I don't think you would have felt it.

Maybe. But it's not even close to being able to hurt you.

I don't get the outside firm part. Everything else you said is spot on. How is an outside firm any more trustworthy than a Federal agent? One who has actually taken an oath to discharge his duties faithfully, makes good money and can't easily be fired? Those outside employees are going to be ripe pickings for spying and corruption.

If the NSA was still secret then this issue would be irrelevant. They should eavesdrop on everyone; know everything; and none of it matters because of that very big firewall you spoke of. They go to their FISA court when it's bad enough, a real matter of national security, that the FBI is going to find a beginner's nuke kit or something. Otherwise what is seen in the NSA basement is best left there.

Oh no, not you for yourself (or your kids). I mean employers. For employers to hold it against you, that you put your career on hold.

And here I go a little sexist: If you're a woman; for them to even ask why there is a multi-year hole in your resume should be off limits. The thing is; it's women that have babies, not men. And we need for them to do that, and not have it impact their career in any way.

You shouldn't have put the NOT in caps, because you're wrong there. You are absolutely 'paying your dues' by raising children. Raising children isn't some priority; it's the whole reason there are such things as jobs in the first place. Try this mental exercise; do the jobs thing with no children for just one generation, and then tell me how important jobs are.

You're going to tell me that XYZ Corporation isn't responsible for all that. I'm still working on my answer there.

Also, there are people that seem to do both; raise children and advance their careers. I never want to work that hard myself (again). Plus I was never a woman or a mother, so it's difficult for me to judge 3 young kids hanging off me, with one stuck to my tit. I see no way I could work a job while doing that.

You skip the main reason a woman might have a 20 year gap - being a mother.

I understand that wasn't where you were going, but I think it's important. It's the number one main reason we try to do away with gender and age discrimination.

Those people carried the main task that humans have in society; making babies; and didn't even get paid for it. To then hold that against them later on; well, that's practically on the level of crimes against humanity.

All drones are pre-programmed, even if you are redirecting the thing in mid flight.

If you are directly flying the thing, then it isn't a drone; it's an RC craft. Which have been around longer than any of us have been alive.

This is actually a good point. I was wondering how much the drones were actually interfering.

I'm betting there is a little grandstanding going on by someone who already had a strong opinion on private drone ownership.

Yes. Both items are already law.

But given the activist courts that CA has seeded, it is possible a firefighter could get sued successfully after the fact.

I would say, irony; but probably just unfortunate. For us.

That is what I dislike most about liberalism: Equality under the law has to be done away with. And that is irony.

Interesting.

And yet - "It is the most basic building block of all electrons," ...

Shouldn't the fact that the electron is no longer a fundamental particle and the standard model is apparently wrong be bigger news?

I can't argue with any particular point, I mean, look at my handle.

I'm saying that if it is that important, then the government gains a legitimate interest. However fucked up it may be. Like banks that are too big to fail, are too big to exist.

Or maybe the money supply was too small; I'm not a real economist. But if our economy depends on one or three banks, that is messed up, and too much power over us.

It's the same with an OS that we have to have, to continue the economy that exists today.

If I'm wrong, then it is still early, and there is yet time for your millions of alternative OS hippies to move society. I'm waitin' here...

BTW, if the government were to fuck up Windows (more) by taking some control of it; Good.

A free-marketer eh? So am I.

I'll remind you of the two things needed for a free market: Freedom, and a market.

In this case you have neither. You must run Windows, and there is no alternative.

So you will be oppressed. You have two choices: be oppressed by a giant entity that you can (somewhat) vote for; or a giant entity against whom you have no recourse.

"need it to shrink to be able to properly feed everyone"

You miss the point of our existence in the first place. If that is true, (which I doubt) then we simply need more food.

Someday soon when the population is 40 billion, I wonder how we are going to look back on these days. Especially the 70s, when many were convinced most of us were going to die soon of global famine. And the population was less than 4 billion then...

Don't go there man. The parents had to raise the money, just like they would have had to do here.

Not that I mean to imply that we are not oppressed by the insurance companies, of course we are.

But the fact that something like this costs money is unrelated to that.

I think he got that from the 500 person example given.

"Same way Bush (W) sold a tax increase to those he told "no new taxes""

He didn't sell it that well; they fired him for it.

Nothing can just be an accident, can it? Someone screwed you over somewhere...

They are getting away with it, and again, Congress does nothing. (Well except the initial authorization to manage deep sea drilling, and those managers now require use of an improved version of the wellhead thing that broke) But other than that, nothing!

Something must be done! Will no one think of the children?