World Affairs

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

And in today's headlines:

French emigration act.

I don't know how much clout the president of France has, but this will surely never pass the National Assembly. Frenchmen will vote with their feet.

Somalia, Piracy on the High Seas.

The Danes did well. The only solution for the mess in this area is more captures/sinking of pirates. Rescuing hostages is important, but you have to give these people the only lessons they will understand.

Piracy on the High Seas is generally punishable by death at the discretion of the apprehending party. Hanging is too good for them, but how about a long walk on a short plank?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

1. Buying oil and petrochemicals from Iran will not help our economy.

2. The Keystone Pipeline would bring cheaper oil to us from a friendly nation (Canada).

3. The Iranian government is worse than the Iraq government ever was and Iran has more connections to Al Queda than Iraq ever did.

4. Israel manufactures many of its own weapons (Uzis for one).

5. Israel does worse things with the natives (Palestinians) than with its neighbors.

6. We should not declare war on Israel but we should stop backing them up as well as building a military base comparable to Japan's in Iraq, though smaller and better fortified.

7. Dependence on petroleum from hostile regions has been a MAJOR political point slung by politicians.

8. French Emigration Act is the perfect term!

  Edited February 29, 2012 by OcramSeattle  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

New Eurozone Agreement aimed at preventing overdrafts of the national credit cards in the future. Probably too little, too late.

[airman15 4,111]

Hey Nonny,

I came across this article concerning the possible strike against Iran by Israel. Our President is now warning against Israel's pre-emptive strike against Iran. Could this be a step in the right direction, or no?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Hey Nonny,

I came across this article concerning the possible strike against Iran by Israel. Our President is now warning against Israel's pre-emptive strike against Iran. Could this be a step in the right direction, or no?

He also said it wasn't off the table.

Our PM waffled on it yesterday and gave the usual diplomatic bafflegab. Israel had better be careful, I think the world's patience with them has run out.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Breivik charged with terrorism. Certainly took the Norwegians a long time to sort this out.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

When Irish courts give you a good reason to smile.

Most courts have no sense of humor at all, at all.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

What does the tax rate on onions have with the price of tea in China? Or with the tax rate on apples and garlic?

  Edited March 10, 2012 by OcramSeattle  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

What does the tax rate on onions have with the price of tea in China? Or with the tax rate on apples and garlic?

Nothing. Just filler to pad the article.

[Cobraroll 138]

Breivik charged with terrorism. Certainly took the Norwegians a long time to sort this out.

It takes a while to compile a charge when more than 800 people are on the "offended" list and the "victims" list includes 104 names. Then you have the roughly 9000 who are "touched" (can't remember any good English term) by his actions, such as parents, relatives, people who worked in the Government Building, people who lived nearby, etc. Lots of people to ask out, lots of events to map, and so forth.

Can't categorize it as war crimes either. It's one helluva case, and things will take time if we're going to do it properly.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Archbishop of Canterbury to retire.

After 10 years, he is probably good and weary of all the squabbling.

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 9, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[airman15 4,111]

Archbishop of Canterbury to retire.

After 10 years, he is probably good and weary of all the squabbling.

20 years pursuing a career sounds like a good run. Being a bishop and archbishop must be a challenging position.

[astronelson 339]

Aye, what just happened?

I can honestly say I have never seen a party democratically fall out of government so drastically. I'm not sure "landslide" covers it. There were swings of over 20% in some seats.

Note: this is state parliament, not federal.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Aye, what just happened?

I can honestly say I have never seen a party democratically fall out of government so drastically. I'm not sure "landslide" covers it. There were swings of over 20% in some seats.

Note: this is state parliament, not federal.

Sounds very much like our last federal election in Canada. The conservatives got a slight majority (they were the minority government), and the "Natural Ruling Party of Canada", the liberals, were wiped down from official opposition to a rump in third place. The big winner was the perennial third party the New Democratic Party, and in the process the Quebec separatists were very nearly wiped out completely and lost party status in the House. The people of Canada got sick of the Liberals preaching the "same old, same old" and set up a conservative (slightly right of center) majority with the seriously left of center New Democrats as Official Opposition. If, somehow, the conservatives lost five seats, they would be back in minority. If those five seats crossed the floor to the NDP, the NDP would be the government. Things are rather tense, but the conservatives should be safe for another four years unless they blot their copybook.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Australia's Apple has a worm in it.

You would have thought that Apple would have testing this and fixed it before release. Missed an entire continent?

[airman15 4,111]

Maybe Apple rushed a bit trying to fill in their demand vs. manufacturing gap

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Maybe Apple rushed a bit trying to fill in their demand vs. manufacturing gap

A gaffe in QA. They'll find out it was costly.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Actually, no, it wasn't a QA issue.

It was more the fact that Apple went: "oh, shame. Australia doesn't use 700MHz for 4G. Oh well, we won't bother fixing it, and we won't even bother fixing the packaging either!"

And even if we did use 700MHz, it would be technically different to the US standard, so it wouldn't work either anyway.

Thing about Australia's telco networks is that we tend to follow the European standards, which is why it tends to be a better choice to grey-import devices from Europe than it is from the US. Sure, the US devices would still work, but they wouldn't work as well on Australian networks. The only exception to this rule is Telstra, as they use 850MHz for their NextG network.

Oh, and the ACCC had a reasonable demand at first: all Apple needed to do was put a sticker on the packaging saying "the iPad's 4G feature is not currently supported in Australia and New Zealand". But no, they didn't want to ruin their lovely packaging.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Fascinating. I hope this careless decision costs them dearly. That outfit is entirely too cavalier to suit me.

[airman15 4,111]

Russian arms dealer sentenced to 25 years in prison; avoids Life Sentence
  Edited April 7, 2012 by usfighter15  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It's a start. Too bad they couldn't find an oubliette.

[airman15 4,111]

But that's not all, apparently the Russian government stepped in and is saying the sentence was "baseless and biased" and is even taking steps to make sure we (the US) hand him over to their jurisdiction.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Yes, I read that BS as well. You should keep him some place very safe. Leavenworth, for example. (Yes, I know its a military prison. What better place for an arms dealer?)

[hym 358]

Yes, I read that BS as well. You should keep him some place very safe. Leavenworth, for example. (Yes, I know its a military prison. What better place for an arms dealer?)

When someone is captured by civilian authorities and tried by a civilian court, he should be incarcerated in a civilian prison. Putting him in a military prison only justifies the kind of thinking that helped produce NDAA 2012's military detention clause. The US federal prison system has facilities meant for handling prisoners that represent a high security risk, such as this one.

[airman15 4,111]

^ And if he were to be sent to a civilian prison, which one would he be sent to? I think each penitentiary is given a level of security for each type of convict. I doubt they would send this man to a place where only one guard is on watch and the walls have holes in them..

[hym 358]

Send him to the one that I mentioned. Read the list of notable prisoners and you'll quickly see that he'd fit right in with the inmates that it's designed to house. According to former inmates, procedures in the prison are such that inmates don't even know where they are in the prison, or how they are moved from Point A to Point B. Security details at the prison are so thorough that the facility was even designed to repel external assaults from paramilitary groups. It wasn't nicknamed "the Alcatraz of the Rockies" for nothing.

[airman15 4,111]

Actually it is the perfect place for a man who planned on killing innocent people. That, or the death sentence.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Yes, I read that BS as well. You should keep him some place very safe. Leavenworth, for example. (Yes, I know its a military prison. What better place for an arms dealer?)

When someone is captured by civilian authorities and tried by a civilian court, he should be incarcerated in a civilian prison. Putting him in a military prison only justifies the kind of thinking that helped produce NDAA 2012's military detention clause. The US federal prison system has facilities meant for handling prisoners that represent a high security risk, such as this one.

Now that is next to an oubliette. The main difference is that they get fed. Definitely durance vile, and deservedly so.

  Edited April 9, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

An arm of the Croix de Lorraine passes.

Pretty much everyone who was involved in WW II is gone or going. We should not forget, but this chapter can be closed.

The trick is to keep the utter failure of National Socialism in the history books taught at the secondary school level. There are white supremacist and Neo-NAZI groups all over the world, and the fate of such should be always before our eyes.

The failure of various social and economic adventures of the 20^th century must remain as lessons.