FreeBSD 4.7-STABLE (MKVI) #2: Tue Jan 21 12:42:54 PST 2003

Welcome to Soda Mark VI, an Athlon/700 donated by AMD.

1/24    Can't get a law passed through Congress?  Just make it an executive
        order!  President allows our tax dollars to fund the construction
        of churches in a fairly clear establishment of official government
        religion.  Go Conservatives!
        \_ What the hell are you talking about?
        \_ The question is still funding. Just saying it's so is great if
           it doesn't cost anything. Congress has to appropriate funds.
        \_ I believe the quote was, "Stroke of the pen, law of the land, cool!"
           It's amazing how cool it is when it's your molestor-in-chief doing
           it, but how much it sucks when the opposition does things you don't
           like and how quickly some of us blather on about the constitution
           when we were perfectly happy to ignore it the previous 8 years as
           a "living changing document".  Welcome to the conservative side
           with your new found belief in strict constitutionalism.
           \_ well, to be fair, the dems never considered the constitution
              to be some sacrosanct document that is not open to deconstruction
              and reinterpretation.  so it's only galling when the republicans
              do it.
              \_ no, it's galling when leftists fall back on a strict
                 interpretation when it is convenient to claim a violation and
                 want to ignore and twist it the rest of the time.
                 \_ So it's okay when you do it but not okay when someone
                    else does. Right-o.
           \_ Who said anything about recent democrats being faultess?  To
              be fair though, where's the special investigator who should
              be looking into our current president's alleged drug use? I'm
              sure that given enough money he could find some kind of dirt
              on W that the conservative media won't be able to easily spin.
           \_ Never been a strict constitutionalist, never will, but I
              want a chance to vote on the X-ianization of the govt.
           \_ The government ALREADY funds private sectarian schools
              with Federal loans.  The USSSC decided this is allowed provided
              the choice is made by an individual.  At at least be honest
              honest about your intentions - the U.S. government is
              historically Christian, a fact easy to verify.
              What you want is secularization.
              Government giving handouts corrupts the exchange and eliminates
              any moral virtue of the exchange.   Read Dinesh D'Souza for
              example, http://www.dineshdsouza.com

1/24    Is there a cheap (free?) way to convert avi and wmv to VCD format?
        \_ http://www.vcdhelp.com

1/24    Has anybody tried to contribute to a charity outside of the US and
        claim the tax deduction?  I know that donations over X amt of money
        you have to get the organizations tax-exempt code or some other
        number like that.  But this is a foreign charity with no chapters
        in the US.  Thanks.
        \_ Your donations to Palestinian terrorists don't get you a tax
           deduction, sorry.  Maybe if Gore had won.
        \_ Why should you be allowed to deduct this?
        \_ we'll get around to invading Yemen too
        \_ I donate $500-$1000 per yr to a charity in India with no
           US chapters. I've claimed a tax deduction ever year w/o
           any problems so far. I use TaxCut to do my taxes and it
           doesn't seem to care about a tax-exempt code for donations
           under a $1000.
                 \- as a practical matter, i think in a case like this
                    if you take the donation [and have documentation]
                    you can probably plausibly plead "i was confused"
                    and get off. this isnt like buying a boat and claiming
                    it was an R&D expense for your yatch building corp.
           \_ Thanks, this is good point of reference.  I'm thinking of
              donating around $3K this year to a temple in Taiwan.  Last year
              I donated a car and used turbo tax. it asked me for the charities
              tax id.  That was around $3k also.  I'll dig around the IRS
              web site and see what I can find.  Thanks.
              \_ You donate and Al Gore receives!  That's why it's ok to donate
                 to foreign .orgs.  It all comes back to the US anyway!  Let's
                 hear it for the globalization of corruption!  Yay!
        \_ this is an eye opening experience.  I just checked IRS publication
           526.  It says that you can deduct donations to Canadian, Mexican,
           and Israeli charities only (subject to limitations).  Only those
           3 nations are allowed.  The above posters donation to India is
           not tax deductable.  You'll be screwed if you're audited.
           US govt subsidizing donations to Canada, Mexico, and Israel.  What
           a surprise eh?  -OP
           \_ the first two we own. the third owns us.
              \_ Yawn.  More racist idiocy.  The Jews own the media and the
                 banks, and etc, blah blah blah.  Feel better now that it's
                 been said outright?  Oh yeah, the Jews killed Jesus, too and
                 have horns.  I miss anything?
                 \_ what was racist about it? i didn't say anything bad about
                    israel. it just has a very powerful influence on our
                    national policy.
                    \_ there's a difference between "owns" and "has a very
                       powerful influence".
                       \_ i generalized to make a point. how come you don't
                          have a fit about the first two statements?
                          As far as jews themselves, I don't think
                          they're worse than any other people. i dislike the
                          religion because many who follow the "letter of the
                          law" still are cruel and greedy, and it promotes an
                          ideology where some people are "better' than others.
                          i am not a christian but at least there I would say
                          the cruel and greedy people are not following the
                          "message of the religion". the old testament is full
                          of stories like "these people were bad so they were
                          wiped out. all of them."
                          \_ feel free to ask if you need any more rope.
                \_ review of the bible:
                   http://www.exile.ru/157/157041801.html - danh
                          \_ thanks for showing us how little you know about
                             Judaism, Christiantity, and apparently religion
                             in general.  I was wrong.  You're not racist.
                             You're steeped in ignorance with an extra dose
                             of hatred and a touch of superiority complex on
                             the side.
                             \_ when i said promotes, I mean promotes among
                                stupid and/or ignorant people. i think that
                                stupid/ignorant jews are more dangerous than
                                stupid/ignorant christians, but both are less
                                dangerous than stupid/ignorant muslims.
                                stupid/ignorant buddhists and hindus are less
                                dangerous than all three.
                 \_ Yeah sure, blame everything on racism.
                    \_ actually, i only have problem with the jews.  they
                       are the enemy.
                       \_ Try better, troll.
                    \_ Even God is a racist too.  Else why did he choose Jewish
                       over other races?
                       \_ until we actually hear from god, it's hard to know
                          which race he really favors.  i guess you can take
                          the jews' word for it, but it is only the fool who
                          would take the word of a jew.
                          \_ *laugh* Troll.  -jewboy & mark of kings
                          \_ "If you're doing business with a religious
                              son-of-a-bitch, get it in writing!" - WSB
                     newspapers. The first one is reading Ha'aretz. After
                  \_ This reminds me of a joke I heard the other day. Two
                     guys are sitting in a cafe in Tel Aviv, reading the
                     newspaper. The first one is reading Ha'aretz. After
                     a while he looks at the other guy and says, "I couldn't
                     help but notice you are reading that vile white supremicist
                     rag, what is wrong with you?" The second guy says, "Well,
                     I used to read Ha'aretz, like you, but every day I would
                     get depressed. It was every day the same thing, Sharon
                     this, suicide bombing that, settlers this... it really
                     got to me." "Now every day I am happy. I read this paper
                     and it says here that we control the media, run the banks,
                     dominate American foreign policy..."
        \_ you can try donating to other countries through local charity.
           i.e., red cross, world vision.
        \_ I donated $1k to Al Qaeda last year and the government let me
           deduct it from my taxes. What a great country!
           \_ my parents gave money to fund the jihad against the great
              satan, and all i got was this lousy t-shirt.
              \_ and an invitation all expense paid trip to Cuba!

1/23    Cygwin question - does anyone know how to set the system so that
        anything that would normally pop up a cmd.exe window instead
        opens a bash shell?  I once did this, I think by setting some
        environment variables or a registry key, but can't find any
        docs on this any more...  Thanks!
        \_ Maybe by setting ComSpec in Control Panel | System | Advanced | Env
           \_ thanks, but tried that, doesn't seem to do the trick... -op
        \_ Just replace cmd.exe with your shell executable. :-)
        \_ There's a few ways to do this but I strongly suggest you don't.
           You're going to break all sorts of things.  This is a mistake.
           \_ could you elaborate?  Thanks! -op
              \_ What runs a .bat file?  cmd.exe.  Think about it.  How many
                 other things call upon cmd.exe to get anything done?  Just
                 drop an icon on your desktop and be done with it.  I'm not
                 going to help you break your computer.  If you can figure out
                 how to do this, you'll then know how to undo it when it's all
                 fucked up.
                 \_ Translation: I don't know how to do it.
                    \_ Probably can't build a nuclear weapon either. Pussy.
                       \_ Whoah, that showed me!  I stand corrected!

1/24    Moo3 gone gold for anyone who loved moo or moo2.
        \_ Note the 1 month store delivery time. -- moo fan
           \_ Yes, but that's better than "in final regression testing, will
              be released very soon now".
        \_ i have bad apprehensions about moo3. its graphics are rather assy.
           \_ They made a real effort to remove micromanagement, the first
              such effort to my knowledge among games of this type.  I think
              it's worth checking out.  If you play games like moo or civ
              for graphics you are barking up the wrong tree, friend.
                -- moo fan
              \_ Empire anyone?
                 \_ to the person who asked which one: the original
                    computer game in the 80s (destroyers, battleships...)
           \_ graphics?  If you want eye candy go play doom3.  These are slow
              long drawn out thinking games.  The graphics are nothing more
              than place holders for information.  Maybe PS2 or xbox is more
              your speed?  I don't mean that as an insult.  Just different
              things are fun for different people.  now begins the wait for
              moo4!  :-)
              \_ i played civ1, moo1, moo2, mom, etc. i like the graphics to be
                 clear and nice to look at. it doesn't need fancy bumpmapped
                 3d whatever, but good art and UI...I find various aspects of
                 the screenshots i've seen turn me off, ie worse than moo2.
        \_ Don't kill me, but what's moo?  Is it a cow game?
           \_ Masters Of Orion
                \_ Yes.   It's fun.  Dominate the galaxy.  Meet strange new
                   species, and kill them.  Or interbreed.  Whatever.
           \_ Basic idea is thus: start with your low tech barely space capable
              race on one planet, invest planetary resources in research,
              building ships, planetary improvements, etc.  Expand to other
              worlds, other star systems, meet other alien races/players,
              trade with them, eventually crush them, rule the galaxy.  This is
              "4x" genre.  Explore, expand, exploit, exterminate.  Classic.
        \_ Hopefully it's funner than Civ3
           \_ MOO3 has built-in multi-player, and I think part of the delay
              was in fixing late-game show-stoppers in multi-player
              (sounded like corrupted game-crashing save games in SP too)