"Thank you for calling the no-fly-list enrollment hot-line. All of our representatives are currently busy, please stay on the line and an agent will address you as soon as possible."
A lot of bad ideas come out of think tanks and lobbying organizations, before being appropriated by politicians or government agencies.
A lot of think tanks and lobbying organizations are the shadow leadership of the political parties. This isn't one-off politicians being swayed by nutty ideologues, this is the command and control structures of the parties passing down orders to be followed by the minions that they put in office. That way they know what legislation to actually pass while they are distracting the public with gay marriage and abortion.
The Mi-go are large, pinkish, fungoid, crustacean-like entities the size of a man with a "convoluted ellipsoid" composed of pyramided, fleshy rings and covered in antennae where a head would normally be.
b) Study the texts and come to terms with the idea that your religion might allow you to watch porn after all: Twist the words of God to suit yourself
Because one's plain reading of the Bible (or any other text) does not meet your twisted interpretation, does not mean that they are doing the twisting.
Furthermore, contrary to the clan and massive stupidity, which is slashdot these days, combatants, legal or otherwise, are not protected by the US Constitution. Bin Laden was on foreign soil, and enemy of the state, and an illegal combatant. Accordingly, he receives zero legal protection under US law unless he is captured and taken into US custody.
You are correct, with the exception that the foreign soil part does not matter. Everyone is afforded the rights of the U.S. Constitution regardless of nationality or locality (with only a couple of exceptions relating to elected offices and those machinations).
But, as you said, he was a combatant. I don't believe the "illegal combatant" BS. He was a combatant. He had declared war on the United States. He engaged in acts of war against the United States (and the world for that matter). THAT is the reason that he had no constitutional rights. He deserved to die and he died in a manner far more honorable than I think he deserved. There is no question of the legality here, unless some video surfaces that shows him waving a white flag or putting his hands up, which would change the nature of the rights that he could claim. I doubt that such video exists because it is inconsistent with everything that he has portrayed himself to be.
He was not taken into custody and then summarily executed (which I believe WOULD be illegal, whether combatant status is illegal or otherwise). He was not knelt down in front of a video camera with a bunch of cowards covering their faces, hands tied behind his back while his head was removed with a machete. He had ten years in which to attempt a diplomatic resolution via foreign courts if he had been so inclined. That boat sailed a long time ago.
Accepting the declaration that MIT doesn't "need the money" because of their endowment, I would say that the reason is that he is not an alumnus nor a professor emeritus of a school that "needs the money". I would argue, however, that there isn't a school out there that doesn't "need the money". Every school, now matter how wealthy or how prestigious has talented students in need that fall outside the range to which they can offer scholarships, or has exciting but risky research projects that do not get undertaken due to funds. I can't begrudge a guy for an act of altruism just because the beneficiary of that act is not as needy as my own school is. Besides that, MIT does as much if not more than any school I can think of to "give back". Dr. Bose and MIT, Thank You.
I don't know, to each his or her own I suppose. I prefer KDE, but Unity is pretty nifty for my netbook and a kiosk-type terminal I have setup. My biggest gripe with it is that I could not for the life of me figure out how to get a custom launcher into the damn side bar. If it's a pre-installed app you just launch it and add it when it is running (a fairly idiotic workflow imho, but at least it works). But trying to create an entry for a custom java app got me oooh so close to doing one of those moronic pound-the-crap-out-of-the-keyboard fits that I always regret several minutes later (which would have been worse in this case since it was on a laptop).
One of the focus points as I understood it was usability with a touchscreen, a task for which this is a modest improvement. I'll keep it on the netbook, but I think I want to wait for it to mature a bit before putting it on anything that I use for more than reading Slashdot (with the fear that the "improvements" will only consist of quotes from "usability experts" about how I'm doing it wrong).
Slashdot Mirror
The Patriot Act is the exception. Most papers written by desk jockeys never go anywhere.
Or not. By way of example, see Project for a New American Century.
Ethics concerns: 1-800-435-4234
"Thank you for calling the no-fly-list enrollment hot-line. All of our representatives are currently busy, please stay on the line and an agent will address you as soon as possible."
A lot of bad ideas come out of think tanks and lobbying organizations, before being appropriated by politicians or government agencies.
A lot of think tanks and lobbying organizations are the shadow leadership of the political parties. This isn't one-off politicians being swayed by nutty ideologues, this is the command and control structures of the parties passing down orders to be followed by the minions that they put in office. That way they know what legislation to actually pass while they are distracting the public with gay marriage and abortion.
Neither. No, both. Damn it, just open the box.
FTW
The Mi-go are large, pinkish, fungoid, crustacean-like entities the size of a man with a "convoluted ellipsoid" composed of pyramided, fleshy rings and covered in antennae where a head would normally be.
Lovecraft references are never accidental.
b) Study the texts and come to terms with the idea that your religion might allow you to watch porn after all: Twist the words of God to suit yourself
Because one's plain reading of the Bible (or any other text) does not meet your twisted interpretation, does not mean that they are doing the twisting.
Furthermore, contrary to the clan and massive stupidity, which is slashdot these days, combatants, legal or otherwise, are not protected by the US Constitution. Bin Laden was on foreign soil, and enemy of the state, and an illegal combatant. Accordingly, he receives zero legal protection under US law unless he is captured and taken into US custody.
You are correct, with the exception that the foreign soil part does not matter. Everyone is afforded the rights of the U.S. Constitution regardless of nationality or locality (with only a couple of exceptions relating to elected offices and those machinations).
But, as you said, he was a combatant. I don't believe the "illegal combatant" BS. He was a combatant. He had declared war on the United States. He engaged in acts of war against the United States (and the world for that matter). THAT is the reason that he had no constitutional rights. He deserved to die and he died in a manner far more honorable than I think he deserved. There is no question of the legality here, unless some video surfaces that shows him waving a white flag or putting his hands up, which would change the nature of the rights that he could claim. I doubt that such video exists because it is inconsistent with everything that he has portrayed himself to be.
He was not taken into custody and then summarily executed (which I believe WOULD be illegal, whether combatant status is illegal or otherwise). He was not knelt down in front of a video camera with a bunch of cowards covering their faces, hands tied behind his back while his head was removed with a machete. He had ten years in which to attempt a diplomatic resolution via foreign courts if he had been so inclined. That boat sailed a long time ago.
Accepting the declaration that MIT doesn't "need the money" because of their endowment, I would say that the reason is that he is not an alumnus nor a professor emeritus of a school that "needs the money". I would argue, however, that there isn't a school out there that doesn't "need the money". Every school, now matter how wealthy or how prestigious has talented students in need that fall outside the range to which they can offer scholarships, or has exciting but risky research projects that do not get undertaken due to funds. I can't begrudge a guy for an act of altruism just because the beneficiary of that act is not as needy as my own school is. Besides that, MIT does as much if not more than any school I can think of to "give back". Dr. Bose and MIT, Thank You.
I don't know, to each his or her own I suppose. I prefer KDE, but Unity is pretty nifty for my netbook and a kiosk-type terminal I have setup. My biggest gripe with it is that I could not for the life of me figure out how to get a custom launcher into the damn side bar. If it's a pre-installed app you just launch it and add it when it is running (a fairly idiotic workflow imho, but at least it works). But trying to create an entry for a custom java app got me oooh so close to doing one of those moronic pound-the-crap-out-of-the-keyboard fits that I always regret several minutes later (which would have been worse in this case since it was on a laptop). One of the focus points as I understood it was usability with a touchscreen, a task for which this is a modest improvement. I'll keep it on the netbook, but I think I want to wait for it to mature a bit before putting it on anything that I use for more than reading Slashdot (with the fear that the "improvements" will only consist of quotes from "usability experts" about how I'm doing it wrong).
Exactly what I was thinking. How much damage must have been done to developing minds because of Yahoo! Answers...
Hell, I'd pay good money to watch Gates' demonstration of this one. From a (very) remote terminal of course.