Yes, for one, my late Grandfather who was born there and escaped. Otherwise, there are a number of textbooks you can find. I'm not doing the research for you.

Oh, "everybody knows", huh?

You're full of shit. I understand that may be hereditary.

(Yeah, I'm trolling but in good humour. I fully expect the zealots to mod me down regardless though.)

97% of climate research shows global climate change, but you believe they're the zealots?

Maybe we need to clarify the definition of "zealot".

The best thing I learned from that article was the term, "The Colonization of Time". I may not use it the same way as the author, but I love that term.

When you see your working life in terms of the amount of your time it takes to support a basic lifestyle, you can't see our recent economic history as anything but a march toward a new indentured servitude.

I may be part of one of the last generations for whom escape from this slavery on your own terms was possible.

Do you really believe in the possibility that 1) there will be a transhumanist "solution" in your lifetime and 2) that you are going to be able to afford it?

No. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

Actually, it means exactly that.

Using your logic, you should start flapping your wings in order to fly to Mars.

Transhumanism would be nothing more than another tool in elitist control over human lives. Since the .0001% would be the only ones who could afford it, their relative immortality would give them even greater ability to enslave the vast majority of humankind.

I don't think that's such a good idea until our economic elite can prove that they're not really as sociopathic as history and their current behavior would indicate. Are you so keen on turning your future and the future of your progeny over to John Galt? You have that much confidence in a fictional character?

The communists in Germany had a saying -- "First brown, then red" -- as they saw Hitler's National Socialist party as a step to the Bolshevik style Communism that Stalin had.

Do you have any citation for that statement beyond kookie far right websites?

And in case you've forgotten -- Stalin and Hitler were allies until Hitler invaded Russia.

And the US was allies with Stalin until the end of the war.

You would do well to open a History book.

You're the guy who's getting your history from freerepublic.org. You might want to take a little bit of your own advice.

China does not need the US as a trading partner. Our #1 export to China is garbage. If you think in terms of "trade", we give nothing of value to China except for some foodstuffs.

No, the US is an Empire, and we force the world to trade in USD. China must use our currency trade with the rest of the world. The US economy is a small fraction of the global economy, so the price China pays for this arrangement - participating in our empire - is selling us shit for free.

China is actively working to resist US domination of global trade to be free of this, but truth be told - it's simply a small price to pay. China has no need to trade with the US, but they need to trade with the world.

This is pure B.S., ÃZle-de-France has the same population density as Cuyahoga County (~1,000/km^2) but yet Cleveland is often cited as an example of suburban sprawl run amok.

The reason Cleveland is cited as an example of suburban sprawl run amok is that the growth happened very rapidly, with very little attempt to create comprehensive public and rapid transit. Paris grew to its size over a much longer time.

And it's not just a matter of size and density, but of how well the services are distributed. You can live in parts of Cuyahoga County where you can't get groceries without a car. You can't get to a drug store without a car. There's no place to work within less than a half-hour's drive.

There are few places in and around Paris where you can't find what you need, either walking or a short bike ride away.

The bad news is that the Wal-Mart-ification of America is causing a similar problem all over small towns in America. There's no little store on the corner any more because Wal-Mart has put them out of business. But Wal-Mart's business model depends on everybody having a car and being able to drive ten miles or more. You hit $8 gasoline in the US and Wal-Mart's business model might not look so good. That's called an "externality". Wal-Mart can charge less because they don't have to bring products to you, they make you come to the products.

Me, I can't live anywhere if I can't take a short stroll somewhere to get a bite to eat or a bag of groceries. Walk to work if necessary. I've been lucky in that regard because it's worked out for me. Most people in America are not so lucky.

No, but I find atheism is no guarantor of benevolent behaviour, either.

I agree. The problem is certainty.

If you're absolutely 100% sure, no question, one way or the other, then you're a danger. When it comes to absolutes, a little doubt is a good thing. It shows you're still human.

The question I always ask people is this: Why would the US ever have issued 90-day treasury notes? Why on earth would the most powerful empire in history have to borrow money for 90 days? Who borrows money for 90 days besides hookers and drug addicts? Even a small time drug dealer will often get more time than that.

Sovereign debt is about managing the international supply of money. The "mix" of the outstanding debt signals to the world our fiscal objectives. When most of the debt is in short term notes, this means the debt will turn over sooner, and thus there is uncertainty as to what the future will hold. This is what has been going on lately, as rates will have to rise at some point (or a debt jubilee is called). What percentage of the outstanding treasury debt consists of say, inflation indexed 30-year treasury bonds?

Never listen to anyone who doesn't understand the difference between sovereign debt and household debt. They are two totally different things. Further, debt has always been a social system. The myth of bankers lending out deposists has always been a myth. Money lenders have ALWAYS created their money from nothing. Money itself was always created from nothing.

Think about. Let's say you set up a new country tomorrow. You are the undisputed king with the total loyalty of your people. You want them to pay you taxes in your currency. But, none of them have any. How do you get a functioning economy in your new realm? Well, you have to give people money first. THEN you demand it in taxes. Why do you think so much of "civilization" is the government just paying people to do pointless shit like build temples and what not? It's just getting them to be part of the system. That's all money and debt is. It's a system to organize societies in large groups than what we are biologically capable of without external structure - or about 200 people, aka Dunbar's Number.

Umm, you don't understand the purpose of sovereign debt. It has nothing to do with borrowing. Obviously, the United States is the wealthiest and most powerful empire in the history of mankind. We have no need to borrow anything from anyone, and could erase all the national debt tomorrow on mere whim with far fewer consequences than you might support.

Money is power. It has value as long as sovereignty collects it in taxes and adjudicates civil disputes with it. The more powerful the sovereignty, the more valuable the currency is.

In the case of the USD, the American Empire does something different. We do not simply create demand for our currency via taxes, as is typical. We compel the world to use the dollar for international trade. What you miss, because you are blinded by this misconstruing your personal money use with that of the US, is that the dollar is working better than ever. Last year was the banner year - over 75% of all foreign exchanges were settled in USD. And all of that money eventually has to flow through our financial system. And the so-called 1% takes a cut, which directly drives about 15% of the GDP and upwards of a 1/3 indirectly. The rest trickles down to the masses in terms of government handouts, or "services", like servants, hookers, drug dealers, etc.

Everything that is going on in the Ukraine is directly about maintaining this system. We cannot allow Russia to create a meaningful alternative market for energy denominated in currency other than USD. To do so would directly cut into the GDP at a time when we cannot afford to do so. Afterall, the deficit spending has been nominal for the past 5 years. Unemployment is at depression levels, and the middle class is being decimated as the quantity of money in circulation has not been increasing at the rate of the exponential growth in interest. Thus, they are drowning in debt. The domestic consumer economy has been destroy, as this same tribal group fears internal dissent, and has decided the country is best turned into a land of peasants with overlords.

So how much did it really help to design a city to facilitate this when they still have vast pollution issues from cars?

Can you say the old cities of Europe were designed to facilitate biking? Nor were they designed for cars, as cities like Los Angeles were. Most of them weren't "designed" for anything but the glory of the monarchy.

If people are biking in Europe, it's most likely despite the city's design, not because of it.

Here in the US, we had cities that were so choked with smog that it caused respiratory ailments. It took the EPA a couple of decades to fix that, much in the same way they cleaned up the Great Lakes. I'm not sure one fix like "odd/even license plate days" are going to fix Europe's problems quickly.

My Raspberry Pi runs as a permanently connected Tor relay.

I gotta go find out how to do that. Sounds like a good project for next weekend.

At least you can see the difference between being a Leftist and being a Fascist. It takes a bit of discernment.

Smitty is still in the "your side or my side" division of the world. That does not generally lead to clarity. But he's under a lot of stress, and I believe he's still worth saving.

Because there is no way in dog's green earth that Gran will ever be able to use encryption.

Gran's gone, unfortunately. But it only took about five minutes to set up my wife and daughter's systems to use crypto for our emails and texts. A couple of my friends were already there.

It's getting easier all the time to convince people to use crypto thanks to what we're learning in the news practically every day. And GPG was already pretty easy to set up.

What he needs is open interface specifications to the hardware.

That. Absolutely.

Shuttleworth may be slightly off the mark, but his dislike for proprietary firmware is worth supporting, given what we're learning daily about what people who mean us no good are doing with our consumer electronics.