The Last Word

[Bazza]

Re: The Last Word

 

Yes

 

Ask yourself why America has had to fight so many wars since the 1940s and why the American defense spending is a significant percentage of total American production (the Military-Industrial-Commercial Complex's percentage of America's GDP /National Income)?

 

Now ask yourself why it seems that America is almost contantly fighting wars abroad, and how the media has been reporting it / other international events. Is the mainstream media a collective using rose-tinted glasses as they report these worldwide events?

 

If America is a nation off peace, why are there so many wars that it fights or continue to fight over the last few decades? It now seems inevitable that Iran is next.

 

Is the celebrity focused pop culture media used as a distraction to keep its citizens awareness from looking to closely at these issues, real issues.

 

I could go on, but think I have made enough of a point to stop here.

[Bazza]

Re: The Last Word

 

Compare as a news story (or just in general):

 

Paul Karl Lukacs Was Detained by the Feds for Not Answering*Questions

 

“Why were you in China?” asked the passport control officer, a woman with the appearance and disposition of a prison matron.

 

“None of your business,” I said.

 

Her eyes widened in disbelief.

 

“Excuse me?” she asked.

 

“I’m not going to be interrogated as a pre-condition of re-entering my own country,” I said.

 

This did not go over well.

 

Also read the follow-up.

 

How many other Americans know this?

[Darbor]

Re: The Last Word

 

Compare as a news story (or just in general):

 

Paul Karl Lukacs Was Detained by the Feds for Not Answering*Questions

Also read the follow-up.

 

How many other Americans know this?

Very interesting article and follow-up.

 

Here is an excellent video (two actually) on why you should never talk to the police. The first video is the law professor and former defense attorney presenting his argument. The second video is a very experienced detective giving his perspective.

 

It is a pretty extreme point of view but is well presented and entertaining. It is also very long so settle in to watch for a while.

 

 

I hope this is not a duplicate reference.

27 min

 

21 min

[Bazza]

Re: The Last Word

 

Very interesting article and follow-up.

 

Here is an excellent video (two actually) on why you should never talk to the police. The first video is the law professor and former defense attorney presenting his argument. The second video is a very experienced detective giving his perspective.

 

It is a pretty extreme point of view but is well presented and entertaining. It is also very long so settle in to watch for a while.

 

I hope you didn't go to too much trouble with the videos. As a non-American I anticipate the videos will be tangentially related to me (in a general manner). I'm sure our wonderful American citizens who frequent this awesome thread will find more use.

 

Thanks anyway for your post.

[Cancer]

Re: The Last Word

 

Yes

 

Ask yourself why America has had to fight so many wars since the 1940s and why the American defense spending is a significant percentage of total American production (the Military-Industrial-Commercial Complex's percentage of America's GDP /National Income)?

 

Now ask yourself why it seems that America is almost contantly fighting wars abroad, and how the media has been reporting it / other international events. Is the mainstream media a collective using rose-tinted glasses as they report these worldwide events?

 

If America is a nation off peace, why are there so many wars that it fights or continue to fight over the last few decades? It now seems inevitable that Iran is next.

 

Is the celebrity focused pop culture media used as a distraction to keep its citizens awareness from looking to closely at these issues, real issues.

 

I could go on, but think I have made enough of a point to stop here.

It's kind of like Britain between 1814 and 1914.

[Cancer]

Re: The Last Word

 

"Mathematical Meth" is Methods. Many of which I haven't had cause to use since I learned them in class a few days back.

[L. Marcus]

Re: The Last Word

 

A little rusy, then?

[Cancer]

Re: The Last Word

 

But every 19 years to the day? And to the precise angle of elevation? A coincidence?

 

First, the book I mentioned.

 

Also, the Metonic cycle is not as precise a repetition as you seem to think it is. It's an interesting coincidence, and handy for calendation, but there's no numerology there. Both the orbital period of the Moon and the rotation period of the Earth change slowly over time, so there's slow drift in it on long timescales.

 

Come back in a million years and it'll be different.

[BlueCloud2k2]

Re: The Last Word

 

Compare as a news story (or just in general):

 

Paul Karl Lukacs Was Detained by the Feds for Not Answering*Questions

 

 

 

Also read the follow-up.

 

How many other Americans know this?

 

 

Intriguing. I myself have not traveled abroad, but my wife has plans to drag me to Scotland (granted, I will most likely enjoy myself - I'd like go just for the castles).

 

I've always felt that "Business or Pleasure" to be a trick question anyway. There are too many possible scenarios where it could be "both" or "neither" (like oh, say, a funeral). IMHO, It should be "Business or Personal." While I agree with the fellow who was arrested on basic principle, I do understand the need to red-flag passports with certain stamps (Amsterdam comes to mind, as does Columbia - and that's just for narcotics).

 

China would be a bit of an unknown for me personally. I cannot think of anything available in China that's illegal that can't be downloaded via the internet - they are prolific pirates and their morals aren't nearly as rigid as ours (their government was established by a pedophile for crying out loud - and they hold the man up as a hero!). I really can't see anyone bringing anything back through customs that would be a big deal.

 

However, arresting someone for having an attitude is a load of BS (though I personally have the philosophy of "Be nice to Cashiers and Government Workers, they have enough douche-bags to deal with"). Being arrested for refusing to talk to an officer is yet another load of BS. So I'm going to have to side with Civil Liberties on this one.

[Darbor]

Re: The Last Word

 

I hope you didn't go to too much trouble with the videos. As a non-American I anticipate the videos will be tangentially related to me (in a general manner). I'm sure our wonderful American citizens who frequent this awesome thread will find more use.

 

Thanks anyway for your post.

Thanks for pointing that out. I guess I had my blinders on. I got curious and looked for some international equivalent and didn't find it. Here is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which has equivalents to many of the rights in the US Constitution but I did not see one that was equivalent to the right that protects Americans from being compelled to be a witness against themselves, which is the basis of the commonly known "right to remain silent."

[Cancer]

Re: The Last Word

 

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned, and in this case, the enforcer is a bureaucrat. The note that "in the US there isn't anything they can do" is the crucial statement.

[Bazza]

Re: The Last Word

 

First' date=' the book I mentioned.

 

Also, the Metonic cycle is not as precise a repetition as you seem to think it is. It's an interesting coincidence, and handy for calendation, but there's no numerology there. Both the orbital period of the Moon and the rotation period of the Earth change slowly over time, so there's slow drift in it on long timescales.

 

Come back in a million years and it'll be different.

 

Ahh ok.

 

So next question. Does Venus make a pentacle as she whizzes past Earth-- as Evening Star & Morning Star. If you were too plot this would it be a pentacle?

[Bazza]

Re: The Last Word

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I guess I had my blinders on. I got curious and looked for some international equivalent and didn't find it. Here is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which has equivalents to many of the rights in the US Constitution but I did not see one that was equivalent to the right that protects Americans from being compelled to be a witness against themselves' date=' which is the basis of the commonly known "right to remain silent."[/quote']

 

Thanks for the link.

[Bazza]

Re: The Last Word

 

However, arresting someone for having an attitude is a load of BS (though I personally have the philosophy of "Be nice to Cashiers and Government Workers, they have enough douche-bags to deal with"). Being arrested for refusing to talk to an officer is yet another load of BS. So I'm going to have to side with Civil Liberties on this one.

 

He was not arrested, but detained. Furthermore, he was exercising his rights as an American citizen. So I'm kind-of baffled that you can side against the guy for exercising his rights as a citizen of America.

[Bazza]

Re: The Last Word

 

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned' date=' and in this case, the enforcer is a bureaucrat. The note that "in the US there isn't anything they can do" is the crucial statement.[/quote']

 

Yeah, pretty much. The author calls them cops, and points out the that as Federal employees, they don't have the power to deny an American citizen re-entry back into his her country, providing the citizen provides bona-fide proof of citizenry.

[Cancer]

Re: The Last Word

 

So next question. Does Venus make a pentacle as she whizzes past Earth-- as Evening Star & Morning Star. If you were too plot this would it be a pentacle?

 

I suppose you could concoct a diagram in which it made a pentacle, but I'd have to go looking for that.

 

Here's an educational bit about the synodic period of Venus

 

Hmm. Venus's synodic period is 1.599 Earth Years, which is close to 8/5, so that in five Earth years you have eight cycles of Venus apparitions, almost ... of by less than 1% of a year. However, this overlooks the tilt of Venus's orbit with respect to Earth's, so the repetition is only in a loose sense even so. For that reason we only get transits of Venus (when Venus drifts across the face of the Sun, from Earth's perspective) in a pair separated by about 8 years, and subsequent pairs separated by over a century.

 

You'll be able to see (modulo weather) the transit in June 2012 from eastern Australia.

[BlueCloud2k2]

Re: The Last Word

 

He was not arrested' date=' but detained. Furthermore, he was exercising his rights as an American citizen. So I'm kind-of baffled that you can side against the guy for exercising his rights as a citizen of America.[/quote']

 

As I said - siding with Civil Liberties. That means I side with the guy who was wrongfully detained.

[L. Marcus]

Re: The Last Word

 

Voting tomorrow! I'll be glad when this whole political mess is over and done with. This campaign season has been unusually bitter and contentious.

[BlueCloud2k2]

Re: The Last Word

 

Ah yes, Political Advertisements that make the other guy look like Satan's little brother. The problem is figuring out who's telling the truth. Since politicians are avid liars, it is best to assume they are lying about their virtues and overstating the opposition's vices.

 

I just apply Occam's Razor - They are all idiots and none of them deserve my vote.

 

So it just comes down to voting for the lesser evil. Unfortunately, person A's lesser evil is person B's greater evil and visa-versa. No wonder this country has gone all to hell - we can't agree on anything.

[Bazza]

Re: The Last Word

 

As I said - siding with Civil Liberties. That means I side with the guy who was wrongfully detained.

 

Ok thanks for clarifying

[BlueCloud2k2]

Re: The Last Word

 

Ok thanks for clarifying

 

No worries. I'm a firm believer in Civil Liberties and State's Rights over the Federal Government. I think the USA as a whole would have been better off had the Civil War not happened. The South succeeding and then losing pretty much threw the very idea of State's Rights out the window.

 

On the bright side it ended Slavery. Which should never had been allowed to happen in the first place. But Hindsight is, as they say, 20/20.

[L. Marcus]

Re: The Last Word

 

Ah yes' date=' Political Advertisements that make the [i']other[/i] guy look like Satan's little brother. The problem is figuring out who's telling the truth. Since politicians are avid liars, it is best to assume they are lying about their virtues and overstating the opposition's vices.

 

I just apply Occam's Razor - They are all idiots and none of them deserve my vote.

 

So it just comes down to voting for the lesser evil. Unfortunately, person A's lesser evil is person B's greater evil and visa-versa. No wonder this country has gone all to hell - we can't agree on anything.

Actually, our politicians are all about policies. They don't do personal attacks.

[L. Marcus]

Re: The Last Word

 

Much.

[Cancer]

Re: The Last Word

 

Voting tomorrow! I'll be glad when this whole political mess is over and done with. This campaign season has been unusually bitter and contentious.

 

It's been that way here in the US since the early 1980s, one of Newt Gingrich's lasting contributions to the landscape, and perpetuated by media who'd rather quote idiots talking smack than thoughtful discourse.

[L. Marcus]

Re: The Last Word

 

... No-one, but a very small subset of the population, seems to be happy with the results. A populist, fearmongering, light-brown xenophobic party with roots in the neo-nazi/white power movement has gained twenty mandates out of 349. All established parties has vowed to not let them have any influence in the running of the country, but nothing is carved in stone. I voted Green (that together with the social democrats and the former communists formed a coalition), and I'd rather have them switch sides than have a government rely on a man who once proclaimed himself a national socialist.