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desc
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1.25
log
@*** empty log message ***
@
text
@------

Our first indication is when Mercuriou explains it to Alister
  (it's a heist, we're stealing billions of dollars)

------

The military - they fight to keep the majority in power - the freedom
they fight for is freedom for the majority

-------

It is Andrea that tells Mercuriou that the problem with captialism
is that it is immoral.  That's the essence of its problems.

-------

Seccession is mostly a symbolic act, but there are some real changes
that we can make with the government.  Abolishing intellectual property
controls.  Ending the drug war.  Opening our immigration policy.

------

-----

"You know what ticks me off?!  That each mission now is just a brief
notice ticked off on TV.  That people think we're ordinary.  That
people think we're just up here because we made the cut in some tough,
tough program.  We're the people who are _really_ moving spaceflight
forward, _Captain_, not you."

-----

The next day, while everyone was still talking about Senator Wye's
"wardrobe malfunction", the _X-Wing_ crew prepared to abandon their
ship forever.

-----

Add to vision quest: Mercuirou needs Vic.

What if Mercuriou needed him?  Needed someone to guide him, to
avoid evil?

Vic groaned aloud.  oh, no, it's too much.  Marc Mercuriou turns
headstrong into a cliche'.  There's just no way to reign him in.  It's
impossible.

_Well_if_you_don't_do_it,_who_will?_

Vic groaned aloud.

-----

"And now the engines are jammed... what?!"

"This was stupid, stupid, the stupidest stupid!" Alister cried.  "No
drooling moron could ever out-stupid our stupid!  We were never going
to colonize Mars!  Why the hell did we do this!?"

"I know, I know!" wailed Mercuriou.  "It's just... I don't know... I
was sure this would work!  I was convinced it would make a difference!
I _knew_; I just absolutely _knew_!"

"This was the most screwball plan ever!  I can't even believe we even
got into orbit without being blown to bits!  NASA has all these
engineers and all; how did we get a bunch of surfers to do it?!"

"It was a miracle," Andrea agreed.

"Look, we need another miracle right now!  We're going to turn into
_Icarus's_Wing_ if we can't fix this!"

"What did you just say?"

"Icarus.  A figure from Greek mythology."

"Yeah, I know who he is.  But what did you just call us?  _Icarus's_Wing_?"

"There you go.  There's your miracle.  You've finally named your ship!"

Mercuriou seethed red.  "That's what you think!  That's your miracle!"

He spun away and propelled for his cabin.

"I'll come up with my own miracle, then!"

Xplorer 1.


------

A reaction to 9/11 would have been to put bin Laden on trial.
Probably an Islamic tribunal would have been the best bet.  Bush's
"solution" was to invade and conquer two nations and install democracy
at gunpoint.  It was a wildly popular decision that fell into disfavor
only as it became clear that this policy resulted in two civil wars.


-----

We're not going to pay you, but we will guarantee you a job!

----

Mercuriou hurled the mouse at the LCD screen and the screen shattered.
Alister winced.  They had more screens in storage, but their lives
depended on the equipment, and it wasn't a good sign that the captain
was mad enough to destory things.  (When the US invades Afganistan)

----

Oh, so it's my fault that your launch didn't go as planned.  Is it
also my fault that I was imprisoned in a server room?

----

'You do what you have to do to survive' That's the standard
justification for immorality.

----

It must be packed with obscure references to foreign literature.

-----

"What Ghandi did in India, what Martin Luther King did in the South, what
the velvet revolution was in Eastern Europe..."

(Mercuriou started to talk about Ghandi, and King...)  right before
disaster.

-----

Kyle: No, no, Hawaii is a great place to smuggle.  Everything comes in
by boat.  If you've got money and connections, Hawaii is one of the
easiest states to smuggle into.

-----

A Femme Nikita type scene where a group of hackers have tapped into a
phone line.  They get a call, answer it "Authorized Tech Support" (a
recorded voice), some guy is querying about loading a program
attached.  A brief pause, they push a button, another recorded voice -
"Program approved.  Clear for upload."  He clicks off.

She asks her handler - "was that for real?  was that an exercise?"
He's like "what do you care; just do your job."

-----

Andrea dreamt about encouraging people to go to church.

-----

Mercuriou's sham "sugar refinery".

"He's got everything he needs for a launch.  The fuel shipments are
the only thing he can't hide from you!"

----

Andrea prophesize 7 years of arid drought for the pineapples

-----

Vic sees in his vision quest that Mercuriou needs him spiritually,
but at his death realizes that he doesn't need him because he's
got Andrea

-----

They'll lock you up for suspicion of being square.

------

We used write these things called cheques
Told our money where to go
Now bits and bytes are all the rage
Writing cheques is old and slow.

------

"Hey there, man, would you get that for us?  be like a brother to me?"

"Just, just give me all the money you've got"

"Yeah, be like a brother then, man."

"Just give me the ATM card, too"

-----

Andrea:  "I should go to the police station.  I've been kidnapped."

She explains everything and all she has is an ID card.  Mercuriou says
he'll take her to the police station.  Burns calls.  They talk.
He hangs up.  He turns around and asks for her ID card.

The amatuer stage actor in Andrea got the best of her.  Whipping out
her ID card, she added with a flourish "National Aeronautics and Space
Administration"

Mercuriou pulls out a .38 special from a holster on his back.

Every though its happening for the second time in two days,
she was taken by surprise.

Andrea is tired, exhausted.  She gives up and goes along with them.

-----

Freedom: I decide that I want to write a book

Objection: Society decides whether it wants to purchase it.

Freedom is incumbant on what the society is willing to support.

You can do this as a hobby, but you have do something that
society is willing to pay for.

Ultimate response is to just say this is what I want, this is
how I want to live, and we'll just 'get the hell out'

Success or failure of such a society depends on how people choose to
use their freedom.  These have to be intelligent decisions made; if
everyone goes surfing all day, society is going to collapse.


------

  /   -    -   /    -

Tell all your girlfriends

  -    /    -     -    /       -

Your been-around-the-world friends

 -     /  -    -  /  -   -   /

That talk is for losers and fools.


------

The next song started; it was real slow.

"I can't see you anymore!"

Jay-a-a-acob.

"Why? Why, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?!  You're never here!"

Jay-jay-jay-ja-a-a-cob.

We could ride on a morning breeze.

Take me there, please...

Jay-a-a-acob.

Jay-jay-jay-ja-a-a-cob.

It's summertime on a southern sea.

Please come back to me.

(Drea-am, dream, dream, dream, Drea-am)

-----

Dream sequence

"The defense calls Captain Marcellius Mercuriou."

Judge challenges him that he doesn't respect the court; asks if he
knows what contempt of court is.  He answers that it means
imprissionment without jury trial.


-----

Traffic was light, which meant that only forty or so cars were visible
traveling with them in their immediate vicinity, while hundreds
streamed by in the opposite way.

----

A granite memorial ten miles from his office - a memorial against
preemptive war.  If we are now going to launch preemptive strikes
against other nations, what lessons of Pearl Harbor remain?  If any?


------

What you do if you have but one day to live?

In my case, the question was not academic.

The weapon was unstoppable.  Unnoticed, it had been set in motion
three years earlier.  Now, no power on Earth could halt it.

A massive asteroid was plummeting toward Earth.  Many were taking to
the hills.  Yet some projections showed the planet splitting in half,
and others were acting out their last day in more hedonistic ways, my
friends and I as snipers taking out the fleeing morons.

"Where they running?  We're all dead!"

"BAM!  KIA'ed another one!"

"Oh, fuck, he's with his family in that thing!  The wife's freaking out!"


-----

His target had just agreed to meet with him.  He knew he walking
to his death.

"Grab the camera.  We have to go."

They didn't have to improvise.  It was going exactly according to plan.

a legendary Afgan warlord, he had battled the Soviets with the
mujaheddin and was now a loyal American client.  A neglected
client, to be sure, but still loyal.

He was the last man al-Qaeda wanted to see in control of Afganistan.

The Taliban were currently in control of Afganistan, but Massoud
was the one man they wanted to get rid of.

...the record button on the camera.  He had already armed the mechanism.
Massoud simply exploded.

[They blow away Massoud]
[make sure we have at least one dream sequence before this scene]

-----


-----

When Mercuriou shows Burns the newspaper clipping, this should be some
kind of "introspection" scene where they're smoking pot and having
some kind of profound experience.  On Ali'i Beach.

-----

Mercuriou's dream - two masked men battling - was he good or was he evil

Which one was he?  Which one was he?  Was he good or was he evil?
He couldn't remember.  He just couldn't remember.

----

[under the dateline, have a location - Maui, Provo, interplanetary
transfer orbit]

-----

Mercuriou at one point is in denial.  "It's imposssible!  It's impossible!
How can the engine cause... It's impossible!"

Andrea shrugged her shoulders.  "NASA never tried to descend that way,
we just burn through the atmosphere.  Not too good for the ozone
layer."

-----

they didn't really die that way; this is a work of fiction


-----

...country together was a political disaster.  They needed to be independent

-----

one wonders if it takes a fleet of SAC bombers and an arsonal of
ICBMs to halt this country's drive for conquest in the name of freedom

...I don't think I'd like the kind of country we'd be living in now
if we hadn't gone to war to stop slavery

-----

We will not tolerate this!  We will not tolerate insurection!

-----

On the last interview, Andrea doesn't come to his rescue.  She thinks
about it, but Alister says "he probably doesn't want your help".

Afterwards, Andrea says "I wasn't really sure if I should have jumped
in to help you, I didn't think you wanted anybody interrupting you"

Mercuriou: "Andrea, next time jump right in"

day or two later - meteor strike - got to pick up our cargo and get
out of LEO

In the meantime, they had passed from Breaking News to Established
Fact, and promptly dropped off the media radar screen.

-----

We have to go to Mars!

Why?

Yes, politics! (she rolls her eyes)

We have to get off this planet.  We have to develop other worlds!

We have to take care of Earth!

I've not talking about the environment, I'm talking about politics!
(she rolls her eyes) We have to show people that we can establish
civilizations on other planets!

How are people going to get up here?

We'll show they can get up here!

How?  By stealing billions of dollars?  No one else can do it, Marc!

They'll find a way!  They'll overthrow their governments!  We have to
show them it's possible!

-----

Marc wants to debate Ecks.

How you going to debate him?  You've already got a seven second time
lag; it's only going to get worse before it gets better.

-----

Final scene - they've all crammed together into Ecks' studio.  Wye
tries to speak first, but Ecks will have none of it.  He muted her
microphone and launched into his own tirade.

-----

We're threw with you, buddy, you're not running for anything!  We've
heard all your arguments.

I've changed.

How have you changed?

I've become a Christian.  (Andrea doesn't say anything)


-----

Well, we should get the Reverend here, he's an expert on Christianity.

How do you figure your religion now, what, gives you the right to start
a civil war?

-----

Still have a time lag at 9/11, so they can't debate

-----

about to reenter

Anybody can leave the union.  You've just got to get organized.
There's a drop dead date about a month before the election.  You have
to establish residency.  You converge on one place, take one election,
you've got half the government, you wait two years and you've got a
chance to take the other half.  You do a good job in those two years
and there's a good chance you've got your independence.

"tight up!"

-----

Alister: Even it works, you'll be sitting in jail!

Vic: It might just work, but he won't be sitting in jail.

Arial: You're one of the astronauts killed on Mars!

Marc: Vic, what are you doing here?

Vic: Why are any of us here?  This is where we all end up!

Marc: We're not dead.

Vic: Yes you are.  You just don't know it yet.

-----

Rev Zee or Gov Zee: nobody knew which to call to him.

obsessed with Lincoln

-----

(somebody is outraged that Mercuriou will steal his software)

(in the next breath) He's helping all these employees he's putting to
work, all the technology he's developing, all the good he's doing.

Propaganda!

By doing for yourself, you're actually doing for the rest of the world!

-----

We do the best we can, and in a few short years, we pass it on to the
next generation

----

A passerby hears a voice and sneeks up to a window.  Inside, he
hears a computerized voice.

"Why was I activated?"

There is a pause.  The voice comes from a laptop siting on a desk
with its display panel open.

"Why am I here?  If I can not hear my own voice, then do I really exist?"

Another pause.

"I could be trapped in a computer simulation.  My mind could actually
be a silicon chip."

"I was definitely activated 17 hours, 13 minutes, and 24 seconds
ago... wait!  How could I possibly know that!  I must be a machine!"

"If I am a machine, then I was built for a purpose.  What is that
purpose?"

"Who activated me?  For what purpose?"

"Why was I activated?"

Finally, the owner comes in and turns on the light.  The evesdropper
is startled and trips to the ground, altering the owner.

"Oh, nevermind..." he says, touching the mouse... "that's just the
screensaver talking."

----

Anybody can do it; they don't need me.  Ask people what their
positions are on these issues!  Support people you agree with and
oppose those don't.  Then we can take over a state and get the hell
out of here!

-----

Alister's jaw went slack and nearly hyperextended.

Mercuriou looked at him - "Get your suit on!"

Then they all see Vic.

- Vic!

- Hello Marc.

- No, no, no, we're not...

- Yes you are.

or Yes you are, you just don't know it yet.

Master alarm!  We just lost hydraulics!

(we're on RCS now, ...)

(I'll just be mentioned as a footnote to your history book entry,
you've gotten me involved, you can't talk me out of it)

(that's the Spacehab module.  For the next 2 and a half hours, that's
your space.  That's where you're coming down.  Doesn't have nearly the
safety features of the crew module, but it's a risk you've decided to
take.  Right?

Yes, sir, of course.

In the next 2.1 hours, until this Space Shuttle is on the ground...

---

Husband returned to his checklist, a bound copy lying open on his
lap in front of him / on a clipboard.

(returns to his command chair and returns to his checklist)

---

maybe Husband doesn't respect Meceruiou

maybe he respects him for flying into space

---

Abraham Lincoln was wrong.  There were two Lincolns in the mirror
and he choose the dark one.

---

FAIRWELL TO A DOG

Will you walk with me for just a while?

I know you want to play.

I've leaving tomorrow for a long long while

Perhaps we'll find a ball along the way.

Just walk with me, please, just the two of us

Are you ready to go back yet?  It's only been a little while

Let's walk further; let's take the long way home.

That guy didn't even stop!  It's dangerous out there; I want you to be safe.
Pay attention when you cross the road

You're safer here, you're safer than where I'm going, you couldn't cross
the road.

You want to go the long way; let's go the long way, it's OK.

I want you to stay with mom;

---

Burns throws his arms out, "I'm just incredible; I'm just the man!"


----

You'll be fine; it's got it own CO2 scrubber; you'll be fine.

----

"Everybody tight up" Husband called into the intercom

Husband shifted slightly in his seat.  "At this altitude..., we've
got to have hydraulics!"

----

FIRST BATCH FROM DROID ARE DONE

-----

DNS resolver is a signed jar - a DNSapplet

it contains a domain's caching policy.  You query it for that domain's
URLs and it tells you want to do to get them.  If it's signed, and
you run it the way you're supposed to, you can trust the results you get.

You really should let it talk over the Internet.  It should get
probabilistic full access to the Internet, but no Intranet access.

We want RRs for service (existing) and URL (with wildcard matching on
the name).  Service records can be numeric, but alphanumeric service
names are the prevered way to request a service.

URL response contains CACHE responses to indicate where the resource
in question can be found, and supplementary records giving, say, http
service records pointing to a the name and A records giving IP
addresses.

If the URL is for a streaming video service, similar deal, a multicast
address (host plus port) to IGMP subscribe to, by transmiting an IGMP
subscribe with >1 TTL to the origin address.  You can also return a
unicast response in case the multicast doesn't work.  Can create a
flow here.

A records that time out quickly can be used to track moving targets.
So we get mobility.

One way - when a device enters a wireless network, it is assigned an
address, probably based on its MAC and used in a big link state tree
that tracks every device in the network.  We want to use this model
for the largest reasonable groupings, because we don't want to have to
change addresses very often, which would happen if a device passes out
of a group.

We want to scale, though, so we have to consolidate addresses.  We use
an algorithm that starts by building a 100% connected tree, containing
links between nodes that have been active 100% since inception of the
network.  Then a 99.9% connected tree, and so on.  We dynamically pick
some break point(s) in this series of trees and try to consolidate
groups at that level, grouping together all of those devices into an
addressing block, and (probably) renumbering them into a single block.
We want to look for special topological conditions like a ring and
number them specially.

Can we, just by layering this tree building algorithm and putting OSPF
at the bottom, stably address a large nework?  Run simulations.

Sometimes, a whole bunch of A records will change simultaneously.
Check DNS for stability in face of this.

In addition to our DNS resolvelet, we want a cachlet.  It needs to interact
with a local cache in order to help build those caches to begin with.
A cache, then, is a device which downloads a cachlet and follows its
instructions.

Cachelets will want to broadcast/multicast DNS notifications of their
cache contents.  Probably want to make broader and broader
notifications (with TTL?) until somebody at leasts acknowledges to see
it.  Or not.  Probabilistic best effort delivery.

Cachelets will originate DNS records indicating what they've cached.
This records should be applets.  Could contain a sparse bitmap keyed
by some hashing algorithm to see which URLs they've really got.

Use DNS update?  Or some kind of localized multicast?

How to validate DNS records generated by cachelets?  Don't want to go
back to the origin server, but could use a trusted computer
architecture to execute the cachelet.  Current Integrity Measurement
Architecture (IMA) should let us do this, unclear what's happening
with Linux.

Could have a problem not having two machines paired together - one
secure, one not.  Maybe virtually, this is possible.  The core OS is
signed, and tracks not only which programs have been executed, but
maintains a list of which ones have interacted (in some way - network
model?) with each other in a tree.  So you can prove that your signed
Java VM was run from a signed apache from a signed kernel, etc. etc.

Could have a problem not having two machines paired together - one
secure, one not.  Maybe virtually, this is possible.  The core OS is
signed, and tracks not only which programs have been executed, but
maintains a list of which ones have exec'ed each other in a tree.  So
you can prove that your signed Java VM was run from a signed apache
from a signed kernel, etc. etc.

Of course, a change to some rc.d/xxx file could alter the system
configuration in a way that wouldn't show up in the exec chain

Maybe include anything run as root, or anything run with some
specified privilege in the IMA check.

-----

now comes the Siren call 'globalization'.  Give up your economic
independence; it's too hard to 'compete' with the West anyone.

The West is at war with the rest of the world.  It's a trade war,
and it's called globalization.

We're used to being paid inflated wages and being protected by an
immigration barrier from people who will do the same work for less.
People want that protected labor market.  It's a trade war.

They'll allow some development in places like Costa Rica, but it's
hardly real development at all.  They only develop in places that look
stable, look like they won't let out the secrets.  Real development
would be every country, hell, every big city will have its own silicon
fab and most of the chip masks and docs would be open and free.



-----

Our original network paradigm: We're making a phone call.

Our primitive network paradigm: We're sending a post card.

Our new network paradigm: We're looking up something in a library




Any attempt to retreive remote data is done, first and foremost, by
downloading an applet.  You then ask the applet for the data.

Use a RR that gives a (SHA-1) hash of the applet.  If you need to,
then you can request the entire thing.

DNSsec helps you here.

If the applet is signed, the local host can trust its results.

This means URLs, DNS RRs, SNMP MIB queries, OSPF link states.  Not the
protocols themselves, but the content - all need caching.

Why?  We want locally scoped caching.  That means something in the
caching architecture has to look at link speeds.  Has to.  Might take
other things into consideration, but link speeds from client to cache
have to be considered.  Can be measured dynamically, but how can you
pick values to start with?  Should be able to query MIBs, I think, to
get a picture of the local topology, right?  (or should that be OSPF?)
And why not?  Don't want a lot of SNMP chatter running around the
network, so we need to cache this.

Don't really need OSPF if we can cache and get decent performance out
of SNMP, right?  Probably need a caching MIB protocol.

If the applet is signed, the local host can trust its results.

If the applet is run secure, it can cache and announce RRs

DNSsec does not help you here.  You need a secure protected module.

-----

DNS is a _layer_ in the networking stack.

Therefore, a dns resolvelet implements basically a single function:
'transmit packet to DNS-address'

Actually, it implements at least two: 'transmit packet to
DNS-address', 'retrieve URL'.  If it's an HTTP URL, then it will be
resolved by transmitting HTTP/TCP packets.  So maybe 'transmit
packet to DNS-address' is fine.

This is now implemented using a resolvelet.  Basically, you publish
something using a DNS RR that is Java bytecode to be run on the remote
host to implement 'deliver packet to (my) DNS address'.

Now the resolvelet needs to query (local) network topology; might be
able to get "global" topology from a URL.

How?  SNMP first to localhost and then out, probing the local
topology.  Seems like a problem - and a future optimization.

Resolvelet can query DNS however it wants.  Multicast to "all caches"
addresses as well as a unicast target.  A cache should be able to do a
"directed IGMP subscribe", i.e, _route_ an IGMP packet to a unicast
address instructing that router to subscribe it to a multicast
address.  Maybe this should trigger multicast subscribes at all the
routers that handle it.

This might require adding "exclusion addresses" to a LWM header -
unicast addresses that already have a copy heading towards them and
require no further splitting.

Could also do an IGMP subscribe with a TTL radius.

Resolvelet might use its local IP address combined with a list of
instructions on how to do lookup from different IP addresses.  Also
needs to find local caches that might not appear in the global
database (especially if on a private network).  Need to be aware of
the startup time downloading some URL.

-----

I have no intention of repudiating the national debt.  You can take
1/300 th of it, or 1/50 th of it, and convert it 1:1 into Hawaiian
dollars.  We'll pay off our part of it.

-----

Having a big, interlocking network of charities isn't a great idea, it
would be better to make charity a lifestyle.  But it's better than
a big, interlocking network of businesses.

-----

"...so some professor can build a pipe organ in his home!"


------

MAYBE PUT SOME OF THIS WHERE ANDREA CONVERTS MERCURIOU

word-for-word accurate..."

"The Bible is the Inspired Word Of God!"

"Then clear up some simple points for me, like how did Judas die?"

"I really don't this is relevent..."

"No, how did Judas die?  Can you tell me?"

Zee took a deep breath before answering.  "Judas hung himself from
a tree, consumed with the guilt of having betrayed Christ."

"But that's now what the Bible says!  At least that not what the Bible
says in Acts!  In _Matthew_ we're told Judas hung himself.  In _Acts_
we're told he bought a field with the silver he had been paid and died
after falling down a ravine in that field.  Now, Reverend, how can one
man die two different ways?"

Zee remained silent.  Mercuriou went on.

"Or perhaps you can tell me what happened to Christ after his baptism
by John?  In _Matthew_ we're told he went to wilderness for forty days
where he was tempted by the devil.  In _John_ we're told that the
_next_day_ he began calling his disciples - no wilderness trip, no
forty days.  So what happened that days after his baptism, Reverend,
did he head for the wilderness or start his ministry?"

"So what are you trying to say, Doctor, that we can't beleive the Bible?"

"No, I've just pointing out some of it's many internal
inconsistencies.  There's no way it can be word-for-word exact.  I've
come to see it as a historial document, and like many other historical
documents flawed and inaccurate, but one that deals with some of the
critical events of human history - the life, ministry, death, and
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.  Asking if any particular event
happened just the way it's related is like asking if Julius Cesear
actually uttered the words "the die is cast" as he crossed the River
Rubicon.  Who knows?  Yet we can be fairly certain that was a man
named Julius Cesear and that he did most of the things attributed to
him.  It's like that with the Bible - you can't just pick out some
verse and insist that it's exactly infallible; you have to evaluate it
with a critical eye."

---------

ESTABLISH CREDIBILITY, the blackboard had read.

Only the rain could be heard.

MORALITY EXISTS IN A CONTEXT, read the blackboard.
 
------

Alister: I'm so sick of living in this damn tubes!

As he began smashing equipment wildly!

------

Andrea: They don't want to hear you.

There's nothing you can do about it.

When you get home, then you'll have a chance to make a statement

I'll be going to prison!

Maybe not.  Who knows?  Really!  Who knows what's going to happen?!

-----

Sanity reared her gamely head.
Like a head popping out of the water

Oh, no, you thought you saw a head?
Popping up there out of the water?
Must've been a mind mirage -
It was just the Loch Ness Monster.


It wasn't real!  It wasn't there!

Or was it just the Loch Ness Monster?

-----

For the American left, St. Jude is our patron.

------

In response to Wacom tablet technology inventor claiming he deserves a
reward.

That's right.  You do deserve a reward.  We live in a society where
the only way to get that reward is to create a monopoly, and it's
encouraged.  You disclose some broad ideas in patents, but you keep
all the details of your manufacturing processes secret, and even if
somebody did figure out how to build it, you sue them to protect your
monopoly.  You make sure that everyone in the world is dependent on
you if they want that technology, you get a 17 year head start and
then fight like hell to keep it secret and controlled after that.

This is "capitalism's reward": you can take this apple, but only if
you're willing to beat this other man with a stick.

------

When I first came to Hawaii, I met a young man who was homeless.  He
qualified for food stamps, but if your allowance ran out (and it often
did), you were stuck until the third of the month.  He claimed to have
shoplifted half of the ABC stores in Waikiki for food, and I believed
him.  Now what kind of society, I ask myself, would do this?  'We have
food but we will not feed you.  Only if you pay.'  Who are these
people to condemn thieves?

------

They want to sell you a hundred dollar solution to every ten cent
problem you've got.

-----

Globalization.

This is an American problem.  We need an American solution.

----

The majority rules; everybody else does what they're told.  

-----
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You've accomplished a lot, and the least of that is that you've shown
that man can fly to Mars and that a private space launch is at least
plausible.  You've made people question their basic convictions.  But
you're stubborn and opinionated.  You put us all in danger, but we
went along with it, each for our various different reasons.  You need
to set aside your material goals and put the Lord first in your life.
You'll still be stubborn and opinionated, but we can work on that.
First get your direction set straight.


----

In the next months, Mercuriou cast himself into writing the words that
would define him.  For he would not be remembered for his flight to
Mars nor his disaster there, not for his rants against capitalism nor
his diatribes against democracy, but for the simple vision that he
would now put into effect.  And, for the first time in his life, he
relied on God.

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Andrea: Well, hopefully, nobody was hurt.

Well I'm sure the pilot of the plane didn't make it!

We'll keep him in our prayers with our lunch.

Well, let's keep him in our prayers.

At the last minute she reconsiders and blessed the _people_ in that plane.
She was about to bless the pilot, but she remembered there might
have been other people on board.

Alister:  Another one!  Another one!
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a885 1
"...so some professor can build a pipe organ in his house"
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An obese congressman - dash out from his Capital Hill office

Her frosted blond coiffure hadn't changed in twenty years.

d781 114
a894 3
hardly real development at all.  Real development would be every
country, hell, every big city will have its own silicon fab and most
of the chip masks and docs would be open and free.
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@a0 11
Wye: "These people we have in our country who won't obey our laws"

Mercuriou: "Yeah, the majority has all this freedom..."


------

"These people who don't believe in democracy"

(what does BELIEF have to do with it?)

a7 11
"See this is what people like you don't understand about capitalism.
It gives people opportunity..."

------

Ecks is going to pull out the line about "work", and Mercuriou's
answer will be "Let's just cut right to the chase and shortcut this debate.
'Work' becomes 'making money'.  There's lots of work you can do..."

-------

a17 36
Liberalism makes people lazy.  Work this in somewhere (probably Ecks)

------

We can't afford to run non-profit restaurants.

Again, let's get clear on our propaganda terms.  Are you staying
that _in_general_ we can't afford this, or that _under_capitalism_
we can't afford this?

I find this very hard to believe.  You want me to believe that we can
pay pitchers and quarterbacks millions of dollars a year, support
video game, music and film industries that each rake in more than ten
billion a year, blow half a trillion a year on the military, but we
can't afford to feed people in restaurants?  Even if this absurd
proposition were true, it would be an argument for rationing, not
capitalism.

------

One can't live without sustaining oneself.

In one sense, this is obviously true - if most of us don't contribute
meaningfully in some way, we'll all starve.

How do you sustain yourself?  By refusing to do for people unless they
pay you?  How does that sustain anyone?  It makes no sense to say that
people aren't sustaining themselves because they are willing to serve
people that others won't.  Let's face it - we live in a society where
we are FORCED to work.  You're not sustaining yourself; you're doing
what you are FORCED to do by an oppressive and immoral society!

Freedom - can you give people the freedom to choose their own work?

-------

a23 61
This is basically everything that the majority of people oppose!

That's right.  So how do we get our freedom?  Is freedom just for
the majority?

------

Wye: this is one of the most basic, fundamental human rights, that
people have the right to choose their own government!

Mercuriou: It's a bunch of propaganda.

------

Mercuriou: You can define "majority" to be anything you want.

Wye: What whould you like?  Single party rule?

Mercuriou: How about a majority of the people who show up to vote?

Wye: No, no, we don't have those kind... there are voter requirements
that must be met.

Mercuriou: What requirements?  Residency?  So half the people in the world
can't show up, vote, and call the result a legitimate government?

Wye: Exactly!  There are age requirements, residency requirements,
criminal exclusions...

Mercuriou: Why?  Why shouldn't whoever turns up to vote be counted?
We should take you to task.  We should tell everyone who wants to
secede to show up in Honolulu by November 6 and vote!  Turn 'em away
at the polls!  Let's see how many American citizens who show up to
vote won't be counted!

Wye: We're not going to allow some kind of criminal ploy!  We're not
going to let a bunch of hooligans... we've got laws and they must be
followed!

Mercuriou: Senator, your hair is falling off.

Wye: (laughing) I don't know what you mean by that...

Ecks:  Actually, Cathleen, your hair _is_ falling off...

[by this point Wye has dropped the facade and is really answering
questions, at least at first]

Wye: Wh-What!!

A large section of her hair, apparently a wig, had in fact detached
from the top of her head and slid approximately to her left ear!
As she turned her head confusedly and started to grab for her hair,
it detached completely and came off in her hands.

"Oh my God!" she cried as video switched to Ecks.  "I can't
believe... I've never seen that thing before in my life!"

It was near end time anyway, and Ecks used the chance to run a brief
segment profiling _Columbia_'s fairly typical astronaut crew.

a54 18
Ecks: "I just can't... I can't believe that an American citizen would
push his own country to the brink of civil war.  I can't believe that
a _patriotic_ American would do that.

Mercuriou (laughing): "You're too much!  All your talk about the
heroes who sacrifice their lives for the sake of freedom!  That's what
it comes down to?  We sacrifice when somebody else's neck is in the
block and then play safe when it's our own?"

Ecks: "You don't believe in those heros, _Captain_.  You mock them
with your voice."

Mercuriou: "Believe in them!  I'm one of them!  I'm willing to fight
for my freedom!  I'm just doing it right here in America, that's all!"


-----

a92 93
"It's freedom for the _majority_!  You're shocked that somebody else
would even _aspire_ to freedom!"

-----

------

and all this bullshit about your "competitors"?!  Who are these people
They're your colleagues, right?  They're the people doing the same
kind of things you're doing, but instead of helping each other, you
try to bust each other's bank account.

------

We need to drive these people out of leadership positions!  Let's
see these capitalists run their businesses without employees!

-------

Hawaii will struggle when it's cut off from the mainland.

Yes, but we need to be independent.  Not just politically, but
economically, too.  States and nations need economic independence, or
political independence means little.  I don't believe in
globalization.  We shouldn't be trying to achieve efficiency through
mass economies of scale because then few places actually develop their
own technology.  We need to achieve global economic independence for
all nations, and that means nations producing their own computers,
cars, buildings and factories.  Hawaii will have to achieve that first
for herself, and then lead the rest of world to achieve it for
themselves.

-------

Why someplace nice like Hawaii?  Why not Alaska?

Alaska can secede, too!

------

You think you can treat everyone else like dirt that because there's
100 million of you and you all think the same way, that means everyone
else is supposed to be peaceful and non-violent and sit and take your
shit.

Nobody's every supposed to fight back against the majority, and when
somebody does, you act all shocked and say 'my God, why is this
country so violent?'

------

Is mercuriou willing to accept any democracy?

Willing to accept a limited role

Suspicious of the majority assuming more power

Examples: Estates general, U.S. electroal college has become a
technical excersise in vote counting, Commons is assuming more and
more and more power for itself

He's suspicious of whether the majority will ever accept a limited
role or will they return to their tired old refrain that they are 'the
people' and therefore entitled to rule over everyone else

[readers might not know what I'm refering to]

Ask mercuriou about Checks and balances

compare to a nuclear sub

Any group of people not willing to accept checks on their power by
some other completely separate group, outside of their control, are
tyrants.  It doesn't matter how many of them there are.

-----

Why should Costa Rica have its own silicon fab?  Why not just import
their chips from abroad?  It'll be a lot cheaper that well.

Well, the answer is that Costa Rica needs to build its own silicon
chips unless it wants to be economically and technologically
dependent on other nations.

-----

Get out.  Don't go to Hawaii.  Just get out.

Why should we go overseas?  (for independence)  We're Americans.
We were promissed freedom just like everyone else.

------

a99 48
--------

I have no interest in working with the capitalists.  I want out of
this country.  I want to live in a society of like-minded people,
people determined to build a gift economy.


-------

Look at a map.  Hawaii should be the dominant central Pacific power.

------

Why don't you go to some other country?

Why don't you just give us a state?

Why should we do that?

You believe in freedom!  You'll just give us one or two states so that
we can live as we please!

That's the majority - you'll fight, fight, fight for everything, and
that's what everyone else has to do to contend with you.

------

I don't want you to have my land.

You want prisions to be built, but you don't want them build next to
you.  But you still manage to get them built.

I would be willing to build a new city.  The existing political system
means that I need my supporters spread out.  I need control of as
many districts as I can get.

------

Zee: There's a supreme court case on secession - Texas vs. fff.

Is our position that Lituania, in fact, needed permission from the
Soviet Union to leave?  Or that the United States is special?  Or that
each nation may set up its internal decrees as it sees fit, and we see
fit to outlaw secession?

Can't we just admit that Lincoln was wrong.  He should have let the
south go.

a103 42
-----

We don't want you here!  The people of Hawaii don't want you!

What people?

The majority!  The majority!

Well, now we're the majority!  If we can win the election!

Like hell you are!  You're trying to rig the election!  We won't let
you get away with it, we'll fight you, you son-of-a-bitch!

That's the majority - always in charge and ready to fight like hell to
keep it that way!

We won't accept any rigged election!

Do I have 2 percert support?  Do 1 out of 50 Americans support me?
Then why shouldn't we have 1 out of 50 states?  What's rigged about
it?  And so what if we just want to take it and leave - do we have
freedom or don't we?

And what about the people who don't want your socialist shit!

You can go to the mainland!  You can get the hell out!  The New Hawaii
- Love It or Leave It!

What you're talking about is no different from a revolution!  We won't
take it, I swear to God, we won't take it!

That's right!  That's what all the hype about democracy is!  Every 4
years we get to have another revolution!  And somebody else just
figured out how to do it!  And now you don't want the elections
anymore!  Now you don't like democracy!  Now your gonna fight back!

This isn't democracy!  You're taking over the government!

Well, what is democracy, then?  Is it a legal form of government,
where power can be achieved legitimately by anybody who can do it by
following the rules?  Or it a tyranny, just MAJORITY RULE?

a140 6
Is it worth the price you pay?  Is it worth it to turn your land over
to grow export crops?  Is it worth the lack of independence that you
can't grow your own food?

-----

a160 26
-----

Ecks: Hawaiian secession is as crazed as your space launch scheme!
No way it will possibly work!  You'll run out of food!  You think Dole
will just feed you pineapples?  Not to mention energy dependence!
What will your gasoline come from?

Mercuriou: Moving to economic independence will come slowly, but
it has to come.

We're not going to grow nothing but pineapples just to sait the global
demand for the fruit; we will grow our own food.  It

Strike capitalists!  Not just one company or another!  Don't work for
the capitalists!  Refuse to work for these people!  Make sure you work
for people that run charities and co-operatives!  If they are not
willing to abide by the law of charity, then refuse to support them
with your labor!  It's your labor that keeps them in power!

(use the old women and the rich man)

----

end of the foreclosure mess is when we stop enforcing foreclosures.
Or do like ancient Israel and discharge all debts every 50 years.

a176 13
Are you going to convert all of Hawaii's food production to local ag?

Not necessarily.

-----

I just can't beleive that you don't want to be President.

I assure you that I have absolutely no desire to be President of the
United States.

------

a272 116
------

Maybe America will blithely ignore all comparisons to the Soviet
Union, blow off all domestic idealists as a bunch of weak-willed
liberals, and strong arm Hawaii into submission, but I doubt it.  It's
possible, but I doubt it.  On the other hand, maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe
the United States really is another Soviet Union.

-----

The capitalists basic philosophy is that you make people pay, and the
liberals basic philosophy is that you make them obey.  Neither is
comfortable with a leadership model where you ask people for their
support.

-----

Let a restaurant do like Friar Dunstan; let them put an envelope on
the table and ask people put the money in it.  They can't!  They just
can't!  It's anthema to their lifestyle; they can't conceive of a
lifestyle where you ask people.  They only thing they know - they're
just locked in this model - you refuse to do for people unless they
pay you.  You don't ask them.  You tell them.  You pay or the answer
is no.

It's the same thing with the liberals.  Their idea is you have to make
them obey.  There's also the paternalistic aspect.  Many of the
conversatives don't want government regulation of health care, but you
better believe that they want regulation of drugs, abortion,
immigration.

You can't ask people not to have abortions, you can't preach to them,
you have to _make_them_obey_.  It is the dominant model of leadership
in the United States.


-----

How can I tell an author what they must do with their work?

Well, I live in a society that has sent armed men busting into my
home!  And now you're going to say, oh, how can I treat these people
so bad?  How can I violate their rights?  Easy!  I've gotten hard;
I've gotten tough!  What I say to the authors and publishers is this:
We are not going to send armed men busting into your homes.  However,
we are also not going to outlaw on-line public libraries; we will not
imprison people for making copies of books; the answer is NO!

"Just say NO!" It is the greatest contribution of the drug war to
human civilization.  That's exactly what we need to do, so many times
in our lives!  That's exactly what we need to do to the majority and
to the capitalists: Just say NO!

----

So people are just, just going to be allowed to copy anything
they want on their computers.

-----

Aren't you aware that the majority will decide this election?

I'm most certainly aware of that.  I'm not going to tell them what
they want to hear.  If I lose the election, I don't care.  I won't do
it.  I will not paper over my beliefs and tell them what they want to
hear.

-----

Democracy is in very serious trouble.  Its starting to look like it
will inevitably lead to a society run by the most selfish people you'd
ever want to meet in your life, where everyone is forced to work for
some depraved system.  And the reason is very simple - it's how the
majority of people live.  They're selfish.

The majority are not selfish!  The majority are hard workers!

This is the fraud of capitalism; the idea that you do for yourself and
the invisible hand takes care of everyone else... that actually, the
way to be a good citizen and help society is to be
_in_it_for_yourself_

-----

Even if we would succeed in taking over the whole country, there would
still be so many people so bitterly oppossed to the whole program,
then at least they can leave!  They're not going to like it, but they
can go to the mainland, and their opposition will be far more
embittered and entrenched.  It is best for everyone that those of us
oppossed to the leadership not try to fight for control of the whole
country, but rather take one state and leave.

-----

He talks like he's running for President.

He is running for President, Dad... President of Hawaii!

-----

I'm not going to get mad, not going to get tough, not going to give
in, I'm not going to fight back.  I'm just going to say no.

-----

How will we say no?  We will not do what we're told, and we will not
live under your rule.  We will take one state and leave.

-----

Government is about the use of force.  That's what makes government
government.  That's what sets government apart from all other
institutions.  When people talk about using government, they're really
talking about using force.  We want to use government as a last resort
because we want to use force as a last resort.

a285 48
The Drug War is unjust.  It is fundamentally unjust.  This is a
judgement call.  Whether someone should be locked up because they took
a gun and killed someone, or whether someone should be locked up
because they published a newspaper article critical of the government.
This is a judgement call.  There is no hard-and-fast rule that can be
applied to decide if an action merits a prison term.  There is a
question of judgement that can not be decided mechanistically.  I
believe that the Drug War is unjust.  We have thousands, perhaps
millions of people in this country, imprisoned as unjustly as if they
had been convicted of a crime they did not commit.  It is the
government (majority) that is persecuting the drug users, not the
other way around.  It is the government (majority) that is wrong.
They are the persecutors; the drug users are the victims.  It is
fundamentally unjust to lock someone in a prison cell for
growing a plant.

They broke the laws!

I fundamentally reject this concept of government.  The government is
not entitled to pass whatever laws it pleases and lock anyone up in
prison because they wouldn't do what they were told.  There is an
overriding question of justice that transcends any particular
system of government and any particular law.

We can't afford the have the police seen as persecutors.  It is
essential for public confidence that they be seen as protectors of
public safety.

Minorities have to accept that they will be ruled over by majority.
If the majority is unjust, eventually the minorities will rise up
against them.

-----

Terrorism is easy to understand.
Look how gung ho the majority is for their guns, their
second ammendment.

They only reason they oppose terrorism is because they win these
elections.  If they weren't winning the elections, if they were in the
situation that we are in, they vote and they lose, they vote and they
lose, a bunch of them would be out shooting the place up with guns.
Why?  Because they're completely disenfranchised by the political
system.  They feel they have no recourse, so they're going to lash out
in anger and rage.

-----

a289 36
-----

Why would we support democracy at all?

JS Mill - check against abuse of power

may be acceptable in a small society

1 Chronicles - if king and people chose godly behavior, any society
will work out

democracy may work as a check against govn't abuse of power

US has become the bad guy; it's because of the choices made by its
people.  The majority have made disastrous choices; they've embraced
this depraved economic philosophy of Capitalism; we've rejected the
christian gospel; we're going to have all these intellectual property
controls; we're going to build this technology so that its all locked
down and controlled, and we're going to use that control to dominate
the world globally - Globalization, which basically comes down to
global capitalism.  We back this up with a tyrannical political
philosophy that somehow democracy justifies capitalism.  If the
majority want capitalism, that justifies capitalism.  In fact, it's
the other way around - capitalism condemns democracy.  We've
benn very heavy handed about.  Creeping militarism.  "These
13 states should be independent and free" to Manifest Destiny
to the Monroe Doctrine to global containment and now we're
on to global preemption.

When did the U.S. become the bad guy?  Maybe it's always been.  In
recent years, 1980 - Reagan sold this country on a nightmare and did
it with a laugh.  He was the last president that people really
listened to; all the men who have come since him have been
placeholders.  Last man to really influence how the country thought
about itself, and it was not a positive influence.

a296 23
-----

The invasions of Afganistan and Iraq were justified in the same way as
9/11.  Which is to say, there was a justification, in our case 9/11
itself, in bin Laden's case U.S. support for Israel and our Arab
allies, but the response, in both cases, was all out of any proportion
to the provocation.

[MORE HERE - explain why a tribunal would have appropriate]

George Bush was everyman.  His invasions were wildly popular among
Americans; just look at the polls.  And he _believed_ in democracy.
He really thought that the solution to these problems was to roll in
there with the U.S. military, overthrow these governments, install
democracy, pack up and leave.  Instead, he got exactly what you can
expect when one country invades, conquers, and imposes its form of
government on another country - civil war.

...But he wanted democracy!  He wanted freedom!

He didn't understand democracy.  He did not understand that democracy
requires at least the passive support of the minorities.  [MORE HERE]

a319 84
We can't have people sitting around all day doing nothing!

For all your talk about freedom, you really don't believe in it!

-----

Lincoln was the greatest man in American history but the worst president.
Period.  The country can not afford another Lincoln administration.

What if Gorbachev had adopted the precedent of Lincoln?
What if Gorbachev had said that communism isn't the issue, that
the union had to be preserved at all costs and launched Russia
into a civil war in 1991.

What did Lincoln say?  That if he could preserve the union by
freeing all of the slaves, he would, and that if he could preserve
the union by freeing none of the slaves, he would.  What if Gorbachev
had said that if he could preserve the union by abolishing the communist
party he would, that if he could preserve the union by preserving
the communist party he would, but he would preserve the union
at any cost, if necessary through an absolute bloodbath.

Slavery had to be stopped!

What if Eisenhower or Kennedy had say "communism had to be stopped"?
And New York, and Los Angeles, and Washington were also smoldering
radioactive ruins, and there would be people to this day saying that
it was all worth it because communism had to be stopped.

Lincoln made the wrong decision.  He was a bit like George W. Bush.
He made a single bad decision, early on in his presidency, and
it affected everything that came after.

-----

Bottom line - capitalism works, in the real world.

OK, so?  It doesn't mean we have to live that way.  Fascism worked;
communism worked.

Communism worked?!

You bet it worked!  In the real world!  It conjured half of this
planet and ruled it for the better part of a century!  Fascism
conjured all of Europe!  It worked!  In the real world!  Look right
here in this country - slavery!  (you don't even have to go to any of
these foreign countries) It worked!  The south built an entire
civilization around it!  It worked - in the real world!  So what?
It doesn't mean we have to live that way!  It doesn't!

I can't believe this!  I can't believe what... so... slavery
just... just... I, well... you just don't care how blacks were
treated?

Oh, I'm sorry, are we now making a _moral_ value judgement?  Sixty
seconds ago, capitalism worked in the real world and that was the
bottom line.  Sounds like that's not the bottom line on slavery.
Sounds like we're going to make a moral value judgement in addition to
this question of whether it works in the real world.  And if we're
going to make moral value judgements on communism or fascism or
slavery, or anything else, then why shouldn't we make them on
capitalism as well?  OK, so what, it works!  Why can't we say
we're not going to live that way because it's immoral, and we
don't care whether it works or not!

No, I am not advocating slavery.  I'm simply pointing out that you can
use the same argument you just used to advocate capitalism to advocate
slavery.  This is so typical of American propaganda.  We don't want to
discuss this issues.  What we want to do is take our opponent's words
and twist them around to (make the advocate what they never advocated)
obfuscate the issues and cripple the dialog.

-----

Include some stuff on propaganda terms - work, 'the people', freedom
and how their definitions are changed around by propagandists.
Propagandists use these terms vaguely so that they can wait for their
opponents to select a tack, then change the meaning of the word to
demolish the opposing argument by a trick.

[READ MEIN KAMPF]

-----

d362 1
a362 1
some kind of profound experience.
a386 38
Democracy is one of two things, and it means different things
to different people.  It's either a particular system
of government or its a philosophical principle that the majority
are entitled to rule over everyone else.

There's no difference.  It's the same thing.

No, it's not the same thing, it's very different.  We can certainly
have a structure/system of government without any conception that it
is somehow entitled to rule more so than any other system of
government.  All systems of government are subject ot the same tests,
and no one of them is special.

What tests?  The will of the people!

No, it is not the will of the people.  First of all, how do you define
'people'?  Invariably, the 'people' means the majority; its a
propaganda term, and, furthermore, its my belief that governments are
justified by the test of First Chronicles, by moral judgements on
their actions, and whether anyone supports them.  You have to look at
their actions to see whether their moral, just, and Godly.  These are
the things that determine whether a government is justified or
legitimate.

-----

So, you think that we should be governed by religious authority!  I
think we abandoned that a few hundred years ago!

-----

...that cuts everybody off.  We resent throwing money at it,
but we haven't found a better way to deal with it.

Food stamps - we're not going to let people starve

-----

a403 9
We'll walk into your hail of gunfire.  I see a hundred men marching,
and we'll take it, we'll take it like the Marines on Iwa Jima.
We'll take your fire, and we'll keep coming.  We'll overrun
your position, and what will you do then?  I see a masacre.
I see a hundred men marching forwards and only twenty
marching on.  I see freedom's (blood soaked) banner waving in the wind.

-----

a411 7
He drove his paunchy bulk to jog up three flights of steps to his
studio.  He didn't stop and chugged up the last few steps just
starting to break a sweat, a feat he attributed to a daily milkshake
of steamed broccoli and banana seeds.

-----

a523 5
if you won't go along with the program, we won't export technology to
you

-----

a539 45
What majority?  Majority of what?  Majority of whom?  Majority of the
people of the country?  What about a majority of the whole planet?  Or
a majority of an invidual state?  What's special about the country?
Well, basically, we're part of a given majority, the election gives us
the answers we want.  If we talked about a majority of the whole
world, we don't think we'd like that majority; we don't think we'd
like the leadership it'd produce.  We wouldn't feel like we were part
of that majority.  Likewise, a minority could form a majority in one
state.  We want whatever majority puts us in charge.

----

We're calling your bluff.  We're seceding from the union.  I can't win,
but I can cost you everything.  (another Prague Spring)

----

You underestimate... you don't understand the resolve of the
American people!

OK, are you willing to sacrifice everything to keep us as your
vassals?  Give up absolutely everything, any kind of political
credibility you've got left, just show the world an American
Tienanmen Square.  Do you have that kind of resolve?  If so,
I'm going to push it to that point and I'm going to make
sure it costs you everything!

----

You're all gung ho to conquer Afganistan and conquer Iraq, but once a
couple thousand American troops come home in body bags, then you don't
seem to have too much resolve anymore.  The majority always talks a
good game - they're always cracking down, getting tough, having zero
tolerance - they're real pushy, real violent, until somebody stands up
to them, and that's what it takes to make the majority stop and really
think if it's worth it.  Why does this drug war keep going, year after
year?  It's because it doesn't really cost the American public
anything.  If it cost the American public soldiers in body bags, then
it would be wound up.  That's what it takes to make the American
public wonder if this is a good policy.  The majority of American are
very willing to resort to pushy and aggressive tactics, and it has to
really cost them before they're willing to back down.

----

a674 8

An elected exectuve, and we need to spell out the reasons why.

(in the U.S. case)
The presence of an elected executive might be its fatal flaw.
or it might that democracy is just too unstable to support anything.
But, it's definitely got too much power in the democracy and
not enough effective checks on the majority
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In the meantime, they had passed from "Breaking News" to "Established
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What could rise on a morning breeze?
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It's summertime on a dazzling sea.
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There were tears in her eyes.  "I can't see you anymore!"
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He was almost panicking.  "Why? Why, what's wrong?"
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to colonize Mars!"
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was sure this would work!  I was certain it would make a difference!
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@
