I take it you're a member of the *resistance*? Get it? Heh, heh... er.. never mind. I'll sit down now.

Ah, now it's $100k, eh? The definition of "rich" really keeps coming down. When Obama started his class warfare schtick, it was over a quarter million or something, then it was $200k, now it's apparently $100k....

Who the hell are you to decide when someone makes too much money and should pay more? In your infinite wisdom, are you adjusting for cost of living per geographical area? How about inflation? Seems as inflation increases, your standard keeps getting lower. How DOES that work anyway? Is there a formula?

Maybe you need to stop picking numbers out of your nose and exposing your jealousy for the world to see. By the way, in most major metropolitan areas, $100k would barely get you by. Certainly you'd never own even an average house, and you'd probably need a second income if you had kids to support. Just because a number *sounds* big to you in your area of the world doesn't mean that it is for everyone.

That may be true, but then, Mexicans get paid more than 2 bucks a day. Fortunately for everyone, businesses sitting down to do the math eliminate such ridiculous hyperbole from the word "Go."

Oddly enough, I just did this about an hour ago. It wouldn't PXE (boot media not found or some crap), but if I generated an etherboot iso image from rom-o-matic.net and set that up in the virtual CDROM drive, it boots up just fine.

Now if I could just get it to give me something other than 4:3 ratio resolutions in the guest, I would be a happy camper. I want 1900x1200, dammit, not 1600x1200!

(For a bit of context -- Using VBox as a PXE-booted LTSP workstation client on my Mac. Works pretty well, after a significant amount of tinkering.)

That's just because they're a bunch of racists who are trying to seem un-racist by voting for the guy who's a member of a race they're racist against. Duh.

Lagging behind? The issue here is a law that's two years old, stating that importers must abide by all of the laws of the country from which they are sourcing the materials. Sounds like a good idea on the face of it, but unfortunately, it's very much open to interpretation.

There are several problems here:

1. The government has confiscated over $1M of materials, *and not given a reason for it*
2. The government did the same thing two years ago re: Madagascar woods, and the trial is still dragging on due to government dragging its feet, missing deadlines, requesting stays, etc.
3. The government has claimed that *any* guitar sold by Gibson can be construed as obstruction of justice, and that this can be applied to the BUYER and the RETAILER. So, in other words, they've threatened criminal charges against anyone who buys a Gibson guitar. Because they have not stated a specific infraction, Gibson does not know which guitars this may apply to, and so must assume *all* of them.
4. Gibson assumes that this has to do with an Indian law stating that if any finishing work is done in India, that ALL finishing work must be done in India. Gibson buys half-finished fingerboard blanks from their Indian suppliers, but has all of the proper sign-offs and paperwork to show that this was approved by the government.
5. The government raided a factory using fully-armed SWAT team. This alone is a disturbing trend that must be stopped. They weren't raiding a pot house or a meth lab, they're raiding a guitar factory. Suits, pens and clipboards were much more appropriate than kevlar and automatic weapons.

Here's a video of the CEO talking about the raid. It's a bit long, but the guy seems genuinely baffled as to what could be the cause of the raid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_-taqM5Sk0

Self respect.

No, the cost of civilization is fine. It's everything else we're paying for on top of that that's a bitch.

I'm thinking any popular social networking site that has a smartphone app. Fortunately, I don't know any like that.

Well, later guys. Time to fire up Google+ and Facebook apps on my way to work so I can see what my friends are having for breakfast!

Does this mean that I'm supposed to be pro-pollution or pro-global warming? As some people age, they can't figure out the remote control. Me, I have trouble keeping up with the world-ending-panic-du-jour.

That really seems to me to be a non-sequitur. It doesn't follow that, if one opposes illegal immigration that one also opposes legal immigration simply because the legal caps are lower than one would like. It ignores the main thrust of being anti-illegal immigration: supporting the influx of legal immigrants. I think I see what you're saying -- that if certain people aren't allowed in and I don't want them to come illegally, then I'm against them coming. Well, true, I'm against them coming "illegally," but if the government were to raise those caps to a reasonable limit and allow them in legally using appropriate background/health checks, I wouldn't be against it.

The key difference is the solution. Some would say, as many do, that they then have no choice but to come illegally, when the correct solution is to respect the laws of your new home and wait for a diplomatic solution. That's why these things exist. To break the laws of the country from the word "go" puts you on the wrong foot to begin with, and makes any kind of success very difficult to achieve.

I've heard this argument in several forms, but it's essentially "Well, the US won't just let everyone in, so they HAVE to sneak in!" Um, no, they don't. If you're not welcome, go somewhere else.

The fact is that this is a feedback loop. The more people come in illegally, the less can be allowed legally. We can't allow the entirety of Mexico and the rest of Latin America to come here at will because they bring their culture and refuse to adopt ours in any meaningful way. The "hard-working grass cutter guy" is a shocking minority of the people who come here, and is only used for the emotional aspect of the pro-illegal argument. "Oh, see?! You're a bigot!"

Yes, yes I am. Not against individuals, but against the culture of corruption and crime that is shot through nearly everything that happens there. My wife was born and raised in South America. Her country is going to shit along with nearly every other country down there because of self-serving, power-hungry politicians, crime cartels, and very little respect for rule of law. Let me tell you about her country.

* You have to build 10 foot walls around your house in the average neighborhood, complete with glass shards on the top to dissuade the average criminal. It doesn't work, though, because they just throw a blanket over them and walk right along on top.

* You have to have radios with the detachable face plates because your car WILL get robbed. Of course, now they'll just steal the body of the unit without the face plate. They also steal unprotected spare tires, and the engine computer. Why? Because things like radio bodies and engine computers are difficult to find, so you have to their black market flea markets go buy the parts back from the criminals who stole them! It's just an indirect way of robbing your wallet.

* They dig up roads in rural areas and then charge you a "toll" to drive around the ditch they dug.

* Strikers (who are seemingly always on strike, BTW) will destroy national infrastructure in order to get what they want. Typically, this means blockading or tearing up roads.

* Her country has seen an influx of, yes, illegal immigrants from neighboring countries. Are they the "hardworking lawnmowing types?" Nope. They're gangs, gun runners, drug traffickers, and just about every other undesirable. What have they done? Secured their borders. They also have military checkpoints at random spots where yes, you need to show your papers. I, an American, was stopped at one of these by ten guys with machine guns, searched, and let go without incident. (No, I don't think this is a good solution in our country, but it shows that these South American countries are actively dealing with the same problems, and in ways that our "more sensitive" culture would find "racist." Some checkpoints are random, others every car must pass through.)

* Her brother's business is relatively successful, and therefore is repeatedly *individually* targeted by both national and township taxes and regulations, despite the fact that he only operates in two towns and would still be considered a medium sized business by any standards. Why is he targeted? He's successful and doesn't play the political game. His competitors (and there are many) are not as successful, but DO play the political games, and use government as a weapon.

* Cops take bribes on the street in broad daylight.

These are just a few examples. The list goes on, and on, and on. That's just her country, and it's not even the worst country down there.

When she came here she overstayed her visa and her English was... not great. She was sharing an apartment with another family of illegal immigrants from Colombia, who are a whole other story.

(Side story: They eventually left for the socialist paradise, Canada, because of free health care and free houses (?!?!) In the preceding months when he was considering leaving, the husband quit the cash job he had as a painter and did nothing, assuming that he was going to go to Canada to be taken care of, while living in their shiny new government supplied house and eating goverment-supplied food. They were disabused of that notion pretty quickly as they got caught by CANADIAN BORDER PROTECTION because the wife was an idiot and started noisily celebrating too soon after they'd crossed the border. I digress, but you Canadians ought to take some pride in the fact that you're apparently attracting New York's Finest Illegal Immigrants.)

My wife and I had a chance meeting while I was on a business trip, stayed in touch, and eventually got married. After that, priority number one was getting her legally documented and concurrently teaching her English. She is now a legal resident, her English is great, and she's about to graduate college. We also speak Spanish and English in the house, and make sure the kids learn Spanish and are comfortable with the language. We have many friends from various south-of-the-border places, many of whom are illegal, and yes, decent hard-working people.

One thing that most Latinos seem to have in common -- especially the illegals -- is that they seem to take pride in getting free swag. Identity theft, lying on papers, and off-the-record income (even for the legal folks) are all common-place methods to rip off the government. And I'm not talking about just a few of these guys, I'm talking about the majority.

Even my wife, while she seldom took assistance because she's very prideful, still used to agree with these methods, and in some of our hardest times even tried to get me to do it. Once I explained to her that nothing is free, nothing is unlimited except greed and stupidity, and that by taking government services we'd be taking away from people who need it more and that we'd be paying for it anyway through higher taxes, she finally understood and now understands that these are last-resort options, not every-day ones.

Folks, I know this is long, but this isn't a problem that can be fixed with a few sarcastic and trite sentences. This is something that takes real understanding and dialog, and people who really want to solve the issue rather than score cheap political points -- on either side. There ARE hard-working people who just want a better life. There are ALSO lazy freeloaders and violent criminals, and the proportions probably aren't what you think. The violent criminals are bringing unheard-of violence to our country. Beheadings, hanging from bridges, medieval shit.

If we allow too many of the violent/freeloading types into this country, we'll simply be overwhelmed. The ship's already sinking. Neighborhoods are already being taken over and made dangerous because of influx of gangs and drug paraphernalia. City budgets are already strained without having to fund more cops to fight even more ultra-violent criminals.

While immigration is essential to the long-term health of our country, UNFETTERED immigration is the quick road to hell. We will cease to raise people up to our standards of living, and will instead be brought down to theirs. Is that what you want for a once-great nation?

In fact, it makes it worse.

1. Dragging this on only increases and ingrains the overall division of the people in the country, where a clear and decisive victory for one side or the other would have allowed the fighting to stop. Instead of "that awful week when the rebels failed/succeeded in overthrowing govt", people will increasingly remember a full on civil war and the division that comes with it.

2. The longer this takes, the more Gaddafi and supporters believe they can actually win this thing. At first he had several high-level defections once NATO became involved, probably because they didn't see how Gaddafi could possibly win this thing. Now? Probably won't happen anymore. What's more, where Gaddafi might have decided to surrender, he'll now hold on hoping NATO just loses willpower and walks off.

3. When he wins (and he probably will at this point), his retribution will be terrible for the rebels and their supporters. Genocide? Hah. I don't think we've seen anything yet. And what is NATO going to say at that point? They already tried to overthrow him and lost, in the process losing any credibility or threat they may have had.

As with any war, all in or all out. Half-assed is the worst possible thing you can do.

The problem is that, while you're turning your little ideological corner, I'd wager that most other countries are not. If you want to give them your livelihood, well, they'll be happy to take it. But don't expect the same from them. Ever.

The alternative is to take advantage of the situation, and be a self-serving asshat yourself. Sometimes you need to let asshats be asshats, and at least not hate yourself at night. Can one person make a difference? Oh, sometimes, but usually not. The real question is whether enough people refuse to be asshats that they can make a difference in aggregate. "If I didn't, someone else would" is not a valid justification for reprehensible behavior.