Slashdot Mirror

I suppose like many things in life it will remain a mystery.

Russia Simulated A Large-Scale Aerial Night Attack On Sweden
Canadian jets repel Russian bombers

Canadian navy officer sentenced to 20 years for being Russian spy
Canadian Police Arrest Man on Trying to Spy for China

Bombs from thwarted B.C. terror plot planted among crowd of 40,000 Canada Day revelers

Why create a whole new law when the existing one is perfectly adequate?

All of us commit three felonies a day because those asshats in our legislatures just keep piling the laws on to solve non-existent problems.

This is yet another distraction by the ruling class to keep our minds off of our continually declining standard of living.

Whether or not these bailouts are actually good for the citizenry as a whole is entirely another matter. Since national elections are funded on the backs of the Corporatocracy, instead of publicly (and evenly) funded, it would appear prudent at this juncture to assume it will continue.

The Evil Corporations[TM] aren't the problem — GM was bailed out against the wish, desires, and the better judgement of executives and bankers nation- (and world-wide). No, the bailing out of the auto-industry profited unions — not corporations.

Freshly elected Bush, enjoying the support of the his party's majority in Congress, did not bail-out Enron in 2001. Likewise MCI got liquidated in 2006. What made GM and Chrysler different? Unionized work-force — that's what. But blaming "unionocracy" just does not have the same ring to it, does it?

The government previously forgave $15.4 billion in loans to GM: http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/05/19/gm-bankruptcyplan-idUSN1943363120090519

In addition, the government would extend a credit line to the new company and forgive the bulk of the $15.4 billion in emergency loans that the U.S. has already provided to GM, the source said.

The government also made a "special ruling" for companies receiving bailout money... http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704462704575590642149103202

It [GM] won't have to pay $45.4 billion in taxes on future profits.

Not only is the taxpayer out over $70 billion to bail out GM, but the original bond holders who were illegally robbed are still waiting for their money too.

Amazon has been fighting against having to collect individual sales tax, while endorsing a Federal framework like The Marketplace Fairness Act.

Amazon wants this for at least two reasons:

1) they don't have to employ a legion of tax specialists / lawyers for sales tax (which cuts at the bottom line)
2) they're betting the Federal framework will result in a lower overall rate (which keeps their competitive price advantage over brick-and-mortar)

No, actually, Amazon has been fighting tooth and nail against sales tax for years.

Amazon has been fighting against having to collect individual sales tax, while endorsing a Federal framework like The Marketplace Fairness Act.

I guess I confused this for them being in support of sales tax collection.

No, actually, Amazon has been fighting tooth and nail against sales tax for years.

Amazon has been fighting against having to collect individual sales tax, while endorsing a Federal framework like The Marketplace Fairness Act.

We do? Name one.

Fox News can't find one. Every time they give an example like that, and somebody checks their facts, it turns out Fox was wrong.

Stop being a partisan tool. It makes you look like an extreme idiot. Your entire post starts off like someone who doesn't have the facts and doesn't care about them even if they did. FFS, blaming things on Fox News is childish and ignorant. Especially when I do not even have cable.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304527504579171710423780446

There is one. Now I know there is a large movement among the left who want to blame the victim in all this. I agree that a lot of the problems is because the victim is stupid as hell, but that doesn't get around the fact that it worked for them before the ACA.

This is an interesting example of conservative thinking. Conservatives like Hannity decide that Obamacare must be forcing people to get bad policies, because conservatives believe that the government (and especially the Democrats) can't do anything right. Therefore, they don't have to bother checking their facts. If somebody claims they're worse off undere Obamacare, it must be true. That's why Hannity gets it wrong all the time.

Actually, it seems that you cannot check any facts and only dig in deeper with some ideology when they are presented to you. I don't know who Hannity is outside of a goolge search that you were more then capable of doing yourself to easily find examples but refused to in order to rant about something that exists in your head.

This is in contrast to the scientific method, where we come up with a theory and look at the facts in the real world to see whether the theory is true.

If you are going to pretend that you or your position is based off the scientific method, then I will declare that all you produce is junk science. It really is that simple. You have shown with your post that you do not seek answers, you seek answers that you agree with and are on par or a bit lower then global warming deniers and intelligent design proponents.

The link you provided doesn't give exact sales numbers, but it is a fairly common tactic to limit the supply of expensive items artificially to keep them expensive and exclusive. iPhones are aspirational purchases, if they were cheap and plentiful it would take the shine off.

Sure, many companies play the "limit the supply" game, but given that the WSJ says that they've increased production of the iPhone 5s, I don't think that Apple is playing this game.

Medical bills are not the primary reason for bankruptcies, While you can rack up bills that will take more then your life time to pay off, the biggest problem is the lack of income that comes with those large medical bills. You simply do not often get large medical bills without missing work and often, you are permanently off work or off work for a substantial period of time. I don't care how well you planned or if you have insurance, the lack of income usually is devastating to most all working families. Health insurance does nothing to fix that, obamacare of the ACA does nothing to fix that.

People cite medical as reasons for filing bankruptcy because they have to have a reason other then they spent too much. But what normally happens when they file for bankruptcy is that they are trying to protect assets they can no longer afford like their home or cars or have racked up serious credit card debt trying to keep them because they lack the financial wherewithal to keep their lifestyles without that income.

This is also not getting into the problems with the ACA's cheap plans that do nothing to fix it either. We are seeing family plans with $10k a year out of pocket deductibles before the insurance even kicks in.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-15/obamacare-deductibles-26-higher-make-cheap-rates-a-risk.html

BTW, I didn't think anyone didn't know about this which I commented about. I guess you can stay inside your bubble all you want.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304527504579171710423780446

If the experiments are reproducible, it's science.

Apparently it's biochemistry that is not a science.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203764804577059841672541590

Here a better link to the Wall Street Journal article that'll work for non-subscribers. Summary: Switzerland recently put in place some transparency rules and limits on golden parachutes, etc, but the voters decided against a strict limit on salaries (or. more properly, salary ratio) by a wide margin.

How the hell did 'nuclear' get in that sentence? Heck a court -just- lifted a 750m a year tax they've been putting on nuclear for a nuclear waste storage facility that was never built.

Yeah so there's this giant market called "China"....

The largest smart phone market, actually. Samsung has a market share of 21%, while Apple has a market share of 6%. China has several domestic vendors also.

Someone asked, here's the answer: a whole lot better than the labwork you get now. Example: HDL tests are allowed to have a 30% margin of error. Theranos' tests are accurate to within 10%.

Was it also a BUG in Google's documentation when they stated that they didn't track Safarai users?

"In Google's case, the findings appeared to contradict some of Google's own instructions to Safari users on how to avoid tracking. Until recently, one Google site told Safari users they could rely on Safari's privacy settings to prevent tracking by Google." source

The point is not to switch. Every one of the brands have nearly the same supply chain labor practices (do you think the Samsung device is made with labor conditions substantially different than an Apple device).

Actually it is. Samsung earlier this year had a leak of hydrofluoric (HF) acid that killed several of their workers and poisoned the environment. Of course, it's covered in a lot of places, but it barely made a ripple. As I recall, Samsung only had a small fine for that - something like $50k or so.

China Labor Watch has also found violations at lines making Samsung products. The same kind that plagued Apple a few years earlier.

Basically the factories make your product the way you want it. If it's Apple, they'll follow the necessary rules (and charge accordingly) imposed as well as the necessary quality.

The same lines can make high quality electronics, then make cheap counterfeit electronics the next. So one day the workers can make Apple products with all the worker protections Apple demands. Of course, Apple is forced to pay for it. They can make cheap Samsung phones the next day to the quality and worker protections Samsung wants.

Of course, consoles are using bottom of the barrel components, assembly procedures and worker protections.

(Of course, for a customer like Apple, Foxconn will set up dedicated factories and lines to make Apple products. Smaller customers will just have to share lines)

The point is not to switch. Every one of the brands have nearly the same supply chain labor practices (do you think the Samsung device is made with labor conditions substantially different than an Apple device).

Actually it is. Samsung earlier this year had a leak of hydrofluoric (HF) acid that killed several of their workers and poisoned the environment. Of course, it's covered in a lot of places, but it barely made a ripple. As I recall, Samsung only had a small fine for that - something like $50k or so.

China Labor Watch has also found violations at lines making Samsung products. The same kind that plagued Apple a few years earlier.

Basically the factories make your product the way you want it. If it's Apple, they'll follow the necessary rules (and charge accordingly) imposed as well as the necessary quality.

The same lines can make high quality electronics, then make cheap counterfeit electronics the next. So one day the workers can make Apple products with all the worker protections Apple demands. Of course, Apple is forced to pay for it. They can make cheap Samsung phones the next day to the quality and worker protections Samsung wants.

Of course, consoles are using bottom of the barrel components, assembly procedures and worker protections.

(Of course, for a customer like Apple, Foxconn will set up dedicated factories and lines to make Apple products. Smaller customers will just have to share lines)

HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN
All your base load are belong to US
You are on the way to destruction.
What you say??
Make your time.

Every time some company like Google announces funding for some Tempest or Solaris farm somewhere I wince. It's not the money, it's the very idea of the thing. The Internet is 24/7, and they're supposed to be the smartest guys & gals in the room. How can they get behind and forge ahead on something that won't even solve their own problems?

How did this decades-long solar slash wind fixation even begin?? Why don't at least half the folks out there pause and say, "wait a minute... what are we trying to accomplish?" I'm developing an honest resentment to those so-called 'green' things, and believe me it's not comfortable or fun. Truth is, wind and solar smell bad.

They smell like grid-down Darwin In Action DEATH. If I can easily imagine some awful Event that would render all solar and wind technology useless overnight, for a week or longer... who else can? Take your pick: Dust from a volcanic event or asteroid impact, or a Winter storm with Arctic air meeting warm moist air from the South that sweeps diagonally across the continent with freezing rain, leaving inches of ice accumulation, road and rail impassible.

Or a Little Ice Age. We are more vulnerable to harsh Winter conditions than we were in 1650-1700. Electricity powers everything. Some scientists are baffledby the sun's behavior lately, but Professor Lockwood and the Washington Post aren't: Sun activity is in free fall, but you shouldn’t expect a new little ice age. I did a triple-facepalm when atmospheric physicist Joanna Haigh said, "Even under the most optimistic scenario [of minimal global warming and a deep solar minimum] the solar cooling would only just offset greenhouse gas warming. So no ice age.” Just like that. Human carbon emissions will offset a global weather phenomenon that lasted some 70-300 years. What makes her so sure?

Wind and Solar for grid energy are Rube Goldberg engineering disasters. So many precision cast moving parts out there in the elements, blades that rely on brakes and oil-filled transmission boxes. Everything subject to freeze and fail sooner than intended, and it's all in faraway places with branch feeders running to it at great expense, so it can solve your energy problems completely. Or maybe 20%. Some day. Some times. Not as much as expected. After the first calamity strikes, not at all.

Power plants are strong buildings with machinery inside built to withstand the worst of the elements. The best of these are completely self-contained, generate gigawatts of power and can stock months of fuel. Three guesses.

Solar and Wind grid energy farms are spacious gardens of delicate -- and ultimately useless -- garbage that never would have and will not ensure our survival, built at great expense in an atmosphere of dreamlike foolishness that has got to stop this minute.

My children deserve better. This is madness, people! Ape-shit madness! When discussing base load grid power, especially with aging infrastructure and an uncertain economic outlook... these sources should have been laughed out of the room. Google deserves better, as do we. This is an existential threat. Their money at this point would be better spent on T-shirts for natural gas producers and coal miners.

Or just perhaps... a commitment to fast-track thorium, a national effort on the same scale that put men on the moon. So we can crack this energy thing for the next thousand years, and go to the moon again.

And let's send women to the moon. It's their turn.

Some Google Talks. They should listen.

That means that for each 100 people abused by the TSA or just detained for a deeper inspection, 50 were found guilty of something? Or must be read like it could be random chance throwing 100 dices and that all hit 6?

Anyway, if they are forced to improve numbers, they will find enough victims, after all everyone commits 3 felonies a day

Nissan has a long way to go to catch up in truck sales. http://wap.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html

It's not dead yet.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/11/11/best-buy-sp-500s-best-performer-getting-still-more-praise/

They are not out of the woods, but things like price matching amazon have helped a lot. I've personally not bought from Best Buy in a long time, but recently after buying something on Amazon I checked how much it would of cost at Best Buy and realized for a little more I could of had it that day for about the same price.

Polaroid? Borders? That's old news.

Non-Academic Administrators include people like me. I'm a librarian.

Yes, I know what the phrase means, and I didn't mean to imply anything bad about all administrative (or "non-academic") positions -- AT ALL. I'm all for libraries and librarians. Apparently, if this blog is to be believed, the issue at this particular school is that there's also a significant amount of jobs going to friends of existing administrators going on in administrative hiring. I have no idea whether these claims are true, but the implication of the blog is that unnecessary jobs are being "created" and sometimes unqualified people are getting them.

This is NOT an indictment of all administrative staff at all institutions, let alone those who provide important services to students.

On the other hand, the reality of budgets at many schools is that administrative costs are rising at alarming rates (along with costs for new buildings and facilities, etc.), while academic budgets are static or going down, with more and more adjunct faculty hired at levels below minimum wage just to cover basic teaching needs.

These are general trends, and this blog seems to claim that one university has some particularly problematic stuff going on. Again, I have no idea how true it is, but that's the subject of this thread.

That "Non-Academic" phrase gets thrown around a lot and frequently includes people like guidance counselors who DO have an impact on student success.

Yep. That's great. SOME "non-academic" growth is certainly necessary at many universities to provide various kinds of student services, whether that's a career counselor or just an extra person at the registrar's office to facilitate student access to records.

The issue is the rate of growth relative to academic areas, making these administrative costs a significant driver of increasing tuition rates, as discussed in many news stories in the past few years. In many cases, these "administrative" staff have increased anywhere from 5 to 10 TIMES the rate at which faculty and academic staff have increased.

I'm all for providing student services, but if all of these guidance counselors and librarians, etc. are necessary for student success, what had colleges been doing before these giant increases in administrative hiring in the past decade? How could they possibly have functioned before with so few administrators?

I'm not at all saying that administration is somehow "bad" -- it's just that the growth seems disproportionate to other areas, and I'm certainly not the only person to have commented on that trend in the past few years.

I looked at the blog and all I saw was a bunch of petty complaints. Things that may technically be true, but are not anywhere near the horrendous scandal that the blog's author tries to claim.

I'm also an external observer to all of this, but I think if you had read further, you might see the point of all of these seeming "petty" details.

Basically, it sounds like a blog aimed at a huge increase in non-academic administration personnel. Apparently, in the past 4 years or so, the number of non-academic administrators and staff has risen by almost 50%, from 76 people to 112 people, while the rest of the university (including academics, etc.) has remained relatively stable. Salaries and numbers of upper-level administrators apparently also have risen significantly.

I have no idea about the internal stuff that might be going on here, but a 50% increase in non-academic staff at a university in just a few years, while the rest of the university doesn't grow, does seem like an issue that people might care about.

But, if you haven't heard, there's a significant concern these days with the large amount of administrators and administrative staff being hired at colleges, which has apparently significantly contributed to the huge increases in college tuition at many schools.

The random stories you refer to apparently are related to the way that some administrators are refusing to hire professors or consider them qualified on the basis of some minor details in their academic credentials:

[The administrator] has also taken it upon himself to uphold the highest standards of the academy by weighing in on degrees and the quality of schools attended by CSU faculty applicants (across disciplines, it seems like he has a Ph.D. in everything). He has apparently decided that no one without a Ph.D. in hand should be hired at Chicago State and has often expressed the notion that CSU faculty should be able to "transfer" to Harvard.

Etc. The blogger seems to be responding in kind, by picking apart some minor details in the credentials of the new administrative staff.

Is some of this "petty"? Probably.

But that doesn't mean there aren't larger issues buried if you read more than the top two blog posts.

US prisons are full because it is profitable for the companies that run them. If crime drops enough, then they will find a way to keep them full anyway, and a surveillance/police state is a guarantee that they will succeed at that.

That the Wii U is a flop is a matter of fact, not opinion. Just look at the sales figures, it's selling worse than the Gamecube.

[citation needed]

My research suggests you're flat out lying.

Nintendo's Wii U Sells Out in First Week in U.S. Stores

That's correct. But remarkably, we are (recently) a net exporter of oil products:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203441704577068670488306242

As I understand it, we put more effort into refineries, and apparently it's cheaper for some countries to let us import it, process it, and ship it. I'm not sure why more countries don't build their own refineries. Expertise? Pollution controls? Other needed raw materials?

Haiyan is the name given to the super typhoon by the World Meteorological Organization (source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24863480 )

What I understood is that the Philippines counts the number of storms that hit the country (this is the 25th this year!!), so in their counting, it gets a name with a Y. (Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/11/08/from-haiyan-to-yolanda-how-the-philippines-names-its-storms/ )

Foie gras used to simply be a kosher source of cooking fat (since lard isn't kosher). It wasn't until the French gourmands elevated it to a delicacy.

Citation needed. Ancient Egyptians made foie gras too (or effectively the same thing). They were worried about it being kosher?

The practice of fattening geese became nearly extinct during the dark ages except for the fact the Jews kept the practice alive.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB121207726422829649

My previous analysis

Simply:

One: Schedule Fail. Compounded by late award of the contracts to develop/influence:

Contracts Awarded Dec 2011

Two: massive requirements base to develop specification for development and implementation: The PPACA was 1800+ pages, and the associated regulations are 10,000+ pages, and are STILL changing. Can't develop without a spec and design, with big parts of requirements still changing.

Three: inadequate testing. The above-referenced link states that security testing BEGAN in August 2013, less than two months before rollout. There's no mention of load testing.
UPDATE: There WAS load testing, Radio reports say it was tested with a 1000-user simultaneous load. EXPECTED was 60K simultaneous users. . .
However, the only CONCRETE numbers I've found say it crashed at several hundred simultaneous users. . . .

Four: Integration issues. The Obamacare Exchange system combines data from numerous agencies and systems, and integrating between them is always a difficult task.

Five: Identity-management. This is in parallel to Integration, somehow all identities need to be federated into a single overarching system.

Twenty-three (now 25) months, even with a top-flight team, would simply not be enough to do this: this is a 5-7 year job. . .

Someone once described American liberalism as confusing wishes with facts.

Well said. To believe that, for the first time in history, we could impose a massive new bureacracy and 13,000+ pages of new regulations on an industry, and not see its costs shoot through the roof, is an extreme example of wishful thinking.

Somebody is a bit touchy today, aren't we?

Maybe you should read about a cancer victim who has effectively had their access taken away by Obamacare.

Can't stand for people to learn the REAL impact of Obamacare, can you?

Her private insurance company stopped offering coverage, which they could have done at any time regardless of the ACA, so now she has to choose from the remaining companies/plans offered. I feel for her, but she would have probably hit this wall with her previous company at some time anyway, regardless of the ACA. Private insurance companies are notorious for pulling out, dropping coverage or raising plan prices - causing healthy people to switch plans and squeezing the remaining sick people who, until the ACA, couldn't switch due to pre-existing conditions.

The impact of the ACA is that millions of people can now get effective, affordable insurance - perhaps, in some cases, elsewhere. The ACA didn't force her company to drop out, they simply chose to, which, as private companies, they can do anytime.

Can't stand to get REAL information from someone other than Rupert Murdoch, can you?

Somebody is a bit touchy today, aren't we?

Maybe you should read about a cancer victim who has effectively had their access taken away by Obamacare.

Can't stand for people to learn the REAL impact of Obamacare, can you?

Lest we forget, a large number of submissions from the paid journals had data that was not reproducible

I admit my eyes started to glaze over and I didn't finish reading TFS because it seemed like a lot of hand waving and busy work to no real efect, but isn't this proposal, well, a lot of hand waving and busy work to no real effect?

The only way I see to "hoax-proof" a journal is to require reproduction of the results during peer review.

But don't all serious fields have that already? Getting through the review process for publication is just the first step--not all published results are inducted into the cannon of acepted knowledge. Publication basically just puts the method and results out there to be examined by a larger audience.

Which is why publications aren't a good measuring stick--for an indivual theory or personal success. The real measure is citations. If lots of other papers are citing a paper (and not just to say they couldn't reproduce the original results) you have a better chance that paper is not a hoax. If someone has a long list of publications with many citations, that person is likely trust-worthy.

Lest we forget, a large number of submissions from the paid journals had data that was not reproducible

That doesn't make it fraudulent.

Lest we forget, a large number of submissions from the paid journals had data that was not reproducible

You mean the one in utah? http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304441404579119490744478398 Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/10/08/2-Billion-NSA-Spy-Center-Going-Flames http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2013/10/08/fiery-explosions-rock-nsa-data-center.html 10 fiery explosions, known as arc-fault failures, have ripped apart machinery, melted metal and destroyed circuits. No because the govt couldn't design and implement a billion dollar data storage center. they could show what happen when you have an arc-fault failure. Arc Flash is the result of a rapid release of energy due to an arcing fault between a phase bus bar and another phase bus bar, neutral or a ground. During an arc fault the air is the conductor. Arc faults are generally limited to systems where the bus voltage is in excess of 120 volts. Lower voltage levels normally will not sustain an arc. An arc fault is similar to the arc obtained during electric welding and the fault has to be manually started by something creating the path of conduction or a failure such as a breakdown in insulation. So why did we except anything less from the website?

The NSA’s new data-storage center in Utah has suffered a series of mysterious meltdowns in the past year.

Officials told the Wall Street Journal that 10 fiery explosions, known as arc-fault failures, have ripped apart machinery, melted metal and destroyed circuits. The repeated meltdowns have delayed the opening of the one-million square foot facility by 12 months.

But the Anonymous GP may be right suspecting, the failure is deliberate... Obama's personal favorite healthcare model — as well as that of the rest of the Left — is "single-payer" (a.k.a. "Medicare for all"). Perhaps, it was calculated by our benevolent and sophisticated Democratic overlords, that the failure of Obamacare will make introducing the outright Socialist construct more palatable to the electorate.

Political ploy?

Noo... what makes you think that?

vehicle speedometers are required to read 100km/h when actually doing 95km/h (or your local equivalent)

Source please?

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/speedometer-scandal
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123119286106955181
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/car-tips/why-you-may-not-be-driving-as-fast-as-you-think/article11487709/

In general, German cars are known to exaggerate speed by up to 10% in order to guarantee compliance with European law (ECE-R39).

In the U.S., it's been historically common to "detune" speedometers in rental cars to exaggerate the speed, and therefore clock up additional miles which are then charged to the renter. It's also been historically common to roll back odometers prior to sales of cars coming from rental fleets to increase their market price as used cars. Both of these practices are illegal these days, but as shown in the articles above, you can get up to a 10% exaggeration in cars which are explicitly within manufacturer specifications, which translates into 10% more miles on your rental bill, if you rent a car from one of those manufacturers.

This WSJ article seems to be the source of Der Spiegel: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304470504579162110180138036

I know you're being facetious, but the car itself has a helmet. It's called a "roof" and the federal government has various requirements regarding the strength of the roof. If you don't have a roof, there are other safety regulations requiring rollbars and the like.

Now, if you think the federal government should also be involved in setting safety standards for bicycles...

obama is a puppet, he is owned by his handlers (military/industrial complex & wallstreet & federal reserve) and he does exactly what they want him to do

So, you are thinking that they wanted:

- The sequester to cut $50 billion per year out of the defense budget? (With the MIC already down to 4-5% of GDP from 9.3% in 1962?)

GDP in 1962 was $3.1 trillion, while it is $13.75 trillion today. So defense spending has gone from $288.3 billion to $618.75 billion. You think the MIC would be unhappy with that? It may be down in recent years; don't think so short term. The fear of terrorism isn't going away, and thus neither is the defense and intelligence money.

- Massive new financial regulations on loans, consumer credit, and much increased Federal government oversight?

The financial industry fought against the financial reforms and were successful in weakening them before passage. Dodd-Frank was better than nothing, but it didn't do as much as it needed to to really stave off future financial catastrophe. Too big to fail is still too big.

- Massive increases to Federal regulations across most sectors of the economy which raise the cost of business and threaten uncertainty?

Massive? Such as?

- The Obamacare debacle?

You think they seek their own weakening or destruction? I think you haven't thought that through all the way.

They're the Elite, not deities. A bad website roll out is evidence against Elite control of government?

As far as seeking one's own destruction, think about this: When asset prices go down it is a buying opportunity for those with the means. So when the stock market or housing market crashes and sends asset prices down, you could say that is bad for the rich because they lose value in their investments. Or you could say it is good because they have so much money, it doesn't matter and they are able to pick up equities and real estate at bargain prices. They know the price will eventually recover, so they come out better in the end. Likewise, a bad economy can help the wealthy because labor becomes really cheap. You think a billionaire cares about a "bad economy"? His lifestyle doesn't change, so what does he care? Besides, 95% of the gains from the most recent recovery went to the top 1%. So it seems their interests are being served just fine.

It's disingenous to suggest a gun control measure that affects a tiny part of an open country is indicative of any likely result of any future legislation that affects the whole of the nation.

Now you're just blatantly moving the goal-posts... Neither you nor anyone else mentioned nation-wide regulations specifically.

However, there ARE plenty of examples of those as well:

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jun/28/opinion/oe-lott28

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323468604578245803845796068

http://www.examiner.com/article/gun-statistics-cast-doubt-on-weapons-ban

Where is the evidence of this sharp rise, where is proof of the correlation?

I linked to many, and you're just playing dumb and pretending it's not there. You can use any of those as a jumping off point to get even more facts and figures. But of course, you don't WANT to do that, and would rather feign ignorance.

RUGBY, N.D.—Wheat has long dominated the windswept farm fields of the northern Great Plains. But increasingly, farmers here are switching to corn, reflecting how climate change, advancements in biotechnology and high corn prices are pushing the nation's Corn Belt northward.
...
The shift, which is occurring in northern Minnesota and Canada's Manitoba province as well, shows how warming temperatures and hardier seeds are enabling farmers to grow corn in areas once deemed inhospitable to the crop."

Concentrations of money and power? http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203752604576641683529031952

It's both sides. Sadly it takes a "global economic meltdown" (see link) to attempt to negotiate with the president, but even that failed. https://www.google.com/finance?q=INDEXDJX%3A.DJI%2CINDEXSP%3A.INX%2CINDEXNASDAQ%3A.IXIC&ei=3fFiUpCDGdGu0AHIKQ

Yet again, Republicans fail because they can't get their shit together and provide one coherent message and the Democrats keep getting what they want.

Sorry, but you are confused. Progressive lobbyists helped the Democrats write that bill. Republicans had nothing to do with it. (Are you going to call the President of the Center For American Progress* (a fellow "progressive") a liar when she claims credit for her work?

Center For American Progress* President Shares Part In Obamacare: "I Helped Write The Bill"

In any event there were substantial practical differences between the two plans. The policy from Heritage was never an unqualified mandate.

For the benefit of any other readers, here is the article he finds so objectionable: ObamaCare's Heritage . Here is the Amicus brief Heritage filed with the Appeals Court explaining its position.

I will also note you've really only disagreed with me, not "debunked" my position. That would be difficult for you to do since I'm simply relying on the facts. But please, disagree with the Center for American Progress*. They need more opposition.

* Not at all either a Republican or conservative think tank.

Oh no, no, no. ACA was passed on a party line vote. It was what the Democrats would support that was the limiting factor. As it was they passed it by hook or by crook, with plenty of pork bribes to key holdouts.

House Passes Historic Health Bill

The House gave final passage to the Senate's health legislation on a climactic 219-to-212 vote, as Democrats muscled the measure through on the strength of the party's big majority. In the final roll call, no House Republican voted for the bill, and 34 Democrats voted no, many of them representing Republican-leaning districts.

A short while later, the House, voting 220 to 211, approved a companion bill making changes to the Senate bill, a measure necessary to attract support in the House. Those changes now head to the Senate, where action is expected this week. All Republicans voted against the companion bill, as did 33 Democrats.

And China's markets are not free enough to regulate excesses; central planning leads to vast wastes of resources, such as building "ghost cities": http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324412604578515382905495900

Universal Health Care doesn't work everywhere. I have relatives in France, and while HealthCare there IS Universal, it is Universally Bad. Most people try to avoid the system as much as possible because of how bad it is. AND it is going bankrupt.

... national insurance system has been running deficits since 1985 — it currently stands at $13.5 billion.

http://blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/2007/06/29/is-french-health-care-really-better/

Of course, if all you read is HuffPo you have a different view of the world.

And actually, my view is that Insurance should be for CATASTROPHIC care, like Car Insurance. Meaning you take care of the Oil, WiperBlades, Brakes, regular Maint stuff, and only use insurance for accidents. Doctor Visits, Prescriptions, basic tests, minor expenses should not be covered by insurance. ONCE the marketplace is engaged again, you'll see competition lower the price and improve over all quality, by giving people the means to find what works best for them.

I'd also like to see universal pricing by Health Care providers, such as Hospitals and Clinics. One price for everyone, no discounts for being in one insurance rather than another. The idea of "negotiated pricing" is a huge part of the problem.

I would love to see Emergency Rooms be able to turn people away if they were deemed to not be an "emergency", and sent to a clinic / free health care center. I recently had an "accident" (to be covered by insurance, see above) with my eye. I sat in the Emergency room for two hours because wait caused by people in there because of "flu like symptoms" and the like.

Finally, I would love to see incentives by government rather than demands. We are slowly turning into a state where government runs people, rather than the other way around. Remember, this Republic was supposed to be Of, By and For the People but lately it seems to exist for itself.