If you're going to make an omelet, you are going to have to break some eggs.
Ultimately, the deal is that comcast sucks and you want them to die as a company. So the service rep will be out of a job anyway. So we should be afraid to hurt their wittle feelings now? If we continue to come up with excuses to live with bad service, raising prices, unfair EULAs, unfair cell phone contracts,etc just because we think one or a few people can't make a difference, then the companies have won. They have cowed us as a people into believing that it is better to go along with the unfairness rather than stand up as consumers and fight for our rights. We are the customer and we determine what fair is.

Even if you live in a one party state and record a call in a two party state without consent, what are they going to do? The secondary state has no authority over you. The worst they can do is put out a warrant for your arrest which would only be an issue if you travel in their state and they happen to catch you. It is highly unlikely that a state with one party consent is going to extend reciprocity laws to a state with two party consent, and also unlikely that they would honor extradition when they find the other state's laws to be contrary to their own.

It seems obvious to me that if they say "the call may be recorded" that they are saying that I may record the call. I would not expect that to mean that they would be recording. Otherwise, I would expect them to say "We may" or "we might" or "the call might".

s/hoards/hordes/

Doh.

Those should look like:

[...]
by jelIomizer (3670957) Alter Relationship on Sunday August 10, 2014 @04:12PM (#47644097) 12

by jeIlomizer (3670951) Alter Relationship on Sunday August 10, 2014 @04:16PM (#47644113)
[...]

And one more thing: Both accounts have several freaks, but those could all be recent. But the #57 account has 3 fans. I'm guessing from whatever was the ultra-PC post that earned the +5 achievement. So I'd guess the spammer didn't post a lot between the pursuit of that one bit of cred and the ultimate dirty deed. Maybe all it takes is to get one +5 post and then a new account moves into a status where it can post like mad?

> Progress is the fruit

I hadn't taken it that far in my head at the time, but now that you have for me, yes. Progressivism is the promise of a perfect society, created by man. It includes the evolution of man, by man, into perfect beings. It's secular humanism taken to the extent of a religion.

I believe that things can be improved, but only to make them less sucky/to a certain extent. Progressivism is belief that we (i.e. man) can always make things better, that we should and can progress towards a man-made utopia. That it's not futility after some point due to our fallen nature.

Adam and Eve had the good life, but fell for the lie that God is wrong and that it could be even better for them. That through their actions, they could surpass the level goodness of what our loving God sets up for us.

Man should know his limitations, and remain humble (without being fatalistic about our time in this condition). Progressivism preaches no limits (within the physical world).

Don't continue to stay hung up on the power thing because that's what you see emphasized on the Left, currently, in America. Sure, Lefties believe there needs to be a small ruling contingent, with absolute power, to keep the system in an equilibrium of "fairness". But they're only bent on acquiring as much power as possible, any way they can, for now, in this country, because they see the inequities as so great and that there's so far to go/so much to overcome to get this evil nation to a state of "fairness". I.e. tactics and philosophy are different things, and pursuits can have phases.

Good, because I firmly believe that's what we're supposed to learn. We got ourselves kicked out of the Garden because we thought we knew better than God, so God said fine, try it your way for a while. So He left us temporarily wandering through the desert (i.e. what post-Fall human existence is), to give us time to think about what we've done, and to come to the realization that, ultimately, we need God and can't manage on our own successfully.

So I would say don't despair too much about the temporal, as really it's supposed to be this way, because it's our doing. And would you expect it to be any other way, knowing mankind (and its spiritual temptor)?

So we should do what we can here (e.g. the American experiment was an awesome try, as a lesser evil form of human organization), but ultimately we have to wait until He leads us out of the desert and brings us home. Then we shall have our perfect society, because it will be ruled by an omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent dictator. And like the founding of the U.S., the idea of using technology to take man out of the equation in certain things is an entirely worthy pursuit, because it can help, but it will never take us all the way there.

p.s. I liked your "Common parlance leads to common thinking, and is not fit for uncommon human beings."

I don't think Leftists would have a problem with everyone in the world being rich (assuming technology that protected their false idol, the Creation), *AS LONG AS* they were all about equally rich. (And exhibited due deference to a strong, centralized governmental authority.)

Liberty is evil not because it allows people to fail, but that it allows some to succeed while others fail. It allows inequity in "the system". Better that everyone succeeds or fails together. (Which is why "the equal distribution of misery", the necessary end result of Leftism, is nonetheless also considered a valid, moral outcome.)

> You won't really be seeing a doctor (or nurse) on the screen. Just an avatar and a script.

Dr. Watson I presume?

If smart watches take off, these could be your kits. Last I heard the rumor mills have Apple coming out with one next month, with "more than 10 sensors" (not all of them necessarily being biometric ones, granted), and MS with one with 11 sensors the following month. Especially with the fanatic following that Apple has (in devices), if they can make the smartwatch "cool", then smartphone makers who are seeing sales stagnate due to no more new compelling features can sell a few generations of smartwatches with progressively more and advanced sensors reading more of one's vitals.

Every phone call will start with:

And OTOH, the cost savings could be overcome by more demands on the healthcare system from people more willing to make a phone call on the spot than an appointment for a office visit for who knows how long into the future. What I usually do is wait and see if <mysterious symptom> goes away on its own in a few days. But in the back of my mind, I know I can't get in to see a doctor immediately (excluding going to urgent care, which from experience can soak up half your day, first with waiting around an hour or two to be seen, then time for test results to come back, while the doctore you're assigned is multitasking between a bunch of other visitors). So with the phone call option, I'd probably call every time. Even for the same price, and up to half an hour wait (put it on speakerphone), if I actually get to be heard by an MD.

(And this way, maybe many of the folks who got medical degrees and wanted to practice medicine, but could only get a job working for an insurance company evaluating diagnoses and claims, might be able to get into tele-practice at least.)

I'm not trying to be a contrarian to everything you're saying, but...

Actually that second video impressed me the most. A human torso is only so deep, and I think I just as soon have a large pattern like that, and that stays embedded in the attacker. Minimal exit wounds to me means maximal force of the blast absorbed by the attacker's body, and minimal chance of drywall penetration into other rooms (or neighbors' units).

And I'm pretty hesitant to assign much meaning to ballistics gel videos, beyond the cool fireworks and lavalamp-like visual aspects. As implored in the old video game Doom when you pick up the chainsaw weapon: Find some meat!. Here's one, of lowly birdshot making a hamburger wound in a mock assailant.

Granted that's at only 10', but my intended defense chokepoint, the long part of my staircase, is 12' from upper to lower landing, which is right around the same as this vid's 24" muzzle plus 10' distance from the muzzle. You might have a bigger house, and no neighbors, so YMMV.

Now what if the attacker is superman on PCP, you might wonder. If a shotgun can hold four shots, I probably do have four shots since each would probably blast the guy back down the stairs after each charge up them. I suppose for the first I'd aim for the stomach, the next one in the genitals, and the one after that in the face. And then maybe your slug as the fourth. And then planning on spending the rest of my life in prison, I guess. Except I'd rather die than be in prison, so I guess I'd just let him get me then, at that point.

Maybe the fourth your 00 buckshot, to one of his knees. After all that he won't be able to walk or see, so I should be able to get away.

But more realistically, to the ordinary intruder (and potentially partner(s) in crime), the kerchunk will cause him(/them) to not even want to think about going upstairs, if it means hazarding close-range shotgun blasts in a narrow corridor with nowhere to go or hide.

Now if bad guy(s) is armed and decides to shoot through the floor at my estimated location... Install steel plating under the drywall of the corner I'd shoot around, and under the carpet where I'd stand? (This home warfare thing is crazy.)

Most of the are hired for jobs that the company SAYS are exempt under FLSA, but most of them are hired for jobs that are NOT exempt under FLSA, just like the rest of us.

That's good, because now I'm thinking I might need to be prepared to fire twice in the worst case; the first time with MH42's advice for ammo and the second with yours.