sad side effect of the US's shear size. there is no counter-balancing force, and even if there Was no one's willing to risk a war to enforce anything... because quite frankly no one believes the US government is sufficiently non-crazy as to NOT press the nuke button if they were actually losing a war (as opposed to failing to win and/or cutting their losses and withdrawing. i mean actually the US itself suffering the effects of being in a war they were Losing. blockades, invasions, that sort of thing.)
not that the USSR was a good counter balance, obviously, as it had the same problems. the British and Russian empires might have been if they were still around. maybe. or they could be just as bad still.
basically, the only protective buffer in the pacific against actions by the USA is the even Worse position of becoming a puppet of China. this is true militarily, economically, and politically, though the last is mostly due to the first two.
now, the USA's internal economy might be a mess, but they still exert a lot of force on smaller entities in spite of this.
so, yeah.
(doesn't help that the current government in NZ at least is, if not a US puppet, made up of the same sorts of idiots who run things in the USA.)
not sure what He meant, but as the 'actually useful and productive trade agreement' it started out as it's long gone. (that pretty much fell over as soon as the US got involved. how/why the original parties allowed that, i don't know.)
perhaps because we've got little hope of actually changing the outcome of the agreement itself? 'can't fix it, may as well take advantage of it to damage those responsible'?
appropriate (not increased) punishment helps cement the idea that 'doing this is bad' in the ideas of the public... problem is, you have to start with something that is ACTUALLY bad and your punishment needs to Actually be appropriate. anything contrary to the public interest and good is not appropriate. after that initial stage, Increasing punishments doesn't improve anything. enforcing them swiftly, and Accurately, does. (punishing people who are NOT in the wrong undermines your authority leading to resentment and revolt, in one form or another. failing to punish those who Are leads to loss of faith in the justice system and people simply not reporting less significant things or taking the task of resolving the issue into their own hands, the former rendering the law in question utterly irrelevant and the latter, depending on the issue in question, leading to various other issues.)
the US government seems to nice and neatly fail on the 'appropriate punishment' 'law in line with public will' 'swift justice' and 'accurate justice' fronts.
many supposed 'democracies' fail at 'swift justice' (side effect of bureaucracy and an excess of different and overly specific laws) bureaucratic governments (such as, again, most western representative democracies) fail at 'law in line with the public will' to various extents, and again, swift justice, bureaucracies and tyrannies both struggle with 'appropriate punishment' and tyrannies of all sorts have not time for or interest in 'accurate justice'.
problem being, of course, it's not just terrorists.
it's also any randoms who get grabed in the process of 'security theater' so they appear to be doing Something, it's also randoms the government decides are embarrassing...
thing is, if you allow it for some specific group or sub group, it doesn't take long for those at the top to find a way of defining ANYONE as belonging to one of those groups when convenient.
better to avoid it all together.
(mind you, i do happen to agree there are circumstances where even torture may be appropriate, but they're incredibly rare and the people likely to find themselves in such situations are NOT the people I'd trust to make that judgment call.)
they're just either even MORE dangerous, due to being evil rather than just stupid, or not terribly effective due to the horribly corrupt nature of the system.
and consistant with the current pattern. it's illegal to make a copy unless under a set set of situations where it IS legal to make a copy, but it's illegal to use the tools to bypass the encryption even if it Would be legal to make that copy but, in this case it would be illegal to encrypt it in the first place so it's fine...
if you keep it up long enough eventually one side or the other will manage to make it illegal to have laws passed to subvert other people's rights, previous laws, and/or other people's property, and if you're Really lucky the whole thing will be such a mess the government will spend years gutting the whole unmanageable system down to something far more reasonable... or lock up completely and be ignorable :D
alternatively, print, scan as text, use the scanned version (it's encryption free, and you didn't bypass the encryption in the first place) to set things up for your book.
of course, that probably takes more effort, needing a decent (at least) quality printer and scanner and using at least twice as much paper and ink in the process, but hey, now you've got two copies :P
every time i see someone claiming anyone in the US government system that actually has ANY power is a communist i wish they were in range so i could kick them in the face.
repeatedly.
the entire mainstream US political spectrum is right-shifted.
so far as i can tell, most of the world that gives a damn would rate Obama and his buddies as problematically RIGHT leaning. (or, more specifically, corporate interest leaning. possibly Fascist.) .... or at least centered.
anyone claiming the major players in US politics are even Approaching communist simply shows their own ignorance and idiocy.
Dunno about in the USA, but here-abouts property taxes pay for the water supply and various local-government provided services such as public libraries and the like.
income tax pays for the national level stuff. defense, police, that sort of thing.
... the goods and services tax (sales tax, if you like) supposedly does likewise. 'cept it's a regressive tax, so the less money you have the more it screws you over. our government recently (last term, same parties in power though) decided it would be a good idea to lower income taxes (though only by a meaningful amount for those in the top income brackets and they had to borrow money to cover this) and raise the sales tax to compensate, claiming everyone would be better off. ... yeah, the poor got screwed over and mostly made a loss, those in the middle brackets were lucky if it was a net 0 change, the 'average' new zealander who supposedly was so much better off doesn't exist due to falling in the gap between the ACTUAL VAST MAJORITY and the '1%' (though it's probably more like 5 or 10 percent in this case, really.) 'course, being on a benefit (state pension, i guess?) due to major health issues and the like i don't pay income tax as such (technically i do, but in the interests of saving time and resources, it's simply left out of the whole process. can still get tax rebates for donating to charity and the like though. there's a whole chain of logic as to why that works that's beneficial to everyone at every level but kinda complex) but Do pay GST. the GST has a fairly high overhead cost for businesses too. they have to keep track of everything they buy and sell, the tax for each thing, and if they sell more than they buy they have to pay the difference in the taxes, and i don't even Know what happens if they buy more than they sell for this..)
so, yeah, taxes have their place, but tax structures are often silly.
it's not an institutionalized state of affairs so much as a 'current government is made of Fail' state of affairs.
.... unfortunately the current government Wants it to be like the USA, and keeps making changes to that effect. *le sigh*
and the last election was .... dubious. i mean, when you have That many contested electorates and an actual Tie (well, until the special votes came in from people who were out of the country at the time and such) in at least one, with 1/4th of eligible voters Not Voting... and media Constantly pushing that the party who (surprise surprise) won was going to get a majority all by itself through out the entire election campaign... then there's how the electorate boundaries were redrawn...
it's all a bit suspect, really. not in a 'we're doing illegal things' sort of way so much as a 'we're gaming the system horribly' sort of way... but still.
On the post: Unhappy With Even Minimal Scrutiny, US Removes Last Pretense Of TPP Transparency
Re:
that and bribery and assassination to ensure the people in a position to do so aren't those who would.
On the post: Unhappy With Even Minimal Scrutiny, US Removes Last Pretense Of TPP Transparency
Re: Re: Re: Re: soooo
not that the USSR was a good counter balance, obviously, as it had the same problems. the British and Russian empires might have been if they were still around. maybe. or they could be just as bad still.
basically, the only protective buffer in the pacific against actions by the USA is the even Worse position of becoming a puppet of China. this is true militarily, economically, and politically, though the last is mostly due to the first two.
now, the USA's internal economy might be a mess, but they still exert a lot of force on smaller entities in spite of this.
so, yeah.
(doesn't help that the current government in NZ at least is, if not a US puppet, made up of the same sorts of idiots who run things in the USA.)
On the post: Unhappy With Even Minimal Scrutiny, US Removes Last Pretense Of TPP Transparency
Re: Re:
On the post: Unhappy With Even Minimal Scrutiny, US Removes Last Pretense Of TPP Transparency
Re: Re: reply
perhaps because we've got little hope of actually changing the outcome of the agreement itself? 'can't fix it, may as well take advantage of it to damage those responsible'?
i'm guessing here.
On the post: TSA Security Theater Described In One Simple Infographic
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: TSA Security Theater Described In One Simple Infographic
Re: Will private airport security grope you at a better price tag than TSA?
On the post: TSA Security Theater Described In One Simple Infographic
Re: Re: Re: So...
the Solution is extra-explanatory colonization.
unfortunately, that doesn't really fly with the bureaucrats and congress critter types in charge of funding.
On the post: Overreacting To Anonymous Is A Greater Threat To Freedom, Innovation & Creativity Than Any Of Their Attacks
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
the US government seems to nice and neatly fail on the 'appropriate punishment' 'law in line with public will' 'swift justice' and 'accurate justice' fronts.
many supposed 'democracies' fail at 'swift justice' (side effect of bureaucracy and an excess of different and overly specific laws) bureaucratic governments (such as, again, most western representative democracies) fail at 'law in line with the public will' to various extents, and again, swift justice, bureaucracies and tyrannies both struggle with 'appropriate punishment' and tyrannies of all sorts have not time for or interest in 'accurate justice'.
have fun in the USA :)
On the post: Feds Tried To Destroy All Evidence Of Memo Saying They Were Committing War Crimes With Torture
Re: Torture
it's also any randoms who get grabed in the process of 'security theater' so they appear to be doing Something, it's also randoms the government decides are embarrassing...
thing is, if you allow it for some specific group or sub group, it doesn't take long for those at the top to find a way of defining ANYONE as belonging to one of those groups when convenient.
better to avoid it all together.
(mind you, i do happen to agree there are circumstances where even torture may be appropriate, but they're incredibly rare and the people likely to find themselves in such situations are NOT the people I'd trust to make that judgment call.)
On the post: Homemade Hardcovers: Yet Again, Anti-Circumvention Interferes With Fair Use
Re: Re: Another Business Killed
in reality... not so much.
On the post: Homemade Hardcovers: Yet Again, Anti-Circumvention Interferes With Fair Use
Re: Re:
they're just either even MORE dangerous, due to being evil rather than just stupid, or not terribly effective due to the horribly corrupt nature of the system.
On the post: Homemade Hardcovers: Yet Again, Anti-Circumvention Interferes With Fair Use
Re: Re:
if you keep it up long enough eventually one side or the other will manage to make it illegal to have laws passed to subvert other people's rights, previous laws, and/or other people's property, and if you're Really lucky the whole thing will be such a mess the government will spend years gutting the whole unmanageable system down to something far more reasonable... or lock up completely and be ignorable :D
On the post: Homemade Hardcovers: Yet Again, Anti-Circumvention Interferes With Fair Use
Re:
of course, that probably takes more effort, needing a decent (at least) quality printer and scanner and using at least twice as much paper and ink in the process, but hey, now you've got two copies :P
On the post: Once Again, The Administration Vindictively Charges A Whistleblower As Being A Spy
Re:
with those definitions there's nothing 'rather close' about it.
unless you count occupying the same location in space-time down to the smallest measurable unit as 'close'
On the post: Once Again, The Administration Vindictively Charges A Whistleblower As Being A Spy
Re: It's Obama...
every time i see someone claiming anyone in the US government system that actually has ANY power is a communist i wish they were in range so i could kick them in the face.
repeatedly.
the entire mainstream US political spectrum is right-shifted.
so far as i can tell, most of the world that gives a damn would rate Obama and his buddies as problematically RIGHT leaning. (or, more specifically, corporate interest leaning. possibly Fascist.) .... or at least centered.
anyone claiming the major players in US politics are even Approaching communist simply shows their own ignorance and idiocy.
On the post: Is Lobbying Closer To Bribery... Or Extortion?
Re: And what if your lobbying is disguised as charity?
the rest of your post is just mutilating the body.
On the post: Is Lobbying Closer To Bribery... Or Extortion?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Gah
income tax pays for the national level stuff. defense, police, that sort of thing.
... the goods and services tax (sales tax, if you like) supposedly does likewise. 'cept it's a regressive tax, so the less money you have the more it screws you over. our government recently (last term, same parties in power though) decided it would be a good idea to lower income taxes (though only by a meaningful amount for those in the top income brackets and they had to borrow money to cover this) and raise the sales tax to compensate, claiming everyone would be better off. ... yeah, the poor got screwed over and mostly made a loss, those in the middle brackets were lucky if it was a net 0 change, the 'average' new zealander who supposedly was so much better off doesn't exist due to falling in the gap between the ACTUAL VAST MAJORITY and the '1%' (though it's probably more like 5 or 10 percent in this case, really.) 'course, being on a benefit (state pension, i guess?) due to major health issues and the like i don't pay income tax as such (technically i do, but in the interests of saving time and resources, it's simply left out of the whole process. can still get tax rebates for donating to charity and the like though. there's a whole chain of logic as to why that works that's beneficial to everyone at every level but kinda complex) but Do pay GST. the GST has a fairly high overhead cost for businesses too. they have to keep track of everything they buy and sell, the tax for each thing, and if they sell more than they buy they have to pay the difference in the taxes, and i don't even Know what happens if they buy more than they sell for this..)
so, yeah, taxes have their place, but tax structures are often silly.
On the post: More Mistakes In The Megaupload Prosecution: Videotape Of The Mansion Raid Has Gone Missing
Re: Re: Man, this is gonna be a whole carton of eggs on their collective face
On the post: More Mistakes In The Megaupload Prosecution: Videotape Of The Mansion Raid Has Gone Missing
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: More Mistakes In The Megaupload Prosecution: Videotape Of The Mansion Raid Has Gone Missing
Re: Re:
.... unfortunately the current government Wants it to be like the USA, and keeps making changes to that effect. *le sigh*
and the last election was .... dubious. i mean, when you have That many contested electorates and an actual Tie (well, until the special votes came in from people who were out of the country at the time and such) in at least one, with 1/4th of eligible voters Not Voting... and media Constantly pushing that the party who (surprise surprise) won was going to get a majority all by itself through out the entire election campaign... then there's how the electorate boundaries were redrawn...
it's all a bit suspect, really. not in a 'we're doing illegal things' sort of way so much as a 'we're gaming the system horribly' sort of way... but still.
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