> They are all giant douches, is there really a need to find out if one is a bigger one then the other? Have we really resorted to just picking > the lesser douche?
No, actually, you are lucky if its just the lesser douche, or a douche and a turd sandwich. Often, the choices aren't even that good.
As far as I can tell, the American Oligarchs realized a long time ago that voting is a lot like insurance. You can spread out the risk by creating unrelated pools. So "republican" becomes the pool of "states rights", "anti-abortion", "anti-immigrant" (at least rhetorically), "anti-welfare", "anti-homosexual agenda" etc.
Then Democrat becomes "pro-choice", "anti-discrimination", "pro-regulation" etc...
In reality, I don't know too many people who actually agree with either party in a broad way, or even that think one party or the other isn't full of douche bags. However the lines are drawn, and camps are made, so now EVERY SINGLE election comes down to the ultimate question of whose rhetoric scares you more.
If you are scared by ridiculously rare and fantastical things like terror plots, or are actually afraid of the so called "homosexual agenda" or some other nonsense, then you vote republican, because the Democrats surely don't want to spend the money we need to secure our borders and keep out those towel headed monkey bastards!
If you are scared by anti-tolerance agenda,scared by the thought of losing unemployment, welfare and the rest of the social safety net, If maybe you think too much money is spent on defense and not enough on our people right here.... then clearly you need to vote Democrat to save the social safety net from the bihg bad guys who seem like they are about two steps away from trying to say that the one place a corporation isn't a person is that a corporation isn't barred from owning slaves. (the democrats actually feel the same way, but the republicans won that issue in the split)
Of course, the voting system is setup such that once two parties have split the issues and electorate up, its nearly impossible for a third party to make significant inroads (none really have on the national level)
As such, the Oligarchy is alive and well, and representative government died a long time ago. Long live the Empire!
Plus since he said cheap, I assume that means he isn't factoring in the kind of cash bribes that are required to get codes changed or exceptions granted in most US localities.
I have never found tap water in other places to taste "right". The mix of minerals and various contamination is always slightly different and just tastes wrong. Of course, when away from home, I do spend a lot of time in central NY, and the area my family is in has a slight bit of sulfer in the water, which even makes it smell different (and quite unpleasant, though, they don't even notice)
Not to mention that a significant portion of the population drinks bottled drinks in general. Even if they drink coffee made from local water, thats local water coffee, mixed with local water from however many bottling plants of whatever other beverages he drinks.
my guess is, this would be useful for some people, but overall, isn't going to be that useful. Then again, prosecutors will probably try to use it, its like that one researcher who put out a paper on how you have to be careful when using FMRI machines by showing how easy it was to design a test that showed a dead fishes brain responding to visual stimulus.
Once you want to find evidence of something, it just gets easier and easier to find it. The law of fives is never wrong.
I am on my second run through of Mass Effect 2, and the mini games are horrid. They are just... matching games. One of them is a degenerate form of memory with various random symbols (some are electronic schematic symbols, then there is the copyright c... for no reason).
Then we get to "hack the firewalls" by matching screens of what looks like formatted source code, but... its no tlike you can read it, you just find the box of colored lines that matches the other one 3 times.
Whats worst is that about 95% of the time, theres nothing special for playing the mini game. Usually just a few credits.
Heh craigslist works. Actually, I became a huge fan of piling stuff out in front of my house the day before trash pickup, and posting an ad on craigslist with the address and a catalog of what is in the trash. Either they will come and get it...or Waste Management Employees will do it. Either way, my part is done.
I tried to sell some random equipment (literally a couple of turntables that a previous roommate left in the basement when he skipped out oweing me rent money years ago). It turned into an annoying experience as one of the guys kept asking if they were stolen (perhaps clue #1 that I was asking lower than they were worth, I had checked ebay and a few other places to get an idea), and telling me how he doesn't like stolen merchandise.
In the end I told him that if he finds they are stolen, I would be happy to point the police at the person who abandoned them in my basement and sent him on his way. Though, this guy seemed quick to jump to conclusions. He saw a jar of pot (about a half oz... hey, its a civil fine here:)) that my roommate left out and asked if he was in a grow house! ROTFL!
Then, a friend of mine showed up to pick me up (I think we had to go pick up my car from the shop) in a black crown vic, and his eyes lit up as I was waving and walking to the car and asked "Who is that!?!". I figured I may as well leave him to his delusions, so I winked at him and smiled and said "Its good to have friends" and jumped in the car.
So yah... all in all... not dealing with the people directly is far less annoyance, though... also makes for less amusing of a story. Makes me wonder how he tells the story. I wonder if he tells everyone the turntables were bought off a couple of crooked pot growing cops. \
In any case, I never got any calls from the police so either he never looked into it, or my ex-roomate didn't steal the turntables (or they were never reported stolen). Not that I would have been surprised either way, when he was kicked out I had one of the other roomates accusing him of stealing.
I agree in part, obviously its more nuanced than that. Some men are allowed to go to strip clubs on their own... some are even allowed to date outside of their marriage, for others, even acknowledging another womans existence is a violation.
The point is tho, its the other commitment that makes it a violation and not the act in and of itself.
Just as an author who hires a ghost writer is not considered to be doing anything wrong, the student who does the same is... because he has an agreement with the school to turn in the work that he did himself for credit.
Back to strip clubs... I think you are mainly right because, they have no real way to filter any of these cases, a man walking in could be single, married, in a closed relationship, in an open one, etc.
On the other hand, the essay writer is specifically trying to help someone defraud another party.
I don't remember exactly how it came up, but a particular jewish friend of mine and I ended up talking about the Lot story.
She was stunned to hear how Christians taught the story and pulled up the Torah, read the passage and pretty much translated it word for word the way I had it in the English. Then she became absolutely adamant that the intended meaning was that the men from the town wanted to beat the men up, not have sex with them.
Her claim was that it was not about homosexuality but a city with gangs that didn't like outsiders. I can't say as I have studied it enough to have my own opinion, but that was her take on it.
> So you're ok with a couple of thousand people dying from an attack every so often? You sir are a prick. You wouldn't even have the right to spank > it to pr0n all day if "assholes like this guy" didn't die protecting freedoms for worthless punks like you.
I never said I was ok with a couple of thousand people dying from an attack. You said that. I simply said we shouldn't blow it out of proportion and use it as an excuse to go around behaving just as badly. I thoroughly reject "eye for an eye" policy as counterproductive.
I think its instructive to look at the motivations of such attacks and what makes them likely or unlikely. OBL isn't out to just "kill people". He doesn't really care if he kills 0 people, or 1 million, he is fighting a war with a goal in mind. An attack that kills none, but furthers his goal is better than one that kills 1000 and weakens his position.
If his men convince some fool to try and blow up a bomb, say, in times square on Christmases day (just to you know, pick something totally out of the blue) and it fails, but we plaster it all over the news and use it to justify more spending and more restrictions on our own people, then, he wins not just the day, but the month or year. All he has to do is keep looking active and looking dangerous, as we collectively piss ourselves and beg the strong military men to take care of the big bad bogeyman.
I just don't see the real threat here. It would take something the size of 9/11 at least a few times a year before I would be willing to call them a major threat.
Its all just finding justification, a government mans wet dream.
> I always feel kind of sad when I see people who have tattoos of obvious ephemera like current bands, TV shows, or internet memes. But this > doesn't reflect badly on all tattoos. I have a couple friends who have lived interesting lives (mostly as drifters and musicians), who have tons > of tattoos, all of which form a narrative of their life.
Agreed. I knew one woman, who was at least in her mid 50s at the time, who had several tatoos and more than one of them a coverup of an ex lover's name, which is at least somewhat better than bands or TV shows, but not much.
On the other hand, I met a nice girl who had a sleeve of sweets and candy, because she became diabetic at a young age, and wanted to have a tribute to the sweets that she has had to give up.
As to the point about "working at McDonalds... in the back" by the grandparent.... well.. unless you go onto your hands or neck/face, then a suit should cover up any tattoos nicely. Wearing a suit to job interviews is pretty common, even for jobs that don't require a suit day to day.
Well, if he saved up the money for a whole sleeve either a) he is paid ridiculously (or rather well with exceptionally few expenses) or b) he has thought about it for at least a few weeks.
I mean, if he was going for a big cock on his forhead, maybe $60 or so, then I would agree but... a person saving up for a whole sleeve has at least found out how much that costs and been saving up. I guess I am assuming that its a decent artist and going to be a bit more flourish than just written equations in a standard font (I would guess just having some guy scroll a whole bunch of equations on your arm would be pretty cheap overall if you agreed not to tell anyone who did it)
I have a small tatoo that I want to get, I don't need to save up cash for it, but, I have been thinking about it on and off for about 3 years, and havn't found an artist or posted on slashdot for advice... I imagine this one has been stewing a while.
> Look, you may or may not have had respect for the last Administration. But this guy decided to leave his family, go over > there, and serve his country. He was fighting the Taliban, the same folks who harboured Osama, who err, let's see, > bombed the World Trade Centre? I'm Australian, but last time I checked, that incident killed quite a few of you folk.
How about if I don't have respect for this administration, now. Or the one before the last one, or the one before that, or the one before that...
The world trade center incident didn't kill quite a few, it killed a small drop in the bucket of our folks. Many many more Afghanis and Iraqis have died since the pointless wars started than we have lost. Personally, I don't give a shit about the whole "US" vs "Them" thing, dead is dead, and we have rivers of blood on our hands now thanks to assholes like this guy who can't say no to a paycheck and an order.
There is no honor in being a military man, and its time we stop pretending that there is. The only honor in fighting is when casting off an occupying force. Otherwise, you are just a wanna be conqueror's bitch.
> But *this* woman's husband died serving our country
Call it that if you like. He caught a pay check for doing the dirty work of the regime in Washington. If you want to cal that "Serving our country", go right ahead, I refuse to call it such. He did a despicable and honorless job, he may as well have died murdering babys for all I recognize it. I don't see why verizon or anyone should make any concessions for him or his family.
Not strange at all, its hard to post while on your crying because your wet dream since wolfenstein 3D just got crushed. Going to have to settle for integrating a stun gun accessory into counter strike to add incentive to play better.
What they need is easy access to the data, in event of an emergency, and a way to make sure that bypass of the long procedure is ONLY used in emergency. This is, sadly, NOT Uncle Sam's strong suit.
Take Miranda rights. At first, they read them when you got questioned. Then it was decided that, in cases of emergency, that was not needed, and they could delay reading miranda, to deal with an emergency situation. Ok Fair enough.
The problem is, this just opened the door to the death of miranda. The times square bomber, for example, had his miranda reading delayed for many hours. I just don't see how they can question him for all that time and still claim that it was due to an emergency that they didn't read him his miranda rights.
But, now that the lame excuse can be used, it gets used, now EVERY case is a potential emergency. May as well have written the Miranda decision on toilet paper now that the supreme court has all but reversed on it.
> Even our friends are trying to steal our secrets. Israel and other allies routinely try to reverse-engineer defense systems we sell to them.
Good for them. I wouldn't have much respect for them if they didn't. I firmly believe there is nothing wrong with reverse engineering in other areas, why should I demonize Isreal for it? (especially given how many other things, for which I can demonize Isreal, and many of "our" other allies)
> China, North Korea, terrorists, etc. would very much like to benefit at our expense.
Would they? North Korea is an international pariah with no real allies. I mean seriously, how much do you think the Chinese really will support the DPRK if it comes down to it? Kim Jong Il is a jester who pokes his finger in our eye, and the Chinese may enjoy the existence of his third world shit hole for that reason, but if he stepped over the line, I have little doubt that he would get dropped like a hot potato if it became politically expedient.
China? I don't see them looking to add some new round eye provinces. They have plenty on their plate trying to modernize and deal with the problems associated with trying to be totalitarian in the days of the Internet.
Terrorists? Please. Terrorism is just a tactic, and one employed by weak organizations. They are nothing more than predators on collective fear. The only defense against them is for people to refuse to be terrorized. No amount of massive government expansion is going to stop them.
A) I made an exception for personally identifiable information of employees, nice try. B) I am pretty anti-war and anti-soldier. They are not MY troops. I don't support anyones troops. They can all fuck off and die for all I care.
Also yes, the times square bomber rings bells, I mentioned him too. He sounds like every other soldier out there rationalizing his job and the atrocities that he is willing to commit "for his country". I have as much respect for him as I do any soldier... none at all.
I always figure the people smashing and burning are either kids who just want to cause damage or agent provocateurs working for the police or organization being protested against who are inciting violence to discredit the protesters
I would make the distinction between the city/county level (which is mostly legitimate) and the federal level, which really isn't.
Also, I don't see why you link gang bangers and drugs, wasn't that exactly what the police did? I mean, if the drug dealers in town were legally selling their product, how exactly would these gangs compete? pfizer or glaxco-smith-kline would put them out of business in days.
Drugs and violence are hardly a foregone conclusion, only when you add prohibition does that end up being the case.
Actually, I don't want this government to exist. I consider centralization of power to be far more scary than any alternatives. Frankly, I don't care if people are being murdered here by eachother, or in foriegn countries by our paid volunteer murder squads. Killing is killing as far as I am concerned, and I would as soon spit in the face of a returning US soldier as a so called terrorist, as far as I am concerned, very little difference to me.
I heard the statements of the Times Square failed bomber as to why he did it, and frankly, he sounded to me like any other soldier of any other army. Just as wrong as all of them. Every single soldier that has ever fought in a war where he isn't on the side of ending and occupation is, a war criminal in my eyes.
None of them has ever done a thing that I appreciate or condone, and every single one of them owes the rest of the world an apology for picking up arms for no good reason.
I see no reason to trust the organization that runs this killers with any respect or to give them any privacy. They deserve to have every secret that they try to keep disseminated far and wide.
> That said, the system does need more protection against abuses. Any idea how? If not, I qualify this as an unfortunate, yet necessary evil.
That is indeed what they have a vested interest in getting you to believe.
I fail to see how they are so necessary. Maybe if all they did was pave roads, hunt down bona-fide murderers. They do some necessary functions, but, those necessary functions make up such a small portion of their budget, that, frankly, I don't see how those few things are even worth mentioning.
Slashdot Mirror
> They are all giant douches, is there really a need to find out if one is a bigger one then the other? Have we really resorted to just picking
> the lesser douche?
No, actually, you are lucky if its just the lesser douche, or a douche and a turd sandwich. Often, the choices aren't even that good.
As far as I can tell, the American Oligarchs realized a long time ago that voting is a lot like insurance. You can spread out the risk by creating unrelated pools. So "republican" becomes the pool of "states rights", "anti-abortion", "anti-immigrant" (at least rhetorically), "anti-welfare", "anti-homosexual agenda" etc.
Then Democrat becomes "pro-choice", "anti-discrimination", "pro-regulation" etc...
In reality, I don't know too many people who actually agree with either party in a broad way, or even that think one party or the other isn't full of douche bags. However the lines are drawn, and camps are made, so now EVERY SINGLE election comes down to the ultimate question of whose rhetoric scares you more.
If you are scared by ridiculously rare and fantastical things like terror plots, or are actually afraid of the so called "homosexual agenda" or some other nonsense, then you vote republican, because the Democrats surely don't want to spend the money we need to secure our borders and keep out those towel headed monkey bastards!
If you are scared by anti-tolerance agenda,scared by the thought of losing unemployment, welfare and the rest of the social safety net, If maybe you think too much money is spent on defense and not enough on our people right here.... then clearly you need to vote Democrat to save the social safety net from the bihg bad guys who seem like they are about two steps away from trying to say that the one place a corporation isn't a person is that a corporation isn't barred from owning slaves. (the democrats actually feel the same way, but the republicans won that issue in the split)
Of course, the voting system is setup such that once two parties have split the issues and electorate up, its nearly impossible for a third party to make significant inroads (none really have on the national level)
As such, the Oligarchy is alive and well, and representative government died a long time ago. Long live the Empire!
-Steve
Plus since he said cheap, I assume that means he isn't factoring in the kind of cash bribes that are required to get codes changed or exceptions granted in most US localities.
-Steve
Also, in most states, that means losing your right to vote.
Clearly, if anyone is willing to be within 64' of boom, they should lose their right to vote. That makes perfect sense doesn't it?
-Steve
Who drinks tap water when traveling anyway?
I have never found tap water in other places to taste "right". The mix of minerals and various contamination is always slightly different and just tastes wrong. Of course, when away from home, I do spend a lot of time in central NY, and the area my family is in has a slight bit of sulfer in the water, which even makes it smell different (and quite unpleasant, though, they don't even notice)
Not to mention that a significant portion of the population drinks bottled drinks in general. Even if they drink coffee made from local water, thats local water coffee, mixed with local water from however many bottling plants of whatever other beverages he drinks.
my guess is, this would be useful for some people, but overall, isn't going to be that useful. Then again, prosecutors will probably try to use it, its like that one researcher who put out a paper on how you have to be careful when using FMRI machines by showing how easy it was to design a test that showed a dead fishes brain responding to visual stimulus.
Once you want to find evidence of something, it just gets easier and easier to find it. The law of fives is never wrong.
-Steve
That was definitely bad.
I am on my second run through of Mass Effect 2, and the mini games are horrid. They are just... matching games. One of them is a degenerate form of memory with various random symbols (some are electronic schematic symbols, then there is the copyright c... for no reason).
Then we get to "hack the firewalls" by matching screens of what looks like formatted source code, but... its no tlike you can read it, you just find the box of colored lines that matches the other one 3 times.
Whats worst is that about 95% of the time, theres nothing special for playing the mini game. Usually just a few credits.
-Steve
Heh craigslist works. Actually, I became a huge fan of piling stuff out in front of my house the day before trash pickup, and posting an ad on craigslist with the address and a catalog of what is in the trash. Either they will come and get it...or Waste Management Employees will do it. Either way, my part is done.
I tried to sell some random equipment (literally a couple of turntables that a previous roommate left in the basement when he skipped out oweing me rent money years ago). It turned into an annoying experience as one of the guys kept asking if they were stolen (perhaps clue #1 that I was asking lower than they were worth, I had checked ebay and a few other places to get an idea), and telling me how he doesn't like stolen merchandise.
In the end I told him that if he finds they are stolen, I would be happy to point the police at the person who abandoned them in my basement and sent him on his way. Though, this guy seemed quick to jump to conclusions. He saw a jar of pot (about a half oz... hey, its a civil fine here :)) that my roommate left out and asked if he was in a grow house! ROTFL!
Then, a friend of mine showed up to pick me up (I think we had to go pick up my car from the shop) in a black crown vic, and his eyes lit up as I was waving and walking to the car and asked "Who is that!?!". I figured I may as well leave him to his delusions, so I winked at him and smiled and said "Its good to have friends" and jumped in the car.
So yah... all in all... not dealing with the people directly is far less annoyance, though... also makes for less amusing of a story. Makes me wonder how he tells the story. I wonder if he tells everyone the turntables were bought off a couple of crooked pot growing cops. \
In any case, I never got any calls from the police so either he never looked into it, or my ex-roomate didn't steal the turntables (or they were never reported stolen). Not that I would have been surprised either way, when he was kicked out I had one of the other roomates accusing him of stealing.
-Steve
Well, you are aware that, in english, the indefinite gender defaults to male for the purposes of conversation.
I know some people hate that, some rally against it, and some have attempted to change it, but thats the language that I learned to speak.
Add to that, many people find it offensive to refer to a person, even of indeterminate geneder, as "it".
Its a no win scenario, may as well pick an arbitrary assumption and go with it until evidence dictates otherwise.
-Steve
I agree in part, obviously its more nuanced than that. Some men are allowed to go to strip clubs on their own... some are even allowed to date outside of their marriage, for others, even acknowledging another womans existence is a violation.
The point is tho, its the other commitment that makes it a violation and not the act in and of itself.
Just as an author who hires a ghost writer is not considered to be doing anything wrong, the student who does the same is... because he has an agreement with the school to turn in the work that he did himself for credit.
Back to strip clubs... I think you are mainly right because, they have no real way to filter any of these cases, a man walking in could be single, married, in a closed relationship, in an open one, etc.
On the other hand, the essay writer is specifically trying to help someone defraud another party.
-Steve
I don't remember exactly how it came up, but a particular jewish friend of mine and I ended up talking about the Lot story.
She was stunned to hear how Christians taught the story and pulled up the Torah, read the passage and pretty much translated it word for word the way I had it in the English. Then she became absolutely adamant that the intended meaning was that the men from the town wanted to beat the men up, not have sex with them.
Her claim was that it was not about homosexuality but a city with gangs that didn't like outsiders. I can't say as I have studied it enough to have my own opinion, but that was her take on it.
-Steve
> So you're ok with a couple of thousand people dying from an attack every so often? You sir are a prick. You wouldn't even have the right to spank
> it to pr0n all day if "assholes like this guy" didn't die protecting freedoms for worthless punks like you.
I never said I was ok with a couple of thousand people dying from an attack. You said that. I simply said we shouldn't blow it out of proportion and use it as an excuse to go around behaving just as badly. I thoroughly reject "eye for an eye" policy as counterproductive.
I think its instructive to look at the motivations of such attacks and what makes them likely or unlikely. OBL isn't out to just "kill people". He doesn't really care if he kills 0 people, or 1 million, he is fighting a war with a goal in mind. An attack that kills none, but furthers his goal is better than one that kills 1000 and weakens his position.
If his men convince some fool to try and blow up a bomb, say, in times square on Christmases day (just to you know, pick something totally out of the blue) and it fails, but we plaster it all over the news and use it to justify more spending and more restrictions on our own people, then, he wins not just the day, but the month or year. All he has to do is keep looking active and looking dangerous, as we collectively piss ourselves and beg the strong military men to take care of the big bad bogeyman.
I just don't see the real threat here. It would take something the size of 9/11 at least a few times a year before I would be willing to call them a major threat.
Its all just finding justification, a government mans wet dream.
-Steve
> I always feel kind of sad when I see people who have tattoos of obvious ephemera like current bands, TV shows, or internet memes. But this
> doesn't reflect badly on all tattoos. I have a couple friends who have lived interesting lives (mostly as drifters and musicians), who have tons
> of tattoos, all of which form a narrative of their life.
Agreed. I knew one woman, who was at least in her mid 50s at the time, who had several tatoos and more than one of them a coverup of an ex lover's name, which is at least somewhat better than bands or TV shows, but not much.
On the other hand, I met a nice girl who had a sleeve of sweets and candy, because she became diabetic at a young age, and wanted to have a tribute to the sweets that she has had to give up.
As to the point about "working at McDonalds... in the back" by the grandparent.... well.. unless you go onto your hands or neck/face, then a suit should cover up any tattoos nicely. Wearing a suit to job interviews is pretty common, even for jobs that don't require a suit day to day.
-Steve
yes but without all the top notch acting and special effects.
Well, if he saved up the money for a whole sleeve either a) he is paid ridiculously (or rather well with exceptionally few expenses) or b) he has thought about it for at least a few weeks.
I mean, if he was going for a big cock on his forhead, maybe $60 or so, then I would agree but... a person saving up for a whole sleeve has at least found out how much that costs and been saving up. I guess I am assuming that its a decent artist and going to be a bit more flourish than just written equations in a standard font (I would guess just having some guy scroll a whole bunch of equations on your arm would be pretty cheap overall if you agreed not to tell anyone who did it)
I have a small tatoo that I want to get, I don't need to save up cash for it, but, I have been thinking about it on and off for about 3 years, and havn't found an artist or posted on slashdot for advice... I imagine this one has been stewing a while.
-Steve
> Look, you may or may not have had respect for the last Administration. But this guy decided to leave his family, go over
> there, and serve his country. He was fighting the Taliban, the same folks who harboured Osama, who err, let's see,
> bombed the World Trade Centre? I'm Australian, but last time I checked, that incident killed quite a few of you folk.
How about if I don't have respect for this administration, now. Or the one before the last one, or the one before that, or the one before that...
The world trade center incident didn't kill quite a few, it killed a small drop in the bucket of our folks. Many many more Afghanis and Iraqis have died since the pointless wars started than we have lost. Personally, I don't give a shit about the whole "US" vs "Them" thing, dead is dead, and we have rivers of blood on our hands now thanks to assholes like this guy who can't say no to a paycheck and an order.
There is no honor in being a military man, and its time we stop pretending that there is. The only honor in fighting is when casting off an occupying force. Otherwise, you are just a wanna be conqueror's bitch.
-Steve
> But *this* woman's husband died serving our country
Call it that if you like. He caught a pay check for doing the dirty work of the regime in Washington. If you want to cal that "Serving our country", go right ahead, I refuse to call it such. He did a despicable and honorless job, he may as well have died murdering babys for all I recognize it. I don't see why verizon or anyone should make any concessions for him or his family.
-Steve
Not strange at all, its hard to post while on your crying because your wet dream since wolfenstein 3D just got crushed. Going to have to settle for integrating a stun gun accessory into counter strike to add incentive to play better.
-Steve
Interesting solution to the wrong problem.
What they need is easy access to the data, in event of an emergency, and a way to make sure that bypass of the long procedure is ONLY used in emergency. This is, sadly, NOT Uncle Sam's strong suit.
Take Miranda rights. At first, they read them when you got questioned. Then it was decided that, in cases of emergency, that was not needed, and they could delay reading miranda, to deal with an emergency situation. Ok Fair enough.
The problem is, this just opened the door to the death of miranda. The times square bomber, for example, had his miranda reading delayed for many hours. I just don't see how they can question him for all that time and still claim that it was due to an emergency that they didn't read him his miranda rights.
But, now that the lame excuse can be used, it gets used, now EVERY case is a potential emergency. May as well have written the Miranda decision on toilet paper now that the supreme court has all but reversed on it.
-Steve
> Even our friends are trying to steal our secrets. Israel and other allies routinely try to reverse-engineer defense systems we sell to them.
Good for them. I wouldn't have much respect for them if they didn't. I firmly believe there is nothing wrong with reverse engineering in other areas, why should I demonize Isreal for it? (especially given how many other things, for which I can demonize Isreal, and many of "our" other allies)
> China, North Korea, terrorists, etc. would very much like to benefit at our expense.
Would they? North Korea is an international pariah with no real allies. I mean seriously, how much do you think the Chinese really will support the DPRK if it comes down to it? Kim Jong Il is a jester who pokes his finger in our eye, and the Chinese may enjoy the existence of his third world shit hole for that reason, but if he stepped over the line, I have little doubt that he would get dropped like a hot potato if it became politically expedient.
China? I don't see them looking to add some new round eye provinces. They have plenty on their plate trying to modernize and deal with the problems associated with trying to be totalitarian in the days of the Internet.
Terrorists? Please. Terrorism is just a tactic, and one employed by weak organizations. They are nothing more than predators on collective fear. The only defense against them is for people to refuse to be terrorized. No amount of massive government expansion is going to stop them.
-Steve
A) I made an exception for personally identifiable information of employees, nice try.
B) I am pretty anti-war and anti-soldier. They are not MY troops. I don't support anyones troops. They can all fuck off and die for all I care.
Also yes, the times square bomber rings bells, I mentioned him too. He sounds like every other soldier out there rationalizing his job and the atrocities that he is willing to commit "for his country". I have as much respect for him as I do any soldier... none at all.
-Steve
> If you had your way, we would cease to exist as the United States -- we'd be overrun by our enemies. Get a clue and read up on your history!
Yes on the first part.
On the second... overrun by our enemies? Oooh, is Canada going to come take revenge on us? Maybe the mexican army is going to come on the march.
Sorry if I don't piss my pants at the thought of the bogeyman coming to "get us". I will work on that.
-Steve
I always figure the people smashing and burning are either kids who just want to cause damage or agent provocateurs working for the police or organization being protested against who are inciting violence to discredit the protesters
-Steve
Call it what you want. Its how I feel on the matter. I have no love or respect for a soldier.
I would make the distinction between the city/county level (which is mostly legitimate) and the federal level, which really isn't.
Also, I don't see why you link gang bangers and drugs, wasn't that exactly what the police did? I mean, if the drug dealers in town were legally selling their product, how exactly would these gangs compete? pfizer or glaxco-smith-kline would put them out of business in days.
Drugs and violence are hardly a foregone conclusion, only when you add prohibition does that end up being the case.
-Steve
I thought about it and... yes.
Actually, I don't want this government to exist. I consider centralization of power to be far more scary than any alternatives. Frankly, I don't care if people are being murdered here by eachother, or in foriegn countries by our paid volunteer murder squads. Killing is killing as far as I am concerned, and I would as soon spit in the face of a returning US soldier as a so called terrorist, as far as I am concerned, very little difference to me.
I heard the statements of the Times Square failed bomber as to why he did it, and frankly, he sounded to me like any other soldier of any other army. Just as wrong as all of them. Every single soldier that has ever fought in a war where he isn't on the side of ending and occupation is, a war criminal in my eyes.
None of them has ever done a thing that I appreciate or condone, and every single one of them owes the rest of the world an apology for picking up arms for no good reason.
I see no reason to trust the organization that runs this killers with any respect or to give them any privacy. They deserve to have every secret that they try to keep disseminated far and wide.
-Steve
> That said, the system does need more protection against abuses. Any idea how? If not, I qualify this as an unfortunate, yet necessary evil.
That is indeed what they have a vested interest in getting you to believe.
I fail to see how they are so necessary. Maybe if all they did was pave roads, hunt down bona-fide murderers. They do some necessary functions, but, those necessary functions make up such a small portion of their budget, that, frankly, I don't see how those few things are even worth mentioning.
-Steve