And this is why torture should not be supported: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/20/playboy-journo-bets-he-ca_n_189280.html Granted that yes, this is "Playboy" but he underwent real waterboarding. He only did it for 5 seconds, and that was enough time to leave him freaked out and scarred for a good few minutes afterward. Bush administration officials condoned the same thing being done for 15-20 seconds. Even worse, some of the "accused" experienced said torture over 100 times. Now tell me how this is right, or how this can be defended? Better yet: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/olc_memos.html Read that, and tell me how Rush Limbaugh and others are right to condone torture. It's absolutely fucking ludicrous.
I couldn't even read through the first memo. They are quick to condone it because they haven't experienced it first hand. Its the mentality that they are willing to stop at nothing to learn what they want, and will go to whatever means to get it.
Torture just sucks, And is never a way to go about something. Human rights my ass, government. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/en...02877/Global-warming-slowed-by-pollution.html Discuss! edit: Wiretapping? Your phone is not protected and does not require a warrant to be wiretapped. Source and note: It's not only phone calls going out of country or between states, It's pretty much everyone that the U.S has jurisdictions over. Article of Discussion also.
"The increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, may have helped to slow global warming. However as the world cuts pollution it will speed up again. Both studies concluded that it was even more important to cut carbon emissions in the future as the reduction in pollution will mean global warming is speeding up." I don't get it, if we keep emitting carbon, how is carbon dioxide going to go down and pollution go down and global warming up? That doesn't seem to make any sense to me...
"The study published in Nature said this is because the diffusion of sunlight means the land receives light from different directions rather than just directly from the sun. As a result, plants are able to convert more of the sunlight energy into growth, trapping carbon dioxide as they do so, because more leaves are in the sun. " is the answer to your question esaul. an example is like this It's like a disco ball, Rather than point light at the ground, point it at a discoball. the light will spread out but equivalently, so therefore more space is lighted up, enabling more plants to absorb light. If taht doesnt make sense than this. You get one really bright light bulb, and put it into a perfect square room, right in the middle. That lights up all the object's surface area facing the light bulb. Instead, you have 2 relatively bright lightbulbs on 2 points of the room, say one at any corner. It will effectively light up more surface area; Akin to having a disperse of light over the atmosphere. CO2 will go down due to having more plants. Why? It's like feeding a kid and starving a kid for 20 years since birth, obviously the kid who eats more becomes a bigger one than a starved kid. So to akin more CO2 for plants to eat, it will grow more, and much more. Still with me? With the hole in the Ozone layer, it's meant to act like a ventilation to the world, much like a factory needs a ventilation pipe or else everything fucks up. It's where all the worlds trapped heat escape back out the easiest, accounting for why it's soo cold there. If there is no ozone hole, there is no easy way out for heat to escape, therefore causing a blockage. So slowing pollution(NOTE:CO2, not like cutting down forests or tossing trash into the ocean ) would cause the hole to close up. follow me?
To me it's like, say there's a dinosaur destroying a city, and the following exchange happens between two bystanders: "Holy shit, it's a Tyrannosaurus!" "DURRR NO, it's an Acrocanthosaurus!" There's still something happening, whoever's fault it is, and quite a number of the measures against it are still worth taking because other things that they help with, such as pollution and energy conservation, could still become problems sooner rather than later. Some of it's even pretty economic considering the recession and all that.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/shepard-smith-torture_n_190350.html Why Shepard Smith shouldn't be on FOX News. He doesn't fit in.
SHOCKING! Further proof the ACLU does not like America. I get that there was some awful things done to these prisoners. I also understand that two wrongs do not make a right. What I do not understand is why photos have to be released. Acts of prisoner abuse have already been admitted so for the ACLU and a Federal court to think they have our best interest in mind in releasing photos is absurd and insulting to not only my intelligence and yours but it is sad as well. Nothing good whatsoever will come of this, nothing. What is my stand on torture you ask? When I was active duty I thought about what would happen to me if I was taken prisoner for whatever reason. In my mind, I expected to be tortured at some point from my captors. Not because I thought the country's soldiers, etc. were just inhumane but because it is part of war, part of the method in which one side tries to gain advantage over the other. Granted, I was not of very high rank and thus would not have access to information that would be very beneficial to anyone but I know my captors would at least try to extract something from me. Did I hate them (who ever "them" might be)? No. My concern was how much I could endure to prevent them from getting any information from me. From my view, torture/abuse is neither right nor is it totally wrong. But what sickens me is when organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union takes the case and side of those who would otherwise do us harm. If the ACLU was so righteous, they would have sought to help the families of people like Nick Berg to get justice for what was done to him. Instead, we will get to see photos that discredit and hurt the very institution they are protected by every day and night. That is what embarrasses me, not the photos. *UPDATE* So a fake AF1 accompanied by a fighter jet flies low over Manhattan subsequently scaring thousands of New Yorkers all for a photo op and there is no condemnation? No "OMG, Obama is the biggest idiot" or "What idiot President lets a jet fly low over NYC after 9/11" comments? Just.....wow. I know if it was Bush having to apologize, this thread would be burning with Bush hate.
I hate to sound like a heartless asshole, but 9/11 was almost 8 years ago. Are we going to use 9/11 as an excuse for over-reacting every time something happens in NYC for the rest of eternity? Because it sure seems like most people are content with doing so. There are also 3 major airports in NYC and there are hundreds of low-flying planes over the city every day. You know why thousands of New Yorkers were scared of a plane flying by with a military escort? Because of all the fucking fear-mongering the Bush administration put on in the 7 years after 9/11. The "elevated" terrorism alert level, the endless war on terror ("terror" not being a tangible enemy that can ever be defeated, and therefore, a war that can never be won), no shit they were scared, I would be too if I was force-fed this terrorism crap for 7 years because of something that happened in my back yard! The long-lasting (and completely unnecessary) paranoia that's been implanted in the brains of the majority of American people will be the biggest legacy of the Bush administration. And no, if Bush was still the president, I really wouldn't care any more than I do (which is not at all), because the bottom line is, there was no reason for these people to be afraid. I truly feel sorry for New Yorkers, because this incident is nothing more than proof of just how badly 9/11 and the subsequent preaching of "BE AFRAID! EVERYONE IS A TERRORIST! TERROR IS EVERYWHERE AND YOU CAN'T ESCAPE IT!!!" by their administration have fucked with their heads. Bush might as well have put out a press release the day after 9/11 saying "We're all gonna die." The effect would have been about the same. In other news, Fox is refusing to air Obama's upcoming 100-day news conference: http://www.fancast.com/blogs/tv-news/fox-cancels-obamas-press-conference/ Who didn't see that one coming?
If New Yorkers can't handle the sight of a plane without PTSD flashbacks to 9/11, then they need to close Newark, JFK and Laguardia and close off all airspace over the city. It's time to get over it and move on with our lives. I see low flying aircraft all the time around downtown St. Louis and I think nothing of it because I trust they're on approach to the airport. I work in the 2nd tallest building in the city and we can't be evacuating every time an airplane comes within 2,000 feet of the ground.
I don't know about you, but when I see an airplane coming over the city, taking a route he wouldn't usually take with a jetfighter behind it I would be pretty fucking scared.
Its easy to ascertain from the news coverage it was a plane with a military escort but if you were on the ground or in a building I highly doubt you'd think it was harmless. From a ground perspective, in NYC it looked like 9/11 all over again and you cant blame the people for having a certain level of panic. And to blame it on Bush (as usual) is a mockery because this is all on Obama. He didnt even tell the NYC mayor! So much for him understanding the American people. And by the way, there was supposed to be a second photo op over DC......its been canceled. Lesson learned too late again by our OJT Prez. Hey now, no reason to get all reasonable. Stick with acting emotionally overwhelmed!
Oh boy, so even though he's accomplished way more good for this country in his first 100 days than Bush has done in 8 years, we're going to harp on him for a (ill-advised) photo op? Give me a break. Why don't we focus on how the Republicans stripped away 'pandemic preparedness' from Obama's stimulus bill? Even though I think this Swine Flu is as big of a media overreaction as the SARS virus or Avian Bird Flu, it's still pretty comforting to know that if we ever have a world-wide disease outbreak that America is pretty fucked due to some political game playing by the Republicans. Republicans are more concerned about election day in 2012 than the American people. The GOP has become the aptly named "party of NO", and I am quite enjoying seeing them self-implode as they try everything they can to destroy Obama's presidency. Better yet, we're apparently in enough of a situation that Obama has been briefed on it, and yet the GOP is still filibustering Sebelius's nomination. America could have a health crisis tomorrow, and we wouldn't have a health secretary. Brilliant!
Who's to say a plane never takes that route though? There are 3 busy airports in the vicinity, and the flight path the planes take for takeoff and landing literally changes depending on which way the wind blows. I doubt this was the first or last time a large aircraft will fly low over Manhattan en route to JFK or Newark.
Case in point: Hudson River emergency landing. Definitely was not the intended route, but he flew low over NYC. People thought it was another 9/11 then too.
Not to be rude, but who gives a shit? Our country is in the middle of two wars and an economic meltdown and people want to nitpick over stuff like this? As if that wasn't enough, we have to here the same stale "if it was President Bush yadda, yadda, yadda..." nonsense. So now people want to complain about detractors nitpicking over Bush's gaffes by nitpicking over Obama's? Don't you find that a bit, oh, I dunno, hypocritical? Why don't we just rise above the pettiness of the past instead of perpetuating the same vicious cycle, hmm? Maybe even (gasp!) talk about something with substance for once.
You know, last year around here where I live when it was summer planes use to fly very low. They were fucking loud! I mean really really fucking loud and yes it caught me off guard and frightened me a little, especially when trying to lay down and hearing a huge ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM sound. But after awhile I got use to it and it became normal. I thought a lot of times something was gonna crash, they never did. Yet anyway.. But the point is planes fly low a lot where I am. I don't know why... I don't think there's a military base but I dunno, just I know planes fly low a lot and they've never crashed and as far as I know no ones ever complained about them.