Something of a tangent. I work in security and this sentence pretty much sums up my feelings about my job every day. My colleagues think I'm nuts (probably not unwarranted) but I think there's a kind of noblise oblige when you across someone with a knack for subterfuge and deception. It takes a particular kind of mindset and I very much admire that capability, if not always their intentions.

IANAL but to my understanding a Congressional Declaration of War* can only be made on nation-states. As such, a formal declaration of war on ISIS would mean we recognize them as a legitimate government, something ISIS with its caliphate mentality craves very much.

*An actual war, not rhetorical wars such as "war or drugs"

Is that measured in total dollars or dollars-per-student? Most of the stats I've seen put the US down around 10th in the developed world in terms of dollars-per-student.

I've commented on this before in other threads. There's a (rather disturbing IMHO) school of thought that thinks government is the ultimate economic engine. Thus any money the government doesn't collect is equivalent to subsidy.

Interestingly, the Soviet Union routinely underestimated US military capabilities on the assumption that if the US had the capability, the US would have used it. The US hadn't used it, so obviously they didn't have it.

Source: Operation Solo, John Barron.

drinkypoo linked me to the Amnesty International source. Thank you for the additional information.

You made a claim, I asked for a source, you provided it. No need to get snippy there, sparky.

Can I see a citation for that statistic please? Or at least your calculations to come up with that figure?

I'd be interested in a survey of the Voluntary Human Extinction Project for the numbers of vegans amongst their ranks.

Obviously the kid is not a rational actor (most human beings aren't but we're quite good at lying to ourselves in that respect), but I wonder what made this seem like a good idea to him. I'm not excusing his behavior by any means, but what external factors lead him to believe that 1) this was an acceptable action and 2) a failing grade was serious enough to warrant this action.

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...