This is actually very true. As the small man, you need to do one of two things:
1) Go get money and power and come back later
2) Find someone sympathetic to your cause who has money or power

Dave with a V chose option #2

Let's think a moment here who has it the worst. The poor guys in the 6.25% who still have to work at 80.

Though one 1 out of 4 of them will live to 110, so I guess it isn't all bad.

Man, if you're wxxxxxg, I don't want to hear about it.

Some one needs to drop some mod points on this post, it should be "+5 insightful" with a flashing neon border. Examples of this kind of regulation are all too common, where business secretly welcomes regulation just so the government can play the heavy and they can pretend that they had no choice but to comply. Smoking bans are are good example. What restaurant wants to tell loyal customers that they can't smoke because they've chosen to cater to a larger contigent of nonsmokers? It's much easier if smoking is banned in all restaurants, and then it's not your fault if a customer can't light up.

Mod parent +1d10, exploding

I'm going to post this, even though it's going to be waaaay down where nobody sees it, just because it needs to be in here somewhere.

For starters, yes this bureaucrat is being a dick. However, I submit that he does not really think that David Cox made on his own a traffic report that is of "engineering quality". As people have pointed out, in this circumstance it would not be a crime.

What he is most likely thinks is that David Cox had an engineer produce an "engineering quality" traffic report, and the said engineer delivered it to Mr. Cox unsealed. This is not okay. I'm not sure about NC, but in Virginia if you are a PE, and you do engineering work, you must seal it (confirming it as your work product). This is an important requirement that helps to ensure the quality of work done by PEs. A PE who prepared an anonomys report could be in serious trouble with the licensing board.

This is the real angle Mr. Lacey is driving at, the other is just trying to put some kind of pressure on Mr. Cox to divulge where he got his help from. Notice the statement that Mr. Cox has refused to say who worked with him on the report, and probably won't, since they really have no leverage on him. All the same, there's likely and engineer down there sweating a bit, wanting this thing to blow over.

Sadly, I've found this true IRL as well.

Calm down, no one's trying to insult middle America. You've completely missed the parent's point.

Yes, there are very remote areas in the US, and it's very hard to get services to these locaations. But comparativly few people live in these areas. (By the 2000 census, only 20% of the population lives in "rural" areas.) Even when you look at Appalachia, you still have cites: Chattanooga, Charleston, and Pittsburgh are a few. So when someone says "oh, 60% of America's internet access sucks because America is too spread out" it's crap. America may be spread out, but Americans by and large arn't.

I know, right? Next week when Assange dies in a car crash, they'll probably blame that on a conspiracy too.

After all our advances in technology and thousands of years of hard work towards our dreams, we finally cross the gulfs of space to settle upon our new homes; and end up back where we started, living in caves.

...Is okay in Canada? They can acquit you then just decide "eh, that's not what we wanted. Let's have another trial"?

Intelligence is a tool to be used toward a goal, and goals are not always chosen intelligently. -Larry Niven

Someone mod this guy up. What kind of bizzaro thinking leads a person to say, "It would be best for my child's medical conditions to remain a deep, dark secret, unknown even to me." Yes. That way, they can get good insurance, with reasonable rates, to fall back on when they pass out in the street with a sudden "mystery" ailment - that is actually a treatable condition they've had since they were a child. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd want to know if my child had a condition as early as possible, when they were still on my insurance, and then have something proactive done about it. Much better than just hoping for them to make it to adulthood in order to receive medical care.

Umm, what does the Flu, a VIRUS, have to do with antibiotics, which are treatment for BACTERIAL infections?

It has to do with using the said antibiotics to keep pig density at unhealthy levels, so that when a virus breaks out it has a maximum number of animals to infect and an incredibly easy time infecting them. More hosts, more chances for mutation, more opportunities to jump to humans. None of which antibiotics can stop, as you pointed out. Keeping pigs in clean, sanitary conditions has the effect of reducing the spread of both bacteria and viruses, rather than just treating one and hoping the other won't happen.

Maybe he was thinking about "Strength of Stones"