Ah yes, crony capitalism. Like all of the cronies who have collected the ~$10T we've pissed away over the past decade on such national treasures as our multiple ongoing wars, an unmatched prison-industrial complex, corporate welfare and bailouts for billionaires, and national defense and security. A hefty price tag, but I guess we did get a lot for our money. We got a new surveillance state, militarized police forces, dismantling of the constitution, and a recession bordering on depression while the elite have never been richer or contributed less. Let's also not forget that we nailed down the #1 spot on the Incarceration Rate Hot 100 (not to mention the #1 spot on many other prestigious charts), and as a bonus, our global resentment is at an all time high!

But I hear you, let's focus on the negative waste like green energy subsidies that cost less than what is filtered to war profiteers every month to keep Operation Occupy Afghanistan running indefinitely. We should also probably bitch about even thinking about providing healthcare to our citizens, and don't even get me started on those leeching retirees who demand a monthly cash handout just because they worked their whole lives paying into social security. What a waste.

In 2013, it’s estimated that $7.3 billion — 45 percent — in energy tax subsidies, will go towards renewable energy, according to Congressional testimony by Congressional Budget Office senior advisor Terry Dinan. Another $4.8 billion — 29 percent — in energy tax subsidies will be for energy efficiency.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/14/cbo-most-energy-tax-subsidies-go-toward-green-energy-energy-efficiency/

I don't see anyone defending texting while driving, that's not even what the conversation is about anymore, apparently we're now discussing how merely talking while driving is deadly.

People just like to feel like they have big balls, as far as most are concerned the 2nd ammendment is just the right to post pictures of themselves holding their Glocks in a menacing pose on Facebook.

It's a facade, if the time came to rise up against a tyrannical government for the security of a free state, most of them would be locked in the cellar.

Wow that's pretty insightful. Or I guess it could just be a tired, bullshit cliché used to justify treating people like shit and generally being an asshole. Naw, it's both brilliant and insightful, well done!

I'm not an expert, but I guess it's plausible that extreme dehydration while baking in the sun could cause your skin to tighten, receding your lips and exposing your teeth. That's the only scenario I can imagine where someone who is lost at sea would die smiling and laughing.

I grew up with them, and I agree. I wouldn't say they're disgusting, but I have no problem passing them up at the supermarket.

So you're extrapolating the anecdotal evidence from your two acquaintances to 18m+ other people?

18 million people sought out and used the jailbreak, that's significant because this isn't something they can just go get at the app store.

For every one of those 18 million how many others do you think didn't because they didn't want to void their warranties? Or they (rightfully) didn't want to risk installing malware or bricking their phone by blindly installing some hack from an unknown 3rd party? Or they didn't feel comfortable or technically competent enough to mess with the core software of their device?

And then consider all of the people who would have used the jailbreak but simply didn't learn about it during the 6 weeks of its existence.

If people were happy with their devices being locked up and restricted I'm assuming 18 million of them wouldn't have used this jailbreak in a little over a month. That number seems like it includes a lot more than just geeks and hobbyists.

...the simple fact of the matter is that entitlement spending dwarfs defense spending.

The term "entitlement spending" is bullshit, intended to insinuate that it's referring to welfare and food stamps to get the foxnews dimwits all worked up into a froth when they hear how more money goes to dangerous minority drug addicts in the ghetto than we spend on defense. Of course, over half of that is social security, a tax that was forcibly taken from people's paychecks their whole lives, and now if they live to 100 they may get half of it back. That is not an entitlement, it's a really shitty savings plan that the people have already paid for, yet they go on and on about how social security is costing us too much and it's unsustainable. It's not costing anything because the people have already paid for it. That our inept government pissed it all away on wars and prisons doesn't change the fact that it's been paid for.

Almost all the rest of the "entitlements" go to Medicare and Medicaid, because it's not very civilized to let our elderly and disabled citizens die in the streets. These entitlements allow people who have worked and paid taxes their whole lives to get healthcare and obtain their obscenely expensive medication that would otherwise bankrupt most people in months, because our marvelous health care system, the best in the world they say, would have them all die in the streets before dipping into obscene profits to care for aging and ailing seniors end of life care. Those must be the "death panels" I've heard about.

The real "entitlements" as most people think of them, welfare, foodstamps, and throw in unemployment if you want, are a fraction of "entitlement spending", my brief research (a visit to google) says 8%, it took awhile to even find a chart that even specifically listed them rather than simply "other spending".

Just a single one? Here's about 2 dozen.

In a scathing rant posted to a GNU project mailing list

Where is this scathing rant? All I can find is a extremely polite, well written airing of grievance and resignation.

Light turns green, you are turning left. You pull into the intersection and wait for the oncoming cars who are going straight. Light turns yellow, but rather than hitting the breaks the oncoming idiots are accelerating to make the light. Light turns red, you are still in the intersection. It's happened to everyone, I'm sure including you, many times. Would justice have been served if you got a ticket, several hundred $ fine, and 3 years of jacked insurance rates for every time that has happened? Or you could have gone to court to put your word up against a photograph of your car sitting in an intersection (nevermind that the camera nor the court have any idea who was actually driving).

Also, there have been many cases of yellow lights being shortened to increase violations and fines (revenue) at red light cameras. So no, you don't always have plenty of warning.

You must have skipped over #1 and #2.

accidental deaths of children due to handguns in the US: ~500 per year
accidental deaths of children choking on balloons: ~1000 per year
accidental deaths of children by magnetic desk toys: 0
Greatest Country on Earth!