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The Amish don't have high birth defects, etc. because of their agrarian lifestyle, but because they're descended from only a few families, thus a small gene pool. Here's a quick link I found, there are plenty of others: Genetic Disorders Hit Amish Hard (autoplaying news video)

To expect anything less than the worse from the NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA... etc is just a little naive.

I think your concept of "anything less than the worse" is poorly calibrated.

Taliban Hangs Afghan Boy, 7, for Spying
17 Beheaded in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan for Attending Wedding Party with Dancing
Torture, Al-Qaeda Style

I can't remember where I heard it, but google turns up this:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57588748/most-disapprove-of-govt-phone-snooping-of-ordinary-americans/

But we're far away from being able to give a person ovaries and all the other organs necessary to make them function

"All the other organs" being what, uteruses?.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57440895-501465/new-york-lawmakers-propose-ban-on-anonymous-online-comments/
This will ensure only comments that support that the USA promotes internet freedom will stay up on some US forums.
i.e. a proper balance between security and privacy.
"A web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate."

There might be an answer for that.

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

(a) In General.--That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

That document was issued after this series of events:

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - Text of the fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya - 224 dead, est. 4,000 injured, both embassies heavily damaged

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video USS Cole - 17 dead, 39 injured, major damage to destroyer

2001 9/11 attacks - 2,973 dead. Two skyscraper towers destroyed, heavy damage to Pentagon.
Estimated damage to US economy: ~ $100,000,000.

I know little that you couldn't, but apparently much that you don't. And that is sad, really. But you aren't alone. So, here is what I'm talking about to help you along.

Attacks against Americans that were attempted and not intercepted, or completed (this excludes war zones):

2013 Boston Marathon bombing 3 dead, 254 wounded. Fifteen victims suffered amputations, two of which had double amputations.

2010 Attempted bombing of Times Square in New York City by the Taliban - Attack failed, car bomb could have been mass casualty event.

2009 The "Underwear" bomber - Attack failed, potentially could have brought down aircraft with death of all aboard

2009 Fort Hood massacre - 13 dead, 30 wounded

2001 9/11 attacks - 2,973 dead. Two skyscraper towers destroyed, heavy damage to Pentagon.
Estimated damage to US economy: ~ $100,000,000,000.

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video USS Cole - 17 dead, 39 wounded, major damage to US Navy destroyer

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya - 224 dead, est. 4,000 wounded, both embassies heavily damaged

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - Text of the fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

Small, limited sample, of other terrorism arrests and trials in the US:

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012

Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested by members of the FBI’s Denver and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Forces on a charge of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization.

Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center

U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland.

Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty to damaging property and to firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia between October and November 2010, and to attempting to damage veterans’ memorials at Arlington National Cemetery.

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 13, 2012

1.Tampa: Florida Resident Charged with Plotting to Bomb Locations in Tampa

A

During the cold war the NSA was focused on the Soviet Union, which was an actual real threat to our national security. There is little evidence that the NSA was engaged in domestic spying during that time. Today the NSA, and all this surveillance, is focused on stopping some hermits in Afghanistan from talking to a few guys with a pressure cooker full of gunpowder.

So you acknowledge that the Soviet Union was a threat to national security? Well, good, that's a first step. Now things get a bit more interesting. I recall that the Soviet Union shot down a number of surveillance planes during the Cold War, such as the famous U2 incident. I don't recall that they ever bombed or torpedoed any American warships. I also don't recall that they bombed any, let alone two, American embassies, killing large numbers of people. Nor do I recall that they ever attacked any American skyscrapers or military headquarters, killing thousands of people on American soil (2,973 ) - approximately as many as died in the war igniting attack on Pearl Harbor. Nor did they recruit any attackers to shoot dead American soldiers engaging in administrative processing at an American military base. And yet Al Qaida and company has done all these things, and they continue to attempt to recruit extremists to commit further attacks.

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - Text of the fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya - 224 dead, est. 4,000 injured, both embassies heavily damaged

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video USS Cole - 17 dead, 39 injured, major damage to destroyer

2001 9/11 attacks - 2,973 dead. Two skyscraper towers destroyed, heavy damage to Pentagon.
Estimated damage to US economy: ~ $100,000,000.

2009 Fort Hood massacre - 13 dead, 30 injured

2010 Attempted bombing of Times Square in New York City by the Taliban - Attack failed

You dismiss intelligence efforts to halt attacks like this as "stopping some hermits in Afghanistan from talking to a few guys with a pressure cooker". You don't think those sorts of attacks need to be stopped? I'm curious, what sort of body count or damage will it take for you to realize you're wrong?

Prior to the US invasion in 2001, Al Qaida was turning out thousands of trained terrorists per year in Afghanistan. That pretty much stopped after the invasion.

Meanwhile, our diplomatic relations with China and Russia have deteriorated, and we have very little idea what is going on in Iran or North Korea.

There should be no surprises there.

From Warren Christopher to John Kerry — Slow learners about weak horses in the Middle East

Remember last month, when the Chinese Red Army was identified as actively behind cyber-spying? It was some gumshoes working for a private company that tracked it to a specific building in Shanghai.

You aren't suggesting either that the NSA had no idea, or that they make regular press announcements

that's quite possibly the honest truth since neither that "war" nor "terrorism" has been defined to any degree.

For it is the doom of men that they forget. -- Merlin, Excalibur

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

(a) In General.--That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

By their deeds you shall know them.

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - The following text is a fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video: 2000: USS Cole Attack in Yemen

2001 9-11

2002 Bali terror attack

2004 Madrid train attacks

2005 London 7/7 Terrorist Attacks

2009 Now classified as "workplace violence" - Nidal Hasan Admitted Jihadist Motive, Ft. Hood Victims’ Attorneys Say

2013 Boston Marathon Bombing

Note that this is only a snapshot of attacks, and doesn't include the many attacks that occurred in the Middle East (except the Cole). It also doesn't include the many plots disrupted by the security services, or cancelled by the terrorists planning them. It doesn't include the many arrests for terrorism related activity, but snapshot of that over a short period of time is below:

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012

Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested by members of the FBI’s Denver and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Forces on a charge of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization.

Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center

U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland.

Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty to damaging property and to firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia betwe

that's quite possibly the honest truth since neither that "war" nor "terrorism" has been defined to any degree.

For it is the doom of men that they forget. -- Merlin, Excalibur

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

(a) In General.--That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

By their deeds you shall know them.

1996 Bin Laden's Fatwa - The following text is a fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya

2000 Photo: USS Cole - Video: 2000: USS Cole Attack in Yemen

2001 9-11

2002 Bali terror attack

2004 Madrid train attacks

2005 London 7/7 Terrorist Attacks

2009 Now classified as "workplace violence" - Nidal Hasan Admitted Jihadist Motive, Ft. Hood Victims’ Attorneys Say

2013 Boston Marathon Bombing

Note that this is only a snapshot of attacks, and doesn't include the many attacks that occurred in the Middle East (except the Cole). It also doesn't include the many plots disrupted by the security services, or cancelled by the terrorists planning them. It doesn't include the many arrests for terrorism related activity, but snapshot of that over a short period of time is below:

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending January 27, 2012

Denver: Man Arrested for Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested by members of the FBI’s Denver and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Forces on a charge of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization.

Baltimore: Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction in Plot to Attack Armed Forces Recruiting Center

U.S. citizen Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against federal property in connection with a scheme to attack an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland.

Washington Field: Man Pleads Guilty to Shootings at Pentagon, Other Military Buildings

Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virginia, pled guilty to damaging property and to firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia betwe

Well, because of the sequester, they didn't have enough budget ...

Reminds me of after 9/11 when there were so many feds abusing wiretaps they couldn't afford to pay the bills and were getting them shut off.

Wow... I somehow managed to be right without trying.

I addition, the linked article is 2009 - which is closer to the present day than to 9/11.
Also, the linked news piece is AP and is a "dry jurno style" - I (rhetorically) wonder why their present and sudden "emotionally attachment" to the issue?

Well, because of the sequester, they didn't have enough budget ...

Reminds me of after 9/11 when there were so many feds abusing wiretaps they couldn't afford to pay the bills and were getting them shut off.

And the IRS was not politically targeting conservative groups.

Just to make sure everyone understands that is sarcasm:

Lawmakers say IRS targeted dozens more conservative groups than initially believed
A Frequent Visitor to the White House
Enemies List: IRS Wanted Names of Tea Party Members
What's going on between the IRS and True the Vote?
Criticism of IRS grows amid allegations of targeting beyond Tea Party
The IRS’s Tea-Party Targeting

The number one bullshit charge will be disorderly conduct (DO), . . . You flip them the finger, DO . . .

Flipping off the pigs can be fun and profitable. TL;DR? If you're charged with Disorderly Conduct for flipping off the local constabulary, call the ACLU, get found not guilty by The First Amendment, win several thousand dollars and cops get to take anger management course. (Which probably won't help with the 'roid rage, but will annoy them.)

You clearly have no idea what "the full force of government to stifle opposition" actually looks like, and for all our sakes, I sincerely hope you never find out.

I think you could say the "consommé" version of that sort of "feast" enjoyed in truly oppressive regimes, such as under Stalin, is being served now to conservatives of various flavours in the United States. That is still not acceptable. The IRS has admitted it was out of line, but they may not be the only ones involved.

What's going on between the IRS and True the Vote?

But Engelbrecht's attorney, Cleta Mitchell, says it's not just the Democratic Party that went after the conservative causes, but also the federal government. Within months of the groups filing for tax-exempt status, Engelbrecht claims she started getting hit by an onslaught of harassment: six FBI domestic terrorism inquiries, an IRS visit, two IRS business audits, two IRS personal audits, and inspections of her equipment manufacturing company by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Texas environmental quality officials.

Taken alone, any of the visits and actions might seem perfectly reasonable. But Engelbrecht and her lawyer says it's the pattern and the timing of the attention paid to Engelbrecht's interests that led them to conclude something was amiss...

The IRS’s Tea-Party Targeting

IRS may have looked beyond 'tea party' and 'patriots'

So far it looks like it may have been as many as 500-600 conservative groups. This is not good, at all. Some of what has been going on is way beyond acceptable for government behavior in the United States, or the West in general today.

We don't have to get to Stalin / Mao / Pol Pot bad to say things have gone too far. Even the totalitarian regimes they headed didn't want to repeat the experience again.

Funny you should mention that. The majority of obese people I come across happen to be smokers. And here's mention of a study that seems to agree.
Also weight problems and heavy smoking both are more prevalent in schizophrenics.

More kids die per year from a television falling on them than being accidentally shot.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57558985/tipping-televisions-kill-record-number-of-u.s-kids-govt-warns/

This bill makes NO SENSE and is being played out by the media shock and awe that so many people have fallen victim to. In the perfect world, elected officials would be smarter than this but I guess not. I wonder if he really is this dumb or he is just trying to get votes. I'm waiting for the Running Man game show to become reality.

Will a company be able to sue successfully because it's product appears in a scene of a movie it dislikes?

As stated by the GP, many companies will pay studios to use their products in movies as a form of advertising, so this would be rare. I did find this article:

Legal experts say fairly recent product placement practices, in which companies pay producers to use their products in TV and movie scenes, have mistakenly given corporations the idea that they can control the use of their products on camera.

Experts say studios are not obligated to get permission before featuring a product in their work. [...] Filmmakers, legal experts say, are protected under federal "fair use" privileges for use of trademark products without getting the OK of the rights holder.

Emphasis mine. Of course, this is different from Let's Plays because the products in movies are usually auxiliary (often being swapped with anything similar, fake or real; though the article doesn't say one way or other, I think Paramount will remove the cans to avoid the potential of a lawsuit, regardless of standing), whereas in Let's Play they are the primary product, front and center. The only thing about the videos is the voice-over added by the video creator and any editing that went into its creation. You can't switch out in this case, because then you wouldn't have a video. Taken in more legal terms:

Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.
[...]
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

IANAL, but since LPs tend to cover the entire game, that means they use a substantial portion of the copyrighted work, and so would not be considered "fair use". (The other factors come into play, but this is the big one IMO.) If someone was doing a review, using footage of the game, then that might be fair use because the review would only use a dozen or so minutes, a very insubstantial portion of the game. (It may, however, break the first factor about commercial uses, where applicable, so overall it may not be fair use.)

The POWs in Guantanamo do get Red Cross visits. As to the rest of their status - in order to receive the full protection of the Geneva Convention as a combatant you have to obey the Law of War. Al Qaida doesn't do that, quite the reverse. Their basic strategy of directly targeting civilian noncombatants constitutes a war crime. They are quite rightly recognized as unlawful combatants. And do note, it isn't that this categorization is unknown internationally, but rather that various advocates refuse to acknowledge that it exists.

The black sites? Last time I looked they were for detention and interrogation.

Now, there are a couple of factors that make these discussions more interesting. First, is the fact that Al Qaida teaches its members to lie about their treatment and not cooperate.

Al Qaeda Manual Drives Detainee Behavior at Guantanamo Bay

. . . Police in Manchester, England, discovered the manual, which has come to be known as the "Manchester document," in 2000 while searching computer files found in the home of a known al Qaeda member. The contents were introduced as evidence into the 2001 trial of terrorists who bombed the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. . .

The closing chapter teaches al Qaeda operatives how to operate in a prison or detention center. It directs detainees to "insist on proving that torture was inflicted" and to "complain of mistreatment while in prison."

Chapter 17 instructs them to "be careful not to give the enemy any vital information" during interrogations.

Another section of the manual directs commanders to teach their operatives what to say if they're captured, and to explain it "more than once to ensure that they have assimilated it." To reinforce the message, it tells commanders to have operatives "explain it back to the commander."

One consequence of this lying, and international pressure on their behalf, is that committed terrorists have been released who then return to Jihad again, killing who knows how many.

Recidivism rises among released Guantanamo detainees

(Reuters) - The proportion of militants released from detention at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay who subsequently were believed to have returned to the battlefield rose slightly over the last year, according to official figures released on Monday.

In a summary report, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said that 27.9 percent of the 599 former detainees released from Guantanamo were either confirmed or suspected of later engaging in militant activity

Second, as does sometimes happen in war, service members will occasionally exceed their instructions, lose control, or develop a mental illness, and then engage in behavior that constitutes a war crime. Some people want to pretend that those actions are deliberate policy rather than the illegal actions of an individual or particular group. One prime example is the incident at Abu Ghraib. It resulted in a number of American soldiers going to jail, including the infamous Lynndie England. An isolated incident by a small number of soldiers that took an extraordinary number of pictures in a very short time, and gave a black eye to the US military and the United States. The actual events were magnified by the work of the media - the New York Times put stories and/or pictures on the front page 47 times.

Pay? Nobody pays me to post. But I do like to see the discussion occasionally enter the realm of facts even if it aggravates some people.

After all, facts that contradict some political view are "flamebait."

There's a number of different ways to 'toughen' drunk driving laws, and lowering the BAC level is only one of them.

1. Lower the BAC level - problem: Even .08 is low enough that a cop driving behind you can't tell whether you're inebriated or just tired, on allergy medication, old, new to driving or just a bad driver.
2. Impose confinement: Something like 30 days in jail for the first offense. Problem: High impact; you're normally putting an employed person in jail, which means they might lose their job, at which point you have to provide for the care of them and their family(or they're not paying taxes).
3. Impose fines: Already done; to the point that poor people can't afford them yet the really rich often don't care
4. Force them to have an interlock device: The difficulty in fooling the thing is limited to the expense of simply evading it by getting a different vehicle.
5. Expand the definition of 'DUI' - I've heard of people busted for DUI while sleeping in the backseat of their car in the bar parking lot. Their own driveway I can sort of understand, and parked on the side of the road nowhere near where alcohol is served is downright suspicious, but if the engine isn't hot... I've also heard of people getting DUIs on riding lawnmowers, though most of those are justified in my opinion. Once you get on a motorway with your John Deere you're subject to the rules of the road... The funniest, I think, are the ones where somebody got a DUI while riding a horse or bicycle.

Especially for #5, you start to have to question whether the law in question is actually 'for the common good'. If the law is intended to protect the drunk against his own actions, what sense does it make to force him to suffer more serious losses than he realistically would even in an accident?

Eliminating drunk driving is a complex affair, and I think we need to do more to reduce the heavy drinkers from driving drunk - not expand the definition again.

I wouldn't be so sure about the monastery route either.

Porn piracy tracked to computers in Vatican City

I think you're mistaken on this, at least where it will end up.

The AP issue could easily flip the media to a much more adversarial stand against the Obama administration than they have taken to date. Rather than adversarial, they have actively covered for the administration - ignoring stories that they would have beat President Bush with all year long, minimizing others, asking friendly questions. If reporters come to understand that the administration came after them on a fishing expedition, which is what this was, they will not be happy.

The IRS scandal is one that many Americans will be concerned about. Most Americans understand that the IRS coming after people on a political basis is a very bad thing even if it is about a group that may not be their cup of tea, so to speak. This sort of thing hasn't been in the open like this since the Nixon administration. You may recall that didn't end well for President Nixon, and more than one commentator has referred to President Obamba as Nixonian at best.

But that is what makes the Tea Party aspect of this politically deadly is that there are many Americans that support many aspects of the Tea Party agenda even if they are not members.

Tea Party Supporters: Who They Are and What They Believe

You apparently also misunderstand the Tea Party - they oppose higher taxes and increasing spending, not the IRS or the collection of taxes. There is no legitimate reason for what the IRS did there. The IRS has admitted that it was wrong, completely inappropriate. (I admit a certain fascination in the fact that for some reason there are more than a few on Slashdot that try to defend what the IRS itself has condemned as being completely wrong. Why? It is absolute nonsense. I assume many, if not most are not Americans.)

As to Benghazi, we will see. There are important developments coming out. The Obama administration just held a private background briefing for key press members. Why? Americans were killed. The Ambassador was killed - a very rare event. The administration ignored their security needs before the attack, and then abandoned them during the attack when there were resources available to intervene and save them, and then lied multiple times at multiple levels after the fact. There is an old saying in politics that it isn't the crime but rather the cover up that does you in. There are people scurrying to cover their butt all over Washington on this, and it probably won't turn out well for the Administration.

You are entitled to your interests. I don't think most Americans will agree with you in the near future.

dude, it was only 10 seconds of the interview, at about 10 min in here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50146679n this article summary is longer than the comment

By all means, please DO NOT link us to http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50146679n .

May not work on an iPad or Windows 8 tablet.

You don't know what you are talking about; apparently you are getting bad information from somewhere.

Tea Party Supporters: Who They Are and What They Believe

The Tea Party wants the congress to reduce spending and lower taxes. They are not aiming to overthrow the government. What you believe is false.

With all the crying wolf lately it's a wonder we still see these articles. What happened to SARS, did all five victims of the "pandemic" die without passing it on? H1N1 caused some sniffles. Donald Rumsfeld made a killing with his quack medicine while GSK fleeced the Brits out of a healthy chunk of their health budget during the swine flu hoax. Every year there's a new fake pandemic.

Almost makes you hope the promised pandemic finally arrives to take out the idiots who keep pump-and-dumping their antiviral stocks.

More people have been killed by a single rogue abortion doctor than were ever killed by abortion bombings (in fact no-one has ever been killed by an abortion bombing, they did it to shut down clinics, not to kill people).

Also, when was the last abortion clinic bombing? 2001. Get with the times, it's not Christians (extreme or otherwise) that are a danger any longer.

Want proof that Google, Verizon, etc. are in on the privacy nightmares of Android?

They keep releasing new versions that prevent people (who own their phones) from rooting them to

1) block ads ( from their Google Play store)

2) prevent you from using apps to control permissions (like LBE Privacy Guard that now reboots your phone in an endless loop)

With all the time and effort put into their OS, why have they not allowed users to control permissions on apps in any way, shape, or form? Why? Because they are marketing companies that also sell your data to other companies (including all the top mobile carriers). They make deals with these companies and propagate the problem - turning smart phones into a privacy nightmare. And it's not like the iPhone is any better.

Until people take a stand (and stop being a bunch of apathetic consumers), it's not going to change. People allow themselves to be taken advantage of. It's sad. Most don't even care. They'll happily give Facebook and Google all their information because "they don't have anything to hide" - which we all know is the lamest excuse for apathy possible and is easily dismissed as moronic. And it just keeps getting worse - and now our governments collect this data too.

And what is the effect? People are not getting jobs or losing their jobs due to their Facebook posts. Insurance companies are increasing rates on people who type certain terms into their search engines. And that's just barely getting started!

Wake up, folks!

If Obama averages a golf trip and vacation every 4 months then that would make the number of trips taken around 16

Obama averages a lot more trips than that. You aren't counting his golf outings, his record number of fundraisers (or taxpayer-paid political events), some of which he flies in for an hour and leaves.

He certainly is not the king of vacation days. That honor falls to President George W. Bush

Not analogous, since Bush never presided over a sequester, let alone was one his idea, let alone did Bush threaten to veto a bill offering him budgeting discretion on a sequester, and then close the White House to tours and stop the Blue Angels, and then cry, "we have no money!"

"It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'" Bill Gates, Microsoft, 10 February 2010

Maybe he wishes Microsoft hadn't done Windows 8?

Maybe he shouldn't have wasted so much time fretting over Java and moved Windows to a *nix kernal OS a long time ago.

In Redmond, they've been playing the same hand for decades. Totally missed the iPod, totally missed the mobile media player market, totally underestimated the mobile phone/communication device market and still utterly failed with the tablet market, learning absolutely nothing from their failure with XP tablets. A sign of intelligence is learning from your mistakes. Telling, isn't it? Ballmer should give back his entire salary and quit.

"It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'" Bill Gates, Microsoft, 10 February 2010

Maybe he wishes Microsoft hadn't done Windows 8?

"Scientists, including an expert advisory panel to the F.D.A., gave early support to that request. But top F.D.A. officials rejected the application because, some said later, they worried they would be fired if they approved it."

Even when the FDA decided to overturn that decision in 2011 (well into the Obama administration's tenure), it was overruled by the Secretary of Health and Human Services who claimed that "After careful consideration of the F.D.A. summary review, I have concluded that the data submitted by Teva do not conclusively establish that Plan B One-Step should be made available over the counter for all girls of reproductive age".

The judge above determined this decision was "arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable". Looks to me like election year games took priority over the health of young women.

So we have the FDA obstructing the use of a drug for twelve years, to the detriment of young women's health, over the course of two completely different administrations for a variety of rather frivolous political and ideological reasons.

And nobody was punished.

The FDA can make decisions to protect the health of people currently taking drugs and undergoing related medical treatments. Or it can make decisions on the basis of protecting rent seeking, ideology, or keeping an issue away from an election year. What it doesn't do is make decisions on the basis of what is good for us in the long run.

I'm afraid you've got a bit of a cock-up on the history front. You would benefit from reading a following, an excerpt of which is below: Who armed Saddam? - Some reality checks

Saddam's weapons came overwhelmingly from the Soviet Union & other Soviet Bloc countries (69% during this period), followed by France (13%) and China (12%) and a string of smaller suppliers. (For example, according to a 1984 SIPRI report, "During 1982-83, Iraq accounted for 40% of total French arms exports.") The figure for the US is 1%.

When it comes to Saddam Hussein's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs, the picture is a little more complex. It seems clear that France was far and away the biggest supplier for the nuclear weapons program. Supplies for Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons (which included dual-use materials also suitable for making agricultural fertilizer, pesticides, medicines, etc.) were bought from a variety of sources, which seem to have been primarily western European or Russian and primarily private rather than governmental. For one discussion of the role played by German firms, for example, in supplying Saddam Hussein's poison-gas and biological-weapons programs, see The leading role of Germany in arming Iraq

-----

A lot of the serious trouble in the ME has snowballed from the "Iran hostage crisis",

Change "Iran hostage crisis" to Iranian Islamic Revolution and you'll be closer to the truth. You would have made a huge mistake if you overlooked the role of ambition and scheming on the part of Persian, Arab, Muslim, nationalist, and socialist in the Middle East.

Blaming the woes of the Middle East on the United States and flashing pictures of Rumsfeld may be great fun, but it is also greatly off the mark. No American made Saddam use Oil for Food money to buy influence, weapons, and build 20 odd enormous palaces instead of buying medicine and food for his people. No American made Arafat steal a billion dollars from the Palestinians. There are plenty more examples of that. Much of their misery is self-made.

How does paying ~30,000 in federal taxes put you in the middle class? According to the calculator I found online, a married couple with no kids would have to make $168,000 a year to pay $30,000 in federal taxes. Lets assume you're single and have zero deductions...you'd still have to make $132000 a year to reach $30k in federal taxes. You sir are not middle class. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-41141728/are-you-middle-class/

$168,000 for a married couple would be lower-end upper middle class (or comfortable middle class for a higher living-cost area like a metropolis). Think about it. That's two lower-end salaries for a pair of educated professionals. You're not buying mansions at $168,000 a year; nor are you jet setting to Club Med on a whim.

Just because the current meme equates middle class with "just above drowning in debt and living paycheck to paycheck" does not make it true.

The Wealthy, the true upper class, have no need to work. Their income (for the most part) comes from interest and capital gains. They'd be using a different tax calculator anyways.

How does paying ~30,000 in federal taxes put you in the middle class? According to the calculator I found online, a married couple with no kids would have to make $168,000 a year to pay $30,000 in federal taxes. Lets assume you're single and have zero deductions...you'd still have to make $132000 a year to reach $30k in federal taxes. You sir are not middle class. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-41141728/are-you-middle-class/

You appear to know about biology and related public policy, so let me ask a few questions:

1) Suppose I don't have insurance and get cancer. Why can't I simply opt out of the FAA regulation system? Why can't I get a less tested and less expensive medicine (with informed consent) the same way I would get a less expensive car? Is "death of the patient" really the best outcome?

2) The Hippocratic oath has a statement, words to the effect "first do no harm". Sometimes this is interpreted as "do more good than harm" (example: medicines which cause side effects) and sometimes as "do no harm whatsoever" (patient dies because treatment is not yet vetted, safe treatment but off-label application, &c). Shouldn't these two points of view be reconciled?

3) A car mechanic will give me a diagnosis of what's wrong with my car, and an accurate estimate of what it will take to fix it. He's then bound to that estimate by strong state laws which protect the consumer. If a doctor doesn't get the diagnosis right the first time, I have to pay for a 2nd diagnosis and cure and then possibly a third one until he gets it right. For surgery, you never know ahead of time how much it will cost, or even how many separate bills you will get. Should states have consumer protections laws for medicine, in the manner of automobile repair protections?

4) If not, why?

5) Doctors make educated guesses based on statistical inference. (Example: A Recent Maryland death from rabies. The correct diagnosis was only determined after the patiend had died) An inexpensive broad-spectrum testing grid that identified [for example] 2,000 infectious agents would seem to be the answer, yet FDA testing requirements would make such a product prohibitively expensive. Why shouldn't we have a less-well-tested version which is cheap, and can be used for initial screening?

6) Magnifying glasses are available at the convenience mart. Why can't they sell inexpensive (but with limited functionality) hearing aids? Why are medical devices which do not directly affect the health of the patient (such as hearing aids) so expensive, and why do they require expensive fitting by professionals? Why can't artists build and sell prosthetic hand attachments?

You are giving the reason why American police, and who trained/put them into that way, should be put right now in jail as preemptive punishment. They will kill innocent people, sooner or later, phone jokes or not, things like this or this will continue to happen,

And with guns practically mandated to normal citizens, social engineering could be a lethal weapon too, but again, the one shooting would still be the real killer.

Coal can be clean and safe too http://www.coalcares.org/cleanenergy.html

How is Mountaintop removal clean? How is coal mining safe? Ops, that's in China. 19 killed in coal mine accidents in U.S. in 2012. Now how many have been killed by solar, wind, and other alternative energy sources?

Falcon

Nobody can possibly be this ignorant. Are you a paid government troll by any chance?

Project echelon has been widely reported on by a number of mainstream news sources. Do you think CBS news qualifies as a bastion of "tinfoil hattery"?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-164651.html

The Church committee hearings in the late 1970s revealed extensive details about the multi-decade long MK Ultra program, including a trove of 20,000 related documents. Do Congressional hearings not count as "official reports"? It was also revealed that thousands of other documents related to the program had been destroyed.

Are you so brainwashed on the government Kool Aid that you can't even exercise your critical thinking skills and make a cursory examination of widely available and mostly undisputed evidence?

If you're so naive as to believe the absurdities published in official government reports, go stick your nose up a bureaucrat's ass. I'm sure it will smell like a rose garden to you.

Sleep Deprivation Is Linked With Obesity

Try to get telecommuting rights, It gives you more time to recharge yourself and stay fit instead of wasting all the time on commuting (if bike is not an option, such as living beyond 15 miles).

That is, unless you work for a certain company with a dumb blonde CEO that recently banned telecommuting.

China is about to have an epic crash when their real estate bubble bursts:

60 minutes on China Real Estate Bubble

When that happens, their economy will tank... similar to what happened in U.S. in 2008. And that will bring out people demonstrating in the streets. The Chinese security apparatus will have its hands full trying to stifle online dissent and stop people from plotting against the government. Cyber attacks on external targets will fade.

If Manning had leaked to the NY Times, only the Chinese hackers would know for sure what he leaked.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57566810/new-york-times-chinese-hackers-attacked-our-computers-for-months/

Come to think of it, why are all these news orgs outing themselves as being hacked? Is it to provide some sort of plausible denial that they are the ones who someone leaked something important?

And you in turn treat your neighbors and passerby's as potential 'terrorists'. Do you lock your house at night? If so, why? it's a simple precaution, but it restricts your freedoms, yet you do it. You do it to protect yourself and your family. You choose this over leaving your door wide open. You would also probably prevent an armed neighbor from just walking in your door. You would stop them and question what the hell they were doing.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20022876-503544.html

The simple fact is that the majority of people who fly actually agree with these security checks whether misguided or not, just as you put basic security in place on your home. You do this because you have the authority (it's your house). Granted, this is just an example, but a valid comparison. The difference here being that the TSA is tasked with the safety of the passengers and airline employees just as you may be tasked with the safety of those in your home. The airport is 'their house', and the public is their 'family'...ok, that was a little creepy and sickening, but you hopefully get the point.

It's not strictly about you, but about what the majority of air passengers want to get a basic level of perceived safety. The courts allow it because congress allowed it, and congress allowed it because that's what a majority of their constituents want.

Oddly enough, the same is true regarding drone attacks. A large majority support them. People understand the realities of todays terrorists, the risks, and potential casualties a terrorist can inflict. They have real world examples engraved in their memories after 9/11.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2013/feb/11/majority-americans-approve-drone-strikes/

It's interesting to me that tech start-ups have adopted many elements of the ROWE concept whereas I've never heard of this in larger tech companies. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-51237128/what-is-a-results-only-work-environment/ I suspect that large companies aren't particularly interested in results, preferring instead to focus on the cult of "management". And the worst of managers, having limited capacities and imaginations, see as their primary strategies control and compliance. The definition of success is not results, but is instead how "tight a ship" they run.

The statement said North Korea "strongly warns the U.N. Security Council not to make another big blunder like the one in the past when it earned the inveterate grudge of the Korean nation by acting as a war servant for the U.S. in 1950."

It's their standard MO and I hope it doesn't affect the UN's resolution. Another quote from North Korea:

"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to a preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest," said the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

More details from reuters on what the new sanctions mean as well as South Korea's push back.

And I'm pretty much done with any Slashdot discussion on this since the apologists and "MAD is good" folks have been mighty thick on these past few news stories. We have entered into the era of "Hey everybody, we have nuclear weapons now do what we say or we will nuke you!" Like a teenage gang member who found his first handgun ...

Any relation to Hank Johnson?

You do realize that the US still leads in manufacturing right? (as of 2009)
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-36742134/manufacturing-surprise58-the-us-still-leads-in-making-things/

Its possible that China has passed us in the 4 years since that graph, but being #2 in the world and only slightly behind a country 4 times our size is hardly a "serious problem", particularly when we dwarf the next closest competitors.

If you knew anything about the American government's historic propensity for secretly testing dangerous chemicals and weapons on their own populace, I wager you'd spend less time worrying about what imaginary brown boogeymen might do with the technology, and far more time concerning yourself with what the government will do with it.

While it doesn't seem that it was stated that they are the greatest threat it was stated that the DHS views them as a threat. After it came out there was massive backpedaling from that statement though. For sources see:
The Washing Times
CNN
The actual DHS report courtesy of Fox News
The actual DHS report courtesy of FAS if you don't like fox
CBS news

Gov: *middle finger*

You're referring to Justice Scalia, I assume?
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-280_162-1444503.html