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The strange thing is that slashdot mostly approves violence, just as long as the correct groups commit it. Like these "demonstrations" at international meetings like the G8 top. Those are not demonstrations, they're looters and pillagers hiding in a crowd that fully agrees with what they're doing, but anyone in the "demonstration" will claim they were there to "protest" and nothing else. Likewise the constant massive violence in North Korea, and especially in Venezuela never gets as much as a peep. Even in Iran the government is barely talked about. Of course the track record of muslim theocratic governments is almost as bad as that of socialist governments. They did not start shooting their own people 3 days ago you know. They've been doing that for 30 years now. Every muslim government has comitted genocides, but such a "detail" can't be mentioned on slashdot, you see it'd be insensitive to their "kill everyone" religion. The same goes with socialism, which sounds like a good idea to the average toddler, and promises free toys, and delivers genocide. Again EVERY significant socialist government has carried out (or "tolerated") genocides, including the current Venezuelan government.

Meanwhile hundreds of businesses and homes are totally destroyed.

I mean I wonder : is there anyone here who dares to claim that e.g. "repression" of blacks in America is 1/10th as bad as minority repression in Iran, or for that matter in any islamic country. When have you last read 5000 blacks disappeared without a trace in America ? These things are a regular occurence for religious minorities all over the muslim world, yet nobody gives a peep.

Let's not pretend the "slashdot attitude" is anti-violence. It isn't. Or at the very least they overlook the groups ideologically aligned with them, or any group somehow "victimized" and fail to convict their violence. The constant lethal religious violence comitted by muslims, comitted while screaming how they're all doing it for islam, gets a free pass. The constant massacres comitted in the name of "socialism" like currently ongoing in, among others, North Korea and Venezuela likewise seems to be A-okay. The obvious repressive violence in Iraq, including massacres on the Kurds, comitted before the American invasion is also non-existent (since those attacks were carried out using poison gas rockets, which are classified as WMD, and we all know these don't exist, right ? That 50.000 Kurds died after those weapons were fired at them is therefore very inconvenient if you want to keep claiming Iraq had no WMD's or poison gas factories).

The majority opinion here is not anti-violence. It's just that anyone who has not sworn openly to be leftist (excuse me, "progressive"), or real violence in the name of any religion is considered very positive.

Clearly someone has their head stuck up their ass, and doesn't realize what laws were passed.

Warrantless wiretapping? Huge camera networks watching your every move near anything important? Massive Internet filters at all the major backbone nodes?

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

"The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.

Former administration officials contend that just because Bush reserves the right to disobey a law does not mean he is not enforcing it: In many cases, he is simply asserting his belief that a certain requirement encroaches on presidential power.

But with the disclosure of Bush's domestic spying program, in which he ignored a law requiring warrants to tap the phones of Americans, many legal specialists say Bush is hardly reluctant to bypass laws he believes he has the constitutional authority to override.

Far more than any predecessor, Bush has been aggressive about declaring his right to ignore vast swaths of laws -- many of which he says infringe on power he believes the Constitution assigns to him alone as the head of the executive branch or the commander in chief of the military."

I may be a troll, but anyone modding me one is an idiot or fool. Go read up on all the crap he pulled to take away your rights. Then go read up on all the crap the Conservatives have done. Come back when you actually have a clue what's going on.

I don't know. I think maybe you are falling for the because I saw it, it must be true logic problem. Education is actually controlled by each state and the territories by the federal government. Some states write broads guidelines and leave it to the counties to fill in the gaps. This is something the NCLBA was supposed to address by creating a guideline of what should be expected for a student to know after each grade level and supposedly if the states created a standard similar enough, tested the student's abilities and then showed progress when they didn't meet that, they were going to get a certain amount of federal funding to be used. Of course this was met with mass resistance when the teachers couldn't pass the performance tests.

The problem is that I do remember getting an overview on the rules of logic in the course before advanced geometry. We had to take pre-algebra for half a year and intro to geometry the other half in 7th or 8th grade, then two algebra courses, then an advanced geometry course another algebra course, pre-calculus and if you were advanced enough you moved on to calculus and AP courses. Of course there was other math course options like Statistics and what they called integrated math which focused generic math skills until you got to career tech integrated math that focused more on specific aspects and formulas for various industries like carpentry and house building, electronics, drafting, auto repair, and so on. So the problem isn't the HS math curriculum in the US, it's the HS math Curriculum in certain states or counties within the US.

There is no one place to make any change to the schools procedures or curriculum.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed_election.html

In Muslim countries there are a lot of homosexual acts carried out by otherwise heterosexual people simply due to the lack of contact with women (so it seems). It's a lot like theories about the Catholic priest scandals, as well as boarding schools in England 50 years ago.

Check out this report from a few years ago: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/07/11/open_secrets/

I know some people from Pakistan and that article definitely echoes things I've heard from them.

I'll also note that Islam has some interesting takes on sexual acts. It seems to have a lot of stuff built into it that acknowledges (and praises) the strength of men's sexual desires, and makes allowances for them. Example: IIRC you're not supposed to have sex with your slaves, BUT if your wife is having her period, you can. You're not supposed to have sex before marriage, BUT if you're out on war/jihad away from your wife, you can have a "temporary marriage" to women you capture for the purposes of sex (this one I'm sure about). So it's not at all surprising to me that having sex with boys and younger men is -- while definitely not "right" -- an acceptable outlet as long as it's not done too prominently.

As to the holding hands thing specifically, I don't know. It's possible it has no gay connotations but I would be surprised if that's the case. Why is it a stronger argument to say that it has no gay connotations rather than to say that certain homosexual expressions are simply more pervasive in those cultures? On the other hand, I think it's important to distinguish between acts we associate with being gay versus self-identifying as gay. I think that's a big reason why people from Muslim countries say they don't have any/many gays.

... poorly compressed, and gratuitously spread out across 10 pages for no reason other than ad revenue.

Attention Wired: Look at how boston.com does it. They're doing it right. You're doing it wrong.

I don't see a lot of Women doctors

You haven't been looking very carefully. As of two years ago approximately 42% of internal medicine interns were women. By next year 33% of doctors are expected to be women and that number is rising. Yes the profession used to be heavily male dominated and still is among older doctors but women overwhelmingly dominate most other areas of medicine and their numbers are rising fast as doctors as well. My wife happens to be a physician so I see it first hand.

You see, in the 200+ year history of our country, we've sent our strongest, mentally stable and most intelligent men to die in wars and left the weaker and less intelligent and mentally unstable at home to breed.

Bullshit. The army doesn't recruit our most intelligent students. Infact, Army Recruits with a High School diploma were at an all time low in 2007. That isn't to say army recruits are not smart, or that having a diploma necessarily means you're intelligent. But it's not a case of taking our best and brightest to wars and leaving our worst behind. Throughout history, America's army has drawn it's members from all backgrounds. It has not exclusively selected intelligent people.

How would your device help your kid after she got on the wrong bus? Will you intercept it in your Batmobile?

I dunno, maybe he'd just like to know where the kid actually is when they aren't at their bus stop when the bus they're supposed to be on drives away without them stepping off of it.

Worst case she spends an hour sitting on a bus till it gets back to the terminal and she gets the right one, or you pick her up.

And he gets to spend a wonderful hour (at least) of calling all over the school district trying to find out just where his kid is, and enjoying the gnawing (although unlikely) feeling that something horrible has happened, rather than looking at a screen and calling the school to say "It looks like you put little Billy on the wrong bus. Right now it's at 5th and Main, what's the best way to fix this?".

Doesn't warrant surgical implantation.

How the hell did you come up with this? He said he wanted a small, unobtrusive device. He didn't say anything about sharpening up his home-doctor kit to play experimental surgeon on the kid. Personally, I came away thinking cellphone.

School bus drivers do know how to handle kids who get the wrong bus.

Which, at best, takes time and leaves him in the position of worrying needlessly, rather than just having the information readily at hand. Maybe the kid gets off at the wrong stop and takes even longer to find, or maybe ends up getting locked in the bus for six hours in an empty parking lot before someone finds him.

Your kid will hate you for this should you ever try to do it.

Yeah, kids hate it when you give them cellphones. I always hear them whining, "God mom, I can't believe you gave me my own phone. I totally don't want one of these. Now I'll have to like talk to my friends and send text messages whenever I want. I totally hate you!"

bbc.co.uk is unlikely to report on stories like this or this.

If all politics is local, you'd better have some local news sources.

bbc.co.uk is unlikely to report on stories like this or this.

If all politics is local, you'd better have some local news sources.

There's an obvious stereotype of gamers that they are weak minded idiots addicted to computer games. They are either pasty-faced pimpled teenage geeks or fat 30+ social rejects who still live with their parents. In whatever case, they must not be able to handle real life, or can't control their emotions, and fall victim to these addictive games designed to ruin their lives. But the reality is more people in America play computer games than not. (http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090520.html) In fact, more people play video games than go out to movies. And these gamers aren't just shriveling up in their parent's basements.

Considering this stereotype, how many people like Curt Schilling and Doug Glanville (MLB players, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2003/12/04/schillings_got_his_online_game_face_on/)would openly admit to playing MMO's?

Consider further the impact of that information becoming public on the playability of MMO's for celebrities. Would you risk having your anonymous personal entertainment fall prey to the same stalkers and paparazi-type wacko's constantly hassling you like they do when you leave your house? Or would you keep the fact that you play as closely held as possible so that you had some avenue of socialization in your life that was genuine, instead of the ass-kissing and intrusion that you consistently face in real life?

There are many many famous people who play. I posted a few with evidence here already. But in the same position I'd keep my mouth shut as most of them do.

I know of a famous person who played Everquest. That person's ID got out, and they ended up quitting because of it. The enjoyment of the game was completely ruined when their identity was revealed.

When you start thinking in these terms its easy to reconcile that there are plenty of people that lead perfectly pruductive and healthy lives that -also- play computer games. It is not the games themselves that are a destructive force in some lives. It is the addictive personality of some people who play games that is used as ammo to demonize that which some others are ignorant of.

The doctors only get free golf trips and paperweights with drug logos on them.

Just to clarify, since many people have the misconception that doctors get something every time they write a prescription for anything:

Kickbacks are illegal. When they are discovered, it results in things like jail and loss of license.

The free golf trips went away years and years ago, and I don't think they were ever very common.

Even the free paperweights, pens, clipboards, kleenex box etc were voluntarily stopped last year by the drug companies. Probably because doctors are actually smart enough to not be swayed by the "gift" of a $0.02 pen, and 2c x 800,000 doctors' offices adds up.

"informational" lunches and dinners are still happening, where doctors get free food and listen to pharma whargarrble about $NEW_DRUG_X, and they do get paid if they do actual work for a pharm company as a consultant or researcher, but that is all disclosed AFAIK.

http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2008/07/pharma_to_ban_g.html

The tax they increased was a sales tax, a regressive tax. (Meaning those with the least ability to pay are affected the most.) Plus, last I checked, Massachusetts was a rather small state and fairly close to New Hampshire, with no sales tax, and Connecticut and Vermont, with lower sales taxes.

So, to help with a reduced overall consumer spending, Massachusetts decided to force business into neighboring states because it's cheaper there. Brilliant!

Also, I hate to break it to you, but in November us citizens voted overwhelmingly *AGAINST* a tax decrease.

Thanks to a giant disinformation campaign - including statements from the governor that repealing the income tax would change Massachusetts into Darfur. You also forget to mention that before that, the ballot measure nearly passed in 2004 - which is why there was a giant disinformation campaign in 2008)

extensive crews to salt / deice during the winter, road and pothole repair folks to avoid soil creep issues, ..... ect?

I find that statement hilarious because New Hampshire has no personal income tax - and yet their roads are kept in far better condition and their snow removal is far superior to Massachusetts. Why do you need high taxes for that, again?

Yes, deep spending and tax cuts is precisely what our state needs - after all, who needs welfare programs (only the irresponsible, right?), decent schools (only those with.. irresponsible parents unable to put their kids into private school, right?), *better trained* police forces, firemen, public transportation (some of the best I've used in the country, despite the various flaws with the MBTA), extensive crews to salt / deice during the winter, road and pothole repair folks to avoid soil creep issues, ..... ect?

Also, I hate to break it to you, but in November us citizens voted overwhelmingly *AGAINST* a tax decrease. Sure, we have corruption, waste and other such problems, but the corruption found in our government is *nothing*, and I mean *nothing*, compared to the waste we have seen on Wallstreet. If I'm going to throw my money somewhere, I'd much rather it be to an institution designated to provide services to me rather than the capital-hungry fellows on Wallstreet that got us into this mess.

Try these:

http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/airport_xray_scanner.jpg

http://kissing.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/scanner32.jpg

http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/site/pics/BodyScanner.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2559617.stm

Seems the BBC revealed the "secret" location long before Biden. Yet another Fox news lets make a story out of nothing event.

You indicate that this is some kind of conspiracy from Fox News, and yet all of the traditional networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC, as well as major papers like the Washington Post and Boston Globe are reporting the same thing.

He actually had a big connection to NH, and his ashes are spread there.

Reference

Wanna bet the "protesters" were doing more than just standing there with placards ?

I mean I'm not saying they were "peace protesting" like at the G20 meeting with firebombs and axes, but protesting means standing in the street peacefully with as many placards as you want. (the picture is protestors "protesting" the G20 summit in London. Full article here.

You don't get, as a protestor, to deny anyone access anywhere. You don't get to damage cars, or any other type of private property and, of course, a protest takes responsability for all protestors. If the police thinks the group is damaging property or denying people access to a location, they do not only have the right to end the protest, they have the duty to do so.

Besides, peace protesting in the united states is a farce. Someone who hides in a territory that's defended by the biggest guns on the planet is not a peace protestor. A real "peace protestor" would demonstrate in a lawless region without police forces present. You know, like Southern Darfur. You don't see many peace protests there, of course, for good reason. It doesn't make peace protests in America any less hypocrite.

Just a thought ...

Wanna bet the "protesters" were doing more than just standing there with placards ?

I mean I'm not saying they were "peace protesting" like at the G20 meeting with firebombs and axes, but protesting means standing in the street peacefully with as many placards as you want. (the picture is protestors "protesting" the G20 summit in London. Full article here.

You don't get, as a protestor, to deny anyone access anywhere. You don't get to damage cars, or any other type of private property and, of course, a protest takes responsability for all protestors. If the police thinks the group is damaging property or denying people access to a location, they do not only have the right to end the protest, they have the duty to do so.

Besides, peace protesting in the united states is a farce. Someone who hides in a territory that's defended by the biggest guns on the planet is not a peace protestor. A real "peace protestor" would demonstrate in a lawless region without police forces present. You know, like Southern Darfur. You don't see many peace protests there, of course, for good reason. It doesn't make peace protests in America any less hypocrite.

Just a thought ...

During World War II, federal wage controls barred employers from raising their workers' salaries, but said nothing about fringe benefits. So firms competing for employees at government-restricted wages began offering medical insurance to sweeten employment offers. Even sweeter was that employers could deduct those benefits as business expenses, yet employees didn't have to report them as taxable income.

One thing people seem to miss is that Somalia shattered because of warlords. The warlords employ the pirates and get a cut of the loot. The pirates are actually very rich by Somali standards. Hell, they're probably not poor even by first world standards either.

E.g. see this

http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2009/04/11/somali_pirates_a_far_cry_from_buccaneers_of_old/

So saying the piracy is caused by 'extreme poverty and a shattered Somalia' is really missing the point.

An Israeli shipped wrapped the ship's hull with barbed wire...

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/04/05/pirates_attack_israeli_ship_off_somalia/

Point c was recently rendered moot by the following breakthrough, already being licensed: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/03/12/mit_scientists_charged_up/

You know I once had an argument with a "pacifist". After a while exposing the gigantic logical inconsistencies and historical "details" in their beliefs, to no avail. The guy goes on "gandhi this, gandhi that", even after he acknowledged that gandhi is responsible for massacres that killed over 10 million people, and tried to get more Jews into Hitler's gas chambers. Is gandhi a man of peace ? Apparently ordering Jews into gas chambers and causing massacres is peaceful to these idiots. And "Che", dear God, what a horrendous ugly monster that guy is.

So I decided to test the truth. I simply took off my glasses and punched him in the face.

Guess what : he wasn't a pacifist. This did nothing to shake the belief of the rest of the idiotic assholes about his pacifist credentials, in fact 2 joined in the fight. I backed off, assuming anyone pushin the "violence is always wrong" idiocy would not attack someone who's backing off.

Guess what. I was wrong. I broke one of their arms. And the three ended up in the hospital. Some people really should learn that there are reasons for backing off other than weakness. Backing off, when properly used, allows you to take on many opponents one-at-a-time, something I'm not sorry to say they will be painfully remembering for a long time.

If you want to argue that pacifism is the best course of action to me, you best be willing to prove your "faith", and let me hit you to death, after which your opinion doesn't matter to anyone. If you can't do that, or call the police to do violence on your behalf, obviously you're not a pacifist.

I've never met any pacifist. Pompous buffoons, spouting lies and sweet-talking themselves, yes, I've met heaps of those. But never even a single pacifist.

"Pacifism" is nothing but a self-aggrandizing masturbation party for narcissistic drug addicts.

Yeah, Abe Foxman is a bit of an ass. He is incidentally wrong about the nature of nationalism. To use an obvious example, US nationalism can be non-racist in nature. And I'd be inclined to argue that one can be a nationalist for pretty much any country without being a racist. However, white-nationalism is distinct in the following ways: 1) white nationalism isn't connected to any country, but rather a desire to rule pretty much everywhere. White nationalism is fundamentally wrapped in neo-Nazi and other views where the most tolerant forms advocate large scale oppression of other groups. 2) Zionism was made in response to genuine anti-Semitism so that Jews would have somewhere to go when there was severe persecution. Let us not forget that Zionism was founded after the Dreyfus Affair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_Affair. Jews continue to be the target of severe anti-Semitism all over the world. And again, the ADL has helped when other groups have been persecuted. See for example part of the ADL's ongoing effort to help stop Mormon persecution. The ADL also helps run an interfaith/interethnic summer camp for highschool students. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/06/a_different_kind_of_camp/. Yeah, that's real racist of them.

I love the (original) Alamo Drafthouse. Austin is the center of the Texas film industry, but that industry is in danger due to poaching from states like Lousiana and New Mexico. If you live in Texas, write your state representative and senator and get them to support Representative Dawnna Duke's economic incentive bill.

You'll be glad you did!

This very problem had me thinking yesterday. The problem is "Security through obscurity". Sure, you can hide the doors and windows on your house, it'll take the burglar a little longer to find the way in, but if he wants to, he will (CounterStrike). When we think about the open-source community, presumably they could take StO approach, they could pay âoepunkbusterâ to support their game, but letâ(TM)s be honest thatâ(TM)s not going to happen for many reasons. If an open-source game is popular enough to warrant cheating, low-lives excluded, and then the âoeWikipedia effectâ would come into effect. If a bug was found, usually by an experienced code-hacker, chances are that it wonâ(TM)t be long before someone patches that hole. Though I do not speak from experience, I would imagine the respect of your peers, the foundation of FOSS, would be a far greater reward than âoepwning some n00bsâ. Most, respected, hackers find an exploit in a piece of code out of curiosity; they are rarely the ones who choose to exploit it. Itâ(TM)s the script-kiddies who, casually, hack games âfor the fun of itâ(TM). So in short, once the game reaches critical mass, the problem would likely continually fix itself. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/12/18/the_wiki_effect/ One final thought: I wonder how that would play out in a game like WOW.

Does it seem premature to declare this the savior of our energy troubles before you have even put up a single test/prototype site?

There have been offshore wind farms for a while now. There are some in the North Sea, however they're falling victim to the financial crisis.

Land based wind power has been hamstrung by NIMBY folks

The same applies to offshore wind farms. No less than Ted Kennedy has opposed them. Someone above this pointed out this article: "Kennedy doesn't play by the rules".

Falcon

But fantasy is so much more useful for making people angry and upset. I mean, why stop at the crimes and mistakes that actually happened when you can use so many imaginary crimes and mistakes to back up one's argument. What could go wrong ?

I mean just watch the news. 2 days ago it was "oops, you know that horrible crime that the IDF committed in Gaza, bombing that school ... well never happened, even though Hamas DID use the school as a launch site". Apparently the second outrage never happened either, and again hints are given the news comes from ... hamas. Who'd have thought they might ... lie ?

I mean why stop rallying people at the truth ? A lie like, oh, everybody knows the Jews smear their matses with the blood of palestinian children, such a lie is so much more useful in explaining and excusing the behavior of said palestinian "children", especially compared such inconvenient truths like the palestinian constitution stating that they don't really care about Israel, but want to chase every Jew to the ends of the earth and kill his children first, and that Israel is merely standing in the way. After all, apparently some idiot called "allah" said to do so (article 7 of the constitution of palestina).

Obviously by the time the MSM said they failed to back up their news with facts, much retaliation had already happened. Like always.

There are many such news items. Here's something you almost never see published : the uglyness of "peace" protests ....

You know how you recognize an anti-capitalist ? By the chique clothes, by the camera that's worth more than your car, and let's not forget the extremely violent behavior.

But you see, those guys throwing metal, destroying everything in sight, throwing weapons and firebombs ... they want peace.

That's after all, what the news said. The news also got o-lame-a elected. Well at least we know what to expect.

Indeed . . . especially those of dying liberal icons.

Teddy "water wings" Kennedy doesn't like windmills, either

Years and years in environmental impact studies, many more years of court battles, then the legislatures and Congress stepping in to support the NIMBY positions of their constituents.

No, you just need a powerful Senator:

Kennedy doesn't play by the rules

Short version: a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod was torpedoed by Kennedy with a poison-pill amendment to a bill. It wasn't just his constituent's backyard: it was his backyard.

You'll notice that major bookstores don't sell used books, only new ones.

...and you'll notice that major bookstores are a dying breed.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/26/a_nation_of_outlaws/?page=full

The government didn't force anyone to make bad loans. If you are a loan officer and you made a bad loan, it isn't because the government held a gun to your back.

Oh really?

"The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.

All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit."

But let's not let those pesky facts get in the way of some good old class warfare, eh?

Strat

Actually, they'll hallucinate.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/011109_hacking_your_brain/

That's funny . . . California lost 144,000 people between July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008, and New York lost 126,000 during the same period. Both states' populations are shrinking, not growing. According to you, state spending should be falling, but both states are tens of billions in the hole and scrambling to come up with new taxes to make up for the revenue they're losing from the people who left and continue to leave for more tax-friendly states. You can spin it all you want, but people and companies are getting the hell out of CA and the Northeast, and the primary reasons are high taxes and high cost of living. Increasing spending (which requires higher taxes on the poor souls who choose to stay when you have a negative population growth) will only make people leave faster.

I think the Chumby guy has his facts wrong about US manufacturing.

FTA:
I was reading the other day Boeing union labor gets paid $110,000 a year for machining parts

I found an article from last September saying this:
While the average salary is about $54,000 a year, more than 4,000 machinists make less than $30,000, Kelliher said.

Earlier in the article it states that Boeing:
... offered a package ... including overtime, bonuses, and benefits ... to $110,400

The union rejected that deal, but accepted a 15% pay increase combined with other concessions.
No details on if that applies to the low end machinists or the overall average salary.

Obviously this is still much higher than Chinese labor wages, but $110,000 is a huge overestimation.

The hypocrisy of the democrats who ripped on republicans and Bush and now ignore it when they do the EXACT same type of stuff just kills me.

My favorite was all the whining I heard from the far-left when Bush was selling the TARP plan by telling us how society was going to collapse if we didn't pass it. "Bush is just trying to scare us so he can raid the treasury!" they all said. I'm glad that Obama is above such fear-mongering to pass his agenda. He would never use loaded words like "catastrophe", would he?

Now, as far as your assertion that there endowment is down 30-50%, I doubt that. They have their own money management office that has some very sharp folks investing. Not your typical IRA or retirement money manager like we peons have. Let's say you're right. So now it's down to only 17 billion! Boo hoo! I'm sure they're starving over there!

If they really need it make up for short falls, then why does it keep increasing every year? Ah, more donations - you may say. That's true. As a matter of fact, people who have never even attended Harvard give them money. What I'm saying is, Harvard could piss their entire endowment away, and there would be plenty of folks out there who'd give them money. Why? Because Harvard (and all the other Ivy League schools for that matter) have a name. They'd have their money back in a few years.

As far as research is concerned, I don't know. But the thing is, I see they get a lot of corporate and Government grants for research. I never see anything about Harvard themselves funding something.

Whatever. You can't lump in an Ivy League university with the rest of US higher education. Those folks are in their own league and I would be incredibly surprised if they ever have financial difficulties.

Where I live (Massachusetts) there has already been a wasteful construction boom in school construction. Cities and towns of modest means have spent hundreds of millions on school construction. It's government run amok. We don't need to federalize this problem.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/03/22/newtons_taj_mahal/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/03/31/state_plans_school_construction_probe/

Where I live (Massachusetts) there has already been a wasteful construction boom in school construction. Cities and towns of modest means have spent hundreds of millions on school construction. It's government run amok. We don't need to federalize this problem.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/03/22/newtons_taj_mahal/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/03/31/state_plans_school_construction_probe/

If you're an investor, owning shares in a company that has almost all of, but a shrinking share of a shrinking market isn't a happy place to be, especially if they have no room for growth and are trimming their failed attempts to find new markets. Add that their flagship product is running in the single digits, their Marketing efforts are the not only the butt of much comedy but may cost more than the GDP of Haiti and you have the perfect storm.

It's more fun to be holding a company that's growing share, sales and profits too. A company that only holds 10% of its target markets. A company that can report record profits in a bloodbath holiday quarter in the middle of a dire recession? A company whose advertising is so enjoyable that it's viral. A company that's innovating and inventing new markets. That's more fun. That's a winner.

And that winner isn't MSFT. Their stock is where it was 10 years ago. Over the same period Apple is up 1000%. Unlike Microsoft they have 90% of the established market to get yet, and the prospect of undiscovered country.

/14 links? That's informative. Pretty sure you regret posting that now. Let's go again.

Sure am glad that Obama won't go along with an attack on any of our constitutional rights

Even before he took the mantel he reversed his commitment against telco immunity and gave immunity.

I'll be surprised if Obama actually sheds ANY of the executive powers that Bush gave that branch.

Yup, just like they did in Massachusetts

State hits crime lab on DNA cache, Some files improperly kept, IG says
The State Police crime laboratory is storing the DNA profiles of hundreds of people whose crimes do not warrant it, according to an investigation of the historically troubled lab, raising the specter of what one civil libertarian called a "shadow DNA database."

- SR

Or in California in 2004. Stupid voters passed Prop 69!

(Winston Churchill once said that the greatest argument against democracy was "a five-minute conversation with the average voter." I could not agree more.)

When you come down to it, there really isn't any significant difference between recording fingerprints and recording DNA.

Of course there is - DNA collection involves the government taking a piece of my living flesh. That's a rather bright line for them to try to cross.

Then there's the problem that DNA isn't so reliable after all - but then, neither are fingerprints.

State hits crime lab on DNA cache, Some files improperly kept, IG says
The State Police crime laboratory is storing the DNA profiles of hundreds of people whose crimes do not warrant it, according to an investigation of the historically troubled lab, raising the specter of what one civil libertarian called a "shadow DNA database."

- SR

Don't get me wrong. I think our attitude towards violence is just dandy. I have no problem with enforcing the castle doctrine, i.e. the notion that if someone breaks into my house and I have an even remotely reasonable fear for my safety, I get a free pass to kill him. That's just logical and those euro-locales that would prohibit people from defending themselves and their property with guns and violence are insane to me.

But the sex thing? We're just nuts. We're so squeamish on the subject that useful sex education in this country is considered such a novelty that it's worthy of a feature article in the Boston Globe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the sort of sex ed discussed in that article fairly common in Europe? It's crazy-rare, here in the U.S.

I swear, take some politician or law enforcement official with responsibility for enforcing laws protecting youth from the U.S., plop him down on a beach in Rio, and watch him die of apoplexy.

We can hope, anyway, that we're past the filter. Finding life elsewhere in the solar system would be undeniably cool... but for the above reason, it would also be unsettling.