I know someone who had hired several ex-cons under such a program, sincerely hoping to help them get a new start. Had no luck with any of them, and the last two robbed her facility of restricted drugs (she was a veterinarian) and when they were caught selling the stolen drugs, SHE is the one who lost her license and (after fighting the ruling for a couple years) eventually lost her business entirely -- for "allowing" restricted drugs to be distributed without a prescription, even tho she was the one robbed and wronged here. In fact she narrowly avoided prosecution (losing her license was part of the deal).

This might not have happened in a state with a more-rational regulatory system and a less-predatory court system, but this was California.

Strange stat: the first five TG'd people I ever heard of (and I knew two of 'em) were all named Larry in their first life. Two were airline pilots. Clearly there's a correlation here. ;)

(Come to mention it, two took Samantha as their new name. Another correlation! ;)

I figure the pronoun follows from the person. If the person changes, so does the pronoun.

Or maybe we can stop putting people in jail for trivial shit like selling pot. THAT is why we have this 'prison-industrial complex' in the first place -- because the War On Drugs generates a never-ending income stream by providing lots of low-risk, low-maintenance, highly-profitable prisoners (vs. actual violent criminals who are not nearly so profitable). I vaguely recall that about half of our prison population is there for drug-related offenses. I would guess that a disproportionate number of these nonviolent offenders are incarcerated at for-profit facilities. (I base that on reading about one for-profit prison's contract that didn't allow violent offenders at all.)

At any rate, I have mixed feelings about teaching a skill that can so readily be used to rob or bring down someone else, but it sure beats coming out of prison worse people and more socially-useless than they went in (as is so often the case right now).

Financially, I don't see that *any* kind of job training is going to trump selling drugs, not so long as prohibition keeps prices artificially high. So maybe the upside is that this will help those who have no marketable skills but really want a legal job to rise above that, even if it means taking a pay cut (compared to selling drugs).

If you talk to average people on the street, you'll find that a significant fraction, perhaps even a majority ARE riled up -- but don't know what to do about it. I certainly don't have a plan for halting, let alone reversing surveillance creep -- do you??

The best I can do from here is to vote for pro-privacy and small-government candidates. Small government is important here -- when it's small and preferably a bit under-funded, it doesn't have the resources to waste on watching average Americans (nor on crap like the War On Drugs, which I think is basically the same issue with a different approach).

I would say rather that SCOTUS has saved us from much abuse by the majority, but that their reading of the Constitution is not sufficiently strict -- itself a hazard of considering it a "living document" as the other reply contends. But I say if its meaning can be changed, then its meaning can become anything, depending on the whims of tomorrow's interpretation.

That's very interesting. Thanks for the information. I wasn't aware of the Congressional Record method of exposing classified documents.

One wonders if this clause might also explain some of the blatantly unconstitutional legislation that's occasionally introduced (since it's been suggested elsewhere that such an action should be punishable by law).

Probably due to the difference between young eyes and older eyes. Aging lenses tend to filter out the blue end (as people who have cataract surgery suddenly discover).

Including credits and such:

Dr.Zhivago: 192 or 200 minutes depending on version

Gone With the Wind -- 238 minutes
(also usually shown with an intermission)

I don't know of any longer films, but I'm not a film buff.

http://www.jewishworldreview.c...

"Concealing government documents from the government when you work for it is a felony, punishable by up to three years in prison and permanent disqualification from holding public office."

Some states have Personal Property taxes, where you're supposed to inventory everything you own (exclusive of Real Property) and pay a tax based on its value.

http://www.mtrules.org/gateway...

http://www.mtrules.org/gateway...

What GP was saying is that IP should be regarded as "personal property" (which is to say, business assets) and taxed accordingly.

If you have enough assets/income to worry about, you can probably afford a tax attorney, or at least an accountant who specializes in such situation. They are not terribly expensive (the people I know with oddball business situations pay a specialist accountant about $100/year to handle their taxes).

They already go through trash looking for evidence. Indeed, this is why anyone can root through trash that's in a publicly-accessable space -- because courts so ruled.

But more of a problem is -- how accurate is that DNA analysis? I knew a biologist who worked in a lab that does DNA sampling, and she said the accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. (The topic was ID'ing carriers of genetic defects in dogs, but the same principle applies.)

If you appear fit and nothing can be found wrong yet minimal exercise causes pounding heart and shortness of breath -- get your thyroid checked. Hypothyroidism can cause low blood sugar that's only evident during exercise.

I had $15k worth of shit stolen and what did the L.A.County sheriff dept. tell me, even after I found some of my stuff at the neighbor's place? If I didn't have receipts I couldn't prove it was mine and so sad for me. But if I wanted to steal it back, go for it.

Curt, bravo for standing up against the bullies online, same as you would in real life.

Yeah, last week I pointed out the same wrt the Yellowstone dome. How much of what they're measuring is actually tectonic movement?

From the Wiki article someone linked on sea level change:
Global warming, a few mm per year.
All other causes, about 10 meters per year.
Draw your own conclusions.