I guess I missed the part where the US has annexed sovereign states by force, or systematically imprisoned, impressed into forced labor, and murdered millions of people based solely on their ethnicity.
That was during the 18th and 19th century (you know, the Indians, slavery, annexation of Hawaii, etc.) so it's understandable why you missed it.
As far as world domination goes, the US has far surpassed the Germans, and even the British -- that's why there are hundreds of military bases all over the world, and why there's one set of rules for countries in the imperial fold (e.g. Israel's nukes) and those outside (e.g. Iran's legal nuclear program).
True, the U.S. empire is "softer" than the German one -- it doesn't need mass extermination camps, it merely needs to imprison over 2 million of its own citizens, and apply surveillance over the rest, in order to keep the lid on things. That plus mass narcotization of its population via consumerism, entertainment and actual pharmaceuticals has proven a more effective form of centralization of power than the crude 20th century models.
this state of affairs is exactly was Capitalism was meant to bring about, a day when we all have much more leisure time because automation and division of labour has made long hours of back-breaking subsistence working obsolete.
This seems wrong at many levels. "Capitalism was meant" suggests capitalism was designed or created with a purpose, rather than being the evolution of one mode of exploitation (serfdom) into another (slavery). Furthermore, historians of the late medieval period show that peasants where self-sufficient in food and had more leisure time than early factory workers, who were forced off the land (e.g. Enclosure Acts) and hence food self-sufficiency to work 12-14 hour days. It was the labor movement that fought for shorter work days; and even if we nominally have an 8 hour day today, modern capitalists always find a way to squeeze more out of you (e.g. work from home).
a new model (a post recession model) which acknowledges that there is no viable reason for people to need to be working 40+ hours a week
Yes, that would be socialism, not the dreary factory-centric model in which the corporation is replaced by the state, but where free associations of people produce to fulfill needs and wants without the rusted-out fetters of money to dictate everything.
it's actually the victory of the Capitalist model being unable to see it's own success clear enough to embrace it yet.
I'd suggest you look at some of the early advocates of capitalism, particularly in the Scottish enlightenment, who were quite explicit that forcing peasants into starvation was the most efficient way to boost labor discipline. Here's a link to get you started
The US used to have a decentralized, individualistic society that would have been pretty much perfect if it had only treated minorities and women better.
That decentralized, individualistic society was only possible because of the economic foundation of a plantation economy and slavery. It was not feasible to treat minorities (i.e. slaves) better. It took the civil war, the greatly increased power of the central government, and the rise of corporations and robber barons to complete the jump to full-blown industrial capitalism.
If these climate scientists are so clueless to believe they aren't being used as tools for political goals including pure partisan politics, they really don't deserve the PhDs that they claim to have. The politics of the whole debate is something that is the issue, where even the original post pointed out that "it will be impossible to make the changes he and his colleagues believe need to occur to protect future generations from the effects of climate change." The "they" is the scientists quoted in the original post and others who have similar viewpoints.
In other words, it is all about the politics of how much money needs to be spent in what areas of society, if new taxes should or should not be imposed, and how some group of do-gooders think they need to control the behavior of others... either through convincing arguments or at the point of a gun. If anything, some of these "scientists" want that point of a gun to be used. Imposing a tax is using the point of a gun to get your point of view across.
So, if scientists reach conclusions that coincide with any kind of environmental or regulatory agenda, they are automatically tools? You rant against "do-gooders" who seek to control the behavior of others, but you have nothing to say about the actions of the coal, oil and gas industries. Do you think they are naive businessmen who never thought of lobbying or buying legislators (or whole governments for that matter)? Do you really think the political impact of environmental lobbyists somehow outweighs that of the incredibly profitable fossil fuel industries?
I bet you don't believe Phillip Morris was able to use money to influence the science around smoking and lung cancer, either. In my book, that makes an ideologue who has little of value to say.
How dare the Iranian gov't of the 1950s try and nationalize the oil under their land that rightfully belonged to British Petroleum! Those evil people weren't respecting the rule of law, the same way Chinese people refused to respect the British right to sell them opium!
Furthermore, we all know the great democracies of the USA and Britain never stole any land or resources from any other people (remember how the Cherokee left Georgia because they new the African slave volunteers needed a new home?), which of course grants them the right to intervene in other, inferior democracies.
Thank god we have people like you to clarify our rights.
"Modern Perl" is, as I understand it, basically Perl 5 (preferably 5.10+) using more modern syntax and best of breed CPAN modules. I believe the book "Best Perl Practices" started the ball rolling, and the Moose object system is really excellent.
The blog modernperlbooks.com goes into a lot more detail into what constitutes "Modern Perl".
For Windows you might want to checkout "Strawberry Perl" which at least makes getting Perl and a big chunk of CPAN a lot easier.
Where there's a will, there's a relative.