Well it would be pretty hard to top the Kim dynasty in terms of overall weirdness. And the point of free and fair elections is less about their beneficial nature (I can think of a few American elections that were less than beneficial.) than about the notion that democracy is the worst sort of government except for all others that have been tried.

Sure they are. This is all part of the notion that all government is inherently bad and that they're going to come for your guns any second now and that society is on the verge of collapse and that the only way to survive in the Mad Max future is by arming yourself now. But hey, whatever helps them sleep at night is fine by me so long as they don’t actually go out and try to make that dystopian future happen.

If that were the case, they'd have to stop selling Bluetooth headsets.

Cowboys fans on the hand are just happy to have something new to blame on Tony Romo....

I have no problem with the notion that defendants have rights. I do however find it interesting, not to mention tiresome, when people who are in legal trouble choose to put their alleged victims on trial. Even if Trayvon Martin was a complete asshole, it doesn't give Zimmerman a right to appoint himself as his judge, jury, and executioner. And even if he was "defending himself" at some point, it doesn't necessarily justify deadly force.

Even more annoying is when people tout their own ethnic identity when they are accused of a crime. One of the cops who beat up Reginald Denny for example cited having a Mexican girlfriend to claim he was not racist. OJ Simpson suddenly embraced his African-American heritage when he was accused of a double murder. And now Zimmerman discovers that he's one-eight latino or something. It's all very a convenient way to obfuscate that a kid is dead and this guy may have been responsible and deserves to do time is he was indeed responsible.

Yeah, I get it. When you're in legal trouble, put the victim on trial.

In other words, there's a slippery slope where if you are anything other than a little saint, you deserve to die and any trigger-happy douche can appoint himself as judge, jury, and executioner.

There is one "ground-breaking" aspect as Miranda rights are intended for alleged criminals. Trayvon Martin on the other hand is a *victim* of a crime. On the other hand, it's not uncommon for the defense to put the victim on trial in cases like this one. So while it may not be groundbreaking, it is sad.

Really? I thought it was about the murder of a teenager which went investigated because of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law.

And just because somebody embraces his Hispanic heritage after being arrested, it doesn't make him not racist.

As the documentary Battlestar Galactica explains, all this has happened before and all this shall happen again. God has created many worlds inhabited by humans but each time humans have created artificial intelligence which wiped them out. Often the AIs would continue and advance so far that they would believe themselves human and create their own AIs who would wipe them out as well. And so on and so on....Basically, God is a grad student running a giant experiment and he still hasn't gotten the bugs worked out just yet....

For the most part people vote for third party candidates knowing that they can't win and see it as a harmless way of registering dissatisfaction with the major party candidates. That is it's just another way of saying, "Don't blame me, I voted for Opus and Bill."

Yes, webOS is the electric lamb which was sacrificed for our technological sins and which has now risen from the dead to point the way to our ultimate redemption.
                      - Palm 3:16

The current incarnation of Windows Phone is actually quite good. They've taken some good ideas from existing platforms, including a few from webOS and combined them into a pleasing, attractive package. The main problem with Windows Phone is that it hasn't been able to get any traction. It is certainly not number three.

And I tend to disagree with the notion that phone UI is not important. Android for example is highly dependent on having users go to its home screen to get things done. That's one of the reasons why the inconsistencies between different carrier versions are so jarring and why the iOS UI, simplistic as it is, tends to win out over Android - particularly with non-techies. ICS goes a long way to fixing Android's UI problems. But there are so many Gingerbread, Froyo, and insert silly pastry name here handsets out there that are still in use - many of them relatively new - that will never be upgraded by their carriers. And of course even the ICS and Jelly Bean phones that do make it into people's hands have been tweaked by handset makers and carriers often for the worse.

Meanwhile iOS remains simple and consistent. Often too simple; but sometimes it's better to be simple than sophisticated. And that's why I miss webOS. More than any modern phone OS, webOS managed to be elegant - able to combine simplicity and sophistication. Even now I'm reminded of webOS's power every time I launch an app on my Android phone. There are two reasons for this: 1. Android's home screen and launcher even with ICS and Jelly Bean have always been and continue to be a mess of icons and widgets with the launcher tucked away and completely disorganized. 2. Because I discovered a very nice little launcher called Wave Launcher which mimics the webOS Wave Launcher which allows to do exactly what you say above, get the UI out of the way and just let the app take over. As with webOS, I can just swipe across the screen and launch any or widget without going back to some home screen and hunting for it. This is what kept me sane during the transition to Android and it is what keeps me on the platform today.

Plus, the lack of existing planet means we get to create one, with our own design

Yeah we'll build our own planet! With hookers and blackjack! In fact forget the planet!

First they came for Julian Assange and Wikileaks. I didn't like Julian Assange or approve of Wikileaks' methods, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came for MegaUpload. I'm not a computer pirate, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came after JotForm. I hadn't even heard of JotForm, so I didn't speak up.

Then they came after me and my blog. There was no one left to speak up....