It isn't just TVs, Microsoft's xBox Kinect, Amazon Echo, GM's Onstar, Chevrolet's MyLink and PDRs, Google's Waze, and Hello's Sense

Hmm...well, good for me, I don't have or use any of these potential privacy leeches.

But for that matter, I don't do FB or twitter either, I just haven't seen the need for these things and I can't tell that it has negatively impacted my life to this point. I'm not a luddite by any stretch of the imagination, but I just don't see the privacy / convenience equation to be worth it to me to use these tools.

If I do get a newer Corvette, I will be disabling the ONStar since it now seems it is not an option but always installed. I'll first be figuring how to disable and destroy it. I don't need that for my automobile enjoyment. I especially don't need anything monitoring my speeds.

:)

We're losing our freedoms and rights here pretty badly, but nothing quite yet as bad as this sound like in CA.

Am I now going to have to memorize a bunch of different PIN numbers for each of my credit cards?

I've got enough to remember with passwords to websites and applications, and now more numbers to remember?

I can now start to picture everyone having sticky notes on the backs of each car with the PIN number, which pretty much renders them useless, since when stolen, the thieves will have the PINs right there with the card.

So, which part is a rant? Specifically?

Because you dared speak ill of the "Chosen One".

Please report to Room 101 for re-education.

Because traffic and diesel fumes and road noise from surface delivery are a-okay in your book?

Doesn't bother me...

Hell, I keep my phone locked and with MORE than the default 4-digit code for just this reason, I also have my phone set to not display texts or other info on the locked home screen. Opening this and giving to them is pretty much going to be considered "consent to search". I don't care that I have nothing to hide, it is none of their fucking business.

Much like when pulled over (rarely happens), and if asked to get out of the car, I roll window up, step out and lock the car behind me. I'm not an ass to them at all, in fact I am very polite, answer as needed, and cooperate, but I do try to exercise my rights.

And...as for the opening story, it was complaining about the "patchwork" of states issuing licenses. So what? People are forgetting, that you are a citizen of your state first, and then a citizen of the US. Besides the fact that a drivers license is a license to drive first, and not issuesdas an ID (you can get one of those for that purpose), there should be no national license, or national ID. The feds have no constitutional basis for issuing or regulating such IMHO. That would be yet another stretch for them overreaching "interstate commerce".

I really, really wish...if we could as a country, is have the government basically tell me how much tax to pay (simplify this)...and then, leave me the fuck alone. Especially the Feds.

For my local/state govt, well, they are more answerable to me, and I will be more willing and answerable to them too....within limited bounds.

That's the way the country was set up, but we've wandered so far off the path over the years.

*sigh*

This type of thing sounds VERY similar to the folks that still posit that marijuana still has no health benefits.

FACT: Alcohol is a poison to the human body. One can fatally overdose from consumption, and it has killed millions in human history.

FACT: The cannabis plant, consumed in any form, is not harmful to the human body. In thousands of years, not a single fatality has been directly associated with its use. Its physically impossible to overdose from consuming it.

Similar? No, more like BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE.

Well, I think you're conflating toxicity to mortality.

Pot may not kill you, but I do believe there are studies showing that prolonged, continuous usage (i.e. abuse) can lead to some memory problems and possibly neuron damage in the brain?

So, I stand by what I said, most all medicines ARE somewhat poisonous, just depends on how much you do and how toxic they are in those amounts.

But in the morning I'll be sober and happy, but you will still be bitter.

Yup, I feel sorry for people that don't ever drink.

When they wake up in the morning, that is the best they will feel all day!!

;)

Folks, face it...pretty much ALL medicine or things with medicinal qualities are in some way poisonous to the system, depending on how you frame things.

It seems the teetotalers and anti-any drug other than pure O2 from God's own air system, will say about anything to defend their position that anything that can intoxicate is BAD, and cannot possibly have a single good or beneficial 'side effect'.

That's because getting women drunk is what gets you laid. It's not like men usually need to lower their inhibitions to sex.

Yep, that's why I love the Mardi Gras season here in New Orleans SOOO much.

It is like the worlds largest cocktail party...the women all already have a drink in their hands, and hell, if you're in the Quarter, you likely will get to see what their carrying under their sweaters if you offer them some nice long beads.

It is the perfect time of the year to get laid!!!

However, I'd posit, that there really isn't anything that can match the large movement of air, like a large speaker (horn loaded is my pref) for good sound.

The best pair of headphones just can't beat this IMHO.

Other than that , I really like the points you made!!

Well, if you can afford it, maybe convert that gas tank to a lead acid battery. If for no other reason, you don't want to get a fine for outputting too much smog.

Not a problem.

Old cars are grandfathered in for pollution levels.

That and I live in a state where they don't do any "sniff" tests on inspections. Hell, not all states even require inspections at all.

A pair of desktop speakers, by LabTec, isn't going to sound nearly so good as my Klipschorn Speakers that I have in my living room. I have them connected to a pair of SE Tube amps from a small online company Decware. I've had them quite awhile and I love the sound of them. To each his own, I like the tube distortion, but I have ever since I was 12yrs and heard a pair of K-horns in an audio store running off a McIntosh tube amp system.

But I digress. The thing is...those cheap earbuds on an iPod aren't going to sound as nice as my Shure higher end earbuds.....at some point, you do get what you pay for. But one always has to be wary of what's being offered, and do their research, and test things in person.

That all being said, there are some fun DIY things you can do. I found lots of links years back, on taking multiple strands of Cat-6 cable, and braiding it in various fashions into speaker cable. I did my own variant, and I have to say, I liked the way it sounded...in fact, I still have it on my main front speakers (the khorns).

So, if you do enjoy GOOD fidelity in your audio, often you do have to pay a bit, but not always.

Sadly, so many kids today seem to see their music as disposable, and many have never HEARD what a good sound system can sound like...and only know white, cheap earbuds...or worse...the thudding of "Beats" headphones, that so far I've yet to find a tweeter installed.

But that's a different soapbox to get on altogether.