Given that end-users are now the most frequently exploited point in most networks, the first real question asked by idiots is "Why block at all?" Given a network that services anything at all sensitive, the default state for outbound connections to the Internet should "blocked".

No one. The existence of a master key for any given system renders everything in that system less safe. Period. I am far more afraid of a compromised master key for something that I am forced to use, than I am afraid of "teh terrorists". Are you listening, Congressman? Do not fuck with my privacy. The smart people are trying to tell you something. You don't understand the technology and the implications of what well-meaning law-enforcement types are asking for.

This latest episode was announced as if it had serious and broad impact. It did not, but that didn't help those of us who, on less than two days notice, moved things around to prepare for another round of mitigation of a "severe" security issue. Yes, we're all glad it's not as bad as it might have been, but the point is that somebody was aware of that when the announcements went out. They should have been more forthcoming.

...to the Shark Tank, rook'.

No. What we be great, really great, would be if advertising and marketing shitheads would stop insisting on using broken technology to animate their ads. For every Flash ad out there there is at least one engineer who has said, or tried to say, something like "We should build this on something proper..."

Riiight. OK, then. Off the meds again, are we?

We're losing the space race to the Russians.

"Seriously, Sarah. You need to let go of these fantasies. Do you want to end up back in the hospital again?"

And they'd be as guilty as you are at making that lame comparison. Yes, yes, we all know that there are some users out there for whom various content available via the Internet is like a drug, but to lump all Internet traffic into that category is beyond stupid.

For those who don't get the sarcasm, the notion that "privatization" is a good thing is proving to be a bad idea, yet again. Without careful regulation, something that itself comes with a cost, a profit-driven industry will, by it's very nature, seek to cut corners (cheat) it's customers in order to increase those profits. Pharmaceuticals, or automobile brakes, or guarding nuclear plants, these are not places to let the mythical free market run the show, and yet we continue to allow the Reagan era meme that "government is the problem" to pervade our thinking.

Really? Somehow, I suspect that you'd have an entirely different critique if the answers weren't such an embarrassment to those who fit into the "conservative" camp.

The really glaring thing here, to me at least, is that the non-scientist sample is so far off from the scientist sample. Do some research into why the non-scientists believe the stupid shit they do. Come, on, less than half of all laymen believe evolution is a thing? That's scary.

We've managed to spend a trillion taxpayers dollars on an incredibly expensive airplane, which is being built by our friends. Our friends got their money. Right? I call that an unqualified success. Who gives a shit if it actually works?

Regards,
Your Elected Officials

Not really. Laws, criminal codes to be more precise, apply to people, not corporations. Didn't you get the memo?

Oh, yes we can, you little person you. We missed the boat completely when it came to digital media and lack totally the vision to come up with a business model that works in this new age, so we've paid good money, a buttload of it, to have the rules tilt things in our favor. So shut up and take what we so generously offer you. Regards, Your Friends at RIAA

Not quite. They're finally recognizing the plain fact that in the United States today, if a "corporate citizen" wants something badly enough, they get it, and the little people can go fuck themselves.
Is this a great country, or what? /s