There are those who say you need to use RequestPolicy and Ghostery and AdBlock and NoScript (and some other stuff, like a cookie blocker) to catch everything....

It's not artificial because of the details of the technical implementation, it's artificial because it's a scarcity that would not be expensive or difficult to resolve.

Yes, and it's artificial because Verizon made a deliberate choice not to resolve it (rather than it being unresolved only due to ignorance).

The US and the Netherlands are special cases.

I was under the impression that "the Ukraine" was a similar special case, in a way having nothing to do with whether it was a part of the USSR or an independent country.

Yep. The main selling point of "natural" gemstones these days is that the lab-made ones are "too perfect!"

You forgot about the other 545 people we also need to impeach. (One vice president, 9 supreme court justices, 100 senators, and 435 representatives.)

Since when was Obama a progressive? Sure, he campaigned as one, but his actions upon taking office revealed that to be a blatant lie.

The problem is that the FCC has limited regulatory power unless it reclassifies Internet access as a telecommunications service, which is considered the "nuclear option."

At this point, reclassification is exactly what pretty much every pro-net-neutrality group (and therefore, every citizen who uses their automated comment-submission systems) is asking the FCC to do.

For example... I worked with a woman who insisted on wearing what I considered *very* suggestive clothes to work just about every day. Personally I found her attire unprofessional and demeaning to women in general (and I'm a man), but to each their own. I know she got lots of attention from the males in the area who would often ask "Who is she?" and make it clear that they noticed her. The really sad part of this story is that she had HR on speed dial because she was always filing sexual harassment complaints. One guy told me that she made a cottage industry of sorts out of it. Using the treat of filing the complaint to try and get her way. But I ask you what did she expect to happen when she dressed like that? Ladies, dress modestly and professionally, It may be your right to wear what you want, but why put a spot light on the target or invite trouble.

The lesson I learn from this is that men should file sexual harassment claims against women who dress less than professionally as a preemptive strike.

No. In other words, the market is distorted by the existence of a government-sanctioned monopoly, so the normal rules of supply and demand DO NOT APPLY.

What is unethical is that Comcast has BRIBED the government to enshrine themselves in a privileged position, where the threat of physical violence is used to support their business model. For example, if I attempted to run cable down the street in order to compete with Comcast, men brandishing legal authority and firearms (i.e., the police) would come and physically restrain me from doing so.

it might be fun to say "Why I'm cancelling is none of your damned business. I will pay no more bills. Remember when your robot told me this call would be recorded?"

That's way too polite. I've once told a Comcast rep something to the effect of the following:

Me: "the answer to your question is 'because I said so'. I am not obligated to give a reason; however, you ARE obligated to accept my response and do what I'm telling you to do. Now, do what I asked you to do and DO NOT ask me the question or any similar question again! Do you understand?

Rep: "But..."

Me (interrupting): "Do you understand?"

Rep: "But..."

Me (interrupting): "DO YOU UNDERSTAND, YES OR NO?"

Rep: "Yes, but..."

Me (interrupting): "DO NOT ASK THE QUESTION AGAIN!"

Rep: "...ok"

This is the way that anyone who has gone through Comcast's training and still consents to work there deserves to be treated. If I manage to torment the rep to the point that he reconsiders his choice of vocation, I consider myself to have done him a service!

I did this when I cancelled my Comcast TV service.

Comcast rep: "would you be willing to continue your service if we give you a discount?"

Me: "Sure, if you can make it cost $0 or less!"

Comcast rep: "..."

For some of us who play peer to peer games, it's not really about bandwidth usage but how long it takes to get the packet from here to there and back.

...Until you sit down ready to play your game and it decides to download a big patch instead of letting you log in.

Back when I last had Comcast (around 2005 or 2006) the quality of PBS over the cable was so much worse than OTA. It was full of compression artefacts, dropped frames, audio distortion.

In my area they can't even bother to get the aspect ratio correct for PBS! Unless you pay to rent a HD set-top-box, you end up with that channel being letterboxed (or maybe "windowboxed" -- I can't quite remember since I cut the cord months ago). The commercial channels, however, display in correct widescreen 480p; it's only the public station that Comcast doesn't give a shit about.

You are truly living up to your username. Why would you ever consider intentionally creating such a consciously unequal system to be a good thing?

Are you ready and willing to answer a subpoena from, say, Iraq or Indonesia?

That depends if you're ready and willing to have your Iraqi or Indonesian facilities shut down and your Iraqi or Indonesian employees jailed for defying a court order.

You don't like it? Don't do business in Iraq or Indonesia (or the USA, if it's the USA's rules you don't like).