I've seen you post this comment 3 times. I'm going to extend you the courtesy of assuming you're not a troll.

Let's assume the FBI knew this guy was intending to fly a gryocopter into no-fly space. Let's further assume based on reading this guy's emails,or tapping this guy's phone, or rummaging through his trash, or his refrigerator, or installing secret spy devices in his underpants to measure his potential for Communist sympathies, that they decided he's a legitimate protestor and not a home-grown terrorist. In that case, shooting him out of the sky risks public out-cry. Particularly since the air-defense systems around DC no-fly zones are SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES. Weee bit of overkill there. So what's less headache? Shoot the kook down or let the kook have his fifteen minutes of political-stunt-fame and go about your day?

"Says the white guy" is not actually a valid counter-argument. You do realize that, correct?

Looking at the GS base-scale, six-figure incomes don't start until GS-14 Step Six. At that point in their career, a GS-14 usually has responsibilities commensurate with a military colonel.

Yes. Comcast says "We'll let you access data at this speed." They then turn around to the source as say "Pay us money so your traffic can go through at this speed." Why does Comcast get to double-tip on this?

Scalzi has stopped doing it in recent years, but it was a custom of his at one point. Here's his from 2008: http://whatever.scalzi.com/200...

It's not Social Justice (TM) that the Sad Puppies are opposing. It's Social Justice (TM) at the expense of a decent or entertaining story. I was on the fence about the whole thing until last year,. What pushed me over the edge was If You Were A Dinosaur My Love winning Best Short Story in the Hugos. Even those who liked it admitted that it probably doesn't qualify as fantasty, science fiction, or speculative fiction.

There was a 2001 Superman comic to this effect, entitled "What's so Funny About Truth Justice and the American Way?" (later adapted into an animated short, "Superman vs the Elite"). Largely a reaction to the anti-hero movement and the "flawed god" stories, it addresses the necessity of dreams and ideals and why seeing everything as bleak and depressing is our ultimate self-inflicted damnation. I highly recommend both the comic and the film version.

I was aware of NoScript and run in on my browser. The /etc/hosts bit was new to me. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Forthe less code-savvy among us, can you recommend a good tutorial on how to accomplish this?

The conflict is already here.

In 2014 a lawsuit was brought a couple who rents their private property to host weddings as side income. A lesbian couple tried to rent the property for the day for their wedding.. Prior to the contract being finalized, the property owners discovered their would-be clients were were lesbians (presumably they had only talked with one partner up to that point). The property owners declined to host the wedding on religious grounds but said they were willing to let the couple use the farm for a reception if they so wished since a reception was non-religious in nature. The lesbian couple sued, won, and the property owners were fined 10-grand and forced to pay the couple $3000 ($1500 to each partner).

In 2013 the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled a photographer could not decline to photograph a gay marriage ceremony, as declining the work solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the couple was a violation of discrimination law.

One the one hand I believe firmly that people should not be forced to give up their religious or moral beliefs just because they happen to own or run a business. On the other hand I believe public business must serve all equally. I see no good resolution to this.

US Army personnel with allergies to a particular medication are required to wear a red medical ID tag along with their normal set of ID tags. If this technology becomes common place, I expect those with crustacean allergies will be required to wear a red tag same as those with pencilin allergies.

You've got enough posts on this story that I don't think you're a troll. As such I'll engage you like a human being: 1) What do you think your oil money should be able to buy in addition to consumer goods? 2) Cite your source for Gadhafi's loans to European politicians.

Ah. I've never heard that term used before and Google was returning some strange results. Thanks for the information.

Can you expand on that?

Your stepson is fighting what's called the "kinetic" fight. That's the part where guns, bigger guns, and a whole lot of ammunition and ordinance are pointed at the enemy. YouTube and Twitter are part of what's called the "non-kinetic" war, which is a fancy term for "propaganda battle" or "making the world think we're the good guys." And frankly, Islamic insurgent groups (IS/ISIS/ISIL in particular) are winning that war (at least in Iraq, Afghanistan, and a number of other predominately Muslim countries) through Twitter, YouTube, and other social networking sites. So back to your original question: CENTCOM has a Twitter account for public relations purposes. It pushes "the good news stories" and tries to make the US look like the good guy.