FWIW, the Spanish-language version of the last link has much better pictures than the English-language version.

The "loophole" that Amazon has been using is nothing more than the EU single market, in all its glory, exactly as it was intended to be used. ...

When the EU and its predecessors were being set up, governments were all super keen to establish this sort of single market because they saw it as a way to allow their own home-grown champion companies to expand, by selling to people elsewhere on the continent.

You're contradicting yourself. Was the single market set up so that national companies could start selling to other EU countries with minimal red tape, or so that multinational companies could pick a country and negotiate with its tax authorities prior to setting up a "headquarters" which consists of a P.O. box? And if it was the latter, why is the Commission investigating whether the arrangements negotiated between various companies and the Luxembourgeois tax authorities constitute illegal state aid?

Here in Spain elections are always on Sunday. (In fact, we have elections tomorrow). However, I don't imagine that that would be very popular with certain constituencies in the southern U.S.

as it omits (this from the NYT)

After the two bills failed, Mr. McConnell offered a series of agreements to pass ever-shorter extensions, including one for a single day, that required the full consent of the Senate. But Mr. Paul, joined by the Democratic Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, objected — leaving the matter to next Sunday.

“This is a debate about whether or not a warrant with a single name of a single company can be used to collect all the records,” Mr. Paul said. “All of the phone records of all of the people in our country with a single warrant. Our forefathers would be aghast.

Mr. Paul has made clear that he wants the House bill, known as the USA Freedom Act, brought to the floor with an open amendment process so he can have the chance to toughen it.

The headline exaggerates, anyway. The e-mail doesn't contain a Top-Secret "Brexit" Plan: merely the top-secret fact that the bank is going to be working on a "Brexit" plan. It's neither a surprise that they're doing this, nor a surprise that they want to keep it secret: the finance ministers of certain other European countries were already offended by the Bank of England having a Grexit plan.

That's probably what got the woman in the picture of 'only person to be directly hit by a meteor'.

What I don't get is the jump from: 1000 people were injured in Russia two years ago, to: because only one person was ever directly hit by a meteor therefore strikes should be of no practical concern.

A detection system for the size of meteor that can injur 1000 might yeild all kinds of interesting side discoveries and technologies beyond just being a detection system.

Perhaps if you read a bit more on Paul and the lead up to this mini-fillibuster you would know that he was trying to take advantage of Senate preocedural rules as they became available to him. And I might add, you claim to applaud Paul, Wyden and the others... but where exactly have the others been? Have they stuck their neck out and done something like this? Did they do the same with the drone issue? I'm not recalling any others who spoke more than their allotted handful of minutes on any of these issues.

And to those who say its simply pr for his campaign - explain how this helps him with the replubican "base" who are largely neo-cons and the largest contingent of primary voters. It might get him some dollars from his Dad's supporters but its a tough sell to say this clearly helps him in primaries where the game has been to see who can out neo-con who.

Anonymous poster taking crack again... Rand Paul is a party insider? Really? He's running just at the behest of party bigwigs so they can pick someone else? Run as an independent like Ross Perot or Jon Anderson?

That post shows a complete lack of understanding of a) Rand Paul, b) his position within the elephant party and c) electoral politics.

It was never feasible for him to block the bill, so I don't see why details of, e.g, when he did it would be important. The purpose was to raise awareness and I've seen quite a bit of coverage including major political sites like DrudgeReport so I would say whatever his notions were they worked out rather well. If it is a call to the masses then it makes sense to give them time to digest and react (hopefully with a call to their representatives) before the actual bill.

As is, are we under the impression that once in office Rand Paul will abandon the cause? Because if not, as the chief executive he would certain have the ability to direct these agencies differently. Personally, this convinces me he would be committed to doing so.

Heck, use a smartphone to trigger that posting from the graduation ceremony

It must have been the first Mac then. Hey, it's been a few years.

I remember belittling an Apple owner back then because he paid $50 to have a technician just like you re-seat a ram chip that had come loose after he moved. Otherwise to break the sticker and do it himself would mean no authorized dealer would be allowed to work on it for real repairs.