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A comment on Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email. Parent comment

Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by w1ntermute on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @05:09PM (#4967258)
Another good one is the number of people that die in car accidents in the US every year, largely due to human error - 32,367 people in 2011.

If the government took one tenth of the money it spends on defense every year (which was $1.030–$1.415 trillion for 2012), or approximately $100 billion dollars, and invested it in driverless car research and the infrastructure changes necessary for it, a much bigger benefit could be wrought. But that won't happen, because it's the lobbying of the military-industrial complex that determines where money is spent.

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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by mikeash on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @06:09PM (#4967396)
I use that one a lot. Roughly one 9/11 every month, continually, and nobody really cares.
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by jwoah12 on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @10:23AM (#4969498)
It isn't that nobody cares. It's that people see (however irrationally) car accidents as an unpreventable occurrence, while they see terrorism as something that can be stopped if we go and kill the bad guys that are doing it.
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by pjbrunet on Thursday December 27, 2012 @09:46AM (#4973452)
If you want to play that game, nothing beats abortion deaths. http://www.numberofabortions.com/
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by driverdan on Thursday December 27, 2012 @10:28AM (#4973589)
Play what game? Abortion has nothing to do with what is being discussed.
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by mikeash on Thursday December 27, 2012 @10:24AM (#4973580)
Please take your disingenuous politicking elsewhere.
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by monochromatic on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @07:08PM (#4967559)
military-industrial complex

Most of what you said is true enough, but this nonsense loses you credibility. It's like saying "it's the corporations, man."

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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by ScottBurson on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @07:17PM (#4967592)
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by neumann_alfred on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @10:47PM (#4968084)
How is this nonsense? How does personal credibility enter into it, anyway? Argue with the statement, but spare the ironical projecting (saying "mentioning this or that phrase makes anything you say suspect" IS actually like intellectually lazy slogans you pretend to be against)

The business of buying weapons that takes place in the Pentagon is a corrupt business - ethically and morally corrupt from top to bottom. The process is dominated by advocacy, with few, if any, checks and balances. Most people in power like this system of doing business and do not want it changed.

-- Colonel James G. Burton

A rose is a rose is a rose, and so is a turd; what labels you accept or don't is your personal thing, but otherwise irrelevant.

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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by stdgy on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @08:39PM (#4967803)
There's nothing nonsensical about it. It's a well established political reality, and has been widely discussed for more than fifty years.
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by urza on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @07:15PM (#4967579)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_com...
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by gareim on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @01:27AM (#4968410)
What? The military-industrial complex is real. If you don't believe me, look at how the Army is requesting LESS money for tanks, claiming that they have enough and that the money would be better spent elsewhere.. And then Congress rejecting that plea and giving them more money for tanks.
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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by GFischer on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @10:19AM (#4969478)
Wow, I didn't know that one. And reported by mainstream media:

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/09/army-to-congress-th...

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Re:Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain War... by mikeash on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @07:47PM (#4967685)
Yeah, that guy who planned the Normandy invasion was a complete nutball.
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