I'm not so sure about that. While I'm no expert on the subject I found this podcast. It's from NPR and 16 minutes long, but I thought it very informative.

Couldn't agree more. If someone has snuck across the border and evaded the established legal process to come here by doing so, that would make them an immigrant who has entered the country illegally. While it is technically correct to say they are "undocumented", it's also technically correct to say that Japan was "splashed" or "moistened" by that tsunami in 2011.

...you deserve what you get, and any liability for a resulting "security breach" should be on you-- not on someone who can find a copy of a user's manual online.

Like previous commenters have said, these kids are damn lucky they're in Canada. In the US they'd have been fucking crucified.

Found it! Franchise by Asimov.

I seem to remember a fairly old (sci-fi?) story where the president got picked in a lottery. It dealt with the ramifications, both large and small scale, of this method. Anyone having better luck remembering or googling than me?


At a certain point, maybe just randomizing the system would result in a better setup than the entrenched, bought-and-paid-for bureaucracy we have now.

Sorry, ignore the previous, I meant to reply to the post below...

I seem to remember a fairly old (sci-fi?) story where the president got picked in a lottery. It dealt with the ramifications, both large and small scale, of this method. Anyone having better luck remembering or googling than me?

As a paperwhite owner, my device is almost always in airplane mode. Load books on it via Calibre over a USB cable and charge it every couple weeks. A modest investment of time and effort will thorougly break the "vice-like grip on the content" you referenced, but probably not for your father.

This... is retarded enough to loop all the way around the spectrum and land squarely on awesome.

This is where the thread needs to stop.
Really!

Are you naked in them?

They're not worthless, we all just pretend "they are needed to help with the general order of society". They're like a figurehead we can all point to. You know who maintains the general order of society? Me. You. Walk down the street and look around you. Those people are the ones who determine how we all behave. In some circumstances, with a very limited local and temporary effect (cop pulls you over or tells people to get out of the street) a cop can make a change, but only because he's carrying weapons and body armor with backup on tap. Really we all are the ones in charge. What happens when we all abandon the rules we know we should follow? I think it's usually called a riot.

They do serve a purpose, but I think it's really important to realize what that purpose IS before supposing that changing the police force will drastically change the people they police or society at large.

Who says it's the only one? Maybe it's only special because it's not properly secured against this type of attack.

You say that like it's a bad thing.
YOU GET A LIGHTSABER!
All else is of secondary importance.