Civilization requires cooperative effort on a massive scale, but technically you're right -- we don't have to have taxes to fund civilization, we could barter goods and services to get things done, or pool the fruits of our labor directly.
Those would still be taxes. Hell, the earliest taxations were certainly NOT in the form of "money" - they took the form of a bunch of the localc chiefs thugs showing up at your place and taking whatever they figured your "share" was in whatever goods you had lying around. Grain, livestock, vegetables, women, whatever - it's all "tax". Even forced labor would be a tax. The only way to run a government without taxes is if people just volunteer to do things out of the goodness of their hearts. How likely do you think that is to happen?
That's because he was saying "Everyone who doesn't justify our invasion of an unrelated country to catch someone we can't prove is guilty is themselves a terrorist."
Oh, I see the problem - you're a fucking lunatic. Sorry to have disturbed you.
You're missing the key point: did Canada initiate any of those actions? No, they were just lending a helping hand to somebody else, because they asked them nicely.
By that logic, the US invading Iraq is ok since some Iraqis asked them nicely. It's silly.
Also, I'm not sure how you define "initiate". When the US goes over to invade a foreign nation, and brings along a coalition of partners, I guess it's ok to take part as long as you're not American? So, the US is evil for invading Iraq, but the Brits, Aussies, Polaks, etc are all guilt free good-guys because they didn't start it? What about Afghanistan? Same thing there? Big Bad Yanks started it, and us Canadians just tagged along for the ride? It's not our fault, they made us do it?
If the USA had been doing to my family what they were doing to the Iraqis, after faking evidence about our owning WMDs, and had you blithely gone shopping there knowing but not caring what they do and what they support, I'd sure think so.
Well, you'd be an idiot. So, no change.
How could you not be supporting their actions (even only logistically) by giving them financial support?
And people made fun of Bush for his "you're either with us or against us" speech....
The only thing I hate about Gimp is that the stupid toolbox and layers windows are always on top of my images. I can close the layers window and then re-open it when I want it, but I can't even close the toolbox window or it shuts down the whole application. And it's a shitty way to handle it anyway. If I could have the image windows on top of the toolbox/layers, and then just alt-tab to the toolbox or select it from the panel, I'd have no problem with Gimp at all. As it stands, it frustrates the hell out of me. I'll use it when I'm doing some simple stuff, but any time I need to do a lot of work I end up running Photoshop under Wine, instead.
No worries. I did the same thing, except I was morbidly curious about how exactly an Audi was involved with goatse.... my imagination is doubtless NSFW.
Oh shut the fuck up you useless troll. Why does everything have to be about terrorism with assholes like you? I swear, if an article came up about this years easter-egg hunt, you'd be claiming that the bomb-squad will show up any minute to blow up the eggs.
If you've actually managed to procreate, I really, really feel sorry for your children.
But, regardless, I've never been "penalized" by any such measures. The real question is "how do we stop it without everyone wetting their pants over it despite the fact that the vast majority of them will never be negatively impacted". I agree that it's important to keep their power in check, but it's ridiculous to start pulling the Chicken Little act because the government is targeting some botnets, and it's even more ridiculous to claim that it will "penalize 90% of the world".
And this is why rest of the world sees US as arrogant, self important smugs.
Ah, I see now. The world sees the US as arrogant because the world can't tell the difference between the US and Canada, and is too lazy to read slashdot sigs. Neat.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for the confirmation!
I offer sporks to anyone who wants them, so the government should give me $500 billion in order to provide for the general welfare.
Civilization requires cooperative effort on a massive scale, but technically you're right -- we don't have to have taxes to fund civilization, we could barter goods and services to get things done, or pool the fruits of our labor directly.
Those would still be taxes. Hell, the earliest taxations were certainly NOT in the form of "money" - they took the form of a bunch of the localc chiefs thugs showing up at your place and taking whatever they figured your "share" was in whatever goods you had lying around. Grain, livestock, vegetables, women, whatever - it's all "tax". Even forced labor would be a tax. The only way to run a government without taxes is if people just volunteer to do things out of the goodness of their hearts. How likely do you think that is to happen?
That's because he was saying "Everyone who doesn't justify our invasion of an unrelated country to catch someone we can't prove is guilty is themselves a terrorist."
Oh, I see the problem - you're a fucking lunatic. Sorry to have disturbed you.
I don't think you read what I wrote.
I love you.
You're missing the key point: did Canada initiate any of those actions? No, they were just lending a helping hand to somebody else, because they asked them nicely.
By that logic, the US invading Iraq is ok since some Iraqis asked them nicely. It's silly.
Also, I'm not sure how you define "initiate". When the US goes over to invade a foreign nation, and brings along a coalition of partners, I guess it's ok to take part as long as you're not American? So, the US is evil for invading Iraq, but the Brits, Aussies, Polaks, etc are all guilt free good-guys because they didn't start it? What about Afghanistan? Same thing there? Big Bad Yanks started it, and us Canadians just tagged along for the ride? It's not our fault, they made us do it?
I don't think you've really thought this through.
If the USA had been doing to my family what they were doing to the Iraqis, after faking evidence about our owning WMDs, and had you blithely gone shopping there knowing but not caring what they do and what they support, I'd sure think so.
Well, you'd be an idiot. So, no change.
How could you not be supporting their actions (even only logistically) by giving them financial support?
And people made fun of Bush for his "you're either with us or against us" speech ....
Without unions there wouldn't be cops? Oh boy! I can hear slashdots anti-authoritarian fringe salivating at the prospect ....
Well, obviously the solution is more unions!
So last time I went to do some cross-border shopping, I started a war?
Whoops.
RIM is Canadian. I'm Canadian. Canadians don't do the World Police thing.
Um. WW1. WW2. Korea. Cyprus. Golan. Bosnia. Kosovo. Somalia. Afghanistan. Haiti.
I can tell you're Canadian - you don't know shit about our history, or our current events. Most people here are WAY too focused on the US.
Are you brain-damaged, or have you just been listening to too much Alex Jones?
Or am I repeating myself?
Just a guess, but maybe he got sick and tired of being asked the same dumb question 50 million times?
Not saying it was the right way to handle it, but I can certainly understand his frustration.
The only thing I hate about Gimp is that the stupid toolbox and layers windows are always on top of my images. I can close the layers window and then re-open it when I want it, but I can't even close the toolbox window or it shuts down the whole application. And it's a shitty way to handle it anyway. If I could have the image windows on top of the toolbox/layers, and then just alt-tab to the toolbox or select it from the panel, I'd have no problem with Gimp at all. As it stands, it frustrates the hell out of me. I'll use it when I'm doing some simple stuff, but any time I need to do a lot of work I end up running Photoshop under Wine, instead.
I play some games, but I've yet to start a war; unjust or otherwise.
No worries. I did the same thing, except I was morbidly curious about how exactly an Audi was involved with goatse .... my imagination is doubtless NSFW.
Oh shut the fuck up you useless troll. Why does everything have to be about terrorism with assholes like you? I swear, if an article came up about this years easter-egg hunt, you'd be claiming that the bomb-squad will show up any minute to blow up the eggs.
If you've actually managed to procreate, I really, really feel sorry for your children.
Warning: webmistressrachel likes to jump to conclusions without following links.
I saw "audigoatse" and thought .... ok, this I gotta see. Turns out it's perfectly SFW.
Yeah, it's probably more like 20%.
But, regardless, I've never been "penalized" by any such measures. The real question is "how do we stop it without everyone wetting their pants over it despite the fact that the vast majority of them will never be negatively impacted". I agree that it's important to keep their power in check, but it's ridiculous to start pulling the Chicken Little act because the government is targeting some botnets, and it's even more ridiculous to claim that it will "penalize 90% of the world".
So what you're saying is that the way to make people happy is to give them less options.
You know, as ridiculous as that seems at first glance, you're probably right ....
And this is why rest of the world sees US as arrogant, self important smugs.
Ah, I see now. The world sees the US as arrogant because the world can't tell the difference between the US and Canada, and is too lazy to read slashdot sigs. Neat.
This "french surrender" meme comes from french bashing campaign organized when France refused to help US invade Irak.
Wrong. As the other dude pointed out, it's a LOT older than that.
And it's spelled "Iraq".
It is now well known that Irak's WMD were a lie.
I don't know about Irak's WMD, but Iraq's WMD were quite real.
So please stop repeating the same stupid jokes, thanks.
Then stop surrendering, Frenchy.
So wait ... you select the "please grope me" option, and then complain about groping and delays?
What do you do for an encore? Ask your dentist to remove your wisdom teeth without an anaesthetic, and then bitch about the pain?
And people wonder why the rest of the world looks at us with disdain.
You think the world looks at the US with disdain because you drive cars?
Please. Give your head a shake, and try again.