Except that they do not carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war. They use civilians as shields and cover, or just blow them up to make some kind of sick statement.
They are very well treated for the most part. They are well fed and clothed, given Korans and oils and arrows to Mecca and calls to prayer...
Yes, they are sometimes subjected to lengthy interrogations in an effort to save innocent lives. Sometimes they are extremely uncomfortable during these interrogations. Under no circumstances are they beaten, burned, electrocuted, or maimed as they often do to their own prisoners.
They're not American citizens and are not entitled to a civil trial anymore than a captured Nazi would have been 60 years ago. They have already been found guilty by a military tribunal; to have these trials publically would jeopardize the lives of our intelligence operatives.
They are illegal combatants. Do you understand what this means? They are not protected by the Geneva convention. Why? Because they don't wear uniforms. Why is this so bad? Because uniforms are the way armies protect their people; they say "We're the ones to shoot at, please don't shoot at those other people, they are just civilians." To betray the innocent by hiding among them is the among the basest of all war crimes, second only to their favorite passtime of actively blowing up innocent people to incite terror.
These people are the lowest of all scum, and Gitmo is much better than they deserve.
A bit. But I fail to see how that has anything to do with our Republic being perceived as a theocracy... outside of crackpot anti-semitic conspiracy theories.
My support of Israel is purely political, as they are the only liberal democracy in an region dominated by monarchs and fascists.
You seem to be of the opinion that pre-colonial despots were more enlightened than post-colonial, and that Osama bin Laden and the 9-11 hijackers were motivated by poverty. I think you're wrong on both accounts.
And it's the left that protests inaction in the Sudan, btw.
As they would surely protest any action by a Republican administration. Unless maybe it was instantly successful and cost no blood or money... well, I'm sure they'd find a reason to protest even then. You probably don't read many "Conservative" blogs or journals, but the general feeling is that we would like nothing more than to go into the Sudan and every other hellhole on the planet and hand out spankings, but we're already overextended. It's someone else's turn, but almost everyone with an effective fighting force who gives a shit is already helping us out in Iraq. Why aren't you whining to China to help out in Sudan? Because you know they don't care about Africa and they don't care what you think. (And you know they'd probably just kill everyone and go home, anyway.)
Free-thinking Arabs refute all the premises of Western Leftists who claim that colonialism, racism, and exploitation have created terrorists, hold back Arab development, and are the backdrops to this war.
Indeed, it is far worse than that: Our own fundamentalist Left is in lockstep with Wahhabist reductionism -- in its similar instinctive distrust of Western culture. Both blame the United States and excuse culpability on the part of Islamists. The more left-wing the Westerner, the more tolerant he is of right-wing Islamic extremism; the more liberal the Arab, the more likely he is to agree with conservative Westerners about the real source of Middle Eastern pathology.
The constant? A global distrust of Western-style [classical] liberalism and preference for deductive absolutism. So burn down a mosque in Zimbabwe, murder innocent Palestinians in Bethlehem in 2002, arrest Christians in Saudi Arabia, or slaughter Africans in Dafur, and both the Western Left and the Middle East's hard Right won't say a word. No such violence resonates with America's diverse critics as much as a false story of a flushed Koran -- precisely because the gripe is not about the lives of real people, but the psychological hurts, angst, and warped ideology of those who in their various ways don't like the United States.
It would be a waste of time to start an argument about this, so please save us all a lot of trouble and just write me off as another "Stupid Rethuglican" and suppress any further irrational urges to deem my sig worthy even of acknowledgement.
After all, anyone stupid enough to disagree with you is hardly worth the effort of enlightening.
If you are referring to the USA I think you need to look again and reconsider. Please note the policies and practices of real theocracies like the Taliban and illustrate the parallels between them and ours.
Are you telling us that those companies (that doubtless run their transactions on mainframes) can't send you data in any format but Access? Or that one geek with a PostgreSQL server and some Perl glue couldn't replace Access and several employees while giving you a much more robust system?
I don't have anything against "liberals" aside from the fact that they have stolen a perfectly good adjective/noun to apply to their squeamish brand of nanny-state collectivism, and they tend to be exploited as "useful fools" by the true Leftists.
1. Closing off government software contracts to foreign firms isn't protectionism. It's common sense if you have any real concern about information security.
2. This is a few hundred million dollars worth of contracts at best. It will have virtually no impact on the world software industry.
3. China has a frozen currency. They are not interested in fair trade. "China has long maintained a fixed exchange rate between the yuan and the dollar, providing an indirect subsidy to help maintain its high-growth economy. Such currency control gives Chinese exports a 15 percent to 40 percent price advantage on global markets. That antimarket policy also discourages exports of American goods and services to China." --CSM. Of course this strategy is not without trade-offs, China runs the risk of sudden and severe inflation by pegging its currency artificially.
4. All of you anti-American, anti-capitalist, pseudo-intellectual nitwits are stunningly ignorant, yet refreshingly smug. Trying to decide whether your ignorance is the result of selective learning, indoctrination, or just sheer lack of cranial capacity could be an amusing pastime for one with a much stronger stomach than mine.
Thank you for your attention. You may fire at will.
Slashdot Mirror
Except that they do not carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war. They use civilians as shields and cover, or just blow them up to make some kind of sick statement.
They are very well treated for the most part. They are well fed and clothed, given Korans and oils and arrows to Mecca and calls to prayer...
Yes, they are sometimes subjected to lengthy interrogations in an effort to save innocent lives. Sometimes they are extremely uncomfortable during these interrogations. Under no circumstances are they beaten, burned, electrocuted, or maimed as they often do to their own prisoners.
I've already told you already who says they're guilty. They've all been judged by a military tribunal.
Oh, I see. So this has happened to who? I'd appreciate some evidence.
You sure are a brave man for posting this seeing as how Bush's jackbooted thugs could kick in your door at any moment for being so radical and sassy.
They're not American citizens and are not entitled to a civil trial anymore than a captured Nazi would have been 60 years ago. They have already been found guilty by a military tribunal; to have these trials publically would jeopardize the lives of our intelligence operatives.
They are illegal combatants. Do you understand what this means? They are not protected by the Geneva convention. Why? Because they don't wear uniforms. Why is this so bad? Because uniforms are the way armies protect their people; they say "We're the ones to shoot at, please don't shoot at those other people, they are just civilians." To betray the innocent by hiding among them is the among the basest of all war crimes, second only to their favorite passtime of actively blowing up innocent people to incite terror.
These people are the lowest of all scum, and Gitmo is much better than they deserve.
And, God help those who are critical of the state these days.
Really? When did they throw Michael Moore and Al Franken in jail?
O, thou art as tedious as a tired horse, a railing wife, worse than a smoky house.
A bit. But I fail to see how that has anything to do with our Republic being perceived as a theocracy... outside of crackpot anti-semitic conspiracy theories.
My support of Israel is purely political, as they are the only liberal democracy in an region dominated by monarchs and fascists.
OK then, please elaborate.
You seem to be of the opinion that pre-colonial despots were more enlightened than post-colonial, and that Osama bin Laden and the 9-11 hijackers were motivated by poverty. I think you're wrong on both accounts.
And it's the left that protests inaction in the Sudan, btw.
As they would surely protest any action by a Republican administration. Unless maybe it was instantly successful and cost no blood or money... well, I'm sure they'd find a reason to protest even then. You probably don't read many "Conservative" blogs or journals, but the general feeling is that we would like nothing more than to go into the Sudan and every other hellhole on the planet and hand out spankings, but we're already overextended. It's someone else's turn, but almost everyone with an effective fighting force who gives a shit is already helping us out in Iraq. Why aren't you whining to China to help out in Sudan? Because you know they don't care about Africa and they don't care what you think. (And you know they'd probably just kill everyone and go home, anyway.)
Cheers.
I suppose I could put up a hotmail address for private responses, but who wants to wade though all the spam?
You've probably noticed that I failed to heed my own advice, took the off-topic ball and ran with it, so it's not like I can preach topicality...
Oh, he didn't want to amend the Constitution, just violate it...
FWIW, I thought the Federal Marriage Amendment was a silly Anti-Federalist piece of shit.
BTW, that was not meant as flamebait, what made you think so?
about half of them voted for Bush (who clearly doesn't want an intact Constitution)
True... but did John "Gun-Grabber" Kerry want an intact Constitution?
Both parties are horrible when viewed from a constitutionalist perspective.
After all, anyone stupid enough to disagree with you is hardly worth the effort of enlightening.
I'm not aware of any of those. Please elaborate.
If you are referring to the USA I think you need to look again and reconsider. Please note the policies and practices of real theocracies like the Taliban and illustrate the parallels between them and ours.
Please remain on-topic.
Theo De Raadt Abrasive and Opinionated! Film at 11
Think about it for a while.
... considering that Win2K was Microsoft's first, and last, decent operating system.
(If so, I'd love to get in on a game in the North Dallas area) :-)
I don't have anything against "liberals" aside from the fact that they have stolen a perfectly good adjective/noun to apply to their squeamish brand of nanny-state collectivism, and they tend to be exploited as "useful fools" by the true Leftists.
Which brings us to the question, what are you doing here?
"This is the coolest thing I've ever seen!"
1. Closing off government software contracts to foreign firms isn't protectionism. It's common sense if you have any real concern about information security.
2. This is a few hundred million dollars worth of contracts at best. It will have virtually no impact on the world software industry.
3. China has a frozen currency. They are not interested in fair trade. "China has long maintained a fixed exchange rate between the yuan and the dollar, providing an indirect subsidy to help maintain its high-growth economy. Such currency control gives Chinese exports a 15 percent to 40 percent price advantage on global markets. That antimarket policy also discourages exports of American goods and services to China." --CSM. Of course this strategy is not without trade-offs, China runs the risk of sudden and severe inflation by pegging its currency artificially.
4. All of you anti-American, anti-capitalist, pseudo-intellectual nitwits are stunningly ignorant, yet refreshingly smug. Trying to decide whether your ignorance is the result of selective learning, indoctrination, or just sheer lack of cranial capacity could be an amusing pastime for one with a much stronger stomach than mine.
Thank you for your attention. You may fire at will.
"Here eat some already! It's all over the place now. And lay off the sauce."