And in other parts of the world (like much of the US north) they pour so much salt on the roads in the winter that it isn't going to make any damn difference, unless you're touching up those scratches on the underside and hard-to-get-at places, where the salt works its magic. The body will probably last 15 years and then rust out, no matter how much you touch up and wax the outside surfaces, because that's not where the killer rust occurs.

Huh? None of mine do, and damn few of the others that I am familiar with, especially outside of businesses. Mobile phones, yeah, but that assumes you can do a Skype call with a computer link from a mobile phone. Can everybody interface their desktop/laptop with their smartphone? (I wouldn't know, I've got a dumbphone.)

The rest of your comments, however, are right on.

Why does it have to be only man's fault? There are so few things in the world that have only a single cause. Isn't the fact that man is apparently contributing to it, enough?

It's true the Earth has experienced many things in the past, including warm periods, ice ages, and mass extinctions. In fact, for most of the Earth's lifetime, it has gotten along fine without humans. Now, I don't expect global warming will make humans extinct, as a group we're pretty adaptable (if you don't care what happens to any particular individuals). But if it's enough, it could, there have been widespread extinction events before. Homo sap has been here for what, 100K years +- 50% (on the long side for critters with the right anatomy, on the short side for behavior), there's no guarantee we will be here for another 100K, or even 10K. Nature doesn't care, any more than it did about dodos or passenger pigeons, we can be replaced.

But even if global warming doesn't mean extinction, flooding, heat, changing weather patterns, changing disease patterns, changing rainfall can mean the deaths of many individuals. We're much more likely to make things worse by not changing our behavior, than we are by changing it to reduce our contribution to warming.

And that's different from federal taxes, how? You've always got the option of moving to, oh, say, Belize. You don't have to put up with the federal government pissing away money on Interstates and FEMA and Social Security and military adventures in Iraq (if you provide a good pension plan for all your workers, and don't steal the money like a lot of big companies did, they won't need that Social Security).

Around here, it's because cops prefer to cruise with a buddy (wouldn't you?), and have a union that's strong enough to call the shots. And, of course, because we have a chief and city council who are too spineless to press the issue (you just know the union's PR response would be "they're needlessly endangering our brave boys in blue").

No. And they are less likely to kill innocent bystanders or other people who aren't actually a serious threat, too. Maybe when they're alone, they're less likely to be asshats, and not be playing to their buddies. Maybe it's "mob psychology" that affects the cops. (And of course, maybe it's that if they're alone, they won't go anywhere that might be dangerous until backup arrives.)

And it's not as if cop is that dangerous a job. Being a garbage man, farmer, or truck driver is far more dangerous (top 10 US dangerous occupations: fisherman, logger, pilot, garbage collector, roofer, structural iron worker, farmer, truck driver, powerline worker, taxi driver). But we don't have any TV series about garbage collectors.

I used to get catalogs from the vendors that sell to public-safety types. Gadgets to break auto glass with, neat gear for your auto office, decals for the side of your car, lights for the roof, leather gloves (with or without lead loading), and yes, concealed audio recorders to wear. Not the secret "wearing a wire" stuff, I think they transmitted back to a recorder in the car (this was 20 years ago, so no video eyeglasses).

Don't kid yourself, the bosses (chief, mayor, city council) don't want to see any misconduct either, because it would reflect poorly on them. they don't want successful lawsuits against the police, those can be expensive. They don't want to look anti-cop, because the general public thinks cops are heroes and anything they do to somebody, the perp probably had it coming anyhow.

Well, probably not. But seriously, if you verify a pharmacy through someplace like this they'll be for real.

The FDA may have something to say about it, but AFAIK the US government doesn't choose to make it an issue, probably because they'd then have to defend the fact that the pharma industry gouges US customers with prices that are twice what they charge for export. I'm sure most of the Canadian mail-order pharmacies will sell it to you. I bought lovastatin (generic Lipitor) that way for years (when your drugs are 100% out of pocket, it pays to shop around). They also sold grey-market Lipitor for about 2/3 of what it costs in the US (manufactured by Pfizer in Australia, shipped from pharmacies in various countries). The generic was about 1/3 the US Lipitor price and was manufactured in India. And while I'm a little leery of Indian drugs (they're perfectly capable of making quality drugs, but there are a lot of counterfeits too), this stuff worked fine. And in 10 or so years I never had a shipment seized or held up.

There's people that will work for, but there's also people it won't work for. For one thing, figure that if you're starting up, you're going to have to spend half your time in marketing (if you thought sales and schmoozing were nifty, you probably wouldn't be a programmer, but at least you'll learn why those inane ego-boosting seminars are so popular with salesmen). It also tends to be boom-and-bust, periods when you don't have any work interspersed with periods where there's too much work. Plus, you get to do the accounting, though for a one-person business that shouldn't be too onerous.

And where you are, it's 100% impossible for anyone else to watch while you fill out the ballot, and 100% impossible for anyone else to fill it out for you. And your mail is 100% delivered, 100% on time. I bet the trains run on time there, too.

It saddens me to say this, but yes, the US too. Our citizens aren't any smarter or or our candidates any more scrupulous than other counties (and we can all think of advanced countries that in the last century made very very bad choices about leaders). For us as well, it's hard to tell what's simply bullshit to get elected, what's negotiable, and what's heartfelt opinion. Yes, it's scary.

I would say, a security guard is, or should be, held legally responsible for his own actions. If management tells him to do something illegal, there is no reason that should be any different than if his brother-in-law tells him to do something illegal.

There are differences between the two. Just not so much in that area. The differences are mostly in the areas of things like woman's rights, lowering taxes on the rich at the expenses of the poor and middle classes, cutting services for the poor, and (maybe, depending on what Romney's position is as of noon today) health care.

But I think that no president will willingly give up powers such as the "Patriot" act. Because, after all, they will use it for good, not evil (like the other guy).