For proper context, assuming he is telling the truth (you never know), he withdrew his support for her - both financial and a freakin Mercedes to drive - after she said she was going to drop out of community college. And don't forget, she's 23, not 13. To be honest I would have done the same (beating excluded, of course).

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=65285

That's not entirely true. I'm, for the most part, a FOSS user and I love the benefits it provides. Yet, while I want to be part of it and contribute (and i know i cant be the only one), I don't. why? I don't have neither the resources, nor the required skill set to do it. I'm definitely not rich, so hiring someone to make the mods for me is out of the question. And being a PhD student, having the time to make said implementations is out of the question, let alone learning the required languages and skills necessary to pull it off. So, i resort to the next best option: complain :-). But seriously, complaining isn't all bad - it tells the FOSS developers that there ARE people out there wanting product improvements AND how to improve the products in a way that's more marketable (OK, i differentiate between whining and constructive criticism, both of which occur in abundance). At any rate, complainers (constructive critics) DO help - just in a different way than what many hope for.

...that's guaranteed to give the kids - and their parents - a good scare.

Well, let's see: we'll have a rapid increase in population from lagging deaths, increased fertility rates, so i'd say overpopulation will become a huge problem (Malthus, anyone?). We'd need to rapidly update our infrastructure to deal with such issues, completely overhaul our planning and laws to deal with such issues, whether it be social security and welfare policies to retirement planning, to incarceration.

Then, of course, there could be the psychological issue - we've seen this before: the guy becomes old and all his loved ones die as time progresses (Interview with the vampire, twilight - hey, don't judge - etc...). how would one cope with losing his friends/loved ones how either could not afford or would not want such medication? Not to mention humans have not been designed to live that long, so that merits the question: how long until you get sick of life? would you want to extend your life to a point where suicide might be a better option, rather than living another 30 years?

Sorry, but I'm not sure how i can see this working out for the better

or your spelling

Wow, good thing I use NoScript to block all incoming JavaScript crap and just whitelist the sites i trust. I would recommend others to do the same (and no, i am in no way affiliated with the firm).

On the contrary, I'm one of the most capitalist people you'll ever meet. Capitalism is about improving the product and increasing benefits for everyone involved through voluntary trade (voluntary being the key word here). What's going on here is NOT a form of competitive, voluntary market, but rather one group of people forcing others to stop their work for their own personal reasons. This is not capitalism; not by a long shot.

Perhaps you're right. Yet that's absolutely NO excuse to use your little girl as a roadblock and make threats and intimidation to coerce others to stop doing their jobs just because you don't like the situation you're in.

Strange: my family made it pretty well without the need of unions to force and coerce people to do their own bidding (by, you know, actually working competitively). Furthermore, I could agree with you that, in the start, unions did serve a positive purpose. Yet the conditions and situation back then were far worse than they are now, and their demands typically involved improvements in safety - fair enough. Yet over the years, unions have become cartels to force companies to do their own bidding at the cost of everyone else (do you really think that NYC transit workers make that little? MBTA workers in Boston typically made 40-50k/year - more than what I made working in finance and actually graduating from college). Also, don't be so naive to think that unions are there to help us: they only help themselves at your cost - i've seen it happen every single time. And not to sound condescending (in all seriousness): go read Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt.

What really pisses me off about union workers is how selfish they are, when they claim to be otherwise - it's become a cartel. Did the (incredibly foul-mouthed) union worker think of the families of the other two drivers? Of course not - all that matters is their own well being and screw the rest of the company / people. I recall working for a top university not too long ago and I was supposed to get a new desk placed for me from an office next door. I offered to do it myself when my boss told me not to touch it, as there was a union guy in charge of that. Turns out that, had i moved the desk myself, we could have faced some serious fines for "taking away his job".

Here's another example: instead of getting fired, teachers are getting paid to do jack shit waiting their union "trial" to make sure they really should be fired. At times, this could take years - that's right, years that teachers are getting paid full salary for doing nothing (I actually think they created a parody of this in Futurama).

Or how in 2005(?) Union workers halted NYC public transportation, significantly affecting the entire economy. My brother was right: all they care about is increasing their share of the pie, not the total size. And people wonder why I'm so anti-union.

mod me troll if you like, i don't care.