Holy cow...

[Ed Kelleher]

At 02:21 AM 8/8/2004, you wrote:
>If you go around acting the ass
>when you've already been bitch slapped,

LOL - thinking of someone attempting to bitch slap Mike Tyson or any pro 
fighter or soldier.
They're used to being hit --- and responding.
More correct term for what happened is "sucker punched" which can happen to 
anyone.

It's not sensible to ascribe personal motives to that of nation states either.
Their rulers (depot or democrat) got there by strict pragmatism not 
emotionalism.
(They certainly use emotions but strictly as a tool).

We, as individuals, might want to punch out some arrogant loud mouth bully, 
but for dictators with dreams of hegemony that's not a good enough 
reason.  They'll do so only for a profitable reason, not to satisfy some 
emotion.

The reason for them to do so (as they're doing) is that it's hard to fool 
their people into thinking they live in a "worker's paradise" (or paradise 
of any sort) when the USA [substitute your country here] is there as an 
alternative.

To bring this back (or closer anyway) to being on-topic:

1) I don't think most people on this list could be "bitch slapped" by a 
problem - whipped into submission.  They'll keep coming back and back and 
back till they whip the problem into submission.

2) Could the activities this list promotes (classic computing) exist in a 
place where people's work is owed to the state.
I think the conversation would go something like this, "Why [insert 
euphemistic description] are you wasting time on this IBM 5100 nonsense 
when you could be [insert state supported activity here]".

You implied that America's arrogance was the cause of the problem.
I don't think that's the root cause.   This list (and the personal freedom 
it describes) is a much greater threat to a dictator then a country that 
whips the snot out of someone who attempts to "bitch slap" them.

Though I guess it would be better if the USA wasn't so [insert list of 
perjorative terms here] and were more humble.

:-)

Ed Kelleher