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Comment Re:Statute of limitations (Score 2) 232

Statute of limitations, and its equitable cousin laches, prevent one from bringing claims after a certain period of time eg 2 years after an incident. SCO brought the claim within the appropriate time frame, and in any case they allege the infringement is ongoing (and so the only issue related to statute of limitations is how far back damages can be calculated - usually two or so years before the claim was issued).

There are other doctrines that may apply during and after a proceeding. For example res judicata (the civil/tort equivalent of what we call 'double jeopardy' in a criminal context, which prevents re-hearing a claim that has been determined already on the merits in an ongoing or previous proceeding) or its related (sometimes included) cousin collateral estoppel (prevents re-hearing an issue that has been determined in an ongoing, previous or parallel proceeding).

I do not know the facts of this case well enough to comment, but the above are the legal concepts that prevent re-hearing of issues that have already been decided (IAAL; this is not legal advice, and please seek out a lawyer for advice). I expect these issues are more likely to apply than statute of limitations.

Comment Re:It's True (Score 1) 857

The only "bad" social movement that I can think of in US history attributed to Christians would be the Temperance movement that eventually led to Prohibition. Obviously that didn't last. Everything else has been positive, often overwhelmingly so.

Sir –

With all due respect, and perhaps I have misread, but this statement is utter nonsense. To take this statement at face value one must ignore the following Christian influences in the USA:

- Anti-gay ("God hates fags")
- Pro-war (eg putting religious quotes on top of war briefs being given to George Bush)
- The violent anti-abortion movements
- The inherent racism of Christian fellowships such as the Klu Klux Klan
- The rounding of "Pi" to 3, denial of evolution, anathema of intelligence, and other assorted absurdities

That is off the top of my head. The list is practically endless thanks to the magical thinking a society as wealthy as the US can tolerate. US politicians run on campaigns of anti-gay, etc., so as to distract from their real objectives: to advance the political and economic gain of the rich at the expense of the poor.

If you do not consider the plethora of hatred, assaults, murders, invasions, brainwashing, the denial of irrefutable facts, and the destruction of society's capacity to understand and contribute to the advancement of human society to be "bad", then perhaps the Temperance movement is the only "bad" movement in the U.S. that can be attributed to Christians. I suggest it's probably the least noteworthy.

Religious thought negatively impacts economic growth, civil rights, critical thinking, scientific progress, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. It is a form of brainwashing supported by baseless fear-mongering and propaganda, masquerading as a social utility. Abolition, suffrage, and civil rights movements succeeded not because they were born of Christians but because they encouraged people to think and empathize. These three examples are stark contrast to the populist thought in the US now.

The people who make your world better, the educated engineers, civil rights activists, professors, are predominantly skeptical of Christianity. They are not driven by hate like the throng of evil-mongering zealots because they are busy making actual contributions to society.

So what is just so horrifying about a country founded and heavily influenced by a group of people who want us all to be free with equal rights?

This is not a horrifying concept, but it also has nothing to do with religious influence in the USA. Religious influence in the USA takes the form of a pestilence.

The founding fathers of the United States were, if anything, extraordinarily skeptical of the value of Christianity. With good reason: they were conscious of the evils inherent to religious movements.

Comment Re:It's True (Score 1) 857

Tea Party types like myself HATE HATE HATE SOPA, PIPA and ACTA. We see them for what they are: power grabs by BOTH the MPAA/RIAA et all AND the government. As a generally conservative/libertarian group of people, we want LESS government intrusion and regulation of our lives. Not more.

So the Tea Party HAMMERED the GOP over this one and unlike the Dems, the GOP LISTENED and responded in the way the people wanted.

Good result.

Bad hate to think ratio.

Comment All part of the plan? (Score 3, Insightful) 422

Those fabulous steps to Draconian governance from Western-style democracies are:

1. Establish a basis for circumventing human rights (eg "terrorism" or "piracy" or "national security", etc.);

2. Imbue state systems with financial gain from said basis (eg prison industrial complex, military industrial complex, etc.);

3. Have said systems lobby for increased funding and authority, encroaching on traditional authorities (eg policing, prosecutors, media, voting systems, etc);

4. Expand the application of the basis for circumventing human rights to other areas (eg immigration, child pornography, copyright violations, any other interests with lobbyists);

5. Enact laws that undermine the financing of political dissension, and undermine systems that may allow any discourse critical of the established government;

6. Engage in mass human rights violations, ghettoization, prison labour; State ignores human rights, imprisons or executes dissenters and acts with impunity and disregard for reason;

7. The state becomes a vehicle for despots supported by demagoguery. Non tenet anguillam, per caudam qui tenet illam.

Comment Gandi.net (Score 1) 375

I just discovered Gandi.net in another Slashdot article, and they offer VPS. Does anyone have any experience with them?

I've been using Linode (transferred from Slicehost). Linode is fabulous, and Slicehost was great in its day but hasn't really been updated since Rackspace bought it. I'm curious how Gandi.net compares.

Comment Re:Leveson (Score 1) 105

Any debate on privacy always draws me to The Right to Privacy, by Warren and Brandeis Harvard Law Review. Vol. IV December 15, 1890 No. 5:

Of the desirability -- indeed of the necessity -- of some such protection [for privacy], there can, it is believed, be no doubt. The press is overstepping in every direction the obvious bounds of propriety and of decency. Gossip is no longer the resource of the idle and of the vicious, but has become a trade, which is pursued with industry as well as effrontery. To satisfy a prurient taste the details of sexual relations are spread broadcast in the columns of the daily papers. To occupy the indolent, column upon column is filled with idle gossip, which can only be procured by intrusion upon the domestic circle. The intensity and complexity of life, attendant upon advancing civilization, have rendered necessary some retreat from the world, and man, under the refining influence of culture, has become more sensitive to publicity, so that solitude and privacy have become more essential to the individual; but modern enterprise and invention have, through invasions upon his privacy, subjected him to mental pain and distress, far greater than could be inflicted by mere bodily injury. Nor is the harm wrought by such invasions confined to the suffering of those who may be the subjects of journalistic or other enterprise. In this, as in other branches of commerce, the supply creates the demand. Each crop of unseemly gossip, thus harvested, becomes the seed of more, and, in direct proportion to its circulation, results in the lowering of social standards and of morality. Even gossip apparently harmless, when widely and persistently circulated, is potent for evil. It both belittles and perverts. It belittles by inverting the relative importance of things, thus dwarfing the thoughts and aspirations of a people. When personal gossip attains the dignity of print, and crowds the space available for matters of real interest to the community, what wonder that the ignorant and thoughtless mistake its relative importance. Easy of comprehension, appealing to that weak side of human nature which is never wholly cast down by the misfortunes and frailties of our neighbors, no one can be surprised that it usurps the place of interest in brains capable of other things. Triviality destroys at once robustness of thought and delicacy of feeling. No enthusiasm can flourish, no generous impulse can survive under its blighting influence.

The relationship between this 120 year old paper and modern society is illuminating.

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