In most of the places where these wars take place, the adults experienced war first hand as children. That experience did not lead them to reject war, but rather to embrace warfare as a viable option. Hitler served on the front in WWI and experienced the full horror of it, chemical weapons and all. But like many German veterans, he felt that the German army was not defeated in battle, but was betrayed by peace-seeking politicians at Versailes.

Generations of citizens of Vietnam , Afghanistan, and Israel and its neighbors have witnessed warfare first hand. The horror of war itself was not enough to end the cycle.

Most American families were affected by the deaths of American service men and women in WWII and Korea, yet chose to get involved with the conflict in Vietnam. Direct exposure to the reality of war can desensitize people to devastation it can cause, possibly even worse for young people. I think the dad in this story would have been better off discussing the consequences of war rather than visiting a war zone.

Mod parent up! Come on!

Finally, a rational thought expressed on Slashdot.

Sounds like a great idea, but that would take time away from the mandatory four years of intense English Literature where we make kids read dozens of 200 page books about fictional events that never happened, while we claim to be preparing them for the "real" world.

Soon after returning from Syria, one of the boys didn't want to go to school because he had a sniffle and a mild fever. So next month the family is packing up again for another trip - this time to West Africa to visit with families affected by the Ebola outbreak. While they're there, with any luck, they will be able to stumble upon a village completely wiped out by the virus. While some have labeled the plan ill timed and the motivations just plain sick, the father hopes that the children will come to appreciate their health if they can interview a dying infectee with blood spewing from every orifice.

Meanwhile, the boys have withdrawn their requests to go see the new Hunger Games movie, and no longer complain about being hot, cold, bored, or anything else.

Nowadays even the charities have gone too far with some of the obnoxious lengths they go to in order to extract one more dollar from their donors. Shortly before my mother died she began sending large monetary gifts to a few of her favorite charities. She ended up getting non-stop calls all throughout the day and night from dozens of charities pleading for her to contribute. Some of them were sneaky, with recurring auto debit agreements buried in fine print. On the phone they were very pushy, fast talking, always closing, and quite presumptuous. Many calls went like this: "Hi, I'm [name] calling on behalf of [name]. We're calling to confirm your donation today to our fundraising campaign. Please confirm your credit card number for a monthly contribution of $120...". We heard this from organizations that she had never contributed to. Most of the call centers were privately contracted, for-profit fundraising companies, probably staff by ex Comcast and AOL CRS's. She was on the National Do Not Call list, but there was no DO NOT CALL list to keep the pestering charities away. The whole experience really turned me off. Since I have special needs kids who don't get any support from any charities or government agencies, my donations go directly into their Special Needs Trust. But if I were to support a charity, I would only do it absolutely anonymously.

What the heck is a sitting dug?

What if I didn't like the software running on my scope hardware and I decided to erase all of it, wrote my own software and firmware to load onto the EEPROMS, etc, and then released my software as free and open source, along with installation and usage manuals. Seems like DMCA could be used against me in such as a case as well, or am I wrong?

Launch staff are consistently drilled to launch the nukes on command. They receive launch codes and attempt to arm the nukes. When the codes provided are part of a drill, the nukes don't launch. If the codes are legit, then the launch crew has no idea until they hear the silo doors begin to open.

So as long as the soldiers are properly trained and show a track record of doing what their told, they might as well be a hard circuit to the launch systems.

It could also solve their over-population problems as well.

Busy dismantling "big government" space programs with the expectation that the free market will supply the slingshots and parachutes to get in and out of orbit.

And hopefully they won't, ever. Because that's where I plan to head when SHTF. Illegal immigration works both ways IMHO.

I'm definitely not a fan of global "corporatism" having undue influence and leverage over local and national governments or over the lives of private individuals. But when you say that people should be content with what they have and be happy, understand that the philosophy of Primitivism advocates this as well, and free internet is not a per-requisite.

If we're talking basic human rights, shouldn't the right to food, shelter, clean water, sleep, growing your own food, selling your own products and services, buying your own medication at the global market price, and freedom from conscription come before broadband and Youtube? I'm all for broadband for the people, but there are a lot of other rights that are not guaranteed in the USA or many other countries. And unlike many protectionist, mercantile regulations and policies of urban fascism, free internet is a problem that could be solved at a grass-roots DIY level. Many undeveloped parts of third world countries are coming online with wireless internet networks even though there are no roads, power lines, or sewer lines. Hops are installed that carry signals from village to village. These projects often take place even without government support.

What surprises me is to see lack of any sort of effort in the US to bring about a "public wireless internet", following the same model that brought us public television or public radio stations, pledge drives and all. If the FCC would loosen some restrictions to how HAM radio frequencies are utilized, there are probably already enough amateur technicians that would be eager to plant the seeds for a nationwide ad hoc user supported public network.

And they don't badger you when you visit in person, given that you can recognize faces and wait for people to get into their cars and follow them home. No, mega corporations prefer to rip you off from a very safe distance with no way to identify the front-line "retention specialists".

[Cue Voice of Achmed]: "SILENCE! I bill you!"