DoubtingThomas

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That sums it up quite well. I still have the dualboot because my pc is a bit sluggish for much VM use and I do need to use proprietary software at times; however, I spend the majority of time running Linux. It still does take a bit of a tinker to becoming a Linux power-user, but it takes much less time than it used to in order to achieve competency. @emptyblessing: Great pic and so true. DIY personal computers are easy enough to build at home. Failing that, there are plenty of almost-cheap websites that will send you a mediocre build without too much of a mark-up. Even most of the upper eschelon of name-brand pc manufactures don't charge the apple premium. It's just amazing how anyone could justify that cost with a strait face. And no, to anyone who would insist, their laptops are not an exception. Their heat problems are notorious and cannot out-perfom even lesser-spec'd counterparts due to the fact they'll simply burn out. The mobile devices (iphone, ipad) are about the only reasonable place they have an edge, but frankly the android competition is better for all but a narrow niche of applications.

This is the kind of socialist drug-culture that makes Joe's show irritating to me. The biggest problem with these theories is that they're not "history," and will never be so. "History," begins with the written word. Everything before that is a part of "Pre-history," and in the realm of archeologists and anthropologists. Now, I do admit you can gain some worthwhile clues about the deeper human past through anthropology. That being said, it is a science chock full of more quackery and pesudo-sience than most religious organizations today. I have little doubt that early humans may not have developed the concept of private property into anything like what we might recognize. I have very little doubt that early human societies were centered around ritualistic drug use, evidenced by their artifacts. The rest of it; however, would be incredibly tenuous inference from these sporradic points of empirical evidence. The point, quite clearly, isn't to understand ancience pre-historic culture, but rather to support the preconceptions of a drug addled liberal who wants to blame private property and agriculture for failures entirely brough on by the state he or she supports.

Dogs evolved (naturally and otherwise) along side human beings in a diffirent manner than pigs, which were simply bred as a food source. There are also plenty of eastern cultures that think nothing of eating dog as well as pork. The reason most western societies don't is because they've got a long-standing relationship with dogs as companions, or at least tools, rather than meals.

I second Linux.

Brilliant audio of Spooner, thank you John!

The article missed the all-important point that democratically elected officials have no accountability to their electorate and a great deal of unspoken accountability to the political and financial backers who got them on the ballot and made their name recognizable in the frist place. Thusly, no electable candidate will ever represent the population over the necessarily contradictory interests of their donors and political superiors. The idiots are the people who think their vote can improve the state, not those who simply recognize there are better things to do on a november day.

Thanks for the literature John, I'll take a look over it. @LovePrevails: Where'd you find that chart? I asked you to cite, not provide props. ;-)

I was unaware of this fact. Please do cite where you found this information. The (rather obvious) situation is that nobody is "ignoring," your "facts," but rather they have been informed otherwise. If you bring this kind of topic up "time and again," you would be wise to have some cited material on hand to enlighten your audience rather than attempt to brow-beat them for something that isn't common knowledge.

His father's firm also built the public transportation within the city, just to name something implicit in the film if you haven't got access to the comics. The majority of the products and gadgets attributed to the company are sold to the state. You're welcome.

Are we already to the point where you're sticking your tounge out and spouting ad hominem? Curiously, you appear to have made that decision for me and then heaped upon us another delightful character attack. For someone who is lacing into me for being "ignorant" of the Batman genre, you've just displayed an astounding lack of knowledge about his backstory. He comes from a wealthy family that is the pinnacle of the political elite in Gotham. He is a Bloomberg, not a Galt. I hope you can come up with some more compelling and less insulting arguments. That post was rather dissapointing.

Is this another instance of "we'd be better off with polio," or have I stumbled upon a more reasonable critique of vaccination?

Sounds like the same pitch the state gives for every tax they levy. It's just short-term, only temporary, and the consequences of NOT doing it would be DIRE! Well, to be fair, Batman doesn't use the system again in this film. It is destroyed. I think it poses good ethical questions to the audience, if they think such a sacrafice of privacy is worth it. I believe that's the primary reason films like this are more on the propaganda side of things than not. In the film - it only happens once. In the real world - the tax never goes away, the patriot act never goes away, etc. etc. The ethical question is there, but the question is not left open. It is answered fully in the affimative: Yes, we should be comfortable giving up freedom. This is how OTHERS save us. We are powerless to take care of ourselves. So while I can see why the lone wealthy crime-fighter appears to embody something like a libertarian hero, in fact it's a politically connected plutocrat orphan who does as much to assist and affirm the power of the state as he does to protect people from evil in general.

Sounds like the same pitch the state gives for every tax they levy. It's just short-term, only temporary, and the consequences of NOT doing it would be DIRE!

That is quite clearly the premise of the image, regardless of how ironic it is intended to be.

Funny how liberals forget about Vietnam and the (ongoing) insurgency in Afghanistan when it comes to gun laws. History is replete with examples of small arms and improvised weapons, in the hands of locals, giving much larger and more advanced forces a hard time. So no, they do not have a point.

I think it largely stems from the fact they hold Stef to a very high moral standard and most of us view gratitude as part of that moral framework. Ingratitude to someone even as insignificant as a $2 donor, even in the light that it could have been a troll, was shocking. Then the sunday show followed where Stef appeared to waffle between it being a simple slip-up or mistake and he being completely justified in the gripe. So, while I can absolutely empathise with Stef's frustration, I can also empathize with the frustrated donors who felt slighted.

I think this is the most reasonable response thus far.

Interesting to read something from a Swede, critical of the state. The standard fare appears to be non-Swedes talking about how the massive welfare-state there is a magnificent example for all the world.

If he's comfortable saying that might is not right, but that might in the form of revolution is right, then he's not being honest and/or you have no basis for a rational discussion.

I think you should take the time to bolster your genetic argument before you rush into eugenics.

By what measure do you believe that they are successful? It's hard to compare tax farms with so little to go on. []

Grade inflation in K-12 followed by the most watered down post-secondary system the world has ever known is certainly a recepie for "over-quialified," egotists who are actually not qualified to do anything in particular and still need years of job training. I think it's absolutely hilarious that the researchers pin it all over the place EXCEPT in the moribund bud of rotten public schooling. Having run the gauntlet myself, from one of the worst public school districts in my state, emerging with a BA, BS, and half a dozen seperate jobs/career paths since then; I have a lot of sympathy for the poor kids who are still unaware of what's coming.

The quote from several associates yesterday: "Corporate greed." [head2wall]

Right on. The problem is, I don't think daddy O has any sugar to make off the deal if he nominates Krugman. It's much more likely he'll be farming this one out to an old corporate sweetheart.