flexie

86 ms·

811.
by flexie 13y ago
Right. I do think the timing suggests that if Putin had caved to the pressure Obama would have granted him an "Obama in Kremlin" photo op.
812.
by flexie 13y ago
Obama's cancellation of the summit with Putin over Russia's granting of asylum to one individual must be the most impotent foreign policy action for a quite a while. To maintain a bit of American dignity, at least Obama could have
813.
by flexie 13y ago
Not at all. All these things "hinge on" being able to make money on an ongoing basis, not whether the money you had saved was stolen.
814.
by flexie 13y ago
Where I live in Europe (Bulgaria), the situation isn't that different from what it is in the US (I used to live in NYC with a baby and health care expenses similar to what you mention). Here, the banks offer very limited credits, expec
815.
by flexie 13y ago
It's just money. It would set the victims back (if the bank doesn't cover) but if they live in the first world and their life is ruined just because they lost all their money, they need perspective. They would still have all that
816.
by flexie 13y ago
If I found my bank account empty I would rather that the thief got away without punishment than sending the thief to jail for 67 years. I suspect many if not most of the victims would feel the same. There is a real consideration to make to
817.
by flexie 13y ago
If terrorism killed millions it would be easier to accept the loss of liberty associated with the current war on terrorism. But loosing ALL Internet and phone privacy, basic human rights such as the right not to be tortured and to some degr
818.
by flexie 13y ago
This Summer of Surveillance get's better and better :-)
819.
by flexie 13y ago
Murder rate is one of the best proxies for comparing violent crimes in different countries because it's usually defined more similarly than other violent crimes. At 1.2 the UK still has higher murder rate than most of its neighboring c
820.
by flexie 13y ago
As if Britain didn't have real problems to deal with: - Long term unemployment is at a 17 year high. - Government debt is at 90 percent of GDP. - Violent crimes is worst in EU. For years Britain has feared loosing sovereignty to the Eu
821.
by flexie 13y ago
Any kind of murder is terrible. 2/110 is an extremely high murder rate. I realise the sample is not representative, but still...
822.
by flexie 13y ago
Nah. Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Northern Spain, Northern Italy. Those are really wealthy and quite efficient places. And most of those have been so for decades if not centuries. If the EU consisted
823.
by flexie 13y ago
Of the 110 "crack babies" followed for 25 years, only 12 finished college or were on track to finish college, while 2 were shot dead. So it's only 6 times more likely for inner city kids to graduate from college than to get s
824.
by flexie 13y ago
You can use a table like this to see that US life expectancy doesn't get much better if you calculate it at age 10 or 20 instead of at birth and US ranking is not much different (actually the US drops a few places): http://w
825.
by flexie 13y ago
It is not an article. It is an op-ed. Those are usually subjective comments. If your son was out recruiting for Al Qaeda or preaching to the 9/11 hijackers you wouldn't want your grandson to be punished for the sins of your son. A
826.
by flexie 13y ago
Context on the family? Is the son guilty of his father's crimes?
827.
by flexie 13y ago
The sad and dangerous thing that has happened is that a new category of criminals has been made: Terrorists. Once someone is put in that category all his rights cease to exist. It's sort of like the outlaws of medieval Europe. The only
828.
by flexie 13y ago
Funny idea :-) For most cases I doubt the US and China would have any problems exchanging strings :-)
829.
by flexie 13y ago
A few months ago I would have thought this sounds paranoid; but does encryption secure us against NSA intrusion?
830.
by flexie 13y ago
"We are a small team in China". I guess these days it's all about picking which government you prefer has premium access to your files. The product looks great, though :-)
831.
by flexie 13y ago
In other words: Saving a document in the Documents library means sharing it with the government.
832.
by flexie 13y ago
If congress can redefine courts into what is basically an administrative panel, then the entire separation of powers can be short-circuited. It's not a court just because congress says so.
833.
by flexie 13y ago
I agree - it's what I mean when I say that I think they got something in return for not fighting the FISA requests. Could be antitrust cases that were dropped, tax hikes that were cancelled or more personal matters.
834.
by flexie 13y ago
Fighting unconstitutional laws in the phony secret "court" set up by the same laws is not really fighting, is it? It's sort of accepting the terms. Take the battle to the real courts and ask them to decide on the matter.
835.
by flexie 13y ago
What amazes me is that among those corporations with revenues in the tens of billions of dollars, not one of them challenged the constitutionality of the decision in court. Not one, not once. Not that it would be necessary in an obvious cas
836.
by flexie 13y ago
The US IT sector is heavily subsidized. Giving Apple, Google, Facebook etc. billion dollar subsidies at home would spur trade wars. So instead the US uses its never failing ability to play European countries against eachother and its influe
837.
by flexie 13y ago
My point wasn't that Google should pay US tax on its foreign income. On the contrary Google's foreign income should be taxed in the countries where it's earned. Right now, though, it's by-and-large taxed nowhere: http:&
838.
by flexie 13y ago
Yeah well. Are there any free market industries in the US? Financial sector, energy, car manufacturing, IT, education, news, health care, law, home buying, defense - those are all in one or more ways deeply subsidized or maintain such close
839.
by flexie 13y ago
Interesting :-) Where can we read about that?
840.
by flexie 13y ago
Maybe they were caught on the battlefield, maybe they weren't. These prisoners were tortured and deprived of habeas corpus. Without a fair trial it's fair to question anything regarding their detention. Seeing it as kidnapping see

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