-taking that happened to involve aircraft for their ability to move a significant number of hostages quickly while making rescue attempts much more risky. However, aircraft hijacking/hostage situations became less attractive because the public's shock and horror at them (the "terror" part) had all but disappeared, and authorities had grown increasingly sophisticated and successful in dealing with such aircraft hostage situations. They all but stopped due to diminishing returns.
The attack of 9/11 was a completely different type of attack, more akin to a suicide bomber or a kamikaze attack. The aircraft passengers were just convenient additional "bonus" victims that added more horror. The passengers and the aircraft itself were not the primary targets.
The only two changes made since 9/11 that have actually been effective at preventing repeats are that now the passengers as a whole will stomp any "terrorist" into the cabin deck...hard...at their first move, and the upgrade to locked cockpit doors that prevent seizing the controls of the aircraft.
Strat
Wow, you mean the Vatican has drone-strike capability now!?!? What do they call their strike-drone? The "Pope-inator"? "Altar-Boy Ass-Avenger"? Does it launch Holyfire missiles?
"Go ahead, punk! Make my holy-day!"
Get real. Drone strikes have about as much to do with Christianity as they do with who won the fourth race at the horse track Tuesday last.
Strat
Disobeying authority would have been is she said "no" and walked away. The TSA agents are supposed to be fine with that.
Wrong. Once someone enters the designated security-screening area they are not allowed to leave without being screened, even if they have no further intent to board an airplane. Refusal to comply results in arrest, possible jail time, and fines of up to $10K USD.
The TSA's VIPR teams are now setting up surprise, random checkpoints at train/bus stations, even randomly stopping city metro buses to screen passengers. There are YT videos. I don't know how a refusal to submit to a pat-down and ID-check by a rider caught up in a random stop of a metro bus would be treated. I suppose if I'm caught in such a stop I'll find out.
Strat
[Why doesn't Obama simply... ]... call the NSA and tell them to hand over their records of all our electronic communications?
That's cute what you did there, talking like they haven't been doing that for years and this would be something new.
Strat
That's why I wrote "almost always" rather than "always".
Oh, no...I wasn't trying to fault you on your comment. Just trying to add to the discussion.
I showed up for class, but was bored out of my skull because I already knew what they were trying to teach me, often with a better understanding than the teacher. I got an A+ on one science paper because it was over the teacher's head.
Heh. We've got a lot in common. Especially regarding the A+'s for papers/projects the teachers couldn't grasp.
But for most, missing class is missing information.
True enough.
Strat
Actually I expect you to be fooled again. Its probably a recurring thing in your life.
Clue: NASA doesn't do the war fighting stuff. They do the civilian aviation stuff. Aviation and safety research, keeping track of accidents and incidents, etc. See: http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/
Clue: That in no way means any tech innovations won't be immediately adapted/adopted by the military for their use. Or by DHS for domestic civilian population monitoring/control and suppression of dissenters, for that matter. New tech/discoveries/etc have always been shared both ways between NASA and the military throughout NASA's history.
You can rest assured anything NASA and/or groups working with NASA develop that the military/DHS/TLAs think might be useful they'll use.
Besides, the government isn't the only one that can build drones. If it came down to it, drones could be built in a garage that could intercept/down things like the Predator-class drones.
Take a look at this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTHWBSluUjU
It was laser-clocked at 586KPH/366MPH.
That's not even the largest engine the maker, JetCat, produces. They've got one that's rated for 52 lbs thrust.
http://www.sitewavesstores5.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JetCat&Product_Code=P200-SX&Category_Code=TURB
Have it power a drone carrying a pound or two of HE, and a simple guidance system tuned to the opposing drone's uplink frequency. Launch it straight up to ~60K ft altitude so it's above the opposing drone (to be in the satellite uplink signal path from the other drone) and have the guidance system kick in when it acquires the signal and guide it straight to the other drone.
No more Predator-class drone.
Of course, bringing down an autonomous drone would be more difficult and require a different type of interceptor-drone, possibly one with remote-video and a remote pilot.
Strat
How adding more vehicles to overcrowded streets is an "efficiency improvement"
Why do you assume there would be significantly more cabs, to the point of becoming a problem, than there are currently?
See, there are these things involved with operating a taxi called costs and expenses. If there are too many taxis competing for riders, some of those taxis won't generate enough income to cover these costs and expenses and will stop operating.
Other large cities that don't restrict taxi licensing like NYC are not flooded with cabs. Service is generally much cheaper and better as well for the passengers compared to NYC taxis.
Strat
Just goes to show you that people forget their history.
Here's a clue about the history bureaucracy: Once upon a time it was considered to be the efficient way to better human society, the way that would remove obstructions yet prevent abuses.
Perception changes, huh?
You'd better check history again. Bureaucracy has always been a necessary evil that needs to be kept heavily restricted and overseen in it's power and budget, as like with governments as a whole, they always grow and expand over time, eventually causing collapse/chaos/tyranny if left unchecked.
The problem in the US is that we keep choosing to cede more and more power over ever more things and give larger and larger budgets to the bureaucracy to "fix it".
This is typically followed up, after it's evident that things didn't get fixed but got worse, with cries to cede even more power and give even larger budgets, because the reason for the failure to fix things was that the previous increases were not quite enough, we'll fix it this time, promise! Rinse and repeat.
Strat
...poor attendance almost always guarantees bad grades.
Not necessarily, and definitely not in every case.
I don't think I attended more than two weeks of classes total during my entire junior and senior years in high school combined. I didn't do homework either. I simply made sure to be present for tests and aced every single one without any cheating needed. I graduated with a B+ grade average and not an A+ average only because I received an "Incomplete" for P.E. because I was never there :). No worries about being a fatbody though. I lived in FL near the ocean and spent a large number of my school days surfing (and partying!).
Strat
Who cares if they do it when the surveillance and anything gained from it (fruit of the poisoned tree) can not be used in court?
It's cute that you think these "courts" you speak of are some kind of a necessity anymore. They don't even need a warrant thanks to PATRIOT and NDAA, wtf makes you think you'll see a courtroom on your way to Rendition?
Strat
A "landing" is nothing more than a controlled impact.
You're also not factoring in that the legal/judicial system doesn't always follow normal logic in it's interpretations and decisions. If they wanted the law to include the refined products brought to Earth they probably would just get a court to agree or have Congress add a rider to some essential bill to redefine what is considered a "meteorite" for the purposes of this law.
Strat
Lots of things cops and the DHS do every day has been "decalred illegal" yet they still occur. The TSA ignores court orders. The DoJ ignores Congressional orders and more. BATFE insists gun stores sell firearms to drug cartels despite their protests which later are used to murder both Mexicans and Americans.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any government officials (besides possibly some mid-level scapegoat if there were widespread strong opposition) going to trial for using/abusing drones, no matter how "illegal" it might be.
Laws and regulations are for the proles, not the ruling elite. Didn't you get the memo?
Strat
It's funny because it's true.
I think we left "funny" quite a ways back.
It may qualify as a Greek comedy however, which often ended tragically for the proponents in the play as well.
Make a decision. You know how this type of domestic government surveillance/secret police crap always ends. History is filled with such. There's not much time left in which anything can really be done politically by the people short of global chaos, death, and destruction before their control infrastructure is complete and it's too late. The window of time remaining for people to affect relatively peaceful change is closing as we speak.
Or do nothing. You, me, and everybody else will be living out that line from "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd; "'Listen Son,' said the man with the gun, 'there's room for you inside'."
Strat
This is insane. I can't even comprehend how a government can even make a claim like this.
Apparently, the politicians in Oz are learning by US example.
"We have to pass the bill...to find out what's in the bill."
"When Congress refuses to act, Joe and I will act."
I think it's about time we cleaned out the whole lot. They seem to think they're the ones in charge or something. Time to introduce some politicians to this thing called "humility", as they obviously are unacquainted with the concept.
Strat
Obama agrees with you.
Not if you stop and read this first part (that you left out of your quotation) and think about what he's saying here.
"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied.."
He's making a case for restricting speech that offends any of multiple ethnic and religious groups. Add a little creative interpretation and selective enforcement of such restrictions and you have a wonderful tool for the suppression of all sorts and types of speech.
When presidents from both parties commonly do things like using the IRS to harass citizens that speak out, the length of time before such laws against "offensive speech" are abused would likely make the decay time of a free Higgs boson look like a geologic age.
Be very, very alarmed and concerned when politicians start talking about making any kind of speech illegal. History shows repeatedly that it invariably grows to include all kinds of speech and eventually to tyranny.
Strat