Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Thin end of the wedge (Score 1) 768

The reason why the 5th Amendment must not be changed can be found in the preamble to the Bill of Rights:

"THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution." (My emphasis).

Get rid of the 5th and what's next? "Oh, we don't want people saying bad things about the government, let's do away with the 1st Amendment". Then, "Oh, we don't want civilians to be able to protect themselves, let's get rid of the 2nd Amendment." Then, "Oh, we don't want people to have secrets, let's get rid of the 4th Amendment."

Far fetched? Ask the journalists at AP. Ask Verizon subscribers (and probably subscribers to all other wireless phone carriers). Ask Mayor Bloomberg and Sen Feinstein what they would like to do to law-abiding gun-owners.

The wedge has already be inserted and is being driven further in, blow by blow.

Comment There's a more sinister aspect to this... (Score 1) 266

In another 2,000 years, in one of the Martian churches of The Blessed Richard, children will be taught how the creator looked out over the land and saw it was arid and lifeless.

On the first day, The Blessed Richard said, "let there be light", and there was light. On the second day, The Blessed Richard said, "let there be water", and the canals of Mars were over-flowing with water... You get the picture?

Oh, and the first book of Martian scripture can't be called Genesis because Phil Collins has it copyrighted!

Submission + - Cables show US seeks Assange

prakslash writes: Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that according to the diplomatic cables obtained by them, despite the denials by the US State Department and the Australian Foreign minister, the US investigation into possible criminal conduct by Mr Assange has been ongoing for more than a year. Further, the Australian diplomats expect that the US will seek to extradite Assange to the US on charges including espionage and conspiracy relating to the release of classified information by WikiLeaks.
Image

How Google+ Punk'd The Oatmeal 218

ryzvonusef tips this quote from TechCrunch about a tit-for-tat exchange between Google+ and the creator of The Oatmeal webcomic: "This summer, the artist (Matthew Inman) wrote that Google+ comment threads sound like *crickets*, poking fun at the social network's lack of engagement. He also criticized not being able to 'set up a fancy profile URL so I don't have to link people to http://plus.google.com/blergasdf1234thimbleturdorgasm99meatpoopypoopxv9donkeypie ' — a made-up, ridiculously long string of random characters. ... In retaliation, the Google+ team didn't cite its user growth stats or give an excuse for why there are no custom profile URLs. ... Instead, they just redirected the vanity URL back to The Oatmeal author Matthew Inman's Google+ profile. Congrats, Matt, you've now got 'donkey pie' at the end of your own special Google+ vanity URL."
Intel

Submission + - Why Intel should buy Nokia (zdnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: There's a lot of talk about which company, if any, should buy Nokia: Lenovo was the latest company rumoured to be interested (until a Lenovo executive dismissed the idea as 'a joke').

But, for me, there's one firm that would be a more natural fit than any of the others being rumoured as potential new owners of Nokia: Intel.

Of course, there's been no suggestion that such a thought has ever occurred to either Nokia or Intel, and no suggestion from either that such an acquisition is ever likely to happen — but the way the mobile market is developing right now, there's no denying an alliance between the pair would make a lot of sense.

Firstly, Intel is desperate to get its chips into the smartphone market in a big way, as the introduction of the first handsets to use the Intel Atom Z2460 processor (previously codenamed Medfield) showed.

However, right now, Intel clearly needs...(read more)

Comment Re:"EC says it hasn't received them" (Score 1) 81

Of the last two items of mail I've had from HMG here in the USA, one was sent through Deutsche Bundespost and the other was sent through Malta. So either the government doesn't trust the Royal Mail to deliver its mail, or the prices are so over-the-top that it's cheaper to ship the mail abroad and send it from there.

Slashdot Top Deals

"It's my cookie file and if I come up with something that's lame and I like it, it goes in." -- karl (Karl Lehenbauer)

Working...