Slashdot Mirror

while IRS audits Google, GE continues to pay ZERO corporate income tax, and DAMN PROUD OF IT.

Okay, Anonymous Coward. So, you can't even use your real name to express your indignation? Hah!

P-u-s-s-y!

Your statement was one of the most craven I've ever seen expressed on Slashdot.
Slashdot is not beanbag, pal. It's combat.


Maybe you should go here, where you feel less threatened

Bernie Madoff Victims Get Their Money Back

Turns out the payments only just started. Apologies on my part.

The correct solution is for adults to help kids learn how to deal with it, not find ways to make it illegal.

And when the adults are part of the problem? http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3882520&page=1 You could have just as easily said:

Being abused/raped/assulted etc... is a part of life. It's GOING to happen. It sucks, but that's how it is.

And it would have sounded just as stupid.

Common sense says you don't mess with a production system with sweeping changes that could have unintended consequences. You do one change at a time, verify the change works as expected, and then move to the next one. "Agreeing with 80% of what's there" doesn't mean that the implementation is the right one. A piece of anecdotal evidence for this one specific case: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/new-study-underlines-unfulfilled-promises-of-health-care-bill/

Bassler was about 60 yards away when he was spotted, according to the sheriff. When he was 40 yards away, the SWAT team members shot at him and he fell to the ground. "He was considered armed and dangerous," Allman said. "We believe there was seven shots fired. We believe all seven hit him."

I wanted to have sexual relations with the bulk of the Hollywood female stars. I even stated my intentions regarding probably a dozen. Does that make me guilty of something?

I'm willing to bet you didn't publicly state you were going to violently rape them.

If the FBI wants to do some good, it should evaluate which ones are really, really most likely actually move on to something, and then watch those people.

I'd rather they just put them in prison if they're serious about following through instead of indefinitely watching. Look at the Fort Hood shooting. He tried to reach out before making his attacks:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fort-hood-shooter-contact-al-qaeda-terrorists-officials/story?id=9030873

It's the same thing as somebody reaching out for a hitman. I'd rather the FBI put them in prison based on a fake one before they found a real one.

Lovely platitudes without a shred of empirical evidence.

Just because you willfully ignore it, doesn't mean it isn't there. Single payer provides better care for less money. Deal with it.

I read all the time that heads of state and others come to USA for their surgeries, etc

Because they're rich, and they can afford it. Duh. Rush Limbaugh thinks nothing of paying $30,000 for a trip to the hospital because $30,000 is pocket change for him. Meanwhile a 24 year old father dies from a toothache because he couldn't afford to get treatment, and not everyone lives next door to a fucking dental school.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/feds-mass-man-planned-blow-us-buildings-14630503

This guy has a physics degree.

The bill has no severability clause. If the mandate is struck down, the whole thing dies (almost certainly--the court could strike down just the mandate, but they won't, for just the reasons you've identified).

I'm actually in favor of an individual mandate, but not this steaming pile of a "pass it to know what's in it" power grab by federal bureaucrats that will politicize every medical decision into the foreseeable future. Don't believe that? Think back to how politicized the mammogram report became when this bill was under discussion. (A taste of that.) We had Congress Critters lining up to denounce the science on both sides of the aisle. That's a preview of what will happen on every medical decision if this law stands as it is. A mandate to carry a high-deductible catastrophic plan makes sense; having the government micromanage healthcare is stupid when there are other options that don't assume godlike knowledge on the part of bureaucrats and politicians. At least, that my judgment now; I'm willing to put it to an experimental test.

Let's experiment with 50 systems and see what all the unintended and unexpected consequences are. Then, if you want to expand the power of the feds to impose such a mandate, there is a procedure for that: constitutional amendment. If the idea is so great, why not put it to the test in a few states before imposing it on everyone? That's how we actually learn something.

To a related point: Wasn't it Barry who said we can't expect to pass something as huge as healthcare reform with 51%?

Yep, another case of the FBI finding a 'terrorist' by finding a mildly disgruntled guy, giving him fake weapons and explosives, suggesting a terrorist plot to him, and then 'catching' him when he did exactly what they wanted him to do.

Like these guys:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-arrests-terrorists-sting-operations-dallas-springfield/story?id=8666300

And these guys:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/11/families-struggle-in-the-_n_957365.html

Over here in the real world, the Republicans are the anti-science, anti-intellectual party. That is not an opinion, it is an observation based on factual information. Want some examples?

Jon Huntsman Jr, a former Utah governor and ambassador to China, isn't a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination. And that's too bad, because Mr Hunstman has been willing to say the unsayable about the Republican party in the United States, namely, that it is becoming the "anti-science party".

...

Mr Perry, the governor of Texas, recently made headlines by dismissing evolution as "just a theory", one that has "got some gaps in it", an observation that will come as news to the vast majority of biologists. But what really got people's attention was what he said about climate change: "I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change."

That's a remarkable statement – or maybe the right adjective is "vile".

The second part of Mr Perry's statement is, as it happens, just false: the scientific consensus about man-made global warming – which includes 97% to 98% of researchers in the field, according to the National Academy of Sciences – is getting stronger, not weaker, as the evidence for climate change just keeps mounting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/04/evolution-climate-republicans-president

More examples? How about Bobby Jindal and the Volcano?

(AP) A month after Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal complained about wasteful spending in President Obama's economic stimulus package - including money he sneered was for "something called 'volcano monitoring'" - Alaska pilots were grateful for such expenditures.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory was ready with warnings to flight officials when Alaska's Mount Redoubt blew, sending potentially deadly ash clouds north of Anchorage.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/24/tech/main4887816.shtml

And what about Michelle Bachman claiming hurricane Irene was divine punishment from god (note the lower case spelling) because the country was sinful? Or Rick Perry praying for rain to help with the Texas wildfires? You know what he did about fighting fires in Texas? Cut the state budget by 75%, then ask for federal FEMA support when the state was burning down. Yep, the Feds are useless until you completely screw up everything and need them to bail you out. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/perry-asks-for-federal-funds-to-fight-wildfires-after-slashing-state-fire-budget/

So the Republicans are the party of stupid. And you fit right in.

The reason it isn't getting much coverage in the major media is because it is a couple hundred dirty twenty-somethings (I'm barely not a dirty twenty-something, judgement not particularly intended) complaining that a bunch of rich people are rich.

Please don't be so sure. If you recall earlier this past year, there were massive protests in Wisconsin. As someone who personally took place in a lot of them, I know that our media is terrible. For example, during these protests, the rallies were larger than the biggest Tea Party rally ever, even though it was during a snowstorm in Wisconsin in February. That certainly strikes me as news, but when you turned on CNN, all you saw was a 10-second sound bite on Wisconsin, followed by a 3-minute long piece on the history of the Tea Party in US politics. (I don't have links handy.)

Personally, I don't know enough of the ground truth of what is happening on Wall St. to comment, but I very highly suspect that anything that has been said on any major network news is woefully inaccurate at best.

Or better yet - how about we set the corporate income tax rate to zero? No reason for GE and others to offshore so much. ...

General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010

Yes, but he did call bullshit on climate science deniers a couple of months ago.

you have obviously never worked in the military or government. Here are some ideas you might be unfamiliar with...

1) It is standard procedure to remove someone under investgaiton from their post. Pretty much ANY investigation, criminal, civil, related to their job or not.

2) Is it very posssible the reason why he did not get his old job back was because it was filled during his leave. If a position is considered critical it would be filled ASAP. (It is also possible there are other reasons, but to assume he was simply fired shows ignorance of process)

3) If he was found guilty of any wrong doing he would never have been reinstated in ANY form. And if it was a criminal issue he would not ever work for the government again in any fashion. If he was found to have perpetrated scientific falsehoods, he would never have worked in the field again, anywhere.

4) It does sound like PEER is advocating for the scientist, so that part of the summary is misleading. But the Bush administration had a long history of acqusations of muzzling scientists on this exact subject, so the presumption that there was an ulterior motive is reasonable:
(first example in google)
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1555183

5) The important point of this article was not the few misleading points, but that there was a serious effort to muzzle anti climate scientists who went against the party line. And if you are foolish enough to think that such an investigation would not have a chilling effect on other government scientists, you are seriously naieve.

If you can't pass the basic tests, it's very likely that you're not going to detect a credible threat when it does show up. Even the former Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin does not think they're doing a good job.

According to one report, undercover TSA agents testing security at a Newark airport terminal on one day in 2006 found that TSA screeners failed to detect concealed bombs and guns 20 out of 22 times. A 2007 government audit leaked to USA Today revealed that undercover agents were successful slipping simulated explosives and bomb parts through Los Angeles's LAX airport in 50 out of 70 attempts, and at Chicago's O'Hare airport agents made 75 attempts and succeeded in getting through undetected 45 times.

Despite the results, there is no sign that the numbers have changed as the screeners have been tested year after year, former Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin told ABC News.

"Those reports were classified but it's sufficing to say that reports, both classified and unclassified, are concerning. Too often guns and knives and fake explosives get through the checkpoint," Ervin said. "And what is particularly concerning is that nine times out of 10 the checkpoint is the most critical layer of aviation security."

Loaded Gun Slips Past TSA Screeners

Governments funding of projects, any projects, is mis-allocation of resources. If the project in question has any reason to exist, then there would be private funding for it, private lending, private interest.

Government can push agenda, but they can't make it work nor should they try.

Either there is a reason for something to exist in the market or there isn't. Government commanding reasons does not work.

I know, right! Look people, the government said there was no risk of a leak after theJapanese earthquake. And it only took a couple days after Chernobyl for the USSR to announce the problem.
 
All accidents, especially nuke/chemical ones, are accurately reported minutes after by officials responsible for the oversight. Never has anyone said nothing to see here move along and it be reported as fact.

You're right. Stupid people clearly belong in the iPhone market where they can be protected from their stupidity.

Oh, that's interesting. Reading TFA (yes, this is Slashdot, but go with it) and following a few links indicates that "AcneApp" was an iPhone Market app. Never mind. Stupid people belong in the iPhone market, but they won't be any better protected. Just less free. That's OK, I guess; non-stupids don't much need them around anyway.

Oh, California. What laws can't you pass with your crazy politics?

Proposed California Babysitter Law Could Give Workers More Benefits but Sparks Outrage

If you have never been an employer in America, you are welcome to try it out and find out what labor regulations are really all about and how this will affect your decision to be a 'job creator'.

You are going to find out rather quickly that you don't want the hassle of hiring anybody.

Just look at a TINY portion of this SHIT. You have to collect their data to provide it to IRS. You have to give them 10 minute breaks per hour and 30 minute 'meal time', at all these times they are NOT responsible for your kid. You can't leave them with the kid for more than some 5 or so hours, I can't even parse the entire thing, it's fucking insane.

In case of anything that you do, that violates any of this insanity, you are liable for money, for being sued, etc.etc.etc.

WHO in their right mind wants to employ people in USA? This is just for BABYSITTING. Imagine what the regulations look like for anything else!

And I mean it, this is just a very small part of the entire bill. Oh, how do you like having to provide your babysitter with vacation time and having to give them a 21 day notice before they can be "let go"?

CHAPTER 2. DOMESTIC WORK EMPLOYEE RIGHTS

1455. (a) A domestic work employee who is required to be on duty
for 24 consecutive hours or more shall have a minimum of eight
consecutive hours for uninterrupted sleep, except in an emergency. ........
(d) A domestic work employer shall pay a sum of fifty dollars
($50) to the domestic work employee for each day that the domestic
employer violates this section. ....

(c) A domestic work employer shall pay a sum of fifty dollars
($50) to the domestic work employee for each day that the domestic
work employer violates this section. ......
1458. (a) If a domestic work employee is required to report for
work and does so report but is not put to work or is furnished less
than half of his or her usual or scheduled day's work, the domestic
work employee shall be paid for half the usual or scheduled day's
work, but in no event for less than two hours nor more than four
hours, at the domestic work employee's regular rate of pay, which
shall not be less than the minimum wage.
(b) If a domestic work employee is required to report for work a
second time in any one workday and is furnished less than two hours
of work on the second time he or she reports for work, the domestic
work employee shall be paid for two hours at the domestic work
employee's regular rate of pay, which shall not be less than the
minimum wage. .....
1459. (a) A domestic work employee shall earn a wage increase
each year on the same day of the employee's original date of hire.
The increase shall be in a percentage amount corresponding to the
prior year's percentage increase, if any, in the Consumer Price Index
for urban wage earners and clerical workers for California as
computed by the Division of Labor Statistics and Research within the
department.
(b) In any action brought to recover unpaid annual cost of living
pay increases pursuant to Section 1453, a domestic work employee
shall be entitled to recover liquidated damages in an amount equal to
the wages unlawfully unpaid and interest thereon. ....

1460. (a) A domestic work employer shall not employ a domestic
work employee for a work period of more than five hours per day
without a meal period of not less than

This continuing argument about Saturday delivery is first, highly flawed, and second, not going to save any reasonable amount of money. The Postal Regulatory Commission says it will take 3 years to implement and only save about 1.7 billion a year starting in the fourth year. And even the GAO states that "it would also reduce service; put mail volumes and revenues at risk; eliminate jobs; and, by itself, be insufficient to solve USPS's financial challenges".

So while the PO loses its one attractive monopoly, it also fails to meet its financial obligations. The whole Saturday argument is just a scapegoat for Donahue to push along - then send the next PM over to beg for something else next year.

As pointed out above, this is an Internet discussion, not a research paper... it is expected that people debating on the Internet have at least some basic ability to find things for themselves. But, if you insist:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=vet+shot+police

Now, I get 14.8m hits on that - obviously not all are going to be about the same story. However, the first result does seem to refer to the story mentioned, and still on the first page there is a slightly more detailed version of the story from later on, after some more details had emerged. Ok, so the OP may have got some of the numbers incorrect (70 to 100, 60 to 80), but the substance seems to be true.

Happy now?

ABC News report in May: Did Obama Administration Cut Corners For a Green Energy Company?

The Obama administration bypassed procedural steps meant to protect taxpayers as it hurried to approve an energy loan guarantee to a politically-connected California solar power startup, ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News have learned
The Energy Department in March 2009 announced its intention to award Solyndra Inc. a $535 million loan guarantee before receiving final copies of outside reviews typically used to vet such deals. ...

The loan guarantee, the administration's first for a clean energy project, benefited a company whose prime financial backers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a "bundler" of campaign donations. Kaiser raised at least $50,000 for the president's 2008 election effort. ...

Several political allies of the president have ties to companies receiving Energy Department loans, grants or loan guarantees.

ABC News did a story on May 24th, which discusses how the Obama Administration "bypassed procedural steps meant to protect taxpayers as it hurried to approve an energy loan guarantee to a politically-connected California solar power startup", and how the loan "benefited a company whose prime financial backers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a "bundler" of campaign donations. Kaiser raised at least $50,000 for the president's 2008 election effort."

The issue, though, is that the tech wasn't using the webcam to take the pictures, he was intercepting them as she sent them to her boyfriend. Wiretapping statues are very broad in the US; if they can be applied to videotaping cops, I'm sure they could be made to fit a situation where someone's communication was actually intercepted.

Add to that the fact that there was enough uncertainty that she knew it was stolen for the prosecutor to drop charges against her and the fact that the case survived this motion for summary judgement, and it certainly seems like she has a better case than you think.

Personally I don't think this will help any as you have correctly surmised. It will probably make things worse as it is another avenue for SEOs to use, unless Google decides to treat +1 from a SEO as a -1 internally and adjust accordingly. Also google does seem to have location awareness with the local results so if lots of people from a foreign country were adding +1s to a domestic site in a non native language you could probably rule them out as spam or even better go and treat all of those +1s as a -1 internally and bury the page like they did to J.C..Penney when they allegedly link spamed everything.

If someone is so stressed that their DNA mutated a gene sequence for them to live forever, then that means there could be one that mutates into god-like abilities.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=7880954
Meanwhile, this girl's parents may have caused her so-much stress that she will never grow-up: proving her parents are abusive.

One company just had the highest quarterly sales in their entire history.

The other company just lost a few million dollars.

Which company do you think has a better clue about what consumers want?

We all know it was created just a few thousand years ago on day 4.

NASA could have saved the trip if they'd just asked the local priest!

Pastor, not "priest". The Roman Catholic Church is much more friendly to the idea of a non-literal creation (from a Biblical perspective) than many popular Protestant groups.

I was raised in a Protestant household. I now lead a Protestant household (Baptist). I've been to several churches, camps, meetings, and various gatherings. I have never, ever met a preacher or other leader that believed the EarthSunMoonStars were 6000 years old. Now, I'm sure that these people exist and use religion as their reasoning, but there are nutjobs in every group. Saying that because of the occasional nutjob believes it, all or most must believe the same thing is no different that saying because the occasional Muslim wants to kill all humans then all Muslims want to kill all humans.

HERE. Would it be fair for me to say that many NASA scientists are spies? Of course not. Then why is it fair for you to stereotype any other group based on a few nutjobs who mental illness is in no way related to whatever group you are using them to belittle?

It's not just "a few nutjobs," dude -- half the US population, for example, thinks creationism is true. It's not stereotyping if the trait being selected for is shared by a large percentage of the outgroup. Half is a large percentage, for any value of "large" you care to assert. Which is why I'm sceptical of your assertion that you've never met a creationist "preacher or other leader." Given the pervasiveness of creationism in the US population, and the assumption that you are living in America, it is statistically highly unlikely that your assertion is true.

Believing that "God created the heavens and the Earth" is not the same as believing that he did it 6000 years ago and planted dinosaur bones to screw with our heads.

We all know it was created just a few thousand years ago on day 4.

NASA could have saved the trip if they'd just asked the local priest!

Pastor, not "priest". The Roman Catholic Church is much more friendly to the idea of a non-literal creation (from a Biblical perspective) than many popular Protestant groups.

I was raised in a Protestant household. I now lead a Protestant household (Baptist). I've been to several churches, camps, meetings, and various gatherings. I have never, ever met a preacher or other leader that believed the EarthSunMoonStars were 6000 years old. Now, I'm sure that these people exist and use religion as their reasoning, but there are nutjobs in every group. Saying that because of the occasional nutjob believes it, all or most must believe the same thing is no different that saying because the occasional Muslim wants to kill all humans then all Muslims want to kill all humans.

HERE. Would it be fair for me to say that many NASA scientists are spies? Of course not. Then why is it fair for you to stereotype any other group based on a few nutjobs who mental illness is in no way related to whatever group you are using them to belittle?

It's not just "a few nutjobs," dude -- half the US population, for example, thinks creationism is true. It's not stereotyping if the trait being selected for is shared by a large percentage of the outgroup. Half is a large percentage, for any value of "large" you care to assert. Which is why I'm sceptical of your assertion that you've never met a creationist "preacher or other leader." Given the pervasiveness of creationism in the US population, and the assumption that you are living in America, it is statistically highly unlikely that your assertion is true.

I was raised in a Protestant household. I now lead a Protestant household (Baptist). I've been to several churches, camps, meetings, and various gatherings. I have never, ever met a preacher or other leader that believed the EarthSunMoonStars were 6000 years old. Now, I'm sure that these people exist and use religion as their reasoning, but there are nutjobs in every group. Saying that because of the occasional nutjob believes it, all or most must believe the same thing is no different that saying because the occasional Muslim wants to kill all humans then all Muslims want to kill all humans.

HERE. Would it be fair for me to say that many NASA scientists are spies? Of course not. Then why is it fair for you to stereotype any other group based on a few nutjobs who mental illness is in no way related to whatever group you are using them to belittle?

Unfortunately it looks like you need to have a talk with some of your co-religionists.

We all know it was created just a few thousand years ago on day 4.

NASA could have saved the trip if they'd just asked the local priest!

Pastor, not "priest". The Roman Catholic Church is much more friendly to the idea of a non-literal creation (from a Biblical perspective) than many popular Protestant groups.

I was raised in a Protestant household. I now lead a Protestant household (Baptist). I've been to several churches, camps, meetings, and various gatherings. I have never, ever met a preacher or other leader that believed the EarthSunMoonStars were 6000 years old. Now, I'm sure that these people exist and use religion as their reasoning, but there are nutjobs in every group. Saying that because of the occasional nutjob believes it, all or most must believe the same thing is no different that saying because the occasional Muslim wants to kill all humans then all Muslims want to kill all humans.

HERE. Would it be fair for me to say that many NASA scientists are spies? Of course not. Then why is it fair for you to stereotype any other group based on a few nutjobs who mental illness is in no way related to whatever group you are using them to belittle?

This is combination of what psychologists call the "foot in the door" technique and the "Milgram effect."

Yep and "they" can already carry guns.

The pilot, who both the TSA and US Airways declined to identify, was a member of the Federal Flight Deck Officer program, an initiative put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The initiative allows authorized members of cockpit crews to carry weapons on board.

If the pilot goes bad, it is going to be bad.

An average of $35 billion a year is, indeed, 35 of your planes.

You mean those hundred million dollar planes that don't fly?

Or paying your fees with all pennies:

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/bizarre&id=8014703

Well, maybe they could cure the super gonorrhea while they are at it. Super syphillis to follow soon I presume.

It is similar to Rohan Murphy who was "best of the best" for quite some time on ESPN. He had no legs, and was a very good wrestler in his weight class.

If you step back and think about it, anybody would be a great wrestler, having no legs (lower weight class), a far lower center of gravity (most impact moves require 200% effort to lift and then throw him), and his upper body mass would put him a few weight classes up, if he had legs. While I admire the guy for competing, and doing well, it seems as though his particular disability is an advantage in the sport.

GE paid no corp taxes. See: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558 If you don't pay any tax, what difference does it make if the tax rate is 35%?

An agreement has been reached, but it hasn't been passed by either the house or senate yet. (It's almost certain to pass the senate, as that's where the compromise originated. The house, on the other hand...well, we'll see.)

Yet, in the back of my mind, there was a part of me wondering whether an agreement would ever be reached. The conspiracy theory in me kept saying that there were enough rich fat cats who were paying off key congressmen to sabotage the process and make sure that no agreement was ever reached. Why? Because billions of dollars had been invested in credit-default swaps against the United States debt.

You mean most Americans are too stupid to realize they're getting groped over the internet.

And yet apparently most people on Slashdot are too ignorant to know that they may have passed through someone's crosshairs despite the fact that the arrests and convictions keep coming week, after week, after week. Bomb plots, shooting plots, poison plots. Well, it didn't stop Duke Nukem from shipping, so it must not be important. Besides, everyone watches the Daily Show, right? What more would you need to form opinions about important questions?

Fort Hood Suspect Mentions al Qaeda Cleric Believed to Have Inspired Previous Attack, Official Says

Reservist Charged in '10 Building Shootings

Minneapolis Man Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Offense - July 18, 2011

Pennsylvania Man Indicted for Soliciting Jihadists to Kill Americans - July 14, 2011

Accused al Shabaab Leader Charged with Providing Material Support to al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - July 5, 2011

Two Men Charged in Plot to Attack Seattle Military Processing Center - June 23, 2011

Chicago Businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana Guilty of Providing Material Support to Terror Group and Supporting Role in Denmark Terrorism Conspiracy - June 9, 2011

North Carolina Man Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Charge - June 7, 2011

FBI Announces Identity of Transitional Federal Government Checkpoint Suicide Bomber - June 9, 2011

Two Iraqi Nationals Indicted on Federal Terrorism Charges in Kentucky - May 31, 2011

Seeing as warrantless wiretapping is clearly unconstitutional, it's thoroughly inappropriate to be doing it at all.

Warrantless wiretapping for national security purposes has been found Constitutional by courts repeatedly. You don't know what you are talking about.

Intelligence Court Releases Ruling in Favor of Warrantless Wiretapping

A special federal appeals court yesterday released a rare declassified opinion that backed the government's authority to intercept international phone conversations and e-mails from U.S. soil without a judicial warrant, even those involving Americans, if a significant purpose is to collect foreign intelligence.

Why We Endorsed Warrantless Wiretaps

the special FISA appeals court, which in a 2002 sealed case upholding the constitutionality of the Patriot Act held that "the President did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information." The court said it took the president's power "for granted," observing that "FISA could not encroach on the President's constitutional power."

For your viewing pleasure, some of the more recent developments regarding would be "Jihadis" in the US:

Yet again: Fort Hood Suspect Mentions al Qaeda Cleric Believed to Have Inspired Previous Attack, Official Says

A U.S. serviceman is in custody after he allegedly admitted he was planning an attack on his fellow servicemen at the U.S. Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, the same base where 13 people were killed in a 2009 terror attack.

Reservist Charged in '10 Building Shootings

WASHINGTON â" The Marine Corps reservist arrested in Arlington National Cemetery last week with suspicious materials in his backpack was charged Thursday with firing shots last year at five military buildings in the Washington area, including the Pentagon.

Investigators said they linked the reservist, Yonathan Melaku, to the shootings by determining that the bullet fragments recovered at those scenes came from the same gun as the spent shell casings found in his backpack last week.

Minneapolis Man Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Offense - July 18, 2011

Pennsylvania Man Indicted for Soliciting Jihadists to Kill Americans - July 14, 2011

Accused al Shabaab Leader Charged with Providing Material Support to al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - July 5, 2011

Two Men Charged in Plot to Attack Seattle Military Processing Center - June 23, 2011

Chicago Businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana Guilty of Providing Material Support to Terror Group and Supporting Role in Denmark Terrorism Conspiracy - June 9, 2011

No

I agree with reading about it on the Internet. I like RSS, but I've found it homogenizes my content so that things don't jump out at me and the really interesting stories get buried with all the mediocre ones. So I keep the following list of bookmarks to check on a weekly basis:

ABC (Australia) Science, ABC (US) Science, Air & Space Magazine, ARKive, Ars Technica, BBC SciTech News, CBS Sci-Tech News, Chet Raymo, Cosmos News, Current: Science, Discover, Discovery News, Edge, Economist Science, EurekAlert!, Flyp media, Futurity, h+, Inkling Magazine, LiveScience, Massimo Pigliucci, Mother Jones Environment, MSNBC Science News, National Geographic News, National Public Radio (US), Natural History Magazine, New Scientist, New York Times Science, New Yorker Science, Newsweek Science, Orion, PhysOrg, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, R&D Magazine, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Science Daily, Scientific American, Seed Magazine, Science Cheerleader, Science News, Schrodinger's Kitten, Slashdot Science, Smithsonian, Space.com, The Technium, Time Magazine Science, USA Today Science, US News & World Report Science, Wired News, World Changing

why should it be borne by the citizen?

Because he receives the benefit. Police are like national defense: their benefit is largely to society as a whole, not to specific individuals. I can't tell you which police officer prevents my house from being robbed at night, because there is no one police officer that does so. It's the presence of a policing system that prevents that. By contrast, someone who receives health care is simply receiving a clearly defined benefit like any other welfare program. Countries may choose to provide that welfare benefit, or not, just like any other.

The US has public health care provisions through Medicare (for the elderly) and Medicaid (administered by the states, partly funded by the federal government, provides for the indigent and children). You hear quite a lot of complaint here on /. because healthy men are the one slice of the demographic spectrum that cannot qualify for public health care due to poverty. (Women are covered if they are pregnant or have small children at home, for example.)

Don't forget, too, that Americans who have health insurance are accustomed to a very high standard of care and comfort - hospital rooms are large and private, waits even for elective procedures are very short (usually a matter of a few days to a week). Most people are reluctant to exchange something that they know well for something that they don't, especially when they're happy with it. Over 80% of Americans with insurance are happy with it. It's not too surprising, then that they keep rejecting various proposals that always end up sounding like taking the worst aspects of British and Canadian health care and combining them. I think that something like the French system would be pretty effective in the US, but the Republicans won't bring up the subject and the Democrats keep suggesting bad ideas.

The "public option" polled well because it was ill-defined.

Actually, iirc, the only polls which resulted in support for single-payer were the ones which laid out specific policy positions and not broad terms like "public option". The majority of Americans supported the components of universal healthcare.

Herm, here's one by ABC http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/US/healthcare031020_poll.html

According to the ESPN3 FAQ, events might be blacked out if they've been sold exclusively to a regional sports network, and as I understand it, regional sports networks such as the various FSNs are cable-only. And would you assume that every locality has at least one ISP participating in ESPN3.com?

Point them here. I stream to the 360 at as good if not better quality than I got with cable. The best part? I can watch the highlights I actually want instead of sitting through all of sports center. This plus Hulu + and Netflix cost $21 a month (factoring in XBL sub at $5/mo.), less then half the cost of basic cable.

According to ABC news:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/oslo-explosion-blast-result-massive-vehicle-bomb-sources/story?id=14134197

Earlier this month, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terrorism charges against an Iraqi-born cleric who had allegedly threatened the lives of Norwegian politicians. Mullah Krekar, the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, said in a news conference in 2010 that if he was deported from Norway he would be killed and, therefore, Norwegian politicians deserved the same fate, according to an AP report. The Norwegian government had considered deporting Krekar because he was seen as a national security threat.

I'm not sure which aren't, but here are the ones that are.