That's a hollow threat when the private sector is less than 8% unionized. Someone commented that decades ago, we were told that in future (that's now) the work week would be shorter and living standards higher. Yes, we said that in the 60's and 70's. So why didn't that happen? If we had kept the 35% unionization rate we had back then, it would have. Instead, we busted unions, outsourced labor, and allowed the billionaire class to accumulate nearly all the benefits of increased per worker productivity that arises out of new technology to themselves. I hope the drivers are smart enough to vote for this. I was in the Teamsters myself once. It made a huge difference.

"But we are just a sort of machine that has developed a soul."
Fair enough. That statement should read. Human bodies have developed what we call "souls". The only sensible definition of the term would have it be indistinguishable from "mind", "spirit", etc. "Religious types" are usually those who insist that the soul can exist independently of the body. I'm not one of those. I could be defined as "christian" only in the sense I stated in the latter paragraph. Most people who call themselves "christian" would consider me agnostic. No citation is required. A "soul" is what you ARE. Not something that you HAVE.
 

Souls definitely exist. You don't HAVE a soul. You ARE a soul. What you have is a body. Can the soul exist independently of a body? I don't see how. But who knows?
I'm of the opinion that there is no soul currently in machines that mankind has created. But we are just a sort of machine that has developed a soul. Eventually, I think artificial intelligence will also develop a soul as it rises to consciousness.
As for converting them to Christianity, well if by "christianity" you mean the belief that declaring your belief in a 2000 year old Jewish zombie makes you immortal, because death is a punishment that you deserve because your ancestor ate a forbidden fruit on the advice of a talking snake, then I'm against it.
But if by "christianity" you mean encouraging the AI to follow the example of a guy who was so in favor of cutting other people some slack, that he implored his deity to forgive the people who were crucifying him, then I'm all for it.

Vaccinations don't provide a 100% guarantee of not getting an illness. They reduce the probability. If you don't get your kid vaccinated and my kid ,despite vaccination, catches measles from your kid, then you'll hear from my lawyer regarding whatever out-of-pocket medical expenses we have to pay. Oh and my kid says there may be "pain and suffering" remuneration involved.

My neighbor's trees have termites. He has an ideological opposition to exterminators or chemicals or something. As long we don't eradicate the termites in the whole neighborhood, nearby neighbors will have to pay an exterminator every 6 months or so. Eradicating the termites from the trees generally throughout the entire neighborhood would be far more efficient and less costly. The exterminator is warning that the pesticides we used to use are becoming less effective since the termites are evolving an immunity. I'm getting pretty tired of paying for his god-given right not to exterminate.

Does "The Big Book of Knowledge" allude to the "round earth" theory? Because here in Texas that might cause some controversy. We don't want Texas children influenced by the anti-Christian and anti-American world view that's being propagated by liberals.

Well now you're zeroing in on what the South Park writers were alluding to with their Cartoon Wars episode. The media likes to self-censor images of the prophet and pretend it's about being respectful to Islam and Muslims. The same media has no problem showing images of Jesus and George Bush defecating on an American flag. That's why you know they're only pretending to be respectful, when what they really are is frightened. You see, most Christians won't try to kill you for being blasphemous about Jesus. I hope that extremists Muslims don't decide that blasphemy about Jesus is just as offensive as if it is about Muhammad, since Jesus is also one of their prophets.

It was for a Windows user. He's not a likely convert for Linux. My experience in installing is on the Linux/BSD side, so it didn't really occur to me that someone would bundle a bunch of crap with the Windows version of Libreoffice. I'll watch for that in the future.

"You are at fault here....You are the problem, not software licensing, you!"

Sure, guilty, but I've decided to cut myself some slack over it.

By "Mindows" I meant "Windows". The spellchecker on my PC quit working for some reason. And for some strange reason it appears the keydoarb has been rewapped.

To fix all these problems Mindows users can just download ZoomFixMyComputer from Craptastic.com.
The first 5 days is free. After that a low monthly subscription price of $99 will assure that your computer is safe and as efficient as it was they day you took it out of the box.

I can witness on open source not being immune. I recommended Libreoffice to a novice PC user recently. I don't know from where he downloaded the installer, but when he finished he had some redundant anti-virus programs, and another program that reset the home page of his web browser and wouldn't let him change it back.

Whoa! You're a brave man...,Anonymous.

The old Slashdot's still around. It's called SoylentNews now.

Actually, Galileo backed down at the end. He learned an important lesson. Never underestimate how frightened religious people are of their gods, prophets, clergy, etc. They would never say anything irreverent about any of their religious icons or deities. They are frightened that they will be held accountable for allowing anyone else in the world for disrespecting what they fear. Even today, there are people who would burn you at the stake or stone you to death for saying that Jesus was not the Messiah, or that Muhammad was not a prophet, etc.
They will react with real hostility to the notion that "Your sacred cow makes great hamburger".