Right now the members of Congress could not agree that the earth is round, the sky is blue, and the sun is the center of the solar system.

"when will the public finally demand that communications which pass encrypted through a third party still retain an reasonable expectation of privacy (rendering them pen register order-resistant)?"

As soon as NSA spying prevents them from watching "Dancing With the Stars" and "Honey Boo Boo".

I hear a lot of tough talk in here. And in theory, I agree with a some of it. But in reality, I have to wonder how many of you would continue that tough talk if it were YOU being questioned or served with a secret warrant by the NSA or any other federal three-letter organization. I'd be willing to bet money that 90 percent of you would wilt like a daisy dropped in Death Valley.

And I think what you mean is you were unaware that the United States was practicing espionage against other countries even before it was the "United States" during the Revolutionary War. There has never been a time that this country hasn't been spying on others. And the same goes for European countries.

And I would make the same statements regarding spying on its own citizens.

Joe Average American simply does not give a shit. This was obvious to anyone who was watching during the Bush regime. Americans are more interested in who's on Dancing With The Stars.

You show me someone who says their country does not spy on its citizens, and I'll show you a fool. And you show me someone who says their country does not spy on other countries, and I'll show you another fool.

Governments have been spying on their own citizens since the day "governments" were born. And that first government started spying on other governments the day the second one was born nearby.

Does this make it right? No, of course not. Two wrongs, as they say, do not make a right (but three rights make a left). But I'm getting a bit tired of all this "My country is better than yours because it doesn't spy" bullshit. Grow up. Your country spies just like mine does.

This shouldn't be at all surprising to anyone. Countries have been spying on each other and their own citizens since the dawn of civilization. And anyone here who thinks only the US does this and their country doesn't spy on its citizens is living in a dream world.

The main reason I quit shopping at B&N? Because their in-store stock SUCKS. The whole reason I shop at B&N is because *I want it now*. In many instances I've even been willing to pay a slightly higher store price for that. Almost without fail, even popular books and DVDs/Blu-Rays are not in stock in any store in the Indianapolis area. Its just as bad at the Bloomington store, which you think would be a bit better stocked because its a college town. And considering that the closest B&N to me is about 50 miles one way, I don't go there just to browse.

I prefer to support brick-and-mortar stores when I can. But I can't do that if they don't have a decent amount of stock.

And for something that can be blamed on the Nook, have you ever noticed that their online coupons and such do not apply to Nook Books?

I just bought two Nook HD+ devices during their blowout sale. And the first thing I will do to both of them is turn them in to unadulterated Android tablets.

Where do I sign up for the kit? Will it be a Kickstarter project? :)

This just in: MythTV can still be a pain in the ass to work with.

I've tried it multiple times, I've gone back to my TiVo Premiere every time. I work on computers and build servers for a living. I'm used to banging on computers to get them to work. But that doesn't mean I want to do it just to watch some TV when I get home. I don't give a crap about games, because I'm not a gamer. I don't give a crap about networking to other TVs, because I live alone and only own one. I don't give a rat's ass about OTA because I live in the country.

I bought the TiVo, drove over to my cable office and got a M-card, brought it home, took the TiVo out of the box, plugged in the M-card, hooked up the cable, powered it up, went through the initial setup, and its worked flawlessly since Day 1.

Mozilla is not a publicly traded corporation and all profits are plowed back in to Mozilla.

PayPal's parent eBay, on the other hand, is a publicly traded corporation who's goal is to make a profit for stock holders. Thus laws for it are very different.

Comparing a Mozilla bug payment to a PayPal bug payment is a very apples to oranges comparison.

And you need to learn how to debate an issue without attacking others by calling them "dumbass".

I hear they taste like chicken.

According to Alexa, Huffington Post is ranked 21st in the US for visitors and page views. And the Washington Post, where the story of PETA's lawsuit adventures originated, is ranked 86th. I think there's a bit more Streisand Effect with this than you think.

If God didn't want us to eat animals, He shouldn't have made them out of meat.

If PETA leadership would spend as much time learning basic animal science as they spend on stupidity and lawsuits, Maybe they wouldn't be such a bad organization.