Yup, this is what I've seen. Changes tend to come in three types

a) Routine: A known change that occurs regularly and doesn't deviate much from a standard pattern. Stuff like swapping tapes, etc. It still gets logged and can be reviewed, but doesn't need approval.
b) Standard: Goes through an approval process before being implemented. These are basically known changes that can be planned ahead of time, but they don't necessarily have a standard set of steps
c) Emergency: Basically a form of (b) that needs to get done FAST. They can be reviewed by the CAB, but don't go through the normal approval process (they may need sign-off from one uber-admin, or none depending). This is intended for stuff that can't be pre-planned and is high-impact/danger if left unhandled. For example, patching may be a standard thing, but patching openSSL due to heartbleed would probably have been an emergency in many cases.

In the end, it might would probably work out, but there would be an "adjustment period" where a lot irresponsible people would get hit.

It's also California...

warm pleasant weather = greater concentration of homeless...

At a street corner in Vancouver.

beggar: "Hey man, can I have some change to get a hot-dog"
me: "No problem, the vendor is right there, I'll buy you a dog"
beggar: "Oh no, just give me some cash, I don't accept food from strangers"
me: "f*** off"

When I give change to a homeless guy, i know that 100% of my money is going to do that homeless guy some good

Been burned by this too many times to make such an assumption. One guy I gave some money, then watched him go into the grocery store aaannd... buy scratch (lottery) tickets.

Another guy, I bought him lunch figuring that way I knew the money wasn't going towards drugs/alcohol. Felt it had done some good until I saw him finish the sandwich and go out to meet his wife/partner and the SHOPPING CART FULL OF BOOZE they had blown their own money on.

That's why I don't give anymore - or at least rarely - not because of any cellphone.

maintain the status quo that creates them

And what is that 'status quo'

Yes, there are definitely situations widening the rich/poor gap, but a lot of people I see on the streets are for reasons already mentioned by others: drugs, alcohol, or (in the summer) because they want to be *free*

Seriously, in summer we get a flood of what are often referred to as "dog people." Those that are accompanied by a canine companion who hitch-hike across the country, begging their way for food and transportation (as well as other substances where available). They aren't looking for work. They don't want to be part of the "system"

Well, here's the thing. They had enough on the guy to get the warrant to plant the camera. No encryption (or in the case of heartbleed, broken encryption), and they can likely find ways to snarf all that information without a warrant, in which case it could (more easily) become a case of "find people fitting profiles we don't like, then sift through all this information and look for something that sticks"

you'd need to end paycheck income tax withholding and actually have them write a check on April 15.
Wouldn't work. You'd have a ton of people not setting aside for taxes, and when the tax season came all hell would break loose.

Windows 8.x is stable and in many regards is better than Windows 7
I call bullshit on this. Faster, potentially yes (on some newer hardware). More stable... tell that to the system I reinstalled the OS on *REPEATEDLY* over the course of 10 days trying to get the thing to *not* get stuck in a mysterious stuck-on-boot-logo loop. Win7 worked fine, win8.1 had some hate on for software/hardware I've commonly use across other OS's without issue

One of their favorite tactics used by law enforcement is to install cameras in your residence facing where you normally use your computer

At that point I'm pretty sure there should be a warrant involved...

I'd imagine that glow-in-the-dark animals would be at somewhat of an evolutionary disadvantage, but I'm sure the wolves wouldn't mind if all the prey animals were lit up like a birthday cake :-)

Smart at business/marketing, stupid at surviving/living...

Quite simply to have a halfway decent gaming rig you are plunking down a minimum of $1200 with many doing a multiple of that

Honestly, not so much anymore. AMD 7850k. Motherboard. 8GB RAM. 2GB+ HDD
$200. $100. $50. $100.

Throw in a case for $50-100 and you've actually got a pretty good machine (can play BF4 and most other stuff @ 1080p, high detail).
Throw in an SSD (under $100 for a drive that'll at least fit the OS and a few games) and you've got a pretty fast machine.

Well, taking herbal remedies to cure a fairly treatable cancer and then dying from it is fairly dumb...

Some people can be very smart in some ways and dumb - even gullible - in others.

Actually we're the only country that wasn't blasted into the stone age during WWII

Canada and Australia say hi...