Since you're already modded to +5 I won't bother, but - Kudos for not being one of the mindless cumwads who automatically reject anything that anyone else says just because they are associated with ${political party or person's name who we've been conditioned to hate by propagandists}. Without critical thinking, there is no thinking possible at all.

To me, the whole concept of the former "personnel" department becoming "human resources" is a reflection of the mindset that real people with real desires to advance, and real desires to keep up with technical changes and advances, and real desires to feel like we're really contributing to the success of our company are, well, passe. In that mindset, we're all just "resources" that can fit onto a spreadsheet or HR template. A true story from my days at Dialogic - a company that made telecom gear. After finally getting management buy-in to release a Linux version, I was in a meeting with engineering management and they started wondering about getting the "resources" to do the driver and porting work. I suggested looking at working to get some input from some experienced open-source driver maintainers on a contract basis to get some of our existing Solaris versions ported. They laughed and said "Oh, we can't do that! We'll just pull some resources from our Windows team and they'll be fine." Ha! For some reason, they just couldn't grasp the concept that there was experience, knowledge and - ultimately - passion for what you are doing that translates into real achievement.

Nice blanket statement totally devoid of rationality or perspective....

Besides which, what gives the Catholics the right to opt out of things they don't like? People who don't support war are "forced to pay" for it anyway. People who don't like corporate welfare are "forced to pay" for it. People who don't like government spying are "forced to pay" for it. etc. Hiding behind your religion like it's more sacred than the Constitution is what makes me, an atheist, arguably a Better American(TM) than you, so get off my lawn!

Kind of like the Walton family - yeah, they really worked their asses off to get the Walmart fortune.....Uh-huh.

I call 100% organic, dolphin-free bullshit! First, the estate taxes have a limit of, like, $5 million before they kick in so you're rant about the "middle" is just wrong/a lie. Take your pick.

"You must be new here." Check my uid, Cohiba. I just have a higher opinion of the collective wisdom here, despite the outliers. :-)

Look, there are always going to be abuses of ANY system, but anything that helps raise the bar of accountability is inherently a Good Thing(TM) so please stop the whining about how it's not totally perfect.

I'd say that you're buying into the whole "governments are bad, mkay..." syndrome that affects a large swath of the population these days. In my experience, I've had great government work experiences and ultra-crappy private sector experiences and vice-versa. Perhaps the reason that government project failures get more attention is a combination of a very active propaganda machine always on the lookout for any government failure so that they can hype it mercilessly and that - overall - government projects tend to be larger. Just a thought....

Exactly! They had a perfectly fine OS that could have been extended ad-infinitum but instead chose after a comparatively small amount of time in the market to kill it for the new, shiny, sparkly, mobile-enabled interface that NOBODY WANTS ON THEIR PC. Fine, stick W8 on your latest tab or phone, MS, but why try to shoehorn a ridiculous interface on a PC?

I'll ignore the snark about Obama, but - trust me on this, white man - once you've watched a loved one like, say, your mother going through years and years of pain, confusion, terror and misery from Alzheimer's because there IS NO OTHER OPTION LEGALLY ALLOWED, you just might change your alleged mind on the subject. Have a nice day and I hope you never have to confront reality.

Personally, I've had great and horrible experiences with cops. One locked me up just because I was freak (hippie to you outsiders!) and he was pissed about something. Another literally risked his life to save mine. On balance, I do trust the police as a group. Despite the first extreme episode I mentioned, I've found them to be professional, polite, dedicated, sorely underpaid and - considering the crap they have to deal with - resolutely patient.

Errr... A) being police, they are rightfully held to a much higher standard of accountability (how many teachers pack iron and have the latitude to use said iron?) B) being public employees, have arguably less rights in this area than other workers and C) the old slippery-slope argument rears its head yet again. :-)

You are absolutely correct, sir! However, that - I would submit - is a separate issue not just related to GG. Fixing every facet of a problem is key, but so is having the tools and monitoring capability in place. Without that, it's back to the old "he said, he said..."

This would absolutely raise the bar of performance for a lot of cops. As the summary says, knowing that you're being monitored all of the time would keep the cops on their best behavior.