Yeah -- subpar. Every time I ask FedEx or UPS to mail a letter for me for less than 50c, they laugh.

Yeah -- Obama being basically a GOP posterchild in every other policy -- how ironic. After 8 years, fucking finally he does something a liberal could be proud of.

Finally!

(actually, one word is impossible due to the lameness filter, and honestly some other words would be good, like: hahaha, die bastards die, suck it, etc. etc.)

Even here, on /., a comment in support of the Constitution and privacy is downmodded. Things are pretty hopeless.

Well, the bickering is helpful if it exposes Hillary Clinton as the vanguard of the Democrats' transition into the New GOP. I don't know what it takes for people to see that she's a right wing bloodthirsty neocon willing to ignore information in order to start useless war. Maybe this will help, from way back when she voted to go to war in Iraq:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

• 1:40 HRC enters room
• ~ Code pink intro: war in Iraq will harm American and Iraqi families and cost a lot.
• 6:30 HRC parrots the WMD arguments, blames the danger to Iraqis on Hussein, ignores harm to Americans, financial costs, and the fact that Iraq was not a threat to the US nor involved in 9/11.
• 8:52 HRC lies about careful review of WMD info. HRC never even read the National Intelligence Estimate which while suggesting WMDs existed, also contained significant disagreements with that conclusion that a reader not interested in a particular outcome would have agreed called the whole thing into question.
• 10:00 Audience member: not up to the US to disarm Hussein, up to the world community, Iraq has no connection to terrorism, not only are Iraqi people in danger, so are US people, and will harm the economy. It's reckless.
• 11:14 HRC: The world community would not take on difficult problems without US forcing the issue. Goes on and on about Bosnia. Segues into how GWB tax cuts are a bad idea.
• 13:29 Interesting note on the negative effect of the tax cuts: "Here at home, this administration is bankrupting our economy forcing us to make the worst kinds of false choices between national and homeland security, which they don't fund ..."
• -- IOW, HRC would have preferred GWB raise taxes for more war and domestic surveillance. --
• 14:12 HRC is given a pink slip
• 14:20 HRC goes off: "I am the Senator from NY I will never put my people at risk ..."
• -- Yeah, like Saddam had anything to do with 9/11

Don't be a retard. The name means nothing, at least to liberals like me. His actions however make him somewhat to the right of Richard Nixon. For Obama to be worse is somewhat of an anti-achievement, but face it, he has engaged in more war and more surveillance than Nixon could even have imagined, and he got Nixon's health care plan passed.

So, while you are there making fun of republicans, what you fail to recognize is that the Democrats ARE the fucking new Republicans.

Don't forget destroying the War Powers Act to wage war in Libya. Remember to thank Obama when another Dick Cheney type commits random war without even a nod to Congress or the Constitution.

Civ 4 was a great game, and part of it was his narrations. He really had a way of saying things beautifully. Maybe my tribute will be playing out a game this weekend.

I think you make a very good point. I wasn't close to my grandparents and I would very much like to have heard about their lives. My mom and I had a close relationship and I'm glad I don't have a bunch of videos for exactly the reason you say -- it would be too much ... too much something. Don't know how to say it.

There's an interesting This American Life about a person who's mother left a pile of letters to be opened once per year on the daughter's birthday, and one for her wedding. It started out very good, but ended not so great (see Act 1) ("... you shouldn't be dragged back into the grave with them every year ...):

http://www.thisamericanlife.or...

So I started this post, listened again to that TAL episode, and coming back to this post, will sort of disagree with what I said at first. I still think periodic mailing is a bad idea, but maybe the poster could make the videos, but they would be given to the daughter immediately after the funeral, and in a whole pile all at once (backups kept somewhere in case of accidental or intentional destruction). Then in the future, if she chooses, she can watch what she wants -- all, some, or none. This leaves watching as a choice she may or may not exercise -- in contrast, the periodic shipment seems like it has a good chance of becoming a source of resentment and pain (i.e., why should a ghost appear on the wedding to potentially create great sadness or feelings of being a disappointment or whatever).

I lost my mom -- had the same reaction you had. For me, the tapes would have become a huge burden and source of anxiety.

And it's been a while since I read the Foundation Series, but didn't Hari Seldon's eventually diverge from current events? Even he couldn't manage a perfect set of videos.

For some context, my mom died 27 years ago, and so when I talk about re-finding that note a year ago, it wasn't like it rekindled memories of something recent -- these are memories from almost three decades ago.

That isn't a hurt she might want to work thru in the midst of other big life events. She might be really having fun with her friends on graduation day and not feel like opening that wound, and if she does not sit down and watch the video of day feel guilty at betraying your memory.

This is really insightful. My mom died when I was 20, which is probably better than if she had died when I was 6 -- or maybe worse, I don't know. I skipped my graduation ceremony for college and graduate school (no second parent either). I buried myself in doing things, hard and difficult things, as a way to alleviate the pain. I really don't know if I'd want to have to relive that pain periodically by watching videos. In fact I know I wouldn't have -- I'd inevitably feel like I was in some way, disappointing a ghost or missing that person or some other random negative emotion.

I probably didn't deal with things the right way when my mom died, and my response affected my whole life. I still will pick up a subject of one kind or another and totally immerse myself in it -- just like I did back then -- but now it is out of habit. It isn't even a joy thing. It's simply a means to get to a state of not-existing. I suppose it is better than having had used alcohol or drugs to achieve that feeling, but finding and engaging in new subjects at a totally immersive compulsive level isn't exactly healthy either.

I don't know what to to tell the poster -- I don't think I'm saying "don't leave videos" -- I was older and more aware than I would have been at six, I didn't have a second parent to pick up the slack, and I had my own personality oddities fully baked in. But, he should consider that it is possible that the kindest thing he can do, is to not leave a stack of videos. That making and leaving these videos is perhaps his way to not think about the disease and while they are a comfort to him, they would be a huge burden to his daughter.

Just last year while moving, I found a short final thoughts note my mom left for me, and I just totally broke down over it. That was a year ago and it still haunts me a little. A video would have been debilitating, at least for me.

2) If you want to actually use (G)PG(P) your recipient also has to grok it, install software to use it, and you have to exchange keys. This is a massive hurdle to overcome for all but the most dedicated cryptonerds. Until there is a majority of people who want to use encrypted mail, that will carry on being the case.

Of the hundreds of people I exchange email with, about four regularly use encryption. Even amongst people who value privacy, GPG use is rare. It doesn't seem like it should be hard, but it is, and there are some confusing things about it. For example, adding a public key requires closing and restarting the email app for it to work, but there isn't even a popup that notifies about this. Recipe for frustration and rejection.

You mean Democrats, the New GOP, right? A more pro-war, pro-surveillance, pro-wall-street group of assholes could only be found ... nowhere. The difference between the Old GOP and the New GOP can be summed up in total over the issues of abortion and gay marriage. Other than that, the two groups are entirely fungible.

Seriously, Democrats today are to the right of Nixon and do everything he loved to do (war and surveil) and one thing he couldn't do (Nixon Care, conveniently relabeled Obama Care).

So get over yourself -- you're just a blue team neo-con no better than a red team neo-con.

This AC needs modding up. The real problem with a robotic army is that the soldiers are safe and war becomes an easy go-to solution whereas constituents tend to get pissed and fail to re-elect people they think are spilling blood for no reason. Making war cheap, in the shed blood sense, is a very bad idea.