Walsingham
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Everything posted by Walsingham
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Oh come off it. Are you too young to remember Oz? Wasn't that HBO?
Oh man, I'd love to have a dog, but I don't keep regular hours and can't predict being at home. I think I'd have to have a pup though. I know you ought to get rescue dogs and what have you, but I couldn't look after a difficult critter right.
*blink* *blink* Is that you, Mojave? Is this me?
Not to mention kinda sexy.
It's a tiny aside, but you do know that wars don't depopulate. Only disease does that. Wars cause baby booms.
I see what you mean, Bruce. But Syria ain't Libya. Just as a starter for ten you've got hot and cold running jihadis and Iranian proxies running loose by the _thousand_. Then you have an established Russian military presence, and a big (if currently abstracted) Chinese interest. I believe that several UK politicians are desperate to do something about Syria. Charitably it's because it seems wrong to do **** all. Uncharitably it's one more opportunity to look statesmanlike when domestic politics is pretty humdrum and zero profit. However, I don't believe that anyone inside or outside Syria has sufficient intelligence to manipulate what's happening in a smart enough way to get what they want 'lite'. Only a major intervention could stabilise the situation at present. And thanks to the 'war is always wrong' lobby, that's not going to happen. So all we can do now is watch the casualties mount up. I predict 5-10 years of increasingly futile slaughter.
Yes, because devastated hellzones produce happy healthy people who become neither refugees, nor terrorists, nor just pathetic mangled reminders of our smug isolation. EDIT: Three things mark chemical weapons usage as repellent: 1. Medical aid to victims of vesicants and nerve gases is basically non-existent 2. Modern soldiers tend to be relatively well warned, and protected against the effects* 3. Civilians can't get out of the way of a fight using chemical weapons Meaning, ultimately that their only use is to terrorise and murder civilians. You can argue that you think that's OK, but I will think you're a ****. *Officialy speaking. The reality is we don't really know.
I simply can't get over the sheer lunacy of suggesting the Spartans should be held up as heroes of freedom and justice. It's complete nonsense. They had the morals of a hungry wolfpack!
Pmp10 is indeed correct. The evil future you _should_ be worried about isn't one where your browsing monitors your thoughts. It's one where your browsing creates your thoughts. This is the kind of thing dealt with in Brave New World. Of course the preponderance of 'free' services like Google already do that to an extent.
He had me at the massive letters Edit: It's a massive scam by publishers! 1984 sales are massively up. You cheap chiseller. http://www.today.com/news/sales-orwells-1984-over-6-000-percent-after-nsa-news-6C10282307
I'd return to a point earlier, if you'll excuse me hammering on a bit. Simply whistle-blowing is ... well it's about as useful as blowing a whistle. Information is nothing without action. Where organs exist in our democratic systems to hold malefactors accountable then we have no need of privately administered justice. Where such organs are absent, unhealthy, and unsupported by the people then the information by itself is meaningless noise. The solution is not to con ourselves into thinking that the odd individualist can protect our freedoms. Like some bloody Hollywood movie. Over in 90 minutes and back to sleep. The answer, the tough answer, the expensive answer, the boring answer, is that we have to be ****ing adults. We have to inspect and elect good politicians. This is still relevant to the OP because that's how I feel about this debate on personal freedoms vs. security in general. The answer isn't total control and nor is it total anarchy. Both are the choice of simpletons or the future ruler of simpletons. What would really ****ing impress me at this point is if a single person could put together a summary of how the NSA is mandated and controlled. Post that and you get both ears and all my attention.
In some ways it reminds me of Martin Luther King's last speech. Wallets are power, if only we use them. Having said that it was smart of Sony to make it better across the board by being cheaper as well. I'm seriously thinking about getting a PS4 now - no fooling. The only thing is that I don't buy enough first tier games to make it worthwhile across, say, ten titles.
1992?
Malc: The Kirkland case is interesting, but it's hardly over yet. Nor has he done anything I really disagree with. Firstly, it looks like he's tried to address it internally and failed. Secondly, things like in-service housing and health care are all issues which are routinely criticised publicly, and aren't proscribed in any regs. You may have another example, or I may have misunderstood. Nep: The Bloch case rang a bell, but it took me a while to dredge it back up. Again it's an interesting case worthy of discussion. But if an individual whistle-blower found they couldn't get anywhere with the 'correct' agency they still had Congress. The US has separation of powers for precisely these reasons.
I'll look into those cases and come back to the point. Meanwhile none of you seem to have any interest in the notion that an individual can randomly decide to spurge dangerous information just because they think it's important. Manning could just as easily have been a private UFO nut seeing shadowy evidence of a conspiracy. Or he could be trying to undermine what he sees as a liberal gay-friendly administration. You're all only happy because these instances accord with your personal views on what should be happening. It's like that bull**** with Ollie North back in the 80s.
It does but it is a creation of my imagination, as are all of you, the Earth, the universe, etc. The entire multiverse, including these boards, every person I have ever "met" or heard of, every solid, liquid, and gas, heck the very concept of solids, liquids, and gasses, they were all created by my imagination as a self contained universe. This is my own private playground, or my own private hell. Outside of me, there is nothing, or everything, or a completely different concept that cannot be defined by nothing, everything, or anything. I'll never know, because this self contained universe is all I'll ever know. Reminds me of the gag in philosophy class; my professor relayed the story of a colleague's revelation. The colleague, while having sex with his wife, suddenly stopped and exclaimed to her, "I just realized, I am all that exist and everything outside of me is a creation of my imagination. So I am god, and I'm not having sex with you, I'm masturbating!" Again, if you imagine you're completely hooned, this is hilarious. NEVER talk to philosophers while sober.
