Like my "flagship" Galaxy phone? The one that I think I paid more for than the last three phones I owned. The one that reboots twice a day. The one that, at least once a week, gets itself into some fugue state where it is off but can't be turned back on until I pop the battery out. The one with the photo viewer that is too stupid to realize that landscape photos shouldn't be displayed in portrait orientation when I'm holding the phone in a landscape orientation. The one with a music player that randomly loses my playlists, occasionally in the middle of playing one.

Seems like every Galaxy owner I've talked to has their own list of twenty things their phones does really shittily. I miss my old low end crappy phone sometimes. At least it was reliable, even if the GPS app never quite worked right.

It might cause a few deaths but it also sustains the multi billion dollar prison industry and employs well over 1 million people in the US alone

None of those jobs help the economy. Why should people be employed in occupations that have no benefit to society whatever and are in fact detrimental to society?

The government profits from illegal drugs even more than drug cartels do.

Colorado's pot legalization and the multi-billion dollar alcohol industry shows that governments profit a lot more from legal, regulated drugs than outlawing them.

I've known drug addicts, and the WHO is also right about compulsory addiction treatment; compulsory treatment flat out doesn't work. The addict has to want to stop, and it's very hard even when they want to. Alcoholics and other drug addicts relapse more often than not after treatment.

However, should they ever invent the fictional drug in the novel I'm writing (see my journal, the first crude draft is being posted there) I sure hope it's not legal!

Thanks! I'm getting ready to post chapter thirty in a minute. I screwed up in this post, though, I forgot I already posted the chapter where Knolls finds that Green is Destiny's dad.

Nobody ever wants to go on strike, any more than employers want a lockout. It's the nuclear option, used as a last resort.

Auto insurance isn't that bad compared to the rest. My insurance dropped 10% in the last adjustment, and is within a couple percent of where it was five years ago.

Homeowner's insurance, on the other hand, is truly predatory. My policy averages a 15% increase annually, with zero claims. And thanks to living in Florida, I have fuck all options for switching carriers. My insurance is about 20% of my total mortgage payment this year, and I'm not even in a flood zone.

And homeowner's insurance has that wonderful package-only system, so I'm paying for shit I don't need because I can't choose to opt out at all (my personal property coverage is 2x what I need because it is computed from the property value, there's a 25K identity theft coverage that I don't need at all, I'm covered for volcanic eruptions, etc). At least the auto insurance carriers give you an option.

You're a little behind the times, that stopped eighteen years ago when PWORA was passed and AFDC abolished.

These days slaves are made with "right to work" laws and strict limits on the extent of the safety net.

I gained my freedom this past February. YAY! Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, I'm free at last!

Indeed, B&N is cheaper and ships faster and carries more books. And your public library is free.

And if you're going to buy a book, buy one of mine!