IIRC Jefferson was a bit of a firebrand and thought a revolution every generation _was_ a good idea. Of course that's when he was young.

Either way I refuse to call it a "social contract" when it's really just "might makes right"; the basis of its legitimacy is force, not consent.

The same reason the US funds a vast majority of drug research in general (at least as of now): It has the money, universities, companies, the property right protection, and other laws that enable people to spend decades working on something and then eventually getting a payday for it.

And, in this case, bioweapon research facilities.

Incompetence is not a good thing.

Imagine an FBI so competent they could bust everyone for every single copyright and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violation they ever committed. And every other crime for that matter.

No, I'll take incompetence over competently (but not benevolently) administered tyranny.

What a beautiful and strange World it must have been in the dinosaurs heyday to support a seven ton carnivore and a 50,000 to 100,000 kilo plant eater.

Support global warming!

It should be the reasons behind art, what makes a thing aesthetically pleasing, what harmonics are and how colors and light mix but how do you convince a populace that doesn't even understand half of the words in this sentence that that is what art is and why it's important?

Significant progress towards that last would qualify you for a doctorate, because it would certainly be breaking new ground in the field.

Isn't that the cost of a CS education at Stanford nowadays

You would prefer multiple agencies duplicating work, not coordinating operations, not sharing information, leaving gaps between organizations, etc.

You bet. If we're to have tyranny, it's best tempered by incompetence.

This from a guy whose primary interests are networking and BDSM.*

Must be mixed carefully. It's OK to use network cables for bondage, just don't put them back in the network afterwards.

Of course all Singaporeans want their all-seeing government; any who don't are subject to sanction by said government.

Actually, I just wish this were true. In fact, I think the only reasons more Americans don't want such a government is we've had no experience with a government actually interested in and competent at such paternalism; when our government decides to abrogate our rights it typically manages to get in the abuses without any of the purported benefits. Despite that many Americans STILL want an all-powerful all-loving state.

The whole concept of a "social concept" is ludicrous. The terms are set by one party, who also administers the contract, judges violations of the contract, and reserves the right to alter the contract at any time.

There is emacs. There is vi, for when some fool didn't install emacs. There is ex, for when the terminal is messed up. And there is ed, because it is the standard text editor.

Anything else is either redundant, or is a word processor with a text-only output.

We covered this issue in university some 12 years ago. If you're not completely on-board with the definition they can technically sue for the copy in the CD drive RAM buffer, the copy in RAM, the copy in L3 cache and maybe collect a small royalty on the itty-bit in L1 cache.

There have been cases (including the Cablevision DVR case) which rule out the buffers and the caches, though not necessarily a full copy in RAM.

Never, ever, eat 1lb or more of black licorice at a time. If you do, the results are explosive compression and expulsion of a black semi-liquid sticky smelly substance that may stain anything it comes in contact with.

Violates WP:OR.

So median income is falling in terms of actual purchasing power, just not quite that fast.

Yes; it fell sharply 2007-2008 and again 2009-2010, though the latter may be in part an artifact of switching to the 2010 Census. From 2010 to 2012 it fell slowly in real terms though it rose slowly in nominal terms. The first time it got as high as it was in 2012 was 1989.

Funny that you believe you should have to pay a bank money, just for the "privilege" of spending money. You already earned your pay, but you think you should pay a bank so that you can spend it? This is exactly what I was referring to about people not understanding the scam.

Apparently you've failed to understand "credit and loans". That's when I spend the bank's money, and pay them back later.