I must be a lawyer? LOL, then you must be a fool.
The issue under discussion is simple: were WMD's found in Iraq or not? They were. Verifiably.
Therefore anyone who states "No WMD's were found in Iraq" is either ignorant or deliberately lying.
No one said that.
People here kept posting that no WMD's were found in Iraq.
That is a false statement. Among who makes it is lying.
THAT'S the point of the discussion.
This point here remains simple: were WMD's found in Iraq, or not? They were, and none of can ever claim otherwise. Remember that.
The other question is how many WMD's were transported out of the Iraq during the long run-up to the war. The answer? Nobody seems to know. But here's a direct quote for you, as reported in the Sunday Telegraph, from Dr. David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey Group: "...we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."
My, aren't you a dedicated little idealogue: when confronted with the verifiable fact that WMD's actually were found in Iraq, you immediately move the goalposts and claim that not enough were found. Sorry, the false claim was made that WMD's were not found, and they _were_ found. Just as ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda were found, no matter how you try to move the goalposts on that issue as well. Anyone who claims there were no WMD's found in Iraq and that there is no evidence of a connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda is simply lying. You can argue about how many WMD's or what kind of connections, but any such flat denial of verifiable reality is just a lie.
You guys clearly get your news from very biased sources.
1. WMD's were found in Iraq, specifically Sarin.
2. There were ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, as documented in some of the archived Iraqi documents recently released. You can read about it for yourself.
You need to stop listening to biased news sources - and that radio network you seem to love is just one of many - and start researching for yourself and drawing your own conclusions.
When you do, one fact will stand out in bold relief: _everyone_ who is making statements about Iraq is biased in some way or another.
Absolutely not. The only reasonable thing to do is to gather more data and do more analytical work and determine for certain what the causes actually are (I'm a scientist, and my guess is that when the facts are finally in that human influences will turn out to have been far less significant than expected). Until such a time it strikes me as unscientific to jump to unproveable conclusions and as simply paranoid to "prepare for the worst." The sky is NOT falling, Chicken Little, it was warmer during the Medieval Warm Period than it is now, and the Earth actually can get warmer without a disaster happening (we know this because it has done so in the very recent past). Again, in the words of the late Douglas Adams: don't panic.
The jump to a causal relationship is stuff and nonsense. When A and B both occur, this does *not* mean that A caused B.
The sun's output is variable. This planet has been warmer in the geologic past than it is now. It has been warmer in recorded pre-industrial history as well (see the Medieval Warm Period, which can't be blamed on industrial activity).
While it is certainly probable that humans have indeed contributed to global climate change, it is entirely possible that their total contribution is minimal compared to that which is happening naturally.
Too many people want to claim causal relationships that can't be proven when we are still gathering data. Don't panic, and don't let anyone else panic, don't make any wild claims, and make certain that the spirit of open scientific inquiry is kept alive on this subject. Remember Chicken Little.
I reviewed games and never once shilled. A couple of my more negative reviews weren't accepted by the editor(s) and were never published, but there wasn't any shilling.
I know some other game reviewers who don't shill either.
I personally have yet to see any of this (although I do see a lot of Chinese-named characters online selling quality items - one assumes that they are Chinese, but who knows?), and the Chinese gamers whom I know to be Chinese tend to be solid, dedicated, serious, and very competent players.
The only reason that the Internet exists is because we techies managed to sneak it by the @#$%ing lawyers, who had no idea what we were doing until it was too late.
That will never happen again. They now watch everything.
Well, I'm a gamer, and I've been a game reviewer/journalist, and the fact is that you can't write a decent review unless you can play the game you are reviewing really well and unless you have a significant amount of knowledge of the genre and subject(s) involved. Non-gamer journalists generally haven't got even the first clue about gaming and usually write hideously ignorant articles about gaming that either infuriate gamers or make them laugh.
So, since you really need to have a participant doing the journalism, you're going to have some bias and a certain lack of objectivity that you can't do anything about whether you like it or not, because it's going to go with the territory.
Would you please elaborate on the nature of this problem? I'm a gamer, and I have found the Chinese influence on my online gaming to be very positive so far.
"Thank you for all your pioneering work, Mr. Kay, and don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out."
This is disgraceful. I'm never buying another HP product.
All these people who write anti-Linux rants like that chap did clearly have never used it. Linux needs work - there still isn't a great GUI for it yet, it needs a migration-from-Windows package, etc, etc. - but it certainly isn't "shit." On the other hand it isn't "the shit" yet either, but I keep hoping that will change as time goes by.
Malleus Dei, satisified *nix user since 1975
This constant ignorant whining of the "the UN is a worthless piece of garbage"
What nonsense! Leaving all of the politics out of it, the UN *is* a worthless piece of garbage - bloated, elitist, corrupt, bureaucratic, useless, and ineffective. I've been UN-watching since the fifties, and anyone who thinks that today's UN *isn't* garbage and is more than just a shell of its former self is the one who needs to educate himself and gain some perspective.
Ah, Deathbird Stories. I'm in SFWA and have been reading SF&F since the fifties and nothing in the genre has ever had the emotional impact on me of Deathbird Stories.
You write that he pulls no punches? That's not the half of it. Harlan pulled out every single emotional stop when he wrote those stories. He's gut-punching the reader when he's not pulling the reader's heartstrings.
I've read just about everyone in SF&F, and IMO the two greatest writers of short story in the genre are Harlan Ellsion and Cordwainer Smith (a pseudonym for Colonel Paul Linebarger, Ph.D - psychological warfare expert, military officer, CIA agent, and professor of Asiatic Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies).
By the way, if you haven't read any Cordwainer Smith, do yourself a big favor: dig up a copy of The Best of Cordwainer Smith and read it.
If you can't find that collection, look individually for "The Ballad of Lost C'mell," "Scanners Live in Vain," "The Game of Rat and Dragon," "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal," "Golden the Ship Was - Oh Oh Oh," and "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons."
An under-medicated, short curmudgeon, with distinct bi-polar and antisocial traits who used his personality as a birth control device is a somewhat more accurate description of the Ellison I know.
Sorry, but any description of Harlan that leaves out the word "brilliant" is incomplete.
I am yet another member of SFWA (just how many of us are on here?), and I first met the larger-than-life Harlan back in the Seventies. I know a ton of Harlan stories that range from his boyhood to the dead gopher to some private acts of kindness that would make your jaw drop. (And I'm not telling any of them.)
IIRC in the movie "My Favorite Year" there's a great line: "With Swan you forgive a lot."
Slashdot Mirror
I must be a lawyer? LOL, then you must be a fool. The issue under discussion is simple: were WMD's found in Iraq or not? They were. Verifiably. Therefore anyone who states "No WMD's were found in Iraq" is either ignorant or deliberately lying.
No one said that. People here kept posting that no WMD's were found in Iraq. That is a false statement. Among who makes it is lying. THAT'S the point of the discussion.
This point here remains simple: were WMD's found in Iraq, or not? They were, and none of can ever claim otherwise. Remember that. The other question is how many WMD's were transported out of the Iraq during the long run-up to the war. The answer? Nobody seems to know. But here's a direct quote for you, as reported in the Sunday Telegraph, from Dr. David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey Group: "...we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."
My, aren't you a dedicated little idealogue: when confronted with the verifiable fact that WMD's actually were found in Iraq, you immediately move the goalposts and claim that not enough were found. Sorry, the false claim was made that WMD's were not found, and they _were_ found. Just as ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda were found, no matter how you try to move the goalposts on that issue as well. Anyone who claims there were no WMD's found in Iraq and that there is no evidence of a connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda is simply lying. You can argue about how many WMD's or what kind of connections, but any such flat denial of verifiable reality is just a lie.
You guys clearly get your news from very biased sources. 1. WMD's were found in Iraq, specifically Sarin. 2. There were ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, as documented in some of the archived Iraqi documents recently released. You can read about it for yourself. You need to stop listening to biased news sources - and that radio network you seem to love is just one of many - and start researching for yourself and drawing your own conclusions. When you do, one fact will stand out in bold relief: _everyone_ who is making statements about Iraq is biased in some way or another.
WMD's *were* found in Iraq, specifically Sarin, which fully qualifies as a WMD.
You need a better news source.
Absolutely not. The only reasonable thing to do is to gather more data and do more analytical work and determine for certain what the causes actually are (I'm a scientist, and my guess is that when the facts are finally in that human influences will turn out to have been far less significant than expected). Until such a time it strikes me as unscientific to jump to unproveable conclusions and as simply paranoid to "prepare for the worst." The sky is NOT falling, Chicken Little, it was warmer during the Medieval Warm Period than it is now, and the Earth actually can get warmer without a disaster happening (we know this because it has done so in the very recent past). Again, in the words of the late Douglas Adams: don't panic.
The jump to a causal relationship is stuff and nonsense. When A and B both occur, this does *not* mean that A caused B. The sun's output is variable. This planet has been warmer in the geologic past than it is now. It has been warmer in recorded pre-industrial history as well (see the Medieval Warm Period, which can't be blamed on industrial activity). While it is certainly probable that humans have indeed contributed to global climate change, it is entirely possible that their total contribution is minimal compared to that which is happening naturally. Too many people want to claim causal relationships that can't be proven when we are still gathering data. Don't panic, and don't let anyone else panic, don't make any wild claims, and make certain that the spirit of open scientific inquiry is kept alive on this subject. Remember Chicken Little.
Tsk, tsk, such a harsh thing to write to a man who was helping in the search and rescue efforts there.
I reviewed games and never once shilled. A couple of my more negative reviews weren't accepted by the editor(s) and were never published, but there wasn't any shilling. I know some other game reviewers who don't shill either.
I personally have yet to see any of this (although I do see a lot of Chinese-named characters online selling quality items - one assumes that they are Chinese, but who knows?), and the Chinese gamers whom I know to be Chinese tend to be solid, dedicated, serious, and very competent players.
The only reason that the Internet exists is because we techies managed to sneak it by the @#$%ing lawyers, who had no idea what we were doing until it was too late. That will never happen again. They now watch everything.
So, since you really need to have a participant doing the journalism, you're going to have some bias and a certain lack of objectivity that you can't do anything about whether you like it or not, because it's going to go with the territory.
Deal with it.
Would you please elaborate on the nature of this problem? I'm a gamer, and I have found the Chinese influence on my online gaming to be very positive so far.
Way to go Washington! We need to make sure that we *never* lose control of the Internet.
You haven't been to Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina, have you?
Given the damage as he did to other people's lives this world is better off without him.
"Thank you for all your pioneering work, Mr. Kay, and don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out." This is disgraceful. I'm never buying another HP product.
"I never had sex with that woman" - Bill Clinton
All these people who write anti-Linux rants like that chap did clearly have never used it. Linux needs work - there still isn't a great GUI for it yet, it needs a migration-from-Windows package, etc, etc. - but it certainly isn't "shit." On the other hand it isn't "the shit" yet either, but I keep hoping that will change as time goes by. Malleus Dei, satisified *nix user since 1975
What nonsense! Leaving all of the politics out of it, the UN *is* a worthless piece of garbage - bloated, elitist, corrupt, bureaucratic, useless, and ineffective. I've been UN-watching since the fifties, and anyone who thinks that today's UN *isn't* garbage and is more than just a shell of its former self is the one who needs to educate himself and gain some perspective.
Ah, Deathbird Stories. I'm in SFWA and have been reading SF&F since the fifties and nothing in the genre has ever had the emotional impact on me of Deathbird Stories.
You write that he pulls no punches? That's not the half of it. Harlan pulled out every single emotional stop when he wrote those stories. He's gut-punching the reader when he's not pulling the reader's heartstrings.
I've read just about everyone in SF&F, and IMO the two greatest writers of short story in the genre are Harlan Ellsion and Cordwainer Smith (a pseudonym for Colonel Paul Linebarger, Ph.D - psychological warfare expert, military officer, CIA agent, and professor of Asiatic Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies).
By the way, if you haven't read any Cordwainer Smith, do yourself a big favor: dig up a copy of The Best of Cordwainer Smith and read it.
If you can't find that collection, look individually for "The Ballad of Lost C'mell," "Scanners Live in Vain," "The Game of Rat and Dragon," "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal," "Golden the Ship Was - Oh Oh Oh," and "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons."
You won't regret it.
Me.
Sorry, but any description of Harlan that leaves out the word "brilliant" is incomplete. I am yet another member of SFWA (just how many of us are on here?), and I first met the larger-than-life Harlan back in the Seventies. I know a ton of Harlan stories that range from his boyhood to the dead gopher to some private acts of kindness that would make your jaw drop. (And I'm not telling any of them.)
IIRC in the movie "My Favorite Year" there's a great line: "With Swan you forgive a lot."
Likewise Harlan.