Bush the same as Nixon? Don't even try to make that comparison.
Nixon was a crook, yes. But he was also a smart, effective, and sometimes courageous politician. He was not afraid to spend a lot of the political capital he'd accumulated during his Red-baiting days by going to China and meeting Mao.
That took balls, something which neither of the Bushies ever had in the first place.
I think it's perfectly reasonable to keep someone who's been shown to be criminally irresponsible with firearms from having access to them. Ever. (But then I am about as anti-gun as they come, make of that what you will.)
The real cause for concern here is that drug offences that shouldn't be offences in the first place are treated as felonies, so that anyone with a personal interest in changing the drug laws is effectively silenced. And of course, anyone who's read a bit of history knows that drug laws (those of the US in particular) are not much about public health and very much about identifying and neutralising non-conformists.
And let us not forget that marijuana was outlawed specifically because it was seen as a "Negro" drug...
BTW, once you've done your time, you can apply for re-enfranchisement. I'm not saying it's always granted, but it does happen.
Dude, the circuit for my home office (originally meant as spare bedroom) is rated 3kW, and in the winter I have to be careful to run the electric heater I keep under my desk at 750 rather than 1250W lest I trip the breaker and thus kill the router.
You are part of a giant, hyper organism whose parts, humans, can be directed by data streams that "safeguard your property rights" and "protect you from the Government".
... like "flower power" in the 60's, the libertarian movement tends to attract people under 25 who are well-meaning but very naive about the human condition. They tend to believe all people are basically decent people and will naturally "get along withe each other" if only government would stop doing "stuff". This is simply false, without larger societies humans will revert to their natural tribalism, the alpha male in each extend family will rise (sink?) to the status of warlord. What both groups are really asking for is a self governing society, what they fail to see is that we already have one.......
Simply put evolution has designed our minds to live in tribal societies numbering between 100-200, all other tribes (even tribes of chimps) were universally seen as sub-human, xenophobia is still alive and kicking today because in geological terms evolution is still just playing with the idea of civilization for primates.
Use my passport number plus my full legal name and DOB to forge a passport that might easily pass for the real McCoy in some places.
Airports all have RFID/barcode scanners now, but there are many other ways into and out of countries. E.g., when I visited Cambodia a couple of years ago, the Khmer border guards at both Poipet checkpoints just looked at the photo, wrote down my name/nationality/passport number in their list, and waved me through. (No, I did not merely visit the gambling "free zone", I actually went into Cambodia.) Same thing happened when I crossed back into Thailand later that day.
There were no readers or scanners of any sort in evidence going in either direction. My girlfriend probably could have slapped her photo over mine and used my passport there.
If you reside in Sweden, you must by law register with the Folkbokföring (civil registry) and you must update your record with them when you move (got in a spot of trouble over this when I bought a place here and moved into it because I didn't then know about the registry or the law), so finding someone's address is dead simple. Your personnummer ("personal number"), which contains your DOB, is also a matter of public record.
I am sure that the incredible fucktards at Air China who sent recently sent me a flight confirmation would like to know that.
It contained my full legal name, home address, and phone numbers. This does not bother me so much, as this is Sweden where most information of this sort is considered public knowledge. Want to know how much my flat is worth and what I paid for it? Did I pay taxes last year, and if so, how much? Feel free to hop on over to Skatteverket and file an info request.
Until 3 days ago, as I have not yet actually used this passport for travel, the only people on Earth who knew this number were me, the US Dept of State, and the Swedish Migration Bureau. Now who the fuck knows. Who THE FUCK knows.
And my girlfriend cannot understand why I threw a fit over this, or why I am talking about legal options.
I remember getting a damned good lesson on the toxic effects of racism on society from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" when I first saw it. I was 8 years old. The year was 1969. The lesson has proved its value in my life many, many times over the 4 subsequent decades.
Or how about the Hugo-winning "The City on the Edge of Forever"? Does having to choose between personal happiness (e.g. love of a woman) and the greater good (e.g. the Earth not being conquered by the Nazis) mean nothing to you? How can someone watch that episode and not be moved in SOME fucking way at the end, when McCoy, incredulous, asks if Kirk knows what he's just done and Spock just says, "He knows, Doctor. He knows."
Someone who's never had to make any hard choices, I guess.
The first episode of Star Trek, The Man Trap,certainly reflected women in a negative light, as demon who will suck you dry as quickly as they say they love you. Predators who are only interested in what they can get, and will give only as much as they have to bleed you dry. When they are done with you they will just find another, and when they are done with them, and you are rejuvenated, they will deal with you. Yes very misogynistic.
Manage to fast-forward past the scene where the creature assumes a male form in order to try to put the drop on Rand and Uhura, did you?
Slashdot Mirror
And you might want to check and see where American politics fits on everybody else's political spectrum.
Only in the US is Obama regarded as "leftist". Elsewhere, he's considered a bit to the right of centre.
Bush the same as Nixon? Don't even try to make that comparison.
Nixon was a crook, yes. But he was also a smart, effective, and sometimes courageous politician. He was not afraid to spend a lot of the political capital he'd accumulated during his Red-baiting days by going to China and meeting Mao.
That took balls, something which neither of the Bushies ever had in the first place.
I think it's perfectly reasonable to keep someone who's been shown to be criminally irresponsible with firearms from having access to them. Ever. (But then I am about as anti-gun as they come, make of that what you will.)
The real cause for concern here is that drug offences that shouldn't be offences in the first place are treated as felonies, so that anyone with a personal interest in changing the drug laws is effectively silenced. And of course, anyone who's read a bit of history knows that drug laws (those of the US in particular) are not much about public health and very much about identifying and neutralising non-conformists.
And let us not forget that marijuana was outlawed specifically because it was seen as a "Negro" drug...
BTW, once you've done your time, you can apply for re-enfranchisement. I'm not saying it's always granted, but it does happen.
Am I the only one who's reminded of the end times at Sun by this?
Congratulations, and welcome to The Revolution of Lowered Expectations.
I have a girlfriend. What do I need a pleasure robot for?
What order of magnitude might that be? There is nothing at all in the photo to suggest scale.
Dude, the circuit for my home office (originally meant as spare bedroom) is rated 3kW, and in the winter I have to be careful to run the electric heater I keep under my desk at 750 rather than 1250W lest I trip the breaker and thus kill the router.
Maybe you meant 30kW?
You are part of a giant, hyper organism whose parts, humans, can be directed by data streams that "safeguard your property rights" and "protect you from the Government".
Hiya, Pot! Kettle here...
... like "flower power" in the 60's, the libertarian movement tends to attract people under 25 who are well-meaning but very naive about the human condition. They tend to believe all people are basically decent people and will naturally "get along withe each other" if only government would stop doing "stuff". This is simply false, without larger societies humans will revert to their natural tribalism, the alpha male in each extend family will rise (sink?) to the status of warlord. What both groups are really asking for is a self governing society, what they fail to see is that we already have one. ... ...
Simply put evolution has designed our minds to live in tribal societies numbering between 100-200, all other tribes (even tribes of chimps) were universally seen as sub-human, xenophobia is still alive and kicking today because in geological terms evolution is still just playing with the idea of civilization for primates.
+6, Absofuckinglutely Excellent.
No, you are not clever.
Use my passport number plus my full legal name and DOB to forge a passport that might easily pass for the real McCoy in some places.
Airports all have RFID/barcode scanners now, but there are many other ways into and out of countries. E.g., when I visited Cambodia a couple of years ago, the Khmer border guards at both Poipet checkpoints just looked at the photo, wrote down my name/nationality/passport number in their list, and waved me through. (No, I did not merely visit the gambling "free zone", I actually went into Cambodia.) Same thing happened when I crossed back into Thailand later that day.
There were no readers or scanners of any sort in evidence going in either direction. My girlfriend probably could have slapped her photo over mine and used my passport there.
If you reside in Sweden, you must by law register with the Folkbokföring (civil registry) and you must update your record with them when you move (got in a spot of trouble over this when I bought a place here and moved into it because I didn't then know about the registry or the law), so finding someone's address is dead simple. Your personnummer ("personal number"), which contains your DOB, is also a matter of public record.
We'll always have Blade Runner.
Just in case it's not obvious from my little rant, the numbers in question were NOT obscured in the email.
Although the first 12 digits of my credit card number were...
*facepalm*
I am sure that the incredible fucktards at Air China who sent recently sent me a flight confirmation would like to know that.
It contained my full legal name, home address, and phone numbers. This does not bother me so much, as this is Sweden where most information of this sort is considered public knowledge. Want to know how much my flat is worth and what I paid for it? Did I pay taxes last year, and if so, how much? Feel free to hop on over to Skatteverket and file an info request.
The email also contained this:
Identifying document: US Passport
Identifying document number: #XXXXXX
Identifying document valid until: xxxx2020
Until 3 days ago, as I have not yet actually used this passport for travel, the only people on Earth who knew this number were me, the US Dept of State, and the Swedish Migration Bureau. Now who the fuck knows. Who THE FUCK knows.
And my girlfriend cannot understand why I threw a fit over this, or why I am talking about legal options.
My rating of your reading comprehension, and of your attempt to score cheap points without actually bothering to address anything that JQ Public said?
FAIL.
With Matrix, they took an excellent film, made 2 sequels, and the sum total after that was a single kinda mediocre film that ran 5 hours.
BTW, "City" was written by Harlan Ellison, and it was largely due to seeing this as a kid that I got into reading his printed works later on.
If you can still find it, I highly recommend recommend his collection Paingod, and Other Delusions as a starting place.
Harlan will hurt you and your sensibilities.
He will hurt them a lot.
But--if you make it through to the side--you will grow.
I remember getting a damned good lesson on the toxic effects of racism on society from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" when I first saw it. I was 8 years old. The year was 1969. The lesson has proved its value in my life many, many times over the 4 subsequent decades.
Or how about the Hugo-winning "The City on the Edge of Forever"? Does having to choose between personal happiness (e.g. love of a woman) and the greater good (e.g. the Earth not being conquered by the Nazis) mean nothing to you? How can someone watch that episode and not be moved in SOME fucking way at the end, when McCoy, incredulous, asks if Kirk knows what he's just done and Spock just says, "He knows, Doctor. He knows."
Someone who's never had to make any hard choices, I guess.
The first episode of Star Trek, The Man Trap,certainly reflected women in a negative light, as demon who will suck you dry as quickly as they say they love you. Predators who are only interested in what they can get, and will give only as much as they have to bleed you dry. When they are done with you they will just find another, and when they are done with them, and you are rejuvenated, they will deal with you. Yes very misogynistic.
Manage to fast-forward past the scene where the creature assumes a male form in order to try to put the drop on Rand and Uhura, did you?
Thanks for playing!
She also got one of the best and funniest damned comeback lines ever to make it past the 1960s TV censors:
A shirtless SULU, sword in one hand, grabs Uhura with the other: Ah, fair maiden!
UHURA, a bit breathlessly: Sorry, neither!
(From "The Naked Time", IIRC.)
Um, Majel Barrett did indeed play Number One, the ship's exec, in "The Cage".
There were also several TOS episodes with female authority figures, e.g. "The Enterprise Incident".
Did you misspell "porn"?
Actually, it was an old brewery. Otherwise, spot on.