I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire five shots or sixty?" Well to tell you the truth with all the echos I kinda lost track myself. But seeing as the RCMP have 9mm automatics, the most powerful handgun in Canada and are liable to blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, BUDDY?"

Sorry, but no, this is complete bullshit.

Some of the most powerful politicians in the US are devotee's of Ayn Rand, including the last vice presidential candidate and several front runners for the upcoming presidential elections.

Dissecting and criticizing her work is not some sort of straw man argument. It is perfectly legitimate criticism of the core values of those politicians.

What Neil deGrasse Tyson and some of the other scientists/doctors (myself include) have are saying is that the IDEA of GMO's is a great one. The fact that we can engineer our foods to get the traits we want or add additional beneficial traits is an incredibly useful tool. We've already engineered rice that is able to produce vitamin A, which has been a huge help for places with vitamin A deficiencies and we can engineer potatoes to absorb less fats and oils when we fry them, there is also a professor at SUNY-ESF who is using GMO's to try and save the American Chestnut tree from extinction.

GMing is simply another tool in humanity's struggle to survive. First it was finding which foods were safe to eat, then it was breeding organisms within species to make inbred organisms that had the traits we wanted (think cattle, dogs, cats, corn, banana's; some of these things are more inbred than the Hapsburgs), then we starting creating our own hybrids across different species, and now we have GMO's.

However, what I object to is the current corporate use of GMO's to exploit farmers over patents, and breed for traits that people do necessarily need. NdT I'm sure is not advocating for that, but is advocating for the use of transgenic organisms/GMO's to solve some of the world's most pressing issues.

GMO's are probably the most powerful tool we have to curb world hunger, and mal-nutrition, and it could also be the thing that allows humans to venture beyond the solar system. What the Sift seems to be objecting to, and the rest of the "developed" world is the use of GMO's by greedy corporations who care more about turning a profit than solving world problems (there isn't very much money in feeding the needy and hungry). They are the one's making what appear to me more or less useless and potentially dangerous GMO's. Turn your anger away from GMO's specifically and narrow it to the ill use of GMO's by greedy corporations.

Lastly, the argument that "we don't know what they'll do" is for the most part unfounded, there are a decent amount of studies (find them yourself sorry) which show that GMO's in general won't cause harm (though it really depends on what you're trying to make). The same argument was made about the LHC "We don't know what will happen when we turn it on!" but everyone was fine.

Wrong.

The side with the most power is worse. The side that can precisely destroy targets and yet somehow can't stop hitting everything else, is worse. The side that has layered defense systems neutralising the threat of home made dumbfire rockets, is worse. The side where people line up to laugh as civilians are murdered with no where to run, is fucking worse.

You cannot bring equivalency to this equation because there is none, and there never was. Israel has always relied on the rest of the world to back it's play, and continually pushes the limits of what it can get away with, defying the world to stop it.

If there was justice, a noose would be waiting for every cunt from either side responsible for the death of civilians, from the politicians and commanders who give the orders down to the troops that pulled the trigger. I fucking guarantee you there would be many times more Israeli's swinging than Palestinians...

I think it's shifting, but if you're in the US and you work and you just have time to watch the nightly news, it's nearly all Israel. They've got the time to make their arguments, they've got the support of the major networks. Now if you actually work at it, you get a bit more nuanced of a view but it's without the information of the last 40 years.

There's a lot of meat to this story and it goes back a long long time. Not a lot of people have the time to do a complete research project on it. Heck I've read a ton on the subject, I still can't remember all the happenings and goings on, I have trouble citing decisions and actions taken by either side.

While now currently in this conflict it seems that Israel is starting to lose around the world but that's not important. The countries around the world have already voted to stop this nonsense and get to a two state solution already. The US and Israel are the only ones who refuse, and Israel would immediately drop it if they didn't have the support of the most powerful nation on earth.

I hope you're right though that the tide is going to turn, and that US citizens (lets face it the only people who really matter ) are going to see the reality.

This guy did not "out" Tim Cook. Matter of fact, Tim Cook was called "The Most Powerful Gay Man in Silicon Valley" by a Gawker property in 2011. The dude is gay. Those who give a shit about such things already know about it.

So what are we talking about?

Most of them do as they follow their friends and family across the porous border. The inaction of the United States to curtail their illegal entry?

By design.

As far as following rules ant? Rules are suggestions offered-up in a vain and covetous attempt to keep big-brained herd animals from turning feral en masse.

The BBC? Love what they've done with their Department of Audio and Music Interactive, whose inception and evolution has inspired many a rousing ditty or two and the world has Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire to thank for this.

God bless two of the most powerful and influential women to ever grace the marble.

Infant genders should not be discovered until the moment of birth. Seriously. Screw ultrasounds. They are not harmless.

At the moment of a (unmedicated) birth, there is a build up and release of the most powerful love and attraction hormones known to science (and many that are unknown). These hormones affect everyone in the room.

This negative emotional response would never occur if the boy discovered the gender as he witnessed the birth first hand.

“The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”
-- Matt Taibbi

The same thing could be said about J.P. Morgan.

I think it's funny when the White Monarch of a country known for subjugating Africans (and half the world) is still putting black people in their place. Even the most powerful man in the world isn't immune to this old cunt and her cunty aristocratic ways.

Seriously this bullshit needs to stop, sell off those fucking castles and send the queen packing. The British Monarchs are just as bad if not worse than Hitler, but England wrote the history so we gotta respect that shit? Fuck them.

@skinnydaddy1
the ignorance of your commentary is staggering.
it reveals a total lack of understanding in regards to:history,the fourth estate and the importance of whistleblowers.

you state that he betrayed an oath.
but what was that oath in regards to?
the government? or the citizens and constitution of the united states?

manning has stated quite clearly he felt the american people needed to know what was being perpetrated in their names.

he honored his oath.

as for HOW he released that information i disagree with as well.he should not have just dumped massive amounts of data,unlike snowden who vetted the information,manning just dumped it.

he gave this information to wikileaks.
a notorious and well-known site for whistleblowers to retain anonymity.
your accusation that this site "lies" is unfounded and has no basis in truth.

maybe in your mind wikileaks lies but that is speculation and conjecture.better known as "wishful thinking".

which brings me to my next point in regards to your willfully ignorant commentary.
you state:
"He gave information to a a group of people that used it to lie and put people at risk for nothing."

and yet in your ad hominem swipe at @Asmo you state:
"What secret did he give away that was damning to the US government? Oh thats right Nothing Other than information that gave away procedures on how informants were handled and oh! some of their names."

well?
which one is it?
were people put at risk or werent they?

you make an argument in one comment where manning is a traitor and had put people lives at risk and in your very NEXT commentary you state that nothing of value was revealed.

you literally negated your first position by YOUR OWN COMMENTARY.

you postulated the our opinion of our government is irrelevant.
i totally agree.
our opinion of our government is irrelevant in these matters.

the fourth estate was put in place to be the watchdog of the powerful.
it is VITAL to this estate that they be able to glean information on the inner workings of governmental processes.for this to work whistleblowers who uncover government malfeasance be allowed to reveal the glitches in the system.

a government by the people for the people should be informed on the goings on of a government enacting policies in THEIR name.

manning saw a glitch in the system and revealed some of the working of our government and by YOUR OWN COMMENTARY,did not reveal anything of significant value.

manning stood up to the most powerful institution on the planet and has suffered three years in prison (wheres the speedy trial?).has been sleep deprived,forced nudity and been subjected to loud music for hours on end (all forms of torture).

he has suffered all this because he felt the american people had the right to know.

manning has shown a courage and a set of balls that has become painfully obvious you do not own.

manning is not only a hero but has a brass set.

http://www.aclu.org/reform-patriot-act

http://jonathanturley.org/2012/01/15/10-reasons-the-u-s-is-no-longer-the-land-of-the-free/

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/patriotact/patriotactprovisions.html

and for the person who mentioned that congress holds the most power in our legislature:
http://www.bu.edu/law/central/jd/organizations/journals/bulr/documents/MARSHALL.pdf

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/06/congress-government-spying-votes-charts/65969/

http://www.civilfreedoms.org/?p=7260

i could literally do this all day.
please understand my friend i am NOT buying into any media hysteria.
i just do not trust power and the past two administrations have proven they do not deserve it.

another point i would like to make is my suspicion is not the mere fact of a metadata dragnet perpetrated by the NSA.
hell..if you have a facebook you know your info is being jacked.
no..thats not where my skepticism lies.
for while i am not wholly comfortable with a government organization scooping up massive amounts of data,what bothers me far worse is our government expressly barring (verizon in this case) from letting their customers know the very existence of the program.

i also cannot nor will i ever accept the tacit and,in my opinion,bullshit reasoning that this is all about counter-terrorism.

there is far too broad a brush that can be painted with abuse.
and it is the abuse of power that i am concerned with.

see:
patriot act 1
patriot act 2
victory act 1
victory act 2
military commissions act of 2006
NDAA of 2012

which brought us the great hits of the past decade:
torture
warrantless wiretaps
illegal wars
assasinations
persecution of whistleblowers
persecution of journalists

im sorry man but we are in fundamental disagreement on this.
you see this as a necessary tool for law enforcement and counter-terrorism
and i see a horrific landscape of possible abuses by a government i feel no longer represents the citizenry but is,in fact,an arm of wall street and multi-national corporations.

and the possibilities of abuse are massive.

The problem with this is how Americans continue to mistake the office of the president as this all powerful dictator position.

The office of the president is not a kingship, it is not totalitarian. It is one branch of three and it's not even the most powerful branch. Congress is the most powerful branch.

So whenever we have these scandals (left or right) the focus is always on the president even though they may or may not have anything to do with it. I'm not saying they're blameless, but they're certainly not the ringleader. There may be no ringleader. Whenever we have this scandal, there's always this mistaken notion that it was some grand conspiracy with very specific aims and goals and I don't think that is typically the case. I think most of these scandals are simply born out of laziness or negligence or simply just protecting one's ass. Government is a big machine (even in the right wing fantasy of small gov't, it will always be big) and it's more likely it's some unintentional screwup than some pre-meditated maneuver.

IMO, this is most evident during Bush's administration. The guy is obviously not that bright. There was something else going on behind the scenes pulling the strings. Even though Obama certainly is far more intelligent, it still doesn't change a thing that there is a bigger machinery at work and one person alone doesn't steer the boat.

And no I'm not talking about some cliche'd Iluminati-style group. You've just got a large go'vt mechanism that wields a lot of power and it's run by fallible people which is a far simpler plausible explanation.

The only way it's going to be better is if people demand it. But we don't even have half the nation voting. So you have a better than 50 percent chance that any time you hear someone complaining about the gov't...they probably didn't vote.

This idea is old. We used to have kings and dictators, but eventually people demanded something different so they came up with councils and parliaments and congresses, etc that wielded the real power, but they kept the kings and queens as a distraction, as a symbol even though they lost the bulk of their power.

Again, I'm not saying the office of the president is blameless, i'm just trying to inject some perspective.

It is but it's a damn sight better than anything else the world has come up with. It's the most powerful country in the world, it's hard to get democracy going when the powerful don't want it. Little countries like New Zealand can be bastions of democracy because they're small and not useful. If NZ was on top of a ton of oil it would've killed anyone in the fucking way to control it. Also it's been an upward trend of civilization since the formation of the country, even after World War 2 where it emerged with half the worlds wealth.

So yeah the American public can and should be held responsible, but it's not a simple thing to get people together to fight for what they deserve. I don't think anyone fared much better. I never heard England recalling troops from India because the populace was protesting soo much it was getting out of control.

After much mentation over the surveillance apparatus' true colors concerning the human population here's my revised take on talking about anything "nefarious/illegal/contentious" in chats, emails, forums like these, etc over the internet:

I use and deal drugs:
I don't pay income taxes:
I speak openly concerning anarchy and swift and violent/non-violent revolution:


I give a fuck because I have nothing to hide. I despise law enforcement because of how it has mutated, I despise government for the private club she has become. Our intelligence community's function is not there to protect her citizens from enemies, but to create an apparatus which can monitor all actions with a view to creating a machine that works for the wealthiest and most powerful cunts on the planet, the same who should be crucified, displayed prominently along roads leading in and out of the D.C. metro area.

Nike says it best-her credo should be applied to the next televised revolt against this beast...Just Do It.