Re: Weasels vs. transparancy / traffic cameras

From: Michael S. Lorrey (mike@datamann.com)
Date: Mon May 22 2000 - 12:06:06 MDT


Srdjan Keca wrote:

> Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>
> > I'm so right I'm wrong, I guess?
> > property crime high.... check
> > did SAS kill dissidents? ... check (that they aren't killing them ANYMORE
> is
> > irrelevant, only because everyone is now playing nice nice. When the next
> > dissident group shows up will prove if its a true change)
> > Is there an Official Secrets Act? ... check (and how is the FOI Act any
> > different? New name the same dog?)
> > Do the libel laws enable anyone to keep the media from reporting the truth
> or
> > punish them for doing so?... check
> > You say the income tax is lower? What are the brackets, the percentages?
> What are
> > the deductions? What is the cost of living?
> > Value added tax? ... check
> >
> > additionals: are you saying you don't have the right to refuse to
> participate in
> > the health care system and the social security system?
> >
> > > The whys and wherefores of this are sufficient to fill a book, but
> > > basically boil down to "first-past-the-post electoral systems with
> > > no constitutional safeguards suck". (Or rather, they only provide
> > > representative government when there's a relatively homogeneous
> > > population. And the UK has been becoming increasingly, radically,
> > > diverse since the end of the 1950's.)
> >
> > Its still lily white compared to the US.
> >
>
> Just a short note: Michael, wanna come to Yugoslavia?
> Enjoy!!

What Yugoslavia? Doesn't exist. Calling what is left an actual country would be
like continuing to call Russia 'the Soviet Union' after all of the other
republics broke away. What left is a rump, a stump, a little fabrication of a
nation that does little but give one hoolum authority to be a major pain in the
ass.

The former Yugoslavia has, I beleive a significant sectarian violence level that
cuts along religious/ethnic lines, partly due to who sided with whome during
WWII, and partly due to who raped and killed who under the Ottoman Empire prior
to WWI. Can you say Jannissaries?

Such an analogy is much like wondering why there is so much violence in Rwanda.
They are all the same color, right? Sorry, that doesn't cut it. There is more to
diversity than just color in most societies, even in the US. For example, the
Jewish families of western european descent tend to (not as much as they used to
but it still occurs) look down on Jews of eastern european descent.

Mike Lorrey



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