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You know, until that happened, you'd just be a tin-foil hat wearer, without a shred of credibility to you. Actually, you still are. But thanks to the colossal mistake of a couple of people in the IRS and Obama's total and complete inability to deal with a scandal, that singular act has managed to make the tinfoil hat crowd look more credible than the government.

Well, you know what, okay. Out of the thousands of times Obama and the "rabid liberals" have gotten it right, after six years of constant, sustained, unending attempts by the Republicans to find something, anything, to sink Obama even if it means repeatedly punching themselves in the face (Comeon guys, with all the major issues out there, your party platform for the previous four years has been trying to ensure Obama didn't get re-elected. Petty much?)... I suppose yes, with that much scrutiny eventually something had to pan out.

So take this one, singular victory. Have it, it's yours. You can feel righteous for a bit now -- you have a right to be upset

Well, that's mighty white of you. You are indeed a generous spirit.

True Scandal - A tea-party group ... gets attention from the IRS—and the FBI, OSHA, and the ATF.
The IRS Fiasco Is Only The Tip Of The Iceberg
A Frequent Visitor to the White House

...Douglas Shulman, Commissioner from 2008 to 2012, during the Obama administration, visited the White House 118 times just in 2010 and 2011. His successor, Steven Miller, also visited “numerous” times.

Lawmakers say IRS targeted dozens more conservative groups than initially believed

The IRS targeting of conservative groups is far broader than first reported, with nearly 500 organizations singled out for additional scrutiny, according to two lawmakers briefed by the agency

IRS Admits Targeting “Tea Party” Groups
The New Nixon This time, the press cheered as the IRS investigated the president's opponents.
Tea party groups call IRS process 'nightmare'
IRS approved liberal groups while Tea Party in limbo
Curious IRS Timing - Did the tax agency also target groups that support Israel?
Obamacare + IRS = gangster government
7 Questions That The IRS Inappropriately Asked Of Tea Party Groups
The IRS’s Tea-Party Targeting - An apology, but no explanation
Did The IRS Try To Swing Election To Obama?

Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert

You know, until that happened, you'd just be a tin-foil hat wearer, without a shred of credibility to you. Actually, you still are. But thanks to the colossal mistake of a couple of people in the IRS and Obama's total and complete inability to deal with a scandal, that singular act has managed to make the tinfoil hat crowd look more credible than the government.

Well, you know what, okay. Out of the thousands of times Obama and the "rabid liberals" have gotten it right, after six years of constant, sustained, unending attempts by the Republicans to find something, anything, to sink Obama even if it means repeatedly punching themselves in the face (Comeon guys, with all the major issues out there, your party platform for the previous four years has been trying to ensure Obama didn't get re-elected. Petty much?)... I suppose yes, with that much scrutiny eventually something had to pan out.

So take this one, singular victory. Have it, it's yours. You can feel righteous for a bit now -- you have a right to be upset

Well, that's mighty white of you. You are indeed a generous spirit.

True Scandal - A tea-party group ... gets attention from the IRS—and the FBI, OSHA, and the ATF.
The IRS Fiasco Is Only The Tip Of The Iceberg
A Frequent Visitor to the White House

...Douglas Shulman, Commissioner from 2008 to 2012, during the Obama administration, visited the White House 118 times just in 2010 and 2011. His successor, Steven Miller, also visited “numerous” times.

Lawmakers say IRS targeted dozens more conservative groups than initially believed

The IRS targeting of conservative groups is far broader than first reported, with nearly 500 organizations singled out for additional scrutiny, according to two lawmakers briefed by the agency

IRS Admits Targeting “Tea Party” Groups
The New Nixon This time, the press cheered as the IRS investigated the president's opponents.
Tea party groups call IRS process 'nightmare'
IRS approved liberal groups while Tea Party in limbo
Curious IRS Timing - Did the tax agency also target groups that support Israel?
Obamacare + IRS = gangster government
7 Questions That The IRS Inappropriately Asked Of Tea Party Groups
The IRS’s Tea-Party Targeting - An apology, but no explanation
Did The IRS Try To Swing Election To Obama?

Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert

Something similar going on in Iran?

Support for Hezbollah and destabilization of Lebanon going on 30 years now, exportation of militant Islam and terrorism, a pact with North Korea to share nuclear bomb technology, "Since the 1980s North Korea has become known as a reliable supplier of arms to other countries including Iran." And of course Iran's repeated threats and calling for the destruction of Israel, a threat which you may not take seriously but if Iran did actually act on it would result in the entire middle east going up like a pool of gasoline. Yes, something similar is going on in Iran. And you're acting like an idiot. You should start taking the problems in the middle east seriously. The region is about to turn very ugly very quickly, more so than in the past.

Tesla's not turning a profit due to focusing on an electric car. According to this WSJ story http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324659404578499460139237952.html it's due to selling pollution credits to other car makers.

How stupid are journalists alowed to be without getting fired? Look at this: Tesla acknowledged in a recent SEC filing that emissions credit sales hit $85 million in 2013's first quarter alone—15% of its revenue, and the only reason it made a profit.

No, it isn't the only reason it made a profit. Tesla made a profit from selling cars. This is a by-product of selling electric cars in the USA (only). The editor of this paper must believe his readers have negative intelligence. Yes, if you take away a major source of income from any company without replacing it with another income, then some numbers will turn red. No wonder he became a journalist if he thinks that is news. His supply of "news" is endless.

Tesla can take much higher prices if they want to, and still sell everything they make. The price tag is higher in Europe, where they don't get those pollution credits. If you order a Tesla Model S now, at least in Europe, it won't get delivered until next year. The car is immensely popular despite it's price tag.

Tesla's not turning a profit due to focusing on an electric car. According to this WSJ story http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324659404578499460139237952.html it's due to selling pollution credits to other car makers. Add to that the tax credits offered by State and Federal income tax, a large loan from the US federal government and federal grants - well we're not talking about a business model that stands on just selling a better electric car idea.

Yeah unions are great. That steel industry sure is kicking ass and the cost/quality of American cars can't be beat!

The Germans and Japanese don't seem to have any trouble building competitive cars with union labor. So either American unions are considerably worse than their counterparts in other countries, or the problem lies somewhere else. The Big Three haven't exactly had brilliant management. In fact, their management has traditionally been crappy and shortsighted.

German workers get paid much more than American workers and even have representation on corporate boards. Yet manufacturing in Germany is thriving and the quality of their goods is among the best in the world.

Probably the same reason that Greece bought a billion dollars' worth of German submarines in 2010 ( http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703636404575352991108208712.html ). Italy cooperates with Germany on building subs, and they've been buying since 2008. Why? Military-industrial complex: there's sufficient vested interest, so wasteful projects will be pushed through legislatures and bureaucracies because the right people will be paid to support them. The continuation of the projects ensures that funds for corruption will be replenished, because corruption is remarkably self-sustaining (hence why it's so hard to root out).

Or maybe they realized that keeping good relations with an Ally that has the largest defense budget in the world means acting as a puppet for that Ally in a "you're either with us or against us" way, so they want their own defense force so they don't have so much military dependence on that Ally.

You left out the part that the only reason the cops came for him is because of a government program that is targeting ex-military monitoring everything they are posting on-line "just in case."

...except that that's not the purpose of that operation. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124501849215613523.html#mod=rss_US_News

It's an operation designed to find lone wolf type terrorists, not one designed specifically to target ex-military.

What you have here is an individual who made loud enough rants against the government they got the notice they so desperately wanted, in such a way as they were deemed to be a possible threat to others, who after normal a normal psychiatric hold was deemed not to be as mentally unstable as they initially thought he was, then some ideological conservative anti-government group pushing him to sue the government and inflate this incident to some big bad conspiracy theory... like conservatives just have to do anymore because they seem to be devoid of normal cognitive reasoning.

Oh.. and, of course, now all the other anti-government conspiracy nutcases are jumping on the bandwagon.

It largely depends on what you consider failure. WSJ cites that if you base success on breaking-even, 95% of start-ups fail, but if you base it on businesses failing so badly that investors are left with nothing at all, then it's closer to 30-40%.

They both exist to keep deranged Wingnuts angry and stupid so they don't wise up and turn back into Conservatives..

Apparently they succeeded. ;D

But, just for fun, here are some more links.

A Timeline Of The IRS's Scrutiny Of The Right

2011

Dec. 16: Despite being briefed about the matter six months earlier, Lerner does not divulge the flagging of conservative groups when she and others from the IRS meet staff members of the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss the issue, according to the staff's timeline of events.

Tea party groups call IRS process 'nightmare'
Higher-Ups Knew of IRS Case
Reality Check Exclusive: Cincinnati agent giving orders in IRS scandal?
It Didn’t End - The IRS is still stringing conservative groups along

Now I'm curious though, when were you last conservative?

I never said corporate income tax was not meant to be collected, nor did I say it wasn't collected. I said corporations didn't "pay much" in income tax. I grant that is rather subjective, but it is still non-zero.

You said that it was by design. I'm saying otherwise :-)

I challenge you to find a corporation that is paying ZERO in taxes, which is the phrase the article used.

"Despite reporting net income of $30 billion over the four-year period 2009 to 2012, Apple Operations International paid no corporate income taxes to any national government during that period,"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578495250424727708.html

In 2011, another Ireland-based Apple unit, Apple Sales International, which sells iPhones, iPads MacBooks and other products to overseas distributors, recorded $22 billion in pretax earnings but paid just $10 million in taxes, investigators found. That works out to a rate of about .05%.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578495250424727708.html

"In April, Amazon was revealed to be routing its UK sales through its European headquarters in low-tax Luxembourg, meaning that last year its UK corporation tax bill was nil, despite revenue of £3bn from the sale of books, DVDs and other goods."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/good-bean-counters-starbucks-has-paid-no-tax-in-uk-since-2009-8212579.html

"Most of Google’s revenues in Europe are booked in Dublin, then shifted via royalty payments to a Dutch subsidiary, before whatever is left is recognised as profits by a subsidiary in Bermuda, which levies no income tax."
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21568432-starbuckss-tax-troubles-are-sign-things-come-multinationals-wake-up-and-smell

Regardless of localized sweetheart deals or incentive abatements or whatever, they are still paying fees, sales or VAT tax, and many more. Hence my retort that claiming a corporation pays "zero in taxes" is a gross distortion. Whether or not they should be paying more, or be allowed to structure in such a way to avoid paying certain taxes, is a different discussion.

Shrug. So close to zero as to be zero for all intents and purposes.

Individuals pay 'fees, sales or VAT tax and many more' as well and so what? This is not a valid reason to not pay income taxes.

With regard to these...companies don't pay VAT - they collect it from their customers and for what they do pay they have the right to claim it back from the government. Sales tax in the US on what they buy for themselves, yes. Not sure what fees you're talking about.

End result is that individuals are carrying the tax burden at all levels, not corporations.

I never said corporate income tax was not meant to be collected, nor did I say it wasn't collected. I said corporations didn't "pay much" in income tax. I grant that is rather subjective, but it is still non-zero.

You said that it was by design. I'm saying otherwise :-)

I challenge you to find a corporation that is paying ZERO in taxes, which is the phrase the article used.

"Despite reporting net income of $30 billion over the four-year period 2009 to 2012, Apple Operations International paid no corporate income taxes to any national government during that period,"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578495250424727708.html

In 2011, another Ireland-based Apple unit, Apple Sales International, which sells iPhones, iPads MacBooks and other products to overseas distributors, recorded $22 billion in pretax earnings but paid just $10 million in taxes, investigators found. That works out to a rate of about .05%.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578495250424727708.html

"In April, Amazon was revealed to be routing its UK sales through its European headquarters in low-tax Luxembourg, meaning that last year its UK corporation tax bill was nil, despite revenue of £3bn from the sale of books, DVDs and other goods."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/good-bean-counters-starbucks-has-paid-no-tax-in-uk-since-2009-8212579.html

"Most of Google’s revenues in Europe are booked in Dublin, then shifted via royalty payments to a Dutch subsidiary, before whatever is left is recognised as profits by a subsidiary in Bermuda, which levies no income tax."
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21568432-starbuckss-tax-troubles-are-sign-things-come-multinationals-wake-up-and-smell

Regardless of localized sweetheart deals or incentive abatements or whatever, they are still paying fees, sales or VAT tax, and many more. Hence my retort that claiming a corporation pays "zero in taxes" is a gross distortion. Whether or not they should be paying more, or be allowed to structure in such a way to avoid paying certain taxes, is a different discussion.

Shrug. So close to zero as to be zero for all intents and purposes.

Individuals pay 'fees, sales or VAT tax and many more' as well and so what? This is not a valid reason to not pay income taxes.

With regard to these...companies don't pay VAT - they collect it from their customers and for what they do pay they have the right to claim it back from the government. Sales tax in the US on what they buy for themselves, yes. Not sure what fees you're talking about.

End result is that individuals are carrying the tax burden at all levels, not corporations.

I'm enjoying a chuckle at the moment.

Richard Nixon -- the last great liberal

Herbert Stein, chief economic adviser during the administrations of Nixon and Gerald Ford, once remarked: “Probably more new regulation was imposed on the economy during the Nixon administration than in any other presidency since the New Deal.”

How many remember that Nixon was a champion of affirmative action? “Incredible but true”, as Fortune magazine put it in 1994 when Nixon died, “It was the Nixonites that gave us employment quotas.” Though many credit John F. Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson with initiating affirmative action, it was rather Richard Nixon who first sanctioned formal goals and time frames to break barriers to minority employment.

Social Security benefits, a cornerstone of the Democratic Party platform, were also crucial to Nixon’s policies. He ushered in a minimum tax on the wealthy and supported a guaranteed income for all Americans, a move that would rile today’s Republicans to unprecedented heights.

And finally, consider health care: Nixon’s proposed reform would have required employers to buy health insurance for their employees and subsidize those who couldn’t afford it. Nixon’s version of national health care was a far more liberal concept than Bill Clinton’s or Barack Obama’s—and it failed because of Democratic opposition, not lack of support from Nixon’s own party. (Ted Kennedy later said that opposing Nixon’s health-care plan was one of his biggest political regrets.) . . .more

Government regulation can become unduly burdensome for the intended purpose. I remember reading about a reform in government travel regulations a number of years ago that helps illustrate. The government was spending about 30% of the travel budget ensuring that there was no waste, fraud, or abuse in travel, which struck many people at the time as a form of waste, fraud, or abuse. The regulations were changed.

President Obama's stimulus plan has faced many hurdles, rendering it ineffective. A Stimulus Project Gets All Caulked Up

Oh, it's more than that. The IRS is the key enforcer for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Your Next IRS Political Audit - The tax agency is getting vast new power in health care
The IRS Is Accessing Your Health Records. You Trust Them?

The US Government needs to get the problems at that agency fixed, now. Between this and the suppression of political groups going on, this is intollerable and undemocratic. What did Franklin say? A Republic, if you can keep it?

The IRS’s Curious Immunity - It’s worse than the PATRIOT Act.

the claim of 97% support is deceptive. The surveys contained trivial polling questions that even we would agree with. Thus, these surveys find that large majorities agree that temperatures have increased since 1800 and that human activities have some impact. But what is being disputed is the size and nature of the human contribution to global warming.

(In addition it is somewhat disconcerting to me that the paper speaks in terms of 'tenets,' which is a synonym for dogma. Science should rise above dogma).

The Trenberth letter states: "Research shows that more than 97% of scientists actively publishing in the field agree that climate change is real and human caused." However, the claim of 97% support is deceptive. The surveys contained trivial polling questions that even we would agree with. Thus, these surveys find that large majorities agree that temperatures have increased since 1800 and that human activities have some impact.

source

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/ebooks04112012b.pdf from the filing

"The purpose of this lawsuit is to enjoin the Publisher Defendants and Apple from further violations of the nation's antitrust laws and to restore the competition that has been lost due to the Publisher Defendants' and Apple's illegal acts. Defendants'
ongoing conspiracy and agreement have caused e-book consumers to pay tens of millions of dollars more for e-booksthan they otherwise would have paid"

...it could be that I'm irrational :)

Yeah, as the OP said, there is a lot of concern about Putin's crackdown on human rights. Why, the rumor is that he is using the tax administration to harass opponents and that his chief Justice has grabbed phone records from news agencies that don't tow the line.

Fortunately, such things would never happen in the US.

"We know that carbon dioxide has been a much larger fraction of the earth's atmosphere than it is today, and the geological record shows that life flourished on land and in the oceans during those times. The incredible list of supposed horrors that increasing carbon dioxide will bring the world is pure belief disguised as science."

Wall Street Journal

Pardon me for pointing out that DSM-5 is the replacement. Currently they're using DSM-IV, which is a lot smaller.

The larger point, exposed by this "update", is that the categories are essentially arbitrary and apparently not based on anything falsifiable, ie not anything resembling science.

Yes, I know. That is why it need to be replaced, preferably with something systematic, as indicated above.

As it stands, brain imaging can identify psychopaths , and is showing useful things about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder . I expect there will be more to come in that regard. Then there is also the fascinating feedback that can occur between behavior and brain function and activity. Good and bad behavior can become self-reinforcing. Then there is the role of nutrition in various aspects of brain function and behavior. Biochemistry is continuing to provide new insights, and new approaches. We are continuing to learn important lessons about something so seemingly common as sleep and its disorders that effect people's memory, attention, and behavior. Even classic psychology and psychiatry have insights that will have to be considered. It all plays a part. On the other hand, in a lot of ways it seems like we are still groping in the dark there is so much to learn. One thing seems likely to me is we are likely to find more conditions that will end up requiring a multidisciplinary approach to treat.

Another interesting question will come when various aberrant behaviors are scientifically identified as such, but they end up being politically protected in either the scientific community, or the political establishment.

Choices, choices.

One wonders what could possibly go wrong regarding Syria.

Turkey claims evidence of Syrian chemical weapons use
UN accuses Syrian rebels of chemical weapons use
An Al-Qaeda Alliance in Syria Demands Response From U.S.
Al Qaeda's track record with chemical weapons

Even if there are chemical weapons laying around, they would still need to get them somewhere where they could be used. They would probably need help for that. Is any available?

US teen accused of seeking to join al Qaeda-linked Syrian group
Danish jihadist killed while fighting for Muhajireen Brigade in Syria

Iran recruiting volunteer troops for Syria
Hezbollah Steps Up in Syria as Israel Tries to Ease Tension

US Congressman: Hezbollah agents in US worse than al-Qaida
Peter King warns: Hezbollah agents in U.S.

Border porous for obvious reason
Official: Book of suicide bombers found in Arizona desert

. . .the book is published in Iran and contains biographies of Islamic suicide bombers and other Islamic militants who died while carrying out their attacks. . .

Yes indeed, what could possibly go wrong?

I would call your attention to the Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon, specifically Article II, Section 1. For further information, please see the letter from Rep. Darrell Issa (Admittedly, a bit a a partisan firebrand) to Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the head of this controversy dated 27 March, 2011. I would particularly call your attention to the list of demands that begin on page 2.

It seems possible that this is all what Ms. Lerner is claiming, the actions of a few low level employees seeking a way to streamline an admittedly arduous process, but if so, it demonstrates a level of political tone deafness so high as to boggle the mind.

The upshot is that something here stinks. Particularly given that President Obama has made jokes about auditing those he is unhappy with. This needs to be investigated, and investigated NOW.

America, land of the obese,

Don't worry, Europe is competitive - especially certain countries.

Obesity in America Compared to Europe

Europe is competing with the U.S. for first place in the obesity crisis. According to a report issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development out of Paris, more than half of European adults are overweight or obese. Obesity rates have doubled in the past 20 years for the 27 member states of the European Union. It is estimated that 1 in 7 children in these states is obese. The disparity among countries is significant, however. The prevalence of obesity is less than 10 percent in Romania and Italy, but greater than 20 percent in the UK, Ireland and Malta

-------

home of the gun NUT

Tough Targets - When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens
Stories That Happened In MI

In some countries, the following two people would likely be dead or badly injured. Can you figure out why they aren't?

80-year-old Flint man fires shots at five robbery suspects
Elderly Woman Shoots at Intruder

A rather different picture than what has happened in the UK.

Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control

Self-Defense: An Endangered Right

The withdrawal of a basic right of Englishmen is having dire consequences in Great Britain, and should serve as an object lesson for Americans. Today, in the name of public safety, the British government has practically eliminated the citizens’ right to self-defense. That did not happen all at once. The people were weaned from their fundamental right to protect themselves through a series of policies implemented over some 80 years. Those include the strictest gun regulations of any democracy, legislation that makes it illegal for individuals to carry any article that could be used for personal protection, and restrictive limits on the use of force in self-defense. . . .

-------

Yea, without huge-sodas and the ability to blow away your neighbours, America would have fallen to those commie-liberal-bastards a long time ago.

It might be too soon to tell.

The IRS’s Tea-Party Targeting

Cheers

It's not Nixonian until you come up with the tape of Obama telling his aides to sic the IRS on the people on his enemies list.

The question of Nixon's tapes didn't come up until investigators came looking for them. The real investigations haven't started on this. . . yet. And it needn't take a tape to be Nixonian. The key is the intent and activity, not the recording medium.

The Obama Campaign's Nixonian "White House Enemies List"

The Obama campaign is now marshaling the power of the office of the presidency against private citizens — using the Obama campaign’s “Truth Team” to target individual Romney donors and supporters in a way that is alarmingly reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s “Enemies List” — as documented in a May 10th piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel.

Obama's Enemies List
Strassel: Obama's Enemies List—Part II

It's not Nixonian until you come up with the tape of Obama telling his aides to sic the IRS on the people on his enemies list.

The question of Nixon's tapes didn't come up until investigators came looking for them. The real investigations haven't started on this. . . yet. And it needn't take a tape to be Nixonian. The key is the intent and activity, not the recording medium.

The Obama Campaign's Nixonian "White House Enemies List"

The Obama campaign is now marshaling the power of the office of the presidency against private citizens — using the Obama campaign’s “Truth Team” to target individual Romney donors and supporters in a way that is alarmingly reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s “Enemies List” — as documented in a May 10th piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel.

Obama's Enemies List
Strassel: Obama's Enemies List—Part II

Indeed. But streaming sports is available right now, if only for a subset of sports. I get all the streaming sports I need from Bein Sports, which for me amounts to the MotoGP and World Superbike races. They stream it from their site on a delay for free, or offer it up live for a modest fee. It's only a matter of time before an American entrepreneur puts together a similar service and inks a deal with the US-based sports-entertainment complex. Imagine being able to watch any game anywhere, anytime, on the device of your choice, free of commercial interruption. The non-sports entertainment complex was entrenched for decades, but it is all but gone, thanks to Netflix- and Hulu-like streamers. If Aereo is successful in the defense of their business model, they will be the first nail in the coffin, and Google is going to provide the rest. Google' acquisition of youtube several years ago and their recent announcement of subscription-based channels is, realistically, the death-knell for broadcast content on the planet.

Gun crime in the UK increased after the ban.

Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control

My career is better than ever and I am over 40. Think our society just wants us older people to go away after a certain age. I know a lot of people my age in my profession become PM's, what a sucky worthless job btw. I plan on programming until I drop dead. Just read this study. http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2013/04/30/older-software-developers-may-be-better-than-you-think/ BTW most of the thoughts about the decline in mental abilities after a certain age are also myths.

Simply not true - gun ownership among criminals in the uk is pretty low.

Nonetheless . . .

Joyce Lee Malcolm: Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control

NOW THEY'RE SCARED. NERDS WITH GUNS!!!!

Nerds with guns? What an idea.

Some Techies Hear Call of the Shooting Range

Eric S. Raymond's Home Page - Eric's Gun Nut Page

Nobody uses tablets for office software, accounting software, writing code, drawing graphics, rendering models, processing audio, data entry or anything else remotely tied to the real, corporate world.

i never implied they did... maybe you don't see the corporate world very clearly from your mom's basement, but the majority of the world that uses computers for work aren't doing those things you describe. they are selling, supporting, consulting, marketing, managing, stocktaking, etc in many different fields (sales and marketing is a significant part of the overall workforce though, and more often now are required to be on the move). you probably won't understand how tablets and other new technology feeds into this anyway, but to most the market is a pretty good indicator of what people are in fact using.

"PC shipments continue to slide as tablets and smartphone sales soar"
http://www.techdigest.tv/2013/04/pc_shipments_co.html

"Computer Sales in Free Fall: Quarterly Shipments Drop 14% as Windows 8 Fails to Stem Advance of iPads"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324695104578414973888155516.html

Car analogy:

BMW has a 1.8% share of the US auto market (source). BMW reported their second highest Q1 results ever last week.

Clearly, a low marketshare doesn't dictate if a company is successful or not.

Although the new technology may have an impact, it appears unlikely there will be significantly more restrictive gun control laws passed at the Federal level in the US. The public and the facts are against it overall. In various states, such as New York, Colorado, and California, there have been a number of new, highly restrictive laws passed, that at least in some cases are unpopular, are opposed by the police, and are unlikely to survive challenges in court. The brilliant governor in New York managed to get a law passed that outlawed even police weapons - New York is in the best of hands although California is a contender as well.

The idea that ordinary citizens can't protect themselves with guns is ridiculous.

Tough Targets - When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens
Stories That Happened In MI

What about the murder rate?

Murder by Numbers

Gun control's general effect on crime?

Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control
Crime soared with Mass. gun law
England has worse crime rate than the US, says Civitas study

Self-Defense: An Endangered Right

The withdrawal of a basic right of Englishmen is having dire consequences in Great Britain, and should serve as an object lesson for Americans. Today, in the name of public safety, the British government has practically eliminated the citizens’ right to self-defense. That did not happen all at once. The people were weaned from their fundamental right to protect themselves through a series of policies implemented over some 80 years. Those include the strictest gun regulations of any democracy, legislation that makes it illegal for individuals to carry any article that could be used for personal protection, and restrictive limits on the use of force in self-defense. . . .

Political support for more restrictive nation gun control measures in the US has fallen.

USA Today: Support for gun control bill falls below 50%
During a manhunt, 69 percent of voters want a gun
NRA Has 54% Favorable Image in U.S
Dems push gun control agenda in DC, but not in battleground states

Or the inconvenient fact that Hamas was created by Israel to undermine Fatah.

I think you'll find the truly inconvenient fact to be that your claim is wrong, a misreading of the facts. The facts are more subtle, and it is more a study in the law of unintended consequences. And please don't bother throwing this back at me from the article below since it will show you apparently either didn't read the article, comprehend the article, or both: ""Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation," says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. " That sentence from the article is more hyperbole than fact.

This is more informative:

How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas

When Israel first encountered Islamists in Gaza in the 1970s and '80s, they seemed focused on studying the Quran, not on confrontation with Israel. The Israeli government officially recognized a precursor to Hamas called Mujama Al-Islamiya, registering the group as a charity. It allowed Mujama members to set up an Islamic university and build mosques, clubs and schools. Crucially, Israel often stood aside when the Islamists and their secular left-wing Palestinian rivals battled, sometimes violently, for influence in both Gaza and the West Bank.

"When I look back at the chain of events I think we made a mistake," says David Hacham, who worked in Gaza in the late 1980s and early '90s as an Arab-affairs expert in the Israeli military. "But at the time nobody thought about the possible results."

Israeli officials who served in Gaza disagree on how much their own actions may have contributed to the rise of Hamas. They blame the group's recent ascent on outsiders, primarily Iran. This view is shared by the Israeli government. "Hamas in Gaza was built by Iran as a foundation for power, and is backed through funding, through training and through the provision of advanced weapons," Mr. Olmert said last Saturday. Hamas has denied receiving military assistance from Iran.

Arieh Spitzen, the former head of the Israeli military's Department of Palestinian Affairs, says that even if Israel had tried to stop the Islamists sooner, he doubts it could have done much to curb political Islam, a movement that was spreading across the Muslim world. He says attempts to stop it are akin to trying to change the internal rhythms of nature: "It is like saying: 'I will kill all the mosquitoes.' But then you get even worse insects that will kill you...You break the balance. You kill Hamas you might get al Qaeda."

--------

And the Likud charter lays claim to the occupied territories and denies any Palestinian state. Funny how the Zionist apologists never talk about that.

I take it then that you must be truly baffled by the fact that successive Likud Prime Ministers have ceded territory to the Palestinians, including withdrawing from Gaza? How is that possible if the charter is as you say? Perhaps there are subtleties to Israeli politics unaccounted for by the claims you post? Will you be including notice of the Likud concessions of territory in future posts about the Likud charter?

Likud

The third Likud premier was Benjamin Netanyahu, elected in May 1996, . . .

In 1998, Netanyahu reluctantly agreed to cede territory in the Wye River Memorandum. . . .

. . . early elections for Prime Minister were called for March 2001. Surprisingly, Netanyahu declined to be the Likud candidate for Prime Minister, meaning that the fourth Likud premier would be Ariel Sharon. Sharon, unlike past Likud leaders, had been raised in a Labour Zionist environment and had long been seen as something of a maverick. In the face of the Second Intifada, Sharon pursued a varied set of policies, many of which were controversial even within the Likud. T

Awesome, so as an employee *I* have to pay for my $700 smartphone -AND- the expectation will exist that I will be monitoring emails nights and weekends?

What a bargain for your employer, by chipping in $50-100/mo to pay for a fraction of your service plan, they get up to 20 hours per week of additional work out of you, according to this study:
http://www.techvibes.com/blog/byod-trend-is-making-employees-work-an-extra-20-hours-per-week-report-suggests-2012-08-22

This, on top of inflation-adjusted real wages that have not increased since 1973:
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/04/16/the-best-indicator-of-u-s-health-is-wage-growth-or-lack-thereof/

Slashdot headline next summer: "BYO Desk all the rage among newer workers"

Right now I can purchase real goods in exchange for bitcoin, not all from private, criminal nor insignificant parties. The links are not hard to find and it's far more pursuasive to let people find them for themselves than to list them, but for a starter, check https://www.spendbitcoins.com/places/. Many businesses such as Paypal (so says Chief Executive John Donahoe said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal) are starting to work on methods of using them which is what is driving the speculation.

See: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/04/30/could-paypal-be-on-horizon-for-bitcoin/

lol. record quarterly profits?

reality disagrees with you. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130124-717358.html

That is not the last quarterly result, this is: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/microsoft-posts-record-third-quarter-revenue-in-spite-of-flat-windows-numbers/

The rest of the world thinks that attitudes to guns in the United States are pretty fucked up.

No, not the entire world, although certainly many Europeans and leftists in general. But here is some material for you to gain some insights.

Tough Targets - When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens
Stories That Happened In MI

Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control

Self-Defense: An Endangered Right

The withdrawal of a basic right of Englishmen is having dire consequences in Great Britain, and should serve as an object lesson for Americans. Today, in the name of public safety, the British government has practically eliminated the citizens’ right to self-defense. That did not happen all at once. The people were weaned from their fundamental right to protect themselves through a series of policies implemented over some 80 years. Those include the strictest gun regulations of any democracy, legislation that makes it illegal for individuals to carry any article that could be used for personal protection, and restrictive limits on the use of force in self-defense. . . .

England has worse crime rate than the US, says Civitas study

Cheers

Figure it out.

Some Techies Hear Call of the Shooting Range
Tough Targets - When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens
Stories That Happened In MI

lol. record quarterly profits?

reality disagrees with you. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130124-717358.html

You can’t sell or give someone else your purchase; the license is for the “end user use only.”

You can play music, video and e-book content on up to five different computers – except for film rentals.

You can burn music playlists onto a disc seven times.

You can’t make copies for anything other than your own personal backup.

In practical – but legally grey — terms, people who want to pass on or sell digital media files could simply hand over a computer or iPod filled with the digital media. And, as with other digital accounts, there’s nothing stopping someone from handing over account details and passwords before they pass away, allowing a survivor to continue accessing their libraries.

While not designed to bequeath a library after death, the website Redigi.com has tried to set up an online marketplace for people to re-sell some of their existing digital media files purchased through iTunes. But Redigi is in an ongoing legal fight in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York with Capitol Records, which has claimed the “first sale doctrine” doesn’t apply to its digital music files.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/01/04/why-you-cant-bequeath-your-digital-library/

but you will never see anyone lobbying that we need to bring in more doctors or pharmacists to lower the cost of medical care. The reason I believe is quite simple: The American Medical Association and National Pharmacists Association are very strong unions. They even lobby against increasing seats in US medical colleges and even building more colleges.

Not only is that not the problem, but the problem is 180 degrees opposite of what you're saying
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324096404578356544137516914.html

U.S. medical schools are expanding to meet an expected need for more doctors due to the federal health law. With at least 12 new schools opening and existing ones growing, enrollment is on track to produce 5,000 more graduates a year by 2019.

But medical educators are cautioning that those efforts won't do anything to alleviate a doctor shortage unless the number of medical residency positions rises as well. The number of federally funded residencies has been frozen since 1997.

Medicare-funded spots were frozen under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and numerous bills to lift the cap have stagnated in Congress amid budget-cutting concerns, including proposals to slash Medicare funding for doctor training.

We're graduating plenty of doctors, but it doesn't matter if they can't all find somewhere to finish their training after 4 years of medical school.

For some reason, the free market doesn't seem to be dealing with this.

Eventually, they're actually going to have to tell Motorola/Google (and everyone else) exactly what the patents are..

I can't wait! But haven't they done so already by suing Motorola?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323735604578440981119902460.html
Our government is broken and dysfunctional. I wonder how bad it will get before it gets better?

No, it suggests that you can legally buy and possess one.

You're curious? Try this:
Tough Targets - When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens
Joyce Lee Malcolm: Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control

They have already passed a budget.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324103504578377843045138904.html

Yes. But luckily, you've got plenty of guns, which once again proved their usefulness on this occasion, by... Oh, never mind.

Snark - sometimes it makes you look edgy and clever, sometimes it just makes you look stupid.

Crime soared with Mass. gun law
Joyce Lee Malcolm: Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control

Tough Targets - When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens

And since PC sales growth has stagnated

No, not just the rate of growth. PC *sales* are in rapid decline, as in, fewer devices are being sold year over year, and this trend is expected to accelerate.

Quarterly Shipments Drop 14% as Windows 8 Fails to Stem Advance of iPads PC Sales in Steep Decline Intel Corp said its current-quarter revenue would decline as much as 8 percent and trimmed its 2013 capital spending plans, as personal computer sales drop due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones.

And about a million others. Average consumers are sick of the PC, and most of their needs can be served well by smartphones and tablets, which are much easier for them to use. Thus, that is where the market now goes. Couple that with a general dislike for Windows 8, and there's very little chance of anything but the bottom falling out, as the world shifts to mobile.

The fingers-in-ears from some quarters reminds me very well of how the 68000-based workstation community reacted to the rise of PCs back in the day: utter refusal to recognize what was happening.

Windows 8 could be about Microsoft recognizing that this would happen anyway, and jump all-in on a tablet/touch-centric strategy.

And since PC sales growth has stagnated

No, not just the rate of growth. PC *sales* are in rapid decline, as in, fewer devices are being sold year over year, and this trend is expected to accelerate.

Quarterly Shipments Drop 14% as Windows 8 Fails to Stem Advance of iPads
PC Sales in Steep Decline
Intel Corp said its current-quarter revenue would decline as much as 8 percent and trimmed its 2013 capital spending plans, as personal computer sales drop due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones.

And about a million others. Average consumers are sick of the PC, and most of their needs can be served well by smartphones and tablets, which are much easier for them to use. Thus, that is where the market now goes. Couple that with a general dislike for Windows 8, and there's very little chance of anything but the bottom falling out, as the world shifts to mobile.

The fingers-in-ears from some quarters reminds me very well of how the 68000-based workstation community reacted to the rise of PCs back in the day: utter refusal to recognize what was happening.

but insurance records of storm damage are probably a better way to detect any meaningful change in storm damage.

In studying hurricanes, we can make rough comparisons over time by adjusting past losses to account for inflation and the growth of coastal communities. If Sandy causes $20 billion in damage (in 2012 dollars), it would rank as the 17th most damaging hurricane or tropical storm (out of 242) to hit the U.S. since 1900—a significant event, but not close to the top 10. The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 tops the list (according to estimates by the catastrophe-insurance provider ICAT), as it would cause $180 billion in damage if it were to strike today. Hurricane Katrina ranks fourth at $85 billion.

To put things into even starker perspective, consider that from August 1954 through August 1955, the East Coast saw three different storms make landfall—Carol, Hazel and Diane—that in 2012 each would have caused about twice as much damage as Sandy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204840504578089413659452702.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Here is one thing the industry agrees is true: The cost from hurricane damages is increasing. That's largely because population density and the cost of coastal property increases every year.

[---]

"Are we really seeing more storms, or are we just recording more storms? That's the big question," says longtime expert Karen Clark, who runs her own risk-management consultancy.

Clark says the problem is that hurricane prediction is a very young science. She notes that records documenting hurricanes go back only about a century, a data set far too small to draw big conclusions.

She says after Hurricane Katrina — the most expensive of all documented storms — some predicted a warming cycle would produce more powerful storms. That forecast did not bear out.

"It just shows you that we just are not that smart, you know, when it comes to what's really going on," Clark says.

Bill Keogh, president of Eqecat, one of the major risk-modeling firms in the U.S., says that despite what it may seem, we are now in a statistically low period of hurricane activity. After Katrina, few powerful hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S.

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/04/164185424/insurance-companies-rethink-business-after-sandy

(Observations trump models. Always)