Not only are there many people who will continue to share such documents on peer to peer networks, but also it may surprise our Wise and Venerable Legislators to learn that there are foreign web hosts not subject to US law. You can't really ban anything from the internet or keep anything "offline".

(Hands AK Marc even more rope in morbid curiosity to see what happens next.)

Wait a second. Why are you talking about "studies" in your post above? I thought some questions should never be asked, and even to ask them is bigoted and wrong. So why would there be studies?

Glad you were able to fill us in on that. :)

There are studies that show pretty much everything in the social sciences that somebody wants to show, so if you haven't seen a particular result, it's pretty much for lack of looking. (And yes, that is a pathetic state of affairs in social sciences.) I'd suggest that the "equality of marriages" with regard to child development outcomes is just as firmly established as that increases in CO2 lead to more frequent and intense hurricanes. The science is settled, people! /sarcasm

Nah, that's a straw man. I will readily agree that adopted kids can turn out really great, and better in many cases than with their lousy birth parents. A selection of data points doesn't refute the existence of a trend in a noisy dataset.

Nonsense. Asking questions and discussing issues is not bigotry.

You are a real jerk, aren't you? Since you prefer insults to courteous debate, I have no interest in engaging further with you.

Thought experiment for you. It's really important to enable women to participate in traditionally male-dominated areas involving leadership in society, right? I'm going to hazard a guess that you agree with that. So a question: is that just so the ladies aren't left out, or can an argument also be made the actual quality of these areas of society will be improved in the big picture by the participation of women? It's not unreasonable to argue the latter, and many reasonable people make such arguments.

So just take the above and apply it to child rearing, and I've successfully made my case that it's at least an issue worth considering/discussing. Diversity minus women equals "???". I suggest that the trolls in this conversation are those who say there's nothing to talk about, and everybody who disagrees with them is an idiot. I believe that would be you?

Not either-or, but all of the above. The state's interest in defining marriage has a lot to do with kids.

Actually, many such arguments have been made, so not sure what "people" you are referencing here. Can you be more specific?

You're entitled to your opinion; I think there's still material for debate here. I agree that broken homes, single parent homes, and abusive homes are not the model we want to aim at, and I think many of the children who grew up in such homes would agree with me. So let's not just concede failure from the start and say "anything goes". When answering the question "what is marriage", with regard to the state's interest in it, the answer will largely involve the welfare of children. Think of the children, dude! :P

If you read what I wrote, you will notice I am in favor of nuanced discussion, not against it.

Hmmm: "hard to imagine"... "a sane person"... "they know nothing about".

You seem pretty confident that you know what's best for raising children, and people who disagree with you know nothing. Do you even grant a teeny tiny possibility that there are advantages to having a child to be raised by their biological mother and father? Do you think it (can) make a difference whether a real, live woman is involved in the parenting of a child? How about a real, live man? Of course generalizations and simplifications are often wrong, but sometimes there is signal in the data that can be studied if one is willing to think honestly about it. (Unfortunately, the current political climate harshly punishes thinking honestly about it, and rewards mindless, one-sided drivel like you wrote above.)

Wow. Just... wow. Given what I've been through recently, I can't believe that the AC above would say "you must never use pronouns on the internet". To call me out individually like that was inexcusably offensive. This AC should be summarily shamed out of Slashdot.

Of course you yourself are trolling here. It is perfectly reasonable (though still subject to debate) to agree with the SCOTUS that businesses should be allowed free speech, and to characterize me and others as Koch Brothers bots is... well, it's pretty lame trolling, notwithstanding your current "+4 Insightful". I don't typically feed trolls, so this comment is directed at those who mis-moderated your post. :)

Isn't it wonderful to simplify an issue down to one sentence? You can solve all the problems in the world that way. /sarcasm

So answer me this: is a newspaper recommendation of a political candidate speech? Deny companies political speech, and you have all kinds of unpleasant fallout. You are suggesting censoring the NYT. (Were you aware of that?)

The solution to speech you don't like is not censorship, it's more speech. I have no problem with newspapers editorializing on political subjects and recommending candidates for office. I further have no problem with people banding together to make their joined voice louder by creating documentaries, websites, etc. The slippery slope of trying to chop people down to all be the same sizes is ultimately misguided and works against free speech.

If genetic modifications ever emerge as the medical miracle they're supposed to, there will be no stopping the use of the technology. All you need is for a country to refuse to enforce or recognize the patents, and presto -- the world's foremost medical tourism destination. I sort of despise the idea of patenting features of nature, so perhaps a bit of schadenfreude there.

I have no doubt the information will be spread, too. If Snowden can be widely hailed as a hero for leaking the NSA's rampant cybercrime, just imagine the pats on the back for the guy who leaks the key to cancer. (Yeah, yeah, along with threats of jail time, so he'll have to light out for Cambodia or whatever.)

"Can't I just be a programmer and not understand math?"