Volpe

Agree completely.

Though I'd probably prefer not to have a "kill list". Killing should be limited to military personell in wars, during 'battle'. I realise the US has framed the war on terror in order to blur those lines... but seriously firing missiles into cafes!?

Drone strikes, and assassinations were occurring before his reelection... So I'm not sure how anyone can argue "We didn't get a chance to vote him out"... as you actually did.

While I agree with you, it is more complex than I simplified it. It is that general apathy of americans that lets administrations get so out of control.

> This guy's son was a bad enough dude that he got put on a terrorist kill list.

That's exactly what I responded to. I ignored your conclusion, because of your invalid premise.

So if I decide to put someone on a kill list, there is no burden of proof on me to explain why, by killing that someone my action is righteous, legal and moral?

I'm pretty sure the US constitution disagrees with that premise, and should protect any US citizen from such a situation.

I always hear this from amercians. If you are going to boast about being 'free' and 'democratic' then you 'support' whoever is running the administration (that's how democracy works, the majority "Wins" the support of the people).

Have some personal accountability.

Or else, you are not free, nor a democracy.

Actually I think you'll bomb a bunch of other random people (Iraq, Afghanistan), and continue to treat the responsible "country" (Saudi Arabia) as an ally and friend.

Just before people rewrite history, afganistan and iraq governments had nothing to do with 9/11.

Agreed, they could achieve the same thing with security cameras and facial recognition (though way more expensive I imagine). People aren't up in arms about security cameras in store.

While I agree with your premise, do you have a reference to the US authorities purchasing these.

Likely that beyond whatever punishment he receives under the judicial system, there will be little other consequence to him for his actions.

People do bad things, and get away with it all the time.

EDIT:

Interesting aside: Just world fallacy [1]

[1] http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/07/the-just-world-fallac...

Basis has a heart rate monitor built in... that would give more information (not sure it could tell orgasm or not, unless there is some unique heart signature after orgasm...)

No, it's disingenuous to suggest YOUR content is unrelated to the value of THEIR product.

A reasonable analogy would be conferences, are you paying for the venue, or the access to other people/speakers? does that mean the people/speakers are the product?

Yet if there was no content, there would be no product... so they are selling your content.

Which means they are just lying in their about page.

Depending on your friends, facebook offers various advantages. You can see what they've been doing", see if they are online, send a simple 'hey' that wouldn't really be written if you were to use email.

People do use email still... But pretending facebook doesn't offer any value is an exercise in reality distortion.

So because people filter the internet... we should self filter to get around it.

That's an uncomfortable realisation for me. :-(

> These old ideas of capital and labor are dead. Please let them rest in peace without digging them up so often.

I'm pretty sure China's GDP disagrees with this premise. A lot of stuff needs to be manufactured, constructed, etc - i.e. manual labor.

Please stop pretending software is the only industry in existence.

So it's only if an american says this that you'd report it?

Actually it is. Because everyone (the majority at least) believe in rights.

You don't have to be an American company to benefit from American policy. And I'm sure congressmen benefit from the "non-american" oil companies.

The question I would like to know the answer to, is who was drilling the oil before the war... it seems unclear, but if it was Iraq (national companies) then the war was defiantly an oil grab.

Why do you "believe" in rights?

They are literally constructed by us, indoctrinated even.

... what are you talking about?

Are you arguing the semantics of "save"? Bullet proof vests save lives... Polio vaccines save lives...

Or is that just "extending": "He was suppose to die with a bullet to the chest, so by stopping it, we extended his life"

Wealth redistribution could solve that problem.

"...Oil fields contracted include the "super-giant" Majnoon Field, Halfaya Field, West Qurna Field and Rumaila Field." [1]

If you look up each of those fields, you'll see they are licensed to Shell, BP, and Exxon [2] [3] [4] [5]

Given all of those companies have a strong presence in the US and definitely have lobbying power. I'd say the US got effective control over one of the largest oil reserves in the world.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Iraq

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfaya_Field

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Qurna_Field

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumaila_Field

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majnoon_oil_field

... I'm sorry, I really don't understand your position. Wikileaks isn't an archiving system, it's a way to publish leaks... If Wikileaks is proven to be rejecting leaks (which is unproven allegations at the moment) then I could understand your point.

But you are literally just believing some random on the internet, which could well be an effort by the US to discredit Wikileaks and Ecuador at the same time (purely speculation).

What wikileaks do is not complicated, you can always create an alternative. They'd probably support your efforts.

Yes, but even the choice of facts expresses an opinion.

I could report how many murders were caused by black people, how many robberies by mexicans, and how much drugs by asians, Then how many illegal immigrants entered the country this month.

All fact, no opinion?

Are you saying that the files don't implicate 'western' companies/government?

You are passing judgement on wikileaks becasue they don't have a leak... But I thought wikileaks was just an option for leaked documents, they don't proactively hunt leaks... Am I wrong on that?

Maybe goto http://wikileaks.org/

There is more than US only leaks... Guess that wouldn't fit your narrative though, so maybe don't go.

Surely you (Stripe) must have known that providers would respond.

If people are saying "Feature X in stripe is awesome", it isn't lazy to copy, it's smart (That's what startups would do). They quickly catch up to your product and hopefully (for them) innovate further.

I get you'd be flustered/angry you have a worthy competitor (with way more resources than you), but companies don't have to be innovators to be competitors. You innovated, and got first mover advantage, now comes the competition.

I did not know that. So it isn't completely dire, but you'll lose a year.

You seem to believe this kind of corruption doesn't exist elsewhere in the world, and that P.R China is somehow unique in it's corruption. I don't agree with this. I'd say the recent wealth in china means you have very rich, and very poor very close to each other and thus corruption is more visible. But the "chinese" are not any different to any other people. Spend some time in India, there is just as much corruption there (if not more?). Spend some time in the U.S discover how corrupt they are... it's no different the world over, just the visibility changes

All those cases you raise, are indeed bad, but are you saying they are the majority?

The cheating example isn't a show of corruption, it's a show of fairness. If this generation of students sitting the gaokou are all cheating, forcing a tiny subset of them to not be allowed to cheat, is disadvantaging. You seem to understand china fairly well, if it were my child, I'd be angry (even if they weren't cheating), as it is clearly setting that group at a disadvantage. Perhaps if the government did it either ubiquitously or (probably better) at random each year, then the issue of cheating would go away. But to "trial" it in one area, is wrong.

> How could you really have lived in Guangzhou for any significant length of time and be so in the dark?

Perhaps I am just more optimistic about where things are at.

> If you are so damn well intellectual, you should be out there working with professors on research projects and whatever to show that you are cut out for graduate school.

Out where? Do you mean in between your class load? (I'm not too familiar with US graduate schools)... I thought your GPA was exactly what they looked for?