Slashdot Mirror

Strange that they left out biometrics[Ford], which is probably an imminent method of security in the future. WTF McAfee would be taking the lead in that, I don't know.

1) Naomi Wolf has been following this case since 2010:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/post_1435_b_797188.html ...long enough to look up all the Swedish law and case histories she doesn't already have, particularly since the article above contains the news: "Well, I was in Denmark in March of this year at a global gathering for women leaders on International Women's Day, and heard extensively from specialists in sex crime and victims' rights in Sweden." ...that's March of 2010, nearly 30 months ago.

2) Unusual case, indeed, but nothing about its unusual-ness relates to whether the original complaint merited charges, not after the original prosecutor declined to charge and a prosecutor clear across Sweden took the very, ahem, unusual step of deciding to re-start a case from outside their normal jurisdiction (it's federal, so they *could*, but it's very...unusual).

3) She is hardly accusing "the entire Swedish political elite", she just notes the Rove connection without drawing conclusions. The Rove story has been very hot in Sweden, because Rove is considered by many to have won elections in his past by abuses of the legal system, including, it is said, planting a bug in his own office and getting an investigation of his client's opponent started on the basis of it; and involvement in the framing of an Alabama politician for corruption, as reported by 60 minutes:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/21/60minutes/main3859830.shtml

It's quite normal for Karl Rove to have no provable connection at all to things that happen when he's around - like his old law partner starting the swift boat organization. People have generally started to regard him as smoke and start looking for fire.

I might add - it's funny for you to regard Naomi Wolf as unable to comment on Swedish law because she's American, but regard as obvious that Swedish politicians would look to an American for electoral advice in their very different system (no state-level, no third branch of government, no electoral college - it's a constitutional monarchy with a parliament).

Sweden is a democracy, can't argue with that one. It's just a democracy that helped with extraordinary rendition of suspects to where they were tortured - so you can kind of understand somebody's reluctance to hand themselves over to their tender mercies; the rendered guys never got that day in court of which you speak.

Then there are guys like this fine man.../s........... he needs to be neutered period. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/18/desmond-hatchett-30-kids_n_1528850.html

By the way, here is the government turning the prison population into slaves and having the public support in this by promising cheaper goods, while creating slave labour competition to the still existing real private businesses in USA.

Thatâ(TM)s a reality Michael Mansh, president of a small apparel factory in Olive Hill, Ky., faces every day, according to CNNMoney. In February, Mansh reportedly learned that his 100-person factory, Ashland Sales and Service, risked losing a contract to make windbreakers for the U.S. Air Force. The main competitor was Unicor, a government-run enterprise that employs 13,000 inmates at wages as low as 23 cents an hour. .....

That mission hasnâ(TM)t changed much since the government created Unicor in 1934. Advocates for the program point to the fact that inmates employed by the corporation, who earn between 12 cents and 40 cents per hour, are less likely to reoffend after being released.
 

You see, now that is the true evil - an incentive for the government to have more and more prisoners and this is cheered by the stupid population.

-

As to your question, a society with private law enforcement, private courts and private prisons is a society with competition in the justice system, competition in the law enforcement and prison system. Without government setting the absolute laws there is nothing that cannot be attempted by the free market. Yes, you are right, there will be abuse, I am certain of it.

But what I am also certain of is that having abuse in a free market system is much less detrimental than having abuse the way it is done right now - with a central authority creating the incentives, providing the power, the legislation, providing the money for this abuse.

The radical leftist press, e.g. alternet and the Huffington Post will of course either ignore this or suddenly decide to defend Putin.

Huffington Post has several articles about Pussy Riot on the front page. Here is a sample. FTA: "One more thing: Fuck Putin!"

So what you're saying is that the tax rates in the 90's, one of the more prosperous times in this country's history was what? Last I checked our economy has grown since then. During that time not only could we afford most of these programs but we had projected surpluses had we stayed on target. It doesn't take a genius to realize that when times are really tough and you're too far in the whole simply cutting back isn't enough, you'll need a second job until you recover.

Let's also probably not mention that companies can write off expansion expenses negating the tax burden. At 39.2% according to your own link, that would be pretty high, care to see how much taxes corporations actually pay? Tax rates are manipulated so much in the political landscape that its no wonder it makes most people's heads spin.

Consider Japan, they lowered their corporate tax rate but use value added taxes to make up the difference. There are incredibly few businesses that actually pay 39.2% in taxes.

Cuts are indeed necessary, but they need not be nearly as severe as the Republican party would have you believe. When asking for sacrifice you should probably make sure that everybody is sacrificing instead of young women who no longer have access to planned parenthood to get birth control pills because they have had so much of their funding taken away that they are only open a few hours a week if at all in certain states. These types of cuts only cause additional problems and more importantly expenses as you then have more women getting pregnant and needing assistance in other ways since they don't have health insurance that covers birth control.

Look at California for trying this method. They have vote mandated spending and their constitution requires that taxes can only be increased through a voter iniative. So people vote for a program and then when it comes time to pay for it they opt out and then you run out of money. The programs would not have been proposed to begin with if there wasn't some problem that needed to be solved. So the answer is to raise taxes and pay for the programs that fix the problems that ravaged this country at the start of the 20th century. All the assistance programs out there were created for reasons, all the regulatory bodies were created for certain reasons. If they aren't working then the answer most often isn't to throw them out entirely, it's to fix the process so that it actually accomplishes the stated goals. Cutting food assistance programs isn't going save the country any money, people need to eat, what is someone that is starving going to do when they can't afford any food? We are seeing already with crime increasing in almost every part of the country.

There is a difference between being a bleeding heart liberal that wants rainbows to shoot out of everyone's butts and a compassionate person that understands that we are all part of a community and that you can help the people in your community and all prosper or leave people to their own devices and end up needing a police state to keep those like myself with means safe.

I see it all the time in hack shops. Lots of cut/paste from other bodies of code, take presentations from other people and make them their own..

so why should it be any different with papers/homework and testing? A lot of districts and students are doing it and it's a national shame.

Why not just copy something from somebody else? It works right? Yeah this goes to bad moral judgement and an education system that has
itself cheated then why shouldn't the students?

Yes, it's disheartening but it's out there and it's very bad.

We're not just talking about Assange. We're talking about thousands of Americans who took to the streets last year to exercise their constitutional right to peaceably assemble. Over 7000 people have been arrested as part of OWS, including Presidential candidate Jill Stein.

I've only followed it casually, but ISTM that the problems were almost entirely limited to a few cities (NYC, Okland) where the authorities decided they needed to take a proactively militant/confrontational approach to the protests. In my town the City Council basically said "more power to you".

We're not just talking about Assange. We're talking about thousands of Americans who took to the streets last year to exercise their constitutional right to peaceably assemble. Over 7000 people have been arrested as part of OWS, including Presidential candidate Jill Stein.

To quote from the article you linked: "Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein and her running mate have been arrested at a sit-in at a Philadelphia bank over housing foreclosures." She was arrested for trespassing, not for anything she was saying. Given the refusal of most leftists to make distinctions like that -- the conflation of "expression" or "protest" with "speech", and the attitude that their cause is so righteous that it absolves them of any need to respect the rights of others -- I would expect that the vast majority of those 7000 were arrested for how they tried to convey their message, not what that message was. Your speech rights don't entitle you to stay on private property when you're not welcome there, or to prevent your fellow citizens from using public property (say, by blocking sidewalks), to disturb the peace, or to vandalize.

We're not just talking about Assange. We're talking about thousands of Americans who took to the streets last year to exercise their constitutional right to peaceably assemble. Over 7000 people have been arrested as part of OWS, including Presidential candidate Jill Stein.

Nice try, but wages haven't really correlated with productivity in decades. There is something terribly wrong with the US economy. It's not enough for us to pull our own weight, we have to pull the weight of the idle rich AND make them even richer.

In the U.S., the 5th Amendment prevents someone from being required to turn over their password.

This is still unsettled. The 11th Circuit Court has ruled that passwords are protected under the 5th amendment. However the 10th Circuit has chosen not to intervene in a lower court decision that forced a woman to decrypt her laptop.

This is going to have to go to the Supreme Court eventually, and I think you can guess how the fascist majority of justices will decide.

We need a petition for the petition!

That petition will get pulled early too. Look it's doesn't matter how many petitions you stand up. Basically the folks that have the authority and power to control the people, will. Common folk are only here to support the rich and powerful by way of their taxes. Nothing else matters. You're either part of the good-old-boy network, or you're nobody. It's always been this way; for every country; for every regime; for every global power, since time began.

The petitions don't really matter, anyway. There have been several for legalizing marijuana with overwhelming voter support that were simply dismissed by the white house. Nothing was even discussed in any branch of the government as a result. Now, I'm an Obama supporter (vs the nasty alternative that will be available in the next election) but this whole white house petition system is not used for anything other than to placate voters without actually doing anything. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/31/white-house-explains-anti-legalization-position-marijuana_n_1068081.html

I'd be very interested to see a breakdown in these poll results by age. I would not be at all surprised to see younger, more Internet-connected respondents have a more negative view of the TSA, while the Fox News generation (average viewer age 65, average age for Bill O'Reilly viewers 71) tends toward a more positive view. We see the same thing with numerous other issues where pretty much everyone on sites like Slashdot agrees, but the actual politics seem to be lagging behind. For instance, 50% of Americans now favor legalizing marijuana according to recent Gallup Polls, but while 62% of people in the 18-29 age bracket are in favor, only 31% of senior citizens do. And those seniors vote at a MUCH higher rate than young people. This is why issues relevant to old people are discussed endlessly, while issues important to the young are simply ignored. It's why college funding keeps getting cut every year while Medicare and Social Security remain untouchable.

Get out there and vote this November! Even if it's just for the lesser of two evils, vote anyway. The only way this imbalance will be fixed is if young people start voting at the same rate as older Americans.

No, Obama's death panels will decide that.

Tea Partiers would ask you why you don't have a church to help you out. Hell, they might even help you if you're an avowed atheist.

Uhhhh, no. Read this; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/antarctica-was-once-a-rai_n_1733597.html If a rainforest was found in Antarctica, we very likely have absolutely nothing to do with it. Not like I was there, but I don't think there were many Escalades in the streets 52 million years ago. We may all yet die due to climate change, but when you find a rainforest in the tundra it's difficult to accept that our polution is the cause of this . . . sorry. If people need an irrational boogey man in their lives, we have this character in human mythology called "Satan" . . .

Here's a couple:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/20/asset-forfeiture-wisconsin-bail-confiscated_n_1522328.html
http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/easy-money-civil-asset-forfeiture-abuse-police

These are just a couple I pulled off a Google search for "civil forfeiture abuse" but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of similar cases.

Remember when...

Your history is a fiction. Trading markets have been turbulent battlegrounds forever. The hundredth anniversary of the biggest implosion of them all will arrive in a few years. There were no HFTs in 1929.

Your problem is that you've been trained to believe that fiction — that the market is supposed to be a fair, peaceful place where no one gets hurt and everyone plays by the rules.

The markets aren't safe. They're not supposed to be. That's why things that require safety don't belong in markets. Things like deposit banks and pensions and endowments. We no longer abide that wisdom because everyone is convinced that anything less than 8%+ return is just too little.

When reality inevitably asserts itself and trillions in jeopardized wealth vanishes they wail and gnash at their government to 'do something.' Thus we erect vast zombie regulators and quasi-government institutions filled with porn browsing lawyers.

You can't make trading safe. It's like the Internet; censorship is perceived as damage and is routed around. Traders are the same way; they'll just take whatever capital you permit them to whatever venue offers the least impediment — fairness and rules be damned.

You mean like how the government use to print bibles to be used in teaching in schools but due to hyper-political correctness stopped?

You must be reading or listening to David Barton, because he's the one that recently popularized that completely bogus claim:
No, Mr. Beck, Congress Did Not Print a Bible for the Use of Schools
Chris Rodda is an actual historian with real credentials who's repeatedly demonstrated that Barton is at best wildly misinterpreting evidence, and at worst is a fraud (No, I'm not someone who believes everything on HuffPo, in this case it's right).

The lack of Bibles in school is a clear part of the First Amendment: You don't make everyone else's kids read the Bible, we don't make your kids read the Koran or Rig Vedas. If you want your kids to learn the Bible, teach it to them at home or in church, but a public school cannot support particular religious texts.

He ended the Vietnam war which Kennedy got us into (see chapter 4 of The Pentagon Papers), normalized relations with China, signed the ABM treaty with the former Soviet Union, got Eisenhower to sign the Civil Rights Act, desegregated Southern US schools, and established the Environmental Protection Agency,

He also was the first president to propose a national healthcare plan:
http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2009/09/ted_kennedy_richard_nixon_and.html
"Asked about his greatest regret as a legislator, Ted Kennedy would usually cite his refusal to cut a deal with Richard Nixon on health care."
Ted Kennedy also shot it down when Carter tried to do the same thing, according to a 60 Minutes interview:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/16/jimmy-carter-ted-kennedy-health-insurance_n_720356.html

the world tomorrow will be...less educated that the world today.

World literacy has risen from 77% in 1995 to 82% in 2005. More recently in 2010, 87% of female youth had basic literacy skills, compared to 92% of males.

In China almost all youth are now literate. In Kenya, 93% of youth are literate. Only countries like Ethiopia, Niger, Chad, and Mali have youth literacy rates at or below 50%.

People with college degrees increased to 6.7% of the world population in 2010 from 5.9% in 2000. That is around 50 million new college graduates.

Impressive! That is the first i have heard of that study. My side of the argument. http://www.the9billion.com/2011/03/24/death-rate-from-nuclear-power-vs-coal/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/power-plant-air-pollution-coal-kills_n_833385.html

Forgot to link in the source, D'oh: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/savannah-dietrich-contempt-charege_n_1696303.html

Is you can tell the truth, and still completely misrepresent the information. To see how this works, I will differ to Jon Stewart... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/jon-stewart-you-didnt-build-that_n_1705264.html Recently I saw someone post on facebook "how ridiculous it was that olympians needed to pay $9K in taxes to the US". I though.. man that is ridiculous, I am sure very few athletes are going to go and sell their medals, though some athletes would have difficulty paying for that tax bill. Then I do 5 seconds of googling and find out, that they are payed $25K for each gold medal, and are simply paying on that... to top it off, to pay that the athletes would need to be in the upper tax bracket meaning they aren't struggling for cash. In other words, it is simply income and therefore they need to pay taxes on it. I mentioned it and they commented back thanks, that makes more sense though usually people get pissy because it doesn't fit with their idealogy. Then you find out that Romney, Foxnews and everyone trying to convey taxes are evil are repeating this same mis representation of the facts.

"by the people, for the people" gets so corrupted in DC because of all of the lobbying and grandstanding that goes on. This whole hype of the TSA was unnecessary and now we've created a bigger bureaucracy in Washington. The whole body scan thing was a lobbied effort. Since we know nobody in DC actually does their own work and relies on lobbyists and staff to come up with things to do, twist enough arms, throw enough cash around and you can usually get what you want. Also don't forget all of those ex-government directors and leaders who've gone into lobbying for those companies as well. All under the guises of

“Lobbyists are not the problem. Terrorists are the ones who can do harm to innocent victims."

Really? what an astute observation from somebody who gets paid to lobby in favor of this horseshit.

Blah

Lobbyists and the way Washington DC operates are at the core of our greater ills and as long as we have revolving door policies allowing ex government officials to join lobbying groups and legal practices that attempt to influence our government, it will always be driven by money because we all know fear pays. Especially for Chertoff.

Eventually people in this country will come to their senses and realize that this is all theater and doesn't make them safer, it does cost them more and makes their lives inconvenient and more exposed. So much for the land of the free.

Until then I shall continue to work on my mind scanning device that will sense brainwave patterns and automatically recover memories and thoughts so we can weed out terrorists everywhere. Once I've figured out the electronics and made it sufficiently unsafe in terms of radiation exposure, I will then get a lobbying firm and sell it on the hill. It will eliminate the need for body scans entirely however there will be some side effects I fear: Loss of Memory, False prosecutions, Secret Lists and longer lines at the airport, bus terminal, subway and any other public transit location where people congregate.

Not so fast:

  Do Olympic Swimmers Pee In The Pool? 'Nearly 100 Percent' Do, Says Former U.S. National Team Member

Muller explicitly stated that he was not a skeptic,

"I was never a skeptic" - Richard Muller, 2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blackberry/p.html?id=1072419

No skeptic has ever made comments like these,

"If Al Gore reaches more people and convinces the world that global warming is real, even if he does it through exaggeration and distortion - which he does, but he’s very effective at it - then let him fly any plane he wants." - Richard Muller, 2008

"There is a consensus that global warming is real. ...it’s going to get much, much worse." - Richard Muller, 2008

"Let me be clear. My own reading of the literature and study of paleoclimate suggests strongly that carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels will prove to be the greatest pollutant of human history. It is likely to have severe and detrimental effects on global climate." - Richard Muller, 2003

was it because he also sent threats? http://voces.huffingtonpost.com/blackberry/p.html?id=1722241 But a message sent later from the Twitter account read: "i'm going to find you and i'm going to drown you in the pool you cocky tw*t your a nobody people like you make me sick."

Indeed, USA is nowadays characterized by the lowest social mobility among western countries. The only other country that comes close is the UK.

Dude, please. Agribusiness, defense and oil, the biggest welfare leeches in America, are all squarely Republican.

Agribusiness is squarely Midwestern. Its bloc of supporters in Congress are representatives from farm states from both parties. For instance, when (oil state) Senator Tom Coburn proposed legislation to end the ethanol subsidy, a bipartisan group of Midwestern senators came up with legislation that attempted to save a subsidy of some sort. This sort of thing happens all of the time. If you're an elected representative from Indiana or Minnesota or Iowa then you're probably going to support Big Agriculture no matter what part you belong to.

A senator may be very clear on what limits there should be on government spending, and he will also probably believe very strongly that such limits should not apply to his constituents. This is of course both a a feature and a bug of a republican form of government.

Yes, yes.. let the butt hurt flow through you..

Spending some time in the Olympic Village have you? (Simply Google: Olympic Village Sex)

How do you know how much accuracy it takes to shoot a non-existent airborne terrorist from the sky with a roof-top missile? Mars is cool, but considering the extensive array of excellent pubs to choose from, playing with missiles in London is hard to beat. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/london-rooftop-missiles-olympics_n_1664653.html

Chick-Fil-A donates lots of money to anti-gay groups that do lobby for no-gay marriage. That's definitely supporting a anti-gay activity in my book.

Around 1/2 of the US population has at least one gun in their home. The NRA indirectly represents those people as well as the others that support the right to bear arms but don't happen to have any. Ultimately that means they represent over half the population.

Who Does the NRA Represent?

A new survey, by Republican pollster Frank Luntz and commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of over 400 mayors, even more dramatically contradicts the conventional political wisdom on the gun issue. Not only does the NRA not represent the views of gun owners on major issues of gun policy; it doesn't even represent the views of its own membership. For example, the Luntz survey found that 69% of self-described NRA members agree that all gun sellers at gun shows should be required to conduct criminal background checks on prospective buyers, a reform that would close the infamous "gun show loophole". Luntz found that 82% of NRA members support "prohibiting persons on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns." Seventy-eight percent of NRA members support "requiring gun owners to alert police if their guns are lost or stolen." All of these measures are vehemently opposed by the NRA.

Just put everybody on the terror watch list and the gun problem is solved. Nobody can own them. They've already created lists of things that might indicate a person is a terrorist. Those lists probably cover most of the people in this country.

Around 1/2 of the US population has at least one gun in their home. The NRA indirectly represents those people as well as the others that support the right to bear arms but don't happen to have any. Ultimately that means they represent over half the population.

Who Does the NRA Represent?

A new survey, by Republican pollster Frank Luntz and commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of over 400 mayors, even more dramatically contradicts the conventional political wisdom on the gun issue. Not only does the NRA not represent the views of gun owners on major issues of gun policy; it doesn't even represent the views of its own membership. For example, the Luntz survey found that 69% of self-described NRA members agree that all gun sellers at gun shows should be required to conduct criminal background checks on prospective buyers, a reform that would close the infamous "gun show loophole". Luntz found that 82% of NRA members support "prohibiting persons on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns." Seventy-eight percent of NRA members support "requiring gun owners to alert police if their guns are lost or stolen." All of these measures are vehemently opposed by the NRA.

Quick google search of past headlines:

NYTimes editorial.

HuffPo

Of course, the opposing perspective (from the psychologist you love to hate, Dr. Ablow!)

There's a lot more out there. I didn't really feel like trawling through feminist blogs while at work, so you can dig deeper if you want.

The reactor wasn't the failing at Fukushima, the flood wall was.

San Francisco is undoubtedly cooler than the south bay, but it's also way more expensive. Not everyone can afford rent or the space they want in SF when compared to many of those south bay cities. That goes both for companies and people. Some companies will move or start there, but I think it's reaching to say we're at a tipping point.

And most importantly, people aren't raising kids in SF:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/13/san-francisco-moms-reflect_n_1508072.html

So that talent that young is going to have to commute the other way when they get married and have kids.

For what reason?

For being false, first of all. "Atheistic Marxism" has been in decline for decades, and it's not because Christianity defeated it. It is because it is an unworkable social construct which failed in competition with moderate Socialism and Capitalism, especially when bolstered by a bedrock of humanism. Furthermore, defending against authoritarian dictatorship by embracing authoritarian dictatorship is stupid. Embracing the tinpot tyrants of Christianity to avoid Marxist dictators is a fool's game. What does the underlying dogma matter when they both would strip me of my rights and freedoms? And finally, your argument works just as well if you were arguing for Islam as a bulwark against "Atheistic Marxism."

That is not the point. The point is that anti-theists try very hard to mix Christianity and Islam (for example) in the same bag.

Whenever some theocratic Islamist terrorist blows a bomb in a crowded square, anti-theists say "this is what religion does".

As it most certainly was.

They know that Christian people, even if they have occasional faults, are nice and friendly people; so the only way to condemn religion per se is to say that Christianity is the same as Islam - which is a very ridiculous idea.

Really? So Christians aren't calling gays demonically possessed? They aren't push lies to children in violation of the Constitution? They aren't involved in the cover up of horrific crimes against children? They aren't involved in killing children for witchcraft? They don't file charges to have skeptics arrested for debunking their lying claims? They aren't fighting against laws like the Violence against Women Act? Those are just a smattering of current problems that Christians are causing or exacerbating. That's not even counting the numerous acts of evil that Christians are historically guilty of.

Shall I continue, or do you get the point yet? An individual Christian is most likely a perfectly fine and upstanding citizen. The same is true for the average Muslim, the average Jew, the average Hindu, etc. The institutions of Christianity, however, are just as filled with dogmatic ideologies as those of Islam and such. You mistake the fact that they have been largely neutered in the west for the idea that they are benign.

For what reason?

For being false, first of all. "Atheistic Marxism" has been in decline for decades, and it's not because Christianity defeated it. It is because it is an unworkable social construct which failed in competition with moderate Socialism and Capitalism, especially when bolstered by a bedrock of humanism. Furthermore, defending against authoritarian dictatorship by embracing authoritarian dictatorship is stupid. Embracing the tinpot tyrants of Christianity to avoid Marxist dictators is a fool's game. What does the underlying dogma matter when they both would strip me of my rights and freedoms? And finally, your argument works just as well if you were arguing for Islam as a bulwark against "Atheistic Marxism."

That is not the point. The point is that anti-theists try very hard to mix Christianity and Islam (for example) in the same bag.

Whenever some theocratic Islamist terrorist blows a bomb in a crowded square, anti-theists say "this is what religion does".

As it most certainly was.

They know that Christian people, even if they have occasional faults, are nice and friendly people; so the only way to condemn religion per se is to say that Christianity is the same as Islam - which is a very ridiculous idea.

Really? So Christians aren't calling gays demonically possessed? They aren't push lies to children in violation of the Constitution? They aren't involved in the cover up of horrific crimes against children? They aren't involved in killing children for witchcraft? They don't file charges to have skeptics arrested for debunking their lying claims? They aren't fighting against laws like the Violence against Women Act? Those are just a smattering of current problems that Christians are causing or exacerbating. That's not even counting the numerous acts of evil that Christians are historically guilty of.

Shall I continue, or do you get the point yet? An individual Christian is most likely a perfectly fine and upstanding citizen. The same is true for the average Muslim, the average Jew, the average Hindu, etc. The institutions of Christianity, however, are just as filled with dogmatic ideologies as those of Islam and such. You mistake the fact that they have been largely neutered in the west for the idea that they are benign.

As an example, you mention IRAs which are not even an option to the wealthy because once your income is high enough you are no longer allowed to make pre-tax contributions.

Reality disagrees with you. See here. "According to Romneyâ(TM)s disclosure documents, the candidate has between $20.7 million and $101.6 million parked tax-free in his IRA".
Maybe you just have to be ultra-wealthy?

But not bisexual: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/faith-cheltenham/google-instant-search-bisexual_b_1682654.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciplined_Minds
"Disciplined Minds is a book by physicist Jeff Schmidt published in 2000. The book describes how professionals are made; the methods of professional and graduate schools that turn eager entering students into disciplined managerial and intellectual workers that correctly perceive and apply the employer's doctrine and outlook. Schmidt uses the examples of law, medicine, and physics, and describes methods that students and professional workers can use to preserve their personalities and independent thought."

See also:
http://disciplinedminds.tripod.com/
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16a.htm
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncomrev24.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_and_the_Brightest

Those links explain in part how can such "smart" people totally ignore the potential for "blowback" from the violent actions they endorse (actions which include the slaughter of endless innocents, the violation of national sovereignty and probably international law, the setting of an example of ironic misuse of advanced technology that could otherwise bring material abundance to the entire world, and so on)... These links help show why these academics are willfully blind to the idea that they are endorsing polices that may be creating 100 new terrorist for every one they think they might have killed.

Never forget what one of our greatest Marine Major Generals said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket
"War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley D. Butler. In them, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit from warfare."

Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan were *supposed* to be expensive quagmires so somebody's buddies coudl get lucrative "defense" contracts. These conflicts were *supposed* to drive up oil prices so somebody's buddies would see the value of their domestic oil holdings increase. And so on...

See also:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-cohn/killer-drone-attacks-ille_b_1623065.html
"Christof Heyns, the current UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, expressed grave concern about the targeted killings, saying they may constitute war crimes. He called on the Obama administration to explain how its drone strikes comport with international law, specify the bases for decisions to kill rather than capture particular individuals, and whether the State in which the killing takes place has given consent. Heyns further asked for specification of the procedural safeguards in place, if any, to ensure in advance of drone killings that they comply with international law. He also wanted to know what measures the U.S. government takes after any such killing to ensure that its legal and factual analysis was accurate and, if not, the remedial measures it would take, including justice and reparations for victims and their families. Although Heyns' predecessor made similar requests, Heyns said the United States has not provided a satisfactory response.
Heyns also called on the U.S. government to make public the number of civilians collaterally killed as a result of drone attacks, and the measures in place to prevent such casualties. Once again, Heyns said the United States has not satisfactor

But lard is ok.

Black and white prints are the safest picture types.

The LOC has restored color photographs from the Czarist Russia of 1910. The Empire That Was Russia

The idea that you could use color filters to record color images on stable black and white media is as old as photography itself. The difficulty was always in maintaining alignment and color balance in print or projection.

The color photograph can change the way you look at an entire era:

"Color Photographs From The New Deal (1939-1943)" , Bound for Glory: America in Colour 1939-1943

The details can be telling:

in the thirties, bulk flour and seed was sold in sacks printed in floral patterns and prints suitable for dress making, as you will see here,

Sure for a couple percent of people.

See the National Cable Television Association, top 25 [Cable/Satellite companies] by subscribers.

The one at the top there, Comcast, has 22.2E6 paying cable TV subscribers. Netflix passed that number over a year ago. As of the end of Q2 2012 Netflix subscribers amount to more than 25% of the sum (97.5E6) of all US cable TV and satellite subscribers.

We're waaay past a couple percent. Never mind Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc.

Cable TV is losing customers across the board. Comcast has been losing cable TV subscribers for over 40 consecutive months. Netflix predicts a total of 7 million new subscribers in 2012, and they're on track to hit that. Do the math. Inside about 48 months Netflix will have a subscriber base equal to half of the all cable TV subscriptions. That is assuming no acceleration in Netflix subscriber growth and no acceleration in cable decline, both of which may be bad assumptions.

Sure for a couple percent of people.

See the National Cable Television Association, top 25 [Cable/Satellite companies] by subscribers.

The one at the top there, Comcast, has 22.2E6 paying cable TV subscribers. Netflix passed that number over a year ago. As of the end of Q2 2012 Netflix subscribers amount to more than 25% of the sum (97.5E6) of all US cable TV and satellite subscribers.

We're waaay past a couple percent. Never mind Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc.

Cable TV is losing customers across the board. Comcast has been losing cable TV subscribers for over 40 consecutive months. Netflix predicts a total of 7 million new subscribers in 2012, and they're on track to hit that. Do the math. Inside about 48 months Netflix will have a subscriber base equal to half of the all cable TV subscriptions. That is assuming no acceleration in Netflix subscriber growth and no acceleration in cable decline, both of which may be bad assumptions.

Just like and armed churchgoer stopped this attack

It wasn't an "armed churchgoer" as you misleadingly state. It was an off-duty police officer, trained in the use of lethal force.

When you start with untrained use of lethal force you get George Zimmerman shooting at Trayvon Martin.

I didn't mislead in any shape or form. An off duty cop is essentially the same as a private citizen with a firarm. No uniform to distinguish him from on duy bretheren; no radio to call for back up or give a description. Concealed carry permit holders can get training in lethal force tactics just like the police can.

But fine, I'll play by your rules. You wan't another example? Here: http://www.goupstate.com/article/20120325/ARTICLES/120329781 Another church incident, another private citizen stopping an attacker armed with a shotgun.

Here's the Huff Po version, sanitzed of any mention of a concealed carry permit holder stoppping the attack: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/25/south-caroline-church-ser_n_1378752.html He was magically "disarmed",

The solution is obvious: We need TSA officials in every bathroom in America making sure you pass by a security checkpoint before getting into the bathtub. Sure, they'll be completely ineffective, but what other choice do we have if we want to win the War On Bathtubs?

Now look here, Mr. Shower Stall manufacturer, you can either hire a better lobbyst or you get in line with the rest of us. Unless it gets a budget boost of at least 15%, HomeSec will have no resources to fight your War on Bathtubs, because it's too busy fighting the War On Chocolate Eggs.

I read a number of newspapers and Internet news sites, and this is the first I've heard of it,

MSNBC: http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/cyborg-steve-mann-details-alleged-mcdonalds-assault-889595

Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/07/17/cyborg-discrimination-scientist-says-mcdonalds-staff-tried-to-pull-off-his-google-glass-like-eyepiece-then-threw-him-out/

The Huff: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/steve-mann-attacked-paris-mcdonalds-digital-eye-glass-photos_n_1680263.html

NYT Daily: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/cyborg-professor-claims-assault-paris-mcdonald-digital-glasses-article-1.1116246

Canadian news: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/07/17/tech-mann-digital-eye-glass-assault.html and a few others.

Plus El Reg, CNET, Network World, and the usual tech news sites. And the story is the second top google-news results for "McDonald's".

It's also the second article on Slashdot itself about the incident. http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/07/17/0335227/man-physically-assaulted-at-mcdonalds-for-wearing-digital-eye-glasses