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in response to mr toews comment "this is the bill that you either support, 'or you stand with the child pornographers.'".

Life isn't black and white. It's a million shades of grey.

what mr toews needs to learn here is that there is at least one more opinion: i do not support child pornography and i do not support a surveillance society.

govts all over the world - stop giving us these black and white choices. it ain't that easy.

8 month pregnant woman runs a marathon. Most likely the pregnant women would stick with the other slow pokes (aka children or 60+ yr old adults). What do you find implausible? The ability to hunt without use of weapons? You should read the book Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall if you want a good source (the book is a thrilling read also), he describes everything I'm talking about including one African tribe that still practices this method of hunting.

> you are also free to disconnect from the internet and go live in a cave somewhere ... if someone will rent you a cave

Yes, someone will, and for only $1200 a month. Of course, most of us would prefer to find cheaper and more comfortable rent somewhere. In a rural area you should easily be able to find something really cheap.

> and that someone will accept cash payment and snailmail correspondence.

That someone will if he is the owner of the place you are renting. As a former smalltime landlord myself, let me say that please please rent from a real person, not a giant apartment complex corporation. Your money will not be wasted on superfluous office staff, luxurious swimming pools, or fully equipped gyms, none of which you actually use. I also would be able to repair stuff as soon as it's broken instead of forcing you to wait for weeks until somebody upstairs approves a work order. And yes, I'd love to take cash for rent. You don't even need snailmail; just come by and give it to me. That's small town life for you. Much less stress than where you're living now.

> And you can get your employer or bank to accept cash payments as well.

If you're working for a small business, it might be possible to get paid in cash. But really, unless you really want to avoid the banking system, it is still very easy to get a bank account, if only for cashing checks. No internet connection required. Just go to your friendly neighborhood bank (or, preferably, a credit union) branch office and talk to a real person. They'll be happy to help you.

From what I understand (and this may very well be wrong), Type 1 diabetes is when the immune system breaks down beta islets leaving one unable to produce insulin. So wouldn't this be a highly temporary fix, before the immune system goes to town again?

If so, I don't know if a lifetime of being stabbed in the balls is preferable to a lifetime of insulin injections.

even more so considering medical science is on the verge of a cure

I went there for a combination of reasons including boredom, but the biggest single one was one bully who was difficult to deal with. I dealt reasonably successfully with bullies closer to my size, but this one was tougher, captain of the wrestling team, outweighed me by fifty pounds and was two years older, socially connected, showing off to a girlfriend, and so on. It's hard to remember how much in fear for my life I was then (not sure how justified that fear was.) Sometimes walking away towards something better is the best thing you can do when those around you don't or can't help.
http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/bullying-may-be-a-good-reason-to-homeschool
http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/kids/
My Taekwondo instructor showed me how to kill the bully if he ever assaulted me again, but that did not seem like a good idea for multiple reasons, even assuming what the instructor taught was accurate. And I have since studied Aikido which has better ways to handle violence, including redirecting negative energy in more positive ways. Had the bully been the only thing about high school that was a problem, I might have tried harder to get the school to do something else to deal with the situation rather than my leaving, but in general the coursework was not that challenging. I guess that was also before the time of thinking about filing police reports for assaults in schools. Still, looking back from my forties, I can see many ways that I was more of an ass then (e.g. more of a praise-addicted show off and socially oblivious, if generally well meaning) -- not enough to justify bullying and violence if anything does, but certainly enough not to have enough great social connections to prevent bullying on that scale (others were probably afraid of this guy too, and the usual sad story, his father beat him, etc.). Had the teachers in the two classes we shared -- physics and gym -- not been, respectively, burned-out (taking many breaks outside the classroom) and the head of a wrestling team maybe with a chance at some regional competition that year, things might have been different. And while I was smart enough not to try to kill the bully (what a weight to carry), I was not smart enough to make him into a friend.
http://www.wikihow.com/Turn-Enemies-Into-Friends

Still, I had always wanted to go to MIT, and that then did not work out as I had not taken my SATs; Caltech accepted me probably based on my robotics work (including winning a Navy Science Award) and PSATs, but it seemed so far away and expensive and smoggy and earthquakey, so I did not go. So, leaving early essentially cost me a chance to go to MIT, where I had always wanted to go and do robotics. I had never really associated Caltech with robotics (even though I know now they are a great place for that through JPL work).

All the admissions person wanted then at SUNY Stony Brook (leaving in the middle of 11th grade) was proof that you had a B or better GPA. I was disappointed they did not want to see my science fair awards and so on. So, if kids can get into major state universities still, why shunt kids off to community college if they are academically minded? If anything, I think that I would have had an easier time of college starting it even earlier, when I would have been more focused on academics and less on social things and hormones. Maybe academically interested kids should skip high school altogether? Then, by the time hormones kick in, they're off to grad school for their PhD and can date undergrads their age? :-)

With that said, I had a sister who was a residence hall director at SUNY SB, which made it more acceptable (thanks, sis). I also had friends from the chess club and AD&D role playing who had started there the year before. I can see t

You are making the wholly unfounded assumption that half of the dead kids were obese. Where is your justification for that?

Over half the US population is obese.

It sounds like you have a personal issue with obese people. That's well and good, but that doesn't translate into "data"

Ya, but i'm not putting together the data, I'm just telling you about it. Really, is google now beyond the means of the average /.er?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-07-10-swine-flu_N.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051902609.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aM.7Dg3Z_msI

http://www.naturalnews.com/006781.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/dec/11/medicalresearch.health
http://health.families.com/blog/a-link-between-obesity-and-your-immune-system

Is it? How about kids being fingerprinted to enter Disneyland?

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/01/walt-disney-world-fi.html
http://disney.families.com/blog/disney-world-implementing-new-fingerprint-scanner-security