Finally, an opportunity for ladies of the non-bimbo persuasion.

You are assigning assumptions, putting words in my mouth and then disparaging me for something I did not say or imply. Shame.

Let me set you straight. I hope for equal outcomes, and all power to women/immigrants/LGBTs/darker-skinned if they achieve equality (whatever that means), or even go on to dominate. So I am very much for change, disruptive change, even.

But affirmative action has a bad track record and ultimately is counterproductive for numerous reasons.

Yes, I am a dead white male, an engineer (the real kind), work in a high-tech design company. As a lead engineer I have chosen to surround myself with talented team members and guess what? The gender balance is even, although more male for the old-timers like me, more female for the juniors. We are happy and productive.

I am all for intervention to ensure equal opportunity.

But I am opposed to interventions to manipulate equal outcomes.

http://youtu.be/4bCyIAsSid8

against a man armed with a banana?

Nearly 200 posts and nobody has asked the most important question!

You called him "apologist". I call him "Tory".

No taxation without representation.

The root cause is that politicians have the power to pass laws that create favorites. The problem is not money in politics, it is politics in money.

If politicians were constitutionally prevented from enacting laws that favor or impede certain classes, then the lobbyists would soon be looking for real jobs.

Credit cards are a ponzi scheme, are not backed by any hard currency, cannot be used to pay taxes and are only used by drug dealers and money launderers. Oh, wait....

THIS is the real meaning of "hacking"!

Did "In the USA anyway..." not clue you in.... Nevermind.

In the USA anyway, the kids are looking at adult jail time.

Civilizations collapse when they become to complex to manage, and are no longer able to adapt to perturbations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Tainter).

The meddling of the NSA, with the resulting responses (everything encrypted, tor, darkmail, privacy protections, binning Cisco/Huawei routers, general distrust and added security overhead) has added a huge burden to the system. This unintended consequence makes the system unstable and counterproductive to the aims of the NSA.

The internet used to be a nice shiny toy until the government broke it.

I'm sure the Iranians have observed America's approach to Kim Dotcom with interest.

You left out the Supreme Court, which has completely sold out to the Tories.