My first Windows system had all 32 bit drivers, so, don't forget to close the gate when you leave so the unicorn doesn't get out.

Really, you only had trouble if you were using either very low-end, parallel-port attached stuff, or high-end proprietary cards. Everything else-- SCSI devices, PnP cards, and mainstream non-PnP cards-- were supported at launch or within a year. You might have to log onto a BBS to get the driver (since web support sites were still a little primitive), but most people shouldn't have been running anything in real mode. Sometimes the driver was even included in Windows, but if it loaded in autoexec.bat it would prevent the Windows one from loading. All you had to do was comment it out.

How about we focus on those things that actually gets people hurt, like banksters taking chances with the economy and politicians using the army to play chicken-race.

Both a red herring AND a false dichotomy. Impressive!

In the case of smallpox what would happen is that the scientist screwing up might get infected and placed in quarantine.

What if he's immune, and, becoming a carrier, boards a plane?

No one who wasn't literally insane would try to use smallpox as a weapon

Islamic extremists.

What's a "cis"? Sounds like a codeword of the intolerant to me.

You're part of the problem.

The "ghost cities" you talk about are actually gradually filling up as more population moves from rural settings into the cities - this has been a long term goal of the Chinese government, but their "long terms" are a fair longer than the "around next election time" terms that westerners tend to think in.

True, running a government is so much easier without that pesky democracy to get in the way.

Well, considering the ruling party SED had the name "socialist" in it, I'd say he was correct.

You're European, aren't you?