Welcome to 1984 in 2003

[Ash Housewares]

I can't find a decent clip of him wandering the halls drinking and then going after Yeoman Rand


close enough

also, another huge "F U" for posting Omega Glory

you don't see me linking to clips from "Shades of Gray" and making the TNG fans' eyes bleed do you?

[jmervyn]

also, another huge "F U" for posting Omega Glory

Can't blame me this time!

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

Can't blame me this time!

Yeah, and whose fault is that?

We should be able to blame you for everything - you're letting us down here, Merv

[stillman]

I was probably thinking of jmervyn when I posted it. If he didn't exist, things may have turned out differently.

The Omega Glory was good until the propaganda at the end.

[BobCox2]

Back off topic:
Write Gambling Software, Go to Prison

The guy makes software for use outside the US, licenses that software for to companies that operate outside the US and serve customers that live outside the US, but is being charged with a crime in the US? Since when is it illegal for a US citizen to help legitimate European businesses conduct legitimate European business?
Talk about several degrees of separation. A client's client used the software to take bets from customers within the US. And they won't even tell him which client. (Doesn't that violate the whole thing about the right to know what you're being charged with, and the right to face your accuser?) People are using the "go after gun manufacturers" analogy, but it's even worse than that. It's like going after the gun manufacturer for making a gun, legally selling it to a citizen, who legally sells it to a citizen, who has his house robbed of his gun, then the guy who stole the gun uses it in a crime, and it's still the gun manufacturer's fault?!?!
Then they "offer" this guy a chance to plea to lesser crimes that he still didn't even commit in exchange for adding a backdoor to his own software (which, somewhat ironically, would have been a crime in almost every other country that his software was being used in) so they could gather information on European citizens conducting perfectly legal European activities, and they think they have the right to do this because those activities are illegal in the US? Talk about trying to be the world police.....Seriously, as a proud American citizen I do have to say that the US really needs to stop thinking that their laws apply to the rest of the world. They also need to stop taking a machete to the rights of American citizens too, but that's a different story...
There's also the fact that there's a whole list of reasons why online gambling shouldn't be illegal in the first place. But again, that's a different story.
This whole thing makes me sick from top to bottom. The US is strongarming someone who doesn't have the resources to fight back in an effort to spy on both US and European citizens illegally while also trying to enforce their own laws on the rest of the world.

The mere fact that he has been charged has cost this man half his clients. So even if the case is dismissed later, this man has at a minimum been severely financially damaged if not outright ruined. This is the nice thing about being a prosecutor in the US (and probably elsewhere.) You can ruin someone with little to no personal consequences and the person you ruin may not even go to trial but you've still destroyed their life.

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

Yikes, Bob.

With the draconian measures being put in place by the US, affecting normal US citizens, I no longer think of it as "The terrorists have won"; I am starting to believe that "The terrorists have swapped places".

[jmervyn]

Yeah, and whose fault is that?

We should be able to blame you for everything - you're letting us down here, Merv

I'm not Durf, ya know. It's always his fault. Plus, he wasn't a casualty of the bannagefest; he's been sighted within the calendar year.

I was probably thinking of jmervyn when I posted it. If he didn't exist, things may have turned out differently.

So you're going to travel back in time to ban me?

[krischan]

I'm not Durf, ya know. It's always his fault.

Except we found somebody else guilty before .

Plus, he wasn't a casualty of the bannagefest; he's been sighted within the calendar year.

Which means that he is guilty only on things which were meant to be forgiven or to please the human desire for finding a culprit for everything.

I think it's 3rd degree trolling by you. 1st degree = doing it yourself, 2nd = tempting others to do it for you, 3rd = your mere presence causes trolling of others. I think the rules cover 1st and (if there's enough evidence) 2nd, but 3rd degree certainly is allowed andsometimes even admirable. I'm not sure what it is in your case, however .

[jmervyn]

AARGHH reply eaten twice.

The mere fact that he has been charged has cost this man half his clients. So even if the case is dismissed later, this man has at a minimum been severely financially damaged if not outright ruined. This is the nice thing about being a prosecutor in the US (and probably elsewhere.) You can ruin someone with little to no personal consequences and the person you ruin may not even go to trial but you've still destroyed their life.

Aren't you proud to be an American serf citizen, Bob? The U.S. Gov't has enough lawyers to tie something up in court essentially forever. So why am I not supposed to get all mouth-frothy about this sort of thing, again?

Besides, this is actually brought by New York. My Empire State has a well-known gambling... er, problem. Like this. Or, like this (detail here). "An activity that was so lucrative to bookies that they risked arrest to pursue it becomes a money-loser when the state tries to do it."

With the draconian measures being put in place by the US, affecting normal US citizens, I no longer think of it as "The terrorists have won"; I am starting to believe that "The terrorists have swapped places".

I was going to find a recent article about how Osama's original intent of economic warfare means he's winning from beyond the grave, but that's kind of depressing so I'll tender this gem instead.

I can't decide which is better - the hypocrisy of selling before end-of-year to avoid paying his fair share, or the irony of selling to an evil group financed by oil mega-dollars.

[LozHinge the Unhinged]

AARGHH reply eaten twice.

You should be so lucky.

[...]

I was going to find a recent article about how Osama's original intent of economic warfare means he's winning from beyond the grave, but that's kind of depressing so I'll tender this gem instead.

I can't decide which is better - the hypocrisy of selling before end-of-year to avoid paying his fair share, or the irony of selling to an evil group financed by oil mega-dollars.

The issues you raise there, Merv, are so chock-full of irony that I'm surprised the Moon hasn't come crashing down on us.

"I will fight for your right to broadcast stuff about how your folks are going to kill my folks."

Whatchagonnado?