So, if your browser is configured to keep cookies, does that imply consent to place cookies?

If you configure your browser to disallow cookies from certain sites, you're denying consent, and it doesn't even require the sites to be changed at all.

So, why does this law exist again? It looks -1, Redundant to me.

Why do you dismiss the business plot as fantasy? It's accepted by historians. You're being revisionist. Why? I don't think concurrent newspaper reports will cut it since important evidence turned up after they were published.

Also, your initial post is both a personal attack on the original poster and a misdirection from Butler's point which stands unmolested. In fact, it's only controversial if you take a jingoist view of American foreign affairs.

The patriotism of those who won't brook criticism of their country is shallow.

"Thus ended the great American Civil War, which upon the whole must be considered the noblest and least avoidable of all the great mass conflicts of which till then there was record."

-- Winston Churchill

Surely Butler was aware of the Civil War. Notice that the two American wars considered good were forced on us, while we've gleefully made unjust war dozens and dozens of times.

It's patriotic to want your country to stop being evil.

It's easy to separate the politician from the soldier, but that doesn't totally absolve the soldier. Save a little bit of blame for the man that pulls the trigger.

Honor in soldiering is pretty hard to come by. Contrast this with most other jobs. Maybe that's why the honor of the soldier is valued so much.

No wonder we spend all of our time in the basement. It's the only place we can get any of the really interesting shit done, and almost no one wants to join us.

Old joke:

Three NASA engineers, one from headquarters in Washington, one from the Johnson center in Houston, and one from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena were discussing whether it was better to have a wife or a mistress.

The HQ guy said it was better to have a mistress, because they are more understanding of the long absences required of a NASA employee. The Johnson guy retorted, "Oh, no, one must always follow proper rules and procedures, and marriage is the proper procedure, so it is better to have a wife."

The JPL engineer replied, "No, it is better to have both. That way, you can tell your wife that you're with your mistress, your mistress that you're with your wife, and go to the lab and work."

I think "begging" is a little unfair. We're paying a fair price for the launches we need, I believe as of now through 2016. People who beg are asking for favors. While I'm all for expressing disgust with the state of the US space program, I think this characterization is unnecessary.