Entry level Indian/Pakistani are still cheaper. What needs to happen is that H1B's should by law have 150% of the median income for the area for that type of job and an additional 50% invested in local education programs

Autistic spectrum people are incredibly easy to fool.

Most distros will have the rules in a single script, they are really easy to read, modify and understand. I don't understand what good a GUI would do for something as simple and important as a rule-based firewall, GUIs only hides things.

Of the top of my head:
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p 22 -j ACCEPT
iptables -P INPUT -j DROP
iptables -P OUTPUT -j ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD -j DROP

To get a detailed overview of the rules:
iptables -nLv

If you need any simpler, just go with the defaults your distro has to offer, they'll be secure.

Fukushima is not a hot spot. There is a lot of media surrounding it and sure, there may be some "bad things" there but there isn't life threatening Chernobyl-level activity (and even Chernobyl wasn't all that bad). I also wouldn't be concerned about Buchanan, NY getting hit by a tsunami, Long Island and NYC are among a few of the things that have to be passed by (and those would dissipate most/all of the energy). And if a tsunami hit there, well, then, we'd have more serious things to be concerned about like your survival among the remaining 10% of the species on earth.

Actually, I don't see anything wrong with systemd using the same flag to turn on debugging. However, it shouldn't crash the system by outputting too much stuff in debug mode! That's unacceptable no matter what you call the debug flag.

It does not work that way: it is either a cheap and easy way to get your stuff online or an expensive and clunky way to get your stuff offline (or nowhere)

This however does not set one free from tort. The liability claims, regardless whether it's an employee on the job or a customer getting hurt on your premises or using your products, will most likely be paid out by the insurance or your company but if it can be proven that it was through your action or inaction, you can still be held accountable for it.

So can you find Area 51 or a number of 'secret' bases on US maps?

Well, THEN the Founding Fathers should be spinning in their graves. Heck, I think we can install a turbine on Jefferson's grave alone and get power for the entire northeast.

I find it kind of funny (and I find it kind of sad) that US-ians will go all 'free speech' on China while they themselves can barely get on public transportation without the US gov breaching several other aspects of their constitutional rights in some sort

Why? The constitution only regulates the US government. It doesn't regulate neither the Chinese government nor private entities inside or outside the US.

Scientific studies have shown the opposite though. People slowing down unnecessarily below average speeds is what causes traffic jams. Generally those that stand on the brakes the second someone in front taps off their cruise control with the brakes are the causes of the ripple effect.

Look at any section where lanes are reduced or split - people slow down (ok) but then there are those that slow down so much as to either fit in last minute that they slow down the entire side of the split that has less traffic or they always leave 2 18 wheelers of space between each other or practically come to a stop because of someone fitting themselves into that space (especially if they're on the phone).

a) You should definitely get a better ISP then. (I know the US sucks etc but it should be unacceptable that you have to pay more for simply pumping a few more bits on an unmetered medium)
b) If you've ever popped in a Blu-Ray film, you know that ain't true unless you're breaking the law. There are a number of previews, a number of unskippable notices that you're a criminal, sometimes you'll even need an update before all of that and THEN it starts. If you're breaking the DMCA (even with a legally owned disc), you circumvent all of those but that's illegal.
c) If *I* want to watch a movie on a plane, I bring my laptop... disks are too clunky and heavy. Media is available on non-disc formats these days (even legally).
d) If *I* want to loan a movie to a friend, I simply point his media center software to my shared disk.

There is currently no legal way to watch a movie in a convenient way (in the US), you, the consumer lost.

Several decades ago you would also not imagine any circumstances where Congress would hamper the government's ability to pay it's own workers (Government shutdowns), hamper it's ability to get and give credit (raising the debt ceiling), hamper laws that protect the equal rights of all it's citizens (recognizing non-traditional unions), create laws that take away a women's right to choose (anti-abortion legislation), create laws that hamper science education (considering creationism) in school or hamper laws against large companies effectively buying out both law enforcement (DMCA) and democratic elections (Citizens United).

Our government has been co-opted by religious zealots with the end goal of creating the Christian version of Sharia/feudal law where the rich and religious leaders have and maintain all the power (you keep them dumb, we'll keep them poor).

The problem with any of those countries (Afghanistan, Iraq, ...) and most countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa is that they aren't a singular country. They may be in theory but in practice, Afghanistan is a collection of mountain-roaming war tribes, Iraq is a collection of separate ethnic groups and that is the case in most of those countries.

They kill each other off because they've done so for millennia, the Bible and Koran being some of the more well known histories/mythologies surrounding some of those wars. Going in to fight one of these tiny groups (and most groups are only a few 1000 in size) just pisses off the other groups because you're not "on their side".