Don't laugh.

For years the only reason I subscribed to the weekend edition of the local rag was so I could acquire a fairly steady supply of paper to line the bottom of the cages of the assorted small pets around the house.

Yes, really. The printed "matter" inside this "newspaper" you speak of was just as so many other posters have pointed out: nonstop sell-outs and hucksters for big-government sweetheart deals and tireless hypesters of the military/industrial/prison complex.

No, my friend. If such "writing" is the stamp of this fallen age, then the sooner every prevaricating press implodes, the better.

There is one character in William Gibson's "Neuromancer" who wears a bodysuit that has the ability to display images, forms or pictures that reflect the mood or mind of the wearer.

This technology may very well be the first step towards that realization.

...cast a glare in my eye...

Really. The SEC investigated him 3 times over the years and they didn't seem to catch on to the poignant fact that Madoff didn't do a single trade in the past 13 years or so. I wonder what kind of genius you have to be to have those kind of rock-solid blinders on?

Scott is starting to look like he needs to trade the double cheeseburgers for something made of soy or tofu. Otherwise he'll be trading the smaller size jeans for larger pants with suspenders in short order.

A day that will live... in INFAMY!!

Seriously, expect wholesale user screeching of "Hey, my (fill in the blank) stopped working properly after I upgraded! What gives?" will start shortly thereafter.

What usually happens with these kinds of unconstitutional laws is they are rammed through with the authors knowing full well they won't stand up to a constitutional challenge. Think about certain aspects of the Patriot Act, the laws regarding civil asset forfiture, and the Lautenberg amendment to the Brady Bill (AKA the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban where you are denied 2nd amendment rights forever after having a restraining order lodged against you or being merely accused of a crime, even in absence of a conviction thereof).

What happens is the courts pile on the charges so high that defendants are forced to settle for a plea bargain, which is how 95% of all trials are resolved. Thus laws which blatantly violate the constitution are allowed to sit on the books forever with no effective challenge against them, generating eternal revenues for the state and ensuring that a long line of semi-innocents head off to the hotel-with-barred-windows for violating some petty legal technicality. The Branch Davidians were gassed and incinerated alive for nothing more serious than an unpaid tax or unfilled-out form regarding certain firearms laws.

The same nasty precedent set by the previous examples will be precisely how it plays out here. Not only will this law pass but it will be misused and abused left and right, and nobody will cut it off because that would stop the gravy train.

You know, M$ has always been behind the curve when it comes to security and structuring their OS to be secure from the ground up; security has been a real afterthought for over a decade, and that's simply not acceptable. I don't envision this changing anytime soon, either with Vista or whatever other junk they're peddling.

One of the statistics I had read years back illustrated that 87% of the people who get into these schemes lose their "investment" in the "course." 7 out of 8 get nothing at all.

To top that off, with any kind of pyramid-structured business, regardless of whether it is Mary Kay or Avon or the brand new Ponzi, Inc., you only get on average two people to come in beneath you, not the dozens that will make you millions.

This game works for those that are professional closers but they thrive off the expense of people who are professional losers. You'll make more money working part-time at Wally-Mart or McDunkie's.