It's seldom trivial to get evidence thrown out. You pretty much have to show that they were lying. Not always easy.

Even 10 times would far too often. And nobody was whining.

Who was ignoring this? Certainly not me, and I don't think anyone else.

Again, nobody did this. Not me, and not GP.

GP mentioned losing a house. There was an actual case like this in California. An innocent elderly couple lost their home and large plot of land to civil forfeiture because somebody had planted a few pot plants OUTSIDE their property line.

Ignoring the outrageous cases that do occasionally happen is no less erroneous than what you accused us of. Nobody should be treated like that.

---
"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own." -- Thomas Jefferson

That was way up the thread. I was replying to a general comment to the effect of "running a program isn't work". There was nothing suggesting that comment was in the context of playing a game or watching a movie.

Strictly speaking, that's not true either. There are an uncountable number of cases where judges were convinced to sign a warrant based on false statements or false evidence, for example.

So the warrant was not a legal warrant, and the search was therefore not legal, either.

Of course not. However, we do know of quite a few cases of abuse occurring. And for every one we know about, there are probably at least several we don't.

I don't think GP was referring to the basic concept of any civil forfeiture, though I could be wrong. I think it was a reference to the many cases of abuse.

Uh... if that's what you think, GP might actually be more informed about the issue than you are.

I am reminded back when I first started reading electronic bulletin boards, and I found EFFector Online from EFF, and the pubication from EPIC, whatever that was called.

At the time, civil forfeiture was a big deal as it related to online crimes, and the publications were chock full of examples of abuse. Like the greenhouse operator who liked to order his annual shrubs at market using cash... stopped at the airport, and was deemed to be a drug dealer because of his old jeans and excessive cash.

He was never charged with a crime. He never had a forfeiture hearing. But he never got his $30,000 back, either.

There are LOTS of such stories, from very reliable sources. I would consider EFF to be one such.

They've made a decent start for 2015, though. Among other things, I am holding onto hope for a ruling on King v. Burwell that reflects the actual law and Constitution, rather than ideology.

Not only is this just wrong, but where the heck do you get the idea that Ruby is a "hippie" language?

I mean seriously. WTF?

Yes, it is. Or at least it can be.

As a programmer, often running a program IS work, and what I'm getting paid for.

And if I write a script to update the database this way, and it runs all night, then that's my work that's being done. Of course, I'm not charging by the hour. But still. If I wrote it, and it's running, that's my work. That's what computers are for, and why people are paid to program them.

And if, for any reason, I have to sit there and watch it run (which does occur, for various reasons not necessarily related to the code) then it most definitely is work. For example: sometimes it's not possible or practical to do THIS until THAT finishes running.

Who knows? Maybe they mean "spartan" in the sense of the opposite of "bloat".

One can only hope.

Besides, I don't buy the line that Snowden "forced the agency's hand". I call bullshit. They could have done any number of things at that point: modify their program, reduce their program, or even eliminate it entirely. What they did instead was double down. That was THEIR decision, nobody else's. Trying to cast blame doesn't change that.

You're not contradicting me here. You're reinforcing what I said.

GP confused inflation and deflation within a specific market, with how it is measured. My comment was about price point as an indicator. I did not mean that it was, by itself, inflation or deflation. I wasn't trying to "define" deflation.

In this context, M2 and M3 have very little relevance.

It need not be invasive. It would be quite easy to construct a system that would automatically erase any footage the moment a plane successfully lands and docks at the airport.

The only footage that would be seen then, is when there is a real problem.

Let me put it a different way: inflation is an imbalance between supply and demand... in this case the supply and demand of money. Its direct (if delayed) effects include the market value of goods to be exchanged for that money. This is expressed as prices of those goods.

It can always be measured in price. They are not independent.

That would really suck wouldn't it?

But think of the money the electric company would have to pay you, if you used enough of them.