On Thu, 2 Mar 2000, Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
> Hello Michael:
>
> It is a great honor and a privilege for a citizen to be selected to serve in
> the forces that guard one's country and protect her ideals of freedom and
> liberty. It is most shameful and selfish for one to love his career and his
> academic pursuits more than he would love his own country. You can search
I don't share this opinion, and I think I can I quite like my country,
which I think I have proved by not moving to some other countries, where
various companies were offering me well paid jobs, either temporary or
permanent. By simple fact that I decided to stay here in Prague, I helped
my country a lot, because I convert my income from USD to local currency
and support local economy in many ways.
I don't believe that conscription-based army can help ideals like
democracy of freedom. It is true, that many battles on side of democracy
were won by conscription-based armies, but look at armies of totalitarian
or military countries during recent two centuries: ALL of them were
conscription based !!! Drafted Czech men in Austrian army were fighting
Czech volunteers ("Legions") who were supporting Western nations in World
War I. I have absolutely no illusions of role of conscription in history,
and most Western European politicians too: most EU countries already
abolished conscription. In my country they are planning it too, but
parliament is proceeding way too slow :-(
And I really don't share your definition of "honor and privilege". Yes,
maybe I would decide to defend my country of choice as volunteer, but
definitely it won't increase my love to certain country if I am FORCED to
defend it. Now way.
> everywhere on the net and you will never find a freeware version of Liberty
> that is certifiable as authentic. Beware. None of the counterfeit versions
> are functional, and they are all virus-infested. As for the Genuine
> Authorized Edition, The Author of the Copyright will most happily issue
> the Unlimited Usage License to anyone who regrets very much that he has but
> one life to give for it. The asking price is so nominal that virtually
> everyone with a dedicated heart may easily afford to buy it. Apply for your
> very own personalized copy today. Sign up and register!
In Europe, we have learnt exactly opposite thing, and we have learnt it
the hard way. MOST European nations had conscription based armies, and
MOST of them were fighting each other in very evil ways for centuries.
Today, it is absurd to have classical army, because it is useless againist
up-to date weapons: regular army can be used only to terrorize civilians,
as was proved in Kosovo or Chechnya (but you may name also other wars of
other countries, which happened some time ago..), but soldiers are useless
against high-tech weapons, they are just canonen-fodder.
Additionally, my country is not in war, army and conscripion is just heavy
economical disadvantage for us. And yet again, I would consider
_volunteering_ in army of realy free and democratic country, but 1) they
force me instead of aske me whether I want or don't want 2) I have still
certain doubts about certains laws valid in my country and certain doubts
about our leaders, so I may decide not to volunteers.
Ooops. No choice. Absolutely no choice under communist goverment, very
little choice under democractic (military or civil service).
There are countries, which I consider to be very free, which don't have
conscription, or at least not while they are not in war: UK, Canada, New
Zealand, and just recently, most EU countries.
> The setup options will allow you to easily configure your program either
> for civilian use as well as for armed forces use, or even for both.
>
> Make sure that you order the version that is compatible with your operating
> system.
Arachne is free for non-commercial user, and works even without
registering. Linux is even more free and anarchic and works even better
for people who are patient enough.
--
http://arachne.cz/ (Arachne Labs: internet - software - linux - mp3)
