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Calling this piracy is just as dumb as calling the New York New York casino in Las Vegas piracy. And here is the home the White House is styled after.

Huh? We're talking about Northwestern, right?

Actually, if you look at the statistics for lung cancer you'll see quite the opposite. 24.4% of male, heavy (5 cigarettes per day) smokers end up with lung cancer. I don't even equate 5 cigarettes as heavy, as just about everyone I've ever known who smoked, did at least 5 a day, and many did a whole pack (20-25) cigarettes a day. That doesn't even account for all the other bad things that smoking can give you. That's just a single disease. The signs at the checkout at the grocery store state that 1 in 2 long term smokers will die of a smoking related disease. That's not odds that I want to mess around with.

One advantage of changing your default SSID a vanilla install is that it makes it harder to crack.
The SSID is used as salt in the encryption mechanism.

Here is an article that describes it in more detail:
http://netsecurity.about.com/od/secureyourwifinetwork/a/WPA2-Crack.htm

Plus... having a goofy SSID is fun :) Mine is "Dialup".

I agree, but what makes me ponder is that the European court said to allow copyright on an API would allow monopolizing ideas. Isn't that what allowing business rules patents does? Ie patent ideas? Hopefully, somehow, Alsup's logic pervades into the business rule / software patent realm and blots out this travesty of justice too.

Patents do expire, where copyright has been continuously extended (in the U.S. anyway) to near eternity.

The guy was making the valid statement that a corporation can not force you to do anything.

I think 100,000 well-armed Pinkerton Detectives would disagree. And by "disagree" I mean "bust you upside your head with a fucking baseball bat if you defied the company that hired them as its private army."

nor can they send armed police to toss me in jail

Who's going to stop them, the government that you got rid of because you don't like paying taxes?

No company has that power..... only government.

No, the only thing STOPPING the companies from having that power is government.

Civil discourse has nothing to do with not calling people out on blatant falsehoods - it's the act of doing so without being a dick about it.

How do you call someone a self-serving liar without being a dick about it?

Lol, OK, you might have me on that one...

Wanna know what's sad? As soon as I finished laughing at your question, I immediately started thinking on ways to do just that... "We refer you to the response given in Arkell v Pressdram" doesn't really fit this situation, but something to that effect would likely be the most epic-yet-civil burn in history. Otherwise, you could always stick to the good ol' backhanded compliment: If you called them a vainglorious equivocator, they may just thank you.

As for those blinded to the obvious by their own hubris... fuck 'em, they aren't worth the energy it takes to argue with them.

But this is the vast majority of the populace. How can we function as a society when the vast majority of the populace believes in things that are plainly untrue and acts on them?

They don't. It only seems that way because the minority who does believe such nonsense are just so fucking LOUD, they seem like bigger groups than they really are.

Westboro Baptist Church (which is not too far from here, it shames me to say) membership is somewhere in the teens, but listen to them and you would think the entire state of Kansas attends.

This isn't just restrained to the topic of evolution either, the antiscientific mindset of the typical American has caused all sorts of bad policy. From the continued use of fossil fuels, to imprisoning hundreds of thousands of harmless pot smokers, to the massive undeserved subsidies given to corn, to the normalization of sexual assault at the hands of the TSA, and so on(and on, and on) deliberate ignorance promoted by short sighted greed is overwhelmingly the driving force behind our politics

You know as well as I do that those things have far more to do with greed and capitalism than anti-scientific mentality.

So, these seismometers - they can send a signal to the alleged core, and it will bounce back in such a way that we can be certain the core is X miles deep, Y miles in diameter, and made up of Z?

Yes, pretty much. Except that the signals are either earthquakes or nukes.

Really? Sounds cool! Got a link?

Here's what I found by Googling "confirm center of Earth":

http://geology.about.com/od/core/a/about_the_core.htm

Unfortunately, the article does not definitively confirm the makeup of the planet's core, as indefinites such as "probably," "proposed," and my most hated term to see in an allegedly scientific work, "must be" appear throughout. Gawd, but I hate seeing that phrase, "must be.".

Also, at some point they article claims that researchers "confirmed a prediction" about how the core functions as a massive geodynamo, but fails to provide the evidence that backs the claim. So, less a confirmation and more conjecture on the part of the author, which I maintain does nothing but make it seem like these guys are making shit up as they go along. Not the impression one would want to make on the more skeptical among us.

To reiterate, a scientist saying "Science proves it's this way" without sufficient evidence to back the proof, is no different than a Creationist saying "God says it's this way." Both statements are based on belief as opposed to fact.

Not quite. When a scientist says something, there's a certain amount of trust. Even if he shows you the data, there's a certain amount of trust that the experiment was performed as described and the data reported accurately.

I call bullshit; would you inherently trust a scientist who works for, say, AstraZeneca, when he tells you that

I'm not a catholic but catholic confession includes repentance. You must be sorry for your sin etc etc: http://catholicism.about.com/od/beliefsteachings/p/Why_Confession.htm

So it's not "simply go to confession" (but sociopaths do that sort of thing to win favour/votes).

If you don't see the difference, the next time you screw up you can try saying you are sorry to your Significant Other and ensure your SO knows you completely are not sorry at all. And another time try saying it and really mean it and do something about it.

By the way, are you one of those who has Atheism as his religion? Makes you feel good and better than the others? Gives you a sense of belonging to something better? Get rid of religions and people will make new ones, or convert stuff into a religion (look at the PETA, greenpeace bunch).

1. Bill Gates, age 39. 2. Larry Page, age 34. 3. Sergey Brin, age 33. 4. Steve Jobs, 36. 5. Larry Ellison, 23, 33, 39, 59 (currently divorced).

1. Bill Gates, age 39. 2. Larry Page, age 34. 3. Sergey Brin, age 33. 4. Steve Jobs, 36. 5. Larry Ellison, 23, 33, 39, 59 (currently divorced).

High Speed Rail was a (D) product, not an (R). It is a huge boondogle in the making, and yet NONE of the current (D) leaders want to just kill it before it gets worse, and they haven't even started building it. If the (D) want HSR so bad, why don't they offer tax increases to support it? They own the legislature and governor's office, don't they? Can't put that one on the (R)

The Referendum process has helped the (D) party much more than the (R) party, Prop 13 being the big exception.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/caillegals.htm
http://www.capsweb.org/content.php?id=308&menu_id=8
http://www.nctimes.com/news/article_5cedf831-9d5d-5335-af7e-2af6730a577c.html

These articles suggest that the cost to CA for illegal immigrants is about 9-10 BILLION, while the state deficit is around 16 billion. The math is clear.

Pete Wilson was NOT a fiscal conservative, and he was liberal socially, except for a few rare examples, including those you cited. By citing similarly scant evidence, I bet I could make Jerry Brown look like a conservative.In fact, I know I can! ;)

There's other alternatives to going out of business. But even if if that's the only outcome, there's better ways to deal with the problem than starting a trade war over it. Trade wars have never had positive outcomes for average Joes (aka me). Trade wars benefit a few people with lots of money and political position. This might be a better link...see the section Consequences of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff

Take a look at http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa35.htm

A good little snippet to read:

Body Weight. Although alcohol has a relatively high caloric value, 7.1 Calories per gram (as a point of reference, 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4.5 Calories, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 Calories), alcohol consumption does not necessarily result in increased body weight. An analysis of data collected from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I) found that although drinkers had significantly higher intakes of total calories than nondrinkers, drinkers were not more obese than nondrinkers. In fact, women drinkers had significantly lower body weight than nondrinkers. As alcohol intake among men increased, their body weight decreased (17). An analysis of data from the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) and other large national studies found similar results for women (18), although the relationship between drinking and body weight for men is inconsistent. Although moderate doses of alcohol added to the diets of lean men and women do not seem to lead to weight gain, some studies have reported weight gain when alcohol is added to the diets of overweight persons (19,20). When chronic heavy drinkers substitute alcohol for carbohydrates in their diets, they lose weight and weigh less than their nondrinking counterparts (21,22). Furthermore, when chronic heavy drinkers add alcohol to an otherwise normal diet, they do not gain weight (21).

What needs protection is development of the idea, clinical trials for drugs, safety testing for vehicles, marketing efforts that build brand value, these things are where the money goes, and will fail to go if there is no protection.

Already covered by patents and trademarks.

For most users it is not a good idea to get first release applications. The best testing initially comes from the developers as well as the alpha and beta users and the last thing you want are annoying bugs appearing in the finished product since the customer usually gets annoyed. Actually if anyone has read the first link you will read that the people are discussing getting the Linux Community involved. Even if you read the second link you will see that while Linux apps comes third after MS Windows and Mac it is by no means going to be dropped. By Mozilla apps I would assume they are seriously considering charging (ok some will be free) just like you get on Android (Linux kernel) and iPhone.

Personally I do like Firefox (version 12) which does run on my Fedora 16 (soon to be 17) laptop and I do like the fact that its upgrades are small. I don't really have any issue with native Chrome (version 18.0.1025.168-134367) on Linux (I have not used Chromium for a few years which was replaced by Google Chrome 64 bit and 32 bit) although I wish they would arrange for delta updates rather than a 34MB update. Still that's not too bad for an excellent browser.

Even if Firefox was dropped from Linux (the Articles don't allude to that though) there are always plenty of other browsers available.

What are they going to net in a sweep like this? Mostly patients like the above and delivery trucks with boxes of smoke detectors or lantern gas mantles. Maybe a few scientists.

Or banana trucks...

I am in way shape or form a member of the 'Tea Party'. I do not represent their views, I can however represent a bit of history and that is all I did. I stand by my statements about taxes, they are accurate. Representation was only a minor issue in the beginning, taxation was always the biggest issue.

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/americanrevolution/a/amrevcauses.htm''

The rate of tax /was/ in the beginning was for most people the only issue. You simply could not be more wrong in your statement.

Benjamin Franklin was originally our representative within the British Government in England. He made such a fuss about the original tax that started the whole bloody thing to begin with that they repealed the tax as he said it could insight a revolution. If you care to disagree about your opinion from mine, feel free and I can respect that. If you want to argue facts I can respect that as well, however your going to have a very hard when it comes to citations.

You'd be surprised, but California is really not spending a lot on their kids either. The places that are spending a lot:
DC - $16408

This makes me want to punch something. The average teacher salary in DC is $53,000, and the average student:teacher ratio is 11.9:1. So at $16,408 per student, that comes out to $195,000 in spending per teacher, or about $142,000 "excess" money. Let's say each teacher actually costs twice their salary, for benefits etc. That's still an excess of $89,000 per teacher. Where's it going? DC isn't exactly renowned for its brand new school buildings, and I can't imaging that each teacher needs their own personal secretary and janitor.

Maybe it's not that we're not spending enough money, but that we're spending far too much money on stupid crap that's not related to learning. I'm happy to ensure teachers have a nice salary and benefits packages, but not in the least interested in paying for 5 layers of administration on top of it.

I don't think adultery is directly illegal anywhere.

See Article 134 of the United States Military Code of Justice. Military officers are still tried and prosecuted for adultery - there have been cases in the last few years.

the high school only guy reached retirement about $1 million better off than the college guy.

It is the other way around: the college guy will be about $1 million better off, and this increases significantly if he gets a Masters, PhD, or professional degree: Lifetime Earnings Soar with Education

How much is higher education worth in cold hard money? A college master's degree is worth $1.3 million more in lifetime earnings than a high school diploma, according to a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report titled "The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings" (.pdf) reveals that over an adult's working life, high school graduates can expect, on average, to earn $1.2 million; those with a bachelor's degree, $2.1 million; and people with a master's degree, $2.5 million.

Persons with doctoral degrees earn an average of $3.4 million during their working life, while those with professional degrees do best at $4.4 million.

"At most ages, more education equates with higher earnings, and the payoff is most notable at the highest educational levels," said Jennifer Cheeseman Day, co-author of the report.

The figures are based on 1999 earnings projected over a typical work life, defined as the period from ages 25 through 64.

Just the thought of my weight on a woman being "normal" is ridiculous.

It's not the weight you need to worry about, it's the body fat content.

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/library/blbodyfatcharts.htm

There's other factors, such as heart health. There's also mental health factors that tie in to an overall well-being. BMI is simply wrong.

Take a look through this gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/77367764@N00/sets/72157602199008819/ ... You might be surprised at some of the women who come up as "overweight" "obese" or "morbidly obese" according to BMI.

And say what you will, I frankly don't care. My BMI puts me in the "obese" category. My body fat percentage, along with my doctor, say my weight is exactly where it should be, and that I'm quite healthy. My resting heart rate is actually slightly bradycardic depending on my mood and how much sleep I got (it's been measured between 52-60bpm), and I run a 10k 3x a week as part of my normal training regimen. I don't get winded going up the stairs to work, either, and take the 7th floor walk-up daily. Yup. That sure sounds like somebody who's obese to me. Yay 200 year old kluge, you're absolutely correct about your estimation of my health!

well that definitely would explain why neither of the parties calls the others bluff on this filibuster nonsense. i would LOVE to see someone actually make the other side filibuster and read names out of the phone book for a few weeks: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/tp/Five-Longest-Filibusters.htm

I certainly hope replacing the passenger's naked photo with a paper doll isn't enough to "quiet" the privacy concerns.

I don't think you read what I wrote very carefully.

Point taken re: your topic, partly. That post only referred to Fahrenheit, however this thread and indeed the sentence Shompol responded to are about the metric system.

Why do you object to my use of the term centigrade?

Celsius is not centigrade because it references Kelvin, not phase changes of water at approximately 1 bar. It's no longer in widespread use for this reason, however upon further thought "centigrade" is correct in the context of your post, and I will use it further below.

I did not say "metric sucks".

Fair enough, "Sucks" is over-stating it, however it's overall a fair summary of what you said. I don't think the European man is a valid argument because I suspect he may be more familiar with the freezing point of Vodka. Although my general point here is that measuring systems should be easy to use by ordinary people, I can't agree with choosing a measuring system on the basis of people that don't understand the difference between scales. I am certain this example is uncommon

I was describing the advantages of the centigrade (Celcius) temperature scale over the Fahrenheiht

I agree that degrees C & F have perhaps the smallest differences of any comparable scales. Fahrenheit is confusing and annoying for metric users because it lacks the salient consistency that is throughout the metric system. To put this in other words, you can easily use the "centigrade" system (in the context of human senses, not measuring instruments) because of said salient consistency, but we can not easily use the Fahrenheit system unless we learn a bunch of seemingly arbitrary numbers, which we don't.

the argument about ease of conversion is powerful. However this argument is meaningless in daily life [quoting across posts here]

Daily life is where it's most powerful. When the measuring system is consistent and intuitive you can do much more complicated things without a calculator. Perhaps the biggest difference of all is that there's a compound effect in usability that is missing from the imperial system.

In fact, if I had to figure out how much five gallons of water weighed in pounds, I would first convert it to liters and then convert to pounds.

'nuff said.

I cannot for the life of me think how this might be useful in cooking

It's increasingly common for recipes to specify mass for a variety of reasons related to accuracy. Measuring mass also means you don't make a whole bunch of measuring cups dirty because you just put one pot on the weighing scales and zero it after each addition.
In the real world you get both volumes and masses, often in the one recipe. When it's easy to convert you don't have to rewrite every recipe that uses volume. I frequently compare recipes from three or more books with their inevitable varied units. Easy conversion means not busting out a spreadsheet to understand the differences.
Over time you come to know the specific gravity of things that aren't water and for which accuracy is not paramount. You know that 83 grams of olive oil is very close to 100 ml.

This is useful in lots of place you might not think of. My high school job was in a vineyard, we often knew the volume of the liquid we had (fuel, wine, chemicals) but the tractors lifting power in kilograms. Life is convenient when you can be confident in your conversion while still sitting on the tractor

You can do that, but it only covers your income up to $95,100 annually; for anything above and beyond that, you'll have to pay U.S. federal income tax regardless of having paid any other taxes in your new country of residence.

All the GPL does is piggy back on "derived work".

I think you're confusing apples with oranges. GPL is protection from people profiting from others' work to make a product in tended to be free for use --just like like copyright/patents may be for-profit works. Derived work, though, is a fact of progression. Rarely will you see a paradigm-changing piece of work that hasn't had an influence from some other part of a whole.

"Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal" -Picasso*

* yeah, I know he may not be the person that actually uttered those words. http://arthistory.about.com/b/2009/01/26/good-artists-borrow-great-artists-steal.htm

Checked out the link... interesting read. Interesting because, considering the plethora of stupid shit that man said in his 8 years as President, people actually bother to take time to make stuff up. Anyway, thanks for the update, I'll remove that notion from my vernacular immediately.

Wikiquote seems to disagree (although it mentions it was said behind closed doors...).

Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a goddamned piece of paper!

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_W._Bush

Checked out the link... interesting read.

Interesting because, considering the plethora of stupid shit that man said in his 8 years as President, people actually bother to take time to make stuff up.

Anyway, thanks for the update, I'll remove that notion from my vernacular immediately.

Want a free semiannual cavity search? Sorry, there's no free cavity search.

there are others. I personally use kickass they have a nice interface.

You're right of course, bad proof reading on my part.
The simplistic explanation for non baseball fans is here.

My comparison was made because the end result of both high fps video/playback and the higher Hz TV playback are almost identical in look and overall feel. The unnatural nature of it is common to both, that was all I was saying there. I think your search engine-ing failed you though, refresh rate is what we are talking about with the 120/240Hz and it is as I stated, frames being simply repeated 5/10 times respectively. Here is a link: http://hometheater.about.com/od/televisionbasics/qt/framevsrefresh.htm

How can they just collect taxes from one online store and leave the other million alone?

Learn about Tax Nexus and you'll have your answer.

"Hitler planned and built the Autobahn. Or did he?

In reality, the first section of what would later become the legendary German autobahn network was constructed and built before Hitler came to power. Construction on the Köln-Bonn Autobahn began in 1929. During opening ceremonies on August 6, 1932, none other than Konrad Adenauer was on hand to inaugurate the 20 km (12 mi) section of autobahn running between Cologne and Bonn. Adenauer, then the Oberbürgermeister (mayor) of Cologne, proclaimed: "So werden die Straßen der Zukunft aussehen." ("This is how the roads of the future will look.") Adenauer supported the autobahn project partly as a way to create jobs during hard economic times. Later he would become West Germany's first Bundeskanzler (chancellor, from 1949 to 1963)."

From: http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth08.htm

So we only have an estimated population of around 7 billion people, yet as of November 2006 there were 200 individuals worldwide diagnosed with mad cow disease, including 164 people in the United Kingdom, 21 in France, 4 in the Republic of Ireland, the 3 in the US, 2 in the Netherlands, and 1 each in Canada, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Spain, according to the CDC. Of these individuals, most (170) had lived in the UK for over 6 months during the years 1980-1996; 20 others had lived in France during that time. [taken from: http://rarediseases.about.com/od/rarediseases1/a/vcjd.htm ]

So using CDC math we should only have a 0.7 reported cases........

Yes, I read both.

Random ass googling.

http://caloriecount.about.com/milk-good-source-protein-q408

Seems incredibly implausible that a food intended to support a being that is doubling its weight every 4 months is low in protein.
I'm sure you can find some sites to the contrary, but really. Just in terms of common sense...

Anyway, I hope if you have a kid, you are careful to make sure your diet is varied and well supplied on all fronts.

No, they picked this up all by themselves. Jericho, one of the oldest tells in the Middle East has been a fortress for some 8000 years:

Jericho's reputation in the bible has a strong association with towers and walls--and with good reason. The first walls at Jericho were built during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period, indicating that violence and conflict were important parts of Jericho's history for a very long time.

Nothing new. Same 'ol hairless apes chomping on each other.

A mini van in Europe is an Austin Mini in the form of a van (no longer manufactured). The Mini van had engines between 850cc and 1.2 litre. Room for 2 people and a bunch of tools.

See http://classiccars.about.com/od/classiccarphotogallery/ig/uniquecarshow/austinminivan.htm

What the US calls a mini van, in Europe is called an MPV or a people carrier.

Unfortunately more expensive.

You could Google it.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/fooddrink/a/wormburgers.htm

"Use a larger, bolder font to avoid having ink spread obliterate fine serifs and thin strokes"
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/intermediate/a/reversedtype.htm

"When reversed type gets printed, the ink has a tendency to spread into the type."
http://www.prepressure.com/design/basics/reversed_type

"Reversed type is generally hard to read in large amounts."
http://www.printindustry.com/Newsletters/Newsletter-126.aspx

possibly related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filling-in

interesting: http://i-perception.perceptionweb.com/journal/I

Ah, for the days when most people were literate enough to recognize, never mind use, rhetorical devices like litotes.

As ar as I know, Hezbollah is military force which is not very concerned about modesty issues etc, unlike so called Jewish Talebans:

• Silence! Jerusalemâ(TM)s Jewish Taliban want women to refrain from singing in public
• Jewish Taliban Attacks Elderly Woman for... Something...
• The Jewish Taliban
• Thousands in Israel protest against Jewish extremists
• Haredi teargases woman for using 'men only' sidewalk

The Kobo touch seems to have a problem with refresh but a firmware flash seems to fix it by giving the user a setting for refresh of 1-6 page turns. The reviewer does not seem totally happy with the fix. The reviewer calls it ghosting and there is a screen shot. It's pretty ugly.

http://portables.about.com/od/ebookreasers/fr/Kobo-Touch-Review.htm

Actually, baud is a measurement of signal change, which doesn't always correlate to bit rate. At one time, yes it often did, which lead to the use of "baud" and "bps" being used interchangeably, yet erroneously. When the use of compression grew in modem transfers, baud often stayed the same, or rose slower than the bit rate due to the compression.

Wikipedia Baud article
about.com article
tech-faq.com article

I remember the days of connecting to a BBS at 110bps. You had time to go pour coffee while waiting for the ANSI welcome screen to load.

*shakefist* Now git off mah lawn! Dagnabbit, someone stole muh false teeth... *grumble grumble* :-)

In a way, yes. Why should people get tax breaks for signing a paper?

It seems to be the case that about half of married US couples get a tax break by being married, while about half get dinged with a higher bill when being married. Couples with similar incomes end up paying more if they are married than if they are not (due to higher tax brackets for the average income of a married couple), while couples with different incomes get a tax break (due to income splitting/averaging).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_penalty
http://marriage.about.com/od/finances/a/marriagepenalty.htm

It looks like this might not be as big of an issue in recent years due to tinkering with the tax code, but 2010 was when things were supposed to revert to the higher penalty rules, and I don't know if they were extended.

Christians believe first in the New Testament.

A lot of Christians also believe in the Old Testament.

the basis of our law system is ~90% Judaic law

No... The basis of U.S. law is English common law, which followed rulings made by the King's judges based English tradition and legal precedent. There was influence from some other legal systems, including the Roman one where Christianity was the state religion (as it was in England), but no direct link to Judaic law. Some laws developed that were heavily influenced by religious views - the death sentence for blasphemy and homosexuality being two obvious ones (see Thomas Aikenhead, John William Gott). Both of those were argued from Christian religious perspectives, primarily based on passages in the Bible.

Judaic law is far better than islamic law in that it's not racist

613 mitzvot: Wipe out the descendants of Amalek (every man, woman and child). Genocide of another ethnic group is inherently racist.

There are plenty of others, for example, there are explicit passages that mandate setting a Hebrew slave free after 7 years, whilst Canaanite slaves must work forever.

And more recent racist religous law:

Say no to rabbis’ racism: Back in 2010, some 50 of Israel’s most prominent rabbis issued a religious edict against Jews renting property to gentiles, "Leasing land to non-Jews blasphemous, anyone violating ban may be ostracized, rabbis say" Thirty-nine of those rabbis are on the government’s payroll, although their opinions vary drastically from the State of Israel’s official laws and ethos. After this incident, no rabbi was fired or brought to court for incitement.

Killing Non-Jewish Infants is Permitted: "There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”In a chapter entitled “Deliberate harm to innocents,” the book explains that war is directled mainly against the pursuers, but those who belong to the enemy nation are also considered the enemy because they are assisting murderers."

King's Torah splits Israel's religious and secular Jews: "Rabbis Dov Lior and Yacob Yousef had endorsed a highly controversial book, the King's Torah - written by two lesser-known settler rabbis. It attempts to justify killing non-Jews, including those not involved in violence, under certain circumstances."

does not have slavery

It does, it is even explicitly permitted for a father to sell his pre-pubescent daughters into slavery as a "last resort" to get money. Judaism and slavery: "Judaism's religious texts contain numerous laws governing the ownership and treatment of slaves."

I of course, sadly, know the justification given in islamic text. Because he won military battles and his tactics will supposedly give his followers military domination over everyone else.

As opposed to the religious law that you apparently support, where the complete genocide of every living thing in a city is ok when "ordered by God"? Where followers are instructed to Wipe out the descendants of another tribe, To burn a city that has turned to idol worship, To destroy idols and their accessories (y

I think the evidence favors the liberal viewpoint: during that entire 30 years, the distribution of wealth has gotten nothing but worse, every single year. Why shouldn't the liberals still be favoring expansion of government given that very basic fact?

Because a HUGE assumption is made there that this gap is increasing from lack of government rather than presence of government. Where do you think the subsidies comes from? Or the sweet tax loopholes? Or hell, do you think the bulk of social security money or medicare goes to people who need it? The elderly are, after all, the richest segment of our society: http://seniorliving.about.com/od/lawpolitics/a/senior_pop_demo.htm
"INCOME AND WEALTH
$108,885 - Median net worth in 2000 of households headed by seniors age 65 and older.
Householders under the age of 35 had a median household net worth of $7,240."

That's nearly 50% of our total tax bill transferring wealth from the poorest people (the sub 35 year old working class) to the richest people (the elderly). And you think that isn't a factor in the wealth gap?

It's ideological preconceptions that lead you to believe you need more government -- you've already assumed the cause of the wealth gap and the necessary fix. Hell, if I see government size increase for 30 years and see a corresponding rise in the income gap, my natural "initial conclusion" is to assume they're related, not the opposite (and that's especially true when it's been shown time and time again that politicians are in bed with corporations).

Google employs over 32,000 people. Some of those old-school, sovereign nation-states (namely the Vatican City, Tuvalu, Nauru, San Marino, and Palau) have fewer.

Considering the effects of a global economy, Google's business also affects the world more than many other countries who don't participate much in international trade.

once pointed out on ESPN that it doesn't take a genius to coach or play in the National Football League. A genius is someone like Norman Einstein.

There's a very real problem though: One of the players may need to use the bathroom.