I'm Canadian. I have a son who was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Now I guess he'd just be diagnosed as on the autism spectrum.

Anyway, because of that diagnosis, I get to claim a disability tax credit (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/disability/) for him. I get a pretty good chunk of my income tax back at return time.

Are those who call for black voters to vote for black candidates also racists?

The answer is yes, I just want to see whether you'll admit it.

I used to agree with your father's philosophy. I don't anymore, and here's why.

As long as you pay taxes - any taxes, including sales tax, etc. - you still have a right to voice your opinion or complain, even if you didn't vote. The relevant principle here is, "He who pays the piper calls the tune."

And even if you didn't pay any taxes either, you could still complain to your heart's content, on the principle of freedom of speech. However, you'd have little standing to be taken seriously.

Anybody else getting a "lost scene from 40 Year Old Virgin" vibe from this?

"Know how I know you're gay? Becuase you got an e-mail form Jason Kenney."

Rumour has it that people with musical talent can sometimes leverage said talent into additional reproductive opportunities.

These questions might not be as self-evidently ludicrous as you seem to think. Assumptions are your enemy.

"why are there no dinosaurs in the bible?" - there are. Well-documented, just not by that name. You did know that "dinosaur" is a neologism, coined in the mid-19th century, right? Look for terms like "leviathan", "dragon", and "behemoth", then laugh at the footnotes saying that those terms probably mean something like a hippopotamus.

"how can the entire earth flood in only a few days?" - 40 > "a few".

  "where did Noah store all that food?" - how much food did he need? Were some of the animals onboard used as feed for others (especially given that some reproduction / breeding may have taken place during the time spent afloat)? How much space was available? How much preparation time was available? Your question is an interesting design challenge; dismissing it out of hand would be a mark of an uninquiring mind.

I'm not trying to argue for a literal interpretation of the Bible here - I'm trying to make the point that critical thinkng cuts both ways. Calling other people "stupid" because they've given consideration to questions you didn't consider worthy is not a mark of greater intelligence, it's a mark of different interests.

The previous AC is correct. Embryonic stem cell research requires the deliberate destruction of a fertilized human embyro. You're free to believe there's nothing wrong with that, but to refer to the fact as "disingenuous" or "ignorant" is itself, well...

Incorrect. The government declining to pay for something is not the same thing as banning it. By your logic, the government has banned my puchasing any more guitars, because I have to pay for them myself.

Incorrect. The government declining pay for something is not the same thing as banning it. By your logic, the government has banned my puchasing any more guitars, because I have to pay for them myself.

Remember Phil Hartman's "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" character on Saturday Night Live? He wasn't a lawyer who specialzed in services to or for unfrozen cavemen - he was a lawyer who also happened to be an unfrozen caveman.

This woman appears to be a "special needs attorney" in the same sense.

Completely incorrect. There are other Old Testament passages bearing on the subject, and Romans and I Corinthians are in the New Testament. Please read the Bible before you try to publicly teach it. Some other people who don't know better may be misled by your inaccuracies.

You're free to disagree with the Bible, but not to just make things up about its contents. (The same goes for any other book, "sacred" to anyone or not.)

-Zirbert

No, you're being over-the-top stupid. Not liking some of Harper's policies (I don't like a lot of them either) doesn't justify this kind of hyperbole.

There's a fable about a boy falsely shouting about a wolf that a whole lot of people need to learn before they start tossing verbal grenades.

-Zirbert
http://zirbert.blogspot.com/

I dont't like Harper either, but let me assure you that you have absolutely no right to detemine who is or is not a real Canadian based on their political beliefs.

-Zirbert, real Canadian no matter what some arrogant douchebag on the Internet may claim
http://zirbert.blogspot.com/

At a $10K price point, you could afford to do what I've long been expecting to see widely adopted: online activation, with the serial number / key validated against a whitelist of known good (i.e., paid-for) keys.

The cycle is always the same: require key to install or activate; hackers determine algorithm and make keygens; keys known to be used in the wild get blacklisted. Validating against a whitelist breaks this cycle, but normally wouldn't be cost-effective. At $10K, you can go for it.

Yes, there will be some hiccups (what to do if / when a *second* user tries to validate using the same key and you need to determine who's legit, etc.), but they should be solvable in low volume / high price-point scenarios.

-Zirbert
http://zirbert.blogspot.com/

The whole "I'll leave feedback after you do" thing was one of my pet peeves as an eBay buyer. If I'm the buyer and you're the seller, then the entire basis for your evaluation of my performance should be whether I paid promptly. That's it. Once I've paid you for the merchandise, my role is over. (Assuming I don't pull a scam of my own claiming the item wasn't shipped, wasn't as described, etc.).

The seller's role is far more complex, and it's understandable that a buyer may need more time to evaluate - say, until the buyer has had time to receive the item and make sure it is as described.

Back when sellers could leave feedback for buyers, I always though that they should have needed to do so at the time of receiving payment. You won the auction, and you paid me within a reasonable timeframe? A+, we're done here. Assuming, again, no scams by dishonest buyers, etc. - but such matters should always have been handled through eBay and PayPal's dispute resolution mechanisms, not via feedback.

Whenever a seller said "I'll leave feedback after you do", I interpreted that as extortion and moved on to the next listing.