So apparently some crybaby "libertarian" modded this down for exercising free speech?

Municipal elections are what most politicians use to launch their careers for state and federal offices. They're generally pretty cheap, so ambitious wannabes use them to build name recognition. Then when they run for those more powerful positions, the donors and voters say "oh yeah, that guy" and give them money/votes. It's how the moral-majority types took over the Republican Party in the 1980s, and it's how the libertea-baggers are trying to take it over from them today. So in that sense, local elections are very important. (To say nothing of the fact that the matters decided by local government have a greater impact on the day-to-day lives of people than those made at the state or federal level.)

Not just to avoid this. Maintaining customer service centers also cuts into their profits.

There's a saying in organizations like Comcast that "salesmanship begins with the customer says no."
Interestingly, "when the other person says no" is also a common definition of when rape begins.

You'd at least capitalize it as "Vrije Universiteit", because it's a proper noun* and those are capitalized (in either English or Dutch).

*Not just a free university, but the Free University.

And Liberty University is already taken.

Liberty University is called that instead of "Free University" because it is neither free-as-in-beer nor free-as-in-speech. It teaches the religion of Capitalism and the legal principles of the Bible.

You are apparently unfamiliar with "twilight". And probably Summer Solstice.

I hear amateur fireworks.

Since the state of Michigan loosened restrictions on the sale of fireworks, every yahoo with a lighter has started setting them off, beginning sporadically the weekend before the holiday.

Any holiday.

From the headline, I thought this was a story about damage to a smartphone.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the double-standard that Facebook applies to nudity in images. Posting a drawing or painting of a male butt can get your photo removed and your account suspended, while posting a photograph of female breasts gets nothing. Too many straight guys reviewing people's image uploads?

"Diversity is not a virtue", said the straight white dude who fears he will lose his unearned position of privilege if diversity is valued in the workforce.

"There is nothing worthwhile in diversity in and of itself," said the straight white dude who fears he will lose his unearned position of privilege because diversity in the workforce makes his character traits less valued.

Of course you are right, straight white dude: diversity in the workforce doesn't do a whole lot to directly make things better for you. But there are other people in the world who matter too. As much as you do, even (if you can wrap your self-centered solipsistic little brain about that). It is a virtue, because it's worthwhile for them.

"Older people have families, they come first."

No, I don't. So they do not.

But I'm almost 50, and I figure that I've successfully interviewed for my last tech job. That doesn't mean I'll never get hired for another job, but it does mean that I won't get another job through the hiring process that recruits younger techs. If I get one, it'll be through networking, through the still-good-old-boy system.

I thought that BoringSSL was named in honor of classic Superman artist Wayne Boring.