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Internet Access Is a Human Right, Says United Nations

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Re: Internet Access Is a Human Right, Says United Nations

#81
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another example is "the right to health care." People don't use that to mean that you have the right to pay thousands of dollars for an MRI. They generally mean the government should provide health care.

Well then they are using the word `right` incorrectly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights disagrees with you. So does dictionary.com. Got a better reference for me?

Re: Internet Access Is a Human Right, Says United Nations

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean it's a dictatorship run by the minority rich western white countries that force their imperialism on the majority of the world through the various arms of UN? That the US is able to impose sanctions on Iraq and now Iran even though the majority of the world is opposed to the sanctions? That the US is able to shield Israel from any sanctions despite its grave violations of human rights, its refusal to end the…

The depressing but true fact is that the U.S. wields more military power than the rest of the world combined. Not everyone thinks this is a bad thing: there are some cogent arguments that the lengthy peace enjoyed in Europe since WWII has been largely due to the constantly present American military force and economic hegemony. Countries in Europe and Asia are willing to stomach U.S. presence because the U.S. has not…

>It's obvious that the U.S. will never try to wrest sovereignty from a stable Western-style representative government, so countries are willing to let the U.S. solve the so-called "Security Dilemma" for them.

You must be kidding! Do you not know about the dozens of civilian leaders elected by majority of the citizens which the US assassinated or kidnapped to install a puppet client dictator?

You mean when we had to destroy the villages in order to save them?

Here is a tiny snapshot from the list of coups by US against popular elected leaders of the world:

https://www.google.com/webhp?q=We%20had%20to%20destroy%20the...

https://www.google.com/search?q=1953+iran+coup+cia+mi6 (a brutal puppet dictator King Raza Shah Pehlvi was installed in 1953, the Iranians overthrew the tyrant in 1979 and they have been under sanctions since then, Saddam was given weapons in 1980s to kill the Iranians, i.e. before Iraq was the target of sanctions in 1990s)

https://www.google.com/search?q=1954+guatemala+coup+cia

Remember when Vietnam was denied the right to democracy and instead 4 million Vietnamese bombed and killed, to solve their "security dilemma?" 1954 Dwight Eisenhower: "80% of the population in Vietnam would have voted for the Communist "Ho Chi Minh" over the Emperor Bảo Đại"

https://www.google.com/search?q=1955-1973+Cambodia+laos+bomb... https://www.google.com/search?q=1960+patrice+lumumba+assassi... https://www.google.com/search?q=1962+guyana+riots+cia

https://www.google.com/search?q=1964+brazil+coup+cia

https://www.google.com/search?q=1973+chile+coup+cia http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1084/ "Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.

--60 Minutes (5/12/96)"

Just imagine someone saying, "3000 American civilians died on 9/11/01 but the cost was worth it." When it's half a million brown / non-European white kids the cost was definitely worth it.

Re: Internet Access Is a Human Right, Says United Nations

#83
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they going to issue press-release on every possible form of expression? That'd take a while, but then again - generating headlines is their business, so it's a win-win.

The slippery slope argument is a straw man. The primary diplomatic function of the U.N. is laying down specific guidelines for international conduct, so that there's no more arguing about what constitutes a violation of a specific treaty. For example, suppose Ukrageria says, "But Zimbraqistan stationed 14 battleships outside of our port, that's an act of war," and Zimbraqistan counters, "But we just want them to lift…

Right, before they did it everybody thought "freedom of speech" meant only that you can use your actual voice freely. But now everybody knows you can also use Twitter! So what about using printed media? Radiowaves? Phone communications? Should we wait for UN to explain us about that too? For anybody seriously considering the question it mus be obvios the question is not in the means of expression and freedom of speech was never meant to be restricted to exercising one's vocal cords.

Re: Internet Access Is a Human Right, Says United Nations

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The depressing but true fact is that the U.S. wields more military power than the rest of the world combined. Um. This isn't true according to an Economist article I'm having trouble finding. Switching over to Wikipedia, China has the largest active military by a good 8.3 million troops; you'd have to find some explanation that can convincingly say that America has more power by another measure. Source: http://en.w…

I think you meant 830k (not 8.3M) troops. Military size is only a small factor when comparing world super powers. Going by that Wikipedia list, North Korea's military isn't too far from the US military. But we all know how that war would go.

Yeah, sorry about that. I was pretty tired last night.
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