Are you kidding? We had a whole thing called "the civil rights movement" which ultimately went pretty well in terms of accomplishments. And that's not the first or the last, a few other big ones: women's suffrage, emancipation, there's a pretty strong push right now for rights for gay people, etc. Are you trying to claim that the suffragettes were conservative? They were not.

You are obviously confusing civil rights (completely unrelated to guns) and property rights (guns are property). I really doubt that your confusion is accidental, I'd be willing to bet an awful lot that you got that idea either directly or indirectly from the NRA. The NRA regularly concocts this kind of nonsense because, to a lobbyist, honesty is just a speedbump. I can't say that I have much of an opinion about guns one way or the other, but I absolutely hate the NRA and this sort of intentional spreading of ignorance is the reason why.

The article misses the big point here: regardless of whether or not what you do is actually illegal, the NFL may very well sue you anyway. It's illegal in practice even if not in the books.

At least one aspect of the cube was an example of Jobs at his worst: the GPU was originally supposed to be one of ATI's brand new Radeons, but ATI let slip to someone that this was happening and it wound up on a blog somewhere. In doing so ATI committed the greatest sin that anyone can commit against Apple - marginally lessening the surprise at one of Jobs' keynotes.

So what was the response? Apple went with an older, slower, cheaper GPU instead of the Radeon. ATI lost some money, but the ones who really paid the price for ATI's crime were, of course, the chumps who bought the cubes. Those things were outdated at launch.

We do not know any of those things. We do know that trolls are sadists, but it's taking a jump to suggest that the average abusive League of Legends player is a troll. At least by the strict definition of troll used in that study.

A lot of people act like it's just bad luck that League of Legend's player base is so abusive, or they say things like "Isn't it too bad that MOBAs attract such a bad group of people?" I hardly ever see the community blamed on the game itself, but you're talking relatively high stress game where you invest a significant amount of time and where victory means something in terms of unlockables and ranking. Further, a poor teammate not only fails to help you win but can actually aid your enemies. The game creates an environment that's just asking for abusive behavior from stressed out, frustrated players.

It's entirely possible that this stress will come out from players in real life as well as in the game, but I don't think it's safe to jump to any conclusions about whether it will happen more if they're allowed to vent more in game. What you could do if you wanted to address that is give them a little cool down period after a match... Meh. Or just get them to play a different game.

What do you mean by "bottom dwelling?" Discussions about taxes and resultant wealth distribution are not discussions about rich vs poor. They're discussions about rich vs. middle class. The argument goes: the middle class is shouldering a larger portion of the tax burden over time and is, as a result, shrinking. Arguments about taxes are seldom arguments about the very poorest people, unless you're looking specifically at sales taxes and the like.

The statement that I made and that you seem to be trying to dispute is that property taxes are regressive. Your claim that they are small is irrelevant, size doesn't have anything to do with their regressiveness. Also: they are not small everywhere. According to Wikipedia they're up to 4% in some places, that's not trivial. Also: So what? The greater point that I was making was that the United States doesn't have anything like a redistributive wealth tax. If property tax is so small, then this only reinforces my point.

I did specify two groups who are far from mansion ownership and yet often hold more property than their income can support. It's not bulletproof - someone like Bill Gates could spend his entire fortune on one giant "farm" and then complain that big government is forcing him to sell some or all of his property to pay for the taxes on it. So we generalize to people who are financially responsible.

By and large though, a poorer person has a larger portion of their wealth tied up in things like their home and their car than a richer person does, and as a result pay more in property taxes. This doesn't apply to the very poorest people, you're right, who own no property at all.

Wealth tax: 0%. Some states and municipalities in the US have a property tax but that functions in essentially the opposite way, since it hits people the most who have a large amount of property relative to their income (farmers and retirees), making it a regressive tax. There is no federal property tax.

The closest thing to a redistributive wealth tax is the estate tax, removed all together in 2001 and brought back in a lessor form in 2011. It's primarily politics which keeps us from having a proper wealth tax (though there's some question about implementation and catching tax dodgers), so we're stuck with an income tax instead. The trouble is that higher incomes are good for the economy, ideally we should be encouraging that sort of thing and not taxing it, while sitting on wealth is bad for the economy. But, like gas taxes, Americans can't seem to stomach doing things the sensible way because... I don't know, communism or something. Maybe too many people yelling "socialist!" So we're stuck with income taxes and excise taxes and sin taxes and yadda yadda.

Thanks. I'll probably get one, judging from this thread it seems like the best option available.

I think you might have the right idea. Some other people have suggested making my own mouse with a 3D printer or some such, but I could just take out the internals from one of the Contour mice, which have a really great shape, and put in the internals from something else. Something wireless... I'll think about that.

I appreciate the suggestion, the pain seems to come from the small stretch of having my ring finger off to the side and down from the other two for an extended period. It's not really RSI, though as I understand it I'm ripe for RSI pain there - I pretty well plant the heel of my hand and move the mouse with just my wrist and finger tips. I've been told that this is exactly wrong, but aside from a thick callus on my hand where it rests on the desk it's never given me any pain or trouble. As long as I've got a mouse where I can keep my three middle fingers together, that is, and not dangling to one side.

I'm using a grey Contour mouse right now and either the DPI isn't that high or the sensor accuracy isn't sufficient for that to matter. I don't know if this is a 4th gen mouse, they aren't labeled that way. The older mice were white, so if all the grey ones are 4th gen then the upgrade was insufficient. On the other hand, I've had this for a few years and the label on the bottom says 2011, so maybe this is a 3rd gen mouse? Feh.

I like the shape of the contour enough to buy another one if I thought it would make a difference, but I'm not just going to take a shot in the dark and hope to randomly get a new model.

Arg. I knew that was too good to be true. I knew it!

"Lets make a totally customizable mouse with tons of buttons so users can configure it however they like."
"Great idea! Only, you know, not anyone who doesn't use Windows or Mac OS."
"Natch."
"Also, let's make it totally customizable _except_ for the ability to put the middle mouse button in the middle or the right button on the right."
"Ha! Won't it be hilarious to see all those idiots trying to right click with the right mouse button. What a bunch of moroons..."

Thanks for that bit of validation. I've never had this kind of trouble with a mouse before, not even with a roller mouse, and had a small concern that maybe I was just getting old or something.

Well, the Contour mouse that I mentioned in the summary comes in several sizes for lefties. Not wireless though, we're in the same boat there. The Evolent mouse also has a left-handed version, though no no wireless for that one.

Thank you, that is very helpful.