"Well, since we don't have a functional legislative body, we're fucked."

Congress choosing not to act is in fact a valid choice. Don't like it, vote them out.

The second amendment doesn't include the definition of state. ACA did. Hell, the writers of the ACA claimed they deliberately didn't include federal exchanges because they wanted to try to force the states to do it.

"The other option is to re-interpret lots of other sections, and change the law to be at odds with how the people writing it meant for it to be interpreted"

I think I read that book in high-school. Wasn't it called 1984?

"the courts should be rewriting "

And thus harkens the downfall of the Republic. Hyperbole? Perhaps... and I hope. I have my fears.

The job of the federal courts is not to re-write law but to affirm or strike down laws which are or are not Constitutional.

It's the job of Congress to write (and maybe re-write when necessary) laws. If a law fell short the first time through it should *NOT* be the job of the courts to fill in the gaps.

Unfortunately, Congress is ceding power to both the Executive and Legislative that can only weaken our rights and liberty. They are becoming less and less relevant.

"I've had the very same problem for years now. I get exclusively results that other people got, who searched something vaguely similar."

I used to love alta vista and web-crawler waybackwhen(tm). They provided MATCHES, not what they THOUGHT I wanted to see.

That said -- the internet is several orders of magnitude larger than it was in the mid 90's. I'm unsure if similar search engines would be useful if they didn't try to figure out what you WANT to see rather than what you ASK to see.

Oh, will you two just shut up and kiss already?

"Fines like this are a calculated cost of doing business, to be sure, but they are also an important part of punishment theatre. Companies of this size negotiate fine amounts and punishments as forms of appeasement when caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "

We need to stop blaming the evil corporations. Let there be shame. When stuff like this becomes public people should jump carriers. Let THAT get factored in to the cost of doing business.

If we're too lazy to jump to another carrier then it's our own damn fault we need to deal with this.

Can't you just side-load KODI? I have it installed on my fire-stick and that's how I got it on there. I didn't know it was in their app store.

You are effectively correct. About the only things that will change the corruption would be those willing to put themselves at risk to expose it and the masses unwillingness to accept corruption when it is exposed.

Most larger install bases have extended post EOL support though I'm unsure if 2003 will receive this extended support. We started migrating away from that years ago when most of our vendors stopped supporting it.

There may be a lot of legacy apps that require 2003. Best bet is to get them on a VM and lock them up behind a firewall just permitting access needed and nothing more. We have a number of XP VMs for just that purpose.

"Maybe the Germans have collectively decided that the cost of the education is trivial compared to the long term gains of keeping some highly educated people around, or having its own citizens be educated."

Maybe Germans would re-think that decision if they had to pay a realistic sum for their own civil defense rather than rely on the US and NATO.

"Maybe, gasp, it's possible to both make profits and take care of your people -- and that it isn't an either/or proposition."

Pick two:

o Make Profits
o Take Care of Your People
o Protect your People

And the soon to be laid-off workers want their severance package.

We don't have Plato's original manuscripts. Those copies have sure come in handy. We don't have Caesers' De Bella Gallico, yet those copies are nice. I can list hundreds of examples.

Don't underestimate the importance of copies.

Well, when *I* went to school it was "IBM Selectric" and "Print Shop". Not the software "print shop", but a big room with a bunch of machines and lots and lots of movable type.

Yes, whatever they learn will be wrong by the time they get out in into the work force but part of learning is learning how to LEARN, if that makes sense...

Maybe that's why *THEY* were mean and rude!