Okay, the answer is obviously "to make money", but it's still sad. Shows rarely seem quite the same after all the movies, video games, etc based on them come out.
I didn't say they were beneficial from a social standpoint, so no, I'm not crazy. Most of what I was taught about Spain's history (which was very little, and in foreign language class, not world history) tended to imply that things went "back to normal" a few years after the coup. I can accept that that was misinformation without too much difficulty, though...As you said, the US had a pretty good reason to view Franco with good eyes.
That's not quite true...Spain was under a dictatorship (in fact, one that arose with the help of Nazi Germany in the 30s) for most of the 20th century, and it worked quite well. The son of the former ruler began moving the nation towards the democracy they are today. Basically, it requires a leader that has enough sense not to piss off the world (which most dictators don't).
Also, Cuba's economy under Castro has probably suffered more direct damage from the embargo than from the fact that it's ruled by a dictator.
I don't support dictators or tyrants, of course, I'm just pointing out that they really CAN "make the trains run on time".
Not every conflict the US has been involved in after World War 2 deserves the term "terrorism". In Iran, in fact, the US Embassy was invaded (an act of war by international law) and we AVOIDED a conflict.
Not necessarily...I have two 266-350Mhz range computers here that I got for a hundred bucks from Goodwill, with peripherals and NICs. The 486 would cost you ten or twenty bucks, tops.
"If the Americans here could stop foaming at the mouth for a few minutes and listen to what the Germans here are trying to tell them they would realize that this not only makes complete sense, but also shows how much more sane the German system is.
The important legal difference is that private copies are legal in Germany. Again: In Germany, I can take a DVD, CD, video, whatever, and rip a copy for my own private use."
You have no idea what you're talking about. Private copies are legal here as well.
Those worried about being attacked by this variant of the "White Worm" need only update their village well with the latest security patch (metal covering) and properly dispose of oddly-shaped fish in the future.
A lot of automotive companies paid a good bit of money for patents like that...Then proceded to sit on them for decades, defeating the whole purpose of inventing something.
"The Holocaust would never have happened without religion."
Someone says this in every damn debate of this sort. The Holocaust happened because a demagogue saw an opportunity to spread fear in his country by pointing out an artificial enemy. The same thing happens in countries that are officially atheist. In fact, Stalin was responsible for almost the same thing in Russia.
"People in Tibet wouldn't have been persecuted without religion. (even though I would say that Buddhism is a theology not a religion)."
Yeaaah...You're saying if the people of Tibet hadn't been Buddhists, the officially atheist Chinese never would have occupied their nation and exterminated whole villages? Buddhism is very much an organized religion, complete with priests, rituals, places of worship, and a system of beliefs.
"Your saying that a man walking down the street with a Gun shooting people should be allowed to complain when someone stops him."
I don't know where the hell you got this.
"As for Tienanmen, they really fucked it up didn't they. I have protesters in my country, probably a lot more and a lot more frequently than the students at Tienanmen. Are you saying that my capitalist pig of a country must be more wrong then?"
How often does your government order the military to violently disperse those protestors?
"If we are getting 'better' then why are working hours longer then they have ever been throughout human history? Shouldn't our aim to be to work as little as possible not as much?"
Bullshit, plain and simple. Up until fairly recently (remember studying the industrial revolution in high school?), the average work hours were sunup to sundown for most people.
Does that include running up to someone, yelling "I'm going to kill you!", then laughing when they freak out? What about calling in bomb threats? There are some pretty good reasons to not allow free speech in its purest form.
" 1) Freedom of Religion. Good, mau had the right idea all along. Look at all the Christians and Jews and Muslims in power causing no end of mess around the world. The less religion the better, thank you China."
Because everyone's so much freer, safer, and happy there! Oh, wait...
Those protesters at Tiananmen weren't out for a breath of fresh air. All the immigrants flooding in from China aren't doing it because of the weather. Why don't you ask the Chinese (and the Tibetan for that matter) people about this before claiming everything's peachy clean just because their government outlawed religion?
It's pretty damn obvious you don't know much about either the United States or China.
The US does have a Communist Party. You don't hear much about it because most Americans have no desire to be Communists. China's Government screws the people of its own nation, and the people of any other, at its convenience.
Seriously, what the hell do you think all the dissidents are protesting there? Do you think the "tank man" in Tiananmen Square wanted to be on Jackass or something?Are you under the impression that Tibet has always been a province of China and that Taiwan is a rogue state?
If there WAS an asteroid hurtling towards us and we had significant warning, I'm sure we could throw something together. If we don't have that ability today, the information we gather now could be useful in the future if such an event occurs.
"Yeah, it's out there. Out there in 192kbps Xing MP3 format and sounding like buttcake. This is why DRM systems can work - because I'm not dealing with second-rate MP3/DivX/etc encoding."
You must have fennic fox ears to tell any difference past 192 kbps, or perhaps you're a musician that pays closer attention than most people. That's more than high enough quality for me.
Slashdot Mirror
Hehheh...Best My Fair Lady parody, ever.
Okay, the answer is obviously "to make money", but it's still sad. Shows rarely seem quite the same after all the movies, video games, etc based on them come out.
I didn't say they were beneficial from a social standpoint, so no, I'm not crazy. Most of what I was taught about Spain's history (which was very little, and in foreign language class, not world history) tended to imply that things went "back to normal" a few years after the coup. I can accept that that was misinformation without too much difficulty, though...As you said, the US had a pretty good reason to view Franco with good eyes.
"So far all dictatorships have failed."
That's not quite true...Spain was under a dictatorship (in fact, one that arose with the help of Nazi Germany in the 30s) for most of the 20th century, and it worked quite well. The son of the former ruler began moving the nation towards the democracy they are today. Basically, it requires a leader that has enough sense not to piss off the world (which most dictators don't).
Also, Cuba's economy under Castro has probably suffered more direct damage from the embargo than from the fact that it's ruled by a dictator.
I don't support dictators or tyrants, of course, I'm just pointing out that they really CAN "make the trains run on time".
"Remember Vietnam? Korea? Nicaragua? El Salvador? Columbia? Venezuela? Haiti? Cuba? Egypt? Lebanon? Iran? Iraq? Sudan? Afghanistan? Turkmenistan?"
Not every conflict the US has been involved in after World War 2 deserves the term "terrorism". In Iran, in fact, the US Embassy was invaded (an act of war by international law) and we AVOIDED a conflict.
Not necessarily...I have two 266-350Mhz range computers here that I got for a hundred bucks from Goodwill, with peripherals and NICs. The 486 would cost you ten or twenty bucks, tops.
Only if it were in the form "cool nerd". And since the term "cool" is relative, even that's arguable.
I think it was more of an analogy to the Night of the Long Knives, not the Holocaust.
"If the Americans here could stop foaming at the mouth for a few minutes and listen to what the Germans here are trying to tell them they would realize that this not only makes complete sense, but also shows how much more sane the German system is.
The important legal difference is that private copies are legal in Germany. Again: In Germany, I can take a DVD, CD, video, whatever, and rip a copy for my own private use."
You have no idea what you're talking about. Private copies are legal here as well.
Those worried about being attacked by this variant of the "White Worm" need only update their village well with the latest security patch (metal covering) and properly dispose of oddly-shaped fish in the future.
I'm more amused than anything else. It wouldn't make sense to be indignant over an April Fools-style joke.
"The only person who gets to say what something is worth is the person who owns it."
Actually, the common saying is "It's only worth what someone's willing to pay for it."
A lot of automotive companies paid a good bit of money for patents like that...Then proceded to sit on them for decades, defeating the whole purpose of inventing something.
"The Holocaust would never have happened without religion."
Someone says this in every damn debate of this sort. The Holocaust happened because a demagogue saw an opportunity to spread fear in his country by pointing out an artificial enemy. The same thing happens in countries that are officially atheist. In fact, Stalin was responsible for almost the same thing in Russia.
"People in Tibet wouldn't have been persecuted without religion. (even though I would say that Buddhism is a theology not a religion)."
Yeaaah...You're saying if the people of Tibet hadn't been Buddhists, the officially atheist Chinese never would have occupied their nation and exterminated whole villages? Buddhism is very much an organized religion, complete with priests, rituals, places of worship, and a system of beliefs.
"Your saying that a man walking down the street with a Gun shooting people should be allowed to complain when someone stops him."
I don't know where the hell you got this.
"As for Tienanmen, they really fucked it up didn't they. I have protesters in my country, probably a lot more and a lot more frequently than the students at Tienanmen. Are you saying that my capitalist pig of a country must be more wrong then?"
How often does your government order the military to violently disperse those protestors?
"If we are getting 'better' then why are working hours longer then they have ever been throughout human history? Shouldn't our aim to be to work as little as possible not as much?"
Bullshit, plain and simple. Up until fairly recently (remember studying the industrial revolution in high school?), the average work hours were sunup to sundown for most people.
"I think that too many Californians, (and probably too many Americans for that matter) can't be bothered to do anything on principal, alone."
No, we're usually all too eager to do something on principal.
Does that include running up to someone, yelling "I'm going to kill you!", then laughing when they freak out? What about calling in bomb threats? There are some pretty good reasons to not allow free speech in its purest form.
" 1) Freedom of Religion.
Good, mau had the right idea all along. Look at all the Christians and Jews and Muslims in power causing no end of mess around the world.
The less religion the better, thank you China."
Because everyone's so much freer, safer, and happy there! Oh, wait...
Those protesters at Tiananmen weren't out for a breath of fresh air. All the immigrants flooding in from China aren't doing it because of the weather. Why don't you ask the Chinese (and the Tibetan for that matter) people about this before claiming everything's peachy clean just because their government outlawed religion?
That'd be closer to what it was 200 years ago, and even comparing that to one of the fascist states would be a stretch.
It's pretty damn obvious you don't know much about either the United States or China.
The US does have a Communist Party. You don't hear much about it because most Americans have no desire to be Communists. China's Government screws the people of its own nation, and the people of any other, at its convenience.
Seriously, what the hell do you think all the dissidents are protesting there? Do you think the "tank man" in Tiananmen Square wanted to be on Jackass or something?Are you under the impression that Tibet has always been a province of China and that Taiwan is a rogue state?
Possibly not, but she'll probably find it very much worth her time to download Kazaa, then click-and-download any number of songs she likes.
If there WAS an asteroid hurtling towards us and we had significant warning, I'm sure we could throw something together. If we don't have that ability today, the information we gather now could be useful in the future if such an event occurs.
Nah, if a Democracy is a nation run by the people, a hypocracy is a nation run by hypocrites. :D
By the way, the grandparent post made a pretty good point (if a little redundant by now) despite his spelling error.
You left out an if statement that makes a good bit of difference.
By creating other bugs that hunt those bugs down and destroy them. Didn't you read The Diamond Age? :D
"Yeah, it's out there. Out there in 192kbps Xing MP3 format and sounding like buttcake. This is why DRM systems can work - because I'm not dealing with second-rate MP3/DivX/etc encoding."
You must have fennic fox ears to tell any difference past 192 kbps, or perhaps you're a musician that pays closer attention than most people. That's more than high enough quality for me.