Welcome to the new Amerika. Your possessions and money may be seized at any time via civil asset forfeiture, your communications are under constant surveillance, and now they want to make sure absolutely nothing can be kept private.

But, hey, so long as we're having "dialogue" (you'll do what you want anyways) and we have your permission to ask questions then it's all good.

Who really won the cold war?

As someone who gets 2-4 pre-recorded calls a day on his cell phone (that has been registered on DoNotCall) I have nothing but contempt and disdain for the FCC. If you look through their settlements page you'll see that in the rare instance they prosecute a case they invariably settle for whatever profits were made by the criminal. No jail time, no seizing of all personal assets. This is akin to making a thief put back what they stole as punishment. It's no wonder these robo-calling scum keep doing what they do.

What's galling is that the FCC prosecutors have their cases made for them. Hundreds if not thousands of people attest to having received calls from x number on x date promising x services by filing complaints at FCC.gov. It's a slam dunk. Yet the useless fucks are so ineffectual that the crooks have no reason not to keep trying.

Were I in MD I would seriously start calling CPS every single time I saw a child by itself. Put up a public website with a log of reports made, including photo, and whether the CPS responded in time. Seriously, fuck these guys and their power trip. I'm surprised some of them haven't been shot given their intent to take people's children away.

Something's up with your phone.. I have a z10 as well and it runs like butter.

You may well just be a troll (your sig indicates such) but you're without a clue. BlackBerry is "close to death" with $3 billion in cash in the bank and positive cash flow in the last quarter? Yeah, revenue is taking a hit as Chen said it would but the guy is calmly executing on his plan.

Have you even tried a new BB10 phone? If you're more interested in productivity than Angry Birds it is the best phone out there bar none.

I used to file complaints regularly with the FCC when I got bogus pre-recorded calls to my cell phone promising a free cruise or whatever. After years of doing this I've concluded the FCC straight up sucks at enforcement.

I'm sure if you ran an illegal 15 watt FM transmitter they'd spare no expense to find you but as to stopping these robo-calling dirtbags? Seems like they couldn't care less.

What's your take on where things will be in 50 years? If you haven't already, do you plan to have children?

Indeed, let's add most coastal cities to the "less hospitable" (read - "underwater") category. What you also casually ignore is we don't know what sort of feedback loops might engage as CO2 levels continue to soar.

Sure, anyone can get cancer no matter how healthily they live. But modern medicine is so absurdly and willfully blind to the role of nutrition that these conclusions can be largely dismissed by anyone who thinks for themselves.

Oh, hey, trace arsenic cuts breast cancer by FIFTY PERCENT.

What's that? Lithium in drinking water is also associated with a host of benefits? Say it ain't so..

Gee, getting some sunshine / vitamin D can lower risk of pancreatic cancer??

I could go on and on but what would be the point.. supplementation and the like is at best psuedo-science in the eyes of western medicine.. it's much more profitable to engage in "sick care" than to actually equip our bodies with the things it needs at some single percent of the cost.

Translation - STFU or the big bad terr'sts will come get you. We know what's best.

Same as Obama's mealy-mouthed "we need to balance civil liberties with our security." No, in point of fact, we don't. A whole lot of men died in the Revolutionary War specifically to give us independence and the bill of rights. Now the very same would-be guarantors of our "freedom" (as such) will trot out the "balance" argument to do whatever the fuck they want. And sadly we've become such a nation of distracted pussies we go along with it.

You're absolutely right. The e-ticket thing for airline travel is a great example. Everyone with a paper ticket just breezes by while those with their tickets on their phones usually have to fiddle around with the size of the image before it can be read.

Let's see.. things that won't be digitized anytime soon:
- drivers license
- gym card
- business card
- all those proximity reader entry cards for everything from zipcar to work
- work ID card
- subway / bus card
- discount / membership cards


Not to mention that my wallet never runs out of power or is otherwise rendered inoperable. Nor is my wallet susceptible to malware. As a bonus I can keep a stash of backup meds in my wallet in a little plastic container. It has a pleasant all-natural leather makeup that wears beautifully with time. And frankly it's a lot more dignified to have your amex clatter onto the bill at a fancy restaurant than it is to pull out your phone and beep-boop-beep up some app. As a side bonus at least some part of my life isn't under the NSA's review when I use cash.

So your argument boils down to "blackberries can be hacked if only anyone cared to." Which speaks nothing to the various government agencies that have given it the highest security certifications (pretty much all heads of state use blackberries) nor the reality that blackberry stakes its reputation on security whereas the other two contenders are "best effort" when it comes to security.

I agree that no systems is perfectly secure but your argument is specious at best.

and weren't a complete waste of taxpayer money these robo calls would never happen. I have for YEARS been getting the same pre-recorded message call to my cell phone promising me to lower my credit card payment. Searching the internet shows hundreds of folks complaining about the same -- down to the very spoofed caller ID number. I've filed numerous complaints online at the FTC and yet fuck all happens.

That's a bad metric.. $20k of that would immediately get eaten by health insurance and other things companies usually provide.