Well, they did say *almost*.

The obvious one--distraction. We're all talking about guns and not the economy, net neutrality, privacy, or other boring things we were all worried about last month. "They're taking our guns!" "You monster--you love your guns more than America's Children?!!
It's blatant abuse of rhetoric but unfortunately, it works.
Everybody already talks about this one. "They're distracting us from the real issues...The tail wags the dog...Don't you see you're being duped by the media? Why aren't they reporting the things that really matter?" This conversation is repetitive, boring, and fruitless.

The other manipulation here is more subtle.
Guns are symbols of power. Note it's SYMBOLS here.
The ritual reply "Oh, so you want to revolt against the government? You're a nut and besides, they'll beat you every time." is also misdirection.

It's not about the actual ability to defy the law. It's about the attitude that I might be able to define and defend my own freedom. But, if it's important enough to me, I might have a chance to say "no" and make it stick. I might win. I'll probably lose. But with this attitude, I might fight more often than I'll quietly crawl away.

If I've got a bunch of shotguns, a few pistols, and a rifle or two, I have the following internal dialogue:
"I have the ability to kill people. But of course I wouldn't and don't do it unless it's appropriate. Like, say somebody trying to hurt me or my family.
If they come to rob my house, I'll walk out the back door; I have insurance and it's not like they rob the place every day. If they did, I'd have to come up with another plan. But they don't.

Having considered those things and deciding what I will do in certain situations means something:
I am making decisions about things that matter--my and other people's lives.
I am using my own moral and practical conscience, as well as my awareness of the legal and social consequences of my action--or failure to take action.
I am not following a strict procedure; I am responsible for the outcome here.

And I like this. I like it a lot.
This personal decision making and personal accountability is much more interesting than living in a world where "that which is not mandatory is forbidden".

I might go further and demand that my public servants--those elected officials that work for the public, not the other way around!--are also held personally accountable for their actions.
I might get the idea I should expect those public servants to hold accountable those persons that I can't personally call to explain their actions. Corporate "persons". Judges and police. Those with financial, military and political power.
I might get the idea that we should all be accountable to each other. Not just the small people required to explain themselves to the big ones.
I might get the idea that we are all equal.

THIS is what is meant by "...Sam Colt made them equal.". Not that the little guy will shoot the big guy because they both have a pistol.
That the little guy has an attitude that he shouldn't have to crawl in front of the big guy.

I may never shoot a person or hunt another animal in my life.
I have no particular desire to do so, but if I decide it's the appropriate thing to do, it is my decision and the consequences are mine as well.

Possessing "symbols" of power--and knowing that I can freely go out and acquire more of them gives me a certain attitude.
An attitude which--were it present in a larger portion of the populace--would become inconvenient for those who wish to retain power only for themselves.

From the program in it, I guess it was a demo, not running anything.

I found it completely by accident by searching for the part number of one of the modules that happened to be in the chassis with the controller and the ethernet bridge. The ethernet bridge has its own web page which automatically displays the contents of the chassis, with links to the modules.

I added a controller-scoped tag to it called "ICanSeeYouFromTheInternet", and a tag description of "Please put your ENBT on a private network"
A couple days later it was gone.

Actually, that's exactly what it is.
The lower reciever is the "firearm" as far as BATF are concerned. The rest is just unregulated parts.
So, if you want a gun, you have 3 (legal) choices
          Run down to Dick's Sporting Goods, hand over your Visa, and (after satisfying all the regulatory burdens), walk out with your gun.
          Wait for a gun show, find a random guy, swap cash and gun on the spot. More privacy, less convenience, no warranty.
          Build your own. As long you're not transferring it to someone else this is (for the moment) perfectly legal.

The last option, as parent points out, is only safely available to a relatively small group of very skilled experts.

A "plastic gun"--more specifically a safe lower receiver which can reliably be manufactured with little special skills is significant.
We are watching the development of a process and set of instructions that will make this available.

I think we're about to see some very interesting (and fun) developments in firearms design.
Some folks hear "Holy cow--people could do anything " as a joyful expression of individual freedom.
Some folks hear it as a threat that must be curtailed at all costs

If Dawkins truly believes that religion will quietly tolerate being told it is wrong, he is an idiot.
Well, he's not an idiot. He's trying to point out the absurdity of holding a point of view that takes offense at any question, challenge, or outright dispute. And that this type "offense" is fabricated to manipulate polite society and should be ignored.

There are such things as boundaries in human society, and while they're never absolute, there comes a point when one group extends the boundaries of its own propriety so far that there is no room for anyone else to exist--let alone coexist with a similarly absurdly broad set of boundaries. We can't all be pope.

Affected outrage is worn like a mask and used like a weapon to cow the rest of society to the will of an aggressive and dangerous few.
It's not the responsibility of the rest of the world to tiptoe around a group of people who have subverted the natural human desire for social harmony. Nobody offended you; you chose to "take offense". Well, now you've taken it; you have it; enjoy it. This is your offense, not ours.

To cite examples from the religion into which I have been indoctrinated:
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea

You don't get to "opt out" and believe something else on your own time. You're either with or you're against. The domain of God and His representatives on earth is absolute. "Heresy" is ANY teaching inconsistent with dogma. It doesn't matter who teaches it or to whom. Church member or not, challenging dogma is not only an insult, it's a crime.

In modern times, the power of the Church to prosecute heresy has decreased significantly. They grudgingly acknowledge the existence of other views, but VCII, Ecumenism, etc. are still controversial with a lot of people. "OK, sure, we don't have to convert all the ignorant savages. We tend get a lot of really dirty looks from folks when we do that, and besides, we can't enforce it anyway. So, in the spirit of God's love for all His children, we accept that all..." But make no mistake if the Church had the power to enforce canon law everywhere, they would. Manipulation of the secular law where canon law has lost dominion is an effective and efficient tool.

One can only imagine that another's religion, especially offshoots of the one into which one has been indoctrinated has similarly totalitarian views of dissention--by members of the church or by people in general. I invite their own apostates to speak for their religion's tolerance to heresy.

I worked as a contract controls engineer (still do), and did a lot of startups & commissioning gigs.
I lived in a 40' 5th wheel, and enjoyed the flexibility. I could go from fully set up to fully set up within 24 hours. The flexibility made it a LOT easier for my employer to stick me into a gig, so the job security improved a lot.

The moves were not that often (every few months or so), so my employer hired an over-the-road truck to move the RV and I met them at the new site. It's cheaper than a week in a hotel, and WAY cheaper than paying to move an employee.
As an out-of-town resource, I still received the same housing and M&IE per diems as any other contractor (see your federal regulations on that one; there's charts for every major metro & surrounding area). This pays for the site as well as repaying the cost of the investment in the RV. (Investment--a thing where you spend money and expect to make money with the thing you bought. Like a carpenter who buys a good set of tools.)

I worked a lot of automotive gigs and found that there was NEVER a gig more than about 1/2 hour from a full-time park with Winter sites. Generally if you stay for a few months, they will give you a big discount on the slot, esp. Winter. Only one site didn't have sewer hookup (it did have electric & water), and the honey wagon came by every week.

I met some really great people full-timing in an RV; there's a real community out there. I've never had a bad neighbor, and the good thing is if you do, you can always move! Also, I met my wife while full-timing. We lived together in that 5th wheel for 3 years, and if we had an argument, there was no avoiding an issue by stomping off to the other end of the house. We pretty much had to deal with it then and there!

Some suggestions
You will need a "tax home" when you file your taxes and to maintain your driver license. If you qualify for residency in a state without income taxes, this is a good choice. If you move around a lot, get a forwarding mail service. This can also help with the item above. Personally, I used the post office of Mom & Dad. Every month or so they'd throw all my mail into a box & UPS it to me. If I needed something in a hurry, there was fax (ok, I guess it was a while ago...) and email.

If you plan to do this for a while, get a nice RV. If you live in rathole you will feel like a rat.
If you buy the RV new, have it prewired for generator, satellite on the roof and cable in the side. I used sat & cable both when I was on the road; cable is better, but SAT is not so bad. After you've done it a couple of times you can point the dish in about 10 minutes. I never needed a generator, so I never bought one. RV generators are not cheap, they're noisy, and the take up a lot of space.

If you need AC, get more than the vendor says you need. The folks that sell them lie. On the days you need it you will be very glad you got it. Either a roof-mounted RV unit (or two) or a window unit. You have to reinstall the window unit every time you move, but it's a lot cheaper and works just as good.

Water in Winter
Get some Raychem Frostex and heavy pipe insulation for your water hookup if you plan to Winter in a cold area. Dig out the water tap to below the frost line and run the heat trace and insulate. Buy a tankless water heater! I installed a precision temp RV-500, and believe me--a long hot shower in the middle of Winter is wonderful.

Heating in Winter
Don't get the tile floor. They crack up and are cold as hell. Do buy some good thick house slippers. I think we had "Uggs" or a knockoff like them. Thick wool sheepskin slippers. RVs floors get cold in Winter; your feet will thank you. Keep a spare furnace motor on hand. The DC motor has carbon brushes which are a wear item. Once they're go, you need a new motor. And they die when it's cold. Get the double-insulated windows, or just cut some Plexi to size and cover the windows on the inside. It makes a significant difference in the temperature and your propane bill.

Of course "boobs" is specific to women. The homologous structures in men are known as "moobs".

There is no hex number that looks similar to "Moobs".
From now on, all numbers must be represented as Unicode (it would not be politically correct to favor the character set used by any specific culture) where each 16-bit element specifies the text representation of the numerical value desired.

Who do you blame when it costs $75.00 to fill your gas tank? 71077345

Libel laws in the UK are very biased towards the prosecution.
While RLP's tactics may offend your sense of fair play (they certainly do mine), what they're doing works much better in the UK than other commonwealth countries. Suing somebody for libel in the UK is a common tactic for people who know they have no case another jurisdiction--even when there is little or no justification for their preferred venue.

In UK libel law, RLP has a big stick with which to beat its critics. The Streisand effect may direct a few more folks to the consumer websites--I certainly checked them out.
But I'll bet the degree to which RLP is going to get them to permanently back is worth a little transient negative publicity.

In a few months, I expect the trees will be filled with underwear.

rdp into your workstation in the office & use whatever os & apps everyone else at yuor office does.

Are you possibly conflating right to work and at-will employment?

OK, there were mammals, too.

His birdsong sounded just like some of the birds in the copyrighted work, so it infringes. Doesn't matter he didn't actually "copy" it.
Oh. They sound NOTHING alike. Well, he got the idea from Waters. Both had birds in them.
(how much is this lawyer costing you? we can do this aaaalll day.)

Crap. You're not going away? He's on contingency, isn't he. No, don't bother the judge; you win. You created the work; It's all yours.
Now, let me get out my producer/director/publisher calculator...You owe us $165,387.23 in promotional expenses.
You have 30 days to pay, then we start with liens & collections.

With warmest regards,
FYPM & Co.

The mason and the carpenter know which walls hold up the building because they built them.
And the IT guy has all the passwords and keys to every router closet.

And management doesn't give a shit what the workerbees think.

This might help him understand what's going on, but he'd never read it either.

Sounds more like a bill of attainder.

This kind of thing is a serious hazard to liberty (remember when that word didn't mark the speaker as a crackpot? wasn't so long ago). The law only applies to a few of us. So there is no outcry. Nibble, nibble, nible, oops--all your freedoms are gone! We didn't wait for amendments to prohibit this one. It's in Article I, sec IX. It took almost 90 years and a civil war for us to figure out that freedom applies to everyone or no-one. Even those members of society we don't like.

Good to know thing that sort of thing can never happen here.
Again.