Shooting rockers at them.

Ever turned on Fox news?

While I agree with you that we must find a way to get the ass-hats out of here, I do not agree with direct-democracy. In fact, direct-democracy is absolute evil.
Direct-democracy is a system designed for a small majority to crush the basic rights of a minority. Direct-democracy is mob-rule by a fancier name.

I also do not really agree with big punishments for not doing what their constituencies tell them. Why? Because voters are stupid greedy animals. Think about it, voters are why we are in the situation we are in now! They cannot be trusted to serve the best interest of society.
A better idea, in my opinion at least, would be punishments for not serving the best interest of society they are elected to govern. Corruption should carry massive punishments. Depending on the scope, as far as life in prison or a firing squad.

I thought he was South African?

Of course it doesn't make you better at math. I know this because when I was in the military, I was electrocuted more times than I can ...count.

While I agree with you that OO/LO can handle much of what word is used for, I completely disagree that these are a suitable replacement for excel.
I have tried LO/OO on both mine and my wife's laptops as we both tend to do a lot of work while at home and do not wish to always bring our computers home.
For someone who is a "power user" of excel, these two programs are simply not sufficient.
The general performance issues aside, the functionality you get with excel 2013 just cannot be matched right now by OS software. I wish it could because it would have saved my 300 bucks.
After a week of use, my wife said she would continue to just bring her work laptop home until I bought "real" office.

we all know what Kentucky thinks about foreigners.

That is utter crap.

I never said I hate globalization. In fact, it is a good thing. However, we have different ideas of what efficient means.
For you, it is more "efficient" for you to poor your left over chemicals down the kitchen sink or into the street gutters to be washed into the ocean. That saves you time AND money! What could be better!
I find it more "efficient" to think about my actions and protect the places my offspring inhabit by bringing my left over chemicals to a proper disposal place. In terms of time and money, I "spend" more up front. In the long run however, my drinking water is not poison.

It is a fact that the biggest polluters in China are foreign owned firms, or Chinese firms producing good at the lowest possible price for a multinational. Same idea like with you and your chemicals, except here we are talking about an industrial scale.
Or, do you think because it is done on an industrial scale that it is more "efficient"?

I have often said to people that there is a reason why things are so cheap at these big box stores.

I do not say this as a critique of China or which ever country is producing low cost products, but rather as a critique of Western culture and "acquire more crap at all costs" mentality. China is just filling our demand.
Sadly, we tend not to think about the real price of what and where they buy thing. What the human costs of not supporting our local economy is.
We do not think about HOW theses items are so cheap compared to locally produced goods. We do not think twice about buying goods from a US company which closes his factories in America or Europe to sweat shops in China or India.

I do my best to source my goods locally, but it getting more and more difficult. The fact is, local producers of most items cannot compete because westerns are not willing or not able to pay what it actually "costs" to produce.

Now, the fruits of this are coming to bear. From a polluted planet to not getting a living wage. I wish it would turn around, but it won't.

What she is really saying is, "Fuck you Citizen! We are the Government and will do as we like. We are not concerned that nearly all Americans and 100% of foreign nationals are appalled by our actions. Go back to playing with your iPhones while us grownups take care of business".
 

My wife, who is an exec in company which produces very high end precision components from both milling and molding has told me that the owner of the firm is very afraid for the future of the business because of 3D metal printing.
I, however have told her I do not agree at all. Rather, I see 3D printing as a great opportunity for her firm to make even more complex components which today cannot be made. Her point is that anyone will be able to do it though.
Sure, maybe they could, but I think they won't. Of course, there will be some folks who want their own 3D metal printer, but it will be decades before they are so cheap that a person can just buy it without thinking about it, like an ink jet.
Much of my work is in the automotive sector, as is much of my wife's customer base. One thing that I have learned about auto manufactures. They do not make their own parts and they do not want to make their own parts. They never will either. They spec out the new model and source the bits and pieces from various suppliers. Then, they put them all together.
This is true for most industries I think.
In fact, I would say that 3D printers will actually let you expand into other market segments.

What does slashdot think? Will everyone really print at home and more importantly, will business just print their own bits?

Seriously, if there is hard to find work in your field, why not move? I don't mean move to Texas or Oregon, but move to Germany or the UK.
There are loads of engineering openings here in Germany and not enough Germans to fill them. If you are coming from the US to a German company, it is really easy to get a VISA.
Yes, I know not everyone can do so because of this or that reason, but a lot of people can.

Do not follow cheap manufacturing. Instead look to countries who spend loads of money on educating their young. Like Germany. It seems like such a basic concept that American politicians and much of the public do not understand; If you do not properly educate your population then eventually the country will collapse. No purely consumer based society is sustainable.

In the USA that would, without question be true.
Remember, President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned the U.S. about the "military–industrial complex" in his farewell address. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex
And, just as he foretold, it has come to pass.
The internal economic situation in China however, is different. I do much work in China and have a lot of close friends there. Several are actually pretty high up in the PRC Army. There is certainly corruption, but it is a different kind. This is more of the bribes kind which is common in the east.
As I heard from my friends, regarding new weapons, someone will think of something that they want and say to such and such department...build this thing now and do not fail to build it.
There is a strange mix of capitalistic and communistic economic policies at play and so it is hard to gauge cost overruns like in the west. In any case, weapons development is not about filling the pockets of your brother in-law but about fulfilling the request from the military. Now, if you are in charge of the project, that is not to say your brother in-law does not now have a good chance to fill his pockets.

So says the man from America. The country who's population literally could not care less that their own government is spying on them as well AND systematically removing their rights and dismantling their constitution.
But you go on and talk about how stupid and cowardly we in the EU are. After all, we can see how strong your back bone is. After all, it is not we who have the backbones to bomb brown people "into freedom".