Just because the hot-button issue as presented by the people in power seems trivial, does *not* mean things are hunky-dory.
I guess it depends on what you consider a "shambles". Our Vice President is what they used to call a war profiteer.
In early 2000, our president was warning about an energy crisis. I saw it on CNN, followed by a commercial for Enron. 18 months later it was clear that a) the shortage was engineered by Enron, and b) Enron was tightly connected to the Whitehouse.
That None of these issues were brought up in the prez campaign is not a good sign. That no one cares as long as they have enough cash for beer is a disgrace.
I guess it also depends on what you consider "moderate". If you think Bush is a moderate... either you aren't paying attention, or you think Mussolini-style Fascism mixed with bullheaded religious sanctimony is a good idea.
1) The US has eleven times the number of people living in it.
2) The US military is not killing 1M+ motorists and impoverishing the rest. The road deaths are frightening, but to equate them with civilian war dead is not only dumb, it's insulting.
3) the 50/100K number in the study is for deaths over and above the death rate in previous years... years under Mr. Axis-Of-Evil himself.
You mean the policies carried out by exactly the same Recycled Reganites that are in power right now? I don't see how these policies have changed, or that they were new in 1980. We are, right this moment, supporting a dictator with territorial ambitions, proven ties to terrorists and working nuclear weapons: "President" Musharraf of Pakistan.
The US gov supported Ceausceau (Romania), the Duvlaiers (Haiti), the Marcoses (Phillipenes), Noriega (Panama), Hussein (Guess), the Shah of Iran (he was toppled by Islamisists in 1979, which led directly to our funding the Iran-Iraq war), Suharto (Indonesia, famous for killing ~200,000 people), Pol Pot (Cambodia), South Africa, Batista (Cuba), plus sundry terrorists, thugs, drug dealers and penny-ante puppets all over the planet.
And all that's just since 1950, and doesn't include *direct* attacks by the US. Fact remains: traditional US policy is to fund any manner of atrocities whatsoever, as long as it helps our short and medium-term goals. We're not the only ones, but fucking-A...
Ok, let's give all possible benefit of the doubt. Half of the 100k deaths were not due to violence. Let's assume the other half, fifty thousand violent deaths, were NOT caused in any way by the US military.
So... that's 50,000 accidents/murders the US military was powerless to do anything about in a country they supposedly control. On top of that there were 50,000 more deaths through starvation and disease. Sounds like the place is a lawless pit of human depravity. We've done a mighty fine job, eh?
My point is you are throwing up vauge anecdotes without really analysing their content, source, or rigor. I happen not to agree with the methods of this study, if only because there was no "deduplication", but to dismiss it out of hand is foolish. Documented cases of civilians killed by the US is up around 15,000. [iraqbodycount.net, etc]
As for the "_many_" good reasons in your article... you seem to think that a nation that supports terrorism/atrocities should be invaded. Ok... so what about US support of Iraq while Sadaam actually *was* gassing people? Cheney & Kerry both supported it. How about our illegal and massive support of Afghan "freedom fighters" (hint: the folks we now call "terrorists") around the same time? These are facts, public record, etc.... but remain unexamined because they get in the way of our national illusion.
"The root of all evil is not religion, but certainty." -- Terrence McKenna
...would be shocked at the extent of corporate control of government. Hell, J was worried about it in the early 1800's. That has nothing to do with "conservative" or "liberal", just plain old tyranny. The assumption that we own the world would sound familiar, though.
As for "Government Healthcare".... well, we havn't gone metric yet, either... and women still don't get equal pay for equal work. Many of my friends who visited the States were shocked at how much and how quickly you can get screwed by the System here. Maybe that sounds like a good thing to you -- it does not to me.
As for this "priceless freedom" we're bestowing in Iraq... if our Great Leaders actually gave a shit about Iraqis, they wouldn't have supported and armed Sadaam in the first place. They wouldn't have put on sanctions that killed 1 million of them, bookended by invasions that killed another 250,000. The Iran-Iraq war, all 8 years, poison gas, mass graves and all, was explicitly funded and encouraged not just by the US government, but by the *same people* who are now talking about how evil Sadaam is: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, & Sen Kerry.
Fuck Jefferson. You should be shocked that such a transparent fraud has been sold to you.
On the majority of specific issues, political candidates are way, way off the charts compared to real people. To scare and or fool people they latch on to things like abortion, patriotism, etc... to give the illusion of humanity.
For example, you ask a person, "Hey, should our government give lots of money & unflinching support to a dictator who has proven ties to terrorists, territorial ambitions *and* working nuclear weapons?" J Random will say HELL NO.
What do the candidates say? "Pakistan is our parner in peace."
When I see the vast waste in the government, and the huge amounts of handouts, it really makes me dislike taxes...
I'm curious what you mean by "handout". Say the guvmint wants to develop a super-duper, say, navigation system. They contract with, say, Bell Labs. After 5 years the military has its new toy, and Bell Labs gets 20 years of patent protection on R&D it got paid tons of money to do, plus yummy tax breaks, etc.
Is that not a handout? Why isn't all that tech public domain?
It's a movie produced by some folks who were at the 20 Nov 2003 FTAA protest in Miami. By my count it shows 14 felonies commited by police officers, including refusing to identify themselves, shooting unarmed & non-violent people (in the head), random pepper spraying, etc etc and so forth. The raised fist of today usually has a camera in it.
What you seem to be looking for is exclusivity, and a chance to pay with net protocols. Otherwise you'd just set up a Freenet ring.
How about something more useful than some electronic coven? There are damn few independent archives... which means there is no public record. Big fucking problem there; one that is starting to haunt us already.
If p2p apps are illegal, then using them is illegal, too.... which means every consumer ISP will then block/filter known p2p traffic (& perhaps even all incoming connections) for fear of civil or criminal charges. Poof. No more p2p, no more home servers... the Internet (in the US) will be come a one-way medium.
If the public decides it can share copies, then the publisher is not entitled to expect to be paid for each copy, and so cannot claim there is a "loss" when it is not.
Copyright is not based on what the "public decides", it is based on the law. There is some leeway in "fair-use", but nowhere near the same as in, say, local standards of "morality" deciding what is "obscene".
That said, the greedy fucks don't have a leg here, any more than they would have against Xerox. The *act* is still illegal, but the software is not and cannot, and even if it were, enforcement is impossible. Just another pointless criminalization to please monied interes.... shit. Maybe they do have a chance.
(disclaimer: I help develop this program) Dowser Web Search. It runs on your local machine and keeps a record of searches, pages clicked, the contents of the page, grouping, page history, etc. It also auto-summarizes. We're going to release a Beta in a few days.
It happened to me, first and only time I gave blood. I was on my back for 3 weeks. The *classic* way to collapse your lung is to lift a large object over your head, like a sheet of plywood, while holding your breath. You don't feel it immediately but a short time later you are hating life. It's just a leeetle hole that leaks air. Some people are more susceptible especially if you have low blood pressure. I'd already had it once so I knew what it was. But even the techs there had only heard of it happening after giving plasma. Fun stuff.
1. give blood 2. eat cookie, sip juice, wait for dizziness to pass 3. step out into the sunshine, suddenly clutch your chest as you find out just how good a collapsed lung feels. (hint: like an icepick.)
??? Yeah. It's rare but it happens. Your lung pressure gets greater than your blood pressure, and little bubbles of air can leak out into the space between the lung and the muscle, separating them and collapsing the lung. painfully. for weeks.
So okay all you smarter-than-me-people, think on it and get back to us...
Wrong attitude. This is not rocket surgery. Stretch your mind a bit. Think for yourself. Come up with a solution. It won't work, but you'll be in good company.
Basically you have to sign an endorsement for Bush/Cheney'04 before they let you in, no matter if you are a reporter, student, etc. No, I am not kidding.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess it depends on what you consider a "shambles". Our Vice President is what they used to call a war profiteer.
In early 2000, our president was warning about an energy crisis. I saw it on CNN, followed by a commercial for Enron. 18 months later it was clear that a) the shortage was engineered by Enron, and b) Enron was tightly connected to the Whitehouse.
That None of these issues were brought up in the prez campaign is not a good sign. That no one cares as long as they have enough cash for beer is a disgrace.
I guess it also depends on what you consider "moderate". If you think Bush is a moderate... either you aren't paying attention, or you think Mussolini-style Fascism mixed with bullheaded religious sanctimony is a good idea.
1) The US has eleven times the number of people living in it.
2) The US military is not killing 1M+ motorists and impoverishing the rest. The road deaths are frightening, but to equate them with civilian war dead is not only dumb, it's insulting.
3) the 50/100K number in the study is for deaths over and above the death rate in previous years... years under Mr. Axis-Of-Evil himself.
You mean the policies carried out by exactly the same Recycled Reganites that are in power right now? I don't see how these policies have changed, or that they were new in 1980. We are, right this moment, supporting a dictator with territorial ambitions, proven ties to terrorists and working nuclear weapons: "President" Musharraf of Pakistan.
The US gov supported Ceausceau (Romania), the Duvlaiers (Haiti), the Marcoses (Phillipenes), Noriega (Panama), Hussein (Guess), the Shah of Iran (he was toppled by Islamisists in 1979, which led directly to our funding the Iran-Iraq war), Suharto (Indonesia, famous for killing ~200,000 people), Pol Pot (Cambodia), South Africa, Batista (Cuba), plus sundry terrorists, thugs, drug dealers and penny-ante puppets all over the planet.
And all that's just since 1950, and doesn't include *direct* attacks by the US. Fact remains: traditional US policy is to fund any manner of atrocities whatsoever, as long as it helps our short and medium-term goals. We're not the only ones, but fucking-A...
Ok, let's give all possible benefit of the doubt. Half of the 100k deaths were not due to violence. Let's assume the other half, fifty thousand violent deaths, were NOT caused in any way by the US military.
So... that's 50,000 accidents/murders the US military was powerless to do anything about in a country they supposedly control. On top of that there were 50,000 more deaths through starvation and disease. Sounds like the place is a lawless pit of human depravity. We've done a mighty fine job, eh?
My point is you are throwing up vauge anecdotes without really analysing their content, source, or rigor. I happen not to agree with the methods of this study, if only because there was no "deduplication", but to dismiss it out of hand is foolish. Documented cases of civilians killed by the US is up around 15,000. [iraqbodycount.net, etc]
As for the "_many_" good reasons in your article... you seem to think that a nation that supports terrorism/atrocities should be invaded. Ok... so what about US support of Iraq while Sadaam actually *was* gassing people? Cheney & Kerry both supported it. How about our illegal and massive support of Afghan "freedom fighters" (hint: the folks we now call "terrorists") around the same time? These are facts, public record, etc.... but remain unexamined because they get in the way of our national illusion.
"The root of all evil is not religion, but certainty." -- Terrence McKenna
As for "Government Healthcare".... well, we havn't gone metric yet, either... and women still don't get equal pay for equal work. Many of my friends who visited the States were shocked at how much and how quickly you can get screwed by the System here. Maybe that sounds like a good thing to you -- it does not to me.
As for this "priceless freedom" we're bestowing in Iraq... if our Great Leaders actually gave a shit about Iraqis, they wouldn't have supported and armed Sadaam in the first place. They wouldn't have put on sanctions that killed 1 million of them, bookended by invasions that killed another 250,000. The Iran-Iraq war, all 8 years, poison gas, mass graves and all, was explicitly funded and encouraged not just by the US government, but by the *same people* who are now talking about how evil Sadaam is: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, & Sen Kerry.
Fuck Jefferson. You should be shocked that such a transparent fraud has been sold to you.
For example, you ask a person, "Hey, should our government give lots of money & unflinching support to a dictator who has proven ties to terrorists, territorial ambitions *and* working nuclear weapons?" J Random will say HELL NO.
What do the candidates say? "Pakistan is our parner in peace."
Is it a sick joke, or is there some documented incident in which AI's whole-wheat busybodies killed nine thousand people?
I'm curious what you mean by "handout". Say the guvmint wants to develop a super-duper, say, navigation system. They contract with, say, Bell Labs. After 5 years the military has its new toy, and Bell Labs gets 20 years of patent protection on R&D it got paid tons of money to do, plus yummy tax breaks, etc.
Is that not a handout? Why isn't all that tech public domain?I'd rather read something by one intelligent person with credentials than something written by 1000 idiots.
And it's radioactive, you say? That explains it!
It's a movie produced by some folks who were at the 20 Nov 2003 FTAA protest in Miami. By my count it shows 14 felonies commited by police officers, including refusing to identify themselves, shooting unarmed & non-violent people (in the head), random pepper spraying, etc etc and so forth. The raised fist of today usually has a camera in it.
How about something more useful than some electronic coven? There are damn few independent archives... which means there is no public record. Big fucking problem there; one that is starting to haunt us already.
Your sig makes you sound like a petulant anarcho-kiddie, and the linked paper has no interesting or original ideas. Sorry.
If p2p apps are illegal, then using them is illegal, too.... which means every consumer ISP will then block/filter known p2p traffic (& perhaps even all incoming connections) for fear of civil or criminal charges. Poof. No more p2p, no more home servers... the Internet (in the US) will be come a one-way medium.
If the public decides it can share copies, then the publisher is not entitled to expect to be paid for each copy, and so cannot claim there is a "loss" when it is not.
Copyright is not based on what the "public decides", it is based on the law. There is some leeway in "fair-use", but nowhere near the same as in, say, local standards of "morality" deciding what is "obscene".
That said, the greedy fucks don't have a leg here, any more than they would have against Xerox. The *act* is still illegal, but the software is not and cannot, and even if it were, enforcement is impossible. Just another pointless criminalization to please monied interes.... shit. Maybe they do have a chance.
In Florida, Ohio and a few other of the crucial States. Good timing, people.
(disclaimer: I help develop this program) Dowser Web Search. It runs on your local machine and keeps a record of searches, pages clicked, the contents of the page, grouping, page history, etc. It also auto-summarizes. We're going to release a Beta in a few days.
It happened to me, first and only time I gave blood. I was on my back for 3 weeks. The *classic* way to collapse your lung is to lift a large object over your head, like a sheet of plywood, while holding your breath. You don't feel it immediately but a short time later you are hating life. It's just a leeetle hole that leaks air. Some people are more susceptible especially if you have low blood pressure. I'd already had it once so I knew what it was. But even the techs there had only heard of it happening after giving plasma. Fun stuff.
1. give blood
2. eat cookie, sip juice, wait for dizziness to pass
3. step out into the sunshine, suddenly clutch your chest as you find out just how good a collapsed lung feels. (hint: like an icepick.)
??? Yeah. It's rare but it happens. Your lung pressure gets greater than your blood pressure, and little bubbles of air can leak out into the space between the lung and the muscle, separating them and collapsing the lung. painfully. for weeks.
Wrong attitude. This is not rocket surgery. Stretch your mind a bit. Think for yourself. Come up with a solution. It won't work, but you'll be in good company.
They were serfs who overthrew the govenment because of secret laws.
I hear she has some real killer ice around her club.
Cryptography will die when the last human draws its breath. Er.... shouldn't that be third-to-last human?
Actually, he was listening to Alice's Restaruant. They found an open copy of the LP after Ford left office. True story.
Basically you have to sign an endorsement for Bush/Cheney'04 before they let you in, no matter if you are a reporter, student, etc. No, I am not kidding.