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Obama will castrate our military and destroy our nuclear deterrent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxL8NcNACBY

He will tax corporations and high income earners that employ the population of the US, which will force them to cut jobs and send the unemployment rate skyrocketing.
http://obama.3cdn.net/b7be3b7cd08e587dca_v852mv8ja.pdf

He sees dead people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=galtZF0nKYc

He wants to take the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, leaving us at the mercy of criminals.
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/barack_obama_gun_control.htm

He'll cut and run from Iraq, knocking the legs out from under the Iraqi government as they are finally finding their footing.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/

He believes homosexuals are entitled to more rights than straight people.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/23/debate.transcript/index.html

He believes in mob rule concerning criminal punishment.
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 58

He refuses to call terrorists "terrorists" even when presented with evidence.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15251928

He will prevent us from keeping sensitive materials confidential, which will place national security at risk.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/14356/

He would talk with terrorist countries without demanding that they cease their efforts to murder innocent people and abide by the rule of law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Oj7Jn9rv4

He believes we should reward people who ignore the existence of a country's sovereignty and illegally enter the country instead of forcing them to abide by the law.
http://obama.senate.gov/news/060923-sen_obama_at_to/index.php

He believes the government should regulate the internet.
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060608-network_neutral/index.php

He believes in making those who have money pay for the healthcare of those who do not have money.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

He believes we should take corn, a staple food for the US, and use it for ethanol production, which will cause shortages in food supply and produce car exhaust that is more dangerous to humans than gasoline burning cars.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/01/05/new_us_congress_looks_to_boost_alternate_fuels/?p1=MEWell_Pos5

He believes that parents should have no choice but to send their children to government run schools to be indoctrinated by sub-standard teachers.
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/04/041027.obama-ct.html

In short, he's an anti-American, anti-military Marxist who will destroy the US before he can be voted out of office. I don't like McCain and I have problems with many of his positions, but he will, at the very least, keep the US from crashing and burning within the next 4 years (provided the Dems don't win Congress).

And no, he's not a Muslim (as far as we know). He's not black (he's bi-racial). He's not a Christian (against everything Ch

Obama will castrate our military and destroy our nuclear deterrent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxL8NcNACBY

He will tax corporations and high income earners that employ the population of the US, which will force them to cut jobs and send the unemployment rate skyrocketing.
http://obama.3cdn.net/b7be3b7cd08e587dca_v852mv8ja.pdf

He sees dead people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=galtZF0nKYc

He wants to take the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, leaving us at the mercy of criminals.
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/barack_obama_gun_control.htm

He'll cut and run from Iraq, knocking the legs out from under the Iraqi government as they are finally finding their footing.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/

He believes homosexuals are entitled to more rights than straight people.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/23/debate.transcript/index.html

He believes in mob rule concerning criminal punishment.
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 58

He refuses to call terrorists "terrorists" even when presented with evidence.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15251928

He will prevent us from keeping sensitive materials confidential, which will place national security at risk.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/14356/

He would talk with terrorist countries without demanding that they cease their efforts to murder innocent people and abide by the rule of law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Oj7Jn9rv4

He believes we should reward people who ignore the existence of a country's sovereignty and illegally enter the country instead of forcing them to abide by the law.
http://obama.senate.gov/news/060923-sen_obama_at_to/index.php

He believes the government should regulate the internet.
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060608-network_neutral/index.php

He believes in making those who have money pay for the healthcare of those who do not have money.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

He believes we should take corn, a staple food for the US, and use it for ethanol production, which will cause shortages in food supply and produce car exhaust that is more dangerous to humans than gasoline burning cars.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/01/05/new_us_congress_looks_to_boost_alternate_fuels/?p1=MEWell_Pos5

He believes that parents should have no choice but to send their children to government run schools to be indoctrinated by sub-standard teachers.
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/04/041027.obama-ct.html

In short, he's an anti-American, anti-military Marxist who will destroy the US before he can be voted out of office. I don't like McCain and I have problems with many of his positions, but he will, at the very least, keep the US from crashing and burning within the next 4 years (provided the Dems don't win Congress).

And no, he's not a Muslim (as far as we know). He's not black (he's bi-racial). He's not a Christian (against everything Ch

Obama will castrate our military and destroy our nuclear deterrent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxL8NcNACBY

He will tax corporations and high income earners that employ the population of the US, which will force them to cut jobs and send the unemployment rate skyrocketing.
http://obama.3cdn.net/b7be3b7cd08e587dca_v852mv8ja.pdf

He sees dead people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=galtZF0nKYc

He wants to take the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, leaving us at the mercy of criminals.
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/barack_obama_gun_control.htm

He'll cut and run from Iraq, knocking the legs out from under the Iraqi government as they are finally finding their footing.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/

He believes homosexuals are entitled to more rights than straight people.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/23/debate.transcript/index.html

He believes in mob rule concerning criminal punishment.
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 58

He refuses to call terrorists "terrorists" even when presented with evidence.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15251928

He will prevent us from keeping sensitive materials confidential, which will place national security at risk.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/14356/

He would talk with terrorist countries without demanding that they cease their efforts to murder innocent people and abide by the rule of law.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Oj7Jn9rv4

He believes we should reward people who ignore the existence of a country's sovereignty and illegally enter the country instead of forcing them to abide by the law.
http://obama.senate.gov/news/060923-sen_obama_at_to/index.php

He believes the government should regulate the internet.
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060608-network_neutral/index.php

He believes in making those who have money pay for the healthcare of those who do not have money.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

He believes we should take corn, a staple food for the US, and use it for ethanol production, which will cause shortages in food supply and produce car exhaust that is more dangerous to humans than gasoline burning cars.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/01/05/new_us_congress_looks_to_boost_alternate_fuels/?p1=MEWell_Pos5

He believes that parents should have no choice but to send their children to government run schools to be indoctrinated by sub-standard teachers.
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citations/04/041027.obama-ct.html

In short, he's an anti-American, anti-military Marxist who will destroy the US before he can be voted out of office. I don't like McCain and I have problems with many of his positions, but he will, at the very least, keep the US from crashing and burning within the next 4 years (provided the Dems don't win Congress).

And no, he's not a Muslim (as far as we know). He's not black (he's bi-racial). He's not a Christian (against everything Ch

1) Easy: http://www.boston.com/news/specials/gay_marriage/articles/2005/06/07/pope_says_gay_unions_are_false/
And you could find dozens of example of high-ranking Christian labeling being gay a sin, saying that gay unions are different from men-wife relationship..

2) "without much predictive power." without *any* predictive power you mean, so that's a theory which don't add anything over the basic state which is "we don't know".
And I would add that a corollary of Occam's razor is that extraordinary claim needs extraordinary proof: the existence of God is a very extraordinary claim and there is *no* proof.

Hypothetical, did you say?

http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2008/05/20/google_unveils_medical_records_storage_plan/

One distinguishing feature of the Bush presidency has been an increase in claimed power for the executive branch from signing statements to bypass legislative decisions to NSA surveillance of Americans without judicial approval. How do you view the role of the executive branch in relation to the legislative and judicial branches? Are there specific ways in which you think executive power should be decreased or increased?

And then he never sent the form in, and NO records were released.
That does not appear to be the case.

The point being that John Kerry could not have been discharged in 1978. By law, he was discharged about 1975. But where is that discharge paper, and why get a new discharge in 1978 from the wrong agency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry's_military_service#Honorable_Discharge
Because he was transferred to the reserve in order to become a candidate for Congress, effective January 3, 1970? And was then transferred in 1972 to the standby Reserve? That would seem to make the U.S. Naval Reserve the correct agency...

Would you care to cite any sources for your claims?

-Chris

The repubs want to pay the same morons who got themselves into this mess $17k/hr of government money, because heaven forbid someone who is rich actually have to take responsibility for anything bad.

I don't know, who the "repubs" want to pay, but the Democrats' intentions are certainly "less than honorable". Christopher Dodd and Barack Obama are the two-highest beneficiaries of the Fannie and Freddie lobbying efforts — despite the vast accounting irregularities of both monsters.

If you are looking for "morons", they aren't on Wall Street. Some of those people may be arrogant assholes, but "morons" they aren't. The morons are people, who bought houses they had no way of affording without reading the fine print. It is impossible for any democrat (and I don't mean the political party here, but anybody associating with the Demos rather than Optimates) to blame the "ordinary people", so they blame the bankers and mortgage brokers to help unqualified people get mortgages. That the "victims" who got the mortgages are morons is not explicitly stated...

The vicious irony of it all is that Fannie and Freddi were both created for the same purpose — to give mortgages to people, who were otherwise unqualified to receive them. But that was a Democratic effort (New Deal — woo-hoo!), and we can't blame them in the newspapers, can we?

The repubs want to pay the same morons who got themselves into this mess $17k/hr of government money, because heaven forbid someone who is rich actually have to take responsibility for anything bad.

I don't know, who the "repubs" want to pay, but the Democrats' intentions are certainly "less than honorable". Christopher Dodd and Barack Obama are the two-highest beneficiaries of the Fannie and Freddie lobbying efforts — despite the vast accounting irregularities of both monsters.

If you are looking for "morons", they aren't on Wall Street. Some of those people may be arrogant assholes, but "morons" they aren't. The morons are people, who bought houses they had no way of affording without reading the fine print. It is impossible for any democrat (and I don't mean the political party here, but anybody associating with the Demos rather than Optimates) to blame the "ordinary people", so they blame the bankers and mortgage brokers to help unqualified people get mortgages. That the "victims" who got the mortgages are morons is not explicitly stated...

The vicious irony of it all is that Fannie and Freddi were both created for the same purpose — to give mortgages to people, who were otherwise unqualified to receive them. But that was a Democratic effort (New Deal — woo-hoo!), and we can't blame them in the newspapers, can we?

Direct link for the photos, since it's not actually in the article: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/preparing_to_rescue_hubble.html

Also, karma whore.

he "executive order" complaint sounds like total bullshit, but if I'm wrong I'd like to hear about

Well, this article is about an "executive agreement"," ACTA.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/18769prs20041220.html
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/08/25/military_cites_risk_of_abuse_by_cia/
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051217-5791.html

Just google for:
"bush abuse of executive order"

he dumbest thing the democrats have done so far in this campaign is focus on Palin

You are not voting for or against McCain in this election, based on his age, multiple bouts of skin cancer, and the unknown... its is VERY likely you are voting for or against Palin. See this.

Also note, 3rd in line is Nancy Pelosi. -shudder-

amber alerts are BS...
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/20/abducted/

It's getting to the point where I don't think "we need to stop this guy", instead it's "we need to help this guy".

More and more, it appears that police and prosecutors need something:
Extreme mental help. Locked away, extensive questioning and medication.
Either they don't have a firm grip on reality; or they do. and they're squeezing too tight, and it can't breathe.

Can't find the link, but I remember reading a few months ago about BAC monitors/interlocks installed in all new cars within the next 4 to 8 years; effort lead by Toyota... sooner or later, just like airbags, it'll be required.

Use of private companies to enforce the law is illegal, and if it actually now isn't recognized as such, then it needs to be declared fiercely, illegal.

We the people need less restrictions, not more. I'm not doing anything wrong, what is wrong with you that you think you need to track me?

California Child deaths by cause.
Cause Number of Deaths Mortality Rate
        Natural 3,923
                  Perinatal Conditions 1,508
                  Congenital Anomalies 836
                  Neoplasms 322
                  Respiratory Disease 157
                  Circulatory Disease 146
                  Nervous System Disease 183
                  SIDS 153
        Unintentional Injury 1,149
                  Motor Vehicle 746
                  Drowning 134
                  Fire/Burn 20
                  Poisoning 44
                  Suffocation/Strangulation 73
                  Firearm 25
        Homicide 508
                  Firearm 395
        Suicide 155
                  Firearm 54
                  Suffocation/Strangulation 75
                  Poisoning 8

Comparatively: Number of Amber Alerts in California 2003 - 24. Role of Amber Alerts in recovering those children - Questionable.

In terms of children-saved-per-dollar, we could be doing a lot more for children by educating and enforcing laws about swimming pool fences, or cleaning the air in our major cities. Or, for that matter, getting drivers to pay attention to the road and stop running over the kids.

Well, there's no real need to flame - all you have to do is look at the chorus of indignation from artists that had their songs ripped off by the Republicans and used ("pirated"?) without permission. Starting with John Hall sending a cease and desist, Van Halen having to say Permission was not sought or granted and the latest spat with Heart That should tell you right away how much commitment there is to protecting intellectual property.

He does use email. He cannot type because of the pain, so his wife does that part for him..

Boston Globe (2000)

http://graphics.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/McCain_character_loyal_to_a_fault+.shtml

"McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Forbes (2000)

http://www.forbes.com/asap/2000/0529/053_print.html

'In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate's savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. "She's a whiz on the keyboard, and I'm so laborious," McCain admits.'

FYI, this is NOT the first time. Spirit caught them before.

FYI, this is NOT the first time. Spirit caught them before.

Worse, they would even seize computers (such as servers or database farms) that house the data of innocent people, and these people would not have any right to get their data back.

Although I have very little sympathy for copyright thievery — regardless of whether it is exactly or almost the same as thievery of tangible goods — the ease, with which the government can seize suspect's property, and the difficulties facing the ex-suspect in getting the property back are a major problem in our legal system.

There are a lot of safeguards for the suspect's person, but the property (including cash) is hardly protected at all. In Giulliany's New York, drunk drivers were supposed to lose their cars even — on a cop's say-so in a "traffic-court" (run by the Executive branch, not Judiciary). In this illiberal Massachusetts town, a kid would lose bicycles, if caught without a helmet. Police don't need to prove anything — they can just take it using the force we give them to fight crimes. Then, in many cases, the victim — already cleared of all (or most) of the originally suspected wrongdoing — has to sue to get the seized stuff back, and there is no telling, neither what it will cost them (in legal fees alone), nor what condition the stuff will be upon return.

The situation is slowly changing, but on the local levels only. A Constitutional amendment, or other sort of "Miranda rights"-like rule is long overdue.

Meanwhile, why should those accused of copyright violations have it any different? Because some of them could just have been by-standers? Well, if you give your bicycle to a kid, who is accused of riding helmet-less by the cop, you are bystander too. Same with loaning your car to a friend, who is then accused of DUI...

Yeah, there's an unfortunate misconception that the DNA contains sufficient information to make the organism. In addition to what you said, there are also the beneficial microbial organisms throughout animals that are required for many functions to work. For example, the digestive tract in particular requires the help of many bacteria. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember or google the actual term for this kind of cell.

The article mentions tests on mouse embryos, but if we are trying to find information about humans development and human DNA, then shouldn't we use human embryos? As long as the tests can be completed before the 24th week (Yale is in Connecticut) or 28th week (New York is nearby) then there shouldn't be a problem.

For those that would cowardly moderate this discussion troll, it's the 21st century. If a mom (in the very same state of Connecticut) can force her 14 year old daughter to have three abortions in six months time, then why can't a scientist, who is a professional, that is going to follow strict guidelines, do the very same thing but for an honorable purpose.

the fact that the Department of Homeland Security has been spending millions and possibly billions on face recognizing cameras for cities around the nation.

It wouldn't be too difficult for the DHS to take the information from google and incorporate it in their own databases.

Here in the States, AMTRAK is in horrible shape due to mismanagement and a general public disuse of trains.

Amtrak sets fifth straight year of record ridership

Acela trains may expand to meet demand

More Frustrated Fliers Taking to the Rails

Trains over Planes and Automobiles

Uh-huh. Yup, nobody's riding those trains, yesirreebob.

---PCJ

It's especially bad when you realize that this story is just more Republican bashing. Why? Because this is Standard Operating Procedure for police.

Boston police arrest dozens before annual festival - in an effort to prevent disorder before some local festival, the Boston police arrested dozens of suspected trouble makers for the explicit purpose of keeping them in jail for the duration of the festival.

Needless to say, the same type of thing happened before the DNC, too.

So this is just more Republican bashing, in that the only reason it's news isn't that it happens, because it's routine, it's because it's happening for a Republican event.

Note I'm not saying that it's OK because Democrats do it too - I'm saying that this type of thing happens all the time and almost no one bothers reporting it. It's wrong, no matter who does it, Republican or Democrat.

Only 15% of Americans believe that humans evolved, and that God was not involved. With that size of a majority, it's almost inevitable that most school board members, principals, and teachers don't buy the full implications of evolutionary theory.

And yet, evolution continues to be taught in schools nationwide, even most private schools. The clear implication is that most parents may believe in creation to at least some extent, but most don't want their children ignorant of science.

If that's true, then why should Sarah Palin frighten you? Have you seen any policy statements from her office that would imply she favored limiting the teaching of science in school?

(To save you some time, here's what she actually said on the topic:

"Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information....Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject -- creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides."

Yes, there is more here an Palin's views: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2008/08/sarah_palin_on.html not a good day for science....

Good luck with that. Hate to break it to you, but Obama isn't going to win.

Well *duh*. The fix is in, I'm sure the dud is going to win, even with his painfully awful VP pick. The last two elections have already proven that the American people have a track record of picking the most painfully awful candidate.

Oh yeah, and another thing, Obama and McCain aren't all that different with respect to energy policy. The big difference is McCain doesn't want to impose a windfall tax on the oil companies in order to give "tax cuts" to the lowest earning third of US workers. I put "tax cuts" in quotes because of course, the lowest earning third of US workers are net recipients of Federal money and don't really have a net tax load.

Okay, I'll bite on that one. WaPo's analysis (available here seems to disagree with your assessment of the share of tax burden/tax cuts under their respective tax plans.

Obama's energy plan, though supporting some limited offshore drilling, does not emphasize it. And McCain's proposed suspension of the Federal gas tax would do more to destroy our existing highway infrastructure than help consumers. And a side by side comparison sure looks like Obama's plan is much more ambitious. Also, I don't think that the point of taxing oil company products is to give "tax cuts" to the poorest 1/3rd, but rather to subsidize heating and energy costs for them.

The United States is more welcoming to foreigners.

Maybe you should ask any business that depends on seasonal workers.

but the United States will continue to remain the research and technology leader tommorow

Ah! Hubris!

Regardless of what the media portrays, the United States is still the most welcoming country to immigrants who want to make a better life.

Really? Have you talked to many Americans? (fyi, I am) Immigrants aren't very popular anymore. They were when there was plenty of room for everyone but those days are long over. This is part of the reason those European countries aren't so welcoming to immigrants. There isn't much room left, they put pressure on public resources and they water down the native culture. You may not like them for feeling that way but feel it they do. If immigrants want to build a better life then their native countries should try fixing their problems at home instead of dumping their excess population on other countries. As long as countries like the US act as a sink for their poor they never have to change until we are pulled down to their economic level.

It is sad that you can only see the world through a political ideology.

This is what is wrong with politics. It encourages people to be limit their thought processes. Jut because one side is crap, doesn't mean another side is crap, and one can't have an enclosed object without at least three straight sides.

I am not saying there is something wrong with what McCain did, obviously. I am just saying people who attack McCain as always being wrong are full of it.

McCain was a relatively humble person, who, although not always right, seemed to try to be right. Even when GW Bush, a deserter from the US Military, attacked him, McCain took the high ground. It resulted in the US electing a deserter, but McCain remained in good graces.

Wow. No, THAT is what is wrong with politics, people like you LYING and saying that Bush was ever a deserter.

Now, McCain has learned the political lesson and has changed his position on oil

Only in response to actual changes in our situation. Duh.

Iraq

Wow, this is a big fat lie. McCain's position on Iraq has not changed AT ALL. His position today -- we should leave as soon as we can leave Iraq with a stable government and military that can provide security, that we should increase troops to whatever level necessary to accomplish the job, etc. -- is the exact same position he had five years ago.

and even though he whines incessantly about the fact he was tortured, he all of the sudden understands that torture is necessary

Also a lie. McCain has NEVER come out in favor of torture.

McCain was a relatively humble person, who, although not always right, seemed to try to be right. Even when GW Bush, a deserter from the US Military, attacked him, McCain took the high ground. It resulted in the US electing a deserter, but McCain remained in good graces. Now, McCain has learned the political lesson and has changed his position on oil, Iraq, and even though he whines incessantly about the fact he was tortured, he all of the sudden understands that torture is necessary, that the viet cong were right to do so to protect their sovereignty, and we have the same right. Obama, if he is to get elected, has learned the same lesson. What may be different, if you read the paper, is that Obama has always trampled over people who stood in his way. We saw this with the campaign. The two parties are generally going to be crap, and any third party will not have the political power to counteract it. So, what we hear most of the time from most politicians is crap, and it the democrat populous' job to filter the crap and not be sucked into the power grabbing fear based attack it represents

Actually, both the McCain campaign and the RNC have gotten itself in hot water several times for using copyrighted music or video clips without permission during this cycle.

A few examples:

McCain was served with a cease and desist letter from Fox News after he used their broadcast footage in a commercial without buying it...

McCain was sued by Mike Myers after he used a clip from a skit from SNL without purchasing it or getting permission from Myers himself (Myers isn't the copyright owner, but that's irrelevant).

McCain got yelled at by copyright owners for using the "Rocky" theme song in an ad without permission.

One of McCain's YouTube videos have been hit with a copyright infringement claim by Warner Music Group after the campaign used a song by Frankie Valli without permission.

Of course, all of this is not to mention McCain's little plagiarism issue with Wikipedia...

Perhaps you haven't noticed, but many local teams have moved their games to pay services. Some of these channels (like the New England Sports Network) are advertiser-supported and carried on cable programming tiers, while a few are still a pay-per-channel service similar to HBO.

In the case of the Boston Red Sox, probably some 140 or more of their 162 games are on NESN. The national outlets, Fox and ESPN, carry the occasional game (usually Red Sox vs. Yankees), but certainly not enough to satisfy the desires of most fans who want complete season coverage.

In the Boston market, neither the Red Sox nor the Celtics are available on local television. The Patriots (football) are on the local CBS and FOX affiliates, but that's because the NFL has a league-wide deal with its broadcast outlets. When the Red Sox were sold to their new owners a couple of years back, one of the most important parts of the package was NESN. At the time it was valued at about $750 million, or about a quarter of the entire price of $3 billion. After ending the World Series drought in 2004, NESN's value increased substantially. Since there are only a fixed number of seats in Fenway Park, much of the potential for revenue growth potential lies in services like NESN and expansion to international markets like Japan.

Pretty much what you'd expect. Looks to be your garden variety petty bureaucrat, overly impressed by her little bit of power.

Why should the value available on a smart card actually be something that can be changed by the person holding the card. Shouldn't the card just have an ID, and that ID is tied to an account, which is tied to a person. Maybe put the amount on the card, so the bus doesn't have to call home every time someone steps on a bus, but at least keep all transactions in a database so they can check for fraud after the fact.

For the record, I'm writing this response wearing two hats: one as a proud MIT alum and another as a proud occasional MBTA contractor.

I worked on this project a couple of years ago when the T started to upgrade the PA systems at the transit stations. One thing the project showed me was just who old and decrepit the MBTA communications infrastructure really is -some of the equipment in the utility rooms is older than I am (by several decades) and made by companies that went out of business in the 1970's!

The stations are, in theory, linked up with the MBTA dispatch building on High Street, but in reality the communications between the station and High Street are pretty unreliable. Part of the upgrade involved installing redundant fiber links between the stations and HQ but last I heard, a lot of the funding for the project got moved into other areas (see below) so I'm not sure if/how the fiber links were actually implemented. I can tell you that the advanced PA systems that were installed in my stations are just a pale shadow of what was envisioned at the project start.

What I'm getting at is that I can see why the T might want to have the currency values embedded on the cards rather than in a central database - if the links between the station and the central database go down, the T either has to shut down the station (bad) or let people ride for free until the connection comes back up (also bad). As mentioned in other posts, there is also the fact that buses aren't hard-linked to the network.

I'm sure the T's contractor could have used stronger encryption but I'm reasonably sure that the MBTA bought the absolute cheapest system they could for one reason - the MBTA is flat out broke. Pretty much every cent that the T receives in Fed/State subsidies and fare recovery goes into making sure that the buses, trains and boats run. Everything else takes a back seat to that. I'm pretty sure that the communications upgrade was gutted so the money could be shifted to maintenance.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/brainiac/2007/01/attack_of_the_m.html

This should answer your confusion.

There is only one answer: TrueCrypt. Note that version 6.0a is much more powerful than earlier versions.

Commercial software cannot be trusted with something so important, for two reasons:

U.S. government surveillance: All of the U.S. government's many secret departments believe that they can order executives of companies that do business in the U.S. to a) provide any help they want so that they can accomplish surveillance, and b) put the executives in prison if they reveal the corruption. So, any software that has ever been under U.S. control, or has been corrupted by the U.S. government, cannot be trusted.

Often employees of U.S. government secret departments take jobs in commercial companies, and pretend to be normal employees, while serving illegal purposes of the secret departments. So even companies in other countries cannot be trusted.

Please check this carefully if you doubt it. The U.S. government uses what is called signing statements, which at present basically mean that a U.S. president can authorize breaking any law, merely by signing his name. That corrupt system has been used to challenge hundreds of laws.

Closed source software cannot be trusted until the secret employees of the U.S. government are tried for treason, and an open government is established. It does not seem that will happen soon.

The Bush and Cheney families and friends and associates are oil and weapons investors, and they use secret surveillance as a way getting what they want, no matter how illegal. For example, the U.S. government is already fighting a war with Iran. There is talk of "diplomacy", but that is only to limit awareness of what the corrupters are doing. There are three groups of people who want war with Iran: weapons investors, oil investors, and Jews. The situation is the same as before invading Iraq. There was talk of diplomacy, but the leaders in Iraq knew that the U.S. government would invade, no matter what was said, so they acted in a hysterical fashion.

The purpose of invading Iran seems to be the same as the purpose of invading Iraq: to restrict the supply of oil even further, so that oil prices will rise even further. Weapons investors want continuous war, and an invasion of Iran would almost certainly cause that.

Changes in company management: A trustworthy company may be sold to another, less well-managed company. The less well-managed company may outsource some changes, or hire an employee that is not trustworthy. One of the changes can be the inclusion of a back door, or some other corruption. That's only one example. There are many other ways that there can be such problems with closed-source software.

There has to be such a thing as fair use, or else there really isn't any first amendment.

Ummm, the second thing you said... Welcome to slashdot! Why do you think the GPL was designed and intended to be the antithesis of copyright?

Copyright law has all but destroyed your right to free speech. It's being used to suppress political speech, erase history, and assign private ownership to ridiculous things like silence.

Besides.... do you really think you have a right to speak freely after you watch people hauled off in shackles for reading the First amendment?

Let's say I sent a letter (confessing to a crime, perhaps) to a reporter, who then printed it in a newspaper. Can I then sue him for copyright infringement for quoting me?

No, but if you send it in, they print it, and then you try to reprint that section of the newspaper, they come after you with a DMCA takedown. citation

I guess my main bullet point in this presentation would be to say that free speech is dead in the US... dead and gone. Long gone. Private interests trump your right to speak freely here.

It took several billion Euros to build the LHC. This is a beautiful picture of the servers that control and manage it. Does anyone else find it odd that they couldn't get a flat screen monitor?

You say that as if it isn't happening now.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/06/13/deaths_at_guantanamo/

"Border" searches include people who have not departed the U.S. Depending where you travel in the U.S. DHS still stops people and searches them for not leaving the country.

Same thing happens between San Diego and L.A. there are DHS checkpoints on I-5 and I-15 which are 40 miles from the international border.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004364797_ferrypatrol22m.html
and
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/07/02/immigration_checks_on_ferry_runs_irk_locals/

"A couple of months ago, the U.S. Border Patrol began occasional "spot checks" of every vehicle and passenger arriving in Anacortes off state ferries, the lifeline between these islands and the mainland. ... In the islands' coffee shops and the editorial pages of the local paper, then in a crowded, heated meeting last month, a number of people have complained that islanders are being unfairly treated and questioned, even though they haven't left the country and normally wouldn't be subject to such scrutiny. ... The Border Patrol responds that the stops are annoying but necessary, the cost of keeping the country safe. It maintains that a terrorist could easily use the same maze of waterways and islands here that for generations has harbored smugglers, rumrunners and drug dealers. ... San Juan Islanders are used to customs inspections in Anacortes if they take the ferry that comes from Sidney, B.C. Before now, though, they were never subjected to checks on domestic ferry runs.

That changed in February, when federal agents started corralling everyone off domestic ferries into a fenced-off area in Anacortes and questioning them about their citizenship. It now happens once, maybe twice a week; no one has any way to know if they will be stopped."

WELCOME TO AMERIKA, BTW nice I-phone.....

Wow, i don't know where you live, but in certain places it's normal for cops to make 6 figure salaries. you get paid some great money, like 60k+ salary after a few years, then you get to work special after work areas which can double your salary easily. Special work includes sitting in a car at a construction site or road work, hanging late and directing traffic, ect.

Trust me, cops get paid well, very well.

Ohh what, you don't believe me?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/03/12/19_officers_earned_over_200000_in_04/
http://www.bmrb.org/content/upload/sr072.pdf/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYPD#Salary_and_retention_issues/

How's he supposed to cite when no one's reporting on it? ;) Seriously, here's one example. There are others, but I can't be arsed to bother. I sure hope the Boston Globe isn't "worldnetdaily or the like" in your mind.

Scrabble is not under copyright, it's a trademark.

Most articles that I have read about this say that the Scrabble rules and format are copyrighted. The name is certainly trademarked; that doesn't mean that other parts of the game can't be copyrighted.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/07/25/hasbro_sues_over_scrabble_copyright_infringement/

Now, with that said, this game is very old and I feel the lifespan of copyrights is too long.

In a case of "your word against his", if his is silent, yours wins.

Yes, but you must also state a reasonably valid cause of action.

If Craigslist didn't care enough to show up, they didn't care enough about the outcome.

Or they didn't get served properly. There was a recent case in Boston where a process serving company lied about delivering a subpoena and falsified documents to make it look like they did.

"Believes he is appointed by God - check"
Cite this ... you know, just give me a Bush quote that supports this in any way ...

http://www.slate.com/id/2106590/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/02/usa.religion

"Believes he is absolute ruler - check"
See above. Also, just what has he ever got done without congress.

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0604b.asp

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/bush-commutes-libbys-sentence/

So. How would have Kerry ( or Obama ) handled Iraq...

Really quite irrelevant to the question of Bush, but... Iraq was nothing to do with 9/11, and invading the country has solved nothing and given the US a whole raft of problems in the mideast which are now just going to get worse. It is an attempt to dominate the mideast by force, which the US has neither the patience, the budget, nor the military might to do.

I've usually found ./ to be populated with people who are a step above the median in intellegence. Why don't we see many people taking the long term view,

I don't believe political disagreements have anything to do with intelligence. Osama Bin Laden is intelligent, that doesn't mean you have to agree with him.

Perhaps the world you want to live in is dominated by Christian Fundamentalists, whom Christ would have disowned - I'd rather not live in that world.

The US has helped, and continues to help, to prop up the festering cesspool of little dictators in the mideast - they backed Saddam in the 80s, backed the Iranian coup before that, and currently back Pakistan, Saudi, Israel, and many others with military and monetary assistance. If you want to address those issues, I suggest you look to your own countries current actions in backing undesirable regimes worldwide.

Courtesy a few minutes of googling "Raytheon +"non lethal". I'm really surprised this wasn't on /. last year. It was on Fark and my other regular sites, and I have lousy memory. Anyway here are some links to the "non lethal" techno in the parent:

link to Raytheon's article
best title for an article so far
article about why not to be in a riot when this is used I will keep this in mind next time I'm downtown in Denver and one of the teams wins or loses...CO people like to riot?!?
a fairly descriptive article that sounds more like it should be on the food network
a tiny article about how it affected stock
this site/article is definitely not biased or anything

Ah, a segue into things Postal...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92751655

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/21/mailman_seeks_comfort_in_kilt/

As some 10,000 mail carriers gather in Boston this week for the 66th biennial convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Peterson is on a one-man mission to persuade his colleagues to approve a change in their strictly regulated uniforms. He has proposed a resolution to allow mailmen to wear kilts, which he calls a Male Unbifurcated Garment, or MUG.

Over the past few weeks, he says he has spent the $1,800 he received as part of the federal government's stimulus package to send about 1,000 letters and photographs of a mockup of the new uniform to postal union branches in every state, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico.

"MUGs are worn all over the world, and have been for thousands of years because they are comfortable," he wrote to fellow mailmen. "Unbifurcated Garments are far more comfortable and suitable to male anatomy than trousers or shorts, because they don't confine the legs or cramp the male genitals the way that trousers or shorts do."

He argued that pants can cause sweat rashes and added, "Please open your hearts - and inseams - for an option in mail carrier comfort!"

Peterson's efforts have already attracted support. During the spring, similar resolutions calling for mailmen to be allowed to don kilts passed at letter carrier conventions in Washington and Oregon. Women can wear skirts.

Plastic bullet hits woman in eye, she dies:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/10/22/postgame_police_projectile_kills_an_emerson_student/

Set this variable speed bullet to "slow" and I bet it more than stings if it hits you in the eye.

Phobos never failed to intrigue me. From Wikipedia: Phobos's unusually close orbit around its parent planet produces some unusual effects. As seen from Phobos, Mars would appear 6,400 times larger and 2,500 times brighter than the full Moon appears from Earth, taking up a quarter of the width of a celestial hemisphere. Some nice pictures of Mars, including Phobos, can be found here: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/martian_skies.html

Additionally, Silicon Valley, as an example of "it's not the government!", is interesting, given that recent research suggests that Boston, Mass. could have been what Silicon Valley became... if it weren't for Massachusett's laws enforcing non-compete aggreements. (See: these articles.) In other words, sometimes it /is/ the government.