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Comment Re:Remember Martin Niemoller (Score 1) 630

> Lol. Yeah, I know, those poor pedophiles and terrorists
> (both of which by definition imply a law being broken)
> are so tormented.

"Pedophile" does not imply that a law has been broken. It is not illegal to be a pedophile, it is illegal to engage in a sexual encounter with a minor. You can fantasise about it all you want.

As far as "terrorist" goes, that is one of the most vague and poorly-defined terms in America. People _are_ getting oppressed by having those terms placed on them and then not having any politician dare take a stand for fear of being ostracised.

> They should be "exterminated".

What, so, you should be killed for your own private thoughts? That's a little harsh, isn't it?

Comment Re:Constitutionality (Score 2, Interesting) 630

Right, then.

> That's that other part of the Constitution, you remember the
> one about double jeopardy. If someone got convicted and sentenced
> for lewd behavior, they can't increase the sentence afterward even
> if they discover that the person may have committed several
> rapes 15 years prior.

Are you bloody serious? Do us all a favour and look up terms before using them. Double jeapordy refers to being tried on the _same charge_ more than once. If you rape someone fifteen years ago and then get charged on some unrelated crime, you can still be charged on the original rape. They were never part of the sentence.

> So then the person goes free with little more than a slap on the wrist
> and the public feels they were let down by the Constitution and
> the system in general.

This is a much more nebulous statement, but I will dignify it by pointing out that if "the public feels let down by the constitution", that's no reason to break it, that's, at best, a reason to change it.

> This is why we have vigilante justice and people thinking like the GP,
> and for good reason. Sorry, I know the founding fathers meant well but
> the Constitution doesn't protect us from the real world as it is today.

That's not a reason to ignore it, that's a reason to fix it.

> Currently it serves to protect a criminally insane President and tons of
> his cronies but does nothing to protect us from the government itself
> so long as we continue to think that little piece of paper in D.C. is our
> savior.

Actually, the constitution doesn't protect this "criminally insane President". If anything, it limits his power. Tons of laws passed while he was in office do serve to protect him, but they are unrelated to the constitution and, in some cases, arguably directly infringing on it. And yes, I would like to think of "that little piece of paper in D.C" as my saviour. Or, more accurately, honest judges intelligently interpreting it.

Comment Re:Constitutionality (Score 4, Insightful) 630

I have to say, you missed the grandfather's point completely. I personally agree that comparing rapists and Jews is stretching it more than somewhat (I am ethnically Jewish, for the record, not that that's especially relevant) but that's all it is -- a bit stretching it. His point was that this is still unconstitutional and a slippery slope. Just because something is democratically decided doesn't make it constitutional. This is, IMHO (and IANAL, etc.) a clear violation of fourth amendment privacy rights, and a dangerous one at that.

What's really quite disturbing about all this is that it hardly stops the problem. Think about it -- what are some of the most "questionable" places on the Internet? IRC and 4chan come to mind as the top examples, and neither require passwords (for the most part). Besides, how are you supposed to know _which_ passwords to hand over? The court won't know about that password you set on your handle on Freenode and they're likely not going to know what to do with it if they had it ("There's no form! Oh noes!"). If these people still pose danger to society, then you should imprison them. All this will accomplish is give the government an easier way of oppressing people.

In a truly free country, all have to be protected, even child molesters (note, by the way, that the main discussion concerns "sex offenders" which is hardly the same thing). The problem is that we have a representative democracy and so the senator that's going to stand up for them is going to get his carreer ruined. With something as delicate as this, it might just be some guy who looked a girl the wrong way.

Education

Submission + - Early graduation for college et al?

hahafaha writes: "I am currently a high school student. My school offers a program by which students can graduate in three years rather than four, by essentially completing all the requirements. This is generally very difficult, because the school requires four years of math, science and English, but I am lucky enough to be in a position where I can easily do it by simply taking two English classes next year, for which I am already signed up (the way I am accomplishing this is by taking math a year ahead, and by taking two science courses this year). However, I am unsure how great of an idea it is in terms of admissions into college. How much would this harm my chances?

I think that academically, I am doing well. I am president of the Computer Club, participate in the math team, have good grades, etc. My dream is to get into MIT. But for any college/university, not just MIT, how much would early graduation hurt my chances? If I get great SAT scores, AP scores and GPA, would that outweigh the 5 (or so) less classes I take than everyone else? Note, also, that I am older than most others in my grade, so the whole age thing should not be a problem.

Does anyone in the Slashdot community have any experience with early graduation?"
Power

Submission + - Wisconsin Orders Gas Station to Raise Gas Prices

hahafaha writes: "Raj Bhandari, a gas station owner in Wisconsin, offered a 2 cents/gallon discount for gas to seniors, and 3 cents/gallon to those that supported youth sports. However, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture is threatening to penalize him for each discounted gallon, with the fine at a judge's discretion. According to the Department, he is violating Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price."
Spam

Journal Journal: Karen Valdez & Stefan Zdanski... who are you? 1

Like everyone else, I'm awash in spam. All the names are fake of course, though we seemed to have lately changed over from really bad ones like "Asymmetric Q. Palindrome" to more normal looking names. All these names seem to be totally random, with no two messages coming from the same one.
Power

Submission + - wireless recharging

saviorsloth writes: "The BBC is running an article on a proposed system to recharge electronic devices wirelessly using the resonance of electromagnetic waves to transmit energy over three to five meters. If they do make such a system, we'll all just have to pray that the GI Joes can keep this thing out of the hands of Cobra Commander and Serpentor!"
The Internet

Submission + - Internet Only 1% Porn

Eli Gottlieb writes: "In what surely comes as a complete and utter surprise to everyone on Slashdot, a new calculation shows that only one percent of web pages contain pornography.
While the calculations were performed using data forced from Google's and Microsoft's search indices by the government, they will help the American Civil Liberties Union to keep enforcement of the Children's Online Protection Act of 1998 banned. A loss for business privacy has become a victory for free speech, even though netizens lose a beloved old proverb."
Education

Submission + - The Real Lessons Taught At School

danparks writes: http://hometown.aol.com/tma68/7lesson.htm

The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher

A New York teacher outlines his idea of the real lessons that are taught in school. From the article:

"The current debate about whether we should have a national curriculum is phony. We already have a national curriculum locked up in the seven lessons I have just outlined." [confustion, class position, indifference, emotional dependency, intellectual dependency, provision self-esteem, surveillance] "Such a curriculum produces physical, moral, and intellectual paralysis, and no curriculum of content will be sufficient to reverse its hideous effects. What is currently under discussion in our national school hysteria about failing academic performance misses the point. Schools teach exactly what they are intended to teach and they do it well: how to be a good Egyptian and remain in your place in the pyramid."

The result of American schooling using the above seven lessons?

"...we have a real national crisis, the nature of which is very different from that proclaimed by the national media. Young people are indifferent to the adult world and to the future, indifferent to almost everything except the diversion of toys and violence."
Microsoft

Submission + - Copyleft vs Zune

Tag writes: "Microsoft's competitor to the iPod is proving to be quite the controversy. One point that has been brought up is Zune's ability to wirelessly transfer songs, allowing the recipient to play the song 3 times before it is locked out by Microsoft's DRM (Digital Rights Management) that is added to the file for wireless transfer. This seems like a "wicked smaht" solution to the ongoing bickering by the RIAA & the 'Napsterites'. My problem with this, is if I record my own album and put it onto my Zune, and my music is under a license resembling the Copyleft, providing for the free transfer of music, without allowing the license to change, will Microsoft's DRM violate my rights? Technically it would take my license, and put Microsoft's DRM "3 Play" on it. The best analogy to this is a program under the GNU license, or equivalent being given to someone as shareware (x days before it no longer works). Comments?"
X

Submission + - X.Org Foundation Election Results

Doc Ruby writes: The X.Org Foundation election for the Board of Directors was concluded on 12 November 2006. Egbert Eich, Bart Massey, Keith Packard and Daniel Stone were elected for two year terms, and Stuart Kreitman was elected for a one year term.

X.Org Foundation is chartered to develop and execute effective strategies that provide worldwide stewardship of the X Window System technology and standards. The X.Org Foundation has an open membership, and a Board of Directors which is elected from the membership.

The election counted under 100 voting members. The X Window System underlies most Linux, Mac, and most Unix (and other) desktops, used by millions of people worldwide. The Foundation needs more members to contribute the project, and to help elect leaders. If you have time and good sense to help, please join and participate.
Communications

Submission + - Embed AJAX chat rooms into any site

tsmfirefighter8 writes: "ChatCreator allows you to quickly and easily create AJAX chat rooms that you can embed into any webpage such as a blog or news site. The software is smooth and responsive and does not require registration or any red tape like that. There are a number of options to customize the chatroom (e.g. font, color, size), or you can simply create an internal chatroom on the ChatCreator site and direct people to it. Either way, there is no registration to use this free service. It also works on LINUX! Check out the Chatbox."
Programming

Submission + - Is now a hard time for Python ?

arkaino writes: "For several days I've been asking myself what is going to happen with Python now that Java ME and SE edition are going to be under the GPL license. In particular with embedded systems where Python has been gaining popularity.
What are your opinions ?"
Windows

Submission + - Linux fan gets refund for uninstalling Windows XP

An anonymous reader writes: Freelance programmer Dave Mitchell ordered a Dell laptop on 21 October, and the machine was delivered a few days later. As Mr Mitchell was planning to run the Linux open source operating system on the machine, he had no need for the copy of Windows XP Home that had been pre-installed. When he started it for the first time, he clicked the box that said "no" on the Windows licence agreement that asked him to agree to its terms. The text of this agreement states users can get a refund users can get a refund[/URL] for the "unused products" on their new computer if they get in touch with the machine's manufacturer.

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