[ghost of delete key]

QUOTE (sivispacem @ Friday, Aug 31 2012, 12:36)

QUOTE (ghost of delete key @ Friday, Aug 31 2012, 17:22) Pirates steal from the production of the private sector... I know (or at least hope) your taking the piss, but that's essentially akin to stealing taxes. If the business sector's financial returns mean that they're a drop in tax revenue compared to expected takings.

This is quite true, but of course you knew I was talking about prima fascia vectors, not secondary effects.

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Short of cutting fiscal spending, which as most economists will tell you in a time of relative economic uncertainty is generally a great way of promoting negative growth, all you can do is either borrow or increase personal taxes. Or, more usually, a combination.

The production possibilities curve is a major bitch when you factor Pirates into the equation, right?!

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QUOTE (Tchuck @ Friday, Aug 31 2012, 16:05)

On topic, this is a stupid idea. Petitioning to end the CIA just because you saw one video created by a the Zeitgeist group is seriously sad.

Not to mention it puts you in the White House's sights. Does anyone remember Obama's first days in office? How the White House put up that "snitch on your neighbor" link on the site, where you were supposed to report anything or anyone you thought "suspicious", in the name of National Security? It was met with such a sh!tstorm of Public Disapproval that it very quickly disappeared... but do you really think that the Great Minds who created that mess just as quickly lost interest in keeping tabs on "troublemakers"? I'd watch my azz around those White House petition links if I were you. Just saying.

Let me know if any dark vans start parking on your street, so I can disavow any knowledge of your existence, mmkay?

[sivispacem]

QUOTE (ghost of delete key @ Saturday, Sep 1 2012, 00:31)

Does anyone remember Obama's first days in office? How the White House put up that "snitch on your neighbor" link on the site, where you were supposed to report anything or anyone you thought "suspicious", in the name of National Security? It was met with such a sh!tstorm of Public Disapproval that it very quickly disappeared... but do you really think that the Great Minds who created that mess just as quickly lost interest in keeping tabs on "troublemakers"? I'd watch my azz around those White House petition links if I were you. Just saying.

I don't see why there would be such public resistance to this. We've had a "dob your neighbour in" link on most local police forces and the security apparatus sites for as long as they've existed, and dedicated phone lines to do it before then, and no-one seems to object to it. Perhaps it's because the UK has a history of domestic terrorism and an expectation of neighbourhood kinship and friendliness? I also doubt whether the US security apparatus are anywhere large enough to keep tabs on the probably several million US nationals who have said stupid things about the government, security, et cetera; let alone foreigners who make up idiotic petitions because they've seen a conspiracy theory "documentary". Even if they wanted to, that is, which they probably don't. Imagine how boring it would be keeping tabs on your average grumpy, pessimistic and hormonally aggressive 17-year-old for a trained intelligence analyst. They probably have to do that enough in their home lives.