"Don't we have to have a declared war to actually have a true charge of treason"

Not if a black-bag team is in the area.

Paypal issues a debit card, funds that can be drawn on just like your bank account. A lot of folks who want to stay off the major grid or have bad credit and who have less than 5K earnings a year find that having a debit card is important. My youngest daughter is a college student and when she needs money, I transfer money from my Paypal account to hers and she can draw that money via her debit card the instant I make the transfer. I think that if anyone else offered a competitive service without all the bloodsucking, they would probably do well. The debit card for many, is often worth the risk of Paypal losing their fucking minds and locking your money up for 180 days.

While torrent sites might be in the gunsights of the **AA's, more and more streaming sites are popping up and popping up with domains and locations that are not particularly friendly to US copyright and IP law. The ones with .com and .org addresses are probably going to be shredded, but the ones that reside outside of US interests will probably be safe for quite a while. I haven't downloaded anything via bittorrent aside from Linux ISO's for ages. Extensions like Video Downloadhelper gives me sufficient means and quality when I download the flv or MP4 file from a streaming site, and they play superbly on my 42 inch Samsung.

I was fortunate enough and honored to deliver the Texas Linux Fest Keynote two years ago. While a developing throat cancer impeded my speaking and breathing ability, it was still an honor. We talked about naming conventions at length. Sure there are some odd-named products in the Windows world but at least I can pronounce most of them. The Wink and Nod developers give to each other for their app naming schemes might be cute but it's lost on the public. it only tends to extend the belief that Linux is an operating system developed by and for other developers.

I do hope they have mimicked Dolphin with Move to and Copy to in the context menu. Currently, Nautilus only offers Desktop and Home as destinations for these. Dolphin offers all sub folders under the Home Directory and the mouse slides smoothly to present these options. Bang-click, you are done in two clicks. It was short-sighted at the least and silly to only offer two places to copy and move files. Sure there are scripts to add additional destinations but that only adds a gui to choose the file destination and takes about three extra clicks to make it happen. Scripts by the way that are notorious for breaking on an update or upgrade. By that time, I could have hit F3 and just moved or copied the files manually via split screen. Oh wait, they are removing the split screen option in Nautilus 3.6. Never mind. That makes adding the sub-folders even more important, but with Gnome's drive to remove features instead of adding them, I am not hopeful.

I got one of those "Never do that again" warnings for torrent downloading from Time Warner a while back and they would not restore my Internet connection until I clicked the "I agree" button at the bottom of the warning. Started using Tor and downloaded the crap out of stuff to see if I got a second warning. Haven't had a problem since but then again, I've started going to fastpasstv.ms to get most of my tv series and movie needs.

I haven't torrented anything in a long time. With sites such as fastpasstv.ms, I can watch the TV programs I usually watch without the hassle of DVR or worrying about being home in time to catch it in real time on TV. Since I despise commercials more than anything else, Fastpasstv has given me options I never had before. As well, when traffic congestion and buffering become a problem, browser extensions like Video Downloadhelper allow me to download the file in flv format and watch it at my convenience and without the stuttering. As for music, I am an old fart and hopelessly lost in the 60's and 70's. I ahem....obtained all the music I care to listen to years ago. I haven't heard anything since the mid 90's that I would consider worthy of my consumer dollar anyway. Yep, the offshore sites like Fastpasstv are hard to shutdown as well. They've been hit and have moved twice in the past year I believe but it only takes them 72 hours to get up and running again. So maybe NZ might have seen a substantial decrease in "pirate traffic", but then again, people who lose their access to entertainment will immediately seek alternatives. I think this is probably what happened...they just switched the way they do it.

And from there, it becomes a private affair.....

They aren't. http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint

"they are widely seen as a "Coward's Way of Fighting...'

And strapping a bomb onto your torso and killing dozens of innocent shoppers in a bazaar isn't? I'm not saying it's ideal or even right but I'd take my chances with the precision of a drone over that of a religious zealot any day.
Just sayin"....

as simple as telling myself I'm awesome every morning...

You ARE awesome man. Thank you for your open, honest statements. I appreciate it more than you know.

It's a good thing only a fraction of the people activating Windows or Office read the EULA. If they did, and understood what they were reading, the number of MS haters would multiply at frightening rates. Pure Hubris.

Share price has no direct connection, and often not even an indirect connection to a CEO's abilities.

and gasoline has absolutely no impact on whether a car will start or not.