Yes, it is. Which is why the very smart people who wrote the US constitution chartered the country as a republic, not a democracy. And a good thing, too.

I have to agree, but it's too bad in some ways, IMO.

I used to get so much joy programming the metal or tinkering with the assembly that came out of the compiler.

Doing that is still possible, but it doesn't pay the bills.

The dream of abstraction is a bit of a nightmare for those that like to get into the guts of the machine.

GPU programming is another example, though Mantle allows the programmer to get a bit closer to the hardware.

So, you'd be OK with him supporting mandatory labeling on all foods that contain DNA? Because 80% of the population says they support their government helping them out with that.

I'd never support a politician who says he'll do what the majority say they want. We don't need mob rule directly, or by proxy, either.

Where I work I think the bandwidth is fine but the latency is horrendous, with every individual connection having to be checked against an extensive list of unapproved sites. So on-demand loading is an irritant/causes jerky scroll motion, even when content rearrangement is not invovled.

Where "well-written javascript" means popping the images in while I'm reading, and not fucking waiting until I'm trying to scroll down to read more.

Yes, even in systems other than democracies it's usually on the people as to what they'll put up with. In ours the populace is ultimately to blame, for the corruption that exists (whether Leftism- or corporate-induced).

But in our defense, we've been disarmed. Both literally and figuratively. While maybe technology and deepness of pockets has rendered us no longer able to physically restrain our government and its ruling class, we've been societally neutered of the knowledge and background and spirit to resist a government and ruling class running amok. So how much can we blame the people in America today.

And having an open southern border is pure genius on the Left's part. We people used to come to here to leave communism because they hated it and were convinced that it didn't work, not because they thought it was the best for them if only it had a sufficient funding base. People used to come here who believed they could make it on their own, and wanted to assimilate. It's a dream come true for the Left to have masses of immigrants who believe communism just wasn't done right, and don't want to assimilate but stay divided in ethnic/cultural communities but coming together to vote Democrat.

So not only have we been disarmed, but we've been diluted. I live in SoCal and Latinos work very hard here, I notice the jobs they do and they're not easy or clean jobs, and they don't pay much I would imagine, and they don't complain. So it's not solely of them and the background they bring with them (of faith in communism and tolerance of corruption), it's also a function of America today.

I think when the Irish and Polish and Italian immigrant waves came, they actually liked the basic system of America and wanted to melt into it. They thought they could make it just fine on their own, by working. Now we have multiculturalism and its encouragement of cultural segregation, and of not learning the language and customs and fully joining in. Now suddenly these days it's like America is at a zenith of racism and the message that can and does resonate is that you can't make it on your own in America, without the Left's help.

I.e. sympathy for Leftist values has probably already reached critical mass here. So what could possibly cause the populace (the citizenry plus the non-citizenry, that is) to want to get more involved in standing up to corruption and the slide Leftward. When the passing along of the American independent spirit to the young is being suppressed, and our population is being backfilled by those who'd never had it and don't appreciate it or want it.

You don't have much of an imagination, do you? Or pay any kind of attention to actual events, pretty much ever?

Escort aircraft can make observations and help with communications and recordings that can't be made any other way. One of the threats suggested the bomber was on board, implying the possibility that he might make demands which could include, possibly, making that aircraft into a weapon aimed at a metropolitan area ... which might require destroying the aircraft before that could happen. Fighters are routinely deployed when other aircraft stray from where they're supposed to be, cease communicating, etc. Which you'd know, if you paid attention.

This doesn't set back fascism a little, just reveals it a little (and when the populace doesn't care, then those are not both one and the same). And too many laws is bad, but, at least at the amount that we have, that's not what's leading to uneven enforcement.

A couple of the earlier comment-leavers (I didn't read all of the comments) touched on the problems:

and:

One of the reasons we have uneven enforcement is because we have a ruling class in this country. It is comprised of those on the Left who are in power, and that is politicians as well as government employees (and which would be almost all of those), plus those of the Republican party in power who partially align with them, plus those on the Left in prominence in the news and entertainment media.

See what the criteria are. Power, or prominence. As Andy Stern once said (about the Leftist movement in general), paraphrasing, we'll either use the power of persuasion or the persuasion of power. Republicans out of office, no matter how sympathizing to the Left, have no use to them. And do you think either of your two trolls here would get special treatment under the law, just for being good Lefties. Nope, because they have neither.

And what that charlatan so-called leader of labor (as a worker, he represents me about as much as Al Sharpton represents much of those who are Black) said points to the other problem. It's what's also in the meaning behind the Left's "elections have consequences".

It's the mindset/political philosophy of having total disregard for stability and agreed-upon things and a system of rules and laws. That if I "win" (because to them, governing is a reward (and the most rewarding thing you can do, morally)), either through getting into power through elections or other means, or getting public opinion behind me through literally however I can, then I get to set the rules.

Then I should get to set them largely independent of precedent or existing systems of rules, is what it means to them. And therefore I should get to say when they apply. And when I'm a member of the ruling class, I say they don't apply to my class. (Without a whole class of people positioned to and dedicated to or complicit with moving the U.S. Leftward, favor could only be singled out based on familial or financial gain or other traditional grounds besides this secular religious movement one.)

And there you have it. Identify any holes if you care.

Fascinating! So you can point to legislation that levied taxes to pay Verizon to put down fiber in places where they've chosen not to? If those appropriations actually specify deliverable services that they're not providing, that should be super easy for you to point out. Maybe not as easy as making up some "insightful" but completely misleading stuff about how it was taxes that Verizon funded FiOS and that they promised service at specific addresses that they've abandoned. Looking forward to your links.

You can build a full VW Beetle from 3rd party parts. Quite literally, you could have absolutely no parts sourced from Volkswagen or their OEM manufacturers at all. It's an expensive hobby, but people do it.

Try this: Crash safety testing.

Well, assuming the article saying that the consumer can "design" it really means design, and not just select from a few options to make it custom.

Because, of course, the entire infrastructure of the carrier's network, peering connections, management, power, data centers, and all the rest is just "some wires."

Yet in even some of the poorest countries you can get 20Mbit connections with no cap for less money than you pay in the US.

Citation, please, because Akamai's State of the Internet mostly disagrees with you.