" the GOP could have filibustered it into the dirt and they did not."

No, they couldn't. The legislation as it exists was passed was passed in two parts. One part was passed through the Senate in the brief period when the Senate had 60 members caucusing with the Democrats. Republicans did not have the votes to stop cloture. The second part was passed under reconciliation which does not require cloture but is limited in scope. That part was basically comprised of tweaks the House wanted to make to the Senate bill. Republicans couldn't do anything about either part of the legislation at the time it was passed.

Well if you were raised on the show that should be par for the course. The big surprise villain at the end of Episode 1 of Day of the Daleks is:... wait for it... wait for it... the Daleks. That character in Keeper of Trakken who looks JUST like Roger Delgado? He's going to be the next Master. It's a predictable show. It always has been. If the predictability bothers you now that probably says more about how your taste in television has evolved than it does about the series itself.

You may want to actually read what the posted above you wrote. You might learn something. "you need 60 votes" isn't hard to understand. It just happens to be incorrect. There is nothing in the Constitution requiring a 60-vote cloture in the Senate. It can be overridden. And it would only take a simple majority to do so. The only thing stopping them is etiquette.

All I got from this article is that once you add in the cost of the Surface's most notable feature, it costs $20 - $30 more than an equivalent iPad.

The OP probably got this idea from driving in Dallas. Some toll roads like Bush still physically have the booths, but they're not open anymore. Newer toll roads like SRT don't have the booths at all. With the exception of DFW airport, I'm not aware of a toll road in the DFW area where paying at the booth is still an option.

The conversation went something like this:

Microsoft: "If you're a researcher on this Windows 8 thing and you were on Earth, you must have been gathering material on it."
Gartner analyst: "Well, I was able to extend the original entry a bit, yes."
Microsoft: "Let me see what it says in this edition, then. I've got to see it."
... "What? Bad! Is that all it's got to say? Bad! One word! ... Well, for God's sake I hope you managed to recitify that a bit."
Gartner analyst: "Oh yes, well I managed to transmit a new entry off to the editor. He had to trim it a bit, but it's still an improvement."
Microsoft: "And what does it say now?"
Gartner analyst: "Mostly bad."

Did that person manufacture their own tiles or did they go to the store and buy them by the box? Everyone is building something from a kit these days (and by "these days" I mean "since the industrial revolution"). Some kits are just easier to assemble than others. There's nothing more glorious about gluing tile to the ground than there is about gluing vinyl to the ground. They didn't "do it themselves." They just did part of the assembly. The amount of effort put into the creation of ceramic tile is far greater than the amount of effort it takes someone to put that tile on the floor and make sure it doesn't move. Ditto with everything else mentioned in the article. We have a romantic view of what it is to be a craftsman, but really a craftsman is just using an older kit that's a little harder to put together.

Well, consumers right now are buying what they think they want. A lot of consumers are new to smartphones and don't know exactly what they want. On top of that, the consumer is likely in at least a two year contract on whatever they do choose. Their exposure to the phones will consist of looking at and maybe holding a security-tethered phone in the store right next to a bunch of other similarly-sized phones. That's going to lead a lot of people to buy as big, shiny, etc a phone as they can afford out of fear of not getting a capable enough phone. While I think that for now a run-up in phone screen size is inevitable, I do think that phones will settle into a small range of screen sizes over time just like has happened with things that have experienced similar run-ups like number of steam holes in an iron, SPF on sunscreen, amount of Vitamin C in vitamin supplements, etc.

"The most advanced tech they can operate is the play button on the dvd."

I'm going to have to call BS on that one. They can quite easily navigate on-screen menus to order UFC pay-per-view fights, thank you very much.

TracFone and its subsidiaries (Straight Talk, NET10, etc) have been around since 1996. Page Plus began offering cell service in 1998. Virgin Mobile has been around since 2001. Boost has been in the US since 2003. Simple Mobile since 2009. There will be plenty of MVNOs that are here today and gone tomorrow. But at the same time, MVNOs aren't something new and many have built up reasonable track records of success. There are plenty of serious player driving prices down. You just refuse to look at them because once upon a time you decided to be a pilot for wireless service through that bastion of reliability and customer service that is the cable company and it didn't turn out so well.

The majors will never be price competitive because they don't have to be. Worst case scenario is that they get out of the retail business and sell service strictly to the MVNOs. And the MVNOs are getting better. They're not all "crap vendors" anymore (though plenty still are). They have incredibly competitive prices and some have even heard of customer service. I personally think as MVNOs improve, the big boys will be more than content to lose market share to them because they'll make money either way. I foresee a situation like long distance service in the late 90's. Sure you could use AT&T, Sprint, or MCI for long distance, but if you wanted a decent price for the exact same product you went elsewhere.

So you don't currently have a smart phone? How do you know you need an unlimited plan? I just took my first foray into smartphone world about a month ago and found that I don't use nearly as much data as I thought I would. My usage for the first month is just a shade over 2GB and that's using the smartphone like a fiend since it's still a new shiny toy to me. FWIW, the T-Mobile Value plan, Straight Talk, Virgin Mobile, Simple Wireless, and Cricket all have plans with data in the ballpark of $50/mo.

AC didn't say spell check. AC specifically said squiggly lines under misspelled words. This was big for me. It was a lot less of a PITA for me to see the misspelled words as I was typing them than to completely finish what I was writing and run a spell check on it after the fact.

Indeed. I survive just fine using the Ty Webb method:

Judge Smails: Ty, how was your evaluation?
Ty Webb: Oh, Judge, I don't keep score.
Judge Smails: Then how do you measure yourself with other workers?
Ty Webb: By height.

"Sure, people can just forget silly things like bills, student loan payments, medical insurance, and hell even food. A lot of people simply can't afford to quit or look for a new job (I know, and have worked for, some employers who would initiate termination if the found out one of their employees was seriously considering moving to a competitor)."

Well, you've obviously already forgotten saving so sure, why not? But ideally, you just wouldn't tell your new employer you were looking until you had a written offer. Some companies will initiate termination if they find out sooner than that, but they are few and far between as long as your job search doesn't seriously impact your work day.