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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The government that doesn't obey the desires of the people, at least in aggregate, soon finds itself an ex-government.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
rollin' on dubs
Unions rip Schumer’s deal on H-1B visas
A deal struck Tuesday to secure Republican support for the Senate immigration bill has set off a war of words between labor unions and the tech industry.
I suspect that the "gang of eight" will try and sneak this through while others focus on the whole IRS-gate.
I tried to walk like an Egyptian and now I need to see a Cairo practor....On the topic of nuclear reactors: Fast breeder reactors, or integrated fast reactors. Look 'em up. They're 4th generation nuclear reactors that burn existing nuclear waste as fuel. Yes, we can get rid of our nuclear waste by burning it for fuel.
I dunno... Are we talking about China or the PRC? Because China, as a whole, has had way more time than the US to rack up war crimes, while, with the PRC, it's had about half the time...
I mean, "war crimes" used to be known as "standard practice and tactics."
edited 23rd May '13 11:48:16 AM by deathpigeon
rollin' on dubs
- Former SSG Bales is now doing time for his crimes.
- Most of the Abu Ghraib perps are in prison or no longer in the military
- Drones? China and the Middle East are in no position to talk about drones or drone strikes
Most of the false "outrage" over "war crimes" is due to Americans being involved.
I tried to walk like an Egyptian and now I need to see a Cairo practor....Is this already under discussion here?
They've got more under their belt than the US, and the Rwandan Genocide is small potatoes compared to, say, what the Mongols did in their various conquests or the devastation to Ireland by Cromwell or even the Trail of Tears I just mentioned. I mean, yes, the Rwandan genocide was horrifying, but back in the day, that would've been expected rather than horrifying.
...Sure, the state capitalism of the PRC's centrally planned economy caused a bunch of accidental deaths (It was definitely not communist. I doubt even Mao would've called it communist. In marxist theory, the name of the stage of development China was in was socialist, not communist.), but the US has caused a whole lot of intentional deaths from many of our policies. I mean, yes, the Great Leap Forward killed millions, but the US did things that killed millions, too, so the two are definitely apt for comparison.
Senator Chambliss (R-GA): Obama speech will be 'viewed by terrorists as victory'
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi vows there will be no ObamaCare for illegal immigrants
Protester interrupts Obama speech on drones, Guantanamo
EDIT: The Great Leap Forward killed more people than the Holocaust and Stalin's Purges combined.
If we're counting that then the PRC probably wins.
I already posted that.
edited 23rd May '13 12:47:46 PM by DeviantBraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016Oh for the love of...just in the post-war context, the PRC is leading in war crimes because it sticks its nose into the affairs of other countries far less than does the U.S. The PRC certainly leads the world in historical citizen deaths due to mismanagement, but that's partially because of Mao and partially because it leads the world by an order of magnitude in numbers of its own citizens to starve by accident.
Seriously, if the U.S. and China are in a pissing match over "Well, you killed way too many innocents in other countries!" against "Well you killed way to many innocents in your own country!", then both are doing pretty shitty.
Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.Speaker Boehner: House won't just 'take up and accept' Senate immigration bill
edited 23rd May '13 12:57:57 PM by DeviantBraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016@Braeburn: That's mainly because there are a whole lot more people to kill. I mean, if you kill 10% of the Chinese population you'll kill a whole lot more than if you kill 10% of the German population. If there were as many people in Nazi Germany as there were in China, the death toll of the Holocaust would be much larger, and, if there were as many people in China as there were in Nazi Germany, the death toll of the Great Leap Forward would've been much less. Yes, the Great Leap Forward caused a lot of deaths, but, if you want to compare it with other atrocities, looking at hard figures is misleading. It's far better to, in that case, look at deaths per capita.
Can we please fucking drop the murderousness and atrocity dick-waving contest, please? The crimes get established, they get acknowledged and remembered, and we know who did what and why. That's enough.
And the USA get a lot of flak because there is a tendency to paint them and their people as heroes, role models, and judge jury and executioner of the rest of the world in their political discourse and nobody likes that Holier Than Thou bullshit.
Of course, European ex colonists are quite fond of this little self-aggrandizing game too; it's by highlighting the contradiction between the way they thought of themselves and the way they were that Gandhi's special branch of resistance prevailed, after all. That's why the Chinese are so popular with African regimes right now; unlike Europeans, they don't lecture people about Human Rights and Geneva Conventions and so on. In fact, Europeans have come to be nicknamed just that; "lecturers".
Nevertheless, I must protest vehemently against anyone saying that war crimes and atrocities are just the way governments are;
You were just like me, trying to make history.
But who's to judge the right from wrong?
When our guard is down, I think we'll both agree
That violence breeds violence,
But in the end it has to be this way.
edited 23rd May '13 1:09:15 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.You don't need Governments to be a little less short-sighted — you need their people to be that elect those Governments, or keep them in power, to be less short-sighted.
edited 23rd May '13 1:28:10 PM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling OnThat goes hand-in-hand, old sport; short-sighted governments want short-sighted, ignorant, bratty people cause they're easier to control on the short term, but nothing good can come of them in the long term. And one of the good things stupid bratty electors ain't gon' do is vote for people who take the long view, or, if by some accident they did vote them in, have the patience to see their vision through instead of kicking them out for the next promise of candy right-here-right-now.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.Unless you're counting civilian deaths as a result of collateral damage during war, which is stretching the definition of "war crime" to the breaking point.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Function before form. Isn't that inherently rational? One might argue that a certain amount of apparent self-contradiction is, in fact, a necessary part of government - because a government must cater to the people, and the people are, themselves, self-contradictory.
Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.