Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: "chance to fish in a sea of secrets"
"Colin Powell stood before the UN and told them that Iraq was responsible for the Anthrax letters."
Again, yes, they lied. That isn't a reason to not go to war with Iraq, it's simply a reason to think our govt. lies.
"Sorry, Dark Helmet, but you're just wrong. Even FactCheck.org disagrees with you;"
Bullshit. That link actually says there WERE WMDs in Iraq, but they were from before the Gulf War, which is a meaningless distinction. Iraq said there were none. They lied. Period.
"If the war "had to" happen, why did we end Desert Storm before finishing the job?"
That's the right question, and the answer is that we should NOT have ended the war. We should have finished the job then and removed an international gangster from office.
"The Iraq war was unnecessary."
You can doom the Kurds to genocide if you wish. I choose not to because I don't believe in genocide.
Beyond that, I listed the four ways the UN decides that a country has lost its sovereignty. You didn't disprove a single one of them for the obvious reason that are not dis-provable. The war was a just one.
"His "stockpiles" of chemical weapons were a) severely depleted b)constantly monitored/tracked by the U.S. and others and c) had been sold to him by who? The U.S."
That may all be true, but none of it really matters. They said they didn't have WMDs, when in fact they did, period, paragraph, full stop. Besides, this is simply one of the FOUR tests the UN has for when a nation loses it's sovereignty, but at least you've admitted Iraq failed that tests. The other tests are as follows.
1. Violates the non-proliferation treaty - FAILED
2. Acts as an aggressor upon other nations in war - FAILED
3. Engages in international gangsterism/terrorism - FAILED
4. Engages in acts of genocide - FAILED
You can criticize the American government for scare-mongering, war-mongering, and lying, and you'd be right on every count, but none of that is an argument against going to war with Iraq. That war HAD to happen, and we mistaked our way into being on the right side of history on that one....
"Or that the entire Iraq war was ginned up out of nothing as has been proven by the total lack of WMD."
Wait...what? There wasn't a total lack of WMD. There was a total lack of nuclear weapons (though there was evidence that Saddam in fact DID have a nuke program several years before the invasion and he buried it in the sand once he knew the inspectors were on their way in). If you want to say the government scare mongered the public to whip up support for the war, I won't disagree with you, but let's not pretend that the Saddam regime both wasn't in possession of chemical and biological weapons programs (in fact, he'd used them against the Kurds in his own land) or that he didn't absolutely have to go....
Is there a reason you haven't responded to me on my Pro Boxer post from earlier? In case you might have missed it, I apologized for trolling you two years ago. Are you going to apologize for behaving as you have, or not? I think it's fair for all of Techdirt to know what kind of member of our community you'd like to be....
Re: @ "not unlike the kind of thing we see in our own comments section from time to time."
Yup, I was trolling you on that page w/a quote from Barack Obama, which is what you quoted above. I was actually just pulling random quotes out of my head for fun. We all do things we're not incredibly proud of at times. Sorry I trolled you.
Now that that's out of the way, you want to apologize for the constant demeaning comments, including your odd use of "Timmy", or is this apology going to be completely one-sided?
I would normally be laughing along with you, except the Sim City franchises is one of the few important game franchises to me, since I've been playing it for the past, oh I don't know, twenty years or so.
It's too bad this kind of thing couldn't happen to a crappy game instead....
You apparently missed what Paul's letter was all about, which was the use of drone strikes domestically against American citizens. Holder refused to say he wouldn't do that. That's a problem.
There are some, albeit only a few, situations where absolutes are warranted. For instance, if an action breaks our constitution, it's wrong....ALWAYS. This is simply one of those cases....
"As a Republican, I absolutely resent that they originated the Patriot Act. But don't be fooled, the Dems have taken to it like a duck to water as well."
It wasn't really apropos for the post, but there can absolutely zero doubt that the above is 100% accurate....
"I don't believe I'd like to meet a sober DH in a darkened debate hall without a shiv in my back pocket."
Interestingly, I've been considering trying to put together something of a coffee shop / pub debate group in Chicago, that would have a roster of people willing to debate topics and allow the bars/shops we partner with have their patrons choose a debate topic once a month, then two members of the group or more would take up sides and perform the debate on site w/a moderator.
I have no idea whether or not that could be successful, but it would sure as hell be fun to try....
Are you saying that even if there were no such thing as piracy, the digital revolution in music wouldn't have produced massive layoffs? What industry hasn't undergone an equally massive efficiency upgrade that DIDN'T result in massive layoffs?
I think you're going to have a problem pointing to piracy as directly causal of label layoffs....
"It would involve coming to an agreement about how much of the record labels disappearing revenue since 1999 was from piracy.
I don't claim it's all from that, but would you suggest none of it is?"
Well, I think first we need to agree on where to place the goal posts. Are we advocating for creator's revenue, or rights holders? Those are often two very different entities.
With that said, I'm not going to suggest that piracy hasn't created lost revenue for labels. That would be ridiculous. However, I will claim two things. One, that that lost revenue lost to labels doesn't really translate as lost revenue to the actual creators, in part directly because of "hollywood accounting" that the labels also practice. Downloads aren't taking money from creators, because creators were never going to see that money to begin with.
Secondly, you can't seriously argue that piracy/downloading/whatever hasn't also done some things to INCREASE revenue for both creators and labels, depending on the contracts they have with artists. So we need a full balance sheet to determine whether piracy results in more lost revenue than it generates.
On the other hand, and back to the article, nobody can seriously suggest that this type of accounting practice EVER results in more revenue for the creator, so it seems that it is inherently worse, or at least more easily maligned, than piracy to engage in hollywood accounting.
That'd be an interesting debate. I certainly don't have a number for either side, but again, I'm not making any claim here. You are. You're saying "ripping off" artists causes harm, but then you don't want studios to be critiqued for doing likewise.
I'm not sure what point you think you're making....
It isn't a matter of trust for me, but I always welcome more numbers, particularly if the methodology for reaching them is included. Numbers and their methods are simply right or wrong. Numbers can be spun, but the method for reaching them can't. The conclusions, if there are any, are simply right or wrong. That's why I love them....
On the post: NYT Former Exec Editor Misrepresents Bradley Manning
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: "chance to fish in a sea of secrets"
Again, yes, they lied. That isn't a reason to not go to war with Iraq, it's simply a reason to think our govt. lies.
"Sorry, Dark Helmet, but you're just wrong. Even FactCheck.org disagrees with you;"
Bullshit. That link actually says there WERE WMDs in Iraq, but they were from before the Gulf War, which is a meaningless distinction. Iraq said there were none. They lied. Period.
"If the war "had to" happen, why did we end Desert Storm before finishing the job?"
That's the right question, and the answer is that we should NOT have ended the war. We should have finished the job then and removed an international gangster from office.
"The Iraq war was unnecessary."
You can doom the Kurds to genocide if you wish. I choose not to because I don't believe in genocide.
Beyond that, I listed the four ways the UN decides that a country has lost its sovereignty. You didn't disprove a single one of them for the obvious reason that are not dis-provable. The war was a just one.
On the post: NYT Former Exec Editor Misrepresents Bradley Manning
Re: Re: Re: "chance to fish in a sea of secrets"
That may all be true, but none of it really matters. They said they didn't have WMDs, when in fact they did, period, paragraph, full stop. Besides, this is simply one of the FOUR tests the UN has for when a nation loses it's sovereignty, but at least you've admitted Iraq failed that tests. The other tests are as follows.
1. Violates the non-proliferation treaty - FAILED
2. Acts as an aggressor upon other nations in war - FAILED
3. Engages in international gangsterism/terrorism - FAILED
4. Engages in acts of genocide - FAILED
You can criticize the American government for scare-mongering, war-mongering, and lying, and you'd be right on every count, but none of that is an argument against going to war with Iraq. That war HAD to happen, and we mistaked our way into being on the right side of history on that one....
On the post: NYT Former Exec Editor Misrepresents Bradley Manning
Re: "chance to fish in a sea of secrets"
Wait...what? There wasn't a total lack of WMD. There was a total lack of nuclear weapons (though there was evidence that Saddam in fact DID have a nuke program several years before the invasion and he buried it in the sand once he knew the inspectors were on their way in). If you want to say the government scare mongered the public to whip up support for the war, I won't disagree with you, but let's not pretend that the Saddam regime both wasn't in possession of chemical and biological weapons programs (in fact, he'd used them against the Kurds in his own land) or that he didn't absolutely have to go....
On the post: Case Study: Band Embraces Grooveshark And Catapults Its Career
Re: So... money into promotion works.
On the post: Professional Boxer Gets Trolled On Twitter, Shows Up At Guy's House
Re: @ "not unlike the kind of thing we see in our own comments section from time to time."
Now that that's out of the way, you want to apologize for the constant demeaning comments, including your odd use of "Timmy", or is this apology going to be completely one-sided?
On the post: PETA Goes After Assassin's Creed For Its Depiction Of Whaling; Ubisoft Responds With A Heaping Dose Of Sarcasm
Re: PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too
On the post: SimCity: The Backlash
Re:
It's too bad this kind of thing couldn't happen to a crappy game instead....
On the post: Eric Holder On Domestic Drone Strikes: Eh, Could Happen
Re: Re: Re: Well...
There are some, albeit only a few, situations where absolutes are warranted. For instance, if an action breaks our constitution, it's wrong....ALWAYS. This is simply one of those cases....
On the post: Eric Holder On Domestic Drone Strikes: Eh, Could Happen
Re: Well...
On the post: Mobile Operator CEO: Customers Under Our Data Caps Don't Use Much Data, So Nobody Needs Unlimited Data
Re: No, no...
On the post: Bradley Manning Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize As People Begin Realizing How Damaging His Case Is To A Free Press
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Bradley Manning Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize As People Begin Realizing How Damaging His Case Is To A Free Press
Re: Re:
Please tell me you don't actually think Henry Kissinger deserved a Nobel Peace prize....
On the post: If Most Crime Involves A 'Cyber' Element, Can't We Just Call It Crime Instead Of Cybercrime?
Re: Re:
It wasn't really apropos for the post, but there can absolutely zero doubt that the above is 100% accurate....
On the post: White House Turns Star Wars / Star Trek Mistake Into Funny Meme
Re: Re: Re: Obama's mind meld
It takes a great deal of stones and a fair amount of psychedelic drugs to pretend that W. could talk....
On the post: Hollywood Accounting Strikes Again: Universal Sued For Screwing Over Its Own Sister Company
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Interestingly, I've been considering trying to put together something of a coffee shop / pub debate group in Chicago, that would have a roster of people willing to debate topics and allow the bars/shops we partner with have their patrons choose a debate topic once a month, then two members of the group or more would take up sides and perform the debate on site w/a moderator.
I have no idea whether or not that could be successful, but it would sure as hell be fun to try....
On the post: Hollywood Accounting Strikes Again: Universal Sued For Screwing Over Its Own Sister Company
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I think you're going to have a problem pointing to piracy as directly causal of label layoffs....
On the post: Hollywood Accounting Strikes Again: Universal Sued For Screwing Over Its Own Sister Company
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I don't claim it's all from that, but would you suggest none of it is?"
Well, I think first we need to agree on where to place the goal posts. Are we advocating for creator's revenue, or rights holders? Those are often two very different entities.
With that said, I'm not going to suggest that piracy hasn't created lost revenue for labels. That would be ridiculous. However, I will claim two things. One, that that lost revenue lost to labels doesn't really translate as lost revenue to the actual creators, in part directly because of "hollywood accounting" that the labels also practice. Downloads aren't taking money from creators, because creators were never going to see that money to begin with.
Secondly, you can't seriously argue that piracy/downloading/whatever hasn't also done some things to INCREASE revenue for both creators and labels, depending on the contracts they have with artists. So we need a full balance sheet to determine whether piracy results in more lost revenue than it generates.
On the other hand, and back to the article, nobody can seriously suggest that this type of accounting practice EVER results in more revenue for the creator, so it seems that it is inherently worse, or at least more easily maligned, than piracy to engage in hollywood accounting.
On the post: Hollywood Accounting Strikes Again: Universal Sued For Screwing Over Its Own Sister Company
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I'm not sure what point you think you're making....
On the post: Hollywood Accounting Strikes Again: Universal Sued For Screwing Over Its Own Sister Company
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Perhaps, but you're defending those that do against a critique, so you're on their side of the debate. Keep trying....
On the post: Hollywood Accounting Strikes Again: Universal Sued For Screwing Over Its Own Sister Company
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
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