So you think it's a stretch to assume that if BB would share the key with the Canadian Feds for a murder case, they would also do so for the US Feds for terrorism/the children/WOD/Snowden/etc/etc/etc? Please

"One major reason for that is -- you guessed it -- the strong native security."

Blackberries are more secure in many ways than iPhones. They certainly have more remotely manageable security, and can be more locked down, feature-wise.

> but you're always allowed to own a gun if you own your own home

That's not true everywhere. No state forbids ownership (though it's certainly more difficult in some states than in others) but certain municipalities deny ownership to many or most who seek it. Chicago did for many years until its laws were ruled unconstitutional. Same with Wahington, D.C., which changed its laws after losing in court.

In New York City it's still very difficult to own a weapon even just to keep at one's residence. It has high application fees and applicants can be denied for seemingly arbitrary reasons.

So there's no place where it's automatically forbidden for everyone, but it's certainly not true that a person is always allowed to everywhere in the US.

Usually that's true. State laws forbidding neglect or endangerment of children were being used (for example) to charge parents who let their children walk to the park with a crime. So the law isn't so much to say that parents are allowed to do X but that states are not allowed to charge parents who do X with a crime.

If you live in a place where even most law enforcement doesn't carry weapons, then it must be nearly free of violent crime.

I don't "feel safe in [my] country openly waving [my] gun around" because 1) I don't live in a state where ordinary people are allowed to carry them and 2) if I did it would be concealed carry.

"statistically I'm much safer and much less likely to be locked up by the government in mine" - no argument here, the USA locks up more people per capita than anyone, IIRC. And that's mostly due to out stupid War on Drugs, which is also where a lot of the violent crime comes from.

That's nice. Do they tuck you in at night, too? I don't know where you live, but go find one of the people you're entrusting your life to who does carry a gun and ask them if they'd trade it for a "Smart Gun".

It's really a separate discussion but in the US, our highest court has affirmed that the police don't have an obligation to respond promptly to a call or prevent crimes in commission when they're reported.

The *only* thing making BB/BES attractive to the only audience it has left - enterprise business - is its more finely-grained device management. BB10+BES allows a device to be much more tightly controlled and locked-down than an IOS / Android/ Windows Mobile device. Without that, there's no reason to limit yourself to the Blackberry device or BES's MDM.

That's an ignorant comparison. There were 26 lightning fatalities in the US last year.

I hope never to have to. Statistically, I probably won't. But if it's ever needed, that's exactly what I'd be doing.

I'll bet my life on a smart gun working as soon as law enforcement (and, for that matter, the Secret Service) is confident enough in them to use them too.

The US tax code is stupefyingly complex. There are often various ways to define or account for things that are perfectly within the bounds of the law. Choosing the way which results in the least tax paid isn't immoral - and, in cases like corporations where they have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders, it might be illegal *not* to.

Your idea of assigning taxes based on its impact on everyone else is interesting (not being patronzing, it is) but there's no basis for it in law. I'd figure, though, that Apple's impact footprint is lower than that of most companies.

Well, for most the dividends *are* taxed at almost 40%, also short-term stock gains. Longer term taxed at lower rate, but it's tax on non-inflation adjusted profit.

They've been in a few accidents, just none was the fault of the Google car.

Gotta love the oblivious jackass in the left lane who, after the sixth car has passed him on the right as there's nobody in front of him, hits his brakes to annoy the guy behind him who's about to be number seven. Because everyone else is the problem, and not him.

... only it's not 'unlimited'. If you can pull down 10Mb/s, and you are under perfect conditions for a month, you still have a maximum. Sure, it's 26Tb - but still a limit