Could it also be related to poorer parents working more hours, thus having less time to be with the kids during their early years

There are probably dozens of measurable ways being poor affects the development of brains. But ultimately, it's happening because that's the way the people at the very top in terms of wealth and power want it. The last think they want is for poor people to suddenly become successful, and develop political power.

One of the side-effects of the New Deal and the labor movement in America is that a bunch of people who were on the shitty side of the street suddenly were able to take a big step up. GIs coming out of WW2 who would normally have gone to work in the coal mine or slaughter house suddenly had the means to go to college, buy a house, live a life of reasonable comfort. And do you know what they did with this sudden shift in circumstances? They developed political power. Their kids went from blue collar to white collar. And similar steps up during the pre and post-war period occurred for women and American blacks.

And this scared the bejeesus out of the elite. So, in the 70s, and peaking in the 80s, there came an effort to undo these advancements. The effort included an attack on New Deal programs like Social Security and the labor movement. The effort included the flooding of the inner city with crack cocaine (which we now know to have been run by our own government). The effort included the confluence of evangelical religion with supply-side capitalism by Billy Graham (who started his ministry with funds from the Chamber of Commerce).

The effort to put the genie back in the bottle continues to this day, and it's been quite successful. Economic disparity hasn't been this out of whack since the 19th century. Militarized policing, private prisons, an attack on public education are all fronts in this class war being waged by the elite. You want to see it in action, watch the political policies being pushed by governors of Kansas, Indiana, and many states throughout the South and in big cities in the North. Just watch.

No I don't. I agree there are cold, hard things in the world, but *you* choose to focus on that.

Oh, him. After I donated in 2008 he kept sending me emails. It does occasionally come in handy, like when my wife tells to mow the grass. "Not right now, honey, Barack Obama just sent me an email."

It is your choice to make your eventual obliteration the focus of your life. That's something you can either try to change (good luck with that), or it's something you can choose to accept. But choosing to accept that doesn't mean you have to sit around being miserable and resentful while you wait for the Grim Reaper. The world is only as cold and hard as the things in it you choose to focus on. There's also more wondrous and amazing and even funny things in the world than you an get around to thinking about in a lifetime.

It's like summer vacation when you're in school. You only get ten weeks or so of it, not nearly enough to get to all the things you want to do. And there are some people who will react to that by spending the whole time from day 1 unhappy about going back to school. What a waste of existence! But that's definitely a choice open to you.

Imagine your last few seconds of consciousness before you die. How would you like to spend them? Being angry? Sad? I think that's a waste of precious time. I'd like to have someone I love very much tell me a very funny joke.

No, we all make the choice of the kind of world we want -- or maybe it'd be better to say the kind of world we can live with. It just so happens that some people can live with a world that they don't like very much, so long as that doesn't demand very much of them.

Anyone can by choice have an immense effect on the world around them. Maybe they can't change the *whole* world very noticeably, but they can transform their own neighborhood.

Because reaching your customers directly is hard. If it was easy, nobody would sign up for these services. Its especially hard for a small business like these- you expect them not only to be master craftsmen, but master marketers, master SEOs, and master businessmen as well? And do all of it in the span of a working day? Not exactly realistic. Now alternatives competing on margin- that can and will happen. Amazon isn't even the first here. Some of them, like ANgie's list, are paid for by monthly subscriptions.

No they don't. At least not in the US. Do you think the guy who drives a train has a state certification? And they're the originals.

Does it matter? I'd think Amazon will be happy to grab a percentage on as many of them as they can. 20% of 50% of transactions > 20% of 0% of transactions.

The world is cold and hard as we allow it to be. It is a *choice*, albeit one made by default for people who think like you.

Even when running on Exchange I've never seen recall actually work. I've gotten "Would like to recall" messages by the dozens. It never actually deleted the email.

Projectiles from your puny weapons will simply bounce off my armored playground robot.

Now, hand over your weapon and your lunch box to the machine.

Oh, yeah. The rational actor theory. But by the same postulates that underly that theory there should be no human being who eats unhealthy, boozes or gambles excessively, or picks fights he obviously can't win.

I have an alternative theory which states that going by actual behavior most people discount their future welfare to zero when there's an immediate reward, even a trivial one. It's almost impossible to resist an immediate burst of pleasure a nasty habit's got you hooked, whether it's a relaxing smoke or that glow of self-righteousness you get when you act on your bigotry.

People will literally kill themselves for a little short-term reward. Forgoing a little profit is nothing compared to that. If you look at places where segregation was historically sanctioned, you'll see you're entirely right: it's economically irrational. That didn't stop people from doing it.

I'm just curious if these are the same people who penetrated the SR site via phpMyAdmin, over the Internet, on 192.168.1.24?

I mean, what motivation could there have been at play?

Both are equally likely to produce useful counter-terrorism results.

The most effective thing to do for counter-terrorism is to keep blowing up families in the Middle East and occupying "holy lands". Keep bombing villages until democracy emerges.

To do so, we need ever-stronger Nation States, and giving them the ability to monitor all of their subjects' domestic communications is a good rung up on that ladder.

Also, Facebook is the real danger to world peace - so be very upset about their ad network and don't bother encrypting your traffic.