* Posts by Frank Silbermann

4 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jun 2007

Too much sitting can kill: Official

Frank Silbermann

All a big misunderstanding

It's not a danger of death from "too much _sitting_" -- this was all a misunderstanding due to a typographical error in which a single letter was dropped.

The original research was about dysentery.

Bush orders NSA to snoop on US agencies

Frank Silbermann

What's the difference?

Spying on our computers, or video-taping people in all public areas -- what's the difference? One is no more paranoid or unjustified than the other.

In England, police have the authority to enter your home and poke around anytime, day or night, without a warrant. (The only exception made is for those households none of whose members own legal firearms.)

AK47: the open-source weapon that took the world by storm

Frank Silbermann

What's wrong with killing?

"The more I read The Register and Slashdot, the more I realise that there are a lot of sad prats out there who love guns. ... What a pathetic bunch of immature little boys, playing with guns and pretending that they're not designed to kill."

There's nothing wrong with killing people, as long as you kill the right people at the right time for the right reasons. That's why Tony Blair's bodyguard carried a handgun (having no legitimate use other than the killing of human beings). I personally know a man who was instructed by the British government to carry a loaded Glock 19 should the defense of the Royal family ever require him to kill people.

"Getting a little stiffy no doubt while you fondle the hard shiny barrel and ram home a clip/magazine, whatever."

Uh, oh! Looks like we have to report this guy to the government for hate speech against us on account of our sexual orientation. That's against the law, you know!

"It's articles like this, talking about these bloody things as though they're a work of art or a design icon that ensures we continue to remain at risk from the next inadequate who gets off on guns and kills someone."

Is it?

"But of course it'll be him not the gun. He could so easily have murdered people at random from a distance with any other kind of weapon couldn't he?"

I suppose he could use bows and arrows with poisoned tips. (He could even use a catapult to through dozens of poison-tipped darts. Or a doctor could just fill an automobile with shrapnel bombs and park it by a bar popular with single women (reflecting his understanding of the Hippocratic Oath).

"When the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan on Feb. 15, 1989, the vast arms infrastructure did not disappear. Operating for a decade, it had become ingrained in the economy and culture of Afghanistan and neighboring countries. ... the small village arms makers who bought, sold, repaired and produced their homemade versions (of the AK)"

Look on the bright side. If we can sufficiently promote the the spread of home-workshop arms-making techniques, maybe we can finally convince people that gun bans are no substitute for the killing of criminals, and that disarming the victims only makes things worse.

Texas cops taser diabetic seizure man

Frank Silbermann

Compared with European cops?

My wife is from Reading, England, but grew up in Geneva. She says she is much more frightened of the Swiss police than of American cops. She says the Swiss cops are really tough. When her brother was 14, he had a Moped and may have violated a traffic laws. A Geneva cop saw it and in panic he fled. When the cop caught him he gave the boy a thorough beating.

His dad didn't complain, probably figuring "What do you expect when you run from the police?" But in America, that sort of behavior _can_ land a cop in prison. (Also, they probably had some sympathy for the cop; my wife's uncle and grandfather were both on the Metropolitan police force in London.)

In America the press just jumps on a story like this, whereas on the continent it's probably just hushed up.

As for the general anti-Americanism, don't worry; I predict the U.S. will soon abdicate from its post-WWII role of international leadership. We'll let you guys rely on your "soft power."