Fortunately other people aren't following that attitude, including the Gnome people. They want to continue supporting other options, and cross-platform compatibility.

Nobody has observed high-energy ultraviolet photons naturally? Have you ever looked at the sun?

... making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs anytime soon.

This is why.

And here:

Now, by in-sourcing their "low-pay employees," they are instantly closer to where they want to be.

That isn't why. Apple, Facebook, and Google have all been pushed recently by politicians to improve the demographic mix of their employees. In-sourcing the cleaning staff is an easy way to do it.

I'm going to to be terribly pedantic here, but GST, like all VATs, does not work like that. It is not an expense (as in it does not effect profit and loss). Like all VATs, GST collected on sales is subtracted from GST spent on purchases, and if the remainder is positive, then you pay that to the government, and if it is negative the government sends you the difference. The point is to make a fairer sales tax, where goods and services are not taxed at multiple points. All these financial operations happen on the balance sheet as changes to assets and liabilities, and have nothing to do with expenses at all.

Actually you can't just turn your passport in. You have to pay hundreds of dollars to formally renounce. And you can only do so if you're already a foreign citizen.

My first year in Iceland, my US return was so complex that most tax attorneys refused to touch it. One offered to do it for over $1000. I ended up doing it myself. Three years later I'm still dealing with the IRS on it. It was as thick as a book.

My subsequent returns have been simpler but are still really annoying.

Seriously, don't do this to your kids. Just don't.

It's not even just taxes. The US is so weird about all sorts of things that can bite you. When I got engaged in Iceland, Iceland wanted a certificate from the US proving that I'm not already married - it's a standard requirement here, and most countries have such a certificate. But not the US! In the US you can get a certificate proving that you are married from the state you got married in, but not a certificate proving that you're not married. The only way around it is to find the one sherrif's office in the country who considers a signed affadavit to be sufficient to wed (all of the others disagree).

I would never dream of cursing my kids with US citizenship. How mean could you be to them? I can't bloody wait to get my Icelandic citizenship so that I can formally renounce my US citizenship.

Patriotism is stupid. It is stupid to assign yourself to a group and then cheer for the group or go down with it. It is a sign of a weak intellect and stupid ideology to cheer for a team or for anything that is set up to consume and chew up and spit out an individual in the first place. Patriotism is for idiots and it is a useful way to control idiots.

There is only private property, in a war that is aimed at your private property and/or life you don't have a choice, but to be a patriot simply because of a set of circumstances that caused you to be born in a particular location within a particular set of people is stupid.

Stupid idea of patriotism is used for most horrendous crimes committed by the elites, who create walls made of people around themselves to protect their own power. These walls of people are then used as cannon fodder to destroy individual liberties, be it in civil or external wars.

Patriotism is a stupid idea that starts with the stupid idea of team sports and progresses all the way into wars.

However, pardon me, you are correct: It WAS the Riley case that actually put the nail in it solidly. I stand corrected on that point.

Camou was one of the Ninth Circuit case which caused a lot of the uproar that SCOTUS settled. But while it wasn't definitive, the idea that it wasn't about border searches makes absolutely no sense.

Damn autocorrect. It insists on putting in "probably" when I write probable.

But to clarify my point: if border searches of cell phones were exempt from probable cause, the agents could have searched it without it being "exigent to arrest". The entire thing was about whether the standard exceptions to probable cause applied. If probable cause didn't apply, logically he would have lost his case. You don't get to have that both ways.

The Wikiepedia article was last edited before this appeal was decided.

Are off your nut? The entire case is about border searching and exceptions. It was the Border Patrol who had picked him up at a border checkpoint, and searched his gear. Did you even read it?

Have you read any of the independent analyses of this decision? It established solidly that a border search of electronic devices such as cell phones carry the same standards as a search under other non-border circumstances. The same standards apply, the same exceptions apply.

If different standards applied at the border, the appeal would not have succeeded. The decision was made based on the fact that none of the standard exceptions to probably cause were met.

you talk about china? of course people in china want to leave. and, lets be honest, they have NO IDEA what the hell the US is really about. even when they move here, they stay together and don't mix (its true even though you may not like this fact) and after 5 years here, they will still not really know what the US is truly about. its a romantic view of what the marketing wants you to believe. it used to be true decades ago, but now, I would not suggest coming here.

now, lets talk europe. if you are in europe, you are already in a modern free society. why ruin that and come to the US?

seriously. the US has nothing over europe if you are already in europe and not used to living in the US. europe has jobs, good lifestyle, freedom, etc. I'm not seeing a good reason to give that up and move here.

I'm in my 50's and spent all my life in the US. I have traveled abroad (unlike most americans) and I do know what I'm talking about. I am not planning on leaving, but I can still see that for newcomers, it would not be a great place and where you are is probably already better than what you will FIND here once you get here.

the storybook is a lie. it was great marketing, but its still a lie. don't come here expecting the land of opportunity. unless you are already rich, white, christian and well connected.