I hate to go all Negative-Nellie on you here, but let me give you a counter-example. There is a drug marketed under the name "Xyrem" that is used to treat very difficult cases of narcolepsy, which is no laughing matter if you know someone with the disease (which I do) or have it yourself (which I don't). This drug used to be cheaply available over the counter, but in more recent times, it has fallen under patent protection and costs up to $12,000 per month, with the price regularly increasing. You read that right: an over the counter drug became an obscenely expensive patent medicine. When I learned this story, I learned the lesson that money buys public policy in the USA.

You can tell yourself that the fedgov and megacorps can't keep something from us, but in practice, they can make it very difficult and dangerous to obtain outside of the authorized channels when there is enough money involved. Enforcement of laws against marijuana, cocaine, ecstacy, and even meth are nothing compared to this obscenity.

In short, I do believe that the establishment has the power to keep this from us no matter how bad we want it.

You had me until you said "shut down the government for the third time" because the "government shutdown" was nothing more than a circus act. No essential function of the government actually shut down, altho they did make a huge show out of closing national parks. According to one report, patrons at a hotel in a national park were prohibited from taking pictures outside the hotel during the "shutdown". What a farce.

When the Bill Clinton administration pushed the idea of banning encryption, his Attorney General Janet Reno made a statement that it needs to be banned because of paedophiles. History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme!

Related Dilbert: http://dilbert.com/strip/1997-...

I guess you don't mind when a garbage truck backs up in your neighborhood at 5 AM with that fucking annoying safety beeper that wakes up the whole neighborhood, because... safety!

Yeah, I was dining with a friend on the deck of a local eatery when some idiot stopped in and started revving his high-pitched POS Chinese 49cc "moped" (as it is called under state regulations)

My friend shouted curses at him as he left. I just remarked that it was a "Soprano Harley Davidson". How annoying!

Interesting...

I purchased a new Nissan Versa a few years ago with their continuously variable transmission. It runs awesome. From an engineering point of view, it amazes me that they can build a car with such a small engine and make it perform at highway speeds.

However, I did read that when the CVT was new, some people in their focus groups didn't like it because it *sounds* different. The first time I drove it, I thought there was something wrong with it because of the sound, but it didn't bother me once I knew it was supposed to sound different. If I'm not mistaken, they changed the CVT to make it sound more like a conventional automatic transmission.

It seems awfully dumb to me that a piece of equipment that was so carefully engineered should be modified simply to make it sound like the equipment it replaces!

The app is supposed to collect real-time data from drivers going around. If everyone using Waze sits in stop-and-go traffic for an hour before finally exiting I-87 where it is closed, they ought to be able to figure out that I-87 isn't a good route to use right now. Remember that Waze's selling point is that it uses information about traffic to find the fastest route.

I deleted Waze because it gave bad directions.

Once, it directed me to turn left go a block on another street, and then turn right and then left again back onto the same road! No, there wasn't any traffic.

The straw that broke the camels back was when I went out on a day after very heavy rain. Waze directed me to drive on a road that was closed.

Blue Cross does suck from my experience, but I don't think they are the primary culprit behind the high cost of health care. See, the PPACA regulates health insurance, but it does very little about the cost of the health care that the insurance must pay for.

Let me give you two good examples that show how fucked up our health care is in this country. I believe that most doctors are honest, hard-working people, but there are some really sleazy douchebags in the industry.

Example 1: Look up how much it costs to buy donated breast milk. If you need it, it can cost over $1000 per month, but don't worry, Blue Cross will pay for it!

Example 2: Long story, but there is an expensive drug out there by the name of Xyrem. It remains illegal in many countries due to its reputation as a date-rape drug, but many patients who are legitimately prescribed the drug swear by it. (I do not use Xyrem, but I know people who do.)

Xyrem used to be available over the counter for cheap ( I really despise these cocksuckers because I know that sick people are going without needed medication because of the cost and the company charging these stratospheric prices didn't even invent the fucking drug! May their executives roast in Hell.

Over a billion dollars goes to this one company every year for just this drug, that used to be freely available and cheap!

Now that you know something about why our health care is so expensive, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

I once interviewed for a job at a company that buys unwanted life insurance policies. It is called the "secondary life insurance market". I have no idea how they get past the rules that the person who buys life insurance is supposed to have an interest in the person insured.

I suppose my comment was probably read as confrontational. I am alarmed by all these stories about CPS that keep popping up like herpes sores. Just when you forget about the last one you saw...

I just wish there was something more constructive we could do about the situation than bitch about it on an internet forum. Chest-puffing about cop-killing will get us nowhere. Just ask the people in Ferguson about that one.

I'll tell you a little anecdote. I spoke with my great-aunt on the phone regarding the recent birth of my first child. I mentioned to her that I'm afraid of these CPS punks who would take away my child on the slightest prefix and the idiots who call CPS because the neighbor's kid is walking to school along. When I hung up the phone, I had the distinct impression that she is the sort of person who would have made that call to CPS!

We have met the enemy, and he is us!

FYI, in case you don't live here in the USA, it is not unseen for parents to walk their children on leashes in public. Really, I'm not making this up. I told my wife that we will never do this with our children.

AC, I am in favor of net neutrality because of the blatant unethical behavior of some ISPs, such as throttling and "permacookies" added to HTTP requests.

However, I fear that this will be used as an excuse to seize far-reaching authority that will quickly be abused in ways we have yet to anticipate.

You are not putting a bullet in any CPS agent's head because you would immediately lose your children for the rest of your life, and CPS knows this!

Enough with the chest-puffing.