embolism

14 ms·

1.
by embolism 13y ago
Why don't you actually present a single piece of evidence, rather than just irrelevant innuendo?
2.
by embolism 13y ago
Actually we do have a overall decrease in the number of states over the past few centuries. The USSR is a special case because it was actually based on ideology and not just strength. We can equally ask why, if your libertarian philosoph
3.
by embolism 13y ago
Isn't it obvious that anyone can accuse anyone of anything? Usually it's more meaningful when they have evidence. [edit: since this is receiving downvotes - clearly we have evidence that the NSA is dangerously overreaching and sh
4.
by embolism 13y ago
Something people should remember when talking as though bringing down the US government is a great option.
5.
by embolism 13y ago
The price of an apartment is determined by supply and demand for housing units, not by dividing the price of a house occupying similar land area by the number of units. Taxes are typically levied on the value of each housing unit.
6.
by embolism 13y ago
Software in general is 'picking up steam and maturing a across the board'. We now have almost 2 billion consumers carrying a unix box in their pockets, not running open source. If anything, the relevance of open source is dwindlin
7.
by embolism 13y ago
Nobody is saying this is a random criminal prosecution. He's being pursued for fraudulently obtaining a security clearance and stealing classified state secrets.
8.
by embolism 13y ago
It's an informative answer. Ellsberg remained on US soil and handed himself in to a US court. The court acquitted him. Now consider how he would have been viewed by the US if he'd instead flown to Moscow and applied to Brezhnev
9.
by embolism 13y ago
Open source is not a magic security bullet. It does allow many eyes to inspect source code - which is certainly important in developing cryptographic software. However it currently does nothing to ensure the timely delivery of patches to co
10.
by embolism 13y ago
Useful software takes a lot of time and effort to write, and there is a lot of investment in learning required to get to the point where one can do it. Unless a person is independently wealthy, a significant portion of ones time and energy
11.
by embolism 13y ago
That comment isn't well worded, but I've made similar ones. It's a counterpoint to people saying that Snowden is being 'persecuted' and that the USA is now a place that freedom loving people flee from. Whilst I agre
12.
by embolism 13y ago
Quite possibly not. If the revelation of such secrets allowed china or russia to rise to power we would be worse off. Remember China is a country in which a policeman can send you to jail without trial for criticizing the government.
13.
by embolism 13y ago
Snowden is not being persecuted for his views or criticism of the government. He is being chased because of his intentional theft of classified government documents. Can you name a country in which that would be legal?
14.
by embolism 13y ago
Snowden is not a persecuted person. He's someone who deliberately lied in order to gain access a government spy agency and then stole state secrets which he is selling to the press. No government would consider that to be acceptable.
15.
by embolism 13y ago
Google has nothing to do with this project - it's just on a PR push to associate it's name with futuristic projects. [edit: like a cigarette company sponsoring sports events]
16.
by embolism 13y ago
No - an apartment usually costs more per sq metre than a house.
17.
by embolism 13y ago
How does locking your bike prevent people from pointing a gun in your face?
18.
by embolism 13y ago
I guess that assumes your country doesn't develop rapidly and experience the accompanying inflation of the cost of living.
19.
by embolism 13y ago
How is this different from delivering textual advertising to children doing homework?
20.
by embolism 13y ago
Taxes are usually linked to property value, not land area.
21.
by embolism 13y ago
What does 'already having housing' mean? It's state provided? Even in a country without property taxes a property you own outright will require maintenance. 500k still seems low but might do it if you don't have rent t
22.
by embolism 13y ago
Therefore it never will.
23.
by embolism 13y ago
Please do elaborate though - that figure seems about 10-20x too low.
24.
by embolism 13y ago
What has justification got to do with anything? People aren't arguing with you because they like the fact that the government uses force. The argument is that if you eliminated the government, the alternative (private dictatorships) w
25.
by embolism 13y ago
Taking your two answers together, it seems that hiring a security company to provide armed guards to protect me would be perfectly acceptable to you. What's to stop consolidation amongst the security companies? What would prevent them
26.
by embolism 13y ago
How do they resolve this without having him face a trial? Also, there are some countries that are even less benign than then US who would like to take advantage of this situation if they can.
27.
by embolism 13y ago
How will you stop people pointing a gun in your face once there is no government?
28.
by embolism 13y ago
You have just presented a justification for guy A killing guy B for now forking over his part of income to guy C. Without the government, activities like that will take place without any justification.
29.
by embolism 13y ago
I understand the point you're making, I just don't think it's obvious that the NSA is unimportant. As well as detecting terrorism, they may well be doing a lot of other things to protect the us against then machinations of o
30.
by embolism 13y ago
it also deserves a whole load of other governments monitoring communications, some of which would be quite happy to take over if the us collapses

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