Are you implying that these people go to the airport NOT expecting to be scanned or searched?
The adults, I'm sure, didn't. I suppose they were foolish to believe the public promises made that their children would now be treated with more respect?
I mean, come on! The whole child-groping thing had already caused a backlash and promises from the TSA that protocols had been changed regarding children.
Apparently, they forgot to include that in a memo to, like....anyone else in the TSA!
The white elephant in the room is that for the cost and troubles the current security theater inflicts upon the public for little actual "security", a *real* security system could be set up that doesn't require intrusive body searches or thousands of ultra-expensive taxpayer-funded machines contracted from a firm which a recently-departed high-ranking security official has a large interest in.
They're not even *trying* to conceal anything anymore. What I hear from these government goons when they violate rights and the law is; "Yeah, so whada youse gonna do 'bout it? Youse should mind yer own bizness and don't worry 'bout what we do with no kids, before I send AG Rocko an' his Letter-Gang boys to pay youse a lil visit."
And no, they won't sell the adaptors, because even though they own the patents on it, it could be used to circumvent copy right protections built into the HDMI spec, and thus violates the DMCA.
My solution is simply to not buy or use anything that requires HDMI-anything. I don't own anything "HD". That includes BluRay. I'm not about to give anybody money that treats me like a criminal if I can help it. Screw 'em!
If more people did this it wouldn't be a problem, as the whole little DRM-ecosystem would collapse from lack of public uptake. Unfortunately, far too many people, including "geeks" and "nerds" who should theoretically be more savvy regarding this stuff than the average person, fall for the "Oooh, Shiny!" and line up for their shackles with the rest of the sheep.
Sony really IS a glutton for punishment, isn't it?
After the long and infamous string of bad behaviors, poor choices, generally crappy and negative actions towards it's customers, along with the numerous PR foot-gun bullseyes that Sony has inflicted upon itself over the last 10 years or so, it simply amazes me that a supposedly sophisticated, modern, tech/media multinational giant with whole divisions of people supposedly advising them on PR & policy issues like Sony, could be so seemingly-determined to reach out to every last human being on Earth...and make them despise Sony.
The saddest part is that Sony is far from alone, just the one presently in the spotlight.
It's not clever or even remotely funny any more...just very...sad.
And scary.
Particularly when you can be labeled a "security risk" and tossed off a flight without a refund (and likely added to some government list) for snapping a pic of a rude airline employee's name badge with your phone.
As a US Citizen (Score:0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16, @06:02PM (#36468696)
I find this appaling. Not much I can really do though, except write my congresswoman, which I've done before. She sends back a nice little form e-mail. It probably goes to the bit bucket; but other than turning myself into some kind of activicst, I don't know what else to do.
As another US citizen who isn't too lazy to get off his ass to save his own ass (and others' asses, collectively, along the way), please immigrate. You don't even deserve the liberty you have. Unless you're crippled/disabled or have some other equally-dire and involuntary inability to fulfill your duties as a citizen, you're just getting in the way and taking up the resources of people trying to make things better. Apathy like yours is the main reason things have gotten this bad.
Citizens have duties as well as rights, and one of them is to actually get off your ass and take whatever steps (preferably/hopefully non-violent) that are necessary to insure the government doesn't become (even more) oppressive.
If you can't see the advantage of enduring the inconvenience of a few hours at a rally/march/protest now in order to be free of, possibly, a short life and violent death in some government camp later, then you seriously don't belong here.
Funny, i think that Nancy Pelosi, her polar opposite, is "all that is BAD in the USA".
Oh, c'mon! Give her a break! Nancy Pelosi is simply misunderstood (understandable, as her face doesn't move). She just wants what is best for you. She'll let you know what that is after she's done passing it into law See? Proactive, with the People's best interests at heart, AND transparent!.
Plus, she [Paris Hilton] has a use as a comparative baseline - "I may have gotten roofied out of my mind and has an entire football team run a train on my ass this weekend but at least I'm not _that_ pox-rotted doxy..."
And that somehow ADVANCES someone's lives?
Just about anything compared to PH is an "advance" of some type or other. That being said, it would seem to say more about the one who felt they had to reach down that low to find an example to which they compared favorably.
Easy rule of thumb for those not familiar with fairly recent American pop-culture personalities: "Whenever Paris Hilton is used as part of a comparison or analogy, it is always as a bottom-limit, extreme-case example to the ranges being defined and/or compared."
So, what, are you implying that because the US has less social programs, it isn't having economic trouble? That economic troubles are exclusive to EU countries? If not, what, exactly, is your point?
My original point was a simple correction to the post to which I replied that erroneously claimed entitlements don't make up the majority of the US budget.
As to the other portion of your post, no, I don't think the US is without economic troubles. It is. Spending is one of (but not the only) the major reasons, of which entitlement spending tops the list.
What's happening in the EU regarding economic problems will happen in the US, and for basically the same reason...too much government spending with borrowed money. At this point, there is no avoiding a major economic/monetary crisis in the US. It's only a matter of time, and how much damage that occurs depends on if the government warns the US citizens and helps them prepare or continues on "whistling past the graveyard". It also depends on if the US government takes any meaningful steps to reduce spending and debt in a short enough period of time to matter.
So far, all the US government has done (TARP, QE1 & 2, "Stimulus", etc) is put off the crisis for a short time at the cost of making things worse when it does happen, meanwhile denying there's very bad news coming soon.
It is not the case that social programs drag down the economy, rather it is the failure to tax the wealthy and regulate banking. In the US, social programs are still being blamed for the same thing, yet we spend very little on such things.
Oh, well, since *you* say so, that must make it true, despite all the widely-available Federal budget data that flatly contradicts this. Just an FYI, if the government took every last penny from the top 10%, this wouldn't even come close to balancing *this* year's budget alone, but it would succeed in destroying the US economy.
Look at the situation here in France, it's funny how our very socialist country came up with something that's quite good for the consumers, and OK for the providers.
It doesn't seem to be working out so well from the perspective of national economic stability and viability. Look at Greece, Ireland, Spain. France is also finding itself in economic trouble and is enacting various austerity programs. The economic consequences of their massive social programs & policies are dragging down the entire EU like dominoes, one country at a time (so far one at a time...that could change).
Here we go, was about time that this developed into a paranoid rant on the gubmint being out for you.
Where did I say anything about that in my post? I simply answered a legitimate question with a near-textbook answer. Mindcontrolled, I believe you need to have your "mindcontroller" do a reboot on your systems. You appear to be losing cognitive stability at an alarming rate.
Which translates into "they would not have them at all, because they'd find themselves slaves of the local warlord/strongman within the year".
In other words, the (primitive & totalitarian) government would attempt to take those rights & freedoms away. Thanks for reinforcing the point of my post with an example.
Again, you posit a certain list of rights as "natural". Where do they come from? Why those? I didn't get any memo.
"Natural rights" are those basic freedoms that almost every human individual has always sought. These include, but are not limited to, such things as:
-The ability to speak freely without suppression/punishment by authority.
-The ability to freely go where and when one desires, limited only by one's resources to do so.
-The freedom to practice any or no religion as one sees fit, as long as it does not advocate harming others.
-The freedom to be "left alone" by authority.
People since the dawn of civilization have wanted those things listed above. Government is always and has always been the reason they don't have those things, or enough of those things. Absent government, they would have all those things in relation to their ability to defend those rights. This is why government always seeks to remove the ability, both politically and physically, for the people to defend themselves...government's natural progression is always to remove ever more rights and freedoms.
Maybe you simply have been mislead by taking what others say as fact without doing any of your own research..
It is very hard to "research evil", since the term itself is vague
I can't tell if you're being obtuse here or not. I'm talking about digging into history, researching, and actually listening to what has been and is being said by those involved in and surrounding the trouble in the Middle East, since that was the context of this discussion.
Whenever Israel suffers a rocket attack, another suicide bomber, or a family including infants and children brutally murdered in their beds, the Palestinians dance, sing, and hand out treats in the streets all across the Territories. Where are the widespread celebrations on the streets of Tel Aviv when a Palestinian civilian/child/infant is killed?
Some of them do.
Citation? If there was any significant numbers or percentage of Israelis celebrating a Palestinian woman or child being killed by dancing in the streets, the enemies of Israel would have the video playing on a loop 24/7 on Al-Jazeera while decrying Jewish atrocity.
Are there a few Israeli extremists who might celebrate? I'm certain there are. That's not the same as the widespread celebration filling the streets in the Territories whenever a Jewish family and children are brutally murdered
There is no equivalency there.
Further, during the Holocaust, Germany (the state) was being evil. Many Germans were being evil. But not all Germans were evil. This is my point. Most Palestinians aren't, and most Israelis aren't, but both of the groups have shown a remarkable urge towards evil actions.
Most Palestinians *do* favor committing atrocities against the Jews. They freely elected Hamas as leadership. Their hatred is widespread and runs deep. They refuse to acknowledge that Israel even has a right to exist or Jews a right to live. How can Israel even begin to negotiate anything with people who believe their God says they should wipe out Israel and kill every single Jew and will not negotiate their stance?
When a Palestinian is spotted, for example, launching mortar rounds at an Israeli pre-school and he runs and hides with his family who backs and even encourages his actions, and then Israel accidentally kills some or all that family when they return fire, that is NOT equivalent to the Palestinians' actions. Israel doesn't intentionally target children or unarmed civilians. Maybe if the Palestinians stopped relentlessly attacking innocent Israeli civilians and children, lives on both sides would be saved.
Both sides have striven to make the other suffer
No. This is utterly wrong. Israel and the Jews strive to not be utterly wiped out. Does that mean that sometimes bad things happen? Sure. It does in every single conflict or war that has ever, or will ever, be between men.
Israel's goal is to survive. Palestinians' and other Islamists' goal is to kill every Jew everywhere and wipe out Israel totally. To say that Israel is equally evil because some innocents die in their fight for survival, in the face of such hatred and violence, is simply ignoring the facts to make oneself more comfortable with, and disavow any responsibility to speak out against, bigotry and hatred. Doing that makes one just as responsible for that bigotry and hatred as those who espouse & practice it.
Playing the moral equivalency game in the face of such blatant evil is itself evil. It may make you feel better about not saying or doing anything about it, but it will assure that the evil will eventually end up at your own door, and by then there will be nobody left to stand with you against it.
Since I disagree with you I must be a crypto-nazi, who is a closeted skinhead. This is obvious, since you hold the only opinion worth considering, and everyone else loves Hitler.
If you support those who also support evil, you are evil. Maybe you simply have been mislead by taking what others say as fact without doing any of your own research. To ignore, excuse, or say nothing in the face of evil (such as making committing genocide against an entire culture, religion, and people a central, non-negotiable goal) is to be evil. There is no middle ground between good and evil. There *is* both good and evil in this world that has no shades nor gray areas.
Anti-Jewish/Israeli bigotry & hatred has been around for centuries. The current anti-Jewish hatred & bigotry in the Middle East is the very same hatred & bigotry, revived, that drove the horrors of Germany in WW2 and others before and since.
Many current Islamic clerics speak openly and with great enthusiasm and nostalgia for Hitler and the days of the Holocaust, and wish the job finished. They carry clerics spewing such screeds regularly on Al-Jazeera. Just because Hitler and Germany were defeated doesn't mean that the anti-Semitic hatred went away, particularly in the Arab/Islamic world.
Whenever Israel suffers a rocket attack, another suicide bomber, or a family including infants and children brutally murdered in their beds, the Palestinians dance, sing, and hand out treats in the streets all across the Territories. Where are the widespread celebrations on the streets of Tel Aviv when a Palestinian civilian/child/infant is killed? Does it make a difference to you that a majority of Palestinians think Hitler was a great guy and had the right idea?
If one fails to recognize evil and speak out against it, then you share the guilt equally with evil when evil triumphs, horrors become commonplace, and people suffer.
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." -Disputed, often attributed to Edmund Burke
Self-hatred has long been a recognized phenomenon among the US Liberal/Progressive Jewish population. There were large numbers of Jews during WW2 that willingly helped the Nazis as well. Does that mean that the Holocaust was OK?
Besides, this modern incarnation of Arab/Muslim hatred for the Jews is a direct follow-on from the alliance of hatred and genocide that WW2 Germany had with the Grand Mufti Muhammed Amin al-Husseini and what has become the Muslim Brotherhood. Even the name "Iran" means "Aryan". That should be a clue.
If you can't see any moral difference, then you'd have been okie-dokie with the Final Solution and the Holocaust. At least you aren't alone. There are a lot of "skinheads" that believe just as you and the Palestinians do.
I will simply do everything possible to make sure that such bigotry and unreasoning hatred is wiped from the planet along with those who espouse such vileness.
"A man is known by the [ideological] company he keeps."
You mean, like Spain does? Oh, wait, Spain exports energy to France, and last year over half of its energy production was from renewable resources.
How's that working out for Spain, seeing as each "green" job costs 2.2 regular jobs, $774000 (571000 Euros) cost for each Spanish "green job" created, they have record-high unemployment of 21.3%, and that Spain is on the short-list right behind Greece for risk of economic collapse/civil unrest and takeover of their economic policies by the IMF?
I don't understand why every country isn't following Spain's lead with that kind of successful track record. Trust the US, however, to follow *that* model.
We were warned; "For my plan of a cap-and-trade system to work, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket." -B. H. Obama
It seems to be one of the few campaign promises he *is* keeping, and fighting tooth-and-nail for it, too.
Besides, what do poor people need with low-cost energy anyways? They'd just waste it heating and cooling those filthy hovels they live in, and traveling around being a public eyesore and bothering people of means, right? What a guy. What a country.
Great! Thanks! It means I've touched on truths you don't want anyone to see, and which totally destroys your agenda if it becomes common knowledge. Gotta stoke that hatred, class-warfare, & bigotry against those Jews and Western Capitalism, right?
It just proves everything I've stated, including the Left's penchant for suppressing any opposing viewpoints however they can.
Thanks again for proving everything I've said to be true.
Or, they can walk through one of the many (usually open and outdoors) gates to the tarmac dressed as groundcrew/maintenance, watch and wait while passengers board right to the point where they begin retracting the boardingway, then jump into a fuel truck with a backpack-bomb (toolbox bomb?), drive as close to the aircraft as possible, and detonate the bomb.
The resulting explosion(s) may even take out nearby aircraft that are loading/unloading and a good chunk of the nearby terminal building.
Access to the tarmac/flightline at most airports is stunningly easy. There is no or very little & easily defeated security outside of a "Restricted Area-Authorized Personnel Only" sign.
Maybe if arrogant, elitist British like you hadn't banned guns, you would have gotten rid of your monarchy long ago and joined modern Western civilization, instead of being stuck with a government out of the Middle Ages.
Britain came about during the age of the sword, the catapult, and the bow. Britain had civilization for many centuries prior to the discovery of the New World. Few large predators. No primitive native population for many centuries. Heck, there's only one native poisonous snake, and it's generally not aggressive.
America was carved out of a dangerous & deadly wilderness with the flintlock, the blunderbuss, and the cannon. It won it's independence from tyranny with the same tools.
Given all that, it's not surprising the two cultures view and deal with the issue of arms in civilian hands quite differently.
So, if guns bother you, the solution is simple: Don't come to America. *I* certainly have no wish to visit Britain.
Plus, I actually use critical thinking and learned some un-rewritten/edited history. Apparently, a rapidly-fading skill and part of basic education in the US thanks in large part to the Dept. of Education and teacher's unions.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you implying that these people go to the airport NOT expecting to be scanned or searched?
The adults, I'm sure, didn't. I suppose they were foolish to believe the public promises made that their children would now be treated with more respect?
I mean, come on! The whole child-groping thing had already caused a backlash and promises from the TSA that protocols had been changed regarding children.
Apparently, they forgot to include that in a memo to, like....anyone else in the TSA!
The white elephant in the room is that for the cost and troubles the current security theater inflicts upon the public for little actual "security", a *real* security system could be set up that doesn't require intrusive body searches or thousands of ultra-expensive taxpayer-funded machines contracted from a firm which a recently-departed high-ranking security official has a large interest in.
They're not even *trying* to conceal anything anymore. What I hear from these government goons when they violate rights and the law is; "Yeah, so whada youse gonna do 'bout it? Youse should mind yer own bizness and don't worry 'bout what we do with no kids, before I send AG Rocko an' his Letter-Gang boys to pay youse a lil visit."
Strat
And no, they won't sell the adaptors, because even though they own the patents on it, it could be used to circumvent copy right protections built into the HDMI spec, and thus violates the DMCA.
My solution is simply to not buy or use anything that requires HDMI-anything. I don't own anything "HD". That includes BluRay. I'm not about to give anybody money that treats me like a criminal if I can help it. Screw 'em!
If more people did this it wouldn't be a problem, as the whole little DRM-ecosystem would collapse from lack of public uptake. Unfortunately, far too many people, including "geeks" and "nerds" who should theoretically be more savvy regarding this stuff than the average person, fall for the "Oooh, Shiny!" and line up for their shackles with the rest of the sheep.
Strat
Sony really IS a glutton for punishment, isn't it?
After the long and infamous string of bad behaviors, poor choices, generally crappy and negative actions towards it's customers, along with the numerous PR foot-gun bullseyes that Sony has inflicted upon itself over the last 10 years or so, it simply amazes me that a supposedly sophisticated, modern, tech/media multinational giant with whole divisions of people supposedly advising them on PR & policy issues like Sony, could be so seemingly-determined to reach out to every last human being on Earth...and make them despise Sony.
The saddest part is that Sony is far from alone, just the one presently in the spotlight.
Strat
"THIS is what democro-surgery looks like!"
How's that hope and cha...aw, crap! Forget it!
I can't.
It's not clever or even remotely funny any more...just very...sad.
And scary.
Particularly when you can be labeled a "security risk" and tossed off a flight without a refund (and likely added to some government list) for snapping a pic of a rude airline employee's name badge with your phone.
Strat
As a US Citizen (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16, @06:02PM (#36468696)
I find this appaling. Not much I can really do though, except write my congresswoman, which I've done before. She sends back a nice little form e-mail. It probably goes to the bit bucket; but other than turning myself into some kind of activicst, I don't know what else to do.
As another US citizen who isn't too lazy to get off his ass to save his own ass (and others' asses, collectively, along the way), please immigrate. You don't even deserve the liberty you have. Unless you're crippled/disabled or have some other equally-dire and involuntary inability to fulfill your duties as a citizen, you're just getting in the way and taking up the resources of people trying to make things better. Apathy like yours is the main reason things have gotten this bad.
Citizens have duties as well as rights, and one of them is to actually get off your ass and take whatever steps (preferably/hopefully non-violent) that are necessary to insure the government doesn't become (even more) oppressive.
If you can't see the advantage of enduring the inconvenience of a few hours at a rally/march/protest now in order to be free of, possibly, a short life and violent death in some government camp later, then you seriously don't belong here.
Strat
Funny, i think that Nancy Pelosi, her polar opposite, is "all that is BAD in the USA".
Oh, c'mon! Give her a break! Nancy Pelosi is simply misunderstood (understandable, as her face doesn't move). She just wants what is best for you. She'll let you know what that is after she's done passing it into law See? Proactive, with the People's best interests at heart, AND transparent!.
What!?
Strat
Just about anything compared to PH is an "advance" of some type or other. That being said, it would seem to say more about the one who felt they had to reach down that low to find an example to which they compared favorably.
Easy rule of thumb for those not familiar with fairly recent American pop-culture personalities: "Whenever Paris Hilton is used as part of a comparison or analogy, it is always as a bottom-limit, extreme-case example to the ranges being defined and/or compared."
HTH :)
Strat
So, what, are you implying that because the US has less social programs, it isn't having economic trouble? That economic troubles are exclusive to EU countries? If not, what, exactly, is your point?
My original point was a simple correction to the post to which I replied that erroneously claimed entitlements don't make up the majority of the US budget.
As to the other portion of your post, no, I don't think the US is without economic troubles. It is. Spending is one of (but not the only) the major reasons, of which entitlement spending tops the list.
What's happening in the EU regarding economic problems will happen in the US, and for basically the same reason...too much government spending with borrowed money. At this point, there is no avoiding a major economic/monetary crisis in the US. It's only a matter of time, and how much damage that occurs depends on if the government warns the US citizens and helps them prepare or continues on "whistling past the graveyard". It also depends on if the US government takes any meaningful steps to reduce spending and debt in a short enough period of time to matter.
So far, all the US government has done (TARP, QE1 & 2, "Stimulus", etc) is put off the crisis for a short time at the cost of making things worse when it does happen, meanwhile denying there's very bad news coming soon.
Strat
It is not the case that social programs drag down the economy, rather it is the failure to tax the wealthy and regulate banking. In the US, social programs are still being blamed for the same thing, yet we spend very little on such things.
Oh, well, since *you* say so, that must make it true, despite all the widely-available Federal budget data that flatly contradicts this. Just an FYI, if the government took every last penny from the top 10%, this wouldn't even come close to balancing *this* year's budget alone, but it would succeed in destroying the US economy.
Strat
Look at the situation here in France, it's funny how our very socialist country came up with something that's quite good for the consumers, and OK for the providers.
It doesn't seem to be working out so well from the perspective of national economic stability and viability. Look at Greece, Ireland, Spain. France is also finding itself in economic trouble and is enacting various austerity programs. The economic consequences of their massive social programs & policies are dragging down the entire EU like dominoes, one country at a time (so far one at a time...that could change).
Strat
Here we go, was about time that this developed into a paranoid rant on the gubmint being out for you.
Where did I say anything about that in my post? I simply answered a legitimate question with a near-textbook answer. Mindcontrolled, I believe you need to have your "mindcontroller" do a reboot on your systems. You appear to be losing cognitive stability at an alarming rate.
Which translates into "they would not have them at all, because they'd find themselves slaves of the local warlord/strongman within the year".
In other words, the (primitive & totalitarian) government would attempt to take those rights & freedoms away. Thanks for reinforcing the point of my post with an example.
Strat
Again, you posit a certain list of rights as "natural". Where do they come from? Why those? I didn't get any memo.
"Natural rights" are those basic freedoms that almost every human individual has always sought. These include, but are not limited to, such things as:
-The ability to speak freely without suppression/punishment by authority.
-The ability to freely go where and when one desires, limited only by one's resources to do so.
-The freedom to practice any or no religion as one sees fit, as long as it does not advocate harming others.
-The freedom to be "left alone" by authority.
People since the dawn of civilization have wanted those things listed above. Government is always and has always been the reason they don't have those things, or enough of those things. Absent government, they would have all those things in relation to their ability to defend those rights. This is why government always seeks to remove the ability, both politically and physically, for the people to defend themselves...government's natural progression is always to remove ever more rights and freedoms.
Strat
...how can you get arrested for resisting a non existant arrest.
Elementary.
Catch 22.
What, you didn't think Catch 22 was limited to the military did you?
Strat
Please explain for us exactly what law she's breaking that she's escaping punishment for?
It's not a "law", but a Liberal/Progressive "Commandment";
"Thou Shalt Not Ruin By Example The Left's Misogynistic Stereotypes of Conservative Women."
Strat
Be fair. It only amuses them when it's done by the Right.
Yeah, because the constant stream of head-asploding Leftist stuff out of the WH has lost any shock factor or ability to surprise.
Besides, we all know what this is about:
"A woman on the Right that's good-looking, intelligent, has demonstrated abilities to run a gov, and, worst of all, believes in the Constitution!?!?"
"GET HER!!"
I can't tell if you're being obtuse here or not. I'm talking about digging into history, researching, and actually listening to what has been and is being said by those involved in and surrounding the trouble in the Middle East, since that was the context of this discussion.
Citation? If there was any significant numbers or percentage of Israelis celebrating a Palestinian woman or child being killed by dancing in the streets, the enemies of Israel would have the video playing on a loop 24/7 on Al-Jazeera while decrying Jewish atrocity.
Are there a few Israeli extremists who might celebrate? I'm certain there are. That's not the same as the widespread celebration filling the streets in the Territories whenever a Jewish family and children are brutally murdered
There is no equivalency there.
Further, during the Holocaust, Germany (the state) was being evil. Many Germans were being evil. But not all Germans were evil. This is my point. Most Palestinians aren't, and most Israelis aren't, but both of the groups have shown a remarkable urge towards evil actions.
Most Palestinians *do* favor committing atrocities against the Jews. They freely elected Hamas as leadership. Their hatred is widespread and runs deep. They refuse to acknowledge that Israel even has a right to exist or Jews a right to live. How can Israel even begin to negotiate anything with people who believe their God says they should wipe out Israel and kill every single Jew and will not negotiate their stance?
When a Palestinian is spotted, for example, launching mortar rounds at an Israeli pre-school and he runs and hides with his family who backs and even encourages his actions, and then Israel accidentally kills some or all that family when they return fire, that is NOT equivalent to the Palestinians' actions. Israel doesn't intentionally target children or unarmed civilians. Maybe if the Palestinians stopped relentlessly attacking innocent Israeli civilians and children, lives on both sides would be saved.
Both sides have striven to make the other suffer
No. This is utterly wrong. Israel and the Jews strive to not be utterly wiped out. Does that mean that sometimes bad things happen? Sure. It does in every single conflict or war that has ever, or will ever, be between men.
Israel's goal is to survive. Palestinians' and other Islamists' goal is to kill every Jew everywhere and wipe out Israel totally. To say that Israel is equally evil because some innocents die in their fight for survival, in the face of such hatred and violence, is simply ignoring the facts to make oneself more comfortable with, and disavow any responsibility to speak out against, bigotry and hatred. Doing that makes one just as responsible for that bigotry and hatred as those who espouse & practice it.
Playing the moral equivalency game in the face of such blatant evil is itself evil. It may make you feel better about not saying or doing anything about it, but it will assure that the evil will eventually end up at your own door, and by then there will be nobody left to stand with you against it.
Strat
Since I disagree with you I must be a crypto-nazi, who is a closeted skinhead. This is obvious, since you hold the only opinion worth considering, and everyone else loves Hitler.
If you support those who also support evil, you are evil. Maybe you simply have been mislead by taking what others say as fact without doing any of your own research. To ignore, excuse, or say nothing in the face of evil (such as making committing genocide against an entire culture, religion, and people a central, non-negotiable goal) is to be evil. There is no middle ground between good and evil. There *is* both good and evil in this world that has no shades nor gray areas.
Anti-Jewish/Israeli bigotry & hatred has been around for centuries. The current anti-Jewish hatred & bigotry in the Middle East is the very same hatred & bigotry, revived, that drove the horrors of Germany in WW2 and others before and since.
Many current Islamic clerics speak openly and with great enthusiasm and nostalgia for Hitler and the days of the Holocaust, and wish the job finished. They carry clerics spewing such screeds regularly on Al-Jazeera. Just because Hitler and Germany were defeated doesn't mean that the anti-Semitic hatred went away, particularly in the Arab/Islamic world.
Whenever Israel suffers a rocket attack, another suicide bomber, or a family including infants and children brutally murdered in their beds, the Palestinians dance, sing, and hand out treats in the streets all across the Territories. Where are the widespread celebrations on the streets of Tel Aviv when a Palestinian civilian/child/infant is killed? Does it make a difference to you that a majority of Palestinians think Hitler was a great guy and had the right idea?
If one fails to recognize evil and speak out against it, then you share the guilt equally with evil when evil triumphs, horrors become commonplace, and people suffer.
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." -Disputed, often attributed to Edmund Burke
Strat
Most (70-75%) Jews are Democrats, and liberals.
Self-hatred has long been a recognized phenomenon among the US Liberal/Progressive Jewish population. There were large numbers of Jews during WW2 that willingly helped the Nazis as well. Does that mean that the Holocaust was OK?
Besides, this modern incarnation of Arab/Muslim hatred for the Jews is a direct follow-on from the alliance of hatred and genocide that WW2 Germany had with the Grand Mufti Muhammed Amin al-Husseini and what has become the Muslim Brotherhood. Even the name "Iran" means "Aryan". That should be a clue.
If you can't see any moral difference, then you'd have been okie-dokie with the Final Solution and the Holocaust. At least you aren't alone. There are a lot of "skinheads" that believe just as you and the Palestinians do.
I will simply do everything possible to make sure that such bigotry and unreasoning hatred is wiped from the planet along with those who espouse such vileness.
"A man is known by the [ideological] company he keeps."
Strat
But the corporations they worked for who profited from this fraud haven't. Bill them.
Seeing as how GE is responsible for many of them, don't hold your breath. GE has special status with the POTUS and his current administration.
Strat
You mean, like Spain does? Oh, wait, Spain exports energy to France, and last year over half of its energy production was from renewable resources.
How's that working out for Spain, seeing as each "green" job costs 2.2 regular jobs, $774000 (571000 Euros) cost for each Spanish "green job" created, they have record-high unemployment of 21.3%, and that Spain is on the short-list right behind Greece for risk of economic collapse/civil unrest and takeover of their economic policies by the IMF?
I don't understand why every country isn't following Spain's lead with that kind of successful track record. Trust the US, however, to follow *that* model.
We were warned; "For my plan of a cap-and-trade system to work, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket." -B. H. Obama
It seems to be one of the few campaign promises he *is* keeping, and fighting tooth-and-nail for it, too.
Besides, what do poor people need with low-cost energy anyways? They'd just waste it heating and cooling those filthy hovels they live in, and traveling around being a public eyesore and bothering people of means, right? What a guy. What a country.
Strat
Ha!
I see the mod-bombing proceeds apace.
Great! Thanks! It means I've touched on truths you don't want anyone to see, and which totally destroys your agenda if it becomes common knowledge. Gotta stoke that hatred, class-warfare, & bigotry against those Jews and Western Capitalism, right?
It just proves everything I've stated, including the Left's penchant for suppressing any opposing viewpoints however they can.
Thanks again for proving everything I've said to be true.
Strat
Or, they can walk through one of the many (usually open and outdoors) gates to the tarmac dressed as groundcrew/maintenance, watch and wait while passengers board right to the point where they begin retracting the boardingway, then jump into a fuel truck with a backpack-bomb (toolbox bomb?), drive as close to the aircraft as possible, and detonate the bomb.
The resulting explosion(s) may even take out nearby aircraft that are loading/unloading and a good chunk of the nearby terminal building.
Access to the tarmac/flightline at most airports is stunningly easy. There is no or very little & easily defeated security outside of a "Restricted Area-Authorized Personnel Only" sign.
Strat
bred-up a society that is so wedded to the gun
Maybe if arrogant, elitist British like you hadn't banned guns, you would have gotten rid of your monarchy long ago and joined modern Western civilization, instead of being stuck with a government out of the Middle Ages.
Britain came about during the age of the sword, the catapult, and the bow. Britain had civilization for many centuries prior to the discovery of the New World. Few large predators. No primitive native population for many centuries. Heck, there's only one native poisonous snake, and it's generally not aggressive.
America was carved out of a dangerous & deadly wilderness with the flintlock, the blunderbuss, and the cannon. It won it's independence from tyranny with the same tools.
Given all that, it's not surprising the two cultures view and deal with the issue of arms in civilian hands quite differently.
So, if guns bother you, the solution is simple: Don't come to America. *I* certainly have no wish to visit Britain.
Strat
Perhaps so. but I don't see any rational way of assigning moral superiority to either the Palestinians or the Isrealis.
First, one must be rational...
Just sayin'
Strat
You're a bitter, bitter man.
No.
I just don't suffer fools gladly.
Plus, I actually use critical thinking and learned some un-rewritten/edited history. Apparently, a rapidly-fading skill and part of basic education in the US thanks in large part to the Dept. of Education and teacher's unions.
Strat