Sorry, buddy, our motto is "Peace, Order, and Good Government", not "Land of the free, home of the brave". Looks like we got two out of three. And how many of those two do the Americans have?

To be honest, even our government isn't terrible, just often teetering between inept and indifferent.

Sadly, this is also the case in Canada. It's one of the main reasons I prefer to torrent or use Netflix. I'm sure that if I put in the effort I can blame the US, but it's at least as much my nation's fault as theirs. Now, if only Canadian content was required to stand on its own merits, and not required to be played, maybe we would get something that could replace the American drivel that is so much a part of what is broadcast.

Time to watch some old and/or foreign shows on Netflix, and reminisce about my youth.

While much of what you say is true, being mentally handicapped and being an ass are not mutually exclusive.

Congrats, he doesn't have autism. Check out the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome, another condition on the Autism Spectrum. People with Asperger's tend to find mechanisms to deal with social dysfunction, and suffer social developmental delay, rather than complete retardation. Little things like "non-optional social obligation" would resonate with someone who has Asperger's. Ritual and consistency is also very important to those with Asperger's, such as having "his spot" on the couch, or having a narrow and specific time window in which to have a bowel movement, and a multitude of others. Having specific conversational topics he wants to talk about, and will use very poor techniques to direct others to his topics of choice. Obsessive behaviour about specific topics, far beyond the typical hobbyist (trains). Having a selection of canned responses to certain social situations, rather than a dynamic response to a given situation (in one episode, he talks about his process to turn Barry into his friend). He's been tested for mental health, and passed. But he didn't go to the recommended follow-up diagnosis...

No, he doesn't have classical autism. He doesn't sit in a corner and rock, or scream if strangers touch him (but I suspect he wants to - he does carry sanitizer and refuses to take public transportation, except for trains). But he certainly has been tailored to give many of the signs of stereotypical Asperger's syndrome coupled with high intelligence and a career with little social interaction and a technical focus.

So, what if they poked fun at the behaviour of people who were mentally handicapped? Would that be okay? I think the majority would say no.

Now, keep in mind that Autism Spectrum disorders would be a form of mental handicap, albeit potentially higher function than what some people think of as mental retardation. Sheldon shows classical Autism Spectrum symptoms.

That said, I enjoy the show, but I don't have a particular desire to be politically correct.

As is so often the case, context is quite relevant. His statement is ridiculous today, but when it was made, quite reasonable.

This is a great philosophy, but it relies on the assumption that everyone behaves rationally. We have thousands of years of evidence to the contrary, though. And what do you do to stop someone who is willing to commit atrocities and is unwilling to listen to reasonable arguments? I suspect that coercion of one degree or another will often be the only option.

The difference is, this isn't a mailbox on your house. It's more like a post office box from Mailboxes Etc. So going to the person who controls the mailbox is a reasonable attempt to stop the mail from being delivered, as long as the person hasn't already removed the mail from their box. It would also be akin to going to the postal service if there is a letter in the mail that hasn't yet left their care and been delivered to the recipient (the single biggest difference being that it takes email seconds vs. the days for snail mail).

He intended to sent the email to someone. He clearly didn't intend to send it to the ultimate recipient, else he wouldn't have spent thousands of dollars to undo that act. Perhaps he sent it to ndielmann@foo.bar instead of mdielmann@foo.bar. Fortunately, you obviously never make typos. And people have never accidentally called the wrong number before, either.

Clearly the recipient isn't in the wrong if he reads it - he got an email in good faith. This is why they want to get it removed before it's read.

And how is this different from communism, global warming, smartphone OS, etc.? What you're forgetting is, there will be rubes falling for whatever gimmick someone uses. And there will also be loonies, from a variety of socio-political groups. Getting rid of one of the irrational beliefs isn't going to change the existence of either group, just which varieties are running around.

The interesting thing is, 99.999% of the time, you would have been right, assuming we're only talking about Americans. Sounds "not likely" to me...

I think there are vastly more areas that aren't promised Google fiber (or any other version of fiber) than are. Also, more places will be adjacent to places that recently got fiber than there are places that have Google fiber. This works for any region that you create a zone in (until the majority of the zones are occupied). The lines for any given zone have to be drawn somewhere, and it will suck for people on the wrong side of the line. Or were you hoping for a single nation-wide rollout?

Read up on Amazon circa 2000. Interesting times. Maybe a lack of profit isn't the only thing investors worry about.

"I've noticed that people tend to not pay attention to the other drivers. I'm going to randomly apply the brakes, speed up, and change lanes. The drivers around me will pay a lot more attention!" While all that is true, it's still a bad idea. And while it won't cause much difficulty for the attentive drivers, it will probably exacerbate the poor driving habits of other drivers around him. Why do you think this will not have similar results, if at a lower degree.

It would be easier if we followed the same principle as captains of ships used to have. Have an administrator, who is responsible for the running of the plant and the following of the regulations that pertain to that plant have to be on site during any emergencies. If he makes sure that people who know what they're doing are in charge of the right things, and he doesn't try to cut any corners, this won't be an overly onerous requirement. If he doesn't, well, he will get his termination notice from a doctor.