The large amount of software hacking and modifications available for the N54 / N55 engines and the iDrive systems disagree with your "locked" assertion.

Show me another car where you can get a $500 piggyback module that allows you to change engine performance through the steering wheel controls by hijacking signals on the CANbus, or changing gauge function on the fly: http://www.burgertuning.com/jb4_pnp_BMW_performance_tuner.html

These engines are a software hacker's dream.

If $35k is comparable with other new sedans, I guess I won't be buying a new sedan ever again. Interesting how median household income has increased by about 70% in 20 years, while the price of an average new car has increased by over 130%.

Including the freedom to take away other peoples freedom, I suppose?

Let 'em all in. If you're going to pull down six digits (and pay taxes on it) then I say: WELCOME TO THE U.S.A.

Here's the thing. We Americans don't actually build stuff, grow stuff or put stuff together anymore. Well, we do, but it's becoming more and more rare. What do we do? We make software and design stuff. Unfortunately, the kind of endeavors one might easily imagining doing somewhere else. We really, really don't want that to happen, since it's this kind of activity we're going to rely on moving forward to support the rest of the economy, which is inwardly focused (medicine, finance, service industry, etc.) That's why we really want all the world's bad-ass scientists, engineers and developers to re-locate their Hindi / Mandarin / who-the-hell-cares-as-long-as-they-also-speak-English selves stateside and get to work building the next Facebook Google.

So when John Boner says "He got 90% of what he wanted" in the debt celing debate, that was bi-partisan?

I assume a transcript is a detailed record of everything you do somewhere?

Maybe you should try that yourself: http://www.military.com/news/article/obama-gains-edge-in-military-campaign-donations.html For you lazy ones: From January 2011 until March, servicemembers who gave more than $200 contributed about $333,134 to Paul's campaign, as compared to about $184,505 for Obama and just $45,738 to Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney, according to an analysis by the center. "But in March, Obama and Paul switched places," Choma wrote. "Members of the military sent $36,448 to Obama and just $17,733 to Paul. Even though Romney solidified his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, military donations to his campaign remained anemic -- only $8,630."

Maybe you should try that yourself: http://www.military.com/news/article/obama-gains-edge-in-military-campaign-donations.html For you lazy ones: From January 2011 until March, servicemembers who gave more than $200 contributed about $333,134 to Paul's campaign, as compared to about $184,505 for Obama and just $45,738 to Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney, according to an analysis by the center. "But in March, Obama and Paul switched places," Choma wrote. "Members of the military sent $36,448 to Obama and just $17,733 to Paul. Even though Romney solidified his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, military donations to his campaign remained anemic -- only $8,630."

Inflicting physical pain upon a child is abuse.

Spanking, whether it is effective or not for getting a child to stop a particular act, is bad for all children. It leads to aggression, lower test scores, etc. Whatever the manifestation for a particular child the point is, if I shoot you in the foot you're going to stop kicking me with that foot, but let's look beyond just getting you to stop kicking me. Put another way, when there is permanent harm, it doesn't matter if it is effective. It could be the most effective method out there and that would change that it is wrong, especially in light of alternatives.

I worked in Glasgow for a while and found everyone perfectly pleasant, whenever a Scot works in England though they seem to get all chippy and resentful for some reason.