An assault *rifle,* by definition, has the capability of firing single shots per trigger pull, or full automatic when you hold the trigger down. The AR-15 is not an assault *rifle* because it does not allow for full automatic fire.

An assault *weapon* has no definition besides the 1994 law that basically invented the concept - and the AR15 in general does fall under this definition, except for the weapons manufactured between 1994 and 2004 that remove certain features (flash suppressor, bayonet lug, collapsible stock, maybe pistol grip) but shoot the same. The definition of assault *weapon*, per this law, is based on the presence of the features I mention that most people would not consider especially important to lethality.

With Mtgox (Japan-based), the largest exchange, you can use a service called Dwolla to transfer money from your US bank account to the exchange. They also accept bank transfers from many countries (but not the US.) There is a service called Liberty Reserve (Costa Rica-based.) You can also deposit cash at places like CVS and Walmart through a service called BitInstant.

Bitcoin exchanges don't accept Visa or Mastercard. Paypal specifically disallows its use for Bitcoin.

Not quite as useful as Amazon, but WordPress accepts Bitcoin. That's probably the closest to a household name that accepts it. http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/pay-another-way-bitcoin/

There is intrinsic value in a thing that can be used for making quick payments to anyone across the Internet, with low fees and no regulators standing in the way.

Everyone has widely different definitions of what they "need."

I can't believe I missed your sarcasm. Brilliant, sir.

If you can get prison time for "praising" the wrong country, I can't think of any better example of a totalitarian restriction on speech.

From the NBC/WSJ link you posted, this is the poll question they asked:

"There are many important issues in this presidential campaign. When it comes to deciding for whom you will vote for president, which one of the following is the single most important issue in deciding for whom you will vote? The economy. Social issues and values. Social Security and Medicare. Health care. The federal deficit. Foreign policy and the Middle East. Terrorism." If "all": "Well, if you had to choose the most important issue, which would you choose?"

Climate change, the drug war, and civil liberties aren't even options in the poll! You can't use a poll that doesn't allow these options to conclude that people don't care about these options.

It depends on whether he can exchange those Bitcoins for the same amount of Maker's Mark, at an exchange rate that takes into account the learning curve of Bitcoin and the recipient's calculation of the risk of holding Bitcoins.

Darwinism has a farcical and humorous good kind when discussing people's own stupidity removing them from the gene pool. 'Good Darwinism' is not intended to be a scientific theory.

Well, it's not Darwinism (at least not the good kind) when someone driving recklessly crashes into someone driving safely, and the increased speed results in the safe driver's death.

The way I think it is going to work - I'm not 100% sure - is that the Bitcoin network will not process transactions from two-factor addresses without having two ECDSA signatures from two separate keys. So there is no single point that a trojan could compromise to send payments.