I never cease to be astonished at the abysmally low level of historical knowledge that people not only reveal, but positively flaunt on Slashdot.

Iran is one of maybe four or five nations in the whole world that does not automatically do what Washington tells it to do. That, of course, is why it is at ground zero for the most terrifying display of nuclear sabre-rattling that Washington can muster.

There used to be a few other countries that refused to follow orders from Washington. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya... are you seeing a pattern here yet?

Very nice, until you suddenly find that your company's operations in the USA have been closed down, or all your money in US-controlled banks has been frozen. That no one who has ever met you, or any of your family, or anyone with the same initials as you, is allowed to enter the USA or any of its widespread dominions. That no US-based corporation (or corporation that ever hopes to do any business in the USA, or with US-based corporations) will give you the time of day. That all your communications may be tapped, and diligently searched for the slightest excuse to harass or prosecute you for further alleged wrongdoing. That no one will hire you. That other governments hoping for favour from Washington (i.e. all governments except perhaps Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea) will presently follow suit. And on, and on, and on.

Oh, and you may unexpectedly find yourself being extradited to Sweden on multiple charges of aggravated rape.

You say, "I was there, right?" And you assume that means we have to accept every statement of fact, every judgment, and every opinion you present us with.

But where exactly was "there"? How many of its quarter-million square miles did you personally inspect? How fluent are you in written and spoken Dari, Pashto, Uzbek and Turkmen? How many of the 29 million inhabitants did you interview? (And, given that you knew who you were, how likely is it that they told you the truth?)

Because if you just sat around in air-conditioned offices, shooting the breeze with other Americans over a cold beer - you might have stayed at home in the good ol' US of A for all the value your testimony has.

So you really, seriously, believe that it's OK and perfectly normal to charge customers for software that someone has written and explicitly made available free of charge? I guess you also believe that there's a sucker born every minute, and it's immoral not to fleece them for all they've got.

Attitudes like that make me ashamed to be a human.

The way I see it, the human race evolved with certain abilities - but not everyone has all those abilities and inclinations to equal degrees. Thus, we have the familiar broad categories of extrovert and introvert, for instance. Everyone has seen extreme cases. Like the extrovert who can't be happy unless surrounded by people, talking, winding each other up, having relationships... always something happening. Or the introvert who hates social occasions because it's so hard to get a word in edgeways, and even then the wrong words somehow seem to pop out of your mouth so your clever pick-up line comes out as an offensive slur, or your clever joke falls flat because the timing is off. Much easier and better to stay alone reading, coding, watching moves, and maybe drop someone an email from time to time.

Guess what? Sales and marketing people tend to be extroverts, and programmers tend to be introverts. It's not a perfect correlation, of course - there are outstanding exceptions, and some perfectly bloody people seem to be good-looking, sociable, popular, good at sports, clever, and able to accomplish huge amounts working either alone or in a team. But it seems to me that sales and marketing are merely extensions of a natural human ability that most of us have to varying degrees: the ability to persuade, to manipulate people, to make oneself liked. Most really good salespeople know the important rule that the first thing you must sell is yourself; once clients like you, they want to help you and do what you suggest, and half the battle is won. (Incidentally, politicians tend to be consummate salespeople, which is why so few of them are introverts - and those few who are don't usually get very far).

Meanwhile, a lot of introverts end up studying and working a lot - because they don't have the urge to be partying and socialising - and become experts in relatively solitary subjects such as science, math, and programming. In the process, they learn the central importance of intellectual integrity - in other words, respect for objective truth. To an engineer building a ship or a bridge, or a programmer developing a suite of code, the facts are mostly clear, solid, and not up for debate. This is the core running gag in Dilbert: the engineers share a vast body of scientific facts and figures, which is their common heritage. In contrast, the PHB is a quintessential salesperson/manipulator. To him, it's hardly important if something is true or false; all he cares about is whether it will get him what he wants.

Our future - if we have one - depends on developing our ability to think scientifically. That means logically, honestly, objectively, and with intellectual integrity. Everything you think you know should be open for discussion, and when someone else demonstrates that one of your opinions is wrong, you should be pleased because now you know more and you have shed a false belief. Unfortunately, clear honest objective thinking is as alien to human nature as breathing air is to the average fish. Long ago, as we know, some primitive fish scrambled out of the water and gradually gained the ability to breathe air and stay on land for longer and longer periods - and from them sprang the whole immense diversity of air-breathing life we see around us today. But even air-breathing land-living mammals still enjoy a refreshing swim (providing there aren't any man-eating sharks around). Just so, even when people have learned to think regularly, clearly, and honestly, that doesn't mean they will lose their emotions and the ability to "groom" one another and enjoy socializing. But it does mean we'll get our priorities right, and decide important issues by scientific thinking, not by crocodile-brain manipulation of other people's emotions.

Actually, it's just over $105K.

And yet no one who does not purport to be strongly religious - specifically, Christian - has the least shadow of a chance of being elected.

After Midway, when Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu were sunk, the Japanese had no really good fleet carriers left except Shokaku and Zuikaku. It is true that they were increasingly unable to scrape up enough planes and pilots even for the few carriers they had left, but even with a full complement they would have been hopelessly outnumbered. Between 1942 and 1945, the USA commissioned no fewer than 17 of the Essex class alone (each of which could carry over 100 combat aircraft).

My point was that Japan began the war (as of Pearl Harbor) with a roughly equivalent force of fleet carriers to the USN's. From then on, the USA built an additional 100+ carriers while Japan, as far as I recall, did not build a single additional fleet carrier. (It did cobble together a lot of ad-hoc half-measures, and Shinano - the converted Yamato-class battleship - would have made a superb carrier had it ever been completed, and if all the Japanese aircraft and pilots not been shot down by then).