You are stating that the only reason someone would act the way this killer did was because they were mentally ill. You are dangerously assuming that every one of these violent people is unable to tell right from wrong. I would say that history is filled with examples of people who committed mind-blowing atrocities for political reasons, greed, lust, revenge -- you name it. These are people who knew that what they were doing was wrong and chose to do it anyway. To blame every extreme act of violence on "severe mental illness" is an oversimplification at best. The vast majority of criminals absolutely consciously choose to do what they do. Face it -- people generally have free will, and some choose to commit heinous crimes. Saying that *every* violent killer is unequivocally severely mentally ill because "there's no other reason they would do that" is just silly, and some might say that such a statement seeks to remove accountability and personal responsibility from the equation.

Poor people can get gov't-subsidized smart phones. There's no reason in the world they can't use these apps the same as the evil rich folks. This is blatant race- / class-baiting from the White House to further distract the masses from matters of real importance -- you, destruction of our civil liberties, telling the NSA not to talk to the press, etc.

Just what is needed . . . another Photoshop-esque filter for all the douchebag hipsters of the world to make their snaps look even more deep and brooding.

Yes, let's base compensation on seniority rather than merit or anything related to real-world performance, and make it impossible to fire someone for anything short of mass murder. Then let's take a chunk of each worker's paycheck against their will and give it to the goddamn politicians to fund their campaigns. Yep, that sounds like exactly what the tech sector needs.

Correct. Maryland is one as well, and MD police used the anti-wire tap law as an excuse for years to prevent people from videotaping their actions before the Supreme Court finally called them on that perverse interpretation. Even now, MD police hate to be recorded.

I think you meant the Steubenville High School football players. Steubenville is actually in Ohio.

Yet, the NSA is part of the Executive Branch and, as its head, the buck stops with him. James Clapper LIED to a Senate panel -- right to Ron Wyden's face -- and nothing has happened. The Snowden leaks are almost 11 months old now, and Obama obviously knew of a lot of those activities before then. He has chosen to DO NOTHING, or worse, in the case of mass surveillance, kick the ball to *Congress* (yes, the same Congress he's constantly bitched during his two terms about being dysfunctional and blocking his every move), which is completely unnecessary as NSA is part of the Executive Branch. Let's suppose that, as you contend, Obama is sooooo high up that he was in fact completely ignorant of any of the technical details of these activities, or even the existence of some of these programs. If he cared even the tiniest bit about our rights and upholding the Constitution -- especially in the wake of disclosures about leaving all US Citizens completely vulnerable to exploits such as HeartBleed -- he'd at least hit the Pause button on these programs via Executive Order so they could be properly investigated. He hasn't done *anything* close to that -- nothing. Just a bunch of bullshit lip service. This indicates he approves of all of these programs, and is attempting to wait until the noise dies down so they can be continued and expanded. Giving Obama a pass on anything NSA-related is weak and people that do it look like apologists from where a lot of us sit.

The NSA is part of the Executive Branch. Obama could immediately, at the very least, put a temporary halt on all of these types of activities and conduct a review gauging the potential impact on ordinary US citizens as collateral damage. He has done no such thing -- not with mass surveillance, not with HeartBleed, not with any of the other nasty shit disclosed in the Snowden leaks. Don't DARE give him a pass on anything NSA-related -- he doesn't need Congress in this case and can personally shut it all down at any time.

All of their petabytes of data about US citizens, our supposed allies (and probably, a handful of real terrorists too), a virtually unlimited budget, a license to shit all over the Constitution, and an explicit heads-up from Russia, and they STILL couldn't get this guy before he and his brother made their attack. It should be obvious to everyone at this point that the reason for NSA's mass surveillance isn't to prevent terrorism -- it never was.

These people -- the NSA, the House and Senate Intelligence Panels, and the President himself -- have LIED to the American people and our supposed allies at every possible turn during this process. They would have never even admitted these programs existed at all -- it was only Snowden's actions that forced their hands. Why the hell would anyone ever believe them now? We're to believe they're going to simply stop doing this? Without any real oversight or transparency? The sad thing is that most of my countrymen are stupid or apathetic enough (or both) to believe them.

If you're not comfortable with taking on risk, busting your ass, and doing anything it takes for a very small CHANCE at hitting it big -- then don't work for a startup. Period. There are many other software / IT jobs right now -- no need at all to work in startup land. But don't try to fuck it up with this "union" nonsense talk. All you'll accomplish is dragging down those who are truly talented and deserve to be there.

If you do go that route -- get educated. Pay a lawyer a few hundred bucks to explain the docs you are about to sign which grant options, have a vesting schedule, etc. If you don't, you're a retard and you deserve to be taken advantage of. But this "unionization" talk runs completely counter to the very DNA of a startup. Face it -- some people are willing to work 80+ hrs / week. If you're not -- fine. But don't fuck it up for those who *choose* to do so and try to out-work others to gain an advantage.

All Greenspan wants to do is further shaft the US worker and help Big Business cut its costs even further. He's nothing more than a shill at this point.

Much more appropriate.

Because even if you have a decent-paying job, you can still make shit decisions and piss it all away very quickly. Look at the large percentage of NFL players who are bankrupt at the end of their careers as a simple illustration of this. This is also true with the vast majority of people who don't earn nearly that amount of money. LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS, whatever they may be.