13thLetter

11 ms·

61.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> Before anyone goes on a "Gawker is a terrible site, they deserve it" tangent, keep in mind that this does set precedent for other individuals to sue other media companies for massive amounts of money, which could be another p
62.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
You just have to count up how much time the UN spends focusing on Israel as opposed to every other country in the world to realize that it not merely broken, but genuinely in the hands of the bad guys.
63.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
Don't know if you're serious, but there's a problem here: an enormous rent, in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, is now being extracted from the students sent in for "socialization" -- both in direct cos
64.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> No. I'm saying every country has its problems, and that to say one specific problem must be focused on before any of the problems can be solved is disingenuous. Sorry if that wasn't clear. So why is it that we must focus on t
65.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> I am, but I live in the US: we have illegal drone strikes against US citizens, NSA wiretapping against US citizens, and so on (the glasses are rose colored for some me thinks) Are you seriously claiming that a government which has been
66.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
Allowing political dissent would be a good start. (Are you really not aware that Cuba is a dictatorship?)
67.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> may have a profound impact on millions of Cuban lives in a very short period of time. I can think of some things Raul Castro could do which would improve millions of Cuban lives in a very short period of time.
68.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> I just don't think that being "horrified" at the excesses of only one extreme on the ideological spectrum -- whilst remaining indifferent (or willfully oblivious) to the skeletons in one's own ideological basement -
69.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
If it was Condoleeza Rice who had made this request a lot of people in this comments section would be singing a different tune.
70.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
The Secretary of State calls up and asks you to take down a video and that's an "informal request"?
71.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
That's what the stimulus package of 2009 was sold as. Then it turned out that seven-eighths of it went to various government cronies or to allow states to put off their pension obligations one more year. There were also, as I recall, c
72.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
If you really want to count up the number of corpses created by "radical libertarianism" and authoritarian socialism, we can just go right ahead and do that. I don't think you'll like the result, though.
73.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
Of course, no example of people enjoying themselves would be complete without online "journalists" telling us how racist it is.
74.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
Except for the small detail that these guys' project swiftly disintegrated due to personality conflicts, zoning issues, and possible fraud before it ever started, and the most damage it did was that a couple of contractors didn't
75.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
That's the equivalent of someone who sees a bunch of broken windows in the neighborhood and therefore figures it's okay to toss a beer bottle out the window of their car. Mind you, I could see that being her thought process, it&#x
76.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
I would hope you'd also agree that if the people who didn't give Secretary Clinton the specific mobile device she wanted should be removed from security-related work, then so also should Secretary Clinton.
77.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
Just to be clear, in this case "getting shit done" meant recklessly creating a massive security breach at the highest levels of the government.
78.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
"That said, now I'm worried that an actual defense contractor will get those robots." Why is this worrying? If you're afraid that the military will do something evil with the robots, you're going to be dismayed to l
79.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
If you want everyone in the world to agree it's not going to happen. If you want enough people in the world to agree to move things a little towards what you want, it's possible.
80.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> Mansplaining is gender neutral if it is used in a gender neutral way. I'm just imagining the furor if someone said that about, say, "harpy" or "hysterical."
81.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
"It's foolish, and, honestly, kind of offensive, to imply that pushing diversity and at the same time pushing business success are somehow at odds with each other." Offensive? We're not even allowed to disagree with you
82.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
Unfortunately, having wise thought leaders globally optimize people has a terrible track record.
83.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> We can't even agree on carbon. There's no way we can agree on something like that. Not with that attitude. It's not so much that we "can't agree" but more that the main argumentative mode these days is s
84.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
You could say the same thing about gay marriage, of course.
85.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> So, we should all be allowed to own bazookas and nukes and aircraft carriers? I can't think of any reason why someone couldn't own an aircraft carrier today, other than that they cost four billion dollars of course. You can o
86.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
How many of the people objecting to this now will obediently line up to vote Obama's Secretary of State into the presidency this November? That's the point where we'll learn how important the issue actually is to them.
87.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
Or imagine if the USA had sophisticated military aircraft that could just drop a bomb on his office!
88.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
You'd have the same problem identifying the source of a sniper's bullet, in the context of a world where the government is willing to take people out like this.
89.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
Again, if the government is willing to use a mosquito drone full of neurotoxin to assassinate someone, why wouldn't they be willing to just send a man round with a pistol? The problem (in this example) is a government willing to assass
90.
by 13thLetter 11y ago
> If you thought political opposition was dangerous now, imagine the ease of a State aiming a single drone at an a singularly unpopular voice leading the the crowd. Holy shit--that person just dropped dead on the stage! What happened? Dr

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