What's sad is that DesertWolf offers a reasonable response and the Slashdot community mods him down as 'Troll'. Instead of hiding behind your mod points, stand up and offer a rebuttal!
I said no such thing about Iraq "simmering down" after we leave - in fact I believe very much what you predict, that Iraq will suffer a civil war and will generally destabilize the region.
I didn't question your parent post, but your three-paragraph diatribe against the AC, full of blue-state self-righteousness.
Somewhere, burried deep in your childish, stereotyping rant, you contend that the US military is viewed as a tyrant by the Iraqi people.
I haven't been to Iraq and I bet neither have you, but I have several friends who have served tours in the country and one friend in SF who has been three times in the last two years. They've all told me quite a different story.
While the news media would like to pan all violence as insurgent attacks against the occupying forces, it is much more complicated.
Iraq under Saddam's reign was much like the Baltic countries under USSR's control. The many factions we now see would have killed each other long ago if it weren't for Saddam. He kept them in line all these years. Tribal loyalty comes first, followed far behind by national identity. This is the source of many riots. Violence, government corruption, tribal favoritism, and incompetency is rampant throughout Iraqi culture, and was there long before we showed up. When a new government official is elected or appointed, he immediately fires everyone in the department and replaces them all with his relatives. Many of these new appointees show up for work only to collect a paycheck. The riots you see on TV are often the families of the disposed government employees who are angry about their lost jobs.
The violence we see every day will likely not go away when the coalition forces pull out of Iraq because the source is much deeper than Middle Eastern hate towards Dubya and the Great Satan.
Wrong analogy - this is like suing the Government so that they will enforce an 18-and-over age limit on said strip clubs and bars. Without such a restriction, the authority of the parents are undermined.
My brother got High Security clearance in the Navy a couple years ago. The military spent months interviewing anyone who knew him from the cradle and beyond.
The reason why this Marine or his fellow Marines haven't shot up a mall or school is because they were trained in a controlled environment and were equally drilled on the Rules Of Engagement for warfare, emphasizing that you only shoot armed combatants and not innocent civilians. These recruits were also 18+ years old, an age where the mind and emotions are much more developed than a 12 year old child.
Your second point is common on Slashdot, but flawed. Just because there is a deficit in parenting doesn't make violent video games ok, nor does it excuse them. There are plenty of anti-drug campaigns out there which encourage parents to talk to their children about drugs and generally be more attentive. Yet, the government still thinks drugs should be illegal and drug dealers are arrested and jailed for selling drugs to kids. This is a problem that should be fought on two fronts, and good parenting is only half the solution.
Can anyone with a law background explain how spyware on Internet Explorer is different than than the class action lawsuit against Firestone for their Ford Explorer fiasco?
These are the similarities I see:
While it was ultimately the consumer's action (click 'yes' on spyware) or negligence (overload Explorer on under-inflated tires), the products' companies both new of the issues beforehand.
Damages were incurred i.e., death and dismemberment in Firestone's case and lost productivity and compromised security in Microsoft's case.
Hey! That's how I got to where I am now, and I have a great job. Using Pell grants I actually made $500 a semester to go to community college and get my Associates. I'll finish my Bachelors degree in a couple months, but I wouldn't have been able to pay for that degree if it hadn't been for my current job which my Associates afforded.
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What's sad is that DesertWolf offers a reasonable response and the Slashdot community mods him down as 'Troll'. Instead of hiding behind your mod points, stand up and offer a rebuttal!
I think I'll wait for next year's model - I hear they'll include toes!
What's a dressing room? Bedroom?
I didn't question your parent post, but your three-paragraph diatribe against the AC, full of blue-state self-righteousness.
Somewhere, burried deep in your childish, stereotyping rant, you contend that the US military is viewed as a tyrant by the Iraqi people.
I haven't been to Iraq and I bet neither have you, but I have several friends who have served tours in the country and one friend in SF who has been three times in the last two years. They've all told me quite a different story.
While the news media would like to pan all violence as insurgent attacks against the occupying forces, it is much more complicated.
Iraq under Saddam's reign was much like the Baltic countries under USSR's control. The many factions we now see would have killed each other long ago if it weren't for Saddam. He kept them in line all these years. Tribal loyalty comes first, followed far behind by national identity. This is the source of many riots. Violence, government corruption, tribal favoritism, and incompetency is rampant throughout Iraqi culture, and was there long before we showed up. When a new government official is elected or appointed, he immediately fires everyone in the department and replaces them all with his relatives. Many of these new appointees show up for work only to collect a paycheck. The riots you see on TV are often the families of the disposed government employees who are angry about their lost jobs.
The violence we see every day will likely not go away when the coalition forces pull out of Iraq because the source is much deeper than Middle Eastern hate towards Dubya and the Great Satan.
Ah, but you can serve up 12 times as many ads!
Wrong analogy - this is like suing the Government so that they will enforce an 18-and-over age limit on said strip clubs and bars. Without such a restriction, the authority of the parents are undermined.
On my XP machine iPodService.exe and iPodHelper.exe each use about 1.8MB of memory.
That said, I wouldn't call it bloatware.
My brother got High Security clearance in the Navy a couple years ago. The military spent months interviewing anyone who knew him from the cradle and beyond.
Your second point is common on Slashdot, but flawed. Just because there is a deficit in parenting doesn't make violent video games ok, nor does it excuse them. There are plenty of anti-drug campaigns out there which encourage parents to talk to their children about drugs and generally be more attentive. Yet, the government still thinks drugs should be illegal and drug dealers are arrested and jailed for selling drugs to kids. This is a problem that should be fought on two fronts, and good parenting is only half the solution.
Add to that society's information overload and most users will click without batting an eye.
Couldn't you just purchase a bunch of iTunes GC's like we can at Target? (any Michigander takers wanna make a run for the border?)
Hey! That's how I got to where I am now, and I have a great job. Using Pell grants I actually made $500 a semester to go to community college and get my Associates. I'll finish my Bachelors degree in a couple months, but I wouldn't have been able to pay for that degree if it hadn't been for my current job which my Associates afforded.
(hmm.. now I need to buy an Escalade)