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Comment Re:Frustrating! (Score 1) 214

Hooray for faux quotations with no context.
First of all, "corporatism" in the context of Italian fascism is completely distinct from corporate businesses in 21st century Canada.

The word "corporatism" is derived from the Latin word for body, corpus. This meaning was not connected with the specific notion of a business corporation, but rather a general reference to anything collected as a body.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism
And on top of that, your quote is a total fabrication anyway.

Some critics equate too much corporate power and influence with fascism. Often they cite a quotation that has been attributed to Mussolini, although it doesn't appear in any of his texts: "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." Several variations of the alleged quotation exist. However, no text written by Mussolini has yet been found with any variation of the alleged quotation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism#Fascism_and_corporatism
I hate the excessive influence of megacorporations (in the modern sense of corporations, catching on?) too but try to find a real precedent next time instead of spouting nonsense that makes us all look like incompetent asses.

Comment Re:Simulating what, exactly? (Score 4, Interesting) 232

Unmanned aircraft may be getting pretty good at firing missiles at buildings but I speculate that they're pretty far from being able to compare to the abilities of a real pilot in most situations. I'm sure Australia (like the US) coordinates its military to be prepared for a real war against another country as opposed to just the anti-insurgent potshot operations that UAVs are so good at.

Comment Re:The cops that arrested him must be proud (Score 1) 1016

That is why the defense of "just following orders" does not work. They were the ones giving the orders.

I'm not sure what you mean by that but there were certainly people executed for carrying out orders they didn't originate themselves. Nuremberg is hardly the epitome of justice, hell the first man to die was convicted of relaying an execution order against a group of Allied commandos captured while conducting military operations in civilian clothing, which made them unlawful combatants still entitled to "humane" treatment under the Geneva conventions but not protected against execution like ordinary uniformed prisoners.

Obviously, should the first German officer tried in an allied war trial be exonerated and released, it would be an embarrassment for the Roosevelt administration. For that reason, the prosecutor and my father sent a wire to Washington, informing the administration of the situation. Shortly thereafter, the prosecuting officer received the reply: "Lacking standard evidence, hearsay will be accepted as evidence in the trial."

http://www.nd.edu/~com_sens/issues/old/v17/v17_n5.html#dostler

Many of the others were convicted of "waging wars of aggression."

After the United States gobbled up California and half of Mexico, and we were stripped down to nothing, territorial expansion suddenly becomes a crime. It's been going on for centuries, and it will still go on.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring#Nuremberg_Diary_.281947.29
Yeah so "justice" at Nuremberg makes a neat bedtime story but reality is important if you're going to cite it as precedent.

Comment Re:Down to 95% of the world's arsenals! (Score 1) 413

One madman with a nuke is worse than a peaceful leader with a thousand nukes.

So in other words it's ok for your leaders to have as many as they want, just not anyone else? I think that's what a lot of people in countries like Iran see in the US's strong opposition to any development of nukes: not a spirit of genuine concern against proliferation but a fear of any challenge to (Anglo-)American dominance. Bitterness is understandable, especially in consideration of the fact that the US effectively allows Israel free rein with regards to its nuclear production.

On a side note I find it embarrassing that the American media constantly implies Israel will be immediately obliterated if Iran is allowed to develop a primitive first nuke, while making no mention of the fact that Israel reportedly has hundreds of nukes with modern delivery vectors. Sigh, what ever happened to logic or reason?

Comment Re:Reminds me of something Herman Goering said onc (Score 1) 580

Jingoistic propaganda is unlikely to work in most modern democracies, absent real attacks such as 9/11 (and even then, the effect seems quite limited)

This may be the first time I've heard the effects of 9/11 and subsequent fearmongering described as "limited." The creation of a new cabinet department, two foreign wars, and a major change in national consciousness qualifies as limited now huh? Have we gotten into Newspeak already?

No, I am NOT an American

Evidently not.

Comment Re:For one, it's usually illegal (Score 4, Insightful) 313

Nah more like if they sold PS3's for $50 until their competitors withdrew from the market then jacked the price to $1500, but dumping isn't that big of an issue with luxury goods like game consoles anyway, because people will just stop buying them if the price is too high.

The robber barons were famous for doing that kind of thing to crush anyone who didn't bend to their will, but with more important goods (steel, oil). And now for some reason Carnegie and Rockefeller are names most people respect. So much for karma eh?

Comment Re:In other words... (Score 1) 309

Could this ultimately help Germany develop historical blind spots?

Unlikely as long as most people keep believing everything they see in Hollywood movies and the tired old holocaust film formula keeps winning awards.
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-12-31/film/from-reverence-to-rape-in-defiance-and-good

One of my history teachers in high school recommended Enemy at the Gates as a great historical view of the Battle of Stalingrad and the Eastern Front of WWII in general. The entire plot of that film is fictional and the battle scenes are laughably inaccurate (run into battle unarmed or be shot comrades!). Otherwise the guy was intelligent but lacking any proper information he chose to believe what he saw in the movies.

Comment Re:In other words... (Score 2, Insightful) 309

So, have the Germans learned their lesson of not eradicating groups that they disagree with, or that challenge their official morals?

I'd like to point out that most Germans alive today were born after 1945 so treating the entire ethnic group (I assume you're excluding the large modern immigrant population from your generalizations) as if it were a continuously existing entity is quite fallacious. Then again it's extremely common to do so in the US thanks to WWII in Europe being only briefly covered by primary/secondary schools and blatantly centered on the limited American role.

"We saved the world from a mass of nameless, faceless evil robots who wanted to destroy freedom" is all a student needs to know. Maybe if schools bothered to provide a little bit of context for the rise of Nazism, students could gain more than a fabricated feel good bedtime story about their grandfathers and actually apply it to becoming better informed, more aware citizens. That might lead them to question their government though, and God knows we can't have that.

The Media

Technocrat.net Shut Down 326

twitter writes "Bruce Perens has pulled the plug on Technocrat.net. 'The technocrat.net public discussion site is shut down. This has happened because the site never achieved the ability to financially sustain its editorial staff and system expenses with its revenues. When it became evident that Technocrat was un-viable as a business, I found that I did not wish to keep supporting the site as a hobby. Certain elements of the community that developed here, unfortunately, creep me out. At the end I faced the decision of asking for donations to keep the site running, or letting it die, and it became clear to me that I'd feel better if it would just die. I am very busy building a new software business, with some great new (and yet unannounced) Open Source software in development. I must focus on that for now. Best holiday wishes to you all.'"

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