Can't wait for an app that would allow anyone to be completely anonymous, even from the almighty Goog'lord.

The NSA's probably got them in stock.

I'm so glad to see they can now sit and accomplish nothing under a welfare system that pacifies them by providing their basic needs and no more, while providing a disincentive to actually bettering themselves.

But if they bettered themselves, they would not be picking produce for sub-subsistence wages, now would they? So those poor farmers would still have to ship in exploitable people so you could keep getting produce for below its actual cost of production. Which is what this is really about: you want stuff for below its actual cost, even if this means exploiting desperate people.

In other words, you are against minimum wage because it makes it harder to transfer wealth from poor people to you. Damn looter.

Should Putin want to invade Ukraine, he'd conquer it in a week or two.

Which is what he already did to Crimea, and is now trying to do to East Ukraine. Putin is an evil overlord, not an idiot; he'll gobble up what he can without drawing too much aggro, then wait for the next opportunity.

The problem, of course, is that sooner or later he'll miscalculate the reaction, like Germany did in 1939, and then another world war will start.

1. Who disabled the safety lock, and on what authority?
2. Who fired the missile, and on what authority?

Putin's servants on Putin's authority. The real question is whether this was an intentional revenge for the sanctions, or merely typical Russian lack of concern for human lives. Either way, the poor bastards on the plane are simply collateral damage in Putin's Soviet Empire Rebuilding Project.

Second, given amount of hate western media spewing against Russians and China right now, I see the great war coming.

Dunno what China has to do with any of this, but if you fear a war is coming, maybe you should tell Putin to stop? Because he's the one hell-bent on conquering his neighbours, which is what this is about.

Why shouldn't he?

Do you believe that the population is becoming more genuinely educated?

No, that's looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

The issue is that not everyone has the aptitude for college-level academics. That's just a fact, and it doesn't change just because you lower admission standards or degree standards or throw more money at it.

I still have a copy of that issue. :)

The "mankind" thing was just poetry for a domestic audience, read Kennedy's speech and it's crystal clear that the Apollo project was a military response to the "threat" posed by sputnik.

It had nothing to do with the invention of self-service pumps.

Uh-huh.

Economic data is historical data. It can produce correlations, never, ever Cause and Effect. Someone please design for me a control system based on correlational data.

In other words, "I can't produce any data showing where job growth slowed or people lost jobs because of a higher minimum wage, thus all data is garbage".

Which is why the economic growth rate is, over the last 100 years, inversely correlated with the power of economists and our government.

You think it's economists who are behind the movements to raise the minimum wage? You think government wants this and working people are against it? Maybe you should look at this:

http://www.politico.com/story/...

"On minimum wage, voters support raising the federally mandated minimum, 72 percent to 27 percent, including a majority of Republicans, who support it 52 percent to 45 percent"

And surprisingly, even 61% of small business owners support raising the minimum wage. Now why would that be?

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/...

Your argument that a raise in the minimum wage is something thought up by economists and government is just provably wrong.

Which is why the economic growth rate is, over the last 100 years, inversely correlated with the power of economists and our government.

You complain about "correlations not being causation" and then come up with THAT argument, which is based on a spurious correlation? Every rise in the minimum wage has been not the result of eggheads in government, but because of a groundswell of demand from the people who are, you know, actually doing the work.

There's not a single person in national elected office, House, Senate, or White House who has a PhD in Economics. Not one. There are people with other kinds of PhDs and professional doctorates, but not one single economist. But, you argue, economists control everything. Here's a correlation for you, "People who espouse neoliberal economic theories are highly likely to throw any kind of argument at the wall, based on no data or even any kind of provable theory." If anything, if you want spurious arguments and assertions based on nothing but feelings and doctrine, go to an Austrian School economist or someone who believes that crap.

If all you have available to "give" are poor imitations of intelligent debate,

For a group of people who love throwing around words like, "Marxist" and "Tyranny" and "Collectivist" and "Fascist" and "Moochers" and "Leeches" and "Parasites", I'm not sure you're in a position to judge what is and what is not intelligent debate.

Yes, what passes for a libertarian in 2014 is a thin-skinned mental undergrad with a grudge. A Republican who read once read a book. Any push back at all and they holler, "Mom, he's hitting me back!" Bitter and brittle, they march around just knowing that society could be so wonderful and free...if only. Protected by the notion that they'll never have to actually perform. And whenever libertarian policies are put in place, the resultant failure is always blamed on not having gone far enough. So, if only they had really gone a few steps further, it totally would have worked. In that way, they are just like the handful of hard core communists left. "If only they had really gone all the way with libertarianism/communism, it would totes have worked". It's actually a lot like your basic extremist follower of any other New Age belief. "The coffee enemas would have cured their cancer, but they just didn't stick closely enough to the regimen." Or, "The faith healing would have totally worked, but the patient didn't have enough faith." It's an argument that can never be won, which is why most people have given up and have just taken to ignoring them.

There is a reason no society in the world, in history, has ever tried to fully implement a fully libertarian system. Because even those most desperate for liberty - especially those most desperate for liberty - can recognize full-blown crazy when they see it. But I have to say, it would be a great treat to see a libertarian live for one day in such a society.

There's also a reason that of all the times the John Galts of the world have decided that they're going to create some floating libertarian utopia somewhere beyond the evil grip of the choking fist of government around their skinny necks, it's never ever happened. Because in the marketplace of ideas it loses every single time. Even libertarians know the idea is crazy, but they've become in love with the vast amount of self-regard that such a philosophy affords them, safe in the knowledge that they'll never be called upon to actually, you know, live like that.

Price controls never have negative effects.

In that case, why not $20/hr? $50/hr? Since it has no negative effect.

Yeah, those Presbyterians are really on a rampage, aren't they?

I don't fly anymore, because I don't enjoy voluntary root canals, but ...

I went through an automated car wash recently, and instead of pushing a few buttons and swiping my card, I got to listen to a video of a cheerful smiling woman in a car (with her adorable "daughter" beside her!) explaining each step in painful marketese ... every time I did anything, she started over, talking (obliquely, tediously) about the new step I was on ... by the time I could actually drive into the car wash I was ready to rip out the screen and beat myself over the head with it.

If you are going to automate, then at least make it quick and efficient. If you want the human touch, use actual humans. (Well, just not that actual human, please.)

The IRS is working diligently to strip us of our possessions, and as you're probably aware there is a move afoot to confine us all to urban reservations...