Not that easy. I worked for a company that did just that. Air gapped completely. We sneaker netted the web orders, etc. back and forth between the internal system and the outside world. Huge pain in the ass, but secure.

When we had to be certified as PCI compliant by our auditors, they wouldn't. Said that the air gap was a security risk! Made us connect and go through the hoops with more firewalls, et al., to be certified so we could stay in business.

I will NEVER believe that they are more secure now than before. We checked the sneakernet data for SQL injection, ran AV, limited removable media to a few trusted and audited employees and so forth. But in the end, we had to get that PCI cert or our bank would refuse to do business with us.

Saying that the victim had a role in the incident isn't precisely "blaming the victim". Our attention and/or inattention during our activities play a role in the outcomes. It's true that no one deserves to be taken advantage of by some bastard, but it's childish to cry that no one should ever be at risk for carelessness either. Doesn't work with power tools, rock climbing or as any adult knows, interaction with other people.

No kidding. Who needs an earthquake when the power goes out at -30f.

Having said that, I moved here from the South some 25 years ago. I don't think I've had a power loss in the winter here.

We had them all the time from winter ice storms down South. I've lost power up here in the summer time many times from an hour to a week once in south Minneapolis. But thank God/Whoever, never in the winter.

When your country becomes the largest military force on Earth, then YOU can dictate measurement units.

Until then, neener, neener!

Good point. I'm at an age where my friends are dying every year or so. As someone who has had to "close up shop" for some of them, it's a royal bitch to do when their online life can't be accessed. Stopping the mail, shutting down the online business, etc.

"Oh, they should have prepared for that in advance, as soon as they knew they were going to die". Yeah, well, perhaps in some fantasy world. No, the survivors clean up in real life.

To be sure, "Communism" is the perfect example of something that doesn't scale. Works OK for my family (sort of) but starts to become unworkable with two families.

Totally wrecks everything at scales larger than that. Astonishing idiocy to try and apply to a country.

Wrong about a few things. Health care isn't a Communist benefit. Oh, you mean forcing everyone to buy Obamacare. Not a "benefit".

Wrong again on a couple of levels.

1. You may be too young to remember, but places like the USSR, East Germany and Cuba kill(ed) people trying to leave, not come in. And..

2. I know a border guard currently on duty. He is constantly told not to engage illegals and to stay away from specific parts of the border at certain times. And they spend a LOT of money and time giving health care, etc. to the illegals they catch

Not remotely similar to the referenced "border fences".

Citation needed

In a sensible health insurance market, I might very well want to have insurance companies have my personal health data.

I'm 61 and in perfect health. Literally, perfect health. Superb lipid profile, low blood sugar, not over weight, no diseases, never smoked, don't drink, athlete level blood pressure, etc. I work my ass off keeping this way.

I WANT the damn insurance companies to discriminate on the basis of "pre existing conditions". Note that the term "pre existing conditions" is an insurance industry term, nothing to do with health care.

I damn sure don't want anyone selling any information about me and I'm sure Google will, but as I said, in an ideal world, I'd give it to the parasitic insurance industry.

No, scratch the above. In a ideal world, I wouldn't have to worry about health insurance at all. I only need some now I order to set up an HSA. And I only want to set up an HSA in order to save some money in taxes. In an ideal world, I'd just pay for my own health care and not have to screw around with government corruption and confiscatory taxes in the first place.

No, only bad food tastes bad. People today don't know what healthy food is. Bacon and eggs are healthy foods. Butter is healthy food. Starchy carbs are tasty, but unhealthy foods. Rice cakes are unhealthy food. You may have an eating disorder, but that's a different problem.

I agree completely that exercise for the sake of exercise sucks. The trick to happiness in exercise to find something you can enjoy for it's own sake. Physical activity is great for lots of reasons, but weight loss isn't one of them. If you are on a carb diet, you generally can't lose *fat* from exercise. You can burn glucose OR fat. It's called the Randall cycle . You have to get into a fat burning metabolism to burn fat. Otherwise you're just burning muscle and liver stored glycogen and storing the fat.

I'm a 61 year old judo competitor. A little over 4 years ago, I started eating lots of fat, moderate protein and very low carb intake. I lost 40lbs in about 6 months and it didn't come back. I never count calories, eat tons of eggs and very little grain, whole or otherwise. My cholesterol panels went from getting-ready-to-die to teenage athlete levels. Yes, I get plenty of exercise in the dojo, but that literally hasn't changed in decades. Only the diet changed. Eating fat and cutting the carbs is what made the difference for me and about a dozen of my friends.

Do as I say, not as I do?

"I'm absolutely fed up with people basing their knowledge of healthcare reform solely on what government supporters say." There, fixed it for you.

Wrong. The fact that you have permission to do something (for now) has nothing to do with whether you love live in a dictatorship, or more properly, a police state.

The police state simply hasn't come after you, yet.

Don't confuse permission with liberty.

...the phrase "That's why they make shotguns" applies here.

Way too simplistic. The human body is vastly more subtly regulated than that. It's not the number of calories nearly as much as the type of calories. Hormones completely control fat storage and utilization and the type of calories ingested hugely affect hormone secretion.

Deprivation is a miserable weight loss strategy and almost always fails after a short struggle.