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Re: US Finally Kills The 2nd Ammendment
by Nostradumbass＠SAFe-mail.net 10 Jan '04

10 Jan '04

> >Further appeals to Congress and the states are no longer a sure bet. The > >soap box and the ballot box have been throughly tried, is it now time to > >get out the ammo box? > > You're forgetting the jury box. Are you forgetting that the Fat Lady on the jury, at least in the 9th Circuit, already sang? That's how we got to where we are. Could other juries in other cases decide differently? Sure. But why wait any more than Congress or some States may wait? In two key cases last century the logic of the Supreme Court or lack of it was clearly revealed as they tried to somehow interpret away historical record and Founder intention to square the 2nd Amendment with statist needs. In Cases v. United States, 131 F.2d 916 (1st Cir. 1942) the Supreme Court unbelievably held that U.S. v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939) had not intended "to formulate a general rule" regarding which arms were protected by the Second Amendment and therefore many types of arms were not protected. In fact Miller held that it is the firearm itself, not the act of keeping and bearing the firearm, which must have a "reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia. Meaning if the weapon qualified any citizen could keep and near it. A plain reading of Miller meant only weapons with non-military application could be regulated by Congress and that could not be right because it challenged the 'right' of government to have a force monopoly. So the Court's reasoning was that the Founders could not have meant for the federal government to have any effective deterrent to its tyranny from the citizenry. Even after absorbing the opinion, I cannot fathom how convoluted a reading of the historical record those on bench needed in order to arrive at their conclusion. Pretzel logic indeed!

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FBI Weighs in on VoIP
by Tyler Durden 09 Jan '04

09 Jan '04

Some mention of crypto, too. http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=45695 _________________________________________________________________ Check your PC for viruses with the FREE McAfee online computer scan. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

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Welcome to America. Please give us the finger. Smile for the camera. Now please get the hell out
by Steve Schear 09 Jan '04

09 Jan '04

Scenes From A Sad Airport <http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2004/01/09/notes010904.DTL&nl= fix> By Mark Morford Look at those eyes. Perturbed and bemused and just a little furious. Look at those eyes as the baffled woman from east Texas stares down at the table as the security agent rifles through her luggage and pulls out the contents for all to see. And out pops the skimpy latex thong and the anal beads and the Astroglide and the smallish travel dildo that isn't really a dildo at all but is really a "sexual-education device," because, as everyone knows, dildos are completely illegal in Texas. But not guns. Guns are mandatory. Note how she notes the irony. Note how she considers suing for embarrassment and humiliation and for the sheer idiocy of it all. Note how the security agent mumbles something snide and derogatory. Note how we, as a paranoid nation, are just confused and sad and how our airports have become these comical circus sideshows, invasive and racist and draconian and pornographic all in the name of, what was it again? Protection? For our own good? Is that it? And look there, look how that conservative Christian U.S. congressman is just so red faced and enraged when they search through his manly black Samsonite carry-on and find, well, not just a nice new Bible and clean white Jockey underwear and assorted envelopes of cash from the director of Destroy Gay Marriage Now! of Colorado Springs, Colo. Look there, just under the argyle sweaters and the signed head shot from Pat Robertson, at the stash of sticky Honcho magazines and some Hello Kitty Speedos and, lo and behold, the metal in the congressman's boots induces an unfortunate backroom strip search, where what do we see but the assorted bright red welts of spankdom as incurred from Mistress Carlita's Pleasure Bunker in downtown Phoenix, from the night before. Oh, Congressman. Do you hear that? That screaming? Of course you do. Just another outraged mother of three, her appalled shouts echoing all the way to the food court as LAX security gropes the living hell out of her stunned 2-year-old daughter after the tot's teddy bear appeared to have some odd-looking wiring in its cute fuzzy little arms. And the mother up and slaps the scowling groping security agent and alarms are sounded and guns are drawn and children are screaming and Spongebob backpacks tumble to the ground and spill their bright happy contents all over the stained tiles in terrible slow motion, like a bad Tarantino outtake. And thus were lines held up and 16 flights from Dulles and O'Hare and JFK delayed for nine hours, causing a domino-effect 27-hour backup systemwide and thusly pumping yet another enormous and savage dose of frustrated rage and angst and sighing ennui into another artery of the cultural bloodstream. Look. Look there. See the hobbled, 86-year-old man forced to put down his cane and remove his threadbare belt to pass through the metal detector. Terrorists are everywhere! Bush said so! We can't be too sure! Do you have metal pins in your hip, sir? Can you please remove them or something? Let us watch in humiliated shame as he struggles to keep his pants from falling down as it looks, to all appearances, like he's being led though a scanner to some horrific prison cell where he will be fed old oatmeal and dangerous drugs in harsh fluorescent concrete rooms, when all he's trying to do is fly to Poughkeepsie for his granddaughter's third wedding. Because God knows you just can't tell who might be a terrorist these days, and you can't be too careful, because they could indeed be anyone at all from anywhere at all, including but not at all limited to white Lutheran octogenarians from the Shady Pines retirement-condo complex in Butte, Mont. Not to mention them dang furriners. Let us now welcome the overwhelmed visitor from China, or Latvia, or Johannesburg, or Brazil, or India, or (heaven forefend) Turkey. It's OK, come on out of that plane. Ignore the stun guns and the growling dogs. America loves you. Let us now note how our fair visitor walks into the American security miasma feeling like she is entering one big draconian maze of weird overlit American racism and paranoia, as all visitors from all "suspicious" countries have their photos taken and their fingers imprinted and their self-respect jolted and their identities filed for 20 years by the FBI, just in case. Welcome to America, foreign traveler. Please hold still and place your finger here and smile for the camera and enjoy your first taste of our trademark, wickedly ironic and hypocritical joke about America being the land of the free. Is that weird necklace a religious symbol or something? Are those beads filled with white-hot hate for our glorious freedoms and our 24-hour Safeways and our love of low-rise jeans on teenage girls? Are you in some sort of cult? Repeat after us: Bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to have their spirits snapped like chicken bones and be made to feel as if they are all, by default, criminals and thieves and Bush's "gol-dang guilty durty heathen furriners." Thank you. Please proceed like mad cow-infested cattle to the next airport screening agent. Just a couple questions at this point. Do you have any nasty homemade bombs or lethal biotoxic intentions or rampant simmering hatreds of George W. Bush on your person at this time? Damn right you don't. Now please proceed to the painful urine-sample room to have your dignity forcibly removed. Souvenir? Look closer. Look domestic. See how so many Americans standing in all the various airport lines for 2.7 hours seem to just sigh and suck it up. See how they all cast their eyes down and tolerate the multiple driver's-license checks and the general insanity and the obvious government-sponsored invasions of privacy and the happy perky assaults on our civil liberties because, well, it's for our own good, right? All in the name of inducing a bogus feeling of protection and safety and never you mind America's hilarious gaping arcade of exploitable opportunities for terrorism, from our huge wide-open shipping ports to the intricately distributed unprotected food supply to our antiquated water systems to a thousand other ridiculously obvious apertures. And never mind that even tiny raging splinter-cell terrorists aren't so stupid as to try the same vile hijack stunt twice. And never you mind that none of this would've stopped any of the 9/11 thugs. But oh yes, let's fingerprint old ladies from Latvia. That oughta do it. Wait, you're from Andorra? Wonderful! You're perfectly OK and we need no fingerprints. Come on in. Ditto Australia. And Austria. And Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, Portugal and Singapore. Hey, you couldn't possibly hate America enough to wish us harm. Could you? Besides, we stop only swarthy Third World types and guys with scary-looking beards and unpronounceable names that sound like rare kidney diseases. Welcome, all, to the new-millennium American airport. Observe the perfectly imperfect microcosm of new American ideals and values, all about isolationism and quiet cancerous paranoia and a huge increase in government employment and expenditure and bureaucracy and very sorry but you can't bring that coffee into the boarding area. Welcome to the all-American fear of the Other, coupled with a sad acceptance that this is the way it is and the way it will be for years and years to come. Please remove your shoes. And your belt. And your watch. And your self-respect. Bush forever. More war in '04. Enjoy your flight.

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RE: Singers jailed for lyrics
by Trei, Peter 09 Jan '04

09 Jan '04

From: ken [mailto:bbrow07@students.bbk.ac.uk] >Trei, Peter wrote: >> Bill Stewart wrote: >>> Michael Kalus wrote: >>>>>>Certain symbols (e.g. Swastika) are forbidden as well. >>>As Tim pointed out, the Swastika symbol had long use before the >>>Nazis picked it up. >[...] >> Vaguely related.... >>[... swastika censorship in NYC subway tile floor elided...] >At least one London Underground station has swastika patterns in >its tiles, and apparently did through the War. >India House in London, the offices of the Indian High Commission >(Commonwealth-speak for "embassy"), has swastikas in the >scupltures on the outside walls, and also in murals inside. They >would have been there right through WW2, the building is from the >1920s and early 30s. I have no idea if anyone covered them up. >http://www.hcilondon.net/aboutus/history-indiahouse.html >Its in the Aldwych, right in the middle of London, passed by >millions of people every year. (Including me on my way to work). >I've never heard of anyone complaining. I used to walk by India House on my way to college (I went to Kings College London), and I noticed them too. I believe at least one British government ministry used the swastika as a symbol in the early 30's - but can't remember which. There was a bit of a fad for 'runic' symbols back then. Peter

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Re: Singers jailed for lyrics
by ken 09 Jan '04

09 Jan '04

Trei, Peter wrote: > Bill Stewart wrote: >> Michael Kalus wrote: >>>>>Certain symbols (e.g. Swastika) are forbidden as well. >>As Tim pointed out, the Swastika symbol had long use before the >>Nazis picked it up. [...] > Vaguely related.... > > I used to live in upper Manhattan. One of the subway stops I > used was the 190th on the IND ("A" train). This burrows deep > under Washington Heights, and has two entrances - a long > tunnel which slopes *down* from the station to an exit near > Broadway, and an elevator up to Fort Washington Avenue. This > section of the line opened in 1932. > > The floor of the vestibule of the upper elevator lobby is > laid with geometric patterns in red, white, and black terra > cotta tiles, and when I moved there in the late 70's I was > amused to note that the pattern included 4 swastikas, in > black tiles against a white background, about 4 inches across. > > Sometime in the late 80's or early 90's, the swastikas where > chisled out, and the square areas where they had been crudely > filled with concrete. > > Ft. Washington Ave by that time had long been an area heavily > populated by immigrant Russian Jews. I often wondered > exactly what chain of events led to this vandalism. At least one London Underground station has swastika patterns in its tiles, and apparently did through the War. India House in London, the offices of the Indian High Commission (Commonwealth-speak for "embassy"), has swastikas in the scupltures on the outside walls, and also in murals inside. They would have been there right through WW2, the building is from the 1920s and early 30s. I have no idea if anyone covered them up. http://www.hcilondon.net/aboutus/history-indiahouse.html Its in the Aldwych, right in the middle of London, passed by millions of people every year. (Including me on my way to work). I've never heard of anyone complaining.

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Re: Sources and Sinks
by Michael Kalus 09 Jan '04

09 Jan '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 > > Ever heard of toll roads? Yes, those things you drive on and pay for > their > use. They work quite well in many of the socialist European countries > so > they ought to work in the land of the free too. > Yes, the way this usually works is that the government builds the road, then sells it to a private company for some money and then the upkeep is handled by the company. It is rather seldom that someone builds a road for a business venture. > Where there is no governmental police force, their is demand for > private enforcement. And you know what? They regularly do their jobs > better than the police. Of course there is no oversight body, so if they use "excessive force" well, It's all part of doing business and after all they didn't smash YOUR skull so what do you care, right? > >> The business though benefits extremly from the infrastructure that is >> build with taxes. Plus a lot of companies can exempt even more money, >> so in essence a lot of companies don't pay a dime in taxes. > > Show me a company that doesn't pay a dime in taxes, please, make it one > that actually has employees and does something useful and makes profit. > Amuse me and try it out. I don't have a link ready right now, but there were several US corporations as well as some in Germany who did NOT pay any taxes for the past couple of years because of either "breaks" they got so not to leave, OR because they posted such high losses that they did not post any profit on the books, thus not pay any taxes. > >>> Alice, an engineer or pharmacist or perhaps a small business owner, >>> works between 40% and 70% of her time to pay money into government. >> >> And how much money does she get back by services? Say: >> Homelandsecurity? Say: Roadconstruction? etc.? > > A lot less than she would have to pay for those services in a free > society. This is very easy to determine from the fact that a big part > of > tax money goes into one social welfare scheme or another. > Assuming right now that you are living in Finland, i am wondering why you not move into the land of the free and do it without any social net? > Take that and in addition remember that goverments tend to do things > inefficiently (yes, that road building and security and other stuff > tend > to cost more than they'd have to) and that he gets a lot of 'services' > that have purely negative value to him (say tariffs, drug laws, > government > help monopolies [AMA is first to come to mind here], etc). > I guess it depends on which study you look. If the Army / Homeland security costs more when run by the government than when run by private firms the US Army should be highly efficent. After all WITHOUT private contractors none of the personell would be fed (that is done by a french catering company), without the likes of Halliburton and such the US Army would not be in Iraq, the support is pretty much "outsourced" for greater "efficency" and "cost saving". Of course companies tend to overcharge quite a huge amount, but hey, I am sure at the end they are still cheaper, right? What you fail to realize is that "you get what you pay for" and why would I want a company cut corners in things like social services, Security (i.e. police) or any other of these services only to save a buck or two? If that is the mentality no wonder companies attach a value to human life and don't really care if you burn up in your car or get killed as long as it is cheaper than to fix a problem. I guess that is also a reason why insurance rates for SUVs aren't up, while smaller cars are getting hit (Want to know why? Because if you die it is a one time payment and the insurance companies are off the hook. If you're just insured though, they pay a lot more to get you "fixed" again. SUVs tend to kill more people than maime them, thus by their logic they are cheaper). But all of you who seem to think that social services et al, should be run on a profit maximiation basis, tell me this: How much are you worth in Dollars and cents (or Euros)? I would like to know how much you think you are worth to your friends, family, kids, spouses etc.? Michael -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.0.3 iQA/AwUBP/a/DmlCnxcrW2uuEQIkXACcC5x0ac8TJ+elTCJThFZlWwMnyQ0AoKkf Vy5kyDyc9Hq/uCDyOCgCUF6Z =e5W6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Engineers in U.S. vs. India
by Jim Dixon 08 Jan '04

08 Jan '04

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Declan McCullagh wrote: > http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-407043,curpg-3.cms "Today, Bangalore stands ahead of Bay Area, San Francisco and California, with a lead of 20,000 techies, while employing a total number of 1.5 lakh engineers." ek lakh = 100,000 I am sure that there are a lot of good engineers in India. However, the educational system has to be seen to be fully appreciated. When my wife and I last travelled in north India, admittedly quite some time ago, what began as a riot at the University of Lucknow -- students protesting over invigilation of exams, I believe -- escalated into a conflict that eventually involved the armed police on the one hand and the military on the other. The university campus was destroyed, burned down. I spent several months in Calcutta over a couple of years. During at least one visit there were riots at the university; the papers reported bodies hanging from trees. Many had been shot. Same story: students protested because they were stopped from openly exchanging papers, consulting books, or just chatting with friends during examinations. Many were also angry because invigilators were actually checking the identities of those writing the exam papers. The going rate for a degree at the time was several hundred dollars. Knowledge of the subject was not much relevant. Such education as occurred largely involved rote learning, often based on texts many years out of date. > Moreover, it is found out that the Americans are shying away from the > challenges of math and science. A recent National Science Foundation Study > reveals a 5 per cent decline in the overall doctoral candidates in the US > over the last five years. No telling what this actually means, given that a large percentage of doctoral candidates are foreign. It is becoming much harder for foreign students to get into the US, so many are going to universities in Europe. This change has occurred in the last five years -- more precisely, since 9/11. > The India side story: India produces 3.1 million college graduates a year, > which is expected to be doubled by 2010. The number of engineering colleges > is slated to grow 50 per cent, to nearly 1,600, over the next four years. My impression is that India has a few excellent institutions and a vast number of unbelievably bad schools. It seems likely that the flow of money into Bangalore and a few other centers will gradually improve this situation, but it is likely to take decades, and per-capita convergence with the US and Europe seems unlikely within the century. While 1.5 lakh (150,000) engineers may sound like a lot, you have to bear in mind that there are about 100 crore (1 billion) people in India. -- Jim Dixon jdd(a)dixons.org tel +44 117 982 0786 mobile +44 797 373 7881 http://jxcl.sourceforge.net Java unit test coverage http://xlattice.sourceforge.net p2p communications infrastructure

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Re: Engineers in U.S. vs. India
by Major Variola (ret) 08 Jan '04

08 Jan '04

At 01:27 PM 1/6/04 -0800, Steve Schear wrote: >Try building and finding a place to launch an amateur rocket (it can be >done, but now only with the greatest of regulatory red tape). I did. Some >of my group's rockets achieved heights over 100,000 ft (confirmed by >Edward's AFB radar.) Yeah, but could they track an IR source :-)

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Political Compass
by Steve Schear 07 Jan '04

07 Jan '04

A simple and interesting test to determine where people (its tuned to American issues) fit on a simple 2D graph of Left vs. Right, Authoritarian vs. Libertarian axis. http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/ Results are compared with estimates of current/recent political-religious leaders. No idea how accurate it is but my own results are pretty much in keeping with expectations: Left/Right 3.88 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.97 steve A foolish Constitutional inconsistency is the hobgoblin of freedom, adored by judges and demagogue statesmen. - Steve Schear

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WiFi Repeater?
by Tyler Durden 07 Jan '04

07 Jan '04

I'm thinking about a WiFi repeater... Imagine I work on a high floor in an office tower, but I know that very nearby, on the ground floor, there's a public WiFi hotspot. Now let's say I want to be able to access that hotspot, but I'm currently out of range due to the height. DOES THERE EXIST something like a WiFi "repeater", which will allow me to "reach" that public WiFi spot without my being within 200 feet or so? (I deploying one or more repeaters throughout our offices so that I can reach the public hotspot.) Of course, it's also better if that repeater masks who I am to the real hotspot, and terminates encryption on both sides. But of course, I don't want it to cost a ton, and I probably don't want anyone else to be able to use it either. One nice application of this is to be able to regularly send messages from this public spot, but without anyone every actually seeing me. And if the "last" repeater is in these (private) offices somewhere, it's doubtful anyone would ever be able to tell that this is occurring. Or so I believe... -TD _________________________________________________________________ Expand your wine savvy and get some great new recipes at MSN Wine. http://wine.msn.com

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