He said there were questions that were legit. He then went on to say that there were questions that were not legit.

A friend of mine runs, and has run for many years, the network department of a private bank in New York. He is black (oh, sorry Black) coming originally from Jamaica (the island not the borough).

What he told me, back when I was working for him, is that in his opinion blacks in America tend to cause themselves problems that don't actually exist. He was quite worried, at the time, that his son would pick up the 'we are persecuted' mentality and drop his own level of achievement to try and fit in with the other black students in his school.

I grew up in a home for children. We all had nothing and, arguably, we all had the same living environment growing up. I saw this exact thing happen with one of my 'brothers' who was black. He was living the same as me - same room, same money, same people around us. He went to the same schools that I did. The difference was that he picked up the 'we are persecuted' mentality and started acting black to fit in. Things only got worse from there, which I won't go into. The long and short of it is that I think that my friend from Jamaica is right. Even where there is no persecution, American blacks create problems for themselves.

Obviously this is a generalization. There are plenty of successful black people who have never let themselves be stopped by anything - least of all themselves.

Presumably if the NSA is refusing to provide this information the person in question may have been paid more, perhaps significantly more, than the normal pay grade scale.

A million is nothing to a corporation that needs to know what governments are capable of.

http://www.france24.com/en/201...
Here Israel shelled a school because, they claim, they were returning fire on Hamas mortar positions, which may or may not be true. The problem with this, generally speaking, is that the warzone is so small and densely packed with civilians that there is nowhere that Hamas can attack from that isn't near, more or less, civilian installations and if Israel attacks or returns fire and isn't very exact with it then they will kill civilians.

There are also attacks where no valid military excuse has been given.

This is a bit dated, but worth a look:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/0...

Israel calls ceasefires and then doesn't honor them, which is disturbing to say the least.
"At least 17 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a packed Gaza market on Wednesday that followed soon after Israel said it would observe a four-hour humanitarian ceasefire beginning at 12pm (GMT)"
http://www.france24.com/en/201...

Here's another one during a supposed truce:
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

If Israel cared about Palestinian civilian casualties they would use ground forces to attack specific targets rather than shelling approximate locations.

Israel attacks anything, anytime, anywhere and doesn't care about the civilian casualties caused. They do what they want and they get away with it.

I'll have to ask you for examples of corporations that care more about anything than profit, as I don't believe they exist.

I could believe that privately held corporations might do so - but not public ones.

Yes

Right...instead they can fumble around with ripping their CDs while driving...no doubt much safer :-)

"...painted a picture of a corporation overrun by the neverending quest for greater profit"

Is there some other type of corporation?

Except if you need medical help and aren't poor enough to have title 19, lucky enough to have medical coverage or rich enough not to need it.

Excellent.

Now maybe people will stop spending beyond their ability to pay.
And then maybe governments will also stop spending beyond their ability to pay.

Okay probably not but it would be nice.

Socialism has been alive in well in America since the idea of free public schools was introduced, if not before.

The American dream is reachable to any that do not fall into debt, drugs (including alcohol) or have significant medical problems.

Of course for a long time now the American economy has been based on debt which is why so many people fail to live the American dream.

Fuck the banks and fuck the politicians that allow banks to charge people 30% interest which used to be illegal but apparently no longer is so.

Let me change that just a bit.

Scenario 1a) Let's say the Canadian's suspect that there are rockets stored in the basement of your child's school, where due to flooding your child, your family and the families of everyone you know are sheltering because there is no electricity and no water and all of your houses are under water.

There may or may not be weapons stored under the school. You have no idea and you certainly had nothing to do with putting them there if there are.

Now how do you feel about the Canadians shelling your school on this suspicion? I think not.

Scenario 1b) Let's change 1a to be that now there are militants firing rockets from the roof of the school. You still have nowhere to go because this is the only place you can get food and water.

Are the militants to blame for the immediate situation? Let's say yes.

Would you still be cheering on the Canadians shelling the school, even as you curse the militants.

No, I suspect you would be cursing both sides for crushing you in the middle.

So environmental factors result in DNA changes...is that new?

I thought that those of us not blinded by religion were already of the opinion that this is part of evolution, adaptation, survival of the fittest and all that good stuff....

Okay - I see...so in that case NBAR (or the equivalent) would be needed but it's still doable.

Thanks for pointing out that it's just port 80 though. I'm in Europe and I haven't bothered setting up a VPN to get this service so I have no direct experience with netflix at all.